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nOC  that  imparted  knowl- 
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THE 


ENCYCLOPEDIA  OF  SOCIAL  REFORM 


^ 

INCLUDING 


POLITICAL  ECONOMY,  POLITICAL  SCIENCE,  SOCIOLOGY,  AND 

STATISTICS,  COVERING  ANARCHISM,  CHARITIES,  CIVIL 

SERVICE,  CURRENCY,   LAND  AND  LEGISLATION 

REFORM,  PENOLOGY,  SOCIALISM,  SOCIAL 

PURITY,    TRADES    UNIONS, 

WOMAN  SUFFRAGE, 

ETC. 


.    EDITED 

WILLIAM 

WITH  THE  CO-OPERATION  OF  MANY  SPECIALISTS 

INCLUDING  AMONG  OTHERS 

Pres.  E.  B.  ANDREWS,  D.D.,  LL.D.,  EDWARD  ATKINSON,  Ph.D.,  LL.D.,  Prof.  E.  W.  BEMIS,  Ph.D.,  EDWARD 

BELLAMY,  HELEN  BLACKBURN,  EMILY  BLACKWELL,  M.D.,  F.  de  L.  BOOTH-TUCKER,  WM.  CLARKE,  Prof.  J.  R. 

COMMONS,  A.M., THOMAS  DAVIDSON,  A.M.,  Rev.  S.W.  DIKE,  LL.D.,  Prof.  R.  F.  FAULKNER,  Ph.D., 

WM.  LLOYD  GARRISON,  Prof.  FRANKLIN  H.  GIDDINGS,  Ph  D.,  Prof.  A.  T.  HADLEY,  A.M., 

BENJAMIN  KIDD,  REV.  E.  E.  HALE,  D.D.,  LL.D.,  THOMAS  G.  SHEARMAN, 

LADY  HENRY  SOMERSET,  DAVID  A.  WELLS,  LL.D.,  SYDNEY 

WEBB,  LL.B.,  FRANCES  E.  WILLARD,  LL.D., 

CARROLL  D.  WRIGHT,  LL.D. 


FUNK  &  WAGNALLS  COMPANY 

NEW  YORK  AND  LONDON 
I897 


Copyright,  1897,  by  FUNK  &  WAGNALLS  Co. 
[Registered  at  Stationers'  Hall,  London,  England.] 


Printed  in  the  United  States,  America. 


To 

William  X,  Bull, 

WHOSE  LOYAL  FRIENDSHIP  AND  DEEP  SYMPATHY 

IN  THE  AIMS  OF  THIS  WORK 
HAS  LARGELY  MADE  IT  POSSIBLE. 


PREFACE. 


THE  two  main  requisites  of  an  encyclopedia  are  reliability  and  serviceableness  in  information. 
The  first  of  these  requisites  has  been  sought  in  this  encyclopedia  by  having  every  article  either 
written  or  revised  by  some  specialist  on  each  particular  subject.  In  the  case  of  all  proposed 
reforms  the  statement  of  the  reform  has  "been  written,  or  at  least  revised,  by  a  believer  in  the 
reform  ;  but,  together  with  this,  or  by  reference  to  a  corresponding  article  on  the  opposing  side, 
a  statement  of  the  opposing  view  will  be  found.  Individualists  and  socialists,  gold  monometal- 
lists,  bimetallists,  and  believers  in  free  silver,  protectionists  and  free  traders,  prohibitionists 
and  high-license  advocates,  believers  and  disbelievers  in  woman  suffrage,  appear  in  this  ency- 
clopedia side  by  side.  Historical,  bibliographical,  biographical,  and  statistical  articles  have 
been  prepared  and  carefully  revised  by  adequate  authorities,  mainly  university  professors  and 
specialists. 

Serviceableness  has  been  sought  by  making  the  work,  while,  as  shown  above,  accurate  and 
scholarly,  yet  popular  and  not  technical.  The  encyclopedia  is  for  general  workers  and  students 
in  social  reform.  It  has  been  prepared  by  specialists  for  those  who  are  not  specialists.  Its 
references  to  books  are  therefore  in  the  main  only  to  books  available  to  English  readers.  Articles 
have  been  arranged  as  to  length  and  quality  with  this  idea  of  serviceableness  in  view.  No  articles, 
for  example,  will  be  found  upon  Presidents  Washington  and  Lincoln.  This  is  not  because  they 
did  not  contribute  to  social  reform,  and  to  a  much  larger  degree  than  many  who  are  considered 
in  this  encyclopedia,  but  because  the  general  reader  in  reform  does  not  need  the  story  of 
Washington's  or  Lincoln's  life.  The  space  allotted  to  articles,  therefore,  has  considered  the 
needs  of  the  reader  more  than  the  absolute  importance  of  the  subject. 

This  work  is  a  pioneer,  the  first  of  its  kind.  Its  aim  has  been  to  give  on  all  the  broad  range 
of  social  reform  the  experience  of  the  past,  the  facts  of  the  present,  the  proposals  for  the  future. 

The  subject  is  so  vast,  and  may  be  made  so  inclusive,  that  almost  any  subject  might  have 
been  included  here  ;  but  this  encyclopedia  aims  to  distinguish  sharply  between  subjects  that 
belong  mainly  to  the  individual  and  those  that  belong  mainly  to  society.  A  few  subjects,  such 
as  religion,  science,  etc.,  that  concern  both  the  individual  and  society,  are  treated  only  in  their 
social  aspects.  The  biographical  portions  will  be  found  to  be  especially  full.  Of  living  persons 
the  encyclopedia  treats  only  those  having  national  recognition,  and  has  thus  been  compelled 
to  pass  by  many  earnest  and  often  more  useful  and  successful  workers  in  local  fields. 

To  the  important  articles  are  appended  brief  bibliographies  of  the  best  available  books  upon 
the  subject.  There  has  been  no  attempt  to  make  these  exhaustive,  but  they  will  serve  to  guide 
the  student  in  his  search  for  more  complete  information.  A  general  bibliography  of  social  and 
economic  bibliographies  will  be  found  in  the  appendix. 

The  editor  desires  to  express  his  indebtedness  to  a  large  number  of  writers  who  have  most 


VI 


PREFACE. 


materially  aided  him  by  contributing  or  revising  articles  and  by  reading  proof.  The  names  of 
those  who  have  contributed  or  revised  signed  articles  will  be  found  below.  But  there  are  many 
others  whose  names  do  not  appear  who  have  aided  equally  with  these.  A  list  of  the  firms  who 
have  granted  courteous  permission  to  quote  from  their  publications  is  also  appended.  The  editor 
desires  to  express  his  especial  indebtedness  to  Mr.  Louis  E.  Van  Norman,  A.M.,  for  valued  help 
in  seeing  the  work  through  the  press. 

If  this  work  shall  aid  at  all  those  who  desire  the  truth  in  social  reform  in  finding  and  in  acting 
upon  it,  its  aim  will  have  been  realized. 

W.  D.  P.  BLISS. 
BOSTON,  1897. 


CONTRIBUTORS  OR  REVISERS    OF  SIGNED  ARTICLES. 


All  the  articles  in  this  Encyclopedia  have  been  either  prepared  or  revised  by  specialists. 
We  give  here  only  those  whose  names  are  signed. 


SAMUEL  W.  ABBOTT,  M.D., 

Of  the  State  Board  of  Health  of  Massachu- 
setts. 

ELISHA  B.  ANDREWS,  D.D.,  LL.D., 
President  of  Brown  University. 

EDWARD  ATKINSON,  Ph.D.,  LL.D. 

RACHEL  FOSTER  AVERY, 

Corresponding  Secretary  of  the  National 
Women's  Suffrage  Association. 

EDWARD  BELLAMY. 

E.  W.  BEMIS,  Ph.D. 

Rev.  THOMAS  A.  BICKFORD. 

HELEN  BLACKBURN, 

Of  the  ( British)  National  Society  for  Wom- 
en's Suffrage. 

EMILY  BLACKWELL,  M.D. 

FREDERICK  DE  L.  BOOTH-TUCKER, 

Commander  of  the  Salvation  Army  of  the 
United  States. 

ALBERT  A.  CARLTON, 

Formerly  of  the  General  Executive  Board 
of  the  Knights  of  Labor. 

HERBERT  N.  CASSON, 

Founder  of  the  Labor  Church  in  the  United 
States. 

ALBERT  CLARKE,  A.M., 

Secretary  of  the  Home  Market  Club,  Bos- 
ton, Mass.,  and  President  of  the  National 
Statistical  Association. 

WILLIAM  CLARKE. 
J.  STORER  COBB. 

JOHN  R.  COMMONS,  A.M., 

Professor  of  Sociology,  Syracuse  Univer- 
sity. 

ERNEST  H.  CROSBY,  A.M.,  LL.B., 

Ex-President  of  the  Social  Reform  Club, 
New  York  City. 


THOMAS  DAVIDSON,  A.M. 
MILES  M.  DAWSON 

Rev.  S.  W.  DIKE.  LL.D., 

Secretary  of  the  National  Divorce  Reform 
League. 

WILLIAM  A.  DUNNING,  Ph.D., 

Professor  of  History  and  Political  Science, 
Columbia  University. 

GEORGE  E.  FELLOWS,  Ph.D., 

Department  of  European  History,  Indiana 
University. 

ROLAND  P.  FAULKNER,  Ph.D., 

Professor  of  Statistics,  University  of  Penn- 
sylvania. 

MARTHA  N.  GALE. 
WILLIAM  LLOYD  GARRISON. 

FRANKLIN  H.  GIDDINGS,  Ph.D., 

Professor  of  Sociology,  Columbia  Univer- 
sity, First  Vice-President  of  the  Ameri- 
can Economic  Association  and  of  the 
American  Academy  of  Political  and 
Social  Science. 

Rev.  N.  P.  GILMAN. 

ARTHUR  T.  HADLEY,  A.M.. 

Professor  of  Political  Economy,  Yale  Uni- 
versity. 

Rev.  EDWARD  EVERETT  HALE,  D.D.,  LL.D. 

AUBERON  HERBERT, 

Editor  of  Free  Life. 

ALFRED  HICKS. 
RICHARD  J.  HINTON. 
EDITH  M.  HOWES. 

CHARLES  D.  KELLOGG, 

General  Secretary  of  the  Charity  Organiza- 
tion Society,  New  York  City. 

BENJAMIN  KIDD. 


CONTRIBUTORS   AND    REVISERS. 


Vll 


ALFRED  WATTS  LEE. 
HENRY  D.  LLOYD. 
ELEANOR  L.  LORD. 

W.    D.    McCRACKAN. 

FREDERICK  MILLAR, 

Editor  of  The  Liberty  Review. 

CAROLINE  WILLIAMSON  MONTGOMERY, 

President  of  the  College  Settlements  Asso- 
ciation. 

W.  A.  MOWRY. 

N.  O.  NELSON, 

Founder  of  Leclaire  Cooperative  Commu- 
nity. 

FRANK  PARSONS, 

Professor  of  Insurance,  School  of  Law,  Bos- 
ton University. 

Rev.  GEORGE  L.  PERIN,  D.D. 

ELTWEED  POMEROY, 

Editor  of  Direct  Legislation. 

AARON  M.  POWELL, 

President  of  the  American  Purity  Alliance. 

ANNA  RICE  POWELL. 

JAMES  B.  REYNOLDS, 

University  Settlement,  New  York  City. 

FRANCES  E.  RUSSELL. 
H.  B.  SALISBURY. 


LUCY  M.  SALMON,  A.M., 

Department  of  History,  Vassar  College. 

THOMAS  G.  SHEARMAN. 

Lady  HENRY  SOMERSET, 

Vice-President  of    the  World's  Woman's 
Christian  Temperance  Union. 

Rev.  P.  W.  SPRAGUE. 

ELLEN  G.  STARR. 

Rev.  GRAHAM  TAYLOR,  D.D. 

Rev.  CHARLES  M.  THOMPSON,  D.D. 

JOHN  TREVOR, 

Founder  of  the  Labor  Church  in  England. 

GEORGE  B.  WALDRON,  A.M. 
J.  BRUCE  WALLACE. 
DAVID  A.  WELLS,  LL.D. 
E.  J.  WHEELER,  A.M. 

FRANCES  E.  WILLARD,  LL.D  , 

President  of  the  Woman's  Christian  Tem- 
perance Union. 

Rev.  LEIGHTON  WILLIAMS. 

ROBERT  WOODS, 

Andover  House,  Boston,  Mass. 

CARROLL  D.  WRIGHT,  LL.D., 

United  States  Commissioner  of  Labor. 
Rev.  JAMES  YEAMES. 
VICTOR  S.  YARROS,  LL.B. 


ACKNOWLEDGMENT. 


WE  desire  to  express  our  acknowledgment  to  the  following  societies,  firms,  and  individuals 
for  courteous  permission  to  use  the  quotations  made  from  the  following  books  on  which  they 
hold  the  copyright  : 


The  American  Academy  of  Political  and  Social 
Science. 

Annals  of  the  American  Academy. 

The  American  Economic  Association. 
Publications. 

D.  Appleton  &  Company. 

City  Government  in  the  United  States,  by 

A.  R.  Conkling. 
Man  versus  The  State,  by  T.  Mackay  and 

others. 

A  Plea  for  Liberty,  by  Herbert  Spencer. 
Primer    of    Political   Economy,    by    W. 

Stanley  Jevons. 

Progress  and  Wealth,  by  George  Gunton. 
Recent  Economic  Changes,   by  David  A. 

Wells. 

The  Baker  &  Taylor  Company. 

Our  Country,  by  Dr.  Josiah  Strong. 

Mrs.  L.  N.  Brace. 

Gesta  Christi,  by  Charles  Loring  Brace. 

The  Century  Company. 

Municipal  Government  in  Great  Britain, 
by  Albert  Shaw. 

Columbia  University,  School  of  Political  Sci- 
ence. 

The  Political  Science  Quarterly. 

Thomas  Y.  Crowell  &  Company. 

Anarchy  or  Government,  by  W.  N.  Salter. 
American  Charities,  by  A.  G.  Warner 
Distribution  of  Wealth,  by  Professor  John 

R.  Commons. 
Socialism  and  Social  Reform,  by  R.  T. 

Ely. 

Flood  &  Vincent. 

The  Industrial  Evolution  of  the   United 
States,  by  Carroll  D.  Wright. 

Harper  &  Brothers. 

Wealth  against  Commonwealth,  by  Henry 
D.  Lloyd. 


The  M.  W.  Hazen  Company. 

The    Labor    Movement,    by     George    E. 
McNeill. 

Henry  Holt  &  Company. 

History  of  American  Currency,  by  W.  G. 
Sumner. 

The  Humboldt  Library. 

Live  Qitestions,  by  ex-Governor  John  P. 
Altgeld. 

A.  J.  Johnson  Company. 

Johnson'1  s  Universal  Cyclopedia. 

Longmans,  Green  &  Company. 

Democracy   and   Liberty,   by  W.    E.    H. 
Lecky. 

G.  P.  Putnam's  Sons. 

Economics,  by  Professor  Arthur  Hadley. 
A   General  Freight  and  Passenger  Post, 

by  James  L.  Cowles. 
Monopolies    and   the  People,  by    C.  W. 

Baker. 
Prisoners  and  Paiipers,  by  H.  M.  Boies. 


Walter  Scott. 

The  Evolution  of  Modern  Capitalism,  by 

T.  A.  Hobson. 
The   Eight-Hours'1   Day,  by  Messrs.  Cox 


Swan,  Sonnenschein  &  Company. 

Crime  and  its  Causes,  by  W.  D.  Morrison. 
German  Socialism  and  F.  Lassalle,    by 

W.  H.  Dawson. 

Illegitimacy,  by  Albert  Leffingwell,  M.D. 
Six  Centtiries  of  Work  and   Wages,  by 

J.  E.  Thorold  Rogers. 

C.  Osborne  Ward. 

The  Ancient  Lowly. 

The  World. 

The  World  A Imanac. 


THE  ENCYCLOPEDIA 


SOCIAL     RKFORM 


ABANDONED  FARMS.— The  growth  of 
modern  commercial  centers,  the  development  of 
factory  towns,  the  increasing  part  played  in  eco- 
nomic life  by  the  railroad,  the  general  drift  of 
population  from  the  country  to  the  cities  (see 
CITIES)  have  led,  in  certain  sections  of  the  coun- 
try, to  the  abandoning  of  farms.  The  extent  to 
which  this  has  taken  place  has  been  by  some 
exaggerated,  and  the  prominence  given  to  the 
subject  a  few  years  ago  led  to  investigations 
which  have  shown  the  exaggeration  ;  neverthe- 
less, the  number  of  abandoned  farms  is  not 
small,  and  the  fact  has  a  significance  of  the  most 
serious  character.  As  we  shall  see  in  this  arti- 
cle, the  evil  is  not  confined  to  New  England, 
altho  most  attention  has  been  called  to  the  fact 
in  that  section  of  the  country. 

Maine,  New  Hampshire,  Vermont,  and  Massa- 
chusetts have  made  careful  statistical  investiga- 
tions into  the  subject,  with  the  result  (i)  of  find- 
ing that  the  extent  to  which  farms  in  New  Eng- 
land have  been  abandoned  has  been  somewhat 
exaggerated  ;  and  (2)  of  inducing  the  State  to 
take  steps  to  aid  the  sale  and  development  of 
such  farms,  steps  which  have  culminated  in 
practical  results.  These  States  print  lists  of 
such  farms  for  sale  at  favorable  terms  and  send 
them  free  to  any  person  who  applies  to  the  prop- 
er authorities  of  the  respective  States.  Many 
farms  have  been  thus  sold  and  land  developed 
and  homes  maintained. 

Altho,  perhaps,  New  Hampshire  and  Vermont 
have  been  most  active  in  thus  selling  farms, 
Massachusetts  has  most  carefully  investigated 
and  reported  upon  the  subject.  The  twenty- 
first  annual  report  (1890)  of  the  Massachusetts 
Bureau  of  Statistics  of  Labor  gives  78  pages  to 
the  subject,  from  which  we  quote  the  prominent 
points. 

"  Many  farms  in  the  commonwealth  have  been  aban- 
•doned  by  their  owners,  but  not  abandoned  as  to  culti- 
vation.   Such  farms  have  been  leased  to 
their  present  occupants,  who  derive  a 
.Definition  of  living  from  them,  or  have  been  sold  to 
Ahandonnd  other   farmers   and    incorporated  with 
iea  other  farms.    The  result  of  the  trans- 
x  arms.       f  ers  last  indicated  is  to  reduce  the  num- 
ber of  farms  in  the  State,  but  not  the 
number  of    acres    of   cultivated    land. 
Many  farms  formerly  cultivated  for  various  crops  are 
-now  mainly  devoted  to  the  production  of  hay  or  dairy 


products  ;  and,  in  some  cases,  land  formerly  cultivated 
is  now  to  be  classed  as  woodland.  Such  changes  are 
merely  changes  in  the  form  of  crop,  and  if  made  by  the 
farmer  for  the  reason  that,  all  things  considered,  it  is 
found  more  profitable  at  present  to  raise  hay,  dairy 
products,  or  wood  than  vegetables  or  grain,  do  not  in- 
volve an  abandonment  of  the  farm,  altho  possibly  the 
abandonment  of  the  mode  of  cultivation  formerly  em- 
ployed. In  order  to  secure  uniformity  and  the  greatest 
possible  accuracy  in  the  returns,  and  to  eliminate  as 
far  as  possible  the  effect  of  differences  of  judgment,  in 
replying  to  our  inquiries  as  to  what  should  be  con- 
sidered an  abandoned  farm,  the  following  definition 
was  placed  upon  the  blanks  sent  out  to  the  assessors  : 

"  By  '  Abandoned  Farms'  in  this  inquiry  are  meant 
those  formerly  cultivated,  but  now  deserted,  upon 
which  cultivation  is  now  abandoned,  and  the  build- 
ings, if  any,  unoccupied  and  permitted  to  fall  into 
decay.  In  some  cases  the  grass  is  still  cut  on  these 
farms,  but  nothing  is  done  in  the  way  of  enrichment  of 
the  soil,  and  the  land  is  practically  unproductive  and 
left  to  run  wild." 

Abandoned  farm  land  in   Massachusetts  is  princi- 
pally   confined  to  the   western  counties.    Sxich  land 
aggregates  3.45  per  cent,   of   the  total 
farm  acreage  of  the   State,  outside  the 
limits  of  cities,  and  about  0.87  per  cent.  a__.  ,   ..• 

of  the    value   of   such    farm  land.     In  summary  Of 
Nantucket  and  Suffolk  counties  no  aban-       Results, 
doned  farm  land  is  returned.    The  per- 
centage of  acreage  of  abandoned  farm 
land  of  total  farm  acreage,  for  the  counties  returning 
abandoned  farm  land,  is  highest  in  Hampshire  County, 
reaching  therein  6.85  per  cent.    It  is  lowest  in  Essex 
County,  being  therein  only  0.06  per  cent. 

The  average  size  of  abandoned  farms  with  buildings 
is  86  acres,  and  for  those  without  buildings  87  acres. 
The  average  value  of  abandoned  farms  with  buildings 
is  $894,  and  for  those  without  buildings  $561.  The 
average  value  of  buildings  on  abandoned  farms  is  $337 
per  farm,  ranging  much  less  than  the  average  value  of 
buildings  upon  farms  under  cultivation.  Much  of  the 
abandoned  land  may  be  bought  for  less  than  $10  per 
acre. 

While  some  of  the  towns  containing  abandoned  farms 
show  a  recent  decline  in  the  value  of  agricultural 
products  and  property,  this  is  not  universally  true, 
and  the  decline  in  certain  localities  is  overbalanced  by 
increase  in  others  in  the  same  county ;  so  that,  not- 
withstanding the  existence  of  abandoned  farms,  each 
county,  except  Nantucket,  shows  an  increase  since 
1875  in  the  value  of  agricultural  products,  and  every 
county  shows  an  increase  in  the  value  of  agricultural 
property.  In  some  counties,  also,  an  increase  in  the 
acreage  of  land  under  cultivation  appears. 

Except  in  Barnstable  and  Dukes  counties,  the  towns 
reporting  abandoned  farms  show  an  aggregate  increase 
in  population  since  1865 ;  and,  except  in  Barnstable, 
Dukes,  and  Franklin  counties,  an  increase  since  1855. 
The  increase  is  not  usually  so  great,  however,  as 
appears  in  the  other  towns  in  the  counties  respectively. 
In  the  towns  containing  abandoned  farms,  and  having 
no  important  manufacturing  industries,  a  decline  in 
population  generally  appears. 


Abandoned  Farms. 


Abandoned  Farms. 


The  abandonment  of  farming  land  is  not  entirely  of 
recent  date,  altho  it  is  still  going  on.    Replies  respect- 
ing this  phase  of  the  subject,  made  to  the 
Secretary  of  the  Board  of  Agriculture 
Causes  for    from  77  different  localities,  indicate  that 

Abandonment  in  43  °*  these  thf  number  of  abandoned 
. ,  J,  farms  is  no  greater  than  existed  10  years 

Of  x arms,  ago;  in  25  the  number  was  considered 
greater,  in  five  it  was  believed  to  be  less, 
while  in  four  instances  the  replies  indi- 
cated conditions  similar  to  those  prevailing  at  the  ear- 
lier date. 

The  following  language  may  be  thought  appropriate 
to  the  present  day : 

"Where  is  that  long  line  of  noble  farmers  that  were 
so  industrious  and  prosperous,  extending  from  North 
River  over  Christian  Hill  to  the  Green  Mountains,  and 
those  cattle  drovers  and  merchants  that  did  more 
business  than  all  the  stores  in  a  half  dozen  Western 
towns  to-day?  All  are  gone.  .  .  .  Look  over  this 
town,  and  see  the  once  expensive  private  dwellings 
going  to  ruin  in  strange  hands.  They  show  that  far 
back  a  high  order  of  architecture  existed  here,  and 
that  a  wealthy  and  prosperous  set  of  farmers  and  me- 
chanics occupied  them.  They  are  now  in  decay.  The 
same  thing  may  be  seen,  in  a  greater  or  less  degree, 
in  most  of  the  rural  districts  of  New  England." 

However  appropriate  this  may  now  appear,  it  was 
written  33  years  ago,  and  formed  part  of  an  address 
delivered  to  his  neighbors  by  a  citizen  of  western 
Massachusetts. 

If  the  evil  is  not  recent,  neither  is  it  local.  It  is  not 
confined  to  Massachusetts,  to  New  England,tothe  West, 
wherein,  it  is  said,  more  farms  have  been  deserted 
by  their  owners  than  in  the  East,  nor  to  the  United 
States^  It  is  one  of  the  features  of  modern  civilization. 
While  it  is  possible  to  accept  that  civilization  as,  upon 
the  whole,  good,  no  one,  unless  ultra-conservative, 
can  accept  it  as  a  finality,  or  refuse  to  recognize  the 
evils  peculiar  to  it. 

It  is  not  necessary  to  enlarge  upon  the  causes  which 
have  led  to  the  abandonment  of  farming  land.  No 
single  cause  can  be  given.  If  it  were  otherwise  a 
remedy  might  be  easily  suggested.  There  are  many 
factors  which  have  contributed  to  the  result,  either 
directly  or  indirectly.  Among  others,  which  admit  of 
no  dispute,  are  the  inadaptability  of  some  of  the  land 
to  the  use  of  machinery  and  modern  modes  of  cultiva- 
tion, the  poorer  quality  of  the  soil  in  one  locality  as 
compared  with  that  in  another,  or  its  remoteness  from 
markets  or  from  the  railway  which  communicates 
with  markets ;  and  beyond  these,  everything  which 
has  aided  the  growths  of  cities  has  at  the  same 
time  tended  to  reduce  the  population  of  the  remote 
towns. 

It  must  be  remembered  that  the  abandonment  of 
farming  land  does  not  always  imply  either  the  aban- 
donment or  the  decline  of  agriculture.  On  the  con- 
trary, notwithstanding  this  decline  in  some  sections, 
an  increase  in  other  sections  appears.  A  careful 
study  of  the  tables  relative  to  agricultural  products 
and  property  will  show  that  the  increase  is  generally 
greatest  in  the  vicinity  of  the  large  towns.  These 
towns  afford  a  ready  market  for  perishable  products, 
and  this  fact  has  led  to  a  gradual  change  in  the  agri- 
culture of  the  State,  which,  developing  along  the  lines 
of  easiest  resistance,  has  found  its  greatest  profits  in 
the  products  of  the  market  garden  and  the  dairy.  Of 
this  sort  of  agriculture  there  is  considerable  within 
the  territorial  limits  of  the  cities  themselves.  The 
farmer  near  the  large  towns  has  frequently  an  advan- 
tage over  those  in  the  remote  places,  in  his  ability  to 
sell  his  crops  directly  without  the  intervention  of  the 
middleman.  There  are  economic  reasons,  therefore, 
growing  out  of  the  changed  conditions  of  modern  life, 
which  have  operated  to  draw  some  who  have  not  yet 
abandoned  agriculture  into  the  proximity  of  cities. 

Every  new  census  discloses  a  larger  proportion  of 
our  population  within  city  limits,  and  nothing  pro- 
vokes more  criticism  than  the  failure  of  a  city  or  large 
town  to  maintain  in  the  census  returns  its  expected 
percentage  of  growth.  This  growth  is  considered  an 
evidence  of  progress,  but  it  should  be  remembered 
that  rapid  growth  in  cities  cannot  be  secured  without 
retarding  the  growth  in  the  country  districts.  In 
Massachusetts  the  immigrant  seeks  the  city  and  fac- 
tory town.  Often  he  comes  from  an  agricultural  life, 
and.  desires  a  change.  A  movement  from  the  city  tow- 
ard the  country  would  perhaps  correct  the  evil  of 
abandoned  farms,  but  it  would  also  check  the  growth 
of  the  city.  In  the  present  state  of  public  opinion, 
which  is  largely  controlled  by  the  cities,  and  will  be  so 
controlled  to  a  still  greater  extent  in  the  future,  any 
euch  movement,  if  extensive  enough  to  be  effective, 


would  at  once  be  regarded  as  evidence  of  decadence 
in  the  cities  affected  by  it. 

The  larger  towns  and  cities  are  constantly  engaged 
in  organized  efforts  to  attract  population  by  the  intro- 
duction of  new  industries,  by  improving  their  systems 
of  water  supply  and  drainage,  by  increasing  the  effi- 
ciency of  their  public  schools,  by  the  establishment  of 
public  libraries  and  parks — that  is,  by  making  it  pos- 
sible to  improve  one  s  pecuniary  position  by  residence 
within  them,  through  the  opportunity  afforded  for 
regular  and  remunerative  employment,  not,  like  agri- 
culture, subject  to  the  contingencies  of  the  seasons, 
and  by  enlarging  the  social  advantages  which  are  to- 
day deemed  essential.  Such  efforts  are  considered 
commendable.  It  ought  to  be  recognized,  however, 
that  their  success  involves  a  drain  upon  less  favored 
municipalities. 

The  concentration  of  population  and  wealth  in  cities 
and  large  towns,  while  it  has  its  dangers,  unquestion- 
ably opens  enlarged  social  opportunities  to  all  classes, 
even  the  poorest.  There  is,  too,  a  strange  fascination 
in  city  life  which  has  always  existed,  and  which  leads 
many  who  are  under  its  spell  to  prefer  poverty  and 
privation  in  the  city  to  independence  and  comfort  in 
the  country.  This  fascination  is  intensified  by  the  un- 
doubted benefits  which  the  modern  city  offers  to  those 
within  or  near  it. 

The  delights  of  a  country  life  and  the  indepen- 
dence of  the  farmer  are  prolific  themes  of  poets  every- 
where. Unfortunately,  the  masses  of  the  people  have 
usually,  for  various  reasons,  declined  to  take  the  same 
view.  No  doubt  the  poets  are  right,  but  men  have  to 
be  raised  above  the  ordinary  level  to  enable  them  to 
accept  such  a  conclusion.  It  is  probably  the  existence 
of  conditions  more  or  less  artificial  that  makes  a  city 
life  seem  preferable  to  so  many,  but  these  conditions 
have  prevailed  so  long,  and  tend  in  so  many  ways  to 
perpetuate  themselves,  that  they  cannot  at  once  be 
changed. 

And  yet  it  must  be  admitted  that  the  promise  which 
leads  to  the  abandonment  of  country  life  is  frequently 
unfulfilled.  The  movement  from  the  country  toward 
the  city  may  affect,  indeed,  has  affected,  the  labor 
market  in  two  ways :  it  may  lead  to  a  dearth  of  agricul- 
tural labor  in  the  depleted  districts,  thus  adding  to  the 
burdens,  which  in  too  many  cases  the  farmer  already 
bears,  and  it  may  intensify  the  competition  to  which 
the  city  laborer  is  subjected,  both  as  to  employment 
and  as  to  wages.  This  competition  reacts  upon  those 
who  come  to  the  city  for  the  purpose  of  improving  their 
fortunes  only  to  find  the  opportunities  open  to  them 
constantly  growing  less.  On  the  other  hand,  the  life  of 
the  farmer,  notwithstanding  its  burdens,  was  never  so 
easy  in  many  respects  as  at  present.  ...  It  could  be 
easily  shown  that  the  hardships  and  poverty  among 
farmers  in  the  early  part  of  the  century  were  much 
greater  than  they  are  to-day.  The  improvements  due 
to  modern  invention  have  lightened  farm  labor,  while 
the  railroad,  the  telegraph,  and  the  press  have  brought 
the  most  retired  farms  into  communication  with  the 
activities  of  the  age.  The  farmer  may  not  be  able  to 
amass  wealth,  nor  can  the  majority  of  those  in  cities 
hope  to  do  so.  He  is  generally  sure  of  a  comfortable 
living  as  the  reward  of  his  toil,  and  the  contingencies 
that  affect  his  employment  are  usually  no  greater  than 
those  affecting  employment  in  cities.  If  opportunities 
for  large  profits  are  not  open  to  him,  he  is  relieved 
from  the  risk  incidental  to  such  opportunities.  That 
some  of  the  burdens  under  which  he  suffers  might  be 
and  ought  to  be  removed  is  undeniable,  but  there  are 
those  in  the  city,  working  for  low  wages,  liable  to  pe- 
riodical unemployment,  to  whom  life  upon  the  aban- 
doned farms  would  offer  an  agreeable  change ;  only 
they  must  first  be  convinced  that  such  a  change  is  de- 
sirable. 

It  is  sometimes  assumed  that  there  are  many  in  our 
cities  who  would  gladly  go  back  to  the  land,  if  land 
•were  obtainable.   This  report  shows  that 
such  land  exists.    Much  of  it  is  in  towns 
which    for   natural    beauty  of  scenery 
and  healthfulness  of  situation  are  un-       Can  the 
surpassed     in    Massachusetts.      These  Abandoned 
towns  have  an  honorable  past  and  still     -r.  v 

possess  possibilities  of  growth.  In  many    *»r"is   I 
of  them,  as  we  have  shown,  agriculture  Reclaimed  ? 
still  flourishes,  and,  presumably,  many 
of    the    abandoned     farms     could     be 
brought  back  to  fertility,  and  become 
once  more  the  sites  of  prosperous  and  happy  homes. 
If  this  could  be  accomplished  it  would  be  a  public 
benefit.    Can  legislation  afford  any  aid? 

Many  of  the  towns  containing  abandoned  farms 
have  small  opportunity,  compared  with  that  possessed 
by  the  larger  places,  to  make  their  advantages  known. 


Abandoned   Farms. 


Abbott. 


These  advantages  are  by  no  means  inconsiderable. 
Some  of  the  abandoned  land  is  no  doubt  rocky  and 
poor,  but  it  is  not  all  of  this  class.  In  some  cases, 
where  its  reclamation  for  agricultural  purposes  is  im- 
practicable, it  could  be  developed  for  summer  resi- 
dence by  those  who  would  be  glad  to  avail  themselves 
of  it,  if  its  exact  condition  were  known.  Occupancy 
of  this  sort  would  be  of  benefit  to  the  town  inviting  it. 
For  most  of  the  land  the  price  is  low,  and  probably 
much  of  it  could  be  bought  for  occupation  at  a  small 
outlay  in  cash. 

The  States  of  New  Hampshire  and  Vermont  have 
undertaken  to  colonize  their  abandoned  land,  which  is 
more  extensive  than  exists  in  Massachusetts,  and  have 
invited  immigration  especially  to  that  end. 

So  far  the  Massachusetts  Bureau.  The  Maine  Labor 
Bureau  for  1890  (p.  96)  reports  in  that  State  3318 
abandoned  farms  and  an  average  acreage  of  767. 
The  Legislature  of  Vermont  in  1892  ordered  a  com- 
plete report  as  to  its  376  farms  said  to  be  unoccupied, 
but  found  only  200  to  be  really  so.  New  Hampshire  in 
1892  published  a  list  of  322  farms  for  sale  with  vacant 
buildings,  the  list  being  entitled  "Secure  a  Home  in 
New  Hampshire." 

In  certain  localities  the  abandonment  of  farms  is  still 
more  marked. 

In  1889  the  Commissioner  of  Agriculture  and  Manu- 
facturing Interests  in  Vermont  issued  a  circular,  stating 
that  in  the  town  of  Reading  there  were  4000  acres  of  land 
offered  for  sale  at  $i  or  $2  per  acre.  One  half  of  these, 
he  says,  "  are  lands  which  formerly  comprised  good 
farms,  but  with  buildings  now  gone,  and  fast  growing 
up  to  timber  ;  some  of  this  land  is  used  for  pasturage, 
and  on  other  portions  the  fences  are  not  kept  up,  leav- 
ing old  cellar-holes  and  miles  of  stone  walls  to  testify 
to  former  civilisation."  In  the  town  of  Vershire 
"  there  are  from  35  to  40  farms,  contiguous  or  nearly 
so,  abandoned  and  unoccupied."  In  the  town  of  Wil- 
mington there  were  5000  acres  in  the 
same  condition  (The  Nation,  No.  1266). 

Statistics.  But  the  condition  is  by  no  means  pecu- 
liar to  New  England.  A  correspondent 
of  the  New  York  Nation,  under  date  of 
November  23,  1889,  wrote :  "  In  the  rural  districts  in 
Wayne  County  (New  York)  there  are  no  less  than  400 
empty  houses.  The  town  of  Sodus  alone  has  over  50 
deserted  houses,  and  Huron  has  jo  or  more." 

In  Michigan  there  were  7419  fewer  farmers  in  1890 
than  in  1880,  tho  the  population  had  meanwhile  in- 
creased 457,000  (Ninth  Annual  Report  of  Bureau  of 
Labor  Statistics  for  Michigan,  1892). 

Concerning  the  general  depletion  of  agricultural 
sections,  Dr.  Josiah  Strong  gives  the  following  state- 
ments and  tables  taken  from  census  reports.  (T/ie 
New  Era,  pp.  167  and  164). 

Of  the  1502  townships  in  New  England,  932,  or  62  per 
cent.,  were  more  or  less  depleted.  In  New  York  69.5 
percent,  lost  population ;  in  Ohio,  58  per  cent.;  in  In- 
diana, 49  per  cent. ;  in  Illinois,  54  per  cent..  The  accom- 
panying table  shows  that  the  movement  was  common 
to  the  South  and  West  as  well  as  to  the  Middle  and 
Eastern  States,  tho  the  rural  districts  in  the  region  of 
large  cities  naturally  felt  their  attraction  most. 


Number  of 
Townships. 

Number  of 
Townships 
which  lost 
Population, 
1880-90. 

704 

895- 
352 
153 

f 
161 

1,181 
1,441 
998 

1,513 
1,047 
803 
402 
540 

221 

298 

1,088 
1,297 
360 
i,ii=; 

244 

4 

133 

79 
J5 
44 
414 
792 
489 
686 
268 
293 
96 
348 

101 

154 
4°7 
271 
79 

52J. 

California  

Delaware  

Florida  

Georgia  

Illinois  

Indiana  

Iowa  

Kentucky  

Louisiana  

Maryland  

Massachusetts  

Michigan  ....           .  . 

Minnesota.....  

Mississippi  .... 

Missouri.  .  . 

Number  of 
Townships. 

Number  of 
Townships 
which  lost 
Population, 
1880-90. 

uti 

m& 

Nevada  

18 

New  Hampshire  

New  Jersey  

New  York  

6il 

North  Carolina  

861 

Ohio         

Oregon  

88 

Pennsylvania  

018 

Rhode  Island  

f. 
2O 

South  Carolina.  .        .... 

8r 

Tennessee.  

Texas  

Utah  

80 

Vermont  

187 

Virginia  

177 

West  Virginia  

Wisconsin  

398 

Total  

The  following  table  shows  this  movement  of  popula- 
tion for  ioo  years  : 

CENSUS 
YEARS. 

Popula- 
tion of  the 
United 
States. 

Popula- 
tion of 
Cities. 

Per  Cent, 
of  Urban 
Popula- 
tion. 

Per  Cent, 
of  Rural 
Popula- 
tion. 

179°  

3,929,214 

13^472 

3-35 

96.65 

1800  

5.308,483 

210,873 

3-97 

96.03 

1810  

7,239,881 

356,920 

4-93 

95-°7 

1820  

9,633,822 

475,135 

4-93 

95.07 

1830  

12,866,020 

867,509 

6.72 

93.28 

1840  

17,069,453 

i,453.9Q4 

8.52 

91.48 

1850  

23,191,876 

2,897,586 

12.49 

87.51 

1860  

3',443>32i 

5,070,256 

16.13 

83.87 

1870  

38,558,371 

8,071,875 

20.93 

79.07 

1880  

50,155,783 

",318,547 

22-57 

77-43 

1890  

62,622,250 

18,235,670 

29.12 

70.88 

(See  AGRICULTURE.) 

Reference :  Reports  of  Labor  Bureaus,  Massachu- 
setts, 1890 ;  Maine,  1890  ;  articles  in  Garden  and  Forest 
(vol.  vi.) ;  Chautauquan  (vol.  xvi.) ;  The  Nation  (vol. 
xlix.) ;  Granite  Monthly  (vol.  xiii.).  See  also  Aban- 
doning an  Adopted  Farm,  by  Kate  Sanbprn  (1894) ; 
Hunting-  an  Abandoned  Farm,  by  W.  H.  Bishop,  Cen- 
tury, 47,  p.  915. 

ABBOTT,  Rev.  LYMAN,  D.D.,  born  De- 
cember 18,  1835,  at  Roxbury,  Mass.,  was  the 
third  son  of  Rev.  Jacob  Abbott.  He  gradu- 
ated at  New  York  University  in  1853,  and 
studied  and  practised  law  with  his  elder  brothers 
Benjamin  Vaughan  and  Austin.  He  wrote  vari- 
ous law  articles,  and  together  the  brothers  pub- 
lished law  books,  and  under  the  nom  de  plume 
of  "  Benauly"  they  wrote  the  novel  Conecut  Cor- 
ners, advocating  the  prohibitory  temperance 
laws.  Lyman  Abbott  later  withdrew  from  the 
firm,  and  after  studying  theology  with  his  uncle, 
the  Rev.  John  S.  C.  Abbott,  accepted  a  min- 
isterial charge  over  the  Congregational  Church 
of  Terre  Haute,  Ind.,  in  1860.  In  1865  he  be- 
came associated  with  the  American  Freedmen's 
Union  Commission  as  its  general  secretary.  In 
1866  he  received  and  accepted  a  call  to  the  New 
England  Congregational  Church  in  New  York 
City,  resigning  in  1869.  In  1871  he  became  edi- 
tor of  the  Illustrated  Christian  Weekly,  re- 
signing it  in  the  autumn  of  1876  to  assume,  with 


Abbott,  Rev.  Lyman,  D.D. 


Abolition  Movement. 


Henry  Ward  Beecher,  the  joint-editorship  of  the 
Christian  Union  of  New  York  City.  The  paper 
was  published  under  the  double  management 
until  the  autumn  of  1881,  when  Mr.  Beecher 
withdrew  and  Mr.  Abbott  became  editor-in- 
chief. 

It  is  here  that  Dr.  Abbott  has  done  his  main 
work  for  social  reform,  his  paper  being  the 
first  general  religious  journal  in  the  United 
States,  if  not  in  the  world,  to  take  up  in  any 
decisive  way  the  labor  question.  Early  articles 
in  the  Christian  Union  by  Drs.  Washington 
Gladden,  P.  S.  Moxom,  J.  H.  Rylance,  Profes- 
sors R.  T.  Ely,  W.  S.  Clarke,  E.  J.  James,  and 
others,  with  constant  editorials  and  leaders  by 
Dr.  Abbott,  have  formed  almost  an  epoch  in 
the  development  of  Christian  social  thought  in 
this  country.  Of  this  journal,  the  name  of 
which  has  lately  been  changed  to  The  Outlook, 
Dr.  Abbott  still  remains  editor-in-chief  ;  and, 
in  harmony  with  its  rechristening,  it  is  now 
giving  greater  attention  than  ever  to  social 
Christianity  and  the  signs  of  the  times.  After 
Mr.  Beecher's  death  (1887),  Dr.  Abbott  was  in 
clue  time  chosen  his  successor  in  the  pastorate  of 
Plymouth  Church,  a  position  he  still  holds — a 
leader  in  progressive  Christian  thought.  His 
recent  lectures  on  Evolution  and  Christianity 
have  elicited  special  interest. 

ABOLITION  MOVEMENT.  Abolitionist 
is  a  term  used  in  the  United  States  specifically 
for  those  who  favored  and  sought  to  effect  the 
abolition  of  slavery.  We  here  consider  the  sub- 
ject simply  in  its  relation  to  the  United  States. 
(For  a  general  sketch  of  the  history  of  the  aboli- 
tion of  slavery  through  the  world,  see  SLAVERY.) 
It  should  not  be  forgotten,  however,  that  the 
abolition  movement  in  the  United  States  was 
but^,  part  of  this  more  general  movement. 

Christianity,   as  expressed  by  its  followers, 
while  not  until  modern  times  doing  away  with 
slavery,  has  always  tended  more  or 
less,  and  at  times  very  directly  and 
In  General  effectively,  to  ameliorate  the  con- 
History,     dition  of  the  slave.     The  position 
of  St.  Paul  in  regard  to  Onesimus  is 
well  known.  It  seems  probable  that, 
outside  of  Palestine  at  least,  Christianity  was 
largely  propagated  among  the  slaves  and  de- 
'spised  classes  that   so  abounded  through  the 
Roman    Empire.     When    Christianity   became 
dominant,  while  it  still  did  not  abolish,  it  did 
limit  and  check  and  endeavor  to  control.    Coun- 
cil after  council  legislated  on  the  subject.     Very 
many  Christians  voluntarily  freed  their  slaves. 
Church  moneys  and  benefactions  were  used  for 
the  purchase  of  the  freedom  of  slaves,  notably 
by  Gregory  the  Great.     In   England   herself, 
slavery  had  disappeared  by  the  fifteenth  cen- 
tury.    England's   greatest  sin   in  this  respect 
seems  to  have  been  in  the  trading  and  carrying 
of  slaves  for  others  rather  than  in  importing  or 
capturing  them  for  herself.     The  philosophy, 
too,  of  natural  rights,  and  the  social  compact 
theory,  which,  beginning  in  England,   found 
their  most  logical  and  their  most  fearful  expres- 
sion in   France,  asserted  the  inherent  right  of 
each  individual  to  his  own  person,  and  the  natu- 
ral wrong,  therefore,  of  slavery  in  any  form. 
It  was  these  two  tendencies,  the  one  from 


Christianity,  the  other  from  French,  so  called, 
naturalism  and  revolutionism,  that  contributed 
mainly  to  the  abolitionist  movement  in  America. 
Its  first  open  expression,  however, 
was  among  the  Society  of  Friends 
or  Quakers.  As  early  as  1671  George       Early 
Fox,     in     England,     had     spoken  Abolitionists, 
against  slavery,   and  in   1696  the 
Pennsylvania  Quakers  advised  their 
members  against  the  slave  trade.     In  1774  all 
persons  engaged  in  the  traffic,  and  in  1776  all 
who  would  not  emancipate  their  slaves,  were  ex- 
cluded from  membership  among  the  Friends. 
John  Woolman  (1720-73)  and  Anthony  Benezet 
(1713-84)  were  prominent  in  this  stage  of  the 
movement.     In  1774  a  Pennsylvania  Society  for 
the  Abolition  of  Slavery  was  formed  by  James 
Pemberton  and    Dr.  Benjamin    Rush,  and  in 
1787  was  reconstructed  under  the  presidency  of 
Franklin. 

The  arguments  of  these  earliest  anti-slavery 
writers  and  workers  were  drawn  mainly  from 
general  philosophic,  humanitarian,  and  Chris- 
tian principles.  With  Washington,  Jefferson, 
Madison,  Patrick  Henry,  and  other  Southerners, 
all  of  whom  deplored  and  often  spoke  against, 
altho  most  of  them  practising  slavery,  other 
reasons  entered  in.  While  not  insensible  to  the 
humanitarian  arguments,  they  based  their  posi- 
tion largely  on  the  above-mentioned  French 
political  principles  then  spreading  through  this 
country,  and  thus  regarded  slavery  as  a  giant 
evil,  inconsistent  alike  with  the  principles  of  the 
Declaration  of  Independence  and  the  spirit  of 
Christianity.  Other  abolition  societies  were  or- 

fanized  in  New  York  (1785),  Rhode  Island  (1786), 
[aryland  (1789),  Connecticut  (1790),  Virginia 
(1791),  New  Jersey  (1792).  The  abolition  of  the 
slave  trade  by  Great  Britain  in  1807,  and  by  the 
United  States  in  1808,  was  a  great  advance.  In 
1777  Vermont  formed  a  constitution  abolishing 
slavery,  and  was  soon  followed  by  Massachu- 
setts and  other  States,  while  many  others  grad- 
ually abolished  it. 

In  1819-20  the  opponents  of  slavery  made 
a  stern  resistance  to  the  admission  of  Missouri 
as  a  slave  State,  but  were  defeated.  The  strug- 
gle, however,  resulted  in  the  so-called  Missouri 
Compromise  (1820),  whereby  slavery  was  legal- 
ized to  the  south  of  36°  30'  N.  Lat.,  and  prohibit- 
ed in  all  States  that  might  be  formed  north  of  it 
(Mason's  and  Dixon's  line).  California,  how- 
ever, tho  lying  partly  south  of  this  line,  was 
admitted  as  a  free  State  (1850),  the  Southern 
party  obtaining  in  compensation  the  amendment 
of  the  Fugitive  Slave  Law,  making  it  penal  to 
harbor  runaway  slaves  or  to  aid  in  their  es- 
cape. But  this  is  to  anticipate.  From  1801-47 
there  were  various  efforts  participated  in  by 
Jefferson,  Henry  Clay,  James  Madison,  in  the 
South,  and  Bishop  Hopkins,  Rufus  King,  Presi- 
dent Harrison,  and  Dr.  Channing  in  the  North, 
to  colonize  the  blacks  in  Africa.  Liberia  was 
declared  independent  in  1847.  In  1831-32  the 
insurrection  of  Nat  Turner  in  Virginia  excited 
a  strong  desire  for  gradual  abolition. 

The  first  leader  in  immediate  abolition  was 
William  Lloyd  Garrison  (see  GARRISON),  a  Massa- 
chusetts printer,  who  (1829-30)  worked  with 
Lundy,  in  his  The  Genius  of  Universal  Eman- 
cipation, published  at  Baltimore.  In  1831  he  be- 


Abolition   Movement. 


Abolition  Movement. 


gan  publishing  The  Liberator  in  Boston,  and  by 
1832  the  New  England  Anti-Slavery  Society  was 
formed.  In  1833  Garrison  visited 
England  and  secured  from  Wilber- 
Immediate  force,  Zachary  Macaulay,  Henry 
Abolition.  Brougham,  and  others,  a  condemna- 
tion of  the  colonization  societies. 
Garrison's  principles  were,  in  his 
own  words — and  they  soon  became  the  principles 
of  all  abolitionists, however  they  differed  in  meth- 
od— that  "  the  right  to  enjoy  liberty  is  inalien- 
able ;"  that  "  to  invade  it  is  to  usurp  the  pre- 
rogative of  Jehovah  ;"  that  "  every  man  has  a 
right  to  his  own  body,  to  the  products  of  his 
labor,  to  the  protection  of  law,  and  to  the  com- 
mon advantages  of  society."  He  said:  "We 
plant  ourselves  upon  the  Declaration  of  our  In- 
dependence and  the  truths  of  Divine  revelation 
as  upon  the  everlasting  rock.  We  shall  send 
forth  agents  to  lift  up  everywhere  the  voice  of 
remonstrance,  of  warning,  of  entreaty,  and  of 
rebuke.  We  shall  circulate  unsparingly  and  ex- 
tensively anti-slavery  tracts  and  periodicals.  We 
shall  enlist  the  pulpit  and  the  press  in  the  cause 
of  the  suffering  and  the  dumb.  We  shall  aim 
at  a  purification  of  the  churches  from  all  partici- 
pation in  the  guilt  of  slavery.  We  shall  spare 
no  exertions  nor  means  to  bring  the  whole 
nation  to  speedy  repentance."  Such  were  the 
principles,  and  such,  at  least  in  the  earlier 
stages,  were  the  methods  of  the  abolitionists. 
Garrison  was  a  firm  believer  in  Christ.  He  pro- 
claimed himself  a  follower  of  the  Prince  of  Peace. 
Human  life  he  came  to  regard  as  sacred  above 
all  things.  Capital  punishment  and  war,  as  well 
as  slavery,  were  to  him  and  to  most  abolitionists 
an  abhorrence.  Viewing  the  subject  thus  from 
the  standpoint  of  morals  rather  than  of  any  po- 
litical expediency,  slavery  was  to  him  a  sin  not 
to  be  gradually  abolished,  but  to  be  left.  In  the 
Liberator  (vol.  i.,  No.  i,  Saturday,  January  i, 
1831),  he  wrote  :  "  I  will  be  as  harsh  as  truth  and 
as  uncompromising  as  justice.  On  this  subject 
I  do  not  wish  to  think  or  speak  or  write  with 
moderation.  No,  no  !  Tell  a  man  whose  house 
is  on  fire  to  give  a  moderate  alarm  ;  tell  him  to 
moderately  rescue  his  wife  from  the  hands  of 
the  ravisher  ;  tell  the  mother  to  gradually  extri- 
cate her  babe  from  the  fire  into  which  it  has 
fallen,  but  urge  me  not  to  use  moderation  in  a 
case  like  the  present  !  I  am  in  earnest ;  I  will 
not  equivocate  ;  I  will  not  excuse  ;  I  will  not 
retreat  a  single  inch  ;  and  1  will  be  heard. ' ' 

From  the  beginning,  Garrison  had  declared  for 
no  union  with  slaveholders,  and  proclaimed  the 
Constitution  "  a  covenant  with  death  and  an 
agreement  with  hell."     In  Decem- 
ber, 1833,  the  American  Anti-Sla- 
The  Ameri-  very  Society  was  formed,  with  Be- 
can  Anti-    riah  Green  as  president  and  Lewis 
Slavery      Tappan  and  John  G.  Whittier,  sec- 
Society,      retaries.     Theodore  D.  Weld,  Sam- 
uel J.  May,  and  Wendell   Phillips 
began    lecturing.     In     1833    Miss 
Prudence  Crandall,  in  Connecticut,  opened  her 
school  to  negro  girls.     She  was  ostracized,  the 
Legislature  forbade  such  schools,  and  she  was 
imprisoned.     Riots  against  abolitionists  became 
frequent.     Prices  were  reported  to  be  set  by  the 
South  on  the  heads  of  several  of  the  leading  aboli- 
tionists, ranging  from  $3000  to  $2o,oooeach.  The 


latter  sum  was  offered  by  six  Mississippians  for 
Garrison's  head,  and  the  same  amount,  made 
up  publicly  in  New  Orleans,  was  offered  for  the 
person  of  Arthur  Tappan.  In  1837  a  slave  was 
burnt  to  death  over  a  slow  fire  in  St.  Louis  ; 
and  for  his  words  in  denouncing  this,  Rev.  Eli- 
jah P.  Lovejoy,  a  Presbyterian  minister  who 
had  established  an  abolitionist  newspaper  in 
Alton,  111.,  was  mobbed  and  killed.  Garrison, 
in  Boston,  was  seized  by  a  mob,  dragged  by  a 
rope  half  naked  through  the  streets,  and  was 
only  rescued  by  a  posse  comttatus  and  conveyed 
to  the  mayor's  office.  Abolitionist  lecturers  and 
sympathizers  were  denounced  from  the  pulpit 
and  subjected  to  every  indignity.  Judge  Bir- 
ney  declared  that  "  the  American  churches  were 
the  bulwarks  of  American  slavery. ' '  Such  were 
some  of  the  obstacles  that  abolitionist  "  apos- 
tles" had  to  contend  with.  Yet  while  the  ma- 
jority of  pulpits  either  denounced  the  Garri- 
sonian  agitation  or  else  were  silent  on  the 
subject  of  slavery,  there  were  ministers  in  all 
denominations  who  were  outspoken  in  their  de- 
nunciation of  this  great  wrong,  and  valiantly 
espoused  the  cause  of  the  slave.  In  the  Unita- 
rian denomination  alone  170  ministers  signed  a 
protest  against  slavery,  many  of  them  preach- 
ing fearlessly  against  it,  and  willingly  sacrific- 
ing favor  and  popularity  in  the  cause  of  free- 
dom. 

As  a  not  unnatural  result  of  the  popular  preju- 
dice and  indifference,  the  Garrisonian  wing  now 
became  very  radical.  They  were  accused  of  ad- 
vocating every  kind  of  innovation,  from  wom- 
an's rights  to  free  love,  and  were  freely  de- 
nounced as  "  come-outers"  and  "infidels." 
Birney,  the  Tappans,  Gerrit  Smith,  Whittier, 
John  Jay,  Edward  Beecher,  Thomas  Morris,  and 
others  left  the  original  organization  of  the  Gar- 
risonians,  and  in  1840  organized  the  American 
and  Foreign  Anti-Slavery  Society.  They  felt 
that  the  time  was  come  for  the  organization  of  a 
new  political  party,  while  the  Garrisonians  con  • 
tinued  to  radically  urge  their  doctrines  through 
all  parties.  As  a  result,  in  1840  the  Liberty 
Party  (g.v.)  was  organized,  and  in  1840  J.  G. 
Birney  was  nominated  for  President,  and  F.  J. 
Lemoyne,  of  Pennsylvania,  Vice-President,  poll- 
ing 7059  votes.  In  1844  Birney  and  Morris 
polled  62,300  votes.  These  were  drawn  mainly 
from  voters  for  Clay.  As  a  result,  Polk  was 
elected,  Texas  annexed,  and  a  vast  amount  of 
slave  soil  added  to  the  United  States.  The 
policy  then  began  to  prevail  in  the  North  of  ad- 
vocating limiting  of  the  slave  area,  and  this  led 
to  the  formation  of  the  Free-Soil  Party.  (See 
FREE-SOILERS.)  In  this  the  Liberty  Party  was 
mainly  merged,  though  a  few  continued  to  vote 
a  Liberty  Party  ticket  to  a  much  later  date.  In 
1 848  ex- President  Van  Buren  was  nominated  as 
President  by  the  Free-Soilers,  and  polled  291,363 
votes. 

Meanwhile,  the  agitation  over  the  Fugitive 
Slave  Law  was  coming  to  a  head.  The  Consti- 
tution having  recognized  slavery  by  Art.  4,  Sec. 
2  of  that  document,  it  was  declared  that  persons 
held  to  service  or  labor  in  one  State  under  the 
laws  thereof,  and  escaping  to  another,  should 
be  delivered  up  on  claim  of  the  party  to  whom 
such  service  or  labor  might  be  due.  To  this 
was  added  the  amendment  referred  to  above  on 


Abolition   Movement. 


Absenteeism. 


the  admission  of  California  as  a  free  State.  The 
demand  was  made  by  the  Free-Soil  Party  that 
this  be  repealed  ;  yet  in  1852  they  polled  a 
diminished  vote.  The  same  year  Harriet  Beecher 
Stowe  published  her  Uncle  Tom' s  Cabin,  which 
at  once  produced  a  remarkable  effect  in  enlight- 
ening the  people  in  general,  and  arousing  in 
them  a  sense  of  the  injustice  and  evil  of  slavery. 
In  1855  Captain  John  Brown  went  to  Kansas  to 
vote,  and  to  fight  as  well,  against  the  efforts  of 
Missouri  border  ruffianism  and  squatter  sover- 
eignty to  establish  slavery  in  Kansas.  The 
leading  abolitionists  were  eagerly  engaged  in 
helping  slaves  to  escape  to  Canada  by  means  of 
the ' '  underground  railroad/ '  or  a  series  of  houses 
whose  inmates  were  willing  to  shelter  and  aid 
slaves  in  their  secret  flight  to  the  North.  In 
1856  the  Free-Soil  Party  was  largely  merged  in 
the  newly  formed  Republican  Party,  with  Gen- 
eral John  C.  Fremont  as  standard-bearer.  (See 
REPUBLICAN  PARTY.)  He  polled,  however,  only 
114  electoral  votes  to  174  by  James  Buchanan, 
the  Democratic  candidate. 

In  1856,  May  19  and  20,  Charles  Sumner  de- 
livered his  speech  in  the  United  States  Senate  on 
The  Crime  against  Kansas.  The  speech  was  an 
exposure  of  the  cruel  injustice  of  the  Govern- 
ment of  the  United  States  toward  the  free  citi- 
zens of  Kansas,  and  was  strong  and  fearless 
both  in  its  argument  and  its  invective.  Whit- 
tier  said  that "  it  was  the  severe  and  awful  truth 
which  the  sharp  agony  of  the  national  crisis  de- 
manded. ' '  It  caused  intense  excitement  among 
the  pro-slavery  members  of  the  Senate.  After 
the  adjournment  of  the  Senate,  as  Sumner  sat 
writing  at  his  desk,  he  was  assaulted  by  Pres- 
ton S.  Brooks,  of  South  Carolina.  He  was  so 
severely  injured  that  it  was  four  years  before  he 
could  again  take  his  place  in  the  Senate,  which 
Massachusetts  had  left  unfilled  during  his  ab- 
sence ;  and  he  suffered  from  the  effects  of  the 
murderous  assault  as  long  as  he  lived. 

In  1857  the  validity  of  the  Missouri  Compro- 
mise was  rejected  by  the  Supreme  Court  in  the 
Dred  Scott  decision.  (See  DRED  SCOTT.)  In  1859 
John  Brown  made  his  effort  to  rouse  the  slaves 
at  Harper's  Ferry,  was  captured,  and  on  De- 
cember 2,  hung. 

In  1860  the  success  of  the  Republican  Party 
led  to  the  firing  upon  Fort  Sumter  (April  12,  13, 
1861)  and  the  opening  of  the  war.  The  war  at 
first  was  not  fought  to  abolish  sla- 
very, but  simply  to  put  down  the  re- 

The  War  bellion.  But  the  anti-slavery  feel- 
of  the  ing  grew.  The  fugitive  slave  laws 

Rebellion,  were  abolished  in  1864.  January  i, 
1863,  Lincoln  issued,  as  a  war  meas- 
ure, his  emancipatory  proclama- 
tion ;  and  finally,  in  1865,  Congress  passed  the 
amendment  to  the  Constitution  abolishing  sla- 
very in  the  United  States.  On  April  9, 1870,  the 
American  Anti-Slavery  Society  disbanded,  be- 
lieving its  work  fully  done.  (See  NEGRO  ;  SLA- 
VERY ;  PHILLIPS  ;  GARRISON,  ETC.) 

References  :  Among  the  best  are  Von  Hoist's  United 
States  (vol.  i.) ;  Wilson's  Rise  and  Fall  of  the  Slave 
Power;  Greeley's  American  Conflict;  Garrison's 
Speeches  ;  McPherson's  Political  History  of  the  Rebel- 
lion ;  Mrs.  H.  B.  Stowe's  Uncle  Tom's  Cabin;  John  E. 
Cairne's  The  Slave  Power— Its  Character,  Career,  and 
Probable  Designs  ;  Parker  Pillsbury's  Acts  of  the  Anti- 
Slavery  Apostles ;  Biographies  of  Garrison,  Phillips, 
Brown,  etc.,  etc.  G. 


ABSENTEEISM,  the  practice  of  absenting 
one's  self  from  one's  country,  station,  estate, 
etc.  In  sociology  it  is  used  mainly  of  landlords 
absenting  themselves  from  their  lands  and  let- 
ting them  out  to  tenants,  the  landlords  giving 
no  time  nor  care  to  their  possessions  except  to 
receive  the  rents,  which  they  spend  in  other 
places  and  communities.  It  has  been  an  espe- 
cial evil  in  Russia,  France,  and  Ireland ;  but 
it  is  becoming  common  in  the  United  States, 
where,  through  mortgage  investments  and  fore- 
closures, many  Western  farms  have  fallen  into 
the  hands  of  companies  or  wealthy  investors 
who  have  never  seen  the  farms,  but  live  on 
their  rents,  perhaps  themselves  residing  in  Lon- 
don or  in  Paris. 

The  evils  of  absenteeism  are  not  hard  to  dis- 
cover. There  is,  first,  the  loss  of  interest  which 
a  resident  is  apt  to  take  in  the  things  and  per- 
sons about  him.  Thus  he  may  be  prompted  to 
invest  capital  in  local  improvements,  or  to  act 
as  an  employer  of  workmen.  "It  is  not  the 
simple  amount  of  the  rental  being  remitted  to 
another  country,"  says  Arthur  Young,  "  but  the 
damp  on  all  sorts  of  improvements. ' ' 

The  good  feeling  which  is  apt  to  grow  up  be- 
tween a  resident  landlord  and  his  tenantry  has, 
again,  material  as  well  as  moral  results,  which 
are  generally  beneficial.  The  absentee  is  less 
likely  to  take  account  of  circumstances  (e.g.t 
tenant's  improvements),  which  render  rack-rent- 
ing unjust.  He  is  less  likely  to  make  allowance 
for  calamities  which  render  punctual  payment 
difficult.  "  Miseries  of  which  he  can  see  noth- 
ing, and  probably  hear  as  little  of,  can  make  no 
impression"  (A.  Young).  He  is  glad  to  get  rid 
of  responsibility  by  dealing  with  a ' '  middleman ' ' 
or  intermediate  tenant.  Without  the  softening 
influence  of  personal  communication  between 
the  owner  and  the  cultivator  of  the  soil,  the 
"  cash  nexus"  is  liable  to  be  strained  beyond  the 
limit  of  patience.  There  can  be  little  doubt  but 
that  absenteeism  has  been  one  potent  cause  of 
the  misery  and  disturbances  in  Ireland.  The 
same  cause  has  produced  like  effects  in  cases 
widely  different  in  other  respects.  The  cruel - 
est  oppressors  of  the  French  peasantry  before 
the  Revolution  were  the  fermiers,  who  pur- 
chased for  an  annual  sum  the  right  to  collect 
the  dues  of  absentee  seigneurs  ;  and  this  evil 
it  is  not  hard  to  trace  in  American  life.  The 
proverbial  hardness  and  harshness  of  the  agent 
who  collects  rents  for  absent  owners  is  not 
invariable,  but  is  frequent.  There  is,  too,  the 
not-to-be-forgotten  effect  upon  the  absentee 
himself  of  collecting  rents  from  strangers  to 
whom  he  pays  no  duties.  Sometimes  it  may  be 
indeed  for  the  good  of  a  community  that  a  rich 
and  luxurious,  and  perhaps  immoral,  landlord 
be  absent  from  it,  but  this  brings  us  to  another 
subject.  (See  LUXURY.) 

Perhaps  the  safest  generalization  is  that  made 
by  Senior,  that  "  in  general  the  presence  of  men 
of  large  fortune  is  morally  detrimental,  and  that 
of  men  of  moderate  fortune  morally  beneficial, 
to  their  immediate  neighborhood  ;"  but  at  least 
where  holdings  are  at  all  equally  distributed, 
it  is  generally  best  both  for  the  occupier  and 
the  owner  that  the  latter  should  be  not  far  away. 
It  must  be  remembered,  too,  that  to  those  who 
hold  that  land  should  be  held  only  by  those  who 


Absenteeism. 

use  it,  or  that  all  land  should  be  taxed  to  its  full 
rental  value,  absenteeism  is  an  evil  incident  to 
the  present  system  that  is  to  be  over- 
come only  by  the  overthrow  of  the 
Industrial    present  system.     To  others  it  is  an 
Absenteeism,  evil  to  be  overcome  by  the  greater 
insistence  upon  the  duties  as  well 
as  the  rights  of  wealth.     A  strong 
statement  of  a  different  but  very  real  form  of 
absenteeism  we  quote  from  the  report  of  the 
Church  League  of  Lowell,  Mass.,  made  Octo- 
ber 9,  1893  : 

"It  is  largely  true  that  the  labor  of  Lowell  earns  the 
dividends,  but  they  are  mostly  spent  elsewhere,  be- 
cause the  stock  of  the  mill  corporations  is  owned  else- 
where. Thus  we  are  confronted  by  the  worst  kind  of 
absenteeism.  The  profits  earned  here  go  from  here, 
while  the  mass  of  poverty,  want,  and  vice  that  accu- 
mulates in  every  large  manufacturing  center  is  dumped 
on  the  charity  of  our  churches  and  the  hospitality  of 
our  poorhouse.  We  see  the  dreary  dwellings  of  the 
earners  of  scanty  wages  ;  we  see  the  premature  age 
and  disability  of  those  broken  down  by  the  rapidly  in- 
creasing speeding  of  machinery  ;  we  confront  the  in- 
temperance and  vice  that  follow  from  the  hard  condi- 
tions and  hopeless  despair  of  their  bettering.  The  note- 
books of  our  ministers  are  filled  with  sad,  sad  cases  of 
destitution,  sickness,  and  death,  made  peculiarly  sad 
by  the  life  history  of  the  mill  operative. 

Professor  Hadley,  in  his  RailroadTranspor- 
tation  (1886),  p.  133,  has  some  pertinent  re- 
marks on  absentee  shareholders. 

ABSTINENCE,  REWARD  OF,  an  ex- 
pression in  political  economy,  first  used  by 
Senior  (q.v.)  to  denote  the  profits  which  he  con- 
sidered to  be  the  "  natural"  reward  of  the  capi- 
talist for  the  use  of  capital  which  he  had  ab- 
stained  from  using  in  immediate  consumption. 
The  phrase  is  called  "  well  chosen"  by  Mill,  and 
has  been  widely  adopted,  and  undoubtedly  con- 
tains some  element  of  truth  ;  but  it  is,  neverthe- 
less, considered  to  be  inapt  by  most  economists 
to-day,  since  it  is  at  least  in  great  danger  of 
misleading.  Thus,  when  Jevons  says,  in  his 
Political  Economy  Primer,  that  "  Capital  is  the 
result  of  saving  or  abstinence,"  he  either  ex- 
presses  a  mere  truism,  or  states  what  is  very  fre- 
quently not  the  fact.  If  he  means  that  capital  is 
wealth  that  has  not  been  consumed  in  other 
ways,  he  says  what  goes  without  saying  ;  but  if 
he  means  that  capital  is  the  result  of  saving  and 
abstinence,  so  that  the  capitalist  deserves  to  be 
rewarded  because  of  his  self-sacrifice,  he  implies 
what  is  very  often  not  the  case.  All  capital  is 
by  no  means  the  result  of  careful  saving  and 
economy.  It  is  notoriously  very  often  the  result 
of  shrewd  and  fortunate  investment  by  those 
who  have  lived  at  the  same  time  in  the  utmost 
luxury  and  self-indulgence.  It  is  made  fre- 
quently by  speculation  and  financiering  in  the 
"  bulling"  and  "  bearing"  of  stocks,  in  the  engi- 
neeringof  some  corner  or  combination  in  the  mar- 
ket, in  land  speculation,  and  in  a  hundred  other 
similar  ways.  Many  fortunes  have  been  begun 
as  the  result,  perhaps,  of  saving  and  abstinence 
and  economy  at  the  very  start,  but  after  this, 
have  been  made  by  the  bold,  shrewd,  and 
fortunate  investment  of  the  little  sum.  If  the 
reliance  had  been  simply  on  abstinence  and 
economy,  there  would  have  been  no  fortune. 
G.  Bernard  Shaw,  in  the  Fabian  Essays,  calls 
"  reward  of  abstinence"  that  "  gleam  of  humor 
which  still  enlivens  treatises  on  capital." 


7  Addams,  Jane. 

ACADEMIC  SOCIALISTS.  See  SOCIAL- 
ISTS OF  THE  CHAIR. 

ACADEMY  OF  POLITICAL  AND 
SOCIAL  SCIENCE.  See  AMERICAN  ACADEMY 
OF  POLITICAL  AND  SOCIAL  SCIENCE,  THE. 

ACCIDENTS.  See  EMPLOYER'S  LIABILITY 
LAWS  ;  CHILD  LABOR  ;  INSURANCE. 

ACCUMULATION   OF  WEALTH.    See 

WEALTH. 

ADAMS,  FRANCIS,  born  in  Malta,  1862  ; 
educated  for  the  civil  service.  He  became, 
however,  a  teacher  and  writer,  issuing  a  volume 
of  verse  in  1884.  He  went  the  same  year  to 
Australia  for  his  health,  and  threw  himself  into 
the  labor  movement,  issuing  his  Songs  of  the 
Army  of  the  Night  in  1887.  He  returned  to 
England  in  1890  broken  in  health,  yet  continued 
to  write  for  the  cause  of  labor  to  the  last  in  the 
Fortnightly  Review,  and  issued  The  New 
Egypt  just  before  a  final  hemorrhage.  On 
September  4,  1893,  he  calmly  and  deliberately 
shot  himself  in  the  presence  of  his  wife,  and 
was  buried  "  with  clenched  hands"  in  Margate 
Cemetery. 

ADAMS,  HENRY  C.,  was  born  in  1852,  in 
Davenport,  la.,  and  received  his  education  at 
Iowa  College,  from  which  institution  he  gradu- 
ated with  the  degree  of  A.B.  in  1874.  After 
Teaching  for  awhile  he  studied  at  Johns  Hop- 
kins University,  Baltimore,  taking  the  degree 
of  Ph.D.  in  1878  ;  he  then  went  to  Europe, 
where  he  stayed  nearly  two  years.  Returning 
to  this  country,  he  lectured  on  political  economy 
and  finance  in  Cornell  University,  Johns  Hop- 
kins University,  and  the  University  of  Michi- 
gan, until  finally,  in  1887,  he  settled  permanent- 
ly at  the  University  of  Michigan.  In  that  year 
he  was  elected  statistician  of  the  Interstate  Com- 
merce Commission,  and  from  that  time,  in  addi- 
tion to  the  university  work,  has  had  charge  of 
the  railway  statistics  of  the  United  States. 

He  would  not  be  considered  a  member  either 
of  the  historical  or  the  a  priori  school  of  politi- 
cal economy,  to  the  exclusion  of  the  other. 
While  denying  that  there  is  such  a  thing  as  a 
historical  school  which  is  to  endure,  or  that  it  is 
logical  to  recognize  the  existence  of  an  a  priori 
school,  he  believes  most  thoroughly  in  a  study 
of  industrial  history  to  prepare  one  for  the  con- 
sideration of  economic  doctrines.  On  the  ques- 
tion of  the  tariff,  Mr.  Adams  believes  in  free 
trade.  He  does  not  believe  in  the  nationaliza- 
tion of  natural  monopolies,  but  in  the  control  of 
them  through  commissions.  He  has  always 
been  an  advocate  of  bimetallism,  and  may  be 
considered  to  believe  in  this  now  (1895)  from  a 
theoretical  point  of  view.  As  to  what  may  be 
sound  in  the  present  existing  state  of  affairs  in 
the  United  States  he  is  not  so  clear. 

Mr.  Adams  is  the  author  of  Outlines  of  Lec- 
tures on  Political  Economy  ;  Public  Debts  : 
An  Essay  on  the  Science  of  Finance  ;  and  The 
State  in  Relation  to  Industrial  Action,  be- 
sides pamphlets  and  magazine  articles. 

ADDAMS,  JANE.  Daughter  of  the  Hon. 
John  H.  Addams,  State  Senator  of  Northern 


Addams,  Jane. 


8 


Adulteration  of  Food. 


Illinois.  Miss  Addams  graduated  at  Rockford 
Female  Seminary  in  1881.  In  1889,  with  Miss 
Ellen  G.  Shaw,  she  founded  Hull  House,  in 
Chicago,  and  has  continued  at  its  head  to  the 
present,  developing  it  into  its  phenomenal  and 
unequaled  usefulness  and  success.  (See  HULL 
HOUSE.)  Miss  Addams  is  author  of  numerous 
magazine  articles,  among  which  are  The  Sub- 
jective Necessity  for  Social  Settlements  and 
The  Objective  value  of  a  Social  Settlement. 
She  has  also  contributed  to  the  volume,  Hull 
House  Maps  and  Papers. 

A  DDE  RLE  Y,  The  Hon.  and  Rev.  JAMES. 

Born  July  i ,  1 861 ,  and  educated  at  Oxford,  he  left 
popularity  there  to  become  the  first  head  of  Ox- 
ford House,  in  East  London.  During  the  great 
dock  strike  he  aided  the  dockers,  raising  ^800 
for  them.  He  wrote  Stephen  Remarx  (1893), 
a  Christian  socialist  novel,  which  has  passed 
through  many  editions,  and  which  outlines  a 
church  brotherhood  of  sacrifice  and  social  effort, 
somewhat  similar  to  one  that ' '  Father  Adderley ' ' 
has  now  formed  in  Plaistow  (a  working  class 
suburb  of  London).  Fr.  Adderley  is  a  leader 
in  the  London  Christian  Social  Union,  and 
editor  of  Goodwill,  a  Christian  social  monthly, 
adapted  to  parish  use,  with  a  present  circula- 
tion of  24,000.  He  has  also  written  The  New 
Floreat  and  Christ  and  Social  Reform,  a  tract 
for  workingmen.  Address  (1895),  128  Edge  ware 
Road,  London,  W. 

ADLER,  FELIX,  born  August  13,  1851,  in 
Germany,  emigrated  to  the  United  States  in 
1857,  and  since  that  time  has  been  a  resident  of 
New  York.  For  a  short  time  he  attended  the 
public  schools,  and  was  prepared  for  college  in 
the  Columbia  Grammar  School,  whence  he  en- 
tered Columbia  College  in  1866,  and  was  gradu- 
ated in  1870.  Afterward  he  spent  three  years 
at  the  University  of  Berlin,  where  he  took  the 
degree  of  Ph.D.  in  1873.  Returning  to  America 
in  the  fall  of  that  year,  Dr.  Adler  was  appointed 
lecturer  or  non-resident  professor  at  Cornell  Uni- 
versity in  the  spring  of  1874.  He  founded  the 
Society  for  Ethical  Culture  in  New  York  on  May 
15,  1876,  and  has  ever  since  been  the  leader  and 
lecturer  of  that  society.  More  or  less  similar  so- 
cieties have  been  founded  in  Chicago,  Philadel- 
phia, and  St.  Louis,  in  London,  England,  and 
Berlin,  Frankfort,  Strassburg,  and  elsewhere  in 
Germany.  Dr.  Adler  is  also  the  head  of  the 
Department  of  Ethics  in  the  Plymouth  School 
of  Applied  Ethics. 

He  has  written  a  collection  of  lectures,  pub- 
lished under  the  title  of  Creed  and  Deed,  in 
1877,  by  G.  P.  Putnam's  Sons,  and  the  Moral 
Instruction  of  Children,  published  in  their  In- 
ernational  Educational  Series  by  the  Apple  tons  ; 
he  has  contributed  to  the  North  American  Re- 
view, Forum,  Popular  Science  Monthly,  etc. 

On  the  labor  question  he  is  of  the  opinion  that 
the  science  of  ethics,  as  such,  has  a  distinct  and 
important  contribution  to  make  toward  the  solu- 
tion of  this  question,  and  agrees  with  Keynes, 
that  a  distinction  is  to  be  drawn  between  the 
ideal  of  economics,  the  science  of  economics, 
and  the  art  of  economics.  He  holds  that  it  is 
the  business  of  ethical  science  to  supply  the 
economic  ideal,  and  disagrees  with  those  who 


expect  to  draw  the  economic  ideal  from  the 
study  of  social  science.  It  is  the  function  of 
sociology  to  formulate  the  laws  which  have  gov- 
erned the  development  of  society,  but  it  cannot 
be  expected  to  point  out  the  direction  which  the 
development  of  society  ought  to  take.  Social 
science  can  tell  us  what  has  been  and  is  ;  ethi- 
cal science  alone  can  tell  us  what  ought  to  be. 

Dr.  Adler  favors  a  low  tariff,  but  is  not  a  free- 
trader ;  he  is  in  favor  of  more  and  more  socializ- 
ing, but  not  of  nationalizing,  the  use  of  natural 
monopolies,  and  is  opposed  to  all  schemes  look- 
ing toward  an  irredeemable  currency. 

ADLER,  VIKTOR,  a  leading  Austrian  so- 
cialist, born  in  Prague,  June  24,  1852.  Edu- 
cated a  physician,  he  has  given  up  his  profession 
for  socialist  propaganda.  In  1866  he  started  the 
Gleichheit,  and  succeeded  in  uniting  the  divid- 
ed Austrian  Socialist  Party.  He  is  now  editor 
of  the  Ar better  Zeitung,  the  organ  of  the  Aus- 
trian Social  Democratic  Party ;  he  is  author  of 
many  socialist  tracts  and  short  books  on  labor 
chambers,  universal  suffrage,  etc. 

ADMINISTRATIVE  NIHILISM,  a  phrase 
first  used  by  Professor  T.  H.  Huxley  in  an  ad- 
dress before  the  members  of  the  Midland  Insti- 
tute, 1871,  to  describe  the  doctrine  (which  he 
opposed)  of  those  who  believe  that  the  State 
should  be  limited  in  its  functions  to  the  protec- 
tion of  its  subjects  from  aggression.  The  ad- 
dress has  since  been  published  under  this  name 
of  Administrative  Nihilism.  Professor  Hux- 
ley quotes  approvingly  Locke's  maxim,  that 
"  the  end  of  government  is  the  good  of  man- 
kind," and  defines  the  good  of  mankind  as 
"  the  attainment  by  every  man  of  all  the  happi- 
ness which  he  can  enjoy  without  diminishing- 
the  happiness  of  his  fellow-men."  The  ques- 
tion, then,  of  what  the  State  should  and  should 
not  do,  he  regards  as  to  be  decided,  not  a  priori, 
but  simply  on  the  ground  of  whether  it  can  be 
done  better  by  the  State  or  by  private  initiative 
• — a  conclusion  to  which  to-day  almost  all  sociolo- 
gists adhere. 

ADULTERATION  OF  FOOD,  in  political 
economy,  means  "  the  act  of  debasing  a  pure  or 
genuine  article  for  pecuniary  profit  by  adding 
to  it  an  inferior  or  spurious  article,  or  taking  one 
of  its  constituents  away. ' '  In  England,  as  early 
as  the  thirteenth  century,  the  legislature  at- 
tempted, though  with  but  partial  success,  to 
strike  a  blow  against  it,  showing  that  it  existed 
even  then  ;  but  it  is  modern  invention  and  still 
more  modern  commercialism  that  has  mainly 
produced  it.  Between  1851  and  1854  in  England 
a  sanitary  commission,  instituted  in  connection 
with  The  Lancet  newspaper,  and  most  ably 
conducted  by  Dr.  Arthur  Hill  Hassall,  made 
revelations  of  so  startling  a  character  that  par- 
liamentary action  took  place  ;  and  this,  tho- 
at  first  ineffective,  has  been  improved,  till  it  is 
now  somewhat  effective,  and  has  been  followed 
by  legislation  in  other  countries. 

The  most  notable  kinds  of  adulteration  at  present 
are  the  following  :  (i)  The  addition  of  a  substance  of 
inferior  value,  for  the  sake  of  adding  to  the  bulk  and 
weight  of  one  more  precious  ;  as  the  mixing  of  water 
with  milk,  fat  with  butter,  or  chiccory  with  coffee.  (2)- 
The  addition  of  a  substance  with  the  view  of  heighten- 
ing the  color  and  improving  the  appearance  of  an 


Adulteration  of  Food. 


Age  of  Consent. 


article,  as  well  as  to  conceal  other  forms  of  adultera- 
tion ;  example,  the  coloring  of  pickles  or  preserves 
with  salts  of  copper.  (3)  The  addition  of  a  substance 
designed  to  aid  or  increase  the  flavor  or  pungency  of 
another ;  example,  the  addition  to  vinegar  of  sulphu- 
ric acid.  (4)  The  addition  of  a  substance  designed  to 
insure  that  a  larger  quantity  of  another  one  shall  be 
consumed  ;  example,  beer,  one  of  the  chief  adulterants 
of  which  at  present  is  salt,  put  into  the  liquor  to  in- 
sure that  when  one  employs  it  to  slake  his  thirst,  the 
more  he  drinks  the  more  thirsty  will  he  become. 
Some  of  the  substances  used  for  adulterating  articles 
of  food — the  salts  of  copper  and  sulphuric  acid,  for 
instance— are  poisonous  ;  but  Mr.  Harkness,  P.C.S.,  of 
the  Laboratory,  Somerset  House,  who  has  had  much 
experience  in  analyzing  specimens  sent  thither  on  ap- 
peal, considers  that  at  present  adulteration  does  not 
prevail  as  extensively  as  the  public  believe,  and  that, 
as  a  rule,  the  purchaser  of  a  debased  article  is  more 
likely  to  suffer  in  purse  than  in  health. 

AGAPE,  a  love  feast,  or  feast  of  brotherhood 
and  social  communion,  in  the  early  Christian 
Church.  The  name  comes  from  the  Greek  word 
aycnrr;,  signifying  love.  At  these  feasts  the  rich 
Christians  presented  their  poorer  brethren  with 
gifts,  and  all  sat  around  the  tables  and  ate  to- 
gether as  a  token  of  their  equality  before  God. 
The  utmost  harmony  and  fellowship  prevailed. 
Prayer  opened  and  closed  the  meeting,  and  a 
bishop  or  presbyter  presided.  A  portion  of  Scrip- 
ture was  read,  expounded,  and  discussed  ;  and 
during  the  feast  spiritual  songs  were  sung.  If  any 
communication  had  been  received  from  another 
church,  or  from  an  absent  member  or  bishop,  it 
was  publicly  read.  Money  was  collected  for 
widows,  orphans,  prisoners,  the  poor,  and  those 
who  had  suffered  shipwreck.  At  the  close  the 
members  embraced,  and  a  "  philanthropic  pray- 
er" was  pronounced.  A  spirit  of  practical  sym- 
pathy and  benevolence  prevailed.  The  partici- 
pators did  not  seek  for  private  spiritualities  nor 
for  personal  enjoyment,  but  acted  as  "  mem- 
bers one  of  another."  In  the  second  century 
persecutions  checked  the  agape,  and  in  the  third 
and  fourth  centuries  they  degenerated  into  a 
kind  of  banquet,  where  the  deaths  of  relatives 
and  martyrs  were  commemorated,  and  where 
the  clergy  and  the  poor  were  guests.  The  in- 
crease of  wealth  at  last  rendered  their  original 
purpose  abortive,  and  transformed  them  into 
positive  evils,  and  too  often  scenes  of  iniquity. 
Councils  denounced  them  for  their  riotousness 
and  debauchery,  and  finally  banished  them 
altogether. 

The  agape  have  been  revived  by  the  Mora- 
vians, who  hold  solemn  feasts  where  wheaten 
bread  and  tea  are  set  before  the  participants, 
and  where  prayer  and  praise  are  offered  up. 

See  GUILDS.    SEC.  I.,  ANCIENT  LABOR  GUILDS. 

AGE  OF  CONSENT.  Age  of  consent  laws, 
in  their  usual  acceptation,  refer  to  the  crime  of 
rape,  and  designate  the  age  at  which  a  young 
girl  may  legally  consent  to  carnal  relations  with 
the  other  sex.  Statutes  pertaining  to  rape  pro- 
vide, in  varying  phrase,  for  the  punishment  of 
'• '  whoever  ravishes  and  carnally  knows  a  female 
by  force  and  against  her  will,"  at  any  age  ;  and 
also  penalties  for  whoever  unlawfully  and  car- 
nally knows  a  female  child,  with  or  without  con- 
sent, under  a  given  age.  That  age  varies  in 
different  States  in  the  United  States  and  in  dif- 
ferent countries.  Under  the  old  English  com- 
mon law,  the  age  was  10,  sometimes  12  years. 
Until  within  the  last  decade  the  old  Common 


Law  period  of  10,  sometimes  12  years  was  the 
basis  of  the  age  of  consent  legislation  of 
most  of  the  States,  and  also  of  the  law  of  Con- 
gress pertaining  to  rape  in  the  District  of  Co- 
lumbia and  other  territory  under  the  immediate 
jurisdiction  of  the  National  Government.  ^It_ 

_itill-  continues  the  basis  of  the  age  of  consent 

_k.i\vs  of  Xorth  Carolina,  South  Carolina,  Georgia, 
and  Alabama,  wherein  the  age  remains_at  10 
years,  and  in  Texas,  Kentucky,  Wisconsin,  and 
Louisiana,  wherein  the  age  is  12  years. 

It  was  not  until  after  the  astounding  revela- 
tions made  by  Mr.  Stead,  in  1885,  of  the  crimes 
against  young  girls  in  London  that  the  age  of 
consent  laws  in  the  United  States  began  to  ar- 
rest attention,  except  in  courts  of  law,  on  this 
side  of  the  Atlantic.  Even  then  the  age  of  con- 
sent in  England  was  13  years.  One  outcome  of 
Mr.  Stead's  shocking  exposures  was  the  speedy 

^raising  of  the  age  by  the  British  Parliament 
from  13  to  16  years,  Mr.  Gladstone  and  others 
advocating  18.  The  New  York  Committee  for 
the  Prevention  of  State  Regulation  of  Vice  has 
been  at  work  for  10  years  to  thwart  the  periodi- 
cal efforts  made  to  introduce  in  New  York  and 
other  American  cities  the  odious  old  world  sys- 
tem of  licensed  and  State-regulated  vice  ;  but 
its  members  were  quite  unaware,  until  Mr. 
Stead's  startling  London  revelations  suggested 
the  inquiry  here,  that,  by  the  age  of  consent 
laws  of  New  York  and  of  most  of  the  States, 
young  girls  of  10  years  were  made  legally  capa- 
ble or  consenting  to  their  own  ruin,  and  that  at 
that  time  in  one  State  (Delaware)  the  age  was 
_at  the  shockingly  low  period  of  7  years  !  Bad 

"as  English  law  had  been  shown  to  be  in  its  in- 
adequate protection  of  girlhood,  our  own  legal 
position  in  relation  to  exposed  young  girls  was 
found  to  be  still  worse.  The  New  York  Com- 
mittee, as  soon  as  the  facts  were  known,  inaugu- 
rated a  campaign  of  petitions  to  sundry  State 
legislatures  and  to  the  Congress  of  the  United 
States,  asking  that  the  age  be  raised  to  at  least 
1 8  years,  and  the  work  was  also  entered  into 
earnestly  and  effectively  by  the  Woman's  Chris- 
tian Temperance  Unions  and  the  White  Cross 
societies.  Changes  in  the  age  of  consent  laws 
soon  followed  in  many  States. 

In  New  Hampshire  and  Utah  the  age  is  now 
(June,  1895)  13  years,  the  same  as  in  England 
before  Mr.  Stead's  investigation.  In  10  Stateg. 
the  aye  is  now  14  ygflffi — viz.  Maine,  Vermont^ 
Connecticut,  Michigan,  Indiana,  Missouri,  Ida- 
ho, New  Mexico,  Arizona,  North  Dakota,  Mary- 
land, West  Virginia,  Ohio,  Illinois,  Iowa,  Min- 
nesota, Nevada,  California,  and  Oregon.  In 
Montana  the  age  is  15  years.  In  6  States  the 
age  is  16  years — viz.,  Massachusetts,  Rhode 
Island,  New  Jersey,  Pennsylvania,  Washington, 
South  Dakota,  Arkansas  ;  and  also  in  the  District 
of  Columbia.  In  Tennessee  the  age  is  16  years 
and  one  day,  the  one  day  having  been  added  as 
a  facetious  amendment  while  the  matter  was 
under  consideration  in  the  Tennessee  Legisla- 
ture. _  In  Florida  the  age  is  17  years.  In  four 
States — Wyoming,  New  York,  '  Colorado  and 
Kansas— the  age  is  18  years.  In  Delaware  "  an 
act  for  the  better  protection  of  female  children," 
passed  March  29,  1889,  fixed  the  age  at  15  years, 
now  raised  to  18  years.  In  Texas,  in  1890,  the 
age  was  reported  by  the  Secretary  of  State  as 


Age  of  Consent. 


10 


Age  of  Consent. 


12  years  ;  in  Louisiana,  12  years  ;  and  in  Missis- 
sippi, 16  years.  Official  answers  to  our  last 
inquiries  from  these  four  States  have  not  yet 
come  to  hand. 

Several  attempts  have  been  made  in  different 
States  to  lower  the  age  of  consent  again  after  it 
had  been  raised.  Thus  far,  fortunately,  they 
have  not  been  successful.  In  the  New  York 
Senate,  in  1890,  a  bill  was  introduced  to  lower 
the  age  of  consent  from  16  to  14  years.  It  was 
reported  favorably  by  the  Senate  judiciary  com- 
mittee, but  vigorous  protests  against  the  pro- 
posed retrograde  legislation  were  promptly  sent 
to  Albany  by  the  friends  of  purity,  and  the  dis- 
reputable scheme  was  defeated.  It  was  under- 
stood to  have  originated  with  Rochester  attor- 
neys, who  sought  thus  to  provide  a  way  of  escape 
for  a  client,  a  well-to-do  debauchee  guilty  of  de- 
spoiling a  young  girl  under  the  legally  protect- 
ed age  of  16.  Another  attempt  was  made  in  the 
New  York  Legislature,  in  1892,  this  time  in  the 
Assembly,  to  lower  the  age  of  consent  from  16 
to  14  years.  A  motion  made  to  amend  thus  the 
penal  code  was  adopted  by  a  vive  voce  vote, 
and  was  about  to  be  declared  carried,  when  the 
chairman  of  the  judiciary  committee,  realizing 
its  serious  import,  called  for  the  yeas  and  nays, 
declaring  that  on  such  a  measure  the  constitu- 
ents of  every  member  should  know  how  his  vote 
was  cast,  and  that  all  should  therefore  go  on 
record.  This  effectually  killed  the  unworthy 
amendment,  proposed,  it  was  understood,  in  the 
interest  of  the  brothel-keepers  of  New  York.  In 
the  Kansas  Senate,  in  1889,  a  bill  was  introduced 
and  passed  to  lower  the  age  of  consent  in  that 
State  from  18  to  12  years.  The  house  was  flood- 
ed with  earnest  protests,  and  its  judiciary  com- 
mittee reported  adversely  the  disgraceful  Sen- 
ate bill. 

According  to  the  New  York  law,  unless  it 
can  be  shown  in  court  that  the  girl  resists  to 
the  uttermost  limit  of  exhaustion  the  man  who 
assaults  her,  the  man  can  successfully  plead  her 
"  consent." 

In  noting  the  changes  of  the  last  decade  in 
the  age  of  consent  laws  of  this  country,  it  is  a 
suggestive  fact  that  the  two  States  in  which  the 
age  of  legal  protection  for  girlhood  was  first 
raised  to  18  years  are  States  in  which  women 
vote — in  Wyoming,  upon  equal  terms  with  men, 
and  in  Kansas,  in  municipal  elections,  while 
they' have  been  followed  by  Colorado,  another 
State  that  has  enfranchised  women. 

Under  French  and  other  continental  common 
law  the  minor  under  the  age  of  21  cannot  legally 
consent  to  her  own  corruption,  and  the  adult 
who  debauches  her  cannot  plead  "  consent"  in 
defence,  and  is  subject  to  punishment. 

AARON  M.  POWELL. 

Says  Emily  Blackwell,  M.D.,  in  the  Arena t 
January,  1893  ; 

"  By  fixing  the  age  of  legal  majority  the  State 
declares  that  under  this  age  young  people  have 
not  the  experience  nor  the  maturity  of  judgment 
which  would  qualify  them  for  independent  action 
in  matters  of  importance  affecting  their  own  in- 
terests. They  are  in  consequence  made  incapa- 
ble of  such  action.  Their  consent  cannot  relieve 
a  guardian  from  responsibility  in  the  manage- 
ment of  their  property.  Except  in  a  few  excep- 
tional cases  they  cannot  make  a  contract  which 


will  be  binding  when  they  come  of  age.  A 
minor  cannot  legally  marry  without  the  consent 
of  the  guardian.  Surreptitious  marriage  with 
a  minor  is  an  offence  punishable  by  law,  and 
such  a  marriage  can  be  annulled  upon  the  ap- 
plication of  the  guardian.  Thus  their  power  of 
action  is,  in  their  own  interest,  so  limited  that 
their  consent  is  not  sufficient  to  make  valid  even 
perfectly  legitimate  transactions,  nor  does  it 
avail  to  protect  adults  who  assume  it  as  sufficient 
authority. 

"  Even  in  crime  youth  is  allowed  as  an  ex- 
tenuating circumstance,  from  the  general  feel- 
ing that  the  young  are  less  able  to  resist  exter- 
nal influences,  and  are  less  responsible  for  their 
actions  than  the  adult.  The  establishment  of 
reformatories  for  juvenile  offenders  testifies  to 
the  belief  that  their  characters  are  still  unformed 
for  good  or  for  evil. 

"  In  the  case  of  girls,  the  State  has  not  only 
extended  exceptional    protection    to    them    as 
minors  in  reference  to  their  legiti- 
mate social  relations,  it  has  also 
established  a  sort  of  legal  majority  The  Age  of 
in  reference  to  those  that  are  ille-  Consent  in 
gitimate.     It  has  fixed  an  age  be-  the  Differ- 
low  which  girls  are  held  to  be  in-  ent  States. 
competent  of  assent  to  such  illegiti- 
mate relations.     '  Consent,'  as  it  is 
termed,  varied  in  all  the  different  States,  until 
recently,  from  the  age  of  7  to  12  years,  and  in 
many  of  them  it  is  still  only  10  or  12.     This  ar- 
rangement amounted  virtually  to  the  protection 
of  children  only  of  the  years  during  which  the 
physical  abuse  of  children  is  so  brutal  an  offence 
as  to  excite  indignation  even  among  the  majority 
of  persons  of  vicious  life.    The  protection  accord- 
ed in  other  respects  to  minors  was  distinctly  and 
emphatically  withdrawn  from  girls  during  the 
first  few  years  of  early  womanhood,  when  it  is 
most  needed. 

"  Such  legislation  is  directly  in  the  interest 
of  vice.  The  line  is  drawn  just  where  those 
who  are  interested  in  vice  would  have  it.  It  is 
certainly  as  illogical  as  cruel  that  at  an  age  when 
a  girl's  consent  is  not  held  sufficient  for  legal 
marriage,  it  should  be  held  sufficient  to  justify 
her  destruction.  A  man  may  not  legally  marry 
the  minor  daughter  of  another  without  his  con- 
sent, but  he  is  legally  free  to  seduce  her  if  he 
can.  .  .  . 

"Wherever  the  age  of  protection  has  been 
raised  the  result  has  been  for  good  only.  It 
acts  as  a  deterrent  upon  those  who  would  mis- 
lead youth.  It  strengthens  the  hands  of  the  in- 
dividuals and  societies  who  work  for  the  protec- 
tion and  help  of  friendless  youth.  It  would 
seem  sufficient  to  state  the  case  fairly  to  accom- 
plish the  end,  but  the  great,  long-continued 
effort  that  has  been  needed  to  partially  accom- 
plish this  end  testifies  to  the  contrary." 

The  following'  is  the  present  age  of  consent  in  the 
different  States  : 


Arizona,             fo 
Arkansas, 
California, 
Colorado, 

rma 

es,  18  yea 
17 
18 
»4 

rs;  fc 

rfem 

lies,  14  ye 
16 
14 
18 
14 
18 
16 

M   • 

irs. 

i 
i 

Delaware, 

' 

'4 
18 

' 

Florida, 
Georeia,               • 

1 

'4 

Age  of  Consent. 


ii 


Agrarian  Legislation. 


for  males,  18  years ;  for  females,i4  years 


' 

'   i?   '    ' 

'   14  ' 

stts, 

i 

16       ' 
15 

\\       : 

H 

'    18   ' 

'     12    ' 
'     12    ' 
14 
'4 

i  + 
18   "    ' 

'    16   ' 

shire 

i+   "    ' 
>4 

'    13   , 
'    H   » 

lina, 
>ta, 

ia, 

id, 

'   18   " 
i+ 

14 
'4 
15 
14 
'    16   ' 
16   ' 

)ta, 

'   i5 
14 

'    i5  .  ' 

12 
13 

i, 
nia, 

14 

'     21 
'     14            ' 

12 

16 

'   18        ' 

'      T«      '        ' 

12 

'     78    " 

Idaho, 

Illinois, 

Indiana, 

Iowa, 

Kansas, 

Kentucky, 

Louisiana, 

Maine, 

Maryland, 

Massachusetts, 

Michigan, 

Minnesota, 

Mississippi 

Missouri, 

Montana, 

Nebraska, 

Nevada, 

New  Hamp 

New  Jersey, 

New  Mexic 

New  York, 

North  Carolina, 

North  Dakota, 

Ohio, 

Oklahoma, 

Oregon, 

Pennsylvania, 

Rhode  Island, 

South  Carolina, 

South  Dakota, 

Tennessee, 

Texas, 

Utah, 

Vermont, 

Virginia, 

Washington, 

West  Virginia, 

Wisconsin, 

Wyoming, 

It  should  be  remembered,  however,  that  these 
ages  are  continually  being  changed  by  legis- 
lation. 

Reference:  For  the  latest  information,  see  The  Philan- 
thropist, published  monthly  for  the  promotion  of  social 
purity,  the  better  protection  of  the  young,  the  repression 
of  vice,  and  the  prevention  of  its  regulation  by  the 
State.  Editors,  Aaron  M.  Powell  and  Mrs.  Anna  Rice 
Powell,  United  Charities  Building,  New  York. 

AGIO  (It.  agio,  exchange).  A  commercial 
term,  used  principally  in  Europe,  to  denote  (i) 
the  rate  of  exchange  between  the  currencies  of 
two  countries.  (2)  The  percentage  of  difference 
in  the  value  of  (a)  two  metallic  currencies,  or 
(I))  a  metallic  and  a  paper  currency  of  the  same 
denomination  and  in  the  same  country,  hence 
premium  on  the  appreciated  currency.  (3)  An 
allowance  made  in  some  places  for  the  wear  and 
tear  of  coin.  Adam  Smith  uses  the  word  some- 
times in  the  first  and  sometimes  in  the  second 
sense,  saying,  for  example,  that  the  agio  of  the 
Bank  of  Amsterdam  over  the  currency  of  Am- 
sterdam was  generally  about  5  per  cent. 

AGRARIAN  LEGISLATION.  All  laws 
or  measures  tending  toward  the  abolition  or 
limitation  of  private  property  in  land  are  often 
termed  agrarian  legislation,  in  reference  to  the 
famous  agrarian  laws  of  Rome,  which  were  till 
recently  supposed  to  have  operated  strongly  in 
this  direction,  and  to  some  extent  probably  did 
so.  This  conception  of  agrarian  legislation  was 
common  even  among  scholars  as  late  as  the  be- 
ginning of  this  century.  In  1793  the  French 
convention  introduced  legislation  to  punish  with 
death  any  one  who  should  propose  an  agrarian 
law,  by  which  they  meant  equal  division  of  the 
soil  among  the  citizens.  The  German  scholars 
Heyne,  Niebuhr,  and  Savigny  first  declared  the 
true  purpose  of  these  Roman  laws,  discovering 


them  to  refer  not  to  private,  but  only  to  public 
lands.  They  referred  to  the  lands  acquired  by 
military  conquest. 

"It  was  the  practice  at  Rome,"  says  Dr.  Arnold, 
"and  doubtless  in  other  States  of  Italy,  to  allow  indi- 
viduals to  occupy  such  lands,  and  to  enjoy  all  the  bene- 
fits of  them,  on  condition  of  paying  to  the  State  the 
tithe  of  the  produce,  as  an  acknowledgment  that  the 
State  was  the  proprietor  of  the  land,  and  the  individual 
merely  the  occupier.  Now,  although  the  land  was 
undoubtedly  the  property  of  the  State,  and  although 
the  occupiers  of  it  were  in  relation  to  the  State  mere 
tenants-at-will,  yet  it  is  in  human  nature  that  a  long 
undisturbed  possession  should  give  a  feeling  of  owner- 
ship ;  the  more  so  as,  while  the  State's  claim  lay  dor- 
mant, the  possessor  was,  in  fact,  proprietor,  and  the 
land  would  thus  be  repeatedly  passing  by  regular  sale 
from  one  occupier  to  another." 

The  very  idea  of  a  citizen  in  ancient  times 
conveyed  the  idea  of  a  land-owner,  and  as  new 
citizens  were  admitted  to  all  Roman  privileges, 
they  received  an  allotment  of  land  from  the  pub- 
lic domains.  This  necessitated  an  interference 
by  the  State  with  those  who  temporarily  occu- 
pied the  land  ;  and  as  these  occupiers  were  gen- 
erally Roman  aristocrats,  the  interference  was 
resisted.  It  was  to  the  interest  of  the  aristocrats 
to  keep  the  lands  public  property,  and  therefore 
they  opposed  all  agrarian  legislation.  Their  op- 
position to  this  distribution  of  land,  together  with 
economic  tendencies  that  favored  the  wealthy, 
resulted  in  producing  a  large  proportion  of  land- 
less citizens  ;  and  the  endeavor  by  some  of  the 
noblest  Roman  statesmen  to  provide  these  dis- 
possessed citizens  with  the  land  that  rightfully 
belonged  to  them,  occasioned  some  of  the  most 
notable  struggles  in  Roman  history.  One  of 
the  first  consuls  to  propose  an  agrarian  law  was 
Spurms  Cassius,  who,  at  a  time  of  great  poverty 
among  the  Roman  workingmen,  desired  to  have 
the  public  lands  divided  among  them.  The 
aristocracy  defeated  him,  and  finally  secured  his 
death  for  daring  to  propose  an  infringement 
upon  their  privileges. 

The  first  important  agrarian  legislation  of  a 
permanent  nature  actually  passed  was  that  pro- 
posed by  the  tribune  Licinius  Stolo,  and  carried, 
after  a  struggle  of  five  years,  in  the  year  of  Rome 
383.  The  provisions  of  Licinius's  bill,  or  roga- 
tion, were  as  follows  :  "  Every  Roman  citizen 
shall  be  entitled  to  occupy  any  portion  of  the 
unallotted  state  land  not  exceeding  500  jugera, 
and  to  feed  on  the  public  pasture-land  any  num- 
ber of  cattle  not  exceeding  100  head  of  large,  or 
500  head  of  small,  paying  in  both  cases  the  usual 
rates  to  the  public  treasury.  Whatever  por- 
tions of  the  public  land  beyond  500  jugera  are 
at  present  occupied  by  individuals  shall  be  taken 
from  them,  and  distributed  among  the  poorer 
citizens  as  absolute  property,  at  the  rate  of  7 
jugera  apiece.  Occupiers  of  public  land  shall 
also  be  bound  to  employ  a  certain  number  of 
freemen  as  laborers. ' ' 

For  a  time  this  law  was  enforced  with  very 
good  effect.  Poverty  and  inequality  decreased. 
But  by  the  year  62 1  the  law  was  neglected  ;  and 
although  large  tracts  of  land  had  been  acquired, 
there  were  large  numbers  of  landless  citizens  in 
Rome.  Wealthy  capitalists  secured  the  public 
lands  and  had  them  tilled  by  hired  labor  for 
profit.  For  100  years  there  was  no  distribution  of 
land.  The  pauper  population  of  the  city  increased 
ic  end,  and  the  wealth  and  pride  and 


atone 

of  the  aristocracy  increased  at  the  other. 


luxury 
A  few 


Agrarian   Legislation. 


12 


Agricultural. 


nobles  began  to  practically  own  the  greater  part 
of  the  land,  while  most  of  the  citizens  were  in 
want.  Long  occupation  of  public  lands  had  con- 
fused public  with  private  property,  and  given 
the  capitalists  and  nobles  a  kind  of  proprietary 
claim  to  the  land  they  occupied  ;  so  that,  while 
there  was  no  doubt  as  to  the  wisdom  and  justice 
of  a  division  of  public  land,  there  were  many 
obstacles  in  the  way.  It  was  Tiberius  Gracchus 
who  at  last  had  the  boldness  to  propose  an  agra- 
rian law.  He  proposed  that  every  father  of  a 
family  might  occupy  500  jugeraof  the  State  land 
for  himself,  and  250  jugera  additional  for  each 
of  his  sons  ;  but  that,  in  every  case  where  this 
amount  was  exceeded,  the  State  should  resume 
the  surplus,  paying  the  tenant  a  price  for  the 
buildings,  etc.,  which  he  had  been  at  the  ex- 
pense of  erecting  on  the  lands  thus  lost  to  him. 
The  recovered  lands  were  then  to  be  distributed 
among  the  poor  citizens,  a  clause  being  insert- 
ed in  the  bill  to  prevent  these  citizens  from  sell- 
ing the  lands  thus  allotted  to  them,  as  many  of 
them  would  have  been  apt  to  do. 

His  proposition  was  strictly  in  accord  with 
the  laws  and  spirit  of  the  Roman  constitution  ; 
but  it  was  nevertheless  furiously  opposed  by  the 
wealthy  classes,  who  went  as  far  in  their  lawless 
opposition  as  to  assassinate  Gracchus  and  his 
brother  in  cold  blood.  His  measure  was, 
however,  carried  into  effect ;  but  its  enforce- 
ment was  so  greatly  hindered  and  evaded  as  to 
render  it  of  little  value  to  the  suffering  people. 
The  aristocrats  passed  other  laws  directly  oppo- 
site to  that  of  Gracchus,  and  securing  them  in 
their  usurpations.  C. 

AGRICULTURAL  COLLEGES  AND 
EXPERIMENT  STATIONS.  The  first 
agricultural  school  was  founded  by  Fellenberg 
at  Hofwyl,  Switzerland,  in  1806,  and  endured  30 
years,  educating  3000  pupils.  The  Albert  Insti- 
tution, a  great  agricultural  college,  was  found- 
ed at  Glasnevin,  near  Dublin,  Ireland,  in  1838. 
A  private  experimental  station  was  started  at 
Rotham,  England,  in  1843.  The  Royal  College 
of  Agriculture  at  Cirencester,  England,  was 
commenced  in  1845,  and  a  college  of  agriculture 
at  Dounton  in  1880.  The  English  government 
gives  small  grants  to  chairs  of  agriculture  at 
South  Kensington,  the  University  of  Edinburgh, 
and  a  few  other  less  important  institutions.  In 
Prussia  almost  every  province  has  its  State-sup- 
ported school  of  agriculture.  In  France  the 
Government  gives  large  grants  for  agricultural 
education.  The  school  at  Gregnon  occupies  an 
old  palace  and  possesses  1185  acres. 

In  the  United  States,  the  first  agricultural  col- 
lege was  established  at  Cleveland,  O.,  in  1855. 

Under  the  provisions  of  the  acts  of  Congress 
of  J[uly  2,  1862,  and  August  30,  1890,  colleges 
having  courses  in  agriculture  are  in  operation 
in  all  the  States  and  Territories.  In  14  States 
separate  institutions  are  maintained  for  white 
and  colored  students.  The  total  number  of  in- 
stitutions having  courses  in  agriculture  in  the 
United  States  is  65.  The  organization  of  these 
institutions  is  so  varied  that  an  exact  classifica- 
tion of  them  is  impracticable.  In  a  general  way, 
however,  they  may  be  classified  as  follows  :  (i) 
Universities  having  colleges  or  departments  of 
agriculture  ;  (2)  colleges  of  agriculture  and  me- 


chanic arts  ;  (3)  colleges  of  agriculture  ;  (4)  sec- 
ondary schools  of  agriculture.  In  these  institu- 
tions the  college  course  in  agriculture  leading  to 
a1  degree  covers  four  or,  in  some  cases,  three 
years.  Shorter  courses  of  one  or  two  years,  or 
of  a  few  months,  are  also  provided  in  many  in- 
stitutions. Special  courses  in  dairying  and  in 
other  agricultural  industries  have  been  recently 
established  at  a  few  of  the  colleges. 

The  total  number  of  officers  in  the  faculties  in 
1893  was  1282.  The  total  number  of  students  was 
17,623,  of  whom  3160  were  in  the  courses  in  agri- 
culture. The  graduates  from  the  courses  in 
agriculture  in  1893  numbered  265,  and  the  total 
number  of  graduates  in  those  courses  since  the 
establishment  of  the  colleges  is  3016. 

The  total  revenue  in  1893  was  $4,024,132,  from 
the  following  sources  :  United  States  (including 
income  of  land  grant  of  1862  and  appropriation 
under  act  of  Congress  of  1890),  $1,463,215  ;  State, 
$1,093,870;  local  communities,  $10,003;  indi- 
viduals, $60,906  ;  fees,  $301,141  ;  farm  produce,. 
$116,625  ;  miscellaneous,  $958,372.  The  value 
of  additions  to  equipment  in  1893  is  estimated 
as  follows  :  Farm  implements,  $26,559  '.  build- 
ings, $1,035,589  ;  library,  $84,638  ;  apparatus, 
$151,900 ;  live  stock,  $16,276  ;  miscellaneous,. 
$66,675  I  total,  $1,481,637. 

The  Wisconsin  dairy  school,  the  first  of  its 
kind  in  America,  grew  out  of  the  belief  that  it 
might  be  of  direct  and  great  help  to  dairy  inter- 
ests. A  study  of  the  dairy  instruction  imparted 
in  Denmark  showed  that  the  system  there  adopt- 
ed was  not  suitable  for  Wisconsin.  There  stu- 
dents are  given  the  theory  of  dairying  at  the 
school  and  the  practice  by  placing  them  one  or 
two  in  a  factory,  where  they  serve  an  apprentice- 
ship. While  many  of  the  factories  in  Wisconsin 
were  excellently  managed,  it  was  felt  that  the 
student  should  have  actual  practice  while  study- 
ing in  the  manufacture  of  butter  and  cheese 
under  skilled  instructors.  The  result  was  the 
Hiram  Smith  Hall,  named  in  honor  of  Regent 
Hiram  Smith,  of  the  State  University,  who  had 
worked  faithfully  in  the  upbuilding  of  Wiscon- 
sin's dairy  interests,  and  especially  for  this 
school. 

Agricultural  experiment  stations  are  now  in 
operation  under  the  act  of  Congress  of  March  2,. 
1887,  in  all  the  States  and  Terri- 
tories.    Alaska  is  the  only  section 
of  the  United  States  which  has  no  Agricultural 
experiment    station.      In    each    of     Stations. 
the  States  of  Alabama,  Connecti- 
cut,   Massachusetts,    New   Jersey, 
and  New  York  a  separate  station  is  maintained 
wholly  or    in    part    by    State    funds,    and    in 
Louisiana  a  station   for  sugar  experiments  is 
maintained   mainly   by  funds   contributed   by 
sugar  planters.     In  several  States  sub-stations 
have  been  established.     Excluding  the  branch 
stations,   the  total  number  of  stations  in  the 
United  States  is  55.     Of  these  49  receive  the  ap- 
propriation provided  for  in  the  act  of  Congress 
above  mentioned.     The  total  income  of  the  sta- 
tions during  1893  was $950,073,  of  which $705 ,000 
was  received  from  the  National  Government, 
the  remainder  coming  from  State  governments, 
private  individuals,  fees  for  analyses  of  fertil- 
izers, sales  of  farm  products,  and  other  sources. 
In  addition  to  this  the  Office  of  Experiment  Sta- 


Agriculture. 


Agriculture. 


tions  has  an  appropriation  of  $2 5,000  for  the  cur- 
rent fiscal  year.  The  value  of  additions  to 
equipment  in  1893  is  estimated  as  follows  :  Farm 
implements,  $8380  ;  buildings,  $59,578  ;  libra- 
ries, $11, 216  ;  apparatus,  $17,672  ;  live  stock, 
.$7085  ;  miscellaneous,  $29,927  ;  total,  $133,858. 

The  stations  employ  532  persons  in  the  work 
of  administration  and  inquiry.  The  number  of 
officers  engaged  in  the  different  lines  of  work  is 
as  follows  :  Directors,  70;  chemists,  119;  agri- 
culturists, 54  ;  horticulturists,  62  ;  farm  foremen, 
25  ;  dairymen,  7  ;  botanists,  37  ;  entomologists, 
42  ;  veterinarians,  26  ;  meteorologists,  13  ;  biolo- 
gists, ii  ;  physicists,  4  ;  geologists,  4  ;  mycolo- 
gists  and  bacteriologists,  5  ;  irrigation  engi- 
neers, 4  ;  in  charge  of  sub-stations,  33  ;  secreta- 
ries and  treasurers,  25  ;  librarians,  8,  and  clerks, 

27- 

For  further  details  see  report  of  the  Secretary 
of  Agriculture  for  1893,  from  which  the  above 
has  been  in  the  main  abridged. 

AGRICULTURALISTS.  See  PHYSIO- 
CRATS. 

AGRICULTURE.  (See  also  LAND  ;  FARM- 
IKS'  MOVEMENT  ;  COOPERATION  ;  ABANDONED 
FARMS  ;  GRANGE,  ETC.)  We  here  consider  : 

1.  The  history  of  agriculture. 

2.  The  statistics  of  agriculture. 

3.  The  economics  of  agriculture. 

I.  History. 

(a)  IX    ANCIENT    TIMES. 

The  history  of  agriculture  reaches  back  to  the 
earliest  times.  On  Egyptian  hieroglyphs,  As- 
syrian rolls,  in  Bible  records,  we  have  glimpses 
of  its  earliest  history.  It  was  agriculture  that 
first  produced  civilization,  since  it  first  gave  to 
man  an  abiding  home.  (See  LAND.)  Asia  was 
probably  its  birthplace. 

To-day  in  Central  Asia  the  tribes  of  pastoral  nomads 
are  made  up  of  groups,  each  under  the  authority  of 
the  head  of  a  family,  and  nothing  is  the  subject  of  sep- 
arate ownership  except  clothes  and  weapons  (Le  Play, 
Ouvriers  Europeans).  When  a  group  becomes  too  large 
a  division  is  made  by  the  head  in  a  manner  suggestive 
of  the  division  made  between  Abraham  and  Lot. 

It  was  probably  thus  that  land  was  first  held,  tilled 
by  little  groups  of  men,  gathered  for  defence  around 
or  enslaved  by  some  strong  head  of  the  family  or  group. 
We  are  probably,  however,  not  to  think  of  these  as  lit- 
tle communistic  groups,  as  suggested  by  De  Laveleye 
{Primitive  Property).  It  is  more  probable,  as  suggest- 
ed by  later  writers  (see  LAND)  that  while  the  land 
was  m  one  sense  held  in  common,  it  was  rather  held 
by  one  strong  man  in  despotism  over  the  rest,  whom 
he  made  to  toil  for  him  under  conditions  little  removed 
from  the  lowest  slavery.  The  implements  of  agricul- 
ture were  of  the  rudest  description— such  as  those  used 
in  Turkev even  to-day — a  crooked  stick  or  curved  beam 
serving  for  a  plough,  and  other  implements  of  propor- 
tional simplicity.  Nevertheless,  in  Egypt,  for  example, 
considerable  progress  was  made.  Dio- 
dorus  Siculus  bears  explicit  testimony 
Egypt.  to  the  skill  of  the  farmers  of  ancient 
Egypt.  He  informs  us  that  they  were 
acquainted  with  the  benefits  of  a  rota- 
tion of  crops,  and  were  skilful  in  adapting  these  to  the 
soil  and  to  the  seasons.  The  ordinary  annual  supply 
of  corn  furnished  to  Rome  has  been  estimated  at  20,000,- 
ooo  bushels.  From  the  same  author  we  also  learn  that 
they  fed  their  cattle  with  hay  during  the  annual  inun- 
dation, and  at  other  times  tethered  them  in  the  mead- 
ows to  feed  on  clover.  Their  flocks  were  shorn  twice 
annually  (a  practice  common  in  several  Asiatic  coun- 
tries), and  their  ewes  yeaned  twice  a  year.  For  relig- 
ious as  well  as  economical  reasons,  they  were  great 


rearers  of  poultry,  and  practised  artificial  hatching,  as 
at  the  present  day.  Wilkinson's  Egypt,  giving  many  of 
the  pictures  and  inscriptions  from  the  tombs,  etc.,  dis- 
closes a  state  of  advancement  which  we  little  realize  : 
"  An  Egyptian  villa  comprised  all  the  conveniences  of 
a  European  one  of  the  present  day.  Besides  a  mansion 
with  numerous  apartments,  there  were  gardens,  or- 
chards, fish-ponds,  and  preserves  for  game.  Attached 
to  it  was  a  farmyard,  with  sheds  for  cattle  and 
stables  for  carriage  horses.  A  steward  directed  the 
tillage  operations,  superintended  the  labourers,  and 
kept  account  of  the  produce  and  expenditure.  The 
grain  was  stored  in  vaulted  chambers,  furnished  with 
an  opening  at  the  top,  reached  by  steps,  into  which  it 
was  emptied  from  sacks,  and  with  an  aperture  below 
for  removing  it  when  required.  Hand-querns,  similar 
to  our  own,  were  used  for  grinding  corn  ;  but  they  had 
also  a  larger  kind  worked  by  oxen.  In  one  painting, 
in  which  the  sowing  of  the  grain  is  represented,  a 
plough  drawn  by  a  pair  of  oxen  goes  first ;  next  comes 
the  sower  scattering  the  seed  from  a  basket ;  he  is  fol- 
lowed by  another  plough ;  while  a  roller,  drawn  by 
two  horses  yoked  abreast,  completes  the  operation. 
The  steward  stands  by  superintending  the  whole." 

The  prominence   given    to  agriculture  among  the 
Jews  is  well  proven.   Says  Schaff's  Bible 
Dictionary:  "Agriculture    was    recog- 
nized and  regulated  by  the  Mosaic  law    Palestine, 
as  the  chief  national  occupation.    Ina- 
lienable ownership — under  God— of  the 
soil  was  a   fundamental    provision,   and  renting  the 
ground  till  the  year  of  jubilee  was  alone  possible. 
'  The  land  shall  not  be  sold  for  ever :  for  the  land  is 
mine  ;  for  ye  are  strangers  and  sojourners  with  me' 
(Lev.  25  : 8-16,  23-35).    The  encouragement  such  a  pro- 
vision gave  to  agricultural  improvements  cannot  be 
exaggerated. 

"That  the  land  must  rest  one  year  in  seven  was 
another  remarkable  and  most  beneficent  requirement 
(Lev.  25  : 1-7).  The  Jews  were  forbidden  to  sow  a  field 
with  divers  seeds  (Deut.  22  : 9).  For  example,  wheat 
and  lentils  must  not  be  mixed,  nor  areas  of  them 
meet.  The  rabbis  describe  with  minuteness  how  to 
vary  the  position  of  crops,  yet  avoid  actual  contact 
between  them,  and  prescribe  at  least  three  furrows' 
margin  between  such  divers  kinds.  The  yoking  to- 
gether of  an  ox  and  ass  was  prohibited,  but  is  common 
enough  among  the  present  inhabitants.  Horses  were 
never  used  for  farm-work. 

"  Vineyards  are  enclosed  in  walls,  and  gardens  are 
usually  protected  in  the  same  way,  or  by  banks  of 
mud  taken  from  ditches.  Otherwise,  in  agricultural 
districts  the  absence  of  all  fences  or  enclosures  is  and  • 
always  was  in  striking  contrast  to  our  own  practice. 
A  brook  or  a  cliff  may  serve  as  a  boundary,  but  ordi- 
narily large  stones  almost  covered  by  the  soil  are  the 
landmarks  (Deut.  19:14).  Exceedingly  beautiful  to 
the  eye  are  the  vast  fertile  areas  of  Palestine,  check- 
ered only  by  cultivation.  As  cattle  find  pasture 
through  most  of  the  year,  there  are  no  proper  barns 
to  be  seen.  Grass  is  cut  in  watered  places  with  a 
sickle  for  'soiling,'  and  stock  is  fed  with  this  or  with 
grain  when  the  fields  are  dried  up.  More  commonly, 
during  periods  of  scarcity,  the  flocks  and  herds  are 
driven  to  other  feeding-grounds.  Booths  are  some- 
times provided  for  inclement  weather,  and  at  night 
cattle  are  driven  into  caves  or  folds. 

"  The  permission  to  pluck  and  eat  a  neighbor's  grapes 
or  g/ain,  but  not  to  put  the  former  in  a  vessel  nor  use 
a  sickle  on  the  latter,  is  not  to  be  forgotten  (Deut. 
23:24,  25).  There  was  also  merciful  provision  that  the 
poor  might  glean  in  the  vineyard  and  harvest-field, 
and  that  something  should  be  left  for  them  (Lev. 
19  :o,  10 ;  Deut.  24:19). 

".  .  .  Oriental  ploughing  does  not  turn  a  sod,  but 
merely  scratches  the  earth  to  the  depth  of  3  or  4 
inches  at  most,  which  is  all  the  primitive  and  light 
plough  and  the  small  cattle  of  the  East  can  do.  Often 
— always  in  the  case  of  new  ground — a  second  plough- 
ing crosswise  was  practised  ;  and  this  is  referred  to  by 
the  word  '  break'  in  Isa.  28  : 24.  Steep  hill-sides  were 
prepared  for  planting  with  the  mattock  or  hoe,  an 
iron-pointed  instrument  of  wood  resembling  in  shape 
the  modern  '  pick'  (Isa.  7  : 25).  Good  farmers  ploughed 
before  the  rains,  that  the  moisture  might  be  more  abun- 
dantly absorbed.  The  seed,  being  scattered  broadcast 
upon  the  soil,  was  ordinarily  ploughed  in,  as  is  still  the 
custom.  Light  harrowing,  often  with  thorn  bushes, 
completed  the  process.  In  wet  ground  the  seed  was 
trampled  in  by  cattle  (Isa.  32 : 20).  After  its  planting 
there  was  commonly  little  further  labor  bestowed 
upon  the  crop  till  it  was  ready  for  the  harvest.  Weeds 
were  removed  by  hand  when  it  was  safe  to  do  so 
(Matt.  13  :  28,  29).  Irrigation  was  sometimes  necessary. 


Agriculture. 


Agriculture. 


As  the  ingathering  drew  near,  the  fields  must  be  pro- 
tected by  the  watchman  in  his  lodge  from  the  wild 
boar  and  other  beasts,  and  from  human  marauders. 
The  newly  scattered  seed  and  the"  ripening  crop  also 
required  to  be  defended  against  great  flocks  of  birds 
(Matt.  13  : 4). 

Grain  when  ripe  was  in  more  ancient  times  plucked 
up  by  the  roots.  Later,  it  was  reaped  by  a  sickle  re- 
sembling our  own,  either  the  ears  alone  being  cut  off 
or  the  whole  stalk.  Laborers,  animals,  or  carts  bore 
the  harvest  to  the  threshing  floor,  where  the  grain 
was  separated  from  the  ears  and  winnowed." 

Of  Grecian  agriculture  little  is  known.  The  Greece 
that  we  know  is  the  Greece  of  conquerors,  who  lived  on 
the  labors  of  slaves  in  mines,  in  fields,  and  in  industries. 
The  cultivation  of  the  soil  was  despised,  and  has  made 
little  impress  upon  Greek  literature.  With  the  Ro- 
mans it  was  different.  Says  Schlegel  (Philosophy  of 
History,  p.  253) :  "It  was  in  land  and  in 
the  produce  of  the  soil  that  their  princi- 
The  Roman  pal  and  almost  only  wealth  consisted. 
Emnire  They  were  a  thoroughly  agricultural 
•^  '  people,  and  it  was  only  at  a  later  period 
that  commerce,  trades,  and  arts  were 
introduced  among  them,  and  even  then 
they  occupied  but  a  subordinate  place."  Their  pas- 
sion for  agriculture  survived  very  long ;  and  when  at 
length  their  boundless  conquests  introduced  an  un- 
heard-of luxury  and  corruption  of  morals,  the  noblest 
minds  amongst  them  were  strongly  attracted  towards 
the  ancient  virtue  of  the  purer  and  simpler  agricultu- 
ral times.  Cicero  puts  into  the  mouth  of  Cato  a  fine 
picture  of  the  ancient  Roman  enthusiasm  in  agricul- 
ture :  "  I  come  now  to  the  pleasures  of  husbandry,  in 
which  I  vastly  delight.  They  are  not  interrupted  by 
old  age,  and  they  seem  to  me  to  be  pursuits  in  which  a 
wise  man's  life  should  be  spent.  The  earth  does  not 
rebel  against  authority  ;  it  never  gives  back  but  with 
usury  what  it  receives.  The  gains  of  husbandry  are 
not  what  exclusively  commendit.  I  am  charmed  with 
the  nature  and  productive  virtues  of  the  soil.  Can 
those  old  men  be  called  unhappy  who  delight  in  the 
cultivation  of  the  soil  ?  In  my  opinion  there  can  be  no 
happier  life,  not  only  because  the  tillage  of  the  earth  is 
salutary  to  all,  but  from  the  pleasure  it  yields.  The 
whole  establishment  of  a  good  and  assiduous  husband- 
man is  stored  with  wealth ;  it  abounds  in  pigs,  in  kids, 
in  lambs,  in  poultry,  in  milk,  in  cheese,  in  honey. 
Nothing  can  be  more  profitable,  nothing  more  beauti- 
ful than  a  well-cultivated  farm." 

Mr.  Hoskyn,  in  his  History  of  Agriculture,  quotes 
the  following  interesting  passage  from  Pliny,  com- 
menting on  Virgil :  "  Cato  would  have  this  point  es- 
pecially to  be  considered,  that  the  soil  of  a  farm  be 
good  and  fertile ;  also,  that  near  it  there  be  plenty  of 
labourers,  and  that  it  be  not  far  from  a  large  town : 
moreover,  that  it  have  sufficient  means  for  transport- 
ing its  produce,  either  by  water  or  land.  Also,  that 
the  house  be  well  built,  and  the  land  about  it  as  well 
managed.  But  I  observe  a  great  error  and  self-decep- 
tion which  many  men  commit,  who  hold  opinion  that 
the  negligence  and  ill-husbandry  of  the  former  owner 
is  good  for  his  successor  or  after  purchaser.  Now,  I 
say,  there  is  nothing  more  dangerous  and  disadvanta- 
geous to  the  buyer  than  land  so  left  waste  and  out  of 
heart;  and  therefore  Cato  counsels  well  to  purchase 
land  of  one  who  has  managed  it  well,  and  not  rashly 
and  hand-over-head  to  despise  and  make  light  of  the 
skill  and  knowledge  of  another.  He  says,  too,  that  as 
well  land  as  men,  which  are  of  great  charge  and  ex- 
pense, how  gainful  soever  they  may  seem  to  be,  yield 
little  profit  in  the  end,  when  all  reckonings  are  made. 
The  same  Cato  being  asked  what  was  the  most  assur- 
ed profit  rising  out  of  land,  made  this  answer:  'To 
feed  stock  -well.'  Being  asked  again  what  was  the 
next,  he  answered:  'To  feed  with  moderation.1  By 
which  answer  he  would  seem  to  conclude  that  the  most 
certain  and  sure  revenue  was  a  low  cost  of  production. 
To  the  same  point  is  to  be  referred  another  speech  of 
his,  'that  a  good  husbandman  ought  to  be  a  seller 
rather  than  a  buyer ;'  also,  '  that  a  man  should  stock 
his  ground  early  and  well,  but  take  long  time  and  lei- 
sure before  he  be  a  builder ;'  for  it  is  the  best  thing  in 
the  world,  according  to  the  proverb,  'to  make  use  and 
derive  profit  from  other  men's  follies.'  Still  when 
there  is  a  good  and  convenient  house  on  the  farm,  the 
master  will  be  the  closer  occupier,  and  take  the  more 
pleasure  in  it ;  and  truly  it  is  a  good  saying  that  'the 
master's  eye  is  better  than  his  heel.'  " 

In  the  later  days  of  the  empire  the  land  was  tilled 
only  by  slave  labour,  under  landlords  of  gigantic  wealth, 
who  cared  nothing  for  agriculture.  Corruption  set  in, 
leading  to  the  famous  dictum  of  Pliny  that  it  was  the 
latijundia  which  overthrew  Rome.  The  evil  was  fur- 


ther aggravated  by  the  policy  that  the  Romans  pur- 
sued towards  the  inhabitants  of  the  conquered  prov- 
inces ;  there  none  of  the  land  was  held  as  freehold,  but 
it  was  solely  vested  in  the  Roman  people,  being  all  let 
out  for  the  benefit  of  the  State.  On  the  conquest  of 
Sicily  the  wealthy  Romans  flocked  over  and  farmed 
the  rents,  as  well  as  cultivated  the  lands  by  means  of 
slave-labour.  Indeed,  the  chief  supplies  of  grain  sent  tr> 
Rome  from  Sicily,  Sardinia,  and  Carthage  were  raised 
by  means  of  slaves. 

(b)  THE   MIDDLE   AGES. 

Agriculture  in  the  middle  ages  was  largely 
modified  by  the  system  of  feudalism  (%.v.).  (See 
also  MIDDLE  AGES.)  Under  the  incursions  of  the 
Goths,  Vandals,  and  other  tribes,  it  sank  into 
the  lowest  condition.  The  rural  condition  of 
Europe  in  the  tenth  century  was  pitiable  in  the 
extreme.  Universal  rapine  and  violence  made 
it  unsafe  to  till  open  land,  and  unprofitable  to 
undertake  improvements.  The  impression  that 
the  year  1000  would  see  the  end  of  the  world, 
which  was  widespread,  caused  the  fields  to  be 
still  more  deserted,  industry  still  more  aban- 
doned. After  the  year  1000  there  was  some  re- 
vival of  industry.  The  monasteries  (see  MONAS- 
TICISM),  cultivating  little  tracts  of  ground,  worked 
by  the  monks  with  their  own  hands,  did  much 
to  spread  the  knowledge  and  practice  of  agricul- 
ture. 

In  Spain  the  Saracens  did  more.  By  them  and  their 
successors,  the  Moors,  agriculture  was  carried  in  Spain 
to  a  height  which  perhaps  has  not  yet  been  surpassed 
in  Europe.  It  is  said  that  so  early  as  the  tenth  century 
the  revenue  of  Saracenic  Spain  alone  amounted  to 
£6,000,000  sterling— probably  as  much  as  that  of  all  the 
rest  of  Europe  at  that  time.  The  ruins  of  their  noble 
works  for  the  irrigation  of  the  soil  still  attest  their 
skill  and  industry,  and  put  to  shame  the  ignorance  and 
indolence  of  .their  successors. 

In  England  agriculture  seems  to  have 
been  a  little  more  prosperous  than  on 
the  continent.  Says  Palgrave's  Diction-  England. 
ary  of  Political  Economy  :  "  Among  the 
early  Saxons  the  soil  had  been  tilled  by 
village  communities.  The  land  held  by  the  associa- 
tion was  divided  into  two  main  divisions  :  (i)  round  the 
homesteads  lay  permanent  inclosures  held  as  private 
property  (cp.  Tacitus,  suam  quisque  domum  spatio  ctr- 
cumdaf)  ;  (2)  beyond  the  village  lay  the  common  lands 
of  the  association.  This  latter  portion  consisted  of 
(a)  arable  fields,  sometimes  two,  generally  three,  and  in 
later  times  four,  in  number ;  (3)  meadowland  for  hay  ; 
(c)  rough  wild  pasture  for  live  stock.  Of  the  three  arable 
fields,  one  was  cultivated  each  year  for  wheat  or  rye, 
another  for  oats,  barley,  peas,  and  beans,  and  the 
third  lay  fallow.  Thus  each  field  every  third  year 
was  fallow.  Both  the  meadow  and  arable  lands  were 
cut  into  strips  and  annually  allotted  to  the  use  of  in- 
dividuals from  putting  up  for  hay  or  from  seed-time. 
Each  partner  held  scattered  intermixed  parcels  in  each 
of  the  arable  fields,  so  as  to  equalize  the  quality  of  the 
land,  and  to  give  each  a  share  in  the  different  crops 
cultivated.  The  farming  was  regulated  by  a  system 
of  'field-constraint,'  or  later  by  the  reeve  of  the  mano- 
rial lord.  After  the  crops  were  cleared,  separate  use 
terminated  and  common  rights  recommenced,  the  cat- 
tle and  sheep  of  the  community  wandering  over  the 
fields  before  the  common  herdsman  or  shepherd  (for  a 
detailed  account  of  the  system,  see  Seebohm's  77^  £«,£•- 
lish  Village  Community).  Co-tillage  remained  a  fea- 
ture of  English  farming  after  the  Norman  Conquest. 
Up  to  the  close  of  the  eighteenth  century  half  the  soil  of 
England  was  thus  cultivated,  and  in  1879,  600  acres  at 
Stogoursey,  near  Bridgewater,  were  farmed  on  this  sys- 
tem. By  the  close  of  the  eleventh  century  the  imme- 
diate lordship  of  the  soil  was  vested  in  lords  of  manors, 
subject  to  regulated  rights  of  user  enjoyed  by  the  co- 
operative farmers.  The  manorial  estate  was  divided 
into  three  parts — the  demesne,  the  tenemental  land  of 
the  associated  farmers,  and  the  lord's  wastes,  over 
which  the  live  stock  of  the  tenants  grazed.  The  soil 
was  tilled  by  serfs,  by  freemen,  and  by  semi-servile 
tenants,  who  paid  for  their  land  by  military  or  agricul- 
tural services.  Out  of  these  grades  in  the  rural  popu- 
lation sprang  the  freeholder,  the  copyholder,  and  the 


Agriculture. 


Agriculture. 


free  wage-earning  labourer.  The  most  striking  feat- 
ures in  mediaeval  farming  were  the  violent  alternations 
from  perpetual  cropping  to  barrenness,  from  indolence 
to  intense  labour,  from  famine  to  feasting.  Scarcely 
anything  was  grown  for  markets  ;  nearly  all  the  prod- 
uce was  consumed  at  home  by  the  producers.  Arable 
land  exceeded  grassland.  No  manure  was  employed  ; 
horses  were  scarcely  ever  used  ;  oxen  were  more  eco- 
nomical ;  their  food,  harness,  and  shoes  were  cheaper ; 
when  dead  they  •were  meat  for  man.  The  crops  were 
wheat,  oats,  barley,  rye,  beans,  peas,  flax,  and  hemp." 

Thorold  Rogers  (<?.?'.)  gives  in  his  Work  and  Wages 
&  picture  of  rural  mediaeval  England.  We  give  it  here 
in  abridged  form.  He  says : 

"  The  first  information  which  we  get  as  to  the  occu- 
pations of  the  people  in  rural  districts  discloses  to  us 
the  fact  that  almost  every  one  not  only  possessed  land, 
but  that  he  cultivated  it.  The  king  was  not  only  the 
largest  landowner  in  the  realm,  but  the  most  extensive 
agriculturist,  the  wealthiest  owner  of  live  and  dead 
stock"  (p.  47). 

"  In  the  thirteenth  century  there  was  no  rent  paid, 
in  the  ordinary  economical  sense  of  the 
word.  There  was  no  competition  for 

VA  Pant  holdings  in  that  state  of  society  in  which 
TJ  .  f  the  great  landowner  cultivated  his  prop- 
Paid,  erty  with  his  own  capital,  and  the 
smaller  tenants  had  a  genuine  fixity  of 
tenure  under  traditional,  customary, 
and  certain  payments.  There  were  occasions,  it  is 
true,  in  which  from  an  early  period  lands  were  let  to 
farm.  But  these  tenancies,  to  which  allusion  has  been 
made  above,  were  land  and  stock  leases,  on  really 
beneficial  terms  to  the  tenant ;  for  the  estimated  value 
of  the  stock,  or  its  compensation,  in  case  the  tenant 
failed  to  restore  it  at  the  termination  of  his  lease,  was 
from  30  to  40  per  cent,  below  the  market  value,  unless, 
as  is  highly  improbable,  the  stock  on  such  land  was 
far  inferior  in  quality  to  that  for  which  market  prices 
are  recorded"  (pp.  56,  57). 

"  In  point  of  fact,  the  rent  of  the  tenant  in  the  time 
immediately  before  me  may  have  been,  and  probably 
was,  in  its  origin,  as  the  Dialogue  on  the  Exchequer 
(i.  10)  states,  a  license  to  live  on  and  cultivate  the  soil, 
always,  indeed,  less  than  a  competitive  rent,  and  per- 
haps, in  its  beginning,  a  precarious  tenure.  But  in 
course  of  time  the  tenancy  became  permanent,  the 
rent  remained  fixed.  It  was  as  full,  indeed,  as  could 
be  obtained,  for  I  find  that  when  land  is  let  on  lease 
for  short  periods,  or  for  life,  the  rent  is  no  higher  than 
that  paid  by  freeholders  and  copyholders,  but  it  is  not 
as  much  as  could  be  paid,  seeing1  that  the  tenants  were 
constantly  able  to  add  to  their  tenancies,  'and  were 
frequently  called  upon  for  extraordinary  payments, 
which  could  not  have  been  yielded  from  a  genuine 
rack  rent.  And  it  is  a  proof  of  Adam  Smith's  sagacity, 
that  without  the  materials  before  him  from  which  the 
facts  could  be  demonstrated,  he  saw  that  rent  was  orig- 
inally a  tax.  and  that  a  long  interval  must  have  occur- 
red before  farmers'  rents  became  real  and  oppressive" 
(pp.57,  58). 

"  There  is  a  general  impression  that  the  Englishman 
in  the  days  of  the  Plantagenets  lived  on  the  coarser 
and  inferior  kinds  of  grain.  That  most  of  the  best 
wheat  went  to  market,  supplied  the  towns,  and  was 
ev-n  exported  to  foreign  countries,  is  probable,  or 
even  certain,  especially  during  the  fifteenth  century. 
But  over  the  greater  part  of  England,  over  all,  indeed, 
which  has  come  under  my  inquiry,  even  as  far  north 
as  the  county  of  Durham,  the  staple  produce  of  agri- 
culture, and  by  implication  the  staple  food  of  the 
people,  was  wheat,  though  oats  are  also  consumed  as 
the  food  of  man  in  those  northern  regions.  From  the 
earliest  times  wheat  has  been  the  principal  grain  on 
which  the  English  have  lived"  (p.  so). 

"  I  have  dwelt  in  detail  on  these  facts,  and  have  given 
this  evidence  of  the  condition  of  the  English  peasantry, 
in  order  that  I  may,  if  possible,  once  for  all  show  how 
untenable  is  the  opinion  which  doubts  that,  as  far  as 
the  mere  means  of  life  were  concerned,  the  English- 
man of  the  middle  ages  lived  in  ordinary  times  in 
coarse  plenty"  (p.  63). 

"  The  houses  of  these  villagers  were  mean  and  dirty. 
Brick-making  was  a  lost  art,  stone  was  found  only  in  a 
few  places,  and,  though  cheap  enough,  -was  certainly 
not  generally  employed,  even  where  it  was  plentiful 
and  within  reach.  The  better  class  of  yeomen  had  tim- 
ber houses — housebote  was  a  customary  right  of  the 
tenants— built  on  a  frame,  the  spaces  being  either  lathed 
and  plastered  within  and  •without,  or  filled  •with  clay 
kneaded  up  with  chopped  straw.  The  floor  was  the 
bare  earth,  though  it  was  sometimes  pitched  with  split 
flints.  The  sleeping  apartments  under  the  thatched 
roof  were  reached  by  a  ladder  or  rude  staircase.  A  few 


chests  were  ranged  round  the  walls,  the  bacon-rack 
was  fastened  to  the  timbers  overhead,  and  the  walls  of 
the  homestead  were  garnished  with  agricultural  im- 
plements. The  wood  fire  was  on  a  hob  of  clay.  Chim- 
neys were  unknown,  except  in  castles  and  manor 
houses,  and  the  smoke  escaped  through  the  door  or 
whatever  other  aperture  it  could  reach.  Artificial  light 
was  too  costly  for  common  use,  for  the  hard  fats  were 
four  times  as  dear  as  the  meat  of  animals,  and  a  pound 
of  candles  could  only  have  been  procured  at  nearly  the 
price  of  a  day's  work. 

"  The  floor  of  the  homestead  was  filthy  enough,  but 
the  surroundings  were  filthier  still.  Close  by  the  door 
stood  the  mixen,  a  collection  of  every  abomination — 
streams  from  which,  in  rainy  weather,  fertilized  the 
lower  meadows,  generally  the  lord's  several  pasture, 
and  polluted  the  stream.  Two  centuries  and  a  half 
after  the  time  of  which  I  am  writing  the  earliest  Eng- 
lish writer  on  husbandry  comments  on  the  waste,  the 
unwholesomeness,  and  the  agricultural  value  of  these 
dunghills. 

"  The  house  of  the  peasant  cottager  was  ruder  still. 
Most  of  them  were  probably  built  of  posts  wattled  and 
plastered  with  clay  or  mud,  with  an  upper  story  of  poles, 
reached  by  a  ladder.    In  the  taxing  rolls  of  Edward  I., 
preserved  numerously  in  the  Record  Office,  the  house- 
hold furniture  of  such  cottages  is  inventoried,  and  val- 
ued at  a  very  few  shillings.    It  consists 
of  a  few  articles  of  furniture,  generally 
of  home  manufacture,  some  coarse  bed-  Rude  Houses, 
ding,  and  a  few  domestic  implements, 
mostly  earthenware.   The  most  valuable 
articles  in  use  were  copper  or  brass  pots  and  a  few 
common  iron  utensils,  all  metals  being  exceedingly 
dear ;  and  iron,  relatively  speaking,  being  the  dearest 
of  all. 

"  Rude,  however,  and  coarse  as  village  life  was,  it 
must  not  be  imagined  that  it  was  without  its  hopes  and 
aspirations.  The  serf  could  arrange  with  his  lord  to 
remove  to  a  neighboring  town,  and  there  prosecute  his 
fortunes,  perhaps  emancipate  himself"  (pp.  67,  68). 

"  The  tenants  of  the  manor  had  a  right  generally  to 
the  use  of  wood  from  the  lord's  timber  for  the  repair 
or  enlargement  of  their  homesteads,  for  their  agricul- 
tural implements,  and,  to  a  limited  extentj  for  their 
fires.  On  the  other  hand,  they  are  prohibited  from 
cutting  oak  or  ash,  even  on  their  own  holdings,  without 
the  lord's  consent. 

"  Generally  the  use  of  the  common  pasture  was  with- 
out stint— i.e.,  any  tenant  could  put  as  many  beasts  as 
he  liked  on  it"  (p.  74). 

"  The  arable  land  of  the  manor  was  generally  com- 
munal— i.e.,  each  of  the  tenants  possessed  a  certain 
number  of  furrows  in  a  common  field,  the  several  divi- 
sions being  separated  by  balks  of  unploughed  ground, 
on  which  the  grass  was  suffered  to  grow.  The  system, 
which  was  all  but  universal  in  the  thirteenth  century, 
has  survived  in  certain  districts  up  to  living  memory, 
though  generally  it  gave  way  to  inclosures,  effected  at 
a  more  or  less  remote  period.  The  system  has  been 
traced  back  to  remote  antiquity.  The  ownership  of 
these  several  strips  was  limited  to  certain  months  of 
the  year,  generally  from  Lady  Day  to  Michaelmas,  and 
for  the  remaining  six  months  the  land  •was  common 
pasture.  The  communal  cultivation  had  its  advantages 
tor  the  poorer  tenants,  since  the  area  of  their  pasture 
was  increased"  (p.  88). 

"The  rarity  of  payment  by  the  day  is  indirect  evi- 
dence that  the  great  majority  of  the  laborers  were  oc- 
cupied on  their  own  holdings  during  a  considerable 
part  of  the  year.  Omitting  exceptional  rates  paid  for 
piecework,  the  wages  of  an  agricultural  laborer  would 
be  at  a  rate  of  £2  TIS.  8d.  a  year,  or  taking,  besides 
Sundays,  20  days  for  church  holidays,  £2  ios.  In  har- 
vest and  hay-making  time,  which  may  have  well  lasted 
5  weeks,  his  wages  would  be  doubled,  and  this  •would 
raise  them  to  £2  15*.  His  wife  was  paid  for  harvest 
piecework  as  well  as  he  was,  and  could  earn  another 
5.?!,  raising  his  amount  to  £3.  If  he  had  2  children  fit 
for  employment,  at  their  rates  they  might  raise  the 
total  earnings  of  the  family  to  £3  15^.,  or  £4. 

"  When  the  hinds  were  hired  by  the  year,  they  re- 
ceived a  quarter  of  corn,  at  say,  +s.  every  8  weeks,  and 
6s.  money  wages — i.e.,  about  the  value  of  -yzs.  a  year. 
They  were  always,  however,  boarded  in  harvest-time 
and  at  periods  of  exceptional  employment.  This  board, 
as  I  find  from  other  sources,  was  reputed  to  cost  from 
iftd.  to  iYzd.  a  day,  and  if  we  take  6  weeks  as  the  time 
thus  employed,  the  real  wages  which  they  received 
would  be  in  the  aggregate  about  35^.  td.  a  year.  Such 
hinds  were  undoubtedly  single  men.  Occasionally  the 
laborer  serves  more  masters  than  one,  and  his  allow- 
ances and  money  are  therefore  reduced.  Thus  the 
swineherd  is  the  servant  of  the  whole  village  ;  the  deye, 


Agriculture. 


Agriculture. 


or  dairy  servant,  of  more  than  one  or  two  ;  the  shepherd 
frequently  of  two  persons.  During  the  harvest  quarter 
the  money  wages  are  always  three  times  the  amount  of 
what  is  paid  in  the  other  quarters.  This  rule  is  of 
course  adopted  in  order  to  prevent  the  hind  from  de- 
serting his  employment  during  the  most  profitable 
time  of  the  laborer  s  year,  and  is  indirect  evidence  of 
the  voluntariness  of  the  engagement.  Had  the  labor 
of  the  resident  serf  been  entirely  at  his  lord's  discre- 
tion, such  a  distribution  of  money  wages  would  have 
been  a  superfluous  precaution"  (pp.  170,  171). 

"  But  though  a  few  persons  became  opulent  in  the 
middle  ages— exceedingly  opulent  by  way  of  contrast 
with  their  countrymen — the  mass  of  men  in  the  rural 
districts  were  removed  equally  from  excessive  poverty 
and  from  the  prospect  of  much  wealth.  They  could 
and  did  make  their  savings  add  strip  to  strip,  accumu- 
late the  wages  of  the  harvest,  and — there  being  little  to 
tempt  them  to  expenditure — constantly  invest  their 
earnings  in  plots  of  land. 

"  I  am  far  from  forgetting  that  in  many  material 
points  the  man  in  our  day,  who  lives  by  manual  labor, 
is  better  off  than  his  ancestor  of  the  thirteenth  century, 
just  as  he  is  better  off  than  his  ancestor  of  the  eight- 
eenth. ...  I  am  aware  also  that  all  classes,  though  at 
a  period  long  after  that  of  which  I  am  now  speaking, 
shared  the  benefits  of  those  great  improvements  in 
agriculture,  under  which  fresh  food  is  supplied  all  the 
year  round  ;  and  that  many  forms  of  inveterate  dis- 
ease, which  once  afflicted  humanity,  have  been  banish- 
ed, and  life  has  been  rendered  easier  and  longer.  The 
means  of  life  were  as  plentiful,  considering  the  popu- 
lation, in  the  thirteenth  century  as  they  were  in  the 
eighteenth,  the  continuity  of  labor  was  secured,  and  the 
prospects  of  those  who  lived  by  manual  toil  as  good. 
The  age  had  its  drawbacks,  as  every  age  has,  but  it 
had  its  advantages  ;  and  I  hope  to  be  able  to  show  that 
the  peasant  of  the  thirteenth  century,  though  he  did 
not  possess,  and  therefore  did  not  desire,  much  that  his 
descendant  had  in  the  eighteenth,  had  some  solid  ele- 
ments of  present  advantage  and  not  a  few  hopes  of 
future  advancement"  (pp.  68,  69). 

One  should  not,  however,  be  misled  by  Professor 
Rogers's  somewhat  highly  colored  view  into  forgetful- 
ness  of  the  fact  that  the  English  medieval  agricultural 
laborer  was,  like  his  brother  on  the  continent,  a  little 
"better  than  the  slave  of  the  manor,  even  tho  he  was 
to  an  extent  a  well-kept  slave.  The  manorial  system 
furnished  the  framework  of  English  medieval  agricul- 
tural society,  as  is  brought  out  in  Professor  Bohm's 
The  English  Village  Community  and  Professor  W.  J. 
Ashley's  Economic  History,  vol.  i.,  pp.  7-9.  (For  the  de- 
tails of  this  system,  see  MANORS.)  It  was  only  after  the 
Black  Death  and  the  rising  of  the  peasants  that,  altho 
the  leaders  of  the  revolt  were  defeated  and  the  Stat- 
ute of  Laborers  tried  to  tie  the  laborer  to  the  soil,  the 
serfs",  nevertheless,  became  really  free,  and  for  a  little 
while  enjoyed  what  some  have  called  the  Golden  Age 
of  Merry  England.  Soon,  however,  the  exhaustion  of 
the  nobles  in  the  Wars  of  the  Roses  led  them  to  claim 
as  private  property  the  lands  which  they  had  held  be- 
fore only  as  feudal  rulers  ;  they  commenced  to  turn 
their  lands  into  sheep-walks  and  dispossess  their  former 
feudal  dependents.  The  confiscation  of  the  monasteries 
and  the  turning  out  of  the  monks  swelled  the  number 
of  the  landless  class.  Currency  clipping  and  other  cir- 
cumstances increased  the  hard  times,  and  the  Golden 
Age  soon  became  a  leaden  one. 


(C)  MODERN   ENGLAND. 

In  tracing  the  development  of  agriculture 
from  medieval  to  present  times,  there  are  in 
England  two  main  epochs  to  be  noted — the 
Tudor  period  and  the  latter  part  of  the  eight- 
eenth century.  (For  full  notice  of  the  former 
see  LAND  ;  on  the  latter  see  POOR  LAWS.) 

With  the  close  of  the  Wars  of  the  Roses  and 
the  commencement  of  the  fifteenth  century  be- 
gins the  era  of  farming  for  profit,  which  charac- 
terizes the  Tudor  period.  Feudalism  was  ex- 
tinct ;  commerce  progressed  ;  the  wool  trade 
nourished  ;  landlords  required  money,  not  re- 
tainers. Two  great  changes  were  introduced  : 
(i)  individual  for  common  occupation  ;  (2)  the 
conversion  of  arable  land  into  pasture. 

The  nobility,  exhausted  by  the  French  wars 


and  the  Wars  of  the  Roses,  began  to  raise  wool 
for  the  Flemish  wool  market.  They  began  to 
turn  out  their  peasantry  and  to  fence  in  the 
common.  The  landless  man,  the  tramp,  was 
produced.  In  the  seventeenth  and  the  early 
part  of  the  eighteenth  centuries  there  was  some 
improvement,  but  the  English  Poor  Law  (q.v.} 
was  working  its  dire  result.  Says  Rogers  (  Work 
and  Wages,  p.  424)  : 

"  The  legislature  strove  to  tie  the  peasant  to  the  soil, 
not,  indeed,  as  a  mere  serf,  for  the  act  of  1589  pre- 
scribed that  every  laborer's  cottage   [to  be  erected] 
in  future  should  have  4  acres  of  land  attached  to  it— a 
law  which  roused  the  wrath  of  Arthur 
Young  in  1770,  and  was  no  doubt  habit- 
ually broken.    But  it  also  gave  him,  as  a  try...  TTTirrUaYi 
compensation  for  the  policy  which  per-  Ane  ^"B1 
mitted  entails  and  the  accumulation  of    Poor  Law. 
land  in  few  hands,  the  right  to  be  a  pen- 
sioner on  the  soil,  from  all  real  and  per- 
manent share  in  which  he  was  practically  excluded.   He 
had  been  robbed  by  the  landowner,  and  he  was  to  be 
hereafter  quartered  on  the  occupier.     He  had  been  im- 
poverished by  misgovernment,  and  was  to  be  degraded 
by  a  charity  which  was  to  compensate  him  for  the  losses 
which  he  had  sustained  and  for  the  hard  measure  which 
was  being  dealt  out  to  him,  but  which  would  ultimately 
degrade  him  and  make  him  helpless  and  hopeless.   I  can 
conceive  nothing  more  cruel,  I  had  almost  said  more  in- 
solent, than  to  condemn  a  laborer  to  the  lowest  possi- 
ble wages  on  which  life  may  be  sustained,  by  an  act  of 
Parliament,  interpreted  and  enforced  by  an  ubiquitous 
body  of  magistrates,  whose  interest  it  was  to  screw 
the  pittance  down  to  the  lowest  conceivable  margin, 
and  to  inform  the  stinted  recipient  that  when  he  had 
starved  on  that  during  the  days  of  his  strength,  others 
must  work  to  maintain  him  in  sickness  or  old  age.   Now 
this  was  what  the  Statute  of  Apprenticeship,  supple- 
mented by  the  Poor  Law,  did  in  tne  days  of  Elizabeth." 

It  should  be  noted,  however,  that  there  is  another 
side  to  this.  The  Government  did  undoubtedly  in 
many  of  its  laws  attempt  to  aid  the  laborer.  (See  POOR 
LAWS.)  The  fact  was,  that  the  claim  of  the  lords  of  the 
soil  to  own  the  soil  was  creating  new  conditions,  which 
the  laws  could  not  change.  The  landless  man  had  ap- 
peared, and  the  Government  knew  not  whether  to  sup- 
press the  tramp  or  to  aid  the  poor.  It  attempted  to  do 
Doth,  and  in  both  largely  failed. 
• 

In  the  latter  part  of  the  eighteenth  century, 
however,  there  was  another  change.  Says 
Rogers  (id.  p.  437)  : 

"  The  English  Poor  Law  would  have  ultimately  de- 
voured the  rent  of  all  open  parishes — that  is,  those  in 
which  there  were  many  owners,  and  consequently  the 
possibility  of  housing  the  poor,  and  have  enormovsly 
exalted  the  rent  of  all  close  parishes — i.e.,  those  in 
which  there  was  one  owner  only,  who  cleared  off  ev  jry 
cottage  on  his  domain,  had  it  not  been  for  the  almost 
simultaneous  discovery  of  steam  power  and  the  substi- 
tution of  machine  for  hand-loom  weaving.  The  capi- 
talist inventors  of  these  processes  found  that  they 
wanted  labor  (though  at  first  it  appeared  that  the  dis- 
coveries would  dispense  with  labor),  and  were  there- 
fore indifferent  to  the  contingencies  of  an  unlicensed 
settlement.  But  it  may  be  doubted  whether  their  dis- 
coveries were  an  immediate  boon  to  labor." 

Agriculture  was  deserted.  There  was  a  rush 
into  manufactures.  Says  Professor  A.  R.  Wal- 
lace (Land  Nationalization,  p.  in)  : 

"  From  that  time  till  within  the  last  few  years  the 
wealth  of  the  landlords  and,  in  a  less  degree,  the  profits 
of  the  farmers  have  been  steadily  increasing.  The  rent 
of  even  agricultural  land  has  nearly  doubled,  and  the 
price  of  much  agricultural  produce  has  doubled  also.  In 
the  latter  part  of  the  last  century  meat  was  s,d.  a  pound, 
cheese,  ^,lAd.,  butter,  65^aT.,  and  skim-milk  could  be  had 
for  a  halfpenny  a  quart,  or  was  often  given  away,  while 
wages  were  then  about  8s.  a  week.  In  1850  all  these 
articles  of  food  were  much  dearer,  while  in  some  parts 
of  England  wages  were  actually  lower ;  and  whereas 
during  the  last  20  years  the  above  articles  have  been 
usually  more  than  double  the  price,  wages  have  been 
less  than  half  as  high  again.  But  the  labourer  has  now 
to  pay  much  higher  house  rent,  he  has  generally  no  gar- 


Agriculture. 


Agriculture. 


den,  and,  being  usually  a  weekly  tenant,  is  so  depend- 
ent on  his  landlord  that  he  cannot  make  the  most  of 
what  he  has  ;  the  commons  and  roadside  wastes  from 
which  he  formerly  obtained  fuel  for  winter,  with  food 
and  litter  for  a  cow,  a  donkey,  geese,  or  poultry,  have 
almost  all  been  inclosed  ;  and  the  result  is  that  he  has 
few  means  of  adding  to  hip  scanty  wages,  and  is  re- 
duced to  live  mainly  on  bread  and  weak  tea,  with  a 
little  cheese  or  bacon  and  cheap  artificial  butter,  while 
his  children  are  brought  up  almost  without  knowing 
the  taste  of  milk.  His  sole  relaxation  is  to  be  found  at 
the  wayside  tavern,  his  only  prospect  to  end  his  days 
in  the  workhouse." 

'In  a  remarkable  letter  to  the  Daily  News  in  1869,  Sir 
George  Grey  gave  a  striking  picture  of  the  social  and 
physical  degradation  of  the  English  agricultural  la- 
borer. He  quotes  the  reports  of  their  medical  officers  to 
the  Privy  Council,  which  tells  us  that :  "  Besides  the  ex- 
treme cases  where  houses  of  a  parish  were  pulled  down 
in  the  teeth  of  an  increasing  population,  there  were  also 
innumerable  parishes  where  the  demolition  of  houses 
was  going  on  more  rapidly  than  any  diminution  of  the 
population  could  explain.  When  the  process  of  depopu- 
lation is  completed,  the  result  is  a  show  village,  where 
the  cottages  have  been  reduced  to  a  few,  and  where  none 
but  persons  who  are  needful  as  shepherds,  gardeners, 
or  game-keepers  are  allowed  to  live.  But  the  land  re- 
quires cultivation,  and  it  will  be  found  that  the  labour- 
ers employed  upon  it  are  not  the  tenants  of  the  owner, 
but  that  they  come  from  a  neighbouring  open  village, 
perhaps  three  miles  off,  where  a  numerous  small  pro- 
prietary had  received  them  when  their  cottages  were  de- 
stroyed, in  the  close  villages  around."  To  the  hard  toil 
of  the  labourer  there  will  then  have  to  be  added  the 
daily  need  of  walking  six  miles  or  more  for  the  power  of 
earning  his  daily  bread.  "  But  he  suffers  a  still  greater 
evil  in  the  kind  of  dwelling  he  is  obliged  to  inhabit. 
In  the  open  village  cottage  speculators  buy  scraps  of 
land,  which  they  throng  as  densely  as  they  can  with 
the  cheapest  of  all  possible  hovels,  and  into  these 
wretched  habitations  (which,  even  if  they  adjoin  the 
open  country,  have  some  of  the  •worst  features  of  ihe 
worst  town  residences)  crowd  the  agricultural  labour- 
ers of  England."  The  habitual  overcrowding  of  these 
wretched  hovels  leads  to  scenes  and  conditions  of  life 
too  painful  to  dwell  upon,  and  we  need  only  quote  the 
concluding  statement.  "  To  be  subject  to  such  influ- 
ences is  a  degradation  which  must  become  dee*per  and 
deeper  for  those  on  whom  it  continues  to  work.  To 
children  who  are  born  under  its  curse  it  must  be  a  very 
baptism  into  infamy." 

The  Bishop  of  Manchester  states  that  out  of  300  par- 
ishes which  he  visited  in  Norfolk,  Essex,  Sussex,  and 
Gloucestershire,  only  two  had  good  cottage  accommoda- 
tion. .  .  .  "The  majority  of  the  cottages  that  exist 
in  rural  parishes  are  deficient  in  almost  every  requi- 
site that  should  constitute  a  home  for  a  Christian  fam- 
ily in  a  civilized  community."  Details  are  then  given 
of  parishes  and  estates  of  2000  acres  with  one  or  two  cot- 
tages only  and  sometimes  none  at  all ;  and  as  a  result 
10  or  ii  persons  sleeping  in  a  single  bedroom.* 

These  are  the  mam  economic  events  that  stand  out 
in  the  history  of  English  agriculture  down  to  the  pres- 
ent century.  For  the  present  condition,  see  part  2  of 
this  article,  section  (6).  No  sketch  of  the  history  of 


English  agriculture,  however,  would  be  complete 
without  a  reference  to  the  literature  of  the  subject, 
such  as  The  Book  of  Husbandry  (1534),  Book  of  Survey- 
ing (1539).  Tusser's  Five  Hundred  Points  of  Industry 
(1562),  and  Sir  Richard  Weston's  Discourse  on  the  Hus- 
bandry of  Brabant  and  Flanders  (164^5)  which  marks  the 
dawn  of  improved  methods  in  agriculture.  In  1723  a 
Society  of  Improvers  in  the  Knowledge  of  Agriculture 
in  Scotland  was  formed,  and  so  we  reach  Arthur 
Young  and  the  present  century.  (See  references  at  the 
end  of  this  article.) 

(d)   THE    UNITED    STATES. 

Tillage  was  a  chief  occupation  of  the  first  set- 
tlers of  the  United  States.  In  1602  Captain 
Gosnold  grew  peas  and  beans  in  Massachusetts, 
and  in  1611  wheat  was  grown  in  Virginia.  Po- 
tatoes were  introduced  into  Massachusetts  from 
England  in  1629.  Stebbins  relates  that  in  1637 
there  were  100  ploughs  at  work  in  Virginia  and 
37  in  Massachusetts.  South  Carolina  exported 
700  bush,  of  potatoes  in  1749,  New  York  70,000 
bbls.  of  flour  in  1750.  Mulhall  gives  the  fol- 
lowing table  of  the  increase  of  the  grain  product : 


YEAR. 

MILLION  OF  BUSHELS. 

Value  of 
Crop  in 
Million 
Pounds. 

Pro- 
duction. 

Home  Con- 
sumption. 

Exported. 

5 

20 
60 
1  2O 

160 
343 
463 
616 
867 
1,240 
1,629 
2,718 
3.454 

5 
20 
60 

120 

160 

336 

455 
601 

855 
1,220 
1,569 
2,425 

8 
15 

12 
2O 
60 
293 

i 

8 
J4 
18 

34  ' 
46 
62 
97 
'73 
198 
276 
243 

1775  

1800  

1820  

18^0  . 

1840  

1850  

1860  
1870  

1880  

1889  

The  World  Almanac  gives  the  following 
table  of  the  various  kinds  of  grain  production  in 
the  United  States,  taken  from  the  United  States 
census  reports  of  the  productions  of  the  princi- 
pal cereals  in  the  United  States  in  the  several 
census  years,  together  with  the  reports  of  the 
United  States  Department  of  Agriculture  for 
1885-92  : 


YEAR. 

Indian  Corn. 

Wheat. 

Oats. 

Barley. 

Rye. 

Buckwheat. 

1850.  ...            

Bushels. 
592,071,104 

838,792,742 
760,944,549 
1,754,861,535 
1,936,176,000 
1,665,441,000 
1,456,161,000 
1,987,790,000 
2,112,892,000 
1,489,970,000 
2,060,154,000 
1,628,464,000 

Bushels. 
100,485,940 
173,104,924 
287,745,626 

459,479,503 
357,112,000 
457,218,000 
456,329,000 
415,868,000 
490,560,000 
399,262,000 
611,780,000 
515,949,000 

Bushels. 
146,584,179 
172,643,185 
282,107,157 
407,858,900 
629,409,000 
624,134,000 
659,618,000 
7°i,735,«x> 
751,515,000 
523,621,000 

738,39/,ooo 
661,035,000 

Bushels. 

5,167,015 

15,825,898 
29,761,305 

44,"3,495 
58,360,000 
59,428,000 
56,812,000 
63,884,593 
t6s,  000,000 
t63,  000,000 
t75,ooo,ooo 
t7O,ooo,ooo 

Bushels. 

14,188,813 
21,101,380 
16,918,795 
19,831,595 
21,756,000 
24,489,000 
20,691,000 
28,412,011 
^30,  000,000 

t28,OOO,OOO 

t33,ooo,ooo 
t3O,ooo,ooo 

Bushels. 

8,956,912 
17,571,818 
9,821,721 
11,817,327 
12,626,000 
11,869,000 
10,844,000 

12,000,000 
til,  000,000 
til,  000,000 
tl2,  OOO,OOO 

t  n,  000,000 

1860  

1870  

1880  

1885  

1886  

1887  

1888  

1889  

1890  

1891  

1892    .. 

The  importance  of  the  agricultural  interests  may  be  also  seen  from  the  proportion  of  our  peo- 
ple engaged  in  agriculture.  The  decennial  cen- 
suses furnish  the  following  figures  as  to  the  em- 
ployment of  the  people.  The  first  column  refers 
to  the  total  of  those  engaged  in  definite  occu- 


*  Appendix  to  First  Report  of  the  Commission  ap- 
pointed to  inquire  into  the  condition  of  •women  and 
•children  employed  in  agriculture. 

t  Estimated  by  the  Cincinnati  Price  Current. 


Agriculture. 


18 


Agriculture. 


pations — i.e.,  those  specified  in  the  other  col- 
umns : 


Manu- 

factur- 

Personal 

Total  en- 

ing,  Me- 

and Pro- 

gaged in 
Occupa- 
tions. 

Agricul- 
ture. 

chanical, 
and  Min- 
ing Pur- 
suits. 

Trans- 
porta- 
tion. 

fessional 
Ser- 
vices. 

1840  

4,796,407 

3.717,756 

806,748 

206,667 

65,236 

1850.  .  .  . 

5,371,876 

2,400,586 

1,034,469 

561,796 

996,318 

1860.... 

8,287,043 

3,305,135 

l,3"»440 

529,335 

1870  

12,505,923 

5,922,471 

2,707,421 

1,191,238 

2,684,793 

1880.... 

17.392,099 

7,670,493 

3,837,112 

1,810,256 

4,074,238 

According  to  the  Report  of  the  Secretary  of 
Agriculture  for  1893,  there  are  in  the  United 
States  to-day  about  6,000,000  farms  on  which 
dwell  over  30,000,000  people. 

The  history  of  agriculture  in  the  United 
States  divides  itself  naturally  into  four  main 
periods  :  I.  The  colonial  period  ;  II.  From  the 
War  of  Independence  to  about  1840,  when  rail- 
roads began  to  be  built ;  III.  From  1840  to  the 
War  of  the  Rebellion  ;  IV.  To  the  present  time. 

In  the  early  colonial  period  tools  were  scarce,  pop- 
ulation sparse,  labor  often  dangerous  and  usually  ex- 
pensive and  unremunerative. 

An  English  writer,  Gee  (On  Trade,  London,  1750), 
says :  "  If  we  examine  into  the  circumstances  of  the 
inhabitants  of  our  plantations  and  pur  own,  it  will  ap- 
pear that  not  one-fourth  part  of  their  product  redounds 
to  their  own  profit ;  for  out  of  all  that  comes  here  they 
only  carry  back  clothing  and  other  accommodations 
for  their  families,  all  of  which  is  of  the  merchandise 
and  manufacture  of  this  kingdom.  .  .  .  All  these 
advantages  are  received  from  the  plantations,  besides 
the  mortgages  on  the  planters'  estates  and  the  high 
interest  they  pay  us,  which  is  very  considerable  ;  and 
therefore  very  great  care  ought  to  be  taken  that  they 
are  not  put  under  too  many  difficulties,  but  encour- 
aged to  go  on  cheerfully." 

Indian  corn  was  the  main  native  crop,  wheat,  oats, 
and  rye  being  introduced  from  England.  Slave  labor 
was  common,  and  in  portions  of  the  country,  North  as 
well  as  South,  all  but  universal. 

The  War  of  Independence  affected  the  development 
of  agriculture  seriously,  but  after  *he  close  of  the 
war  it  began  to  revive.  Attention  was  given  to  the 
breeding  of  horses,  and  about  1825  to  neat  cattle.  The 
invention  of  the  cotton-gin  in  1794  by  Eli  Whitney,  and 
the  care  taken  by  American  planters  to  improve  the 
stock  by  careful  selection  and  cultivation  of  seed,  soon 
placed  the  country  in  the  foremost  rank  in  the  produc- 
tion of  this  great  staple. 

A  notable  fact  of  this  period  was  the  great  extension 
of  the  national  area  by  the  acquisition  of  Louisiana  in 
1803  and  of  Florida  in  1821.  From  899,615 
square  miles  in  1783  the  country  was  en- 
History  larged  to  more  than  2,000,000  square  miles 
nf  Ampripon  in  l833-  To  utilize  the  northern  part  of 
oi  American  the  M^ssissipp{  valley  two  great  routes 
Agriculture,  westward  were  created — the  National 
Road  through  Wheeling  and  Columbus 
by  the  United  States  Government,  and 
the  Erie  Canal  by  the  State  of  New  York. 

The  third  period,  from  1840  to  the  War  of  the  Rebel- 
lion, began  under  great  financial  depression  (see  CUR- 
RENCY), but  soon  developed  great  prosperity. 

The  spread  of  railroads  and  the  extent  of  the  na- 
tional domain  developed  a  new  West.  The  American 
reaper  was  invented  by  Hussery  in  1833,  and  McCor- 
mick  in  1834.  Hereafter  inventions  and  improvements 
in  agricultural  machinery  became  continuous.  Im- 

Erovements  in  cattle  and  horses  and  swine  were  rapid, 
and  speculation  set  in.  but  was  checked  by  the  pas- 
sage of  the  Homestead  Law  (g.v.).  The  production  of 
sugar  became  an  American  industry  by  the  annexa- 
tion of  Louisiana.  In  1839  Congress  voted  $1000  for  the 
investigation  and  collection  of  agricultural  statistics 
and  to  procure  seeds  and  cuttings  for  gratuitous  distri- 
bution. This  was  the  beginning  of  Government  re- 
ports, which  were  issued  through  the  Patent  Office  un- 
til the  Department  of  Agriculture  was  organized  in 
1862.  Between  1840  and  1850,  five  State  societies  were 


formed,  and  from  this  time  State  and  district  associa- 
tions increased  rapidly. 

The  first  agricultural  paper  was  The  American  Farm- 
er,  begun  at  Baltimore  in  1819. 

The  period  of  the  war  affected  the  South  badly,  but 
nevertheless  aided  it  in  one  direction,  by  making  it 
agriculturally  independent  of  the  North.  The  North 
did  not  materially  suffer.  Prairies  ploughed,  planted, 
tilled,  and  their  crops  harvested  by  machinery  raised 
crops  which  fed  our  people,  our  armies,  and  began  to 
feed  Europe.  The  Homestead  Law  became  law  in  1862, 
and  rapidly  accelerated  the  development  of  the  new 
West.  Immigration  from  Europe  at  once  set  in.  Agri- 
cultural education  was  developed.  The  first  American 
agricultural  college  was  established  at  Cleveland,  O., 
in  1855.  In  1862  Congress  granted  from  the  public  do- 
main to  each  State  30,000  acres  for  each  Senator  and 
Representative  in  Congress,  "  in  order  to  promote  the 
liberal  and  practical  education  of  the  industrial 
classes."  In  some  States  this  was  given  to  regular 
colleges  and  used  to  endow  an  agricultural  department. 
In  others  it  was  used  to  found  agricultural  colleges  or  to 
endow  those  already  existing.  In  New  York  it  availed 
for  the  endowment  of  Cornell  University.  The  United 
States  Department  of  Agriculture  was  organized  in  1862, 
and  State  boards  have  developed  rapidly  since.  Ex- 
periment stations  also  contributed  their  help.  In  1867 
the  organization  of  the  Patrons  of  Husbandry,  or 
Grangers,  was  established  (see  GRANGERS);  but  this 
already  brings  us  to  the  present  time.  (See  FARMERS' 
MOVEMENT.) 

II.  Statistics  of  Agriculture. 

(a)  THE   UNITED   STATES. 

Census  Bulletin  378,  prepared  under  the  super- 
vision of  Mr.  W.  H.  Olcott,  in  charge  of  the  divi- 
sion of  agriculture  of  the  Census  Office,  shows 
for  the  United  States,  by  geographical  divisions 
and  by  States  and  Territories,  the  principal 
statistics  of  agriculture  as  obtained  at  the 
Eleventh  Census. 

In  enumerating  farms,  no  farm  was  reported 
of  less  than  three  acres  unless  $500  worth  of  prod- 
uce had  been  actually  sold  from  it  during  the 
year  ;  and  all  land  once  plowed  was  consid- 
ered improved,  unless  afterward  abandoned  for 
cultivation. 

The  value  of  products  was  estimated  by  the 
farmers  when  there  was  no  exact  account  kept 
of  the  same. 

The  statistics  relating  to  the  cultivation  of  po- 
tatoes and  hay  do  not  appear  in  this  bulletin,  as 
their  revision  has  not  been  completed. 

The  table  shows  the  number,  area,  and  valua- 
tion of  farms  in  1890,  live  stock  on  hand  June  i, 
1890,  and  the  agricultural  products  for  the  year 
1889.  The  figures  are  preliminary  and  subject 
to  modification  in  the  final  report. 
FARMS. 

The  total  number  of  farms  enumerated  in  1890  was 
4,564,641,  as  compared  with  a  total  of  4,008,907  in  1880,  an 
increase  of  555,734,  or  13.86  per  cent. 

The  total  area  of  land  in  these  farms  in  1890  was 
623,218,619  acres,  357,616,755  acres  of  which  were  im- 
proved. In  1880  there  were  5363081,835  acres  in  farms, 
284,771,042  acres  of  which  were  improved.  Therefore, 
there  was  an  increase  of  87,136,784  acres,  or  16.25  Per 
cent.,  of  the  total  land  in  farms,  and  72,845,713  acres,  or 
25.58  per  cent.,  improved. 

The  percentage  of  the  total  land  surface  in  farms  in 
1890  was  32.79,  as  compared  with  28.20  in  1880,  and  the 
percentage  of  the  total  farm  area  that  remained  unim- 
proved at  the  latter  date  was  42.62,  as  compared  with 
46.88  at  the  former. 

The  value  of  these  farm  lands,  including  fences  and 
buildings,  was  in  1890,  $13,279,252,649  and  in  1880  $10,197,- 
096,776,  showing  an  increase  of  30.23  per  cent,  in  their 
valuation  since  1880. 

The  value  of  farm  implements  and  machinery  in 
1890  on  these  farms  was  $494,247,467  and  in  1880,  $406,520,- 
055,  showing  an  increase  or  21.58  per  cent,  since  1880. 

The  value  of  live  stock  on  hand  June  i,  1890,  on  these 
farms  was  $2,208,767,573  and  the  value  in  June,  1880,  was 
$1,500,384,707,  showing  an  increase  of  47.21  percent,  since 


Agriculture. 


Agriculture. 


In  the  year  1889  the  value  of  farm  products  was 
$2,460,107,454  and  in  the  year  1879  the  value  was  $2,212,- 
540,927,  showing  an  increase  of  11.19  per  cent,  since  1880. 

LIVE  STOCK  AND  LIVE-STOCK  PRODUCTS  ON  FARMS. 

There  were  14,969,467  horses  on  farms  in  1890,  which 
was  an  increase  of  4,611,979,  or  44.53  per  cent.,  over  the 
number  reported  in  1880.  Of  this  number,  8,571,177,  or 
57.26  per  cent.,  were  reported  in  the  North  Central 
division.  There  were  289,316  horses  reported  on  ranges 
in  1890,  making  the  total  number,  including  both  those 
on  farms  and  on  ranges,  15,258,783. 

There  were  2,295,532  mules  and  asses  on  farms  in  1890, 
which  was  an  increase  of  482,724,  or  26.63  Per  cent.,  over 
the  number  reported  in  1880.  Of  this  number,  1,093,722, 
or  47.65  per  cent.,  were  reported  in  the  South  Central 
division.  There  were  19,253  mules  and  asses  returned 
as  on  ranges  in  1890,  making  the  total  number,  includ- 
ing both  those  on  farms  and  on  ranges,  2,314,785- 

There  were  57,409,583  swine  on  farms  in  1890,  which 
•was  an  increase  of  9,727,883,  or  20.40  per  cent.,  over  the 
number  returned  in  1880.  Of  this  number,  37,624,632,  or 
65.54  Per  cent.,  were  reported  in  the  North  Central 
division.  There  were  15,704  swine  reported  as  on  ranges 
in  1890,  making  a  total,  including  both  those  on  farms 
and  on  ranges,  of  57,425,287. 

There  were  1,117,494  working  oxen,  16,511,950  milch 
cows,  and  33,734,128  other  cattle,  making  a  total  of 
51,363,572  neat  cattle  on  farms  in  the  United  States  on 
June  i,  1890,  as  compared  with  993,841  working  oxen, 
12,443,120  milch  cows,  and  22,488,550  other  cattle,  making 
a  total  of  35,925,511  in  1880.  There  is  therefore  an  in- 
crease of  123,653,  or  12.44  Per  cent.,  in  the  number  of 
working  oxen,  of  4,068,830,  or  32.70  per  cent.,  in  the  num- 
ber of  milch  cows,  and  of  11,245,578,  or  50.01  per  cent., 
in  the  number  of  other  cattle,  the  increase  in  the  total 
number  of  neat  cattle  on  farms  being  15,438,061,  or  42.97 
per  cent.  In  addition  to  the  above  there  were  6,285,220 
neat  cattle  reported  on  ranges  June  i,  1890,  making  a 
total  of  neat  cattle  on  farms  and  ranges  of  57,648,792. 

The  total  production  of  milk  on  farms  in  the  United 

States  in  the  year  ending  December  31,  1889,  was  5,209,- 

125,567  gals.,  equivalent  to  315.48  gals,  for 

each  milch  cow  reported  on  June  i,  1890, 

Statistics,  and  to  83. 18  gals,  per  head  of  population. 
The  total  production  of  butter  on 
farms  in  the  year  ending  December  31, 
1889,  was  1,024,223,468  Ibs.,  as  compared  with  a  total  of 
777,250,287  Ibs.  in  1879,  and  the  total  production  of 
cheese  18,726,818  Ibs.,  as  compared  with  a  total  of  27,- 
272,489  Ibs.  in  1879,  an  increase  of  246,973,181  Ibs.,  or  31.78 
per  cent.,  in  the  production  of  butter  on  farms  and  a 
decrease  of  8,545,671  Ibs.,  or  31.33  per  cent.,  in  the  pro- 
duction of  cheese  on  farms. 

It  should  be  borne  in  mind  that  the  above  figures  for 
butter  and  cheese  represent  only  that  which  has  been 
produced  on  farms,  and  does  not  include  the  amount 
made  in  cheese  and  butter  factories,  the  returns  of 
which  will  appear  in  the  report  on  manufactures,  al- 
though the  total  of  milk  produced  is  shown. 

The  total  number  of  sheep,  exclusive  of  spring  lambs, 
on  farms  in  the  United  States  on  June  i,  1890,  was 
35,935,364.  The  number  of  fleeces  shorn  in  the  fall  of 
1889  and  spring  of  1890  was  32.126,868,  yielding  165,449,239 
Ibs.  of  wool,  or  an  average  of  5.15  Ibs.  per  fleece. 

The  total  number  of  sheep  on  farms  in  1880  was 
35,192,074,  yielding  155,681,751  Ibs.  of  wool,  or  an  average 
of  4.42  Ibs.  per  fleece. 

There  was  therefore  an  increase  from  1880  to  1890  of 
743,290,  or  2. 1 1  per  cent.,  in  the  number  of  sheep  and  of 
9,767,488.  or  6.27  per  cent.,  Ibs.  of  wool. 

In  addition  to  the  sheep  and  wool  reported  on  farms 
there  were  4,940,948  sheep  and  25,828,845  Ibs.  of  wool  re- 
ported on  ranges,  which  would  make  a  total  of  40,876,- 
312  sheep  and  191,278,084  Ibs.  of  wool  in  the  United 
States. 

The  figures  appearing  in  this  bulletin  as  to  the 
amount  of  wool  clipped  are  from  the  definite  returns 
made  to  the  Eleventh  Census,  and  do  not  inchide  the 
estimated  amount  of  pulled  wool  or  of  wool  that  might 
have  been  clipped  in  the  summer  of  1890  after  the 
enumeration  of  June  i. 

As  the  live  stock  on  ranges  in  1880  was  largely  esti- 
mated, there  are  no  comparisons  made  in  this  bulletin 
except  for  the  live  stock  on  farms.  The  following 
statement  will  show  the  live  stock  on  ranges  in  the 
United  States  in  1890  as  gathered  by  special  agents  : 

Horses 289,316 

Mules  and  asses J9,253 

Swine 15,704 

Neat  cattle 6,285,220 

Sheep 4,940,948 


The  total  area  devoted  to  the  production  of  cotton  in 
the  United  States  in  1889  was  20,175,270  acres,  and  the 
total  production  in  the  fall  of  1889  and  the  early  winter 
of  1889-90  was  7,472,511  bales  of  477  Ibs.  net,  amounting 
to  3,564,387,747  Ibs.,  an  average  of  176.67  Ibs.  to  the  acre. 

In  1879  the  total  area  devoted  to  cotton  was  14,480,019 
acres  and  the  total  production,  5,755,359  bales  of  453 
Ibs.  net,  amounting  to  2,607,177,627  Ibs.,  an  average  or 
180.05  Ibs.  to  the  acre. 

There  is,  therefore,  an  increase  of  5,695,251  acres,  or 
39.33  per  cent.,  in  the  area  and  957,210,120  Ibs.,  or  36.71 
per  cent.,  in  the  production. 

The  returns  which  were  made  to  the  Census  Office  in 
bales  have  been  reduced  to  pounds  in  accordance  with 
the  figures  appearing  in  the  statistical  abstract  pre- 
pared by  the  Bureau  of  Statistics  of  the  United  States 
Treasury  Department  in  1890.  It  will  be  noted  that 
the  weight  per  bale  is  heavier  in  1890  than  in  1880. 

There  were  1,318,698  acres  devoted  to  the  cultivation 
of  flax  in  the  United  States  in  1889,  1,301,137  acres,  or 
98.67  per  cent.,  being  in  the  North  Central  division. 
There  were  10,250,410  bush,  of  flaxseed  produced,  98.40 
per  cent,  of  which  was  in  the  North  Central  division. 
There  were  241,389  Ibs.  of  fiber  produced,  72.09  per 
cent,  of  which  was  in  the  North  Central  division. 

There  were  25,054  acres  devoted  to  the  cultivation  of 
hemp  in  the  United  States  in  1889,  23,468  acres  of  which, 
or  93.67  per  cent.,  were  in  the  State  of  Kentucky,  the 
total  production  in  the  United  States  being  ",5"  tons. 
10,794  °f  which,  or  93.77  per  cent.,  were  in  the  State  of 
Kentucky,  Illinois  being  the  only  other  State  producing 
over  ioo  tons. 

CEREALS. 

The  area  devoted  to  the  cultivation  of  cereals  in  the 
United  States  in  1889  was  140,217,545  acres,  and  the  total 
production  of  cereals,  3,518,816,904  bush.,  such  acreage 
and  production  being  distributed  among  the  different 
cereals  as  follows : 


PRODUCTS. 

Acres. 

Bushels. 

2,122,327,547 

Wheat               ....        

468,373,968 

Oats                       

809,250,666 

3,220,834 

78,332,976 

Rye                                   

28,421,398 

837,164 

12,110,349 

This  area  of  140,217,545  acres  is  an  increase  of  21,585,- 
766  acres,  or  18.20  per  cent.,  since  1879.  This  increase, 
however,  is  not  keeping  pace  with  the  growth  of  popu- 
lation, which  increased  24.86  per  cent,  between  1880  and 
1890,  trie  area  per  capita  being  2.24  acres  as  compared 
with  2.37  at  the  Tenth  Census,  a  decrease  of  0.13  acres 
per  capita.  There  has  been  an  increase  in  the  produc- 
tion or  cereals  since  the  Tenth  Census  of  821,236,675 
bush.,  or  30.44  per  cent.,  the  total  production  per  capita 
being  56.19  bush,  as  compared  with  53.78  bush,  at  the 
Tenth  Census,  showing  an  increase  of  2.41  bush,  per 
capita. 

Of  the  area  under  cereals  in  the  United  States  In  1889, 
51.41  per  cent,  was  under  corn,  23.95  per  cent,  under 
wheat,  20.20  per  cent,  under  oats,  2.29  per  cent,  under 
barley,  1.55  per  cent,  under  rye,  and  .60  per  cent,  under 
buckwheat,  as  compared  with  52.57  acres  under  corn, 
29.87  acres  under  wheat,  13.61  acres  under  oats,  1.68 
acres  under  barley,  1.55  acres  under  rye,  and  .72  acres 
under  buckwheat  in  every  ioo  acres  under  cereals  in 


RICE. 


There  were  161,312  acres  in  the  United  States  in  1889 
devoted  to  the  cultivation  of  rice,  all  of  which  were  re- 
ported from  10  States,  principally  from  Louisiana  and 
South  Carolina,  the  production  amounting  to  128,590,- 
934  Ibs. 

VARIOUS    STATISTICS. 

The  following  statements  are  all  taken  from  the  re- 
port of  the  Secretary  of  Agriculture  for  1893  (printed  in 

1  The  expenses  of  the  Department  of  Agriculture  dur- 


Agriculture. 


20 


Agriculture. 


Weather 
Service. 


ing  the  first  quarter  of  the  present  year  aggregate  but 
$345,876.76,  as  against  $402,012.42  for  the  parallel  period 
of  the  fiscal  year  1893. 

The  first  United   States   Commissioner  of  Patents, 
Henry  L.  Ellsworth,  in  the  year  1836  con- 
ceived the  idea  of  distributing  new  and 
Distribution  improved  varieties  of  seed  among  the 
f  q00ja        farmers  of  the  United  States,  and  from 
ui  oeeas.       that  time  he  patriotically  procured  the 
seed  and  distributed  it  at  his  own  ex- 
pense until  the  year  1830,  when,  upon  his 
recommendation,    Congress  appropriated  $1000,  to  be 
taken  from  the  Patent  Office  funds,  for  the  purpose  of 
collecting  and  distributing  rare  and  improved  varieties 
of  seeds,  and  prosecuting  agricultural  investigations 
and  procuring  agricultural  statistics.    And  fiom  this 
small  beginning,  54  years  ago,  the  Seed  Division  of  the 
Department  of  Agriculture  has  grown  to  its  present 
unwieldy,  unnecessary,  and  extravagant  proportions , 
so  that  in  the  year  1892  there  was  appropriated  the  sum 
of  $135,400  for  the  purpose  of  purchasing  seeds,  bulbs, 
and  cuttings  for  gratuitous  distribution. 
The  State  Weather  Service  Division  supervises 42  State 
weather    services,   covering  the    whole 
of  the  United  States,  except  Alaska.    It 
also  establishes  and  supervises  all  volun- 
tary observations  and  forecast  display 
stations,  and  the  services  in  the  cotton, 
sugar,  and  rice  regions,  and  publishes 
the   National  Weather    Crop    Bulletin. 
The  2500  voluntary  observers  forward  copies  of  their 
records  to  the  central  stations  of  their  respective  local 
services  for  use  in  the  preparation  of  the  reviews  pub- 
lished monthly.    Many  of  these  State  reviews  are  of  a 
highly  creditable  character  and  valuable  in  determin- 
ing the  climatic  characteristics  of  the  various  States 
and  Territories.    For  distributing  weather  forecasts 
and  special  warnings  all  available  means  have  been 
utilized,  and  while  the  number  of  stations  supplied  at 
Government  expense  by  telegraph  or  telephone  has 
been  materially  decreased  during  the  year,  the  num- 
ber of  those  to  which  forecasts,  etc.,  are  furnished  at 
little  or  no  cost  has  been  largely  augmented. 

Full  forecasts  are  now  received  at  1622  stations,  a  re- 
duction of  200  during  the  year ;  but  nearly  5000  places 
received  them  gratuitously,  an  increase  of  over  1000  in 
the  same  period.  Plans  now  being  perfected  will,  it  is 
believed,  increase  the  number  of  stations  receiving 
forecasts  without  expense  to  the  Government  by  1500 
to  2000  in  the  near  future.  A  number  of  railroad  com- 
panies are  effectively  cooperating  with  the  Bureau  in 
the  distribution  of  forecasts  by  telegraph.  It  is  be- 
lieved that  during  the  coming  year  it  will  be  possible 
to  extend  the  system  to  every  community  having  in- 
terests to  be  benefited. 

The  daily  weather  map  is  now  issued  at  72  stations  of 
the  Weather  Bureau  outside  of  Washington,  D.  C.  The 
average  issue  is  about  8000  copies,  or  about  2,500,000 
copies  annually— a  slight  increase  over  last  year. 
These  figures  by  no  means  express  the  demand,  which 
has  grown  to  such  proportions  that  it  has  sorely  taxed 
the  capabilities  of  the  station  force  and  the  store  of 
supplies. 

The  exports  of  agricultural  products  from  the  United 
States  for  the  fiscal  year  ending  June  30,  1892,  attained 
the  enormous    figure   of   $800,000,000  in 
round  numbers,  being  78.7  per  cent,  of 
our  total  exports.    In  the  fiscal  year  fol- 
lowing this  aggregate  was  greatly  re- 
duced,  but    nevertheless    attained   the 
very  respectable  figure  of  $615,000,000,  being  74.1  per 
cent,  of  all  American  commodities  exported.  The  value 
of  the  foreign  markets  to  our  farmers  and  to  the  entire 
population  of  the  United  States  can,  therefore,  hardly 
be  overestimated. 

There  are  in  the  United  States  more  than  6,000,000  of 
farms.  Upon  them  dwell  more  than  30,000,000  of  the 
population  of  this  republic.  Those  farm  dwellers  fur- 
nish more  than  74  per  cent,  of  the  value  of  the  exports 
of  this  country. 

At  present  a  review  of  our  agricultural  exports,  with 
special  reference  to  their  destination,  will  show  that  in 
almost  every  line  the  United  Kingdom  of  Great  Britain 
and  Ireland  absorbs  by  far  the  largest  proportion.  A 
few  figures,  showing  exports  of  our  principal  agricul- 
tural products,  will  emphasize  this  very  clearly. 

Of  cattle,  the  total  exports  aggregated  in  value,  for 
1892,  $35,000,000,  of  which  Great  Britain  took  $34,000,000 ; 
and  in  1893,  $26,000,000,  of  which  the  same  country  took 
.considerably  over  $25,000,000. 

Of  beef  products  of  all  kinds,  our  total  exports  for 
1892  exceeded  in  value  $31,000,000,  of  which  $25,000,000 
went  to  Great  Britain  ;  and  in  1893,  $28,000,000,  of  which 
Great  Britain  took  $24,000,000, 


Exports. 


Of  pork  products,  the  total  exports  for  1892  aggre- 
gated in  value  $85,000,000,  of  which  Great  Britain  took 
$47,000,000 ;  and  in  1893,  $84,000,000,  of  which  Great 
Britain  took  $53,000,000. 

Nearly  the  same  average  proportions  prevail  in 
breadstuff's  and  minor  products,  while  in  cotton  they 
are  even  more  conspicuous. 

Our  total  exports  of  corn  for  1802  were  $41,000,000,  of 
which  $20,000,000  went  to  Great  Britain  ;  and  in  1893, 
$24,000,000,  of  which  $9,000,000  went  to  Great  Britain. 

Our  total  exports  of  wheat  for  1892  were  valued  at 
$161,000,000  ;  of  this,  Great  Britain  paid  $68,000,000.  For 
1893  the  total  exports  of  wheat  were  of  the  value  of 
$93,000,000 ;  Great  Britain  took  of  this  $58,000,000. 

Of  wheat  flour,  the  total  exports  for  1892  were  $75,000,- 
ooo  ;  to  Great  Britain,  $47,000,000.  In  1893  the  total  ex- 
ports were  about  the  same  as  for  1892,  while  Great 
Britain  took  $48,000,000. 

The  total  exports  of  cotton  for  1892  were  $258,000,000 ; 
to  Great  Britain,  $146,000,000.  In  1893  the  exports  of  cot- 
ton were  valued  at  $188,000,000 ;  to  Great  Britain  were 

Sent  $99,000,000. 

These  figures  prove  not  only  how  large  a  proportion 
of  our  total  agricultural  exports  find  their  way  to  Great 
Britain  and  Ireland,  but  also  how  very  large  a  propor- 
tion of  our  total  agricultural  exports  is  made  up  of  a 
comparatively  few  leading  crops.  It  must  not  be  for- 
gotten that  in  the  universal  competition  for  enlarged 
trade  constant  efforts  are  being  made,  and  will  con- 
tinue to  be  made,  by  other  countries  producing  a  sur- 
plus of  agricultural  products,  to  wrest  from  us  the  su- 
premacy we  now  hold  in  supplying  Great  Britain  and 
a  few  other  countries  that  are  not  self-providing  in 
such  products  ;  that  many  of  these  other  countries  are 
British  colonies,  and  that,  except  as  regards  cotton, 
there  are  none  of  which  we  enjoy  the  practical  mo- 
nopoly. 

A  review  of  our  agricultural  exports  prompts  a  con- 
sideration of  our  agricultural  imports. 
This  reveals  a  large  value  in  our  im- 
ports   of    agricultural    products.     The     Imports. 
question  then  comes  up  whether  some, 
perhaps  much,   of   this    great   total    of 
annual    agricultural   imports,   aggregating   in    value 
some  $350,000,000,  ought  not  to  be  produced  upon  our 
own  soil,  in  proximity  to  those  or  our  own  markets, 
where  this  immense  demand  exists? 

The  time  will  surely  come  when,  under  the  favor- 
able conditions  of  soil  and  climate  which  this  country 
possesses,  a  very  large  share  of  agricultural  products 
now  imported  will  be  raised  by  American  farmers. 
Our  large  imports  of  hides,  fruits,  nuts>  and  wines, 
aggregating  an  average  of  over  $60,000,000  annually, 
could  all  be  produced  in  this  country.  A  considerable 
share  of  the  fibers,  including  wool  and  silk,  and,  no 
doubt,  a  large  portion  of  the  tobacco  now  imported, 
could  also  be  produced  in  the  United  States. 

PRINCIPAL  CROPS,    1893. 

Corn. 

The  area  devoted  to  corn  as  estimated  for  the  crop 
of  1893  makes  an  increase  over  that  of  1892  of  1,409,807 
acres,  and  was  less  by  40,737  acres  than  the  census  crop 
of  1889. 

Wheat. 

The  total  breadth  harvested  is  estimated  at  34,629,418 
acres,  as  against  387554,430  in  1892,  a  falling  off  of  about 
3,925,000  acres.  This  is  the  lowest  average  estimate  of 
acreage  in  the  14  years  from  1880,  inclusive,  except 
that  of  1885,  and  but  440,000  acres  more  than  for  that 
year.  It  is  less  by  2,649,744  acres  than  the  average  of 
the  period  1880-89,  and  3,556,742  acres  less  than  the  av- 
erage of  the  three  years  1890-92.  This  diminution  in  the 
breadth  was  due  in  part  to  abandonment  and  a  de- 
votion to  other  crops  of  parts  of  the  acreage  sown, 
because  of  the  unfavorable  winter  and  the  dry  sum- 
mer season.  It  was  also,  to  some  extent,  an  effect  of 
low  prices.  The  reduction  of  area  was  greatest  in  such 
surplus  winter  wheat  States  as  Illinois,  Missouri,  Kan- 
sas, and  California,  and  the  range  of  decrease  in  the 
spring- wheat  States  of  North  and  South  Dakota  and 
Minnesota  was  from  5  to  10  per  cent. 

The  total  product  as  estimated  amounts  to  396,131,725 
measured  bush.,  •which  is  about  3,000,000  bush,  less 
than  the  crop  of  1890,  215,648,275  less  than  the  crop  of 
1891,  and  119,818,275  less  than  that  of  1892.  This  aggre- 
gate production  falls  below  the  average  for  the  10 
vears  1880-89  to  the  amount  of  53,563,634  bush.,  and 
is  84,648,956  bush,  less  than  the  average  crop  for  the 
four  years  1890-93,  inclusive. 

Notwithstanding  this  remarkable  falling  off  in  the 
total  product,  there  has  been  a  fall  in  the  price  per 


Agriculture. 


Agriculture. 


bushel,  so  that  the  farm  value  of  the  crop  is  estimated 
at  the  comparatively  low  amount  of  $213,171,381,  •which 
is  the  lowest  recorded  since  1863.  The  average  farm 
price  per  bushel  is  estimated  at  53.8  cents,  making  an 
average  farm  value  per  acre  to  the  cultivator  of  f6.i6, 


which  is  $6.84  less  than  the  average  for  the  period 
1870-79  ;  $3.81  less  than  the  average  for  the  decade 
1880-89,  and  $3.11  below  the  average  for  the  four  years 
1890-93,  inclusive. 


Wheat  crops  of  the  14  years  1880-93,  with  averages  for  two  decades : 


YEARS. 

Total 
Production. 

Total  Area 
of  Crop. 

Total  Value 
of  Crop. 

Average 
Value  per 
Bushel. 

Average 
Yield  per 
Acre. 

Average 
Value  per 
Acre. 

ggo  ...        

Bushels. 

498,549,868 

Acres. 

Cents. 

Bushels. 

•$12.48 

881      

882        ,  

88  2 

n.6 

887 

** 

88i 

f,A     f 

8.38 

885  

8.05 

886     

36,806,184 

68.7 

8.54 

887  . 

68  i 

8.25 

888  

415^868,000 

880 

69  8 

8.98 

Total  

Average  for  10  years  —  1880-89  
Average  for  10  years  —  1870-79  

449,695»359 
312,152,728 

37,279,162 
251187,414 

$371,809,504 
327,407,258 

82.7 
104.9 

12.  I 

12.4 

$9-97 
13.00 

3890  

81.8 

$9.28 

1891  

83.9 

12.86 

j8ga  

8,35 

i8u*.  .  . 

53-8 

6.16 

Total  

0       o 

*         o                  £_._ 

Average  for  4  years  —  1890-93  

480,780,681 

37,296,975 

$345,882,413 

71.9 

12.9 

$9-37 

The  following    table  shows  the  breadth,   product,        value  per  bushel   and  per  acre    of  corn   for  the  past 
value  (farm),  average    yield    per    acre  and   average        14  years: 

Corn  crops  of  the  14  years  1880-93,  with  averages  for  two  decades. 


YEARS. 

Total 
Production. 

Total  Area 
of  Crop. 

Total  Value 
of  Crop. 

Average 
Value  per 
Bushel. 

Average 
Yield  per 
Acre. 

Average 
Value  per 
Acre. 

880  

Bushels. 

Acres. 

Cents. 

Bushels. 

881                    ....... 

63.6 

18.6 

11.82 

882  

783,867,175 

48.5 

883       

68,301,889 

9.63 

884  ...         .              

69,683,780 

25.8 

885      .                    ....        

32.8 

26.5 

8.69 

S86         

36.6 

8.06 

887       

20.  i 

8-93 

888                           .... 

8-95 

880. 

28.3 

27.0 

7-63 

Total  

*7>034r43°»538 

705,434,573 

$6,689,423,698 

.... 

Average  for  10  years  —  1880  to  1889. 
Average  for  10  years  —  187010  1879. 

11703,443.054 
1,184,486,954 

70,543,457 
43,741,33! 

$668,942,370 
504,571,048 

39-3 
42.6 

24.1 
27.1 

$9.48 
"•54 

1800  

20.7 

$10.48 

l8gt  

10.98 

1892    

23.1 

9.09 

1893    

36.5 

22.5 

8.21 

Total  

6,798,084,131 

290,838,401 

$2,824,644,936 

.... 

Average  for  4  years  —  1890  to  1893. 

1,699,521,033 

72,709,600 

$706,161,234 

41.6 

23-4 

$9.71 

Oats. 

The  estimated  area  of  oats  shows  an  increase  of  about 
209,000  acres  over  the  crop  of  1892.  No  advantage,  how- 
ever, was  obtained  from  the  enlargement  of  the  area, 
as  the  aggregate  yield  was  22,180,150  bush,  less  than 
that  obtained  from  the  crop  of  the  year  previous.  The 
average  yield  to  the  acre  was  23.4  bush,  against  24.4 
in  1892.  It  was  a  little  more  than  3  bush,  less  per 
acre  than  the  average,  yield  for  the  10  years  1880-89, 
and  was  slightly  less  than  the  average  yield  pf  the  last 
four  years,  1890-93,  inclusive.  The  farm  value  of  the 


crop,  $187,576,092,  was  $21,677,519  less  than  that  of  1892. 
The  average  value  per  acre  was  $6.88,  the  lowest  since 
1889,  and  was  $1.34  below  that  of  the  decade  1880-89. 

Hay. 

The  estimates  for  hay  place  the  acreage  at  49,613,469 
acres,  from  which  were  harvested  65,766, 158  tons,  valued 
at  $570,882,872.  This  is  an  increase  in  acreage  over  the 
estimates  of  1888  of  11,021,566  acres,  which  is  made  up 
mostly  in  States  beyond  the  Mississippi.  The  increase 
in  product  was  something  over  19,000,000  tons,  the  in- 
crease in  aggregate  value  being  $161,383,307.  The  dif- 


Agriculture. 


22 


Agriculture. 


ference  between  the  acreage  of  1888  and  that  of  1893,  if 
the  figures  be  accepted  as  correct,  would  show  a  greater 
increase  than  can  reasonably  be  accounted  for  in  view 
of  the  conditions  surrounding  agricultural  growth  in 
the  last  five  years.  It  must,  therefore,  be  accounted  for 
by  the  supposition  that  the  figures  of  1888  were  greatly 
below  the  actual  acreage  at  that  date.* 

SUPPLY   AND    DISTRIBUTION    OF  WHEAT  FOR  25  YEARS. 

It  has  for  many  years  been  assumed  in  all  estimates 
of  food  consumption  made  by  this  department  that  the 
average  quantity  of  wheat  consumed  in  the  United 
States  is  4%  bush,  per  capita.  On  this  basis,  with  a 
population  estimated  for  September  i,  1893  (midway 
between  March  i,  1893,  and  March  i,  1894),  at  67,188,250, 
the  total  quantity  of  wheat  consumed  for  food  in  the 
United  States  would  be,  in  round  numbers,  314,000,000 
bush.  The  consumption  for  seed  in  the  spring  and 
fall  of  1893  is  estimated  at  49,000,000  bush.,  making  a 
total  of  363,000,000.  Adding  to  tnis  the  exports,  the  visible 
supply  on  March  i,  1894,  and  the  supply  in  farmers' 
hands  at  the  same  date,  as  shown  by  recent  returns  to 
this  department,  we  get  the  following  statement  as  to 
the  distribution  of  the  wheat  supply  during  the  year 
ending  March  i,  1894  : 

Millions  of  Bushels. 

Consumption  for  food , 314 

Consumption  for  seed 49 

Exports 176 

Visible  supply  March  i,  1894 76 

Supply  in  farmers'  hands  March  i,  1894 114 

Total  distribution 729 

The  supply,  on  the  other  hand,  was  reported  as 
follows  : 

Visible  supply  March  i,  1893 79 

Supply  in  farmers'  hands  March  i,  1893 *35 

Crop  of  1893 396 

Total  supply 610 

Apparent  discrepancy 119 

There  is  reason  to  doubt,  however,  whether  the  con- 
sumption of  wheat  for  food  during  the  year  ending 
March  i,  1894,  has  been  as  great  as  4%  bush,  per  cap- 
ita. It  is  not  probable  that  there  has  been  any  reduc- 
tion in  the  quantity  of  wheat  bread  actually  eaten,  but 
in  the  matter  of  waste  there  was  a  wide  margin  for  re- 
trenchment. During  the  pinching  times  of  the  past 
fall  and  winter  many  a  crust  and  many  a  fragment  of 
stale  bread  which  ordinarily  would  have  found  its  way 
to  the  swill-barrel  has  undoubtedly  been  used  to  satis- 
fy human  hunger  or  to  ward  it  off.  This  has  been  the 
case  not  merely  in  occasional  instances,  but  in  thou- 
sands of  families ;  for,  besides  the  cases  of  pinching 
•want  arising  from  actual  loss  of  employment,  there  has 
been  a  still  larger  number  in  which  employment  has 
been  only  partial,  or  in  which  wages  have  been  mate- 
rially reduced.  Even  among  many  of  those  in  comfort- 
able circumstances  there  has  been  increased  care  in 
the  saving  of  food  for  the  benefit  of  the  needy,  on 
whose  behalf  the  appeals  for  help  have  been  so  fre- 
quent and  so  urgent.  If  the  cheapness  of  wheat  dur- 
ing the  period  in  question  may  seem  to  have  been  fa- 
vorable to  a  continued  use  of  an  unstinted  supply  of 
bread,  it  must  be  observed,  on  the  other  hand,  that  the 
price  of  baker's  bread  has  not  generally  fallen,  and 
that  the  large  proportion  of  our  urban  populations 
who  depend  on  such  bread  have  not  received  the  nor- 
mal benefit  due  them  as  a  result  of  the  low  price  of 
wheat. 

IMPORTANT  WHEAT   CROPS  OF  THE  WORLD. 

The  following  table  shows  the  world's  production  of 
wheat  by  countries  for  the  year  1893  as  compared  with 
that  of  1892  and  1891.  The  latest  official  returns  for  the 
different  countries  were  used  wherever  available. 
In  certain  cases  these  official  statements  are  prelimi- 
nary and  may  be  changed  by  the  corrected  estimates. 
There  is  little  doubt,  for  instance,  that  the  estimates 
for  Germany  and  Russia  will  be  reduced  by  the  final 


returns.  Many  countries  make  no  official  estimate  of 
wheat  production,  and  in  such  cases  the  most  trust- 
worthy commercial  estimates  were  taken.  The  bushel 
used  is  the  Winchester  bushel,  which  has  a  capacity  of 
2,150.42  cubic  inches.  Where  quantities  were  given  by 
weight  they  were  reduced  to  bushels  under  the  assump- 
tion that  60  Ibs.  of  wheat  cake  make  a  Winchester 
bushel.  The  crops  of  the  countries  in  the  Southern 
Hemisphere  are  those  gathered  in  November  and 
December,  1892,  and  in  January  and  February,  1893. 

In  North  America  the  total  production  of  wheat  in 
1893  was  447,479,000  bush.,  a  decrease  of  nearly  127,- 
000,000  as  compared  with  the  preceding  year  and  of 
237,000,000  as  compared  with  1891.  The  large  extension 
of  the  wheat  area  in  Argentina  brought  up  the  produc- 
tion of  South  America  from  51,000,000  in  1892  to  82,000,000 
in  1893,  an  increase  of  61  per  cent.  Europe  produced 
27,000,000  bush,  more  in  1893  than  in  the  preceding 
year.  Asia's  share  of  the  world's  wheat  production 
was  346,000,000  bush,  as  against  290,000,000  m  1892  and 
345,000,000  in  1891.  Africa  s  crop  was  35,500,000,  an  in- 
crease of  1,000,000  bush,  over  1892.  Australasia's  outturn 
stood  at  41,000,000  bush,  as  compared  with  36,000,000  in 
1892  and  33,000,000  in  1891.  The  total  world's  crop  of 
wheat  for  1893  is  estimated  at  2,385,360,000  bush.,  which 
is  less  by  7,000,000  than  the  crop  of  1892  and  exceeds 
the  crop  of  1891  by  about  21,000,000  bush. 

Cost  per  acre  of  raising  wheat  and  corn  in  the  United 
States. 

(See  also  table  on  next  page.) 


Wheat. 

Corn. 

Rent  of  land  

$2.81 
2.16 
1.87 

.96 
•37 

$3-03 
1.86 
1.62 

.42 

1.80 

1.22 

•5° 
1.26 

Manure  

Preparing  ground  

Seed  

Sowing  or  planting  

Cultivating  

Harvesting  or  gathering  

1.19 

1.20 

3 

Thrashing  

Housing  

Marketing  

Total  

$11.69 

$11.71 

CANE  SUGAR. 


In  regard  to  this  kind  of  sugar  Mr.  Licht  makes  the 
following  estimate  for  the  principal  countries  which 
have  a  surplus  for  exportation  •. 

Cane-sugar  production. 


COUNTRIES. 

1893-94. 

1892-93. 

Cuba  

Metric  tons. 
850,000 

Metric  tons. 
682,768 

Puerto  Rico  
Trinidad  

60,000 

48,714 

Barbados  

65,383 

Jamaica  

Martinique  

Guadeloupe  

Demerara  

Reunion  

Mauritius  

Java  

Brazil  

260,000 

2I5,OOO 

Philippine  Islands  
United  States  

265,000 

273,988 
245,000 

Peru  

Egypt  

65,OOO 

Sandwich  Islands  

135,000 

I25,OOO 

Total... 

2,060,000 

2,64^061 

*  Since  this  paragraph  was  written  the  figures  of  the 
last  census,  though  not  yet  published,  have  been  ob- 
tained from  the  Census  Office,  and  show  the  area  mown 
in  1889  to  have  been  52,948,797  acres,  and  the  product 
obtained  to  have  been  66,831,480  tons. 


BEET  SUGAR. 


The  following  table  presents  Mr.  Licht's  estimate  of 
the  beet-sugar  production  of  Europe  for  the  season 
1893-94  as  compared  with  preceding  campaigns  : 


Agriculture. 


Agriculture. 


European  beet-sugar  production. 


COUNTRIES. 

1893-94. 

1892-93. 

1891-92. 

1890-91. 

1889-90. 

1888-89. 

Metric  tons* 

Metric  tons.* 
1,225,331 

Metric  tons.* 
1,198,156 

Metric  tons.* 
1,331,965 

Metric  tons.* 
1,264,607 

Metric  tons.* 

786,566 

753,078 

588,838 

650,377 

694,037 

787,989 

466,767 

526,387 

196,699 

180,377 

205,623 

221,480 

145,804 

Holland        

46,815 

69,765 

Other  countries  

92,000 

88,635 

80,000 

80,000 

87,000 

Total      

3,428,515 

3,710,895 

3,633,630 

2,795,851 

Supply  and  distribution  of  cotton  (bales  of  400  Ibs.  each). 


YEARS. 

Visible 
and  In- 
visible Be- 
ginning of 
Year. 

CROPS. 

Total 
Actual 
Con  sump- 
tion, t 

BALANCE  OF  YEAR'S  SUPPLY. 

United 

States. 

Supply  of 
Other 
Countries. 

Total. 

,    End  of  Year. 

Burned, 
etc4 

Visible. 

Invisible. 

,725,000 
,578,000 
,453,000 
,320,000 
,525,000 
,324,000 
,346,000 
,961,000 
,540,000 
,267,000 
,548,000 
,168,000 
,616,000 
,405,000 
,939,000 
,679,000 
,800,000 
,841,000 
,614,000 
,499,000 
,434,000 
,266,000 
3,540,000 

4.733.000 
3,241,000 
4,283,000 
4,597,000 
4,216,000 
5,171,000 

4.Q33'000 
5,425,000 
5,637,000 
6,556,000 
7,519,000 
6,073,000 
8,058,000 
6,485,000 
6,420,000 
7,480,000 
7,450,000 
8,000,000 
8,079,000 
8,525,000 
10,170,000 
10,800,000 
8,044,000 

2,025,000 
3,036,000 
2,083,000 
2,320,000 
2,309,000 
2,018,000 
1,897,000 
1,506,000 
1,398,000 
1,894,000 
1,837,000 
2,510,000 
2,350,000 
2,434,000 
2,007,000 
2,100,000 
2,478,000 
2,100,000 
2,350,000 
2,580,000 
2,488,000 
2,399,000 
2,600,000 

6,758,000 
6,277,000 
6,366,000 
6,917,000 
6,525,000 
7,189,000 
6,830,000 
6,931,000 
7,035,000 
8,450,000 
9,356,000 
8,583,000 
10,408,000 
8,919,000 
8,427,000 
9,580,000 
9,928,000 
0,100,000 
0,429,000 
1,105,000 
2,658,000 
3,190,000 
0,644,000 

5,820,000 
6,312,000 
6,425,000 
6,632,000 
6,656,000 
7,082,000 
7,140,000 
7,272,000 
7,223,000 
8,081,000 
8,646,000 
9,035,000 
9,499,000 
9,290,000 
8,597,000 
9,371,000 
9,757,000 
10,167,000 
10,524,000 
11,055,000 
11,726,000 
11,816,000 
11,470,000 

,696,000 
,785,000 
,591,000 
,682,000 
,619,000 
,732,000 
,318,000 
,214,000 
,068,000 
,499,000 
,922,000 
,362,000 
,704,000 
,505,000 
,230,000 

,210,000 
,248,000 
965,900 
902,000 
,I4O,OOO 
,706,000 

,933,000 
,400,000 

882,000 
668,000 
729,000 
843,000 
705,000 
614,000 
643,000 
326,000 
199,000 
49,000 
246,000 
254,000 
701,000 
434,000 
449,000 
590,000 

593.00° 
649,000 
597,000 
294,000 
560,000 
607,000 
263,000 

85,000 
90,000 

74,000 
80,000 
70,000 
85,000 
75.000 
80,000 
85,000 
88,000 
90,000 

100,000 

i  20,000 
95,000 
90,000 
88,000 
130,000 
160,000 
120,000 
115,000 
100,000 

100,000 

50,000 

1876-77     .. 

l8?7    78.  .. 

I  878-79  

1879-80  

1880  81     

1881-82  

1882-83  

1883  84  

1884-85  

1885-86  

1886-87  

1887-88  

1888-89  

1889-90  

Estimated  cost  of  the  principal  items  and  total  cost  in  the  production  of  wheat  and  corn  in  the  United  States 

by  sections  per  acre  for  1893. 

(Consolidated  from  returns  from  nearly  30,000  leading  farmers  scattered  throughout  the  United  States.) 


WHEAT. 


STATES  AND  SECTIONS. 

h 

8 
& 

«a 

§ 
j 

o  <o 

il 

M 

Manure. 

Preparing  Ground 
(Ploughing,  Har- 
rowing, etc.). 

•a 
a 
n 

VI 

Sowing. 

Harvesting. 

Thrashing. 

Housing. 

Marketing. 

3 

'o 

EH 

Amount  Sown  per 
Acre. 

New  England  

«,  ,2 

«,  ., 

« 

$      6 

$,- 

* 

t 

$,, 

« 

* 

$,  t 

Middle  

c  16 

$2.1 

AH 

$2.02 

fti 

88 

18  18 

Southern  

4- 

•4 

•4 

' 

Western,  

T    8c 

ofi 

i  18 

66 

1.2 

Mountain  region  

•j  88 

T     l8 

I    TO 

i  66 

Is 

Pacific  

2.  02 

Total  

$2   8l 

$1   87 

*  06 

«    ,7 

*  ,7 

«  76 

$1    A 

*  One  metric  ton  is  equal  to  2204.6  Ibs.,  only  a  few  pounds  less  than  our  long  ton  of  2240  Ibs. 
t  Consumption  in  Europe  and  the  United  States. 

t  This  column  covers  cotton  exported  to  countries  not  covered  by  figures  of  consumption,  and  cotton  burned 
in  United  States,  on  sea,  and  in  Europe. 


Agriculture. 


24 


Agriculture. 


Approximate  statement  of  the  world's  wool  product 
according  to  the  latest  attainable  data. 


COUNTRIES. 


In  Europe : 

Russia 

Great  Britain  and  Ire- 
land  

'France 

Spain 

German  Empire 

Hungary 

Italy 

Austria 

Portugal 

Belgium 

Sweden 

Other  European  coun- 
tries... 


Total  for  Europe.  . . 

Outside  of  Europe : 

Australia 

United  States 

Argentine  Republic. . 

Uruguay 

Cape  Colony 

British  India 

Natal 

Asiatic  Turkey 

British  North  Ameri- 
ca   

Other  extra  European 
countries 


Total  extra  European 
countries 


Summary. 

Total  for  Europe 

Total  extra-European 
countries 


Year. 


Millions  of 
Kilograms 


1888 


1892 


1884 
1891 
1891 


1882 
1890 
1890 


1892 
1892 
1892 
1892 
1892 


1892 
1892 
1891 


QUANTITY  PRODUCED. 


30.00 

'9-57 


5.21 

-5° 
1.80 

35-24 


7-94 


Pounds. 


261,509,652 

147.474.238 

107,222,264 

66,138,000 

55,000,000 

43>I44,°22 

21,214.537 

9,044,488 

11,485,966 

1,102,300 

3,968,280 

77,690,104 
805,093,851 


crops,  accompanied  by  falling  prices  in  corn,  and 
since  1882  there  has  been  a  general  decline  in 
prices.  Scientific  farming  has,  however,  been 
considerably  developed,  and  landlords  have 
done  somewhat  to  improve  their  estates.  The 
fall  of  agricultural  land  rents  has  been  great. 
According  to  the  evidence  of  Sir  James  Caird 
before  the  Commission  on  the  Depression  of 
Trade  in  1886,  the  annual  income  of  landlords, 
tenants,  and  laborers  was  ^£42, 800,000  less  in 
1886  than  in  1876.  The  cultivated  land  of  Great 
Britain  occupied  by  owners  was,  June  5,  1893, 
4,672,077  acres,  or  only  14.3  per  cent,  of  the 
whole,  and  by  tenants,  27,971,632,  or  85.7  per 
cent. 

The  official  agricultural  returns  for  1886  state  that 
the  proportion  of  land  held  by  tenants  is  slightly  in- 
creasing. 

The  following  table  from  the  same  returns  for  1893 
(p.  xxvii.)  shows  the  areas  devoted  to  different  crops 
in  1873  and  1893  : 


CROPS. 


505,712,887 
293,000,000 
340,908,398 
61,666,699 

70,335, T93 
24,717,907 
20,887,888 
17,504,524 

10,000,000 


1,432,917,496 


Cultivated  area,  acres  , 
Permanent  grass,    "     . 

Corn  crops,  acres 

Wheat,  "     

Oats,  "    

Cattle,  number 

Sheep        "       

Pigs  "       


1873. 


46,927,000 

23,364,000 

11,423,000 

3,670,000 

4,108,000 

10,154,000 

33,982,000 

3,564,000 


1893. 


47,980,000 

27,700,000- 

9,171,000 

1,955,000 

4,436,000 

11,208,000 

31,775,000- 

3,278,000 


The  following    table    (p.   xxix.)    tells   the  story   of 
prices  : 


805,093,851 
1,432,917,496 
2,238,011,347 


(b)  BRITISH    EMPIRE. 

Great  Britain. 

Up  to  the  middle  of  the  last  century  agricul- 
ture in  Great  Britain  was  fairly  prosperous  ; 
since  then  the  development  of  the  manufactur- 
ing and  commercial  interests  has  on  the  whole 
reacted  unfavorably  on  English  agriculture. 
The  careful  studies  of  Arthur  Young  in  the  lat- 
ter part  of  the  last  century  created  much  pro- 
gressive thought  on  the  subject,  and  a  Board  of 
Agriculture  was  established  in  1793,  while  the 
Napoleonic  wars  unduly  stimulated  English  agri- 
culture ;  but  then  came  a  sudden  reaction.  The 
farmers  suffered  severely  by  sheep  rot  and  bad 
harvests,  and  the  condition  of  the  agricultural 
laborers  was  pitiful.  In  1845  a  General  Inclos- 
ure  Act  was  passed,  and  a  commission  appointed 
which  has  since  become  the  English  Land  Com- 
mission. The  repeal  of  the  Corn  Laws  (1846)  tem- 
porarily depressed  but  did  not  permanently  hurt 
the  land  interest,  as  was  feared.  The  terrible 
condition  of  the  agricultural  laborers  was  slight- 
ly alleviated,  and  down  to  1873  English  agricul- 
ture was  more  prosperous.  Since  1873,  how- 
ever, agriculture  has  been  very  much  depressed. 
Down  to  1882  there  were  a  succession  of  bad 


YEAR. 

Wheat. 

Barley. 

Oats. 

PerQuarter. 
s.      d. 
58      8 

PerQuarter. 
s.      d. 

PerQuarter. 
s.    d. 

1878  

46      5 

24    4 

1883  

31     10 

21    5 

1888  

16    9 

1893  

25       7 

18    9 

The  total  number  of  people  engaged  in  England  and 
Wales  in  agriculture  and  fishing,  taken  together,  in 

1891  was   1,336,945.     The  total  value  of  the  principal 
crops  produced  in  Great  Britain  in  1893  and  Ireland  in 

1892  in  thousands  of  bushels  was  as  follows  : 


CROPS. 

Gt.  Britain. 

Ireland. 

Wheat       

Oats                             

112,887 

51,886 

In  1892  there  was  imported  into  the  United  King- 
dom .£24.857,002  of  wheat,  ^12,267,433  of  wheat  flour,  £g,- 
425,211  of  maize,  ^5,013,546  of  oats,  .£4,313,902  of  barley. 

The  amount  of  live  stock  in  the  United  Kingdom  in 
1894  was:  Horses,  2,067,549;  cattle,  11,519,417;  sheep,  33,- 
672,208  ;  pigs,  3,265,898.  The  condition  of  the  agricultural 
laborer  is  stated  by  the  Royal  Commission  on  Labour 
to  be  much  improved  since  the  terrible  days  before 
1834  or  even  1850.  Even  yet,  however,  his  wages,  as 
based  upon  38  estimates  of  the  mean  rates  for  all  the 
districts  inquired  into  by  the  Assistant  Commissioners 
on  Agricultural  Labor,  is  stated  to  be  only  13^.  yi.  pel- 
week.  The  Richmond  Commission  of  1879-81  put  it 
13.?.  .d.  per  week.  The  average  earnings  of  the  Scotch 
agricultural  laborers  are  said  to  be  about  185.  gd.  per 
week.  Much  attention  has  been  given  to  allotments  in 
England.  The  Allotment  Act  of  1887  appointed  a  com- 


Agriculture. 


Agriculture. 


mission  on  the  subject,  and  authorized  compensation 
for  growing  crops,  etc.  The  Local  Government  Act  of 
1894  empowers  the  parish  councils  to  acquire,  compul- 
sorily  if  necessary,  land  to  be  given  out  in  allotments. 
The  number  of  British  allotments,  detached  from  cot- 
tages and  under  one  acre,  •was :  In 

1873 246,398 

1888  357,795 

1890 ..455,005 


Ag: 

1889.  A  National  Agricultural  Union  has  recently 
been  formed  to  aid  land-owners,  give  State-aided  pen- 
sions to  workingmen,  to  establish  a  Produce  Post,  im- 
prove the  Agricultural  Holdings  Act,  etc.  The  English 
Land  Restoration  League  (q.v.)  is  working,  on  the  other 
hand,  through  the  Red  Van  movement  to  preach  col- 
lectivist  ideas  among  the  agricultural  laborers. 


NUMBER  OF  AGRICULTURAL  HOLDINGS  IK  EACH  CLASS.* 

PROPORTIONAL  NUMBER  PER  CENT 
OF  HOLDINGS. 

Classification  of  Holdings. 

England. 

Wales. 

Scot- 
land. 

Great 

Britain. 

1 
England. 

Wales. 

Scot- 
land. 

Great 
Britain. 

No. 

No. 

No. 

No. 

Per  cent. 

Per  cent. 

Per  cent. 

Per  cent. 

From        Ji  acre    to          i  acre  .... 

21,069 

1,083 

1,360 

23,512 

5.08 

1.80 

1.69 

4-23 

i        "        "          5  acres.  ... 

103,229 

11,044 

21,463 

135,736 

24.88 

18.35 

26.59 

24.42 

5    acres     "         20      "     .... 

109,285 

17,389 

22,132 

148,806 

26.34 

28.89 

27.42 

26.77 

20                           50      "      .... 

61,146 

12,326 

10,677 

84,149 

14.74 

20.48 

13-23 

iS-M 

50                          100      "     .... 

44,893 

10,044 

9,778 

64,715 

10.82 

16.69 

I2.II 

11.64 

100                          300      "     

59,180 

7,844 

12,549 

79,573 

14.26 

13.03 

15-55 

I4-31 

300                          500      "     

",452 

389 

2,034 

13,875 

2.76 

0.65 

2.52 

2.50 

500                   "    1,000      "      

4,131 

63 

632 

4,826 

0-99 

O.IO 

0.78 

0.87 

IM 

g 

663 

Total  

J*O 

yu 

0.13 

1 

' 

' 

4i4>95o 

60,190 

80,715 

555,855 

100.00 

IOO.OO 

100.00 

100.00 

ACREAGE  OF  AGRICULTURAL  HOLDINGS  IN  EACH  CLASS. 

AVERAGE  SIZE  OF  HOLDINGS. 

Classification  of  Holdings. 

England. 

Wales. 

Scot- 
land. 

Great 
Britain. 

England. 

Wales. 

Scot- 
land. 

Great 
Britain. 

Acres. 

Acres. 

Acres. 

Acres. 

Acres. 

Acres. 

Acres. 

Acres. 

'rom          %  acre  to          i  acre  .... 

9,988 

53° 

677 

I1>195 

y* 

* 

K 

y* 

i        "     "           5  acres.  ..  . 

286,526 

34,532 

68,619 

389,677 

2% 

3* 

3*4 

2& 

5   acres  "          20  -    "     .... 

1,219,663 

200,169 

236,995 

1,656,827 

ii& 

"K2 

ic% 

ii 

20                         50      "     

2,042,370 

420,482 

361,675 

2,824,527 

33^ 

34 

33M 

33* 

5O                                          IOD          "        .... 

3,285,350 

735,671 

725,499 

4,746,520 

73  * 

73& 

74& 

73* 

loo                          300      "     .... 

10,285,988 

I>233,374 

2,139,133 

13,658,495 

I73S* 

I57& 

170^ 

171% 

300                                          500          "        ... 

4,328,722 

143,623 

768,823 

5,241,168 

378 

369* 

378 

377& 

500                   '      1,000      "     .... 

2,697,794 

39,703 

409,641 

3,147,228 
882  6m 

653 

631^ 

T  cx-ifi^" 

648  M 

652* 
T  onil^ 

Total  

735»I3° 

Io,373 

I37,IO4 

I>3OI^|» 

M*yu^ 

T»523/« 

Ai  Jo1?* 

24,891,539 

2,818,547 

4,848,166 

32,558,252 

60 

46% 

60 

58* 

THE  COLONIES. 

India  is  chiefly  an  agricultural  country.    Since  1870, 

the  Indian  Government  has  systematically  worked  to 

foster  and  improve  Indian  agriculture.    The  following 

table,  taken  from  the  Official  Statistical 

abstract  relating  to  British  India  for  1892 

India.        (P-  143),  shows  the  amount  of  land  held 

direct  from  Government  in  10  provinces 

of  British  India  ;  and  also  the  number  of 

estates,  of  holders,  the  average  area  of  each  estate, 

and  its  average  assessment  in  rupees.    Statistics  for 

Bengal  and  Bombay  are  not  available  : 


ADMINISTRA- 
TION. 

No.  of 
Estates. 

No.  of 
Holders. 

Average 
Area  of 
each  Es- 
tate. 

Average 
Assess- 
ment. 

Madras  
N.  W.  Provs.... 
Oudh  
Punjab  
Central  Provs.  .  . 
Berars  

3,389,508 
122,728 
12,400 
36,814 
120,926 
•181.236 

5,648,504 
2,712,293 
182,811 
3,146,631 
108,401 

Acres. 

158 
360 
J,237 
1,510 
356 

rs.  a.  p. 
IS     9     4 
375     o    o 
1,168    o    o 
688    o    o 
57    o    o 

Coorg  

18  132 

Assam  
Lower  Burma  .. 
Upper  Burma    . 

783,744 
942,159 
508,017 

712,026 

506,804 

4-93 
9-65 
6.05 
5-13 

5     6     i 
8  10    o 

The  Statesman's  Year-Book  gives  the  following 
statement  of  land  tenure  and  revenue  in  India  : 

"In  provinces  where  the  zamindari  tenure  prevails 
(i.e.,  where  single  proprietors  or  proprietary  brother- 
hoods possess  large  estates  of  several  hundreds  or 
thousands  of  acres),  the  State  revenue  is  assessed  at  an 
aliquot  part  (usually  about  one  half)  of  the  ascertained 
or  assumed  rental.  The  revenue  is  payable  on  each 
estate  as  a  whole  ;  the  assessment  remaining  unchang- 
ed for  the  period  of  settlement.  In  provinces  where 
the  rdyatwari  tenure  prevails  (i.e.,  where  each  petty 
proprietor  holds  directly  from  the  State,  as  a  rule  cul- 
tivates his  own  land,  and  has  no  landlord  between  him- 
self and  the  government),  the  revenue  is  separately 
assessed  at  an  acreage  rate  on  each  petty  holding,  and 
land  revenue  becomes  payable  at  once  (or  after  a  short 
term  of  grace  in  the  case  of  uncleared  lands)  on  all  ex- 
tensions of  cultivation.  The  ravatwari  proprietor  may 
throw  up  his  holding,  or  any  portion  of  it,  at  the  begin- 
ning of  any  year  after  reasonable  notice,  whereas  the 
zaminddr,  or  large  proprietor,  engages  to  pay  the  rev- 
enue assessed  upon  him  throughout  the  term  of  the  set- 
tlement." 

The  following  table,  from  the  same  source,  shows, 
so  far  as  returns  are  available,  the  class  of  tenure  in 
each  province  : 


*  From  official  agricultural  returns  for  1886. 


Agriculture. 


26 


Agriculture. 


ZAMfNDARI   AND  VILLAGE  COMMU- 
NITIES. 

RAYATWARI,  ETC. 

Area  Sur- 
veyed. 
Acres. 

Population 
of  Surveyed 
Area. 

Revenue 
Rx. 

Area  Sur- 
veyed. 
Acres. 

Population 
of  Surveyed 
Area. 

Revenue 
Rx. 

Northwest  Provinces  

52,604,874 
151337,846 
71,576,576 

33,802,188 
12,650,831 
20,860,913 

4,481,581 
1,369,100 
2,441,807 

Oudh  

Punjab  

Berars  

11,340,244 
1,012,260 
55,934,676 
51,355,983 
59,869,505 
47,602,321 
29,998,314 
734,601 
available. 

2,850,009 
173,055 

645,699 
22,557 
923,800 

Coorg  

187,641 

8,i8x 

Upper  Burma  

8,899 
30,067,323 

10,336,536 

517,590 

25,296,868 
15,163,506 

2,871,774 
297,889 

4,464,183 
2,549,362 
822,341 
24,650 

Bombay  

Sind  

Ajmere  

980,172 
244,469 

12,889 
statistics 

Bengal     .               , 

No 

The  Statistical  Abstract  relating  to  British  India  (p.  191)  gives  the  crops  as  follows,  in  acres  devoted  to  each  : 


Rice. 

Wheat. 

Other  Food 
Grains. 

Sugar- 
Cane. 

Tea. 

Cotton. 

Oil 
Seeds. 

Indigo. 

Tobacco. 

27,225,102 

18,573,982 

76,452,323 

1,040,332 

266,219 

8,859,429 

8,498,058 

541,308 

.327,121 

The  following  table  shows  the  staple  articles  of  import  from  India  into  the  United  Kingdom  in  the  years  1887-91 


YEARS. 

Cotton. 

Wheat. 

Jute. 

Seeds. 

Tea. 

Rice. 

Indigo. 

887  

£ 

4,815,185 

£ 

£ 

£ 

£ 

£ 

£ 

1,447,868 

888             

3,069,808 

889  

5,223,808 

3,618,980 

1,612,684 

800 

891  

3,485,455 

888,736 

802  . 

4,812,180 

AUSTRALASIA. 

According  to  the  Australian  Handbook  for  1894  (p.  121), 
by  the  returns  collected  for  1892  in  Australasia,  9,468,- 
949  acres  of  land  were  under  cultivation.  The  princi- 
pal crops  were  :  Wheat,  3,822,950  acres ;  oats,  566,072 
acres ;  barley,  88,322  acres ;  hay,  1,329,902  acres ;  pota- 
toes, 109,005  acres ;  other,  3,552,698  acres.  The  live  stock 
in  1892  was  :  Horses,  1,832,815  ;  cattle,  12,437,165  ;  sheep, 
121,884,669 ;  pigs,  1,112,316. 

Concerning  the  land  tenure  and  condition  of  agricul- 
ture, the  report  on  Australasia  of  the  Royal  Commission 
on  Labour  says  of  the  different  colonies  : 

"Under  the  Land  Act  of  1890  pastoral  lands  are  leased 
in  Victoria  in  allotments  capable  of  carrying  from  1000 
to  4000  sheep  and  150  to  500  head  of  cattle,  for  any  term 
not  exceeding  14  years,  from  December,  1884.  The 
rent  of  these  allotments  is  computed  at  is.  per  head  of 
sheep  and  5^.  per  head  of  cattle.  On  the  expiration  of 
the  lease  the  lessee  is  paid  by  the  incoming  tenant  for 
the  value  of  all  improvements.  The  lessee  may  pur- 
chase 320  acres  as  a  homestead  during  the  currency  of 
his  lease.  Agricultural  and  grazing  lands  are  leased  in 
areas  not  exceeding  1000  acres  for  the  same  term  of 
years  ;  at  the  end  of  the  term  the  land  reverts  to  the 
Crown,  and  an  allowance  is  made  for  improvements. 
Agricultural  allotments,  not  exceeding  320  acres,  may 
be  selected  after  the  issue  of  a  grazing  lease,  which  must 
be  improved  during  the  first  five  years  to  the  value  of 
£i  an  acre.  The  holder  pays  rent  at  the  rate  of  is.  an 
acre,  and  at  the  expiration  of  six  years  may  purchase 
his  holding  at  14$.  an  acre,  or  lease  it  at  2S.  an  acre 
for  14  years,  after  which  it  becomes  freehold.  In 
New  South  Wales  the  territory  is  divided  into  three 
zones— eastern,  central,  and  western.  The  maximum 
territory  allowed  in  the  eastern  division  is  640  acres,  in 
the  central,  2560.  In  addition  to  the  selection,  an  area, 
not  to  exceed  three  times  that  of  the  selection,  may  be 
leased  at  an  annual  rental,  with  right  to  purchase 


during  the  currency  of  the  lease.  A  first  payment  of  zs. 
an  acre  must  be  made  in  advance,  and  after  an  interval 
of  three  years  the  next  instalment  of  is.  an  acre  is  pay- 
able. In  Queensland  the  maximum  area  which  may  be 
selected  is  100  acres  for  homesteads  and  from  320  to  1280 
for  other  selections.  The  selector  occupies  the  land 
under  a  licence  at  a  rental  of  not  less  than  j,d.  an  acre. 
If  he  complies  with  conditions  as  to  fencing  and  simi- 
lar matters,  he  may  obtain  a  lease  for  50  years,  and 
his  rent  will  be  fixed  by  the  Land  Board  every  five 
years.  He  may  purchase  at  not  less  than  ios.  an  acre 
on  proving  residence  for  five  years,  rent  already  paid  be- 
ing reckoned  as  purchase-money.  In  South  Australia 
leases  with  the  right  to  purchase  are  issued  for  21  years, 
and  the  purchase  may  be  made  after  six  years'  rental,  at 
not  less  than  $s.  an  acre.  In  the  southwestern  district 
of  Western  Australia  the  maximum  area  which  may 
be  selected  is  100  acres,  but  in  the  other  divisions  ef  the 
colony  land  may  be  taken  up  by  selectors,  who  need 
not  reside,  in  areas  of  from  100  to  5000  acres  at  not  less 
than  ips.  an  acre,  payable  in  10  yearly  instalments.  If 
selections  are  made  without  residence  in  the  south- 
western division,  double  the  amount  must  be  paid. 
Selections  may  be  made  in  New  Zealand  of  not  more 
than  620  acres  of  first-class,  or  2000  acres  of  second- 
class  land  ;  the  price  varies  from  $s.  to  40.?.  an  acre. 
Deferred  payment  is  permitted  at  25  per  cent,  advance 
on  cash  prices,  and  perpetual  leases  are  granted  for 
30  years,  with  right  of  renewal  for  21  years  at  a  rental 
of  5  per  cent,  on  the  cash  price.  A  bill  has,  however, 
been  introduced  into  the  New  Zealand  Parliament, 
which  is  designed  to  take  away  the  right  of  purchase 
in  perpetual  lease.  .  .  . 

"Corn-growing  is  not  as  yet  of  the  same  value  to  the 
Australasian  colonies  as  the  breeding  of  sheep  and  cat- 
tle, but  with  the  spread  of  irrigation  it  will  probably 
increase.  Wheat  is  principally  cultivated  in  South 
Australia,  Victoria,  and  New  Zealand,  oats  in  Victoria 
and  New  Zealand,  barley  in  Victoria,  and  maize  in 


Agriculture. 


27 


Agriculture. 


New  South  Wales  and  Queensland.  The  value  of  agri- 
cultural produce  throughout  Australia  in  1890-91  is  es- 
timated at  £76,000,000.  Within  recent  years  irrigation 
colonies,  on  the  model  of  those  established  successfully 
in  Southern  California,  have  been  formed  at  Mildura 
in  Victoria  and  Denmark  in  South  Australia,  for  the 
purpose  of  fruit-growing.  The  land  is  granted  to  cul- 
tivators in  blocks  of  one  square  mile  and  upwards,  and 
the  colony,  as  a  whole,  shares  in  the  expenses  of 
the  irrigation  works,  which  fertilise  the  whole  domain. 
Upward  of  90  miles  of  main  irrigation  have  already 
been  constructed,  with  140  miles  of  subsidiary  channels, 
and  some  6000  or  7000  acres  of  fruit  orchards  planted. 
The  results  already  achieved  after  four  years  of  exist- 
ence are  remarkable,  and  it  is  proposed  to  found  an 
agricultural  and  horticultural  college  to  promote  im- 
proved methods  of  culture.  Wages  paid  to  agricul- 
tural labourers  in  Victoria  for  1890  averaged  22$.  id.  a 
week  for  ploughmen,  us.  nrf.  for  female  servants,  igj. 
<)d.  for  farm  labourers,  32$.  6d.  for  mowers,  25^.  &d.  for 
married  couples,  and  30.?.  \d.  for  reapers.  In  all  these 
cases  rations  were  also  given  ;  threshers  and  hop-pick- 
ers, who  are  paid  by  the  bushel,  do  not  receive  rations, 
and  get  qd.  and  -$\d.  a  bushel  respectively.  In  1891  these 
wages  had  decreased  from  i  to  3  per  cent.,  except  in  the 
case  of  married  couples  and  dairymaids,  whose  wages 
showed  a  small  increase. 

"  The  importance  of  the  pastoral  industry  is  shown  by 
the  fact  that  there  are  in  Australia  and  New  Zealand 
116,037,360  sheep  and  10,953,551  cattle,  whilst  the  capital 
invested  in  the  industry  amounts  to  .£300,000,000.  About 
50,000  persons  are  employed  in  ordinary  pastoral  labour, 
whilst  in  the  shearing  season  this  number  is  doubled. 
The  total  amount  of  wool  produced  in  New  Zealand 
and  Australia  in  1889  was  535,435,633  Ibs.,  worth  £21,887,- 
754 — viz.,  49,500,000  Ibs.  more  than  to  1888.  In  1890-91,  618,- 
052  bales  of  wool  were  exported  from  Australia,  83  per 
cent,  of  which  were  shipped  to  London.  Nevertheless, 
the  profits  of  the  industry  have  greatly  diminished  in 
recent  years,  and  the  governments  of  the  different  col- 
onies are  endeavouring  to  let  their  land  in  smaller 
areas  and  to  encourage  the  growth  of  food-stuffs  and 
the  rearing  of  cattle.  This  diminution  in  the  profits  of 
pastoralists  has  been  brought  about  in  part  by  changes 
in  the  land  laws.  Settlers,  who  took  up  large  areas 
when  land  was  cheap,  thinking  that  they  would  have 
the  pre-emptive  right  to  other  large  tracts,  find  that 
the  loss  of  this  right  has  diminished  the  value  of  their 
holdings.  Indeed,  station  property  is  said  to  have  de- 
creased 50  per  cent,  in  value  during  the  last  few  years. 
Again,  other  settlers  have  suffered  much  loss  from  rab- 
bits and  marsupials  ;  though  one  squatter  spent  £10,000 
on  wire  netting,  he  lost  his  sheep  through  allowing  one 
hill  to  remain  unfenced.  In  1890-91  the  Victorian  Gov- 
ernment spent  .£37,000  in  attempting  to  exterminate 
rabbits  on  the  Crown  lands." 

CANADA. 

The  chief  industry  of  Canada  is  agriculture  ;  45  per 
cent,  of  her  people  are  engaged  in  agriculture.  Accord- 
ing to  the  census  of  1891,  the  area  of  improved  land  in 
Canada  was  28,537,242  acres,  of  which  19,904,826  were 
under  crop.  Only  10  per  cent,  of  the  land  is  yet  under 
crop  or  pasture.  The  wheat  crop  of  1890  was  42,144,779 
bush.,  of  which  21,314,582  came  from  Ontario  and  16,- 
092,220  from  Manitoba. 

The  live  stock  in  1891  was  :  Horses,  1,441,037  ;  cattle, 
4,060,662;  sheep,  2,513,977;  swine,  1,702,785.  The  export 
of  wheat  from  Canada  into  the  United  Kingdom  was  in 
1892,  10,658,284  bush.,  India  sending  23,324,825  and  the 
United  States  112,313,077. 

The  timber  wealth  of  Canada  is  very  great.  Accord- 
ing to  Government  returns  in  1891,  it  amounted  to 
4,942,462  cubic  feet,  besides  railroad  poles,  ties,  shingles, 
etc. 

CAPE  OF  GOOD  HOPE. 

Up  to  December,  1891, 94,265,893  acres  had  been  aliena- 
ted, leaving  40,979,890  acres. 

In  the  year  ending  March  31,  1891,  the  products  were  : 
Wheat,  2,727,490  bush.  ;  oats,  1,810,130;  barley,  923,065; 
Kafir  corn,  1,387,710  bush.;  6,012,522  gals,  of  wine;  1,423,- 
043  of  brandy  ;  56,038,659  Ibs.  of  wool ;  6,833,660  of  mohair, 
3,228,094  of  hides  and  skins,  2,801,398  of  butter;  2,599,147 
of  raisins  ;  30,344,400  oranges. 

(C)  AUSTRIA-HUNGARY. 

Austria-Hungary  is  an  empire  where  such  different 
forms  of  tenure  and  such  different  conditions  obtain  in 
various  parts  of  the  empire  that  general  statistics  are 
misleading.  The  revolution  of  1848,  abolishing  the  old 
feudal  burdens  on  the  land,  practically  transformed  the 
small  peasant  farmers  into  independent  proprietors, 
while  tlie  great  proprietors,  unprovided  with  capital  to 


hire  farm  hands,  had  to  divide  their  large  demesnes 
to  a  considerable  extent  into  small  holdings.  The 
Report  on  Austria  of  the  (English)  Royal  Commission 
on  Labour  says  (p.  72)  : 

"Large  manorial  landed  estates,  or  /atifundia,  are 
chiefly  found  in  Bohemia,  which  has  been  called  'the 
stronghold  of  the  feudal  aristocracy,'  and  in  Galicia, 
Moravia,  and  Lower  Austria.  They  are  very  rare  m 
Carinthia  and  Salzburg,  and  in  Dalmatia,  where  the 
large  properties  are  chiefly  in  the  hands  of  the  mer- 
chant or  capitalist  class,  they  are  practically  unknown. 
Adopting  the  division  of  Professor  von  Inama  Stern- 
egg,  who  estimates  as  large  landed  proprietors  (Gross- 
grundbesitzer)  all  who  pay  a  yearly  land  tax  of  at 
least  1000  florins  within  one  administrative  area,  the 
following  table  may  be  drawn  up  to  illustrate  the  dis- 
tribution of  these  great  estates  in  the  various  provinces 
of  the  Empire  : 

Distribution  of  Large  Landed  Estates  in  Austria. 


TERRITORIES. 

No.  of 
large 
Landed 
Estates. 

Percentage 
of  Total 
Number 
of  large 
Landed 
Estates  in 
Austria. 

Percent- 
age of 
Land 
Taxa- 
tion. 

10.7 

11.97 

Upper  Austria  

36 

7.20 

Salzburg  

o.l 

0.90 

Styria                .... 

2.6 

6.49 

0.8 

1.81 

0.4 

1.71 

Coast  Lands  
Tyrol  and  Vorarlberg 
Bohemia  

23 
10 

678 

J-3 
0.6 
37-6 

1.81 

3-29 
30.83 

13.7 

14.82 

69 

3.8 

2.19 

14.85 

1.4 

1.27 

Dalmatia  

0.4 

0.86 

Total  .. 

1,805 

IOO.O 

IOO.O 

The  large  landed  proprietors  of  Austria  form  one  of 
the  main  electoral  groups  in  Austria's  at  present  (1895) 
very  limited  suffrage,  a  condition  which  is  bitterly  at- 
tacked by  the  Socialists.  In  Hungary,  according  to 
an  official  statement  of  1893,  quoted  in  The  Statesman  s 
Year  Book^  the  ownership  of  land  was  as  follows : 


OWNERSHIP. 

Acres. 

Percentage 
of  total 
Area. 

State    

5-68 

•  51 

.10 

4.79 

Districts  and  parishes  

12,338,930 
617,615 

17.69 
.89 

Church  

3,229,257 

4-63 

Educational  

189,145 

.27 

Private  

45,631,54° 

65-44 

Total                  

IOO.OO 

According  to  a  statement  of  1888,  the  size  of  properties 
in  Hungary  and  the  number  of  proprietors  was : 


Number. 

Total  Area 
Acres. 

Unde 

43  — 
286  — 
1,430  — 
Over 

r      43  acres 
28§      "             

2,348,107 
118,981 
13,757 
4,695 
231 

21,489,900 
9,639,600 
20,363,200 
9,523,800 
5,619,900 

According  to  the   Oesterr.   Stat.   Handbuch  (1892,  pp. 


Agriculture. 


28 


Agriculture. 


126-127),  the  average  area  devoted   in  Austria  for  10 

years  (1881-90)  was  as  follows  : 

Wheat i,iog,42i 

Rye 1,976,950 

Barley 1,096,057 

Oats 1,833,128 

Maize 360,921 

Leguminous  produce  .. 267,248 

Potatoes 1,063,598 

Vines 224,451 

Beet-root  (for  sugar) 204,541 

Grass  and  clover  for  hay 3,938,943 

Concerning  the  general  condition  of  the  agricultural 
population  in  Austria  the  Report  of  the  (English)  Royal 
Commission  on  Labour  says  (pp.  74-75): 

"  It  appears  that  the  agrarian  question  is,  not  without 
reason,  a  matter  for  serious  anxiety  in  Austria.  The 
decay  of  peasant  proprietorship  (Bauernstand)  is  espe- 
cially regretted  by  politicians  and  economists.  In  1881, 
in  a  single  district  (Bezirk)  in  Styria,  no  fewer  than  700 
small  farms  were  put  up  for  sale,  and  in  one  commune 
(Genteinde)  the  peasant  proprietors  had  diminished  by 
33  within  a  very  few  years.  Large  numbers  of  peas- 
ant holdings  have  been  bought  up  by  the  great  land- 
owners, by  corporate  associations  (Gewerkschafteti),  or, 
as  has  been  particularly  the  case  in  Galicia,  by  the 
Jews.  '  Large  estates,'  says  Dr.  Michael  Hainisch, 
referring  specially  to  the  Alpine  districts,  '  accumulate 
in  a  few  hands,  the  free  peasant  proprietor  (Bauer) 
leaves  the  home  of  his  fathers,  which  falls  to  a  depend- 
ent tenant  farmer  (Meier)  unless  the  new  possessor 
prefers  to  turn  the  fields  into  forest.  .  .  .  One  hears 
everywhere  of  the  distress  of  the  small  farmer,  seldom 
of  his  prosperity.'  At  a  general  meeting  of  peasant 
proprietors,  which  was  held  at  Wiener- Neustadt  in 
March,  1892,  a  small  farmer  from  Pottendorf  (Lower 
Austria)  described  the  position  of  his  class  in  strong 
terms.  'Things  cannot  go  on,' he  said,  'as  they  are. 
We  are  no  longer  able  to  bear  the  burden  of  taxation. 
Our  families  live  on  potatoes  and  dumplings  (Knodel\ 
and  meat  is  only  seen  upon  our  tables  once  a  year.' 

"  Where  the  small  independent  farmer  is  not  actually 
driven  from  the  land  by  the  pressure  of  competition 
and  the  burden  of  land  taxation,  which  is  said  to  fall 
comparatively  more  heavily  on  the  small  than  on  the 
large  landed  proprietors,  he  is  often  forced  to  sink  into 
the  position  of  a  tenant,  or  to  see  his  estate  broken  up 
into  small  holdings.  The  old  patriarchal  system,  in 
which  master  and  man  '  ate  at  the  same  board,'  and 
shared  the  same  hearth,  still  prevails  in  the  Alpine  dis- 
tricts, but  has  almost  disappeared  elsewhere,  more 
especially  in  Bohemia  and  Moravia.  Custom  is  every- 
where giving  place  to  competition.  Dr.  Hainisch  is  of 
opinion  that  except  in  the  neighbourhood  of  the  towns, 
where  intensive  farming  brings  in  rich  returns,  or  in 
those  mountainous  regions  where  the  homesteads  are 
large  enough  to  make  cattle-farming  profitable,  the 
peasant  farm  in  Austria  is  destined  either  to  be  absorb- 
ed by  the  large  landed  estate  or  to  be  broken  up  into  a 
number  of  small  holdings  (Parcellen).  As  education 
and  the  means  of  communication  spread,  many  peasant 
proprietors  will,  he  thinks,  voluntarily  exchange  their 
immediate  interest  in  the  land  for  trade  investments, 
or  for  tenant-farming  under  a  landlord,  while  many 
others  will  sink  into  the  position  of  day  labourers,  and 
those  who  remain  on  their  estates  will  lose  their  conser- 
vative character,  and  adopt  new  methods  and  ideas. 
A  recent  writer  in  the  Sozialpolitisches  Centralblatt 
also  states  that  'the  very  conditions  of  existence 
(Existenzbedingungeri)  of  the  smaller  land  proprie- 
tors seem  to  be  threatened,  and  thereby  one  of  the 
strongest  supports  of  the  whole  constitutional  system 
(Staatswesen)  to  be  shaken.' 

"  The  condition  of  the  agricultural  day  labourer  is  also 
far  from  satisfactory.  Writing  in  1872,  Dr.  Krafft  stat- 
ed that  at  that  time  this  class,  at  least  in  Bohemia,  was 
chiefly  recruited  from  the  ranks  of  the  cotters  (Hausler}, 
market-gardeners  (Gartler),  and  landless  workmen 
(Miethsleute).  Their  wages  were  very  low,  while 
prices  were  so  high  that  they  were  forced  to  live  on 
water  gruel,  potato  soup,  bread,  and  dumplings." 

The  report  also  gives  the  following  table  of  daily 
wages  for  agricultural  laborers  in  1891  as  taken  from 
official  calculations : 


TERRITORIES. 

Without 
Board. 

With  Board. 

Lower  Austria  

Kreutzer. 

Kreutzer. 

66 

Upper  Austria  

Salzburgh  — 

102.5 

«.s 

TERRITORIES. 

Without 
Board. 

With  Board. 

Styria 

Kreut-zer. 

86 

Kreutzer, 
.5 

Carinthia.        

87 

Carniola  

82 

Coast  Lands  

88 

Tyrol  and  Vorarlberg... 

67 

Bohemia  

6* 

Moravia  

18 

Silesia  

66 

Galicia                             .... 

Bukowina  . 

eg  7 

^6  c 

Dalmatia  

66 

(d)    BELGIUM. 

Belgium  is  a  land  of  very  small  holdings.  In  1845 
there  were  572,550  holdings;  in  1880,  910,396.  In  size 
they  were  : 

Less  than  i  hectare     594, 376- 

From  i  to   5  hectares 226,088 


5  to  10 
10  to  20 
"     20  to  50 
Above  50 


48,390 
25,893 
12,186 
3,403 


Hectare  =  2,47  acres. 


In  1880,  713,019  hectares  were  worked  by  owners,  1,270,- 
512  by  farmers. 

The  main  crops  are  wheat,  oats,  rye,  potatoes.  Agri- 
cultural statistics  are  at  present  collected  by  the  Gov- 
ernment only  once  in  every  10  years,  and  the  most 
recent  which  have  as  yet  been  published  are  those  for 
the  year  1880.  At  that  date  the  total  number  of  men 
and  woman  engaged  in  agriculture  throughout  the 
kingdom  was  1,199,319,  or  21.77  per  cent,  of  the  whole 
population  of  the  country ;  44.02  per  cent,  of  the  per- 
sons employed  were  women. 

(e)  DENMARK. 

There  is  much  subdivision  of  the  soil  in  Denmark. 
The  law  is  such  as  to  prevent  the  formation  of  large 
estates  out  of  small  ones,  while  it  is  favorable  to  the 
division  of  land.  The  tenant  has  by  law  complete 
control  of  the  land  he  rents. 

Twenty  per  cent,  of  the  area  of  Denmark  is  unpro- 
ductive, and  of  this  about  one  sixth  is  peat  bogs.  Six 
per  cent,  of  the  productive  area  is  forest,  and  of  the  re- 
mainder more  than  one  half  is  pasture  and  meadow 
land. 

The  area  under  the  different  crops  is  divided  as  fol- 
lows :  Corn,  3,029,404  acres ;  potatoes,  128,849  acres ; 
clover,  456,585  acres.  In  1891  the  principal  crops  were  ; 
Oats,  33,059,265  bush.  ;  barley,  22,571,447  bush. ;  potatoes, 
13,913,122  bush.  ;  rye,  18,677,262  bush. 

The  value  of  the  crops  in  1891  was  355,214  kroner. 

Live  stock  in  Denmark  in  1888  were  in  numbers  as 
follows:  1,459,527  head  of  cattle,  375,533  horses,  1,225,- 
196  sheep,  770,785  swine.  In  1892  Denmark  exported 
108,988  head  of  cattle;  11,578  horses,  and  185,844  swine. 

The  total  production  of  brandy  in  Denmark  in  1892 
was  7,435,388  gals. 

(/)  FRANCE. 

Agriculture  in  France,  according  to  the  most  recent 
statistics  (census  of  1886),  employs  17,698,402  persons.  Of 
the  total  area  (52, 857,199  hectares),  36,977,098  hectares  are 
under  crops,  fallow,  and  grasses  ;  8,397,131  are  forests  : 
6,986,678  are  devoted  to  wheat ;  3,812,852  to  oats  ;  1,541,- 
836  to  rye  ;  1,512,136  to  potatoes:  1,792,816  to  vines  ;  1,120,- 
764  to  clover  ;  5,228,080  to  pasture. 

According  to  the  Annuaire  de  I'Economie  Publiqite 
for  1894,  edited  bv  Maurice  Block,  the  wheat  crop  was 
97,923,075  hectolitres  ;  the  rye  was  22,802,805  hectolitres  ; 
wine  was  produced  of  a  superior  quality,  valued  at  149,- 
518,000  frs.,  and  of  the  ordinary  quality  at  1,107,009,000 
frs.  Silk  culture  is  carried  on  in  24  departments,  em- 
ploying 141.500  persons. 

The  land  is  divided  into  small  holdings.  According 
to  La  Grande  Encyclopedic,  vol.  xvii.,  p.  1006,  the  num- 
ber of  land  holdings  in  1891  was  about  14,000,000,  owned 
by  about  8,000,000  persons,  of  which  about  5,000,000  own 
agricultural  holdings. 

According  to  official  report  for  1882,  the  agricultural 
holdings  were  as  follows  : 


Agriculture. 


29 


Agriculture. 


From    1.5  hectares. 

io.  20  . 

.   "      20.30 

30.40        ^ 


Proportion  of  the 
whole  agricultural  ar 

1,866  ii 

769  12 

43'  13 


Over 


Total 3,504  98 

The  small  holdings  are  mainly  in  the  departments  of 
the  Seine,  the  Rhone,  Belfort,  the  North,  Puy-de-D6me, 
Haute-Garonne,  Gard. 

(£•)    GERMANY. 

Of  the  area  of  Germany,  94  per  cent,  is  classed  as  pro- 
ductive and  only  6  per  cent,  as  unproductive.  The 
acres  given  to  the  principal  crops  in  1892  were  as  fol- 
lows: Wheat,  4,879,860  ;  barley,  4,174,537  ;  oats,  9,849,666  ; 
rye,  14,026,470.  In  1891  there  were  raised  18,558,379  tons 
of  potatoes,  18,715,112  of  hay,  9,488,002  of  beet-root 
(sugar),  743,462  gals,  of  wine.  In  1882  the  total  number 
of  agricultural  inclosures  of  all  kinds,  each  cultivated 
by  one  household,  was  as  follows : 


Under  i 
Hectare. 

Between 
i  and  io 
Hectares. 

Between 
io  and  ioo 
Hectares. 

Above 
Hectares. 

Total. 

2,323*316 

2,274,096 

653,941 

24,991 

5,276,344 

These  farms  supported  18,840,818  persons,  of  whom 
8,120,518  were  actually  working  upon  them. 

The  system  of  land  tenure  and  the  condition  of  agri- 
•cultural  population  is  very  different  in  different  por- 
tions of  the  empire.  In  Prussia  complete  free  trade  in 
land  exists.  Or  the  various  portions  of  the  empire  the 
report  on  Germany  of  the  (English)  Royal  Commis- 
sion on  Labour  says : 

"In  Westphalia  and  Oldenburg  the  agricultural  la- 
bourer rents  a  small  plot  of  ground  from  hisemployer  on 
condition  of  giving  him  a  certain  number  of  days  work 
in  return  for  a  lower  rate  of  wages  than  would  other- 
wise be  paid  in  the  district.  The  labourer  (Heuerliny) 
is  a  small  cultivator  on  his  own  account,  not  as  a  rule 
rich  enough  to  possess  a  team  of  horses,  but  allowed 
the  use  of  his  employer's  team  when  necessary,  and 
receiving  other  assistance  in  kind.  The  relations  be- 
tween the  two  parties  are  reported  to  be  more  favour- 
able than  in  any  other  part  of  Germany  ;  the  employer 
is  secure  of  a  sufficient  amount  of  labour,  and  the  la- 
bourer in  most  cases  contrives  to  amass  considerable 
savings.  Many  families  remain  for  centuries  upon  the 
same  farms,  and  although  their  holdings  are  only  on 
short  leases,  renewable  at  will, they  come  to  regard  them 
as  their  own  property.  Many  of  them  add  to  their  in- 
come by  home  industries,  such  as  weaving,  and  occa- 
sionally, when  there  is  little  for  them  to  do  at  home,  they 
cross  the  border  into  Holland  for  a  few  months  and 
work  for  wages. 

"  In  Southern  Germany  the  same  system  of  small  hold- 
ings prevails,  but  here  the  labourer  is  himself  a  small 
freeholder,  who  ekes  out  the  scanty  resources  of  his 
own  property  by  performing  service  for  the  farmers 
(Bauer)  with  more  land  than  they  can  cultivate  them- 
selves. This  becomes  the  more  necessary,  because  on 
the  death  of  the  small  freeholder  any  land  which  he 
has  accumulated  does  not  pass  intact  to  his  appointed 
heir,  as  in  Westphalia.  It  is,  as  a  rule,  subdivided 
amongst  his  children,  who  must  recommence  the  labo- 
rious process  of  saving,  if  they  are  ever  to  be  in  a  posi- 
tion of  independence. 

"  Mid-Germany— i.e.,  the  district  between  the  Weser 
and  Elbe,  is  the  home  of  the  different  classes  of  peasant 
farmers  (Bauer),  and  of  what  are  known  as  free  labour- 
ers (freie  Landarbeiter).  These  are  drawn  from  differ- 
ent classes  of  the  village  population,  possessing  larger 
or  smaller  plots  of  land  held  on  different  systems  of 
tenure  handed  down  from  feudal  times,  and  known  as 
Kotter,  Brinksitzer,  Hausler,  or  Anbauer.  To  the  larger 
farmer  (Bauer),  or  to  the  large  landed  proprietor  (Guts- 
besitzer),  they  are  all  merely  day-labourers  in  the 
strictest  sense  of  the  term. 

"  In  the  wide  expanse  of  territory  east  of  the  Elbe  the 
contract  between  the  agricultural  labourer  and  hisem- 
ployer takes  a  great  variety  of  forms  ;  but  in  what 
Professor  Knapp  calls  the  most  typical  districts,  where 
g^eat  estates  (Rittergtiter)  are  numerous  and  settle- 


ments of  peasant  farmers  (Bauer  ndorfer)  few,  the  most 
usual  form  has  hitherto  been  that  known  as  socage- 
tenancy  (Instenweseri).  Here  'the  landowner  enters 
into  a  contract  for  a  lengthened  period,  which  assures 
him  of  the  services  not  of  an  individual  merely,  but 
of  a  family.  The  family  is  settled  in  a  cottage  upon 
the  landlord's  estate,  and  must  be  prepared  to  provide 
a  man  and  an  assistant — a  so-called  socager  (Schar- 
•werker)—\.o  perform  the  agricultural  labour  required 
upon  the  estate.  A  very  small  daily  wage  is  paid  in 
return  ;  the  socage  tenant  generally  receives  a  por- 
tion of  garden  ground  for  his  own  use  in  addition  to 
his  house,  and  a  few  acres  of  land  are  cultivated 
for  him  within  the  estate  ;  whatever  these  produce, 
whether  corn,  other  kinds  of  produce,  or  potatoes, 
belongs  to  the  socage  tenant  (Inste).  Finally,  the 
socage  tenant  has  a  right  to  thresh  his  landlord's  corn 
during  the  winter  in  return  for  a  certain  proportion 
cf  the  yield.'  This  remuneration  in  kind  is  often  more 
than  he  can  use,  but  he  is  at  liberty  to  sell  it,  and  the 
proceeds,  together  with  a  very  small  daily  wage,  rep- 
resent the  extent  of  his  pecuniary  resources.  As  a  rule 
he  owns  a  cow  or  a  few  sheep,  and  in  all  cases  he  keeps 
one  or  two  pigs.  As  far  as  health  and  good  nourish- 
ment are  concerned  the  condition  of  such  a  labourer 
leaves  little  to  be  desired,  and  lately  much  has  been 
done  to  remedy  the  miserable  character  of  the  cot- 
tages." 

Forestry  in  Germany  is  an  industry  of  great  impor- 
tance, conducted  under  the  care  of  the  State  on  scien- 
tific methods.  About  34,347,000  acres,  or  25.7  per  cent, 
of  the  area  of  the  empire,  were  estimated  to  be  occu- 
pied by  forests  in  1889.  In  South  and  Central  Germany 
from  30  to  38  per  cent,  of  the  surface  is  covered  with 
forests  ;  and  in  parts  of  Prussia  20  per  cent.  From  for- 
ests and  domains  alone  Prussia  receives  revenue  of 
about  4,000,000  sterling. 

(K)  ITALY. 

Of  the  total  area  of  Italy,  86.9  per  cent,  is  considered 
productive.  In  1892  11,188,048  acres  were  given  to 
wheat,  773,485  to  barley,  1,112,532  to  oats,  354,774  to  rye. 

Silk  culture,  though  flourishing  most  extensively  in 
Piedmont  and  Lombardy,  is  carried  on  all  over  Italy. 
In  1892  there  were  531,869  persons  employed  in  rearing 
silkworms,  and  175,000  skilled  and  other  workers  (in- 
cluding 120,386  women  and  36,586  children)  were  em- 
ployed in  the  treatment  and  manufacture  of  silk. 

In  the  census  of  December  31,  1881,  there  were  5,024,- 
826  males  of  15  years  of  age  and  upwards  described  as 
engaged  in  agriculture.  The  entire  agricultural  popu- 
lation, male  and  female,  of  15  years  and  upwards,  was 
thus  about  10,000,000.  According  to  last  census,  the 
number  of  persons  of  15  years  of  age  and  upwards  was 
to  the  whole  population  in  the  ratio  of  678  to  1000 ;  thus 
the  whole  agricultural  population  was  computed  to  be 
14,900,000. 

Concerning  the  general  condition  of  the  agricultural 
population  the  report  on  Italy  of  the  (English)  Royal 
Commission  on  Labour  says  (abridged) : 

"  Agriculture  has  been  called  '  the  backbone  of  Italy.' 
Very  few  parts  of  the  civilized  world,  indeed,  have  a 
more  distinctly  agricultural  character  than  this  coun- 
try, where  'the  rural  labourers  may  be  counted  by 
millions,  while  the  industrial  operatives  are  only  num- 
bered by  thousands.'  Great  as  is  the  importance  of 
the  agricultural  question,  however,  it  is  extremely  dif- 
ficult to  grasp,  owing  to  the  extraordinary  complexity 
and  variety  of  the  conditions  of  Italian  land  tenure. 
It  includes  the  mediaeval  manor  (latifondo\  cultivated 
on  the  most  primitive  extensive  system,  the  most  per- 
fect system  of  intensive  cultivation  on  a  large  scale  ; 
'  petite  culture'  pushed  to  the  extreme  of  specialisation, 
and  the  same  methods  applied  to  the  most  heterogeneous 
mixture  of  products ;  rents  varying  from  5  lire  to  2000 
lire  per  hectare;  peasant  proprietorship,  'metayer' 
farming,  feudal  tenancies,  and  hired  labour.  In  every 
separate  district  the  phenomena  of  rural  economy  have 
special,  exclusive,  characteristic  features,  arising  from 
an  infinite  diversity  of  local  circumstances. 

"The  net  income  of  agricultural  Italy  is  rather  over 
1,000,000,000  lire.  Its  direct  taxes  amount  to  300,000,000, 
exclusive  of  the  tax  on  salt,  of  the  income  tax  (riccitfzza 
mobile),  of  the  tax  on  cattle  levied  in  many  communes, 
of  the  indirect  taxes,  and,  according  to  Sir  D.  Col- 
naghi,  of  'the  house  tax,'  which  with  the  local  sur- 
'  taxes  amounts  to  about  139,000,000  lire.' 

"  There  are  three  typical  forms  of  agrarian  contract 
in  Italy — the  '  metayer'  system  (mezzadria,  mezzeria, 
colonid),m  which  the  principle  of  profit-sharing  finds 
its  simplest  expression ;  the  leasehold  system  (affitto), 
and  the  system  of  home  cultivation  by  means  or  hired 
labourers  (salurio).  Each  of  these  systems  has  given 


Agriculture 


3° 


Agriculture, 


rise  to  innumerable  deviations  in  practice,  and  each 
passes  by  insensible  gradations  into  the  other.  Many 
agriculturists  cultivate  part  of  their  land  as  metayers, 
part  as  leaseholders,  and  part  as  the  farm  servants  of 
a  landlord. 

"The  'metayer'  system,  according  to  the  Italian 
Civil  Code,  is  a  contract  by  which  the  cultivator  of  a 
farm  (mezzaiulo,  mezzadro,  colonti)  has  the  right  to 
divide  with  the  proprietor  the  produce  of  the  farm 
(Art.  1647  of  the  Civil  Code) ;  the  loss  through  acci- 
dent of  the  whole  or  part  of  the  harvest  is  borne  in 
common  by  the  proprietor  and  the  metayer. 

"The  wages  of  day  labourers  and  farm  servants 
vary  in  the  different  provinces,  and  according  to  capac- 
ity and  occupation,  from  about  150  lire  to  some  300  or 
400  lire  per  annum,  but  the  general  question  of  wages 
is  complicated  by  the  prevalence  of  the  custom  of  mak- 
ing payments  in  kind,  or  partly  in  kind  and  partly  in 
money,  while  some  kinds  of  work,  as,  for  instance, 
ploughing,  manuring,  and  mowing,  are  often  paid  by 
the  piece.  Signer  Bodio  gives  the  average  daily  wages 
of  an  adult  agricultural  labourer  at  about  2  lire  in 
summer  and  about  i^  lire  in  winter.  As  during  cer- 
tain portions  of  the  year  outdoor  labour  is  at  a  stand- 
still, the  average  daily  pay  of  an  adult  labourer  during 
the  whole  year  may  be  put  at  about  i  lire.  Dairy- 
men get  from  250  to  400  lire  annually,  with  board  ;  cow- 
herds receive  from  15  to  QO  lire  per  annum  ;  and  casual 
labourers  can  earn  about  450  or  500  lire  in  the  course 
of  the  year,  though  they  sometimes  almost  double  this 
sum  by  odd  jobs,  and  not  unfrequently  by  rural  thefts, 
•while  owing  to  their  frugal  habits  their  real  wages  are 
fairly  high.  Women  earn  about  half  as  much  as  men, 
but  they  are  often  able  to  eke  put  their  scanty  wages 
by  spinning,  plaiting  straw,  as  in  Tuscany,  or  working 
in  the  silk-reeling  mills,  as  in  Piedmont  and  Lombardy. 

"  Sicily,  connected  with  the  Italian  kingdom,  and  yet 
separated  from  it,  has  special  economic  conditions 
complicated  by  the  comparatively  lawless  state  of 
society,  and  by  the  survival  of  ancient  customs.  The 
great  stretches  of  treeless  pasture  land,  cornfields,  and 
fallows,  which  are  found  in  the  western  provinces  of 
the  island,  from  Palermo  to  Girgenti,  and  from  Trapani 
to  Nicosia,  are  divided  into  large  semi-fexidal  estates 
or  fiefs  {latifondi  ex-J ettdi)  held  by  the  descendants  of 
the  old  nobility,  or  by  rich  bourgeois  families.  Most 
of  these  estates  range  from  500  to  1000  hectares  in  ex- 
tent, but  many  include  2000  or  even  6000  hectares.  On 
each  fief  there  is  a  manor  house  (casamen(o\  usually 
in  a  state  of  dilapidation.  The  proprietors  generally 
let  the  land  for  a  money  rent  to  rich  manufacturers, 
for  terms  of  years  varying  from  three  to  six,  or  nine. 
These  leaseholders,  who  are  called  gabellottior  arbitri- 
anft,  sometimes  rent  several  properties,  which  they  in 
turn  sublet  to  other  tenants.  Somewhat  primitive  meth- 
ods of  cultivation  prevail,  and  a  fourfold  rotation  of  fal- 
low, wheat,  barley,  and  pasture,  which  recalls  mediae- 
val systemsof  agriculture,  is  commonly  observed.  The 
peasants  (villani)  usually  contract  to  plough  and  sow 
the  lords'  fields. 

"Turning  now  to  the  conditions  under  which  the  la- 
bouring classes  in  Sicily  live,  it  appears  that  as  a  rule 
they  are  still  very  wretched  and  degraded.  The  day 
labourers  are  herded  together  in  the  towns  in  cottages, 
which  are  mere  windowless  hovels,  where  the  common 
room  is  shared  by  the  pigs  and  the  poultry,  and  even 
occasionally  by  an  ass  or  a  mule.  They  have  to  go 
long  distances  each  day  to  their  work,  and  often,  espe- 
cially when  they  are  engaged  by  the  week,  they  do  not 
return  to  their  homes  in  the  evening,  but  sleep  in  the 
farmyard  in  which  they  are  employed,  or  camp  out  in 
the  fields.  They  migrate  also  from  the  plains  to  the 
mountains,  as  the  different  crops  ripen  in  succession. 
In  times  of  difficulty  they  have  recourse  to  money- 
lenders, who  exact  a  high  rate  of  interest  from  them.' 

(«')  MEXICO. 

Agriculture  in  Mexico  is  still  in  a  very  primitive  con- 
dition. Provision  is  made  for  the  sale  and  occupation 
of  public  lands  by  a  law  of  1863.  From  1877  to  1892, 
15,680,631  hectares  had  been  adjudicated  for  agricul- 
tural purposes,  under  6093  titles.  The  Government  has 
introduced  into  Mexico  1,181,000  vines,  26,000  olive  trees, 
etc.  The  chief  agricultural  products  are  maize,  barley, 
wheat,  beans.  Other  products  are  coffee,  tobacco, 
cotton,  sugar-cane,  rice,  cocoa,  etc.  Large  numbers  of 
cattle  are  exported  to  the  United  States. 

(/)  THE  NETHERLANDS. 

The  principal  divisions  of  the  area  of  the  Nether- 
lands, according  to  the  statistics  of  1888,  are  as  follows 
(in  hectares,  i  hectare  =  2.47  acres) ;  cultivated  land, 


850,844;  pasture  land,  1,144,066;  gardens  and  orchards,. 
54,124  ;  forest,  226,968  ;  uncultivated  land  (heath),  712,523. 
The  small  estates  are  chiefly  found  in  North  Brabant, 
Guelders,  Limburg,  and  Overyssel,  while  in  South 
Holland,  North  Holland,  Zealand,  and  Groningen  large 
estates  are  more  common.  In  1891,  57.9  per  cent,  of  all 
estates  was  held  by  the  owners  and  42.1  by  the  farm- 
ers. The  estates  in  that  year  were  in  number  as  fol- 
lows : 


Above 

IOO 

Hec- 
tares. 

206 

From 

75  to  loo 
Hec- 
tares. 

441 

From 
40  to  75 
Hec- 
tares. 

From 
20  to  40 
Hec- 
tares. 

18,361 

From 
10  to  20 
Hec- 
tares. 

From 
5  to  10 
Hec- 
tares. 

Under 
5  Hec- 
tares. 

77,201 

6,426 

29,775 

34.023 

There  were  in  the  Netherlands  in  1891,  271,900  horses  j 
1,532,100  cattle,  810,600  sheep,  987,900  swine. 


Of  the  area  of  Norway,  only  3  per  cent,  is  under  cul- 
tivation, 22  per  cent,  is  forest,  and  75  per  cent,  is  con- 
sidered unproductive.  Most  of  the  land  is  worked  by 
owners  in  small  holdings.  In  1890,  10,478  acres  were 
given  to  wheat,  122,040  to  barley,  234,657  to  oats. 

(/)  ROUMANIA. 

The  soil  of  Roumania  is  one  of  the  most  fertile  in  Eu- 
rope, and  the  annual  export  of  wheat,  rye,  maize,  bar- 
ley, rape-seed,  pease,  and  wine  is  both  large  and  in- 
creasing. The  following  table  shows  the  chief  cereals- 
grown  in  1882  : 


ic 
id 

of 
ni 
es 

CKREAI.S. 

Hectares  of 
Cultivated 
Land. 

Output  in 
Tons. 

st 

Wheat  

)n 

Rye  

lv 

Barley  

366,890 

ft 

Oats  :  

Maize  

1,034,755 

1,885,029 

e. 

(m)  RUSSIA. 

In  Russia,  in  1892,  according  to  official  data,  410,801,- 
867  acres  belonged  to  the  State,  373,310,496  to  peasants, 
294,504,582  to  proprietors,  and  19,890,835  to  the  imperial 
family;  210,058,770,  largely  belongingto  the  State,  was 
unfit  for  culture.  The  Statesman's  Year  Book  gives 
the  following  statement  as  to  the  Russian  village  com- 
munities. (See  RUSSIA.) 

The  state  of  the  redemption  operation  among  the 
village  communities  of  liberated  serfs  is  seen  from  the 
following  accounts  up  till  October  i,  1893.  The  ac- 
counts are  shown  separately  for  Russia  and  the  west- 
ern provinces,  where  the  conditions  of  redemption  were 
more  liberal  for  the  peasants,  according  to  the  laws  of 
1863. 


in 

he 
n. 

y- 

Russia. 

Western 
Provinces. 

Number  of  male  peasants  who 

redeemed  the  land  with  State 

n- 

m 

Number  of  acres  redeemed  

61,544,610 

27,505,195 

}2> 

Value  of  the  land,  in  roubles  .  .. 

703,645,091 

185,572,593 

il- 
as 
;s, 

Average  price  of  the  allotment. 
Average  size  of  allotment,  in 

io6r.     oc. 

64T.    560. 

y. 

Average  price  of  the  acre  

ur.  400. 

6r,  5oc. 

o, 

Average    former    debt    of   the 

ot 

landowner  to  the  State  mort 

gage  bank,  per  allotment  
Average  sum  paid  to  the  land- 

3?r.  33C- 

z6r.  99C. 

68r.  670. 

Moreover,  102,396  leaseholders  redeemed  their  allot- 
ments (1,882,574  acres)  for  the  sum  of  21,243,401  roubles,. 


Agriculture. 


Agriculture. 


in  South  Russia  and  the  western  provinces,  according 
to  the  laws  of  1868-88,  which  recognize  private  owner- 
ship of  land. 

In  1892  the  total  land  and  that  held  in  private  owner- 
ship was  as  follows : 


NATURE  OF  LAND. 

Total. 

In  Private  Own- 
ership. 

Acres. 
287,969,552 

174,958,734 
425,520,714 

210,058,770 

Per 

cent. 
26.2 

iS-9 
38.8 

19.  i 

Acres. 
80,063,271 

68,628,269 
110,697,486 

35i"5i566 

Per 
cent  . 
27.3 

23.2 
37-6 

11.9 

Orchards,      mead- 
ow, grazing,  etc. 

Unfit    for   culture, 
roads,  etc  

Total  

1,098,507,780 

IOO.OO 

294,504,582 

IOO.OO 

From  1883  to  1887  in  Russia  in  Europe,  exclusive  of 
Poland,  an  average  of  28,882,440  acres  were  devoted  to 
wheat,  12,442,950  to  barley,  34,886,700  to  oats,  64,611,- 
810  to  rye.  In  1888  there  were  19,633,340  horses,  24,609,- 
260  horned  cattle,  44,465,450  sheep.  The  North  Caucasus 
is  becoming  more  and  more  a  granary  for  Russia,  and 
the  crops  of  1892  in  the  three  provinces  of  Kuban,  Stav- 
ropol, and  Terek  were  :  Wheat,  7,654,800;  rye,  1,185,200 ; 
barley,  2,333,000  ;  oats,  2,054,300  ;  various,  1,069,300 ;  total, 
15,296,600  quarters  ;  potatoes,  714,600  quarters. 

The  amount  of  hay  gathered  in  1892  attained  30,000- 
ooo  tons  in  European  Russia  and  335,000  tons  in  Poland. 

(ri)  SERVIA. 

Servia,  though  yet  in  a  backward  state,  raised  in  1891 
wheat  valued  at  .£1,780,200  ;  maize,  .£1,272,960 ;  rye, 
^388,800 ;  barley,  .£345,216 ;  oats,  .£226,592,  besides  large 
quantities  of  cattle,  sheep,  and  pigs. 

(o)  SPAIN. 

The  productive  area  of  Spain,  reckoned  at  79.65  per 
cent,  of  the  whole,  may  be  classed  as  follows:  1.6  per 
cent,  olive  culture,  3.7  vineyards,  19.7  grass,  20.8  fruits, 
33.8  agriculture  and  gardens.  The  vine  is  the  most  im- 
portant feature  in  agriculture,  and  the  area  under  vines 
was  in  1888,  5,000,000  acres,  the  total  production  of  wine 
being  616,000,000  gals.  Oranges,  grapes,  nuts,  and  olives 
are  raised  also  in  large  quantities  for  export.  The 
leading  crops  are  wheat,  rye,  barley,  maize,  hemp,  flax, 
and  pulse. 

The  soil  in  Spain  is  greatly  subdivided,  and  this  sub- 
division has  much  increased  of  late  years.  In  the  year 
1800  there  were  273,760  proprietors,  owning  677,520 
farms,  and  there  were  403,760  farmers.  Now  under  the 
property  tax  the  3,426,083  assessments  may  be  divided 
as  follows : 

Properties  paying1 


From 

From 
i  to  10 
Reales. 

From 
10  to  20 
Reales. 

From 
20  to  40 
Reales. 

From 

4otOioo 
Reales. 

From 

loo  to 

200 
Reales. 

From 
200  to 
5°o 
Reales. 

500  to 
10,000 
Reales 
and  up- 

ward. 

624,920 

511,666 

642,377 

788,184 

416,546 

165,202 

279,188 

(/)  SWEDEN. 

Only  8.1  per  cent,  of  the  area  of  Sweden  is  under  cul- 
tivation, but  the  valuable  forests  cover  44.8  per  cent., 
and  the  meadows  4.0  per  cent.  There  are  328,646  culti- 
vated farms,  which  may  be  classed  as  follows  : 

Farms  of 


2  Hectares 
and  under. 

2  to  20  Hec- 
tares. 

20  to  ioo  Hec- 
tares. 

ioo  Hectares 
and  above. 

70,652 

210,586 

32,280 

3-I29 

In  1892  the  value  of  all  the  cereal  crops  of  Sweden 
was  about  271,000,000.7  kroner. 

In  i8gi  the  area  under  the  principal  crops  was  as  fol- 
lows (in  thousands  of  hectares) :  Wheat,  71.0 ;  oats, 
806.2 ;  rye,  395.9 ;  potatoes,  156.5.  The  yield  of  the 
principal  products  in  1892  was  (in  thousands  of  hecto- 
litres):  Oats,  24,472.2;  rye,  9,306.1  ;  barley,  5,015.3; 
wheat,  1,607.0  ;  potatoes,  20,931.9. 

In  1891  there  were  in  Sweden  2,420,110  head  of  cattle, 
1,345,337  sheep,  489,045  horses,  and  655, 373  swine.  In  1891, 
30,000  cattle  and  27,000  sheep  were  exported. 

(q)  SWITZERLAND. 

The  Report  on  Switzerland  to  the  (English)  Royal 
Commission,  affording  the  most  recent  information, 
says  : 

"  The  total  area  of  Switzerland  is  15,964  square  miles, 
and  of  this  nearly  one  fourth  is  unproductive.  Of  the  re- 
mainder, 5,378,122  acres  are  under  cultivation  ;  the  ara- 
ble land  covers  an  area  of  1,533,093  acres,  or  28.5  per 
cent,  of  the  whole  ;  31.9  per  cent,  is  meadow  land  (  Wie- 
sen),  36.5  per  cent,  pure  pasturage  ( Weideri),  vineyards 
cover  1.6  per  cent.,  and  gardens  1.5  per  cent,  of  the  total 
area.  The  number  of  persons  employed  in  the  various 
branches  of  agriculture  is  1,168,137,  or  more  than  half 
of  the  total  population.  The  most  important  branches 
of  agriculture  are  cattle-breeding,  grass  and  fodder 
growing,  and  the  milk  and  cheese  industries,  but 
though  these  occupations  form  the  chief  support  of  the 
agricultural  population,  it  is  a  rare  thing  to  find  a  peas- 
ant family  which  subsists  solely  on  the  produce  of  the 
land.  Industry  and  agriculture  are  very  closely  con- 
nected in  Switzerland  ;  'the  peasant -when  unoccupied 
by  his  land  easily  finds  some  useful  employment  in  a 
multiplicity  of  other  labours,  varying  from  tree-felling- 
and  wood-carving  to  the  manufacture  of  watch-springs. 
The  artisan  or  factory-hand  is,  on  the  other  hand,  gen- 
erally half  a  peasant,  possessing  some  few  square  yards 
of  land,  with  a  cow  or  a  few  goats.' 

"  The  Swiss  system  of  land  tenure,  which  is  favourable 
to  the  formation  of  small  freeholds,  also  contributes  to 
the  prosperity  of  the  agricultural  population.  By  far 
the  greater  part  of  the  land  is  held  in  farms  varying  in 
size  from  2  to  5  hectares,  and  in  many  industrial  dis- 
tricts an  innumerable  quantity  of  minute  holdings  are 
to  be  found  cultivated  by  members  of  the  working 
class.  The  subdivision  of  property  is  in  many  districts 
carried  to  excess.  This  system  is  the  foe  to  agricultur- 
al enterprise  and  one  of  the  causes  of  the  constant  emi- 
gration from  the  pastoral  districts.  No  Federal  land 
code  exists,  but  each  canton  possesses  the  power  of 
framing  its  own  laws  relating  to  the  tenure  of  land. 
In  Aargau,  Thurgau,  and  certain  other  cantons,  there- 
fore, the  Government  has  passed  laws  fixing  the  limit 
to  the  subdivision  of  the  land  at  a  minimum  ranging- 
from  5000  to  20,000  square  feet.  The  question  of  rent  is. 
an  unimportant  one  in  Switzerland,  as  it  is  rare  to  find 
a  farm  which  is  not  worked  by  the  owners  ;  but  owing 
to  the  continual  subdivision  of  property  the  land  is  in 
many  cases  heavily  mortgaged. 

"The  existence  of  large  areas  of  common  land  (All- 
mend)  in  Switzerland  is  of  great  benefit  to  the  agricul- 
tural classes.  These  lands  are  said  to  be  a  survival 
from  the  times  when  the  whole  soil  of  the  country  was 
held  by  the  nation  in  common.,  The  first  departure 
from  this  custom  was  made  by  the  Romans,  who  grant- 
ed lands  to  veteran  soldiers  ;  gifts  of  land  to  religious 
foundations— to  the  Abbey  of  St.  Gall,  for  example,  in 
the  eighth  century — did  still  more  to  establish  the  prin- 
ciple of  private  property  ;  but  even  as  late  as  the  thir- 
teenth and  fourteenth  centuries  by  far  the  greater  part 
of  the  soil  of  Switzerland  was  held  in  common.  In. 
1803,  under  the  influence  of  ideas  which  found  expres- 
sion in  the  French  Revolution,  the  commcn  lands  were 
to  a  great  extent  sold  by  the  communes  to  private  per- 
sons. It  was  believed  that  private  ownership  would 
lead  to  better  cultivation  and  to  the  eventual  decrease 
of  poverty,  but  the  result  showed  that  the  step  had  led 
in  most  cantons  to  the  increase  of  pauperism.  The 
common  lands  now  existing  include  (i)  gardens,  or- 
chards, and  vineyards,  situated  for  the  most  part  in 
valleys  or  on  hill-sides ;  (2)  pasture  lands  both  in  the 
lowlands  and  on  mountains  ;  (3)  forests,  where  the  in- 
habitants of  the  commune  have  the  right  of  gathering 
firewood  ;  (4)  marshes,  ponds,  peat  bogs,  and  the  shores 
of  lakes. 

"  Where  farms  are  large  enough  to  absorb  more  labour 
than  the  family  of  the  owner  can  supply,  they  are  cul- 
tivated by  a  staff  of  permanent  labourers,  who  live  with 
their  employer  and  practically  form  part  of  his  family. 
These  labourers  are  engaged  for  long  periods,  and  the 
best  relations  subsist  between  them  and  their  employ- 
ers. Day  labourers,  on  the  other  hand,  find  themselves 


Agriculture. 


32 


Agriculture. 


in  a  very  unstable  position,  as  the  demand  for  extra 
labour  is  not  continuous,  but  confined  to  certain  sea- 
sons of  the  year,  such  as  the  hay  harvest.  The  wages 
of  farm  labourers  are  paid  either  entirely  in  cash  or 
partly  in  cash  and  partly  in  food,  etc.  The  money 
wage  varies  between  7  and  10  frs.  a  week,  while  the 
cost  "of  maintenance  probably  amounts  to  from  90  cents, 
to  1.25  per  day.  A  non-contract  labourer,  working 
from  280  to  290  days  a  year,  makes  a  daily  average  of 
from  2  frs.  50  c.  to  3  frs.  50  c.  The  wages  of  boys  and  wom- 
en may  be  reckoned  at  about  85  per  cent,  of  the  wages 
earned  by  adult  males.  Considerable  differences  are 
of  course  noticeable  in  different  cantons  :  in  Berne  the 
average  wages  of  male  labourers  are  from  260  to  365 
frs.  a  year,  but  good  cowherds  and  stablemen  are 
not  to  be  had  for  less  than  from  400  to  600  frs.  or  even 
more.  The  average  wages  in  Berne,  Neuchatel,  and 
Vaud  are  2  frs.  50  c.  a  day  in  winter,  3  frs.  50  c.  in  sum- 
mer, and  about  4  frs.  during  the  harvest.  The  wages 
of  contract  labourers  were  formerly  paid  by  the  year  ; 
now,  however,  monthly  or  even  weekly  payments  are 
more  general,  and  the  mobility  of  labour  which  this 
change  implies  does  not  contribute  to  the  advantage 
of  the  farmer. 

"  The  depressed  state  of  agriculture  has  already  caus- 
ed considerable  emigration  from  the  rural  districts ;  in 
1860  the  agricultural  population  of  Zurich  was  estimat- 
ed at  107,000  persons,  including  women  and  children ; 
in  1870  this  number  had  sunk  to  104,000,  and  in  1880  fur- 
ther emigration  had  reduced  it  to  94,000.  This  state  of 
things  causes  much  uneasiness,  and  both  the  Cantonal 
and  Federal  governments  have  recently  been  called 
upon  to  determine  the  best  means  of  fostering  the  agri- 
cultural interests  of  the  country.  In  1883  a  Federal  de- 
partment of  agriculture  was  established,  and  nearly 
every  canton  has  framed  laws  which  tend  to  the  ad- 
vancement of  agriculture.  During  the  years  1883-87 
the  grants  made  towards  this  object  have  been  .£12,120 
per  annum." 

(/-)  TURKEY. 

Of  Turkey  it  is  impossible  to  get  exact  statistics. 
The  Statesman's  Year  Book  says  : 

"  Land  in  Turkey  is  held  under  four  different  forms 
of  tenure — viz.  :  (i)  as  '  miri,'  or  Crown  lands ;  (2)  as 


lands,  which  form  the  largest  portion  of  the  territory 
of  the  Sultan,  are  held  direct  from  the  Crown.  The 
Government  grants  the  right  to  cultivate  an  unoccu- 
pied tract  on  the  payment  of  certain  fees,  but  continues 
to  exercise  the  rights  of  seigniory  over  the  land  in 
question,  as  is  implied  in  the  condition  that  if  the 
owner  neglects  to  cultivate  it  for  a  period  of  three  years 
it  is  forfeited  to  the  Crown.  The  second  form  of  tenure, 
the  '  vacouf,'  was  instituted  originally  to  provide  for 
the  religion  of  the  State  and  the  education  of  the  people, 
by  the  erection  of  mosques  and  schools;  but  this 
object  has  been  set  aside  or  neglected  for  several 
generations,  and  the  '  vacouf  lands  have  mostly  been 
seized  by  Government  officials.  The  third  class  of 
landed  property,  the  'mulikaneh,'  was  granted  to  the 
spahis,  the  old  feudal  troops,  in  recompense  for  the 
military  service  required  of  them,  and  is  hereditary 
and  exempt  from  tithes.  The  fourth  form  of  tenure,  the 
'miilk,' or  freehold  property,  does  not  exist  to  a  great 
extent.  Some  house  property  in  the  towns  and  of  the 
land  in  the  neighbourhood  of  villages  is  'mulk,' 
which  the  peasants  purchase  from  time  to  time  from 
the  Government. 

"  Only  a  small  proportion  of  arable  land  is  under  cul- 
tivation, owing  principally  to  the  want  of  roads  and 
means  of  conveyance,  which  preclude  the  possibility 
of  remunerative  exportation. 

"  The  system  of  levying  a  tithe  on  all  produce  leaves 
no  inducement  to  the  farmer  to  grow  more  than  is  re- 
quired for  his  own  use  or  in  his  immediate  proximity. 
The  agricultural  development  of  the  country  is  further 
crippled  by  custom  dues  for  the  exportation  of  produce 
from  one  province  to  another. 

"  The  system  of  agriculture  is  most  primitive.  The 
soil  for  the  most  part  is  very  fertile  ;  the  principal  prod- 
ucts are  tobacco,  cereals  of  all  kinds,  cotton,  figs, 
nuts,  almonds,  grapes,  olives,  all  varieties  of  fruits. 
Coffee,  madder,  opium,  gums  are  largely  exported. 
It  is  estimated  that  44,000,000  acres  of  the  empire  in 
Europe  and  Asia  are  under  cultivation.  Since  the 
ravages  produced  by  the  phylloxera  in  France,  Turkish 
wines  have  been  largely  exported  to  that  country  ; 
20,308,521  litres  in  1887-88,  at  an  average  cost  of  31 
francs  the  hectolitre.  The  forest  laws  of  the  empire 
are  based  on  those  of  France,  but  restrictive  regula- 
tions are  not  enforced,  and  the  country  is  being  rapidly 


deprived  of  its  timber.  About  21,000,000  acres  are  under 
forest,  of  which  3,500,000  acres  are  in  European  Turkey. 
The  culture  of  silkworms,  which  had  fallen  off  con- 
siderably, owing  to  disease  amongthe  worms,  is  again 
becoming  an  important  feature.  The  value  of  cocoons 
produced  in  1892  was  over  .£800,000,  and  of  raw  silk 
/i, 200,000.  The  produce  of  1893  was  20  per  cent,  superior. 
Most  of  the  silk  produced  is  exported,  but  some  is  used 
in  the  manufacturing  of  native  dress  material." 

III.  The  Economics  of  Agriculture. 

The  importance  of  the  part  played  in  the  so- 
cial and  industrial  life  of  man  by  agriculture 
and  by  the  persons  actively  engaged  in  or  direct- 
ly dependent  upon  agricultural  employments  it 
would  be  hard  to  overestimate.  In  the  United 
States  44  per  cent,  of  the  population  employed  in 
gainful  occupations  are  engaged  in  agriculture 
directly.  Since  1820  the  proportion  of  agricul- 
tural exports  from  the  United  States,  compared 
with  all  its  other  exports,  is  as  78  to  22. 

But  this  shows  only  its  direct  influence.  In- 
directly it  influences  all  occupations.  If  44  per 
cent,  of  our  population  are  prosperous,  it  must 
affect  the  remaining  56  per  cent.  On  the  other 
hand,  let  the  44  per  cent,  engaged  in  agriculture 
be  in  distress,  and  it  must  affect  every  other 
class.  This  is  not  only  because  every  man  and 
woman  and  child  in  the  country  must  consume 
the  products  of  agriculture,  but  because  the  size 
of  the  farm  population  makes  it  the  one  great 
market  for  almost  all  manufactured  articles 
which  relate  to  the  necessities  of  life,  and  be- 
cause the  agricultural  element  affects  our  poli- 
tics and  furnishes  the  great  bulk  of  our  materials 
of  commerce.  In  every  way  it  would  be  hard  to 
overestimate  the  importance  of  this  greatest  in- 
dustry of  the  world.  It  was  not  until  the  tribes 
of  the  world  first  commenced  agriculture,  and 
so  gave  up  their  nomadic  habits  and  settled 
down  in  fixed  homes,  that  civilization  can  be  said 
to  have  really  commenced.  On  the  other  hand, 
there  is  probably  no  occupation  so  affected  by 
the  varying  social  and  political  conditions  of 
man  as  agriculture,  because  no  occupation  so 
depends  for  its  life  on  settled  habits,  peaceful 
life,  and  general  prosperity.  Let  war  break  out, 
and  commerce  and  manufacture  seem  often 
aided  ;  agriculture,  however,  suffers  ;  men  eat 
as  much  in  time  of  peace  as  in  war,  and  there 
are  more  to  eat.  Again,  agricultural  communi- 
ties widely  scattered  over  large  areas  are  affect- 
ed by  politics  and  legislation,  but  are  not  so 
easily  able  to  affect  legislation. 

As  to  what  is  needed  for  proper  agricultural 
conditions  political  economists  are  still   some- 
what disagreed,  tho  the  teaching  of  facts  is 
now  bringing  the  various  schools 
somewhat  together.    Early  political 
economy,  especially  among  the  Ro-       Early 
mans,  had  much  to  say  about  agri-    Economic 
culture.    (See  POLITICAL  ECONOMY.)       Ideas. 
Cato,  Cicero,  Seneca,  Pliny,  Varrp, 
and  Colomella  treat  agriculture  in 
a  half  patronizing,  half  dilettante  way,  but  yet 
give  some  good  suggestions  and  teach  the  im- 
portance of  all  men  having  something  to  do 
with  agriculture,  and  recommend  small  farms 
and  free  labor.     It  is  a  sad  comment  on  their 
lack  of  earnestness  that  Rome  fell  largely  on  ac- 
count of  its  large  farms,  tilled  by  slave  labor. 

The  middle  ages  were  too  stormy  to  develop 


Agriculture. 


33 


Agriculture. 


much  thought  on  agricultural  lines,  tho  many 
of  the  monasteries  and  some  of  the  noblest  and 
greatest  monks  and  bishops  gave  good  examples 
of  Christian  cooperation  and  community  life  in 
the  tilling  of  fields  with  their  own  hands  and  for 
the  common  good.  (See  MIDDLE  AGES.) 

But  it  is  the  school  of  the  physiocrats  (<?.v.)  in 
France,  headed  by  Quesnay  and  Gournay,  who 
have  put  the  most  importance  upon 
agricultural  production.  With  them 
Physiocrats,  agriculture  (including  mining,  as, 
in  a  sense,  the  cultivation  of  the 
soil)  is  strictly  the  only  industry  that 
produces  wealth.  Commerce  and  manufacture, 
they  held,  only  change  the  form  and  place  of 
wealth.  All  taxes,  therefore,  they  taught  should 
be  placed  on  land  ;  hence  they  are  the  true  pro- 
genitors of  the  single  tax.  Their  doctrine,  too, 
fell  in  with  the  tendency  to  revert  to  nature  and 
simplicity,  as  taught  by  Rousseau  and  his 
' '  natural' '  school.  Adam  Smith  brought  thought 
back  to  more  balanced  views  ;  but  the  rising  in- 
dustrialism, developed  by  the  invention  of  ma- 
chinery and  steam  power,  drew  men  away  from 
agriculture.  There  was  a  rush  into  industry,  and 
agriculture  was  neglected.  The  land,  in  Eng- 
land especially,  fell  into  the  ownership  of  great 
land-owners,  who  leased  their  farms  out,  usually 
to  tenants  at  will,  and  left  the  agricultural  labor- 
er somewhat  more  poorly  paid  and  less  cared  for 
than  the  slave.  Slaves  cost  money  ;  laborers 
could  be  had  for  the  asking.  The  chain-gang 
and  the  lash  were  common  sights  on  English 
fields,  and  the  homes  of  the  English  laborers 
were  more  rotten  than  slave  pens.  (See  ARCH  ; 
KINGSLEY.)  The  more  balanced  views  of  Adam 
Smith  were  forgotten  in  carrying  out  his  prin- 
ciple into  the  doctrinaire  position  of  Ricardo  and 
the  orthodox  school.  Malthus'  conclusions  as  to 
the  law  of  population,  that  it  was  necessary  that 
the  poor  perish,  stilled  England's  conscience. 
To  buy  in  the  cheapest  and  to  sell  in  the  dearest 
market  was  considered  a  law  of  God.  Labor 
was  a  commodity  that  must  obey  this  "  nat- 
ural" law.  The  repeal  of  the  Corn  Laws 
marked  an  epoch  in  the  development  of  agricul- 
ture and  in  the  world. 

Mill  is  the  first  writer  to  treat  the  agricultural 
question  from  both  a  moral  and  an  economic 
basis,  yet,  in   his  economic  teach- 
ings, as  contrasted  with  his  socialis- 
J.  S.  Mill,    tic  philosophizings,  he  scarcely  de- 
parts from  the  orthodox  position. 
He  compares  the  English  system  of 
large  farms  owned  by  lords  (la  grande  culture} 
with  the  French,  Flemish,  and  Rhenish  systems 
of  peasant  proprietorship,  or  small  farms  owned 
and  operated  by  peasants,  and  draws  a  strong 
argument  in  favor  of  the  latter,  saying,  "  Give 
a  man  the  secure  possession  of  a  bleak  rock, 
and  he  will  turn  it  into  a  garden  ;  give  him  a 
nine  years'  lease  of  a  garden,  and  he  will  con- 
vert it  into  a  desert. ' '     He  shows  also  that  small 
farms  owned  by  their  operators  increase  pro- 
duction, because  more  labor  and  more  fertilizing 
are  expended  upon  each  farm  than  would  be  on 
the  same  land  less  divided.     Following  Mill, 
economic  writers  have  taken  one  side  or  other  of 
this  question,  either  favoring  la  grande  cul- 
ture or  peasant  proprietorship,  but,  until  very  re- 
cently, for  the  most  part  conforming  to  the  view 

3 


of  Mill.  Metayage  (see  METAYER),  or  the  sys- 
tem of  the  peasant  leasing  and  operating  a  farm 
on  the  condition  of  giving  the  landlord  half  of 
the  produce — a  system  prevailing  mainly  in  Italy 
and  other  southern  European  countries — has 
had  some  advocates,  but  not  many. 

Facts,  however,  are  leading  many  minds  to- 
day in  another  direction.     It  is  being  found  that 
small  farming  does  not  pay.     Mr. 
D.  A.  Wells  says  "  that  the  only 
possible     future     for    agriculture,  "  La  Grande 
prosecuted  for  the  sake  of  produc-     Culture." 
ing  the  great  staples  of  food,  is  to 
be  found  in  large  farms,  worked 
with  ample  capital,  especially  in  the  form  of  ma- 
chinery, and  with  labor  organized  somewhat 
after  the  factory  system,  is  coming  to  be  the 
opinion  of  many  of  the  best  authorities,  both  in 
the  United  States  and  Europe"  (Recent  Eco- 
nomic Changes,  p.  460). 

Mr.  Wells  adds  in  a  note  : 

"  An  American  practical  farmer,  the  owner  and  man- 

ager  of  7000  acres  (Mr.  H.  H ,  of  Nebraska),  to  whom 

the  writer  is  indebted  for  many  items  of  information, 
communicates  the  following  additional  review  of  this 
subject  from  the  American  (Western)  standpoint :  *  The 
average  Western  farm  is  now  recklessly  managed,  but 
capital  will  come  in  greater  volume  and  set  up  proc- 
esses which  will  displace  these  wasteful  methods.  The 
revolution  is  certain,  even  if  the  exact  steps  cannot 
now  be  precisely  indicated.  At  present  the  hay,  and 
much  of  the  grain,  and  nearly  all  of  the  tools  and  im- 
plements are  unsheltered ;  and  more  than  50  per  cent, 
of  the  hay  is  ruined  for  a  like  reason,  while  the  animals 
themselves  (I  do  not  mean  now  on  the  wild-stock  ranges, 
but  even  on  the  trans-Missouri  farms)  have  no  roof 
over  their  heads,  except  the  canopy  of  heaven,  with 
the  mercury  going  occasionally  20°  and  even  30*  be- 
low zero.  These  wasteful  methods  in  farming  are  in 
part  promoted  by  the  United  States  Homestead  law 
and  the  occupation  of  the  hitherto  inexhaustible  ex- 
panse of  cheap  lands.  When  the  ignorant,  degraded, 
and  impecunious  can  no  longer  acquire  160  acres  upon 
which  to  employ  their  barbarous  methods,  and  when 
the  land  already  taken  up  shall  have  risen  from  the 
low  prices  at  which  it  now  stands  to  $50  or  more  per 
acre,  a  new  dispensation  will  arrive.  Neither  the  cat~ 
tie  nor  the  food  which  the  cattle  consume  will  then  be 
raised  by  any  such  methods  as  now  prevail ;  neither 
will  they  be  exposed  to  the  elements  in  winter.  True 
enough,  the  opening  up  of  other  virgin  fields  in  Aus- 
tralia, South  America,  Africa,  and  elsewhere  may  re- 
tard this  rise  in  the  value  of  the  land  in  the  western 
part  of  our  continent,  and  thus  to  a  certain  extent  de- 
lay the  passing  of  the  land  exclusively  into  the  hands 
of  larger  capitalists  and  better  managers  •  but  it  must 
be  considered  that  not  all  climates  are  suitable  for 
energetic,  capable  farming  populations,  and  likewise 
that  the  best  forage  plants  are  restricted  to  temperate 
latitudes.'  " 

Already  the  process  of  displacing  the  small 
farms  by  large  farms,  operated  by  capitalistic 
labor,  is  far  along  in  the  United  States.  (See 
ART  ;  FARMERS'  MOVEMENT  ;  MORTGAGES.)  Says 
a  writer  in  the  Fabian  Essays  : 

"  Even   agriculture,  that  one  occupation  in 
which   old-fashioned    individualism    might    be 
supposed  safe,  is  being  subjected  to  capitalism. 
The  huge  farms  of  Dakota  and  Cali- 
fornia, containing  single  fields  of 
wheat  miles  long,  are  largely  owned  Capitalism, 
by  joint  stock  corporations  and  cul- 
tivated exclusively  by  machinery. 
These  huge  farms,  combined  with  the  wheat 
'  corners  *  in  New  York  and  Chicago  and   the 
great  railway  corporations  of   America,   have 
played  havoc  with  many  of  the  small  farmers  of 
the  Mississippi  valley,  as  the  statistics  respecting 
mortgaged  farms  will  show.     And  when  it  is 


Agriculture. 


34 


Albrecht. 


remembered  that  the  American  farmer  will  be 
more  and  more  obliged  to  meet  the  growing 
competition  of  the  wheat  of  India,  produced  by 
the  cheapest  labor  in  the  world,  his  prospect 
does  not  appear  to  be  very  bright. ' ' 

Says  Mr.  Wells  (Recent  Economic  Changes, 
p.  99) : 

"  The  following  statements  have  recently  been 
made  in  California,  on  what  is  claimed  to  be 
good  authority  (Overland  Monthly},  of  the  com- 
parative cost  of  growing  wheat  in  that  State  on 
ranches,  or  farms  of  different  sizes.  On  ranches 
of  looo  acres  the  average  cost  is  reported  at  92  J^ 
cents  per  100  Ibs.  ;  on  2000  acres,  85  cents  ;  on 
6000  acres,  75  cents  ;  on  15,000  acres,  60  cents  ; 
on  30,000  acres,  50  cents  ;  and  on  50,000  acres,  40 
cents.  Accepting  these  estimates  as  correct,  it 
follows  that  the  inducements  to  grow  wheat  in 
California  by  agriculturists  with  limited  capital 
and  on  a  small  scale  are  anything  but  encourag- 
ing." 

It  seems  clear  that  the  future  will  demand 
large  farms  carried  on  with  the  best  machinery. 
Therefore  many,  fearing  the  development  of 
"capitalistic"  farming,  advocate  associated  or 
cooperative  farming  on  a  large  scale. 

The  idea  is  not  a  new  one.  In  a  sense  it  is  as 
old  as  the  beginnings  of  society.  The  primitive 
form  of  land-holding  and  land-till- 
ing was  probably  not  communal,  as 
Cooperation,  asserted  by  De  Laveleye  in  his 
Primitive  Property,  but  rather  pa- 
ternal or  patriarchal,  and  often 
tyrannical — that  is,  the  land  was  held  by  one 
chief  or  lord,  and  tilled  for  him  by  his  vassals, 
slaves,  subjects,  or  whatever  the  relation  may 
have  been  ;  nevertheless,  it  was  associated  agri- 
culture, altho  not  democratic.  Remnants  of 
this  still  appear  in  the  Russian  mir,  the  Javan 
dessa,  the  German  mark,  and  in  several  com- 
munities like  the  Jaults,  Guittards,  and  Gar- 
riotts  in  Nivernais  and  Auvergne,  and  among 
the  massari  of  Northern  Italy.  Recent  experi- 
ments in  cooperative  farming,  like  those  of  Mr. 
Guerdon,  at  Assington,  in  Suffolk,  England,  or 
the  communal  farming  of  the  Shakers  and  other 
communities,  especially  that  at  Amana,  with  its 
25,000  acres,  and  property  of  over  $1,000,000  (see 
AMANA),  show  what  can  be  done.  For  a  full 
presentation,  however,  of  cooperative  farming, 
we  must  refer  the  reader  to  the  article  COOPERA- 
TIVE FARMS. 

There  are  others  who  hold  that  the  only  way 
out  is  not  through  cooperative  agriculture,  but 
through    agriculture   under  social- 
ism.    They  argue  that  against  capi- 
Agriculture  talistic  agriculture,  with  its  great 
under       wealth  and  often  with    its  secret 
Socialism.    "  pull"  upon  the  railroads,  agricul- 
tural   cooperators  cannot  succeed. 
The  condition  of  the  farmers,  they 
say  (see   FARMERS'  MOVEMENT),  is  for  many  of 
them  too  unfavorable   to   allow  them  to  suc- 
cessfully cooperate.     The  only  way  out,  they 
assert,  is  through  the  cooperation  of  the  whole 
community,  so  as  to  do  away  with  all  competi- 
tion.    Till  all  industrial  competition  is  removed, 
they  argue  that  farmers  cannot  prosper.     Per- 
haps the  best  brief  presentation  of  agriculture 
•under  socialism  is  that  of  Mrs.  Annie  Besant, 
who  says  in  the  Fabian  Essays  ; 


"Then  can  begin  the  rural  organization  of  labor  on 
county  farms,  held  by  the  County  Councils.  The 
Council  will  have  its  agricultural  committee,  charged 
with  the  administrative  details;  and  this  committee 
will  choose  well-trained,  practical  agriculturists  as  di- 
rectors of  the  farm  business.  To  the  County  Farm  will 
be  drafted  from  the  unemployed  in  the  towns  the  agri- 
cultural laborers  who  have  wandered  townward  in 
search  of  work,  and  many  of  the  unskilled  laborers. 
On  these  farms  every  advantage  of  machinery  and 
every  discovery  in  agricultural  science  should  be  util- 
ized to  the  utmost.  The  crops  should  be  carefully 
chosen  with  reference  to  soil  and  aspect— cereals,  fruit, 
vegetables — and  the  culture  adapted  to  the  crop,  the 
one  aim  being  to  obtain  the  largest  amount  of  produce 
with  the  least  expenditure  of  human  labor.  .  .  . 

"To  these  farms  must  also  be  sent  some  skilled  labor- 
ers from  among  the  unemployed — shoemakers,  tailors, 
smiths,  carpenters,  etc. ;  so  that  the  County  Farm  may 
be  self-supporting  as  far  as  it  can  be  without  waste  of 
productive  power.  All  the  small  industries  necessary 
in  daily  life  should  be  carried  on  in  it,  and  an  industrial 
commune  thus  built  up.  The  democracy  might  be 
trusted  to  ordain  that  an  eight  hours'  day  and  a  com- 
fortable home  should  be  part  of  the  life-conditions  on 
the  County  Farm.  Probably  each  large  farm  would 
soon  have  its  central  store,  with  its  adjacent  railway 
station,  in  addition  to  the  ordinary  farm  buildings ;  its 

Eublic  hall  in  the  centre  of  the  farm  village  to  be  used 
sr  lectures,  concerts,  and  entertainments  of  all  sorts  ; 
its  public  schools,  elementary  and  technical ;  and  soon, 
possibly  from  the  outset,  its  public  meal-room,  saving 
time  and  trouble  to  housewives,  and,  while  economiz- 
ing fuel  and  food,  giving  a  far  greater  choice  and 
variety  of  dishes."  (See  SOCIALISM,  pro  and  con.) 

Still  others  hold  that  the  only  relief  for  agri- 
culture lies  in  the  adoption  of  the  single  tax. 
Farmers  to-day,  it  is  asserted,  are 
taxed  indirectly   on   all   they  pur- 
chase, while  the  land  is  often  of         The 
such  little  value  that  a  tax  equal  to       Single 
the  full  rental  value  would  be  a  less        Tax, 
tax  than  what  directly  or  indirectly 
the  farmer  pays  now,  while  the  free- 
ing of  industry  from  its  taxation  and  the  concen- 
tration of  all  taxes  on  land  would  send  such  pros- 
perity through  the  community  as  to  give  the 
farmers  a  ready  market  for  abundant  crops. 
(See  SINGLE  TAX,  pro  and  con.) 

Reference :  Primitive  Property,  by  Emile  de  Lave- 
leye, translated  by  G.  R.  L.  Marriott  (London,  1878)  ; 
Rural  Economy  of  England,  Scotland,  and  Ireland,  by 
Leonce  de  Lavergne,  translated  with  notes  by  a  Scotch 
farmer  (Edinburgh,  1855) '  -Partners'  Tour  through  the 
East  of  England-Six  Weeks'  Tour  through  the  South- 
ern Counties  of  England  and  Wales,  Tour  in  Ireland, 
Travels  in  France,  all  by  Arthur  Young  (1741-1820) ; 
History  of  Agriculture  and  Prices  (6  vols.),  by  J.  K. 
Thorold  Rogers ;  Work  and  Wages  (i  vol.),  by  the  same- 
author  ;  also  the  same  condensed  and  with  charts, 
by  W.  D.  P.  Bliss;  The  English  Village  Community. 
by  F.  Seebohm  (1889)  ;  Early  History  of  Institutions, 
by  Sir  H.  J.  S.  Maine  ;  Pioneers  and  Progress  of  English 
Farming,  by  R.  T.  Prothero  ;  Reports  of  the  Secretary 
of  Agriculture  of  the  United  States  •.American  Farms  : 
Their  Condition  and  Future,  by  J.  R.  Elliot  ;  Land  and 
Labor  in  the  United  States,  by  W.  G.  Moody.  (See 
also  FARMERS'  MOVEMENT  ;  COOPERATIVE  "FARMS  ; 
LAND,  etc.) 

ALBRECHT,  an  early  German  communist 
and  so-called  "prophet,"  who  with  Weitling 
(g.v.)  spread  through  Germany  the  gospel  of 
communism.  Imprisoned  for  his  utterances 
six  years,  he  had  as  his  only  reading  the  Bible, 
and  left  the  prison  and  escaped  to  Switzerland 
in  1841,  thenceforward  to  devote  himself  to 
preaching,  often  in  Old  Testament  prophetic 
language,  the  gospel  of  Bible  communism. 
He  wrote  numerous  tracts,  among  others  :  Die 
Wieder her ste Hung  des  Reiches  Zion  (  The 
Restoration  of  the  Kingdom  of  Zion)  ;  Das 
baldige  Wiedersehn  am  Alter  der  Fret- 


Alden,  Percy. 


35 


Almshouse. 


heit ;    Herausforderung    der    Priesterwelt, 
etc. 

ALDEN,  PERCY.  See  UNIVERSITY  SET- 
TLEMENTS. 

ALIENS,  AND  ALIEN  AND  SEDI- 
TION LAWS.— I.  Alien.  A  person  born  in 
or  belonging  to  another  country  who  has  not 
acquired  citizenship.  In  the  United  States  and 
England  children  born  and  remaining  within 
the  country,  tho  born  of  alien  parents,  are  gen- 
erally considered  citizens  ;  and  the  children  of 
citizens  or  subjects,  tho  born  in  other  countries, 
are  deemed  natural-born  citizens. 

II.  Alien  and  Sedition  Laws  were  laws  adopt- 
ed by  the  United  States  Government  in  1798, 
during  a  controversy  with  France.  The  second 
and  most  famous  of  them  (i  Stat.  570)  conferred 
power  on  the  President  to  order  out  of  the  coun- 
try such  aliens  as  he  might  judge  dangerous  to 
its  peace.  It  expired  by  limitation  in  two  years, 
tho  at  the  time  the  subject  created  such  excite- 
ment as  to  lead  to  the  overthrow  of  the  Fed- 
eral Party. 

ALLAN,  WILLIAM,  born  of  Scotch  par- 
ents in  Ulster,  Ireland,  in  1813,  died  in  1874. 
Upon  his  father's  removing  to  Glasgow,  Will- 
iam became  a  piecer  in  a  cotton  factory  there, 
and  later  was  apprenticed  to  an  engineering 
firm  in  that  city.  In  1835  he  began  working  as 
a  journeyman  engineer  at  Liverpool.  He  be- 
came the  general  secretary  of  his  union  in  1847, 
and  retained  this  office  even  after  the  society 
was  merged  in  the  Amalgamated  Society  of  En- 
gineers, being  annually  elected  secretary  for 
more  than  20  years.  William  Allan  was  the 
originator  of  the  "  new  unionism"  of  his  time. 
He  was  remarkable  for  executive  ability,  and 
built  up  out  of  the  fragments  of  organization  in 
the  engineering  trade  a  great  national  society. 

ALMSHOUSE.— A  house  appropriated  for 
the  use  of  the  poor  who  are  supported  by  the 
public  or  by  a  revenue  derived  from  private  en- 
dowments— a  poorhouse.  In  the  United  States 
almshouses  and  poorhouses  are  synonymous, 
meaning  only  houses  for  the  common  residence 
of  the  publicly  supported  paupers  of  a  town  or 
county.  In  Great  Britain  almshouses  are  gen- 
erally a  number  of  small  dwellings  built  to- 
gether, supported  by  private  endowment,  for 
the  use  of  respectable  persons  reduced  to  pov- 
erty, buildings  for  public  paupers  being  called 
workhouses  or  poorhouses.  The  following  is 
abridged  from  the  chapter  on  The  Almshouse 
and  its  Inmates  in  American  Charities  (1895), 
by  A.  G.  Warner,  Ph.D. 

In  1880  there  were  66,203  inmates  of  almshouses  in  the 
United  States,  or  one  almshouse  pauper  to  758  inhabi- 
tants ;  in  1890  there  were  73,045  almshouse 
inmates,  or  one  to  857  inhabitants.*    The 
Statistics,     decrease    in    proportion    to    population 
does  not  indicate  a  general  diminution 
of  pauperism,  but  merely  that  a  histor- 
ical development,  already  in  progress,  has  been  con- 
tinued.    When  the  work  of  relief  is  first  begun  by  the 
newly  formed  political  units  of  an  American  settle- 
ment, it  is  usual  to  board  out  such  dependents  as  must 
be  supported  entirely.     Farmers  or  others  are  paid  to 


*  Bulletin,  Eleventh  Census,  No.  90,  p.  3. 


care  for  old  people,  for  imbeciles,  and  even  for  sick 
persons  who  have  no  homes  of  their  own.  Chiefly  with 
a  view  to  providing  a  place  for  the  better  care  of  the 
dependent  sick,  especially  incurable  cases,  and  also  to 
economy,  a  public  almshouse  is  established.  During 
the  first  stage  of  its  development  it  acts  as  the  chari- 
table catch-all  for  the  community.  Idiots,  epileptics, 
incurables,  incompetents,  the  aged,  abandoned  chil- 
dren, foundlings,  women  for  confinement,  and  a  con- 
siderable number  of  the  insane,  the  blind,  and  the  deaf 
and  dumb  are  all  dumped  together  into  some  old  farm- 
house that  has  been  bought  by  the  authorities,  and  put 
to  this  use. 

In  some  populous  cities  the  almshouses  are  still 
hardly  more  than  enlarged  specimens  of  this  same  type. 

The  next  step  is  differentiation,  removing  first  the 
deaf,  dumb,  and  blind  to  special  institutions.     Next 
the  insane  are  placed  by  themselves.    It  was  early  seen 
that  a  sure  way  to  train  up  paupers  was  to 
rear  children  in  almshouses.    There  was 
consequently  much  agitation  and  some      Inmates. 
legislation  to  get  children  out   of   the 
almshouses,  either  into  special  institu- 
tions; public  or  private,  or  into  suitable  homes. 

This  differentiation  of  charitable  work  has  left  the 
old.  the  infirm,  the  decrepit,  and  the  chronic  invalids 
and  paupers  for  the  almshouse  of  the  present  time.  A 
comparison  of  the  figures  of  the  Tenth  Census  with 
those  of  the  Eleventh  will  show  this  change  in  progress, 
and  indicate  how  far  it  has  gone.  The  average  age  of 
almshouse  paupers  in  1880  was  45.1  years.  In  1890  it 
was  51.03.  The  average  age  is  lowest  in  the  South 
Atlantic  and  the  South  Central  divisions,  where  differ- 
entiation is  least  advanced,  and  highest  in  the  Western 
division,  •where,  as  a  rule,  it  is  most  advanced.  In  the 
far  West  one  half  of  all  the  almshouse  paupers  are  be- 
tween 60  and  80  years  of  age.  ... 

Probably  the  completest  picture  of  an  American 
almshouse  population  ever  presented  was  that  set  forth, 
statistically  and  otherwise,  by  the  New  York  State 
Board  of  Charities  in  response  to  a  legislative  resolu- 
tion passed  in  May,  1873.  Regarding  the  12,614  inmates, 
422  were  born  in  the  almshouses,  and  1650  •were  ad- 
mitted when  less  than  10  years  old.  At  the  time  of 
examination,  nearly  13  per  cent,  were  under  10  years 
of  age,  and  almost  exactly  the  same  proportion  was 
over  70.  From  the  body  of  the  report  it  is  learned 
that  3085  of  the  inmates  had  been  in  the  almshouses  less 
than  one  year,  while  38  persons  had  been  inmates  more 
than  40  years.  The  average  time  of  previous  depen- 
dence for  all  inmates  amounted  to  4.88  years,  not  includ- 
ing time  when  they  had  been  public  charges  in  other 
institutions  or  as  out-door  paupers.  This  gives  a 
total  of  61,595  years  of  almshouse  care  for  the  benefit 
of  the  persons  examined.  Estimating  the  number  of 
temperate  and  intemperate  persons  from  those  whose 
habits  were  ascertained,  it  was  concluded  that  84.36 
per  cent,  of  the  males  and  41.97  of  the  females  over 
16  years  of  age  were  intemperate.  Among  the  insane 
the  percentages  were  79.21  and  21.44  respectively.  Of 
the  parents  of  the  insane,  reckoning,  however,  from  a 
much  smaller  basis  of  exact  information,  it  was  esti- 
mated that  45.59  per  cent,  of  the  fathers  and  17.72  per 
cent  of  the  mothers  were  intemperate.  As  to  the  pros- 
pects of  the  inmates  some  day  becoming  independent, 
the  following  conclusions,  based  on  a  very  careful 
study  of  each  case,  were  reached  : 

Number.  Percentage. 

Permanently  dependent 8,145  64.57 

Will  probably  recover 1,116  8.85 

May  recover  under  proper  train- 
ing        i)37g  10-93 

Future  doubtful 1,974  15.65 

"  In  all  the  poorhouses  were  found  at  the  time  of  ex- 
amination more  or  less  inmates  whose  ancestors  were 
paupers,  and  who  also  had,  living  or  dead,  other  near 
pauper  relatives.  The  information  upon  this  subject 
was  obtained  with  considerable  fulness  in  the  rural 
counties,  where  the  history  of  pauper  families  was 
generally  well  known  to  the  officers  and  others  assist- 
ing in  the  examination.  In  the  cities,  however,  but  lit- 
tle could  be  learned  bearing  upon  the  subject." 

The  report  further  says  that  the  popular  impression 
that  the  almshouses  of  the  State  give  shelter  to  persons 
who,    through    misfortime    in    business 
or    otherwise,    have    fallen    from    high 
estate,  is  not  borne  out  by  the  facts.   But       Abuses. 
few  of  the  inmates  had  ever  owned  prop- 
erty to  any  extent.    With  few   excep- 
tions the  mass  of  inmates  owe  their  presence  there 
to  early  idle  and  shiftless  habits.     In  San  Francisco, 
the  jail,  the  hospital,  and  the  almshouse  is  each,  in  turn, 
the  resort  of  the  typical  inmate.    They  come  to  the  lat- 


Almshouse. 


Altgeld,  John  P. 


!•; 


ter  to  recuperate  so  long  as  any  vitality  remains,  and 
finally  return  there  to  die,  when  completely  wrecked 
by  dissipation  and  irregular  living.  The  women  are 
much  completer  wrecks  than  the  men,  because  prosti- 
tution gives  the  idle  and  vicious  an  alternative  career 
until  the  last. 

The  disgrace  that  attaches  to  almshouse  relief  will 
not  be  lifted  until  differentiation  has  been  carried  a 
step  farther,  and  there  is  some  classification  of  inmates 
on  the  basis  of  character  as  disclosed  in  individual  and 
family  history.  Reformatory  institutions  to  which  ha- 
bitual drunkards,  prostitutes,  and  other  misdemean- 
ants can  be  sent,  and  in  which  they  must  remain  until 
reformation  or  death  supervenes,  would  relieve  the 
almshouse  of  many  inmates,  and  the  worthy  poor  of  a 
very  considerable  portion  of  the  disgrace  which  attaches 
to  going  there. 

Among  almshouse  abuses  may  be  enumerated  dis- 
honest or  wasteful  management  of  the  funds;  culpa- 
ble stinginess  on  the  part  of  the  appropriating  power, 
resulting  in  inadequate  or  unhealthful  food,  lack  of 
proper  buildings,  heating  apparatus,  clothing,  and  so 
Jorth ;  insanitary  conditions,  including  dirt  and  ver- 
min ;  and  finally,  actual  cruelty,  resulting  from  either 
brutality  or  neglect  on  the  part  of  the  officials  in 
charge.  Few  understand  how  easy  it  is  for  an  official 
in  charge  of  the  utterly  helpless  to  do  cruel  things 
without  intentional  cruelty.  In  the  rural  districts  es- 
pecially abuses  are  apt  to  arise  because  so  few  persons 
•concern  themselves  with  the  institution.  The  super- 
intendent has  dreary  work,  small  pay,  and  practically 
no  general  recognition  of  his  services,  whether  they  be 
_good  or  bad.  A  sensitive,  high-minded,  ambitious 
man  is  not  likely  to  apply  for  or  accept  such  a  place. 
The  incumbent  is,  therefore,  almost  of  necessity  a  tol- 
erably stolid,  unsympathetic  person,  and  one  who  has 
not  been  very  successful  in  other  lines.  The  officials 
tinder  whom'he  works  send  to  him  a  miscellaneous  as- 
sortment of  the  diseased,  defective,  and  incapable,  but 
do  not  give  him  the  proper  facilities  for  providing  for 
these  various  classes.  They  cut  his  appropriations  to 
the  lowest  possible  point,  and  he  fears  that  any  vigor- 
ous protest  would  lose  him  the  place.  He  therefore 
concludes  that  he  may  as  well  get  along  as  best  he  can, 
since  to  object  would  only  bring  some  more  docile  man 
into  his  place.  On  the  other  hand,  most 
of  the  inmates  with  whom  he  has  to  deal 
Vtrila  nf  are  bad-tempered,  unreasonable,  and 
inveterately  querulous.  They  would 
Ahn.sh.OU.ses.  complain  no  matter  what  might  be  done 
for  them  ;  and  he  gradually  acts  on  the 
unrecognized  impression  that  it  does 
not  matter  what  is  done  for  them— that  anything  is 
good  enough  for  them.  He  becomes  brutal  uncon- 
sciously, and  almost  in  self-defence.  After  a  few  years 
he  does,  without  question,  things  that  would  have 
seemed  absolutely  awful  to  him  when  he  first  entered 
on  his  duties.  There  are  also  evils  resulting  from  our 
American  administration  of  almhouses  even  under 
competent  officials.  The  first  of  these  is  the  already 
referred  to  lack  of  classification  :  i.  The  separation 
of  the  sexes.  In  small  institutions  their  constant  and 
complete  separation  involves  practical  difficulties,  and 
occasionally  a  hideous  condition  of  affairs  is  brought 
to  light.  2.  Classification  by  color,  resulting  in  al- 
most duplicate  institutions.  3.  Isolation  of  defec- 
tives. It  is  partly  because  this  separation  is  so  frequent- 
ly out  of  the  question  that  they  ought  not  to  be  here  hud- 
dled together.  4.  Special  provision  for  the  sick.  From 
one  tenth  to  one  half  the  inmates  are  often  practically 
bedridden.  A  special  ward  for  syphilitics  is  often  nec- 
essary, even  in  small  institutions.  5.  Classification 
by  age.  This  is  especially  necessary  where  there  are 
children,  but  is  usually  not  practised. 

The  second  great  evil  which  springs  not  from  the 
character  of  the  officials,  but  from  the  nature  of  our 
almshouse  organization,  is  laxness  regarding  admis- 
sion and  discharge  of  inmates.  Since  every  person  is 
entitled  to  be  saved  from  starvation  and  death  from 
exposure,  and  as  that  is  nearly  all  that  the  almshouse 
does  for  its  beneficiaries,  any  one  that  -wills  to  claim  its 
shelter  can  have  it.  On  the  other  hand,  as  it  is  not  a 
penal  institution,  and  as  it  is  to  the  interest  of  no  one 
to  have  persons  stay  there  who  can  support  themselves 
outside,  an  inmate  wishing  to  discharge  himself  is  al- 
lowed to  do  so. 

The  results  of  this  apparently  defensible  practice  are 
thoroughly  bad.  Of  the  abuses  to  which  it  gives  rise 
we  may  mention  as  first  and  least  the  support  by  the 
county  of  persons  having  pensions  or  property,  or  rela- 
tives able  to  support  them.  Secondly,  it  turns  the 
almshouse  into  a  temporary  winter  resort  for  tramps, 
or  places  where  drunkards  and  prostitutes  can  recuper- 
ate between  debauches. 


The  final  and  worst  result  of  permitting  the  destitute 
to  admit  and  discharge  themselves  at  will  is  that  it  en- 
ables the  dissolute  and  degenerate  to  have  offspring 
"after  their  kind."  The  results  are  most  manifest  in 
the  cases  of  feeble-minded  women. 

A  third  very  prevalent  evil  in  the  management  of 
American  almshouses  is  lack  of  a  work-test,  and  a  fail- 
ure to  enforce  proper  discipline  among  the  inmates. 

In  small  rural  communities  an  almshouse  is  some- 
times self-supporting.  This  usually  means  that  the 
county  or  town  owns  a  farm  of  moderate  size,  and  that 
a  thoroughly  good  farmer  has  been  employed  as  super- 
intendent. As  a  rule,  not  more  than  20  per  cent,  of  the 
expenses  of  an  almshouse  can  be  defrayed  by  the  work 
of  the  inmates.  (See  PAUPERISM  ;  DEGENERATION  ; 
JUKES  ;  PRISONS  ;  CHARITY  ORGANIZATION  ;  TRAMHS, 
etc.) 

Reference  :  The  one  complete  book  on  the  subject 
is  American  Charities,  by  A.  G.  Warner,  Ph.D.,  from 
which  our  statement  is  abridged  ;  see  also  reports,  etc., 
especially  the  Tent  It  Annual  Report  of  the  New  York 
State  Board  of  Charities. 

ALTGELD,  JOHN  P.,  Governor  of  Illinois 
(1895),  was  born  in  Prussia  in  1848,  and  when  a 
boy  emigrated  to  the  United  States  with  his  par- 
ents. His  father  settled  on  a  farm  near  Mans- 
field, O.  When  the  farm  work  was  not  pressing 
he  attended  the  district  school,  but  at  the  age 
of  16  enlisted  in  Company  C,  One  Hundred  and 
Sixty-third  Ohio  Infantry,  and  participated  in  the 
closing  campaign  of  the  Civil  War.  Returning 
home,  he  spent  the  next  few  years  in  teaching, 
studying,  and  working  as  a  farm  hand.  Then 
he  went  to  St.  Louis,  where  he  read  law  in  a 
desultory  way,  and  subsequently  continued  this 
in  a  law  office  at  Savannah,  Mo.  His  industry 
and  faculty  for  getting  to  the  heart  of  a  subject 
soon  brought  him  clients  and  prosperity.  In 
1874  he  was  elected  prosecuting  attorney  of  An- 
drew County,  but  in  October  of  the  succeeding 
year  he  resigned  this  office  and  removed  to  Chi- 
cago. Here  he  took  little  interest  in  politics  for 
several  years,  but  in  1884  accepted  a  nomina- 
tion for  Congress  in  an  overwhelming  Republi- 
can district,  and  was  defeated,  tho  by  a  much 
reduced  Republican  majority.  In  1886,  without 
his  solicitation,  he  was  nominated  for  Superior 
Judge  of  Cook  County,  which  at  that  time  gave 
a  Republican  majority  of  about  12,000.  He  hesi- 
tated some  time,  but  finally  accepted,  and  his 
canvass  and  organization  was  so  thorough  that, 
notwithstanding  defections  from  the  Demo- 
cratic Party  and  quarrels  within  its  ranks,  he 
was  elected  by  a  large  majority,  the  laboring 
men  being  especially  active  in  his  interests.  He 
was  on  the  bench  nearly  five  years,  being  Chief 
Justice  of  the  Superior  Court  for  one  year.  A 
multiplicity  of  private  interests  compelled  him 
to  resign  this  position  in  August,  1891.  He  has 
become  quite  wealthy,  principally  by  the  buy- 
ing and  selling  of  real  estate  in  Chicago  and  in- 
vestments in  street  railways.  He  designed  and 
built  a  number  of  the  finest  business  blocks  in 
Chicago.  He  was  nominated  for  Governor  of 
Illinois  on  the  first  ballot  in  the  Democratic- 
convention  of  1892,  and  made  two  efficient  can- 
vasses of  the  State — a  preliminary  one,  in  which 
he  visited  every  county  to  ascertain  its  political 
condition  and  give  instructions  for  organization, 
and  another  to  address  the  people  on  the  issues 
of  the  day.  He  was  triumphantly  elected,  to  the 
surprise  of  even  his  own  party.  For  over  30 
years  Illinois  had  been  considered  safe  for  25,000 
to  50,000  Republican  plurality.  As  a  business 
man,  he  applies  business  principles  to  the  dis- 


Altgeld,  John  P. 


37 


Amalgamated  Association. 


charge  of  his  official  duties.  He  has  recently 
gained  the  hostility  of  many  of  the  wealthy 
classes  through  his  pardoning,  on  June,  1893,  of 
the  so-called  "  Chicago  anarchists,"  Neebe, 
Fielden,  and  Schwab.  Governor  Altgeld' s 
ground  for  doing  this  was  his  belief  that  their 
trial  had  not  been  a  fair  one.  (For  a  full  ac- 
count of  Governor  Altgeld's  position  in  the  mat- 
ter, see  CHICAGO  ANARCHISTS.)  Whether  right  or 
wrong,  there  is  no  question  among  those  who 
know  him  that  Governor  Altgeld  has  acted  in 
this  matter  from  conscientious  principles  and 
contrary  to  his  political  interests.  In  the  great 
Pullman  strike  of  1894  he  publicly  addressed 
President  Cleveland,  protesting  against  the 
Presidential  policy  of  sending  United  States 
troops  to  keep  the  peace  in  Illinois  when  not  re- 
quested to  do  so  by  the  Governor,  he  believing 
that  Illinois  was  abundantly  able  to  protect  its 
own  citizens,  and  asserting  that  such  action  on 
the  part  of  the  Federal  Government  overrode 
the  Constitution,  and  set  up  what  might  easily 
lead  to  a  military  absolutism.  Governor  Altgeld 
has  written  a  book  on  penal  machinery,  pam- 
phlets in  favor  of  the  8-hour  movement  and 
similar  problems,  and  a  volume  entitled  Live 
Questions  (1892). 

ALTRUISM. — A  term  used  in  sociology  and 
philosophy  to  denote  the  benevolent  instincts 
and  emotions  in  general,  or  action  prompted  by 
them  ;  and  more  specifically  used  of  that  theory 
of  life  which  would  make  the  living  for  others 
the  central  thought  of  life  and  the  essence  of  re- 
ligion. It  was  first  employed  by  Comte,  but  has 
passed  into  general  use.  Herbert  Spencer  says  : 
"  If  we  define  altruism  as  being  all  action,  which, 
in  the  normal  course  of  things,  benefits  others 
instead  of  benefiting  self,  then  from  the  dawn 
of  life  altruism  has  been  no  less  essential  than 
egoism."  (See  also  INDIVIDUALISM  and  SOCIAL- 
ISM.) 

ALTRUIST  COMMUNITY.— The  Altruist 

Community  was  first  organized  in  1868,  and  es- 
tablished and  incorporated  as  a  benevolent  so- 
ciety in  Jasper  County,  Mo. ,  where  it  remained 
about  five  years,  having  there  160  acres  of  land  on 
payments,  and  an  average  membership  of  from 
10  to  20  members.  Not  being  able  to  complete 
its  payments,  its  members  were  scattered  for  a 
time,  until  another  place  of  500  acres  was 
bought  on  10  years'  time,  in  Dallas  County,  Mo., 
where  it  again  had  from  10  to  30  members,  and 
again  lost  its  place  at  the  end  of  the  10  years. 
Still  another  place  was  found  and  paid  for,  of 
120 acres,  in  Bollinger  County,  Mo.,  where  it  had 
from  six  to  12  members,  and  continued  until  1887. 
This  place  was  lost  by  a  mortgage  given  to  raise 
money  to  return  investments  of  withdrawing 
members.  In  each  place  it  had  a  different  name, 
the  first  being  the  Reunion  Community,  the  sec- 
ond the  Friendship  Community,  and  the  third 
the  Mutual  Aid  Community. 

Since  1887  it  has  borne  the  name  the  Altruist 
Community,  and  has  been  located  at  901  Olive 
Street,  St.  Louis,  Mo. ,  having  at  three  different 
times  six  to  eight  adult  members,  both  men  and 
women,  and  a  few  children — there  being  one  or 
two  families  and  the  others  single  persons.  In 
1894  still  another  place  was  offered  in  Arkan- 
sas, and  the  members  accepted  there  with  those 


in  the  city  numbered  10  in  all,  with  about  12 
more  expected  to  come  ;  but  the  place  was  found 
to  be  encumbered,  and  operations  discontinued, 
which  has  left  its  members  scattered  and  uncer- 
tain until  sufficient  means  can  be  obtained  to 
buy  a  place  with  permanent  investments  near 
St.  Louis. 

In  the  mean  time  the  president  of  the  com- 
munity still  holds  the  organization  intact  and 
( 1 895)  publishes  its  monthly  paper,  The  A  Ifruist, 
and  a  book  of  424  pages,  containing  a  full  exposi- 
tion of  its  principles  and  organization.  The 
community  owns  its  own  printing  material  and 
does  all  its  own  printing.  It  designs  to  con- 
tinue its  operations  hereafter  both  in  St.  Louis 
and  in  the  country  near  by. 

AMALGAMATED  ASSOCIATION  OF 
IRON  AND  STEEL  WORKERS.— This  as- 
sociation was  organized  August  3,  1876,  by  rep- 
resentatives of  previous  organizations  in  the  iron 
and  steel  industry — viz. ,  the  Iron  and  Steel  Roll 
Hands  ;  the  Associated  Brotherhood  of  Iron  and 
Steel  Heaters,  Rollers  and  Roughers  ;  the  United 
Sons  of  Vulcan,  and  the  Nailers'  Association. 
Of  these  there  were  respectively  in  the  organiz- 
ing convention  6,  15,  46,  and  i.  The  first  presi- 
dent and  secretary  was  Joseph  Bishop,  with  a 
salary  of  $1500  for  the  first  year,  proving  a  most 
fortunate  selection.  The  object  of  the  associa- 
tion was  set  forth  in  a  preamble  closing  with 
these  words  : 

"  We  ask,  is  it  charitable,  is  it  humane,  is  it 
honest  to  take  from  the  laborer,  who  is  already 
fed,  clothed,  and  lodged  too  poorly,  a  portion  of 
his  food  and  raiment,  and  deprive  his  family  of 
the  necessaries  of  life — by  the  common  resort — 
a  reduction  of  his  wages  ?  It  must  not  be  so. 
To  rescue  our  trades  from  the  condition  into 
which  they  have  fallen,  and  raise  ourselves  to 
that  condition  in  society  to  which  we,  as  me- 
chanics, are  justly  entitled,  and  to  place  our- 
selves on  a  foundation  sufficiently  strong  to  se- 
cure us  from  further  encroachments,  and  to  ele- 
vate the  moral,  social,  and  intellectual  condition 
of  every  iron  and  steel  worker  in  the  country,  is 
the  object  of  our  national  association,  and  to  the 
consummation  of  so  desirable  an  object  we,  the 
delegates  in  convention  assembled,  do  pledge 
ourselves  to  unceasing  effort." 

Sec.  2  of  the  constitution  stated  that  the 
objects  of  this  association  shall  be  to  obtain  by 
conciliation,  or  by  other  means  that  are  fair  and 
legal,  a  fair  remuneration  to  the  members  for 
their  labor  ;  and  to  afford  mutual  protection  to 
members  against  broken  contracts,  obnoxious 
rules,  unlawful  discharge,  or  other  systems  of 
injustice  or  oppression.  The  convention  decid- 
ed against  arbitration  by  a  majority  of  50,  be- 
cause they  preferred  boards  of  conciliation 
(g.v.},  but  took  strong  ground  against  resort  to 
strikes,  if  they  could  be  possibly  averted. 

The  first  year  was  one  of  great  success,  and 
the  convention  that  met  in  Columbus  in  1877 
was  one  of  the  best  ever  held  in  this  country  by 
workers  in   this  trade.     The  next 
year  was  one  of  great  depression  in 
the  trade.     Prices  kept  going  lower     History, 
to  October,  1878.     Strikes  began  to 
multiply.     These     were    not    only 
against  lowered  wages,  but  against  the  "  con- 


Amalgamated  Association. 


Amalgamated  Association. 


tract  system,"  whereby  a  company  kept  back 
the  first  four  weeks'  wages  and  also  25  per  cent,  of 
the  wages  after  that  to  the  end  of  the  year,  then 
to  be  paid  to  the  men,  if  profits  would  "  justify 
such  payment. "     As  these  were  found,  in  the 
opinion  of  the  company,  rarely  to  do  so,  it  natu- 
rally produced  great  opposition.     The  associa- 
tion has  always  been  in  favor  of  a  high  protec- 
tive tariff,  and  did  much  up  to  this  year  to  in- 
duce Congress  to  increase  the  duty  on  tin  and 
tin-plate,  to  prevent  old  rails  being  admitted 
under  existent  duties,  and  to  defeat  the  Wood 
tariff  bill.     In  1879  the  trade  began  to  revive  and 
strikes  to  cease.     The  presidents  salary  was  re- 
duced to  $1000,  and  he  resigned,  saying  that  if 
the  men's  wages  had  been  reduced  33  ^  per  cent. , 
they  would  all  strike.     John  Jarrett  was  elected 
president  January,  1880.     The  association  grew 
rapidly  ;  43  new  lodges  were  organized  before 
August.     The  boom  in  the  trade,  however,  soon 
ended.     In  four  weeks,  commencing  April  8, 
prices  fell  from  the  highest  point  reached  in  the 
boom  to  the  lowest — about  50  per  cent.     Strikes 
became  prevalent,  the  majority  ending  in  the  de- 
feat of  the  men,  especially  in  the  East.     The 
West  was    more  successful.     The 
convention   that  met  in  Pittsburg 
History  of  August,  1880,  was  the  largest  yet 
the  Iron-    held — 192  delegates  and  officers  be- 
workers.    ing  present.     The  next  year  was 
one  of  great  trial.     Strikes  grew 
larger,  ending  in  a  general  strike, 
which  was  totally  defeated. 

At  the  Cleveland  convention  in  1881  Canada 
was  added  to  the  jurisdiction  of  the  national 
lodge,  and  colored  men  were  made  eligible  to 
membership.  This  year  the  association  was 
represented  at  the  convention  of  the  Federation 
of  Labor  in  Pittsburg,  but  not  after  this,  because 
of  the  striking  out  by  the  federation  from  its 
platform  of  resolution  n,  which  favored  protec- 
tion. The  year  1882  was  a  critical  one.  Many 
strikes  took  place,  including  an  important  one 
at  Homestead,  which  was  practically  successful. 
Severe  jealousies  broke  out  between  the  boilers 
and  finishers.  In  December,  1882,  the  Besse- 
mer steel-rail  manufacturers  proposed  a  cut  in 
wages  of  20  per  cent. ,  which  the  president,  Mr. 
Jarrett,  advised  the  members  to  accept.  They 
refused,  and  the  manufacturers  made  a  cut  of 
33  \i  Per  cent.  The  men  struck,  but  after 
months  were  compelled  to  accept  the  33^  cut. 
In  August,  1883,  Mr.  Jarrett  resigned  the  presi- 
dency, to  the  universal  regret,  and  William 
Weihe  was  elected.  The  next  year  was  one  of 
decadence.  In  1885  the  nailers  withdrew  from 
the  association,  but  in  1886  rejoined  it.  In 
June,  1885,  the  association  agreed  to  a  reduction 
of  10  per  cent,  in  all  departments  except  that  of 
the  sheet  mills.  For  the  next  three  years  strikes 
were  few,  and  there  are  few  events  to  be  chroni- 
cled up  to  the  great  Homestead  strike,  which 
began  on  June  30,  1892.  On  account  of  the  im- 
portance of  this,  we  consider  it  in  an  article  by 
itself.  (See  HOMESTEAD.) 

The  association  is  not  a  beneficial  order.  In  case  of 
disabled  members,  voluntary  subscriptions  are  taken 
up,  and  sums  of  $1000  to  nearly  $3000  have  been  raised 
in  this  way.  The  National  Labor  Tribune  has  long: 
been  their  organ.  The  Amalgamated  Association  has 
never  advocated  arbitration  as  a  means  of  settling  dis- 
putes or  regulating  wages.  It  is  somewhat  singular, 
too,  to  observe  that  though  a  strong  sentiment  in  favor 


of  arbitration  existed  among  the  iron  and  steel  workers 
up  to  the  period  of  the  organization  of  the  Amalgamated 
Association,  since  then  it  has  steadily  been  growing 
weaker,  until  at  the  present  time  the 
feeling  is  one  of  strong  opposition.  The  Conciliation 
association  is,  however,  heartily  in  fa-  Preferred  to 
vor  of  conciliation.  By  conciliation  is  ". 
meant  the  right  to  se'ttle  or  prevent  Arbitration, 
labor  differences  by  conferences  be- 
tween the  parties  interested,  or  their  authorized  rep- 
resentatives, these  conferences  having  no  power  to 
reach  a  decision  save  as  the  result  of  mutual  agree- 
ment. Arbitration  provides  for  a  third  party.  The 
association  maintains  that  arbitration  does  not  and  can- 
not protect  the  workingmen ;  because,  in  the  first 
Elace,  there  is  no  fixed  point  that  can  be  considered  as 
lir  profits  to  the  employer  ;  and  secondly,  no  provision 
is  made  to  fix  a  minimum  of  wages  or  prices,  and  con- 
sequently under  free  competition  wages  may  go  to  the 
lowest  point.  As  an  illustration  of  this  they  point  to 
the  operation  of  arbitration  among  the  iron-workers 
of  the  north  of  England,  where  prices  of  iron  have  be- 
come so  low  as  to  leave  the  wages  of  the  workmen  so 
meager  that  respectable  living  is  out  of  the  question. 
Under  arbitration  in  England,  the  price  of  puddling  is 
reduced  to  6s.  and  3^.,  or  $1.50  per  ton,  with  the  possi- 
bility that  it  may  be  yet  further  reduced  ;  when  with 
conciliation,  in  this  country,  the  price  of  puddling  is 
$5  per  ton,  which  is  the  minimum,  based  on  a  two  cents 
manufacturers'  card. 

The  iron  and  steel  workers  have  always  preferred 
conciliation.  The  appointment  of  conference  com- 
mittees representing  each  side  dates  from  January, 
1865.  The  result  of  this — the  first  meeting  of  what 
many  term  the  Conciliation  Board— was  the  adoption 
of  the  following  scale  of  prices  : 

MEMORANDUM  OF  AGREEMENT, 

made  this  i3th  day  of  February,  1865,  between  a  com- 
mittee of  boilers  and  a  committee  from  the  iron  manu- 
facturers, appointed  to  fix  a  scale  of  prices  to  be  paid 
for  boiling  pig  iron,  based  on  the  manufacturers'  card 
of  prices,  it  being  understood  either  party  shall  have  the 
right  and  privilege  to  terminate  this  agreement  by 
giving  90  days'  notice  to  the  other  party,  and  that  there 
shall  be  no  deviation  withoxit  such  notice.  When  the 
manufacturers'  card  of  prices  is  at  the  rate  named 
below,  the  price  for  boiling  shall  be  at  the  prices  oppo- 
site, per  ton  of  2240  Ibs. : 

Manufacturers.  Boilers. 

8)£  cents  per  Ib $9.00 

SJi      "       "     " 8.75 

8          u        "     " 8.50 

7?<      "        "     " 8.25 

7^  and  7^  cents  per  Ib 8.00 


4 '4 

$ 


6.50 
6.00 
5-75 
5-50 
5.00 
4-75 
4-50 


2%  cents  per  Ib 4.00 

This  was  the  adoption  of  the  famous  sliding  scale  of 
prices.  It  was  hailed  by  all  as  an  era  of  peace  ;  but,  as 
subsequent  events  showed,  they  were  disappointed. 
Iron  declined  from  ?%  cents  in  February  to  4  cents  in 
July ;  and,  as  a  consequence,  the  price  for  puddling 
declined  in  the  proportion  stipulated  by  the  scale. 
Impressed  with  the  belief  that  the  basis  of  the  scale 
was  too  low,  the  puddlers  gave  the  required  90  days' 
notice  in  the  summer  of  that  year  to  terminate  the 
agreement.  At  the  expiration  of  the  notice  the  price 
of  iron  had  advanced  slightly,  giving  the  puddlers 
$6.00  per  ton,  whereupon  they  demanded  and  received 
$2.00  per  ton  of  an  advance,  making  the  price  $8.00  per 
ton.  The  latter  figure  prevailed  as  the  price  for  pud- 
dling from  October,  1865,  to  October,  1866,  when  the 
puddlers,  believing  that  the  price  of  iron  justified  their 
action,  demanded  an  advance  of  $1.00  per  ton,  which 
was,  with  considerable  reluctance,  conceded  by  the 
manufacturers.  About  two  months  later  the  manufac- 
turers gave  eyidence  of  an  unwillingness  to  continue 
paying  the  prices,  and  finally  served  notice  of  a  reduc- 
tion of  $2.00  per  ton.  This  the  workmen  promptly  re- 
jected, when  a  general  lockout  resulted  in  all  the  Pitts- 
burg and  adjacent  mills.  The  lockout  lasted  from 
December,  1886,  to  May,  1867,  when  the  employees  gave 
in.  And  so  it  has  gone  with  varying  changes  and  con- 
flicts and  successes  and  failures,  according  to  the  his- 
tory given  above. 


Amalgamated  Association. 


39 


Amendments  to  the  Constitution. 


June  25,  1886,  an  agreement  was  entered  into  between 
the  committee  of  the  Manufacturers'  Association  and 
a  committee  of  the  Amalgamated  Association.  This 
scale  of  prices  covers  every  possible  detail  of  boiling, 
muck  or  puddle  mill,  bar  and  nail-plate  mill,  guide, 
lo-inch,  hoop  and  cotton-tie  mills,  with  its  different 
departments  of  nut  iron,  channel  iron,  "T"  iron,  an- 
gles, clip,  or  wagon  strap,  name  iron,  io-inch  mill,  and 
hoop  and  cotton-tie  mills;  also  plate  and  tank  mills, 
sheet  mills,  Birmingham  wire-gauge,  and  nail-cutting. 

Notwithstanding  the  action  in  deciding  not  to  affili- 
Federation  of  Trades,  the  iron  and  steel 


ate  with  the 

workers  are  in  hearty  accord  with  all  the  great  ques- 
tions of  the  day,  as  advocated  in  the  platform  of  the 
Federation,  and  the  declaration  of  principles  of  the 
Knights  of  Labor.  They  are  especially  in  favor  of  the 
compulsory  education  of  children,  and  forbidding  the 
employment  of  children  under  15  years  of  age,  and 
the  reservation  of  the  land  for  actual  settlers.  The 
only  essential  point  of  difference  is  on  that  of  arbitra- 
tion. The  association  attaches  much  importance  to  the 
question  of  temperance.  It  regards  intemperance  as  a 
prolific  source  from  which  spring  many  of  the  evils 
which  the  workingman  has  to  endure.  Great  care 
has  always  been  taken  to  impress  upon  the  minds  of 
the  members  the  necessity  of  properly  husbanding 
their  resources.  It  is  not  only  necessary  that  the  work- 
men should  receive  good  wages,  but  also  necessar.y 
that  they  judiciously  spend  them.  In  brief,  the  sole 
aim  of  the  association  is  the  social,  moral,  mental,  and 
financial  improvement  of  its  members. 
Among  trade-unions  the  association  has  been  marked 
for  its  reliance  upon  and  support  of  pro- 
tection. It  has  been  thus,  while  one  of 
Protection.  tne  largest  and  wealthiest,  one  of  the 
most  conservative,  and  in  many  ways 
least  progressive  of  trade-unions — a  fact 
all  the  more  noteworthy,  considering  the  result  of  the 
last  great  Homestead  strike.  Since  that  strike  its 
membership  has  diminished.  Its  membership  to-day 
(June,  iSgs)  is  reported  to  be  34,000  in  290  unions,  with 
J.  C.  Kilgallon,  108  Fourth  Ave.,  Pittsburg,  for  secre- 
tary. See  TRADE-UNIONS. 


AMANA  COMMUNITY.— A  German  relig- 
ious community  on  the  Iowa  River,  in  Iowa, 
reached  at  the  station  of  Homestead,  on  the  Chi- 
cago and  Rock  Island  Railroad.  The  com- 
munity numbers  some  2400  souls,  owns  about 
25,000  acres,  is  rated  at  over  $1,000,000  in  capi- 
tal, and  is  in  every  way  an  economic  and  an  in- 
dustrial success.  Mainly  agricultural,  it  has 
herds  of  blooded  cattle,  sheep,  hogs,  and  a  large 
number  of  fine  horses.  It  also  does  a  growing 
manufacturing  business.  The  two  largest  wool- 
en mills  in  Iowa  are  owned  and  operated  by  the 
community.  The  famous  colony  blue  prints  are 
made  here  ;  80  pieces  of  these,  containing  45 
yards  each,  are  turned  out  in  a  day.  The  com- 
munity has,  moreover,  two  large  nouring-mills, 
with  full  roller  process  and  elevators,  manufac- 
turing pearl  barley  and  hominy.  There  are  also 
three  large  machine-shops,  where  most  of  the 
farm  machinery  used  by  the  community  is  made. 
Besides  these  there  are  dye-shops,  blacksmith- 
shops,  sawmills,  a  printing-office,  and  other 
lesser  industries.  Their  business  is  growing 
because  their  patrons  are  well  treated.  Their 
goods  are  all  honest  goods,  the  Amana  brand 
telling  its  own  story. 

The  community  lives  in  eight  villages,  two  or 
tllree  miles  apart,  Amana  being  the  center,  and 
Homestead  the  most  important  railroad  office. 
Each  village  has  its  own  doctor, 
school,  post-office,  store,  hotel,  and 
Organization,  place  of  meeting.  The  government 
of  the  community  is  vested  in  a  pres- 
ident— now  Dr.  Jacob  Witmer — and 
a  board  of  13  directors,  elected  by  the  community 
for  life.     Family  life  is  preserved  inviolate,  each 
family  living  alone,  except  where  two  or  three 


prefer  to  live  in  the  same  house.  They  come  to- 
gether, however,  for  common  meals  in  little 
boarding-houses,  one  for  every  four  families. 
The  fare  is  simple,  but  abundant  and  healthy. 
The  houses  are  pleasant  and  homelike,  tho 
unpainted,  being  covered  in  summer  with 
vines  and  surrounded  by  little  flower  gardens. 
The  communism  is  absolute,  all  the  necessi- 
ties of  life  being  provided  freely  for  all,  and 
the  industries  being  operated  for  the  equal  ad- 
vantage of  all.  The  life  is  simple  and  quiet, 
there  being  few  amusements  and  little  variety  ; 
national  holidays  and  memorial  days,  how- 
ever, are  observed.  The  community  is  very 
religious.  A  prayer-meeting  is 
held  in  each  village  every  night 
of  the  week,  where  the  men  sit  Belief, 
on  one  side  and  the  women  on 
the  other,  and  quietly  sing  their 
German  Lutheran  chants,  or  pray,  or  read  from 
the  Bible  or  the  books  of  their  prophets  or  lead- 
ers. They  call  their  communities  True  Inspira- 
tion Congregations,  and  believe  in  the  Trinity, 
justification  by  faith,  the  resurrection  of  the 
dead,  the  gradual  purification  of  the  impenitent 
by  fire,  the  communism  of  all  saints  as  a  neces- 
sary part  of  Christianity.  They  believe  that  an 
era  of  inspiration  began  in  the  eighteenth  cen- 
tury, the  Holy  Ghost  speaking  to  their  founder, 
Erasmus  Gruber,  and  other  "  prophets."  They 
drink  wine  made  by  their  own  labor,  formerly 
brewing  the  best  beer  of  the  State,  and  deriv- 
ing quite  a  profit  from  this,  which  practice,  how- 
ever, they  quietly  ended  when  Iowa  became  a 
prohibition  State,  doing  this  out  of  respect  to 
the  law  and  the  opinions  of  their  neighbors. 
Wine,  however,  they  give  to  their  employees  in 
harvest-time  as  freely  and  generously  as  to  them- 
selves. The  life  being  so  simple  and  quiet,  and 
without  great  educational  advantages,  many  of 
the  young  people  leave,  and  are  allowed  to  do 
so,  but  usually  are  glad  to  come  back  to  the 
peace  and  quiet  plenty  of  the  communal  home. 
They  do  not  seek  new  members,  but  elect  to 
membership  those  who  come  and 
after  trial  prove  themselves  of  the 
right  spirit.  The  universal  Ian-  History, 
guage  is  German.  The  beginning 
of  the  sect  was  in  Wiirtemberg, 
Germany,  where  it  was  founded  in  1714  by 
Erasmus  Gruber.  At  his  death  Christian  Metz 
became  their  leader,  and  he  brought  them  to 
this  country  in  1843.  First  settling  in  Ebenezer, 
Erie  County,  N.  Y. ,  they  moved  to  their  present 
site  in  1855-64. 

AMENDMENTS  TO  THE  CONSTITU- 
TION.— Congress  at  its  first  session  under  the 
Constitution  proposed  to  the  States  12  articles 
of  amendments.  Of  these  12  articles,  10  were 
ratified  by  the  legislatures  of  three  fourths  of 
the  States,  and  became  part  and  parcel  of  the 
Constitution  from  December  15,  1791.  These 
amendments  constitute  the  first  xoof  the  amend- 
ments to  the  Constitution.  They,  in  general, 
relate  to  the  rights  of  the  people  and  to  limita- 
tions of  government. 

ART.  I.  Congress  shall  make  no  law  respecting  an 
establishment  of  religion,  or  prohibiting  the  free  exer- 
cise thereof  ;  or  abridging  the  freedom  of  speech  or  of 
the  press  ;  or  the  right  of  the  people  peaceably  to  as- 


Amendments  to  the  Constitution.        4°        Amendments  to  the  Constitution. 


semble,  and  to  petition  the  Government  for  a  redress 
of  grievances. 

ART.  II.  A  well-regulated  militia  being  necessary 
to  the  security  of  a  free  State,  the  right  of  the  people 
to  keep  and  bear  arms  shall  not  be  infringed. 

ART.  III.  No  soldier  shall  in  time  of  peace  be  quar- 
tered in  any  house  without  the  consent  of  the  owner, 
nor  in  time  of  war  but  in  a  manner  to  be  prescribed 
by  law. 

ART.  IV.  The  right  of  the  people  to  be  secure  in 
their  persons,  houses,  papers,  and  effects  against  un- 
reasonable searches  and  seizures  shall  not  be  violated, 
and  no  warrants  shall  issue  but  upon  probable  cause, 
supported  by  oath  or  affirmation,  and  particularly  de- 
scribing the  place  to  be  searched,  and  the  persons  or 
things  to  be  seized. 

ART.  V.  No  person  shall  be  held  to  answer  for  a 
capital  or  otherwise  infamous  crime  unless  on  a  pre- 
sentment or  indictment  of  a  grand  jury,  except  in 
cases  arising  in  the  land  or  naval  forces,  or  in  the  mili- 
tia, when  in  actual  service,  in  time  of  war  or  public 
danger;  nor  shall  any  person  be  subject  for  the  same 
offense  to  be  twice  put  in  jeopardy  ot  life  or  limb,  nor 
shall  be  compelled  in  any  criminal  case  to  be  a  wit- 
ness against  himself,  nor  be  deprived  of  life,  liberty,  or 
property  without  due  process  of  law  ;  nor  shall  private 
property  be  taken  for  public  use  without  just  com- 
pensation. 

ART.  VI.  In  all  criminal  prosecutions  the  accused 
shall  enjoy  the  right  to  a  speedy  and  public  trial,  by 
an  impartial  jury  of  the  State  and  district  wherein  the 
crime  shall  have  been  committed,  which  district  shall 
have  been  previously  ascertained  by  law,  and  to  be  in- 
formed of  the  nature  and  cause  of  the  accusation ;  to 
be  confronted  with  the  witnesses  against  him  j  to  have 
compulsory  process  for  obtaining  witnesses  in  his  fa- 
vor, and  to  have  the  assistance  of  counsel  for  his  de- 
fense. 

ART.  VII.  In  suits  at  common  law,  where  the  value 
in  controversy  shall  exceed  $20,  the  right  of  trial  by 
jury  shall  be  preserved,  and  no  fact  tried  by  a  jury 
shall  be  otherwise  re-examined  in  any  court  of  the 
United  States  than  according  to  the  rules  of  the  com- 
mon law. 

ART.  VIII.  Excessive  bail  shall  not  be  required,  nor 
excessive  fines  imposed,  nor  cruel  and  unusual  punish- 
ments inflicted. 

ART.  IX.  The  enumeration  in  the  Constitution  of 
certain  rights  shall  not  be  construed  to  deny  or  dispar- 
age others  retained  by  the  people. 

ART.  X.  The  powers  not  delegated  to  the  United 
States  by  the  Constitution,  nor  prohibited  by  it  to  the 
States,  are  reserved  to  the  States  respectively,  or  to  the 
people. 

The  eleventh  amendment  was  proposed  at  the  first 
session  of  the  Third  Congress,  in  1794,  and  was  declared 
adopted  as  a  part  of  the  Constitution  January  8,  1798. 
It  is  as  follows  : 

ART.  XI.  "  The  judicial  power  of  the  United  States 
shall  not  be  construed  to  extend  to  any  suit  in  law  or 
equity  commenced  or  prosecuted  against  one  of  the 
United  States  by  citizens  of  another  State,  or  by  citi- 
zens or  subjects  of  any  foreign  State." 

The  twelfth  amendment  was  proposed  at  the  first 
session  of  the  Eighth  Congress,  in  1803,  and  was  adopt- 
ed by  the  requisite  number  of  States  the  next  year. 
At  present  there  are  three  other  amendments— the 
thirteenth,  fourteenth,  and  fifteenth— all  of  which  have 
grown  out  of  the  Civil  War. 

ART.  XII.  The  electors  shall  meet  in  their  respective 
States,  and  vote  by  ballot  for  President  and  Vice- 
President,  one  of  whom  at  least  shall  not  be  an  inhabi- 
tant of  the  same  State  with  themselves ;  they  shall 
name  in  their  ballots  the  person  voted  for  as  President, 
and  in  distinct  ballots  the  person  voted  for  as  Vice- 
President,  and  they  shall  make  distinct  lists  of  all  per- 
sons voted  for  as  President,  and  of  all  persons  voted  for 
as  Vice-President,  and  of  the  number  of  votes  for  each, 
which  lists  they  shall  sign  and  certify,  and  transmit  seal- 
ed to  the  seat  of  the  Government  of  the  United  States, 
directed  to  the  President  of  the  Senate.  The  President 
of  the  Senate  shall,  in  the  presence  of  the  Senate  and 
House  of  Representatives,  open  all  the  certificates,  and 
the  votes  shall  then  be  counted.  The  person  having  the 
greatest  number  of  votes  for  President  shall  be  the 
President,  if  such  number  be  a  majority  of  the  whole 
number  of  electors  appointed  ;  and  if  no  person  have 
such  majority,  then  from  the  persons  having  the  high- 
est numbers  not  exceeding  three  on  the  list  of  those 
voted  for  as  President,  the  House  of  Representatives 
shall  choose  immediately,  by  ballot,  the  President. 
But  in  choosing  the  President,  the  votes  shall  be  taken 
by  States,  the  representation  from  each  State  having 
one  vote  ;  a  quorum  for  this  purpose  shall  consist  of  a 


member  or  members  from  two  thirds  of  the  States, 
and  a  majority  of  all  the  States  shall  be  necessary  to  a 
choice.  And  if  the  House  of  Representatives  shall  not 
choose  a  President  whenever  the  right  of  choice  shall 
devolve  upon  them,  before  the  fourth  day  of  March 
next  following,  then  the  Vice-President  shall  act  as 
President,  as  in  the  case  of  the  death  or  other  constitu- 
tional disability  of  the  President. 

The  person  having  the  greatest  number  of  votes  as 
Vice-President  shall  be  the  Vice-President,  if  such 
number  be  a  majority  of  the  whole  number  of  electors 
appointed,  and  if  no  person  have  a  majority,  then  from 
the  two  highest  numbers  on  the  list  the  Senate  shall 
choose  the  Vice-President :  a  quorum  for  the  purpose 
shall  consist  of  two  thirds  of  the  whole  number  of 
Senators,  and  a  majority  of  the  whole  number  shall  be 
necessary  to  a  choice.  But  no  person  constitutionally 
ineligible  to  the  office  of  President  shall  be  eligible  to 
that  of  Vice-President  of  the  United  States. 

ART.  XIII.  Sec.  i.  "  Neither  Slavery  nor  involun- 
tary servitude,  except  as  a  punishment  for  crime, 
whereof  the  party  shall  have  been  duly  convicted, 
shall  exist  within  the  United  States,  or  any  place  sub- 
ject to  their  jurisdiction." 

SEC.  2.  "  Congress  shall  have  power  to  enforce  this 
article  by  appropriate  legislation." 

This  amendment  was  proposed  by  Congress  in  1865 
and  ratified  by  the  constitutional  number  of  States  the 
same  year. 

ART.  XIV.  Sec.  i.  "  All  persons  born  or  naturalized 
in  the  United  States,  and  subject  to  the  jurisdiction 
thereof,  are  citizens  of  the  United  States  and  of  the 
State  wherein  they  reside.  No  State  shall  make  or  en- 
force any  law  which  shall  abridge  the  privileges  or  im- 
munities of  citizens  of  the  United  States ;  nor  shall 
any  State  deprive  any  person  of  life,  liberty,  or  prop- 
erty without  due  process  of  law,  nor  .deny  to  any  per- 
son within  its  jurisdiction  the  equal  protection  of  the 
laws." 

SEC.  2.  "Representatives  shall  be  apportioned 
among  the  several  States  according  to  their  respective 
numbers,  counting  the  whole  number  of  persons  in 
each  State,  excluding  Indians  not  taxed.  But  when 
the  right  to  vote  at  any  election  for  the  choice  of  elec- 
tors for  President  and  Vice-President  of  the  United 
States,  repiesentatives  in  Congress,  the  executive  and 
judicial  officers  of  a  State,  or  the  members  of  the  legis- 
lature thereof,  is  denied  to  any  of  the  male  inhabitants 
of  such  State  being  21  years  of  age,  and  citizens  of  the 
United  States,  or  in  any  way  abridged,  except  for 
participation  in  rebellion  or  other  crime,  the  basis  of 
representation  therein  shall  be  reduced  in  the  propor- 
tion which  the  number  of  such  male  citizens  shall  bear 
to  the  whole  number  of  male  citizens  21  years  of  age  in 
such  State." 

SEC.  3.  "  No  person  shall  be  a  Senator  or  represen- 
tative in  Congress,  or  elector  of  President  and  Vice- 
President,  or  hold  any  office,  civil  or  military,  under 
the  United  States,  or  under  any  State,  who,  having 
previously  taken  an  oath  as  a  member  of  Congress,  or 
as  an  officer  of  the  United  States,  or  as  a  member  of 
any  State  legislature,  or  as  an  executive  or  judicial 
officer  of  any  State,  to  support  the  Constitution  of  the 
United  States,  shall  have  engaged  in  insurrection  or 
rebellion  against  the  same,  or  given  aid  or  comfort  to 
the  enemies  thereof.  But  Congress  may,  by  a  vote  of 
two  thirds  of  each  house,  remove  such  disability." 

SEC.  4.  "  The  validity  of  the  public  debt  of  the  United 
States,  authorized  by  law,  including  debts  incurred  for 
payment  of  pensions  and  bounties  for  services  in  sup- 
pressing insurrection  or  rebellion,  shall  not  be  ques- 
tioned. But  neither  the  United  States  nor  any  State 
shall  assume  or  pay  any  debt  or  obligation  incurred  in 
aid  of  insurrection  or  rebellion  against  the  United 
States,  or  any  claim  for  loss  or  emancipation  of  any 
slave  ;  but  all  such  debts,  obligations,  and  claims  shall 
be  held  illegal  and  void." 

SEC.  5.  The  Congress  shall  have  power  to  enforce, 
by  appropriate  legislation,  the  provisions  of  this  arti- 
cle." 

This  amendment  was  proposed  by  Congress  in  1866, 
and  was  declared  to  be  a  part  of  the  Constitution  in 
July,  1868.  It  need  not  be  further  discussed  here. 

ART.  XV.,  Sec.  i.  "The  right  of  citizens  of  the 
United  States  to  vote  shall  not  be  denied  or  abridged 


igress  shall  have  pc 
this  article  by  appropriate  legislation." 

The  object  of  this  article  was  to  secure  suffrage  to  the 
colored  race,  especially  to  the  freedmen  of  the  South. 
It  specifies  three  points  in  respect  to  which  the  right  of 
citizens  of  theUnited  States  to  vote  shall  not  be  denied  or 
abridged,  either  by  the  National  or  State  Governments: 

i.  On  account  of  race. 


Amendments  to  the  Constitution.      41 


American  Academy. 


2.  On  account  of  color. 

3.  On  account  of  previous  condition  of  servitude.          • 
It  was  at  first  proposed  to  add  two  other  points,  na- 
tivity and  religion,  but  these  were  stricken  out  before 
the  proposed  amendment  was  sanctioned  by  Congress. 

This  amendment  was  proposed  by  Congress  in  1869, 
and  was  declared  to  be  ratified  in  1870. 

WILLIAM  A.  MOWRY. 

(See  his  Studies  in  Civil  Government.) 

Concerning  amendments  to  the  Constitution, 
Professor  Bryce  says  in  his  American  Common- 
weal7/i,  chap,  xxxii. : 

"There  are  therefore  two  methods  of  framing  and 
proposing  amendments. 

"(A)  Congress  may  itself,  by  a  two- 
Methods  of  thirds  vote  in  each  house,  prepare  and 
TW  -HT,O.       propose  amendments. 

"(.#)  The  legislatures  of  two  thirds  of 
Amendments,  the    States   may    require    Congress   to 
summon  a    Constitutional    convention. 
Congress  shall  thereupon  do  so,  having 
no  option  to  refuse ;  and  the  convention  when  called ' 
shall  draft  and  submit  amendments.    No  provision  is 
made  as  to  the  election  and  composition  of  the  con- 
vention, matters  which  would  therefore  appear  to  be 
left  to  the  discretion  of  Congress. 

"  There  are  also  two  methods  of  enacting  amendments 
framed  and  proposed  in  either  of  the  foregoing  ways. 
It  is  left  to  Congress  to  prescribe  one  or  other  method 
as  Congress  may  think  fit. 

"  (X)  The  legislatures  of  three  fourths  of  the  States 
may  ratify  any  amendments  submitted  to  them. 

"  ( Y )  Conventions  may  be  called  in  the  several  States, 
and  three  fourths  of  these  conventions  may  ratify. 

"On  all  the  occasions  on  which  the  amending  power 
has  been  exercised,  method  A  has  been  employed  for 
proposing  and  method  X  for  ratifying— i.e.,  no  drafting 
conventions  of  the  whole  Union  or  ratifying  conven- 
tions in  the  several  States  have  ever  been  summoned. 
The  preference  of  the  action  of  Congress  and  the  State 
legislatures  may  be  ascribed  to  the  fact  that  it  has 
never  been  desired  to  remodel  the  -whole  Constitution, 
but  only  to  make  changes  or  additions  on  special  points. 
Moreover,  the  procedure  by  national  and  State  con- 
ventions might  be  slower,  and  would  involve  contro- 
versy over  the  method  of  electing  those  bodies.  The 
consent  of  the  President  is  not  required  to  a  constitu- 
tional amendment.  A  two-thirds  majority  in  Con- 
gress can  override  his  veto  of  a  bill,  and  at  least  that 
majority  is  needed  to  bring  a  constitutional  amend- 
ment before  the  people. 

"  There  is  only  one  provision  of  the  Constitution  which 
cannot  be  changed  by  this  process.  It  is  that  which 
secures  to  each  and  every  State  equal  representation 
in  one  branch  of  the  legislature.  '  No  State  without  its 
consent  shall  be  deprived  of  its  equal  suffrage  in  the 
Senate'  (Art.  V.).  .  .  .  The  amendments  made  by  the 
above  process  (A-\-X)  to  the  Constitution  have  been  in 
all  15.  ... 

"  Many  amendments  to  the  Constitution  have  been  at 
various  times  suggested  to  Congress  by 
Presidents,  or  brought  forward  in  Con- 
Attempts  at  gress  by  members,  but  very  few  of  these 

AmpTidmftnts  have   ever  obtained  the   requisite    two- 
Amendments.thirds  vote   of   both   houses      ln  ^^ 

however,  and  again  in  1807,  amendments 
were  passed  by  Congress  and  submitted 
to  the  States  for  which  the  requisite  majority  of  three 
fourths  of  the  States  was  not  obtained  ;  and  m  Febru- 
ary and  March,  1861,  an  amendment  forbidding  the  Con- 
stitution to  be  ever  so  amended  as  to  authorize  Con- 
gress to  interfere  with  the  'domestic  institutions,'  in- 
cluding slavery,  of  any  State,  was  passed  in  both  houses, 
but  never  submitted  to  the  States,  because  war  broke 
out  immediately  afterward.  It  would  doubtless,  had 
peace  been  preserved,  have  failed  to  obtain  the  accept- 
ance of  three  fourths  of  the  States,  and  its  effect  could 
only  have  been  to  require  those  who  might  thereafter 
propose  to  amend  the  Constitution  so  as  to  deal  with 
slavery,  to  propose  also  the  repeal  of  this  particular 
amendment  itself.  .  .  . 

"  Why,  then,  has  the  regular  procedure  for  amend- 
ment proved  in  practice  so  hard  to  apply? 
"  Partly,  of  course,  owing  to  the  inherent  disputatious- 
ness  and  perversity  (what  the  Ameri- 
cans   call    'cussedness ')    of    bodies    of 
Evils  of  the  men.    It  is  difficult  to  get  two  thirds  of 
Rt  two  assemblies  (the  houses  of  Congress) 

oysiem.       and  three  fourths  of  38  commonwealths, 
each  of  which  acts  by  two  assemblies, 
for  the  State  legislatures  are  all  double- 
chambered,  to  agree  to  the  same  practical  proposition. 


Except  under  the  pressure  of  urgent  troubles,  such  as 
were  those  which  procured  the  acceptance  of  the  Consti- 
tution itself  in  1788,  few  persons  or  bodies  will  consent 
to  forego  objections  of  detail,  perhaps  in  themselves 
reasonable,  for  the  mere  sake  of  agreeing  to  what  others 
have  accepted.  They  want  to  have  what  seems  to 
themselves  the  very  best,  instead  of  a  second  best  sug- 
gested by  some  one  else.  Now,  bodies  enjoying  so 
much  legal  independence  as  do  the  legislatures  of  the 
States,  far  from  being  disposed  to  defer  to  Congress  or 
to  one  another,  are  more  jealous,  more  suspicious, 
more  vain  and  opinionated,  than  so  many  individuals. 
Nothing  but  a  violent  party  spirit,  seeking  either  a 
common  party  object  or  individual  gain  to  flow  from 
party  success,  makes  them  work  together. 

"  If  an  amendment  comes  to  the  legislatures  recom- 
mended by  the  general  voice  of  their  party,  they  will 
be  quick  to  adopt  it.  But  in  that  case  it  will  encounter 
the  hostility  of  the  opposite  party,  and  parties  are  in 
most  of  the  Northern  States  usually  pretty  evenly 
balanced.  It  is  seldom  that  a  two-thirds  majority  in 
either  house  of  Congress  can  be  secured  on  a  party 
issue;  and,  of  course,  such  majorities  in  both  houses 
and  a  three-fourths  majority  of  State  legislatures  on  a 
party  issue  are  still  less  probable.  Now,  in  a  country 
pervaded  by  the  spirit  of  party,  most  questions  either 
are  at  starting,  or  soon  become,  controversial.  A 
change  in  the  Constitution,  however  useful  its  ultimate 
consequences,  is  likely  to  be  for  the  moment  deemed 
more  advantageous  to  one  party  than  to  the  other,  and 
this  is  enough  to  make  the  other  party  oppose  it.  In- 
deed, the  mere  fact  that  a  proposal  comes  from  one 
side  rouses  the  suspicion  of  the  other.  There  is  always 
that  dilemma  of  which  England  has  so  often  felt  the 
evil  consequences.  If  a  measure  of  reform  is  immedi- 
ately pressing,  it  becomes  matter  of  party  contention, 
it  excites  temper  and  passion.  If  it  is  not  pressing, 
neither  party,  having  other  and  nearer  aims,  cares  to 
take  it  up  and  push  it  through.  In  America,  a  party 
amendment  to  the  Constitution  can  very  seldom  be 
carried.  A  non-party  amendment  falls  into  the  cate- 
gory of  those  things  which,  because  they  are  every- 
body's business,  are  the  business  of  nobody. 

"  It  is  evident,  when  one  considers  the  nature  of  a 
rigid  or  supreme  constitution,  that  some  method  of 
altering  it  so  as  to  make  it  conform  to  altered  facts  and 
ideas  is  indispensable.  A  European  critic  may  remark 
that  the  American  method  has  failed  to  answer  the  ex- 
pectations formed  of  it.  The  belief,  he  will  say,  of  its 
authors  was  that  while  nothing  less  than  a  pretty  gen- 
eral agreement  would  justify  alteration,  that  agree- 
ment would  exist  when  obvious  omissions  preventing 
its  smooth  working  were  discovered.  But  this  has  not 
come  to  pass.  There  have  been  long  and  fierce  con- 
troversies over  the  construction  of  several  points  in 
the  Constitution,  over  the  right  of  Congress  to  spend 
money  on  internal  improvements,  to  charter  a  national 
bank,  to  impose  a  protective  tariff — above  all,  over  the 
treatment  of  slavery  in  the  Territories.  But  the 
method  of  amendment  was  not  applied  to  any  of  these 
questions,  because  no  general  agreement  could  be 
reached  upon  them,  or  indeed  upon  any  but  quite 
secondary  matters.  So  the  struggle  over  the  interpre- 
tation of  a  document  which  it  was  found  impossible  to 
amend  passed  from  the  law  courts  to  the  battle-field. 
Americans  reply  to  such  criticisms  by  observing  that 
the  power  of  amending  the  Constitution  is  one  which 
cannot  prudently  be  employed  to  conclude  current 
political  controversies,  that  if  it  were  so  used  no  con- 
stitution could  be  either  rigid  or  reasonably  permanent, 
that  some  latitude  of  construction  is  desirable,  and  that 
in  the  above-mentioned  cases  amendments  excluding 
absolutely  one  or  other  of  the  constructions  contended 
for  would  either  have  tied  down  the  legislature  too 
tightly  or  have  hastened  a  probably  inevitable  con- 
flict." 

(For  a  different  view,  however,  see  CONSTITUTION- 
ALISM, also  REFERENDUM. ) 

AMERICAN  ACADEMY  OF  POLITI- 
CAL AND  SOCIAL  SCIENCE,  THE, 

formed  in  Philadelphia,  December  14,  1889,  for 
the  purpose  of  promoting  the  political  and  so- 
cial sciences. 

While  it  does  not  exclude  any  portion  of  the 
field  indicated  in  its  title,  yet  its  chief  object  i& 
the  development  of  those  aspects  of  the  political 
and  social  sciences  which  are  either  entirely 
omitted  from  the  programs  of  other  societies, 


American  Academy. 


42 


American  Federation  of  Labor. 


or  which  do  not  at  present  receive  the  attention 
they  deserve. 

Among  such  subjects  may  be  mentioned  so- 
ciology, comparative  constitutional  and  admin- 
istrative law,  philosophy  of  the  State,  and  such 
portions  of  the  field  of  politics,  including  finance 
and  banking,  as  are  not  adequately  cultivated 
by  existing  organizations. 

A  special  effort  is  made  to  collect  and  publish 
material  which  will  be  of  use  to  students,  and 
which  does  not  now  reach  the  public  in  any  sys. 
tematic  way,  as,  for  example,  the  texts  in  Eng- 
lish of  the  constitutions  of  leading  foreign  coun- 
tries ;  regular  accounts  of  current  instruction  in 
political  and  social  topics  at  home  and  abroad  ; 
descriptive  bibliographies  ;  discussions  of  muni- 
cipal government,  etc. 

The  plan  of  the  academy  includes  regular  sci- 
entific meetings  for  the  presentation  of  papers 
and  communications,  establishment  of  a  library, 
and  the  dissemination  of  knowledge  on  political 
and  social  topics  through  its  publications,  and  by 
such  other  means  as  may  seem  suitable. 

The  income  of  the  academy  at  present  is  de- 
rived from  the  annual  membership  fee,  which  is 
$5,  the  life-membership  fee,  which  is  $100,  and 
from  the  contributions  of  those  who  may  be 
willing  to  assist  in  its  work.  It  is  desired  to 
secure  the  establishment  of  prizes  and  fellow- 
ships. 

Any  one  may  become  a  member  on  being  ap- 
proved by  the  council  and  paying  the  annual  or 
life-membership  .fee.  Members  are  entitled  to 
receive  the  regular  publications  of  the  academy, 
submit  papers  and  communications,  and  to  at- 
tend and  take  part  in  all  scientific  meetings. 
Life  members  are  exempt  from  all  annual  fees. 
Its  annual  meeting  is  held  in  January. 

The  list  of  members  now  (1895)  includes  about 
300,  and  the  names  of  nearly  all  the  prominent 
thinkers  and  writers  on  political,  economic,  and 
social  topics  in  the  United  States  and  Canada, 
and  many  in  Europe. 

The  proceedings  of  the  academy  are  published 
in  the  form  of  a  periodical  called  the  Annals 
of  the  American  Academy  of  Political  and 
Social  Science,  which,  together  with  such  other 
matter  as  may  be  published  for  that  purpose, 
is  sent  to  all  members  of  the  academy  free  of 
charge. 

The  articles  in  the  annals  more  important  for 
permanent  use  are  usually  reprinted  in  separate 
editions  and  sold  at  low  price.  Over  160  have 
been  reprinted  in  five  years,  such  as  Professor 
Gedding's  Province  of  Sociology,  Dr.  J.  S. 
Billings'  Public  Healt'h  and  Municipal  Gov- 
ernment, Professor  Common's  Proportional 
Representation,  G.  K.  Holmes'  A  Decade  of 
Mortgages,  Professor  Patten's  The  Theory  of 
Social  Forces. 


AMERICA.     See  UNITED  STATES  ;  AGRICUL- 
TURE ;  ARMY,  etc. 


AMERICAN  ECONOMIC  ASSOCIA- 
TION.— This  body  was  organized  at  Saratoga, 
September  9,  1885.  The  declared  objects  of  the 
association  are : 

i.  The  encouragement  of  economic  research, 
especially  the  historical  and  statistical  study  of 
the  actual  conditions  of  industrial  life. 


2.  The  publication  of  economic  monographs. 

3.  The  encouragement  of  perfect  freedom  of 
economic  discussion.     The  association,  as  such, 
will  take  no  partisan  attitude,  nor  will  it  commit 
its  members  to  any  position  on  practical  eco- 
nomic questions. 

4.  The  establishment  of  a  bureau  of  informa- 
tion designed  to  aid  members  in  their  economic 
studies. 

Any  person  may  become  a  member  of  this  as- 
sociation by  paying  $3,  and  after  the  first  year 
may  continue  a  member  by  paying  an  annual 
fee  of  $3.  On  payment  of  $50  any  person  may 
become  a  life  member,  exempt  from  annual 
dues. 

Each  member  is  entitled  to  receive  all  reports 
and  publications  of  the  association. 

The  membership  is  now  about  700,  and  is  still 
growing.  Valuable  monographs  have  been  pub- 
lished by  the  association  since  its  start,  and  are 
still  published  six  times  a  year,  at  $4  per  year. 
Prizes  are  also  offered  by  the  association  for  the 
best  monographs  on  appointed  subjects,  and 
they  have  produced  some  of  the  best  papers  yet 
written  on  Child  Labor,  the  Tenement  Prob- 
lem, etc.  The  association  has  annual  meetings, 
usually  in  December,  and  standing  committees 
on  the  following  subjects  : 

1.  On  Labor. 

2.  On  Transportation. 

3.  On  Trade. 

4.  On  Public  Finance. 

5.  On  Industrial  and  Technical  Education. 

6.  On  Exchange. 

7.  On  General  Questions  of  Economic  Theory. 

8.  On  Statistics. 

9.  On  Teaching  Political  Economy. 
Besides  the    above-mentioned    monographs, 

the  association  has  recently  commenced  issuing 
a  series  of  somewhat  more  popular  Economic 
Studies.  The  monographs  are  to  appear  at  ir- 
regular intervals.  The  subjects  for  the  studies 
are  such  as :  The  Relation  of  Changes  in  the 
Volume  of  the  Currency  to  Prosperity  ;  The 
Adjustment  of  Wages  to  Efficiency  ;  The  Popu- 
list Movement.  Among  the  monographs  are  : 
The  Relation  of  the  Modern  Municipality  to 
the  Gas  Supply,  by  Professor  E.  J.  James  ; 
Relation  of  the  State  to  Industrial  Action, 
by  Professor  H.  C.  Adams  ;  Socialism  in  Eng- 
land, by  Sidney  Webb  ;  An  Honest  Dollar, 
by  President  E.  Benjamin  Andrews  ;  Munici- 
pal Ownership  of  Gas  in  the  United  States, 
by  Professor  E.  W.  Bemis  ;  The  Silver  Situa- 
tion in  the  United  States,  by  Professor  F.  W. 
Taussig  ;  The  Housing  of  the  Poor  in  Ameri- 
can Cities,  by  M.  T.  Reynolds. 

AMERICAN  FEDERATION  OF  LA- 
BOR, THE. — Originally  organized  in  Balti- 
more, August  20,  i860.  The  trade  assemblies 
of  New  York  City  and  Baltimore  had  issued 
a  call  for  a  national  congress  of  trade-unions, 
and  over  100  delegates  responded,  represent- 
ing 60  different  organizations.  The  result  was 
the  formation  of  what  was  called  the  Na- 
tional Labor  Union.  Resolutions  were  passed 
in  favor  of  the  eight-hour  day,  labor  jour- 
nals, cooperative  stores,  agriculture  in  the 
South,  improved  artisans'  dwellings,  mechanics' 
Institutes,  against  unpaid  prison  labor,  depre- 
cating strikes,  advising  the  unemployed  to  go 
on  public  land,  asserting  that  land  should  go  to 


American  Federation  of  Labor. 


43 


American  Federation  of  Labor. 


the  actual  settler,  pledging  support  to  sewing 
women,  etc.  The  resolution  which  was  perhaps 
most  significant  of  both  the  weakness  and  the 
strength  of  this  union  was  one  declaring  against 
existing  political  parties,  and  for  the  organization 

of  an  independent  National  Labor 

Party,  the  object  of  which  should  be 
Origin,  to  secure  the  enactment  of  a  law 

making  eight  hours  a  day's  work. 

On  the  political  question  the  Na- 
tional Labor  Union  was,  erelong,  to  go  to  pieces. 
The  eight-hour  policy  was  to  become  the  dis- 
tinctive policy  of  the  Federation  of  Labor.  The 
New  York  Tribune  declared  the  convention  to 
represent  the  intelligence,  education,  and  en- 
terprise of  the  working  men  of  the  Union. 

Subsequent  conventions  were  held  at  Chicago  (1867), 
where  200  delegates  were  present:  at  Pittsburg  (1868); 
Xew  York  (1868) ;  Chicago  (1869) ;  Boston  (1870) ;  Phila- 
delphia (1871),  and  Columbus  (1872).  At  this  convention 
the  union  undertook  to  nominate  a  candidate  for  the 
Presidency  of  the  United  States,  an  attempt  which  led 
to  such  discussions  and  dissensions,  that,  in  connection 
with  the  financial  crisis  of  1873,  the  order  was  broken 
up.  An  important  industrial  congress,  however,  met 
at  Rochester,  N.  Y.,  April  14,  1874.  Robert  Schilling 
presiding,  and  the  congress  adopted  a  Declaration  of 
Principles  drafted  by  George  E.  McNeill,  which  is  of 
.significance,  as  the  Declaration  was  afterward  adopt- 
ed by  the  Knights  of  Labor  (q.v.\  which  organization 
had  been  founded  and  was  for  a  while  to  rival  the 
Federation. 

After  the  Columbus  convention  it  was  nine 
years,  however,  before  any  national  federation  of 
trade-unions  was  formed.  But  in  iSSi,  107 
delegates,  representing  nearly  250,000  workers, 
met  in  convention  in  Pittsburg,  Pa. ,  and  estab- 
lished the  Federation  of  Organized  Trade  and 
Labor  Unions  of  the  United  States  and  Canada, 
now  known  as  the  American  Federation  of 
Labor.  A  clear  exposition  of  the  general  policy 
Avas  made  in  a  document  read  at  the  second  con- 
vention of  the  Federation,  held  in  Cleveland,  O. , 
on  November  21,  1882.  This  document  urged 
not  political,  but  industrial  unity  as  the/prime 
object  that  the  Federation  should  aim  at — "  not 
by  prescribing  a  stereotyped,  -uniform  plan  of 
organization  for  all,  regardless  of  their  experi- 
ence or  necessities,  nor  by  antagonizing  or  aim- 
ing to  destroy  existing  organizations,  but  by 
preserving  all  that  is  integral  in  them  and 
widening  their  scope,  so  that  each,  without  sub- 
merging its  individuality,  may  act  with  the 
others  in  all  that  concerns  them.  The  benefit 
of  this  Federation  was  not  only  to  render  pecu- 
niary and  moral  assistance  in  case  of  strikes  or 
lockouts,  but  to  lessen  the  number  of  these  con- 
flicts by  causing  unscrupulous  employers  to  hesi- 
tate before  declaring  war  on  employees  rein- 
forced by  such  a  body.  A  systematic  plan  of 
propaganda  was  inaugurated.  Its  aim  was  to 
place  a  check  on  the  transportation  of  labor  and 
to  get  an  enactment  by  the  workmen  themselves 
that  on  a  given  day  eight  hours  should  constitute 
a  day's  work,  and  that  they  ought  to  enforce  it 
themselves. ' ' . 

The  Federation  held  from  the  start  a  distinc- 
tive policy  from  that  of  the  Knights  of  Labor. 
Whereas  the  Knights  strove  to  bring  all  working 
people  not  only  into  one  order,  but  largely  into 
one  form  of  organization,  and  did  not  respect  the 
autonomy  of  trade  organizations,  the  Federation 
of  Labor  has  always  stood  for  allowing  each 
trade  to  organize  and  control  its  craft  in  its  own 


way.  It  has  always  been  literally  a  federation 
of  trade-unions,  and  on  this  policy  has  steadily 
acted.  For  awhile,  however,  the  Knights  of 
Labor  was  the  more  popular  organization,  and 
sprang  into  rapid  growth.  The  effort,  how- 
ever, to  mould  various  trades  and  degrees  of 
development  into  one  form  proved  eventually  the 
weakness  of  the  order,  and  it  has  of  late  years 
gone  rapidly  down,  while  the  Federation,  with  its 
wiser  policy,  has  steadily  grown  in  strength  and 
in  numbers.  The  difference  of  principle,  how- 
ever, between  the  two  organizations,  and  unfor- 
tunate personal  issues  and  jealousies  that  grew 
out  of  it,  long  retarded  the  development  of  or- 
ganized labor.  To-day,  however,  the  policy  of 
the  Federation  is  almost  everywhere  triumphant, 
though  the  Knights  still  (1895)  in  certain  sections 
and  certain  trades  have  considerable  strength. 

The  third  convention  was  held  in  New  York  City  on 
August  21,  1883.     At  this  convention  the   Legislative 
Committee  was  instructed  to  present  a  bill  to  Congress 
creating  a  National  Department  of  La- 
bor;  and  a  committee  was  also  appointed 
to  confer  with  the  Knights  of  Labor  with      History, 
a  view  to  the  unification  and  consolida- 
tion of  all  labor  efforts.    This  attempt 
has  been  made  almost  every    year  since,  but  never 
with  success. 

The  fourth  convention  was  held  in  Chicago,  111.,  on 
October  7,  1884,  when  steps  where  taken  for  a  general 
propaganda  in  behalf  of  the  eight-hour  system,  and  May 
i,  1886,  was  fixed  upon  as  the  date  of  the  general 
inauguration.  It  will  be  remembered,  however,  that 
the  Anarchists  at  Chicago  took  advantage  01  this 
movement  to  rouse  the  people  -with  their  incendiary 
ideas,  and  that  on  May  5,  1886,  the  bomb  was  thrown 
at  Haymarket  Square,  Chicago.  This  act  very  much 
hindered  the  legitimate  work  of  organized  labor. 
Nevertheless^  some  unions  succeeded  at  this  time  in 
gaining  the  eight-hour  day. 

The  fifth  convention  was  held  in  Washington  on 
December  8,  1885,  and  was  marked  by  measures  which 
were  taken  to  prevent  the  abuse  of  the  boycott,  the 
usefulness  of  which  had  become  impaired  by  unscru- 
pulous persons  and  rival  factions,  who  resorted  to  that 
legitimate  and  powerful  weapon  upon  every  frivolous, 
trivial,  or  imaginary  grievance,  and  was  often  levied 
upon  goods  of  firms  that  employed  none  but  union 
•\yorkmen  and  paid  the  highest  rate  of  wages  in  their 
line  of  manufactures. 

The  sixth  convention  was  held  in  Columbus,  O.,  on 
December  8,  1886.  This  convention  had  been  origi- 
nally called  to  meet  in  St.  Louis,  but  the  necessity  of 
taking  defensive  measures  against  the  unwarranted 
aggressions  upon  trade-unions,  in  some  instances  even 
denying  them  the  right  of  existence,  and  a  considerable 
accession  to  the  ranks  of  the  Federation  resulting 
therefrom,  led  to  considerable  modifications.  At  this 
convention  25  affiliated  national  organizations  were 
represented,  with  an  aggregate  membership  of  316,469 
workmen  ;  a  more  perfect  plan  of  organization  was 
adopted  and  the  title  changed  to  the  American  Federa- 
tion of  Labor. 

The  next  annual  convention  was  held  in  Baltimore, 
Md.,  on  December,  1887.  The  roll  of  this  convention 
exhibited  58  delegates,  representing  40  national  and  in- 
ternational unions  and  central  organizations.  Includ- 
ing the  local  trade-unions  having  no  national  head 
and  the  "federal  labor  unions"  affiliated  with  the 
American  Federation  of  Labor,  but,  for  economic  rea- 
sons, not  sending  delegates,  this  convention  represent- 
ed 2421  unions  or  branches,  and  a  total  membership  of 
600,340  members  in  good  standing. 

The  third  convention  of  the  American  Federation  of 
Labor,  but  the  eighth  consecutive  annual  gathering  of 
the  representatives  of  the  trade  and  labor  unions  of 
America,  was  held  in  St.  Louis,  Mo.,  on  December  ir, 
12,  13,  14,  and  15,  1888.  The  proceedings,  which  were 
marked  by  the  greatest  unanimity  and  enthusiasm, 
will  be  held  memorable  by  the  adoption  of  a  resolu- 
tion fixing  the  date  for  the  general  inauguration  of  the l 
eight-hour  work-day  at  May  i,  1890.  Looking  to  this  end,  | 
it  was  decided  to  call  simultaneous  mass-meetings 
in  all  cities  of  the  country  on  four  important  national' 


American  Federation  of  Labor. 


American  Federation  of  Labor., 


The  ninth  convention  was  held  in  Boston,  Mass., 
December  10-14,  1889.  Among  the  important  meas- 
ures adopted  •were  to  extend  an  invitation  to  the  labor 
organizations  of  the  world  to  attend,  an  International 
Labor  Congress  at  Chicago  during  the  World's  Fair  ; 
resolutions  of  thanks  to  European  working  men  for  their 
cordial  indorsement  of  the  proposed  inauguration 
of  the  eight-hour  work-day,  and  steps  to  further  such 
cooperation ;  indorsement  of  the  Australian  system 
of  ballot  reform  ;  the  employers'  liability  law,  and  the 
rejection  of  a  resolution  looking  to  "the  formation  of 
a  political  labor  party."  The  Executive  Council  were 
empowered  to  select  such  trade  as  they  might  deem 
best  for  the  concentration  of  effort  to  secure  the  adop- 
tion of  the  eight-hour  work-day  on  May  i.  The  plan 
was  for  all  unions  of  some  one  trade  to  strike  on  May 
i  for  the  eight-hour  day,  while  all  other  trades  were  to 
support  them.  The  next  year  some  other  trade  was  to 
strike,  and  all  other  trades  to  support  it.  As  is  well 
known,  The  United  Brotherhood  of  Carpenters  and 
Joiners  of  America  were  selected  to  strike  the  first 
year,  and  the  movement  was  successful  in  137  cities, 
and  benefited  46,197  workmen  of  that  trade.  In  some 
other  cities  it  was  partly  successful,  and  in  others  not 
at  all.  At  least  much  was  gained  and  agitation  very 
much  increased. 

The  tenth  annual  convention  was  held  in  Detroit, 
Mich.,  on  December  8,  1850,  and  remained  in  session  six 
days;  103  delegates  were  present,  representing  83 
organizations.  Since  the  previous  convention  282 
charters  had  been  issued,  and  the  national  trade- 
unions  reported  having  established  913  branches  in 
the  same  time;  these  also  reported  1163  strikes,  of 
which  number  989  were  successful,  76  lost,  and  98  com- 
promised. All  reported  an  increase  of  wages  from  7  to 
25  percent.,  except  one,  which  was  owing  to  dullness  of 
trade.  The  action  of  the  Executive  Council  in  selecting 
the  miners  as  the  next  trade  to  move  toward  eight 
hours  was  concurred  in. 

The  action  of  the  convention  producing  the  most 

interest,  for  the  time  being,  and  occupying  a  large 

share  of  time,  was  that  of  again  defining 

the  attitude  of  the  American  Federation 

•p  ,-x-     i      of  Labor  toward  political  parties  seeking 

roiiucai      affiliations.     A  charter  had  been  refused 

Attitude,  to  the  Central  Labor  Federation  of  New 
York  City  upon  the  ground  that  among 
the  list  of  bodies  attached  to  that  body 
was  the  name  of  the  American  Section  of  the  Socialist 
Labor  Party.  After  protracted  debates  said  action  was 
indorsed  by  a  large  majority.  In  taking  this  step  it  was 
clearly  understood  that  the  character  of  the  party  did 
not  enter  into  the  question  any  more  than  if  they  had 
been  Prohibitionists,  the  Farmers'  Alliance,  or  a  mixed 
Local  Assembly  of  the  Knights  of  Labor,  all  of  whom 
make  similar  claims  of  seeking  solel  y  the  economic  wel- 
fare of  the  toiler.  It  was  a  reaffirmation  of  the  tradi- 
tional policy  since  organization  to  restrict  their  united 
efforts  solely  to  industrial  ends  without  doing  aught  to 
awaken  either  political  or  religious  dissensions  among 
their  diversified  membership,  and  the  necessity  of  con- 
fining membership  in  a  Federation  of  "  Trade  and  Labor 
Unions"  to  such  only. 

It  was  distinctly  declared  by  the  supporters  of  the 
position  that  they  opposed  neither  socialism  nor  inde- 
pendent political  action,  but  simply  the  introduction 
of  politics  into  the  Federation.  Nevertheless,  since 
this  vote  the  leaders  of  the  Federation  and  supporters 
of  the  position  have  been  denounced  by  the  socialists 
as  reactionary  and  traitors  to  the  cause  of  labor. 

The  strike  of  the  miners  on  May  i,  owing  to  strongly 
unfavorable  conditions  in  their  industry,  was  only  very 
partial  and  accomplished  little  more  than  the  agitation 
of  the  idea. 

The  eleventh  annual  convention  washeld  in  Birming- 
ham, Ala.,  the  first  time  in  the  history  of  the  general 
labor  movement  that  one  of  its  conventions  has  met 
in  the  South.  The  influences  were  vastly  beneficial  to 
organization  in  that  section  of  the  country.  At  this 
convention  it  was  resolved  to  test  the  constitutionality 
of  the  conspiracy  laws  and  the  rights  of  the  courts  to 
issue  writs  of  injunction  on  wage-workers  charged 
with  no  offense  against  the  law,  but  engaged  in  a  con- 
test with  their  employers.  An  investigation  of  the 
"sweating"  system  and  the  abolition  of  this  social 
crime  were  demanded  at  the  hands  of  Congress.  Re 
newed  pledges  to  attain  the  eight -hour  work-day  •were 
made  and  action  taken  for  its  enforcement.  Protests 
against  convict  labor  coming  in  competition  with  free 
labor  were  entered.  Selection  of  organizer  for  woman's 
labor  was  authorized.  The  abolition  of  child  labor  was 
demanded.  Counter  propositions  to  the  Knights  of 
Labor  were  made,  which  if  accepted  would  avoid  dis- 
putes between  th"}  two  organizations. 


The  twelfth  annual  convention  was  held  at  Philadel- 
phia, Pa.,  December  12-17,  1892  ;  67  organizations  were 
represented.  Since  the  previous  convention  277  charters 
had  been  issued.  Strong  ground  was  taken  as  regards 
the  restriction  of  undesirable  immigrants.  It  was 
unanimously  resolved  to  adhere  to  the  plan  of  opera- 
tions that  had  been  followed  in  the  past— organiza- 
tion of  trade-unions.  President  Gompers  in  his  open- 
ing address  said  :  "We  should  rather  be  a  unit  in  our 
demands  than  a  political  party."  A  resolution  in  favor 
of  Government  ownership  of  all  telegraph  and  tele- 
phone systems  was  adopted.  Protests  were  made 
against  Sunday  labor  and  convict  labor.  It  was  agreed 
to  memorialize  Congress  in  order  to  secure  a  law  pro- 
viding protection  to  the  trade-marks  and  labels  of  or- 
ganized labor.  Direct  legislation— initiative  and  ref- 
erendum— was  indorsed.  Strong  resolutions  were 
passed  concerning  the  Homestead  strike. 

The  convention  was  marked  by  a  strong  spirit  of 
patriotic  feeling  at  a  meeting  in  Liberty  Hall,  coupled 
with  a  sense  that  the  Federation  was  battling  to-day 
for  liberty  as  truly  imperiled  as  100  years  before. 

The  thirteenth  convention  met  in  Chicago  December, 
1893.  Perhaps  the  most  important  subject  before  the 
convention  was  the  following  resolution,  which  was  in- 
troduced, discussed,  and  referred  to  the  various  unions, 
to  be  voted  on  during  the  year  : 

Whereas,  the  trade-unionists  of  Great  Britain  have, 
by  the  light  of  experience  and  the  logic  of  progress,, 
adopted  the  principle  of  independent  labor  politics  as 
an  auxiliary  to  their  economic  action  ;  and 

Whereas,  such  action  has  resulted  in  the  most  grati- 
fying success ;  and 

Whereas,  such  independent  labor  politics  are  based, 
upon  the  following  program,  to  wit : 

1.  Compulsory  education. 

2.  Direct  legislation. 

3.  A  legal  eight-hour  work  day. 

4.  Sanitary  inspection  of  workshop,  mine,  and  home. 

5.  Liability  of  employers  for  injury  to  health,  body, 
or  life. 

6.  The  abolition  of  the  contract  system  in  all  public 
work. 

7.  The  abolition  of  the  sweating  system. 

8.  The  municipal  ownership  of  street-cars,  and  gas 
and  electric  plants  for  public  distribution  of  light,  heat, 
and  power. 

9.  The  nationalization  of  telegraphs,  telephones,  rail- 
roads, and  mines. 

10.  The    collective   ownership   by  the  people   of  all 
means  of  production  and  distribution. 

11.  The   principle   of  the   referendum  in  all  legisla- 
tion. 

Therefore,  Resolved,  that  this  convention  hereby 
indorses  this  political  action  of  our  British  comrades';: 
and 

Resoh'ed,  that  this  programme  and  basis  of  a  political 
labor  movement  be,  and  is  hereby,  submitted  for  the 
consideration  of  the  labor  organizations  of  America, 
with  the  request  that  their  delegates  to  the  next  annual 
convention  of  the  American  Federation  of  Labor  be 
instructed  on  this  most  important  subject. 

The  fourteenth  annual  convention  met  in  Denver 
December,  1894.  At  this  convention  the  above  resolu- 
tions were  discussed  and  the  first  nine  adopted  with 
little  discussion,  and  with  substantial  unanimity  and 
with  substantially  no  change.  Plank  n  was  incorpo- 
rated with  plank  2,  making  that  plank  read  :  "  Direct 
legislation  through  the  initiative  and  referendum." 
Plank  3  was  made  to  read  "  a  legal  work-day  of  not 
more  than  eight  hours."  In  Plank  8  the  words  "water- 
works" were  substituted  after  the  words  "street  cars." 
The  great  discussion  came  on  plank  10.  After  a  long 
debate  it  was  defeated,  and  three  resolutions  substitut- 
ed for  it,  as  follows  :  (i)  The  abolition  of  the  monopoly 
system  of  land-holding  and  the  substitution  therefor 
of  a  title  of  occupancy  and  use  only  (carried  by  a  vote 
of  1217  to  913).  (2)  The  repeal  of  all  conspiracy  and 
penal  laws  affecting  seamen  and  other  workmen,  in- 
corporated in  the  Federal  and  State  laws  of  the  United 
States.  (3)  The  abolition  of  the  monopoly  privilege 
of  issuing  money  and  substituting  therefor  a  system 
of  direct  issuance  to  and  by  the  people.  The  social- 
ists, however,  who  favored  plank  10  held  that  it  had 
only  been  defeated  by  delegates  disobeying  their  in- 
structions, and  so  on  the  vote  to  adopt  the  resolu- 
tions as  a  whole  they  voted  no,  and  the  vote  was  lost 
by  1173  to  735,  the  socialists  hoping  that  next  year  (1896) 
they  may  carrv  the  plank. 

The  convention  also  adopted  a  resolution  demanding 
the  re-enactment  of  the  Silver  Coinage  Law  of  1837  upon 
a  ratio  of  16  to  i.  The  committee  on  the  president's 
address  reported,  indorsing  the  position  of  the  execu- 
tive council  in  the  American  Rail  way  Union  strike,  and, 


American  Federation  of  Labor. 


45 


Am.  Institute  of  Christ.  Sociol. 


Statistics. 


recommending  the  fixing  of  May  i,  1896,  as  the  date  for 
an  effort  to  establish  the  eight-hour  day. 

Mr.  Samuel  Gompers,  who  had  been  for  many  years 
the  capable  president  of  the  Federation,  was  defeated, 
and  Mr.  John  McBride,  the  head  of  the  Miners'  Union, 
eiected  in  his  place.  At  the  meeting  in  New  York, 
however  (December,  1895),  the  Federation  reelected 
Mr.  Gompers  and  voted  to  confine  its  main  attention 
to  the  eight-hour  movement. 

December,  1893,  the  following  national  trade-unions 
were  represented  in  the  American  Federation  ;  the 
first  figure  representing  the  number  of  local  unions  in 
the  trade,  the  second  the  total  membership  :  Bakers, 
120- — 13,300;  barbers,  82 — 1800;  blacksmiths,  19 — 1500; 
boiler-makers,  32 — 9000;  bookkeepers,  15 — uoo  ;  box- 
makers,  22-^-900;  brewers,  75 — u,ooo;  bottle-blowers, 
61 — 7000;  bricklayers,  230 — 33-,joo;  brass- workers,  33 — 
4000;  carpenters,  824 — 65,700;  cigar-makers,  329 — 27,- 
500 ;  carriage-makers,  15 — 1800  ;  coopers,  36 — 2600  ; 
clerks,  81—3200  ;  coal-miners,  260 — 21,000  ;  conductors, 
255 — 8000  ;  cloak-makers,  10—2500  ;  electrical-workers, 
46 — 5200;  engineers  (locomotive),  420 — 
30,500 ;  (stationary),  130 — 6400  ;  firemen, 
472 — 24,000  ;  furniture-workers,  41 — 6500 ; 
furriers,  7 — 1200  ;  garment-workers,  44 
—75°°  i  glass  employees,  4—800  ;  glass- 
workers,  117 — 8100;  grinders,  18 — 1400;  granite-cut- 
ters, 133 — 1700;  hatters,  25 — 5800;  harness-makers,  22 
— 1500 ;  horse-collar-makers,  26 — 2800  ;  horseshoers, 
2800  members ;  iron-molders,  278—36,000 ;  iron  and 
cornice-workers,  68 — 3500 ;  iron  and  steel-workers, 
340 — 45,000  ;  knife-makers,  6^—500  ;  laborers,  54 — 9500  ; 
machinists,  154 — 10,900  ;  musicians,  58 — -10,500  ;  pattern- 
makers, 34—6000  ;  painters  and  decorators,  201 — 15,000 ; 
piano-makers,  46—^600 ;  plasterers,  83 — 13,000  ;  plumb- 
ers, 36 — 6500  ;  polishers,  26 — noo  ;  printers,  359 — 32,- 
300;  quarrymen,  26 — 2400;  railway  employees,  33 — 16,- 
500  ;  seamen,  16 — 5500  ;  shoe-lasters,  76 — 10,500  ;  shoe- 
makers, 61 — 7500  ;  silk- workers,  12 — 1000  ;  spinners,  14 
— 10,200;  stone-cutters,  14 — 1500;  switchmen,  120 — 6500; 
trainmen,  486 — 24,000;  tack-makers,  6 — 450;  tailors, 
220 — 18,500  ;  tanners,  9 — 800  ;  telegraphers,  74 — 3500  ; 
textile-workers,  18 — 8000  ;  tile-layers,  10 — 3000  ;  wait- 
ers, 23 — 1900  ;  weavers,  5 — 350  ;  woodworkers,  5 — 300  ; 
watch-case  engravers,  5 — 300  ;  wood-carvers,  600  mem- 
bers. 

This  represents  a  total  of  7031  local  unions  and  an 
aggregate  membership  of  652,300.  This  list  does  not  in- 
clude 1500  local  unions  affiliated  with  the  American 
Federation,  and  several  thousand  other  unaffiliated 
local  unions,  all  of  which  have  no  national  head.  A 
few  of  these  unions  are  not  yet  formally  affiliated  with 
the  Federation  of  Labor,  yet  all  are  united  by  virtue 
of  a  common  polity. 

At  present,  owing  to  the  hard  times,  the  number 
standing  as  paid  upon  the  books  of  the  Federation  is 
probably  somewhat  less,  but  the  real  strength  of  the 
Federation  is  undoubtedly  greater  than  in  1893.  Dur- 
ing 1804  charters  were  given  to  five  new  national  un- 
ions and  167  local  unions,  while  $22,493.78  were  received. 

The  constitution  of  the  American  Federation 
of  Labor,  in  its  features  of  general  interest,  is 
as  follows  : 

PREAMBLE. 

Whereas,  a  struggle  is  going  on  in  all  the  nations 
of  the  civilized  world,  between  the  oppressors  and  the 
oppressed  of  all  countries,  a  struggle  between  the  cap- 
italist and  the  laborer,  which  grows  in  intensity  from 
year  to  year,  and  will  work  disastrous  results  to  the 
toiling  millions  if  they  are  not  combined  for  mutual 
protection  and  benefit ; 

It  therefore  behooves  the  representatives  of  the 
trades  and  labor  unions  of  America,  in  convention 
assembled,  to  adopt  such  measures  and  disseminate 
such  principles  among  the  mechanics  and  laborers  of 
our  country  as  will  permanently  unite  them  to  secure 
the  recognition  of  the  rights  to  which  they  are  justly 
entitled. 

We  therefore  declare  ourselves  in  favor  of  the  for- 
mation of  a  thorough  federation,  embracing  every 
trade  and  labor  organization  in  America,  organized 
tinder  the  trade-union  system. 

CONSTITUTION. 
ARTICLE  I.— Name. 

This  association  shall  be  known  as  the  American 
Federation  of  Labor,  and  shall  consist  of  such 
trade  and  labor  unions  as  shall  conform  to  its  rules 
and  regulations. 


ARTICLE  \\.-Objects. 

SEC.  T.  The  objects  of  this  Federation  shall  be 
the  encouragement  and  formation  of  local  trade  and 
labor  unions  and  the  closer  federation  of  such 
societies  through  the  organization  of  central  trade 
and  labor  unions  in  every  city,  and  the  further  com- 
bination of  such  bodies  into  State,  Territorial,  or  Pro- 
vincial organizations,  to  secure  legislation  in  the 
interest  of  the  working  masses. 

SEC.  2.  The  establishment  of  national  and  interna- 
tional trade-unions,  based  upon  a  strict  recognition 
of  the  autonomy  of  each  trade,  and  the  promotion  and 
advancement  of  such  bodies. 

SEC.  3.  An  American  federation  of  all  national  and 
international  trade-unions,  to  aid  and  assist  each 
other ;  and,  furthermore,  to  secure  national  legisla- 
tion in  the  interest  of  the  working  people,  and  influence 
public  opinion,  by  peaceful  and  legal  methods,  in  favor 
of  organized  labor. 

SEC.  4.  To  aid  and  encourage  the  labor  press  of 
America. 

ARTICLE  III. — Convention. 

SEC.  i.  The  convention  of  the  Federation  shall 
meet  annually  at  10  A.M.,  on  the  second  Monday  in 
December,  at  such  place  as  the  delegates  have  selected 
at  the  preceding  convention. 

ARTICLE  IX.— Revenue. 

SEC.  i.  The  revenue  of  the  Federation  shall  r>e 
derived  as  follows :  From  international  and  national 
trade-unions  a  per  capita  tax  of  one  fourth  of  one  cent 
per  member  per  month ;  from  local  trade-unions  and  fed- 
eral unions,  one  cent  per  member  per  month  ;  and  from 
central  labor  unions  of  city  and  State  federated  bodies, 
$25  per  annum.  All  moneys  shall  be  payable  to  the 
secretary  of  the  Federation. 

ARTICLE  X. — Miscellaneous. 

SEC.  3.  Any  seven  wage  workers  of  one  trade  of  good 
character,  and  favorable  to  trade-unions,  and  not 
members  of  any;  body  affiliated  with  this  Federation, 
who  will  subscribe  to  this  constitution,  shall  have  the 
power  to  form  a  local  body,  to  be  known  as  a  Fed- 
eral Labor  Union,  and  they  shall  hold  regular  meet- 
ings for  the  purpose  of  strengthening  and  advancing 
the  trades-union  movement,  and  shall  have  the  power 
to  make  their  own  rules  in  conformity  with  this  con- 
stitution, and  shall  be  granted  a  local  certificate  by  the 
president  of  this  Federation,  provided  the  request  for 
a  certificate  be  indorsed  by  the  nearest  local  or  na- 
tional trades-union  officials  connected  with  this  Fed- 
eration. 

The  Federation  publishes  a  monthly.  The 
American  Federationist,  at  50  cents  a  month, 
and  considerable  tract  literature.  For  all  in- 
formation address  the  secretary  (1895),  Aug. 
McCraith,  De  Soto  Block,  Indianapolis,  Ind. 
(See  TRADE-UNIONS.) 

AMERICAN  FORESTRY  ASSOCIA- 
TION.— The  American  Forestry  Association 
(formerly  Congress),  composed  of  delegates  from 
all  the  States,  meets  annually.  The  twelfth  an- 
nual meeting  was  held  at  Washington,  D.C. ,  De- 
cember, 1893.  J.  D.  W.  French,  Boston,  Mass. 
(1895),  is  corresponding  secretary.  Local  or 
State  associations  have  been  formed  in  Colorado, 
Ohio,  New  York,  Pennsylvania,  Kentucky,  Min- 
nesota, Texas,  South  Carolina,  North  Dakota, 
Wisconsin,  and  New  Jersey.  (See  FORESTRY.) 

AMERICAN  INSTITUTE  OF  CHRIS- 
TIAN SOCIOLOGY,  THE.— Founded  at 
Chautauqua  July  20,  1893.  The  objects  of  the 
society,  as  stated  in  the  constitution,  are  : 

1.  To  claim  for  the  Christian  law  the  ultimate 
authority  to  rule  social  practice. 

2.  To  study  in  common  how  to  apply  the  prin- 
ciples of  Christianity  to  the  social  and  economic 
difficulties  of  the  present  time. 


Am.  Institute  of  Christ.  Sociol. 


46 


American  Party. 


3.  To  present  Christ  as  the  living  Master  and 
King  of  men,  and  His  kingdom  as  the  complete 
ideal  of  human  society  to  be  realized  on  earth. 

The  institute  is  interdenominational,  and  aims 
to  carry  out  its  objects  by  publications,  by  lec- 
tures and  addresses,  by  the  establishment  of 
libraries,  professorships,  etc.,  and  especially  by 
the  formation  of  local  institutes  following 
prescribed  courses  of  study.  It  holds  at  least 
one  general  meeting  in  each  year,  thus  far  in 
Chautauqua.  There  have  been  also  institutes 
of  the  society  held  at  Grinnell,  la.,  Oberlin, 
O.,  and  other  places,  largely  under  the  guidance 
of  Professor  George  D.  Herron  (g.v.),  of  Iowa 
College,  Grinnell,  la. 

AMERICAN  INSTITUTE  OF  CIVICS. 

— Organized  in  1885.  The  purposes  of  this  in- 
stitution, briefly  stated,  are  to  promote  every- 
where and  through  all  practicable  agencies,  in- 
cluding home  influences,  educational  institu- 
tions, the  press  and  the  platform,  the  integrity, 
intelligence,  patriotism,  and  vigilance,  which  are 
essential  to  the  common  weal  under  the  rule  of 
the  people.  The  membership  includes  council- 
ors in  every  State,  whose  high  character,  com- 
manding influence,  and  subordination  of  selfish 
considerations  to  the  public  good  qualify  them 
for  the  high  service  in  which  the  institute  seeks 
to  enlist  them.  The  president  of  the  institute 
(1895) is  Henry  Randall  Waite,  Ph.D. 

Control  is  vested  in  33  trustees,  chosen  for  pe- 
riods of  one,  two,  and  three  years,  who  elect  their 
own  successors.  Provision  is  made  for  a  faculty, 
an  advisory  body,  composed  of  members  specially 
qualified  for  assistance  in  the  formation  of  plans. 
The  immediate  supervision  of  its  affairs  is  in- 
trusted to  its  president  and  the  executive  com- 
mittee of  the  board  of  trustees.  It  has  corre- 
sponding members  of  its  faculty  in  a  majority 
of  colleges,  a  corps  of  230  lecturers,  and  the  co- 
operation of  a  steadily  growing  body  of  council- 
ors, composed  of  citizens  of  the  highest  character 
in  all  parts  of  the  country,  chosen  with  a  view 
to  their  willingness  and  ability  to  render  useful 
service  unitedly  or  as  individuals. 

The  work  of  the  institute  is  carried  on  in  sev- 
eral departments,  as  follows  : 

I.  EXTENSION  DEPARTMENT. 
Department  of  Popular  Work. 

The  chief  purpose  of  this  department  is  to  se- 
cure the  cooperation,  in  efforts  to  promote  good 
citizenship,  of  suitable  organizations,  of  either 
adults  or  youths,  in  cities,  villages,  and  rural 
communities.  The  institute  seeks  to  bring  such 
organizations,  already  existing  or  effected  for 
the  purpose,  into  relation  with  itself  as  auxil- 
iaries, and  to  interest  them  in  provisions  for  the 
intelligent  consideration  of  current  events  and 
all  questions  vitally  related  to  good  government, 
the  maintenance  of  law  and  order,  and  the  wel- 
fare of  society.  An  important  feature  of  the  de- 
partment is  its  corps  of  lecturers,  numbering 
upward  of  225  citizens,  all  exceptionally  quali- 
fied for  useful  service,  through  the  delivery  of 
addresses  before  lyceums,  secular  and  religious 
associations  of  young  people,  teachers'  institutes 
and  other  educational  assemblies,  religious 
meetings,  students  in  colleges  and  public  schools, 


working  men's  societies,  law  and  order  societies, 
municipal  leagues,  good  government  clubs,  and 
other  civic  associations,  and  especially  before 
the  various  organizations  related  to  the  institute 
as  auxiliaries. 

II.  DEPARTMENT  OF  EDUCATIONAL  INSTITUTIONS. 

This  department  has  recently  been  formed 
by  the  consolidation  of  the  departments  of  Pub- 
lic School  Work,  of  College  and  Professional 
School  Work,  and  of  Business  Schools.  It  is 
devoted  to  the  promotion,  in  cooperation  with 
the  officers  and  teachers  of  schools  and  colleges, 
of  such  instruction  as  shall  most  fully  qualify 
American  youth  for  the  discharge  of  civic  obli- 
gations. 

III.  DEPARTMENT  OF  THE  PRESS. 

Through  this  department  the  institute  seeks 
to  disseminate  information  as  to  its  purposes, 
to  enlist  the  cooperation  of  daily,  weekly,  and 
other  publications  and  writers  for  the  press  ; 
and  also  to  present  to  the  members  and  the 
public  generally,  through  its  official  organ,  the 
American  Joitrnal of  Politics,  the  best  thought 
of  the  day  upon  public  questions,  a  record  of  the 
progress  of  efforts  for  political  and  social  ad- 
vancement, and  other  valuable  information. 

IV.  DEPARTMENT  OF  LEGISLATION. 
Civil  Service  and  Law  Reform. 

In  cooperation  with  members  in  the  several 
States,  it  is  sought,  through  this  department,  to 
promote  legislation  calculated  to  secure  the 
proper  administration  of  public  affairs,  to  pro- 
tect and  elevate  the  suffrage,  and  to  give,  in  all 
the  States,  such  form  to  laws  affecting  the  social 
order  as  shall  make  them  uniform,  just,  and 
effective  in  their  operation. 

The  institute  has  also  established  a  depart- 
ment of  Christian  Citizenship,  through  which  it 
seeks  to  promote  activities  as  the  result  of  "which 
the  ideas  and  obligations  representative  of  Chris- 
tianity may  be  made  more  largely  contributory 
to  the  betterment  of  civic  and  social  conditions. 
Professor  Lawrence  Phelps,  principal  of  the 
Berkeley  Temple  of  Applied  Christianity,  Bos- 
ton, and  Professor  Daniel  Fulcomer,  of  the  Uni- 
versity of  Chicago,  are  associated  in  the  direc- 
tion of  this  department.  It  will  seek  to  promote 
local  conferences  of  Christian  citizens  for  the 
discussion  of  the  best  means  of  giving  greater 
power  and  usefulness  to  Christian  citizenship  ; 
and  will  also  seek  to  establish  Christian  citizen- 
ship classes  in  connection  with  Young  Men's 
Christian  Associations,  Societies  of  Christian 
Endeavor,  and  similar  organizations.  The  in- 
stitute is  represented  by  the  American  Maga- 
zine of  Civics  (formerly  American  Journal  of 
Politics),  a  monthly  publication  01125  pages, 
which  is  its  official  organ.  Its  membership  has 
extended  until  it  has  a  sufficient  nucleus  for  or- 
ganized and  efficient  work  in  some  600  of  the 
more  important  centers  of  influence  throughout 
the  country. 

AMERICAN  PARTY.— The  name  chosen 
by  three  political  parties  at  different  periods  in 


American  Party. 


47 


Am.  Prop.  Rep.  League. 


United  States  history.  I.  In  1852,  when  the  Whig 
Party  was  breaking  up,  a  secret  organization  had 
been  formed,  said  to  have  been  called  the  Sons 
of  '76,  or  the  Order  of  the  Star  Spangled  Banner. 
Any  member  on  being  asked  about  the  society 
was  made  to  answer,  "  I  don't  know  ;"  hence  the 
society  was  called  the  society  of  Know  Nothings. 
It  carefully  avoided  the  subject  of  slavery,  and 
tried  to  draw  attention  from  that  subject  by  con- 
fining itself  to  vigorous  opposition  to  Catholics 
and  aliens.  Its  first  principle  was  "  Americans 
must  rule  America. "  In  February,  1856,  it  held 
a  convention,  called  itself  the  American  Party, 
and  nominated  Millard  Fillmore  for  President, 
and  Andrew  Jackson  Donelson  for  Vice-Presi- 
dent — nominations  which  were  indorsed  by  the 
Whig  convention  in  September.  Fillmore,  how- 
ever, carried  but  one  State,  Maryland,  while  his 
total  vote  was  about  850,000.  In  1860  Presiden- 
tial candidates  were  nominated  again,  but  under 
the  name  Constitutional  Union  Party  ;  but  the 
movement  was  practically  merged  in  the  growth 
of  the  Republican  Party. 

II.  A  party  under  this  name  was  organized  in 
1872  by  some  members  of  the  National  Chris- 
tian Association  at  Oberlin,  O.     It  was  opposed 
to  secret  societies,  demanded  prohibition  of  the 
saloon,  recognition  of  the  Sabbath,  introduction 
of  the  Bible  into  the  public  schools,  restriction 
of  land  monopoly,  specie  payments,  justice  to 
the  Indians,  and  a  direct  popular  vote  for  Presi- 
dent   and    Vice-President.      Charles    Francis 
Adams  was  nominated  for  President.     Nomina- 
tions continued  to  be  made  down  to  1884,  when 
the  nominee,  S.  C.  Pomeroy,  withdrew  in  favor 
of  the  Prohibition  candidate,  St.  John,  on  his 
assurance  that  ' '  he  stood  on  every  plank  of  the 
American  platform,"  since  when  the  party  has 
been   practically  merged  into  the  Prohibition 
Party. 

III.  Another  party  was  organized  under  this 
name  in  Philadelphia  September  16-17, 1887.    It 
declares  for  the  limitation  of  immigration  ;  exclu- 
sion from  citizenship  of  "anarchists,  socialists, 
and  other  dangerous  characters  ;"  free  schools, 
absolute  religious  freedom,  the  enforcement  of 
the  Monroe  Doctrine,  and  condemns  the  grant- 
ing of  land  to  aliens  or  to  corporations. 

AMERICAN  PROPORTIONAL  REP- 
RESENTATION LEAGUE,  THE.— For  a 
discussion  of  PROPORTIONAL  REPRESENTATION  see 
that  subject.  August  n,  1893,  a  Proportional 
Representation  Congress  was  held  in  Chicago, 
and  as  a  result  the  American  Proportional  Rep- 
resentation League  was  founded.  Its  constitu- 
tion is  as  follows  : 

"  Article  I.  Name.  This  Society  shall  be  known  as 
the  American  Proportional  Representation  League. 

"  Art.  II.  Object.  Its  object  shall  be  to  promote  the 
reform  of  legislative  assemblies  by  abandoning  the 
present  system  of  electing  single  representatives  from 
limited  territorial  districts  by  a  majority  or  plurality 
vote,  and  by  substituting  the  following  : 

"  i.  All  representatives  shall  be  elected  at  large,  on  a 

feneral  ticket,  either  without  district  divisions  or  in 
istricts  as  large  as  practicable. 

"  2.  The  election  shall  be  in  such  form  that  the  re- 
spective parties,  or  political  groups,  shall  secure  rep- 
resentation in  proportion  to  the  number  of  votes  cast 
by  them,  respectively. 

"  Art.  III.  Membership.  Any  person  in  the  United 
States  or  Canada  who  shall  subscribe  to  the  purpose 
of  this  League  may  become  a  member.  The  dues  shall 


be  $i  per  annum.  Members  are  entitled  to  the  pub- 
lications of  the  League  without  charge. 

"Art.  IV.  Officers.  The  officers  shall  be  a  President, 
a  Secretary,  who  shall  also  be  Treasurer,  and  a  Com- 
mitteeman  from  each  State  and  Territory  in  the  United 
States  and  province  of  Canada.  The  officers  shall  be 
elected  annually  by  ballots,  to  be  forwarded  to  the 
Secretary  by  mail.  The  President  and  Secretary- 
Treasurer  shall  be  chosen  by  the  whole  membership, 
and  the  Committemen  by  the  members  of  their  re- 
spective States,  Territories,  and  provinces. 

"  Art.  V.  Publications.  An  official  bulletin  shall  be 
issued  under  the  direction  of  the  Secretary  as  often  as 
the  funds  of  the  League  will  permit." 

The  League  has  issued  the  following  address 
to  the  public  : 

"  The  political,  social,  and  economic  agitations 
which  have  taken  hold  of  this  generation,  and  turned 
the  civilized  countries  into  debating  societies,  betray  a 
spirit  of  restless  inquiry  after  truth  which  must  sooner 
or  later  produce  tangible  results.  And  as  the  discus- 
sion nears  the  end,  and  the  time  for  action  approaches. 
thoughtful,  earnest  citizens  are  confronted  with  the 
fact  that  wherever  reform  must  be  obtained  through 
political  action,  that  action  is  delayed,  if  not  prevented, 
by  a  system  of  representation  which  fails  to  accom- 
plish the  purpose  for  which  it  was  intended.  The  va- 
rious reformers  as  they  approach  the  law-making 
bodies,  whether  they  be  city  councils,  State  legisla- 
tures, or  national  congresses  and  parliaments,  find  that 
that  branch  of  government  which  should  reflect  in 
miniature  the  whole  country,  instead  mirrors  the 
opinions  of  only  a  privileged  few.  Tho  these  re- 
formers may  number  a  considerable  part  of  the  body 
politic,  they  find  it  impossible  to  secure  representation 
in  the  halls  of  legislation. 

"  The  effect  of  this  state  of  affairs  has  been  to  create 
a  feeling  of  recklessness  on  the  part  of  some  men  and 
of  apathy  on  the  part  of  others.  Some  propose  to  right 
their  grievances  by  force  ;  others  give  up  the  fight  and 
•withdraw  from  the  field  in  disgust.  All  are  prone  to 
despair  when  they  realize  the  Herculean  task  of  se- 
curing a  hearing  of  the  so-called  representatives  of  the 
people.  They  see  that  Iowa,  with  219,215  Republican 
votes  and  201,923  Democratic  votes,  at  the  election  of 
1892  sent  10  Republican  Congressmen  and  one  Demo- 
crat to  Washington  ;  that  every  21,921  Republicans  of 
that  State  has  a  representative,  while  the  whole  201,923 
Democrats  have  but  one.  In  Kentucky  the  case  is  re- 
versed. The  Democrats  have  a  Congressman  for  every 
17,436  votes,  while  the  Republicans  have  one  for  122,308. 
In  Maine  the  vote  was  65,637  Republicans  and  55.778 
Democrats,  but  the  Republicans  got  all  the  four  Con- 
gressmen. In  Maryland  the  vote  was  91,762  Republi- 
cans and  113,931  Democrats,  but  the  latter  got  the  six 
Congressmen.  The  Republicans  of  Texas  have  not  had 
a  representative  in  Congress  since  1882.  The  Demo- 
crats of  Kansas  have  not  had  a  representative  since 
the  State  was  admitted  to  the  Union,  tho  they  have 
polled  from  a  third  to  two  fifths  of  the  vote  of  the  State 
during  that  time.  And  even  the  votes  of  the  success- 
ful parties  only  mean  that  the  persons  who  cast  them 
merely  preferred  one  of  the  party  candidates  to  an- 
other ;  instead  of  a  free  choice,  they  had  a  forced  alter- 
native. 

"  Many  people  attribute  this  state  of  affairs  to  the 
errymander.  But  while  the  practice  of  making  dis- 
onest districts  cannot  be  too  strongly  condemned,  the 
gerrymander  has  been  made  the  scapegoat  for  a  sys- 
tem which  of  itself  is  wrong  ;  for  it  must  be  apparent 
that  if  one  party  has  a  majority  in  the  whole  State 
there  is  a  tendency  for  it  to  have  a  majority  in  each 
district,  no  matter  how  its  boundaries  be  made.  If 
there  be  49  Democrats  and  51  Republicans  in  each  town- 
ship, the  Republicans  will  have  all  the  representatives 
any  way  the  districts  are  made,  though  the  Democrats 
have  49  per  cent,  of  the  votes.  Should  there  be  33  Re- 
publicans, 33  Democrats,  and  34  Populists  in  each  town- 
ship, the  latter  would  have  all  the  representatives, 
tho  they  had  but  34  per  cent,  of  the  votes.  It  is 
only  because  the  voters  are  not  evenly  distributed 
that  the  minority  of  a  city,  county,  or  State  can  secure 
any  representation  at  all.  Let  this  be  expressed  in 
tabular  form  : 
Districts. 


g 
h 


Voters. 

Representatives. 

c  c 

bb 

a  a  a 

A 

C  C 

bb 

a  a  a 

A 

c  c 

bb 

a  a  a 

A 

c  c 

bb 

a  a  a 

A 

c  c 

b  b 

a  a  a 

A 

c  c 

bb 

a  a  a 

A 

c  c 

bb 

a  a  a 

A 

Am.  Prop.  Rep.  League. 


American  Protective  Association. 


"Supposing  each  letter  to  represent  1000  votes,  the 
'a's'  with  21,000  votes  secure  all  the  representation, 
while  the  '  b's  '  and  '  c's  '  with  14,000  votes  each,  or  con- 
siderably more  than  half  the  total,  have  none.  The  fault 
lies  in  the  system  itself.  While  dishonest  men  can 
sometimes  increase  the  evil  effects,  it  is  impossible  for 
the  wiser  and  more  honest  to  secure  good  effects.  It 
must  make  way  for  a  system  which  is  not  only  scien- 
tific and  just  in  principle,  but  which  is  working  to  per- 
fection in  Switzerland  to-day—proportional  represen- 
tation. 

41  Proportional  representation  is  based  upon  the 
principle  that  if  a  certain  political  unit,  whether  it  be  a 
State,  city,  or  county,  has  a  given  number  of  represen- 
tatives, each  proportionate  part  of  the  voters  in  that 
political  unit  should  have  one  representative.  That  is 
to  say,  if  a  State  with  four  Congressmen  has  100,000 
votes,  each  25,000  voters  should  have  one  Congressman. 
Proportional  representation  accomplishes  this  by  wip- 
ing out  the  district  lines  and  allowing  the  citizens  to 
vote  as  they  please  in  the  State.  The  total  number  of 
votes  cast  at  the  election  is  divided  by  the  number  of 
representatives  to  be  chosen,  which  gives  the  electoral 
quotient,  or  quota,  which  is  the  number 
of  votes  necessary  to  elect  one  represen- 

A  TWla.ra.tinn  tative-  Each  Party  or  group  of  voters 
is  then  given  as  many  representatives  as 
of  Principles,  the  electoral  quota  is  contained  times  in 
their  vote.  Nominations  may  be  made 
as  at  present  by  parties  or  by  petition, 
and  the  voting  done  as  at  present,  the  only  difference 
being  that  the  successful  candidates  are  taken  from  the 
various  parties  in  proportion  to  their  respective  votes, 
instead  of  taking  them  all  from  the  majority  party. 
Take  as  an  example  the  Congressional  election  of  In- 
diana in  1892.  The  total  vote  cast  for  Congressmen  was  : 
Republican,  253,640;  Democratic,  259,184;  Prohibition,i2,- 
358;  Populist,24,223,makingatotalof  549,405  votes.  If  549,- 
405  votes  elect  13  representatives,  one  thirteenth  of  that 
number  should  elect  one.  Hence,dividing  the  total  num- 
ber of  votes  cast,  549,405,  by  the  number  of  representa- 
tives to  be  elected,  13,  gives  as  the  electoral  quota  42,- 
262.  The  253,640  Republican  votes  divided  by  this 
quota  give  six  full  quotas  and  a  remainder  of  68  votes. 
The  259,184  Democratic  votes  divided  by  the  quota  give 
six  full  quotas  and  a  remainder  or  5612.  As  nei- 
ther of  the  remaining  parties  has  enough  votes  to  fill  a 
quota,  the  remaining  representative  is  taken  from  the 
party  having  the  largest  unfilled  quota,  the  Populist. 
This  would  make  the  Indiana  delegation  six  Republi- 
cans, six  Democrats,  and  one  Populist,  instead  of  the 
two  Republicans  and  n  Democrats  •who  were  elected. 

"  In  the  one  case  the  districts  are  so  constructed  by 
nature  or  by  parties  that  a  small  handful  of  voters 
holds  the  balance  of  power.  By  voting  as  a  unit  they 
are  able  to  throw  the  election  one  way  or  the  other. 
Hence  these  men  have  great  influence  -with  the  two 
dominant  parties ;  each  feels  that  it  must  do  everything 
to  capture  this  vote,  and  as  the  independent  controlling 
vote  is  almost  invariably  of  the  lowest  moral  type,  the 
tendency  is  to  nominate  men  of  that  stamp.  In  the 
other  case  the  districts  are  abolished  and  the  State 
votes  as  a  whole,  dividing  the  candidates  proportion- 
ately among  the  variovis  political  parties.  Then  it  is 
found  that  these  professional  politicians,  who  before 
controlled  the  elections,  are  not  numerous  enough  all 
combined  to  fill  a  quota,  and  whatever  their  number, 
they  can  secure  only  such  representation  as  their  num- 
bers entitle  them  to.  As  the  tendency  now  is  to  nomi- 
nate men  acceptable  to  the  worst  elements  of  our  polit- 
ical life,  so  under  proportional  representation  the 
tendency  would  be  to  nominate  men  who  were  accept- 
able to  the  mass  of  the  people.  If  the  mass  be  good 
they  will  elect  good  men,  if  it  be  evil  they  will  elect 
evil  men  ;  they  can  elect  whatever  kind  of  representa- 
tives they  wish,  which  they  cannot  now  do.  As  under 
the  present  system  candidates  are  nominated  because 
of  their  cowardly,  time-serving  traits,  under  propor- 
tional representation  only  those  can  hope  for  success 
who  openly  declare  themselves  for  some  definite 
policy. 

"  The  great  mass  of  the  voters  of  this  country  are 
divided  between  the  Republican  and  Democratic  par- 
ties, but  in  most  of  the  districts  throughout  the  country 
one  or  the  other  has  such  a  decided  majority  that  the 
election  is  a  mere  formality.  General  Garfield,  in  a 
speech  before  the  House  of  Representatives,  in  1870, 
said : 

" '  In  my  judgment  it  is  the  weak  point  in  the  theory 
of  representative  government,  as  now  organized  and 
administered,  that  a  large  part  of  the  people  are  per- 
manently disfranchised.  There  are  about  10,000  Demo- 
cratic voters  in  my  district,  and  they  have  been  voting 
there  for  the  last  40  years  without  any  more  hope  of 


having  a  representative  on  this  floor  than  of  having 
one  in  the  Commons  of  Great  Britain.' 

"  Twenty-three  years  have  been  added  to  the  forty, 
and  still  the  Democrats  of  that  district  maintain  the  for- 
lorn hope.  If  this  be  so  of  the  Democrats  in  Iowa  and 
Maine,  and  of  the  Republicans  of  Texas  and  Kentucky, 
what  can  be  said  of  the  new  parties,  the  independent 
movements  here  and  there  throughout  the  country? 
Tho  they  poll  many  times  more  than  enough  votes 
to  fill  an  electoral  quota  they  are  absolutely  disfran- 
chised. In  the  election  of  Congressmen  in  1892  there 
were  12,032,203  votes  polled,  and  yet  5,531,965  of  these 
voters  can  say,  as  they  look  upon  the  House  of  Repre- 
sentatives :  '  There  is  not  one  among  all  these  356 
members  who  represents  us.'  If  the  356  members 
should  vote  unanimously  upon  any  question,  they 
would  represent  but  54  per  cent,  of  the  voters  who 
voted  at  their  election.  And  should  a  bare  majority  of 
the  members  pass  a  law  it  would  represent  only  21.4 
per  cent,  of  the  citizens  who  voted  at  that  election. 
Thus,  in  a  government  in  which  the  majority  is  sup- 
posed to  rule,  it  is  found  that  the  representatives  of  a 
trifle  over  one  fifth  of  the  people  can  make  the  laws 
for  the  remaining  four  fifths. 

"  It  will  be  said,  of  course,  that  these  four  fifths  are 
not  absolutely  disfranchised,  because,  tho  they  fail- 
ed to  elect  the  man  they  voted  for  in  their  district, 
their  party  fellows  elected  one  in  some  other  district. 
Cold  comfort,  indeed  !  What  consolation  is  it  to  the 
gold-money  Democrat  of  Maine  to  know  when  his  can- 
didate fails  of  election  that  the  free  silver  Democrat  of 
Missouri  was  successful?  What  does  the  free  trade 
Republican  of  Kentucky  care  for  the  success  of  the 
protection  Republican  of  Massachusetts?  And  even  if 
these  should  be  comforted  by  the  fact  that  men  bear- 
ing the  same  party  name,  tho  professing  different 
principles,  are  successful,  what  can  be  said  of  the  mil- 
lion or  more  voters  throughout  the  country  who  voted 
for  the  independent  tickets?  And  what  of  the  still 
greater  number  who  voted  not  at  all,  or  for  the  lesser 
of  two  or  several  evils?  What  of  the  intelligent  citi- 
zens who  long  for  fit  representatives  in  the  halls  of 
legislation  and  proclaim  popular  government  a  failure 
because  they  have  hoped  in  vain  ? 

"  The  fact  that  minorities  will  secure  representation 
is  the  least  important  of  all  the  good  which  will  result 
from  the  adoption  of  proportional  representation. 
While  it  is  true  that  an  intelligent  representative  of 
the  various  reform,  movements  would  temper  the  arbi- 
trary action  of  the  majorities  and  be  an  educational 
force  of  great  value,  and  should  therefore  be  striven 
for  by  all  men  who  wish  to  better  the  condition  of  so- 
ciety through  legislative  action,  yet  the  great  end  to 
be  gained  by  proportional  representation  is  the  direct 
representation  of  all  the  people.  When  every  citizen 
votes  with  the  full  assurance  that  each  individual  vote 
bears  directly  upon  the  final  result,  the  men  who  have 
withdrawn  in  despair  from  politics,  as  something  with 
•which  an  honest  man  can  have  nothing  to  do,  will  re- 
turn to  their  duty.  There  will  be  no  wasted  majorities 
and  hopeless  minorities  cooped  up  in  political  slave 
pens  ;  each  and  every  party  will  secure  representation 
in  proportion  to  its  numbers,  and  a  majority  of  the  rep- 
resentatives in  the  Assembly  will  always  represent  a 
majority  of  the  people.  Then,  and  not  till  then,  will 
legislative  bodies  become  quickly  responsive  to  the 
will  of  the  people  ;  then,  and  not  till  then,  will  the 
citizen  realize  the  power  of  his  single  vote  ;  then,  and 
not  till  then,  will  honest  government  be  possible  ;  then, 
and  not  till  then,  shall  we  have  in  fact  what  we  have 
now  in  theory  'a  government  of  the  people,  for  the 
people,  and  by  the  people.'  " 

The  President  of  the  League  (1895)  is  Hon. 
Wm.  Dudley  Foulke,  Richmond,  Ind.  ;  Secre- 
tary, Stoughton  Cooley,  22  Fifth  Avenue,  Chi- 
cago, 111. 

AMERICAN  PROTECTIVE  ASSOCIA- 
TION, THE. — This  association,  commonly 
called  the  A.  P.  A.,  is  a  secret  association,  and 
is  said  to  have  somewhat  changed  its  name  re- 
cently, so  that  members  sometimes  declare  that 
they  are  not  members  of  the  A.  P.  A. ,  and  that 
there  is  no  such  organization.  Nevertheless,  the 
organization  admittedly  continues  known  to  the 
public  as  the  A.  P.  A.,  and  contends  for  the 
principles  identified  with  that  name.  Its  plat- 
form, as  announced  to  the  public,  adopted  by 


American  Protective  Association.       49       American  Protective  Association. 


the  Supreme  Council  at  Des  Moines,  la.,  May 
4,  1894,  is  as  follows  : 

"  i.  Loyalty  to  true  Americanism,  which  knows  nei- 
ther birthplace,  race,  creed,  nor  party,  is  the  first  req- 
uisite for  membership  in  the  American  Protective 
Association. 

"  2.  The  American  Protective  Association  is  not  a  polit- 
ical party  and  does  not  control  the  political  affiliation 
of  its  members,  but  it  teaches  them  to 
be  intensely  active  in  the  discharge  of 
Constitution,  their  political  duties  in  or  out  of  party 
lines,  because  it  believes  that  all  the 
problems  confronting  our  people  will 
best  be  solved  by  a  conscientious  discharge  of  the 
duties  of  citizenship  by  every  individual. 

"  3.  While  tolerant  of  all  creeds,  it  holds  that  subjec- 
tion to  and  support  of  any  ecclesiastical  power,  not 
created  and  controlled  by  American  citizens,  and 
which  claims  equal  if  not  greater  sovereignty  than 
the  Government  of  the  United  States  of  America,  is  ir- 
reconcilable with  American  citizenship.  It  is,  there- 
fore, opposed  to  the  holding  of  office  in  National,  State, 
or  Municipal  Government  by  any  subject  or  supporter 
of  such  ecclesiastic  power. 

"  4.  We  uphold  the  Constitution  of  the  United  States 
of  America,  and  no  portion  of  it  more  than  its  guarantee 
of  religious  liberty;  but  we  hold  this  religious  liberty 
to  be  guaranteed  to  the  individual  and  not  to  mean 
that  under  its  protection  any  un-American  ecclesias- 
tical power  can  claim  absolute  control  over  the  educa- 
tion of  children  growing  up  under  the  Stars  and 
Stripes. 

"  5.  We  consider  the  non-sectarian  free  public  school 
the  bulwark  of  American  institutions,  the  best  place 
for  the  education  of  American  children.  To  keep 
them  as  such  we  protest  against  the  employment  of 
subjects  of  any  un-American  ecclesiastical  power  as 
officers  or  teachers  of  our  public  schools. 

"  6.  We  condemn  the  support  out  of  the  public  treas- 
ury by  direct  appropriation,  or  by  contract  of  a  secta- 
rian school,  reformatory,  or  other  institutions  not 
owned  and  controlled  by  public  authority.  , 

"  7.  Believing  that  exemption  from  taxation  is  equiva- 
lent to  a  grant  of  public  funds,  we  demand  that  no 
real  or  personal  property  be  exempt  from  taxation,  the 
title  to  which  is  not  vested  in  the  National  or  State 
Governments,  or  in  any  of  their  subdivisions. 

"  8.  We  protest  against  the  enlistment  in  the  United 
States  army,  navy,  or  the  militia  of  any  State,  of  any 
person  not  an  actual  citizen  of  the  United  States. 

"  g.  We  demand  for  the  protection  of  our  citizen  labor- 
ers the  prohibition  of  the  importation  of  pauper  labor, 
and  the  restriction  of  all  immigration  to  persons  who 
can  show  their  ability  and  honest  intention  to  become 
self-supporting  American  citizens. 

"  10.  We  demand  the  change  of  the  national  naturali- 
zation laws  by  a  repeal  of  the  act  authorizing  the'  natu- 
ralization of  minors  without  a  previous  declaration  of 
intention,  and  by  providing  that  no  alien  shall  be 
naturalized  or  permitted  to  vote  in  any  State  in  the 
Union  who  cannot  speak  the  language  of  the  land,  and 
who  cannot  prove  seven  years'  continuous  residence  in 
this  country  from  the  date  of  his  declaration  of  inten- 
tion. 

"u.  We  protest  against  the  gross  negligence  and 
laxity  with  which  the  Judiciary  of  our  land  administer 
the  present  naturalization  laws,  and  against  the  prac- 
tice of  naturalizing  aliens  at  the  expense  of  committees 
or  candidates,  as  the  most  prolific  source  of  the  present 
prostitution  of  American  citizenship  to  the  basest 
uses. 

"12.  We  demand  that  all  hospitals,  asylums,  reforma- 
tories, or  other  institutions  in  which  people  are  un- 
der restraint,  be  at  all  times  subject  to  public  in- 
spection, whether  they  are  maintained  by  the  public 
or  by  private  corporations  or  individuals. 

"13.  We  demand  that  all  National  or  State  legislation 
affecting  financial,  commercial,  or  industrial  interests 
be  general  in  character,  and  in  no  instance  in  favor  of 
any  one  section  of  the  country,  of  any  one  class  of 
people." 

The  organization  was  founded  at  Clinton,  la., 
about  1887,  by  H.  F.  Bowers,  and  has  now 
grown  to  large  numbers.  It  has  spread  into 
Canada,  and  has  crossed  to  England  and  Aus- 
tralia, and  is  now  organized  as  an  international 
movement  with  a  general  platform  as  far  as 
nationality  is  concerned,  but  contending  for  the 
same  general  principles.  A  member  of  the  or- 
der says,  in  a  printed  circular  : 
4 


"  The  A.  P.  A.  is  not  a  '  benefit '  order— it  gives  nei- 
ther life  insurance,  sick  benefits,  nor  any  other  financial 
aid,  as  an  order.  The  membership  is  not  confined  to 
natives  of  the  United  States  ;  but  all  Protestants— after 
rigid  scrutiny  and  if  satisfactory — are  eligible  for 
membership — that  is,  men  of  18  years  and  upward. 
The  order  is,  first  of  all,  American  and  Protestant. 
It  is,  at  the  same  time,  aggressive — it  means  fight ! — 
with  the  ballot  and  with  every  other  legitimate  weapon. 

"  Of  the  men  who  make  up  its  membership,  it  should 
be  said  that  recent  inquiry  developed  the  fact  that  in 
the  order  there  were  nearly  1800  clergymen  of  various 
Protestant  denominations ;  college  presidents  and  pro- 
fessors, editors  by  scores,  school-teachers  by  hundreds; 
bankers,  railroad  magnates,merchants,manufacturers, 
professional  men  of  every  description  ;  artists,  mechan- 
ics, salesmen,  soldiers,  and  sailors.  In  some  of  the 
Western  cities,  every  official,  from  mayor  down,  is  a 
member  of  the  order. 

"  Of  course  it  is  a  secret  order,  because  it  is  fighting 
a  secret  foe — the  Jesuits.  Would  it  be  wise  for  a  com- 
mander to  make  his  plan  of  attack  public  before  the 
battle?  What  success  would  Grant,  Sherman,  Sher- 
idan, or  others  have  had,  had  they  given  to  the  news- 
papers all  their  plans  ? 

The  members  are  men  who  are  sick  of  the  apathy 
and  supineness  so  prevalent  in  Protestantism,  in 
Americans  generally,  who  allow  Rome  to  trample  in 
the  dust  their  most  cherished  institutions  without  a 
word  of  protest  and  allow  the  many-tentacled  mon- 
ster to  seize  and  control  city  after  city,  without  even  a 
murmur." 

The  reasons  given  for  the  existence  of  the 
order  are  stated  by  the  same  writer  to  be  as  fol- 
lows : 

"The  Roman  Catholic  attack  on  our  public-school 
system. 

"The  attempted  foreignizing,  by  force,  of  whole 
communities,  in  language  and  religion,  by  Romish 
priests. 

"  The  complete  control  of  our  great  cities  by  Ro- 
manism. 

"  The  fact  that  our  army  and  navy  are  almost 
wholly  Romanized. 

"  The  remarkable  increase  of  untaxed  church  prop- 
erty. 

"  The  frequent  desecration  of  the  American  flag  by 
priests. 

"The  Jesuit  control  of  the  heads  of  the  Government 
at  Washington. 

"  The  well-known  public  declaration  of  the  Pope 
that  the  United  States  is  his  one  bright  hope  for  the 
future. 

"The  universal  brag  and  bluster  of  Romish  orators 
and  newspapers  that  Americans  are  cowards,  and  that 
all  the  good  which  has  ever  come  to  this  nation  has 
come  from  Romanists." 

We  give  these  quotations,  not  as  coming  offi- 
cially from  the  order,  but  as  unquestionably  cor- 
rectly showing  the  feeling  of  the  order.  As  a 
proof  of  the  need  of  the  order,  the  Rev.  James 
B.  Dunn,  Secretary  of  the  Committee  of  One 
Hundred,  of  Boston,  Mass.,  in  a  tract  published 
by  the  committee,  quotes  from  the  papal  ency- 
clical of  January  10,  1890,  where  the  Pope  bids 
Roman  Catholics 

"  Even  in  politics,  always  to  serve  first  the  interests 
of  Catholicism,  and  to  submit  themselves  in  obedience 
to  the  will  of  the  Pontiff  as  to  God  Himself,  and  that 
the  civil  laws  are  binding  on  them  only  so  long  as  they 
are  comformable  to  the  Roman  Catholic  religion.  In 
that  same  encyclical  the  Pope  says  it  is  a  duty  to 
resist  all  civil  laws  hostile  to  anything  ordered  by  the 
Church,  and  a  crime  to  obey  them.  These  being  the 
facts,  is  it  not  quite  certain  that  whatever  his  private 
or  personal  opinion  and  feelings  may  be  as  an  Ameri- 
can citizen,  every  good  Roman  Catholic  must  support 
the  Church  as  against  the  State  ?  .  .  . 

"  That  cases  happen  in  which  the  State  demands  one 
thing  from  the  citizen,  and  religion  the  opposite  from 
Christians,  and  this  undoubtedly  for  no 
other  reason  than  that  the  heads  of  the 
State  pay  no  regard  to  the  sacred  power        Papal 
of  the  Church,  or  desire  to  make  it  sub-  Enevclicals 
ject  to  them.      No   one,  however,  can  *J"VJ'V 
doubt  which  is  to  receive  their  prefer- 
ence.   ...       It    is   an   impious  deed 
to  break  the  laws  of  Jesus  Christ  for  the  purpose  of 
obeying  the  magistrates,  or  to  transgress  (lie  laws  of 


American  Protective  Association.       50      American  Protective  Association. 


the  Church  under  the  pretext  of  observing  the  civil 
law.  .  .  . 

"  If  the  laws  of  the  State  are  in  open  contradiction 
with  the  Divine  law,  if  they  command  anything  prej- 
udicial to  the  Church,  or  are  hostile  to  the  duties  im- 
posed by  religion,  or  violate  in  the  person  of  the  Su- 
preme Pontiff  the  authority  of  Jesus  Christ,  then  in- 
deed it  is  a  duty  to  resist  them  and  a  crime  to  obey 
them— a  crime  fraught  with  injury  to  the  State  it- 
self. .  .  . 

"  Furthermore,  in  politics,  which  are  inseparably 
bound  up  with  the  laws  of  morality  and  religious  duties, 
men  ought  always  and  in  \^\^  first  place  to  serve,  as  far 
as  possible,  the  interests  of  Catholicism.  As  soon  as 
they  are  seen  to  be  in  danger,  all  differences  should 
cease  between  Catholics.  Since  the  fate  of  States  de- 
pends principally  on  the  disposition  of  those  who  are 
at  the  head  of  the  Government,  the  Church  cannot 
grant  its  patronage  or  favor  to  men  whom  it  knows  to 
be  hostile  to  it,  who  openly  refuse  to  respect  its  rights  ; 
•who  seek  to  break  the  alliance  established  by  the  na- 
ture of  things  between  religious  interests  and  the  in- 
terests of  the  civil  order.  On  the  contrary,  its  duty  is 
to  favor  those  who,  having  sound  ideas  as  to  the  rela- 
tions between  Church  and  State,  wish  to  make  them 
both  harmonize  for  the  common  good.  These  princi- 
ples contain  the  rule  according  to  which  every  Catho- 
lic ought  to  model  his  public  life." 

Dr.  Dunn  also  quotes  Vicar-General  Preston, 
in  a  sermon,  as  saying  : 

"  Every  word  Leo  speaks  from  his  high  chair  is  the 
voice  of  the  Holy  Ghost,  and  must  be  obeyed.  To 
every  Catholic  heart  comes  no  thought  but  obedience. 
It  is  said  that  politics  is  not  within  the  province  of  the 
Church,  and  that  the  Church  has  only  jurisdiction  in 
matters  of  faith.  You  say,  'I  will  receive  my  faith 
from  the  Pontiff,  but  I  will  not  receive  my  politics 
from  him.'  This  assertion  is  disloyal  and  untruth- 
ful. .  .  .  You  must  not  think  as  you  choose  ;  you 
must  think  as  Catholics.  The  man  who  says,  '  I  will 
take  my  faith  from  Peter,  but  I  will  not  take  my  poli- 
tics from  Peter,'  is  not  a  true  Catholic.  The  Church 
teaches  that  the  supreme  Pontiff  must  be  obeyed,  be- 
cause he  is  the  vicar  of  the  Lord,  Christ  speaks  through 
him." 

And  from  one  of  Cardinal  Manning's  sermons 
on  ecclesiastical  subjects,  representing  the  Pope 
as  saying  : 

"  I  acknowledge  no  civil  superior;  I  am  the  subject 
of  no  prince  ;  and  I  claim  more  than  this.  I  claim  to 
be  the  supreme  judge  on  earth,  and  director  of  the 
consciences  of  men  ;  of  the  peasant  that  tills  the  field, 
and  the  prince  that  sits  on  the  throne  ;  of  the  house- 
hold that  lives  in  the  shade  of  privacy,  and  the  legisla- 
ture that  makes  laws  for  kingdoms.  I  am  the  sole  last 
supreme  judge  on  earth  of  what  is  right  and  wrong." 

Of  these  and  other  similar  quotations  Dr. 
Dunn  says  : 

"In  view  of  such  declarations  and  teachings,  we  ask, 
Can  a  good  Romanist  be  at  the  same  time  a  loyal 
American  citizen  ? 

"  Many  Romanists,  no  doubt,  mean  to  be  loyal  citizens 
of  the  Republic,  and  honestly  think  they  are  ;  yea,  we 
are  quite  willing  to  believe  that  the  great  body  of 
them  have  no  wish  to  interfere  with  the  liberties  and 
institutions  of  America,  and  that  if  called  upon  to 
choose  between  serving  our  Government  and  the  pow- 
er at  Rome,  think  they  would  abjure  Rome.  But  it 
must  be  remembered  that  they  belong  to  a  system  in 
•which  free  agency  is  impossible.  As  we  have  seen, 
the  Vatican  claims  absolute  and  supreme  authority  in 
all  things,  civil  as  well  as  spiritual,  and  every  member 
of  that  Church  is  bound  to  render  to  the  Pontiff  abso- 
lute and  unquestioning  obedience.  This  being  true, 
is  it  not  quite  certain  that  whatever  his  private  or 
personal  opinions  and  feelings  may  be  as  an  American 
citizen,  he  must  support  the  Church  as  against  the 
State  ?  .  .  .  Can  any  person  who  is  loyal  to  Roman- 
ism be  true  to  Republicanism?  Can  a  Romanist  be  a 
good  citizen  of  America  ?  .  .  . 

"  The  United  States  Supreme  Court  has  decided  that 
the  law  of  one  of  our  States,  disfranchising  Mormons, 
is  constitutional,  on  the  theory  that  the  man  who  takes 
the  oath  the  Mormons  are  required  to  take  cannot  be 
a  good  citizen.  Why  should  not  this  principle  be  ap- 
plied to  those  who  confess  allegiance  to  the  Papal 
hierarchy  ?  How  much  longer  will  this  flagrant  viola- 
tion of  citizenship  be  permitted  in  America? 


"  Is  it  not  high  time  for  the  nation  to  decide  which  is 
supreme,  the  Church  or  the  State — to  which  authority 
citizens  owe  allegiance  ? 

"  How  long  would  the  nation  allow  one  eighth  of  her 
population  to  enjoy  all  the  rights  and  privileges  of 
American  citizenship,  while  owning  allegiance  to  any 
other  foreign  power,  say  Austria  or  Russia  ?  Why 
permit  this  to  be  done  with  those  who  own  allegiance 
to  the  Pontiff  at  Rome  ?  .  .  . 

"  Let  Romanists  who  would  become  citizens  of  the 
United  States  be  required  not  only  to  take  the  oath 
of  allegiance  to  the  Government,  but  to  take  an  oath 
also  renouncing  all  primal  allegiance  to  the  Pope. 
This  is  not  a  question  of  religious  intolerance,  nor  is  it 
one  of  antagonism  to  foreigners  who  are  willing  to 
homologate  with  us  in  accordance  with  the  spirit  of 
our  institutions.  We  would  not  cut  down  by  a  single 
span  the  splendid  proportions  of  national  freedom  ;  we 
would  not  abridge  the  liberty  of  party,  sect  or  individ- 
ual. But  this  is  a  question  of  self-protection  and  self- 
preservation,  and  the  law  of  self-preservation  is  su- 
preme in  all  social  and  political  organizations.  We 
would  guard  and  preserve  our  liberty  from  the  hands 
of  hate  and  the  assaults  of  foes. 

"  Romanism  is  a  political  system.  It  is  a  political 
power  ;  as  a  political  power  it  must  be  met,  as  a  politi- 
cal force  it  must  be  treated  •when  viewed  in  its  rela- 
tion to  our  institutions.  It  does  not  make  any  differ- 
ence whether  the  political  power  that  assails  our  insti- 
tutions is  on  the  snores  of  the  Baltic,  on  the  shores  of 
the  British  Channel,  or  on  the  shores  of  the  Tiber,  it 
must  be  met.  We  can  have  no  divided  citizenship. 
No  man  should  be  allowed  to  participate  in  the  politi- 
cal affairs  of  this  country  who  is  the  subject  or  ally  of 
a  foreign  power  that  is  at  war  with  our  national  insti- 
tutions. No  ballot  for  the  man  who  takes  his  politics 
from  the  Vatican  r' 

Such  is  probably  as  good  a  statement  of  the 
position  of  the  A.  P.  A.  as  can  be  made.  The 
order  claims  to-day  (1895)  about  2,000,000  mem- 
bers in  the  United  States.  Its  prominent  (1895) 
members  are  said  to  be  :  Supreme  President, 
W.  J.  H.  Traynor,  of  Detroit ;  Vice-President, 
Adam  Fawcett,  of  Ohio  ;  Secretary  of  State, 
O.  B.  Jackson,  of  Boone,  la.  ;  Chaplain,  J.  J. 
Gosper,  of  San  Francisco  ;  Secretary,  C.  J. 
Beatty,  of  Saginaw,  Mich.  ;  Treasurer,  H.  M. 
Stark,  of  Milwaukee  ;  Trustees,  F.  C.  Campbell, 
of  Minneapolis  ;  N.  D.  McDonald,  of  Cheyenne, 
Wyo.  ;  and  W.  H.  Nichols,  of  Braddock,  Pa. 

There  are  various  minor  orders  of  a  similar 
nature,  some  started  as  a  split  from  the  A.  P.  A. , 
some  much  older  than  the  A.  P.  A.,  and  of  a 
somewhat,  similar  nature,  such  as  the  Order  of 
American  Mechanics  and  the  Junior  Order  of 
American  Mechanics,  which  number  some  200,- 
ooo  members,  and  theTatriotic  Order  of  Sons  of 
America — these  three  admitting  only  natives  of 
the  United  States  to  membership.  Then  there 
are  the  Knights  of  Malta,  the  Alfredians,  the 
Order  of  Deputies,  and  that  oldest  and  univer- 
sally known  Protestant  order,  the  Orangemen. 

The  National  League  for  the  Protection  of 
American  Institutions  (q.v.)  is  an  unsectarian 
league  to  secure  constitutional  and  legislative 
safeguards  against  any  appropriation  of  public 
funds  for  sectarian  schools  or  any  sectarian  pur- 
poses. 

(For  an  answer  from  the   Roman   Catholic 
standpoint  to  the  statements  of  the  A.  P.  A. 
see  ROMAN  CATHOLIC  CHURCH  AND  SOCIAL  RE- 
FORM.)    But  Romanists  are  by  no 
means  the  only  ones  who  criticise 
and    oppose    the    attitude    of    the  Arguments 
A.  P.  A.     The  Rev.  H.  K.  Carroll,  against  the 
D.D.,  a  Methodist  clergyman,  and     A.  P.  A. 
one  of  the  editors  of  The  Indepen- 
dent, writes,  in  the  Methodist  Re- 
view for  March-April,  1895,  a  strong  plea  for 
Protestants  to  conquer  their  prejudices  and  to 


American  Protective  Association.       51       American  Protective  Association. 


remember  that  the  Church  of  Rome  is  a  Chris- 
tian Church;  and,  as  far  as  its  fundamental  doc- 
trines go,  orthodox.  Concerning  the  assertion 
that  Roman  Catholics  cannot  be  good  citizens, 
Dr.  Carroll  says  : 

"i.  Are  Catholics  disloyal?    I  do  not  remember  ever 
to  have  seen  the  affirmative  of  this  question  supported 
by  the  citation  of  any  act.    It  is  commonly  argued 
from  the  doctrine  of  papal  supremacy.     Catholics,  it  is 
urged,  know  no  higher  law  than  obedience.    The  peo- 
ple obey  the  priests  implicitly,  the  priests  are  in  com- 
Elete  subjection  to  the  bishops,  and  the  bishops  are 
ound  to  do  whatever  the  Pope  tells  them.    This  Pope 
is  a  foreign  potentate  who  assumes  to  be  superior  to 
kings  and  governments ;  and  he  would,  if  he  could, 
subordinate  the  State  to  the  Church.    In  answer  let 
me  ask,  Is  it  not  obvious  that  he  could  not  if  he  would  ? 
Where  is  there  a  State  over  which  he  exercises  even  a 
shadow  of  sovereignty?     There    are    countries,  like 
Italy,  Austria,  Spain,  and  Portugal,  which  are  over- 
whelmingly Catholic.    Surely  there,  if  anywhere,  this 
assumed  prerogative  would  be  asserted.     It  is  not. 
The  Pope  has  no  quarrel,  even  with  the  Government 
of  Italy,  on  this  point.    All  that  he  asks  of  King  Hum- 
bert—and he  asks  this  less  and  less  often  and  more 
and  more  perfunctorily — is  that  the  seat  of  his  spirit- 
ual empire  be  made  papal  or  neutral  territory,  so  that 
he  shall  be  independent  of  all  governments.    Every- 
body admits  that  this  concession  will  never  be  made. 
Now,  if  the  Pope  cannot  obtain  control  over  a  Catholic 
power,  what  possible  chance  has  he  of  doing  so  over  a 
great  Protestant  power  like  the  United  States  ?    The 
idea  of  such  a  thing  seems  to  me  preposterous.    If  the 
Church  is  as  cunning,  as  unscrupulous,  as  adept  in 
trickery  as  it  is  sometimes  said  to  be,  why  has  it  not 
carried  its  point  in  Italy,  where  the  Church  has  its  seat 
of  government,  and  where  the  people  a^e  intensely 
Catholic  ?    If  the  Pope  really  desired  to  subvert  our 
Government,  of  which  there  is  not  the  slightest  evi- 
dence, what  object  could  he  have  in  view  ?    The  es- 
tablishment of  a  monarchy?    This  is  inconceivable. 
It  is  true  enough  that  the  idea  at  Rome  used  to  be 
that  monarchies  were  of  divine  right ; 
but  this  idea  has  been  modified,  and  the 
Dr.  H.  K.      Pope  has  recognized  in  France — the  old- 
Carroll's      est  son  of  the  Church— the  divine  right 
of  republics.    If  our  own  republic  were 
Views.         ever  intolerable  to  the  Holy  See,  why 
were  Catholics  allowed  to  assist  in  es- 
tablishing it? 

"  A  hypothetical  case  is  sometimes  put,  thus  :  Suppose 
an  issue  were  to  arise  in  which  Catholics  had  to  choose 
between  their  country  and  their  Church,  between 
their  patriotism  and  their  religion — what  then?  Ire- 
ply,  that  this  question  is  just  as  pertinent  respecting 
members  of  other  denominations  as  of  Catholics.  It  is 
often  said  by  way  of  condemnation  that  if  a  Catholic 
had  to  choose  between  his  faith  and  his  country's  re- 
quirements, he  would  sooner  give  up  his  allegiance  to 
his  country  than  to  his  religion.  Well,  who  wouldn't  ? 
Religion  embraces  our  duty  to  God.  Isn't  that  our 
highest  duty?  And  if  conflict  comes,  who  that  is 
worthy  of  the  Christian  name  would  abjure  his  faith  ? 
This  is  only  an  idle  question  ;  such  an  issue  is  in  the 
highest  degree  improbable  ;  but  our  prejudice  pro- 
yokes  our  fears,  and  our  fears  are  wild  and  unreason- 
ing." 

Concerning  the  relation  of  the  Roman  Catho- 
lic Church  to  our  public  schools,  Dr.  Carroll 
says  : 

"2.  Does  the  Church  of  Rome  desire  to  destroy  our 
public  school  system  ?  '  Destroy'  is  a  strong  word.  I 
doubt  whether  it  is  right  to  apply  it  even  to  the  most 
hostile  opinion  that  prevails  among  the  hierarchy. 
The  most  any  Catholic  has  asked  for  is  exemption  from 
payment  of  the  public  school  tax  or  division  of  the 
school  funds.  In  neither  case  would  the  system  be  de- 
stroyed. If  the  first  alternative  were  adopted  it  would 
impair  the  integrity  of  the  system  and  limit  it.  It 
would  not  be  for  all  the  people,  as  it  is  now,  but  only 
for  the  larger  part  of  them.  If  the  second  proposal 
were  accepted  we  should  have  in  this  country  the  con- 
ditions that  prevail  in  England  and  elsewhere.  We 
should  have  both  the  secular  and  religious  elements 
represented  in  our  public  schools.  The  system  would 
be  greatly  changed  and  impaired,  but  it  would  not  be 
destroyed.  It  would  not  be  fair,  I  think,  to  say  that 
the  hierarchy  would  destroy  our  public  school  ;  but  it  is 
fair  to  say  that  they  are  not  satisfied  with  it  as  it  is." 


Concerning  a  much-quoted  passage  from  the 
Boston  Pilot,  which  says  that  "  no  good  gov- 
ernment can  exist  without  religion  ;  and  there 
can  be  no  religion  without  an  Inquisition,  which 
is  wisely  designed  for  the  promotion  and  pro- 
tection of  the  true  faith,"  Dr.  Can-oil  explains 
that  this  does  not  call  for  a  revival  of  the  tor- 
tures of  the  Middle  Ages,  but  refers  to  one  of 
the  present  sacred  congregations,  Congregatio 
Sacrt  Officii,  or  Romance  et  Utuversalis  In- 
quisitionis,  bodies  "  whose  duty  it  is  to  examine 
and  repress  heretical  and  depraved  doctrines 
and  offenses." 

Another  strong  argument  against  the  position 
of  the  A.  P.  A.  not  used  by  Dr.  Carroll  in  this 
article  is,  if  there  be  danger  to  American  lib- 
erty in  the  Roman  Catholic  Church,  that  danger 
comes  from  the  ignorance  of  many  in  her  com- 
munion, and  that  the  best  way  to  overcome  this 
is  not  to  organize  against  Roman  Catholics,  and 
so  drive  their  children  from  our  public  schools 
into  parochial  ones,  where  they  will  simply  grow 
more  subservient  to  their  priests,  but  rather  to 
welcome  them  to  oiir  schools,  giving  them  a  fair 
share  of  the  teachers,  treating  them  in  every 
way  fairly,  and  so  to  educate  the  children  away 
from  whatever  there  may  be  that  is  false  in  the 
Romish  system. 

It  can  be  shown  that  democratic  ideas  are 
making  fatal  inroads  into  the  Church  of  Rome. 
In  this  encyclopedia  we  are  concerned  only  with 
social  and  political  questions,  but  if  any  hold 
that  the  Church  of  Rome  is  dangerous  to  demo- 
cratic liberty,  it  is  asserted  that  they  have  only 
to  look  at  statistics  to  see  that  the  one  way  to 
increase  the  power  of  Rome  is  to  organize 
against  her.  She  appears  to  be  growing  in  this 
country  simply  because  so  many  Roman  Catho- 
lics have  immigrated  to  our  shores.  As  a  mat- 
ter of  fact,  she  does  not  retain  even  those  who 
are  naturally  her  own.  From  1850-94, 13,462,367 
immigrants  have  landed  in  this  country  ;  of 
these,  at  least  three  fifths,  or  8,077,419,  have 
been  Roman  Catholics,  while,  according  to  the 
census  of  1890,  there  were  only  6,231,417  Roman 
Catholic  communicants  or  members  in  the  whole 
country.  Roman  Catholics  themselves  know 
that  they  are  not  holding  their  own  against 
democratic  institutions.  Cardinal  Gibbons,  in 
his  pastoral  letter  of  1883,  says  :  "  While  we  are 
gratified  with  the  number  of  converts  who  em- 
brace the  true  faith,  we  have  reason  to  be  ap- 
palled in  considering  the  vast  number  of  souls 
that  are  straying  away  from  the  fold.  If  we 
look  for  the  descendants  of  those  families  that 
have  been  immigrating  from  Catholic  Europe 
to  this  country  in  one  uninterrupted  march  from 
the  beginning  of  the  present  century,  how  many 
of  them  shall  we  now  find  ranking  among  the 
most  bitter  and  unrelenting  enemies  of  the 
Church  ?"  The  Catholic  Mirror,  of  Baltimore, 
in  1885  stated  that  the  Catholic  population  of 
this  country  naturally  ought  to  be  20,000,000, 
and  was  only  8,000,000.  Therefore  many  who 
are  by  no  means  favorable  to  the  political  influ- 
ence of  the  Roman  priesthood  argue  that  the 
one  way  to  defeat  it  is  to  let  Rome  alone  and  to 
spread  democratic  education,  and  that  the  one 
way  to  extend  the  power  of  Rome  is  to  organize 
against  her  and  drive  her  children  into  paro- 
chial schools. 


American  Protective  Association.       52 


American  Social  Science  Asso. 


References:  For  literature  and  recent  information 
favorable  to  the  American  Protective  Association  see 
The  Patriotic  American,  Detroit,  Mich.,  W.  J.  H.  Tray- 
nor,  publisher.  See  also  arguments  pro  and  con  in  the 
A'orth  American  Review. 

AMERICAN  PURITY  ALLIANCE, 
THE,  was  incorporated  under  this  name  only 
in  1895,  but  is  the  continuation  of  the  New  York 
Committee  for  the  Prevention  of  State  Regula- 
tion of  Vice,  which  commenced  its  work  in  1870, 
and  has  held  19  annual  meetings.  Its  constitu- 
tion in  its  articles  of  public  interest  is  as  follows  : 

"  In  view  of  the  widespread  suffering,  physical  dis- 
ease, deplorable  hereditary  results,  degradation  of 
manhood  and  womanhood,  and  the  peril  to  the  home, 
society,  and  the  State,  involved  in  the  prevalent  im- 
morality, we  do  hereby  agree,  with  a  prayerful  reli- 
ance upon  Divine  aid,  to  form  ourselves  into  an  Asso- 
ciation, to  be  governed  by  the  following  Constitution  : 

"  Article  I.  This  association  shall  be  called  the 
American  Purity  Alliance. 

"  Art.  II.  The  objects  of  this  Alliance  are  the  re- 
pression of  vice,  the  prevention  of  its  regulation  by 
the  State,  the  better  protection  of  the  young,  the  res- 
cue of  the  fallen,  the  extension  of  the  White  Cross 
among  men,  and  to  maintain  the  law  of  purity  as 
equally  binding  upon  men  and  women. 

Art.  III.  Any  person  who  consents  to  the  prin- 
ciples of  this  constitution,  and  who  contributes  an- 
nually f  i  or  more  to  its  funds,  may  be  a  member  of 
this  Alliance,  and  shall  be  entitled  to  a  vote  at  the 
meetings. 

"  Art.  VIII.  Any  purity  or  White  Cross  associa- 
tion founded  on  the  same  principles  may  become 
auxiliary  to  this  Alliance  by  contributing  annually  the 
sum  of  $5  to  its  treasury." 

Says  the  latest  report  of  the  Alliance  (1895) : 
"  As  we  enter  upon  the  twentieth  year  of  our  work  in 
behalf  of  a  high  and  equal  standard,  of  morality,  alike 
for  both  sexes,  we  are  reminded,  in  a  retrospective 
view,  that  the  past  19  years  of  service  have  made  a 
history  for  which  we  had  no  plan  in  our  informal  be- 
ginning. It  was  in  the  summer  of  1876  that  a  few  of  us 
organized  as  a  Committee,  with  the  revered  Abby 
Hopper  Gibbons  as  our  president,  to  respond  to  an  ap~- 
peal  brought  to  us  by  a  deputation  from  the  Interna- 
tional Federation  for  the  Abolition  of 
State  Regulation  of  Vice,  an  organiza- 
History.  tion  of  which  Mrs.  Josephine  E.  Butler, 
of  England,  is  the  heroic,  consecrated 
leader.  The  grave  and  painful  message 
which  these  delegates— the  Rev.  J.  P.  Gledstone  and 
Mr.  H.  J.  Wilson,  M.P.,  of  England— brought  to  us  to 
warn  us  of  the  danger  to  which  we  were  exposed,  was 
intensified  by  the  fact  that  an  effort  was  made  about 
that  time  to  establish  the  old-world  system  of  State- 
sanctioned  vice  in  New  York.  We  found  local  work  to 
do  at  once  to  thwart  the  evil  scheme,  and  it  has 
proved  that  we  have  had  need  to  keep  continued  and 
unremitting  watch  and  guard  over  legislation  in  our 
own  and  other  States  all  these  intervening  years. 
Meanwhile,  we  have  also  done  what  we  could  to 
spread  a  knowledge  of  the  important  mission  of  the 
International  Federation  and  the  principles  involved 
in  the  movement,  which  were  very  little  understood  in 
this  country.  We  have  worked  in  quiet  ways,  chiefly 
through  the  types.  The  Philanthropist,  published 
monthly  for  nearly  a  decade,  has  reached  and  awa- 
kened the  interest  of  a  valuable  constituency  of  earnest, 
thoughtful  people  scattered  throughout  the  country, 
who  have  given  us  their  helpful  cooperation,  and  our 
work  has  thus  extended  and  broadened.  We  therefore 
find  it  desirable  now  to  give  ourselves  a  more  fitting 
title,  hence  the  change  of  name  to  that  of  The  Amer- 
ican Purity  Alliance,  by  which  we  can  also  give  those 
who  have  become  our  allies  their  proper  recognition 
in  auxiliary  societies  and  otherwise." 

The  League  works  by  the  dissemination  of 
literature,  meetings,  the  holding  of  purity  con- 
gresses, the  careful  watching  of  legislation,  etc. , 
and  has  devoted  itself  especially  to  raising  the  age 
of  consent,  to  preventing  attempts  to  lower  the 
age,  and  to  agitation  against  the  State  control  or 
licensing  of  prostitution.  Its  President  (1895)  is 
Aaron  M.  Powell ;  the  Chairman  of  its  Executive 


Committee,  Emily  Blackwell,  M.D.  ;  its  Corre- 
sponding Secretary,  Anna  Rice  Powell,  243  East 
Sixth  Street,  Plainfield,  N.  J.  ;  its  Treasurer, 
Elizabeth  Gay,  West  New  Brighton,  N.  Y.  ;  its 
office,  39  Nassau  Street,  Room  37,  New  York. 

See  also  AGE  OF  CONSENT  ;  PROSTITUTION  ; 
SOCIAL  PURITY  ;  WHITE  CROSS  MOVEIHENT,  etc. 

AMERICAN  RAILWAY  MASTER  ME- 
CHANICS' ASSOCIATION.— See  RAILWAY, 
ORGANIZATIONS  OF. 

AMERICAN    RAILWAY    UNION.— See 

RAILWAY  EMPLOYEES,  ORGANIZATIONS  OF. 

AMERICAN  SOCIAL  SCIENCE  ASSO- 
CIATION, THE . — This  association  was  f ou n d- 
ed  in  1865.  Its  present  constitution  is  as  follows : 

I.  This  society  shall  be  called  the  American  Social 
Science  Association. 

II.  Its  objects  shall  be  classified  in  five  departments  : 
The  first,  of  Education  ;  the  second,  of  Health  :the  third, 
of  Trade  and  Finance  ;  the  fourth,  of  Social  Economy  ; 
the  fifth,  of  Jurisprudence. 

III.  It  shall  be  administered  by  a  president,  as  many 
honorary  vice-presidents  as  may  be  chosen,  a  treas- 
urer, a  secretary,  and  a  council,  charged  with  general 
supervision  ;  five  department  committees,  established 
by  the  council,  charged  with  the  supervision  of  their 
respective   departments  ;  and  such  local   committees 
as  may  be  established   by   the    council  at    different 
points,  to  serve  as  branch  associations.    The  council 
shall  consist  of  the  president,  treasurer,  and  secretary, 
the  chairman  and  secretary  of  each  department,  and 
10  directors,  with  power  to  fill  vacancies  and  to  make 
their   own  by-laws.      The  president,   vice-presidents, 
treasurer,  chairman,  and  secretaries  of  departments, 
and  directors  shall  be  chosen  annually  by  members  of 
the  association,  and  shall  hold  office  till  their  succes- 
sors are  chosen.    The  president,  or  in  his  absence  a 
director,  shall  be  chairman  of  the  council.    The  chair- 
man of  the   local  committees  shall    be  chosen  at  the 
pleasure  of  their  respective  committees.    Whenever  a 
branch  association  shall  be  organized  and  recognized 
as  such  by  the  council,  its  president  shall  be  ex-officio 
one  of  the  vice-presidents  of  the  American  Associa- 
tion, and,  together  with  the  secretary  and  treasurer, 
shall  be  entitled  to  all  the  privileges  of  membership  in 
that  association.      And  whenever  a  local  department 
shall  be  organized    and    recognized   as  such  by  the 
council,  its  chairman  shall  become  ex-officio  a  member 
of  the  parent  association.      The  chairman  and  secre- 
tary of  each  department,  with  the  consent  of  the  presi- 
dent of  the  association,  may  appoint  such  special  de- 
partment committees  as  they  may  think  best.     The 
general  secretary  shall  be  elected  for  three  years,  unless 
he  resigns,  or  is  removed  by  a  two-thirds  vote  of  the 
members  present  and  voting  in  a  regular  meeting  of 
the  council ;  and  out  of  his  compensation  he  may  pay 
the  salary  of  an  assistant  secretary,  who  may  also  be 
secretary  of  one  department. 

IV.  Any  person  may  become  a  member  by  paying 
$5,  and  may  continue  a  member  by  paying  annually 
such  further  sum  as  may  be  fixed  at 

the  annual  meeting,  not  exceeding  $10. 
On  payment  of  $100,  any  person  may 
become  a  life  member,  exempt  from  as- 
sessments. Honorary  and  correspond- 
ing members  may  be  elected  and  ex- 
empted from  the  payment  of  assessments. 

V.  The  council  shall  have  sole  power  to  call  and  con- 
duct general  meetings,  and  to  publish  the  transactions 
and  other  documents  of  the  association.    The  depart- 
ment committee  shall  have  power  to  call  and  conduct 
department  meetings. 

VI.  No  amendment  to  this  constitution  shall  be  made, 
except  at  an  annual  meeting,  with  public  notice  of  the 
proposed  amendment. 

It  has  not  been  the  practice  of  the  association 
to  elect  members,  but  to  extend  a  particular  or 
a  general  invitation  (as  now)  to  all  who  are  in- 
terested in  social  science,  and  wish  to  promote 
the  spread  of  sound  knowledge  on  the  important 
topics  involved  in  education,  health,  finance, 
jurisprudence,  and  social  economy.  Founded 


American  Social  Science  Asso. 


53       American  Statistical  Association. 


at  the  very  close  of  the  Civil  War,  it  has  since 
aided,  directly  or  indirectly,  in  the  formation  of 
other  valuable  societies — the  National  Prison 
Association,  the  Civil  Service  Reform  Society, 
National  Conference  of  Charities,  several  of  the 
State  conferences  and  charity  organization  socie- 
ties, the  American  Historical  Association,  Ameri- 
can Economic  Association,  etc.  It  has  also  been 
instrumental  in  promoting  departments  or  pro- 
fessorships of  social  science  in  many  universities 
and  colleges  which  are  now  doing  an  extensive 
work  of  instruction. 

Its  present  officers  (1895)  are  :  President,  F.  J. 
Kingsbury,  Waterbury,  Conn.  First  Vice-Presi- 
dent, H.  L.  Wayland,  Philadelphia,  Pa.  Vice- 
Presidents,  Francis  Wayland,  New  Haven, 
Conn.  ;  Daniel  C.  Oilman,  Baltimore,  Md.  ;  Wil- 
liam T.  Harris,  Washington,  D.  C.  ;  Carroll  D. 
Wright, Washington,  D.  C.;  Mrs.  John  E.  Lodge, 
Boston,  Mass.  ;  Lucy  Hall-Brown,  M.D.,  Brook- 
lyn, N.  Y.  ;  Mrs.  Caroline  H.  Dall,  Washington, 
D.  C.  ;  S.  W.  Dike,  D.D.,  Auburndale,  Mass.  ; 
Charles  A.  Peabody,  New  York  ;  Andrew  Dick- 
son  White,  Ithaca,  N.  Y.  ;  Grace  Peckham,  M.I., 
New  York  ;  Henry  B.  Baker,  Lansing,  Mich.  ; 
Dorman  B.  Eaton,  New  York  ;  Henry  Villard, 
New  York  ;  H.  Holbrook  Curtis,  M.D.,  New 
York  ;  R.  A.  Holland,  Stl  Louis,  Mo.  ;  John 
Eaton,  Washington,  D.  C.  General  Secretary, 
F.  B.  Sanborn,  Concord,  Mass.  Treasurer,  An- 
son  Phelps  Stokes,  45  Cedar  Street,  New  York. 

The  secretary  says  of  the  founding  of  the  as- 
sociation : 

"  It  was  the  scarcity  of  material  for  the  investigation 
of  social  questions,  indeed,  which  suggested  to  the 
founders  of  this  association  the  importance  of  bringing 
together  in  this  way  the  persons  interested  in  the  de- 
velopment of  civilization  here,  and  in  setting  forth  its 
results  and  its  unsolved  problems  for  the  information 
and  guidance  of  each  other.  However  the  conception 
of  such  a  society  as  ours  originated — and  I  fancy  it 
was  obtained  from  the  earlier  society  of  the  same 
name  in  England,  now  unhappily  defunct — the  idea 
was  communicated  in  practical  form  to  the  American 
public  by  my  colleagues  of  the  Massachusetts  Board 
of  State  Charities,  in  August,  1865.  This  board,  the 
earliest  of  some  15  which  now  exist  in  the  United 
States,  and  which  convene  every  year  in  the  National 
Conference  of  Charities,  had  found  since  October,  1863, 
when  it  was  established,  that  the  gen- 
eral information  it  sought  in  regard  to 
Its  Object,  the  topics  of  Poverty,  Industry,  Insan- 
ity, Pauperism,  Crime,  and  Disease  were 
very  hard  to  obtain,  because  there  was 
no  common  center  to  which  such  facts  would  naturally 
be  drawn.  Its  seven  members,  therefore,  after  nearly 
two  years  of  active  service,  united  in  summoning 
those  persons  interested  in  these  and  in  other  social  top- 
ics to  meet  in  convention  at  the  Massachusetts  State 
House  in  Boston,  and  there  organize  an  association 
similar  to  that  existing  in  England,  and  to  another  in 
Belgium.  To  this  invitation  about  300  persons,  from 
all  parts  of  the  Northern  States  except  the  extreme 
West,  responded ;  and  the  American  Social  Science 
Association  was  then  and  there  founded,  under  the 
presidency  of  Professor  William  B.  Rogers,  then  at 
the  head  of  the  Massachusetts  Institute  of  Technology, 
but  extending  his  regard  over  the  whole  field  of  sci- 
ence as  much  as  any  man  in  America." 

Speaking  of  the  development  of  social  science 
in  this  country,  after  referring  to  the  develop- 
ment of  the  census  and  of  national  and  State 
labor  bureaus,  the  secretary  says  : 

"Not  a  single  lunacy  commission,  State  board  of 
health,  labor  bureau,  or  prison  commission  existed,  I 
think,  in  the  United  States  when  we  organized  the  as- 
sociation in  1865.  There  was  but  one  State  board  of 
charities,  as  I  have  said,  and  that  had  made  but  one 
report.  It  existed  till  it  had  made  15,  all  more  or  less 
valuable  for  the  facts  they  contained.  It  was  then 
succeeded  by  another  State  board  in  Massachusetts, 


with  fuller  powers— among  them  those  of  a  lunacy 
commission — and  this  second  board  has  made  12  re- 
ports. The  New  York  State  Board  of  Charities  has 
made  23  annual  reports  ;  that  of  Rhode  Island  as  many  ; 
that  of  Pennsylvania,  21 ;  that  of  Ohio,  15 ;  and  the 
other  States  a  smaller  number,  because  they  report 
only  biennially.  Now,  all  these  volumes,  if  brought 
together,  make  a  library  by  themselves;  and  if  we  add 
to  them  the  18  volumes,  small  and  large,  of  the  Nation- 
al Conference  of  Charities,  and  the  publications- 
some  of  them  very  valuable — of  the  New  York  State 
Charities  Aid  Association,  the  New  York  Prison  Asso- 
ciation, and  the  National  Prison  Association,  a  great 
collection  of  material  of  much  variety  and  importance 
is  available  in  a  dozen  libraries  throughout  the  coun- 
try for  the  use  of  students." 

AMERICAN  STATISTICAL  ASSOCIA- 
TION, THE. — This  association  was  organized 
in  1839,  and  has  a  membership  of  about  600.  A 
quarterly  publication  was  begun  in  1888,  by 
means  of  which  special  statistical  monographs 
are  being  presented  to  the  public,  and  in  addi- 
tion this  journal  contains  a  record  of  current 
statistical  literature,  which  is  intended  to  inform 
the  members  concerning  the  most  important 
and  recent  statistical  inquiries  made  in  foreign 
countries.  With  this  in  view  there  is  now  pre- 
pared a  rtsumt  of  the  foreign  periodicals  and 
journals  devoted  to  statistics.  This  publication 
has  reached  its  twenty-fourth  number,  and  is 
already  recognized  as  a  valuable  record  of  statis- 
tical work.  The  present  constitution  of  the 
association  is  as  follows  : 

ART.  I.  This  association  shall  be  denominated  the 
American  Statistical  Association. 

ART.  II.  The  objects  of  the  association  shall  be  to 
collect,  preserve,  and  diffuse  statistical  information  in 
the  different  departments  of  human  knowledge. 

ART.  III.  The  association  shall  be  composed  of  fel- 
lows and  honorary  members. 

ART.  IV.  All  members  shall  be  chosen  by  ballot ; 
nomination  for  membership  shall  first  be  submitted 
to  the  Board  of  Directors ;  if  approved  by  them,  the 
names  shall  be  presented  to  the  association,  and  for 
election  the  affirmative  votes  of  four  fifths  of  the  mem- 
bers present  shall  be  necessary.  Each  fellow  shall  pay 
annually  $2,  or  $20  at  some  one  time. 

ART.  V.  Fellows  only  shall  be  entitled  to  vote,  but 
honorary  members  shall  have  the  right  to  sit  and  de- 
liberate in  all  the  meetings  of  the  association. 

ART.  VI.  The  officers  of  the  association  shall  be  a 
president,  five  vice-presidents,  a  recording  secretary,  a 
corresponding  secretary,  a  treasurer,  a  librarian,  and 
three  counselors,  who,  together  with  the  president  and 
secretaries,  shall  form  a  Board  of  Directors  for  the  gov- 
ernment of  the  institution,  three  of  whom  shall  consti- 
tute a  quorum  at  any  meeting  regularly  convened. 
There  shall  be  also  three  standing  committees  of  three 
members  each — viz.,  on  Publication,  on  Finance,  and 
on  the  Library. 

ART.  VII.  The  association  shall  meet  in  the  city  of 
Boston  on  the  third  Friday  in  January,  April,  and  Oc- 
tober, and  at  such  tother  times  as  the  Board  of  Direct- 
ors shall  appoint.  At  the  annual  meeting  in  January 
the  association  shall  hear  reports  of  the  Board  of  Di- 
rectors, of  the  treasurer,  of  the  librarian,  and  of  the 
standing  committees,  elect  officers,  and  transact  other 
business,  yacancies  may  be  filled  at  any  regular 
meeting.  Five  members  shall  be  necessary  to  form  a 
quorum  for  transacting  business  and  the  election  of 
members,  but  a  less  number  may  adjourn  the  meeting. 

ART.  VIII.  No  alteration  in  this  constitution  shall 
be  made  except  on  notice  at  a  previous  meeting,  and 
by  a  vote  of  three  fourths  of  the  members  present. 

NOTE. — Each  member  shall  be  entitled  to  receive  all 
reports  and  publications  of  the  association. 

Its  presidents  have  been  Hon.  Richard  Fletch- 
er, A.M.,  LL.D.  ;  George  C.  Shattuck,  M.D., 
LL.D.  ;  Edward  Jarvis,  A.M.,  M.D. 

Its  present  officers  (1895)  are  :  President,  Fran- 
cis A.  Walker,  Ph.D.,  LL.D.  Vice-Presidents, 
Hamilton  A.  Hill,  A.M. ;  Hon.  Carroll  D.Wright ; 
Richmond  Mayo-Smith,  A.M.  ;  Hon.  Horace  G. 
Wadlin  ;  Henry  C.  Adams,  Ph.D.  Correspond- 


American  Statistical  Association. 


54 


Anarchism. 


ing  Secretary,  E.  R.  L.  Gould,  Ph.D  ,  Johns 
Hopkins  University,  Baltimore,  Md.  Treasurer, 
John  S.  Clark,  Esq.,  646  Washington  Street, 
Boston,  Mass.  Secretary  and  Librarian,  Davis 
R.  Dewey,  Ph.D.,  Institute  of  Technology,  Bos- 
ton, Mass.  Assistant  Secretary,  Gary  N.  Calkins, 
Columbia  College,  New  York.  Counselors, 
John  Ward  Dean,  A.M.  ;  Samuel  W.  Abbott, 
M.D.  ;  S.  N.  D.  North,  Esq.  Committee  on 
Publication,  Davis  R.  Dewey,  Ph.D.  ;  Walter  C. 
Wright,  Esq.  ;  Roland  P.  Falkner,  Ph.D.  Com- 
mittee on  Finance,  Hamilton  A.  Hill,  A.M.  ; 
Lyman  Mason,  A.M.  ;  George  O.  Carpenter, 
Esq.  Committee  on  Library,  Hon.  Julius  L. 
Clarke  ;  Rev.  Robert  C.  Watterston  ;  Rev.  Sam- 
uel W.  Dike,  LL.D.  (See  also  AMERICAN  SOCIAL 
SCIENCE  ASSOCIATION  and  INTERNATIONAL  STA- 
TISTICAL INSTITUTION.) 

AMSTERDAM,  BANK  OF.     See  BANK  OF 

AMSTERDAM. 

ANABAPTISTS,  a  name  commonly  given 
to  that  body  of  Christians  who  reject  the  baptism 
of  infants  and  administer  the  rite  only  to  adults. 
The  doctrine  first  arose  amid  the  discussions 
as  to  infant  baptism  which  were  held  in  the  early 
Church.  Thomas  Munzer  (1520),  the  leader  of  a 
set  of  enthusiasts  called  the  prophets  of  Zwickau, 
did  much  to  spread  the  beliefs  of  Anabaptism 
through  Saxony  and  Switzerland.  Waldshut 
became  one  of  their  centers  of  propagation. 
Revolting  from  the  rigid  rule  of  the  State  and 
from  the  false  formalism  of  the  Church,  they 
carried  their  opposite  principles  too  far  ;  and  it 
is  certain  that  in  some  places  the  movement, 
guided  by  ambitious  and  licentious  men,  broke 
loose  from  all  moral  principles  into  lawlessness 
and  lust  ;  but  for  the  most  part  Anabaptists  have 
been  a  much  maligned  and  misrepresented  class 
of  people,  who  earnestly  desired  and  sought  for 
a  greater  fulness  of  truth  and  brotherhood  than 
any  institutions  then  existing  could  provide. 
Their  doctrines  were  :  The  equality  of  all  Chris- 
tians, the  community  of  goods,  the  baptism  of 
the  Spirit,  adult  baptism,  and  the  establishment 
of  the  kingdom  of  heaven  on  earth.  About  1525 
the  "  peasant  war"  broke  out,  partially  caused 
and  largely  supported  by  these  doctrines.  The 
laboring  classes  were  at  this  time  very  cruelly 
oppressed  by  the  government,  and  the  teachings 
of  Anabaptism  spread  rapidly  through  Holstein, 
Westphalia,  and  the  Netherlands.  Again  and 
again  they  were  checked,  and  scattered,  and 
persecuted  even  to  death  ;  but  traveling  preach- 
ers continued  the  agitation,  and  organizations 
sprang  up  wherever  persecution  turned  its  back. 
In  1534  they  became  masters  of  Munster  ; 
they  destroyed  all  churches,  and  appointed  12 
judges  to  rule  over  the  city.  A 
tailor  named  Bockhold  had  himself 
History,  crowned  king,  and  for  a  year  the 
city  was  given  over  to  every  kind 
of  madness  and  licentiousness.  At 
the  end  of  that  time  several  Protestant  princes 
conquered  the  city  and  restored  peace  and  or- 
der by  executing  the  ringleaders-  of  the  up- 
roar. In  Amsterdam  and  other  cities  Ana- 
baptists, who  had  little  in  common  with  the 
lustful  fanaticism  of  Buckhold,  began  to  spread 
their  doctrines.  The  Revelations  of  St.  John 


was  their  chief  source  of  doctrine  ;  and  their 
main  desire  was  to  found  a  new  kingdom  of 
pure  and  primitive  Christians.  David  Joris 
(1501-56),  one  of  the  chief  of  these,  united 
Liberalism  with  Anabaptism,  introduced  much 
mystical  theology,  and  strove  to  unite  the 
different  Christian  sects.  Another  promi- 
nent leader  was  Menno  Simons.  In  spite  of 
dangers  and  persecutions  he  gathered  together 
the  scattered  and  disheartened  Anabaptists  of 
Germany  and  the  Netherlands.  He  explained 
his  belief  in  a  book  published  in  1556,  Elements 
of  the  True  Christian  Faith,  which  is  still  an 
authoritative  book  among  the  Mennonites.  His 
adherents  believe  in  strictly  following  the  teach- 
ings of  Scripture,  in  rejecting  the  taking  of 
oaths,  every  kind  of  revenge,  war,  divorce  (ex- 
cept for  adultery),  infant  baptism,  and  the  under- 
taking the  work  of  a  magistrate.  Their  belief 
is  that  while  magistracy  is  necessary  for  the 
present  time,  it  is  foreign  to  the  kingdom  of 
Christ.  The  education  and  theology  of  the  col- 
leges they  set  very  little  value  upon.  Menno 
called  his  adherents  "  God's  congregation  ;  poor 
unarmed  Christian  brothers.  '  '  In  Germany  the 
Mennonites  are  called  Taitfgesinnte,  and  in 
Holland,  Doopsgesinden. 

The  church  is  the  literal  communion  of  the 
saints,  which  must  be  kept  pure  by  strict  disci- 
pline. They  are  Universalists  in  regard  to  grace 
and  Zwinglians  in  their  view  of  the  Lord's  Sup- 
per. They  celebrate  the  rite  of  feet-washing. 
Their  bishops,  elders,  and  teachers  serve  gratis. 
They  are  split  into  many  divisions,  mainly  the 
strict  and  the  mild  Mennonites.  The  latter  are 
known  as  Waterlanders,  from  a  place  in  Hol- 
land. Some  of  their  divisions  take  names  from 
the  peculiarities  of  their  dress  —  Buttoners,  Hook- 
and-eye-ers,  etc.  The  purity  of  their  lives,  how- 
ever, commands  respect,  and  their  industry 
makes  them  prosperous. 

References  :  The  Social  Side  of  the  Reformation,  by 
E.  B.  Bax;  A  Valuable  Chapter  in  Ethic  of  Free 
Thought,  by  Karl  Pearson  ;  also  Ranke  and  other 
writers  on  the  Reformation. 


ANARCHISM  (Gr.  av,  privative.,  and  a 
government),  the  social  doctrine  of  the  abolition 
of  government  of  man  by  man,  and  the  consti- 
tution of  society  without  government. 

Under  this  general  definition  of  anarchism 
there  are,  however,  two  schools  of  anarchists,  so 
totally  distinct  and  even  opposed  in  their  doc- 
trines, their  methods,  and  general  characteris- 
tics, that  we  must  consider  them  separately  and 
distinguish  between  them  at  every  point.  The 
two  schools  are  those  of  the  individualist  anarch- 
ists (often  called  in  this  country  philosophical 
anarchists),  and,  secondly,  the  school  of  anarch- 
ist communists.  The  individualist  anarchists, 
though  perhaps  the  fewer  in  number,  are,  in 
this  country  especially,  the  abler  body  of  think- 
ers, and  carry  out  to  their  fullest  logical  results 
the  principles  which  a  great  many  individualists 
accept  but  do  not  fully  carry  out.  Individualist 
anarchists  do  not  believe  in  the  use  of  force  —  not 
because  they  hold  that  it  is  wrong  to  use  it,  but 
simply  because  they  are  aware  that  the  use  of 
force  never  truly  liberates,  while  their  aim  is  ab- 
solute liberty  —  their  motto  being  "  Liberty,  not 
the  daughter,  but  the  mother  of  order."  They 


Anarchism. 


55 


Anarchism. 


start  from  the  philosophy  of  individual  sover- 
eignty, and  apply  it  to  the  problems  of  social 
science  with  relentless  logic.  While  by  no 
means  objecting  to  organization  and  coopera- 
tion, provided  it  be  voluntary,  they  would  have 
all  organization  spring  from  the  individual. 

Anarchist  communists,  on  the  other  hand, 
form  a  wholly  different  school  of  thought.  They 
do  not  believe  in  government,  and  they  do  be- 
lieve in  overthrowing  it  by  force.  On  its  ruins 
they  would  plant  a  communal  life,  whose  ideal  is 
very  little  different  from  that  of  the  socialists, 
except  that  it  is  not  to  be  realized  through  the 
State.  Most  of  the  men  who  are  called  anarch- 
ists in  the  press,  particularly  of  Europe,  and  al- 
most all  the  bomb-throwers  and  dynamiters  of 
recent  years  on  either  continent  have  been  an- 
archist communists.  The  school  is  mainly  Euro- 
pean, as  individualist  anarchism  is  mainly  Ameri- 
can. Anarchist-communism  counts  among  its 
followers  names  favorably  known  to  science  and 
letters,  such  as  Krapotkin  and  Reclus,  while 
many,  even  of  the  dynamitards,  have  been  men 
of  education  and  sometimes  refinement.  Never- 
theless, it  is  mainly  a  movement  among  the 
working  classes,  particularly  of  France,  Italy, 
Spain,  and,  to  a  less  extent,  Germany  and  Aus- 
tria. In  England  there  are  but  few  anarchist 
communists.  In  America  they  are  found  only 
in  a  few  cities.  The  so-called  Chicago  anarch- 
ists were  anarchist  communists.  Individualist 
anarchism,  on  the  other  hand,  is  not  a  class 
movement,  but  almost  purely  intellectual,  nat- 
urally drawing  its  strength  largely  from  the 
classes  possessed  to-day  of  intellectual  advan- 
tages. It  will  thus  be  seen  that  in  philosophy, 
method,  and  general  characteristics  the  two 
classes  of  anarchists  are  carefully  to  be  distin- 
guished. Both  are  distinctly  revolutionary  and 
opposed  to  the  State  ;  but  the  one  starts  from 
the  individual,  and  advocates  a  revolution 
through  ideas  ;  the  other  starts  from  the  com- 
munity, and  advocates  a  revolution  through 
force.  We  print  a  statement  of  individualist 
anarchism  by  Victor  Yarros,  one  of  its  foremost 
American  representatives ;  and  a  statement 
of  anarchist  communism,  by  Pierre  Krapotkin, 
perhaps  its  most  distinguished  representative. 
Says  Mr.  Yarros  : 

1.  INDIVIDUALIST  OR  PHILOSOPHICAL  ANARCHISM. 

The  individualistic  or  philosophical  anarchists 
favor  the  abolition  of  "  the  State"  and  govern- 
ment of  man  by  man.  They  seek  to  bring  about 
a  state  of  perfect  freedom — of  an- 

_.  „  ..  archy.  To  comprehend  the  precise 
e  nition  j[mporj.  of  t^is  statement  it  is  essen- 

an  a  e-  ^aj  ^Q  grasp  an(j  bear  in  mind  the 
en  '  definitions  given  by  the  anarchists 
to  the  terms  employed  in  their  expo- 
sitions. The  current  misconceptions  of  the  an- 
archistic doctrines  are  chiefly  due  to  the  persist- 
ent, though  largely  unconscious,  habit  of  inter- 
preting them  in  the  light  of  the  popular  defini- 
tions of  the  terms  "  State,"  "  government,"  etc., 
instead  of  in  the  light  of  their  own  technical  use 
of  these  terms.  The  average  man,  on  being  told 
that  the  anarchist  would  abolish  all  governmental 
restraints,  not  unnaturally  concludes  that  the 
proposition  involves  the  removal  of  the  restric- 
tions upon  crzmzna/ conduct,  the  relinquishment 


of  organized  defense  of  life,  liberty,  and  property. 
Those  who  are  familiar  with  the  doctrine  of 
non-resistance  to  evil,  preached  by  the  early 
Christians  and  by  the  modern  Tolstoians,  gen- 
erally identify  anarchism  with  it.  But  such  in- 
terpretations are  without  any  foundation.  The 
anarchists  are  emphatically  in  favor  of  resistance 
to  and  organized  protection  against  crime  and 
aggression  of  every  kind  ;  it  is  not  greater  free- 
dom for  the  criminal,'  but  greater  freedom  for 
the  non-criminal,  that  they  aim  to  secure  ;  and 
by  the  abolition  of  government  they  mean  the 
removal  of  restrictions  upon  conduct  intrinsi- 
cally ethical  and  legitimate,  but  which  ignorant 
legislation  has  interdicted  as  criminal.  The  an- 
archistic principle  of  personal  liberty  is  abso- 
lutely coincident  with  the  famous  Spencerian 
"  first  principle  of  human  happiness,"  the  prin- 
ciple of  "equal  freedom,"  which  Mr.  Spencer 
has  expressed  in  the  formula,  "  Every  man  is 
free  to  do  what  he  wills,  provided  he  infringes 
not  the  equal  freedom  of  any  other  man."  It 
is,  in  fact,  precisely  because  the  anarchist  ac- 
cepts this  principle  without  reservation,  and  in- 
sists on  the  suppression  and  elimination  of  all 
aggression  or  invasion — all  conduct  incompati- 
ble with  equality  of  liberty — that  he  declares 
war  upon  the  ' '  State' '  and  ' '  government. "  He 
defines  "State"  as  "the  embodiment  of  the 
principle  of  invasion  in  an  individual  or  band 
of  individuals,  assuming  to  act  as  representa- 
tives or  masters  of  the  entire  people  within  a 
given  area. ' '  *  Government  he  defines  as  ' '  the 
subjection  of  the  non-invasive  individual  to  an 
external  will ;"  and  "  invasion"  as  conduct  vio- 
lative  of  equal  freedom. 

Perhaps  the  clearest  way  of  stating  the  politi- 
cal program  of  the  anarchists  will  be  to  indi- 
cate its  relation  to  other  better  known  theories 
of  government.  The  anarchists, 
agreeing  with  the  view  of  the  true 
Jeffersonian  Democrats,  that  the  Program. 
best  government  is  that  which  gov- 
erns least,  sympathizing  with  the 
position  of  the  old  Manchester  individualists  and 
laissez-fatre-ists,  who  believed  in  a  minimum 
of  government  interference,  as  well  as  with  the 
less  vague  doctrines  of  the  more  radical  modern 
individualists  of  the  Spencerian  school,  who 
would  limit  the  State  to  the  sole  function  of 
protecting  men  against  external  and  internal 
invaders,  go  a  step  farther  and  demand  the 
dissolution  of  what  remains  of  "government" 
•  — -viz. ,  compulsory  taxation  and  compulsory 
military  service.  It  is  no  more  necessary,  con- 
tend the  anarchists,  that  government  should 
assume  the  protective  military  and  police  func- 
tions, and  compel  men  to  accept  its  services, 
than  it  is  that  government  should  meddle  with 
production,  trade,  banking,  education,  and 
other  lines  of  human  activity.  By  voluntary  or- 
ganization and  voluntary  taxation  it  is  perfectly 
possible  to  protect  liberty  and  property  and  to 
restrain  crime.  It  is  doubtless  easy  to  imagine 
a  society  in  which  government  concerns  itself 
with  nothing  save  preservation  of  order  and 
punishment  of  crime,  in  which  there  are  no 

*  The  definitions  here  given  are  those  formed  and 
consistently  used  by  Benjamin  R.  Tucker,  the  editor  of 
liberty,  the  organ  of  the  philosophical  anarchistic 
movement. 


Anarchism. 


Anarchism. 


public  schools  supported  by  compulsory  taxa- 
tion, no  government  interference  with  the  issue 
of  currency  and  banking,  no  custom-houses  or 
duties  on  foreign  imports,  no  government  postal 
service,  no  censorship  of  literature  and  the  stage, 
no  attempt  to  enforce  Sunday  laws,  etc.  The 
laissez-faire-ists  of  the  various  schools  have 
familiarized  the  thinking  public  with  such  a  type 
of  social  organization.  Now,  the  anarchists  pro- 
pose to  do  away  with  the  compulsory  feature  of 
the  single  function  reserved  for  government  by 
the  radical  laissez-faire-ists.  In  other  words, 
they  insist  on  the  right  of  the  non-aggressive 
individual  to  "ignore  the  State,"  to  dispense 
with  the  protective  services  of  the  defensive  or- 
ganization and  remain  outside  of  it.  This  would 
not  prevent  those  who  might  desire  systematic 
and  organized  protection  from  combining  to 
maintain  a  defensive  institution,  but  such  an  in- 
stitution would  not  be  a  government,  since  no  one 
would  be  compelled  to  join  it  and  pay  toward 
its  support.  Anarchy,  therefore,  may  be  de- 
fined as  a  state  of  society  in  which  the  non-in- 
vasive individual  is  not  coerced  into  cooperation 
for  the  defense  of  his  neighbors,  and  in  which 
each  enjoys  the  highest  degree  of  liberty  com- 
patible with  equality  of  liberty. 

With  regard  to  the  question  of  putting  down 
aggression,  the  jurisdiction  of  the  voluntary  de- 
fensive organization  would  of  course  extend  to 
outsiders,  and  not  be  limited  by  its  membership. 
The  criminal  are  not  to  secure  immunity  by  de- 
clining to  join  defensive  associations.  As  the 
freedom  of  each  is  to  be  bounded  by  the  equal 
freedom  of  all,  the  invader  would  be  liable  to 
punishment  under  anarchism  no  less  than  under 
government.  Criminals  would  still  be  tried  by 
juries  and  punished  by  executive  officers.  They 
would  not  be  allowed  to  set  up  ethical  standards 
for  themselves  and  to  do  what  is  right  in  their 
own  eyes.  Such  a  doctrine  involves  not  the 
abolition  of  government,  but  the  widest  possible 
extension  of  it.  It  repudiates  all  ethical  princi- 
ples and  abandons  all  attempts  at  enforcing  jus- 
tice and  protecting  rights.  Every  man  is  al- 
lowed under  it  to  govern  his  fellows,  if  he  has  the 
will  and  the  power,  and  the  struggle  for  exist- 
ence in  the  simplest  and  crudest  form  is  revived. 
Anarchism,  on  the  other  hand,  posits  the  princi- 
ple of  equal  liberty  as  binding  upon  all,  and 
only  insists  that  those  who  refrain  from  violat- 
ing it  should  not  be  interfered  with  in  any  way, 
either  by  individual  governors  or  combinations 
of  would-be  rulers. 

Anarchists  reject  governmentalism    because 

they  find  no  ethical  warrant  and  no  practical 

necessity  for  it.     It  appears  to  them  self-evident 

that  society,  or  the  community,  can 

.  have  no  greater  claims  upon  the  in- 

8  dividual  than  the  component  mem- 

.  5.  bers  of  it  have.  The  metaphysical 
Anarcnism,  an(^  misieading  analogies  between 

society  and  organism,  upon  which 
is  usually  founded  the  governmentalist's  theory 
of  the  prerogatives  of  the  State,  anarchists  reject 
with  undisguised  contempt.  "The  commu- 
nity," or  "  the  State,"  is  an  abstraction,  and  an 
abstraction  has  neither  rights  nor  duties.  In- 
dividuals, and  individuals  only,  have  rights. 
This  proposition  is  the  corner-stone  of  the 
anarchistic  doctrine,  and  those  who  accept  it 


are  bound  to  go  the  full  length  of  anarch- 
ism. For  if  the  community  cannot  rightfully 
compel  a  man  to  do  or  refrain  from  doing  that 
which  private  and  individual  members  thereof 
cannot  legitimately  force  him  to  do  or  forego, 
then  compulsory  taxation  and  compulsory  co- 
operation for  any  purpose  whatever  are  wrong 
in  principle,  and  government  is  merely  another 
name  for  aggression.  It  will  not  be  pretended 
that  one  private  individual  has  the  right  to  tax 
another  private  individual  without  his  consent  ; 
how,  then,  does  the  majority  of  the  members  of 
a  community  obtain  the  right  to  tax  the  minor- 
ity without  its  consent  ?  Having  outgrown  the 
dogma  of  the  divine  right  of  kings, 
democratic  countries  are  uncon- 
sciously erecting  the  dogma  of  the  Government 
divine  right  of  majorities  to  rule.  Aggression. 
The  absurdity  of  such  a  belief  is 
apparent.  Majorities,  minorities, 
and  any  other  combinations  of  individuals 
are  entitled  to  insist  on  respect  of  their  rights, 
but  not  on  violating  the  rights  of  others. 
There  is  one  ethical  standard,  not  two  ;  and  it 
cannot  be  right  for  government  to  do  that  which 
would  be  criminal,  immoral,  when  committed  by 
individuals.  Laws  of  social  life  are  not  made  at 
the  polls  or  in  legislative  assemblies  ;  they  have 
to  be  discovered  in  the  same  way  in  which  laws 
of  other  sciences  are  discovered.  Once  discov- 
ered, majorities  are  bound  to  observe  them  no 
less  than  individuals. 

As  already  stated,  the  anarchists  hold  that  the 
law  of  equal  freedom,  formulated  positively  by 
Spencer  and  negatively  by  Kant,  is  a  scientific  so- 
cial law  which  ought  to  guide  men  in  their  vari- 
ous activities  and  mutual  relations.  The  logical 
deductions  or  corollaries  of  this  law  show  us  at 
once  our  rights  and  our  duties.  Government  vio- 
lates this  great  law  not  only  by  the  fact  of  its  very 
existence,  but  in  a  thousand  other  ways.  Gov- 
ernment means  the  coercion  of  the  non-invasive, 
the  taxation  of  those  who  protest  against  being 
forced  to  join  the  political  organization  set  up  by 
the  majority.  It  enacts  statutes  and  imposes  re- 
straints which  find  no  sanction  in  the  law  of  equal 
freedom,  and  punishes  men  for  disobeying  such 
arbitrary  provisions.  It  is  true  that  governments 
profess  to  have  the  public  welfare  in  view,  and 
to  enforce  nothing  save  what  morality  and  jus- 
tice dictate.  Justice,  however,  is  invariably  con- 
founded by  governments  with  legalism,  and  by 
the  enforcement  of  justice  they  often  mean  the 
enforcement  of  the  very  laws  which  they  enact 
in  violation  of  justice.  Thus  laws  in  restraint 
of  trade  and  of  exchange  are  enforced  in  the 
name  of  justice,  whereas  justice  demands  the 
fullest  freedom  of  trade  and  exchange.  Strict- 
ly speaking,  the  enforcement  of  justice  cannot 
be  undertaken  by  government  at  all,  since  a 
government  that  should  attempt  to  enforce  jus- 
tice would  have  to  begin  by  signing  its  own 
death-warrant.  A  government  that  would  en- 
force equal  freedom  and  let  the  inoffensive 
alone  would  be,  not  a  government,  but  a  volun- 
tary association  for  the  protection  of  rights. 

In  republican  countries  men  loosely  speak  of 
their  ' '  free  government, ' '  tneir  ' '  government 
by  consent."  In  reality  there  is  no  such  thing 
as  government  by  consent.  Majorities  rule, 
and  the  minorities  are  forced  to  acquiesce. 


Anarchism. 


57 


Anarchism. 


The  principle  of  consent  is  clearly  fatal  to  gov- 
ernmentalism,  for  it  implies  the  right  of  the 
non-invasive  to  ignore  the  State  and  decline  to 
accept  its  services.  Ethically  a  man  has  a  per- 
fect right  to  do  this,  for  the  mere  refusal  to  join 
the  political  organization  (which  is  merely  an 
insurance  association)  is  not  a  breach  of  the 
principle  of  equal  freedom.  Our  "  free  govern- 
ments" deny  this  right,  hence  they  are  im- 
moral. They  cannot  become  moral  except  by 
ceasing  to  be  governments  and  becoming  pure- 
ly voluntary  associations  for  defense. 

Apart  from  the  question  of  compulsory  taxa- 
tion and  compulsory  military  service,  on  the 
abolition  of  which  anarchists  alone  lay  stress 
(although  they  readily  admit  that  the  police 
functions  of  government  will  be  the  last  to  dis- 
appear), there  is  little,  if  any,  difference  be- 
tween anarchists  and  Spencerian  individualists 
on  the  question  of  government  interference. 
The  cessation  of  such  interference  with  economic 
relations — with  the  issue  of  money,  banking, 
wages,  trade,  production,  etc. — is  advocated  on 
the  ground  that  the  solution  of  the  social  prob- 
lems is  to  be  found  in  liberty  rather  than  in 
regulation,  in  free  competition  rather  than  in 
State  monopoly.  On  the  subject  of  public  edu- 
cation, postal  service,  poor  laws,  sanitary  super- 
vision, etc.,  anarchists,  in  common  with  ad- 
vanced individualists,  hold  that  government  in- 
terference is  as  pernicious  practically  as  it  is 
unwarranted  ethically.  Corruption  and  ineffi- 
ciency are  evils  inseparable  from  government 
management,  and  there  is  nothing  which  gov- 
ernment does  that  could  not  be  done  better  by 
private  enterprise  under  free  competition. 

In  short,  the  anarchists  object  to  government- 
alism  because  it  is  unethical,  as  well  as  unnec- 
essary and  inexpedient.  Government  is  either 
the  will  of  one  man  or  the  will  of  a  number  of 
men,  large  or  small.  Now,  the  will  of  one  or 
many  is  not  a  criterion  of  right  and  justice, 
while  for  the  adjustment  of  the  conflicting  inter- 
ests of  the  members  of  society  such  a  criterion 
is  an  absolute  necessity.  Majority  rule,  and 
even  the  rule  of  a  despot,  may  be,  under  certain 
conditions,  preferable  to  a  state  of  civil  chaos  ; 
but  as  men  advance  and  study  the  facts  of  their 
own  development,  they  begin  to  realize  the  truth 
that  there  is  no  relation  whatever  between  right 
and  numbers,  justice  and  force. 
Majority  rule  is  discredited  along 

Majority  with  despotic  rule,  and  ethical  sci- 
Eule  ence  becomes  the  sole  guide  and 
Discredited,  authority.  The  social  laws  require 
to  be  applied  and  enforced  as  long 
as  predatory  instincts  and  invasive 
tendencies  continue  to  manifest  themselves 
in  human  relations,  and  this  necessitates  the 
maintenance  of  associations  for  the  protection 
of  freedom  and  the  punishment  of  aggres- 
sion. But  the  governmental  method  is  not 
adapted  to  the  promotion  of  this  end.  Govern- 
ment begins  by  coercing  the  non-invasive  indi- 
vidual into  cooperation  for  defense  and  offense, 
regardless  of  the'  fact  that  a  benevolent  despot- 
ism is  not  a  whit  more  defensible  than  a  selfish 
despotism. 

In  general,  it  may  be  stated  that  any  meth- 
ods not  in  themselves  invasive  are  regarded  as 
legitimate  by  the  anarchists  in  the  furtherance 


of    their  cause.      But   they  rely  chiefly,  if  not 
entirely,  on  the  methods  of  education — theoreti- 
cal propaganda  of  their  views — and  of  passive  re- 
sistance to  government.     In  violence,  so-called 
propaganda  by  deed  and   subter- 
ranean   plotting    against    existing 
institutions,   they   do   not  believe.      Methods. 
Political  changes  may  be  brought 
about  by  revolutions,  and  possibly 
also  such  economic  changes  as  are  contemplated 
by  the  State  socialists.     But  freedom  can  rest 
only  on  ideas  and  sentiments  favorable  to  it, 
and  revolutionary   demonstrations    can    never 
abolish  ignorance  and  the  spirit  of  tyranny. 
Freedom  cannot  be  forced  on  those  who  are  not 
fit  for  it.     The  emancipation  of  the  people  from 
the    aggression    of    government    must    come 
through  their  own  deliberate  choice  and  effort. 
Anarchists  can  but  disseminate  true  political 
teachings  and  expose  the  nature  and  essence  of 

fovernmentalism.  Anarchists,  however,  do  not 
elieve  that  it  is  necessary  to  convert  the  whole 
people  in  order  to  carry  their  principles  into 
practice.  A  strong  and  determined  minority 
could,  while  remaining  passive,  successfully  re- 
sist the  attempt  of  government  to  tax  them  and 
otherwise  impose  its  will  upon  them.  Public 
opinion  would  not  approve  of  a  government 
campaign  of  violence  against  a  number  of 
intelligent  and  perfectly  honest  individuals 
banded  together  for  the  sole  purpose  of  carrying 
on  their  legitimate  activities  and  asserting  their 
right  to  ignore  injunctions  and  prohibitions  hav- 
ing no  authority  from  an  ethical  point  of  view. 
Even  if  anarchists  believed  in  the  use  of  vio- 
lent methods,  and  if  they  thought  that  violent 
resistance  to  government  would  hasten  their 
emancipation,  they  would  certainly  resort  to  it, 
since  it  is  not  immoral  or  invasive  to  use  force 
against  invaders — there  would  be  one  impor- 
tant difference  between  them  and  other  schools 
of  reformers.  Anarchists  would  not  prevent 
others  from  living  under  government  side  by 
side  with  them,  while  other  reformers  seek  to 
impose  their  schemes  on  the  whole  community 
in  which  they  live.  Thus  the  State  socialists,  in 
pursuance  of  their  program  of  State  monopoly 
of  capital, -intend  to  suppress  all  competition 
and  all  rivalry  on  the  part  of  individual  owners 
of  capital.  The  anarchists,  on  the  other  hand, 
if  allowed  to  remain  outside  of  the  governmental 
organization,  would  force  no  one  to  join  them  or 
follow  their  example.  Still,  as  a  matter  of  fact, 
anarchists  abjure  violence  even  in  their  own  in- 
terests, vividly  realizing  the  truth  that  the  prog- 
ress of  justice  and  freedom  is  arrested  in  a  state 
of  war.  Peace  is  an  essential  condition  to  the 
spread  of  rational  ideas  and  the  growth  of  the 
sentiment  of  toleration.  Appealing  as  they  do 
to  the  ideas  and  feelings  of  justice,  it  would  be 
suicidal  for  anarchists  to  encourage  violence 
and  excite  the  lowest  passions  of  men  by  revolu- 
tionary tactics. 

To  reform  by  ordinary  political  methods  the 
anarchists  are  also  opposed,  at  least  under 
present  conditions.  As  they  do  not  seek  any 
new  positive  legislation,  they  can  expect  noth- 
ing from  politics.  They  demand  the  repeal 
of  the  legislation  which  improperly  restricts 
men's  freedom  of  action,  and  such  repeal 
they  cannot  secure  while  being  in  a  minor- 


Anarchism. 


Anarchism. 


ity.  Whether  they  would  cooperate  with 
other  parties  in  attempting  to  carry  specific 
measures  of  repeal,  would  depend  largely  on 
circumstances.  It  is  to  be  remembered  that, 
while  the  anarchists  are  strenuous  in  their  oppo- 
sition to  every  vestige  of  government,  they  do 
not  expect  to  realize  their  entire  program  at 
one  stroke.  They  are  prepared  for  very  slow 
and  gradual  reform,  and  would  welcome  the  suc- 
cess of  any  single  libertarian  proposal.  They 
would  rejoice  in  the  triumph  of  the  free-trade 
idea,  the  repeal  of  the  laws  perpetuating  land 
monopoly  and  monetary  monopoly,  and  the  abo- 
lition of  special  privileges.  If  they  do  not  form 
themselves  into  a  political  party  for  the  purpose 
of  attaining  one  or  more  of  these  objects,  it  is 
because  they  can  do  more  by  other  methods. 
Moreover,  to  enter  into  the  political  arena  is  to 
recognize,  by  implication,  the  principle  of  gov- 
ernment. To  vote  is  to  coerce  or  to  threaten 
coercion.  Behind  the  ballot  is  the  bullet  of  the 
soldier,  ready  to  force  the  defeated  minority  into 
submission.  The  voter  does  not  merely  assert 
his  right  to  self-government ;  he  sets  up  a  claim 
to  govern  others.  The  anarchist  cannot  em- 
ploy a  method  which  would  put  him  in  such  a 
false  light. 

Thus 'the  anarchist  is  neither  a  government 
bomb-thrower  nor  a  revolutionary  bomb-throw- 
er. He  objects  to  the  use  of  violence  by  the 
government  as  well  as  against  it.  He  restricts 
himself  to  the  method  of  education  and  such 
passive  resistance  as  is  exemplified  by  a  refusal 
to  pay  taxes  or  rent  or  import  duties  on  com- 
modities purchased  in  foreign  countries. 

VICTOR  YARROS. 

,,        Historical  Sketch  of  Individualist  Anarchism. 

Philosophical  anarchists  usually  regard  Proudhon 
as  the  founder  of  their  school  of  social  science  ;  but 
there  were  in  America,  altho  far  less  widely  known, 
men  entertaining  anarchistic  views  before  Proudhon's 
time.  We  will,  therefore,  first  notice  the  anarchist 
movement  in  America,  and  then  consider  it  in  other 
countries.  America,  or  at  least  the  United  States,  with 
its  early  extreme  individualism  and  fear  of  the  State 
(see  CENTRALIZATION),  was  the  fitting  birthplace  of 
anarchistic  thought. 

Josiah  Warren,  a  plain  and  only  moderately  educated 
New  Englander,  but  of  unusually  independent  and 
earnest  spirit,  was  probably  the  first  to  enunciate  pre- 
cise anarchistic  conceptions.  He  had 
become  interested  in  the  social  views 
and  plans  of  Robert  Owen  (q.v.),  at  this 
time  first  taking  root  iii  the  land ;  had 
Warren.  joined  the  Owenite  community  at  New 
Harmony;  had  carefully  studied  its 
principles  and  mused  upon  its  failure,  till 
finally,  about  1828,  he  reached  the  conclusion  that  its 
principles  were  exactly  the  opposite  of  the  true  ones, 
and  that,  instead  of  the  communistic  idea  of  each 
working  for  all,  as  Owen  taught,  the  true  way  to  pro- 
duce order,  harmony,  and  well-being,  was  for  each 
to  live,  in  his  own  way,  absolutely  untrammeled  by 
others,  so  far  as  he  did  not  intrude  upon  the  simi- 
lar privileges  of  others.  His  thoughts  took  especial- 
ly a  financial  turn,  and  he  came  to  the  conclusion  that 
cost  was  the  true  limit  of  price  ;  that  usury  and  profit 
in  all  their  forms  were,  therefore,  economically  wrong, 
and,  moreover,  that  they  •would  disappear  under  per- 
fectly free  competition.  He  sought  to  put  his  ideas  into 
practice,  to  actually  test  them  before  giving  them  to 
the  world,  and  therefore  started,  and  for  two  years 
successfully  carried  on,  a  store  in  Cincinnati,  where 
cost  was  the  limit  of  price,  and  where  usury  and  profit 
were  eliminated.  Finding  that  he  was  doing  a  busi- 
ness of  $150,000  a  year — a  large  amount  for  Cincinnati 
in  those  days — he  was  convinced  of  the  practicality  and 
correctness  of  his  idea,  and  therefore  closed  his  busi- 
ness to  devote  his  lite  to  the  propagation  of  his  ideas. 
His  main  writings  were  True  Civilization,  a  short 
work,  first  published  in  1846,  and  Equitable  Commerce, 


in  which  he  elaborated  his  ideas  of  cost  as  the  limit  of 
price.  These  books  found  at  least  a  few  thoughtful 
readers.  Stephen  Pearl  Andrews  declared  at  a  later 
day  that  the  True  Civilization  was  the  text  and  basis 
of  all  his  own  writings,  and  John  Stuart  Mill  refers  to 
Warren  with  expressions  of  deepest  interest  and  re- 
spect. 

Others,  however,  were  thinking  in   the   same  line. 
Lysander  Spooner,  •who  has  but  recently  passed  away, 
may  be  called  the  Nestor  of  anarchism,  of  the  ex- 
treme individualistic  school.    Commenc- 
ing public   life  as  a  young    lawyer  in 
Worcester,  Mass.,  he  first  showed  strong         Other 
analytic  and  argumentative  powers  in   Americana 
several    pamphlets     defending     Deism   *XIUCIll'ltI18' 
against    Christianity,    but    soon  passed 
more  and  more  into  sociological  studies 
and  controversyj  coming  to  hold  and  defend  extreme 
views  as  to  individual  sovereignty  and  the  tyranny 
of  the  State.    As  early  as  1844  he  established  a  private 
mail  between    Boston  and  New  York,  and  later  ex- 
tended it  to  Philadelphia  and  Baltimore,  achieving  suc- 
cess, until  at  last  compelled  to  stop,  owing  to  petty 
and    constant    persecution    and  annoyance  from   the 
Government.    From  that  time  he  devoted  his  great 
abilities  to  the  promulgation  of  his  ideas.    During  the 
anti-slavery  contest  he  did  good  work  as  an  abolition- 
ist, and  incorporated  his  views  in  The  Unconstitution- 
ality  of  Slavery.     His  legal  acumen  appears  in  his  Trial 
by  Jury,  in  which  he  reverts  to  the  early  and  true 
meaning  of  the  phrase — a  trial  by  one's  peers ;  and  pro- 
tests against  the  absurd  and  monstrous  system  (as  he 
claims  it  to  be)  of  ignorance  and  injustice  now  pass- 
ing under  that  name.    How  far  he  carried  his  ideas 
appears  in  an  unsigned  monograph  from  his  pen,  en- 
titled Revolution. 

Stephen  Pearl  Andrews  was  a  disciple  of  Warren. 
As  Warren  especially  studied  economic  questions,  so 
Andrews  studied  the  family  and  marriage.  His  Science 
of  Society,  published  in  1850,  is  still  considered  by  phil- 
osophical anarchists  a  classic  on  the  subject.  Warren 
himself  declared  it  a  better  statement  of  his  own  ideas 
than  he  himself  could  write.  (For  further  account,  see 
ANDREWS.) 

We  now  first  come  to  the  influence  of  Proudhon  in 
America,  Colonel  William  B.  Greene,  of  Boston,  being 
the  first  in  this  country  known  to  have  declared  himself 
a  follower  of  the  great  Frenchman.  Colonel  Greene's 
book  on  Mutual  Banking  is  one  of  the  most  acute  and 
searching  inquiries  into  the  monetary  problems  to  be 
found  in  the  literature  of  the  subject.  Colonel  Greene 
was  a  keen,  logicial  thinker  and  a  profound  scholar. 
He  •was  a  remarkably  witty  speaker  and  writer,  and  his 
book,  entitled  Socialistic,  Communistic,  Mutualistic, 
and  Financial  Fragments,  shows  his  power  and  ver- 
satility. E.  H.  Heywood,  a  writer  on  various  subjects, 
was  another  disciple  of  Warren.  He  is  the  author  of  a 
number  of  very  able  pamphlets.  Charles  T.  Fowler, 
also  a  disciple  of  Warren,  was  a  Unitarian  minister 
when  he  first  fell  under  the  influence  of  Warren.  He 
studied  Proudhon,  and  after  leaving  the  church,  devot- 
ed himself  to  the  propaganda  of  anarchistic  doctrines. 
He  died  a  few  years  ago,  leaving  an  admirable  series 
of  pamphlets  on  social  and  economic  problems. 

These  men,  however,  while  holding  essentially  an- 
archist views,  and  contributing,  severally,  to  the  devel- 
opment of  anarchism  in  the  United  States,  did  not 
adopt  the  name  anarchist,  and  did  not 
really  start   the  movement  which   has 
taken  such  definite  shape  under  that  dis-       prpSM1t 
tinctive  denomination.    The  man  who,       ~^  . 
assimilating  and  profiting  by  the  teach-      Writers. 
ings  of  Proudhon,  Warren,  Greene,  and 
the  American  and  English  individual- 
ists, formulated  a  consistent  and  comprehensive  anar- 
chistic philosophy,  and  started  the  practical  anarchistic 
movement,  is  Benjamin  R.  Tucker,  the  editor  of  Liberty, 
the  organ  of  anarchism.    Mr.  Tucker  was  a  young  man, 
a  student  of  the  Massachusetts  Institute  of  Technology, 
when  he,  becoming  interested  in  social  reform,  sought 
the  acquaintance  of  Warren  and  Greene.    The  latter 
called  his  attention  to  Proudhon's  What  is  Property  ? 
and  so  impressed  was  he  with  the  originality  and  value 
of  that  revolutionary  (in  an    intellectual  sense)  and 
epoch-making  work,  that  he  set  himself  the  task  of 
translating  it  into  English.    No  work  has  ever  enjoyed 
the    privilege  of   a  more   competent   rendering    into 
another  language.    The  vigor  and  eloquence  of  Proud- 
hon's style  was  fully  preserved  in  the  translation,  and 
to  this  is  due  a  large  share  of  the  influence  exerted  by 
Proudhon's  work  in  America   and  England.    A    few 
years  later   Mr.   Tucker  started  his    paper,  Liberty, 
which  has  been  for  more  than  a  decade  the  recognized 
authority  on  anarchism.    Mr.  Tucker  does  not  strictly 


Anarchism. 


59 


Anarchism. 


follow  Proudhon,  any  more  than  he  strictly  follows 
Warren.  He  rejects  the  inconsistencies  of  the  former 
as  he  does  the  crudities  of  the  latter.  He  may  be  said 
to  have  organized  the  various  anarchistic  ideas — eco- 
nomic, political,  etc. — into  a  coherent  and  systematic 
whole.  Where  Proudhon  was  vague  and  Warren  inade- 
quate, Mr.  Tucker  is  clear,  logical,  consistent,  and  scien- 
tific. Mr.  Tucker  has  influenced  a  considerable  number 
of  able  men  in  journalism  and  other  professions,  as  well 
as  some  of  the  prominent  men  in  the  labor  movement. 
We  will  only  mention  here  the  name  of  Dyer  D.  Lum, 
one  of  the  leaders  of  the  early  Greenback  movement, 
who  died  a  few  years  ago.  Mr.  Lum,  while  sympathizing 
to  some  extent  with  the  methods  of  revolutionary  re- 
formers, was  for  several  years  before  his  death  a 
vigorous  and  scholarly  champion  of  the  economic  and 
political  ideas  of  anarchism. 

The  growth  of  anarchism  has  not  been  rapid,  and  its 
history  is  not  eventful  or  sensational.  Its  indirect  in- 
fluences, however,  have  wrought  great  changes  in 
social  science  and  in  the  intellectual  attitude  of  sociolo- 
gists and  reformers. 

In  Europe,  the  real  history  of  philosophic  anarchism 
begins  with  Proudhon.  (For  a  fuller  notice  of  his  life 
and  teachings,  see  PROUDHON.)  We  study  him  here  but 
in  brief,  in  relation  to  the  movement  of 
anarchism.  Born  in  1809,  after  a  bitter 
Europe.  personal  experience  with  poverty  and 
ill-paid  work,  he  published  in  1840  his 
great  work,  what  is  Property  ?  Of  this 
an  admirer  says  :  "  He  first  with  genius,  and  With  learn- 
ing and  acumen  rarely  equalled,  pleaded  for  absolute 
liberty  of  the  individual  and  the  doing  away  of  all  gov- 
ernment. Property  in  its  modern  sense  he  showed  to  be 
not  the  product  of  individual  labor  on  the  part  of  the 
owner  of  the  property,  but  the  product  of  the  labor  of 
others,  taken  from  them  by  legalized  wrong,  or  by  aid 
of  monopolies  and  class  legislation  created  by  the  State. 
Hence  the  truth  of  his  celebrated  sentence,""  Property 
is  theft."  The  cure,  he  argued,  was  to  do  away  with 
all  government,  and  then  each  individual  could  retain 
that  which  he  had  produced,  so  that  justice  and  order 
and  well-being  would  be  the  result  of  liberty." 

The  book  exposed  him  to  new  persecution  from  the 
Government  and  learned  societies,  which  continued 
more  or  less  to  his  death  in  1865.  He  passed  much  of 
his  life,  banished  from  France,  in  Belgium.  Yet  he 
was  ever  active  and  at  times  popular  in  France.  He 
was  elected  in  1848  to  the  Constituent  Assembly  by 
77,000  votes,  which,  together  with  his  frequent  impris- 
onments and  banishments,  as  well  as  the  suppression 
of  books,  shows  his  power  and  influence  in  his  genera- 
tion. Yet  few  followed  him  understandingly.  Proud- 
hon himself  declared  that  even  those  who  voted  for 
him  did  not  understand  his  views.  He  believed  that 
in  America  (as  seems  to  be  the  case)  his  thoughts  would 
first  take  root.  His  principal  writings  besides  the 
above  named  are  :  The  Creation  of  Order  in  Human- 
ity (1843)  i  ^  System  of  Economical  Contradictions 
(1848) ;  Justice  in  the  Revolution  and  in  the  Church 
(1858) ;  Justice  (revised  edition,  1859-60). 

Proudhon  was  right ;  few  followed  him  understand- 
ingly. The  movement  that  sprang  from  his  teach- 
ings has  in  the  main,  in  Europe,  been  anarchist  com- 
munism, which  is  no  more  like  philosophic  anarch- 
ism than  Proudhon  was  like  Bakpunin.  The  real 
followers  of  Proudhon  and  philosophical  anarchism,  in 
Europe,  can  almost  be  counted  on  one's  fingers,  tho 
their  influence  has  been  more  marked  than  this  might 
seem  to  indicate. 

In  Germany  Caspar  Schmidt,  better  known  under 
his  nom  de  plume  of  Max  Stirner,  laid  what  some  re- 
gard as  the  ethical  foundations  of  anarchism  in  his  Der 
Einzige  und  sein  Eigenthum  (1843).  John  Henry  Mac- 
kay,  a  Scotchman  by  birth,  but  with  a  German  mother, 
and  brought  up  in  Germany  from  boyhood,  has  devel- 
oped philosophic  anarchism  in  poems,  a  novel  (T/ie 
Anarchists,  translated  into  English,  1891),  and  other 
works.  In  England  philosophic  anarchism  under  this 
name  has  had  scarcely  any  development  at  all ;  but 
perhaps  this  is  only  because  so  much  of  its  individu- 
alism, of  which  there  has  been  considerable  develop- 
ment, has  come  so  near  to  philosophic  anarchism  in 
such  writers  as  Herbert  Spencer,  Auberon  Herbert, 
Wordsworth  Donisthorpe,  Thomas  Mackay,  Frederick 
Millar,  and  others.  A  notice  of  the  first  three  will  be 
found  under  each  name. 

II.  ANARCHIST  COMMUNISM. 

The  following  statement  of  anarchist  com- 
munism is  abridged  from  a  tract  on  Tlie  Place 


of  Anarchism    in    Socialistic    Evolution,   by 
Pierre  A.  Krapotkin  : 

"  All  things  belong  to  all,  and  provided  that 
men  and  women  contribute  their  share  of  labour 
for  the  production  of  necessary  objects,  they  are 
entitled  to  their  share  of  all  that  is  produced  by 
the  community  at  large.  '  But  this  is  commu- 
nism,' you  may  say.  Yes,  it  is  communism,  but  it 
is  the  communism  which  no  longer  speaks  in  the 
name  of  religion  or  of  the  State,  but  in  the  name 
of  the  people.  .  .  .  The  tendency  of  this  clos- 
ing century  is  toward  communism,  not  the  mo- 
nastic or  barrack-room  communism  formerly  ad- 
vocated, but  the  free  communism  which  places 
the  products  reaped  or  manufactured  in  common 
at  the  disposal  of  all,  leaving  to  each  the  liberty 
to  consume  them  as  he  pleases  in  his  own  home. 

"  This  is  the  solution  of  which  the  mass  of  the 
people  can  most  readily  take  hold,  and  it  is  the 
solution  which  the  people  demand  at  the  most 
solemn  epochs.  In  1848  the  formula  '  From 
each  according  to  his  abilities,  to  each  accord- 
ing to  his  needs '  was  the  one  which  went 
straight  to  the  heart  of  the  masses,  and  if  they 
acclaimed  the  republic  and  universal  suffrage, 
it  was  because  they  hoped  to  attain  to  com- 
munism through  them.  In  1871,  also,  when  the 
people  besieged  in  Paris  desired  to  make  a  su- 
preme effort  to  resist  the  invader,  what  was 
their  demand  ?  That  free  rations  should  be 
served  out  to  every  one.  Let  all  articles  be  put 
into  one  common  stock  and  let  them  be  dis- 
tributed according  to  the  requirements  of  each. 
Let  each  one  take  freely  of  all  that  is  abundant, 
and  let  those  objects  which  are  less  plentiful  be 
distributed  more  sparingly  and  in  due  propor- 
tions— this  is  the  solution  which  the  mass  of  the 
workers  understand  best.  This  is 
also  the  system  which  is  commonly 
practised  in  the  rural  districts  (of  France. 
France).  So  long  as  the  common 
lands  afford  abundant  pasture,  what 
commune  seeks  to  restrict  their  use  ?  When 
brushwood  and  chestnuts  are  plentiful,  what 
commune  forbids  its  members  to  take  as  much 
as  they  want  ?  And  when  the  larger  wood  be- 
gins to  grow  scarce,  what  course  does  the  peas- 
ant adopt  ?  The  allowancing  of  individuals. 

"  Let  us  take  from  the  common  stock  the  arti- 
cles which  are  abundant,  and  let  those  objects 
whose  production  is  more  restricted  be  served 
out  in  allowances  according  to  requirements, 
giving  preference  to  children  and  old  persons — 
that  is  to  say,  to  the  weak.  And,  moreover,  let 
all  be  consumed  not  in  public,  but  at  home,  ac- 
cording to  individual  tastes  and  in  company 
with  one's  family  and  friends.  This  is  the  ideal 
of  the  masses. 

"  But  it  is  not  enough  to  argue  about  '  com- 
munism '  and  '  expropriation  ;  '  it  is  further- 
more necessary  to  know  who  should  have  the 
management  of  the  common  patrimony,  and  it 
is  especially  on  this  question  that  different 
schools  of  socialists  are  opposed  to  one  another, 
some  desiring  authoritarian  communism,  and 
others,  like  ourselves,  declaring  unreservedly  in 
favour  of  anarchist  communism.  In  order  to 
judge  between  these  two,  let  us  return  once 
again  to  our  starting  point,  the  Revolution  of 
the  last  century. 

"  In  overturning  royalty  the  Revolution  pro- 


Anarchism. 


60 


Anarchism. 


claimed  the  sovereignty  of  the  people  ;  but,  by 
an  inconsistency  which  was  very  natural  at  that 
time,  it  proclaimed  not  a  permanent  sover- 
eignty, but  an  intermittent  one,  to  be  exercised 
at  certain  intervals  only,  for  the  nomination  of 
deputies  supposed  to  represent  the  people.  In 
reality  it  copied  its  institutions  from  the  repre- 
sentative government  of  England.  The  Revo- 
lution was  drowned  in  blood,  and,  nevertheless, 
representative  government  became  the  watch- 
word of  Europe.  All  Europe,  with  the  excep- 
tion of  Russia,  has  tried  it,  under  all  possible 
forms,  from  government  based  on  a  property 
qualification  to  the  direct  government  of  the  lit- 
tle Swiss  republics.  But,  strange  to  say,  just  in 
proportion  as  we  have  approached  nearer  to  the 
ideal  of  a  representative  government,  elected  by 
a  perfectly  free  universal  suffrage,  in  that  same 
proportion  have  its  essential  vices  become  mani- 
fest to  us,  till  we  have  clearly  seen  that  this 
mode  of  government  is  radically  defective.  Is 
it  not,  indeed,  absurd  to  take  a  certain  number 
of  men  from  out  the  mass,  and  to  intrust  them 
with  the  management  of  all  public  affairs,  say- 
ing to  them,  '  Attend  to  these  matters  ;  we  ex- 
onerate ourselves  from  the  task  by  laying  it 
upon  you  ;  it  is  for  you  to  make  laws  on  all  man- 
ner of  subjects — armaments  and  mad  dogs,  ob- 
servatories and  chimneys,  instruction  and  street- 
sweeping  ;  arrange  these  things  as  you  please 
and  make  laws  about  them,  since  you  are  the 
chosen  ones  whom  the  people  has  voted  capable 
of  doing  everything  !'  It  appears  to  me  that  if 
a  thoughtful  and  honest  man  were  offered  such  a 
post  he  would  answer  somewhat  in  this  fashion  : 
"  '  You  intrust  me  with  a  task  which  I  am 
unable  to  fulfil.  I  am  unacquainted  with  most 
of  the  questions  upon  which  I  shall  be  called  on 
to  legislate.  I  shall  either  have  to  work  to  some 
extent  in  the  dark,  which  will  not  be  to  your  ad- 
vantage, or  I  shall  appeal  to  you  and  summon 
meetings  in  which  you  will  yourselves  seek  to 
come  to  an  understanding  on  the  questions  at 
issue,  in  which  case  my  office  will  be  unneces- 
sary. If  you  have  formed  an  opinion  and  have 
formulated  it,  and  if  you  are  anxious  to  come  to 
an  understanding  with  others  who  have  also 
formed  an  opinion  on  the  same  subject,  then  all 
you  need  do  is  to  communicate  with  your  neigh- 
bours and  send  a  delegate  to  come  to  an  under- 
standing with  other  delegates  on 
this  specific  question  ;  but  you  will 
Argument,  certainly  reserve  to  yourselves  the 
right  of  taking  an  ultimate  deci- 
sion ;  you  will  not  intrust  your  del- 
egate with  the  making  of  laws  for  you.  This 
is  how  scientists  and  business  men  act  each 
time  that  they  have  to  come  to  an  agreement. ' 

' '  But  the  above  reply  would  be  a  repudiation 
of  the  representative  system,  and  nevertheless 
it  is  a  faithful  expression  of  the  idea  which  is 
growing  everywhere  since  the  vices  of  repre- 
sentative government  have  been  exposed  in  all 
their  nakedness.  Our  age,  however,  has  gone 
still  further,  for  it  has  begun  to  discuss  the 
rights  of  the  State  and  of  society  in  relation  to 
the  individual ;  people  now  ask  to  what  point 
the  interference  of  the  State  is  necessary  in  the 
multitudinous  functions  of  society. 

"  Do  we  require  a  government  to  educate  our 


children  ?  Only  let  the  worker  have  leisure  to- 
instruct  himself,  and  you  will  see  that,  through 
the  free  initiative  of  parents  and  of  persons  fond 
of  tuition,  thousands  of  educational  societies  and 
schools  of  all  kinds  will  spring  up,  rivalling  one 
another  in  the  excellence  of  their  teaching.  If 
we  were  not  crushed  by  taxation  and  exploited 
by  employers,  as  we  now  are,  could  we  not  our- 
selves do  much  better  than  is  now  done  for  us  ? 
The  great  centres  would  initiate  progress  and 
set  the  example,  and  you  may  be  sure  that  the 
progress  realised  would  be  incomparably  supe- 
rior to  what  we  now  attain  through  our  minis- 
tries. Is  the  State  even  necessary  for  the  de- 
fence of  a  territory  ?  If  armed  brigands  attack 
a  people,  is  not  that  same  people  armed  with 
good  weapons  the  surest  rampart  to  oppose  to  the 
foreign  aggressor  ?  Standing  armies  are  always 
beaten  by  invaders,  and  history  teaches  that  the 
latter  are  to  be  repulsed  by  a  popular  rising 
alone.  While  government  is  an  excellent  ma- 
chine to  protect  monopoly,  has  it 
ever  been  able  to  protect  us  against 
ill-disposed  persons  ?  Does  it  not,  by  No  Need  of 
creating  misery,  increase  the  num-  the  State, 
ber  of  crimes  instead  of  diminishing 
them  ?  In  establishing  prisons  into 
which  multitudes  of  men,  women,  and  children 
are  thrown  for  a  time,  in  order  to  come  forth  in- 
finitely worse  than  when  they  went  in,  does  not 
the  State  maintain  nurseries  of  vice  at  the  ex- 
pense of  the  tax-payers  ?  In  obliging  us  to  com- 
mit to  others  the  care  of  our  affairs,  does  it  not 
create  the  most  terrible  vice  of  societies — indif- 
ference to  public  matters  ?  .  .  . 

"  Let  others,  if  they  will,  advocate  industrial 
barracks  or  the  monastery  of  authoritarian  com- 
munism, we  declare  that  the  tendency  of  society 
is  in  an  opposite  direction.  We  foresee  millions 
and  millions  of  groups  freely  constituting  them- 
selves for  the  satisfaction  of  all  the  varied  needs 
of  human  beings — some  of  these  groups  or- 
ganised by  quarter,  street,  and  house  ;  others 
extending  hands  across  the  walls  of  cities  over 
frontiers  and  oceans.  All  of  these  will  be  com- 
posed of  human  beings  who  will  combine  free- 
ly, and  after  having  performed  their  share  of 
productive  labour  will  meet  together,  either  for 
the  purpose  of  consumption,  or  to  produce  ob- 
jects of  art  or  luxury,  or  to  advance  science  in 
a  new  direction.  This  is  the  tendency  of  the 
nineteenth  century,  and  we  follow  it ;  we  only 
ask  to  develop  it  freely  without  any  govern- 
mental interference.  Individual  liberty  !  '  Take 
pebbles,'  said  Fourrier,  '  put  them  into  a  box 
and  shake  them,  and  they  will  arrange  them- 
selves in  a  mosaic  that  you  could  never  get  by 
intrusting  to  any  one  the  work  of  arranging 
them  harmoniously. ' 

' '  Now  let  me  pass  to  another  part  of  my  subject 
— the  most  important  with  respect  to  the  future. 

"  There  is  no  more  room  for  doubting  that 
religions  are  going  ;  the  nineteenth  century  has 
given  them  their  death-blow.  But  religions — 
all  religions — have  a  double  composition.  They 
contain,  in  the  first  place,  a  primitive  cosmog- 
ony, a  rude  attempt  at  explaining  nature,  and 
they  furthermore  contain  a  statement  of  the 
public  morality  born  and  developed  within  the 
mass  of  the  people.  But  when  we  throw  religions 
overboard  or  store  them  among  our  public  rec- 


Anarchism. 


61 


Anarchism. 


ords  as  historical  curiosities,  shall  we  also  rele- 
gate to  museums  the  moral  principles  which  they 
contain  ?  This  has  sometimes  been  done,  and 
we  have  seen  people  declare  that  as  they  no 
longer  believed  in  the  various  religions,  so  they 
despised  morality  and  boldly  proclaimed  the 
maxim  of  bourgeois  selfishness,  '  Every  one  for 
himself.'  But  a  society,  human  or  animal,  can- 
not exist  without  certain  rules  and  moral  habits 
springing  up  within  it  ;  religion  may  go,  moral- 
ity remains.  If  we  were  to  come  to  consider 
that  a  man  did  well  in  lying,  deceiving  his 
neighbours,  or  plundering  them  when  possible 
(this  is  the  middle-class  business  morality),  we. 
should  come  to  such  a  pass  that  we  could  no 
longer  live  together.  You  might  assure  me  of 
your  friendship,  but  perhaps  you  might  only  do 
so  in  order  to  rob  me  more  easily  ;  you  might 
promise  to  do  a  certain  thing  forme,  only  to  de- 
ceive me  ;  you  might  promise  to  forward  a  let- 
ter for  me,  and  you  might  steal  it,  just  like  an 
ordinary  governor  of  a  jail.  Under  such  condi- 
tions society  would  become  impossible,  and  this 
is  so  generally  understood  that  the  repudiation 
of  religions  in  no  way  prevents  pub- 
lic morality  from  being  maintained, 
Ethical  Side,  developed,  and  raised  to  a  higher 
and  ever  higher  standard.  This 
fact  is  so  striking  that  philosophers 
seek  to  explain  it  by  the  principles  of  utilitari- 
anism, and  recently  Spencer  sought  to  base  the 
morality  which  exists  among  us  upon  physio- 
logical causes  and  the  needs  connected  with  the 
preservation  of  the  race. 

' '  Let  me  give  you  an  example  in  order  to  ex- 
plain to  you  what  we  think  on  the  matter. 

' '  A  child  is  drowning,  and  four  men  who  stand 
upon  the  bank  see  it  struggling  in  the  water. 
One  of  them  does  not  stir  ;  he  is  a  partisan  of 
'  Each  one  for  himself,'  the  maxim  of  the  com- 
mercial middle  class  ;  this  one  is  a  brute,  and 
we  need  not  speak  of  him  further.  The  next 
one  reasons  thus  :  '  If  I  save  the  child,  a  good 
report  of  my  action  will  be  made  to  the  ruler  of 
heaven,  and  the  Creator  will  reward  me  by  in- 
creasing my  flocks  and  my  serfs,'  and  thereupon 
he  plunges  into  the  water.  Is  he,  therefore,  a 
moral  man  ?  Clearly  not !  He  is  a  shrewd  cal- 
culator, that  is  all.  The  third,  who  is  an  utilitari- 
an, reflects  thus  (or  at  least  utilitarian  philoso- 
phers represent  him  as  so  reasoning) :  '  Pleasures 
can  be  classed  in  two  categories,  inferior  pleas- 
ures and  higher  ones.  To  save  the  life  of  any 
one  is  a  superior  pleasure,  infinitely  more  intense 
and  more  durable  than  others  ;  therefore,  I  will 
save  the  child. '  Admitting  that  any  man  ever 
reasoned  thus,  would  he  not  be  a  terrible  egotist  ? 
and,  moreover,  could  we  ever  be  sure  that  his 
sophistical  brain  would  not  at  some  given  mo- 
ment cause  his  will  to  incline  toward  an  inferior 
pleasure — that  is  to  say,  toward  refraining  from 
troubling  himself?  There  remains  the  fourth 
individual.  This  man  has  been  brought  up  from 
his  childhood  to  feel  himself  one  with  the  rest 
of  humanity  ;  from  his  childhood  he  has  always 
regarded  men  as  possessing  interests  in  common  ; 
he  has  accustomed  himself  to  suffer  when  his 
neighbours  suffer,  and  to  feel  happy  when  every 
one  around  him  is  happy.  Directly  he  hears 
the  heart-rending  cry  of  the  mother,  he  leaps 
into  the  water,  not  through  reflection,  but  by 


instinct ;  and  when  she  thanks  him  for  saving 
her  child,  he  says,  '  What  have  I  done  to  de- 
serve thanks,  my  good  woman  ?  I  am  happy  to 
see  you  happy  ;  I  have  acted  from  natural  im- 
pulse, and  could  not  do  otherwise  ! ' 

"  You  recognise  in  this  case  the  truly  moral 
man,  and  feel  that  the  others  are  only  egotists 
in  comparison  with  him.  The  whole  anarchist 
morality  is  represented  in  this  example.  It  is 
the  morality  of  a  people  which  does  not  look  for 
'the  sun  at  midnight — a  morality  without  com- 
pulsion or  authority,  a  morality  of  habit.  Let 
us  create  circumstances  in  which  man  shall  not 
be  led  to  deceive  nor  exploit  others,  and  then 
by  the  very  force  of  things  the  moral  level  of 
humanity  will  rise  to  a  height  hitherto  unknown. 
Men  are  certainly  not  to  be  moralized  by  teaching 
them  a  moral  catechism  ;  tribunals  and  prisons 
do  not  diminish  vice — they  pour  it  over  society  in 
floods.  Men  are  to  be  moralized  only  by  placing 
them  in  a  position  which  shall  contribute  to  de- 
velop in  them  those  habits  which  are  social,  and 
to  weaken  those  which  are  not  so.  A  morality 
which  has  become  instinctive  is  the  true  moral- 
ity, the  only  morality  which  endures  while  re- 
ligions and  systems  of  philosophy  pass  away. 

' '  Let  us  now  combine  the  three  preceding  ele- 
ments, and  we  shall  have  anarchy  and  its  place 
in  socialistic  evolution. 

' '  Emancipation  of  the  producer  from  the  yoke 
of  capital  ;  production  in  common  and  free  con- 
sumption of  all  the  products  of  the  common 
labour. 

' '  Emancipation  from  the  governmental  yoke  ; 
free  development  of  individuals  in  groups  and 
federations  ;  free  organization  ascending  from 
the  simple  to  the  complex,  according  to  mutual 
needs  and  tendencies. 

' '  Emancipation  from  religious  morality  ;  free 
morality,  without  compulsion  or  authority,  de- 
veloping itself  from  social  life  and  becoming 
habitual. 

"  The  above  is  no  dream  of  students,  it  is  a 
conclusion  which  results  from  an  analysis  of  the 
tendencies  of  modern  society  ;  anarchist  com- 
munism is  the  union  of  the  two  fundamental 
tendencies  of  our  society — a  tenden- 
cy toward  economic  equality  and  a 
tendency  toward  political  liberty.  Fundamental 
So  long  as  communism  presented  it-  Tendencies. 
self  under  an  authoritarian  form, 
which  necessarily  implies  govern- 
ment, armed  with  much  greater  power  than  that 
which  it  possesses  to-day,  inasmuch  as  it  implies 
economic  in  addition  to  political  power — so  long 
as  this  was  the  case  communism  met  with  no  suf- 
ficient response.     Before  1848  it  could,  indeed, 
sometimes  excite  for  a  moment  the  enthusiasm  of 
the  worker  who  was  prepared  to  submit  to  any  all- 
powerful  government,  provided  it  would  release 
him  from  the  terrible  situation  in  which  he  was 
placed,  but  it  left  the  true  friends  of  liberty  in- 
different. 

"Anarchist  communism  maintains  that  most 
valuable  of  all  conquests — individual  liberty — 
and  moreover  extends  it  and  gives  it  a  solid 
basis — economic  liberty — without  which  politi- 
cal liberty  is  delusive  ;  it  does  not  ask  the  indi- 
vidual who  has  rejected  God,  the  universal  ty- 
rant, God  the  king,  and  God  the  Parliament,  to 
give  unto  himself  a  god  more  terrible  than  any 


Anarchism. 


62 


Anarchism. 


of  the  preceding — God  the  community,  or  to 
abdicate  upon  its  altar  his  independence,  his 
will,  his  tastes,  and  to  renew  the  vow  of  asceti- 
cism which  he  formerly  made  before  the  cruci- 
fied God.  It  says  to  him,  on  the  contrary,  '  No 
society  is  free  so  long  as  the  individual  is  not 
so  !  Do  not  seek  to  modify  society  by  imposing 
upon  it  an  authority  which  shall  make  every- 
thing right  ;  if  you  do,  you  will  fail  as  popes 
and  emperors  have  failed.  Modify  society  so 
that  your  fellows  may  not  be  any  longer  your 
enemies  by  the  force  of  circumstances  ;  abolish 
the  conditions  which  allow  some  to  monopolize 
the  fruit  of  the  labour  of  others  ;  and  instead  of 
attempting  to  construct  society  from  top  to  bot- 
tom, or  from  the  centre  to  the  circumference, 
let  it  develop  itself  freely  from  the  simple  to  the 
composite,  by  the  free  union  of  free  groups. 
This  course,  which  is  so  much  obstructed  at 
present,  is  the  true,  forward  march  of  society  ; 
do  not  seek  to  hinder  it,  do  not  turn  your  back 
on  progress,  but  march  along  with  it !  Then 
the  sentiment  of  sociability  which  is  common  to 
human  beings,  as  it  is  to  all  animals  living  in 
society,  will  be  able  to  develop  itself  freely,  be- 
cause our  fellows  will  no  longer  be  our  enemies, 
and  we  shall  thus  arrive  at  a  state  of  things  in 
which  each  individual  will  be  able  to  give  free 
rein  to  his  inclinations,  and  even  to  his  passions, 
without  any  other  restraint  than  the  love  and 
respect  of  those  who  surround  him. ' 

"  This  is  our  ideal,  and  it  is  the  ideal  which 
lies  deep  in  the  hearts  of  peoples — of  all  peoples. 
We  know  full  well  that  this  ideal  will  not  be  at- 
tained without  violent  shocks  ;  the  close  of  this 
century  has  a  formidable  revolution  in  store  for 
us ;  whether  it  begins  in  France,  Germany, 
Spain,  or  Russia,  it  will  be  a  European  one,  and 
spreading  with  the  same  rapidity  as  that  of  our 
fathers,  the  heroes  of  1848,  it  will  set  all  Europe 
in  a  blaze.  This  coming  revolution  will  not  aim 
at  a  mere  change  of  government,  but  will  have 
a  social  character  ;  the  work  of  expropriation 
will  commence,  and  exploiters  will  be  driven 
out.  Whether  we  like  it  or  not,  this  will  be 
done  independently  of  the  will  of  individuals, 
and  when  hands  are  laid  on  private  property  we 
shall  arrive  at  communism,  because  we  shall  be 
forced  to  do  so.  Communism,  however,  cannot 
be  either  authoritarian  or  parliamentary,  it  must 
either  be  anarchist  or  non-existent ;  the  mass  of 
the  people  does  not  desire  to  trust  itself  again  to 
any  Savior,  but  will  seek  to  organize  itself  by 
itself." 

HISTORY  AND  METHODS  OF  ANARCHIST  COMMUNISM. 

Anarchist  communism,   tho  more  or   less  indebted 
to    the  thoughts  of    Rousseau,   Prqudhon,   Ruge  and 
others,  owes  its  origin  as  a  movement 
to  the  Russian  Bakounin.    Born  of  aris- 
Origin.        tocratic  and    even  princely  parentage, 
Michael  Bakounin,  at  first  an  officer  in  the 
Russian  Army,  threw  up  his  commission 
at  the  age  of  21,  disgusted  by  the  oppression  of  the 
Government  and  the  consequent  sufferings  of  the  poor, 
and  studied  philosophy,  reading  Hegel  and  Schopen- 
hauer in  St.  Petersburg  and  Berlin.     Coming  into  revo- 
lutionary circles  mainly  under  the  influence  of  Arnold 
Ruge,  who  represented  the  extreme  Hegelian  left,  Ba- 
kounin took  part  in  the  Dresden  insurrection  of  1848,  and 
was  arrested  and  condemned  to  death,  but  eventually 
handed  over  to  the  Russians  and  imprisoned  in  Schlus- 
selberg  and  in  1852  sent  to  Siberia.     Hence,  however, 
he  eventually  escaped,  through  Japan  and  the  United 
States,  and,  in  1861,  appeared  in  London,  a  revolutionist, 
declared  by  his  enemies  to  be  half-crazed  by  his  years 


of  suffering  and  imprisonment.  Be  this  as  it  may,  he 
threw  himself  into  revolutionary  propaganda  of  every 
kind,  mainly  as  an  Internationalist,  but  sometimes  in- 
consistently as  a  Panslavist,  and  occasionally  as  a 
Nihilist.  Switzerland,  Italy,  and  Southern  France 
were  the  main  scenes  of  his  efforts,  but  he  contrived  to 
fill  all  Europe  with  his  spirit  of  revolution.  Gradually 
his  utterances  became  wilder  and  his  position  more 
extreme.  He  commenced  to  preach  the  gospel  of  pan- 
destruction.  When  the  International  (q. v.)  was  founded 
in  London  under  the  presidency  of  Marx  in  1864,  Bakou- 
nin did  not  at  first  connect  himself  with  it.  But  later, 
realizing  what  capital  could  be  made  of  it,  he  threw 
himself  into  the  movement,  and  almost  captured  the  In- 
ternational for  anarchism.  He  did  capture  it  in  Italy, 
Spain,  Southern  France,  Belgium,  and  to  a  large  ex- 
tent in  Switzerland  and  other  countries.  In  1872,  how- 
.  ever,  Marx  as  president  contrived  to  have  the  congress, 
of  the  International  called  at  the  Hague,  where  Bakou- 
nin could  not  come,  since  he  was  only  secure  in  Switzer- 
land, and  would  have  been  arrested  in  traversing  any 
country  through  which  he  could  have  reached  the 
Hague.  At  this  congress,  therefore,  the  adherents  of 
Bakounin  were  defeated,  and  the  General  Council  of  the 
International  was  transferred  to  New  York  City.  It 
resulted  in  the  death  of  the  International ;  but  out  of 
the  split  came  the  modern  movements  of  democratic 
socialism  and  anarchist  communism,  economic  schools, 
which,  altho  previously  to  1872  they  had  been  more 
or  less  confaunded,  are  now  utterly  distinct  and  even 
opposed.  The  ultimate  ideals  of  the  followers  of  Marx 
and  Bakounin  were  not,  however,  so  different.  They 
both  believed  in  communism,  and  communism  was  the 
early  name  for  all  socialism  as  well  as  for  anarchist 
communism ;  but  the  split  came  in  methods.  The 
followers  of  Bakounin  believed  in  destroying  the  State  ; 
Marx  stood  for  capturing  the  State  by  legitimate  polit- 
ical means,  and  through  the  State  establishing  the  So- 
cial Democracy,  or  communism.  Both  opposed  the 
present  State  ;  but  one  sought  to  overturn  it  at  once  by 
force,  the  other  sought  to  capture  it  and  use  it.  For  a 
while  it  seemed  doubtful  which  policy  would  win. 

For  a  considerable  time,  the  anarchist  communists, 
especially  in  the  southern  countries,  were  stronger  than 
the  socialists.  The  working  classes  did  not  see  the 
strength  of  the  socialist  programme.  Anarchist -com- 
munism, if  it  appealed  less  to  their  heads,  appealed 
more  to  their  instincts.  It  appealed  to  revolutionary 
deed.  Words,  its  advocates  declared,  were  cheap  ;  it  is 
the  propaganda  by  deed  that  makes  men  think.  The 
propaganda  by  deed  has  ever  been  the  favorite  policy 
among  anarchist  communists,  being  defended,  though 
not  practised,  even  by  such  men  as  Krapotkin  and 
Reclus.  But  organization  among  anarchists  has  never 
prospered.  Their  policy  lends  itself  to  individual  deed. 
Bakounin  did  not  quietly  accept  his  defeat  by  Marx  at 
the  Hague.  He  and  his  adherents  called  another  con- 
gress in  Switzerland,  and  declared  that  they  were  the 
true  International.  From  this  time  anarchist  com- 
munism had  an  organized  existence.  (For  further 
details  as  to  the  preceding  period,  see  BAKOUNIN  ; 
INTERNATIONAL.) 

In  1876  Bakounin  died,  Elisee  Reclus,  Paul  Brousse, 
and  others  gathering  around  his  grave, 
ready  to  carry  on  his  work.  In  October 
of  the  same  year  a  congress  was  held  atOrganization. 
Berne,  and  enunciated  the  principles  of 
anarchist  communism,  altho  still  under 
the  name  of  socialism.  It  denounced  even  the  Paris 
Commune,  as  not  having  entirely  eliminated  the  prin- 
ciple of  authority.  At  this  congress  two  Italian  dele- 
gates were  present,  Carlo  Cafiero  and  Enrico  Mala- 
testa,  and  went  home  to  head  a  revolution  in  April, 
1877,  in  the  Italian  province  of  Benevento.  They  burnt 
the  archives  and  laid  their  hands  on  what  arms  and 
money  they  could  find,  and  distributed  them  to  the 
people.  The  same  year  a  congress  was  held  at  Verviers, 
where  Krapotkin  first  appeared  on  the- scenes  under 
the  name  of  Scrachqff.  In  1878,  Brousse  and  Krapot- 
kin commenced  publishing  the  Ai<ant  Garde,  the  first 
anarchist  organ.  The  same  year  Nobeling  and  Hodel 
made  their  attack  upon  Kaiser  Wilhelm  at  Nieder- 
wald ;  the  cooper  Broncasi  attempted  the  life  of  Al- 
phonso  XII.,  and  Passanante  the  life  of  the  King  of 
Italy,  Humbert  I.  At  a  congress  at  Freiburg  that 
year,  a  letter  from  Reclus  made  the  following  suc- 
cinct statement  of  anarchist  communism  :  "  We  are 
revolutionaries,"  he  said,  "  because  we  desire  justice. 
.  .  .  Progress  has  never  resulted  from  mere  peaceful 
evolution  ;  it  has  always  been  an  outcome  of  a  sudden 
revolution.  The  necessary  preliminary  preparation 
of  the  minds  of  men  may  be  a  gradual  process,  but  the 
realization  of  their  hopes  comes  abruptly  and  as  a  sur- 
prise. .  .  .  We  are  anarchists,  who  recognize  no  one  as 


Anarchism. 


Anarchism. 


our  master,  as  we  are  ourselves  the  masters  of  nobody. 
There  is  no  morality  without  liberty.  .  .  .  We  are 
also  international  collectivists,  for  we  are  aware  that 
the  very  existence  of  human  beings  necessarily  implies 
a  certain  social  grouping."  The  congress  voted  for  the 
appropriation  by  the  community  of  all  wealth,  the 
abolition  of  the  State,  and  even  of  any  central  admin- 
istrative agency  ;  and  as  regards  means  of  propaganda, 
the  congress  favored  the  dissemination  of  anarchist 
ideas,  and  even  rebellion  and  revolutionary  deed.  In 
1879  the  Avant  Garde  ceased  to  appear,  and  Krapot- 
kin  and  others  started  a  new  paper,  the  Revolte,  at  Gene- 
va (later  moved  to  Paris).  The  same  year  Johann  Most, 
expelled  from  Germany  and  driven  from  the  socialist 
meetings,  arrived  in  London,  December,  1878,  and  in 
January,  1879,  began  publishing  his  paper,  Freiheit. 

In  1880  Ottero  Gonzales  attempted  the  life  of  Alphonso 
XII.  At  a  congress  in  Switzerland  of  this  year,  Kra- 
potkin  advised  the  adoption  of  the  name  anarchist 
communism  in  the  place  of  collectivism.  In  1881  the 
French  anarchists  and  socialists  finally  separated,  and  a 
congress  of  anarchists  was  held  at  London.  Krapot- 
kin was  banished  from  Switzerland  for  his  utterances ; 
Most,  in  London,  was  sentenced  to  16  months'  hard  la- 
bor for  his  words  concerning  the  assassination  of  the 
Czar.  At  the  close  of  16  months  he  removed,  with  his 
paper,  to  the  United  States.  There  were  outbreaks  in 
southeast  France,  and  many  discoveries  of  dynamite 
plots  were  reported.  Anarchists  were  arrested  all 
through  southern  France.  In  the  north,  Louise  Michel 
delivered  a  series  of  lectures.  The  daughters  of  Elisee 
Reclus  ostentatiously  contracted  "free  marriages." 
Krapotkin  himself  was  arrested.  In  1883  the  anarchist 
trials  in  France  took  place,  and  47  were  sentenced, 
among  them  Louise  Michel.  All  through  Europe  at 
this  time  anarchists  were  being  arrested  and  sentenced. 
In  Spain  a  campaign  was  undertaken  against  the  Black 
Band.  In  December  Cy  voct  was  tried  at  Lyons  for  hav- 
ing caused  the  explosion  at  Bellecour  Theatre,  and  was 
sentenced  to  death,  but  the  sentence  was  commuted  by 
President  Grevy.  The  year  1884  was  comparatively 
calm,  though  dynamite  was  found  laid  against  the 
Federal  Palace  at  Berne,  and  led  to  the  expulsion  of 
anarchists  from  Switzerland.  In  1885  German  anarch- 
ists were  tried.  Krapotkin  published  this  year  his 
Paroles  (fun  Revolte  and  Reclus  his  The  Products  of 
the  Earth.  An  attempt  was  also  made  to  blow  up  the 
English  House  of  Parliament.  In  1886  there  were  sev- 
eral riots  in  Europe,  especially  at  Charleroi,  and  the 
great  strike  at  Chicago  took  place,  with  the  famous  Hay- 
market  meeting,  the  arrest  of  eight  anarchists,  and  the 
condemnation  of  seven  of  them  to  death  (in  1887).  (See 

CHICAGO  ANARCHISTS.)    In  1887  L'Jdee 

Ouvriere  was  started  at  Havre.    In  1888 
History,      the  Pere  Peinard  was  started  at  Paris,  a 

paper  in  the  slang  of  the  French  streets. 

In  1889  Most.  Malato,  and  Grave  all  is- 
sued anarchist  pamphlets.  In  1890  the  first  international 
May-day  demonstration  took  place,  and  the  anarchists 
took  advantage  of  it  in  incendiary  speeches  and  gather- 
ings. Merlino,  Malato,  and  Louise  Michel  were  impris- 
oned. The  International,  an  anarchist  paper,  was  start- 
ed in  London.  In  1891  the  French  anarchists  agitated 
chiefly  against  the  arm  v  and  the  police.  At  Le  vallois  the 
black  flag  was  unfurled.  Several  anarchist  papers  were 
started,  the  Pot  a  colle  and  the  /' ' En-dehors.  In  1892 
bombs  were  exploded  in  France  in  private  houses  of 
deputies  and  at  cafes,  among  others  at  the  Cafe  Rich.  In 
June  one  of  the  dynamiters,  Ravachol,  was  condemned 
to  death,  and  executed  in  July.  In  1893  there  was  more 
violence  in  Spain.  Pallas  was  tried  and  executed  for 
throwing  a  bomb  at  Marshal  Campos  at  Barcelona,  and 
there  was  also  a  terrible  bomb  explosion  at  the  El 
Lyceo  Theatre  in  Barcelona.  On  December  9,  Vaillant 
threw  a  bomb  in  the  French  Chamber  of  Deputies.  In 
1894  severe  laws  against  anarchists  were  passed  in 
France  and  other  countries ;  100  anarchists  were  ar- 
rested in  France  alone  and  several  deported.  The 
papers  Revolte  and  Pere  Peinard  were  seized  and  com- 
pelled to  discontinue.  Jean  Grave,  the  leading  an- 
archist communist  after  Krapotkin  and,  Reclus,  was 
imprisoned.  Vaillant  was  executed.  Emile  Henry 
threw  a  bomb  in  the  Cafe  Terminus.  Bombs  were 
exploded  also  in  the  Hotel  St.  Jacques  and  other 
houses.  An  attempt  was  made  to  murder  the  prefect 
of  Barcelona.  An  Italian  anarchist,  Cesario  Santo, 
assassinated  the  French  President,  Carnot,  at  Lyons. 
Restrictive  legislation  in  Italy  sought  not  only  to  arrest 
all  anarchists,  but  to  close  all  trade-union  meetings. 
In  Germany  the  Kaiser  introduced  severe  measures 
against  both  anarchism  and  socialism,  which  have  been, 
however,  rejected  by  the  Reichstag.  Such  is  a  brief 
sketch  of  the  anarchist-communist  movement.  There 
is  no  general  organization.  Anarchists  meet  in  little 


'groups,  which  are  forever  changing,  dissolving,  and 
reforming.  Communication  between  groups  is  simply 
conducted  through  individuals.  The  party  is  without 
leaders.  Anybody,  even  detectives,  can  easily  join 
anarchist  groups,  but  detectives  learn  little,  for  the 
groups  as  groups  do  nothing,  and  serve  simply  to  bring 
individuals  together.  Thus  the  group  that  Vaillant 
belonged  to  did  not  know  his  project  of  throwing  the 
bomb  in  the  Chamber  of  Deputies.  Till  recently  Le 
Revolte  has  been  the  chief  literary  and  Le  Pere  Peinard 
the  chief  popular  organ  ;  but  these  have  disappeared 
without  successors.  In  1893  an  attempt  was  made  to 
hold  an  anarchist-communist  congress  in  connection 
with  the  World's  Fair  at  Chicago,  but  it  had  to  meet 
surreptitiously  on  account  of  the  police,  and  when  it 
met  its  members  could  agree  upon  no  program  nor 
declaration  of  principles,  though  it  is  said  that  an  in- 
ternational committee  was  chosen.  In 
America  anarchist  communism  has  held 
on  to  the  name  of  the  old  International  America. 
longer  than  in  Europe.  In  1872,  as  we 
have  seen,  the  general  council  of  the  In- 
ternational was  transferred  at  Marx's  suggestion  to 
New  York  City.  But  in  this  country  it  never  thrived. 
The  fundamental  differences  between  the  socialists 
and  the  anarchists  soon  showed  themselves  here,  as  in 
Europe.  In  1877  the  socialist  wing,  in  a  meeting  at 
Newark,  took  the  name  of  the  Socialist  Labor  Party 
(see  SOCIALISM),  and  practically  left  the  International 
to  the  anarchists.  The  split,  however,  was  not  at  once 
complete.  In  1883  the  socialists  met  at  Baltimore  and 
the  anarchists  at  Pittsburg,  and  these  took  the  old  name 
of  the  International  Working  People's  Association. 
By  1885  the  split  with  the  socialists  was  complete,  and 
since  then  in  America,  as  in  Europe,  anarchists  and 
socialists  have  had  nothing  in  common.  The  congress 
at  Pittsburg  adopted  unanimously  a  manifesto  or  dec- 
laration of  motives  and  principles,  often  called  the 
Pittsburg  proclamation,  in  which  they  describe  their 
ultimate  goal  in  these  words  : 

"What  we  would  achieve  is,  therefore,  plainly  and 
simply: 

"  i.  Destruction  of  the  existing  class  rule,  by  all 
means — i.e.,  by  energetic,  relentless,  revolutionary,  and 
international  action. 

"  2.  Establishment  of  a  free  society  based  upon 
cooperative  organization  of  production. 

"3.  Free  exchange  of  equivalent  products  by  and 
between  the  productive  organizations  without  com- 
merce and  profit-mongery. 

"  4.  Organization  of  education  on  a  secular,  scientific, 
and  equal  basis  for  both  sexes. 

"  5.  Equal  rights  for  all  without  distinction  to  sex 
or  race. 

"6.  Regulation  of  all  public  affairs  by  free  con- 
tracts between  the  autonomous  (independent)  com- 
munes and  associations  resting  on  a  f ederalistic  basis." 

In  1881,  however,  another  association  was  formed, 
designated  by  the  initials  I.  W.  A.,  or  International 
Workmen's  Association,  differing  in  a  few  particulars 
only  from  the  I.  W.  P.  A.  It  lays  greater  stress  on  educa- 
tion and  is  somewhat  less  inclined  to  favor  violence  in 
the  present,  holding  that  a  revolution  in  the  minds  of 
men  must  precede  the  political  revolution.  The  fol- 
lowing explanation  of  its  principles  and  methods  is 
taken  from  the  First  Report  of  tne  Kansas  Bureau  of 
Labor  Statistics. 

"To  print  and  publish  and  circulate  labor  literature  ; 
to  hold  mass-meetings  ;  to  systematize  agitation  ;  to  es- 
tablish labor  libraries,  labor  halls,  and  lyceums  for 
discussing  social  science  ;  to  maintain  the  labor  press  ; 
to  protect  members  and  all  producers  from  wrong;  to 
aid  all  labor  organizations  ;  to  aid  the  establishment 
of  unity  and  the  maintenance  of  fraternity  between  all 
labor  organizations;  to  bring  about  an  alliance  be- 
tween the  manufacturing  and  agricultural  producers  ; 
to  encourage  the  spirit  of  brotherhood  and  interde- 
pendence among  all  producers  of  every  State  and  coun- 
try ;  to  ascertain,  segregate,  classify,  and  study  the 
habits  and  acts  of  their  enemies  ;  to  secure  information 
of  the  wrongs  perpetrated  against  them,  and  to  record 
and  circulate  the  same ;  to  arouse  a  spirit  of  hostility 
against  and  ostracism  of  the  capitalistic  press  ;  to  pre"- 
pare  the  means  for  directing  the  coming  social  revolu- 
tion by  enlightening  public  opinion  on  the  wrongs  per- 
petrated against  the  producers  of  the  .world;  to  oblit- 
erate national  boundary  lines  and  sectional  prejudices, 
•with  a  view  to  the  international  unification  of  the  pro- 
ducers of  all  lands  ;  and  to  eradicate  the  impression 
that  redress  can  be  obtained  by  the  ballot.  The  or- 
ganization is  formed  on  the  '  group'  system— that  is, 
any  person  who  subscribes  to  these  principles  may  be- 
come an  organizer.  He  organizes  a  group  of  eight 
besides  himself.  When  this#roup  becomes  thoroughly 


Anarchism. 


64 


Anarchism. 


conyersant  with  the  principles  and  methods  of  the  or- 
ganization, each  member  becomes  an  organizer  and 
forms  a  group  of  his  own  ;  and  this  goes  on  indefinitely. 
North  America  is  divided  into  10  divisions — the  Cana- 
dian, the  British  Columbia,  the  Eastern  States,  the 
Middle  States,  the  Western  States,  the  Rocky  Moun- 
tains, the  Pacific  Coast,  the  Southern  States,  the  Mexi- 
can, and  the  Missouri  Valley.  Each  division  is  presided 
over  by  a  division  executive  of  nine  persons.  The  Inter- 
national was  organized  on  its  present  basis(  on  July  15, 
1881,  with  54  delegates,  representing  320  'divisions,'  or 
groups,  composed  of  600,000  members.  The  countries 
represented  were  France,  Belgium,  Holland,  Germany, 
Austria,  Italy,  Spain,  Switzerland,  Russia,  Siberia, 
Bulgaria,  Roumania,  Turkey,  Egypt,  England,  Mexico, 
and  the  United  States." 

It  is  the  agitation  of  these  groups  of  the  I.  W.  A.  and 
the  I.  W.  P.  A.  which  have  produced  what  popular 
anarchistic  communism  there  is  in  this  country.  But 
the  movement  has  come  to  naught.  The  I.  W.  A.  and 
the  I.  W.  P.  A.  no  longer  exist  save  in  the  minds  of  a 
few  half-crazed  persons,  and  the  only  present  activity 
is  the  publication  of  a  paper  and  the  occasional  delivery 
of  speeches  by  Most  and  others,  which  make  "good 
copy"  for  the  newspapers.  There  have  been  also  a  few 
attempts  of  devoted  but  fanatical  men  to  assassinate 
men  of  wealth  and  influence,  like  Frick  and  Russell 
Sage ;  but  these  acts  have  been  very  rare.  When  an 
agitator  like  Most  speaks,  he  will  often  get  a  large 
audience,  who  will  cheer  his  utterances,  but  the  move- 
ment has  no  power. 

Among  English  working  men,  too,  there  is  little,  if 
any,  anarchism.  The  head  of  Oxford  House,  in  East 
London,  recently  testified  that  there  were  no  anarchists 
among  the  English  working  people  and  that  the  last 
place  possible  for  a  man  to  arrive  with  a  bomb  was 
East  London.  Among  the  foreign  residents  in  London 
there  are  some  anarchist  clubs,  and  there  is  some  an- 
archist communism  among  the  intellectual  radicals, 
but  it  has  little  force.  The  only  countries  in  which 
anarchist  communism  at  all  thrives  to-day  are  in  the 
southern  countries  of  Europe,  under  the  despotism  of 
Russia,  and  among  some  of  the  inflammable  French 
and  Belgians ;  but  even  in  these  countries  it  is  giving 

B'ace  to  the  organized  political  movement  of  Social 
emocracy.    It  can  only  thrive  on  such  governmental 
persecution  as  the  Italian  Government  is  now  attempt- 
ing against  the  whole  labor  movement. 

ARGUMENTS   AGAINST  ANARCHISM. 

I.  The  argument  against  individualist  anarch- 
ism is,  first,  that  it  starts  from  a  false  basis.  The 
individual,  say  the  philosophical  opponents  of 
anarchism,  is  not  sovereign  ;  he  does  not  even 
exist.  Man  is  not  born  to  and  never  attains, 
nor  can  attain,  individual  sovereignty.  From 
his  birth  to  his  death  he  is  dependent  upon  his 
fellow-man,  and  ever  must  be  so  long  as  he  is  a 
social  being.  Society  is  not  made  up  of  units, 
but  is  one  ;  and  the  sooner  this  is  realized,  and 
man  no  longer  attempts  an  impossible  individual 
sovereignty,  the  sooner  will  the  individual  find 
his  true  freedom  in  developing  his  inmost  per- 
sonality in  the  unity  of  a  perfect  state.  An- 
archism is  opposed  thus,  first,  because  it  mis- 
reads the  facts  of  individual  life.  Second,  the 
opponents  of  anarchism  assert  that  for  anarch- 
ists to  define  the  State  as  necessarily  invasive, 
because  States  always  have  been  more  or  less 
invasive,  is  to  be  illogical.  The  State,  according 
to  the  anarchist's  own  admission,  is  a  power,  and 
has  been,  as  at  least  most  anarchists  admit, 
in  the  past  a  necessary  power.  Why,  then, 
throw  away  that  power  ?  Why — since  some  co- 
operative organization  for  defense  and  other 
purposes  anarchists  themselves  declare  neces- 
sary— not  use  the  State,  making  it  non- invasive  ? 
To  say  that  the  State  cannot  be  harnessed  to  do 
the  will  of  the  people,  because  it  never  has  been 
wholly  so  harnessed  in  the  past,  is  as  if  a  man  be- 
fore the  discovery  of  the  uses  of  electricity 
should  declare  that  electricity  always  must  be 
harmful,  since  it  always  had  done  harm.  The 


fact  is,  say  these  critics,  that  the  State,  with  all 
its  evils  —  and  they  are  to  be  admitted,  every 
one  —  has  in  the  past  been  immeasurably  useful 
and  beneficial,  and  should  not  be  thrown  away, 
but  captured  and  improved  and  made  to  do  the 
will  pf  freemen. 

II.  As  to  the  anarchist  assertion  that  States 
have  no  right,  for  example,  to  compel  any  man  to 
pay  a  tax,  since  no  individual  has  a  right  to 
tax  another,  and  the  mere  multiplying  individ- 
uals into  a  majority  cannot  make  that  right  in 
many  persons  which  is  wrong  in  one,  it  is  said 
that  this  is  purely  a  doctrinaire  position  of  un- 
proven  ethics.     That  it  seems  axiomatic  and 
convincing  to  a  certain  class  of  minds  by  no 
means  proves  its  truth.     The  opposite  assertion 
that  the  individual  is  born  in  society,  and  has 
as  his  only  right  to  take  his  place  in  society, 
which  is  a  natural  unit,  and  not  made  up  of  in- 
dividual units,  and  has  rights  and  duties  of  its 
own,  among  others  that  of  ordering  the  condi- 
tions of  society  according  to  the  will  of  the  ma- 
jority, and  compelling  others  to  support  it,  is,  it 
is  claimed,  as  plausible  a  dogma  as  the  anarch- 
ist dogma,  and  a  good  deal  more  deducible  from 
facts.     The  truth  is,  that  the  science  of  social 
ethics  is  as  yet  so  utterly  undeveloped  that  to 
talk  of  what  is  ethically  right  in  society  is  to  say 
nothing.     One  man  holds  this  opinion  ;  another 
that  ;  and  neither  can  convince  the  other.     The 
only  possible  way  out  of  social  problems,  unless 
one  takes  the  religious  ground  of  theism,  and 
find  in  that  a  law  of  procedure,  is  to  slowly  learn 
by  experience  ;  believers  in  government,  there- 
fore, base  their  main  arguments  against  anarch- 
ism on  the  facts  of  experience.     They  say  : 

III.  It  will  not  work.     Said  President    An- 
drews,  in    a  discussion    with    Mr.   Tucker  at 
Salem  : 

"  Suppose  the  citizens  of  Salem  to  constitute 
an  anarchistic  group  under  the  beautiful  so- 
cial compact  which  Mr.  Tucker  de- 
scribes. Not  many  days  will  elapse 
before  some  of  the  parties  to  that 
compact  will  show  how  useless  it  is.  Q  '  eynts 
Let  some  rioters  from  Beverly  or 
Beverly  Farms  invade  the  Salem 
group.  The  foreman  of  the  town  calls  all  hands 
to  turn  out  and  put  them  down.  One  man  re- 
plies that  he  does  not  care  to  come  out  ;  he  has 
the  rheumatism,  or  he  is  reading  a  book,  or  en- 
gaged in  some  other  work,  and  says,  '  I  pray 
you,  have  me  excused.'  What  is  going  to  be 
done  ?  I  know  of  no  way  in  which  the  anarchis- 
tic group  named  Salem  can  defend  itself  —  as 
Mr.  Tucker  says  is  legitimate  —  except  by  coerc- 
ing Meroz  to  come  up  to  the  help  of  the  Lord 
against  the  mighty.  The  anarchist  must  here 
renounce  his  theory  and  resort  to  some  of  those 
species  of  action  which  Mr.  Txicker  denounces 
as  not  permissible  because  of  the  nature  of 
coercion,  aggression  upon  individual  rights." 

Says  another  writer  :  '  '  Some  rule  there  must 
be  under  any  theory.  You  cannot  escape  law. 
If  it  is  not  the  rule  of  brotherhood,  it  must  be 
the  rule  of  might.  You  do  not  escape  rule  by 
flying  to  anarchy.  Says  Mr.  Donisthorpe,  in 
his  Individualism  :  a  System  of  Politics  :  '  It 
is  a  mistake  to  suppose  that  anarchism  is  law- 
less. Nothing  of  the  kind.  Where  there  is  no 
ruling  body  ;  where  there  is  no  governmental 


?t 
'     y 


Anarchism. 


Anarchism. 


authority,  as  in  San  Francisco  within  the  mem- 
ory of  many  of  us,  what  happens  ?  Did  the 
marauders  and  pests  of  society  carry  all  before 
them  ?  Not  a  bit  of  it.  Those  who  had  inherit- 
ed the  habits  of  a  social  and  methodical  mode  of 
life,  owing  to  its  greater  average  economy,  band- 
ed themselves  together  and  straightway  lynched 
those  who  were  desirous  of  violating  the  princi- 
ples of  order  and  method.'  This,  says  Mr.  Don- 
isthorpe,  was  anarchism.  Exactly  ;  and  most 

feople  prefer  Uncle  Sam,  with  all  his  faults,  to 
udge  Lynch." 

Concerning  the  economic  impossibilities  of 
anarchism,  G.  Bernard  Shaw  says  : 

"The  full  economic  detail  of  individualist  anarchism 
may  be  inferred  with  sufficient  completeness  from  an 
.article  entitled  State  Socialism  and  Anarchism  ;  How 
far  they  agree,  and   wherein  they  differ,   which  ap- 
peared in  March,  1888,  in  Liberty. 

"  '  The  economic  principles  of  modern  socialism,'  says 
Mr.  Tucker,  '  are  a  logical  deduction  from  the  principle 
laid  down  by  Adam  Smith  in  the  early  chapters  of  his 
Wealth  of  Nations— viz.,  that  labor  is  the  true 
measure  o'f  price.  From  this  principle  these  three  men 
IJosiah  Warren,  Proudhon,  and  Marx]  deduced  "  that 
the  natural  wage  of  labor  is  its  product."  ' 

"  Now  the  socialist  who  is  unwary  enough  to  accept 
this  economic  position  will  presently  find  himself 
logically  committed  to  the  Whig  doctrine  of  laissez- 
faire.  "And  here  Mr.  Tucker  will  cry,  'Why  not? 
Laissez-faire  is  exactly  what  we  \vant.  Destroy  the 
money  monopoly,  the  tariff  monopoly,  and  the  patent 
monopoly.  Enforce  then  only  those  land  titles  which 
:rest  on  personal  occupancy  or  cultivation;*  and  the 
social  problem  of  how  to  secure  to  each  worker  the 
product  of  his  own  labor  will  be  solved  simply  by 
every  one  minding  his  own  business.' 

"  Let  us  see  whether  it  will  or  not.  Suppose  we  decree 
that  henceforth  no  more  rent  shall  be  paid  in  England, 
and  that  each  man  shall  privately  own  his  house,  and 
hold  his  shop,  factory,  or  place  of  business  jointly  with 
those  who  work  with  him  in  it.  Let  every  one  be  free 
to  issue  money  from  his  own  mint  without  tax  or  stamp. 
,Let  all  taxes  on  commodities  be  abolished,  and  patents 
and  copyrights  be  things  of  the  past.  Try  to  imagine 
vourself  under  these  promising  conditions  with  life 
before  you.  You  may  start  in  business  as  a  crossing- 
sweeper,  shopkeeper,  collier,  farmer,  miller,  banker, 
or  what  not.  Whatever  your  choice  may  be,  the  first 
thing  you  find  is  that  the  reward  of  your  labor  depends 
far  more  on  the  situation  in  which  you  exercise  it  than 
on  yourself.  If  you  sweep  the  crossing  between  St. 
James'  and  Albemarle  Streets  you  prosper  greatly. 
But  if  you  are  forestalled  not  only  there,  but  at  every 
point  more  central  than,  say,  the  corner  of  Holford 
Square,  Islington,  you  may  sweep  twice  as  hard  as 
your  rival  in  Piccadilly,  and  not  take  a  fifth  of  his  toll. 
At  such  a  pass  you  may  well  curse  Adam  Smith  and 
his  principle  that  labor  is  the  measure  of  price,  and 
either  advocate  a  democratically  constituted  State 
socialist  municipality,  paying  all  its  crossing-sweepers 
equally,  or  else  cast  your  broom  upon  the  Thames  and 
turn  shopkeeper.  Yet  here  again  the  same  difficulty 
crops  up.  Your  takings  depend  not  on  yourself,  but 
on  the  number  of  people  who  pass  your  window  per 
hour.  .  .  . 

"  It  is  useless  to  multiply  instances.  There  is  only  one 
country  in  which  any  square  foot  of  land  is  as  favor- 
ably situated  for  conducting  exchanges,  or  as  richly 
endowed  by  nature  for  production,  as  any  other  square 
foot ;  and  the  name  of  that  country  is  Utopia.  In 
Utopia  alone,  therefore,  would  occupying  ownership 
be  just.  In  England,  America,  and  other  places,  rashly 
created  without  consulting  the  anarchists,  Nature  is 
all  caprice  and  injustice  in  dealing  with  labor.  Here 
vou  scratch  her  with  a  spade  ;  and  earth's  increase  and 
foison  plenty  are  added  to  you.  On  the  other  side  of 
the  hedge  20  steam-diggers  will  not  extort  a  turnip 
from  her.  Still  less  adapted  to  anarchism  than  the 
fields  and  mines  is  the  crowded  city.  .  .  . 

"  Now  Mr.  Tucker's  remedy  for  this  is  to  make  the 
occupier — the  actual  worker— the  owner.  Obviously 

*  See  Mr.  Tucker's  article  entitled  A  Singular  Mis- 
understanding in  Liberty  of  September  10,  1892.  "Re- 
garding Land,"  writes  Mr.  Tucker,  "  it  has  been  steadily 
maintained  in  these  columns  that  protection  should  be 
withdrawn  from  all  land  titles  except  those  based  on 
personal  occupancy  and  use.1' 


the  effect  would  be  not  to  abolish  his  advantage  over 
his  less  favorably  circumstanced  competitors,  but 
simply  to  authorize  him  to  put  it  into  his  own  pocket 
instead  of  handing  it  over  to  a  landlord.  He  would, 
then,  it  is  true,  be  (as  far  as  his  place  of  business  was 
concerned)  a  worker  instead  of  an  idler  ;  but  he  would 
get  more  product  as  a  manufacturer  and  more  custom 
as  a  distributor  than  other  equally  industrious  workers 
in  worse  situations.  He  could  thus  save  faster  than 
they,  and  retire  from  active  service  at  an  age  when 
they  would  still  have  many  years  more  work  before 
them.  His  ownership  of  his  place  of  business  would 
of  course  lapse  in  favor  of  his  successor  the  instant  he 
retired.  How  would  the  rest  of  the  community  decide 
who  was  to  be  the  successor — would  they  toss  up  for 
it,  or  fight  for  it,  or  would  he  be  allowed  to  nominate 
his  heir,  in  which  case  he  would  either  nominate  his 
son  or  sell  his  nomination  for  a  large  fine? 

"...  To  such  problems  as  these  individualist 
anarchism  offers  no  solution.  It  theorizes  throughout 
on  the  assumption  that  one  place  in  a  country  is  as 
good  as  another." 

Such,  in  brief,  is  Mr.  Shaw's  argument.  An- 
archism aims  to  establish  individual  liberty  ;  but 
as  long  as  any  occupier  can  have  the  best  lands 
in  agriculture  and  the  best  building  lots,  he  can, 
tinder  free  competition,  receive  enormous  gains 
over  his  competitor — can  with  these  gains  buy 
machinery  that  others  cannot  afford,  and  run 
his  competitors  out  of  business,  re-enacting 
tinder  anarchism  all  or  most  of  the  industrial 
evils  that  we  have  to-day — the  development  of 
great  monopolies,  the  oppression  of  the  small 
producer,  wage  slavery,  the  unemployed,  etc. 
It  is  not  government,  but  the  natural  inequali- 
ties of  land  and  of  human  ability  that  are  the 
fundamental  source  of  the  economic  differences, 
and  tinder  competition  the  under  dog  must  al- 
ways serve  the  upper.  The  only  way  to  indi- 
vidual freedom  for  all  men  is,  then,  to  pool  the 
difference  of  land  and  talent  and  have  all  work 
for  all,  which  is  collectivism.  Such  is,  in  brief, 
the  "socialist"  argument  against  anarchism. 

IV.  As  to  the  anarchist  communists,  who  are 
collectivists,  it  is  said  that  for  the  poor,  ignorant, 
and  downtrodden  to  attempt  to  overthrow  the 
State  by  force  is  but  folly,  no  matter  what  the 
aim.  To  appeal  to  force  will  simply  call  out 
force,  and  the  strong  and  rich  and  powerful  will 
surely  win.  Moreover,  to  appeal  to  force  with- 
out organization,  as  anarchist  communists  do, 
is  to  appeal  to  force  in  the  weakest  possible  way. 
It  may  kill  a  few  kings  ;  it  can  never  overthrow 
kingdoms.  If  it  could  overthrow  the  State  it 
would  simply  produce  a  chaos,  in  which  the 
strongest  would  rule  and  enact  anything  but 
equality  on  earth. 

References :  INDIVIDUALIST  ANARCHISM  :  Instead  of  a 
Book^  by  B.  R.  Tucker  (New  York,  1893),  the  fullest  ex- 
position of  individualist  or  philosophical  anarchism; 
Anarchism:  Its  Aims  and  Methods,  by  Victor  Yarros, 
the  best  brief  statement ;  What  is  Property  ?  by  P.  J. 
Proudhon,  translated  by  B.  R.  Tucker  (1876)  ;  System  of 
Economical  Contradictions,  by  Proudhon;  translated 
by  Tucker  (1888) ;  Proudhon's  Complete  Works  (33  vols., 
Paris,  Lacroix,  1868-76) ;  Political  Justice  (on  property), 
by  William  Godwin,  edited  by  Salt  (London,  Sonnen- 
schein,  1891)  ;  Free  Political  Institutions,  an  abridg- 
ment of  Lysander  Spooner's  Trial  by  Jury,  edited  by 
Victor  Yarros,  a  book  treating  of  the  administration  of 
justice  under  anarchism  and  showing  the  difference 
between  a  voluntary  association  and  government ;  The 
I'indication  of  Natural  Society,  the  famous  pamphlet 
written  by  Edmund  Burke,  the  English  statesman,  in  his 
radical  days;  Social  Statics,  first  edition,  by  Herbert 
Spencer,  which  contains  the  chapter  on  The  Right  of 
the  Individual  to  Ignore  the  State,  omitted  from  recent 
revised  editions ;  The  Economics  of  Anarchy,  by  Dyer 
D.  Lum  ;  A  Politician  in  Light  of  Haven,  by  Aiiberon 
Herbert,  a  plea  for  voluntary  taxation  and  a  criticism  of 
government  and  politics ;  A  Letter  to  Graver  Cleveland 


Anarchism. 


66 


Andrews,  Elisha  B.,  D.D. 


and  No  Treason,  by  Lysander  Spooner,  books  showing 
that  the  United  States  Constitution  is  of  no  authority 
and  that  government  is  essentially  tyrannical ;  Mutual 
Banking,  by  Colonel  William  P.  Greene,  a  clear  and  ad- 
mirable exposition  of  anarchistic  finance.  The  best 
philosophical  anarchist  papers  are  first  and  foremost 
Liberty  (edited  and  published  by  B.  R.  Tucker,  Gold 
Street,  P.  O.  box  1312,  New  York  City,  headquarters  for 
all  literature  and  information  as  to  philosophical  anarch- 
ism) ;  Lucifer,  a  weekly  (published  by  Moses  Harman 
in  Topeka,  Kan.),  and  Egoism,  a  monthly  (in  Oak- 
land). 

ANARCHIST  COMMUNISM  :  God  and  the  State,  by 
Michel  Bakounin,  translated  by  B.  R.  Tucker  (Boston, 
1883) ;  Appeal  to  the  Young  (1890) ;  Coming  Anarchy 
(Nineteenth  Century,  1887,  vol.  xxii.,  p.  149) ;  Law  and 
Authority  (sSS,6)\  Paroles  d'un  Revolts  (1885) ;  Place  of 
Anarchism  in  Socialistic  Evolution  (1886) ;  Scientific 
Basis  of  Anarchv  (Nineteenth  Century,  1887,  vol.  xxi., 
p.  238)— all  by  Prince  P.  A.  Krapotkin ;  Anarchy,  by  an 
anarchist  (1884),  and  Evolution  and  Revolution,  by  J. 
E.  Reclus  (London,  Reeves,  1891) ;  Die  Anarchie  (1888) 
and  Social  Monster  (1890),  by  Johann  Most  (New  York) ; 
Anarchism  :  Its  Philosophy  and  Scientific  Basis,  by 
Albert  R.  Parsons  (Chicago,  1887) ;  The  Red  Interna- 
tional, by  Zacker  (1880) ;  translated  (London,  Sonnen- 
schein,  1886).  For  historical  notices  of  anarchist  com- 
munism, see  Contemporary  Socialism,  by  John  Rae, 
revised  edition ;  the  Anarchist  Peril,  by  Felix  Dubois, 
translated  by  Ralph  Derecheff  (1894). 

The  present  anarchist  communist  papers  in  this  coun- 
try are  :  Most's  Die  Freiheit  (published  weekly  in  New 
York  City) ;  Der  Anarchist,  the  organ  of  the  movement 
in  New  York  City,  also  weekly  ;  the  Chicagoer  Arbeit- 
er  Zeitung)  a  Chicago  daily,  with  an  especial  Sunday 
edition,  Die  Packet,  and  a  weekly  edition,  Der  Vor- 
bote.  The  principal  editor  of  the  Chicagoer  Arbeiter 
Zeitung  and  the  Der  Vorbote  is  Robert  Steiner;  of 
Die  Packet,  H.  C.  Bechtold.  In  England,  Freedom, 
Mrs.  C.  M.  Wilson's  monthly  (published  at  26  Newing- 
ton  Green  Road,  London,  N.),  and  The  Commonweal, 
just  restarted,  with  Die  Autonomie(\n  German),  repre- 
sent communist  anarchism.  The  best  work  against 
anarchism  is  The  Impossibilities  of  Anarchism,  by  Ber- 
nard Shaw  (Fabian  Tract,  No.  45). 


ANDOVER  HOUSE,  THE,  IN  BOSTON. 

— The  Andover  House  commenced  its  work  in 
January,  1892.  The  movement  began  among  a 
group  of  the  younger  graduates  of  Andover 
Seminary  who  had  been  under  the  instruction 
of  Professor  William  J.  Tucker,  now  President 
of  Dartmouth  College.  President  Tucker  him- 
self first  proposed  the  plan,  and  has  all  along 
been  its  leader. 

The  Andover  House  Association,  which  stands 
responsible  for  the  work,  has,  however,  repre- 
sented from  the  beginning  a  large  variety  of 
persons  having  no  identity  of  interest  except 
that  in  the  more  progressive  lines  of  social  activ- 
ity. 

The  House  is  located  at  6  Rollins  Street,  in  the 
south  end  of  the  city,  which  is  destined  to  be 
the  metropolitan  poor  quarter  of  Boston.  The 
location  was  selected  so  as  to  allow  the  work  to 
reach  both  ways — toward  the  better  grades  of 
working  people  and  toward  the  laboring  and 
casual  classes. 

In  the  first  instance,  the  House  is  the  home  of 
a  group  of  educated  men,  who  in  one  way  and 
another  enter  actively  into  all  the  better  inter- 
ests of  the  immediate  neighborhood.  The  key- 
note of  every  effort  is  personal  friendliness.  As 
far  as  possible  the  attitude  of  patronage  is  com- 
pletely avoided. 

At  the  beginning  the  work  of  the  House  has 
necessarily  had  to  be  somewhat  ill-defined.  In- 
deed, the  work  of  a  university  settlement  can 
never  take  on  the  exact  and  highly  organized 
form  of  an  institution  ;  however,  the  purpose  of 
making  the  work  regular  and  continuous  is  held 


strongly  in  mind.  The  original  purpose  includ- 
ed not  only  well-meaning  effort,  but  careful 
study  of  actual  conditions  to  accompany  and  in- 
form such  effort. 

As  a  rule,  each  resident  visits  a  certain  group 
of  families  and  makes  it  his  duty  to  become 
thoroughly  acquainted  with  them.  As  he  learns 
about  the  life  of  the  families,  not  as  a  canvasser 
learns,  but  as  a  friend  learns  about  a  friend,  he 
makes  out  a  complete  schedule,  covering  every 
significant  point.  There  will  thus  be  at  the 
House  in  the  course  of  a  few  years  a  body  of  ac- 
curate knowledge  which  will  greatly  aid  intelli- 
gent action.  Much  time  is  also  given  to  careful 
investigation  of  social  problems,  affecting  the 
life  of  the  city  as  a  whole.  In  several  instances, 
through  such  study,  residents  have  done  useful 
work  in  the  way  of  the  improvement  and  devel- 
opment of  some  of  the  larger  forms  of  philan- 
thropic work  in  Boston. 

The  residents  cooperate  with  the  various  local 
agencies  in  the  way  of  self-help,  as  well  as  of 
charity  and  philanthropy.  They  have  partici- 
pated in  certain  local  societies  of  the  people's 
own  ;  they  serve  on  a  local  committee  of  the  as- 
sociated charities  ;  they  act  upon  the  managing 
board  of  different  charitable  institutions,  be- 
sides rendering  a  large  amount  of  irregular  ser- 
vice in  such  causes  ;  they  cooperate  as  far  as 
possible,  according  to  their  particular  inclina- 
tion, with  the  work  of  the  churches  in  the  neigh- 
borhood, tho  they  avoid  the  very  appearance 
of  proselytism  ;  and  this  not  merely  as  a  matter 
of  policy,  but  of  principle. 

It  is  held  to  be  very  important  to  do  every- 
thing through  cooperation  with  existing  agen- 
cies that  can  be  done  in  that  way. 

The  House  is  not  meant  to  be  an  institution 
foisted  upon  the  neighborhood,  but  simply  an 
influence  which  shall  act  in  support  and  con- 
firmation of  such  good  influences  as  are  already 
in  action  ;  thus,  the  House  undertakes  very  lit- 
tle formal  educational  work,  because  the  educa- 
tional system  of  Boston,  including  evening  ele- 
mentary schools  and  the  evening  high  school, 
so  well  fill  the  need  in  that  particular. 

The  gatherings  at  the  House,  while  they  are 
by  regular  appointment,  are  very  informal  in 
their  nature,  beginning  with  recreation  of  vari- 
ous kinds,  and  leading  always  toward  the 
mental  and  moral  improvement  of  those  who 
come. 

There  are  clubs  for  boys  and  girls,  for  little 
children,  for  young  men  and  young  women,  and 
there  is  a  weekly  meeting  for  mothers  of  the 
neighborhood  ;  but  in  all  these  the  numbers  are 
small,  and  the  effort  is  constantly  to  have  the 
influence  of  a  personal  rather  than  a  mechanical 
one.  In  connection  with  this  work  much  aid  is 
given  by  persons  from  other  parts  of  Boston , 
both  men  and  women. 

The  residents  of  the  House  and  a  number 
of  other  persons  who  are  actively  interested 
arranged  two  Free  Art  Exhibitions,  held  by 
permission,  in  1895,  in  a  large  hall  owned  by  the 
city.  Each  exhibition  lasted  for  four  weeks,  in- 
cluding Sundays,  and  was  attended  by  over 
40,000  people.  ROBERT  A.  WOODS. 

ANDREWS,  ELISHA  BENJAMIN,  D.D., 
LL.D.,  President  of  Brown  University,  was- 


Andrews,  Elisha  B.,  D.D. 


67 


Anglican  Position. 


born  at  Hinsdale,  N.  H.,  January  10,  1844.  He 
served  in  the  United  States  Army  from  1861-64, 
,  and  rose  from  private  to  second  lieutenant  ;  he 
was  wounded  at  Petersburg  August  24,  1864, 
losing  an  eye.  He  graduated  at  Brown  Uni- 
versity, Providence,  R.  I. ,  in  1870,  and  at  Newton 
Theological  Institute,  Newton,  Mass.,  in  1874  ; 
was  principal  of  the  Connecticut  Literary  Insti- 
tution, Suffield,  Conn.,  1870-72  ;  pastor  of  the 
First  Baptist  Church,  Beverly,  Mass.,  1874-75  ; 
President  of  Denison  University,  Granville,  O., 
1875-79 !  Professor  of  Homiletics  in  Newton 
Theological  Institution,  1879-82  ;  Professor  of 
History  and  Political  Economy  at  Brown  Univer- 
sity, 1882-88  ;  Professor  of  Political  Economy 
and  Finance  in  Cornell  University,  1888-89  ; 
President  of  Brown  University,  1889.  President 
Andrews  was  appointed  one  of  the  commission- 
ers sent  by  the  United  States  to  the  monetary 
conference  at  Brussels  in  1892.  He  is  of  the  new 
or  historical  school.  On  the  question  of  the 
tariff,  he  believes  in  the  infant  industry  argu- 
ment, and  would  carry  it  further  than  Mill.  In- 
dustries being  firmly  established,  Professor  An- 
drews believes  that  protection  and,  if  necessary, 
prohibition  should  be  used  to  wage  war  upon 
injurious  foreign  monopolies,  and  free  trade  to 
wage  war  upon  injurious  domestic  monopolies. 
A  tariff  commission  will,  he  considers,  be  needed 
to  arrange  this.  On  questions  of  currency  he  is 
an  ardent  bimetallist.  On  questions  of  indus- 
try he  would  neither  nationalize  nor  municipal- 
ize any  industry,  monopoly  or  otherwise,  till 
every  available  resource  in  the  way  of  regula- 
tion had  been  tried  in  vain  ;  'he  would  then  na- 
tionalize or  municipalize  without  hesitation, 
tho  with  care.  He  is  the  author  of  Insti- 
tutes of  our  Constitutional  History,  English 
and  American  (1887)  ;  of  Instittites  of  General 
History  (1889)  ;  and  of  Institutes  of  Economics 
(1889)  ;  An  Honest  Dollar  (1893) ;  Wealth  and 
Moral  Law  (1893) ;  History  of  the  United 
States  (1894). 

ANDREWS,  STEPHEN  PEARL, author, 
born  in  Temple  ton,  Mass.,  1812  ;  died  in  New 
York  City  in  1886.  Studying  at  Amherst  College, 
he  later  removed  to  New  Orleans,  and  became  a 
lawyer.  He  was  an  ardent  abolitionist,  and  in 
1839  removed  to  Texas,  where  he  converted 
many  of  the  slave-owners,  who  were  also  land- 
owners, by  showing  them  that  they  would  be- 
come rapidly  rich  from  the  sale  of  land  if  immi- 
gration were  induced  by  throwing  the  country 
open  to  free  labor.  His  impetuous  and  logi- 
cal eloquence  gained  him  a  wide  repute  and 
great  personal  popularity  ;  but,  on  the  other 
hand,  his  seemingly  reckless  and  fanatical  op- 
position to  slavery  aroused  an  intense  feeling  of 
opposition,  and  his  life  was  seriously  endan- 
gered. In  1843  he  went  to  England  in  the  hope 
that,  with  the  aid  of  the  British  Anti- Slavery 
Society,  he  might  raise  sufficient  money  there 
to  pay  for  the  slaves  and  make  Texas  a  free 
State.  He  was  well  received  ;  but  the  plan  was 
finally  abandoned  through  fear  that  it  would 
lead  to  war  with  the  United  States.  Returning 
to  America,  he  went  to  Boston  and  became  a 
leader  in  the  anti-slavery  movement  there. 

While  in  England  he  learned  of  phonography, 
and  after  his  return  wrote  and  published  exten- 


sively on  that  subject  and  on  the  philosophy  of 
language  in  general.  He  was  the  founder  of 
the  present  system  of  phonographic  reporting. 
He  is  said  to  have  been  familiar  with  30  lan- 
guages. He  was  a  prominent  member  of  the 
Liberal  Club  of  New  York,  and  for  some  time 
its  vice-president.  In  later  life  he  wrote  more 
on  sociology,  especially  on  the  family,  taking 
an  extremely  individualistic  position.  He  is 
claimed  by  the  American  philosophical  anarch- 
ists as  one  of  their  great  writers.  (See  AN- 
ARCHISM.) His  most  important  works  on  that 
subject  are  :  Cost  the  Limit  of  Price  (New  York, 
1851) ;  The  Constitution  of  Government  in  the 
Sovereignty  of  the  Individual  (1851)  ;  Love, 
Marriage,  and  Divorce,  and  the  Sovereignty 
of  the  Individual:  a  discussion  by  Henry 
James,  Horace  Greeley,  and  Stephen  Pearl  An- 
drews, edited  by  the  latter  (1853). 

ANGLICAN  POSITION  IN  POLITICAL 
AND  SOCIAL  REFORM,  THE.— There  is  a 

church  position  in  relation  to  political  and  social 
reform  so  different  from  either  the  accepted 
Protestant  or  Romanist  positions  that  it  is  en- 
titled to  a  presentation  by  itself.  We  call  it 
Anglican,  first,  because  it  goes  logically  with 
that  conception  of  the  Church  which  is  generally 
called  Anglican,  and,  secondly,  because  it  has 
been,  as  a  matter  of  fact,  most  developed  in  the 
Church  of  England.  Nevertheless,  it  is  a  con- 
ception by  no  means  necessarily  confined  to  the 
Anglican  communion,  and,  as  a  matter  of  fact, 
many,  perhaps  the  majority,  of  parishes  of  the 
Anglican  communion  do  not  hold  to  this  posi- 
tion. What  position  in  social  reform  is  occu- 
pied by  the  Church  of  England  and  the  Prot- 
estant Episcopal  Church  of  the  United  States 
we  consider  under  CHRISTIAN  SOCIAL  UNION,  etc. ; 
here  we  are  concerned  not  with  what  they  have 
done,  but  with  a  statement  of  a  certain  view  of 
the  relation  of  the  Church  to  political  and  social 
problems.  The  position  may  be  summed  up  in 
two  points  :  First,  that  the  only  difference  to 
be  admitted  between  Christians,  as  far  as  or- 
ganization goes,  is  one  of  geography,  and,  sec- 
ondly, that  in  each  geographical  division  the 
Church  is  responsible  for  the  Christianizing  of 
the  whole  secular  as  well  as  spiritual  life  of  that 
division. 

On  the  first  point  the  holders  of  this  view  con- 
ceive of  the  Church  not  as  a  society  formed  by 
men  who  hold  to  particular  articles  of  religion, 
but  as  a  society  founded  by  Christ,  the  members 
of  which  are  those  who  have  been  initiated  into 
it  by  baptism.  They  may  be  pious  or  impious, 
educated  or  uneducated,  but  if  they  have  been 
once  initiated  (baptized)  they  are  members 
of  it.  It  matters  not  whether  they  have  been 
baptized  as  Romanists,  Methodists,  Baptists, 
Unitarians,  or  what  not ;  if  baptized  they 
are  members  of  the  Church.  As  far  as  mem- 
bership goes,  it  does  not  matter  what  their  views 
are — Trinitarian,  Unitarian,  orthodox,  unortho- 
dox, vegetarian,  socialist,  anarchist,  or  aught 
else.  Church  membership  is  not  a  question  of 
character  or  belief,  but  of  whether  one  has  or 
has  not  been  initiated  into  the  society,  and  to 
this  initiation,  Anglicans  hold  that  every  child 
is  entitled  in  virtue  of  his  humanity.  Once 
within  the  Church,  it  is  indeed  the  duty  of  the 


Anglican  Position. 


68 


Anthony,  Susan  Brownell. 


individual  and  the  duty  of  the  Church  to  aid  the 
individual  to  grow  up  in  the  right  way  ;  but  his 
membership  depends  not  on  how  he  grows  up, 
but  on  the  fact  of  initiation.  This  being  so,  the 
only  difference,  as  far  as  organisation  goes 
between  Christians,  is  one  of  geography.  In 
one  place  there  can  only  be  one  Church.  Angli- 
cans recognize  only  parish,  diocesan,  and  na- 
tional divisions.  It  is  here  that  they  differ  from 
Romanists.  Anglicans  hold  that  parishes  are 
associated  in  dioceses,  and  dioceses  in  national 
churches,  and  national  churches 
ill  one  oecumenical  Church,  but 
The  Church,  with  no  parish,  diocese,  or  national 
church  having  supremacy  over  any 
other.  Under  the  One  Head  of  the 
Church,  Christ,  they  hold  the  Church  to  be  dem- 
ocratic, with  no  human  superior  or  head.  So 
conceiving  the  Church,  they  hold  that  in  each 
parish  the  Church  of  that  parish  is  responsible 
for  all  the  life  in  that  parish,  be  it  political,  social, 
industrial,  or  aught  else.  They  believe  that  the 
Church  is  a  secular  institution  as  truly  as  a  spir- 
itual one,  because  they  recognize  no  divorce  be- 
tween the  secular  and  the  spiritual.  Hence 
work  is  one  form  of  worship,  and  worship  is  one 
form  of  work.  This  position  by  no  means 
necessitates  the  union  of  Church  and  State.  It 
is  not  necessary  that  the  Church  have  temporal 
power  to  influence  a  community.  Let  the  State 
legislate,  but  let  the  Church  be  the  inner  con- 
trolling and  animating  power.  Such  is  the  posi- 
tion. 

That  it  is  different  from  Rome  in  being  essen- 
tially democratic  and  catholic,  as  it  believes  the 
Roman  position  to  be  imperial  and  sectarian, 
Ave  have  seen.  That  it  differs  essentially  from 
the  usual  Protestant  position,  which  forms  the 
Church  upon  some  especial  creed,  and  groups 
around  that  all  who  hold  its  creed,  is  equally 
apparent.  The  Anglican  position  would  recog- 
nize no  opinionative  differences  and  organize  no 
opinionative  churches.  In  the  labor  movement 
it  would  not  organize  a  labor  church  nor  a 
working  man's  church  any  more  than  a  rich 
man's  church,  but  would  recognize  all  the  bap- 
tized as  belonging  to  one  Church,  whose  creed, 
laws,  and  forms  of  worship  are  to  be  neither 
fixed  nor  changed  by  individuals,  but  to  be  voted 
on  democratically  by  all  the  initiated  and  by 
none  else.  This  united  power  it  would  set  to 
work,  in  dependence  upon  Divine  life,  to  influ- 
ence all  life.  Such  is  the  position. 

As  we  have  said,  it  is  by  no  means  wholly 
realized  in  the  Church  of  England  or  in  any 
country.  The  Church  of  England  often  acts 
like  the  narrowest  sect.  But  the  holders  of  this 
view  contend  that  it  was  originally  the  catholic 
or  universal  conception  of  the  Church,  and  that 
it  has  been,  tho  abused  and  confused,  best 
preserved  in  England.  Says  Professor  E.  A. 
Freeman  (Growth  of  the  English  Constitution, 
p.  10),  speaking  of  the  English  social  unit :  "  That 
unit,  that  atom,  the  true  kernel  of  all  our  politi- 
cal life,  must  be  looked  for  in  Switzerland,  in  the 
Gemeinde,  or  commune  ;  in  England — smile  not 
while  I  say  it — in  the  parish  vestry. ' '  The  holders 
of  this  Anglican  view  would  have  the  parish  ves- 
try, or,  rather,  the  whole  parish  perhaps,  purged 
of  entangling  alliance  with  the  State,  freed  from 
dependence  upon  wealthy  patrons,  delivered 


from  the  narrowness  which  to-day  makes  the  sys- 
tem often  a  scandal  and  a  derision,  reassert  its 
true  function  of  influencing  the  whole  broad  life 
of  the  community. 

References :  The  Kingdom  of  Christ,  by  F.  D.  Mau- 
rice ;  Laws  of  Eternal  Life,  by  Stewart  Headlam  ;  and 
the  tracts.  The  Church  of  the  World,  by  R.  H.  Holland, 
and  The  Social  Faith  of  the  Catholic  Church,  by  W.  D. 
P.  Bliss.  See  also  The  Church  Reformer^  8  Duke 
St.,  Adelphi,  London,  \V.  C.,  England,  and  1 he  Dawn, 
Boston,  Mass. 

ANSEELE,  EDWARD,  born  1856  ;  son  of 
a  shoemaker  in  Ghent  ;  became  a  clerk  in  a  no- 
tary's office,  and  then  a  painter,  in  order  to  work 
for  socialism.  He  founded  the  papers  Volkswel 
and  Vooruit.  His  great  work,  however,  was 
the  foundation  of  the  Vooriiit,  the  Socialist  Co- 
operative Bakery,  and  Socialist  Club  of  Ghent, 
and  precursor  of  the  important  socialist  cooper- 
ative movement  in  Belgium  (q.v.).  He  is  author 
of  a  Flemish  socialistic  novel,  for  the  writing  of 
which  he  suffered  six  months'  imprisonment. 

ANTHONY,  SUSAN  BROWNELL,  was 

born  at  South  Adams,  Mass.,  February  15,  1820. 
Daniel  Anthony,  her  father,  a  cotton  manufac- 
turer, was  a  liberal  Quaker.  After  completing 
her  education,  Miss  Anthony  taught  in  New 
York  State  from  1835-50.  She  first  spoke  in 
public  in  1847,  and  from  that  time  took  part  in 
the  temperance  movement,  organizing  societies 
and  lecturing.  Through  her  exertions  and 
those  of  Mrs.  E.  C.  Stanton  women  came  to  be 
admitted  to  educational  and  other  conventions, 
with  the  right  to  speak,  vote,  and  serve  on  com- 
mittees. About  1857  she  became  prominent 
among  the  agitators  for  the  abolition  of  slavery. 
In  1858  she  advocated  the  co-education  of  the 
sexes.  Her  energies  have  been  chiefly  directed 
to  securing  equal  civil  rights  for  women.  In 
1854-55  sne  held  conferences  in  each  county  of 
New  York  in  the  cause  of  female  suffrage,  and 
since  then  she  has  addressed  annual  appeals  and 
petitions  to  the  Legislature.  She  was  active  in 
securing  the  passage  of  the  act  of  the  New  York 
Legislature  of  1860,  giving  to  married  women 
the  possession  of  their  earnings,  the  guardian- 
ship of  their  children,  etc.  During  the  war  she 
devoted  herself  to  the  Women's  Loyal  League, 
which  petitioned  Congress  in  favor  of  the  Thir- 
teenth Amendment.  In  1860  she  started  a  peti- 
tion in  favor  of  leaving  out  the  word  "  male"  in 
the  Fourteenth  Amendment,  and  worked  with 
the  National  Woman  Suffrage  Association  to  in- 
duce Congress  to  secure  to  her  sex  the  right  of 
voting.  In  1867  she  went  to  Kansas,  with  Eliza- 
beth Cady  Stanton  and  Lucy  Stone,  and  there 
obtained  9000  votes  in  favor  of  woman  suffrage. 
In  1868,  with  the  cooperation  of  Mrs.  Stanton 
and  Parker  Pillsbury,  and  with  the  assistance  of 
George  F.  Train,  she  began  in  New  York  City 
the  publication  of  a  weekly  paper  called  The 
Revolutionist,  devoted  to  the  emancipation  of 
women.  In  1872  she  cast  ballots  at  the  State 
and  Congressional  election  in  Rochester,  in  order 
to  test  the  application  of  the  Fourteenth  and 
Fifteenth  Amendments  of  the  United  States 
Constitution.  She  was  indicted  for  illegal  vot- 
ing, and  was  fined  by  Justice  Hunt  ;  but,  in  ac- 
cordance with  her  defiant  declaration,  never 
paid  the  penalty.  Between  1870  and  1 8 So  she 


Anthony,  Susan  Brownell. 


Anti-Tenement-House  League. 


lectured  in  all  the  Northern  and  several  of  the 
Southern  States  more  than  100  times  a  year. 
In  1 88 1  she  wrote,  with  the  assistance  of  her  co- 
editors,  Elizabeth  Cady  Stanton  and  Matilda 
Joslyn  Gage,  The  History  of  Woman  Suffrage, 
in  two  volumes. 

ANTI-MASONS,  a  name  given  to  a  politi- 
cal party  formed  in  New  York  and  other  States 
in  1827.  William  Morgan,  a  tailor  of  Batavia, 
N.Y.,  it  was  said,  intended  to  betray  the  secrets 
of  the  Masonic  order.  He  disappeared  sud- 
denly, and  his  fate  has  never  to  this  day  been 
discovered.  It  was  rumored  that  he  had  been 
murdered  by  the  Masons,  and  in  the  excitement 
that  followed  the  above-named  party  was 
formed.  Legal  investigation  as  to  Morgan's 
whereabouts  was  made,  but  nothing  proved. 
The  Governor  and  most  of  the  public  officers  of 
the  State  were  Masons,  and  this  fact  heightened 
the  excitement.  In  1828  the  Anti-Masons  cast  a 
vote  of  33,000,  70,000  the  year  following,  and 
128,000  in  1830.  In  New  York,  William  H.  Sew- 
ard,  Thurlow  Weed,  and  Millard  Fillmore  were 
Anti-Masonic  leaders.  The  party  nominated 
William  Wirt  for  President  in  1832,  but  carried 
only  one  State— Vermont.  In  1835  they  elected 
the  Governor  of  Pennsylvania.  After  this  date 
the  party  rapidly  fell  to  pieces,  most  of  its  mem- 
bers joining  the  Whigs. 

ANTI-MONOPOLY  PARTY,  a  party  or- 
ganized at  Chicago  May  14,  1884.  It  nominat- 
ed Benjamin  F.  Butler,  of  Massachusetts,  for 
the  Presidency.  Its  platform  demanded  eco- 
nomical government,  the  passage  and.  enforce- 
ment of  equitable  laws,  including  an  interstate 
commerce  law  (since  passed),  labor  bureaus,  in- 
dustrial arbitration,  a  direct  vote  for  Senators,  a 
graduated  income  tax,  payment  of  the  national 
debt  as  it  matures,  and  "fostering  care"  for 
agriculture.  It  denounced  the  tariff  and  the 
grant  of  land  to  corporations.  Its  nominee  was 
also  indorsed  by  the  Greenback  Party  (ff.v.), 
and  polled  130,000  votes. 

ANTI-POVERTY  SOCIETY,  THE,  was 

founded  in  New  York  City  in  connection  with 
the  Henry  George  movement  of  1885-87.  On 
March  26,  1887,  a  few  men  met  in  the  office  of 
The  Standard,  Mr.  George's  paper,  to  form  a 
society,  under  the  auspices  of  which  "Father 
McGlynn"  could  conduct  his  work  for  land  re- 
form, which  was  then  assuming  large  propor- 
tions. According  to  the  account  published  in 
The  Standard: 

"  They  were  of  various  creeds  and  shades  of  belief. 
One  was  a  Catholic  priest,  another  a  Congregationalist 
clergyman,  another  a  Presbyterian  minister ;  some 
were  Catholics,  some  Protestants,  some  agnostics, 
the  strong  band  of  union  between  them  all  being  a 
deep  religious  conviction  that  poverty,  •with  its  attend- 
ant evils  of  vice  and  criminality  and  greed,  is  not  an 
unavoidable  curse  inflicted  on  humanity  by  a  cruel  and 
offended  deity,  but  altogether  the  result  of  a  neglect 
by  man  of  the  beneficent  laws  of  God.  At  this  meet- 
ing and  by  these  gentlemen  the  Anti-Poverty  Society 
was  organized,  its  principles  and  purposes  being  em- 
bodied in  the  following  brief  declaration  : 

"'Believing  that  the  time  has  come  for  an  active  war- 
fare against  the  conditions  that,  in  spite  of  the  advance 
in  the  powers  of  production,  condemn  so  many  to  de- 
grading poverty,  and  foster  vice,  crime,  and  greed,  the 
undersigned  associate  themselves  together  in  an  or- 


ganization to  be  known  as  the  Anti-Poverty  So- 
ciety. The  object  of  the  society  is  to  spread,  by  such 
peaceable  and  lawful  means  as  may  be  found  most 
desirable  and  efficient,  a  knowledge  of  the  truth  that 
God  has  made  ample  provision  for  the  needs  of  all  men 
during  their  residence  upon  earth,  and  that  poverty  is 
the  result  of  the  human  laws  that  allow  individuals  to 
claim  as  private  property  that  which  the  Creator  has 
provided  for  the  use  of  all.'  " 

The  President  was  Dr.  McGlynn  ;  the  Secre- 
tary, Michael  Clarke.  Weekly  meetings  were 
held.  The  first  public  meeting  was  held  Ma^  i , 
1887,  in  Chickering  Hall,  and  public  meetings 
were  continued  for  many  months  amid  intense 
excitement.  This  was  largely  due  to  the  per- 
sonal interest  taken  in  Dr.  McGlynn  (g.v.)  and 
in  his  contest  with  his  archbishop  and  the  papal 
authorities.  As  that  passed  away  the  excite- 
ment of  the  movement  gradually  dwindled,  but 
the  principles  voiced  in  the  movement  were 
scattered  and  are  still  being  scattered  far  and 
wide  by  the  lectures  of  Dr.  McGlynn  and  in 
other  ways.  (See  SINGLE  TAX  ;  GEORGE  ;  MC- 
GLYNN ;  LAND,  etc.) 

ANTI-RENTERS  (IN  UNITED  STATES  HIS- 
TORY).— An  organization  which  from  1839  to 
1849  resisted  the  collection  of  rent  on  certain 
manorial  estates  in  New  York  State.  Mr.  Alex- 
ander Johnston  writes  of  them  in  Lalor's  Cyclo- 
pedia :  ' '  Large  portions  of  Columbia,  Rensselaer, 
Greene,  Delaware,  and  Albany  counties,  in  the 
State  of  New  York,  belonged  to  manors,  the  orig- 
inal grants  of  which  were  made  to  "  patroons" 
by  the  Dutch  Company,  and  renewed  by  James 
II.,  the  principal  being  Rensselaerswyck  and 
Livingston  Manor.  The  tenants  had  deeds  for 
their  farms,  but  paid  annual  rental  in  kind,  in- 
stead of  a  principal  sum.  This  arrangement 
caused  growing  dissatisfaction  among  the  ten- 
ants after  1790.  When  Stephen  Van  Rensselaer, 
who  had  allowed  much  of  the  rent  to  remain  in 
arrears,  died  in  1839,  the  tenants,  who  longed 
to  become  real  land-owners,  made  common  cause 
against  his  successor,  refused  to  pay  rent,  dis- 
guised themselves  as  "  Injuns,"  and  began  a 
reign  of  terror,  which  for  10  years  practically 
suspended  the  operations  of  law  and  the  pay- 
ment of  rent  throughout  the  district.  An  at- 
tempt to  serve  process  by  militia  aid,  known  as 
the  Helderberg  War,  was  unsuccessful.  In  1847 
and  1849  the  Anti-Renters  "  adopted"  a  part  of 
each  State  ticket,  and  thus  showed  a  voting 
strength  of  about  5000.  In  1850  the  Legis- 
lature directed  the  Attorney-General  to  bring 
suit  against  Harmon  Livingston,  to  try  title. 
The  suit  was  decided  in  Livingston's  favor 
in  November,  1850,  but  both  parties  were  then 
ready  to  compromise — the  owners  by  selling 
the  farms  at  fair  rates  and  the  tenants  by  pay- 
ing for  them. ' ' 

References  :  Jay  Gould's  History  of  Delaware  Coun- ' 
ty,  N.  Y. ;  Mrs.  Willard's  Last  Leaves  of  American 
Jfistorv  (16^18) ;  Jenkin's  Life  of  Silas  Wright  (179-226) ; 
Cooper's  Littlepage  Tales. 

ANTI-TENEMENT-HOUSE  LEAGUE. 

— This  is  a  league  formed  in  Boston  March  6, 
1891,  to  preserve  and  protect  the  home,  to  abol- 
ish the  tenement  ;  and  since  it  believes  the 
making  of  clothing  under  the  contract  or  sweat- 
ing system  in  tenements  (see  SWEATING  SYSTEM) 


Anti-Tenement-House  League. 


70 


Apprenticeship. 


to  be  the  worst  industrial  evil  in  tenement  life, 
the  League  has  given  its  first  and  main  efforts  to 
fighting  this  sweating  system. 

By  the  by-laws  adopted  the  objects  of  the 
League  were  said  to  be  : 

To  encourage  the  manufacture  and  sale  of 
goods  made  under  healthful  conditions,  and  to 
secure  the  final  abolition  of  the  tenement-house 
and  sweating  system  of  manufacturing  clothing. 

Its  methods  were  said  to  be  : 

To  call  attention,  by  means  of  lectures  and  the 
distribution  of  literature,  to  the  danger  to  public 
health  and  morals  consequent  upon  the  herding 
of  people  together,  and  the  turning  of  the  family 
into  a  factory,  and  to  take  such  other  steps 
as  may  be  deemed  necessary  to  secure  the  ob- 
jects of  the  League. 

On  June  8,  1891,  Mr.  Crowley,  the  secretary, 
who  for  several  years  had  been  carrying  on  a 
crusade  against  the  sweating  evil,  both  in  Bos- 
ton and  New  York,  arousing  much  interest  by 
his  revelations,  addressed  a  letter  to  the  clergy  of 
Boston,  urging  them  to  take  up  the  theme.  In 
response  many  sermons  were  preached,  among 
them  those  by  Mr.  Banks,  since  published  under 
the  title  White  Slaves.  Another  phase  of  the 
agitation  was  the  addressing  of  a  letter  to  Post- 
master Hart,  of  Boston,  advising  him  that  the 
letter-carriers'  uniforms  were  being  made  in 
tenement-houses  by  sweaters.  This  was  denied  ; 
but  it  was  found  that  Mr.  Crowley  was  right, 
and  the  contract  was  taken  away  and  awarded 
to  a  clean  firm,  who  were  underbid  the  next  year 
by  a  firm  prominent  in  the  sweating  system. 
The  result  of  this  agitation  was  the  present  law 
in  Massachusetts  requiring  all  clothing-makers 
in  tenements  to  have  a  license,  creating  two 
commissioners  to  see  that  the  law  is  not  violat- 
ed, and  making  other  provisions. 

In  December,  1891,  the  League  invited  the 
clothing  dealers  of  Boston  to  cooperate  with 
it  in  suppressing  the  sweating  system  ;  but 
only  a  few  firms  responded,  and  these  in  a  luke- 
warm way,  it  being  only  too  evident  that  the 
average  clothing  dealer  was  more  interested  in 
maintaining  than  in  suppressing  the  sweating 
system. 

The  League  then  proceeded,  at  the  sugges- 
tion of  the  secretary,  to  memorialize  Congress 
upon  the  sweating  system,  and  as  a  result  Sena- 
tor Hoar  presented  a  bill  suggested  by  Secretary 
Crowley,  and  Congress  appointed  a  committee 
of  investigation,  whose  report  has  since  been 
published. 

On  June  7,  1892,  the  League  held  a  joint 
meeting  with  the  Industrial  Aid  Society  of 
Boston  and  the  stockholders  of  the  Working 
Men's  Building  Association,  to  consider  a  plan 
presented  by  Mr.  H.  K.  Hannah  for  building 
cheap  suburban  residences,  to  be  sold  on  in- 
stalments to  working  men.  As  the  result,  a 
society  has  now  been  incorporated  to  build 
such  homes.  Other  work  of  the  League  has 
been  to  give  lectures  and  hold  mass-meet- 
ings over  the  country,  to  spread  literature  and 
create  public  sentiment  against  the  evil. 

A.  P.  A.  See  AMERICAN  PROTECTIVE  ASSOCI- 
ATION. 

APPLEGARTH,   ROBERT,  born  at  Hull, 


England,  in  1833.  Tho  unapprenticed,  he  pick- 
ed up  the  trade  of  a  joiner  and  cabinet-maker. 
He  moved  to  Sheffield  in  1852,  and  soon  be- 
came the  most  prominent  member  of  the  local 
Carpenters'  Union,  inducing  it  to  unite  with  the 
Amalgamated  Society  of  Carpenters  and  Join- 
ers in  1 86 1.  From  1862-71  he  held  the  office  of 
general  secretary  of  this  organization,  volun- 
tarily resigning  at  last.  He  was  an  unsuccess- 
ful candidate  for  the  London  School  Board  from 
Lambeth  in  1870,  polling  a  large  vote  ;  and  was 
invited  to  be  a  candidate  for  Parliament  at 
Maidstone,  but  retired  in  favor  of  Sir  John  Lub- 
bock.  In  1871  he  was  appointed  a  member  of 
the  Royal  Commission  on  the  Contagious  Dis- 
eases Act.  Upon  resigning  his  secretaryship  he 
entered  journalism  for  a  time,  but  before  long 
became  foreman  to  a  firm  manufacturing  engi- 
neering and  diving  apparatus.  Eventually  he 
became  the  proprietor  of  the  business.  He  still 
retains  (i  895)  his  interest  in  trade-unionism.  Mr. 
Applegarth  sought  to  win  for  the  trade-union 
organization  a  social  and  political  status,  and 
was,  in  his  day,  an  ideal  representative  of  the 
labor  movement,  in  the  political  world.  j 

APPRENTICESHIP,  a  contract  whereby 
one  person,  called  the  master,  binds  himself  to 
teach  some  trade  or  profession  to  another  person, 
called  the  apprentice,  the  latter  being  bound  to 
serve  the  master  for  a  specified  period  of  time 
at  low  wages,  and  often  for  a  season  at  no 
wages.  This  custom  arose  in  the  middle  ages, 
and  played  an  important  part  especially  in  the 
ancient  guilds  (q.v.}.  It  did  not  merely  apply 
to  such  occupations  as  are  now  followed  by  arti- 
sans. It  was  common  and  correct  in  the  mid- 
dle ages  to  speak  of  the  university  of  smiths,  or 
tailors.  Toward  the  end  of  the  medieval  period 
and  the  beginning  of  industrialism,  as  the  arts 
and  trades  became  gradually  established,  each 
assumed  the  form  of  a  college  or  corporation  of 
masters  and  scholars.  The  term  apprentice 
was  then  applied  not  only  to  mechanics,  but  to 
art  students  as  well.  The  length  of  apprentice- 
ship during  the  middle  ages  was  seven  years,  the 
same  length  of  time  taken  by  undergraduates  in 
the  liberal  arts.  After  this  time  the  apprentice 
became  a  full  member  of  the  corporation,  and 
was  qualified  to  practise  the  business  for  himself 
and  to  teach  others. 

The  rules  of  apprenticeship  were  much  more 
strictly  observed  on  the  Continent  than  in  Eng- 
land ;  nevertheless,  guilds  were  formed  in  Eng- 
land as  early  as  the  twelfth  century.  In  the 
reign  of  Elizabeth  it  was  enacted  that  no  person 
should  carry  on  any  trade  without  having  first 
served  a  seven  years'  apprenticeship.  London 
became  the  stronghold  of  the  guilds,  which  were 
frequently  involved  in  political  struggles  and 
local  tumults.  During  the  reign  of  Charles  II. 
the  apprentice  laws  were  limited  and  subverted 
by  the  judges. 

Adam  Smith  and  most  of  his  school  disap- 
proved of  apprenticeship,  believing  it  to  restrict 
the  rightful  liberty  of  the  workman  and  restrain 
the  full  freedom  of  competition.  There  is  no 
doubt  that  at  that  time  there  were  many  unwise 
and  troublesome  customs  regarding  apprentice- 
ship that  merited  this  antagonism  ;  but  it  is 
also  certain  that  many  of  the  charges  brought 


Apprenticeship. 


Apprenticeship. 


against  the  institution  were  too  sweeping. 
The  old  trade  corporations,  however,  were 
obliged  to  make  way  for  the  new  trade-unions. 

In  the  United  States  the  English  precedent 
has  generally  been  followed  in  regard  to  ap- 
prenticeship. The  division  of  labor  has  tempt- 
ed many  masters  to  keep  their  ap- 
prentices busy  at  some  one  branch 

European    of  the  trade,  and  thus  to  fail  in 

Guilds.      their  agreement  to  teach  them  the 

whole  business.     This  neglect  has 

brought  on  suits  for  damages  by  the 

apprentices  ;  and  the  Pennsylvania  courts  have 

decided    that  the    master  is    bound  to    teach 

the    apprentice    every  necessary  part  of    the 

trade. 

There  have  been  no  corporations  in  this  coun- 
try exactly  similar  to  the  European  guilds,  the 
one  nearest  approaching  them  being,  perhaps, 
the  Carpenters'  Company,  of  Philadelphia.  In 
the  earlier  part  of  this  century  efforts  were  made 
to  enforce  the  apprentice  laws,  and  to  capture  and 
punish  runaways  ;  but  the  establishment  of  the 
factory  system  and  development  of  machinery 
undermined  effectually  the  whole  institution  of 
apprenticeship.  The  division  of  labor  has  so  sim- 
plified the  labor  of  each  worker  that  after  a  few 
weeks  or  even  days  of  apprenticeship  a  boy  or 
girl  can  learn  almost  any  separate  part  of  the 
trade.  There  is  still  great  demand  for  skilled 
mechanics,  but  more  especially  for  those  of  an 
inventive  turn.  It  is  only  in  the  smaller  towns 
and  villages  that  the  custom  of  apprenticing  at 
present  prevails  ;  and  it  is  to  be  noticed  that  it 
is  from  these  towns  and  villages  that  the  skilled 
mechanics  of  the  cities  come.  It  has  been  esti- 
mated that  out  of  4,000,000  skilled  manufacturers 
and  mechanics  there  are  3,000,000  in  small  towns 
and  villages  or  cities  of  less  than  20,000  inhab- 
itants. Some  large  manufacturing  cities  still 
retain  in  a  greatly  modified  form  a  system  of  ap- 
prenticeship ;  but  generally  there  is  no  written 
agreement  between  employer  and  employee,  and 
boys  are  hired  under  a  verbal  agreement,  which 
permits  them  to  leave  or  be  discharged  at  any 
time.  This  plan  results  in  creating  large  num- 
bers of  half-skilled  workmen. 

In  the  biography  of  James  Nasmyth,  of  Man- 
chester, England,  the  inventor  of  the  steam- 
hammer,  the  author  says  : 

"  But  the  arrangement  which  we  greatly  preferred 
was  to  employ  intelligent,  well-conducted  young  lads, 
the  sons  of  laborers  or  mechanics,  and  advance  them 
by  degrees  according  to  their  merits.  They  took 
charge  of  the  smaller  machine  tools,  by  which  the 
minor  details  of  the  machines  in  progress  were  brought 
into  exact  form  without  having  recourse  to  the  un- 
trustworthy and  costly  process  of  chipping  and  filing. 
A  spirit  of  emulation  was  excited  among  them.  They 
vied  with  each  other  in  executing  their  work  with  pre- 
cision. Those  who  excelled  were  paid  an  extra  weekly 
•wage.  In  course  of  time  they  took  pride  not  only  in 
the  quantity,  but  in  the  quality  of  their  work,  and  in 
the  long  run  they  became  skilful  mechanics.  .  .  .  Every 
one  of  these  lads  was  at  liberty  to  leave  at  the  end  of 
each  day's  work.  This  arrangement  acted  as  an  ever- 
present  check  upon  master  as  well  as  apprentice.  The 
only  bond  of  union  between  us  was  mutual  interest. 
The  best  of  them  remained  in  our  service,  because 
they  knew  our  work  and  were  pleased  with  the  sur- 
roundings ;  while  we,  on  our  part,  were  always  desir- 
ous of  retaining  men  we  had  trained,  because  we  knew 
we  could  depend  upon  them.  Nothing  could  have 
been  more  satisfactory  than  the  manner  in  which  this 
system  worked." 

Mr.  Nasmyth  found  much  carelessness  in  the 


work  of  those  employees  who  could  not  be  dis- 
charged,   and   endeavored  to  pre- 
vent it  by  dividing  the  period  of  ap-   . 
prenticeship  into  half-yearly  lengths.  APPrentloe- 
Other  manufacturers  have  sought        ^  a 
to  retain  apprentices   by  bonuses, 
or  by  establishing  a  rising  scale  of 
wages   according   to  time  served  ; 
but  most  success  in  fully  training 
mechanics  is  expected  from  better  general  edu- 
cation.    (See  INDUSTRIAL  EDUCATION.) 

The  American  trade-unions,  striving  to  raise 
wages,  and  therefore  to  limit  the  number  of 
competitors  for  work,  have  often  attempted  to 
limit  the  number  of  apprentices  which  can  be 
allowed  to  learn  any  trade  ;  and  this  not  un- 
natural step  has  tended  to  diminish  the  num- 
ber of  American  skilled  workmen,  mechanics 
from  Europe  being  allowed  to  enter  this  coun- 
try with  scarcely  any  limitation  on  immigration, 
and  the  trade-unions  have  been  powerless  to 
prevent  their  introduction.  The  only  thing  they 
could  do  was  to  take  these  men  into  their  unions 
as  rapidly  as  possible.  Hence,  without  any  ill 
will  of  unions  against  native-born  workmen,  but 
merely  from  their  desire  to  raise  their  wages, 
has  risen  a  state  of  things  which  some  writers, 
not  understanding  the  cause,  have  utterly  mis- 
understood ;  as,  for  example,  the  conductors  of 
the  recent  agitation  on  the  subject  in  the  Cen- 
tury Magazine,  where  (May,  1893)  one  finds 
such  statements  as  these  : 

"  Shall  American  boys  be  permitted  to  learn  trades, 
and,  having  learned  them,  shall  they  be  permitted  to 
work  at  them?  .  .  .  Most   persons  thus  interrogated 
would  reply  at  once  :  '  Why  do  you  ask  such  unneces- 
sary questions  ? '    We  ask  them    because  under  the 
present  conditions  of  trade  instruction  and  employ- 
ment in  this  country  the  American  boy  has  no  rights 
which  organized  labor  is  bound  to  respect.    He  is  de- 
nied instruction  as  an  apprentice,  and  if  he  be  taught 
his  trade  in  a  trade  school,  he  is  refused  admission  to 
nearly  all  the  trade-unions;  and  is  boycotted  if  he  at- 
tempts to  work  as  a  non-union  man.    The  questions  of 
his  character  and  skill  enter  into  the  matter  only  to 
discriminate  against  him.    All  the  trade-unions  of  the 
country  are  controlled  by  foreigners,  who  comprise  the 
great  majority  of  their  members.    While  they  refuse 
admission  to  the  trained  American  boy, 
they  admit  all  foreign  applicants,  with 
little  or  no  regard  to  their  training  or  Shall  Ameri- 
skill.    In  fact,  the  doors  of   organized     „„_    ]>ovg 
labor  in  America,  which  are  closed  and          "        * 
barred  against  American  boys,  swing         Learn 
open,  wide  and  free,  to  all  foreign  com-       Trades  1 
ers.     Labor  in  free  America  is  free  to 
all  save  the  sons  of  Americans. 

"  These  are  neither  idle  nor  exaggerated  statements. 
They  are  sober,  solemn  truths,  expressed  with  studied 
moderation.  So-called  American  labor  to-day  is  a 
complete  misnomer,  as  far  as  the  trades  are  concerned. 
How  has  it  come  about  that  the  United  States  alone 
among  the  nations  of  the  earth  has  not  merely  sur- 
rendered possession  of  her  field  of  mechanical  labor  to 
foreigners,  but  aquiesces  when  the  foreign  possessors 
exclude  from  that  field  her  own  sons?" 

Professor  E.  W.  Bemis,  at  the  time  of  Chica- 
go University,  in  an  article  first  appearing  in 
the  annals  of  the  American  Academy  of  Political 
and  Social  Science,  contends  that  these  state- 
ments cannot  be  substantiated.  He  says  : 

"Most  of  our  trade-unions  have  so  little  prejudice 
against  any  nationality,  native  or  foreign,  that  they 
keep  no  records  of  the  number  of  each  in  their  mem 
bership.  .  .  . 

"  While  the  foreign  born  are  in  the  majority  in  many 
of  the  hard-handed  industries,  this  is  not  because  of  our 
labor  organizations,  but  often  in  spite  of  their  efforts, 
of  late  increasing,  to  prevent  by  restricting  immigra- 


Apprenticeship. 


72 


Apprenticeship. 


tion  this  form  of  competition  of  those  with  a  lower 
standard  of  living.  Where  the  American  born  are  not 
in  our  unions,  it  is  either  because  the  American  boy 
does  not  like  manual  labor,  and  so  is  not  engaged  in 
the  trades  in  which  there  are  unions,  or  else  he  refuses 
to  join  the  union  of  his  trade.  Many  unions  write  that 
the  Germans  take  most  readily  to  labor  organization, 
while  in  Chicago  the  native  farmers'  boys  from  the 
Atlantic  seaboard  States  are  least  responsive.  An 
intense,  self-sufficient  individualism,  which  was  more 
fitted  to  our  earlier  history,  where  organization  of  cap- 
ital was  also  little  develop'ed,  than  to  the  present  era  of 
the  corporation  and  the  trust,  keeps  a  large,  but  of  late, 
decreasing  percentage  of  the  American  boys  actually 
in  our  trades  from  joining  the  unions  of  those  trades. 

Nor  can  it  be  even  shown  that  the  majority  of 
trade-unions  seek  to  unduly  limit  apprentice- 
ship. In  1891  Professor  Bemis  investigated  this 
question,  embodying  the  results  in  a  paper  which 
appeared  in  the  proceedings  of  the  American 
Social  Science  Association  for  that  year.  Mr. 
Bemis  says  : 

"  Of  the  60  to  70  trade-unions  in  the  United  States 
then  having  a  national  or  international  organization, 
48,  with  a  membership  of  over  500,000,  made  returns  to 
the  writer.  Most  of  the  other  unions  are  small  and 
known  to  place  no  restrictions  on  apprentices.  Now  of 
these  48  unions,  28,  embracing  222,000  members,  or  45  per 
cent,  of  the  above  500,000,  had  no  restrictions  upon  ap- 
prenticeship ;  in  10  unions,  with  197,000  members,  or  39 
per  cent,  of  all,  restriction  was  left  to  the  locals.  Nearly 
all  of  these  197,000  were  carpenters,  printers,  cigar-mak- 
ers, painters,  and  decorators.  N  o  returns  were  received 
from  most  of  the  building  trades  aside  from  the  carpen- 
ters, but  it  is  known  that  where  they  have  any  restric- 
tions upon  apprenticeship,  they  are  usually  a  matter  of 
local  regulation.  Let  us  examine  a  little  the  restrictions 
in  these  unions.  Only  those  branches  of  the  cigar-mak- 
ers' organization  which  make  the  better 
grade  of  cigars  attempt  any  restriction 

Statistics,  at  all  of  apprentices.  Where  restric- 
tion is  attempted,  it  is  usual  to  allow  one 
apprentice  to  a  shop  and  two  apprentices 
where  from  five  to  10  journeymen  are  employed.  The 
term  of  apprenticeship  being  three  years,  and  the  nat- 
ural working  life  of  cigar-makers  over  15  years,  there 
is,  in  the  application  of  this  rule,  opportunity  for  a  con- 
siderable yearly  increase  in  the  number  of  cigar-mak- 
ers. It  may  be  a  sufficient  evidence  that  the  cigar- 
makers  do  not  unduly  restrict  the  number  of  appren- 
tices if  I  state  that  the  Chicago  union,  with  a  member- 
ship of  1900,  has  between  700  and  800  apprentices. 

"  Of  the  ii  local  typographical  unions  in  New  York 
State  investigated  in  1886  by  the  New  York  Bureau  of  La- 
bor Statistics.eight  reported  some  restriction  of  appren- 
tices. The  very  moderate  rule  common  to  most  of  these 
•was  one  apprentice  to  four  or  five  journeymen,  the  term 
of  learning  being  four  years.  But  such  rules  are  of  com- 
paratively little  avail  in  keeping  down  the  number  of 
apprentices  because  of  the  large  number  trained  in  the 
country  newspapor  offices,  where,  in  the  absence  of 
tmionstno  rules  are  applied.  All  of  the  n  unions,  as 
stated  in  the  report,  admitted  to  their  membership  on 
equal  terms  with  any  others  those  boys  who  had  learn- 
ed their  trades  in  non-union  establishments.  The 
Chicago  Typographical  Union  allows  one  apprentice  (in 
newspaper  and  two  in  job  offices)  to  the  first  10  journey- 
men and  one  apprentice  to  every  five  journeymen  there- 
after. A  veteran  printer  of  the  union  has  found  this  rule 
would  allow  for  the  1700  membership  of  one  of  the  Chi- 
cago unions  about  250  apprentices,  but  the  number  em- 
ployed is  only  about  140,  very  clearly  proving  that  not 
as  many  boys  desire  to  be  apprentices  in  the  printing 
trade  by  nearly  one  half  as  the  union  rules  would  allow. 

"  In  view  of  the  common  belief  that  the  building  trades 
are  successful  in  limiting  the  number  of  apprentices, 
it  is  very  significant  to  note  the  fact  brought  out  in  the 
Massachusetts  census  for  1885,  that  in  none  of  the 
building  trades  was  there  one  half,  and  in  most  cases 
not  one  fourth,  as  many  apprentices  as  the  union  rules 
would  allow.  Amonjj  the  blacksmiths  there  was  one 
apprentice  only  to  28  journeymen  ;  among  the  carpen- 
ters, i  to  62  ;  among  the  machinists,  i  to  20  ;  among  the 
masons,  i  to  105  ;  among  the  painters,  i  to  89  ;  among 
the  plumbers,  i  to  44 ;  among  the  printers,  i  to  IQ  ; 
among  the  tinsmiths,  i  to  16.  In  Wisconsin,  in  1889,  ac- 
cording to  the  fourth  biennial  report  of  the  Commis- 
sioner of  Labor  and  the  industrial  statistics  of  that 
State,  there  was  only  one  apprentice  to  every  13  among 
the  masons  ;  one  to  every  12  among  the  carpenters  ;  one 
to  every  12^  among  the  painters,  while  there  \vere 
three  apprentices  to  every  four  journeymen  among 
the  plumbers. 


"  Two  of  the  most  exclusive  unions  in  this  country  are 
the  Tile-Layers  and  the  Flint  Glass-Workers.  The 
former,  with  a  small  membership,  requires  a  learner  to 
serve  two  years  as  an  apprentice,  and  then  he  must  be 
able  to  secure  a  two  years'  contract  as  a  laborer  at  $3  a 
day  for  the  first  year  and  $3.50  for  the  second.  He 
must  then  be  able  to  earn  $4  a  day  and  pay  an  initiation 
fee  of  from  $25  to  $100,  according  to  the  locality. 

"  The  Flint-Glass  Workers  allow  only  one  apprentice 
to  every  20  men,  unless  there  are  less  in  a  shop,  and  he 
must  serve  four  years.  By  adding  an  initiation  fee  of 
$100  in  case  of  emigrants,  and  having  other  stringent 
shop  rules,  they  keep  up  wages  to  from  $6  to  $9  a  day 
for  their  members  in  this  skilled  trade  during  the  10 
months'  work  season.  But  these  examples  of  a  labor 
trust  modeled  after  the  increasing  examples  of  the 
same  among  capitalists  are  the  exception  in  the  labor 
world. 

"  Only  17  of  the  48  unions  making  returns  as  above 
stated  had  any  national  rules  restricting  apprentices, 
-  and  only  14  of  these  unions,  with  71,000  members,  or  14 
per  cent,  of  the  500,000  in  the  48  unions,  reported  any 
success  in  the  enforcement  of  such  rules.  Of  these 
71,000,  9500  were  glass-workers,  5417  •were  hat-makers, 
28,000  were  iron-moulders,  and  20,000  were  journeymen 
tailors." 

Mr.  Bemis  continues  in  his  article  in  the  An- 
nals of  the  American  Academy  : 

"Altho  the  writer  of  the  Century  articles  charges 
the  trade-unions  with  the  downfall  of  the  apprentice- 
ship system — the  only  system  known  until  very  recent- 
ly tor  imparting  trade  instruction — he  says  in  the  June 
number,  1893  :  '  At  the  sixth  annual  convention  of  the 
Pennsylvania  Association  of  master  house  painters 
and  decorators,  held  at  Scranton  in  January  last,, 
one  of  the  delegates  read  a  paper  on  the  apprentice- 
ship system  as  observed  in  nis  trad.e.  He  said  that 
after  a  personal  investigation  among  at  least  600  master 
painters  and  decorators  of  Philadelphia  and  vicinity,, 
he  had  discovered  that  not  an  average  of  one  in  15  had 
a  single  apprentice  in  his  business,  and  that  the  larger 
the  workship  or  establishment,  the  greater  seemed  the 
abhorrence  with  reference  to  the  employment  of  boys- 
to  learn  the  trade,  many  of  the  masters  going  so  far  as 
to  say  that  in  all  their  experience  as  masters,  extend- 
ing over  15  to  35  years,  and  employing  from  15  to  50- 
and  as  high  as  80  workmen,  they  had  never  bothered 
their  brains  teaching  a  boy  the  business.' 

"  The  downfall  of  the  apprenticeship  system  is  due 
largely  to  the  introduction  of  machinery  and  the  con- 
sequent subdivision  of  work  in  large  shops.  This 
renders  it  impracticable  for  the  employer  to  take  a 
personal  interest  in  each  of  his  men,  or  to  give  them 
an  all-round  training.  It  is  more  profitable  to  set  the 
learner  at  work  upon  a  single  machine  or  branch  of 
work,  where  he  will  soon  acquire  speed.  The  boy  pre- 
fers this,  because  he  is  eager  to  begin  earning  as  soon 
as  possible.  But  the  apprenticeship  system  as  man- 
aged under  modern  conditions  is  at  best  a  poor  method 
of  trade  instruction.  It  is  a  picking-up  process. 
Scores  of  wage-earners  have  assured  me  that  very 
little  actual  teaching  is  done  for  the  boy  in  the  appren- 
ticeship, but  he  must  do  a  great  deal  of  drudgery,  run 
more  or  less  danger  of  moral  contamination,  and  can 
only  learn  what  he  may  incidentally  pick  up  by  watch- 
ing others.  This  is  a  great  waste  of  time.  There  is  no 
awakening  of  keen  ambition  and  love  of  the  work  ;  no 
adequate  training  or  imparting  of  dignity  to  the  work. 
A  journeyman  is  hardly  ever  paid,  as  he  should  be, 
when  on  piece-work  for  the  time  lost  in  teaching  an 
apprentice.  This  alone  accounts  for  much  of  whatever 
opposition  there  may  be  among  journeymen  to  a  large 
number  of  apprentices." 

Such  seem  to  be  the  facts  as  to  the  situation. 
For  a  discussion  of  the  question  of  industrial 
education,  see  article  under  that  name. 

A  suggestive  treatment  of  the  problem  of  ap- 
prentices is  reported  from  Neuchatel  in  Switzer- 
land : 

"A  new  law  for  the  regulation  of  apprenticeship- 
in  Neuchatel  came  into  force  in  February,  1891,  from 
which  much  good  is  expected.    The  aim 
of  the  law  is  to  raise  the  status  of  ap- 
prentices and  to  develop  industrial  skill  Switzerland. 
in  the  different  trades  practised  in  the 
canton,  but  especially  in  the  watch-mak- 
ing industry.    To  this  end  all   appren- 
tices are  placed  under  the  supervision  of   the    com- 
munal   authority,  which  can  delegate  its  powers  to 
a  select  committee,  composed  of   equal  numbers  of 
employers  and  employed.    Where  Conseils  de  Prud'~ 


Apprenticeship. 


73 


Aquinas,  St.  Thomas. 


hotnmes  or  trade  syndicates  exist  this  supervision  can 
be  entrusted  to  them.  The  committee  must  from  time 
to  time  visit  the  workshops  where  apprentices  are 
employed  and  see  that  the  latter  are  properly  taught 
and  treated.  Masters  are  forbidden  to  take  apprentices 
without  a  written  contract,  or  to  employ  them  in  other 
than  their  proper  occupation,  and  they  are  also  re- 
quired to  allow  them  sufficient  time  for  religious  and 
secular  instruction.  The  hours  of  labor  are  fixed  at 
10  per  day  for  apprentices  between  the  ages  of  13  and 
15,  and  at  n  hours  a  day  for  those  over  15,  the  hours 
devoted  to  education  being  included  in  these  limits. 
As  a  rule,  no  apprentice  can  be  required  to  work  at 
night  or  on  Sundays  or  holidays.  The  Council  of  State 
of  the  canton  appoints  a  commission  in  connection  with 
the  cantonal  department  of  industry  and  agriculture, 
which  must  be  as  representative  as  possible  of  the 
trade-unions  recognized  by  the  State.  The  function 
of  the  commission  is  to  consider  all  schemes  which  may 
result  in  the  improvement  of  the  position  of  appren- 
tices, and  to  examine  all  apprentices  on  the  expiration 
of  their  apprenticeship. 

"The  persons  admitted  to  these  examinations  must 
be  apprentices  of  Neuchatel  or  other  Swiss  cantons  who 
have  served  at  least  half  of  their  time  with  an  employer 
resident  in  the  canton.  The  examinations  include  the- 
oretical knowledge,  but  lay  greater  stress  upon  the 
practical  work  turned  out  by  the  apprentice.  Can- 
didates who  satisfy  the  examiners  are  provided  with 
certificates  from  the  Minister  of  Industry  and  Agricul- 
ture, stating  the  results  of  the  examination.  Prizes 
consisting  of  books,  tools,  or  a  savings-bank  account 
are  given  to  the  best  candidates,  and  exhibitions  are 
provided  for  those  who  are  desirous  of  further  perfect- 
ing themselves  in  their  trade.  The  sum  of  3000  frs. 
is  to  be  devoted  annually  to  prizes  from  the  cantonal 
budget,  and  the  work  executed  by  the  candidates  who 
pass  their  examination  is  to  be  publicly  exhibited.  All 
the  provisions  of  this  law  are  equally  applicable  to 
women." 

Foreign  Report  on  Switzerland  of  the  English  Royal 
Commission  on  Labor. 

References  •  Labor  Reports,  General  Subject  of  Ap- 
prenticeship (New  York,  1886  ;  Maine,  1888)  ;  Statistics 
of  Apprentices  (Kansas,  1890 ;  Missouri,  1884) ;  Ap- 
prenticeship in  Europe  (New  York,  1886) ;  Apprentice 
Schools  (New  York,  1886);  Trade-Unions  and  Appren- 
tices (California,  1887-88 ;  Ohio,  1881 ;  New  York,  1886 ; 
Pennsylvania,  1889;  Michigan,  1889) ;  Laws  Relating  to 
Apprentices  (North  Carolina,  1888).'  See  also  the  Cen- 
tury, 1893,  passim,  and  Professor  E.  W.  Bemis,  reply 
in  the  Annals  of  the  American  Academy  of  Political 
and  Social  Science,  September,  1894. 

AQUINAS,  ST.  THOMAS,  the  chief  repre- 
sentative of  the  theology,  philosophy,  and  eco- 
nomic teaching  of  the  medieval  Church.  He 
was  born  in  1225  or  1227,  at  the  castle  of  his  fa- 
ther, the  Count  of  Aquino,  in  the  territories  of 
Naples  ;  and  he  received  his  education  at  Monte 
Cassino  and  the  University  of  Naples.  When 
but  17  years  old,  in  spite  of  the  opposition  of  his 
family,  he  took  the  habit  of  the  Dominican  or- 
der at  Naples,  and  was  afterward  sent  away  to 
study  theology  and  philosophy  under  the  fa- 
mous Albertus  Magnus  at  Cologne  and  Paris. 
Aquinas  early  gained  distinction  as  a  student 
of  theology,  and  began  his  lectures,  which  were 
given  at  Paris,  Rome,  Bologna,  and  other  places. 
He  was  on  familiar  terms  with  many  princes  of 
his  time,  and  especially  honored  by  the  kings 
of  France  and  of  Naples,  who  frequently  sought 
advice  from  him.  The  Popes  also  were  not 
.slow  to  recognize  the  merit  of  Aquinas  ;  and 
Clement  IV.  offered  him  the  archbishopric  of 
Naples  and  the  abbacy  of  Monte  Cassino,  both 
of  which  were  declined.  It  was  on  the  route  to 
the  Council  of  Lyons,  whither  he  had  been  spe- 
cially summoned  by  Gregory  X. ,  that  Aquinas 
died,  March  7,  1274.  He  was  canonized  in  1323 
by  Pope  John  XXII.  In  his  life  there  was  a 
union  of  simple  piety  with  the  greatest  philo- 
sophical power.  He  fulfilled  the  ecclesiastical 
ideal  of  a  saint  and  a  Father  of  the  Church.  As 


a  theologian  his  name  stands  with  that  of  Au- 
gustine. 

To  us  Aquinas  represents  scholasticism,  the 
philosophy  of  the  middle  ages.  From  the  be- 
ginning the  Christian  Fathers,  like  the  later  Al- 
exandrians, had  made  philosophy 
the  handmaid  of  religion  ;  and  we 
find  in  scholasticism  the  same  ex-  Philosophy. 
altation  of  theology  over  all  other 
knowledge.  Scotus  Erigena,  the 
earliest  schoolman,  said  :  "  There  are  not  two 
studies,  one  of  philosophy  and  one  of  religion  ; 
true  philosophy  is  true  religion,  and  true  religion 
is  true  philosophy. ' '  Hence  the  greatest  work 
of  Aquinas,  the  Summa  Theologiee,  aimed  to 
give  a  summary  of  all  the  science  of  the  time. 
Into  the  philosophical  and  theological  part  of 
the  Summa  it  is  not  necessary  to  go  at  length 
in  this  article.  It  may  be  said  that  the  whole 
philosophical  effort  of  the  middle  ages  was  to 
reconcile  the  demands  of  reason  with  the  dog- 
mas of  the  Church.  So  in  the  Summa  Aquinas 
asserts  the  existence  of  two  sources  of  knowl- 
edge— revelation  and  reason.  Revelation  in- 
cludes Scripture  and  Church  tradition  and  teach- 
ing. Reason,  in  this  sense,  is  natural  truth,  such 
as  came  to  men  through  the  philosophy  of  Aris- 
totle and  Plato.  Natural  truths  are  to  be  appre- 
hended by  the  individual  reason  and  the  super- 
natural truths  of  revelation  by  faith.  Yet  these 
two  kinds  of  truth  are  not  at  variance,  since  they 
rest  on  the  Absolute  One,  who  is  God.  Philoso- 
phy and  theology  are,  therefore,  harmonious. 
There  are  three  principal  divisions  of  the  Summa 
Theologies,  which  may  be  said  to  treat  respec- 
tively of  God,  man,  and  the  God-Man.  The 
latter  part  of  the  third  division  was  added  after 
the  death  of  the  author.  Of  the  other  works  of 
Aquinas,  his  commentaries  on  Scripture  and  on 
Aristotle,  and  the  Adversus  Gentiles,  dealing 
with  Mohammedan  science,  it  is  not  necessary 
to  speak  further.  All  his  writings  lead  up  to 
the  Summa. 

To  Aquinas  theology  is  the  sum  of  all  science, 
and  hence  he  is  little  interested  in  economics. 
But  since  the  scope  of  the  Summa  was  so  wide,, 
he  naturally  was  obliged  to  deal  to 
a  certain  extent  with  both  politics 
and    economics.      His    statements  Economics, 
have  great  value  to  students  of  so- 
cial questions,  because  he  so  thor- 
oughly represented  medieval  Church  thought. 
Most  of  his  teaching  on  these  subjects  may  be 
found  in  various  passages  of  the  Summa. 

In  regard  to  private  property,  Aquinas  justi- 
fied individual  ownership.  He  argued  that  the 
results  of  private  ownership  were  beneficial, 
and  he  adopted  from  Aristotle  the  theory  that 
property  should  be  owned  separately,  but  used 
for  the  common  good.  Aquinas,  however,  had 
to  deal  with  the  fact  that  the  Christian  Church 
at  first  seemed  to  condemn  private  property  and 
to  glorify  communism.  There  was  even  in  the 
canon  law  itself  an  apparent  approval  of  com- 
mon ownership,  and  in  one  place  a  declaration, 
quoted  from  Clement  of  Rome,  that  all  men 
ought  to  have  the  use  of  the  things  of  this 
world  in  common.  Hence  some  explanations 
and  qualifications  were  necessary,  if  he  wished 
to  harmonize  his  own  position  with  that  of  the 
early  Church.  By  natural  law,  in  one  sense, 


Aquinas,  St.  Thomas. 


74 


Arbitration  and  Conciliation. 


there  was  no  reason  why  a. piece  of  land  should 
belong  to  one  person  rather  than  to  others.  But 
in  another  sense,  Aquinas  says,  since  it  was  de- 
sirable that  the  land  should  be  cultivated  with- 
out interruption  by  violence,  the  private  owner- 
ship might  be  called  natural.  It  is  natural 
by  way  of  consequence,  tho  not  natural  abso- 
lutely. Private  property  was  due  to  positive 
enactments  of  law  ;  but  tho  natural  law  did 
not  introduce  it,  neither  did  it  forbid  it.  Thus 
Aquinas  justifies,  tho  with  the  qualifications 
mentioned,  the  principle  of  individual  owner- 
ship. In  dealing  with  the  subject  of  property 
as  it  concerned  the  monastic  orders,  or  as  it 
affected  the  highest  sort  of  Christian  living, 
Aquinas  takes  the  conservative  view.  He  holds, 
in  opposition  to  many  in  the  monastic  orders 
who  wished  for  absolute  poverty,  not  only  indi- 
vidual, but  corporate,  that  property  is  only  in- 
jurious when  it  hinders  the  spiritual  life.  A 
moderate  property,  especially  if  possessed  by  a 
religious  order,  is  not  necessarily  an  evil. 

Following  naturally  from  his  views  as  to  pov- 
erty and  private  property  comes  the  position  of 
Aquinas  in  regard  to  the  bestowal  of  charity. 
He  does  not  unduly  exalt  almsgiving,  as  some 
Church  writers  had  done.  The  practice  is  ob- 
ligatory ;  but  at  the  same  time  alms  need  only 
be  given,  as  a  general  thing,  after  a  man  has 
provided  for  himself  and  his  family  in  a  proper 
way.  The  giving  should  usually  be  from  the 
superfluity — what  remained  after  legitimate  ex- 
penses. 

One  example  of  Aquinas'  teaching  on  politics 
may  be  referred  to.  On  the  question  of  the 
right  of  government  to  tax  its  subjects,  he  favors 
the  subjects  rather  than  the  prince.  He  says 
that  rulers  should  seek  the  common 
good  of  the  people  in  preference  to 
their  own  advantage.  Hence  they 
should  not  take  from  their  subjects 
by  taxation  save  when  some  public 
need  arises.  Their  revenues  should 
be  derived  from  their  own  special  possessions. 
But  it  is  right  that  they  should  tax  their  sub- 
jects for  such  purposes  as  the  common  defense 
against  an  enemy,  etc.  This  opinion  was  ad- 
vanced in  answer  to  an  inquiry  put  to  Aquinas 
by  the  Duchess  of  Brabant. 

In  treating  of  commercial  ethics,  Aquinas  fol- 
lows generally  the  teaching  of  the  earlier  Church 
Fathers,  and  stands  firm  for  the  application  of 
Christian  principles  to  trade.  He  agrees  with 
the  old  views  as  to  usury,  and  especially  with 
those  of  his  instructor,  Albertus  Magnus.  Usury 
is  wrong.  Money  is  a  consumptible  ;  the  bor- 
rower has  a  natural  right  to  make  use  of  it  when 
loaned,  and  the  lender  should  not  ask  a  payment 
for  its  use  in  addition  to  the  return  of  the  original 
sum,  as  this  would  be  a  double  charge.  Aquinas, 
however,  allows  the  right  of  the  lender  to  make 
a  charge  for  any  loss  that  might  occur  from 
the  payment  of  the  money  being  deferred  be- 
yond the  set  time.  Though  usury  is  a  sin,  it  is 
not  wrong,  he  teaches,  for  a  man  to  borrow  from 
a  usurer  for  some  good  purpose,  or  for  one  to 
lend  money  to  a  usurer  for  .saf e-keeping,  having 
no  desire  o"f  gain. 

Trade  was,  in  Aquinas'  view,  a  base  thing, 
and  even  sinful  when  carried  on  for  the  sake  of 
gain.  But  it  was  not  so  when  the  trader  pur- 


Eight  of 
Taxation. 


sued  it  as  a  means  of  livelihood,  and  was  con- 
tented with  a  moderate  profit,  which  he  used  for 
good  purposes.  Further,  trade  was  also  right 
when  it  served  the  public  interest  and  provided 
a  country  with  the  necessities  of  life.  The  civil 
law  was  wholly  imperfect,  then  as  now,  from  a 
Christian  standpoint,  in  its  provisions  regarding 
business.  The  Christian  principle  was,  accord- 
ing to  Aquinas,  that  no  one  should  ever  demand 
or  pay  more  than  a  just  price.  He  was  con- 
scious of  the  opposition  between  his  teaching 
and  the  civil  law,  but  he  explains  that  human 
law  has  its  necessary  limitations,  and  does  not 
prohibit  everything  that  is  wrong.  Divine  law 
is  higher,  and  must  forbid  all  things  that  are 
opposed  to  justice  and  virtue.  It  was  necessary, 
therefore,  for  Aquinas  to  protest  against  apply- 
ing the  principles  of  the  civil  law  only  to  busi- 
ness, and  to  assert  the  pre-eminence  of  the 
Christian  and  Divine  law.  He  makes  competi- 
tion subsidiary  to  justice. 

The  scholastic  philosophy  reaches  its  culmina- 
tion in  Aquinas,  and  no  medieval  writer  has 
had  more  influence  than  he.  The  Summa 
Theologies  was  meant  to  be  exhaustive,  to  be 
a  compendium  of  all  knowledge,  and  it  remains 
the  most  complete  body  of  moral  and  theological 
science  ever  written.  It  is  even  now,  to  a  great 
extent,  a  recognized  manual  of  the  theology  of 
the  Roman  Catholic  Church. 

References:  There  is  no  adequate  account  of  the 
economic  teaching  of  Aquinas ;  which  may  be  best 
collected  from  Aquinas  himself.  See  the  Summa 
Theologies  as  to  private  property,  Secunda  Secundse, 
Quaestio  77,  Articulus  3 ;  Q.  66,  Art.  i,  2  ;  as  to  volun- 


dae,  Q.  94,  Art.  5  ;  as  to  price,  Secunda  Secundae,  Q.  77  ; 
as  to  usury,  Q.  78  ;  as  to  taxation,  De  Regimine  Juaa-- 
orum  among  the  Opuscula.  The  best  brief  account 
will  be  found  in  C.  Jourdain,  La  Philosophic  de  S. 
Thomas  d'Aquin,  1858.  See  also  W.  J.  Ashley,  Eco- 
nomic History,  vol.  i.,  part  i,  1888,  and  his  article  on 
Aquinas  in  Palgrave's  Dictionary  of  Political  Economy, 
to  which  article  we  are  in  the  mam  indebted  for  that 
portion  of  our  article  bearing  on  Aquinas'  economic 
teaching. 

ARBITRATION  AND  CONCILIATION 

(INDUSTRIAL). — (For  courts  of  conciliation  other 
than  industrial,  see  CONCILIATION,  COURTS  OF.  See 
also  STRIKES  AND  PULLMAN  STRIKE.  For  arbitra- 
tion between  nations,  see  INTERNATIONAL  ARBI- 
TRATION. )  We  are  concerned  in  this  article  with 
arbitration  and  conciliation  as  applied  to  the  set- 
tlement of  industrial  disputes  alone.  We  con- 
sider, first,  definitions ;  secondly,  the  history 
of  the  subject ;  thirdly,  the  difficulties,  advan- 
tages and  -various  -views  of  the  different  kinds 
of  arbitration  and  conciliation. 

I.  DEFINITIONS. 

Arbitration  and  conciliation  are  not  identical. 
Says  Mr.  Henry  Crompton  in  his  Industrial 
Conciliation  : 

"  Arbitration  is  not  the  same  as  conciliation,  but  may 
be  used  when  conciliation  has  failed,  or  where  there 
has  been  no  attempt  at  conciliation.  Arbitration  is 
'after  the  fact,'  and  implies  that  a  cause  of  difference 
and  a  dispute  have  arisen.  By  arbitration  this  may  be 
settled,  a  compromise  effected,  and  war  averted ;  and 
that  whether  the  dispute  relates  to  past  arrangements, 
as  to  what  are  the  terms  of  an  existing  contract,  the 
just  application  of  those  terms  to  a  new  state  of  things, 
or  whether  the  difficulty  is  to  agree  upon  future  prices 
or  conditions  of  labor.  Desirable  as  this  obviously  is, 
conciliation  aims  at  something  higher — at  doing  before 
the  fact  that  which  arbitration  accomplishes  after. 


Arbitration  and  Conciliation. 


75 


Arbitration  and  Conciliation. 


It  seeks  to  prevent  and  remove  the  cause:?  of  dispute 
tefore  they  arise,  to  adjust  differences  and  claims  be- 
fore they  become  disputes." 

There  are  various  kinds  of  both  arbitration 
and  conciliation.  There  is,  in  the  first  place, 
the  general  distinction  between  voluntary  and 
compulsory  arbitration  and  conciliation. 

Voluntary  arbitration  takes  place  when  the 
parties  to  the  dispute,  of  their  own  tutll,  refer 
the  matter  at  issue  to  the  decision  of  a  board  or 
body  of  arbitrators,  or  even  to  one 
arbitrator,  as  may  be  agreed  upon 
Voluntary    by  the  parties    interested.     They 
Arbitration,  may  do  this  of  their  own  desire,  or 
be  induced  by  the  mediation  of  out- 
side parties  or  by  public  sentiment. 
It  is,  nevertheless,  voluntary  arbitration,  unless 
they  are  compelled  by  law  to  have  recourse 
to  such  arbitration.     The  appeal  may  be  made 
to  arbitrators  or  to  an  arbitrator  chosen  in  a 
great  variety  of  ways.     The  arbitrating  body 
may  be  chosen  for  the  occasion,  or  it  may  be  a 
standing  board  chosen  by  one  employer  and  his 
employees,  or  by  the  united  employers  and  em- 
ployees, either  of  one  trade  or  of  one  city  or  geo- 
graphical section,  or,  again,  the  appeal  may  be 
to  a  board  of  arbitration  appointed  by  the  State 
or  by  outside  parties.     In  all  these  cases  it  is 
still   -voluntary  arbitration,  even  tho  the  ap- 
peal be  to  a  board  appointed  by  the  State. 

Compulsory  arbitration  arises  only  when  the 
law  compels  any  employer  or  employee  to  sub- 
mit the  question  at  issue  to  arbitration,  and  to 
abide  by  the   result.     Unless  the 
law  compel  both  the  submission  of 
Compulsory  the  question  and  the  abiding  by  the 
Arbitration,  judgment  it  cannot  be  called  actu- 
ally   compulsory    arbitration.     An 
intermediate    form    of    arbitration 
may,  however,  be  conceived  of,  and  in  a  sense 
actually  has  been  developed,  where  the  law  com- 
pels parties  at  strife  to  appear  before  a  board  of 
arbitration  upon  summons  and  to  state  their  case 
and  submit  to  examination,  with  or  without  evi- 
dence, yet  where  the  law  does  not  compel  the 
parties  to  accept  the  decision.     In  such  a  case 
the  hope  is  that  by  compelling  the  parties  at 
strife  to  state  and  argue  the  case  before  respon- 
sible men,  the  judgment  arrived  at  by  such  men 
and  the  publication  of  their  decision  will  induce, 
or,  perhaps,  by  the  power  of  public  sentiment 
even  compel,  the    acceptance  of  the  decision 
without  compulsion  by  law.     Again,  the  case 
may   be   conceived   of,  tho  we   believe  it  has 
not  been  developed,  where  the  law  compels  par- 
ties who  have  voluntarily  resorted  to  arbitration 
to  abide  by  the  result.     In  full  compulsory  arbi- 
tration, however,  both  the  resort  to  and  the  abid- 
ing by  the  decision  of  arbitrators  must  be  re- 
quired under  the  penalty  of  the  law. 

Such  are  some  of  the  forms  that  arbitration 
may  assume.  Conciliation  has,  or  may  have,  a 
similar  variety  of  forms.  Compulsory  concilia- 
tion in  its  full  sense  may  seem  a  contradiction 
of  terms  ;  nevertheless,  the  law  may  require, 
and  often  has  required,  as  in  France  particular- 
ly, the  maintenance  of  boards  of  conciliation,  by 
which  all  questions  liable  to  create  strife  must 
be  decided,  subject  to  appeal  to  various  higher 
courts  of  law  or  of  arbitration.  Conciliation, 
too,  when  voluntary,  may  be  of  many  kinds.  A 
particular  employer  or  firm  may  agree  with  his 


or  its  employees  on  a  board  of  conciliation  to  de- 
termine all  matters  on  which  differences  are 
likely  to  arise,  or  a  board  of  conciliation  may  be 
chosen  by  the  united  employers  and  employees 
either  of  a  particular  trade  or  of  a  particular 
town  or  geographical  section  ;  or  government 
(national,  municipal,  or  State)  may  appoint 
boards  of  conciliation  ;  or,  finally,  private  parties 
— a  church  (as  in  New  York  City)  or  any  body 
of  men — may  appoint  a  board  or  committee  of 
conciliation. 

Once  more,  in  combinations  of  both  arbitra- 
tion and  conciliation  there  is  chance  for  still 
more  variety,  while  finally,  as  to  the  methods  of 
choosing,  constituting,  and  conducting  boards, 
the  differences  are  beyond  computation,  and  can- 
not at  length  be  noticed  here.  The  main  differ- 
ences, however,  must  be  kept  in  mind.  There 
are  often  extreme  objections  raised  against 
and  difficulties  encountered  in  the  way  of  one 
form  of  arbitration  and  conciliation  which  do 
not  apply  to  another.  Of  scarcely  any  indus- 
trial problem  is  it  more  difficult  or  more  danger- 
ous to  make  general  statements.  Before  at- 
tempting any  general  consideration,  therefore, 
the  history  should  be  carefully  studied  in  con- 
siderable detail. 

II.  HISTORY. 

The  history  of  modern  industrial  arbitration 
and  conciliation  belongs  almost  wholly  to  the 
last  quarter  of  a  century,  yet  finds  its  origin  in 
Prance  early  in  the  century,  and  there  connects 
itself  in  an  interesting  way  with  the  medieval 
methods  of  settling  industrial  disputes.  (See 
GUILDS.)  We  shall  study  the  history  by  coun- 
tries, commencing  with  France. 

In  the  silk  trade  of  Lyons  there  existed,  in  the  last 
century,  created  by  the  trade  guild  or 
corporation,  a  Tribunal  Cpmmun,  for 
the  settlement  of  industrial  disputes,  French. 
which  was  a  part  of  the  recognized  «„„_,  .„  JM 
guild  system  of  the  medieval  period ._  j*fm  aes 
It  was  broken  up  by  the  law  of  March,Frud  homines. 
1791,  abolishing  all  the  French  guilds. 
The  silk  manufacturers,  however,  felt 
its  loss,  and  taking  advantage  of  a  visit  of  Napoleon  to 
their  city,  they  petitioned  for  an  institution  similar  to 
their  old  court.  This  was  granted  by  the  law  of  March 
18, 1806,  and  Lyons  thus  saw  the  first  of  what  became  the 
famous  French  Conseils  des  PrutThommes  (boards  of 
conciliation,  composed  of  skilled  men  of  a  trade).  This 
first  conseil  and  its  immediate  successors  were  not 
composed,  as  the  conseils  are  now,  equally  of  employers 
and  employees.  The  employers  were  in  the  majority, 
4  and  in  a  sense  the  working  men  were  not  really  repre- 
sented at  all,  for  this  first  conseil  consisted  of  five  mer- 
chants and  four  chefs  d' ateliers  or  overseers,  and  thus 
was  representative  of  all  the  early  conseils.  They  were 
what  their  name  implied,  councils  of  the  heads,  or 
skilled  men  of  the  trade.  Nevertheless,  they  attempt- 
ed the  work  of  modern  boards  of  conciliation,  and  with 
considerable  success.  Similar  conseils  were  started  at 
Rouen  in  1807  ;  Nimes,  1807  ;  Avignon  and  other  places, 
1808.  By  the  law  of  1809  workmen  themselves  were 
admitted  to  the  conseils,  tho  not  in  equal  number 
with  the  manufacturers,  this  not  being  granted  till  1848, 
and  then  being  soon  withdrawn.  In  1810  a  conseil ^was 
formed  in  the  soap  manufacturing  trade  in  Marseilles, 
and  from  this  time  entered  other  trades.  After  1810  the 
system  spread  through  all  France  and  into  the  adjacent 
countries.  There  are  at  present  117  conseils  in  France, 
four  in  Paris  alone  handling  some  24,000  cases  annu- 
ally. 

The  conseils  at  present  in  France  consist  of  two  com- 
mittees, or  bureaus  :  a  bureau  of  conciliation,  called  a 
bureau  particulair,  and  a  bureau  of  arbitration,  called 
a.  bureau  general.  The  bureau  of  conciliation  is  com- 
posed of  one  employer  and  one  workman,  whose  office 
is  to  form  a  tribunal  to  which,  without  the  cost,  delay, 
or  vexation  of  legal  process,  can  be  referred  disputes 


Arbitration  and  Conciliation. 


76 


Arbitration  and  Conciliation. 


between  working  men  themselves  or  between  working 
men  and  their  employers.  The  jurisdiction  of  this 
bureau,  however,  is  limited  at  present  to  the  interpreta- 
tion of  contracts  and  disputes  involving  amounts  not 
over  $40,  though  a  bill  has  already  passed  the  Cham- 
ber of  Deputies  to  raise  the  limit  to  $100.  Two  thirds 
of  the  cases  that  come  before  them  are  stated  by  the 
Report  on  France  of  the  (English)  Royal  Commission 
on  Labour,  to  be  settled  at  a  cost  not  exceeding  30 
centimes  (6  cents),  the  cost  of  issuing  a  citation  notice  ; 
75  per  cent,  of  the  cases  refer  to  wages.  The  bureau 
is  compelled  to  sit  at  least  three  times  a  week. 

The  bureau  of  arbitration  (bureau  general)  is  com- 
posed of  three  employers  and  three  workmen,  and  con- 
siders cases  that  cannot  be  settled  by  the  bureaus  of  ar- 
bitration. Witnesses  may  be  called,  and  are  compelled 
to  appear.  Counsel  may  not  appear.  Appeal  can  be 
taken  to  the  Tribunal  of  Commerce  if  the  sum  involved 
is  over  $40.  Workmen  and  employees  alternately  pre- 
side. In  each  commune  (township)  or  circonscription, 
the  employers  elect  their  representatives  and  the  work- 
ing men  theirs.  Details  vary,  but  usually  any  working 
man  of  25  years,  who  has  worked  three  years  in  the 
place,  has  a  right  to  vote  for  the  workmen's  represen- 
tatives. The  conseils  have  judication  alone  in  the  trades 
for  which  they  are  appointed.  From  1879  to  1888  the 
bureaus  of  conciliation  tried  410,280  cases,  of  which  66 
per  cent,  resulted  in  conciliation,  or  were  withdrawn 
before  j  udgment,  and  33  per  cent,  proved  irreconcilable. 
The  bureaus  of  arbitration  heard  119,487  cases,  of  which 
67,222  were  withdrawn  before  judgment,  40,659  were 
finally  decided,  and  9886  were  admitted  to  appeal.  Less 
than  one  fifth  of  these  ever  came  up  for  appeal,  and  of 
these  only  32  per  cent,  were  reversed.  The  difficulty  of 
settlement,  however,  appears  to  be  on  the  increase.  In 
1887,  of  41,917  cases  before  bureaus  of  conciliation,  15,656 
were  not  conciliated.  In  1888,  out  of  41,117  cases,  16,319 
were  not  conciliated.  In  1889,  out  of  43,141,  16,178  •were 
not.  In  1890,  in  the  conseil  for  the  textile  trade  in 
Paris,  3112  cases  came  up  and  1124  could  not  be  con- 
ciliated, and  in  1891,  2841  cases  came  up  and  949  could 
not  be  conciliated.  According  to  Maurice  Block's  An- 
nuaire  de  I' Economie  Politique,  of  the  cases  appearing 
before  the  bureaus  of  conciliation  from  1876-80,  71 
per  cent,  of  the  cases  were  conciliated  ;  in  1881,  61  per 
cent.;  in  1882, 64  per  cent.;  in  1883,  64  per  cent.;  since  1883, 
not  over  53  per  cent.  This  is  perhaps  due  to  the  in- 
creasing size  of  industrial  disputes.  The  conseils,  it 
•will  be  remembered,  are  limited  to  the  comparatively 
minor  matters  of  personal  or  implied  contracts  be- 
tween employers  and  workmen,  such  as  payment  of 
•wages,  absence  from  work,  poor  work- 
manship, apprenticeship  ;  but  the  in- 
_,  ,  creasing  need  has  led  to  the  question 
Ijrencn.  whether  the  conseils  could  not  be  made 
Conciliation,  to  settle  more  important  matters,  as  in 
the  cases  of  strikes,  etc.  It  has  been 
generally  felt,  however,  in  France,  that 
their  machinery  was  not  adequate  to 
such  cases,  and  organizations  of  both  employers  and 
workmen  have  endeavored  to  construct  machinery  of 
their  own  to  this  end,  while  latterly  the  State  has  tried 
its  hand.  The  most  important  of  French  strikes— that 
of  the  Carmaux  miners  in  1892 — was  settled  by  the  in- 
tervention of  M.  Loubet,  the  prime-minister.  Accord- 
ing to  the  English  Report  on  France  (1894),  out  of  1212 
employers'  associations  in  France,  144  had  provision 
for  conciliation  or  arbitration,  and  out  of  1588  working 
men's  associations,  648  (in  1891). 

On  December  27,  1892,  a  law  "was  promulgated  in 
France  providing  for  a  new  form  of  arbitration.  In 
case  of  industrial  disputes  (strikes,  etc.),  it  is  the  duty 
of  the  justice  of  the  peace  to  urge  (not  require)  having 
recourse  to  conciliation  or  arbitration,  and  he  may  or- 
ganize a  board  of  arbitration  if  he  choose.  Conciliation, 
however,  must  be  voluntary  and  unanimous,  not  im- 
posed by  a  majority  vote.  The  law  has  scarcely  had 
time  to  work,  but  in  1893  634  strikes  are  reported,  and 
in  109  conciliation  or  arbitration  was  tried.  Of  these 
attempts,  43  were  initiated  by  the  employees,  40  by  jus- 
ticesof  the  peace,  five  by  employers,  and  two  by  m'utual 
agreement.  Employers  declined  conciliation  33  times, 
employees  five.  In  54  cases,  committees  of  conciliation 
•were  appointed;  38  led  to  conciliation,  21  being  com- 
promised. In  17  cases  unreconciled  disputes  were  re- 
ferred to  arbitration,  but  objections  to  the  decision 
•were  raised  six  times  by  employers,  three  times  by 
the  employed,  and  twice  by  both.  In  16  cases,  strikes 
"were  continued  after  attempts  at  conciliation,  but  10 
•were  initially  compromised. 

Arbitration  and  conciliation  in  Belgium  has  little 
that  is  new.  Conseils des  Prud'hommes  were  established 
in  Belgium,  as  in  France,  on  the  basis  of  the  French  law 
of  1806,  but  were  so  controlled  by  the  employers  and 


by  head  workmenj  whose  interests  lay  more  with  the 
employers  than  •with  bona  fide  workmen,  that  they 
gave  little  satisfaction.    The  workmen's 
grievances  were  somewhat  allayed  by 
the  law  of  1859  and  still  more  by  the  law      Belgium. 
of  1889.     At  present  the  Belgian  Conseils 
des  Prud'hommes  resemble  very  closely 
the  French.     In  Belgium,  too,  as  in  France,  the  diffi- 
culty of  settlement  seems  to  be  rising,  as  appears  in 
the  following  figures  taken  from  the  Annuaire  Statis- 
tique  de  la  Belgique,  1802,  and  quoted  in  the  Report  on 
Belgium  of  the  English  Royal  Commission  on  Labour. 


YEAR. 

Cases. 

Concili- 
ated. 

Arbi- 
trated. 

Not 
Settled. 

1882..,  

rt-8 

1883  

2,183 

t;6o 

1884  

2,287 

1885  

3>272 

488 

1886  
1887  

3.509 

2,333 

336 

554 

1888  

r889  

4,578 

6o< 

1890  
1891  

4.531 

5,078 

3i399 

457 
838 

«7 

967 

As  in  France,  again,  there  has  been  recent  effort  in 
Belgium  to  establish  courts  of  arbitration  and  concilia- 
tion other  than  the  Conseils  des  Prud'hommes.  In  1876, 
after  the  strike  at  Marrinout,  M.  Weiler,  mining  en- 
gineer for  the  collieries,  organized  what  were  called 
chambers  of  explanations,  which  were  practically 
boards  of  conciliation.  They  •were  somewhat  success- 
ful, and  in  1886,  after  the  riots  of  that  year,  the  Govern- 
ment passed  a  law  establishing  councils  of  industry 
and  labor  to  act  as  boards  of  conciliation.  Up  to  May 
30,  1892,  50  councils  had  been  established.  But  their 
success  has  not  been  great.  The  mining  industry  in 
Belgium  is  one  where  the  miners  work  under  very 
severe  conditions,  and  strikes  are  constantly  arising 
too  bitter  and  too  large  for  courts  of  conciliation  to 
effect  to  any  marked  degree. 

Passing  from  Belgium  to  other  continental  European 
countries  our  account  is  abridged  from  the  very  val- 
uable and  recent  reports  of  the  various  countries  made 
to  the  English  Royal  Commission  on  Labour. 

Special  courts  for  the  settlement  of  industrial  dis- 
putes have  in  some  form  or  other  been 
provided  for  by  the  German  law  since 
the  beginning  of  the  century.   .  .  .    The    Germany. 
incorporation  into  France  of  the  left  bank 
of  the  Rhine  during  the  Napoleonic  wars 
brought   the  Rhine  provinces  under  the  Napoleonic 
Code,  which  provided  for  the  formation  of  Conseils  de 
Prud'hommes.  ...  Councils  of  this  kind  were  instituted 
in  1808  for  Aix-la-Chapelle  and  Burtscheid,  and  in  1811 
for  Crefeld  and  Cologne  ;  when  the  provinces  reverted 
to  Prussia  the  councils  were  left  intact,  and  an  effort 
was  made  to  extend  the  system  to  other  parts  of  the 
country.  .  .  .    By  an  Order  in  Council  of  August  7, 
1846,  they  -were   called    "Royal    Councils,"  and  em- 
powered to  deal  with  all  disputes  arising  between  man- 
ufacturers and  their  foremen,  workmen,  and  appren- 
tices ;  home  workers  were  also  included  under  their 
jurisdiction.  .  .  . 

The  restriction  of  the  power  of  the  guilds  effected  by 
the  Prussian  Industrial  Code  of  1845  had  led  to  dissat- 
isfaction among  artisans  with  the  legal  provisions 
for  settling  industrial  disputes.  The  tendency  of 
Prussian  legislation  appeared  to  be  in  the  direction  of 
relegating  all  disputes  to  the  ordinary  courts,  •while 
the  artisans  demanded  special  industrial  courts  on  the 
model  of  those  existing  in  the  Rhine  provinces.  A 
committee  of  employers  and  employed,  summoned  by 
the  Government  to  Berlin  to  consider  the  matter,  drew 
up  a  bill  for  the  establishment  of  industrial  courts, 
which  became  law  on  February  2,  1849.  Only  n  courts 
were  established.  .  .  .  The  procedure  of  these  courts 
was  not  laid  down  with  any  exactness,  and  their  con- 
stitution was  not  very  clearly  defined  in  the  Act;  these 
defects,  combined  with  the  delay  attending  their  deci- 
sions, go  far  to  account  for  their  comparatively  small 
success. 

The  Industrial  Code  of  1869,  which  regulated  the  in- 
dustries of  the  empire,  contained  a  section,  since  re- 
pealed by  the  Act  of  1890.  .  .  . 

In  the  amendment  to  the  Industrial  Code  of  1881  con- 
cerning the  guilds,  provision  was  made  for  the  estab- 
lishment of  courts  of  arbitration,  for  the  settlement  of 


Arbitration  and  Conciliation. 


77 


Arbitration  and  Conciliation. 


•disputes  between  members  of  the  guild  and  their 
journeymen  or  apprentices,  and  a  further  amendment 
of  1887  extended  the  jurisdiction  of  these  courts  in  some 
•cases  to  non- members.  Further,  the  insurance  laws 
of  1883  and  1884  provided  for  arbitration  in  disputes  be- 
tween employers  and  their  work-people  with  regard  to 
the  amount  which  the  employers  should  contribute  to 
the  sick  funds,  or  the  compensation  due  under  the  Ac- 
cident Insurance  Law.  On  the  whole,  however,  the 
State  provision  for  arbitration  and  conciliation  in  Ger- 
many has  proved  ineffective,  and  the  advocates  of  this 
method  of  settling  industrial  disputes  have,  ever  since 
1873,  made  repeated  efforts  to  secure  additional  powers. 
...  In  1886  a  resolution  was  passed  "To  request  the 
Chancellor  of  the  Empire  to  introduce  a  bill  for  the  com- 
pulsory establishment  of  industrial  courts,  with  the  con- 
dition that  the  assessors  in  such  courts  shall  be  elected 
in  equal  numbers  by  employers  and  employed  sep- 
arately, and  by  ballot."  The  insertion  of  the  word 
"  compulsory"  was  due  in  a  great  measure  to  the  influ- 
ence of  the  socialist  members,  and  it  was  omitted  in 
the  further  resolution  passed  in  1889. 

The  law,  finally  passed  on  July  29,  1890,  which  came 
into  effect  on  April  i,  1891,  holds  to  the  old  principle  of 
leaving  the  institution  of  industrial  courts  in  the  main 
to  the  communal  authorities.  It  differs  from  the  sec- 
tions of  the  Industrial  Code,  which  it  supplants,  by  in- 
cluding a  series  of  provisions  for  the  formation,  under 
•certain  circumstances,  of  a  board  of  conciliation.  _  The 
preamble  states  that  "  in  many  recent  strikes  it  has 
been  felt  that,  altho  both  sides  were  ready  to  treat, 
negotiations  could  not  be  initiated  without  long  delay, 
because  no  regular  and  authoritative  body  existed 
which  could  undertake  the  conduct  of  such  negotia- 
tions. The  present  law  attempts  to  establish  a  body  of 
this  kind.  .  .  ."  The  authorities  of  a  commune,  or  of  a 
number  of  communes  combined,  may  establish  such  a 
•court ;  should  they  prove  remiss,  the  employers  and 
workmen  concerned  may  appeal  to  the  central  Govern- 
ment to  order  the  establishment  of  a  court.  All  ex- 
penses not  covered  by  fees,  costs,  and  fines  must  be 
met  by  the  commune.  The  court  consists  of  a  presi- 
dent, nominated  by  the  communal  authorities  and  ap- 
proved by  the  Government,  and  at  least  two  assessors  ; 
but  whatever  be  the  number,  half  must  represent  the 
employers  and  half  the  employed.  They  are  elected  by 
ballot,  and  must  be  over  30  years  of  age  ;  neither  pau- 
pers nor  persons  under  any  legal  disability  are  eligible, 
and  all  persons  elected  must  have_  resided  or  been 
employed  for  two  years  in  the  district.  Women  may 
neither  vote  nor  be  elected.  The  elec- 
torate includes  all  persons  over  25  years 
German  Law.  of  age,  who  possess  the  qualifications 
required  for  assessors.  The  assessors, 
who  cannot  refuse  election,  except  for 
special  reasons,  are  compensated  for  traveling  expen- 
ses and  for  loss  of  time.  The  contending  parties  may 
not  be  represented  by  lawyers  or  by  persons  who  are 
professionally  engaged  in  legal  proceedings.  The 
courts  may  take  the  evidence  on  oath  both  of  the  par- 
ties concerned  and  of  witnesses  or  experts.  If  the  mat- 
ter in  dispute  exceeds  the  value  of  100  marks  (.£5),  an 
appeal  may  be  made  against  the  decision  of  the  court 
to  the  regular  courts  of  the  district.  Any  industrial 
court  may  convert  itself  into  a  board  of  conciliation 
when  appealed  to  by  both  parties.  .  .  .  The  decisions 
of  the  court,  when  acting  as  a  board  of  conciliation, 
are  not  legally  binding,  and  cannot  be  enforced ;  in 
other  cases  the  court  notifies  its  decision  to  the  parties 
concerned,  who  must  declare  within  a  given  time 
whether  they  accept  it  or  not.  ...  In  any  case,  the 
result  of  the  negotiations  must  be  public.  The  court 
must  give  its  opinion  on  industrial  questions  •when 
required  to  do  so  by  the  Government  or  the  communal 
authorities,  and  it  is  empowered  to  make  suggestions 
to  these  authorities  on  matters  relating  to  the  persons 
or  establishments  under  its  jurisdiction.  The  law  rec- 
ognizes the  existing  rights  of  the  guilds  and  their 
courts,  but  calls  upon  all  other  industrial  courts  to 
revise  their  constitution  before  April  i,  1892,  and  to  re- 
model it  in  accordance  with  the  existing  law. 

So  far  179  courts  have  been  formed  in  the  six  largest 
German  States,  or  133  in  Prussia,  13  in  Bavaria,  13  in 
Saxony,  nine  in  Wurtemberg,  seven  in  Baden,  and 
four  in  Hesse.  Alsace  and  Lorraine,  in  spite  of  their 
great  industrial  development,  have  as  yet  taken  no 
advantage  of  the  Act,  and  the  fact  that  Saxony  has  no 
more  courts  than  Bavaria  seems  to  show  that  there  is 
no  definite  relation  between  the  provision  for  arbitra- 
tion and  the  probable  need  of  it. 

The  Sozialpolitisches  Centralblatt  calls  attention 
to  the  very  few  cases  in  which  industrial  courts  have 
exercised  the  power  given  to  them  by  the  Act  of  re- 
solving themselves  into  boards  of  conciliation.  One 


successful  instance  is,  however,  recorded  in  Kiel,  in 
September,  1892,  when  a  pending  dispute  between 
brewers  and  their  work-people  was  averted.  The  Leip- 
zig court  has  established  an  information  office  which 
furnishes  advice  gratis  to  workmen.  The  assessors 
attend  in  turns  and  give  the  workmen  the  benefit  of 
their  experience;  and  tho  the  office  has  lately  been 
in  difficulties,  owing  to  the  complaints  of  the  unorgan- 
ised workmen  that  its  benefits  were  confined  to  those 
who  were  organised,  it  continues  to  exist  and  to  do 
useful  work.  It  was  established  in  April,  1890,  and  in 
the  first  year  of  its  activity  gave  advice  to  over  1000 
workmen. 

Efforts  have  been  made  from  time  to  time  in  Ger- 
many to  organise  voluntary  boards  of  arbitration  and 
conciliation  in  the  different  industries,  but  except  in 
the  printing  trade  little  has  been  achieved  in  this  direc- 
tion. In  1873  tne  Economic  Club  ( Verein  fur  Soztal- 
politiK)  issued  a  report  on  the  subject,  and  presented  a 
petition  to  the  Reichstag  praying  for  the  "speedy  pro- 
mulgation of  a  (normal)  law  authorising  boards  of  con- 
ciliation." The  trade-unions  were  in  favour  of  estab- 
lishing such  boards,  and,  about  1870,  boards  seem  to 
have  been  formed  in  Griinberg,  Guben,  Danzig,  Berlin. 
Stralsund,  Barth  and  Zingst,  Rostock,  Offenbach,  and 
Biebrich.  The  details  recorded  of  these  boards  are 
both  meagre  and  contradictory  ;  and  their  history  does 
not  appear  to  have  contributed  much  to  the  records 
of  successful  arbitration. 

In  Switzerland,  boards  of  conciliation  and  arbitra- 
tion have  already  been  instituted  in  connexion  with  25 
trade-unions,  and  in  some  cantons  they  have  been  es- 
tablished and  supported  by  the  cantonal  governments. 

The  principal  object  of  these  boards  is  to  draw  up 
wages  lists  and  workshop  rules,  which  employers  and 
employed  both  agree  to  observe.    The  unions  in  which 
they  have  been  established  have  found 
them  both   active   and    efficient.      The 
board  of  the  Embroiderers'  Federation  Switzerland, 
considered  665  cases  of  disputes  between 
October,   1885,  and    March,   1889,  554  of 
which  it  brought  to  a  satisfactory  conclusion.     The 
cantons  where  they  have  been  established  are  Geneva, 
Neuchatel,  Vaud,  and  Urban  Bale. 

The  Tribunaux  d' Arbitrage  Industriel.  which  were 
instituted  at  Geneva  in  1874,  consisted  of  a  justice  of 
the}  peace  as  president  and  two  arbitrators,  elected  re- 
spectively by  the  employers  and  employed.  These 
arbitrators  acted  from  political  motives,  and  hence  the 
boards  proved  a  failure.  They  were  consequently 
abolished  in  1883  to  make  room  for  Conseils  de  Prud'- 
hotnmes  on  the  French  pattern.  Disputes  referred  to 
these  courts  are  first  brought  before  the  conciliation 
board,  then  before  the  board  of  arbitration,  while  a 
court  of  appeal  gives  the  final  decision  as  to  all  cases 
in  which  the  damages  are  estimated  at  more  than  500 
frs.  The  judge  and  clerks  are  paid  by  the  State, 
and  the  whole  process  is  free  both  to  employers  and 
employed.  Besides  their  judicial  functions  the prud' - 
hommes  are  authorised  to  superintend  the  training  of 
apprentices,  the  sanitary  condition  of  workshops,  and 
to  make  recommendations  to  the  Government  for  the 
advancement  of  trade  and  industry  in  the  canton. 
They  thus  form  a  kind  of  chamber  of  commerce. 

A  peculiar  feature  in  the  constitution  of  these  boards 
is  that  counsel  is  not  allowed  to  either  side,  but  plaintiff 
and  defendant  are  represented  by  members  of  the  trade 
to  which  they  belong.  To  facilitate  this  representation 
the  prud 'hommes  are  divided  into  10  trade  groups.  .  .  . 

In  1888,  753  cases  were  brought  before  the  board  of 
conciliation,  21  of  which  were  withdrawn,  and  522  were 
settled  ;  the  remaining  210  were  passed  on  to  the  board 
of  arbitration,  203  of  which  were  settled  by  it  and  six  by 
the  court  of  appeal.  The  total  number  of  cases  for  the 
first  three  years  amounted  to  2182,  of  which  1995  concern- 
ed questions  of  wages  and  compensation,  113  were  cases 
of  dismissal,  12  were  connected  with  men  who  had  left 
work  without  warning,  55  with  breach  of  apprentice 
rules,  five  with  certificates  (Forderung  eines  Zeugnis- 
ses),  and  two  with  breach  of  contract.  The  disputes  on 
wages  questions  thus  form  91.3  per  cent,  of  the  total 
number,  and  the  percentage  of  disputes  settled  by  con- 
ciliation, which  in  1885  amounted  to  55.6,  had  risen  in 
1888  to  69.3.  The  beneficial  results  of  the  board  meet 
with  general  recognition,  and  it  is  proposed  to  extend 
its  competence  to  agriculture  also. 

An  Act  conferring  similar  powers  was  passed  at 
Neuchatel  in  1885,  with  this  difference,  that  whereas 
the  Geneva  boards  are  compulsory,  in  the  canton  of 
Neuchatel  they  are  optional,  and  are  only  formed  in 
places  which  obtain  the  necessary  powers  from  the 
cantonal  Government.  Each  board  consists  of  from 
16  to  30  sworn  members,  and  the  president,  who  is 
elected  for  six  months,  is  alternately  an  employer  and 


Arbitration  and  Conciliation. 


Arbitration  and  Conciliation. 


a  workman.  Each  board  has  a  court  of  conciliation 
and  a  court  of  arbitration.  The  officials  of  the  board 
are  elected  and  paid  by  the  cantonal  Government. 
These  boards  possess  the  same  administrative  powers 
as  those  of  Geneva.  Chaux-de-Fonds  is  the  only  place 
which  has  hitherto  availed  itself  of  the  powers  con- 
ferred under  this  Act,  but  the  court  established  there 
nas  become  a  fixed  institution,  and  is  now  regarded  as 
indispensable. 

In  Italy  institutions  for  the  settlement  of  disputes 

between  labour  and  capital  hardly  exist.    In  the  event 

of  strikes,  the  political  authorities  are  called  upon  to 

restore  order ;  after  which,  by  common 

consent,  the  question  is  either  referred 

Italy.          to  the  president  of  the  local  chamber 

of  commerce,  or,  as  at  Rovigo,  to  the 

heads  of  the  working  men's  associations, 

or,  as  at  Genoa,  to  some  influential  person.    But  the 

labour  chambers  are  now  beginning  to  assume  the 

position  of   arbitrators  in   disputes   arising  between 

masters  and  operatives.    The  recently  organised  chain  • 

ber  of  Venice  proposes  in  addition,  under  Art.  31  of 

its  regulations,  the  establishment  of  a  mixed  industrial 

court  of  arbitration. 

This  principle  of  arbitration  has  also  been  adopted 
by  the  Government.  As  the  commissioners  of  1878 
pointed  out,  boards  of  conciliation  ought  to  be  pecu- 
liarly easy  to  establish  in  Italy,  where  traditions  of  the 
mediaeval  trading  associations  still  linger.  "  From  the 
time  of  the  communes,  and  throughout  the  most  splen- 
did period  of  Italian  industry,  the  colleges  (le  Univer- 
sita)  of  merchants  and  craftsmen  had  the  right  of  elect- 
ing special  judicial  bodies  which  exercised  both  the 
functions  or  the  modern  commercial  tribunals  and 
those  which  are  generally  relegated  to  the  colleges  of 
Probi  Viri."  The  commissioners  of  1878,  after  many 
inquiries,  came  to  the  conclusion  that  the  institution  of 
boards  of  arbitration  (Collegi  di  Probi  Viri)  would  be 
well  received  both  by  employers  and  employed.  Six- 
teen chambers  of  commerce  and  22  prefects  pronounced 
decidedly  in  their  favour;  four  prefects  and  10  chambers 
of  commerce  hesitated ;  to  chambers  of  commerce  and 
eight  prefects  were  hostile.  Nevertheless,  no  bill  was 
agreed  upon  till  June,  1893,  and  as  yet  little  has  resulted. 
Of  other  countries  Dr.  E.  R.  L.  Gould  writes  in  the 
Yale  Review  (February,  1895) : 

"Provisions  in  Austria  for  dealing  with  industrial 
difficulties  are  fairly  similar  to  those  made  in  Germany 
and  need  not  be  separately  described. 

"  In  the  Scandinavian  kingdoms  of  Sweden  and  Den- 
mark disputes  have  to  be  decided,  in  the  former  coun- 
try before  a  police  court,  in  the  latter  by  a  suit  at  law 
the  same  as  any  ordinary  breach  of  contract.    A  proj- 
ect is  now  before  the  Danish  Parliament 
looking   to   the    creation   of   industrial 
Scandinavia,  tribunals    to   consist  of   not  less  than 
four  members,  with  a  president  chosen 
by  them.    Representation  of  both  orders 
is  to  be  equal.    The  sanction  of  the  com- 
munal   authorities    is    requisite.      Questions    arising 
under  existing  contracts  are  to  be  tried  in  these  courts. 
As  boards  of  conciliation  only  will  they  deal  with  col- 
lective disputes.     There  are  no  voluntary  boards  of 
any  prominence  in  either  of  these  two  countries." 

We  come  now  to  the  in  many  ways  more  im- 
portant study  of  arbitration    and 
conciliation  in  England,  and  notice 
England,     the   first,   Professor  Jevons'   sum- 
mary of  the  early  English  legisla- 
tion on  the  subject.     He  says  in  his 
The  State  in,  Relation  to  Labour,  p.  150  : 

"  Under  the  Elizabethan  statutes  there  was  no  place 
for  arbitration,  because  the  conditions  of  labour  were 
placed  entirely  in  the  hands  of  magistrates.  But  the 
decadence  of  that  legislation  was  marked  by  the  stat- 
ute of  the  20  Geo.  II.,  cap.  19,  which  introduced  a  new 
principle  by  giving  summary  jurisdiction  to  justices 
of  the  peace  in  disputes  between  masters  and  servants 
when  the  term  or  hiring  is  one  year  or  longer.  A 
justice  of  the  peace  may  decide  all  such  disputes, 
although  no  rate  or  assessment  of  wages  has  been  made 
that  year  by  the  justices  of  the  peace  of  the  shire,  etc. 
Extensive  powers  were  given  to  the  magistrates  for 
coercing  refractory  servants  and  apprentices,  although 
there  was  the  alternative  of  discharging  them  from 
their  engagements.  By  the  31  Geo.  II.,  cap.  n,  the 
powers  of  the  act  were  extended  to  the  case  of  agri- 
cultural servants  hired  for  less  than  a  year ;  but  the 
magistrate's  interference  was  clearly  limited  to  dis- 
putes arising  during  the  currency  of  a  hiring,  and  no 
power  was  given  to  bind  servants  beyond  that  term. 


"  During  the  eighteenth  century  a  series  of  acts  was 
partly  the  same  as  those  known  as  the  Combination 
Acts,  which  provided  means  for  the  settlement  of  dis- 
putes in  particular  trades,  especially  those  engaged 
with  cotton.  The  act  of  the  43  Geo.  Ill,  (1803),  cap. 
151,  was  of  a  more  elaborate  character,  and  enabled 
disputes  between  masters  and  weavers,  or  such  as 
arise  with  persons  engaged  in  ornamenting  cotton 
goods  by  the  needle,  to  be  settled  by  referees  appoint- 
ed by  a  justice  of  the  peace.  Such  acts  were,  how- 
ever, consolidated  and  replaced  by  that  of  the  5  Geo. 
IV.,  cap.  96,  which  established  one  general  law  relat- 
ing to  arbitration  of  disputes  in  every  branch  of  trade 
and  manufacture  (1824)." 

Besides  these  laws,  attempts  were  early  made  in  Eng- 
land at  voluntary  arbitration.     It  is  said  that  disputes 
were  invariably  settled  in  the  pottery  trade  as  early 
as  1836.    The  carpet- weavers  in  1839  adopted  a  system 
of  voluntary  conciliation,  consisting  of  a  yearly  meet- 
ing with  their  employers  to  determine  wages.     The 
system  was  still  in  practice  in  1856.    A  Macclesfield 
Silk  Trade  Board  of  Arbitration  was  established  in 
1849,  iQ  direct  imitation  of    the  French   Conseils  des 
Prud  hommes,  but  it  lasted  only  four  years.    In  1853  and 
1854  the  National  Association  of  United  Trades  for  the 
Protection  of  Industry  was  successful  in  conciliating 
several  disputes.     But  it  was  not  until  1860  that  any 
important  and  permanent  board  of  conciliation  was 
established,  the  first  being  modelled  after  the  French 
conseils,    and   established    through  the 
efforts    of    Mr.   A.  J.   Mundella   in  the 
hosiery  and  glove  trade  of  Nottingham.     Boards  of 
The  trade  had  long  suffered  from  dis-  conciHation 
astrous  strikes,  and  in  that  year  had  had 
three  strikes,  one  lasting  n   weeks  and 
threatening  a  general  lockout.    Concilia- 
tion came  as  a  needed  relief.    The  Nottingham  board 
was  soon  followed  by  a  similar  board  in  the  building- 
trades  of  Wolverhampton,  created  by  the  efforts  of  Sir 
Rupert  Kettle.    The  boards  were  very  successful,  and 
were  copied  rapidly.    The  action  of  these  boards  is 
purely  voluntary ;  the  only  power  used  is  the  appeal 
to  honour.    The  boards  are  made  up  of  an  equal  num- 
ber of  representatives  of  employers  and  employed,  the 
officers  usually  being  a  president,  vice-president,  and 
two  secretaries,  one  for  each  class.     All  have  an  equal 
vote.    Meetings  are  held  monthly,  quarterly,  or  when 
needed.     The  boards  have  a  sub-committee  to  settle 
minor  difficulties.    Expenses  are  met  by  both  parties. 

At  first  the  working  men  were  admitted  to  the  room, 
only  to  sit  on  a  rude  bench  before  their  employers, 
and.  only  allowed  to  speak  when  spoken  to.  To-day 
they  sit  around  one  table,  employer  and  employe 
alternating.  Conclusion  is  not  usually  reached  by 
sho  w  of  hands.  Mr.  Crompton,  writing  of  these  boards, 
says: 

"The  proceedings  of  the  board  are  very  informal, 
not  like  a  court,  but  the  masters  and  men  sit  round  a 
table,  the  men  interspersed  with  the  masters.  Each 
side  has  its  secretary.  The  proceedings  are  without 
ceremony,  and  the  matter  is  settled  by  what  the  men 
call  a  '  long-jaw  '  discussion  and  explanation  of  views, 
in  which  the  men  convince  the  masters  as  often  as  the 
masters  the  men.  Of  course  this  does  not  mean  that 
every  member  of  the  board  is  always  convinced,  though 
it  seems  that  even  this  is  very  often  the  case  ;  but  when 
they  are  not  thev  are  content  to  compromise.  .  .  . 
It  is,  in  fact,  conciliation,  and  is  far  better  than  the  de- 
cision of  a  court  or  of  an  umpire.  The  'long-jaw,' 
ending  in  agreement,  may  take  a  longer  time,  but  is  the 
true  practical  way  out  of  the  difficulty." 

Mr.  Mundella,  in  1868,  after  eight  years'  experience 
on  the  board,  thus  speaks  on  this  point : 

"When  we  came  to  make  our  rules  it  was  agreed 
that  the  chairman  should  be  elected  by  the  meeting, 
and  should  have  a  vote,  and  a  casting  vote  when  neces- 
sary. I  was  chosen  the  chairman  in  the  first  instance, 
and  I  have  been  the  chairman  ever  since.  I  have  a 
casting  vote,  and  twice  that  casting  vote  has  got  us  into 
trouble,  and  for  the  last  four  years  it  has  been  resolved 
that  we  would  not  vote  at  all.  Even  when  a  working- 
man  was  convinced,  or  a  master  convinced,  he  did  not 
like  acting  against  his  own  order,  and  in  ome  instances 
we  had  secessions  in  consequence  of  that ;  so  we  said, 
•  Do  not  let  us  vote  again,  let  us  try  if  we  can  agree  ;  * 
and  we  did  agree." 

Palgrave's  Dictionary  of  Political  Economy  gives  the 
following  detail  of  the  board  established  in  1869  in 
the  manufactured  iron  trade  of  the  north  of  England : 
"  The  men  belonging  to  the  different  works  select  in 
each  case  by  ballot  a  delegate,  and  the  employers  be- 
longing to  a  single  firm  are  similarly  represented  by  a 
single  delegate.  The  members  of  the  board  thus  con- 
stituted elect  a  president,  together  with  one  secretary^ 


Arbitration  and  Conciliation. 


79 


Arbitration  and  Conciliation. 


from  among  the  delegates  of  the  masters,  and  a  vice- 
president,  together  with  a  second  secretary,  from 
among  the  delegates  of  the  men.  They  also  elect  a 
standing  committee,  as  it  is  called,  consisting  of  five 
representatives  of  the  men  and  10  representatives  of 
the  masters  (five  of  -whom  alone  are  able  to  discuss  or 
vote  on  any  question) ;  and  of  this  committee  the  presi- 
dent and  vice-president  are  ex-officio  members,  with- 
out enjoying  any  power  of  voting;.  The  standing  com- 
mittee meets  every  month,  or,  if  occasion  demands, 
more  frequently,  and  the  board  itself  meets  twice  a 
year  and  at  other  times  when  summoned  by  the  com- 
mittee. In  the  first  instance,  all  questions  are  laid 
before  the  committee.  They  are  submitted  in  writing  to 
the  secretaries  seven  days  before  the  meeting ;  the  writ- 
ten reply  of  the  other  side  is  usually  placed  before  the 
same  meeting,  and  an  agreement  of  submission  signed 
by  the  parties  concerned.  If  the  standing  committee 
cannot  arrive  at  an  agreement,  the  referee,  who  is  a 
permanent  official,  is  called  in  and  can  take  evidence  ; 
and  in  this  way  all  questions  may  be  settled,  except  a 
general  advance  or  reduction  in  wages,  or  the  appoint- 
ment of  an  arbitrator.  These  questions  the  board 
alone  can  decide,  and  it  also  determines  matters  re- 
ferred to  it  from  the  standing  committee,  selecting 
an  arbitrator  if  it  cannot  itself  arrive  at  an  agreement. 
The  necessary  expenses  of  the  board  are  defrayed  by 
the  subtraction  of  a  penny  every  fortnight  from  the 
wages  of  every  workman  earning  upward  of  half-a- 
crown  a  day,  and  by  requiring  each  firm  to  pay  an 
amount  equal  to  that  thus  subtracted  from  the  wages 
of  their  employes.  Up  to  September  i,  1889,  the  stand- 
ing committee  had  held  318  meetings  and  adjusted 
850  disputes,  and  the  board  itself  had  met  109  times." 

This  board  has  proved  to  be  one  of  the  most  important 
and  successful.  In  1868  formal  boards  of  arbitration 
and  conciliation  were  established  in  the  pottery  trade 

in  Staffordshire,  in  the  Leicestershire 
_  .  ,  .  hosiery  trade,  and  the  Nottingham  lace 
Boards  Ol  Ar-  trade.  Legislation,  too,  was  introduced 
bitration  and  to  aid  the  movement,  an  act  to  establish 
Conciliation  equitable  councils  of  conciliation  (30  and 
*  31  Victoria,  cap.  105)  being  passed  in  1867, 

and  another  in  1872  (35  and  36  Victoria, 
cap.  46).  Neither,  however,  proved  really  opera- 
tive, save  as  matters  of  education.  In  1872  a  joint 
committee  to  settle  disputes  was  appointed  in  the 
coal  trade  in  Durham,  and  soon  after  in  Northumber- 
land. Of  these  joint  committees,  Schulze  Gaever- 
nitz,  writing  in  1890,  says  that  "for  16  years  these  com- 
mittees have  been  uninterruptedly  active.  .  .  . 
Their  decisions  have  scarcely  ever  been  disputed,  and 
neither  party  has  ever  raised  any  objection  to  the  com- 
mittee as  an  institution.  The  Northumberland  Joint 
Committee  has  since  its  establishment  discussed  and 
decided  a  total  of  almost  4000  cases."  Nevertheless, 
alongside  of  this  favorable  view  must  be  put  an  unfa- 
vorable view,  which  we  shall  consider  later.  In  1873  a 
joint  committee  was  established  in  the  Cleveland  iron- 
stone mining  industry,  and  has  been  successful.  In 
1875,  three  other  boards  were  established,  particularly 
the  South  Wales  Miners'  Sliding  Scale  and  Joint  Com- 
mittee, and  almost  every  year  since  this  some  new 
board,  and  often  more  than  one,  has  been  organized, 
tho  down  to  1889  no  distinctively  new  feature  was 
developed.  Since  1889,  however,  a  new  form  of  board 
of  conciliation  has  appeared.  Down  to  this  date  all 
boards  had  been  connected  with  some  particular  in- 
dustry, but  in  1889  the  London  Chamber  of  Commerce 
took  the  lead,  in  connection  with  the  trade-unions  of 
London,  in  an  effort  to  establish  local  district  boards 
unconnected  with  any  one  trade.  In  1890  a  board  was 
established,  and  the  same  year  the  chambers  of  com- 
merce in  Bristol,  Hull,  Leeds,  Manchester,  Walsall,  and 
Wolverhampton  followed  the  example.  Since  then  the 
movement  has  been  almost  constant. 

Yet  while  we  trace  this  growth  of  boards  of  concilia- 
tion, we  have  now  to  chronicle  that  many  of  the  older 
ones  are  failing.  According  to  the  Report  of  the  Royal 
Commission  on  Labour  (1892),  the  board  of  the  Notting- 
ham hosiery  and  glove  trades  has,  after  20  years,  now 
become  "  practically  extinct,  though  a  desire  to  revive 
it  is  expressed  on  the  side  of  the  operatives."  The 
arbitration  portion  of  the  pottery  trade  board  has 
been  given  up,  tho  the  committee  of  conciliation 
still  continues.  The  board  in  the  wrought-nail  trade 
lasted  only  one  year.  Dissatisfaction  is  reported  with 
other  boards,  while  the  existence  of  some  of  the  boards 
most  successful  has  not  prevented  some  of  the  greatest 
strikes  England  has  yet  known.  The  Newcastle  arbi- 
tration agreement,  representing  "  the  matured  experi- 
ence of  the  colliery  proprietors  and  of  a  compact  body 
of  5000  coal-miners,  is  often  praised,  yet  the  subse- 
quent history  of  the  coal-mining  industry,  with  its 
gigantic  strike,  is  hardly  an  advertisement  of  the  suc- 


cess of  the  agreement.  Says  Mr.  W.  P.  Reeves,  Min- 
ister of  Labour  in  New  Zealand,  writing  in  the  Review 
of  Reviews  (American  edition)  for  August,  1894  : 

"  Even  in  the  case  of  England  one  has  only  to  read  the 
dry  list  of  strikes  published  monthly  and  yearly  by 
the  Board  of  Trade  to  see  to  how  great  an  extent  vol- 
untary arrangements  and  optional  conciliation  have 
failed.  When  one  takes  up  a  magazine  article  or 
pamphlet  by  some  worthy  and  optimistic  disciple  of 
Sir  Rupert  Kettle  or  Mr.  Mundella,  and  reads  that  in 
17  years  the  board  of  arbitration  for  the  manufactured 
iron  trade  has  settled  800  disputes,  that  the  London 
Chamber  of  Commerce  has  drawn  up  a  series  of  ad- 
mirable conciliation  rules,  or  that  the  powerful  trade- 
unions  of  the  boiler-makers  has  in  13  years  never  spent 
more  in  a  year  on  labor  disputes  than  9  per  cent,  of  an 
annual  income  of  $650,000,  one  is  almost  stirred  to  hope 
that  the  industrial  millennium  is  within  our  horizon. 
Yet  we  turn  to  hard  matter-of-fact  records,  and  note 
*hat  in  1889  the  strikes  in  the  United  Kingdom  num- 
bered 1 145;  that  in  1890  their  total  was  1028;  thatin  1891  it 
was  875  ;  that  in  1892  it  wasfoi ;  and  that  for  1893  the  fig- 
ures seem  certain  to  be  rather  higher  than  for  the  preced 
ing  year.  Surely  these  prove  that  private  voluntary 
boards  are  at  the  best  but  an  imperfect  palliative.  .  .• . 
Thus  the  attempt  a  year  or  two  since  to  form  a  central 
board  for  the  British  tailoring  trade  broke  down  igno- 
miniously  at  the  first  award.  Equally  unfruitful  was 
a  well-meant  endeavor  made  in  the  manufactured 
steel  trade  in  the  west  of  Scotland.  The  Macclesfield 
Silk  Trade  Board  lasted  only  four  years.  Such  stumbles 
on  the  threshold  might  be  looked  for.  But  it  is  signifi- 
cant to  recall  the  break  up  of  Mr.  Mundella's  model 
board  establishment  for  the  Notts  lace  and  hosiery 
trade,  and  dissolved  after  20  years  of  service.  Nor,  I 
read,  is  Sir  Rupert  Kettle's  elaborate  scheme,  now  re- 
sorted to  in  the  Wolverhampton  building  trade,  popu- 
lar as  it  was  for  many  years.  Seventeen  years  of  use- 
fulness did  not  save  the  South  Wales  Miners'  Joint 
Committee.  Nor  did  a  25  years'  life  prevent  the  Con- 
ciliation Board  for  the  Staffordshire  pottery  trade 
coming  to  an  end  in  1892.  Like  it,  the  Leicestershire 
Hosiery  Board  met  the  same  fate  after  a  long  career. 
I  cannot  find  that  more  than  five  of  these  trade  con- 
ciliation boards  have  been  newly  set  up  since  1889. 
Yet  the  British  strikes  during  the  last  quinquennial 
period  have  averaged  nearer  900  than  800  a  year.  The 
chambers  of  commerce  in  Londo^  Bristol,  and  other 
cities  have  indeed  established  general  conciliation 
b'oards.  But,  except  in  the  metropolis,  they  would 
seem  to  have  done  little  or  nothing.  A  few  similar 
efforts  in  the  colonies  have  had  the  like  result. 

"I  must  not  be  understood  as  wishing  to  belittle  the 
undoubted  usefulness  of  boards  of  conciliation.  I  do 
but  point  out  that  their  utility  lies  chiefly  in  arranging 
in  a  friendly  way  those  minor  points  of  difference 
which  seldom  lead  to  strikes.  Nevertheless,  he  •would 
not  be  a  very  acute  observer  who  could  not  see  that  it 
is  these  same  minor  points  which,  left  unsettled,  occa- 
sionally lead  step  by  step  to  the  worst  and  most  em- 
bittered conflicts.  The  causes  of  some  of  the  most 
lamentable  and  heartfelt  strikes  and  lock-outs  have 
been  curiously  inadequate." 

Mr.  Reeves  goes  on  to  make  a  plea  for  compulsory 
arbitration  which  we  shall  consider  later.  We  are 
now  concerned  simply  with  the -history  of  the  subject, 
and  of  compulsory  arbitration  there  has  been  no 
history. 

The  last  point  that  we  must  notice  in  the  history  of 
the  subject  in  England,  is  the  distinguished  success 
that  has  been  reached  in  some  important  cases,  in  the 
settlement  of  large  strikes,  by  the  voluntary  interpo- 
sition of  men  of  unusual  influence  and  unquestioned 
standing  in  the  community.  This  was  notably  the  case 
with  the  great  dock  strike  of  London  in  1889.  About 
150,000  workmen  were  involved  in  the 
strike ;  it  had  paralyzed  the  commerce 
and  affected  the  trade  of  all  London.  It 
naturally  arrested  universal  attention. 
Very  great  sympathy  was  felt  for  the 
dockers.  Support  came  in  from  the 
•wealthy  and  the  poor.  Australia  sent  funds.  The 
clergy  and  members  of  the  nobility  contributed.  About 
.£40,000  passed  through  the  hands  of  the  strikers'  com- 
mittee. Their  side  was  ably  organized  and  led  by  John 
Burns,  Tom  Mann,  Ben  Tillett,  and  others.  Neverthe- 
less the  dock  companies  were  strong  and  determined. 
It  was  a  desperate  battle.  Such  were  the  conditions 
when  Cardinal  Manning,  the  Lord  Mayor,  the  Bishop 
of  London,  and  Sydney  Buxton,  M.P.,  undertook  con- 
ciliation, and  were  finally  successful,  winning  most  of 
the  points  for  the  dockers.  The  dock  companies  yielded, 
they  said,  to  an  "external  pressure"  which  "may  have 
very  far-reaching  consequences  in  the  future."  Cardinal 
Manning  undoubtedly  exerted  the  greatest  influence 


Strikes. 


Arbitration  and  Conciliation. 


80 


Arbitration  and  Conciliation. 


in  securing  the  result.  It  was  very  largely  the  per- 
sonal weight  of  the  committee  that  gave  it  its  success, 
coupled  with  the  fact  that  they  acted  at  an  opportune 
time.  Similar  was  the  influence  of  the  Bishop  of  Dur- 
ham and  others  in  the  great  coal  strike— these,  together 
\yith  other  smaller  ones,  showing  what  public  sen- 
timent can  do  in  settling  even  vast  and  heated  con- 
troversies, when  voiced  by  persons  of  commanding 
influence  acting  at  opportune  times. 

Perhaps  even  more  significant  is  tha  part  that  Gov- 
ernment has  commenced  to  play.  We  give  from  the 
Weekly  Times  of  November  17,  1893,  the  text  of  the 
Government's  invitation  to  the  Coal-owners'  and  Mi- 
ners' Federation  to  submit  their  differences  to  a  con- 
ference, with  a  member  of  the  Government,  the  Earl  of 
Rosebery,  as  chairman.  It  is  a  document  of  historical 
importance,  as  the  first  step  of  this  kind  taken  in  any 
large  way  by  Government,  and  because,  as  is  •well 
known,  it  led  to  the  settlement  of  a  most  protracted 
and  widely  spread  contest.  The  text  is  as  follows :  „ 

"Sir:  The  attention  of  her  Majesty's  Government 
has  been  seriously  called  to  the  widespread  and  dis- 
astrous effects  produced  by  the  long  continuance  of 
the  unfortunate  dispute  in  the  coal  trade,  which  has 
now  entered  on  its  sixteenth  week. 

"It  is  clear  from  information  which  has  reached  the 
Board  of  Trade  that  much  misery  and  suffering  are 
caused  not  only  to  the  families  of  the  men  directly  in- 
volved, but  also  to  many  thousands  of  others  not  en- 
gaged in  mining,  whose  employment  has  been  ad- 
versely affected  by  the  stoppage. 

"The  further  prolongation  of  the  dispute  cannot  fail 
to  aggravate  this  suffering,  especially  in  view  of  the 
approach  of  the  winter,  when  the  greatly  increased 
price  of  fuel  is  likely  to  cause  distress  among  the  poor- 
er classes  throughout  the  country. 

"  Moreover,  the  Government  have  little  doubt  that  the 
effect  of  the  stoppage  of  industry  is  rapidly  extending 
and  increasing,  and  that  unless  an  early  settlement  is 
effected,  lasting  if  not  permanent  injury  may  be  done 
to  the  trade  of  the  country. 

"  The  Government  have  not  up  to  the  present  con- 
sidered that  they  could  advantageously  intervene  in 
a  dispute  the  settlement  of  which  would  far  more 
usefully  be  brought  about  by  the  action  of  those  con- 
cerned in  it  than  by  the  good  offices  of  others.  But, 
having  regard  to  the  serious  state  of  affairs  referred 
to  above,  to  the  national  importance  of  a  speedy 
termination  of  the  dispute,  and  to  the  fact  that  the 
conference  which  took  place  on  November  3  and  4  did 
not  result  in  a  settlement,  her  Majesty's  Government 
have  felt  it  their  duty  to  make  an  effort  to  bring  about 
a  resumption  of  negotiations  between  the  employers 
and  employed,  under  conditions  which  they  hope  may 
lead  to  a  satisfactory  result. 

"  //  appears  to  them  that  an  advantage  might  accrue 
from  a  further  discussion  between  the  parties  of  the 
present  position  of  matters  under  the  chairmanship  of 
a  member  of  the  Government,  who  it  is  Jioped  will  not 
be  unacceptable  to  either  side. 

"  Lord  Rosebery  has  consented,  at  the  request  of  his 
colleagues,  to  undertake  the  important  duty  which 
such  a  position  involves. 

"  I  have,  therefore,  to  invite  the  (Miners'  or  Coal-own- 
ers') Federation  to  send  representatives  to  a  conference 
to  be  held  forthwith  under  his  chairmanship.  In  dis- 
charging this  duty,  it  is  not  proposed  that  Lord  Rose- 
bery should  assume  the  position  of  an  arbitrator  or 
timpire,  or  himself  vote  in  the  proceedings,  but  that  he 
should  confine  his  action  to  offering  his  good  offices  in 
order  to  assist  the  parties  in  arriving  oetween  t Item- 
selves  at  a  friendly  settlement  of  the  questions  in  dis- 
pute, "lam,  etc., 

"W.  E.  GLADSTONE." 

The  latest  significant  step  in  the  history  of  arbitration 
and  conciliation  in  England  took  place  in  the  settle- 
ment of  the  great  boot  trade  dispute  of  this  year  (1895), 
and  its  significance  consists  in  the  deposit  or  money  on 
both  sides  to  assure  their  abiding  by  the  agreement. 
Says  the  Times  of  April  26,  1893  : 

"There  have  been  many  boards  of  conciliation  before 
to-day,  but  they  have  always  lacked  effective  means  of 
enforcing  their  decisions.  It  is  a  novel  and  important 
feature  in  this  agreement  that  an  attempt  is  made  to 
provide  a  sanction  for  their  decrees.  .  .  .  The  agree- 
ment provides  that  immediate  steps  shall  be  taken  to 
draw  up  piece-work  statements  for  lasting  and  finish- 
ing piece-workers,  and  for  welted  work  at  Northamp- 
ton ;  the  employers  to  have  the  option  of  payment  by 
time  or  piece  These  statements  are  to  be  drawn  up 
by  a  joint  committee  of  employers  and  operatives,  and 
any  differences  are  to  be  determined  by  an  umpire. 
Boards  of  arbitration  and  conciliation  are  immediately 


to  be  reconstituted  with  revised  rules,  and  empowered 
to  settle  all  questions  submitted  to  them  concerning 
wages,  hours  of  labour,  and  conditions  of  labour  which 
cannot  be  settled  mutually  by  employers  and  employed. 
No  board  is  to  require  an  employer  to  employ  any 
particular  workman,  or  a  workman  to  work  for  any 
particular  employer.  No  board  is  to  claim  jurisdic- 
tion outside  its  district,  or  to  interfere  with  the  rights 
of  employers  to  make  reasonable  regulations  for  time- 
keeping or  the  preservation  of  order  in  their  factories  ; 
or  to  put  restrictions  on  the  introduction  of  machinery 
or  the  output  therefrom.  Provision  is  made  for  finan- 
cial guarantees  for  the  carrying  out  of  the  agreement ; 
and  any  question  as  to  its  interpretation  is  to  be  set- 
tled by  Sir  Courtenay  Boyle,  whose  decision  is  to  be 
final.  It  is  understood  that  work  will  be  generally  re- 
sumed not  later  than  the  agth  inst. 

"  The  two  parties  to  the  settlement  have  deposited 
sums  of  £fooo  each  with  Sir  Courtenay  Boyle  and  Sir 
Henry  James  in  accordance  with  the  terms  of  the  agree- 
ment. .  .  .  Mr.  Ward,  President  of  the  Federation, 
addressed  a  -meeting  of  Leicester  manufacturers  on  the 
terms  of  settlement,  which  he  described  as  a  charter  of 
rights  for  the  manufacturers,  under  which  three 
fourths  of  the  disputes  which  afflicted  their  industry 
zvould  be  rendered  impossible." 

Boards  of  conciliation  in  connection  with  trade-unions 
have  existed  in  Australasia  in  several  industries  for 
many  years.  The  Federated  Seamen's 
Union  drew  up  a  scheme  for  such  a  board, 
which  was  accepted  by  the  Australasian  Australasia. 
Steamship  Owners'  Association  in  1884. 
...  In  case  of  failure  to  come  to  an  agree- 
ment, the  board  was  empowered  to  appoint  two  arbitra- 
tors. In  1886  the  union  refused  to  submit  a  case  to  the 
board,  and  the  owners  declared  the  agreement  broken. 
The  Boot  Manufacturers'  Association  and  the  Opera- 
tive Boot-Makers'  Union  of  South  Australia  have 
established  a  board  of  conciliation  consisting  of  five  em- 
ployers and  five  employes  elected  by  their  respective 
associations  for  12  months  at  a  time.  ...  A  board  of 
conciliation  also  exists  in  connection  with  the  Amal- 
gamated Carpenters  and  Joiners.  Five  workmen  mem- 
bers meet  five  employers  and  endeavour  to  arrange  a 
settlement;  the  union's  report  for  1890  shows  that  some 
30  disputes  were  settled  in  that  year.  In  the  building 
trades,  if  an  isolated  union  fails  to  settle  its  difficulties 
by  sending  a  deputation  to  the  employer,  the  matter 
may  be  referred  to  arbitration,  or  to  a  board  of  con- 
ciliation ;  where  this  course  is  not  adopted,  or  where  it 
proves  a  failure,  a  ballot  is  taken  to  test  the  wishes  of 
members  in  regard  to  a  strike.  The  conciliation  board 
connected  with  the  Building  Trades  Council  and  the 
Contractors'  Association  put  an  end  to  a  strike  which 
arose  during  the  building  of  the  Hotel  Australia,  owing 
to  an  alteration  in  the  hours  of  work  without  due 
notice.  After  hearing  the  representations  of  the  board, 
the  contractor  agreed  to  defer  the  change  for  seven 
days ;  when  the  men  returned  to  work,  however,  he  re- 
duced this  period  of  notice  to  48  hours. 

Where  no  regular  board  of  conciliation  has  been 
established,  differences  are  sometimes  adjusted  by 
conferences  between  the  two  parties.  In  1873  the  master 
printers  of  Victoria  entered  into  an  agreement  with 
their  employes  to  hold  a  series  of  conferences  at  regular 
intervals  with  satisfactory  results.  The  demands  of 
the  Seamen's  Union  in  New  South  Wales  were  met  by 
a  conference  in  1890,  and  a  further  conference  was 
held  in  September  of  that  year  between  the  marine 
engineers  and  the  shipowners,  which  for  the  time  set- 
tled their  differences. 

The  most  frequent  method,  however,  of  settling  dis- 
putes is  by  the  intervention  of  bodies  representing  the 
federated  unions  in  each  colony.  The  majority  of 
unions  are  now  affiliated  to  some  central  body,  and 
matters  in  dispute  are  accordingly  referred  to  the  cen- 
tral council  when  the  lesser  unions  fail  to  effect  a  set- 
tlement. It  then  devolves  on  the  officers  of  the  council 
to  intervene,  and,  either  by  sending  a  deputation  to 
the  employers,  or  by  other  forms  of  mediation,  to  put 
an  end  to  the  dispute.  Should  these  efforts  fail,  the 
council  again  consults  the  individual  unions  as  to  the 
necessity  of  a  strike.  Thus  the  South  Australian 
United  Trades  and  Labour  Council  intervened  in  some 
15  disputes  of  a  more  or  less  serious  character,  and  in 
nearly  every  instance  succeeded  in  improving  the 
position  of  their  members.  In  one  instance  they  called  a 
conference  and  obtained  an  agreement  providing  for 
the  closing  of  butchers'  shops  at  six  on  all  week  days 
except  Saturday  and  abolishing  Sunday  work,  except 
in  the  case  of  Government  contracts.  In  two  other  in- 
stances they  obtained  reductions  of  working  hours  for 
carriers  and  for  iron-workers. 

Such  conferences  sometimes  result  in  drawing  up  a 


Arbitration  and  Conciliation. 


81 


Arbitration  and  Conciliation. 


•written  agreement  as  to  the  future  conditions  of  labour, 
and  this  method  of  promoting  social  peace  is  strongly- 
recommended  by  the  New  South  Wales  Commission 
on  Strikes.  In  most  industries  there  have  as  yet  been 
no  such  agreements,  and  in  the  few  cases  in  which  the 
custom  has  obtained,  the  agreement  has  only  lasted  a 
few  years. 

In  New  South  Wales  there  have  been  two  arbitra- 
tion acts,  the  first  passed  in  1867,  "to  make  arbitration 
more  effectual,"  and  the  second  in  1891,  to  establish 
councils  of  conciliation  and  arbitration  in  accordance 
with  the  recommendations  of  the  Royal  Commission 
on  Strikes  of  1890.  No  other  colony  has  as  yet  (1893) 
passed  any  act  on  the  subject,  though  a  number  of 
schemes  have  been  prepared,  and  bills  have  been  in- 
troduced into  the  various  legislatures.  .  .  .  The  act  of 
1891  divides  New  South  Wales  into  five  industrial  dis- 
tricts ;  in  each  of  these  a  council  of  conciliation  is  to  be 
formed,  two  members  of  which  are  to  be  appointed  on 
the  recommendation  of  the  organised  employers  and 
two  on  the  recommendation  of  the  organised  employes. 
,  .  .  The  act  is  to  continue  in  force  for  four  years,  viz., 
till  March,  1895.  At  a  meeting  of  the  Trade  and  Labour 
Council  of  Sydney,  held  after  the  passing  of  the  act, 
to  elect  the  nominees,  a  motion  was  brought  forward 
to  postpone  such  election  until  a  compulsory  clause 
was  inserted  in  the  act,  on  the  ground  that  without 
such  a  clause  employers  would  never  agree  to  arbitra- 
tion. The  motion  met  -with  some  approval,  but  was  re- 
jected on  the  ground  that  it  was  necessary  to  test  the 
act  before  condemning  it. 

The  history  of  arbitration  and  conciliation  in  the 

United  States  is  more  varied,  but  not  so  encouraging. 

The  following  sketch  of  the  history  is 

.  abridged  from  the  Report  on  the  United 

United        States  of  the  English  Royal  Commission 

States.        °n  Labour. 

One  very  early  instance  of  arbitration 
is  recorded  at  the  beginning  of  the  eigh- 
teenth century,  when  a  copper  arbitration  board  was 
established  in  the  mines  of  Simsbury,  now  called  East 
Granby,  in  Connecticut.  These  mines,  however,  were 
soon  exhausted,  and  for  a  time  were  converted  into  a 
State  prison.  The  next  recorded  attempts  at  a  peace- 
ful settlement  of  industrial  disputes  is  not  until  those 
of  the  Sons  of  Vulcan  between  1865  and  1876. 

On  February  13,  1865,  a  Committee  of  Boilers  met  a 
Committee  of  Iron  Manufacturers  and  agreed  upon  a 
sliding  scale  of  wages,  thus  to  this  extent  forming  a 
board  of  conciliation. 

It  was  agreed  that  the  price  for  smelting1  iron  was  to 
t>e  $9  for  every  ton  of  2240  Ibs.  when  iron  sold  at  8J^ 
cents  a  pound,  and  that  the  price  for  smelting  -was  to  be 
reduced  25  cents  for  every  fall  of  a  quarter  of  a  cent  in 
the  selling  price.  Ninety  days'  notice  was  required  to 
terminate  the  scale  from  either  side,  but  it  only  lasted 
a  few  months.  In  1867,  after  a  strike  in  which  the  men 
had  been  successful,  another  scale  was  drawn  up.  By 
this  the  price  for  smelting  was  to  be  $8  a  ton  when  iron 
sold  at  five  cents  a  pound,  with  a  25  cents'  reduction  for 
•every  fall  of  a  quarter  of  a  cent  in  the  price  of  iron. 
The  agreement  could  be  terminated  with  30  days' notice 
•on  either  side.  This  scale  remained  in  force  for  seven 
years,  but  was  modified  so  as  to  allow  of  an  advance  in 
wages  whenever  the  price  of  a  pound  of  iron  varied  by 
a  tenth  of  a  cent.  It  did  not  provide  for  any  fall  in  that 
price  below  three  cents  a  pound,  and  when  the  price  did 
fall  below  three  cents  the  employers  proposed  a  reduc- 
tion of  $i  a  ton,  and  the  employes  one  of  50  cents. 
After  a  four  months'  strike  the  men  were,  as  before, 
successful,  and  resumed  work  on  the  50  cents'  reduc- 
tion. In  1876  the  various  classes  of  ironworkers  united 
to  form  the  Amalgamated  Association  of  Iron,  Steel, 
and  Tin-workers  of  the  United  States,  and  several 
scales  were  drawn  up  for  different  branches,  wages 
rising  or  falling  in  most  cases  with  every  fluctuation  of 
a  tenth  of  a  cent  in  price.  The  method  of  fixing  wages 
by  sliding  scale  has  continued  among  iron- workers  up 
to  the  present  time  with  more  or  less  success. 

In  1870  some  of  the  shoe  manufacturers  of  Massa- 
chusetts formed  a  committee  of  five  to  meet  with  the 
committee  of  the  Knights  of  St.  Crispin,  and  to  draw 
up  a  scale  of  wages  for  the  ensuing  year.  This  was 
the  first  board  of  arbitration  or  conciliation  in  Massa- 
chusetts, and  it  was  established  in  an  industry  which 
had  been  harassed  more  than  any  other  by  industrial 
conflicts.  For  a  time  the  system  worked  well.  In  1871 
the  committee  met  again  to  determine  prices  for  the 
second  year,  but  during  the  year  difficulties  arose  be- 
tween the  employers  and  the  Crispin  organization,  and 
at  the  beginning  of  1872  the  manufacturers  returned 
no  reply  to  the  invitation  of  the  Crispin  committee. 
The  collapse  of  the  order,  following  upon  a  prolonged 
strike,  led,  in  1875,  to  the  formation  of  the  Shoemaker*' 


League,  which  again  established  a  board  of  arbitra- 
tion ;  but  the  league  had  so  little  influence,  that  at  the 
end  of  the  year  it  was  dissolved  by  a  unanimous  vote. 
The  next  year  witnessed  a  revival  of  the  Knights  of  St. 
Crispin  and  of  their  board  of  arbitration,  and  to  pre- 
vent a  repetition  of  the  previous  troubles,  it  was  de- 
termined that  no  strike  should  be  declared  except  by 
the  vote  of  the  board  and  the  unanimous  consent  of  the 
employes  in  the  establishment  concerned.  In  13  months 
the  board  settled  over  100  difficulties,  and  its  working 
was  regarded  with  favour  by  the  manufacturers, 
although  they  took  no  active  part  in  its  proceedings. 
It  was  composed  of  n  members,  each  representing  a 
different  branch  of  labour.  The  members  were  elected 
for  one  year,  and  chosen,  as  Mr.  Carroll  D.  Wright 
says,  "  Not  alone  for  their  integrity  and  general  intel- 
lig'ence,  but  also  because  they  were  regarded  as  supe- 
rior workmen,  each  being  an  expert  in  his  branch  of  the 
business."  In  cases  referred  to  them  for  arbitration, 
the  decision  of  the  board  was  final,  in  other  cases  an 
appeal  might  be  made  to  the  lodge,  or  local  branch  of 
the  order.  Meetings  were  held  as  often  as  required, 
generally  twice  a  week.  Members  received  no  pay- 
ment for  evening  attendance,  but  for  time  deducted 
from  their  working  hours  they  were  paid  at  the  rate  of 
30  cents  an  hour.  The  order  gradually  gave  way  be- 
fore the  Boot  and  Shoe  Workers'  International  Union, 
so  that  the  attempt  to  substitute  arbitration  for  strikes 
was  not  permanently  successful.  The  work,  however, 
accomplished  by  this  board  did  much  to  show  the  value 
of  the  principle.  We  must  notice  also  efforts  of  the 
Miners'  National  Organization  to  establish  arbitration 
in  the  Tuscarawas  Valley,  Ohio.  Their  intention  was 
defeated  by  the  action  of  the  Crawford  Coal  Company 
immediately  after  the  award  of  1874.  In  1887  a  second 
attempt  was  made,  but  it  had  little  success.  In  1879  the 
firm  of  Straiten  &  Storm,  cigar  manufacturers  of  New 
York,  established  a  board  of  conciliation  among  their 
employes.  The  constitution  of  the  board  is  in  some 
respects  peculiar.  It  consisted  of  two  parts,  a  cigar- 
makers'  board  and  a  packers'  board,  and  each  body 
chose  a  delegate  from  the  other  body  to  sit  with  them, 
the  firm  being  represented  on  both.  The  Cigar-Mak- 
ers' Board  of  Arbitration,  as  finally  constituted,  con- 
sisted of  four  cigar-makers,  chosen  out  of  15  delegates 
selected  by  the  three  departments,  one  packer,  elected 
from  the  packers'  board,  three  foremen  appointed  by 
the  firm,  and  one  member  of  the  firm.  The  Packers' 
Board  of  Arbitration  was  composed  of  two  packers, 
chosen  out  of  seven  selected  by  the  packers  as  a  •whole, 
one  cigar-maker  elected  from  the  cigar-makers'  board, 
the  packer  foreman,  and  one  member  of  the  firm.  On 
both  boards,  therefore,  the  employes  were  in  a  majority, 
and  one  of  their  number  was  in  a  position  to  give  the 
casting  vote  in  case  of  a  division  of  interests.  Wages 
were  twice  advanced  by  order  of  this  board  in  1879, 
and  a  further  advance  was  made  in  1880,  though  the 
board  did  not  then  grant  the  full  amount  demanded. 

As  the  election  of  the  workmen's  representatives 
took  place  within  the  factory,  there  is  some  reason  to 
suppose  that  it  •was  not  entirely  free.  When,  after  about 
eight  years  of  existence,  the  workmen  did  exercise  a 
free  choice,  the  board  was  abolished  by  the  firm.  It 
had  been  combined  with  a  benefit  fund,  to  which  all 
the  employes  were  compelled  to  contribute  a  certain 
sum,  but  the  benefits  were  only  paid  to  workmen  who 
met  with  an  accident  or  fell  ill  while  working  for  the 
firm.  Any  •workman  leaving  forfeited  all  claim  to  any 
benefit,  as  well  as  to  the  sum  which  he  had  paid  into 
the  fund. 

In  1878  Mr.  Joseph  D.  Weekes  was  sent  to  inspect  the 
English  boards  of  conciliation,  and  on  his  return  pre- 
sented a  report  to  the  Governor  of  Pennsylvania.  The 
result  was  the  Wallace  act  of  1883,  by  which  voltrntary 
boards  of  arbitration  might  be  established  in  Pennsyl- 
vania. Before  the  awards  of  these  boards  can  become 
binding,  they  must  be  accepted  by  both  parties  to  the 
arbitration.  The  Ohio  arbitration  act  of  1885  provided 
for  similar  boards  for  Ohio,  but  in  this  case  both  parties 
must  pledge  themselves  beforehand  to  accept  the  award. 

Boards  of  this  character   have  been  established  in 
Massachusetts,  New  York,  and  California.    The  Massa- 
chusetts act  of  1886,  as  amended  in  1887,  provides  for  the 
appointment  of  a  State  board  of  arbitra- 
tion composed  of  three  persons,  of  whom 
one  represents  the  employers,  another          Statfl 
the  labour  organisations,  and  the  third       Boards 
is  an  impartial  citizen  recommended  by 
the  other  two.      The    California    State 
Board  of  Arbitration  and  Conciliation, 
appointed  by  an  act  of  1891,  is  similarly  constituted.    Of 
the  three  "competent  persons"  composing  it,  "one  shall 
represent  the  employers  of  labour,  one  shall  represent 
labour  employes,  and  the  third  member  shall  represent 


Arbitration  and  Conciliation. 


82 


Arbitration  and  Conciliation. 


neither  and  shall  be  chairman  of  the  board."  The  con- 
stitution of  the  New  York  Board  of  Mediation  and  Arbi  • 
tration,  established  in  1887,  is  somewhat  di  fferent ;  one  of 
the  three  arbitrators  is  to  be  elected  from  the  party 
"which  at  the  last  general  election  cast  the  greatest 
number  of  votes  for  governor  of  this  State,"  another 
from  the  party  casting  the  second  greatest  number, 
while  a  third  is  to  be  selected  "  from  a  dona  fide  labour 
organization  of  this  State."  In  California  the  members 
are  elected  for  one  year  only  ;  in  New  York,  for  three, 
and  in  Massachusetts  all  the  members  serve  three 
years,  but  only  one  retires  every  year,  so  that  the  per- 
sons composing  the  board  are  never  all  changed  at  once. 
By  an  amendment  of  1890  to  the  act  constituting  the 
Massachusetts  Board,  in  cases  involving  special  tech- 
nical difficulties,  the  two  parties  in  dispute  may  each  ap- 
point an  expert  to  serve  on  the  board  for  the  particular 
case.  All  three  boards,  though  not  nominally  compul- 
sory, possess  very  extensive  powers.  The  Massachu- 
setts Board  may,  upon  the  application  of  the  employer, 
or  of  a  majority  of  his  employes,  or  of  their  duly  author- 
ized agent,  open  an  inquiry,  which  it  may  make  public 
or  not  at  its  own  discretion  and  at  any  stage  in  the  pro- 
ceedings. Where  both  parties  refuse  arbitration  the 
board  may  attempt  to  mediate  between  them,  and, 
failing  that,  may,  if  it  thinks  fit,  investigate  the  cause 
or  causes  of  the  controversy  and  publish  a  report,  find- 
ing the  causes  and  assigning  the  responsibility.  When 
a  decision  is  given,  it  is  binding  upon  the  parties  for  six 
months,  or  until  the  expiration  of  a  60  days'  notice  of 
an  intention  not  to  be  bound  by  it  given  by  one  party 
to  the  other.  Two  instances  are  recorded  in  which  such 
notice  was  given  in  the  report  of  the  Massachusetts 
Board  for  1887  :  but  in  neither  case  was  the  award  in- 
terfered with  at  the  expiration  of  the  period  of  notice. 
The  New  York  Board  has  also  a  power  of  investigation 
which  it  may  exercise  when  its  services  as  an  arbitra- 
tor are  refused,  and  after  arriving  at  the  facts  of  a  con- 
troversy, it  may  make  them  public  and  lay  them  be- 
fore the  Legislature.  It  is  also  empowered  to  suggest 
amendments  to  the  existing  laws  touch- 
ing labour  questions.  The  California 
State  Boards.  Board  is  similarly  charged  with  the  duty 
of  investigating  all  disputes  which  threat- 
en to  end  in  a  strike,  and  is  empowered  to 
publish  the  results  of  its  investigation.  In  its  report  for 
1889  the  New  York  Board  claims  that  the  extensive  pow- 
ers granted  to  it  by  the  act  deter  parties  "  from  making 
undue  exactions  or  unjust  conditions,"  but  neither 
here,  nor  in  Massachusetts,  nor  in  California,  is  any 
provision  made  in  the  act  for  compelling  the  observ- 
ance of  the  award.  The  decision  of  the  boards  is  only 
accepted  where  the  parties  are  willing  to  accept  it. 
The  reports  of  the  Massachusetts  Board  for  1888,  i8gi, 
and  1892  speak  with  satisfaction  of  the  number  of  wage 
lists  drawn  up  by  the  board,  for  which  application  is 
often  made  afterward  by  other  manufacturers,  and 
which,  therefore,  serve  as  a  standard  of  prices.  Fur- 
ther, manufacturers  often  apply  to  the  board  for  ad- 
vice in  fixing  the  rate  of  wages  or  the  price  for  a  new 
kind  of  work.  The  report  for  1891  states  that  the 
yearly  earnings  of  the  employes  affected  by  contro- 
versies, which  were  dealt  with  by  the  board  in  1890, 
amounted  to  $4,056,195,  and  that  the  total  yearly  earn- 
ings of  the  factories  were  $12,044,525.  The  expense  of 
maintaining  the  board  was  $8,108.86,  so  that,  if  success- 
ful in  preventing  strikes,  it  implies  a  considerable 
saving  to  the  community.  The  report  for  1888  states 
that  some  firms  enter  into  a  written  agreement  with 
their  employes  to  submit  all  differences  which  may 
arise  to  the  arbitration  of  the  board. 

All  the  three  boards  have  power  in  all  cases  to  sum- 
mon witnesses  and  to  examine  them  under  oath,  as 
well  as  to  require  the  production  of  books  containing 
the  record  of  wages  paid.  They  may  also  appoint  ex- 
perts to  assist  the  arbitrators  in  cases  which  present 
technical  difficulties.  A  special  voluntary  board  may 
always  be  substituted  for  the  State  board  at  the  wish 
of  the  parties  concerned,  and  this  temporary  body  is 
endowed  for  the  time  being  with  all  the  powers  which 
the  act  confers  upon  the  permanent  arbitrators.  Two 
instances  of  the  appointment  of  such  a  voluntary  board 
are  recorded  in  the  Massachusetts  report  for  1887.  .  .  . 
Laws  providing  for  the  settlement  of  disputes  between 
employers  and  employed  by  arbitration  have  been  en- 
acted by  the  Congress  of  the  United  States,  and  the 
legislatures  of  Colorado,  Maryland,  New  Jersey,  Iowa, 
Michigan,  and  North  Carolina,  as  well  as  the  States 
previously  mentioned.  By  an  act  of  1892,  the  Governor 
of  New  Jersey  is  authorized  to  appoint  a  State  Board 
of  Arbitration  to  hear  appeals  from  local  arbitration 
boards,  as  well  as  to  arbitrate  directly  between  em- 
ployer and  employed  when  the  parties  in  dispute  desire 
it,  and  to  hold  an  inquiry  into  the  cause  of  the  contro- 
versy when  they  do  not. 


In  1888  Congress  passed  an  act  "  for  the  creation  of 
boards  of  arbitration  or  commission  for  settling  con- 
troversies and  differences  between  railroad  corpora- 
tions and  other  common  carriers  engaged  in  interstate 
and  territorial  transportation  of  property  or  passen- 
gers and  their  employes."  Before  such  a  board  of 
arbitration  can  be  constituted,  one  of  the  parties  must 
submit  in  writing  its  wish  to  refer  the  dispute  to  arbi- 
tration, and  this  proposition  must  be  accepted  by  the 
other  party.  The  railroad  company  and  the  employes 
may  then  each  select  an  arbitrator,  and  these  two  select 
a  third,  all  three  impartial  and  disinterested  persons. 
The  board  thus  constituted  has  power  to  subpoena 
and  compel  the  attendance  of  witnesses,  to  administer 
oaths,  and  to  require  the  production  of  papers  and 
writings  j  but  no  witness  is  to  be  compelled  to  disclose 
the  secrets  or  produce  the  records  of  any  labour  or- 
ganization, a  clause  which  •would  effectually  protect 
the  officials  of  the  Knights  of  Labor.  The  parties  ex- 
amined may  be  represented  by  counsel.  The  President 
may  select  two  commissioners,  one  of  whom  must 
reside  in  the  district  where  the  controversy  has  arisen. 
They,  together  with  the  Commissioner  of  Labour,  ex- 
amine into  the  causes  of  the  controversy  and  the  best 
means  of  adjusting  it,  and  must  report  the  result  of 
such  an  inquiry  to  the  President  and  to  Congress.  All 
the  powers  of  the  board  may  be  delegated  to  these 
commissioners,  and  their  decision  must  be  immediately 
made  public.  But  here,  as  in  other  cases  in  which 
State  arbitration  is  provided  for  by  law  in  the  United 
States,  no  penalties  are  provided  in  case  the  parties 
refuse  to  accept  the  award,  and  there  is,  therefore,  no 
sanction  attached  to  the  act  other  than  such  as  may  be 
constituted  by  a  dread  of  public  opinion.  ...  It  does 
not  compel  a  settlement.  ...  It  is  always  possible  for 
either  party  to  declare  that  they  have  nothing  to  arbi- 
trate ....  In  this  case  there  is  nothing  to  be  done,  but 
to  publish  an  official  statement  of  the  circumstances, 
which  may  or  may  not  have  sufficient  weight  to  bring 
about  a  settlement.  The  appointment  of  the  United 
States  Commission  in  regard  to  the  Pullman  strike 
was  simply  to  investigate  the  facts  and  make  recom- 
mendations for  the  future.  It  was  not  a  committee  of 
arbitration. 

As  regards  the  separate  States,  Kansas  has  an  act 
copied  from  the  Ohio  law,  but  it  has  been  pronounced 
by  the  Kansas  Labor  Commissioner  to  be  a  dead 
letter.  The  same  fate  has  befallen  most  of  the  arbitra- 
tion acts,  and  it  is  reallv  only  in  Massachusetts  and 
New  York  that  the  principle  of  arbitration  can  be  said 
to  be  firmly  established. 

Even  in  Massachusetts,  however,  arbitration  cannot 
be  said  to  be  very  successful,  though  this  is  probably 
mainly  due  to  the  recent  industrial  de- 
pression. Says  the  last  report  (1895) 
of  the  Board  of  Arbitration  : 

"The  differences  which  have  arisen 
between  employers  and  employes  in  this 
commonwealth  during  the  year  1894 
have  been  sufficiently  numerous,  and 
have  made  larger  demands  upon  the 
time  and  attention  of  this  board  than  in  any  former 
year.  The  uncertainty  of  the  financial  situation,  ap- 
prehension of  unfavorable  results  of  proposed  legisla- 
tion, and  a  general  failure  of  confidence  throughout  the 
business  world  were  perhaps  the  principal  causes  of  a 
depression,  the  like  of  which  has  not  been  known  in 
this  country  for  a  century  at  least.  One  result  of  this 
Unfortunate  condition  of  things,  as  observed  by  this 
board,  has  been  a  general  reduction  in  the  rate  of 
wages  and  amount  of  earnings  all  over  the  State. 

"  In  some  industries  the  reduction  may  be  stated 
more  or  less  definitely  as  so  much  per  cent.  In  others, 
the  rate  of  wages  has  remained  nominally  the  same, 
or  nearly  the  same,  but  a  shortening  of  the  working 
time  has  also  had  the  effect  of  reducing  the  earnings. 
Reductions  in  wages,  one  following  upon  another,  have 
been  met  by  opposition  and  protests.  Strikes  have 
been  frequent,  but  for  the  most  part  without  effect. 

"In  particular  instances,  when  the  assistance  of  the 
board  has  been  sought,  it  has  succeeded  in  breaking  in 
some  degree  the  force  of  the  blow,  and  in  securing  a 
promise  of  better  wages  when  business  should  im- 
prove, but  when  manufacturers  throughout  the  State 
were  saying  almost  as  one  man  that  the  market  for 
their  products  was  lifeless,  and  that  in  their  judgment, 
as  prudent  men,  it  would  be  folly— in  fact,  an  impossi- 
bility— to  continue  operations  without  a  reduction  in 
wages,  it  was  very  difficult  for  any  one,  even  the  most 
hopeful,  to  argue  successfully  against  that  position. 
The  board  could  not  be  blind  to  the  main  facts,  uncer- 
tainty and  want  of  confidence.  It  could  not  alter  the 
general  conditions,  and  in  many  instances  could  only 
counsel  a  return  to  work  on  the  ground  that  it  was 
better  to  be  at  work  with  any  wages  than  to  be  idle. 


Massachu- 
setts' Last 
Report 
(1895). 


Arbitration  and  Conciliation. 


Arbitration  and  Conciliation. 


"  This  sort  of  advice  is  not  always  accepted.  It  looks 
like  an  admission  of  defeat,  and  generally  amounts  to 
that,  and  therefore  is  not  likely  to  be  accepted  until 
the  situation  is  clearly  desperate. 

"  Whenever  the  parties  to  a  controversy  have  been 
willing  to  accept  a  fair  settlement,  arbitration  and  con- 
ciliation have  produced  results  as  beneficial  as  ever  to 
all  concerned.  When  settlements  have  been  reached 
in  this  way,  there  has  been  no  cessation  of  business  and 
no  loss  of  earnings  while  the  matters  in  dispute  were 
under  consideration. 

"  On  the  other  hand,  it  is  safe  to  say  that  every  strike 
that  has  been  either  wholly  or  partially  successful  has 
cost  the  winners  far  more  than  the  results  were  worth, 
and  subject  the  employer  to  great  trouble  and  anxiety 
as  well  as  pecuniary  loss.  It  is  simple  justice  to  add 
that  some  of  the  strikes  which  have  occurred  during 
the  year  have  been  preceded  by  offers  from  workmen, 
apparently  made  in  good  faith,  to  submit  the  questions 
at  issue  to  arbitration  either  by  the  State  board  or  by  a 
board  to  be  selected  by  the  parties  for  themselves. 
During  the  last  year,  the  employes  have  been  relative- 
ly more  favorable  to  arbitration  than  employers." 

Very  recently  the  great  strikes  on  railroads  and 
local  transit  systems  have  led  to  a  renewed  discussion 
of  arbitration  in  such  cases.  The  commission  appointed 
to  investigate  the  Pullman  strike  has  reported  the 
following  recommendations  : 

"  i.  The  commission  would  suggest  the  consideration 
by  the  States  of  the  adoption  of  some  system  of  concil- 
iation and  arbitration  like  that,  for  instance,  in  use  in 
the  commonwealth  of  Massachusetts.  That  system 
might  be  re-enforced  by  additional  provisions  giving 
the  board  of  arbitration  more  power  to  investigate  all 
strikes,  whether  requested  so  to  dp  or  not,  and  the 
question  might  be  considered  as  to  giving  labor  organ- 
izations a  standing  before  the  law,  as  heretofore  sug- 
gested for  national  trade-unions.  2.  Contracts  requir- 
ing men  to  agree  not  to  join  labor  organizations  or  to 
leave  them,  as  conditions  of  employment,  should  be 
made  illegal,  as  is  already  done  in  some  of  our  States. 
3.  The  commission  urges  employers  to  recognize 
labor  organizations ;  that  such  organizations  be  dealt 
with  through  representatives,  with  special  reference  to 
conciliation  and  arbitration  when  difficulties  are  threat- 
ened or  arise.  It  is  satisfied  that  employers  should 
come  in  closer  touch  with  labor  and  should  recognize 
that,  while  the  interests  of  labor  and  capital  are  not 
identical,  they  are  reciprocal.  4.  The  commission  is 
satisfied  that  if  employers  everywhere  will  endeavor 
to  act  in  concert  with  labor  ;  that  if  when  wages  can  be 
raised  under  economic  conditions  they  be  raised  vol- 
untarily, and  that  if  when  there  are  reductions  reasons 
be  given  for  the  reduction,  much  friction  can  be  avoid- 
ed. It  is  also  satisfied  that  if  employers  will  consider 
employes  as  thoroughly  essential  to  industrial  success 
as  capital,  and  thus  take  labor  into  consultation  at 
proper  times,  much  of  the  severity  of  strikes  can  be 
tempered  and  their  number  reduced." 

A  bill  embodying  these  recommendations  has  been 
introduced  into  Congress  (see  PULLMAN  STRIKE),  and 
the  New  York  State  Board  of  Arbitration  has  made 
similar  recommendations  in  the  case  of  the  strike  on 
the  Brooklyn  trolley  cars. 

Perhaps  the  best  example  of  the  successful  adoption 
of  the  principle  of  conciliation  in  the  United  States 
occurs  among  the  bricklayers  of  New  York  City.  Mrs. 
J.  S.  Lowell  says  in  an  article  in  The  Voice,  April  4, 
1805  : 

"The  bricklayers  of  New  York,  belonging  to  eight 
strong  trade-unions,  and  numbering  4000  men,  have 
not  lost  one  hour  of  work,  either  by  strike  on  their  own 
part  or  lockout  on  the  part  of  their  employers,  during 
the  past  10  years.  The  reason  is  simple,  wien  one 
knows  it,  and  the  matter  for  wonder  is  that  the  exam- 
ple has  not  been  followed  in  all  other  trades  in  this  city. 

"  In  the  summer  of  1884  the  bricklayers  struck   for 

three  months  for  a  nine-hour  day  and  failed,  and  that 

experiment,  in  addition  to  others  in  the 

past  of  the  same  kind,  was  enough  for 

An  Ex-       them  and  enough  for  their  employers. 

arrmle  in  anc*  m  t'le  sPrmS  of  1885  there  was  form- 
•a  v  v  ec^  ky  the  Mason  Builders'  Association 
Mew  York,  and  the  bricklayers'  unions  a  Joint  Ar- 
bitration Committee,  '  to  meet  every 
Wednesday  evening,  to  hear  grievan- 
ces and  settle  all  disputes  between  employers  and  em- 
ployees.' This  joint  committee  has  continued  in  exist- 
ence until  now  (10  years  on  March  24),  and  each  year 
an  agreement  as  to  wages,  hours  of  work,  overtime, 
holidays,  and  other  matters  of  mutual  interest,  has 
been  made  by  the  committee,  composed  of  equal  num- 
bers of  employers  and  of  employees,  the  former  rep- 
resenting the  Mason  Builders'  Association,  the  latter 
the  eight  bricklayers'  unions. 


"  Besides  the  annual  agreements,  the  committee  set- 
tles questions  arising  between  individual  employ- 
ers and  employees ;  and  the  fact  that  no  strike  and  no 
lockout  has  occurred  between  the  members  of  the  or- 
ganizations represented  on  the  joint  committee  since 
its  establishment  seems  to  show  that  these  men  at  least 
have  found  the  way  to  avoid  '  labor  differences.' 

"  On  the  formation  of  the  committee,  it  was  provided 
that  in  case  of  non-agreement  an  umpire  should  be 
chosen ;  but  it  has  never  been  necessary  to  choose  an 
umpire,  which  says  much  for  the  reasonableness  and 
justice  of  the  members  of  the  committee. 

"  When  the  first  annual  agreement  was  made  in  1885, 
it  provided  that  wages  to  May,  1886,  should  be  42  cents 
per   hour,  and    that    the    working-day 
should  be    nine  hours  ;  the  agreement 
from  May,  1894,  to  May,   18951  provided  -,    .       _    , 
that  wages  should  be  50  cents  per  hour,  vxains  Under 
and  that   the  working   day    should  be    the  Agree- 
eight    hours.     These    gains  have   been         ment. 
made,  as  has  been  said,  without  loss  of 
work  by  either  strike  or   lockout,  and 
without  ill-feeling  on  either  side." 

In  New  York  City  also,  we  find  an  illustration  of 
what  a  board  of  conciliation  can  do,  even  tho  or- 
ganized by  a  body  outside  any  one  trade.  The  Church 
Association  for  the  Advancement  of  the  Interests  of 
Labor,  a  Protestant  Episcopal  organization,  in  New 
York,  organized  three  years  ago  a  Council  of  Concilia- 
tion and  Mediation,  with  Bishop  Potter  as  its  president, 
with  one  working  man  and  one  business  man  as  other 
members.  It  has  been  active  and  useful  on  more  than 
one  occasion.  Of  its  last  success,  The  Outlook  of 
March  30,  1895,  says  : 

"Through  the  offices  of  the  volunteer  Council  of 
Conciliation  and  Mediation,  of  which  Bishop  Potter  is 
president,  an  agreement  was  reached  between  the 
Electrical  Contractors'  Association  and  the  Electrical 
Workers'  Union  by  which  the  employers  granted  an 
eight-hour  day,  to  begin  May  i,  while  the  men  con- 
sented to  the  continued  employment  of  all  those  who 
had  taken  their  places  during  the  strike,  provided 
these  new  men  could  pass  an  examination  as  to  com- 
petency '  in  accordance  with  the  rule  hitherto  pre- 
vailing in  the  trade.'  The  number  of  electrical  work- 
ers involved  in  this  strike  was  not  very  great,  but 
the  unions  in  all  but  one  of  the  allied  building  trades 
had  decided  to  support  the  electrical  workers,  and  at 
one  time  the  strike  threatened  to  assume  disastrous  pro- 
portions. When  the  Board  of  Mediation  began  its  in- 
vestigation, it  found  that  neither  side  understood  the 
others  position.  Each  side  had  approached  the  other 
with  statements  of  how  little  it  was  willing  to  do,  but 
both  approached  the  Council,  in  which  each  had  con- 
fidence, with  statements  of  how  much  they  were  will- 
ing to  do.  The  difference  between  these  methods 
turned  out  to  be  all  the  difference  between  a  basis  of 
war  and  a  basis  of  peace." 


III.  DIFFICULTIES  OF,  ARGUMENTS  FOR,  AND 
VIEWS  HELD  AS  TO  ARBITRATION  AND  CON- 
CILIATION. 

Such,  in  brief,  is  the  history  of  industrial  arbi- 
tration and   conciliation.     It  suggests  various 
conclusions  to  various  minds.     Of  the  theoreti- 
cal and,  to  a  less  extent,  the  practical  value  of 
arbitration    and    conciliation    all    are    agreed, 
tho  to  some  the  difficulties  seem 
insurmountable.     A  few  points  in 
regard  to  the  difficulties  must  firm-  Difficulties. 
ly  be  kept  in  mind  :  (i)  The  oppo- 
sition to  and  difficulties  in  the  way 
of  arbitration  and  conciliation  do  not  spring 
from  either  side  alone.     It  is  certainly  not  from 
the  side  of  the  employee  that  the  greatest  oppo- 
sition has  come,  tho,  as  we  shall  in  a  moment 
see,  there  may  be  especial  and  not  inadequate 
reasons  which  make  employers  particularly  un- 
willing to  adopt   arbitration.      Nevertheless,  it 
should  be  noted  that  organized  labor  almost 
invariably  has  been  willing  to  submit  to  arbitra- 
tion rather  than  attempt  a  strike. 

Says  Professor  R.  T.  Ely  ( The  Labor  Move- 
ment in  America,  p.  146) : 


Arbitration  and  Conciliation. 


84 


Arbitration  and  Conciliation. 


"  The  difficulties  in  the  way  of  arbitration  have  come 
chiefly  from  the  side  of  employers,  for  it  is  a  rare  thing 
when  laborers  refuse  to  arbitrate  their  difficulties  with 
their  employers.  Few  cases  of  such  refusal  have  ever 
come  under  my  notice." 

Almost  all  labor  platforms  favor  arbitration. 

"  One  of  the  aims  of  the  Knights  of  Labor,  as  found 
in  their  declaration  of  principles,  is  :  'To  persxiade  all 
employers  to  agree  to  arbitrate  all  differences  which 
may  arise  between  them  and  their  employees,  in  order 
that  the  bonds  of  sympathy  between  them  may  be 
strengthened,  and  that  strikes  may  be  rendered  un- 
necessary." 

Says  the  Constitution  of  the  Brotherhood  of 
Carpenters  and  Joiners,  Art.  9,  Sec.  i  : 

"  Whenever  a  dispute  arises  between  an  employer  or 
employers  and  members  of  this  brotherhood,  the  mem- 
bers shall  lay  the  matter  before  the  local  union,  which 
shall  appoint  an  arbitration  committee  to  adjust  the 
difficulty  ;  then,  if  said  committee  cannot  settle  the 
dispute,  the  matter  shall  be  referred  to  the  union." 

The  International  Typographical  Union  rec- 
ommends that — 

''When  disputes  arise  between  subordinate  unions 
and  employers  which  cannot  be  adjusted  after  con- 
ference between  the  parties  at  issue,  the  matter  be 
then  settled  by  arbitration."  And  in  another  place  the 
constitution  of  this  body  contains  these  words :  "  Recog- 
nizing strikes  as  detrimental  to  the  best  interests  of 
the  craft,  it  directs  subordinate  unions  not  to  order  a 
strike  until  every  possible  effort  has  been  made  to  set- 
tle the  difficulty  by  arbitration." 

Among  the  standing  resolutions  of  the  Iron 
Moulders'  Union  is  this  : 

"  Resolved,  that  strikes  are  not  beneficial  to  our  or- 
ganization, and  that  it  would  be  to  our  interest  to  evade 
as  much  as  possible  all  strikes,  and  not  to  resort  to  them 
until  all  other  means  at  our  disposal  are  exhausted." 

The  question  may  then  be  asked,  If  labor  or- 
ganizations are  so  much  in  favor  of  arbitration 
and  so  much  opposed  to  strikes,  why  do  strikes 
occur  so  often  ? 

To  this  it  may  be  answered,  (i)  just  because 
employers  will  not  arbitrate.  (2)  Almost  all  care- 
ful thinkers  are  agreed  to-day  that  occasionally 
strikes  are  justified  if  the  laborer  is  to  raise  his 
condition.  Under  competition  only  a  deter- 
mined and  united  stand  on  the  part  of  the  labor- 
er, sometimes  carried  to  the  length  of  a  bitter 
strike,  can  prevent  the  lowering  of  wages.  (See 
STRIKES.)  The  fact  of  a  strike,  therefore,  by  no 
means  proves  the  unwillingness  of  the  laborer 
to  resort  to  arbitration. 

Nevertheless,  all  the  fault  does  not  lie  by  any 
manner  of  means  on  the  part  of  the  employers. 
Strikes,  and  sometimes  great  strikes,  are  often 
precipitated,  not  usually,  indeed,  by  the  labor 
agitator  or  paid  secretary  (tho  this,  of  course, 
sometimes  happens),  but  by  the  heat  and  pas- 
sion and  ignorant  thoughtlessness  of  the  rank 
and  file  of  a  labor  union,  who,  smarting  under  a 
real  or  fancied  grievance,  will  not  take  into  con- 
sideration either  involved  conditions,  extenuat- 
ing circumstances,  or  the  advice  of  sober  leaders, 
but  will  rashly  vote  a  strike,  and  then  sometimes 
appeal  to  arbitration  after  they  have  struck.  It 
not  unf  requently  happens,  as  is  reported  to  have 
been  the  case  with  Mr.  Debs  in  the  Pullman  strike , 
that  the  leader  of  a  union  does  all  he  can  to  pre- 
vent a  strike,  is  outvoted  in  the  union,  and  thus 
finds  himself  forced,  as  an  officer  of  an  organiza- 
tion, to  carry  on  and  manage  a  strike  which  he 
"h&s  tried  to  prevent.  Such  a  situation  is  held 
by  some  to  illustrate  the  tyranny  of  trade-union- 
ism ;  but  it  is  to  be  questioned  whether  submis- 
sion to  organization  and  obedience  to  its  vote  is 


not  better  in  the  long  run  than  lack  of  organiza- 
tion, even  tho  at  times  it  does  compel  the 
individual  to  act  contrary  to  his  own  choice.  Be 
this  as  it  may,  there  is  no  question  that  one  of 
the  difficulties  in  the  way  of  arbitration  and  con- 
ciliation, and  especially  in  the  way  of  getting 
bodies  of  men  to  submit  to  unfavorable  decisions 
of  arbitrating  bodies,  lies  in  the  hasty  spirit  of 
embittered  members  of  labor  unions  smarting 
under  low  wages  and  harsh  conditions. 

The  greater  opposition,  too,  that  employers 
show  to  arbitration   can   be   easily   explained. 
They  argue  that,  whether  the  pres- 
ent system  be  right  or  not,  under 
this  system  industry  is  conducted  Employers' 
by  individuals,  and  as  long  as  this   Opposition. 
be  so,  the  individual  must  be  left 
free  to  manage  his  own  business  in 
his  own  way.     If  the  community  adopts  social- 
ism, that  is  another  thing  ;  but  unless  a  com- 
munity adopts  socialism,  with  all  that  it  involves 
•  — of  evil  as  well  as  of  good — the  individual,  they 
claim,  must  be  left  free  to  manage  his  business 
as  best  he  can.     The  interference  of  outside  par- 
ties, they  declare,  is  intolerable.     ' '  We  have  the 
responsibility,"  they  say,  "we  must  have  the 
power."     Hence  they  often  resent  the  interfer- 
ence of  arbitrating  boards  even  in  cases  where 
they  may  admit  there  has  been  injustice  on  the 
side  of  the  employer.     They  argue  that  the  em- 
ployer should  be  quietly  induced  to  adjust  the 
wrong  ;  but  to  adopt  arbitration  is  to  adopt  a 
principle  contrary  to  the  present  system  and  one 
that  cannot  work  under  it. 

In  the  discussions  arising  during  the  great  Pull- 
man strike,  it  was  said  by  many  railroad  men 
that  when  Government  control  of  railroads  was 
proposed,  that  that  was  all  very  well ;  but  that  if 
Government  did  undertake  to  control,  it  must  go 
on  and  also  own.  Many  business  men  feel  that 
if  arbitration  become  the  rule,  private  conduct  of 
business  is  at  an  end.  Still  more  object  to 
boards  of  conciliation  because  of  their  experi- 
ence with  what  they  consider  the  ignorant  and 
unreasonable  conduct  of  labor  organizations. 
They  object,  not  to  organizations,  but  to  such 
organizations.  They  refuse  to  recognize  the  or- 
ganizations of  their  employees,  they  assert,  sim- 
ply because  they  cannot  do  so  and  run  their 
business.  It  is  with  them  not  a  matter  of  choice, 
but  of  necessity. 

This  leads  to  the  third  and  main  difficulty 
with  conciliation  and  arbitration — the  difficulty 
presented  by  the  Massachusetts  report,  quoted 
above.  Wages  fall  owing  to  universal  indus- 
trial conditions.  Wage-earners  become  dissat- 
isfied and  strike,  or  appeal  to  arbitration.  It 
may  not  be  the  fault  of  the  wage-earners  ;  they 
may  be  striking  against  a  lowering  of  wages 
that  does  bring  living  below  the  level  even  of 
human  endurance.  The  arbitration  board  to 
which  the  wage-earners  appeal  may  feel  this. 
Nevertheless,  what  can  it  do  ?  The  trouble  lies 
neither  with  the  employers  nor  employees,  but 
with  general  conditions,  and  these  arbitration 
cannot  change.  All  the  board  can  do,  then ,  is  to 
urge  the  wage-workers  to  submit,  and  this  but 
increases  the  unrest  and  dissatisfaction.  There 
is  no  question  that  this,  in  such  general  indus- 
trial conditions,  is  the  main  reason  why,  altho 
we  find  an  increasing  willingness  to  arbitrate. 


Arbitration  and  Conciliation. 


Arbitration  and  Conciliation. 


arbitration  so  often  fails.  From  this  state  of 
affairs  socialists  draw  the  conclu- 
sion that  what  is  needed  is  not  ar- 
Argument  bitration,  but  a  change  of  system, 
for  and  they  often  denounce  arbitra- 

Compulsory  tion  and  conciliation  as  reactionary 

Arbitration,  measures.  It  is  claimed  by  some 
that  the  hope  of  the  movement  lies 
in  compulsory  arbitration  Says 

Mr.  Reeves,  in  the  article  quoted  above  : 

"  I  have  already  shown  how  unsatisfactory  is  the  re- 
sult of  leaving  the  parties  themselves  to  be  led  by 
their  own  good  sense.  That  has  been  earnestly  urged 
and  patiently  tried  for  many  years  in  England.  What 
is  the  outcome  ?  We  may  sum  it  up  as  4300  strikes  in 
the  last  five  years.  In  the  United  States  the  picture  is 
even  darker.  There  mercenaries  shoot  down  strikers, 
unpopular  managers  are  assassinated,  the  militia  has 
to  be  called  put,  unionists  are  put  on  their  trial,  charged 
with  poisoning  blacklegs.  Matters  are  not  so  bad  in 
Australia,  but  is  either  side  in  the  colonies  satisfied 
with  the  position  ?  I  doubt  it ;  the  banking  crisis,  and 
the  partial  collapse  following  thereupon,  having  made 
striking  for  the  present  a  hopeless  game.  The  employ- 
ers have  been  emboldened  by  their  success  in  refusing 
arbitration,  previous  to  their  victories  of  1890,  to  make 
a  practice  of  refusal.  They  do  as  they  did  in  the 
Queensland  Shearers'  strike  and  at  Broken  Hill.  In 
New  South  Wales,  as  in  New  Zealand,  certain  employ- 
ers have  gone  so  far  as  to  decline  to  recognize  unions, 
and  to  avoid  engaging  unionists.  But  unionism  is 
neither  dead  nor  dying  for  all  that.  The  present  state 
of  things  in  Australia  cannot  last,  and  the  people  will 
be  wise  to  take  this  opportunity  of  arranging  a  substi- 
tute for  industrial  tugs-of-war. 

"  If  any  one  could  show  a  single  settlement  of  a  labor 
quarrel  brought  about  by  the  Victorian  or  New  Sotith 
Wales  acts,  or  by  all  the  well-meaning  speeches  made 
in  New  Zealand  in  favor  of  optional  conciliation  boards, 
I  would  admit  that  there  is  something  to  be  said  both 
for  private  conciliation  and  for  legislation  of  the  weak- 
kneed  order.  But  as  the  Victorian  act  has  been  use- 
less, and  the  New  South  Wales  act  worse  than  useless, 
and  as  a  New  Zealand  employer  of  standing  stated  last 
winter  to  a  Parliamentary  comniittee  that  he  could  not 
recall  a  single  labor  quarrel  in  the  colony  that  had 
been  composed  by  private  arbitration,  it  would  seem 
that  we  must  be  bolder  if  we  wish  to  be  effectual. 

"  The  day  is  gone  by  for  arguments  against  the  right 
of  the  State  to  intervene  in  labor  disputes  or  even 
against  the  expediency  of  its  doing  so.  The  case  for 
intervention  was  put  so  pithily  and  clearly  by  the  New 
South  Wales  Commission  on  Strikes  in  1890  that  I 
need  not  try  to  vary  their  language.  '  No  quarrel  should 
be  allowed  to  fester  if  either  party  were  willing  to 
accept  a  settlement  by  the  State  tribunal.  Industrial 
quarrels  cannot  continue  without  the  risk  of  their 
growing  to  dangerous  dimensions,  and  the  State  has  a 
right  in  the  public  interest  to  call  upon  all  who  are  pro- 
tected by  the  laws  to  conform  to  any  provision  the  law 
may  establish  for  settling  quarrels  dangerous  to  the 
public  peace.'  Pity  that  the  commission  did  not  advise, 
or  New  South  Wales  Parliament  enact,  a  law  effectual 
to  give  force  to  this  admirable  declaration  of  principle. 
I  scarcely  need  then  at  this  time  of  day  to  combat  the 
suggestion,  once  made  by  a  respectable  English  states- 
man, that  the  sole  duty  of  the  State  in  relation  to  labor 
quarrels  is  to  '  keep  the  ring.'  The  wisdom  of  a  house- 
holder who  might  allow  his  family  and  servants  to 
settle  a  domestic  dispute  by  smashing  the  furniture 
and  each  other,  while  he  contentedly  locked  the  front 
door  and  kept  strangers  from  the  door-step,  would  not 
impress  any  one.  But  it  would  be  about  on  a  par  with 
that  of  the  upholders  of  absolute  non-intervention  by 
the  State  in  the  worst  class  of  strikes  and  lock-outs. 

"  If  we  are  forced  to  see  that  voluntary  arbitration  by 
systematic  private  arrangement  has  had,  at  best,  a  very 
partial  success  in  England  and  none  elsewhere,  we 
must  turn  to  the  State.  If  we  are  compelled  to  admit 
that  State  voluntary  systems,  inadequate  in  America, 
have  been  still-born  in  England,  New  South  Wales, 
Victoria,  and  Germany,  we  must  fall  back  on  compul- 
sion. If  we  are  driven  to  pronounce  the  use  of  com- 
pulsion in  France  in  settling  minor  disputes  uniformly 
successful,  we  may  in  reason  suggest  that  the  experi- 
ment of  applying  compulsion  to  major  disputes  be 
fairly  tried. 

"  We  are  told  that  compulsory  arbitration  would  fail 
because  the  arbitrators  would  be  ignorant  of  the  busi- 
ness technicalities  of  the  trades  brought  into  court. 


But  our  law  courts  go  into  such  details  every  day,  and 
with  the  aid  of  expert  evidence  usually  contrive  to 
comprehend  them.  It  is  objected  that  no  compulsion 
could  force  an  unwilling  master  to  keep  his  factory 
open,  or  men  to  work  unless  they  choose. 
Of  course  not ;  but  a  court  can  affix  a 
penalty  to  an  award  and  make  a  recal-  «  Awards 
citrant  owner  or  union  and  its  mem-  J~  *i  ^ 
bers  pay.  Moreover,  in  these  countries  oe  Enforced  ? 
people  do  not  defy  the  law.  If  it  is  in- 
tolerable, they  agitate  to  have  it  amend- 
ed ;  and  if  it  works  injustice  it  is  amended.  We 
are  assured  that  business  men  will  not  allow  a  court 
to  regulate  their  methods  of  management.  But  the 
directors  and  shareholders  of  registered  companies 
now  constantly  submit  to  the  keenest  scrutiny  of  their 
affairs  and  the  most  searching  interference  therein  by 
judges.  We  are  warned  that  compulsory  arbitration 
will  be  resented  as  an  unwarrantable  interference  with 
the  liberty  of  the  subject.  The  same  has  been  said  of 
Factory  acts.  Truck  acts,  Mining,  Shop  Hours,  Em- 
ployers' Liability,  Workmen's  Wages,  Ten  Hours  acts,. 
et  hoc  genus  omne.  Yet  all  these  are  accepted  and 
obeyed.  In  the  'Ann  Arbor'  case,  an  American  court 
forbade  boycotting  on  railways.  The  other  day  a 
judge  ordered  the  servants  of  the  Union  Pacific  Rail_ 
way  to  accept  a  10  per  cent  reduction,  and  not  to  strike" 
I  cannot  learn  that  these  injunctions  caused  a  civil  war; 
Alarming  pictures  are  drawn  of  tyrannical  awards, 
under  which  factory  owners  will  be  forced  to  carry  on 
at  a  ruinous  loss  or  men  ordered  to  labor  at  less  than 
a  living  wage.  Granted  that  an  arbitration  court  be 
insane  ;  given  a  lunatic  president  flanked  by  two  crazy 
assessors,  and  I  will  admit  that  the  awards  might 
speedily  cause  a  revolt.  But  under  the  same  con- 
ditions an  ordinary  law  court  might  do  the  same.  We 
are  justified  in  assuming  that  a  president  appointed  by 
the  State  would  be  swayed  by  reason,  and  that  assess- 
ors, elected  by  unions  of  employers  and  workmen  re- 
spectively, would  be  men  of  more  than  average  good 
sense.  To  the  objection  that  an  examination  by  arbi- 
trators of  a  firm's  books  cannot  be  thought  of,  it  may  be 
answered  that  this  applies  to  voluntary  arbitration 
just  as  much  as  the  other  sort.  If  it  is  unreasonable  in 
the  one  case,  it  is  so  in  the  other.  But  one  of  the  most 
useful  of  English  voluntary  boards  reports  that  the 
repugnance  of  employers  to  this  inspection  has  been 
slowly  overcome.  A  weightier  argument  is  that  reck- 
less and  irresponsible  workmen  might  continually 
harass  masters  by  dragging  them  before  courts  and 
boards.  The  remedy  to  this  would  be  found  by  confin- 
ing the  functions  of  the  arbitration  court  and  local  con- 
ciliation boards  to  settling  differences  between  masters 
and  trades-unions  or  registered  associations  of  labor- 
ers. A  little  reflection  will  show  that  to  allow  any  rov- 
ing workman,  or  half-dozen  •workmen,  to  take  their 
master  of  a  day  or  a  week  into  court  over  some  two- 
penny halfpenny  quarrel  would  make  a  mockery  of 
any  arbitration  system.  Registered  unions  have  some- 
thing to  lose— funds,  influence  over  their  members,  a 
character  among  workers  generally.  They  would  not 
be  likely  to  run  the  risk  of  being  mulcted  in  costs  for 
the  sake  of  trifles,  and  of  seeing  their  union's  funds 
seized  or  a  levy  made  upon  their  members.  Even  were 
they  reckless  at  the  outset,  one  or  two  experiences 
would  soon  teach  them  better.  The  Compulsory  Ar- 
bitration Act  that  regulates  the  Nova 
Scotian  mines  allows  the  court  to  order 
an  employer'  to  pay  into  court  a  fort-  Argument. 
night's  wages  of  his  men,  and  an  equal 
sum  for  himself.  Thus  can  security  for 
costs  be  obtained  from  both  sides  in  a  case.  To  such 
safeguardsshouldbe  added  district  conciliation  boards 
elected  by  masters  and  unions.  These,  unfurnished 
with  compulsory  powers,  would  stand  as  a  buffer  be- 
tween disputants  and  the  arbitration  court.  The  lat- 
ter should  be  reserved  for  serious  conflicts,  and  for 
cases  where  the  good  offices  of  the  boards  have  failed. 
I  am  sanguine  enough  to  think  that  they  would  not 
often  fail  when  the  alternative  to  accepting  them 
would  be  an  appearance  before  the  more  formal,  cost- 
ly, and  distant  court  of  arbitration.  In  France  and 
Massachusetts,  of  course,  conciliation  and  arbitration 
are  undertaken  by  the  same  body.  On  the  whole, 
however,  it  would  perhaps  be  wiser  to  separate  them, 
excellent  as  such  a  board  as  that  of  Massachusetts 
would  be  with  the  addition  of  compulsion.  .  .  . 

"The  general  election  in  New  Zealand  has. insured 
the  passing  of  a  Compulsory  Arbitration  act  within  the 
next  six  months,  and  I  venture  to  think  that  New  Zea- 
land is  in  this  likely  to  be  but  a  step  ahead  of  the  con- 
tinental colonies.  To  those  of  us  who  think  this  exper- 
imentinevitable,  it  seems  of  more  moment  to  study  the 
methods  of  making  it  than  to  attend  to  primitive  out- 


Arbitration  and  Conciliation. 


86 


Arbitration  and  Conciliation. 


cries  against  socialistic  interference  with  the  liberty  of 
the  subject.  .  .  ." 

On  the  other  hand,  Mr.  Carroll  D.  Wright, 

Commissioner  of  Labor  of  the  United  States, 

makes  a  strong  argument  against  compulsory 

and  for  voluntary  arbitration.    Says 

Mr.  Wright  in  the  Forum  for  May, 

Argument    1893,  in  an  article  entitled  Compul- 

against      sory   Arbitration    an    Impossible 

Compulsory  Remedy  : 

Arbitration.      «•  The  settlement  of  disputes  aris- 
ing between    employers  and  em- 
ployed, by  such  means  as  will  in- 
sure the  peaceful  cooperation  of  both  parties,  is 
a  result  which  should  be  hailed  by  all  as  a  step 
in  advance,  and  indicates,  whenever  tried,  a 
desire  to  adjust  those  questions  which  have  been 
so  fruitful  of  strikes  and  consequent  distress." 

Mr.  Wright  then  goes  on  to  show  how  volun- 
tary arbitration  can,  and  compulsory  arbitration 
cannot,  work.  He  says  : 

"  Coming  to  specific  regulations  which  must  exist 
in  some  form  under  any  system  of  compulsory  arbi- 
tration, the  difficulties  begin  to  appear  and  the  obsta- 
cles grow  apparently  insurmountable.  In  the  first 
place,  the  court  must  either  be  one  consisting  of  judges 
authorized  to  hear  the  facts,  determine  the  law.  enter 
the  judgment,  and  enforce  it ;  or  onehavingthe  right  to 
summon  a  jury  to  determine  the  facts,  the,  court  having 
the  power  to  pass  the  judgment  and  enforce  its  de- 
cision. It  does  not  matter  which  form  might  be  adopt- 
ed ;  the  court  would  have  to  be  one  of  the  rank  of  the 
county  courts  of  the  country,  from  which  appeals  can 
be  made  to  the  highest  court  of  a  State,  and  in  inter- 
state difficulties  from  the  lower  federal  courts  to  the 
Supreme  Court  of  the  United  States. 

"  In  the  initiative,  let  it  be  supposed  that  A  represents 
the  employer.  He  issues  an  order  to  his  employees 
that  wages  will  be  reduced  10  per  cent,  on  a  certain 
day.  For  the  sake  of  easy  calculation,  let  it  be  sup- 
posed that  the  wages  are  $2  per  day,  on  the  average,  in 
A's  works.  His  proposed  reduction  then,  if  carried 
out,  would  leave  wages  at  $1.80  per  day.  The  work- 
men resist  this  proposition,  and  insist  that  they  will 
work  no  longer  for  him  unless  the  $2  per  day  can  be 
retained.  But  A  issues  his  order,  and  the  workmen 
strike.  A  then  appeals  to  the  court  of  arbitration  for 
his  locality,  and  a  summons  is  issued  under  the  seal  of 
the  court,  citing  the  workmen  to  appear  and  answer  as 
to  why  the  demands  of  the  order  of  A  should  not  be 
obeyed.  If  they  appear  and  make  answer,  all  well 
and  good.  If  they  do  not,  then  they  will  be  subject  to 
judgment  by  default;  or,  in  some  cases,  the  proper 
officers  of  the  court  may  bring  them  bodily  into  court 
to  answer  the  allegations  of  A.  But  they  are  brought 
into  court.  A  presents  his  case,  the  employees  present 
theirs,  the  court  makes  a  decision  and  upholds  A,  de- 
ciding that  he  is  justified  in  cutting  down  the  wages  of 
his  workmen  10  per  cent.,  reducing  them  from  $2  per 
day  to  $1.80. 

'rNow  two  results  may  follow  this  action.  The  men, 
under  the  decision  of  the  court,  acquiesce  and  return 
to  work  at  $1.80  per  day,  or  they  refuse  to  return  to 
work  at  that  priceV^LThen  comes  the  execution  of  the 
judgment  of  the  court  if  the  workmen  will  not  obey 
that  judgment.  It  is  levied  on  them  personally  or  on 
their  property  by  proper  process  and  by  the  proper 
officers  of  the  court.  They  may  be  arrested  and 
brought  into  the  factory.  If  the  sheriff  or  the  single 
officer  authorized  to  serve  the  execution  cannot  do  it 
alone  he  can  summon  the  posse  comitatus.  If  the 
posse  be  insufficient  he  can  appeal  to  the  governor. 
The  order  of  the  court  must  be  enforced,  and  all  the 
power  of  the  government  brought  to  enforce  it.  This 
means  compulsion,  and  at  the  point  of  the  bayonet. 
The  men  must  accede  to  the  decision  of  the  court  of 
arbitration  and  work  for  $1.80  per  day,  whether  they 
will  or  not.  «•$». 

"  Let  us  instance  the  reverse.  The  court  decides 
against  A,  and  the  judgment  is  that  he  shall  pay  $2  per 
day.  He  declines  to  do  so,  or  he  does  not  obey  the 
judgment  of  the  court.  Execution  then  follows,  and  is 
served  by  the  proper  officer.  If  he  cannot  serve  it 
alone  he  summons  the  posse  comitatus.  If  the  posse  be 
insufficient  the  officer  appeals  to  the  governor  of  the 
State,  and  A  must  continue  his  works  and  with  wages 
at  $2  per  day  under  the  persuading  infhience  of  loaded 


rifles,  or  the  execution  may  be  levied  on  his  property. 
He  must  obey,  under  the  ruje  of  compulsory  arbitra- 
tion, the  order  of  the  court.^"In  other  words,  he  must 
pay  $2  per  day  when,  it  may  be,  the  market  cannot  be 
supplied  with  goods  on  any  such  basis.  He  cannot 
close  his  works  without  disobeying  the  order  of  the 
court ;  he  cannot  pay  the  $2  per  day  without  loss  of  his 
property.  Compulsory  arbitration  then  works  confis- 
cation. In  either  of  these  instances  law  has  stepped  in 
to  fix  arbitrarily,  and  to  enforce  its  fixing  by  all  the 
civil  and  military  power  of  the  State,  either  the  price 
at  which  a  man  shall  sell  his  labor,  under  penalties,  or 
the  price  at  which  the  producer  shall  sell  his  goods, 
under  penalties,  gut  the  plan  does  not  provide  that 
tiie  consumer  shall  purchase  goods  at  the  fixed  price, 
under  penalties,  which  should  be  done  if  there  is  any 
logic  in  compulsory  "arbitration. 

"  What  further  may  occur  :  The  employer  submits,  it 
may  be,  to  the  judgment  of  the  court,  continues  the 
operation  of  his  works,  and  pays  the  $2  per  day,  as  or- 
dered by  law,  altho  he  knows  perfectly  well  that  he 
cannot  sell  his  goods  if  he  disobeys  the  law.  He  there- 
fore has  two  things  to  which  he  can  resort :  i.  Adul- 
terate his  goods  to  such  an  extent  that  he  recoups  a 
loss  of  10  per  cent,  in  wages;  2.  Make  a  'combine' 
with  all  other  manufacturers  of  like  goods  to  control 
prices,  in  order  that  whenever  a  court  of  arbitration 
decides  that  certain  wages  shall  be  paid  there  will  be 
no  competition,  the  trust  or  'combine' regulating  the 
price  in  accordance  with  the  decrees  of  the  court,  and 
therefore  caring  nothing  what  the  decrees  may  be,  be- 
cause the  consumer  must  bear  the  expense  of  the  de- 
cree. This  means  the  highest,  even  prohibitive,  rates 
of  duty.  Or  another  economic  condition  may  be  the 
result  of  the  decree  of  the  court.  A  submits  to  the  de- 
cision and  continues  to  pay  $2  per  day,  and  tries  to  sell 
his  goods  in  the  old  way.  This  allows  his  neighbor  to 
enter  into  dangerous  competition  with  him  until  such 
time  as  he  is  summoned  into  court  and  is  compelled  to 
abide  by  the  same  rules,  it  thus  taking  but  little  time 
to  force  the  whole  industry  involved  into  the  trust  or- 
ganization. If  the  illustration  be  reversed  in  all  cases  to 
apply  to  men  who  strike  for  higher  pay,  thus  becoming 
the  plaintiff  in  the  action  and  summoning  the  manufac- 
turer, the  manufacturer  must  appear  or  lose  the  case 
by  default,  or,  if  he  does  appear,  be  subject  to  the  de- 
cision of  the  court.  It  may  be  a  rise  of  wages  would 
follow,  when  all  the  results  just  indicated  would  be 
met. 

"  It  does  not  require  much  stretch  of  the  imagination 
to  see  that  as  each  industry  becomes  involved  in  the 
economic  results  of  compulsory  arbitration,  combina- 
tion grows  more  and  more  severe  in  all  its  terms. 
Every  great  industry  would  be  forced  into  the  trust 
through  the  action  of  the  sheriff,  or  the  posse  comi- 
tatus under  him,  or  the  military  force  of  the  State  en- 
forcing the  decision  of  its  courts,  which  it  is  bound  to 
do.  The  trust  represents  consolidation,  and,  in  the 
minds  of  leading  socialists,  is  but  the  stepping-stone  to 
State  socialism.  If  the  trust  be  honestly  and  faithfully 
administered  in  the  interests  of  the  public— and  this 
must  be  the  result,  or  the  trust  must  go  under— the  State 
socialist  asks,  Why  not  create  a  greater  trust  and  have 
the  Government  itself  the  trustee?  This  is  not  the 
place  to  argue  such  a  question,  but  the  question  may 
be  asked  here  whether  the  advocates  of  compulsory 
arbitration  are  ready  to  accept  the  full  and  logical  con- 
clusion of  their  system  by  forcing,  at  the  point  of  the 
bayonet,  all  industries  under  State  control,  and  thereby 
establish,  by  military  force,  the  rule  of  State  socialism  ? 
"  How  much  simpler  it  would  be  to  enact  a  law,  with 
proper  penalties,  establishing  the  prices  of  goods  and 
the  wages  of  all  labor.  Then  when  any  one,  a  manu- 
facturer, or  a  seller,  or  a  laborer,  violated  the  law  he 
could  be  prosecuted  in  a  criminal  court  and  the  proper 
penalty  applied.  This  would  do  away  with  all  the 
cumbersome  machinery  of  the  court  of  compulsory 
arbitration  and  accomplish  precisely  the  same  result — 
the  death  of  industry. 

What  Mr.  Wright  does  advocate  may  be  seen 
by  his  recommendation  of  voluntary  arbitration 
quoted  in  Part  II.  of  this  article.  Most  trade- 
unionists  agree  with  Mr.  Wright  in  opposing 
compulsory  arbitration.  Mr.  John  B.  Lennon, 
Treasurer  of  the  American  Federation  of 
Labor,  writes  in  The  Independent  for  May  2, 
1895: 

"We  believe  in  arbitration  if  it  be  voluntary.  But 
we  have  more  faith  in  conciliation,  in  the  settling  of 
disputes  or  threatened  disputes  before  they  reach  the 


Arbitration  and  Conciliation. 


Arbitration  and  Conciliation. 


..  j  obiec 

cause  ft  is  not  arbitration.  Arbitration  means  a  peace- 
ful settlement ;  compulsion  means  force.  And  we  do 
not  believe  it  to  be  the  province  of  the  Government  to 
interfere,  or  so  commence  to  take  part  in  the  settle- 
ment of  these  trade  questions,  believing  that  neither 
Congress  nor  the  State  legislatures  have  the  necessary 
technical  knowledge  relating  to  the  different  crafts  ; 
nor  is  it  possible  for  them  to  have  such  knowledge  as 
would  enable  them  to  settle  trade  disputes  on  just  and 
fair  grounds.  We  object  to  compulsory  arbitration,  as 
the  introduction,  in  a  degree  at  least,  of  a  system  of 
slavery ;  as,  if  compulsory,  it  must  be  followed  by 
penalties  which  would  probably  make  it  a  penal  offense 
for  a  man  to  quit  work  or  to  continue  it  if  a  board  of 
arbitration  should  have  decided  against  him.  We  also 
consider  such  a  method  inconsistent  with  the  princi- 
ples of  our  American  Government  and  with  the  actual 
rights  of  men." 

Such  are  some  of  the  arguments  pro  and  con 

for  various  kinds  of  arbitration.    Yet  arbitration 

of  some  kind  all  would  favor,  saving  only  those 

extreme     socialists    who    consider 

everything  reactionary  which  does 

Opinions,  not  immediately  introduce  socialism. 
All  others  agree  that  labor  and 
capital  must  be  friends,  not  ene- 
mies, and  that  this  can  be  reached  only  by  each 
side  understanding  each  other,  to  which  end 
nothing  can  more  conduce  than  coming  together, 
in  case  of  industrial  disputes,  for  friendly  arbi- 
tration, or,  better  still,  in  permanent  boards  of 
conciliation  before  disputes  have  arisen. 

Professor  J.  B.  Clark,  Smith  College,  North- 
ampton, Mass.,  says  : 

"  Arbitration  is  in  itself  an  appeal  to  equity 
and  a  departure  from  the  competitive  principle. ' ' 

Professor  Henry  C.  Adams,  Lecturer  on  Politi- 
cal Economy  in  the  University  of  Michigan  and 
Cornell  University,  says  : 

"  Arbitration  is  not  the  missing  coupling  be- 
tween labor  and  capital,  but  it  is  the  thing  for 
which,  at  the  present  time,  it  is  practical  that 
working  men  should  strive.  Its  establishment 
is  the  first  step  toward  the  overthrow  of  the 
wages  system. ' ' 

Professor  E.  J.  James,  of  the  University  of 
Pennsylvania  (Philadelphia),  says  : 

' '  Arbitration  has  the  great  advantage  of  sub- 
jecting the  acts  of  the  parties  to  it  to  the  effi- 
cient and  powerful  control  of  an  energetic  pub- 
lic opinion.  It  recognizes  indirectly — what  is  too 
often  overlooked — that  the  interests  at  stake  are 
not  merely  those  of  the  laborer  and  employer, 
but  also  those  of  the  community  at  large.  The 
latter  has  such  a  great  stake  in  the  contest  that 
it  cannot  afford  to  stand  idly  by  and  permit  the 
former  to  disturb  society  to  its  foundations,  and 
destroy  in  their  struggle  the  very  conditions  of 
sound  economic  progress. " 

John  Jarrett,  Esq. ,  Secretary  of  the  American 
Tinned-Plate  Association,  says  : 

"  I  know  of  no  better  remedy,  in  the  adjust- 
ment of  all  differences  that  may  arise  between 
employers  and  employees,  than  arbitration  and 
conciliation." 

Hon.  Joel  B.  McCamant,  Chief  of  Bureau  of 
Industrial  Statistics,  State  of  Pennsylvania, 
says  : 

"  Arbitration,  in  my  opinion,  is  the  only  rea- 
sonable coupling  between  labor  and  capital. ' ' 

The  first  step  to  arbitration  is  organization, 
both  of  employers  and  employees. 


Says  Dr.  Gould,  in  a  recent  article  in  the  Yale 
Review,  February,  1895  : 

"A  ready-made,  perfectly  adjusted,  inelastic 
method  or  agency  for  settling  collective  indus- 
trial difficulties,  embodying  at  the  same  time 
ideas  of  abstract  justice,  cannot  be  devised.  A 
modus  -vivendi,  however,  can  be  reached,  but 
it  must  respond  to  underlying  interests  and  har- 
monize with  national  traditions  and  necessities. 
Advance  must  be  progressive,  for  the  problem 
is  educational  as  well  as  practical.  The  very 
first  step  is  organization  by  both  of  the  two  par- 
ties to  industry." 

Says  Mrs.  J.  S.  Lowell : 

"  Labor  differences  arise  because  labor  or 
capital  (or  sometimes  both)  fail  to  recognize  the 
fundamental  facts  of  their  relationship,  which 
are  that  they  are  both  interested  in  all  questions 
of  wages,  of  hours,  and  of  conditions  of  work  ; 
that  they  both  have  equal  rights  in  regard  to 
them  ;  and  that  both  must,  therefore,  have  an 
equal  voice  in  settling  them. 

"  Sometimes  it  is  the  employer  who  posts  a 
notice  in  the  factory  that,  after  a  certain  date, 
wages  are  to  be  so  and  so  and  hours  such  and 
such.  The  changes  may  be  necessary  ;  but  it 
is  not  to  be  expected  that  intelligent,  indepen- 
dent American  citizens  will  tamely  accept  con- 
ditions about  which  they  have  not  been  consult- 
ed, and  which  have  been  promulgated  as  the 
Czar  of  Russia  promulgates  his  decrees,  and 
consequently  there  follows  a  strike  which  might 
have  been  avoided  by  the  practise  of  a  little 
common  sense  and  common  courtesy  on  the  part 
of  the  employer. 

"On  the  other  hand,  the  same  spirit  is  not 
infrequently  shown  by  the  union  or  the  local 
assembly.  An  employer,  who  has  made  his 
business  agreements  upon  the  understanding 
that  existing  conditions  are  to  continue,  is  sud- 
denly confronted  with  the  statement  that  his 
employees  have  adopted  new  working  rules,  and 
that  within  a  few  days  those  working  rules  will 
go  into  effect.  Here  again  temper  may  have 
something  to  do  with  the  action  of  the  employ- 
er, but  the  sympathy  of  the  unprejudiced  ob- 
server must  be  with  him  when  he  resents  such 
arbitrary  action  and  claims  his  right  to  be  con- 
sulted as  to  the  conditions  under  which  work  in 
his  establishment  is  to  be  done.  The  fault  is 
exactly  the  same  and  exactly  equal  in  these  two 
cases,  and  arises  from  a  wrong  -way  of  looking 
at  the  question. 

"  What  is  the  remedy  ?  A  recognition  on  the 
part  of  both  employer  and  employee  of  the  rights 
of  the  other  side — that  is,  a  sense  of  justice  and 
a  desire  to  deal  justly.  Neither  side  can  throw 
stones  ;  both  can  show  instances  of  wrongdoing 
and  of  rightdoing,  but  unfortunately  when  one 
side  is  right  the  other  side  is  apt  to  be  wrong 
on  any  particular  occasion /and  so  the  'labor 
differences'  multiply. 

"  There  are  instances,  however,  where  both 
sides  have  the  right  spirit,  where  the  equal 
rights  of  both  sides  are  mutually  recognized, 
and  then  there  is  truly  '  nothing  to  arbitrate,' 
not  because  of  unwillingness  on  the  part  of  the 
employer  or  employee,  but  because  there  really 
are  no  '  differences  '  between  them.  But  where 
such  conditions  of  mutual  confidence  and  re- 
spect exist,  the  public  knows  nothing  at  all  about 


Arbitration  and  Conciliation. 


88 


Aristocracy. 


it,  for  there  is  nothing  to  excite  public  interest  ; 
and  whereas  every  little  strike  of  a  few  hundred 
men  is  known  and  chronicled,  the  peaceful  rela- 
tions of  thousands  of  men  and  their  employers 
and  the  sure  foundation  upon  which  it  is  based 
are  scarcely  known  beyond  the  walls  of  the  room 
where  the  representatives  discuss  and  settle  all 
questions  of  common  interest. ' ' 

Says  Professor  R.  T.  Ely  : 

"  Arbitration  is  impossible  without  labor  or- 
ganizations. Capital  is  combined  and  is  man- 
aged by  a  few  persons  even  in  the  largest 
establishments.  Take  the  case  of  a  railway 
corporation.  The  capital  may  be  owned  by 
looo  different  persons,  but  it  is  massed  together, 
and  all  its  owners,  as  a  rule,  treat  with  the  rail- 
way employers  through  a  single  person.  Capi- 
tal is  one  of  the  factors  of  production  ;  labor 
is  another,  and  it  also  must  be  massed  together 
to  stand  on  an  equal  footing,  and  this  can  be 
effected  only  by  organization.  As  the  1000  capi- 
talists choose  one  representative,  the  10,000 
laborers  must  choose  a  representative  of  labor. 
To  ask  a  single  laborer,  representing  a  ten-thou- 
sandth part  of  the  labor  factor,  to  place  himself 
against  a  man  who  represents  all  the  combined 
capital,  is  as  absurd  as  to  place  a  boy  before  an 
express  train  and  expect  him  to  stop  its  progress. 
As  Hon.  Abram  S.  Hewitt,  as  every  one  knows, 
a  wealthy  employer,  has  so  well  said,  it  is  only 
after  labor  is  organized  that  the  contending  par- 
ties are  in  a  condition  to  treat.  '  The  great  re- 
sult is  that  capital  is  ready  to  discuss.  It  is  not 
to  be  disguised  that,  until  labor  presented  itself 
in  such  an  attitude  as  to  compel  a  hearing,  capi- 
tal was  not  willing  to  listen,  but  now  it  does 
listen.'  " 

Many  trade-unionists  fear  boards  of  arbitra- 
tion appointed  by  the  State,  since  government 
to-day  they  consider  almost  wholly  in  the  hands 
of  the  dreaded  "  capitalist."  At  the  recent  an- 
nual convention  of  the  English  Miners'  Federa- 
tion it  was  stated  that  the  Federation  had  been 
started  to  uphold  the  right  of  the  miner  to  a 
voice  in  the  adjudication  of  the  value  of  his 
labor,  and  they  had  no  confidence  in  the  arbitra- 
tion of  men  belonging  to  the  capitalist  class. 
The  president  said  he  had  never  met  with  any 
settlement  by  arbitration  which  gave  general  sat- 
isfaction. Undoubtedly  the  first  step  to  making 
boards  of  arbitration  and  conciliation  succeed  is 
to  make  them  fair  and  above  suspicion. 

References :  Industrial  Arbitration  and  Concilia- 
tion^ by  Josephine  S.  Lowell  (New  York,  Putnam,  1893)  ; 
Industrial  Conciliation  and  Arbitration  in  New  York, 
Ohio,  and  Pennsylvania,  by  Joseph  D.  Weeks  (included 
in  the  Twelfth  Annual  Report,  1880,  of  the  Massachu- 
setts Bureau  of  Statistics  of  Labor,  with  comments  by 
Carroll  D.  Wright,  chief)  ;  Industrial  Conciliation,  by 
H.  Crotnpton  (London,  H.  S.  King  &  Co.,  1876) ;  Indus- 
trial Peace,  by  L.  L.  F.  R.  Price  (Macmillan,  1887) ; 
Conciliation  and  Arbitration  in  Labor  Disputes,  by  J. 
S.  Jeans  (London,  1894) ;  Compulsory  Industrial  Arbi- 
tration, by  S.  Dexter ;  American  Journal  of  Social 
Science  ;  Compulsory  Arbitration  an  Impossible  Remedy, 
by  Carroll  D.  Wright  (Forum,  May,  1893) ;  Industrial 
Arbitration,  by  Dr.  E.  R.  L.  Gould  (Yale  Review, 
February,  1895). 

ARBOR  DAY. — A  certain  day  in  the  year 
appointed  by  the  State,  in  which  people  are 
asked  and  encouraged  to  plant  trees  in  order  to 
counteract  the  tendency  to  forest  exhaustion. 
(See  FORESTRY.)  To  the  Nebraska  State  Board 


of  Agriculture  belongs  the  honor  of  recommend- 
ing, in  1879,  the  first  Arbor  Day,  which  was  to 
be  the  second  Wednesday  of  April  in  each  year. 
To-day  38  States  and  Territories  celebrate  Arbor 
Day. 

ARCH,  JOSEPH,  leader  of  the  English  agri- 
cultural laborers'  movement,  1870-88,  and  Presi- 
dent of  the  National  Agricultural  Laborers' 
Union  (1872),  of  which  he  was  the  chief  founder. 
He  was  the  son  of  a  laborer,  and  worked  on  the 
farm  himself  from  an  early  age.  For  some 
years  he  used  his  spare  time  preaching  for  the 
Primitive  Methodists,  and  when  the  move- 
ment began  among  the  agricultural  laborers 
he  used  his  talent  on  their  behalf,  soon  being 
recognized  as  a  leader.  He  was  four  times  a 
candidate  for  parliamentary  honors,  but  was 
successful  only  when  he  stood  as  the  nominee 
of  the  Liberal  Party  for  Northwest  Norfolk  in 
1885,  and  again  in  1892  and  1895,  after  a  defeat 
in  1886. 

ARISTOCRACY  (Gr.  dpiaros,  best,  and. 
Kpana,  rule)  means  literally  government  by  the 
best ;  but  in  ordinary  use,  by  "  the  best"  is  too 
often  meant  simply  "  the  highest  in  rank  and 
in  opulence  ;"  so  that  the  word  has  come  to 
mean  a  government  where  the  supreme  power 
is  exercised  by  those  highest  in  station,  inherit- 
ance, blood,  or  wealth.  It  is  in  this  sense  claimed 
by  almost  all  leaders  of  reform  movements  and 
by  many  others  that  the  United  States  is  more  of 
an  aristocracy  to-day  than  of  a  democracy.  Of 
the  82  membersof  the  Senate  of  1891-92,  69  were 
lawyers,  and  of  the  335  members  of  the  House 
231  were  lawyers  ;  and  these  lawyers  were  al- 
most exclusively,  by  their  antecedents,  interests, 
etc.,  representatives  of  the  possessing  classes 
alone.  Dr.  Josiah  Strong,  in  his  book,  Our 
Country,  says : 

"Every  nation  has  its  aristocracy.  In  other  lands 
the  aristocracy  is  one  of  birth  ;  in  ours  it  is  one  of 
wealth.  It  is  useless  for  us  to  protest  that  we  are  demo- 
cratic, and  to  plead  the  leveling  character  of  our  in- 
stitutions. There  is  among  us  an  aristocracy  of  recog- 
nized power,  and  that  aristocracy  is  one  of  wealth. 
No  heraldry  offends  our  republican  prejudices.  Our 
ensigns  armorial  are  the  trade-mark.  Our  laws  and 
customs  recognize  no  noble  titles  ;  but  men  can  forego 
the  husk  of  a  title  who  possess  the  fat  ears  of  power. 
In  England  there  is  an  eager  ambition  to  rise  in  rank, 
an  ambition  as  rarely  gratified  as  it  is  commonly  .ex- 
perienced. With  us,  aspiration  meets  with  no  such 
iron  check  as  birth.  A  man  has  only  to  build  higher 
the  pedestal  of  his  wealth.  He  may  stand  as  high  as 
he  can  build.  His  wealth  cannot  secure  to  him  genu- 
ine respect,  to  be  sure ;  but,  for  that  matter,  neither 
can  birth.  It  will  secure  to  him  an  obsequious  defer- 
ence. It  may  purchase  political  distinction.  It  is 
power.  In  the  Old  World  men  commonly  live  and  die 
in  the  condition  in  which  they  are  born.  The  peasant 
may  be  discontented,  may  covet  what  is  beyond  his 
reach  ;  but  his  desire  draws  no  strength  from  expecta- 
tion. Heretofore,  in  this  country,  almost  any  laborer, 
by  industry  and  economy,  might  gain  a  competence, 
and  even  a  measure  of  wealth ;  and  tho  now  we 
are  beginning  to  approximate  the  conditions  of  Eurp- 
pean  labor,  young  men,  generally,  when  they  start  in 
life,  still  expect  to  become  rich ;  and,  thinking  not  to 
serve  their  god  for  naught,  they  commonly  become 
faithful  votaries  of  Mammon.  Thus  the  prizes  of 
wealth  in  the  United  States,  being  at  the  same  time 
greater  and  more  easily  won,  and  the  lists  being  open 
to  all  comers,  the  rush  is  more  general  and  the  race 
more  eager  than  elsewhere.  .  .  .  Where  land  is 
being  rapidly  taken,  and  real  estate  of  all  sorts  is 
rapidly  appreciating  in  value,  men  make  every  pos- 
sible present  endeavor  with  reference  to  the  future. 
Under  such  conditions  the  race  after  wealth  becomes 


Aristocracy. 


Aristotle. 


peculiarly  eager.  The  gambling  spirit,  which  always 
prevails  in  mining  regions,  exerts  a  wide  influence, 
even  in  agricultural  States.  Farmers  often  rent  land, 
put  their  entire  capital  into  a  great  acreage,  and 
stake  everything  on  a  single  crop.  The  sudden  wealth 
often  realized  in  the  mines  stimulates  the  general 
haste  to  be  rich.  And  where  riches  are  almost  the 
sole  object  of  endeavor,  their  possession  gives  greater 
power.  In  the  Rocky  Mountains  a  man  may  be  to- 
day a  caterer  or  bartender,  fit  for  that  and  nothing 
more  ;  to-morrow,  without  any  good  wit  of  his  own,  a 
millionaire  ;  next  day,  because  '  Mammon  wins  his  way 
where  seraphs  might  despair,'  a  lieutenant-governor 
or  United  States  Senator.'r 

But  there  is  another  side  to  this  question.  It 
is  becoming  more  and  more  doubtful  whether  it 
is  possible,  under  ordinary  circumstances,  to  ac- 
quire wealth  to-day,  unless  one  is  already  born 
to  wealth,  inheriting  it  or  acquiring  it  in  some 
speculative  way.  Concerning  this,  see  ABSTI- 
NENCE, REWARD  OF  ;  WEALTH,  etc.  The  follow- 
ing passage  from  John  Stuart  Mill  (Fortnightly 
Review,  February,  1879)  bears  upon  this  point : 

"  The  very  idea  of  distributing  justice,  or  of  any 
proportionality  between  success  and  merit  or  between 
success  and  exertion,  is  in  the  present  state  of  society 
so  manifestly  chimerical  as  to  be  relegated  to  the  re- 
gions of  romance.  It  is  true  that  the  lot  of  individuals 
is  not  wholly  independent  of  their  virtue  and  intelli- 
gence ;  these  do  really  tell  in  their  favour,  but  far  less 
than  many  other  things  in  which  there  is  no  merit  at 
all.  The  most  powerr ul  of  all  the  determining  circum- 
stances is  birth.  The  great  majority  are  what  they 
were  born  to  be.  Some  are  born  rich  without  work, 
others  are  born  to  a  position  in  which  they  can  become 
rich  by  work,  the  great  majority  are  born  to  hard 
\vork  and  poverty  throughout  life,  numbers  to  indi- 
gence. Next  to  birth  the  chief  cause  of  success  in  life 
is  accident  and  opportunity.  When  a  person  not  born 
to  riches  succeeds  in  acquiring  them,  his  own  industry 
and  dexterity  have  generally  contributed  to  the  result ; 
but  industry  and  dexterity  would  not  have  sufficed 
unless  there  had  been  also  a  concurrence  of  occasions 
and  chances  which  falls  to  the  lot  of  only  a  small  num- 
ber. If  persons  are  helped  in  their  worldly  career  by 
their  virtues,  so  are  they,  and  perhaps  quite  as  often, 
by  their  vices  ;  by  servility  and  sycophancy,  by  hard- 
hearted and  close-fisted  selfishness,  by  the  permitted 
lies  and  tricks  of  trade,  by  gambling  speculations,  not 
seldom  by  downright  knavery.  Energies  and  talents 
are  of  much  more  avail  for  success  in  life  than  virtues : 
but  if  one  man  succeeds  by  employing  energy  and 
talent  in  something  generally  useful,  another  thrives 
by  exercising  the  same  qualities  in  outgeneraling 
and  ruining  a  rival.  It  is  as  much  as  any  moralist 
ventures  to  assert,  that,  other  circumstances  being 
given,  honesty  is  the  best  policy,  and  that  with  parity 
of  advantages  an  honest  person  has  better  chances 
than  a  rogue.  .  .  .  The  reward,  instead  of  being  per- 
fectipned  to  the  labour  and  abstinence  of  the  individ- 
ual, is  almost  in  reverse  ratio  to  it ;  those  who  receive 
the  least  labour  and  abstain  the  most." 

(See  also  DEMOCRACY  ;  WEALTH,  etc.) 

ARISTOTLE  (384-322  B.c.),born  at  Stageira. 
He  was  a  pupil  of  Plato  at  Athens,  and  said  to 
have  been  called  "the  intellect  of  the  school." 
.  After  Plato's  death  (347  B.C.)  Aristotle  left 
Athens,  and  in  342  B.C.  was  invited  to  Macedonia 
by  Philip,  and  became  the  teacher  of  Alexander. 
He  remained  here  till  Alexander  started  on  his 
Asiatic  expedition  (334  B.C.),  when  he  returned  to 
Athens  and  opened  a  school  called  the  Lyceum, 
and  (from  his  practice  of  walking  as  he  lectured) 
the  ' '  Peripatetic' '  school.  He  died  at  Chalcis  in 
Euboea,  aged  62.  His  main  works  are  the  Nico- 
machean  Ethics,  Organon  or  Logic,  Rhetoric, 
Poetics,  Physics,  and  Politics.  His  knowledge 
for  his  times  was  encyclopedic.  His  thorough 
knowledge  of  facts  made  him  much  more  con- 
crete and  scientific,  and  as  objective  as  Plato  was 
idealistic  and  subjective.  The  following  sum- 


mary of  his  economic  and  sociologic  positions  is 
abridged  from  Professor  Ingram's  History  of 
Political  Economy,  p.  16  : 

"Aristotle,  like  all  the  Greek  thinkers,  recognizes 
but  one  doctrine  of  the  State,  under  which  ethics,  poli- 
tics proper,  and  economics  take  their  place  as  depart- 
ments, bearing  to  each  other  a  very  close  relation,  and 
having,  indeed,  their  lines  of  demarcation  from  each 
other  not  very  distinctly  marked.  When  wealth  comes 
under  consideration,  it  is  studied  not  as  an  end  in 
itself,  but  with  a  view  to  the  higher  elements  and 
ultimate  aims  of  the  collective  life. 

"  The  origin  of  society  he  traces  not  to  economic 
necessities,  but  to  natural  social  impulses  in  the 
human  constitution.  The  nature  of  the  social  union, 
when  thus  established,  being  determined  by  the  partly 
spontaneous,  partly  systematic  combination  of  diverse 
activities,  he  respects  the  independence  of  the  latter 
while  seeking  to  effect  their  convergence.  He  there- 
fore opposes  himself  to  the  suppression  of  personal  free- 
dom and  initiative,  and  the  excessive  subordination  of 
the  individual  to  the  State,  and  rejects  the  community 
of  property  and  wives  proposed  by  Plato  for  his  gov- 
erning class.  The  principle  ot  private  property  he 
regards  as  deeply  rooted  in  man,  and  the  evils  which 
are  alleged  to  result  from  the  corresponding  social 
ordinance  he  thinks  ought  really  to  be  attributed 
either  to  the  imperfections  of  our  nature  or  to  the  vices 
of  other  public  institutions.  Community  of  goods 
must,  in  his  view,  tend  to  neglect  of  the  common 
interest  and  to  the  disturbance  of  social  harmony. 

"  Of  the  several  classes  which  provide  for  the  dif- 
ferent wants  of  the  society,  those  who  are  occupied 
directly  with  its  material  needs — the  immediate  cul- 
tivators of  the  soil,  the  mechanics  and  artificers— are 
excluded  from  any  share  in  the  government  of  the 
State,  as  being  without  the  necessary  leisure  and  cul- 
tivation, and  apt  to  be  debased  by  the  nature  of  their 
occupations.  In  a  celebrated  passage  he  propounds  a 
theory  of  slavery,  in  which  it  is  based  on  the  univer- 
sality of  the  relation  between  command  and  obedience, 
and  on  the  natural  division  by  which  the  ruling  is 
marked  off  from  the  subject  race.  He  regards  the 
slave  as  having  no  independent  will,  but  as  an  'ani- 
mated tool '  in  the  hands  of  his  master  ;  and  in  his  sub- 
jection to  such  control,  if  only  it  be  intelligent,  Aristotle 
holds  that  the  true  well-being  of  the  inferior  as  well  as 
of  the  superior  is  to  be  found.  This  view,  so  shocking 
to  our  modern  sentiment,  is  of  course  not  personal  to 
Aristotle  ;  it  is  simply  the  theoretic  presentation  of  the 
facts  of  Greek  life,  in  which  the  existence  of  a  body  of 
citizens  pursuing  the  higher  culture  and  devoted  to  the 
tasks  of  war  and  government  was  founded  on  the 
systematic  degradation  of  a  wronged  and  despised 
class,  excluded  from  all  the  higher  offices  of  human 
beings,  and  sacrificed  to  the  maintenance  of  a  special 
type  of  society. 

"  The  methods  of  economic  acquisition  are  divided 
by  Aristotle  into  two,  one  of  which  has  for  its  aim  the 
appropriation  of  natural  products  and  their  applica- 
tion to  the  material  uses  of  the  household  ;  under  this 
head  come  hunting,  fishing,  cattle-rearing,  and  agri- 
culture. With  this  primary  and 'natural  method  is, 
in  some  sense,  contrasted  the  other  to  which  Aristotle 
gives  the  name  of  '  chrematistic,"  in  which  an  active 
exchange  of  products  goes  on,  and  money  conies  into 
operation  as  its  medium  and  regulator.  '  A  certain 
measure  of  this  '  non-natural '  method,  as  it  may  be 
termed  in  opposition  to  the  preceding  and  simpler 
form  of  industrial  life,  is  accepted  by  Aristotle  as  a 
necessary  extension  of  the  latter,  arising  out  of  in- 
creased activity  of  intercourse,  and  satisfying  real 
wants.  But  its  development  on  the  great  scale,  founded 
on  the  thirst  for  enjoyment  and  the  unlimited  desire 
of  gain,  he  condemns  as  unworthy  and  corrupting. 
Tho  his  views  on  this  subject  appear  to  be  prin- 
cipally based  on  moral  grounds,  there  are  some  indi- 
cations of  his  having  entertained  the  erroneous  opinion 
held  by  the  physiocrats  of  the  eighteenth  century,  that 
agriculture  alone  (with  the  kindred  arts  above  joined 
with  it)  is  truly  productive,  while  the  other  kinds  of 
industry,  which  either  modify  the  products  of  nature 
or  distribute  them  by  way  of  exchange,  however  con- 
venient and  useful  they  may  be,  make  no  addition  to 
the  wealth  of  the  community.  .  .  . 

"  Like  the  other  Greek  social  philosophers,  Aristotle 
recommends  to  the  care  of  governments  the  preserva- 
tion of  a  due  proportion  between  the  extent  or  the  civic 
territory  and  its  population,  and  relies  on  ante- 
nuptial continence,  late  marriages,  and  the  prevention 
or  destruction  of  births  for  the  due  limitation  of  the 
number  of  citizens,  the  insufficiency  of  the  latter 


Aristotle. 


90 


Army  and  Navy. 


being  dangerous  to  the  independence  and  its  super- 
abundance to  the  tranquillity  and  good  order  of  the 
State." 

In  his  Politics  (Book  I.,  2,  §§  12-14)  Aristotle  says  : 
"The  State  is,  by  nature,  clearly  prior  to  the  individual 
and  to  the  family,  since  the  whole  is  of  necessity  prior  to 
the  part.  .  .  .  The  proof  that  the  State  is  a  creation 
of  nature,  and  prior  to  the  individual,  is  that  the  indi- 
vidual, when  isolated,  is  not  self-sufficing  ;  and,  there- 
fore, he  is  like  a  part  in  relation  to  the  whole.  But  he 
who  is  unable  to  live  in  society,  or  who  has  no  need, 
because  he  is  sufficient  for  himself,  must  be  either  a 
beast  or  a  god." 

ARMY  AND  NAVY.— However  necessary 
standing  armies  and  navies  have  been  in  the 
past,  and  to  an  extent  may  still  be,  the  burden 
of  their  maintenance  is  one  against  which  social 
science  is  more  and  more  protesting.  Just  so 
far  as  true  education  and  civilization  prevail  will 
the  necessity  for  standing  armies  disappear. 
The  United  States,  with  its  continental  terri- 
tory, its  developing  life,  its  varied  population, 
and  yet  small  standing  army,  is  the  wonder  and 
envy  of  Europe. 

The  Commander-in-Chief  of  the  United  States 
Army  is  the  President.  The  general  in  com- 
mand is  a  major-general,  with  a  salary  of  $7500. 
The  appropriation  for  the  army  for  1895  is 
$23,529,885.  The  new  United  States  Navy  will 
consist  of  28  armored  vessels,  25  unarmored  ves- 
sels, 12  unarmored  wooden  and  iron  ships,  six 
torpedo-boats.  Of  these  several  are  still  build- 
ing. Besides  these  are  over  60  tugs,  school- 
ships,  small  steamers,  old  vessels,  etc.  There 
are  eight  navy-yards.  The  navy  of  the  United 
States  is  commanded  by  six  rear-admirals,  10 
commodores,  45  captains,  85  commanders  and 


74  lieutenant-commanders,  325  lieutenants,  and 
1 80  ensigns.  There  are  7500  enlisted  men  and 
750  boys,  besides  a  marine  corps  of  2175  officers 
and  men.  The  appropriation  for  the  navy  for 
1895  is  $25,327,127.  The  total  expense  of  our 
government  from  1789-1892  was,  for  war,  $4,- 
824,758,797;  for  the  navy,  $1,236,772,615.  The 
militia  of  the  United  States  numbers  117,537 
officers  and  men. 

The  army  of  the  United  States  in  1894  consisted  of 
the  following  forces,  in  officers  and  men  : 


Officers. 

Enlisted 
Men. 

Aggre- 
gate. 

Ten  cavalry  regiments.  .  . 

43° 

6,050 

6,480 

Five  artillery  regiments. 
Twenty-five     infantry 

280 

3,975 

4.255 

regiments  

875 

12,925 

13,800 

Engineer    battalion,    re- 

cruiting    parties,    ord- 

nance department,  hos- 

pital   service,    Indian 
scouts,  West  Point,  sig- 

nal,   and   general    ser- 

vice   

551 

2,782 

3,333 

Total  

2,136 

25.732 

27,868 

How  Europe  suffers  under  her  standing  armies 
can  be  seen  by  the  following  statistics,  prepared 
for  the  World  Almanac  by  Lieutenant  W.  R. 
Hamilton,  Fifth  Artillery,  United  States  Army, 
and  corrected  from  the  latest  official  reports  on 
file  at  the  War  Department,  December,  1894  : 


LAND    FORCES. 


CLASSES. 

Germany. 

France. 

Italy. 

Austria- 
Hungary. 

Russia. 

Great 
Britain. 

Turkey. 

ACTIVE  ARMY. 
Officers     

15.28? 

18,467 

Non-com,  officers  and  men  

557*093 

524,837 

247,944 

386,588 

1,112,684  ) 

138,410 
13,680 

(    179*396 

T  eg.  782 

2  836 

1,882 

464. 

4    » 

RESERVES. 
Officers  

43,830  } 

{    270,189 

Non-com,  officers  and  men  

3,15*1389 

3*°99i733 

2,3°3,359 

i)i58,993 

4*6931761  f 

901,350 

"i    724*903 

3  » 

262,388 

61,860 

Guns    

' 

*7,862 

*8,QOO 

126^.0 

'  * 

5o 

GRAND  TOTAL. 
Officers  

48,815 

Non-com,  officers  and  men  

3,708,474 

3*674*57° 

2,53^3°3 

i,545i58i  ) 

5,780,399 

I,O39,76O 

981,764 

4,968 

4,836 

] 

PEACE  ESTABLISHMENT. 
Infantry  

357,628 

788,346 

Cavalry  

82  669 

26   832 

Artillery           

77.^78 

48,860 

13,846 

Engineers  and  Train  

8,w 

8,628 

Horses               ..             

158  382 

Guns  .   .        .... 

2,87.6 

*6,o84 

3*968 

TOTAL  PEACE  ESTABLISHMENT. 
Men  

Horses  

158,382 

260,348 

Guns  ....               ... 

2,836 

i  882 

7  Q68 

*  Including  fortress  and  garrison  guns. 


Army  and  Navy. 


Army  and  Navy. 


CLASS  OF  VESSELS. 

Great 
Britain. 

France. 

Germany. 

j? 

"3 
»—  i 

Austria- 
Hungary. 

Russia. 

d 

I 

•ji 

Denmark. 

Nether- 
lands. 

Sweden 
and 
Norway. 

Turkey. 

Portugal. 

83 

S8 

29 

8 

28 

12 

20 

8       4 

16 

i  H   G 
Guns  of  same  |  S  '  B 

Unarmored  Ships  

726 

2,082 

393 
i.°35 
68 

76 

278 

193 
400 
20 

174 

182 

31? 
812 

I65 
173 
23 

r 
63 

69 

14 
9 

27      8 
44     12 
4       2 

151 

122 

7 
2 

{  H  G 
Guns  of  same  <  Q'  g' 

726 
2,180 

143 

4,222 

8 

227 
172 

80 

276 

99 

112 

87 
232 

I4I 
169 

124 
MS 

124 

36 

48  28 

26       7 

93 
40 

56 
43 

(  TT    C* 

4 

16 

ii 

I 

5 

\        8 

9       2 

6 

I 

Unarmored  Gunboats. 

9 
76 

56 

12 

28 

36 

(             2 

18       2 

8 

f 

t  -TT     r* 

Guns  of  same  is'  R 

206 

29 

22 

4° 

26 

3° 

62 

27 

97 

21     54 

24 

60 

361 

127 

56 

132 
8 

87 

98 

41 

3*4 

28     47 

85 

27 

1    TT       /~* 

12 

32 

3° 

58 

29 

}•       1 

j        6 

i 

80 

Training-ships,  Store-ships, 

18 
28 

4i 

69 

143 

29 

f 

18 

1            2 

» 

118 

56 

61 

28 

Torpedo  Boats.  No.  i  
«              "       No.  2  

130 

190 
60 

139 
3D 

110 

30 

65 

3« 
46 

IO 

20 
26 

ii       6 

15       7 

27 

8 

Total  Number  of  Guns*  — 

6,790 

<5,554 

I.361 

1,592 

893 

1*643 

1,122 

526 

756 

273  290 

698 

221 

40  to  80  tons  

84 

18 

72 

IO 

28 

4 

96 

214 

7° 

66 

72 

114 

108 

46 

16    98 

1,478 

364 

186 

328 

81 

1  06 

446 

1  68    88 

?8i 

Officers  

840 

611 

Seamen  

46,515 

4,813 

Marines  —  Officers  

361 

1,861 

97 

18 

56 

356 

45 

9° 

18 

"           Soldiers  

8,112 

600 

Total  Active  List. 

63,806 

13,680 

24,158 

38,211 

24,6l8 

A.^SO 

11,318 

*  Including  guns  of  torpedo  boats.  H.  G.,  Heavy  Guns.  S.  B.,  Secondary  Batteries. 

Torpedo  Boats,  No.  i— over  100  feet  in  length.    No.  2— under  100  feet  in  length. 

THE  EUROPEAN   MILITARY  AND  NAVAL  BUDGETS 

For  fiscal  years  ending  during  1894  are  put  by  the  same  authority  at 


COUNTRIES. 

Cost  of  Armies. 

Cost  of  Navies. 

Pensions  and 
Invalid  Funds. 

Total  Military 
Budgets. 

Equiva- 
lent in 
United 
States 
Money. 

G.  Britain  and  India. 

£20,750,620 

£15,270,500 

£5,086,850 
69,472,300  marks. 

£41,107,790 
548,123,520  marks. 

$199.794.734 

France    

646,162,700  francs. 

225,381,200  francs. 

872,443,900  francs. 

Russia    

Italy     

348,481,206  lire. 

Austria-Hungary  .  .  . 

129,500,313  florins. 

12,592,617  florins. 

26,342,800  florins. 

168,445,730  florins. 

57,439.994 

These  armies  and  navies,  thus  maintained  at 
enormous  cost,  and  increased  from  year  to  year — 
in  Germany,  for  example,  only  after  a  long  strug- 
gle with  the  representatives  of  the  people — are  a 
crushing  burden  on  the  tax-payer  and  a  greater 
burden  on  the  youth,  who  have  to  give  their 
best  years  to  war  service.  This  service  accounts 
largely  for  the  emigration  from  Europe  and  the 
spread  of  socialism. 

Service  in  all  continental  armies  is  compul- 
sory on  all  able-bodied  males  between  certain 
ages.  The  length  of  service  and  the  age 
vary  in  different  countries.  Thus  in  France 
every  Frenchman,  upon  reaching  the  age  of  20, 
is  liable  to  military  service  till  he  reaches  the 
age  of  40.  In  Germany  every  male  is  liable  on 


reaching  the  age  of  17,  and  continues  so  till  he 
reaches  45.  Military  service  is  of  two  kinds — ac- 
tive military  service  and  occasional  liability  to 
military  service.  Each  year  a  certain  number  of 
males  reach  the  age  of  liability,  and  are  enrolled 
for  service.  From  their  numbers  are  excused 
all  who  are  morally  and  physically  unfit,  and 
then  a  certain  number  are  transferred  to 
non-combatant  corps.  All  who  actually  serve 
throughout  the  entire  year  constitute  the  peace 
establishment.  At  the  end  of  five  years,  their 
actual  service  having  ceased,  they  are  graduated 
soldiers,  and  are  transferred  to  the  first  reserve  ; 
and  after  a  few  years'  service  in  that  to  another 
reserve.  All  the  graduated  soldiers  who  are 
under  the  extreme  age  of  30  or  32  constitute  the 


Army  and  Navy. 


92 


Army  and  Navy. 


active  army — that  is,  they  are  the  ones  who,  on 
breaking  out  of  war,  with  the  peace  army,  form 
the  first  great  war  army,  and  all  the  graduated 
soldiers  between  ages  of  32  and  45  constitute 
the  reserves  to  this  army,  and  form  second 
armies.  Then  all  those  over  the  age  of  40  or  45 
form  the  last  reserves,  whose  business  it  is  to 
stay  at  home  and  garrison  the  depots,  make  the 
provisions  and  supplies,  ammunition,  etc.,  for 
the  war  armies.  They  are  never  called  out  ex- 
cept in  case  of  invasion. 

And  yet,  under  the  present  conditions  of  Eu- 
rope, no  sooner  does  one  nation  increase  her 
army  and  navy,  than  all  other  nations  must  do 
the  same  unless  they  would  court  in  vasion .  The 
burden  is  more  and  more  hated  by  the  people. 
In  Germany  especially  the  army  makes  converts 
to  socialism  every  day.  Young  men  drafted  in 
the  army,  and  fretting  under  its  control,  with 
time  on  their  hands,  are  exactly  in  the  position 
to  be  ripe  for  socialistic  propaganda.  In  the 
growing  internationalism  of  socialism  there  is, 
however,  developing  a  strong  movement  for  the 
abolition  of  all  standing  armies.  The  German 
socialists  do  not  demand  the  immediate  aboli- 
tion of  the  army,  because  they  hold  that  until 
the  present  condition  of  industry  can  be 
changed,  to  immediately  disband  the  army 
would  throw  a  large  body  of  men  out  of  the 
means  of  support,  and  would  end  a  valuable 
field  for  socialistic  propaganda.  Some  Euro- 
pean socialists,  however,  do  agitate  for  immedi- 
ate abolition.  It  is  a  growing  question  whether, 
under  the  spread  of  international  socialism 
among  the  working  classes  European  armies 
could  be  counted  on  in  the  event  of  war. 

In  the  United  States  the  part  played  by 
United  States  troops  and  State  militia  in  recent 
strikes  (see  PULLMAN,  HOMESTEAD,  etc.)  has  led 

to  a  very  bitter  feeling  against  the 

institution  of  the  army  among  work- 
Militarism   ing  men  and  others  interested  in 
in  the       social  reform.    Two  policies  on  the 
United       subject  are  entertained  by  the  trade- 
States,       unions.     Some  working  men  urge 

that  no  working  man  should  enlist ; 

others  advise  enlistment,  in  order 
to  obtain  military  drill,  to  be  used,  if  necessary, 
against  capitalists,  as  they  hold  that  capitalists 
desire  to  use  the  army  against  them.  As  an 
illustration  of  the  growing  hostility  to  the  exten- 
sion of  the  army  and  the  building  of  great  city 
armories,  we  give  the  following  quotation  from 
an  editorial  article  in  The  Arena  for  October, 
1894: 

"  Comparatively  few  people  appreciate  the  magni- 
tude of  the  preparations  for  slaughter  which  have  been 
steadily  pushed  since  the  era  of  class  legislation  and 
special  privileges  which  followed  the  Civil  War. 

"  That  the  people  may  gain  some  idea  of  the  military 
activity  at  the  present  period,  I  secured  the  following 
interesting  ana  suggestive  data,  relative  to  the  Massa- 
chusetts armories : 

"  Armories  :  The  State  owns  none.  Buildings  and 
land :  Acts  of  Legislature  of  1888,  chap.  384,  provides 
for  purchase  of  suitable  land  and  erection  of  two  armo- 
ries in  Boston,  and  one  in  every  city  in  the  State  in 
which  two  or  more  companies  are  located. 

"Title  to  land  and  buildings,  'to  be  vested  absolute- 
ly in  the  city  forever.' 

"  Rent :  State  to  pay  no  rent  to  cities  after  debt  con- 
tracted in  buying  land'  and  erecting  buildings  is  all 
paid. 

"  Running  expenses :  State  pays  janitor,  lighting, 
heating,  repairs,  and  incidentals— all. 


"  Armories:  Boston,  three  (including  the  Cadets' new 
armory) ;  Worcester,  one  ;  Lowell,  one  ;  Fitchburg, 
one  ;  Lawrence  (in  process  of  erection),  one  ;  Lynn  (in 
process  of  erection),  one.  Total,  eight.  Springfield 
also  is  preparing  to  erect  an  armory  which  will  cost  . 
nearly  $100,000,  and  will  make  in  all  nine  armories.  The 
Boston  Cadets  have  a  large  granite  armory  in  process 
of  construction,  but  it  is  their  private  property.  Esti- 
mated cost,  between  $300,000  and  $400,000. 

"  Headquarters  or  armories  :  Besides  the  armories 
there  are  66  'headquarters,'  for  which  the  State  pays 
rent  to  the  cities  and  towns  in  which  they  are  located. 

"  Drill  ship  :  Naval  battalion  is  furnished  the  ironclad 
Passaic  by  the  United  States  Government. 

DR. 

"  Expenses  :  Armories — expense  of  those  provided  for 
by  the  Act  of  1888,  chap.  384,  $13,001.08  ;  rent  to  cities 
and  towns,  $34,758.24.  Militia :  Pay,  transportation, 
supplies,  and  expenses  of  militia,  $163,372.85  ;  expended 
on  State  camp  ground,  $1798.50  ;  equipment  or  naval 
militia,  $3690.07.  Total,  $216,621.64. 

CR. 

"  United  States  :  Appropriation,  militia,  $27,555.50  ; 
naval  militia,  $3690.07 ;  sale  of  condemned  military 
property,  $870.11.  Total,  $32,115.68. 

"  Expense  to  State  for  1892,  $184,505.96. 

"  Beside  this  is  an  expense  for  keeping  records,  etc., 
of  militia  and  naval  militia  of  $7532.25,  making  in  all 

'.  $192,038. 21.       .       .       . 

"But  while  a  rapidly  growing  State  or  national  mili- 
tia is  a  menace  to  republican  institutions,  where 
wealth  is  rapidly  gaining  ascendency  in  government 
and  securing  seats  of  power,  there  is  another  phase  of 
this  question  which  is  still  more  startling  and  sugges- 
tive. Special  attention  is  invited  to  the  Seventh  Regi- 
ment armory  of  New  York  and  the  Boston  Cadets  new- 
private  armory  in  course  of  erection.  .  .  .  The  Sev- 
enth Regiment  of  New  York,  not  inappropriately  term- 
ed the 'rich  men's  regiment,' is  free  from  debt,  and, 
says  the  New  York  Advertiser,  '  nearly  $1,000,000  have 
been  spent  on  the  building  and  its  furnishings.  The 
State  and  the  county  ivere  not  asked  for  a  cent.'  All  this 
money  came  direct  from  the  pockets  of  individuals. 
Wtio  paid  this  million-dollar  bill  ? 

"  "The  general  feeling  of  unrest  in  the  labor  and  so- 
cialistic circles  throughout  the  entire  country  this 
spring  is  only  another  reason  why  the  National  Guard 
should  be  given  stronger  support  by  both  the  national 
and  State  governments.' " 

The  feeling  of  the  labor  organizations  is  evi- 
denced by  the  resolutions  passed  by  an  almost 
unanimous  vote  of  the  Boston  Central  Labor 
Union,  October  21,  1894,  as  reported  by  the  Bos- 
ton Herald  : 

"Adjutant-General  Dalton  and  the  militia  •were  de- 
nounced, both  orally  and  by  resolutions,  at  yesterday's 
meeting  of  the  Central  Labor  Union. 

"  A  letter  recently  issued  by  Adjutant-General 
Dalton  was  severely  criticised  at  the  last  meeting  of 
the  Central  Labor  Union,  with  the  result  that  a  com- 
mittee was  appointed  to  draft  suitable  resolutions 
concerning  the  contents  of  the  letter.  The  committee 
yesterday  presented  the  resolutions,  which  are  ap- 
pended : 

" '  Whereas,  Adjutant-General  Dalton,  in  a  communi- 
cation to  the  commanders  of  the  Massachusetts  militia, 
recently  issued,  has,  by  implication  and  insinuation, 
seen  fit  to  attack  the  organizations  of  labor,  thereby 
creating  prejudice  in  the  public  mind,  with  the  ap- 
parent purpose  of  magnifying  the  value  of  the  military 
arm  of  the  government ;  therefore  be  it 

"  '  Resolved,  that  we  deplore  the  evident  disposition 
of  those  in  authority  to  increase  and  centralize  the 
numbers  of  State  and  Federal  troops,  and  to  multiply 
costly  and  medieval  armories,  thereby  making  more 
onerous  the  burden  of  taxation  which,  in  the  ultimate, 
is  borne  by  the  producing  classes. 

"  ''Resolved,  that  we  believe  the  maintenance  of  a 
large  standing  army,  either  as  a  murder  machine,  an 
instrument  of  intimidation,  or  for  purposes  of  display, 
to  be  unworthy  of  the  age  in  which  we  live,  a  relic  of 
barbarism,  and  of  no  utility,  excepting  to  assist  those 
who  seek  to  maintain  their  special  privileges  by  bar- 
baric methods,  and  that  we  therefore  call  upon  all 
legislators,  State  or  national,  who  have  at  heart  the  in- 


Army  and  Navy. 


93 


Art  and  Social  Reform. 


terest  of  labor,  to  strenuously  oppose  further  appro- 
priations for  military  increase. 

"  '  Resolved,  that  we  urge  upon  work- 
ing men  everywhere  the  propriety  of 
Feeling  of     refraining  from  participation  in  mili- 
TaVin-r  Ctra-a-ni  tary  service,  and,  if  already  attached, 
.L,a.uor  v/rjjam-  of  severjng  their  connection  as  soon  as 
zations.        they  lawfully  and  honorably  may. 

"  '  Resolved,  that  we  repel,  with  the 
utmost  indignation,  the  insinuation  of 
General  Dalton,  which  has  since  been  more  openly 
charged  by  Generals  Schofield  and  Miles,  that  the 
peace  of  the  country  is  threatened  by  the  attempts  of 
working  men  to  better  their  condition  ;  but  we  do  af- 
firm that  such  danger  as  does  exist  arises  from  the  ar- 
rogance of  corporate  power,  supplemented  by  the  sub- 
serviency of  those  intrusted  with  public  office. 

"  '  Resolved,  that  we  demand  that  the  arbitrament  of 
the  social  problem  shall  be  by  those  free  and  peaceful 
methods  provided  by  the  founders  of  our  national  in- 
stitutions, and  pledge  ourselves  to  oppose  all  attempts 
to  establish  an  armed  plutocratic  government  on  the 
soil  of  America.'  " 

At  a  mass-meeting  in  the  Cooper  Union,  New 
York,  July  12, 1894,  Mr.  Henry  George,  in  refer- 
ring to  our  army  and  the  spirit  now  regnant, 
said,  as  reported  in  the  New  York  World,  July 
13,  1894  : 

"  We  have  a  standing  army  of  25,000  men,  and  they 
are  demanding  that  it  shall  be  increased  to  50,000  men. 
In  the  days  when  our  government  was  weaker,  yet 
stronger,  when  we  had  a  hostile  people  on  our  frontier 
lines,  and  had  real  fighting  to  do,  we  had  an  army  of 
only  10,000  men. 

"  What  is  the  reason  that  we  are  building  ships  of 
war  and  increasing  the  size  of  our  army?  It  is  be- 
cause the  millionaire  monopolists  are  becoming  afraid 
of  the  armies  of  poverty-stricken  people  which  their 
oppressive  trusts  and  machinations  are  creating." 

On  the  other  hand,  the  report  of  the  Secretary 
of  War  for  1894  says  : 

"  It  was  found  necessary  during  the  period  begin- 
ning -with  March  and  extending  through  July  of  the 
current  year;  in  various  sections  of  the  country,  to  em- 
ploy a  considerable  part  of  the  army  to  execute  the 
orders  of  the  United  States  courts,  otherwise  success- 
fully defied  and  resisted,  to  protect  the  dispatch  of  the 
United  States  mails,  to  remove  restraints  to  travel 
and  commerce,  and  to  guard  the  property  of  the  gov- 
ernment. The  movement  of  troops  thus  necessitated 
was  the  largest  which  has  taken  place  since  the  close 
of  the  Civil  War. 

"The  difficult  and  extraordinary  tasks  imposed  upon 
the  officers  and  men  of  the  army  were  discharged 
promptly,  firmly,  and  judiciously, "in  a  manner  which 
attested  to  the  courage,  intelligence,  and  loyalty  of 
those  called  into  active  duty,  and  the  thorough  effi- 
ciency of  every  branch  of  the  service.  The  militia  of 
the  States,  wherever  employed,  also  proved  generally 
to  be  composed  of  qualified  and  reliable  soldiers. 

"  I  earnestly  recommend  that  Congress  enact  the 
legislation  necessary  to  establish  in  the  army  the  bat- 
talion formation,  now  adopted  by  the  armies  of  every 
other  civilized  nation.  As  necessary  to  effect  that 
change,  I  recommend  the  removal  of  the  limit  of  25,000 
men  fixed  by  the  act  of  June  18,  1874,  and  a  return  to 
the  limit  fixed  by  the  act  of  July  15,  1870.  Legislative 
approval  of  these  two  propositions  will  restore  to  the 
effective  force  about  4000  enlisted  men,  bringing  the 
actual  strength  of  the  army  up  to  the  nominal  strength 
now  fixed  by  law.  By  these  changes  the  army  will  be 
increased  in  efficiency  20  per  cent.,  in  numbers  about 
i6}£  per  cent.,  and  in  cost  of  maintenance  only  about  6 
per  cent." 

(See  also  WAR  ;  INTERNATIONAL  ARBITRATION  ; 
MILITIA.) 

ART  AND  SOCIAL  REFORM.— Art  (from 
Latin  root  ar,  to  fit)  meant  originally  skill  in 
fitting.  The  artist  was  simply  the  skilled  work- 
man, and  not  different  from  the  artisan.  He 
was  the  man  who  could  make  good  houses  to 
live  in,  and  particularly  good  houses  in  which  to 
enshrine  the  public's  ideals,  good  temples,  baths, 
theaters,  etc.  He  was  one  who  could  make 


good  furnishings  for  the  houses — good  chairs, 
good  vases,  good  mosaics,  good  statues  and  pic- 
tures of  the  gods.  Art  was  thus  developed  as 
soon  as  and  to  the  extent  to  which  the  com- 
munity was  lifted  above  absolute  want  and  the 
struggle  for  mere  physical  existence — i.e. ,  as 
soon  as  people  had  opportunity  to  think  of  the 
quality  as  well  as  the  quantity  of  its  work. 
Hence  the  great  art  periods  of  a  nation  have 
been  either  when  the  nation  was  rich  and  pros- 
perous (e.g.,  the  age  of  Phidias  in  Athens,  the 
Renaissance  in  Italy  and  France,  the  age  of 
Merry  England)  or  when  the  people  were  at 
least  enjoying  the  fruits  of  victory  or  of  success 
in  any  line  (e.g. ,  periods  of  Gothic  art).  If, 
however,  a  nation  becomes  wealthy,  not  by  con- 
quest or  slow  growth,  but  by  producing  commod- 
ities and  selling  them,  it  is  evident  that  the  na- 
tion will  not  produce  a  great  art,  because  it  will 
be  compelled  to  think  more  of  the  quantity  than 
the  quality  of  its  work  ;  or,  if  it  think  of  quality, 
it  will  think  mainly  of  commodities  as  fitted  to 
sell.  The  rich  nations  of  to-day  being  commer- 
cial nations,  we  need  not  be  surprised  to  hear 
artists  complaining  of  the  real  dearth  of  art,  al- 
tho  we  have  in  England  and  America  phenome- 
nal wealth.  It  is  evident,  from  this  considera- 
tion alone,  how  social  conditions  can  affect  art. 
We  shall  in  a  moment  see  how  art  can  affect 
social  conditions.  For  the  moment,  however, 
we  must  notice  another  point.  If  art  be  the 
production  of  commodities  worthily  expressing 
a  nation's  aspirations — public  buildings,  statues 
and  pictures  of  its  gods,  its  heroes,  its  ideals  of 
beauty  and  of  power — it  will  follow  that  it  will 
attain  to  high  development  where  /z«#^-work  is 
largely  practised,  since  this  allows  the  expression 
of  ideals,  and  conversely  it  will  attain  meager 
development  where  machine-work  prevails,  since 
this  does  not  allow  of  much  expression  of  ideals. 
Here,  too,  remembering  that  the  present  age  is 
characterized  by  machine  production,  we  see  a 
very  potent  cause  for  the  present  dearth  of  art. 

Once  again,  when  a  community  becomes 
divided  into  two  classes,  one  having  leisure  and 
wealth  and  not  producing  commodities,  the  other 
class  poor  and  doing  the  productive  work,  a  de- 
sire for  art  will  spring  up  amid  the  leisure  class 
and  not  in  the  other.  But  since  the  leisure  class 
does  not  itself  produce,  the  desire  will  not  create 
art,  but  a  dilettante,  artificial,  unnatural  desire 
for  art,  while  the  producing  class,  not  having 
leisure,  and  being  compelled  to  think  mainly 
how  to  get  a  bare  existence,  will  not  be  able  to 
produce  art,  especially  when  the  nation's  pro- 
duction is  mainly  carried  on  by  machinery.  In 
such  a  community  the  artist  will  come  to  be  con- 
sidered very  different  from  the  artisan.  The 
artist  will  usually  become  an  affected  idler  and 
the  artisan  an  unartistic  "hand."  It  is  only 
too  evident  that  this  is  the  state  of  affairs  to- 
day. Such  are  but  some  of  the  ways  in  which 
social  conditions  affect  art. 

Let  us  now  see  some  of  the  ways  in  which  art 
affects  social  conditions.  Art  we  have  seen  to 
be  the  producing  of  good  work.  Now,  when  a 
community  thinks  a  great  deal  of  producing 
good  work — good  houses  and  furnishings  for 
houses,  worthy  temples,  public  buildings,  baths, 
etc. — it  follows  inevitably  that  the  people  do  not 
think  so  much  of  merely  producing  commodities 


Art  and  Social  Reform. 


94 


Art  and  Social  Reform. 


to  sell.  As  a  people  primarily  commercial  can- 
not be  primarily  artistic,  so  a  people  primarily 
artistic  cannot  be  primarily  commercial.  It 
raises  a  different  ideal.  The  ideal 
of  good  work  operates  in  various 
Commerce  ways.  It  produces  a  demand  for 
vs.  Art.  leisure  in  which  to  do  the  work. 
An  artistic  nation  will  never  live 
in  a  hurry.  It  will  seek  freedom 
in  which  to  work.  It  will  not  endure  great 
factories  and  machine-made  work.  It  is  a 
fact  that  almost  all  the  great  artists,  and  poets, 
and  idealists  to-day  are  among  the  bitterest  foes 
of  the  commercialism  and  mammonism  of  the 
present  time,  and  are,  for  the  same  reason, 
among  the  most  earnest  workers  for  social  re- 
form. A  high  and  uncommercial  social  devel- 
opment develops  art,  and  the  art  demands  and 
calls  for  social  reform,  thus  producing  action  and 
reaction.  Thus,  great  artists  like  William  Morris 
and  critics  like  John  Ruskin  are  never  weary  of 
condemning  the  shoddy  work  and  commercial- 
ism, and  baseness  and  ugliness  which  character- 
ize so  much  of  modern  life.  Nor  are  they  ever 
weary  of  comparing  it,  to  the  damage  of  the  pres- 
ent, with  the  beautiful  work  of  ages  when  com- 
merce was  not  god,  and  when  machines  had 
not  crowded  people  into  slums,  nor  prevented 
expression  entering  into  the  work  of  the  pro- 
ducer. A  somewhat  less  number  of  artists,  poets, 
and  idealists,  and  especially  the  greatest  among 
them,  are  equally  ready  to  work,  not  for  "  the 
good  old  times,"  but  to  bring  in  the  better  new 
times,  when  machines  shall  not  be  abandoned, 
but  when  brotherhood  shall  rule  in  society,  mak- 
ing all  classes  workers,  but  giving  to  all  classes 
immunity  from  the  mere  struggle  for  bare  ex- 
istence. They  long  for  the  day  when  all  men 
shall  have  time  to  think  of  producing  good  work, 
using  machinery  indeed,  but  using  it  mainly 
in  producing  materials  to  be  worked  upon  and 
made  beautiful  by  the  free  hand  expressive  of 
the  free  creative  soul.  A  few  of  these  artists 
and  poets  have  been  driven,  by  their  hatred  of 
the  present  and  their  passion  for  personal  free- 
dom, into  anarchistic  views  (Byron,  Shelley, 
Walt  Whitman,  and  others).  But  most  of  them 
hold  that  it  is  industrial  competition  which  en- 
slaves and  debases  to-day,  and  that,  therefore, 
freedom  lies  not  in  the  path  of  anarchy,  but  of 
socialism,  and  so  they  have  become  in  increas- 
ing numbers  earnest  socialists. 

William  Morris,  for  example,  he  who  had  once 
described  himself   as  ' '  the  idle  singer  of  an 
empty  day,"  declares  that  he  was 
forced  to  see  that  art  cannot  pros- 
Art  Social-  per  till  we  change  our  commercial 
ists.        competitive  civilization  ;  and  so  he, 
who  is  among  the  greatest  of  mod- 
ern   artists  and  poets,  is  an  out- 
and-out  worker  for  socialism,  writing  socialist 
lectures,  tracts,  and  poems,  lecturing  himself  in 
the  open  air  in  London's  parks,  and  serving  on 
socialist  committees.     He  says  in  the  introduc- 
tion to  his  Signs  of  Change : 

"  My  ordinary  work  has  forced  on  me  the  contrast 
between  times  past  and  the  present  day,  and  has  made 
me  look  with  grief  and  pain  on  things  which  many 
men  notice  but  little,  if  at  all.  The  repulsion  to  pes- 
simism, which  is,  I  think,  natural  to  a  man  busily  en- 
gaged in  the  arts,  compelled  me  once  to  hope  that  the 
ugly  disgraces  of  civilization  might  be  got  rid  of  by 


the  conscious  will  of  intelligent  persons ;  yet  as  I 
strove  to  stir  up  people  to  this  reform,  I  found  that  the 
causes  of  the  vulgarities  of  civilization  lay  deeper 
than  I  had  thought,  and  little  by  little  I  was  driven  to 
the  conclusion  that  all  these  uglinesses  are  but  the 
outward  expression  of  the  innate  moral  baseness  into- 
which  we  are  forced  by  our  present  form  of  society, 
and  that  it  is  futile  to  attempt  to  deal  with  them  from 
the  outside.  Whatever  I  have  written  or  spoken  on 
the  platform  on  these  social  subjects  is  the  result  of 
the  truths  of  socialism  meeting  my  earlier  impulse, 
and  giving  it  a  definite  and  much  more  serious  aim." 

But  Mr.  Morris  is  only  one  of  a  group  of  Lon- 
don artists  who  take  the  same  position,  and  who 
to  no  small  degree  look  upon  Morris  as  their 
master.  Says  Mary  Bacon  Ford,  in  an  article 
on  The  Art  Socialists  of  London  (Cosmopoli- 
tan, 8,  125)  : 

"Mr.  Morris  has  no  more  able  and  earnest  a  coadjutor 
than  Mr.  Walter  Crane,  the  President  of  the  recently 
formed  Arts  and  Crafts  Exhibition  Society.  His 
artistic  proclivities  made  themselves  known  when  he 
was  very  young,  and  under  the  instruction  of  his. 
father,  who  was  himself  an  artist,  he  advanced  rapidly 
in  his  art  work.  As  a  writer  Mr.  Crane  possesses  un- 
common power.  Among  his  essays,  those  on  Art  and 
Commercialism  and  Imitation  and  Expression  in 
Art  are  well  known,  and  his  poetry  is  of  a  fine  flavor. 
As  a  lecturer  he  is  contained,  interesting,  and  to  the 
point.  Founder  and  President  of  the  Arts  and  Crafts. 
Exhibition  Society,  he  was  a  representative  to  the 
last  Liverpool  Art  Congress,  and  is  an  active  member 
of  the  Socialist  League,  to  which  he  gives  freely  of  his 
strength. 

"  Around  Mr.  Morris  and  Mr.  Crane  are  a  group  of 
notable  men,  distinctly  representing  the  progress  of 
the  English  art  industries,  and  supporters  of  many,  if 
not  of  all,  of  their  theories. 

"Mr.  E.  Burne-Jones,  the  well-known  painter,  is  the 
designer  of  nearly  all  the  stained-glass  and  mosaic 
work  that  is  made  in  the  Morris  Factory.  Mr.  William 
de  Morgan  is  a  potter,  and  sends  forth  from  his  work- 
shop, also  at  Merton,  the  exquisite  pottery  and  tiles 
that  can  be  seen  in  his  shop  on  Argyll  Place,  and  that 
surpassed  at  the  Arts  and  Crafts  Exhibition  last 
autumn  all  other  work  in  this  direction. 

"Mr.  T.  J.  Cobden-Sanderson  is  a  bookbinder,  and 
lives  at  Hendon,  near  London.  Mr.  Sanderson's  books 
are  of  course  wholly  worked  and  tooled  by  hand,  and 
represent  perfect  manipulation  combined  with  a  keen 
artistic  vision.  He  claims  that  modern  bookbinding 
in  essentials  has  remained  unchanged  to  the  present 
day,  tho  in  those  outward  characteristics  which  ap- 
peal to  the  touch  and  to  the  eye,  and  constitute  bind- 
ing in  an  artistic  sense,  it  has  gone  through  many 
changes  for  better  or  for  worse,  which  have  resulted 
in  the  main  in  the  exaggeration  of  technical  skill  and 
in  the  death  of  artistic  fancy.  He  further  has  written 
that,  in  his  opinion,  the  work  as  a  craft  of  beauty  suf- 
fers, as  do  the  workmen,  from  the  allocation  of  different 
operations  to  different  workmen. 

"Messrs.  T.  M.  Stradwick,  Lewis  F.  Day,  Somers 
Clark,  W.  A.  S.  Benson,  G.  T.  Robinson,  Emery  Walk- 
er, Metford  Warner,  Stephen  Webb,  J.  D.  Sedding, 
Haywood  Sumner,  J.  Hungerford  Pollen,  Spencer 
Stanhope,  and  other  well-known  men,  who,  as  paint- 
ers, architects,  printers  and  workers  in  glass,  metal, 
clay,  and  wood,  deserve  mention  for  their  aims  and 
achievements. 

"  On  all  sides  the  movement  has  given  rise  to  guilds, 
societies,  schools,  exhibitions,  publications,  and  lec- 
tures, all  tending  in  the  same  direction,  and  all  more 
or  less  at  one  in  a  feeling  of  fellowship  and  coopera- 
tion. 

"  Allied  to  it,  not  as  craftsmen,  but  as  supporters  and 
general  promoters,  are  or  have  recently  been  such 
men  as  Ruskin,  Browning,  John  Morley,  James  Linton, 
Philip  Magus,  Mr.  Horsfall,  Mr.  Cust,  G.  F.  Watts, 
Mr.  King,  Ernest  Radford,  called  the  'Young  Tri- 
bune,' and  W.  B.  Richmond,  the  ardent  advocate  of 
the  Sunday  Opening  movement— all  of  whose  names 
figure  as  officers  or  members  in  the  following  efforts 
toward  labor  emancipation. 

"  Toynbee  Hall,  in  the  east  end  of  London,  supports  a 
School  and  Guild  of  Handicraft,  and  conducts  ad- 
mirable lecture  courses,  in  which  Mr.  Morris,  Mr.  Rich- 
mond, Mr.  Day,  Mr.  Radford,  and  others  take  part. 
Loan  exhibitions  of  pictures  and  prints  are  also  held 
in  its  schoolhouse,  always  in  conjunction  with  print- 
ing-presses and  other  vehicles  for  practically  illustrat- 
ing the  manufacture  of  some  of  the  objects  on  view. 


Art  and  Social  Reform. 


95 


Art  and  Social  Reform. 


"  The  Red  Cross  Hall  and  Garden,  in  the  south  of 
London,  is  a  somewhat  similar  institution,  and  it  is 
here  that  Mr.  Watts'  idea  of  erecting  memorials  to 
every-day  heroes  and  heroines  is  about  to  be  carried 
out.  Nine  large  panels  have  been  planned  for  mural 
decoration,  and  Mr.  Crane  has  generously  offered  to 
undertake  them,  the  subjects  to  be  illustrative  of  the 
heroic  deeds  of  contemporaries  and,  as  far  as  possible, 
of  the  inhabitants  of  that  very  neighborhood  and  in 
the  same  walk  of  life  as  those  for  whose  use  the  hall  is 
designed.  Mr.  Crane,  who  enters  upon  this  work  with- 
out compensation,  has  already  designed  a  panel  rep- 
resenting the  woman  Alice  Ayres  in  the  act  of  rescu- 
ing two  children  from  a  fire,  and  speaks  of  the  plan 
with  great  interest  and  enthusiasm. 

"The  Art  for  Schools  Association,  of  which  Mr. 
Ruskin  is  President,  and  which  counts  among  its  mem- 
bers Mr.  Morris,  Mr.  Watts,  and  Mr.  Morley,  was  es- 
tablished in  1883  to  circulate  among  schools  photo- 
graphs and  copies  of  works  of  art ;  The  Home  Arts 
and  Industry  Associations,  also  of  recent  foundation, 
conducts  classes  of  art  handiwork  among  the  people  of 
remote  sections  of  the  country,  to  prepare  them  for 
entrance  into  trades,  while  also  increasing  their  re- 
sources and  enjoyment;  and  a  section  of  applied  art 
was  established  in  The  Society  of  Arts  in  1887,  in 
whose  interest  Mr.  Crane  has  delivered  lectures — nota- 
bly upon  book  illustration. 

"  Another  phase  of  the  movement  is  seen  in  the  for- 
mation of  the  Century  Guild,  a  guild  of  architects, 
decorators,  printers,  and  art  manufactures  of  all 
kinds,  a  sort  of  community  formed  for  the  production 
of  useful  and  beautiful  things,  good  workmanship, 
and  for  mutual  help  and  advantage.  This  Century 
Guild  has  an  organ  of  its  own,  a  quarterly  called  The 
Hobby-Horse,  which  is  printed  by  the  Chiswick  Press, 
and  Is  probably  the  purest  current  specimen  of  fine 
printing." 

Outside  of  England  there  is  no  movement  of 
the  artists  that  at  all  compares  with  this,  but  in 
France,  Germany,  Italy,  and  the  United  States 
the  feeling  is  growing  in  this  direction. 

Poets  and  musicians  and  authors  take  the 
same  position.  We  need  here  only  refer  to  the 
names  of  Dickens,  Victor  Hugo,  Zola,  Ibsen, 
Howells,  Stedman,  and  Walt  Whitman.  There 
are  many  others.  The  subject  of  Richard  Wag- 
ner's great  trilogy,  the  "  Niebelungen  Ring,"  is 
the  curse  of  gold.  (Concerning  Ruskin  and  his 
Political  Economy  of  Art,  see  RUSKIN.)  One 
other  point  only  is  it  necessary  to  make,  the  op- 
position of  art  to  those  who  consider  Puritanism 
a  part  of  social  reform.  This  opposition  is  usual- 
ly expressed  in  some  such  words  as  these  : 

"  That  the  beauty  of  life  is  a  thing  of  no  moment 
few  people  would  venture  to  assert.  Beauty,  which  is 
what  is  meant  by  art,  using  the  word  in  its  widest 
sense,  and  the  craving  for  it  are  no  mere  accidents  of 
human  life,  but  have  been  bound  up  by  the  closest 
ties  with  the  whole  history  of  the  race  from  the  time  of 
the  crudest  carved  ivories  of  the  paleolithic  cave- 
dweller  to  the  sculptures  of  Phidias  and  the  paintings 
of  Raphael.  Toward  an  element  of  human  character 
so  persistent  and  universal  we  are, 
therefore,  compelled  perforce  to  adopt 

Art  vs  Puri-  orie  ?r  *^e  ?tner  °£  two  attitudes,  re- 
garding  it  either  as  a  vice  to  be  sup- 
tanism.  pressed  or  as  a  virtue  to  be  cultivated. 
Now  the  religious  temper  of  the  most 
progressive  countries  of  the  world  since 
the  middle  of  the  sixteenth  century  and  the  indus- 
trial conditions  of  the  last  century  and  a  quarter  have 
led  to  a  very  general  triumph,  in  greater  or  less 
degree,  of  •what  may  best  be  called  the  Puritan  spirit, 
of  which,  as  far  as  art  is  concerned,  the  first,  the  essen- 
tial characteristic's  its  attitude  toward  the  humanbody 
and  toward  all  that  life  of  the  senses,  which  is  so  large  a 
part  of  the  heritage  of  beings  who  have  not  only 
spirits  and  minds,  but  bodies,  too.  The  Puritan,  when 
he  is  logically  true  to  himself,  regards  the  body,  to 
use  his  own  expression,  as  a  vile  body  ;  he  has  a  con- 
tempt for  it ;  he  has  a  perpetual  suspicion  of  it,  as 
something  to  which  he  is  unfortunately  tied  in  this 
world,  but  from  which  he  must  seek  to  disengage  him- 
self as  far  as  possible.  As  an  obvious  consequence  of 
this  fundamental  view  the  life  of  the  senses,  the  de- 
lights which  come  to  us  from  sight  or  taste  or  touch, 
are  to  him  things  to  be  regarded  as  mere  temptation, 


as  baits  to  seduce  us.  Thus,  to  again  quote  his  own 
language,  the  theater  is  to  him,  in  its  very  nature,  but 
the  gate  or  'anteroom  of  hell,'  and  dancing  but  'an 
ungodly  shaking  of  the  limbs.'  All  art  of  any  kind 
thought  of  as  an  end  in  itself  is,  therefore,  anathema 
maranatha,  because  all  sensuous  indulgence  is  sin  ;  or 
since  certain  arts  are  almost  indispensable  to  human 
existence,  they  are  to  be  allowed  no  further  than  as 
they  may,  so  to  speak,  be  turned  against  themselves 
and  made  to  allure  us  from  this  present  and  visible 
world  to  that  which  is  invisible  and  to  come.  It  is  not 
necessary  to  inquire  here  what  truth  there  may  be  at 
the  bottom  of  this  view  of  life,  tho  a  truth  there  cer- 
tainly is,  however  ludicrously  and  pitiably  burlesqued. 
It  is  sufficient  to  point  out  that  such  a  temper  of  mind 
has  brought  about  an  arrest  of  the  creative  arts  in 
every  nation  exactly  in  proportion  as  it  has  become 
dominant.  What  the  absence  of  art  may  betoken  in 
the  long  run  it  is  not  easy  for  us  to  say,  since  that  lack 
belongs  only  to  these  later  times  of  the  world's  his- 
tory, of  which  we  cannot  yet  form  any  fair  estimate, 
because  they  are  too  near  to  us ;  but  clearly  in  the 
present  it  indicates  a  transference  of  the  interest  of 
civilized  men  from  the  development  of  the  human  and 
intellectual  energies  of  the  race  to  the  development  of 
its  mechanical  energies,  and  it  may  be  further  said 
that  if  this  tendency  is  to  go  on  along  the  logical  road 
of  development  it  must  destroy  the  arts  of  design  and 
all  that  is  analogous  to  them  in  literature." 

From  such  reasoning  as  this  it  is  easy  to  see 
with  what  vehemence  almost  all  artists  oppose 
even  the  beginnings  of  Puritanism  in  society. 
They  declare  that  it  is  even  atheistic  in  failing 
to  recognize  God  as  the  Creator  of  matter  as  truly 
as  the  Creator  of  the  spiritual  life.  They  con- 
sider it  immoral  as  tending  to  a  gross  concep- 
tion of  the  body.  Undoubtedly  this  position  may 
be  and  has  been  caricatured  and  diverted  from 
its  proper  use  to  serve  the  cause  of  license  rather 
than  of  beauty.  We  are  concerned  here  only 
to  point  out  what  is  the  bearing  of  art  upon  so- 
cial reform.  We  close  our  article  with  one  more 
quotation  from  William  Morris's  Signs  of 
Change  (chapter,  "The  Aims  of  Art").  He 
says  : 

"  It  is  clear  to  me  that,  at  the  present  time,  those 
who  look  widest  at  things  and  deepest  into  them  are 
quite  dissatisfied  with  the  present  state  of  the  arts,  as 
they  are  also  with  the  present  condition  of  society. 
This  I  say  in  the  teeth  of  the  supposed  revivification  of 
art  which  has  taken  place  of  late  years  ;  in  fact,  that 
very  excitement  about  the  arts  among  a  part  of  the 
cultivated  people  of  to-day  does  but  show  on  how  firm 
a  basis  the  dissatisfaction  above  mentioned  rests. 
Forty  years  ago  there  was  much  less  talk  about  art, 
much  less  practise  of  it,  than  there  is  now  ;  and  that  is 
specially  true  of  the  architectural  arts,  which  1  shall 
mostly  have  to  speak  about  now.  People  have  con- 
sciously striven  to  raise  the  dead  in  art  since  that 
time,  and  with  some  superficial  success.  Nevertheless, 
in  spite  of  this  conscious  effort,  I  must  tell  you  that 
England,  to  a  person  who  can  feel  and  understand 
beauty,  was  a  less  grievous  place  to  live  in  then  than 
it  is  now;  and  we  who  feel  what  art  means  know 
well,  tho  we  do  not  often  dare  to  say  so,  that  forty 
years  hence  it  will  be  a  more  grievous  place  to  us  than 
it  is  now  if  we  still  follow  up  the  road  we  are  going. 
.  .  .  Art  then  is  gone,  and  can  no  more  be  'restored' 
on  its  old  lines  than  a  medieval  building  can  be.  The 
rich  and  refined  cannot  have  it  tho  they  would,  and 
tho  we  will  believe  many  of  them  would.  And  why? 
Because  those  who  could  give  it  to  the  rich  are  not 
allowed  by  the  rich  to  do  so.  In  one  word,  slavery  lies 
between  us  and  art." 

References:  Walter  Crane,  Why  Socialism  Appeals 
to  Artists  (Atlantic  Monthly,  vol.  xlix.,  p.  no,  "Janu- 
ary, 1892) ;  Modern  Life  and  the  Artistic  Sense  (Cosmo- 
politan, vol.  xiii.,  p.  152,  June,  1892)  ;  Art  and  Commer- 
cialism ;  Art  and  Industry  ;  Art  and  Labor  ;  Art  and 
Social  Democracy,  in  his  The  Claims  of  Decorative  Art 
(London  and  Boston,  1892) ;  T.  C.  Horsfall,  Art  in  Large 
Towns;  The  Work  of  the  Manchester  Art  Museum 
(Manchester,  1891)  ;  Henry  Edward  Krehbiel,  Studies 
in  the  Wagnertan  Drama  (New  York,  1851) ;  William 
Morris,  The  Aims  of  Art,  in  his  Signs  of  Change  (Lon- 
don, 1888) ;  same  in  (F.  W.  Lee,  editor)  William  Mor- 
ris: Poet,  Artist,  Socialist  (New  York,  1891);  Hopes 
and  Fears  for  Art  (London  and  Boston,  1882) ;  John 


Arthur,  Peter  M. 


96 


Assessments,  Political. 


Ruskin,  almost  all  his  works  (see  RUSKIN),  particu- 
larly A  Joy  Forever  ;  or,  The  Political  Economy  of  Art 
(London) ;  George  Bernard  Shaw,  The  Quintessence 
of  Ibsenism  (London,  i8gi) ;  Ellen  Gates  Starr,  Art 
and  Labor,  in  Hull  House  Maps  and  Papers  (New 
York,  1895).  See  SOCIALISM;  IBSEN;  MORRIS;  Rus- 

KIN. 

ARTHUR,  PETER  M.— Head  of  the  Broth- 
erhood of  Locomotive  Engineers  in  the  United 
States  ;  born  in  Scotland,  1836  ;  came  to  Amer- 
ica when  10  years  old,  lived  on  a  farm  with  his 
uncle  in  Schenectady,  N.  Y.  When  18  years  old 
he  was  employed  as  wiper  in  the  engine-house  at 
Schenectady  ;  became  fireman,  and  then  engi- 
neer. He  was  early  interested  in  the  organiza- 
tion of  his  craft,  and  in  1874  was  chosen  to  its 
highest  office,  since  when  he  has  been  annually 
reelected.  The  Brotherhood  has,  under  him, 
become  one  of  the  most  powerful  altho  most 
conservative  trade-unions  in  the  country,  num- 
bering some  30,000  men.  His  residence  and  the 
headquarters  of  the  Brotherhood  are  at  Cleve- 
land, O.  His  policy  of  using  all  conciliatory 
means  before  appealing  to  strikes,  which,  under 
his  lead,  have  been  very  few,  has  given  him  a 
strong  hold  on  the  confidence  of  both  his  order 
and  the  public.  (See  BROTHERHOOD  OF  LOCOMO- 
TIVE ENGINEERS.)  He  has,  however,  been  much 
criticised  by  many  in  the  labor  movement  for 
not  being  more  willing  to  combine  with  other 
labor  organizations.  His  conception  of  his  posi- 
tion is  that  he  is  the  head  of  a  business  corpora- 
tion formed  to  subserve  the  interests  of  its  mem- 
bers alone,  and  that,  however  he  or  anybody 
else  may  feel  personally,  as  head  of  that  organi- 
zation he  must  limit  his  interests  to  that. 

ARTISAN,  one  skilled  in  any  art,  mystery, 
or  trade  ;  a  handicraftsman,  a  mechanic.  We 
distinguish  to-day  between  the  art  and  artisan, 
but  the  artist  should  probably  be  an  artisan  and 
the  artisan  an  artist.  William  Morris,  for  ex- 
ample, believes  that  "  art  is  built  up  from  handi- 
craft ;"  and  the  decay  of  art  means  to  him  the 
decay  of  the  power  of  the  average  man  to  make 
something  beautiful  with  his  own  hands,  not  as 
an  isolated  event  to  be  talked  about  for  years, 
but  as  an  e  very-day  occurrence,  part  of  the  nor- 
mal expression  of  his  daily  life.  When  Morris, 
therefore,  sings  the  dirge  of  art,  it  is  popular  art 
that  he  thinks  dead  or  dying.  He  admits  as 
fully  as  any  one  the  excellence  in  technic  dis- 
played by  many  English  painters,  the  admirable 
drawing,  the  coloring,  and  so  forth.  He  laments 
rather  the  passing  away  of  the  artist  workman, 
of  the  man  so  trained,  so  environed,  that  he 
could  both  design  and  produce  objects  of  beauty. 

It  was  such  men  as  these  who  built  and  beau- 
tified many  of  the  great  cathedrals  and  churches 
of  Europe  ;  who  sculptured  the  portals  of  Char- 
tres  and  the  glorious  facade  of  Amiens,  and  who 
have  left  in  a  thousand  European  cities  and 
towns  moldings  and  traceries  and  foliated  capi- 
tals, portraits  and  quaint  fancies,  quips  and 
jests,  as  well  as  dreams  of  beauty  in  wood, 
metal,  stone  and  marble,  to  be  the  wonder  and 
admiration  of  our  time.  According  to  Morris, 
this  beautiful  work  was  the  result  of  really  free 
associated  human  labor,  where  the  worker  was 
his  own  master,  had  received  a  careful  training 
in  apprenticeship  to  his  guild,  and  worked  in 
fraternal  equality  with  others.  To-day  the  aver- 


age worker  is  a  machine-minder,  the  all  but 
soulless  agent  of  an  anonymous  joint-stock  com- 
pany or  syndicate  ;  performing  day  after  day 
and  year  after  year  the  same  piece  of  monoto- 
nous mechanical  drudgery  ;  liable  any  day  to 
be  elbowed  out  of  the  field  by  new  inventions, 
unable  to  work  unless  a  body  of  capitalists  can 
make  for  themselves  a  profit  out  of  his  work, 
and  living  amid  noisome,  sordid,  and  hideous 
surroundings.  (See  ART.) 

ASHLEY,  LORD.    See  SHAFTESBURY,  EARL 


ASHLEY,  WILLIAM  TAMES,  born  in 
London,  1860  ;  A.B.  at  Balliol,  Oxford,  1881  ; 
M.A.  1885  ;  1885-88  Fellow  of  Lincoln  and  Lec- 
turer in  Modern  History  in  Lincoln  and  Corpus 
Christi  colleges  ;  1888-92  Professor  of  Political 
Economy  and  Constitutional  History  in  the  Uni- 
versity of  Toronto  ;  1892  Professor  of  Economic 
History  in  Harvard  University,  Cambridge,  Mass. 
He  is  a  strong  adherent  of  the  historical  school  in 
economics,  believing  that  political  economy  has 
yet  reached  few  generally  accepted  conclusions, 
and  cannot  reach  them  until  it  slowly  builds  up 
a  body  of  doctrine  based  on  carefully  investi- 
gated facts.  He  believes,  with  Professor  Sidg- 
wick,  that  there  are  good  theoretic  reasons  in 
favor  of  protection,  but  that  the  practical  difficul- 
ties are  so  great  that  in  democratic  communi- 
ties free  trade  is  less  dangerous.  Bimetallism 
for  a  single  nation  he  believes  the  height  of  folly. 
Between  international  bimetallism  and  mono- 
metallism he  delays  making  a  choice,  but  has 
the  impression  that  currency  questions  are  of 
much  less  importance  than  the  disputants  on 
either  side  appear  to  think.  He  believes  in  the 
nationalization  and  municipalization  of  natural 
monopolies  only  when  the  state  of  political 
morality  and  the  organization  of  the  civil  ser- 
vice make  it  tolerably  safe,  which  he  thinks  is 
not  likely  to  be  for  some  time  to  come.  In  this 
class,  however,  he  does  not  include  land,  except 
under  very  exceptional  circumstances.  His 
main  works  are  :  An  Introdttction  to  English 
Economic  History  and  Theory,  part  i.  (published 
in  the  United  States  as  vol.  i.),  The  Middle 
Ages,  1888  (now  in  third  edition),  part  ii.  (pub- 
lisned  in  the  United  States  as  vol.  ii.) ;  The  End 
of  the  Middle  Ages,  1893  (now  in  second  edi- 
tion; German  translation  in  the  press).  Some 
minor  writings  :  James  and  Philip  -van  Arte- 
velde,  1883  (Lothian  prize  essay)  ;  What  is  Po- 
litical Science  ?  1888  (inaugural  lecture  before  the 
University  of  Toronto) ;  The  English  Manor, 
an  introductory  chapter  prefixed  to  the  English 
translation  of  Fustel  de  Coulanges'  Origin  of 
Property  in  Land  (1891) ;  On  the  Study  of  Eco- 
nomic History,  an  introductory  lecture  before 
Harvard  University,  in  The  Quarterly  Journal 
of  Economics,  January,  1892  (translated  in  Mu- 
nich, Allegemeine  Zeitiing} ;  various  articles 
in  various  quarterlies,  journals,  etc.  Profes- 
sor Ashley  is  now  (1895)  editing  Macmillan's 
series  of  Economic  Classics. 

ASSESSMENTS,  POLITICAL.— A  gen- 
eral term  used  to  designate  the  pecuniary  con- 
tributions levied  by  Congressional,  State,  and 
municipal  political  committees  upon  the  office- 


Assessments,  Political. 


97 


Association  for  Profit-Sharing. 


holders  or  candidates  belonging  to  their  several 
parties,  for  the  stated  purpose  of  defraying  the 
expenses  of  the  political  canvass  conducted  by 
them.  With  office-holders  it  usually  takes  the 
form  of  a  request  for  a  specific  sum,  amounting 
to  a  certain  percentage  of  their  salaries.  The 
assessment  of  candidates  is  not  so  systematized, 
unless  it  be  in  New  York  City.  An  action  has 
been  brought  in  New  York  against  a  judge  to 
recover  a  portion  of  the  assessment  levied  upon 
him  as  a  candidate  ;  and  it  is  a  matter  of  com- 
mon belief  that  in  1880  a  judicial  candidate 
mortgaged  his  prospective  salary  to  secure  the 
payment  of  an  assessment  of  $  1 7 ,000.  The  prac- 
tice is,  of  course,  an  outgrowth  of  the  spoils  sys- 
tem. (See  CIVIL  SERVICE  REFORM.) 

The  first  specific  instance  of  an  assessment  of 
this  kind  is  found  in  the  Swartwout  investigation 
in  the  twenty-fifth  Congress,  when  a  former  dep- 
uty-collector of  New  York  testified  as  follows  : 
' '  I  have  frequently  been  called  to  contribute  to 
political  objects  while  I  was  deputy-collector,  as 
an  officer  of  the  custom-house. ' '  The  amount 
was  from  $20  to  $100.  The  tax  was  pro  rata, 
from  i  to  6  per  cent,  of  the  salary.  It  was  as- 
sessed by  a  general  committee  of  the  Tammany 
Hall  party.  If  the  individual  declined  to  pay, 
he  was  reported.  From  that  time  at  least  the 
process  has  gone  on.  The  existing  system  may 
be  described  by  a  statement  of  what  was  dene 
in  1880.  The  Republican  Congressional  Com- 
mittee is  said  to  have  addressed  all  persons 
(except  the  heads  of  executive  offices)  drawing 
salary  from  the  national  Government  a  letter 
containing  these  words  :  ' '  Under  the  circum- 
stances in  which  the  country  finds  itself  placed, 
the  committee  believes  that  you  will  find  it  both 
a  privilege  and  a  pleasure  to  make  a  contribu- 
tion, which,  it  is  hoped,  may  not  be  less  than 

.     The  committee  is  authorized  to  state 

that  such  voluntary  contribution  will  not  be  ob- 
jected to  in  any  official  quarter."  The  blank 
was  filled  by  writing  in  a  sum  equal  to  two  per 
cent,  of  the  salary  of  the  person  addressed.  On 
October  14  the  same  persons  were  asked  "  to 
promptly  contribute  to  its  funds  an  additional  one 
per  cent. ' '  There  is  high  authority  for  stating 
that  at  least  $100,000  was  thus  raised.  The  as- 
sessment varied  in  different  States,  being  high-  . 
est  in  Pennsylvania  and  New  York.  In  New 
York  three  per  cent,  of  a  weekly  stipend  of  $2  was 
requested  from  a  boy  in  a  rural  post-office.  In 
New  York  City  firemen  and  even  school-teach- 
ers were  assessed.  The  assessment  of  candi- 
dates in  that  city  is  supposed  to  be — for  a  judg- 
ship,  $15,000;  district  attorneyship,  the  same; 
for  a  nomination  to  Congress,  about  $4000  ; 
for  coroner,  $2000;  alderman,  $1500;  assem- 
blyman, from  $600  to  $1500.  The  annual 
amount  thus  raised  by  Tammany  may  be  put 
at  $125,000.  Mr.  John  Kelly  in  1880  defended 
the  large  salaries  paid  to  the  city  aldermen  on 
the  ground  that  it  was  necessary  to  enable  them 
to  meet  the  large  political  demands  made  upon 
them.  President  Hayes  made  an  executive 
order  forbidding  these  assessments,  and  bills 
have  been  passed  forbidding  them,  but  it  has 
not  availed.  The  only  cure  is  probably  through 
a  rigid  civil  service.  (See  CIVIL  SERVICE.)  We 
are  indebted  for  these  facts  to  Frederick  W. 
Whitridge,  whose  article  on  this  subject  in 


Lalor's  Cyclopedia  we  have  here  abridged. 
(For  the  methods  and  growth  of  reform  upon 
this  subject,  see  CIVIL  SERVICE  REFORM  ;  also 
DIRECT  LEGISLATION.) 

ASSIGNATS  (from  Lat.  assignatus,-^.  of 
assignare,  to  assign  or  allot),  notes  forming  the 
paper  currency  issued  in  France  during  the  Revo- 
lution, from  1789-96.  They  were  based  on  the 
security  of  the  confiscated  church  lands,  and 
afterward  of  all  the  national  domains  and  other 
property.  Issued  to  the  amount  of  45 ,000,000,000 
f rs. ,  before  they  were  withdrawn  they  deterio- 
rated to  less  than  one  three  hundredth  of  their 
face  value.  They  are  usually  used  as  an  in- 
stance of  the  folly  of  adopting  a  paper  currency 
irredeemable  in  gold  ;  but  the  believers  in  paper 
currency  answer  that  the  trouble  lay  not  in  the 
assignats,  but  in  the  security  they  represented  ; 
that  people  had  small  faith  in  the  revolutionary 
government  or  its  validity  of  title  to  the  confis- 
cated land,  and  that,  therefore,  it  is  small  won- 
der that  the  assignats,  based  on  such  security, 
depreciated.  To  attempt  to  reason  from  the 
France  of  the  Revolution  to  the  United  States 
of  to-day,  they  argue,  shows  the  feebleness  of 
the  argument. 

The  name  assigtiats  was  given  by  the  Na- 
tional Assembly  because  they  represented  lands 
assigned  to  their  holders.  They  consisted 
chiefly  of  notes  for  100  frs.  ($20),  tho  many  of 
them  were  for  as  small  amounts  as  10  or  even 
5  f  rs.  The  first  issue  was  for  400,000,000  frs. , 
and  bore  interest,  which  the  others  did  not. 
The  amount  in  all  issues  reached  the  enormous 
sum  of  45,578,000,000  frs.  They  were,  besides, 
so  poorly  printed  that  they  were  easily  counter- 
feited abroad.  It  was,  therefore,  small  wonder 
that  they  began  to  depreciate,  and  by  June, 
1793,  i  fr.  in  silver  was  worth  3  in  paper  ;  and. 
by  August,  6  in  paper.  The  State  undertook  to 
enforce  their  circulation,  but  only  brought  them 
back  upon  its  own  hands.  By  March,  1796, 
i  louis  d'or  (24  frs.)  brought  7200  paper  francs. 
In  1796  they  were  withdrawn  and  redeemed  at 
one  thirtieth  of  their  value  by  mandats. — a  new. 
paper  money  which  enabled  the  holder  to  take 
immediate  possession  of  the  land  (the  assignats 
could  only  be  sold).  The  man  da  Is  soon  also  de- 
preciated to  one  seventh  of  their  face  value,  and 
were  redeemed  by  being  accepted  by  the  gov- 
ernment in  payment  of  taxes  or  for  land, 

ASSOCIATED  CHARITIES.  See  CHAR- 
ITY ORGANIZATION. 

ASSOCIATION  FOR  THE  PROMO- 
TION OF  PROFIT-SHARING,  THE.— 

This  association  was  organized  January,  1892. 
It  had  been  decided  at  the  preliminary  meeting 
to  be  undesirable  to  follow  the  strict  lines  of  the 
French  society  by  admitting  to  membership 
only  business  men  actually  practising  profit- 
sharing.  It  was  thought  to  be  more  desirable 
to  unite  all  who  advocate  the  system,  whether 
practising  it  or  not.  Membership  in  the  society 
is  thus  open  not  only  to  men  of  affairs,  but  to 
professors  and  students  of  political  economy, 
journalists,  clergymen,  and  teachers — to  all,  m 
fact,  who  believe  in  the  system  and  desire  to 
see  it  extended.  The  American  society  does 


Association  for  Profit-Sharing. 


98 


Ateliers  Nationaux. 


not  intend,  however,  to  be  characterized  by  a 
less  practical  spirit  than  that  of  the  French  asso- 
ciation. It  desires,  in  the  first  place,  to  be  useful 
in  furnishing  information  about  profit-sharing  in 
the  past  and  present  to  any  firm  or  corporation 
that  is  thinking  of  introducing  any  of  the  meth- 
ods mentioned  in  its  constitution.  It  will  ar- 
range for  addresses  on  the  general  subject  be- 
fore commercial  clubs  and  other  organizations 
in  leading  cities,  from  time  to  time. 

For  further  information  address  its  Secretary 
and  Treasurer  (1895),  Rev.  N.  P.  Oilman,  Bos- 
ton, Mass.  (See  PROFIT-SHARING.) 

ASYLUMS,  FOR  THE  BLIND,  IN- 
SANE, etc.  See  BLIND  ASYLUMS,  INSANE 
ASYLUMS,  etc. 

ATELIERS  NATIONAUX  (national  work- 
shops), a  term  used  in  France  for  the  workshops 
established  by  the  Provisional  Government  of 
France  in  the  Revolution  of  1848,  to  give  work 
to  the  unemployed. 

The  Provisional  Government  had  scarcely 
been  established  (in  February,  1848),  when  a 
committee  of  socialists  demanded  of  it  the  rec- 
ognition of  the  right  to  work.  Louis  Blanc  and 
one  or  two  others  were  the  only  real  socialists  in 
the  government,  and  the  demand  of  the  men 
was,  therefore,  refused,  and  only  when  strenu- 
ously insisted  upon  was  it  reluctantly  conceded, 
for  political  reasons.  And  it  is  doubtful  if  the 
government  really  ever  intended  to  make  the 
shop  a  success.  Louis  Blanc  says  distinctly  that 
the  government  only  nominally  yielded,  but  ap- 
pointed a  committee  secretly  instructed  to  make 
the  shop  fail.  In  any  case,  the  state  of  Paris  at 
the  time,  the  acuteness  of  the  industrial  and 
political  crisis,  the  supposed  necessity  of  doing 
something  at  once  on  a  large  scale  for  political, 
no  less  than  economic  reasons,  and  the  jeal- 
ousies and  intrigues  of  opposing  parties  both 
within  and  outside  the  Provisional  Government 
were  all  factors  in  the  situation  which  tended  to 
make  difficult,  if  not  impossible,  the  execution 
of  any  carefully  planned  scheme.  The  most 
cursory  examination  of  the  evidence  shows  that 
it  is  impossible  to  judge  correctly  of  the  ateliers 
nationaux  on  the  supposition  that  they  were 
merely  a  b  on  a  fide  effort  to  carry  out  the  decree 
establishing  the  ' '  right  to  work. ' ' 

However  this  may  be,  on  February  25  the 
Provisional  Government  passed  a  decree  from 
which  the  following  is  an  extract : 

"The  Provisional  Government  of  the  French  Re- 
public undertakes  to  guarantee  the  existence  of  the 
workmen  by  work.  It  undertakes  to  guarantee  work 
for  every  citizen." 

For  the  purpose  of  carrying  out  this  decree, 
Louis  Blanc  advocated  the  formation  of  a  Min- 
istry of  Labor,  but  this  was  negatived  on  the 
ground  that  a  mere  provisional  government 
could  not  thus  anticipate  the  decision  of  the  fu- 
ture assembly.  In  place  of  it,  as  a  compromise, 
a  Government  Labor  Commission,  under  the 
presidency  of  Louis  Blanc,  was  established  by  a 
decree  of  February  28,  with  power  of  inquiry 
and  consultation  only.  The  Commission  met  at 
the  Luxembourg.  Meanwhile,  the  carrying  out 
of  the  decree  of  February  25,  by  the  establish- 


ment of  national  workshops,  was  confided  not  to 
this  Commission,  but  to  the  Minister  of  Public 
Works,  M.  Marie,  by  the  following  decree  of 
February  26  : 

"The  Provisional  Government  decrees  the  imme- 
diate establishment  of  national  workshops.  The  Min- 
ister of  Public  Works  is  intrusted  with  the  execution 
of  the  present  decree." 

This  was  followed  the  next  day  by  a  decree 
specifying  various  public  works  to  be  started. 

At  the  same  time  the  immediate  resumption 
of  work  on  government  buildings,  etc. ,  was  de- 
creed. Besides  the  works  organized  by  the 
Minister  of  Public  Works,  the  Minister  of  War 
opened  works  in  the  Champs  de  Mars.  From 
this  time  the  responsibility  for  the  national 
works  as  actually  organized  rested  primarily 
with  M.  Marie,  the  Minister  of  Public  Works, 
while  Louis  Blanc  and  the  Commission  at  the 
Luxembourg  organized  cooperative  societies  of 
tailors,  and  other  trades,  to  which  the  State 
gave  certain  contracts  to  execute.  The  history 
of  these  societies  has  an  interest  of  its  own,  but 
they  were  entirely  separate  from  the  national 
works  organized  by  the  State. 

All  went  well  while  the  number  of  the  unem- 
ployed was  less  than  6000,  but  as  soon  as  that 
number  was  exceeded  the  workmen  of  each 
arrondz'ssement,  after  having  visited  all  the 
open  works  in  succession  without  result,  returned 
to  their  maire's  offices  tired,  starving,  and  dis- 
contented. 

Louis  Blanc  soon  resigned,  and  publicly  de- 
nounced the  scheme  as  not  being  conducted  in 
good  faith.    The  workmen  had  been 
promised  bread  when  work  was  not  T     .    _. 
to  be  had.     The  great  mistake  was,  L™18  Bianc 
however,  then  committed  of  giving  ..     gcj,eme 
them  money,  and  distributing  it  in 
public  at  the  offices  of  the  maires 
instead  of  distributing  assistance  in  kind. 

Each  maire's  office  was  authorized  to  pay 
every  unemployed  workman  1.50  frs.  per  day 
on  production  of  a  ticket  showing  that  there 
was  no  vacancy  for  him  in  the  national 
works. 

The  fixed  sum  of  2  frs.  was  paid  to  any  work- 
man engaged  on  the  public  excavation  works, 
without  regard  to  his  age,  the  work  done,  or  his 
calling.  The  workman  made  the  following 
simple  calculation,  and  he  made  it  aloud  :  "  The 
State  gives  me  30  sous  for  doing  nothing  ;  it 
pays  me  40  sous  when  I  work,  so  I  need  only 
work  to  the  extent  of  10  sous."  This  was 
logical. 

The  works  opened  by  the  Minister  of  Public 
Works  being  far  distant  from  each  other,  and 
the  workmen  not  being  able  to  visit  them  all  in 
turn  to  make  certain  that  there  were  no  vacan- 
cies for  them,  two  central  bureaus  were  estab- 
lished, one  at  the  Halle-aux-Veaux,  under  M. 
Wissocq  ;  the  other  near  the  maire's  office  in 
the  fifth  arrondissement  in  the  Rue  de  Bondy, 
intrusted  to  M.  Higonnet.  The  workmen  went 
to  have  their  tickets  examined  at  one  of  these 
bureaus  ;  and  the  absence  of  employment  having 
been  proved,  they  returned  to  get  their  30  sous 
at  their  maires'  offices. 

As  the  numbers  claiming  work  or  relief  rapid- 
ly increased  the  whole  organization  got  rapidly 


Ateliers  Nationaux. 


99 


Ateliers  Nationaux. 


out  of  hand,  and  both  the  bureaus  and  the 
mazres'  offices  became  the  centers  of  tumultuous 
crowds,  which  those  in  charge  were  quite  un- 
able to  satisfy  or  keep  in  order.  On  March  5 , 
therefore,  Emile  Thomas,  a  chemist  connected 
with  the  Ecole  Centrale,  was  commissioned  by 
M.  Marie  to  reorganize  the  works  on  a  semi- 
military  plan,  in  which  he  was  aided  by  some  of 
the  senior  pupils  of  the  Ecole  Centrale. 

The  workmen  were  divided  into  companies, 
each  of  which,  when  the  organization  was  fully 
developed,  contained  900  men.  Each  company 
was  divided  into  four  lieutenancies,  each  contain- 
ing 224  men  and  a  lieutenant,  and  each  lieu- 
tenancy into  four  brigades,  each  with  55  men  and 
a  brigadier.  Finally  each  brigade  was  divided 
into  five  squads  with  10  men  and  a  chief  of  squad, 
all  belonging  to  the  same  arrondissement.  The 
brigadiers  and  chiefs  of  squads  were  elected  by 
the  men  whom  they  had  to  control.  This  com- 
plicated organization  was  not  fully  developed 
during  the  first  month. 

On  March  6,  when  Emile  Thomas  took  the 
work  in  hand,  the  number  of  unemployed  in 
Paris  was  estimated  at  from  13,000  to  14,000,  in 
addition  to  4000  or  5000  already  engaged  on 
public  works.  This  number  continued  steadily 
to  increase  day  by  day,  without,  however,  any 
corresponding  expansion  of  the  public  works. 
The  engineer  officers  were  directed  by  the  gov- 
ernment to  suggest  plans  for  new  works,  but 
they  appeared  unable  or  unwilling  to  do  so,  and 
day  after  day  slipped  by,  the  director  having  to 
exercise  all  his  ingenuity  to  provide  some  means 
of  occupying  the  idle  masses  of  men  who  had 
been  enrolled,  and  who  were  drawing  30  sous  a 
day  from  the  State. 

On  March  15,  after  a  meeting  of  the  chief  en- 
gineers, who  wrere  still  unable  to  suggest  means 
of  employing  usefully  more  than  a  few  hundred 
of  the  14,000  unemployed  men,  it  was  resolved  to 
undertake  a  series  of  works  in  the  plain  of  Mon- 
ceaux,  which,  if  serving  no  other  object,  would 
at  least  have  the  advantage  of  keeping  the 
crowd  employed.  Already  the  whole  scheme 
was  costing  20,000  frs.  a  day,  and  measures 
were  contemplated  for  reducing  and  finally  ex- 
tinguishing the  pay  to  the  idle.  The  following 
is  an  extract  from  an  order  of  the  day  dated 
March  16  : 

"From  to-morrow,  Friday,  the  i?th  inst.,  the  daily 
pay  of  workmen  who  are  not  working  will  be  reduced 
to  i  fr.  instead  of  i)tf  frs.  The  director  can  guaran- 
tee to  workmen  that  from  this  day  forward  they  will  be 
employed  at  least  every  other  day  ;  in  this  .case  their 
pay  will  be  2  frs." 

Already  political  feeling  between  the  moder- 
ate and  the  extreme  sections  of  the  Provisional 
Government  was  running  high  in  view  of  the 
elections  which  were  fixed  for  April.  The 
strength  of  the  "moderate"  party  centered  in 
the  Hotel  de  Ville,  that  of  the  socialists  in  the 
Luxembourg.  From  the  middle  of  March  on- 
ward the  national  works  depended  politically  on 
the  H6tel  de  Ville,  and  were  more  and  more 
utilized  to  counteract  the  influence  of  the  Lux-  . 
embourg,  and  to  secure  the  return  of  the  Hotel 
de  Ville  "list"  of  candidates  at  the  elections. 
Hence  from  this  time  it  becomes  progressively 
more  difficult  to  treat  the  works  as  a  purely  eco- 
nomic experiment. 


Private  industry  was  practically  at  a  standstill 
and  workshops  were  closing  every  day  :  some 
for  want  of  capital,  others  through 
strikes  of  their  workmen,  who  had 
recourse  to  the  national  works  if    Causes  of 
their  demands  were  not  granted.      Failure. 
The  Minister  of  Public  Works  vain- 
ly issued  on  March  20  a  proclama- 
tion urging  the  workmen  to  return  to  their  work- 
shops, and  pointing  out  that  large  workshops 
had  been  closed  or  were  threatened  with  closing 
owing  to  the  crisis.     At  this  time  12,000  men 
were  actually  employed  at  the  national  works, 
and  the  number  of  men  enrolled  was  increasing 
very  rapidly. 

That  the  administration  of  the  works  was  on 
an  altogether  unnecessary  scale  is  not  denied 
even  by  the  director,  who,  however,  declared 
that  he  was  continually  under  the  necessity  of 
finding  places  for  crowds  of  applicants  sent  to 
him  with  recommendations  which  he  could  not 
resist.  Thus  a  large  number  of  actors,  painters, 
commercial  clerks,  and  others,  thrown  out  of 
work  by  the  crisis,  Having  been  refused  tickets 
for  admission  to  the  works  as  not  wearing  the 
workman's  blouse,  were  employed  by  the  direc- 
tor as  pay  agents.  Notwithstanding  this  army 
of  officials,  it  is  stated  that  "  no  serious  control 
was  exercised  over  these  crowds  of  humanity. 
Many  of  the  workmen  had  themselves  enrolled 
in  several  brigades,  so  as  to  draw  wages  from 
each  ;  others  came  solely  for  the  purpose  of 
drawing  wages,  tho  they  worked  as  usual  in 
private  workshops.  Brigadiers  exaggerated  the 
number  of  men  in  their  brigades,  in  order  to  ap- 
propriate the  excess  wages  which  they  were  sup- 
posed to  distribute.  Workmen  who  had  a  dis- 
agreement with  their  employers  combined,  de- 
serted their  own  workshops,  and  went  to  the 
national  workshops.  This  was  done  by  the 
paper-stainers  and  the  hatters. ' ' 

Toward  the  middle  of  April  the  numbers  en- 
rolled again  far  outran  the  number  for  whom 
work  of  any  kind  could  be  provided.  The 
director,  left  to  his  own  resources,  organized  a 
few  special  workshops  to  employ  certain  classes 
of  workmen  at  their  own  trades.  Thus  a  num- 
ber of  wheelwrights  and  joiners  were  employed 
to  mend  the  tools  which  were  constantly  being 
broken  by  the  inexperienced  workmen.  Work- 
shops of  shoemakers  and  tailors  were  also  estab- 
lished, from  which  the  more  needy  and  ill-clad 
of  the  workmen  could  be  supplied  with  cheap 
clothes  and  boots.  It  was,  however,  impossible 
to  persuade  the  shoemakers  to  accept  this  ar- 
rangement, by  which  they  were  compelled  actu- 
ally to  work  instead  of  loafing,  except  by  the 
threat  of  the  alternative  of  expulsion  from  the 
national  works.  After  a  time  the  system,  in 
these  special  workshops,  was  changed  from 
time-work  to  piece-work,  but  not  in  most  cases 
without  great  opposition  from  the  workmen. 

The  National  Assembly,  elected  by  universal 
suffrage,  met  on  May  4.  A  few  days  later  the 
Executive  Commission  was  elected,  containing 
all  the  members  of  the  Provisional  Government 
except  Louis  Blanc  and  Albert,  the  socialist 
representatives.  On  May  10  Louis  Blanc  re- 
newed his  motion  for  a  Minister  of  Labor,  which 
was  rejected.  On  the  isth  the  Assembly  was 
invaded  by  the  mob,  and  from  that  time  the 


Ateliers  Nationaux. 


100 


Athens,  Social  Polity  of. 


anti-socialist  tendency  of  the  government  be- 
came more  marked.  The  new  government  im- 
mediately determined  to  reduce  and  suppress 
the  national  works,  which  were  draining  the 
treasury  and  demoralizing  the  people,  and  which 
were  suspected  of  being  centers  of  intrigue  on 
the  part  of  Louis  Bonaparte. 

On  May  1 5  M.  Marie  was  transferred  to  an- 
other post  in  the  Provisional  Government,  and 
was  succeeded  by  M.  Trelat,  who  at  once  set 
about  the  task  of  reduction.  A  commission, 
including  a  number  of  engineers  and  other  prac- 
tical men,  was  appointed  to  inquire  into  the  con- 
dition of  the  national  works  and  to  devise  meas- 
ures for  reducing  their  cost  "  without  prejudice 
to  the  sacred  principle  of  the  guarantee  of 
work"  and  to  superintend  the  carrying  out  of 
these  measures.  M.  Lalanne,  an  engineer  of 
bridges  and  roads,  acted  as  secretary.  The  first 
measure  ordered  was  a  complete  census  of  the 
workmen  in  the  national  works.  On  May  26  the 
director,  Emile  Thomas,  was  compelled  to  re- 
sign, and  was  sent,  practically -under  arrest,  to 
Bordeaux  on  the  pretext  of  a  commission  to 
study  the  prolongation  of  a  canal.  He  was  suc- 
ceeded as  director  by  M.  Lalanne. 
On  May  30  the  National  Assembly 
Last  Days,  decreed  the  substitution  of  piece- 
work for  day-work,  but  the  change 
was  difficult  to  carry  out,  and  the 
results  were  unsatisfactory.  On  June  15  the 
Assembly  determined  on  the  suppression  of  the 
works  ;  and  to  guard  against  the  consequences 
an  army  under  General  Cavaignac  was  concen- 
trated on  Paris.  On  June  22  the  proposals  for 
the  enlistment  of  workmen  between  18  and  25, 
and  the  other  measures  of  reduction  detailed  in 
M.  Trelat's  letter  to  fimile  Thomas  of  May  24, 
appeared  in  the  Monitetir,  and  the  same  day  an 
attempt  was  made  to  organize  the  first  batch  of 
departures  from  Paris.  The  result  was  the 
bloody  insurrection  of  June  23  and  following 
days,  which,  thanks  to  the  military  organization 
of  the  national  works,  was  only  suppressed  after 
three  days  of  street  fighting.  In  the  course  of  the 
insurrection  the  Executive  Commission  resigned, 
and  General  Cavaignac  became  dictator. 

Soon  after  this  Louis  Napoleon  was  elected 
President  of  the  Republic.  The  gigantic  schemes 
subsequently  carried  out  under  the  Second  Em- 
pire for  the  rebuilding  of  large  parts  of  Paris 
served  for  many  years  to  provide  employment 
for  Paris  workmen,  and  while  they  lasted  formed 
an  effective  substitute  for  the  ill-fated  national 
works. 

A  full  account  of  the  matter  can  be  found  in 
the  Blue  Book  on  the  Unemployed,  published 
by  the  English  Labor  Department  in  -.1 893.  Our 
account  has  been  abridged  from  this. 

The  chief  authorities,  are  :  Histoire  des  Ate- 
liers Nationaux,  Emile  Thomas  (1848)  ;  His- 
totre de  la  Revolution  Franc aise,  Louis  Blanc  ; 
Histoire  de  la  Revolution  de  1848,  Lamartine  ; 
Le  Placement  des  Employes  (Office  du  Tra- 
vail}, 1892. 

ATHENS,  SOCIAL  POLITY  OF.— The 
capital  of  ancient  Attica  and  of  modern,  Greece 
we  here  consider  simply  from  a  sociological 
point  of  view.  Yet  even  from  this  standpoint  it 
affords  far  more  instruction  and  interest  than 


has  been  generally  recognized.  Greek  sociology 
centered  around  the  State  (see  GREEK  SOCIAL 
POLITY),  and  they  usually  meant  by  the  State  the 
municipality,  or  city  ;  hence,  politic al  economy, 
the  economy  of  the  vo/a<; ,  or  city.  Of  this  social 
conception  Athens  is,  perhaps,  the  best  and 
greatest  example.  In  the  first  place,  it  was, 
"with  the  exception  of  its  slave  basis — of  which 
we  shall  speak  later — well-nigh  perfectly  demo- 
cratic. Even  during  the  kingly  or  traditional 
period  there  seems  to  have  been  recognition  of 
the  popular  power  in  the.  brotherhoods  (^parpiai) 
and  clans  (yew;),  believed  to  rest,  and  probably 
actually  resting,  on  consanguinity.  This  largely 
disappeared  under  the  Eupatrids,  but  was  more 
than  revived  by  Solon.  He  established  the  emd.q- 
aia,  or  assemblies  of  the  whole  people,  to  elect 
the  archons  and  councillors  ;  to  judge  the  former 
at  the  annual  expiration  of  their  office  ;  and  to 
accept  or  reject  all  the  laws  and  decrees  proposed 
by  the  council..  (THE  REFERENDUM,  q.v.)  Under 
Clisthenes  all  free  inhabitants  of  Attica  were  ad- 
mitted to  citizenship,  making  Athens  and  Attica 
(except  for  its  slave  basis)  absolutely  democratic. 
This,  however,  is  the  least  interesting  of 
Athens'  sociological  features.  It  is  of  far  greater 
interest  to  see  how  far-reaching  and  highly  de- 
veloped was  its  municipalism.  Here,  as  in  all 
Greek  life,  the  individual  was  con- 
ceived as  in  a  sense  subordinate  to 
the  State,  and  yet  in  such  a  way  as  Municipal- 
not  to  quench,  but  to  increase  his  ism. 
true  individuality.  What  city  can 
show  greater  individuals  than  Ath- 
ens ?  The  individual  was  an  organic  part  of  an 
organic  whole.  The  State  was  omnipresent.  It 
conducted  and  maintained  the  religious  rites  of 
the  city,  the  Panathenaic  and  other  festivals. 
It  built  and  cared  for  the  temples,  baths,  gym- 
nasia, stoa,  theaters,  market-places,  etc.  It 
maintained  and  conducted  these.  It  cared  for 
the  arts.  The  Parthenon  and  the  Acropolis 
were  the  creation  of  State  artists.  The  State 
entered  into  trade.  It  owned  and  operated 
mines  in  Thrace  and  Attica.  The  silver  ore 
of  the  Laurium  mines  constituted  the  first  At- 
tic treasury.  The  revenues  of  the  State  were 
mainly  derived  not  from  citizen-paid  taxes, 
but  from  woods,  pasture,  lands,  houses,  and 
mines,  all  owned  and  operated  by  the  State. 
The  State  largely  watched  over  and  guided  the 
colonial  system,  which  was  almost  the  ruling 
feature  of  Athenian  financial  life.  The  State 
built  the  wharves  and  warehouses  of  the  Peiraeus  ; 
it  controlled  the  weights  and  measures  ;  it  ex- 
amined balances  and  minted  coin.  It  entered 
into  distribution  ;  providing  food  at  cheap  price 
in  time  of  want ;  it  regulated  the  price  of  corn  ; 
it  saw  to  it  that  none  of  its  citizens  came  to 
distress.  At  frequent  festivals  it  distributed 
provisions  gratuitously — bread,  and  oxen,  and 
fruit.  At  the  theater  largesses  were  made. 
In  the  army,  the  officers  at  first  were  not  paid, 
it  being  considered  honor  enough  thus  to  serve 
the  State  ;  but  the  common  people  were  paid. 
When  the  city  was  in  funds,  division  was  made 
among  all — not  in  charity,  but  as  a  dividend  of 
the  municipal  corporation  to  which  they  be- 
longed. So  far  did  Athens  carry  its  municipal- 
ism.  The  city  succumbed  finally,  because  it  was 
not  a  true  socialism;  it  was  free  for  its  citizens, 


Athens,  Social  Polity  of. 


Austin,  John. 


but  its  freedom  rested  upon  slavery.  Nor  was  it 
federated  into  a  true  nationalism.  Greece  was 
divided  into  rival  communes  and  republics,  and 
fell  before  a  centralized  power  like  Rome.  (Con- 
sult .any  History  of  Greece.} 

The  number  of  slaves  in  Greece,  or  even  at 
Athens,  can  scarcely  be  determined  with  .any 
tolerable  approach  to  certainty.  It  is  stated  by 
Athenaeus  (vi.  20),  on  the  authority  of  Ctesicles, 
that  the  census  of  Demetrius  Phalereus  gave 
for  Athens  21,000  citizens,  10,000  ?metics  (resi- 
dent foreigners),  and  400,000  slaves.  It  is  also 
stated  by  the  same  author  that  Corinth  had  pos- 
sessed 460,000  slaves  and  yEgina  47o.,ooo.  Hume, 
in  his  -essay,  On  the  Poputousness  of  Ancient 
Nations,  maintained  that  the  assertion  .of  Athe- 
na3us  respecting  Athens  is  quite  incredible — 
that  the  number  of  .Athenian  slaves  "  is  .at  least 
augmented  by  a  whole  cipher,  and  ought  not  to 
be  regarded  as  more  ;than.4o,ooo."  Boeckh  and 
Leteonne  have  since  made  the  question  the  sub- 
ject of  fresh  studies.  The  former  has  fixed  the 
number  of  Attic  slaves  at  about  365,000,  the  lat- 
ter at  .100,000  or  120,000.  M.  Wallon  hasrevised 
the  labors  of  these  scholars,  and  adduced  fur- 
ther considerations  of  his  -own.  He  estimates 
the  number  of  slaves  employed  in  all  Attica  in 
domestic  service  .at  40,000  ;  in  agriculture  at 
35,000  ;  in  the  mines  at  10,000  ;  in  manufactures 
and  commerce  at  90,000.  To  these  must  be 
added,  for  old  people  and  children  under  12  years 
•of  age,  6000  and  20,000  respectively,  and  also 
the  public  slaves,  of  whom,  as  we  have  said,  1200 
were  Scythian  archers.  He  thus  arrives  at  the 
conclusion  that  the  servile  population  of  Attica 
was  comprised  between  the  limits  of  188,000  and 
203,000  souls,  the  free  population  being  about 
67,000,  and  the  metics  amounting  to  40,000.  The 
slaves  thus  bore  to  the  free  native  population  the 
ratio  of  3  to  i. 

Professor  Ingram,  writing  in  the  Encyclope- 
dia Britannica,  in  the  article  on  Sl-avery,  says  : 

•'  The  condition  of  slaves  at  Athens  was  not  in  gen- 
eral a  wretched  one.  Demosthenes  {In  Mid.,  p.  330) 
says  that,  if  the  barbarians  from  whom  the  slaves -were 
•bought  were  informed  of  the  mild  treatment  they  re- 
ceived, they  would  entertain  a  great  -esteem  for  the 
Athenians.  Plautus  in  more  than  one  place  thinks  it 
necessary  to -explain  to  the  spectators  of  his  plays  that 
slaves  at  Athens  -enjoyed  such  privileges,  and  even 
license,  as  must  be  surprising  to  a  Roman  audience. 
The  slave  was'introduced  with  certain  customary  rites 
into  his  position  in  the  family ;  he  was  in  practice, 
though  not  by  law,  permitted  to  accumulate  a  private 
fund  of  his  own ;  his  marriage  -was  also  recognized 
by  custom ;  tho  in  general  excluded  from  sacred 
ceremonies  and  public  sacrifices,  slaves  were  admissi- 
ble to  religious  associations  of  a  private  kind ;  there 
were  some  popular  festivals  in  which  they  were  allow- 
ed to  participate  ;  they  had  even  special  ones  for  them- 
selves both  at  Athens  and  in  other  Greek  centers. 
Their  remains  -were  deposited  in  the  family  tomb  of 
their  master,  who  sometimes  erected  monuments  in 
testimony  of  his  affection  and  regret." 

Thus  Athens  may  be  looked  at  from  the 
standpoint  of  social  science  in  at  least  two  op- 
posite ways.  Looking  at  its  free  population,  it 
may  be  considered  a  socialistic  city,  and  the  so- 
cialists may  use  it  as  an  illustration  of  great  in- 
dividualities produced,  not  by  competition,  but 
by  socialism.  Looking  at  its  large  slave  popu- 
lation and  despite  put  upon  manual  labor, 
Athens  may  be  considered  as  an  oligarchy,  in- 
tellectual,  brilliant,  but  resting  on  injustice  and 
immorality. 


ATKINSON,  EDWARD,  economist,  born  in 
Brookline,  Mass. ,  February  10,  1827.  He  was  ed- 
ucated principally  at  private  schools.  His  repu- 
tation has  been  made  by  the  numerous  pam- 
phlets and  papers  that  he  has  contributed  to -cur- 
rent literature  on  economic  topics.  The  subjects 
treated  embrace  such  general  topics  as  banking, 
competition,  cotton,  free  trade,  mechanical  arts, 
and  protection.  The  most  important  of  his  ad- 
dresses are  Ranking,  delivered  at  .Saratoga  in 
1880  before  the  American  Bankers'  Association  ; 
Insufficiency  of  Economic  Legislation,  deliv- 
ered before  the  American  Social  Science  Asso- 
ciation ;  What  Makes  :the  Rate  of  Wages  ? 
before  the  British  Association  for  the  Advance- 
ment of  Science  ;  address  to  the  chiefs  of  the 
Bureau  of  Labor  Statistics,  at  their  convention 
in  Boston  in  1885  ;  vice-presidential  address  on 
The  Application  of  Science  to  the  Production 
and  Consumption  of  Food,  before  the  American 
Association  -for  the  Advancement  of  Science,  in 
1885  ;  and  Prevention  of  Loss  by  Fire,  before 
.the  millers  of  the  West  in  1885.  His  pamphlets 
and  books  include  the  following  :  Cheap  Cotton 
by  Free  Labor  (Boston,  1861)  ;  The  Collection 
of  Revenue  (1866)  ;  Argument  for  the  Condi- 
tional Reform  of  the  Legal  Tender  Act  (1874)  ; 
Our  National  Domain  (1879) ;  Labor  and  Cap- 
ital— Allies,  not  Enemies  (New  York,  1880)  ; 
The  Fire  Engineer,  the  Architect,  and  the 
Underwriter  (Boston,  1880)  ;  The  Railroads 
of  the  United  States  (1880) ;  Cotton  Manufac- 
tures of  the  United  States  (1880)  ;  Addresses 
at  Atlanta,  Ga.,  on  the  International  Exposi- 
tion (New  York,  1881) ;  What  is  a  Bank  f 
(1881) ;  Right  Methods  of  Preventing  Fires  in 
Mills  (Boston,  1881)  ;  The  Railway  and  tye 
Farmer  (New  York,  1881) ;  The  Influence  of 
Boston  Capital  upon  Manufactures,  in  Memo- 
rial History  of  Boston  (Boston,  1882),  and  The 
Distribution  of  Products  (New  York,  1885). 
In  1886  he  began  the  preparation  of  a  series  of 
monographs  on  economic  questions,  for  periodi- 
cal publication.  Through  his  efforts  was  estab- 
lished the  Boston  Manufacturers'  Mutual  Fire 
Insurance  Company,  an  association  consisting 
of  a  number  of  manufacturers  who,  for  their 
mutual  protection,  adopted  rules  and  regulations 
for  the  economical  and  judicious  management 
of  their  plants.  He  has  invented  an  improved 
cooking-stove  called  the  "  Aladdin  cooker." 

AUSTIN,  JOHN,  a  distinguished  writer  on 
jurisprudence,  was  born  March  3,  1790.  At  the 
age  of  16  he  entered  the  army  and  served  as  a 
subaltern  with  his  regiment  in  Sicily  ;  but  he 
left  the  service  when  peace  was  declared,  and 
in  1 8 1 8  commenced  practice  at  the  bar.  Through 
the  influence  of  Jeremy  Bentham  and  Mr.  James 
Mill  he  turned  his  attention  to  jurisprudence, 
and  when  compelled  by  loss  of  health  to  aban- 
don his  practice  at  the  bar,  he  accepted  the  ap- 
pointment of  Professor  of  Jurisprudence  in  the 
University  of  London,  which  was  founded  about 
the  same  time.  He  was  compelled  to  resign  his 
appointment  a  few  years  later,  as  no  provision 
had  been  made  for  the  chair  of  jurisprudence 
beyond  class  fees,  and  these  proved  insufficient. 
In  the  same  year  he  published  his  Province  of 
Jurisprudence  Determined,  a  work  little  ap- 
preciated at  that  time  by  the  general  public,  but 


Austin,  John. 


102 


Australia  and  Social  Reform. 


which,  in  the  estimation  of  competent  judges, 
placed  him  in  the  highest  rank  among  writers 
on  jurisprudence.  In  1833  he  was  appointed  a 
member  of  the  Criminal  Law  Commission.  This 
post  was  not  to  his  taste,  as  he  had  no  faith  in 
the  efficacy  of  such  bodies  for  constructive  pur- 
poses. He  was  afterward  appointed  a  member 
of  a  commission  to  inquire  into  the  grievances 
'  of  the  Maltese.  He  returned  to  England  in  1838, 
but  owing  to  poor  health  soon  removed  to  Ger- 
many with  his  family,  living  at  Carlsbad  in  sum- 
mer and  at  Dresden  and  Berlin  in  winter.  The 
revolution  of  1848  compelled  him  to  return  to 
England,  and  he  settled  at  Weybridge,  where 
he  died  in  December,  1859,  universally  respect- 
ed for  the  dignity  and  magnanimity  of  his  char- 
acter. After  his  death  his  lectures  on  the  prin- 
ciples of  jurisprudence  were  prepared  for  publi- 
cation by  his  widow  under  the  title  of  Lec- 
tures on  Jurisprudence,  being  a  sequel  to  The 
Province  of  Jurisprudence  Determined,  etc. 
On  this  work  his  fame  now  rests.  (For  a  fur- 
ther statement  of  his  position  in  political  science, 
see  POLITICAL  SCIENCE.) 

AUSTRALIA  AND  SOCIAL  REFORM. 
I.  STATISTICAL. 

The  island-continent  of  Australia,  with  its 
area  of  about  3,000,000  square  miles,  or  nearly 
that  of  the  United  States  exclusive  of  Alaska, 
is  composed  to-day  of  the  five  provinces  of  New 
South  Wales,  Western  Australia,  South  Aus- 
tralia, Victoria,  and  Queensland.  Says  a  writer 
in  the  Review  of  Reviews  (American,  May, 
1895) : 

"Australia  is  the  commercial  wonder  of  the 
nineteenth  century.  The  first  white  man  set- 
tled there  in  1788,  and  it  was  so  little  known 
that  until  1802  it  was  called  simply  '  The  Great 
South  Land  ;'  and  yet  in  1890,  only  88  years 
after  the  country  was  named,  with  a  population 
of  only  3,784,000,  its  foreign  commerce  for  the 
year  amounted  to  $642,500,000  !  .  .  . 

"A  bare  enumeration  of  the  resources,  the 
commerce,  and  the  enterprises  developing  in 
Australasia  would  fill  a  volume.  For  the  pur- 
pose of  this  statement,  suffice  it  to  say  that  Aus- 
tralia alone  in  1893  owned  10,400  miles  of  rail- 
road, 75,500  miles  of  telegraph  line,  and  entered 
and  cleared  shipping  from  foreign  ports  to  the 
amount  of  17,983,000  tons  ;  that  it  owns  1,500,000 
horses,  9,000,000  cattle,  and  98,000,000  sheep, 
the  total  value  of  its  live  stock  being  $330,000,- 
ooo  ;  that  it  owns  a  navy  of  33  small  but  modern 
vessels  ;  that  the  cities  of  Sydney  and  Melbourne 
compare  favorably  with  Paris  and  Washington 
for  cleanliness  and  beauty  ;  that  it  spends  $5000  a 
day  on  telegrams  to  England  alone  ;  that  in  1 893  it 
produced  $35,000,000  worth  of  gold — nearly  one 
fourth  of  the  world's  annual  production  ;  that 
its  annual  production  of  coal  is  nearly  4,000,000 
tons  ;  that  its  annual  wool  clip  averages  a  value 
of  over  $100,000,000  ;  that  it  is  the  focus  of  a 
system  of  steamship  lines  radiating  to  all  parts 
of  the  globe  ;  and  is  inhabited  by  a  people  of 
unsurpassed  intelligence  and  aggressive  energy, 
and  is  possessed  of  boundless  resources  yet  un- 
touched." • 

Mr.  Fenton,  the  assistant  Government  Statist, 
Victoria,  has  issued  a  comparative  return  of  the 
population  of  the  colonies  for  1891  and  1894,  from 


which  it  appears  that  the  population  of  Victoria, 
during  the  three  and  three  quarter  years,  in- 
creased to  the  extent  of  38,699,  or  3  39  per  cent.  ; 
New  South  Wales  increased  by  119,216,  or  10.53 
per  cent.  ;  Queensland  by  51,437,  or  13.06  per 
cent.  ;  South  Australia  by  31,971,  or  9.98  per 
cent.  ;  and  West  Australia  by  32,290,  or  64.86 
per  cent.  The  total  population  of  Australia  on 
December  31,  1894,  is  estimated  at  3,310,183  — 
an  increase  of  273,613  on  1891,  or  9.01  per  cent. 
Victoria  is  estimated  to  have  a  population  of 
1,179,104,  and  New  South  Wales,  1,251,450. 

Before  passing  to  a  consideration  of  the  sepa- 
rate colonies,  it  should  be  noted  that  there  is  a 
strong  movement  toward  the  federation  of  all 
the  Australian  colonies.  This  was  first  proposed 
as  early  as  1852,  but  no  steps  were  taken  till 
about  10  years  ago,  when  there  was  so  much 
agitation  on  the  subject  that  Parliament  passed 
a  bill  permitting  the  formation  of  a  Federal 
Council  for  deliberation  only.  Such  a  council 
met  in  1886  and  four  times  afterward,  but  being 
only  deliberative,  gave  little  satisfaction.  Janu- 
ary, 1895,  however,  the  pioneers  of  the  five  Aus- 
tralian colonies  met  at  Hobart  and  adopted  a 
resolution  recommending  a  convention  of  repre- 
sentatives chosen  by  the  electors  of  each  colony 
to  draft  a  constitution  to  be  submitted  to  the 
electors,  and  if  it  be  adopted  to  secure  its  legis- 
lative enactment. 

New  South  Wales,  the  oldest  of  the  provinces,  may 
be  said  to  have  begun,  with  the  founding  of  Port  Jack- 
son, as  a  penal  settlement  of  England  in  1788,  18  years 
after  Captain  Cook  had  explored  the  east  coast.  For  50 
years  it  continued  more  or  less  of  a  penal  settlement, 
tho  by  1821  the  colony  had  made  a  fair  start  in  free 
industrial  progress.  A  constitution  establishing  a  "  re- 
sponsible government"  was  proclaimed  in  1855.  There 
are  two  houses,  the  Legislative  Council  and  the  Legis- 
lative Assembly.  The  former  had,  in 
1893,  73  life  members  appointed  by  the 
crown  ;  the  latter,  141  members  chosen 
by  74  constituencies.  The  area  of  the 
colony  is  310,700  square  miles,  with  a  pop- 
ulation,  in  1893,  of  1,197,650,  of  which,  in 
1891,  8280  were  aborigines.  140,941  per- 
sons were  engaged  in  industries  and  136,375  in  agricul- 
ture. Education  is  under  State  control,  tho  many 
private  schools  and  colleges  exist.  There  were,  in  1892, 
of  State  schools:  5  high  schools,  231  superior  schools, 
1699  primary  public,  348  provisional,  341  half-time 
schools,  85  house-to-house  schools,  and  15  evening 
schools.  In  1892,  the  expenditure  on  State  schools  was 
^768,395.  There  are  723  private  schools.  The  Univer- 
sity or  Sydney  received  from  the  Government  a 
yearly  subsidy  of  .£18,100  in  1892.  There  are  60  jails, 
and,  in  1892,  56,350  convictions,  and  1411  sent  to  higher 
courts. 

On  March  31,  1893,  there  were  56,378  holders  of  land 
over  one  acre,  holding  38,156,547  acres  of  freehold  and 
4,425,934  of  leasehold  land.  1,003,625  acres  were  under 
cultivation.  Wheat  had  452,921  acres,  yielding  6,817,487 
bushels.  (See  AGRICULTURE.)  Gold  is  largely  mined, 
having  been  discovered  in  1851.  The  value  of  gold 
mined  to  January  i,  1894,  is  .£39,853,941.  In  1893  it  was 
.£651,285.  The  coal-mines  are  very  valuable,  producing 
in  1893  £i)i7i>722-  Silver-mines  produced  ^3,031,720. 
There  were,  at  the  end  of  1893,  2501  miles  of  government 
railways  and  84  of  private.  The  total  cost  of  railway 
construction  and  equipment  to  June  30,  1894,  was  £35,- 
855,271.  The  gross  earnings  for  1893-94  was  £2,813,541  ; 
the  expenses,  £1,591,842.  Agricultural  produce  is  car- 
ried at  extremely  low  rates  to  develop  the  country. 
The  tramways  are  also  owned  by  the  Government. 
There  were  in  1894,  58^  miles  open.  The  total  cost  of 
equipment  was  £1,248,986;  the  earnings,  1893-94,  was 
.£278,194;  the  expenses,  £229,283.  The  debt  of  the  col- 
ony at  the  end  of  1893  was  ,£58,079,033.  The  public 
wealth  of  the  colony,  April,  1893,  was  .£172,895,000;  the 
municipal  wealth  was  £6,400,000,  and  the  private  wealth, 
£407,405,000.  The  imports  for  1893  were  £18,107,035  ;  the 
exports,  £22,921,223.  Wool  is  the  staple  export,  amount- 
ing to  £10,449,911  in  1893. 


enl,tVi 
°l 
Wales. 


Australia  and  Social  Reform. 


103 


Australia  and  Social  Reform. 


Victoria,  first  settled  in  1835,  and  originally  a  part  of 
New  South  Wales,  was  separated  in  1851  ;  area,  87,884 
square  miles ;  population  (1891),  1,140,405,  including  565 
aborigines  ;  acres  in  cultivation,  2,600,000.  Its  capital, 
Melbourne,  has  a  population  of  491,378.  The  govern- 
ment is  vested  in  a  governor,  an  executive  ministry  of 
13  members,  a  legislative  council  of  48,  and  a  legisla- 
tive assembly  of  95  members  (1892).  Victoria  is  the 
principal  gold-producing  colony  of  Australia,  produc- 
ing from  1850-90,  £227,482,300  worth  of  gold.  Its  climate 
is  the  most  genial  in  Australia.  Agriculture,  formerly 
neglected,  is  now  much  cultivated. 

There  were,  in  1892,  2140  State  schools  and  759  private 
schools.    There  were  9  prisons  in  Victoria  with  1725  in- 
mates at  the  end  of  1892,  and  225280  con- 
victions in  1891,  with  1177  committed  for 
Victoria       trial-    March  *>   l894,  there  were  34,549 
cultivated    holdings,    wheat   occupying 
1,469,359  acres.  (See  AGRICULTURE.)  105,- 
745  people  were  engaged  in  agriculture  in 
1891.     The  artisans  and  mechanics  numbered  50,994  ; 
textile- workers,  47,296  ;  miners,  53,278  ;  laborers,  40,548. 
The  value  of  the  gold-mines  from  185 1-33  was  £234,965,- 
364  ;  in  1893  it  was  £2, 684,504.    All  the  railways  belong  to 
the  State.    There  were,  June  30,  1894,  3020  miles  open, 
having  cost,  with  equipment,  .£37.748,563.    The  earnings 
for  the  12  months  previous  were  £2,726,159;  the  ex- 
penses, £1,635,419.    The  public  debt,  June  30,  1894,  was 
£47,297,708,  of  which  £36,443,476  was  for  railroads.    The 
imports  in  1893  were  £13, 283,814  ;  the  exports,  £13,308,551. 
The  main  exports  were  wool,  £5,103,907  ;  gold,  £2,851,179. 
South  Australia  now  includes  the  whole  center  of 
Australia,  running  north  and  south.    It  was  first  col- 
onized in  1836  under  the  auspices  of  a  company  called 
the  South  Australian  Colonization  Association.    The 
conditions  were  that  the  land  should  not  be  sold  at 
less  than  £i  per  acre ;  that  the  revenue  arising  from 
the  sale  of  such  lands  should  be  appropriated  to  the 
immigration   of   agricultural  laborers,  and  the  con- 
struction of  roads,  bridges,  and  other  public  works 
(which  provisions  have  been  strictly  observed) ;  that 
the  control  of  the  colony's  affairs  should  be  vested 
in  a  body  of  commissioners  approved  by  the  Secretary 
of  State  for  the  Colonies,  and  the  governor  be  nomi- 
nated by  the  Crown. 

There  are  two  houses,  the  Legislative  Council  of  24 
members,  and  a  House  of  Assembly  of  54  members. 
There  were    74,711    registered    electors  in    1892.    The 
population  in  1891  was  320,431  on  area  of 
903,690  square  miles.    There  are  262  pub- 
South,        lie,  31?  provisional  schools,  and  254  pri- 
»      f     ,•        vate  schools.    There  were  90  convictions 
Australia.     in  Tgg2     There  were  in  1891,  engaged  in 
agriculture  and  pastoral  pursuits,  34,820 
persons ;  in  commerce,  trade,  and  manu- 
factures, 46,107;  in  mining,  2196.    2,758,304  acres  were 
under  cultivation  in  1893,   and   in   1892,   5,732,615  acres 
were  freehold  and  28,433,268  leasehold.    136,269  square 
miles  were  leased  for  pastoral  purposes.    June  30, 1894, 
there  were  1665%  miles  of  railroad  open  at  a  cost  of 
£12,154,244.  The  cost,  1893-94,  including  interest  charged, 
was  £569,592  ;  the  revenue,  £430,115.    The  debt,  Decem- 
ber 31,  1893,  was  £21,683,250;  three  fourths  for  railways 
waterworks  and  telegraphs.    The  imports  in  1893  were 
£7,934,200 ;  the  exports,  £8,463,936.    The  principal   ex- 
port is  wool,  value  (1893),  £2,°°I,297. 

Queensland^  formerly  a  part  of  New  South  Wales, 
was  set  apart  in  1859.  It  is  the  northeastern  portion 
of  the  island,  with  an  area  of  668,497  square  miles.  The 

Ropulation  in  1891  was  estimated  at  393,863.  Of  the 
ind,  Government  has  parted  with  10,258,657  acres  in 
fee  simple ;  2,057,963  are  in  process  of  alienation,  and 
285,703,333  have  been  leased  out  for  cattle-grazing,  the 
chief  industry  of  the  colony.  The  capital,  Brisbane, 
has  a  population  of  93,000.  The  government  consists 
of  a  governor,  Legislative  Council  of  42,  and  Assembly 
of  72  members. 

There  were  in  1892,  657  public  elementary  schools, 
10  public  grammar  or  middle-class  schools,  and  135  pri- 
vate schools.     There  were  203  convic- 
tions  for  serious  offenses  in  1892.     In 
Queensland.  '891,    67,992    persons    were    engaged   in 
agriculture,  47,184  in    industrial  work, 
31,771  in  business.     December  31,   1893, 
252,078  acres  were  under  cultivation.    (See  AGRICUL- 
TURE.)   Gold  was  discovered  in  1858,  producing  up  to 
the  close  of  1893,  £32,365  945.    There  were,  June  30,  1894, 
2379  miles  of  railway,  all  owned  by  the  Government, 
having  cost  £16,980,970.    The  expenses  for  12  months 
were  £598,403  ;  the  earnings,  £922,807.    The  public  debt, 
December  31,  1893,  was  £30,039  534.    In  1893  the  exports 
were  £9,632,662  ;  the  imports,  £4,352,783,  wool  furnish- 
ing £3,572,917- 


Western  Australia,  formerly  called  "  Swan  River 
Settlement,"  is  ail  the  western  portion  of  Australia ; 
area,  1,060,000 square  miles  ;  population,  49,782.    A  very 
large  portion  or  the  land  is  heavy  timber  land  of  great 
value.    The  climate  is  one  of  the  best.    A  constitu- 
tion was  proclaimed  in  1890.    Perth,  the    . 
capital,  has  a  population  of  about  9000. 
The  Government  consists  of  a  governor,      TtrostArn 
Legislative  Council,  and  Assembly.  w '  8le"i 

December  31,  1893,  only  176,378  acres    Australia. 
were  under  cultivation,  employing  8746 
persons.    There  were  1184  miles  of  rail- 
way open  December  31,  1894,  about  one  half  in  the 
hands  of  the  Government.    The  debt,  December  31, 
1893,  was  £2,873,098.     The  imports  in  1893  were  £1,494,- 
438;  exports,  £918,147.    The  chief  exports  in  1893  were 
gold  (£421,385)  and  wool  (£244,927). 

II.  SOCIAL  REFORM. 

Australia  in  sociology  is  often  spoken  of  as  the 
land  where  socialism  has  been  more  developed 
than  in  any  portion  of  the  globe,  an  idea  which 
has  been  largely  furthered  by  Sir 
Charles  Dilke's  Problems  of  Great- 
er Britain.    Yet  while  to  an  extent    Socialism. 
this  is  true,  the  statement  must  be 
most  seriously  qualified.  Australia's 
reputation  for  socialism  is  largely  due  to  two  main 
facts  :  first,  the  early  adoption  of  the  eight-hour 
day,  and  second,  the  fact  that  almost  all  Aus- 
tralian railroads  are  owned  and  operated  by  the 
State.     But  it  must  be  first  pointed  out  that  it 
takes  more  than  the  reduction  of  hours  and  the 
nationalization  of  railroads  to  establish  socialism, 
and  Australia  has  in  some  other  respects  been 
so  unsocialistic  as  to  largely  obscure  the  effects 
of  the  socialism  it  has.     The  fact  is,  that  it  is 
quite  as  true  to  say  that  there  is  no  socialism  in 
Australia  as  that  there  is  much.    Either  phrase  is 
inexact.     There  is  a  great  deal  of  State  social- 
ism and  considerable  democratic  socialistic  senti- 
ment, but  little  more. 

The  State  ownership  of  railroads  in  Australia 
has  even  tended  to  temporarily  check  the  ad- 
vance of  real  socialism  ;  for  investors,  unable  to 
invest  or  to  speculate  in  railroads,  have  gone  the 
more  extensively  into  land  speculation.  Land 
booms  have  been  universal.  As  they  began  to 
fail,  capital  poured  in  from  England  to  keep 
them  up  and  to  defer,  tho  only  finally  to  in- 
tensify, the  inevitable  collapse.  Capital,  too, 
unable  to  obtain  sufficient  interest  in  ordinary 
production,  has  been  put  into  banks  to  obtain  five 
per  cent. ,  compelling  the  banks  to  invest  in  all 
they  could  that  promised  more  than  five  per  cent. 
Hence  banks  bought  land,  conducted  farms, 
stores,  anything  that  promised  dividends.  When 
the  bubble  finally  burst  the  banks  collapsed,  the 
whole  community  suffered,  and  Australia,  with 
the  rest  of  the  world,  has  had  to  struggle  with 
the  unemployed.  It  is  said  by  bimetallists,  too, 
that  Australia,  like  other  portions  of  the  globe, 
has  suffered  deeply  from  the  appreciation  of 
gold,  or  the  lowering  of  prices,  and  the  conse- 
quent increase  of  the  burden  of  debt,  especially 
upon  the  agricultural  classes.  These  evils,  bear- 
ing particularly  upon  the  land,  have  given  the 
idea  of  the  single  tax  a  deeper  hold  on  Australia 
than  in  most  countries,  altho  thus  far  little 
has  been  accomplished  except  to  raise  rates  of 
land  taxation,  particularly  in  South  Australia. 
Recently  the  fact  that  the  government  has  been 
in  the  hands  of  the  capitalist  classes  has  led  to  the 


Australia  and  Social  Reform. 


104 


Australia  and  Social  Reform. 


formation  of  political  parties  turning  on  this 
issue,  and  often  called  directly  capitalist  and 
labor  parties.  Only,  however,  in  South  Aus- 
tralia has  the  Labor  Party  won  much  success, 
so  that  to  use  Australia  as  an  example  of  social- 
ism is  inaccurate.  It  has  had  simply  some  State 
socialism  managed  by  non-socialists. 

With  this  general  understanding  of  the  situa- 
tion we  now  take  up  a  more  detailed  sketch  of 
Australian  social  reform.    The  first  formal  recog- 
nition of  the  eight-hour  day  in  Aus- 
tralasia was  by  the  New  Zealand 
Eight-Hour  Company    in    the    settlement    of 
Day.        Otago,  tinder  the  influence  of  the 
Rev.   Thomas   Burns.     Its  spread 
through  Australia  is  largely  due  to 
the  Victorian  Operative  Stonemasons'  Society, 
who  set  the  movement  on  foot  in  Melbourne  in 
February,  1856. 

An  Eight-Hour  League  was  formed  of  united 
trades,  and  notice  given  that  after  April  21, 1856, 
no  union  man  would  work  more  than  eight  hours. 
The  strength  of  the  artisans'  position  at  that 
time  in  the  labor  market  enabled  them  to  win, 
and  April  22  has  annually  been  kept  ever  since 
as  a  public  holiday,  and  known  as  the  Eight-Hour 
Day.  From  Melbourne  the  movement  spread 
to  other  parts  of  the  colony  and  to  the  neighbor- 
ing colonies,  and  the  Eight-Hour  Day  has  come 
to  be  regarded  as  normal  throughout  Australasia. 
Nevertheless,  it  is  fully  realized  only  by  the 
stronger  unions  and  skilled  trades.  Gained  at  first 
without  any  legislation,  it  has  been  found  that 
legislation  is  needed  to  secure  and  maintain  it, 
and  some  attempts  have  been  made  in  this  direc- 
tion in  various  colonies  by  extending  the  factory 
acts.  These  are  most  advanced  in  Victoria,  still 
leaving,  however,  very  much  to  be  desired. 
(For  further  details  of  the  eight-hour  movement 
in  Australia,  see  SHORT-HOUR  MOVEMENT.) 

Trade-unionism  has  played  a  prominent  part 
in  Australia,  but  with  few  features  of  especial 
,  interest.    As  early  as  1850  a  branch  of  the  Amal- 
gamated Society  of  Engineers  was 
established  in  Australia,  and  since 
Trade-       that  date  almost  every  industry  has 
Unionism,    formed  its  own  organization.  Strikes 
have  not  been  very  frequent  nor  of 
very  great  importance  till  we  come 
to  the  great  strikes  of   1890  and  1891,  which 
mark  an  epoch  in  the  development  of  the  Aus- 
tralian labor  movement.     For  the  most  part  the 
program  followed  has  been  that  of  the  English 
trade-unions.     (See  TRADE-UNIONS.)    In  most  of 
the  Australian  colonies  there  has  been  an  early 
closing  agitation,  particularly  in  Victoria  and 
New  Zealand,  but  voluntary  early  closing  has 
not  proved  a  success,  and  satisfactory  legislation 
has  not  yet  been  attained.     In  providing  for  the 
unemployed  more  has  been  accomplished.     A 
labor  bureau  to  obtain  work  for  the  unemployed 
was  established  in  Melbourne  in  March,  1892, 
and    public    works   undertaken.     New    South 
Wales  established  such  a  bureau  in  February, 
1892.     In  Queensland  one  was  established  in 
Brisbane  as  early  as  1886,  and  has  been  active 
ever  since. 

Cooperation  and  profit-sharing  have  had  little 
development  in  Australia,  tho  the  cooperative 
butter  factories  and  creameries,  established  in 
Victoria  in  1888,  with  government  assistance, 


have  been  a  greater  success,  and  now  number 
360.  The  social  reform  movement  has  mainly 
developed  upon  more  radical  lines,  agitating 
for  the  single  tax,  for  other  methods  of  land 
reform,  for  woman's  suffrage,  for  proportional 
representation,  and  recently  for  democratic 
socialism. 

The  great  strike  of  1890,  which  paralyzed  Aus- 
tralian industry  from  August  to  October,  origi- 
nated in  a  difficulty  between  the  pastoralists  and 
the  shearers  touching  the  conditions 
of  shearing.     The  pastoralists  de- 
sired to  conduct  their  industry  ac-  Great  Strike 
cording  to  rules  of  their  own,  while     of  1890. 
the  shearers,  on  the  other  hand,  had 
determined  that    none  but  union 
labor  should  be  employed.     In  1887  the  Shear- 
ers'  Union  first  endeavored  to   enforce  their 
rules,  and  by   1889  relations  had    become   so 
strained  that  no  agreement  could  be  reached. 
On  August  1 8  the  wharf  laborers  struck  to  aid 
the  shearers. 

Difficulties  had  also  arisen  in  the  shipping 
trade,  quite  apart  from  the  shearers'  dispute, 
owing  to  the  discharge  of  a  fireman  named 
Magan  from  the  steamship  "  Corinna."  The 
unionists  attributed  his  discharge  to  the  fact 
that  he  was  a  delegate  of  the  Seamen's 
Union,  and  called  upon  the  employers  for 
a  conference,  which  was,  however,  refused. 
Great  discontent  had  for  some  time  existed 
among  the  marine  officers,  owing  to  the  lack  of 
accommodation  on  board  ship.  In  June,  1800, 
they  laid  their  complaints  before  their  employ- 
ers, and  were  promised  a  conference.  In  July, 
however,  they  were  informed  that  no  conference 
could  be  granted  unless  the  marine  officers  of 
Melbourne  broke  off  their  connection  with  the 
Trades  Hall  Council,  and  those  of  Sydney  with- 
drew their  application  for  affiliation  with  the 
Trade  and  Labor  Council.  It  was  alleged  by 
the  employers  that  affiliation  with  labor  coun- 
cils, and  consequent  meeting  on  equal  terms 
with  their  subordinates,  would  destroy  discipline 
on  board  ship,  but  the  unionists  regarded  this 
action  on  the  part  of  the  employers  as  an  attack 
upon  their  organizations,  and  all  negotiations 
were  broken  off. 

In  August,  therefore,  the  marine  officers 
struck,  the  wharf  laborers  came  out  a  few  days 
later,  followed  by  the  seamen  and  draymen,  the 
Newcastle  miners  were  locked  out  for  refusing 
to  hew  coal  which  they  believed  to  be  intended 
for  employers  engaged  in  the  strike,  and  in 
September  the  shearers  were  ordered  to  join  the 
others.  The  strike  spread  from  Victoria  to  New 
South  Wales,  Queensland,  and  New  Zealand, 
and  there  was  a  general  cessation  of  trade. 

The  Mayor  of  Sydney  and  other  gentlemen 
offered  their  services  as  mediators,  but  for  some 
time  with  no  success.  The  efforts  of  labor  lead- 
ers were  at  first  directed  to  keep  other  bodies  of 
men,  such  as  the  gas- workers,  from  joining  the 
strike,  because  they  feared  that  the  funds  would 
prove  inadequate  if  any  addition  was  made  to 
the  number  of  strikers.  Eight  hundred  men, 
divided  into  gangs,  were  appointed  to  watch  the 
wharves  of  Sydney,  relieving  each  other  every 
four  hours  ;  but  in  spite  of  their  efforts  many  non- 
unionists  reached  the  wharves,  and  were  there 
provided  with  food  and  shelter,  that  they  might 


Australia  and  Social  Reform. 


Australia  and  Social  Reform. 


avoid  passing  the  pickets.  The  unionists  were, 
however,  successful  in  stopping  almost  all  the 
steamer  traffic,  and  agriculturists  were  prevent- 
ed from  disposing  of  their  produce.  Food  be- 
came very  dear  in  consequence,  and  butter  rose 
to  as  much  as  zs.  qd.  a  pound.  It  soon  became 
evident  that  unless  special  precautions  were 
taken  great  disorder  would  ensue,  and  addi- 
tional police  were  therefore  drafted  into  the  large 
towns,  beginning  with  Brisbane. 

Some  disorder  did  prevail,  but  was  put  down, 
and  the  striking  unions  gradually  found  them- 
selves losing. 

In  Queensland  the  strike  was  less  serious  than 
in  Victoria  and  New  South  Wales,  because  the 
Queensland  Labor  Federation  ordered  the  exe- 
cution of  all  existing  contracts,  and  the  shearers 
returned  to  work  after  being  out  only  one  week. 
In  other  trades  it  was  found  possible  after 
some  difficulty  to  obtain  non-union  labor,  and 
by  October  the  strike  was  practically  at  an  end 
throughout  the  colonies. 

In  1891  the  shearing  difficulty  was  renewed  in 
Queensland  and  New  South  Wales,  and  a  strike 
of  much  longer  duration  took  place.  At  the  end 
of  1890  the  various  pastoralist  unions  became 
federated,  and  drew  up  an  agreement,  which 
was  rejected  by  the  shearers'  unions  in  January, 
1891.  The  pastoralists,  in  consequence,  pro- 
cured free  labor,  and  the  Queensland  shearers 
went  on  strike  for  a  period  of  five  months.  In 
June  the  Shearers'  Union  of  New  South  Wales 
refused  to  accept  the  pastoralists'  agreement, 
and  resolved  by  ballot  to  take  no  part  in  shear- 
ing unless  the  employers  would  consent  to  dis- 
pense with  free  labor.  This  the  employers  re- 
fused. Victoria  remained  unaffected  by  the 
strike,  and  in  South  Australia  a  conference  was 
called  between  the  two  unions,  which  decided  to 
allow  the  use  of  free  labor.  In  Queensland  the 
shearers  were  enabled  to  hold  out  for  five  months 
by  establishing  free  camps  in  the  bush,  where 
the  men  on  strike  could  be  maintained  at  the 
minimum  of  cost.  Their  funds  were  augmented 
by  contributions  from  other  districts  and  colo- 
nies, especially  from  South  Australia.  No 
measures  were  left  untried  to  prevent  the  im- 
portation of  free  labor  from  Victoria.  "  Obsta- 
cles were  placed  in  the  way  of  trains,  bridges 
were  weakened,  armed  mobs  of  men  traveled 
about  the  country  burning  and  destroying  the 
property  of  the  pastoralists. "  It  was  soon  found 
necessary  to  call  out  the  volunteers,  and  to  draft 
troops  and  police  to  the  disturbed  districts  to 
protect  laborers  on  their  way  to  work  against 
the  unionist  patrols  who  watched  the  borders  of 
Queensland  and  New  South  Wales,  and  to  se- 
cure the  property  of  the  pastoralists. 

Armed  resistance  to  the  government  was  ad- 
vocated as  preliminary  to  a  general  revolution 
throughout  Australasia,  and  attempts  were 
made  to  bring  the  railway  servants  and  even 
the  military  over  to  the  side  of  the  strikers. 
Throughout  March,  April,  May,  and  June  ar- 
rests were  frequent.  Meanwhile,  shearing  was 
carried  on  by  means  of  free  labor,  and  since  the 
strike  could  not  accomplish  its  objects  and  funds 
•were  exhausted,  it  was  declared  off  on  June  15. 
In  New  South  Wales,  where  the  shearing  season 
falls  later,  many  attempts  were  made  to  prevent 
the  employment  of  free  labor,  but  in  spite  of  in- 


timidation and  violence  men  were  dispatched 
from  Sydney  and  Melbourne,  and  the  work  was 
accomplished.  The  pastoralists,  in  their  official 
statement,  state  their  opinion  that  the  failure  of 
the  strike  shows  clearly  that  unionism  cannot 
overcome  federation  on  the  part  of  employers. 

Such  is  an  account  of  these  strikes,  abridged 
from  the  account  in  the  report  of  the  English 
Royal  Commission  on  Labor  for  Australia.  It 
was  the  failure  of  these  strikes  that  crystallized 
the  Australian  political  labor  movement.  The 
movement  began  in  New  South  Wales. 

Previously  there  had  been  a  few  working  men 
elected  as  trade-unionists,  but  none  on  a  dis- 
tinctively labor  platform.     A  great  impetus  was 
given' to  the  movement  by  the  vivid 
and  eloquent  speeches  of  the  dis- 
tinguished Radical, "  the  great  Pro-       Labor 
Consul, ' '  George  Grey,  ex-Governor     Parties. 
of  New  Zealand,  South  Australia, 
and  South  Africa.     Although  near- 
ly 80  years  old  his  speeches  drew  great  crowds 
and  excited  wide  influence  for  labor.     A  minis- 
terial crisis  came  unexpectedly  in  May,  before 
the  party  was  ready  ;  yet  with  little  organization 
and  less  money  the  Labor  Party  succeeded  in 
electing  in  June  no  less  than  37  members  to  Par- 
liament.    For  the  37  Labor  members  returned 
no  fewer  than  75,765  votes  were  cast,  the  total 
polling  for  all  Labor  candidates  being  103,787  ; 
for  the  49  Ministerialists  returned,  90,349  votes 
were    cast ;  for    the   50    Oppositionists,   65,539 
votes ;  for  5  Independents,  8849  votes.     It  will 
thus  be  seen  that  a  great  many  more  votes  were 
cast  for  the  37  Labor  members  than  for  the  50 
Oppositionists.     Since  then  the  growth  of  the 
party  has  been  steady.     To-day,  although  de- 
tails of  the  last  elections  are  not  available,  the 
Labor  Party  nominates  candidates  for  every 
vacancy.     In  New  South  Wales  the  socialists 
vote  with  the  Labor  Party.     The  six  points  of 
their  fighting  platform  run  as  follows  : 

1.  Land  value  taxation. 

2.  Mining  on  private  property. 

3.  Abolition  of  the  Upper  House. 

4.  Local  government  ou  a  democratic  basis. 

5.  National  bank,  with  sole  right  of  issue. 

6.  Legislative  limitation  of  the  working  day 
to  eight  hours. 

South  Australia  has  not  been  so  progressive 
in  independent  labor  politics,  but  the  first  10 
candidates  a  Labor  Party  has  nominated  there 
were  all  elected.  South  Australia,  being  more 
largely  agricultural  than  the  other  colonies,  has 
perhaps  in  its  more  scattered  population  the  rea- 
son why  its  labor  movement  is  less  organized 
than  in  New  South  Wales.  What  political  suc- 
cess it  has  gained  is  due  to  the  fact  that  alone 
among  the  Australian  colonies  (New  Zealand 
not  included)  it  has  manhood  suffrage  for  elec- 
tions to  the  Lower  House,  with  the  slight  prop- 
erty qualification  for  suffrage  on  elections  to 
the  Upper  House.  The  result  is  the  10  Labor 
members  of  the  Lower  House  above  referred  to, 
elected  in  1893,  and  four  or  five  members  in  the 
Upper  House.  All  political  parties,  however,  in 
South  Australia  bid  for  the  Labor  vote,  and  the 
Ministry  is  so  far  in  favor  with  Labor  measures 
that  it  has  been  called  a  Coalition  Ministry. 

Victoria  has  done  still  less  in  the  development 
of  a  distinct  Labor  Party.  "  Laggard  Victoria" 


Australia  and  Social  Reform. 


106 


Australia  and  Social  Reform. 


the  Australian  socialists  call  the  colony.  There 
is,  however,  there  something  of  a  Democratic- 
socialist  movement  which  has  elected  five  social- 
ist members  to  Parliament. 

Queensland  is  marked  in  social  reform  as  hav- 
ing the  most  uncompromising  and  revolution- 
ary, tho  not  the  largest  socialistic  Labor  Party 
in  Australia.  There  are  16  Labor  members  in 
the  Assembly,  and  they  are  influential  out  of 
proportion  to  their  number. 

The  Australian  socialists  assert  that  "  the 
great  bugbear  to  progress  is  the  Upper  House, 
or  Legislative  Council,  as  it  is  called.  This  body 
is  based  on  the  lines  of  the  House  of  Lords  in 
England.  Its  members  are  nominated  for  life 
by  the  ministry  in  power  with  the  approval  of 
the  governor,  who  as  viceregal  representative 
has  power  of  veto  over  all  bills,  while  an  actual 
change  in  the  constitution  itself  requires  the 
Queen's  sanction." 

Political  reform,  however,  has  had  consider- 
able development  in  Australia.  (See  AUSTRALIAN 
BALLOT  SYSTEM  ;  also,  for  the  Australian  system 
of  land  registration,  see  TORRENS.)  There  has 
been  considerable  agitation  in  Aus- 
tralia for  proportional  representa- 
Political  Ee-tion,  but  as  yet  with  slight  results. 
form.  Currency  reform  has  its  various  ad- 
vocates in  Australia,  and  especially 
bimetallists  and  others  who  declare 
that  the  great  Southern  Continent,  like  the  rest 
of  the  world,  has  suffered  from  the  appreciation 
of  gold.  Yet  little  of  importance  has  been  ac- 
complished in  the  way  of  reform.  For  good  or 
for  evil,  Australian  finance  is  still  ruled  by  Eng- 
lish gold.  Free  trade  and  protection  have 
played  a  large  part  in  Australian  politics. 

Says  an  Australian  socialist : 

"  In  the  Australian  colonies  the  chief  line  of 
party  denunciation  is  the  fiscal  issue.  Either 
free  trade  or  protection  claimed  each  member  of 
the  Legislature  as  its  victim.  It  was  only  when 
labor  came  upon  the  scene  that  a  party  rose 
pledged  to '  sink  '  the  fiscal  issue  as  being  of  sec- 
ondary importance  to  the  great  mass  of  people. 
Land  reforms,  and  especially  the  single  tax  idea, 
have,  as  already  stated,  considerable  hold  in 
Australia,  tho  not  at  all  the  hold  that  they 
have  in  New  Zealand.  In  Australia,  South 
Australia  leads  in  this.  The  peculiar  social  re- 
form characteristics  of  South  Australia,  and  es- 
pecially its  favorable  attitude  to  land  taxation, 
are  probably  due  to  the  fact  that  it  was  colonized 
under  the  auspices  of  a  company  called  the 
South  Australian  Colonization  Association,  and 
largely  under  the  influence  of  idealists.  One  of 
the  conditions  was  that  the  land  should  not  be 
sold  for  less  than  £i  per  acre,  and  that  the  rev- 
enue thus  arising  should  be  used  for  the  immi- 
gration of  agricultural  laborers  and  the  construc- 
tion of  public  works.  Adelaide  preserves  the 
memory  of  this  association  in  the  naming  of 
some  of  its  streets  for  Mill,  Hare,  etc." 

The  single  tax  idea  was  much  helped  in  Aus- 
tralia by  a  visit  from  Henry  George  in  1890. 

One  point  in  Australia  is  of  special  interest. 
It  is  said  that  ' '  Australia  is  a  continent  without 
an  orphanage,  a  country  without  an  orphan. 
Each  waif  is  taken  to  a  receiving-house,  where 
it  is  cared  for  until  a  country  home  is  found. 
The  local  volunteer  societies  canvass  their  neigh- 


borhoods and  send  to  the  Children's  Committee 
of  the  Destitute  Board  the  names  and  circum- 
stances of  such  families  as  they  have  found 
where  children  may  be  placed.  The  Children's 
Committee  selects  that  home  which  it  judges  is 
best  adapted  to  the  development  and  care  of  the 
child  in  question.  No  child  is  placed  in  a  family 
so  poor  that  the  child  might  suffer  hardship. 
The  foster-parents  receive  a  sum  averaging 
$1.25  per  week  for  the  care  of  the  child,  and  for 
proper  clothing.  When  of  school  age  the  child 
must  be  in  school.  The  local  volunteer  commit- 
tee looks  after  its  care  and  culture,  and  zealous 
neighbors  often  assist  in  watching  the  growth 
and  education  of  these  happy  children.  When 
the  child  is  14  years  old  he  begins  to  work.  His 
earnings  are  placed  in  the  postal  savings  bank, 
and  at  17  or  18  he  goes  out  into  the  world  an 
independent  man.  The  State,  at  an  expense  of 
less  than  $70  a  year,  has  raised  a  man  or  woman 
to  contribute  to  its  wealth,  and  prevented  the 
manufacture  of  a  criminal,  and  the  expense  of 
courts,  prisons,  and  reformatories." 

In  Victoria  and  the  other  colonies  there  is  a 
cumulative  voting,  property  owners  being  en- 
titled to  more  than  one  vote.  All  through  Aus- 
tralia, on  the  other  hand,  there  is  a  strong  agi- 
tation for  woman's  suffrage,  it  being  delayed 
mainly  by  the  disagreement  as  to  whether  to 
give  woman's  suffrage  with  an  educational  quali- 
fication or  no.  The  conservative  element  favors 
woman's  suffrage,  with  the  qualification  affixed, 
believing  that  it  will  serve  its  interests. 

One  problem  that  has  vexed  Australia  consid- 
erably is  that  of  the  immigration  and  importa- 
tion of  cheap  labor.     The  importation  of  Chi- 
nese labor  is  more  or  less  common 
to  all  Australia.     According  to  the 
latest  returns,  there  were  41 ,000  Chi-  Cheap  Labor, 
nese  in  Australia  and  New  Zealand, 
engaged  mainly  in  mining,  agricul- 
ture, shopkeeping,  and  furniture-making.     The 
latter  industry  seems  to  have  become  peculiarly 
theirs.     In  Victoria  there  are  9377  Chinese,  2994 
engaged  in  gold-mining,  at   weekly  wages  of 
from  $5  to  $7.50.     The  immigration  of  the  Chi- 
nese, however,  has,  after  an  intense  excitement, 
been  carefully  restricted  in  all  Australia.     The 
naturalization  of  the  Chinese  is  forbidden  ;  in 
New  South  Wales  ^100  must  be  paid  for  every 
Chinaman  landed  ;  in  Queensland  ^500  must  be 
paid,  unless  the  Chinaman  has  a  special  permit. 

Kanaka  labor  has  been  another  "  burning 
question."  Particularly  has  the  introduction  of 
Kanaka  labor  been  a  source  of  grievance  to  the 
trade-unions  of  Queensland.  The  Kanakas  have 
been  introduced  mainly  to  work  on  the  sugar 
plantations.  The  claim  has  been  that  white 
labor  was  unsuited  to  this  work  in  this  climate, 
while  it  was  a  good  thing  for  the  Kanakas,  they 
going  back  to  their  Pacific  island  to  carry  home 
the  benefits  of  civilization.  On  the  other  hand, 
the  trade-unionists  have  asserted  that  this  was 
simply  an  excuse  to  get  cheap  labor,  that  the  im- 
portation of  the  Kanakas  was  simply  a  slave 
traffic,  the  Kanakas  being  decoyed  from  their 
island  by  the  promise  of  fi re  -water  and  being 
abused  on  the  voyage,  as  in  the  horrors  of  the 
old  slave  ship.  There  is  probably  some  exag- 
geration in  this,  but  that  the  system  is  simply  a 
way  to  get  cheap  labor  there  can  be  no  question. 


Australia  and  Social  Reform. 


107 


Australia  and  Social  Reform. 


It  was  proposed  at  one  time  to  introduce  coolies 
from  India  into  Queensland,  as  was  done  into 
South  Australia  in  1882,  but  the  Indian  Govern- 
ment would  not  allow  the  coolies  to  be  imported 
to  work  in  the  mines,  and  the  Queensland  plant- 
ers preferred  Kanakas  that  had  no  government 
to  protect  them.  Finally,  however,  mainly  from 
the  agitation  of  the  trade-unions  and  the  Labor 
Party,  aided  in  part  by  the  British  and  Foreign 
Anti-Slavery  Society,  after  a  struggle  of  20  years 
Kanaka  labor  has  become  so  strictly  controlled 
as  to  be  practically  ended.  In  Queensland  the 
latest  victory  of  the  Labor  Party  along  this  line 
has  been  to  compel  the  government  to  turn  the 
Kanakas  out  of  the  mail  steamships  of  the  Brit- 
ish-India Company  and  to  make  the  company 
carry  Europeans  in  their  place.  Such  are  the 
main  developments  of  social  reform  in  Australia 
apart  from  State  socialism.  To  this,  however, 
we  must  give  especial  attention.  The  following 
account  of  Australian  railroads  is  abridged  from 
the  United  States  Consular  Report  for  August, 
1894,  by  Daniel  W.  Maratta,  consul-general  at 
Melbourne.  He  says  : 

"By  way  of  showing,  comparatively,  the  progress  of 

railways  in  Australia,  it  may  be  remarked  that  here 

there  is  one  mile  of  railway  to  each  344  inhabitants,  as 

against  1888  in  Great  Britain,  and  350  in 

the  United  States. 

Railroads  "The  aggregate  of  the  national  debt 
of  the  colonies  would  appear  to  be  dis- 
proportionate when  compared  with  the 
limited  population  of  Australia,  and 
complaints  have  frequently  been  made  in  the  English 
press  that  the  colonies  are  unmindful  of  the  festina 
lente,  and  all  the  good  advice  that  convenient  adage  is 
supposed  to  infer.  The  adverse  criticism  has  not,  how- 
ever, up  to  the  present  had  a  shadow  of  justification. 
Let  it  be  remembered  that  the  money  borrowed  has 
not  been  sunk  in  undertakings  which  will  give  no  re- 
turn, but  has  been  expended  in  works  which  are  pro- 
ductive, yielding  a  direct  return  on  the  capital,  and 
representing  a  greater  value  than  the  original  cost ; 
for  instance,  the  New  South  Wales  lines,  costing  about 
.£34,500,000  ($167,879,000),  are  estimated  to  be  worth 
rriore  than  .£40,000,000  ($194,640,000).  Further,  the  money 
has  been  spent  in  developing  large  resources,  which 
add  to  the  wealth  of  the  colonies.  It  is  wise  to  empha- 
size this  point,  as  it  seems  to  have  been  overlooked  to 
a  large  extent.  In  Europe  the  national  debts  of  the 
various  countries  have  been  incurred  principally 
through  the  expenses  of  prolonged  wars,  and  the 
money  has  gone  beyond  recovery  ;  but  in  these  colonies 
the  expenditure  is'represented  by  public  works,  which 
are  more  valuable  than  the  entire  national  debt,  and 
pay  a  direct  return,  in  some  cases,  equal  to  the  interest 
due  upon  the  capital  invested.  .  .  . 

"  The  railways  in  all  the  colonies,  with  the  exception 
of  one  or  two  lines,  belong  to  the  State.  In  New  South 
Wales,  the  first  railways  were  projected  as  far  back  as 
1846,  and  a  few  years  afterward  a  company — the  Sydney 
Tram  and  Railways  Company— was  formed.  The 
company  undertook  the  construction  of  a  line  from 
Sydney  to  Parramatta,  a  distance  of  14  miles  ;  but  as 
the  capital  became  absorbed  before  the  work  was 
completed,  the  company  was  unable  to  carry  on  oper- 
ations, and  in  the  end  the  Government  had  to  take 
the  line,  which  was  finished  on  September  26,  1855. 

"A  company  also  contemplated  constructing  a  line 
from  Newcastle  to  Maitland,  but  was  unable  to  sur- 
mount the  preliminary  difficulties. 

"  There  are  in  New  South  Wales  two  important 
public  lines  constructed  and  maintained  by  private 
companies :  (i)  the  railway  between  Denihquin,  in 
Riverina,  and  Moama,  on  the  Murray  River,  4=;  miles 
in  length  ;  (2)  a  private  line  between  "Broken  Hill,  Sil- 
verton,  and  the  South  Australian  border  (35  miles), 
connecting  with  the  South  Australian  lines,  which, 
owing  to  the  large  traffic  done  with  the  Broken  Hill 
mines,  has  been  a  financial  success. 

"  There  is  a  considerable  number  of  private  minor 
lines,  principally  running  to  coal  mines.  In  the  New- 
castle district  there  are  200  miles  of  private  lines 
almost  entirely  used  for  the  coal  traffic. 

"  In  Victoria,  the  railways  are  under  State  control, 
altho  they  were  initiated  by  private  enterprise.  By 


March,  1853,  three  companies  had  been  incorporated 
and  secured  extraordinary  concessions  in  the  shape  of 
land  and  guaranteed  interest.  The  Melbourne  and 
Murray  River  Company  was  forced  to  sell  to  the  gov- 
ernment in  1855,  before  any  of  their  lines  had  been 
opened  for  traffic.  The  Geelong-Melbourne  Company 
followed  the  same  course  in  1860,  and  only  the  Hobson  s 
Bay  Railway  Company  held  its  own  for  some  years, 
but  in  1878  it  sold  its  interests  to  the  government  for 
the  sum  of  .£1,320,800. 

"  The  system  of  placing  the  railways  under  the  man- 
agement of  commissioners,  and  practically  separating 
them  from  political  control,  has  been  adopted  in  the 
four  principal  colonies,  and,  as  already  stated,  experi- 
ence is  proving  that  the  change  has  been  a  very  wise 
one. 

"In  Western  Australia  railway  construction  is  in 
its  infancy.  There  are  204  miles  of  line  constructed 
and  managed  by  the  Government,  and,  in  addition, 
about  453  miles  of  lines  are  owned  by  private  com- 
panies. The  first  line  was  opened  as  recently  as  July, 
1876,  and  latterly  much  progress  has  been  shown,  the 
land-grant  system  having  to  some  extent  been  adopted. 

"In  Queensland,  the  railways  are  owned  by  the 
State,  the  first  line  having  been  opened  in  July, 
1865.  .  .  . 

"  The  railways  of  the  colonies  have  been  compara- 
tively free  from  terrible  accidents.  During  the  period 
1892-93  there  were  no  fatal  accidents  upon  New  South 
Wales  railways  to  passengers  from  causes  _  beyond 
their  own  control,  and  the  proportion  of  injuries  to 
passengers  was  0.4  per  1,000,000.  .  .  ." 

But  this  is  not  a  complete  view  of  Australian 
State  socialism.  It  may  be  supplemented  by 
the  following  quotations  from  Sir  Charles  Dilke's 
Problems  of  Greater  Britain  : 

"  The  railways  are  used  for  the  spread  of  education, 
and  in  New  South  Wales  and  some  other  colonies  the 
school  children  are  carried  free  of  charge.  In  Victoria 
remissions  of  fares  are  made  in  the  case  of  students  in 
the  schools  of  mines  and  in  the  schools  of  design. 
Specially  low  rates  exist  in  all  the  colonies  for  suburban 
traffic.  The  fares  in  the  neighborhood  of  Melbourne, 
for  a  district  nearly  30  miles  across,  are,  for  single 
journeys,  id.  a  mile,  first-class,  and  y±a.  a  mile  second- 
class  ;  and  return  tickets  are  given  at  %d.  a  mile,  first- 
class,  and  %d.  a  mile  second-class ;  while  monthly, 
quarterly,  half-yearly,  and  yearly  tickets  are  granted 
at  great  reductions  even  upon  these  low  rates.  Tne 
result  is  a  wonderful  spread  of  suburban  railroad 
traveling,  and  the  custom  in  Victoria  is  so  developed 
that  out  of  the  large  number  of  persons  working  in 
Melbourne  who  come  in  by  train  every  day,  a  con- 
siderable proportion  come  to  the  town  a  second  time 
in  the  evening  to  visit  the  theaters.  The  lowness  of 
railway  fares  in  Victoria  is  the  more  striking  when  we 
remember  that  wages  are  twice  as  high  for  shorter 
hours  as  they  are  in  England,  and  that  coal  costs 
nearly  twice  as  much.  No  one  in  Victoria  now  advo- 
cates private  ownership  of  railways  (p.  198). 

"  Not  only  have  the  State  railways  of  Victoria  been 
placed  under  non-political  management,  but  this  has 
been  the  case  with  the  public  departments  generally. 
The  commissioners  appointed  to  free  the  public  ser- 
vice from  the  former  incubus  of  political  patronage 
are  as  well  paid  as  the  judges,  and  as  free  from  pres- 
sure of  any  kind.  The  Civil  Service  Commissioners 
of  Victoria,  who  are  three  in  number,  began  their 
work  some  five  years  ago  by  visiting  every  place  in 
the  colony  where  public  officers  were  stationed,  learn- 
ing the  nature  of  their  duties,  determining  their  rela- 
tive importance,  and  classifying  the  officers  accord- 
ingly. Salaries  were  systematized  and  made  uniform 
in  all  departments,  and  appointments  and  promotions 
are  now  determined  by  the  board  (pp.  199-200). 

"  The  principle  of  Government  cooperation  with  local- 
ities has  been  carried  into  a  large  number  of  different 
fields  in  the  colony  of  Victoria  :  tramways,  for  exam- 
ple, are  constructed  by  municipalities  on  Government 
loans,  the  State  borrowing  money  for  the  municipal- 
ities on  the  best  terms  which  the  colony  can  command 
in  the  market,  but  the  municipalities  ultimately  be- 
coming the  owners  of  the  lines  (p.  203). 

"  In  Victoria  the  municipalities  will  become  the  own- 
ers of  the  tramway  lines  without  purchase  and  with- 
out payment.  The  tramway  companies,  in  the  mean 
time,  are  forced  to  repair  the  adjoining  roads,  and  the 
municipalities  have  not  merely  the  reversion  of  the 
lines  themselves,  but  in  Melbourne  alone  have  ob- 
tained from  the  companies  nearly  40  miles  of  excellent 
wood  pavement,  while  the  companies  are  paying  a 
large  dividend  upon  their  shares  (p.  203). 


Australia  and  Social  Reform- 


108 


Australian  Ballot  System. 


Socialism. 


""But  the  most  notable  instance  in  Victoria  of  the 
characteristically  Victorian  effort  to  unite  central  ac- 
tion with  local  knowledge  and  local  control  is  seen  in 
the  irrigation  system,  which  will  change  the  whole 
physical  aspect  of  the  country,  as  well  as  affect  its 
political  future  (p.  204)." 

So  far,  Mr.  Dilke.     It  must  be  remembered, 

however,  that  there  is  another  side. 

_  .      State  socialism  is  not  socialism,  and 

Unfavorable  gtate    socialism    in    Australia  has 

A  f^r  many  blots.  Perhaps  the  best  state- 
>aan  ment  of  the  unfavorable  view  is  the 
chapter  on  State  Socialism  in  the 
Antipodes,  by  Charles  Fairfield,  in 
A  Plea  for  Liberty.  Among  other  things,  Mr. 
Fairfield  says  : 

**  During  the  last  20  years  professional  office-holders, 
paid  legislators,  half-educated  dreamers  and  enthusi- 
asts In  Australasia  have  attempted  to  satisfy  these 
new  and  vague  longings  ;  to  enact  the  part  of  a  State 
socialistic  *  stage  uncle  '  toward  the  Democracy  there, 
but  have  never  had  sufficient  thoroughness  or  daring 
to  carry  out  socialistic  or  collectivist  maxims  and 
theories  of  government  and  society,  maxims  and 
theories  which,  at  all  events,  are  consistent,  precise, 
and  of  logical  obligation,  if  once  we  grant  the  social- 
ist's premises.  State  socialism  in  the  Antipodes  has 
therefore  been  a  hybrid  affair — the  tentative  experi- 
ment of  men  who  hoped  to  do  partly,  and  without 
commrttrng  themselves  too  far,  what  thoughtful  so- 
cialists and  collectivists  tell  us  they  can  do  completely, 
if  we  -will  only  give  them  a  free  hand.  Experiments 
in  cryptosocialism,  tried  upon  a  society  at  base  free, 
commercial,  modern,  English,  would  long  ago  have 
broken  down  on  the  financial  side,  had  it  not  been  that 
the  legendary  repute  of  those  lands  for  natural  wealth, 
*uch  as  gold,  wool,  a  fruitful  soil,  and  a  fine  climate, 
has  tempted  investors  in  Europe  to  fling  their  money 
At  the  heads  of  Australasian  borrowers.  Latterly,  as 
the  frightful  cost  and  necessarily  unproductive  results 
of  State  socialism  became  apparent  to  colonial  minis- 
ters, they  have,  to  prevent  a  collapse  of  the  whole 
thing,  been  driven  to  apply  for  ever-recurring  loans 
in  Europe  on  false  pretenses.  .  .  .  (153).  The  truth 
is,  'that  nothing  definite  can  be  known  about  the 
finances  of  the  Australasian  colonies. 

"  State  socialism  there  dares  not  present  a  genuine 
balance  sheet.  As  may.  also  be  said  of  the  French  Re- 
public at  this  day,  there  is  in  Australasia  no  system  of 
public  accounts  similar  to  that  which  prevails  in  Down- 
ing Street.  In  Victoria,  New  South  Wales,  Queens- 
land, South  Australia,  and  New  Zealand  the  control 
of  expenditure  by  local  parliaments  is  really  very  weak. 
No  attempt  has  been  made  to  introduce  the  imperial 
system  ofsimple,  methodical,  and  exact  account  keep- 
ing. Audit  or  check  upon  public  expenditure  is  loose 
and  ineffective  in  all  the  colonies. 

"  If  we  in  England  really  understand  the  system  of 
book-keeping,  and  the  object  on  which  debts  are  spent 
in  Victoria,  we  know  more  than  the  colonists  them- 
selves know.  .  .  . 

"  Meanwhile,  for  years  past  reports  of  imaginary 
surpluses,  as  well  as  misleading  and  worthless  '  official' 
statistics,  have  been  circulated  in  the  Australasian 
colonies,  and  have  been  carelessly  reproduced  here. 
The  statement  is  constantly  put  forward,  for  example, 
that  the  Victorian  State  railways,  which  are  supposed 
to  represent  an  expenditure  on  productive  public 
works  of  the  bulk  of  the  money  borrowed  by  that 
colony  since  1865,  honestly  earn  a  surplus  in  excess  of 
the  interest  on  their  cost.  That  statement  is  not  and 
never  has  been  true.  The  memorandum  from  the 
Railway  Commissioners  read  with  the  budget  state- 
ment in  the  Victorian  Assembly  on  July  31,  1890,  at  last 
frankly  admits  that  the  earnings  of  the  State  rail- 
waysiell  short  of  the  accruing  interest  for  the  year  by 
more  than  £220,000."  .  .  .  (155). 

References  :  Among  the  best  b9oks  on  Australia  are 
Blair's  Cyclopedia  of  Australasia  (1881) ;  The  States- 
man's Year  Book;  various  Australian  statistical  re- 
ports and  blue  books ;  Westgarth's  Half  a  Century  of 
Australian  Progress  (1889) :  Tregarthen's  Australian 
Commonwealth  (1893) ;  The  Report  on  Australia  of  the 
(British)  Royal  Commission  on  Labor  (vol.  ii.,  1893) ; 
Sir  Charles  Dilke's  Problems  of  Greater  Britain.  For 
the  unfavorable  view  of  so-called  Australian  socialism, 
see  Charles  Fairfield's  chapter  on  Socialism  in  the  An- 
tipodes, in  A  Plea  for  Liber tv.  The  Journal  of  the  De- 
partment of  Labor  of  the  New  Zealand  Government, 


a  monthly  (2d),  published  by  the  Government  printer, 
S.  Cpstall,  Wellington,  N.  Z.,  gives  considerable  infor- 
mation about  Australia. 

AUSTRALIAN    BALLOT    SYSTEM.— 

The  Australian  ballot  system  was  introduced 
into  the  United  States  in  1888.  The  purpose  of 
this  system  is  to  secure  secrecy  of  the  ballot  and 
prevent  partisans  from  intimidating  and  cor- 
rupting voters.  It  was  adopted  first  by  the  State 
of  Massachusetts  and  the  city  of  Louisville,  Ky. 
The  so-called  Saxton  Bill,  which  passed  the  New 
York  Legislature  in  1888  and  1889,  embodied  the 
principle  of  this  system,  but  it  was  declared  un- 
constitutional, and  vetoed  by  Governor  Hill.  By 
his  advice  a  reformed  ballot  bill  was  introduced 
in  the  Legislature  in  1889,  but  was  not  passed. 
In  the  following  year  a  compromise  of  the  Hill 
and  Saxton  bills  resulted  in  another  bill,  which 
was  successful,  and  which  was  amended  in  1891. 

In  1889  the  Legislatures  of  several  States  fol- 
lowed the  lead  of  Massachusetts,  and  passed 
laws  adopting  this  system  of  voting.  These 
States,  in  the  order  given,  were  as  follows  :  In- 
diana, Montana,  Rhode  Island,  Wisconsin,  Ten- 
nessee, Minnesota,  Missouri,.  Michigan,  and  Con- 
necticut. These  laws  were  similar  to  that  of 
Massachusetts,  with  the  exception  of  that  of 
Connecticut,  which  differed  considerably  from 
it.  In  1890  laws  were  passed  by  the  Legisla- 
tures of  Washington,  New  York,  Maryland, 
New  Jersey,  and  Vermont,  which  were  more  or 
less  modifications  of  the  Australian  system. 

In  1891  laws  founded  upon  the  Australian- 
system  were  adopted  by  the  Legislatures  of 
the  States  of  Arkansas,  California,  Colorado, 
Delaware,  Idaho,  Illinois,  Maine,  Nebraska, 
Nevada,  New  Hampshire,  North  Dakota,  Ohio, 
Oregon,  South  Dakota,  West  Virginia,  and  the 
Territory  of  Arizona  ;  and  in  1892  Iowa  and 
Mississippi  followed  suit.  Thus  there  are  (1895) 
but  10  States  and  Territories  which  have  not 
adopted  this  method.  These  are  Alabama,  Flor- 
ida, Georgia,  Kansas,  Louisiana,  North  Caro- 
lina, South  Carolina,  Virginia,  and  the  Territo- 
ries of  New  Mexico  and  Utah.  A  reformed  bal- 
lot bill  passed  one  branch  of  the  Kansas  Legis- 
lature. 

The  distinctive  feature  of  this  system  is  that 
the  names  of  all  the  candidates  are  placed  on  one 
ticket,  and  the  names  of  all  for  whom  the  citizen 
does  not  wish  to  vote  are  crossed  off  by  a  blue 
pencil,  provided  by  the  authorities.  Directions 
are  given  on  each  ticket,  clearly  printed  in  red 
ink,  as  to  how  many  candidates  must  be  voted 
for.  If  one  votes  for  more  than  the  limited  num- 
ber of  candidates  his  vote  is  irregular. 

In  New  York  and  New  Jersey  the  laws  require 
that  each  party  ticket  be  printed  on  a  separate 
ballot,  and  therefore  no  marking  is  required  for 
straight  voting.  In  New  York  the  paster  ballot 
is  permitted,  for  the  benefit  mainly,  it  is  claimed, 
of  the  blind  and  the  illiterate.  In  all  the  other 
States  which  have  adopted  this  system  the  sin- 
gle ballot  is  used.  The  names  of  all  the  candi- 
dates are  printed  on  one  sheet,  and  the  voter  in- 
dicates his  choice  by  marking.  There  are  two 
ways  of  grouping  the  names  of  the  candidates. 
In  the  Australian  plan  the  titles  of  the  offices  are 
alphabetically  arranged,  the  names  of  the  can- 
didates being  attached,  and  also  usually  their 
party  connection. 


Austria  and  Social  Reform. 


109 


Austria  and  Social  Reform. 


AUSTRIA  AND   SOCIAL  REFORM.— 

Austria,  or  Austria-Hungary,  its  present  politi- 
cal name,  grew  up  from  the  small  margraviate 
Austria  (German  :  Ostreich,  Oesterreich — i.e., 
the  Eastern  Country)  founded  by  Charlemagne 
in  the  eighth  century,  and  raised  to  a  duchy  by 
Emperor  Frederic  I.  in  the  twelfth  century,  the 
crown  of  which  is  hereditary  since  1282  in  the 
family  of  the  Habsburgs  (their  name  deriving 
from  the  Habichtsburg  or  hawk  castle  in  Swit- 
zerland) and  since  1780  in  the  branch  of  Habs- 
burg-Lorraine.  It  embraces  now  the  kingdoms 
of  Hungary,  Bohemia,  Galicia,  Dalmatia,.  and 
Croatia-Slavonia  ;  the  archduchies  of  lower  and 
upper  Austria ;  the  duchies  of  Salzburg,  Styria, 
Carinthia,  Carniola,  Silesia,  and  Bukovina  ;  the 
principalities  of  Transylvania,  Tyrols,  and  Vo- 
rarlberg  ;  the  margraviates  of  Moravia  and.  Is- 
tria  ;  and  the  counties  of  Goerz  and  Gradisca. 
(The  Turkish  provinces  of  Bosnia  and  Herzego- 
vina, occupied  after  the  suppression  of  the  mu- 
tiny of  1878,  have  been  since  under  the  admin- 
istration of  Austria-Hungary,  but  are  not  yet 
formally  incorporated  with  it.) 

I.  STATISTICS  AND  HISTORY. 

Austria  has  an  area  of  240,943  square  miles,  and,  ac- 
cording to  the  estimates  of  the  census  of  December  31, 
1890,  a  population  of  43,000,000.  With  regard  to  nation- 
ality it  consists  of  11,000,000  Germans, 
7,000,000  Magyars,  7,000,000  Czechs  (Bo- 
hemian,  Moravian,  and  Slovak),  5,000,000 
RUthenians,  4,000,000  Poles,  3,000,000 
Serbs  and  Croats,  3,000,000  Roumanians, 
2,000,000  Slovens,  and  1,000,000  Italians. 
With  regard  to  religious  belief  there  are  27,000,000 
Roman  Catholics,  5,000,000  Greek  Catholics,  4,000,000 
Protestants,  4,000,000  Byzantine  Greeks,  2,000,000  Jews, 
and  1,000,000  Armenian  Catholics,  Unitarians,  and  non- 
Christians.  With  regard  to  occupation  the  population 
consists  of  12,000,000  farmers  and  farm  hands,  4,000,000 
manufacturers,  2,500,000  day  laborers,  1,500,000  house 
servants,  1,000,000  commercial  people,  400,000  proprie- 
tors, pensioners,  and  rentiers,  280,000  active  soldiers, 
2oo^x)o  miners  and  smelters,  150,000  professors,  artists, 
and  authors,  100,000  teachers,  100,000  lower  government 
servants,  00,000  government  officials,  60,000  ecclesiastics, 
23,000,000  family  members,  and  a  remainder  of  700,000  of 
various  or  unknown  occupations. 

These  statistics  show  the  very  great  diversity 
of  race,  language,  religion,  and  condition  which 
prevail  in  the  empire,  and  an  understanding  of 
which,  in  part  at  least,  is  necessary  to  under- 
standing the  social  problems  and  conditions  of 
the  empire.  Says  the  Report  on  Austria  of  the 
(English)  Royal  Commission  on  Labor  : 

"  The  modern  history  of  Austria  is  a  history  of  ter- 
ritorial contraction  combined  with  a  process  of  polit- 
ical consolidation,  resulting  in  the  increased  force  that 
comes    from    a  concentration  of   energy.    The  wars 
•which  preceded  the  downfall  of  the  Napoleonic  des- 
potism, and  the  reactionary  and  autocratic  policy  of 
the  Emperor  Francis  and  his  minister  Prince  Metter- 
nich  make  the  history  of  the  earlier  years  of  the  cen- 
tury comparatively  unimportant    from  an  economic 
point  of  view.    It  was  only  with  the  '  great  uprising ' 
of  1848  and  the  accession  of  the  present  emperor  that 
social  questions  were  once  more  brought  prominently 
forward  ;  and  though,  when  the  fear  of  revolution  had 
passed  away,  the  promises  made  under 
the  immediate  pressure  of  danger  were 
History.      f°r  the  most  part  forgotten,  the  inter- 
ests of  the  working  classes   and  their 
claims  to  consideration  were  never  again 
entirely  neglected,  and,  as  Professor  Bryce  has  said  of 
Germany,  'after  the  first  reaction  had  spent  itself  .  .  . 
a  real  though  slow  progress  toward  free  constitutional 
life '  may  be  observed.  .  .  . 

"  When  the  Emperor  Francis  Joseph  began  to  reign, 
the  popular  movement  of  1848  was  at  its  height  in  his 
dominions.  The  revolt  and  reconquest  of  Vienna  and 
the  national  risings  in  Italy,  Bohemia,  Croatia,  and 


Hungary  immediately  preceded  his  accession  to  the 
throne  left  vacant  by  the  abdication  of  Ferdinand  II. 
The  declaration  of  Hungarian  independence  and  the 
prompt  suppression  of  the  Magyar  patriots,  with  Rus- 
sia's help,  the  reconquest  of  Northern  Italy,  and  the 
abrogation  of  the  constitution  granted  to  Austria  in 
1849  followed  closely  on  his  acceptance  of  the  imperial 
crown.  Then  came  a  period  of  renewed  absolutism, 
when  Austria,  inclose  alliance  with  the  Catholic  party, 
ruled  as  before  over  a  loosely  compacted  mass  of  hetero- 
geneous nationalities  and  acted  as  the  leading  spirit  in 
the  Germanic  Confederation.  The  war  of  Italian  in- 
dependence, however,  and  the  gradual  rise  of  the 
Prussian  power  under  King  William  I.  and  Count  Bis- 
marck completely  changed  the  position  of  affairs. 
The  quarrel  over  Schleswig-  Holstein  and  the  war  be- 
tween Austria  and  Prussia  led  in  1866  to  the  formation 
of  the  North  German  Confederation  and  the  severance 
of  Austria,  '  with  her  German  population  of  7,000,000, ' 
from  the  Germanic  body.  The  nnal  loss  of  Italy  fol- 
lowed, but  a  remnant  of  the  Italian-speaking  popula- 
tion still  remained  in  the  Adriatic  provinces,  and  thus 
Francis  Joseph  was  left  to  rule  an  empire  in  which  the 
German  nucleus  was  almost  overwhelmed  by  alien 
elements — Magyar,  Slav,  Roumanian,  and  Italian — and, 
as  Mr.  Fyffe  puts  it,  '  the  political  life  of  Austria  be- 
came a  series  of  distracting  complications.' 

"  The  period  between  1866  and  Count  Taaffe's  acces- 
sion to  power,  in  1879,  a  time  when  Austria  played  an 
important  part  in  European  politics,  was  also  marked 
by  many,  and,  on  the  whole,  salutary  changes  in  the 
internal  constitution  of  the  empire.  .  .  . 

"  After  the  war  with  Prussia  the  Emperor  assumed  a 
still  more  conciliatory  attitude,  especially  toward 
Hungary.  Count  Belcredi,  the  supporter  of  Federal- 
ism and  of  the  national  aspirations  of  the  Slavs,  was 
dismissed  from  office  in  February,  1867,  and  the  recon- 
ciliation with  the  Magyars  was  finally  cemented  by 
the  coronation  of  Francis  Joseph  as  King  of  Hungary 
(June  8,  1867),  and  the  establishment  of  the  dual  system 
which  still  prevails  in  the  empire. 

"According  to  this  system,  the  kingdoms  and  prov- 
inces which  make  up  the  dual  monarchy  or  empire  of 
Austria- Hungary  are  divided  into  two  groups,  the 
'  Austrian  dominions  '  and  the  '  Hungarian  dominions,' 
united  under  one  dynasty  and  having  certain  specified 
home  and  foreign  affairs  in  common  with  one  another. 
To  Hungary  were  granted  freedom  of  the  press,  equal- 
ity of  all  citizens  before  the  law,  the  right  of  combina- 
tion and  public  meeting,  and  full  religious  toleration, 
while  the  control  of  taxation  and  the  power  of  in- 
creasing the  army  were  intrusted  to  the  representa- 
tives of  the  people  sitting  in  the  Hungarian  Reichstag, 
or  Legislative  Assembly,  and  in  the  Croato-Slavonian 
Diet.  At  the  same  time  Austria  received  a  responsible 
ministry,  acting  in  concert  with  a  bi-cameral  Reichs- 
rath, Special  delegations,  returned  by  the  Austrian 
Reichsrath.  and  the  Hungarian  Reichstag,  were  to 
legislate  for  all  matters  in  which  both  component 
parts  of  the  empire  were  concerned,  while  such  sub- 
jects as  were  not  expressly  reserved  to  the  Reichs- 
rath were  to  be  debated  in  the  provincial  diets.  In 
addition  to  the  Imperial  Ministries  of  Foreign  Affairs, 
War,  and  Finance,  special  departments  were  formed 
for  the  government  of  the  dependencies  represented 
in  the  Reichsrath  and  of  the  dependencies  of  the 
Hungarian  crown.  Subordinate  to  these  departments 
were  the  provincial  authorities,  and  beneath  these 
again  were  the  district  and  communal  authorities. 
There  were  also  commercial  courts  and  various  pro- 
vincial and  district  courts  of  justice,  with  appeals  to 
the  supreme  judicial  courts.  Industrial  questions, 
as  before,  usually  fell  under  the  jurisdiction  of  the 
ordinary  civil  authorities.  The  political  events  which 
followed  the  conclusion  of  the  long  Hungarian  strug- 
gle, the  Franco-Prussian  War,  and  the  consolida- 
tion of  the  German  Empire,  need  hardly  be  touched 
on  here,  since  they  only  indirectly  affected  the  Aus- 
trian labor  question.  More  important  from  an  eco- 
nomic point  of  view  is  Count  Hohenwart's  unsuc- 
cessful attempt  to  reconstitute  the  empire  on  a  '  na- 
tional '  basis,  and  to  place  Galicia  and  Bohemia  in  the 
same  position  as  Hungary  The  separatist  tendencies 
of  Bohemia  were  crushed,  but  the  next  few  years 
(1872-74)  were  marked  by  a  reaction  against  the  influ- 
ence of  the  Papacy,  and  by  the  passing  of  an  Electoral 
Reform  Bill,  which  substituted  the  system  of  direct 
election  of  the  members  of  the  Reichsrath  for  the 
former  system  of  indirect  election  through  the  provin- 
cial diets,  though  it  preserved  the  principle  of  pro- 
portional representation.  The  Eastern  complications, 
which  resulted  in  the  Treaty  of  Berlin  (July  13,  1878), 
brought  an  increase  of  territory  to  Austria  by  the  ces- 
sion of  Bosnia  and  Herzegovina,  and  added  a  new 


Austria  and  Social  Reform. 


Austria  and  Social  Reform. 


element  to  the  intricacy  of  the  internal  relations  with 
which  Count  Taaffe  was  called  on  to  deal  when  he  be- 
came Prime  Minister  in  1879." 

Since  this  event  the  history  of  Austria  has  been 
closely  identified  with  the  social  problems  of  which 
we  treat  in  the  second  portion  of  this  article. 

The  Budget  estimate  for  the  common  affairs  of  the 
monarchy  was,  in  1895,  152,058,203  florins;  the  esti- 
mate of  the  total  expenditure  was  152,058,  of  which 
133,027,338  were  for  the  army  and  navy. 
The  total  debt  of  Austria  in  1893  was 
Finance  and  6,064,006,000  florins,  the  florin  being  about 

n»  50  cents.  The  revenue  of  Austria  proper 

l/ommerce.    £or    lgg3    was    estimated   at   619,105,779 

florins,    110,045,000    from    direct    taxes, 

293,509,632  from  indirect,  123,857,130  from 

railways.   The  expenditure  was  estimated  at  618,694,237 

florins,  4,650,000  for  the  imperial  household,  101,268,120 

for  the  ministry  of  commerce,  158,328,038  for  interest 

and  sinking  fund  on  the  public  debt. 

The  peace  footing  of  the  Austrian  army  is  347,297 
troops,  the  war  footing  1,753,583.  In  case  of  war  the 
number  of  men  who  would  be  obliged  to  serve  in  the 
Landsturm  is  over  4,000,000.  The  navy  consists  of  117 
ships,  ii  armor-clad. 

Austria  is  principally  an  agricultural  State,  her  large 
plains  in  Hungary,  Bohemia,  and  Moravia  producing 
great  quantities  of  surplus  grain,  mostly  exported  to 
Germany  and  Belgium ;  fine  cattle  are  raised  in  her 
mountainous  part,  as  well  as  in  the  "  Pusztas"  (prairies) 
of  Hungary.  Lower  Austria,  with  Vienna,  Bohemia, 
Silesia,  Moravia,  and  Styria,  are  the  great  manufactur- 
ing centers,  and  export  a  great  amount  of  hardware, 
sugar,  glassware,  flour,  woolen  goods,  gloves,  linen 
goods,  and  articles  of  luxury,  as  amber,  meerschaum, 
leather  goods,  etc.  Minerals,  poultry,  fish,  wool, 
and  wine  are  also  produced  and  exported  in  large 
quantities.  Unfortunately  the  profits  of 
all  the  natural  richness  and  the  hard 

Industrv      work  of  the  laboring  classes  go  largely 

J'     into  the  pockets  of  a  few  great  estate 

owners,    manufacturers,    bankers,    and 

trusts.    The  lower  classes  are  overtaxed,   live   very 

poorly,  often  near  starvation,  but  they  are  beginning 

to  be  aroused  by  socialistic  ideas  to  claim  their  share 

cf  the  profits  from  the  real  or  seeming  vampires,  and 

their  malcontentedness  is  directed  principally  against 

the  nobility  and  the  Jews. 

(For  statistics  as  to  the  division  of  the  soil,  see  AGRI- 
CULTURE.) 

The  export  and  import  trade  of  the  Austrian  Empire 
has  developed  notably  during  the  last  two  decades, 
and  the  total  value  of  the  foreign  trade  has  increased 
almost  threefold  since  1853.  It  is  true  that  the  rapid 
increase  between  1879  and  1883  was  followed  by  a 
period  of  comparative  depression,  but  since  the  falling 
off  was  most  marked  in  the  department  of  manufac- 
tured goods,  it  is  probable  that  it  may,  in  part,  at 
least,  be  attributed  to  increased  manufacturing  ac- 
tivity in  Austria  itself. 

The  total  exports  of  Austria,  including  Hungary,  Bos- 
nia, and  Herzegovina,  were,  in  1893,  799,200,000  florins 
and  the  imports  683,200,000.  There  were.  January,  1894, 
18,038  miles  of  railway  in  Austria  and  Hungary,  of 
which  7124  were  owned  and  6138  more  were  worked 
by  the  State.  (For  further  consideration  of  Austrian 
railways,  see  the  second  portion  of  this  article ;  also 
RAILROADS,  AUSTRIA.) 

Austria  had,  in  1891,  18,666  elementary  schools ;  Hun- 
gary, 16,870.  Hungary  has  also  729  institutions  for  the 
care  of  young  children,  89  humanistic  schools,  and  30 
prison  schools.  There  are  in  the  empire  437  middle 
schools,  ii  State  universities,  45  theological  colleges,  7 
Government  technical  high  schools,  1500  special  tech- 
nical schools  (business,  agriculture,  art,  music,  etc.). 

According  to  official  statistics,  86  percent  of  the  chil- 
dren of  school  age  were  attending  school  in  Austria  in 
1891. 

There  are  16  penal  establishments  in  Austria,  and  in 
1890  there  were  29,090  convictions  for  crime  in  Austria, 
5512  convictions  for  less  serious  offenses,  536,301  for 
misdemeanors  ;  in  Hungary,  in  1880,  10,889  for  crime ; 
75,964  for  less  serious  offenses.  In  Austria,  297,915  per- 
sons were  relieved  in  1890,  besides  53,152  persons  re- 
lieved in  poorhouses. 

II.  SOCIAL  REFORM. 

The  history  of  modern  social  reform  in  Austria 
begins  with  the  revolutions  of  184^.  The  years 
previous  to  this  had  been  marked  in  industrial 
evolution  mainly  by  the  decay  of  the  ancient 
guilds  and  the  development  of  modern  ideas. 


The  revolutions  of  1848  witnessed  national  po- 
litical uprisings  in  Vienna,  Italy,  Bohemia,  Cro- 
atia, and  Hungary.  A  constitution  was  granted 
to  Austria,  but  was  soon  abrogated  and  impe- 
rial absolutism  in  close  alliance  with  the  Catho- 
lic power  reigned  supreme.  In  1859,  however, 
an  industrial  code  was  passed  which  enjoined 
upon  all  manufacturers  the  maintenance  of  their 
relations  with  the  guilds,  or  the  restoration  of 
such  relations  where  they  had  been  discontinued , 
but  the  guilds  continued  to  decline  in  spite  of 
all  efforts.  Progress  was  mainly  political. 

In  1866  Prussia  gained  the  severance  of  Aus- 
tria from  the  Germanic  confederation,  and  Italy 
soon  after  gained  her  freedom.  Hungary,  too, 
grew  more  and  more  restless,  and  the  Emperor 
had  to  grant  concessions,  till  the  present  dual 
political  system  was  organized  in  1867.  Since 
1879,  when  Count  Taaffe  came  into  power,  the 
government  has  been  compelled  to  do  more  and 
more  for  the  working  classes.  This,  however, 
has  been  forced  upon  the  government  by  the 
labor  party,  which  in  Austria,  more  than  in  most 
countries  of  Europe,  has  been  purely  socialistic. 

A  Viennese   Working  Men's   Mutual   Improvement 
Society  was  started  under  the  influence  of  Lassalle's 
agitation  in  1867  ;  and  on  Lassalle's  birth- 
day, April  ii,  1869.  it  published  the  first 
number  of  the  Votkstimme.    In  1869  del-     Socialism. 
egates  were  sent  to  the  German  Social- 
ist Congress  at  Eisenach.    The  Govern- 
ment now  prohibited  all  socialist  meetings,  and  the  so- 
cialist agitation  had  to  be  concentrated  on  the  effort  to 
obtain  freedom  of  coalition   and   universal  suffrage. 
In  1872  a  Radical  Labor  Party  was  formed  by  a  few 
dissenting  members,  while   the   members  of  the  old 
Labor  Party  were  called  the  Moderates.     The  Radicals 
favored  Federalism  and  the  national  aspirations  of  the 
Czechs,  and  worked  with   the  Feudal  Clerical  Party, 
with  whom  they  had  nothing  in  common  save  to  defeat 
the  Liberals.    The  Moderates  worked  with  the  Liber- 
als, because  they  believed  that  nothing  could  be  done 
for  socialism  till  the  old  priestly  and  feudal  ascend- 
ancy was  broken  up. 

After  the  German  laws  against  the  Social  Democrats 
were  passed  in  1878,  the  Austrian  socialists,  in  part, 
lost  heart.  The  Radicals  declared  for  anarchism  and 
the  Moderates  for  the  Liberals.  The  Austrian  Chris- 
tian socialists  supported  the  Ministry  of  Count  Taaffe 
in  legislative  reforms.  Between  1882  and  1884  the  an- 
archists attempted  much  violence  in  Austria ;  the 
Government  resorted  to  strong  measures,  and  the  so- 
cialist papers  suffered  much.  Nevertheless,  work 
went  on,  the  trade-unions  became  the  camping  grounds 
for  the  socialists,  and  much  propaganda  was  carried 
on.  From  1886  the  movement  has  made  steady  prog- 
ress. In  1888  the  conference  at  Hainfield,  largely- 
through  the  influence  of  the  Gleichheit,  Dr.  Adlers 
paper,  the  Moderates  and  those  Radicals  who  were 
not  anarchists  came  together. 

This  conference,  which  sat  till  January  i,  1889,  was 
attended  by  representatives  of  all  the  divisions  of  the 
Austrian  Labor  Party,  in  the  Slav  and  Romance,  as  well 
as  in  the  German  provinces  of  the  empire.  The  pro- 
gram or  declaration  of  principles  then  drawn  up,  and 
accepted  with  only  three  dissenting  voices,  forms  the 
best  illustration  of  the  attitude  adopted  by  the  new 
party.  "  With  this  declaration,"  says  Herr  Karl  Kaut- 
sky,  who  himself  took  an  active  part  in  the  conference, 
"the  Austrian  Labor  Party  again  took  up  the  position 
assumed  by  modern  scientific  socialism,  the  same 
position  which  German  Social  Democracy  has  adopt- 
ed." 

The  program  of  the  New  Austrian  Labor  Party,  as 
presented  to  the  Hanfield  Conference,  runs  as  follows  : 

"The  Social  Democratic  Labor  Party  in  Austria  aims 
at  winning  for  the  whole  people,  without  distinction  of 
nationality,  race,  or  sex,  freedom  from  the  fetters  of 
economic  dependence,  abolition  of  political  disquali- 
fications (Rechtslosigkeit),  and  deliverance  from  intel- 
lectual degradation  (geistige  Verkummerung).  The 
cause  of  the  present  unsatisfactory  conditions  is  not  to 
be  sought  in  isolated  political  provisions,  but  in  the 
fact  which  molds  and  governs  the  whole  state  of  so- 
ciety, that  the  instruments  of  labor  (Arbeitsmittel)  are 
monopolized  by  a  few  proprietors  (Besitzender).  The 


Austria  and  Social  Reform. 


in 


Austria  and  Social  Reform. 


working  classes,  who  have  the  power  to  labor,  thus 
become  the  slaves  of  the  capitalistic  class,  who  possess 
the  instruments  of  labor,  and  whose  political  and  eco- 
nomic supremacy  finds  expression  in  the  modern  State. 
Private  ownership  in  the  instruments  of  production, 
which  indicates  politically  a  State  founded  on  class 
distinctions  (Klassenstaat),  signifies  economically  the 
increasing  poverty  of  the  masses  (Massenarmuth),  and 
the  growing  degradation  of  ever-widening  sections  of 
the  population  (Volksschichte)." 

The  party  thus,  as  was  recognized  in  the  speeches 
which  followed  the  introduction  of  the  program,  began 
by  adopting  the  standpoint  of  Karl  Marx,  and  recog- 
nizing that  a  certain  social  and  economic  development 
must  precede  the  full  acceptance  of  socialist  prin- 
ciples. 

The  Hainfield  Conference  gave  the  Austrian  Labor 
Party  a  compact  organization  and  a  definite  plan  of 
action,  and  its  effects  were  soon  felt  in  the  rapid  ad- 
vance made  by  the  Social  Democratic  movement.  The 
socialist  papers  obtained  a  wider  circulation  meetings, 
for  the  propagation  of  socialist  doctrines  were  held, 
and  many  new  workmen's  associations  were  founded. 
The  political  and  economic  conditions  of  the  time 
further  favored  this  development.  In  1889  the  Liberal 
Party  in  the  Government  appointed  a  committee  to  in- 
quire into  the  advisability  of  establishing  Labor 
Chambers  in  Austria.  Altho  this  committee  had  no 
practical  result,  as  far  as  its  immediate  object  was 
concerned  it  appears  to  have  brought  together  a  large 
number  of  workmen  from  all  parts  of  the  empire,  and 
to  have  thus  indirectly  helped  on  the  cause  of  Social 
Democracy  by  acting  as  an  international  Austrian  con- 
ference on  a  small  scale. 

Strikes  and  agitation  became  common,  and  the 
Government  again  tried  repression.  Papers  were 
suppressed  and  the  editors  of  the  Gleichheit  arrested 
on  charges  of  anarchism.  Nevertheless,  a  second  gen- 
eral congress  was  held  at  Vienna,  June  28-30,  1891. 

According  to  the  report  presented  by  the  Austrian 
Social  Democrats  to  the  International  Congress  held  at 
Zurich  in  July,  1893,  the  events  of  the  second  confer- 
ence of  Vienna  convinced  the  Austrian  bureaucracy 
that  the  existence  of  a  powerful  and  determined  So- 
cial Democratic  organization  among  the  working 
classes  could  not  be  ignored,  and,  recognizing  this 
fact,  the  authorities  permitted  the  resolutions  of  the 
conference  to  be  quietly  carried  out,  and  a  Social  Dem- 
ocratic party  to  be  formed. 

The  winter  of  1892  was  marked  in  Austria  by  agita- 
tion on  the  part  of  the  Social  Democrats  against  the 
censorship  of  the  press. 

The  early  months  of  1893  saw  the  opening  of  "  a  cam- 
paign in  favor  of  universal,  equal,  and  direct  suffrage," 
•which  was  maintained  until  the  autumn  session  of  Par- 
liament. In  April  universal  suffrage  was  granted  in 
Belgium,  and  the  victory  of  the  Belgian  workmen  was 
hailed  by  the  Austrian  Social  Democrats  as  an  earnest 
of  their  own  future  success. 

It  was  under  these  circumstances  that  the  May  Day 
celebrations  of  1893  took  place  throughout  the  empire, 
and  they  developed  into  a  gigantic  demonstration,  not 
for  the  eight-hour  day  only,  but  also  for  the  suffrage. 
In  Vienna  150,000  men  and  women  marched  in  military 
order  through  the  streets.  A  few  weeks  later  the 
political  victories  gained  by  the  German  Social  De- 
mocracy at  the  ballot-box  were  celebrated  throughout 
the  empire  in  a  series  of  magnificent  meetings,  at  all 
of  which  the  pledge  was  taken  to  do  battle  for  the 
suffrage.  In  July  500,000  working  men  and  women 
gathered  in  the  very  heart  of  Vienna  and  declared 
they  would  neither  rest  nor  be  deterred  by  any  sacri- 
fice until  they  had  won. 

On  October  10  Count  Taaffe  introduced  his  bill, 
granting  a  very  much  enlarged  suffrage.  Neverthe- 
less, altho  by  the  provisions  of  the  new  bill  the  num- 
ber of  voters  in  Austria  would  be  doubled,  the  Social 
Democrats  would  only  agree  to  accept  it  as  a  move  in 
the  right  direction.  This  was  the  attitude  consistently 
maintained  in  the  various  meetings  of  the  working 
classes  which  followed  on  the  introduction  of  Count 
Taaffe's  scheme ;  and  when  the  German  Liberals,  the 
Feudal  Clericals,  and  the  Poles,  representing  respec- 
tively the  bourgeoisie,  the  landed  interest,  and  the 
National  Party,  combined  to  oppose  the  bill  and  to 
bring  about  the  resignation  of  the  Ministry,  Dr.  Adler 
stated  that  the  Social  Democrats  would  "heartily 
welcome  the  new  constellation  in  the  political  heavens, 
seeing  that  it  at  last  united  all  the  propertied  and  priv- 
ileged classes  against  the  onslaught  of  the  proletariat," 
and  that  "now  the  brawls  and  squabbles  of  the  nation- 
alities would  cease,  and  the  war  of  classes  would  be- 
gin." The  subject  of  the  suffrage  is  now  the  principal 
one  before  the  Austrian  Parliament. 


Other  evidences  of  the  progress  made  by  the  agita- 
tion of  the  Social  Democracy  are  the  formation  of  nu- 
merous political  clubs  and  the  strength  of  their  press. 
At  present  the  party  owns  13  German,  eight  Czech,  and 
two  Polish  political  papers,  exclusive  of  trade  journals. 
These  papers  are  all  weeklies  and  semi- weeklies,  and 
their  circulation  grows  rapidly.  TteArbeiter-Zeitung, 
published  in  Vienna,  has  an  edition  of  19,000,  the  edition 
of  the  Vienna  Volks  Tribune  is  9000,  the  circulation  of 
the  Arbeiterinnen-Zeitung  (female  workers'  paper)  is 
4000. 

The  great  obstacle  to  the  spread  of  socialism  in  Aus- 
tria is  the  presence  of  the  anarchists,  with  whom  the 
socialists  are  continually  confounded  by  the  Govern- 
ment, tho  the  two  parties  are  now  completely  distinct. 
Roman  Catholic  Christian  socialism  has  had  consider- 
able development  in  Austria,  under  the  patronage  of 
Prince  Lichtenstein  and  others,  but  it  has  meant  little 
more  than  the  Church  of  Rome  taking  an  interest  in 
political  and  social  questions  from  the  ecclesiastical 
paternal  standpoint.  The  distinctiye  trade-union 
movement  in  Austria  runs  parallel  with  the  socialist 
movement.  The  Industrial  Code  of  1859, 
trying  to  compel  employers  and  em- 

Eloyees  to  unite  in  trade  guilds,  had  Trade-Unions. 
ijled.  In  1869  a  demonstration  in 
Vienna  won  the  right  of  combination 
for  working  men,  and  trade-unions  slowly  developed. 
A  law  of  1883  greatly  modified  the  code  of  1859.  In 
June,  1891,  an  interesting  report  on  Austrian  trade- 
unionism  was  read  before  the  second  conference  of  the 
Social  Democratic  Party.  According  to  statistics  fur- 
nished by  the  various  associations,  for  which,  however, 
only  approximate  accuracy  could  be  claimed,  it  ap- 
peared that  while  the  number  of  trade-unions  and 
mutual  improvement  societies  (Bildungsvereine}  in 
Austria  had  more  than  doubled  since  the  Hainfeld 
Conference  of  1888,  the  number  of  members  belonging 
to  these  societies  had  increased  more  than  threefold 
during  the  same  period.  The  report  puts  the  total 
number  of  trade-unions  at  about  300,  with  a  total  mem- 
bership of  about  60,000.  The  report  further  stated  that 
improved  rates  of  wages,  reduced  hours  of  work,  and 
the  wider  extension  of  labor  agitation  had  proved 
that  the  trade-union  organization  had  not  been  •with- 
out effect.  The  publications  of  the  Labor  Press  had 
also  increased  in  number  and  importance,  and  their 
circulation  had  tripled  or  quadrupled.  A  resolution 
in  favor  of  the  support  of  the  trade-union  movement 
by  the  Social  Democratic  Party  was  unanimously 
adopted,  and  a  proposal  was  made  for  the  formation 
of  special  unions  for  working  women. 

According  to  the  Arbeiter  Kalender  for  1893,  there 
were  in  Austria  148  trade-unions  and  political  associ- 
ations, 143  benefit  societies,  296  mutual  improvement 
societies,  51  social  unions,  37  provident  and  distributive 
societies.  (This  does  not  include  Hungary.)  The 
chief  centers  of  Austrian  trade-unionism  are  the  indus- 
trial and  populous  districts  of  Lower  Austria,  Bohemia, 
and  Moravia,  while  about  a  fifth  of  the  total  number 
of  associations  are  established  in  Vienna.  The  highest 
organization  is  found  in  the  printing  trade  and  in  the 
textile  and  metal  industries. 

Industrial  arbitration  has  had  considerable  develop- 
ment in  Austria.  Industrial  courts  were  established 
by  the  code  of  1869  and  committees  of  arbitration  in 
1888.  Even  compulsory  arbitration  has  been  advocated 
by  the  factory  inspectors.  In  1887  an  act  was  passed 
compelling  all  employers  to  insure  their  employees 
against  accidents.  The  country  is  divided  into  dis- 
tricts for  this  purpose,  and  in  each  district  an  associa- 
tion of  18  members,  one  third  elected  by  employers, 
one  third  by  employees,  and  one  third  nominated  by 
the  Government,  controls  the  insurance. 

Cooperation  began  in  Austria  from  1850  to  1860,  but 
has  not  had  great  development.  A  union  of  coopera- 
tive societies  was  organized  in  Vienna  in  1874,  with  217 
societies  in  1892.  The  same  year  there  were  2501  co- 
operative societies  in  Austria,  of  which  1882  were  loan 
societies  and  about  300  distributive.  Post-office  savings 
banks  have  had  more  development.  The  system  •was 
established  in  1871  by  Herr  Schaffle,  when  Minister  of 
Commerce,  and  by  1891  had  4767  banks,  with  847,716 
depositors. 

The  history  of  railroads  in  Austria  is  of  interest, 
showing  how    she,    a   great   conservative    State,  has 
been  forced  into  the  State  railroad  sys- 
tem almost  against  her   •will,  and  how 
it  has  prospered  and  recently  become    Bailroads. 
among  the  most  progressive  systems  in 
Europe.      We  take  the   history  of  the 
early  years  as  it  is  given  in  Professor  Hadley's  Rail- 
road Transportation  : 

"  When  railroads  were  first  invented  Austria  was  the 


Austria  and  Social  Reform. 


112 


Austria  and  Social  Reform. 


home  of  bigoted  conservatism.  The  Austrian  Court 
and  statesmen  looked  upon  the  new  contrivance  with  a 
distrust,  which  was,  from  their  point  of  view,  well 
founded.  Such  rapid  movement  seemed  to  savor  of 
dangerous  radicalism,  not  to  say  revolution.  The  Em- 
peror, in  1836,  made  up  his  mind  to  sign  a  railroad 
charter  only  on  the  somewhat  dubious  ground  that 
'the  thing  can't  maintain  itself,  anyhow." 

"  Railroads  insisted  on  coming,  whether  monarchical 
governments  liked  them  or  not ;  and  they  did  so  much 
good  when  they  came  that  the  Government  soon  de- 
cided that  they  were  a  good  thing,  and  gave  them 
paternal  assistance,  either  in  the  form  of  guaranty  of 
interest  or  or  direct  State  construction.  This  period 
in  Austria  lasted  from  about  1840  to  184$  ;  it  was  a  time 
of  active  railroad-building.  The  revolution  of  1848  and 
the  Hungarian  war  threw  all  industry  into  confusion. 
Under  these  circumstances  Austria  pursued  exactly 
the  opposite  policy  to  that  of  Prussia.  The  Prussian 
Government  tried  to  help  railroads  by  buying  them  at 
low  prices ;  the  Austrian  Government,  by  selling  them 
at  low  prices.  There  can  be  little  doubt  that  the  Aus- 
trian Government  during  this  period  was  greatly  in- 
fluenced by  the  example  of  France,  and  desired  not  to 
own  its  roads,  but  to  have  them  owned  and  built  by 
private  companies,  in  systems  radiating,  from  Vienna, 
as  the  French  lines  radiated  from  Paris. 

"  The- system  was  one  which  did  not  bear  transplant- 
ing. It  had  grown  up  and  had  been  found  serviceable 
in  France,  because  France  was  so  closely  knit  together 
and  centered  around  Paris  so  completely.  In  Austria 
it  was  quite  different.  The  country  consists  of  many 
distinct  States,  not  even  bound  together  by  ties  of  lan- 
guage or  of  race.  That  Vienna  is  the  seat  of  government 
for  them  all  is  scarcely  more  than  a  political  accident. 
The  conditions  of  trade  are  in  many  respects  like  those 
of  the  United  States.  They  have  their  international 
cattle  trade  and  grain  trade  ;  their  combined  rail  and 
water  routes  on  export  business;  their  interstate  com- 
merce troubles  and  th«ir  granger  troubles.  They  have 
a  water  route  of  dominant  importance — the  Danube, 
competing  with  their  east  and  west  trunk  lines.  With 
these  and  many  other  through-business  complications, 
it  is  easy  to  see  that  the  example  of  France  could  only 
prove  misleading.  They  succeeded  in  appropriating 
some  of  its  evil  results,  with  none  of  its  good  ones. 
The  State  sold  many  lines  in  1853  at  about  half  their 
cost  of  construction.  So  far  was  this*  from  stimulating 
the  enterprise  of  private  companies  that,  in  1859,  some 
of  the  most  important  connecting  links  in  Austria's 
trunk-line  system  were  but  half  built.  Her  decisive 
defeat  by  France  in  that  year  was  largely  due  to  the 
unreadiness  of  her  railroad  system ;  and  the  same 
thing  made  itself  felt  to  a  less  extent  in  the  war  with 
Prussia  in  1866. 

"  The  period  of  listlesaness,  which  ended  about  the 
time  of  the  war  with  Prussia,  was  followed  by  a  period 
of  wild  speculation,  which  did  not  end  until  the  crisis 
of  1873.  In  spite  of  stringent  legal  provisions  the 
same  abuses  manifested  themselves  in  Austria  that 
had  been  found  in  other  countries  with  fewer  laws. 
Construction  companies  were  numerous,  and  left  such 
a  bad  name  that  to  call  a  man.  '  a  constructor '  is,  in 
Germany,  far  more  opprobrious  than,  to  call  him  a 
liar.  One  example  will  suffice  to  show  the  reckless- 
ness, or  rather  light-headedness,  of  Austrian  specula- 
tion at  this  time.  It  is  all  the  more  noticeable  because 
Haberer,  in  his  Railroad  History,  related  it  as  if  it 
were  the  most  natural  thing  in  the  world. 

'"The  crisis  of  1873  brought  to  light  a  serious  defect 
in  Austrian  law.  While  one  concern  after  another 
went  under,  the  holders  of  bends  or  debentures  were 
resting  quietly  in  the  belief  that  their  interests  were 
secured.  But  when  one  and  another  of  these  roads 
became  unable  to  pay  their  interest,  the  matter  was 
looked  into  thoroughly,  and  it  was  found  that  the 
whole  debt  was  unsecured,  for  altho  there  were  nom- 
inal mortgages  on  the  property,  these  mortgages  had 
no  legal  authority,  because  they  were  not  recorded 
in  the  manner  prescribed  by  law.' 

"  The  prostration  which  followed  the  crisis  of  1873 
almost  forced  Austria  into  a  policy  of  active  State  in- 
terference. This  soon  took  the  direction  of  extension 
of  State  ownership.  In  Hungary  this  policy  had  never 
been  completely  abandoned.  In  Austria  itself  it  had 
been  out  of  favor  for  twenty  years  ;  and  this  fact,  com- 
bined with  the  not  over-prosperous  condition  of  the 
Austrian  treasury,  made  it  impossible  to  move  rapidly. 
Three  quarters  of  the  lines  are  still  in  the  hands  of 
private  companies  ;  but  matters  unquestionably  tend 
in  the  direction  of  State  management."  So  writes 
Professor  Hadley. 

Since  this  time  the  policy  of  State  management  has 
progressed  till  now  about  three  quarters  of  the  lines 


are  in  Government  hands  and  return  to  the  Govern- 
ment considerable  revenue.  The  Hungarian  roads 
have  shown  that  State  roads  can  be  progressive  by  in- 
troducing  the  famous  Zone  system,  for  details  of 
which  see  ZONE  SYSTEM  ;  also  RAILROADS,  section 
Austria. 

Political  economy  to-day  is  strongly  developed  in 
Austria,  and  the  new  Austrian  school  is  one  of  the  most 
prominent  in  modern  thought. 

The  new  school   was   founded   about  1871   by  Carl 
Menger,   Professor  at  the  University  of  Vienna.    To 
this   school    belong    Eugen    B6hm-Ba- 
werk,  formerly  Proiessor  at  the  Inns- 
bruck University,  now  Chief  of  Depart-       •pnHtio.i 
ment  in  the  Austrian  Ministry  of   Fi-      .folj 
nance ;   also    Professors   Friedrich  von     x-conomy. 
Wieser  and  Emil  Sax,  both  of  Prague  ; 
Victor  Mahaja,  Chief  of  Department  of 
Statistics  of  the  Austrian  Ministry  of  Commerce  ;  also 
Professor  Eugen  von  Philippovich,  of  the  Vienna  Uni- 
versity.   This    school    stands    squarely    against    the 
classical,   and  is  also  the  opponent  of  the  historical 
schooL 

The  Austrians  lay  much  stress  upon  exact  observa- 
tion and  exhaustive  description  of  the  facts  of  social 
life.  Upon  these  they  build  their  theories.  They  do  not 
confuse  the  problems  of  political  economy  and  psychol- 
ogy, yet  they  seek  a  more  psychological  basis  than  the 
English  economists.  Sax,  in  his  work,  Die  neuesten 
Fortschritte  der  na.tionaldkonotn.tsc/ien  Theorie,  de- 
fined political  economy  as  adapted  psychology.  Bohtn- 
Bawerk  in  Hildebrand-Conrads'  Jalirbucher  fur  Na- 
tionalokonomie  und  Statistik,  "1890,  expects  that  the 
new  school  will  be  called  the  "psychological  school." 
In  their  method  the  Austrians  meet,  on  one  side,  mod- 
ern philosophy,  and  on  the  other  modern  natural 
science.  Menger  maintains-  the  deductive  methods, 
and  calls  his  work  the  "exact  method."  Bohm- 
Bawerk  calls  the  method  the  "isolating  one."  Menger 
distinguishes  three  branches  in  political  economy : 
the  historic  and  statistic,  which  must  examine  and 
classify  all  economic  acts  of  the  individual  and  the 
State ;  the  theoretic-political,  which  must  reduce  the 
same  acts  to'  general  laws ;  the  practical-political, 
which  must  define  the  rules  for  everybody's  behavior. 
In  this  last  group  he  puts  social  science  and  finance. 
The  new  school  has  found  many  disciples  in  the 
United  States,  England,  Italy,  France,  the  Nether- 
lands, Denmark,  and  Sweden. 

The  works  of  Bohm-Bawerk  (q.  v.~)  upon  capital  are 
considered  among  the  best  treatments  of  that  subject. 
For  further  information  as  to  the  Austrian  school,  see 
POLITICAL  ECONOMY. 

III.  HUNGARY. 

Abridged  from  the  Report  on  Hungary  of  the 
{English)  Royal  Commission. 

Altho  there  is  not  a  labor  question  in  Hun- 
gary in  the  sense  that  there  is  one  in  more  high- 
ly developed  industrial  or  manufacturing  com- 
munities, a  movement  toward  the  improvement 
of  the  moral,  political,  and  social  conditions  of 
the  working  people  is  certainly  gaining  ground. 
This  movement  is  now  finding  striking  expres- 
sion, as  it  did  a  few  years  since  in  the  counties 
of  Bekes  and  Csanad,  in  local  outbreaks  of  vio- 
lent agrarian  socialism.  Apart  from  these  events , 
official  reports  relating  to  industrial  centers 
would  lead  to  the  conclusion  that  such  socialism 
as  there  is  does  not  turn  in  the  direction  of  com- 
munism, but  is  rather  the  expression  of  a  na- 
tional and  political  impulse. 

Hungary  has  only  recently  entered  into  the 
field  of  manufacturing  industry  in  the  large 
sense.  "  The  efforts  of  government  and  finan- 
cial institutions  to  foster  the  growth  of  native 
industry  have  been  determined  and  strenuous. 
The  progress  made  has  been  extremely  rapid. 
Factories  are  being  built  in  considerable  num- 
bers ;  enterprises — commercial,  mining,  and 
manufacturing — are  being  promoted  on  every 
side  ;  railway  communication  has  been  extend- 
ed and  improved ;  and,  in  short,  Hungary  has 


Austria  and  Social  Reform. 


Baader,  Franz  Xavier. 


set  to  work  with  the  vigor  and  exuberant  hope- 
fulness of  a  young  colony  to  further  her  mate- 
rial prosperity."  In  spite  of  all  this  it  is  true, 
and  must  be  borne  in  mind,  on  the  one  hand, 
that  in  the  strictly  industrial  sphere  Hungary  is 
still  chiefly  a  country  of  small  industries  or  handi- 
crafts, while  development  of  new  and  large  in- 
dustries is  frequently  hampered  by  a  lack  of 
skilled  labor  ;  and,  on  the  other  hand,  that  the 
economic  strength,  as  well  as  the  chief  labor 
problems  of  Hungary,  turn  upon  the  natural 
agricultural  and  mineral  resources  of  the  coun- 
try. 

The  industrial  law  of  1872  was  the  first  law 
which  quite  ended  the  old  guild  system.  It  was 
' '  a  complete  victory  for  the  extreme  individual- 
istic tendency,  which  worked  out  its  influence 
several  years  later  in  Hungary  as  in  the  rest  of 
Europe. ' '  The  draft  bill  laid  before  Parliament 
contained  a  number  of  compulsory  provisions  of 
a  socialist  character,  which  were  successfully 
combated  and  repelled  by  the  liberal  individual- 
ist party  only,  as  events  proved,  to  be  partially 
embodied  in  the  law  of  1884  later  on. 

The  change  in  the  industrial  law  of  Hungary, 
introduced  by  the  law  of  1 884,  it  is  stated  by  Dr. 
Mandello,  ' '  only  affected  the  labor  question  in 
a  secondary  degree.  It  did  not  affect  it  in  the 
first  degree,  because  in  the  matters  which  direct- 
ly relate  to  the  workers  only  small  alterations 
were  made,  and  with  the  exception  of  the  intro- 
duction of  register  of  work  these  have  not  any 
great  importance.  But  the  indirect  influence  of 
the  law  was  important,  for  it  certainly  strength- 
ened the  position  of  the  employer  of  handicrafts- 
men, by  the  institution  of  industrial  guilds,  and 
consequently  increased  the  dependence  of  the 
worker  in  this  sphere." 

The  beginning  of  a  socialist  movement  in 
Hungary  can  be  traced  back  as  far  as  1867-68. 
After  the  agreement  with  Austria,  which  estab- 
lished a  free  administration  in  the  country,  it 
became  possible  for  the  working  classes  to  de- 
velop and  organize  themselves,  and  an  agrarian 
movement,  mainly  in  the  heart  of  the  country 


and  the  pest  county,  took  place  at  about  the 
same  time.  The  movement,  however,  has  been 
constantly  subject  to  divisions  and  party  strifes, 
which  have  prevented  its  development  into  a 
strong  movement. 

There  are  at  least  two  socialist  parties  in  Hungary, 
not  to  consider  smaller  differences.  One  of  the  chief 
subjects  of  division  is,  how  far  a  socialist  should 
sympathize  with  the  national  and  race  movements,  and 
questions  that  play  so  large  a  part  in  Austrian  politics. 
Nevertheless,  in  spite  of  division,  socialism  in  Hungary 
has  considerable  strength.  At  a  Socialist  Congress  in 
Budapest,  January,  1893,  there  were  93  delegates,  33  of 
them  from  the  provinces. 

References  :  By  far  the  best  book  on  Austria  and  so- 
cial reform  is  the  Foreign  Report  on  Austria-Hun- 
gary of  the  (English)  Royal  Commission  on  Labor 
(1894,  price,  2S.  naf.).  The  best  Austrian  magazines  and 
papers  on  social  subjects  are  the  Statische  Monatschrift 
(the  statistical  monthly  edited  by  the  Imperial  Statis- 
tical Office) ;  the  Arbeiter  Zeitung  (the  weekly  organ 
of  the  Austrian  Social  Democratic  Party)  ;  the  Monat- 
schrift fur  Christliche  Social  Reform  (the  monthly 
organ  of  the  Austrian  Christian  Socialists).  See  also 
Braun's  Sozialpolitisches  Centralblatt  and  Conrad's 
Handworterbuch  der  Staatswissenschaften.  The  head- 
quarters in  Vienna  for  social  reform  literature  is  (1895) 
Brand's  bookstore,  8  Gumpendorfer  Street. 

AVELING,  EDWARD,  was  born  Novem- 
ber 29,  1851,  of  Irish  parentage  on  both  sides. 
He  was  educated  at  various  schools  and  at  Uni- 
versity College,  London,  and  went  to  Cam- 
bridge as  Professor  Michael  Foster's  assistant 
in  physiology.  He  has  been  Professor  of  Chem- 
istry and  Physiology  at  New  College,  and  of 
Comparative  Anatomy  at  London  Hospital.  He 
was  a  member  of  London  School  Board,  1882. 
An  avowed  atheist,  he  is  Vice-president  of  the 
National  Secular  Society,  socialist  lecturer,  jour- 
nalist, author,  dramatist.  His  chief  works  are  : 
Student' s  Marx  ;  Student's  Darwin  ;  Botany 
for  Students  ;  Geology  for  Students  ;  Phy- 
sics ;  Biology  ;  translations  of  Marx's  Kapital 
(vol.  i.) ;  Engel's  Socialism  ;  Haeckel's  Pedigree 
of  Man  ;  Titchomiroff's  Russia.  He  married 
Eleanor,  daughter  of  Karl  Marx. 

AVERAGE  WAGES.    See  WAGES. 


B 


BAADER,  FRANZ  XAVIER  (1765-1841), 
was  born  at  Munich,  March  27,  1765.  His  fa- 
ther was  a  medical  practitioner,  who  was  a 
friend  of  some  of  the  liberal  German  bishops  of 
that  day,  and  shared  their  views.  Young  Baader 
declined  to  follow  his  father's  profession,  and 
adopted  that  of  mining.  At  the  University  of 
Freiburg  he  was  the  friend  of  Alexander  von 
Humboldt.  He  became  interested  in  specula- 
tive philosophy,  without,  however,  neglecting 
his  profession  of  engineering,  in  which  he  greatly 
distinguished  himself.  In  1826  Baader  was 
made  Professor  of  Philosophy  and  Speculative 
Theology  at  Munich.  In  religious  matters  he 
desired  the  reunion  of  Protestantism  and  Ca- 
tholicism, tho  a  good  Catholic  himself  ;  and 
having  uttered  a  remonstrance  against  the  abso- 
lutism of  the  Roman  court  in  1838,  he  was  de- 
posed from  his  professorship.  He  gradually  be- 


came more  and  more  interested  in  social  sub- 
jects. He  recommended  a  theocracy,  a  State 
held  together  by  Christian  love,  which  should 
be  equally  free  from  lawless  individualism  and 
from  despotism.  Kaufman  in  his  Christian 
Socialism  has  summarized  Baader's  views  as 
follows  : 

"  Without  previous  and  perfect  union  between  God 
and  man,  social  union  can  neither  be  effected  nor  main- 
tained. Social  coordination  and  subordination  must 
rest  on  Divine  authority.  All  members  of  the  social 

the  grace  of  God. 


out  love,  cannot  permanently  secure  social  order. 

"  Corporate  action  and  association  are  essential  to 
the  common  weal,  because  they  imply  organized  social 
life.  On  the  other  hand,  all  attacks  on  property  by 
way  of  advocating  a  communistic  redistribution  is  a 
crime  against  the  common  interests  of  all.  The  Chris- 
tian law  of  mutual  affection  is  the  only  safeguard 
against  the  disintegrating  power  of  individualism.  - 


Baader,  Franz  Xavier. 


114 


Bacon,  Francis. 


With  the  development  of  the  moral  and  religious  life 
of  the  nation,  social  evolution  will  become  possible 
also,  and  thus  the  unhealthy  elements  of  social  progress 
will  be  eliminated  without  the  adoption  of  revolution- 
ary measures.  At  present,  he  says,  the  majority  of 
men  are  the  slaves  of  capital,  the  production  of  wealth 
i  is  carried  on  on  a  gigantic  scale,  while  its  distribution 
is  alarmingly  uneven  and  unjust.  The  Church  must 
provide  a  new  diaconate  to  bring  about  a  more  equita- 
ble redistribution.  The  most  perfect  corporation  is 
the  Catholic  Church;  it  is,  therefore,  the  best  type  of 
social  organization.  The  Church  is  altogether  opposed 
to  the  heathenish  view  of  ownership  of  property,  which 
is  purely  selfish,  and  therefore  anti-social,  separating 
private  from  common  interests.  The  Church  regards 
all  men  as  agents  and  stewards  of  their  possessions  for 
the  common  good." 

Baader  was,  however,  not  destined  to  make 
any  attempt  to  carry  out  his  views,  as  he  died 
in  1841,  only  three  years  after  losing  his  Munich 
professorship.  The  Encyclopedia  Britannica 
says  of ,  him  : 

"  Baader  is,  without  doubt,  the  greatest  speculative 
theologian  of  modern  Catholicism,  and  his  influence 
has  extended  itself  even  beyond  the  precincts  of  his 
own  Church.  The  great  work  of  Rothe,  Theologische 
Ethik,  is  thoroughly  impregnated  with  his  spirit ;  and, 
not  to  mention  others,  J.  Muller's  Christhche  Lehre 
von  der  Siinde  and  Martensen's  Christliche  Dogmatik 
show  evident  marks  of  his  influence." 

It  is  not  strange  that  such  a  mind  should  have 
had  great  influence,  and  that  Roman  Catholic 
socialism,  as  in  Bishop  Ketteler  (q.v.),  should 
owe  very  much  to  Baader. 

BABBAGE,  CHARLES  (1792-1871),  studied 
at  Trinity  College,  Cambridge  ;  in  1816  he  was 
made  a  Fellow  of  the  Royal  Society  ;  in  1831  he 
helped  found  the  British  Association  ;  in  1828  he 
became  Professor  of  Mathematics  at  Cambridge, 
and  devoted  much  time  and  money  to  the  build- 
ing of  two  great  calculating  machines.  In  politi- 
cal economy  he  has  not  contributed  to  economic 
theory,  but  by  his  full  and  faithful  descriptions 
of  characteristic  economic  phenomena  he  never- 
theless has  won  a  high  place.  Especially  faith- 
ful and  discerning  were  his  analysis  and  por- 
trayal of  the  benefits  and  effects  of  the  division 
of  labor.  Political  economy  he  was  one  of  the 
first  to  declare  not  an  exact  science,  like  the 
mathematical,  altho  it  did  depend  on  "  gen- 
erals being  much  more  frequently  obeyed  than 
violated. ' '  He  was  no  blind  worshiper  of  Mam- 
mon, and  sneers  at  the  notion  that  no  calling  is 
respectable  which  does  not  produce  wealth.  In 
the  public  interest  he  believed  that  inventors 
should  be  generously  rewarded  by  the  State. 

His  main  works  are  :  On  the  EconoMty  of  Ma- 
chinery and  Manufactures  (1832) ;  Thoughts 
on  the  Principles  of  Taxation  with  Reference 
to  a  Property  Tax  and  its  Exceptions  [exemp- 
tions from  it]  (1848) ;  Observations  on  the  De- 
cline of  Science  in  England  (1830)  ;  A  Com- 
parative View  of  the  Different  Institutions 
for  the  Assurance  of  Life  (1826)  ;  Essay  on 
the  General  Principles  which  Regulate  the 
Application  of  Machinery  (from  Encyclopedia 
Metropolitana,  1829) ;  The  Exposition  0/1851, 
or  Views  of  the  Industry,  the  Science,  and 
the  Government  of  England  (\^\) ;  Passages 
from  the  Life  of  a  Philosopher  (1864). 

BABEUF,  FRANCOIS  NOEL  (1764-97), 
called  CaiusGracchus,vfa&\)orna,i  SaintQuentin. 
Left  alone  at  the  age  of  16,  his  youth  and  whole 
life  was  stormy  and  wild.  From  the  commence- 


ment of  the  revolution  he  wrote  violent  articles, 
and  was  tried,  but  acquitted.  He  edited  a  paper 
which  he  called  Tribun  de  Peuple.  This  took 
place  after  the  fall  of  Robespierre.  He  gradu- 
ally became  more  violent,  and  gathered  round 
him  a  body  of  men  whose  main  idea  was  to  put 
down  inequality  of  condition.  "We  desire," 
said  they,  "  real  equality  or  death."  They  met 
at  the  Pantheon  (till  their  public  meetings  were 
broken  up  by  Napoleon),  and  there  counseled 
how  to  rouse  the  people  to  insurrection.  They 
aimed  at  a  real  community  of  goods.  The  pub- 
lic authorities  were  to  organize  industry.  Every 
one  was  to  have  a  right  to  lodging,  food,  medio- 
cre mats  frugale,  clothes,  washing,  warming, 
lighting,  medical  attendance.  In  May,  1796, 
they  had  planned  a  general  uprising,  but  their 
plot  was  discovered  a  few  hours  before  its  exe- 
cution, and  Babeuf  and  Darth6  were  condemned 
to  die  February,  1797.  They  stabbed  themselves 
before  the  tribunal,  but  life  lingered  on,  and  they 
were  guillotined  the  next  day.  Babeuf's  last 
words  were  said  to  have  been  :  "I  wrap  myself 
in  a  virtuous  slumber."  His  theory  of  com- 
munism was  based  largely  on  Morelly's  Code  de 
la  Nature.  According  to  it,  "  the  aim  of  society 
is  the  happiness  of  all,  and  happiness  consists  in 
equality."  "  Let  all  the  arts  perish,"  cried  its 
followers,  "  provided  we  obtain  real  equality." 
Government  was  to  be  absolute.  No  private 
individual  was  to  be  allowed  to  trade  with  for- 
eign countries.  Even  within  the  country  only 
such  publications  were  to  be  allowed  as  taught 
the  unqualified  blessings  of  equality.  All  were 
to  be  dressed  alike  save  for  differences  of  age 
or  sex.  Children  were  to  be  removed  from  the 
family  at  an  early  age,  to  be  taught  of  "  civism" 
and  communism.  Comfortable  mediocrity  was 
the  openly  expressed  ideal. 

BACON,  FRANCIS,  VISCOUNT  ST. 
ALBANS,  was  born  at  London,  January  22, 
1561.  He  was  sent  to  the  University  of  Cam- 
bridge at  the  age  of  13.  He  entered  diplomacy, 
and  was  one  of  the  suite  of  the  English  ambas- 
sador at  Paris.  He  studied  law,  became  a  Member 
of  Parliament,  Solicitor-General,  Keeper  of  the 
Great  Seal,  and  Lord  Chancellor.  He  was  made 
Baron  Verulam,  then  Viscount.  In  1621  he  was 
convicted  of  corruption  in  office  on  his  own  con- 
fession. After  this  he  devoted  himself  entirely 
to  science  and  literature  till  his  death  in  1626. 

Altho  dishonorable  in  public  life,  Bacon's  fame 
as  a  literary  and  scientific  man  is  of  the  first 
order.  His  life  was  contemporary  with  the  birth 
of  modern  science,  and  with  it  his  name  has  al- 
ways been  associated.  Altho  he  may  not  be 
the  father  of  inductive  philosophy — as  he  was  for 
long  considered — yet  his  scientific  works  were 
wonderful  efforts  of  reasoning  for  a  period  when 
science  was  in  its  infancy.  As  a  literary  man 
Bacon  always  exhibits  profound  thought  ex- 
pressed in  a  remarkable  and  splendid  style. 
There  are  few  subjects  with  which  he  did  not  oc- 
cupy himself.  In  his  day  economic  questions  did 
not  form  a  separate  study,  nor  were  they  of  much 
account.  Bacon ,  however,  here  and  there  touches 
on  them,  as  in  Essay  XXXIV.,  Of  Riches, 
and  in  the  essay  on  Plantations.  He  discusses 
the  government  of  colonies,  and  says  :  "  Let 
there  be  freedom  from  custom  till  the  plantation 


Bacon,  Francis. 


Bakounin,  Michael. 


be  of  strength,  and  not  only  freedom  from  cus- 
tom, but  freedom  to  carry  their  commodities 
where  they  may  make  their  best  of  them,  except 
there  be  some  special  cause  of  caution."  In  the 
History  of  Henry  VII.  and  in  other  shorter 
works  he  shows  himself  a  deep  student  of  hu- 
man and  social  philosophy.  The  New  Atlantis 
is  abrief  Utopia,  written  between  1614  and  1617, 
and  published  after  his  death  in  1627. 

Bacon's  chief  works  were  his  Essays,  The  Ad- 
vancement of  Learning,  the  Novum  Organum, 
and  the  History  of  the  Reign  of  Henry  VII. 

B  AGE  HOT,  WALTER  (1826-77),  was  born 
and  died  at  Langport,  Somersetshire.  He  was 
the  son  of  a  banker,  and  was  educated  at  Lon- 
don University.  Called  to  the  bar,  he  chose 
to  enter  his  father's  bank.  He  first  became 
known  as  a  brilliant  and  buoyant  literary 
critic  and  general  writer.  In  1858  he  married 
the  eldest  daughter  of  James  Wilson,  editor  of 
The  Economist,  and  two  years  later  succeeded 
to  the  editorship,  continuing  thus  till  his  death. 
He  was  considered  one  of  the  best  financiers 
of  his  day.  His  especial  service  in  economics 
may  be  said  to  have  been  to  have  reconciled 
them  with  history.  He  had  almost  unbound- 
ed admiration  for  Ricardo,  with  whom  as  a 
successful  man  of  business  he  had  many  points 
of  agreement.  "  Adam  Smith,"  he  said,  "  dis- 
covered the  country  (of  political  economy),  but 
Ricardo  made  the  first  map."  He  considered 
himself  the  last  man  of  the  ante-Mill  period. 
Mill  and  Cairns  had  already  shown  that  the  old 
political  economy  was  hypothetic,  dealing  not 
with  real,  but  imaginary  "  economic  men,"  who 
were  simply  conceived  ' '  as  money-making  ani- 
mals. ' '  Bagehot  showed  that  the  world  in  which 
these  men  were  supposed  to  act  was  a  very 
limited  and  peculiar  world.  ' '  What  marks  off 
this  special  world,"  he  tells  us,  "  is  the  prompt- 
ness of  the  transfer  of  capital  and  labor  from 
one  employment  to  another."  In  history  and 
life,  as  Bagehot  showed,  this  is  not  the  case. 
Bagehot  therefore  endeavored  to  confine  the 
theoretical  portion  within  its  true  bounds  and  to 
modify  it  by  an  appeal  to  the  actual  and  the 
concrete.  He  named  his  great  treatise  Lombard 
Street,  not  The  Money  Market,  because  he  de- 
sired to  show  that  he  dealt  with  the  concrete 
and  not  the  abstract.  His  sympathies  were  with 
the  capitalists,  the  people  "who  spend  their 
minds  on  little  else  than  on  thinking  whether 
other  people  will  pay  their  debts. ' '  Yet  to  the 
working  classes  and  trade-unions  he  was  never 
hostile.  His  only  remedy  was  laissez-faire. 
As  was  natural  from  his  position,  his  best  de- 
tailed work  was  in  elucidating  the  orthodox 
teaching  concerning  banking  and  finance. 

His  mam  writings  are  :  Letters  on  the  Coup 
d" Etat  of  185 '/,  written  to  the  Inquirer  (Unita- 
rian organ),  1852,  and  reprinted  in  vol.  i.  of  Lit- 
erary Studies;  Parliamentary  Reform,  reprint- 
ed, with  additions,  from  the  National  Review 
(1858) ;  History  of  the  Unreformed  Parlia- 
ment ;  Estimates  of  Some  Englishmen  and 
Scotchmen  (1858)  ;  many  articles  in  the  Econo- 
mist (1860-77)  I  Physics  and  Politics ;  or, 
Thoughts  on  the  Application  of  the  Princi- 
ples of  Natural  Selection  and  Inheritance  to 
Political  Society  (1872,  International  Scientific 


Series) ;  Lombard  Street :  A  Description  of  the 
Money  Market  (1873) ;  various  articles  in  the 
Fortnightly  Review — e.g. ,  Postulates  of  Po- 
l it  ic  a  I  Economy  (February  and  May,  1876) ;  The 
English  Constitution  (1867)  ;  International 
Coinage:  A  Practical  Plan  for  Assimilating 
the  English  and  American  Money  as  a  Step 
toward  a  Universal  Money  (1869  ;  second  edi- 
tion, 1889)  ;  On  the  Depreciation  of  Silver 
(1877) ;  Literary  Studies  (with  a  biography  of 
the  author),  edited  by  R.  H.  Hutton,  2  vols., 
(1879) ;  Economic  Studies  (1880)  ;  Biographical 
Studies  (1881). 

BAKOUNIN,  MICHAEL(i8i4-76).— Bakou- 
nin, the  father  of  revolutionary  anarchist-com- 
munism, was  born  in  Torschok,  Russia,  of  aris- 
tocratic and  even  princely  family.  Educated 
for  the  military  service,  he  became  an  artillery 
officer,  and  was  stationed  in  Poland  ;  but  by  1835 
became  disgusted  with  Russian  militarism,  and 
went  to  Moscow  to  study  philosophy,  reading 
mainly  Hegel  and  Schopenhauer,  in  company 
with  Alexander  Herzen,  the  later  notorious  Rus- 
sian revolutionist,  and  others  of 
similar  type.  In  1841  he  went  to 
Berlin  and  joined  the  Hegelians  A  Commu- 
there,  becoming  particularly  ac-  nist. 
quainted  with  Arnold  Ruge,  and 
writing  in  his  Deutsche  Jahr- 
bucher,  at  Dresden.  He  was  led  by  Ruge  to 
be  a  communist.  In  1843  Bakounin  went  to 
Paris,  and  there  made  the  acquaintance  of 
Proudhon  and  his  writings,  and  learned  to  give 
to  his  communistic  views  an  anarchistic  basis. 
Going  for  a  while  to  Switzerland,  he  identified 
himself  with  every  revolutionary  movement — 
now  advocating  the  cause  of  Poland,  now  de- 
claring a  revolutionary  internationalism,  then 
appearing  and  taking  part  in  the  Panslavist 
Congress  at  Prague  in  1848.  These  inconsisten- 
cies won  for  him  the  nickname  of  ' '  the  myste- 
rious Russian  ;"  but  he  went  on,  consistently 
or  inconsistently,  identifying  himself  with  every 
revolutionary  movement.  In  1849  he  resided 
for  a  time  in  Leipsic,  surrounding  himself  with 
Czech  students,  and  endeavoring  to  provoke  a 
fresh  rising  in  Bohemia.  When  in  that  year 
the  revolution  broke  out  in  Dresden,  Bakounin 
joined  it.  He  was,  however,  captured  during  a 
skirmish  and  condemned  to  death.  On  the  eve 
of  being  shot  he  was  handed  over  to  the  Aus- 
trian authorities,  and  tried  by  them  for  his  part 
in  the  Czech  rebellion.  Again  sentenced  to 
death,  he  was  claimed,  this  time  by  Russia,  and 
handed  over  to  her  and  imprisoned  in  the  for- 
tress of  Schliisselburg,  and  in  1852  transported 
to  Siberia.  These  mysterious  transfers  were 
said  to  be  on  the  ground  of  the  jus  primes  exe- 
cutionis  ;  but  there  were  not  lacking  enemies 
who  declared  that  he  obtained  his  transfers  by 
betraying  his  fellow-exiles.  Be  this  as  it  may, 
in  1860  Bakounin  reappeared  in  London,  hav- 
ing escaped  from  Siberia  by  the  way  of  japan 
and  the  United  States.  He  immediately  resumed 
his  advocacy  of  Panslavism,  and  became  more 
revolutionary  than  ever.  He  wrote  in  Herzen's 
journal,  Kolokol  (The  Bell},  and  exerted  wide 
influence,  among  other  ways,  by  his  brochure, 
Romanoff  and  Pugatcheff.  In  1863  he  made 
his  last  efforts  to  aid  a  Polish  insurrection.  By 


Bakounin,  Michael. 


116 


Bakounin,  Michael. 


1864  he  had  renounced  Panslavism  and  declared 
for  revolutionary  internationalism  alone,  and  in 

1865  went  to  Italy  to  organize  the  revolution 

there.    When  the  International  was 
formed  in  London  in  1864  Bakounin 
The  Inter-    did  not  at  first  join  it ;  but  soon  real- 
national,     izing  its  power,  he  threw  himself 
into  it  and  became    the  leader  of 
its  anarchist  wing  against  Marx, 
the  leader  of  the  socialist  wing.     The  names 
anarchist  and    socialist    were    not    then  used 
save  in  a  vague  way  ;  both  Marx  and  Bakounin 
called  themselves  communists,   but   gradually 
around  these  two  leaders  arose  the  two  distinct 
movements  which  have  since  become  the  socialist 
and   anarchist-communist  movements  existing 
to-day,  and  completely  opposing  each  other  in  all 
European  countries.     The  difference,  however, 
only  gradually  asserted  itself.    The  International 
at  first  was  simply  an  effort  to  unite  the  workers 
of  all  countries.     It  stood  in  various  countries 
for  what  the  workmen  of  that  country  made  it. 
In  England  it  meant  little  more  than  interna- 
tional trade-unionism  ;  in  Germany  it  meant 
socialism  ;  in  the  Latin  countries  it  soon  came 
to  mean  anarchist-communism.     (See  INTERNA- 
TIONAL.) 

At  a  congress  of  a  so-called  peace  league  in 
1867  in  Geneva,  Bakounin  had  favored  the  aboli- 
tion of  centralized  States,  and  the  substitution 
of  voluntary  federations  of  independent  com- 
munes. At  the  next  congress,  in  1868,  held  at 
Berne,  under  the  presidency  of  Victor  Hugo,  he 
urged  joining  the  International.  Failing  to  con- 
vince the  assembly,  he  formed  his  supporters 
into  a  Social  Democratic  Alliance,  the  aim  of 
which  was  to  make  land  and  capital  the  collec- 
tive property  of  society,  to  be  used  only  by  agri- 
cultural and  manufacturing  associations.  All 
existing  States  were  to  "  disappear  in  the  uni- 
versal union  of  free  associations. ' '  The  Alliance 
desired  to  be  recognized  as  part  of  the  Interna- 
tional, but  its  claim  was  rejected,  whereupon  it 
dissolved  after  six  months'  existence,  during 
which  it  had  been  active  in  Spain  and  Italy,  and 
its  sections  joined  the  International  separately. 
At  the  beginning  of  1869  the  groups  of  the  In- 
ternational in  French-speaking  Switzerland  or- 
ganized themselves  as  the  Romance  Federation. 
This  speedily  split  into  two  sections,  one  of  which , 
under  James  Guillaume,  a  disciple  of  Bakounin, 
became  the  Federation  of  the  Jura.  Its  mem- 
bers called  themselves  Federationists,  or  Autono- 
mists, and  stood  for  Bakounin's  extreme  views. 
On  September  28,  1870,  Bakounin  organized 
an  insurrection  at  Lyons,  which  failed.  He  had 
prepared  the  decree  which  was  to  pronounce 
the  abolition  of  the  State,  but,  as 
his  opponent  Marx  said,  two  compa- 
His  Views,  nies  of  bourgeois  national  guards 
were  sufficient  to  send  him  flying 
to  Geneva.  In  a  pamphlet  entitled 
Letters  to  a  frenchman  (September,  1870)  he 
set  forth  the  line  of  action  that  he  wished  to  see 
adopted  by  the  revolutionists  in  France,  and 
which  the  revolution  of  March  18  was,  in  fact, 
about  to  follow  to  the  letter.  The  principal 
points  of  this  program  are  the  following : 
' '  The  insurgent  capital  forms  itself  into  a  com- 
mune. The  federation  of  the  barricades  is 
maintained  in  permanence.  The  communal 


council  is  formed  of  delegates,  one  for  each 
barricade  or  ward,  deputies  who  are  respon- 
sible and  always  revocable.  The  council  chooses 
from  its  members  separate  executive  committees 
for  each  department  of  the  revolutionary  admin- 
istrative of  the  commune.  The  capital  declares 
that,  all  central  government  being  abolished,  it 
renounces  the  government  of  the  provinces.  It 
will  invite  the  other  communes,  both  urban  and 
rural,  to  organize  themselves  '  revolutionarily," 
and  to  send  to  a  place  to  be  named  delegates, 
with  imperative  and  revocable  mandate,  in  order 
to  establish  the  federation  of  the  autonomous 
communes  and  to  organize  the  revolutionary 
force  necessary  to  triumph  over  the  reaction. 
This  organization  is  not  limited  to  the  insur- 
gent country.  Other  provinces  or  countries 
may  join  in  it.  The  communes  which  pronounce 
for  the  reaction  shall  be  excluded  from  it. ' ' 

Failing  in  France,  Bakounin  resorted  to  Italy. 
He  had  already  in  1865  formed  a  group  of  active 
communists  in  Naples,  and  this  became  the 
Neapolitan  group  of  the  International. 

In  a  letter  written  from  Locarno  on  April  5, 
1872,  to  Francesco  Mora,  at  Madrid,  Bakounin 
thus  described  the  socialistic  movement  in  Italy  : 
' '  You  are  doubtless  aware  that  the  International 
and  our  dear  Alliance  have  lately  taken  a  great 
development  in  Italy.  Hitherto  it  was  not  revo- 
lutionary instincts  that  were  wanting,  but  or- 
ganization and  the  revolutionary  idea.  Both 
are  now  established  so  thoroughly  that,  next  to 
Spain,  Italy  is  perhaps  the  most  revolutionary 
country  in  the  world.  There  is  in  Italy  what  is 
wanting  elsewhere — a  youth,  ardent,  energetic, 
without  career,  with  no  outlet,  and  which,  in 
spite  of  their  bourgeois  origin,  are  not  morally 
and  intellectually  worn  out  as  in  other  countries. 
To-day  they  throw  themselves  headlong  into 
revolutionary  socialism,  and  our  whole  program, 
the  program  of  the  Alliance.  Mazzini,  our 
'  genial '  and  powerful  antagonist,  is  dead  and 
the  Mazzinian  party  completely  disorganized  ; 
while  Garibaldi  allows  himself  more  and  more 
to  be  drawn  along  by  this  youth  of  Italy,  who 
bear  his  name  indeed,  but  who  go  ahead  infinite- 
ly faster  and  farther  than  he." 

This  same  year,  however,  Bakounin  was  to 
make  his  break  with  the  Marxian  wing  of  the 
International.  When  the  congress  of  the  Inter- 
national was  to  be  held  in  1872,  Marx  succeeded 
in  having  it  called  at  The  Hague,  where  Bakou- 
nin could  not  come,  since  he  would  have  been 
arrested  in  passing  through  either  France  or 
Germany.  At  the  congress,  therefore,  Marx 
had  it  all  his  own  way.  The  partisans  of  Bakou- 
nin were  defeated,  and  the  general  council  of 
the  International  was  transferred  to  New  York 
City,  to  remove  it  from  the  influence  of  Bakou- 
nin. The  Federation  of  the  Jura  immediately 
raised  the  standard  of  revolt.  They  convoked 
at  St.  Imier  a  separatist  congress,  which  de- 
clared that  it  refused  to  abide  by  the  decisions 
of  The  Hague,  and  that  it  continued  to  consider 
Bakounin  and  Guillaume  as  members  of  the  In- 
ternational. 

In  September,  1873,  both  the  Marxists  and  the 
Autonomists  held  a  congress  at  Geneva,  each 
claiming  to  be  the  true  International.  The 
autonomists  were  the  stronger.  Bakounin  ap- 
peared to  have  conquered.  It  was  the  last  con- 


Bakounin,  Michael. 


117 


Ball,  John. 


gress  of  the  Marxist  International.  The  real 
triumph  of  Marxian  socialism  was  not  then  ap- 
parent. Bakounin  retired  to  Lugano,  in  Italy, 
but  returned  to  Switzerland,  and  died  in  Berne 
July  i,  1876,  Elisee  Reclus,  Paul  Brousse,  J. 
Guillaume,  and  others  gathering  round  his 
grave,  and  uniting  in  October  of  the  same  year 
to  carry  on  his  work,  organizing  the  cause  to 
which  Reclus  later  gave  the  name  of  anarchist- 
communism.  (For  the  future  history  of  that 
movement  see  ANARCHISM.) 

Bakounin  is  said,  by  Reclus,  to  have  been  a 
man  of  great  thought,  strength  of  will,  and  un- 
tiring energy.  By  Felix  Dubois  he  is  described 
as  a  man  of  no  original  thought,  hungry  only 
for  a  notoriety  to  be  obtained  by  any  means. 
He  was  the  embodiment  of  the  revolutionist. 
He  wrote  of  the  International  : 

"  It  desires  a  universal  revolution,  at  once  social, 
philosophical,  economical,  and  political,  in  order  that 
the  existing  order  of  things — which  is  founded  on  prop- 
erty, on  exploitation,  on  the  principle  of  authority, 
whether  religious,  metaphysical,  doctrinaire  after  the 
manner  of  the  bourgeoisie,  or  revolutionary  after  the 
'manner  of  the  Jacobins— may  be  absolutely  over- 
thrown, so  that  not  one  stone  of  it  shall  remain  upon 
another,  first  throughout  Europe,  and  then  in  the  rest 
of  the  world.  Raising  the  cry  of  '  Peace  for  the  work- 
ers! Liberty  for  the  oppressed!'  and  'Death  to  ty- 
rants, exploiters,  and  patrons  of  all  kinds  !'  we  wish  to 
destroy  all  States  and  all  churches,  wjth  all  their  in- 
stitutions and  laws,  religious,  political,  juridical,  finan- 
cial, magisterial,  academical,  economical,  and  social, 
in  order  that  all  these  millions  of  poor  human  beings, 
who  are  cheated,  enslaved,  overworked,  and  exploited 
— having  been  at  last  delivered  from  their  masters  and 
benefactors,  whether  official  or  officious,  whether  asso- 
ciations or  individuals— may  henceforth  and  forever 
breathe  in  absolute  freedom." 

His  ideal  of  the  future  was  not  formulated. 
He  wrote  : 

"  All  reasonings  about  the  future  are  criminal,  be- 
cause they  hinder  destruction  pure  and  simple,  and 
fetter  the  progress  of  the  revolution.  .  .  .  The 
revolutionist  is  a  man  under  a  vow.  He 
ought  to  have  no  personal  interests,  no 
The  Revolt!-  business,  no  feelings,  no  property.  He 
tionist  ought  to  be  entirely  absorbed  in  one 
single  interest,  one  single  thought,  one 
single  passion — the  Revolution.  .  .  . 
He  has  only  one  aim,  one  science— de- 
struction. For  that,  and  for  nothing  else,  he  studies 
mechanics,  physics,  chemistry,  and  sometimes  medi- 
cine. With  the  same  object,  he  observes  men,  charac- 
ters, the  situations,  and  all  the  conditions  of  the  social 
order.  He  despises  and  detests  existing  morality.  For 
him  everything  is  moral  that  helps  on  the  triumph  of 
the  Revolution,  everything  is  immoral  and  criminal 
that  hinders  it.  Between  him  and  society  there  is  war 
—war  to  the  death,  incessant,  irreconcilable.  He  ought 
to  be  ready  to  die,  to  endure  torture,  and  with  his  own 
hands  to  kill  all  who  place  obstacles  in  the  way  of  the 
revolution.  So  much  the  worse  for  him  if  he  has  in 
this  world  any  ties  of  relationship,  of  friendship,  of 
love!  He  is  no  true  revolutionist  if  these  attachments 
stay  his  arm.  Nevertheless,  he  must  live  in  the  midst 
of  society,  feigning  to  be  what  he  is  not.  He  must  pen- 
etrate everywhere  among  the  upper  classes,  as  well  as 
among  the  middle— into  the  merchant's  shop,  into  the 
church,  into  the  Government  offices,  into  the  army, 
into  the  literary  world,  into  the  detective  force,  and 
even  into  the  imperial  palace.  .  .  .  He  must  prepare 
a  list  of  those  who  are  condemned  to  death,  and  dis- 
patch them  in  the  order  of  their  relative  misdoings. 
A  new  member  can  only  be  admitted  into  the  associa- 
tion by  a  unanimous  vote,  and  after  his  qualities  have 
been  proved,  not  by  words  merely,  but  by  deeds. 
Each  "companion"  should  have  under  his  control  sev- 
eral revolutionists  of  the  second  or  third  degree,  not 
wholly  initiated.  He  should  consider  them  as  part  of 
the  revolutionary  capital  placed  at  his  disposal,  and  he 
should  expend  them  economically  and  so  as  to  abstract 
the  greatest  possible  profit  out  of  them.  .  .  .  The 
most  valuable  element  are  women  who  are  completely 
initiated,  and  who  accept  our  whole  program.  With- 
out their  aid  we  can  effect  nothing." 


Bakounin  was  not  a  voluminous  writer.  His 
best  work  is  probably  God  and  the  State,  which 
has  been  translated  by  B.  R.  Tucker  (1883). 
His  other  writings  were  mainly  attacks  upon 
Marx  and  Mazzini,  or  violent  Bulletins  of  the 
Federation  of  the  Jura. 

BALANCE  OF  TRADE,  the  difference  be- 
tween the  amount  or  value  of  the  commodities 
exported  from  and  imported  into  a  country. 
The  balance  is  said  to  be  favorable  to  a  country 
when  the  value  of  its  exports  exceeds  that  of  its 
imports,  and  unfavorable  when  it  is  vice  versa. 
This  is  derived  from  the  old  idea  long  prevalent, 
but  especially  developed  by  the  mercantilists 
(g.v.),  that  wealth  consists  only,  or  at  least  main- 
ly, in  money,  and  that  therefore  that  country 
which  exports  more  commodities  than  it  imports 
must  be  rich,  since  it  receives  money  to  pay  for 
the  excess  of  its  exports.  Clement  Armstrong, 
in  his  Treatise  Concerning  the  Staple  and  the 
Commodities  of  this  Realme  (\<->-y>),  says  :  "  The 
holl  welthe  of  the  realme  is  for  all  our  riche 
commodites  to  gete  owt  of  all  other  realmes, 
therefore  redy  money  ;  and  after  the  money 
is  brought  into  the  holl  realme,  so  shall  all 
peple  in  the  realme  be  made  riche  therwith." 
This  was  the  universal  theory  in  the  middle 
ages,  when  there  was  what  has  been  called  a 
"  balance  of  bargain"  theory,  each  State  striv- 
ing on  every  bargain  to  obtain  a  balance  of 
money.  The  first  real  refutation  of  the  theory 
seems  to  have  been  by  Nicholas  Barbon  in  1690, 
tho  it  remained  largely  accepted  till  the  onslaught 
upon  it  by  Hume  in  his  Essays  (1752),  and 
the  more  calm  and  judicious  analysis  of  Adam 
Smith.  To-day,  when  it  is  seen  that  wealth 
may  consist  in  many  things  besides  money,  the 
absurdity  of  the  theory  is  apparent.  Provided 
that  one  makes  a  favorable  exchange,  it  matters 
little  whether  one  pay  in  money  or  in  com- 
modities. Yet  the  theory,  tho  given  up  by  all 
reputable  economists,  still  occasionally  appears 
in  the  utterances  of  so-called  statesmen  and  the 
Avriters  of  editorials,  from  whom  one  would  look 
for  better  things.  This  assertion  of  the  ab- 
surdity of  the  theory  must  not,  however,  be 
taken  to  deny  that  under  medieval  conditions 
there  was  not  a  certain  advantage  in  receiving 
money  over  other  commodities,  and  that  even 
to-day  the  same  may  hold  for  certain  monetary 
reasons  ;  but  this  is  simply  for  monetary  rea- 
sons, not  for  reasons  of  value  of  exchange  or  de- 
velopment of  wealth.  See  Buckle's  History  of 
Civilization  in  England,  vol.  i.,  pp.  210-212  ; 
J.  Janschull's  English  Free  Trade  (Russian,  i 
part,  Moscow,  1876)  ;  E.  von  Heyking's  Zur 
Geschichte  der  Handelsbilanztheorie  (Berlin, 
1882)  ;  W.  Cunningham's  The  Growth  of  Eng- 
lish Industry  and  Commerce,  p.  362  (1885)  ; 
C.  F.  Bastable's  The  Theory  of  International 
Trade,  p.  164  (Dublin,  1887) ;  G.  Schanz's  Eng- 
lische  Handelspolitik  (1881). 

BALL,  JOHN  (1338-81).  The  importance  of 
John  Ball's  position  in  the  annals  of  social  re- 
form comes  from  his  connection  with  that  move- 
ment which  once  and  for  a  few  moments  only 
made  the  laboring  class  supreme  in  fourteenth 
century  England.  He  was  born  probably  about 
1338,  witnessed  the  Black  Death  while  a  scholar  at 


Ball,  John. 


118 


Ball,  John. 


St.  Mary's,  York,  and  was  ordained  to  the  priest- 
hood not  long  after  1356,  becoming  one  of  the 
class  of  parochial  chaplains,  who  corresponded 
among  the  clergy  to  the  artisan  class  among  the 
laity.  It  was  toward  the  end  of  the  long  reign  of 
Edward  III.  and  about  seven  years  before  Wyc- 
liff e  raised  his  voice  at  Oxford  that  the  ' '  mad 
priest,"  as  it  suited  the  land-owners  to  call  him, 
began  to  prophesy  against  the  evils  of  his  time  ; 
and,  as  John  Richard  Green  has  said,  "in  the 
preaching  of  John  Ball  England  first  listened 
to  the  knell  of  feudalism  and  the  declaration  of 
the  rights  of  man. "  And  England  was  ripe  for 
the  message.  Since  the  troublous  times  under 
Stephen,  nearly  two  centuries  before,  the  land 
had  enjoyed  a  steady  growth  of  material  pros- 
perity, towns  had  increased  in  size,  guilds  of  arti- 
sans, regulating  their  own  affairs,  had  grown  up, 
and  the  class  of  "  free  laborers"  which  had  come 
into  being  was  the  thin  end  of  the  wedge  which 
was  to  destroy  villeinage.  These  changes  re- 
ceived an  impetus  first  from  the  famine  of 
1315-16,  and  again  from  the  Black  Death  in  1348, 
during  which  crises  the  poor  suffered  such  hard- 
ship that  their  numbers  were  greatly  thinned, 
and  their  services  became  more  valuable  in  pro- 
portion to  their  scarcity.  The  landlords  and 
wealthier  craftsmen  of  the  towns  resisted  this 
rise  of  wages,  and  consequently  provoked  the 
first  quite  clearly  marked  conflict  between  capi- 
tal and  labor  in  the  annals  of  English  history. 
At  first  by  royal  proclamation,  and  subsequent- 
ly by  the  repeated  enactments  with  added  penal- 
ties of  the  famous  "  Statute  of  Laborers,"  every 
effort  was  made  to  defeat  the  rising  prosperity 
of  the  artisans  and  peasants.  The  scarcity  of 
workers  also  led  to  attempts,  on  the  part  of  the 
nobles  and  lawyers,  to  reduce  to  serfdom  again 
those  who  had,  in  one  way  or  another,  attain- 
ed their  freedom.  All  this  of  course  tended  to 
raise  bitter  class  feeling  and  active  resistance. 
Successful  revolutions  are  seldom  the  work  of 
starving  men  ;  for  empty  stomachs  are  not  con- 
ducive to  the  clearness  of  vision  necessary  to 
plan  and  carry  out  such  movements.  The  years 
of  prosperity  following  the  Plague  of  1348  had 
done  more  to  open  the  eyes  of  the  peasants  than 
all  the  centuries  of  poor  rations  which  had  gone 
before.  The  spirit  of  independence  had  gone 
abroad,  and  every  resistance  only  fanned  its 
flame. 

Such  were  the  conditions  amid  which  Ball  be- 
gan his  life-work,  and  for  20  years  preached  a 
Lollardry  of  a  coarser  and  more  popular  sort 
than  that  of  Wycliffe.     He  traveled 
from  place  to  place,  and  preached  in 
His  Life,     churchyards  and  from  the  market 
crosses  to  crowds,  which  were  ever 
increasing  as  he  incurred  the  great- 
er displeasure  of  the  authorities.     He  insisted 
on  the  necessity  of  marriage,  on   a  voluntary 
priesthood,  on  the  in  justice  of  demanding  tithes 
from  poor  men  ;  and  he  particularly  denounced 
those  who  were  trying  to  'force  the  villeins  back 
into  their  condition  before  the   Black  Death. 
He  was  accused  before  the  authorities  of  mani- 
fold errors,  and  of  stirring  up  strife,  and  was  re- 
buked by  Islip,  the  Archbishop  of  Canterbury, 
and  excommunicated,  while  working  in  his  dio- 
cese, by  the  Bishop  of  Norwich.  From  the  head- 
quarters which  he  maintained  in  Essex  his  work 


extended  in  all  directions,  and  he  gradually  be- 
came the  recognized  head  of  an  ever-growing 
labor  party,  whose  sections  in  the  different  parts 
of  the  country  were  united  by  a  great  band  of 
itinerant  priests,  whose  office  enabled  them  to 
travel  unsuspected  in  every  direction.  While 
all  this  was  going  on  events  were  rapidly  pre- 
paring the  way  for  insurrection.  The  peasants 
were  filled  with  what  Professor  Rogers  calls  a 
"religious  socialism."  The  actual  outbreak 
was  delayed  by  several  causes,  for  the  leaders 
were  loth  to  provoke  an  appeal  to  arms,  tho 
as  early  as  1375  they  seem  to  have  decided  that 
it  would  ultimately  be  necessary.  Between  1375 
and  1377  riots  were  frequent,  and  the  people 
were  held  back  with  great  difficulty.  Then  Ed- 
ward III.  died,  and  the  hopes  of  the  popular 
party  for  a  better  state  of  things  were  revived 
for  a  short  time,  while  the  troubles  with  the 
French  helped  to  distract  attention  from  the 
troubles  at  home.  But  when  defeat  abroad 
added  to  misery  at  home  was  capped  by  a  fresh 
tax  levy,  to  which  the  poor  were  compelled  to 
contribute  as  much  as  the  rich,  the  suffering 
became  unbearable.  In  the  early  part  of  1381 
Ball  began  sending  letters  to  his  party  every- 
where, saying  that  the  time  for  action  had  come. 
In  April  he  was  imprisoned,  first  in  Maidstone 
jail  and  then  in  the  Archbishop's  palace  at  Can- 
terbury ;  but  his  plans  were  too 
well  laid  to  be  so  frustrated,  and  in 
June  the  storm  burst.  The  people  Wat  Tyler's 
rose  simultaneously  in  all  parts  of  Rebellion. 
the  country.  Canterbury,  where 
' '  the  whole  town  was  of  their  sort, ' ' 
was  thrown  open  to  the  insurgents,  who  plun- 
dered the  Archbishop's  palace  and  released  Ball, 
who  thenceforth  became  the  heart  of  the  move- 
ment, as  Wat  Tyler  was  its  military  head. 
Then  they  moved  on  London,  occupied  Black- 
heath  and  Southwark,  and  sent  their  demands 
to  the  king,  at  the  same  time  crossing  the  Bridge 
and  burning  the  new  palace  of  the  hated  John 
of  Gaunt  and  the  hospital  of  St.  John.  The  best 
of  order  and  discipline  were  maintained  ;  gold 
and  silver  vessels  they  smashed  with  axes,  jewels 
they  brayed  ;  they  stole  nothing.  This  was  on 
June  11-13.  On  the  i4th  the  insurgents  insisted 
on  a  conference  with  the  king,  and  he  came  forth 
from  the  Tower,  and  met  them  almost  alone  at 
Mile  End,  giving  assent  to  their  demand :  "  We 
will  that  you  make  us  free  forever,  ourselves, 
our  heirs,  and  our  lands  ;  and  that  we  be  no 
more  bond,  or  so  reputed."  He  set  clerks  at 
work  writing  charters  of  manumission ,  and  giv- 
ing these  to  them,  he  bade  them  go  home  at 
once,  which  many  did,  thus  weakening  their 
strength  through  division.  On  the  isth,  while 
Tyler  was  conferring  with  the  king  alone,  and 
under  the  protection  of  a  safe-conduct,  he  was 
murdered  by  Wai  worth,  the  mayor,  and  the 
rebels,  having  lost  their  chief  and  leader,  fell 
into  the  stratagem  of  the  king,  who  put  himself 
at  their  head  and  persuaded  them  to  leave  Lon- 
don altogether.  Ball  seems  to  have  made  an 
unsuccessful  attempt  to  rally  the  peasants  again  ; 
but,  being  caught  at  Coventry,  was  hung,  drawn, 
and  quartered,  after  the  fashion  of  the  time. 
"  The  peasants  were  dispersed  and  defeated," 
says  Professor  Rogers ;  "  their  leaders  were 
tried,  sentenced,  and  hanged  ;  but  the  solid 


Ball,  John. 


119 


Bands  of  Hope. 


fruits  of  victory  rested  with  the  insurgents  of 
J  une ,  1 3  8 1 .  Once  in  the  history  of  England  only 
— once,  perhaps,  only  in  the  history  of  the  world 
— peasants  and  artisans  attempted  to  effect  a 
revolution  by  force.  They  nearly  succeeded — 
at  least  they  became  for  a  short  time  the  masters 
of  the  situation.  That  they  would  have  held  the 
advantages  they  gained  at  Mile  End,  had  they 
provided  against  the  tragedy  of  Smithfield,  is  im- 
probable. But  they  caused  such  terror  by  what 
they  actually  did  that  they  gained  all  they 
claimed,  and  that  speedily.  The  English  labor- 
er, for  a  century  or  more,  became  virtually  free 
and  constantly  prosperous. ' ' 

FRANCIS  WATTS  LEE. 

References :  English  Social  Reformers,  by  H.  de  B. 
Gibbins  (London,  1892) ;  A  Dream  ofjohn  Ball,  by  Will- 
iam Morris  (London,  1888)  ;  English  Popular  Leaders, 
by  C.  E.  Maurice  (London,  1872) ;  in  an  article  or\.John 
Ball,  by  James  Gairdner,  in  Stephen's  Dictionary  of 
National  Biography  (London,  1885),  and  in  An  Intro- 
duction to  English  Economic  History  and  Theory,  by 
W.  J.  Ashley  (London,  1893),  a  less  favorable  view  is 
taken. 

BALLOU,  ADIN  (1803-90),  was  born  in  Cum- 
berland, R.  I.  His  family  was  of  Norman-French 
origin.  His  ancestor,  Maturin  Ballou,  in  1646 
aided  in  founding  the  city  of  Providence,  R.  I. 
Adin  Ballou's  parents  were  Ariel  and  Edilda, 
formerly  Tower.  In  1822  he  married  Abigail 
Sayles,  who  died  February,  1829.  On  March  3, 
1830,  he  married  Lucy  Hunt. 

At  1 1  years  of  age  Adin  Ballou  felt  a  fervor  of 
the  Divine  spirit,  and  year  by  year  it  developed, 
and  at  1 8  he  preached  his  first  discourse.  He 
became  a  Universalist,  and  was  listened  to  with 
the  closest  attention.  He  published  many  books 
and  pamphlets,  and  edited  many  papers  on 
mainly  reformatory  subjects.  In  1841  he  was 
the  founder  of  the  Hopedale  Community  (q.v.), 
in  Massachusetts,  which,  as  long  as  it  remained 
tinder  the  management  of  Mr.  Ballou,  succeeded 
in  doing  the  good  it  started  out  to  accomplish. 
He  did  remain  at  its  head  for  over  10  years,  but 
was  finally  superseded  by  an  intriguing  busi- 
ness man,  who  got  the  lead  and  ruined  the  com- 
munity. Mr.  Ballou,  however,  lived  on  in  quiet 
life  until  1890.  (For  his  views,  see  HOPEDALE.) 

"BALTIMORE  PLAN,"  THE.— The  pro- 
posed currency  reform  known  as  the  "  Baltimore 
plan"  received  its  name  from  having  been  pro- 
posed at  the  annual  convention  of  the  American 
Association  of  Bankers  on  October  n,  1894,  by 
the  Clearing  House  Association  of  Baltimore, 
as  a  body  representing  the  banking  interests  of 
that  city. 

The  "  Baltimore  plan"  is  briefly  outlined  as 
follows  by  the  editor  of  the  Engineering  Maga- 
zine in  an  introductory  paragraph  to  two  ad- 
dresses delivered  before  the  convention,  which 
he  publishes  :  "  It  provides  that  bond  security 
for  national  bank-notes  shall  be  abolished  ;  that 
the  banks  shall  be  permitted  to  issue  circulating 
notes  up  to  50  per  cent,  of  their  paid-up  capital 
(and  under  emergency  conditions  an  additional 
25  per  cent,  may  be  named) ;  that  the  notes  of 
failed  banks  are  to  be  paid  out  of  a  '  Guarantee 
Fund,'  created  by  an  annual  tax  on  all  national 
bank-notes  sufficient  to  cover  such  failures  ;  that 
the  Government  shall  have  a  prior  lien  upon  the 
assets  of  each  failed  bank  and  upon  the  liabili- 


ties of  shareholders,  for  the  purpose  of  restoring 
the  amount  withdrawn  from  the  '  Guarantee 
Fund  '  for  the  redemption  of  its  circulation  ; 
and  otherwise  that  the  redemption  of  all  na- 
tional bank-notes  and  the  close  scrutiny  of  all 
national  banking  affairs  shall  be  carried  on  by 
the  Government  as  at  present. ' '  It  will  be  seen 
that  practically  the  only  change  proposed  is  the 
substitution  of  a  guarantee  fund  for  Government 
bonds  as  security.  From  this  fund,  which,  as 
is  specified  in  the  plan,  shall  be  equal  to  5  per 
cent,  of  the  outstanding  circulation,  the  Govern- 
ment is  to  redeem  notes  of  failed  banks.  (See 
BANKS  AND  BANKING.) 

BANDS  OF  HOPE. — Temperance  organiza- 
tions for  juveniles,  established  in  great  numbers 
throughout  all  the  English-speaking  countries, 
frequently  as  departments  of  church  and  Sun- 
day-school work.  In  the  United  States  the 
name  "  Band  of  Hope"  has  been  generally 
changed  to  "  Loyal  Temperance  Legion,"  al- 
tho  some  local  organizations  are  continued 
under  the  old  name.  The  Band  of  Hope  pledge 
in  this  country  is  as  follows  : 

"  I  hereby  solemnly  pledge  myself  to  abstain 
from  the  use  of  all  intoxicating  drinks,  includ- 
ing wine,  beer,  and  cider,  as  a  beverage  ;  from 
the  use  of  tobacco  in  every  form,  and  from  all 
profanity. ' ' 

Concerning  the  Bands  of  Hope  of  the  United 
Kingdom,  the  editorial  secretary  gives  the  fol- 
lowing information  in  the  Cyclopedia  of  Tem- 
perance and  Prohibition  : 

"  The  first  society  called  a  Band  of  Hope  was  formed 
in  England  in  October,  1847.  Temperance  societies  for 
children  and  young  people,  on  a  distinctly  total  ab- 
stinence basis,  had  existed,  however,  many  years 
earlier,  both  in  the  British  Isles  and  the  United  States. 
The  origin  of  the  first  Band  of  Hope  must  be  jointly  at- 
tributed to  the  efforts  of  Mrs.  Carlile,  of  Dublin,  and 
the  Rev.  Jabez  Tunnicliff,  a  Baptist  minister  of  Leeds. 
In  August,  1847,  Mrs.  Carlile  visited  Leeds  to  address 
children  in  Sunday  and  day-schools  on  the  subject  of 
temperance.  Mr.  Tunnicliff,  who  had  occasionally  ac- 
companied Mrs.  Carlile  in  her  visits  to  the  schools, 
felt  convinced  that  unless  something  was  done  to  fol- 
low up  her  labor  it  would  be  largely  lost.  Accordingly, 
before  Mrs.  Carlile  left  Leeds,  a  meeting  was  called, 
an  organization  was  formed,  a  name  was  adopted,  and 
a  committee  was  appointed  to  perfect  the  plan.  The 
first  Band  of  Hope  meeting  was  held  late  in  October, 
when  about  300  children  sat  down  to  tea,  more  than  200 
of  them  taking  the  following  pledge  : 

"  '  I  promise  to  abstain  from  all  intoxicating  drinks 
as  beverages.' 

"  The  movement  spread  nowhere  with  greater  suc- 
cess than  in  the  county  of  its  birth,  where  at  the  pres- 
ent time  there  are  probably  over  2000  juvenile  temper- 
ance societies  of  one  kind  or  other.  In  1851  the  first 
Band  of  Hope  Union  was  formed.  A  Union  for  London 
was  established  in  1855,  which  in  1864  became  the 
'  United  Kingdom  Band  of  Hope  Union.'  County 
unions  rapidly  followed,  and  now  cover  the  greater 
part  of  England.  The  United  Kingdom  Band  of  Hope 
Union,  with  which  the  various  organizations  are  asso- 
ciated, aims  at  furthering  the  interests  of  the  whole 
movement  throughout  the  country.  It  assists  local 
unions  and  societies  by  means  of  its  lecturers  and  dep- 
utations, by  public  meetings,  conferences,  missionary 
efforts,  literature,  correspondence,  and  advice.  Its 
sphere  of  work  is  in  Bands  of  Hope,  Sunday-schools, 
day-schools,  colleges,  orphan  asylums,  industrial  and 
district  schools,  training  ships,  reformatories,  and  the 
homes  of  the  children.  Its  latest  and  most  important 
effort  is  the  'school  scheme,'  by  which,  through  the 
kindness  of  munificent  friends, the  committee  is  enabled 
to  devote  ^2000  per  annum  for  the  next  five  years  to  the 
delivery  of  scientific  lectures  and  addresses  in  day- 
schools,  and  to  other  important  educational  work." 

The  latest  estimate  of  the  strength  of  the 
movement,  compiled  from  the  best  available 


Bands  of  Hope. 


Bank  of  England. 


data,  shows  that  there  are  nearly  15,000  Bands 
of  Hope  and  juvenile  temperance  organizations 
in  England,  Scotland,  Wales,  and  Ireland,  with 
upward  of  1,800,000  members. 

BANK    OF    AMSTERDAM,    THE,   was 

founded  in  1609,  and  was  long  the  great  ware- 
house for  coin  and  bullion  in  Europe.  It  was 
at  first  simply  the  custodian  of  the  coin  and 
bullion  deposited  in  it,  for  which  it  gave  re- 
ceipts which  could  be  transferred  from  hand  to 
hand.  Later,  the  bank  began  the  practice  of 
making  advances  upon  deposits,  or  giving  credit 
upon  its  books,  usually  to  the  amount  of  about 
5  per  cent,  below  the  mint  price  of  the  bullion 
deposited.  This  practice  eventually  occasioned 
its  ruin,  because  the  bank  made  large  advances 
to  the  Dutch  East  India  Company  and  certain 
provinces  in  Holland,  and  during  the  French 
occupation  of  the  last  part  of  the  last  century  it 
was  found  insolvent.  The  city  of  Amsterdam 
finally  paid  off  those  who  had  the  paper  of  the 
bank  ;  but  though  effort  was  made  to  revive  it, 
it  closed  in  1820.  Adam  Smith  gives  a  full  ac- 
count of  the  Bank  of  Amsterdam.  He  says 
(Wealth  of  Nations,  Book  iv.,  chap,  iii.) : 
"  Before  1609  the  great  quantity  of  clipped  and 
worn  foreign  coin  which  the  extensive  trade  of 
Amsterdam  brought  from  all  parts  of  Europe 
reduced  the  value  of  its  currency  about  9  per 
cent,  below  that  of  good  money  fresh  from  the 
mint.  Such  money  no  sooner  appeared  than  it 
was  melted  down  or  carried  away,  as  it  always 
is  in  such  circumstances.  The  merchants,  with 
plenty  of  currency,  could  not  always  find  a  suf- 
ficient quantity  of  good  money  to  pay  their  bills 
of  exchange  ;  and  the  value  of  those  bills,  in 
spite  of  general  regulations  which  were  made  to 
prevent  it,  became  in  a  great  measure  uncertain. 
' '  In  order  to  remedy  these  inconveniences,  a 
bank  was  established  in  1609  under  the  guaranty 
of  the  city.  This  bank  received  both  foreign 
coin  and  the  light  and  worn  coin  of  the  country 
at  its  real  intrinsic  value  in  the  good  standard 
money  of  the  country,  deducting  only  so  much 
as  was  necessary  for  defraying  the  expense  of 
coinage  and  the  other  necessary  expense  of 
management.  For  the  value  which  remained, 
after  this  small  deduction  was  made,  it  gave  a 
credit  in  its  books.  This  credit  was  called  bank 
money,  which,  as  it  represented  money  exactly 
according  to  the  standard  of  the  mint,  was  al- 
ways of  the  same  real  value  and  intrinsically 
worth  more  than  current  money.  It  was  at  the 
same  time  enacted  that  all  bills  drawn  upon  or 
negotiated  at  Amsterdam  of  the  value  of  600 
guilders  and  upward  should  be  paid  in  bank 
money,  which  at  once  took  away  all  uncertainty 
in  the  value  of  those  bills.  .  .  .  These  deposits 
of  coin,  or  those  deposits  which  the  bank  was 
bound  to  restore  in  coin,  constituted  the  original 
capital  of  the  bank.  ...  At  present  they  are 
supposed  to  constitute  but  a  very  small  part  of 
it.  In  order  to  facilitate  the  trade  in  bullion,  the 
bank  has  been  for  these  many  years  in  practice 
of  giving  credit  on  its  books  upon  deposits  of 
gold  and  silver  bullion." 

BANK  OF  ENGLAND,  THE,  was  estab- 
lished in  1694  by  act  of  Parliament  (William  and 
Mary,  V.  c.  20),  having  been  projected  by  Will- 


iam Paterson,  a  Scotchman,  then  resident  in 
London,  who  had  carried  on  a  business  with 
America.  Its  establishment  grew  out  of  the 
Government's  need  of  money.  Certain  sub- 
scribers were  ready  to  loan  the  Government 
.£1, 200,000,  and  to  do  this  were  incorporated  for 
1 1  years  as  the  Governor  and  Company  of  the 
Bank  of  England,  and  received  8  per  cent,  on 
the  loan  besides  £4000  a  year  for  the  expenses 
of  management.  The  bank  was  authorized  to 
issue  notes,  to  make  advances  on  merchandise, 
to  deal  in  bills  and  bullion,  and  to  own  property 
in  any  form.  It  was  only  to  deal  in  bills  and 
bullion.  In  1696  the  bank  was  compelled  tem- 
porarily to  suspend  payments,  but  recovered, 
and  in  1697  was  allowed  to  enlarge  its  capital  by 
,£1,001,171,  and  to  double  this  in  1708.  Its  char- 
ter has  been  continually  renewed  by  various 
acts  of  1697,  1708,  1713,  1742,  1764,  1781,  1800, 
1833,  1844,  1861.  In  1708  it  was  given  many 
exclusive  privileges,  so  that  no  other  joint  stock 
bank  was  founded  in  England  till  after  the  legis- 
lation of  1826.  The  bank  suffered  severely  from 
a  panic  in  1745.  Its  capital  has  seldom  differed 
materially  from  its  permanent  advance  to  the 
public. 

The  main  event  in  the  history  of  the  Bank  of 
England  till  the  enactment  of  the  Bank  Act  was. 
its  suspension  of  specie  payments  from  1797- 
1821.     This  portion  of  its  history  we 
abridge  from  Professor  Syme's  Po- 
litical Economy :  History. 

In  1 796  England  had  been  for  three 
years  engaged  in  a  great  war  with 
France.  The  fear  of  an  invasion  had  just  caused 
a  run  on  many  country  banks.  These  had  with- 
drawn their  reserves  from  the  Bank  of  England, 
and  in  1797  the  spare  reserve  in  that  institution 
sank  to  about  .£1,000,000.  The  Government  in- 
tervened, and  an  act  of  Parliament  was  speedily 
passed  which  forbade  the  bank  from  paying  in 
specie  except  in  certain  specified  cases.  This  of 
course  made  the  Bank  of  England  notes  incon- 
vertible. But  the  firmness  and  prudence  of 
those  at  whose  discretion  these  notes  could  be 
issued  kept  the  paper  up  to  its  full  nominal  value 
in  gold  for  n  years  (1797-1808).  Then  a  depre- 
ciation began,  and  by  the  year  1814  the  price  of 
gold  (in  notes)  increased  from  £3  17^.  io^d.  to 
£$  45.  per  oz.  The  close  of  the  war  led  at  once 
to  a  fall  in  the  premium  on  gold  ;  in  fact,  the 
premium  began  to  fall  as  soon  as  a  speedy  ter- 
mination of  the  war  became  pretty  certain.  A 
bill  was  passed  requiring  that  all  notes  should 
be  convertible  at  full  nominal  value  from  May 
i,  1823.  As  a  matter  of  fact,  the  bank  had  re- 
turned to  full  specie  payment  over  a  year  before 
this. 

The  Bank  Charter  Act  of  1844  was  introduced 
by  Sir  Robert  Peel.  Its  fundamental  object 
was  to  limit  the  power  of  banks  to  issue  notes. 
By  it  the  Bank  of  England  was  only  allowed  to- 
have  ^14,000,000  worth  of  notes  in  circulation, 
in  addition  to  its  actual  gold  reserve  ;  but  when 
any  other  bank,  having  the  power  to  issue  notes, 
ceased  to  exist,  the  Bank  of  England  was  to  be 
allowed  to  increase  its  note  circulation  by  not 
more  than  two  thirds  of  what  the  dead  bank 
had  been  allowed  to  circulate.  Other  London 
banks  and  all  banks  started  after  the  passing 
of  the  act  were  prohibited  from  issuing  notes. 


Bank  of  England. 


121 


Bank  of  England. 


Those  provincial  banks  -which  existed  when  the 
act  was  passed  were  allowed  to  continue  issuing 
up  to  what  had  been  their  ordinary 
outstanding  note  circulation.  The 
Bank  Charter  Scotch  and  Irish  banks  were  fur- 
Act  of  1844.  ther  allowed  an  additional  note  cir- 
culation equivalent  to  the  amount 
of  specie  they  held. 

Under  the  provisions  of  this  act  the  total  note 
circulation  of  the  United  Kingdom  is  now  limit- 
ed to  about  ^31,000,000  in  addition  to  the  actual 
reserves  in  the  Bank  of  England  and  the  Scotch 
and  Irish  banks.  In  1 845  came  the  failure  of  the 
Irish  potato  crop.  It  was  some  time  before  the 
effect  began  to  be  felt.  But  by  the  January  of 
1847  the  bullion  in  the  Bank  of  England  had 
sunk  below  ^14,000,000,  as  against  over  £16,- 
000,000  in  the  August  of  1846.  The  bank  now 
raised  its  rate  from  3  to  3^  per  cent.,  and  then, 
finding  the  drain  on  its  reserves  continued, 
there  was  a  further  raising  to  4  per  cent. 
Nevertheless,  by  April  the  reserve  was  below 
,£10,000,000. 

The  rate  was  again  raised,  this  time  to  5  per 
cent.  Meanwhile,  in  1846  there  was  a  second 
failure  of  the  potato  crop  ;  and  in  most  parts  of 
Europe  the  harvest  was  bad.  Agricultural 
prices  were  higher  than  they  had  been  for  34 
years.  There  was  consequently  mnch  specula- 
tion in  corn,  which  temporarily  inflated  credit. 
But  the  large  importations  forced  on  a  heavy  fall 
in  the  price  of  wheat,  which  ruined  many  of  the 
speculators.  On  August  9,  Leslie,  Alexander  & 
Co.  failed  with  liabilities  of  about  .£500,000.  On 
the  nth  a  couple  of  other  firms  failed,  each  with 
liabilities  of  about  ^200,000.  Others  quickly  fol- 
lowed. Within  three  weeks  there  were  failures  to 
the  amount  of  over  ,£3,000,000  in  the  corn  trade. 
By  the  middle  of  September  the  ruin  had  begun 
to  extend  to  other  trades.  The  extent  to  which 
capital  had  been  locked  up  in  railways  intensi- 
fied the  evil.  The  bank  not  only  raised  its  rate 
to  5^  per  cent.,  but  refused  to  lend  on  what 
would  ordinarily  have  been  regarded  as  good 
security.  Toward  the  end  of  October  banks 
began  to  fail.  On  October  18  the  Royal  Bank 
of  Liverpool  had  to  close  its  doors.  This  brought 
down  two  other  Liverpool  banks.  In  Newcastle, 
in  Manchester,  and  in  other  West  of  England 
places  bank  failures  occurred.  Consternation 
spread  through  the  mercantile  world.  At  length 
the  Bank  Act  was  suspended,  and  the  mere 
knowledge  that  the  Bank  of  England  was  free 
to  issue  notes  at  its  discretion  sufficed  to  stop 
the  panic.  The  bank  rate  was  now  8  per  cent.  ; 
but  the  bank  lent  freely,  at  high  rates  when  the 
security  was  good,  and  so  saved  a  number  of 
firms  that  would  otherwise  have  fallen. 

In  1857  there  was  another  panic.     Trade  had 

been  overstimulated  by  the  Crimean  War  and 

railway  building,  especially  in  America.    In  New 

York  City  62  banks  out  of  63  stopped  payment. 

Many  English  houses  failed.    The  scenes  of  1847 

were  repeated  on  a  worse  scale.     The  balance 

in  the  Bank  of  England  sank  below 

.£500,000.     The  bank  rate  rose  to 

November,  10  per  cent.  But  for  the  suspen- 
1857.  sion  of  the  Act  of  1844  the  Bank  of 
England  must  have  closed  its  doors 
on  November  13,  1857.  The  sus- 
pension of  the  act  was  once  more  followed  by  a 


cessation  of  the  panic,  but  not  till  notes  had 
been  issued  considerably  in  excess  of  what  had 
been  the  limit  under  the  act.  Then  the  cycle 
began  again.  A  period  of  stagnation  was  again 
followed  by  a  period  of  revival,  which  developed 
into  one  of  overspeculation,  till  the  crash  of  1866, 
since  when  there  has  been  no  suspension  of  the 
Bank  Act. 

It  is  asserted  by  believers  in  a  paper  cur- 
rency that  the  Bank  of  England  has  suspend- 
ed 52  times,  and  only  been  saved  by  reverting 
to  paper.  On  the  other  hand,  it  is  denied  that 
it  has  suspended  since  1832,  and  it  is  claimed 
that  only  the  Bank  Act  has  been  suspended. 
Professor  William  Sumner,  in  a  note  to  his  His- 
tory of  American  Currency,  p.  137,  explains 
that  the  run  on  the  bank  in  a  panic  is  not  for 
gold,  but  for  notes — i.e. ,  for  discounts.  If,  how- 
ever, there  is  an  export  of  gold  at  the  time,  the 
notes  are  taken  to  the  issue  department  and 
gold  demanded.  According  to  the  charter,  the 
bank  can  circulate  only  $15,000,000  in  notes  on 
government  security,  and  for  all  other  notes  it 
must  have  gold,  sovereign  for  sovereign.  If, 
therefore,  there  is  a  drain  on  its  bullion,  it  must 
contract  or  keep  all  notes  handed  in  for  gold. 
This  heightens  the  panic.  The  action  of  the 
Government  is  to  allow  the  bank  to  disregard 
the  clause  governing  circulation.  It  promises 
to  ask  Parliament  for  indemnity.  The  bank 
then  discounts  freely  for  solvent  parties,  but  at 
high  rates.  This  always  kills  the  panic  as  panic. 

By  the  act  or  charter  of  1844  the  bank  was 
divided  into  two  departments,  the  issue  and  the 
banking.  The  sole  business  of  the  issue  depart- 
ment of  the  Bank  of  England  is  to 
give  out  notes  to  the  public.  Before 
the  separation  of  the  departments  Method  of 
the  Government  owed  the  bank  Working. 
^"11,015,100.  This  sum  was  declared 
to  be  now  due  to  the  issue  depart- 
ment, and  for  the  issues  of  notes  to  that  amount 
it  need  hold  no  gold.  This  was  the  same  as  if 
the  bank  had  originally  lent  .£11,015,100  of  its 
notes  to  government,  and  these  notes  had  gone 
into  circulation.  The  bank  was  also  allowed  to 
issue  additional  notes  on  securities — the  limit  at 
present  amounting  to  ^3,984,900,  and  this  also 
without  holding  gold.  The  amount  of  notes 
which  may  thus  be  issued,  without  gold  being 
in  reserve  against  it,  is  .£15,000,000.  All  notes 
above  that  amount  can  be  issued  only  in  ex- 
change for  gold.  When  the  act  was  passed  in 
1844,  the  limit  of  notes  to  be  issued  against  the 
Government  debt  and  securities  was  fixed  at 
.£14,000,000,  for  experience  indicated  that  there 
would  always  be  at  least  that  amount  of  notes 
of  the  bank  circulating  among  the  people.  The 
addition  of  the  ;£i, 000,000  is  an  extra  issue, 
authorized  by  an  act,  in  consequence  of  certain 
banks  of  issue  having  since  given  up  that  func- 
tion. The  bank  has  to  account  to  the  Govern- 
ment for  the  net  profit  of  this  issue  loan  of  notes  of 
.£1,000,000,  and  the  profit  the  bank  derives  from 
its  issue  department  is  the  interest  received  on 
the  .£14,000,000  of  Government  debt  and  securi- 
ties, which,  at  3  per  cent.,  is  ^420  yearly.  But 
put  of  this  the  bank  pays  to  the  Government,  for 
its  banking  privileges,  and  in  lieu  of  stamp 
duties,  ;£i  80,000.  If  the  expense  of  the  issue 
department  is  .£160,000,  the  net  profit  upon  it 


Bank  of  England. 


122 


Bank  of  Genoa. 


would  be  .£80,000.  The  bank  also  makes  a  profit 
upon  bullion  and  foreign  coin.  These  are 
brought  to  the  bank  for  notes  ;  they  are  worth 
,£3  i-js.  io%d.  per  oz.  ;  but  the  bank  is  obliged 
by  its  charter  to  purchase  them  at  £3  ijs.  yd. 
The  holders  prefer  this  to  having  their  bullion 
and  foreign  coin  coined,  free  of  charge,  at  the 
public  mint,  as  the  delay  in  the  coining  is  equal 
to  a  loss  of  interest  of  i  %d.  per  oz.  The  aver- 
age amount  of  notes  in  the  hands  of  the  public 
is  about  .£25,000,000  ;  but  the  amount  issued  by 
the  issue  department  is  greater.  The  difference 
is  the  amount  lying  in  the  banking  department, 
and  represents  the  reserve  of  gold  of  that  depart- 
ment— that  is  to  say,  the  banking  department 
retains  only  ,£500,000  or  ^750,000  of  coin,  and 
transfers  the  bulk  of  its  reserve  to  the  issue  de- 
partment in  exchange  for  notes.  We  must, 
therefore,  regard  the  reserve  of  the  banking 
department  as  gold,  though  in  the  shape  of 
notes  issued  by  the  other  department. 

Viewed  in  its  banking  department,  the  bank 
differs  from  other  banks  in  having  the  manage- 
ment of  the  public  debt,  and  paying  the  divi- 
dends on  it ;  in  holding  the  deposits  belonging 
to  the  Government,  and  making  advances  to  it 
when  necessary  ;  in  aiding  in  the  collection  of 
the  public  revenue,  and  in  being  the  bank  of 
other  banks  ;  above  all,  its  issues  are  the  only 
ones  that  are  legal  tender.  For  the  manage- 
ment of  the  public  debt  the  bank  receives  about 
.£247,000,  against  which  there  has  to  be  set 
,£124,000  of  charges.  The  remaining  profits  of 
the  bank  are  derived  from  its  use  of  its  deposits, 
on  which  it  allows  no  interest,  and  of  its  own 
capital.  The  capital  was  originally  £1,200,000  ; 
in  1816  it  reached  .£14,553,000.  There  is  be- 
sides a  remainder  of  about  .£3,500,000.  _The 
bank  is  situated  in  the  center  of  London,  but 
has  branches  in  the  city  and  provinces.  Its 
constitution  is  very  simple.  It  has  a  governor, 
deputy  governor,  and  24  directors,  mainly  chosen 
from  firms  engaged  in  negotiating  foreign  and 
other  loans.  The  directors  are  practically  self- 
elected. 

References:  Lombard  Street,  by  \V.  Bagehot  (Lon- 
don, 1873) ;  English  Manual  of  Banking,  bv  Arthur 
Crump  (1886):  Chapters  on  History  and  Theory  of 
Banking,  by  C.  F.  Dunbar  (New  York,  1891). 

BANK  OF  FRANCE,  THE,  the  most  im- 
portant banking  institution  in  that  country,  was 
founded  in  1800  as  a  private  company,  and  made 

g-actically  a  State  bank,  through  the  law  of  24 
erminal  An.  xi.  of  the  First  Republic  (April 
14,  1803).  A  law  of  April  22,  1806,  placed  it  on 
its  existing  footing.  Its  original  capital  of  45 ,- 
000,000  frs.  was  raised  to  90,000,000  frs.  divided 
into  90,000  shares,  and  has  been  increased  since. 
Its  governor  is  appointed  by  the  State  ;  its  coun- 
cil are  elected  by  the  200  largest  stockholders. 
The  bank  has  now  94  branches  (succursales)  in 
France. 

Through  the  Bureau  de  Virements  it  per- 
forms the  functions  of  the  clearing  house, 
and  it  facilitates  the  transmission  of  money  be- 
tween the  towns  in  which  the  branches  are 
situated  and  the  head  office. 

The  Bank  of  France  can  pay  its  obligations 
either  in  gold  or  silver  of  legal  tender — i.e.,  in 
silver  pieces  of  five  frs.  It  is  claimed  that  this 
tends  to  maintain  a  comparatively  even  rate  of 


discount,  even  in  the  foreign  exchanges,  favor- 
able to  the  export  of  gold.  The  number  of 
changes  since  1844  has  been  less  than  either 
with  the  Bank  of  England  or  of  Germany.  Con- 
cerning the  interesting  and  instructive  experi- 
ence of  the  Bank  of  France  during  the  Franco- 
Prussian  War,  Mr.  L.  H.  Courtney  writes  in  the 
Encyclopedia  Britannica : 

"The  war  of  1870-71  could  not  but  have  an  important 
influence  on  the  operations  of  the  bank.  Successive 
governments  resorted  to  it  for  assistance,  which  was 
obtained  by  increasing  the  issue  of  its  notes  and  by 
giving  them  a  forced  currency.  The  rate  of  interest, 
which  had  been  2%  per  cent,  from  May,  1867,  rapidly 
rose  to  6  and  6%,  at  which  it  remained  with  scarcely 
any  variation  from  August  q,  1870,  till  late  in  the  year 
1872.  The  rate  would  probably  have  risen  much 
higher,  but  on  August  13  a  law  was 
approved  suspending  the  liability  of 
the  acceptors  of  bills  current  to  meet  Trranco.prtis- 
them  at  maturity,  and  this  suspension  •**  m 
was  renewed  until  it  was  finally  with-  Sian  War. 
drawn  in  July,  1871.  The  amount  of  un- 
paid bills  held  by  the  bank  reached  a 
maximum  of  368,000,000  frs.,  but  the  ultimate  loss 
was  extremely  small.  On  June  23,  1870,  the  metal- 
lic reserve  at  the  bank  was  1318)$  millions  of  frs., 
which  was  reduced  to  a  minimum  of  505,000,000  on 
December  24  of  the  same  year.  The  notes  in  circu- 
lation before  the  war  had  been  about  1,400,000,000 
frs. ;  but  before  the  end  of  the  year  1870  their  volume 
had  increased  to  1,700,000,000  ;  and  this  again  rose  to 
2,000,000,000  before  July,  1871,  and  to  2,400,000,000  before 
the  end  of  1871.  A  law  of  December  29,  1871,  fixed 
the  maximum  at  2,800,000,000,  which  was  finally 
raised  on  July  15,  1872,  to  a  maximum  of  3,200,000,000. 
The  debt  of  the  State  to  the  bank  increased  concur- 
rently with  this  increase  of  issues,  which  was,  indeed, 
authorized  for  the  purpose  of  enabling  the  bank  to  as- 
sist the  treasury.  On  December  26,  1870,  the  bank 
held  treasury  '  bons '  to  the  extent  of  174,800,000  frs. 
only,  but  on  November  30,  1871,  it  held  1,193,600,000 
of  these  'bons,'  and  in  August,  1872,  the  amount 
reached  1,363,100,000  frs.  A  law  of  June  21,  1871, 
followed  by  an  agreement  between  the  bank  and  the 
Government,  provided  for  the  repayment  of  this  debt 
in  annual  payments  of  200,000,000,  but  up  to  this  time 
(August,  1875)  the  income  of  the  State  has  never  been 
large  enough  to  provide  the  whole  of  this  sinking  fund. 
The  bank  has,  however,  been  able  to  increase  its  me- 
tallic reserve  through  the  liquidation  of  securities  and 
the  accumulation  of  deposits  ;  so  that,  after  having 
been  reduced,  as  we  have  said,  to  505,000,000  in  Decem- 
ber, 1870,  and  not  attaining  to  more  than  634,000,000  in 
December,  1871,  it  rose  in  the  same  month  of  1872  to 
793,000,000,  in  1873  to  820,000,000,  and  in  1874  to  i,  331,000,000, 
or  just  the  amount  at  which  it  stood  before  the  declara- 
tion of  war.  Its  volume  has,  however,  continued  to  in- 
crease, and  on  March  25  of  this  year  (1875)  it  stood 
at  1,528,000,000  ;  and  the  forced  currency  of  the  notes  of 
the  bank  might  be  at  any  time  withdrawn.  It  must  be 
admitted  that  the  management  of  the  bank  throughout 
these  years  of  difficulty  has  been  eminently  prudent 
and  successful." 

BANK  OF  GENOA,  THE,  was  organized 
in  the  form  in  which  it  is  generally  known,  in 
1407.  Like  the  Bank  of  Venice,  it  was  a  bank 
principally  of  deposit  and  circulation.  It  was 
the  financial  center  of  the  Genoese  republic, 
and  in  it  all  the  transactions  in  the  public  funds 
were  carried  on.  Anderson  says  (Origin  of 
Commerce,  vol.  i.  p.  319)  that  in  1345  the  repub- 
lic of  Genoa  had  ' '  run  so  considerably  into  debt 
to  her  own  citizens  that  in  this  year  four  of 
them  were  elected  to  make  provision  for  those 
debts,  and  for  the  current  service  of  the  year." 
They  were  so  successful  that,  according  to  the 
same  author,  "  managing  their  stock  prudently, 
and  having  many  rich  men  concerned  with 
them,  they  afterward  supplied  the  further  ne- 
cessities of  the  republic  ;  and  for  that  end  had 
at  length  most  of  the  cities  and  territories  of 
Genoa  pawned,  or,  rather,  sold  to  them  ;"  .  .  . 


Bank  of  Genoa. 


I23 


Bank  of  Venice.  - 


and  (p.  414) :  "  In  proportion  as  the  wants  of  the 
republic  increased,  so  did  the  credit  of  this 
house  or  bank,  by  having  still  more  bonds, 
rents,  and  important  dominions  assigned  to  it." 
In  Michelet's  phrase,  Genoa  was  almost  a  bank 
before  a  city,  and  the  name  of  the  bank  of  St. 
George  known  through  all  Europe.  The  bank 
finally  lost  its  credit  through  the  Austrian  occu- 
pation of  1740  and  the  French  of  1800,  both  oc- 
cupants appropriating  its  property. 

BANK  OF  GERMANY,  THE  IMPE- 
RIAL.— Altho  this  bank  does  not  occupy  to  other 
German  banks  so  high  a  position  as  the  national 
banks  of  other  countries,  it  is  still  high.  The 
present  constitution  of  the  Bank  of  Germany 
was  fixed  by  the  Bank  Act  of  1875,  when  the 
Bank  of  Prussia  was  merged  in  the  Imperial 
Bank.  In  1890  it  had  243  offices  in  close  work- 
ing with  the  government.  ' '  The  Bank  of  Ger- 
many," says  Professor  Dunbar,  "is  permitted 
to  add  to  its  circulation  against  securities  the 
issue  of  any  other  issuing  bank  whose  circula- 
tion drops.  It  is  likewise  permitted  to  exceed 
the  legal  limit,  called  in  Germany  the  Reserve  of 
Notes  Tax,  free,  on  payment  of  a  fine  of  5  per 
cent,  per  annum  on  the  total  excess  issue. 
This  had  occurred  three  times  during  the  first 
ten  years  since  the  passing  of  the  act  in  1875, 
and  on  none  of  these  occasions  was  the  rate  of 
discount  raised  during  the  period  of  excess  issue, 
nor  was  any  extra  pressure  felt  during  the  time. 
To  those  conversant  with  the  effect  experienced 
when  the  Bank  Act  of  1844  has  had  to  be  sus- 
pended in  England,  the  smoothness  with  which 
this  arrangement  acts  will  be  a  matter  of  inter- 
est. The  automatic  operation  of  the  German 
Bank  Act  certainly  works  well  in  that  country, 
and  though  the  different  circumstances  of  busi- 
ness there  do  not  admit  of  an  exact  comparison 
with  England,  the  question  deserves  more  at- 
tention than  has  been  given  it.  The  Bank  of 
Germany  is,  even  more  distinctly  than  the  Bank 
of  France,  essentially  a  'State  bank.'  The 
distribution  of  the  profits  (law  of  December  18, 
1889)  is  as  follows  :  3"^  per  cent,  to  the  share- 
holders, then  20  per  cent,  of  the  balance  to  re- 
serve, till  it  reaches  one  fourth  of  the  capital  ; 
of  the  remainder  half  to  the  State  and  half  to 
the  shareholders,  till  they  have  received  six  per 
cent.  If  there  is  any  further  surplus,  three 
quarters  goes  to  the  State  and  one  quarter  to  the 
shareholders.  The  first  3^  per  cent.,  if  need 
be,  may  be  made  up  from  the  reserve.  The 
German  emperor  appoints  the  president  and 
council  of  the  bank  directory,  whose  office  is 
for  life,  on  the  recommendation  of  the  federal 
council.  The  government  also,  through  the 
chancellor  of  the  empire,  exercises  other  powers 
of  control,  and  has  the  right  to  end  the  existence 
of  the  bank,  or  to  acquire  its  capital  at  its  full 
value  at  the  end  of  every  ten  years,  commenc- 
ing 1891.  The  shareholders  influence  the  man- 
agement through  a  committee.  As  in  the  case 
of  the  Bank  of  France,  the  arrangements  as  to 
rates  of  interest  are  uniform  over  the  whole  field 
of  operation,  and  the  facilities  given  by  this, 
and  by  the  action  of  the  bank  in  the  discount  of 
commercial  paper,  as  well  as  by  the  transmis- 
sion of  cash,  etc.,  have  given  a  great  impetus  to 
the  prosperity  of  the  empire.  There  are  many 


other  banks  in  Germany  besides  the  Imperial 
Bank,  some  of  which  issue  notes.  This  privi- 
lege has,  however,  been  relinquished  to  a  con- 
siderable extent,  owing  to  the  restrictions  im- 
posed on  all  banks  of  issue." 

BANK  OF  HAMBURG,  THE,  was  found- 
ed in  1619  on  the  model  of  that  of  Amsterdam 
(q.v.).  It  carried  on  its  business  under  the  pro- 
tection of  the  city,  and  was  one  of  the  main 
causes  of  the  great  commercial  prosperity  of 
Hamburg,  in  its  leadership  of  the  Hanseatic 
League.  It  was  a  place  of  deposit  for  the  pre- 
cious metals,  principally  uncoined  silver.  Adam 
Smith  says  that  its  agio  was  about  14  per  cent. 
It  continued  to  flourish  down  to  1875,  when  it 
became  a  department  of  the  Bank  of  Germany 
(g.v.). 

BANK  OF  VENICE,  THE.— Concerning 
the  origin  of  this  famous  bank,  which  has  played 
such  an  important  part  in  monetary  discussion, 
authorities  are  disagreed,  altho  their  disagree- 
ment depends  mainly  upon  the  use  they  give  to 
words.  According  to  some,  the  Bank  of  Venice 
dates  from  1171,  and  according  to  others,  from 
1619.  This  is  because  the  latter  authorities  deny 
that  up  to  1619  it  was  a  bank  in  any  modern  or 
correct  sense  of  the  word.  Nevertheless,  whether 
a  bank  or  not,  it  seems  clear  that  in  1171  the  re- 
public of  Venice,  in  need  of  funds,  in  connec- 
tion with  the  Crusades,  made  a  forced  loan,  and 
that  an  office  or  chamber  for  the  loan  was  cre- 
ated, the  contributors  to  the  loan  receiving  in- 
terest. The  bank,  if  bank  this  was,  had  no 
capital,  and  was  simply  a  bank  of  deposit. 
Other  such  loans  were  made  in  1480,  1510,  and 
at  other  times.  The  contributors  to  the  loan, 
and,  later,  other  contributors,  were  given  credit 
at  the  bank,  and  their  deposits  could  be  trans- 
ferred at  their  pleasure  on  the  books  of  the 
bank.  In  the  great  confusion  and  complexity 
of  the  coins  of  all  nations  circulating  in  Venice, 
owing  to  its  large  commerce,  these  bank  credits, 
transferred  on  the  books  of  the  bank,  came  to 
be  preferred  to  coin.  They  were  received  as 
money  by  the  public  treasury,  and  after  1423  it 
was  decreed  that  all  bills  of  exchange  payable 
in  Venice,  whether  domestic  or  foreign,  should 
be  paid  unless  otherwise  expressed  in  the  bank. 
In  1619  it  was  changed  into  the  Banco  del  Giro, 
long  known  as  the  Bank  of  Venice,  which  date 
some  authorities  give  as  that  of  the  real  founda- 
tion of  the  bank.  The  history  of  the  Bank  of 
Venice  has  been  written  by  Stephen  Colwell  in 
his  Ways  and  Means  of  Payment,  and  from 
this  book  believers  in  fiat  money  have  drawn  a 
strong  argument  in  support  of  their  views,  altho 
these  conclusions  are  severely  criticised  by  their 
opponents.  Thus,  Mr.  B.  S.  Heath,  in  his  Labor 
and  Finance  Revolution,  says  (p.  101)  : 

"  Stephen  Colwell's  digest  of  14  authorities  leads  to 
the  following  deductions,  as  will  be  seen  by  perusal  of 
his  able  work  : 

"i.  It  proves  that  there  was  a  national  bank  of  Venice 
founded  on  a  loan  of  2,000,000  ducats  spent  by  the  State 
in  1171,  and  the  bank  existed  within  the  memory  of 
living  men,  a  period  of  626  years,  during  which  time  it 
was  gradually  enlarged  over  700  per  cent. 

"  2.  That  A.D.  1423  it  was  modified  by  law  to  prevent 
fluctuation. 

"  3.  That  the  4  per  cent,  interest  previously  paid  was 
abolished. 

"  4.  That  all  promise  of  reimbursement,  other  than 
transfer  of  credit  receipts,  was  abolished. 


Bank  of  Venice. 


124 


Banks,  Rev.  Louis  Albert,  D.D. 


"  5.  That  the  nation  '  took  the  coin  of  its  loans  one 
time  for  all '  in  the  nation's  bank,  giving  a  credit  re- 
ceipt only. 

"  6.  That  no  coin  was  kept  as  a  specie  basis  of  credit, 
or  for  strengthening  the  nation.  They  were  immedi- 
ately paid  out. 

"7.  That  no  promise  to  pay  any  coin  was  made  after 
1423,  for  nearly  400  years  of  its  continuance. 

"8.  That  this  'fiat '  or  legal  credit  was  that  in  which 
all  coins  were  expressed— the  fixed  standard  of  pay- 
ment— and  thus  the  principal  money  of  account ;  specie 
being  for  retail  coin  or  export  commodity  and  legal 
tender  at  20  per  cent,  discount. 

"9.  That  the  premium  fixed  by  law  of  20  per  cent. 
premium  over  the  Venetian  gold  ducat,  so  celebrated 
For  its  fineness  in  export,  was  a  real  superiority  of 
legal  money  of  account  over  the  commodity  gold,  and 
over  gold  currency. 

"  10.  That  it  was  not  dependent  on  any  promise  of 
convertibility  or  redemption  in  gold,  as  no  claim  for 
any  gold  was  acknowledged  in  the  National  Bank. 

"  ii.  That  it  continued  for  nearly  400  years  with  all 
these  extraordinary  attributes,  producing  no  financial 
derangements  and  no  opposition  ;  but,  on  the  contrary, 
grew  until  it  exceeded  the  money  per  capita  of  any 
nation  in  Europe,  ancient  and  modern,  and  was  the 
pride  of  Venice,  the  envy  of  Europe. 

"12.  That  it  only  fell  when  Napoleon  conquered 
Venice,  when  it  had  reached  an  issue  exceeding  $16,- 
000,000  of  government  creditor  money  for  200,000  peo- 
ple, excluding  the  dependencies  of  Venice. 

•'  13.  That  Napoleon  could  not  and  did  not  find  a 
ducat  in  its  vaufts,  as  there  had  never  been  a  pretense 
of  any.  That  he  would  have  taken  gold  if  it  was  there 
is  clear,  and  thus  have  been  strengthened  to  further 
enslave  Venice. 

"14.  That  the  interest  alone  saved  on  each  million 
ducats  was  $6,250,000,000,000  at  4  per  cent,  for  400  years, 
savings-bank  interest." 

On  the  other  hand,  Professor  Dunbar,  in  Pal- 
grave's  Dictionary  of  Political  Economy,  gives 
an  account  different  in  several  essential  points. 
According  to  him,  the  bank  was  simply  a  bank 
of  deposit  under  public  officers.  In  1619  it  was 
changed  into  the  Banco  del  Giro,  long  known  as 
the  Bank  of  Venice.  It  received  funds  both  for 
the  State  and  individuals,  making  a  small  charge 
for  holding  private  deposits.  Transfers  were 
made  upon  the  books  by  the  order  of  depositors  ; 
bills  of  exchange  were  paid,  and  the  tender  of 
payment  for  any  sum  not  less  than  100  ducats 
could  not  be  refused.  Loans  to  the  government 
compelled  it  to  suspend  more  than  once,  espe- 
cially from  1717-39.  For  the  greater  part  of  its 
existence,  however,  it  received  or  paid  out  cash 
on  demand.  It  kept  its  accounts  in  ducats  banco, 
which  had  no  corresponding  coin,  but  were 
credited  or  redeemed  by  the  bank  as  might  be 
required  at  an  advance  of  20  per  cent,  above 
the  ducat  effective  of  the  mint.  Whatever 
be  the  origin  of  this,  it  seems  finally  to  have 
represented  a  mere  difference  of  denomination. 
The  bank  was  so  successful  that  in  1766  it  was 
able  to  reduce  the  interest  on  its  funds  to  4  per 
cent.,  at  the  same  time  offering  payment  of 
their  principal  to  those  who  were  unwilling  to 
accept  that  rate. 

BANKRUPTCY,  the  state  of  being  bank- 
rupt or  insolvent ;  in  law  specifically,  the  status 
of  a  person  or  corporation  that  by  reason  of  in- 
solvency has  been  adjudicated  a  bankrupt. 
Bankruptcy  laws  are  statutory  regulations 
under  which  the  property  of  an  insolvent  may 
be  distributed  among  his  creditors,  with  the 
double  object  of  enforcing  a  complete  discovery 
and  an  equitable  distribution  of  the  property, 
and  of  discharging  the  debtor  from  his  obliga- 
tions and  from  future  molestations  by  his  cred- 
itors. Such  laws  have  existed  in  England  from 


the  time  of  Henry  VIII.  In  the  United  States, 
Congress  has  power  by  the  Constitution  (Art. 
i,  Sec.  8,  clause  4)  to  establish  such  laws  through 
the  United  States. 

As  the  States  also  have  the  right  to  pass  sim- 
ilar laws  affecting  their  own  citizens  whenever 
there  is  no  national  law  on  the  subject  in  force, 
it  is  customary  to  distinguish  between  national 
and  State  laws  by  calling  the  former  bankrupt 
and  the  latter  insolvent  laws.  Three  times  only 
in  the  history  of  the  government  has  there  ex- 
isted a  bankrupt  law.  The  first  was  passed  in 
1800  and  was  repealed  in  1803  ;  the  second  be- 
came law  in  1841,  and  was  taken  from  the  stat- 
ute books  in  1843  ;  the  third  had  the  longest 
life  :  it  became  law  March  2,  1867,  and  was  re- 
pealed on  June  7,  1878,  the  repeal  to  take  effect 
September  i  of  that  year.  There  is  at  present 
a  considerable  demand  for  another  bankrupt 
law  to  secure  uniformity  throughout  the  coun- 
try. 

Mulhall  gives  the  following  averages  of  fail- 
ures in  the  United  States  : 


Average 
Failures. 

Amount  per 
Failure. 

^7,100 

1.830 

5,800 

4,882 

6,  100 

1876-80   .          

4,100 

X88i  86  

8,823 

3,200 

!88g         .                .        .          

2,400 

According  to  the  World  A  Imanac,  the  figures 
being  taken  from  Bradstreef  s  returns,  the  fail- 
ures in  the  United  States  since  1889  have  been 
as  follows  : 


Failures. 

Liabilities. 

a 

$175,032,810 

1891    

12,394 

193,178,000 

FAILURES  FOR  FIRST  NINE  MONTHS. 
1892 7.378 -$76,971.77' 

1893 ".I74 324.087,768 

According  to  Mulhall,  the  failures  in  England 
averaged  : 

1870-72 6,030    1879-81 11.052 

1873-75 7.766    1882-84 7.263 

1876-78 10,077    1885-88 4.587 

BANKS,   REV.  LOUIS  ALBERT,  D.D., 

was  born  at  Cornwallis,  Ore.,  in  1855.  He  was 
educated  in  the  public  schools  and  at  Philomath 
College  of  that  State.  In  1883  he- was  ordained 
an  elder  in  the  Oregon  Conference  of  the  M.  E. 
Church,  and  has  since  served  pastorates  at  Port- 
land, Ore.,  Boise  City,  Ida.,  Vancouver  and 
Seattle,  Wash.,  and  Cincinnati,  O.  Since  1886 
he  has  been  a  pastor  in  the  East,  where  he  has 
had  marked  success.  While  in  Vancouver  he 
edited  the  Pacific  Censor,  State  organ  of  the 
Washington  Temperance  Alliance,  and  so  en- 
raged the  liquor  dealers  that  in  June  of  1880 
he  was  shot  down  on  the  streets  by  one  of  their 
agents.  For  two  months  he  preached  reclining 


Banks,  Rev.  Louis  Albert,  D.D. 


125 


Banks  and  Banking. 


across  chairs  to  eager  crowds.  He  has  been  a 
close  student  of  the  labor  problems,  his  revela- 
tions as  to  the  Boston  sweat  shops  bringing  him 
national  reputation.  He  is  the  author  of  White 
Slaves,  in  which  he  published  the  results  of  his 
sweat-shop  investigations.  At  the  State  Con- 
vention of  Massachusetts  Prohibitionists,  held 
September  8,  1893,  at  Worcester,  he  was  nomi- 
nated for  governor. 

BANKS  AND  BANKING.— A  bank  may 
be  defined  as  an  institution  for  receiving  money 
at  or  without  interest,  for  loaning,  discounting, 
or  transmitting  money,  and  sometimes  for  issu- 
ing notes.  Banking  is  the  business  carried  on 
by  a  bank.  The  banking  institutions  of  the 
United  States  may  be  classed  as  national  and 
State  banks,  savings-banks,  private  banks  or 
bankers,  cooperative  banks,  and  loan  and  trust 
companies.  (See  SAVINGS  BANKS  ;  COOPERATIVE 
BANKS  ;  CURRENCY.) 

I.  GENERAL  HISTORY. 

The  name  ' '  bank* '  is  derived  from  the  Italian 
banco,  a  bench,  from  the  benches  in  the  mar- 
kets on  which  the  early  money-changers  were 
wont  to  sit.  Jeremy  Taylor  says,  "  Exchangers 
of  money  made  the  temple  to  be  the  market  and 
the  banke"  (Great  Exemplar,  vol.  ii.,  chap.  2). 
Passing  by  obscure  references  to 
money-lenders  and  usurers  on  As- 
Early  Banks.  Syrian  tablets  in  Egyptian  records 
and  classic  and  sacred  literature,  the 
history  of  banking  begins  with  the 
Bank  of  Venice,  and  is  continued  in  the  history  of 
the  Banks  of  Genoa,  Amsterdam,  Hamburg,  and 
the  Bank  of  England,  accounts  of  all  of  which 
will  be  found  under  their  respective  names. 

We  present  here  a  general  account  of  banking 
in  Europe,  and  then  a  more  detailed  account  of 
banking  in  England  and  the  United  States. 
Altho  the  Bank  of  Venice  was  perhaps  the  first 
real  bank,  the  origin  of  modern  banking  is  large- 
ly to  be  found  in  Florence. 

Mr.  Macleod  says  (Banking,  vol.  i. ,  p.  289)  : 

"  The  names  of  the  Bardi,  Acciajuoli,  Peruzzi, 
Pitti,  and  Medici  were  famous  throughout  Eu- 
rope. In  1345  the  Bardi  and  the  Peruzzi,  the 
two  greatest  mercantile  houses  in  Italy,  failed. 
Edward  III.  owed  the  Bardi  900,000  gold  florins, 
which  his  war  with  France  prevented  him  pay- 
ing ;  and  the  King  of  Sicily  owed  them  100,000 
gold  florins.  The  deposits  of  citizens  and  stran- 
gers with  the  Bardi  were  550,000  gold  florins. 
The  Peruzzi  were  owed  600,000  gold  florins  by 
Edward  III.  and  100,000  by  the  King  of  Sicily, 
and  the  deposits  they  owed  their  customers  were 
350,000  gold  florins.  The  fall  of  these  two  great 
pillars  of  credit  involved  that  of  multitudes  of 
other  smaller  establishments,  and,  says  Villani 
(Istor.  Fiorent.,  vol.  xii.,  p.  55),  the  community 
of  Florence  had  never  been  thrown  into  such 
ruin  and  disorder  before.  And  thereupon  he 
breaks  put  against  the  folly  of  his  fellow-citizens 
entrusting  their  money  to  the  care  of  others  for 
the  love  of  gain.  The  city,  however,  recovered 
from  this  terrible  disaster,  and  we  find  that  be- 
tween 1430-33,  76  bankers  at  Florence  lent  4,865, - 
ooo  gold  florins.  At  one  time  Florence  is  said 
to  have  had  80  bankers,  but  not  any  public 
bank. ' ' 


European 
Banking. 


The  first  bank  to  be  established  on  really  mod- 
ern principles  as  a  bank  issuing  notes  payable 
to  bearers  at  sight  is  the  Bank  of 
Sweden,   established  by  a  Swede  „     ...       .  , 
named    Palmstruck,  in    1656.     Its  Continental 
first  bank-note  was  issued  in  1658. 
His  bank  became  the  Riks  Bank 
(Bank  of  Sweden)  in  1688.     It  still 
carries  on  business  in  Sweden  as  the  national 
bank. 

Banking  in  Germany,  save  for  the  great  Bank 
of  Hamburg,  presents  little  of  interest.  Each 
German  State  had  its  own  banking  laws  and 
banks  of  issue,  confined  mainly  to  its  own  neigh- 
borhood. After  the  unification  of  the  empire — 
an  act  of  1875 — the  Bank  of  Germany  (q.'v.')  was 
established,  and  32  banks  were  recognized  as 
possessing  rights  of  uncovered  issue  of  135,000,- 
ooo  marks,  the  bank  of  Germany  being  allowed 
250,000,000  marks.  The  State  itself  has  the 
right  of  issue  of  120,000,000  marks  in  small  de- 
nominations. German  banking  has  now  a  capi- 
tal of  $425,000,000  a»d  deposits  of  $730,000,000. 
The  amount  of  issue  is  $320,000,000,  and  it  has 
$295,000,000  of  specie  in  safe. 

France  has  many  large  banks  besides  the 
Bank  of  France  (g.v.},  among  others  the  Comp- 
toir  d'Escompte,  founded  1848  ;  the  Credit  Fon- 
cier  and  Credit  Mobilier,  1852  ;  the  Credit  Lyon- 
nais,  1863  ;  the  Societe  Generale,  1864. 

The  capital  in  French  banking  is  $601 ,000,000  ; 
deposits,  $640,000,000  ;  issue,  $607,000,000  ;  spe- 
cie in  safe,  $505,000,000. 

England  has  many  old  banks.  Says  Mr.  Cour- 
teney  :  "  The  still  existing  bank  of  Messrs. 
Smith  &  Co.,  of  Nottingham,  the  parent  of  the 
London  establishment  of  Messrs. 
Smith,  Payne  &  Smiths,  claims  to 
have  been  established  in  1688  ;  the 
Bristol  Old  Bank  (Messrs.  Baillie, 
Cave  &  Co.)  dates  from  1750  ;  the 
Hull  Old  Bank  (Messrs.  Pease  & 
Co.)  from  1754  ;  and  many  other 
country  banks  trace  back  their  history  to  the  lat- 
ter half  of  the  last  century.  It  is  believed  that 
all  these  bankers  issued  their  own  notes  payable 
to  bearer  as  part  of  their  business  ;  and  they 
were  not  very  scrupulous  in  regard  to  the  mag- 
nitude of  the  sums  for  which  they  were  given. 
The  Bank  of  England  had  not  issued  any  notes 
for  less  than  ^20  previously  to  1759,  when  it  com- 
menced the  issue  of  £10  notes  ;  but  the  country 
bankers  put  in  circulation  notes  for  such  small 
sums,  that  Parliament  enacted,  in  1775,  that  none 
should  be  issued  for  less  than  £i.  In  1777  this 
minimum  limit  was  further  raised  to  £$,  but  in 
spite  of  this  restriction  the  number  and  the 
amount  of  the  issues  of  the  country  bankers 
soon  become  dangerously  multiplied. ' ' 

In  1792  there  were  said  to  have  been  350 
banks.  In  the  panic  of  1792-93  (see  BANK  OF 
ENGLAND),  about  300  banks  suspended  payments, 
and  50  were  totally  destroyed.  After  the  panic, 
however,  banks  gradually  multiplied  till  1825, 
when  the  circulation  of  notes  of  less  than  ^5 
was  forbidden.  Joint-stock  banks  with  any 
number  of  partners  were  allowed  to  issue,  but 
did  not  multiply  again  till  1834-36,  when  there 
was  a  rush  into  banking,  leading  to  the  passage 
of  the  Banking  Act  of  1844  (see  BANK  OF  ENG- 
LAND). Of  present  English  banking,  Professor 


Banking 

in 
England. 


Banks  and  Banking. 


126 


Banks  and  Banking. 


Dunbar  gives  the  following  statement  in  Pal- 
grave's  Dictionary  of  Political  Economy  : 

"  The  majority  of  the  banks  in 
England  and  Wales,  including  the 
Present  largest  and  most  important  banks, 
Condition,  do  not  issue  their  own  notes.  The 
act  of  1844  fixed  the  maximum 
circulation  of  the  country  banks 
in  England  and  Wales  at  £s>i53,4i7  (207) 
private  banks,  .£3,478,230  (72)  joint-stock  banks  ; 
but  of  this  amount,  ,£2,368,960  (126)  private 
banks,  and  £1,462,470  (35)  joint-stock  banks, 
have  since  lapsed  from  various  causes,  vol- 
untary and  other,  so  that  the  limit  of  the  pro- 
vincial issues  now  (1890)  stands  at  £2,784,457 
(74)  private  banks,  £2,015,760  (37)  joint-stock 
banks.  In  addition  to  these  there  are  67  private 
and  43  joint-stock  provincial  banks  which  do 
not  issue  their  own  notes.  The  different  banks 
vary  much  in  size  and  importance.  By  the  side 
of  very  large  banks,  wielding  immense  amounts 
of  capital  and  deposits,  very  small  concerns,  pos- 
sessing proportionally  small  resources,  may  be 
found  carrying  on  business  to  advantage,  and 
competing  successfully  with  their  more  powerful 
rivals.  One  result,  and  it  is  a  very  peculiar 
one,  of  the  manner  in  which  our  banking  sys- 
tem has  developed  itself,  employing  the  Bank  of 
England  as  the  pivot  of  its  transactions,  is  that 
no  bank  in  the  country  keeps  any  large  stock 
of  the  precious  metals  in  reserve — more,  in 
fact,  than  habit  has  shown  to  be  adequate  for 
daily  requirements — except  the  Bank  of  Eng- 
land. " 

The    earliest   banking  institution    in   North 
Britain  was  the  Bank  of  Scotland,  instituted  by 
a  charter  of  incorporation  from  the  Scots  Parlia- 
ment in  1695.    The  original  capital  was  £1,200,- 
ooo  Scots,  or  £100,000  sterling.      In   1774  the 
amount  of    stock    was    extended    to  £200,000 
sterling;  now  it  is  £1,250,000  sterling.     In  1727 
a  new  and  similar  establishment  was  constituted 
under  the  title  of  the  Royal  Bank 
of  Scotland,  whose  advanced  capi- 
Banks  in    tal  is  now  £2,000,000.     In  1746  an- 
Scotland.     other  association  was  formed  and  in- 
corporated by  royal  charter,  with  the 
title  of  the  British  Linen  Company. 
No  legislature,  however,  prevented  the  prac- 
tice of  any  kind  of  banking,  and  Scotch  banking 


Ireland  and 
English 
Colonies. 


developed  in  ways  of  its  own.  Early  in  the 
present  century  joint-stock  banks  were  formed, 
and  the  old  private  banks  became  absorbed  in. 
these.  They  are  not  many  in  number.  By  an 
act  of  1845  no  banks  established  after  that  date 
could  issue  notes — a  condition  which  has  given 
the  old  banks  a  practical  monopoly,  tho  they 
have  adapted  themselves  to  the  needs  of  the 
country  by  establishing  many  branches.  In  1890 
there  were  only  10,  but  with  nearly  a  thousand 
branches.  Their  average  circulation  was  £6,- 
278,000,  and  their  deposits  about  £89,000,000. 
They  all  possess  the  power  of  circulation,  and 
since  they  allow  interest  on  deposits,  they  hold 
almost  the  whole  capital  of  the  country,  but  are 
uniformly  well  conducted. 

Banking  in  Ireland  has  few  distinctive  charac- 
teristics.   There  are  (1895)  nine  banks  in  Ireland, 
whose  total  deposits  in  1890  were 
about  £39,000,000.     The   Bank  of 
Ireland  has  an  authorized  circula- 
tion  of  £3,738,428.     The  deposits 
in  the  banks  of  the  Australian  colo- 
nies,  in    1890   were    £108,000,000, 
being  largely  the  conduit  pipes    for   English 
capital. 

The  history  of  currency  and  banking  in  Can- 
ada has  four  periods  :  (i)  the  French  regime  ; 
(2)  from  the  beginning  of  British  government 
until  the  establishment  of  the  first 
banks,  1817-18  ;  (3)  to  the  confed- 
eration of  the  provinces  and  the 
banks  being  organized  under  pro- 
vinical  and  royal  charters  ;  (4)  since 
1867,  when  the  Dominion  Parliament  has  had 
exclusive  jurisdiction  regarding  banking. 

No  reserves  are  required  by  law,  but  the  cash 
reserve  in  gold  and  legal  tenders  averages  about 
10  per  cent.  The  larger  banks  keep  their  avail- 
able reserves  in  security  loans  in  New  York  and 
Chicago.  Forty  per  cent,  of  the  cash  reserves 
must  be  in  Dominion  legal  tenders.  The  banks, 
since  confederation,  have  provided  a  currency 
readily  convertible  into  specie,  the  volume  ris- 
ing and  falling  some  20  per  cent,  with  the  re- 
quirements of  trade,  largely  affected  by  the  sea- 
sons. 

The  following,  from  the  report  of  the  Comp- 
troller of  Currency  of  the  United  States  for 
1892,  gives  a 


Canada. 


SUMMARY  OF  THE  CONDITION  OF  THE  THIRTY-NINE  CHARTERED  BANKS  OF  THE  DOMINION  OF  CANADA,  ON 

OCTOBER  31,  1892. 


RESOURCES. 

LIABILITIES. 

Mortgages  on  real  estate  

$846,797 
20,392,077 
194,123,365 
2,372)527 
2,452,155 
1,761,259 
3,328,496 
8,523,980 
8,137,590 
28,119,162 
5,740,229 
8,954,339 
6,708,841 
11,813,254 

1,643,493 
1,425,966 

$6i,8o9,37» 
24,832,474 
38,688,429. 
2,524,785 
3.993,38i 
66,427,727 
99,934,970- 
7,922,9ga 
209,394 

Loans  on  bonds  and  stocks  

Reserve  fund  

Loans  to  the  Canadian  Provinces  

Due  to  the  Dominion  Government  
Due  to  the  Provincial  Governments  

Overdue  debts  

Deposits  to  secure  circulation  

Dominion  bonds  

Canadian  municipal,  etc.,  securities  
Railway  securities  

Due  to  other  banks  and  agencies  

Due  from  other  banks  and  agencies  
Real  estate  and  bank  premises. 

Total  liabilities 

Notes  of  and  checks  on  other  banks  

Other  resources  

Excess  of  liabilities  

Total  resources  

$306,343,530 

$306,343,530 

Banks  and  Banking. 


127 


Banks  and  Banking. 


II.  BANKING  IN"  THE   UNITED  STATES    TO   THE 
PERIOD  OF  THE  WAR  OF  THE  REBELLION. 

This  section  of  the  history  of  banking  in  the 
United  States  is  abridged  from  Professor  W.  G. 
Sumner's  History  of  American  Currency,  sup- 
plemented by  statistics  from  the  reports  of  the 
Comptroller  of  the  Currency. 

As  early  as  1690  the  colony  of  Massachusetts 
issued  bills  of  credit,  making  the  paper  legal 
tender  for  taxes  and  other  debts,  the  notes  being 
payable  to  the  bearer  on  demand. 
This  was  five  years  before  the  es- 
Colonial     tablishment  of  the  Bank  of  Eng- 
Period.      land  ;  and  William  Paterson,  the 
father  of  that  bank,  had  been  in  the 
colonies  and  studied  the  Massachu- 
setts experiment.     This  issuing  of  bills  of  credit 
was  repeated  with    various    modifications    by 
Massachusetts  and  the  other  colonies  through 
all  their  history  ;  but  as  it  comes  rather  under 
the  history  of  currency  than  of  banking  proper, 
we  refer  the  reader  for  all  details  of  the  ante- 
revolutionary  period  to  CURRENCY. 

We  may  simply  note,  however,  that  in  1739 
a  land  bank  and  a  specie  bank,  according  to 
modern  banking  methods,  were  started  in 
Massachusetts.  The  latter,  however,  closed  in 
1740,  when  Parliament  extended  the  old  Joint- 
Stock  Companies'  Act  (passed  after  'the  South 
Sea  Bubble,  1720)  to  the  colonies  ;  the  former 
bank,  however,  struggling  and  battling  for  its 
life  for  the  next  ten  years. 

December  31,  1781,  Congress  chartered  the 
Bank  of  North   America  in   Philadelphia.     It 
had  a  capital  of  $400,000,  and  took  its  origin  in 
a    union    of    citizens   of   Philadel- 
phia, formed    to  supply  the  army 
Bank  of     with  rations.     They  were  allowed 
North       to  form  a  bank  and  to  issue  notes 
America,     to  buy  the  articles  required.     Con- 
gress ordered  bills  drawn  on  Ameri- 
can   ministers    abroad    to    be  de- 
posited in  the  bank  as  a  guarantee  of  payment  ; 
$70,000  in  specie  were  subscribed  by  individuals 
in  1782,  and  the  remainder  by  Government,  out 
of  the  proceeds  of  a  foreign  loan.     It  issued 
convertible  notes,  redeemable  in  Spanish  dol- 
lars ;  but  the  people  were  slow  to  take  them. 
However,  it  made  large  dividends,  and  was  at- 
tacked by  a  rival,  which  it  was  obliged  to  ab- 
sorb, and  by  an  effort  to  have  its  charter  re- 
pealed.   This  effort  succeeded  so  far  as  the  State 
charter  was  concerned  ;  but  it  went  on  under 
the  charter  of  the  Continental  Congress,  till  it 
was  rechartered  by  Pennsylvania. 

The  first  bank  of  the  United  States  under  the 
Constitution  was  chartered  by  Congress  in  1791. 
The  capital  was  $10,000,000.  One  fifth  of  the 
stock  was  owned  by  the  United  States  and 
$8,000,000  by  the  people.  Six  of  the  eight  mill- 
ions were  Government  indebtedness  ;  and  $2,- 
000,000,  money.  Notes  of  the  bank  were  made 
receivable  for  all  obligations  due  the  Government 
for  20  years,  or  during  the  life  of  the  charter. 
The  bank  always  paid  coin  when  demanded,  but 
the  notes  were  legal  tender  to  the  Government, 
and,  therefore,  satisfactory  to  the  people,  wheth- 
er the  bank  paid  coin  or  not.  This  was  made 
plain  by  the  law,  and  was  demonstrated  in  the 
last  four  years  of  the  life  of  the  charter,  when 


the  most  bitter  controversy  was  carried  on  be- 
tween the  bank  and  the  President  and  Cabinet. 
When  the  time  came  to  renew  its  charter  (1811), 
90  State  banks  had  grown  up  to  oppose  it.  It  had 
been  successful,  and  paid  8  or  10  per  cent,  a 
year  to  its  stockholders.  It  was  charged  that 
the  bank  controlled  elections  in  the  State,  and 
was  then  laboring  to  control  those  of  the  nation. 
Reports  charging  the  bank  with  corruption, 
and  even  insolvency,  were  circulated,  and  the 
charter  was  not  renewed.  The  following  table, 
from  the  report  of  the  Comptroller  of  the  Cur- 
rency for  1892,  gives  a  convenient  resume  of  the 
banks  in  the  United  States  in  the  period  we  are 
now  considering : 

Statement  showing-  the  Specie,  Circulation  and  Capital 
and  the  Number  of  Banks  in  the  United  States  for 
the  Years  mentioned.* 


YEAR. 

No.  of 
Banks. 

Specie. 

Circula- 
tion. 

Capital. 

1774  
1784  

$4,000,000 

$2,000,000 

$2,100,000 

6 

16 

1,500,000 

17,100,000 

1,000,000 

18,000,000 

19,000,000 

0,500,000 

19,200,000 

0,000,000 

19,200,000 

1798  

14,000,000 

9,000,000 

19,200,000 

26 

21,200,000 

1800  

28 

0,500,000 

21,300,000 

j8oi  

17,000,000 

1,000,000 

22,400,000 

1802  

16,500,000 

0,000,000 

22,600,000 

1803  . 

36 

1,000,000 

26,000,000 

1804  

17,500,000 

4,000,000 

39,500,000 

Banking  of  the  wildest  kind  was  now  the  rule. 
After  1805  notes  were  allowed  for  sums  under 
$5,  and  finally  were  issued  as  low 
as  for  25  cents.     Specie  was  driven 
out.     A  crash  came  in  1809.     Se- From  1800  to 
vere  bank  laws  were  passed.     In    the  War  of 
1813  the  New  England  Bank  was  the  Rebellion, 
chartered  as  a  bank  of  redemption 
at  Boston,  in  order  to  keep  the  pa-> 
per  of  the  adjacent  county  at  par.    It  did  this,  but 
was  unpopular,  and  was  the  beginning  of  the 
Suffolk  bank  system. 

The  note  circulation  of  the  banks  of  the  coun- 
try is  estimated,  in  1811,  by  Gallatin,  at  $46,- 
000,000.  In  Pennsylvania,  1813-14,  41  banks 
were  chartered  by  Legislature  over  a  veto.  The 
country  being  at  war,  $57,000,000  were  bor- 
rowed by  the  Government  from  1812  to  1814. 
Treasury  notes  for  one  year  were  issued  in  1812 
to  the  amount  of  $3,000,000  ;  in  1813,  to  $6,000,- 
ooo  ;  and  in  1814,  to  $8,000,000.  Silver  flowed 
to  Ne\y  England.  In  1814  all  the  banks  save 
those  in  New  England  suspended  payment. 
Notes  were  depreciated  from  20  to  50  per  cent. 
The  Secretary  of  the  Treasury  now  began  to  be 
engaged  in  the  money  market.  He  tried  to  get 
the  banks  to  come  to  some  agreement.  He  or- 
dered that  taxes  should  be  received  only  in  spe- 
cie, treasury  notes,  or  notes  of  banks  which  re- 
ceived treasury  notes  at  par.  Madison  recom- 

*  Blodgett's  Economical. 


Banks  and  Banking. 


128 


Banks  and  Banking. 


mended  another  national  bank.  The  second 
United  States  bank  was  finally  opened  January 
i,  1817.  It  began  business  with  $1,400,000  in 
specie,  $14,000,000  in  stocks,  and  the  rest  in 
stock  notes.  It  was  to  have  a  capital  of  $7,000,- 
ooo.  A  second  instalment  of  $2,800,000  was 
soon  due,  but  only  $32,400  was  paid  in  specie, 
the  rest  mainly  from  notes  or  discounts  of  the 
bank  itself.  The  third  instalment  was  still 
worse.  The  bank  discounted  its  own  stock  at 
par  to  pay  the  instalment.  In  August,  1817,  the 
bank  discounted  its  own  stock  at  125.  The 
facilities  for  stock- jobbing  were  used.  Con- 
gress resolved  that  after  February  20,  1817,  only 
specie,  treasury  notes,  and  notes  of  specie-pay- 
ing banks  ought  to  be  taken  by  the  national 
treasury.  The  banks  refused  to  resume  before 
July,  1817.  The  Western  banks  were  still  com- 
paratively sound.  The  Southern  banks  had 
become  inflated.  The  inflation  was  increased 
during  the  year  by  the  Government  paying 
off  $11,000,000  of  the  public  securities  held 
by  the  banks.  The  note  circulation  at  this  time 
is  estimated  at  $100,000,000.  By  March,  1818, 
the  discounts  of  the  United  States 
Bank  were  $43,000,000 — $11,000,000 
The  Second  on  stocks.  It  had  $2,000,000  in 
National  specie.  It  had  now  18  branches, 
Bank.  but  only  $3 ,000,000  of  specie  in  them 
all.  Its  operations  in  the  West  drew 
that  region  into  the  "  golden"  age. 
The  bank  now  bought  $7,000,000  bullion  in  the 
West  Indies.  Fifteen  months  after  it  was  start- 
ed it  was  doubtful  if  the  bank  was  solvent.  In 
November,  Congress  appointed  a  committee  of 
investigation,  which  reported  unfavorably  ;  but 
Congress  would  not  respond,  40  members  being 
stockholders.  On  April  i,  1819,  the  state  of  the 
bank  was  :  specie,  $126,745.28  ;  notes,  $6,000,- 
ooo  ;  due  other  banks,  $79,125.99  ;  due  Gov- 
ernment, $500,000  ;  due  Barings,  $900,000  ;  there 
were  $267,978.09  in  the  mint  and  $250,000  in 
specie  on  the  way  from  the  West.  The  New 
York  and  Boston  branches  were  in  a  worse  con- 
dition. The  bank  now  took  energetic  measures 
to  save  itself,  and  in  70  days  was  solvent,  but 
had  ruined  the  community.  In  August,  1819, 
there  were  20,000  seeking  work  in  Philadelphia, 
and  a  similar  state  of  things  existed  in  other 
cities.  Land  in  Pennsylvania  was  worth,  in 
1809,  $38  per  acre  ;  in  1815,  $150  ;  in  1819,  $35. 
The  note  circulation  of  the  country  in  1812 
was  about  $45,000,000  ;  in  1817,  $100,000,000  ; 
in  1819,  $45,000,000.  Financial  distress  was  gen- 
eral, and  lasted  till  1823.  Money  was  plentiful 
in  the  hands  of  those  who  had  no  debts  to  pay, 
as  they  would  not  invest.  In  1823  the  circula- 
tion of  the  United  States  Bank  was  very  low — 
$4,081,842  ;  but  there  was  a  great  creation  of 
banks,  and  the  bank  began  to  expand  and 
receive  the  notes  of  all  its  branches. 

In  1824  Pennsylvania  rechartered  the  banks 
of  1814.  In  1825,  52  charters  were  petitioned 
for  for  New  York  banks,  and  when  they  could 
not  be  obtained,  were  petitioned  for  in  New  Jer- 
sey. The  Bank  of  the  United  States  increased 
its  issue  over  $3,000,000.  Business  revived  in 
England.  Heavy  orders  for  cotton  ran  its  price 
here  up  to  27  cents.  In  July  the  fall  of  prices  in 
England  caused  a  fall  here,  and  50  failures  took 
place  in  New  York  before  December.  The 


United  States  Bank  was  in  great  difficulty.  In 
1826  there  was  dulness  and  reaction  throughout 
the  year.  In  1827  money  was  plentiful,  and 
continued  so  with  some  changes  till  1831.  Presi- 
dent Jackson  commenced  his  attack  on  the 
United  States  Bank  in  his  first  message  (1829). 
About  1830  American  securities  began  to  at- 
tract English  investments,  in  canals,  steamboats, 
and,  later,  in  railroads.  Currency,  however, 
became  more  and  more  of  a  political  issue. 
Jackson  committed  his  party  to  hard  money  ; 
Clay  committed  himself  to  protection.  Web- 
ster, originally  a  free-trader,  became  a  protec- 
tionist. Calhoun,  originally  a  protectionist,  be- 
came a  free-trader.  In  1832  the  United  States 
Bank  petitioned  for  a  renewal  of 
its  charter,  which  was  to  expire  in 
1836.  The  bill  passed  both  houses,  The  Bank 
but  was  vetoed  by  the  President.  War,  1832- 
A  violent  warfare  was  now  begun  1836. 
by  the  bank.  It  is  certain  that  the 
bank  had  paid  little  heed  to  the 
laws  of  the  State  or  of  prudence,  expanding  or 
contracting  according  to  will.  In  1832  Jackson 
defeated  Clay  by  288  to  49  in  the  electoral  col- 
lege. In  his  message  in  December,  1832,  he 
recommended  the  sale  of  the  $7,000,000  stock  of 
the  United  States  Bank  which  was  opened  by 
the  nation,  and  an  investigation  into  the  bank. 
Bank  shares  fell  from  112  to  104,  but  recovered 
to  112  on  a  favorable  report  of  the  treasury 
agent.  This  report  showed  $79,000,000  assets 
and  $37,000,000  liabilities,  besides  $35,000,000 
capital  and  $7,000,000  surplus.  But  when  the 
Government  desired  to  pay  the  three  per  cents 
in  July,  1832,  the  bank  agreed  to  pay  the  inter- 
est on  them  if  the  payment  might  be  delayed 
so  long.  It  thus  negotiated  a  loan  of  $5,000,000 
from  Barings  ;  the  reason  given  was  for  fear  of 
the  cholera.  This  caused  fear  for  the  public 
deposits,  but  a  resolution  that  they  were  safe 
was  carried,  through  the  influence  of  the  bank, 
109  to  46.  After  Congress  adjourned  (Septem- 
ber 22,  1832),  the  President  ordered  Mr.  Duane, 
the  Secretary  of  the  Treasury,  to  remove  the 
public  deposits  from  the  bank.  He  refused, 
and  was  replaced  by  Mr.  Taney,  who  did  it. 
The  order  was  that  the  collectors  should  send  no 
more  deposits  to  it,  but  to  State  banks.  There 
was  no  sudden  transfer,  but  it  was  proposed  to 
withdraw  at  intervals.  The  bank  began  war, 
and  began  to  draw  in  its  loans.  On  the  assem- 
bling of  Congress,  the  Senate  resolved  (28  to  18) 
that  the  President  had  usurped  unconstitutional 
powers.  The  House  never  noticed  the  resolu- 
tion, but  resolved  (134  to  82)  that  the  bank  char- 
ter should  not  be  renewed.  The  contraction  of 
the  money  market  caused  great  distress.  It 
was  stated  that  the  bank  caused  this  to  obtain 
a  renewed  charter.  It  was  claimed  that  they 
loaned  to  a  select  few  who  reloaned  at  usurious 
rates.  The  aggregate  amount  of  loans,  how- 
ever, steadily  decreased  all  these  years. 

Meanwhile,  the  bank  war  went  on.  The  bank, 
finding  that  it  could  not  coerce  the  people,  and 
that  smaller  banks  were  taking  its  place,  changed 
its  policy  and  expanded,  President  Jackson  using 
this  as  a  proof  that  it  had  unnecessarily  con- 
tracted before.  The  President  induced  many 
of  the  States  to  pass  laws  forbidding  the  issue 
of  small  notes,  and  this  largely  favored  con- 


Banks  and  Banking. 


129 


Banks  and  Banking. 


vertibility.  These  were  times  when  cotton 
could  command  good  prices,  and  railroad  and 
other  investments  and  speculation  was  good. 
The  public  dept  was  now  nearly  extinguished. 
On  July  u,  1836,  the  President  issued  the  famous 
Specie  Circular,  by  which  he  ordered  agents 
for  the  sale  of  public  lands  to  take  specie  only. 
Congress  in  December  passed  an  act  rescinding 
this,  but  it  did  not  become  law,  the  President 
not  signing  it.  The  United  States  Bank  not 
being  able  to  renew  its  charter,  now  obtained  a 
charter  from  Pennsylvania — by  bribery,  as  it 
was  asserted.  It  had  not  yet  paid  back  the  Gov- 
ernment stock  or  the  dividends  which  it  held 
for  contracting  a  loan  with  France  that  finally 
never  materialized.  It  continued  to  reissue  the 
notes  of  the  old  United  States  Bank  which  it 
received.  Gold,  being  forced  on  the  market  in 
this  country,  came  here  from  England.  In 
April,  1836,  the  gold  reserve  in  the  Bank  of 
England  began  to  lower,  and  this  continued  all 
summer.  The  bank  rate  was  raised  twice.  By 
November  failures  began,  and  in  one  day  three 
houses  doing  large  business  with  this  country 
failed.  Demand  for  cotton  went  down.  No- 
where had  paper  money  been  more  in  use  than 
in  the  South.  In  March,  1837,  several  New  Or- 
leans houses  failed.  Next,  the  pressure  was  felt 
in  New  York,  and  then  became  general.  There 
were  100  failures  in  New  York  in  March,  and 
the  losses  were  $15,000,000.  In  March  a  meet- 
ing was  held  in  New  York,  address- 
ed by  Webster.  He  laid  the  trouble 
The  Panic  to  the  Government  interfering  with 
of  1837.  the  currency  and  to  the  Specie  Cir- 
cular. A  committee  of  50  was  sent 
to  the  President  (Van  Buren)  to  ask 
for  its  rescinding.  The  committee,  in  its  address, 
spoke  of  250  failures  and  20,000  individuals  dis- 
charged by  their  employers,  and  they  laid  it  all  to 
the  effort  to  put  metallic  in  place  of  paper  cur- 
rency. But  they  could  obtain  nothing  from  the 
President  In  May  the  New  York  banks  sus- 
pended in  a  body,  a  law  being  passed  allowing 
them  to  suspend  for  one  year.  Among  the  direct 
causes  of  this  was  the  demand  upon  the  Govern- 
ment deposit  banks  for  the  $40,000,000  surplus  to 
be  paid  in  specie.  Suspension  became  general 
through  the  Union.  Specie  was  driven  out  of 
the  market,  and  all  kinds  of  notes  circulated  in- 
stead. The  New  York  banks  then  began  to  con- 
tract to  be  ready  to  resume.  Nearly  all  the 
banks  made  money  by  the  suspension,  and  paid 
good  dividends  during  the  year.  In  1835-36 
there  had  been  a  surplus  in  the  treasury.  Mr. 
Clay  wanted  it  divided  between  the  States,  and 
Webster  favored  this.  The  administration  op- 
posed it,  and  wanted  public  lands  surveyed  and 
.sold  at  $1.2  5  per  acre,  with  a  homestead  pro  vi- 
sion for  settlers,  the  surplus  revenue  to  be  spent 
on  national  defences.  The  bill  for  distribution 
passed  in  the  Senate,  but  never  came  up  in  the 
House.  In  1836  the  Senate  passed  a  bill  for 
"  depositing"  the  surplus  revenue  (that  being 
regarded  as  the  part  which  came  from  the  land). 
The  plan  for  distributing  had  found  no  favor  in 
the  House,  but  "  depositing"  passed.  It  was 
declared  that  this  was  only  a  change  in  name, 
and  the  event  proved  this.  Three  deposits 
were  made:  Then  in  1837  the  President  made 
known  an  estimate  of  a  deficit  of  .$6,000,000,  and 


proposed  to  meet  it  by  retaining  the  fourth  in- 
stalment of  the  deposit,  and  to  issue  treasury 
notes  for  immediate  necessities.  These  were 
issued,  bearing  interest,  and  the  deposit  was 
put  off  till  January  i,  1839,  and  when  that  day 
came  the  treasury  had  a  deficit,  and  could  not 
pay  it.  Some  States  had  been  led  by  this  de- 
posit into  extensive  improvements  and  debts  ; 
others  distributed  it,  a  few  shillings  per  capita, 
to  be  "received  with  contempt"  or  "rejected 
with  scorn."  The  distresses  of  1837  were  ag- 
gravated by  a  failure  of  the  wheat  crop.  Early 
in  1838  Congress  passed  an  act  forbidding  the 
Pennsylvania  Bank  of  the  United  States  from 
using  the  old  United  States  Bank  notes.  On 
May  10,  1838,  most  of  the  banks  in  New  York 
City  and  in  the  Union  resumed,  the  Bank  of 
England  sending  $1,000,000  to  aid  them.  On 
August  13  almost  all  other  banks  resumed. 
There  was  a  general  revival  of  trade,  but  it  was 
not  permanent.  Gold  in  the  Bank  of  England 
again  declined.  The  Bank  of  Belgium  failed. 
The  Bank  of  England  borrowed  £2, 500,000  of 
the  Bank  of  France.  During  the  same  year  the 
Bank  of  the  United  States  became  involved  in 
cotton  speculations.  Several  banks,  especially 
in  the  South  and  West,  failed.  The  manage- 
ment of  the  United  States  Bank  became  reck- 
less. It  owed  from  $10,000,000  to  $20,000,000, 
and  tried  to  borrow  of  various  banks  in  Europe. 
On  October  10,  1839,  it  failed,  and  carried  with 
it  all  the  banks  of  the  South  and 
West.  Three  hundred  and  forty- 
three  out  of  850  banks  in  the  Union  Widespread 
closed  entirely,  and  62  partially.  Depression. 
Some  $2,000,000  of  Government  de- 
posits were  lost.  This  suspension 
lasted  by  law  till  January  15,  1841.  As  soon 
as  the  bank  opened  again  a  run  on  it  com- 
menced, and  it  suspended  finally  (February  4, 
1841).  Its  capital  was  a  total  loss,  and  the  $7,- 
000,000  United  States  stock  subscribed  by  the 
Government  is  mentioned  by  the  Secretary 
of  the  Treasury  (finance  Report,  1872,  p.  18) 
among  the  items  of  the  debt  for  which  no 
cash  ever  came  into  the  treasury.  The  years  fol- 
lowing 1842-43  were  among  the  gloomiest  years 
in  industry.  It  seemed  paralyzed  by  the  failure 
of  our  banking  system. 

When  it  failed,  the  Bank  of  the  United  States 
owed  the  Bank  of  England  $23,000,000.  Its 
failure,  and,  above  all,  the  repudiation  of  in- 
debtedness by  several  States,  ruined  American 
credit  abroad,  and  cost  the  bank  many  friends 
here.  In  1840  the  Independent  Treasury  Act 
was  passed,  giving  the  Government  the  custody 
of  its  own  funds.  It  was  only  accomplished 
after  a  severe  struggle,  as  it  withdrew  the  pub- 
lic funds  from  use  as  banking  capital.  In  1841 
Mr.  Harrison  became  President,  and  called  an 
extra  session  of  Congress,  May  31,  which  met 
under  President  Tyler  after  Harrison's  death, 
and  the  first  act  of  the  session  was  to  repeal  the 
Independent  Treasury  Act.  Mr.  Clay  had  pro- 
posed a  national  bank,  an  increase  of  duties, 
and  a  land  distribution  bill  ;  but  the  senator 
from  Mississippi  introduced  a  bankruptcy  act, 
and  this  was  bargained  off  for  the  Bank  Act 
and  the  Distribution  Act,  and  the  three  went 
through  together.  The  Bank  Act  was  very 
sweeping — declared  the  abolition  of  all  debts 


Banks  and  Banking. 


130 


Banks  and  Banking. 


where  effects  were  surrendered  and  fraud  not 
proved.  The  Land  Distribution  Bill  was  the 
new  form  of  the  defeated  bill  for  assuming  the 
State  debts.  The  income  from  public  lands  (less 
than  $1,500,000)  in  1846  was  to  be  divided  among 
the  States  to  help  them  pay  their  debts.  Presi- 
dent Tyler  wanted  the  words  "  fiscal  agent"  or 
something  "fiscal"  substituted  for  the  word 
"  bank,"  and  vetoed  two  bills  for  incorporating 
a  bank.  The  treasury,  being  unable  to  pay  spe- 
cie, paid  treasury  notes,  but  one  of  these  being 
protested  (January,  1842),  the  Government  paid 


specie,  and  continued  doing  so  till  1862.  In  1843 
the  Bankruptcy  Act  was  repealed.  It  was 
argued  that  it  was  worse  for  debtors  than  cred- 
itors, since  he  who  availed  himself  of  it  could 
get  no  further  credit.  The  Government  was 
fixed  in  the  hard-money  system. 

The  following  tables,  from  the  report  of  the 
Comptroller  of  the  Currency  for  1892,  give  a 
convenient  statement  showing  the  principal 
items  of  resources  and  liabilities  of  the  Bank 
(Second)  of  the  United  States  from  1817  to 
1840  : 


YEAR. 

RESOURCES. 

Loans  and 
Discounts. 

Stocks. 

Real  Estate. 

Banking 
House. 

Due  by  For- 
eign Banks. 

Due  from 
State  Banks. 

$3.485.195 
41,181,750 
35,786,263 
31,401,158 
30,905,199 
28,061,169 

30.736,432 
33,432,084 
31,812,617 
33,424,621 
30.937,866 
33,682,905 
39,219,602 
40,663,805 
44,032,057 
66,293,707 
61,695,913 

$4,829,234 
9.475.932 
7,391,823 
7,192,980 
91*55.855 
13.318,951 
11,018,552 
10,874,014 
18,422,027 
18,303,501 

17.764,359 
17,624,859 
16,099,099 
11,610,200 
8,674,681 

2,200 

$8,848,315 
1,203,894 
2,624,797 
2,727,080 
1,178,197 
1,717,723 
1,407,573 
1,287,808 
2,130,095  . 
747.375 
1,683,510 

1818  

$175,201 

43^°* 
1,290,620 

1,886,724 
1,855,946 
1,956,764 
1,871,635 
1,852,935 
1,792,870 
1,678,192 
1,634,260 
1,557,356 
1,444,801 
i,344.76i 
1,159.637 
1,181,071 
1,189,125 
1,218,896 
967,404 
420,244 
443.109 
424,382 
610,504 

$1,033,682 
621,667 
261,548 
83,548 
1,107,637 
24,599 
1,434,020 
24,178 
421,524 
460,686 
356,740 
482,240 
1.530,553 
2,383,33! 
91,668 
3,106,833 
1,801,669 
1,922,498 
73.1?! 

1819  

... 

$563,480 
626,674 
1,302,551 
i,495,i5o 
1,848,354 
2,039,226 
2,295,401 

2,345,539 
2,886,397 
2,629,125 
2,136,525 
1,855,169 
i,74i,407 
1,760,632 
1,486,561 
816,855 
1,061,663 

1,054,523 
1,228,630 

1821.  .  . 

1824.  .  . 

1825  

1826  

1827       

1828  

1820.  .  . 

1,723,297 
1.199,458 

3,944,849 
3,688,143 
3,058,870 
4,609,973 
4,088,005 
2,284,598 
3,657,261 
5,833,000 
7,469,422 

18^0...                

1831  

1832  

1833  
1834  

1835  

51,808,739 
59,232,445 
57.393.709 
45.256,571 
41,618,637 
36,839,593 

1816  .. 

1837  

1838...,                ..                .    . 

14,862,108 
17)957.497 
16,316,419 

1830.  .  . 

1840  ' 

YEAR. 

RESOURCES. 

LIABILITIES. 

Notes  of 
State  Banks. 

Specie. 

'  • 
Circulation. 

Deposits. 

Due  to  State 
Banks. 

Due  to  For- 
eign Banks, 
etc. 

Capital. 

817     . 

$587,201 
1,837,254 
1,877,909 
1,443,166 
677,022 
917,629 
766,248 
705.173 
1,056,224 
1,114,831 
1,068,483 
1,447,386 
1,293,578 
1,465,047 
1,494,506 
2,171,676 
2,292,655 
1,982,640 
1,506,200 
1.736,491 
1,206,754 
866,597  . 
1,791,580 
1,383,686 

$1,724,109 
2,515,949 
2,666,696 

3,392,755 
7,643,140 
4,761,299 
4,424,874 
5,813,694 
6,746,952 
3,960,158 
6,457,161 
6,170,045 
6,098,138 
7,608,076 
10,808,047 
7,038,023 
8,951,847 
10,039,237 
15.708,369 
8,417,988 
2,638,449 
3,770,842 
4,153,607 
1,469,674 

$1,911,200 
8,339,448 
6,563,750 
3,589,481 
4,567,053 
5,578,782 
4,361,058 
4,647,077 
6,068,394 
9,474.987 
8,549,409  , 

9,855,677 
11,901,656 
12,924,145 
16,251,267 
21,355,724 
17,518,217 
19,208,379 
17,339,797 
23,075,422 
11,447,968 
6,768,067 
5,982,621 
6,695,861 

$11,233,021 
12,279,207 
5,792,269 
6,568,794 
7,894,985 
8,075,152 
7,622,340 
I3.7OI,936 
12,033,364 
11,214,640 
14,320,186 
14,497.33° 
17,061,918 
16,045,782 
17,297,041 
22,761,434 
20,347,749 
10,838,555 
11,756,905 
5,061,456 
2,332,409 
2,616,713 
6,779,394 
3.338,521 

$35,000,000 
35,000,000 
35,000,000 
35,000,000 
35,000,000 
35,000,000 
35,000,000 
35,000,000 
35,000,000 
35,000,000 
35,000,000 
35,000,000 
35,000,000 
35,000,000 
35,000,000 
35,000,000 
35,000,000 
35,000,000 
35,000,000 
35,000,000 
35,000,000 
35,000,000 
35,000,000 
35,000,000 

818  

$i,357,778 
i  434,022 

2  053,650 
«         2  053,074 
2  040,000 
I  292,710 
I  O2O,OOO 
2  407,282 
251,494 
280,056 
1,467,806 
1,447,748 

819  

820  

821  

822  

823 

824. 

82°;... 

826  

827  

828  

$1,697,401 

829  . 

8-11 

734,9oo 
1,951,103 
2,091,891 
1,522,124 
3,119,172 
2,660,694 
2,284,598 
4,957,291 
3,061,895 
4,155,366 
• 

832 

833 

834 

8?e.    . 

836 

837  

6,926,364 
20,479,468 
22,030,351 

878.    . 

839  

840  

13,091,087 

Banks  and  Banking. 


Banks  and  Banking. 


The  following  table  gives  a  convenient  resume"  of  the   banks  in  the  United   States  in  the 
period  we  are  now  considering  : 

STATEMENT   SHOWING  THE   NUMBER  OF  BANKS  IN   THE   COUNTRY,  THEIR  CAPITAL,  ETC.,  IN   THE   YEARS 

MENTIONED.* 


YEAR. 

No. 

Capital. 

Circulation. 

Deposits. 

Loans. 

Specie. 

89 

100  ooo 

00000 

208 

j8i6                                .  

308 

j83o         

61,323,898 

187,1     .                                                        

506 

75,666,986 

558 

83,081,365 

^(S         

567 

1877 

634 

!838         

663 

317,636,778 

84,691,184 

485,631,687 

1839  

662 

327,132,512 

722 

Among  the  new  measures  were  the  Suffolk 
Bank  plan  in  Massachusetts,  and  the  New  York 
Safety-Fund  System.  The  Suffolk  Bank  plan 
was  merely  an  arrangement  whereby  that  bank 
was  made  the  channel  through  which  all  notes 
of  New  England  banks  that  found  their  way  to 
Boston,  as  most  of  them  naturally  did,  were  at 
once  forwarded  to  the  issuers  for  redemption. 
The  result  was  that  all  solid  bankers  found  it 
for  their  interest  to  deposit  with  the  Suffolk  a 
redemption  fund,  as  that  insured  the  acceptance 
of  their  notes. 

The  New  York  Safety-Fund  System,  which  is 
the  cardinal  principle  of  the  present  national 
banking  plan,  required  each  bank  to  deposit, 
with  the  banking  department  of  the  State,  securi- 
ties consisting  of  federal  or  State  stocks,  or  bonds 
and  mortgages,  which,  in  case  of  the  failure  of 
the  bank,  were  sold,  and  the  proceeds  applied 
to  the  liquidation  of  its  debts. 

From  1844  things  began  to  mend.  Failure  of 
crops  in  Europe  and  the  abolition  of  the  corn 
laws  gave  a  market  for  breadstuff's,  of  which,  in 
1843,  $37,500,000  were  exported.  The  Irish 
famine  and  other  causes  made  immigration  set 
in.  Railroads  were  rapidly  developed,  and  the 
discovery  of  gold  in  California  add- 
ed another  powerful  element  to  the 
1840-1860.  industrial  development.  Our  cred- 
it abroad  slowly  mended.  By  1854 
it  was  estimated  that  $200,000,000 
of  State,  railway,  and  other  bonds  were  held 
abroad,  and  in  1857,  $400,000,000.  Bank-notes 
also  expanded.  Gold  was  exported  ;  currency  set 
toward  the  financial  centers,  the  country  banks 
keeping  their  balances  generally  in  New  York. 
These  balances  were  required  in  the  fall,  produc- 
ing contraction  and  stringency.  In  1853-54  fears 
of  a  war  in  Europe,  failure  of  early  speculations 
in  California,  the  discovery  of  a  fraudulent  issue 
of  $2,000,000  of  New  York  and  New  Haven 
Railroad  stock,  caused  a  panic.  A  small  crop 
and  other  evils  added  to  this.  A  large  number 
of  private  bankers  were  carried  down.  But  the 
large  supply  of  metallic  currency  prevented 
widespread  evil.  In  1856  railroad  building  and 
good  crops  improved  the  situation.  A  fall  in 
stocks,  however,  in  the  summer  of  1857,  the  fail- 

*  Elliott's  Funding  System,  p.  984. 


ure  of  the  Ohio  Life  and  Trust  Company,  which 
borrowed  largely  in  New  York,  the  loss  of  the 
steamship  "  Central  America"  with  over  $i,- 
000,000  of  treasure,  caused  a  panic.     A  large 
number  of  failures  took  place  in  September.    In 
October  all  the  New  York  banks  save  one  sus- 
pended, and  were  followed  by  almost  all  others. 
Bills  were  not  salable  ;    gold    be- 
gan to  move  this  way.     The  Secre- 
tary of  the  Treasury  aided  by  pur-    The  Panic 
chasing   bonds.     The    New    York      of  1857. 
banks  resumed  December  12,  and 
others  followed. 

The  condition  of  the  first  bank  of  the  United 
States  during  the  period  from  January,  1809,  to 
January,  1811,  is  shown  in  the  following  table, 
which  is  taken  from  the  letters  of  Albert  Gal- 
latin  printed  in  the  American  State  Papers 
{Finance},  vol.  ii.,  pp.  352  and  470  : 

REPORTS  OF  CONDITION  OF  THE  FIRST  BANK  OF  THE 
UNITED  STATES. 


January, 
1809. 

January, 
1811. 

RESOURCES. 
Loans  and  discounts  

U.  S.  6  per  cent,  and  other  U.  S. 

Due  from  other  banks  

Real  estate.        

Notes  of  other  banks  

OOO  ooo 

5>       > 

Total  

LIABILITIES. 
Capital  stock  

Surplus  

509.678 

Circulation  outstanding  
Individual  deposits  

4,500,000 
8,500,000 

5,037,125 

634,348 

Total  

$23,510,000 

$24,183,046 

The  bank  had  been  quite  successful,  and  paid 
8  or  10  per  cent,  a  year  to  its  stockholders. 


Banks  and  Banking. 


132 


Banks  and  Banking. 


The  following  table,  prepared  by  the  Cornp-      gives   the   position    of    the   State    banks   from 
troller  of  the  Currency  in  his  report  for  1892,      1834-63  : 

TABLE  SHOWING  THE  AGGREGATE  NUMBER  OF  STATE  BANKS  IN  THE  UNITED  STATES  AND  THEIR  PRINCIPAL 
LIABILITIES  AND  RESOURCES  IN  THE  YEARS  1834-63. 


1834. 
1835- 
1836. 
1837- 
1838. 
1839. 
1840. 
1841. 
1842. 
1843- 
i844. 
1845. 
1846. 
1847. 
1848. 
1849. 
1850. 
1851. 
1853- 
1854. 
1855- 
1856. 
i857. 
1858. 
1859. 

1860. 
1861. 
1862 


YEAR. 


N-.     „  f 

LIABILITIES. 

O.  OI 

Banks. 

Capital 
Stock. 

Circulation. 

Deposits. 

Due  to 
Banks. 

Other  Lia- 
bilities. 

506 

$200,005,944 

$94,839,570 

$75,666,986 

$26,602,293 

704 

231,250,337 

103^692,495 

83,081,365 

38,972,578 

$19,320,475 

'  713 

251,875,292 

140,301,038 

115,104,440 

50,402,369 

25,999,234 

788 

290,772,091 

149.185,890 

127,397,185 

62,421,118 

36,560,289 

829 

317,636,778 

116,138,910 

84,691,184 

61,015,692 

59,995,679 

840 

327,132,512 

135,170,995 

90,240,146 

53.I35,S°8 

62,946,248 

901 

358,442,692 

106,968,572 

75,696,857 

44,159,615 

43,275,183 

784 

313,608,959 

107,290,214 

64,890,101 

42,861,889 

42,896,226 

692 

260,171,797 

83,734,°" 

62,408,870 

25,863,827 

12,775,106 

691 

228,861,948 

58,563,608 

56,168,628 

21,456,523 

7,357,033 

696 

210,872,056 

75,167,646 

84,550,785 

31,998,024 

5,842,010 

707 

206,045,969 

89,608,711 

88,020,646 

26,337,440 

5,853,902 

707 

196,894,309 

105,552,427 

96,913,070 

28,218,568 

5,33',  572 

7'5 

20.3,070,622 

105,519,766 

91,792,533 

28,539,888 

4,706,077 

751 

204,838,175 

128,506,091 

103,226,177 

39,414,371 

5,501,401 

782 

207,309,361 

"4,743,415 

91,178,623 

30,095,366 

6,706,357 

824 

217,317,211 

131,366,526 

109,586,595 

36>7I7,45' 

8,835,309 

879 

227,807,553 

155,165,251 

128,957,712 

46,416,928 

6,438,327 

75° 

207,908,519 

146,072,780 

145,553,876 

49,625,262 

28,024,350 

1,208 

301,376,071 

204,689,207 

188,188,744 

50,322,162 

13,439,276 

1,307 

332,177,288 

186,952,223 

190,400,342 

45,156,697 

15,599,623 

1,398 

343>874i272 

195,747,950 

212,705,662 

52,719,956 

12,227,867 

1,416 

370,834,686 

214,778,822 

230,351,352 

57,674»333 

19,816,850 

1,422 

394,622,799 

155,208,344 

185,932,049 

51,169,875 

14,166,713 

1,476 

401,076,242 

193,306,818 

259,568,278 

68,215,651 

15,048,427 

1,562 

421,880,095 

207,102,477 

253,802,129 

55,932,9i& 

14,661,815 

1,601 

420,592,713 

202,005,767 

257,229,562 

61,275,256 

23,258,004 

1,492 

418,139,741 

183,792,079 

296,322,408 

61,144,052 

21,633,093 

1,466 

405,045,829 

238,677,218 

393,686,226 

100,526,527 

53,814,145 

YEAR. 

RESOURCES. 

Loans  and 
Discounts. 

Stocks. 

Due  from 
Banks,  etc. 

Real 
Estate,  etc. 

Notes  of 
Other 
Banks. 

Specie 
Fund. 

Specie. 

Other  Re- 
sources. 

$324,119,499 
365,163,834 
457,506,080 
525,115,702 
485,631,687 
492,278,015 
462,896,523 
386,487,662 
323,957,569 
254,544,937 
264,905,814 
288,617,131 
312,114,404 
310,282,945 
344,476,582 
332,323>I95 
364,204,078 

413,756,799 
408,943,758 

557,397,779 
576,144,758 
634,183,280 
684,456,887 
583,165,242 
657,183,799 
691,945,580 
696,778,421 
646,677,780 
648,601,863 

$6,113,195 
9,210,579 

«i7°9,3I9 
12,407,112 
33,908,604 
36,128,464 
42,411,750 
64,811,135 
24,585,540 
28,380,050 
22,858,570 
20,356,070 
21,486,834 
20,158,351 
26,498,054 
23,571,575 
20,606,759 
22,388,389 
22,284,692 

44,350,330 
52,727,082 
49,485,215 
59,272,329 
60,305,260 
63,502,449 

70,344,343 
74,004,879 
99,010,987 
180,508,260 

$27,329,645 
40,084,038 
51,876,955 
59,663,910 
58,195,153 
52,898,357 
41,140,184 
47,870,045 
30,752,496 
20,666,264 
35,860,930 
29,619,272 
31,689,946 
31,788,641 
38,904,525 
32,228,407 
41,631,855 
50,718,015 
48,920,258 
55,516,085 

55,738,735 
62,639,725 
65,849,205 
58,052,802 
78,244,987 
67,235,457 
58,793,900 
65,256,596 
96,934,452 

$10,850,090 
11,140,167 

14,194,375 
19,064,451 

i9,075,73i 
16,607,832 
29,181,910 
33>524,444 
33,341,988 
22,826,807 
22,520,863 
22,177,270 
19,099,000 
21,219,865 
20,530,955 
17,491,809 
20,582,166 
20,219,724 
10,180,071 
22,367,472 
24,073,801 
20,865,867 
26,124,522 
28,755,834 
25,976,497 
30,782,131 
30,748,927 
32,326,649 
31,880,495 

$22,154,919 
21,086,301 
32,115,138 
36,533,527 
24,964,257 
27,372,966 
20,797,892 
25,643,447 
i9,432,744 
13,306,677 
11,672,473 
12,040,760 
12,914,423 
13,112,467 
16,427,716 
12,708,016 
16,303,289 
17,196,083 
30,431,189 
22,659,066 
23,429,518 
24,779,049 
28,124,008 
22,447,436 
18,858,289 
25,502,567 
21,903,902 
25,253,589 
58,164,328 

$26,641,753 
3,061,819 
4,800,076 
5,366,500 
904,006 
3,612,567 
3,623,874 
3,168,708 
3,rI5,337 
6,578,375 
6,729,980 
6,786,026 
8,386,478 
13,789,760 
10,489,822 
8,680,483 
11,603,245 
15,341,196 

$i,723r547 
4,642,124 
9,975,226 
10,423,630 
24,194,117 
28,352,248 
24,592,580 
11,816,609 
8,186,317 

'3,343,599 
12,153,693 
10,072,466 
7.913,591 
12,206,112 
8,229,682 
7,965,463 
",949,548 
8,935,972 
3,873,571 
7,589,830 
8,734,540 
8,882,516 
5,920,336 
6,075,906 
8,323,041 
11,123,17! 
16,657,511 
13,648,006 
22,003,443 

$43,937,625 
40,019,594 
37,915,340 
35,184,112 
45,132,673 
33»io5,i55 
34,813,958 
28,440,423 
33,515,806 
49,898,269 
44,241,242 
42,012,095 
35,132,516 
46,369,765 
43,619,368 
45,379,345 
48,671,048 
47,138,592 
59,410,253 
53,944,546 
50,314,063 
58,349,838 
74,412,832 
104,537,818 
83.594,537 
87,674,507 
102,146,215 
101,227,369 

1836            .       

!838  

l8M 

18,1,1.  .  . 

fg,f 

J°45  

!848          

i  SAO.  .  . 

1851.           

1854  

25,579,253 
21,935,738 
19,937,710 
25,081,641 
I5,38°,44i 
26,808,822 
19,331,521 
29,297,878 
27,827,971 
46,171,518 

1855  

1856  

1857  

jSsS.     .           

1859.            

1860  

1861  

1862  ;  

1863... 

NOTE. — The  figures  for  the  years  1834-40  are  taken  from  Ex.  Doc.  No.  m,  Twenty-sixth  Congress,  second  ses- 
sion. Those  for  1841-50  are  from  Ex.  Doc.  No.  68,  Thirty-first  Congress,  first  session.  For  the  years  1851-63  (with 
the  exception  of  the  year  1853)  they  are  taken  from  the  report  on  the  condition  of  the  banks  for  1863.  Those  for 
1853  are  from  Ex.  Doc.  No.  66,  Thirty-second  Congress,  second  session,  and  are  incomplete. 


Banks  and  Banking. 


133 


Banks  and  Banking. 


III.  THE  WAR  PERIOD  AND  THE  NATIONAL 
BANKING  SYSTEM. 

When  the  War  of  the  Rebellion  began,  the 
paper  in  circulation  in  the  country  was  about 
§200,000,000 — about  three  fourths  among  the 
loyal  States.  The  specie  available  was  estimat- 
ed at  $275,000,000.  The  opinion  was  that  the 
war  would  be  short. 

Congress  voted  $50,000,000  of  demand  notes, 
$250,000,000  of  7.3  per  cent,  treasury  notes  to 
run  three  years,  and  a  6  per  cent,  loan  of  $250,- 
000,000  to  fund  the  treasury  notes.  A  property 
tax  was  apportioned  among  the  States,  but  part 
of  it  was  repealed,  part  of  it  was  paid  by 
charges  for  sums  expended  in  fitting  out  troops, 
and  it  produced  no  active  revenue  to  the  gen- 
eral Government.  In  the  fall  of  1861  the  Gov- 
ernment borrowed  $100,000,000  in  gold  of  the 
banks  in  two  instalments,  and  $50,000,000  more 
in  paper.  Such  was  the  situation  when  Con- 
gress met,  December,  1861.  The  treasury  re- 
port of  Mr.  Chase  presented  no  strong  policy. 
Gold  began  to  be  exported.  On  December  17 
the  New  York  banks  resolved  that  suspension 
was  unnecessary,  but  in  the  last  days  of  the 
month  all  the  banks  suspended,  Professor  Sum- 
ner  says  unnecessarily.  Gold  rose  to  a  pre- 
mium of  i  or  2  per  cent.  Bank  paper  drove 
the  gold  out.  The  Government  could  not  bor- 
row more  gold,  because  the  stock  in  the  banks 
had  been  exhausted.  It  would  have  to  take 
irredeemable  paper  notes.  In  February,  1862, 
Congress  authorized  the  issue  of  $150,000,000  in 
,  notes,  of  which  $50,000,000  was  for  withdrawal 
of  the  demand  notes.  This  was  the  famous 
Legal  Tender  Act.  The  notes  were  legal  tender 
except  for  imposts  on  duties  and  interest  on  the 
public  debt.  The  friends  of  these  ' '  green- 
backs' '  claim  that  it  was  this  limitation  which 
caused  them  to  depreciate  ;  but  we  are  here  only 
concerned  with  the  fact  and  its  bearing  on  the 
banking  system.  (For  details  of  these  notes, 
see  CURRENCY.)  Whatever  be  the  reason,  they 
did  depreciate.  Gold  rose,  and  was  exported. 
By  August,  Professor  Sumner  says  that  specie 
had  disappeared.  In  July  a  bill  was  passed  for 
issuing  stamp  as  fractional  currency.  The  Gov- 
ernment went  from  one  makeshift  to  another. 
The  treasurer  sold  6  per  cent,  bonds  at  par, 
indeed,  but  for  currency  worth  from  60  to  70 
cents  on  the  dollar.  The  desire  for  a  national 
banking  system  grew  general.  The  plan  finally 
adopted  was  not  wholly  new.  We  present  a 
statement  of  its  abridged  form,  a  paper  by  D.  B. 
Waldo,  published  in  No.  i  of  the  Publications 
of  the  Michigan  Political  Science  Association. 
He  says  in  substance  : 

Albert  Gallatin,  in  a  famous  proposition,  ad- 
vocated a  prohibitory  tax  on  existing  bank-notes 
and  the  establishment  of  a  currency  founded 
on  public  stock,  or  possibly  mort- 
gages   on    real    estate.     Tho    ad- 
Flans  for  a  mitting  objections  to  the  latter  se- 
National     curity,  he  contended  that  if  the  ob- 
System.      jections  could  in  any  way  be  re- 
moved,  the  plan  proposed  would 
give    to    the    banking    system    of 
America  solidity,  and  inspire  a  confidence  which 
could  not  otherwise  be  secured.    The  ideas  con- 
tained in  the  above  suggestions  soon  fruited  into 


legislation.  The  propositions  introduced  in  the 
Legislature  of  Maryland  were  followed  by  an  en- 
actment of  the  Legislature  of  New  York  creating 
a  new  banking  system.  There  were  precedents 
on  American  soil  in  the  form  mainly  of  sugges- 
tions from  writers  for  various  periodicals,  yet  to 
some  extent  of  institutions  in  actual  operation. 
John  J.Knox,  in  his  excellent  review  of  the  na- 
tional banking  system,  ascribes  the  first  sugges- 
tion of  its  underlying  principles  to  an  unknown 
writer  of  the  Analectic  Magazine,  who,  writing 
i  n  1 8 1 5 ,  a  period  of  utter  demoralization  in  our  cur- 
rency, advocated  a  system  in  which  public  funds 
were  to  serve  as  the  basis,  support,  and  limit  of 
American  money.  In  1816  a  letter  of  Curtius, 
addressed  to  the  Secretary  of  the  Treasury,  em- 
bodied similar  ideas,  which  were  further  elabo- 
rated in  a  communication  of  one  Rev.  Dr.  Mc- 
Vicar  to  a  member  of  the  New  York  Legislature 
in  1827. 

It  is  well-known  history  that  this  new  banking 
system  of  the  Empire  State  proved  eminently 
safe  and  satisfactory,  but  to  the  national  appli- 
cation of  the  principles  embodied  in  the  New 
York  plan  there  remained  the  obstacle  of  a  for- 
midable opposition  to  every  description  of  banks 
of  issue  inherited  from  the  experience  of  reck- 
less banking.  It  was  finally  favored  only  under 
pressure  of  war  necessity.  Secretary  Chase,  in 
his  first  annual  report  (1861),  submitted  two 
plans  :  first,  that  of  the  withdrawal  of  State 
bank  issues  and  the  substitution  of  United 
States  notes  payable  in  coin  on  demand. 
Against  this  he  interposed  the  following  objec- 
tions :  First,  the  temptation  to  issue  without 
adequate  provision  for  redemption  ;  second,  the 
ever-present  liability  to  be  called  upon  for  re- 
demption beyond  means,  however  carefully  pro- 
vided for  and  managed  ;  third,  the  hazard  of 
panics  precipitating  a  demand  for  coin  concen- 
trated on  a  few  points  and  a  single  fund  ;  fourth, 
the  risk  of  a  depreciated  and  depreciating,  and 
finally  worthless  paper  money  ;  fifth,  the  innu- 
merable evils  of  dishonored  public  faith  and 
national  bankruptcy — all  these,  he  said,  were 
possible  consequences  of  the  adoption  of  the 
suggested  system  of  government  circulation. 
These  objections,  of  course,  being  deemed  fatal, 
the  secretary  discussed  the  advantages  of  a  sec- 
ond plan,  that  of  the  national  banking  system, 
substantially  as  finally  adopted.  But  the  coun- 
try was  not  ready,  and  the  suspension  of  the 
banks  occurred  as  above  stated. 

In  December  of  1862,  Secretary  Chase  again 
urged  upon  Congress  the  advantages  of  a  na- 
tional banking  system,  and  reiterated  the  danger 
of  United  States  notes.  Meanwhile, 
the  sentiment  in  and  out  of  Con- 
gress had  rapidly  changed  in  favor         The 
of  the  proposition,  and  on  Febru-    National 
ary  25,  1863,  a  bill,  recommended     Banking 
by  Senator  Sherman  and  favorably      System, 
reported  by  the  finance  committee 
of  the  Upper  House,  became  law. 
The  vote,  taken  in  the   Senate   February  12, 
stood  23  to  21  ;  that  of  the  House,  taken  Febru- 
ary 20,  78  to  64,  the  President  signing  five  days 
later.     It  is  needless  to  remark,  in  view  of  the 
immense  personal  financial  interests  involved 
and  the  prejudices  to  be  overcome,  that  the  dis- 
cussion of  the  bill  was  decidedly  warm.     The 


Banks  and  Banking. 


134 


Banks  and  Banking. 


ablest  arguments  for  and  against  were  those 
made  in  the  Upper  House  by  Senators  Sherman 
and  Collamer,  the  latter  of  Vermont.  Senator 
Collamer's  objections  were  that  the  State  banks 
and  the  people  would  oppose  such  an  institution, 
and,  in  consequence,  would  never  buy  the 
bonds,  whose  sale  was  to  be  the  main  prop  of 
the  system.  He  questioned  the  constitutional- 
ity of  a  proposed  prohibitory  tax  on  State  bank 
issues,  argued  against  the  incorporation  of  insti- 
tutions to  be  independent  of  State  control,  laid 
much  stress  upon  the  responsibility  imposed 
upon  the  Government  for  the  redemption  of 
issues,  and  finally  pointed  out  what  he  believed 
to  be  the  political  dangers  involved  in  a  measure 
of  this  kind.  Favoring  the  bill,  Mr.  Sherman 
had  already  in  an  able  argument  dwelt  upon  the 
present  evils  of  legal- tender  issues  and  the  proba- 
ble future.  He  told  again  the  story  of  State 
banks  and  their  defects,  then  argued  for  the  bill 
on  the  grounds  of  convertibility  of  issues,  uni- 
formity in  size,  a  market  for  Government  bonds  ; 
further,  that  the  system  would  be  a  medium  for 
the  absorption  of  State  bank-notes,  and  that  the 
banks  would  be  safe  and  convenient  depositories 
of  public  money.  Finally,  there  would  arise  a 
community  of  interests  between  stockholders, 
people,  and  government,  and  there  would  be 
developed  the  much-needed  sentiment  of  na- 
tionality. 

By  this  law  any  association  of  five  or  more 
persons  was  authorized  upon  deposit  of  regis- 
tered or  coupon  bonds  to  the  minimum  amount 
of  $50,000  to  receive  90  percent,  of  the  par  value 
of  the  same  in  bank-notes,  which,  being  proper- 
ly signed,  were  receivable  for  all  Government 
dues,  except  duties  on  imports,  and  were  pay- 
able on  all  Government  debts,  except  interest 
on  bonds.  In  compensation  for  the  issue  privi- 
lege, banks  organized  under  this  act  were  re- 
quired to  pay  a  tax  on  circulation,  the  rate  being 
fixed  at  i  per  cent,  by  amendatory  legislation 
in  1864.  Each  association  was  required  to  con- 
form to  the  law  of  its  own  State  in  the  matter 
of  interest  rates,  and  was  compelled  to  maintain 
a  special  reserve  for  its  notes  and  deposits,  and 
to  redeem  circulation  at  the  place  of  issue. 

The  amount  of  circulation  was  fixed  at  $300,- 
000,000,  to  be  distributed  throughout  the  States, 
Territories,  and  District  of  Columbia,  one  half 
in  proportion  to  the  population,  the  remaining 
half  in  proportion  to  banking  capital  and  busi- 
ness needs.  The  law  provided  for  the  estab- 
lishment of  a  finance  bureau,  at  the  head  of 
which  was  to  be  an  officer  called  the 
Comptroller  of  the  Currency,  who 

Working     was  given  general  oversight  of  the 

Method,      entire  system.     The  original   bill 

has  been  repeatedly  amended,  yet 

its  leading  features,   with  certain 

important  exceptions,  remain  valid  to-day  ;  the 

principal  changes  being  made  the  next  year, 

providing  for  redemption  in  certain   specified 

leading  cities,  excluding  coupon  bonds  from  the 

list  of  securities,   increasing  the  minimum  of 

capital  from  $50,000  to  $100,000,  and  providing 

for  the  easy  conversion  of  State  banks. 

The  bill  had  received  the  President's  approval 
February  25, 1863,  but  it  was  nearly  four  months 
then  before  a  bank  was  organized  under  it,  and 
five  before  one  was  opened  in  the  city  of  New 


York.  Up  to  December  10,  1863,  only  134  had 
been  incorporated,  and  up  to  November  25, 1864, 
only  584,  of  which  168  were  State  banks  reor- 
ganized under  the  national  law.  It  is  obvious 
that  up  to  this  time  the  State  banks  had  con- 
tinued to  supply  the  major  part  of  the  currency 
of  the  country. 

Mr.  Fessenden  had  now  become  the  Secretary 
of  the  Treasury,  and  Mr.  McCulloch  Comptroller 
of  the  Currency,  and  they  agreed  in  opinion  that 
the  time  had  come  when  it  was  necessary  to  dis- 
criminate against  the  State  banks  in  some  man- 
ner if  the  good  to  be  hoped  from  the  national 
system  was  to  be  realized.  State  bank  systems 
were  antagonistic  to  the  national  system,  and 
they  should  not  be  suffered  to  exist  unchecked 
and  uncontrolled.  It  was  indispensable  to  the 
financial  success  of  the  treasury  that  the  cur- 
rency of  the  country  should  be  under  the  con- 
trol of  the  Government,  and  this  could  not  be 
the  case  so  long  as  State  institutions  had  the 
right  to  flood  the  country  with  their  issues.  So 
thought  these  officers  ;  and  under  their  recom- 
mendation Congress  was  induced  to  pass  an  act, 
approved  March  3, 1865,  which  provided  "  That 
every  national  banking  association,  State  bank, 
or  State  banking  association,  shall  pay  a  tax  of 
10  per  centum  on  the  amount  of  the  notes  of 
any  State  bank  or  State  banking  association 
paid  out  by  them  after  the  first  day  of  July, 
1866."  This  act  has  in  substance  been  con- 
tinued to  this  day,  and  is  now  in  force.  Under 
and  in  consequence  of  it  State  banks  of  issue 
have  ceased  to  exist. 

For  convenience  of  comparison  with  the  de- 
velopment of  our  banking  system,  we  give,  from 
Mulhall's  Dictionary  of  Statistics,  the  follow- 
ing table  of  the  growth  of  banking  power  in  the 
world  in  millions  of  pounds  : 


1840. 

1870. 

l888-90. 

United  States  

I,O3O 

16 

64 

268 

Germany  

231 

Australia  

5 

38 

134 

The  World  

308 

3,197 

The  banking  power,  consisting  of  capital,  de- 
posits, and  right  of  issue,  was  as  follows  (1888- 
90)  in  millions  of  pounds  : 


Capital, 
etc. 

Deposits. 

Issue. 

United  Kingdom  

284 

626 

3Q 

760 

26.7 

128 

121.4 

85 

146 

64 

Australia  

26 

1  08 

5-4 

6.3 

The  World  

2,167 

616.3 

The  following  tables,  prepared  by  the  Comp- 
troller of  the  Currency,  and  given  in  his  report 
for  1892,  tells  the  story  of  the  development  of 
the  national  system  to  1892  ; 


Banks  and  Banking. 


135 


Banks  and  Banking. 


Oct.  3, 

1864. 

Oct.  2, 

1865. 

Oct.  i, 

1866. 

Oct.  7, 
1867. 

Oct.  5, 

1868. 

Oct.  9, 

1869. 

Oct.  8, 
1870. 

508 
Banks. 

1.513 

Banks. 

1,644 
Banks. 

1,642 

Banks. 

1,643 
Banks. 

1,617 
Banks. 

1,648 
Banks. 

RESOURCES. 

Millions. 
93-2 

j-   108.1 
34-o 

2.2 

}     44-8 
4-7 

Millions. 
487.2 

427.7 

i°7-3 
14.7 
j         18.1 
|       190.0 
16.2 
72-3 

Millions. 
603.3 
33i8 
i         95-Q 
(         iS-9 
122.9 
17.1 
9-2 

2O2.8 
17.4 
103.7 

Millions. 
609.7 
338.6 
80.3 

21-5 

103.6 
20.  6 

12.8 

157-4 
ii.  8 
134.6 

Millions. 
657-7 
340-5 
74.1 
20.7 

110.  I 

22.7 

!!'! 

156.1 

ii.  8 
143.2 

Millions. 
682.9 
339-5 
44-6 

22.2 

100.8 
25.2 
23.0 
129.6 
10.8 
108.8 

Millions. 
715-9 
340.9 
37-7 
23.6 
109.4 
27-5 
18.5 
122.7 
12.5 
79.1 

Bonds  for  circulation  

Other  United  States  bonds  

Due  from  banks  

Real  estate  

Specie  

Legal  tender  notes  

National-banknotes  

Clearing-house  exchanges  

United  States  certificates  of  de- 

Due  from  United  States  Treas- 
urer   

Other  resources  

IO.I 

26.3 

7-9 

8.6 

9.6 

9.8 

22.9 

Total  

297.1 

1,359-8 

1,527-0 

1,499.5 

1,559-6 

1,497.2 

1,510.7 

LIABILITIES. 
Capital  stock  *  

86.8 

2.0 

6.0 
45-2 

122.2 

34-9 

393-2 
38.7 
32-4 
171.3 
549-1 
174.2 
•9 

4IS-5 
53-3 
32.6 

290.0 
598-0 

'37-5 
.1 

420.1 
66.7 
33-8 
297.9 
568.2 

112.  8 

420.6 
78.0 
36.1 
298.7 
603.1 
123.1 

426.4 
86.2 
40.7 
296.0 
523.0 
118.9 
6.0 

430.4 
94.1 
38.6 
293.9 
512.8 
130.0 
10.9 

Surplus  fund  

Undivided  profits  

Circulation  outstanding  

Due  to  depositors  

Due  to  banks  

Other  liabilities  

Total  

297.1 

1,359-8 

1,527.0 

1,499-5 

1,559-6 

1,497.2 

1,510.7 

RESOURCES. 

Oct.  2, 

1871. 

Oct.  3, 

1872. 

Sept.  12, 
1873. 

Oct.  2, 

1874. 

Oct.  i, 

1875- 

Oct.  2, 

1876. 

Oct.  i, 
1877. 

Oct.  i, 

•1878. 

1,767 
Banks. 

1,919 
Banks. 

1,976 
Banks. 

2,004 
Banks. 

2,087 
Banks. 

2,089 
Banks. 

2,080 
Banks. 

2,053 
Banks. 

Millions. 
831.6 
364-5 
45-8 
24-5 
143-2 
30.1 
13.2 
107.0 

14-3 
115.2 

Millions. 
877.2 
382.0 
27  6 
23-5 
128.2 

32.3 

IO.2 
'       IO2  .  1 
15-8 
125.0 

6-7 

Millions. 
944.2 
288.3 
23.6 
23-7 
149-5 
34-7 
19.9 
92.4 
16.1 
100.3 

20.  6 

Millions. 
954-4 
383-3 
28.0 
27.8 
134-8 
38-1 

21.2 
8o.O 
l8.5 
109.7 

42.8 
20.3 
18.3 

Millions. 
984.7 

370-3 
28.1 

33-5 
144.7 
42.4 
8.1 
76-5 
18.5 
87.9 

48.8 
19  6 
19.1 

Millions. 
93i-3 
337-2 
47.8 

34-4 
146.9 
43.1 
21.4 
84.2 
15-9 

100.  0 

29.2 

16.7 

19.1 

Millions. 
891  9 
336.8 
45-o 
34-5 
129.9 
45.2 
22.7 
66.9 
15-6 
74-5 

33-4 
16.0 
28.7 

Millions. 
834.0 
347-6 
94-7 
36-9 
138.9 
46.7 
30.7 
64.4 
16.9 
82.4 

32-7 
16.5 
24.9 

Other  United  States  bonds  

Stocks,  bonds,  etc  

Real  estate        

Specie  .... 

Legal-tender  notes  

National-bank  notes  

Clearing-house  exchanges  

United    States  certificates   of    de- 
posit   

Due  from  United  States  Treasurer. 
Other  resources  

41.2 

25.2 

'7.3 

Total  

1,730.6 

1,755-8 

1,830.6 

1,877-2 

1,882.2 

1,827.2 

1,741.1 

1,767-3 

LIABILITIES. 
Capital  stock  

458.3 

IOI.I 

42.0 

3I7.4 
631.4 
171.9 
8-5 

479.6 
110.3 
46.6 
335-1 
628.9 
143.8 
"•5 

491.0 
120.3 
54-5 
340-3 
640.0 
173-0 
"•5 

493-8 
129.0 
51-5 
334-2 
683.8 
175.8 
9.1 

504.8 
134-4 
53-o 
3i9-i 
679.4 

179-7 
ii.  8 

499.8 

132.2 
46.4 

292.2 
666.2 
179.8 
10.6 

479-5 

122.8 

44-5 
291.9 
630.4 
161.6 
10.4 

466.2 
116.9 
40.9 
301.9 
668.4 
165.1 
7-9 

Surplus  fund  

Undivided  profits  

Circulation  outstanding  

Due  to  depositors  

Due  to  banks  .  .. 

Other  liabilities  

Total  

1,730.6 

1,755-8 

1,830.6 

1,877.2 

1,882.2 

1,827.2 

1,741.1 

1,767-3 

Banks  and  Banking. 


136 


Banks  and  Banking. 


;e*   • 

Oct.  2, 
1879. 

Oct.  i, 
1880. 

Oct.  i, 

1881. 

Oct.  3, 

1882. 

Oct.   2, 

1883. 

Sept.  30, 
1884. 

Oct.  i, 

1885. 

2,048 
Banks. 

2,000 
Banks. 

2,132 
Banks. 

2,269 
Banks. 

Millions. 
1,243.2 
357-6 
37-4 
66.2 
198.9 
46-5 
102.9 
63.2 
20.7 
208.4 

8-7 

17.2 
28.9 

2,501 
Banks. 

2,664 
Banks. 

2,714 
Banks. 

RESOURCES. 
Loans  

Millions. 
878.5 
357-3 
71.2 

39-7 
107.3 
47-8 
42.2 
69.2 
16.7 
113.0 

26.8 
17.0 

22.1 

Millions. 
1,041.0 
357-8 
43-6 
48.9 
2'3-5 
48.0 
109.3 
56.6 
18.2 

121.  I 

7-7 

17.1 
23.0 

Millions. 
1,173-8 
363-3 
56-5 
01.9 
230.8 

47-3 
"4-3 
53-z 
17.7 
189.2 

6.7 

J7-5 
26.2 

Millions. 
1,309.2 
35i-4 
3°-7 
71.1 
208.9 

48-3 
107.8 
70.7 
22.7 
96.4 

10.0 

16.6 
28.9 

Millions. 
1,245-3 
327-4 
3°-4 
71.4 
194.2 
49-9 
128.6 
77-0 
?3-3 
66.3 

14.2 

17.7 
33-8 

Millions. 
1,306.1 
3°7-7 
31-8 
77-5 
235.3 
51-3 
"74-9 
69.7 
23.1 
84.9 

18.8 

14.9 

36.9 

Bonds  for  circulation  

Other  United  States  bonds  

Stocks,  bonds,  etc  

Due  from  banks  

Real  estate  

Legal-tender  notes   

National-bank  notes  

Clearing-house  exchanges  

United  States  certificates  of  de- 

Due  from  United  States  Treas- 

Other  resources  

Total  

1,868.8 

2,105.8 

2,368.4 

2,399.8 

2,372-7 

2,279-5 

2,432-9 

LIABILITIES. 
Capital  stock  

454-1 
114.8 
40-3 
3'3-S 
736-9 

201.2 
6.7 

457-6 
120.5 
46.1 

3I7-3 
887.9 
267.9 
8-5 

463.8 
128.1 

56.4 

320.2 
1,083.1 
294.9 
11.9 

483.1 
132.0 
61.2 

3'5-° 
1,134.9 

259-9 
13-7 

5°9-7 
142.0 
61.6 

3IO-5 
1,063.6 
270.4 
14.9 

524-3 
147.0 
63.2 
289.8 

993-0 
246.4 
15-8 

527-5 
146.6 

59-3 
269.0 
1,116.7 
299.7 
14.1 

Surplus  fund  

Undivided  profits               

Circulation  outstanding  

,  Due  to  depositors  

Other  liabilities  

Total  

1,868.8 

2,105.8 

2,358-4 

2,399.8 

2,372-7 

2,279.5 

2,432.9 

Oct.  7, 

1886. 

Oct.  5, 

1887. 

Oct.  4, 
1888. 

Sept.  30, 

1889. 

Oct.   2, 

1890. 

Sept.  25, 
1891. 

Sept.  30, 
1892. 

2,85-2 
Banks. 

3i<M9 
Banks. 

3,120 

Banks. 

3*290 
Banks. 

3>540 
Banks. 

3,677 
Banks. 

3,773 
Banks. 

RESOURCES. 
Loans  

Millions. 

Millions, 
1.1*87  * 

Millions. 

Millions. 

Millions. 

Millions. 

Millions. 

2r8.cr 

189  i 

'  f.  ' 

Other  United  States  bonds.  .. 

63  6 

>iR    c 

4    • 

-"  ' 

Stocks,  bonds,  etc.  

81  8 

88  8 

2O.  2 

Real  estate  

61  i 

Specie  

jf)A       1 

»3-3 

Legal-tender  notes  

62  8 

86  8 

80  6 

2O9.I 

National  bank-notes  

18  5 

Clearing  house  exchanges  

88.8 

136  8 

' 

9- 

United  States  certificates  of  de- 

6    2 

6    2 

Due  from  United  States  Treas- 
urer    '  

6  o 

8  o 

8    2 

Other  resources  

40.8 

42  8 

og   -T 

Total  

LIABILITIES. 

c-yfi.c 

egg  A 

686  6 

183  i 

218  o 

1  Undi  vided  profits  

66  5 

84  9 

1  Circulation  

228.8 

128.5 

Due  to  depositors  

1,608.6 

1  Due  to  banks  

^08  6 

«8  i 

Other  liabilities  

Total        

The  following  tables,  also  from  the  report  of  the  Comptroller  for  1892,  give  the  condition  of 
State  banks  from  1873-92  : 


Banks  and  Banking. 


Banks  and  Banking. 


STATEMENT  SHOWING  THE  NUMBER  OF  STATE  BANKS*  IN  THE  UNITED  STATES  AND  THEIR  LIABILITIES 
RESOURCES  IN  THE  YEARS  1873-92,  INCLUSIVE. 


LIABILITIES. 

YEAR. 

Banks. 

Capital 
Stock. 

Surplus  and 
Profits. 

Circulation. 

Deposits. 

Other 
Liabilities. 

873  

874  

«7c 

69  084,980 

876  

(\-y-t 

ogg,  OQ7 

877... 

387,661 

878      .  .         .  .         .... 

388,298 

19,888,690 

870     . 

616 

880  

283,308 

881    

, 

882    

883  

187,978 

884  

g,r 

137,554 

325,365,669 

QQ. 

42,244,311 

98,129 

344,307,916 

41,654,165 

886                    .... 

38,188,859 

887  

228,956 

44,989,468 

888  

154,981,868 

56,885,088 

148,434 

410,047,842 

49,694,085 

889  

166,651,582 

64,841,037 

I2O,l6l 

507,084,481 

57,338,352 

188,737.307 

73,760,521 

120,248 

553,054,584 

55,139,471 

891  .... 

81,116,533 

110,534 

556,637,012 

59,565,222 

892  

90,358,180 

137,232 

648,513,809 

67,937,339 

YEAR. 

RESOURCES. 

Loans  and 
Discounts. 

Stocks, 
Bonds,  etc. 

Due  from 
Banks,  etc. 

Real 
Estate,  etc. 

Expenses, 
etc. 

Cash  and 
Cash  Items. 

Other 
Resources. 

Total 
Resources. 

873    . 

$119,569,445 
154.727,165 
176,786,246 
I79,332,ioo 
267,101,879 
169,711,386 
191,891,393 
207,349,737 
252,154,730 
273,715,586 
223,751,188 
332,312,235 
349,230,518 
332,353>°I4 
440,086,562 
434,004,444 
508,407,112 
586,534,484 
627,262,419 
704,495,113 

$11,161,963 
18,262,541 
24,012,934 
20,233,594 

24,138,93° 
21,549,167 
29,655,227 
24,259,649 
36,953,355 
28,519,699 
27,370,91° 
33,789,724 
35,639,665 
31,587,114 
39,285,297 
36,884,671 
38,375,892 
39,949,224 
41,808,214 
50,182,379 

$12,605,100 
19,050,046 
19,851,146 
23,096,812 
25,201,782 
25,107,149 
22,169,067 
36,180,435 
46,657,328 
49,919,183 
58,709,516 
48,836,689 
59,062,405 
49,747,429 
65,299,531 
58,771,206 
79,819,380 
86,010,062 
82,531,53° 
104,629,312 

$3,269,233 
5,372,186 
9,005,657 
8,568,525 
12,609,160 
11,092,118 
14,264,835 
14,227,927 
i3t9*4&P 
13,037,939 
13,592,791 
15,058,411 
15,873,3" 
14,605,853 
20,683,723 
20,246,654 
25,255,437 
27,189,697 
38,791,441 
32>°37>310 

$886,348 
1,284,344 
1,353,066 
i,559,376 
1,211,416 
914,726 
801,005 
878,696 
965,327 
999,944 
918,403 
1,025,237 
1,130,883 
1,047,782 
2,164,688 
1,768,158 
2,026,800 
2,602,607 
2,865,083 
3,278,995 

$30,445,239 
37,540,807 
36,420,757 
38,592,578 
46,551,827 
38,842,895 
47,836,053 
66,206,246 
57,768,816 
60,334,244 
77,834,512 
82,383,594 
86,834,867 
91,129,842 
11,258,460 

°5,3T4,947 
33,210,164 
20,765,422 
07,453,889 
29,745i578 

$944,079 
1,164,999 
4,909,190 
6,872,866 
6,442,710 
10,694,390 
9,221,760 
5,801,796 
10,542,266 
12,306,578 
9,969,706 
7,671,876 
5,791,111 
8,224,886 
16,272,153 
14,711,237 
8,940,828 
7,760,635 
15,281,566 
16,329,044 

$178,881,407 
237,402,088 
272,338,996 
278.255,852 
383,257,704 
277,911.831 
315,839,340 
354,904,486 
418,956,060 
438,834,173 
512,137.026 
521,077,766 
553,562,761 
528,695,920 
695,050,414 

67i,7°7,3'7 
796.035,613 
870,812,131 
905,904,142 
1,040,607,731 

874  

87c 

876  

877  
878  
879  

880  

881  

882  

883  
884  

885  

886  
887  

888  

889  

890  

891  

892  

*  Stock  savings  banks  included  for  the  years  1873-86,  inclusive. 


For  the  details  of  the  history  since  the  war, 
we  refer  the  reader  to  CURRENCY.  It  has  been 
a  period  of  changes  in  the  currency  rather  than 
of  banks  or  banking.  The  failure  of  the  impor- 
tant house  of  Jay  Cooke  &  Company  in  1873 
precipitated  a  crisis,  but  the  holders  of  national 
bank-notes  were  amply  protected  by  the  treasury 
deposits.  (See  also  CRISES.) 

IV.  PROPOSED  BANK  REFORMS. 

Very  recently  (1895) ,  owing  to  the  silver  ques- 
tion (see  SILVER),  there  has  come  something  of  a 
serious  agitation  for  the  abolition  of  the  tax  on 
State  banks.  The  Comptroller  of  the  Currency 
(A.  B.  Hepburn)  says,  in  his  report  for  1892, 
P-  15  = 

"  A  conditional  repeal  of  this  10  per  cent,  tax  is  pro- 
posed, conditioned  upon  compliance  by  the  State 
banks  with  certain  regulations  imposed  by  Congress, 


designed  to  secure  circulation  and  protect  note-holders 
against  loss.  Such  State  banks  would  then  be  national 
banks  for  the  purpose  of  issuing  circulating  notes,  and 
Congress  must  provide  for  their  supervision  and  ex- 
amination, to  see  that  the  laws  are  complied  with. 
Can  currency  be  better  taken  out  by  a  bank  organized 
under  a  State  law  than  under  an  act  of  Congress  ? 
Would  Congress  or  the  country  gain  anything  by  the 
proposed  divided  jurisdiction  over  these  banks  of 
issue  ?  Wou-ld  not  division  lead  to  conflict  and  con- 
fusion ?  All  national  banks  make  reports  of  condition 
to  the  comptroller,  on  a  past  day.  fixed  by  him,  in  such 
form  as  the  comptroller  prescribes,  and  upon  blanks 
furnished  by  him.  These  forms  are  very  complete  as 
to  balance  sheet  and  detail.  In  order  to  comply  with 
these  calls,  a  bank's  books  must  be  so  kept  as  to  furnish 
the  required  information.  These  reports  are  of  very 
great  value  to  the  banks  themselves,  in  systematizing 
their  bookkeeping  and  insuring  good  and  uniform 
methods  of  business.  The  information  reported,  all 
on  the  same  date,  is  of  great  value  to  the  public. 
What  would  be  gained  by  denationalizing  our  banks 
in  all  respects,  except  as  to  circulation  ?  Can  the 
various  State  legislatures  be  depended  upon  to  provide 
better  laws  and  better  supervision  than  Congress? 
"  It  is  argued  that  92  per  cent,  of  all  business  trans- 


Banks  and  Banking. 


138 


Banks  and  Banking. 


actions  consummated  through  banks  are  represented 
by  credits — that  is,  exchanges  and  offsets — and  that 
8  per  cent,  only  is  represented  by  money.  The  Gov- 
ernment does  not  assume  to  regulate  the  92  per  cent. 
Why  should  it  the  8  per  cent.?  Why  not  as  well  allow 
State  bank-notes  to  circulate?  Their  acceptance  is 
purely  voluntary.  That  statement  is  theoretically 
true,  but  practically  it  is  wholly  false.  A  banker,  or 
large  merchant  or  manufacturer,  may  be  in  a  position, 
equipped  with  skilled  men  or  expert  information,  to  ex- 
ercise discrimination  between  the  strong  and  the  weak 
banks.  But  what  can  the  artisan,  the  day  laborer,  the 
miner,  or  the  farmer  know  of  such  a  matter?  From 
the  nature  of  their  calling  they  can  exercise  no  dis- 
crimination. They  know,  and  they  can  only  know, 
that  the  Government  allows  such  bills  to  circulate,  in 
form  and  semblance  of  money,  and  they  have  the  right 
to  hold  the  Government  responsible  that  it  be  worth 
100  cents  on  the  dollar,  whether  it  comes  from  New 
York  or  New  Mexico. 

"  The  Constitution  of  the  United  States  prohibits  the 
States  from  coining  money  or  making  anything  except 
gold  and  silver  legal  tender.  State  bank  bills  could 
not  become  a  legal  tender.  Neither  are  national  bank 
bills.  State  bank  bills  when  issued  add  just  so  much 
to  the  liabilities  of  the  bank.  They  would  circulate 
freely  in  times  of  prosperity  and  confidence.  In  times 
of  monetary  stringency  and  general  distrust  they 
would  return  to  the  banks  for  redemption.  They 
would  have  to  be  redeemed  in  legal-tender  money  pro- 
vided by  Congress.  Congress  must,  under  the  Consti- 
tution, provide  all  the  money  that  possesses  a  full  debt- 
Eaying  power.  By  every  consideration  of  sound 
usiness  principles  it  should  provide  all  the  money 
that  the  country  requires.  No  public  interest  can 
be  served  by  dividing  this  function  with  the  44 
States.  Every  period  of  financial  depression  in  the 
past  resulted  in  the  suspension  of  specie  payments, 
more  or  less  general,  by  the  banks  ;  that  is,  resulted  in 
the  inability  of  the  banks  to  redeem  their  notes.  The 
same  conditions  would  produce  similar  results  in  the 
future.  If  State  bank  notes  are  allowed  to  circulate, 
their  acceptance  is  not  voluntary ;  it  becomes  a  busi- 
ness necessity.  Many  mine  owners,  manufacturers, 
and  large  employers  of  labor  practised  paying  their 
help  in  store  orders,  in  order  to  control  their  trade  and 
make  the  extra  profit.  Surely,  under  the  law,  the  ac- 
ceptance or  rejection  of  such  orders  was  purely  volun- 
tary, and  yet  their  acceptance  for  fear  of  losing  their 
employment  was  general. 

"  So  great  did  this  abuse  become,  that  many  States 
have  enacted  laws  compelling  corporations  to  pay 
their  laborers,  at  regular  intervals,  in  money.  The 
wealthy  class  could  provide  themselves  with  the  means 
of  discriminating  against  the  notes  of  weak  banks,  and 
if  they  found  themselves  possessed  of  any,  would 
proceed  to  work  them  off  upon  their  less  fortunate 
neighbors.  That  is  the  record  of  the  past.  It  would 
be  the  experience  of  the  future.  To  the  average  labor- 
ing man  a  bank-note  reporter  and  detector  would  be  as 
inexplicible  as  the  binomial  theorem.  When  a  bank 
suspends,  the  fact  that  the  note  is  secured  and  will  be 
eventually  paid  is  poor  consolation  to  the  laborer  who 
needs  his  money  for  his  daily  use.  The  note  of  a  failed 
national  bank  is  as  good  as  that  of  any  bank  in  the 
system.  The  restoration  of  State-bank  circulation 
portends  disaster  to  that  class  of  our  citizens  who  most 
need  and  have  most  right  to  ask  protection  from  the 
Government.  State-bank  circulation  loses  its  money 
power  in  a  crisis.  It  is  a  source  of  weakness,  and  adds 
to  the  danger.  Instead  of  paying  debts  it  comes  for- 
ward itself  to  be  paid." 

And  again,  p.  n  • 

"  The  national  banks  for  a  long  series  of  years  have 
demonstrated  their  ability  to  furnish  the  country  with 
currency  ample  in  amount,  elastic  in 
volume,  sound    beyond    peradventure, 
Are-nmpnta    anc^  everv  dollar  of  which,  every  mo- 
°  umeutB    nient  of  its  existence,  was  worth  par 
for  the       throughout  the  length  and  breadth  of 
National      the  land.    A  change  from  such  a  cur- 
rency  to  another  less  secure  is  certainly 
an  unwlse  experiment.    It  is  proposed 
to  restore  State-bank  circulation  by  re- 
moving the   10  per  cent,   tax   imposed 
March  3, 1865.    There  is  no  fairer  test  of  men  or  methods 
than  the  record  they  make  for  themselves.    Every 
item  of  assets  and  liabilities,  as  shown  by  the  trial 
balance  of  their  general   ledgers,  of  every  national 
bank,   for  the  whole  period  of  their    existence,   has 
five  times  each  year  been  published  in  the  locality,  re- 
ported to  the  Comptroller  of  the  Currency,  and  become 


a  matter  of  record.  Additional  tables  resolve  al\  com- 
posite items  into  detail.  Additional  statistical  tables 
complete  the  history  and  workings  of  such  banks. 
Special  reports  show  the  course  of  trade  and  exchange. 
In  case  of  failure,  equally  explicit  information  is  ob- 
tained from  receiver's  reports,  total  claims,  total 


illy  reported  to  Congress 
and  spread  before  the  country.  The  course  of  trade, 
the  material  condition,  the  prosperity  or  depression  of 
the  country,  are  truthfully  reflected  in  the  condition 
of  its  banks.  And  the  publication  of  the  above  condi- 
tions, in  the  reports  of  these  banks,  has  been  of  ines- 
timable value  to  publicists  and  economists.  This  is 
the  record  of  national  banks  under  Federal  authority 
and  Federal  supervision.  To  compare  the  present 
national  banking  system  with  the  old  State  banking 
system  is  to  compare  order  with  confusion— perfect 
system,  under  central  control,  with  imperfect  system, 
under  diversified  control.  The  banking  systems  of 
the  different  States,  during  the  period  that  they  were 
banks  of  issue,  differed  essentially.  Some  had  excel- 
lent banking  laws;  others  had  very  crude  laws.  Some 
had  effective  supervision,  and  some  had  none  or  worse 
than  none.  In  no  State  was  the  aggregate  or  percent- 
age of  loss  to  note-holders  of  State  banks  reported, 
nor  the  losses  to  creditors  or  stockholders.  The  most 
careful  research  reveals  only  general  statements,  or 
estimates  of  loss,  in  the  current  financial  literature  of 
the  time. 

"Congress,  by  resolution  in  1832,  directed  the  Secre- 
tary of  the  Treasury  to  procure  and  publish  statistics 
relating  to  banks  in  the  several  States.  Such  publica- 
tion was  made  more  or  less  complete,  with  the  excep- 
tion of  some  years,  until  1864;  then  followed  an  inter- 
val until  1873,  when  the  Comptroller  of  the  Currency 
was  directed  to  procure  from  official  and  other  reliable 
sources  and  report  to  Congress  information  in  relation 
to  State  banking  institutions." 

And  still  again,  p.  13  : 

"  If  the  44  States  are  to  furnish  the  currency  of  the 
country,  then  we  will  have  a  chain  of  sovereignties 
furnishing  our  circulating  medium,  each 
with  varying  laws  and  varying  super- 
vision, and,  like  all  chains,  the  system  -n.....--..  „*  _ 
as  a  whole  would  be  no  stronger  than  •uanBer   (I  a 
its  weakest  link.    Disorganized  finance      Currency 
in  one  State  would  affect  all.    Argentine   furnished  by 
financial  troubles  precipitated  the  Bar-   Rtatt,  -RonVa 
ings  failure  at  a  time  when  this  country   outle  -Banns. 
was  generally  prosperous ;  and  yet  it 
produced  a  quasi  panic  in  the  United 
States  and  cast  a  cloud  over  the  financial  horizon  of 
the  whole  world  which  has  not  yet  fully  disappeared. 
Banking  is  not  a  phil^nthropical  business,  and  banks 
will  not  issue  circulating  notes  unless  it  is  profitable. 
Manifestly  issuing   notes  would    be    most  profitable 
where  greatest  latitude  was  allowed  or  greatest  laxity 
prevailed,  and  with  the  circulation  of  any  State  dis- 
credited or  the  particular  banks  of  any  State  discred- 
ited, conservative  bankers  and  conservative  business 
men  would  have  to  discriminate  against  such  bills. 

"  We  all  know  the  practical  machinery  employed  to 
enforce  such  discrimination.  Our  State  boundaries 
and  commercial  centers  would  be  policed  with  brokers' 
offices,  and  commerce  would  be  compelled  to  pause  at 
State  lines  and  pay  the  exchange  demanded  in  order 
to  provide  itself  with  money  acceptable  in  the  locality 
where  proposed  business  was  to  be  done.  The  bill  of 
a  perfectly  solvent  bank  in  Oregon  would  be  worth 
just  as  much  less  than  its  face  in  Chicago  or  New  York 
as  it  would  cost  to  send  such  bill  to  Oregon  for  re- 
demption and  secure  the  proceeds  in  return — cost  of 
transmission  each  way  and  interest  for  the  time  re- 
quired—in short,  exchange.  It  would  be  precisely  on 
a  par  with  the  note  of  any  equally  reputable  business 
firm.  The  only  way  this  discount  could  be  avoided 
would  be  to  provide  for  the  redemption  of  such  notes 
in  Chicago,  New  York,  Boston,  and  other  money 
centers.  Should  interior  and  far  Western  banks  make 
their  bills  worth  par  throughout  the  country  by  pro- 
viding for  their  redemption  at  convenient  money  cen- 
ters, it  would  compel  them  to  keep  an  amount  of  idle 
reserve  with  their  redemption  agents  that  would 
seriously  impair  the  profits  on  circulation.  And  the 
United  States  Government  would  not  facilitate  bank- 
ing transactions  then,  as  it  does  now,  by  receiving 
money  at  its  sub-treasuries  and  transporting  the  same 
to  any  part  of  the  country  for  the  meager  charge  of  15 
to  50  cents  per  $1000." 


Banks  and  Banking. 


139 


Banks  and  Banking. 


Such  is  the  main  argument  for  the  retention 
of  the  national  banking  system  and  the  tax  upon 
State  banks  of  issue. 

On  the  other  hand  is  the  argument  that  Con- 
gress has  no  right  to  take  the  privilege  of  issu- 
ing notes  by  a  tax  practically  prohibitory.  The 
Democratic  national  platform,  therefore,  repre- 
senting the  party  of  State  rights,  consistently 
put  a  plank  into  its  platform  repealing  the  tax  : 

"  In  Sec.  8  of  Art.  i  of  the  Constitution  of  the  United 
States,  the  powers  which  Congress  shall  have  are  enu- 
merated, and  as  we  read  them  over  we  look  in  vain  for 
any  one  that  in  any  terms  confers  upon  that  body  the 
power  to  take  from  the  States  authority 
to  provide  for  a  paper  currency  if  by 
Opposition  to  the  Constitution  it  was  left  to  them. 
0*1  ta  -Ra-t  The  power  to  incorporate  banks  and 
oiate  .Dami  authorize  the  issue  of  currency  by  them, 
Tax.  as  we  have  seen,  had  been  exercised  for 
three  quarters  of  a  century  before  Con- 
gress undertook  to  interfere  •with  it  in 
the  manner  specified.  Even  when  a  national  bank  was 
chartered,  the  State  banks  were  left  in  existence  ;  and 
it  was  not  the  State  power  but  the  national  power,  as 
exercised  in  the  grant  of  the  national  charter,  that  was 
then  seriously  questioned.  We  must  therefore  take  it 
as  indisputable  at  the  present  time  that  the  States  had 
rightful  power  to  charter  banks  as  they  for  so  long  a 
time  had  done,  and  to  authorize  the  issue  of  notes  by 
them,  to  circulate  as  money.  Among  the  powers 
granted  to  Congress,  however,  was  the  power  to  lay 
and  collect  taxes,  duties,  imposts,  and  excises,  to  pay 
the  debts  and  provide  for  the  common  defense  and 
general  welfare  of  the  United  States.'  This  power,  it 
is  seen,  is  given  in  the  most  general  terms,  and  the  re- 
strictions that  are  imposed  upon  it  are  only  such  as  to 
insure  uniformity,  and  they  need  not  here  be  specified. 
A  power  thus  conferred  in  general  terms  must  neces- 
sarily rest  in  the  discretion  of  the  Congress,  but  it  is 
expected  to  be  exercised  in  harmony  with  the  general 
features  of  the  Constitution  itself,  and  without  any 
encroachment  upon  the  undoubted  rights  of  the  States 
or  of  the  people.  The  power  to  lay  and  collect  taxes 
is  a  revenue  power.  It  has  for  its  object,  as  is  here  de- 
clared in  the  Constitution  itself,  'to  pay  the  debts  and 
provide  for  the  common  defense  and  general  welfare 
of  the  United  States.'  " 

Now,  this  tax  admittedly  and  unquestionably 
is  not  and  was  not  expected  to  bring  in  reve- 
nue. Under  the  form  of  a  tax  it  was  avowedly 
simply  a  means  to  develop  the  national  bank 
system  at  the  expense  of  State  banks.  Hence, 
argue  the  opponents  of  the  tax,  it  is  unconstitu- 
tional. If  the  National  Government,  under  pre- 
text of  taxation,  can  do  what  otherwise  the  Con- 
stitution gives  it  no  power  to  do,  it  can  go  much 
further.  Says  T.  M.  Cooley  : 

"  Great  as  is  the  federal  power  to  tax,  certain  im- 
plied exemptions  are  indisputable.  Congress  cannot 
lay  a  tax  upon  the  States,  or  upon  their  municipalities, 
or  their  offices,  or  their  schools,  or  their  other  govern- 
mental instruments  or  agencies.  If  these  could  be 
taxed,  the  States  themselves  might  be  annihilated  un- 
der the  pretense  of  an  exercise  of  the  revenue  power. 
But  when  the  legitimacy  of  regulating  local  commerce 
and  contracts  by  federal  taxation  shall  be  firmly  estab- 
lished in  the  legislative  mind,  we  may  feel  certain  that 
occasions  will  not  be  wanting  for  partisan  majorities 
in  Congress  to  give  frequent  illustrations  of  the  truth 
of  the  maxim  that  'the  power  to  tax  is  a  power  to 
destroy.'" 

Again,  it  is  argued  that  a  State  bank  issue 
would  be  less  free  from  danger  at  the  hands  of 
agitators,  since,  if  they  did  get  control  of  the 
legislation  of  one  State,  they  would  not  be  likely 
to  of  all  State  legislations  at  the  same  time  ; 
and  so  the  whole  national  system  would  not  be 
endangered  as  if  all  were  under  the  control  of 
one  national  body.  The  using  of  this  argument 
at  a  time  when  the  East  fears  what  it  considers 
the  wild  financial  views  of  many  of  the  Western 
States  is  of  course  to  be  expected. 


But  this  leads  us  to  notice,  lastly,  those  who 
would  do  away  altogether  with  the  chartering 
of  private  banks  by  either  State  or  nation  as 
banks  of  issue.  These  argue  that  the  present 
system  gives  enormous  advantages  to  the  favored 
few  who  have  capital.  They  point 
out  that  under  the .  present  system 
any  five  rich  men  can  loan  the  Gov-  Radical 
ernment  $100,000,  receive  interest  Views  of 
on  the  same  without  any  serious  Banking. 
risk  to  themselves,  and  yet,  while 
receiving  this  interest  on  the  whole 
$100,000,  can  get  $90,000  of  this  to  let  out  again 
at  interest  as  a  bank.  They  go  on  to  argue 
that  our  whole  banking  and  currency  sys- 
tem since  the  war,  if  not  before,  has  been 
controlled  by  the  bankers  of  our  great  cities 
wholly  in  their  own  interests.  They  accuse  them 
of  first  scheming  to  put  limitations  upon  the 
Government  issue  so  as  to  lessen  its  value,  thus 
causing  depreciation;  secondly,  of  buying  up  this 
depreciated  currency,  and  with  it  purchasing 
United  States  bonds  at  par,  and  then  getting 
Congress  to  vote,  under  the  pretense  that  hon- 
esty demanded  it,  of  redeeming  these  bonds  in 
gold  (having  sold  them  for  paper) ;  and,  thirdly, 
on  top  of  all  this,  of  scheming  to  reduce  the  vol- 
ume of  the  currency,  and  so  to  raise  the  value  of 
the  notes  in  their  possession.  The  People's 
Party,  therefore,  all  Socialists,  Nationalists, 
Greenbackers,  Knights  of  Labor,  and  many  even 
who  do  not  endorse  the  greenbackism  and  all  the 
financial  positions  of  the  People's  Party,  would 
have  all  banking  carried  on  by  Government 
directly,  without  the  intervention  of  private 
banks  chartered  by  either  State  or  nation  as 
banks  of  issue.  Professor  Amasa  Walker,  Fran- 
cis Bowen,  and  other  economists  are  also  op- 
posed to  such  private  banks.  (For  a  fuller 
discussion,  however,  of  this  position  and  the 
argument  for  it,  see  GREENBACKISM  ;  CURRENCY  ; 
PEOPLE'S  PARTY  ;  PAPER  MONEY,  etc.)  The 
philosophical  anarchists  and  extreme  individu- 
alists, on  the  other  hand,  would  abolish  the 
present  system  by  putting  no  dependence  upon 
Government,  but  substituting  mutual  banks. 
(See  MUTUAL  BANKS.)  Others,  who  do  not  go 
so  far  as  either  of  the  above  extremes,  would 
have  simply  a  Government  postal  bank  system 
(g.v.)  or  land  banks,  as  in  Germany.  (See  LAND 
BANKS.)  Says  Mr.  B.  S.  Heath,  who  is  a  fair 
example  of  those  who  would  most  radically 
change  the  present  banking  system,  in  his  La- 
bor and  Financial  Re-volution,  p.  144  : 

"  Viewed  in  its  true  light,  is  not  the  national  banking 
system  a  long  step  toward  the  establishment  of  sover- 
eignty based  upon  hereditary  succession  ;  is  it  not  a 
big  block  wrenched  from  the  temple  of  liberty  and 
planted  as  the  corner-stone  of  imperialism,  a  powerful 
element  of  sovereignty  crowned  with  the  divine  right 
of  kings? 

"As  the  federal  Government  possesses  no  powers 
except  such  as  were  delegated  to  it  by  the  people  and 
enumerated  in  the  Constitution,  was  not  the  bank  act, 
conferring  and  perpetuating  delegated  powers  upon 
foreigners  and  aliens,  a  gross  betrayal  of  trust,  if  not 
treason  against  the  people  ? 

"  Has  the  Government  a  constitutional  right  to  dele- 
gate powers  entrusted  to  it,  especially  to  be  exercised 
by  it  for  the  people  ? 

"  If  not,  is  the  national  bank  act  a  palpable  violation 
of  the  Constitution,  and  its  enforcement  a  usurpation 
of  power  not  warranted  by  that  instrument? 

"If  the  Government  chooses  to  farm  out  its  control 
over  the  currency  to  private  parties,  why  not  grant  the 
privilege  to  those  who  need  it  in  the  production  cf 


Banks  and  Banking. 


140 


Baptists  and  Social  Reform. 


wealth,  instead  of  giving  it  to  an  idle  monopoly  to  rob, 
blackmail,  and  oppress  the  producers  of  wealth?" 

Such  are  the  various  views  of  those  who  in 
different  ways  would  modify  or  overthrow  the 
present  banking  system.  (For  a  discussion  of 
the  economical  questions  involved,  see  MONEY.) 

References  :  Reports  of  Comptroller  of  the  Currency, 
especially  those  of  1876,  for  the  history  of  State  banking 
in  the  United  States,  and  of  1892  for  a  comparison  of 
State  and  national  banks ;  E.  Atkinson,  what  is  a 
Bank?  (1882);  J.  T.  Morse,  Treatises  on  t  lie  Law  Relat- 
ing to  Banks  and  Banking  (1879)  >  M.  L.  Scudder,  Jr., 
National  Banking  (1879) ;  W.  G.  Sumner,  American 


R.  H.  InglisPalgrave,  Notes  on  Ban  king  (London,  1873)  '< 
James  Wilson,  Capital,  Currency,  and  Banking  (Lon- 
don, 1847) ;  Walter  Bagehot,  Lombard  Street  (London, 
1873);  John  Francis,  History  of  the  Bank  of  England 
(London,  1847) ;  J.  E.  Thorold  Rogers,  The  First  Nine 
'  ttie  Bank 


Currency    (1874) ;    Future  of  Banking  in  the  United 
States,  Political  Science  Quarterly  {December,  1886) ; 

*-%     T-*     v^ 1 fl +  * _-.    j  I.  _    T*7.-_-  t      rr.'-j 


The  Country  Banker  (London,  1886,  and  later  editions) ; 


'and  Dublin,  1889) :  A.  Crump,  English 
Manual  of  Banking  (London,  1877)  ;  A.  S.  Bolles,  Prac- 
tical Banking  (New  York,  1884) ;  R.  H.  Inglis  Palgrave, 
Bank  Rate,  England,  France,  and  Germany  (London, 
1880):  C.  M.  Collins,  History,  Law,  and  Practice  of 
Banking  (London,  1887) ;  John  Hutchison,  The  Prac- 
tice of  Banking  (London,  1883)  ;  Bankers'  Magazine 
(London) ;  Journal  Institute  of  Bankers  (London)  ; 
American  Bankers'  Magazine  (New  York)  ;  Diction- 
naire  des  Finances  (Paris,  1889).  For  the  views  of  be- 
lievers in  paper  currency  in  the  United  States,  see  B. 
S.  Heath's  Labor  and  Finance  Revolution  (1880).  For 
the  individualist  idea  of  banking,  see  William  B. 
Greene's  Mutual  Banking-  (1870). 


THE  NATIONAL  BANKS  OF  THE  UNITED  STATES. 
(From  the  annual  reports  of  the  Comptroller  of  the  Currency.) 


YEAR  ENDING  SEP- 
TEMBER i. 

No.  of 
Banks. 

Capital. 

Surplus. 

Total 
Dividends. 

Total  Net 
Earnings. 

Ratio  of 
Divi- 
dends to 
Capital. 

Ratio  of 
Divi- 
dends to 
Capital 
and  Sur- 
plus. 

Ratio  of 
Earnings 
to  Capi- 
tal and 
Surplus. 

872                 ........ 

1,852 

$46,687,115.00 

8.33 

R-7C 

9.89 

7.81 

880           

8   02 

6.35 

7.88 

38!          

8.38 

882        

8.73 

6.81 

8.88 

ggo                                              

40,678,678.00 

8.30 

6.50 

8.60 

gg^                   

2,582 

8.00 

8.00. 

gger       .                                 

2,665 

524,599,602 

146,903,495.00 

40,656,121.00 

43,625,497.00 

7.80 

6.00 

6.50 

ggg        

7.96 

6.17 

8.02 

887        

578,462,765 

64,506,869.66 

7.98 

6.12 

8-95 

888             

583,539,145 

46,531,657.89 

65,360.486.73 

8.02 

6.10 

8  57 

880 

7.82 

S  89 

8.80- 

8<jo                 

51,158,883.33 

8.19 

6.14 

8.65 

80  1 

222,766,668.00 

7.70 

S-76 

8.60. 

3,701 

679,076,650 

237,761,865.23 

50,400,713.93 

66,658,015.27 

7.42 

•i-SO 

7.27 

893                 

3,759 

684,342,024 

246,918,673.11 

49,633,195  99 

68,750,952.09 

7.25 

5-33 

7.38 

681,129,704 

52,422,069.00 

6.80 

5.OO 

5.60 

BANKING  STATISTICS  OF  PRINCIPAL  COUNTRIES  OF  THE  WORLD. 


COUNTRIES. 

Capital. 

Deposits. 

Total. 

Per 

Capita. 

Amount  of 
Issue. 

Specie  in 
Safe. 

Specie 
Ratio. 

$60,000,000 
130,000,000 
225,000,000 
55,000,000 
65,000,000 
10,000,000 
700,000,000 
425,000,000 
1,420,000,000 
125,000,000 
70,000,000 
25,000,000 
30,000,000 
210,000,000 
155,000,000 
45,000,000 
25,000,000 

$85,000,000 
540,000,000 
510,000,000 
95,000,000 
135,000,000 
105,000,000 
640,000,000 
730,000,000 
3,130,000,000 
415,000,000 
30,000,000 
5,000,000 
20,000,000 
320,000,000 
80,000,000 
75,000,000 
60,000,000 

$145,000,000 
670,000,000 
735,000,000 
150,000,000 
200,000,000 
115,000,000 
1,340,000,000 
1,155,000,000 
4,550,000,000 
540,000,000 
100,000,000 
30,000,000 
50,000,000 
530,000,000 
235,000,000 
120,000,000 
85,000,000 

$40.00 
185.00 
19.00 
25.00 
40.00 
58.00 
35.00 
25.00 

I2O.OO 

18.00 
22.50 
15.00 

IT.OO 

6.00 
14.00 
26.50 

30.00 

$220,000,000 
27,000,000 
217,500,000 
76,000,000 
31,500,000 
22,000,000 
607,000,000 
320,000,000 
195,000,000 
215,000,000 
86,000,000 
12,000,000 

$22,500,000 
96,500,000 
107,500,000 
22,000,000 
7,000,000 
15,500,000 
505,000,000 
295,000,090 
140,000,000 
70,000,000 
53,000,000 
12,500,000 

10 

357 
5° 
29 

22 

70- 
84 

Qi 
70 

& 

104 

Italy             

615,000,000 
147,500,000 
31,500,000 
31,000,000 

165,000,000 
47,500,000 
13,500,000 
19,500,000 

26 
32 
44 
63 

The  approximations  in  the  table  of  Banking  Statistics  of  Principal  Countries  of  the  World  are  by  Mulhall,  1890.. 

BAPTISTS  IN  RELATION  TO  SOCIAL  of  opinion  on  either  social  or  religious  matters, 

REFORM. — In  reviewing  the  relation  of  Bap-  or  of  taking  formal  and  concerted  action  there- 

tists  to  social  reforms,  it  is  to  be  borne  in  mind  on.     While  exhibiting  a  remarkable  unity  of 

that  they  do  not  constitute  an  organic  body  capa-  doctrine  and  polity,  they  are,  nevertheless,  sim- 

ble  of  giving  a  united  authoritative  expression  ply  local  societies,  self-governing  and  indepen- 


Baptists  and  Social  Reform. 


141 


Baptists  and  Social  Reform. 


dent  of  one  another.  Indeed,  to  the  sociologist 
this  initial  statement  is  one  of  deep  interest,  as 
these  local  societies  were,  in  the  times  of  the 
reformatory  movements  of  the  sixteenth  cen- 
tury, already  existing  as  free  socialistic  com- 
munities, and  as  such  are  deserving  of  the  in- 
vestigation of  the  social  reformer.  Mr.  Richard 
Heath,  in  an  article  in  the  Contemporary  Re- 
view, has  clearly  shown  this  fact.  These  so- 
cieties have  never  completely  lost  the  early  so- 
cial leaven,  and  in  all  times  there  have  been 
among  them  earnest  and  able  advocates  of 
social,  political,  and  religious  liberty,  contend- 
ing for  the  separation  of  Church  and  State,  lib- 
erty of  conscience,  government  by  consent  of 
the  governed,  the  kingdom  of  God  on  earth,  and 
the  inner  light  and  teaching  of  the  Divine  Spirit. 
Baptists  have,  therefore,  naturally  affiliated 
themselves  with  the  radical  party  in  social  and 
religious  affairs.  And  yet  this  same  love  of  in- 
dividual liberty  and  a  jealousy  of  autocratic  ex- 
ternal control  have  prevented  the  manifestation 
of  this  progressive  spirit  in  the  erection  of  great 
institutions  or  the  promulgation  of  authoritative 
creeds.  Perhaps,  aside  from  individual  expres- 
sions of  this  liberty-loving  spirit,  the  widest  in- 
fluence which  Baptists  have  exerted  has  been  in 
a  socialistic  and  missionary  propaganda.  Mis- 
sionary zeal  has  ever  been  conspic- 
uous among  them  both  in  home  and 
Missionary  foreign  lands.  In  the  modern  mis- 
and  Socialis- sionary  movement,  William  Carey 
tic  Propa-  and  Adoniram  Judson  are  conced- 
ganda.  ed  to  rank  among  the  foremost 
pioneers.  In  political  revolutions 
they  have  been  usually  found  on  the 
liberal  side,  and  many  of  the  leaders  have  been 
drawn  from  among  them.  In  the  anti-slavery 
movement  they  took  an  early  and  decisive  posi- 
tion, while  in  the  Revolution  they  were,  almost 
to  a  man,  on  the  patriot  side  ;  and  in  a  still  ear- 
lier day  Roger  Williams  was  the  first  great  apos- 
tle of  religious  liberty. 

The  recent  social  discussions  have  naturally 
awakened  the  interest  of  Baptists.  In  the  Bap- 
tist Congress  reports,  almost  from  its  commence- 
ment, in  1882,  a  prominent  place  has  been  ac- 
corded to  social  topics,  and  able  contributions 
will  be  found  in  -them  to  the  solution  of  these 
questions.  In  the  proceedings  of  the  mission- 
ary annual  meetings,  which  are  the  only  gen- 
eral gatherings  of  Baptists  of  a  national  char- 
acter, as  well  as  in  State  conventions  and  local 
associations,  social  opinions  of  an  advanced 
type  on  temperance,  slavery,  negro  and  Indian 
education,  etc.,  have  found  expression  in  reso- 
lutions and  memorials  intended  for  transmission 
to  Congress  or  State  legislatures. 

The  Baptist  Congress  was  instituted  in  No- 
vember, 1882,  by  several  clergymen  and  lay- 
>men  "  for  the  discussion  of  current  questions," 
'and  has  proved  a  very  useful  and  efficient  or- 
'  ganization.  Its  inception  is  credited  to  Profes- 
sor E.  H.  Johnson,  D.D.,  of  Crozer  Theological 
Seminary,  Upland,  Pa.  It  is  modeled  after  the 
plan  of  the  Church  Congress,  and  is  the  only 
similar  body  in  the  country.  Its  first  president 
was  Rev.  George  Dana  Boardman,  D.D.,  of 
Philadelphia.  The  first  meeting  was  held  in 
-  *  Brooklyn,  and  it  has  held  annual  meetings  since. 
The  last  meeting  was  held  in  December,  1893, 


in  Augusta,  Ga.     The  proceedings  of  the  Con- 
gress are  published  annually. 

The  purpose  of  the  Congress  is  to  afford  an 
opportunity  for  the  full,  free,  and  courteous  dis- 
cussion of  social  and  religious  topics.  No  action 
is  taken  of  any  kind.  It  is  simply  a  free  plat- 
form for  debate. 

In  1889  a  few  of  the  younger  Baptist  minis- 
ters in  the  vicinity  of  New  York  commenced  a 
paper  called  For  the  Right,  devoted  to  Chris- 
tian socialism.  It  was  published  for  18  months, 
and  then  discontinued  for  lack  of  financial 
support.  The  first  editors  of  this  paper  were 
Rev.  J.  E.  Raymond,  Rev.  Walter  Rauschen- 
busch,  Miss  Elizabeth  Post,  and  Rev.  Leighton 
Williams.  In  December,  1892,  a  conference  of 
Baptist  ministers  interested  in  social  topics  met 
in  Philadelphia  and  formed  an  undenominational 
society  known  as  the  Brotherhood  of  the  King- 
dom, to  be  devoted  to  the  study  and  propagan- 
da of  the  social  teachings  and  gospel  of  Jesus 
Christ.  Rev.  Samuel  Lane  Batten,  now  (1895) 
associate  pastor  of  Amity  Church,  New  York, 
is  the  secretary  and  only  officer  of  the  Brother- 
hood. In  August,  1893,  the  Brotherhood  held  a 
three  days'  conference  at  Marlborough-on-the- 
Hudson,  discussing  various  aspects  of  the  doc- 
trine of  the  Kingdom  of  God,  with  a  view  to  the 
publication  of  a  volume  of  essays  on  the  sub- 
ject. Similar  conferences  have  been  held  year- 
ly since.  (See  BROTHERHOOD  OF  THE  KINGDOM.) 

Perhaps  the  considerations  already  stated  may 
explain  the  small  number  of  Baptist  churches 
which  have  as  yet  sought  to  exemplify  the  so- 
cial aspects  of  the  Gospel  in  the  various  appli- 
ances and  applications  now  becoming  common. 
Yet  the  "  institutional  Church,"  as  it  is  coming 
to  be  called,  is  by  no  means  unknown  among 
Baptists.  The  Grace  Temple  Church,  in  Phila- 
delphia, of  which  Dr.  Russell  H.  Conwell  is  pas- 
tor, is  well  known  throughout  the 
country  for  its  splendid  work  in  pop- 
ular education.  The  old  Spruce  "Institution- 
Street  Church,  in  the  same  city,  is  al  Churches." 
conspicuous  in  work  along  similar 
lines.  In  New  York,  the  Taber- 
nacle Church  was  the  first  to  launch  out  in 
these  directions.  It  has  since  been  follow- 
ed by  the  Memorial  Church  and  Amity  Church. 
The  last  named  has  made  a  new  departure 
in  opening  its  new  hall  for  a  series  of  con- 
ferences on  municipal  government  which  have 
met  with  considerable  popular  favor. 

Mention  should  be  made  also  in  this  article  of 
the  advanced  stand  which  many  of  the  Baptist 
preachers  and  authors  have  taken  on  social 
topics.  Dr.  Francis  Wayland  and  Dr.  Martin 
B.  Anderson  exerted  as  educators  a  profound 
influence  during  the  anti-slavery  agitation  and 
the  Civil  War,  as  did  also  Dr.  William  R.  Will- 
iams by  his  sermons.  Many  others  might  be 
mentioned  did  space  permit.  Among  our  de- 
nominational papers,  the  National  Baptist  has 
been  conspicuous  for  its  outspoken  attitude  on 
social  topics.  The  editor,  Dr.  H.  L.  Wayland, 
and  his  brother,  Hon.  Francis  Wayland,  of  Yale 
College,  have  long  been  prominent  in  the  Social 
Science  Association. 

In  conclusion,  it  may  be  said  that  as  yet  the 
relation  of  Baptists  to  social  reform  is  not  so 
important  for  any  distinct  contribution  that  they 


Baptists  and  Social  Reform. 


142 


Bastiat,  Frederic. 


have  made  to  its  literature  or  to  its  institutions 
as  for  the  illustration  which  their  own  historical 
descent  and  present  condition  affords  of  the 
possibility,  permanence,  and  prosperity  of  self- 
governing,  self-perpetuating  social  communi- 
ties. They  early  built  upon  principles  in  the 
religious  sphere  which  have  since  been  em- 
bodied in  our  political  constitution,  and  are  yet 
to  be  realized  in  a  new  social  regime. 

LEIGHTON  WILLIAMS. 

BARNETT.Rev.  SAMUEL  A.,rector(i895) 
of  St.  Jude's,  Whitechapel,  East  London.  Mr. 
Barnett  was  born  in  1844,  and  was  educated  at 
Wadham  College,  Oxford.  About  1872  he  be- 
came vicar  of  St.  Jude's  Church,  and  commenced 
his  faithful  and  untiring  labors.  In  1883  he 
went  to  Oxford  and  presented  to  a  little  knot  of 
students  gathered  in  a  student's  room  a  plan 
for  a  settlement  of  university  men  to  live  and 
work  among  the  poor.  A  small  settlement  of 
five  men  was  made.  Then  Cambridge  Univer- 
sity joined  with  them,  and  in  January,  1885, 
Toynbee  Hall  (g.v.)  was  commenced,  with  Mr. 
Barnett  as  warden.  It  was  named  for  Arnold 
Toynbee  (<?.v.),  the  brilliant  young  student  who 
had  previously  gone  to  live  among  the  poor,  but 
who  had  died  (1883).  Mr.  Barnett's  central 
thought  was  that  all  true  uplifting  for  the  poor 
must  come  from  life,  and  from  brother-life. 
"Vain,"  he  said,  "will  be  higher  education, 
music,  art,  or  even  the  Gospel,  unless  they  come 
clothed  in  the  life  of  brother-men."  He  and 
his  wife,  Henrietta  O.  Barnett,  have  been  the 
authors  of  many  essays  and  papers  on  various 
portions  of  the  social  problem,  which  have  been 
collected  into  a  most  readable  and  suggestive 

jbook  called  Practicable  Socialism.  Some  of 
his  more  fundamental  positions  are  as  follows  : 

"  The  social  reformer  must  go  alongside  the 
Christian  missionary,  if  he  be  not  himself  the 
Christian  missionary"  (p.  195). 

(  -"  The  one  satisfactory  method  of  social  reform 
is  that  which  tends  to  make  more  common  the 

i  good  things  which  wealth  has  gained  for  the 
few.  The  nationalization  of  luxury  must  be  the 
object  of  social  reformers"  (p.  65). 

"  The  first  practical  work  is  to  rouse  the  town 
councils  to  the  sense  of  their  powers  ;  to  make 
them  feel  that  their  reason  of  being  is  not  politi- 
cal, but  social  ;  that  their  duty  is  not  to  protect 
the  pockets  of  the  rich,  but  to  save  the  people. 

.The  care  of  the  people  is  the  care  of  the  com- 
munity arid  not  of  any  philanthropic  section" 

(P-  72)- 

' '  Societies  which  absorb  much  wealth  and 
which  relieve  their  subscribers  of  their  responsi- 
bility are  failing  ;  it  remains  only  to  adopt  the 
principle  of  the  education  act,  of  the  poor  law 
.  and  of  other  socialistic  legislation,  and  call  on 
society  to  do  what  societies  fail  to  do.  There  is 
much  which  may  be  urged  in  favor  of  such  a 
course.  It  is  only  society,  or,  to  use  the  title  by 
which  society  expresses  itself  in  towns,  it  is  only 
town  councils  (i.e.,  city  councils)  which  can 
cover  all  the  ground  and  see  that  each  locality 
gets  equal  treatment.  It  is  by  common  action 
that  a  healthy  spirit  becomes  common,  and  the 
tone  of  public  opinion  may  be  more  healthy  when 
the  town  council  engages  in  good  doing  than 
when  good  doing  is  the  monopoly  of  individuals 


or  of  societies.  If  nations  have  been  ennobled 
by  wars  undertaken  against  an  enemy,  towns 
may  be  ennobled  by  works  undertaken  against 
the  evils  of  poverty"  (p.  66). 

It  is  not  easy  shortly  to  answer  the  question, 
"  What  is  Toynbee  Hall  ?"  It  is  not  enough  to 
say  that  it  is  the  center  of  education,  where 
every  week  some  thousand  students  meet. 
Neither  is  it  enough  to  say  it  is  a  club  of  univer- 
sity men  associated  to  promote  the  common 
good.  It  has  rather  become  a  name  under 
which  a  society  holds  together,  formed  of  mem- 
bers of  all  classes,  creeds  and  opinion,  with  the 
aim  of  trying  to  pass  on  to  East  London  the 
best  gifts  of  the  age.  Toynbee  Hall,  too,  has 
not  been  made,  it  has  grown  ;  and  it  is  no  ex- 
aggeration but  bare  justice  to  say  that  its  growth 
to  the  present  splendid  proportions  is  in  very 
large  measure  due  to  its  devoted  warden,  Mr. 
Barnett. 

But  even  here  Mr.  Barnett's  social  efforts 
have  not  ceased.  He  has  been  and  is  still  asso- 
ciated with  almost  innumerable  movements  for 
the  benefit  of  the  poor.  As  a  member  of  the 
Whitechapel  Board  of  Guardians  he  has  taken 
great  interest  in  the  reform  of  poor  law  admin- 
istration, and  the  esteem  in  which  he  is  help 
was  recently  proved  by  his  election  to  the  chair- 
manship of  the  Board.  He  is  also  chairman  of 
the  Children's  Country  Holiday  Fund.  He  aid- 
ed very  materially  in  the  establishment  of  the 
Free  Library  in  Whitechapel,  and  is'one  of  the 
commissioners  for  that  part  of  London.  He  is 
also  actively  connected  with  the  Metropolitan 
Association  for  Befriending  Young  Servants, 
with  the  Charity  Organization  Society,  the  School 
Board,  the  Teachers'  University  Association, 
and  the  London  Society  for  the  Extension  of 
University  Teaching. 

BARTER  is  the  act  or  practice  of  trafficking 
by  exchange  of  commodities.  (For  a  discussion 
of  the  monetary  questions  involved,  see  articles 
on  CURRENCY- and  MONEY.) 

BASCOM,  JOHN,  born  in  Genoa,  N.  Y., 
May  i,  1827,  graduated  at  Williams,  1849,  and  at 
Andover  Theological  Seminary,  1855  ;  was  tutor 
at  Williams  College  from  1852-53,  and  from 
1855-74  Professor  of  Rhetoric  there.  From  1874- 
87  he  was  President  of  Wisconsin  University 
and  Professor  of  Mental  and  Moral  Philosophy. 
He  is  now  Professor  of  Political  Science  in 
Williams  College.  His  principal  works  are  Po- 
litical Economy  (1859) ;  ^Esthetics  (1862)  ;  Phi- 
losophy of  Rhetoric  (1865) ;  Science  of  Mind 
(1869)  ;  Philosophy  of  Religion  (1872)  ;  Phi- 


losophy of  English  Literature  (1874)  ;  Ethics 
(1879) ;  Natural  Theology  (1880) ;  Comparative 
Psychology  (1878)  ;  Problems  in  Pnilosophy 


(1885);  Sociology  (1887);  Wor ~ds of  Chris 7(1883); 
New  Theology  (1891) ;  An  Historical  Inter- 
pretation of  Philosophy  (1893);  Social  Science 
(1895).  He  has  also  written  extensively  for  the 
quarterly  press,  on  various  reform  topics — pro- 
hibition, labor  reform,  etc.  - 

BASTIAT,  FREDERIC  (1801-50),  born  at 
Mugron,  near  Bayonne,  France,  was  the  son  of  v  . 
a  merchant  in  the  Spanish  trade,  and  was  left    * 
an  orphan  at  the  age  of  nine.     He  commenced 


Bastiat,  Fr4d£ric. 


Baths. 


active  life  in  the  establishment  of  his  uncle  ; 
then  he  tried  farming  at  Mugron  ;  next  was 
made,  after  the  Revolution  of  1830,  juge  de  paix 
of  his  canton.  His  first  pamphlets  were  little 
memoirs  on  local  subjects  ;  but  he  became  in- 
terested in  English  writing  on  political  econ- 
omy, and  it  seems  to  have  awakened  him  to  new 
powers.  He  wrote  his  Sophismes  Economiques 
and  acquired  popularity  and  recognition.  He 
soon  became  the  most  dreaded  foe  of  protection, 
and  was  a  friend  of  the  great  Cobden.  An  As- 
sociation pour  la  Liberte"  des  Eckanges  was 
formed  at  Bordeaux  and  another  at  Paris,  with 
Bastiat  as  secretary.  He  was  turned  aside  from 
his  battle  for  free  trade  by  the  Revolution  of 
1848,  when  he  turned  his  shafts  of  wit  and 
French  epigram  against  the  socialists,  and  even 
more  against  Proudhon.  He  was  elected  to  the 
Assembly  of  1848-49,  but  spoke  little,  being 
mainly  engaged  on  his  great  work,  his  Har- 
monies, the  first  volume  of  which  only  was  pub- 
lished before  he  died  in  Italy.  ' '  In  this  brilliant 
work,"  says  M.  de  Forille,  in  the  article  upon 
Bastiat  in  Palgrave's  Dictionary  of  Political 
Economy,  "unhappily  never  finished,  Bastiat 
shows  the  contrast  between  the  internal  weak- 
ness of  the  artificial  organizations  which  are 
founded  on  constraint,  and  the  prosperity  spon- 
taneously arising  in  an  economic  condition  in 
which  the  equilibrium  of  individual  and  col- 
lective forces  results  from  their  free  and  re- 
ciprocal balance.  This  is  the  fundamental 
thought  (idee  mere)  on  which  the  Harmonies 
Economiques  are  based,  and  granted  this  as  a 
philosophic  basis,  it  could  not  have  been  devel- 
oped with  more  skill.  (See  Palgrave's  Dic- 
tionary of  Political  Economy.} 

1  BATHS  (Public).— Public  baths  were  consid- 
ered a  necessary  feature  of  all  ancient  cities. 
We  read  of  a  public  swimming  bath  in  Rome 
312  B.C.  ,  and  that  at  one  time  Rome  had  856  pub- 
lic baths,  using  annually  400,000,000  gallons  of 
water.  In  the  Middle  Ages  nearly  every  village 
and  town  is  said  to  have  had  its  bath-room  with 
wooden  tubs.  To-day  in  Turkey  and  in  Japan, 
and  in  almost  all  Eastern  countries,  public  baths 
are  found  accessible  to  the  poorest  classes  on 
payment  of  a  very  slight  fee.  The  movement 
to  start  public  baths  in  modern  Western  cities 
is,  however,  of  recent  date,  the  first  being  estab- 
lished in  Liverpool  in  1842.  In  1844  an  Asso- 
ciation for  Promoting  Cleanliness  Among  the 
People  was  formed  in  London,  and  in  1846  Par- 
liament passed  an  act  permitting  municipal  and 
local  authorities  to  establish  public  baths  and 
laundries  at  low  prices.  Birmingham  first 
moved.  Says  Mr.  Albert  Shaw,  in  his  Munici- 
pal Government  in  Great  Britain  (p.  187)  : 

"  It  was  in  1851  that  the  first  establishment  was  com- 
pleted and  opened  at  a  cost  of  about  $120,000.  Its  popu- 
larity was  immediate,  and  it  was  patronized  by  100,000 
bathers  a  year.  In  1860  a  second  establishment  was 
opened,  followed  by  a  third  one  in  1862.  The  bathers 
soon  averaged  200,000  a  year,  and  gradually  increased 
to  300,000.  In  1863  a  fourth  great  establishment  was 
opened,  and  the  bathers  at  once  increased  to  400,000. 
These  are,  of  course,  in  perennial  use,  and  artificially 
warmed  in  winter.  But  the  committee  also  provides 
open-air  summer  baths  in  two  or  three  of  the  parks. 
The  school-children  of  Birmingham  have  the  pleasure 
and  benefit  of  splendid  swimming-baths  the  year 
around,  at  the  price  of  a  halfpenny  for  each  bath. 
Citizens  who  wish  to  pay  for  Turkish  baths  find  them 


provided  at  a  shilling.  It  is  not  attempted  to  make 
these  establishments  fully  self-sustaining.  The  run- 
ning expenses  of  the  system  are  more  than  $35,000  a 
year,  and  the  receipts  from  bathers  are  less  than 
$30,000.  The  city,  moreover,  has  interest  to  pay  on  an 
investment  of  $350,000.  But  when  the  benefits  to  school- 
children alone— not  to  mention  the  hosts  of  young 
working  men  and  women — are  considered,  the  net 
charge  against  the  rates  is  a  trifling  matter  for  a  rich 
city  of  half  a  million  people." 

From  the  same  source  we  learn  that  public 
baths  exist  in  Sheffield,  Huddersfield,  Halifax, 
Birkenhead,  Hanley,  Bolton,  Leicester,  Plym- 
outh, Kidderminster,  Oldham,  and  Coventry. 
Salford  has  four  public  baths  established  at  a 
cost  of  $200,000.  Nottingham  has  greater  bath- 
ing facilities  in  proportion  to  its  size  than  any 
town  in  England.  Liverpool  has  now  seven 
public  baths  at  a  cost  of  perhaps  $800,000.  Man- 
chester since  1880  has  opened  eight  baths,  cost- 
ing nearly  $1000  apiece,  and  connected  with 
each  is  a  public  gymnasium.  London,  long  de- 
ficient, is  now  moving  rapidly  in  multiplying 
baths.  Of  Glasgow's  public  baths  Mr.  Shaw 
says  : 

•'  There  are  now  five  large  establishments  in  different 
parts  of  the  city,  the  first  of  which  was  opened  in  1878 
and  the  last  -in  1884.  Each  includes  under  the  same 
roof  very  capacious  swimming-baths  for  men  and  for 
•women  and  numerous  small  bath-rooms,eyery  modern 
facility  being  provided  ;  and  also,  as  a  distinct  feature, 
an  elaborate  and  extensive  wash-house  for  the  use  of 
poor  families  that  lack  home  conveniences  for  laundry 
work.  The  substantial  character  of  these  institutions 
will  appear  when  I  state  the  fact  that,  altho  honestly 
and  economically  built,  they  have  cost  more  than 
$600,000. 

"  The  swimming-baths  are  kept  open  through  the  en- 
tire year,  at  a  uniform  temperature,  and  the  pure  and 
soft  Loch  Katrine  water  makes  them  particularly  in- 
viting. Their  establishment  was  an  inestimable  boon 
to  the  working  classes,  who  needed  them  as  a  common 
decency  of  life,  and  who  enjoy  them  as  a  luxury. 
They  are  in  charge  of  competent  swimming-masters, 
and  there  are  swimming-clubs  and  frequent  contests 
in  connection  with  each  of  them.  Glasgow  affords  the 
masses  so  little  healthful  recreation  comparatively 
that  this  feature  of  the  baths  is  the  more  appreciated. 
The  number  of  bathers  exceeds  450,000  a  year,  and 
there  is  reason  to  believe  that  it  will  increase,  altho 
the  present  average  of  1500  per  day  the  entire  year 
through  would  seem  to  justify  the  city's  outlay.  The 
charges  are,  of  course,  small— twopence  for  use  of 
swimming-bath  and  a  little  more  for  the  private  baths, 
with  special  rates  for  school-children." 

France,  Belgium,  and  Austria  have  kept  pace 
with  this  movement.  Berlin  had  12  public  baths 
up  to  1893,  and  that  year  another  was  erected  at 
a  cost  of  $150,300. 

In  the  United  States  very  little  has  been  done, 
and  that  by  private  societies.  In  1891  the  New 
York  Association  for  Improving  the  Condition 
of  the  Poor  opened  a  People's  Bath  at  9  Centre 
Market  Place.  Mr.  F.  S.  Longworth,  the  gen- 
eral agent  of  that  society,  gives  the  following 
summary  of  the  work  to  April  i,  1894  : 

Date  of  opening  bath-house  :  August  17,  1891. 
Cost  of  bath-house,  exclusive  of  value  of  lot.  $27,025.58 
Cost  of  operations  for  one  year,  at  five  cents 
each    for    baths,   beyond    receipts    from 

bathers 1,840.76 

Total  number  of  bathers  from  date  of  open- 
ing to  March  31, 1894, two  years  and  seven 
months:  164,166;  namely, 

Men 120,780 

Women 19*847 

Children i5t7io 

Children  free 71829 


Total 164,166 


Baths. 


144 


Bear. 


Greatest  number  of   bathers  in  one 

day 932 

Number  bathed  per  month  per  whole  , 

year 5,205 

Greatest  number  per  month i3>°95 

Average  number  per  day  bathed  in 

winter  months ...         140 

In  a  paper  read  at  a  municipal  conference  in 
New  York,  April  26,  1894,  Mr.  John  P.  Faure 
says  : 

"Just  one  week  later  than  the  Association  for  Im- 
proving the  Condition  of  the  Poor,  or  on  August  24, 
i8gi,  the  managers  of  the  DeMilt  Dispensary  opened  a 
bathing  department  in  the  basement  of  their  building, 
corner  Second  Avenue  and  Twenty-third  Street, 
equipped  with  one  tub  and  four  sprays. 

"  For  the  first  year  a  charge  of  10  cents  per  bath  was 
made,  including  a  fresh  towel  and  small  cake  of  soap 
for  each  bather ;  since  August  i,  1892,  however,  the 
price  has  been  reduced  to  five  cents. 

"  During  the  two  and  one  half  years  since  the  open- 
ing of  these  baths,  they  have  been  used  by  about  5000 
bathers. 

"  That  this  number  of  people,  residing  in  different 
portions  of  the  city  from  Centre  Market  Place,  should 
manifest  the  same  desire  to  bathe  and  pay  for  it,  only 
confirms  the  opinion  expressed  earlier  in  this  paper. 

"  On  November  27,  1893,  the  Charity  Organization 
Society  opened  its  model  bath-house,  representing  the 
latest  known  improvements  in  sanitary  plumbing,  at  its 
'  Wayfarers'  Lodge,'  515  West  Twenty-eighth  Street. 

"  I  quote  from  a  recent  letter  of  my  friend  Mr.  Charles 
D.  Kellogg,  the  founder  of  the  Charity  Organization  So- 
ciety in  this  city,  in  which  he  says  :  •  The-baths  at  our 
lodge  are  not  free  by  any  means.  Every  man  who 
goes  there  to  remain  over  night  and  be  fed  is  compelled 
to  take  a  bath  and  to  have  his  clothes  fumigated,  in  ad- 
dition to  a  certain  extent  of  labor.  In  our  judgment  it 
is  a  better  plan  for  the  class  of  men  with  whom  we 
deal,  that  is,  homeless  and  unemployed — the  city 
tramp  properly — than  any  plan  of  free  baths.' 

"  During  the  months  or  December,  January,  Febru- 
ary, and  March  bathing  possibilities  were  afforded  to 
8773  men  by  the  latest  work  of  a  society  that  has  done 
so  much  to  educate  New  York  as  to  the  wisest  lines  on 
which  to  administer  its  benefactions." 

The  only  baths  provided  by  American  munici- 
palities are  a  few  floating  swimming-baths.  In 
this  New  York  has  led.  Two  free  floating-baths 
were  authorized  by  the  New  York  Legislature 
in  1868,  and  up  to  1889  10  more,  and  in  that 
year  nine  more.  Only  15,  however,  have  been 
built  An  act  of  1892  in  that  State  authorizes 
' '  any  citv,  village,  or  town  in  this  State  to  estab- 
lish public  baths,  and  to  loan  its  credit  or  make 
appropriations  for  that  purpose. " 

Other  States  are  far  behind  even  this. 

References  :  A  Plea  for  Public  Baths,  by  Dr.  Simon 
Baruch,  New  York  Academy  of  Medicine  (1891),  1892  ; 
Les  Bains  Populaires,  by  R.  Baumann  (Paris,  1892) ; 
Public  Baths  as  a  Preventative  of  Disease,  by  C.  H. 
Shepard  (International  Medical  Magazine,  1892). 

BAUMELER,  JOSEPH,  the  first  head  or 
leader  of  the  Separatists,  who  in  1818  founded 
the  communistic  colony  of  Zoar  (q.v.\  Orig- 
inally a  weaver,  and  later  a  teacher,  he  seems 
to  have  been  a  man  of  unusual  organizing  abil- 
ity, a  fluent  speaker  and  natural  leader.  The 
community  was  at  first  celibate,  but  between 
1829-30  they  began  to  permit  marriage,  and 
Baumeler  himself  took  a  wife.  Under  his  lead 
the  community  prospered  greatly,  and  when 
Baumeler  died  in  1837  the  loss  was  said  to  be 
almost  irreparable  to  the  community.  (For  his 
views,  see  ZOAR.) 

BAX,  ERNEST  BELFORT,  was  born  Jury 

23,  1854,  at  Warrington,  Warwickshire,  altho 
his  family  was  originally  of  Surrey.  His  first 
interest  in  social  problems  dates  from  the  Paris 
Commune  of  1871,  when  he  was  led  to  study  the 


whole  economic  question,  with  its  social,  politi- 
cal, and  ethical  bearings.  He  subsequently 
studied  in  South  Germany,  and  later  became 
assistant  correspondent  in  Berlin  for  a  promi- 
nent London  daily  paper.  In  1882-83  he  was 
one  of  the  inaugurators  of  the  English  socialist 
movement,  in  conjunction  with  his  friends, 
Hyndman,  Morris,  and  others.  At  the  begin- 
ning of  1885  he  left  the  Social  Democratic  Fed- 
eration in  company  with  Mr.  Morris  and  others, 
and  founded  the  Socialist  League,  starting  and 
editing  with  Mr.  Morris  a  new  journal,  the 
Commonweal.  The  League  had  a  prosperous 
career  for  two  or  three  years,  when  the  anarchist 
element  in  it  became  predominant,  and  he  re- 
signed in  consequence.  Subsequent  to  this  he 
has  taken  part  with  the  Federation  in  various 
ways,  editing  for  a  time  Justice,  the  organ  of 
the  Social  Democratic  Federation,  and  helping 
to  found  the  new  Twentieth  Century  Press. 
He  has  been  a  frequent  contributor  to  the  litera- 
ture of  the  party,  and  is  the  author  of  the  follow- 
ing works  :  The  Life  of  Murat  (out  of  print)  ; 
Kant's  Prolegomena  and  Metaphysical  Foun- 
dations of  Natural  Science,  translated  into  Eng- 
lisn,  with  introductions  and  notes  ;  Handbook 
of  the  History  of  Philosophy  from  Thales  to 
the  Present  Time  ;  an  edition  of  Adam  Smith's 
Wealth  of  Nations  (with  introduction  and 
notes) ;  Schopenhauer's  Essays  translated  into 
English,  with  biography,  introduction  and  notes  ; 
The  Religion  of  Socialism,  being  Essays  in 
Modern  Socialist  Criticism  ;  The  Ethics  of  So- 
cialism, etc.  ;  Outlooks  from  the  New  Stand- 
point ;  T/ie  Story  of  the  French  Revolution  ; 
The  Problem  of  Relief,  being  suggestions  for 
a  philosophical  reconstruction  ;  Socialism  :  Its 
Growth  and  Outcome  (Morris  and  Bax).  He 
has  been  the  editor  of  two  magazines  ( To-day 
and  7y/#£),bothof  which  are  now  defunct  ;  and 
he  has  at  this  time  (1895)  in  the  press  a  work 
dealing  with  the  social  side  of  the  Reformation 
of  Germany. 

BAZARD,  SAINT-AMAND  (1791-1832). 
Born  in  Paris,  he  won  the  Cross  of  the  Legion 
of  Honor  for  the  part  he  took  in  the  defense  of 
Paris  (1813).  He  had  a  good  position  in  the  Pre- 
fecture of  the  Seine,  but  becoming  interested  in 
the  efforts  for  democratic  freedom,  he  went  to 
the  south  of  France  and  took  part  in  the  efforts 
of  the  Carbonari.  Returning  to  Paris,  he  joined 
the  Saint  Simonian  School,  and  became  its  lead- 
ing economist  and  editor  of  its  journals,  Pro- 
ducteur  (1829)  and  the  Globe  (1831).  He  advo- 
cated compulsory  free  education,  and  the  gratu- 
itous giving  by  the  State  of  land  and  capital  for 
life  tenancy  only  (so  as  to  prevent  accumula- 
tion), the  State  to  give  to  each  his  deeds  and  to 
receive  from  each  according  to  ability.  In 
1828  he  gave,  in  Paris,  a  long  course  of  lectures 
which  largely  made  Saint  Simonianism  popular. 
In  1831  he  opposed  Enfantin  (q.v.},  his  col- 
league, at  the  head  of  the  Saint  Simonian  school, 
on  the  question  of  marriage  and  divorce,  and 
died  of  a  broken  heart  at  the  division  of  the 
school.  His  main  work  is  Exposition  de  la  Doc- 
trine de  Saint  Simon  (1830-31). 

BEAR. — In  exchanges  (i)  one  who  sells  stocks, 
grain,  provisions,  or  other  commodities  neither 


Bear. 


Beecher,  Henry  Ward. 


owned  nor  possessed  by  him  at  the  time  of  sell- 
ing them,  but  which  he  expects  to  buy  at  a 
lower  price  before  the  time  fixed  for  making  the 
delivery  ;  (2)  one  who  endeavors  to  bring  down 
prices  in  order  that  he  may  buy  cheap — opposed 
to  a  dull,  who  tries  to  raise  the  price  that  he 
may  sell  dear  ;  (3)  stock  which  one  contracts  to 
deliver  at  a  future  date,  tho  not  in  the  posses- 
sion of  the  seller  at  the  time  the  contract  is 
made.  In  the  phrases  ' '  to  buy  or  sell  the  bear, ' ' 
the  expression  is  derived  by  some  from  the 
proverb,  "  to  sell  a  bear's  skin  before  one  has 
caught  the  bear."  One  who  sold  stocks  in  this 
way  was  formerly  called  a  ' '  bearskin  jobber, ' ' 
later  simply  "  a  bear  ;"  explained  by  others  as 
an  allusion  to  a  bear,  which  pulls  down  with  its 
paws,  in  contrast  with  the  bull,  which  tosses  up 
with  its  horns. 

BEBEL,   FERDINAND     AUGUST,   was 

born  on  February  22,  1840,  near  Cologne,  and 
was  educated  as  a  turner.  He  passed  through 
the  usual  grades  of  apprenticeship  and  journey- 
manship,  and  after  his  Wander jahre,  spent  in 
South  Germany,  he  established  himself  in  1860 
at  Leipzig.  His  first  public  activity  was  as  an 
upholder  of  Schultze-Delitzsch's  cooperative 
movement,  to  which  Lasalle  also  at  first  ad- 
hered, and  he  became  prominent  in  political  and 
educational  work  among  working  men.  He 
threw  all  his  influence  against  Lasalle  and 
the  Universal  Association  when  the  latter  was 
founded. 

But  Bebel  was  soon  to  come  under  the  influ- 
ence of  Liebknecht,  and  to  become  a  socialist. 
He  had  no  sympathy  with  socialism  up  to  1866, 
but  from  that  time  his  views  rapidly  changed. 
He  joined  the  International,  becoming  influen- 
tial enough  to  take  a  prominent  part  in  bring- 
ing together  the  followers  of  Marx  and  Lasalle, 
and  so  helping  to  make  the  Social  Democratic 
Party.  When  he  was  elected  President  of  the 
Union  of  German  Working  Men's  Associations 
in  1867,  he  persuaded  the  organization  to  unite 
with  the  International — at  the  time  an  important 
step  in  the  movement  toward  socialism. 

Bebel  was  returned  to  the  North  German  Diet 
by  a  Saxon  constituency  in  1867,  and  has  re- 
mained in  the  German  Imperial  Parliament,  with 
brief  exceptions,  ever  since,  altho  an  outspo- 
ken socialist.  He  has  often  been  imprisoned  ; 
first  in  1869  on  the  charge  of  disseminating  doc- 
trines dangerous  to  the  State  ;  again  in  1870  on 
a  charge  of  high  treason,  and  lastly  in  1872, 
when  he  was  sentenced  to  two  years'  imprison- 
ment. Later,  two  additions  of  nine  months 
each  were  made  to  this  sentence. 

Bebel  and  Liebknecht  were  the  leaders  of  so- 
cial democracy  in  the  German  elections  of  June, 
1893,  in  which  it  made  such  a  striking  and  sig- 
nificant advance,  and  they  remain  to-day  (1895) 
the  two  main  teachers  and  leaders  of  German 
socialism.  Bebel  once  summarized  his  views 
thus  :  "  We  aim  in  the  domain  of  politics  at  re- 
publicanism, in  the  domain  of  economics  at  so- 
cialism, in  the  domain  of  what  is  called  to- 
day religion  at  atheism."  His  main  writings 
are  Frau  und  der  Socialismus  (1879) ;  Unsere 
Ziele  (1876)  ;  Christenthum  und  Socialismus  ; 
Zur  Lage  der  Ar better  in  den  Biickereien 
(1890). 


BECCARIA,  CESARE  BONESANA, 
Marquis  (1735-93),  was  born  at  Milan  and  educat- 
ed at  a  Jesuit  college  at  Parma.  He  was  an  able 
mathematician  and  an  expert  in  many  sciences. 
He  belonged  for  25  years  to  the  magistracy, 
serving  under  the  Austrians,  who  in  1768  formed 
for  him  a  Chair  of  Political  Economy  in  Milan — 
the  second  of  the  kind  in  Italy.  His  famous  lit- 
tle tract,  Dei  delitti  e  delle  pene,  has  been 
translated  into  22  languages.  Before  either  of 
them  he  arrived  at  many  of  the  conclusions  of 
Adam  Smith  and  of  Malthus.  He  is  also  the  au- 
thor of  the  famous  phrase,  "The  greatest  hap- 
piness of  the  greatest  number."  He  asserted 
that  "  coldly  (rigidly)  examining  human  nature, 
we  see  that  every  man  is  absolutely  egotistic, 
and  that  on  this  basis  alone  legislation  can  be 
established  if  it  is  not  to  be  knocked  over  con- 
stantly ;  that  nobody  cares  anything  for  the 
universal  happiness  or  for  the  good  of  others, 
and  that  every  man  makes  himself  the  center  of 
all  the  things  that  happen  in  the  world."  Hel- 
vetius  taught  that  "interest  is  for  the  moral 
world  what  the  principle  of  gravitation  is  for 
the  physical  one,"  and  he  seems  largely  to  have 
influenced  Beccaria. 

BEECHER,  HENRY  WARD,  clergy- 
man, was  born  in  Litchfield,  Conn.,  June  24, 
1813  ;  died  in  Brooklyn,  N.  Y.,  March  3,  1887. 
He  was  the  eighth  son  of  Lyman  Beecher  and 
Roxanna  Foote  ;  studied  at  the  Boston  Law 
School  ;  was  graduated  at  Amherst  in  1837  ; 
studied  theology  at  Lane  Seminary.  In  1839  he 
married  Miss  Eunice  White  Bullard,  and  en- 
tered upon  his  first  settlement,  which  was  over 
the  Lawrenceburg,  Ind.,  Presbyterian  Church. 
In  1839  he  went  to  Indianapolis,  and  served  the 
Second  Presbyterian  Church  of  that  place  for 
eight  years.  In  1847  he  accepted  an  invitation 
to  become  pastor  of  the  Plymouth  Congrega- 
tional Church,  Brooklyn,  N.  Y.  This  society 
had  just  been  formed  by  a  few  leading  men  es- 
pecially interested  in  temperance,  the  new 
school  theology,  anti-slavery,  and  other  ques- 
tions of  reform.  He  labored  with  this  people 
until  his  death,  which  terminated  a  pastorate  of 
40  years.  As  a  preacher  and  reformer  he  had 
world-wide  fame  and  influence.  In  iSssheintro- 
duced  a  new  order  of  church  music  by  his  Ply- 
mouth Collection  of  Hymns.  At  about  this  time 
his  society  was  the  first  to  connect  parlors  and  a 
kitchen  with  a  place  of  worship.  In  the  Plym- 
outh pastor  the  oppressed  ever  found  a  cham- 
pion for  their  cause.  On  his  platform  in  ante- 
bellum days  stood  Frederick  Douglas,  the  black 
man,  pleading  for  his  race.  Here  often  ap- 
peared fugitive  slaves  whose  freedom  Mr.  Beech- 
er purchased  with  the  contributions  of  his  con- 
gregation. Here  Wendell  Phillips,  the  aboli- 
tionist, was  invited  to  voice  his  convictions  when 
driven  by  mobs  from  the  halls  of  New  York 
City.  Here  Kossuth,  the  exile,  pleaded  for  his 
people,  and  $10,000  were  raised  for  the  freedom 
of  Hungary.  Here  Mr.  Beecher  was  confront- 
ed by  a  fierce  mob  which  attempted  to  ' '  clean 
out  the  nigger- worshiper. "  In  1850,  in  his  fa- 
mous star  paper,  Shall  We  Compromise  ?  in 
The  Independent,  he  vigorously  opposed  the 
policy  of  Webster  and  Clay  to  save  the  Union 
by  moral  compromise. 


Beecher,  Henry  Ward. 


146 


Beesly,  Edward  Spencer. 


Mr.  Beecher  resolutely  repudiated  the  just- 
ness of  the  fugitive  slave  clauses  in  Clay's  bill, 
and  the  obligation  of  capturing  and  returning 
runaway  slaves.  For  this  he  was  lampooned 
by  the  press.  In  1857,  when  the  Dred-Scott  de- 
cision of  the  United  States  Supreme  Court  had 
given  slave-holders  right  to  take  their  slaves  into 
any  part  of  the  Union,  and  the  South  was  at- 
tempting to  force  slavery  upon  Kansas,  the  new- 
ly settled  State,  he  opposed  the  movement  by 
lecturing  extensively  and  collecting  money  for 
the  purchase  of  Bibles  and  rifles  for  the  settlers. 
He  did  much  in  shaping  the  course  of  the  Re- 
publican Party  as  a  new  political  force.  He 
was  in  close  conference  with  Horace  Greeley  and 
Henry  J.  Raymond,  editors  of  the  New  York 
Tribune  and  the  New  York  Times,  the. lead- 
ing Republican  journals  of  those 
days.  He  was  for  20  years  an  influ- 
His  ential  contributor  to  The  Indepen- 
Folitical  dent,  of  which  paper  he  was  editor 
Activities,  during  the  Rebellion  (1861-63).  In 
1856  he  stumped  for  Fremont,  and 
in  1860  for  Lincoln.  In  1863  he 
visited  Great  Britain,  and  there  vindicated  his 
national  Government.  He  spoke  in  several  of 
its  principal  cities,  where  sympathy  for  the  con- 
federacy prevailed.  His  life  was  threatened,  and 
the  press  denounced  him.  The  walls  of  the  cities 
were  placarded  with  enormous  scurrilous  pos- 
ters, and  handbills  of  malcontent  were  freely 
distributed.  Copies  of  these  bills  are  now  pre- 
served in  the  Brooklyn  Historical  Society.  He 
confronted  vast,  turbulent  mobs,  often  contend- 
ing with  them  for  an  hour  or  more  before  they 
would  listen  to  his  argument.  Once  he  reached 
the  platform  only  by  being  carried  over  the  heads 
of  the  dense  crowd.  But  by  his  good  humor, 
pluck,  and  eloquence,  he  converted  them  to 
Northern  principles.  These  addresses  were 
published  in  1864  in  London  as  Speeches  on  the 
Rebellion.  On  April  14,  1865,  by  invitation  of 
the  United  States  Government,  he  delivered  an 
oration  at  the  commemoration  of  the  fall  of  Fort 
Sumter  and  the  raising  of  the  national  flag  over 
its  walls.  In  1866  he  wrote  his  famous  letter  to 
the  National  Convention  of  Soldiers  and  Sailors 
at  Cleveland,  O.,  wherein  he  condemned  the 
exclusion  of  the  Southern  States,  and  advocated 
their  readmission  at  once,  showing  that  delay 
imperilled  national  peace  and  increased  South- 
ern bitterness.  Tho  a  formidable  opponent  of 
the  Southern  policy,  after  the  war  he  manifested 

§reat  tolerance  and  compassion  for  the  defeated 
tates  and  their  leaders.  In  1870  he  became  the 
editor-in-chief  of  the  Christian  Union.  In  1871- 
74  he  delivered  the  first  three  annual  courses  of 
lectures  upon  preaching  in  the  Lyman  Beecher 
lectureship  at  Yale  Divinity  School.  In  1874  he 
was  charged  with  criminality  with  Mrs.  Tilton 
by  her  husband,  Theodore  Tilton,  his  successor 
as  editor  of  The  Independent.  After  a  thorough 
investigation  by  his  church,  the  charges  were 
not  sustained  ;  a  trial  of  six  months  in  the  civil 
courts  resulted  in  a  divided  jury,  which  stood 
nine  for  the  defendant  and  three  for  the  plain- 
tiff. 

Tho  he  had  spoken  for  Presidents  Grant, 
Hayes,  and  Garfield,  he  regarded  the  Republican 
Party  as  having  performed  its  chief  mission  in  the 
emancipation  of  the  slave  and  the  restoration  of 


the  Union.  His  free-trade  principles,  his  personal 
esteem  for  Governor  Cleveland,  and  his  distrust 
of  Senator  Elaine  caused  him  to  transfer  his 
support,  in  1884,  to  the  Democratic  Party.  He 
was  a  conscientious  and  unpartisan  thinker. 
He  served  his  nation  not  as  a  statesman  nor  as 
a  politician,  but  as  an  unselfish  patriot  and  re- 
former. 

He  was  stout  in  build,  florid,  and  had  a  consti- 
tution of  great  endurance.  His  face  was  ex- 
pressive and  his  voice  magnetic.  He  had  an 
exuberant  imagination  and  a  remarkable  gift 
for  illustration.  His  sermons  and  addresses 
abounded  in  references  to  nature,  the  arts,  and 
common  life.  In  disposition  he  was  tolerant 
and  affectionate  ;  in  theology,  liberal  and  prac- 
tical. He  had  an  ardent  affection  for  children. 
He  was  the  most  widely  reported  and  misre- 
ported  man  of  his  generation.  Through  his 
voice  and  pen  he  had  the  widest  influence  of 
any  preacher  in  America.  His  audience  was 
generally  limited  by  the  capacity  of  the  room  in 
which  he  spoke.  On  the  day  of  his  funeral  the 
Legislature  of  New  York  adjourned  after  pass- 
ing resolutions  of  sorrow  and  esteem.  A  statue 
of  Mr.  Beecher  was  unveiled  in  Brooklyn,  N.  Y. , 
June  21,  1891,  people  of  all  classes  and  ages  con- 
tributing to  a  sum  of  $35,000  for  its  erection. 
His  body  was  buried  in  Greenwood 
Cemetery. 

Publications  containing  his  ser-   Public  Sor- 
mons,  addresses  and  contributions    row  at  His 
to  the  press  are  numerous,  the  fol-       Death, 
lowing  of  which  are  helpful  for  a 
study   of  his  life  as  a   reformer  : 
Star  Papers  (2  vols.)  ;    Lectures   to    Young 
Men  ;    Lectures    upon  Preaching  ;  Patriotic 
Addresses ;  Evolution    and    Religion  ;  Ply- 
moiith    Pulpit  Sermons.     The  most  satisfac- 
tory  biographies  of    Beecher  are    written   by 
John  Henry    Barrows,  Abbott  and    Halliday, 
W.    C.  Beecher  and   Samuel    Scoville,    Joseph 
Howard,  Jr.,  and  Thomas  W.   Knox.   Valuable 
information   upon   his    life    may  be    obtained 
also  in  History  of  Plymouth  Church,  by  Noyes 
L.  Thompson  ;  The  Beecher  Memorial,  com- 
piled and  edited  by  E.  W.  Bok  ;  Mrs.  Stowe's 
Men  of  Our  Times  ;  Joseph  Parker's  Eulogy 
of  Beecher.  THOMAS  A.  BICKFORD. 

BEESLY,  EDWARD  SPENCER,  born 
in  1831,  was  educated,  like  so  many  of  the  Eng- 
lish Positivists,  at  Wadham  College,  Oxford. 
He  became,  in  1854,  Assistant  Master  of  Marl- 
borough  College,  and  in  1860  Professor  of  His- 
tory in  University  College,  London.  Besides 
numerous  magazine  articles  from  the  Positivist 
position,  he  has  taken  a  large  part  in  a  transla- 
tion of  Comte's  work,  and  is  widely  known  for 
his  lectures  on  Catiline,  Clodius,  and  Tiberius. 
He  has  been  a  lifelong  worker  in  the  English 
labor  movement  as  an  uncompromising  Radical. 
He  presided  at  the  meeting  in  St.  Martin's  Hall 
in  1863,  when  the  International  (?.v.)  was  or- 
ganized, and  was  an  original  member  of  the 
Social  Democratic  Federation,  tho  he  soon  with- 
drew from  the  organization.  He  was  more  ac- 
tive, together  with  Frederic  Harrison  and  other 
Positivists,  in  aiding  in  every  way  the  trade- 
union  movement  in  the  days  when  the  trade- 
unions  were  struggling  for  legal  existence.  He 


Beesly,  Edward  Spencer. 


i47 


Belgium  and  Social  Reform. 


was  a  constant  contributor  to  the  Beehive, 
which  was  from  1861-77  the  powerful  working- 
class  organ  in  London.  Some  of  his  letters  in 
defense  of  trade-unions  nearly  cost  him  his  po- 
sition of  professor.  He  was,  down  to  1881,  in 
close  contact  with  the  leaders  of  the  trade-union 
movement,  and  aiding  them  constantly  by  his 
advice  and  his  letters  to  the  press.  After  1883 
the  connection  ended,  altho  there  was  no 
breach  of  friendliness.  The  need  of  his  aid  had 
largely  ceased.  (See  TRADE-UNIONS,  Section 
"  England.") 

BELGIUM  AND  SOCIAL  REFORM. 

I.  STATISTICAL  AND  HISTORICAL. 

The  kingdom  of  Belgium  was  formed  in  1830 
as  an  independent  State  out  of  a  portion  of  the 
Netherlands.  Prince  Leopold,  of  Saxe-Coburg, 
was  elected  king  in  1831.  With  an  area  of  only 
11,373  square  miles,  it  had,  in  1893,  a  popula- 
tion of  6,262,272,  making  it  the  most  densely 
populated  country  in  the  world.  It  is  estimated 
that  about  426,000  are  engaged  in  agriculture, 
293,000  in  mines  and  metal  works,  473,000  in 
mixed  industries,  327,000  in  commerce,  659,000 
in  professions  and  official  positions.  There 
were,  in  1892,  35  royal  colleges  and  atheneums, 
131  middle  schools,  57  industrial  schools,  5797  pri- 
mary, 1237  infant,  and  1649  adult  schools.  Be- 
sides the  public  schools  there  were  80  private 
colleges,  65  private  middle-class  schools,  and 
many  lesser  ones.  In  1890,  26.9  per  cent,  of  the 
population  over  1 5  could  not  both  read  and  write. 
Almost  the  whole  population  is  nominally  Ro- 
man Catholic,  though  the  opposition  to  the 
' '  clericals' '  is  rapidly  growing.  Full  religious 
liberty  is  guaranteed  by  the  Constitution.  The 
Budget  grants  4,800,000  frs.  to  Roman  Catholics, 
85,000  frs.  to  Protestants,  and  16,300 frs.  to  Jews. 

The  revenue  for  1892  was  414,045,000  frs.  The 
Budget  for  1895  estimates  the' ordinary  revenue 
at  357, 727,028  frs.  (161,687,300  frs.  from  railways, 
post  and  telegraph  ;  51,905,000  frs.  from  direct 
taxes;  25,840,570  frs.  from  customs;  42,247,409 
frs.  from  excise).  It  estimates  the  ordinary  ex- 
penses at  356,193,486  frs.  (109,790,484  frs.  inter- 
est and  sinking  fund  for  the  public  debt,  106,- 
525,589  frs.  for  ministry  of  railways,  post  and 
telegraph  ;  47,229,652  frs.  for  ministry  of  war). 

The  public  debt  in  1893  was  2,147,460,574  frs.  ; 
the  funded  debt,  2,126,050,939  frs.  The  debt 
was  largely  incurred  for  building  railroads,  but 
the  interest  is  more  than  covered  by  the  returns. 
The  peace  effective  of  the  army  is  47,642  men 
and  3421  officers  ;  29,191  workmen  in  1893  were 
employed  in  1559  quarries,  1804  workmen  in 
metallic  mines,  and  116,861  (of  which  2172  were 
women,  6359  were  boys,  and  44  were  girls) 
worked  in  coal-mines  under  ground. 

The  imports  in  1893  were  2,810,709,742  frs., 
and  the  exports  2,590,261,736  frs.  January  i, 
1894,  there  were  2018  miles  of  railway  worked 
by  the  State — 792  by  private  companies.  Up  to 
1894  the  State  had  spent  for  railways  1,941,283,- 
473  frs.  on  first  cost,  1,859,469,465  frs.  on  work- 
ing them,  and  up  to  1893  the  total  receipts  have 
been  3,170,642,149  frs. 

II.  SOCIAL  REFORM. 
Social  and  industrial  reform  ideas  began  to 


work  in  Belgium  very  early  in  the  century. 
According  to  M.  Vandervelde,  Belgian  trade- 
unions  are  developed  from  old  trade  benefit 
societies  which  arose  toward  the  end  of  the 
eighteenth  century  after  the  abolition  of  the  old 
medieval  guilds  in  1795.  Thus,  for  example, 
the  Hat-makers'  Benevolent  Union  was  origi- 
nally a  trade  friendly  society,  but  became  in  1838 
"  a  society  for  the  maintenance  of  prices  and 
for  resistance."  Even  down  to  the  second  half 
of  the  century  the  old  spirit  lingered.  In  1867 
the  weavers  at  Ghent  still  bore  on  their  banner 
the  motto,  "God  and  the  Law"  (God  en  de 
Wit).  To-day  the  Belgian  artisan  cries,  ' '  Down 
with  the  bishop"  quite  as  much  as  "  Down  with 
the  king." 

The  Master  Glass-workers'  Association  at 
Charleroi  was  established  in  1836  ;  the  Free 
Typographical  Association  originated  in  1842  ; 
the  Jewellers'  and  Goldsmiths'  Society  in  1852. 
The  trade-union  movement  in  Belgium,  how- 
ever, early  took  a  socialistic  form. 

As  early  as  1835  the  Belgian  Colins  wrote  in 
Paris  his  Le  Pacte  Social,  advocating  extreme 
collectivism,  and  arguing  that ' '  immovable  prop- 
erty belongs  to  all."     In  1848,  at 
Ghent,  Huet  gathered  around  him 
a  little  knot  of   liberal   Catholics,    Socialism, 
among  them  his  distinguished  pupil, 
Professor    E.    de     Laveleye,    and 
taught  them  the  principles  which  at  a  later  day 
he   so  eloquently  embodied  in  his  Le  Rcgne 
Social  du  Christianisme,  a  book  which  Lave- 
leye says  "  has  not  met  the  attention  which  it  de- 
serves, only  because  it  is  too  full  of  Christianity 
for    socialists    and   too   full   of     socialism    for 
Christians. ' ' 

More  radical  socialism  was,  however,  to  come 
to  the  front  in  Belgium.  When  Karl  Marx,  ban- 
ished first  from  Germany  and  then  from  Paris, 
fled  that  country  with  Engels,  his  lifelong  friend, 
it  was  to  Brussels  that  they  came.  Here  they 
gathered  round  them  other  German  fugitives 
and  some  Belgians,  attracted  partly  by  the  brill- 
iant philosophy  of  the  young  Hegelians,  but 
even  more  by  their  revolutionary  socialism,  or 
communism,  as  it  was  then  called.  It  was  in 
Brussels  that  Marx  and  Engels  wrote,  at  the  re- 
quest of  a  congress  or  conference  between  Eng- 
lish and  French  working  men,  held  in  London 
in  1847,  the  famous  manifesto,  which  was  the 
first  explicit  utterance  of  modern  revolutionary 
socialism.  With  a  population  denser  than  that 
of  any  other  civilized  country  in  the  world,  Bel- 
gium had  long  suffered  more  than  most  coun- 
tries from  the  effects  of  capitalism.  Mining  is 
her  chief  productive  industry,  and  in  her  mines 
men  and  women  worked,  side  by  side,  some- 
times almost  naked,  like  animals  rather  than 
human  beings,  long  hours — cases  of  their  work- 
ing 36  hours  at  a  stretch  are  reported — for  piteous 
wages,  and  like  beasts  of  the  earth. 

Nevertheless,  organization  did  not  succeed 
until  the  time  of  the  International.  Says  Pro- 
fessor de  Laveleye  : 

"The  International  gained  a  footing  in  Belgium  in 
1865  j  but  it  was  not  until  December,  1866,  that  the  first 
section  was  constituted  at  Liege.  We  see  in  the  report 
of  the  delegate,  De  Paepe,  at  the  Congress  of  Lau- 
sanne, that  a  very  active  section  had  been  founded  at 
Brussels,  and  that  the  working  men's  societies  of  Ghent 
and  Antwerp  were  connected  with  it.  At  the  Congress 


Belgium  and  Social  Reform. 


148 


Belgium  and  Social  Reform. 


of  Brussels,  in  1868,  the  delegate  Frere  announced  that 
several  very  large  sections  had  been  formed  in  the 
coal-basin  of  Charleroi,  and  that  at  Verviers  'the  free 
laborers '  had  joined  and  had  even  started  a  newspaper, 
the  Mirabeau,  which,  strange  to  say,  still  exists.  At 
Bruges  a  section  was  formed  with  a  journal  called  the 
Vooruit,  and  soon  afterward  there  appeared  at  Ant- 
werp the  Werker,  which  exercised  a  great  influence 
over  the  working  men  in  the  Flemish  towns.  In  De- 
cember all  the  sections  formed  a  federation.  A  gen- 
eral council  of  16  members  was  chosen  and  a  journal 
started,  the  Internationale.  The  sections  were  grouped 
according  to  the  coal-basins,  and  were  all  to  send  del- 
egates to  the  general  congress  held  every  year.  It 
was  almost  a  reproduction  of  the  parent  association. 
The  strikes  and  conflicts  which  resulted  therefrom,  in 
the  neighborhood  of  Charleroi  and  Seraing,  attracted 
a  great  deal  of  attention  to  the  International.  The 
leaders,  however,  were  unwilling  to  encourage  strikes 
for  fear  they  should  fail.  Thus,  at  the  second  National 
Congress  of  Antwerp,  which  sat  from  August  1-15, 
1873,  it  was  resolved  that  the  federations  should  make 
every  preparation  for  the  universal  strike,  but  that  it 
was  necessary  to  give  up  entirely  partial  strikes  except 
4  in  a  case  of  legitimate  defense.' 

"At  the  time  of  its  greatest  diffusion  the  Interna- 
tional counted  eight  federations ;  those,  namely,  of 
Brussels,  Ghent,  Antwerp,  Liege,  the  Vesdre,  the 
Borinage,  the  Centre,  and  Charleroi.  As  to  the  num- 
ber of  members,  it  has  been  variously  estimated  from 
100,000  to  200,000.  After  the  schism  of  The  Hague  be- 
tween Marx  and  Bakounin,  the  Belgian  International- 
ists pronounced  against  the  exclusion  of  Bakounin, 
without,  however,  adhering  to  his  doctrines." 

They,  however,  sent  delegates  to  his  so-called 
"  Automnist"  congresses  of  Geneva  (1873),  Brus- 
sels (1874),  and  Berne  (1876),  But  when  in  1877 
a  general  congress  was  held  at  Ghent,  De 
Paepe  declared  for  a  Marxian  policy,  and  the 
movement  split.  Henceforth  the  Socialists 
and  "  Automnists"  wentseparate  ways,,  In  1878 
a  German  "Reading  Club"  was  organized  in 
Brussels,  and  a  new  agitation  sprang  up.  Voll- 
mar,  a  leading  German  socialist,  made  two  tours 
of  propaganda.  A  congress  at  Boom  in  1878 
declared  for  the  Gotha  program,  a  socialist  labor 
party  and  the  journals  Le  Voix  de  I'Ouvrier, 
of  Brussels,  de  Werker,  of  Antwerp,  and  de 
Volkswil.,  of  Ghent.  Controversy  with  the  an- 
archists, however,  prevented  much  progress,  the 
anarchists  having  formed  an  active  ttnion  revo- 
lutionaire,.  A  new  and  most  important  move- 
ment was  now  to  spring  up. 

In  the  year  1879  a  Ghent  typewriter,  an  ac- 
tive socialist,  Edward  Anseele  (y.v.),  founded  a 
cooperative  bakery,  and  in  connection  with  it  a 
club,  the  Vooruit.  Up  to  this  time  cooperation 
had  not  succeeded  in  Belgium,  but  this  socialist 
cooperative  movement  succeeded  and  spread. 
A  similar  organization,  called  the  Mats  on  du 
Peuple  (House  of  the  People),  was  started  by 
the  Brussels  socialists  in  1882,  and  another  at 
Verviers  in  1884.  In  the  next  four  years  the 
movement  spread  through  all  the  important  Bel- 
gian cities  and  industrial  centers.  Soon  the  so- 
cieties began  selling  other  things  than  bread, 
till  gradually  the  movement  became  one  of  vast 
size  and  importance.  In  1893  the  Mats  on  du 
Peuple  had  10,000  members,  representing  some 
10,000  families,  and  manufactured  100,000  loaves 
of  bread  a  week.  It  possesses  a  large  club  house, 
which  is  the  center  of  socialist  propaganda,  a 
library,  a  tool  store,  and  other  property.  It 
provides  coal,  groceries,  meat,  furniture,  cloth- 
ing, medical  attendance,  and  insurance,  all  at 
cooperative  prices.  It  maintains  a  monthly,  a 
weekly,  and  a  daily.  Every  one  who  belongs 
to  it  must  adhere  to  the  program  of  the  (so- 
cialist) Labor  Party  (Parti  ouvrier).  Members 


who  for  one  month  deal  elsewhere  than  at  the 
society's  establishments  may  be  expelled  on  a 
two-thirds  vote.  A  similar  work,  though  not  on 
so  large  a  scale,  is  carried  on  by  the  other  so- 
cialist cooperative  societies.  The  Vooruit  at 
Ghent  in  1893  had  5000  members  ;  but  the  fact 
of  importance  is  that  these  societies  form  a  net- 
work over  Belgium  of  socialist  organizations, 
providing  their  members  with  all  the  necessities 
of  life,  and  raising  funds  for  active  socialist 
propaganda.  As  a  result,  Belgian  socialism  has 
recently  grown  rapidly,  and  is  perhaps  better 
organized  than  the  socialism  of  any  other  coun- 
try. In  1885  a  socialist  working  man's  party 
was  organized  (Parti  ouvrier  beige),  which  is 
the  political  organization  of  Belgian  socialism. 
Its  power  is  seen  in  the  fact  that  it  was  able 
in  1893  to  effect  in  a  few  days  a  veritable 
revolution  in  the  Belgian  Constitution.  Hith- 
erto the  Belgian  socialist  had  been  able  to  ac- 
complish little  politically,  because  of  property 
limitations  to  the  suffrage.  There  had  been 
more  or  less  of  an  agitation  on  the  subject  since 
1882,  but  in  1893  the  matter  came  to  a  head.  A 
bill  to  introduce  free  suffrage  was 
introduced  into  the  Chamber  and 
Senate  and  defeated.  Immediately  Labor  Party, 
the  Labor  Party  called  a  universal 
strike.  According  to  M.  Volders, 
200,000  struck  work  upon  that  day  alone.  There 
was  some  resistance.  M.  Volders,  the  leader  of 
the  Labor  Party,  was  arrested  with  two  others. 
M.  Buls,  the  Brussels  burgomaster,  ordered 
"The  House  of  the  People"  closed,  and  pro- 
hibited meetings  and  processions.  But  this  only 
added  fuel  to  the  flame.  In  spite  of  the  leaders 
of  the  Labor  Party,  collisions  with  the  police 
took  place  at  Brussels,  Antwerp,  Mons,  Quareg- 
non,  and  elsewhere.  Numbers  of  men,  women, 
and  even  children  were  shot  down,  and  some 
mortally  wounded.  But  the  strike  was  won. 
On  April  18,  only  eight  days  after  its  rejection 
of  universal  suffrage,  the  Constituante  (the  As- 
sembly) met,  and  a  hurried  plan  to  revise  the 
Constitution  and  grant  a  vastly  enlarged  suffrage 
was  devised  and  carried,  and  the  Labor  Party 
declared  the  strike  off. 

The  present  program  of  the  Belgian  Labor 
Party  (Parti  ouvrier  beige}  is  as  follows  : 

PREAMBLE. 

A  party  has  been  established  among  the  Belgian 
labor  associations,  with  the  object  of  obtaining  for 
workmen  the  political  rights  and  material  well-being 
of  which  they  have  hitherto  been  deprived. 

Seeing  that  workmen  only  acquire  these  rights  and 
this  well-being  through  their  own  strength,  the  party 
will  consist  exclusively  of  labor  associations  ; 

Seeing  that  workmen  have  to  contend  against  sick- 
ness and  involuntary  stoppage  of  work,  and  to  secure 
their  wages,  the  Labor  Party  will  endeavor  to  ob- 
tain the  greatest  possible  advantages  for  associations 
instituted  with  this  aim,  and  to  found  similar  associa- 
tions in  localities  where  they  do  not  yet  exist ; 

Seeing  that  workmen,  like  the  rest  of  the  world,  have 
a  right  to  the  greatest  possible  liberty,  the  widest  in- 
struction, a  good  education,  and  all  the  enjoyments  of 
an  advanced  civilization,  the  party  will  work  zealously 
to  attain  this  end  ; 

Seeing  that  workmen,  in  spite  of  all  sacrifices,  can- 
not succeed  in  instituting  pension  funds,  disablement 
funds,  or  funds  for  assistance  in  case  of  sickness,  rich 
enough  to  pension  an  old  workman,  and  effectually  to 
support  those  who  are  sick  or  in  distress ; 

Seeing  that  the  majority  of  workmen  possess  neither 
the  material  nor  the  tools  for  agriculture  or  industry  ; 


Belgium  and  Social  Reform. 


149 


Belgium  and  Social  Reform. 


Finally,  seeing  that  they  have  absolutely  no  part  in 
the  management  of  factories,  mines  or  workshops,  and 
are  consequently  powerless  and  helpless  against  in- 
dustrial and  commercial  crises,  which  affect  them  so 
terribly ; 

The  Labor  Party  is  of  opinion  that  the  State  should 
intervene  to  assure  the  fate  of  the  workman  during  the 
period  of  work,  sickness,  and  old  age. 

To  this  end,  the  Labor  Party  will  not  be  satisfied 
with  founding  funds  for  assistance  in  case  of  sickness, 
co-operative  societies,  and  protective  societies,  but  it 
will  also  take  the  character  of  a  political  party,  in  order 
to  obtain  from  the  State  the  support  necessary  for  the 
perfect  well-being  of  the  working  classes. 

Seeing  that  governments  conclude  international, 
commercial,  postal,  and  maritime  conventions  ; 

Seeing  that  the  interests  of  workmen  are  everywhere 
identical,  and  in  order  to  prevent  strikers  from  being 
supplanted  by  other  workmen  in  times  of  difficulty, 
the  Labor  Party  declares  that  it  wishes  to  place  itself 
in  sympathetic  relations  with  the  associated  workmen 
in  every  country  who  share  its  views  ; 

Seeing  that  the  cause  of  the  misery  and  dependence 
of  the  masses  is  due  to  the  method  of  working,  since 
the  greater  part  of  the  workmen  do  not  possess  the 
tools  necessary  for  their  work,  the  Labor  Party  will 
endeavor  to  replace  this  system  of  capitalistic  pro- 
duction by  a  mode  of  -working  which  has  for  its  foun- 
dation the  common  possession  of  the  soil,  the  sub-soil, 
and  the  necessary  tools. 

In  addition  to  these  general  objects,  and  in  order  to 
attain  its  final  aim,  the  Labor  Party  demands  the  re- 
forms set  forth  in  the  following  program  : 

1.  Universal  suffrage  ;  direct  legislation  by  the  peo- 
ple, that  is  to  say,  popular  sanction  and  initiative  in 
legislative    matters,   secret    and    compulsory  voting ; 
elections  held  on  Sunday. 

2.  Secular,  compulsory  and  complete  education  for 
all  children,  to  be  conducted  at  the  cost  of  the  commu- 
nity, represented    by    the    State    or   the    communes. 
Higher  instruction  by  means  of  classes  for  adults. 

3.  The  separation  of  Church  and  State,  religion  being 
considered  as  a  private  matter,  the  suppression  of  re- 
ligious expenses,  and  the  return  to  the  nation  of  prop- 
erty "  in  mortmain,"  both  personal  and  real,  pertaining 

to  religious  corporations,  as  well  as  all 
the  industrial  and  commercial  property 
Political      of  these  corporations. 
Pros-ram          4-  The  application,  to  all  cases,  of  the 
o  system  of  trial  by  jury,  and  of  settle- 

ment by  councils  of  arbitration  elected 
by  universal  suffrage.  Free  adminis- 
tration of  justice,  and  the  revision,  in  an  equitable 
sense,  of  the  articles  of  the  code  which  establish  the 
political  or  civil  inferiority  of  workmen,  women,  and 
natural  children. 

5.  The  abolition  of  conscription,  and  of  the  system  of 
substitutes.    The  equality  of    military  commissions, 
and  the  reduction  of  war  expenses.    The  abolition  of 
standing  armies,  and  the  decision  of  peace  and  war  by 
the  people. 

6.  The  investment  of  the  communes  with  the  control 
of  their  own  administration,  their  budget,  police,  and 
all  their  public  officers.    The  nomination  by  the  elect- 
ors of  the  burgomaster  and  sheriffs. 

7.  A  law  according  State  recognition  to  workmen's 
syndicates    (including    among    other    privileges    the 
right  to  hold  property  and  plead  in  court). 

8.  A  rest  of  one  day  in  each  week ;  employers  to  be 
forbidden  to  cause  work  to  be  done  on  more  than  six 
days  out  of  seven. 

9.  A  law  limiting  the  age  at  which  any  person  may 
work,  and  the  duration  of  such  work,  in  the  following 
manner  :  (a)  The  abolition  of  work  for  children  below 
i2  years  of  age  ;  (b)  a  combination  of  work  and  instruc- 
tion, and  the  abolition  of    all  night  work  for  young 
persons  from  12  to  16  years  of  age  -;  (c)  the  abolition  of 
the  employment  of  women  in  all  industries  in  which 
their  employment  would  be  incompatible  with  moral- 
ity and  health  ;  (rf)  the  establishment  by  law  of  a  nor- 
mal working  day  for  adults  of  both  sexes. 

10.  A  commission  elected  by  workmen,  and  paid  by 
the  State,  to  introduce  healthy  and  safe  conditions  into 

workshops.    The  sanitary  supervision  of 
dwellings. 

Economic         II-  ^he  rea*  responsibility  of  employ- 

'     ers  in  cases  of  accidents  in  connection 

Program,     with  work,  by  a  law  stipulating  that  it 

devolves  upon  the  employer  to  prove, 

if  necessary,  that  an  accident  was  due 

to  malice  on  the  part  of  the  workman. 

12.  The  regulation  of  convict  labor,  so  as  to  put  an 
end  to  the  competition  now  made  with  free  labor,  and 


to  allow  prisoners,  at  the  time  of  their  release,  means  of 
finding  employment,  to  avoid  falling  back  into  crime. 

13.  Workmen,  and,    by  preference,    labor    associa- 
tions, to  have  a  share  in  the  government  of  workshops. 
The  suppression  of  fines  and  deductions  from  wages. 
The  suppression  of  benefit  funds  regulated  by  employ- 
ers.   The  reversal  of  the  management  of  these  funds 
to  the  workmen  themselves. 

14.  The  reorganization  of  councils  of  prud'hommes 
on  a  basis  of  equality.     Employers  to  be  forbidden  to 
require  testimonials  and  certificates. 

15.  The  gradual  transformation  of  public  charity  in- 
to one  vast  system  of  insurance  by  the  State,  the  prov- 
inces, and  the  communes. 

16.  The  abolition  of  all  taxes  on  articles  of  consump- 
tion.   The  abolition  of  customs,  and  a  progressive  tax 
on  net  income. 

17.  The  abolition  of  all  contracts  and  laws  alienating 
public  property  (such  as  the  national  bank,  railways, 
mines,  communal  property),  and  the  return  of   this 
property  to  the  community,  represented,  according  to 
the  case,  by  the  State  or  the  commune. 

18.  The  abolition  of  all  laws  made   in  favor  of  em- 
ployers at  the  expense  of  workmen. 

The  Belgian  Labor  Party  is  a  very  compact 
and  well-organized  body.  It  has  a  strike  fund 
to  which  all  its  cooperative  societies  contribute. 
It  has  many  papers — Le  Peuple,  Vooruit,  De 
Toekomst,  De  Werker,  L'Avenir,  and 
L'  Emancipation. 

The  Belgian  socialists  are  carrying  on  an  es- 
pecial agitation  against  standing  armies.  The 
spreading  of  this  idea  in  the  army  itself  they 
have  entrusted  to  an  organization  of  young  so- 
cialists, the  Jeune  Garde  Socialiste,  who  publish 
an  organ  of  their  own.  There  is  also  consider- 
able activity  among  the  women,  and  a  paper 
in  their  interests. 

The  temper  of  the  Belgian  party  is  extremely 
radical.  Upon  the  walls  of  "  The  House  of  the 
People"  at  Brussels  are  the  mottoes  :  "  What  is 
the  worker  ?  Nothing.  What  shall  the  worker 
be?  All."  "You  cannot  stop  the  murmuring 
of  the  people  when  they  cry,  '  We  a«e  hungry,' 
for  it  is  the  cry  of  nature,  and  shall  be  heard." 
"  The  working  people  are  the  rock  upon  which 
the  church  of  the  future  shall  be  built." 

Although  this  movement  of  the  Labor  Party 
is  the  dominant  industrial  reform  movement  to- 
day in  Belgium,  it  is  not  the  only  one.  Coopera- 
tion and  profit  sharing  have  some  hold  in  Bel- 
gium apart  from  the  labor  movement,  but  will 
be  considered  under  article  COOPERATION.  Labor 
exchanges  have  been  established  by  many  mu- 
nicipalities. In  February,  1892,  a  Federation 
of  Labor  exchanges  throughout  the  country  was 
formed  to  facilitate  means  of  finding  work  for 
the  unemployed  in  any  part  of  Belgium,  to  study 
questions  relating  to  the  organization  of  labor 
exchanges  or  markets,  and  to  establish  new  ex- 
changes. Arbitration  and  conciliation  have  re- 
ceived considerable  attention.  (See  ARBITRA- 
TION.) Belgium  has  also  taken  some  steps  tow- 
ard the  employment  of  the  unemployed  (see 
UNEMPLOYMENT),  and  has  developed  some  indus- 
trial legislation  as  to  Employers'  Liability  Laws, 
etc.  Working  men's  dwellings  have  been  much 
discussed. 

In  1869  a  commission  was  appointed  to  inves- 
tigate the  general  condition  of  miners  and  metal 
workers,  including  their  dwellings.  It  was  then 
stated  that  many  coal  companies  had  built  houses 
which  were  let  to  married  workmen.  Single 
men  generally  lived  in  lodgings,  which,  in  most 
cases,  were  in  a  miserable  state.  The  inquiry 
of  1869  was  not  followed  by  any  practical  result. 


Belgium  and  Social  Reform. 


Belgium  and  Social  Reform. 


and  the  terrible  revelations  made  to  the  Labor 
Commission  in  1886  showed  that  little  or  no  im- 
provement had  been  made  since  the  publication 
of  the  report  of  1846.  In  March,  1888,  the  Gov- 
ernment introduced  a  bill  which  became  law  on 
August  9,  1889.  This  law  provides  for  the  insti- 
tution of  committees  of  inspection  (comitds  de 
patronage),  which  can  empower  the  savings 
bank  to  lend  part  of  its  funds  for  the  building 
or  purchase  of  workmen's  houses,  and  regulate 
the  conditions  under  which  expropriation  by 
zones  should  be  carried  out.  In  Ghent,  where 
the  number  of  persons  in  each  house  is  lower 
than  in  any  other  town  in  Belgium,  the  society 
JEigen  Heerd  is  goud  iveerd  makes  similar 
loans.  The  1890  report  of  the  Brussels  commit- 
tee, established  by  virtue  of  the  law  of  1889, 
shows  that  491  families  occupied  separate  houses, 
1371  three  or  more  rooms,  8058  two  rooms,  6978 
one  room,  2186  a  garret,  and  200  a  cellar.  Of 
the  families  living  in  one  room,  1511  consisted 
of  more  than  five  persons.  The  first  cooperative 
building  society  was  established  at  Brussels  in 

1890.  In  1891  a  decision  of  the  general  council 
of  the  savings  bank,  approved  by  a  royal  de- 
cree, provided  that  the  loans  for  building  should 
not  be    made    to  the  workmen    directly,   but 
through  the  medium  of  a  society.     On  Novem- 
ber 25,  1892,  advances  had  been  made  from  the 
general  savings  bank  and  pension  fund  to  23 
joint-stock  and  4  cooperative  societies  at  the  rate 
of  interest  of  2*^  per  cent.,  and  at  3  per  cent,  to 
10  joint-stock  and  2  cooperative  societies.     The 
capital  of  the  joint-stock  societies  amounted  to 
3,265,000  frs. 

The  Roman  Catholic  Church  has  been  espe- 
cially active  in  social  reform  in  Belgium.  It  has 
made  Louvain  a  center  for  Roman  Catholic 
Christian  Socialism.  (See  CHRISTIAN  SOCIALISM.) 
The  movement  is,  however,  divided  into  the  two 
policies  of  uniting  with  the  Social  Democrats,  to 
win  them  for  the  Church,  or  of  opposing  Social 
Democracy  with  the  program  of  social  reform 
under  the  patronage  of  the  Church.  Consider- 
able State  socialism  also  exists  in  Belgium. 

The  Belgian  monarchy  has  been  in  many 
ways  the  most  advanced  and  liberal  monarchy 
in  Europe.  Formed  only  in  1830,  it  has  had 
less  to  unlearn  than  most  monarchies.  When 
King  Leopold,  long  resident  in  England,  and 
familiar  with  English  business,  ascended  the 
throne  in  1831,  he  set  himself  to  develop  the  in- 
dustrial interests  of  his  kingdom.  As  early  as 
1833  Belgium  began  a  system  of  State  railways, 
and  under  the  intelligent  patronage  of  the  king 
competed  successfully  for  the  through  freight 
from  Germany  to  England.  To-day  the  State 
operates  3241  kilometers  out  of  the  4517  kilo- 
meters of  railroad  in  the  country,  the  private 
roads,  too,  being  mainly  unimportant  lines. 
Railroad  rates  are  lower  than  anywhere  in  the 
world  except  on  a  few  lines  in  East  India.  The 
receipts  in  1891  were  142,736,211  frs.,  and  the  ex- 
penses 84,464,020  frs. ,  leaving  a  large  revenue 
for  the  Government.  From  1835-91  only  93  per- 
sons, including  passengers  and  employees,  have 
been  killed  by  collisions  or  derailments  ;  2948 
on  railroad  crossings  and  in  all  ways,  including 
suicides,  on  the  road.  In  the  United  States  the 
Interstate  Commerce  Commission  reported  in 

1891,  2953  killed  in  this  country  on  the  rail- 


roads ;  in  one  year  alone  nearly  as  many  as  in 
Belgium  in  56  years,  with  a  population  one 
eleventh  of  the  population  of  the  United  States. 

The  employees  on  Belgian  roads  work,  too, 
less  hours  and  at  better  wages  than  most  work- 
men in  Belgium.  Nevertheless,  this  is  saying 
little.  Belgium,  with  her  dense  population  (the 
densest  in  the  world)  and  resultant  competition, 
has  developed  deplorable  industrial  conditions, 
though  of  recent  years  there  has  been  consider- 
able improvement  in  many  respects. 

This  is  shown  by  a  comparison  established  by 
the  Minister  of  Agriculture,  Industry,  and  Pub- 
lic Works,  between  the  average  rate  of  wages 
in  1846  and  1891  in  24  industries  at  Brussels  : 

TABLE  SHOWING  AVERAGE  DAILY  WAGE  IN  BRUSSELS 

IN   1846   AND  1891  : 


• 

INDUSTRY. 

Average  Daily  Wage. 

1846. 

1891. 

Masons  

Frs. 
.70 
•79 
•95 
.88 

•25 
.70 
.98 

•75 
.50 

•55 

Frs. 
3-75 
4 
3.80 

3-50 
4 
3-75 
5 
4.50 
5-So 
3-5° 
4-50 

Carpenters  

Plasterers  

Molders  in  plaster..            .   ... 

House-painters  

Cabinet-makers  .and  carvers.. 
Blacksmiths  ...   . 

Printers  

Bookbinders  .... 

Goldsmiths  

It  must  be  remembered,  however,  that  this  is 
only  for  Brussels.  For  the  mines  the  Report  on 
Belgium  of  the  (English)  Royal  Commission  on 
Labor  (1893)  says  : 

"In  1891  the  average  annual  wage  of  workers 
in  and  about  mines  was  774  frs.  ($150),  whereas 
in  1890  and  1889  it  was  807  frs.  and  743  frs.  re- 
spectively. ' ' 

If  this  be  the  average  annual  wage,  it  can  be 
imagined  what  must  be  the  condition  of  some  of 
the  employees.  According  to  the  Belgian  An- 
nuaire  Siatistique  for  1892,  p.  247,  the  condi- 
tion of  the  agricultural  laborers  is  worse  still. 
It  gives  a  table  for  1880,  and  indicates  that  there 
has  been  little  if  any  improvement. 

TABLE  SHOWING  AVERAGE  DAILY  WAGE  OF  AGRI- 
CULTURAL LABORERS  IN  1880. 


PROVINCE. 
v 

Without  Food. 

With  Food. 

Men. 

Women 

Men. 

Women. 

Frs. 
1.50 
1.74 
1.83 
1.65 
2.41 
2.46 
i  .62 
2.48 
2.67 

Frs. 

.09 
.16 
.07 
.24 
.48 
.it 
.62 
•44 

Frs. 
i 
1.03 
.98 
•83 

!-37 
1.52 
.88 
i-54 
1.70 

Frs. 
.60 
.67 
.64 
•53 
•74 
.87 
•55 

•92 

.86 

Brabant  

East  Flanders  

Hainault  

Limburg  

Luxembourg    

Natnur  

References :  The  best  authorities  on  Belgium  and 
social  reform  are  the  Report  on  Belgium  of  the  (Eng- 
lisK)  Royal  Commission  on  Labor  (1893),  the  Belgian 
Annuaire  Statistique,  and  other  official  publications. 


Bellamy,  Edward. 


'5* 


Bemis,  Edward  W. 


BELLAMY,  EDWARD,  born  1850  in 
Chicopee  Falls,  Mass. ,  is  the  son  of  Rev.  R.  K. 
Bellamy.  Altho  he  has  traveled  extensively,  he 
still  lives  in  the  house  of  his  birth,  where  his 
father  lived  35  years.  He  graduated  at  Union 
College  and  studied  law,  but  soon  entered  jour- 
nalism, writing  for  many  papers,  principally  the 
Springfield  Union.  His  first  novel  was  A  Nan- 
tucket  Idyl,  a  short  summer  romance.  Dr. 
Heidenhojf's  Process,  The  Blind  Man1  s  World, 
and  Miss  Ludington'  s  Sister  followed.  All 
are  dreamy,  fantastic  novels,  but  with  such 
power  that  Mr.  Howells  declared  that  "  the 
mantle  of  Hawthorne  has  fallen  upon  Mr.  Bell- 
amy." He  then  wrote  Looking  Backward, 
upon  which  his  great  fame  depends.  (See  NA- 
TIONALISM.) 

In  the  Nationalist  magazine  he  has  'related 
how  he  came  to  \yrite  that  book  ;  how  it  took 
shape  from  an  original  plan  to  write  a  sort  of 
fairy  tale  of  social  felicity — ' '  a  cloud  palace  for 
an  ideal  humanity" — in  the  shape  of  a  great 
world-nation.  At  that  time  he  had  no  particu- 
lar sympathy  with  any  projects  for  social  or  in- 
dustrial reform  ;  not,  however,  through  any  "  in- 
difference to  the  miserable  condition  of  the  mass 
of  humanity  ;  seeing  that  it  resulted  rather  from 
a  perception  all  too  clear  of  the  depth  and  breadth 
of  the  social  problem  and  a  consequent  skepti- 
cism as  to  the  effectiveness  of  the  proposed  so- 
lution." The  idea  of  an  industrial  army  for 
maintaining  the  community,  precisely  as  the 
duty  of  protecting  it  is  entrusted  to  a  military 
army,  was  directly  suggested  ' '  by  the  grand 
object  lesson  of  the  organization  of  an  entire 
people  for  national  purposes  presented  by  the 
military  system  of  universal  service  for  fixed 
and  equal  terms,  which  has  been  practically 
adopted  by  the  nations  of  Europe,  and  theoreti- 
cally adopted  everywhere  else  as  the  only  just 
and  only  effectual  plan  of  public  defense  on  a 
great  scale.  What  inference  could  possibly  be 
more  obvious  and  more  unquestioned  than  the 
advisability  of  trying  to  see  if  a  plan  which  was 
found  to  work  so  well  for  purposes  of  destruc- 
tion might  not  be  profitably  applied  to  the  busi- 
ness of  production,  now  in  such  shocking  confu- 
sion ?"  This  idea  had  been  vaguely  floating  in 
his  mind  for  a  year  or  two,  but  it  was  not  until 
he  began  to  work  out  the  details  of  his  romance 
of  the  thirtieth  century  that  he  perceived  the 
full  potency  of  the  instrument  he  was  using, 
and  "  recognized  in  the  modern  military  system 
not  merely  a  rhetorical  analogy  for  a  national 
industrial  service,  but  its  prototype,,  furnishing 
at  once  a  complete  working  model  for  its  organi- 
zation, an  arsenal  of  patriotic  and  national  mo- 
tives and  arguments  for  its  animation,  and  the 
unanswerable  demonstration  of  its  feasibility 
drawn  from  the  actual  experience  of  whole  na- 
tions organized  and  maneuvered  as  armies. ' ' 

This  idea  led  to  a  complete  recasting  of  the 
book,  both  in  form  and  purpose,  and  the  author 
was  filled  with  the  fervent  desire  to  acquaint 
the  people  of  his  country  with  its  beneficent 
possibilities — a  desire  which  the  popularity  of 
Looking  Backward  has  abundantly  realized. 
The  form  of  a  romance  was  reluctantly  retained, 
only  with  a  view  to  obtain  a  reading  for  the 
book. 

The  year  2000  instead  of  3000  was  fixed  upon 


as  the  date  of  the  story,  for  with  his  new  belief 
as  to  the  part  which  the  nationalization  of  in- 
dustry is  to  play  in  bringing  in  the  good  time 
coming,  it  appeared  reasonable  to  suppose  that 
by  the  year  2000  the  order  of  things  to  which 
we  look  forward  will  already  have  become  an 
exceedingly  old  story. 

The  book  soon  after  its  appearance  made  a 
sensation  ;  a  Bellamy  Club  was  started  in  Bos- 
ton, and  from  that  grew  the  Nationalist  Club, 
and  then  the  Nationalist  movement  (g.v.).  The 
book  has  reached  a  sale  of  over  500,000  copies 
in  this  country,  and  has  been  translated  into 
most  of  the  languages  of  Europe.  In  the  be- 
ginning of  1891  Mr.  Bellamy  commenced  the 
publication  of  a  weekly,  The  New  Nation, 
as  an  organ  of  nationalism.  It  was  suspended, 
however,  at  the  close  of  1893.  Mr.  Bellamy 
still  resides  in  Chicopee  Falls,  writing  magazine 
articles  and  new  books  in  advocacy  of  national- 


BELLERS,  JOHN,  born  about  1654  ;  died 
1725.  He  was  a  member  of  the  Society  of 
Friends,  joint  lord  of  the  manor  of  Coin  St. 
Aldwyn's,  and  devoted  to  philanthropic  proj- 
ects. He  wrote  numerous  pamphlets,  the  best 
known  of  which  is  Proposals  for  Raising  a 
Colledge  of  Industry  (1695-6),  in  which  he  pro- 
posed that  the  rich  should  provide  capital  and 
receive  profit  by  building  a  college  in  which 
destitute  men  and  women  could  find  work. 

BEMIS,  EDWARD  W.,  was  born  at  Spring- 
field, Mass.,  in  1860.  He  was  graduated  from 
Amherst  in  1880,  receiving  the  class  honors  in 
history  and  political  economy.  In  1885  he  took 
the  degree  of  Doctor  of  Philosophy  at  Johns 
Hopkins  University,  having  meanwhile  spent 
two  years  in  the  West,  part  of  the  time  as  an 
editorial  writer  on  the  St.  Paul  Pioneer  Press, 
later  as  principal  of  one  of  the  Minneapolis 
schools. 

During  the  winters  of  1887-88  and  1888-89  ne 
conducted  University  Extension  courses  on  Po- 
litical Economy  in  Buffalo,  St.  Louis,  and  other 
cities.  In  1889  Dr.  Bemis  took  charge  of  the 
Department  of  History  and  Economics  at  Van- 
derbilt  University,  resigning  in  1892  to  accept 
the  position  of  Associate  Professor  of  Political 
Economy  in  the  University  Extension  Depart- 
ment at  the  University  of  Chicago.  This  en- 
gagement, however,  was  terminated  September, 
1895.  In  1886,  at  Springfield,  Mass.,  and  in 
1887,  at  Buffalo,  N.  Y. ,  he  organized  the  first  two 
branches  of  the  American  Economic  Associa- 
tion. 

Among  his  writings  we  mention  Municipal 
Ownership  of  Gas  in  the  United  States  (Ameri- 
can Economic  Association,  vol.  vi.,  Nos.  4  and 
5)  ;  Cooperation  in  New  England  and  the 
Middle  States  (parts  i. ,  ii. ,  and  iii.  of  History 
of  Cooperation  in  the  United  States,  Johns 
Hopkins  University  Press)  ;  Local  Government 
in  Michigan  and  the  Northwest  (vol.  i.,  No.  5 
Johns  Hopkins  University  studies)  ;  Mine  Labor 
in  the  Hocking  Valley  (vol.  iii.,  No.  3  Ameri- 
can Economic  Association)  ;  The  Relation  of 
Trade-  Unions  to  Apprentices  (Quarterly  Jour- 
nal of  Economics,  October,  1891)  ;  Benefit  Fea- 
tures of  American  Trade- Unions  (Political 


Bemis,  Edward  W. 


Berlin. 


Science  Quarterly,  June,  1887)  ;  The  Labor 
Organizations  of  America  (in  press,  in  Diction- 
ary of  Political  Economy]  ;  Cooperative  Life 
Insurance  (in  new  edition  of  Johnson's  Ency- 
clopedia) ;  Local  Governinent  in  the  South  and 
Southwest  (Johns  Hopkins  University  Histori- 
cal Studies,  vol.  xi.,  Nos.  n,  12);  Recent  Re- 
sults of  Municipal  Gas  Making  (Review  of 
Reviews,  February,  1893) ;  Insurance  of  Amer- 
ican Working  Men  (Handworterbuch  der 
Staatswissenschaften,  Germany) ;  Coopera- 
tion (American  Annual  Encyclopedia  for 
1888) ;  Relation  of  Labor  Organizations  to  the 
American  Boy  and  to  Trade  Instruction  (in 
Annals  of  the  American  Academy  of  Politi- 
cal and  Social  Science,  September,  1894). 

He  classes  himself  with  the  historical  school, 
yet  not  in  a  way  to  deny  the  great  benefits  of 
the  so-called  Manchester  school  or  to  forsake 
their  many  wise  methods  of  investigation.  As 
to  the  tariff,  he  believes  in  gradual  reduction  in 
tariffs  upon  extractive  industries,  and  later  upon 
others,  but  endorses  the  scientific  possibility  of 
wise  protection  at  some  times  and  places.  He 
believes  in  the  municipalization  of  gas,  electric 
light,  telephones,  and  street-car  lines  ;  the  na- 
tionalization of  the  telegraph,  and  in  a  less  de- 
cided way  thinks  that  ultimately  we  may  find  it 
wise  to  have  national  ownership  of  railroads. 
On  the  currency,  he  is  an  international  bimetal- 
list. 

BENTHAM,  JEREMY  (1748-1832),  son  of 
a  wealthy  solicitor  in  London,  graduated  at 
Queen's  College,  Oxford,  in  1766,  at  the  age  of 
1 8.  He  was  called  to  the  bar  in  1772,  but  never 
practised  his  profession.  He  became,  rather, 
the  greatest  critic  of  government  and  legislation 
in  his  day.  His  first  publication  was  A  Frag- 
ment on  Government  (1776).  His  first  impor- 
tant economic  treatise  was  A  Defense  of  Usury, 
in  which  he  tries  to  prove  by  close  reasoning 
that  when  the  Legislature  fixes  a  maximum  rate 
of  interest  it  does  not  benefit  the  right  persons, 
and  encourages  deceit  and  raises  the  rate  of  se- 
cret interest  by  adding  the  danger  of  discovery. 
He  proceeds  to  urge  that  every  man  is  the  best 
judge  of  his  own  welfare,  and  that  it  is  for  the 
public  good  to  leave  him  free  to  seek  it.  Ben- 
tham  published  A  Manual  of  Political  Econ- 
omy, but  he  influenced  economic  thought  even 
more  by  his  philosophic  writings.  Through 
James  Mill  and  Ricardo,  not  only  did  utilitarian- 
ism, but  Bentham's  peculiar  form  of  utilitarian- 
ism, became  prominent.  Beccaria  in  1764  had 
coined  a  convenient  phrase,  "  The  greatest  hap- 
piness of  the  greatest  number,"  and  Bentham 
took  this  up  and  made  it  the  ruling  principle  and 
chief  end  of  legislation.  This,  too,  he  taught  to 
be  identical  with  the  extremest  laissez-faire. 
Whatever  distress,  he  held,  this  might  bring 
upon  the  individual,  it  was  for  the  greatest  good 
of  the  greatest  number.  Through  the  West- 
minster Review  he  and  his  followers  made  this 
thought  very  influential  upon  the  men  of  his  day. 
Bentham  was  also  a  great  believer  in  education, 
especially  of  the  working  classes,  whom  he  con- 
sidered the  most  important  part  of  the  commu- 
nity. He  aided  Robert  Owen  by  taking  shares 
in  his  factory  at  New  Lanark. 

His  works  and  life,  edited  by  Bowring,  fill 


ii  volumes,  of  which  the  tenth  and  eleventh 
contain  the  life.  His  chief  economical  works 
are  :  Protest  against  Law  Taxes ;  Supply 
without  Burden  ;  Tax  with  Monopoly  (i.e.,  a 
tax  on  bankers  and  stock-brokers) ;  Defense  of 
Usury  and  of  Projects  in  Arts ;  Manual  of 
Political  Economy ;  Conversion  of  Stock  into 
Note  Annuities  ;  Invention  ana  Discovery  ; 
Hard  Labor  Bill ;  Tracts  on  Poor  Laws  and 
Pauper  Management. 

BEQUEST,  POWER  OF.— This  is  an  in- 
heritance of  modern  nations  from  the  Roman 
law,  which  allowed  three  fourths  of  the  inherit- 
ance to  be  willed  away  from  the  next  of  kin. 
The  Koran  allows  two  thirds,  and  the  Mishna 
recognizes  gifts  of  property  to  take  effect  on 
death.  (See  INHERITANCE.) 

BERLIN. — With  a  population,  in  1890,  of 
i  ,579,244,  Berlin  is  one  of  the  most  rapidly  grow- 
ing and  progressive  cities  of  the  world.  In  1870 
it  had  only  800,000  inhabitants,  and  in  1840  only 
331,894.  This  growth  only  brings  into  greater 
prominence  the  high  grade  of  its  municipal  life. 
Professor  R.  T.  Ely  calls  it  one  of  the  best-gov- 
erned cities  in  the  world.  In  cleanliness  and  in 
the  attractiveness  of  its  parks,  streets,  and  pub- 
lic buildings  it  is  scarcely  surpassed  by  Paris. 
The  following  account  is  abridged  from  Mr. 
Sylvester  Baxter's  Berlin :  A  Study  of  Munici- 
pal Government  in  Germany  : 

"  The  principal  streets  are  paved  with  asphalt,  and 
the  most  frequented  are  literally  washed  and  scrubbed 
every  night.  The  consequent  freedom  of  the  city  from 
dust  is  very  marked.  The  smoothness  of  the  pave- 
ment affords  immense  relief  in  diminishing  the  noise 
and  jar  of  the  streets.  The  broad  sidewalks  are  laid 
with  flagging  in  the  center,  and  between  that  and  the 
curbstone  are  paved  with  small,  mosaic-like  stones 
that  form  a  smooth  surface,  and  are  easily  removed 
and  replaced.  Beneath  this  space  are  laid  the  gas- 
pipes,  telegraph  and  electric-light  wires,  pneumatic 
tubes,  etc.,  so  that  in  laying  or  repairing  these  the 
street  pavement  is  not  disturbed. 

"  Instead  of  adding  ugliness  to  the  streets,  the  arc- 
lights  of  Berlin  are  things  of  beauty,  an  artistic  embel- 
lishment to  the  city.  Unter  den  Linden  is  probably 
the  most  brilliantly  and  beautifully  illuminated  street 
in  the  world. 

"  The  incandescent  light  is  very  extensively  used. 

' '  The  telephone  service  is  admirable,  as  is  testified  by 
the  public  appreciation,  there  being  over  10,000  instru- 
ments in  use  in  Berlin.  There  are  no  private  telephone 
companies  in  Germany,  the  telephone,  like  the  tele- 
graph, being  a  branch  of  the  postal  service.  The  price 
for  telephone  service  is  low,  the  annual  charge  for  an 
instrument  being  120  marks  a  year,  or  something  less 
than  $30.  The  long-distance  service  between  the  prin- 
cipal cities  of  the  empire  is  being  rapidly  introduced. 

"  Postal  administration  is  regarded  in  Germany  as  a 
practical  science  in  itself,  and  no  means  is  neglected  to 
promote  the  interest  of  members  of  the  service  in  its 
study.  Pneumatic  tubes  radiate  out  over  the  city  from 
the  central  post-office,  connecting  various  local  stations 
at  frequent  intervals,  so  that  a  message  is  delivered  in 
almost  any  part  of  the  great  city  within  half  an  hour. 
The  postage  for  the  pneumatic  service  is  25  pfennige, 
or  6%  cents.  Telegrams  are  very  extensively  sent  and 
delivered  by  means  of  the  pneumatic  service. 

"The  Stadtbahn,  or  city  railway,  in  Berlin  is  a  great 
convenience.    It  is  an  elevated  railway  traversing  the 
city  from  east  to  west,  and  connecting 
with  the  Ringbahn,  or  belt  railway,  that 
surrounds  the  city.     Both  belong  to  the 
Prussian  Government,  and  are  of  great 
military  value,  enabling  the  saving  of 
two  or  three  days  in  the  mobilization  of 
troops  and   their  rapid    transportation 
through  the   city  in  case  of  need.    The  stations  are 
elaborate   and  handsome  affairs,  with  arching  roofs. 
There    are    four    tracks,  two    for  local  and  two  for 
through  traffic,  and  all  express  trains  from  distant 


Local 
Transit. 


Berlin. 


Berlin. 


cities  are  brought  into  one  grand  central  station  at  the 
Friedrichstrasse,  in  the  heart  of  the  city. 

"  The  street  railway  system  of  Berlin  is  excellent.  It 
is  all  in  the  hands  of  one  great  company  ;  but  Berlin 
obtains  in  return  for  the  street  railway  franchise  :  (i) 
the  paving  of  the  streets  on  which  the  cars  run,  from 
curb  to  curb,  with  the  best  of  material ;  (2)  the  keeping 
of  these  streets  in  repair  by  the  street  railway  com- 
pany ;  (3)  a  percentage  of  the  gross  receipts  of  the  com- 
pany, and  (4)  the  entire  plant  of  the  company  on  the 
expiration  of  its  franchise  in  1911.  Altho  subjected  to 
municipal  regulations  that  require  an  equipment  of 
the  highest  standard,  low  rates  of  fare,  and  strictly 
limit  the  number  of  persons  that  a  car  may  carry,  so 
that  overcrowding  is  not  permitted,  the  company  not 
only  easily  meets  all  these  obligations,  but  pays  hand- 
some dividends  and  accumulates  a  sinking  fund  that 
will  equal  the  capital  invested  by  the  time  the  fran- 
chise expires  and  the  plant  becomes  the  property  of 
the  city.  This  source  of  revenue  for  the  municipality 
amounts  to  something  like  $250,000  a  year. 

"  Berlin  has  an  admirable  park  system.  There  are  five 
great  parks  around  Berlin.  The  Thiergarten,  com- 
posed principally  of  a  noble  old  forest,  has  been  greatly 
improved  within  the  past  few  years,  and  is  now  one  of 
the  finest  parks  of  Europe. 

"Throughout  the  city  nearly  all  the  open  places  are 
occupied  by  beautiful  gardens.  These  urban  gardens 
are  extensively  used  for  children's  playgrounds,  and 
here  and  there  are  placed  heaps  of  sand  for  the  smaller 
ones. 

"  The  form  of  the  municipal  government  of  Berlin  is, 
in  general,  that  prevailing  throughout  Prussia  as  de- 
termined by  the  municipal  reform  laws 
created  by  the  great  statesmen,  Stein 

Municipal  an(i  Hardenberg,  in  1808  ;  the  laws 
Government  which  have  given  a  general  model  for 
the  forms  of  municipal  government  now 
prevailing  throughout  the  German  Em- 
pire. 

"  While  throughout  the  empire  universal  manhood 
suffrage  prevails,  in  the  city  governments  the  suffrage 
is  slightly  restricted.  Every  honest  inhabitant  obtains 
the  electoral  franchise  after  a  year's  residence  and  at 
the  age  of  24,  if  he  pays  what  is  called  a  class  tax  on  an 
income  of  about  $150.  These  restrictions  make  the 
qualified  voters  in  Berlin  about  13  per  cent,  less  in 
number  at  municipal  elections  than  in  the  national 
elections. 

' '  Over  10,000  citizens  take  part  in  the  administration  of 
affairs,  and  in  the  city  government  are  the  best  and 
most  prominent  citizens.  There  are  men  like  Professor 
Virchow,  Professor  Gneist,  and  others  from  the  Uni- 
versity, natural  leaders  in  public  life  ;  men  of  world- 
wide reputation  and  ranking  as  statesmen,  taking  their 
regular  part  in  the  routine  of  city  affairs.  Professor 
Gneist  has  been  a  member  of  the  city  government 
since  1848.  To  skirk  these  responsibilities  is  hardly 
possible  for  any  man,  even  if  it  were  desired  by  him, 
for  every  citizen  is  obliged,  under  penalty  of  a  fine  and 
a  heavy  increase  of  taxation,  to  accept  any  position  to 
'  which  he  may  be  elected. 

"  The  Berlin  system  aims  at  the  greatest  efficiency  and 
economy  attainable  under  a  fundamentally  popular 
representative  form.  The  broad  basis  of  the  govern- 
ment is  to  be  found  in  the  Municipal  Assembly,  a  body 
composed  of  126  members,  representing  the  326  wards 
of  the  city.  One  half  at  least  must  be  house-owners  : 
and  two  brothers,  or  father  and  son,  are  not  allowed 
to  be  members  at  the  same  time.  The  members  of 
this  body  are  chosen  for  six  years,  one  third  retiring 
every  two  years,  so  that  there  is  a  municipal  election 
once  in  two  years.  The  long  terms  of  members  give 
them  experience,  and  the  remaining  in  office  of  a  large 
majority  of  old  members  assures  the  management  of 
affairs  by  persons  thoroughly  conversant  with  munic- 
ipal business.  This  assembly  directly  represents  the 
people,  and  out  of  it  proceed  all  the  other  features  of 
the  municipal  government.  It  has  the  entire  financial 
control  of  affairs,  being  supreme  in  drawing  up  the 
budget  for  the  year,  and  in  authorizing  extraordinary 
expenditures.  It  has  no  executive  functions  as  a  body, 
but  its  members  exercise  them  individually  in  associa- 
tion with  other  branches  of  the  government. 

"  This  assembly  chooses  the  upper  branch  of  the  city 
government,  known  as  the  Magistracy,  and  composed 
of  the  board  of  mayor  and  aldermen,  the  latter  32  in 
number,  15  of  whom  are  salaried,  while  17  are  honorary 
members  with  no  salaries  whatever.  The  mayor  is 
chosen  for  a  period  of  12  years,  nominally  subject 
to  the  approval  of  the  king.  His  salary  is  30,000  marks, 
equal  to  about  $7500,  which,  in  its  purchasing  value  in 
Germany,  would  probably  be  substantially  the  same 
as  the  $10,000  paid  in  Boston.  It  is  a  post  of  the  highest 


honor,  and  may  be  considered  equivalent  to  a  life  posi- 
tion, for  when  there  is  a  va'cancy  in  this  office  in  a  large 
German  city  it  is  customary  for  the  authorities  to  sur- 
vey the  field  throughout  the  country,  and  select  from 
the  mayors  of  other  cities  some  man  of  the  highest 
qualifications  for  executive  and  general  business 
efficiency  ;  and  the  person  thus  agreed  upon  can  usual- 
ly make  his  own  conditions  and  be  sure  of  reelection 
when  his  term  expires,  if  he  does  not  choose  to  retire 
upon  a  liberal  pension. 

"The  15  salaried  aldermen  are  elected  for  12  years  by 
the  municipal  council,  with  especial  regard  to  the 
qualifications  for  administering  the  departments  over 
which  they  are  to  rule.  Their  salaries  being  higher 
than  those  of  the  local  judges  and  the  higher  members 
of  the  civil  service,  the  offices  are  made  attractive  ta 
the  best  class  of  men,  who  must  have  received  a  thor- 
ough training  in  the  splendid  civil  service  of  Prussia 
from  which  they  •were  chosen.  It  is  also  the  custom 
to  reelect  these  men  on  the  expiration  of  their  terms,  if 
they  do  not  choose  to  retire  on  their  pensions.  These 
paid  aldermen  consist  of  the  deputy  mayor,  two  legal 
advisers,  the  city  treasurer,  two  school  councilors, 
two  architects,  and  seven  aldermen  without  special  title 
who  may  be  assigned  to  any  positions  they  are  deemed 
most  fit  to  occupy.  These  men  correspond  to  the  heads 
of  our  various  department  commissions,  but  it  is  a 

freat  advantage  to  have  them  regular  members  of  the 
oard  of  aldermen,  where  they  may  take  part  in  the 
deliberations. 

"  The  17  unpaid  aldermen  are  chosen  by  the  assembly 
for  terms  of  six  years,  are  usually  taken  from  the 
higher  class  of  citizens  and,  indeed,  from  those  mem- 
bers of  the  assembly  itself  who  have  distinguished 
themselves  by  years  of  efficient  service  in  various  de- 
partments. Their  positions  are  esteemed  of  great 
honor,  and  the  incumbents  assume  the  same  duties  as 
those  of  the  paid  aldermen.  They  are  also  usually  re- 
elected  at  the  end  of  their  term,  so  that  any  competent 
man  may  be  a  member  of  the  city  government  for  life, 
if  he  chooses  ;  and  under  this  system  it  would  be  diffi- 
cult for  an  incompetent  member  to  be  elected.  Profes- 
sor Gneist,  in  his  admirable  paper  contributed  to  the 
Contemporary  Review,  calls  this  board  of  aldermen 
'the  soul  of  the  government  of  the  city,'  and  points 
out  that  its  ability  to  control  the  wide  range  of  im- 
portant interests  of  so  large  a  community  is  due  to  the 
excellent  division  of  labor  which  has  gradually  devel- 
oped itself  in  the  management  of  the  business. 

"  The  voters  of  the  city  are  divided  into  three  classes, 
a  system  which  prevails  throughout  Prussia.  These 
classes  are  divided  according  to  the  rate  of  taxes  they 
pay.  In  the  first  class  come  those  heaviest  tax-payers, 
who  pay  one  third  of  the  entire  levy.  In  the  second 
class  come  those  who  pay  the  next  third,  while  the 
third  class  comprises  all  the  rest  of  the  tax-payers. 
Each  of  these  classes  chooses  one  third  of  the  assem- 
blymen who  are  to  be  voted  for  at  an  election.  In  con- 
sequence a  majority  of  the  assembly  is  chosen  by  a 
minority  of  the  voters,  the  principle  prevailing  in  mu- 
nicipal suffrage  in  Germany  being  similar  to  that  in  a 
financial  corporation,  where  voters  exercise  a  power 
corresponding  to  that  of  the  number  of  shares  they 
hold. 

"  The  two  chambers  are  supplemented  by  a  body  of 
70  'citizen  deputies,'  as  they  are  called,  selected 
by  the  assembly  from  distinguished  citizens  to  serve 
on  general  committees  for  the  administration  of  spe- 
cial affairs,  such  as  the  relief  of  the  poor,  the  conduct 
of  the  schools,  etc. 

"  In  Berlin  the  police  is  administered  by  the  State  in- 
stead of  the  city.  The  force  consists  of 
something  like  3000  men,  besides  their 
officers  •  and  the  expense,  amounting  to 
nearly  $400,000  annually,  is  borne  by  the 
city. 

"The  system  of  taxation  comprises  an 
income  tax  of  3  per  cent,  on  all  incomes  above  a  certain 
amount ;  a  house  and  rent  tax,  apportioned  between 
the  landlord  and  the  tenant ;  and  various  minor  special 
taxes. 

"  The  relief  of  the  poor  is  performed  by  223  local  com- 
missions, each  composed  of  between  4  and  12  citizens, 
or  honorary  members,  with  the  assemblyman  of  the 
district  as  member  ex  officio.  One  feature  is  the  as- 
signment of  certain  city  lands  to  the  poor,  for  planting 
•with  potatoes.  Only  vagabonds  and  altogether  un- 
worthy persons  are  sent  to  the  workhouse.  The  chari- 
table institutions  of  the  city  are  numerous  and  well 
conducted.  The  relief  of  the  poor  in  1881-82  cost  over 
$1,100,000.  This  system  probably  accounts  for  the 
marked  absence  of  evidences  of  distressing  poverty. 
The  fire  brigade  of  Berlin  is  a  military  organization 
with  750  men,  besides  officers,  and  was  maintained  in 


Police. 


Berlin. 


Besant,  Annie. 


School 
System. 


1882  at  a  cost  of  about  $370,000.  The  cleaning  of  the 
streets  is  admirably  done.  It  always  takes  place  be- 
tween midnight  and  eight  o'clock  in  the  morning. 

"The  municipal  gas-works  yielded,  at  last  accounts, 
something  like  18  per  cent,  of  the  entire  annual  expen- 
diture of  the  city  as  profit. 

"  The  water- works  also  yield  an  annual  profit  of  con- 
siderably over  $250,000;  and  even  the  great  sewerage 
system  has  produced  a  net  revenue  of  something  like 
the  same  figure,  through  the  annual  rate  imposed  upon 
house-owners  for  the  use  of  sewers. 

"  The  school  system  of  Berlin  is  one  of  the  prides  of 
the  city.  It  is  controlled  by  a  school  board  composed 
of  members  of  the  city  government, 
superintendents  of  the  church  dioceses, 
together  with  the  dean  of  the  Catholic 
churches,  and  87  local  committees,  upon 
•which  something  like  1300  citizens  serve. 
There  were  in  1881,  118  large  com- 
mon schools,  attended  by  rich  and  poor 
alike.  There  are,  besides,  10  gymnasiums,  corre- 
sponding to  our  Latin  schools ;  7  real  schools,  cor- 
responding to  our  English  high  schools ;  2  industrial 
schools,  and  4  high  schools  for  girls,  all  very  largely 
attended,  besides  6  State  schools,  comprising  4  gym- 
nasiums, i  real  school,  and  i  high  school  for  girls. 
Another  important  class  of  schools,  die  Fortbildungs- 
schulen,  or  supplementary  schools,  was  founded  by  the 
city  to  enable  apprentices  and  clerks  to  continue  their 
studies.  There  are  12  schools  of  this  kind.  There  are 
also  Sunday  classes  for  young  people  of  both  sexes, 
maintained  chiefly  by  private  subscription.  Every 
school  building  has  a  gymnasium,  large  and  well 
equipped,  for  athletic  instruction  ;  and  besides,  there 
is  a  Turn  Halle,  a  great  and  model  institution  for  ath- 
letic training  ;  also  something  like  90  private  schools, 
that  find  it  more  and  more  difficult  to  compete  with  the 
public  schools,  so  excellent  are  the  latter.  These  pri- 
vate schools  are  also  under  the  supervision  of  the  pub- 
lic school  authorities,and  must  conform  to  public  stand- 
ards ;  there  are  also  22  public  libraries,  mostly  in  the 
charge  of  the  head  masters,  for  sending  out  instructive 
books  free  of  charge. 

"  Owing  to  the  excellent  condition  of  the  finances,  Ber- 
lin has  founded  a  number  of  institutions  of  credit  on 
the  security  of  the  wealth  of  the  city.  One  is  a  munic- 
ipal savings  bank,  with  deposits  now  amounting  to 
something  between  $12,000,000  and  $13,000,000,  with  39 
offices  for  receiving  deposits  in  various  parts  of  the 
town.  It  pays  an  interest  of  3^  per  cent.  There  is 
also  a  municipal  fire  insurance  office,  in  which  all 
the  house -owners  are  obliged  to  insure.  In  1882  the 
value  of  buildings  insured  was  over  $500,000,000,  and 
since  that  time  has  enormously  increased.  Owing  to 
the  substantial  construction  of  the  city  and  the  excel- 
lent fire  department,  the  annual  premium  is  only  5  or 
6  cents  on  $100.  Another  city  institution  is  a  mort- 
gage bank,  established  in  the -interest  of  the  credit  of 
real  estate,  issuing  on  varying  terms  mortgages  at  4, 
4%,  and  5  per  cent." 

Thus  far  Mr.  Baxter.  A  few  statistics  may  be 
added.  Berlin  spends  1 7  per  cent,  of  expendi- 
ture on  education,  compared  with  New  York's 
9  per  cent.,  Chicago's  14  per  cent.,  Paris'  16  per 
cent.,  and  surpassed  only  by  Boston's  18  per 
cent. 

Professor  Commons  states  that  Berlin  profits 
$1,000,000  yearly  on  her  municipal  gas-works. 
According  to  Dr.  Albert  Shaw,  Berlin  has  ac- 
quired 30  square  miles  for  the  purpose  of  dis- 
posing of  the  sewage  of  a  city  which  only  covers 
25  square  miles  within  the  municipal  limits.  Ber- 
lin spent  ;£i, 500,000  sterling  in  buying  and  lay- 
ing out  its  sewage  farm.  The  system  is  an  un- 
qualified success  from  the  sanitary  point  of  view, 
and  after  a  sufficient  period  has  elapsed  it  is  ex- 
pected that  the  sewage  farm  will  earn  sufficient 
profit  to  pay  back  all  that  has  been  invested  in 
it,  and  contribute  materially  to  lessen  the  load 
of  municipal  taxation. 

The  famous  Stadtbahn  of  Berlin,  built  by  the 
Imperial  Government  at  a  cost  of  $16,270,000, 
traverses  the  city,  and  with  a  north  and  south 
ring  furnishes  an  elevated  railroad  which  the 
report  of  the  Rapid  Transit  Commission  of 


Massachusetts  in  1892  calls  "unsurpassed." 
According  to  this  report  (pp.  194,  195),  the  fares 
on  the  road,  third  class,  are  2^  cents  for  five 
miles  or  less,  with  season  tickets  allowing  one 
to  ride  as  many  times  a  day  as  he  will  for  $4. 50 
a  year.  If  a  person  is  absent  over  14  days,  he 
can  have  his  ticket  extended  for  the  time  he 
is  to  be  absent.  The  construction  and  con- 
veniences of  the  road  are  unsurpassed. 

Concerning  Berlin's  finances,  Mr.  L.  S.  Rowe 
states  in  the  addresses  of  the  National  Confer- 
ence for  Good  City  Government  at  Philadelphia 
(pp.  118-120),  that  of  the  $19,000,000,  which  was 
the  revenue  of  Berlin  in  1892,  scarcely  50  per 
cent,  came  from  direct  taxation,  this  being  about 
equally  divided  between  a  highly  developed 
income  tax  and  a  tax  on  rent  and  houses  ; 
$4,500,000,  he  says,  came  from  the  profits  on 
municipal  enterprises — gas-works,  water-works, 
markets,  slaughter-houses,  sewage  ;  $500,000 
came  from  the  city's  interests  on  the  street 
railways  ;  only  $1,500,000  came  from  a  loan.  Of 
Berlin's  debt  of  $60,000,000,  about  80  per  cent., 
he  says,  is  due  to  large  municipal  enterprises 
that  are  paying  for  themselves.  Berlin  is  still 
a  crowded  city  ;  but  these  improvements,  ac- 
cording to  A.  R.  Conkling  (City  Government  in 
the  United  States),  have  reduced  the  death- 
rate  from  about  30  per  1000,  in  1873,  to  20  per 
looo  at  present. 

References :  Berlin  :  A  Study  in  Municipal  Govern- 
ment, by  J.  Pollard  (London,  1893) ;  Berlin  :  A  Study  of 
Municipal  Government  in  Germany,  by  Sylvester  Bax- 
ter (originally  given  as  a  lecture,  Boston,  1891,  and 
since  published  as  a  tract)  ;  United  States  Consular 
Reports  (May  and  June,  1891). 

BESANT,  ANNIE  (nte  WOOD),  was  born 
in  London  in  1847.  Her  father  dying  while  she 
was  yet  young,  she  was  brought  up  by  her  moth- 
er under  straitened  circumstances,  mainly  at 
Harrow.  She  married  the  Rev.  Frank  Besant  in 
1867.  Two  children  were  born  to  them,  and 
during  a  sickness  of  the  younger  Mrs.  Besant 
fell  into  great  doubts  as  to  the  goodness  and 
then  as  to  the  being  of  God.  Finally,  after  most 
distressing  experiences,  from  which  she  strove 
to  find  comfort  from  High  Church  fathers  and 
Broad  Church  thought  (consulting,  among 
others,  both  Dr.  Pusey  and  Dean  Stanley),  she 
failed  to  find  relief,  and  became  an  avowed  athe- 
ist. Her  husband  felt  that  he  must  leave  her 
and  take  her  children,  even  by  force  of  law, 
from  what  he  considered  her  pernicious  teach- 
ings. This  not  unnaturally  embittered  her 
against  Christianity  and  the  Church,  and  she 
devoted  all  her  energies  to  writing  and  lectur- 
ing for  Free  Thought.  Becoming  acquainted 
with  Mr.  Bradlaugh,  she  spent  many  years 
working  with  him,  lecturing  through  all  Eng- 
land, and  editing  the  National  Reformer.  She 
was  opposed,  and  in  some  places  even  stoned, 
but  still  kept  stedfastly  to  her  work.  She  be- 
came convinced  of  and  advocated  the  necessity 
of  neo-Malthusianism — in  limiting  the  number 
of  children,  especially  among  the  poor.  Gradu- 
ally she  came  to  work  more  among  and  for  the 
poor,  and  at  last  became  an  avowed  socialist, 
the  most  famous  and  active  woman  worker  for 
socialism  in  England.  She  was  especially  active 
in  work  for  women,  organizing  them  into  unions, 
and  in  particular  successfully  conducted  the 


Besant,  Annie. 


155 


Bible  and  Social  Reform. 


great  strike  of  the  match-girls  in  East  London. 
She  still  wrote  continually,  becoming  a  member 
of  the  Fabian  Society  (q.v.)  and  the  author  of 
one  of  the  best  in  their  collection  of  essays. 
Her  socialism  finally  took  her  away  from  Mr. 
Brkdlaugh,  and  more  recently  her  religious  na- 
ture has  made  her  embrace  theosophy,  becom- 
ing at  first  the  friend  and  confidant  of  Madame 
Blavatsky,  and  now  practically  her  successor. 
At  present _  it  is  to  theosophy  that  she  devotes 
her  main  time  and  thought.  Her  writings  are 
very  numerous,  but  are  mainly  brief  essays  or 
tracts  on  free  thought,  Malthusianism,  socialism, 
and  theosophy.  In  1885  she  wrote  an  interest- 
ing book  of  A  utobiographical  Sketches, 

BESANT,  WALTER,  was  born  in  1838  at 
Portsmouth,  and  was  educated  at  King's  Col- 
lege, London,  and  Christ's  College,  Cambridge. 
After  graduating,  he  accepted  the  appointment 
of  senior  professor  in  the  Royal  College  of  Mau- 
ritius, but  soon  after  resigned  and  returned  to 
England.  He  produced  his  first  work  in  1868, 
entitled  Studies  in  Early  French  Poetry,  which 
was  followed  by  the  French  Humorists  in  1873. 
Mr.  Besant  is  the  author  of  All  Sorts  and  Con- 
ditions of  Men;  The  Captain's  Room;  The 
Revolt  of  Man  (1882)  ;  All  in  a  Garden  Fair 
(1883)  ;  Dorothy  Forster  (1884)  ;  Uncle  Jack 
(1885)-;  Children  of  Gibeon  (1886)  ;  The  World 
Went  Very  Well  Then  (1887)  ;  For  Faith  and 
Freedom  (1888) ;  The  Bells  of  St.  Paul's  (1889)  ; 
Armor  el  of  Lyonnesse,  also  two  volumes  of 
stories  entitled  To  Call  Her  Mine  and  The 
Holy  Rose  (1890).  It  was  due  to  an  ideal  pic- 
tured in  All  Sorts  and  Conditions  of  Men 
(1882)  that  the  People's  Palace  in  East  London 
was  built — a  large  club  house  for  working  men, 
where  they  can  find  art,  amusement,  education, 
bathing,  gymnasium  facilities,  etc. 

He  entered  into  partnership  with  Mr.  James 
Rice  in  1871,  and  several  novels  have  been  pub- 
lished since  then  bearing  their  joint  names.  He 
also,  with  Mr.  Rice,  put  on  the  stage  two  plays. 

BETTERMENT  is  a  term  used  in  Ameri- 
can law  to  denote  an  improvement  of  real  prop- 
erty which  adds  to  its  value  otherwise  than  by 
mere  repairs.  It  is  the  custom  in  many  Ameri- 
can towns  and  cities,  when  the  municipality  in- 
troduces improvements,  such  as  parks,  drives, 
etc.,  that  add  immediate  value  to  contiguous 
property,  to  assess  a  certain  proportion  of  the 
cost  upon  the  property  thus  immediately  im- 
proved. In  England  a  system  prevails  of  allow- 
ing the  municipal  authorities  to  acquire  land 
the  value  of  which  has  been  increased  by  bet- 
terments at  compulsory  sale,  without  reference 
to  the  increased  value,  and  then  of  reselling  at 
the  enhanced  price,  and  so  recouping  a  propor- 
tion of  the  cost  of  the  betterment.  There  is, 
however,  in  England  considerable  of  an  agita- 
tion for  the  American  system.  The  defendants 
of  the  English  system  argue  that  the  better- 
ment assessment  is  difficult  to  justly  assess, 
while  the  defendants  of  the  American  system 
assert  that  it  is  the  fairest  way  to  make  those 
who  receive  the  benefit  pay  the  cost. 

References :  Contemporary  Review,  May,  1890 ;  Pal- 
grave's  Dictionary  of  Political  Economy, 


BIBLE  AND  SOCIAL  REFORM,  THE. 

— Charles  Kingsley  called  the  Bible  "the  re- 
former's guide,"  and  declared  its  keynote  to  be 
"  justice  from  God  to  those  whom  men  oppress  ; 
glory  from  God  to  those  whom  men  despise. ' ' 
Herr  Todt,  the  German  Christian  Socialist, 
wrote  :  ' '  Whoever  would-  understand  the  social 
question  and  contribute  to  its  solution  must 
have  on  his  right  hand  the  works  on  political 
economy  and  on  his  left  the  literature  of  scien- 
tific socialism,  and  must  keep  the  New  Testa- 
_ment  open  before  him. ' ' 

(For  the  detailed  social  teachings  of  the  Bible, 
see  articles  JUDAISM  ;  MOSES  ;  CHRIST  ;  CHRIS- 
TIANITY.) 

Those  who  hold  that  the  Bible  teaches  definite 
principles  as  to  the  formation  of  human  society 
upon  earth,  usually  maintain  that  the  Old  Tes- 
tament, through  its  history  and  in  the  Mosaic 
covenant,  teaches  the  general  principles  of  na- 
tional righteousness,  while  the  New  Testament 
bids  us  fulfil  this  righteousness  through  the  life 
in  Christ  in  the  heart.  It  is  held  by  many 
Christian  Socialists  that  the  Old  Testament  cov- 
enant teaches  what  may  be  called  the  law  for 
society.  It  founded  a  theocracy  on  earth.  God 
was  the  Universal  Father  ;  every  man  of  the 
theocracy  a  brother.  Property  in  land  was  not 
absolute  ;  the  land  was  conceived  as  belonging 
to  God.  No  individual  could  own  it  in  fee  sim- 
ple. He  could  only  use  it.  In  its  use  he  was 
inalienably  protected.  It  came  to  him  through 
the  family  as  an  inalienable  inheritance.  If, 
through  poverty  or  misfortune,  he  temporarily 
parted  with  it,  it  returned  to  him  in  the  year  of 
jubilee.  No  landless,  homeless  class  could, 
therefore,  be  permanently  developed  among 
the  Hebrews. 

The  law  went  further.  It  cared  especially  for 
the  poor,  the  oppressed,  the  children,  the  father- 
less, the  widow.  Usury  (or  interest ;  all  scholars 
agree  that  the  two  words  originally  meant  the 
same  thing)  was  positively  forbidden  between 
members  of  His  kingdom.  The  law  provided 
for  every  one's  independence.  It  not  only  pro- 
vided land  for  the  worker,  but  defended  him  in 
the  ownership  of  clothes,  tools,  etc.  (capital), 
which  could  not  permanently  be  taken  from 
him.  If  taken  as  a  pledge,  they  must  be  re- 
turned before  night.  No  permanent  mortgage 
indebtedness  was,  therefore,  possible  on  either 
land  or  capital — that  is,  the  law  was  truly  social- 
istic in  providing  in  the  name  of  organized  so- 
ciety for  both  land  and  capital  for  every  family. 
And  this  was  not,  be  it  remembered,  a  law  of 
mere  individual  righteousness.  In  order  to 
reap  its  benefits,  the  family  had  to  belo.ng  to 
the  theocracy.  The  Jew  could  take  interest 
from  a  foreigner  ;  the  foreigner  could  be  en- 
slaved, even  killed.  The  law  was  essentially 
national  and  institutional. 

Such,  beyond  all  question,  was  the  law  of  the 
Jewish  kingdom.  The  Jews  did  not  indeed  ob- 
serve it.  They  wandered  far  from  it.  But  the 
law  endured.  The  psalmists  and  the  prophets 
are  full  of  blessings  on  those  who  keep  the  law  ; 
are  full  of  woes  and  condemnation  upon  the  na- 
tion that  wanders  from  it.  The  ceremonial  was 
the  precious  shrine  of  a  moral  law  still  more 
precious.  It  is  the  moral  law  that  is  prominent. 
In  the  Psalms,  Canon  Fremantle  has  told  us, 


Bible  and  Social  Reform. 


156 


Bimetallism. 


there  is  not  one  word  about  circumcision,  not  a 
word  about  the  passover,  not  a  word  about  Sab- 
baths, not  a  word  about  ceremonial  uncleanness. 
Just  relation  between  man  and  man  ;  God  in 
the  natural,  the  national  and  social  life — these 
are  the  constant  themes.  The  same  is  true  of 
the  prophets.  Isaiah,  says  :  "  Bring  no  more 
vain  oblations  ;  incense  is  an  abomination  to 
me  ;  the  new  moons  and  Sabbaths,  the  calling 
of  assemblies,  I  cannot  away  with  ;  it  is  iniquity, 
even  the  solemn  meeting.  Learn  to  do  well  ; 
seek  judgment  (justice)  ;  relieve  the  oppressed  ; 
judge  the  fatherless  ;  plead  for  the  widow. "  .  .  . 
Micah  says  :  "  Will  the  Lord  be  pleased  with 
thousands  of  rams  or  with  ten  thousands  of 
rivers  of  oil  ?  .  .  .  What  doth  the  Lord  require 
of  thee,  but  to  do  justly  and  love  mercy  and  to 
walk  humbly  with  thy  God?"  Such  was  the 
kingdom  of  heaven,  of  the  law,  and  of  the  proph- 
ets. They  thundered,  not  against  the  ritual  law, 
but  against  those  who  robbed  it  of  its  mean- 
ing. They  witnessed  not  against  sacrifices,  but 
against  sacrifices  of  other  people's  property. 

But  the  law  failed.  Law  could  not  save,  as 
law  cannot  save  to-day.  And  yet  it  did  not  fail. 
It  was  the  schoolmaster  to  bring  us  to  Christ. 

"  What  the  law  could  not  do  in  that  it  was 
weak  through  the  flesh,"  that  Jesus  Christ  came 
to  fulfil.  This  is  the  second  half  of  Bible  so- 
ciology. 

Christ's  first  preaching  was  of  a  kingdom. 
"  From  that  time  Jesus  began  to  preach,  and  to 
say,  '  Repent,  for  the  kingdom  of  heaven  is  at 
hand.'  "     He  sent  out  His  disciples  and  the  70 
to  preach  "the  Gospel  of  the  kingdom."     Al- 
most all  His  parables  are  about  the  kingdom. 
Of  the  kingdom  are  His  main  discourses.     Just 
before  His  crucifixion  He  entered  Jerusalem  as 
a  king.     Before  Pilate  He  declared  that  He  was 
a  king.     On  His  cross  was  the  inscription  in 
three  representative  languages  of  the  earth,  de- 
claring Him  to  be  a  king.     After  His  resurrec- 
tion  He  continued  40  days  ' '  speaking  of  the 
things  pertaining  to  the  kingdom    of    God." 
What  did  Jesus  Christ  mean  by  the  kingdom  of 
God?  A  kingdom  implies  four  things.    It  implies 
a  king,  a  ruler  ;  it  implies  a  law,  the  law  of  the 
king  ;  it  implies  subjects  who  obey,  or  should 
obey,  the  king  ;  it  implies  a  realm,  where  the 
king  rules.    What  king,  law,  subjects,  and  realm 
does  Christ  refer  to  ?    Where  is  the  kingdom  of 
heaven  ?    It  cannot  be  far  away,  because  18  cen- 
turies ago  Christ  declared  that  it  was  ' '  at  hand. ' ' 
It  cannot  be  unknown,  because  Christ  referred 
to  it  in  His  first  utterances  as  something  that 
His  hearers  perfectly  well  understood.     It  must 
by  them  have  been  understood  of  that  kingdom 
of  God  which  Moses  tried  to  establish  ;  of  which 
David  and  the  kings  were  faulty  symbols  ;  for 
which  the  prophets  prayed  and  the  poets  sang  ; 
to  which  every  Jew  looked  forward  with  a  long- 
ing the  more  passionate  the  more  it  seemed  de- 
ferred.    Undoubtedly  this   was  what  the  Jew 
understood  by  Christ's  teaching.    Yet  it  was  not 
to  be  as  they  thought.     It  was  to  be  spiritual, 
and  for  all  nations.    It  was  not  to  come  by  earth- 
ly might  or  by  any  law.     It  was  to  be  chosen  of 
men  in  freedom,  not  forced  upon  them  ;  it  was 
to  come   "without  observation,"   and  by  the 
power  of  the  Spirit.     Such,  in  brief,  is  the  social 
teaching  of  the  Old  and  New  Testaments.    (See 


articles  JUDAISM  ;  CHRISTIANITY;  CHRISTIAN  SO- 
CIALISM.) 

BIBLIOGRAPHY,  a  statement  as  to  the 
very  large  and  growing  bibliography  of  social 
reform,  with  a  list  of  the  best  bibliographies,  will 
be  found  in  Appendix  I.  to  this  work. 

i 

BILLINGS,  Dr.  JOHN  SHAW,  born  in 
Switzerland  County,  Ind.,  in  1838  ;  was  gradu- 
ated from  the  Miami  University  in  1857,  and 
from  the  Ohio  Medical  College  at  Cincinnati  in 
1860.  He  became  Medical  Inspector  for  the 
Army  of  the  Potomac,  and  later  Librarian  of" 
the  Surgeon -General's  Office  in  Washington. 
In  1880  he  was  made  President  of  the  American 
Public  Health  Association.  He  is  the  author  of 
many  important  official  medical  publications, 
and  has  written  various  articles  bearing  on  the 
health  of  cities  and  municipal  hygiene. 

BILL  OF  EXCHANGE  (from  Lat.  bulla\ 
an  order  in  writing  addressed  by  one  person  to 
another  to  pay  on  demand,  or  at  a  fixed  or  de- 
terminable  future  time,  a  certain  sum  in  money 
to  a  specified  person  or  to  his  order.  Bills,  prop- 
erly speaking,  represent  debts  ;  they  may  be 
used,  by  negotiation,  to  transfer  these  debts 
from  one  person  to  another,  and  first-class  bills 
form  one  of  the  best  securities  which  a  banker 
can  hold.  They  sometimes,  however,  are  drawn 
without  being  based  on  any  genuine  transac- 
tions ;  in  this  case  their  standing  is  more  doubt- 
ful. 

BILL  OF  RIGHTS.— An  abstract  of  rights 
and  privileges  possessed  by  a  people  in  relation 
to  their  government.  In  England  it  refers  to 
an  English  statute  of  1689  (I.  William  and 
Mary,  Sess.  2,  chap,  ii.)  declaring  the  rights  and 
liberties  of  the  subject,  and  settling  the  succes- 
sion of  the  Crown  in  William  of  Orange  and 
Mary,  and  to  the  rightful  heirs  of  the  latter,  but 
excluding  any  Roman  Catholic.  It  also  pro- 
vided that  Protestants  might  have  in  their  pos- 
session arms  for  their  defense  suitable  to  their 
condition.  A  similar  declaration  of  personal 
rights  is  incorporated  into  the  Amendments  of 
the  Constitution  of  the  United  States  and  in 
many  State  constitutions.  Many  labor  reform- 
ers believe  that  those  whom  they  consider  the 
capitalistic  classes  have  in  many  States  quietly 
worked  to  drop  the  bill  of  rights  and  so  abridge 
the  rights  of  the  people. 

BILL  OF  SALE. — A  formal  instrument  for 
the  conveyance  or  transfer  of  personal  chattels, 
as  household  furniture,  stock  in  a  shop,  shares 
of  a  ship,  or  the  like.  It  is  often  given  to  a 
creditor  in  security  for  money  borrowed,  or  an 
obligation  otherwise  incurred.  When  it  ex- 
pressly empowers  the  receiver  to  sell  the  goods 
if  the  money  is  not  repaid  with  interest,  at  the 
appointed  time,  or  the  obligation  is  not  other- 
wise discharged,  the  contract  is  commonly  called 
in  the  United  States  a  chattel  mortgage,  not  a 
bill  of  sale  {Century  Dictionary} . 

BIMETALLISM  may  be  defined  as  the  free 
coinage  and  use  of  gold  and  silver  as  money  at 


Bimetallism. 


Bimetallism. 


relative  values  set  by  legislative  enactment,  or 
as  the  union  of  these  two  metals  in  circulation 
as  full  money,  at  a  fixed  rate  ;  and  specifically 
as  that  system  of  coinage  which  recognizes  both 
coins  of  silver  and  coins  of  gold  as  legal  tender 
to  any  amount,  or  the  free  coinage  and  concur- 
rent use  of  the  two  metals  as  a  circulating  me- 
dium at  a  fixed  relative  value. 

The  final  report  of  the  (English)  Royal  Com- 
mission on  Gold  and  Silver,  reporting  in  1888, 
describes  bimetallism  as  follows  :  "  A  bimetallic 
system  of  currency  to  be  completely  effective 
must,  in  the  view  of  those  who  advocate  it,  in- 
clude two  essential  features  :  (a)  An  open  mint 
ready  to  coin  any  quantity  of  either  gold  or  sil- 
ver which  may  be  brought  to  it.  (b)  The  right 
on  the  part  of  a  debtor  to  discharge  his  liabili- 
ties, at  his  option,  in  either  of  the  two  metals, 
at  a  ratio  fixed  by  law. "  It  is  usually  under- 
stood now  to  mean  that  the  two  metals  are  used 
thus  at  a  fixed  proportion  to  each  other,  as  in  the 
countries  of  the  Latin  Union  (y.v.),  in  which  the 
ratio  of  i  gold  to  is-J-  silver  by  weight  formed 
the  legal  basis,  or  as  in  the  United  States,  in 
which  the  ratio  is  i  to  16. 

Bimetallism  as  an  economic  question  is  of  re- 
cent date,  the  word  having  been  first  used  by 
M.  Cernuschi  in  1869,  altho  the  concurrent  use 
of  gold  and  silver  as  money  is  old  as  civiliza- 
tion. (See  MONEY.)  The  modern  discussion  of 
it,  however,  arose  only  shortly  before  the  fall  in 
the  gold  value  of  silver,  which  began  about 

1873- 

We  shall,  in  this  article,  give  a  general  out- 
line of  the  history  of  the  bimetallic  controversy, 
and  the  position  to-day,  with  a  notice  of  the  main 
arguments  used  for  and  against  bi- 
metallism. (For  details  of  the  his- 
History.  tory,  see  CURRENCY  ;  SILVER  ;  and 
for  a  full  discussion  of  the  theoreti- 
cal monetary  questions  involved, 
see  CONTRACTION  AND  EXPANSION  OF  CURRENCY  ; 
MONEY.)  Up  to  the  year  1819  almost  all  nations 
issued  coins  of  both  gold  and  silver,  as  well  as  of 
other  metals,  and  tried  to  regulate  their  relative 
values  by  royal  or  governmental  proclamations. 
Altho  supply  and  demand  continually  tended  to 
change  the  relative  value  of  the  two  metals,  and 
altho  from  about  1760-1810  enormous  quantities 
of  silver  poured  into  the  world  from  mines  in 
Mexico  and  elsewhere  (so  that  in  1800  the  world's 
annual  silver  product  was  nearly  three  times  its 
product  in  1700),  the  actual  alteration  in  the  rela- 
tive values  aforesaid  was  but  slight.  In  1803, 
therefore,  France  adopted  her  famous  law,  mak- 
ing i  s£  parts  of  silver  equal  to  one  part  of  gold  in 
all  transactions,  which  had  the  effect,  spite  of  still 
greater  changes  in  relative  production,  of  main- 
taining the  relative  values  of  the  metals  almost 
exactly  steady  at  the  figures  named  until  the 
demonetization  of  silver  by  Germany  in  1873. 
England,  however,  in  1816,  under  the  second 
Lord  Liverpool,  took  an  opposite  course,  and 
demonetized  silver  as  a  standard,  and  ever  since 
has  used  it  only  as  a  metal  for  subsidiary  coin- 
age. But  now  began  a  contraction  of  the  cur- 
rency of  the  world.  The  silver  product  of  Mex- 
ico, owing  mainly  to  revolutions  in  that  country-, 
fell  off  one  half  ;  the  total  gold  product  of  the 
world  for  various  reasons  declined  ;  paper  cur- 
rencies in  France  and  England  were  retired  ; 


the  United  States  (see  CURRENCY)  went  through 
marked  depressions,  with  all  forms  of  wild  State 
banking.  At  the  same  time  increasing  discov- 
eries and  inventions  cheapened  production. 

By  1849  prices  had  fallen  some  65  per  cent., 
and  money  (in  England,  gold)  had  become  by 
s,o  much  the  more  valuable.  England's  capital- 
ists, bankers,  and  princely  money-lenders,  who 
mainly  shaped  her  financial  policy,  naturally 
enjoyed  this.  Contracting  currency  (see  CON- 
TRACTION) increased  the  value  of  their  loans.  But 
suddenly  (1849)  came  the  gold  discoveries  of  Cali- 
fornia and  Australia.  In  1859,  30  times  as  much 
gold  was  produced  in  the  world  as  in  1810. 
Money  became  cheap.  Prices  rose.  Gold  threat- 
ened to  be  so  plenty  that  monometallists  began 
to  talk  about  demonetizing  it.  From  1862-65, 
moreover,  the  United  States  issued  paper  money 
(greenbacks,  etc.)  and  liberated  $600,000,000  of 
gold,  which  went  to  Europe,  and  mainly  to  Eng- 
land. If  the  gold-holders  and  gold-lenders  were 
to  retain  any  advantage  from  their  gold,  it  was 
necessary  to  take  some  steps.  Consequently 
they  sought  (the  extreme  believers  in  silver  say 
conspired)  to  get  possession  of  as  much  gold  as 
possible,  and  then  to  induce  the  various  nations 
of  the  world  to  demonetize  silver,  to  make  gold 
the  only  legal  tender.  Soon  the  promise  of  un- 
limited outflow  of  gold  from  the  mines  began  to 
fail,  and  thus  to  vastly  increase  the  value  of 
their  gold. 

Gradually  the  arguments  of  English  econo- 
mists in  favor  of  the  single  gold  standard  began 
to  make  impression,  and  this  was  deepened  by 
indications  that  an  excessive  supply  of  silver 
from  the  Bonanza  mines  of  Nevada  might  be 
expected.  In  1867,  in  connection  with  the  Paris 
Exhibition  of  that  year,  an  international  mone- 
tary conference  was  held  at  Berlin,  and  since  even 
delegates  from  the  United  States,  among  others, 
supported  resolutions  advocating  the  demoneti- 
zation of  silver,  the  idea  of  gold  monometallism 
spread.  The  importance  of  the  question  to  the 
United  States  was  not  generally  felt  at  this 
time,  though  a  few  writers,  considered  radicals, 
pointed  out  the  danger.  Circumstances,  how- 
ever, either  favored  the  gold  monometallists,  or 
they  took  shrewd  advantage  of  circumstances  to 
induce  demonetization  of  silver. 

The  war  of  1870-71,  by  securing  to  Germany 
a  large  sum  of  gold  and  merchantable  paper 
equivalent  to  gold,  in  payment  of  the  indemnity 
of  $1,000,000,000  exacted  from  France,  put  Ger- 
many into  a  position  to  establish  the  single  gold 
standard  for  herself.  As  a  very  large  amount 
of  her  international  commerce  is  transacted  with 
the  United  Kingdom,  this  proposal  was  wel- 
comed by  the  business  community  as  a  conven- 
ience. The  German  Minister  of  Finance,  Herr 
Delbriick,  in  this,  as  in  other  matters,  was  in 
sympathy  with  the  English  school  of  economists. 
The  law  of  December  4,  1871,  completed  July  9, 
1873,  superseding  the  local  coinage  by  an  im- 
perial coinage,  demonetized  silver  by  restricting 
its  coinage  to  the  amount  regarded  as  necessary 
for  change.  Of  the  silver  previously  in  circula- 
tion, about  $260,000,000  worth  was  called  in  by 
1878,  and  only  $106,650,000  worth  recoined  by 
the  imperial  mint ;  while  of  gold,  $2,275,000 
worth  was  called  in,  and  $409,500,000  was  issued 
in  the  new  coins.  This  left  $153,350,000  worth 


Bimetallism. 


153 


Bimetallism. 


of  silver  in  the  imperial  treasury,  to  be  disposed 
of  in  the  silver  market  in  such  quantities  as  could 
be  sold  without  loss.  In  the  half  decade  1866-70 
the  average  price  of  silver  had  been  6o^</.  an 
ounce,  being  i  oz.  of  gold  to  15.55  °z-  of  silver, 
while  the  European  standard  of  coinage  valued 
i  oz.  of  gold  at  15.50  oz.  of  silver.  During 
these  sales,  on  account  of  the  German  treasury, 
it  fell  in  value,  and  at  one  time  in  1878  it  was 
sold  at  49^.  an  ounce.  From  this  it  rallied 
slightly  when  the  Germany  treasury  was  de- 
terred from  further  sales  by  heavy  losses,  but  it 
again  declined. 

The  influence  of  Germany's  action  was  felt  in 
other  quarters  than  the  silver  market,  and  its 
results  everywhere  had  the  effect  of  increasing 
the  depression  of  silver.  In  1873  Denmark,  Swe- 
den, and  Norway  followed  her  in  adopting  the 
single  gold  standard,  and  altho  the  amount  of 
their  coin  circulation  is  not  large — the  new  gold 
coinage  of  1872  amounting  to  but  $20,021,055  in 
value — the  act  served  to  inflict  a  fresh  blow  on 
the  prestige  of  silver.  Holland  followed  in  1875. 
In  the  United  States,  the  influence  of  the  bank- 
ers and  capitalists  had  already  caused  the  with- 
drawal of  the  greenbacks,  the  issue  of  interest- 
bearing  bonds,  the  vote  to  pay  both  capital  and 
interest  in  gold  (altho  in  some  cases  it  had  not 
been  promised  to  be  paid  in  gold),  and,  besides 
all  this,  the  gradual  contraction  of  the  currency  ; 
and  thus,  or  course,  the  enhancement  of  the 
value  of  gold.  For  the  details  of  this  we  must 
refer  the  reader  to  the  article  CURRENCY  ;  but 
it  must  be  at  least  mentioned  in  any  true  history 
of  the  bimetallic  controversy  as  one  important 
factor.  Hitherto  silver,  since  the  beginning  of 
the  war  at  least,  had  played  a  small  part  in 
United  States  monetary  affairs.  During  the 
war,  and  till  about  1876,  it  was  mainly  a  ques- 
tion of  paper  or  gold.  This  led  to  unforeseen 
consequences.  Silver — hitherto  technically  altho 
not  practically  a  legal  tender  and  standard 
of  value — was,  in  1873,  technically 
demonetized.  (See  CURRENCY.)  A 
Silver  bill  was  introduced  into  Congress 
Demon-  and  passed  February  12,  1873,  nomi- 
etized,  nally  to  regulate  details  of  coinage 
1873.  at  the  mint,  but  which,  without 
mentioning  the  demonetization  of 
silver,  did  practically  accomplish 
this  by  not  mentioning  silver  coins  except  for 
small  change,  and  saying  that  no  coins  either 
of  gold  or  silver  should  be  coined  except  those 
therein  set  forth.  It  elicited  at  the  time  small 
attention.  Few  knew  that  it  demonetized  silver, 
and  the  most  stalwart  friends  of  silver  voted 
for  it.  Silver  was  scarcely  an  issue. 

But  gradually,  as  the  country  saw  the  circula- 
tion contracting,  and  the  opponents  of  contrac- 
tion found  that  they  could  not  obtain  a  paper 
currency,  they  turned  to  silver,  and  then  discov- 
ered that  it  had  been  demonetized.  The  excite- 
ment was  intense.  Mr.  Sherman  and  the  few 
who  knew  what  had  been  done  were  branded 
as  traitors  by  the  growing  friends  of  silver.  It 
was  charged  that  demonetization  had  been  car- 
ried by  a  conspiracy  of  a  few  Congressmen  with 
the  "  gold  kings"  of  Wall  Street,  to  carry  out 
' '  a  world  conspiracy' '  to  demonetize  silver  and 
make  gold  the  ruler  of  the  world. 

A  monetary  commission    was  appointed  by 


Congress  in  1876,  which  reported  strongly  in 
favor  of  silver,  and  led  to  the  call  of  an  interna- 
tional monetary  conference  at  Paris  in  1878,  to 
secure  the  cooperation  of  the  European  powers 
in  remonetizing  silver.  Meanwhile,  the  devel- 
opment of  gold  monometallism  had  gone  on. 
Says  President  Andrews,  in  the  Political  Sci- 
ence Quarterly,  June,  1893  : 

"  On  December  18,  1873,  fearing  a  disastrous 
influx  of  the  metal  from  Germany,  Belgium 
suspended  the  free  coinage  of  silver,  the  other 
States  of  the  Latin  Union  (g.v.)  following  on 
January  31,  1874.  Holland,  too,  this  same  year, 

give  up  coining  silver  for  private  account.  On 
ecember  21, 1876,  Belgium  wholly  ceased  strik- 
ing standard  silver  coins.  Russia  took  the  same 
course  also  in  1876  ;  France  and  Switzerland  in 
1877  ;  Italy  a  little  later. 

"  Nearly  at  the  same  time  with  these  changes, 
demonetizing  silver  and  requiring  new  gold,  the 
flow  of  silver  to  the  East  decreased,  and  the 
yield  of  the  American  silver  mines  increased. 
Both  phenomena  tended  to  depress  the  value  of 
silver  and  to  lower  its  price  in  gold.  Early  in 
November,  1872,  for  the  first  time  since  1852, 
silver  sold  in  London  under  (x>d.  per  ounce.  In 
1871,  silver  prices  for  the  year  being  averaged, 
I5-58  grs.  of  silver  would  buy  a  grain  of  gold. 
In  1872  it  took  15.63  grs.  of  silver  to  do  this  ;  in 
1873,  15.92  grs.  ;  in  1874,  16.17  grs-  ;  in  J875, 
16.58  grs.  ;  in  1876,  17.88  grs.  ;  in  1878,  17.94 
grs.  ;  in  1879,  18.40  grs." 

The  Paris  conference  took  no  positive  action 
toward  silver  remonetization.  In  the  United 
States,  however,  the  Bland  Bill  of  1878  did  to  an 
extent  remonetize  silver.  It  did  not  wholly,  for 
altho,  as  originally  reported  by  Mr.  Bland  from 
the  House  Committee  on  Coinage,  it  did  propose 
the  full  remonetization  of  silver  by  authorizing 
its  unlimited  coinage  at  the  ratio  of  i  to  1 6  on 
private  account,  the  bill,  as  finally  passed,  re- 
stricted coinage  to  $2,000,000  a  month  on  Gov- 
ernment account.  And  the  secretaries  of  our 
treasury,  like  the  Bank  of  France,  have  been 
agreed  in  regarding  their  stock  of  gold  alone  as. 
the  reserve  for  the  security  of  the  notes  they  are 
obligated  to  redeem  on  presentation. 

This  was  at  length  replaced  in  1890,  after  al- 
most annual  attempts  at  a  full  free-coinage  act, 
by  a  compromise  measure,  commonly  known  as. 
the  Sherman  Act.  This  directed  the  Treasurer 
to  purchase  silver  bullion  aggregating  4,500,000 
oz.  a  month,  or  so  much  thereof  as  might  be 
offered  at  market  price,  and  to  issue  in  payment 
for  such  purchases  silver  bullion  treasury  notes. 

Meanwhile,  on  the  Continent  the  gold  mono- 
metallists  had  succeeded  in  permanently  de- 
monetizing silver.  By  an  international  agree- 
ment of  the  Latin  Union,  in  1874  the  coinage  of 
silver  had  been  limited  ;  by  an  agreement  of 
1877  it  ceased.  The  Paris  conference  of  1878 
had  been  decided  for  gold,  and  tho  the  con- 
ference of  1 88 1  showed  a  little  more  inclination 
toward  silver,  the  reluctance  of  the  greater  Eu- 
ropean powers  still  carried  the  day  for  gold. 
(See  MONETARY  CONFERENCES.) 

We  now  come  to  the  money  crisis  of  the  sum- 
mer of  1893.  The  United  States  was  left  alone, 
of  the  great  powers  of  the  world,  to  deal  with 
silver.  Various  events  conspired  to  bring  on  this 
crisis.  Losses  on  loans  in  the  Argentine  Repub- 


Bimetallism. 


159 


Bimetallism. 


]ic  compelled  England  to  draw  in  her  gold.  Then 
came  the  failure  of  the  Australian  banks,  de- 
manding more  gold  from  England. 
Austria- Hungary  and  Roumania 
Crisis  of  decided  to  change  to  a  gold  stand- 
1893.  ard.  On  the  top  of  all  this,  the 
English  Indian  Government  was 
induced  (June  26,  1893)  to  stop  the 
free  coinage  of  silver.  The  crisis  in  America 
almost  immediately  followed.  Silver  dropped 
to  the  lowest  point  ever  recorded.  The  day 
after  the  news  from  India,  silver  mines  began 
to  close  in  Colorado,  and  distress  became  in- 
tense. Meanwhile,  some  of  the  banks,  not  know- 
ing what  was  coming,  had  begun  a  policy  for 
which  many  of  them  dearly  paid.  It  is  claimed 
by  the  silver  extremists  that  the  banks,  or  at  least 
some  bankers,  planned,  by  reducing  their  circu- 
lation and  by  refusing  credit,  to  create  a  slight 
pinch,  to  lay  this  to  lack  of  confidence  in  the 
Sherman  Act,  and  fear  that  the  United  States 
would  be  left  to  a  depreciated  silver  standard 
when  all  the  rest  of  the  world  had  declared  for 
gold,  and  so  to  compel  Congress  to  repeal  the 
Sherman  Act  and  thus  put  the  whole  world  in 
the  hands  of  the  triumphant  gold  metallists,  as 
all  the  great  powers,  except  the  United  States, 
are  to-day.  However,  the  banks  did  not  know 
what  elements  were  uniting  to  cause,  not  a 
slight  pinch,  but  the  worst  monetary  crisis  the 
country  has  known  for  at  least  20  years.  Find- 
ing credit  refused,  the  public  became  fearful. 
Men  began  to  draw  out  their  capital  and  hoard 
money.  Western  banks  failed  in  large  num- 
bers. Lack  of  confidence  in  silver  was  preached 
by  the  papers  as  the  cause  of  the  panic.  The 
repeal  of  the  Sherman  Act  was  demanded  by  all 
the  banks,  boards  of  trade,  and  capitalists. 
President  Cleveland  was  induced  to  summon 
an  extra  session  of  Congress  to  meet  the  emer- 
gency. All  this  increased  the  panic.  Credit 
was  gone.  Money  was  hoarded.  It  became 
impossible  even  for  perfectly  solvent  manufac- 
turing concerns  to  get  enough  money  to  pay 
their,  wages.  Every  device  was  used  for  money. 
Clearing-house  notes  were  issued  in  large  quan- 
tities. Banks  in  unprecedented  numbers  failed, 
altho  with  abundant  assets,  because  they  could 
not  get  currency  to  meet  the  demand.  There 
was  a  money  famine.  The  calling  of  Congress 
(August  7)  strengthened  confidence  temporarily. 
Large  amounts  of  gold  were  obtained  from  Eng- 
land, and  a  little  easement  made.  August  n 
Mr.  Wilson,  of  West  Virginia,  introduced  a  bill 
in  the  House,  repealing  the  silver-purchasing 
clause  of  the  Sherman  Act,  but  renewing  the 
pledge  to  maintain  the  parity  of  gold  and  silver. 
This  passed  the  House  August  28  by  a  vote  of 
240  to  1 10.  Then  came  a  long  contest  in  the 
Senate.  After  much  discussion  in  committee 
and  caucus,  Senator  Vorhees  introduced  a  bill, 
August  1 8,  repealing  the  purchasing  clause, 
but  more  strongly  pledging  the  maintenance  of 
bimetallism.  Strongly  supported  by  the  Admin- 
istration, it  was  nearly  defeated  by  the  persist- 
ent and  strenuous  opposition  of  a  bitter  and 
able  minority,  and  the  inability  of  the  majority 
— for  political  and  other  reasons — to  agree  to 
changing  the  traditions  of  the  Senate  and  force 
a  vote.  Finally,  however,  after  months  of  talk, 
it  passed  the  Senate,  October  30,  was  accepted 


by  the  House,  and  approved  by  the  President 
November  i.  Such  is  a  brief  outline  of  the 
monetary  history,  from  which  the  bimetallist 
controversy  cannot  be  separated,  and  without 
a  knowledge  of  which  it  cannot  be  understood. 

Since  November,  1893,  the  bimetallist  contro- 
versy has  been  intensified  rather  than  dimin- 
ished, but  the  history  is  best  considered  under 
article  SILVER,  since  it  has  turned  more  upon 
fact  than  upon  theory. 

In  this  country,  however,  the  bimetallists  must 
not  be  confounded  with  those  friends  of  silver 
who  have  fought  for  bimetallism,  not  from  any 
theory  or  belief  in  bimetallism  it- 
self, but  simply  from  a  desire  to  ex- 
pand or  at  least  to  prevent  the  con-  Bimetallists 
traction  of  the  currency,  and  have  and  Free 
believed  the  use  of  silver  to  be  at  Silver  Men 
present  the  most  available  means  not  the 
to  this  end.  By  no  means  have  all  Same. 
the  supporters  of  silver  in  the  Con- 
gressional battle  been  bimetallists. 
On  the  other  hand,  by  no  means  have  all  the 
opponents  of  silver  been  monometallists.  On  the 
contrary,  many  of  them  believe  in  bimetallism, 
but  have  argued  that  the  United  States  cannot 
afford  to  use  depreciated  silver  when  all  the  rest 
of  the  world  is  using  gold.  They  have  held  that 
we  must  adopt  the  gold  standard,  and  then  work 
for  an  international  agreement  to  use  silver.  A 
few  strong  bimetallists,  including  such  an  emi- 
nent monetary  authority  as  President  Andrews, 
have  urged  the  adoption  of  the  gold  standard  by 
the  United  States,  on  the  ground  that  there  is 
not  gold  enough  in  the  world  to  do  the  business 
of  the  world  ;  so  that  for  the  United  States  to 
adopt  it  would  necessarily  produce  such  a  panic 
that  even  England  (where  there  has  been  of  late 
considerable  awakening  of  inclination  toward 
silver)  would  be  compelled  to  adopt  silver.  Still 
others  have  argued  for  the  repeal  of  the  Sher- 
man Act,  on  the  ground  that  it  was  a  compro- 
mise measure,  in  itself  pleasing  to  neither  be- 
lievers in  silver  nor  in  gold,  and  that,  since  it 
has  been  at  least  presented  as  the  cause  of  lack 
of  confidence,  to  repeal  it  would  tend  to  restore 
that  confidence  ;  while  the  country  could  then 
legislate,  as  it  would,  to  increase  the  currency. 
On  the  other  hand,  those  arguing  against  re- 
peal, in  the  interest  of  an  enlarged  currency, 
have  insisted  that,  altho  they  did  not  like  the 
Sherman  Act,  it  was  all  that  stood  between 
them  and  a  single  gold  standard,  and  it  was, 
therefore,  folly  to  repeal  it  till  they  could  be  as- 
sured of  something  better  to  take  its  place  ; 
while  it  would  be  folly,  when  there  was  already 
a  money  famine,  to  repeal  a  bill  calculated  to 
put  at  least  large  amounts  of  silver  certificates 
into  circulation  every  month.  It  will  be  thus 
seen  how  complicated  has  been  the  condition  of 
the  bimetallic  controversy  in  the  United  States. 
And  this  is  but  a  brief  statement  of  the  subject. 
The  intensity  of  feeling  on  the  subject  can  only 
be  realized  when  one  reads  the  violent  language 
of  the  friends  of  silver,  classing  the  gold  men 
with  the  most  heinous  traitors  to  the  coun- 
try, and  threatening  violence  and  war  if  silver 
be  demonetized.  This  feeling,  however  one 
differ  from  it,  can,  nevertheless,  be  understood 
when  one  realizes  what  a  contracting  currency 
means,  and  how  these  men  believe  that  the  de- 


Bimetallism: 


160 


Bimetallism. 


monetization  of  silver  is  a  deliberate  plot  to  con- 
tract the  currency.  For  this  we  must  refer  the 
reader  to  article  CONTRACTION  AND  EXPANSION 
OF  CURRENCY.  We  here  simply  quote  from  Pro- 
fessor John  R.  Commons,  of  the  University  of 
Indiana,  who  says  : 

"Money  is  like  any  commodity,  in  that  its  value 
is  determined  by  demand  and  supply.  If  money  is 
scarce,  compared  with  the  demand,  its  value  •will  be 
high,  which  is  the  same  as  to  say  that  prices  of  com- 
modities will  be  low,  and  if  money  is  abundant,  it 
will  be  cheap,  and  prices  will  be  high.  Now  .  .  . 
what  is  the  significance  of  price  fluctuations?  _Noth- 
ing  less  than  the  very  essence  of  modern  indus- 
try. In  former  days,  when  every  man  lived  to  himself, 
there  was  no  occasion  for  a  money  question.  But  now 
no  man  or  family  lives  isolated.  The  '  cash-nexus,'  at 
least,  unites  the  world  into  a  single  organism.  Each 
one  buys  from  the  world  all  that  he  eats  and  wears 
and  enjoys,  and  sells  to  the  world  the  one  specialized 
product  which  he  makes.  His  whole  life,  therefore,  is 
a  question  of  prices.  Also,  it  is  estimated  that  the 
debts  of  the  world  are  $100,000,000,000.  Every  nation, 
state,  county,  city,  and  township  is  in  debt.  Every 
business  man,  corporation,  farmer,  is  a  debtor.  These 
debts  run  from  three  months  to  three  decades.  All 
business  and  productive  enterprises  are 
a  speculation.  The  farmer  borrows 
Importance  money  expecting  to  sell  •wheat  at  a  cer- 
of  the  ta*n  Pr'ce  an(l  PaY.  ms  debt  in  money. 
Meanwhile  the  price  of  wheat  falls  50 
Question,  per  cent.  Where  one  bushel  would  have 
paid  his  debt  when  contracted,  it  now 
requires  two  bushels,  and  the  burden  of 
the  debt  has  grown  100  per  cent.  During  the  past  20 
years  this  is  exactly  what  has  occurred.  Our  univer- 
sal, all-important  standard  of  measure  has  doubled. 
Every  debtor  and  producing  nation  except  the  United 
States  is  a  bankrupt  nation.  They  borrowed  money 
for  private  and  public  enterprises"  when  prices  were 
high,  and  must  pay  interest  and  principal  when  prices 
are  low.  Australia,  with  its  bountiful  resources  and 
immunity  from  war ;  Egypt,  Italy,  Portugal,  Argen- 
tina, are  acknowledged  bankrupts.  France,  Spain, 
and  other  nations  escape  the  acknowledgment  only  by 
falsely  doctoring  their  books.  The  reason  is,  the  bur- 
den of  their  debts  has  nearly  doubled.  The  people  of 
the  United  States  have  paid  two  thirds  of  their  war 
debt  since  1865 ;  yet,  measured  in  wheat,  cotton,  corn, 
and  many  manufactured  articles,  it  will  require  to-day 
more  of  the  products  of  their  muscle  and  brain  to  pay 
the  remaining  one  third  than  it  required  in  1865  to  pay 
the  entire  debt.  Only  a  land  of  fabulous  resources 
can  endure  this  fruitless  slavery.  When  we  consider 
that  the  private  debts  of  the  country  are  one  half  the 
value  of  the  country,  it  is  no  wonder  that  panic,  de- 
pression, idleness,  and  despair  are  upon  us"  (article  in 
The  Voice,  September  14,  1893). 

It  can  be  thus  seen  what  the  bimetallic  con- 
troversy really  means,  and  why  it  has  roused  the 
farmers,  who  are  a  debtor  class,  to  such  intense 
excitement  and  sometimes  frenzy.  It  means, 
in  their  belief,  the  doubling  or  halving  of  their 
debts,  the  consequent  salvation  or  ruin  of  home, 
family,  and  their  future  for  years  to  come.  It 
is  no  wonder  that  the  controversy  has  been  called 
the  greatest  problem  of  modern  political  econ- 
omy. (For  the  more  recent  history  of  the  ques- 
tion, see  SILVER.)  In  regard  to  the  bearing 
of  bimetallism  upon  the  recent  loans  contract- 
ed by  the  United  States  Government,  the  fol- 
lowing from  The  Otttlook  of  March  2,  1895, 
gives  the  argument  pro  and  con  : 

"  The  monometallist  claims,  •with  considerable  show 
of  reason,  that  the  recent  act  of  the  Administration  in 
borrowing  $62,400,000  of  gold,  on  terms  which  involve 
the  payment  of  over  $72,000,000  in  interest  in  30 
years,  was  absolutely  necessary  to  preserve  the  credit 
and  honor  of  the  Government.  It  is  said  that  we  are 
under  a  political  and  commercial  necessity,  if  not  un- 
der a  moral  and  legal  obligation,  to  redeem  all  our 
notes,  except  the  silver  certificates,  in  gold  ;  that  the 
gold  in  the  treasury  had  been  so  drawn  out  that  it  was 
necessary  for  the  Government  to  borrow  gold  in  order 
to  redeem  its  promises  ;  that  if  it  borrowed  this  gold 


by  a  popular  loan  from  Americans  at  home,  the  Amer- 
icans would  straightway  sell  the  bonds  for  greenbacks, 
and  use  the  greenbacks  to  draw  out  from  the  treasury 
the  gold  which  they  had  put  into  the  treasury  ;  that  to 
prevent  this  depletion  it  was  necessary  to  find  some 
owners  of  gold  who  would  not  exchange  the  bonds  for 
greenbacks  and  use  the  greenbacks  to  draw  out  the 
gold  again  from  the  treasury  ;  and  that  these  owners 
of  the  gold,  having  a  control  of  the  gold,  have  both  the 
power  and  the  right  to  charge  the  rate  of  interest 
which  was  charged  and  is  to  be  paid  by  the  Govern- 
ment. If  the  Government  were  in  war  and  needed 
potatoes  for  its  army,  it  would  have  to  buy  the  potatoes 
of  the  farmers  who  had  them,  and  it  wculd  have  to  pay 
the  farmers  whatever  price  they  asked.  It  is  in  need 
of  gold,  and  it  must  buy  the  gold  of  the  bankers  who 
have  it,  and  must  pay  the  bankers  whatever  price  they 
ask.  This  is  the  argument,  and  whether  it  is  wholly 
correct  in  its  assumption  of  facts  or  not,  these  assump- 
tions are  not  •wholly  unreasonable. 

"We  have  stated  on  another  page  our  reasons  for 
thinking  that  the  bargain  was  not  a  wise  one  ;  but  if  it 
were,  if  the  facts  are  as  claimed  by  the  monometallist, 
and  the  action  of  the  Administration  was  necessitated 
by  the  conditions  that  existed,  these  facts  and  these 
conditions  furnish  to  the  bimetallist  an  additional 
argument  for  bimetallism. 

"We  have  in  this  country,  in  various  forms  of  paper 
money,  $1,500,000,000.  We  have  in  addition  to  this  a 
great  credit  system  carried  on  by  means  of  checks  and 
bills  of  exchange,  which,  at  the  lowest  estimate,  aggre- 
gate $2,000,000,000  more.  Under  a  monometallic  system 
this  whole  medium  of  exchange— National  notes,  bank- 
notes, and  private  checks— is  based  upon  gold,  and 
every  note  and  check  is,  in  the  last  analysis,  payable 
in  gold.  There  is  so  little  gold  in  the  world  that  a 
comparatively  small  number  of  bankers  can  control 
the  supply  in  any  time  of  exigency,  and  can  compel  the 
people  to  pay  a  large  interest  account,  not  for  gold  to 
be  used  as  a  medium  of  exchange,  for  they  do  not  use 
gold  for  that  purpose,  but  for  the  privilege  of  main- 
taining a  medium  of  exchange  consisting  almost  wholly 
of  paper,  but  based  upon  gold  as  a  standard.  The  bi  - 
metallists  claim  that  if  this  medium  of  exchange  con- 
sisting of  paper  were  based,  not  upon  gold  only,  but 
upon  both  gold  and  silver,  there  is  so  much  of  both 
metals  in  the  world  that  no  banker  or  syndicate  of 
bankers  could  control  the  supply,  and  that,  therefore, 
the  people  would  not  be  required  to  pay  to  any  banker 
or  syndicate  of  bankers  $72,000,000  in  30  years  for  the 
privilege  of  carrying  on  their  exchanges  by  means  of 
notes  and  checks'." 

ARGUMENTS    FOR   BIMETALLISM. 

In  following  the  monetary  history  of  the  bi- 
metallic controversy  we  have  already  seen  many 
of  the  arguments  pro  and  con  ;  but  as  that  his- 
tory is  confused  with  other  questions,  we  tabu- 
late here  the  main  arguments  for  bimetallism. 

i.  That  there  is  not  enough  gold  produced  in 
the  world  to  do  the  business  of  the  world,  and 
that,  therefore,  unless  silver  or  some  other  metal 
be  used,  the  sufferings  must  be  experienced 
which  all  economists  are  agreed  would  result 
from  a  contracting  or  insufficient  currency. 
Upon  the  gold  production  of  the  world  Soetbeer 
and  Giffen  are  admittedly  the  greatest  authori- 
ties. Soetbeer's  tables,  translated  by  Professor 
Taussig,  and  published  in  the  United  States 
Consular  Reports  for  December,  1887,  p.  528, 
are  condensed  as  follows  : 

Gold  Produced  Consumed  Used  for  Money 

(yearly).  in  the  Arts,  and  Reserves. 

1851-70.  .$135,000,000  $43,000,000          $02,000,000 

1881-85..    104,000,000  80,000,000            24,000,000 

In  other  words,  while  the  production  of  gold 
had  decreased,  its  non-monetary  consumption 
had  nearly  doubled,  and  the  surplus  available 
for  money  uses  had  been  reduced  from  $92,000,- 
ooo  annually,  two  decades  before,  to  $24,000,000 
annually  in  1885. 

Mr.  Giffen,  the  leading  English  monometal- 
list, has  since  written  upon  the  same  question, 


Bimetallism. 


161 


Bimetallism. 


as  follows  :  "  About  two -thirds  of  the  gold  pro- 
duced annually  is  taken  for  the  arts,  and  if  the 
consumption  of  India  is  included  as  being  either 
for  simple  hoarding  or  for  the  arts,  and  in  no 
case  for  the  purpose  of  circulating  money,  then 
the  demand  for  gold  for  non-monetary  purposes 
appears  almost  equal  to  the  entire  annual  pro- 
duction." 

With  these  statements  from  such  sources  the 
contention,  seems  supported  that  there  is  not 
enough  gold  produced  in  the  world  to  do  the 
world's  business,  and  that  silver  is,  therefore, 
needed. 

2.  It  is  urged  that  silver  is  less  liable  to  fluc- 
tuation in  value  than  gold,  and  that,  therefore, 
when  used  with  gold,  it  tends  to  modify  the  evils 
of  gold  fluctuation.     For  the  facts  bearing  upon 
this  point,  which  are  somewhat  involved,  we 
must  refer  the  reader  to  SILVER. 

3.  Bimetallists  argue  that  even  if  this  be  not 
the  case,  on  general  principles  two  metals  are 
not  so  apt  to  fluctuate  as  one,  and  that  if  one 
metal  be  driven  out  of  circulation  temporarily, 
the  other  metal  will  remain,  fluctuating  perhaps, 
but  still    fluctuating    less    than    the  vanished 
metal.     Jevons  has  illustrated  this  as  follows  : 

"  At  any  moment  the  standard  of  value  is  doubtless 
one  metal  or  the  other,  and  not  both  ;  yet  the  fact  that 
there  is  an  alternation  tends  to  make  each  vary  much 
less  than  it  would  otherwise  do.  It  cannot  prevent 
both  metals  from  falling  or  rising  in  value  compared 
with  other  commodities,  but  it  can  throw  variations  of 
supply  and  demand  over  a  larger  area,  instead  of 
leaving  each  metal  to  be  affected  merely  by  its  own 
accidents.  Imagine  two  reservoirs  of  water,  each  sub- 
ject to  independent  variations  of  supply  and  demand. 
In  the  absence  of  any  connecting  pipe,  the  level  of  the 
water  in  each  reservoir  will  be  subject  to  its  own  fluc- 
tuations only.  But  if  we  open  a  connection,  the  water 
in  both  will  assume  a  certain  level,  and  the  effects  of 
any  excessive  supply  or  demand  will  be  distributed 
over  the  whole  area  of  both  reservoirs.  The  mass  of 
the  metals,  gold  and  silver,  circulating  in  Western  Eu- 
rope in  late  years,  is  exactly  represented  by  the  water 
in  these  reservoirs,  and  the  connecting  pipe  is  the  law 
of  the  seventh  Germinal,  An.  xi.  (1803),  which  enables 
one  metal  to  take  the  place  of  the  other  as  an  unlimited 
legal  tender." 

4.  Bimetallists  claim,  as  asserted  above,  that 
the  depreciation  of  silver  which  has  taken  place 
has  been  due  to  unfavorable  legislation,  and 
that  all  the  financial  suffering  which  it  has  caused 
proves  what  need  the  world  has  of  silver.     If 
this  goes  on,  they  argue,  nothing  less  than  a 
most  disastrous  shock  to  the  expansion  of  the 
world's  commerce  can  be  expected.     And  no 
remedy  except  the  remonetization  of  silver  has 
been  suggested.     (For  a  fuller  statement  of  the 
arguments  for  bimetallism,  see  MONETARY  CON- 
FERENCES.) 

We  close  this  portion  of  our  subject  by  quot- 
ing the  declaration  of  the  bimetallist  members 
of  the  German  Silver  Commission,  printed  in  an 
appendix  to  the  record  of  the  twenty-first  ses- 
sion, as  translated  by  E.  Benjamin  Andrews, 
and  published  in  the  Review  of  Reviews  for 
September,  1894  : 

"The  undersigned,  members  of  the  German  Silver 
Commission,  believe  themselves  compelled  to  draw 
from  the  course  of  the  Commission's  proceedings  the 
following  conclusions  : 

INCREASED  PURCHASING  POWER  OF  GOLD. 

"I.  We  consider  it  proved  by  science  and  experience, 
and  partly,  in  fact,  by  the  admissions  of  prominent 
adherents  of  the  sole  gold  standard,  that  the  power  of 


gold  to  purchase  goods  has  risen  since  the  general  ex- 
tension of  the  gold  standard  (1873),  *s  st^l  rising  to- 
day, and  must  continue  to  rise. 

"  Our  grounds  for  this  belief  are  : 

"  i.  The  rise  in  the  purchasing  power  of  gold,  that  is, 
the  general  fall  in  the  price  level  of  commodities,  was 
predicted  by  the  well-known  monetary  writers,  Wol- 
owski  and  Ernst  Seyd,  in  1868,  before  the  introduction 
of  the  gold  standard.  Their  prophecy  was  repeated 
later  by  B.  de  Laveleye  and  Carey.  Even  Dr.  Bam- 
berger  said,  in  the  session  of  the  Reichstag  May  29, 
1873,  according  to  the  stenographic  report :  '  On  the 
contrary,  gentlemen,  I  fully  agree  with  one  of  the 
speakers  who  have  preceded  me,  that  a  greater  de- 
mand for  gold  will  result  from  our  gold  policy  and  the 
similar  policies  adopted  by  other  countries.  Gold  will 
then  rise,  and  a  consequence  of  our  currency  reform 
will  be  that  prices  with  us,  if  we  once  go  over  to  the 
gold  standard,  will  decline.'  Robert  Giffen,  rec- 
ognized as  one  of  the  best  authorities  of  the  gold-stand- 
ard party,  declared  in  1888  :  '  If  events  are  the  touch- 
stones of  prophecies,  no  prophecy  was  ever  more 
certain  than  the  increased  dearness  of  gold.  That  the 
fall  of  prices  throughout  a  compass  so  general  as  that 
in  which  we  now  see  it  falling  is  to  be  referred  to  an 
elevation  in  the  purchasing  power  of  gold  is  generally, 
and  I  might  almost  say  universally,  admitted.' 

"  2.  The  attempt  to  refer  this  lowering  in  the  general 
level  of  prices  to  other  causes,  lying  outside  the  coin- 
age system,  for  instance,  to  cheapening  and  improve- 
ment in  means  of  communication,  to  the  perfecting  of 
processes  and  machines  for  the  production  of  goods, 
etc.,  must  be  considered  a  failure,  for  the  reason  that 
the  same  causes  were  present  in  the  same  strength  dur- 
ing the  twenty-year  period  before  1873,  tho  at  that 
time  there  was  observable  a  gradual  elevation  in  the 
prices  of  goods  in  general ;  while,  since  1873,  that  is, 
since  the  beginning  of  the  fall  in  the  gold  price  of  silver 
through  the  introduction  of  the  gold  standard  in  Ger- 
many, a  sharp  and  permanent  lowering  in  general 
prices  has  come  in. 

'*  Moreover,  the  industrial  development  referred  to  is 
at  present  specially  strong  in  the  lands  having  the 
silver  standard,  yet  without  inducing  any  fall  of  prices 
there.  This  is  a  direct  proof  that  silver  has  not  lost  in 
value,  but  merely  gone  down  in  its  gold  price,  and  that, 
therefore,  the  fact  which  confronts  us  is  simply  an  ele- 
vation in  the  value  of  gold. 

"3.  The  objection  that  many  things,  as  city  rents, 
securities,  and,  most  of  all,  wages,  have  increased  in 
price  is  without  weight,  because  in  all  these  things 
powerful  special  factors  have  been  influencing  prices. 
City  rents  must  advance  so  long  as  the  population  of 
the  country  continues  to  be  drained  away  into  the 
larger  towns,  evoking  a  permanent  increase  in  the  de- 
mand for  houses.  Securities  advance  in  accordance 
with  the  increase  in  the  purchasing  power  of  the  in- 
come which  they  yield.  The  prostration  of  productive 
industry  lessens  the  demand  for  capital  for  productive 
purposes  and  increases  the  demand  for  those  securities 
whose  interest  is  certain  to  be  paid.  Wages  rise  with 
the  elevation  of  the  standard  of  life  in  the  different 
classes  of  the  population,  altho  the  full  satisfaction 
of  the  demand  thus  originated  is  made  impossible  by 
the  bad  industrial  position  of  employers.  The  social 
bitterness  proceeding  from  this  unsatisfied  demand  is 
mostly  a  result  of  the  pressure  with  which  a  bad  coin- 
age system  afflicts  the  entire  life  of  industry. 

RESULTING   EVILS. 

"  II.  The  advance  in  the  purchasing  power  of  gold, 
proved  in  our  judgment  beyond  refutation,  brought 
about  by  the  disuse  of  full  silver  money  and  the  adop- 
tion of  a  gold  standard,  has  demonstrably  produced  the 
following  industrial  evils-: 

"  i.  An  incessantly  heavier  and  heavier  burden  is 
falling  on  the  debtor  in  favor  of  the  creditor.  In  re- 
spect to  this  Archbishop  Walsh,  of  Dublin,  remarks  : 
1  A  great  part  of  the  capital  employed  in  the  business 
of  our  land  has  passed  into  the  hands  of  creditors  who 
have  neither  toiled  nor  spun,  but  hold  securities  and 
mortgages.  The  discouragement  caused  by  this  state 
of  things  is  very  deep.  After  it  has  continued  a  num- 
ber of  years  a  sense  of  hopelessness  masters  the  entire 
business  world  ;  all  desire  to  undertake  business  enter- 
prises is  paralyzed  ;  a  multitude  of  establishments  are 
closed  ;  the  laborer  is  forced  out  of  work  ;  and  laborers, 
as  well  as  the  whole  middle  class  of  the  population,  are 
made  to  feel  that  a  great  misfortune  has  come  over 
them.  The  result,  in  fact,  reaches  still  farther :  a 
crowd  of  people  who  were  once  well-to-do  in  business 
have  now  become  recipients  of  alms.' 


Bimetallism. 


162 


Bimetallism. 


"2.  This  injury  to  the  debtor  must  at  last  involve  the 
creditor,  since  the  debtor  is  becoming  unable  to  pay. 

"3.  A  set-back  to  German  agriculture  is  manifest, 
referable,  on  the  one  hand,  to  the  necessity  of  selling  a 
constantly  increasing  amount  of  depreciated  agricul- 
tural products  in  order  to  pay  wages,  interest,  rent, 
leases,  taxes ;  and,  on  the  other  hand,  to  the  increased 
power  of  competition  on  the  part  or  other  countries, 
silver  countries,  that  is,  and  countries  on  a  money  basis 
of  depreciated  paper.  In  proportion  as  their  silver  or 
paper  loses  in  power  to  buy  gold,  these  countries,  en- 
joying in  effect  a  nigh  export  premium,  are  able  to 
throw  their  native  products  upon  the  world's  markets 
at  prices  far  beneath  what  it  costs  German  farmers  to 
produce  them,  so  plunging  these  latter  in  deep  dis- 
tress. 

"4.  The  demonetization  of  silver  is  also  working  a 
more  and  more  visible  injury  to  German  manufactur- 
ing industry  : 

^(a)  On  account  of  the  ever-lessening  ability  of  the 
farmer  class  to  purchase  manufactured  products. 

"  (b)  On  account  of  the  decrease  in  exports  to  silver 
lands  and  of  the  consequent  recoil  upon  the  home 
market  of  the  articles  hitherto  exported  thither. 

"  (c)  On  account  of  the  competition  offered  by  the 
rapidly  developing  manufacturing  plants  of  silver 
lands,  favored  by  the  low  cost  of  production  there  and 
by  the  premium  upon  exportation  therefrom  produced 
by  the  fall  in  the  gold  price  of  silver. 

"  Unless  means  are  taken  to  prevent,  it  will  not  be 
long  before  the  manufactured  products  of  the  silver 
countries  will  find  the  German  market.  To  import  Ind- 
ian yarn  into  Germany  is  already  a  paying  operation. 

"5.  A  suppression  of  the  desire  to  engage  in  industry 
is  the  natural  result  of  falling  prices.  Instead  of  be- 
ing applied  to  undertakings  that  are  for  the  people's 
economic  advantage,  capital  seeks  investment  in  secu- 
rities considered  certain  to  pay  interest.  Lower  rates 
of  interest  result.  In  order  not  to  suffer  from  this,  un- 
certain foreign  securities  are  purchased,  occasioning 
heavy  losses  of  German  capital,  especially  bad  for 
small  investors. 

"6.  Capital  cannot  permanently  keep  clear  of  the  in- 
juries which  debtors  suffer,  nor  can  it  remain  unaffect- 
ed by  the  falling  off  of  production.  Obligations  made 
payable  in  gold  lead  to  the  bankruptcy  of  individuals, 
as  well  as  of  States  [Greece,  Portugal,  Argentina]. 

"  7.  Constantly  increasing  difficulty  besets  countries 
which  are  financially  involved  by  having  gold  debts  to 
pay.  Instead  of  being  able  to  reduce  their  finances  to 
order,  they  are  confronted  with  an  increasing  agio 
upon  gold,  and  also,  corresponding  to  this,  with  an  in- 
crease of  the  premium  upon  the  products  which  they 
export.  This  exportation,  moreover,  is  to  the  disad- 
vantage of  the  manufactures  and  the  agriculture  of  the 
lands  having  the  gold  standard. 

"8.  There  results  a  permanent  injury  and  exhaus- 
tion of  Germany's  silver-mining  industry,  which  can- 
not be  normally  carried  on  at  the  present  prices  of 
silver.  But  as  silver  mining  ceases  there  also  ceases 
in  great  part  the  production  of  copper,  lead,  zinc,  etc. 
In  this  way  many  millions  are  yearly  lost  to  the  income 
of  the  German  nation  ;  many  thousands  of  laborers  are 
deprived  of  bread  ;  entire  districts  of  Germany  are 
ruined. 

"9.  A  falling  off  amounting  to  billions  is  taking  place 
in  the  value  of  the  nation's  land  and  soil,  threatening 
particularly  the  agricultural  districts  of  the  eastern 
provinces ;  while  the  growth  taking  place  in  the  great 
cities  and  manufacturing  centers  is  going  on  in  an  un- 
healthy way.  Increasing  discontent  is  overpowering 
the  population,  showing  itself  in  the  progress  of  social- 
istic democracy  and  also  in  the  anti-Semitic  move- 
ment, which  E.  de  Laveleye  foretold  tas  a  result  of  in- 
troducing the  gold  standard. 

"  10.  The  depopulation  of  the  rural  sections  means  a 
•weakening  of  the  German  military  power.  In  case  of 
war,  our  financial  preparations  are  entirely  unsatis- 
factory. _  That  other  countries  are  quite  as  badly  off  as 
we  in  this  respect  affords  no  satisfaction. 

"  ii.  The  fall  in  the  gold  price  of  silver  severely  en- 
dangers our  monetary  circulation.  We  have  in  circu- 
lation nearly  1,000,000,000  marks  (face  value)  in  thalers, 
small  silver  pieces,  nickel  and  copper  money,  whose 
bullion  value  in  all  hardly  exceeds  400,000,000  marks. 
This  condition  gives  rise  to  a  double  danger — viz., 
that  our  monetary  system  may  break  down  at  critical 
times,  and  that  counterfeit  full  legal-tender  silver 
coins  may  be  circulated,  indistinguishable  from  those 
struck  at  the  public  mints,  a  process,  at  the  present  low 
gold  price  of  silver,  affording  counterfeiters  enormous 
profits.  It  is  known  that  vast  counterfeit  issues  are 
already  in  circulation  in  other  countries. 

"  12.  All   these  evils  lead  every  now  and  then  to 


crises,  which  disturb  business  by  raising  rates  of  dis- 
count, resorted  to  in  order  to  protect  gold,  which  all 
banks  anxiously  do,  for  the  most  part  withdrawing  it 
from  commerce  by  an  embargo. 

"  13.  Beyond  all  question  we  have  to  anticipate  a 
still  more  acute  development  of  these  evils.  All  the 
silver  countries  must  try  to  place  themselves  on  the 
gold  basis  if  Germany  and  the  rest  of  the  great  powers 
hold  fast  thereto.  Modern  commerce  cannot  perma- 
nently endure  a  difference  in  basal  moneys,  the  sepa- 
ration of  the  world  into  gold  countries  and  silver 
countries.  But  any  further  extension  of  the  gold  sys- 
tem must,  as  Goschen  predicted  so  early  as  1878,  lead 
to  a  business  crisis  such  as  the  world  has  never  yet 
passed  through. 

ADVANTAGES  FROM  REMONETIZATION  OF  SILVER. 

"  III.  Nothing  but  a  restitution  of  silver  to  its  former 
coequality  with  gold  as  a  monetary  metal  can  bring 
the  needed  relief. 

"  We  promise  ourselves  the  following  benign  results 
in  case  of  such  restitution  : 

"i.  The  persistent  fall  of  general  prices  would  cease, 
the  prices  of  all  products  would  again  be  determined 
in  a  normal  way,  and  agriculture  and  other  industries 
would  flourish  anew. 

"People's  fears  touching  money  depreciation,  infla- 
tion, and  injury  to  creditors,  supposing  silver  to  be  re- 
stored, rest  upon  exaggerations.  International  free 
coinage  would  at  most  leave  barely  enough  excess  of 
gold  and  silver  over  the  industrial  demand  to  keep 
pace  with  the  increase  of  business  and  population,  and 
with  the  constant  addition  of  new  countries  to  the 
civilized  portion  of  the  world.  The  precious  metal 

E  reduction  with  which  we  now  have  to  reckon  is,  in 
let,  proportionally  to  the  various  demands  which 
•would  be  made  upon  it  very  much  less  than  that  of  the 
fifties  and  the  sixties,  which  then  brought  rich  economic 
blessing  and  did  no  injury  whatever. 

"2.  When  prices  rise,  both  the  impulse  to  undertake 
industrial  enterprises  and  the  rate  of  interest  also  rise, 
working  an  advantage  to  capital  which  fully  makes 
good  any  possible  diminution  in  the  purchasing  power 
of  money.  Public  income  swells,  permitting  an  ad- 
vance in  the  salaries  of  officials.  A  flourishing  condi- 
tion of  general  industry  enhances  the  Qemand  for 
labor  and  betters  the  situation  of  the  laboring  classes. 

"  3.  Were  it  possible  to  make  specie  payments  In  silver 
as  well  as  in  gold,  it  would  be  easier  for  countries  with 
depreciated  paper  money  to  regulate  their  finances. 
Many  can  never  accomplish  this  in  any  other  way. 
Variations  in  paper  money  values  would  then  no 
longer  curse  commerce  ;  the  products  of  German  in- 
dustry •would  be  in  vast  amounts  exported  to  silver 
lands  (East  Asia,  Mexico,  South  America),  and  at  the 
same  time  the  ability  of  our  agricultural  population  to 
buy  goods  would  be  restored. 

"4.  A  period  of  general  advance  in  material  prosper- 
ity would  rob  of  all  significance  the  agrarian,  anti- 
Semitic,  and  Socialist-Democrat  movements  of  agita- 
tors, and  prevent  the  mutual  bitterness  of  our  political 
factions  from  becoming,  as  it  now  threatens  to  be- 
come, more  acute. 

"  5.  Instead  of  the  separate  measures  of  value  now 
actually  in  use  by  the  world's  commerce,  gold  alone  in 
some  countries  and  silver  alone  in  others,  there  would 
be  a  single  measure  of  value  for  all  mankind,  that  se- 
cured through  gold  and  silver  together,  by  rendering 
invariable  their  values  relatively  to  one  another.  That 
this  fixity  in  the  relative  values  of  gold  and  silver  can 
be  brought  about  is  proved  by  history,  for  it  actually 

Erevailed  from  1803  to  1873,  owing  to  the  mintage  of 
oth  metals  by  France.  That  it  is  possible  by  a  union 
between  the  chief  commercial  governments  to  establish 
a  practically  unchanging  relation  in  value  between 
silver  and  gold  was  unanimously  recognized,  after 
long  investigation,  by  the  English  gold  and  silver  com- 
mission of  1888. 

OBJECTIONS  CONSIDERED. 

"The  objections  against  the  above  opinions  of  ours 
seem  to  us  to  lack  sufficient  foundation. 

"  i.  If  it  be  said  that  the  restitution  of  silver  as  a  mon- 
etary metal  is  possible,  or  possible  in  accordance  with 
justice  to  creditors,  only  by  rating  silver  to  gold  at  its 
present  market  value  in  gold,  we  reply  that  the  mar- 
ket price  of  silver  to-day  is  abnormal,  resulting  from  a 
series  of  panics  evoked  by  legislation,  and  from  a 
limitation  in  the  demand  for  silver  having  no  other 
cause  than  the  artificial  one  of  closing  mints  to  this 
metal.  Besides,  it  cannot  be  admitted  that  the  creditor 


Bimetallism. 


Bimetallism. 


has  any  natural  right  permanently  to  receive  at  the 
debtor's  cost,  in  consequence  of  the  steady  rise  in  the 
purchase  power  of  gold,  a  value  continually  more  and 
more  in  excess  of  what  would  fall  to  him  were  there  no 
such  appreciation  of  gold. 

"2.  In  reply  to  the  objection,  resting  on  misunder- 
stood theories,  that  the  relation  in  value  between  two 
'wares,'  gold  and  silver,  cannot  be  'fixed'  by  stat- 
ute, we  appeal  to  actual  experiences  with  bimetallic 
mintage  in  France,  where,  between  1803  and  1873,  it 
maintained  for  the  whole  world  the  relation  of  15^  to 
i,  thus  persistently  continuing  the  relative  value  of 
gold  and  silver,  with  slight  variations  corresponding 
to  the  usual  movements  of  exchange,  in  spite  of  the 
greatest  fluctuations  in  their  relative  production  that 
have  ever  been  known. 

"We  appeal  further  to  the  unanimous  judgment  at 
which  the  English  Gold  and  Silver  Commission  of  1888 
arrived,  altho  half  its  members  were  opposed  to  bi- 
metallism. Here  is  what  the  Commission  says : 

"  '  We  think  that  in  any  conditions  fairly  to  be  contem- 
plated in  the  future,  so  far  as  we  can  forecast  them 
from  the  experience  of  the  past,  a  stable  ratio  might 
be  maintained  if  the  nations  we  nave  alluded  to  (Great 
Britain,  the  United  States,  Germany,  and  the  Latin 
Union)  were  to  accept  and  strictly  adhere  to  bimetal- 
lism at  the  suggested  ratio.  We  think  that  if  in  all 
these  countries  gold  and  silver  could  be  freely  coined, 
and  thus  become  exchangeable  against  commodities  at 
the  fixed  ratio,  the  market  value  of  silver  as  measured 
by  gold  would  conform  to  that  ratio  and  not  vary  to 
anv  material  extent. 

"  '  We  need  not  enter  upon  any  extended  explanation 
of  our  reasons  for  this  view,  since  such  reasons  can  be 
derived  from  what  we  have  set  forth  above,  and  since, 
in  our  opinion,  they  obviously  follow  both  from  theo- 
retical considerations  and  from  the  experience  of  the 
last  half  century. 

"  '  It  in  fact  appears  impossible  to  maintain  any  other 
view.' 

"3.  If  it  is  objected  that  the  restitution  of  silver 
would  occasion  for  Germany  a  crisis  whose  limits 
could  not  be  foreseen,  it  must  be  noticed  in  the  first 

Elace  that  we  do  not  believe  in  any  interposition  on 
ehalf  of  silver  save  on  the  basis  of  an  international 
agreement.  No  sort  of  distrust  can  be  occasioned  by 
bimetallism  when  it  is  introduced  simultaneously  in 
all  the  great  nations. 

"  Besides,  the  fear  of  a  '  flood '  of  silver  is  entirely 
groundless, 

"  (a)  Because  not  an  increase  but  a  decrease  in  silver 
production  is  now  in  prospect ; 

"(d)  Because  the  silver  in  the  silver  countries  (East 
Asia,  Mexico)  and  in  circulation  as  money  in  the  gold 
lands  has  not  yet  become  depreciated.  The  billions 
which  circulate  as  thalers,  marks,  francs,  shillings,  and 
guilders  still  hold  fast  their  old  value  ; 

"  (c)  Because  compared  with  the  tremendous  stocks  of 
precious  metal  in  the  world,  which,  including  wrought 
gold  and  silver,  are  valued  at  100,000,000,000  frs.  ($20,000- 
ooo.ooo),  the  yearly  production  is  insignificantly  small ; 
(of)  Because  the  severe  and  long-continued  crisis  has 
naturally  reduced  the  demands  of  business  on  the 
stock  of  gold  and  silver  coins,  and  in  a  perjod  of  flour- 
ishing industry  this  demand  will  greatly  rise. 

"  But  the  speedy  establishment  of  international  bi- 
metallism seems  to  us  necessary  more  particularly  in 
view  of  the  facts  concerning  the  production  of  the 
precious  metals. 

"  The  testimony  of  expert  geologists  has  strengthened 
us  in  our  conviction  that  gold  is  not  adapted  to  be 
alone  the  measure  of  value,  and  that  the  fears  of  a  too 
great  production  of  silver  are  utterly  unjustified. 

"Experts  have  unanimously  declared  : 

"  (a)  That  the  large  production  of  silver  in  Australia 
is  a  transitory  phenomenon,  whose  end  is  but  a  little 
way  in  the  future  : 

"  (f>)  That  silver  production  is  at  present  rapidly  fall- 
ing off  in  the  United  States,  not  only  in  consequence  of 
the  fall  in  gold  price,  but  as  well  because  the  bonanzas 
and  also  the  carbonate  ores  necessary  for  smelting  are 
becoming  exhausted  ; 

"  (c)  That  a  permanently  large  production  of  silver  is 
to  be  expected  only  in  Mexico  and  South  America, 
where,  because  these  countries  are  on  the  silver  basis, 
the  gold  price  of  silver  has,  in  our  belief,  no  effect  in 
checking  the  production  of  the  metal. 

"  As  against  the  view  prevalent  in  pur  country  that  the 
gold  price  of  silver  fell  because  of  increase  in  produc- 
tion, it  is  certain  that  this  fall  is  to  be  referred  entirely 
to  the  doings  of  legislators  ;  that  when  the  fall  began 
the  production  of  silver  was,  in  fact,  not  sufficient  to 
meet  the  demand  ;  and  that  the  American  silver  laws 
led  to  a  '  skinning'  of  the  silver  mines,  which  was  the 


main  cause  of  the  increase  in  production.  Let  normal 
conditions  return,  and  we  may  expect  a  stable  produc- 
tion of  silver,  corresponding  to  the  vast  demand,  tho 
hardly  sufficient  to  satisfy  it. 

"The  production  of  gold  has  greatly  increased  in  the 
last  few  years,  yet  not  in  away  to  equal  the  demand  so 
long  as  gold  alone  is  full  money.  Should  the  gold 
States  at  last  be  driven  to  go  on  and  lay  aside  their 
many  billions  of  silver  money,  continually  losing 
more  and  more  of  its  gold  value,  it  would  be  abso- 
lutely impossible  to  fill  the  gap  so  caused  in  their  cir- 
culation. 

"  But  the  production  of  gold  cannot  maintain  itself  at 
its  present  height.  The  more  strongly  and  intensively 
the  extraction  of  gold  is  pushed,  so  much  more  rapidly 
and  completely  will  the  mines  be  exhausted.  The  alle- 
gations of  Professor  Ed.  Suess  in  reference  to  the  pros- 
pective exhaustion  of  gold  mines  have  not  been 
proved  incorrect,  but  have  been  confirmed  ;  and  Suess, 
when  before  the  Commission,  only  strengthened  us  in 
his  views  when  he  declared  that  the  present  copious 
production  of  gold  is  bringing  the  world  essentially 
nearer  to  the  moment  assumed  by  him  when  (he  pro- 
duction of  gold  will  be  entirely  at  an  end. 

"  In  the  Transvaal,  according  to  microscopic  investi- 
gations, it  is  only  a  question  of  fossil  'soaps  '  (alluvial 
or  diluvial  gold).  The  wealth  of  gold  there,  therefore, 
does  not  refute  but  confirms  Suess'  doctrine  that  im- 
portant treasures  in  gold  are  to  be  found  only  in  newly 
opened  countries,  where  they  quickly  give  out. 

"  People  still  refer  to  the  possibility  of  further  '  sur- 
prises'  in  respect  to  gold  production.  This  possibility 
is  all  the  time  growing  less  and  less  with  men's  rest- 
lessly advancing  examination  of  the  earth's  surface. 

"The  gold  production  of  to-day,  inadequate  as  it  is, 
is  rapidly  using  up  the  world's  last  great  gold  reserves. 
To  build  the  world's  coinage  system  upon  a  produc- 
tion which  can  at  best  last  only  some  decades  is  as  im- 
possible as  a  coinage  system  based  upon  the  chance  of 
'  surprises.' 

"A  provident  statesmanship  cannot  discredit  silver 
and  let  it  lose  its  value,  when  all  human  foresight  is  to 
the  effect  that  the  metal  will  be  absolutely  indispen- 
sable in  the  future. 

"  The  present  moment,  witnessing  an  increase  in  gold 
production  which  may  be  the  last,  is  precisely  the  time 
to  carry  through  an  international  system  of  bimetal- 
lism, as  this  can  now  be  done  without  any  fear  that 
gold  will  leave  the  circulation  or  attain  an  agio. 
Those  who  prophesy  a  gold  agio  in  case  of  bimetallism 
overlook  the  fact  that  they  thereby  ascribe  to  gold  a 
scarcity  and  clearness  too  great  to  allow  of  gold  pos- 
sibly continuing  the  sole  standard. 

"  If,  now,  the  united  German  governments  recognize 
the  necessity  of  procedure  to  stop  the  depreciation  of 
silver,  it  comports  with  the  high  position  of  Germany 
as  a  nation  that  it  should  assume  the  initiative  toward 
international  negotiations,  exerting  its  influence  in  the 
council  of  the  nations  in  favor  of  silver,  whose  depreci- 
ation had  its  beginning  in  the  German  coinage  law  of 
1871.  Such  is  the  condition  of  affairs  that  Germany 
will  be  permitted  to  reckon  upon  the  cooperation  of  all 
powerful  States,  including  England. 

"  DR.  ARENDT, 

"  VON  KARDORFF-WABNITZ, 

"  LEUSCHNER, 

"  VON  SCHALSCHA, 

"  WULFING." 
ARGUMENTS   AGAINST   BIMETALLISM. 

These  come  from  two  main  sources  :  (i)  From 
those  who  believe  in  a  gold  monometallism,  and 
(2)  from  those  who  consider  both  monometallism 
and  bimetallism  to  be  faulty,  and  would  meet 
the  monetary  need  in  other  ways.  The  argu- 
ment brought  by  monometallists  against  bimet- 
allism will  be  found  at  length  under  the  division 
of  Monometallism  in  MONEY,  but  may  be  sum- 
marized here.  It  is  urged  that,  however  we 
legislate,  two  metals  cannot  be  a  standard  at 
the  same  time,  because  at  any  given  time,  ac- 
cording to  Gresham's  law  (see  MONEY),  the  poor- 
er metal  will  drive  the  better  metal  out.  If, 
then,  it  is  said  we  attempt  to  have  a  double 
standard,  it  really  means  to  choose  the  poorer 
standard  of  the  two,  and  thus  to  have  all  the 
evils  of  a  depreciated  and  depreciating  cur- 


Bimetallism. 


164 


Biology  and  Social  Reform. 


rency.  It  is  urged  that  the  fall  of  prices  has  not 
been  due  to  the  appreciation  of  gold,  as  bimetal- 
lists  assert,  but  to  the  cheapening  cost  of  pro- 
duction. Monometallists  point  to  the  danger  of 
there  being  such  an  increased  production  of  sil- 
ver as  to  threaten  great  depreciation  of  its  value  ; 
and  therefore,  if  accepted  as  a  standard,  the 
great  lessening  of  money  values,  involving  gen- 
eral financial  ruin.  The  only  way  to  prevent 
this,  they  urge,  is  to  maintain  gold  as  the  most 
fixed  and  universally  accepted  measure  of  value, 
and  then  to  use  various  forms  ,of  credit  to  do  the 
exchange  of  the  world  where  gold  is  not  suffi- 
cient, using  silver,  copper,  etc.,  only  for  sub- 
sidiary coin.  Already,  they  assert,  credit  per- 
forms 93  per  cent,  of  the  exchanges  of  the 
world.  (Bimetallists  deny  this,  and  say  that 
monometallists  consider  too  much  the  methods 
of  the  financiering  class.  They  say  that  the 
vast  millions  of  the  earth's  population  do  not  use 
forms  of  credit ;  that  retail  stores  use  it  little, 
farmers  still  less,  and  artisans  and  day  laborers 
scarcely  at  all.  For  these  credit  is  no  relief, 
since  they  have  no  credit.  Credit,  moreover, 
gives  out  when  it  is  most  needed,  and  throws 
the  world  back  on  an  insufficient  amount  of 
gold  just  when  gold  is  most  in  demand.) 

The  argument  against  bimetallism  by  those 
who  would  have  neither  bimetallism  nor  mono- 
metallism is  (i)  that  bimetallism  has  not  worked 
and  cannot  work  without  international  agree- 
ment, and  that  this  is  well  nigh  impossible  to 
get,  it  always  being  the  interest  of  the  capital- 
ists of  one  nation  to  adopt  a  gold  standard  if 
they  can  only  induce  some  other  nation  to  adopt 
a  silver  standard  ;  (2)  that  there  is  large  meas- 
ure of  truth  in  the  contention  of  the  monometal- 
lists that  there  cannot  be  two  standards  at  the 
same  time,  and  that  to  try  to  attempt  to  have 
two  standards  is  really  to  have  only  the  poorer 
of  the  two  ;  so  that  the  best  that  can  be  said  for 
bimetallism  is  that  it  is  an  evil  only  less  than 
that  of  an  insufficient  gold  standard  ;  (3)  that 
the  great  need  in  currency  is  of  a  fixed  standard, 
which,  to  remain  fixed  in  proportion  to  prices, 
must  be  elastic  in  volume,  which  is  possible 
neither  with  gold  nor  silver  ;  so  that  we  require 
some  better  system  than  either  monometallism 
or  bimetallism.  (For  a  discussion  of  proposed 
systems,  see  MONEY,  last  part.) 

On    continental    Europe,    the    most    distin- 
guished bimetallists  have  been  Henri  Cernuschi, 
A.  Wagner,  A.  Schaffle,  Baron  von 
,.          Kardoff,  Professor  E.  de  Laveleye. 
.Leading     Jn   England  till  recently  most  of 
Bimetallists.  the  economists    were    monometal- 
lists, but  there  has  come  a  change. 
Says    a    writer   in    the    Christian    Union    for 
September  2,  1893  : 

"  Newton,  Ricardo  and  Chevalier  were  in  favor  of 
silver  monometallism.  Mills,  Cairnes  and  Jevons  were 
in  favor  of  gold  monometallism.  What  was  true  of 
the  great  writers  was  also  true  of  the  rank  and  file  of 
university  professors.  In  the  early  seventies,  how- 
ever, when  the  production  of  gold  began  to  fall  off, 
and  one  new  nation  after  another  discarded  silver  and 
established  the  gold  standard,  prices  which  had  been 
nearly  uniform  for  20  years  began  steadily  to  fall. 
This  brought  anew  current  of  thought  into  the  scien- 
tific world.  There  are  still  scientific  monometallists,  but 
there  is  none  of  the  rank  of  the  men  we  have  named. 
The  revolution  of  opinion  has  been  quite  marked  in 
Germany,  where  Wagner  and  Schaffle,  the  two  econo- 
mists of  the  widest  fame,  are  both  bimetallists.  It 


has,  however,  been  most  marked  in  Great  Britain, 
where  Professor  Fox  well,  of  Cambridge,  in  a  letter 
written  in  1890  to  M.  de  Laveleye,  described  the  opin- 
ions of  his  colleagues  in  the  chairs  of  political  economy 
in  Great  Britain  as  follows  : 

"  '  University  of  Cambridge,  Professor  Alfred  Mar- 
shall, bimetallist ;  Professor  Sidgwick.  bimetallism 
Edinburgh,  Professor  Nicholson,  author  of  an  excellent 
book  on  the  subject,  Vice-President  of  the  Bimetallic 
League.  Oxford,  Thorold  Rodgers  (now  dead)  admits 
the  scarcity  of  gold,  but  rejects  bimetallism.  Univer- 
sity College  of 'London,  H.  S.  Foxwell,  Vice-President 
of  the  Bimetallic  League.  Nottingham,  Professor  I. 
E.  Symes,  bimetallist.  Liverpool,  Professor  E.  G. 
Gonner,  Vice-President  of  the  Bimetallic  League. 
Manchester,  Professor  J.  E.  Munro  admits  the  bi- 
metallic theory.  London,  Kings  College,  Professor 
Edgeworth  inclines  toward  bimetallism.'  " 

To  these  the  name  of  Hon.  G.  J.  Goschen 
should  be  added.  In  the  United  States  the  lead- 
ing bimetallists  have  been,  in  the  past,  Henry  C. 
Carey,  President  F.  A.  Walker,  Hon.  William 
D.  Kelley,  Hon.  John  P.  Jones,  John  B.  Howe, 
and  W.  F.  Balch. 

Of  the  present,  the  situation  is  so  involved 
that  it  is  hard  to  speak.  The  large  majority  of 
professorial  economists  in  this  country  are  bi- 
metallists in  theory,  but  believe  that  to  be  suc- 
cessful international  agreement  is  necessary  ; 
and  they  feel  that  this  is  at  present  almost  im- 
possible of  attainment.  The  position  of  such 
men  as  President  Andrews  is  given  above.  In 
the  confusion,  to  mention  names  and  attempt 
classification  without  long  explanations  would 
perhaps  mislead  more  than  it  would  help. 

In  May,  1895,  a  significant  bimetallic  confer- 
ence was  held  in  London,  but  for  all  this  recent 
history  see  SILVER. 

For  an  able  statement  of  the  monometallist 
view,  see  F.  W.  Taussig's  The  Silver  Situation 
in  the  United  States  ;  for  the  bimetallist  view, 
President  E.  B.  Andrews'  An  Honest  Dollar  ; 
for  the  position  of  the  free  silver  movement, 
see  W.  J.  Harvey's  Coin's  Financial  School 
(1894).  See  MONETARY  CONFERENCES  ;  GOLD  ; 
SILVER  MONEY  ;  CONTRACTION  AND  EXPANSION  OF 
CURRENCY  ;  CURRENCY. 

Revised  by  ELISIIA  B.  ANDREWS. 

References  :  The  literature  on  the  subject  is  very  ex- 
tensive, to  a  great  extent  in  articles  and  letters  in 
Eeriodicals.  The  arguments  on  the  subject  will  be 
jund  stated  in  Jevons,  Investigations  in  Currency  and 
Finance  (London,  1884),  Money  and  the  Mechanism  of 
Exchange  (1875) ;  Reports  of  Committee  of  House  of 
Commons  on  Depreciation  of  Silver  (1878)  ;  Report  of 
Commission  on  Trade  and  Industry  (1886),  and  Appen- 
dix B  to  third  Report,  by  R.  H.  Inghs  Palgrave  ;  Report 
of  Commission  on  Gold  and  Silver  (1887)  ;  S.  Dana  Hor- 
ton,  Silver  as  an  International  Question  (an  address  to 
Congress) ;  American  Reports  from  Consuls  of  the 
United  States  (No.  87,  December,  1887)  ;  Ernest  Seyd, 
Bimetallism  in  1886  (London,  1886)  ;  R.  Giffen,  Essays  in 
Finance  (1880,  and  other  dates)  ;  paper  on  Some  Bi- 
metallic Fallacies  (Journal  Institute  of  Bankers^  June, 
1886),  and  other  works ;  Professor  Emile  de  Laveleye, 
The  Economic  Crisis  and  its  Causes  (Contemporary 
Review,  May,  1886),  and  other  papers  ;  Samuel  Smith, 
The  Bimetallic  Question  (London,  1887) ;  Rt.  Hon.  G.  J. 
Goschen,  On  the  Profitable  Results  of  an  Increase  in 
the  Purchasing  Power  of  Gold :  Lawrence  J.  Laughhn, 
History  of  Bimetallism  in  the  United  States  (1885) ; 
F.  A.  Walker,  International  Bimetallism  (1896).  See 
also  reports  of  the  International  Monetary  Confer- 
ences ot  1878,  1881,  1889,  and  1892. 

BIOLOGY   AND    SOCIAL    REFORM.— 

The  connection  between  biology  and  social  re- 
form is  one  which  tends  to  be  brought  into 
greater  prominence  with  the  advance  of  knowl- 
edge. It  is  not  long  ago  since  the  whole  class 


Biology  and  Social  Reform. 


165 


Birmingham,  England. 


of  phenomena  which  human  society  presents 
was  regarded  apart  in  itself  and  as  having  little 
or  no  connection  with  those  to  be  observed  else- 
where in  the  history  of  life.  The  first  consistent 
attempt  on  an  extended  scale  to  connect  together 
through  the  principle  of  development  and  con- 
tinuity both  classes  of  phenomena  was  made  by 
Mr.  Herbert  Spencer.  Social  Statics,  which  in 
many  respects  may  be  regarded  as  the  starting- 
point  of  the  synthetic  philosophy,  dates  back  to 
1850.  One  of  the  leading  ideas  in  this  system 
of  philosophy — in  which  First  Principles,  Prin- 
ciples of  Biology,  Principles  of  Psychology, 
Principles  of  Sociology,  and  Principles  of 
Ethics  have  been  steps  in  an  ascending  series — 
has  been  to  trace  this  principle  of  development 
up  to  and  into  human  society.  Toward  the 
elucidation  of  the  laws  at  work  in  this  society, 
all  the  work  of  science  in  lower  fields  has  been 
regarded  as  preliminary.  It  was,  however,  with 
the  publication  of  Darwin's  Origin  of  Species 
in  November,  1859,  that  the  greatest  impetus 
was  given  to  the  study  of  human  society  from 
the  biological  standpoint.  The  full  effect  of  this 
impetus  is  not  yet  felt  in  many  departments  of 
knowledge  which  are  almost  certainly  destined 
to  be  eventually  profoundly  altered  by  it.  For 
many  years  after  the  publication  of  this  epoch- 
marking  book  the  effect  of  the  fructifying  ideas 
which  it  contained  was  necessarily  limited  to  a 
few  departments  of  knowledge.  Gradually, 
however,  the  circle  of  their  influence  has  ex- 
tended, until  one  after  another  of  lower  sciences, 
and  particularly  those  connected  with  life,  have 
been  reconstructed  arid  transformed.  The  prin- 
ciple of  the  continuity  of  development,  structural 
and  functional,  is  now  well  established  ;  but  in 
the  long  uphill  battle  which  has  had  to  be  fought 
before  the  ideas  connected  with  it  obtained  gen- 
eral acceptance,  it  has  necessarily 
happened  that  the  sciences  connect- 
Breadth  ed  with  man  in  society  have  been 
of  the  the  last  to  be  influenced.  But  that 
Subject,  they  are  now  beginning  to  feel  the 
effect  of  the  revolution  is  evident. 
What  we  are  coming  to  see  is  that 
in  human  society  we  have  only  the  last  and 
most  complex  chapter  in  the  history  of  life. 
The  historian,  the  political  philosopher,  the  econ- 
omist, and  the  student  of  ethical  phenomena  are 
all  dealing  with  just  the  same  problems,  altho 
in  different  form,  that  science  has  been  con- 
cerned with  at  earlier  stages,  and  even  to  a 
large  extent  throughout  the  history  of  life.  It 
is  in  the  proposed  solutions  to  problems  connect- 
ed with  the  distribution  of  wealth  that  we  have 
at  the  present  day  the  dividing  lines  which  sepa- 
rate most  of  the  various  political  parties  into 
which  our  modern  society  is  split  up.  It  is  with 
these  problems,  too,  that  the  economist  is  large- 
ly concerned.  Yet  such  problems  in  themselves 
constitute  only  an  aspect  of  the  highest  and 
most  complex  phase  of  that  struggle  and  rivalry 
of  existence  with  which  the  biologist  has  already 
dealt  on  a  lower  plane.  Some  of  the  older  econ- 
omists, indeed,  at  times  saw  this  more  or  less 
clearly.  "  Only  through  the  principle  of  com- 
petition has  political  economy  any  pretension  to 
the  character  of  a  science"  was  a  dictum  of  John 
Stuart  Mill.  The  point  at  which  the  social  sci- 
ences tend  to  be  most  significantly  influenced 


by  biology  may  be  indicated.  What  is  becom- 
ing more  clearly  recognized  is  that,  as  biology 
would  lead  us  to  expect,  the  conditions  affecting 
the  distribution  of  wealth,  which  the  evolution- 
ary forces  at  work  in  human  society  are  ever 
tending  to  develop,  are  not  necessarily  those  that 
parties  or  classes  desire  for  themselves,  but 
rather  those  which  are  continually  tending  to 
produce  the  highest  efficiency  of  the  whole  social 
organization.  The  old  utilitarian  ideal  of  the 
greatest  happiness  of  the  greatest  number  is 
not,  therefore,  always,  or  even  often,  the  same 
as  the  ideal  of  the  greatest  utility.  Thus  in  a 
sense  the  whole  of  the  problem  before  modern 
socialism  can  be  stated  in  biological  terms  :  Is 
it  a  movement  which  is  tending  to  produce  the 
highest  standard  of  social  efficiency,  or  is  it  one 
the  effect  of  which  will  be  to  produce  the  maxi- 
mum of  ease  and  comfort  to  the  largest  number 
of  individuals  ?  The  lesson  of  biological  science 
for  society  would  appear  to  be  that,  so  far  as  it 
produces  the  latter  to  the  exclusion  of  the  for- 
mer, to  that  extent  it  must  fail  of  ultimate  suc- 
cess (but  see  EVOLUTION).  BENJAMIN  KIDD. 

BIRMINGHAM,  ENGLAND.—"  The  best- 
governed  city  in  the  world' '  is  the  title  accorded 
to  Birmingham  by  Julian  Ralph,  writing  in 
Harper' s  Magazine.  Mr.  J.  T.  Bunce,  of  the 
Birmingham  Post,  is  quoted  as  saying,  in  his 
History  of  the  Corporation  of  Birmingham, 
that  the  rate-payers  are  "owners  of  a  magnifi- 
cent estate  and  partners  in  vast  and  lucrative 
industrial  undertakings,"  and  that  from  these 
undertakings,  "  secured  and  maintained  at  mod- 
erate cost,  they  derive  benefits  possible  only 
under  a  highly  organized  and  well-administered 
system  of  communal  effort,  the  truest  form  of 
cooperation,  a  real  socialism,  self-imposed,  self- 
governed,  conducted  with  the  assent  and  by  the 
efforts  of  a  united  community,  and  conducing 
to  the  equal  advantage  of  all  its  members. ' '  This 
condition  of  affairs  is  the  more  noteworthy  and 
the  more  deserving  of  the  special  study  of  stu- 
dents of  municipal  problems  from  the  fact  that  it 
has  been  developed  under  great  obstacles.  Down 
to  1873  Birmingham's  municipal  government 
had  the  name  of  being  one  of  the  worst  and  most 
inefficient  governments  in  England.  The  city 
was  dominated  by  the  rule  of  a  "  tavern  coterie. ' ' 

In  1873  came  a  change.    In  November  of  that  year 
Mr.  Joseph  Chamberlain  was  elected  mayor,  and  soon 
commenced  an  era  of  municipal  activity.    $10,000,000 
was  paid  for  the  plant  of  two  gas  com- 
panies, a  large  price,  yet  the  profits  the 
first  year  were  $170,000,  and  they  have  /joc  Ttrn-va 
since  then  nearly  doubled.    The  price,   uas 
too,   since  1875  has  been  reduced  from 
75    to    about    50    cents    per    1000   feet. 
Since  i88q  the  employees  have  had  the  eight-hour  day. 
In  1874  the  city  paid  $6,750,000  for  the  existing  water 
works  of  a  private  company,  and  since  then  the  works 
have  been  extended,  the  daily  supply  doubled,  and 
the  cost  to   consumers  much    reduced.      In   1875  Mr. 
Chamberlain  laid  before  the  council  an  Improvement 
Scheme,  which  has  since  been  adopted,  and  whereby  the 
city  took  go  acres  of  the  most  crowded  and  most  un- 
wholesome portions  of  the  city,  covered 
by  4000  houses,   condemned  the  whole 
district,  and  has  opened  in  its  place  the  Improvement 
finest  public  thoroughfare  of  the  city,       Scheme 
"Corporation    Street,"     lined    by    fine 
business  blocks.    These  buildings  have 
not  been  sold,  but  leased  for  75  years. 
The  gross  outlay  amounted  to  $8,000,000,  and  the  an- 
nual   cost    for    sinking    fund,    interest,   and    various 
charges  is  now  about  $^400,000,  and  the  rentals  $300,000, 


Birmingham,  England. 


166 


Birth  and  Death- Rates. 


Other 

Municipal 


"but  the  yearly  cost  is  lessening  and  the  rentals  are 
growing."  In  50  years  fiom  the  time  of  the  invest- 
ment the  debt  will  all  have  been  paid,  and  the  city 
will  own  these  structures  in  clear  title.  Mr.  Chamber- 
lain believes  that  Birmingham  will  be  the  richest 
municipal  corporation  in  the  kingdom.  The  invest- 
ment already  pays,  since  the  death-rate  of  this  district 
has  been  lowered,  from  60  to  20  or  25  per  1000.  The 
city  has  developed  a  fine  sewerage  system  and  a 
large  sewage  farm,  a  wholesome  and  agreeable  tract 
of  land  under  high  cultivation  and  with  rich  crops. 
The  average  death-rate  of  the  whole  city  has  been  re- 
duced from  26  per  1000.  in  1874,  to  19  per  1000,  in  1888. 
Birmingham  was  the  first  city  in  England  to  estab- 
lish municipal  baths  (q.v.).  The  first  was  opened  in 
1851,  at  a  cost  of  $120,000,  and  there  are  now  four,  be- 
sides swimming  baths,  Turkish  baths,  etc.  Bir- 
mingham in  1860  adopted  the  Libraries  Act,  and  now 
spends  $65,000  a  year  for  libraries,  art  museum  and 
gallery,  with  branch  libraries  in  all  parts  of  the  city, 
and  200,000  volumes.  The  city  is  well  supplied  with 
schools,  including  municipal  technical 
schools,  for  which  alone  over  $30,000  a 
3rear  are  spent.  Birmingham  has  laid 
and  owns  her  own  horse-car  tracks, 
within  the  city  limits,  but  leases  them  to 
Enterprises,  private  companies  on  favorable  terms. 
The  companies  pay  4  per  cent,  on  the 
municipal  in  vestment  the  first  14  years  of 
the  lease,  and  5  per  cent,  for  the  remaining  seven.  It 
is  calculated  that  in  21  years  this  will  pay  for  the 
whole  investment.  As  the  city  can  borrow  at  3  per 
cent.,  it  is  a  profitable  investment.  The  companies 
have  to  pay  all  bills  for  maintenance  and  repairs,  and 
are  minutely  supervised  as  to  the  furnishing  and  light- 
ing of  the  cars.  The  city  owns  her  own  markets,  hav- 
ing bought  them  of  the  manorial  lord  in  1824,  and  they 
now  yield  her  some  $50,000  a  year  profits.  The  city 
owns  more  than  ten  parks,  covering  350  acres,  for  its 
population  of  500,000.  Its  debt,  which  before  Mr.  Cham- 
berlain became  mayor  was  $2,500,000,  is  now  $45,000,000, 
but  it  is  paying  itself  off,  and  the  rates  are  almost  ex- 
actly what  they  were  in  1873.  Accord- 
ing to  Mr.  Chamberlain  (Forum,  Novem- 
Governmpnt  ber'  l892)>  Birmingham  spends  annually, 
'*•  apart  from  appropriations  for  schools 
and  almshouses,  only  about  $1,665,000, 
while  Boston,  with  about  the  same  popu- 
lation, spends  $10,194,000,  and  he  adds  that  the  suffrage 
is  more  universal  in  Birmingham  than  in  Boston.  The 
municipal  government  is  conducted  by  54  councilors 
and  18  aldermen.  The  councilors  are  elected  once  for 
three  years,  one  third  going  out  of  office  each  year. 
The  aldermen  are  elected  by  the  council  for  six  years. 
The  mayor  is  elected  annually  by  the  council. 

References :  Municipal  Government  in  Great  Brit- 
ain, Toy  Albert  Shaw  (1895);  The  Best-Governed  City 
in  the  World,  by  Julian  Ralph  (Harper's  Monthly, 
81,  99). 


BIRNEY,  JAMES  G.  (1792-1857),  was  born, 
in  Danville,  Ky.  Originally  a  slave-holder,  and 
at  one  time  agent  for  a  colonization  society,  in 
1834  he  freed  his  slaves  and  established  an  abo- 
lition newspaper.  Fear  of  violence  compelled 
him  to  leave  Danville,  and  subsequently  Cin- 
cinnati, whither  he  had  moved.  He  came  to 
New  York,  where  he  was  Secretary  of  the  Ameri- 
can An ti- Slavery  Society.  In  1840  and  1844  he 
was  the  candidate  of  the  Liberty  Party  for  Presi- 
dent. In  1842  he  moved  to  Michigan,  and  a  fall 
from  his  horse  disabled  him  from  further  politi- 
cal activity. 

BIRTH  AND  DEATH-RATES  OF 
POPULATIONS,  THE.— The  two  chief 
events  of  human  life,  birth  and  death,  are,  in 
nearly  every  civilized  country,  matters  of  care- 
ful record  ;  and  the  different  recorded  facts 
connected  with  these  events,  such  as  sex,  age, 
parentage,  season  of  the  year,  and  occupation, 
constitute  a  large  portion  of  that  branch  of  sci- 
ence known  as  vital  statistics.  We  have  said 
"  nearly  every  civilized  country,"  since,  unfor- 
tunately, in  the  United  States  as  a  whole,  vital 
statistics  cannot  be  said  to  exist.  At  present 
scarcely  a  half-dozen  States  have  anything  which 
can  be  called  a  system  of  registration  of  vital 
statistics  thoroughly  enforced.  The  countries  of 
Europe,  however,  following  the  example  of  Eng- 
land, where  registration  dates  from  1838,  have 
mostly  adopted  systems  varying  somewhat  in 
their  thoroughness  and  efficiency.  The  first 
American  State  to  adopt  a  system  was  Massa- 
chusetts, and  afterward  came  Rhode  Island, 
Connecticut,  Vermont,  and  New  Hampshire. 
A  few  other  States  have  registration  laws  par- 
tially enforced. 

The  birth  and  death-rates  of  any  nation  or 
community  are  usually  expressed  as  a  ratio  per 
looo  of  the  living  population.  The  following 
statistics  are  presented  to  show  the  birth  and 
death-rates  of  the  principal  European  countries 
for  a  series  of  years,  together  with  those  of  Mas- 
sachusetts, Rhode  Island,  and  New  Hampshire  : 


BIRTH  AND  DEATH-RATES  OF  PRINCIPAL  FOREIGN  COUNTRIES  HAVING  REGISTRATION  WITH  THOSE  OF  THREE 
NEW  ENGLAND  STATES,  1871-91,  AND  POPULATIONS  AT  LAST  CENSUS. 


YEAR. 

England 
and 
Wales. 
Pop.  1891, 
29,081,047. 

Scotland. 
Pop.  1891, 
4,033,180. 

Ireland. 
Pop.  1891, 
4,681,248. 

Prussia. 
Pop.  1890, 
29,818,878. 

France. 
Pop.  1886, 
38,218,903. 

Italy. 
Pop.  1891,* 
3°i347.29i- 

Austria, 
Pop.  1890, 
231895,413. 

Average  of  20  years, 

Birth 
rate. 

Death 
rate. 

Birth 
rate. 

Death 
rate. 

Birth 
rate. 

Death 
rate. 

Birth 
rate. 

Death 
rate. 

Birth 
rate. 

Death 
rate. 

Birth 
rate. 

Death 
rate. 

Birth 
rate. 

Death 
rate. 

34-o 

36.0 
35-6 
34-7 
34-2 
33-9 
33-8 
33-5 
33-6 
32-9 
32.8 
3i-9 
31.2 

31-1 
30.2 
3'-4 

20.3 
20.3 

21.6 

20.7 
20.5 
18.9 
19.6 
19.6 
19.7 
19.2 
19.5 
19.1 
18.1 
18.2 

19-5 

20.2 

33-6 

35-3 
34-9 
34-3 
33-6 
33-7 
33-4 
32-7 
33-7 
32-7 
32-9 
31.8 

3i-3 
3°-9 
30.2 
31.2 

20.4 

20.6 
21.2 

20.  o 
20.5 

19-3 
19.4 

20.2 
19.6 
19.3 
18.9 
I9.O 

18.0 
18.4 
19.7 
20.7 

24.9 

26.2 
25.1 
25.2 
24.7 
24-5 
24.4 
23-5 
23-9 
23-S 
23.2 
23-1 

22.8 
22.7 
22-3 
23.1 

18.0 

I7-S 
18.6 
19.6 
19.8 
'7-5 
17-3 
19.2 
17-5 
18.4 
17.8 
18.2 
17.9 
17.4 

18.2 

18.4 

38.2 

39-9 
38-7 
39-o 
37-8 
37-o 
37-6 

37-' 
37-6 
37-8 
37-7 
37-6 
37-4 
37-i 
36.6 
37-7 

25.6 

25.6 
25.8 
24.7 
25-5 
24.9 
25-4 
25.6 

25-7 
25-4 
26.1 
23.8 

22.8 

23.2 
24.1 
22.9 

24.6 

25-5 
25.2 
25.0 
24-5 
24.9 
24.8 
24.8 
24.8 
24.2 
23-9 
23-5 
23.1 
23.0 

21.8 
22.6 

22.8 

21.6 
22.6 

22.5 

22.8 
22.  0 
22.2 
22.2 
22.2 
21-9 
22.5 
22.  0 
21.8 
20-5 
22.6 
22.6 

37-3 

37-o 
36.2 
37-8 
33-9 
38.0 
37-o 
37-2 
39-o 
38.5 
37.0 

39-o 
37-6 
38.4 
35-9 
37-3 

28.6 

28.3 
29.1 
29.8 
30.8 
27.6 
27-5 
27-5 
26.9 
27.0 
28.7 
28.0 
27.6 
25.6 
26.4 
26.2 

38.6 

38-7 
38.6 
39-2 
38.0 
37-7 
39-1 
38-2 
38-4 
37-4 
38.0 
38.2 
37-9 
37-9 
36-7 
38-1 

30.6 

31.6 
31.6 
29.9 
29.8 
30.6 
30.8 
30.1 
29.4 
30.1 
29.4 
28.8 
29.2 
27.3 
29.4 
27.9 

877  .. 

878  

870  .  .  . 

880  

881  

882  

883  

884...    .             

885     .           

886  

887  

888  

880 

890  

891  

*  Estimated. 


Birth  and  Death-Rates. 


167 


Birth  and  Death-Rates. 


YEAR. 

Massachusetts. 
Pop.  1890,  2,238,943. 

Rhode  Island. 
Pop.  1890,  345>5°6- 

New  Hampshire. 
Pop.  1890,  376,530. 

Birth-rate. 

Death-rate 

Birth-rate. 

Death-rate 

Birth-rate. 

Death-rate 

25-7 

26.6 
28.2 
28.3 
28.3 
26.6 
25.1 
24.6 
23.8 
22.9 
24-8 
24.9 
24.7 
25.2 
2S-5 
25-1 
25.4 
25-9 
25-9 
26.2 
25.8 
27-3 

19.7 
18.7 

22.8 
21.6 

19.8 

21.2 
19.8 
18.4 

18.1 
18.1 
19.8 

20.1 
19.9 
20.1 

19.4 
19.6 

18.6 
19.8 
19.9 
19.2 
19.4 
19.6 

24.2 
25-5 
24.0 
24.9 
24-3 
23-3 

22.6 
24.0 
22-5 
22.8 
24.0 
23.8 
24.1 
23.6 
22.2 

24-S 
24.2 

24-3 
23.4 

23-9 

14.9 
18.2 
18.3 
17.0 
16.7 
iS-7 
16.8 
16.3 
16.4 
^•S 
17.8 
17.7 
18.0 
17.2 
17.7 
18.8 
19.9 
20.4 
18.6 

20.1 

17.4 
iy-5 
19.2 
19.9 
17.4 
18.3 

*7-3 
17.1 
17.6 
17.6 
18.5 
17.9 
19.6 
19.2 

1871  

1872....            

1875.  .. 

1874  

jg76....                

1877 

x878  

1879  

1880....                    ..             ... 

1881  

1882  

1883  

1884                       .... 

1885  .     . 

1886  

1887  

1888  

1889  •  •  •  • 

1890  

1891  

The  foregoing  table  shows  that  the  birth-rates 
and  death-rates  of  different  countries  present 
considerable  variations  when  compared  with 
each  other,  and  those  of  each  country  differ 
considerably  from  year  to  year. 

The  effect  of  the  Franco  Prussian  War  mani- 
fests itself  in  the  low  birth-rate  of  Prussia  in 
1871,  as  well  as  in  the  low  birth-rate  and  high 
death-rate  of  France  in  the  same  year. 

The  effect  of  cholera  upon  the  death-rate  of 
Austria  is  also  shown  in  the  very  high  death- 
rate  of  that  country  in  1873. 

The  difference  between  the  birth-rate  and  the 
death-rate  constitutes  the  natural  increase  or 
decrease  of  any  population.  In  most  of  the 
countries  shown  in  the  table  the  increase 
amounts  to  from  five  to  15  per  1000  of  the  living 
population  annually. 

A  large  excess  of  the  birth-rate  over  the  death- 
rate,  such  as  exists  in  England  and  in  Germany, 
constitutes  an  undoubted  element  of  national 
strength.  In  France  the  excess  of  births  over 
deaths  is  very  small,  and  has  been  constantly 
diminishing  for  several  years,  until  in  1890  there 
was  an  actual  excess  of  deaths  over  births.  This 
condition  is  viewed  with  alarm  by  intelligent 
French  writers,  and  is  termed  by  M.  Cheysson 
a  "national  peril."  He  states  as  among  the 
causes  of  the  low  birth-rate  of  France,  "  the 
growth  of  large  towns,  debauchery,  overcrowd- 
ing in  manufacturing  centers,  the  French  law 
of  inheritance,  and  the  '  moral  restraint '  of 
Malthus,  practised  not  by  the  poorer  class,  who 
are  prolific,  but  by  the  well-to-do  classes,  who 
are  systematically  sterile." 

The  excess  of  the  birth-rate  over  the  death- 
rate  in  the  New  England  States  having  registra- 
tion is  neither  so  high  as  that  of  England  nor  so 
low  as  that  of  France. 

The  actual  increase  of  the  population  is  gov- 
erned not  only  by  the  difference  between  the 
birth  and  death-rates,  but  also  by  the  balance 
between  the  two  factors  of  immigration  and  emi- 
gration. In  Ireland,  for  the  past  40  years  or 


more,  while  the  birth-rate  has  constantly  exceed- 
ed the  death-rate,  the  loss  by  emigration  has 
been  so  great  as  to  far  outweigh  the  natural  in- 
crease of  the  population. 

War,  famine,  epidemics,  overcrowding  in 
cities,  and  bad  sanitary  conditions  generally  in- 
crease the  death-rate.  For  many  years  the 
price  of  wheat  has  been  quoted  annually  in  the 
British  Registration  Reports,  where  it  was 
shown  by  Dr.  Fan  that  scarcity  and  high  prices 
were  not  only  coincident  with  a  diminished  mar- 
riage-rate, but  also  with  an  increased  death-rate. 
In  Massachusetts,  during  the  years  of  war 
(1861-65),  the  natural  increase  of  the  population 
by  excess  of  births  over  deaths  fell  to  an  annual 
average  of  3.5  per  1000,  and  for  the  year  1864  it 
was  only  1.3  per  1000.  In  the  five  years  previous 
to  the  war  an  average  excess  of  11.5  per  icoo 
prevailed. 

Sex. — In  all  countries  having  registration,  the 
number  of  male  births  is  uniformly  greater 
than  that  of  female  births.  The  following  table 
presents  the  ratio  of  male  to  female  births  in 
the  several  countries  and  States  : 


COUNTRIES. 


England  and  Wales,  10  years,  1870^79. 

Ireland, 

Scotland, 

Belgium, 

Holland, 

German  Empire, 

Switzerland, 

France, 

Austria, 

Italy, 

Massachusetts,  40  years,  1853-92. 


DEATH-RATES. 


Males  Born  to 
every  1,000  Fe- 
males Born. 

i»°39 
1,056 
i.°57 
1,059 
1,061 
1,062 
1,063 
1,064 
1,068 
1,071 
1,056 


The  death-rates  of  countries  and  of  cities  are 
influenced  by  a  variety  of  conditions,  such  as 
sex,  age,  climate,  occupation,  and  other  minor 
causes. 


Birth  and  Death- Rates. 


168 


Birth  and  Death-Rates. 


Since  the  death-rate  of  females  is  generally 
less  than  that  of  males,  those  countries  in  which 
the  females  are  largely  in  excess  of  the  males 
would,  other  things  being  equal,  have  a  lower 
death-rate  than  countries  in  which  the  sexes 
are  equal  in  numbers. 

The  proportion  of  males  to  females  in  Eng- 
land, as  well  as  generally  throughout  North- 
western Europe,  is  about  95  males  to  100  females. 
In  Central  Europe,  including  Germany,  France, 
and  Austria,  it  is  about  97  males  to  100  fe- 
males. 

In  Southern  Europe  the  sexes  are  more  nearly 
equal  in  distribution,  or  in  the  ratio  of  99.2 
males  to  100  females,  while  in  Greece  there  is  a 
decided  excess  of  males  in  the  ratio  of  113  to  100 
females. 

In  the  United  States  the  males  are  slightly 
in  excess,  but  in  the  New  England  States 
the  females  are  in  excess,  in  the  ratio  of  94 
males  to  100  females.  The  average  death- 
rate  of  Europe,  excluding  Russia,  for  19  years 
(1865-83)  was  25.8  per  1000,  while  that  of  Russia 
was,  for  the  same  period,  35.7.  Some  allowance 
must  undoubtedly  be  made  for  differences  in  the 
degree  of  accuracy  of  registration  in  different 
countries.  But  the  average  figures  at  the  head 
of  the  columns  in  the  table  on  a  preceding  page 
may  be  taken  as  fairly  accurate. 

DEATH-RATES  OF  SEXES  PER  1,000. 


ages  or  periods  of  life  is  shown  in  the  following 
table  : 

DEATH-RATES  PER  1,000  OF  THE  LIVING  POPULATION 
AT  EACH  AGE  AND  BY  SEXES. 


Deaths 

of  Males 

to  1,000 

Fe- 

Females, 

COUNTRIES. 

Years. 

Males. 

males. 

in  Equal 

Num- 

bers Liv- 

ing. 

England  

838-91... 

801 

22.6 

20.5 

128 

Prussia  

60  years  . 

J 

Berlin  

889  

it 

890  

Scotland  

ggi  

892  

18.1 

Belgium  

SB?  

,8  -L 

Italy  

887  

Massachusetts  

census 

„ 

years.. 

8gO  

20,5 

19.2 
18.9 

067 

New  Hampshire.  .  . 

890  

19.8 

19.1 

037 

Rhode  Island.  ...... 

890  

20.8 

078 

Connecticut  

890  

18.8 

17.6 

Vermont  

888  

988 

Ages. — Age  has  a  greater  effect  upon  the 
death-rate  than  any  other  condition.  In  a  popu- 
lation or  community  composed  entirely  of  little 
children  under  five  years  of  age,  or  of  old  peo- 
ple above  the  age  of  70,  the  death-rate  will  be 
very  high  ;  while  another  community,  com- 
posed entirely  of  young  and  vigorous  persons 
between  the  ages  of  10  and  20,  as,  for  example, 
a  large  school  or  college,  will  have  a  death-rate 
considerably  below  that  of  the  population  at 
large.  The  vitality,  or,  in  technical  terms,  the 
specific  intensity  of  life,  is  greatest  in  such  a 
community  or  population. 

The  actual  death-rate  for  each  sex  at  different 


AGES. 

ENGLAND, 
1871-80. 

MASSACHUSETTS, 
Six  CENSUS 
YEARS,  1860-85. 

Males. 

Fe- 
males. 

Males. 

Fe- 
males. 

Under  5     .  ,  

68.14 
5.67 
3-69 
5-23 
7-32 

58.10 
6.  20 
3-7° 
5-43 
6.78 

70.97 
8.16 
3-86 
6.64 

9-97 
10.59 
i2'.86 
19.24 
36'-83 
79.69 
184.63 

61.81 

8.20 

4-51 

8.ii 
10.39 

II.  12 
12.19 
I7-I5 

3<M* 

67.80 
i69'.6o 

20-25  

25-35  

9-3° 

8.58 

35-45  

13-74 

11.58 

45-55  

20.05 

15-59 

55-65  

34-76 

28.54 

69-57 

60.82 

Over  75  

169.68 

I55-83 

Over  80  

The  general  death-rate  of  the  United  States 
cannot  be  stated  with  accuracy,  since  no  at- 
tempts have  been  made  to  secure  registration  of 
deaths  for  the  whole  country  except  in  the  cen- 
sus years,  and  the  returns  of  these  years  are 
deficient.  Dr.  Billings  estimates  the  death-rate 
of  the  census  year  for  which  deaths  were  regis- 
tered (June,  i879-May,  1880,  inclusive)  as  18  per 
looo.  (For  1890,  see  DEATH-RATE.) 

Illegitimacy. — Illegitimacy  has  a  decided 
effect  upon  infant  life.  The  investigations  made 
by  a  parliamentary  commission  in  1871,  relative 
to  the  mortality  of  such  children,  showed  that 
out  of  the  illegitimate  children  born  in  England, 
averaging  from  60  to  70  per  1000  of  all  births, 
scarcely  10  per  cent,  lived  to  become  adults. 
The  causes  of  this  excessive  mortality  were  arti- 
ficial nursing,  neglect,  poverty,  ignorance,  and 
indifference  of  the  mothers. 

Illegitimate  births  may  be  stated  as  a  ratio  of 
the  general  population,  or  as  a  ratio  of  the  total 
births,  or  they  may  be  compared  with  the  num- 
ber of  unmarried  women  living  at  child-bearing 
ages,  the  latter  being  the  most  accurate  method. 
The  common  method  is  the  comparison  with  the 
total  births. 

The  illegitimate  birth-rate  presents  very  great 
differences  in  different  countries.  The  follow- 
ing are  the  illegitimate  birth-rates  for  certain 
countries  of  Europe  for  the  19  years  (1865-83) : 

COUNTRIES  HAVING  VERY  HIGH  ILLEGITIMATE  BIRTH- 
RATES. 

Number  of  Illegiti- 

COUNTRIES.  mate  Children  in  each 

1,000  Births, 


Bavaria , 

Austria 

Saxony 

Wtirtemberg. 
Thuringia 


Average. 


152 
'34 
132 
104 

101 


Birth  and  Death-Rates. 


169 


Birth  and  Death- Rates. 


COUNTRIES  HAVING  Low  ILLEGITIMATE  BIRTH-RATES. 


COUNTRIES. 
Holland  

Illegitimate  Chil- 
dren in  each  1,000 
Births. 

Russia  

Ireland  

26 

Servia.  .  . 

6 

Average 


In  a  valuable  statistical  paper,  Sir  R.  W. 
Rawson  states  that  the  illegitimate  birth- 
rate is  in  excess  where  the  proportion  of  males 
is  lowest,  and  also  coincides  with  a  large  pro- 
portion of  late  marriages  of  females.  He  adds, 
further,  that  compulsory  military  service  and 
large  standing  armies  probably  increase  the 
ratio  of  illegitimate  births. 

There  is  a  wide  difference  in  the  illegitimacy 
of  Scotland,  England,  and  Ireland.  The  pro- 
portion of  illegitimate  births  in  each  for  the 
period  in  question  being  as  follows  :  England, 
53  per  1000  ;  Scotland,  92  per  1000  ;  Ireland,  26 
per  looo. 

That  illegitimacy  is  diminishing  in  England 
is  shown  by  the  fact  that  the  illegitimate  birth- 
rate for  the  decade  1841-50  was  67  per  1000  ;  for 
the  next  four  decades,  up  to  1890,  it  was  succes- 
sively 65,  61,  50,  and  47  per  1000,  and  had  still 
further  dropped  to  42  in  1891. 

The  illegitimate  births  in  the  Australian  colo- 
nies were  in  earlier  years  less  in  proportion  to 
the  total  births  than  in  England,  but  have  grad- 
ually increased,  till  in  some  of  the  colonies  they 
are  a  little  higher. 

The  following  are  the  ratios  in  the  principal 
colonies  for  a  period  of  18  years,  ending  with 
1889,  and  for  the  single  year  1890  : 

1872-89.  1890. 

Victoria 42.5 49.8  per  1,000  births. 

New  South  Wales  ....     43.9 53.3    "        "        " 

Queensland 38.1   46.8     "        "        " 

New  Zealand    25.2 33.2    "        "        " 

Illegitimacy,  as  might  be  expected,  appears  to 
be  much  more  prevalent  in  urban  than  it  is  in 
rural  populations.  The  following  table,  pub- 
lished by  the  Statistical  Department  of  the 
Argentine  Republic  in  1886,  presents  the  num- 
ber of  illegitimate  births  in  some  of  the  largest 
foreign  cities, 

ILLEGITIMATE    BIRTHS    TO    EVERY    1,000   CHILDREN 
BORN. 

Vienna : 449    Berlin 154 

Prague 439    Hamburg  138 

Munich 439    Frankfort 132 

Stockholm 396    Antwerp 129 

Buda  Pesth 299    Cologne 124 

Copenhagen 279    Naples 89 

Paris 268    Rotterdam 76 

St.  Petersburg 236    Buenos  Ayres 74 

Milan 204    Melbourne 69 

Rome 194    London 39 

Venice 189 

In  the  New  England  States,  the  illegitimate 
birth-rate  is  quite  low  in  comparison  with  that 
of  most  foreign  countries  having  registration. 
For  the  19  years  ending  with  1883,  it  was  as  fol- 
lows in  the  four  States  mentioned  : 

ILLEGITIMATE  BIRTHS  PER  1,000  LIVING  BIRTHS. 

Massachusetts 14 

Vermont 9 

Connectictit n 

Rhode  Island .     8 


The  ratio  in  Massachusetts  has  been  variable, 
as  is  shown  by  the  following  :  For  the  decade 
ending  with  1880,  the  average  was  14.4  illegiti- 
mates per  1000  births  ;  1890,  19.4  per  1000  births. 

For  the  past  six  years,  however,  there  has 
been  a  decrease,  the  statistics  being  as  follows  : 

ILLEGITIMATE  BIRTH-RATE  OF  MASSACHUSETTS,^?^. 


.21.8 

•  19.3 
.18.3 

.20.9 
.17.1 
.15.0 


The  above  article  was  prepared  for  this  en- 
cyclopedia by  Dr.  Samuel  W.  Abbott,  of  the 
State  Board  of  Health  of  Massachusetts. 

(Concerning  the  significance  of  a  decreasing 
birth-rate,  we  abridge  an  article  by  J.  L.  Brow- 
nell  in  the  Annals  of  the  American  Academy 
of  Political  and  Social  Science,  July,  1894.)  The 
fact  of  a  decreasing  birth-rate  has  been  vari- 
ously interpreted  by  various  authors.  The  Mal- 
thusian  theory  is  well  known. 

It  affirms  that  population  has  the  "constant  tendency 
to  increase  beyond  the  means  of  subsistence,"  *  that 
"  population,  when  unchecked,  goes  on  doubling  itself 
every  25  years,  or  increases  in  a  geometrical  ratio,"  t 
and  that,  "considering  the  present  state  of  the  earth, 
the  means   of    subsistence,   under   cir- 
cumstances the  most  favorable  to  hu- 
man  industry,    could   not   possibly  be  Wgiti,    -s 
made    to    increase    faster  than    in    an  ala"nusian- 
arithmetical  ratio;"  therefore  "the  in-  ism. 

crease  of  the  human  species  can  only  be 
kept  down  to  the  level  of  the  means  of 
subsistence  by  the  constant  operation  of  the  strong- 
law  of  necessity,  acting  as  a  check  upon  the  greater 
power,"  \  that  is,  the  power  of  population.  The  pos- 
sible checks  upon  this  rapid  increase  of  population  are 
the  preventive  check,  peculiar  to  man  because  of  his 
superior  reasoning  powers  and  his  will,  and  the  positive 
check,  to  which  plants  and  animals  are  also  subject. 
The  preventive  check  most  strongly  approved  by  Mal- 
thus  is  moral  restraint,  which  he  defines  as  "a  restraint 
from  marriage  from  prudential  motives,  with  a  con- 
duct strictly  moral  during  the  period  of  this  rer 
straint,"§  or  as  "the  restraint  from  marriage  which  is 
not  followed  by  irregular  gratifications."  ||  He  con- 
siders it  "  the  least  evil  that  can  arise  from  the  prin- 
ciple of  population."^  All  other  preventive  checks 
clearly  come  under  the  head  of  vice. 

The  positive  checks  he  divides  into  two  classes : 
Misery,  which  includes  "  those  which  appear  to  arise 
unavoidably  from  the  laws  of  nature,1'**  and  vice, 
which  includes  "those  which  we  obviously  bring  upon 
ourselves,  such  as  wars,  excesses,  and  many  others 
which  it  would  be  in  our  power  to  avoid."  "  They  are 
brought  upon  us  by  vice,  and  their  consequences  are 
misery."tt 

This  view  was  much  attacked  even  in  Malthus'  day, 
especially  by  GodwinJi  (q.  v.).    Nevertheless,  it  became 
almost  universally  adopted.    The  question,  however, 
assumed  a  new  form  in  the  writings  of 
Mr.   Herbert  Spencer.    In  an  essay  on 
the  Theory  of  Population  Deduced  from       ir/»^VnW- 
the   General    Law   of  Animal    Fertil- 
ity published  in  the    Westminster  Re-      Spencer. 
view  in  1852,  he  first  stated  his  ideas  on 
population,  which  were  afterward  more 
fully  developed    in    his    Principles   of  Biology.    Mr. 
Spencer  treats  the  Malthusian  theory  from  a  strictly 
biological  and  evolutionary  point  of  view.     He  agrees 
with  Malthus  that  population  constantly  tends  to  in- 
crease beyond  the  means  of  subsistence,  but  adds  that 
this  very  fact  is  the  cause  of  the  progress  of  the  human 
race.    It  stimulates  man  to  greater  effort,  "causes  a 
never-ceasing  requirement  for  skill,  intelligence,  and 


Birth  and  Death-Rates. 


170 


Birth  and  Death- Rates. 


self-control ;  involves  therefore  a  constant  exercise  of 
these  and  gradual  growth  of  them."*  "  Excess  of  fer- 
tility, through  the  changes  it  is  ever  working  in  man's 
environment,  is  itself  the  cause  of  man's  further  evolu- 
tion ;  and  the  obvious  corollary  here  to  be  drawn  is 
that  man's  further  evolution  so  brought  about,  itself 
necessitates  a  decline  in  his  fertility. "t  The  latter 
clause  is  Mr.  Spencer's  peculiar  contribution  to  the 
subject.  He  holds  that  throughout  the  vegetable  and 
the  animal  world,  and  in  the  human  race  itself,  "indi- 
viduation  and  genesis  are  necessarily  antagonistic, "$ 
by  individuation  meaning  "  all  processes  by  which  in- 
dividual life  is  completed  and  maintained,"  and  by 
genesis  "all  processes  aiding  the  formation  and  per- 
fecting of  new  individuals."  He  therefore  concludes 
that  "the  further  progress  of  civilization  which  the 
never-ceasing  pressure  of  population  must  produce 
•will  be  accompanied  by  an  enhanced  cost  of  individua- 
tion," §  and  consequently  by  a  diminishing  birth-rate. 
In  his  speculative  thought  upon  the  future  of  the  hu- 
man race,  Mr.  Spencer  sees  that  the  highest  product  of 
evolution  will  be  "  a  form  in  which  the  amount  of  life 
shall  be  the  greatest  possible,  and  the  births  and 
deaths  the  fewest  possible."! 

A  new  development  of  the  question  has  arisen  with 
modern  industrial  discussions,  led  by  Dr.  George  Han- 
sen  in  Germany ;  M.  Levasseur,  M.  Leroy-Beaulieu, 
and  M.  Dumont  in  France  ;  Dr.  George  Blundell  Long- 


Mr.  Levasseur  maintains  that  inequalities  of  pro- 
duction and  consumption  are  primarily  the  causes  of 
changes  in  the  rate  of  the  increase  of  population. 

"The  increase  of  a  population  is  dependent  upon  the 

sum  of  its  means  of  subsistence  and  the  sum  of  its 

wants,  and  hence   between  the  terms 

population,   production,  and  consump- 

v/.nr./.vnf/.  f«n  tion  there  exists  an  intimate  relation. 

Economic  ton-But  it  is  not  unchangeable.    This  is  one 

siderations.  reason  why  in  every  population  there 
are  both  rich  and  poor,  why  peoples 
and  individuals  may  enrich  or  impover- 
ish themselves,  and  in  consequence  why  the  number  of 
inhabitants  of  a  country  may  increase  rapidly  or 
slowly,  remain  stationary  or  diminish."^ 

M.  Levasseur  considers  the  conditions  in  France 
most  favorable  from  an  economic  point  of  view.  In 
his  opinion  it  is_  very  desirable  that  each  generation 
should  be  born  into  a  better  condition  than  that  of  the 
preceding  generation,  and  that  the  standard  of  life 
should  be  raised  ;  this  result,  he  says,  will  happen,  as 
it  has  happened  in  France,  where  wealth  increases 
faster  than  population  and  is  widely  diffused.** 

From  a  political  point  of  view  he  considers  the  ques- 
tion very  serious.  On  the  whole,  however,  he  ap- 
proves of  the  present  condition  of  population  in 
France. 

M.  Dumont  holds  that  wealth  is  not  the  cause  of  the 
diminishing  birth-rate,  but  only  the  condition  ;  that, 
tho  on  the  surface  the  decrease  of  population  is  an 
economic  question,  at  bottom  it  is  intellectual,  political, 
and  esthetic  ;  that  as  the  desire  to  rise  in  the  industrial, 
intellectual,  political,  or  esthetic  world  increases,  the 
birth-rate  diminishes,  tt 

M.  Leroy-Beaulieu  shows  statistically  that  "  a  low 
birth-rate  goes  hand  in  hand  with  high  wages  and  the 
spread  of  education,"  and  that  "it  also  appears  to  be 
particularly  associated  with  democratic  aspirations, 
and  still  more  with  a  lessening  of  religious  belief 
on  the  part  of  the  people,  and  a  modification  of  the  old 
ideas  of  resignation  and  submission  to  their  lot."$t 

Dr.  Hansen,§§  Dr.  LongstaffJII  and  Dr.  Fpthergill,*^ 
show  especially  the  evil  influences  of  city  life  upon  the 
population,  both  in  weakening  the  vitality  and  in  di- 
minishing the  birth-rate.  Dr.  John  S.  Billings,***  Dr. 


*  Spencer,  Principles  of  Biology,  ii.,  part  vi.,  p.  499. 

t  laid.,  p.  501.  %  Ibid.*  p.  409.  §  Ibid.,  p.  501. 

[  Ibid.,  p.  506. 

If  Levasseur,  La  Population  Franfaise,  iii.,  p.  27. 

*  *  Ibid. ,  p.  223. 

tt  Depopulation  et  Civilization,  p.  356. 

\\  P.  Leroy-Beaulieu,  The  Influence  of  Civilization 
upon  the  Movement  of  Population  (Economiste  Fran- 
fais,  September  20  and  27,  1890,  and  the  Journal  of  the 
Roval  Statistical  Society  of  London,  June,  1891). 

§§  Hansen,  Die  drei  Bevolkerungstufen. 

\'\  Longstaff,  Studies  in  Statistics. 

f  1f  Fothergill,  The  Toiyn  Dweller. 

***  Billings,  The  Diminishing  Birth-rate  in  the 
United  States  {The  Forum,  June,  1803). 


Cyrus  M.  Edson,*  and  President  E.  B.  Andrews  t  have 
studied  the  question  as  it  is  presented  in  the  United 
States.  President  Andrews,  tho  he  refuses  to  adhere 
strictly  to  the  classical  Malthusian  doctrine,  accepts 
the  main  principle  that  subsistence  is  limited,  and  that 
therefore  some  checks  are  necessary  to  keep  the  popu- 
lation within  the  limits  of  subsistence.  Dr.  Billings 
and  Dr.  Edson  discuss  the  diminishing  birth-rate  in  the 
United  States  and  its  probable  causes. 

The  generalizations  tentatively  reached  by  all  these 
inquirers  are  that  civilization  in  general  checks  the 
rate  of  increase  of  population,  in  spite  of  a  diminishing 
death-rate ;  that  city  life  is,  on  the  whole,  unfavorable 
to  the  natural  increase  of  population,  and  that  what 
the  economists  call  the  "raising  of  the  standard  of 
life"  operates  in  the  same  way. 

It  has  been  assumed  that  the  changes  in  the  mar- 
riage-rate and  the  marriage  age  •will  account  in  a  great 
measure  for  the  decreasing  birth-rate  ;  but  another 
explanation  is  more  than  hinted  at  in  the  following 
quotation  from  Dr.  John  S.  Billings : 

"  It  is  probable  that  the  most  important  factor  in  the 
change  -is  the  deliberate  and  voluntary  avoidance  or 
prevention  of  child-bearing  on  the  part 
of  a  steadily  increasing  number  of  mar- 
ried people,  who  not  only  prefer  to  have    Voluntary 
but  few  children,  but  who  know  how  to  prAT,PT,tinTi 
obtain  their  wish."*  Prevention. 

M.  Levasseur    and    M.   Dumont   evi- 
dently hold  the  same  opinion  : 

"By  prevision  we  understand  the  human  will  re- 
straining or  directing  the  reproductive  instinct,  with  a 
view  to  bringing  children  into  the  world  only  at  such 
times  and  in  such  numbers  that  the  father  can  hope  to 
support  them  and  to  educate  them  for  a  position  equal 
to  his  own.  Prevision  is  the  characteristic  of  the  man 
who  reflects,  and  who,  conscious  of  his  responsibili- 
ties, does  not  leave  his  destiny  to  chance.  This  virtue 
is  the  palladium  of  human  liberty.  The  philosopher 
and  the  economist  who  believe  in  that  liberty  ought,  if 
they  are  logical,  to  recommend  such  prevision,  recog- 
nizing that  if  it  is  useful  in  the  great  mass  of  actions, 
it  is  nowhere  more  opportune  than  in  the  grave  ques- 
tion of  the  growth  of  the  family  and  the  education  of 
the  child.  .  .  .  It  is  enough  to  lay  down  as  a  gen- 
eral rule  that  reason  should  control  instinct."!  M. 
Dtimont  says :  "  The  real  cause  of  the  decrease  of  our 
birth-rate  is  the  wish  to  have  few  or  no  children,  and 
that  wish  is  determined  by  a  combination  of  intellec- 
tual, moral,  and  esthetic  tendencies  peculiar  to  our 
people."! 

Dr.  Cyrus  M.  Edson  agrees  with  Dr.  Billings  that 
"  the  voluntary  avoidance  and  prevention  of  child- 
bearing  is  steadily  increasing,"  but  thinks  that  the 
principal  cause  is  the  physical  and  nervous  deteriora- 
tion of  the  women  of  the  United  States ;  and  this,  he 
asserts,  is  largely  due  to  the  severe  strain  of  modern 
life  and  education."^  In  fact,  any  one  who  is  at  all 
familiar  with  the  statistical  and  medical  literature  of 
the  subject  is  aware  that  the  voluntary  prevention  of 
conception  is  the  explanation  of  the  diminishing  birth- 
rate that  is  generally  accepted  by  physicians  and 
statisticians. 

Such  are  the  prevailing  views  to-day.  Never- 
theless, Miss  Brownell,  in  the  article  referred 
to  above,  makes  the  point  that 

"  i.  Whether  or  not  it  be  true  that  the  means  spoken 
of  by  Dr.  Billings,  M.  Dumont,  M.  Levasseur,  and  Dr. 
Edson  has  become  an  important  factor  in  the  diminish- 
ing birth-rate  of  civilized  countries,  it  is  evident  that 
it  is  not  the  only  factor,  and  that,  quite  apart  from 
voluntary  prevention,  there  is  a  distinct  problem  to  be 
investigated.  This  is  shown  by  the  fact  that  the  white 
and  the  colored  birth-rate  vary  together. 

"2.  Mr.  Spencer's  generalization  that  the  birth-rate 
diminishes  as  the  rate  of  individual  evolution  increases 
is  confirmed  by  a  comparison  of  the  birth-rates  with 
the  death-rates  from  nervous  diseases,  and  also  with 
the  density  of  population,  the  values  of  agricultural 

*  Edson,  American  Life  and  Physical  Deterioration 
(North  American  Review,  October,  1893). 

t  Andrews,  Are  There  Too  Afany  of  Us  ?  {North 
American  Review,  November,  1892). 

t  Billings,  The  Diminishing  Birth-rate  in  the  United 


pp.  218- 


States  (The  Forum,  June,  1893). 

§  Levasseur,   La  Population  Franfaise,  iii., 
20. 

|!  Dumont,  Depopulation  et  Civilization,  p.  97. 

j  Cyrus  M.  Edson,  American  Life  and  Physical  Dete- 
rioration (North  American  Revieiv,  October,  1893). 


Birth  and  Death-Rates. 


171 


Birth  and  Death- Rates. 


and  manufactured  products,    and  the  mortgage  in- 
debtedness. 

"  3.  The  Malthusian  theory  in  general,  that  popula- 
tion tends  to  increase  faster  than  the  means  of  subsis- 
tence, is  not  true  of  the  United  States  at  the  present 
time.  In  the  regions  where  wealth  increases  most 
rapidly  the  population  increases  most  slowly." 

She  supports  these  points  by  careful  analysis 
and  elaborate  tables  drawn  from  United  States 
Census  Reports.  By  a  careful  comparison  of 
the  birth-rates  of  the  white  and  colored  popula- 
tions of  the  United  States,  she  shows  that  the 
diminishing  birth-rate  appears  in  both  classes, 


and  in  the  last  decade  even  more  among  the 
colored  than  the  white,  and  that  therefore  the 
cause  cannot  be  mainly  the  voluntary  preven- 
tion of  conception,  because  this  practice  is 
notoriously  the  result  of  advanced  civilizations, 
and  much  more  prevalent  among  white  than 
colored  populations.  Next  she  shows 

by  comparison  of  birth-rates  and  deaths  from  nervous 
diseases,  (i)  that  the  conditions  that  cause  a  high 
death-rate  from  nervous  diseases  lower  the  birth-rate, 
and  vice  versa,  and  (2)  that  since  in  two  thirds  of  the  39 
States  and  Territories  in  which  the  phenomena  oppose 
each  other,  the  birth-rate  is  above  the  average  and 


COMPARISON  OF  BIRTH-RATES  AND  FACTORS  OF  ECONOMIC  CONDITION,  1890. 


STATES  AND  TERRITORIES,  1890. 

VARIATION  ABOVE  OR  BELOW  THE  AVERAGE. 

Birth-rate  per  1,000 
of  Population. 

Density  per  Square 
Mile  of  Area  of 
Settlement. 

£"3 

*0 

& 

VI 

«•«  - 

t   8 

>>      c3 

.t!  u**-1 
tSjS  g 

§)§c/2 

p 

Value  of  Agricul- 
tural Products 
per  Acre  of  Im- 
proved Land. 

Value  of  Manu- 
factured Prod- 
ucts, per  Capita. 

Mortgage  Debt  per 
Capita. 

+3-71 
-1.74 

+7.10 
—7.27 
—1-59 
—5-42 
-1.79 
—3.61 
+1.62 

M 
4-0.46 

4-0-95 
—1-39 
—0-53 
4-1.48 
4-2.77 
+2.89 
—8.89 
—  0.81 
—S-7I 
—1.88 
4-3-26 
+3-42 
4-2.04 

73.87 

+2-54 
—10-33 
-8.31 
—1.52 
4-7.40 
-3-40 
+3-23 
—  2.60 
—4.19 
—0.99 
—4-3° 
+4-39 
4-3-92 
+4-59 
4-4.52 

Z^17 

4-0.44 
-3-14 
+3-73 
+0-33 
—4.90 

—2.78 
—29.74* 
—  10.89 
—19.65* 
—  26.14* 
4-121.87 
+53-81 
+3512.34 
—  22.63 

1.  01 

—  30.00 
+36.17* 
+28.89 
+2.30 
-14.53 
+M-3I* 
—7-53 
-6-47* 
+73-56 
+246.32 

+4-3° 
—  9.02 

+6.'82* 
—29-34* 
'—'5-37 
-28.33* 
4-10.49 
+161.66 
—28.79 
4-96.60 
+1.16* 
+57-94 
—25-37* 
+84.72 
+286.28 
+6.00* 
4-io.i8* 
—17-34 
—24.45 

+4-23 
+9.11* 
—  -^2.70* 

1.  21 

+0.82* 
—29.50* 

+8.05* 

—20.78* 
—0.04 

-13-56* 

—17-33* 
4-132.72 
4-64.66 
+3818.56 
—14.09 

+9.84* 

—  20.31 
+47.02* 
+39-74 
+i3-I5 
-3-84 
+25.16* 
4-3.32* 
4-o.So 
+84.41 
+257-17 
+i5-I5 
-4.87 
+6.52* 
+17.67* 
—  20.40* 

—7-53 
—20.89* 
+20.49 

+I72-51 
—  20.06 
+104.64 
+11.99* 
+68.79 
—17.99* 
+95-57 
+297.13 
+16.85* 
+21.03* 
—12.79 
—18.78 
+15-08 
+19.96* 
—  16.09* 
+9-64* 
+9-67* 
—  20.69* 

+$1.72* 

+3-J7 
4-2.82* 
4-0.20 
+0.32 
4-6.!  i 
+1.62 
+30.81 
4-3.67* 
+1.82* 

+taa* 

—  0.61* 
—  0.61* 
—2.62 
—  1.30 
+7-52* 
+0-36 
+0.87 
+10.06 
+1.60 
-0.48 
+3-83* 
-'•33 
—  0.03* 
—  2.50 
-3-14* 
+1-09 
+7-63 
—  o.  10 
+2.98 
—0.48 
+0-39 
—1-47* 

+2-3° 

+8-49 
+2.89* 
-0.98 
—1.50 
+2.04* 
+0-79 
—2.25 
4o-63 

-2'39 
4-0.37* 
—2.18* 

—  $105.20 
—133-74* 
—129.54 
+27.01 
-46-57* 
+183.15 
+73-36 
+21.09 
—  103.07 

112.  12 
—133.09 
4-87.84* 
+46.17 
—84.22* 
—72.40 
—81-45 

—97-95 
—4.88* 
+15.22 
+247.06 
—16.91* 

2.12 

—  ^S-iz 

-28.74 
—  107.96* 
—61.77 
—125.48* 
+78.16 
4-94-80 
—139.76 
+'35-74 
—124.67 

+25-" 
-17.58* 
+103.61 
+262.81 
—  121.89 
—  108.69 
—  118.12 
—106.77 
—34-29* 
—96.27 
—30.08* 
—98.89 

—  2.29 
—  110.63* 

—$70.00 
—57.00* 
—83.00 
4-104.00 

+  IIO.OO 

4-11.00 
o.oo 
+  130.00 
—56.00 
—81.00 
—  58.00 
+4.00* 
—45-00* 
+8.00 
+74.00* 
—  71.00 
—  71.00 
—47.00* 
—34-00* 
+48.00 
—  24.00* 
+56.00* 
—81.00 
—  16.00 
—  30.00* 
+30.00* 
—48.00* 
—  46.00* 
+65-00 

—53-o° 
-(-172.00 
—83.00 
—  25.00* 
—  23.00* 

+21.  OO 
4-10.00 
84.00 
—73-00 

—54-00 
—57-00 

I2.0O* 

—  79-00 
+30.00 
70.00 
—  24.00 
14.00* 

Florida         .... 

Indiana  

Iowa      

Michigan  ... 

Minnesota  

Mississippi  

Missouri              

Montana  

Nebraska        

Nevada  

New  Hampshire     

New  Jersey  

New  Mexico  

New  York  

North  Carolina  

Ohio  

Oregon  

Pennsylvania  

Rhode  Island  

South  Carolina  

Tennessee  

Texas  

Utah  

Vermont  

Virginia  

Washington  

West  Virginia  

Wisconsin  

Wyoming  

Coherences  with  birth-rate  

17 
29 

21 

25 

16 
3° 

12 

34 

16 
29 

Oppositions  to  birth-rate  

Total  States  and  Territories  

46 

46 

46 

46 

45 

In  one  State  (Delaware)  the  mortgage  debt  per  capita  is  the  same  as  for  the  United  States. 
*  Coherence  in  the  phenomena  studied. 


Birth  and  Death-Rates. 


172 


Bismarck  and  Social  Reform, 


the  death-rate  from  nervous  diseases  below  the  aver- 
age, the  variations  above  and  below  the  average  in  the 
remaining  one  third  must  be  proportionally  greater ; 
in  other  words,  the  conditions  of  life  which  cause  such 
variations  must  be  more  intense.  If  civilization,  as 
Mr.  Spencer  believes,  be  the  cause  of  the  lower  birth- 
rate, we  should  expect  a  high  civilization  where  the 
birth-rate  is  low.  These  conclusions  are  confirmed  by 
the  statistics. 

She  compares  the  birth-rates  with  conditions  of  in- 
dustrial life,  and  shows  that  in  37  States  and  Terri- 
tories the  value  of  the  manufactured  products  per 
capita  coheres  with  the  death-rate  from  nervous  dis- 
eases and  opposes  the  birth-rate,  and  in  four  States 
the  three  cohere  ;  thus  in  41  of  the  47  States  and  Terri- 
tories the  value  of  the  manufactured  products  per 
capita  and  the  deaths  from  nervous  diseases  cohere. 

In  35  States  and  Territories  the  value  of  the  manu- 
factured products  per  capita  coheres  with  the  density 
per  square  mile  of  area  of  settlement  and  is  opposed  to 
the  birth-rate,  and  in  three  States  the  three  cohere, 
making  38  States  and  Territories  in  which  the  value  of 
the  manufactured  products  per  capita  and  the  density 
of  population  cohere. 

In  33  States  and  Territories  the  value  of  the  manu- 
factured products  per  capita  coheres  with  both  the 
density  of  population  and  the  deaths  from  nervous 
diseases  and  opposes  the  birth-rate,  while  in  two  States 
the  four  cohere.  Thus  in  35  of  the  47  States  and  Ter- 
ritories in  the  United  States,  the  conditions  of  density, 
manufactured  wealth,  and  deaths  from  nervous  dis- 
eases are  similar,  and  in  33  of  these  States  and  Terri- 
tories they  directly  oppose  the  birth-rate. 

The  only  conclusion  to  be  drawn  from  such  facts  is 
that  the  conditions  of  advancing  civilization  are  actu- 
ally lowering  the  birth-rate,  and  that  the  conditions 
of  a  simpler  agricultural  life  favor  a  high  birth-rate. 

If  the  average  rates  for  the  United  States  in  1880  and 
in  1890  be  compared,  the  results  obtained  from  the 

E receding  detailed  comparisons  are  confirmed.  The 
irth-rate  has  diminished  from  30.95  per  1000  of 
population  to  26.68.*  The  value  of  agricultural  prod- 
ucts per  acre  of  improved  land  has  also  decreased : 
in  1880  it  was  $7.77  ;  in  1890,  $6.88.  The  density  per 
square  mile  of  area  of  settlement  has  increased  from 
31. 96  to  32.16,  and  the  density  per  square  mile  of  total 
land  surface  from  17.29  to  21.31.  And  finally,  the 
value  of  manufactured  products  has  risen  from  $106.50 
per  capita  to  $149.63. 

See  also  DEATH-RATES  and  MALTHUSIANISM  for  vari- 
ous and  contrary  views. 

References :  The  authorities  noticed  in  this  arti- 
cle. 

BISMARCK  AND  SOCIAL  REFORM, 
OTTp  EDOUARD  LEOPOLD,  Prince,  von, 

long  time  Chancellor  of  the  German  Empire, 
we  consider  here  from  the  standpoint  of  his  re- 
lation to  social  reform.  He  was  born  in  1815  at 
Brandenberg,  of  an  old  family,  and  studied  at 
Gottingen,  Berlin,  and  Grief swald.  In  1847  he 
entered  the  Landtag  and  attracted  notice  as  an 
ultra-royalist.  He  was  opposed  to  the  scheme 
for  the  reconstruction  of  the  German  Empire 
proposed  in  1849,  and  strove  for  a  united  Ger- 
many under  the  lead  of  Prussia.  He  was  ap- 
pointed chief  secretary  of  the  Prussian  legation 
at  the  resuscitated  German  Diet  of  1851.  He 
was  sent  later  to  Paris  as  Minister,  and 
in  1862  was  given  the  portfolio  of  Foreign 
Affairs  and  the  presidency  of  the  Cabinet. 
Unable  to  pass  the  reorganization  bill  and 
budget  in  October,  1862,  he  closed  the  Cham- 
bers, and  for  four  years  governed  without  get- 
ting the  sanction  of  the  deputies.  The  people 
were  looking  for  a  coup  d'etat ;  but  the  death  of 
the  King  of  Denmark  opened  up  the  Sleswick- 
Holstein  question,  and  excited  German  national 
feeling,  which  Bismarck  was  able  to  use  by  the 
acquisition  of  the  duchies  to  aggrandize  Prussia. 
He  negotiated  the  neutralization  of  Luxemburg 

*  Billings,  The  Diminishing'  Birth-rate  in  the  United 
States  (The  Forum,  June,  1893). 


(1867),  the  humiliation  of  Austria,  the  reorgani- 
zation of  Germany  under  the  lead  of  Prussia  ; 
he  guided  the  Franco-Prussian  War,  dictated 
terms  of  peace  to  France,  and  was  created 
Prince  and  Chancellor  of  the  German  Empire. 
He  began  a  contest  with  the  Catholic  Church, 
expelling  the  Jesuits  (1872).  He  presided  at  the 
Berlin  Congress  (1878).  His  later  years  have 
been  busied  with  economic  and  social  rather 
than  diplomatic  problems,  and  these  we  consider 
more  at  length.  Since  1879  at  least  Bismarck 
has  been  considered  almost  the  leading  spirit  of 
paternal  State  socialism.  This,  however,  was 
not  to  adopt  a  new  policy  in  Prussia,  but  simply 
to  carry  out,  or,  rather,  revert  to  the  traditional 
policy  of  the  Hohenzollerns.  (See  GERMANY.) 
It  was  the  proud  boast  of  Frederick  the  Great 
that  he  was  "  le  rot  des  gueux."  Of  all  the 
governments  of  the  seventeenth  century,  the 
Prussian  was  the  first  to  seek  the  welfare  of  the 
whole  community.  The  Prussian  landrecht 
recognizes  the  State  as  the  protector  of  the  poor- 
er classes,  and  one  of  its  duties  to  supply  suste- 
nance and  work  for  those  lacking  means  and 
opportunity  of  earning  a  livelihood.  It  was. 
upon  these  clauses  that  Bismarck  relied  when,. 
on  May  7,  1884,  he  declared  to  the  Reichstag  his. 
recognition  of  the  laborer's  right  to  work.  Bis- 
marck himself  once  said  :  "  The  kings  of  Prus- 
sia have  never  been  by  preference  kings  of  the 
rich.  Frederick  the  Great  said,  when  Crown 
Prince  :  '  Quandje  serai  rot,  je  serai  un  vrai 
roi  des  gueux.'  He  undertook  to  be  the  pro- 
tector of  the  poor,  and  this  principle  has  been  fol- 
lowed by  our  later  kings.  At  their  throne  suffer- 
ing has  always  found  a  refuge  and  a  hearing." 

The  principle  of  protection  to  which  Bismarck 
reverted  was  the  original  and  paternal  policy 
of  Prussia.  Bismarck's  paternal  socialism,  thus,. 
is  but  a  consistent  following  out  of  the  principle 
of  his  masters.  Yet  how  far  he  has  carried  these 
principles  we  shall  soon  see.  They,  however, 
must  not  at  all  be  confounded  with  socialistic 
principles.  (See  SOCIALISM.)  Socialism  is  demo- 
cratic, fraternal.  Bismarck's  policy  has  been 
aristocratic,  paternal.  Few  have  persecuted  the 
socialists  as  Bismarck  has  done,  and  few  states- 
men have  been  so  hated  by  socialists  as  Bis- 
marck has  been.  Their  policies  are  radically 
opposite  rather  than  identical.  His  drastic  law 
against  socialistic  meetings  and  writings  dates 
from  1878.  Up  to  that  time  Bismarck  had 
planned  no  measures  of  repression  against  so- 
cialists. But  in  that  year  two  attempts  on  the 
life  of  the  Emperor  enabled  Bismarck  to  carry 
through  a  drastic  bill  of  repression  which  has. 
been  rigidly  enforced  until  its  failure  to  be  re- 
newed upon  its  recent  expiration  by  limitation 
of  time.  Its  main  effect,  however,  has  been  to 
scatter  the  propaganda  of  German  socialism 
abroad  and  to  increase  the  real  socialistic  agita- 
tion in  Germany.  It  shows,  however,  how  little 
sympathy  Bismarck  has  with  true  socialism.  Of 
capitalism  he  is  a  far  greater  friend. 

"  I  wish,"  he  once  told  the  Reichstag,  "  I  wish 
we  could  immediately  create  a  few  hundred 
millionaires.  They  would  expend  their  money 
in  the  country,  and  this  expenditure  would  act 
fruitfully  on  labor  all  round.  They  could  not 
eat  their  money  themselves  ;  they  would  have 
to  spend  the  interest  on  it.  Be  glad,  then, 


Bismarck  and  Social  Reform. 


Bismarck  and  Social  Reform. 


when  people  become  rich  with  us.  The  com- 
munity at  large,  and  not  only  the  tax  authority, 
is  sure  to  benefit. ' ' 

Bismarck's  State  socialism  thus  seems  to  have 
come  from  mixed  motives — partly  to  take  the 
ground  from  under  the  real  socialists,  partly, 
perhaps,  from  religious  motives,  mainly  to  serve 
and  aggrandize  the  house  with  which  he  was  so 
long  identified.  The  religious  flavor  is  not  lack- 
ing. 

On  April  2,  1881,  he  said  : 

"  I  should  like  to  see  the  State,  which  for  the  most 
part  consists  of  Christians— altho  you  reject  the  name 
Christian  State — penetrated  to  some  extent  by  the 
principles  of  the  religion  it  professes ;  especially  as 
concerns  the  help  one  gives  to  his  neighbor,  and 
sympathy  with  the  lot  of  old  and  suffering  people  " 

"So  long  ago  as  June  15,  1847,  he  declared  to  the  Prus- 
sian United  Diet,  which  was  not  accustomed  to  hear 
such  words  from  an  obscure  provincial  deputy : 

"  I  am  of  opinion  that  the  idea  of  the  Christian  State 
is  as  old  as  the  ci-devant  Holy  Roman  Empire,  as  old 
as  all  the  European  States,  that  it  is  the  soil  in  which 
these  States  have  taken  root,  and  that  a  State,  if  it 
would  have  an  assured  permanence,  if  it  would  only 
justify  its  existence,  when  it  is  disputed,  must  stand 
on  a  religious  foundation." 

But  his  main  thought  was  for  Prussia. 

He  told  the  Reichstag  on  February  24,  1881 : 

"  For  me  there  has  been  but  one  compass,  one  pole- 
star,  after  •which  I  have  steered  :  Salus  publica.  Since 
I  entered  public  life  I  have  often,  perhaps,  acted 
rashly  and  imprudently.  But  when  I  have  had  time 
for  reflection  I  have  always  been  guided  by  the  ques- 
tion, What  is  most  beneficial,  most  expedient,  and 
proper  for  my  dynasty,  so  long  as  I  was  only  in  Prus- 
sia, and  nowadays  for  the  German  nation  ?  I  have 
never  in  my  life  been  doctrinaire.  All  systems  by 
which  parties  are  divided  and  bound  together  are  of 
secondary  moment  to  me.  My  first  thought  is  of  the 
nation,  its  position  abroad,  its  independence,  our  or- 
ganization in  such  a  way  that  we  may  breathe  freely 
in  the  world." 

We  are  now  ready  to  understand  his  State-socialistic 
measures.     As  early  as  1847  he  spoke  and  voted  in  the 
United  Diet  for  a  State  loan  to  a  private  railway  en- 
terprise,  and  from  that  time  forward, 
whether  as  private  deputy  or  minister, 
State          he  never  failed,  when  opportunity  oc- 

tJnpiali<!Tn       curred,  to  promote  the  close  connection 
socialism.    of  the  g^ate  and  the  railwayS)  always 

keeping  in  view  the  ultimate  end  of  a 
thoroughly  nationalized  system  of  rail- 
way communication.  While  Germany  was  still  dis- 
united, his  motto  as  Prussian  Minister  President  was, 
I' The  railways  for  the  State."  When,  however,  the 
imperial  throne  was  again  raised,  his  motto  became  at 
once,  "  The  railways  for  the  Empire."  He  had  no  fear 
that  German  liberty  and  unity  would  "travel  away 
with  the  first  imperial  locomotive." 

A  German  writer  has  said  of  the  nationalization  of 
the  railways  in  Prussia  that  it  is  a  measure  which 
"  constitutes  one  of  the  most  beautiful  leaves  in  the 
Chancellor's  wreath  bf  fame."  Certain  it  is  that  from 
the  financial  point  of  view,  the  policy  inaugurated,  or 
rather  first  seriously  carried  out,  in  1876,  has  proved  a 
great  success,  altho  the  plan  has  not  yet  been  fully 
adopted  by  the  Empire.  But  this  is  only  one  portion 
of  Bismarck's  socialism.  When  specifying  in  i86g  the 
articles  which  he  regarded  as  most  fitted  to  bear  high 
taxation,  Prince  Bismarck  included  in  the  list  tobacco 
and  brandy.  Of  these  two  articles  the  Chancellor  has 
endeavored  to  establish  a  State  monopoly. 

Prince  Bismarck's  attachment  to  State  undertakings 
of  this  kind  is  primarily  based  on  financial  reasons. 
The  monopoly^  appears  to  him  the  best  means  of  rais- 
ing revenue  upon  an  article  which  can  with  justice 
be  saddled  with  heavy  taxation.  At  the  same  time  he 
holds  that  the  State  is  likely  to  be  a  better  and  more 
conscientious  trader  than  the  private  undertaker, 
whose  ends  begin  and  end  with  gain.  From  the  social 
standpoint,  too,  he  predicts  good  results  from  the  ap- 
pearance of  the  State  as  an  employer  in  spheres  of  in- 
dustrial activity  upon  which  a  great  number  of  people 
are  dependent  for  their  livelihood.  When  it  was  ob- 
jected in  the  Reichstag  in  1882  that  his  monopoly  proj- 
ects savored  of  socialism,  he  did  not  deny  the  imputa- 
tion, but  welcomed  it,  observing:  "Many  measures, 
which  we  have  adopted  to  the  great  blessing  of  the 
country  are  socialistic,  and  the  State  will  have  to  ac- 


custom itself  to  a  little  more  socialism  yet.  We  must 
meet  our  needs  in  the  domain  of  socialism  by  reforma- 
tory measures  if  we  would  display  the  wisdom  shown 
in  Prussia  by  the  Stein-Hardenberg  legislation  re- 
specting the  emancipation  of  the  peasantry.  That  was 
socialism,  to  take  land  from  one  person  and  give  it  to 
another— a  much  stronger  form  of  socialism  than  a 
monopoly.  But  I  am  glad  that  this  socialism  was 
adopted,  for  we  have  as  a  consequence  secured  a  free 
and  very  well-to-do  peasantry,  and  I  hope  that  we 
shall  in  time  do  something  of  the  sort  for  the  labor- 
ing classes." 

Bismarck's  return  to  the  principles  of  protec- 
tionism, which  movement  he  commenced  in 
1877,  he  also  made  largely  for  reasons  of  State 
socialism.  His  industrial  legislation  is,  how- 
ever, a  far  more  direct  illustration  of  this.  The 
avowed  object  has  been  to  protect  the  artisan 
class  against  the  growing  power  of  capital,  as 
represented  in  the  factory  system. 

Bismarck's  extreme  application  of  the  princi- 
ples of  State  socialism,  however,  has  been  in  his 
schemes  for  State  insurance.     They  are  the  re- 
sult of  organic  development  to  be  traced  in  the 
sickness  insurance  law  of  1883,  the 
accident  insurance  laws  of  1884  and 
1885,  and  the  old  age  insurance  law       State 
of  1887  ;   all  based  on  the  princi-  Insurance. 
pie  of    compulsion   introduced    in 
sick  insurance  legislation   of  1854. 
Speaking  of  the  first  accident  insurance  bill  of 
1 88 1,  Bismarck  said  : 

"The  end  I  have  in  view  is  to  relieve  the  parishes 
of  a  large  part  of  their  poor-law  charges  by  the  estab- 
lishment of  an  institution,  having  State  support  and 
extending  to  the  entire  Empire,  for  the  maintenance 
of  old  and  incapacitated  people,  just  like  the  institu- 
tion of  accident  insurance." 

He  held  that  the  State  had  positive  and  active  func- 
tions to  discharge,  and  that  in  Christian,  monarchical, 
and  paternally  governed  countries  like  the  German 
States  the  principle  of  Laissez-faire  was  inadmissible. 
"I  have  a  feeling,"  he  said,  "that  the  State  can  be 
responsible  for  its  omissions,"  by  which  he  meant  its 
neglect  to  afford  adequate  help  and  protection  to  the 
weaker  of  its  citizens.  He  not  only  demanded  for  the 
working  classes  insurance  against  sickness,  accident, 
and  old  age,  but  he  asked  that  the  State  would  bear 
a  fair  share  of  the  cost.  Industry  could  not  bear 
the  whole  burden,  and  it  would  be  absurd  to  try  to 
make  the  working  man  exclusively  liable.  So  far  as 
the  present  measure  was  concerned  it  was  intended 
that  the  insurance  premiums  should  be  paid  equally 
by  employers,  employed,  and  the  Empire.  In  propos- 
ing a  national  system  of  insurance,  he  held  that  the 
State  could  not  fairly  entrust  the  insurance  of  work- 
people to  private  adventure.  "The  corollary  of  com- 
pulsion is,  in  my  opinion,  insurance  through  the  State — 
either  through  the  Empire  or  the  individual  State ; 
without  that  no  compulsion.  I  should  not  have  courage 
to  exercise  compulsion  if  I  had  nothing  to  offer  in  re- 
turn. ...  If  compulsion  is  enforced,  it  is  necessary 
that  the  law  provide  at  the  same  time  an  institution 
for  insurance  which  shall  be  cheaper  and  securer  than 
any  other." 

Bismarck's  least  success  has  been  in  the  lines 
of  taxation.  He  made  a  bold  attack  on  the 
laissez-faire  principle  when  he  passed  the 
Usury  Law  of  1880.  This  law  was  particularly 
intended  to  prevent  the  plundering  of  small 
land-owners  and  artisans  by  the  predatory  part 
of  the  money-lending  community. 

It  is  by  no  means,  however,  the  case  that  Bis- 
marck has  been  a  consistent  State  socialist.  He 
has  refused,  for  example,  to  have  anything  to 
do  with  the  principle  of  the  payment  of  mem- 
bers. He  refuses  to  be  doctrinaire.  He  goes 
cautiously  and  experimentally.  He  said  to  the 
Reichstag,  speaking  of  the  insurance  laws  : 

"  The  domain  of  legislation  which  we  enter  with  this 
law  .  .  .  deals  with  a  question  which  will  not  very  soon 


Bismarck  and  Social  Reform. 


Black  Death. 


be  removed  from  the  order  of  the  day.  For  50  years 
we  have  been  speaking  of  a  social  question.  Since  the 
passing  of  the  socialist  law  I  have  continually  been 
reminded  by  persons  in  high  and  official  circles,  as  well 
as  by  others  in  the  popular  classes,  that  a  promise  was 
then  given  that  something  positive  should  also  be  done 
to  remove  the  legitimate  causes  of  socialism.  I  have 
had  the  reminder  in  mind  toto  die  up  to  this  very  mo- 
ment, and  I  do  not  believe  that  either  our  sons  or 
grandsons  will  quite  dispose  of  the  social  question 
which  has  been  hovering  before  us  for  50  years.  No 
political  question  can  be  brought  to  a  perfect  mathe- 
matical conclusion,  so  that  book  balances  can  be  drawn 
up ;  these  questions  rise  up,  have  their  day,  and  then 
disappear  among  other  questions  of  history  ;  that  is  the 
way  of  organic  development." 

This  way  Bismarck  has  steadily  walked.  His  policy 
from  first  to  last  has  been  a  protest  against  Individual- 
ism, against  Laissez-faire.  On  this  subject  Prince  Bis- 
marck once  expressed  himself  very  forcibly  in  the 
Reichstag,  when  answering  the  criticisms  of  the  Pro- 
gressist leader,  in  words  which  sum  up  his  whole 
policy. 

"  Herr  Richter  has  called  attention  to  the  responsi- 
bility of  the  State  for  what  it  does.  But  it  is  my  opin- 
ion that  the  State  can  also  be  responsible  for  what  it 
does  not  do.  I  do  not  think  that  doctrines  like  those  of 
4 Laissez-faire,  laissez-allerj  'Pure  Manchesterdom  in 
politics.'  ' Jeder  sehe,  wie  er's  treibe,Jeder  sehe,  wo  er 
oleibe,'  '  He  who  is  not  strong  enough  to  stand  must  be 
knocked  down  and  trodden  to  the  ground,'  'To  him 
that  hath  shall  be  given,  and  from  him  that  hath  not 
shall  be  taken  away  even  that  which  he  hath' — that 
doctrines  like  these  should  be  applied  in  the  State,  and 
especially  in  a  monarchically,  paternally  governed 
State.  On  the  other  hand,  I  believe  that  those  who 
profess  horror  at  -the  intervention  of  the  State  for  the 
protection  of  the  weak  lay  themselves  open  to  the  sus- 
picion that  they  are  desirous  of  using  their  strength — 
be  it  that  of  capital,  that  of  rhetoric,  or  •whatever  it  be — 
for  the  benefit  of  a  section,  for  the  oppression  of  the 
rest,  for  the  introduction  of  party  domination,  and  that 
they  will  be  chagrined  as  soon  as  this  design  is  dis- 
turbed by  any  action  of  the  Government." 

On  March  20,  1890,  the  emperor  accepted  Bis- 
marck's resignation  as  chancellor,  and  General 
von  Caprivi  was  appointed  the  same  day  in  his 
place.  This  was  due  to  a  divergence 
of  view  between  the  young  emper- 
Resignation.  or,  then  just  assuming  the  reins  of 
power,  and  the  old  chancellor.  Bis- 
marck insisted  on  maintaining  his 
policy  of  stern  repression  of  the  socialists,  while 
at  the  same  time  advocating  State  socialism,  not 
going,  however,  so  far  as  to  interfere  with 
wages.  The  young  emperor,  on  the  other  hand, 
while  following  out  the  policy  of  State  socialism, 
would  not  continue  the  socialist  repression  pol- 
icy, and  would  interfere  more  with  wages  in  a 
paternal  way.  Owing  to  these  and  other  differ- 
ences, Bismarck's  resignation  was  practically 
forced  and  accepted.  Since  then  Bismarck  has 
been  in  semi-private  life,  tho  once  elected 
to  the  Reichstag  and  accepting  in  order,  from  a 
national  liberal  policy,  to  vigorously  criticise  the 
Government.  This  not  only  in  the  Reichstag, 
but  in  private,  and  through  various  organs  still 
faithful  to  him,  he  has  not  ceased  most  vigor- 
ously to  do  to  the  undisguised  annoyance  of  the 
Government.  On  a  recent  journey  to  Vienna 
to  attend  the  marriage  of  his  son,  Prince  Her- 
bert, he  received  an  ovation  along  the  whole 
line,  and  his  influence  to-day  in  Europe  gener- 
ally, as  well  as  in  Germany,  is  still  very  great, 
and  always  cast  along  the  old  lines  of  intense 
nationalism,  paternal  socialism,  coupled  with  a 
stern  and  aristocratic  repression  of  democratic 
tendencies.  Recently  his  "  reconciliation"  with 
the  emperor  has  caused  universal  comment, 
and  his  eightieth  birthday  (1895)  was  celebrated 
by  all  Germany.  (See  GERMANY  and  SOCIAL 
REFORM.) 


Reference  :  Bismarck  and  State  Socialism,  by  W.  H. 
Dawson,  to  which  book  we  are  indebted  for  many  quo- 
tations in  our  article. 

BLACK,  JAMES,  the  first  candidate  of  the 
Prohibition  Party  for  President  of  the  United 
States.  He  was  born  in  Lewisburg,  Pa.,  Sep- 
tember 23,  1823,  and  died  December  16,  1893. 
Removing  with  his  parents  to  Lancaster,  Pa., 
in  1836,  he  worked  in  a  sawmill  and  earned 
enough  to  engage  a  private  teacher  to  give 
him  instruction  during  the  winter.  In  1841  he 
entered  the  Lewisburg  Academy.  In  1844  he 
began  the  study  of  the  law,  and  in  1846  was 
admitted  to  practice  at  the  bar  in  Lancaster, 
where  he  resided  all  his  life.  In  1840  he 
joined  the  Washingtonians,  the  first  temper- 
ance organization  in  his  neighborhood.  In 
1846  he  helped  to  institute  a  division  of  the 
Sons  of  Temperance.  Prominent  in  the  "Maine 
law"  prohibitory  movement  of  1852  in  Pennsyl- 
vania, Mr.  Black  was  that  year  elected  Chair- 
man of  the  Lancaster  County  Prohibition  Com- 
mittee. It  was  largely  due  to  Mr.  Black's  per- 
sonal efforts  that  the  Maine  law  movement  be- 
came popular  in  Lancaster  County  and  resulted, 
in  1855,  in  the  election  of  two  of  the  five  tem- 
perance legislative  candidates.  Besides  making 
speeches  and  writing  for  the  cause,  Mr.  Black 
sometimes  contributed  as  much  as  $500  yearly 
to  it. 

The  anti-slavery  agitation  about  this  time, 
and  the  Civil  War  a  little  later,  interrupted  the 
temperance  work  and  engaged  the  attention  and 
interest  of  Mr.  Black.  He  aided  in  organizing 
the  Republican  Party  in  Pennsylvania,  and  was 
a  delegate  to  the  first  national  convention  of 
that  party  in  1856.  He  was  a  Republican  in 
politics  until  the  formation  at  Chicago,  in  Sep- 
tember, 1869,  of  the  National  Prohibition  Party. 
He  was  chosen  permanent  president  of  this 
body.  At  the  new  party's  Columbus  (O.)  Con- 
vention, in  February,  1872,  Mr.  Black  was  nomi- 
nated as  its  candidate  for  President  of  the 
United  States,  and  in  the  election  that  followed 
he  received  5608  votes.  For  the  four  years  from 
1876-80  he  was  Chairman  of  the  National  Com- 
mittee of  the  Prohibition  Party. 

He  was  also  a  most  active  temperance  worker 
outside  strict  party  lines.  He  was  one  of  the 
founders  of  the  National  Temperance  Society 
and  Publication  House.  Having  identified  him- 
self with  the  Good  Templars  in  1858,  two  years 
later  Mr.  Black  was  elected  Grand  Worthy  Chief 
Templar  of  Pennsylvania.  Mr.  Black's  "  Cider 
Tract"  caused  the  Good  Templars  to  declare 
against  the  use  of  cider  as  a  beverage.  Promi- 
nent as  a  layman  in  the  Methodist  Episcopal 
Church,  he  was  one  of  the  26  who  in  1869  or- 
ganized the  Ocean  Grove  Camp  Meeting  Asso- 
ciation. 

Mr.  Black  owned  probably  the  largest  collection 
of  temperance  literature  contained  in  any  pri- 
vate library  in  the  world,  about  1200  volumes 
being  included  in  it.  Among  the  works  pub- 
lished by  him  are  a  pamphlet  entitled  Is  there  a 
Necessity  for  a  Prohibition  Party?  (1875); 
Brief  History  of  Prohibition  (1880),  and  His- 
tory of  the  Prohibition  Party  (1885). 

BLACK  DEATH,  THE.— The  pestilence, 
or  series  of  pestilences,  known  by  this  name 


Black  Death. 


Blackstone,  Sir  William. 


took  place  in  the  middle  of  the  fourteenth  cen- 
tury, and  was  a  partial,  if  not  the  chief  cause, 
of  vast  economic  changes  in  England.  So 
far  as  can  be  ascertained,  the  disease  first  mani- 
fested itself  in  Central  China  in  1333,  and  thence 
spread  in  a  westward  direction  toward  Europe, 
where  its  force  was  first  felt  in  the  southern 
countries. 

It  appeared  first  in  Italy,  then  crossed  West- 
ern Europe,  and  arrived  at  the  English  ports  of 
Bristol  and  Southampton  in  the  summer  of  1348. 
Whole  districts  were  depopulated  by  its  fright- 
ful ravages,  and  altho  the  old  chroniclers  give 
grossly  exaggerated  estimates  of  the  number  of 
deaths,  it  is  probable  that  it  carried  off  at  least 
one  third  of  the  population.  The  scenes  of 
horror  and  desolation  which  it  caused  beggar 
all  attempts  at  description. 

One  immediate  result  of  the  plague  was  a 
great  scarcity  in  the  number  of  available  labor- 
ers, because,  while  all  classes  had  suffered  heav- 
ily, the  poorest  had  yielded  most  rapidly  to  the 
dire  disease.  This  scarcity  of  labor  meant,  of 
course,  higher  wages  for  the  laborer.  In  the 
case  of  agricultural  workers  this  rise  amounted 
to  about  50  per  cent. ,  while  in  the  case  of  skilled 
artisans,  such  as  carpenters  and  masons,  the 
same  effect  was  felt,  often  more  markedly. 
The  nobles  and  landlords — the  capitalist  class 
of  their  day — objected,  and,  without  waiting  to 
call  Parliament  together,  the  king  issued  a 
proclamation  ordering  all  men  to  abide  by  the 
rates  which  had  been  customary  before  the 
Black  Death,  and  neither  to  demand  nor  pay 
higher  wages.  He  also  forbade  laborers  to 
leave  the  land  to  which  they  were  attached, 
and  assigned  heavy  penalties  for  so  doing.  But 
the  king's  parchment  counted  for  no  more,  in 
the  face  of  the  needs  of  the  country,  than  had 
Knut's  imperious  command  to  the  sea,  centuries 
before.  Parliament  metan  1349  and  made  haste 
to  ratify  this  proclamation  by  reducing  it  to  the 
form  or  a  statute — the  famous  ' '  statute  of  labor- 
ers ;"  but  such  legislative  measures  were  hope- 
less against  the  demand  for  workers,  and  the 
very  same  men  who  passed  these  laws  were 
themselves  obliged  to  break  them  to  prevent 
their  land  from  remaining  untilled.  The  peas- 
ants went  freely  into  those  districts  where  work- 
ers were  most  scarce,  and  found  ready  shelter 
and  good  wages.  Complaints  were  constantly 
made  to  Parliament,  and  the  ' '  statute  of  labor- 
ers" was  again  and  again  enacted  with  added 
penalties,  but  to  no  purpose.  For  once  the 
worker  was  able  to  meet  the  capitalist  with  the 
advantage  on  his  side. 

In  spite  of  the  great  rise  in  the  price  of  labor 
the  price  of  the  laborer's  food  did  not  rise  in 
proportion.  Food  did  not  require  much  manual 
labor  in  its  production,  and  hence  the  rate  of 
wages  was  not  much  felt  in  its  price.  This  will 
be  the  more  noticeable  when  we  remember  that  a 
fat  ox  could  be  bought  with  a  sum  equal  to  only 
six  days'  wages  of  an  ordinary  mochanic,  tho 
it  should  be  borne  in  mind  that  oxen  were 
smaller  then.  What  did  rise  was  the  price  of 
all  articles  which  required  much  labor  in  their 
production.  Those  who  lost  most  by  the  change 
were  the  holders  of  large  estates,  who  had  to 
pay  more  for  the  labor  which  worked  their  land, 
and  for  the  implements  used  upon  it.  On  the 


other  hand,  the  peasant  and  artisan  gained  much 
higher  wages,  while  the  cost  of  living  hardly  in- 
creased at  all.  They  had  exchanged  their  for- 
mer serfdom  for  the  ability  to  earn  not  only  the 
necessaries  of  life,  but  many  of  its  comforts 
also.  And  these  changes  were  so  far-reaching 
in  their  effects  that  the  landlords  were  obliged 
to  let  their  estates  to  tenants  who  worked  them 
on  their  own  account,  paying  rent  to  the  lord  ; 
instead  of,  as  formerly,  compelling  villeins  to 
work  them  for  the  master's  profit.  Thus  serf- 
dom practically  came  to  an  end,  tho  the 
land-owners  and  lawyers  did  all  that  they  could 
to  prevent  it,  and  succeeded  in  putting  many 
obstacles  in  the  path  of  the  peasants.  The  gain 
was  not  all  on  one  side,  however,  as  the  peas- 
ants began  at  this  time  to  lose  those  rights  in 
the  "commons"  and  forests  which  until  then 
they  had  enjoyed. 

Another  of  the  important  effects  of  the  Black 
Death  was  the  spirit  of  independence  which  it 
helped  to  raise  in  the  breasts  of  the  peasants, 
who  now  began  to  feel  their  power.  It  is  worth 
while  to  note  that  successful  revolutions  are  sel- 
dom the  work  of  starving  men.  Empty  stom- 
achs are  not  conducive  to  that  clearness  of  vision 
which  is  needed  to  plan  and  carry  out  such 
movements.  The  years  of  prosperity  following 
the  plague  of  1348  had  done  more  to  open  the 
eyes  of  the  working  classes  than  all  the  centu- 
ries of  poor  rations  that  had  gone  before.  The 
new  spirit  led  to  the  preaching  of  John  Ball 
(ff.v.),  the  Peasants'  Revolt  (g.v.),  and  the 
Golden  Age  of  "  Merrie  England."  The  revolt 
was  put  down,  but  the  victory  really  lay  with 
the  vanquished  ;  and  from  this  time  serfdom 
practically  disappears  from  English  history,  and 
wages  remain  high  till  the  robbery  of  the  land 
by  the  landlords  in  the  sixteenth  century.  For 
a  study  of  the  economic  effects  of  the  Black 
Death,  see  J.  E.  T.  Rogers'  Work  and  Wages, 
and  for  a  contrary  view  see  Wealth  and  Prog- 
ress, by  George  Gunton. 

BLACK  LIST,  a  list  published  or  prepared 
by  any  body  of  men  of  the  names  of  those  whom 
they  consider  faulty  in  any  way.  It  is  specifi- 
cally used  of  official  lists  of  insolvents  and  de- 
faulters. It  is  used  in  industrial  discussions  of 
lists  of  employees  who  for  one  reason  or  another 
— perhaps  because  of  having  led  in  labor  agita- 
tion— employers  agree  not  to  employ.  It  is  also 
used  of  lists  of  firms  which  are  believed  to  ti  eat 
their  employees  unfairly,  and  therefore  which 
the  preparers  of  the  black  list  believe  should  not 
be  patronized  by  the  friends  of  fair  treatment. 
(See  also  WHITE  LIST.)  The  blacklisting  or  as- 
serted blacklisting  by  employers  of  their  em- 
ployees who  have  been  active  in  the  cause  of 
labor  has  been  a  fruitful  source  of  complaint  on 
the  part  of  labor  organizations,  and  some  States 
have  passed  bills  forbidding  blacklisting.  (See 
CONSPIRACY  LAWS.) 

BLACKSTONE,  Sir  WILLIAM,  was  born 
in  London  in  1723,  and  died  in  the  same  city  in 
1780.  A  celebrated  English  jurist,  he  was  ap- 
pointed in  1758  Vinerian  Professor  of  Common 
Law  at  Oxford,  and  in  1770  Justice  of  the  Court 
of  Common  Pleas.  His  chief  work,  Commenta- 
ries on  the  Laws  of  England,  appeared  1765-68. 


Blackstone,  Sir  William. 


176 


Blanc,  Jean  Joseph  Louis. 


Eight  editions  appeared  during  his  lifetime  and 
continually  after  his  death. 

BLACKWELL,  ALICE  STONE,  born  in 
Orange,  N.  J.,  in  1857,  is  the  daughter  of  Lucy 
Stone  (y.v.)  and  Henry  B.  Blackwell.  She 
graduated  from  Boston  University  in  1881,  and 
has  been  on  the  staff  of  the  Woman' s  Journal 
(of  Boston)  ever  since. 

BLACKWELL,  ELIZABETH,  M.D.,  was 

the  first  woman  who  ever  received  a  medical  di- 
ploma. She  was  born  in  Bristol,  England,  in  1821. 
Her  father  emigrated  to  New  York,  and  from 
there  to  Cincinnati  in  1838,  where  he  died,  and 
left  alone  a  widow  and  nine  children.  As  the 
father  had  left  but  little  money,  something  had 
to  be  done  ;  and  Miss  Blackwell,  who  was  nota- 
ble for  decision  of  character,  at  once  opened  a 
boarding-school.  She  was  then  only  18  years 
of  age,  but  her  school  succeeded  well.  When 
the  school  was  closed  in  1844,  Miss  Blackwell, 
whose  energetic  spirit  had  long  been  restless 
under  the  limitations  which  society  imposed 
upon  women,  determined  to  enter  if  possible 
the  medical  profession.  For  three  years  more 
she  taught  in  another  school,  in  order  to  obtain 
sufficient  means  for  a  medical  course,  and  then 
she  applied  for  admittance  in  the  Philadelphia 
medical  schools.  She  was  everywhere  refused. 
After  a  course  of  private  lessons  under  medical 
professors,  she  finally  obtained  admission  to  the 
University  of  Geneva,  N.  Y.  She  remained 
here  for  two  years,  and  graduated  with  the  high- 
est honors.  Her  propriety  and  discretion  won 
for  her  the  esteem  of  students  and  professors 
alike.  After  graduation  she  visited  England 
and  France,  and  studied  for  some  time  longer. 
In  1851  she  returned  to  New  York,  and  began 
the  practice  of  medicine.  At  first  other  physi- 
cians refused  to  consult  with  her  ;  but  she  over- 
came all  obstacles  and  secured  a  large  practice. 
In  1854,  with  her  sister,  Dr.  Emily  Blackwell 
(?.v.),  she  established  the  New  York  Infirmary 
for  Women  and  Children.  In  1869  she  went  to 
London,  and  there  established  the  National 
Health  Society,  and  aided  in  organizing  the 
London  School  of  Medicine  for  Women.  In 
1878  she  settled  in  Hastings,  England,  and  has 
worked  and  written  on  numerous  social  reforms, 
mainly  on  lines  of  social  purity,  municipal  re- 
form, and  the  health  and  education  of  women. 

BLACKWELL,  EMILY,  was  born  in  Bris- 
tol, England,  in  1826,  a  sister  to  Elizabeth  Black- 
well  (?.v.),  and,  like  her,  came  with  her  father's 
family  to  the  United  States  in  1832.  She  com- 
menced studying  medicine  in  1848,  but  was  re- 
fused admission  in  the  medical  colleges,  and 
only  allowed  to  attend  lectures  for  a  period  in 
two  others,  till  finally  she  was  admitted  to  the 
medical  college  in  Cleveland,  O.  Graduating 
triumphantly,  she  studied  in  hospitals  and  at- 
tended clinics  in  Edinburgh,  Paris,  and  Lon- 
don. She  returned  to  New  York  in  1854,  and  in 
connection  with  Dr.  M.  E.  Zakrzewska  (a  Pol- 
ish lady),  she  established  a  hospital  which  in 
1865  was  given  college  powers.  A  woman's  col- 
lege, it  has  been  and  still  is  a  marked  success. 
Dr.  Blackwell  is  now  one  of  the  vice-presidents 
of  and  very  active  in  the  Society  for  the  Promo- 


tion of  Social  Purity.  She  is  author  of  many 
tracts  upon  this  and  similar  subjects.  (See  SO- 
CIAL PURITY.) 

BLAKE,  Mrs.  LILLIE  DEVEREUX,  was 
born  in  Raleigh,  N.  C.,  in  1835,  of  wealthy  pa- 
rentage. Her  father  dying  in  1837,  his  widow 
removed  to  New  Haven,  and  Miss  Devereux 
was  educated  there  by  private  tutors.  In  1855 
she  married  Frank  G.  Q.  Umsted,  a  young  law- 
yer, and  resided  in  St.  Louis  and  New  York 
City,  till  she  was  left  a  widow  with  two  children 
in  1859.  She  had  already  commenced  writing 
stories,  and  had  published  a  successful  novel,. 
Southwold.  She  now  entered  literature  as  a 
profession,  residing  in  Stratford,  Conn.,  New 
York  City,  and  Washington.  In  1866  she  mar- 
ried Mr.  Grenfill  Blake,  a  young  New  York 
merchant,  and  made  her  home  in  that  city.  In 
1869  she  became  interested  in  the  woman's  suf- 
frage movement,  and  wrote  and  lectured  con- 
tinually. From  1879-90  she  was  President  of 
the  New  York  State  Woman's  Suffrage  Associa- 
tion. She  has  been  active  in  the  agitation  for 
police  matrons  (q.v.),  for  laws  for  seats  for  sales- 
women, etc.  Her  lectures  have  been  printed 
under  the  title  of  Woman's  Place  To-day. 

BLANC,  JEAN  JOSEPH  LOUIS  (1811-82), 
was  born  in  Madrid.  In  1830  he  went  to  Paris 
and  became  a  clerk  in  an  attorney's  office.  In 
1832  he  went  to  Arras  to  act  as  tutor,  where  he 
resided  for  two  years,  making  some  mark  as  a 
writer  on  literary  and  political  affairs.  Return- 
ing to  Paris,  he  founded,  in  1839,  the  Revue  du 
progres  politique,  social  et  litteraire.  In 
this  he  brought  out  his  work  L.' Organisation 
du  Travail,  which  may  fairly  be  called  a  French 
forerunner  of  Karl  Marx's  Das  Kapital ;  tho 
in  its  form  being  an  appeal  rather  than  a 
theory,  it  makes  no  pretensions  to  scientific 
precision.  In  1841  he  published  his  Histoire 
de  dix  ans,  which  was  an  overwhelming  in- 
dictment of  the  actions  of  Louis  Philippe  and 
his  ministers  during  the  years  1831-40.  In 
1847  he  published  the  first  two  volumes  of  his 
Histoire  de  la  revolution  fran^aise.  The 
revolution  which  broke  out  early  in  the  next 
year  compelled  that  to  be  set  aside.  His  popu- 
larity among  the  Parisian  workmen  secured  for 
him  a  seat  in  the  Provisional  Government  then 
formed,  where  he  brought  forward  the  proposals 
for  universal  suffrage  and  the  abolition  of  slav- 
ery. He  was  also  appointed  president  of  a  Gov- 
ernment commission  for  laborers.  In  March  a 
procession  of  200,000  workmen,  headed  by  Blan- 
qui,  offered  him  the  dictatorship,  which  he  re- 
fused. The  Provisional  Government  estab- 
lished the  Ateliers  nationaux  (q.v}.  which  he  had 
advocated,  but  they  were  started  on  such  un- 
sound principles  that  Louis  Blanc  opposed  them 
and  demanded  their  abolition.  He  even  charged 
the  government  with  plotting  their  failure. 
After  four  months'  trial  they  were  abolished, 
having  proved  a  failure  and  a  public  nuisance. 
In  June  and  again  in  August,  1848,  he  was  ac- 
cused in  the  Assembly  of  complicity  in  the  Com- 
munist outbreak  of  May.  Being  condemned  by  a 
large  majority,  he  fled  to  England,  where  he 
stayed  in  exile  for  more  than  20  years,  finishing 
his  Histoire  de  la  revolution  fran<; aise  and  writ- 


Blanc,  Jean  Joseph  Louis. 


177 


Blind  Asylums. 


ing  his  Histoire  de  la  revolution  de  1848  and 
other  works.  In  1870  he  returned  to  Paris  and 
urged  the  citizens  to  prosecute  the  war  to  the 
uttermost.  Till  the  time  of  his  death  he  was 
elected  deputy  for  Paris,  always  voting  with  the 
extreme  Left. 

BLAND  SILVER  BILL.— A  United  States 
statute  of  1878  (20  stat. ,  25)  ;  so  called  from  its 
author,  Richard  P.  Bland,  a  member  of  the 
House  from  Missouri.  It  reestablished  the  sil- 
ver dollar  containing  41 2  £  grs.  troy  of  standard 
silver  as  a  legal  tender  ;  but  its  special  feature 
was  a  clause  requiring  the  treasury  to  purchase 
every  month  not  less  than  $2,000,000  nor  more 
than  $4,000,000  worth  of  silver  bullion  and  to 
coin  it  into  dollars.  (See  SILVER.) 

BLANQUI,  J&R6ME  ADOLPHE  (1798- 
1854). — He  is  sometimes  confused  with  his  broth- 
er, L.  A.  Blanqui,  the  revolutionist,  but  followed 
quite  a  different  course.  From  1830  to  his  death 
he  was  the  head  of  the  Ecole  de  Commerce  of 
Paris,  and  in  1833  replaced  J.  B.  Say  as  Professor 
of  Political  (and  especially  of  Industrial)  Econ- 
omy at  the  Conservatoire  des  Arts  et  Metiers. 
He  was  elected  in  1838  a  member  of  the  Acade- 
mic des  Sciences  morales  et  politiques,  and  rep- 
resented the  department  of  the  Gironde  in  the 
Chamber  of  Deputies.  His  teaching  in  political 
economy  was  liberal  and  progressive.  By  no 
means  a  socialist,  he  yet  favored  many  social- 
istic principles.  The  brilliancy  and  vigor  of  his 
language  is  another  characteristic  which  has 
aided  him  much.  He  was  the  author  of  several 
works.  Of  these  the  most  important  are  :  Re- 
sume de  I'  histoire  du  commerce  et  de  I' Indus- 
trie (Paris,  1826,  iSmo)  ;  pre'cis  elementaire 
d' economic  politique  (Paris,  1826  and  1842, 
1  32tno)  ;  Histoire  de  I'e'conomie  politique  en 
Europe,  depuis  les  anciens  jusqu' a  nos  jours, 
suivie  d'une  bibliographic  raisonnde  des  prin- 
cipaux  outrages  a  dconomie  politiqite  (Paris, 
1838,  1842,  and  1845).  This  last  work  has  been 
translated  into  several  languages.  Tho  not 
of  the  greatest  merit,  it  has  nevertheless  done 
important  pioneer  work  in  a  needed  study. 

BLANQUI,  LOUIS  AUGUSTS  (1805-81), 
was  born  in  Puget  Theniers  ;  came  in  1824  to 
Paris  and  became  a  teacher  and  student  of  law 
and  medicine.  On  the  breaking  out  of  an  in- 
surrection in  1827  he  took  his  sword  and  joined 
the  cause  of  the  people,  taking  his  part  from 
this  date  in  every  Paris  insurrection.  He  edited 
Le  fournal  de  la  Socidte  des  Amis  du  Peuple, 
and  for  this  was  imprisoned.  Complicated  in 
various  conspiracies,  he  was  imprisoned  for  two 
years,  in  1836,  but  was  pardoned  in  1837.  In 
1839  he  organized  another  insurrection,  which 
was  quickly  put  down,  and  Blanqui  condemned 
to  death — a  verdict  changed  to  imprisonment 
for  life.  Confined  at  Mont  Saint  Michel,  and  at 
Tours,  he  was  freed  by  the  February  Revolu- 
tion of  1848.  By  February  25  he  was  in  Paris 
and  organizing  the  Central  Republican  Com- 
mittee. On  May  15  he  was  captured  and  im- 
prisoned 10  years  at  Belle  Isle  and  in  Corsica. 
Amnestied  in  1859,  he  was,  in  1861,  accused  of 
conspiracy  and  imprisoned  four  years.  When 
the  republic  was  proclaimed  (September,  1870) 


he  went  to  Paris  and  advocated  the  principles 
of  the  extreme  Left,  publishing  his  La  Patrie 
en  danger.  After  the  Commune  he  was  ar- 
rested by  Thiers,  and  (1872)  condemned  to  de- 
portation ;  but  on  account  of  ill  health  was  held  in 
Quelern  and  Clairvaux,  and  pardoned  by  Grevy, 
June  9,  1879.  He  was  elected  deputy  in  Bor- 
deaux in  1879,  but  was  declared  ineligible.  A 
mystic,  a  revolutionist,  an  autocrat,  Blanqui 
was  no  mean  thinker,  and  a  convinced  com- 
munist socialist.  His  main  writings  are  Z'  Eter- 
nite  dans  les  astres  (1872) ;  L'  Armee  esclave 
et  opprimee  (1880) ;  Critique  sociale  (2  vols. ,  ap- 
pearing after  his  death,  1883). 

BLATCHFORD,  ROBERT  P.,  was  born 
at  Maidstone,  England,  March  17,  1851,  and 
apprenticed  to  a  trade  in  Halifax,  1864,  serving 
seven  years.  In  1871  he  joined  the  army  and 
served  till  1877.  Obtaining  work  as  time  keeper 
and  clerk  at  30?.  a  week,  he  married  in  1880. 
He  began  writing  soon  after,  contributing  to 
The  Yorkshireman  a.n&Toby.  In  1885  he  re- 
moved to  London  to  join  the  staff  of  Bell' s  Life, 
and  wrote  for  the  Sunday  Chronicle  at  its  start 
in  August,  1885,  under  the  nom  de  plume  of 
"  Nunquam."  He  soon  declared  himself  a  so- 
cialist, and  has  been  writing  on  social  questions 
ever  since.  In  October,  1891,  refusing  to  re- 
strain his  pen,  he  left  the  Sunday  Chronicle, 
and  soon  after,  on  December  12, 1891,  issued  the 
first  number  of  The  Clarion,  in  whose  pages  his 
history  has  since  been  written.  In  1891  he  was 
named  as  parliamentary  candidate  for  East 
Bradford,  but  soon  withdrew,  having  no  taste 
for  politics.  He  originated  the  ' '  Fourth  Clause, ' ' 
about  which  so  much  agitation  has  been  raised; 
and  which  practically  laid  the  foundation  of  the 
I.  L.  P.  It  reads,  at  present,  substantially  as  fol- 
lows :  "  That  all  members  of  the  I.  L.  P.  pledge 
themselves  to  abstain  from  voting  for  any  candi- 
date for  election  to  any  representative  body  who 
is  in  any  way  a  nominee  of  the  Liberal,  Liberal 
Unionist,  Irish  Nationalist,  or  Conservative  par- 
ties." His  latest  volume,  Merrie  England,  a 
series  of  letters  on  the  labor  problem  to  a  work- 
ing man,  which  first  appeared  in  The  Clarion, 
is  now  sold  complete  for  a  penny,  and  has 
reached  a  sale  of  well  over  a  million  copies. 

BLIND,  KARL,  the  German  revolutionist, 
was  born  in  Mannheim  in  1826.  Even  while  a 
student  in  Heidelberg  and  Bonn  he  began  to 
organize  revolutionary  societies.  In  1847  he 
underwent  a  short  imprisonment  for  a  tract,1 
German  Hunger  and  German  Princes.  In 
the  revolutions  of  1848  he  played  a  prominent 
part  at  Carlsruhe  and  Frankfort.  He  escaped 
to  Alsace,  but  took  part  continually  in  revolu- 
tionary uprisings  till  he  was  compelled  to  flee 
both  from  Germany  and  France,  since  which  he 
has  resided  in  England,  writing  literary  and  po- 
litical articles.  His  views  are  of  national  as  op- 
posed to  international  socialism  and  of  socialism 
as  opposed  to  anarchism.  He  strongly  support- 
ed the  movement  for  German  unity  in  1870. 

BLIND  ASYLUMS,  OR  "SCHOOLS 
FOR  THE  BLIND."— Bulletin  No.  81  (Cen- 
sus of  1890)  gives  the  following  statistics  for 
schools  for  the  blind  in  the  United  States  : 


Blind  Asylums. 


178 


Blind  Asylums. 


DECADES. 

PUPILS. 

EXPENDITURES. 

Total. 

Male. 

Female. 

Total. 

Current. 

Building. 

Total  

56,485 

25,795 

22,942 

$15,598,952 

$11,909,514 

$3,689,438 

3)444 
6,087 
9>"7 
13,856 
23,981 

1,103 

2,211 

3.3J6 

6,493 
12,672 

921 

1,979 
3,224 
5,819 
10,999 

$610,747 

1,337,955 
2,600,687 
4,207,601 
6,620,265 

$514,134 
1,000,372 
1,911,794 
3,022,201 
5,339<3rf 

$96,613 

337,583 
688,893 
1,185,400 
1,280,949 

1870-80  

The  following  institutions  do  not  state  sex  in 
their  reports  for  the  decades  indicated,  which 
will  account  for  the  apparent  discrepancies  be- 
tween the  items  and  total  of  the  above  sum- 
mary : 

The  Perkins  Institution  and  Massachusetts 
School  for  the  Blind  :  Total  number  of  pu- 


pils, 1840-50,  817  ;  1850-60,  iii2  ;  1860-70, 
1261. 

Ohio  Institution  for  the  Blind,  Columbus : 
Total  number  of  pupils,  1840-50,  603  ;  1850-60, 
785  ;  1860-70,  1316  ;  1870-80,  1544. 

West  Virginia  School  for  the  Deaf  and  Blind, 
Romney  :  Total  number  of  pupils,  1880-90,  310. 


SUMMARY  OF  STATISTICS  OF  SCHOOLS  FOR  THE  YEARS  1880-89,  INCLUSIVE. 


YEARS. 

PUPILS. 

EXPENDITURES. 

Total. 

Male. 

Female. 

Total. 

Current. 

Building. 

Total  

23,981 

12,672 

10,999 

$6,620,265 

$5,339,3l6 

$1,280,949 

880  

2,041 
2,096 
2,038 
2,230 
2,286 
2,397 
2,554 
2,638 
2,770 
2,931 

,064 

,°97 
,062 
,i59 

,200 
,266 

,353 

,4'5 
,478 
,578 

955 
974 
946 
°39 
050 
099 
170 
190 
257 
319 

$572,225 
560,183 
sg1,^ 
611,894 
715,034 
743,232 
647,710 
679,632 

753,775 
744,763 

$415,108 
481,197 
502,149 
520,864 
538,441 
563,078 
561,002 
587,636 
594,168 
575,673 

$I57,"7 

78,986 
89,668 
91,030 

176,593 
180,154 
86,708 
91,996 
159,607 
169,090 

ggi    

882  

883  

884  

885                 

886  

887  

888                          

880.  .  . 

The  West  Virginia  School  for  the  Deaf  and 
Blind,  at  Romney,  total  number  of  pupils  310, 
does  not  state  sex,  which  accounts  for  the  ap- 
parent discrepancy  between  the  items  and  total 
of  the  above  summary. 

The  average  annual  cost  and  the  average  an- 
nual current  expenditures  per  pupil  in  schools 
for  the  blind  by  decades  from  1840-90  were  as 
follows  : 


DECADES. 

Average  An- 
nual Cost. 

Average  An- 
nual Current 
Expenditures. 

$268 

388 

285 

268 

1880-90  

288 

The  average  annual  cost  and  the  average  an- 
nual current  expenditures  per  pupil  in  schools 
for  the  blind  by  years  from  1880-89,  inclusive, 
were  as  follows  : 


YEARS. 

Average 
Cost. 

Average 
Current 

Expenditures. 

880  

881  

882  

883  

28O 

238 

884  

885   

886  

887  

888  ...                  .   .           

283 

889    

280 

These  averages  are  based  only  upon  those  in- 
stitutions making  complete  returns. 

The  total  number  of  pupils  in  schools  for  the 
blind  in  the  United  States  in  1889  was  2931, 
while  in  1880  the  number  was  2041,  an  increase 
in  the  decade  of  8ox>.  It  must  be  borne  in  mind 
that  the  apparent  increase  in  the  decade  is  due 
to  some  extent  to  the  increased  facilities  for  the 
reception  and  education  of  the  blind  in  the 
schools  established  for  this  purpose. 


Bliss,  William  Dwight  Porter. 


179 


Blue  Ribbon  Movements. 


BLISS,  WILLIAM  DWIGHT  POR- 
TER, was  born  in  1856  in  Constantinople, 
Turkey  ;  the  son  of  Rev.  E.  E.  Bliss,  D.D.,  an 
American  missionary.  He  studied  in  Robert 
College,  Constantinople  ;  Phillips  Academy, 
Andover,  Mass.;  Amherst  College,  1874-78  ; 
Hartford  Theological  Seminary,  1878-82.  He 
was  settled  over  the  Fourth  Congregational 
Church,  Denver,  Col.,  but  on  account  of  failing 
health,  he  soon  returned  to  the  East,  and  was 
settled  at  South  Natick,  Mass.  He  was  mar- 
ried in  London  to  Mary  Pangalo,  in  1884. 
In  1885  he  became  interested  in  socialism 
through  seeing  the  workmen  in  factory  villages 
and  reading  Henry  George  and  the  Christian 
Union.  In  1886  he  entered  the  Episcopal 
Church,  and  took  charge  of  St.  George's  Church, 
Lee,  Mass.  Here  he  joined  the  Knights  of 
Labor  ;  was  Master  Workman  of  the  Assembly 
at  Lee,  and  in  1887  sent  to  Cincinnati  as  dele- 
gate from  the  Knights  of  Labor,  being  one  of 
the  secretaries  of  the  Union  Labor  Convention. 
The  same  year  he  helped  start  with  Father 
Huntington,  in  New  York  City,  the  Church  As- 
sociation for  the  Advancement  of  the  Interests 
of  Labor  (Cail).  In  1888  he  took  charge  of  Grace 
Church,  South  Boston.  He  was  nominated  for 
Lieutenant-Governor  of  Massachusetts  by  the 
Labor  Party,  but  declined  the  nomination.  He 
was  one  of  the  founders  of  the  first  Nationalist 
club  in  Boston  in  1889,  and  soon  after,  with 
other  clergymen,  organized  the  Society  of  Chris- 
tian Socialists.  He  also  started  the  Dawn,  and 
published  it  until  1896.  Resigning  his  parish 
in  South  Boston  in  1890  he  formed  the  Mission 
and  Brotherhood  of  the  Carpenter,  which  has 
since  grown  into  the  Church  of  the  Carpenter. 
In  1895  he  commenced  editing  The  American 
Fabian.  He  has  done  much  lecturing  for  the 
Society  of  Christian  Socialists,  the  Christian  So- 
cial Union,  and  other  organizations.  He  is  the 
author  of  numerous  tracts,  mainly  on  Christian 
socialism.  He  is  also  editor  of  the  (American) 
Social  Science  Library,  author  of  the  Handbook 
of  Socialism  (1895),  and  editor  of  this  encyclo- 
pedia. 

-  BLOCK,  MAURICE,  was  born  on  February 
18,  1816,  at  Berlin  ;  in  1818  he  went  to  Paris  with 
his  parents.  Here  his  studies  were  pursued,  with 
the  exception  of  two  years  in  Germany.  Upon 
his  return  to  Paris  he  was  naturalized,  and  in 
1843  entered  the  Bureau  of  Statistics,  where  he 
had  charge  of  the  Department  of  Labor.  In 
1862  he  resigned  in  order  to  put  to  use  the  knowl- 
edge he  had  gained.  He  has  received  several 
scholastic  honors,  is  a  Fellow  of  the  Superior 
Council  of  Statistics,  and  has  been  often  intrust- 
ed with  missions  for  scientific  purposes.  His  Le 
Progres  de  la  science  economique  depuis 
Adam  Smith  (1890)  Professor  Seligman  calls  "  a 
work  which  in  some  respects  compares  with  the 
best  production  of  recent  times  in  any  country. ' ' 
He  is  best  known,  however,  by  his  Traite'  tneo- 
rique  et  pratique  de  statistique  (1886)  and  his 
various  statistical  writings  for  the  French  Gov- 
ernment, and  in  his  valuable  Annuaires  de 
I*  economie  politique  et  de  la  statistique. 

BLOOMER,  Mrs.  AMELIA,  was  born  in 
Homer,  N.  Y. ,  in  1818,  and  in  1840  was  married 
to  D.  C.  Bloomer,  of  Seneca  Falls,  where  she 


resided  till  1855.  She  commenced  working  for 
temperance  and  then  for  woman's  suffrage. 
January,  1849,  after  the  first  woman's  rights 
convention,  she  commenced  the  publication  of 
the  Lily,  the  first  paper  ever  owned,  edited,  and 
controlled  by  a  woman  in  the  interests  of  wom- 
en. In  1852  she  called  attention  to  the  style  of 
dress  since  called  by  her  name,  though  she  did 
not  originate  it.  She  wore  it,  however,  for  six 
years.  In  1 8  5  5  she  sold  out  her  paper  an  d  mo  ved 
to  Council  Bluffs,  la.  In  1852  she  commenced 
lecturing,  and  continued  till  ill  health  prevent- 
ed, ending  in  her  death  in  1895. 

BLUE  RIBBON  MOVEMENTS.— A  dis- 
tinguishing feature  of  many  of  the  movements 
for  the  reformation  of  drinking  men  has  been 
the  bit  of  ribbon,  generally  blue  or  red,  worn 
by  the  reformed  men  and  others  interested. 
The  red  ribbon  was  adopted  by  Dr.  Henry  A. 
Reynolds,  September  10,  1874,  as  the  badge  of 
the  Bangor  (Me.)  Reform  Club,  which  he  organ- 
ized at  that  time,  and  which,  consisting  of  re- 
formed drinking  men,  was  the  first  club  of  its 
kind  ever  formed.  Throughout  the  remarkable 
pledge-signing  campaigns  that  followed  in 
Massachusetts,  Connecticut,  New  Hampshire, 
Rhode  Island,  Michigan,  Illinois,  and  other 
States,  Dr.  Reynolds  made  the  red  ribbon  the 
sign  of  membership  in  the  clubs  he  started,  and 
they  came  to  be  known  as  Red  Ribbon  Reform 
Clubs.  The  white  ribbon  was  adopted  by  Dr. 
Reynolds  in  connection  with  the  red,  the  former 
to  be  worn  by  women  and  by  young  men  under 
1 8.  The  white  ribbon  is  also  worn  by  all  ladies 
of  the  Woman's  Christian  Temperance  Union. 
But  the  blue  ribbon  has  been  associated  with 
temperance  reform  movements  more  extensively 
than  any  other  badge.  It  was  adopted  by 
Francis  Murphy,  and  has  been  donned  by  very 
many  thousands  in  this  country  whom  he  has 
induced  to  sign  the  pledge. 

The  idea  was  borrowed  in  England.  On  Feb- 
ruary 10, 1878,  a  conference  of  temperance  work- 
ers was  held  in  London,  and  a  total  abstinence 
campaign  was  determined  on.  A  central  mis- 
sion was  to  be  established  in  London,  with  town 
organizations  in  the  provinces  as  the  work 
spread.  The  blue  ribbon  was  chosen,  and  the 
"  Blue  Ribbon  Army"  was  adopted  as  the  name 
of  the  organization.  Mr.  William  Noble,  who 
took  a  prominent  part  in  the  inauguration  of 
this  work,  had  recently  returned  from  a  visit  to 
the  United  States,  where  he  had  seen  something 
of  the  methods  employed  in  the  Murphy  and 
Reynolds  movements.  Pledge  cards  were  issued 
and  scattered  throughout  the  British  Empire, 
and  during  the  years  since  they  have  been  trans- 
lated into  several  languages,  and  have  found 
their  way  into  various  coun tries  of  Europe,  into 
Africa  and  the  Sandwich  Islands.  More  than 
1,000,000  pledges  have  been  officially  issued  in 
addition  to  the  pledges  issued  by  independent 
workers  cooperating  with  the  movement.  A 
change  in  the  name  from  "  Blue  Ribbon  Army" 
to  "  Blue  Ribbon  Gospel  Temperance  Move- 
ment' '  has  been  made,  and  several  branch  or- 
ganizations, such  as  the  "  Help-Myself  Society" 
among  men  and  the  "  Help-One- Another  So- 
ciety" among  women,  have  grown  out  of  the 
original  movement. 


Bluntschli,  Johann  Kaspar. 


1 80 


Boot  and  Shoe  Industry. 


BLUNTSCHLI,  JOHANN    KASPAR,   a 

German  jurist,  was  born  in  Switzerland  in  1808. 
He  graduated  at  Bonn  in  1829.  He  was  pro- 
fessor in  the  University  of  Zurich,  a  member  of 
the  Grand  Council  of  the  local  Government,  and 
strongly  opposed  the  civil  war  of  1847-48.  In 
1848  he  became  Professor  of  German  and  Inter- 
national Law  at  Munich,  and  in  1861  Professor 
of  Political  Science  at  Heidelberg.  In  1864, 
with  Baumgarten  and  others,  he  founded  the 
Protestant  Union,  and  subsequently  presided 
over  several  Protestant  conventions,  and  over 
the  General  Synod  at  Baden  in  1867.  He  was 
in  favor  of  a  union  between  South  and  North 
Germany,  and  was  elected  to  the  Customs  Par- 
liament. Bluntschli  is  the  author  of  many  valu- 
able works  on  politics,  laws,  and  the  sciences  ; 
his  best-known  book  in  this  country  being  his 
Theory  of  the  State  (translated  from  the  sixth 
German  edition  by  R.  Lodge). 

BOHM,  von  BAWERK,  EUGEN,  was  born 
February  1 2 , 1 8  5 1 ,  at  Briinn ,  in  Moravia.  He  en- 
tered the  Austrian  Ministry  of  Finance  in  1872, 
where  he  remained  until  1880.  In  the  mean  time 
he  had  received  the  degree  of  LL.D.  from  Vien- 
na, and  had  improved  his  two  years'  leave  of  ab- 
sence to  prosecute  his  sociological  studies  at 
Heidelberg,  Leipzig,  and  Jena,  under  Knies, 
Roscher,  and  Hildebrand.  In  1880,  immediately 
after  his  installation  as  privat-docent  at  Vien- 
na, he  was  called  to  Innsbruck.  In  1889  he  ac- 
cepted a  councilor's  seat  in  the  Austrian  Minis- 
try of  Finance.  The  best  known  of  the  impor- 
tant school  of  Austrian  political  economists,  his 
main  work  is  his  Kapital  und  Kapitalzins, 
vol.  i.  (1884),  a  critical  review  of  all  theories  of 
capital,  translated  into  English  by  W.  Smart 
(1890),  under  the  title  Capital  and  interest,  vol. 
ii.  (1889),  giving  his  positive  theory  of  capital, 
and  also  translated  by  Smart  as  The  Positive 
Theory  of  Capital  (1891). 

BOILEAU  (or  BOYLEAU),  ETIENNE, 
was  born  about  1200.  He  joined  the  Crusades 
under  Louis  IX.  (St.  Louis),  was  captured,  and 
ransomed  by  that  monarch  at  a  high  price.  At 
one  time  Provost  of  Orleans,  he  subsequently 
became  (1258-70)  Provost  of  Paris.  Boileau,  a 
man  of  noble  birth  and  incorruptible  character, 
suppressed  venality,  meted  out  justice,  estab- 
lished the  police  of  Paris,  and  hanged  his  god- 
son for  theft,  and  a  friend  for  dishonesty.  St. 
Louis,  as  a  mark  of  confidence  and  approval, 
sometimes  sat  beside  him  at  the  Chatelet,  where 
he  administered  justice.  But  the  great  work  of 
Boileau  was  his  compilation,  about  1268,  of  the 
Livre  des  Metiers,  a  code  of  the  regulations 
affecting  the  various  industries  of  Paris.  The 
exordium  states  the  intention  of  the  compiler 
to  treat  of  (i)  the  trades  of  Paris,  their  ordi- 
nances and  the  breaches  thereof,  with  the  ap- 
propriate fines  ;  (2)  fees,  tolls,  taxes,  and  dues  ; 
(3)  justice  and  jurisdictions  in  Paris  and  the 
neighborhood.  The  third  part  either  was  not 
written  or  has  been  lost.  The  Registres  so 
formed  constitute  a  highly  valuable  record  of 
the  condition  of  industrial  society  at  the  time- 
its  trade  privileges,  masters,  apprentices,  their 
number,  conduct,  terms  of  service,  holidays, 
quality  of  work  and  of  goods,  prices,  middle- 


men, fines,  dues,  etc.  This  compilation  has 
been  regarded  as  a  landmark  in  the  history  of 
economics. 

Reference  :  Article  in  Palgrave's  Dictionary  of  Polit- 
ical Economy,  which  we  have  here  abridged. 

BOILER-MAKERS  AND  IRON  SHIP- 
BUILDERS, UNITED  SOCIETY  OF 

(English).  See  TRADE  UNIONS,  section  "  Eng- 
land." 

BOISSEL,  FRANCOIS  (1728-1807),  was 
born  at  Joyeux,  in  Vivarais.  Educated  by  the 
Jesuits,  he  became  in  1753  parliamentary  attor- 
ney in  Paris,  but  soon  removed  to  St.  Domingo. 
A  contest  with  the  Government  over  his  profes- 
sion brought  him  back  to  Paris  and  kept  him 
there  20  years.  On  the  breaking  out  of  the  rev- 
olution he  took  an  extreme  Jacobin  position. 
He  is  best  known  for  his  Catechisme  du  genre 
Humaine  (1789),  in  which  appear  many  of  the 
germs  of  later  French  socialistic  thought.  His 
first  writing  was  Discours  contre  les  Servi- 
tude Publiques  (1786). 

BOODLE  was  originally  a  vulgarism  for 
money,  and  more  particularly  for  booty  ;  a 
phrase  used  in  barrooms  and  at  the  street  cor- 
ners. Gradually  some  of  the  more  vulgar  and 
sensational  newspapers  began  to  make  use  of  it 
in  their  articles  dealing  with  the  classes  that 
were  themselves  in  the  habit  of  employing  the 
term.  Among  these,  the  majority  of  the  alder- 
men of  New  York  City  were  numbered,  and 
the  bribes  that  these  were  supposed  to  be  in 
the  habit  of  receiving  were  referred  to  under 
that  name.  The  charges  of  bribery  were 
brought  prominently  forward  by  the  investiga- 
tion in  1886,  by  a  committee  of  the  Assembly, 
into  the  circumstances  attending  the  grant  by 
the  aldermen  in  the  previous  year  of  a  charter 
for  a  street  railroad  on  Broadway  in  that  city. 
Jacob  Sharp,  a  man  largely  interested  in  New 
York  street  railroads,  was  popularly  thought  to 
have  bribed  the  aldermen  to  grant  the  franchise. 
Much  interest  in  the  investigation  was  manifest- 
ed by  the  public,  and  the  terms  "  boodle"  and 
"  boodlers"  were  continually  used  by  the  news- 
papers. The  general  use  into  which  the  term 
was  thus  brought,  added  to  the  fact  that  it  is  a 
concise  term,  tended  to  purge  it  of  its  vulgar 
associations,  and  to  give  it  standing  in  the 
vocabulary  of  the  day.  The  term  "  boodler"  is 
now  universally  applied  to  bribe-takers,  more 
particularly  to  those  connected  with  municipal 
governments,  and  most  accurately  to  bribed 
aldermen.  (See  BROADWAY  STEALS.) 

BOOT  AND  SHOE  INDUSTRY  OF 
AMERICA,  THE,  employing  some  200,000 
men  and  women,  with  factories  in  all  sections 
of  the  country,  manufacturing  annually  millions 
of  pairs  of  boots  and  shoes,  for  which  more  than 
$200,000,000  are  received,  had  its  origin  in  an 
humble  manner  in  what  is  now  the  city  of  Lynn, 
Mass,  .where,  in  1634,  Philip  Kertland  established 
a  shoe-making  shop.  From  his  beginning  gradu- 
ally sprang,  from  time  to  time,  more  little  shops, 
until  1750,  when  the  first  actual  employing 
manufacturer  appeared  in  the  person  of  John 
Adam  Dagyr,  a  Welshman,  who  laid  the  founda- 
tion of  the  modern  trade. 


Boot  and  Shoe  Industry. 


181 


Boot  and  Shoe  Industry. 


Dagyr  became  known  as  the  celebrated  shoemaker 
of  Essex,  and  was  very  successful,  but  eventually  died 
a  pauper.  Prom  this  time  the  industry  gradually 
developed  and  spread  over  Massachusetts,  then  en- 
tered New  England,  the  Middle  and  Western  States, 
Canada,  and  finally  the  Southern  States.  The  manu- 
facturers of  Lynn,  with  few  exceptions,  have  confined 
themselves  to  the  making  of  women's  sewed  shoes, 
altho  large  numbers  of  men's  and  children's  shoes 
have  also  been  and  are  made  there.  The  establish- 
ment of  the  industry  in  Haverhill  made  that  the  prin- 
cipal point  for  the  manufacture  of  pegged  shoes, 
mostly  for  women's  wear  ;  and  Marblehead,  of  historic 
fame,  devoted  attention  mainly  to  the  making  of 
children's  shoes,  while  Brockton,  Milford,  Natick, 
and  towns  in  Western  Massachusetts  made  a  specialty 
of  men's  boots  and  shoes.  Marlboro  entered  largely 
into  the  manufacture  of  women's  shoes.  In  1812  boots 
and  shoes  were  sent  in  wagon-loads  from  Lynn  and 
Haverhill  to  New  York  and  Philadelphia. 

The  shoe  factory  of  that  time,  where  the  shoes  were 
cut,  was  a  modest  affair,  being  small,  not  larger  than 
an  ordinary  house  of  the  present  day.  The  uppers 
were  distributed  to  the  wives  and  daughters  of  shoe- 
makers, to  be  stitched  and  bound,  and  were  returned 
to  the  manufacturer,  or,  as  he  was  commonly  known, 
the  "shoe  boss."  He  then  gave  them  out  with  the  sole 
leather  to  the  shoemakers,  to  be  made  in  little  shops, 
generally  about  10  or  12  feet  square  ;  and  oftentimes 
the  kitchen  or  some  part  of  the  dwelling  was  utilized 
for  the  purpose.  What  is  known  as  the  factory  of  to- 
dafy  really  began  in  1857,  when  the  manufacturers 
began  taking  advantage  of  the  invention  of  the  sewing 
machine,  and  gradually  drew  the  work  of  stitching, 
and  sometimes  the  making,  within  the  factory.  Up  to 
the  time  of  the  advent  of  machinery  the  shoe  towns 
presented  as  a  feature  the  little  shoemakers'  shops  at 
every  turn  and  on  every  hand.  The  introduction  of 
machinery  was  followed  by  large  factories,  and  the 
massing  together  of  large  numbers  of  men  and  women 
under  one  roof.  Those  little  New  England  shoe- 
makers' shops  were  really  lyceums,  and  a  wonderful 
aid  in  the  educational  development  of  the  people. 
The  daily  newspaper  was  as  much  a  necessity  as  the 
fire  in  winter,  each  workman  in  turn  serving  as  reader, 
and  the  rest  doing  a  portion  of  his  work  that  he 
might  not  be  the  loser.  Sometimes  a  contribution  was 
made  and  a  school-boy  employed  to  read  the  paper. 
Every  article  was  discussed  pro  and  con  ;  every  work- 
man kept  himself  thoroughly  posted  regarding  public 
events,  and  questions  philosophic,  theoretical,  and 
practical  received  earnest  attention. 

In  1859  a  sole-sewing  machine  was  introduced,  and 
-wrought  a  revolution  in  the  trade.  This  was  the  inven- 
tion of  Blake,  but  was  remodeled  and  improved  by  a 
Lawrence  mechanic,  Gordon  McKay,  and  superseded 
all  the  then  known  appliances  for  joining  the  upper  and 
sole  together,  and  really  made  the  factory  system  of  to- 
day. Then  in  rapid  succession  followed  machine  after 
machine — skivers,  buffers,  edge  trimmers,  edge  setters, 
channellers,  beating-out  machines,  molders,  heel 
polishers,  pegging  machines,  sole  cutters— and  many 
more  whose  number  is  still  on  the  increase.  This 
divided  and  subdivided  the  work,  until  from  a  real 
shoemaker  the  workman  has  become  only  about  the 
eightieth  part  of  one.  In  the  department  of  women's 
work  the  machinery  as  rapidly  entered.  From  the 
Grover  and  Baker,  the  Singer,  and  many  others,  to  the 
present  time,  the  inventor  has  been  on  the  alert,  and  the 
same  degree  of  subdivision  is  apparent.  The  present 
factory  system  was  well  developed  by  1870.  Since  the 
McKay  machine,  the  most  important  machine  intro- 
duced is  the  Goodyear  welt  machine,  which  is  destined 
to  become,  if  it  is  not  already,  as  necessary  as  the  Mc- 
Kay. This  machine  in  its  operation  approaches  more 
nearly  than  any  other  yet  devised  the  hand-work 
formerly  done  in  the  little  shops. 

There  are  annually  manufactured  in  the  United 
States  about  180,000,000  pairs  of  women's  and  children's 
shoes,  and  about  80,000,000  pairs  of  men's.  The  average 
wages  appear  to  be  about  $500  annually.  The  greatest 
distributing  center  is  at  Boston,  Mass.,  more  than  half 
of  all  shoes  made  being  handled  at  this  point;  and  in 
one  State  alone — viz.,  Massachusetts,  over  one  third 
of  all  these  boots  and  shoes  are  manufactured.  New 
York,  Philadelphia,  Chicago,  St.  Louis,  and  Cincinnati, 
have  become  important  as  manufacturing  and  shoe- 
distributing  points.  Before  the  factory  system  was 
established,  the  New  England  farmer  became  in  the 
winter  a  shoemaker,  and  from  Lynn,  Haverhill,  Bev- 
erly, Marblehead,  Natick,  and  other  places  obtained 
his  shoes  and  stock.  So  largely  was  this  practised, 
that  regular  express  routes  were  established  and 
maintained  for  this  traffic  alone.  Organizations  among 


men  and  women  working  at  the  shoe  trade  have  been 
many,  and  have  generally  resulted  in  marked  improve- 
ment in  their  condition.  The  first  or- 
ganization was  known  as  the  Sons  of  St. 
Crispin,  existing  previous  to  the  factory  Labor  Organ- 
syatem,  and  did  not  appear  as  an  im-  i-oHAno 
portant  factor.  The  first  really  im-  "auons. 
portant  and  effective  organization  was 
the  Knights  of  St.  Crispin,  and  to  every 
shoemaker  the  letters  K.  O.  S.  C.  were  familiar.  In 
1864  Newell  Daniels  conceived  the  plan,  and  with 
some  fellow- workmen  in  Milford,  Mass.,  drafted  a 
rough  or  crude  constitution.  Daniels  went  West, 
locating  at  Milwaukee,  Wis.,  and  there,  March  i,  1867, 
established  the  first  lodge,  with  seven  members,  one 
of  whom,  F.  W.  Wallace,  gave  to  the  order  its  name,  in 
honor  of  the  patron  saint  of  the  shoemakers.  The 
German  Custom  Shoemakers  of  Milwaukee  became 
Lodge  No.  2,  after  which  Daniels  started  on  a 
propagating  tour,  and  lodges  were  established  in 
various  shoe  towns  of  New  York,  Massachusetts,  and 
other  States.  The  Grand  Lodge  was  organized  at 
Rochester,  N.  Y.,  in  1868,  with  representatives  from 
60  lodges,  and  Martin  Gavin  as  the  first  presiding 
officer.  For  five  years  thereafter  the  order  was  a 
power  in  the  land,  becoming  the  foremost  trade  organi- 
zation in  the  world.  It  made  and  unmade  politicians, 
it  started  cooperative  stores,  it  maintained  a  monthly 
journal,  it  fought  against  threatened  reductions  of 
wages,  and  succeeded  in  generally  establishing  higher 
rates  of  wages.  The  order  grew  until  it  became  inter- 
national in  its  character,  by  extending  mainly  to  Can- 
ada, until  400  lodges  and  over  40,000  members  were 
borne  on  its  rolls.  But  discord  arose  and  a  rapid  decay 
set  in  in  1874,  tho  an  attempt,  attended  with  partial  suc- 
cess, was  made  in  1875  to  revive  the  order.  In  1877  it 
really  did  assume  such  shape  and  size  as  to  successfully 
battle  with  and  defeat  the  Lynn  manufacturers ;  but 
again  by  1878  the  order  was  extinct,  dying  because  it 
had  undertaken  a  work  beyond  its  strength.  Then 
followed  regularly  annual  reductions  in  wages  until 
organization  again  appeared.  In  December,  1869,  16 
Lynn  lasters  (those  working  at  that  part  of  the  trade 
known  as  lasting  the  shoes)  organized  the  Lasters' 
Protective  Union ;  they  being  then  among  the  poorest 
paid  of  any  in  the  business  felt  in  a  greater  degree  the 
need  of  union.  The  organization  spread  until  to-day 
they  claim  about  80  unions  and  about  15,000  members. 
The  Lynn  union  leased  a  hall,  opened  an  office,  and 
made  its  secretary  its  representative  in  all  matters  be- 
tween themselves  and  tneir  employers,  in  reality,  the 
walking  delegate.  At  the  formation  of  a  general  organ- 
ization the  general  secretary,  Edward  L.  Daily,  was 
made  the  representative  in  ail  cases. 

The  improvement  in  the  condition  of  the  lasters  from 
the  inception  of  their  organization  till  its  present  time 
has  been  marked. 

The  Knights  of  Labor  were  introduced  into  Massa- 
chusetts by  a  shoemaker,  Charles  H.  Litchman,  in  1878. 
The  shoe  craft  of  Philadelphia  had  already  turned  their 
attention  to  this  organization,  and  their  Eastern  breth- 
ren gradually  followed  until  the  trade  generally  united 
in  organization,  but  this  time  in  conjunction  with  other 
occupations.  The  shoemakers  remained  with  the 
Knights  of  Labor  until  1888,  when  all  but  a  remnant 
withdrew  and  formed  the  Boot  and  Shoe  Workers' 
International  Union,  with  Henry  J.  Skeffington  as 
secretary.  This  year  (1895)  these  various  organizations 
have  voted  to  enter  into  a  small  organization,  the 
Boot  and  Shoe  Workers'  National  Union. 

The  various  organizations  of  the  shoe  trade  have 
many  times  locked  horns  with  the  manufacturers,  and 
•while  sometimes  defeated,  have  generally  succeeded. 
The  briefest  mention  of  a  few  important  occasions 
of  this  sort  may  suffice.  Probably  when  all  things 
are  considered,  the  greatest  strike  in  the  trade  was 
'in  1860,  beginning  in  Lynn.  The  panic  of  1857  brought 
wages  to  a  low  ebb,  and  there  was  much  suffering  and 
discontent ;  and  in  consequence  of  the  efforts  of  Alonzo 
G.  Draper,  afterward  a  brigadier-general  in  the  Union 
army,  a  strike  took  place  February  14,  1860,  with  5000 
people  parading  the  streets.  For  seven  weeks  parades 
•were  frequent,  the  city  organizing  by  wards,  the  women 
operatives  to  the  number  of  2000  parading  with  the  men. 
The  shoemakers  were  then  known  as  cordwainers, 
and  during  the  strike  they  formed  the  Journeymen 
Cordwainers'  Association.  In  anticipation  of  trouble, 
Colonel  Coffin,  commanding  the  Eighth  Regiment 
M.  V.  M.,  ordered  Company  F,  known  as  the  Lynn  City 
Guards,  to  report  for  duty.  They  did  so,  but  nearly  all 
being  themselves  shoemakers,  officers  and  men  volun- 
teered their  services  to  the  strikers  for  escort  duty,  and 
being  accepted,  were  thereafter  a  feature  of  the  pa- 
rades. The  strike  spread  to  Marblehead,  Beverly, 


Boot  and  Shoe  Industry. 


182 


Booth,  Charles. 


Natick,  Marlboro,  Milford,  and  other  places,  and  was 
finally  settled  by  a  compromise.  During  the  strike 
trips  were  made  by  the  men  and  women  to  the  different 
places  where  the  strike  prevailed,  sometimes  marching 
the  whole  distance,  and  indulging  in  a  grand  parade  in 
the  town  visited.  At  other  times  clam-bakes,  candy- 
pulls,  and  the  amusement  of  escorting  new  converts  to 
the  factory  to  give  up  their  job  and  go  on  strike  en- 
gaged attention.  The  women  were  as  zealous  as  the 
men,  persuading  weak  sisters  to  join  them  and  keeping 
their  ranks  firm.  In  Philadelphia  in  1880,  and  again  in 
1886,  a  protracted  struggle  ensued  ;  and  New  York  and 
Brooklyn  in  1886,  Cincinnati  in  1887,  Brockton,  Mass., 
1885,  Marblehead,  1883,  Haverhill,  1885,  and  Worcester 
County,  in  1887,  may  be  added  to  the  important  list. 
These  organizations  have  been  instrumental  in  having 
boards  o  {arbitration  (y.v.)  established  in  several  places. 
These  boards  have  proved  only  temporary,  and  yet 
have  accomplished  something,  the  most  notable  in- 
stance being  the  joint  board  of  arbitration  in  Phila- 
delphia, acting  under  rules  which  became  known  in 
the  shoe  trade  as  the  famous  Philadelphia  rules.  In 
Lynn  and  Beverly  a  municipal  board  served  to  form  a 
channel  for  arbitration ;  in  Brockton  it  was  called  a 
joint  council ;  and  in  Haverhill  a  joint  board  of  arbi- 
tration. They  are  to-day  largely  replaced  by  the  State 
Board. 

In  spite  of  the  factory  system  the  workers  in  the 
shoe  trade  have  maintained  a  high  degree  of  intelli- 
gence, and  have  been  able  to  keep  the  day's  work 
down  to  ten  hours,  with  a  prospect  of  shorter  time  ; 
and  the  rule  is  to  pay  wages  every  week.  All  reform 
movements  receive  strong  support  in  shoe  towns. 

A.  A.  CARLTON. 

BOOT  AND  SHOE  OPERATIVES,  NA- 
TIONAL UNION  OF  (English).  See  TKAUE 
UNIONS,  section  "England." 

BOOTH,  CHARLES,  born  in  1841  ;  head 
of  a  large  shipping  and  mercantile  firm  of  Lon- 
don, Liverpool,  and  New  York,  undertook  in 
1883  a  detailed  analysis  of  the  census  from 
1841-81  with  a  view  of  determining  the  shifting 
of  population  from  one  occupation  to  another. 
(See  Statistical  Society's  Journal.)  In  1885  he 
began  elaborate  inquiry  into  the  social  condition 
of  London,  the  results  of  which  are  embodied  in 
Life  and  Labor  of  the  People  (Macmillan),  of 
which  four  volumes  are  published.  In  1892  he 
published  the  results  of  his  inquiry  into  English 
poor  law  statistics,  and  recommended  proposals 
for  universal  old  age  pensions  from  public  funds 
(A  Picture  of  Pauperism,  Macmillan).  He  was 
President  of  the  Royal  Statistical  Society  of 
London  (1892-94),  and  is  a  member  of  the  Royal 
Commission  on  Aged  Paupers  (1893).  He  mar- 
ried Mary,  niece  of  Lord  Macaulay. 

The  following  summary  of  the  results  of  Mr. 
Booth's  investigations  appeared  in  an  article  by 
James  Mavor,  in  the  Annals  of  the  American 
Academy  for  July,  1893.  He  says  : 

"  By  far  the  most  important,  in  point  of  positive  re- 
sults of  the  applications  of  modern  scientific  methods 
of  research  to  the  study  of  society,  and  specially  to  the 
problems  of  poverty,  is  the  work  of  Mr.  Charles  Booth 
upon  London.  Mr.  Booth  has  carried  on  his  investiga- 
tion, independently  of  the  Le  Play  method,  and  on 
different,  tho  somewhat  similar,  but  less  systematic, 
lines.  He  has  conceived  the  idea  of  making  an  ex- 
haustive study  of  the  population  of  London,  from  an 
economic  point  of  view.  With  this  object  he  has  al- 
ready, by  the  aid  of  an  army  of  assistants,  thoroughly 
explored  a  great  part  of  London.  He  hasmade-a  care- 
ful investigation  of  a  vast  number  of  families,  and  has 
gleaned  not  all,  but  a  large  number  of  the  relevant 
facts  about  them.  He  has  classified  these  facts  and 
drawn  certain  provisional  conclusions  from  them.  His 
work  is  indeed,  in  most  ways,  a  perfect  model  of  what 
such  an  investigation  should  be.  The  conditions  of 
each  great  city  are  so  different  from  those  of  every 
other  that  not  until  we  have  before  us  similar  investi- 
gations of  other  cities  shall  we  be  entitled  to  form  defi- 
nite conclusions  about  the  poverty  in  them. 


"Early  in  Mr.  Booth's  investigations  he  found  it 
necessary  to  devise  a  classification  which  might  serve 
as  a  standard  for  the  measurement  of  different  degrees 
of  poverty. 

"The  standard  is  as  follows  : 

"  A.  The  lowest  class  of  occasional  laborers,  loafers, 
and  semi-criminals. 

"  B.  Casual  earnings — very  poor. 

" C.  Intermittent  earnings,         (  „,  „  .,..,,<        ..  , 

"  D.  Small,  irregular  earnings,  t  T°Ketner,  the   poor. 

"  E.  Regular  standard  earnings— above  the  line  of 
povertv. 

"F.  Higher  class  labor. 

"  G.  Lower  middle  class. 

"H.  Upper  middle  class. 

"These  divisions  are  of  necessity  arbitrary.  Indif- 
ferent places,  or  at  different  periods  in  the  same  place, 
they  would  be  denoted  by  different  pecuniary  amounts. 
Each  division  is,  however,  sufficiently  permanent  in  its 
central  idea  for  practical  purposes.  In  London,  in 
1886-80,  when  these  investigations  were  made,  the 
'  poor  classes  C  and  D  comprised  those  who  have  an 
income  of  from  $4.75  to  $5.10  (i8s.  to  2is.)  per  week  for 
a  moderate  family  ;  Class  B  comprises  those  who  fall 
below  this  amount.*  The  ' poor'  may  be  described  as 
living  in  a  state  of  struggle  to  obtain  the  necessaries 
of  life,  while  the  very  poor  'live  in  a  state  of  chronic 
want." 

"  Here,  then,  we  have  a  gauge  by  which  to  measure 
the  standard  of  comfort  of  the  people.  The  gauge  is 
readily  adjustable  to  any  locality.  What  we  need  to 
do  is  by  a  general  inquiry  to  fix  the  amount  of  the 
money  wages  applicable  to  each  class  with  the  relative 
numbers  in  family,  and  then  proceed  to  discover  by 
minute  inquiry  what  the  standard  of  comfort  is  in  each 
family  over  the  different  quarters  of  a  city.  This  in- 
quiry involves  a  vast  amount  of  time  and  trouble,  and 
must  be  repeated  at  moderate  intervals ;  but  without 
such  an  inquiry  our  knowledge  of  the  people,  of  their 
standard  of  comfort,  of  what  constitutes  poverty,  and 
the  extent  of  it  is  quite  vague  and  indefinite. 

"The  results  of  Mr.  Booth's  investigations  into  the 
economic  condition  of  a  certain  portion  of  the  people 
of  London  reveal  many  interesting  points.  In  the  dis- 
trict chosen  by  him  for  investigation  in  the  first  in- 
stance, East  London  and  Hackney,  comprising  an  area 
of  about  seven  square  miles  in  the  east  of  London, 
bounded  on  the  south  by  the  river  Thames,  on  the  west 
by  the  city,  and  on  the  east  by  the  Poplar  marshes, 
there  are  about  900,000  inhabitants.  Of  these,  64.8  per 
cent,  were  above  the  line  of  poverty  and  35.2  per  cent, 
were  below  it.  Of  this  35. 2  per  cent.,  or  315,000  persons 
below  the  line  of  poverty,  only  6000  were  inmates  of 
institutions ;  so  that  over  300,000  persons  were  living  in 
poverty  in  this  area — one  third  of  the  population. 

"  But  of  these  300,000  persons  living  in  poverty,  128,- 
ooo,  or  nearly  one  half,  were  earning  regular  low 
wages  ;  74,000,  or  about  one  fourth,  were  making  irreg- 
ular earnings ;  100,000,  or  one  third,  were  making 
casual  earnings  ;  while  n,ooo,  or  4  per  cent,  of  the  poor, 
or  ij^  per  cent,  of  the  whole  population  of  the  district, 
belonged  to  the  lowest  class  of  occasional  laborers, 
loafers,  and  semi-criminals. 

"Here,  then,  it  is  clear  that  in  studying  the  problems 
of  poverty,  we  have  to  deal  not  alone  with  those  who 
claim  public  relief  as  paupers,  or  who  claim  private 
charity  as  beggars,  but  with  the  great  army  from 
which  these  classes  are  constantly  recruited,  the  army 
of  those  who  live  at  or  under  the  line  of  poverty — a 
great  army  living  at  a  depressed  rate  of  life,  and  tend- 
ing to  reduce  the  vitality  of  the  whole  population. 

"  But  Mr.  Booth  has  done  something  more  than  mere- 
ly discover  the    extent  of   poverty.      He    has    made 
inquiry    into   its    causes.     The    causes 
of   poverty    turn    out    not  only   to    be 
numerous,  but  interactive.    There  is  the 
principal    cause    and   the   contributing 
cause  ;  there  is  the  cause  and  the  effect 
visible  in  the  same  person,  or  in  two  or 
more  persons.     Thus  the  poverty  of  a 
child  may  not  be  due  to  any  fault  on  the  part  of  the 
child,  but  to  one  or  the  other  parent,  or  both. 

"  This  strictly  empirical  investigation  of  Mr.  Booth's 
reveals  the  following  causes  of  poverty  operating  as 
principal  or  contributory  causes  : 

"Crime,  vice,  drink,  laziness,  pauper  associations, 
heredity,  mental  disease,  temper,  incapacity,  early 
marriage,  large  family,  extravagance,  lack  of  work 
(unemployed),  trade  misfortune,  restlessness  (roving, 
tramp),  no  relations,  death  of  husband,  desertion 


*  C.  Booth,  Life  and  Labor  in  East  London,  vol.  i., 

P-  33- 


Causes  of 
Poverty. 


Booth,  Charles. 


183 


Boucicaut,  Jacques  Aristide. 


(abandoned),  death  of  father  or  mother,  sickness,  acci- 
dent, ill  luck,  old  age. 

"It  is  difficult  to  give  a  fair  idea  of  Mr.  Booth's  in- 
vestigations from  his  voluminous  tables.  But,  out  of 
1000  paupers  in  Stepney  whose  cases  were  carefully  in- 
vestigated individually,  it  was  found  that  old  age  was 
the  chief  principal  and  contributory  cause. 

"  Old  age  was  the  principal  cause  in  32.8  per  cent,  of 
the  cases. 

Sickness 26.7  percent. 

Drink 12.6 

Accident 4.7 

Trade  misfortune 4.4         "^ 

Pauper  associations  and  hered- 
ity        i.i         " 

As  contributory  causes : 

Old  age  contributed  of  the  cases. .     17        " 

Pauper  associations  and  heredity 
contribtited  chiefly  with  sick- 
ness, drink,  and  old  age  as  prin- 
cipal causes  of  the  cases 17  " 

Drink  contributory  cause,  with 
sickness  and  old  age  as  principal 
causes,  accounted  for  the  pau- 
perism of 12  " 

While  sickness  accounted  for  an  equal  number. 

"  Altogether  drink  is  returned  as  responsible  directly 
•as  principal,  or  indirectly  as  contributory,  cause  for  25 
per  cent,  of  the  cases.  Mr.  Booth,  however,  says  'the 
proportion  is  less  than  might  have  been  expected,  and 
it  is  probable  that  closer  research  into  the  circum- 
stances and  history  of  these  people,  if  it  could  be  made, 
might  disclose  a  greater  connection  than  here  appears 
between  pauperism  and  the  public  house.  It  is,  how- 
•ever,  noteworthy  that  the  results  shown  agree  on  the 
whole  with  those  of  the  two  inquiries  I  have  myself 
previously  made  into  apparent  causes  of  poverty.  The 
first,  regarding  4000  cases  of  poverty  known  by  certain 
of  the  School  Board  visitors,  gave  13  to  14  per  cent,  as 
one  to  drink,  the  lighter  percentage  being  for  the 
greater  degree  of  poverty.  The  second,  regarding 
about  5000  people  living  poor  and  irregular  lives, 
showed  10  and  n  per  cent.,,  dropping  to  only  5  per 
•cent,  for  about  another  3000,  who,  tho  poor,  were  more 
regularly  employed.' 

"  In  St.  Pancras  Workhouse  the  number  of  cases  in 
which  pauperism  was  due  to  old  age  as  a  principal 
•cause  was  23.4  per  cent. 

To  sickness 20.7  per  cent. 

To  drink 21.9 

To  laziness  10.6 

To  mental  derangement 4.3 

"  In  St.  Pancras  Workhouse  about  the  same  number 
of  cases  were  investigated,  but  they  included  a  smaller 
number  of  permanent  paupers  than  the  Stepney  house, 
whose  figures  were  first  quoted.  The  current  cases 
^exhibit  the  largest  amount  of  drunkenness.  The 'ins 
and  outs,'  or  those  who  go  to  the  workhouse  for  a  while 
and  then  leave,  are  specially  notable  for  drunken 
habits.  Forty-three  per  cent,  of  the  'ins  and  outs' 
were  obliged  to  seek  refuge  in  the  workhouse  on  ac- 
count of  drink. 

"The  details  of  Mr.  Booth's  conclusions  are  to  be 
found  in  his  smaller  volume  on  Pauperism.  His  main 
conclusion  is  that  old  age  is  the  most  frequent  principal 
cause  of  pauperism,  and  he  suggests  as  a  remedy  for 
this  cause  a  national  scheme  of  endowment  of  old  age. 
Old  age,  then,  stands  first,  sickness  next,  and  then 
comes  drink." 


BOOTH,  WILLIAM,  founder  of  the  Salva- 
tion Army, was  born  in  Nottingham,  1829,  and  be- 
came a  minister  of  the  Methodist  New  Connec- 
tion in  1850.  He  resigned  his  connection  with 
the  Methodist  Conference  in  1861,  and  after  liv- 
ing for  some  time  in  the  East  End  of  London, 
started,  in  1865,  the  "  Christian  Mission,"  which 
was  the  foundation  of  his  present  organization. 
The  movement,  which  was  even  then  of  a  semi- 
military  character,  did  not  make  very  much  im- 
pression until  1878,  when  he  named  it  the  "  Sal- 
vation Army. ' '  Since  that  time  it  has  grown  un- 
interruptedly and  phenomenally  in  all  quarters 
of  the  globe.  His  skill  as  an  organizer  is  best 
shown  by  the  strict  military  discipline  which  he 


is  able  to  maintain  throughout  the  whole  of  the 
organization.  In  1890  he  published  a  book 
called  Darkest  England,  which  contained  a 
scheme  by  which  he  proposed  to  grapple  with 
the  destitution  that  is  eating  the  life  out  of  Eng- 
land. This  has  led  to  a  very  important  work, 
for  which  see  SALVATION  ARMY  SOCIAL  SCHEME. 
General  Booth  has  been  accused  of  using  the  , 
large  sums  given  him  for  this  scheme  to  further  * 
private  ends,  but  an  investigating  commission 
has  completely  vindicated  him.  (See  SALVATION 
ARMY.) 

BOUCICAUT,  JACQUES  ARISTIDE, 
AND  THE  BON  MARCHE.— The  Magasin 
du  Bon  Marche,  Rue  du  Bac,  and  adjoining 
streets,  Paris,  is  a  huge  establishment  for  the 
sale  of  all  kinds  of  manufactured  goods,  which 
employs  some  3000  persons,  superior  officials, 
clerks,  salesmen,  and  saleswomen,  and  attend- 
ants of  various  grades.  The  founder  and  build- 
er of  this  vast  undertaking  was  M.  Jacques 
Aristide  Boucicaut. 

M.  Jacques  Aristide  Boucicaut  was  born  in 
1809  at  Belleme  (Orne).  The  son  of  a  hatter  in 
a  small  way  of  business,  he  had  to  begin  early 
his  apprenticeship  to  a  laborious  life. 

Before  long  he  came  to  Paris  and  entered  as 
employee  the  Magasins  du  Petit  Saint  Thomas, 
where  he  rapidly  distinguished  himself,  and  be- 
came superintendent  and  purchaser.  It  was  in 
1852  that  he  acquired  the  establishment,  then  a 
very  modest  one,  called  the  "  Bon  Marche,"  to 
the  development  of  which  he  applied  all  the 
powers  of  his  high  intelligence,  prodigious  activ- 
ity, accurate  taste,  and  commanding  capacity  of 
directing  a  vast  organization  and  at  the  same 
time  keeping  a  firm  grasp  on  the  smallest  and 
seemingly  most  insignificant  details. 

From  the  day  when  he  felt  himself  justified  in 
counting  on  a  durable  success,  he  determined 
to  put  his  philanthropic  ideas  into  practice.  He 
had  set  out  from  the  lowest  rung,  he  had  pain- 
fully climbed  all  the  successive  steps  of  his  busi- 
ness, he  had  seen  other  employees  suffer,  and 
suffered  himself,  from  abuses  inherent  in  the 
current  modes  of  doing  business  ;  his  desire  was 
that  the  experience  he  had  so  laboriously  gained 
should  not  be  lost,  but  should  one  day  prove  of 
service  to  all  engaged  in  his  branch  of  trade. 

M.  Boucicaut' s  material  success  was  extreme- 
ly great.  His  establishment,  when  he  acquired 
it  in  1852,  was  doing  a  business  of  not  more  than 
,£18,000  a  year  ;  in  1869  the  annual  turn-over 
was  .£840,000 — an  increase  of  4500  per  cent,  in 
17  years. 

July  31,  1876,  witnessed  the  introduction — 
which  had  been  delayed  by  the  disastrous  events 
brought  upon  Paris  in  the  train  of  the  Franco- 
German  War — of  a  long-meditated  system  of 
profit-sharing  by  which  a  direct  interest  in  the 
prosperity  of  the  Maison  Boucicaut  was  thrown 
open  to  a  large  and  constantly  increasing  num- 
ber of  its  employees.  A  provident  society  was 
formed  for  their  benefit,  to  be  supported  exclu- 
sively by  sums  annually  paid  over  for  that  pur- 
pose out  of  the  net  profits  of  the  house. 

A  few  details,  extracted  from  the  printed  regula- 
tions of  the  Provident  Society,  will  show  what  were  to 
be  the  qualification  for  membership  and  the  terms  of 
participation. 


Boucicaut,  Jacques  Aristide. 


184 


Bourse. 


Every  employee  who  had  worked  continuously  for 
five  years  in  the  house  had  a  right  to  membership — • 
unless  he  happened  to  belong  to  the  small  class  of 
superior  officials  who  already  possessed  a  direct  inter- 
est in  the  sales  effected  in  their  several  departments, 
or  in  the  general  business  of  the  house.  This  arrange- 
ment obviously  provided  for  a  steady  annual  increase 
in  the  number  of  employees  to  whom  the  benefits  of 
participation  were  to  be  extended. 

Except  in  the  opening  year,  for  which  a  special  ar- 
rangement was  made,  the  sum  annually  paid  over  to 
the  society  out  of  the  profits  of  the  house  was  to  be 
allotted  in  the  following  manner  : 

A  separate  account,  opened  in  the  name  of  each  par- 
ticipant, was  to  be  yearly  credited  with  a  share  of  this 
sum  proportional  to  the  amount  which  the  employee 
in  question  had  received  in  wages  during  the  year  on 
which  the  division  was  made. 

Each  such  account  was  to  be  further  credited  in 
every  successive  year  with  interest  at  4  per  cent,  on 
the  whole  amount  standing  in  it.  An  annuity  accumu- 
lating at  compound  interest  for  a  term  of  years  was 
thus  assigned  to  each  beneficiary. 

The  conditions  under  which  the  capital  sums  ac- 
cumulated in  this  manner  were  to  come  into  the  actual 
disposal  of  the  benefited  persons  were  as  follows  : 

A  male  employee,  either  on  attaining  the  age  of  60 
or  on  completing  20  years  of  uninterrupted  work  for  the 
house,  could  claim  cash  payment  of  the  entire  sum 
standing  to  his  credit.  In  the  case  of  women  the  quali- 
fying periods  were  to  be  50  years  of  age  or  15  years  of 
work. 

While  a  long  deferred  participation  was  thus  created 
as  the  ordinary  rule,  exceptional  cases  were  to  be 
promptly  provided  for.  On  the  death  of  a  member  of 
the  society,  of  whatever  age  or  standing,  immediate 
full  payment  to  surviving  relatives  was  statutably  di- 
rected. 

In  the  event  of  disabling  illness  recourse  could  be 
had,  subject  to  approval  by  the  heads  of  the  firm,  to 
partial  or  entire  liquidation  of  account. 

Such  was  M.  Boucicaut's  plan  for  securing  to  his  em- 
ployees an  accumulated  capital.  The  scale  on  which 
it  was  to  be  carried  into  effect,  the  actual  amount  to 
be  in  each  or  any  year  paid  out  of  profits  to  the  Provi- 
dent Society,  he  reserved  absolutely  for  his  own  unre- 
stricted decision. 

Unfortunately  it  was  on  but  two  occasions,  in  1876 
and  1877,  that  he  was  permitted  to  exercise  this  power. 
He  died  December  26,  in  the  latter  year,  and  10  months 
afterward  death  removed  his  son  also.  His  widow 
succeeded  alike  to  the  ownership  and  direction  of  the 
house  and  to  the  maintenance  of  its  organization  and 
traditions. 

The  property  of  the  society  amounted  August  i, 
1883,  to  ^26,453. 

In  January,  1880,  the  proprietress  of  the  Bon  Marche, 
as  an  act  of  respect  to  the  memory  of  her  husband, 
carried  his  ideas  a  step  farther  by  formally  admitting 
into  partnership  with  herself  96  heads  of  department 
and  other  employees,  who  put  sums  not  less  than  £2000 
each,  and  not  more  than  .£4000  each,  into  the  business. 
In  some  instances  these  sums,  tho  standing  in  a  single 
name,  were  contributed  by  a  group  of  employees,  so 
that  the  benefits  of  partnership  were  actually  extended 
to  a  larger  number  of  persons  than  those  named  in 
the  articles  of  association. 

The  Bon  Marche,  since  the  death  of  Madame  Bouci- 
caut, has  been  a  partnership  en  commandite  by 
shares,  directed  by  three  managers.  In  1887,  when  one 
of  the  medals  of  the  Audeoud  prize  was  awarded  to 
this  establishment,  the  number  of  the  shareholders — 
almost  all  employed  in  the  house— was  373  : 239  em- 
ployees had  an  interest  by  participation  in  the  profits 
of  the  whole  house  or  those  of  their  own  department. 
The  other  2491  employees  had  an  interest  in  the  busi- 
ness which  they  transacted  personally. 

BOUNTIES. — A  bouniy  is  a  term  in  social 
science  usually  applied  to  a  premium  given  by 
a  government  to  promote  some  branch  of  pro- 
duction or  industry  which  it  desires  to  encour- 
age or  aid.  It  is,  however,  also  used  for  pay- 
ments of  money  to  induce  men  to  enlist  in  the 
army  and  navy.  In  Great  Britain  the  giving  of 
bounties  of  this  latter  kind  has  been  common. 
In  the  United  States  it  has  been  adopted  to  a 
less  extent,  but  in  the  War  of  the  Rebellion 
some  recruits  of  the  Union  Army  received  as 
much  as  $500  or  more.  Some,  however,  enlist- 


ed, received  the  bounty,  and  soon  after  deserted, 
receiving  the  merited  name  of  bounty-jumpers. 
The  giving  of  bounties  to  encourage  some  in- 
dustry has  been  practised  at  times  by  almost  all 
nations.  England,  which  has  now  in  the  main 
rejected  the  bounty  system,  formerly  gave 
bounties  for  many  industries,  notably  to  encour- 
age the  herring  fisheries,  the  Irish  linen  trade, 
and  the  exportation  of  grain.  After  the  found- 
ing of  the  Royal  Academy  (1769),  a  bounty  was 
given  on  the  exportation  of  engravings.  For 
many  years,  however,  under  the  influence  of 
free-trade  ideas,  the  English  Government  has 
given  up  the  bounty  system  in  the  main,  tho 
still  granting  subsidies  to  steamship  compa- 
nies. (See  SUBSIDIES.)  France,  Germany,  and 
all  the  greater  continental  powers  have  held  on 
to  the  bounty  system  much  longer,  especially  as 
regards  bounties  upon  sugar.  In  the  United 
States  bounties  have  been  given  for  tree  plant- 
ing and  sugar,  with  subsidies  and  land  grants 
to  railways  and  steamship  companies.  (See 
SUBSIDIES.)  Congress  in  1890,  for  example,  voted 
a  bounty  of  two  cents  per  pound  for  15  years 
on  the  production  of  domestic  sugar.  This  was, 
however,  ended  by  the  tariff  of  1894,  altho  an 
appropriation  of  $5,238,289  was  later  voted  to 
continue  the  operation  of  the  bounty  on  sugar 
raised  before  June  30,  1895. 

Almost  all  political  economists  have  con- 
demned bounties  in  general,  altho  many  have 
approved  of  them  under  particular  circum- 
stances. Adam  Smith  vigorously  and  Ricardo 
still  more  sweepingly  condemned  bounties,  on 
the  ground  mainly  that  they  diverted  capital 
perniciously  ;  and  their  position  has  been  gener- 
ally followed  by  free  traders  and  been  criticized 
by  protectionists.  Bounties,  however,  have 
sometimes  been  preferred  to  a  protective  tariff 
by  free  traders,  on  the  ground  that  their  work- 
ing is  open  and  direct,  not  covert,  like  a  tariff. 
They  have  been  denounced,  on  the  other  hand, 
by  some  protectionists,  as  more  artificial  than 
a  tariff.  A  tariff,  it  is  argued,  makes  the  for- 
eign exporter  pay  ;  a  bounty  taxes  the  general 
citizen  for  the  good  of  one  class.  (See  FREE. 
TRADE  ;  PROTECTION  ;  SUBSIDIES.  ) 

BOURGEOISIE.— A  French  term,  originally 
used  for  the  free  citizen  class  in  the  towns,  as 
distinguished  from  the  aristocracy,  on  the  one 
hand,  and  the  working  class,  on  the  other. 
Burgess  and  burgher  have  about  the  same 
meaning,  and  in  a  general  sense  mean  inhab- 
itant of  a  burgh  or  town.  When  used  techni- 
cally, however,  it  often  means  a  person  who 
holds  some  privilege  in  a  town  or  municipal  cor- 
poration. The  French  socialists  have,  however, 
widened  the  meaning  of  the  term  bourgeoisie, 
making  it  express  all  the  more  or  less  wealthy 
middle  class  as  opposed  to  the  proletariat  and 
working  class,  and  this  use  has  passed  into  all 
socialist  literature.  There  has  also  often  been 
associated  with  the  term  an  implication  of  a  nar- 
row-minded, selfish,  money-seeking  spirit,  al- 
ways blindly  supporting  the  interests  of  capital, 
as  opposed  to  those  of  labor.  (See  PROLETARIAT  ; 
ESTATES.) 

BOURSE.— A  French  word  for  (i)  the  meet- 
ings of  bankers  and  merchants  for  the  transac- 


Bourse. 


Boycotting. 


tion  of  business  ;  (2)  the  place  where  such  meet- 
ings are  held.     (See  STOCK  EXCHANGE.) 

BOWEN,  FRANCIS,  born  in  1811,  died  in 
1890  ;  Professor  of  Philosophy  in  Harvard  Uni- 
versity from  1853-89.  He  wrote  on  economic 
topics,  history,  politics,  the  classics,  and  most  of 
all  on  philosophy.  He  was  editor  of  the  North 
American  Review  from  1843-54.  His  economic 
writings  in  the  main  are  in  the  nature  of  text- 
books, stating  and  illustrating  the  doctrines  of 
the  classic  economists  ;  but  on  the  subject  of  in- 
ternational trade  he  reasoned  in  favor  of  the  doc- 
trine of  protection.  His  larger  writings  on  eco- 
nomics were  Principles  of  Political  Economy 
(Boston,  1856) ;  American  Political  Economy 
(New  York,  1870). 

BOYCOTTING. — A  boycott  is  a  combina- 
tion against  a  landlord,  tradesman,  employer,  or 
other  person,  to  cease  social  or  business  relations 
with  him,  and  to  induce  others  to  withhold  hav- 
ing relations  with  him.  It  is  also  used  of  agree- 
ments not  to  use  certain  articles  or  the  articles 
of  a  certain  manufacturer,  on  the  ground  that 
they  have  been  produced  in  ways  or  under  con- 
ditions condemned  by  the  parties  dictating  the 
boycott.  The  word  is  derived  from  the  name  of 
Captain  Boycott  (the  name  is  sometimes  written 
Boycatt),  who  was,  in  1880,  living  at  Lough  Mask 
House,  County  Mayo,  Ireland,  as  land  agent  to 
Lord  Erne,  an  Irish  nobleman.  The  population 
of  the  region  for  miles  around  resolved  to  have 
nothing  to  do  with  him,  and  as  far  as  possible  to 
prevent  any  one  else  from  having  anything  to 
do  with  him.  His  life  appeared  to  be  in  danger 
— he  had  to  claim  police  protection.  .  .  .  To 
prevent  civil  war  the  authorities  had  to  send  a 
force  of  soldiers,  and  Captain  Boycott's  harvests 
were  brought  in  guarded  always  by  the  little 
army.  This  proceeding  was  the  origin  of  the 
word,  and  its  origin  has  undoubtedly  contribut- 
ed to  the  prejudice  which  the  court  feels  toward 
acts  called  by  this  name.  The  idea  of  the  courts 
has  uniformly  been  that  the  word  implied  law- 
less violence,  or  what  directly  led  to  it.  At  all 
events,  in  most  of  the  cases  decided  against 
boycotting  in  this  country  by  way  of  injunction 
to  restrain  it,  or  by  indictment  to  punish  it, 
there  has  been  present  a  distinct  element  of  vio- 
lence. This  is  true  in  People  v.  Wilzig,  4 
N.  Y.  Cr.  Rep.,  403  (1886)  ;  in  People  v.  Hol- 
dorf,  in  People  v.  Kostka  (same  volume),  and 
numerous  other  cases.  Undoubtedly  the  deci- 
sions have  gone  farther.  They  pronounce  a 
boycott  an  unwarrantable  attempt  to  interfere 
.with  an  employer's  business,  and  as  he  must  fre- 
quently submit  to  it  or  be  ruined,  as  practically 
coercion.  The  avowed  purpose  being  to  ruin  a 
man's  business,  it  makes  no  difference,  accord- 
ing to  the  courts,  whether  force  be  used  or  not. 

In  England  the  law  against  boycotting  and 
combinations  is  more  carefully  guarded  than  in 
this  country.  Says  Mr.  C.  A.  Reed,  writing  in 
the  Annals  of  the  American  Academy  for 
July,  1894  : 

"  A  passage  of  the  Conspiracy  and  Protection  of 
Property  Act  (38  and  39  of  Viet.,  1875)  reads:  'An 
agreement  or  combination  by  two  or  more  persons  to 
do,  or  procure  to  be  done,  any  act  in  contemplation  or 
furtherance  of  a  trade  dispute  between  employers  and 
workmen,  shall  not  be  indictable  as  a  conspiracy,  if 


such  act  committed  by  one  person  would  not  be  pun- 
ishable as  a  crime.'  This  puts  an  end  to  conspiracies 
to  accomplish  something  relative  to  trade  disputes 
which  one  person  might  without  criminality  do  alone. 
Intimidation  is  forbidden  under  a  severe  penalty,  and 
what  is  intimidation  is  very  fully  defined.  It  includes 
violence  to  the  other,  his  wife,  children,  or  injury  to 
his  property ;  persistently  following  such  person 
about  j  hiding  his  tools  or  clothes;  and  watching  and 
besetting  the  house  where  he  is.  The  advanced  char- 
acter of  the  English  law  on  this  subject  as  compared 
with  our  own  is  shown  by  two  very  recent  cases.  Gib- 
son v.  Lawson  and  Curran  v.  Treleaven.  In  the  first 
the  employees  at  an  iron  works  notified  their  employer 
that  if  a  certain  fellow-workman  did  not  join  their 
union  they  should  quit.  The  fellow-workman  was 
notified  by  the  superintendent  of  the  employer,  but 
declined  to  join  the  men's  union,  and  he  was  dismissed 
to  avoid  a  strike.  The  men  were  indicted,  but  the 
court  held  that  their  conduct  was  allowable  under  the 
recent  act.  The  second  case  is  still  stronger.  Here 
an  employer  was  notified  by  members  of  a  trade- 
union  that  if  he  continued  to  employ  non-union  men 
the  unions  would  do  their  best  to  injure  his  business, 
and  on  his  declining  to  bind  himself,  the  defendant,  a 
person  in"  authority  in  the  trade-union,  called  to  the 
employer's  men  to  quit  work,  which  they  did.  This 
conduct  also  was  decided  to  be  no  longer  criminal. 
There  was  no  malice  in  fact  toward  the  employer,  the 
purpose  of  the  men  being  to  obtain  higher  wages. 

"  Here  is  the  language  of  the  English  court  in  the 
very  recent  case,  Curran  v.  Treleaven,  cited  above, 
which  may  be  said  to  express  the  latest  position  of  the 
English  law  on  this  question  : 

"  *  The  recorder  held  that  tho  an  agreement  to  strike 
to  benefit  themselves  would  be  now  a  lawful  agree- 
ment, a  strike  which  would  have  the  effect  of  injuring 
the  employer  is  illegal  and  indictable  at  common  law. 
He  cites  in  support  of  this  view  some  phrases  from  the 
judgments  of  the  Lords  Justices  in  the  case  of  Mogul 
S.  S.  Co.  v.  McGregor  et  als.  But  with  deference  he 
has  somewhat  misapprehended  the  point  of  those  ob- 
servations. It  is  true  that  where  the  object  is  injury, 
if  the  injury  is  effected  an  action  will  lie  for  the  mali- 
cious conspiracy  which  effected  it ;  and  therefore  it 
may  be  that  such  a  conspiracy,  if  it  could  be  proved  in 
fact,  would  be  indictable.  But  it  was  pointed  out  in 
some  detail  by  the  court  of  first  instance,  that  when 
the  object  is  to  benefit  one's  self,  it  can  seldom,  per- 
haps it  can  never,  be  effected  without  some  consequent 
loss.- or  injury  to  some  one  else.  In  trade,  in  commerce, 
even  in  a  profession,  what  is  one  man's  gain  is  an- 
other's loss  ;  and  where  the  object  is  not  malicious  the 
mere  fact  that  the  effect  is  injurious  does  not  make  the 
agreement  either  illegal  or  actionable  and  therefore 
not  indictable.'  " 

Prior  to  1830  conspiracy  was  not  defined  by  statute 
in  the  United  States,  and  the  questions  which  arose 
with  regard  to  the  legality  of  the  proceedings  of  the 
early  trade-unions  were  decided  according  to  the  prin- 
ciples of  the  common  law  inherited  from 
England.    All    the    leading    conspiracy 
prosecutions  in  America  have  grown  out   The  United 
of  shoemakers'  strikes,  and  in  each  case        states 
members  of  shoemakers'  organizations        oiuujs. 
were  arraigned  for  striking  against  non- 
union   labor.    In  the    first  three  cases, 
that  of  the  Philadelphia  cordwainers  in  1806,  that  of 
the  New  York  cordwainers  in   1809,  and  that  of  the 
Pittsburg  shoemakers  in   1815,   the   defendant  work- 
men were  convicted.    The  case  of  the  People  of  New 
York  v.   Fisher  in   1834  was  tried  after  the  revisers, 
who  codified  the  common  law  in  1830,  had  made  some 
important  changes.    The  statute  of  conspiracy  of  1830 
in  its  final  form  contained  the  following  sections  : 

"Sec.  8.  If  two  or  more  persons  conspire  ...  to 
commit  any  act  injurious  to  the  public  health,  to  pub- 
lic morals,  or  to  trade  or  commerce,  or  for  the  perver- 
sion or  obstruction  of  justice  or  the  due  administration 
of  the  laws,  they  shall  be  deemed  guilty  of  a  misde- 
meanor. 

"  Sec.  q.  No  conspiracies,  except  such  as  are  enumer- 
ated in  the  last  section,  are  punishable  criminally." 

Trade  and  labor  combinations  were,  therefore,  only 
punishable  as  acts  injurious  to  trade  or  commerce, 
and  the  conviction  of  the  defendants  in  the  case  of  the 
People  v.  Fisher  was  based  upon  the  view  that  in  com- 
bining to  fix  a  price  for  their  labor,  and  agreeing  not 
to  work  for  any  employer  who  paid  a  workman  below 
this  rate,  the  action  of  the  defendants  was  injurious  to 
trade. 

A  contrary  decision  was,  however,  given  in  Massa- 
chusetts in  the  case  of  the  Commonwealth  v.  Hunt, 
1845,  when  it  was  decided  that  a  strike  against  non- 


Boycotting. 


186 


Bradlaugh,  Charles. 


unionists  was  not  a  criminal  conspiracy  unless  it  could 
be  shown  that  the  means  employed  were  criminal. 

In  1870  the  New  York  Legislature  took  combinations 
to  raise  or  maintain  wages  out  of  the  category  of  con- 
spiracies to  commit  acts  injurious  to  trade  or  com- 
merce. In  1881  the  Penal  Code  enacted  in  New  York, 
added  to  the  previous  definition  of  criminal  conspiracy 
a  section  defining  it  to  be  an  agreement  "  to  prevent 
another  from  exercising  a  lawful  trade  or  calling,  or 
doing  any  other  lawful  act  by  force,  threats,  or  intimi- 
dation, or  by  interfering  or  threatening  to  interfere 
with  tools,  implements,  or  property  belonging  to  or 
used  by  another,  or  with  the  use  and  employment 
thereof."  In  1882  the  following  section  was  added  : 

"Sec.  170.  No  conspiracy  is  punishable  criminally 
unless  it  is  one  of  those  enumerated  in  the  last  two 
sections,  and  the  orderly  and  peaceable  assembling  or 
cooperation  of  persons  employed  in  any  calling,  trade, 
or  handicraft  for  the  purpose  of  obtaining  an  advance 
of  wages  or  compensation  or  of  maintaining  such  rate  is 
not  a  conspiracy."  A  clause  borrowed  from  the  Eng- 
lish statute  (38  and  39  Viet.  c.  86)  passed  in  1875  after 
the  gas  stokers'  strike  was  also  added  : 

"  Sec.  673.  Endangering  life  by  refusal  to  labor.  A 
person  who  wilfully  and  maliciously,  either  alone  or 
in  combination  with  others,  breaks  a  contract  of  ser- 
vice or  hiring,  knowing  or  having  reasonable  cause  to 
believe  that  the  possible  consequences  of  his  so  doing 
will  be  to  endanger  human  life,  or  to  cause  grievous 
bodily  injury,  or  to  expose  valuable  property  to  de- 
struction, or  serious  injury,  is  guilty  or  a  misdemean- 
or." In  the  case  of  the  People  ex  rel.  Gill  and  others 
in  1887  it  was  decided  by  Judge  Barrett,  of  New  York, 
that  strikes  are  only  permissible  when  wages  are 
directly  at  issue,  and  then  only  if  there  be  no  turbu- 
lence or  disorder.  In  the  opinion  of  the  New  York 
Bureau,  therefore,  the  tendency  of  the  legislation  in 
that  State  concerning  conspiracy  has  been  retrograde, 
for  the  Penal  Code  comes  near  to  recognizing  the 
principle  of  the  old  "conspiracy  to  injure  or  prejudice 
another,"  which  was  abandoned  when  the  common 
law  was  revised  in  1830. 

In  Massachusetts  also  the  Supreme  Court  intimated 
lately  in  the  case  of  Carew  v.  Rutherford  that  a  com- 
bination to  compel  an  employer  to  pay  money  under 
threat  of  a  strike  was  a  criminal  conspiracy.  On  the 
other  hand,  the  same  principle  was  turned  against 
some  Connecticut  employers,  who  blacklisted  a  work- 
man in  1866,  when  the  judge  declared  that  "any  con- 
spiracy to  prevent,  obstruct,  or  hinder  any  man  from 
putting  his  labor  on  the  market  is  highly  criminal  at 
common  law."  Twenty-four  States  of  the  Union  have 
conspiracy  statutes— viz.,  Alabama,  Arkansas,  Dela- 
ware, Florida,  Georgia,  Illinois,  Indiana,  Iowa,  Kansas, 
Kentucky,  Maine,  Michigan,  Missouri,  Nebraska,  New 
Jersey,  New  York,  North  Carolina,  Pennsylvania, 
South  Carolina,  Tennessee,  Texas,  Vermont,  Virginia, 
and  Wisconsin. 

The  law  as  it  stands  at  present  in  these  States  is  a 
subject  of  complaints  on  the  part  of  working  men, 
who  hold  that  if  strikes  to  enforce  union  rules  are  de- 
clared to  be  combinations  in  restraint  of  trade,  trusts, 
pools,  and  other  combinations  of  employers  to  raise 
prices  or  limit  production  should  come  under  the  same 
ruling.  (See  also  CONSPIRACY  LAWS;  INJUNCTION.) 

BRACE,  CHARLES  LORING,  was  born 
at  Litchfield,  Conn.,  in  1826  ;  graduated  from 
Yale  in  1846 ;  studied  theology  at  the  Yale  Divin- 
ity School,  1847-48,  and  at  Union  Theological 
Seminary,  New  York,  1848-49.  In  1850  he  made 
a  pedestrian  tour  through  Great  Britain  and  Ire- 
land, and  also  visited  the  Rhine,  Belgium,  and 
Paris.  The  following  year  he  visited  Hungary, 
and  was  arrested  there  on  suspicion  of  being  a 
spy,  and  was  tried  before  a  court-martial.  He 
was  released  through  the  efforts  of  C.  J. 
McCurdy,  United  States  Charge  d'  Affaires  at 
Vienna,  and  the  Austrian  Government  amply 
apologized  to  him  for  the  transaction.  He  after- 
ward visited  Switzerland,  England,  and  Ireland, 
giving  especial  attention  to  schools,  prisons,  and 
reformatory  institutions,  and  returned  to  the 
United  States  in  1852.  Here  he  entered  into 
active  missionary  labors  in  New  York  City, 
working  among  the  most  degraded  classes,  and 
was  one  of  the  founders  of  the  Children's  Aid 


Society — an  association  for  supplying  destitute 
and  vagrant  children  with  homes  in  the  coun- 
try, and  also  for  providing  to  a  large  extent 
lodgings,  instruction,  and  other  aid  for  poor 
boys  and  girls  in  the  city — and  of  this  society 
he  was,  after  the  first  year,  the  secretary  and 
principal  agent  till  the  time  of  his  death.  In 
1854  he  established  the  first  newsboys'  lodging- 
house  in  the  city  ;  in  1855  an  Italian  industrial 
school  ;  and  in  1856  a  German  industrial  school. 
He  devoted  the  remainder  of  his  life  to  work 
among  the  children  and-  youth  of  the  poor  of 
New  York  City. 

He  was  a  delegate  to  the  International  Con- 
vention of  Children's  Charities  in  London  in 
1856,  and  took  a  journey  into  Northern  Europe  ; 
made  a  sanitary  investigation  of  the  principal 
cities  in  Great  Britain  in  1865,  and  was  a  dele- 
gate to  the  International  Prison  Congress  in 
London  in  1872,  at  which  time  he  revisited 
Hungary,  where  he  was  received  with  marked 
attention.  His  work  in  New  York  City  became 
known  throughout  Europe,  and  his  advice  was 
very  often  sought  by  those  engaged  in  philan- 
thropic enterprises  for  the  poor  and  for  the 
young.  For  more  than  20  years  he  was  an  edi- 
torial writer  for  the  New  York  Times,  and  a 
contributor  to  its  book  reviews,  generally  con- 
fining himself  to  theological  and  philanthropic 
subjects.  He  died  in  the  Tyrol,  Switzerland, 
August  ii,  1890. 

Mr.  Brace  is  the  author  of  the  following 
works :  Walks  and  Talks  of  an  American 
Farmer  in  England ;  Hungary  in  i £5 1 (1852) ; 
Home  Life  in  Germany  (1853)  '>  The  Norse  Folk 
(1857) ;  Short  Sermons  to  Newsboys  (1861) ; 
Races  of  the  Old  World '(1863);  The  New 
West  (1868)  ;  The  Dangerous  Classes  of  New 
York,  and  Twenty  Years'  Work  among  Them 
(1872,  third  edition,  1880)  ;  Free  Trade  as  Pro- 
moting Peace  and  Good-will  among  Men 
(1879)  ;  Gesta  Christi ;  or,  A  History  of  Hu- 
mane Progress  under  Christianity  (1883,  third 
edition,  1885),  and  To  the  Unknown  God  (1889). 

BRADLAUGH,  CHARLES,  M.P.  (1833- 
91),  a  son  of  a  solicitor's  clerk  in  the  East  End 
of  London,  was  reared  in  very  orthodox  fash- 
ion. When  being  prepared  for  confirmation  at 
the  church  which  he  attended,  he  was  in  doubt 
about  some  of  the  doctrines  taught,  and  inquired 
of  the  clergyman.  The  answer  he  received  was 
a  severe  rebuke  for  daring  to  doubt ;  and  this 
was  the  turning-point  in  the  career  of  this 
"iconoclast."  Not  finding  the  knowledge  he 
craved  in  the  Church,  he  turned  to  the  street 
lecturers,  and  there  heard  many  of  the  free- 
thought  speakers  ;  finally,  tho  but  a  boy,  be- 
coming a  speaker  himself.  On  account  of  his 
ideas  he  had  been  compelled  to  leave  his  father's 
house,  and  he  endeavored  to  gain  a  living  as 
coal  agent.  That  not  succeeding,  in  1850  he  en- 
listed in  the  Dragoon  Guards,  serving  for  some 
time  in  Ireland.  In  1853,  having  received  his 
discharge,  he  returned  to  London  and  became 
a  clerk  in  a  solicitor's  office.  From  that  time  he 
became  known  all  through  the  country  as  an 
anti-theological  lecturer,  and  wrote  under  the 
pseudonym  of  "Iconoclast."  He  also  took  a 
very  active  and  oftentimes  a  leading  part  in  all 
the  radical  movements  of  the  time. 


Bradlaugh,  Charles. 


187 


Brethren  of  Social  Life. 


The  struggle  of  Italy  for  independence  ;  the 
cause  of  the  North,  in  the  Civil  War  in  the  United 
States  ;  the  Reform  League  agitation  of  1866, 
and  the  Fenian  outbreak  which  followed — all 
enlisted  his  sympathy  and  aid.  In  1860  he  start- 
ed his  paper,  The  National  Reformer,  which 
in  1868  was  prosecuted  by  the  Government. 
The  prosecution  was  abortive,  however,  and  led 
to  a  repeal  of  the  law  under  which  the  proceed- 
ings had  been  taken.  In  1872  he  published  his 
book,  The  Impeachment  of  the  House  of  Bruns- 
wick, which  is,  perhaps,  his  best-known  literary 
work.  In  1873  he  undertook  two  lecturing  tours 
in  the  United  States.  In  1875  he,  with  Mrs. 
Annie  Besant,  was  tried  for  having  republished 
an  old  pamphlet,  The  Fruits  of  Philosophy. 
The  result  of  the  trial  was  that  the  defendants, 
tho  "exonerated  from  all  corrupt  motive," 
were  sentenced  to  six  months'  imprisonment, 
and  to  pay  a  fine  of  ^200.  On  appeal,  however, 
the  sentence  was  reversed.  In  1868  and  twice 
in  1874  he  was  an  unsuccessful  candidate  for 
parliamentary  honors  ;  in  1880,  however,  he 
was  elected  as  junior  member  for  the  borough 
of  Northampton.  Now  commenced  the  struggle 
Avith  the  House  of  Commons,  by  which  his  name 
will  be  best  known.  Refusing  to  take  the  oath 
of  allegiance,  and  desiring  to  affirm,  he  was  not 
allowed  to  sit,  and  his  seat  was  declared  vacant. 
Reelected  in  1881,  he  was  expelled  by  force. 
Again  elected  in  1882,  but  still  debarred  from 
sitting,  he  resigned,  in  order  to  again  appeal 
to  his  constituency  in  1884 ;  and  tho  again 
elected,  it  was  not  till  after  the  general  election 
of  1885  that  he  was  allowed  to  take  his  seat.  In 

1887  he  was  instrumental  in  getting  appointed 
the  Royal  Commission  on  Market  Rights  and 
Tolls,  and  carried  through  Parliament  an  "  Act 
amending  and  extending  the  truck  laws."     In 

1888  he    brought    in    an    "Affirmation    Bill," 
which  was  carried.     In  1889  he  was  requested 
by  the  Indian  National  Congress  to  represent 
their  national  interests  in  the  English  Parlia- 
ment.    A  consistent  individualist,  he  combated 
at  every  step  the  growing  tide  of  socialism,  and 
lost  no  opportunity,  either  by  voice  or  pen,  of 
attacking  what  he  thought  to  be  the  errors  ad- 
vocated by  socialists. 

BRASSEY,  SIR  THOMAS,  born  in  1836  ; 
English  economist  and  writer  on  naval  affairs. 
His  father  was  a  railroad  contractor.  He  was 
called  to  the  bar  in  1864,  but  never  practised. 
In  1865  he  was  elected  Member  of  Parliament  for 
Devonport,  and  he  remained  in  Parliament  for 
a  number  of  years.  Naval  matters  called  forth 
his  chief  attention.  He  assisted  in  forming  the 
naval  artillery  volunteers.  He  and  his  wife,  in 
their  yacht  "  Sunbeam,"  have  made  many  long 
voyages  to  all  parts  of  the  globe.  Among  numer- 
ous shorter  writings  on  naval  affairs  and  social 
questions  he  has  published  Work  and  Wages  ; 
British  Seamen,  and  Lectures  on  the  Labor 
Question^ 

BRAY,  CHARLES  (1811-84),  an  English 
social  reformer  on  the  lines  of  Robert  Owen 
and  Thomas  Carlyle.  Born  at  Coventry,  he  be- 
came a  ribbon  manufacturer  in  that  city.  He 
saw  the  opening  of  Harmony  Hall  in  Queenwood 
Community  (see  OWEN),  but  the  failure  of  that  ex- 


periment convinced  him  that  such  attempts  were 
premature.  He  wrote  The  Philosophy  of  Neces- 
sity (1841),  with  an  appendix  by  his  sister-in- 
law,  MaryHennell,  later  published  separately  as 
An  Outline  of  the  Various  Social  Systems 
and  Communities  which  have  been  Founded 
on  the  Principles  of  Cooperation  (1844) ;  also 
several  essays  and  addresses,  notably  An  Essay 
upon  the  Union  of  Agriculture  and  Manu- 
factures and  upon  the  Organization  of  In- 
dustry ;  also  an  autobiography  (1884). 

BRAY,  J.  F. — An  English  communist  of  the 
school  of  Owen,  of  whom  little  is  known  save 
his  book,  written  in  1839,  Labour' s  Wrong's 
and  Labour' s  Remedy  ;  or,  The  Age  of  Might 
and  the  Age  of  Right.  This  work,  to-day  al- 
most forgotten,  is  one  of  the  ablest  of  its  day, 
and  is  noticed  at  some  length  in  Marx's  Phi- 
losophy of  Misery  (1847)  and  other  writings  of 
the  times.  Palgrave's  Dictionary  of  Political 
Economy  says  of  it :  "  The  book  tries  to  prove 
that  all  those  who  perform  equality  of  labor 
ought  likewise  to  receive  equality  of  reward" 
(p.  30),  and  tho  he  admits  that  even  this  does 
not  involve  perfect  justice,  that  "  such  equality 
is  infinitely  more  just  than  the  mode  of  reward- 
ing labor  under  the  present  system"  (p.  206). 
Impressed  by  the  modern  growth  of  joint-stock 
companies,  Bray  proposes  a  "  joint-stock  modi- 
fication of  society,  admitting  of  individual  prop- 
erty in  productions  in  connection  with  a  com- 
mon property  in  productive  powers"  (p.  194), 
and  proposes  a  paper  and  pottery  currency, 
whose  foundation  is  labor,  in  order  ' '  to  secure 
the  public  against  any  other  variations  in  the 
value  of  the  currency  than  those  to  which  the 
standard  itself  is  subject"  (pp.  143,  198). 

BRENTANO,  LUJO,  professor  at  Breslau  ; 
best  known  outside  of  Germany  by  his  History 
of  English  Guilds  (1871),  and  his  larger  work 
on  English  trade-unions  (1872),  works,  however, 
which  are  by  most  not  considered  complete  or 
satisfactory.  He  was  one  of  the  founders  of  the 
Association  for  Social  Politics  or  ' '  Socialists  of 
the  Chair"  (q.v.),  as  they  are  called  in  Germany, 
altho  belonging  to  the  extreme  right  of  this 
school. 

BRETHREN   OF   SOCIAL   LIFE, 

sometimes  called  Brethren  of  the  Common 
Lot,  Brethren  of  the  Common  Life,  or  Brethren 
of  Good  Will,  a  fraternity  founded  by  Groote  and 
Radewin  in  1376.  It  professed  to  imitate  the 
earliest  Christian  communities,  and  eventually 
merged  into  the  sect  of  Moravians.  It  was  com- 
posed of  pious  persons  who  sought  to  elevate  their 
souls  by  spiritual  exercises  ;  and  it  was  sanc- 
tioned by  several  popes  and  councils.  Communi- 
ty of  goods,  industry,  frugality,  education  of  the 
young,  and  the  use  of  the  vernacular  language 
in  religious  worship  were  some  of  their  peculiar 
usages.  They  bound  themselves  by  no  monas- 
tic vow.  In  1430  they  had  130  societies,  chiefly 
in  Germany  and  the  Netherlands.  The  original 
founders  were  opposed  to  all  learning  and  sci- 
ence that  was  not  moral  and  practical  ;  but  the 
brethren  rendered  valuable  service  to  the  cause 
of  popular  and  free  education,  and  have  been 
called  the  pioneers  of  the  Reformation.  Thomas 


Brethren  of  Social  Life. 


188 


Brissot,  Jean  Pierre. 


a  Kempis  belonged  to  one  of  these  societies. 
Similar  female  societies  were  organized,  each 
under  a  superior  or  Martha. 

The  Order  of  the  Brethren  of  the  Common 
Lot  was  divided  into  two  classes,  the  lettered 
brethren,  or  clerks,  and  the  illiterate  ;  they  lived 
in  separate  habitations,  but  maintained  the 
closest  fraternal  union.  The  former  devoted 
themselves  to  preaching,  visiting  the  sick,  circu- 
lating books  and  tracts,  etc.,  and  the  education 
of  youth,  while  the  latter  were  employed  in  man- 
ual labor  and  the  mechanical  arts.  They  lived 
under  the  rule  of  St.  Augustine,  and  were  emi- 
nently useful  in  promoting  the  cause  of  religion 
and  education. 

The  theory  of  this  community  was  that  unity 
should  be  sought  rather  in  the  inward  spirit  than 
in  outward  statutes.  Vows  were  not  binding 
for  life.  Property  was  surrendered,  not  on  com- 
pulsion, but  voluntarily.  All  the  brother  houses 
were  kept  in  communication  with  each  other, 
and  the  heads  of  houses  met  annually  for  con- 
sultation. Particulars  of  their  rule,  domestic 
arrangements,  etc.,  maybe  found  in  Ullmann's 
Reformers  before  the  Reformation,  ii.  89  sq. 
Luther  and  Melanchthon  spoke  with  approval 
and  sympathy  of  the  brotherhood  in  their  time. 
Its  flourishing  period  extended  from  1400-1500. 
Most  of  their  houses  were  built  between  1425 
and  1451,  and  they  had,  in  all,  some  30  to  50  es- 
tablishments. During  the  sixteenth  century  the 
Reformation  broke  them  down,  in  common  with 
other  monkish  establishments  ;  or,  rather,  they 
crumbled  to  pieces  as  needless  amid  the  new 
developments  of  the  age.  By  the  middle  of  the 
seventeenth  century  the  brotherhood  was  ended. 

BRICKLAYERS  (English).  See  TRADE- 
UNIONS,  section  "  England." 

BRICKLAYERS'  AND  MASONS'  IN- 
TERNATIONAL UNION,  THE,  was  found- 
ed in  the  city  of  Philadelphia,  October  16,  1865. 
At  present  (1895)  it  numbers  230  subordinate 
unions  and  over  30,000  members.  In  1885  it  es- 
tablished the  nine-hour  system  of  working,  tho 
several  of  the  subordinate  unions  are  working 
on  the  eight-hour  basis.  The  organization  is  a 
purely  protective  association.  In  10  years  it 
has  expended  nearly  $200,000  to  sustain  strikes, 
and  over  $1,500,000  for  benevolent  purposes. 

BRIGHT,  JOHN,  an  English  politician,  was 
born  at  Greenbank,  Lancashire,  in  1811.  He 
was  the  son  of  Jacob  Bright,  a  Quaker  cotton- 
spinner.  In  his  sixteenth  year  he  entered  his 
father's  factory,  but  early  became  interested  in 
temperance,  parliamentary  reform,  and  other 
questions  of  the  day.  The  reform  struggle  of 
1832  moved  him  deeply.  In  1839,  when  the 
Anti-Corn-Law  League  was  formed,  he  and  Cob- 
den  were  the  leading  members  of  it,  and  com- 
menced a  free-trade  agitation  throughout  the 
kingdom.  In  1841  he  suffered  a  severe  loss  by 
the  death  of  his  wife, and  in  his  grief  Cobden  bade 
him  devote  himself  to  the  repeal  of  the  corn 
laws.  He  became  M.P.  for  Durham  in  1843. 
His  eloquent  and  energetic  advocacy  of  free 
trade  produced  at  last  the  repeal  of  the  corn 
laws.  He  was  associated  with  Cobden  in  a 
movement  for  financial  reform,  and  later  with  a 


movement  to  reform  the  system  of  electoral  rep- 
resentation. He  came  to  be  with  Cobden  the 
head  of  the  so-called  "  Manchester  School" 
(y.v.),  and  vigorously  opposed  the  ten-hour  move- 
ment and  almost  all  industrial  legislation. 
Being  a  member  of  the  Peace  Society,  as  well 
as  of  the  Society  of  Friends,  he  strenuously  op- 
posed the  war  with  Russia  in  1854.  Some  of  the 
severest  denunciations  of  war  ever  uttered  are  to 
be  found  in  his  speeches.  In  1857  he  was  elect- 
ed from  Birmingham,  and  long  represented  that 
city.  He  strongly  condemned  the  then  existing 
game  laws  of  Great  Britain.  In  1868  he  accept- 
ed the  presidency  of  the  Board  of  Trade  in  Glad- 
stone's administration,  and  worked  for  the  dis- 
establishment of  the  Irish  Church  and  the  Irish 
Land  Act,  aiming  at  peasant  proprietorship.  In 
1870  he  resigned  from  office  on  account  of  ill 
health,  but  took  office  again  in  1873-74,  and 
1882  as  chancellor,  of  the  duchy  of  Lancaster. 
In  1886  he  opposed  the  Home  Rule  bill  intro- 
duced by  Mr.  Gladstone.  In  1883  he  became 
lord  rector  of  the  University  of  Glasgow.  He 
died  in  his  boyhood's  home,  March  27,  1889. 

BRINKERHOFF,  GENERAL  ROE- 
LIFF,  was  born  in  Owasco,  N.  Y.,  June  28, 
1828.  Entering  the  law,  the  war  called  him  to 
distinguished  service,  but  at  its  close  he  re- 
sumed law  practice  in  Mansfield,  O.  In  1873 
he  became  a  banker.  For  more  than  10  years 
he  held  a  high  place  in  the  ranks  of  philan- 
thropy— a  student  of  the  problem  of  the  defec- 
tive, delinquent,  and  dependent  classes.  In 
1878  he  was  appointed  by  Governor  Bishop  a 
member  of  the  State  Board  of  Charities,  in 
which  he  has  since  served,  having  been  reap- 
pointed  by  Governor  McKinley. 

He  studied  crime  and  charity  in  the  institu- 
tions that  deal  with  their  problems  in  all  parts 
of  the  land,  and  in  the  conventions  called  for 
their  consideration.  It  is  largely  to  his  credit 
that  Honi  F.  B.  Sanborn,  of  Massachusetts, 
places  the  prison  system  of  Ohio  above  that  of  all 
other  States.  He  aided  in  the  establishment  of 
the  Elmira  Reformatory,  as  an  expression  of  his 
belief  that  prisons  should  be  conducted  not  for 
punishment,  but  for  reform.  He  protests  with 
voice  and  pen  against  the  indiscriminate  asso- 
ciation of  criminals  in  county  jails,  where  "  old 
offenders"  are  allowed  to  corrupt  "  first  offend- 
ers." Altho  a  strong  Democrat,  he  advocates 
the  elimination  of  all  party  politics  from  prison 
management.  "As  a  hospital  flag  on  every 
battlefield  of  civilized  warfare  is  an  emblem  of 
neutrality,  so,  and  more  so,  in  political  warfare," 
he  says,  "the  asylums  of  our  dependent  and 
defective  classes  should  be  sacred  from  the  at- 
tack of  contending  parties." 

In  1880  General  Brinkerhoff  was  made  Presi- 
dent of  the  Seventeenth  National  Conference 
of  Charities  and  Corrections.  He  is  the  author 
of  numerous  addresses  and  papers  on  crime  and 
charity. 

BRISSOT,  JEAN  PIERRE,  surnamed  De 
WARVILLE  (1754-93),  was  born  at  Chartres, 
of  humble  parentage.  Educated  for  the  law, 
he  entered  the  office  of  a  procurator  at  Paris, 
but  early  devoted  himself  to  political  sci- 


Brissot,  Jean  Pierre. 


189 


Brook  Farm. 


enee.  His  Theoriedes  Lois  Criminelles  (1781) 
and  Bibliotheque  Philosophtque  de  Legisla- 
teur  (1782)  brought  him  notoriety  and  the  favor 
of  Voltaire,  D'Alembert,  and  others.  They 
were  imbued  with  the  philosophy  of  Rousseau, 
and  contain  the  saying,  afterward  made  famous 
by  Proudhon,  "  La  propriete,  c'est  le  vol."  A 
facile  writer,  he  wrote  for  papers  unworthy  of 
him,  but  later  went  to  London  and  started  Le 
Journal  du  Lycee  de  Londres  to  unite  all  the 
savants  of  Europe.  Returning  to  Paris,  he 
was  lodged  in  the  Bastille  on  an  unfounded 
charge.  Released  after  a  few  months,  he  re- 
commenced pamphleteering,  and  in  London 
meeting  some  abolitionists,  he  organized  in 
Paris  a  Societe  des  Amis  des  Noirs.  He  visit- 
ed the  United  States,  but  returned  to  play  a 
leading  part  in  the  French  Revolution.  He 
•edited  the  Patriote  Fran<;aise,  and  in  the  Na- 
tional Assembly  leagued  himself  with  the  Giron- 
dists, then  often  called  the  Brissotins.  He  brave- 
ly suffered  death  on  the  guillotine  with  the 
Girondists,  October  30,  1793. 

BRITISH  ECONOMIC  ASSOCIATION, 
THE,  was  founded  at  a  meeting  held  at  Uni- 
versity College,  London,  on  November  20, 
1890,  the  Rt.  Hon.  G.  T.  Goschen,  M.P.,  being 
in  the  chair.  The  object  of  the  association 
is  the  advancement  of  economic  knowledge 
by  the  issue  of  a  journal  and  other  printed 
publications,  and  by  such  other  means  as  the 
association  may  from  time  to  time  agree  to 
adopt.  The  journal  represents  all  shades  of 
economic  opinion,  and  is  the  organ  not  of  one 
school  of  economists,  but  of  all  schools.  The 
annual  subscription  isone  guinea.  There  is  at 
present  no  entrance  fee.  Any  member  may  at 
any  time  compound  for  his  future  yearly  pay- 
ments by  paying  at  once  the  sum  of  10  guineas. 
The  current  numbers  of  the  journal,  issued  in 
March,  June,  September,  and  December,  and 
published  by  Messrs.  Macmillan  &  Co. ,  are  sent 
to  members  free  of  charge.  The  price  is  $s. 
each  copy,  or  one  guinea  (net)  for  the  annual  vol- 
ume bound.  The  officers  of  the  British  Economic 
Association  (1895)  are  as  follows  :  President, 
Rt.  Hon.  G.  T.  Goschen,  M.P.  ;  Vice-Presidents, 
Rt.  Hons.  A.  J.  Balfour,  M.P.,  H.  C.  E.  Childers, 
Leonard  H.  Courtney,  M.P.,  John  Morley,  M.P. 
The  Secretary  is  Henry  Higgs,  9  Adelphi  Ter- 
race, London,  W.  C.  ;  and  the  editor  of  the  jour- 
nal is  Professor  F.  T.  Edgeworth,  D.C.L.,  All 
Souls'  College,  Oxford. 

BROADHURST,  HENRY,  was  born  in  1840 
near  Littlemore,  Oxfordshire,  the  son  of  a  jour- 
neyman mason.  He  worked  at  his  father's  trade 
till  1872,  when  he  was  elected  to  the  Parliamen- 
tary Committee  of  the  Trade-Union  Congress, 
becoming  a  most  indefatigable  worker,  and  serv- 
ing as  secretary  of  the  committee  from  1875-90. 
In  1880  he  was  returned  to  Parliament  from 
Stoke-upon-Trent.  In  1885  he  was  elected  from 
the  Boardsley  division  of  Birmingham  ;  in  1886 
from  Nottingham  (West),  and  at  the  next  gen- 
eral election  from  Leicester.  He  has  been  a 
member  of  two  royal  commissions,  and  in  1886 
was  appointed  Under  Secretary  of  State  for 
Home  Affairs.  He  is  a  Liberal  in  politics,  and 
for  a  long  period  opposed  the  new  trade-union- 


ism, eight-hour  legislation,  etc.  He  has,  how- 
ever, recently  changed  his  position  on  the  eight- 
hour  bill,  and  was  in  1894  deemed  one  of  the 
most  progressive  members  of  the  Trade-Union 
Parliamentary  Committee. 

BROADWAY  STEALS.— In  the  year  1884 
the  Broadway  surface  railroad,  in  New  York 
City,  applied  to  the  aldermen  of  that  city  for  a 
franchise  for  building  a  surface  railroad  on 
Broadway.  The  franchise  was  given  for  an  ut- 
terly insufficient  sum.  The  mayor  vetoed  the 
ordinance,  but  all  but  two  aldermen  voted  to 
pass  the  measure  over  his  veto.  Corruption  was 
only  too  apparent,  and  the  New  York  State  Sen- 
ate in  the  spring  of  1886  investigated  the  matter, 
and  as  a  result  indicted  22  of  the  24  aldermen 
for  bribery.  Some  of  the  aldermen  and  some 
who  had  acted  as  intermediaries  fled  the  State. 
Alderman  H.  W.  Jaehne  was  the  first  tried,  and 
after  a  well-contested  trial  was  convicted  and 
sentenced  to  nine  years  and  ten  months  in  State 
prison.  He  appealed,  but  the  Court  of  Appeals 
confirmed  the  sentence.  Alderman  A.  J.  Mc- 
Quade  was  tried,  but  the  jury  disagreed.  The 
company  was  annulled  and  dissolved  by  the 
Legislature. 

BROCKLEHURST,  FRED,  was  born  Feb- 
ruary 20,  1866,  at  Macclesfield,  England,  and 
is  the  son  of  a  journalist.  At  the  age  of  10 
he  worked  in  a  factory,  left  school  at  12,  and 
became  successively  a  telegraph  boy,  printer's 
devil,  and  stationer.  In  1885  he  determined  to 
study  for  the  Church,  entered  Queen's  College, 
Cambridge,  and  graduated  with  honors  in  1892. 
Giving  up  his  purpose  of  taking  orders,  he  de- 
voted himself  to  the  labor  struggle.  He  joined 
the  Labor  Church  as  general  secretary,  and  be- 
came prominent  in  the  councils  of  the  Indepen- 
dent Labor  Party.  The  party  made  him  their 
candidate  for  Parliament  for  Bolton  in  May, 
1894. 

BROOK  FARM. — The  cooperative  and, 
later,  the  Fourierite  experiment  of  Brook  Farm 
seems  to  have  been  the  child  of  Boston  tran- 
scendentalism and  Unitarianism.  Its  leading 
spirit  and  its  head  from  first  to  last  was  George 
Ripley,  altho  he  was  ably  seconded  by  such 
men  as  Dr.  Channing,  Dr.  J.  C.  Warren,  Theo- 
dore Parker,  George  W.  Curtis,  and  others.  In 
1842,  200  acres  were  bought  in  what  is  now 
Readville,  a  few  miles  southwest  of  Boston,  and 
the  community  began.  There  were  a  few  of 
these  well-known  names,  but  besides  and  con. 
trary  to  a  very  general  impression  there  were  a 
great  many  men  and  women  from  the  ordinary 
walks  of  life.  The  main  aim  was  to  establish  a 
school  or  college,  and  a  number  of  young  people 
were  received  as  pupils.  It  attracted  great  in- 
terest, and  people  flocked  from  all  over  the  coun- 
try to  see  it.  Ripley,  Theodore  Parker,  Mar- 
garet Fuller,  Hawthorne,  were  for  a  greater  or 
less  time  resident  members.  Dr.  Channing  and 
Ralph  Waldo  Emerson  were  in  communication 
with  it.  All  the  members  were  stockholders, 
tho  some  gave  only  labor  in  place  of  stock. 
All  took  part  in  the  manual  labor  of  the  farm, 
even  those  who  were  most  famous  with  the  pen. 
All  dined  in  common  in  one  central  hall,  and 


Brook  Farm. 


190 


Brook  Farm. 


lived  mainly  in  one  large  building.  The  life 
was  a  happy  one  ;  and  even  after  its  failure  its 
members  looked  back  on  the  years  spent  there 
as  among  the  happiest  of  their  lives.  There 
were  about  115  members.  The  spirit  was  emi- 
nently religious,  of  the  transcendental  type  ; 
but  there  was  no  creed  ;  and  every  one  was 
free  to  believe  and  worship  as  he  would.  There 
were  no  religious  services  on  Sunday  or  through 
the  week.  The  produce  of  the  farm,  after  its 
own  necessities  were  provided  for,  were  sent  in 
by  wagon  to  the  Boston  market.  The  spirit  of 
the  community  can  perhaps  be  best  seen  by  ah 
extract  from  The  Dial,  published  from  1840-44, 
with  Margaret  Fuller  as  its  editress,  and  largely 
the  organ  of  Brook  Farm. 

The  first  notice  of  Brook  Farm  we  find  in  The 
Dial  is  in  connection  with  an  article  in  its  sec- 
ond volume  (October,  1841),  entitled  A  Glimpse 
of  Christ's  Idea  of  Society,  by  Miss  Elizabeth 
P.  Peabody.  This  article  gives  us  Miss  Pea- 
body's  conception  of  the  original  ideal  of  Brook 
Farm  ;  a  few  sentences  only  can  we  quote.  She 
says  : 

"While  we  acknowledge  the  natural  growth,  the 
good  design,  and  the  noble  effects  of  the  Apostolic 
Church,  and  wish  we  had  it,  in  place  of  our  own  more 
formal  ones,  we  should  not  do  so  small  justice  to  the 
divine  soul  of  Jesus  of  Nazareth  as  to  admit  that  it 
was  a  main  purpose  of  His  to  found  it,  or  that  when  it 
was  founded  it  realized  His  idea  of  human  society. 
Indeed,  we  probably  do  injustice  to  the  apostles  them- 
selves, in  supposing  that  they  considered  their 
churches  anything  more  than  initiatory.  Their  lan- 
guage implies  that  they  looked  forward  to  a  time  when 
the  uttermost  parts  of  the  earth  should  be  inherited  by 
their  beloved  Master ;  and  beyond  this,  when  even  the 
name,  which  is  still  above  every  name,  should  be  lost  in 
the  glory  of  the  Father,  who  is  to  be  all  in  all. 

"Some  persons,  indeed,  refer  all  this  sort  of  lan- 
guage to  another  world  ;  but  this  is  gratuitously  done. 
Both  Jesus  and  the  apostles  speak  of  life  as  the  same 
in  both  worlds. 

"  The  Kingdom  of  Heaven,  as  it  lay  in  the  clear 
spirit  of  Jesus  of  Nazareth,  is  rising  again  upon  vision. 
Nay,  this  kingdom  begins  to  be  seen  not  only  in  re- 
ligious ecstasy,  in  moral  vision,  but  in  the  light  of 
common  sense  and  the  human  understanding.  Social 
science  begins  to  verify  the  prophecy  of  poetry.  The 
time  has  come  when  men  ask  themselves  what  Jesus 
meant  when  He  said :  'Inasmuch  as  ye  have  not  done 
it  unto  the  least  of  these  little  ones,  ye  have  not  done  it 
unto  Me.' 

"  No  sooner  is  it  surmised  that  the  Kingdom  of 
Heaven  and  the  Christian  Church  are  the  same  thing, 
and  that  this  thing  is  not  an  association  outside  of  so- 
ciety, but  a  reorganization  of  society  itself,  on  those 
very  principles  of  love  to  God  and  love  to  man  which 
Jesus  Christ  realized  in  His  own  daily  life,  than  we 
perceive  the  day  of  judgment  for  society  is  come,  and 
all  the  words  of  Christ  are  so  many  trumpets  of  doom. 
For  before  the  judgment-seat  of  His  sayings,  how  do 
our  governments,  our  trades,  our  etiquettes,  even  our 
benevolent  institutions  and  churches  look?  .  .  . 

"  One  would  think,  from  the  tone  of  conservatives, 
that  Jesus  accepted  the  society  around  Him  as  an 
adequate  framework  for  individual  development  into 
beauty  and  life,  instead  of  calling  His  disciples  'out  of 
the  world.'  We  maintain,  on  the  other  hand,  that 
Christ  desired  to  reorganize  society,  and  went  to  a 
depth  of  principle  and  a  magnificence  of  plan  for  this 
end  which  has  never  been  appreciated,  except  here 
and  there,  by  an  individual,  still  less  been  carried 
out.  .  .  .  There  are  men  and  women  who  have  dared 
to  say  to  one  another,  '  Why  not  have  our  daily  life  or- 
ganized on  Christ's  own  idea  ?  Why  not  begin  to  move 
the  mountain  of  custom  and  convention  ?  Perhaps 
Jesus'  method  of  thought  and  life  is  the  Saviour— is 
Christianity  ! '  .  .  . 

"  N.  B.  A  postscript  to  this  essay,  giving  an  account 
of  a  specific  attempt  to  realize  its  principles,  will  appear 
in  the  next  number." 

According  to  this,  Brook  Farm,  in  its  concep- 


tion, was  distinctly  Christian,  and  no  less  than  an 
effort  to  realize  the  kingdom  of  God  on  earth. 

In  the  next  number  of  The  Dial  Miss  Pea- 
body  wrote  the  following  Plan  of  the  West 
Roxbury  Community  : 

"In  the  last  number  of  the  Dial  were  some  remarks, 
under  the  perhaps  ambitious  title  of  'A  Glimpse  of 
Christ's  Idea  of  Society,'  in  a  note  to  which  it  was 
intimated  that  in  this  number  would  be  given  an  ac- 
count of  an  attempt  to  realize  in  some  degree  this  great 
Ideal,  by  a  little  company  in  the  midst  of  us,  as  yet 
without  name  or  visible  existence.  The  attempt  is 
made  on  a  very  small  scale.  A  few  individuals,  who, 
unknown  to  each  other,  under  different  disciplines  of 
life,  reacting  from  different  social  evils,  but  aiming  at 
the  same  object— of  being  wholly  true  to  their  natures 
as  men  and  women— have  been  made  acquainted  with 
one  another,  and  have  determined  to  become  the 
Faculty  of  the  Embryo  University. 

"In  order  to  live  a  religious  and  moral  life  worthy 
the  name,  they  feel  it  is  necessary  to  come  out  in  some 
degree  from  the  world,  and  to  form  themselves  into  a 
community  of  property,  so  far  as  to  exclude  competi- 
tion and  the  ordinary  rules  of  trade  ;  while  they  re- 
serve sufficient  private  property,  or  the  means  of  ob- 
taining it,  for  all  purposes  of  independence  and  isola- 
tion at  will.  They  have  bought  a  farm,  in  order  to  make 
agriculture  the  basis  of  their  life,  it  being  the  most 
direct  and  simple  in  relation  to  nature.  A  true  life, 
altho  it  aims  beyond  the  highest  star,  is  redolent  of 
the  healthy  earth.  The  perfume  of  clover  lingers, 
about  it.  The  lowing  of  cattle  is  the  natural  bass  to 
the  melody  of  human  voices. 

"  The  plan  of  the  community  as  an  economy  is  in  brief 
this :  for  all  who  have  property  to  take  stock,  and  re- 
ceive a  fixed  interest  thereon  ;  then  to  keep  house  or 
board  in  common,  as  they  shall  severally  desire,  at  the 
cost  of  provisions  purchased  at  wholesale,  or  raised  on 
the  farm ;  and  for  all  to  labor  in  community,  and  be 
paid  at   a  certain  rate  an  hour,  choosing  their  own 
number  of  hours  and  their  own  kind  of 
work.    With  the  results  of  this  labor  and 
their  interest  they  are  to  pay  their  board,  Plan  of  the 
and  also  purchase  whatever  else  they  re-  «„,„_, 
quire  at  cost,  at  the  warehouses  of  the  ^onlniunuy. 
community,  which  are  to  be  filled  by  the 
community   as   such.     To   perfect  this 
economy,  in  the  course  of  time  they  must  have  all 
trades  and  all  modes  of  business  carried  on   among- 
themselves,  from  the  lowest  mechanical  trade,  which 
contributes  to  the  health  and  comfort  of  life,    to  the 
finest  art,  which  adorns  it  with  food  or  drapery  for 
the  mind. 

"  All  labor,  whether  bodily  or  intellectual,  is  to  be 
paid  at  the  same  rate  of  wages  ;  on  the  principle  that  as 


in  exact  proportion  to  ignorance.  Besides,  intellectual 
labor  involves  in  itself  higher  pleasures,  and  is  more 
its  own  reward  than  bodily  labor.  .  .  . 

"  After  becoming  members  of  this  community,  none 
will  be  engaged  merely  in  bodily  labor.  The  hours  of 
labor  for  the  association  will  be  limited  by  a  general  law, 
and  can  be  curtailed  at  the  will  of  the  individual  still 
more  ;  and  means  will  be  given  to  all  for  intellectual  im- 
provement and  for  social  intercourse,  calculated  to  re- 
fine and  expand.  The  hours  redeemed  from  labor  by 
the  community  will  not  be  reapplied  to  the  acquisition 
of  wealth,  but  to  the  production  of  intellectual  goods. 
This  community  aims  to  be  rich  not  in  the  metallic 
representative  of  wealth,  but  in  the  wealth  itself,  which 
money  should  represent— namely,  leisure  to  live  in  all 
the  faculties  of  the  soul.  As  a  community,  it  will  traffic 
with  the  world  at  large,  in  the  products  of  agricultural 
labor ;  and  it  will  sell  education  to  as  many  young 
persons  as  can  be  domesticated  in  the  families,  and 
enter  into  the  common  life  with  their  own  children. 
In  the  end  it  hopes  to  be  enabled  to  provide  not  only 
all  the  necessaries,  but  all  the  elegances  desirable  for 
bodily  and  for  spiritual  health— books,  apparatus,  col- 
lections for  science,  works  of  art.  and  means  of  beautiful 
amusement.  These  things  are  to  be  common  to  all  ; 
and  thus  that  object,  which  alone  gilds  and  refines  the 
passion  for  individual  accumulation,  will  no  longer 
exist  for  desire,  and  whenever  the  sordid  passion  ap- 
pears it  will  be  seen  in  its  naked  selfishness.  In  its. 
ultimate  success,  the  community  will  realize  all  the 
ends  which  selfishness  seeks,  but  involved  in  spiritual 
blessings,  which  only  greatness  of  soul  can  aspire 
after.  And  the  requisitions  on  the  individuals,  it  is 


Brook  Farm. 


191 


Brotherhood  of  Carpenters. 


believed,  will  make  this  the  order  forever.  The  spir- 
itual good  will  always  be  the  condition  of  the  tem- 
poral. Every  one  must  labor  for  the  community  in  a 
reasonable  degree,  or  not  taste  its  benefits. 

"  Whoever  is  •willing  to  receive  from  his  fellow-men 
that  for  which  he  gives  no  equivalent  will  stay  away 
from  its  precincts  forever.  But  whoever  shall  surren- 
der himself  to  its  principles  shall  find  that  its  yoke  is 
easy  and  its  burden  light.  Everything  can  be  said  of 
it,  in  a  degree,  which  Christ  said  of  His  kingdom,  and 
therefore  it  is  believed  that  in  some  measure  it  does 
embody  His  idea.  For  its  gate  of  entrance  is  straight 
and  narrow.  It  is  literally  a  pearl  hidden  in  a  field. 
Those  only  who  are  willing  to  lose  their  life  for  its 
sake  shall  find  it.  Its  voice  is  that  which  sent  the 
young  man  sorrowing  away :  '  Go  sell  all  thy  goods 
and  give  to  the  poor,  and  then  come  and  follow  Me.' 
'  Seek  first  the  Kingdom  of  Heaven  and  its  righteous- 
ness, and  all  other  things  shall  be  added  to  you.'  .  .  . 

"There  may  be  some  persons  at  a  distance  who  will 
ask,  To  what  degree  has  this  community  gone  into 
operation  ?  We  cannot  answer  this  with  precision, 
but  we  have  a  right  to  say  that  it  has  purchased  the 
farm  which  some  of  its  members  cultivated  for  a  year 
with  success,  by  way  of  trying  their  love  and  skill  for 
agricultural  labor ;  that  in  the  only  house  they  are  as  yet 
rich  enough  to  own  is  collected  a  large  family,  includ- 
ing several  boarding  scholars,  and  that  all  work  and 
study  together.  They  seem  to  be  glad  to  know  of  all 
who  desire  to  join  them  in  the  spirit,  that  at  any  mo- 
ment, when  they  are  able  to  enlarge  their  habitations, 
they  may  call  together  those  that  belong  to  them." 

This  gives  the  spirit  of  the  community  as  it 
lay  at  least  in  the  mind  of  one  interested  soul. 
Its  leaders  had  the  two  first  requisites  of  a  com- 
munity— devotion  to  principle  and  previous  ac- 
quaintance. For  some  two  years  Brook  Farm 
continued  in  about  this  spirit.  It  then  gradu- 
ally became  imbued  with  Fourierism,  which 
was  then  flooding  the  land. 

In  the  last  week  of  December,  1843,  and  the 
first  week  of  January,  1844,  a  convention  was 
held  in  Boston,  where,  for  the  first  time  in  New 
England,  Fourierism  appeared  to 
have  much  strength.  (See  FOURIER- 
Fourierism.  ISM.)  William  Bassett,  of  Lynn, 
was  president ;  Adin  Ballou,  of 
Hopedale,  G.  W.  Benson,  of  North- 
ampton, George  Ripley,  of  Brook  Farm,  among 
the  vice-presidents  ;  with  Eliza  J.  Kenney,  of 
Salem,  and  Charles  A.  Dana,  of  Brook  Farm, 
secretaries.  The  tone  of  the  convention  was 
decidedly  Fourieristic,  and  soon  after  this  the 
Brook  Farm  community  formally  decided  to  be- 
come a  Fourierist  phalanx,  the  leader  in  this 
change  being  apparently  William  H.  Channing. 
The  constitution  of  the  community  was  changed 
and  an  appeal  sent  out  for  new  cooperation  and 
investment.  A  workshop  for  mechanics  of  sev- 
eral trades  was  built,  and  a  Fourierist  phalans- 
tery, or  unitary  dwelling,  175  feet  by  40  feet,  was 
in  process  of  erection.  With  this  new  change 
the  Fourierist  paper  in  New  York,  The  Pha- 
lanx, was  given  up,  and  The  Harbinger  start- 
ed at  Brook  Farm  as  the  representative  of 
Fourierism  in  America.  An  American  union  of 
associationists  was  organized,  with  William  H. 
Channing  as  its  secretary  and  chief  mover.  Mis- 
sionaries or  lecturers  were  sent  out.  But  al- 
ready Fourierism  was  on  the  wane  in  public 
sentiment,  and  they  met  with  small  success. 
Another  movement  was  coming  up.  The  last 
days  of  Brook  Farm  were  more  or  less  connect- 
ed with  Siuedenborgianism.  Swedenborgian- 
ism  took  a  deeper  hold  than  Fourierism,  because 
it  was  distinctly  religious.  Many  of  the  friends 
of  Brook  Farm  became  friendly  to  it.  Mean- 
while, events  transpired  to  weaken  the  interest 


in  the  farm  itself.  On  March  3,  1845,  a  disas- 
trous fire  burned  the  phalanstery  wholly  to  the 
ground,  just  as  it  was  nearing  completion.  It 
produced  a  feeling  of  discouragement  and  hesi- 
tation from  which  the  community  never  recov- 
ered. In  the  fall  The  Harbinger  was  removed 
to  New  York  City,  and  soon  after  Brook  Farm 
was  dissolved.  It  had  not  been  a  financial  suc- 
cess. It  had  not  the  capital  of  some  of  the  other 
associations,  nor  any  experienced  practical  busi- 
ness manager.  As  a. farm  it  was  not  a  success. 
Its  transcendental  members  delighted  to  mingle 
philosophy  and  theology  with  manual  farm 
labor,  but  their  hearts  were  in  transcendental- 
ism, not  in  farm  work  ;  and  the  result  was  what 
could  have  been  expected. 

Reference  :  Brook  Farm,  by  J.  T.  Codman  (Boston, 


BROOKS,  J.  GRAHAM,  was  born  in  1846. 
He  studied  in  Germany  three  years  ;  graduated 
from  Harvard  Divinity  School  in  1874  ;  occu- 
pied the  Unitarian  pulpit  for  several  years  ;  lec- 
tured upon  economics  at  Harvard  University  ; 
and  in  1892  was  appointed  expert  of  the  Labor 
Department,  Washington.  He  is  the  author  of 
the  Report  upon  Working  Man' s  Insurance 
in  Germany,  1893  ;  articles  in  Cyclopedia  of  Po- 
litical Science  (Macmillan,  London)  ;  various 
articles  on  social  and  economic  topics  in  British 
Economic  Journal ;  Harvard  Journal  of  Eco- 
nomics ;  Forum,  etc. 

He  would  be  classed  with  the  historical  school  ; 
he  believes  in  the  municipalization  of  natural 
monopolies  as  fast  and  as  far  as  it  can  be  done 
to  the  social  advantage  ;  he  believes  in  the 
largest  measure  of  free  trade  that  is  practically 
possible  ;  regarding  the  basis  of  the  currency  he 
is  a  bimetallist. 

BROTHERHOOD  OF  CARPENTERS 
AND  JOINERS  OF  AMERICA,  THE,  one 

of  the  most  important  trade-unions  of  the  coun- 
try, was  organized  at  a  convention  of  carpen- 
ters' unions  held  in  Chicago,  111.,  August  8, 
1881.  Prior  to  this  organization  many  local 
unions  had  existed,  and  efforts  had  been  con- 
tinually made  for  the  formation  of  a  national  or- 
ganization. The  first  attempt  was  made  in  1854, 
and  the  second  in  1867.  The  preamble  to  the 
constitution  sets  forth  the  objects  to  be 

"  To  rescue  our  trade  from  the  low  level  to- 
which  it  has  fallen,  and,  by  mutual  effort,  to 
raise  ourselves  to  that  position  in  society  to 
which  we  are  justly  entitled  ;  to  cultivate  a 
feeling  of  friendship  among  the  craft  ;  and  to 
elevate  the  moral,  intellectual,  and  social  condi- 
tion of  all  journeymen  carpenters.  It  is,  further- 
more, our  object  to  assist  each  other  to  secure 
employment  ;  to  furnish  aid  in  cases  of  death 
or  permanent  disability,  and  for  mutual  relief, 
and  other  benevolent  purposes. ' ' 

The  officers  consist  of  a  general  president, 
eight  vice-presidents,  a  general  secretary,  treas- 
urer, and  an  executive  board.  The  executive 
board  is  composed  of  five  members,  elected 
from  the  union  or  unions  within  a  radius  of  10 
miles  of  the  city  selected  as  headquarters.  This, 
board  has  power  to  decide  all  points  of  law,  set- 


Brotherhood  of  Carpenters. 


192 


Brotherhoods,  Religious. 


tie  all  grievances,  and  to  authorize  strikes  in 
conformity  with  the  constitution. 

The  constitution  provides  that  whenever  a  dis- 
pute arises  between  an  employer  or  employers 
and  members  of  the  brotherhood,  the  members 
shall  lay  the  matter  before  the  local  union, 
which  shall  appoint  an  arbitration  committee  to 
adjust  the  matter  ;  then,  if  the  members  of  the 
committee  cannot  settle  the  dispute,  the  matter 
shall  be  referred  to  the  union.  If  a  two-thirds 
vote  of  secret  ballot  shall  decide  that  the  mem- 
bers shall  be  sustained,  then  they  shall  be  author- 
ized to  strike  ;  which  strike  shall  take  effect  im- 
mediately whenever  the  demand  is  refused  by 
the  employers  the  following  day. 

The  organization  provides  a  funeral  benefit 
of  $250  if  a  member  dies,  and  $50  in  case  of  the 
death  of  the  wife  of  a  member.  It  also  pro- 
vides a  disability  benefit.  The  organization  is 
opposed  to  piece-work. 

The  first  convention  of  the  Brotherhood  after  the 
organization  was  held  in  Philadelphia  in  1882.  The 
first  strikes  of  prominence  occurred  in  Chicago  and 
New  Orleans,  where  they  succeeded  in  fixing  the 
standard  rate  of  wages  at  $3  per  day.  This  organiza- 
tion has  always  been  unusually  successful  in  its  strikes. 
As  early  as  1886  the  general  secretary  writes  : 

"  In  21  cities  our  local  unions  have  gained  25  cents 
per  day  advance  in  wages,  making  in  all  53  cities  where 
pur  local  unions  have  made  gains  the  past  year,  either 
in  more  wages  or  in  reducing  hours,  while  only  in  nine 
cities  have  our  local  unions  failed  to  secure  their  de- 
mands, and  in  these  cities  they  demanded  the  eight- 
hour  system  last  May.  A  resume  shows  that  2486  of 
our  members  are  working  eight  hours  per  day,  5824  are 
on  nine  hours  per  day,  and  1118  are  having  shorter 
hours  on  Saturdays.  This  makes  a  total  gain  to  these 
members  of  65,894  hours  per  week,  adding  to  the  gains 
on  the  Pacific  Coast,  which  amount  to  6540  hours  per 
week,  makes  a  sum  total  of  72,434  hours  per  week  gained 
to  our  members  through  organization.  ' 

It  was  because  of  their  complete  organization 
and  success  that  to  the  carpenters  was  given  the 
honor  of  leading  off  in  the  great  strikes  of  the 
American  Federation  of  Labor  on  May  i.  They 
showed  themselves  worthy  of  this,  for  an  ac- 
count of  which  see  AMERICAN  FEDERATION  OF 
LABOR.  January,  1894,  the  order  had  824  lodges, 
with  65,000  members.  The  secretary  is  P.  J. 
McGuire,  Box  884,  Philadelphia.  Besides  this 
organization  there  is  in  the  trade  the  Amalga- 
mated Society  of  Carpenters  and  Joiners.  (See 
BUILDING  TRADES.) 

BROTHERHOOD  OF  CHRISTIAN 
UNITY,  THE.— The  object  of  this  society  is 
not  to  work  directly  for  organic  unity  among 
the  churches,  but  to  promote  the  spirit  of  unity 
out  of  which  alone  a  true  and  permanent  union 
can  grow.  It  has  no  constitution,  but  only  a 
form  of  enrollment,  as  follows  : 

' '  For  the  purpose  of  uniting  with  all  who  de- 
sire to  serve  God  and  their  fellow-men  under  the 
inspiration  of  the  life  and  teachings  of  Jesus 
Christ,  I  hereby  enroll  myself  as  a  member  of 
the  Brotherhood  of  Christian  Unity. ' ' 

The  motto  of  the  society  is,  "  Love  your  neigh- 
bor and  respect  his  beliefs."  The  brotherhood 
originated  from  a  suggestion  made  by  Mr.  Theo- 
dore F.  Seward,  at  a  union  meeting  held  at 
Orange,  N.  J.,  in  April,  1891.  It  has  two  aims, 
and  leads  to  two  results  :  i.  It  supplies  through 
its  form  of  enrollment  a  basis  upon  which  all 
who  desire  to  follow  Christ  in  serving  God  and 
their  fellow-men  will  constitute  a  recognized 


brotherhood  in  any  part  of  the  world.  The  en- 
rollment was  accepted  at  the  Parliament  of  Re- 
ligions as  "  a  suitable  bond  with  which  to  begin 
the  federation  of  the  world  upon  a  Christian 
basis."  2.  The  formula  is  a  bond  of  union  for 
practical  work  in  any  city,  town,  or  community, 
between  various  societies  and  churches. 

BROTHERHOOD  OF  THE  KINGDOM, 
THE. — This  organization,  established  in  1893, 
is  the  outgrowth,  mainly  in  the  Baptist  denomi- 
nation, of  the  earnest  work  of  two  men  in  New 
York  City,  but  it  now  holds  yearly  undenomina- 
tional conferences,  and  performs  through  its 
members  no  little  practical  work.  Its  aim  is  to 
work  for  the  kingdom  of  God  in  the  most  inclu- 
sive sense.  (See  BAPTISTS  IN  RELATION  TO  SO- 
CIAL REFORM.)  The  principles  and  methods  of 
the  brotherhood  are  thus  stated  : 

1.  Every  member  shall  by  his  personal  life  exemplify 
obedience  to  the  ethics  of  Jesus. 

2.  He  shall  propagate  the  thoughts  of  Jesus  to  the 
limits  of  his  ability,  in  private  conversation,  by  cor- 
respondence, and  through  pulpit,  platform,  and  press. 

3.  He  shall  lay  special  stress  on  the  social   aims  of 
Christianity,  and   shall    endeavor   to    make    Christ's 
teaching  concerning  wealth  operative  in  the  Church. 

4.  On  the  other  hand,  he  shall  take  pains  to  keep  in 
contact  with  the  common  people,  and  to  infuse  the  re- 
ligious spirit  into  the  efforts  for  social  amelioration. 

5.  The  members  shall  seek  to  strengthen  the  bond  of 
brotherhood  by  frequent  meetings  for  prayer  and  dis- 
cussion, by  correspondence,  exchange  of  articles  writ- 
ten, etc. 

6.  Regular  reports  shall  be  made  of  the  work  done 
by  members  in  such  manner  as  the  executive  commit- 
tee may  appoint. 

7.  The  members  shall  seek  to  procure  for  one  an- 
other opportunities  for  public  propaganda. 

8.  If  necessary,  they  shall  give  their  support  to  one 
another  in  the  public  defense  of  the  truth,  and  shall 
jealously  guard  the  freedom  of    discussion  for  any 
man  who  is  impelled  by  love  of  the  truth  to  utter  his 
thoughts. 

No  sectarian  or  theological  tests  are  required 
of  members. 

The  brotherhood  has  an  executive  committee 
of  five,  with  power  to  manage  all  ordinary  busi- 
ness. The  only  officer  is  the  secretary,  who  is 
also  the  treasurer.  The  annual  dues  are  $2,  and 
all  funds  remaining  over  and  above  the  neces- 
sary expenses  are  employed  in  the  publication 
and  distribution  of  literature. 

BROTHERHOODS  OF  LOCOMOTIVE 

ENGINEERS  and  for  all  organizations  of  rail- 
way men.  See  RAILWAY  EMPLOYEES'  ORGANIZA- 
TIONS. 

BROTHERHOOD  OF  PAINTERS  AND 
DECORATORS  OF  AMERICA.  See 

BUILDING  TRADES. 


BROTHERHOODS,  RELIGIOUS,  socie- 
ties organized  for  philanthropic  purposes,  most 
numerous  in  the  Middle  Ages.  Some  of  them 
being  established  withotit  the  authorization  of 
the  Church,  they  fell  under  the  charge  of  heresy, 
and  in  several  cases  assumed  the  nature  of  sepa- 
rate sects,  such  as  the  Beghards,  Beguines, 
Apostolic  Brethren,  Flagellants,  etc.  The  last- 
named  was  subjected  to  severe  persecution  by 
the  Church. 

The  old  building  corporations,  from  which 
sprang  the  Free  Masons,  belong  under  this  head. 
Most  of  them  were  regarded  with  fear  and  sus- 


Brotherhoods,  Religious. 


'93 


Brown,  John. 


picion  by  the  Church,  on  account  of  their  sym- 
bolism and  secrecy.  The  brotherhoods  that 
asked  and  received  the  sanction  of  the  ecclesi- 
astics were  not  secret,  but  devoted  to  the  pro- 
motion of  religion  by  stricter  and  more  constant 
devotional  exercises,  or  to  the  assisting  of  stran- 
gers, travelers,  the  unprotected,  the  destitute, 
the  sick,  and  the  oppressed.  The  noblest  work 
was  often  done  by  these  organizations.  They 
were  most  numerous  in  Italy,  Rome  alone  con- 
taining loo.  (See  articles  COMMUNISM  ;  MONAS- 
TICISM.) 

BROTHERHOOD    TRUST,   THE.— The 

Brotherhood  Trust  (founded  January  19,  1894)  is 
an  outcome  of  a  Social  Questions  Conference 
held  regularly  since  September,  1892,  on  Sun- 
day afternoons,  in  the  Brotherhood  Church, 
Southgate  Road,  London.  It  was  begun  with 
only  about  £100  of  capital,  lent  free  of  interest ; 
and  further  loans  are  received  on  the  same  con- 
dition. It  carries  on  trade  and  industry  with 
the  objects  (i)  of  paying  to  every  person  em- 
ployed in  any  branch  of  the  concern  not  less 
than  the  trade-union  wages  current  in  the  local- 
ity where  the  work  is  done  ;  (2)  of  providing  out 
of  profits  for  all  its  customers  old-age  pensions 
and  sickness-and-accident  benefits  in  proportion 
to  the  extent  of  their  respective  purchases  ;  (3) 
of  so  organizing  its  customers  that  these  shall 
economically  supply  one  another's  wants  by 
productive  work  on  cooperative  farms  and  in 
cooperative  workshops,  factories,  etc.,  as  soon 
and  so  far  as  such  organization  may  be  found 
practicable  and  the  customers  may  desire  to 
avail  themselves  of  such  employment ;  (4)  of 
gradually  buying  up  as  much  land  as  possible 
from  private  owners,  and  of  acquiring  as  much 
as  possible  of  the  most  scientific  means  of  pro- 
duction, for  the  benefit  of  all  who  may  choose  to 
connect  themselves  with  the  organization. 

The  net  profits  from  quarter  to  quarter  are  appor- 
tioned in  the  books  of  the  trust  to  the  credit  of  cus- 
tomers' pension  account  in  proportion  to  the  respective 
purchases  of  such  customers,  and  except  in  cases  of 
accident  or  illness,  provided  for  in  the  rules,  are  not 
payable  in  any  other  form  than  either  annuities  to 
customers  •who  have  reached  the  age  of  60,  or  annuities 
to  dependent  relatives  of  deceased  customers.  The 
pension  to  which  a  customer  is  entitled  from  the  trust 
is  equal  to  the  annuity  he  could  purchase  from  the 
British  Government  with  the  amount  standing  to  the 
credit  of  his  pension  account.  Over  against  every 
pension  before  it  becomes  payable  there  will  always 
be  the  sum  which  has  gradually  accumulated  to  credit 
of  the  future  pensioner's  account  out  of  the  profits 
made  on  his  purchases,  which  sum  would  suffice  to 
purchase  the  required  annuity  from  the  Government. 
This  sum  will  exist  not  in  the  form  of  money,  of 
course,  but  in  the  form  of  business  plant  and  means  of 
production— a  reproductive  form.  The  first  £10  placed 
to  the  credit  of  the  pension  account  years  before  will 
have  been  put  into  productive  activity,  and  will  have 
been  rolling  along  ever  since,  multiplying  itself;  and 
likewise  every  subsequent  £10  added  out  of  net  profits 
will  have  been  rolling  along  and  multiplying.  There- 
fore the  security  for  the  payment  of  every  pension 
will  not  be  merely  a  sufficient  sum  to  purchase  it  on 
Government  security,  but  a  very  much  greater  value 
existing  in  a  reproductive  form.  Each  pension  will  be 
simply  a  charge  upon  the  proceeds  of  the  business 
done,  under  most  advantageous  circumstances,  with 
the  capital  of  which  the  accumulated  profits  on  the 
pensioner's  own  purchases  (made  in  the  days  of  health 
and  strength)  will  form  a.  part. 

The  Brotherhood  Trust  s  methods  are  such  as  to 
.avoid  many  risks  besetting  ordinary  business  con- 
cerns. Selling  only  for  cash,  it  avoids  all  bad  debts. 
Further,  it  will  not  start  a  bakery  of  its  own  until  its 
•daily  sale  of  bread  .is  large  enough  to  take  all  that  a 


good-sized,  well-ordered  baker}'  would  turn  out.  Simi- 
larly, it  will  not  acquire  a  flour-mill  until,  in  bakeries 
and  stores  and  on  farms  of  its  own,  it 
can  dispose  profitably  of  all  the  prod- 
uce.    Neither  will  it  take  over  a  boot     Methods. 
and  shoe  factory  until  it  has  to  meet  a 
demand  large  enough  to  keep  such  fac- 
tory working  full  time.     It  will    never    produce    on 
speculation,  but  for  an  already  secured  demand. 

The  original  Brotherhood  Trust  stores  (situated  at 
i  and  5  Downham  Road,  Kingsland,  London)  are 
not  intended  to  stand  alone.  They  are  meant  to  be 
imitated.  But  it  is  of  vital  importance  that  all  efforts 
of  a  similar  kind  should  be  closely  federated  with  each 
other  and  with  the  Brotherhood  Trust,  in  order  to  pro- 
mote the  utmost  economy  in  purchasing  and  producing, 
to  assist  one  another  by  comparison  and  interchange 
of  experiences,  and  to  cooperate  most  efficiently  tow- 
ard the  ultimate  goal — the  complete  reorganization  of 
industry  and  commerce  on  principles  of  fraternity. 

The  old-s.ge  pensions,  which  are  perhaps  at  first  the 
most  conspicuous  feature  of  the  trust,  are  but  means 
to  a  vast  and  loftly  end.  The  aim  is  nothing  less  than 
the  swallowing  up  of  the  profit-mongering  industry 
and  commerce  of  the  world,  and  the  transmuting  of  it, 
by  a  perfectly  constitutional  and  peace- 
ful revolution,  into  a  fraternal  organiza- 
tion for  mutual  enrichment  and  secu-  Aim. 
rity.  If  the  workers  (who  constitute 
four  fifths  of  the  grown-up  population 
of  the  Uni'ted  Kingdom),  or  if  any  considerable  pro- 
portion of  the  workers  will  but  persistently  and  ex- 
clusively patronize  trusts  that  do  business  in  their 
interests,  icf using  to  deal  with  any  private  capitalist 
when  their  trusts  can  supply  their  demand,  they  will 
help  to  build  up  a  mighty  federation,  branching  out 
over  the  country  and  across  the  seas,  which  will  be 
able  in  a  short  time  to  buy  up  for  them  the  means  of 
production  and  distribution.  Just  so  far  as  the  Brother- 
hood Trust  system  extends  and  succeeds,  there  will  be 
built  up  a  new  social  order  right  through  the  old— as  a 
new  bridge  is  sometimes  built  through  an  old  one  ;  and 
when  it  becomes  universal,  the  old  system,  fraught 
with  so  much  misery,  degradation,  and  brutalization, 
will  tte  found  to  have  vanished  more  effectually  than 
if  it  had  been  shivered  by  explosives,  and  all  without 
any  earthquake  shock,  with  the  mildness  and  gentle- 
ness of  the  sunrise  which  shines  away  the  night  and 
ushers  in  the  day.  J.  BRUCE  WALLACE. 

BROUSSE,  PAUL,  was  born  at  Montpellier, 
and  studied  medicine  in  Paris,  becoming  doctor 
in  1867.  From  1870^71  he  worked  on  the  Droits 
de  I'Homme,  and  in  1871  was  condemned  to 
three  months'  imprisonment.  Escaping  to  Spain, 
he  joined  the  anarchistic  Spanish  section  of  the 
International.  From  Spain  he  went  to  Switzer- 
land, and  meeting  there  Bakounin(^.z/.),  became, 
under  his  influence,  a  leader  of  the  Jura  Federa- 
tion, an  organizer  of  the  anarchist  section  in 
Italy,  and  editor  of  anarchist  publications.  In 
1879  he  suffered  imprisonment  in  Switzerland, 
and  after  his  release  went  to  London.  Here  he 
met  Marx  and  Engels,  and  renouncing  anar- 
chism, adopted  socialism.  In  1880  he  returned 
to  France,  and  edited  Eg«lit4  and  Prolttaire 
in  1882,  with  Malon  and  his  followers,  separat- 
ing from  the  Guidist  socialists,  and  forming  the 
"  Broussist"  section,  or  so-called  "  Possiblists. " 
In  1887  he  was  elected  to  the  Paris  Municipal 
Council,  and  has  since  been  a  foremost  leader 
of  one  section  of  the  French  socialists,  but  ever 
ready  to  work  with  any  party,  a  policy  which 
has  resulted  in  his  now  calling  himself  Republi- 
can radical.  His  main  writings  are  Le  Suf- 
frage Universel  et  le  Probleme  de  la  Souve- 
rainetd  du  Peuple  (1874)  and  La  Crtse  (1879). 

BROWN,  JOHN  (1800,  hanged  December  2, 
1859),  an  American  abolitionist,  best  known  as 
the  leader  of  the  Harper's  Ferry  insurrection, 
designed  to  incite  the  slaves  of  the  Southern 
States  to  rebellion,  and  thus  secure  their  liber- 
ties. Originally  intended  for  the  Church,  he 


Brown,  John. 


194 


Buenos  Amigos,  Colony  of. 


was  compelled  to  give  up  study  for  this  purpose 
on  account  of  inflammation  in  the  eyes.  He 
then  took  up  the  business  of  a  tanner,  which  he 
carried  on  for  20  years.  Not  being  very  suc- 
cessful in  this,  he  started  business  as  a  wool 
dealer  in  Ohio  in  1840.  Failing  also  in  this,  he 
removed  to  Essex  County,  New  York,  in  1849, 
and  began  to  reclaim  a  large  tract  of  land  which 
had  been  granted  to  him.  In  1855,  having  im- 
bibed an  intense  hatred  of  slavery,  he  went  to 
Kansas  in  order  to  vote,  and  fight,  if  need  be, 
against  the  establishment  of  slavery  in  that  ter- 
ritory. He  soon  became  renowned  in  the  fierce 
border  warfare  carried  on  between  Kansas  and 
Missouri,  and  gained  especial  celebrity  by  his 
victory  at  Ossawatomie.  In  one  of  these  affrays 
he  had  a  son  killed,  which  deepened  his  hostility 
to  the  Southern  Party.  After  the  border  agita- 
tion was  settled  by  a  general  vote,  Brown  trav- 
eled through  the  Northern  and  Northeastern 
States,  declaiming  against  slavery,  and  endeav- 
oring to  incite  and  organize  an  armed  attack 
upon  it.  In  October,  1859,  at  the  head  of  17 
white  and  five  black  men,  he  commenced  hos- 
tilities by  a  night  attack  upon  Harper's  Ferry, 
overpowering  the  guard  and  capturing  the  arse- 
nal. During  the  next  morning  he  made  prison- 
ers of  40  or  50  of  the  chief  inhabitants  of  the  town  ; 
but  instead  of  retreating  at  once  to  the  moun- 
tains with  arms  and  hostages,  as  his  original  de- 
sign had  been,  he  lingered  on  in  the  town  till 
evening.  By  this  time  the  townsmen  had  re- 
covered from  their  astonishment,  militiamen 
began  to  pour  in,  and  after  a  short  but  desper- 
ate conflict  Brown  and  his  handful  of  followers 
were  captured.  He  was  tried  at  Charlestown 
for  treason  and  murder,  found  guilty,  and  sen- 
tenced to  death  on  the  scaffold  within  48  hours. 
He  met  this  death  calmly  on  December  2,  1859. 
It  may  safely  be  said  that  his  execution  hastened 
the  downfall  of  slavery  in  America,  and  his  name 
has  become  a  household  word  among  aboli- 
tionists. He  was  a  man  of  stern  and  uncom- 
promising moral  principle,  and  singularly  brave 
and  honest.  Whatever  his  rashness  or  fanati- 
cism, there  is  no  question  that  he  offered  himself 
as  a  sacrifice  to  the  overthrow  of  a  gigantic 
social  and  political  wrong. 

BUBBLES. — A  term  commonly  applied  since 
the  seventeenth  century  to  any  unsound  com- 
mercial undertaking  accompanied  by  a  high  de- 
gree of  speculation.  The  first  bubble  of  histori- 
cal importance  was  connected  with  the  growth 
of  varieties  of  tulips  in  Holland.  It  reached  its 
height  in  1636  in  Amsterdam,  and  in  the  most 
of  the  Dutch  cities  regular  markets  were  estab- 
lished for  speculation  in  the  roots.  In  the  end 
tulips  were  bought  and  sold  like  shares  in  a  gold 
mine,  for  purely  speculative  purposes,  without 
any  idea  of  actually  growing  the  flowers.  Fabu- 
lous prices  were  paid  for  single  bulbs — e.g. ,  2500 
florins  for  a"  Viceroy,  "a  "  Semper  Augustus" 
5500  florins,  etc.  The  mania  spread  to  some  ex- 
tent to  London  and  Paris,  and  tulips  were  dealt 
in  by  the  stock-jobbers  of  both  cities.  In  1719 
and  1720  occurred  the  greatest  speculative  mania 
on  record,  arising  from  the  Mississippi  scheme 
of  John  Law  (q.v.).  In  England  the  word  bub- 
ble is  generally  associated  with  the  South  Sea 
Bubble  (?.v.). 


BUCHEZ,  PHILIPPE  JOSEPH  BEN- 
JAMIN (1796-1865),  was  born  at  Matagne-la- 
Petite  ;  in  1825  he  became  a  doctor  of  medicine. 
He  was  one  of  the  founders  of  the  French  Car- 
bonari (q.v.),  and  barely  escaped  condemnation 
to  death  for  his  part  in  the  Belfort  conspiracy. 
He  then  joined  the  Saint  Simonian  school,  and 
worked  on  the  Producteur.  When  this  passed 
into  the  hands  of  Enfantin,  he  left  it  to  found, 
with  Roux  Lavergne,  a  so-called  neo-Catholic 
school,  combining  Catholic  and  revolutionary 
ideas,  and  from  1831-38,  altho  with  some 
breaks,  he  brought  out  his  /' '  Europeen.  A  re- 
sume of  his  ideas  appears  in  his  t'Eicropeen  for 
1835,  in  which  he  declares  that  it  is  time  to 
realize  the  social  principles  of  Christianity.  His 
idea  was  to  reach  communism  through  indus- 
trial cooperation,  and  in  1831  he  founded  a  co- 
operative association  of  cabinet-makers,  thus  in- 
troducing cooperation  in  France,  and  to  the 
spread  of  cooperation  he  devoted  the  rest  of  his 
life.  (See  COOPERATION.)  In  the  revolution  of 
1848  he  was  a  follower  of  Louis  Blanc,  and  was 
in  the  chair  as  president  of  the  National  Assem- 
bly on  the  memorable  May  15.  After  the  coup 
d'etat  of  1851  he  returned  to  his  studies  and  to 
private  life.  His  main  works  are  Essai  d'un 
Trait  e  comp let  de  philosophie(^  vols.,  1839-40) 
and  Histoire  parlementatre  de  la  Revolution 
Fran$aise  (1833-38  and  1845-47). 

BUDGET  (from  L.  bulga,  Fr.  bougette,  a 
little  bag),  is  used  in  social  science  for  a  state- 
ment of  the  probable  revenue  and  expenditure 
for  a  nation  and  sometimes  for  a  family.  (For 
representative  family  "  budgets"  see  EXPENSES.) 

BUENpS  AMIGOS,  COLONY  OF.— Don 

Jose  Rodriguez,  a  socialistic  Peruvian,  obtained 
in  1853  from  the  Government  of  Peru  a  large 
land  grant  on  the  Cototo  River,  and  established 
there,  with  65  others,  the  colony  of  Buenos  Ami- 
gos. As  he  furnished  most  of  the  money  for 
the  experiment,  he  became  director  and  law- 
maker. 

The  colony  now  (1895)  has  1000  members 
mostly  of  Spanish  races,  but  including  Germans, 
English,  and  Americans.  The  increase  has 
been  chiefly  from  births,  tho  recruits  are  re- 
ceived upon  evidence  of  good  character  and  the 
payment  of  $500  each  to  the  common  treasury. 

Negroes  and  Indians  are  excluded,  and  relig- 
ious proselytism  is  forbidden. 

Lands,  tools,  and  products  are  the  property  of 
the  community,  and  all  surplus  products  are  sold 
abroad,  the  proceeds  going  to  the  common  treas- 
ury. Rations  are  distributed  alike  to  all  ;  but 
whoso  will  pay  for  luxuries,  whether  of  food, 
clothing,  or  household  furniture,  may  obtain 
them  from  the  common  store.  The  imperish- 
able portion  of  such  things,  however,  remain 
common  property  even  when  in  the  hands  of 
the  individual. 

The  community  is  divided  into  departments,  divi- 
sions, and  sections.  Each  section  chooses  and  may  re- 
move its  own  head,  and  heads  of  sections  nominate 
division  directors,  who  in  turn  choose  department 
chiefs.  These  last  are  removable  only  by  a  majority 
vote  of  the  community.  They  are,  in  effect,  ministers 
of  works,  education,  trade,  and  health,  those  being  the 
titles  of  the  departments,  and  collectively  they  consti- 
tute a  tribunal  discharging  duties  elsewhere  confided 
to  Ministers  of  Justice  and  Finance. 


Buenos  Amigos,  Colony  of. 


195 


Building  Associations. 


The  Department  of  Works  looks  after  agriculture, 

stock-raising,   mining,  manufactures,  and  all   public 

works.    That  of  Education  deals  with 

schools,  music,  and  the  mechanic  arts  ; 

Method  of    that  of  Trade  with  exports,  imports,  and 

T  if-  the    distribution    of    products ;  that  of 

Health    with    houses,     hospitals,     and 

young  children.    An  hour's  work  is  the 

unit  of  the  financial  system,  and  the  monetary  table 

runs  thus : 

60  minutes  one  hour. 
8  hours  one  day. 
5  days  one  week. 
4  2-5  weeks  one  month. 

12  months  one  year. 

State  notes  of  equal  size  but  different  colors  repre- 
sent each  of  these  denominations.  The  hour  is  arbi- 
trarily fixed  for  the  purposes  of  outside  trade  at  a 
value  of  about  28  cents.  Minute  notes,  worth  about 
one  half  a  cent,  are  for  small  transactions.  These 
notes  are  given  in  exchange  for  work  done.  The  time 
notes  are  guaranteed  by  a  reserve  of  bullion  exceeding 
the  face  value  of  the  whole  issue.  A  member  quitting 
the  colony  may  exchange  his  notes  for  Peruvian  money, 
and  in  addition  he  will  receive  his  share  of  the  profits. 

Altho  the  full  working  day  is  eight  hours,  only 
four  hours,  and  for  only  five  days  a  week,  are  exacted. 
From  that  no  adult  in  sound  health  can  escape.  Any 
person  failing  to  work  20  hours  in  the  five  days  that 
constitute  the  working  week  must  make  up  that  time 
on  Saturday  or  Sunday.  Under  the  eye  of  an  over- 
seer armed  with  a  leather  strap,  if  this  enforced  labor 
is  done  in  slovenly  fashion,  the  culprit  is  beaten  with 
the  strap. 

There  is  no  marriage  law.  A  man  and  a  woman  live 
together  in  free  union,  and  either  may  find  another 
mate  when  tired  of  the  arrangement.  A  woman  at 
the  approach  of  childbirth  goes  to  a  hospital  and  stays 
there  with  her  child  until  it  is  weaned.  Then  she 
leaves  it  in  the  hospital  to  the  care  of  trained  nurses. 

From  the  hospital  the  child  goes  to  a  public  school, 
where  it  lives  night  and  day  until  grown  to  the  age 
•when  work  is  exacted  of  all.  Then  the  new  member  of 
the  working  community  is  set  at  whatever  task  his  or 
her  aptitudes,  as  developed  at  school,  seem  to  point  out 
as  the  proper  one.  The  pay  is  the  same  for  every  kind 
of  labor. 

Private  houses  at  Buenos  Amigos  are  plain,  but  airy. 
A  large,  common  building  is  handsomely  built  of  free- 
stone and  marble  taken  from  the  community's  quarries. 
The  streets  are  well  made  and  clean,  and  an  aqueduct 
to  bring  in  water  from  the  Cototo  River  is  nearly  com- 
pleted. All  these  public  works  are  carried  on  by  the 
labor  of  the  community,  under  the  direction  of  the  de- 
partments. When  one  department  has  more  workmen 
at  its  command  than  it  needs  they  are  turned  over  to 
such  departments  as  are  short  of  hands.  Thus  every- 
body is  kept  busy  at  least  four  hours  a  day,  and  as 
much  longer  as  he  will,  with  pay  for  overtime. 

BUILDING  ASSOCIATIONS  are  of  many 
kinds,  but  may  be  described  in  general  as  joint- 
stock  or  cooperative  societies  for  the  purpose  of 
raising  by  periodical  subscriptions  a  fund  to  as- 
sist members  in  building  or  purchasing,  the 
property  being  mortgaged  to  the  society  till  the 
amount  advanced  is  fully  repaid. 

The  first  association  in  America  was  organized  Jan- 
uary 3,  1831,  at  Frankford,  near  Philadelphia.  It  was 
called  the  Oxford  Provident  Building  Association,  and 
•was  started  as  a  philanthropic  measure,  but  the  city 
of  Philadelphia,  Pa.,  deserves  the  credit  of  having  first 
utilized  the  institution  to  any  great  extent.  The  first 
association  in  that  city  •was  organized  in  1840,  and 
since  then  the  growth  of  the  associations  throughout 
the  United  States  has  been  phenomenal.  They  have 
become  subjects  of  statutory  legislation  in  many  States 
of  the  Union,  and  have  lately  been  favored  by  the 
United  States  Commissioner  of  Labor  with  a  special 
and  thorough  inquiry. 

The  building  and  loan  association  is  practically  a  co- 
operative savings  bank.     It  differs  from  the  ordinary 
savings    bank    mainly    in    its    methods    of  receiving 
deposits  and  lending  money.    Its  chief 
advantage  for  the  people  over  the  or- 
Varieties.     dinary    savings   institution    is  that  its 
funds  are  used  by  the  depositors  them- 
selves to  advance  their  own  interests, 
•while  the  funds  deposited  by  wage-earners  in  the  old- 
line  savings  banks  are  largely  borrowed  by  business 
men  and  corporations  and  used  to  advance  the  inter- 


ests of  capital.  Another  point  in  favor  of  the  building 
and  loan  association  is  in  the  fact  that  every  member 
has  a  voice  and  vote  in  the  management  of  it  and 
shares  in  the  total  profits.  In  favor  of  the  old-line 
savings  banks,  however,  it  should  be  said  that  they  are 
indispensable  to  the  wage-earners  of  many  communi- 
ties, and  especially  so  in  those  sections  where  land 
values  are  so  high  as  to  practically  prohibit  the  oper- 
ation, among  working  men,  of  building  and  loan  asso- 
ciations. 

There  are  two  forms  of  these  associations  :  one  serial 
and  the  other  permanent.  The  general  plan  of  the 
serial  association  is  to  issue  a  fraction  of  its  capital 
stock,  usually  one  tenth,  in  what  is  known  as  a 
"series,"  and  to  require  that  it  be  paid  in  monthly  in- 
stallments, commonly  called  "dues,"  usually  at  the 
rate  of  50  cents  per  month  on  a  share  of  stock  worth, 
at  par,  $100,  and  $i  per  month  on  a  share  of  stock  the 
par  value  of  which  is  $200.  Whenever  the  monthly 
payments,  with  the  accumulated  profits,  equal  the 
face  value  of  the  shares  the  series  is  retired,  each 
shareholder  receiving  the  face  value  of  his  share  in 
cash,  unless  he  has  in  advance  borrowed  money  of  the 
association  to  the  full  face  value  of  his  shares,  when 
his  debt  is  considered  paid  and  cancelled.  When  one 
series  has  matured,  then  a  second  series  is  issued,  and 
so  on  until  the  entire  capital  stock  is  exhausted.  A 
series  usually  extends  over  10  or  12  years. 

The  permanent  association  differs  from  the  serial 
association  in  that  a  person  may  become  a  member  of 
it  at  any  time  without  paying  in  any  back  dues.  In  a 
permanent  association  the  profits  are  divided  annually 
or  semi-annually  among  the  members, 'and  credited  to 
their  respective  accounts  on  their  individual  pass  books 
and  the  books  of  the  association. 

A  person  may  withdraw  from  the  membership  of 
either  a  serial  or  a  permanent  association  at  any  time 
with  a  share  of  the  accumulated  profits.  In  a  serial 
association  the  percentage  of  profit  that  may  be  taken 
out  by  a  withdrawing  member  is  generally  fixed  by 
the  rules  of  the  association  at  a  lower  rate  than  is 
awarded  the  member  who  stays  in  the  association 
until  the  series  matures.  This  is  done  to  insure  the 
participation  of  the  withdrawing  member  in  any  pos- 
sible and  unforeseen  losses  that  may  befall  the  asso- 
ciation. When  the  rules  of  a  serial  association  allow  a 
withdrawing  member  only  5  per  cent,  per  annum  on 
his  investment,  it  is  assumed  that  the  association  may 
suffer  vicissitudes  and  may  not  earn  more  than  5  per 
cent,  per  annum  for  the  entire  term  of  the  series.  But 
a  fairly  prosperous  association  generally  earns  from  8 
to  10  per  cent,  per  annum  on  a  series.  In  some  States 
both  serial  and  permanent  associations  are  required 
to  set  aside,  in  a  contingent  fund,  a  certain  percentage 
of  their  profits  before  the  payment  of  each  annual  or 
semi-annual  dividend,  to  insure  the  equal  participa- 
tion of  all  members  in  the  losses  of  the  association. 

The  funds  of  a  building  and  loan  association  are 
made  up  of  membership  fees,  moneys  received  from 
sale  of  stock,  interest  on  loans,  premiums  on  priority 
of  loans,  fines  for  non-payment  of  indebtedness  due 
the  association  by  its  members,  and  fees  for  trans- 
ferring stock.  The  income  of  the  association  is  aug- 
mented by  low  expenses  :  The  association  meets  only 
once  in  a  month,  and  then  in  a  cheap  hall,  and  the 
officers— save  the  secretary,  the  treasurer,  and  the 
attorney— serve  without  pay. 

When  a  person  enters  the  membership  of  a  serial 
association  he  pays  a  membership  fee,  and  subscribes 
for  one  or  more  shares  of  stock  on  which  he  agrees  to 
make  a  monthly  payment  of  50  cents  or  $i  per  share 
until  maturity  of  the  series  or  withdrawal  before  then. 
Should  he  fail  to  pay  his  monthly  installment  or  dues 
•within  the  required  time,  he  is  called  upon  to  pay  a 
fine  into  the  treasury  of  the  association,  and  for  failure 
to  make  his  monthly  payments  for  a  fixed  number  of 
months  he  forfeits  all  he  has  paid  into  the  treasury. 
Should  he  at  any  time  transfer  his  shares  of  stock  to 
another  person, 'he  or  the  assignee  pays  the  association 
a  fee  for  making  the  transfer  on  its  books. 

When  he  desires  to  buy  or  build  a  home  he  en- 
deavors to  borrow  from  the  association  as  much  of 
the  needed  amount  as  his  interest  in  the  association 
will  allow  :  he  cannot  borrow  more  than  the  face  value 
of  his  shares.  He  applies  to  the  association  when  it 
has  money  to  loan,  and  should  he  bid  a  higher  pre- 
mium for  the  use  of  the  money  than  any  other  member 
the  loan  is  awarded  him. 

This  premium  is  a  payment  of  a  few  cents  on  each 
share,  over  and  above  interest,  for  the  use  of  the 
money.  It  is  paid  with  the  dues  each  month,  or  is  de- 
ducted from  the  amount  of  the  loan.  Upon  securing 
the  right  to  the  use  of  the  money,  he  designates  his  pro- 
posed real  estate  security,  and  when  the  title  is  ap- 


Building  Associations. 


196 


Building  Associations. 


proved  by  the  association's  attorney  the  money  is  ad- 
vanced him  and  he  gives  the  association  a  mortgage 
on  the  property  for  the  amount.  He  also  assigns  stocks 
to  the  face  value  of  the  loan  to  the  association,  and 
agrees  to  keep  up  his  monthly  payments  thereon. 
After  securing  the  loan,  the  borrower  pays  to  the  asso- 
ciation every  month,  in  addition  to  his  regular  dues, 
the  premium  and  interest  on  the  loan,  or  the  premium 
may  have  been  deducted  from  the  loan  before  it  was 
paid  over  to  the  borrower.  When,  at  the  conclusion  of 
the  series,  the  face  value  of  the  borrower's  stock  is 
equivalent  to  the  amount  of  money  loaned  him  the 
association  applies  the  stock  to  the  payment  of  the 
mortgage,  and  the  member,  instead  or  receiving  a 
cash  payment,  is  given  notice  of  the  cancellation  of 
his  mortgage. 

As  a  rule,  the  money  paid  into  an  association  by  a 
borrowing  member  during  the  life  of  the  series  in 
which  he  is  interested  amounts  to  little  more  than  the 
rental  price  of  the  mortgaged  property  for  the  same 
period,  and  hence  the  saying  sometimes  heard  among 
persons  interested  in  these  associations,  "The  rent 
pays  for  the  place."  In  a  permanent  association  the 
borrower  may  extend  his  payments — or  "dues,"  in- 
terest and  premium— over  any  fixed  number  of  years, 
and  so  make  the  monthly  payment  on  his  real  estate 
less  than  it  would  be  under  the  serial  plan. 

The  serial  associations,  however,  have  proved 
far  more  successful,  and  are  almost  the  only 
ones  now  in  use. 

Neither  of  these  plans,  however,  was  the  orig- 
inal form.  The  original  method  is  described  in 
A  Treatise  on  Cooperative  Savings,  and  Loan 
Associations,  by  Seymour  Dexter  : 

In  the  primitive  building  associations  of  Philadelphia 
there  was  but  a  single  series  of  stock  issued ;  every 
person  taking  shares  of  stock,  subsequent  to  the  date 
of  the  first  issue  of  shares,  was  obliged  to  pay  back 
dues  in  order  to  be  in  the  same  position  he  would  have 
been  had  he  taken  his  stock  at  the  date  of  the  first 
issue,  so  that  each  shareholder  paid  the  same  amount 
per  share  into  the  association  regardless  of  the  time 
when  he  took  his  shares.  The  money  was  loaned  only 
to  shareholders.  Inasmuch  as  only  one  series  of  stock 
was  issued,  the  lifetime  of  the  association  was  limited 
to  the  time  that  it  took  for  the  shares  to  reach  their 
matured  value.  This  scheme  necessarily  involved  the 
condition  that  every  shareholder  remaining  in  the  asso- 
ciation at  the  time  the  stock  matured  must  be  a  bor- 
rower to  the  amount  of  the  matured  value  of  shares 
held  by  him.  Let  us  make  this  clear.  Suppose  the 
charter  of  the  association  limited  the  number  of  shares 
it  could  issue  to  500,  and  that  during  its  lifetime  it  had 
issued  that  number.  After  the  payment  of  its  running 
expenses  the  funds  received  could  be  used  for  only 
two  purposes— viz. :  the  making  of  loans  to  its  own 
members  and  paying  shareholders  who  withdrew. 
Suppose  that  of  the  500  shares  issued  300  had  been 
withdrawn,  leaving  200  outstanding  when  attaining 
their  matured  value.  Assume  the  shares  were  $200 
each  at  their  matured  value.  Now,  200  shares  at  $200 


each  is  $40,000.  Before  the  shares  can  be  matured  the 
association  must  have  $40,000  of  assets.  The  assets 
consist  of  the  money  due  from  the  shareholders  to  the 
association  upon  loans.  As  no  shareholder  can  borrow 
a  larger  sum  than  the  matured  value  of  the  shares 
held  by  him,  it  follows  that  no  shareholder  can  owe  the 
association  for  borrowed  money  a  larger  sum  than  the 
association  will  owe  him  when  his  shares  of  stock  have 
matured  ;  therefore,  each  shareholder  must  owe  the 
association  a  sum  equal  to  that  which  the  association 
will  owe  him  upon  his  matured  shares.  The  only  lim- 
itation or  exception  to  this  statement  of  the  case  will 
arise  in  reference  to  the  dues  paid  at  the  last  meeting. 
The  amount  of  those  dues  will  not  have  been  borrowed, 
and  will  be  due  to  some  shareholder  or  shareholders  in 
excess  of  the  amount  owing  by  him  or  them  to  the 
association. 

But  as  the  association  progresses  from  year  to  year 
toward  the  maturity  of  its  stock,  it  might  not  happen 
that  there  are  shareholders  who  desired  to  borrow. 
What  then  ?  It  would  not  do  to  have  the  dues  paid  in 
from  month  to  month  remain  uninvested  ;  no  profits 
would  accrue,  and  the  result  would  be  unsatisfactory. 
Under  the  scheme  of  a  single  series  the  association  has 
the  power  to  compel  shareholders  to  borrow  the  funds. 
They  are  called  forced  loans  ;  and  their  articles  of  asso- 
ciation and  bylaws  determine  who  should  become  the 
borrower  when  there  are  no  shareholders  wishing  to 
borrow. 

This  scheme  is  known  as  the  terminating  plan.  It 
involves  three  serious  defects  which  it  was  very  desira- 
ble to  obviate — viz :  the  dissolution  of  the  associa- 
tion when  the  stock  matured  ;  the  large  amount  of 
back  dues  which  the  new  stockholder  would  have  to 
pay  who  took  stock  after  the  association  had  been  run- 
ning for  some  time,  and,  lastly,  the  making  of  forced 
loans— that  is,  compelling  the  shareholder  to  become  a 
borrower  whether  he  wanted  to  do  so  or  not. 

Concerning  the  statistics  of  building   asso- 
ciations in  the  United  States,  the 
report    on     the    subject    by    the 
United     States    Commissioner    of    Statistics. 
Labor  (1893)  says  : 

"  The  investigation,  the  results  of  which  are  now 
under  consideration,  comprehends  practically  all 
building  and  loan  associations  in  the  United  States. 
An  effort  was  made  to  secure  the  facts  for  these  associa- 
tions as  they  existed  at  the  end  of  their  respective 
fiscal  years  nearest  to  January  i,  1893.  In  a  few  cases, 
however,  this  was  not  possible,  and  the  facts  for  an 
earlier  or  later  fiscal  year  were  taken  instead. 

"In  addition  to  the  associations  from  which  the  data 
have  been  received  that  constitute  the  body  of  this  re- 
port, the  Department  has  information  of  the  existence 
of  some  others.  From  a  very  few  of  these  some  de- 
tails were  obtained,  but  from  most  of  them  nothing. 
The  information  as  to  the  existence  even  of  most  of 
them  is  from  hearsay  only.  They  are  unimportant, 
being  either  newly  formed  or  feeble.  Nearly  all  are 
supposed  to  be  local.  Total,  91. 


GENERAL  RESULTS  FOR  THE  UNITED  STATES. 


Local. 

National. 

Total. 

Number  of  associations                                                 

5,598 
a  710,156 
a  263,388 

b  i,359,366 
^244-5 
C  402,212 
C  29.83 

d  10,381,031 
$413,647,228 
e  7.6 
e  $303.11 

e  $39-75 
$74,402,969 

/  $1,133 
g  290,803 

240 
a  209,458 
a  44,440 

<>  386,359 
b  1,637.1 

C  53>J99 
C  13.77 
d  2,874,841 
$37,020,366 
^7.2 
e  $86.73 
e  $12.12 
$6,261,147 

/$920 

g  23,952 

5,838 
a  919,614 
a  307,828 

i>  ii745«725 
O  301.2 
C  455-4" 
C  26.25 

d  13,255,872 
$450,667,594 

*7-5 

e  $257.26 
e  $34-18 
$80,664,116 

/$I,I20 
g  3H,755 

Male  shareholders  in  associations  reporting  

Shareholders  who  are  borrowers  in  associations  reporting  
Per  cent,  of  borrowers  in  associations  reporting  

Total  dues  and  profits  

Average  dues  and  profits  per  shareholder  in  associations  reporting.. 

Total  profits  

a  Associations  not  reporting,  local,  1503  ;  national,  66  ;  total,  1569. 

b  Associations  not  reporting,  local,  38  ;  national,  4  ;  total,  42. 

c  Associations  not  reporting,  local,  69  ;  national,  4  ;  total,  73. 

d  Associations  not  reporting,  local,  18  ;  national,  4  ;  total,  22. 

e  Based  on  5535  local  associations,  226  national  associations,  total,  5761. 

f  Based  on  2128  local  associations,  45  national  associations,  total,  2173. 

g  Associations  not  reporting,  local,  1326  ;  national,  68,  total,  1394. 


Building  Associations. 


197 


Building  Associations. 


"  The  total  dues  paid  in  on  installment  shares  in  force 
plus  the  profits  on  the  same  of  the  building  and  loan 
associations  of  the  country,  as  stated,  amount  to  $450,- 
667,594.  A  business  represented  by  this  great  sum, 
conducted  quietly,  with  little  or  no  advertising,  and, 
as  stated,  without  the  experienced  banker  in  charge, 
shows  that  the  common  people,  in  their  own  ways,  are 
quite  competent  to  take  care  of  their  savings,  especial- 
ly when  it  is  known  that  but  35  of  the  associations  now 
in  existence  showed  a  net  loss  at  the  end  of  their  last 
fiscal  year,  and  that  this  loss  amounted  to  only  $23,- 
332.20.  Of  course,  associations  disband  for  the  want  of 
business  or  from  some  other  cause,  but  when  they 
disband  loss  does  not  occur,  because  the  whole  busi- 
ness of  the  association  consists  of  its  loans,  and  these 
loans  are  to  its  own  shareholders,  as  a  rule,  who  hold 
the  securities  in  their  associated  forms.  A  disbanded 
association,  therefore,  simply  returns  to  its  own  mem- 
bers their  own  property. 

"  The  terms  local  and  national  have  been  used.  A 
local  building  and  loan  association  and  a  national 
building  and  loan  association  conduct  their  business 
under  substantially  the  same  method.  The  local  asso- 
ciation, however,  confines  its  operations  to  a  small 
community,  usually  to  the  county  in  which  located, 
while  the  national  operates  on  a  large  scale,  extending 
its  business  enterprise  far  beyond  the  borders  of  its 
own  State  even.  The  national  is  ready  usually  to 
make  loans  on  property  anywhere  and  sell  its  shares 
to  any  person  without  reference  to  his  residence.  At 
the  present  time  the  prejudice  which  has  existed  for 
many  years  against  nationals  is  being  overcome,  and 
they  are  conducting  their  business,  as  a  rule,  with  the 
same  integrity  that  the  locals  display  in  the  conduct 
of  their  affairs.  There  is  a  jealousy,  to  some  extent, 
between  locals  and  nationals ;  but  with  proper  laws  in 
every  State  to  regulate,  control,  and  supervise  both 
nationals  and  locals,  as  savings  banks  and  all  other 
banks  are  regulated  and  supervised,  there  ought  to  be 
little  or  no  trouble  in  securing  the  honest  administra- 
tion of  their  affairs.  Some  States  bring  their  building 
and  loan  associations  under  the  same  general  supervi- 
sion of  law  thrown  around  savings  banks.  New  York, 
Massachusetts,  New  Jersey,  Ohio,  Illinois,  and  some 
other  States,  as  will  be  seen  by  the  compilation  of  laws 
relating  to  building  and  loan  associations  published  at 
the  close  of  this  work,  require  such  associations  to 
make  annual  returns  in  the  same  manner  as  savings 
banks.  In  other  States,  however,  nothing  is  officially 
known  of  the  building  and  loan  associations  beyond 
the  formalities  of  their  incorporation." 

In  regard  to  the  kinds  of  associations  and  their 
geographical  distribution  and  other  statistics 
this  report  says  (p.  24)  : 

"  There  are  5598  local  associations,  of  which  3168,  or 
56.6  per  cent,  of  the  whole,  are  serial,  1671,  or  29.8  per 
cent,  of  the  whole,  are  permanent,  and  759,  or  13.6  per 
cent.,  are  terminating ;  that  of  all  the  associations  in  the 
country,  240  are  nationals,  138,  or  57.5  per  cent,  of  all  the 
nationals  being  serial,  101,  or  42.1  percent,  being  per- 
manent, and  only  i  terminating.  The  whole  number, 
including  both  locals  and  nationals,  is  5838,  of  which 
3306,  or  56.6  per  cent,  of  the  \vhole,  are  serial,  1772,  or 
30.4  per  cent.,  are  permanent,  and  760,  or  13  per  cent,  of 
the  whole,  are  terminating. 

"  Examining  the  total  associations,  including  locals 
and  nationals,  it  is  seen  that  Pennsylvania  leads  all  the 
States,  having  1079  associations.  This  State  has  but 
3  nationals.  The  State  having  the  next  largest  number 
is  Ohio,  with  721  ;  and  Ohio  has  but  3  nationals.  Illi- 
nois comes  next,  with  669  associations  of  all  kinds,  38 
of  them  being  nationals.  Indiana  follows,  with  445  as- 
sociations, 16  of  them  being  nationals.  New  York 
ranks  next,  with  418  in  all,  28  of  them  being  national 
associations.  The  next  largest  numbers  are  found  in 
Missouri,  that  State  having  366  in  all ;  New  Jersey, 
288  ;  Maryland,  240 ;  Kentucky,  148  ;  California,  133,  and 
Massachusetts,  115.  In  all  the  other  States  the  number 
drops  to  less  than  100.  The  numbers  given  for  the 
States,  respectively,  will  not  always  agree  with  the 
numbers  reported  by  each  State  in  its  local  capacity 
or  through  its  State  officials.  This  results  from  the 
fact  that  the  account  taken  by  the  Department  of 
Labor  was  for  a  period  in  most  cases  differing  some- 
what from  that  for  which  the  State  officials  have  given 
reports,  and,  furthermore,  from  the  fact  that  very 
many  companies  having  names  in  their  incorporation 
papers  which  would  lead  one  to  consider  them  building 
and  loan  associations,  upon  examination  are  found  to 
be  entirely  different.  They  are  trust  companies  or  as- 
sociations for  the  purpose  of  erecting  houses  for  rental 


and  various  other  objects,  taking  them  out  of  the  rank 
of  cooperative  building  and  loan  associations  as 
such. 

"The  State  haying  the  largest  number  of  national  as- 
sociations is  Illinois,  with  38.  It  is  usually  supposed 
that  the  home  of  these  associations  is  in  the  Northwest, 
and  especially  in  Minnesota,  but  this  State  has  only 
15.  There  are  several  States  having  more  than  Minne- 
sota, notably  Tennessee,  with  17;  New  York,  28;  Mis- 
souri, 17  ;  Kentucky,  17,  and  Indiana,  16.  The  nationals 
are  distributed  through  other  States  in  small  num- 
bers. The  table  shows  how  thoroughly  building  and 
loan  associations  are  distributed  throughout  the  coun- 
try. 

"...  At  the  date  of  the  conclusion  of  this  investiga- 
tion there  had  been  38,919  series  issued,  or  an  average 
of  ii. 8  series  to  each  association,  considering  locals  and 
nationals  together.  Of  this  whole  number,  5321  had 
matured,  this  being  an  average  of  only  1.6  series  of 
shares  matured  to  each  association.  The  number  in 
force  at  the  date  named  was  33,386,  or  10.1  series  to 
each  association.  ...  Of  the  5838  associations  in  the 
country,  both  local  and  national,  4444  have  reported  as 
to  homes  acquired  by  their  borrowing  shareholders, 
and  through  this  latter  number  of  associations  314,755 
homes  have  been  acquired.  In  the  4422  associations 
reporting  as  to  that  fact,  28,459  buildings  other  than 
homes  have  been  secured.  Of  the  total  number  of 
homes  acquired,  290,803  have  been  through  local  asso- 
ciations and  23,952  through  nationals.  Through  the 
locals,  26,061  buildings  other  than  homes  have  been  ac- 
quired and  2398  through  the  nationals.  .  .  . 

"The  total  number  of  mortgages  foreclosed  was  re- 
ported by  5440  associations,  including  both  locals  and 
nationals,  as  8409,  having  a  value  of  $12,217,126,  the  loss 
on  such  foreclosures  being  $449,599.  Of  the  number  of 
foreclosures,  7765  were  by  locals,  having  a  value  in  the 
aggregate  of  $11,031,394,  the  loss  being  $441,106.  The 
nationals  had  foreclosed  644  mortgages,  having  an  ag- 
gregate value  of  $1,185,732,  the  loss  incurred  being 
$8493.  It  should  be  remembered  that  these  foreclo- 
sures and  losses  relate  to  the  whole  lives  of  the  asso- 
ciations reporting. 

"The  department  undertook  to  ascertain  the  facts 
as  to  the  kind  of  people  who  patronize  and  use  building 
and  loan  associations.  The  original  purpose  of  these 
associations  was  to  enable  men  of  small  means  to  se- 
cure homes  for  themselves  and  to  save  their  earnings. 
The  question  became  vital,  then,  as  to  whether  the 
motive  of  the  associations  had  been  preserved.  It 
was  impossible  to  secure  the  occupation  of  each  and 
every  shareholder  in  the  whole  5838  associations  in  the 
country,  and  the  attempt  was  not  made,  but  we  did 
learn  the  occupations  of  the  shareholders  in  909  local 
associations  and  12  national  associations,  or  a  total  of 
921  associations.  In  909  local  associations  reporting 
there  were  159,223  shareholders,  and  in  the  12  national 
associations  15,547  shareholders.  In  the  local  associa- 
tions 111,38^,  or  69.96  per  cent,  of  the  whole  number, 
were  practically  working  people,  while  in  the  nationals 
they  numbered  8403,  or  54.06  per  cent.  These  include 
the  following  classes,  as  shown  in  the  table  :  Account- 
ants, bookkeepers,  etc. ;  artisans  and  mechanics ; 
farmers,  gardeners,  etc.  |  housewives  and  housekeep- 
ers ;  laborers  ;  mill  and  factory  employees ;  and  sales- 
men and  saleswomen.  The  remainder— that  is,  47,840, 
or  30.04  per  cent,  in  the  local  associations,  and  7144,  or 
45.94  per  cent,  in  the  national  associations — consists  of 
agents,  bankers,  brokers,  etc.;  corporation  officials; 
government  officials  and  employees  ;  hotel,  boarding- 
house,  and  restaurant  keepers; "lodges,  churches,  and 
societies;  manufacturers,  contractors,  capitalists,  etc.  ; 
merchants  and  dealers ;  persons  engaged  in  the  pro- 
fessions;  and  superintendents,  foremen,  etc.  These 
figures  show  conclusively  that  the  building  and  loan 
associations  of  the  country  are  being  used  by  the 
classes  for  which  they  were  originally  established. 
These  percentages  may  well  and  honestly  be  applied 
to  all  the  shareholders  in  the  country,  as  the  facts  rel- 
ative to  occupations  were  taken  at  random." 

Building  associations  exist  also  in  Europe  in 
considerable  numbers,  tho  not  to  such  an  ex- 
tent as  in  the  United  States.  (For  information 
in  regard  to  them,  see  COOPERATIVE  BANKS.) 

It  may  seem  strange  at  first  sight  that  there 
should  be  any  opposition  to  a  movement  that 
has  given  homes  to  so  many  working  men,  yet 
such  is  the  fact.  Many  if  not  most  leaders  of 
trade-unions  discourage  the  policy,  under  tJte 
present  system  and  under  ordinary  circuin- 


Building  Associations. 


198 


Building  Trades. 


stances,  of  the  average  working  man  investing 
in  a  home.     Their  argument  is  that  it  puts  him 
under  the  power  of  his  employers, 
and  removes  the  probability  of  his 
Argument   being  able  to  obtain  any  increase  in 
against      wages.     They  declare  that  in  Phila- 
Building    delphia  in  most  trades  wages  are 
Associations,  lower  than  in  any  other  large  city  of 
our  country,  and  that  Philadelphia 
is  most  backward  in  the  organi- 
zation of  labor.     They  assert  that  the  reason 
is  that  in  Philadelphia  men  partly  own  their 
houses.     Partly  owning  their  houses,  they  are 
tied  to  their  circumstances.     They  can  neither 
move  nor  strike,  for  fear  of  losing  their  invest- 
ments.    They  have  to  submit  to  taking  what 
wages  they  can  get.    There  have  been  few  if  any 
large  strikes  in  Philadelphia.     In  a  strike  on  the 
Pennsylvania  Railroad,  one  of  the  officials  of 
the  road  is  reported  to  have  said  :  "  We  are  not 
afraid    of  the   Philadelphia  end  of  the  road. 
Those  men  cannot  strike.     They  half  own  their 
homes."    In  some  factory  towns  in  this  country 
it  is  the  deliberate  policy  of  the  management  to 
induce  their  employees  to  partly  own  houses,  so 
that  wages  may  be  reduced. 

There  are,  then,  two  sides  to  the  question  of 
a  wage-earner  trying  to  own  his  house.  In  the 
recent  hard  times,  some  of  those  deepest  in 
trouble  were  the  unemployed  who  had  com- 
menced to  purchase  a  home,  and  were  in  dan- 
ger of  losing  much  at  least  of  what  they  had 
paid  in. 

There  is  another  point.  To  gradually  buy  a 
home,  the  working  man  has  not  only  to  work 
himself,  but  to  have  his  wife  work  away  from 
home,  and  often  to  have  his  children  work.  The 
home  is  thus  bought  at  the  cost  of  having  the 
mother  and  the  children  away  from  the  home  ; 
a  home  is  obtained  by  destroying  home  life. 

Such  is  the  trade-unionist's  argument.  On  the 
other  hand,  even  from  their  standpoint  it  may 
be  asked,  if  a  man  who  has  a  home  owned 
and  paid  for,  tho  he  cannot  strike  for  higher 
wages,  is  not  in  a  better  position  from  the  fact,  to 
contend  for  a  better  system,  than  one  where 
strikes  are  necessary  ? 

There  is  in  the  United  States  a  National 
League  of  Local  Building  and  Loan  Associa- 
tions, of  which  the  Hon.  Seymour  Dexter,  of 
Elmira,  N.  Y.,  is  president.  It  is  organized  in 
15  State  leagues,  and  has  for  its  motto,  "The 
American  home  the  safeguard  of  American  lib- 
erties." Mr.  Dexter  calls  it  "  the  most  success- 
ful form  of  direct  cooperation  yet  evolved ; 
every  association  the  center  of  an  influence 
stimulating  industry,  frugality,  temperance, 
home-owning,  and  good  citizenship.  It  offers  a 
practical  way  for  every  family  to  buy  and  pay 
for  a  home." 

References  :  Of  the  many  publications  treating  of 
building  and  loan  associations,  among  those  deserving 
of  special  mention  are  :  Treatise  on  Cooperative  Sav- 
ings and  Loan  Associations,  by  Seymour  Dexter  (pub- 
lished by  D.  Applet9n  &  Co.,  of  New  York  City,  1889) ; 
Manual  for  Building  and  Loan  Associations,  by  H. 
S.  Rosenthal  (published  by  S.  Rosenthal  &  Co.,  of  Cin- 
cinnati, Ohio,  1888);  A  Treatise  on  Building  Associa- 
tions, by  Charles  N.  Thompson  (published  by  Callaghan 
&  Co.  of  Chicago  ;  the  last-named  book  is  designed  espe- 
cially for  the  use  of  lawyers  and  association  officers) ; 
The  Working  Man's  Way  to  Wealth.  (Philadelphia, 
Lippincott) ;  Building  and  Loan  Associations,  the 


Ninth  Annual  Report  of  the  (U.  S.)  Commissioner  of 
Labor  (1893),  on  application. 

BUILDING  TRADES,  LABOR  MOVE- 
MENT IN  THE.— The  workers  in  the  building 
trades  have  been  pioneers  in  the  labor  move- 
ment, especially  the  ship  carpenters.  As  early 
as  1642  ships  were  built  in  Boston,  there  being 
12  shipyards  in  that  city  by  1743.  From  1712-20, 
700  sail  of  ship  were  built  in  New  England. 
The  builders  were  honored.  In  1631,  while 
Richard  Hollingsworth  was  engaged  in  build- 
ing a  large  vessel,  one  of  his  workmen  was 
killed,  and  Hollingsworth  was  required  by  the 
Court  of  Assizes  to  pay  £10  sterling  to  the  wife 
and  children  of  the  deceased,  because  they 
thought  that  sufficient  care  was  not  taken  to 
have  his  tackle  strong  enough. 

It  had  been  the  custom  in  this  industry,  as 
well  as  in  others,  to  furnish  drink  or  grog  at 
various  intervals  in  the  day.  In  1817  Thacher 
Magoun,  a  ship-builder,  determined  to  abolish 
the  grog  privilege.  The  ceremony  of  laying 
the  keel,  and  of  commencing  each  part  of  the 
work,  as  also  the  christening  or  naming  of  a 
vessel,  was  always  accompanied  with  the  use 
of  ardent  spirits.  Upon  Mr.  Magoun  giving 
notice  that  no  liquor  could  be  used  in  his  ship- 
yard, the  words  "  No  Rum  !  No  RUM  !"  were 
written  upon  nearly  every  clapboard  of  the 
workshop,  and  on  each  timber  in  the  yard. 
Some  of  the  men  refused  to  work,  but  finally 
all  gave  in,  and  a  ship  was  built  without  the  use 
of  liquor  in  any  form. 

The  hours  of  labor  at  that  time  were  from 
sunrise  to  sunset,  and  all  employers  were  obliged 
by  custom  to  furnish  liquor  free  at  least  twice  a 
day.  These  two  periods  for  drink  were  really 
periods  of  rest,  and  were  called  luncheon  times, 
the  men  having  an  opportunity  to  eat  as  well  as 
drink,  and  Mr.  Magoun' s  no-rum  movement 
meant  no  luncheon  time,  and  was  in  effect  an 
increase  in  the  working  time,  the  employer  thus 
saving  the  cost  of  time  as  well  as  the  cost  of 
the  rum. 

The  ship-workers  and  building  trades  not  only  were 
among  the  very  first  to  organize  their  craft  into  unions, 
but  they  seem  to  have  been  the  first  organized  body  of 
working  men  to  bring  the  hours  of  labor  to  a  direct 
issue. 

The  calkers,  from  the  painful  positions  of  their 
labor  and  other  causes,  were  especially  prominent  in 
organizing ;  and  from  their  meetings  it  is  claimed  is 
derived  the  \vord  "caucus,"  so  common  in  political  af- 
fairs. 

The  New  York  Society  of  Journeymen  Shipwrights 
was  incorporated  April  30,  1803,  and  the  House  Carpen- 
ters of  the  City  of  New  York,  in  1806.    The  unions  of 
that  time  made  a  stand  against  the  length  of  the  work- 
day,  which    was  then    14    hours.    The  employers,   in 
resisting  this  effort  on  the  part  of  the  workmen,  pub- 
lished resolutions  regretting  the  action  of  the  journey- 
men ship-carpenters,  calkers,  and  oth- 
ers, in  maintaining  a  system  of  meas- 
ures designed  to  coerce   individuals  of       Various 
their  craft,   and  to  prescribe  the  time       Unions 
and  manner  of  the  labor  for  which  they 
were    liberally  paid.     They    then    pro- 
ceeded to  declare  their  intention  to  black- 
list all  persons  who  belonged  to  the  association.    In 
1850,  after  many  years  of  contention  and  defeats,  the 
ten-hour  day  had  extended  to  the    shipyards.    Even 
before  then  President  Van  Buren  had,  in  1833,  bY  proc- 
lamation fixed  the  hours  in  the  navy  yards  at  10  per 
day.    Upon  securing  the  ten-hour  day  the  agitation  for 
eight  hours  was  begun,  and  has  continued  to  the  pres- 
ent time,  with  slow,  gradual  progress  to  ward  complete 
success.    In  the  spring  of  1853  there  were  extensive 
movements  in  the  building  trades  toward  orgamza- 


Building  Trades. 


199 


BUrkli,  Karl. 


tion  and  for  an  increase  of  wages ;  and  in  1854  the  Bos- 
ton ship- joiners  struck  and  obtained  an  eight-hour 
day.  The  journeymen  house  carpenters  of  Boston  and 
New  York  held  meetings  for  organization  in  1853  !  and 
in  1856  the  ship-carpenters  organized  and  moved  for 
eight  hours.  In  1866  the  ship-carpenters  employed  at 
Greenpoint,  L.  I.,  went  on  strike  for  eight  hours. 
Their  movement  culminated  in  a  great  demonstra- 
tion of  all  working  men  in  New  York  for  eight  hours. 
All  these  efforts  were  generallycondemned  by  the  press. 
The  Amalgamated  Society  of  Carpenters  and  Joiners 
is  an  English  organization,  with  some  23  branches  in 
the  United  States.  It  was  founded  in  June,  1860,  and 
publishes  an  annual  report  filled  with  statistical  in- 
formation for  the  order  and  the  trade. 

Attempts  to  organize  the  carpenters  of  the  United 
States  into  a  national  body  were  made  in  1854,  in  1867, 
and  at  other  times.  Finally,  at  a  convention  held  in 
Chicago,  August  8,  1881,  the  Brotherhood  of  Carpenters 
and  Joiners  was  formally  organized.  (See  BROTHER- 
HOOD OF  CARPENTERS  AND  JOINERS.) 

The  Bricklayers'  and  Masons'  International  Union  of 
America  was  first  organized  under  the  name  of  the  In- 
ternational Bricklayers  of  America,  October  16,  1865,  at 
Philadelphia. 

Previous  to  this  time  unions  of  a  local  character  were 
organized  and  thrived  in  various  cities  of  the  United 
States.  The  first  annual  convention  after  organiza- 
tion was  held  at  Baltimore,  Md.,  January  8,  1866.  John 
A.  White,  of  Baltimore,  was  elected  president;  T.  Ed- 
ward Kirby,  of  Baltimore,  secretary;  and  Joseph 
Hackney,  of  Philadelphia,  treasurer.  The  second  an- 
nual session  was  held  at  Cincinnati,  January,  1867.  At 
the  seventeenth  annual  session,  in  1883,  the  present  title 
of  the  order  was  adopted.  From  1873  to  1880,  during 
the  years  of  depression  in  business,  the  order  declined 
until  but  a  small  remnant  existed  ;  but  with  the  revi- 
val of  business  occurred  a  revival  of  the  organization, 
until  now  it  numbers  about  33,000  members.  The  or- 
ganization is  a  purely  protective  one  in  a  national 
sense,  and  all  of  the  subordinate  unions  have  benevo- 
lent features  combined.  The  local  union  at  Philadel- 
phia has  erected  a  building  on  North  Broad  Street, 
which  is  an  ornament  to  that  city.  Other  unions  have 
followed  this  move,  until  several  buildings  are  owned 
or  controlled  by  local  branches. 

The  Granite  Cutters'  National  Union  had  its  origin  at 
Clark's  Island,  Me.,  January  2,  1877.  At  first  only  a 
temporary  organization,  it  became  a  permanent  body 
on  March  6,  1877.  The  first  meeting  of  the  National 
Board  was  held  March  10  of  the  same  year.  N.  C.  Bas- 
sick  was  elected  president,  and  Thompson  H.  Murch, 
secretary;  the  latter  was  afterward  elected  to  con- 
gress, defeating  Eugene  HalCj  and  J.  B.  Dyer  was 
elected  secretary,  and  has  retained  that  position  up  to 
the  present  time.  The  first  regular  convention  of  the 
national 'body  was  held  at  Boston,  Mass.,  February  5, 
1878,  with  representatives  of  22  branches  present.  The 
first  strike  was  on  April  6,  1878,  at  Vinalhaven.  The 
most  notable  strike  of  the  organization  was  at  Ouincy, 
Mass.,  lasting  nearly  nine  months.  The  great  Wester- 
ly, R.  I.,  strike  of  1885  was  also  a  protracted  struggle, 
as  was  the  lockout  at  Ryegate,  Vt,  1885.  The  strike 
against  contract  convict  labor  on  the  State  capital  at 
Austin,  Tex.,  and  the  more  recent  one  against  Norcross 
Brothers,  of  Worcester,  Mass.,  involving  operations  in 
various  portions  of  the  country,  are  matters  of  record. 
The  policy  of  the  organization  has  been  to  change  the 
headquarters  of  the  organization  every  two  years.  A 
trade  journal  is  published  monthly  from  the  office  of 
the  secretary. 

The  Painters'  and  Decorators'  Union  had  an  early  ex- 
istence in  a  small  way,  known  as  the  Painters'  Union 
of  Philadelphia,  in  1856.  In  1859  an  effort  was  made  to 
found  a  national  union,  and  a  convention  was  called  ; 
but  after  a  brief  existence  the  movement  perished. 
In  1871  the  New  York  Operative  and  Benevolent  Union, 
the  oldest  union  of  the  trade,  undertook  the  work  of 
forming  a  national  body  and  formed  the  Painters' 
Grand  Lodge,  which  body  held  four  annual  conven- 
tions. During  this  time  the  painters  entered  into  the 
eight-hour  movement,  and  won  the  first  victory  for  the 
shorter  hour  cause,  earning  the  title  of  pioneers  of  the 
eight-hour  movement.  The  great  panic  of  1873  caused 
the  collapse  of  the  national  organization,  and  not  until 
March,  1887,  were  efforts  to  revive  successful.  Then  the 
present  organization  was  formed,  under  the  title  of  the 
Brotherhood  of  Painters  and  Decorators  of  America. 
The  general  president  is  J.  W.  McKinney,  of  Chicago, 
111.;  the  general  secretary  and  treasurer  is  J.  T.  Elliott, 
Baltimore,  Md.  From  the  office  of  the  secretary  is 
issued  monthly  a  paper  called  the  Painters'1  Journal. 
The  order  has  about  200  unions  in  all  sections  of  the 
United  States  and  Canada.  A.  A.  CARLTON. 


BUILDING  TRADES  (English).  See 
TRADE-UNIONS,  section  "  England." 

BULLION. — The  precious  metals  gold  and 
silver  are  generally  spoken  of  as  bullion  when 
at  or  near  the  standard  fineness  accepted  at  the 
mints  of  the  different  countries  of  the  world. 
Says  Palgrave's  Dictionary  of  Political  Econ- 
omy :  ' '  The  term  is  sometimes  applied,  with 
some  qualifying  epithet,  to  ores  containing  only 
a  very  small  portion  of  the  precious  metals, 
which  are  called  '  dore  bullion  '  or  '  base  bul- 
lion,' etc.  A  statement  in  the  report  of  Mr. 
J.  P.  Turnbull,  director  of  the  United  States 
Mint,  on  the  production  of  the  precious  metals 
in  the  United  States,  pp.  14,  15  (1887),  will  ex- 
plain this.  The  reference  in  it  is  to  certain  ores 
found  in  Mexico  more  or  less  argentiferous,  the 
value  of  which  has  been  generally  estimated 
in  Mexico  by  the  assay  of  the  precious  metals,_ 
or  of  silver  to  the  exclusion  of  the  minute  pro- 
portion of  gold  contained  in  the  ore  ;  the  base 
metals  not  entering  into  the  estimated  value. 
The  report  then  refers  to  '  the  small  tenor  of 
gold  extracted  from  dore  bullion. '  The  metallic 
compound  is  then  termed  '  dore  bullion '  or 
'base  bullion,'  according  to  the  proportion  of 
the  metals  of  which  it  is  composed — mainly  sil- 
ver or  lead ;  but  the  term  bullion  is  properly 
applicable  to  the  precious  metals  alone." 

BUONARROTI,  MICHEL,  was  born  in 
Pisa  in  1761  ;  he  early  fled  to  Corsica  on  account 
of  his  revolutionary  ideas,  and  published  there 
his  Friend  of  Italian  Liberty.  In  1792  he 
came  to  Paris,  and  was  admitted  to  the  title  of 
"  Citoyen  Frangais."  For  complicity  with  the 
conspiracy  of  Babeuf  (q.v.~)  he  was  condemned 
to  deportation.  After  much  suffering  he  es- 
caped to  Geneva,  and  later  to  Brussels,  where 
he  wrote  his  History  of  Babeuf  s  Conspiracy 
(1828).  In  1830  he  returned  to  France,  and  se- 
cretly worked  for  communism,  exerting  much 
influence  upon  Blanqui  and  other  leaders.  He 
died  in  1837. 

BUREAUS  OF  LABOR.  See  LABOR  BU- 
REAUS. 

BURIAL  SOCIETIES  are  friendly  socie- 
ties, found  mainly  in  England,  constituted  in 
the  usual  manner,  but  with  the  express  object 
of  supplying  a  fund  for  paying  the  funeral  ex- 
penses of  the  members  on  their  death.  (See 
FRIENDLY  SOCIETIES.)  It  became  customary  to 
enter  the  names  not  only  of  adults,  but  of  chil- 
dren, in  such  societies.  The  proceedings  of  the 
criminal  courts  have  shown  that,  in  some  in- 
stances, children  on  whose  lives  such  an  insur- 
ance was  effected  have  been  killed  or  allowed  to 
die  of  neglect,  and  the  alarm  created  by  such 
instances  was  enhanced  by  the  discovery  that 
children  were  frequently  insured  in  more  than 
one  society.  Legislation  in  England  was  enact- 
ed to  remedy  this.  In  this  country  burial  socie- 
ties have  had  little  development,  their  place 
having  been  filled  by  provisions  embodied  in 
the  various  friendly  societies,  secret  orders,  or 
trade  organizations. 

BU*RKLI,  KARL,  was  born  at  Zurich  in  1823. 
He  became  a  tanner,  and  was  converted  to  so- 


BUrkli,  Karl. 


200 


Burns,  John. 


cialism  (1845)  by  the  writings  of  Fourier  ;  he 
founded  the  first  Konsumverein  in  German 
Switzerland,  and  in  1851  was  elected  to  the  Can- 
tonal Council  because  of  his  socialist  program, 
and  advocacy,  for  the  first  time  in  Switzerland, 
of  direct  legislation.  Since  then  he  has  played 
an  important  part  in  Swiss  politics  as  a  firm  so- 
cialist. In  his  seventieth  year  he  opened  the 
Zurich  International  Congress.  He  has  been  a 
voluminous  writer  from  1851-91. 

BURNS,  JOHN,  was  born  at  Battersea,  Lon- 
don, in  1858,  being  the  son  of  an  engineer  who 
formerly  came  from  Ayrshire.  He  began  to 
earn  his  own  living  at  the  age  of  10,  working 
in  a  candle  factory.  Later  he  was  apprenticed 
to  a  local  engineering  firm.  Burns  became, 
while  young,  a  diligent  student  of  trade-union- 
ism. He  was  arrested  in  1877  f°r  persistently 
speaking  on  Clapham  Common.  When  out  of 
his  time  in  1879  he  joined  the  Amalgamated  So- 
ciety of  Engineers,  and  prominently  advocated 
shorter  hours.  In  1880-81  he  was  engaged  as 
an  engineer  in  West  Africa,  and  read  Adam 
Smith  and  ].  S.  Mill.  In  1883  he  became  a  so- 
cialist, and  joined  the  Social  Democratic  Fed- 
eration, and  became  its  leading  working-class 
member.  In  1885  he  stood  as  socialist  candi- 
date for  Nottingham,  and  received  598  votes. 
For  two  years  he  led  the  "  unemployed"  agita- 
tion in  London.  In  1886  he  was  arrested  with 
Hyndman  and  others  for  speaking  in  Hyde 
Park,  and  on  acquittal  his  speech  (The  Man 
with  the  Red  Flag)  was  printed  and  widely 
sold.  In  1887  he  was  imprisoned  six  weeks  for 
breaking  through  the  police,  and  speaking  in 
Trafalgar  Square  (November  13),  "  Bloody  Sun- 
day." In  1889  he  was  elected  to  the  London 
County  Council  from  Battersea.  The  same  year 
he  showed  marvelous  skill  in  managing  the 
Dock  Strike,  and  in  organizing  the  unorganized, 
and  became  the  foremost  leader  of  the  "new 
unionism."  Believing  in  the  "  progressivist" 
policy  of  advancing  socialism  through  any  party, 
he  left  the  Social  Democratic  Federation,  and 
has  been  much  criticised  by  its  leaders  ever 
since.  At  the  general  election  in  1892  he  was 
easily  elected  M.P.  for  Battersea,  and  in  1893, 
receiving  the  highest  number  of  votes  at  the 
Trade-Union  Congress,  became  Chairman  of  the 
Parliamentary  Committee. 

On  the  London  County  Council  his  work  has 
been  continuously  good  and  increasingly  oner- 
ous. From  the  reactionary  Metropolitan  Board 
to  the  present  progressive  council  there  is  a  far 
cry,  and  Burns  has  had  a  large  share  in  its  on- 
ward march.  The  attitude  of  its  Works  Com- 
mittee, with  fair  wages,  hours,  and  conditions  of 
labor,  and  its  system  of  direct  employment  with- 
out contractors,  is  worth  recording.  In  Parlia- 
ment, too,  his  work  has  been  none  the  less  solid  : 
witness  the  adoption  of  the  eight-hour  day  in  gov- 
ernment workshops,  and  his  interest  in  all  re- 
forms. As  a  trade-unionist  he  is  a  trusted  man, 
vice-chairman  of  the  Parliamentary  Committee 
of  the  Trade  Union  Congress,  and  visited  the 
United  States  with  D.  Holmes  December,  1894, 
as  English  representatives  to  the  convention  of 
the  American  Federation  of  Labor. 

The  platform  upon  which  Burns  was  elected 
to  Parliament,  more  advanced  than  that  of  any 


other  member,  indicates  his  political  belief.     It 
is  as  follows  : 

"  The  recent  movements  of  labor,  the  popular  de- 
mand for  more  leisure  and  a  higher  standard  of  life, 
the  determination  to  use  Parliament  for  a  social  end, 
and  not  as  an  appanage  of  vested  interests,  will  find  in 
me  an  earnest  advocate. 

"  As  a  Social  Democrat,  I  believe  that  nothing  short 
of  the  nationalization  of  the  land,  railways,  mines,  and 
the  means  of  production  will  permanently  remove 
the  poverty  and  inequalities  which  surround  us,  and 
that  eventually  society  will  accept  that  view.  Till 
that  is  completely  realized — and  it  is  being  fast  accom- 
plished—Parliament can  be  made  the  means  of  giving 
to  the  people  those  legislative,  municipal,  and  decen- 
tralized powers  by  which  poverty  can  be  reduced, 
burdens  lightened,  and  the  community  immeasurably 
benefited. 

"  As  a  candidate,  dealing  with  immediate  questions 
and  asking  your  votes,  I  am  in  favor  of  the  following  * 

"  Home    Rule    for  Ireland,   and  such  measures  of 
legislative  independence  as  the  Irish  people   may  de- 
mand for  their  political,  social,  and  in- 
dustrial emancipation. 

"  Payment  of  members  and  election  jjjg  platform 

''Adult  man  and  woman's  suffrage, 
and  drastic  amendment  of  registration 
laws,  second  ballot,  and  referendum. 

"  Triennial  Parliaments. 

"  Abolition  of  the  House  of  Lords  and  all  hereditary- 
authorities. 

;l  Conferring  upon  the  London  County  Council  all 
the  powers  enjoyed  by  other  municipalities  and  giving 
to  London  a  unification  of  complete  municipal  self- 
government,  with  power  to  acquire  all  existing  mo- 
nopolies. 

"  District  and  parish  councils,  with  full  and  popu- 
lar powers. 

"  Alteration  of  the  incidence  of  taxation,  so  that  the 
ground  landlord,  the  owner,  and  the  rich  shall  pay 
their  just  proportion  of  taxation. 

"  Disestablishment  of  the  Church. 

"  The  legal  eight-hour  day  as  the  best  means  of 
securing  work  for  all,  overwork  for  none,  the  avoid- 
ance of  strikes,  reduction  of  the  rates,  and  giving 
permanent  employment  where  demoralizing  casual 
labor  now  prevails. 

"  Raising  the  age  of  child  labor,  and  placing  all 
trades  within  the  scope  of  existing  and  future  factory- 
and  sanitary  acts. 

"  Alteration  of  existing  poor  law,  and  diversion  of 
its  funds  to  some  scheme  of  old-age  pensions  that,  by 
cumulative  or  graduated  income  tax  on  the  rich, 
would  give  sustenance  to  old  people,  without  pauper- 
ization. 

"  Giving  to  localities  absolute  and  complete  power 
in  deciding  upon  all  questions  relating  to  the  drink 
traffic  by  direct  veto  and  local  option. 

"  The  recognition  of  trades-unions,  the  abolition  of 
sweating  and  sub-letting,  the  payment  of  union 
wages  in  all  government  departments,  and  the  check- 
ing of  waste,  jobbery,  and  extravagance  wherever 
found. 

"  Beyond  the  above,  I  will  attend  to  all  local  matters, 
before  Parliament,  and  will  always  endeavor  to  make 
the  district  in  which  I  have  lived  my  whole  life  re- 
spected where  it  is  not  feared,  and  •will  ever  have  in 
view  the  best  and  most  permanent  interests  of  the 
community." 

Burns  has  done  an  important  and  interesting 
work  in  Battersea,  his  native  parish,  which  has 
a  population  of  160,000,  90  percent,  of  whom  be- 
long to  the  industrial  and  laboring  classes.  But 
for  him  the  municipal  progress  of  the  parish 
would  not  have  taken  place.  Since  1887,  when 
it  was  given  full  administrative  powers,  Batter- 
sea  has  established  : 

1.  A  splendid  public  library — supported  out  of 
the  rates — with  two  branches,  bringing  free  read- 
ing to  the  doors  of  all  its  people.     The  libraries, 
are  open  on  Sundays. 

2.  Public  baths  and  wash-houses,  where  peo- 
ple may  have  baths  of  all  kinds  at  a  very  mod- 
erate charge,  including  the  largest  swimming 
bath  in  London,  and  where  the  poor  housewife 


Burns,  John. 


201 


Business  Failures. 


can  use  all  the  most  improved  machinery  for 
washing. 

3.  New  municipal  buildings,  with  a  town  hall 
capable  of  holding  1500  people. 

4.  A  polytechnic  institute,  a  real  people's  uni- 
versity, and  the  best  of  its  kind  in  equipment  in 
London. 

Battersea  has  abolished  contractors,  and  con- 
structs its  own  works  under  the  conduct  of  the 
Works  Department.  The  men  employed  by  the 
municipality  have  an  eight-hour  day,  and  are 
paid  trade-union  wages.  These  and  other  prac- 
tical reforms  have  had  the  steady  advocacy  of 
Burns. 

Besides  being  trustee  to  several  trade-unions, 
Burns  is  governor  of  the  Battersea  Polytechnic. 
An  authority  on  labor  problems,  he  is  constant- 
ly consulted  on  industrial  questions.  Much  of 
his  tremendous  energy,  of  his  cheery  optimism, 
and  of  his  remarkable  success  is  due  to  the  in- 
spiring influence  of  his  wife,  unseen,  yet  felt  by 
thousands. 

In  1894  he  made  a  lecturing  tour  in  the  United 
States.  In  1895  he  was  returned  again  to  Par- 
liament, though  with  a  greatly  reduced  vote. 

BURROWS,  HERBERT,  was  born  in  Suf- 
folk, England,  in  1845.  The  son  of  a  Methodist 
local  preacher,  he  studied  at  a  private  school  and 


entered  the  civil  service.  He  was  one  of  the  orig- 
inal founders  of  the  Social  Democratic  Federa- 
tion, and  is  still  a  member.  He  gave  himself  so 
energetically  to  the  cause  as  on  occasions  to  de- 
liver seven  addresses  a  day.  He  was  one  of  the 
organizers  of  the  dock  laborers,  and  has  repre- 
sented the  federation  in  several  socialist  con- 
gresses. He  is  now  in  the  civil  service,  and 
deeply  interested  in  theosophy,  but  still  true  to 
socialism.  He  is  (1895)  treasurer  for  the  Match 
Girls'  Union,  and  active  on  its  behalf. 

BURT,  THOMAS,  was  born  in  1837  ;  the 
son  of  a  miner.  Following  his  father's  profes- 
sion, he  became  Secretary  of  the  Northumber- 
land Miners'  Union  in  1865.  In  1872  he  was 
elected  to  Parliament  from  Morpeth,  with  Alex- 
ander Macdonald,  the  first  ' '  labor  member' '  to 
sit  in  Parliament.  He  has  represented  Morpeth 
ever  since.  He  was  President  of  the  Trade- 
Union  Congress  in  1891.  He  has  served  on  sev- 
eral commissions,  boards  of  trade,  and  in  poli- 
tics is  a  Liberal. 

BUSINESS  FAILURES.— The  following 
are  the  business  failures  in  the  United  States 
in  recent  years.  For  earlier  years  in  the  United 
States  and  for  statistics  for  England,  see  BANK- 
RUPTCIES. 


BUSINESS    FAILURES     IN    THE    UNITED    STATES    FROM     1886-1891,    AS    REPORTED    BY    BRAD- 
STREET'S. 


Per 

Per 

YEARS. 

Num- 
ber. 

Actual 
Assets. 

Liabilities. 

cent. 
Assets 
to  Lia- 

YEARS, 

Num- 
ber. 

Actual 
Assets. 

Liabilities. 

cent. 
Assets, 
to  Lia- 

bilities 

bilities 

1886  

1889 

1887  

1890.        .... 

1888  

1891  

CLASSIFIED  AS  TO  CAUSES. 


FAILURES  DUE  TO 

No. 
1891. 

No. 

1890. 

Actual 
Assets, 
1891. 

Actual 
Assets, 
1890. 

Liabilities, 
1891. 

Liabilities, 
1890. 

PERCENTAGE. 

No. 
1891. 

Lia- 
bili- 
ties, 
1891. 

No. 
1890. 

Lia- 
bili- 
ties, 
1890. 

2,021 
592 
4,869 
5°9 
279 

251 
383 
199 
2,075 
341 
875 

2,005 
611 
4,052 
502 

257 
232 

39° 
246 
1,358 
604 
416 

$8,563,259 
4,077,785 
34,572,098 
5,389,382 
8,723,326 
1,399,99' 
1,049,640 
929,215 
21,959,012 
12,198,055 
4,031,237 

$10,656,524 
i,95i,933 
23,571,043 
3,965,656 

9,745,954 
1,265,670 
1,223,198 

J,  235,549 
28,637,846 
8,917,424 
1,604,828 

$16,268,941 
6,021,670 
61,716,157 
9,223,319 
16,195,080 
2,584,181 
2,079,709 
1,856,352 
40,736,054 
23,356,7'8 
iS.^Sig 

$21,545,326 
3,562,065 
45,818,944 
7,204,055 
20,790,648 
2,626,381 
2,411,302 
2,194,551 
42,650,814 
19,616,481 
6,612,069 

16.3 

4-7 
39-2 
4.1 
2-7 
3-o 

2.0 
7-0 
l6.5 
2.2 
1.6 

8.4 
3-1 
32.0 

4-7 

12.  I 

1  .0 

i-3 
6.8 

21.  I 
8-3 
0.9 

18.8 
5-7 
37-9 
4-7 

51 
3-6 

2.1 

3-9 
12.7 
2.4 
2.3 

12.3 

2.1 
26.1 
4.2 
II.  2 
1.4 
1-5 

3-9 
24-3 
11.9 

1.2 

Inexperience  

Unwise  credits  

Failures  of  others  
Extravagance  
Neglect  

Competition  

Disaster  (com.  crisis).. 
Speculation  

Fraud  

Totals  

12,394 

io,673 

$102,893,000 

$92,775,625 

$193,178,000 

$175,032,836 

IOO.OO 

IOO.OO 

IOO.OO 

100.00- 

Business  Failures. 


202 


Business  Failures. 


Failures  for   1893-94,  as  compiled  by  R.   G.   Dun    for  the   Tribune   Almanac  (1895),  are  as 
follows  :  * 


STATES. 

TOTAL. 

MANUFACTURING. 

TRADING. 

OTHER. 

No. 

Liabilities. 

No. 

Liabilities. 

No. 

Liabilities. 

No. 

Liabilities. 

239 
46 
32 
805 

244 
179 

$2,318,810 
274,646 
3!3,296 
16,250,423 
1,773,743 
1,177,517 

49 
ii 
6 
280 
49 
43 

$1,368,362 
99,779 
189,450 
7,200,908 
879,128 
474,529 

188 
35 
25 
521 
194 
'31 

$941,448 
174,867 
v     118,846 
8,816,780 

893,915 
702,188 

2 

I 

4 

i 

5 

$9,000 

5,000 
232,735 
700 
800 

New  Hampshire  

Massachusetts  

Rhode  Island  

New  England  
New  England,  1893  

J,545 
2,015 

$22,108,435 
31,545,025 

438 

530 

$10,212,156 
13,080,484 

1,094 
1,463 

$11,648,044 
17,762,254 

'3 

22 

$248,235 
702,287 

New  York  
New  Jersey  

2,864 
200 
1,355 

$35,139,479 
3>270,779 
14,404,095 

631 
66 
403 

$I7,648,325 
1,831,303 
6,136,576 

2,181 
129 
940 

$15,529,919 
867,131 
7,798,697 

52 

5 

12 

$1,961,235 
572,345 
468,822 

Pennsylvania  

Middle  
Middle,  1893  

4,419 
3,636 

$52,814,353 
147,961,618 

1,100 

1,197 

$25,616,204 
106,358,320 

3,250 
2,364 

$24,195,747 
28,801,919 

69 

75 

$3,002,402 
12,801,379 

Maryland  

227 
59 
49 
261 
96 
126 
83 
42 
302 
1  60 
138 
303 

3°3 

301 

$2,833,868 
905,270 
816,096 
1,923,942 

5",549 
1,807,188 
1,608,365 
361,150 
4,355,368 
2,789,859 
1,109,299 
1,629,354 
2,847,105 
4,859,580 

58 
14 
8 
28 
8 
14 
9 

22 
19 
5 
24 
27 
48 

$1,079,585 
764,900 
160,884 

586,933 
126,200 
703,800 
575,700 

719,275 
1,709,700 
357,200 
278,619 
542,566 
1,945,059 

161 
45 
40 
227 

85 

112 

74 
42 
277 
ISO 
»33 
178 

273 
251 

$1,491,185 
140,370 

653,449 
1,171,009 
374,649 
1,103,388 
1,032,665 
361,150 
2,703,093 
1,080,159 
752,099 
1,347,244 
2,147,398 
2,568,021 

8 

i 
6 
3 

3 

i 
3 

2 

$263,098 

1,763 
166,000 
10,700 

933,000 

3,49i 
157,141 
346,500 

District  of  Columbia  

Virginia  

West  Virginia  

North  Carolina  

South  Carolina  

Florida  

Georgia  

Alabama  

Mississippi  

Louisiana  

Tennessee  

Kentucky  

Southeast  
Southeast,  1893  

2,359 
2,565 

$28,357,993 
36,541,116 

284 

377 

$9,550,421 
12,141,577 

2,048 
2,136 

$16,925,879 
19,882,120 

27 

52 

$1,881,693 
4,517,419 

Arkansas  
Texas    

149 
398 

384 

$1,248,060 
2,964,951 
3,471,110 

9 

15 
45 

$252,275 
389,575 
459,699 

140 
38i 
330 

1995,785 
2,562,376 
2,869,211 

2 

9 

$13,000 
142,200 

Missouri  

Southwest  

Southwest,  1893  

93i 
1,207 

$7,684,121 
14,851,673 

69 

92 

$1,101,549 
1,755,456 

85i 
1,105 

$6,427,372 
10,848,292 

ii 

IO 

$155,200 
2,242,925 

Ohio  
Indiana  

677 
257 
164 
683 
232 

$6,5I2,395 
3,390,432 
1,638,529 
7,532,759 
3,606,604 

141 

56 
3i 

19« 
36 

$3,150,893 
1,634,164 
660,935 

3,824,179 
966,900 

535 
197 

I31 
470 
189 

$3,351,502 
1,416,268 

942,594 
3,191,580 
1,842,184 

I 
4 

2 
22 
7 

$10,000 

340,000 

35,000 
517,000 
297,520 

Michigan  ... 

Illinois  

Wisconsin  

Central  
Central,  1893  

2,013 
2,319 

$22,180,719 
60,852,229 

455 
736 

$10,237,071 
31,066,128 

1,522 
1,527 

$10,744,128 
23,343,"° 

36 

56 

$1,199,520 
6,442,991 

Minnesota  
Iowa  . 

343 
235 
219 
268 
64 

20 

16 

14 
26 
134 
24 

I 

$4,552,681 
4,960,128 
1,127,948 
1,418,640 
262,050 
76,500 
205,037 
568,400 
55,969 
i,47i,i57 
311,700 
3,000 

63 
29 
I? 

12 

I 
12 
2 

$2,210,734 
891,412 
63,291 
54,700 

700 
188,850 
76,000 

272 
204 
199 
255 
64 
20 
16 
14 
25 

121 
21 

I 

$2,142,757 
1,038,716 
1,063,257 
i,339,94o 
262,050 
76,500 
205,037 
568,400 
55,269 
1,277,807 
234,700 
3,000 

8 

2 

3 

i 

i 
i 

$199,190 
3,030,000 
1,400 
24,000 

4,5oo 
1,000 

Nebraska  

Kansas....        

Oklahoma  

Indian  Territory.  .       

Montana  

North  Dakota  

South  Dakota  

Colorado  

Wyoming  

New  Mexico  

Western   
Western,  1893  

1,364 
1,978 

$15,013,210 
38,725,191 

I36 
220 

$3,485,687 
7,140,272 

1,212 

1,707 

$8,267,433 
19,989,755 

16 

5' 

$3,260,090 

11,595,164 

Utah  
Idaho  

264 
116 

2 

166 
20  1 
548 

$1,595,403 
418,017 
2,250 
3,876 
1,960,619 
2,493,442 
5,238,314 

40 
24 

35 
3° 
96 

$542,452 
119,000 

611,400 
460,540 
1,553,419 

220 
90 
2 
I 
128 

168 
43° 

$1,044,551 
297,517 
2,250 
3,876 
1,326,219 
1,991,291 
2,727,486 

4 

2 

3 
3 

22 

$8,400 
1,500 

23,000 
41,611 

957,409 

Arizona  

Nevada  .... 

Washington  

Oregon  

California  

Pacific  
Pacific,  1893  

1,298 
1,522 

$11,711,921 
16,303,037 

225 

270 

$3,286,811 
5,439,854 

i,°39 

I,2IO 

$7,393,  J9o 
9,434,883 

34 

42 

$1,031,920 
1,428,300 

Totals  

13,929 
15,242 

$159,870,752 
346,779,889 

2,707 
3,422 

$63,489,899 
176,982,091 

1,016 

1,512 

$85,601,793 
130,062,333 

206 
308 

$10,779,060 

39,735,465 

Totals,  1893  

*  Wanting  all  returns  for  the  latter  part  of  December.  The  returns  yet  to  be  received  will  probably  add 
about  700  to  the  number  of  commercial  failures,  and  about  $7,000,000  to  the  aggregate  of  liabilities.  While  the 
number  was  but  little  smaller  in  1894  than  in  1893,  the  aggregate  of  liabilities  was  not  half  as  large.  In  the  aggre- 
gate of  liabilities,  failures  of  banks  and  financial  institutions  are  not  included,  and  the  total  for  the  year  thus  far 
reported  is  shown  by  sections  in  the  following  table  : 


Business  Failures. 


203 

BANK  FAILURES. 


Cabet,  Etienne. 


1894. 

1893. 

STATES. 

No. 

Liabilities. 

No. 

Liabilities. 

New  England.  .               

16 

$12,546,000 

Middle     

15 

7,383,724 

35 

43,478,618 

82 

22,119,514 

Southwest  

15 

1,808,000 

61 

29,703,776 

2,280,187 

37,457,963 

Western.  .          .          .                   

218 

39,554,298 

Pacific  

25 

2,814,822 

81 

26,138,639 

Totals  ...            

118 

$24,538,822 

642 

$210,998,808 

See  also  BANKRUPTCIES. 

BUTLER,  BENJAMIN  F.  (1818-93),  was 
born  at  Deerfield,  N.  H.  He  graduated  at  Water- 
ville  College,  Maine  ;  studied  law  at  Lowell, 
Mass.,  and  was  admitted  to  the  bar  in  1841.  He 
soon  became  distinguished  as  a  criminal  lawyer 
and  Democratic  politician.  In  1853  he  was 
elected  to  the  Legislature,  and  in  1859  to  the 
State  Senate.  Having  become  a  brigadier-gen- 
eral of  militia,  at  the  outbreak  of  the  Civil  War 
he  marched  at  once  to  the  South  with  the  Eighth 
Massachusetts  Brigade.  In  February,  1862,  he 
commanded  the  military  forces  sent  from  Bos- 
ton to  the  mouth  of  the  Mississippi,  and  for 
seven  months  held  military  command  of  New 
Orleans.  His  administration  here  has  been  vio- 
lently denounced,  and  it  brought  down  upon 
him  the  intense  hatred  of  the  Southern  people, 
because,  altho  he  maintained  order  and  en- 
forced sanitary  regulations,  he  compelled  the  rich 
secessionists  to  relieve  the  wants  of  those  whom 
their  rebellion  had  impoverished.  When  re- 
lieved of  his  command  he  was  moved  north  to 


Virginia  and  North  Carolina,  and  cooperated 
with  General  Grant  in  his  movement  upon 
Petersburg.  In  1866  he  was  chosen  member  of 
Congress  from  the  Boston  district,  and  two  years 
later  was  one  of  the  managers  in  the  impeach- 
ment of  President  Johnson.  From  the  com- 
mencement of  the  rebellion  Butler  had  been  a 
Republican  ;  but  as  soon  as  the  Greenback  and 
Labor  movement  began  he  fell  in  with  it,  and  in 
1878  he  was  the  candidate  of  this  movement  for 
Governor  of  Massachusetts.  He  received  109,435 
votes  as  against  134,725  for  the  Republican  can- 
didate. In  1879  he  was  again  defeated  ;  but  in 
1882  was  successful  as  the  Democratic  nominee. 
Two  years  afterward  he  was  the  presidential 
candidate  of  the  Greenback-Labor  and  Anti- 
monopoly  parties,  receiving  about  133,000  popu- 
lar and  no  electoral  votes. 

Altho  very  wealthy,  General  Butler  kept  near 
to  the  heart  of  the  "  common  people,"  and  few 
men  of  his  time  had  as  large  a  following  among 
the  working  men,  especially  in  Massachusetts. 


c 


CABET,  tSTIENNE,  was  born  at  Dijon, 
France,  in  1788,  and  died  at  St.  Louis  (U.  S.  A.), 
in  1856.  The  son  of  poor  parents,  he  received 
little  education,  but  worked  his  way  up  by  at- 
tending the  lectures  of  his  distinguished  fellow- 
townsman,  Jacotot,  till  he  became  a  teacher  in 
the  Lycee.  Later  he  studied  both  law  and  med- 
icine. In  1815  he  became  founder  and  director 
of  the  "  Federation  Bourguignonne"  for  the  de- 
fense of  the  national  territory,  and  became  con- 
nected with  the  Carbonari,  his  father  before  him 
having  been  a  fiery  patriot.  About  1820  he 
went  to  Paris,  and  the  Revolution  of  1830  found 
him  in  the  first  line  of  its  adherents.  Up  to 
1839  he  followed  the  varying  fortunes  of  a  Pa- 
risian extreme  republican,  writing  various  his- 
tories of  the  French  revolutions  and  defending 
the  most  extreme  acts  of  the  "  Mountain."  Be- 
ing tried  for  this  and  condemned,  he  fled  to 
England.  Here  he  read  Moore's  Utopia,  and 
devoted  henceforth  his  life  to  the  cause  of  com- 
munism. He  wrote  in  London  and  published 
in  Paris  in  1840  his  Voyage  en  Icarie,  an  at- 


tractive communistic  romance.  In  this  he  pro- 
posed, first,  a  transitional  period  of  50  years, 
and  then  a  complete  communism.  In  the  tran- 
sitional period  taxation  was  to  be  more  and 
more  levied  upon  the  wealthy,  and  gifts  and 
transfers  of  property  to  be  severely  scrutinized. 
Wages  somewhat  favorable  to  the  poor  were  to 
be  fixed  by  law.  Five  hundred  million  francs 
were  to  be  spent  in  providing  work  and  dwell- 
ings for  the  poor.  The  army  was  to  be  dis- 
banded as  rapidly  as  possible,  and  employed  on 
public  works.  Under  Cabet' s  full  communism, 
all  over  65  were  to  be  retired  from  work  on  an 
allowance.  All  others  able  to  work  were  to  be 
set  to  compulsory  work — men  from  1 8  to  65 .  wom- 
en from  17  to  50.  Everything,  however,  was 
to  be  done  to  make  the  work  attractive.  The 
family  was  to  be  maintained  intact,  save  that  at 
the  age  of  five  years  children  were  to  be  edu- 
cated in  communism  by  the  State.  There  was 
to  be  one  official  journal  ;  none  others  were  to 
be  allowed.  The  city  of  Icaria  is  described  with 
minute  detail,  and  all  arrangements  provided  for. 


Cabet,  Etienne. 


204 


Cameralistic  Science. 


The  publication  of  these  thoughts  in  the  Pop- 
ulaire  created  great  interest,  and  it  was  decided 
to  establish  an  Icaria  in  America.  Cabet 
bought  1,000,000  acres  of  land  in  Texas,  and 
sent,  in  1848,  69  trusted  followers  to  prepare  the 
way.  Arriving  in  New  Orleans  in  March,  they 
heard  of  the  republican  revolution  in  Paris,  and 
debated  whether  or  not  to  return  to  France. 
They  decided  to  go  on  ;  but  their  ranks  were 
soon  decimated  by  fever,  and  they  returned  to 
New  Orleans,  where  they  met  Cabet,  who  had 
left  Paris  in  December.  There  was  a  stormy 
interview,  and  Cabet  was  much  denounced  ; 
but  in  March,  1849,  Cabet,  with  280  followers, 
went  to  Nauvoo,  111. ,  where  they  hoped  for  a  bet- 
ter climate  than  in  Texas.  Meanwhile,  Cabet 
had  been  condemned  in  Paris  to  imprisonment 
on  a  trumped-up  charge  of  fraud.  He  returned 
to  Paris,  and  had  the  sentence  reversed.  Re- 
turning to  Nauvoo,  he  found  the  community  , 
prospering,  having,  in  1855,  500  members. 
There  was,  however,  continual  dissension,  and 
Cabet  with  200  followers  left  and  went  to  St. 
Louis,  where  he  soon  died.  The  colony,  how- 
ever, survived,  and  has  only  finally  disbanded 
this  year  (1895).  (For  the  history  of  the  colony 
after  Cabet' s  death,  see  ICARIA.)  Cabet,  it 
should  be  added,  gave  a  somewhat  religious 
cast  to  his  thought,  writing  a  book,  Le  Vrai 
Christianisme  suivant  Jesus  Christ,  and  in- 
deed several  other  books  arguing  that  Christi- 
anity is  communism. 

References :  Icaria,  by  Albert  Shaw ;  French  and 
German  Socialism,  by  R.  T.  Ely,  and  other  histories  of 
Socialism.  (See  COMMUNISM.) 

CAIRNES,  JOHN  ELLIOT  (1823-75),  the 
son  of  a  large  brewer,  was  born  at  Castle  Bell- 
ingham,  County  Louth.  He  graduated  at  Trin- 
ity College,  Dublin,  and  was  called  to  the  Irish 
bar  in  1857,  but  never  seems  to  have  practised. 
In  1856  he  competed  successfully  for  the  Whately 
professorship  of  Political  Economy  in  Dublin, 
and  held  it  for  five  years,  the  full  period  during 
which  it  was  tenable.  During  this  period  he 
published  several  essays  and  lectures,  especially 
one  on  The  Slave  Power,  defending  the  cause 
of  the  North  in  the  American  Civil  War,  and 
•winning  by  it  a  high  reputation  for  his  economic 
thought  and  analysis.  In  1865  he  moved  near 
London,  and  was  soon  appointed  Professor  of 
Political  Economy  at  University  College,  Lon- 
don. Altho  at  this  time  a  confirmed  invalid,  he 
fulfilled  his  duties  with  great  fortitude  and  no- 
bility of  character.  In  1872  his  health  com- 
pelled him  to  resign,  and  he  was  made  profes- 
sor emeritus.  In  1873  he  published  his  Politi- 
cal Essays,  and  in  1874  his  greatest  work,  Some 
Leading  Principles  of  Political  Economy 
Newly  Expounded.  Ofthe  Ricardo-Mill  school, 
Cairnes  ranks  perhaps  second  to  Mill  himself. 
His  work,  says  Palgrave's  Dictionary  of  Politi- 
cal Economy,  belongs  to  three  departments  : 
the  logic  of  political  economy,  the  investigation 
and  interpretation  of  contemporaneous  eco- 
nomic facts,  and  the  economic  theory.  Under 
the  first  head  he  maintains  sharply  that  political 
economy  has  to  do  only  with  what  is,  not  with 
what  ought  to  be  ;  and  his  whole  treatment  is 
conservative  and  of  the  old,  orthodox  and  a  pri- 
ori'school,  having  little  to  do  with  the  induction 


of  the  historical  school.  While  of  the  school  of 
Mill,  he  criticises  him  very  sharply  on  many 
points,  so  that  the  Dictionary  of  Political  Econ- 
omy declares  the  effect  of  Cairnes'  last  and 
greatest  book  to  have  been  mainly  destructive 
in  shaking  faith  in  the  finality  of  Mill's  conclu- 
sions. Cairnes'  literary  skill  and  his  logical  in- 
genuity are  perhaps  his  most  marked  character- 
istics. 

CALVIN,  JEAN  (1509-64).— The  great  theo- 
logian is  considered  here  only  from  the  stand- 
point of  his  influence  upon  social  reform,  but 
this  was  not  slight  both  for  good  and  for  evil. 
Professor  John  Fiske  says  of  him  ( The  Begin- 
nings of  New  England,  p.  58) :  "  It  is  not  easy 
to  speak  of  Calvin  with  enthusiasm,  as  it  comes, 
natural  to  speak  of  the  genial,  whole-souled, 
many-sided,  mirth  and  song-loving  Luther. 
Nevertheless  it  would  be  hard  to  overestimate 
the  debt  which  mankind  owes  to  Calvin.  The 
spiritual  father  of  Coligny,  of  William  the  Silent, 
and  of  Cromwell  must  occupy  a  foremost  rank 
among  the  champions  of  modern  democracy. 
Perhaps  not  one  of  the  mediaeval  popes  was 
more  despotic  in  temper  than  Calvin  ;  but  it  is 
not  the  less  true  that  the  promulgation  of  his. 
theology  was  one  of  the  longest  steps  that  man- 
kind has  taken  toward  personal  freedom.  Cal- 
vinism left  the  individual  man  alone  in  the  pres- 
ence of  his  God.  ...  In  the  presence  of  the 
awful  responsibility  of  life  all  distinctions  of 
rank  and  fortune  vanished  ;  prince  and  pauper 
were  alike  the  helpless  creatures  of  Jehovah,  and 
suppliants  for  His  grace." 

It  is  easy  to  see  from  this  in  what  direction 
Calvin's  contribution  to  human  thought  and  life 
must  lie.  By  crushing  the  individual  under  the: 
sovereign  decrees  of  God,  he  frees  him  from  all- 
lesser  bondage.  Calvin's  sociology  becomes  in- 
tensely individualistic.  He  defends  private  prop- 
erty as  morally  necessary,  as  tests  of  justice  and 
integrity.  The  communism  of  the  New  Testa- 
ment he  tries  to  prove  was  not  communism.  He- 
is  the  first  theologian  to  defend  interest.  The 
State  and  the  Church  he  regarded  as  wholly  in- 
dependent, yet  alike  in  Church  and  State  ther 
one  supreme  ruler  is  God.  Luxury  he  con- 
demned as  sin.  He  considered  it  the  duty  of 
the  Church  to  provide  for  the  poor,  and  to  this 
end  he  revived  the  temporal  duty  of  the  diaco- 
nate. 

CAMERALISTIC  SCIENCE.— The  phrase 

cameralistic  science  has  its  origin  in  the  fact 
that,  in  Europe  generally,  the  king's  chamber- 
lain, or  camerarius,  was  responsible  for  devis- 
ing the  ways  and  means  of  raising  revenue  for 
the  public  treasury,  so  that  the  science  of  con- 
ducting the  national  revenues  and  expenditure 
came  to  be  called  the  cameralistic  science.  The 
phrase  has  been  chiefly  used  and  the  science 
was  first  carefully  developed  in  Germany,  under 
the  name,  Kameralwissenschaft.  Cossa  con- 
siders Johann  Heinrich  Justi,  who  died  in  1771. 
and  who  was  professor  first  at  Vienna,  and 
later  at  Gottingen,  the  leader  of  the  German 
cameralists.  Frederick  William  I.,  himself  an 
able  cameralist  and  author  of  the  Prussian  finan- 
cial system,  did  much  for  the  science,  founding 
chairs  of  political  economy  and  cameralistic- 


Cameralistic  Science. 


205 


Canals. 


science  at  Halle  and  Frankfort-on-the-Oder. 
The  cameralists,  speaking  generally,  took  up 
the  principles  of  the  mercantilists  (g.v.)  and 
developed  them  into  a  system  of  practical  finance. 
The  science  was  also  somewhat  developed,  and 
chairs  of  cameralistic  science  were  founded  in 
Italy,  France,  Sweden,  etc. 

CAMPANELLA,  TOMMASO  (1568-1639), 
was  an  Italian  monk  and  the  author  of  Ctvitas 
Salts.  He  entered  the  Dominican  Order  when 
quite  a  boy,  but  devoted  much  of  his  time  to  the 
study  of  philosophy.  In  1599  there  arose  a  con- 
spiracy in  Calabria  against  the  Spanish  rule. 
Campanella,  as  an  Italian  patriot,  was  seized 
and  charged  with  conspiracy  and  heresy,  for 
which  he  was  imprisoned  in  a  dungeon  m  Na- 
ples for  nearly  27  years,  repeatedly  being  tor- 
tured to  make  him  confess  his  heresy,  but  with 
no  avail.  During  his  confinement  he  wrote  sev- 
eral works,  one  of  which  was  his  Civ  it  as  So  I  is 
(published  1623).  When  released  he  retired  to 
Rome,  and  afterward  to  Paris,  where,  enjoying 
the  friendship  of  Richelieu  and  a  pension  from 
the  king,  he  ended  his  days  in  peace.  His  book, 
the  City  of  the  Sun,  is  in  the  form  of  a  dialogue 
between  a  Knight  Templar  and  a  sea  captain. 
The  captain  tells  of  a  wonderful  city  he  had 
visited,  and  describes  minutely  all  that  he  saw 
there,  especially  the  methods  of  education  and 
the  laws  by  which  the  city  is  governed.  It  much 
resembles  Plato's  Republic.  Work  is  common 
to  all,  but  the  hours  are  to  be  only  four,  and 
slavery  is  repudiated.  There  is  to  be  com- 
munity of  wives  and  of  goods.  Money  is  not  to 
be  received,  even  from  foreigners.  A  transla- 
tion of  the  City  of  the  Sun  may  be  found  in 
Morley's  Universal  Library. 

CAMPBELL,  HELEN,  nee  STUART,  was 

born  in  Lockport,  N.  Y.,  July  4th,  1839.  She 
attended  school  at  Warren,  R.  I. ,  and  at  Bloom- 
field,  N.  J.  In  1859  she  was  married  to  Mr. 
Weeks,  an  army  surgeon.  She  began  to  contri- 
bute sketches  to  the  magazines  and  newspapers 
at  an  early  age,  and  gave  much  attention  to 
housekeeping  on  a  basis  of  scientific  common 
sense.  She  has  studied  carefully  the  problem  of 
the  poor  in  great  cities  and  elsewhere,  and  has 
contributed  valuable  papers,  drawn  from  person- 
al experience,  to  current  publications.  Her  nov- 
els are  all  written  in  an  earnest  spirit,  but  are  full 
of  touches  of  wit  and  pathos.  From  1881-84  she 
was  literary  editor  of  The  Continent  (Philadel- 
phia.) Among  her  published  works  are  :  The 
AinsleeSeries(NewYor}<.,  1864-67) ;  His  Grand- 
mothers  (1877) ;  Six  Sinners  (1878) ;  Unto  the 
Third  and  Fourth  Generation  (1880) ;  The 
Easiest  Way  in  Housekeeping  and  Cooking 
(1881)  ;  The  Problem  of  the  Poor  (1882)  ;  The 
American  Girl's  Handbook  of  Work  and 
Play  (1883) ;  Under  Green  Apple  Boughs 
(1883) ;  The  What-to-do  Club  (Boston,  1884) ; 
Mrs.  Herndon'  s  faco»te(i8&*) ;  Miss  Melindd1  s 
Opportunity  (1886).  Her  chief  books  bearing 
directly  on  social  reforms  are  Prisoners  of 
Poverty,  Prisoners  of  Poverty  A  broad,  Wom- 
an Wage  Earners  (1893). 

CANALS  are  artificial  waterways  for  the 
purposes  of  navigation  or  irrigation.  (For  an 
account  of  the  latter,  see  IRRIGATION.)  Naviga- 


ble canals  may  be  divided  into  those  used  for 
inland  navigation  and  those  used  for  shorten- 
ing sea  voyages.  With  a  long  and  honorable 
history  canals  have  for  the  last  50  years  been 
overshadowed  in  importance  by  the  railway, 
but  are  now  experiencing  a  deserved  and  need- 
ed revival. 

Altho  known  in  Egypt  and  China  from  early  days, 
canals  were  of  small  use  till  the  invention  of  locks 
in  Italy  in  the  fourteenth  century.  The  modern  era  of 
canal  construction  dates,  however,  from  the  success  of 
the  Duke  of  Bridge  water's  Canal,  from  Worsley  to 
Manchester,  commenced  in  1759,  and  lengthened  to  Liv- 
erpool in  1772.  A  canal  mania  at  this  time  broke  out. 
Dividends  in  some  of  the  canal  companies  amounted 
to  ioo  per  cent.  In  1817  the  Erie  Canal  in  the  United 
States  was  commenced,  and  finished  amid  great  en- 
thusiasm in  1825.  The  original  cost  was  $5,700,000.  In 
1852-53,  altho  the  tolls  had  been  reduced  to  about  one 
third  the  original  amount,  the  revenue  was  over  $3,000,- 
ooo  per  year.  Up  to  1880  nearly  4500  miles  of  canals 
had  been  constructed.  The  Erie  is  by  far  the  largest 
canal  in  the  world,  of  great  importance,  having  with 
its  feeders  350  miles  ;  tho  the  Grand  Canal  in  China  has 
some  800  miles,  and  the  improved  Ganges  River  in 
India  522  miles.  The  Suez  Canal,  opened  in  1869,  has 
90  miles  of  length,  with  the  largest  sectional  area  and 
undoubtedly  the  greatest  commercial  importance  of 
any  canal  in  the  world.  The  Ohio  Canal  with  its  feed- 
ers has  328  miles,  the  Miami  and  Erie,  285  ;  the  Illinois 
and  Michigan,  102  ;  the  Chesapeake  and  Ohio,  180,  and 
the  Morris  Canal,  103.  In  1825  the  railway  era  com- 
menced, and  the  interest  in  canals  diminished.  By  an 
unfortunate  policy  the  railroads  chose  to  compete 
with  the  canals,  instead  of  leaving  to  canals  the  heavy 
commodities,  which  the  canals  could  carry  better,  an& 
pushing  into  channels  of  trade  which  the  canals  could 
not  enter.  The  railways  have  thus  not  undertaken 
•what  they  might  do  with  better  profit,  and  have  been 
burdened  with  work  of  small  profit  which  the  canals 
needed.  Since  1870,  however,  thinkers  have  come  to 
see  that  the  canal  has  a  needed  place  in  commerce. 

In  October,  1884,  an  International  Inland  Navigation 
Congress  was  held  in  Bremen,  and  has  met  nearly 
even'  year  since.  The  great  Manchester  Ship  Canal, 
which  enables  the  largest  steamers  for  India  or  Amer- 
ica to  load  at  Manchester,  was  commenced  in  1885,  and 
opened  January  i,  1834,  costing  $75,000,000.  _  It  is  mainly 
controlled  by  the  city,  •which  has  a  majority  of  the 
directors.  The  North  Sea  Baltic  Canal  was  commenced 
in  1887,  and  finished  in  July,  1895.  A  canal  has  been  con- 
structed across  the  Isthmus  of  Corinth.  Canals  are  also 
being  constructed  through  Cape  Cod,  in  Nicaragua,  and 
other  places.  The  importance  of  the  last-named  canal 
entitles  it  to  a  treatment  by  itself.  (See  NICARAGUA.) 

A  proposal  to  pierce  the  Isthmus  of  Darien 
was  made  as  early  as  1520  by  Angel  Saave- 
dra  ;  Cortez  caused  the  Isthmus  of  Tehuantepec 
to  be  surveyed  for  the  construction  of  a  canal  ; 
and  in  1550  Antonio  Galvao  suggested  four  dif- 
ferent routes  for  such  a  scheme,  one  of  them 
being  across  the  Isthmus  of  Panama.  In  1879 
M.  de  Lesseps  took  the  matter  up,  and  the  first 
meeting  of  his  company  was  held  in  1881.  The 
capital  necessary  for  the  ' '  Company  of  the  In- 
teroceanic  Canal  of  Panama,"  as  it  is  called,  was 
stated  at  600,000,000  frs. — the  estimated  cost  of 
excavation  being  430,000,000  frs. ,  that  of  weirs 
and  trenches  to  take  fresh  water  to  the  sea,  46,- 
000,000  frs. ,  and  that  of  a  dock  and  tide-gates  on 
the  Pacific  side,  36,000,000  frs.  The  Panama 
Canal  was  bought  for  $20,000,000.  The  con- 
tractors, Couvreux  &  Hersent,  began  operations 
in  October  of  the  same  year.  (See  PANAMA.) 

Projected  canals  will  probably  in  the  future  connect, 
in  Europe,  the  Bay  of  Biscay  with  the  Mediterranean, 
the  North  Sea  with  the  Mediterranean, 
the  Baltic  with  the  Black  Sea  ;    Paris,  . 

Brussels,  and  other  cities  with  the  sea,     Projected 
and  cross    England,  Scotland,    Ireland,        Canals. 
Italy,  and  other  countries.     In  Amer- 
ica canals   are    projected  which,    com- 
mencing with  the  Cape  Cod  Canal,  will  give  unbroken 


Canals. 


206 


Cantillon,  Richard. 


inland  communication  from  Boston  to  the  Carolina 
sounds,  will  cross  Florida  and  Upper  Michigan,  will 
connect  Lake  Michigan  with  the  Mississippi  and 
Pittsburg  with  Lake  Erie.  Even  to-day  canals  are 
of  vastly  more  commercial  importance  than  many 
realize.  Mr.  Marshall  Stevens,  in  a  recent  paper  before 
the  British  Association  for  the  Advancement  of  Sci- 
ence, showed  that  more  fine  goods  are  carried  to-day 
between  Manchester  and  Liverpool  on  the  Bridgewater 
Canal  than  on  any  of  the  three  competing  roads,  even 
tho  the  rates  are  the  same.  The  tonnage  on  the 
Trent  and  Mersey  Canal  is  over  1,250,000  tons  per  year. 
In  France  the  canal  tonnage  is  nearly  20,000,000  tonsper 
year ;  in  Germany  water  carries  40,000,000.  The  Erie 
Canal,  altho  the  political  influence  of  the  railroads  has 
allowed  it  to  be  neglected  and  unimproved,  as  late  as 
1884  carried  half  as  much  grain  to  New  York  City  as 
all  the  roads  combined,  altho  it  is  closed  for  five 
months  in  the  year.  Mr.  Albert  Fink,  one  of  the  ablest 
railroad  managers  in  the  United  States,  has  testified  to 
the  far-reaching  influence  of  the  Erie  Canal  in  affect- 
ing general  railroad  rates  through  the  country,  so  that 
railroad  rates  are  reduced  generally  when  the  Erie 
Canal  is  open.  In  1889  the  value  of  the  traffic  passing 
through  the  St.  Mary's  Falls  Canal,  between  Lakes  Su- 
perior and  Huron,  was  $83,733,527.  The  total  tonnage 
of  all  canals  in  the  United  States,  even  in  1880,  was  over 
20,000,000.  The  total  tonnage  of  the  foreign  trade  en- 
tering New  York  City  in  American  or  foreign  vessels 
in  1887  was  only  84  per  cent,  of  that  passing  from  Lake 
Huron  to  Lake  Superior.  The  Illinois  and  Michigan 
Canal  is  at  present  little  more  than  a  ditch,  yet  from  1880 
to  1885  it  transported  5,000,000  tons. 

Canals  are  of  importance,  first,  because  they 
can  carry  certain  freight  cheaper  and  better 
than  railroads  ;  secondly,  because  by  carrying 
goods  where  speed  of  transport  is  of  small  mo- 
ment, they  can  free  the  railroads  to  do  more 
rapid  work  ;  thirdly,  because  they  develop  trade, 
and  so  aid  and  not  hurt  railroad  traffic.  Ship 
canals  connecting  Lake  Ontario  with  the  ocean, 
and  the  Great  Lakes  with  the  Mississippi,  will 
make  Chicago  a  seaport,  and  develop  a  trade 
greater  than  that  of  the  Suez  Canal. 

Realizing  their  importance,  it  is  evident  that 
the  railroads  should  be  allowed  no  longer, 
through  a  mistaken  policy,  to  ruin  canals,  often 
buying  them  up  and  perhaps  running  their 
tracks  in  the  canal  bed.  Many  hold  that  Gov- 
ernment should  care  for,  own  and  operate  the 
canals  on  some  large,  comprehensive  system. 
Every  argument  for  the  nationalization  of  rail- 
roads applies  to  canals  only  with  added 
force.  (See  RAILROADS.)  For  the  literature  of 
canals  in  their  economic  aspect,  see  The  Canal 
and  the  Railway,  by  E.  J.  James,  Ph.D.,  a 
publication  of  the  American  Economic  Associa- 
tion for  1890 ;  also  Waterways  and  Water 
Transport,  by  J.  S.  Jeans,  London,  1890.) 

CANON  LAW. — Rules  or  laws  relating  to 
faith,  morals  or  discipline  for  the  members  of  a 
church,  enjoined  by  its  ecclesiastical  authority  ; 
specifically  a  collection  of  rules  of  ecclesiastical 
order  and  discipline  embodied  in  the  Corpus 
Juris  Canonici  (body  of  canon  law).  This  is  a 
compilation  from  the  canons  of  councils,  the  de- 
crees of  popes  and  the  decretals  and  canonical 
replies  made  to  questions  put  at  various  times 
to  the  Roman  pontiffs  or  the  fathers  of  the 
Church,  together  with  commentaries  or  glosses. 
There  were  various  compilations  of  such  laws 
from  the  third  century  down  to  the  twelfth,  when 
they  were  gathered  into  something  like  their 
present  shape  by  Gratian,  a  monk  of  Bologna, 
in  1151,  since  when  they  have  been  added  to 
but  not  materially  changed.  They  mainly  con- 
sist to-day  of  the  Decretum,  or  compilation  of 
Gratian,  the  decretals  of  Gregory  IX.,  those  of 


Boniface  VIII.,  the  Clementine  constitutions, 
and  the  books  called  the  Extravagantes  of 
John  XXII.  and  the  Extravag antes  Communes. 

We  consider  here  briefly  only  such  points  of  th& 
canon  law  as  bear  on  economic  reform.  At  the  be- 
ginning of  canon  law  we  are  told  that  men  are  under 
two  kinds  of  laws — the  law  of  nature  and  the  law  of 
custom  or  positive  institution  (naturali  jure  e(  mori- 
bus).  Civil  law  and  canon  law  are  two  branches  of  the 
second  kind.  Private  property,  we  are  told,  is  not 
known  to  the  law  of  nature,  but  all  things  are  common 
to  all  men,  as  they  were  among  the  first  disciples.  St. 
Augustine  argues  that,  as  "  the  earth  is  the  Lord's,  and 
the  fulness  thereof,"  private  property  is  not  of  divine, 
but  of  human  government.  Yet  canon  law  does  not 
wholly  forbid  private  property.  It  forbids  it  to  the 
clergy,  but  allows  it  somewhat  grudgingly  to  the 
laity.  The  clergy  are  to  hold  property  collectively  for 
the  good  of  the  poor ;  they  are  not  to  marry,  and  are  to 
be  content  with  food  and  clothing.  The  laity  are  to- 
hold  property  only  in  trust  for  the  poor,  and  to  give 
liberally  to  them,  and  to  the  clergy  as  almoners  for  the 
poor.  It  is  at  least  hinted  that  even  for  the  laity  com- 
munity of  goods  is  better,  and  that  property  is  only 
allowed  for  the  hardness  of  men's  hearts.  Agriculture 
is  the  ideal  industry ;  and  the  only  right  way  to  in- 
crease wealth  is  to  till  the  ground  and  breed  cattle. 
These  pursuits  and  the  simple  manufacturing  indus- 
tries are  allowed  even  to  the  clergy.  Labor  within 
these  limits  is  commended,  if  not  commanded,  and  it  is. 
the  glory  of  canon  law  that  it  did  its  best  to  enfran- 
chise the  laborer.  Canon  law  is  largely  drawn  from, 
or  at  least  molded  by,  Roman  law,  the  Decretum  itself 
being  modeled  after  the  pandects  of  Justinian  ;  yet 
Roman  law  cared  much  more  for  property  than  for 
men,  the  canon  law  much  more  for  men  than  property. 
Usury — and  by  usury  canon  law  means  use  money  or 
interest  of  any  kind  and  at  any  rate — is  strictly  forbid- 
den as  sin.  Only  very  gradually  and  covertly  did  ex- 
ceptions to  this  rule  begin  to  creep  in,  and  not  till  the 
creation  of  the  "Montes  Pietatis"  (q.v.\  in  the  fifteenth 
century,  was  usury  to  any  extent  condoned.  (For  a 
fuller  treatment  of  the  relation  of  usury  to  Christian, 
thought,  see  USURY.) 

Canon  law  never  obtained  a  firm  footing  in  England, 
tho  there  was  a  kind  of  national  canon  law  composed 
of  canons  passed  in  national  and  provincial  synods,  and 
foreign  canons  by  custom  and  common  law.  In  the 
reign  of  Henry  VIII.  Parliament  enacted  that  a  review 
should  be  made  of  the  canon  law.  and  that  till  it  was 
made  all  canons,  constitutions,  ordinances,  and  syno- 
dals  provincial,  already  made  and  not  contrary  to  the 
law  of  the  land  or  the  king's  prerogative,  should  still 
be  used  and  executed.  As  no  such  review  has  ever 
been  perfected,  canons  enacted  before  this  date  are 
within  the  above  limitations  still  held  by  many  to  be 
binding  to-day  in  England  upon  both  clergy  and  laity. 
Later  canons  of  the  Church  of  England,  however,  are 
a  different  matter,  and  concern  only  the  Church  of 
England.  Through  all  civilized  countries  the  influence 
of  the  canon  law  has  been  great,  creating,  if  nothing- 
more,  at  least  a  high  norm  of  righteous  living.  It  is. 
desired  by  some  that  Church  councils  to-day  should 
pass,  if  not  canons,  at  least  decisions  as  to  what  it  re- 
gards as  the  true  ways  of  life  for  Christian  men. 

CANONS  OF  TAXATION.    See  TAXATION. 

CANTILLON,  RICHARD,  awriterof  Irish 
race,  living  in  Paris  in  the  first  half  of  the  eight- 
eenth century,  of  whose  life  little  is  known,  but 
whose  little  book,  Essai  sitr  la  nature  du  com- 
merce en  gendral,  the  earliest  edition  of  which, 
was  published  in  Paris  in  1755,  seems  to  have 
exerted  a  very  profound  influence  upon  the  eco- 
nomic thought  of  his  century.  For  what  is. 
known  of  his  life,  see  article  "  Cantillon"  in  Pal- 
grave's  Dictionary  of  Political  Economy. 
Cantillon's  opinions  were  those  of  the. mercan- 
tilist school  modified  by  the  ideas  of  the  Physio- 
crats, and  all  stated  with  unusual  scien- 
tific precision  and  method.  For  a  very  favor- 
able estimate  of  his  work,  see  the  article  by 
Jevons  upon  "  Richard  Cantillon  and  the  Na- 
tionality of  Political  Economy,"  in  the  Contem- 
porary Review \  1881.  (See  POLITICAL  ECONOMY.) 


Capital. 


207 


Capital. 


CAPITAL  may  be  briefly  but  correctly  de- 
fined as  "  that  part  of  wealth  which  is  devoted 
to  obtaining  further  wealth"  (Alfred  Marshall, 
Economics  of  Industry,  p.  5).  Says  J.  S.  Mill 
(Political  Economy,  i.,  iv.,  Sec.  i) :  "  What  cap- 
ital does  for  production  is  to  afford  the  shelter, 
protection,  tools,  and  materials  which  the  work 
requires,  and  to  feed  and  otherwise  maintain 
the  laborers  during  the  process.  Whatever 
things  are  destined  for  this  use,  destined  to  sup- 
ply productive  labor  with  these  various  pre- 
requisites, are  capital."  Knies  de- 
fines capital  as  "  wealth  set  aside 
Definitions,  for  the  satisfaction,  directly  or  in- 
directly, of  future  needs.  This  sat- 
isfaction may  be  obtained  by  the 
individual  by  lending  his  wealth  at  '  usury ' 
— -usury  of  money,  usury  of  victuals,  usury  of  any- 
thing that  is  lent  upon  usury,  or  by  reserving 
means  for  future  production,  as  in  the  case  of 
the  husbandman  and  his  corn  or  cattle,  or  by 
laying  up  for  himself  a  treasure  which  will  be  a 
delight  for  many  days."  President  Francis  A. 
Walker  (Political  Economy,  Sec.  73)  defines 
capital  as  "  that  part  of  wealth,  excluding  unim- 
proved land  and  natural  agents,  which  is  devot- 
ed to  the  production  of  wealth."  E.  V.  Bohm- 
Bawerk  defines  capital  as  "  the  complex  of  goods 
that  originate  in  a  previous  process  of  produc- 
tion, and  are  destined,  not  for  immediate  con- 
sumption, but  to  serve  as  means  of  acquiring 
further  goods.  Objects  of  immediate  consump- 
tion, then,  and  land  (as  not  produced)  stand  out- 
side our  conception  of  capital." 

There  are  three  principal  questions  in  defin- 
ing capital  which  we  need  to  answer  :  (i)  Is  all 
capital  the  result  of  labor,  and  ought  -we  to 
exclude  the  forces  and  free  gifts  of  nature  ? 
To  this  we  must  answer  that  it  is  largely  a  mat- 
ter of  convenience  how  we  use  the  term,  and,  in 
a  general  way,  capital  may  be  said  to  include 
such  free  gifts  of  nature  ;  yet,  as  usually  in  politi- 
cal economy,  it  becomes  necessary  to  distinguish 
between  the  free  gifts  of  nature  and  the  pro- 
duced works  of  man,  it  is  probably  best  with 
the  above  authors  not  to  include  under  the  term 
capital  any  of  the  so-called  free  gifts  of  nature. 
Of  course  it  is  not  always  easy  to  draw  the  line, 
as  in  the  case  of  made  land,  between  the  free 
gifts  of  nature  and  the  work  of  man,  and  yet, 
altho  in  some  cases  the  line  may  be  invisible, 
and  therefore  hard  to  place,  there  is  a  line,  and 
an  important  line,  and  usually  at  least  it  can,  ap- 
proximately, be  placed.  Certain  improvements 
put  upon  land  in  time  become  a  part  of  the  land 
itself.  No  definition  can  cover  all  the  exigen- 
cies of  life,  but  the  general  distinction  is  plain 
and  convenient.  Another  question  is,  (2)  Does 
the  distinction  between  capital  and  non-capi- 
tal depend  on  the  intention  of  the  capitalist, 
or,  in  other  words,  the  owner  of  the  potential 
capital  f  Thus  Professor  Marshall,  in  the  Eco- 
nomics of  Industry,  argues  that  a  doctor's  car- 
riage, when  used  on  professional  visits,  would 
be  capital,  but  when  used  for  pleasure  merely 
would  not  be  capital. 

To  this  it  may  be  answered  that  the  distinc- 
tion lies  not  so  much  in  the  intent  as  in  the  use 
that  actually  is  made  ;  though  of  course  usually 
what  is  intended  for  production  of  wealth  is 
used  for  that  purpose,  so  that  the  same  article 


may  sometimes  be  used  as  capital  and  some- 
times not.  The  final  question  is,  (3)  Does  cap- 
ital include  what  are  called  immaterial, 
as  distinct  from  material  qualities  ?  This 
question  is  somewhat  similar  to  the  first.  In  a 
general  sense  immaterial  qualities  are  certainly 
often,  and  perhaps  usually,  the  truest  capital. 
Thus  we  say  a  man's  capital  is  his  health,  skill, 
strength  ;  but  in  political  economy  it  is  usually 
and  probably  wisest  to  not  call  this  capital,  be- 
cause it  is  different  from  material  capital,  and 
obeys  different  laws,  and  therefor-3  should  be 
distinguished  from  it.  Capital,  therefore,  is  prob- 
ably wisely,  and  at  least  as  a  matter  of  fact,  usu- 
ally used  in  political  economy  in  the  restricted 
sense  of  material  wealth,  not  the  free  gift  of 
nature,  used  for  the  production  of  more  wealth. 

We  now  come  to  consider  some  different  kinds  of 
capital,  and  first  the  common  distinction  made  be- 
tween Circulating  and  Fixed  Capital. 

"  Capital  which  fulfils  the  whole  of  its 
office,  in  the  production  in  which  it  is     Different 
engaged,  by  a  single  use.  is  called  Cir- 


dilating  Capital.  „.     , 

"  Capital  which  exists  in  any  durable       Capital. 
shape,  and  the  return  to  which  is  spread 
over  a  period  of  corresponding  duration, 
is  called  Fixed  Capital."  * 

In  this  distinction  all  economists  are  agreed.  An- 
other convenient  distinction  is  made  by  Professor 
Marshall  (Economics  of  Industry,  p.  19)  into  Remunera- 
tory  Capital  KB&  Auxiliary  Capital.  He  says: 

"  Remuneratory  Capital  or  wage  Capital  consists  of 
the  food,  clothes,  shelter,  etc.,  which  support,  labor. 

"  Auxiliary  Capital  is  that  which  aids  labor.  It  con- 
sists of  tools,  machines,  factories  and  other  buildings 
that  are  used  for  trade  purposes,  railways,  canals, 
roads,  ships,  etc.  ;  also  raw  materials." 

Passing  now  to  the  theory  of  capital,  we  are  met  at 
once  by  the  utmost  diversity  or   opinion,  and  have 
therefore  to  consider  the  history  of  theories  of  capital. 
The  word  capital  (connected  with  the  Latin  caput,  or 
head)  was  originally  a  mere  adjective  in  the  phrase, 
"capital  stock,"  and  so  used  as  late  as 
Adam  Smith.     But  it  soon  came  to  be 
used  elliptically  for  the  whole  phrase,    History  of 
and  the  single  word  capital  is  used   in  flienriBa  nf 
the  modern  sense  at  least  as  early  as   J-*"3OI_leB  OI 
1635,  in  Dafforne's  Merchant's  Mirrour.       Capital. 
This  gives  us  some  clew  to  the  history  of 
the  treatment  of  capital  by  economists. 
It  has  been  mainly  connected  with  interest,  the  phrase 
"capital  stock"  being  contrasted  with  the  interest  ac- 
cruing from  it.    At  first,  in  society,  there  was  very  little 
capital.    Men  made  their  little  modicums  of  wealth  di- 
rectly from  the  soil  by  rude  agriculture,  hunting,  and 
fishing,  all  requiring  the  least  amounts  of  capital.    As 
inyention  grew,  however,  more  and  more  were  ma- 
chinery and  implements  of  toil  a  necessity  to  successful 
production.    This  necessitated  capital,  either  in  the 
form  of  machinery  or  money,  to  enable  the  owner  to- 
obtain  machinery.    We  can  now  see  why  the  modern  , 
age  is  distinctively  the  capitalist  age,   and  why,  till  . 
now,  comparatively  speaking,  capital  can  scarcely  be 
said  to  have  existed.    The  modern  age  is  the  age  of 
machinery.      The  inventions  of  the  last  part  of  the 
eighteenth  century  created  an  "industrial  revolution." 
Machinery  on  a  large  scale  became  the  necessity  of  sue-  ; 
eessf  ul  trade  ;  in  other  words,  capital  and  the  capitalist 
gained  the  key  to  the  situation.    The  man  without 
capital  became  dependent  on  the  man  with  capital. 
When,  in  1776,  Watts  perfected  his  steam-engine,  the 
capitalist  age  was  fully  born. 

It  is  not  strange,  therefore,  that  the  careful  study  of 
capital  belongs  to  modern  times.  Until  the  present 
age  it  did  not  assume  importance  enough  to  elicit 
study.  Since  1776  all  schools  of  political  economy  may 
be  distinguished  by  their  treatment  of  capital. 

The  best  statement  yet  written  of  the  various  theo- 
ries of  capital  is  undoubtedly  Bohm-Bawerk's  in  his 
Capital  and  Interest  :  A  Critical  History  of  Economi- 
cal Theory,  a  translation  from  the  German  Kapital  und 
Kapitalzins.  This  book  we  shall  largely  use  in  the 
following  account.  The  problem  of  capital  Bohm- 
Bawerk  states  substantially  as  follows  : 

*  Mill,  Book  I.,  chap.  vl. 


Capital. 


208 


Capital. 


Ancient 
Theories. 


He  who  owns  capital  can  generally  obtain  from  it  a 
permanent  net  income  called  interest.  This  has  nota- 
ble characteristics.  It  owes  its  existence  to  no  personal 
activity  of  the  capitalist.  It  flows  into 
him  even  where  he  has  not  moved  a  fin- 
The  Problem  Ser-  It  seems  in  a  peculiar  sense  to 
of  Canit.al  spring  from  capital,  or,  to  use  a  very  old 
"  •  metaphor,  to  be  begotten  of  it.  It  may 
be  obtained  from  any  capital,  from 
goods  that  are  barren,  as  well  as  those 
that  are  fruitful ;  from  perishable  goods,  as  from  dura- 
ble ;  from  goods  that  can  be  replaced,  and  from  goods 
that  cannot  be  replaced ;  from  money,  as  from  com- 
modities. Finally,  it  flows  into  the  capitalist  without 
ever  exhausting  the  capital  from  which  it  comes,  and 
therefore  without  any  necessary  limit.  It  presents 
the  remarkable  picture  of  a  lifeless  thing  producing 
an  everlasting  and  inexhaustible  supply  of  goods. 
Whence  and  why  this  endless  flow  of  wealth?  This  is 
the  theoretical  problem  of  capital  and  interest.  This 
is  different,  says  Bohm-Bawerk,  from  the  social  and 
political  problem.  The  theoretical  problem  asks  why 
there  is  interest  on  capital ;  the  social  and  political 
problem  asks  whether  there  should  be.  Yet  it  is  doubt- 
ful if  we  can  keep  the  two  questions  apart.  "  Whether 
there  should  be  certainly  depends  upon  "why  there 
is,"  and  "  why  there  is  "  is  not  unaffected  by  "  whether 
there  should  be."  Yet  they  are  two  questions,  and  for 
the  sake  of  clear  thought  we  should  try  to  keep  them 
separate,  and  to  answer  the  first  question  first.  Yet, 
historically,  in  political  economy,  the  second  question 
received  the  first  treatment.  Ancient  political  econ- 
omy evidenced  a  deep  disapproval  of  interest,  as  wit- 
nessed in  the  prohibition  of  interest  between  Jews  in 
the  Mosaic  code  and  in  many  passages  from  classic  lit- 
erature. (See  USURY.)  The  reason  is 
not  far  to  seek.  Credit  had  little  place 
in  production.  Machinery  was  simple. 
Almost  all  loans  were  for  immediate 
consumption,  and,  as  a  rule,  to  people  in 
distress.  The  creditor  was  usually  rich, 
the  debtor  poor,  and  the  former,  there- 
fore, in  the  light  of  a  man  squeezing  something  from 
the  poor  man.  Yet  was  there  little  study  of  the  ques- 
tion. Plato.  Aristotle,  the  two  Catos,  Cicero,  Seneca, 
Plautus— all  condemn  interest,  and  yet  assign  little 
reason  for  so  doing.  Aristotle's  argument  was  :  Money 
is  by  nature  incapable  of  bearing  fruit.  The  lender's 
gain,  therefore,  must  come  from  a  defrauding  of  the 
borrower.  The  strong  condemnation  of  interest  by 
the  Mosaic  law  and  the  early  Christian  Church  is  wefl 
known.  Yet  there  was  usually  but  little  reason  given, 
and  some  of  the  reasons  that  were  given  are  far  more 
rhetorical  than  logical.  Gradually  Greek  and  then 
Roman  legislation  came  to  allow  interest,  and  so  the 
practice  spread.  The  Middle  Ages,  however,  witnessed 
a  revival  of  the  condemnation  of  interest.  The  Church 
strenuously  condemned  it  (see  CANON  LAW),  first  cat- 
egorically, and  thenj  as  the  desire  for 
interest  and  the  seeming  need  of  interest 
increased,  with  more  show  of  argument 
and  attempt  at  reason.  Gonzalez  Tellez 
falls  back  on  Aristotle's  argument. 
Thomas  Aquinas  (q.v.)  does  the  same  in  a  different 
form.  He  argues  that  he  who  loans  money  passes 
over  money  and  all  that  comes  from  it,  and  therefore 
has  no  right  to  the  interest  that  springs  from  it.  In- 
terest again  he  considers  as  the  hypocritical  and  un- 
derhand price  asked  for  a  good  common  to  all — time. 
Time  is  simply  a  pretext  used  by  usurers  to  get  more 
than  they  give.  But  time  is  a  common  good,  given  to 
all  equally  by  God.  This  was  the  general  position  of 
the  canonists,  tho  steadily  and  quietly  exceptions 
and  excuses  were  introduced  permitting  interest  under 
this  pretext  or  that. 

The  Protestant  reformers  usually  approved  of  inter- 
est, altho  with  more  or  less  reserve  ;  at  least  this  is  so 
with  Zwingli,  Luther  (in  his  later  days),  Melanchthon, 
and  Calvin.    The  last  named,  however, 
is  the  only  one  who  gives  careful  reason 
Protestant    f°r  his  approval.     His  argument  is  that 
Views         interest     is     legitimate,    because,     tho 
'        money  itself  be  barren,  money  is  used 
as  a  house  is  used,  for  gain  of  conven- 
ience   or   rent,  and    therefore  that  the 
lender  of  the  money  is  entitled  to  interest  as  his  share 
of  the  gain.     Molinseus,  taking  somewhat  the   same 
ground,   opposed  the  canon    prohibition    of    interest. 
Besold,  Grotius,  followed  hesitatingly  in  the  same  line 
till  Salmasius  (about  1640)  poured  out  a  flood  of  writing 
defending  interest,  and  was  followed  by  Bacon,  North, 
Locke,     Steuart,    Hume,     Galiani,    Vasco,    Beccaria, 
Mirabeau,  and  Bentham. 
But  this  already  brings  us  to  modern  times,  when 


Medieval 
Theories, 


capital  and  interest,  having  become  matters  of  such 
vast  moment,  have  elicited  far  more  careful  and  scien- 
tific study.  Turgot  comes  first.  He  defends  interest 
on  the  ground  that  capital  is  always  the  equivalent  of 
rent-bearing  land,  and  therefore  should  receive  inter- 
est as  land  brings  forth  fruit.  This  theory  Bohm- 
Bawerk  calls  the  "Fructification"  theory,  but  says  it 
explains  nothing.  What  gives  money 
its  value  in  buying  land  ?  The  power  of 
being  used  ;  that  is,  of  drawing  interest.  The  Fructifi- 
Therefore  the  answer  begs  the  question. 


cation 
Theory. 


Eicardo. 


gs  theqi 

Adam  Smith  has  no  definite  position, 
but  throws  out  various  hints  about  the 
origin  of  interest,  some  of  which  are 
utterly  contradictory.  His  writings  give 
in  germ  both  what  Bohm-Bawerk  calls  the  "  Produc- 
tivity "  theories,  that  capital  gives  an  additional  pro- 
ductivity to  labor,  and  therefore  gains  remuneration  ; 
and  also  the  "Socialistic  theories,  "that  interest  is  paid 
out  of  labor.  But  Adam  Smith's  neutral  position  could 
not  be  long  held.  The  question  of  labor  and  capital 
has  been  the  burning  question  of  the  century.  Five 
answers  have  been  developed  through  the  century, 
and  more  or  less  side  by  side  ;  so  that  we  shall  do  best 
not  to  attempt  to  follow  chronological  order,  but  to  see 
the  separate  schools  as  markedly  and  distinctly  as 
possible. 

First,  Bohm-Bawerk  puts  what  he  calls  the  "color- 
less" answer,  which,  like  Adam  Smith's,  is  a  confused 
answer,  altho  made  by  Ricardo,  Tor- 
rens,  M'Culloch,  and  several  continental 
writers.  Ricardo,  for  example,  tho  he 
sharply  and  at  length  gives  his  concep- 
tion of  the  l>aw  that  governs  the  rate  of 
return  to  capital,  scarcely  gives  any 
reason  for  the  return,  save  that,  if  capitalists  did  not 
receive  any  interest,  they  would  not  invest.  His  law, 
however,  of  the  rate  of  interest  has  played  such  a  large 
part  in  modern  political  economy  that  it  must  be 
stated.  It  is,  of  course,  connected  with  his  famous  law 
of  rent.  The  best  land,  he  says,  is  ordinarily  occupied 
first,  and  only  gradually  does  the  growth  of  popula- 
tion force  people  to  improve  and  use  poorer  land. 
This  poorer  land,  however,  does  not  bring  in  so  good 
returns  as  the  first  land,  yet  its  produce  has  to  be  sold 
at  a  price  enabling  one  to  pay  all  costs  and  the  neces- 
sary profit.  This  "margin  of  cultivation"  fixes  the 
market  price.  He  who  has  the  better  land  can  get 
more  return  from  it,  or  rent,  so  that  rent  is  the  differ- 
ence between  the  annual  return  from  the  land  and  the 
annual  return  of  a  similar  amount  of  land  at  the 
"margin  of  cultivation."  Now,  wages,  under  compe- 
tition, cannot  permanently  rise  much  above  nor  fall 
much  below  the  cost  of  existence,  and  the  cost  of  exist- 
ence is  fixed  by  the  cost  of  produce  at  the  margin  of 
cultivation.  Therefore,  as  lower  and  lower  grades  of 
land  are  brought  into  use,  and  production  becomes 
more  and  more  expensive,  wages  and  prices  must  both 
rise,  and  profits  must  fall,  since  rent  of  land,  measur- 
ing the  value  of  money,  is  fixed  by  the  law  above 
stated,  and  cannot  be  more  than  the  difference  between 
the  annual  return  of  the  best  land  and  that  of  land  at 
the  margin  of  cultivation.  Hence,  under  increasing 
population  wages  rise,  and  prices  with  them,  but  profits 
fall.  Competition  of  capitals,  on  which  Adam  Smith 
laid  much  weight,  Ricardo  makes  little  of,  saying  that 
it  serves  simply  to  lower  profits  temporarily,  when  in- 
creased quantity  of  capital  (according  to  the  well- 
known  wage  theory,  which  he  accepted,  but  which  has 
since  been  given  up  by  almost  all  economists)  at  first 
raises  wages.  In  a  word,  according  to  Ricardo,  cost  of 
existence  determines  wages,  and  wages  determine 
profit.  This  theory,  of  course,  is  opposed,  first,  by 
those  who  deny  the  law  of  rent,  that  the  best  land  is 
occupied  first,  etc. ;  and  secondly,  by  those  •who,  ad- 
mitting its  premises,  argue  that  it  neither  explains  why 
capital  draws  any  interest,  nor  exactly  measures  it, 
because  a  thousand  elements  may  affect  both  the  mar- 
gin of  cultivation  and  the  amount  of  profit  men  are 
willing  to  accept  as  their  minimum  profit  from  the 
margin  of  cultivation. 

We    come,  then,  to  -what  Bohm-Bawerk  calls    the 
"Productive"  theory,  that  capital  actually  produces 
wealth,  and  that  therefore  the  capitalist  who  gets  his 
interest  simply  gets   what    his    capital 
produces.      This    theory  is   subdivided 
into  four  theories:   (i)  That  capital  serves  The  ProduC- 
toward  the  production  of  goods  ;  (2)  that  +ive  Theorv 
it  serves  toward  the  production  of  more  -     3- 

goods  than  could  be  produced  without 
it ;  (3)  that  it  serves  toward  the  produc- 
tion of  more  value  than  could  be  produced  without  it ; 
(4")  that  it  serves  toward  the  producing  of  more  value 
than  it  has  in  itself.    The  first  two  of  these  theories 


Capital. 


209 


Capital. 


Bohm-Bawerk  calls  the  "  Naive-Productive  "  theories  ; 
the  third  he  calls  the  "Indirect  Productive"  theory, 
and  from  the  last  theory  spring  such  important  theo- 
ries that  he  considers  them  by  themselves  as  "Use" 
theories. 

Under  the  "  Naive  Productive"  theory  we  have  J.  B. 
Say,  who  first  broached  this  theory  in  1803,  brilliantly 
but  not  clearly,  and  confused  with  some  elements  of 
the  "  Use"  theory,  Schon,  Riedel ;  in  Germany  the 
distinguished  economist  Roscher,  who,  however,  is 
better  on  other  questions  than  on  this,  Leroy-Beaulieu, 
Scioloja,  and  others.  But  the  answer  to  this  theory  is 
simply  that  it  has  not  been  proved  that  capital  in  itself 
produces  goods.  Capital  undoubtedly,  as  Roscher  ar- 
gues, enables  labor  to  produce  more  goods ;  but  the 
amount  of  return  to  capital  has  by  no  means  been 
proved  to  be  equal  to  the  amount  of  value  of  the  in- 
creased amount  of  goods  it  enables  labor  to  produce. 
There  must  be,  therefore,  some  other  element  that 
enters  in  as  a  controlling  factor. 

We  come  then  to  the  "  Indirect  Productive"  theory, 
that  capital  produces  more  value,  first  taught  by  Lord 
Lauderdale  in  1804,  and  then  by  his  greater  follower, 
tho  not  disciple,  Malthus.  Malthus  carefully  defines 
profit  as  "the  difference  between  the  value  of  the  ad- 
vances necessary  to  produce  a  commodity,  and  the 
value  of  the  commodity  when  produced"  (Principle  of 
Political  Economy,  26.  ed.,  p.  262);  but  he  does  not 
equally  carefully  show  why  there  should  be  this  dif- 
ference of  value,  tho  he  does  in  general  point  to 
capital  as  the  producer  of  more  value.  Henry  Carey 
andPeshine  Smith,  in  America,  follow  the  same  school. 
Carey's  well-known  theory  that  the  value  of  all  goods 
is  measured  by  their  cost,  covmts  capital  as  one  of  the 
costs,  and  since  invention  and  civilization  enable  one 
to  produce  at  lower  and  lower  cost,  and  this  applies  to 
tools  composing  capital,  capital  must  steadily  fall  in 
value,  and  therefore  interest  lower,  tho  profits  may 
absolutely  rise.  Peshine  Smith  finds  the  origin  o'f 
profit  in  a  partnership  between  workman  and  cap- 
italist, where  capital  furnishes  the  material  and  labor 
increases  its  value  by  infusing  it  with  new  labor,  and 
both  receive  a  share  of  the  increased  value  in  order  to 
induce  both  to  contribute  to  the  result.  This  is  not  in- 
correct, but  is  superficial ;  it  does  not  show  just  what 
capital  contributes  nor  how  much  it  receives  in  return. 
It  simply  says  it  -produces  more  value.  In  Germany 
we  have  of  this  school  the  painstaking  Thiinen  and 
Strassburger. 

We  come  now  to  the  "Use"  theories,  which,  tho  an 
offshoot  of  the  "  Productive"  theories,  quickly  grew 
into  an  independent  life  of  their  own.  This  theory  is 
that  capital,  apart  from  its  substance 
value,  has  a  use  value,  and  that  the  cap- 
Use  Theories,  italist  who  draws  interest  is  thus  re- 
warded for  sacrificing  the  use  of  capital 
during  the  period  of  production.  J.  B. 
Say  first  suggested  this,  together  with  his  "  Naive 
Productive"  theory,  Hermann  worked  it  out,  and  Men- 
ger  gave  it  its  best  form.  It  is  largely  a  German  theo- 
ry, Nebenius,  Mario,  Bernhardi,  Mangoldt,  Schaffle, 
Kneis,  besides  Hermann  and  Menger,  all  following 
it  in  one  form  or  another.  Bohm-Bawerk,  however, 
rightly  maintains  that  there  is  no  independent  "  use" 
of  capital  aside  from  capital,  and  that  therefore  this 
non-existent  "  use"  cannot  be  the  cause  of  interest ; 
but  even  if  it  does  exist,  as  apart  from  the  substance 
of  capital,  it  simply  adds  to  the  problem  by  raising 
two  problems  in  place  of  one.  What  is  this  indepen- 
dent use  of  capital? 

We  come  now  to  the  famous  "  Abstinence"  theory, 
first  appearing  in  the  lectures  of  N.  W.  Senior,  in  his 
Oxford  University  lectures,  and  later  in  his  Outlines 
cf  the  Science  of  Political  Economy  (1836).  Adam 
Smith  and  Ricardo,  with  more  distinctness,  have  pro- 
nounced labor  to  be  the  only  source  of  value,  and  this, 
logically  carried  out,  left  no  room  for  interest.  Later 
writers  saw  this,  and  James  Mill  and  M'Culloch  strove 
hard  to  prove  that  interest  also  was  the  wages  of 
labor,  but  naturally  with  little  satisfaction.  Another 
party,  as  we  have  seen,  with  Malthus  at  their  head, 
put  cost  as  the  measure  of  value  and  counted  interest 
or  profits  as  among  the  costs.  But  it  was  only  too 
evident  that  profits  were  the  surplus  over  the  cost,  and 
not  a  constituent  part  of  them — a  result  and  not  a 
sacrifice.  Now  then  came  Senior's  theory  that  interest 
was  the  reward  of  abstinence.  Hints  of  this  had  ap- 
peared before  in  Ricardo  and  in  Adam  Smith's  opposi- 
tion of  "future  profit"  to  "present  enjoyment,  but 
vhich  Senior  first  worked  into  a  careful  and  logical 
system.  According  to  this,  capital  is  the  result  of  la- 
bor, but  of  labor  applied  not  to  immediate  results,  but 
to  far-off  results ;  and,  therefore,  since  its  owner  has 


sacrificed  immediate  results  to  distant  ones,  he  is  in- 
demnified by  interest.     He  is  able  to  se- 
cure this  indemnification  because    the 
exchange  value  of  goods  depends,  ac-    Abstinence 
cording  to  Senior,  partly  on  the  useful- 
ness  of  the  goods,  partly  on  the  limita- 
tion  of  their  supply  ;  and  the  limitation 
depends  upon  the  number  of  those  will- 
ing to  abstain  from  immediate  consumption  of  wealth 
to  devote  !t  to  capital.     The  "  maximum  of  price"  is  the 
sacrifice  with  which  the  buyer  could  himself  produce 
or  procure  the  goods  ;  and  the  "  minimum  of  price"  is 
the  cost  of  production.    Under  competition  these  ap- 
proximate.    But  the  cost  of  production  consists  of  the 
sum  of  the    labor   and    abstinence  requisite  for   the 
production  of  the  goods.    If  abstinence  is  always  req- 
uisite   for    production,  it  can   always    command   its 
money  return.. 

The  trouble  with  this  theory  is  that  it  makes  too 
sweeping  a  generalization  from  an  idea  containing  at 
best  some  truth.  As  a  matter  of  fact,  the  rate  of  in- 
terest does  not  at  all  follow  the  amount  of  sacrifice. 
High  interest  is  often  got  by  the  millionaire,  who  makes 
no  appreciable  sacrifice  whatsoever  and  low  interest  is 
often  obtained  where  the  sacrifice  is  very  great.  The 
theory  is  now  generally  discarded  (see  ABSTINENCE, 
REWARD 
of  them 
Car 

and  Gamier.  Bastiat  accepted  the  doctrine  under  a 
developed  form.  Bastiat's  great  social  law  is  "  service 
for  service."  He  argues  that  he  who  provides  cap- 
ital not  only  sacrifices  present  enjoyment,  but  does 
positive  service  by  allowing  the  laborer  to  have  now 
what  otherwise  he  could  only  obtain  later,  by  great 
sacrifice  of  his  own  tools.  But  this  only  confuses.  He 
who  sacrifices  in  order  to  prevent  sacrifice  certainly 
does  so,  but  this  is  only  one  sacrifice,  and  cannot  re- 
ceive return  for  two. 

We  pass  then  to  the  next  group,  which  Bohm-Ba- 
werk calls  "  Labor"  theories,  because  under  various 
forms  they  try  to  prove  that  interest  is  payment  to  the 
capitalist  for  labor  performed.  The  main  advocates 
of  this  are  James  Mill,  M'Culloch,  Courcelle-Seneuil, 
Rodbertus,  Schaffle.  Under  one  form  or  another  they 
all  argue  that  capital  is  stored-up  labor,  and  that  in- 
terest and  profit  are  simply  the  price  paid  for  stored- 
up  labor.  But  how,  then,  does  it  happen  that  the  capi- 
talist eventually  gets  back  all  his  capital ;  that  is,  all 
his  stored-up  labor,  and  yet  gets  interest  too  ?  Cour- 
celle-Seneuil  argues  that  interest  is  payment  for  the 
labor  of  storing  up  capital.  This  is  artificial.  Its  falsi- 
ty may  be  seen  in  the  fact  that  interest  has  no  connec- 
tion with  this,  being  often  greatest  where  this  so-called 
labor  is  least,  and  vice  versa.  This  explanation,  how- 
ever, has  been  adopted  by  Rodbertus,  Wagner,  and 
Schaffle  among  other  German  "  Socialists  of  the  Chair." 
It  is  certainly,  to  say  the  least,  inadequate,  and  there- 
fore false. 

We  come  then  to  what  may  be  called  the  Socialist,  or 
the"  Exploitation  "theory.    According  to  this,  all  goods 
that  have  value  are  the  product  of  human  labor,  and 
indeed,  economically  considered,  are  ex- 
clusively the  product  of  human  labor. 
The  laborers,  however,  do  not  retain  the   Exploitation 
whole  product  of  their  labors,  because         Theorv 
capitalists,   taking    advantage   of    their         A  usury. 
command  over  the  indispensable  means 
of  production,  as  secured  to  them  by  the 
institution  of  private  property,  secure  to  themselves  a 
part  of  the  laborer's  product.    The  means  of  doing  so 
are  supplied  by  the  wage  contract,  in  which  the  labor- 
ers are  compelled  by  hunger  to  sell  their  labor-power 
to  the  capitalist  for  a  part  of  what  they,  the  laborers, 
produce.    Interest  is  thus  a  portion  of  the  product  of 
other  people's  labors,  obtained  by  exploiting  the  ne- 
cessitous condition  of  the  laborer. 

The  way  had  been  prepared  for  this  by  Adam  Smith 
and  Ricardo,  in  teaching  that  labor  is  the  source  of 
value  ;  tho  Adam  Smith  and  Ricardo  did  not  follow  out 
their  teaching  to  its  socialist  conclusion.  Hodgskin  in 
England  and  Sismondi  in  France  were  the  first  to 
really  state  the  theory,  and  they  only  in  a  mild  and 
general  way  ;  but  it  was  soon  taken  up  with  strength 
and  in  earnest  by  Proudhon  in  France  and  Rodbertus 
in  Germany,  and  then  by  the  great  socialist  leaders, 


Lasalle  and  Marx,  while  it  was  adopted  substantially 
or  in  part  by  men  not  wholly  socialists,  like  J.  S. 
Mill,  Schaffle,  Diihring,  and  others.  Of  the  socialists, 


Rodbertus  and  Marx  have  worked  out  the  theory  most 
carefully.  Rodbertus  is  considered  by  most  political 
economists  the  most  careful,  altho  Marx  has  worked 
out  the  theory  the  most  brilliantly  and  the  most  popu- 


Capital. 


210 


Capital. 


larly.  Rodbertus  accepts  almost  as  axiomatic  the  pre- 
mise that  labor,  economically  speaking,  is  the  source  of 
all  value.  Rent  he  defines  as  "  all  income  obtained  with- 
out personal  exertion,  solely  in  virtue  of  possession" 
(Soziale  Frage,  p.  146).  It  includes  two  kinds  of  rent — 
land  rent  and  profit  on  capital.  Rent  owes  its  existence 
to  two  facts  :  economically,  that,  with  machinery  and 
division  of  labor,  laborers  can  produce  more  than  they 
require  to  support  life  ;  and  legally,  that  private  prop- 
erty in  land  and  capital  enables  their  owners  to  em- 
ploy laborers  who,  not  having  land  and  capital,  and 
needing  them  for  production,  are  unable  to  •work  ex- 
cept in  service  for  these  capitalists,  and  are  driven  by 
hunger  often  to  give  to  the  capitalists  all  they  produce 
except  what  is  barely  necessary  to  support  lire.  The 
form  which  this  compulsion  originally  took  was 
slavery,  the  origin  of  which  was  contemporaneous  •with 
that  of  agriculture  and  landed  property.  To-day  con- 
tract has  taken  the  place  of  slavery  ;  but  since  capital- 
ists own  substantially  all  the  land  and  capital,  they 
have  the  laborer  as  equally  at  a  disadvantage  as  under 
slavery,  and  can  take  from  him  under  contract  as  much 
as  before  under  slavery.  Thus,  says  Rodbertus,  "  The 
contract  is  only  formally  and  not  actually  free,  and 
hunger  makes  a  good  substitute  for  the  whip.  What 
•was  formerly  called  food  is  now  called  wage  (Soziale 
Frage,  p.  33). 

Thus  all  rent  is  an  exploitation,  or,  as  he  says 
in  effect,  a  robbery  of  the  product  of  other  people's 
labor  (Soziale  Frage,  p.  150).  The  amount  of  rent 
increases  with  the  productivity  of  labor;  for  under 
the  system  of  free  competition  the  laborer  can  receive 
little  more  than  his  maintenance,  no  matter  how  much 
he  produce.  The  division  between  rent  of  land  and 
rent  of  capital  Rodbertus  believes  depends  upon  how 
much  labor  value  is  represented  in  land  and  in  capital, 
since  labor  is  the  measure  and  source  of  all  value,  even 
rent  being  the  product  of  labor,  tho  conditioned  by 
the  possession  of  wealth.  Nevertheless,  except  in  a 
posthumous  tract  on  Capital,  Rodbertus  does  not 
favor  the  abolition  of  private  property  in  either  land  or 
capital.  He  ascribes  to  it  an  educating  power,  a  "  kind 
of  patriarchal  power  that  could  only  be  replaced  after 
a  completely  altered  system  of  national  instruction, 
for  which  at  present  we  have  not  got  even  the  condi- 
tions" (Erklarung}  p.  303). 

Marx's  theory  is  the  same,  tho  worked  out  in 
a  different  way.  The  utility  of  a  thing,  he  argues, 
is  its  value  in  use.  But  this  value  is  not  some- 
thing in  the  air.  It  is  limited  by  the  properties  of 
the  commodity,  and  has  no  existence  apart  from  that 
commodity.  The  commodity  itself  is 
the  use  value.  Now  use  values  ex- 
Karl  Marx  change.  They  are  measured.  To  be 
nan  .marx.  measured  they  must  have  some  charac- 
teristic in  common.  What  is  this?  It  is 
not  in  their  qualities  ;  their  qualities  are 
very  different.  Things  that  exchange  must  have  the 
same  quantity  of  exchange  value.  What  is  the  thing 
that  they  have  the  same  quantity  of?  If  we  discard 
their  qualities  as  use  value,  they  have  only  one  common 
property  left,  that  of  being  products  of  labor.  This 
must  be  the  measure  of  their  exchange  value.  So  the 
value  of  all  goods  is  measured  by  the  quantity  of  labor 
contained  in  them  or  in  labor  time.  But  labor  is  of 
different  value  in  different  individuals;  therefore,  we 
must  take  the  "socially  necessary  labor  time" — i.  e.,  the 
labor  time  required  to  produce  a  use  value  under  the 
conditions  of  production  that  are  socially  normal  at  the 
time,  and  with  the  socially  necessary  degree  of  skill 
and  intensity  of  labor.  Now  the  problem  of  capital 
and  of  interest  and  profit  is  this :  One  man  sells  the 
commodity  which  he  possesses  for  money,  in  order  to 
buy  with  the  money  another  commodity  which  he  re- 
quires. This  course  of  circulation  may  be  expressed 
by  the  formula  :  Commodity,  money,  commodity.  But 
there  is  another  course  of  circulation.  Men  buy  com- 
modities in  order  to  sell,  or — money,  commodity, 
money.  But  in  this  circuit,  men  buy  commodities  in 
order  to  sell  at  an  advance.  The  real  circuit  is  M.,  C., 
M'.  (M'  representing  the  sum  advanced  plus  an  incre- 
ment). This  is  the  characteristic  circuit  of  capitalistic 
industry.  It  applies  seemingly  only  to  the  merchant's 
capital,  but  it  is  true  of  all  industrial  capital.  The 
manufacturer,  every  one  in  commerce,  even  the 
farmer,  buys  something — invests,  that  is — in  order  to 
sell  what  he  buys,  or  what  springs  from  what  he  buys, 
at  an  advance.  Whence  the  advance  ?  This  is  the 
problem.  He  buys  material  at  its  market  value  ;  he 
sells  the  material  at  the  market  value  ;  how  is  he  en- 
abled to  sell  at  a  higher  price  than  he  buys?  Whence 
this  surplus  value?  This  is  the  problem  of  Marx's 
book — his  famous  Capital.  The  surplus  value  cannot 
originate  in  anything  outside  the  circuit,  for  nothing 


pours  economic  value  into  his  hands.  It  cannot  origi- 
nate in  the  circuit  itself,  for  he  cannot  continually  buy 
commodities  under  their  value,  nor  continually  sell 
above  their  value.  Whence  his  profits?  He  can  only 
sell  for  more  than  he  buys  by  adding  labor  to  it.  Labor 
is  thus  the  only  source  of  surplus  value.  But  if  he  put 
labor  into  it,  either  his  own  or  hired,  he  pays  for  that. 
How  does  the  capitalist  sell  for  more  than  he  puts  in  ? 
He  must  buy  material  and  labor  at  their  value,  sell  the 
result  at  its  value,  and  yet  draw  out  more  than  he 
puts  in.  How?  Marx  answers  this  by  saying  that 
there  is  one  use  value  which  possesses  the  peculiar 
property  of  being  the  source  of  exchange  value  ;  this  is 
labor  or  labor  power.  It,  labor  power,  is  offered  for  sale 
on  the  market  on  the  double  condition  that  the  laborer 
is  personally  free— for  otherwise  he  would  be  a  slave, 
not  a  seller  of  labor  power ;  and  that,  secondly,  he  is  de- 
prived of  all  means  of  independently  using  his  labor 
power,  otherwise  he  would  work  for  himself.  The 
present  condition  of  society  furnishes  these  conditions. 
The  capitalist  makes  use  of  this.  The  value  of  the 
commodity  labor  power,  like  that  of  all  other  commod- 
ities, is  regulated  by  the  labor  time  necessary  for  its 
reproduction  ;  in  this  case,  by  the  labor  time  necessary 
to  produce  the  maintenance  of  the  laborer.  The  capi- 
talist gets  the  laborer  to  work  for  him.  He  gives  him 
his  labor  time  value— that  is,  maintenance,  the  value 
necessary  to  maintain  and  reproduce  him.  But  the 
laborer  gives  the  capitalist  more  labor  time  than  this. 
If  in  six  hours  the  laborer  produces  enough  to  maintain 
him,  and  works  10  hours,  in  the  four  hours  he  pro- 
duces for  the  capitalist  this  "surplus  value."  Surplus 
value,  therefore,  according  to  Marx,  results  from  the 
capitalist  getting  the  laborer  to  work  a  part  of  the  day 
for  him  without  paying  for  it.  In  the  laborer's  dayr 
thus,  we  have  " necessary  labor  time  "  and  "surplus 
labor  time,"  the  source  of  "surplus  labor  value." 
Capital  is  not  thus  a  command  over  labor,  but  a  com- 
mand over  unpaid  labor.  All  surplus  value,  in  what- 
ever form  it  be  disguised,  as  profit,  interest,  rent,  or 
any  other,  is  only  the  material  shape  of  unpaid  labor. 
Bitterly,  upon  this  foundation,  does  Marx  trace  the  his- 
tory and  expedients  of  capital  to  lengthen  the  time  and 
intensity  of  the  working  day  in  order  to  get  more  sur- 
plus value. 

The  answer  to  this  theory,  which  will  be  seen  to  be, 
in  another  form,  the  same  as  Rodbertus',  may  be  very 
varied.  It  is  perhaps  sufficient,  however,  to  say  that 
it  has  not  been  proved  that  labor  is  the  source  of  value. 
Exchange  is  not  based  simply  upon  labor-time  value. 
Use  value  does  affect  exchange.  A  good  natural 
voice,  uncultivated  by  any  labor,  has  exchange  value. 
Unimproved  natural  commodities  have  exchange 
value.  Scarcity  affects  exchange  value.  The  whole 
theory  that  labor  is  the  source  of  value  is  untenable. 
Rodbertus  does  not  attempt  to  prove  it.  Marx  appeals 
not  to  facts,  but  to  the  above  dialectics,  which  can  be 
shown  to  be  faulty.  Marx  says  use  values  in  exchange 
are  disregarded.  This  is  not  the  case  ;  but  if  it  were, 
his  conclusion  does  not  follow  that  their  being  the 
product  of  labor  is  the  only  characteristic  left  which  can 
be  the  basis  of  exchange.  Many  other  elements  enter 
in — scarcity,  demand,  appropriation  of  them,  etc. 
Marx's  analysis  contains  truth,  but  by  no  means  the 
whole  truth,  and  its  fundamental  proposition  is  not 
true. 

We  come  now  to  several  minor  theories  of  capital. 
Rossi  seems  to  use  the  Productivity  and  Abstinence 
theories  alternately ;  so  largely  do  Molinari,  Leroy- 
Beaulieu,  Roscher,  Schiiz,  and  Max 
Wirth  and  Cossa.  Jevons,  in  an  eclectic 
way,  welds  several  theories  together, 
finds  the  function  of  capital  in  that  it 
enables  us  to  expend  labor  in  advance, 
but  confuses  "surplus  in  products" 
with  "surplus  in  value."  J.  S.  Mill 
adopts  at  yarious  times  three  inconsistent  theories — the 
Productivity,  the  Abstinence,  and  the  Exploitation 
theory.  Schafne  does  substantially  the  same.  Henry 
George  adopts  the  old  Fluctuation  theory  of  Turgot 
and  tiie  physiocrats,  but  in  a  later  form.  He  argues  that 
capital  commands  interest,  because  certain  forms  of 
capital,  like  animals,  etc.,  are  fruitful,  and  that  there- 
fore men  will  not  lend  capital  for  nothing,  when  with 
it  they  could  invest  in  live  stock,  agricultural  capital, 
etc.,  that  would  bring  in  profit  year  by  year.  The 
trouble  with  this  argument  is  that"  there  is  no  ground 
for  this  distinction  between  natural  capital  and  capi- 
tal the  product  of  human  labor.  There  is  no  product 
into  which  nature  does  not  enter.  Man  is  natural. 
Again,  Mr.  George  does  not  show  that  animals  or  land 
produce  more  animal  value  than  the  labor  and  the  food 
spent  upon  them.  Mr.  Flurscheim  (q.  v .),  Mr.  George's 
most  distinguished  follower  in  Germany,  in  his  Rent, 


Other 
Theories. 


Capital. 


211 


Capital. 


Wages   and  Interest   shows    the  limitations  of   Mr. 
George's  theory  of  interest. 

Thus  have  we  followed  Bohm-Bawerk  in  critical 
analysis  of  all  theories  of  capital,  and  have  found  com- 
plete satisfaction  in  none.  But  Bohm-Bawerk  himself 
has  a  theory,  developed  in  his  second  book,  The  Posi- 
tive Theory  of  Capital.  According  to  this  theory, 
capital  draws  interest  because  capital  contributes  to 
production  by  saving  time.  By  the  use  of  capital  men 
can  perform  their  work  more  quickly  than  without  it. 
Men  desire  to  save  time,  to  obtain  results  now  rather 
than  later,  according  to  Bohm-Bawerk,  because  of 
three  elements — the  defect  of  imagination,  defect  of 
will,  and  uncertainty  of  life.  But  this  theory  seems 
equally  faulty  with  those  Bohm-Bawerk  has  so  ably 
criticised.  It  is  not  those  who  have  the  least  imagina- 
tion or  will,  or  are  most  uncertain  of  life,  who  desire 
capital  the  most.  This  psychologic  theory  must  take 
its  place  with  other  faulty  ones.  The  tact  seems  to  be 
that  no  one  theory  is  complete ;  that  almost  every 
theory  yet  advanced  has  had  its  element  of  truth  and 
made  its  contribution  to  science.  It  is  man  who  pays, 
and  man  who  asks  interest  for  capital.  Men  are  not 
simple  "economic  men."  The  reasons  that  move  the 
will  to  demand  and  pay  interest  are  not  simple;  but 
numerous,  intricate,  and  varying  at  different  times. 
In  the  Fructuation  theory,  the  Productivity  theory, 
the  Use  theory,  the  Abstinence  theory,  the  Exploitation 
theory?  the  Time'theory,  there  is  truth,  but  the  whole 
truth  lies  only  in  the  correct  synthesis  of  all  theories.  It 
should  be  added,  however,  that  whatever  be  the  theory 
as  to  the  origin  of  capital  and  interest,  neither  the  be- 
lievers nor  the  disbelievers  in  interest  question  the  fact 
of  the  contribution,  and  the  necessary  contribution,  that 
capital  makes  to  production.  Socialists,  no  less  than  the 
most  conservative  economists,  admit  the  necessity  of 
capital  to  production.  Socialists  simply 
assert  that  work  (personal  effort  of  head 
The  Socialist  or  hand)  should  be  required  from  every 
member  of  society  (save  from  the  young, 
'  aged  or  infirm),  and  that  there  should  be 
no  class  of  society  whose  economic  func- 
tion is  simply  to  furnish  capital  and  live 
on  the  interest.  They  declare  that  all  capital  should  be 
owned  and  furnished  by  the  community,  and  that  all 
individuals  should  furnish  work  and  receive,  therefore, 
their  rightful  share  in  the  product.  (See  SOCIALISM.) 
Those  socialists  who  do  not  hold  with  Adam  Smith, 
Ricardo,  and  Marx  that  labor  is  the  only  source  of 
value,  do  not  either  hold  that  capital  comes  wholly 
from  unpaid  labor  ;  they  hold  that  capital  may  come 
from  the  personal  labor  of  one's  ancestors,  or  from 

Eersonal  saving,  or  by  speculation  or  investment— in  a 
undred  ways,  some  of  them  moral,  some  immoral ; 
but  they  hold  that,  however  gained,  the  unity  of  soci- 
ety is  the  key  to  the  freedom  of  the  individual,  and 
that  that  freedom  demands  that  capital  be  held  and 
operated  collectively  for  the  equitable  good  of  all, 
each  man  and  woman  being  in  some  way  a  worker  for 
the  general  good.    This  holding  of  capital  is  a  step,  in 
their  opinion,  n.ot  based  on  any  theory,  but  called  for 
by  the  conditions  of  human  life,  in  the  process  of 
evolution,  developing  a  higher  organism  out  of  lower 
organisms.    Those  socialists  •who  look  to  Divine  sanc- 
tions for  their  acts  find  this  act  requisite  upon  man's 
',,  brotherhood,  and  natural  unity  resulting  from  God's 
Fatherhood.     They   argue  that  capital 
should    be  held  in  common  and  each 
The  Christian  work  for  the  good  of  all,  as  a  family 
Socialist      holds  property  and  work  each  for  each. 
~7  Interestjon  capital  they  say  is  "natural," 

View.  because  capital  performs  a  natural 
function,  and  can  therefore  obtain  a  por- 
tion of  the  product,  as  conditional  to  its 
being  forthcoming  ;  and  when  capital  is  monopolized 
by  a  portion  of  the  community,  it  can,  subject  to  com- 
petition between  capitalists,  dictate  its  own  terms,  be- 
cause he  who  has  it  not  is  dependent  upon  him  who 
has.  What  such  socialists  assert  is  that,  though  interest 
is  natural,  it  is  money,  since  God  has  made  all  men 
one,  and  given  to  all  the  duty  of  labor  ;  that  therefore 
for  one  portion  of  society  to  furnish  the  capital  and  be 
able  to  live  without  labor,  while  another  portion  of 
society  can  scarcely  live  by  the  hardest  toil,  is  a  plain 
violation  of  the  law  of  God.  Such  are  the  various 
theories  as  to  capital  that  have  prevailed  at  various 
times  and  are  held  to-day  by  various  schools  of 
thought. 

Turning  to  the  laws  that  govern  the  growth 
of  capital,  we  present  two  representative  treat- 
ments of  the  subject,  and  first,  one  by  Professor 


and  Mrs.  Marshall.    In  chap.  vi.  of  their  Eco- 
nomics of  Industry,  they  say  : 

"The  growth  of  capital  depends  upon  the  power  and 
the  will  to  save. 

"The  power   of  saving  depends  on  the  amount  of 
wealth  out  of  which  saving  can  be  made.    Some  coun- 
tries, which  have  a  large  population  and  produce  a 
great  amount  of  wealth,  have  very  little 
power  of  saying.    The  whole  continent 
of  Asia,  for  instance,  has  less  power  of  711...  rirnwtVi 
saving  than  England  has.  The  total  prod-  A"w  wrl 
ttce  indeed  of  its  industry  is  larger  than    01  Capital, 
that  of  England  ;  but  the  number  of  peo-      Orthodox 
pie  among  whom  this  is  divided  is  so         View 
great  that  they  are  compelled  to  con- 
sume almost  the  whole  of  it  in  support- 
ing life. 

"As  Mill  says,  'the  fund  from  which  saving  can  be 
made  is  the  surplus  of  the  produce  of  labor  after  sup- 
plying the  necessaries  of  life  to  all  concerned  in  the 
production  (including  those  employed  in  replacing  the 
materials  and  keeping  the  fixed  capital  in  repair) ; 
more  than  this  surplus  cannot  be  saved  under  any 
circumstances ;  as  much  as  this,  though  it  never  is 
saved,  always  might  be.  This  surplus  is_the  fund  from 
which  the  enjoyments  as  distinguished  from  the  nec- 
essaries of  the  producers  are  provided ;  it  is  the  fund 
from  which  [all  are  subsisted  who  are  not  themselves 
engaged  in  production  ;  and  from  which  all  additions 
are  made,  to  capital.  It  ^is  the  real  net  produce  of  the 
country.' 

"  Since  the  requisites  of  production  are  land,  labor, 
and  capital,  the  conditions  on  which  the  total  produce 
of  industry  depends  may  therefore  be  classed'as,  firstly, 
fertility  of  the  soil,  richness  of  mines,  abundance  of 
watercourses,  and  an  invigorating  climate  ;  secondly, 
the  number  andi  the  average  efficiency  of  the  working 
population  ;  this  efficiency  depending  on  moral  as  well 
as  mental  and  physical  qualities;  thirdly,  the  abun- 
dance of  the  means  which  the  industry  of  the  past  has 
accumulated  and  saved  to  help  the  industry  of  the 
present ;  that  is,  the  abundance  of  roads  and  railroads, 
of  canals  and  docks,  of  factories  and  warehouses,  of 
engines  and  machines,  of  raw  material,  of  food  and  of 
clothing  ;  in  short,  the  already  accumulated  capital  of 
the  nation.  .  .  . 

"  Next  as  to  the  will  to  save. 

"  The  strength  of  the  desire  of  accumulation  depends 
on  moral  and  social  conditions  which  .vary  widely  in 
different  times  and  countries. 

"  (a)  The  intellect.  The  inclination  to  save  arises 
from  the  hope  of  obtaining  some  future  ad  vantage,  and 
this  future  advantage,  if  it  is  to  afford  motive  for  action, 
must  be  realized.  Children  and  nations  in  an  early 
state  of  civilization  are  almost  incapable  of  realizing  a 
distant  advantage ;  the  future  is  eclipsed  by  the 
present.  .  .  . 

"(£)  Affection  for  others  is  one  of  the  chief  motives 
if  not  the  chief  motive  for  the  accumulation  of  cap- 
ital. .  .  . 

"  (c)  The  hope  of  rising  in  the  world.  If  people  feel 
that  they  are  bound  down  forever  by  a  sort  of  caste 
regulation  to  one  station  in  life,  they  will  not  save  in 
order  to  better  their  position  ;  they  will  naturally  have 
little  motive  to  be  frugal.  .  .  . 

"  (d)  The  opportunity  to  gain  great  social  advantages 
by  the  possession  of  wealth.  .  .  . 

"  (e)  Political  and  commercial  security. 

"  A  man  who  saves,  hopes  that  he  and  his  family  may 
enjoy  in  security  the  fruits  of  his  saving.  This  re- 
quires, firstly,  that  Government  should  protect  his 
property  from  fraud  and  violence  ;  secondly,  that  if  he 
or  those  whom  he  leaves  behind  him  are  unwilling  or 
unable  to  employ  the  capital  in  business  themselves, 
they  must  be  able  to  lend  it  out  to  others  and  to  live  in 
quiet  on  the  interest  of  it.  .  .  ." 

Lastly,  Mr.  and  Mrs.  Marshall  inquire  howj  far  the 
accumulation  of  capital  depends  upon  the  rate  of  prof- 
its, and  the  rate  of  interest  which  the  owner  of  capital 
can  obtain  by  lending  it  to  others,  and  they  answer  : 

"  A  high  rate  of  interest  no  doubt  affords  a  liberal  re- 
ward of  abstinence,  and  stimulates  the  saving  of  all 
who  are  ambitious  of  earning  social  position  by  their 
wealth. 

"  But  'the  'history  of  the  past  and  the  observation  of 
the  present  show  that  it  is  a  man's  temperament,  much 
more  than  the  rate  of  interest  to  be  got  for  his  savings, 
which  determines  whether  he  makes  provision  for  his 
old  age  and  for  his  family,  or  not.  Most  of  those  who 
make  such  a  provision  would  do  so  equally  whether 
the  rate  of  interest  were  low  or  high.  And  when  a  man 
has  once  determined  to  provide  a  certain  annual  in- 


Capital. 


212 


Capital. 


come,  he  will  find  that  he  has  to  save  more  if  the  rate 
of  interest  is  low  than  if  it  is  high.  Suppose,  for  in- 
stance, that  a  man  wishes  to  provide  an  income  of  £409 
a  year  on  which  he  may  retire  from  business,  or  to  in- 
sure .£400  a  year  for  his  wife  and  children  after  his 
death.  If  the  current  rate  of  interest  is  $  per  cent.,  he 
need1  only  put  by  .£8000  or  insure  his  life  for  ,£8000  ;  but 
if  it  .is  4  per  cent.,  he  must  save  .£10,000,  or  insure  his 
life  for  £10,000. 

"Again,  a  high  rate  of  interest  is  a  great  inducement 
to  retire  ;early  from  business,  and  live  on  the  interest 
of  what  has  already  been  accumulated.  Sir  Josiah 
Child  indeed  said  two  centuries  ago,  'We  see  that  gen- 
erally all  merchants'  in  countries  in  which  the  rate  of 
interest  is  high  '  when  they  have  gotten  great  wealth, 
leave  trading '  and  lend  out  their  money  at  interest, 
'  the  gain  thereof  being  so  easy,  certain  and  great ; 
whereas  in  other  countries,  where  interest  is  at  a  lower 
rate,  they  continue  merchants  from  generation  to  gen- 
eration, and  enrich  themselves  and  the  State.'  It  is 
more  true  now  than  it  was  then,  that  many  men  retire 
from  business  when  they  are  yet  almost  in  the  prime 
of  life,  and  when  their  knowledge  of  men  and  things 
might  enable  them  to  conduct  their  business  more 
efficiently  than  ever.  Thus  a  fall  in  the  rate  of  interest 
would  in  some  ways  promote  the  production  and  the 
accumulation  of  wealth. 

"  But  it  would  diminish  the  Power  of  saving  from  a 
given  amount  of  capital,  because  the  larger  the  income 
a  man  derives  from  his  business,  the  larger  are  the 
means  he  has  of  saving." 

Such  is  an  admirable  example  of  the  treat- 
ment of  the  subject  from  the  standpoint  of  the 
most  progressive  orthodox  economics.  As  an 
example  of  the  treatment  of  the  subject  from 
the  socialist  standpoint,  we  give  a  quotation 
from  the  lecture  on  The  Industrial  Basis  of 
Socialism,  by  William  Clarke,  and  included  in 
the  Fabian  Essays.  Says  Mr.  Clarke  : 

"The  capitalist  was  originally  an  entrepreneur,  a 
manager  who  worked  hard  at  his  business,  and  who 
received  what  economists  have  called  the 'wages  of 
superintendence.'  So  long  as  the  capitalist  occupied 
that  position  he  might  be  restrained  and  controlled  in 
various  ways,  but  he  could  not  be  got  rid  of.  His 
'  wages  of  superintendence '  were  cer- 
tainly often  exorbitant,  but  he  per- 

r     wth    f    formed  real  functions ;  and  society,  as 

UTOWWI  01  yej.  unprepareci  to  take  those  functions 
Capital,  upon  itself,  could  not  afford  to  discharge 
Socialist  him.  Yet,  like  the  king,  he  had  to  be 
View  restrained  by  the  legislation  already 
•  referred  to,  for  his  power  involved  much 
suffering  to  his  fellows.  But  now  the 
capitalist  is  fast  becoming  absolutely 
useless.  Finding  it  easier  and  more  rational  to  com- 
bine with  others  of  his  class  in  a  large  undertaking,  he 
has  now  abdicated  his  position  of  overseer,  has  put  in 
a  salaried  manager  to  perform  his  work  for  him,  and 
has  become  a  mere  rent  or  interest  receiver.  The  rent 
or  interest  he  receives  is  paid  for  the  use  of  a  monopoly 
which  not  he,  but  a  whole  multitude  of  people,  created 
by  their  joint  efforts. 

"  It  was  inevitable  that  this  differentiation  of  man- 
ager and  capitalist  should  arise.  It  is  part  of  the  proc- 
ess of  capitalist  evolution  due  .to  machine  industry. 
As  competition  led  to  waste  in  production,  so  it  led  to 
the  cutting  of  profits  among  capitalists.  To  prevent 
this,  the  massing  of  capital  was  necessary,  by  which 
the  large  capitalist  could  undersell  his  small  rivals  by 
offering,  at  prices  below  anything  they  could  afford  to 
sell  at,  goods  produced  by  machinery  and  distributed 
by  a  plexus  of  agencies  initially  too  costly  for  any  in- 
dividual competitor  to  purchase  or  set  on  foot.  Now 
for  such  massive  capitals,  the  contributions  of  several 
capitalists  are  needed  ;  and  hence  has  arisen  the  joint- 
1  stock  company  or  Compagnie  Anonyme.  Through  this 
new  capitalist  agency  a  person  in  England  can  hold 
'  stock  in  an  enterprise  at  the  Antipodes,  which  he  has 
never  visited  and  never  intends  to  visit,  and  which, 
therefore,  he  cannot  '  superintend '  in  any  way.  He 
and  the  other  shareholders  put  in  a  manager,  with  in- 
junctions to  be  economical.  The  manager's  business 
is  to  earn  for  his  employers  the  largest  dividends  pos- 
sible ;  if  he  does  not  do  so,  he  is  dismissed.  The  old 
personal  relation  between  the  workers  and  the  em- 
ployer is  gone ;  instead  thereof  remains  merely  the 
cash  nexus.  To  secure  high  dividends,  the  manager 
will  lower  wages.  If  that  is  resisted  there  will  proba- 
bly be  either  a  strike  or  lockout.  Cheap  labor  will  be, 


perhaps,  impoi  ted  by  the  manager;  and  if  the  work- 
people resist  by  intimidation  or  organized  boycotting, 
the  forces  of  the  State  (which  they  help  to  maintain) 
will  be  used  against  them.  In  the  majority  of  cases 
they  must  submit.  Such  is  a  not  unfair  picture  of  the 
relation  of  capitalist  to  workman  to-day,  the  former 
having  become  an  idle  dividend-receiver.  The  dictum 
of  orthodox  political  economy,  uttered  by  so  compe- 
tent an  authority  as  the  late  Professor  Cairnes,  runs : 

" '  It  is  important,  on  moral  no  less  than  on  economic 
grounds,  to  insist  upon  this,  that  no  public  benefit  of 
any  kind  arises  from  the  existence  of  an  idle  rich  class. 
The  wealth  accumulated  by  their  ancestors  and  others 
on  their  behalf,  where  it  is  employed  as  capital,  no 
doubt  helps  to  sustain  industry ;  but  what  they  con- 
sume in  luxury  and  idleness  is  not  capital,  and  helps 
to  sustain  nothing  but  their  own  unprofitable  lives. 
By  all  means  they  must  have  their  rents  and  interest, 
as  it  is  written  in  the  bond ;  but  let  them  take  their 
proper  place  as  drones  in  the  hive,  gorging  at  a  feast 
to  which  they  have  contributed  n'othing.'  * 

"  The  fact  that  the  modern  capitalist  may  be  not  only 
useless,  but  positively  obstructive,  was  well  illustrated 
at  a  meeting  of  the  shareholders  of  the  London  and 
South  western  Railway  on  February.  .  .  .  Three  share- 
holders urged  a  reduction  in  third-class  fares.  The 
chairman  pointed  out  the  obvious  fact  that  such  a  re- 
duction would  probably  lower  the  dividend,  and  asked 
the  meeting  if  that  was  what  they  wished.  He  was, 
of  course,  answered  by  a  chorus  of  '  No,  no ! '  and  all 
talk  of  reduction  of  fares  was  at  an  end.  Here  is  a 
plain  sample  (hundreds  might  be  quoted)  of  the  evi- 
dent interests  of  the  public  being  sacrificed  to  those  of 
the  capitalist. 

"That  joint-stock  capitalism  is  extending  rapidly 
every  one  knows.  In  the  United  States,  according  to 
Mr.  Bryce,  the  wealth  of  joint-stock  corporations  is 
estimated  at  one  fourth  of  the  total  value  of  all  prop- 
erty, t  In  England  every  kind  of  business,  from  brew- 
eries, banks,  and  cotton-mills  down  to  automatic 
sweetmeat  machines,  is  falling  into  the  hands  of  the 
joint-stock  capitalist,  and  must  continue  to  do  so. 
Twenty  years  ago  •who  would  have  supposed  that  a 
brewery  like  that  of  Guinness,  or  such  a  banking  firm 
as  Glyn,  Mills  &  Co.,  would  become  a  joint-stock  com- 
pany? Yet  we  know  it  is  so  to-day.  Capitalism  is  be- 
coming impersonal  and  cosmopolitan.  And  the  com- 
binations controlling  production  become  larger  and 
fewer.  Barings  are  getting  hold  of  the  South  African 
diamond  fields.  A  few  companies  control  the  whole 
anthracite  coal  produce  of  Pennsylvania.  Each  one  of 
us  is  quite  '  f  ree  '  to  '  compete '  with  these  gigantic  com- 
binations, as  the  principality  of  Monaco  is  '  free '  to  go 
to  war  with  France  should  the  latter  threaten  her  in- 
terests. The  mere  forms  of  freedom  remain,  but 
monopoly  renders  them  nugatory.  The  modern  State, 
having  parted  with  the  raw  material  of  the  globe,  can- 
not secure  freedom  of  competition  to  its  citizens  ;  and 
yet  it  was  on  the  basis  of  free  competition  that  capital- 
ism rose.  Thus  we  see  that  capitalism  has  cancelled 
its  original  principle — is  itself  negating  its  own  exist- 
ence." 

Concerning  statistics  as  to  the  large  part 
played  by  capital  in  the  modern  world,  see 
WEALTH  ;  TRUSTS  ;  MACHINERY  ;  DEBTS.  A 
few  statistics  may  be  given  here  as  an  example 
concerning  the  United  Kingdom  of  Great  Brit- 
ain and  Ireland  alone  : 

The  profits  of  public  companies,  foreign  invest- 
ments, railways,  etc.,  assessed  to  income  tax  in  the 
United  Kingdom  in  1887-88  amounted  to  .£119,630,000. 
The  interest  payable  from  public  funds  was,  in  addi- 
tion, .£46,512,000  (Report  of  Commissioners  of  Inland 
Revenue,  1889,  C— 5843). 

That  these  amounts  are  understated  may  be  inferred 
from  Mr.  Mulhall's  estimate  of  the  stocks,  shares, 
bonds,  etc.,  held  in  Great  Britain  alone,  as  being  worth 
^3,491,000,000,  producing  an  annual  income  of  upward 
°f  .£155,000,000  (Dictionary  of  Statistics,  p.  256).  And 
Sir  Louis  Mallet  estimates  the  English  income  from 
foreign  investments  alone  at  ,£100,000,000  annually. 
(National  Income  and  Taxation,  Cobden  Club,  p.  13). 
Nearly  the  whole  of  this  vast  income  may  be  regarded 
as  being  received  without  any  contemporary  services 
rendered  in  return  by  the  owners  as  such. 

We  have,  however,  to  add  the  interest  on  capital 
employed  in  private  undertakings  of  manufacture  or 

*  Some  Leading  Principles  of  Political  Economy,  p.  32. 
t  The  American  Commonwealth,   chap,  iii.,  note  on 
p.  421- 


Capital. 


213 


Carey,  Henry  Charles. 


trade.  This  is  included  with  "wages  of  superinten- 
dence "  in  business  profit,  both  for  the  purpose  of  the 
income  tax  returns  and  in  ordinary  speech.  Mr.  Giffen 
estimates  itr  apart  from  any  earnings  of  personal  ser- 
vice, at  .£89,000,000  (Essays  in  finance,  vol.  ii.,  p.  403). 

The  total  amount  of  interest  cannot,  therefore,  be 
less  than  ^250,000,000.  The  part  which  capital  plavs  in 
the  whole  world  may  be  seen  in  the  fact  that  the  Com- 
pendium to  the  Eleventh  Census  of  the  United  States 
gives  the  total  national  and  local  debts  of  the  world  at 
no  less  a  sum  than  $30,349,927,600.  For  a  discussion  of 
whether  the  profits  or  capital  are  falling,  see  DIMIN- 
ISHING RETURNS,  LAW  OF. 

References:  Capital  and  Interest :  A  Critical  His- 
tory of  Economical  Theory,  by  E.  V.  Bohm-Bawerk, 
Professor  of  Political  Economy  in  the  University  of 
Innsbruck  (translation  by  William  Smart,  of  Queen 
Margaret  College,  Glasgow) ;  The  Positive  Theory  of 
Capital,  by  the  same  author  and  with  the  same  trans- 
lator. For  the  Exploitation  theory,  Capital:  A 
Critical  Analysis  of  Capitalist  Production,  by  Karl 
Marx  (translated  by  Samuel  Moore  and  Edward  Ave- 
ling,  in  two  volumes ;  for  the  development  of  capital, 
The  Evolution  of  Modern  Capitalism,  by  John  A.  Hob- 
son  (London,  1894). 

CAPITALIZATION.— The  word  capitaliza- 
tion is  used  in  several  senses.  It  may  mean  (i) 
the  application  of  wealth  as  capital  to  the  pur- 
poses of  trade,  etc.  ;  (2)  the  act  of  computing  or 
realizing  the  present  value  of  a  periodical  pay- 
ment ;  (3)  the  conversion  into  capital,  as  when 
creditors  consent  to  the  conversion  into  capital 
of  half  of  their  claims  (Century  Dictionary}. 
But  there  is  also  a  fourth  sense  not  wholly  cov- 
ered by  any  of  the  above,  and  yet  a  very  com- 
mon use  of  the  word  ;  neither  the  application  of 
wealth  as  capital,  nor  the  conversion  of  shares 
into  capital,  but  the  rating  of  plant  or  other 
form  of  capital  at  an  enhanced  and  sometimes 
an  utterly  fictitious  value,  as  a  basis  for  the  dec- 
laration of  dividends.  Says  Professor  Ely  in 
his  Political  Economy  :  ^ 

"  We  must  distinguish  between  capital  invested  and 
capitalization.  Capitalization  means  the  amount  at 
which  a  property  is  valued,  and  it  may  be  10  times  the 
cost  of  capital  actually  invested.  When  we  speak  of 
profits  as  being  10  per  cent,  or  5  per  cent.,  we  mean 
profits  on  free  or  disposal  capital,  and  this  rate  depends 
on  opportunities  for  production  which  are  still  open, 
not  those  which  have  already  been  seized.  Let  us 
suppose  that  the  returns  on  investments  still  open  to 
all  are  about  10  per  cent.,  but  that  the  returns  to  a  tele- 
phone company  or  an  electric  lighting  company  which 
has  actually  invested  $100,000  is  $100,000  ;  the  undertak- 
ing will  be  capitalized  at  $1,000,000,  so  as  to  conceal  the 
actual  rate  of  profits  ;  and  as  profits  fall  on  new  invest- 
ments open  to  all,  capitalization  of  old  and  lucrative 
enterprises  rises  in  proportion,  altho  no  new  capital  is 
invested.  One  familiar  form  which  this  takes  is 
'  stock- watering,'  but  it  is  also  seen  in  higher  prices. 
If  a  house  yields  $1000  a  year,  and  10  per  cent,  is  a  fair 
return  for  house  property,  it  will  be  valued  at  $10,000  ; 
but  if  profits  fall,  and  5  percent,  is  considered  a  good 
return,  it  will  be  valued  at  $20,000.  This  increase  of 
capitalization  is  sometimes  an  unconscious  process, 
and  a  man  will  at  times  feel  poorer  when  he  is  receiv- 
ing 5  per  cent,  on  his  capitalization  of  an  investment 
than  when  he  was  receiving  10  per  cent.,  altho  his 
capitalization  has  quadrupled  without  any  additional 
investment  of  capital."  (See  STOCK-WATERING.) 

CARBONARI. — A  secret  revolutionary  or 
political  society  existing  mainly  in  Italy  and 
France,  claiming  great  antiquity,  with  Francis 
I.  of  France  as  founder,  but  owing  its  modern 
activity  at  least  to  republicans  and  others  in 
Naples  who  were  dissatisfied  with  the  French 
rule  under  the  reign  of  Murat  (1808-14).  They 
are  said  to  have  been  originally  refugees  from 
the  mountains  of  the  Abruzzi  provinces,  and  to 
have  taken  their  name  from  the  mountain  char- 
coal-burners. Their  aim  was  to  free  Italy  from 
foreign  domination.  After  having  aided  the 
Bourbons  in  this,  the  organization  spread  all 


over  Italy  and  into  France,  as  the  champions  of 
the  national  liberal  cause  against  the  reaction- 
ary governments.  At  one  time  they  numbered 
several  thousand  adherents.  About  1820-21 
Lafayette  became  the  head  of  the  society  in 
France.  It  played  an  important  part  in  the 
Revolution  of  1830,  since  when  it  has  not  been 
prominent,  if  in  existence.  (See  The  Secret 
Societies  of  All  Ages  and  Countries,  by  C.  W. 
Heckethorn.) 

CAREY,  HENRY  CHARLES,  was  born 
in  Philadephia,  Pa.,  in  1793,  and  died  in  1879. 
He  was  the  son  of  Matthew  Carey,  an  Irish 
refugee  and  publisher  who  had  written  on  eco- 
nomic themes.  The  son  succeeded  the  father, 
but  retired  with  a  competency  in  1835,  and  de- 
voted his  life  to  economics.  Thirteen  octavo 
volumes  and  3000  pages  of  tracts,  besides  news- 
paper articles  perhaps  twice  as  voluminous,  at- 
test his  industry,  while  the  fact  that  many  of 
his  writings  have  been  translated  into  seven 
different  languages  speaks  for  his  ability  and 
originality  of  thought.  Says  Palgrave's  Dic- 
tionary of  Political  Economy : 

"Carey  began  his  scientific  career  at  a  juncture  when 
the  English  school  appeared  to  have  exhausted  its  de- 
ductions from  assumed  premises,  and  to  shrink  from 
adjusting  its  conclusions  to  the  conditions  of  actual 
life.  His  treatment  of  social  science  was  original,  and 
led  him  to  a  series  of  supposed  discoveries,  the  order 
of  which  he  has  stated  in  the  introduction  to  his  most 
important  work,  The  Principles  of  Social  Science.  His 
point  of  departure  was  a  theory  of  value  which  he  de- 
fined as  the  '  measure  of  the  resistance  to  be  overcome 
in  obtaining  things  required  for  use.  or  the  measure  of 
nature's  power  over  man ' — in  simpler  terms,  the  cost 
of  reproduction.  This  theory  Carey  applied  to  every 
case  of  value — to  commodities,  services,  and  land,  and 
in  some  passages  seemingly  to  man  himself.  Reason- 
ing that  every  gift  of  nature  is  gratuitous,  he  found  a 
universal  tendency  to  a  decline  of  value  as  the  arts  ad- 
vance, and  to  a  decrease  in  the  value  of  accumulated 
capital,  as  compared  with  the  results  of  present  labor, 
with  a  resulting  harmony  of  interests  between  capital- 
ist and  laborer.  This  theory  Carey  enunciated  in  his 
Principles  of  Political  Economy,  published  in  1837-40, 
and  its  appearance,  in  slightly  modified  terms  in  Bas- 
tiat's  Harmonies  Economiques,  in  18^0,  led  to  a  sharp 
djscussion  between  the  two  authors  in  the  Journal  des 
Economistes  for  1851." 

Ten  years  later,  in  his  Past,  Present  and  Fu- 
ture, Carey  expounded  his  notorious  land  theory, 
which  was  the  exact  reverse  of  the  Ricardian  ; 
but  though  argued  by  Carey  with  great  vigor 
and  at  great  length,  and  eliciting  much  interest 
because  of  its  novelty,  it  has  been  accepted  by 
scarcely  any  other  careful  economist.     It  laid 
down  the  principle  that  men  first  till  the  poorer 
and  more  easily  worked  lands,  and  then  descend 
upon  richer  lands  as  capital  increases,  so  that 
with  the  advance  of  civilization  the  rate  of  re- 
turn from  land  rises  instead  of  falls.     He  de- 
duced from  this  a  rejection  of  the  Malthusian 
doctrine,  since  rising  returns  from  land  could 
support  more  and  more  men.    The  only  limit  to 
this  tendency  he  found  in  Herbert  Spencer's 
conjectured  law  of  the  diminution  of  human  fer- 
tility and  ultimate  equilibrium  between  num- 
bers and  subsistence.    Carey  seems 
to  us  to  have  based  the  somewhat 
true  conclusion  that  civilization  can     A  Check 
increasingly  support  population  up-        upon 
on  more  doubtful  facts.     Undoubt-     Bicardo. 
edly  men  do  sometimes  occupy  the 
poorest  lands  first,  and  in   so  far 
Carey's  voluminous  illustrations  furnish  a  need- 


Carey,  Henry  Charles. 


214 


Carlyle,  Thomas. 


ed  check  upon  Ricardo's  too  sweeping  and 
a  priori  statements  ;  nevertheless  it  is  undoubt- 
edly true  that  Ricardo's  theory  usually  holds  true, 
especially  as  applied  to  old  countries.  Carey 
seems  to  have  been  misled  by  paying  too 
much  attention  to  the  conditions  of  land  occu- 
pation in  the  United  States,  at  the  time  he 
wrote  by  no  means  so  densely  populated  as  to- 
day. 

Carey's  cardinal  principle,  however,  is  found 
in  the  second  chapter  of  his  Social  Science, 
where  he  states  "  the  great  law  of  molecular 
gravitation  as  the  indispensable  condition  of  the 
being  known  as  man."  This  law  of  being  he 
declares  to  be  the  same  in  matter,  man,  and 
communities.  As,  in  the  solar  world,  attraction 
and  motion  are  in  the  ratio  of  mass  and  proxim- 
ity, so,  in  the  social  world,  association,  individu- 
ality, responsibility,  development  and  progress 
are  proportionate  to  each  other.  This  theory, 
not  of  analogy,  but  of  absolute  identity  of  law, 
Carey  maintained  with  great  vigor  in  the  Unity 
of  Law,  published  in  his  seventy-ninth  year. 
This  theory  led  Carey  first  to  adopt  and  advo- 
cate those  theories  of  free  trade  for  which  he  is 
perhaps  the  best  known  in  the  United  States  ; 
tho  afterward,  from  the  same  principles,  to 
retreat  from  this  position.  The  central  point  of 
his  social  philosophy  being  association,  as  the 
primary  condition  of  progress,  in  the  commerce 
of  exchange  of  commodities  and  of  ideas  be- 
tween countries  Carey  thought  he  saw  the  op- 
portunity for  closer  association,  economic  effi- 
ciency, and  general  efficiency,  and  hence  argued 
strongly  and  determinedly  for  free  trade,  giving 
a  strong  impulse  to  the  arguments  now  becom- 
ing common  in  this  country.  It  was  only  later 
that  he  abandoned  this  belief,  from  a  conviction 
that  in  the  present  state  of  the  world  the  co- 
ordinating power  of  the  Government  must  be 
used  in  order  to  preserve  economic  harmony 
and  to  arrive  at  ultimate  freedom. 

Such  is  a  brief  review  of  his  main  positions. 
So  great  was  his  ability  and  so  distinctive  his 
views,  that  his  school  of  thought  is  sometimes 
called  the  American  School  of  Political  Econ- 
omy. His  main  followers  are  E.  Peshine  Smith, 
and  Professor  R.  E.  Thompson,  formerly  of  the 
University  of  Philadelphia.  Professor  Ingram, 
in  his  History  of  Political  Economy,  says  of 
Carey  (p.  173) : 

"  His  aim  was,  while  adhering  to  the  individualistic 
economy,  to  place  it  on  a  higher  and  surer  basis,  and 
fortify  it  against  the  assaults  of  socialism,  to  which 
some  of  the  Ricardian  tenets  had  exposed  it.  The 
most  comprehensive  as  well  as  mature'  exposition  of 
his  views  is  contained  in  his  Principles  of  Social  Science 
(1859).  Inspired  with  the  optimistic  sentiment  natural 
to  a  young  and  rising  nation  with  abundant  undevel- 
oped resources  and  an  unbounded  outlook  toward  the 
future,  he  seeks  to  show  that  there  exists,  indepen- 
dently of  human  wills,  a  natural  system  of  economic 
laws,  which  is  essentially  beneficent,  and  of  which  the 
increasing  prosperity  of  the  whole  community,  and 
especially  of  the  working  classes,  is  the  spontaneous 
result,  capable  of  being  defeated  only  by  the  ignorance 
or  perversity  of  man  resisting  or  impeding  its  action." 

Carey's  main  works  are :  Essay  on  the  Rate  of 
Wages  (1835) ;  Harmony  of  Nature  (privately  printed!, 
1836) ;  Principles  of  Political  Economv  (3  vols.,  1837, 1838, 
1840) ;  The  Past,  the  Present,  and  the  Future  (1848) ;  Har- 
mony of  Interests,  Agricultural,  Manufacturing,  and 
Commercial  (1850)  ;  Slave  Trade,  Domestic  and  Foreign 
0^53) ;  Principles  of  Social  Science  (3  vols.,  1858-59) ; 
Manual  of  Social  Science  (edited  by  Miss  M'Kean,  1864) ; 
The  Unity  of  Law,  as  Exhibited  in  the  Relations  oj 
Physical,  Social,  Mental,  and  Moral  Science  (1872). 


CARLYLE,  THOMAS  (1795-1881).— Car- 
lyle we  consider  here  simply  from  the  stand- 
point of  social  reform,  yet  this  element  forms 
no  small  portion  of  his  life,  and  his  contribution 
to  social  reform  gave  no  slight  impulse  in  the 
advance  of  the  century.  From  the  standpoint 
of  the  social  movement,  the  nineteenth  century 
must  be  divided  into  two  nearly  equal  yet  two 
very  diverse  parts.  The  first  50  years  were,  so- 
cially considered,  negative,  destructive,  charac- 
terized by  the  freeing  of  the  individual  from  the 
tyrannies  and  despotisms  of  government,  monar- 
chical and  despotic.  Its  outcomes  were  democ- 
racy, free  trade,  competition,  individualism. 
The  last  50  years  of  the  century  are,  socially 
considered,  positive,  constructive  (or  at  least 
seeking  construction),  characterized  by  the  col- 
lective thought  supplanting  individualism  and 
developing  in  its  place  the  social  organism.  Its 
outcomes  are  unity,  cooperation,  monopoly,  cen- 
tralization, socialism.  The  lines  of  force  in 
these  last  50  years  are  centripetal,  as  in  the  first 
half  of  the  century  they  were  unmistakably  cen- 
trifugal. Carlyle  belongs  to  the  first  half  of  the 
century,  yet  with  no  little  trace  of  transition  to 
the  second.  Living  till  1881,  his  genius  was 
matured,  his  views  were  formed,  his  greatest 
works  were  written  before  1850.  He  is  an  indi- 
vidualist whose  writings  are  full  of  undeveloped 
socialism.  In  more  than  his  denunciation  of 
wrong  he  is  a  John  the  Baptist,  the  last  of  the 
old  prophets,  and  a  forerunner  of  the  new.  The 
following  quotation  from  Mazzini's  magnificent 
essay  on  Carlyle  pronounces,  we  believe,  a  just 
criticism.  He  says  : 

"Mr.  Carlyle  comprehends  only  the  individual ;  the 
true  sense  of  the  unity  of  the  human  race  escapes  him. 
He  sympathizes  with  all  men,  but  it  is  with  the 
separate  life  of  each,  and  not  with  their  collective 
life.  .  .  . 

"  The  nationality  of  Italy,  in  his  eyes,  is  the  glory  of 
having  produced  Dante  and  Christopher  Columbus ; 
the  nationality  of  Germany,  that  of  having  given  birth 
to  Luther,  to  Goethe,  and  to  others.  The  shadows 
thrown  by  these  gigantic  men  appear  to  eclipse  from 
his  view  every  trace  of  the  national  thought,  of  which 
these  men  were  only  the  interpreters  or  prophets,  and 
of  the  people,  who  alone  are  its  depository.  All  gen- 
eralization is  so  repugnant  to  Mr.  Carlyle  that  he 
strikes  at  the  root  of  the  error,  as  he  deems  it,  by  de- 
claring that  the  history  of  the  world  is  fundamentally 
nothing  more  than  the  biography  of  great  men  (Lec- 
tures). This  is  to  plead,  distinctly  enough,  against  the 
idea  which  rules  the  movement  of  the  times.  .  .  . 

"  In  the  name  of  the  democratic  spirit  of  the  age,  I 
protest  against  such  views.  History  is  not  the  biog- 
raphy of  great  men ;  the  history  of  mankind  is  the 
history  of  the  progressive  religion  of  mankind,  and  of 
the  translation  by  symbols  or  external  actions  of  that 
religion.  .  .  . 

"  The  great  men  of  the  earth  are  but  the  marking- 
stones  on  the  road  to  humanity  ;  they  are  the  priests  of 
its  religion.  What  priest  is  equal  in  the  balance  to  the 
whole  religion  of  which  he  is  a  minister?  There  is  yet 
something  greater,  more  divinely  mysterious,  than  all 
the  great  men,  and  that  is  the  earth  which  bears  them, 
the  human  race  which  includes  them,  the  thought  of 
God  which  stirs  within  them,  and  which  the  whole 
human  race  collectively  can  alone  accomplish.  Disown 
not,  then,  the  common  mother  for  the  sake  of  certain 
of  her  children,  however  privileged  they  may  be  ;  for 
at  the  same  time  that  vou  disown  her  you  will  lose  the 
true  comprehension  of  these  rare  men  whom  you  ad- 
mire. Genius  is  like  the  flower,  which  draws  one  half 
of  its  life  from  the  moisture  that  circulates  in  the  earth, 
and  inhales  the  other  half  from  the  atmosphere.  The 
inspiration  of  genius  belongs  one  half  to  heaven,  the 
other  to  the  crowd  of  common  mortals  from  whose  life 
it  springs." 

Yet  we  doubt  if  this  does  full  justice  to  the  work  that 
Carlyle  accomplished.  It  was  Carlyle's  great  mission 
to  discover  and  to  proclaim  to  this  generation  the 


Carlyle,  Thomas. 


215 


Carnegie,  Andrew. 


world's  need  of  God.  And  this  he  did  as  no  other  man 
in  all  this  century,  not  even  excepting  the  great  Italian 
himself.  "The  beginning  and  the  end  of  what  is  the 
matter  with  us,"  writes  Carlyle,  "  is  that  we  have  for- 
gotten God."  This  is  also  the  beginning  and  the  end 
of  Carlyle's  teaching.  Now  from  this  socialism  follows 
of  inevitable  necessity.  It  is  not  only  true,  as  Maurice 
showed,  that  "  there  can  be  no  brotherhood  without  a 
common  father,"  but  it  is  equally  true  that  there  can 
be  no  common  father  without  a  brotherhood.  The  one 
follows  logically  from  the  other.  If  God  be  the  father 
of  all,  as  Carlyle  declared,  then  all  men  must  be 
brothers,  as  socialists  declare.  Carlyle  may  not  him- 
self have  taken  that  step,  but  he  compels  his  readers  to 
take  it.  He  was  the  seer  of  the  present ;  he  saw  through 
all  the  shams  of  his  day.  He  is  the  great  unmasker. 
He  showed  the  pettiness  and  the  selfishness  and  the 
nothingness  of  the  Manchester  economy.  He  blew  the 
clouds  away  that  hide  God  from  the  world.  Above  all, 
Carlyle  saw  God  in  man.  "  Thou,  too,  art  man,"  he 
says,  "  the  breath  of  God  is  in  thee  ;  thou  art  here  be- 
low to  develop  thy  being  under  all  its  aspects ;  thy 
body  is  a  temple  ;  thy  immortal  soul  is  the  priest, 
which  ought  to  do  sacrifice  and  ministry  for  all. 

Thus  outlining  Carlyle's  general  position,  we 
condense  his  more  detailed   views  from  Pal- 
grave's  Dictionary  of  Political  Economy,  ar- 
ticle ' '  Carlyle. ' '     Carlyle  conceived 
of  political  economy  as  a  political 
His  Views,  philosophy,   which    should   tell   us 
' '  what  is  meant  by  our  country, 
and  by  what  causes  men  are  happy, 
moral,  religious,  or  the  ^contrary."     (See  Life 
of  Carlyle,  by  Froude,  vol.  ii.,  p.   78.)     Eco- 
nomics in  the  narrower  sense  he  associated  with 
Bentham  and  McCulloch  (M'Croudy),  and  nick- 
named the  ' '  dismal  science. ' '     He  admires  pow- 
er, however,  wherever  he  sees  it.     Says  Pal- 
grave's   Dictionary  of  Political  Economy  of 
Carlyle's  views  on  this  point : 

"Even  '  mammonism '  itself  'has  seized  some  por- 
tion of  the  message  of  nature  to  man  ;  and,  seizing 
that  and  following  it,  will  seize  and  appropriate  more 
and  more  of  nature's  message '  (Past  and  Present). 
The  English  people  are  the  wisest  in  action,  and  their 
practical  material  work  is  the  one  thing  they  have  to 
show  for  themselves  that  is  true  and  solid  (Past  and 
Present).  But  he  has  done  most  service  to  economics 
by  his  criticisms.  When  Past  and  Present  appeared 
(1843)  the  Deutsch-Franzosische  Jahrbiicher  of  Marx, 
and  Engels  at  once  took  note  of  it  as  the  most  impor- 
tant book  of  the  day  on  social  questions.  Carlyle 
there  showed  that  extreme  laissez-faire  may  mean 
•disintegration  of  society  and  simple  anarchy ;  it  re- 
moves old  bonds,  and  leaves  men  disjoined  from  each 
other,  except  for  the 'nexus  of  cash  payments.'  The 
result  is  the  '  nomadic  servitude  '  of  the  working 
-classes  and  the  destruction  of  all  security  and  per- 
manence in  their  conditions  of  life.  In  the  Nigger 
Question  (1849)  he  allows  no  advantage  to  the  English 
laborer  over  the  West  Indian  slave  ;  the  slaves  were 
'hired  for  life,'  and  the  workmen  are  hired  by  the 
job.  He  points  to  the  common  liability  to  disease  as  a 
wholesome  reminder  to  the  rich  of  their  common 
humanity  with  the  poor  (Past  and  Present),  and  when 
he  impresses  on  economists  the  fact  that  the  '  economic 
man '  is  an  abstraction,  and  the  universe  is  not  one 
huge  shop.  He  derides  mere  skill  in  selling  cheap 
(Bobus  of  Hotindsditch),  and  even  industrial  enterprise, 
.so  far  as  it  aims  at  profit-making  (Hudson,  Plug-son  of 
Undershot,  etc.).  But  he  is  firm  against  corn  laws,  and 
against  the  landowners  who  '  refuse  to  take  the  mar- 
ket rate  for  their  onions,'  and  forget  that  they  did  not 
make  the  land  of  England.  He  goes  farther  than  most 
economists  in  his  estimate  of 'captains  of  industry,' 
and  in  his  view  that  the  relation  of  master  and  servant 
.•  is  eternal  (Nigger  Question).  He  shows  no  apprecia- 
tion of  the  power  of  workmen's  combinations,  and 
ihas  no  sympathy  with  nations  and  peoples  as  distin- 
guished from  individuals.  On  the  whole,  economists 
have  learned  more  from  his  protests  against  abstract 
Ricardian  political  economy  and  its  tendency  to  re- 
duce the  State  to  '  anarchy  plus  the  constable,'  than 
from  anv  of  his  positive  teachings.  His  pleadings  had 
their  influence  even  with  men  like  John  Mill,  who  were 
perfectly  aware  of  their  defects  of  logic." 


The  following  quotations,  perhaps,  give  a 
correct  idea  of  Carlyle's  positions,  style,  and 
power  in  the  world  or  reform  : 

"  To  whom,  then,  is  this  wealth  of  England  wealth  ? 
Who  is  it  that  it  blesses  ;  makes  happier,  wiser,  beau- 
tifuler,  in  any  way  better?  Who  has  got  hold  of  it,  to 
make  it  fetch  and  carry  for  him,  like  a  true  servant, 
not  like  a  false  mock-servant ;  to  do  him  any  real  ser- 
vice whatsoever?  As  yet  no  one.  We  nave  more 
riches  than  any  Nation  ever  had  before  ;  we  have  less 
good  of  them  than  any  Nation  ever  had  before.  Our 
successful  industry  is  hitherto  unsuccessful :  a  strange 
success,  if  we  stop  here  !  In  the  midst  of  plethoric 
plenty,  the  people  perish ;  with  gold  walls,  and  full 
barns,  no  man  feels  himself  safe  or  satisfied.  Workers, 
Master  Workers,  Unworkers,  all  men,  come  to  a 
pause ;  stand  fixed,  and  cannot  go  farther.'  Fatal 

Earalysis  spreading  inward,  from  the  extremities,  in 
t.  Ives  workhouses,  in  Stockport  cellars,  through  all 
limbs,  as  if  toward  the  heart  itself.  Have  we  actually 
got  enchanted,  then  ;  accursed  by  some  god  ?"  (Proem 
to  Past  and  Present,  chap,  i.) 

"  True,  it  must  be  owned,  we  for  the  present,  with 
our  Mammon-Gospel,  have  come  to  strange  conclusions. 
We  call  it  a  Society  ;  and  go  about  professing  openly  the 
totalest  separation,  isolation.  Our  life  is  not  a  mutual 
helpfulness ;  but  rather,  cloaked  under  due  laws-of-war, 
named  'fair  competition'  and  so  forth,  it  is  a  mutual 
hostility.  We  have  profoundly  forgotten  everywhere 
that  Cash-payment  is  not  the  sole  relation  of  human 
beings ;  we  think,  nothing  doubting,  that  it  absolves 
and  liquidates  all  engagements  of  man.  'My  starv- 
ing workers  ?  '  answers  the  rich  mill-owner.  'Did  not 
I  hire  them  fairly  in  the  market  ?  Did  I  not  pay  them, 
to  the  last  sixpence,  the  sum  covenanted  for?  What 
have  I  to  do  with  them  more  ?'  Verily  Mammon- wor- 
ship is  a  melancholy  creed.  When  Cain,  for  his  own 
behoof,  had  killed  Abel,  and  was  questioned,  '  Where 
is  thy  brother  ? '  he  too  made  answer,  '  Am  I  my 
brother's  keeper?'  Did  I  not  pay  my  brother  his 
wages,  the  thing  he  had  merited  from  me? 

"O  sumptuous  Merchant-Prince,  illustrious  game- 
preserving  Duke,  is  there  no  way  of  '  killing '  thy 
brother  but  Cain's  rude  way?"  (Past  and  Present, 
Part  III.,  chap,  ii.) 

Carlyle's  social  writings  were  not  his  first. 
They  belong  to  his  best  period.  Signs  of  the 
Times  was  first  published  in  the  Edinburgh 
Review,  and  written  perhaps  at  the  very  time 
he  was  writing  Sartor  Resartiis.  Chartism 
(1839)  and  Past  and  Present  (1843)  appeared 
soon  after  The  French  Revolution  (1837). 
These,  with  portions  of  the  last-named  works, 
are  his  main  writings  on  social  themes. 

CARNEGIE;   ANDREW,   manufacturer, 

was  born  in  Dunfermline,  Scotland,  November 
2£th,  1835.  His  father,  a  weaver  in  humble  cir- 
cumstances, but  ambitious  to  rise,  and  an  ardent 
republican,  came  with  his  family  to  the  United 
States  in  1845,  and  settled  in  Pittsburgh.  Two 
years  later  Andrew  began  his  career  by  attend- 
ing a  small  stationary  engine.  Later  he  be- 
came a  telegraph  messenger,  and  subsequently 
an  operator.  He  was  one  of  the  first  to  read 
telegraphic  signals  by  sound.  He  became  clerk 
to  the  superintendent  of  the  Pennsylvania  Rail- 
road, and  manager  of  the  telegraph  lines.  While 
in  this  position  he  grew  interested  in  the  sleep- 
ing-car invention,  and  joined  in  the  effort  to 
have  it  adopted.  The  success  of  this  venture 
gave  him  the  nucleus  to  his  wealth.  He  was 
promoted  to  be  superintendent  of  the  Pittsburgh 
division  of  the  Pennsylvania  Railroad,  and  about 
this  time  was  one  of  a  syndicate  who  purchased 
property  on  Oil  Creek,  which  cost  $40,000,  and 
in  one  year  yielded  over  $1,000,000  in  cash  divi- 
dends. He  was  subsequently  associated  with 
others  in  establishing  a  rolling-mill,  from  which 
has  grown  the  most  extensive  and  complete  sys- 


Carnegie,  Andrew. 


216 


Castration. 


tern  of  iron  and  steel  industries  ever  controlled 
by  an  individual. 

Besides  directing  these  great  iron  industries, 
he  for  a  long  time  owned  18  English  news- 
papers, which  he  controlled  in  the  interests  of 
radicalism.  He  has  devoted  large  sums  of 
money  to  benevolent  and  educational  purposes. 
In  1879  he  erected  commodious  swimming  baths 
for  the  use  of  the  people  of  Dunfermline,  Scot- 
land, and  in  the  following  year  gave  $40,000  for 
the  establishment  there  of  a  free  library,  which 
has  since  received  other  large  donations.  In 
1884  he  gave  $50,000  to  Bellevue  Hospital  Medi- 
cal College  to  found  a  historical  laboratory,  now 
called  the  Carnegie  Laboratory  ;  in  1885,  $500,- 
ooo  to  Pittsburgh  for  a  public  library  ;  in  1886, 
$250,000  to  Allegheny  City  for  a  music  hall  and 
library,  and  $250,000  to  Edinburgh,  Scotland, 
for  a  free  library.  He  has  also  established  free 
libraries  at  Braddock,  Pa.,  and  at  other  places 
for  the  benefit  of  his  employees.  In  New  York 
City  he  has  built  a  Music  Hall.  Mr.  Carnegie 
is  a  frequent  contributor  to  periodicals  on  the 
labor  question  and  similar  topics,  and  has  pub- 
lished in  book  form  An  American  Four-in- 
Hand  in  Britain  (New  York,  1883) ;  Round  the 
World  (1884) ;  and  Triumphant  Democracy ; 
or,  Fifty  Years'  March  of  the  Republic  (1886)  ; 
the  last  being  a  review  of  American  progress 
under  popular  institutions,  which  he  believes  to 
be  the  most  successful  in  the  world.  (See 
HOMESTEAD.  ) 

CARPENTER,  EDWARD,  was  born  at 
Brighton,  England,  in  1844.  He  graduated  at 
Cambridge  in  1868,  and  took  orders  in  1869. 
He  was  for  a  time  curate  to  the  Rev.  F.  D. 
Maurice  (g.v.),  at  St.  Edward's,  Cambridge, 
where  he  also  held  a  fellowship.  About  1871, 
however,  he  changed  his  religious  views,  and 
resigning  his  fellowship  and  curacy,  was  for 
seven  years  a  university  extension  lecturer  on 
science,  music,  etc.  In  1877  he  visited  the  United 
States,  seeing  Walt  Whitman  among  others.  In 
1881  he  took  to  a  simple  yet  artistic  farm  life, 
somewhat  after  the  idea  of  Thoreau  (y.v.},  near 
Sheffield,  and  began  writing  Toward-  Democ- 
racy, issued  in  1883,  when  he  first  definitely  join- 
ed the  socialist  movement.  In  1886  he  com- 
menced making  sandals,  in  which  he  now  carries 
on  quite  a  trade.  He  has  since  published  Eng- 
land's Ideal  (1887  and  1895)  ;  Chants  of  Z,a- 
&7r(i88g);  Civilization:  Its  Cause  and  Cure 
(1889),  with  other  books.  He  has  issued  from 
the  Labor  Press,  Manchester,  several  pamphlets 
on  sex  questions — Sex-Love,  Woman,  Mar- 
riage. His  farm  is  at  Holmsfield,  Sheffield. 
As  an  example  of  Mr,  Carpenter's  thought  and 
style  we  quote  the  following  passage  from  his 
Civilization  :  Its  Cause  and  Cure  (pp.  39,  40) : 

"  To-day  it  is  unfortunately  perfectly  true  that  man 
is  the  only  animal  who,  instead  of  adorning  and  beau- 
tifying, makes  nature  hideous  by  his  presence.  The 
fox  and  the  squirrel  may  make  their  homes  in  the 
•wood,  and  add  to  its  beauty  in  so  doing ;  but  when 
Alderman  Smith  plants  his  villa  there  the  gods  pack 
up  their  trunks  and  depart ;  they  can  bear  it  no  longer. 
The  bushmen  can  hide  themselves  and  become  indis- 
tinguishable on  a  slope  of  bare  rock  ;  they  twine  their 
naked  little  yellow  bodies  together,  and  look  like  a 
heap  of  dead  sticks;  but  when  the  chimney-pot  hat 
and  frock-coat  appears,  the  birds  fly  screaming  from 
the  trees.  This  was  the  great  glory  of  the  Greeks,  that 
they  accepted  and  perfected  nature  ;  as  the  Parthenon 


sprang  out  of  the  limestone  terraces  of  the  Acropolis, 
carrying  the  natural  lines  of  the  rock  by  gradations 
scarce  perceptible  into  the  finished  and  human  beauty 
of  frieze  and  pediment,  and  as,  above,  it  was  open  for 
the  blue  air  of  heaven  to  descend  into  it  for  a  habita- 
tion, so  throughout  in  all  their  best  work  and  life  did 
they  stand  in  this  close  relation  to  the  earth  and  the 
sky,  and  to  all  instinctive  and  elemental  things,  ad- 
mitting no  gulf  between  themselves  and  them,  but 
only  perfecting  their  expressiveness  and  beauty.  And 
some  day  we  shall  again  understand  this  which,  in  the 
very  sunrise  of  true  art,  the  Greeks  so  well  under- 
stood. Possibly  some  day  we  shall  again  build  our 
houses  or  dwelling-places  so  simple  and  elemental  in 
character  that  they  will  fit  in  the  nooks  of  the  hills  or 
along  the  banks  of  the  streams  or  by  the  edges  of  the 
woods  without  disturbing  the  harmony  of  the  land- 
scape or  the  songs  of  the  birds.  Then  the  great  tem- 
ples, beautiful  on  every  height,  or  by  the  shores  of  the 
rivers  and  the  lakes,  "will  be  the  storehouses  of  all 
precious  and  lovely  things.  There  men,  women,  and 
children  will  come  to  share  in  the  great  and  wonderful 
common  life  ;  the  gardens  around  will  be  sacred  to  the 
unharmed  and  welcome  animals ;  there  all  store  and 
all  facilities  of  books  and  music  and  art  for  everyone  ; 
there  a  meeting-place  for  social  life  and  intercourse  ; 
there  dances  and  games  and  feasts.  Every  village, 
every  little  settlement,  will  have  such  hall  or  halls. 
No  need  for  private  accumulations.  Gladly  will  each 
man,  and  more  gladly  still  each  woman,  take  his  or 
her  treasures,  except  what  are  immediately  or  neces- 
sarily in  use,  to  the  common  center,  where  their  value 
will  be  increased  a  hundred  and  a  thousand  fold  by 
the  greater  number  of  those  who  can  enjoy  them,  and 
where  far  more  perfectly  and  with  far  less  toil  they 
can  be  tended  than  if  scattered  abroad  in  private 
hands.  At  one  stroke  half  the  labor  and  all  the  anxi- 
ety of  domestic  caretaking  will  be  annihilated.  The  pri- 
vate dwelling-places,  'no  longer  costly  and  labyrinthine 
in  proportion  to  the  value  and  number  of  the  treasures 
they  contain,  will  need  no  longer  to  have  doors  and 
windows  jealously  closed  against  fellow-man  or 
mother  nature.  The  sun  and  air  will  have  access  to 
them,  the  indwellers  will  have  unfettered  egress. 
Neither  man  nor  woman  will  be  tied  in  slavery  to  the 
lodge  which  they  inhabit ;  and  in  becoming  once  more 
a  part  of  nature,  the  human  habitation  will  at  length 
cease  to  be  what  it  is  now  for,  at  least,  half  the  human 
race— a  prison." 

CARPENTERS.  See  BROTHERHOOD  OF 
CARPENTERS  AND  JOINERS. 

CASSON,  HERBERT  N.,  was  born  in  1869, 
in  Ontario,  Canada,  of  English  parents.  Edu- 
cated at  Victoria  College,  he  entered  the  Meth- 
odist ministry  in  1890.  Becoming  a  socialist,  he 
gave  up  his  church  and  its  creed  and  came  to 
Boston,  Mass.,  in  1893.  He  took  a  leading  part 
in  the  agitation  for  the  unemployed,  and  in 
January,  1894,  he  moved  to  Lynn,  Mass.,  and 
founded  (in  America)  the  Labor  Church  Move- 
ment (q.v.*).  He  is  the  author  of  several  spirit-- 
ed  socialist  tracts. 

CASTRATION.— Members  of  the  medical 
profession  frequently  recommend  castration  as 
a  punishment  for  certain  offences,  and  as  a 
method  of  treatment  for  "sexual  perverts." 
Boies'  recent  work  on  Prisoners  and  Paupers 
culminates  in  this  recommendation.  While  ad- 
vances in  modern  surgery  make^this  a  compara- 
tively safe  and  painless  operation,  it  is  doubtful 
if  it  will  be  permitted  by  modern  communities. 

Professor  A.  G.  Warner  thinks  it  may  ulti- 
mately be  very  widely  used  in  the  treatment  of 
the  diseased  and  criminal  classes.  He  says 
(American  Charities,  p.  133)  : 

"  It  is  likely  to  be  introduced  first  as  a  cura- 
tive treatment  in  the  cases  of  the  insane  and  the 
feeble-minded.  Dr.  Kerlin,  in  addressing  the 
Association  of  Medical  Officers  of  Institutions 
for  the  Feeble-Minded,  said  :  '  While  consider- 


Castration. 


217 


Centralization. 


ing  the  help  that  advanced  surgery  is  to  give 
us,  I  will  refer  to  a  conviction  that  I  have  that 
lifelong  salutary  results  to  many  of  our  boys  and 
girls  would  be  realized  if  before  adolescence  the 
procreative  organs  were  removed.  My  experi- 
ence extends  to  only  a  single  case  to  confirm 
this  conviction  ;  but  when  I  consider  the  great 
benefit  that  this  young  woman  has  received,  the 
entire  arrest  of  an  epileptic  tendency,  as  well  as 
the  removal  of  inordinate  desires  which  made 
her  an  offence  to  the  community  ;  when  I  see 
the  tranquil,  well-ordered  life  she  is  leading,  her 
usefulness  L  and  industry  in  the  circle  in  which 
she  moves,  and  know  that  surgery  has  been  her 
salvation  from  vice  and  degradation,  I  am  deeply 
thankful  to  the  benevolent  lady  whose  loyalty  to 
science  and  comprehensive  charity  made  this  op- 
.eration  possible.  "  (See  PENOLOGY,  last  section.) 


CATALLECTICS  (from  Gr.  KaraMMjativ  ,  to 
exchange),  the  science  of  exchanges,  a  name 
adopted  by  Whately  as  a  designation  of  politi- 
cal economy,  on  the  ground  that  exchange 
occupies  such  a  fundamental  place  in  the  sci- 
ences. (See  POLITICAL  ECONOMY.) 

CAUSES  OF  POVERTY.  See  POVERTY  ; 
CRIME,  etc. 

'     CELIBACY.     See  MONASTICISM. 

CENTRALIZATION  is  used  in  social  sci- 
ence for  the  tendency  to  administer,  by  the  sov- 
ereign or  the  central  government,  matters  which 
might  be  placed  under  local  management.  The 
legitimate  application  is  to  a  state  of  change 
from  local  to  central  management.  Europe  to- 
,  day  is  profoundly  moved  by  the  tendency,  and 
has  been  ever  since  the  existing  European  States 
began  to  grow  out  of  the  chaos  of  the  fall  of 
the  Roman  empire.  That  empire  itself  was, 
however,  the  greatest  instance  of  centralization 
which  the  world  has  yet  seen.  In  it  the  numer- 
ous municipalities  and  other  local  organizations 
originally  existing  in  Italy,  and  communicated 
to  the  colonies,  were  entirely  centralized.  In 
England  we  can  trace  centralization  from  the 
time  when  there  were  about  a  dozen  kings  in 
Britain,  and  perhaps  as  many  in  Ireland,  till  the 
United  Kingdom  came  under  the  rule  of  one 
monarch.  In  other  countries  —  as,  for  instance, 
in  France,  notwithstanding  her  desperate  strug- 
gles for  freedom  —  the  process  long  tended  to  a 
pure  irresponsible  despotism,  but  now  has  is- 
sued in  a  centralized  republicanism.  The  Brit- 
ish Constitution  turns  the  process  to  use  instead 
of  mischief.  While  administrative  authority 
has  been  centralizing  in  the  Crown,  the  control- 
ling power  of  Parliament  has  been  increasing 
more  rapidly,  so  that  the  vesting  of  a  function 
in  the  Crown  means  the  putting  it  under  the 
control  of  Parliament,  and  especially  of  the 
House  of  Commons.  There  is  nothing  done  in 
any  of  the  offices  under  the  Government  for 
•  which  a  secretary  of  state,  or  some  other  mem- 
ber of  the  ministry,  may  not  at  any  time  be 
called  to  account.  The  creation  of  the  county 
councils  is  a  recent  step  in  this  direction  in  a 
somewhat  different  line. 

In  the  United  States  the  problem  of  centrali- 
zation or  decentralization  has,  under  different 
names  (see  STATE  RIGHTS),  played  a  very  impor- 
tant part.  It  may  be  said  to  be  the  distinguish- 


In  the 
United 
States. 


ing  point  between  the  two  great  political  parties 
which,  under  different  names,  have  from  the 
beginning  divided  this  country. 

In  the  first  continental  congresses,  the  fundamental 
problem  was  how  much  power  to  give  each  State,  and 
when  the  Constitution  was  proposed,  this  was  still  the 
burning  question.  Led  by  Hamilton,  the 
men  who  believed  in  a  somewhat  strong 
central  government  gradually  took  the 
name  of  Federalists,  gaining  their  ideas 
mainly  from  England ;  while,  largely 
under  the  lead  of  Jefferson,  those  who 
believed  in  giving  much  power  to  the 
States  and  little  to  the  central  govern- 
ment took  the  name  of  Republicans,  or  Democratic- 
Republicans,  and  are  the  direct  ancestors  of  the  pres- 
ent Democratic  Party.  Washington,  though  in  reality 
of  neither  party,  was  by  force  or  circumstances  a 
Federalist,  and  during  his  presidency  (1789-97),  with 
that  of  Adams  (1797-1801),  this  party  was  in  power,  giv- 
ing us  the  necessary  unifying  elements  of  our  Con- 
stitution, especially  as  regards  financial  measures. 
Then,  owing  to  Federalist  errors,  the  Republican- 
Democratic  Party  came  into  power,  with  Jefferson  (1801- 
1809),  Madison  (1809-17),  and  Monroe  (1817-25).  Dur- 
ing this  long  period  of  "  Jefferson  democracy,"  the 
decentralizing  States-rights  influence  was  in  power. 
The  doctrine  that  that  was  the  best  government  which 
governed  least  applied  to  the  States,  but  especially  to 
the  central  government.  The  Jeffersonian  party  was 
strong  with  the  masses  and  the  agricultural  interests. 
Jefferson  did  awty  with  much  of  the  ceremonialism  of 
Washington.  The  Federalists  were  strong  with  the 
commercial  and  manufacturing  interests  and  the 
Puritanism  of  New  England,  which,  in  spite  of  wor- 
ship of  the  local  "town-meeting"  self-government, 
revolted  at  the  atheism  of  the  French  Revolution,  and 
connected  it  with  the  Democratic-Republican  Party. 
In  general  the  Federalists  stood  for  a  loose  construc- 
tion of  the  Constitution,  since  this  gave  them  oppor- 
tunity to  expand  the  central  powers,  altho  they 
were  ready  to  resist  Congress  when  she  stood  in  their 
way  (there  was  even  talk  of  a  secession  of  the  trading 
States  from  the  Union),  while  the  Jeffersonians  gener- 
ally favored  strict  construction,  since  that  would  limit 
the  powers  of  government ;  yet  they  were  willing  even 
to  violate  the  Constitution,  if  that  were  necessary,  to 
effect  the  purchase  of  Louisiana.  Hamilton,  however, 
died  in  1803,  and  the  Federalists  had  no  leader. 

In  1825,  however,  there  came  a  change.  Sectional 
quarrels  under  Monroe  led  to  the  election  of  John 
(Juincy  Adams  (1825-29),  who  was,  on  the  whole,  a 
Federalist,  tho  he  had  toyed  with  the  Republican- 
Democrats  ;  and  under  the  personal  influence  of  Clay 
and  Jackson,  two  great  parties  were  again  developed. 
— the  one,  under  the  name  of  Democrats,  maintaining 
the  traditions  of  the  old  Democratic-Republican  Party, 
and  electing  its  candidate,  Andrew  Jackson  (1829-37)  ; 
the  other,  under  the  name,  first,  of  National  Republi- 
can and  then  Whig,  maintaining  the  principles  of  the 
Federalists.  The  question  of  centralization  was  at 
this  time  carried  out  in  another  direction,  in  Jackson's 
vehement  attack  upon  the  National  Bank  of  North 
America,  which  had  been  chartered  by  Congress.  (See 
BANKS  AND  BANKING.)  Resting  mainly  upon  the 
Southern  and  agricultural  vote,  the  Democrats  were 
inclined  to  free  trade,  while  the  Whigs,  with  their 
manufacturing  interests,  favored  protection.  Mean- 
while, another  great  question,  which,  while  it  had  ex- 
isted from  the  beginning,  only  now  became  so  serious, 
was  modified  by  the  same  contest  between  centraliz- 
ing and  decentralizing  tendencies.  The  South,  mainly 
Jeffersonian,  or  Democratic,  believed  in  State  rights 
and  slavery.  The  North,  more  Federalist,  or  Whig, 
gradually  came  to  oppose  slavery. 
Nevertheless,  the  Southern  Democrats 
feared  to  break  with  Northern  Demo- 
cratSj  and  the  Northern  Whigs  feared 
to  alienate  the  South,  and,  therefore, 
temporized.  The  result  was  a  compli- 
cation of  issues,  the  springing  up  of  new  parties — Ab- 
olitionists, Free  Soilers,  etc.— and  the  election  of  Van 
Buren  (1837-41),  Democrat  ;  W.  H.  Harrison,  who  died 
shortly  after  his  inauguration  (1841),  Whig,  leaving 
John  Tyler  President  (1841-45),  who  was  only  nominally 
a  Whig,  and  really  a  Democrat ;  James  K.  Polk  (1845- 
49),  Democrat ;  Zachary  Taylor  (1849),  Whig,  who  also 
died  soon  after  inauguration,  leaving  Fillmore  Presi- 
dent (1850-53),  Whig ;  Pierce  (1853-57),  Democrat ; 
Buchanan  (1857-61),  Democrat. 

The  War  of  the  Rebellion  was  fought  not  directly  to 
abolish  slavery,  but  to  preserve  the  union  by  conquer- 
ing the  States  which  had  pushed  the  decentralizing 


State 


Centralization. 


218 


Champion,  Henry  Hyde. 


State-rights  doctrine  to  the  extreme  of  secession.  The 
Whig  Party  had  now  given  place  to  a  new  party,  the 
Republican,  made  up  of  Whigs,  Free  Soilers,  and 
others,  which  yet  on  questions  of  centralization,  protec- 
tion, etc.,  carried  out  Whig  principles.  The  election  of 
Lincoln  (1861-65),  Republican  ;  the  victory  of  the  North  ; 
Lincoln's  assassination,  Andrew  Johnson,  Vice-Presi- 
dent, becoming  President  (1865-69),  Republican,  are  well 
known. 

Since  the  war  the  State-rights. question  has  been  less 
prominent,  it  having  been  largely  settled  by  the  war  ; 
but  the  centralizing  or  decentralizing  question  has 
still  remained,  its  sides  being  advocated  respectively 
by  the  Republican  and  Democratic  parties,  electing 
Grant,  Republican  (1869-77) ;  Hayes,  Republican  (1877- 
8»);  Garfield  ('881),  Republican,  with  Arthur,  Republi- 
can.Vice-President,  and,  by  Garfield's  death,  becoming 
President  (1881-85);  Cleveland,  Democratic  (1885-89) ; 
Harrison,  Republican  (1889-93)  i  Cleveland,  Democratic, 
(1893-97).  (See  STATE  RIGHTS.) 

The jpresent  growing  problems  of  social  reform  are 
also  affected  by  the  same  tendencies,  some  advocating 
a  highly  centralized  government ;  others  (even  most 
socialists  and  nationalists)  advocating  a  decentralized 
government,  with  great  emphasis  on  local  self-govern- 
ment, as  developed  in  the  old  Saxon  folk-mote  and  the 
New  England  town-meeting,  giving  us  municipalism 
as  even  more  important  chan  the  national  element  of 
nationalism,  which  includes  all  governmental  action, 
State  and  municipal.  Many  socialists,  and  notably 
William  Morris  in  England,  favor  a  government  so  de- 
centralized as  to  be  little  more  than  a  confederation  of 
communes. 

This  brief  resume  will  indicate  how  far  this  question 
has  entered  into  our  national  history  and  how  far  it 
may  yet  affect  our  national  politics  and  procedure. 


CHALMERS,  Dr.  THOMAS  (1780-1847),  a 
distinguished  Scottish  divine,  we  consider  here 
mainly  in  relation  to  his  great  contribution  to 
social  experiment  and  theory.  Born  at  An- 
struther,  in  Fifeshire,  he  was  early  destined  to 
the  Church,  and  at  the  age  of  n  was  enrolled 
as  a  student  in  the  University  of  St.  Andrews. 
In  1803  he  was  ordained  as  minister  of  Kilmany, 
a  small  parish  near  St.  Andrews.  He  taught 
classes  at  St.  Andrews,  and  gained  great  popu- 
larity and  fame  throughout  all  Scotland.  In 
1815,  after  a  battle  over  his  evangelical  views, 
which  were  then  much  opposed,  he  became 
minister  of  the  great  Tron  parish,  in  Glasgow, 
and  in  1819  of  the  parish  of  St.  John's.  It  was 
in  Glasgow  that  Dr.  Chalmers  did  the  great  so 
cial  work  of  which  we  shall  soon  speak  ;  but  in 
1828  he  accepted  the  chair  of  Theology  in  Edin- 
burgh. Here  he  finished,  in  three  volumes,  his 
Christian  and  Civic  Economy  in  Large  Towns, 
which  he  had  begun  before,  and  his  Political 
Economy,  besides  many  theological  and  philo- 
sophical works.  Here,  too,  he  had  more  leisure 
for  general  church  activities,  and  he  was  placed 
at  the  head  of  the  Church  Extension  Committee. 
In  1834  the  Church  had  voted  that  "  no  minister 
shall  be  intruded  into  any  parish  contrary  to  the 
will  of  the  parish,"  and  that  the  dissent  of  the 
majority  of  the  male  heads  of  families,  being 
communicants,  should  be  a  bar  to  settlements. 
The  courts  now  held  that  the  Church  had  no 
right  to  determine  this,  and  a  controversy  and 
struggle  rose  which  resulted  in  suspension  of 
Dr.  Chalmers  and  many  others  for  upholding 
this  vote  of  the  Church  ;  and  finally,  in  1843,  in 
the  withdrawal  of  470  clergymen  from  the  Gen- 
eral Assembly,  who  constituted  themselves  the 
Free  Church  of  Scotland,  with  Dr.  Chalmers  as 
their  first  moderator.  The  last  four  years  of  his 
life  were  spent  in  organizing  this  church  and  in 
perfecting  his  Institutes  of  Theology,  as  prin- 
cipal of  the  first  Free  Church  college. 


We  now  come  to  notice  more  carefully  his 
social  experiments  and  positions. 

In  visiting  his  first  Glasgow  parish,  which  con- 
tained a  population  of  about  n,ooo  souls,  he  speed- 
ily discovered  that  nearly  a  third  of  them  had  re- 
linquished all  connection  •with  any  Christian  church, 
and  that  their  children  were  growing  up  in  igno- 
rance and  vice.  The  appalling  magnitude  of  the 
evil,  and  the  certainty  of  its  speedy  and  frightful 
growth,  at  once  arrested  and  engrossed  him.  To  de- 
vise and  execute  the  means  of  checking  and  subdu- 
ing it  became  henceforth  one  of  the  ruling  passions  of 
his  life.  Attributing  the  evil  to  the  absence  of  those 
parochial  influences,  educational  and  ministerial,  which 
wrought  so  effectually  for  good  in  the  smaller  rural 
parishes,  but  which  had  not  been  brought  to  bear  upon 
the  overgrown  parishes  of  our  great  cities,  from  all 
spiritual  oversight  of  which  the  members  of  the  Estab- 
lishment had  retired  in  despair,  his  grand  panacea  was 
to  revivify,  remodel,  and  extend  the  old  parochial 
economy  of  Scotland.  Taking  his  own  parish  as  a  speci- 
men, and  gauging  by  it  the  spiritual  necessities  of  the 
city,  he  did  not  hesitate  to  publish  it  as  his  conviction 
that  not  less  than  20  new  churches  and  parishes  should 
immediately  be  erected  in  Glasgow.  All,  however, 
that  he  could  persuade  the  town  council  to  attempt  was 
to  erect  a  single  additional  one,  to  which  a  parish  con- 
taining no  fewer  than  10,000  souls  was  attached. 

In  1819  he  became  minister  of  the  parish  of  St.  John's. 
This  parish  contained  2000  families,  chiefly  weavers, 
factory  operatives  and  laborers.  More  than  800  fam- 
ilies had  no  connection  with  any  church  ;  and  nearly 
all  the  children  were  uneducated.  He  at  once  estab- 
lished two  large  school-houses,  in  which  700  children 
were  taught  at  very  low  fees.  For  those  too  poor  to 
afford  even  a  small  school-fee  he  opened  40  or  50  Sab- 
bath-schools. In  a  short  time  these  Sabbath-schools 
contained  zooochildren.  Dr.  Chalmers  then  divided  his 
parish  into  25  districts,  and  placed  over  each  an  elder, 
to  watch  over  the  spiritual  interests  of  the  people,  and 
a  deacon,  to  care  for  their  temporal  interests.  He  re- 
tained control  and  direction  of  all,  not  only  overseeing 
the  work  of  others,  but  making  1000  visits  among  the 
families  annually,  and  holding  evening  meetings.  It 
was  his  special  desire  to  test  the  old  Scotch  method  of 
caring  for  the  poor — by  voluntary  contributions  taken 
at  the  church  door  and  administered  by  the  kirk  ses- 
sion. He  was  strongly  against  the  English  system  of 
compulsory  assessment ;  and  obtained  permission  of 
the  Glasgow  magistrates  to  try  the  Scotch  plan  with 
St.  John's.  His  experiment  was  a  complete  success. 
When  he  took  the  parish  its  poor  cost  the  city  about 
$7000  a  year  ;  but  after  four  years  of  his  management 
this  sum  was  reduced  to  less  than  $1400  a  year.  This 
was  done  by  his  thorough  organization  of  the  parish, 
his  rejection  of  the  idle,  drunken  and  vicious,  his  per- 
sonal visits  among  the  poor  and  kindly  sympathy  with 
them,  and  his  stimulation  of  the  needy  to  self-respect 
and  industry. 

His  Political  Economy  seeks  to  secure  the 
economic  elevation  of  society  by  moral  means. 
He  defined  political  economy  as  the  ' '  diffusion 
of  sufficiency  and  comfort."  He  believed  that 
without  a  Christian  education  to  give  self-con- 
trol, progress  would  be  impossible.  He  felt  the 
need  of  a  more  radical  cure  than  philanthropy 
and  a  more  sympathetic  one  than  legislation. 
He  favored  home  trade  rather  than  foreign 
trade.  His  economic  idol  was  agriculture,  as 
giving  both  occupation  and  maintenance. 

CHAMPION,  HENRY  HYDE,  was  the  son 
of  General.  Champion,  and  himself  at  one  time  a 
captain  in  the  Royal  Artillery.  His  early  career 
was  such  as  to  foster  the  resoluteness  and  pre- 
cision which  characterize  him.  After  serving 
with  his  regiment  in  India  and  other  places, 
gaining  attention  as  a  promising  young  officer, 
he  threw  up  his  commission  as  a  protest  against 
the  unjust  Egyptian  campaign.  Settling  in  Lon- 
don, he  bought  an  interest  in  the  "  Modern  Press" 
publishing  house.  About  this  time  he  became 
intensely  interested  in  Henry  George's  Progress 
and  Poverty,  which  was  just  published.  Meet- 


Champion,  Henry  Hyde. 


219 


Charity  Organization. 


ing  Henry  George,  he  soon  became  an  ardent 
•disciple,  and  took  a  leading  part  in  the  agitation 
which  was  raised  in  England  during  Mr. 
George's  visit.  Afterward  coming  in  contact 
with  the  new  socialist  movement,  he  became  a 
member  of  the  Social  Democratic  Federation, 
where  his  ability  made  him  one  of  the  leaders. 
He  was  closely  identified  with  that  society  until 
1888,  when  he  severed  his  connection.  In  1886 
he  was,  with  Messrs.  Hyndman,  Burns,  and 
Williams,  tried  at  the  Old  Bailey  on  a  charge  of 
"  uttering  sedition  and  inciting  to  violence,"  but 
was  acquitted.  In  1888  he  founded  the  Labor 
Electoral  Association,  which  by  organizing  the 
labor  interests  greatly  affected  the  voting  in 
several  of  the  parliamentary  bi-elections.  He  also 
took  an  active  part  in  organizing  the  unskilled 
workers  into  trade-unions,  on  the  lines  from 
which  has  since  developed  the  ' '  new  unionism. " 

CHANT,  Mrs.  LAURA  ORMISTON  (nee 
DIBBIN),  was  born  at  Chepstow,  Monmouth- 
shire, October  9, 1848,  and  when  about  five  years 
of  age  her  parents  removed  to  London.  When 
15  years  of  age  she  became  a  Sunday-school 
teacher,  carrying  on  that  work  in  different  por- 
tions of  England  until  she  was  22.  She  taught 
in  three  ladies'  schools  for  five  or  six  years,  after 
which  she  became  a  hospital  nurse,  and  a  year 
later  became  sister  in  the  London  Hospital  in 
Whitechapel,  meeting  there  her  future  husband. 
She  decided  to  undertake  the  study  of  medicine, 
but  owing  to  the  powerful  opposition  of  medical 
schools  to  women  in  the  profession,  and  lack  of 
means,  did  not  qualify  before  marriage.  After- 
ward she  became  absorbed  in  philanthropic 
work.  This,  with  her  services  as  a  public  speak- 
er, has  given  her  the  reputation  she  enjoys. 
Her  experience  as  a  nurse,  and  also  as  assist- 
ant manager  of  a  lunatic  asylum,  is  of  great 
value  to  her  in  her  work,  as  her  house  is  indeed 
a  refuge  for  the  destitute,  a  place  where  broken 
lives  are  brought  under  the  influence  of  loving 
care.  Her  home  circle  is  seldom  if  ever  without 
the  lonely  and  poor,  the  outcast  and  criminal,  as 
well  as  the  stupid  and  giddy.  This  makes  her 
personal  work  with  individuals  far  above  her 
other  work. 

Mrs.  Chant  made  her  first  public  address  on 
The  Position  of  Women  in  the  Nineteenth 
Century,  advocating  the  franchise  for  them. 
She  next  appeared  on  the  temperance  platform, 
and  then  on  that  of  social  purity.  Mrs.  Chant 
is  on  the  executive  committee  of  the  Women's 
Liberal  Federation  of  England,  of  which  Mr. 
Gladstone  is  president.  She  serves  in  the  same 
capacity  in  the  National  Society  for  Promoting 
Woman  Suffrage  ;  is  vice-president  of  one  or 
more  liberal  associations  ;  vice-president  of  the 
Peace  Society,  and  member  of  the  council  of  the 
National  Vigilance  Association  of  Great  Britain 
and  Ireland.  She  ardently  advocates  physical 
training  and  gymnastics,  having  written  an  in- 
troduction to  Melio's  work  on  gymnastics,  and 
has  also  written  and  lectured  on  gymnastics. 
She  produced  the  two  grand  sermons,  The 
Spiritual  Life  and  Signs  of  the  Times,  and  is 
the  author  of  one  volume  of  poems  entitled 
Verona.  Her  latest  prominent  activity  has 
been  her  successful  attack  upon  the  Empire,  as 
one  of  the  most  notorious,  and,  in  her  opinion, 
most  evil,  of  London's  music  halls. 


CHARITY  ORGANIZATION  SOCIE- 
TIES, OR  ASSOCIATED  CHARITIES,  are 

in  their  present  form  a  distinctly  modern  move- 
ment. In  1819  the  Rev.  Dr.  Chalmers  (y.v.),  in 
his  parish  at  St.  John's,  Glasgow,  comprising 
10,000  souls,  in  the  poorest  part  of  the  city,  be- 
came convinced  that  miscellaneous  almsgiving 
did  more  harm  than  good  ;  and,  with  the  con- 
sent of  the  civic  authorities,  he  undertook  to  stop 
all  such  bestowal  of  alms,  and  instead  to  insti- 
tute a  system  of  friendly  visiting  among  the 
needy  by  a  large  corps  of  workers,  who  were 
only  to  give  relief  in  case  of  extreme  necessity, 
but  to  do  all  they  could  to  enable  the  poor  to 
help  themselves.  The  result  was  considered 
very  favorable  ;  the  amount  of  pauper  relief  was 
very  much  diminished,  and  yet  there  was  less 
suffering  than  poor.  After  Dr.  Chalmers,  how- 
ever, left  the  parish,  in  1823,  the  experiment 
dragged  on  for  14  years  and  then  came  to  an  end. 
Meanwhile  similar  experiments  on  a  smaller 
scale  were  made  elsewhere.  From  1828-44  dis- 
trict visiting  societies  were  formed  in  several 
London  societies,  while  societies  for  repressing 
mendacity  in  begging  were  much  older.  In 
1868  Edward  Denison  (£•.?/.),  a  son  of  the  Bishop 
of  Salisbury,  went  to  live  in  the  East  End  of 
London  to  study  for  himself  at  first  hand  the 
problems  of  the  poor.  He  became  convinced  of 
the  same  principles  at  which  Dr.  Chalmers  had 
arrived.  He  wrote  : 

"  I  am  beginning  seriously  to  believe  that  all 
bodily  aid  to  the  poor  is  a  mistake  ;  whereas 
by  giving  alms  you  keep  them  permanently 
crooked.  Build  school-houses,  pay  teachers, 
give  prizes,  frame  workmen's  clubs,  help  them 
to  help  themselves,  lend  them  your  brains,  but 
give  them  no  money,  except  what  you  sink  in 
such  undertakings." 

As  a  result,  in  1869  a  society  was  formed  to 
act  upon  these  principles,  organized  by  Denison 
and  some  friends  spurred  on  by  his  words  and 
the  experience  of  Octavia  Hill  (q.v.)  in  her 
work  with  her  poor  tenants.  The  society  was 
called  the  London  Society  for  Organizing  Chari- 
table Relief  and  Repressing  Mendicity,  soon 
popularly  abbreviated  into  the  Charity  Organi- 
zation Society.  The  movement  rapidly  grew, 
and  aimed  at  bringing  all  the  vast  charitable 
relief  of  London,  whether  legal,  corporate, 
or  individual,  into  one  administration.  It  has 
not  done  this,  but  has  become  a  vast  and 
thoroughly  organized  system,  with  a  network 
throughout  England. 

There  is  now  in  London  a  central  committee 
with  district  committees  in  every  poor-law  union. 
The  central  committee  does  not  relieve  directly, 
but  aims  at  propagating  sound  views  on  the  sub- 
ject of  charity  by  publication  and  discussion, 
promoting     cooperation,    suggest- 
ing new  institutions  on  good  prin- 
ciples, collecting  information  relat-  In  England, 
ing  to  individuals  and  of  general 
import,  and  preventing  misapplica- 
tion.    The  district  committees  in  London  and 
the  68  affiliated  societies  in  England  and  Scot- 
land not  only  organize,  but  also  administer  re- 
lief on  certain  principles.    Those  principles  may 
be  summed  up  as  follows  :  i.  That  all   relief 
should  aim  at  making  the  recipient  indepen- 
dent of  relief.     2.  That  no  relief  should  be  given 


Charity  Organization. 


220 


Charity  Organization. 


without  thorough  inquiry  and  investigation. 
3.  That  existing  institutions  should  be  utilized  as 
far  as  possible.  4.  That  all  relief  should  be  ade- 
quate to  secure  the  object  with  which  it  is 
given. 

The  council  consists  of  the  chairman,  vice- 
chairmen,  and  treasurers  ;  of  annually  elected 
representatives  from  each  district  committee, 
with  its  chairman  and  secretaries  not  exceeding 
two  ;  of  additional  members  in  the  proportion 
of  one  to  four  district  representatives  ;  and  of 
representatives  of  London  charitable  institu- 
tions. This  council  works  through  an  executive 
committee.  There  are  39  district  committees, 
one  for  each  metropolitan  poor-law  union.  As 
far  a  possible,  these  consist  of  ministers  of  re- 
ligion, guardians  of  the  poor,  and  representa- 
tives of  the  principal  local  charities.  The  so- 
ciety comprises  the  district  committees  and 
donors  of  one  guinea  or  more  to  the  funds  of 
the  council,  and  it  meets  annually  or  by  special 
call.  District  committees  are  to  deal  with  all 
cases  of  alleged  want  referred  to  them.  The 
council  supervises  and  assists  the  district  com- 
mittees, considers  questions  of  principle  and 
general  methods,  seeks  the 
tion  of  London's  larger  institutions 
the  administration  of  charity,  and  to  sup'press 
imposture  ;  and  it  corresponds  with  similar  so- 
cieties elsewhere. 

According  to  the  report  of  1892  there  were, 
for  the  year  1890-91,  in  the  39  London  districts, 
23,476  applications  for  help  decided  and  2563 
were  withdrawn  ;  9490  cases  were  not  assisted, 
11,943  were  ;  5616  were  aided  by  local  agencies, 
218  by  guardians,  3352  by  individuals,  4485  by 
charity  organization  funds  ;  1643  cases  were 
aided  by  loans,  6776  by  grants  in  money  ;  918 
were  aided  with  employment,  83  to  emigration, 
1117  with  hospital  treatment,  1177  with  surgical 
apparatus,  2783  with  convalescent  aid,  276  with 
pensions  ;  259  were  admitted  to  homes  ;  1565 
were  aided  as  vagrants.  Of  the  income  of  the 
society,  ,£4845  was  for  general  expenses  at  the 
central  office,  .£1 1,380  for  district  committees  ; 
,£244  was  spent  for  emigration,  ,£21,102  for  spe- 
cial cases  and  pensions,  ^3752  for  grants,  and 
,£408  for  loans.  The  object  of  the  society,  it 
must  be  remembered,  is  not  itself  to  give,  but 
to  aid  the  poor  with  friendly  advice  and  by  in- 


lic  sentiment  was  that  every  penny  spent  in  administra- 
tion was  so  much  abstracted  from  the  poor,  and  that 
the  best  management  was  that  which  entailed  the  least 
cost  in  getting  bread  and  soup  to  the  hungry,  and 
shelter,  fuel,  and  clothing  to  the  cold.  .  .  .  Legal  relief 
consisted  of  outdoor  and  indoor  systems,  the  latter 
being  universally  institutional,  ana  therefore  it  only 
falls  incidentally  within  the  scope  of  charity  organi- 
zation efforts.  The  practice  of  outdoor  relief  differed 
greatly  in  different  communities.  In  New  York  City 
the  provision  for  this  form  of  aid  was  comparatively 
slight,  and  consisted  in  appropriations  for  fuel  distri- 
bution and  for  the  adult  blind  in  equal,  inadequate 
amounts,  and  a  trifling  sum  for  medicines  at  the  City 
Hospital.  In  some  cities,  like  Buffalo,  Philadelphia, 
and  Brooklyn,  large  appropriations  of  money  were 
made  for  outdoor  relief,  and  its  administration  did 
not  escape  the  suspicion  of  corrupt  and  political  taint 
at  times.  In  New  England  cities  and  town,  overseers 
of  the  poor  or  selectmen  distributed,  much  at  their 
caprice,  the  relief  provided  for  by  taxation.  But  from 
every  quarter  testimony  arises  that  the  system  was 
without  adequate  safeguards  of  investigation,  tests  of 
destitution  or  means  of  hindering  duplication  of  relief 
from  several  sources  simultaneously,  or  of  making  the 
relief  adequate  to  the  necessity." 

It  was  under  such  conditions  that  the  movement  tow- 
ard charity  organization  commenced.  Our  account 
of  the  movement  we  abridge  from  the  Report  of  the 
Committee  on  History  of  Charity  Organization  in  the 
United  States,  Made  to  the  Twentieth  National  Con- 
ference of  Charities  and  Correction  (q.  v.),  Mr.  Charles 
'  the  Charity  Organization  Society  of 


only  secondly  and  incidentally  in  giving 
money  aid.  Mr.  C.  S.  Loch,  the  secretary  of 
the  society,  estimates  (Charity  Organization, 
p.  43)  that  ,£4,719,224  were  spent  in  charity  in 
London  in  the  year  1886-87  by  all  city,  periodi- 
cal, and  voluntary  institutions,  besides  ,£723,000 
by  hospitals. 

The  history  of  charity  organization  in  the  United 
States  has  closely  followed  that  of  England.    In  the 
fifties  there  had  been  organized  in  al- 
most all  the  large  cities  relief  societies, 
TVia  TTwi+fl.1   usually  called  Societies  for  thelmprove- 
ine  united  ment  of  the  Condition  of  the  Poor.    The 
States.        Boston  Provident  Association  was  one. 
They  were  often   conducted  in  theory 
upon  principles  of  modern  charity,  but 
in  practice,  says  Mr.  Kellogg,  "they  sank  into  the  sea 
of  common  almsgiving,  appealing  to  their  patrons  for 
support  on  the  ground  that  the  money  given  to  them 
would  enable  them  to  enlarge  the  number  of  their 
beneficiaries  or  increase  the  amount  of  their  gifts,  and 
attracting  the  needy  to  their  doors  with  the  hope  of 
loaves  and  fishes.  .  .  .  On  every  side  the  current  of  pub- 


don  Street  Building  in  Boston.    It  was  erected  in  1869 
by  joint  contributions  from  the  city  and 
personal  subscribers,  in  pursuance  of  a 
plan  first  promulgated  by  Hon.  Robert     «>,._•_•_ 
C.  Winthrop  in  1857,  and  subsequently     Beginnings, 
advocated  in  the  annual  reports  of  the 
Boston  Provident  Association,  of  which 
he  was  the  president.    Under  its  root  are  the  offices  of 
the  official  boards  and  the  principal  voluntary  relief 
societies  of  the  city.    The  economy  and  advantages  of 
proximity  for  the  purpose  of  exchanging  information 
and  concerting  measures  of  dealing  with  applicants 
for  help  had  been  clearly  pointed  out,  and  the  exist- 
ence of  this  building  facilitated  the  subsequent  sys- 
tematic development  of  registration  and  cooperation 
in  that  city. 

"  Altho  the  movement  to  organize  charities  in  the 
cities  of  the  United  States  every  where  traces  its  origin 
to  the  London  Society  and  its  publications,  or  to  the 
discussions  which  arose  concerning  it,  there  were 
several  independent  centers  in  .  which  it  appeared 
nearly  simultaneously  in  this  country.  In  1874  Rev. 
Charles  G.  Ames  led  in  the  formation,  upon  London 
models,  of  an  association  in  Germantown,  a  suburban 
ward  of  Philadelphia,  which  employed  household 
visitors  to  investigate  applicants  for  aid,  availed  itself 
of  the  soup-houses,  fuel  societies,  churches,  and  es- 
pecially of  the  outdoor  municipal  relief  in  procuring 
the  requisite  assistance,  and  supplemented  it  as  need 
indicated  from  its  own  resources.  It  brought  the 
charitable  operations  of  Germantown  into  unexpected 
unison  ;  repressed  imposture  and  the  artificial  appe- 
tite for  aid  of  such  poor  as  sought  it  only  because  they 
wanted  to  share  in  the  good  things  provided  for  those 
who  asked,  and  not  because  they  •would  otherwise  be 
destitute  of  them  ;  reformed  outdoor  municipal  re- 
lief ;  discovered  real  cases  of  hardship,  and  gained  the 
confidence  of  the  benevolent  of  all  denominations  in 
that  community.  This  association  profoundly  influ- 
enced the  measures  adopted  by  the  larger  society 
formed  in  Philadelphia  a  few  years  later. 

"In  the  same  year  a  Bureau  of  Charities  was  formed 
in  New  York  City,  of  which  Mr.  Henry  E.  Pellew  was 
chief  promoter  and  secretary,  that  proposed  to  regis- 
ter persons  receiving  outdoor  relief,  either  from  the 
city,  benevolent  societies,  or  individuals ;  but  the 
scheme  was  frustrated  the  next  year  by  the  refusal  of 
the  largest  relief-giving  society  in  the  city  to  co- 
operate. This  plan  met  with  better  success  in  Boston. 
In  the  autumn  of  1875  the  Cooperative  Society  of 
Visitors  among  the  Poor  was  formed  in  Boston, 
whose  theater  of  operation  was  in  the  North  End. 
The  plan  was  a  modification  of  the  Elberfeld  system 
as  proposed  by  Octavia  Hill  for  London.  No  visitor 
was  to  have  more  than  four  '  cases'  on  hand,  and  lists 
were  obtained  from  the  dispensary  physicians  of  that 
congested  and  poor  district.  The  society  held  weekly 
conferences  of  visitors  and  representatives  of  other 


Charity  Organization. 


221 


Charity  Organization. 


Various 
Cities. 


charities,  and  it  opened  a  work-room  in  the  Chardon 
Street  Charity  Building. 

"  Buffalo  has  the  honor  of  being  the  first  city  in  the 
United  States  to  produce  a  complete  Charity  Organi- 
zation Society  of  the  London  type.  The  Rev.  S.  H. 
Gurteen,  an  English  clergyman,  who  had  been  active 
in  the  London  Society,  was  settled  as  an  assistant 
minister  in  St.  Paul's  Church  there, 
and  he  systematized  the  work  of  his 
parish  guild  so  that  every  application 
for  aid  was  promptly  investigated. 
He  proposed  in  1877  the  creation  of  a 
clearing  office  to  which  the  charitable 
agencies  of  the  city  should  send  daily 
reports,  and  he  lectured  on  'Phases  of  Charity,'  at- 
tracting much  attention.  Simultaneously  citizens, 
having  met  in  conference,  were  engaged  in  an  effort 
to  reform  the  methods  of  municipal  outdoor  relief, 
which  had  become  extravagant,  was  careless  and  cor- 
rupt. Failing  to  obtain  legislation  in  Albany  to  create 
a  commission  for  its  control,  they  secured  an  ordinance 
from  the  city,  under  which,  in  October,  1877.  all  appli- 
cations for  relief  were  for  the  first  time  investigated 
by  the  police.  On  December  u,  1877,  as  a  result  of  these 
agitations,  the  Charity  Organization  Society  was  set 
afoot  at  a  public  meeting,  and  it  adhered  to  the  princi- 
ple of  coordinating  existing  relief  agencies  and  giving 
no  relief  from  its  own  funds  except  in  rare  emergencies. 
"In  the  spring  of  1876  a  Registration  Committee  was 
formed  by  private  citizens  of  Boston,  and  work  was 
begun  in  the  autumn,  carried  on  until  the  spring  of 
1878,  and  then  abandoned  in  view  of  the  larger  enter- 
prise then  under  discussion.  It  had  demonstrated  the 
value  of  reports  from  the  offices  of  the  overseers  of 
the  poor,  of  benevolent  societies,  and  of  the  friendly 
visitors,  when  collated,  but  it  had  failed  to  obtain  the 
entire  cooperation  of  relief  organizations.  Much  dis- 
cussion and  many  conferences  ensued  during  that 
year,  looking  to  the  formation  of  a  society  upon  the 
principles  of  charity  organization  which  would  bring 
into  association  all  the  relief  agencies,  ecclesiastical 
and  secular,  of  the  city.  The  large  relief  societies 
knew  the  worth  of  registration,  but  doubted  the  value 
of  '  friendly  visiting.  They  were  willing  to  support 
the  new  movement,  provided  'the  visitors  had  no 
power  of  relief.'  This  condition  was  fortunately  ac- 
ceded to,  and  on  February  26,  1878,  a  provisional  com- 
mission was  formed  by  delegates  from  many  charities, 
which  carried  on  the  work  until  December  8,  when  the 
jjresent  constitution  of  the  Associated  Charities  of 
Boston  was  adopted  and  went  into  effect. 

"  New  Haven  was  next  in  line,  May  23,  1878,  with  the 
cooperation  of  the  older  societies,  and  took  charge  of 
cases  until  investigation  elicited  some  mode  of  making 
more  permanent  disposition  of  them. 

"  Philadelphia  brought  forward  its  type  in  1878.  In  the 
previous  autumn  the  officers  of  several  soup  societies, 
dissatisfied  with  the  results  of  their  previous  work, 
called  a  public  meeting  of  citizens  to  confer  upon 
larger  and  better  methods  for  the  future.  A  large 
committee  was  appointed  to  draw  up  a  plan,  and  on 
June  13,  1878,  a  constitution  was  adopted  and  a  pro- 
visional organization  set  on  foot.  This  instrument 
was  dominated  by  the  idea  of  reproducing  in  each  of 
the  30  wards  of  the  city  a  complete  association  like 
that  existing  in  Germantown.  The  Central  Board  was 
to  be  composed  of  two  delegates  from  each  ward, 
which  should  meet  monthly,  and  meanwhile  its  powers 
were  to  be  exercised  by  an  Executive  Committee. 
The  provisional  commission  proceeded  to  organize 
ward  associations  with  great  rapidity,  and  in  due  time 
delegates  were  chosen  to  the  Central  Board,  and  the 
society  was  organized  under  its  constitution.  The  im- 
mediate results  of  so  cumbrous  and  democratic  a 
scheme  was  that  23  societies  were  formed  in  as  many 
wards  or  groups  of  contiguous  wards,  pledged  to  take 
care  of  all  the  distress  and  penury  each  in  its  territo- 
rial limits.  Each  raised  its  own  funds  and  disbursed 
them  without  control ;  and  as  there  were  but  few  per- 
sons in  them  who  understood  charity  organization 
principles,  the  work  often  fell  into  wrong  hands,  and 
the  ward  associations  were  so  many  new  almoning 
societies.  By  their  attitude  they  were  virtually  say- 
ing to  all  the  older  charitable  societies  that  there  was 
no  need  of  them,  and  they,  as  a  rule,  refused  coopera- 
tion and  still  withhold  it.  Another  result  was  that  the 
Central  Board  had  no  authority  to  control  the  methods 
of  relief,  and  was  itself  subordinate  to  its  ward  con- 
stituencies. One  hundred  and  eighty  persons  were 
needed  to  fill  the  offices  of  directors,  while  there  were 
large  corps  of  visitors  having  a  semi-independent 
organization.  The  movement  was  highly  popular  at 
the  start,  and  came  in  the  first  year  into  an  income  of 
mearly  $40,000.  It  offered  itself  to  the  community  as  a 


complete,  independent,  and  self-contained  system  for 
dealing  with  every  phase  of  charity,  but  its  very 
sufficiency  obscured  the  vital  fact  that  charity  or- 
ganization aims  at  no  more  independence  than  is 
necessary  to  maintain  existence,  and  should  be  sub- 
servient to  all  existing  charity  agencies  with  a  view 
to  their  coordination.  Great  reliance  for  the  uniform 
working  of  the  system  was  placed  upon  monthly  con- 
ferences of  all  the  workers,  directors,  local  superin- 
tendents, and  visitors,  and  for  a  time  these  confer- 
ences were  well  attended  and  were  highly  educational. 
In  due  time  the  plan  was  revised,  the  choice  of  the 
Central  Board  was  transferred  from  the  ward  associa- 
tions to  the  annual  meeting  of  the  general  society,  its 
initiative  and  oversight  was  strengthened,  and  the 
wards  were  consolidated  into  18  districts  ;  but  the  orig- 
inal features  had  made  a  deep  impression  which  has 
not  been  obliterated.  The  business  of  registration  and 
cooperation  sank  into  control  of  the  district  organiza- 
tions ;  the  Central  Office  drifted  into  the  specialty  of 
caring  for  non-residents  and  wayfarers'  lodges ;  and 
the  society  remains,  as  it  started  out  to  be,  a  relief 
agency  with  charity  organization  traditions. 

"Cincinnati  was  promptly  in  the  field,  November  18, 
1879.  The  Associated  Charities  was  initiated  through 
influences  aroused  chiefly  by  the  Women's  Chris- 
tian Association  and  other  societies,  the  inaugural 
meeting  being  held  the  same  hour  with  the  first  annual 
meeting  of  the  Philadelphia  society,  and  reciprocal 
congratulations  being  exchanged  between  them.  It 
started  avowedly  on  the  lines  laid  down  in  the  Boston 
society,  but  practically  it  fell  into  the  Philadelphia 
methods,  and  created  or  adopted  12  district  organiza- 
tions dispensing  relief,  and  which  the  Central  Board 
was  not  able  to  control.  Fortunately  the  tact  and 
force  of  the  general  secretary  repressed  much  of  the 
mischief,  secured  a  general  registration,  and  gave 
cohesion  to  the  system  until  1886,  when  he  resigned 
and  the  society  lapsed  into  a  relief  agency,  became  un- 
popular, and  was  about  to  be  abandoned,  when,  in 
1889,  it  was  reorganized,  the  district  treasuries  were 
absorbed  into  onej  the  central  authority  made  domi- 
nant, and  the  distribution  of  relief  was  stopped,  to  the 
great  increase  of  efficiency  and  public  confidence. 

"  Brooklyn  was  another  center  where  the  movement 
arose  spontaneously.  In  1877  a  commission  of  citizens 
undertook  the  investigation  of  outdoor  relief,  which  in 
that  year  comprised  46,350  beneficiaries  and  involved 
an  expenditure  of  $141,207.  This  resulted  in  restrict- 
ing municipal  out-relief  to  coal  in  1878,  and  in  its  total 
abolition  the  next  year.  In  1879  Mr.  Seth  Low,  who 
had  been  providentially  and  unpremeditatedly  pres- 
ent at  the  inauguration  of  the  Buffalo  society  and 
deeply  impressed  thereby,  enlisted  Mr.  Alfred  T. 
White,  and  they,  with  others  who  had  been  instru- 
mental in  abolishing  the  outdoor  relief  of  the  city,  to- 
gether with  the  volunteer  visitors  of  the  out-poor,  or- 
ganized the  Brooklyn  Bureau  of  Charities,  which  does 
not  give  relief,  but  maintains  wood-yards,  laundries, 
work-rooms,  and  a  woman's  lodging-house. 

"  Indianapolis  enjoyed  the  labors  of  Rev.  Oscar  C. 
McCulloch  as  president  of  the  Benevolent  Society,  in 
•which  office  he  had  made  careful  studies  of  the  poor- 
relief  problem.  In  1876  Mr.  King,  the  township  trus- 
tee or  overseer  of  the  poor,  began  to  systematize  and 
improve  the  administration  of  poor  relief,  and  to- 
gether these  gentlemen  led  on  to  the  formation,  De- 
cember 5,  1879,  °f  the  Charity  Organization  Society. 

"  New  York,  as  the  largest  center  of  population  in  the 
country,  demands  notice  here.  The  difficulties  en- 
countered in  securing  influential  cooperation  in  1874 
for  a  time  paralyzed  further  effort,  altho  the  neces- 
sity for  some  organization  was  long  discussed  by  per- 
sons interested  in  charitable  enterprises.  In  1881  the 
matter  was  taken  up  by  the  State  Board  of  Chari- 
ties, and  through  its  initiative  the  Charity  Organ- 
ization Society  of  the  City  of  New  York  was  founded 
in  January,  1882,  and  incorporated  on  May  10  follow- 
ing. It  followed  the  Boston  plan  in  respect  to  the  im- 
portant features  of  giving  no  relief  and  of  creating  dis- 
trict associations  maintained  from  a  common  treasury 
and  under  central  control. 

"All  other  charity  organization  societies  in  the  United 
States  trace  their  origin  to  these  now  enumerated, 
which  have  been  selected  not  only  as  among  the  earli- 
est in  the  field,  but  as  illustrating  the 
diversity  of   origin  of   the  movement, 
the  causes  which  immediately  led  to  the     National 
associations  for  organizing  charity,  and  Conference 
the  two  types  of  societies,  those  which 
combine  relief    from  their  own    funds 
with  their  methods  and   those  which  do 
not.    The  movement  found  an  expression  of  its  unity 
in  the  National  Conference  of  Charities  and  Correc- 


Charity  Organization. 


222 


Charity  Organization. 


tion,  which  is  itself  an  outgrowth  of  the  American 
Social  Science  Association.   It  is  first  mentioned  in  the 
proceedings  of  the  Chicago  Conference  of  1879,  where 
Mr.  Seth  Low  presented  a  description  of  the  work  in 
Brooklyn,  andT  a  committee  was    formed    to   report 
upon  charity  organization.  Two  years  later,  at  Boston, 
19  societies  reported  to  the  National  Conference,  and 
the  committee  grew  to  a  section,  which  published  a 
separate  report  of  its  own  proceedings. 
"  Simultaneously  with  the  beginning  of  charity  or- 
ganization, and  promoted  by  the  same 
Suppression  men,  there  was  a  repression  in  impor- 
/»f  r»nf  Ann*  tant   cities    of   official    out-door  relief. 
01  uui-aoor  Returns  from  four  cities  for  that  time 
Relief.         give  the  following  results  : 


CITY. 

Year. 

Out- 
relief. 

Year. 

Out- 
relief. 

Brooklyn  

1877 
1877 

1876 
1879 

$141,207 
99,196 

90,000 
66,000 

1880 
1880 

1880 
1880 

None. 

$37,868 

8,000 
None. 

35°.53S 

Buffalo           .         

Indianapolis,      Center 
Township  

Philadelphia  

Amount  saved  to  tax- 
payers   

Total  

$396,403 

$396,403 

While  this  elimination  of  out-door  relief  was  not 
pressed  by  formal  action  of  our  societies,  charity  or- 
ganizationists  claimed  the  credit  of  it  as  the  result  of 
their  agitation  and  personal  effort,  and  it  was  exactly 
in  the  line  of  the  principles  they  advocated.  Diligent 
inquiry  showed  that  no  suffering  ensued  in  conse- 
quence of  the  withdrawal,  while  the  admissions  to  alms- 
houses  and  infirmaries  in  the  cities  named  contem- 
poraneously decreased.  This  event  attracted  wide 
attention  in  official  and  watchful  circles,  evinced  the 
value  of  the  investigations  which  preceded  it,  and  dis- 
closed the  worse  than  useless  prodigality  of  out-door 
relief.  Its  influence  spread  far  and  wide  beyond  the 
limits  where  it  could  be  statistically  followed,  and  was 
the  beginning  of  a  wiser  administration  of  the  chari- 
table funds  raised  by  taxation  in  many  communities. 

"  In  1882  there  were  22  charity  organization  societies 
known  to  exist  in  the  United  States,  and  10  others 
which  had  adopted  some  of  the  leading  features  of 
this  movement  and  were  enrolled  as  correspondents 
•with  the  former  societies.  They  embraced  cities  and 
towns  having  a  population  of  6,331,700,  or  12  per  cent, 
of  the  total  of  the  United  States,  and  among  them  were 
the  chief  centers  of  influence  in  the  country. 

So  far,  Mr.  Kellogg.    At  present  (1895)  there  are  in 
the  United  States  132  charity  organization  societies  ex- 
isting under  slightly  different  names  and  21  relief  so- 
cieties   which    largely    adopt    charity 
organization  principles.    An    appendix 
Statistics,    to  Mr.  Kellogg's  report  gives  the  follow- 
ing totals  for  1892  :  Administrative  offi- 
,  cers,  763  men  and  511  women  ;  paid  offi- 

cers or  agents,  77  men  and  135  women ;  friendly 
visitors,  456  men  and  3534  women  ;  branch  or  district 
organizations,  100:  contributors,  15,726;  churches  or 
associations,  243.  Received  from  city  or  State,  $17,- 
877.54  i  income,  $263,421.39  ;  invested  funds,  $409,037.55. 
Concerning  the  lines  of  work  developed,  the  report 
gives  the  following  statistics  : 

REPRESSION. 
Treatment  of  vagrants : 

Number  turned  over  to  police 537  =  01% 

Number  lodged  through  your  society. 37, 590  =  70. g# 
Number  employed  in  wood-yard    or 

other  like  test  places 13,760  =  26^ 

Street    beggars   and    impostors  sup- 
pressed       967  =  01.85* 

Fraudulent  schemes  detected 117  =  00.2?! 

COOPERATION. 

With  municipal  or  State  boards : 

Number  in  the  town 58 

Number  cooperating 56  =  97^ 

With  societies  and  their  institutions  : 

Number  in  the  town 1,443 

Number  cooperating 420  =  33^ 

With  churches  : 

Number  in  town  3,113 

Number  cooperating 1,253  —  44^ 


SANITARY  WORK  : 

a.  Tenements  improved  through  land- 

lords or  through  changed  habits. . . .      208 

b.  Removals  to  better  quarters 112 

c.  Open-air  excursions,  number  of  ben- 

eficiaries   3I>7^2 

OTHER  AGENCIES  INAUGURATED  AND  MANAGED; 

Wood-yards 7 

Sewing-rooms,  laundries,  banks,  way- 
farers' lodges,  kitchens,  etc  25 


DISPOSITION  OF  CASES  IN  1892. 

Totals. 

Per- 
cent- 
ages. 

18,558 

24.84 

Needing  work  rather  than  alms  

16.05 

Not  relieved,  having  relatives  
Not  relieved,  having  vicious  habits  
Placed  in  institutions  

2,534 
7>7'9 
1,182 

3-39 
.  10-33 
1-58 

Placed  in  charge  of  churches  or  soci- 

5,768 

7.72 

Placed  in  charge  of  police  

572 

.76 

Aid    procured    from    municipality    or 
State  

668 

.89 

Aid  procured  from  churches  and  soci- 

8,408 

11.13 

4,931 

6.60 

596 

.80 

18.04 

Applicants'  resources  developed  
Removed  to  relatives  or  new  situations. 
Brought    to     self-maintenance    (esti- 

46 

490 

1,524 

.06 

-65 

2.04 

CLASSIFIED  CASES,  1892. 

Totals 

Per- 
cent- 
ages. 

6.CC 

Deserted  husbands  or  widowers  

575 

3-74 
25  86 

Orphaned  or  abandoned  children  

437 
1  68 

2.84 

5,38o 

1OO% 

36.87 

6.26 

Over  70  

1.66 

United  States,  white  

1,862 

8.58 

/ 

j-              763 

3-52 

Dutch                  ....        

16 

88-1 

181 

2,589 

161 

384 

Scandinavian.        

289 

842 

21,697 

90.265 

Can  read  and  write  

c    «1 

Cannot  read  or  write  

1,228 

l8    -2Q 

6,677 

I  OO% 

Charity  Organization. 


223 


Charity  Organization. 


Concerning:  the  objects  of  methods  of  charity  organi- 
zation societies,  Professor  A.  G.  Warner,  Ph.D.,  prints 
in  his  American  Charities  (pp.  380,  381)  the  following 


table,  adding  that  the  first  three  objects  may  be  de- 
scribed as  the  essential  functions,  the  remaining  five 
being  usually  kept  in  view,  but  not  invariably  so : 


OBJECTS. 

METHODS. 

MACHINERY. 

i.  Cooperation  between  all  charita- 
ble agencies  of  a  given  locality, 
and  the  best  coordination  of 
their  efforts. 

i.  Comparison  of  relief  records  of 
the  several  agencies  and  mu- 
tual acquaintance  of  workers. 

i.  A  card  or  other  alphabetical  cata- 
logue of  cases  at  a  central  office 
and  frequent  conferences  of  work- 
ers. 

2.  Accurate  knowledge  of  all  cases 
treated. 

2.  Thorough  investigation,  followed 
by  careful  registration. 

2.  Paid  agents  assisted  by  volunteer 
visitors,  and  elaborate  case  rec- 
ords either  at  central  or  branch 
offices. 

3.  To  find  prompt  and  adequate  re- 
lief for  all  that  should  have  it. 

3.  Bringing  each  case  to  the  atten- 
tion of  appropriate  relief  agen- 
cies willing  to  aid.  „ 

3.  Correspondence,      personal      inter- 
views,   sometimes     a       "  Golden 
Book,"  or  even  a  relief  fund  (wis- 
•  dom  of  this  last  questioned). 

4.  Exposure  of  impostors  and  pre- 
vention of  wilful  idleness. 

4.  After  investigation,  notification 
in  all  cases  of  those  likely  to  be 
deceived,  and,  where  feasible, 
arrest  of  impostors  and  profes- 
sional beggars.  Work-test. 

4.  Paid  agents,  sometimes  (especially 
for  this  work)  publication  of  a 
"cautionary  list,  information  to 
all  asking  for  it  in  specific  cases, 
wood-yard. 

5.  To  find  work  for  all  able  and  will- 
ing to  do  anything. 

5.  To  provide  regular  work  where 
possible  and  relief  work  when 
necessary. 

5.  Employment  agency,  wood-yard, 
stone-breaking,  laundries,  rag- 
sorting,  etc. 

6.  Establishment  of  relations  of  per- 
sonal interest  and  sympathy  be- 
tween the  poor  and  the  well-to- 
do. 

6.  Friendly  visiting. 

6.  Organization  of  corps  of  volunteer 
visitors  who  are  not  almsgivers, 
working  under  the  guidance  of 
paid  agents. 

7.  Prevention  of  pauperism.  ' 

7.  By  above  means  and  by  special 
educational  and  provident 
schemes. 

7.  Kindergarten  night  schools,  indus- 
trial schools,  penny  provident 
funds,  provident  dispensaries,  fuel 
funds,  etc. 

8.  Collection  and  diffusion  of  knowl- 
edge on  all  subjects  connected 
with  the  administration  of  char- 
ities. 

8.  Discussion,  public  meetings,  pub- 
lication. 

8.  Board  meetings,  annual  meetings, 
conferences,  lecture  courses,  peri- 
odicals. 

Besides  this,  or  rather  in  connection  with  this  gen- 
eral work,  says  Professor  Warner  (p.  391) : 

"  Many  organizations  go  further  and  seek  to  estab- 
lish special  branches  likely  to  assail  pauperism  in  its 
causes.  The  creche,  or  day  nursery,  at  which  working 
mothers  can  leave  their  6hildren  during  the  day,  has 
been  established  in  several  cities,  notably  in  Buffalo. 
The  kindergarten  movement  for  poor  children,  or  in 
connection  with  the  public  schools,  has  had  the  active 
assistance  of  charity  organizationists.  Cooking-schools, 
sewing-schools,  trade-schools,  and  laundries  for  the 
education  of  the  workers  have  been  established,  as 
well  as  different  varieties  of  savings  funds.  Several 
of  these  funds  operate  with  a  system  of  stamp  de- 

Eosits,  some  of  them  being  through  collections  made 
rom  house  to  house  by  the  friendly  visitors.  The 
New  York  Society  has  been  especially  active  in  the 
pushing  of  stamp-deposit  funds,  having  established 
206  stations,  with  26,732  depositors,  and  over  $15,000  on 
deposit.  In  Boston  and  Baltimore  provident  schemes 
of  a  similar  character  have  been  established,  but  not 
under  the  charity  organizations  societies,  tho  cooperat- 
ing with  them.  Fuel  funds,  by  means  of  which  sum- 
mer savings  can  secure  winter  delivery  of  coal  at 
summer  prices,  have  been  established  by  some  of  the 
societies.  The  rule  of  nearly  all  the  societies  is  not  to 
undertake  these  special  schemes  if  some  independent 
organization  can  be  found  that  will  push  them.  They 
are  desirable  things  that  the  charity  organizationist 
wishes  to  see  established,  but  they  are  not  undertaken 
by  the  society  itself  except  when  necessary.  Frequent- 
ly such  new  enterprises  start  in  connection  with  the 
society,  and  are  then  graduated  into  independent  life." 

The  report  of  Mr.  Kellogg  (1892)  mentions  penny 
savings  funds  controlled  by  the  society  in  17  cities  and 
18  provident  funds. 

The  main  work  of  the  organization,  however,  is 
closely  adhered  to.  Says  a  recent  report  of  the  Boston 
societies  : 

"  '  Relief  '  is  not  our  business  :  help  is.  A  friend  in 
need  is  a  friend  indeed  !  But  this  must  be  a  trained 
friend  to  become  the  best  friend.  And  we  find  that, 


just  as  lack  of  training  is  a  large  cause  of  poverty,  so 
lack  of  training  hinders  and  discourages  our  new  vol- 
unteer visitors.    The  training  comes  more  or  less  un- 
consciously :but  it  may  be  planned,  as  all  training 
should  be.    The  way  to  learn  a  business  is  to  learn  its 
details  and  their  relations  to  principles.    There  is  a 
right  way  of  doing  a  thing,  and  there  are  more  or  less 
definite  methods  of  going  about  the  help- 
ing.   The  new  visitor  then  must  learn 
how.    This  is  one  of  the  reasons  for  or-       Method. 
ganizing  conferences.    The  conference 
is   a   body  of   volunteer  visitors.    Our 
purpose  now  is  to  speak  more  especially  of  parts  of 
the  conference— the  Case  Committee,  the  Daily  Com- 
mittee, and  individual  volunteer  work,  clerical  or  er- 
rands. 

"  The  Case  Committee  is  a  committee  of  one  or  two- 
persons  to  select  the  cases  needing  action,  and  present 
them  concisely  to  the  conference  meeting  for  discus- 
sion and  decision.  One  at  least  of  this  committee 
should  be  an  expert;  and  by  the  concise  manner  in 
which  the  cases  can  be  stated  the  visitors  at  the  con- 
ference may  learn  much  as  to  dealing  with  various 
classes  of  cases,  and  business  may  be  despatched. 

"  The  Daily  Committee  exists  in  some  form  in  about 
half  of  our  conferences.  It  consists  of  two  or  more 
persons  at  a  time,  changing  generally  from  day  to 
day,  and  seems  likely  to  become  the  most  active  busi- 
ness committee  of  all,  besides  helping  our  visitors  to 
learn.  They  may  be  all  members  of  the  Executive 
Committee  or  not.  If  not  experts,  they  have  in  their 
work  the  means  of  becoming  so.  They  consider 
promptly  on  the  spot  and  from  the  latest  information 
the  new  cases  which  have  come  in,  or  any  which  re- 
quire immediate  decision.  They  share  with  the  agent 
the  responsibility  in  such  decisions,  and  may  suspend 
or  reverse,  if  necessary,  decisions  already  made. 
They  relieve  the  Case  Committee  from  the  press  of  ac- 
cumulated work.  They  are  on  hand  some  part  of 
every  day  in  office  hours  with  the  (paid)  agent.  The 
conference  is  the  final  responsible  legislative  body, 
subject  to  the  board  of  directors. 


Charity  Organization. 


224 


Charity  Organization. 


*'  While  not  yet  a  perfected  system  nor  yet  uniform, 
the  above  methods  of  work  seem  to  be  gaining  accept- 
ance as  the  best  we  can  yet  find  for  getting  our  work 
effectively  done,  and  as  affording  an  attractive  means 
of  learning  how  to  be  a  good  volunteer  visitor  and  the 
best  friend  to  the  poor. 

"  It  is  interesting  to  notice  in  the  statistics  that  the 
chief  cause  of  need  is  sickness  for  25  per  cent.,  intem- 
perance for  22  per  cent.,  lack  of  employment  for  14  per 
cent.,  and  other  causes  far  less." 

In  the  larger  cities  directories  of  charities  are  pub- 
lished, embracing  many  hundred  pages  of  lists,  with 
brief  notes  of  classified  hospitals  and  relief  societies, 
etc.  In  New  York  City  a  United  Charities  Building 
has  been  erected  at  a  cost  of  over  $750,000,  the  gift  of 
Mr.  John  S.  Kennedy. 

Charity  organizations  in  the  forms  above  described 
are  mainly  limited  to  England  and  the  United  States, 
but  all  civilized  countries  have  societies  acting  more 
or  less  upon  the  same  principles.    The 
Annual  Report  of   the  New  York  So- 
Other        ciety  presents  a  list  of  foreign  societies 
p        .   •          acting  in  cooperation  with  Charity  Or- 
l/ounines.     ganization  Societies  whenever  occasion 
requires.    In  this  list  Canada  has  2  so- 
cieties ;    Australia,  4  ;  Austria,  o  ;  Bar- 
bados, i  ;  Belgium,  2  ;  Denmark,  i ;  Egypt,  i  ;  France, 
16  ;  Germany.  28 ;  Greece,  i  ;  Holland,  3  ;  India,  3  ;  It- 
aly, 7  ;    Natal,  3 ;    New  Zealand,   i  ;    Nova  Scotia,   i  ; 
Russia,  4  ;  Spain,  2  ;  Sweden  and  Norway,  2 ;  Switzer- 
land, 3  ;  Tasmania,  i  ;  Turkey,  i.    Charitable  aid  in  the 
different  countries  is,  however,  administered  in  quite 
various  ways.    In  Italy  it  is  almost  wholly  conducted 
by  religious  orders  and  societies ;  in  France  there  is  a 
system  which  combines  voluntary  effort 
and  official  management.    Says  the  Rev. 
France.        L.  R.  Phelps  in  Palgrave's  Dictionary  of 
Political  Economy  :  "  The  right  to  relief 
is  recognized  only  in  the  cases  of  lunatics 
and  deserted  children  ;  all  other  relief 
may  be  described,  as  organized  charity  distributed  by 
public  bodies.    Institutions,  such  as  Hdpitaux  for  the 
sick,  hospices  for  the  aged  and  infirm,  are  supported 
by  endowments  and  voluntary  contributions,  and  man- 
aged by  unpaid  bodies,  constituted  and  controlled  by 
the  State.    The  Bureaux  de  Bienfaisance,  consisting 
of  elected  and  nominated  members,  the  mayor  presid- 
ing ex  officio,  distribute  relief  in  the  commune  to  the 
poor  at  their  own  homes.    The  funds  which  they  admin- 
ister are  derived  almost  wholly  from  endowments  and 
voluntary  contributions,  a  small  proportion  only  com- 
ing from  taxation.    Inquiry  is'  conducted  mainly  by 
Sisters  of  Charity,  and  is  very  thorough." 

German  charity  organization  is  noteworthy  for  the 
development  of  the  Elberfeld  system  (q.v.);  according 
to  this  system  the  city  is  divided  by  the  municipal 
authorities  into  districts,  over  each  of 
•which  districts  an  overseer  is  appointed 
Germany,     with    14   or  more   visitors    under  him. 
These  visitors  investigate  and    report 
upon  each  application  for  relief.    Meet- 
ings of  the  visitors  with  the  overseer  are 
held  fortnightly,  and  records  of  all  cases  are  made  and 
transmitted  to  a  central  board  or   Verwaltung.    The 
rules  of  the  system  and  the  instructions  given  to  the 
visitors  are  very  minute.    Funds  are  raised  by  special 
and  general  taxation.    All  the  officers  and  visitors  are 
unpaid,  and  are  appointed  by  the'council,  service  being 
in  practice  almost  obligatory.    Voluntary  societies  are 
expected  to  work  in  connection  with  the  municipal 
system,  and  the  planjs  said  to_meet  with  great  success. 

OBJECTIONS  TO  CHARITY  ORGANIZATIONS. 

Charity  Organization  Societies  are  criticised 
by  many,  especially  by  the  leaders  of  the  so- 
called  labor  movement.  The  ground  of  this 
criticism  is  often,  however,  a  hostility  to  the 
general  social  and  industrial  conditions  out  of 
which  the  associated  charity  movement  has 
grown,  rather  than  an  intelligent  criticism  of 
the  movement  itself.  It  is  charged  by  these 
critics  that  the  associated  charities  often  keep 
even  those  applicants  who  are  worthy  waiting, 
tossed  from  this  bureau  to  that,  while  their  case 
is  being  investigated,  analyzed,  and  finally  re- 
ferred to  the  proper  bureau.  It  is  said  that  the 
investigation  of  cases  by  men  and  women  who, 
however  kindly  may  be  their  intentions,  often 


do  not  understand  the  industrial  and  economic 
condition  of  the  poor,  leads  to  repeated  cases  of 
injustice,  as  these  visitors  try  to  distinguish*  be- 
tween those  whom  they  consider  deserving  and 
the  undeserving.  The  working  classes  often 
resent  this  investigation  of  their  family  life  that 
seems  to  them  either  an  insulting  espionage  or 
a  patronizing  condescension  from  the  rich. 
These  labor  critics  assert,  too,  that  the  asso- 
ciated charities,  by  becoming,  as  it  were,  pro- 
fessional almoners  for  the  rich,  really  prevent 
the  natural  contact  of  the  rich  with  the  poor, 
and  dry  up  the  flow  of  charity  in  a  system  of 
suspicion  and  of  red  tape.  Above  all,  these 
critics  assert  that  the  associated  charities,  by 
their  constant  effort  to  make  the  poor  self-sup- 
porting and  self-dependent,  nold  out  a  false  and 
reactionary  standard  of  individualism  which  is 
impossible  of  fulfilment  and  yet  which  blinds 
the  community  to  the  real  economic  trouble.  It 
is  argued  that  many  of  the  poor  to-day  cannot 
get  employment,  and  therefore  that  it  is  idle 
and  insulting  for  the  associated  charities  to  be 
forever  bidding  the  individual  to  find  work  for 
himself  when  this  is  just  what  he  wants  to  do 
and  cannot.  The  need  to-day,  say  these  critics,  j 
is  for  such  changes  in  the  social  condition  that ' 
all  shall  have  work  and  not  need  alms,  and  the 
charity  organizations  prevent  these  changes  by  ' 
teaching  that  the  poor  can  to-day  help  them- 
selves. For  rich  people  who  are  living  off 
the  work  of  the  poor  to  organize  societies  to. 
bid  the  poor  be  self-supporting  is  from  this 
standpoint  an  insult  and  absurdity.  It  will  be 
thus  seen  that  the  real  opposition  to  the  asso-(' 
ciated  chanties  springs  from  a  sense  of  the  in- 
justice of  the  present  system.  What 
is  wanted,  say  these  critics,  is  not 
associated  chanty,  but  associated  Answer  to 
justice.  The  answer  to  this  criti-  Objections 
cism  is  that  the  associated  charities 
are  not  responsible  for  the  present 
system,  be  it  just  or  unjust,  but  that  under  the' 
present  system  they  are  striving  to  aid  the  poor 
in  what  experience  shows  to  be  at  present  the 
wisest  way.  To  the  assertion  that  they  keep  the 
poor  waiting  while  they  are  being  investigated, 
it  is  answered  that  the  records  of  the  society 
prove  this  charge  unsupported.  Undoubtedly 
no  system  always  works  well,  and  among  the 
hundreds  and  thousands  of  charity  visitors,  un- 
wise and  foolish  things  are  no  doubt  occasion- 
ally done  and  needless  suffering  caused,  but  it 
is  proved  that  this  happens  very  rarely  and  that 
the  system  is  working  better  and  better. 

Nevertheless  many  even  of  the  firmest  friends 
of  charity  organization  are  admitting  that  char- 
ity in  any  form  cannot  meet  the  real  needs  of 
the  poor  to-day,  and  that  therefore  just  so  far  as 
associated  charities  make  the  wealthy  and  influ- 
ential believe  that  deeper  social  reforms  are  not 
needed,  associated  charities  do  become  reaction- 
ary and  harmful.  President  Tucker  said,  in  a 
recent  Phi  Beta  oration  at  Harvard"?'1'  The  phi- 
lanthropy which  is  content  to  relieve  the  sufferer 
from  wrong  social  conditions  postpones  the 
philanthropy  which  is  determined,  at  any  cost, 
to  right  those  conditions. ' '  Associated  charities 
are  not  righting  the  conditions.  In  an  address  at 
the  Episcopal  Church  Congress,  in  Boston,  No- 
vember, 1894,  Mr.  Robert  Treat  Paine,  one  of 


Charity  Organization. 


225 


Chautauqua  Assembly. 


the  foremost  associated  charity  leaders  in  Amer- 
ica, said,  speaking  of  the  conditions  in  the  larger 
cities  :  "  The  day  of  panaceas  is  gone.  .  .  . 
All  that  I  can  do  is  to  utter  my  cry  almost  of 
despair."  In  England,  says  another  charity 
organization  worker,  the  Rev.  S.  A.  Barnett 
(Practicable  Socialism,  p.  66)  : 

"  The  most  earnest  member  of  a  charity  organization 
cannot  hope  that  organized  alms  giving  will  be  power- 
ful so  to  alter  conditions  as  to  make  the  life  of  the 
poor  a  life  worth  living.  Societies  which  absorb  much 
wealth  and  which  relieve  their  subscribers  of  their 
responsibility  are  failing ;  it  remains  only  to  adopt  the 
principles  of  the  education  act,  of  the  poor  law,  and  of 
other  socialistic  organization,  and  call  on  society  to 
do  what  societies  fail  to  do." 

Nevertheless,  it  does  not  follow,  even  if  Canon 
Barnett  be  right,  that  while  we  press  toward 
new  social  reforms,  we  should  not  do  all  we  can 
to  relieve  by  wise  charity  the  suffering  of  the 
poor  to-day. 

References  :  Charity  Organization,  by  C.  S.  Loch 
(London,  1890);  Charity  Organization  Annual  Reports 
and  Publications ;  Annual  Reports  of  the  National 
Conferences  of  Charities  and  Correction  ;  Annual  Re- 
ports of  State  Boards  of  Charities  ;  The  Charities  Re- 
view (105  East  22d  Street,  New  York  City) ;  Charity  Or- 
ganization Review  (of  the  London,  England,  C.  O.  S.) ; 
Public  Relief  and  Private  Charity,  by  Mrs.  J.  S. 
Lowell  (New  York,  1884) ;  American  Charities,  by  A.  G. 
Warner  (New  York,  1895)  >  Lend  a  Hand  (Boston). 

See  also  PAUPERISM  ;  POVERTY  ;  UNEMPLOYED  ; 
POOR  LAWS  ;  CHALMERS  ;  DENISON  ;  BOOTH  ;  TENE- 
MENTS ;  SLUMS,  etc. 

Revised  by  CHARLES  D.  KELLOGG. 

CHAUTAUQUA  ASSEMBLY.— In  Au- 
gust, 1874,  Lewis  Miller,  of  Akron,  O.,  and 
Bishop  John  H.  Vincent  organized  the  first 
Chautauqua  Assembly.  Its  name  was  derived 
from  Chautauqua  Lake,  in  New  York  State,  on 
the  shore  of  which  the  meeting  was  held.  It 
began  as  a  summer  school  for  the  better  train- 
ing of  Bible  teachers,  and  endeavored  to  lay 
most  emphasis  on  the  "  week-day  forces"  in  re- 
ligious culture.  Its  two  founders  desired  to 
give  Sunday-school  teachers  a  continued,  pro- 
gressive, and  thorough  study  of  biblical  litera- 
ture and  pedagogical  principles.  The  first  meet- 
ing was  a  success  ;  and  by  a  gradual  and  natu- 
ral growth  the  plan  has  been  broadened  to 
include  instruction  in  almost  all  branches  of 
knowledge  ;  the  session  has  been  extended  from 
two  weeks  to  two  months  (July  and  August)  ; 
and  a  town  has  been  built  up  which  presents  an 
interesting  study  to  the  educator  and  sociologist 
in  its  municipal  government  and  its  ideals  of 
life.  The  present  form  of  the  Chautauqua  As- 
sembly was  assumed  in  1878,  and  various  im- 
provements have  been  adopted  from  year  to 
year.  It  is  at  present  incorporated  under  the 
laws  of  the  State  of  New  York.  Its  manage- 
ment is  intrusted  to  a  board  of  24  trustees,  elect- 
ed either  by  the  owners  of  property  at  Chautau- 
qua, or  in  case  a  quorum  of  such  electors  cannot 
be  secured,  by  the  board  itself.  The  Assembly 
is  not  a  stock  company,  nor  are  the  trustees  in- 
terested in  the  land  beyond  the  ownership  of 
lots  for  private  use.  By  the  provisions  of  the 
charter,  all  surplus  funds  must  be  used  for  the 
improvement  and  extension  of  the  Assembly's 
work.  The  president  and  chancellor  have  never 
received  compensation  for  their  services.  Those 
officers  upon  whom  falls  the  management  of  de- 
tails are  paid  ordinary  salaries. 


Chautauqua  has  become  a  city  where  munici- 
pal functions  are  extended  to  include  free  pub- 
lic instruction  and  entertainment.  This  ex- 
pense is  defrayed  by  a  system  of  taxation  which 
falls  upon  all  within  the  town,  however  brief  the 
term  of  citizenship.  The  tariff  for  July  is  :  one 
day,  25  cents  ;  one  week,  $i  ;  the  month,  $2.50  ; 
for  August :  one  day,  40  cents  ;  one  week,  $2  ; 
the  month,  $3  ;  the  charge  for  the  en  tire  season, 
$5.  Citizenship  includes  the  privilege  of  attend- 
ing all  exercises  of  the  general  program,  and 
access  to  the  museum,  the  reading-room,  the 
models,  etc.  . 

Chautauqua  is  distinctively  a  religious  place  in 
the  broadest  sense,  embracing  the  higher  men- 
tal, physical,  and  spiritual  development  of  its 
citizens  and  members.  It  is  strictly  non-secta- 
rian. 

The  general  program  provides  a  daily  arrangement 
of  lectures,  concerts,  dramatic  recitals,  and  other  exer- 
cises, to  which  all  citizens  have  free  access.  Every 
evening  a  fine  concert,  a  stereopticon  lecture,  or  some 
other  entertainment  is  given.  Well-known  men  and 
women  in  all  departments  of  life  give  courses  of  lec- 
tures or  single  addresses  on  contemporary  religious, 
social,  and  economic  questions.  For  those  who  wish 
to  study,  a  six  weeks'  course  of  instruction  is  pro- 
vided at  moderate  charges  :  (a)  Chautauqua  College, 
teaching  ancient  and  modern  languages,  literature, 
history,  natural  sciences,  political  economy,  and 
philosophy,  (b)  Schools  of  sacred  literature,  pro- 
viding courses  in  Bible  study,  both  in  the  original 
languages  and  in  English,  under  leading  biblical 
specialists,  (c)  A  pedagogical  course  for  public-school 
teachers  extends  over  a  period  of  three  weeks,  and 
includes  instruction  in  psychology,  pedagogical  prin- 
ciples, and  their  practical  application  to  the  teach- 
ing of  arithmetic,  geography,  science,  etc.  (d)  A 
school  of  music,  teaching  both  the  theory  and  prac- 
tice of  instrumental  and  vocal  music,  (e)  A  school 
of  physical  education  in  connection  with  a  well-equip- 
ped gymnasium,  conducting  classes  for  both  sexes  in 
all  branches  of  gymnastics,  athletic  contests,  rowing, 
etc.  (f)  Other  classes  in  art,  photography,  industrial 
drawing,  china  decoration,  manual  training,  elocution, 
and  short-hand. 

A  daily  paper,  the  Chautauqua  Assembly  Herald,  is 
published.  Besides  the  regular  classes,  there  have 
been  formed  a  number  of  clubs  for  various  special  ed- 
ucational purposes* 

One  of  the  most  important  features  of  the  As- 
sembly is  the  Chautauqua  Literary  and  Scientific 
Circle.  This  was  started  in  1878,  and  offers  aid 
to  self -educating  people,  either  as  individuals  or 
in  groups  known  as  ' '  local  circles. ' '  The  essen- 
tial features  of  the  plan  are  : 

1.  A.   definite  four  years'1  course  of  history,  litera- 
ture, science,  etc. 

2.  Specified  volumes  approved  by  the  counselors. 

3.  Allotment  of  time.    Reading  apportioned  by  week 
and  month. 

4.  A  monthly    magazine  with   additional   readings, 
notes,  and  general  literature. 

5.  A  membership  book,  with  suggestions,  review  out- 
lines, etc. 

6.  Time  required,  40  minutes  to  an  hour  a  day  for 
nine  months. 

7.  Certificates  granted  to  all  who  complete  the  four 
years'  course. 

8.  Advanced  courses,  for  continued  reading  in  special 
lines. 

9.  Pedagogical  course  for  secular  teaching. 

10.  Young  People's  Reading  Course  to  stimulate  the 
reading  of  good  literature  by  the  young. 

Further  details  may  be  obtained  from  Bishop 
Vincent,  Buffalo,  N.  Y.  At  present  (1895)  the 
Chautauqua  Literary  and  Scientific  Circle  has 
enrolled  over  200,000  members,  and  an  endea- 
vor is  being  made  to  establish  a  "  resident 
faculty  for  non-resident  students."  The  offi- 
cers of  Chautauqua  (1895)  are  :  President, 


Cherbuliez,  Antoine  E. 


226 


Chicago  Anarchists. 


CHERBULIEZ,    ANTOINE     ELYSEE, 

was  born  in  Geneva  in  1 797.  A  barrister,  magis- 
trate, and  then  professor,  he  was  in  the  Can- 
tonal Legislature  from  1831  to  1846,  and  till  1848 
in  the  Great  Council.  From  1848  to  1851  he  was 
in  Paris,  and  then  professor  at  Zurich,  where 
he  died  1869.  His  main  work  is  Precis  de  la 
Science  tconomique  et  de  ses  principales  ap- 
plications (2  vols.,  1862). 

CHEVALIER,  MICHEL,  was  born  at 
Limoges  in  1806,  and  died  at  the  Chateau  de 
Montplaisir,  near  Lodev-e  (Herault),  in  1879. 
Commencing  life  as  a  mining  engineer,  he  gave 
this  up  in  1829  to  join  Saint-Simonism  (y.v.), 
and  became  editor-in-chief  of  the  Globe.  He 
was  condemned,  August  28,  1832,  to  a  year's 
imprisonment  and  100  francs  (^4)  fine,  as  the 
responsible  agent  of  the  Globe,  for  articles  which 
were  accused  of  being  outrages  on  morality. 
His  intentions  were  worthy,  and  his  habits  of 
life  more  strict  than  appearances  led  the  world 
to  suppose  ;  hence  the  Government  itself,  which 
discovered  at  this  time  M.  Chevalier's  abilities, 
remitted  half  the  penalty,  and  also  entrusted  to 
him  the  mission  of  studying  the  railways  of  the 
United  States.  He  devoted  himself  hencefor- 
ward to  writing  on  engineering  and  economic 
subjects,  and  gradually  but  very  materially 
changed  his  economic  views.  In  1841  he  suc- 
ceeded Rossi  in  the  chair  of  Political  Economy 
at  the  College  of  France. 

In  the  Revolution  of  1848  he  opposed  the  so- 
cialism of  the  Commission  du  gouvernement 
pour  les  travailleurs.  He  wrote  at  that  time 
in  the  Journal  des  Dtbats  a  series  of  letters 
called  JLettres  sur  V  organisation  du  travail, 
which  were  collected  under  this  title.  This  and 
the  Lettres  sur  I'  Amtriqite  du  nord  may  be 
considered  his  most  characteristic  and  remark- 
able works. 

The  Institut  (A  cade 'mie  des  Sciences  morales 
et  politiques}  opened  its  doors  to  him  February, 
1851.  At  the  end  of  that  year  he  gave  in  his 
adhesion  to  the  Government  of  the  coup  d'  e"tat. 
He  believed  liberty  to  be  more  in  peril  under 
the  class  of  parliamentary  government  of  which 
he  had  seen  the  working,  than  under  a  personal 
government.  He  was  called  to  the  council  of 
state  February,  1852.  At  the  same  date  M. 
Chevalier  published  the  Examen  du  systeme 
commercial  connu  sous  le  nom  de  systeme 
protecteur,  a  work  in  which  the  advantage  of 
commercial  liberty  was  shown.  He  induced 
Napoleon  III.  to  sign  the  famous  commercial 
treaty  with  England  of  January  23,  1860. 

In  1859  Michel  Chevalier  published  a  new  vol- 
ume with  the  significant  title,  De  la  baisse 
probable  de  I'or.  Facts  have  shown  him 
wrong  on  this  point.  He  strove  later  against 
Louis  Wolowski  in  favor  of  the  single  gold 
standard  against  the  system  of  a  double  stand- 
ard combined  with  a  fixed  ratio.  He  resumed 
his  duties  as  professor  in  1866  and  carried 
them  on  till  1878,  when  he  took  a  coadjutor — 
this  time  one  of  his  sons-in-law  —  M.  Paul 
Leroy-Beaulieu,  who  became  his  successor. 
(Abridged  from  the  account  by  M.  A.  Courtois, 
fils,  in  Palgrave's  Dictionary  of  Political 
Economy, ) 


History. 


CHICAGO  ANARCHISTS,  THE.— The 
arrest,  trial,  and  execution  of  the  so-called  "  Chi- 
cago anarchists' '  mark  an  epoch  in  the  develop- 
ment of  the  labor  movement  in  America.  The 
facts  of  the  case,  gathered  out  of  the  somewhat 
contradictory  statements  made  by  those  who 
believe  that  the  anarchists  were  rightly,  and 
those  who  believe  that  they  were  wrongly  con- 
demned seem  to  be  as  follows  : 

The  year  1886  was  one  of  widespread  social  industrial 
agitation  in  the  United  States.     In  1884  the  Federation 
of  Trades  and  Labor  Unions  of  the  United  States  and 
Canada  had  issued  a  manifesto  calling  on  all  trades  to 
unite  in  the  demand  for  an  eight-hour  day,  and  petting 
a  day  for  a  general  strike  to  gain  that  end.    Afterward 
it  was  deemed  wisest  to  postpone  con- 
certed action  for  one  year,  and  May  i, 
1886,  was  the  day  appointed  when  the 
new  system  should  be  inaugurated.   All 
through  the  States  the  •wave  of  organiza- 
tion   spread,    men    and   women  of   ad- 
vanced ideas  all  lending  their  aid  to  further  the  move- 
ment. 

In  Chicago  the  excitement  ran  the  highest.  Here 
was  a  little  group  of  men  more  or  less  loosely  banded 
together,  and  popularly  called  anarchists.  As  a  mat- 
ter of  fact,  they  were  of  various  economic  views.  They 
gathered  around  a  section  of  the  American  Inter- 
national, which  had  become  an  anarchistic  organiza- 
tion, and  must  not  be  confused  with  the  old  European 
socialist  International.  They  had  two  principal  or- 
gans :  the  Alarm,  with  Parsons  as  its  editor,  the  English 
organ,  and  the  Arbeiter  Zeitung,  the  German  organ, 
with  Spies  and  Schwab  as  its  principal  writers,  and 
Fischer  as  foreman.  Fielden  and  Engel  were  also  prom- 
inent in  the  group.  Not  agreed  in  their  economic 
views,  they  were  agreed  in  denouncing  the  present 
system  as  the  parent  of  cruel  wrongs,  and  in  being  will- 
ing to  go  to  extremes  in  agitating  against  this  system. 

They  felt  that  the  labor  movement  was  dying  of 
inertia.  They  felt  that  the  working  people  were  being 
utterly  ground  down,  and  were  submitting  too  easily. 
They  thought  that,  without  really  committing  violence, 
if  they  threatened  violence  and  talked  "  murder  and 
dynamite,  they  could  frighten  the  capitalists  into 
either  valuable  concessions,  or  such  a  policy  of  restric- 
tion as  would  make  the  people  rise.  They  therefore 
began  in  the  Alarm  to  write  incendiary  articles  ;  and  in 
order  to  frighten  the  capitalists, they  reported  the  work- 
ing people  as  preparing  to  rise  in  vengeance.  Some  of 
them,  at  least,  believed  that  by  "talking  violence" 
they  would  "  really  prevent  violence."  They  argued 
that  "  if  it  did  cost  a  little  bloodshed  now,"  it  would 
"save  bloodshed  in  the  end."  Some  of  them  were 
themselves  the  gentlest  of  men.  (For  their  individual 
lives,  see  the  end  of  this  article.) 

The  eight-hour  movement  gave  the  anarchists  oppor- 
tunity for  agitation.  An  eight-hour  association  was 
formed  in  Chicago.  Open-air  meetings  were  continu- 
ally held.  Bitterest  language  was  used.  On  their 
side,  the  employers  drew  closer  together  against  the 
movement.  Some  firms,  however,  granted  some  re- 
duction of  hours.  At  McCormick's  reaper  works  there 
was  a  prolonged  struggle,  commencing  in  February, 
and  continuing  many  months.  The  master  tried  to 
force  his  men  out  of  their  organizations.  Twelve  hun- 
dred men  were  thrown  out  of  work.  On  May  i, 
40,000  men  and  women  struck  work  in  Chicago  for  the 
eight-hour  day.  The  Central  Labor  Union  of  Chicago 
held  a  mass-meeting  attended  by  25,000  people.  Spies, 
Parsons,  Fielden,  and  Schwab  spoke.  Strikes  spread 
still  further.  On  May  2  a  great  meeting  of  the  locked- 
out  men  from  McCormick's  was  held  to  protest  against 
the  Pinkertons  he  employed. 

Parsons  and  Schwab  spoke  at  the  meeting.  Among 
the  strikers  were  the  lumber-shovers,  most  of  them 
Poles,  Bohemians,  and  Germans.  May  3,  the  Lumber- 
Shovers'  Union  called  a  meeting  to  dis- 
cuss the  terms  of  proposals  to  be  sub- 
mitted to  their  employers.  The  meeting 
was  held  near  McCormick's.  Spies,  be- 
ing  known  as  a  good  speaker,  was  in- 
vited to  attend.  When  he  appeared,  a 
protest  was  heard  against  letting  a  socialist  speak. 
But  Spies  began,  and  was  soon  listened  to  in  quiet. 
At  four  o'clock  the  bell  of  McCormick's  began  to  ring, 
and  the  "scabs"  were  seen  leaving.  Some  of  the  by- 
standers at  the  meeting  then  made  a  move  toward  the 
factory,  while  Spies  went  on  quietly  with  his  speech 


Chicago  Anarchists. 


227 


Chicago  Anarchists. 


for  another  15  minutes.  The  crowd  outside  the  factory 
began  throwing  stones.  The  police  •were  telephoned 
for,  and  arrived  in  large  numbers.  They  were  received 
with  stones,  and  replied  with  their  revolvers.  A  few 
shots  were  returned  by  the  crowd,  and  the  police 
opened  a  general  fire  upon  all  in  sight— men,  women, 
and  children,  who  fled  in  terror,  leaving  four  dead  and 
many  wounded.  Burning  with  indignation,  Spies 
rushed  back  to  the  Arbeiter  Zeitung  office  and  wrote 
a  manifesto,  the  so-called  "Revenge  Circular."  This 
was  distributed  at  the  different  workmen's  meeting- 
places. 

Among  the  many  meetings  that  took  place  the  same 
night  was  one  of  the  socialist  association,  the  Lehr 
und  Wehr  Verein.  Gottfried  Waller,  who  turned  in- 
former afterward,  was  elected  chairman.  Engel  and 
Fischer  were  present.  The  events  of  the  afternoon  at 
McCormick's  were  discussed,  and  also  in  a  general 
way  what  the  working  men  were  to  do  if  the  police 
went  on  attacking  strikers.  It  was  resolved  to  call  a 
meeting  the  following  night  in  the  Haymarket  to  pro- 
test against  the  police  assaults.  The  next  morning, 
May  4,  Fischer  informed  Spies,  at  the  Arbeiter  Zeitung 
office,  of  the  proposed  meeting,  and  asked  him  to 
speak ;  he  consented.  Shortly  afterward  he  saw,  for 
the  first  time,  the  circular  calling  the  meeting,  which 
contained  the  words,  "  Working  men,  arm  yourselves, 
and  appear  in  full  force."  Immediately  on  reading 
the  circular  Spies  said  that  this  must  be  struck  out,  or 
he  would  not  speak  or  attend  the  meeting.  Fischer  at 
once  agreed,  and  had  the  line  taken  out.  The  circular 
with  that  line  omitted  was  printed,  and  about  20,000 
copies  distributed. 

Parsons  had  been  away  from  Chicago  to  Cincinnati, 
from  Sunday,  May  2,  and  returned  Tuesday  morning. 
His  wife  asked  him  to  help  her  in  organization  of  the 
sewing  girls  of  Chicago,  and  Parsons,  knowing  nothing 
of  the  Haymarket  meeting,  then  called  a  meeting  of 
the  American  group  at  the  Arbeiter  Zeitung  office.  In 
the  evening  Spies  went  to  the  Haymarket.  but  seeing 
no  English  speakers,  went  away,  with  a  few  friends, 
to  find  Parsons ;  but  soon  returned,  without  having 
found  him,  and  opened  the  meeting. 

Meantime,  a  few  members  of  the  American  group  had 
assembled  at  the  Arbeiter  Zeitung  building.  There 
were  Fielden,  Schwab,  and  at  about  8.30  o'clock  Parsons 
arrived,  in  company  with  Mrs.  Parsons, 
his  two  children,  and  Mrs.  Holmes. 
Schwab  soon  left  to  address  a  meeting 
at  i)eermg-  Schwab  stayed  at  Deering 
until  10.30  o'clock.  The  discussion  on 
the  girls'  movement  was  soon  over, 
when  somebody  arrived  from  the  Haymarket,  stating 
that  English  speakers  were  wanted.  Parsons,  with  his 
company,  Fielden,  and  most  of  those  present,  at  once 
•went  there.  On  their  arrival  Spies  ceased  speaking,  and 
Parsons  got  up  and  spoke  about  one  hour.  The  meet- 
ing was  a  quiet  one,  and  at  the  close  of  Parsons'  speech, 
the  Mayor  of  Chicago,  who  attended  the  meeting  for 
the  purpose  of  dispersing  it,  if  need  should  arise,  left 
the  meeting  and  went  over  to  the  police  station,  and 
told  Captain  Bonfield  that  he  had  better  issue  orders 
to  his  reserves  at  the  other  stations  to  go  home.  Par- 
sons was  followed  by  Fielden.  When  he  had  been 
speaking  some  10  minutes  the  weather  clouded,  and 
the  wind  blowing  cold,  Parsons  suggested  that  they 
had  better  adjourn  to  Zepf's  Hall,  close  by;  Fielden 
said  he  would  be  through  in  a  few  minutes.  Many  left 
the  meeting,  among  them  Parsons,  with  his  family  ; 
they  crossed  to  Zepf's  Hall,  where  they  found  Fischer. 
Fielden  went  on  speaking,  when  suddenly  about  180 
police  turned  out  of  the  station,  marching  with  a  quick 
step,  in  fighting  formation,  and  with  arms  in  readiness, 
to  the  Haymarket,  where  only  a  few  hundred  persons 
remained.  The  captain  of  the  first  row  of  the  police 
had  just  ordered  the  meeting  to  disperse,  and  his  men, 
without  waiting  a  reply,  were  advancing  to  the  attack, 
when  a  small  bomb  •was  thrown  by  some  one,  alighted 
between  the  first  and  second  companies  of  the  police, 
and  exploded  with  a  loud  report.  About  60  of  the  po= 
lice  were  thrown  to  the  ground,  and  one,  named  Mat- 
thias J.  Degan,  was  killed.  Instantly  firing  began  ; 
people  fled  terrified  in  all  directions,  followed  by  the 
police,  •who  fired  at  random  as  they  followed. 

The  Haymarket  speakers,  except  Parsons,  who  had 
left  Chicago,  were  arrested ;  those  who  had  taken  a 
prominent  part  in  labor  meetings,  and  were  known  as 
labor  organizers,  were  hunted  and  imprisoned.  The 
Arbeiter  Zeitung  was  suppressed,  and  all  its  printers 
and  editors  put  in  jail.  When  the  friends  of  the  arrest- 
ed men  tried  to  restart  it,  it  had  to  pass  under  the 
censorship  of  the  chief  of  police.  The  meetings  of 
workmen  were  prohibited  or  broken  up.  The  most 
exciting  tales  about  infernal  conspiracies  against  the 


life  and  property  of  the  citizens  were  circulated.  The 
daily  papers  called  for  the  hanging  of  the  leading  an- 
archists, as  if  they  had  been  already  proved  guilty. 

After  the  Haymarket  meeting,  May  4,  1886,  some  300 
leading  American  capitalists  met  secretly  to  plan  the 
destruction  of  anarchy.  They  formed  themselves  into 
The  Citizens'  Association,  and  subscribed  $100,000  in  a 
few  hours. 

On  May  17  the  grand  jury  came  together.  "The 
body  is  a  strong  one,"  says  a  telegram  from  Chicago  to 
a  New  York  daily,  "  and  it  is  safe  to  aver  that  anarchy 
and  murder  will  not  receive  much  quarter  at  the  hands 
of  the  men  composing  it.  It  is  certain 
that  Spies,  Parsons,  Schwab,  and  the 
other  inciters  to  outrage  will  be  in-  rpVio  Trial 
dieted."  Indicted  they  were.  The  in-  ille  irlal- 
dictment  contained  69  counts,  charging 
the  defendants,  August  Spies,  Michael 
Schwab,  Samuel  Fielden,  Albert  R.  Parsons,  Adolph 
Fischer,  Georg  Engel,  Louis  Lingg,  Oscar  W.  Neebe, 
Rudolph  Schnaubelt,  and  William  Seliger  with  the 
murder  of  M.  J.  Degan.  Schnaubelt  and  Parsons  were 
not  in  the  hands  of  the  police,  but  when  the  trial  came 
on  Parsons  presented  himself  at  the  bar  of  the  court. 
Seliger  had  turned  informer.  On  June  21  the  impan- 
eling of  the  jury  before  Judge  Joseph  E.  Gary  began. 
About  looo  were  examined.  Of  this  number  only  five 
or  six  belonged  to  the  labor  class,  and  they  were  all 
challenged  and  refused  by  the  State.  The  remainder 
were  all  employers  of  labor,  or  men  dependent  upon 
that  class,  as  clerks  or  the  like.  Most  declared  they 
had  a  prejudice  against  anarchists,  socialists,  and  com- 
munists as  a  class.  This,  however,  Judge  Gary  ruled, 
was  no  cause  to  exclude  them  from  the  jury.  On  the 
motion  for  a  new  trial,  an  affidavit  was  produced 
wherein  it  was  sworn  that  the  special  bailiff,  Henry 
Ryce,  had  said  to  well-known  men  in  Chicago  that  he 
was  managing  this  case,  and  well  knew  what  he  was 
about ;  that  those  fellows  would  hang  as  certain  as 
death,  and  that  he  was  only  summoning  such  men  as 
jurors  as  •would  not  be  acceptable  to  the  defendants. 

The  impaneling  of  the  jury  occupied  22  days. 

On  July  ij  State's  Attorney  Gnnnell  began  his  ad- 
dress, charging  the  defendants  with  murder  and  con- 
spiracy, and  promising  to  show  the  jury  who  threw 
the  bomb. 

The  most  important  witnesses  for  the  State  were 
Waller.  Schrader,  and  Seliger,  all  formerly  comrades 
of  the  defendants,  now  turned  informers.  The  theory 
for  the  prosecution  was  that  the  defendants  were,  with 
others,  actively  engaged  in  a  conspiracy  to  overturn 
the  existing  authorities,  and  advocated  bloodshed  and 
violence  in  order  to  gain  their  ends,  and  that  the  meet- 
ing on  May  4  in  the  Haymarket  was  only  one  step  in 
their  program.  The  evidence  brought  forward  to  sup- 
port such  a  theory  was,  however,  extremely  contradic- 
tory, and  much  of  it  broke  down  completely  on  the  first 
examination.  It  was  never  proven  who  threw  the 
bomb,  and,  as  some  of  the  men  indicted  were  not  at 
the  Haymarket  meeting,  and  had  nothing  to  do  with 
it,  the  prosecution  was  forced  to  proceed  on  the  theory 
that  the  men  indicted  were  guilty  of  murder  because 
it  was  claimed  they  had  at  various  times  in  the  past 
uttered  and  printed  incendiary  and  seditious  language, 
practically  advising  the  killing  of  policemen,  of  Pink- 
erton  men,  and  others  acting  in  that  capacity,  and  that 
they  were  therefore  responsible  for  the  murder  of 
Matthias  Degan.  Said  Judge  Gary  : 

"  If  the  fact  be  that  a  large  number  of  men  concurred 
with  each  other  in  preparing  to  use  force  for  the  de- 
struction of  human  life,  upon  occasions  which  were  not 
yet  foreseen,  but  upon  some  principles 
which  they  substantially  agreed  upon, 
as,    for  example,   taking   the  words  of          The 
this  witness,  it  a  large  number  of  men  •!>_,._,,„.,*;„„ 
agreed  together  to  kill  the  police  if  they  "Osecuuon. 
were  fpund  in  conflict  with  the  strikers 
— I  believe  that  is  the  phrase — leaving  it  to  the  agents 
of  violence  to  determine  whether  the  time  and  occasion 
had  come  for  the   use   of  violence ;    then,   if  the  time 
and  occasion  do  come  when  the  violence  is  used,  are 
not  all  parties   who  agreed   beforehand  in  preparing 
the  means  of  death,  and  agreed  in  the  use  of  them  upon 
time  and  occasion,  equally   liable?" 

The  prisoners  argued  in  defense  that,  as  some  un- 
known person  threw  the  bomb,  it  was  impossible  to 
know  beyond  a  reasonable  doubt  that  he  had  been  led 
to  do  it  by  any  public  speech  of  theirs  or  any  editorial 
they  had  published.  They  also  claimed  that  to  punish 
them  because  of  the  effect  of  any  public  speech  they  had 
delivered  or  any  newspaper  article  they  had  written 
or  published  would  be  a  violation  of  the  law  that  for- 
bids any  abridgment  of  speech  or  press  in  the  United 
States.  The  prisoners  had  counsel,  but  also  defended 


Chicago  Anarchists. 


228 


Chicago  Anarchists. 


themselves  in  speeches  rather  of  defiance  than  de- 
fense. 

After  a  prolonged  trial  the  jury  brought  in  the  ver- 
dict : 

"We,  the  jury,  find  the  defendants  August  Spies, 
Michael  Schwab,  Samuel  Fielden,  Albert  R.  Parsons, 
Adolph  Fischer,  George  Engel,  and 
Louis  Lingg  guilty  of  murder  in  manner 
The  Verdict.  an(l  form  as  charged  in  the  indictment, 
and  fix  the  penalty  at  death.  We  find 
the  defendant  Oscar  W.  Neebe  guilty  of 
murder  in  manner  and  form  as  charged  in  the  indict- 
ment, and  fix  the  penalty  at  imprisonment  in  the  peni- 
tentiary for  15  years." 

The  case  was  carried  to  the  Supreme  Court,  and  was 
there  affirmed  in  the  fall  of  1887.  November  10  Lingg 
committed  suicide  by  exploding  a  bomb  in  his  mouth. 
The  sentence  of  Fielden  and  Schwab  was  commuted 
to  imprisonment  for  life,  and  Parsons,  Fischer,  Engel, 
and  Spies  were  hanged  November  n,  1887.  They  suf- 
fered calmly  and  without  flinching.  Parsons'  last 
words  were,  "Let  the  voice  of  the^eople  be  heard." 

The  hanging  excited  great  agitation  over  all 
the  world.  The  major  part  of  the  daily  press 
and  of  the  capitalist  community  welcomed  it  as 
a  necessary  stamping  out  of  anarchy  in  this 
country.  On  the  other  hand,  many  thoughtful 
men,  including  judges,  lawyers,  clergymen,  and 
others,  while  expressing  dissent  from  all  sympa- 
thy with  anarchists,  declared  their  belief  that 
the  trial  had  not  been  a  fair  one.  By  the  whole 
world  of  labor  the  anarchists  were  lauded  as 
martyrs  to  the  cause  of  labor  and  of  liberty,  and 
their  trial  and  hanging  denounced  as  an  outrage 
upon  justice  and  upon  freedom.  Mrs.  Parsons 
went  through  all  the  land  lecturing  to  crowded 
audiences.  Anarchism  was  made  almost  popu- 
lar among  many  classes.  Every  year  anar- 
chists and  the  more  radical  socialists  and  labor 
reformers  of  all  schools  of  thought,  who  will 
unite  on  no  other  occasion,  meet  on  both  sides 
of  the  Atlantic  to  commemorate  the  hanging  of 
"  the  Chicago  martyrs." 

In  June,  1893,  the  recently  elected  Democratic 
Governor  of  Illinois,  John  P.  Altgeld,  having 
thoroughly  examined  the  evidence,  pardoned 
Neebe,  Fielden,  and  Schwab,  on  the  ground 
that  they  had  not  been  fairly  tried. 

As  is  well  known,  public  opinion  is  divided 
on  this  subject.  We  give  a  synopsis  of  Gover- 
nor Altgeld' s  published  argument  for  believing 
the  trial  not  to  have  been  a  fair  one,  and  then  a 
synopsis  of  Judge  Gary's  statement  upon  the 
other  side. 

Says  Governor  Altgeld  in  substance  : 

"The  several  thousand  merchants,  bankers,  judges, 

lawyers,  and  other  prominent  citizens  of  Chicago  who 

have  by  petition,  by  letter,  and  in  other  ways  urged 

executive  clemency,  mostly   base  their 

appeal  on   the  ground  that,   assuming 

(Jov.          the    prisoners  to  be  guilty,  they  have 

AH-frplfl's      been  punished  enough,  but  a  number  of 

ig    a         them  who  have  examined  the  case  more 

Statement,   carefully,  and  are  more  familiar  with 

the  record  and  with  the  facts  disclosed 

by  the  papers  on  file,  base  their  appeal 

on  entirely  different  grounds.    They  assert : 

"  i.  That  the  j  ury  which  tried  the  case  was  a  packed 
jury  selected  to  convict. 

"  4.  That  according  to  the  law  as  laid  down  by  the 
Supreme  Court,  both  prior  to  and  again  since  the  trial 
of  this  case,  the  jurors,  according  to  their  own  an- 
swers, were  not  competent  jurors,  and  the  trial  was 
therefore  not  a  legal  trial. 

"  3.  That  the  defendants  were  not  proven  to  be  guilty 
of  the  crime  charged  in  the  indictment. 

"  4.  That  as  to  the  defendant  Neebe,  the  State's  attor- 
ney Jiad  declared  at  the  close  of  the  evidence  that  there 
was  no  case  against  him,  and  yet  he  has  been  kept  in 
prison  all  these  years. 

"5.  That  the  trial  judge  was  either  so  prejudiced 
against  the  defendants,  or  else  so  determined  to  win 


the  applause  of  a  certain  class  in  the  community,  that 
he  could  not  and  did  not  grant  a  fair  trial. 

"  Upon  the  question  of  having  been  punished  enough, 
1  will  simply  say  that,  if  the  defendants  had  a  fair 
trial,  and  nothing  has  developed  since  to  show  that  they 
are  not  guilty  of  the  crime  charged  in  the  indictment, 
then  there  ought  to  be  no  executive  interference,  for 
no  punishment  under  our  laws  could  then  be  too 
severe.  Government  must  defend  itself  ;  life  and  prop- 
erty must  be  protected,  and  law  and  order  must  be 
maintained  ;  murder  must  be  punished,  and  if  the  de- 
fendants are  guilty  of  murder,  either  committed  with 
their  own  hands,  or  by  some  one  else  acting  on  their 
advice,  then,  if  they  have  had  a  fair  trial,  there  should 
be,  in  this  case,  no  executive  interference.  The  soil  of 
America  is  not  adapted  for  the  growth  of  anarchy. 
While  our  institutions  are  not  free  from  injustice,  they 
are  still  the  best  that  have  yet  been  devised,  and  there- 
fore must  be  maintained. 

"The  record  of  the  trial  shows  that  the  jury  in  this 
case  was  not  drawn  in  the  manner  that 
juries  usually  are  drawn  ;   that  is,  in- 
stead   of    having   a  number  of   names     Was  the 
drawn  out  of  a  box  that  contained  many  jnrv  Packed' 
hundred  names,  as  the  law  contemplates  "      " 
shall  be  done  in  order  to  insure  a  fair 
jury  and  give    neither  side  the  advantage,  the  trial 
judge  appointed  one,  Henry  L.  Ryce,  as  a  special  bai- 
liff to  go  out  and  summon  such  men  as  he,  Ryce,  might 
select  to  act  as  jurors.    While  this  practice  has  been 
sustained  in  cases  in  which  it  did  not  appear  that  either 
side    had    been    prejudiced   thereby,   it    is  always  a 
dangerous  practice,  for  it  gives  the  bailiff  absolute 
power  to  select  a  jury  that  will  be  favorable  to  one  side 
or  the  other." 

The  judge  then  gives  the  evidence,  and  says  : 

"  Upon  the  whole,  therefore,  considering  the  facts 
brought  to  light  since  the  trial,  as  well  as  the  record  of 
the  trial  and  the  answers  of  the  jurors  as  given  there- 
in, it  is  clearly  shown  that  while  the  counsel  for  defend- 
ants agreed  to  it,  Rvce  was  appointed  special  bailiff  at 
the  suggestion  of  the  State's  attorney,  and  that  he  did 
summon  a  prejudiced  jury  which  he  believed  would 
hang  the  defendants,  and  further,  that  the  fact  that 
Ryce  was  summoning  only  that  kind  of  men  was 
brought  to  the  attention  of  the  court  before  the  panel 
was  full,  and  it  was  asked  to  stop  it,  but  refused  to  pay 
any  attention  to  the  matter,  but  permitted  Ryce  to  go 
on,  and  then  forced  the  defendants  to  go  to  trial  before 
this  jury. 

"  While  no  collusion  is  proven  between  the  judge  and 
State's  attorney,  it  is  clearly  shown  that  after  the  ver- 
dict, and  while  a  motion  for  a  new  trial  was  pending,  a 
charge  was  filed  in  court  that  Ryce  had  packed  the 
jury  and  that  the  attorney  for  the  State  got  Mr.  Favor 
to  refuse  to  make  an  affidavit  bearing  on  this  point, 
which  the  defendants  could  use,  and  then  the  court  re- 
fused to  take  any  notice  of  it  unless  the  affidavit  was 
obtained,  altho  it  was  informed  that  Mr.  Favor  would 
not  make  an  affidavit,  but  stood  ready  to  come  into 
court  and  make  a  full  statement  if  the  court  desired 
him  to  do  so. 

"  These  facts  alone  would  call  for  executive  inter- 
ference, especially  as  Mr.  Favor's  affidavit  was  not  be- 
fore the  Supreme  Court  at  the  time  it  considered  the 
case. 

"The  second  point  urged  seems  to  me  to  be  equally 
conclusive.  In  the  case  of  the  People  v.  Couglin,  known 
as  the  Cronin  case,  recently  decided,  the  Supreme 
Court,  in  a  remarkably  able  and  comprehensive  review 
of  the  law  on  this  subject,  says  among  other  things  : 

"'The  holding  of  this  and  other  courts  is  substan- 
tially uniform,  that  where  it  is  once  clearly  shown  that 
there  exists  in  the  mind  of  the  juror  at  the  time  he  is 
called  to  the  jury  box  a  fixed  and  positive  opinion  as 
to  the  merits  of  the  case,  or  as  to  the  guilt  or  innocence 
of  the  defendant  he  is  called  to  try,  his  statement  that, 
notwithstanding  such  opinion,  he  can  render  a  fair  and 
impartial  verdict  according  to  the  law  and  evidence, 
has  little,  if  any,  tendency  to  establish  his  impartiality. 
This  is  so  because  a  juror  •who  has  sworn  to  have  in 
his  mind  a  fixed  and  positive  opinion  as  to  the  guilt  or 
innocence  of  the  accused  is  not  impartial,  as  a  matter 
of  fact.  .  .  . 

" '  It  is  difficult  to  see  how,  after  a  juror  has  avowed 
a  fixed  and  settled  opinion  as  to  the  prisoner's  guilt,  a 
court  can  be  legally  satisfied  of  the  truth  of  his  answer 
that  he  can  render  a  fair  and  impartial  verdict,  or  find 
therefrom  that  he  has  the  qualification  of  impartiality, 
as  required  by  the  Constitution.  ..." 

"  Applying  the  law  as  here  laid  down  in  the  Cronin 
case  to  the  answers  of  the  jurors  above  given  in  the 
present  case,  it  is  very  apparent  that  most  of  the  jurors 
were  incompetent,  because  they  were  not  impartial, 


Chicago  Anarchists. 


229 


Chicago  Anarchists. 


for  nearly  all  of  them  candidly  stated  that  they  were 
prejudiced  against  the  defendants,  and  believed  them 
guilty  before  hearing  the  evidence  ;  and  the  mere  fact 
that  the  judge  succeeded  by  a  singularly  suggestive 
examination  in  getting  them  to  state  that  they  believed 
they  could  try  the  case  fairly  on  the  evidence  did  not 
make  them  competent.  .  .  . 

"  No  matter  wtiat  the  defendants  were,  charged  •with, 
they  were  entitled  to  a  fair  trial,  and  no  greater  danger 
could  possibly  threaten  our  institutions  than  to  have 
the  courts  of  justice  run  wild  or  give  way  to  popular 
clamor  ;  and  when  the  trial  j  udge  in  this  case  ruled  that 
a  relative  of  one  of  the  men  who  was  killed  was  a  com- 
petent juror,  and  this  after  the  man  had  candidly  stated 
that  he  was  deeply  prejudiced  and  that  his  relationship 
caused  him  to  feel  more  strongly  than  he  otherwise 
might,  and  when  in  scores  of  instances  he  ruled  that 
men  who  candidly  declared  that  they  believed  the  de- 
fendants to  be  guilty  ;  that  this  was  a  deep  conviction 
and  would  influence  their  verdict,  and  that  it  would  re- 
quire strong  evidence  to  convince  them 
that  the  defendants  were  innocent,  when 
Does  the  m  &U  these  instance  the  trial  judge  ruled 

•p,-nnf  oVinnr    that  these  men  were  competent  jurors 

rrooi  snow  simply  because  they  had,  under  his 
Uuilt  }  adroit  manipulation,  been  led  to  say  that 
they  believed  they  could  try  the  case 
fairly  on  the  evidence,  then  the  proceed- 
ings lost  all  semblance  of  a  fair  trial. 

"  The  State  has  never  discovered  who  it  was  that 
threw  the  bomb  which  killed  the  policemen,  and  the 
evidence  does  not  show  any  connection  whatever  be- 
tween the  defendants  and  the  man  •who  did  throw  it. 
The  trial  judge  in  overruling  the  motion  for  a  new 
hearing,  and  again,  recently,  in  a  magazine  article, 
used  this  language : 

"  'The  conviction  has  not  gone  on  the  ground  that 
they  did  have  actually  any  personal  participation  in 
the  particular  act  which  caused  the  death  of  Degan, 
but  the  conviction  proceeds  upon  the  ground  that 
they  had  generally  by  speech  and  print  advised  large 
classes  of  the  people,  not  particular  individuals,  but 
large  classes,  to  commit  murder,  and  had  left  the  com- 
mission, the  time  and  place  and  when  to  the  individual 
will  and  whim,  or  caprice,  or  whatever  it  may  be,  of 
each  individual  man  who  listened  to  their  advice,  and 
that  in  consequence  of  that  advice,  in  pursuance  of 
that  advice  and  influenced  by  that  advice,  somebody 
not  known  did  throw  the  bomb  that  caused  Degan's 
death.  Now,  if  this  is  not  a  correct  principle  of  the 
law,  then  the  defendants  of  course  are  entitled  to  a 
new  trial.  This  case  is  without  precedent ;  there  is  no 
example  in  the  law  books  of  a  case  of  this  sort.' 

"The  judge  certainly  told  the  truth  when  he  stated 
that  this  case  was  without  a  precedent,  and  that  no 
example  could  be  found  in  the  law  books  to  sustain 
the  law  as  above  laid  down.  For,  in  all  the  centuries 
during  which  government  has  been  maintained  among 
men  and  crime  has  been  punished,  no  judge  in  a  civil- 
ized country  has  ever  laid  down  such  a  rule  before. 
The  petitioners  claim  that  it  was  laid  down  in  this 
case  simply  because  the  prosecution,  not  having  dis- 
covered the  real  criminal,  would  otherwise  not  have 
been  able  to  convict  anybody ;  that  this  course  •was 
then  taken  to  appease  the  fury  of  the  public,  and  that 
the  judgment  was  allowed  to  stand  for  the  same  rea- 
son. I  will  not  discuss  this.  But  taking  the  law  as 
above  laid  down,  it  was  necessary  under  it  to  prove, 
and  that  beyond  a  reasonable  doubt,  that  the  person 
committing  the  violent  deed  had  at  least  heard  or  read 
the  advice  given  to  masses,  for  until  he  either  heard  or 
read  it  he  did  not  receive  it,  and  if  he  did  not  receive 
it,  he  did  not  commit  the  violent  act  in  pursuance  of 
that  advice,  and  it  is  here  that  the  case  for  the  State 
fails ;  with  all  his  apparent  eagerness  to  force  convic- 
tion in  court,  and  his  efforts  in  defending  his  course 
since  the  trial,  the  judge,  speaking  on  this  point  in  his 
magazine  article,  makes  this  statement :  '  It  is  proba- 
bly true  that  Rudolph  Schnaubelt  threw  the  bomb,' 
which  statement  is  a  mere  surmise  and  is  all  that  is 
known  about  it,  and  is  certainly  not  sufficient  to  con- 
vict eight  men  on.  In  fact,  until  the  State  proves 
from  whose  hands  the  bomb  came,  it  is  impossible  to 
show  any  connection  between  the  man  who  threw  it 
and  these  defendants.  .  .  . 

"  Again  it  is  shown  that  various  attempts  were 
made  to  bring  to  justice  the  men  who  wore  the  uni- 
form of  the  law  while  violating  it,  but  all  to  no  avail ; 
that  the  laboring  people  found  the  prisons  always 
open  to  receive  them,  but  the  courts  of  justice  were 
practically  closed  to  them ;  that  the  prosecution  offi- 
cers vied  with  each  other  in  hunting  them  down,  but 
•were  deaf  to  their  appeals ;  that  in  the  spring  of  1886 
there  were  more  labor  disturbances  in  the  city,  and 


Earticularly  at  the  McCormick  factory  ;  that  under  the 
;adership  of  Captain  Bonfteld  the  brutalities  of  the 
previous  year  were  even  exceeded.  Some  affidavits 
and  other  evidence  is  offered  on  this  point  which  I  can- 
not give  for  want  of  space.  It  appears  that  this  was 
the  year  of  the  eight-hour  agitation,  and  efforts  •were 
made  to  secure  an  eight-hour  day  about  May  i,  and 
that  a  number  of  laboring  men  standing,  not  on  the 
street,  but  on  a  vacant  lot,  were  quietly  discussing  the 
situation  in  regard  to  the  movement,  when  suddenly  a 
large  body  of  police,  under  orders  from  Bonfield, 
charged  on  them  and  began  to  club  them  ;  that  some  of 
the  men,  angered  at  the  unprovoked  assault,  at  first  re- 
sisted, but  were  soon  dispersed  ;  that  some  of  the  police 
fired  on  the  men  while  they  were  running  and  wounded 
a  large  number  who  were  already  100  feet  or  more 
away,  and  were  running  as  fast  as  they  could  ;  that  at 
least  four  of  the  number  so  shot  down  died  ;  that  this 
was  wanton  and  unprovoked  murder,  but  there  was 
not  even  so  much  as  an  investigation. 

"  While  some  men  may  tamely  submit  to  being  club- 
bed and  seeing  their  brothers  shot  down,  there  are  some 
who  will  resent  it,  and  -will  nurture  a  spirit  of  hatred 
and  seek  revenge  for  themselves,  and 
the  occurrences  that  preceded  the  Hay- 
market  tragedy  indicate  that  the  bomb 
was  thrown  by  some  one  who,  instead  Was  it  Per- 


sonal  Re- 
venge  i 


of  acting  on  the  advice  of  anybody,  was 
simply  seeking  personal  revenge  for 
having  been  clubbed,  and  that  Captain 
Bonfield  is  the  man  who  is  really  re- 
sponsible for  the  death  of  the  police  of- 
ficers. 

"  It  is  also  shown  that  the  character  of  the  Haymarket 
meeting  sustains  this  view.  The  evidence  shows  there 
were  only  800  to  1000  people  present,  and  that  it  was  a 
peaceable  and  orderly  meeting  ;  that  the  mayor  of  the 
city  was  present,  and  saw  nothing  out  of  the  way,  and 
that  he  remained  until  the  crowd  began  to  disperse, 
the  meeting  being  practically  over,  and  the  crowd  en- 
gaged in  dispersing  when  he  left ;  that  had  the  police 
remained  away  for  20  minutes  more  there  would  have 
been  nobody  left  there,  but  that  as  soon  as  Bonfield 
learned  that  the  mayor  had  left,  he  could  not  resist  the 
temptation  to  have  some  more  people  clubbed,  and 
•went  up  with  a  detachment  of  police  to  disperse  the 
meeting,  and  that  on  the  appearance  of  the  police  the 
bomb  was  thrown  by  some  unknown  person,  and  sev- 
eral innocent  and  faithful  officers,  who  were  simply 
obeying  an  uncalled-for  order  of  their  superior,  were 
killed.  All  of  these  facts  tend  to  show  the  improbabil- 
ity of  the  theory  of  the  prosecution  that  the  bomb  was 
thrown  as  the  result  of  a  conspiracy  on  the  part  of  the 
defendants  to  commit  murder.  If  the  theory  of  the 
prosecution  were  correct,  there  would  have  been  many 
bombs  thrown  ;  and  the  fact  that  only  one  was  thrown 
shows  that  it  was  an  act  of  personal  revenge. 

"  It  is  further  shown  here  that  much  of  the  evidence 
given  at  the  trial  was  apure  fabrication  ;  that  some  of 
the  prominent  police  officials  in  their  zeal  not  only  ter- 
rorized ignorant  men  by  throwing  them  into  prison 
and  threatening  them  with  torture  if  they  refused  to 
swear  to  anything  desired,  but  that  they  offered  money 
and  employment  to  those  who  would  consent  to  do 
this.  Further,  that  they  deliberately  planned  to  have 
fictitious  conspiracies  formed  in  order  that  they  might 
get  the  glory  of  discovering  them.  In  addition  to  the 
evidence  in  the  record  of  some  witnesses  who  swore 
that  they  had  been  paid  small  sums  of  money,  etc., 
several  documents  are  here  referred  to. 

"First,  an  interview  with  Captain  Ebersold,  pub- 
lished in  the  Chicago  Daily  News,  May  10,  1889. 

"Ebersold  was  chief  of  the  police  of  Chicago  at  the 
time  of  the  Haymarket  trouble,  and  for  a  long  time 
before  and  thereafter,  so  that  he  was  in 
a  position  to  know  what  was  going  on, 
and  his  utterances  upon  this  point  are 
therefore  important.  Among  other 
things  he  says : 

"  '  It  was  my  policy  to  quiet  matters 
down  as  soon  as  possible  after  May  4. 
The  general  unsettled  state  of  things 
was  an  injury  to  Chicago.  On  the  other  hand,  Captains 
Schaack  wanted  to  keep  things  stirring.  He  wanted 
bombs  to  be  found  here,  there,  all  around,  every- 
where. I  thought  people  would  lie  down  and  sleep, 
better  if  they  were  not  afraid  that  their  homes, 
would  be  blown  to  pieces  any  minute.  But  this  man, 
Schaack,  this  little  boy  who  must  have  glory  or  his. 
heart  would  be  broken,  wanted  none  of  that  policy. 
Now,  here  is  something  the  public  does  not  know. 
After  we  got  the  anarchist  societies  broken  up,  Schaack 
wanted  to  send  out  men  to  again  organize  new  soci- 
eties right  away.  You  see  what  this  would  do.  He 


The  Chief 
of  Police's, 
Statement. 


Chicago  Anarchists. 


230 


Chicago  Anarchists. 


wanted  to  keep  the  thing  boiling,  keep  himself  prom- 
inent before  the  public.  Well,  I  sat  down  on  that,  I 
didn't  believe  in  such  work,  and  of  course  Schaack 
didn't  like  it. 

" '  After  I  heard  all  that  I  began  to  think  there  was 
perhaps  not  so  much  to  all  this  anarchist  business  as 
they  claimed,  and  I  believe  I  was  right.  Schaack 
thinks  he  knew  all  about  those  anarchists.  Why,  I 
knew  more  at  that  time  than  he  knows  to-day  about 
them.  I  was  following  them  closely.  As  soon  as 
Schaack  began  to  get  some  notoriety,  however,  he 
was  spoiled. 

"This  is  a  most  important  statement,  when  a  chief  of 
police,  who  has  been  watching  the  anarchists  closely, 
savs  that  he  was  convinced  that  there  •was  not  so  much 
in  all  this  anarchist  business  as  was  claimed,  and  that 
a  police  captain  wanted  to  send  out  men  to  have  other 
conspiracies  formed  in  order  to  get  the  credit  of  dis- 
covering them  and  keeping  the  public  excited,  it 
throws  a  flood  of  light  on  the  whole  situation,  and  de- 
stroys the  force  of  much  of  the  testimony  introduced 
at  the  trial. 

"  It  is  further  charged  with  much  bitterness  by  those 
who  speak  for  the  prisoners  that  the  record  of  the  case 
shows  that  the  judge  conducted  the  trial  with  mali- 
cious ferocity  and  forced  eight  men  to  be  tried  to- 
gether ;  that  in  cross-examining  the  State's  witnesses 
he  confined  counsel  for  the  defense  to  the  specific 
points  touched  on  by  the  State,  while  in  the  cross-ex- 
amination of  the  defendants'  witnesses  he  permitted 
the  State's  attorney  to  go  into  all  manner  of  subjects 
entirely  foreign  to  the  matters  on  which  the  witnesses 
were  examined  in  chief ;  also  that  every  ruling 
throughout  the  long  trial  on  any  contested  point  was 
in  favor  of  the  State  ;  and,  further,  that  page  after  page 
of  the  record  contains  insinuating  remarks  of  the 
judge,  made  in  the  hearing  of  the  jury,  and  with  the 
evident  intent  of  bringing  the  jury  to  his  way  of  think- 
ing ;  that  these  speeches,  coming  from  the  court,  were 
much  more  damaging  than  any  speeches 
from  the  State's  attorney  could  possibly 
Prejudice  or  have  been ;  that  the  State's  attorney 
Snbserviencv  often  took  nis  cue  from  the  judge's  re~- 
.uuoci  viciii/jr  raarks  .  that  the  judge's  maga/ine  article 
Of  Judge,  recently  published,  altho  written  near- 
ly six  years  after  the  trial,  is  yet  full  of 
venom ;  that,  pretending  to  simply  re- 
view the  case,  he  had  to  drag  into  his  article  a  letter 
written  by  an  excited  woman  to  a  newspaper  after  the 
trial  was  over,  and  which  therefore  had  nothing  what- 
ever to  do  with  the  case,  and  was  put  into  the  article 
simply  to  create  a  prejudice  against  the  woman,  as 
well  as  against  the  dead  and  the  living,  and  that,  not 
content  with  this,  he  in  the  same  article  makes  an  in- 
sinuating attack  on  one  of  the  lawyers  for  the  defense, 
not  for  anything  done  at  the  trial,  but  because  more 
than  a  year  after  the  trial,  when  some  of  the  defendants 
had  been  hung,  he  ventured  to  express  a  few  kind,  if 
erroneous,  sentiments  over  the  graves  of  his  dead 
clients,  whom  he  at  least  believed  to  be  innocent.  It  is 
urged  that  such  ferocity  or  subserviency  is  without  a 
parallel  in  all  history ;  that  even  Jeffreys  in  England 
contented  himself  with  hanging  his  victims,  and  did 
not  stop  to  berate  them  after  they  were  dead. 

"  These  charges  are  of  a  personal  character,  and 
while  they  seem  to  be  sustained  by  the  record  of  the 
trial  and  the  papers  before  me,  and  tend  to  show  that 
the  trial  was  not  fair,  I  do  not  care  to  'discuss  this  fea- 
ture of  the  case  any  further,  because  it  is  not  necessary. 
I  am  convinced  that  it  is  clearly  my  duty  to  act  in  this 
case  for  the  reasons  already  given,  and  I,  therefore, 
grant  an  absolute  pardon  to  Samuel  Fielden,  Oscar 
Neebe,  and  Michael  Schwab,  on  this  26th  day  of  June, 
1893. 

"JOHN  P.  ALTGELD, 

"  Governor  of  Illinois.'" 

In  The  Century  Magazine  for  April,  1893, 
Judge  Gary  gives,  in  a  3o-page  article,  a  defense 
of  the  verdict. 

Judge  Gary's  statement  in  substance  is  this  : 

Mr.  Gary  reviews  the  events  and  scenes  of  the  trial 
in  detail,  stating  his  motives  to  be  a  justification  of 
the  verdict  and  an  effort  to  prove  that  the  anarchists 
did  not  represent  the  laboring  classes,  but  simply  made 
a  show  of  friendship  to  the  latter  in  order  to  bring 
them  into  their  own  ranks.  He  asserts  that  the  seven 
men  sentenced  to  death  were  beyond  all  cavil  guilty  of 
murder,  and  that  it  would  have  been  a  great  misfor- 
tune if  society  had  not  maintained  its  right  to  defend 
itself.  The  most  noted  legal  authorities  are  adduced 
to  show  that  the  men  who  argued  on  every  occasion 


for  anarchy  and  destruction,  in  their  press  and  through 
their  orators,  and  who  "  incited,  advised,  encouraged 
the  throwing  of  the  bomb  that  killed  the  policemen," 
were  clearly  within  the  condemnation  of  the  law.  To 
further  support  this,  facsimile  and  other  long  extracts 
are  given  from  the  more  rabid  anarchistic  press,  and 
pictures  appear  of  the  bombs  and  apparatus  of  the  des- 
perate men. 

Mr.  Gary  shows  carefully  and  fairly  the  evidence 
which  led  to  the  conviction  of  the  ringleaders,  and 
takes  the  ground  that  they  were  sentenced  not  be- 
cause they  were  anarchists,  but  because  they  were 
parties  to  murder. 

On  page  835  the  judge  says:  "The  conviction  pro- 
ceeded upon  the  ground  that  they  had  generally,  by 
speech  and  print,  advised  large  classes  to  commit  mur- 
der ;  and  had  left  the  commission,  the  time,  and  place, 
and  when  to  the  individual  will  and  whim  or  caprice, 
or  whatever  it  may  be,  of  each  individual  man  who 
listened  to  their  advice  ;  and  in  consequence  of  that  ad 
vice,  in  pursuance  of  that  advice,  and  influenced  by 
that  advice,  somebody,  not  known,  did  throw  the  bomb 
that  caused  Degan's  death." 

On  pages  830 and  831  the  judge  says  :  "  It  is  probably 
true  that  Rudolph  Schnaubelt  threw  the  bomb.  He 
was  twice  arrested  ;  but,  having  shaved  off  a  full  beard 
immediately  after  that  fatal  night,  was  discharged. 
After  the  second  arrest  he  disappeared  and  has  gone  to 
parts  unknown.  But  whether  Schnaubelt  or  some  other 
person  threw  the  bomb  is  not  an  important  question." 

The  case  is  the  more  remarkable  because  it  was  not 
claimed  that  either  of  the  prisoners  threw  the  bomb  or 
gave  any  person  any  secret  advice  to  throw  it.  The  case 
proceeded  on  the  ground  that  the  prisoners  gave  all 
their  advice  from  public  platforms  and  in  the  columns 
of  newspapers.  On  page  830  the  judge  says  :  "  Secrecy 
is  not  essential  to  a  conspiracy." 

On  page  812  the  judge  says  :  "They  incited,  advised, 
encouraged  the  throwing  of  the  bomb  that  killed  the 
policeman  not  by  addressing  the  bomb-thrower  spe- 
cially, and  telling  him  to  throw  a  bomb  at  that  or  any 
special  time  or  occasion,  but  by  general  addresses  to 
readers  and  hearers." 

On  the  same  page  he  also  says  :  "The  sincerity  of  the 
anarchists  in  their  belief  of  the  benefits  to  accrue  from 
anarchy  (if  they  were  sincere)  is  not  to  be  considered 
when  the  question  is  whether  they  were  murderers." 

On  page  812  the  judge  says  that  "every  reader  (of 
the  anarchist  papers),  following  the  advice  to  arm 
himself,  would— must— understand  that  he  must  exer- 
cise his  own  discretion  in  using  his  weapons." 

He  concludes  :  "  For  nearly  seven  years  the  clamor, 
uncontradicted,  has  gone  round  the  world  that  the 
anarchists  were  heroes  and  martyrs,  victims  of  preju- 
dice and  fear.  Not  a  dozen  persons  alive  were  pre- 
pared by  familiarity  with  the  details  of  their  crime  and 
trial,  and  present  knowledge  of  the  materials  from 
which  those  details  could  be  shown,  to  present  a  suc- 
cinct account  of  them  to  the  public.  It  so  happened 
that  my  position  was  such  that  from  me  that  account 
would  probably  attract  as  much  attention  as  it  would 
from  any  other  source.  Right-minded,  thoughtful 
people,  who  recognize  the  necessity  to  civilization  of 
the  existence  and  enforcement  of  laws  for  the  protec- 
tion of  human  life,  and  who  yet  may  have  had  misgiv- 
ings as  to  the  fate  of  the  anarchists,  will,  I  trust,  read 
what  I  have  written,  and  dismiss  those  misgivings, 
convinced  that  in  law  and  in  morals  the  anarchists 
were  rightly  punished,  not  for  opinions,  but  for  hor- 
rible deeds. 

The  main  sources  of  evidence  for  the  facts 
are,  of  course,  the  official  records  of  the  court. 
A  history  of  the  trial  has  been  written  by  Dyer 
D.  Lum,  and  the  speeches  of  the  anarchists  in 
court  have  been  printed  many  times  in  pam- 
phlet form.  For  the  other  side,  see  the  Centttry, 
April,  1893.  We  append  a  brief  notice  of  the 
condemned. 

George  Engel  was  born  in  the  city  of  Cassel,   Ger- 
many, April  15,  1856.     His   father  died  when   George 
was  only  18  months  old,  and  when  he  was  12  years  of 
age  his  mother  died,  and  he  was  thrown 
on  the  world.    After  much  suffering  he 
was  enabled  to  learn  the  painter's  trade,         George 
after  which  he   came  to  America.     In         Eneel 
January,    1873,    ne   secured    •work  in  a 
Philadelphia  concern,  and  in  the  sum- 
mer of  the  same  year  obtained  •work  at 
his  trade.    In  Philadelphia,  for  the  first  time  in  his  life, 
he    heard   something    about    serious   labor    troubles, 


Chicago  Anarchists. 


231 


Chicago  Anarchists. 


through  seeing  some  of  the  militia  marching  through 
the  streets  after  subduing  some  striking  miners.  He 
removed  to  Chicago,  •where  he  began  the  study  of 
social  questions,  and  was  an  active  worker  in  the  Inter- 
national Working  People's  Association.  Engel  says  : 
"  The  history  of  all  times  teaches  us  that  the  oppress- 
ing classes  always  maintain  their  tyrannies  by  force 
and  violence.  Some  day  the  war  will  break  out,  there- 
fore all  working  men  should  unite,  and  prepare  for 
the  last  war,  whose  outcome  will  be  the  end  forever  of 
all  war,  and  will  bring  peace  and  happiness  to  all  man- 
kind." At  the  time  of  the  anarchistic  excitement  at 
Chicago  Engel  was  arrested  for  his  utterances  and 
sentenced  to  15  years  in  the  State  prison,  but  was  par- 
doned by  Governor  Altgeld  in  1893. 

Samuel  Fielden  was  born  at  Todmorden,  Lancashire, 
England,  February  25,  1847.  His  father  was  one  of  the 
Fielden  Brothers,  owners  of  the  largest  mills  in  that 
part  of  the  country,  and  was  interested 
in  the  reform  movements  of  the  day. 
Samuel  Samuel's  mother  died  when  he  was  10 
years  old,  and  his  father  died  August 
28,  1866,  nine  years  later.  Samuel  says 
of  his  home  life  :  "  I  remember  that  the 
most  intelligent  people  of  our  acquaint- 
ance, instead  of  going  to  church  Sunday,  used  to  meet 
at  our  house  to  discuss  politics,  religion,  and  all  sub- 
jects pertaining  to  social  and  political  life.  These  dis- 
cussions contained  a  peculiar  charm  for  me,  and  gave 
me  my  first  taste  for  the  study  of  sociology.  When 
the  ten-hour  movement  was  being  agitated  in  England 
my  father  was  on  the  committee  of  agitation  in  my 
native  town,  and  I  have  heard  him  tell  of  sitting  on  the 
platform  with  the  Earl  of  Shaftesbury,  John  Fielden, 
Richard  Oastler,  and  others."  A  great  deal  of  Samuel's 
early  life  was  spent  in  a  factory,  and  while  he  says  he 
could  write  volumes,  he  contents  himself  with  saying  : 
"  I  think  if  the  devil  has  a  particular  enemy  whom  he 
wishes  to  unmercifully  torture,  the  best  thing  for  him 
to  do  would  be  to  put  his  soul  into  the  body  of  a  Lanca- 
shire factory  child,  and  keep  him  as  a  child  in  a  fac- 
tory the  rest  of  his  life." 

Fielden  is  spoken  of  by  all  who  know  him  as  "  good- 
natured  Fielden."  In  his  speech  at  the  Haymarket 
Square  meeting,  even  as  reported  by  the  Chicago 
Tribune,  not  one  •word  can  be  found  which  has  the 
least  suggestion  of  bomb-throwing,  or  containing  any 
proposition  or  suggestion  for  the  use  of  violence  that 
night  or  in  the  immediate  future.  His  presence  there 
and  his  speaking  resulted  simply  from  the  request  for 
speakers  sent  to  the  meeting  of  the  American  group. 
He  was  sentenced  to  15  years'  imprisonment  at  Joliet, 
111.,  in  1887,  but  was  pardoned  by  Governor  Altgeld  in 
1893. 

Adolph  Fischer,  one  of  the  Chicago  anarchists,  born 

in  Bremen,  Germany,  came  to  America  at  the  age  of 

15,  and  learned  the  printer's  trade.     He   was  married 

in  1881,    and  has  three  children  living 

with  his  •widow.    He  was  executed  by 

Adolph        order  of  the  court  in  1887.    While  living 

Fischer.       aj  £5$°**%  ?}e    was  employed  on  the 
Aroeiter  Zettung,  and   was  a  zealous 
student  of  the  labor  question.    In  early 
life,  before  coming  to  America,  he  grap- 
pled with  the  social  problem.    He  went  among  the 
working  people  and  saw  their  condition,  and  says  of 
them :  "  I  perceived  that  the  diligent,  never-resting 
human  working  bees,  who  create  all  wealth,  and  fill 
the  magazines  with  provisions,  fuel,  and  clothing,  en- 
joy only  a  minor  part  of  this  product,  and  lead  a  com- 
paratively miserable  life,  while  the  drones,  the  idlers, 
Keep  the  warehouses  locked  up,  and  revel   in  luxury 
and  voluptuousness."   Fischer  was  one  of  the  speakers 
at  Haymarket  Square  the  night  the  bomb  was  thrown. 
Louis  Lingg  was  born  in  Mannheim,  Germany,  Sep- 
tember Q,  1864.     His  father  was  a  lumberman,  and  his 
mother    did  laundry  •work.      Louis  said  :  "  When    13 
years  old,  I  received  the  first  impressions 
of  the  prevailing  unjust  social  institu- 
Louis  Lingg.  tions— i.e.,  the  exploitation  of  man  by 
man.    The  main    circumstances   which 
caused  these  reflections  were  the  experi- 
ences of  our  own  family.    It  did  not  escape  my  obser- 
vation that  the  employer  of  my  father  grew  continually 
richer,  despite  the  extravagance  of  himself  and  family  ; 
while  my  father,  who  had  performed  his  part  in  creat- 
ing the  wealth  the  boss  possessed,  and  who  had  sacri- 
ficed his  health,  was  cast  aside  like  a  worn-out  tool. 
The  feeling  of  hatred  of  existing  society  thus  implanted 
in  my  mind  was  intensified  with  my  entrance  into  the 
industrial  arena." 

Lingg  learned  the  trade  of  a  carpenter,  and  after 
serving,  according  to  German  custom,  a  three  years' 
apprenticeship,  he  traveled  in  Southern  Germany  and 


Oscar 
Neebe. 


Albert  B. 
Parsons. 


afterward  in  Switzerland,  working  wherever  there 
was  a  chance.  Soon  he  learned  the  doctrines  of  social- 
ism, which  he  eagerly  espoused.  He  came  to  America 
in  1885.  Settling  in  Chicago,  he  worked  at  his  trade, 
became  an  active  member  of  the  union  of  the  craft, 
and  was  appointed  an  organizer  of  the  Brotherhood  of 
Carpenters  and  Joiners.  Lingg  pointed  with  pride  to 
the  fact  that  his  union  came  out  of  the  ill-fated  eight- 
hour  movement  in  May,  1886,  with  undiminished 
strength.  Lingg  was  arrested  and  sentenced  to  death 
after  the  Haymarket  affair,  but  while  in  jail  under 
sentence  he  took  his  own  life,  by  exploding  a  cartridge 
in  his  mouth. 

Oscar  Neebe  was  born  in  Philadelphia  in  1850,  of 
German  parents.  While  not  a  wage- worker,  but  a  well- 
to-do  business  man,  he  was  always  in  sympathy  with 
the  toiling  masses,  was  a  staunch  sup- 
porter of  socialistic  ideas,  and  did  won- 
derful service  as  an  organizer  of  trade- 
unions.  He  became  associated  with  the 
anarchists  of  Chicago,  and  was  arrested 
after  the  bomb-throwing  at  Haymarket  Square,  altho 
he  had  nothing  to  do  with  the  meeting  or  the  bomb- 
throwing.  He  was  sentenced  to  15  years  in  the  State 
prison,  but  was  pardoned  by  Governor  Altgeld,  in 
1893,  the  governor  declaring  that  his  sentence,  as  well 
as  that  of  his  associates,  was  unjust,  and  not  in  accord 
with  the  evidence. 

Albert  R.  Parsons,  the  so-called  Chicago  anarchist, 
was  born  in  Montgomery.   Ala.,  June  24,   1848.      His 
father,  Samuel  Parsons,  who  was  noted  as  a  public- 
spirited, philanthropic  man  and  an  active 
temperance  advocate,  was  a  manufac- 
turer of   shoes.      Albert's  mother  died 
when  he  was  two  years  of  age,  his  father 
three  years  later  ;  and  Albert  came  un- 
der    the    guardianship    of     his    elder 
brother,   General   W.   H.  Parsons,  who 
was  married  and  living  at  Tyler,  Tex.    In  1855  the 
family  moved  to  the  Texas  frontier,  where  Albert  be- 
came an  expert  in  the  use  of  fire-arms,  riding,  and 
hunting. 

In  1859  he  went  to  Waco,  Tex.,  living  one  year  with 
his  sister  (wife  of  Major  Boyd).  In  1860  he  was  appren- 
ticed to  learn  the  printer's  trade  in  the  Galveston  News 
office.  When  the  Civil  War  broke  out,  in  1861,  tho 
but  13  years  of  age,  he  joined  a  local  volunteer  com- 
pany. He  wanted  to  enlist  in  the  Confederate  army, 
but  his  employer  and  guardian  ridiculed  the  idea,  on 
account  of  his  age  and  size.  Albert  then  took  French 
leave,  and  enlisted  in  a  local  artillery  company ;  his 
enlistment  expired  in  a  year.  He  then  joined  the  cav- 
alry brigade  of  his  brother,  General  Parsons.  Albert 
was  afterward  a  member  of  the  renowned  McMaby 
scouts.  He  returned  to  Waco  at  the  close  of  the  war, 
and  for  a  short  time  attended  the  university  at  that 
place ;  after  this  he  finished  learning  the  printer's 
trade. 

In  1868  he  published  and  edited  the  Spectator,  a 
weekly  paper.  In  it  he  advocated  the  acceptance  in 
good  faith  of  the  terms  of  the  surrender,  and  supported 
the  thirteenth,  fourteenth  and  fifteenth  amendments, 
and  the  reconstruction  measures. 

He  became  an  active  Republican,  and  consequently 
incurred  the  enmity  of  many  former  army  comrades, 
neighbors,  and  the  Ku-Klux-Klan  ;  and  for  his  cour- 
ageous advocacy  of  their  cause  he  won  the  love  of  the 
enfranchised  slaves,  and  the  Spectator  came  to  an  end. 
In  1869  he  was  appointed  traveling  correspondent  and 
agent  for  the  Houston  Daily  Telegraph. 

In  1870,  at  21  years  of  age,  he  was  appointed  assistant 
assessor  of  United  States  Internal  Revenue,  under  Gen- 
eral Grant's  administration.  About  a  year  later  he 
was  elected  one  of  the  secretaries  of  the  Texas  State 
Senate,  and  was  soon  after  appointed  chief  deputy 
collector  of  United  States  Internal  Revenue  at  Austin, 
Tex.,  which  position  he  held  satisfactorily,  accounting 
for  large  sums  of  money.  In  1873  J16  resigned  his  posi- 
tion, and  accompanied  an  editorial  excursion  as  the 
representative  of  the  Texas  Agriculturist,  making  an 
extended  tour  through  Texas,  Indian  Territory,  Mis- 
souri, Iowa,  Illinois,  Ohio,  and  Pennsylvania.  In  the 
fall  of  1872  he  married  the  Spanish  Indian  maiden 
•whom  he  had  met  while  traveling  for  the  Houston 
Telegraph.  At  the  close  of  his  tour,  in  1873,  he  decided 
to  settle  in  Chicago. 

He  became  interested  in  the  labor  question  in  1874, 
and  in  1876  joined  the  working  men's  party,  and  soon  be- 
came one  of  its  most  trusted  leaders.  July  4,  1876,  he 
joined  the  Knights  of  Labor.  In  1877  ne  was  the  work- 
ing men's  candidate  for  county  clerk,  receiving  about 
8000  votes.  He  was  nominated  by  the  working  men  of 
Chicago  three  times  for  alderman,  twice  for  county 
clerk  and  once  for  Congress.  In  1879  he  was  delegate 


Chicago  Anarchists. 


232 


Children's  Aid  Society. 


Michel 
Schwab. 


to  the  national  convention  of  the  socialistic  labor 
party,  and  was  there  nominated  for  President  of  the 
United  States,  but  declined  the  honor,  not  being  of  the 
constitutional  age  (36  years).  In  1876  he  was  chosen 
assistant  editor  of  the  English  weekly,  The  Socialist. 
He  kept  up  an  active  participation  in  the  labor  move- 
ment till  1880,  when  he  withdrew  from  further  active 
effort.  The  conviction  gained  on  him  that  long  hours 
and  low  wages  practically  disfranchised  the  masses  of 
the  people.  Bribery,  intimidation,  duplicity,  corrup- 
tion, and  bulldozing,  he  says,  grew  out  of  the  condi- 
tion which  made  the  working  people  poor  and  the  idle 
rich  ;  on  this  account  he  subseq  uently  turned  his  efforts 
toward  reducing  the  hours  of  labor. 

The  National  Conference  of  Labor  Reformers  held  in 
Washington,  D.  C.,  1880,  adopted  a  resolution,  forward- 
ed by  Parsons,  which  called  attention  to  the  fact  that 
the  United  States  Congress,  when  it  neglected  to  en- 
force the  eight-hour  law,  passed  years  before,  and  made 
applicable  to  Government  departments,  found  it  easy 
enough  to  pass  and  enforce  all  capitalistic  legislation 
demanded.  In  1884  the  International  founded  in  Chi- 
cago a  weekly  newspaper,  called  The  Alarm,  and 
Parsons  was  chosen  editor.  The  paper  was  anarchistic 
in  tone,  and  was  suppressed  by  the  State  Government 
in  May,  1886.  It  was  during  this  month  that  the  Hay- 
market  affair  took  place  ;  for  participation  in  which 
Parsons  was  tried,  and  subsequently  hanged  at  Chi- 
cago, althp,  according  to  evidence,  he  had  no  hand  in 
the  throwing  of  the  bomb  that  killed  the  police,  except 
so  far  as  his  speeches  may  have  incited  the  act. 

Michel  Schwab,  born  in  Kitzingen,  Central  Germany, 
August  9,  1853,  was  left  an  orphan  at  12  years  of  age, 
and  when  about  14  was  apprenticed  to  a  bookbinder. 
This  apprenticeship  expired  in  1872,  and 
he  became  interested  in  the  study  of  the 
great  labor  problem,  and  was  an  active 
member  of  trade-unions.  He  joined  the 
socialistic  labor  party,  and  in  1874 
traveled  over  Central  Europe,  agitating 
the  cause,  and  working  at  his  trade  at  all 
times  for  support.  In  1879  he  emigrated  to  the  United 
States,  and  shortly  after  arrival  went  to  Chicago,  where 
he  lived  during  the  remainder  of  his  life,  except  for 
a  short  time,  •when  he  traveled  about  working  at  his 
trade  in  Milwaukee,  Kansas  City,  Denver,  Leadville, 
Cheyenne,  and  Durango.  He  joined  the  socialistic 
labor  party  while  in  Milwaukee,  and  ever  after  was  its 
active  advocate.  On  his  return  to  Chicago  he  became 
engaged  as  reporter,  and  afterward  assistant  editor, 
on  the  Arbeiter  Zeitunj?.  He  was  arrested  for  his 
utterances  at  the  time  of  the  Haymarket  affair,  and  was 
executed  in  1887.  He  was  always  ready  to  respond 
to  any  call  in  behalf  of  working  men. 

August  Vincent  Theodore  Spies  was  born  in  Landerk, 
Germany,  December  10,  1855  ;  emigrated  to  America 
in  1871,  and  learned  the  upholstery  trade  in  Chicago. 
In  1876  he  began  taking  an  active  part  in 
the  labor  movement,  and  in  1877  joined 
the  socialists.    In  1880  he  became  pub- 
lisher of  the  Arbeiter  Zeitung,  and  in 
1884  was  also  business  manager  and  edi- 
tor.   A  man  of  force  and  energy,  a  read  y 
writer  and  good  speaker,  and  possessing 
a    good    moral  character,  he  acquired 
great  influence  among  those  of  socialistic  and  anar- 
chistic tendencies,  his  writings  and  speeches  attracting 
wide  attention.    He  was  hanged  November  n,  1887. 

CHILDREN'S  AID  SOCIETY  (of  New 
York  City),  THE,  was  organized  in  February, 
1853,  by  the  late  Charles  L.  Brace  (q.v.),  who 
with  a  few  other  gentlemen  had  already  been 
working  for  the  vagrant  boys  of  New  York  City. 
The  society  was  incorporated  in  1854  "for  the 
education  of  the  poor,  by  gathering  children 
who  attend  no  school  into  its  industrial  schools, 
caring  and  providing  for  children  in  lodging- 
houses,  and  procuring  for  them  homes  in  the 
rural  districts  and  in  the  West. ' ' 

The  fundamental  idea  upon  which  the  society 
was  founded,  and  which  has  been  its  governing 
motive  ever  since,  was  that  of  self-help — of 
teaching  children  how  to  help  themselves.  The 
industrial  schools,  now  numbering  21,  have 
trained  and  given  aid  and  encouragement  to 
over  100,000  children  of  the  very  poor.  In  the 
boys'  and  girls'  lodging-houses  about  200,000 


August 
Spies. 


homeless  and  vagrant  boys  and  girls  have  found 
shelter,  instruction  and  the  kindly  advice  and 
admonition  of  experienced  superintendents. 

Up  to  1892  the  society  had  emigrated  84,318 
children,  of  whom  51,427  were  boys  and  32,891 
were  girls.  Some  of  these  were  not  sent  to  a 
great  distance,  nearly  39,000  of  them  being  placed 
in  the  State  of  New  York,  4149  in  New  Jersey, 
etc.  The  Western  States  receiving  the  largest 
number  were  Illinois,  to  which  7366  were  sent  ; 
Iowa,  4852  ;  Missouri,  4835  ;  Indiana,  3782  ;  Kan- 
sas, 3310 ;  Michigan,  2900 ;  Minnesota,  2448. 
The  children  have  been  placed  at  an  average 
expense  of  $10  per  child,  and  at  first  little  care 
was  taken  in  placing  and  supervising  them  ; 
but  recently  much  greater  care  has  been  neces- 
sary to  reconcile  the  States  to  receiving  them. 

Hastings  H.  Hart,  of  the  Minnesota  State  Board  of 
Corrections  and  Charities,  has  investigated  the  results 
of  the  children  placed  in  Minnesota  by  the  Children's 
Aid  Society  of  New  York,  and  finds  that  the  methods 
of  placing  were  frequently  too  inexpensive  and  in- 
cautious ;  and  while  for  the  most  part  the  society  took 
care  of  children  that  did  not  turn  out  well,  this  was  not 
true  in  all  cases.  In  some  cases  they  were  placed  in 
families  so  destitute  as  to  be  receiving  public  assist- 
ance, and  other  unsatisfactory  placements  were  made. 
"From  our  experience,"  says  Mr.  Hart,  "  we  are  posi- 
tive in  the  opinion  that  children  above  the  age  of 
12  years  ought  not  to  be  sent  West  by  the  Children's 
Aid  Society.  In  this  opinion  I  understand  that  the 
officers  of  the  society  concur.  Our  examination 
shows,"  concludes  Mr.  Hart,  "with  reference  to  chil- 
dren under  13  years  of  age,  that  nine  tenths  remain, 
four  fifths  are  doing  well,  and  all  incorrigibles  are 
cared  for  by  the  society.  It  properly  placed,  faithfully 
supervised,  we  are  willing  to  take  our  full  share  of 
these  younger  children  in  Minnesota"  (quoted  in  A.  G. 
Warner's  American  Charities,  p.  230). 

Of  this  whole  number,  84,318  were  children— 51,427 
being  boys  and  32,891  girls ;  39,406  were  orphans  ;  17,- 
383  had  both  parents  living  ;  5892  a  father  only  ;  11,954 
a  mother  only,  and  of  9680  the  parental  relations  were 
unknown.  As  supplementary  to  its  work  the  society 
maintains :  The  East  Side  Mission,  whose  work  is  to 
distribute  flowers  daily  during  the  summer  months 
among  the  sick  and  poor ;  free  reading-rooms  for 
young  men ;  the  Health  Home  at  West  Coney  Island, 
comprising  cottages  and  dormitories  where  mothers 
with  sick  children  are  given  an  outing ;  the  Sick  Chil- 
dren's Mission,  at  287  East  Broadway,  with  a  staff  of 
14  physicians  and  4  nurses,  who  visit  the  sick  poor  at 
their  homes  and  supply  free  medical  attendance, 
medicine,  and  food  for  sick  children,  of  whom  1500  are 
treated  yearly  ;  a  summer  home  at  Bath  Beachj  L.  I., 
where  over  4000  tenement-house  children  are  given  a 
week's  outing  at  the  seaside  each  yearj  six  lodging- 
houses,  five  for  boys  and  one  for  girls,  in  which,  dur- 
ing 1892,  oyer  6000  boys  and  girls  were  fed  and  sheltered  ; 
21  industrial  schools  with  Kindergartens,  and  n  night- 
schools,  in  which  12,000  children  were  taught  and 
partly  fed  and  clothed  during  1892.  One  of  the  indus- 
trial schools  is  located  in  each  of  the  lodging-houses 
for  boys.  Special  features  of  the  girls'  lodging- 
house,  now  called  the  Elizabeth  Home  for  Girls,  are 
its  dressmaking  department,  sewing-machine  and 
typewriting  schools,  and  laundry.  The  instruction  in 
all  branches  is  free.  A  late  adjunct  to  the  society  is  a 
i25-acre  farm  located  at  Kensico,  Westchester  County, 
New  York,  for  the  primary  and  brief  education  of  the 
large  street  boys  in  agriculture,  preparatory  to  their 
being  provided  with  places  in  the  country.  All  the 
different  branches  of  the  society's  work  are  dependent 
upon  the  contributions  of  the  public. 

At  the  Health  Home  in  1894  over  7000  mothers  and 
children  were  received  and  given  the  benefit  of  pure 
sea  air,  together  with  skilled  medical  care  and  nourish- 
ing food ;  2000  of  these  were  there  a  week,  and  in  in- 
stances where  a  longer  stay  was  advisable  the  time 
was  prolonged  until  a  permanent  cured  was  effected. 
Parties  of  little  ones  were  also  taken  there  each-  week 
from  the  nurseries. 

The  report  for  November,  1894,  says  :  "  There  were 
during  the  past  year,  in  our  six  lodging-houses,  6349 
different  boys  and  girls  ;  235,393  meals  and  187,866  lodg- 
ings were  supplied.  In  the  21  day  and  12  evening 
schools  were  13,307  children,  who  were  taught  and 
partly  fed  and  partly  clothed,  759,058  meals  being  sup- 


Children's  Aid  Society. 


233 


Child  Labor. 


plied ;  2266  were  sent  to  homes  and  employment,  and 
restored  to  friends  in  both  the  East  and  the  West ; 
3974  were  aided  with  food,  medicine,  etc.,  through  the 
Sick  Children's  Mission;  5399  children  enjoyed  the 
benefits  of  the  Summer  Home  at  Bath,  L.  I.  (averaging 
about  540  per  week) ;  7404  mothers  and  sick  infants 
were  sent  to  the  Health  Home  at  Coney  Island  ;  98 
girls  have  been  instructed  in  the  use  of  the  sewing- 
machine  in  the  Girls'  Temporary  Home  and  the  in- 
dustrial schools ;  16  were  taught  typewriting,  and  80 
boys  were  trained  at  the  Farm  School ;  $2836.48  have 
been  deposited  in  the  Penny  Savings  Banks.  Total 
number  under  charge  of  the  society  during  the  year, 
38,811.  .  .  . 

"  The  total  annual  expense  of  our  21  industrial  schools 
and  12  night  schools,  for  salaries,  rents,  food,  clothing, 
books,  fuel,  etc.,  was  $130,822.53,  which  sum,  divided 
by  6204,  the  average  number  in  daily  attendance, 
would  make  $21.08  the  annual  cost  for  each  child. 

"  In  our  lodging-houses  6349  boys  and  girls  were  fed, 
sheltered,  and  taught,  during  the  past  year  at  a  total 
expense  of  $55,100.89.  Deducting  $24, 138.61,  beingthe  re- 
ceipts of  the  lodging-houses,  together  with  the  cost  of 
construction,  the  net  running  expense  was  $30,962.28 ; 
dividing  this  by  the  average  nightly  lodgings,  516,  we 
have  the  average  cost  to  the  public  of  each  child  for 
the  year,  $60. 

"  The  total  number  for  whom  homes  and  employ- 
ment have  been  found  by  the  society  during  last  year 
was  2266 ;  the  total  cost  for  railroad  fares,  clothing, 
food,  salaries,  etc.,  was  $26,921.79 ;  the  average  cost  to 
the  public  accordingly,  for  each  person  sent,  was 
$11.88.  Yet  any  child  placed  in  an  asylum  or  poor- 
house  costs  nearly  $140  a  year." 

The  central  office  of  the  society  is  at  the  United 
Charities  Building,  22d  Street  and  4th  Avenue. 

CHILD  LABOR. — There  is  ,  scarcely  one 
subject  in  the  whole  range  of  social  reform  more 
important  than  that  of  child  labor.  It  is,  too,  a 
subject  of  pressing  importance  at  present  in  the 
United  States,  as  well  as  in  other  countries. 
According  to  the  census  of  1880,  of  persons  en- 
gaged in  industry  in  the  United  States  (17,392,- 
099),  1,118,356  were  children  15  years  of  age  or 
tinder  (Compendium  of  Tenth  Census,  Part  II. , 
p.  1358).  The  final  returns  on  this  subject  for 
the  census  of  1890  are  not  yet  available,  though 
a  census  bulletin  of  manufactures  alone  gives 
the  total  number  of  employees  as  4,711,831,  of 
which  121,493  were  children.  But  this  figure  is 
undoubtedly  far  too  small.  Pennsylvania  is 
credited  with  22,417  children  at  work.  Says 
Mr.  McCamant,  Chief  of  Pennsylvania's  Bureau 
of  Industrial  Statistics  : 

"  The  [1880]  census  returns  for  Pennsylvania  give  the 
number  of  youths  from  10  to  15  years  of  age  in  the 
three  grand  divisions  of  industry,  other  than  manu- 
factures, mechanical  and  mining  [agricultural,  pro- 
fessional, and  personal  service,  trade  and  transporta- 
tion], as  46,629.  There  can  be  little  doubt  that  this  num- 
ber was  top  small  at  the  time  the  census  was  taken, 
but  assuming  it  to  have  been  correct,  and  allowing  for 
the  natural  increase  of  child  labor,  there  would  be 
in  1887  not  less  than  50,000  children  thus  employed, 
which,  added  to  the  75,000  employed  in  manufacturing 
and  mining,  would  swell  the  total  number  of  children 
employed  in  various  occupations  to  125,000." 

Mrs.  Florence  Kelly,  Chief  Inspector  of  Fac- 
tories and  Workshops  in  Illinois,  writes  in  the 
Arena  for  1894  : 

"  The  1890  census  bulletin  reports  upon  20,482  manu- 
facturing establishments  in  this  State,  and  gives  the 
total  number  of  children  employed  in  them  as  5426. 
In  five  months'  work  we  found  6576  children  in  2542 
establishments,  a  reason  for  once  more  challenging 
census  figures,  altho  in  our  work  girls  under  16,  as 
well  as  boys,  are  counted  children.  The  census  re- 
turns, it  will  be  remembered,  place  girls  over  15  years 
among  adults,  but  reckon  boys  under  16  as  children. 

"  Massachusetts  in  the  census  bulletin  is  credited 
with  8877  children,  but  the  factory  inspectors  of  Mas- 
sachusetts report  9471  children  under  16  in  the  textile 
mills  alone,  in  January  of  1889,  Commissioner  White 


expressing  the  belief  that  '  much  of  the  larger  portion 
of  small  children  employed  is  outside  of  the  textile 
factories'  "  (Report  of  Chief  of  District  Police,  1888, 
pp.  22,  46). 

It  is  thus  doubtful  if  there  has  been  any  re- 
duction of  child  labor  in  the  United  States  since 
1880,  even  in  manufactures  ;  but  taking  into 
consideration  the  great  retail  stores,  which  have 
notoriously  increased  in  size  since  1880,  and  em- 
ploy many  times  their  former  number  of  chil- 
dren as  cash-boys,  bundle-girls,  etc.,  the  total 
number  of  children  employed  in  gainful  occu- 
pations in  the  United  States  must  largely  have 
increased. 

Child  labor  under  its  worst  aspect  is  to  be 
found  in  the  "sweating  shops"  of  New  York, 
Brooklyn,  Chicago,  and  other  large  cities.  These 
workshops  are  often  small  confined 
rooms  in  the  tenement-houses,  n^-ia  T  ^ 
which,  according  to  the  report  of  a  .  T: g,a  °* 
New  York  factory  inspector,  repro- 
duce in  an  intensified  form  all  the 
horrors  of  dirt  and  overcrowding  to  be  found  in 
European  cities.  Formerly  cigar-making  was 
largely  carried  on  in  these  tenement-houses, 
but  the  unhealthy  character  of  the  industry 
caused  the  Legislature  to  interfere,  and  it  was 
prohibited  by  an  act  of  1884.  Nevertheless  the 
New  York  Report  for  1888  speaks  of  the  unor- 
ganized cigar-makers  as  working  still  in  tene- 
ment-houses. The  explanation  of  this  seems  to 
be  that  the  strong  opposition  of  the  Manufac- 
turers' Association  to  the  act  led  to  its  being  de- 
clared unconstitutional  by  the  Court  of  Appeals 
in  1887.  The  manufacture  of  cheap  clothing  is 
carried  on  in  badly  ventilated  and  overcrowded 
rooms,  and  in  defiance  of  the  provisions  of  the 
Factory  Acts.  The  Chief  Inspector  for  New 
York,  in  his  fifth  annual  report,  says  :  ' '  Summed 
up  in  a  nutshell,  the  trouble  with  the  '  sweater  ' 
workshops  of  New  York  is  this  :  the  hours  of 
labor  are  too  long,  being  sometimes  as  high  as 
90  a  week  ;  the  ventilating  and  sanitary  arrange- 
ments are  nearly  always  vile  to  the  last  degree, 
and  the  work-rooms  are  excessively  overcrowd- 
ed." 

The  wages  of  child  labor  in  the  United  States 
are  low,  but  so  vary  with  age  and  trade  that 
averages  are,  after  all,  misleading  rather  than 
helpful.    According  to  extra  Census 
Bulletin  67,  the  average  wage  paid 
to  the  121,194  children  it  reports  in    Children's 
manufactures  (girls  under  15  and      Wages, 
boys  under  16)  was  $139  per  year. 
In  Maine  it  was  $100  ;  California, 
$>  158  ;  Illinois,  $144  ;  Pennsylvania,  $151  ;  Rhode 
Island,  $158  ;  New  York,  $161  ;  Massachusetts, 
$181.     It  must  be  remembered  that  this  is  per 
year,  without  reference  to  the  number  of  days 
of  employment.     Massachusetts  does  not  neces- 
sarily, according  to  the  above  table,  pay  chil- 
dren   nearly    twice    what    they    are    paid    in 
Maine.     She  may  have  given  more  days'  work. 
By  industries  for  the  whole  country,  children's 
wages  averaged  $112  per  year  in  making  men's 
clothing,  which  employed  2065  children  (of  those 
reported)  ;  only  $29  in  canning  fruit,  etc. ,  which 
employed  5579   children  (tho  probably  only  a 
small  portion  of  the  year)  ;  $130  in  manufactur- 
ing cotton  goods  (where  the  work  is  commonly 
steady)  ;  $78  and  $130  in  two  kinds  of  tobacco- 
making,  which  together  employed  7618  children. 


Child  Labor. 


234 


Child  Labor. 


According  to  the  report  of  the  Rhode  Island 
Labor  Bureau  (1891),  p.  181,  the  average  weekly 
wages  paid  to  children  in  specified  industries 
were  as  follows : 


INDUSTRIES. 

Boys. 

Girls. 

$2.83 

$2.89 

•t.-t6 

^•38 

Rubber        

3.  SO 

2.38 

Silk  

2.80 

2.45 

3.48 

Total               

$2.89 

$3.08 

But  this,  too,  must  not  be  taken  as  the  aver- 
age earnings  of  children  in  stores,  or  as  news- 
boys on  the  streets,  etc. 

The  following  table,  from  the  Report  on  Ger- 
many of  the  (English)  Royal  Commission  on 
Labor  (p.  43),  indicates  that  the  evil 
is  greater  in  the  United  States  than 
In  Different  in    other   countries.     It.  should  be 
Countries,    said,  however,  that  as  factories  are 
being  developed  in  Germany,  the 
employment   of    children  there  is 
increasing  ;  yet  this  is  the  table  : 


COUNTRY. 

Children 
under  15. 

Proportion  to 
Total  Number 
of  Persons 
engaged 
in  Occupations. 

Germany  (June  5,  1882)  .... 
Italy  (December  31,  1881).  . 
England  and  Wales  (April 
4,  1881)     

524,158 
1,072,397 

2.76 
7.08 

4.76 

The  United  States  (June  i, 
X88o)  

6.43 

I.  EUROPE. 

No  one  can  question,  however,  in  any  country 
the  seriousness  of  the  problem,  and  we  approach 
it  country  by  country. 

We  commence  with  England,  as  no  other  country  has 

had  so  long  or  so  carefully  recorded  an  experience 

with  the  evils  of  child  labor,   or   with 

efforts  and  legislation  for  its  cure.    We 

England,      abridge  for  this  purpose  an  essay  by 

William  F.    Willoughby,    published  by 

the    American    Economic    Association. 

He  says  in  substance  : 

"The  growth  of  child  labor  is  inseparably  connected 
with  the  introduction  of  machinery.  In  the  year  1769 
Mr.  Arkwright  obtained  his  first  patent  for  a  machine 
for  spinning  cotton  yarn,  and  commenced  manufactur- 
ing by  machinery.  This  was  the  beginning  of  the  fac- 
tory system.  Then  followed  Compton's  spinning 
mule  in  1775,  Cartwright's  power-loom  in  1787,  and  in 
1793  the  invention  of  the  famous  cotton-gin  by  Eli 
Whitney.  Thousands  of ^ hands  were  suddenly  required 
to  work  at  places  far  distant  from  home.  The  small 
and  nimble  fingers  of  little  children  were  by  far  the 
most  in  request.  Before  the  change  had  attracted 
much  attention,  large  numbers  of  children  were  massed 
together  in  factories. 

"  The  first  form  of  child  employment  differed  greatly 
from  that  of  later  years.  The  first  system  originated 
in  the  procuring  of  apprentices  from  the  different 
parish  workhouses  of  London,  Birmingham,  and  else- 
where. Many  thousands  of  these  little  hapless  crea- 
tures, ranging  from  14  down  to  four  and  even  three 
years  of  age,  were  thus  sent  down  into  the  North. 
Agreements  of  the  most  revolting  character  were 
often  made  between  the  manufacturers  and  the  differ- 


ent parish  workhouses  for  bands  of  children  for  a 
number  of  years,  in  which  the  condition  of  the  chil- 
dren was  totally  disregarded.  Such,  for  example, 
were  those  provisions  whereby  it  was  agreed  that 
with  every  20  sound  children  one  idiot  should  be 
taken. 

"Says  Professor  Walker  (Political  Economy,  p.  381): 

"  '  The  beginning  of  the  present  century  fo'und  chil- 
dren of  five  and  even  three  years  of  age  in  England 
working  in  factories  and  brick- yards  ;  women  working 
underground  in  mines,  harnessed  with  mules  to  carts, 
drawing  heavy  loads  :  found  the  hours  of  labor  what- 
ever the  avarice  of  individual  mill-owners  might  exact, 
were  it  13,  14,  or  15  ;  found  no  guards  about  machinery 
to  protect  life  and  limb  ;  found  the  air  of  the  factory 
fouler  than  language  can  describe,  even  could  human 
ears  bear  to  hear  the  story.' 

"  According  to  the  statement  of  Dr.  Gould,  out  of 
23,000  factory  hands  investigated  by  him,  in  1816,  14,000 
were  under  18.  In  the  same  year  a  return  from  41  mills 
in  Scotland  gave  a  total  of  10,000  employees,  of  which 
4404  were  under  18,  and  of  these  415  under  10.  A  simi- 
lar return  from  Manchester  gave  a  total  of  12,940,  of 
which  793  were  under  10  and  5460  between  10  and  18 
(Gaskell,  Report  0/1816). 

"  Children  of  all  ages,  down  to  three  and  four,  were 
found  in  the  hardest  and  most  painful  labor,  while 
babes  of  six  were  commonly  found  in  large  numbers 
in  many  factories.  Labor  from  12  to  13 
and  often  16  hours  a  day  was  the  rule. 
Children  had  not  a  moment  free,  save  to  Terrible 
snatch  a  hasty  meal  or  sleep  as  best  they  ~r. . 
could.  From  earliest  youth  they  worked  Conditions. 
to  a  point  of  extreme  exhaustion,  with- 
out open-air  exercise  or  any  enjoyment 
whatever,  but  grew  up,  if  they  survived  at  all,  weak, 
bloodless,  miserable,  and  in  many  cases  deformed 
cripples,  and  victims  of  almost  every  disease.  Drunk- 
enness, debauchery,  and  filth  could  not  but  be  the  re- 
sult. Their  condition  was  but  the  veriest  slavery,  and 
the  condition  of  the  serf  or  negro  stood  out  in  bright 
contrast  to  theirs.  The  mortality  was  excessive,  and 
the  dread  diseases  rickets  and  scrofula  passed  by  but 
few  in  their  path.  It  was  among  this  class  that  the 
horrors  of  hereditary  disease  had  its  chief  hold,  aided 
as  it  was  by  the  repetition  and  accumulation  of  the 
same  causes  as  first  planted  its  seeds.  The  reports  of 
all  the  many  investigations  showed  that  morality  was 
almost  unknown.  It  was  not  an  uncommon  thing,  in 
the  mines,  for  men  to  work  perfectly  naked  in  the 
presence  of  women  ;  who,  in  turn,  were  bare  to  their 
waists,  and  below  covered  only  by  a  ragged  pair  of 
trousers.  In  the  coal  mines  the  condition  of  the  chil- 
dren was  even  worse.  According  to  the  report  of  1842, 
on  child-labor,  it  was  estimated  that  fully  one  third  of 
those  employed  in  the  coal  mines  of  England  were 
children  under  18,  and  of  these  much  more  than  one 
half  were  under  13.  The  facts  revealed  in  this  elabo- 
rate report  of  over  2000  pages,  devoted  chiefly  to  child- 
labor  in  coal  mines,  would  be  scarcely  credible  if  they 
were  not  supported  by  the  best  of  authority,  so  fearful 
was  the  condition  of  the  children  found  to  be.  Down  in 
the  depths  of  the  earth  they  labored  from  14  to  16  hours 
daily.  The  coal  often  lay  in  seams  only  18  inches  deep, 
and  in  these  children  crawled  on  their  hands  and  feet, 
generally  naked,  and  harnessed  up  by  an  iron  chain 
and  band  around  their  waists,  by  which  they  either 
dragged  or  pushed  heavily  loaded  cars  of  coal  through 
these  narrow  ways.  In  nearly  every  case  they  were 
driven  to  work  by  the  brutal  miners,  and  beaten,  and 
sometimes  even  killed.  Law  did  not  seem  to  reach  to 
the  depths  of  a  coal-pit.  Thus  these  young  infants 
labored  their  young  lives  out  as  if  condemned  to  tor- 
ture for  some  crime.  But  it  is  useless  to  dwell  longer 
on  their  condition.  Volumes  might  be  filled  in  por- 
traying their  sufferings.  Treated  as  brutes,  they  lived 
with  no  regard  to  morals,  religion,  education,  or 
health,  in  a  condition  that  will  probably  never  be  du- 
plicated. 

"The  injustice  of  such  a  system  could  not  long  pass 
•without  criticism,  and  action  was  demanded  of  Par- 
liament to  remedy  or  abate  this  social  disease.    To  Sir 
Robert  Peel,  Sr.,  belongs  the  honor  of 
first  providing  a  measure  for  the  relief 
of  this  evil.    In  1802  he  commenced  the         First 
factory  legislation  by  securing  the  pas-  T --.•0i_f.-..T, 
sage  of  his  apprentice    bill.     This  bill,  -Legislation. 
altho  of  the  most    limited    scope,    and 
applying  only  to  cotton  factories,  was 
then  considered  as  a  measure,  radical  if  not  revolu- 
tionary.   This  legislation  then  met  with  the  bitterest 
opposition   from  the  manufacturers  and  the  political 
economists.    Financial  ruin  to  English  manufacturers 
was  predicted  as  the  result  of  such  interference. 


Child  Labor. 


235 


Child  Labor. 


"  With  the  abolition  of  the  apprenticeship  system, 
the  law  became  inoperative,  and  unrestricted  hours  of 
labor  again  became  the  rule,  and  the  condition  of  the 
children  became,  if  possible,  even  worse  than  before. 
Accordingly,  in  1815,  Robert  Peel  again  came  to  the 
front,  and  in  that  year  secured  the  appointment  of  a 
committee  to  '  inquire  into  the  expediency  of  extend- 
ing the  apprenticeship  act  to  children  of  every  de- 
cription.'  The  result  of  this  examination  was  pre- 
sented to  Parliament  in  reports  for  the  years  1816,  1817, 
and  1818.  The  result  of  this  was  the  passage  of  the 
Act  of  1819. 

"The  employment  of  children  under  9  was  for- 
bidden, and  the  hours  of  labor  for  those  between  9  and 
16  were  limited  to  12  hours  daily.  In  1825  a  partial 
holiday  was  made  compulsory  for  the  children.  In  1831 
night  work  was  forbidden  to  all  under  21,  and  n  hours 
a  day  was  made  a  limit  for  those  under  18. 

"  In  1833  Lord  Ashley  (afterward  Earl  of  Shaftes- 
bury)  became  the  champion  of  the  laborers  by  the  in- 
troduction of  a  new  bill,  extending  yet  further  the  pro- 
visions of  former  acts.  This  act  was  the  most  sub- 
stantial step  yet  taken  in  this  direction.  Its  principal 
provisions  were :  (i)  The  employment  of  children 
under  9  was  forbidden.  (2)  The  hours  of  labor  for 
those  between  9  and  13  were  limited  to  8  hours  a  day. 
(3)  The  hours  of  labor  for  those  under  18  engaged  in 
worsted,  hemp,  tow,  and  linen-spinning  should  not  ex- 
ceed 12  hours  a  day,  and  night  work  was  forbidden 
them.  The  most  significant  feature  of  this  act,  how- 
ever, was  that  relating  to  school  attendance,  and  the 
appointment  of  inspectors  to  enforce  the  law. 

"  In  1835  the  employment  of  children  under  10  in  the 
mines  was  forbidden.  These  regulations  were,  how- 
ever, by  various  devices,  persistently  evaded. 

"  As  the  introduction  and  use  of  machinery  became 
more  general,  and  the  subdivision  of  labor  became 
more  minute,  the  employment  of  children  became 
more  extensive.  The  Parliamentary  report  of  1833 
estimated  that  out  of  170,000  employees  in  the  cotton 
mills  in  that  year,  70,000  were  children  under  18.  In 
1839  there  were  employed  in  the  factories  of  Eng- 
land a  total  of  419,590  persons  of  all  ages,  and  of  these 
192,887,  or  nearly  one  half,  were  under  18  years  of 
age. 

"  In  1842,  through  the  efforts  of  Lord  Ashley,  a 
commission  was  appointed  to  investigate  the  condi- 
tion of  children  employed  in  England,  and  in  1842 
was  presented  their  first  report,  already  referred  to. 
In  consequence  of  this  report,  the  Act  of  1843  was 
passed,  which  was  the  most  important  measure  that 
had  up  to  that  time  been  adopted.  It  applied  to  all 
laborers  outside  of  agriculture.  By  it  'freedom  of 
contract  '  on  the  part  of  women  was  finally  abol- 
ished. Women  over  18  years  of  age  were  put  in  the 
same  category  as  young  persons,  and  their  toil  lim- 
ited to  ii  hours  a  day.  Children  under  13  were  not 
allowed  to  work  more  than  six  and  a  half  hours  a  day, 
and,  above  all,  attendance  at  school  was  required  for 
the  other  half  day  as  a  condition  of  employment.  By 
this  act  the  restriction  of  child  employment  was  re- 
duced to  a  uniform  basis.  It  is  difficult  to  measure  the 
advancement  thus  given  to  the  oppressed  children. 
From  this  time  on  every  working  child  in  England 
spent  as  much  time  in  school  as  in  the  workshop. 

"  In  1847  Lord  Ashley  secured  the  passage  of  another 
act,  carrying  out  his  plan  still  more  fully.  This 
completed  the  reduction  of  the  working  time  for 
children  under  13  to  5  hours  per  day,  and  to  10  hours 
for  all  women  and  those  minors  between  the  ages  of 
13  and  18. 

"  During  the  following  years  until  1878  various  acts 
were  passed  extending  the  provisions  of  former  acts 
in  one  or  another  direction.  Of  these,  the  Factory 
Act  of  1874  was  the  most  important.  By  it  the 
minimum  age  for  the  employment  of  children  was 
raised  to  10. 

"  In  1878  this  long  line  of  legislation  was  fittingly 
crowned  by  the  act  of  that  year.  This  act,  entitled 
'  An  Act  to  Consolidate  and  Amend  the  Law  Relating 
to  Factories  and  Workshops'  amends 
and  consolidates  in  one  wide-embracing 
Present  act  a11  the  Kronnd  covered  by  the  16  acts 
iico»  passed  between  1802  and  1878,  besides 

Legislation,  embracing,  with  some  changes,  the  Pro- 
vision of  the  Public  Health  Act  of  1875, 
and  the  Elementary  Education  Act  of 
1^76.  It  was  prepared  with  the  greatest  care  and  full- 
ness, and  furnishes  an  admirable  code  for  factory 
regulation.  Never  before  had  the  paternality  of  gov- 
ernment been  so  strongly  declared,  and  never  before 
liad  the  right  of  the  workmen  to  demand  protection 
by  the  State  against  their  employers  been  so  distinctly 
asserted.  The  importance  of  this  act,  as  setting 


forth  the  present  regulation  of  child  labor  in  England, 
demands  a  closer  survey.  Its  provisions  are  as  fol- 
lows : 

"(i)  The  hours  of  employment  for  children  shall  be 
as  follows :  those  under  10  shall  not  be  employed  at 
all,  and  those  under  14  shall  be  employed  only  half 
time,  either  in  the  mornings  or  evenings,  or  on  alter- 
nate days.  (2)  The  hours  of  employment  for  young 
persons  (14  to  18)  shall  be  from  6  to  6  or  7  to  7,  of  which 
2  hours  shall  be  devoted  to  meals,  and  on  Saturdays 
all  work  shall  cease  for  them  at  1.30.  (3)  Adequate 
sanitary  provisions  are  provided.  (4)  Also  ample 
provisions  against  accidents.  (5)  A  suitable  number 
of  inspectors  and  assistants  are  created  to  insure  the 
due  execution  of  the  law.  (6)  Medical  certificates  of 
fitness  for  employment  must  be  furnished  by  all  under 
16.  (7)  Weekly  certificates  must  be  obtained  from  the 
proper  authorities  by  the  employers,  showing  the  re- 
quired amount  of  school  attendance  for  every  child  in 
their  employ. 

"  The  direct  benefits  resulting  to  the  lower  classes 
from  this  act  cannot  be  equaled  by  any  other  act  upon 
the  rolls  of  Parliament. 

"  It  will  be  seen  from  this  brief  sketch,  that  the 
English  factory  system  was  one  of  slow  growth  and 
development.  One  restriction  after  another  was  placed 
upon  the  employer,  until  to-day  the  English  laborer  is 
more  taken  care  of  by  the  Government  than  in  any 
other  country,  Prussia  possibly  excepted.  It  can  be 
said  of  it,  as  of  no  other  course  of  legislation,  that  its 
results  have  all  been  beneficial,  not  only  to  the  em- 
ployees, but  to  the  employers  as  •well,  as  is  now  gener- 
ally admitted  by  them.  Its  results  have  more  than 
justified  the  acts  in  every  particular.  In  it  can  be 
traced  the  rise  of  many  important  principles  in  the 
science  of  the  functions  of  government.  This  series 
of  acts  first  established  the  right  of  the  State  to  regu- 
late industry.  It  was  the  most  important  advance 
and  attack  that  has  yet  been  made  upon  the  laissez 
faire  doctrine,  that '  the  less  government  the  better,' 
so  strongly  insisted  upon  by  the  old  economists.  Al- 
tho  every  political  economist  who  wrote  _  before 
1850  was  uncompromisingly  opposed  to  this  legislation, 
not  one  who  has  written  since  1865  has  ventured  to 
deny  the  advisability  of  the  Factory  acts. 

"  It  is  also  characteristic  of  this  earlier  period,  that 
the  employers  were  unanimous  in  their  opposition  to 
any  abridgment  of  their  rights  to  employ  children, 
and  in  this  were  supported  in  Parliament  by  such 
men  of  the  school  mentioned  as  John  Bright,  proud  of 
the  name  of  friend  of  the  people;  Lord  Cobden  and 
his  associates,  and  many  of  the  most  distinguished  of 
English  statesmen.  Every  improvement  in  the  con- 
dition of  English  labor  was  only  obtained  against  the 
combined  opposition  of  these  two  classes.  Too  much 
praise  cannot  be  given  to  those  men,  Lord  Ashley, 
Robert  Owen,  Oastler,  and  others,  who  labored  un- 
ceasingly to  secure  the  passage  of  these  acts.  This 
change  of  front  by  the  employers  and  economists  is  one 
of  the  most  cheering  signs  of  the  time." 

II.  CONTINENTAL  EUROPE. 

Of  child  labor  in  Germany,  the  report  on  that 
country  of  the  (English)  Royal  Commission  on 
Labor  says  : 

"The  employment  of  child  labor  in  Germany  shows 
a  considerable  proportionate   decrease  as  compared 
with  the  middle  of  the  century,  but  at  the  same  time  a 
decided  increase  during  the  last  few  years.    In  1853 
the  number  of  children  employed  in  Prussian  factories 
was  32,000 ;  8000  were  between  9  and  12  years  of  age, 
and    24,000  between   12  and   14.     In  1888  and   1890  no 
children  under  12  were  to  be  found  in 
Prussian  factories,  and  the  numbers  of 
those  between  12  and  14  were  only  6225    nermanv 
and  6636.    The  abuses  attendant  upon     "eru 
the  employment  of  children  in  the  middle 
of  the  century  have  been  described  by 
Professor  Thun,  who  states  that  in  the  textile  indus- 
tries of  Gladbach  and  Aix-la-Chapelle  it  was  not  un- 
usual to  find  children  employed  at  only  five  or  six 
years  of  age,  and  that  the  profits  to  be  drawn  from 
child  labor  of  this   kind   were   an  encouragement  to 
early  marriages.     In  1875,  when  an  inquiry  was  made 
by  the  Federal  Council  into  the  question  of  the  labor 
of  women  and  children,  the  number  of  children  em- 
ployed throughout  the  German  empire  was  88,000,  24 
per  cent,  of  whom  were  between  12  and  14,  and  76  per 
cent,  between  14  and  16.   The  proportion  of  child  to  adult 
labor  was  about  i  to  10.    The  weekly  wages  of  chil- 


Child  Labor. 


236 


Child  Labor. 


dren  between  12  and  14  varied  from  i  mark  to  9 marks; 
those  of  children  between  14  and  16,  from  i£  marks  to 
13$  marks ;  the  average  wage  of  the  first  class  was  3 
marks  and  that  of  the  second  5  marks. 

"  Since  1882  the  extent  to  which  child  labor  is  em- 
ployed can  be  computed  from  the  reports  of  the  fac- 
tory inspectors,  which  give  the  following  results  : 


YEAR. 

Children 
from 
12  to  14. 

Young  Per- 
sons from 
14  to  16. 

Total. 

882  

14,600 

123,543 

138,143 

883  

18,935 

143,805 

884  

18,882 

135,477 

154,359 

886  

134,589 

888  

22,913 

169,252 

192,165 

800 

27,485 

"The  great  increase  noticeable  in  1890  is  due  in  part 
to  the  inclusion  of  Alsace-Lorraine  in  that  year  ;  but 
even  disregarding  the  1071  children  and  10,168  young 
persons  employed  in  those  provinces,  the  record  for 
the  nine  years  shows  an  increase  of  80  per  cent,  in  the 
employment  of  children,  and  65.2  per  cent,  in  that  of 
young  persons.  The  factory  inspectors  state  that 
on  the  whole  this  increase  is  not  disproportionate  to 
that  of  adult  labor ;  but  Dr.  Stieda  is  of  opinion 
that  adult  labor  has  scarcely  advanced  at  so  rapid  a 
rate." 

According  to  the  Industrial  Code  of  1891,  based  on  the 
recommendations  of  the  Berlin  Conference,  called  by 
the  emperor,  children  under  13  years  of  age  cannot  be 
employed  in  factories,  and  even  if  over  13  years  of  age 
they  can  only  be  employed  if  freed  from 
the  necessity  for  school  attendance.  The 
n. j_  nf  IOQI  hours  for  children  under  14  years  of  age 
v/oae  01  io»l.  must  not  exceed  six  a  day,  with  a  pause 
of  at  least  half  an  hour,  and  young  per- 
sons between  14  and  16  must  not  •work  in 
factories  more  than  10  hours  a  day,  with  one  hour's  in- 
terval in  the  middle  of  the  day,  and  half  an  hour  in  the 
morning  and  afternoon.  Young  persons  must  not  be 
employed  on  Sundays  or  holidays,  nor  during  the 
hours  fixed  for  religious  instruction  by  the  authorized 
priest  or  pastor.  In  the  country  children  over  10  may 
be  partially  exempted  from  school  attendance,  and  al- 
lowed to  assist  in  open-air  work,  such  as  minding 
cattle;  but  this  partial  exemption  is  in  the  hands  6f 
the  school  inspectors,  and  is  not,  as  a  rule,  granted 
until  the  completion  of  the  eleventh  or  twelfth  year. 
No  child  may  be  employed  until  a  labor  card  stamped 
by  the  authorities  has  been  given  to  the  employer  stat- 
ing the  name,  day  and  year  of  birth,  and  denomination 
to  which  the  child  belongs  ;  the  name,  calling,  and  resi- 
dence of  the  father  or  guardian,  and  the  extent  to 
which  the  child  is  still  obliged  to  attend  school.  A  list 
of  all  the  children  employed  must  be  kept  in  every 
factory,  and  hung  up,  together  with  a  statement  of 
their  hours,  in  the  rooms  in  which  they  work.  In  cer- 
tain occupations  of  unusual  danger  or  unhealthiness. 
as  mining,  glass  works,  etc.,  the  restrictions  are  still 
greater.  Inspectors  are  appointed  to  enforce  the 
laws. 

France,  by  the  law  of  1884,  prohibited  child  labor  un- 
der 12,  and  limited  it  to  12  hours,  with  specified  intervals 
for  rest  and  meals  to  those  between  12  and  16.    Night 
and   Sunday  work    were  prohibited  to 
boys  and  to  girls  under  21.    The  govern- 
•p        -.        ment,  however,  had  considerable  power 
rraiioe.       Q£    exception   and   regulation.      By  the 
law  of  November  2,  1892,  children  under 
16  can  only  work  10  hours  a  day,  and 
from  16  to  18,  n  hours.     Night  work  and  work  under- 
ground are  prohibited  to  children  and  women.    All 
child  labor  under  13  is  prohibited. 

In  Italy  child  labor  is  carried  to  a  large  extent,  but 
an  act  of  1886  forbade  the  employment  of  children  un- 
der nine  in  factories,  mines,  or  quarries, 
and  those  under  10  underground.    Night 
Italy  and     work  is  prohibited  for  children  under 
Ct-ritVm-ianri    I2-      Such  an  act  shows,  however,  how 
ewuzeiiana.  eyil  condjtions  must  have  been  and  stin 

are,  particularly  in  the  sulphur  mines  of 
Sicily.      Switzerland    has    better    laws; 

women,  girls  and  boys  under  14  cannot  be  employed 

at  night,  nor  can  any  child  work  in  factories  under  14. 

Subiect  to  these  restrictions,  child  labor  is  said  to  be 

very  common  in  Switzerland. 


Other 
Countries. 


In  crowded   Belgium,  the  conditions  are  frightful. 
Large  numbers    of    children    are    employed  in    tex- 
tile industries,  and  even    in  such    un- 
healthly  trades  as  glass-blowing  ;  but 
the    worst    conditions    prevail    in    the     Belgium. 
mines.    In  1891,  Belgium  had  4439  wom- 
en and  girls  of  over  16  and   2742  girls 
under  16  employed  in  above-ground  mines,  and  23,008 
women  and  girls  above  16,  with  683  girls  under  16,  em- 
ployed in  underground  mines.     By  a  law  which  came 
into  force  January  i,  1892,  the  employment  of  women 
and  children  under  21  years  of  age  is  prohibited. 

In  vol.  iv.  of  the  Reports  on  the  Labor  Question 
(Brussels,  1888,  p.  15),  we  read  in  the  testimony  that 
a  young  girl  of  17  testified  to  going  down  into  the 
mine  at  5  A.M.  and  coming  up  sometimes  at  9  and 
sometimes  at  n  P.M.  She  said  she  loaded  60  to  70  cars 
per  day,  and  fetched  her  empty  cars  from  150  to  300  ft. 
The  earnings  of  these  women  are  reported  at  36  to  40 
cents  per  day.  One  woman  said  her  husband  earned 
$2.60  per  week,  and  her  boy  16  cents  per  day. 

Sweden,  by  a  la\v  of  1883,  forbids  employment  of  all 
under  12,  and  limits  the  work  of  children  under  14 
to  six  hours,  and  under  16  to  12  hours.  Night  work 
is  forbidden  to  all  under  18.  Denmark, 
by  a  law  of  1873,  forbids  the  employ- 
ment of  children  under  10.  Holland 
in  1874  forbade  the  employment  of 
children  under  12  save  in  domestic  ser- 
vice and  agricultural  labor.  Russia  in 
1884  forbade  night  work  to  women  and 
all  persons  under  17.  Children  from  10  to  12  may 
only  be  employed  in  specified  industries,  and  from  12 
to  15  all  limited  to  eight  hours  per  day. 

Austria  forbids  the  employment  or  children  in  fac- 
tories under  14.  Night  work  is  forbidden  to  women 
and  all  under  16. 

III.  THE  UNITED  STATES. 

Concerning  child  labor  in  the  United  States, 
one  of  the  best  statements  is  Mrs.  Florence 
Kelly's  tract,  Our  Toiling  Children  (written 
under  her  former  name,  Mrs.  Wischnewetsky), 
from  which  we  condense  the  following,  supple- 
menting it  by  later  statements.  Mrs.  Kelly 
says  : 

"  There  was  a  time  in  the  history  of  the  country 
when  every  child  was  a  child,  granted  as  its  birthright 
ample  time  in  which  to  grow  to  manhood  or  woman- 
hood, and  required  to  work  only  by  the  exigencies  of 
family  life  on  the  paternal  farm.  That  was  in  the 
early  days,  before  the  capitalistic  system  of  produc- 
tion had  developed  in  the  new  country,  while  work  was 
still  done  chiefly  for  its  product's  uses,  and  not  exclu- 
sively for  exchange  and  profit.  To-day  the  working 
man's  child  is  a  drudge  from  its  babyhood.  The  chil- 
dren of  the  clothing  makers  in  New  York  City  begin 
•work  at  four  years  of  age,  their  labor  power  being 
available,  under  the  sweating  system  of  tenement- 
house  manufacture,  for  picking  out  basting  threads. 

"  The  conditions   under  which  children  work    are 
fraught  with  danger  to  life  and  limb,  to  health,  morals, 
and  intelligence.     It  is  necessary  to  take  up  each  of 
the  dangers  in  its  order  ;  first,  then,  the 
danger  to  life  from  fire. 

"  In  1888  Inspector  White,  of  Massachu- 
setts, said:  '  It  would  be  very  little  use 
to  put  a  fire-escape  on  a  powder  house, 
and  hundreds  of  the  buildings  now  oc- 
cupied for  tenement  and  lodging-houses 
would,  under  favorable  circumstances, 
burn  down  so  quickly  as  to  render  nearly  useless  any 
means  of  escape  that  can  be  provided.     The  late  fire  in 
a  tenement-house  (factory)  in  New  York  is  a  striking 
example  of  the  terrible  results  of  such  methods  of  con- 
struction'  (Second  Annual  Convention  of  Factory  Jn- 
spectors,  June,  1888.  pp.  37,  39). 

"  Speaking  of  Ohio  factories,  Chief  Inspector  Dorn 
says  :  'It  is  somewhat  difficult  to  speak  with  calmness 
of  men  who,  while  liberally  insuring  their  property 
against  fire,  so  that  in  case  of  such  a  visitation— a  dan- 
ger always  imminent— their  pockets  shall  not  suffer, 
will  not  spend  a  dollar  for  the  security  of  the  lives  of 
those  by  whose  labor  they  profit'  (Report  Second  An- 
nual Convention  Factory  Inspectors  of  America,  June, 
1888,  p.  19). 

"Inspector  Schaubert,  of  New  York,  reports  :  '  I  find 
some  fire-escapes  made  of  gas-pipe  bent  and  driven 
into  the  wall,  that  would  require  a  trapeze  performer 


Danger  to 

Life  from 

Fire. 


Child  Labor. 


237 


Child  Labor. 


to  ascend  them.  For  instance,  in  Rochester  are  two 
buildings  seven  stories  high.  In  one  there  are  usually 
150  and  in  the  other  about  270  female  operatives  em- 
ployed on  the  top  floors.  But  one  stairway  in  each 
connects  the  various  stories.  In  the  rear  of  these 
structures,  I  find  these  gas-pipe  arrangements  for  fire- 
escapes.  .  .  .  Another  alleged  fire-escape  is  that  in  the 
rear  of  a  certain  printing  house.  About  60  females 
are  here  employed  on  the  fifth  floor.  Only  one  narrow 
staircase  runs  from  the  top  of  the  building  to  the  street, 
and  in  the  rear  a  straight  ladder  extends  from  the  top 
to  the  second  floor.  This  ladder  would  be  almost 
valueless  in  case  a  panic  should  seize  the  work- 
women '  {Second  Annual  Report  Factory  Inspectors  of 
New  York,  1887,  p.  m). 

"  Even  in  Massachusetts,  according  to  Commissioner 
White,  'the  statutes  in  this  regard  (/.  e.,  precaution 
against  loss  of  life  by  fire)  are  less  definite  in  their  pro- 
visions, and  there  is  less  in  them  to  guide  the  inspector, 
than  in  any  other  laws  which  we  are  called  upon  to  en- 
force '  (Report  Second  Annual  Convention  Factory 
Inspectors  of  America,  June,  1888,  p.  37). 

"  To  aggravate  the  danger  of  fire,  there  is  a  very  gen- 
eral practice  of  locking  the  work-room  doors. 

"  'Imagine,'  says  Inspector  Dorn,  of  Ohio,  'a  large 
building  filled  w'ith  work  people— men,  women,  and 
children — all  the  doors  closed,  the  custodian  of  the 
keys  absent,  all  means  of  egress  cut  off.  In  what  peril 
would  those  people  be  in  case  of  fire ! ' 

"  Children  are  employed  in  vast  numbers  in  mills  of 
many  kinds  in  tending  steam-driven  machinery.  They 
are  therefore  especially  exposed  to  danger  of  explo- 
sion. Of  boiler  explosions,  Factory  Inspector  Dorn,  of 
Ohio,  says  :  'The  number  of  lives  annually  lost  by  the 
explosion  of  steam  boilers  is  so  great  that  it  seems  al- 
most incredible  that  the  State  has  done  nothing  toward 
securing  a  proper  inspection  of  so  necessary  and  yet  so 
dangerous  an  adjunct  of  our  manufacturing  industries.' 

"  The  National  Association  of  Stationary  Engineers 
furnish  the  following  information  in  their  address : 
'We  believe  that  the  frequent  killing  and  maiming  of 
people  by  the  explosion  of  steam  boilers  is  unneces- 
sary ;  that  it  can  and  should  be  entirely  prevented  ;  we 
have  the  evidence  that  our  membership,  numbering 
several  thousand  operating  engineers,  does  not  furnish 
a  single  one  chargeable  with  the  rupture  or  explosion 
of  a  boiler  while  under  steam  pressure.  We  ask  that 
the  prime  cause  of  boiler  explosions  be  removed,  by 
enacting  laws  preventing  the  ignorant,  drunken,  un- 
skillful from  taking  charge ;  that  the  law  shall  only 
permit  the  skillful,  sober,  and  competent  to  take  charge 
of  this  terribly  destructive  explosive.  During  the 
past  12  months  a  record  has  been  kept  of  boiler  explo- 
sions, comprising  only  those  published  by  the  daily 
press  and  others,  that  came  to  the  knowledge  of  our 
members  and  were  reported  to  the  secretary  of  the  so- 
ciety. From  these  reports  we  can  give  the  following 
aggregates:  Number  of  boiler  explosions,  496  ;  number 
of  deaths,  697;  number  of  injured,  many  fatally,  1273. 
Thus  with  incomplete  returns  we  have  1970  people 
killed,  maimed,  or  crippled,  all  resulting  from  igno- 
rance, intemperance,  and  avarice.' 

"  The  records  of  death  and  mutilation  inflicted  by  ma- 
chinery are  defective  everywhere,  and  the  effort  to 
obtain  adequate  data  is  new,  even  in 
Massachusetts.  The  first  attempt  to 

Uns-uarded   Polish  an  official  record,  however  in- 

"  o,".  complete,  for  one  full  year,  of  all  acci- 

Macmnery.  dents  to  employees  reported  to  the  State 
factory  inspectors,  was  made  simulta- 
neously in  Massachusetts, New  York,and 
New  Jersey,  and  is  embraced  in  the  inspectors'  reports 
of  those  States  for  1887.  A  similar  attempt  is  embraced 
in  the  report  of  the  factory  inspectors  or  Ohio  for  1888. 
This  record  is  in  no.  case  even  approximately  full,  be- 
cause the  law  requiring  employers  to  report  is  nowhere 
adequately  enforced.  Yet  the  official  data,  with  their 
descriptions  of  the  killed  and  wounded,  rival  the  rec- 
ords of  actual  warfare,  and  sustain  the  metaphor  of 
the  battlefield  of  industry.  Altho  in  these  lists  the 
ages  of  the  slain  are  not  always  given,  the  '  accidents ' 
to  children  are  known  to  be  so  numerous  that  Professor 
Hadley,  while  Commissioner  of  Labor  Statistics  for 
Connecticut,  expressed  his  official  opinion  that  this 
subject  required  special  legislation. 

"  Inspector  Wade,  of  Massachusetts,  prefacing  his 
statement  with  the  assurance  that  '  there  has  been  a 
steady  decrease  both  in  the  number  and  severity  of 
accidents  from  unguarded  machinery,'  proceeds  to 
report  638  accidents  to  642  persons,  including  23  fatal 
accidents,  62  injuries  to  hands,  53  to  arms,  22410  fingers, 
29  to  thumbs,  38  to  legs,  40  to  feet,  29  to  heads,  besides 
a  large  number  unspecified  (Annual  Report  District 
Police,  1887,  pp.  37-47). 


"  In  his  first  report  for  1887,  p.  27,  Inspector  Connally, 
of  New  York,  says  : 

"  'It  is  no  uncommon  thing  to  see  children  working 
minus  a  hand  or  fingers,  and  twice  during  our  brief 
term  of  9ffice  we  have  been  in  the  factories  where  boys 
were  injured  by  having  their  hands  bruised  by  the 
machinery.  In  one  New  York  City  factory  five  chil- 
dren have  been  injured  in  four  months.' 

"  The  machines  used  for  stamping  metal  are  extreme- 
ly dangerous,  and  boys  and  girls  are  chiefly  employed 
at  them.  One  day,  in  the  office  of  the  factory,  the  in- 
spector met  a  boy  looking  for  work  who  had  lost  two 
fingers  where  previously  employed.  When  asked  why 
he  did  not  return  to  work  where  he  was  injured,  he 
said  that  the  loss  of  his  fingers  made  him  useless  to 
his  former  employer. 

"  '  The  time  taken  to  clean  the  machinery  is  not  con- 
sidered by  a  few  employers  as  a  part  of  the  regular 
working  time,  and  they  require  the  operatives  to  clean 
it  after  shutting  down.  Probably  one  third  of  the  acci- 
dents occurring  are  caused  by  cleaning  the  machinery 
while  in  motion.' 

"  So  says  Inspector  Fell,  of  New  Jersey,  adding : 

"  '  It  is  too  much  the  practice  of  the  management  of 
factories  for  the  purpose  of  saving  five  minutes  of  time, 
rather  than  stop  the  machinery,  to  allow  (if  they  do  not 
command)  boys  as  well  as  men  to  replace  a  belt  which 
has  slipped  off  a  pulley,  while  the  driving  shaft  giving 
the  power  to  the  pulley  is  running  at  full  speed ;  or 
oftener,  to  shut  down  to  half  speed,  which  is  a  danger- 
ous practice,  and  should  receive  the  fullest  condem- 
nation. 

" '  The  number  of  accidents  occurring  daily  through 
unprotected  machinery  is  really  frightful.  It  is  estimat- 
ed that  from  50  to  60  persons  are  killed  or  injured  daily 
through  accidents  occurring  by  operating  buzz-saws. 
We  frequently  read  of  young  girls  having  their  scalps 
torn  off,  boys  having  their  fingers  and  arms  cut  off,  or 
injured ;  death  by  being  carried  around  shafting  and 
so  on,  and  yet  almost  all  these  frightful  occurrences 
might  be  prevented  by  the  strong  arm  of  the  law.1 
(  Third  Annual  Report  Inspectors  Factories  and  Work- 
shops, State  of  New  Jersey,  1885,  p.  29.) 

•'The  dangers  to  health  and  morals  besetting  the 
working  child,  though  less  sensationally  conspicuous 
than   the  danger  of  death  by  fire  and  explosion,  are 
neither  less  deadly  nor  less  widespread. 
They  are  most  hideously  visible  in  the 
tenement-houses  of  such  cities  as  New  •tr.-n.'i,  0_j 
York,  Chicago,  Boston  and  San  Fran-  -n-esuin.  ana 
cisco,  but  every  manufacturing  commu-       Morals. 
nity  has  its  own  share  of  havoc  wrought 
upon  the  health  and  purity  of  the  chil- 
dren of  the  working  class. 

"New  York  State  taking  the  lead  in  manufactures, 
both  in  the  amount  of  capital  invested  and  the  number 
and  importance  of  its  establishments  as  well  as  popu- 
lation. New  York,  as  the  '  epitome  of  the  nation,'  natu- 
rally forms  the  greatest  market  for  child  labor,  and 
presents  the  most  perfect  types  of  its  employment. 

"  Commissioner  C.  F.  Peck,  in  his  report  of  the  Bureau 
of  Labor  Statistics  of  New  York  for  1884,  p.  145,  says  : 

"  'The  employment  by  parents  of  children  of  tender 
age  in  the  tenement-house  cigar  factories  of  New  York 
City  furnishes  one  of  the  strongest  arguments  present- 
ed in  favor  of  the  enactment  of  stringent  and  effective 
laws  against  the  evil  of  enforced  employment  of  chil- 
dren at  laborious,  unhealthy,  and  immoral  callings, 
in  many  cases  to  satisfy  the  greed  of  those  who  by 
nature  are  intrusted  with  all  that  pertains  to  their 
present  or  future  welfare,  and  who  should  be  compelled 
by  law  to  provide  for  the  health,  the  morals,  and  the 
educational  training  of  their  offspring.' 

"The  following  is  sworn  testimony  of  cigar-workers, 
taken  from  the  same  report  (pp.  171,  162) : 

"  '  All  the  children  in  tenement-houses  work.  I  have 
seen  those  of  nine  and  10  years  old  at  work.' 

"  '  I  have  seen  children  employed  in  tenement-house 
cigar  factories  varying  in  age  from  six  years,  I  should 
say,  to  14  ;  they  have  been  kept  from  school  and  been 
obliged  to  work  almost  any  length  of  time  without 
any  regulations  as  to  time,  and  barely  have  time  to  go 
through  with  their  meals.  .  .  .  They  were  often  com- 
pelled to  remain  in  rooms  -which  were  overcrowded 
with  adults,  where  decency  was  a  strange  factor, 
morality  unknown,  and  where,  in  the  heated  term  of 
the  year,  the  adults  were  almost  nude.' 

"  Inspector  Connally,  in  his  factory  report  for  1887, 
p.  26,  says : 

"  'The  workshops  occupied  by  contracting  manufac- 
turers of  clothing,  or  sweaters,  as  they  are  called,  are 
foul  in  the  extreme.  Noxious  gases  emanate  from 
all  corners.  The  buildings  are  ill-smelling  from  cellar 
to  garret.  The  water-closets  are  used  alike  by  males 


Child  Labor. 


238 


Child  Labor. 


and  females,  and  usually  stand  in  the  room  where  the 
work  is  done.  The  people  are  huddled  together  too 
closely  for  comfort,  even  if  all  other  conditions  were 
excellent.  And  when  this  state  of  things  is  taken  into 
consideration,  with  the  painfully  long  hours  of  toil 
which  the  poverty-stricken  victims  of  the  contractors 
must  endure,  it  seems  wonderful  that  there  exists  a 
human  being  that  could  stand  it  for  a  month  and  live.' 

"  Lest  any  one  should  suppose  that  the  industrial  con- 
ditions of  New  York  are  peculiar,  local,  worse  than 
those  of  other  American  communities,  I  quote  testimo- 
ny covering  several  States,  and  showing  that  the  evils  of 
the  exploitation  of  labor  are  inherent  in  the  system  of 
production  by  exploitation,  and  appear  wherever  that 
system  develops. 

"  In  his  report  of  the  Bureau  of  Statistics  of  Labor  of 
Massachusetts  for  1881,  Mr.  Carroll  D.  Wright  said 
(p.  466)  : 

" '  In  our  cotton  mills  especially,  the  women  and  chil- 
dren largely  exceed  the  men,  being  often  from  two 
thirds  to  five  sixths  of  the  whole,  and  the  proportion  is 
steadily  increasing.  And  what  are  these  women  and 
children  but  the  very  weakest  and  most  dependent  of 
all  the  people  ? ' 

"  An  operative  testifies  : 

" '  Young  girls  from  14  and  upward  learn  more 
wickedness  in  one  year  than  they  would  in  five  years 
out  of  a  mill.' 

"  The  following  is.  taken  from  the  Bureau  of  Labor 
Statistics  of  Wisconsin  for  1888,  p.  264  : 

" '  Janesville  Cotton  Manufacturing  Company.  I  went 
to  these  mills  some  time  ago,  and  found  several  children 
whom  I  suspected  of  being  under  12  years  of  age.  The 
company  promised  to  discharge  them,  and  I  have  every 
reason  to  think  that  they  have  done  so.  But  there  are 
some  300  women  and  children  who  are  working  n'/£ 
to  12  hours  per  day  and  night,  the  night  being  the 
time  most  of  the  children  are  employed.  It  is  a  hard 
place  to  work  ;  young  persons  cannot  stand  the  strain 
and  long  hours.  Child  labor  is  the  main  feature  ;  there 
are  many  of  them  under  14  years  of  age,  and  all  have 
to  work  1 1  ;4  hours.  The  thermometer  (I  am  told  by 
an  employee)  averages  in  the  heated  term  about  108 
degrees.  There  are  plenty  of  openings  for  light  and 
air,  but  if  there  is  too  much  air  stirringj  the  windows 
must  be  left  closed  on  account  of  blowing  the  cotton. 
The  dressing-room  thermomecer  runs  (I  am  told)  as 
high  as  140  degrees,  and  averages  no  to  120  degrees. 
(Men  work  here  eight  to  10  hours  a  day.)  I  am  told 
by  employees  that  girls  who  have  worked  here  since 
last  September  are  quitting  on  account  of  loss  of 
health  caused  by  hard  work  and  long  hours ;  they  can- 


not stand  the  intense  heat  at  night,  and  they  cannot  get 
sufficient  sleep  in  the  daytime.' 

"  Mr.  Fassett,  Commissioner  of  Bureau  of  Statistics- 
of  Labor  for  Ohio,  says  in  his  report  for  1887,  p.  9  : 

"  '  I  have  found  boys  12  and  14  years  old  struggling 
for  a  livelihood  in  a  room  heated  20  degrees  Fahrenheit/ 

"  Working  children  know  nothing  of  the  education 
of  happy  home  life.     Many  of  them  are  orphans,  for  the 
average  life  of  the  working  man  is  short 
at  best,  and  the  '  accidents  '  involved  in 
scores  of  occupations  rob  a  very  large 
number  of  children  of  paternal  care  and    Education. 
support.    Then  the  widowed  mother  is 
obliged  to  turn  home  into  a  laundry  or 
go  out  to  work.     Home  life  is  lost. 

"  So  much  for  the  home  training  of  our  working  chil- 
dren. Now  as  to  the  schools.  Scores  of  thousands  of 
American-born  children  under  16  years  of  age  are  earn- 
ing their  bread  to-day  who  have  never  entered  a  school- 
room. I  am  not  speaking  of  the  negro  illiteracy  of  the 
South,  but  of  the  great  manufacturing  States  of  the- 
North.  For  thousands  of  these  children  there  are  no 
schools  provided.  New  York  and  Philadelphia  have 
not  even  an  accurate  census  of  the  school  population 
upon  which  to  base  calculation  of  the  school  accommo- 
dations necessary.  Superintendent  McAllister,  of 
Philadelphia,  believes  that  10,000  children  of  that 
wealthiest  of  cities  are  out  of  school  because  there  are 
no  schools  provided  for  them.  And  he  has  shown  in 
his  report  for  1888  that  4716  children  attending  school 
are  'unprovided  with  desks.  A  like  story  comes  from 
Chicago,  and  from  every  large  manufacturing  com- 
munity outside  of  Massachusetts. 

"  The  New  Jersey  Compulsory  School  Law  especially 
exempts  from  its  provisions  those  cities  which  have  not 
provided  sufficient  school  accommodations,  thus  put- 
ting a  premium  for  manufacturing  communities  whem 
child  labor  is  a  tempting  commodity,  upon  failure  to» 
provide  adequate  schools. 

"Mr.  A.  S.  Draper,  State  Superintendent  of  Public- 
Education  for  New  York,  says  in  his  report  of  1888  : 

" '  There  is  a  large  uneducated  class  in  the  State,  and 
our  statistics  show  that  it  is  growing  larger.  The  at- 
tendance upon  the  schools  does  not  keep  pace  with  the 
advance  in  population." 

Thus  far  Mrs.  Kelly,  writing  in  1887.    The  Seventh 
Special  Report  of  the  United  States  Com- 
missioner of  Labor  (Carroll  D.  Wright), 
1894,  upon  slums  (p.  76),  gives  the  follow-         Slums, 
ing  table  of  the  proportion  of  children  in 
the  slums  at  work  and  at  school  (based 
on  a  canvas  of  83,852  people)  :  • 


NUMBER    AND    PER    CENT.    OF    NATIVE    AND    FOREIGN-BORN     CHILDREN    OF    EACH    CON- 
DITION IN  THE  UNITED  STATES. 


NATIVITY. 


BALTIMORE. 

Native  born 

Foreign  born 


Total. 


CHICAGO. 

Native  born 

Foreign  born , 


Total. 


NEW  YORK. 

Native  born 

Foreign  born 


Total. 


PHILADELPHIA. 

Native  born 

Foreign  born 


Total. 


(See  SLUMS.) 


CHILDREN  AT 
HOME. 

CHILDREN  AT 
WORK. 

CHILDREN  AT 
SCHOOL. 

CHILDREN  AT 
WORK  AND 
AT  SCHOOL. 

TOTAL  OF  ALL, 
CHILDREN. 

Num- 
ber. 

962 
234 

Per 
cent. 

30.60 
29.66 

Num- 
ber. 

Per 

cent. 

Num- 
ber. 

Per 
cent. 

Num- 
ber. 

Per 
cent. 

•°3 
-38 

Num- 
ber. 

Per 

cent. 

IOO.OO 
IOO.OO 

132 
89 

4.20 
11.28 

2,049 
463 

65-17 
58.68 

i 
3 

3>I44 

789 

1,196 

30.41 

221 

5.62 

2,5*2 

63.87 

4 

.10 

3,933 

IOO.OO 

689 
396 

29.22 
26.17 

51 
139 

2.16 
9.19 

1,589 
922 

67-39 
60.94 

29 
56 

1.23 

3-7° 

2,358 
1,513 

IOO.OO 
IOO.OO 

1,085 

28.03 

190 

4.91 

2,511 

64-87 

85 

2.19 

3,871 

IOO.OO 

627 
387 

1,014 

18.04 
18.69 

18.28 

90 
323 

2.59 
15-59 

2,740 

1,325 

4,o65 

78.85 
63-98 

18 

36 

•52 
1.74 

3,475 
2,071 

IOO.OO 
IOO.OO 

413 

7-45 

73-3° 

54 

•97 

5,546 

IOO.OO 

433 
255 

23-14 
lo.ia 

57 
227 

3-°5 
14-35 

1,374 
1,082 

73-44 
68.39 

18 

•37 
1.14 

1,871 
1,582 

IOO.OO 

IOO.OO 

688 

19.92 

284 

8.23 

2,456 

7I-I3 

25 

•72 

3,453 

IOO.OO 

Child  Labor. 


239 


Child  Labor. 


IV.  ECONOMIC  BEARING. 

It  is  sometimes  said  that  child  labor  is  neces- 
sary to  eke  out  the  parents'  wages  ;  but  the 
real  result  is  to  lower  the  parents'  wages. 

Professor  Richard  T.  Ely,  in  his  Introduction 
to  Political  Economy,  says  (p.  221)  : 

"  Among  the  striking  evidences  of  the  truth  of  the 
standard  of  life,  as  the  norm  for  wages,  the  fact  is  es- 

Eecially  noteworthy  that,  as  a  rule,  it  seems  to  fail  to 
enefit  the  laboring  population  on  the  whole,  and  for 
any  length  of  time,  for  the  wife  and  children  to  earn 
money,  even  apart  from  all  other  considerations  than 
mere  money-getting.  The  world  over,  when  it  be- 
comes customary  for  the  wife,  or  wife  and  children,  to 
work  in  factories,  it  very  soon  becomes  necessary  for 
them  to  do  so  to  support  the  family.  The  wages  of 
the  head  of  the  family  and  the  earnings  of  the  entire 
family,  as  before,  just  maintain  the  standard  of  com- 
fort among  that  class  of  the  population.  Professor 
E.  W.  Bemis  has  called  attention  to  the  fact  that  in  the 
textile  industries  of  Rhode  Island  and  Connecticut, 
where  the  women  and  children  work,  the  earnings  of 
the  entire  family  are  no  larger  than  in  other  industries, 
like  those  in  metal,  in  western  Connecticut,  where 
only  the  men  work." 

The  Inspector  of  Factories  for  New  Jersey,  in 
his  second  annual  report  (1884,  p.  19),  says  : 
"The  employment  of  children  has  increased 
with  the  reduction  of  wages,  and  the  employ- 
ment of  adults  has  decreased  with  the  employ- 
ment of  children.  '  ' 

The  Hon.  Carroll  D.  Wright,  in  the  sixth  an- 
nual report  of  the  Bureau  of  Labor  of  Massa- 
chusetts, says  (p.  51)  : 

"There  seems,  within  recent  times,  to  have  occurred 
a  change  in  the  relation  of  wages  to  support,  so  that, 
more  and  more,  the  labor  of  the  whole  family  becomes 
necessary  to  the  support  of  the  family  ;  that,  in  the 
majority  of  cases,  working  men  in  the  commonwealth 
do  not  support  their  families  by  their  individual  earn- 
ings alone.  The  fathers  rely,  or  are  forced  to  depend, 
upon  their  children  for  from  one  quarter  to  one  third 
of  the  entire  family  earnings,  and  the  children  under 
15  years  of  age  supply  by  their  labor  from  one  eighth 
to  one  sixth  of  the  total  family  earnings." 

Socialists  argue  that  child  labor  is  the  result 
of  competition.  Says  the  American  Fabian 
(April,  1895)  : 

"Child  labor  is  the  result  of  competition.  Under 
competition  the  employer  must  employ  the  cheapest 
labor  that  will  produce  the  required  quantity  and 
quality  of  work.  Machinery  enables  small  girls  to  do 
the  work  formerly  done  by  skilled  men.  In  making 
paper  four  men  and  six  girls  can  now  do  work  formerly 
done  by  100  men,  and  do  it  better.  In  the  jewelry 
trade  one  boy  and  a  machine,  in  a  day,  can  turn  out 
9000  pairs  of  gold  sleeve-buttons"  (D.  A.  Wells,  Recent 
Economic  Changes,  p.  53). 

V.  LEGISLATION. 

The  following  summary  of  legislation  on  child 
labor  in  the  United  States  is  taken  from  the  re- 
port on  the  United  States  of  the  (English)  Royal 
Commission  on  Labor  (i  892),  being  the  latest  com- 
pilation available.  Yet  it  must  be  remembered 
that  this  legislation  is  constantly  changing, 
tho  this  progress  has  been  temporarily 
checked  by  the  fact  that  an  Illinois  act  to  limit 
the  work  of  women  factory  employees  to  eight 
hours  a  day  was  decided  (March  15,  1895)  to  be 
unconstitutional  by  the  Illinois  Supreme  Court. 
(See  JUDICIARY.)  Says  the  English  report  (p. 


"  In  Connecticut,  Massachusetts,  Pennsylvania,  and 
Wisconsin,  no  child  under  13  may  be  employed  ;  in 
New  York  the  minimum  age  is  14  ;  in  Maine  and  Ohio 
it  is  12,  and  in  New  Jersey  it  is  12  for  boys  and  14  for 
girls.  Iowa,  Kansas,  Missouri,  and  Tennessee  allow 


no  child  under  12  to  be  employed  in  a  mine,  while 
in  Indiana  12  is  the  limit  in  some  industries,  and  14  in  a 
mine.  The  same  limit  is  fixed  in  Colorado  and  Illinois 
for  children  in  mines.  The  age  below  which  children 
may  not  be  employed  at  all  is  fixed  at  10  in  New 
Hampshire,  Rhode  Island,  and  Vermont.  In  New 
Hampshire  a  child  of  12  may  not  be  employed  unless 
it  has  attended  school  the  whole  of  the  last  school 
year.  A  child  of  14  must  have  attended  school  for  6 
months,  and  one  of  16  for  3  months  during  the  year 
preceding  its  employment,  and  all  such  children  must 
be  able  to  read  and  write.  In  Connecticut,  Illinois, 
Massachusetts,  Michigan,  Missouri,  Ohio,  Rhode  Isl- 
and and  Vermont  children  of  14  must  not  be  employed 
unless  they  have  attended  school  for  a  period  in  the 
preceding  year  varying  from  12  to  20  weeks  in  the 
different  States.  In  Colorado,  Kansas,  Maine,  and 
New  Jersey  there  is  a  similar  provision  in  the  first  two 
States  as  regards  children  of  16,  and  in  the  last  two  as 
regards  those  of  15.  The  hours  of  labor  for  children 
are  restricted  to  10  in  Indiana,  Maine,  Maryland,  Mas- 
sachusetts, Minnesota,  New  Jersey,  New  York,  Cali- 
fornia, Louisiana,  Michigan,  New  Hampshire,  North 
and  South  Dakota,  Virginia,  Rhode  Island,  Pennsyl- 
vania, Ohio,  and  Vermont,  and  to  8  in  Connecticut, 
Alabama,  and  Wisconsin.  In  Massachusetts  they  may 
not  exceed  58  a  week.  Very  many  of  the  regulations 
concerning  child  labor  are,  however,  ineffective, 
owing  to  a  lack  of  sufficient  and  competent  inspectors. 
Where  the  acts  are  enforced,  as  in  Massachusetts,  the 
result  is  encouraging.  Between  1882  and  1890  the  num- 
ber of  children  under  14  years  of  age  employed  in 
Massachusetts  decreased  fully  70  per  cent.,  and  a  con- 
siderable reduction  was  reported  from  Maine  when 
the  act  had  been  in  force  only  one  year." 

Says  Mrs.  Kelly,  in  the  tract  above  men- 
tioned : 

"  The  legislation  needed  is  of  the  simplest  but 
most  comprehensive  description.     We  need  to 
have  :  i.  The  minimum  age  for  work  fixed  at 
16.     2.    School    attendance    made 
compulsory  to  the  same  age.     3. 
Factory  inspectors  and  truant  offi-     What  is 
cers,    both      men      and      women,      Needed, 
equipped    with    adequate    salaries 
and  '  traveling    expenses,   charged 
with  the  duty  of  removing  children  from  mill 
and  workshop,   mine  and   store,   and  placing 
them  at  school.     4.  Ample  provision  for  school 
accommodations.     Money  supplied  by  the  State 
through  the  school  authorities  for  the  support  of 
such  orphans,  half  orphans  and  children  of  the 
unemployed  as  are  now  kept  out  of  school  by 
destitution. 

"  Any  provision  less  than  this  will  share  the 
defects  of  our  present  deplorable  measures, 
whose  very  meagerness  makes  enforcement  im- 
possible. It  is  impossible  to  ascertain  which 
children  have  gone  to  school  10,  12,  i4>  16,  or 
20  weeks,  as  different  States  provide.  But  when 
all  children  are  compelled  to  go  to  school  all  the 
school  year,  there  will  be  no  difficulty  in  verify- 
ing from  the  school  records  the  statements  of 
parents,  children  and  teachers,  with  reference  to 
the  age  and  past  attendance  of  a  child  applying 
for  work,  and  claiming  to  be  beyond  the  com- 
pulsory school  age. 

"  So  far  as  I  have  been  able  to  ascertain, 
neither  the  women  of  the  nation  nor  our  philan- 
thropic bodies  have  thus  far  taken  steps  toward 
the  emancipation  of  our  toiling  child  slaves,  ex- 
cept the  women's  organization  of  Chicago  in  co- 
operation with  the  Woman's  Alliance  of  Illinois, 
and  Mrs.  Leonora  Barry,  of  the  Knights  of 
Labor.  With  these  exceptions,  all  the  noble 
struggle  of  half  a  century  for  the  rescue  of  our 
toiling  children  seems  to  have  been  confined  to 
the  labor  unions  and  to  the  bureaus  of  statistics 
of  labor,  which  have  themselves  been  created 


Child  Labor. 


240 


Chinese  Immigration. 


year  by  year  by  the  efforts  of  the  working  men 
since  1869." 

References :  Among  the  best  are  :  Two  Prize  Es- 
savs  on  Child  Labor,  by  William  F.  Willoughby,  A.B., 
arid  Miss  Clare  de  Graffenreid  (American  Economic 
Association,  Baltimore) ;  Our  Toiling-  Children,  a  tract 
by  Mrs.  Florence  Kelly  (Wischnewetzky)  (Woman's 
Temperance  Publication  Association,  Chicago).  The 
best  reports  on  child  labor  are  found  in  the  Labor  Re- 
ports of  Connecticut  (1885),  Massachusetts  (1874  and 
1891),  Michigan  (1887) ;  Minnesota  (1889-90),  New  York 
(1890),  Rhode  Island  (1891).  See  also  reports  on  the 
various  countries  ,of  the  (English)  Royal  Commission 
on  Labor.  Among  the  best  articles  on  child  labor  are  : 
Little  Laborers  of  New  York  City-,  by  C.  L.  Brace 
(Harper's,  47  : 321) ;  Children  in  Coal  Mines  of  England 
(Eclectic,  76  :  201 ;  Quarterly  Review^,  70  : 158  ;  Westmin- 
ster Review,  38  :  86) ;  Children  in  Factories  (Quarterly 
Review,  67  : 171) ;  Children* 's  Labor  :  a  Problem,  by  E.  E. 
Brown  (Atlantic  Monthly,  46 :  787) ;  Commission  on 
Employments  of  Children  (Quarterly  Review,  119  :  364) ; 
Child  Labor :  a  Symposium  (Arena,  1894,  vol.  10,  p.  117). 

CHILD,  LYDIA  MARIA  (ne'e  FRANCIS), 
was  born  in  Medford,  Mass.,  February  n,  1802. 
Miss  Francis  attended  the  common  schools  and 
studied  with  her  brother,  Rev.  Convers  Fran- 
cis, D.D.  When  17  years  old  she  saw  an  article 
in  the  North  American  Review  discussing  the 
field  offered  to  the  novelist  by  early  New  Eng- 
land history,  and  she  immediately  wrote  the 
first  chapter  of  a  novel  entitled  Hobomok,  and 
finished  it  in  six  weeks,  and  published  it  (Cam- 
bridge, 1821).  From  this  time  until  her  death 
she  wrote  continually.  She  taught  in  Medford 
and  Watertown,  Mass.,  till  she  married,  in  1828. 
She  began  in  1826  the  publication  of  the  Juve- 
nile Miscellany,  the  first  monthly  periodical 
for  children  issued  in  the  United  States. 

In  1831  both  Mr.  and  Mrs.  Child  became  deep- 
ly interested  in  the  subject  of  slavery.  Mrs. 
Child's  Appeal  for  that  Class  of  Americans 
called  African  (Boston,  1833)  was  the  first  anti- 
slavery  work  published  in  America  in  book 
form,  and  was  followed  by  several  smaller 
works  on  the  same  subject.  Mrs.  Child  had  to 
endure  social  ostracism,  but  from  this  time  was 
a  steady  champion  of  anti-slavery.  On  the  es- 
tablishment by  the  American  Anti-slavery  So- 
ciety of  the  National  Anti-Slavery  Standard, 
in  New  York  City,  in  1840,  she  became  its  edi- 
tor and  conducted  it  till  1843,  when  her  husband 
took  the  place  of  editor-in-chief,  and  she  acted 
as  his  assistant  till  May,  1844.  In  1859  she  wrote 
a  letter  of  sympathy  to  John  Brown,  then  a  pris- 
oner at  Harper's  Ferry,  qffering  her  services  as 
a  nurse,  and  enclosing  the  letter  in  one  to  Gov- 
ernor Wise.  Brown  replied,  declining  her  offer, 
but  asking  her  to  aid  his  family,  which  she  did. 
She  also  received  a  letter  of  courteous  rebuke 
from  Governor  Wise,  and  a  singular  epistle 
from  the  wife  of  Senator  Mason,  author  of  the 
Fugitive  Slave  Law,  threatening  her  with  fu- 
ture damnation.  She  replied  to  both  in  her  best 
vein,  and  the  whole  series  of  letters  was  pub- 
lished in  pamphlet  form  (Boston,  1860),  and  had 
a  circulation  of  300,000.  She  also  wrote  two 
small  tracts  on  the  Fugitive  Slave  Law  and 
Emancipation  in  the  British  West  Indies. 
During  her  latter  years  she  contributed  freely  to 
aid  the  national  soldiers  in  the  Civil  War,  and 
afterward  to  help  the  freedmen.  She  died  in 
Wayland,  Mass.,  October  20,  1880  : 

Mrs.  Child's  works  are  voluminous  and  treat  of  a 
great  variety  of  subjects.     Besides  those  already  men- 


tioned are  the  following  :  The  Rebels;  or,  Boston  before 
the  Revolution  ,•  The  American  Fnigal  Housewife 
(1829);  The  Family  Nurse,  or  companion  of  The  Fru- 
gal Housewife ;  The  Mother's  Book  and  The  Girl's 


tives  of  American  Slavery  (1838) ;  The  Evils  of  Slavery 
and  the  Cure  of  Slavery  (1836)  ;  Philothea:  A  Grecian 


Romance  (1845) ;  Letters  from  New  York  (2  vols., 
1843-44) ;  Fact  and  Fiction  (1846)  ;  Flowers  for  Chil- 
dren (1852)  ;  Isaac  T.  Hopper:  a  True  Life  (1853);  The 


Progress  of  Religious  Ideas  through  Successive  Ages 
(3  vols.,  1855)  ;  Autumnal  Leaves:  Sketches  in  Prose  and 
Rhyme 11857);  Looking  toward  Sunset  (1864);  The  Freed- 
man'sBook  (1865)  ;  and  The  Romance  of  the  Republic 
(1867). 


CHILD-SAVING. 

DREN. 


See    DEPENDENT  CHIL- 


CHINESE  IMMIGRATION.— The  gen- 
eral subject  of  immigration  into  the  United 
States  is  considered  under  the  article  IMMIGRA- 
TION, but  there  is,  or  has  been,  one  class  of  im- 
migration into  the  United  States  which  should 
be  considered  separately.  The  inhabitants  of 
China  up  to  40  years  ago  were  so  averse  to 
leave  their  native  land  that  Chinese  immigration 
scarcely  existed.  The  total  number  of  natives 
of  China  reported  as  having  arrived  in  the 
United  States  before  1851  was  46.  In  1854  the 
number  of  arrivals  of  this  race  increased  to  over 
13,000.  The  immigration  of  the  Chinese  has 
since  been  : 

Chinese 
Year.  Immigrants. 

1854 13,100 

1855 3-526 

1856 4,733 

1857 5.944 

1858 5,128 

1859 3,457 

1860 51467 

1861 7,518 

1862 3,633 

1863 7,214 

2.975 

2,942 


1865. 
1866. 


1870  . 
1871 . 
1872  . 


.  3,863 
.10,684 
. 14,902 

•".943 
.  6,030 
. 10,642 


1873 18,154 

1874 16,651 

1875 19.033 

1876  16,879 

1877 10.379 


9.10 


.20,711 
•35.6i4 


The  increasing  number  of  Chinese  laborers 
early  excited  fear  and  aroused  opposition  on  the 
Pacific  coast. 

Some  of  the  objections  to  the  Chinese  as  permanent 
residents  of  this  country  were  stated  by  Justice  Field 
of  the  United  States  Supreme  Court  in  a  judicial  opin- 
ion delivered  in  California  in  September,  1882.  He  said  : 
"  It  was  discovered  that  the  physical  characteristics 
and  habits  of  the  Chinese  prevented  their  assimilation 
with  our  people.  Conflicts  between  them  and  our 
people,  disturbing  to  the  peaco  of  the  country,  followed 
as  a  matter  of  course,  and  were  of  frequent  occur- 
rence. Chinese  laborers,  including  in  that  designation 
not  merely  those  engaged  in  manual  labor,  but  those 
skilled  in  some  art  or  trade,  in  a  special  manner  inter- 
fered with  the  industries  and  business  of  this  State 
Their  frugal  habits,  the  absence  of  families,  their  abil- 


Chinese  Immigration. 


241 


Chinese  Immigration. 


ity  to  live  in  narrow  quarters  without  apparent  injury 
to  health,  their  contentment  with  small  gains  and  the 
simplest    fare    gave    them    great  advantages  in  the 
struggle  with  our  laborers  and  mechanics,  who  always 
and  properly  seek  something  more  from 
their  labors  than  sufficient  for  a  bare 
Cheap  Labor,  livelihood,  and  must  have  and  should 
have  something  for  the  comforts  of  a 
home  and  the   education  of  their  chil- 
dren.   A  restriction  upon  the  immigra- 
tion of  such  laborers  was  therefore  felt  throughout  this 
State  to  be  necessary  if  we  would  prevent  the  degra- 
dation of  labor  and  preserve  all  the  benefits  of  our  civ- 
ilization." 

Other  objections  to  the  presence  of  the  Chinese  on 
the  Pacific  coast  were  allegations  of  unhealthful,  vi- 
cious, and  corrupting  practices.  Public  feeling  was 
aroused,  and  many  attacks  on  them  occurred  in  San 
Francisco  and  other  cities.  Restrictive  measures  were 
adopted  by  the  city  authorities  designed  to  prevent  the 
Chinese  from  carrying  on  their  usual  avocations. 
Some  of  these  measures  were  oppressive  enough  to  be 
rebuked  by  the  local  courts.  A  wide  difference  of 
opinion  existed  in  various  parts  of  the  country  as  to  the 
justness  of  some  of  the  complaints  and  the  necessity  of 
forbidding  the  further  importation  of  Chinese  laborers. 

A  committee  of  the  United  States  Senate  and 
-  House  of  Representatives  investigated  the  sub- 
ject in  1876  and  1877,  and  made  a  report  recom- 
mending legislation  to  restrain  the  incoming  of 
Asiatic  populations.  The  Chinese  Government 
had  never  greatly  favored  the  emigration  of  its 
subjects,  and  little  difficulty  in  modifying  the 
treaty  with  China  was  experienced  in  1 880,  when, 
in  response  to  the  urgent  appeals  from  the  in- 
habitants of  the  Pacific  coast,  an  effort  was  made 
to  limit  the  immigration  of  Chinese  laborers. 
The  Burlingame  treaty  of  1868  had  provided 
for  free  emigration  and  immigration,  but  the 
modified  treaty  permitted  the  limitation  or  sus- 
pension by  the  United  States  Government  of 
the  coming  or  residence  in  the  United  States  of 
Chinese  laborers,  but  the  absolute  prohibition 
of  such  immigration  was  forbidden. 

After  excited  discussion  Congress  passed  in 
1 8  82  a  bill  suspending  for  20  years  the  coming 
into  the  United  States  of  Chinese  laborers.  The 
bill  was  vetoed  by  President  Arthur,  but  a  mod- 
ified act  fixing  the  limit  of  suspension  at  10 
years  became  a  law.  The  Chinese  who  had 
already  become  residents  of  the  country  were 
not  disturbed,  and  those  who  wished  to  make 
visits  to  China  with  the  intention  of  returning 
hither  were  furnished  with  passports.  The  sus- 
pension of  immigration  related  only  to  laborers, 
a  term  which  has  been  construed  to  include 
skilled  workmen. 

Nevertheless,  this  law  was  not  considered 
sufficient  by  the  Pacific  coast,  and  in  1892  Con- 
gress was  induced  to  pass  a  law  not  only  for- 
bidding Chinese  immigration,  but  to  exclude 
those  now  here  except  under  certain  conditions. 

The  following  is  the  full  text  of  "  an  act  to 
prohibit  the  coming  of  Chinese  persons  into  the 
United  States,"  passed  by  the  fifty-second  Con- 
gress, approved  by  President  Harrison  May  5, 
1892,  and  commonly  called  the  "  Geary  Law"  : 

"  Be  it  enacted  by  the  Senate  and  House  of  Represen- 
tatives of  the  United  States  of  America  in  Congress 
assembled,  That  all  laws  now  in  force  prohibiting  and 
regulating  the  coming  into  this  country  of  Chinese  per- 
sons and  persons  of  Chinese  descent  are  hereby  con- 
tinued in  force  for  a  period  of  10  years  from  the  pas- 
sage of  this  act. 

Sec.  2.  That  any  Chinese  person  or  person  of 
Chinese  descent,  when  convicted  and  adjudged  under 
any  of  said  laws  to  be  not  lawfully  entitled  to  be  or  re- 
main in  the  United  States,  shall  be  removed  from  the 
United  States  to  China,  unless  he  or  they  shall  make  it 
appear  to  the  justice,  judge,  or  commissioner  before 


•whom  he  or  they  are  tried  that  he  or  they  are  subjects 
or  citizens  of  some  other  countrv,  in  which  case  he  or 
they  shall  be  removed  from  the  United  States  to  such 
country  :  Provided^  that  in  any  case  where  such  other 
country  of  which  such  Chinese  person  shall  claim  to  be 
a  citizen  or  subject  shall  demand  any  tax  as  a  condition 
of  the  removal  of  such  person  to  that  country,  he  or  she 
shall  be  removed  to  China. 

"  Sec.  3.  That  any  Chinese  person  or  person  of 
Chinese  descent  arrested  under  the  provisions  of  this 
act  or  the  acts  hereby  extended  shall  be  adjudged  to 
be  unlawfully  within  the  United  States,  unless  such 
person  shall  establish,  by  affirmative  proof,  to  the  sat- 
isfaction of  such  justice,  judge,  or  commissioner,  his 
lawful  right  to  remain  in  the  United  States. 

"Sec.  4.  That  any  such  Chinese  person  or  person 
of  Chinese  descent  convicted  and  ad  judged  to  be  not 
lawfully  entitled  to  be  or  remain  in  the  United  States 
shall  be  imprisoned  at  hard  labor  for  a  period  of  not 
exceeding  one  year  and  thereafter  removed  from  the 
United  States,  as  hereinbefore  provided. 

Sec.  5.  That  after  the  passage  of  this  act  on  an  ap- 
plication to  any  judge  or  court  of  the  United  States  in 
the  first  instance  for  a  writ  of  habeas  corpus,  by  a 
Chinese  person  seeking  to  land  in  the  United  States,  to 
whom  that  privilege  has  been  denied,  no  bail  shall  be 
allowed,  and  such  application  shall  be  heard  and  deter- 
mined promptly  without  unnecessary  delay. 

"  Sec.  6.  And  it  shall  be  the  duty  of  all  Chinese 
laborers  within  the  limits  of  the  United  States,  at  the 
time  of  the  passage  of  this  act,  and  who  are  entitled  to 
remain  in  the  United  States,  to  apply  to  the  collector 
of  internal  revenue  of  their  respective  districts,  within 
one  year  after  the  passage  of  this  act,  for  a  certificate 
of  residence,  and  any  Chinese  laborer,  within  the  lim- 
its of  the  United  States,  who  shall  neglect,. fail,  or  re- 
fuse to  comply  with  the  provisions  of  this  act,  Or  who, 
after  one  year  from  the  passage  hereof,  shall  be  found 
•within  the  jurisdiction  of  the  United  States,  without 
such  certificate  of  residence,  shall  be  deemed  and  ad- 
judged to  be  unlawfully  within  the  United  States,  and 
may  be  arrested  by  any  United  States  customs  offi- 
cial, collector  of  internal  revenue,  or  his 
deputies,  United  States  marshal,  or  his 
deputies,  and  taken  before  a  United  The  Geary 
States  judge,  whose  duty  it  shall  be  to  Law 
order  that  he  be  deported  from  the 
United  States  as  hereinbefore  provided, 
unless  he  shall  establish  clearly  to  the 
satisfaction  of  said  judge,  that  by  reason  of  accident, 
sickness,  or  other  unavoidable  cause  he  has  been  una- 
ble to  procure  his  certificate,  and  to  the  satisfaction  of 
the  court,  and  by  at  least  one  credible  white  witness, 
that  he  was  a  resident  of  the  United  States  at  the  time 
of  the  passage  of  this  act ;  and  if,  upon  the  hearing,  it 
shall  appear  that  he  is  so  entitled  to  a  certificate  it  shall 
be  granted  upon  his  paying  the  cost.  Should  it  appear 
that  said  Chinaman  had  procured  a  certificate  which 
has  been  lost  or  destroyed,  he  shall  be  detained  and 
judgment  suspended  a  reasonable  time  to  enable  him 
to  procure  a  duplicate  from  the  officer  granting  it,  and 
in  such  cases  the  cost  of  said  arrest  and  trial  shall  be 
in  the  discretion  of  the  court.  And  any  Chinese  person 
other  than  a  Chinese  laborer,  having  a  right  to  be  and 
remain  in  the  United  States,  desiring  such  certificate 
as  evidence  of  such  right,  may  apply  for  and  receive 
the  same  without  charge. 

"  Sec.  7.  That  immediately  after  the  passage  of  this 
act  the  Secretary  of  the  Treasury  shall  make  such 
rules  and  regulations  as  may  be  necessary  for  the  effi- 
cient execution  of  this  act,  and  shall  prescribe  the 
necessary  forms  and  furnish  the  necessary  blanks  to 
enable  collectors  of  internal  revenue  to  issue  the  certifi- 
cates required  hereby,  and  make  such  provisions  that 
certificates  may  be  procured  in  localities  convenient  to 
the  applicants.  Such  certificates  shall  be  issued  with- 
out charge  to  the  applicant,  and  shall  contain  the 
name,  age,  local  residence,  and  occupation  of  the  appli- 


cant, and  such  other  description  of  the  applicant  as 

•y  of  the  Treasury, 
and  a  duplicate  thereof  shall  be  filed  in  the  office  of  the 


shall  be  prescribed  by  the  Secretary  of  the  Treasury, 


collector  of  internal  revenue  for  the  district  within 
which  such  Chinaman  makes  application. 

"  Sec.  8.  That  any  person  who  shall  knowingly  and 
falsely  alter  or  substitute  any  name  for  the  name  writ- 
ten in  such  certificate,  or  forge  such  certificate,  or 
knowingly  utter  any  forged  or  fraudulent  certificate, 
or  falsely  personate  any  person  named  in  such  certifi- 
cate, shall  be  guilty  of  a  misdemeanor,  and  upon  con- 
viction thereof  shall  be  fined  in  a  sum  not  exceeding 
$1000  or  imprisoned  in  the  penitentiary  for  a  term  of 
not  more  than  five  years. 

"  Sec.  9.  The  Secretary  of  the  Treasury  may  author- 
ize the  payment  of  such  compensation,  in  the  nature  of 


Chinese  Immigration. 


242 


Christ  and  Social  Reform. 


fees  to  the  collectors  of  internal  revenue,  for  services 
performed  under  the  provisions  of  this  act,  in  addition 
to  salaries  now  allowed  by  law,  as  he  shall  deem 
necessary,  not  exceeding  the  sum  of  $i  for  each  certifi- 
cate issued. 

"  In  the  special  session  of  the  Fifty-third  Congress  the 
following  bill  to  amend  the  Chinese  Exclusion  act  was 
introduced  in  the  House  of  Representatives  by  Repre- 
sentative Everett,  of  Massachusetts.  It  was  under- 
stood that  this  bill  represented  the  policy  of  the  Cleve- 
land administration  : 

"  Be  it  enacted,  etc.,  that  Section  6  of  an  act  entitled 
'  An  Act  to  Prohibit  the  Coming  of  Chinese  Persons 
into  the  United  States,'  approved  May  5,  1892,  is  here- 
by amended  so  as  to  read  as  follows  : 

"Sec.  6.  And  it  shall  be  the  duty  of  all  Chinese  labor- 
ers within  the  limits  of  the  United  States  at  the  time 
of  the  passage  of  this  act,  and  who  are  entitled  to  re- 
main in  the  United  States,  to  apply  to  the  collector  of 
internal  revenue  of  their  respective  districts,  on  or  be- 
fore the  first  day  of  September,  1894,  for  a  certificate  of 
residence,  and  any  Chinese  laborer  within  the  limits 
of  the  United  States  who  shall  neglect,  fail,  or  refuse 
to  comply  with  the  provision  of  this  act,  or  who,  after 
said  first  day  of  September,  1894,  shall  be  found  within 
the  jurisdiction  of  the  United  States  without  such  cer- 
tificate of  residence,  shall  be  deemed  and  adjudged  to 
be  unlawfully  within  the  United  States,  and  may  be 
arrested  by  any  United  States  customs  official,  collect- 
or of  internal  revenue,  or  his  deputies,  United  States 
marshal,  or  his  deputies,  and  taken  before  a  United 
States  judge,  whose  duty  it  shall  be  to  order  that  he  be 
deported  from  the  United  States,  as  hereinbefore  pro- 
vided, unless  he  shall  establish  clearly  to  the  satisfac- 
tion of  said  judge  that  by  reason  of  accident,  sickness, 
or  other  unavoidable  cause  he  has  been  unable  to  pro- 
cure his  certificate,  and  to  the  satisfaction  of  the  court, 
and  by  at  least  one  credible  white  witness,  that  he 
was  a  resident  of  the  United  States  at  the  time  of  the 
passage  of  this  act ;  and  if  upon  the  hearing  it  shall 
appear  that  he  is  so  entitled  to  a  certificate,  it  shall  be 
granted  upon  his  paying  the  cost. 

"  Should  it  appear  that  said  Chinaman  had  procured 
a  certificate  which  has  been  lost  or  destroyed,  he  shall 
be  detained  and  judgment  suspended  a  reasonable 
time  to  enable  him  to  procure  a  duplicate  from  the 
officer  granting  it,  and  in  such  cases  the  cost  of  said 
arrest  and  trial  shall  be  in  the  discretion  of  the  court. 
And  any  Chinese  person  other  than  a  Chinese  laborer 
having  a  right  to  be  and  remain  in  the  United  States 
desiring  such  certificate  as  evidence  of  such  right,  may 
apply  for  and  receive  the  same  without  charge. 

Sec.  2.  That  no  proceedings  for  a  violation  of  the 
provisions  of  said  Section  6  of  said  act  of  May  ^,  1892, 
as  originally  enacted,  shall  hereafter  be  instituted, 
and  all  the  proceedings  for  said  violation  now  pending 
are  hereby  discontinued." 

The  law  has  been  fiercely  criticised  as  unfair 
in  singling  out  one  nation  for  such  legislation, 
and  in  breaking  treaty  faith  with  China.  Its 
defenders  say  : 

"Objection  is  made  to  the  registration,  that  it  sub- 
jects the  Chinese  to  hardships,  and  degrades  them.  If 
registry  is  degradation,  there  are  many  Americans 
who  have  a  right  to  complain.  Thirty-four  States  re- 
quire that  citizens  shall  register  before  being  allowed 
to  vote  }  and  in  most  of  the  States  members  of  certain 
professions  and  trades  are  required  to  register  and 
obtain  a  certificate  before  being  allowed  to  pursue 
their  calling. 

"  The  law  provides  that  officers  go  to  the  Chinaman 
wherever  he  be  and  afford  him  every  facility  for  com- 
plying with  the  law,  without  expense  or  burden.  The 
law  was  wise  and  just,  and  ought  to  be  enforced.  It  is 
known  from  experience  in  California,  where  nine 
tenths  of  the  Chinese  in  the  United  States  reside,  that 
the  great  mass  of  Chinamen  here  would  willingly 
have  complied  with  the  la\v  but  for  the  threats  of  their 
masters,  the  Six  Companies,  who  hold  most  of  the 
Chinese  in  this  country  under  control.  The  antago- 
nism of  the  Six  Companies  to  the  law  is  not  on  account 
of  the  degradation  it  offers  to  their  subjects,  but  be- 
cause its  enforcement  would  insure  the  prevention  of 
any  further  importation  of  their  slaves.  It  was  the 
destruction  of  their  slave-trade  that  caused  the  Six 
Companies  to  fight  the  law,  and  not  any  love  for  the 
vassals  now  in  their  employment  here. 

"The  law  is  in  entire  accord  with  the  last  coinpact 
between  this  Government  and  China.  In  this  treaty 
it  is  provided  that : 

"  '  If  Chinese  laborers,  or  Chinese  of  any  other  class, 


Law. 


now  either  permanently  or  temporarily  residing  in  the 
United  States,  meet  with  ill-treatment  at  the  hands  of 
any  other  persons,  the  Government  of  the  United 
States  will  exert  all  its  power  to  devise  measures  for 
their  protection,  and  to  secure  to  them  the  same  rights, 
privileges,  immunities,  and  exemption  as  may  be  en- 
joyed by  the  citizens  or  subjects  of  the  most  favored 
nation,  and  to  which  they  are  entitled  by  treaty.' 

"  Such  language  is  not  found  in  any  treaty  with  any 
other  nation,  and  illustrates  the  acuteness  of  Chinese 
diplomacy.     As   the   National  Govern- 
ment is  made  primarily  liable  for  any 
injury  to  Chinamen  in  the  United  States,     Argument 
it  became  the  duty  of  this  Government 
to  adopt  a  system  of  registra^n  of  all 
these  people  for  whose  protection  they 
became  specially  liable.    The  exercise 
of  the  registration  power  is  justified  by 
this  treaty,  and  failure  to  require  registration  would 
be  gross  carelessness. 

"  The  first  duty  of  governments  is  to  their  own  citi- 
zens. Is  it  fair  to  subject  our  laborer  to  the  competj- 
tion  of  a  rival  who  measures  his  wants  by  an  expendi- 
ture of  six  cents  a  day,  and  who  is  habituated  to  live 
on  an  income  of  five  dollars  per  month  ?  What  will  be- 
come 9f  the  boasted  civilization  of  our  country  if  our 
toiler  is  compelled  to  compete  with  this  class  of  labor, 
with  more  competitors  available  from  China  than 
twice  the  entire  population  of  Great  Britain,  France, 
Germany,  Austria,  Belgium,  Denmark,  Switzerland, 
Italy,  the  Netherlands,  Portugal,  and  Spain  ? 

"The  Chinese  laborer  brings  here  no  wife  and  no 
children,  and  his  wants  are  limited  to  his  individual 
necessities,  while  the  American  must  earn  income 
sufficient  to  maintain  wife  and  babies." 

The  number  of  Chinese  in  the  United  States 
by  the  census  of  1890  was  94,987,  of  whom  86,- 
360  were  in  the  Western  States  and  5404  in  the 
North  Atlantic  States.  (See  IMMIGRATION.) 

CHRIST  AND  SOCIAL  REFORM.—  The 

relation  of  Christianity  to  social  reform  and  of 
the  Church  to  social  reform  we  consider  under 
their  respective  heads.  We  here  ask  what  was 
and  what  is  the  personal  relation  of  Jesus  Christ 
to  the  problems  of  social  existence.  With  His 
relation  to  the  individual  and  with  any  theologi- 
cal conceptions  of  Christ  we  are,  in  this  cyclope- 
dia, not  concerned,  save  as  these  conceptions 
bear  directly  upon  social  reform.  But  to  a 
growing  number  of  minds  this  is  a  very  large 
and  a  very  important  question,  and  it  must 
therefore  be  distinctly  considered  here,  setting 
forth  impartially,  however  briefly,  all  the  im- 
portant views. 

i.  We  may  very  speedily  state  the  opinion  of 
those   to   whom   Christ  was   but  as  any  man, 
though  perhaps  the  noblest,  the  best,  the  most 
inspired,  nay,  even  in  this  sense, 
the  most  divine  of  men.     To  such 
a  view  Christ  bears  no  special  rela-  A  Religious 
tion  to  social  reform  save  as  does  any    Reformer. 
great  leader  and  inspirer  of  human 
thought  and  action.     Christ  is  con- 
ceived by  those  who  hold  this  view  in  two  main 
ways  :  (a)  as  a  great  idealist  and  religious  teach- 
er, quickening  the  world  by  lofty  maxims,  altru- 
istic ideals,   spiritual    insight,  above  all,  by  a 
pure,   self-sacrificing    life.     He    is,   as    Sakya- 
Mouni,  as  Confucius,  as  Socrates,  as  St.  Fran- 
cis of  Assisi,   as  many  another,    though  per- 
haps greater  than  any  other.     His  relation  to 
social  reform,  according  to  this  conception,  is, 
therefore,  to  raise  ideals  of  brotherhood,  of  self- 
sacrifice,  of  the  supremacy  of  character  over  cir- 
cumstances, of  the  scorn  of  material  comfort. 
Mr.  W.  M.  Salter  says  in  his  Ethical  Religion* 
pp.  188,  189  : 

"It  cannot  be  claimed  that  we  stand  in  any  such  re- 
lation to  Socrates  or  the  Hindu  prince  or  Confucius  as 


Christ  and  Social  Reform. 


243 


Christ  and  Social  Reform. 


to  Jesus.  Socrates  has  not  been  without  influence 
upon  us,  but  it  cannot  be  soberly  called  a  tithe  of  that 
which  Jesus  has  had.  Would  that  men  read  the  Apol- 
ogy oftener ;  they  would  find  meat  and  drink  in  it,  a 
tonic  and  an  inspiration  for  their  lives !  But  there  is 
need  for  no  such  wish  in  relation  to  the  Gospels.  Jesus 
is  an  ideal  of  goodness,  all  too  indistinct  often,  but 
hovering  in  the  thought  of  wellnigh  every  one  of  us. 
It  is  true  that  there  is  much  uncertainty  relating  not 
only  to  His  life,  but  to  His  teaching :  yet  as  there>  need 
be  no  doubt  as  to  the  main  tenor  and  events  of  His  life, 
so  there  need  be  none  as  to  the  commanding  features 
of  His  teaching.  They  make  too  largely  consistent  a 
whole,  and  bespeak  a  mind  of  too  much  freshness  and 
originality  and  power,  to  allow  us  to  think  of  them  as 
coming  in  an  indefinite  way  from  an  age  otherwise  so 
traditional,  so  barren,  and  so  prosaic." 

The  ethical  features  which  Mr.  Salter  finds  in 
Christ  are  :  (i)  His  opposition  to  the  traditional 
morality  of  His  day  ;  (2)  His  giving  to  the  moral 
law  a  more  distinct  inward  application,  teach- 
ing that  thoughts  and  words  have  a  moral  sig- 
nificance, like  that  of  actions  ;  (3)  His  removing 
of  all  barriers  of  love  to  our  fellow-men  ;  (4)  His 
teaching  that  the  "  kingdom  of  God"  is  to  come 
from  above,  and  not  in  the  natural  course  of 
things — i.e.,  "  not  from  the  onworking  of  man's 
natural  self-regarding  impulses."  The  limita- 
tions in  Christ's  ethical  teachings,  Mr.  Salter 
finds,  at  least  as  far  as  the  ethical  require- 
ments of  otir  own  day  are  concerned,  to  be  (i) 
His  failure  to  emphasize  "  the  intellectual  vir- 
tues," straightforwardness,  etc.  ;  (2)  His  lack  of 
concern  with  the  State.  Says  Mr.  Salter : 
"  Jesus  was  not  concerned  with  the  State,  indi- 
cating neither  ideal  nor  practical  courses  for  it 
to  follow. ' '  He  was  ever  looking  for  a  kingdom 
to  come,  which,  says  Mr.  Salter,  has  proved  one 
"  of  humanity's  blighted  hopes  ;"  (3)  Mr.  Salter 
finds  in  Christ's  teaching  little  guidance  for  in- 
dustry ;  and  (4)  no  clear  presentation  of  an  ideal 
to  be  the  end  of  human  existence. 

But  (b)  there  is  another  conception  of  Christ 
held  by  those  who  deny  the  deity  of  Christ,  very 
different  from  and  at  almost  every  point  opposed 
to  the  conception  we  have  just  no- 
ticed. This  is  the  conception  that 

A  Social     prevails    largely    among    working 

Reformer,  men  outside  of  the  Church,  and  es- 
pecially among  materialistic  social- 
ists. To  such  minds  Christ  was  pre- 
eminently a  social  reformer.  He  is  the  first  so- 
cialist. They  term  Him  the  good ' '  Sansculotte, ' ' 
to  use  Camille  Desmoulin's  phrase  of  the  French 
Revolution.  "  The  First  Representative  of  the 
People"  were  the  words  written  beneath  the  pic- 
tures of  Christ  that  were  posted  in  the  halls  of 
the  French  communists  of  1848.  The  Carpen- 
ter of  Nazareth  is  the  name  dearest  to  many 
working  men.  According  to  this  conception, 
Christ  was  a  Jewish  labor  leader,  a  religious 
trade-unionist,  who  taught  of  a  kingdom  of 
brotherly  love,  where  inequalities  and  oppres- 
sion were  to  vanish  ;  where  the  poor,  the  weak, 
the  unfortunate  were  to  overthrow  the  kingdoms 
of  wealth  and  of  injustice.  For  opposing  the 
rich  and  preaching  communism  He  was  cruci- 
fied by  the  chief  priests  exactly  as  the  pastors  of 
the  churches  of  wealth  to-day  oppose  socialism 
and  would  hang  all  revolutionists — so  this  con- 
ception holds.  Christ,  argues  Austin  Bierbower, 
in  his  Socialism  of  Christ,  sought  to  establish  a 
kingdom  in  the  interest  of  the  "outs,"  of  the 
ruled  as  against  the  rulers.  He  proposed  to  re- 


verse  existing  conditions — to  "  lay  the  axe  unto 
the  root  of  the  tree,"  "  to  put  down  the  mighty 
from  their  seat,"  "  to  scatter  the  proud  in  the 
imagination  of  their  hearts,"  "  to  send  the  rich 
empty  away,"  "to  fill  the  hungry  with  good 
things,"  "  to  exalt  them  of  low  degree."  Christ's 
miracles,  says  Bierbower,  "  were  all  done  in  the 
interest  of  the  poor."  "The  common  people 
heard  Him  gladly. ' '  His  command  was  to  give 
up  "  houses  and  lands  for  the  kingdom  of  God's 
sake."  He  said  to  the  rich  young  man,  "Sell 
all  that  thou  hast,  and  distribute  to  the  poor." 
The  leading  clergy  Christ  called  hypocrites  and 
whited  sepulchers.  Christ's  method,  says  Bier- 
bower, was  one  of  revolutionary  force.  He  was 
an  insurrectionist,  who  could  be  confused  with 
Barabbas.  He  came  "  not  to  bring  peace,  but 
a  sword."  He  prophesied  a  reign  of  terror. 
Jerusalem  was  to  be  destroyed.  Not  one  stone 
was  to  be  left  upon  another.  Pilate  accused 
Christ  of  stirring  up  the  people.  This  insurrec- 
tion was  to  establish  a  communism.  In  Christ's 
teaching  all  men  were  to  be  equal.  "  Call  no 
man  master. ' '  There  was  to  be  no  more  clean 
and  unclean.  Men  were  to  live  in  simplicity, 
to  "  take  no  thought  for  the  morrow  ;"  not  to 
have  two  coats.  Many  working  men  think  that 
Christ  was  an  Essene,  or  at  least  the  founder  of 
a  communistic  sect  like  the  Essenes,  of  which 
the  Orient  was  then  full.  According  to  Osborn 
Ward's  The  Ancient  Lowly,  Palestine  was  in 
the  time  of  Christ  full  of  trade-unions  or  secret 
guilds  of  slaves  and  despised  artisans,  and 
to  these  organized  laborers  Jesus  Christ  ap- 
pealed, entering  into  their  life  and  carrying 
their  principles  of  fraternity  and  equality 
through  the  world. 

Working  men  are  not  surprised  that  Christ 
was  crucified.  ' '  The  cross  and  hemlock  cup 
have  ever  been  the  reformer's  reward."  Such 
is  the  materialist  reformer's  conception  of  Jesus 
Christ. 

II.  We  c<?me  to  the  views  of  those  who  hold 
that  Christ  was  more  than  man — God  manifest 
in  the  flesh.  Here  again  we  find  two  divergen- 
cies. According  to  the  one  view,  (a)  Christ's 
message  was  only  to  the  individual  and  at  most 
to  the  Church,  the  body  of  the  redeemed  who 
have  been  made  one  with  Him. 

The  holders  of  this  view  do  not  deny  that 
Christ's  teachings  affect  society,  and  are  to  be  ap- 
plied in  the  State  ;  but  they  hold  that  the  State 
and  society  are  to  be  influenced  only 
through  the  individual.     "Make," 
they  say,  ' '  perfect  men  and  women,         The 
and  then  you  will  have  a  perfect  so-  Individualist 
ciety. "     Many,  it  is  true,  do  not        View, 
hold  that  society  as  a  whole  ever 
will  be  perfected  on  this  earth,  at 
least  not    in   this  present    dispensation.     The 
kingdom  of  God,  they  reason,  is  to  be  composed 
of  the  redeemed  and  the  elect  out  of  the  world. 
The  kingdoms  of  this  earth  are,  they  teach,  not 
to  be  conformed  to  the  law  of  God,  but  to  be  de- 
stroyed and  replaced  by  the  kingdom  of  heaven. 
It  is  "  a  mistake,"  said  the  Bishop  of  Peterbor- 
ough, at  the  diocesan  conference  at  Leicester, 
England,  October,   1889,  "  to  attempt  to  turn 
Christ's  kingdom  into  one  of  this  world."     The 
Regnum  Hominis,  he  argues,  can  never  be  the 
Civitas  Dei ;  the  State  does  not  and  cannot 


Christ  and  Social  Reform. 


244 


Christ  and  Social  Reform. 


exist  on  Christian  principles.  Did  not  Christ 
Himself  say,  "  My  kingdom  is  not  of  this  world"? 
Were  not  Christ  and  all  His  disciples  continu- 
ally speaking  of  and  looking  forward  to  the  end 
of  the  world,  its  destruction,  and  the  coming 
of  the  new  heavens  and  the  new  earth  ?  Chris- 
tian socialists,  says  this  school  of  thought,  for- 
get the  doctrine  of  the  second  Advent,  the  per- 
sonal coming  of  Christ,  when  this  earth  shall  be 
destroyed  and  the  redeemed  only  be  saved  out 
of  it ;  or  a  New  Jerusalem  coming  down  from 
heaven.  However,  not  all  who  hold  that  Christ's 
message  is  only  to  the  individual  argue  from  it 
that  Christ's  life  is  not  to  be  applied  to  present 
social  organizations.  They  hold  that  the  Christ 
life  will  and  inevitably  must  transform,  nay, 
even  revolutionize,  human  society.  They  assert 
strongly  that  Christ  is  the  Savior  of  society  ;  but 
they  hold  that  the  transformation  and  salvation 
of  society  is  to  come  only  through  the  new  Christ 
life  in  the  individual,  by  creating  better  men 
and  women  to  compose  the  State.  Such  think- 
ers deny  that  Christ  was  a  socialist  in  any  sense 
implying  that  He  has  a  message  for  the  State 
apart  from  the  individual.  Says  Dr.  Lyman 
Abbott,  in  his  Evolution  of  Christianity  :  "  It 
has  been  said  that  Jesus  Christ  was  the  first  so- 
cialist. This  is  certainly  an  incorrect,  if  not  an 
absolutely  erroneous  statement.  It 
would  be  more  nearly  correct  to  say 

The  First    that  He  was  the  first  individualist. 

Individu-  The  socialist  assumes  that  the  pro- 
alist.  lific  cause  of  misery  in  the  world  is 
bad  social  organization.  Christ  as- 
sumed that  the  prolific  cause  of  mis- 
ery in  the  world  is  individual  wrongdoing." 
Those  who  hold  this  view  argue  that  Christ 
came  to  save  the  world  by  saving  individuals. 
Individuals,  indeed,  may  cooperate  in  all  kinds 
of  reform  and  charitable  society  ;  they  may  and 
they  should  enter  into  politics  ;  but  the  redeem- 
ing power  is  ever  in  the  life  of  Christ  in  the  indi- 
vidual heart,  and  the  Church's  prime  message, 
like  Christ's,  is  to  the  individual.  A  few,  like 
Tolstoi,  carry  this  view  to  such  lengths  that 
they  may  be  called,  as  occasionally  they  call 
themselves,  Christian  anarchists.  They  would 
away  with  organization.  To  obey  the  State  is 
to  take  an  oath  of  loyalty,  and  Christ  said, 
' '  Swear  not. ' '  Society  can  only  be  saved  by 
personal  sacrifice.  Self-sacrifice  is  the  one  word. 
Renounce  life  and  you  gain  life.  (For  a  full 
statement  of  this  view  of  Christ,  see  TOLSTOI". ) 

But  lastly,  we  come  (b)  to  the  view  of  Christ 

held  by  Christian  Socialists.    (For  a  statement  of 

Christian  Socialism,  see  that  article.)    We  are 

here    concerned    simply  with    the 

view  of  Christ  held  by  this  school. 

The  Chris-  According  to  this  conception,  Christ 
tian  Social-  is  God  manifest  in  the  flesh,  the 

ist  View,  natural  King  and  Head  of  all  hu- 
manity, and  therefore  with  jurisdic- 
tion over  all  life,  secular  as  truly  as 
•spiritual,  political  and  social  quite  as  much  as 
individual.  It  is  true  that  men  have  rebelled 
against  God's  rule,  and  must  personally  return 
to  Him.  Christian  socialists  do  not  denjr,  but 
assert  the  necessity  of  personal  conversion  and 
the  new  birth.  Christ  does  not  force  any  man 
to  serve  Him.  A  forced  righteousness  is  not 
righteousness.  Christ  draws  but  does  not  com- 


pel any  man  to  follow  Him.  Hence  all  moral 
action  from  men  in  a  sense  commences  with  the 
individual,  and  in  this  sense  Christian  socialists 
are  individualists  ;  but  they  deny  that  Christ 
came  only  to  the  individual  ;  they  deny  either 
that  Christ  came  only  to  save  individuals  out  of 
a  lost  world,  or  even  to  save  the  world  through 
the  working  alone  of  a  new  life  in  individual 
hearts.  They  do  not  admit  that  Christ  taught 
that  "  individual  wrongdoing  is  the  prolific 
cause  of  misery  in  the  world."  They  hold  that 
man  is  born  in  society,  and  in  a  sinful  society, 
which  fact  is  the  cause  of  deep  evil.  Through- 
out the  Bible  they  find  a  teaching  of  racial  sin. 
The  child  suffers  for  the  father's  sin,  and  the 
mother  suffers  in  the  child' s  wrongdoing.  They 
find  a  socialism  in  sin  as  well  as  a  socialism  in 
Christ.  Men,  they  hold,  are  not  alone  ;  men 
are  molded  by  inheritance  and  by  environ- 
ment. Now,  Christ,  as  the  King  of  all  the  world, 
came  to  change  this.  He  came  to  save  rebel- 
lious individual  men,  but  also  to  establish  a  new 
environment.  He  came  to  found  a  kingdom. 
He  prayed  for  its  coming.  He  taught  that  God's 
will  should  be  done  on  earth  even  as  in  heaven. 
Those  who  argue  that  Christ's  message  is  only 
to  the  individual,  that  He  took  no  notice  of  the 
State  and  that  He  cared  little  for  organization, 
forget,  say  Christian  socialists,  Christ's  whole 
relation  to  the  Old  Testament  and  the  world. 
The  Old  Testament  is  two  thirds  of  the  Bible. 
Christ  only  came  after  a  long  preparation  of  the 
Jews  in  social  righteousness.  He  came,  He  de- 
clared, to  fulfil  the  Old  Testament  laws.  He 
Himself  fulfilled-  and  bade  His  disciples  to  fulfil 
every  minute  detail  of  the  ritual  law.  Christ 
indeed  denounced  and  reproved  the  rulers 
of  the  Jewish  Church,  but  it  was  not  because 
they  fulfilled  the  law,  but  because  they  did 
not  fulfil  the  law,  because  they  made  it  of 
no  effect  through  their  traditions.  Jesus  Christ 
was  the  great  conformist.  He  was  circumcised  ; 
He  was  baptized  ;  He  was  made  a  Son  of  the 
Law  ;  He  kept  feast  and  fast ;  He  obeyed  all 
the  law  ;  He  bade  His  disciples  obey  even  the 
very  priests  He  denounced.  As  to  the  assertion 
that  Christ  did  not  recognize  the  State,  men  for- 
get what  the  Hebrew  Church  was.  It  was  a 
State  almost  as  truly  as  a  Church.  It  was  a 
Church  State.  Christ  paid  little  heed  to  the  Ro- 
man heathen  State,  though  He  obeyed  even  its 
laws  ;  but  He  magnified  the  ideal  of  the  old 
covenant,  the  Divine  State,  the  heavenly  king- 
dom. He  was  ever  speaking  of  it.  Of  it  are 
most  of  His  parables.  He  came  to  fulfil  its  laws. 
It  is  true  that  Christ  idealized,  spiritualized  the 
materialistic  conception  of  the  laws  held  by  the 
Jews.  He  came  to  fulfil  them 
through  love,  not  through  legalism. 
But  He  did  not  come  to  abrogate  Not  a  Law- 
the  laws.  Law  must  fulfil  law,  not  breaker. 
destroy  law.  Spirituality  is  not  to 
make  men  disregard  matter.  Never 
did  any  one  ever  honor  the  material  body  as  did 
Christ.  Almost  all  His  works  were  works  of 
healing  to  the  body.  They  were  almost  all  secu- 
lar socialist  works.  He  who  thus  magnified  the 
body,  law,  organization,  cannot  be  said — so 
Christian  socialists  argue — to  have  come  simply 
to  save  people  out  of  a  wicked  world  into  heaven, 
or  even  to  save  a  world  on  earth  simply  through 


Christ  and  Social  Reform. 


245         Christianity  and  Social  Reform. 


the  individual,  If  society,  organization,  the  na- 
tion, count  for  nothing,  why  the  thousands  of 
years  of  the  old  covenant  before  Christ  came  ? 
The  law  is  the  schoolmaster  to  lead  to  Christ, 
and  Christ  is  the  great  Teacher  to  help  us  fulfil 
the  law.  Christian  socialists  agree  with  the 
material  socialists  that  Christ  was  a  social  re- 
former— the  social  reformer  ;  that  He  did  come 
to  establish  a  reign  of  equality,  brotherhood, 
communism  here  upon  earth.  They  believe 
Christ's  Church  to  be  the  world's  first  Interna- 
tional ;  they  call  the  Magnificat  "  the  hymn  of 
the  universal  revolution."  Christian  socialists 
disagree  with  the  materialist  socialists  that  He 
appealed  to  force  or  depended  simply  on  organi- 
zation. He  came  to  bring  a  sword  in  the  same 
sense  only  that  the  knowledge  of  the  law  brings 
forth  sin.  Christ  has  made  a  man's  enemies 
those  of  his  own  household  ;  He  has  turned  the 
world  upside  down.  He  is  the  great  revolu- 
tionist. But  His  appeal  is  not  to  force.  He  did 
not  come  to  draw  the  sword  any  more  than  the 
law  bids  men  to  sin.  He  was  led  as  a  lamb  to 
the  slaughter.  He  conquers  by  self-sacrifice. 
His  method  is  the  cross.  His  kingdom  is  not 
of  this  world,  but  it  is  to  include  this  world. 
' '  The  kingdoms  of  this  world  are  to  become  the 
kingdom  of  our  Lord  and  of  His  Christ' '  (Rev. 
xi.  15).  As  for  the  Second  Advent,  it  is  not  for 
us  to  know  the  times  or  the  seasons  ;  but  Christ 
certainly  strove  to  help  the  bodies  as  well  as  the 
souls  of  men  in  His  day.  He  entered  into  social 
organization  and  the  Church  State,  and  bade  men 
in  love  fulfil  its  laws.  He  whose  constant  word 
was  of  a  kingdom  can  scarcely  be  called,  say 
Christian  socialists,  an  anarchist.  He  who 
bade  men  fulfil  a  law  that  forbade  private  prop- 
erty in  land,  and  outlined  a  socialistic  theocracy, 
can  no  more,  they  argued,  be  considered  a  Chris- 
tian individualist.  They  believe  His  relation  to 
social  reform  is  best  summed  in  the  twofold  con- 
ception contained  in  the  phrase  ' '  Christian  So- 
cialism." 

References:  For  the  different  views  of  Christ  in  re- 
lation to  social  reform,  see  Ethical  Religion,  by  W.  M. 
Salter  (Boston,  1889) ;  The  Socialism  of  Christ,  by  Aus- 
tin Bierbower  (Chicago,  1890) ;  7'he  Larger  Christ,  by 
(jr.  D.  Herron  (New  York,  1891) ;  Lessons  from  the 
Cross,  by  Stewart  D.  Headlam  (London) ;  Christian 
Socialism,  What  and  Why,  by  P.  W.  Sprague  (New 
York,  1891) ;  7^he  Incarnation  and  Common  Life,  by  B. 
F.  Westcott  (London,  1893) :  The  Evolution  of  Chris- 
tianity, by  Lyman  Abbott  (Boston,  1892). 


CHRISTIAN   COMMUNISM. 

MUNISM. 


See  COM- 


CHRISTIANITY  AND  SOCIAL  RE- 
FORM.— We  consider  in  separate  articles 
CHRIST  AND  SOCIAL  REFORM,  THE  CHURCH  AND 
SOCIAL  REFORM,  and  CHRISTIAN  COMMUNISM. 
We  are  concerned  in  this  article  not  with  what 
Christ  taught  nor  with  what  the  Church  has  done 
or  has  not  done  in  regard  to  social  reform,  but 
with  what  as  a  matter  of  fact  has  been  the  effect 
of  Christianity  upon  social  problems,  and  with 
what  are  the  principles  of  a  Christian  sociology. 
We  shall  consider  our  subjects  in  two  parts  :  (i) 
historically  ;  (2)  ideologically,  or  concerning 
Christian  sociology. 

I.    HISTORY. 

For  a  statement  of  what  has  been  the  effect  of  Chris- 
tianity upon  society,  we  condense,  for  the  most  part, 
Mr.  C.  L.  Brace's  valuable  Gesta  Christi. 


The  first  effect  of  Christianity  upon  society  was  to 
introduce  a  new  spirit  of  brotherhood,  of  equality,  and 
of  humanity  to  the  suffering  and  the  lowly  (see  CHRIS- 
TIAN COMMUNISM).  Outside  of  Judea,  at  least,  it  seems 
probable  that  up  to  the  third  century  Christian- 
ity spread  largely  among  the  vast  slave  and  despised 
population  of  the  empire,  perhaps  mainly  among  the 
trade '  sodalities  or  colleges  or  brotherhoods  or  com- 
munes, with  which  Mr.  C.  Osborne  Ward  shows  the 
empire  was  honeycombed  (see  GUILDS).  Spreading 
mamly  among  these,  the  enslaved  rather  than  the  mas- 
ters, it  is  evident  that  Christianity  could  not  at  once 
overthrow  slavery  ;  but  it  did  what  it  could  to  elevate 
the  position  of  the  slave.  It  bade  him  submit,  in  the 
spirit  of  Christian  love,  to  his  master,  and  yet  it  treat- 
ed him  as  an  equal  and  a  brother.  It  inculcated  a 
spirit  and  practice  of  brotherly  love.  "  How  those 
Christians  love  one  another !"  is  the  suggestive  excla- 
mation concerning  life  in  the  primitive  Church.  For 
a  beautiful  tho  imaginative  picture  of  the  life  of  the 
early  Church,  see  Koun's  Amis  the  Libyan. 

Coming  to  more  authoritative  and  established  facts, 
we  can  see  the  evidence  of  the  social  effect  of  Chris- 
tianity by  comparing  legislation  before  and  after  its 
influence'began. 

THE  ROMAN  PERIOD. 

Rome,  like  all  early  civilizations,  gave  almost  un- 
limited power  to  the  father.  He  could  and  often  did 
chastise  and  even  slay  an  adult  son.  He  could  take 
his  property,  assign  him  a  wife,  divorce  him  when 
married,  transfer  him  to  another  family  by  adoption. 
See  Val.  Max.,  v.,  8 ;  Liv.,  vii.,  7 ;  Plut.  (P. 
Gr.  et  Rom.).  Over  the  daughter  he  had 
still  further  power.  Under  the  Chris-  •rile  TTajnilv 
tian  emperors,  whatever  their  personal 
character,  this  was  abridged.  Constan- 
tine  punished  a  parricide,  and  Justinian 
went  much  further.  The  father  could  now  only  inherit 
from  a  son  to  a  less  degree  than  the  son's  minor  children. 
Under  Justinian  the  son  had  full  control  over  all  his 
acquisitions.  He  could  not  be  killed,  exposed,  bought, 
sold  or  imprisoned,  save  by  decree  of  the  courts. 
Under  old  Rome,  inheritance  was  not  by  blood,  but  by 
power.  Relationship  was  limited  to  descendants  by 
males,  tho  a  daughter  inherited  equally  with  a 
son.  But  neither  an  "  emancipated"  son  nor  a  married 
daughter  who  haj,  "left  the  family"  inherited.  They 
were  cognates,  not.  agnates.  Under  the  Christian  em- 
perors this  distinction  disappears.  Under  the  old 
Roman  law,  the  woman  was  almost  wholly  under  the 
tutelage  of  her  male  relations.  She  could  not  intervene 
in  the  management  of  the  family,  nor  in  commercial 
affairs.  A  court  of  her  relatives  could  try  her.  Her 
husband  had  power  of  life  and  death  over  her,  and 
power  over  her  property.  To  the  three  ancient  forms 
of  Roman  marriage,  the  confarreatio,  or  religious, 
the  coemptio,  or  civil,  and  the  usus,  or  without  cere- 
mony, there  was  gradually  added  "free  marriage'' 
in  the  interest  of  the  woman,  which  was  recognized 
by  law,  but  did  not  make  the  wife  of  the  husband's 
"  family,"  leaving  her  her  own  property,  her  own 
gods,  and  her  old  family  relation. 

Under  the  Christian  emperors  this  was  changed. 
"Tutelage  of  women  must  be  done  away  with,"  say 
Justinian's  Institutes.  The  absolute  power  of  the  hus 
band  ceased.  If  unjustly  divorced,  she  received  full 
paternal  power  (C.  Theod.,  v.,  4,  5). 

Under  old  Rome,  divorce  had  become  common  and 
frequent  to  the  utmost.  Juvenal  declares  that "  no  crime 
or  deed  of  lust  was  wanting  to  the  age"  (Sat.,  vi.,  223). 
Modesty  was  held  to  be  a  presumption 
of  ugliness  (Plut.  Vet.  P.  Aeni),    In  the 
year  19  A.D.,  the  Roman  senate  had  to     Tw;arriao-e 
pass  a  law  that  no  woman  of  a  certain 
rank    could    make    her    person    venal. 
(Tac.  Ann.,  2,83).     In  330-331  A.D..  how- 
ever, a  wife  might  be    divorced  from  her  husband 
only  when  he  was  a  murderer,  a  magician,  or  a  viola- 
tor of  tombs.    The  husband  could  be  divorced  when 
the  wife  was  an  adulteress  or  given  to  evil  practices. 
If   the    wife's  innocence  was  proven,  she  had  right 
again  to  all  the  property  of  her  husband,  and  even  the 
dos  of  the  second  wife.    A  married  man  was  prohibit- 
ed (340   A.D.)  from  having   a  concubine,  and    finally 
adultery  was  punished  by  death.     Justinian's  code, 
however,   extended  the  causes    of  divorce.      Jerome 
confesses  that  "  some  were  the  laws  of  the  Cassars,  and 
some  of  Christ."    A  stoical  jurist,  Paul,  writes  in  the 
third  century  :  "  Women  in  every  kind  of  affairs  and 
obligations,  whether  in  behalf  of  men  or  women,  are 
prohibited  from  having  any  concern"      (Paul  Sent., 
ii.,  xii.).   Justinian  says  that  nothing  in  human  affairs 
is  so  much  to  be  venerated  as  marriage.    "  We  enact 


Christianity  and  Social  Reform.         246        Christianity  and  Social  Reform. 


Slavery. 


then  that  all  persons,  so  far  as  they  can,  should  pre- 
serve chastity,  which  alone  is  able  to  present  the  souls 
of  men  with  confidence  before  God"  (Nov .,  iii.,  i,  14). 

In  ancient  Rome  and  Greece,  unnatural  vices  be- 
came the  rule  even  among  the  learned  (confer  Lucian, 
Apuleius,  Arbiter,  Athenseus,  Plato's  Symposium,  and 
others).  The  plain  words  of  St.  Paul  are  well  known. 
The  Theodosian  code,  which  codified  the  legislation 
of  Constantine,  ordered  the  most  intense  punishments 
on  those  guilty  of  such  crimes.  He  says  :  "  Taught  by 
the  Holy  Scriptures,  we  know  what  a  just  punishment 
God  inflicted  on  the  inhabitants  of  Sodom"  (Co d.  Theod., 
ix..  tit.  7). 

Slavery  was  probably  never  worse  than  just  before 
the  advent  of  Christianity.  Stoicism  mildly  denounced, 
but  did  not  alleviate  it.  Cato  approved 
of  selling  a  sick  slave  (De  remot.,  II.). 
Six  hundred  slaves  were  put  to  death 
because  one  had  slain  their  master,  and 
Cassius  defended  the  act,  which  the  law 
requited  (Tac.  Ann.,  xii.,  lib.  42).  Simi- 
lar inhumanities  are  well  known.  Slaves  were  fed  to 
fish  and  put  to  death  for  amusement.  Under  Christian- 
ity the  Lord's  day  became  a  day  appropriate  to  eman- 
cipation (Cod.  Tfieod.,  1.  2).  The  setting  free  of  slaves 
became  common.  In  312  A.D.  the  poisoning  of  a  slave 
or  branding  him  was  declared  by  law  to  be  homicide. 
In  314  liberty  was  a  right  which  could  not  be  taken 
away.  By  316,  emancipation  in  the  church  before  wit- 
nesses was  emancipation  before  the  law.  Later  a  few 
words  from  a  priest  could  emancipate.  Under  Justin- 
ian those  who  served  in  the  army  or  entered  a  monas- 
tery, with  the  consent  of  their  masters,  became  free. 
Slavery  was  suppressed  by  penalty.  If,  at  the  death  of 
the  master,  the  heir  was  directed  to  free  one  slave,  all 
became  free.  The  marriage  of  the  master  with  a  bond- 
woman freed  and  legitimatized  all  the  children,  and 
even  without  marriage,  if  the  woman  held  the  position 
of  a  wife,  she  became  free  with  her  children.  The  viola- 
tion of  a  slave  woman  was  made  an  equal  offence  with 
crime  committed  upon  a  free  woman,  and  punishable 
by  death.  The  movable  property  of  slaves  became 
their  own,  and  with  it  they  often  purchased  their 
liberty.  The  code  declared  its  purpose  "to  have  the 
republic  frequented  by  freemen  rather  than  liberated 
slaves."  These  were  but  the  principal  enactments. 
Under  Leo  (717)  all  slaves  on  imperial  domains  were 
allowed  to  do  with  their  property  as  they  chose.  If 

Eroperty  reverted  to  the  State  (867),  the  slaves  became 
:-ee.  In  the  ninth  century.  Saint  Theodore  of  Studium 
(Constantinople)  commanded,  "Thou  shalt  possess  no 
slave,  neither  for  domestic  service  nor  for  the  labor 
of  the  fields,  for  man  is  made  in  the  image  of  God" 
(Wallon's  Hist,  de  V  Esclavage,  v.  iii.,  p.  484).  _  Slavery 
had  disappeared  in  Europe  when  the  Reformation  came. 

The  gladiatorial  games  of  Rome  are  well  known. 
The  Stoics  objected  to  them,  but  it  did  no  good.  Caesar 
had  320  pairs  of  gladiators  at  once  in  the  arena.  Trajan 
surpassed  all  in  forcing  10,000  prisoners  and  gladiators 
.  to  contend  for  life  in  a  carnage  lasting  123  days.  Con- 
stantine, in  the  very  year  before  he  accepted  Chris- 
tianity, exposed  a  vast  number  of  prisoners  to  wild 
beasts  in  the  amphitheater.  The  early  Christians  pro- 
tested against  all  this.  In  325  A.D.  Constantine  passed 
the  law,  "Bloody  spectacles  in  our  present  state  of 
civil  tranquillity  and  domestic  peace  do  not  please  us, 
•wherefore  we  order  that  all  gladiators  beprohibited 
from  carrying  on  their  profession"  (Cod.  Tjieod.,  Ixv. 
tit.  12, 1. 1).  Their  final  abolition  by  the  leaping  into  the 
arena  of  the  monk  Telemachus  (404)  is  well  known. 

Under  old  Rome  public  spectacles  were  licentious  as 
well  as  bloody.  Nude  women  were  made  to  bathe  be- 
fore the  spectators.  The  actresses  were  prostitutes 
and  the  plays  obscene.  The  Christians  denounced 
these,  as  they  did  the  gladiatorial  shows.  By  343  no 
Christian  woman,  bond  or  free,  could  be  .forced  to 
serve  as  a  prostitute  on  the  stage.  Exhibitions  were 
forbidden  on  Sundays  and  saints'  days.  By  430  a  law 
of  Theodosius  forbade  the  profession  of  the  leno,  or 
procurer.  Under  Justinian  no  woman  could  be  retained 
by  force  on  the  stage.  Under  Theodosius  it  was  for- 
bidden to  sell  or  train  women  for  social  entertain- 
ments. A  slave  mutilated  became  free.  Often  when 
examined  a  slave  would  answer,  "  I  am  not  a  slave  ; 
I  am  a  Christian  ;  Christ  has  freed  me." 

Under  ancient  Rome,  the  exposure  and  frightful 
mutilation  of  children,  and  especially  of  female  chil- 
dren, were  frequent.  Even  Seneca  ap- 
proved of  exposing  weak  infants.  Ex- 

TTmna    'tir    posed  children  were  often  taken  to  be 

numamiy.  prostitutes.  The  Christian  fathers  were 
full  of  denunciation  of  the  custom.  Con- 
stantine (315)  forbade  the  practice,  and 
had  his  revenue  and  treasure  used  to  rescue  any  who 


were  exposed.  The  Council  of  Nice  ordered  the  foun- 
dation of  hospitals  in  the  principal  towns.  Houses  of 
mercy  for  children  were  founded  by  Justinian.  A  mar- 
ble vessel  was  provided  for  exposed  children  at  the 
door  of  each  church,  and  nurses  were  employed  for 
them. 

Under  Constantine  began  the  first  prison  reform, 
and  with  the  Christians  the  first  active  condemnation 
of  war  and  the  adoption  of  arbitration.  Many  of  the 
Christians  refused  to  fight  or  to  go  to  law.  Tertullian 
called  Christians  "priestsof  peace."  The  first  hospital 
is  said  to  have  been  built  in  Rome  at  the  end  of  the 
first  century.  Pulcheria,  sister  of  Theodosius  the 
Younger,  built  and  endowed  several  at  Constantinople. 

THE  MIDDLE  AGES. 

It  is  often  claimed  that  the  elevation  of  woman  under 
the  Christian  emperors  could  not  have  been  due  to 
Christianity,  because  the  same  elevation  was  found  in 
unchristian  Germanic  tribes.  But  the  same  elevation 
was  not  found.  The  woman  occupied  a  higher  posi- 
tion than  under  ancient  Rome,  but  not  so  high  as  under 
Christian  Rome,  and  when  Christianity  conquered 
these  tribes,  her  position  was  very  much  bettered.  It 
is  true,  according  to  Tacitus,  that  woman  among  these 
tribes  was  the  companion  of  her  husband,  and  often 
the  honored  prophetess  ;  that  a  high  ideal  was  main- 
tained of  female  purity,  and  that  the  debauchery  of 
Rome  was  unknown  ;  nevertheless  the  wife  was  under 
the  absolute  authority  of  her  husband,  and  could  be 
bought,  beaten,  or  killed.  The  wife  was  usually 
bought,  being  rated  at  so  many  pieces  of  silver.  The 
offender  was  required  by  law  simply  to  pay  the  hus- 
band for  the  adultery  of 'his  wife,  and  to  furnish  a  new 
wife  (Leg.  ^Ethel.,  32). 

Christianity  immediately  strove  to  increase  the  sanc- 
tity of  marriage.    The  law  of  ^Ethelred  is  striking  : 
"And  we    direct    very  earnestly    that 
every  Christian    man  carefully    avoid 
unlawful  concubinage,  and  rightly  ob-     Turarriae.e 
serve  Christian  law  ;  and  let  it  never  oe 
that  a  Christian  man  marry  within  the 
fourth    degree,   nor   have    more  wives 
than  one  as  long  as  she  may  live,  whoever  will  rightly 
observe  God's  law,  and  secure  his  soul  from  the  burn- 
ings of  hell"  (Lex.  Ethel.,  v.,  II.,  vi.,  II.).  The  Pepin  and 
Charlemagne  capitularies   are  equally  strong  on  the 
indissolubility  of  the  marriage  tie,  save  for  the  cause  of 
fornication.    The  Church  strove  likewise  to  root  out 
the  old  venal  character  of  marriage.    The  Council  of 
Treves  (1227)  forbade  the  relations  of  the  bride  from 
taking   money   under   any   pretense   for   giving   the 
woman  in  marriage.    The  ring  is  now  well-nigh  the 
only  relic  of  the  ancient  wed  or  pledge  that  the  man 
would  fulfil  his  part  of  the  money  contract.    France 
was  the  first  to  abolish  tutelage. 

A  greater  effect  of  Christianity  on  the  Germanic 
tribes  was  in  the  mitigation  and  finally  the  suppression 
of  personal  feuds.  In  barbaric  society  individual  in- 
jury was  revenged  on  the  person  of  the  enemy,  and  the 
injured,  being  a  member  of  a  family  or  association,  was 
protected  by  the  association,  and  his  wrongs  regarded 
as  wrongs  done  to  the  family.  Hence  arose  feuds 
(faida).  In  the  Teutonic  tribes  an  elaborate  system 
of  fines,  or  amends,  was  arranged.  Christianity  agi- 
tated the  subject.  King  Alfred,  in  the  introduction  of 
his  laws,  speaks  of  the  ordaining  of  dot,  or  money 
fines,  to  repress  feuds  by  the  legislative  assemblies  of 
England  as  a  special  effort  of  the  Christian  faith.  All 
Sundays  and  religious  days  became  sacred  from  feuds. 
In  the  seventh  and  eighth  centuries  a  confessor  at 
shrove-tide  would  refuse  absolution  to  a  man  at  feud 
who  would  not  make  peace.  From  a  Russian  code  of 
088  A.D.,  we  learn  that  "  King  Wladimir  lived  in  the 
fear  of  God,  and  murders  waxed  greatly.  Then  spake 
the  bishops  to  Wladimir  :  '  Murders  wax  greatly.  Why 
dost  thou  not  punish?'  He  answered  :  'I  feared  in- 
justice.' But  they  replied:  'Thou  hast  been  set  by 
God  for  the  punishment  of  the  wicked  and  for  grace 
to  the  good.  It  becometh  thee  to  pvinish  the  murder- 
ers, but  only  after  much  searching  out.'  Then  Wladi- 
mir rejected  wergild  (fine),  and  punished  the  mur- 
derers." 

From  feuds  arose  private  wars.  A  nobleman  once 
declared  war  against  the  city  of  Frankfort  because  a 
lady  residing  there  had  promised  a  dance  with  his 
cousin,  and  had  danced  with  another.  The  city  was 
obliged  to  satisfy  his  wounded  honor.  The  Margrave 
of  Brandenburg  boasted  that  he  had  burned  170  villages. 
A  church  council  held  near  Soissons  in  909  A.D.  de- 
clared "that  the  monasteries  were  burned  or  de- 
stroyed, the  fields  reduced  to  solitude,  so  that  we  can 


Christianity  and  Social  Reform.         247         Christianity  and  Social  Reform. 


truly  say  that  the  sword  has  pierced  to  the  very  soul." 
Wherever  feudalism  went  there  was  private  war. 
Consequently,  the  clergy  preached  "the 
Peace  of  God."  In  France  in  the  tenth 
"  The  Peace  ar>d  eleventh  centuries  there  seems  to 
of  God  "  have  been  a  sort  of  peace  "revival," 
1  almost  "a  crusade  of  peace."  Who- 
ever broke  the  "  Peace  of  God"  lost  his 
property,  and  was  driven  from  among 
men.  The  peace  lasted  from  Thursday  evening  to 
Monday  morning,  and  included  Christian  feasts  and 
other  festivals.  Many  religi9us  fraternities  to  recon- 
cile enemies  were  formed  in  the  Middle  Ages.  A 
meeting  of  clergy  at  Charons  (989  A.D.)  anathematized 
all  who  should  plunder  the  poor  and  the  clergy.  The 
Council  of  Poictiers,  1004  A.D.,  worked  for  the  same  end. 
By  the  Council  of  Limoges  (1031)  all  disputes  •were  to  be 
brought  before  the  bishop  and  his  chapter.  The  popes 
made  public  proclamations  of  peace.  Almost  all  the 
councils  reaffirmed  this  peace.  In  the  thirteenth  cen- 
tury Brotherhoods  of  the  Agnus  Dei  worked  for  peace. 
In  the  same  century  Friar  John  of  Vicenza  traversed 
large  portions  of  Italy,  preaching  the  "  Peace  of  God." 
In  the  fourteenth  century  a  great  religious  movement 
for  peace  stirred  the  minds  of  different  nations.  Pil- 
grims with  white  bands  around  their  necks  (J  Bianclii} 
marched  through  various  lands  preaching  the  duty  of 
a  Christian  peace.  In  Germany  the  Church  and  the 
free  cities  combined,  and  in  the  twelfth  and  thirteenth 
centuries  largely  introduced  courts  of  arbitration  un- 
der the  bishop  in  place  of  feuds. 

The  capitularies  of  Charlemagne  are  replete  with 
evidence    showing   the    effect  of  Christianity  in  the 
way  of  social  reform.    One  of  them  reads:  "  Let  peace 
and   good   intelligence  rule    among  bishops,  abbots, 
counts,  judges,  and  men  of  all  conditions,  for  without 
peace,  nothing  pleases  the  Lord."    "If 
ye  love  one  another,  all   will  know  ye 
Charle-       are  Christ's  disciples."    "  Widows  and 
.         orphans  and  minors  are  to  be  protected 
magi  as  under  the  peculiar  care  of  God."  "The 

Capitularies,  true  charity,  which  loveth  God  and  our 
neighbor,"  is  to  be  cultivated.  The  peo- 
ple are  exhorted  to  peace,  because"  they 
have  one  Father  in  heaven,"  and  because  the  blessed 
book  has  taught  them  that  "  blessed  are  the  peace- 
makers." The  powerful  are  cautioned  against  the 
oppression  of  the  poor,  and  all  are  exhorted  to  be 
imitators  of  Him  who  would  save  the  souls  of  men. 
All  Christians  are  most  solemnly  warned  to  give  their 
utmost  diligence  lest  they  be  forever  separated  from 
the  kingdom  of  God  by  their  strifes  and  contentions 
and  falsehood  and  wicked  vices.  The  laity  were  or- 
dered to  learn  the  Apostles'  Creed.  The  stranger  and 
far-comer  were  especially  protected  "  under  the  in- 
junctions in  the  Bible,  and  because  such  may  be  jour- 
neying in  the  service  of  their  common  Master." 

Similarly  indicative  of  the  influence  of  Christianity 
are  old  English  laws.  King  Alfred  (about  870  A.D)  in- 
troduces his  code  with  the  ten  commandments  and 
other  laws  taken  from  the  Bible.  Of  his  laws,  the 
King  says:  "These  are  the  dooms  that  the  Almighty 
God  Himself  spake  to  Moses  and  bade  him  to  hold., 
and  when  the  Lord's  only  begotten  Son— that  is,  Christ 
the  Healer — on  middle  earth  came,  He  said  that  He 
came  not  these  dooms  to  break  nor  to  gainsay,  but 
with  all  good  to  do  and  with  all  mild-heartedness  and 
lowly-mindedness  to  teach  them"  (Hughes'  transla- 
tion). "That  ye  will  that  other  men  do  not  to  you,  do 
ye  not  that  toother  men.  From  this  one  doom,  a  man 
may  think  that  he  should  doom  every  one  rightly  ;  he 
need  keep  no  other  doom-book."  The  Saxon  and 
early  Norman  laws  are  strict  as  to  Sunday  work.  If  a 
bondsman  work  on  Sunday  by  his  lord's  order,  the 
lord  must  pay  a  fine  of  30^.;  if  without  this  order,  he 
must  be  flogged.  If  a  freeman  work  without  his  lord's 
order,  he  must  forfeit  his  freedom  or  pay  6o.y.  A  priest 
pays  double.  In  King  Ethelred's  dooms  the  Christian 
impulse  is  very  strong  (978  A.D.).  "  This,  then,  first,  that 
we  all  love  and  worship  one  God  and  zealously  hold 
one  Christianity  ;  .  .  .  that  every  man  be  regarded  as 
entitled  to  right,  and  that  peace  and  friendship  be 
carefully  observed  within  the  land  before  God  and  be- 
fore the  world."  King  Canute's  laws 
(1017  A.D.)  are  similar :  "  Let  every  Chris- 
English  tian  man  do  as  is  needful  for  him  ;  let 
T  OTITO  him  keep  his  Christianity,"  etc. 
J^aws.  Christianity  in  the  Middle  Ages  did 

much  for  education.  The  Council  of 
Vaison  (529  A.D.)  says:  "  It  hath  seemed 
good  to  us  that  priests  with  parishes  should  receive  into 
their  houses,  according  to  a  sound  custom  in  Italy, 
young  readers  to  whom  they  give  spiritual  nourish- 
ment, teaching  them  to  study,  to  attach  themselves  to 


Serfdom. 


holy  books,  and  to  know  the  law  of  God."  The  Synod 
of  Orleans  (799)  says  :  "  Let  the  priests  in  villages  and 
towns  hold  schools,  in  order  that  all  the  children  en- 
trusted to  them  can  receive  the  first  notion  of  letters. 
Let  them  take  no  money  for  their  lessons"  (Theod., 
cap.  20).  In  859  another  council  declared  :  "  Let  one 
raise  everywhere  public  schools,  that  the  Church  of 
God  may  everywhere  gather  the  double  fruit  of  relig- 
ion" (Cone.  Ling.,  cap.  10).  The  Council  of  Trent 
commands  that  the  children  of  the  poor  have  at  least 
one  master  to  teach  poor  scholars  grammar  gratui- 
tously" (Cone.  Trid.  occ.}.  Charlemagne  had  already 
said  :  "  Let  one  open  schools  to  teach  children  to  read  ; 
let,  in  every  monastery,  in  every  bishopric,  some  one 
teach  psalms,  writing,  arithmetic,  grammar,  and  em- 
ploy correct  copies  of  holy  books  ;  for  often  men  seek- 
ing to  pray  to  God,  pray  badly  on  account  of  the  un- 
faithfulness of  copyists"  (Cap.  Ecc.,  61-66). 

All  these  exhortations,  and  there  were  many  more, 
had  the  effect  of  multiplying  schools.  The  contribu- 
tion of  the  monasteries  to  education  is  well  known. 
An  immense  quantity  of  manuscripts  was  copied. 
Thomas  a  Kempis  said  of  this  copying :  "  Do  not 
trouble  yourself  at  the  fatigue  of  your  work,  for  God, 
who  is  the  source  of  every  good  and  just  labor,  will 
give  the  reward,  according  to  your  efforts,  in  eternity. 
When  you  shall  be  no  more,  those  who  will  read  the 
books  copied  by  you  with  elegance  will  pray  for  you  ; 
and  as  he  who  gives  a  glass  of  cold  water  does  not 
lose  his  reward,  so  he  who  gives  forth  the  living  water 
of  wisdom  will  receive  more  surely  his  recompense  in 
heaven."  All  classes  studied  in  these  monastic  schools, 
so  that  rich  and  poor  were  brought  together  on  the 
field  of  learning.  Nor  were  the  popes  altogether 
wanting  to  the  intellectual  movement. 

Equally  was  the  Church  effective  in  behalf  of  liberty. 
Medieval  serfdom  sprang  from  the  chaos  of  the  times. 
Freed  slaves  found  themselves  unable  to  protect  them- 
selves. They  preferred  to  join  them- 
selves, as  land-slaves,  to  some  master. 
The  small  farmer  found  himself  better 
guarded  from  robbers  by  becoming 
the  serf  of  some  powerful  nobleman. 
Wealthy  patrons  at  Rome  rewarded 
their  faithful  clients  by  bestowing  on  them  parcels  of 
land  in  the  provinces,  where  they  were  attached  as  co- 
loni  to  the  soil.  Again,  the  government  settled  bodies  of 
prisoners  or  immigrants  on  large  districts  of  public^ 
land,  and  made  them  serfs  to  the  soil.  These  coloni 
were  considered  as  free  born,  but  attached  to  the  es- 
tate. They  could  not  marry  nor  teach  their  children 
without  the  consent  of  their  lord,  though  they  could 
become  priests.  They  had  a  little  cottage,  a  little  land, 
pasturage  and  fuel,  and  Rogers  says  (see  SERFS)  rent 
free.  The  estate  could  not  be  sold  without  them,  nor 
they  sold  from  the  estate.  They  paid  no  taxes. 

The  laws  of  Constantine  forbade  the  separation  of 
near  relatives  among  slaves  of  the  soil.  Slavery,  how- 
ever, still  existed.  Up  to  the  twelfth  century  there 
was  an  absolute  power  of  the  master  over  the  life  of 
the  slave.  For  these  and  for  the  serfs  the  Church  did 
much  ;  37  Church  councils  are  reported  to  have  passed 
acts  favorable  to  slaves.  In  305  A.D.  any  master  ill- 
treating  his  slave  was  condemned  ;  in  517  the  mur- 
derer of  a  slave  was  excommunicated  ;  in  549  the  right 
of  asylum  in  a  Christian  church  was  offered  to  the 
runaway,  and  slaves  freed  by  the  Church  were  pro- 
tected ;  in  583  the  ornaments  and  property  of  the 
Church  were  permitted  to  be  sold  for  ransoming  slaves  ; 
in  566  Christians  were  forbidden  to  reduce  free  men  to 
slavery  ;  in  922  no  Christian  was  permitted  to  enslave 
a  fellow-Christian  ;  in  656  any  slave  compelled  to  work 
upon  Sundays  became  free  by  the  fact,  or  if  he  were 
held  over  the  font  for  baptism.  The  decree  of  the 
Council  of  Chalons  (650  A.  D.),  with  44  bishops  in  session, 
ordered  that  no  Christian  slaves  should  be  sold  outside 
the  kingdom  of  Clovis,  with  the  words:  "The  highest 
piety  and  religion  demand  that  Christians  should  be  re- 
moved entirely  from  the  bonds  of  servitude."  One  form 
of  manumission  was  "  For  fear  of  Almighty  God  and  for 
the  cure  of  my  soul  I  liberate  thee,  and  may  the  angel 
of  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ  deem  me  worthy  of  a  place 
among  His  saints."  Another  form  was,  "  I,  in  the  name 
of  God,  thinking  of  the  love  of  God,  or  eternal  retribu- 
tion, ...  do  free  this  slave  from  the 
bonds  of  servitude."  In  the  eleventh 
century,  the  Emperor  Conrad  speaks  of 
the  sale  of  human  beings  as  a  thing  ne- 
farious and  detestable  to  God  and  man 
(Pertz.)  xi.,  38).  In  the  fourteenth  cen- 
tury the  Count  of  Valois,  brother  of  Philip  the  Beautiful, 
freed  the  serfs  of  his  comtt  with  the  words  :  "  As  the 
human  creature  who  has  been  formed  in  the  image  of 
our  Lord  ought  to  be  free  by  natural  right,  ...  let 


Slavery. 


Christianity  and  Social  Reform.         248         Christianity  and  Social  Reform. 


these  men  and  women  be  free.  .  .  ."  In  1256  the  city 
of  Bologna  freed  all  its  serfs,  paying  an  indemnity  to 
their  masters,  closing  the  decree  with  these  remark- 
able words  :  "  The  city  of  Bologna,  which  has  always 
combatted  for  liberty,  remembering  the  past,  and  its 
eyes  fixed  on  the  future,  in  honor  of  our  Savior  Jesus 
Christ  hath  ransomed  all  the  serfs  on  its  territory,  and 
decreeth  that  it  would  not  suffer  there  a  man  not 
free"  {Istoria  di  Bologna,  Girarhacci,  quoted  by 
Laurent  Sugenheim  and  von  Raumer,  vol.  iii.,»p.  168). 
In  Germany,  the  Sachsenspiegel,  or  Mirror,  the  code  of 
the  thirteenth  century,  is  full  of  the  traces  of  the  influ- 
ence of  Christianity  against  slavery.  The  Lord  is  said 
to  have  "  put  rich  and  poor  equally  under  His  love." 
Slavery  is  declared  to  have  its  origin  "  from  unjust 
captivity,"  and,  quoting  the  Bible,  the  law  affirms 
that  man  belongs  to  God  alone,  and  "whoever  holds 
him  as  slave,  sins  against  the  power  of  the  Almighty." 
<  One  of  the  first  Christian  kings  of  Norway,  Knut  the 
Holy,  at  the  end  of  the  eleventh  century  publicly  pro- 
claimed that  slavery  should  be  abolished.  By  1214  it 
had  almost  ceased,  and  by  the  fourteenth  century  there 
are  no  traces  of  it.  In  Sweden,  King  Magnus  Eriksen, 
1335,  made  a  similar  proclamation.  In  England,  as 
upon  the  Continent,  slavery  arose  from  many  causes — 
birth,  captivity,  punishment,  poverty.  Thousands  of 
Britons,  in  the  first  century  after  the  Norman  con- 
quest, sold  themselves  into  thraldom.  Children  were 
sold  by  their  parents.  Bristol  was  the  great  slave 
market,  and  there  might  be  seen  long  trains  of  British 
youths  and  maidens — the  latter  often  received  for  the 
sake  of  selling  their  offspring— all  to  be  sold  either  to 
Ireland  or  to  foreign  countries.  One  authority  says 
that  from  ./Ethelwulf  to  William  I.,  for  230  years,  a 
great  part  of  the  English  peasantry  became  reduced 
to  slavery.  By  the  Doomsday  Book  (1068-71  A.p.), 
the  number  of  male  slaves  in  Sussex  was  9200,  which 
would  make  the  whole  number  about  50,000,  while  the 
freemen  were  only  about  38,000.  In  the  whole  of  Eng- 
land there  seems  to  have  been  25,000  slaves,  89,000 
serfs,  and  110,000  villeins.  There  is  proof  that  slaves 
were  branded  and  yoked  as  cattle. 

Christianity  strove  against  this  evil.  Bishop  Wulf- 
stan,  of  Worcester,  about  1086,  came  yearly  to  Bristol 
and  spent  several  months  preaching  against  the  slave 
trade.  Edward  the  Confessor,  974  A.D., 
said  of  Christian  brotherhood :  "  We 
Slavery  in  have  all  one  heavenly  Father  and  one 
spiritual  mother,  which  is  called  Eccle- 
sfa_that  iSj  God's  church— and  therefore 
are  we  brothers."  St.  Aidan,  of  North- 
umbria,  ransomed  slaves.  Bishop  Wil- 
fred having  received  an  estate  with  250  Christian 
slaves,  emancipated  them.  Laws  were  enacted  in  be- 
half of  the"  slaves,  but  always  on  a  Christian  basis. 
Some  of  these  we  have  seen.  A  female  slave  led  into 
sin  by  her  master,  by  that  act  became  free.  The 
Seven  Years'  Jubilee,  taken  from  the  Jewish  system, 
did  much  to  destroy  slavery  in  England.  Under 
William  I.  the  law  forbade  the  slave  trade.  A  council 
in  London  (1102),  called  by  Anselm,  forbade  absolutely 
the  nefarious  business  of  selling  human  beings  like 
brute  beasts.  The  chivalry  of  the  Middle  Ages  owes 
much,  at  least,  to  Christianity.  The  initiation  of  the 
knight  was  essentially  religious;  his  ideals  were  largely 
so.  His  first  oath  wa's  often  "  to  fortify  and  defend  the 
Christian  religion  to  the  uttermost  of  my  power."  Sim- 
ilarly the  crusades  and  much  of  the  life  of  the  first 
period  of  the  military  orders  like  the  Knights  Templars 
were  largely  influenced  and  formed  by  Christianity, 
and  were  undoubtedly  largely  f9r  good.  The  effect 
of  the  monastic  life  upon  equality  is  noticed  under 
the  article  COMMUNISM.  Christianity  and  the  Church 
did  far  more  for  civil  liberty  than  is  usually  recognized. 
It  should  not  be  forgotten  that  Stephen  Langton,  Arch- 
bishop of  Canterbury,  was  the  main  instrumentality 
in  forcing  from  King  John  the  priceless  Magna  Charta. 
For  the  part  played  by  John  Ball  and  Wycliffe,  "  poor 
priests,'f  see  JOHN  BALL.  The  social  influences  of  Sa- 
vonarola in  Italy,  who  can  estimate  ?  The  democracy  of 
the  Church  certainly  influenced  the  political  move- 
ment. For  the  development  of  this  subject,  see  the 
second  portion  of  this  article.  We  come  now  to 

THE  PERIOD  OF  THE  REFORMATION. 

The  first  social  effect  of  the  Protestant  Reformation, 
•with  its  emphasis  upon  the  right  of  private  judgment, 
salvation  by  personal  faith,  the  worth  of  the  individ- 
ual soul,  was  the  outbreak  of  a  struggle  for  social 
freedom.  In  this  struggle  Germany  took  the  lead  (see 
PEASANTS'  REVOLT).  Many  associations  among  the 
peasants  were  formed.  One  is  spoken  of  on  the  Upper 
Rhine,  which  had  a  banner  with  a  picture  of  Christ 


crucified,  before  whom  knelt  a  serf  with  the  legend, 
"  Nothing  but  God's  justice."  The  Swabian  peasants, 
in  the  insurrection  of  1525,  said  :  "  It  hath  been  the  cus- 
tom till  now  to  hold  us  for  serfs,  which  is  a  pity,  see- 
ing that  Christ  hath  bought  us  and  redeemed  us  with 
His  blood  ;"  and,  "  It  is  found  in  the  Holy  Writ  that  we 
are  free,  and  we  .  .  .  desire  to  be  free.  .  .  .  We 
would  have  God  as  our  Lord,  and  know  our  brother  in 
our  neighbor."  The  fourth  article  claims  on  re- 
ligious grounds  the  use  of  wild  game 
and  wood  from  the  forests.  In  con- 
clusion say  the  peasants,  "If  any  of  T,,  r ,,_._. 
these  articles  are  opposed  to  Holy  Writ,  ln  «ermany' 
and  this  can  be  proven  to  us,  we  will 
give  them  up.  The  peace  of  Christ  be 
with  us  all."  The  peasants  on  the  Neckar  claimed  un- 
der the  emperor  an  absolute  equality  for  all  men. 
"  All  worldly  lords  are  to  be  reformed,  so  that  the 
poor  cannot  be  burdened  by  them  beyond  the  rules 
of  Christian  freedom  ;  the  same  law  is  to  be  for  the 
highest  and  lowest."  "  All  cities  and  parishes  are  to  be 
reformed  in  divine  and  natural  rights,  after  the  prin- 
ciples of  Christian  freedom"  (see  also  ANABAPTISTS  ; 
CHRISTIAN  COMMUNISM,  etc.).  Such  was  the  first 
social  result  of  the  Reformation.  But  it  did  not  en- 
dure. The  leaders  of  Protestantism  soon  became  too 
much  engaged  in  the  discussion  of  doctrines  to  lay 
great  stress  upon  social  rights.  Protestantism  be- 
came engrossed  in  "other  worldliness."  It  is  not  to  be 
denied  that  the  preaching  of  the  right  of  private  judg- 
ment and  the  value  of  the  individual  had  far-spread  ing- 
social  and  political  influence.  John  Fiske  says  of  Cal- 
vin, for  example:  "The  spiritual  father  of  Coligny,  of 
William  the  Silent,  and  of  Cromwell  must  occupy  a 
foremost  rank  among  the  champions  of  modern  de- 
mocracy." Liberty  owes  indeed  a  great  debt  to  Prot- 
estantis'm,  however  much  Protestants  hung  and  burn- 
ed and  tortured  those  who  did  not  believe  with  them 
according  to  the  spirit  of  the  times.  Plymouth  Rock 
is  a  truer  outcome  of  Protestantism  than  the  persecu- 
tion of  the  Salem  witches.  In  the  words  of  Cromwell, 
"They  that  trusted  God  for  the  liberty  of  conscience 
could  venture  life  for  the  liberty  of  country."  Prot- 
estantism against  Romanism  meant  to  Protestants, 
very  largely,  liberty  against  absolutism.  Never- 
theless, Protestantism  soon  turned  against  the  com- 
mon people.  Luther  was  against  the  German  peas- 
ants. Others  than  Milton  found  that  "  new  presby- 
ter was  but  old  priest  writ  large."  Protestantism 
has  stood  for  political  liberty,  but  not  for  social  re- 
form. What  Christianity  accomplished  for  social  re- 
form up  to  the  Reformation  was  accomplished  large- 
ly through  the  Church.  Since  then  it  has  been  mainly 
through  individuals,  in  spite  of  the  Church.  The 
Reformation  produced  in  the  Church  of  Rome,  it  is 
true,  somewhat  of  a  counter  reformation,  yet  the  ef- 
fect upon  her,  as  upon  the  Protestant  mind,  was  mainly 
doctrinal,  and  the  Church,  both  Protestant  and  Roman, 
largely  forgot  to  apply  its  Christianity.  The  opening 
of  the  new  world,  and  especially  of  the  gold  mines  of 
the  new  world,  produced  a  revival  of  greed  and  of 
mammon  worship,  and  led  to  the  horrors  of  a  modern 
slave  traffic,  that  has  endured  400  years.  The  first 
considerable  cargo  of  slaves  seems  to  have  been 
brought  in  1444,  under  Prince  Henry  of  Portugal, 
by  a  Portuguese  captain  from  the  coast  of  Guinea. 
Charles  V.  granted  in  1517  a  monopoly 
to  Governor  de  Bresa  to  import  4000 
negroes  during  eight  years  into  the 
Spanish  colonies,  but  in  1542  the  monop- 
oly covered  23,000  slaves.  In  1700  a 
Spanish  treaty  with  a  Portuguese  com- 
pany of  Guinea  stipulated  to  furnish  10,000  tons  of 
negroes.  The  treatv  of  Utrecht  (1713)  gave  Great 
Britain  a  monopoly  in  the  slave  trade  for  30  years, 
from  1713-43,  and  during  this  period  the  British 
Government  agreed  to  import  144,000  negroes  of  both 
sexes  into  Spanish  America  at  33%  piasters  per  head. 
The  British  slave  trade  began  under  Queen  Elizabeth. 
Certain  statutes  of  William  declared  that  "the  trade 
was  highly  beneficial  and  advantageous  to  the  king- 
dom, and  to  the  plantations  and  colonies  thereunto  be- 
longing." Between  1752  and  1762,  it  is  estimated  that  71,- 
115  slaves  were  imported  into  Jamaica  alone.  During 
two  centuries  the  Spanish  Government  concluded  more 
than  10  treaties  "  in  the  name  of  the  most  Holy  Trini- 
ty," which  authorized  the  sale  of  more  than  500,000  hu- 
man beings.  The  first  ship  which  sailed  from  Eng- 
land in  1562,  under  Sir  John  Hawkins,  to  buy  slaves  in 
Africa  and  sell  them  in  the  West  Indies,  bore  the  name 
of  Jesus.  In  1807  Lord  Eldon  said  in  Parliament :  "  It 
[the  slave  trade]  has  been  sanctioned  by  Parliament, 
wherein  sat  jurisconsults  the  most  wise,  theologians 
the  most  enlightened,  statesmen  the  most  eminent," 


Slavery. 


Christianity  and  Social  Reform.         249         Christianity  and  Social  Reform. 


Bancroft  estimates  that  for  one  century  previous  to 
1776,  3,250,000  negroes  were  torn  from  Africa  by  Great 
Britain  alone,  of  whom  250,000  perished  in  the  Atlantic 
from  the  horrors  of  the  "  middle  passage,"  where  they 
were  chained  between  decks  so  low  that  they  could  not 
stand  up,  the  living  often  chained  to  the  dead.  Helps 
estimates  that  from  1519-1807,  between  five  and  six  mil- 
lions of  negroes  were  carried  from  Africa  by  various 
European  powers  to  America  as  slaves.  The  American 
colonies  protested  against  it,  Oglethorpe,  the  great 
founder  of  Georgia,  declaring  that  they  prohibited  it  in 
that  colony  "  because  it  is  against  the  Gospel,  as  well 
as  against  the  fundamental  law  of  England."  Within 
two  years,  however,  the  inhabitants  petitioned  for 
slaves.  Protestantism  and  Romanism  have  thus  the 
terrible  stain  to  bear  of  the  approval  of  slavery.  Yet 
it  should  not  be  forgotten  that  it  was 
mainly  Christian  thought  that  finally 
The  Anti-  broke  up  the  slave  traffic  and  slavery  it- 
Slavprv  sel^'  '^ne  Society  of  Friends  or  Qua- 


kers,  both  in  England  and  America,  was 

Movement,  the  first  modern  body  of  Christians  to 
denounce  and  oppose  slavery.  As  early 
as  1675  the  devoted  missionary,  John 
Eliot,  in  Massachusetts,  spoke  against  slavery,  and  in 
1701  a  petition  against  slavery  was  presented  to  the  rep- 
resentatives of  Boston.  Among  the  Friends  who  opposed 
it  in  the  eighteenth  century  should  be  mentioned  Bene- 
zet  and  John  Woolman.  The  great  divines  Wesley  and 
Whitefield  preached  against  it.  Dr.  Hopkins,  a  Con- 
gregational clergyman  of  Rhode  Island,  distinguished 
himself  by  his  efforts  against  it,  till  in  1774  Rhode 
Island  gave  up  the  traffic,  and  in  1784  abolished  sla- 
very. The  Society  of  Friends  was,  however,  the  only 
religious  body  which  as  a  whole  forbade  the  holding  of 
slaves.  The  early  abolition  societies  all  took  religious 
ground.  "Nearly  all,"  says  Wilson,  the  historian  of 
the  slave  power  (vol.  i.,  p.  230),  "  who  engaged  in  the 
formation  of  anti-slavery  societies  were  members  of 
Christian  churches."  In  Great  Britain  the  opposition 
to  slavery  came  equally  from  Christian  men,  notably 
Baxter,  Bishop  Warburton,  Paley,  Wesley,  Bishop 
Porteus,  Whitefield,  and  others.  The  first  p'etition  to 
Parliament  against  the  slave  trade  (in  1776)  was  based 
on  the  religious  ground  "that  the  slave  trade  is  con- 
trary to  the  laws  of  God  and  the  rights  of  man."  The 
slave  trade  was  abolished  in  the  British  Empire,  1806-7. 
The  United  States  had  included  their  judgment  on 
the  slave  trade  in  the  Constitution,  but  adjourned  the 
final  abolition  till  1807.  In  England  religious  sen- 
timent rose  till  in  1833  England  abolished  slavery, 
paying  .£20,000,000  to  the  planters  as  indemnity.  In 
the  United  States,  early  Church  conferences  denounced 
slavery.  The  Presbyterian  Synod  in  1787  "recom- 
mended to  all  their  people  to  use  the  most  prudent 
measures,  consistent  with  the  interests  and  state  of 
civil  society  in  the  countries  where  they  live,  to 
procure  eventually  the  final  abolition  of  slavery  in 
America."  In  1818  it  pronounced  slavery  "utterly  in- 
consistent with  the  law  of  God  .  .  .  and  totally  irrec- 
oncilable with  the  spirit  and  principles  of  Christ." 
Congregationalists  and  Unitarians  went  even  further. 
The  Methodist  Episcopal  Church  in  1780  plainly  con- 
demned the  system  of  human  bondage.  In  1800  the 
annual  conference  was  directed  to  prepare  an  ad- 
dress favoring  gradual  emancipation.  But  the  words 
were  finally  removed,  and  this  was  added,  "  Let  all  our 
preachers  from  time  to  time,  as  occasion  serves,  ad- 
monish and  exhort  all  slaves  to  render  due  respect  and 
obedience  to  the  commands  and  interests  of  their  re- 
spective masters." 

But  the  conflict  was  as  irrepressible  in  the  Methodist 

Church  as  it  afterward  proved  to  be  in  the  nation.    At 

the  General  Conference  of  1844,  which  was  held  in  the 

city  of  New  York,  the  contention  took 

an  extremely  angry  form.    It  centered 

The  lire-  upon  the  personal  relations  of  one  of  the 
nressible  bishops  of  the  Church  (Andrew),  who 
•^  had  come  into  the  possession  of  slaves 

Conflict.  by  a  marriage  which  was  contracted 
after  he  entered  the  episcopate.  It  was 
his  wish  and  intention  to  resign,  but  he 
was  overruled  by  the  Southern  delegates.  They  final- 
ly called  a  convention  of  delegates  from  the  Southern 
conferences,  which  met  at  Louisville,  Ky.,  in  1845. 
This  body  took  formal  action,  separating  itself  from 
the  Northern  churches. 

By  this  secession  the  Methodist  Episcopal  Church 
lost  1345  traveling  and  3166  local  preachers  and  495,288 
members.  Many" discerning  minds  regarded  this  ac- 
tion as  prophetic  of  the  same  results  in  the  organic 
life  of  the  nation. 

But  it  was  true  nevertheless  that  from  1830  to  1850 the 
churches  as  a  whole  were  subservient  to  the  slave 


power.  Dr.  Albert  Barnes  said,  "  There  is  no  power 
out  of  the  church  that  could  sustain  slavery  an  hour  if 
it  were  not  sustained  in  it."  Judge  Birney  called 
"the  American  churches  the  bulwarks  of  American 
slavery."  Yet  were  there  individual  churches  and 
clergymen  not  a  few  that  battled  for  abolition.  The 
clergyman  Lovejoy  was  killed  for  advocating  aboli- 
tion. Garrison  and  Phillips  were  strong  in  Christian 
sentiment.  At  one  meeting  in  Illinois,  more  than  30 
clergymen  attended  and  opposed  the  introduction  of 
slavery  into  that  State.  During  the  struggle  in  1823, 
which  prevented  Illinois  from  becoming  a  slave  State, 
the  clergymen  were  almost  as  one  man  against  slavery. 
But  whatever  the  position  of  the  churches,  it  is  not  too 
much  to  say  that  Christianity  put  down  slavery. 

For  the  other  social  effects  of  modern  Christianity, 
see  CHURCH  AND  SOCIAL  REFORM  ;  but  Christianity,  if 
not  the  church  (q.v.\  has  had  at  least  its  part  to  play 
in  the  gradual  emancipation  of  woman,  in  the  condem- 
nation cf  war,  the  favoring  of  arbitration,  in  the  care 
of  the  wounded  in  war,  the  condemnation  of  dueling, 
in  prison  reform,  in  the  creation  of  hospitals  and  char- 
ities of  every  kind,  and  in  temperance  reform. 

II.  CHRISTIAN  SOCIOLOGY. 

The  first  note  of  Christianity  in  relation  to  so- 
ciety is  that  it  is  world-wide  and  international. 
It  knows  "neither  Greek  nor  Jew,  circumci- 
sion nor  uncircumcision,  barbarian, 
Scythian,  bond  nor  free,  but  Christ 
all  and  in  all."  It  taught  Peter  to  World-wide. 
call  no  man  common  or  unclean, 
but  "  that  God  is  no  respecter  of 
persons,  but  that  in  every  nation  he  that  feareth 
Him  and  worketh  righteousness  is  accepted  with 
Him"  (Acts  x.  34).  It  led  Paul,  once  a_Pharisee 
of  the  Pharisees,  to  write  to  the  Ephesians, 
"  Now,  therefore,  ye  are  no  more  strangers  and 
foreigners,  but  fellow-citizens  with  the  saints, 
and  of  the  household  of  God"  (Eph.  ii.  19). 
It  taught  the  Christian  Church  the  unity  of 
the  faith — "  One  Lord,  one  faith,  one  bap- 
tism, one  God  and  Father  of  all,  who  is  above  all 
and  through  all,  and  in  you  all"  (Eph.  iv.  5,  6). 
One  Lord  Jesus  Christ,  "  of  whom  the  whole 
family  in  heaven  and  earth  is  named"  (Eph. 
iii.  15).  Hence  Christians  of  every  age,  however 
they  have  explained  it,  have  believed  in  "the 
holy  Catholic  Church,"  "  the  communion  (liter- 
ally the  communism,  aoivuvia)  of  the  saints," 
the  unity  of  believers,  the  kingdom  of  God. 
Thus  Christianity,  at  least  till  the  Protestant 
Reformation,  in  Catholic  countries,  and  even 
under  Protestant  denominationalism,  in  a  deep- 
er-lying unity,  has  ever  stood  for  the  unity  of 
man  in  Christ.  Says  Bishop  Barry  : 

"The  Catholic  [not  Roman]  Church  is  a  universal  so- 
ciety, which  knows  no  distinction  of  age  and  physical 
circumstance,  no  distinction  of  peoples,  nations,  and 
languages.  It  is  no  castle  in  the  air,  no  mere  promise 
of  a  future  heaven.  It  is  a  living  reality  now,  ob- 
viously the  one,  ever-growing  international  society  ; 
already  realizing  by  its  Bible  read  and  its  Christian 
worship  offered  in  some  200  languages,  the  sign  of 
Pentecost,  and  always  advancing  toward  its  future 
heritage  of  the  world  of  humanity.  This  great  unity 
.  .  .  underlies  all  special,  local,  temporary  character- 
istics ;  its  communion  is  a  communion  of  saints  ;  its  one 
universal  tie  is  the  indwelling  of  the  Spirit  of  God  ; .  .  . 
its  means  and  pledges  of  unity  are  the  sacraments  of 
communion  with  Him"  (Lectures  on  Christianity 
and  Socialism,  p.  13).  Canon  Fremantle's  Bampton 
Lectures  (1883)  bring  out  still  more  plainly  the  unity 
of  the  Church  "as  a  moral  and  social  power,  present, 
universal,  capable  of  transforming  the  whole  life  of 
mankind,  and  destined  to  accomplish  this  purpose." 
The  Church  he  calls  "the  social  state  in  which  the 
spirit  of  Christ  reignSj  embracing  the  general  life  and 
society  of  men,  and  identifying  itself  with  these  as 
much  as  possible,  as  having  for  its  object  to  imbue  all 
human  relations  with  the  spirit  of  Christ's  self-re- 
nouncing love,  and  thus  to  change  the  world  into  a 
kingdom  of  God." 


Christianity  and  Social  Reform.         250        Christianity  and  Social  Reform. 


This  makes  the  field  of  Christianity  the  world, 
and  identifies  with  the  coming  of  God's  king- 
dom any  advance  in  unity  and  in  love.  Says 
Canon  Fremantle  :  "All  goodness 
is  essentially  one,  and  therefore  es- 

Its  Field     sen  tially  Christian. "  The  coming  of 

all  Life,  love  in  all  human  relations  is  thus 
the  coming  of  God's  kingdom.  The 
Jewish  Church  Canon  Fremantle 
therefore  calls  a  training  in  national  righteous- 
ness. The  early  Christian  Church  he  considers 
the  beginnings  of  the  universal  society.  The 
imperial  and  medieval  Church  a  united  Christen- 
dom attempted.  The  medieval  theory  of  Chris- 
tendom he  thus  states  :  ' '  Christendom  forms  one 
great  whole,  in  which  there  are  two  chief  func- 
tionaries, the  Pope  and  the  Emperor,  each  in  a 
different  way  its  head.  Each  power  is  instituted 
by  God.  The  one  is  to  rule  over  man  bodily, 
the  other  over  his  spiritual  interests.  Both 
spring  from  the  old  Roman  Empire,  which,  hav- 
ing become  Christian,  was  at  once  empire  and 
Church.  The  two  powers  must  support  each 
other,  both  mutually  necessary.  The  Em- 
peror sanctions  the  Pope's  election,  the  Pope 
crowns  the  Emperor  ;  the  Emperor  protects  the 
Pope  and  the  clergy  and  the  spiritual  courts, 
and  these  in  return  support  the  authority  of  the 
Emperor  over  his  subjects.  This  theory,"  says 
Canon  Fremantle,  "though  it  did  not  wholly 
correspond  to  the  facts,  had  much  in  it,  consid- 
ered as  an  ideal,  which  was  sound."  It  ex- 
plains much  of  the  crusades,  is  the  key  to  Dante's 
De  Monarchia,  gives  rise  to  both  a  Frederick 
Barbarossa  and  a  Hildebrand.  It  gave  to  the 
world  an  Alfred  the  Great,  a  St.  Louis,  a  Savona- 
rola. The  Reformation  was  largely  a  reaction 
toward  individualism,  but  still  it  was  full  of 
efforts  toward  a  Christianized  society  ;  and  in 
England  especially  toward  a  Christian  national- 
ism. 

Christianity  to-day  is  drawing  together  the 
lines  of  Christendom.  Canon  Fremantle  sees 
its  unity  and  universality  in  (i)  public  worship, 
not  as  a  separate  cult,  but  as  seeking  to  raise 
the  tone  of  the  general  life  ;  (2)  the  family,  the 
social  unit ;  (3)  knowledge,  the  education  of  all  ; 
(4)  art,  which  must  be  national  and  popular,  to 
gladden,  not  individuals,  but  mankind  ;  (5)  so- 
ciety, which  must  acknowledge  its  stewardship  ; 
(6)  trade,  which  must  learn  cooperation  ;  (7)  the 
nation,  the  constitutional  and  organic  form  of 
the  Christian  spirit ;  (8)  the  universal  Church  or 
universal  State,  to  be  attained  through  arbitra- 
tion, international  law,  international  congresses, 
and  federation.  Into  all  these  channels  the 
spirit  of  Christianity  is  more  and  more  being 
poured.  This  is  Christianity  leading  to  inter- 
national socialism. 

But,  more  definitely,  what  does  Christianity  teach  as 
to  social  reform  ? 

First,  that  humanity  is  to  come  into    a   unity  of 
brotherly  love,  not  by  building  up  some  new  scheme 
of  universal  brotherhood,  but  by  the  recognition  that 
mankind  is  to-day  a  unit  in  the  common 
Fatherhood  of  God,  and  may  through 
The  Christ  enter  into  united  life.    It  denies 

•RrntharVinnd  that  society  can  be  "made  anew  by  ar- 
*  w  rangements  ;"  it  believes  that  it  is  to  be 

01  Man.       regenerated  "  by  finding    the  law    and 
ground  of   its  order  and   harmony  the 
only  secret  of    its    existence    in    God" 
(Maurice).    This  is  the  first  social  message  of  Chris- 
tianity— "Return  to    God."      Carlyle    saw    the    need 
when  he  wrote  :  "  The  beginning  and  the  end  of  what 


is  the  matter  with  us  in  these  days  is  that  we  have  for- 
gotten God."  Mazzini  saw  it  when  he  wrote  to  the 
working  men  of  the  world,  "  The  source  of  your  duties 
is  in  God,"  and  contended  that  agitation  conducted  in 
the  name  of  the  rights  of  man  had  brought  in  up  to  the 
present  day  simply  an  increase  of  selfishness  and  in- 
dividual competition.  When  we  accept  God,  we  have 
the  basis  and  possibility  of  union.  "  There  can  be  no 
brotherhood  without  a  common  father,"  wrote  Mau- 
rice. "  From  that  time  began  Jesus  Christ  to  preach 
and  to  say,  Repent,  for  the  kingdom  of  heaven  is  at 
hand."  To  return  to  God  is  the  first  step  in  Christian 
sociology. 

Second,  Christianity  declares  that  to  do  this  Christ  is 
the  Way.  "  I  am  the  Way,  l.he  Truth,  and  the  Life  ;  no 
man  cometh  unto  the  Father  but  by  me."  This  is  the 
second  sociologic  position  of  Christian- 


ity, that  Christ  is  the  elder  Brother,  the 
Way,  the  leader  into  brotherhood. 
This,  as  we  have  already  seen,  Christ 
came  to  be— the  -fulfiller  of  the  law. 


Christ 
the  Way. 


He  is  the  King  made  manifest,  the  King 
in  man,  the  King  on  earth,  the  head  of 
the  body.  The  way  to  realize  human  brotherhood 
and  unity  is  not  alone  to  discuss  Christ's  divinity,  but 
to  accept  His  mastership,  to  become  His  follower,  to 
join  His  kingdom.  This  is  to  be  a  Christian.  Men 
realize  this  in  personal  salvation  ;  but  it  is  equally  to 
be  realized  in  social  salvation.  For  Christians  He  is 
"  the  Man,"  and  He  must  be  the  solution  of  all  human 
problems.  That  is  the  primal  creed.  Not  only  is  He, 
as  the  "  Man  of  Sorrows,"  the  Brother  and  Comforter 
of  all  who  are  weary  and  heavy  laden  ;  not  only  are 
the  poor  His  peculiar  charge  and  treasure,  but  more 
than  that :  He  is  Himself,  in  His  risen  and  ascended 
royalty,  the  sum  of  all  human  endeavor,  the  interpre- 
tation of  all  human  history,  the  goal  of  all  human 
growth,  the  bond  of  all  human  brotherhood.  It  is  in 
this  character  that  He  has  been  kept  so  little  in  practi- 
cal mind ;  it  is  this  office  of  His  which  is  reserved 
to  such  an  obscure  and  ineffectual  background.  His 
living  Headship,  as  the  Second  Adam  raised  to  the 
right  hand  of  power,  as  the  perfect  Son  of  Man,  this 
has  not  been  brought  to  bear,  with  energy  and  con- 
fidence, upon  the  actual  society  which  He,  in  this  lord- 
ship sealed  to  Him,  necessarily  claims  as  His  own. 
It  is  this  extension  of  the  fruits  of  the  Passion  over 
the  entire  surface  of  human  life  which  Christian  sociol- 
ogy emphasizes.  The  whole  of  human  nature  is  to  be 
brought  within  the  sway  of  the  "  New  Man."  And 
human  nature  is  corporate  ;  "  man  is  a  social  animal." 
The  natural  bonds  which  hold  together  men  into  so- 
cieties and  races  must,  of  necessity,  receive  the  new 
inflowing  force  which  comes  to  them  out  of  the  suprem- 
acy of  Him  who  gathers  all  men  unto  Himself. 

Third,  it  is  a  spiritual  way.     "  Ye  must  be  born 
again"  is  true  of  society  as  well  as  of  individuals,  the 
third  point  in  Christian  sociology.      A  nation's   life 
must  be  from  the  spiritual  to  the  ma- 
terial, from  the  inner  to  the  outer,  .till 
all  be  spiritual.    Not  by  law  material  A  Spiritual 
but  by  law  spiritual  does  God's  king-         Way 
dom  come.    This  does  not  mean  that  we  »' 

are  only  to  build  up  God's  kingdom  by 
spiritualizing  individuals  alone.    It  was 
not  Christ's  method  (see  article  CHRIST  AND  SOCIAL 
REFORM).    We  must  spiritualize  all  life— the  body,  the 
city,  State,  the  nation.    This  is  the  distinctive  function 
of  the  Church.  The  national  Church  should  be  the  soul 
of  the  nation,  into  which  and  through  which  God's 
Spirit  may  come  to  the  nation. 

Fourth,  if  Christian  sociology  consists  in  society's 
obeying,  through  spiritual  life,  the  social  law  of  Christ, 
we  must  know  that  law.  It  is  simple. 

"Then  one  of  them,  which  was  a  law- 
yer, asked   Him  a  question,  tempting    Tv     goc;ai 
Him,  and  saying, 

"  Master,  which  is  the  great  command-          .Law. 
ment  in  the  law  ? 

"  Jesus  said  unto  him,  Thou  shalt  love 
the  Lord  thy  God  with  all  thy  heart,  and  with  all  thy 
soul,  and  with  all  thy  mind. 

"This  is  the  first  and  great  commandment. 

"And  the  second  is  like  unto  it,  Thou  shalt  love 
thy  neighbor  as  thyself. 

"  On  these  two  commandments  hang  all  the  law  and 
the  prophets"  (Matt.  xxii.  34-40). 

Says  Professor  Ely  :  "This  is  a  most  remarkable,  and 
at  the  same  time  a  most  daring  summary  of  the  whole 
duty  of  man.  A  human  teacher  would  never  have 
ventured  to  reduce  all  God's  commandments  to  two 
simple  statements  ;  nor  would  such  a  teacher  have  pre- 
sumed to  exalt  man's  obligation  to  love  and  serve  his 
fellows  to  an  equal  plane  with  his  obligations  to  love  his 


Christianity  and  Social  Reform.         251 


Christian  Socialism. 


Creator.  All  false  systems  of  religion  exalt  the  love  of 
God  above  the  love  due  pur  fellow-men,  and  tell  us  that 
we  may  serve  God  by  injuring  our  fellows.  How  many 
millions  of  human  beings  have  thought  that  they  did 
God  service  by  human  sacrifice  !  'Not  only  is  this  true, 
but  it  is  furthermore  true  that,  in  proportion  as  be- 
lievers in  the  true  religion  depart  from  the  mind  which 
•was  in  Jesus  Christ,  they  neglect  the  second  command- 
ment. Thus,  when  Christ  dwelt  on  earth,  He  found 
men  excusing  themselves  from  duty  to  their  fellows  on 
the  plea  of  higher  obligation  to  Deity. 

"The  second  commandment,  which  is  like  the  first, 
means  that  in  every  act  and  thought  .nd  purpose,  in 
our  laws  and  in  their  administration,  in  all  public  as 
well  as  private  affairs,  we — if  indeed  we  profess  to  be 
Christians— should  seek  to  confer  true  benefits  upon 
our  fellow-men.  It  means  that  the  man  who  professes 
to  love  God  and  who  attempts  to  deceive  others  in  re- 
gard to  the  real  value  of  railway  stock,  or,  for  that 
matter,  any  other  property,  that  he  may  coax  their 
money  into  his  pockets,  is  a  hypocrite  and  a  liar.  It 
means  that  the  man  who  oppresses  the  hireling  in  his 
wages  is  no  Christian,  but  a  pagan,  whatever  may  be 
his  declarations  to  the  contrary  notwithstanding. 
What  does  God  say  of  such  an  one  ?  He  says  :  '  I  will 
be  a  swift  witness  against  those  that  oppress  the  hire- 
ling in  his  wages.'  What  does  His  second  command- 
ment mean  for  those  rich  men  who  keep  back  the  hire 
of  their  laborers  ?  It  means  that  they  '  must  '  weep 
and  howl  '  for  the  miseries  that  shall  come  upon  them.' 
And  what  does  this  message  mean  for  monopolists  who 
use  their  superior  advantages  of  wealth  or  intellect,  or 
bodily  strength  or  other  resources,  to  crowd  out  and 
grind  down  their  fellows  according  to  the  methods  of 
modern  commercial  competition?  The  prophet  Isaiah 
shall  tell  us  :  '  Woe  unto  them  that  join  house  to  .house, 
that  lay  field  to  field,  till  there  be  no  place,  that  they 
maybe  placed  alone  in  the  midst  of  the  earth.' 

"  It  is  needless  to  enlarge  upon  this.  It  must  be  seen 
that  the  arrangements  of  this  world  are  not  in  accord 
with  the  commandment  given  to  love  our  neighbors  as 
ourselves." 

Fifth,  the  interpretation  of  this  is  the  Cross.    The 
Cross  cannot  be  removed  from  Christian  sociology. 
There  can  be  no  obeying  Christ  without 
sacrifice.     Via    cruets,    via    lucis.      "If 
The  Cross     an^  man  will  come  after  Me,  let  him 
deny  himself  and  take  up  his  cross  and 
follow  Me."    This  is  the  fifth  point  in 
Christian  sociology.    It  is  the  only  way 
to  fulfil  love.    Love  is  the  leaving  of  self,  the  living-  in 
others.    Love  and  life  and  sacrifice  are  one.     It  is  thus 
indeed  that  we  most  truly  gain.     But  if  we  love  and 
deny  ourselves  for  the  sake  of  gain,,  we  do  not  love. 
"  Whosoever  shall  seek  to  save  his  life  shall  lose  it." 
Christian  sociology  is  finding  one's  true  individuality 
in  losing  it  in  the  life  of  all.    Therefore,  luxurious 
bishops  and  priests  and  ministers  cannot  teach  Chris- 
tian sociology,  for  their  lives  give  the  lie  to  their  words. 
We  must  become  poor,  if  we  would  make  the  many  rich. 
Sixth,  we  come  to  more  detailed  questions.    They 
can  only  be  answered  by  those  who  have  long  passed 
the  merely  sentimental  assertion  that 
Christ  is  all  in  all.  and  have  set  them- 
selves to  the  solid  task  of  discovering 
1  what  that  solemn  truth  really  and  pre- 
cisely means,  and  have  worked  it  down 
into  the  concrete  facts,  and  have  sur- 
veyed and  estimated  the  full  need  of  the  circumstances, 
and  striven  to  make  clear  to  themselves  what  is  the 
first  step,  and  what  the  second,  and  the  third,  if  that 
great  royalty  of  Christ  is,  in  very  deed,  ever  to  be 
made  good  here  on  earth,  amid  men  as  they  are,  and 
after  a  history  such  as  they  have  hitherto  had. 

(a)  Christianity  must  demand  in  some  form  the 
opening  of  all  the  earth,  including  all  natural  advan- 
tages, to  all  God's  children  equally.  How  may  be  a 
question  of  political  and  economic  method  (see  LAND), 
but  in  some  form  it  must  be  accomplished.  Equity, 
brotherhood,  and  the  declaration  of  Christ  demand  it. 
That  private  property  in  land  was  forbidden,  and 
every  Jew  entitled  to  the  use  of  land  by  the  Jewish 
theocracy,  is  undisputable  ;  that  Christ  came  to  fulfil 
the  law  and  the  prophets  can  no  more  be  denied.  That 
we  must  follow  their  method  is  not  certain,  but  that  in 
some  way  Christianity  must  bring  to  the  world  what 
Judaism  required  of  the  Jew  can  be  denied  by  no 
Christian. 

(h)  Christianity  demands  that  love  and  not  competi- 
tion be  the  law  of  trade.  The  golden  rule  must  be  made 
the  rule  for  gold.  "Competition,"  said  Maurice,  "is 
put  forth  as  the  law  of  the  universe.  This  is  a  lie. 
The  time  -is  come  to  declare  it  is  a  lie  by  word  and 
deed."  This  means  that  in  some  form  Christianity  ira- 


It  is  Definite. ' 


plies  socialism  (q.  v.\  Said  Laveleye  :  "  Every  Christian 
who  understands  and  earnestly  accepts  the  teachings 
of  his  Master  is  at  heart  a  socialist ;  and  any  Christian 
who  opposes  what  is  commonly  known  as  Christian 
Socialism  misunderstands  Christ,  or  socialism,  or  both." 
The  inference  is  not,  of  course,  that  Christianity  must 
be  committed  to  State  socialism,  but  society  to  be 
Christian  must  in  all  ways  conform  to  the  law  of  co- 
operation. 

(c)  Christianity  demands   that    every  man  able  to 
work  should  work.     Not  otherwise  can  he  follow  the 
Carpenter  of  Nazareth.     "  If  any  man 

would  not  work,  neither  should  he  eat"  is 

the  injunction  of   well-nigh  the  oldest  TV..  T__  A* 

Christian  epistle. 

(d)  It  follows  from  this  and  from  the        Labor. 
whole  spirit  of  .Christianity  that  we  are 

not  to  live  upon  the  work  of  others  by 

usury.    (For  the  detail  of  this  argument,  see  USURY.) 

(e)  Christianity  demands  the  enthronement  of   the 
family,  in  the  abiding  unity  in  love  of  one  man  and  one 
woman.     "  And  I  say  unto  you,  whoso- 
ever shall  put  away  his  wife,  except  it 

be    for    fornication,    and    shall    marry  mi,e  Family 

another,     committeth    adultery  ;     and  *' 

•whoso  marrieth  her  which  is  put  away, 

doth  commit  adultery."    These  words 

of  Christ,  with  all  they  imply,   are  fundamental  to 

Christian  sociology  (see  FAMILY). 

(/)  Lastly,  Christian  sociology  demands  that,  the 
Christian  go  into  the  details  of  all  political,  social,  and 
industrial  life  of  every  kind,  and  bring  them  into 
subjection  to  Christ.  Only  so  shall  we  be  His  disciples. 
"  Not  every  one  that  saith  unto  Me,  Lord,  Lord,  shall 
enter  into  the  kingdom,  but  he  that  doeth  the  will  of 
my  Father,  which  is  in  heaven." 

Into  all  these  details  Christ's  spoken  ordinances  do 
not  go.  Christianity  is  not  a  system  of  ordinances. 
But  it  is  a  life,  and  into  these  details  the  Christian  life 
must  go.  (For  different  views,  see  CHRIST  AND  SO- 
CIAL REFORM.) 

References :  Among  the  best  books  are  C.  L.  Brace's 
Gesta  Christi  ;  N.  C.  Koun's  Arius  the  Libyan  ; 
Canon  Freman tie's  The  World  as  the  Subject  oj 'Redemp- 
tion ,•  R.  T.  Ely's  Social  Aspects  of  Christianity ;  F.  D. 
Maurice's  Social  Morality  ;  P.  \V.  Sprague's  Christian 
Socialism:  Tolstoi's  My  Religion  SLn&What  to  Do : 
Bishop  Westcott's  Social  Aspects  of  Christianity  ;  Can- 
non Farrar's  Social  and  Present  Day  Questions  ;  G.  D. 
Herron's  The  Christian  Society  ;  J.  H.W.Stuckenberg's 
Christian  Sociology ;  S.  D.  Headlam's  Lessons  from  the 
Cross  and  the  Laws  of  Eternal  Life.  (See  also  THE 
CHURCH  AND  SOCIAL  REFORM.) 

'  CHRISTIAN  SOCIALISM  is  a  term  first 
used  by  the  little  band  of  men — clergymen  and 
laymen — that  gathered  round  the  Rev.  Fred- 
erick Denison  Maurice  in  1848.  It  was  used  by 
them  to  express  their  position  that  socialism  was 
really  but  a  development,  an  outcome  of  Chris- 
tianity, and  that  to  be  effective  and  true  it  must  be 
grounded  on  a  definite  Christian  basis.  What 
they  meant  by  it  in  more  detail  we  shall  see 
later  on.  It  must,  however,  be  pointed  out  here 
that  since  that  date  the  phrase  has  been  used 
in  different  and  very  loose  and  sometimes  mis- 
leading senses.  It  has  been  and  is  to-day  used 
by  some  for  any  application  or  attempt  at  the 
application  of  Christian  principles  to  social  life. 
This  is  especially  true  of  its  use  upon  the  conti- 
nent of  Europe  by  both  Protestants  and  Roman 
Catholics.  It  is,  however,  more  commonly  and 
more  strictly  used  even  to-day  for  the  position 
originally  held  by  Maurice  and  the  early  Chris- 
tian Socialists.  This,  however,  is  not  incon- 
sistent with  the  fact  that  almost  all  those  who 
call  themselves  Christian  Socialists,  at  least  in 
England  and  America  to-day,  hold  economic 
views  in  some  ways  materially  different  from 
the  views  held  by  the  early  Christian  Socialists. 
Circumstances  have  changed.  Social  thought 
has  developed.  Socialism  has  changed.  The 
same  principle  that  led  Maurice  and  Kingsley  to 
take  one  view  leads  their  successors  to  take  an- 


Christian  Socialism. 


252 


Christian  Socialism. 


other.  What  these  various  positions  are,  that 
are  united  under  the  one  general  principle,  will 
be  best  seen  by  the  history  of  the  movement. 
We  commence  with 

ENGLAND. 

The  year  1848  was  a  dark  one  for  English  working 
men.    Bad  harvests,  heavy  taxes,  the  potato  famine 
had  brought  to  a  head  all  their  sufferings  and  wrongs. 
Ireland  was  on  the  verge  of  rebellion. 
There  were  riots  in  more  than  one  Eng- 
Beerinnings.  lisn  town.    Chartism  (q.v.)  had  done  its 
work.    On  April   10  there  was  an  im- 
mense   mass-meeting    at     Kennington 
Common.    London  was  thrown  into  intense  excitement 
and  fear.    Wellington  assumed  military  control.    Two 
hundred  thousand  special  constables  were  sworn  in. 

Meanwhile,  two  clergymen  of  the  Church  of  Eng- 
land, F.  D.  Maurice  and  Charles  Kingsley,  with  a 
young  lawyer,  J.  M.  Ludlow,  had  been  growing  more 
and  more  interested  in  social  questions.  Charles 
Kingsley  now  rushed  down  from  his  parish  at  Evers- 
ley,  and  meeting  Ludlow  at  Maurice  s  house,  it  was 
decided  to  publish  placards  and  spread  them  broad- 
cast, sympathizing  with  the  workmen,  but  urging  re- 
straint from  violence,  and  the  necessity  of  virtue  and 
religion  to  make  men  fit  for  liberty.  Charles  Kings- 
ley  wrote  all  that  night,  and  the  next  morning  ap- 
peared on  thousands  of  posters  his  address  to  the 
workmen  of  England,  signed  "A  Working  Parson." 
The  crisis  was  passed.  A  pouring  rain  and  the  energy 
of  O'Connor  prevented  any  outbreak. 

It  was  now  decided  by  the  above  three  to  publish  a 
little  penny  weekly,  entitled  Politics  for  the  People. 
In  these,  in  addition  to  Maurice,  Kingsley,  and  Lud- 
low, we  find  articles  by  Archdeacon  Hare,  Professor 
Conington,  Sir  Arthur  Helps,  Archbishop  Whately, 
Dr.  Guy,  French,  Stanley,  Osborn,  and  others— a  rare 
galaxy  of  brilliant  minds.  Kingsley  wrote  in  it  the 
well-known  articles  signed  "  Parson  Lot"  (see  KINGS- 
LEY).  The  first  number  appeared  May  6,  1848.  The 
columns,  moreover,  contained  many  communications 
from  Chartists,  among  others  one  signed  by  "  One  of 
the  wicked  Chartists  of  Kennington  Common."  The 
paper,  however,  was  discontinued  after  17  numbers  for 
lack  of  support,  although  it  attained  a  circulation  of  2000. 

The  little  knot  of  writers,  however,  now  including 
Thomas  Hughes,  held  meetings  all  winter,  meeting 
with  many  of  the  Chartist  leaders,  and  starting  night 
schools.  It  was  at  one  of  these  conferences  that  Kings- 
ley  made  his  celebrated  speech  beginning,  "  I  am  a 
Church  of  England  parson  and  a  Chartist,"  in  which 
he  acknowledged  the  grievous  wrongs  of  the  work- 
men, but  dissuaded  them  from  violence. 

A  Mr.  Mayhew  at  this  time  contributed  to  the  Lon- 
don papers  a  series  of  articles  on  the  poor  and  the 
sweating  system,  which  called  out  Charles  Kingsley's 
burning  and  indignant  tract  on  Cheap  Clothes  and 
Nasty.  But  Maurice  from  first  to  last  remained  its 
directing  spirit.  The  Christian  Socialists  began  dis- 
trict visiting  in  the  courts  and  alleys  (especially  Little 
Ormond  Yard)  round  Lincoln's  Inn,  of  which  Maurice 
•was  preacher  at  this  time.  At  stated  times  they  met 
for  conference  in  Maurice's  house  to  discuss  social 
problems.  Ragged  schools  were  begun  under  their 
auspices,  and  "  sanitary  leagues"  when  the  cholera 
began  to  rage.  Colonization  was  projected.  "Let  us 
devise  a  socialist  home-colonization  as  soon  as  you 
please  ;  provided  only  we  give  it  a  ground  to  stand 
upon,  the  sooner  the  better,"  said  Mr.  Maurice,  in  a 
letter  to  Mr.  Ludlow. 

A  cooperative  institution,  which  was  a  practical  em- 
bodiment of  their  ideas,  was  started,  being  an  associa- 
tion of  tailors  in  Castle  Street,  nearly  opposite  to  the 
place  where  now  stands  the  Cooperative  Institution. 
This  was  in  1849.  In  l85°  a  society  for  promoting  work- 
ing men's  associations  was  formed,  with  Maurice  for 
its  president,  and  became  the  nucleus  or  center  of  the 
cooperative  movement.  The  fundamental  principle 
of  this  society  was  "the  practical  application  of  Chris- 
tainity  to  the  purposes  of  trade  and  industry." 

In  December,  1849,  a  dinner  was  held  at  Ludlow's 

and  a  plan  for  cooperative  stores  was  discussed,  and 

for  the  first  time  the  term   Christian   Socialism  was 

agreed  upon.    Said  F.  D.  Maurice,  in  a 

tract  in   1850:  "That  is    the    only  title 

"  Christian    which  will  define  our  object  and   will 

Socialism"     commit  us  &\  once  to  the   conflict   we 

Douaiism      must  engage  in  sooner  or  later  with  the 

First  Used,  unsocial  Christians  and  the  unchristian 

socialists."     This    position    was    taken 

largely  under  the  influence  of  Ludlow, 

who  had  been  in  Paris  and  seen  there  the  associations 


OMvriers,  and  who  had  written  to  Maurice  from  there 
that  "socialism  must  be  Christianized  or  it  would 
shake  Christianity  to  its  foundation,  precisely  be- 
cause it  appealed  to  the  higher  and  not  to  the  lower  in- 
stincts of  man."  The  Christian  Socialists,  now  work- 
ing under  this  name,  started  a  periodical  and  also  a 
cooperative  store  under  the  leadership  of  Walter 
Cooper,  the  ex-Chartist. 

Their  periodical,  The  Christian  Socialist,  was  edited 
by  Ludlow,  but  contributed  to  by  all  the  members. 
The  following,  by  Ludlow,  clearly  expresses  its  ideas  : 

"  A  new  idea  has  gone  abroad  into  the  world  :  that 
socialism,  the  latest  born  of  the  forces  now  at  work  in 
modern  society,  and  Christianity,  the  eldest  born  of 
those  forces,  are  in  their  nature  not  hostile,  but  akin 
to  each  other  ;  or  rather,  that  the  one  is  but  the  devel- 
opment, the  outgrowth,  the  manifestation  of  the  other. 
.  .  .  That  Christianity,  however  feeble  and  torpid  it 
may  seem  to  many  just  now,  is  truly  but  as  an  eagle 
at  moult ;  that  socialism  is  but  its  livery  of  the  nine- 
teenth century,  which  it  is  even  now  putting  on,  to 
spread  erelong  its  wings  for  a  broader  and  heavenlier 
flight.  That  socialism  without  Christianity,  on  the 
one  hand,  was  lifeless  as  the  feathers  without  the 
bird,  however  skilfully  the  stuffer  may  dress  them  up 
into  an  artificial  semblance  of  life.  That  every  social- 
ist system  which  has  maintained  itself  has  stood  upon 
the  moral  grounds  of  righteousness,  self-sacrifice, 
mutual  affection,  and  common  brotherhood.  .  .  . 
That  Christianity,  on  the  other  hand,  in  this  nineteenth 
century  of  ours,  becomes  in  its  turn  chilly  and  help- 
less when  stripped  of  its  social  ^influences  ;  or,  in  other 
words,  when  divorced  from  socialism.  .  .  .  That  if 
the  Gospel  speaks  true,  and  '  ye  cannot  serve  God  and 
mammon,'  it  is  wholly  incompatible  •with  a  political 
economy  which  proclaims  self-interest  to  be  the  very 
pivot  of  social  action  ;  .  .  .  but  that  it  is  compatible 
with  those  theories  or  systems  which  have  for  a  com- 
mon object  to  bind  up  into  fellowship,  and  not  to  di- 
vide by  selfishness  and  rivalry  ;  to  substitute  fair  prices 
and  living  wages  for  a  false  cheapness,  and  starva- 
tion, its  child ;  and  which  have  adopted  for  their 
watchwords  Association  and  Exchange  instead  of 
Competition  and  Profit.  .  .  .  If  it  be  given  us  to  vindi- 
cate for  Christianity  its  true  authority  over  the  realms 
of  industry  and  trade,  for  socialism  its  true  character 
as  the  great  Christian  revolution  of  the  nineteenth 
century,  so  that  the  title  of  socialist  shall  be  only  a 
bugbear  to  the  idle  and  to  the  wicked,  and  society 
from  the  highest  rank  to  the  lowest  shall  avowedly 
regulate  itself  upon  the  principle  of  cooperation,  and 
not  drift  rudderless  upon  the  sea  of  competition,  as 
our  let-alone  political  economists  would  have  it  do — 
then,  indeed,  we  shall  have  achieved  our  task  ;  and  no 
amount  of  obloquy,  ridicule,  calumny,  neglect,  shall 
make  us  desert  it,  so  long  as  we  have  strength  and 
means  to  carry  on  the  fight.  For  a  fight  it  is,  and  a 
long  one,  and  a  deadly  one— a  fight  against  all  the 
armies  of  mammon." 

The  Christian  Socialist  was,  nevertheless,  less  long- 
lived  than  Politics  for  the  People.  The  movement, 
however,  did  not  end.  Kingsley  published  his  Alton 
Locke.  It  brought  down  on  the  Christian  Socialists  a 
shower  of  abuse.  Says  Professor  Seligman  of  it : 

"  '  Tracts  full  of  raving  and  disreputable  rant ;  mouth- 
pieces of  class  selfishness,  popular  prejudice  and  igno- 
rant passion  ;  ravings  of  blasphemy,  rapine  and  non- 
sense ;    miserable  delusions  ;   mischiev- 
ous provocations  clothed  in  oily  phrases 
of  peace  and  charity  ;  a  clique  of  way-    Opposition 
ward-minded  men  who,  from  a  morbid  Encountered 
craving  for  notoriety  or  a  crazy  strain-  "* 
ing  after  paradox,  have  taken  up  the  un- 
hallowed   task    of    preaching  the  doc- 
trines   of    Jacobinism  and    the  Jacquerie '—this  and 
much  more  of  the  like  was  said  of  them  in  all  the  re- 
views and  journals.     Advertisements  were  refused  by 
the  daily  papers,  booksellers  did  not  dare  to  keep  cop- 
ies of  their  publications.     Tlie  Christian  Socialist  was 
prohibited  by  the  French  Government  from  circulating 
in  the  realm.    A  committee  of  King's  College  was  ap- 
pointed to  investigate  Maurice's  activity  in  these  dan- 
gerous schemes,  and   he  narrowly  escaped  losing  at 
once  his  professorial  position.     Kingsley  was  invited  to 
deliver  a  sermon  in  a  London  church,  and  at  the  close 
his  opinions  were  openly  branded  as  untrue  and  dan- 
gerous by  the  officiating  rector." 

Eventually  Maurice  was  removed  from  his  chair  at 
King's  College,  and  very  affecting  is  the  address  of 
condolence  presented  to  him  by  those  workmen  who 
had  through  him  come  to  believe  in  the  divine  mission 
of  Christianity  in  saving  society.  But  opposition  and 
obloquy,  so  far  from  discouraging  the  Christian  So- 
cialists, only  acted  as  a  spur  to  further  exertion.  "I 


Christian  Socialism. 


253 


Christian  Socialism, 


am  a  revolutionist,"  says  Kingsley  in  one  of  his  letters. 

His  "  Bible  Radicalism"  meant  to  go  to  the  root  of  the 

matter,    and  to   recover  the   true    and 

original  basis  of   Christian   fellowship. 

The  Cooper-   At  the  same  time   they  all   felt  that   if 

a  HTTO  MnvA    their  work  was  to  prosper  they  must  put 
move-  their  hand  to  the  p[ow  and  g<ve  a  prac_ 

meat.  tical  demonstration  of  their  theory.  In 
this  work  the  laymen  of  the  movement 
were  most  prominent.  Among  these 
most  of  all  Mr.  E.  Vansittart  Neale,  who,  with  a  prodi- 
gality of  self-sacrifice  rarely  witnessed,  provided  the 
funds  for  the  first  attempts  in  cooperative  production, 
and  the  establishment  of  the  central  cooperative 
agency.  In  this  case  many  of  the  aristocracy  and 
clergy  wished  to  encourage  the  promoters.  From  both 
orders  came  flowing  in,  and  the  success  that  was  so  far 
attained  by  such  means  induced  the  promoters  to  open 
an  "  East-End  Needle- women's  Workshop,"  and  to  aid 
the  formation  of  an  association  of  shoemakers.  Thus 
in  course  of  time  a  number  of  productive  associations 
were  formed  in  London  and  the  provinces,  principally 
in  the  North,  especially  after  visits  by  invitation  from 
Air.  Maurice,  Mr.  W.  Cooper,  and  others,  to  render  ad- 
vice in  their  formation.  With  the  further  development 
of  the  movement,  the  need  began  more  and  more  to  be 
felt  for  legal  protection,  such  as  did  not  exist  at  the 
time.  But  more  than  legal  and  other  advice  •was  re- 
quired, the  power  of  the  Legislature  was  invoked  and 
obtained,  tho  not  without  a  struggle,  owing  to  the  prej- 
udices still  pervading  the  House  of  Commons  and  the 
country.  But  the  real  boon,  the  "  Magna  Charta  of 
Cooperation,"  the  Industrial  and  Provident  Partner- 
ships Bill,  did  not  pass  till  February,  1852. 

The  Society  for  Promoting  Working  Men's  Associa- 
tions received  now  a  new  constitution,  the  principles 
of  which  were  stated  to.be  : 

1.  That  human  society  is  a  body  consisting  of  many 
members,  not  a  collection  of  warring  atoms. 

2.  That  true  workmen  must  be  fellow-workers  and 
not  rivals. 

3.  That  a  principle  of  justice,  not  of  selfishness,  must 
govern  exchanges. 

It  will  be  seen  from  this  that  the  principles  remained 
the  same,  tho  the  altered  condition  of  the  law  required 
a  change  in  the  by-laws  and  regulations  for  the  con- 
duct of  business. 

When  the  cooperative  associations  grew  strong 
enough  to  stand  on  their  own  legs ;  when  it  was  dis- 
covered that  those  among  them  which  had  risen  up  in- 
dependently, and  had  received  less  or  no  support  from 
the  promoters— the  societies  for  distribution— were 
also  those  which  throve  the  best,  then  it  began  to  be 
felt  by  the  main  body  of  the  promoters  that  their 
work  in  this  direction  was  done.  What  they  must  do 
in  the  future,  they  thought,  must  be  done  by  means  of 
education.  This  led  to  the  establishment  of  the 
Working  Men's  College,  which  was  opened  in  1854,  in 
close  vicinity  of  the  scenes  marked  by  the  earliest  suc- 
cesses of  Christian  Socialism.  Henceforth  the  history 
of  the  Christian  Socialism  of  England  of  this  period 
was  lost  in  the  cooperative  movement  developing  in 
the  North  of  England.  The  London  stores  separate 
from  this  either  failed  or  were  swallowed  by  the  larger 
movement.  But  the  Christian  Socialist  thought  lived. 
According  to  Maurice,  the  world  is  essentially  a  mani- 
festation of  God's  order,  but  the  selfishness  of  man 
has  produced  a  deviation  from  the  original  principles. 
"  God's  drder  seems  to  me  more  than  ever  the  antago- 
nist of  man's  systems,"  he  writes. 

Says  Professor  Seligman  :  "  These  Christian  Social- 
ists were  reformers  in  the  fullest  sense  of  the  word. 
The  kingdom  of  Christ  was  to  them  no  empty  formula  ; 
they  were  thoroughly  imbued  with  the 
belief  that  this  kingdom,  created  through 
Principles  of  revelation,    actually    existed    and    was 
the  Earlv     destined  in  time  to  subjugate  all  wick- 
r,    .     .  ™      edness  and  misery.     Society,  according 
CarisUan     to  them,  is  not  to  be  made  anew  by  ar- 
SocialistS.     rangements,  but  is  to  be  regenerated  by 
'  finding  the  law  and  ground  of  its  order 
and  harmony,  the  only  secret  of  its  ex- 
istence,  in  God.'    In  speaking  of  the  term  Christian 
Socialism,    they    denied    having    adopted    the    word 
Christian    merely    as    a    qualifying    adjective ;    they 
maintained  that  Christianity  has 'the    power  of    re- 
generating whatever  it    comes    in    contact    with,    of 
making   that  morally  healthful    which   apart   from   it 
must    be  either    mischievous    or    inefficient."      They 
strongly  protested  against  the  notion  of  turning  the 
Bible  into  a  book  for  keeping  the  poor  in  order.    The 
Bible  they  considered,  on  the  contrary,  the  poor  man's 
book,  the  voice  of  God  against  tyrants  and  humbugs. 
"Justice  from  God  to  those  whom  men  oppress,  glory 


from  God  to  those  whom  men  despise,"  was  to  them 
the  thought  running  through  the  Bible. 

Men  of  such  a  stamp  viewed  with  a  sovereign  dis- 
dain the  social  doctrines  of  the  Manchester  school  of 
political  economy.  They  wrote  :  "Of  all  narrow,  con- 
ceited, hypocritical,  anarchic,  and  atheistic  schemes  of 
the  universe,  the  Cobden  and  Bright  one  is  exactly  the 
worst."  To  the  Christian  Socialists  a  Manchester 
ascendancy  seemed  a  horrible  catastrophe.  Said 
Kingsley  : 

"I  expect  nothing  from  a  public  press  which  pan- 
ders to  popular  Mammonism  by  scraps  of  politico- 
economic  cant,  and  justifies  the  ignorant  miser  to  him- 
self by  retailing  Benthamite  phrases  which  sound  like 
scientific  laws,  while  they  are  really  nothing  but  the 
assertion  of  barren  truisms.  I  expect  nothing  from 
the  advocates  of  laissez  faire — the  pedants  whose 
glory  is  in  the  shame  of  society,  who  arrogantly  talk 
of  economics  as  of  a  science  so  completely  perfected, 
so  universal  and  all-important  that  common  humanity 
and  morality,  reason  and  religion  must  be  pooh- 
poohed  down,  if  they  seem  to  interfere  with  its  infal- 
lible conclusions,  and  yet  revile,  as  absurd  and  Utopian, 
the  slightest  attempt  to  apply  those  conclusions  to  any 
practical  purpose.  .  .  .  The  man  who  tells  us  that  we 
ought  to  investigate  Nature,  simply  to  sit  still  patient- 
ly under  her,  and  let  her  freeze  and  ruin  and  starve 
and  stink  us  to  death,  is  a  goose,  whether  he  calls  him- 
self a  chemist  or  a  political  economist." 

"Competition,"  said  Maurice,  "is  put  forth  as  the 
law  of  the  universe.  That  is  a  lie.  The  time  is  come 
to  declare  that  it  is  a  lie,  by  word  and  deed.  I  see  no 
way  but  by  associating  for  work  instead  of  for 
strikes."  Kingsley  maintained  that  not  self-interest, 
but  self-sacrifice,  was  the  only  law  upori  which  human 
society  could  be  grounded  with  any  hope  of  success. 
"  That  self-interest  is  a  law  of  human  nature,  I  know 
well.  That  it  ought  to  be  the  root-law  of  human  so- 
ciety, I  deny,  unless  society  is  to  sink  down  again  into 
a  Roman  empire  and  a  cage  of  wild  beasts."  The  en- 
thusiasm of  the  promoters  was  unbounded.  Thomas 
Hughes  thought  (and  still  thinks  to-day)  that  they 
had  found  the  solution  of  the  labor  question  ;  but  at 
that  time  he  was  also  convinced  that  "  we  had  nothing 
to  do  but  just  to  announce  it  and  found  an  association 
or  two,  in  order  to  convert  all  England  and  usher  in 
the  millennium  at  once,  so  plain  did  the  whole  thing 
seem."  And  the  majority  of  the  promoters  were 
equally  sanguine. 

The  Christian  Socialists  were  mistaken.  Not  thus  are 
millenniums  ushered  in.  It  takes  more  than  a  co- 
operative association  or  two  to  make  a  millennium. 
Says  William  Clarke  in  the  Fabian  £ssays  : 

"  The   Christian    Socialist,  which  was  the  organ  of 
Maurice  and  Kingsley,  betrayed  great  simplicity  as  to 
the  real  nature  of  the  economic  problem.    It  neglected 
Owen's  principle   of   'community  in  land,'  and   sup- 
posed that  by  working  together  and  selling  articles  of 
good  quality  at  a  fair   price  po\*ferty  could  be  elimi- 
nated, while  yet  every   worker  in  the 
•community  was  paying  his   tribute  of 
economic  rent  to  the  owners  of  the  in-     Maurice's 
struments  of  production."     And  yet  the         Tract 
Christian  Socialism  of  Maurice  and  his 
coworkers    was    true     socialism.     The 
first  of  The  Tracts  on   Christian  Social- 
ism, published  in   1849,  was  written  by  Maurice.    It 
commences  as  follows : 

A  Dialogue  between  Somebody  (a  person  of  respectabil- 
ity) and  Nobody  (the  writer). 

Somebody.  CHRISTIAN  SOCIALISM  !  I  never  saw  that 
adjective  united  to  that  substantive  before.  Do  you 
seriously  believe  that  a  socialist  can  be  a  Christian,  or 
a  Christian  a  socialist  ? 

Nobody.  I  seriously  believe  that  Christianity  is  the 
only  foundation  of  socialism,  and  that  a  true  social- 
ism is  the  necessary  result  of  a  sound  Christianity. 

S.  Sound  and  true  !  One  imderstands  those  words 
very  well.  True  socialism  is  your  socialism,  not  that 
of  Owen,  Fourier,  Louis  Blanc,  or  any  other  English- 
man, Frenchman,  German.  Sound  Christianity  is  your 
Christianity,  not  that  of  any  church, "sect,  school,  or 
divine  hitherto  known  in  Christendom. 

N.  The  socialism  I  speak  of  is  that  of  Owen,  Fourier, 
Louis  Blanc,  and  of  the  Englishmen,  Frenchmen,  Ger- 
mans, who  have  fraternized  with  them  or  produced 
systems  of  their  own. 

S.  A  sufficient  warrant  for  the  other  half  of  my 
proposition.  Your  Christianity  then,  I  presume,  is 
that  of  Owen,  Louis  Blanc,  Fourier  ?  A  rather  pecul- 
iar species  of  a  very  comprehensive  genus  !  But  to 
waive  that  point  for  the  present.  Your  socialism  is 


Christian  Socialism. 


254 


Christian  Socialism. 


To-Day. 


that  of  a  hundred  different  men  at  strife  with  each 
other. 

N.  All  these  men,  if  I  understand  them  rightly,  are 
attempting  to  compass  the  same  end.  They  differ 
about  the  means  of  compassing  it. 

S.  The  same  end  ?  Happiness,  I  suppose.  Socialists 
and  anti-socialists  are  probably  agreed  so  far. 

N.  The  watchword  of  the  socialist  is  COOPERATION  ; 
the  watchword  of  the  anti-socialist  is  COMPETITION, 
Any  one  who  recognizes  the  principle  of  cooperation 
as  a  stronger  and  truer  principle  than  that  of  competi- 
tion has  a  right  to  the  honor  or  the  disgrace  of  being 
called  a  socialist. 

jV.  further  says  in  the  tract  :  "  I  grant  you  that  a 
Christianity  which  is  merely  brought  in  to  help  out 
the  weakness  of  a  system  formed  in  the  eighteenth  or 
nineteenth  century  will  be  a  very  poor,  weak  Chris- 
tianity indeed.  I  do  not  believe  that  these  French 
reformers,  if  they  are  as  honest  as  I  hope  some  of  them 
are,  can  ever  be  content  with  such  a  feeble  and  paltry 
creation.  They  want  a  ground  to  stand  upon,  not  a 
Corinthian  capital,  to  make  their  edifice  look  more 
stately  and  graceful.  And  if  they  begin  to  look  ear- 
nestly at  the  Bible  history,  at  the  creeds  of  the 
Christian  Church,  at  the  records  of  it  from  the  Day  of 
Pentecost  to  this  time,  I  believe  they  will  find  more 
and  more  that  they  have  the  ground  there,  the  only 
one  upon  which  they  can  stand  or  work.  They  will 
not  read  in  the  Divine  Book  of  a  great  strife  of  individ- 
ual competitors,  but  of  a  Divine  family,  expending  it- 
self into  a  Divine  nation,  of  a  universal  society  growing 
out  of  that  nation,  recognizing  and  preserving  both 
the  forms  of  human  fellowship  out  of  which  it  was 
unfolded." 

After  this  wave  of  Christian  Socialism  in  England, 
we  have  a  long  gap  in  the  movement.  Socialism  of  all 
kinds  seemed  dead  in  England.  But  the  thought  was 
not  dead.  Early  in  the  seventies  the  Rev.  Stewart  D. 
Headlam  founded  and  has  ever  since 
been  warden  of  the  Guild  of'  St.  Matthew. 
English  Chris-Altho  a  so-called  High  Church  organi- 
zation,  it  has  become  the  leader  of  the 
remarkable  movement  among  the 
younger  Catholic  wing  of  the  Church 
of  England  toward  radical  socialism. 
It  believes  the  secular  to  be  spiritual, 
and  finds  secular  principles  involved  in  the  high- 
est Church  teachings.  Since  1882  Mr.  Headlam  has 
also  edited  the  Church  Reformer,  the  organ  of  the 
guild,  and  an  outspoken  mouthpiece  of  Christian  So- 
cialism (see  ANGLICAN  POSITION  IN  SOCIAL  RE- 
FORM). Its  radical  nature  can  be  seen  in  its  reference 
to  the  Queen's  Jubilee  celebration  as  that  "blasphe- 
mous" adulation  going  on  at  Westminster  Abbey  ;  and 
by  the  ultra-socialistic  literature  advertised  and  com- 
mended in  its  columns.  The  Guild  of  St.  Matthew  has 
a  small  but  enthusiastic  following  through  all  England. 
In  or  near  London  alone  some  50  clergymen  belong 
to  it,  among  them  The  Rev.  C.  L.  Marson  (q  v.),  the 
Rev.  Percy  Dearmer  (q.v.},  the  Rev.  W.  E.  Moll,  of  St. 
Mary's,  Soho,  the  Rev.  H.  C.  Shuttleworth,  and  the' 
Rev.  T.  Hancock,  author  of  sermons  widely  circulated 
in  England,  such  as  the  one  entitled  The  Banner  of 
'  Christ  in  the  Hands  of  the  Socialists. 

Of  much  more  recent  date  and  not  so  radical  in  its 
socialism,  and  yet  doing  a  very  wide  and  important 
work  in  the  Church  of  England,  is  the  Christian  Social 
Union,  founded  in  Oxford  in  i88q,  under  the  lead  of  the 
Bishop  of  Durham  and  Canon  Scott  Holland.  (For  a 
fuller  account  of  it,  see  CHURCH  SOCIAL  UNION.) 
While  it  does  not  declare  explicitly  for  Christian  So- 
cialism, its  principles  and  teachings  so  largely  tend 
this  way  that  they  are  commonly  spoken  of  in  Eng- 
land as  *'  The  New  Christian  Socialism."  It  is  signifi- 
cant, therefore,  that  the  Union  embraces  so  many  of 
the  leading  members  of  the  Church  of  England,  is  the 
publisher  of  the  able  Economic  Review,  and  includes 
men  of  such  power  and  spirituality  as  the  Rev.  Charles 
Gore,  Dean  Stubbs,  and  others,  including  its  secretary, 
the  Rev.  John  Carter.  In  East  London,  the  Rev. 
James  A.  Adderley  (q.v.)  has  founded  a  brotherhood 
and  publishes  Good  Will,  a  magazine  of  Christian  So- 
cialism adapted  to  use  in  parishes,  with  a  circulation 
of  about  24,000.  Outside  of  the  Church  of  England 
too  there  is  much  Christian  Socialism.  A  Society  of 
Christian  Socialists  organized  early  in  the  eighties,  not 
confined  to  the  Church  of  England,  and  which  from 
1883  to  December,  1891,  published  an  organ,  The  Chris- 
tian Socialist,  no  longer  exists,  but  its  work  is  carried 
on  by  The  Christian  Socialist  League,  of  which  the 
Rev.  Dr.  John  Clifford,  a  leading  Congregational 
clergyman,  is  president,  and  J.  Bruce  Wallace,  Percy 
Alden,  E.  D.  Girdlestone,  John  H.  Belcher,  and  Profes- 
sor Shuttleworth  are  prominent  members.  Among 


the  Wesleyans  the  Revs.  Hugh  Price  Hughes  and  Mark 
Guy  Pearse  are  outspoken  for  Christian  Socialism, 
while  in  Scotland  the  Rev.  John  Glasse,  of  the  Church 
of  Old  Greyfriars,  is  a  pioneer  of  socialism  in  Scot- 
land. 

Apart  from  all  Church  organizations,  yet  standing  for 
a  very  vital  Christian  Socialism,  are  the  labor  churches 
(q.v.)  begun  in  England  by  John  Trevor  (q.v.)  in  1891. 
(For  a  full  account,  see  LABOR  CHURCHES.)  They  rep- 
resent a  strong  radical  movement  politically  in  con- 
nection with  the  Independent  Labor  Party,  yet  insist- 
ing on  the  religious  character  of  the  labor  movement. 
Some  two  dozen  labor  churches  exist  in  England,  with 
beginnings  of  a  dozen  or  more.  In  London,  J.  Bruce 
Wallace  is  pastor  of  the  Brotherhood  Church  and 
founder  of  the  Brotherhood  Trust  (q.v.)  Altogether  no 
one  can  deny  that  Christian  Socialism  in  one  form  or 
another  is  a  very  vital  part  of  English  social  reform. 

GERMANY. 

Christian  Socialism  in  Germany  dates  in  its 
present  form  from  the  period  of  the  Lassalle 
agitation,  yet  had  its  precursors  in  the  philoso- 
phy of  Fichte  and  Hegel  and  the  communistic 
preaching  of  Albrecht  the  Prophet  and  of  Weit- 
ling  (q.v.).  We  consider  its  Roman  Catholic  and 
Protestant  developments  separately. 

The  Roman  Catholic  movement  came  first.    Early 
in    this    century    Franz    Xavier    von    Baader    (q>.v.), 
moved  by  the  sorrows  of  the  working  class,  recom- 
mended a  "theocracy,"  a  monarchy  guided  by  Divine 
Eolitics,  as  opposed  to  a  democracy  of  revolution,  a 
tate  held  together  by  Christian  love,   equally  free 
from  slavish    despotism    and    la\vless   individualism. 
"The  Church,"  he  said,  "must  strive  for  this.    It  must 
provide  a  new  diaconate  to  bring  about  a  more  equita- 
ble redistribution." 

A  greater  German  Roman  Catholic  Christian  Social- 
ist was  Wilhelm  von  Ketteler  (q.v.\  the  late  Bishop  of 
Mayence.  Von  Ketteler  was  in  very  many  ways  like 
Kingsley.  He  said  of  himself  :  "  I  have 
lived  with  and  among  the  people,  and 
know  them  in  their  sorrows  and  com- 
plaints. There  are  few  of  the  tears  and 
none  of  the  sufferings  among  the  people 
committed  to  my  charge  which  have  es- 
caped my  notice."  He  had  especially 
endeared  himself  to  his  people  by  his 
bravery  and  devotion  during  an  epi- 
demic of  typhus  fever  in  1847.  He  was  elected  to  repre- 
sent his  district  in  the  Germanic  Confederation  at 
Frankfort.  As  early  as  1848  he  preached  a  course  of 
sermons  on  the  social  subject  in  the  cathedral  at  May- 
ence to  audiences  of  many  thousands.  He  largely 
indorsed  the  socialistic  program  of  the  day,  invoking 
State  protection  against  the  encroachments  of  irrespon- 
sible capitalists  ;  but  he  held  that  to  endure,  society 
must  be  founded  on  the  rock  of  St.  Peter.  He  pointed 
out  the  impotence  of  legislation  to  equalize  property. 
Christianity  alone,  he  taught,  could  put  cooperative 
associations  on  a  sound  basis.  "  May  God  in  His  good- 
ness," he  cried,  "  bring  all  good  Catholics  to  adopt  this 
idea  of  cooperative  associations  of  production  upon  the 
basis  of  Christianity."  Yet  little  directly  resulted. 
In  1864,  however,  Ketteler  published  a  treatise,  The 
Labor  Question  and  Christianity,  and  in  1868  organiza- 
tion was  reached  in  the  Christian  Social  Working  Man's 
Associations.  An  organ  of  the  movement  was  started, 
Die  Christliche  Sociale  Blaetter.  In  1870  the  Catholic 
Journeymen's  Clubs,  which  had  been  started  in  1847 
by  Father  Kolping,  a  pious  artisan,  joined  the  Chris- 
tian Socialist  movement.  These  clubs  numbered,  in 
1872,  70,000  persons,  mainly  in  Bavaria  and  Westphalia. 
They  were  strictly  under  the  control  of  the  Church, 
and  therefore  were  more  or  less  opposed  by  the  Social 
Democrats.  Yet  the  movement  grew.  In  1878  it  num- 
bered 12,000  in  Westphalia  alone.  It  took  many  forms 
—benefit  associations,  savings  and  credit  associations, 
associations  for  diffusing  literature,  working  girls'  as- 
sociations, etc.  The  movement  is  represented  by  sev- 
eral papers.  At  the  meeting  in  1871  Canon  Mou- 
fang,  in  a  memorable  speech,  presented  the  points 
which  have  become  the  program  of  the  movement :  (i) 
Legislative  protection  of  the  rights  of  labor  ;  (2)  pecu- 
niary State  subvention  in  aid  of  cooperative  associa- 
tions ;  (3)  reduction  of  the  burdens  of  taxation  and 
military  service ;  (4)  restriction  of  the  power  of  cap- 
ital, and  the  removal  of  evils  arising  from  usury  and 
over-speculation.  At  the  conferences  of  German  Ro- 


German 
Catholic 
Christian 
Socialism. 


Christian  Socialism. 


255 


Christian  Socialism. 


man  Catholic  societies  at  Breslau,  in  1872  ;  Aachen, 
1873  ;  Mainz,  1874  ;  Schlesien,  1877,  and  especially  at  Diis- 
seldorf  in  1883  and  Trier  in  1887,  the  social  question 
was  very  prominent.  Gradually  two  wings  have  de- 
veloped :  one  tending  to  individualistic  methods  of  re- 
form and  "self-help,"  etc. ;  the  other  calling  for  State 
action  and  much  of  the  socialist  program.  At  Trier 
and  Diisseldorf  especially  the  latter  wing  showed  it- 
self in  the  majority.  The  rapid  growth  of  the  Social 
Democratic  Party  in  Germany  has,  however,  made  it 
very  difficult  for  the  Catholic  Socialists  to  maintain 
their  hold  on  the  working  man.  Nevertheless  in  1882 
they  had  no  representatives  in  the  Reichstag,  and 
in  1891  they  counted  820  unions  with  75,000  members. 

In  fact,  the  main  strength  of  Catholic  Socialism 
lies  in  this  widely  spread  system  of  organization.  In 
places  the  number  of  associations  of  operatives  under 
Church  auspices  surpasses  the  aggregate  amount  of 
all  other  similar  associations  taken  together.  There 
are  Catholic  associations  of  masters  and  apprentices, 
of  factory  laborers,  miners,  and  vintners ;  there  are 
"  Patriotic  Bavarian"  and  Westphalian  unions  of  peas- 
ant proprietors,  and  a  number  of  other  societies  of 
men  and  women  in  every  direction,  exercising  a  pow- 
erful influence  under  strict  clerical  supervision,  the 
result  of  which  is  that  in  purely  Catholic  regions  for 
any  efforts  of  social  reform  to  be  successful,  it  is 
essential  in  the  first  instance  to  secure  the  Catholic 
ecclesiastics  as  auxiliaries  in  any  such  undertak- 
ing. 

The  movement  has  thus  enabled  the  Roman  Church 
to  bring  into  the  field  a  strong  force  of  artisans  in  the 
battle  of  the  cuiturkampf,  developing  at  times  a 
strange  political  union  between  the  Radical  and  Church 
Socialists  in  the  struggle  against  the  Bourgeoisie,  and 
fulfilling  the  prediction  of  Cavour  of  a  union  between 
Romanism  and  Socialism,  between  the  red  and  the 
black  International,  between  Ketteler's  "  Kosacken  reg- 
iment," as  it  has  been  contemptuously  called,  and  the 
followers  of  Lassalle  and  Karl  Marx.  This  union,  how- 
ever, it  must  be  remembered,  is  only  political,  and 
only  exists  at  times  and  for  particular  ends.  The 
Social  Democrats  of  Germany,  as  elsewhere  in  Europe, 
are  opposed  to  all  churches  (see  ROMAN  CATHOLIC 
CHURCH  AND  SOCIAL  REFORM). 

Protestant  Christian  Socialism  in  Germany  has  been 

a  wholly  separate  movement.    As  early  as  1838  Victor 

Aime  Huber  (q.  v.),  who  may  be  called 

the  founder  of  German  Christian  Social- 

P  ism,  at  the  request  of  Friedrich  Wilhelm 

we  IV    of  prussia  commenced  in  Berlin  a 

Protestant    paper,  the  Janus,  advocating  religious 

Christian     cooperation.    After   the    revolution    in 

Q->r>iaii'om       l848  tnls  was  discontinued,  but  Huber 

socialism.  formed  an  Association  of  Christian 
Order  and  Liberty.  It  was  not  success- 
ful, altho  Huber  himself  seems  to 
have  been  a  man  of  sound  judgment  and  full  of  benefi- 
cent plans.  "The  father  of  vagabonds"  he  called 
himself,  and  in  a  little  town  among  the  Hartz  Moun- 
tains he  established  a  home  among  the  poor,  going  out 
thence  on  journeys  through  Germany,  France,  and 
England,  urging  cooperation  in  agriculture  and  in  all 
forms  of  life.  He  died  July  19,  1869. 

About  1878,  however,  commences  the  chief  movement 
of  Protestant  Christian  Socialism  in  Germany,  begun 
by  Pastor  Todt  and  brilliantly  championed  by  Stocker, 
the  court  chaplain.  From  the  first  it  allied  itself  to  the 
paternal  State  socialism,  which  has  become  the  policy 
of  the  Prussian  mpnarchs. 

Kaufmann,  in  his  Christian  Socialism,  says  of  this 
German  Protestant  Christian  Socialism:  "This  title  is 
somewhat  misleading,'since  those  to  whom  it  is  applied, 
and  who  cheerfully  accept  the  appellation,  are  so  far 
from  being  socialists,  in  the  ordinary  sense  of  the  word, 
that  the  name  '  Defenders  of  Society  on  Church  and 
State  Principles'  would  convey  a  more  correct  idea  of 
their  aims  and  purposes  to  English  readers.  Properly 
speaking,  they  are  conservative  would-be  saviors  of 
society,  who  see  no  other  means  of  escape  from  the 
present  social  dilemma  but  in  a  firm  alliance  between 
crown  and  altar  for  the  purpose  of  regenerating  so- 
ciety." 

An  association  was  formed  and  soon  gained  adhe- 
rents in  "  Christian  circles."  It  called  itself  the  Cen- 
tral Union  for  Social  Reform  on  a  Religious,  Constitu- 
tional, Monarchical  Basis.  It  sent  forth  an  appeal  to 
the  clergy,  reminding  them  that  the  hour  had  come  for 
the  Church  to  bestir  itself  to  meet  the  social  crisis  with 
the  spiritual  weapons  at  its  command,  as  an  evangelical 
body.  Two  fundamental  principles  are  laid  down  in 
the  program,  one  indicating  the  duties  of  the  .State, 
the  other  those  of  the  Church  : 

i.  That  thorough  reforms  have  become  necessary  in 


order  to  inspire  the  enfranchised  masses  with  confi- 
dence toward  the  Government. 

2.  That  the  solution  of  the  social  question  is  impos- 
sible without  the  cooperation  of  the  moral  and  relig- 
ious factors,  and  the  Church's  recognition  of  the  just 
demands  of  the  fourth  estate  (the  working  men). 

Among  the  objects  of  the  association  are  mentioned 
the  diffusion  of  a  wholesome  literature  for  the  purpose 
of  stemming  the  tide  of  materialistic  and  revolutionary 
modes  of  thought  and  feeling  among  the  masses  ;  the 
publication  of  a  paper,  the  Staats  Socialist,  for  the  ex- 
position of  free  discussion  of  burning  questions  in 
political  economy ;  the  collection  and  organization  of 
the  scattered  loyal  elements  among  the  people  as  the 
best  available  means  of  defense  against  the  anarchical 
attempts  of  social  democracy  ;  and  the  full  expression 
both  in  word  and  deed  of  sympathy  with  the  rightful 
demands  of  the  working  classes,  to  assure  them  of  the 
support  of  the  "  main  pillars"  of  society,  the  Church 
and  the  State. 

Eventually,  Todt  and  Stocker  founded  two  associa- 
tions :  first  of  all,  the  Central  Union  for  Social  Re- 
form, and  then  the  Christian  Social  Working  Men's 
Party.  Altho  the  same  ideas  and  nearly  the  same 
persons  had  directed'the  formation  of  the  two  groups, 
their  aims  were  very  different.  The  Union  for  Social 
Reform  was  to  be  composed  of  well-to-do  and  educated 
men,  such  as  ministers  of  the  Church,  professors, 
manufacturers,  and  land-owners,  who  would  join  in 
seeking  for  means  of  conciliating  the  anarchic  classes 
through  reforms  inspired  by  the  spirit  of  Christianity. 
The  Christian  Social  Working  Men's  Party  was  to  rally 
and  to  aid  working  men. 

The  movement  met  great  opposition.  All  the  pro- 
gressive papers  protested  against  it  as  mucker-social- 
ismus,  or  sham  socialism.  The  liberal  press  also  op- 
posed it.  "We  prefer,"  said  one  paper,  "socialists  in 
blouse  to  socialists  in  surplice." 

The  higher  dignitaries  of  the  Evangelical  Church 
held  aloof  from  the  movement,  or  indeed  were  hostile 
to  it ;  but  the  common  clergy  were  stirred.  More  than 
700  ministers  sent  in  their  adhesion  to  the  Central 
Union  for  Social  Reform.  Dr.  Kogel,  one  of  the  court 
preachers,  Dr.  Buchsel,  the  superintendent-general, 
and  Dr.  Bauer  strongly  urged  the  Protestant  clerg}-  to 
take  up  the  social  question.  Dr.  Stocker  displayed 
wonderful  courage.  He  attended  public  meetings  at 
Berlin,  where  he  confronted  the  most  fanatical  oppo- 
sition of  the  Socialist  Democrats,  and  sometimes,  by 
sheer  force  of  eloquence,  he  won  cheers  from  the  hos- 
tile crowd.  He  was  attacked  with  extraordinary  vio- 
lence by  Herr  Most,  who  organized  what  he  called  a 
Massenaustritt  aus  der  Kirche,  or  formal  renunciation 
of  the  Church. 

The  Central  Union  for  Social  Reform  also  obtained 
the  adhesion  and  even  the  cooperation  of  several 
well-known  economists,  such  as  Professor  Adolf  Wag- 
ner, of  Berlin  University  ;  Dr.  Schaeffle,  former  Minis- 
ter of  Finance  in  Austria,  and  author  of  Socialismus 
und  Capitalismus :  Herr  Adolf  Samter,  banker  at 
Konigsberg;  and  Professor  von  Scheel.  But  in  order 
to  influence  the  masses,  as  the  (  atholic  Socialists  have 
done,  the  assistance  of  the  clergy  was  needed  ;  and  it 
was  to  gain  this  assistance  that  the  founders  of  the 
movement,  Stocker  and  Todt,  directed  all  their  efforts. 
According  to  them,  the  duty  of  ecclesiastics,  and  even 
of  the  Protestant  Church  as  a  body,  was  to  take  part 
in  discussions  on  the  social  question.  This  question, 
they  said,  embraces  the  whole  of  humanity.  The  So- 
cial Democracy  rests  on  materialism  and  propagates 
atheism,  while  liberalism  and  so-called  positive  science, 
by  endeavoring  to  eradicate  the  religious  sentiment, 
supply  it  with  weapons.  Who  is  to  defend  this  pre- 
cious treasure,  if  not  the  pastor  ?  Christ  came  to  bring 
the  "  glad  tidings"  to  the  poor ;  His  disciples  and 
apostles  ought  to  do  likewise.  They  ought  to  search 
out  the  causes  of  the  ills  of  the  lower  classes,  in  order 
to  find  the  remedy.  Political  economy  can  alone  throw 
light  upon  these  difficult  questions,  and  it  must  accord- 
ingly be  sedulously  studied.  The  clergy  ought  unceas- 
ingly to  remind  the  State  and  the  upper  classes  of  the 
duty  imposed  upon  them  by  the  law  of  the  Gospel  in 
respect  of  their  destitute  brethren.  The  passion  for 
accumulating  riches  is  becoming  more  and  more  the 
characteristic  of  our  age.  This  "  Mammonism"  is  the 
enemy  of  Christianity,  and  must  be  unwearyingly 
combated. 

Pastor  Todt  is  the  chief  author  of  the  movement,  his 
book,  Radical  German  Socialism  and  Christian  So- 
ciety, having  a  large  reading  and  much  influence.  In 
this  work  Todt  condemns  the  economics  of  liberalism 
as  unchristian,  and  seeks  to  show  that  the  ideals  of 
liberty,  equality,  and  fraternity  are  scriptural,  as  are 
also  the  socialist  demands  for  the  abolition  of  private 


Christian  Socialism. 


256 


Christian  Socialism. 


property  and  of  the  wage  system,  the  laborer  to  have 
the  full  produce  of  his  labor,  and  labor  to  be  associated. 
Herr  Todt  places  the  following  epigraph  at  the  head  of 
his  work :  "  Whoever  would  understand  the  social 
question  and  contribute  to  its  solution  must  have  on 
his  right  hand  the  works  on  political  economy,  and  on 
his  left  the  literature  of  scientific  socialism,  and  must 
keep  the  New  Testament  open  before  him."  Political 
economy,  he  adds,  plays  the  part  of  anatomy  :  it  makes 
known  the  construction  of  the  social  body.-  Socialism 
is  the  pathology  which  describes  the  malady,  and  the 
Gospel  is  the  therapeutics  which  apply  the  remedy. 

Is  it  not  remarkable  that  the  Christian  countries  are 
precisely  those  which  have  evolved  socialism  ?    What 
is  the  reason  of  this?    According  to  Herr  Todt,  it  is  be- 
cause socialism  has  its  root  in  Christian- 
ity :  only  it  has  gone  astray  from  it.    It 
Present    De-  is  the  fruit  of  the  Gospel,  but  it  has  be- 
,  i     come  corrupt.    In  reality,  according  to 

veicpmeni.  jjerr  Todt,  socialism  springs  from  the 
sentiment  of  revolt,  produced  by  the 
sight  of  the  contrast  between  the  exist- 
ing economical  constitution  of  society  and  a  certain 
ideal  of  justice  and  equality.  Hence  arises  the  desire 
to  remove  this  contrast  by  a  radical  reform  of  the  so- 
cial order.  Christianity  also  condemns  the  present 
world,  where  selfishness  and  evil  passions  prevail,  and 
announces  the  "new  kingdom,"  where  the  first  shall  be 
last,  where  charity  shall  make  all  men  brothers,  and 
where  the  earth  shall  belong  to  the  peaceful  and  lowly. 
Adolph  Wagner,  the  learned  Professor  of  Political 
Economy  in  the  University  of  Berlin,  is  from  the  stand- 
point of  science  even  a  greater  influence  in  this  move- 
ment. More  recently  the  two  branches  of  the  move- 
ment have  become  one  under  the  name  of  The  Central 
Association  for  Christian  Social  Reform,  and  is  doing 
a  very  wide  work.  Its  adherents  are  said  to  number 
over  7000,  mainly  in  Berlin.  The  movement  has,  how- 
ever, largely  changed  its  character.  Herr  Stocker 
early  became  a  leader  in  the  anti-Semitic  movement, 
and  by  so  doing  attached  to  himself  a  certain  political 
following  not  always  of  a  desirable  character,  and,  at 
the  same  time,  prejudiced  against  him  many  who  had 
been  attracted  by  his  Christian  Socialism.  The  move- 
ment, therefore,  so  far  as  it  is  Christian  Socialist,  has 
broken  away  from  his  lead,  and  for  the  most  part  has 
become  a  movement  for  all  kinds  of  church  and  social 
philanthropic  societies  and  efforts.  It  has  in  this  line 
developed  a  large  and  useful  activity.  It  has,  how- 
ever, become  so  connected  in  this  movement  with  the 
so-called  "Inner  Mission"  (g.v.)  in  Germany  that  we 
consider  it  best  under  that  head.  Only  a  few  of  the 
younger  men  adhere  to  any  large  extent  to  the  radical 
views  with  which  Christian  Socialism  in  England  and 
America  is  usually  identified.  Nevertheless,  important 
yearly  congresses  of  the  Evangelische  Socialisten,  as 
they  are  called,  are  held,  and  led  by  such  men  as  Paul 
Gohre,  for  a  long  time  the  secretary  of  the  association, 
exert  no  small  influence  in  the  Protestant  Churches 
of  Germany.  (See  INNER  MISSION.) 

FRANCE. 

France  may  be  said,  in  a  very  real  sense,  to 
be  the  birthplace  of  Christian  Socialism.  As 
long  ago  as  1790  did  Claude  Fauchet(^.?/.),oncea 

court  preacher,  and  then  a  leader  in 

the  Revolution,  advocate  a  radical 
Early  Christian  communism,  and  found- 
Christian  ed  a  Christian  communist  paper — 
Socialists,  the  first  socialist  paper  of  the  world, 

Bouche  de Fer (The  Iron  World}. 

He  founded  Christian  socialist  clubs, 
and  exerted  no  little  influence.  The  bon  mot  of 
Camille  Desmoulins,  calling  Christ  le  bon  sans- 
citlotte,  is  well  known.  Saint  Simon  (g.v.)  him- 
self has  been  sometimes  called  the  first  Christian 
Socialist.  His  first  idea  was  to  induce  the  Pope 
to  found  a  new  Christian  social  order,  and  when 
he  failed  in  this,  he  undertook  himself  to  found 
what  he  called  a  New  Christianity.  Several  of 
the  Saint  Simonians,  notably  Buchez  (g.v.),  be- 
lieved that  they  could,  and  endeavored  strenu- 
ously to  establish  a  new  social  Christianity.  Far 
more  truly  may  Lamennais  (g.v.)  be  considered  a 
leading  French  Christian  Socialist.  His  journal, 
L'  Avenir,  began  in  1830  with  its  motto,  "  God 


French 

Catholic 

Christian 

Socialism. 


and  liberty,  the  Pope  and  the  people,"  and  after 
his  break  with  the  papacy,  his  Les  Paroles  d'len 
Croyant  (The  Words  of  a  Believer,  1839),  are 
among  the  noblest  and  most  burning  Christian 
socialist  utterances  ever  made.  Cabet,  the  brill- 
iant author  of  the  Utopian  Icaria,  must  also  be 
mentioned  here,  with  his  book,  Le  Vrai  Chris- 
tianisme  suivant  Jesus  Christ  (1846),  striving 
to  show  that  Christianity  is  communism.  Yet 
in  spite  of  these  and  other  brilliant  utterances 
there  has  been  no  organized  Christian  socialist 
movement  in  France  until  very  recent  times. 

Says  Kaufmann,  in  his  Christian  Socialism,  p.  169 : 
"  De  Maistre.  Lamennais,  Lacordaire,  on  the  one 
hand,  Bonald,  Le  Play,  and  le  Comte  de  Mun,  on  the 
other,  represent  in  the  order  we  have  placed  them, 
tho  not  in  chronological  sequence,  thte  ascending 
and  descending  scale  from  and  to  the  Ultramontane 
standpoint  of  Christian  Socialism." 

The  great  movement  of  Le  Play  (q.v.)  can,  in  itself, 
however,  scarcely  be  called  a  Christian  Socialist 
movement,  altho  it  has  led  to  some  extent  to  a  move- 
ment sometimes  using  this  name.  Le  Play  himself,  al- 
tho a  devout  Roman  Catholic,  aimed  to  make  his 
movement  purely  educational.  The  founder  of  the 
real  Roman  Catholic  socialist  movement 
in  France  is  the  Comte  de  Mun  (q.v.). 
He,  with  the  Comte  de  la  Tour-du-Pin 
Chambly,  founded,  soon  after  the  Fran- 
co-Prussian War,  the  CEuz>re  des  Cercles 
Catholiques  d'Ottvriers,  an  association 
organized  for  the  purpose  of  bringing 
together  working  men  on  a  Church 
basis,  and  standing  on  the  social  prin- 
ciples of  the  encyclical  and  syllabus 
of  1864.  Its  professed  object  is  "the 
counter-revolution,  made  in  the  name  of  the  syllabus, 
and  the  great  work  of  reestablishing  a  Christian  order 
in  the  world  of  labor."  The  followers  of  this  school 
hold  the  Protestant  Reformation  to  be  the  parent  of 
all  France's  moral  and  social  ills.  They  see  in  the  Ref- 
ormation a  revolution  against  God,  the  worship  of  the 
sovereignty  of  the  man  in  place  of  the  sovereignty 
of  God.  They  class  Luther,  Calvin,  Voltaire,  Rous- 
seau, Danton,  Robespierre,  side  by  side.  Against^  the 
Reformation,  with  its  asserted  ecclesiastical,  political, 
social,  and  moral  results,  they  declare  war.  In  place 
of  Protestantism  and  economic  individualism  they 
would  establish  cooperative  association  with  State 
aid,  under  the  patronage  of  the  Church  of  Rome. 
With  the  Social  Democrats  they  have  nothing  to  do. 
Since  the  Pope  has  condemned  socialism  under  that 
name,  though  indorsing  many  of  its  principles,  they 
deny  that  there  can  be  a  Christian  Socialism.  The 
movement  is  more  ecclesiastical  and  political  than 
really  Christian  Socialist.  It  is  an  effort  to  hold  the 
working  classes  for  Rome.  The  direction  of  the  unions 
is  placed  in  the  hands  of  local  committees  in  close 
connection  with  a  central  committee  in  Paris.  It  is  an 
attempt,  moreover,  of  bringing  together  the  higher 
and  lower  classes  of  society  by  means  of  Christian 
sympathy,  and  so  to  effect  social  union.  These  Cath- 
olic working  men's  associations  combine  the  advan- 
tages of  a  religious  club,  a  cooperative  supply  associa- 
tion, and  a  laborer's  friend  society  all  in  one. 
Eventually  the  CEuvre  purposes  to  become  the 
nucleus  of  a  number  of  benevolent  institutions  to 
promote  the  welfare  of  the  working  man.  Originally 
intended  for  the  workmen  of  large  towns,  these  asso- 
ciations have  spread  into  the  villages,  and  are  now 
what  the  Comte  de  Mun  calls  calmly  settled  "islets  in 
the  midst  of  immense  populations  agitated  by  the 
tempests  of  social  war.  '  There  were  450  of  these 
cercles  in  1880,  and  several  employers  of  labor,  like 
the  Christian  philanthropist  Harmel  in  the  Val-des- 
Bois,  are  able  to  give  most  satisfactory  reports  of  their 
own  attempts  to  transform  unruly  colonies  of  work- 
men into  quiet  and  industrious  communities  by  the 
adoption  of  the  principles  of  the  cercles,  and  thus  to 
establish  a  happy  relationship  between  employer  and 
employed. 

In  1887  there  were  400  cercles  and  130  cooperative  as- 
sociations. 

Their  leader,  the  Comte  de  Mun,  is  an  active  politician 
and  fluent  speaker,  and  tho  sometimes  defeated,  has 
frequently  been  elected  to  the  Chamber  of  Deputies, 
where  he  is  the  leader  of  his  party. 

This  movement,  however,  is  not  the  only  Roman 
Catholic  social  movement  in  France.  In  1890  Bishop 


Christian  Socialism. 


257 


Christian  Socialism. 


Frippel  founded  La  Societe  Catholiqtte  d'  economic  poli- 
tique,  representing  the  Le  Play  movement,  but  in 
direct  conjunction  with  the  Church.  To  the  Le  Play 
school  also  belong  Claude  Janvel,  Charles  Perin  (q.v.), 
the  Jesuit  fathers  Forbes  and  Caudron,  and  other 
prominent  Catholic  workers  for  social  reform.  (See 
LE  PLAY  ;  also  ROMAN  CATHOLIC  CHURCH  AND  SO- 
CIAL REFORM.) 

Protestant  Christian  Socialism  in  France  is  still  more 
recent.  Our  account  is  abridged  from  an  article  by 
Rev.  John  G.  Brooks  in  The  New  World,  December, 
1802  : 

"In  1887  Pastor  L.    Gouth    of  Aubenas  (Ardeche), 

after    much    conversation    and    correspondence  with 

Pastor  I.  Fallpt  and  other  laymen,  took  the  initiative 

in  the  establishment  of  a  Protestant  Association  for 

the  Practical  Study  of  Social  Questions* 

A   provisional   committee   was    named, 

French       ano-  requests  for  membership  were  sent 

•Prntoatant    out  to  every  department,  and  on  Octo- 
-rroiesiani,    ber  ig  and  ^  ig8g>  the  association  held 

Christian  its  first  general  assembly  at  Nimes 
Socialism.  (Gard).  In  this  assembly  there  met 
members  of  the  different  Protestant 
churches  of  France,  especially  the 
clergy.  The  fact  which  caused  the  most  astonish- 
ment and  rejoicing  was  that  orthodox  and  liberals 
of  the  national  Church  forgot  their  divisions  and  joined 
hands  on  common  ground,  after  15  yearS  of  theological 
and  ecclesiastical  controversy.  All  were  there  ani- 
mated by  the  same  spirit,  and  all  sought  the  same  end. 
If  this  end  was  not  very  clearly  seen — the  greater  part 
of  the  members  having  given  very  little  study  to  the 
complex  social  question,  or  social  questions  rather — 
all  felt  that  there  was  something  for  Christians  to  do, 
and  that  it  was  a  duty  for  all  to  labor  in  concert  to  es- 
tablish the  kingdom  of  righteousness  in  the  world. 
After  a  noble  discourse  by  the  president,  the  courage- 
ous Pastor  I.  Fallot,  and  an  incisive  and  thoughtful  re- 
port by  M.  Charles  Gide,  the  eminent  professor  of 
political  economy,  rules  and  regulations  were  voted, 
of  which  these  are  the  principal  articles  :  '  i.  A  Protes- 
tant Association  for  the  Practical  Study  of  Social 
Questions  in  France  is  hereby  established.  2.  It  ap- 
peals without  distinction  of  opinion  to  all  Protestants, 
men  and  women,  who  comprehend  their  responsi- 
bilities and  their  duties  in  view  of  the  sufferings  and 
the  dangers  of  existing  society,  and  who  are  resolved 
to  thoroughly  apply  to  the  organization  of  society,  as 
well  as  to  the  life  of  the  individual,  the  principles  of 
justice  and  love  proclaimed  by  Jesus  Christ.  3.  It 
proposes  to  aid  its  members  in  the  study  of  economic 
science  and  of  the  various  efforts  at  social  reform.  4. 
Placing  itself  above  all  on  moral  and  religious  ground, 
the  association  will  apply  itself  to  the  investigation 
and  publication  of  everything  in  the  existing  order 
which  is  contrary  to  justice  and  solidarity,  everything 
of  a  nature  to  hinder  the  moral  and  religious  develop- 
ment of  the  individual,  and  consequently  his  salva^ 
tion.  5.  The  aim  of  the  association  is  to  labor  to  re- 
pair the  evils  from  which  we  suffer,  by  pointing  out  to 
Christians  their  social  duties,  by  suggesting  to  them 
the  initiative  in  works  of  brotherhood  and  relief,  and 
by  acting  upon  public  opinion  and  the  established 
powers  to  bring  about  necessary  reforms.' 

"  Many  general  assemblies  have  since  been  held — 
at  Nimes,  Lyons,  Montbeliard  (Doubs),  Marseilles, 
Havre,  and  Paris.  The  association  has  now  a  mem- 
bership of  some  600,  and  has  striven  mainly  to  encour- 
age social  studies,  both  theoretical  and  practical, 
chiefly  through  means  of  conferences  ;  to  undertake  or 
encourage  the  publication  of  these  social  studies  in 
pamphlet  form  or  in  periodicals  ;  to  establish  in  Prot- 
estant communities  groups  for  social  study  and  social 
activity.  Several  of  the  members  have  established  in 
their  churches,  or  rather  in  their  communes,  institu- 
tions answering  to  its  aims,  a  bureau  of  information 
and  employment,  a  Maison  de  Travail,  &  mutual  aid 
society  ;  elsewhere  a  society  for  the  aid  of  young  ap- 
prentices of  both  sexes,  lodging-houses,  and  the  like 
institutions.  The  Review  of  Practical  Christianity, 
published  once  in  two  months,  at  Vals-les-Bains 
(Ardeche),  at  the  price  of  five  francs,  is  the  official  or- 
gan of  the  association.  Edited  by  M.  Chastand,  pastor 
at  Vals,  this  review  publishes  papers  from  the  histori- 
cal, the  theoretical,  and  the  practical  points  of  view, 
by  MM.  Gide,  de  Boyve,  Fallot,  Robin,  Konig,  Raoul 
Allier,  and  many  others  of  the  laity  and  clergy.  M.  de 
Boyve  edits  L  Emancipation,  published  at  Nimes 
(Gard). 

"The  association  during  the  Paris  Exposition  was 
represented  at  the  congress  on  participation  in  profits, 
at  the  congress  held  to  consider  accidents  to  working 
people,  and  at  the  congress  on  Sabbath  rest.  The  fine 


work  of  Pastor  Wagner,  Lajeunesse,  has  been  crowned 
by  the  Academy.  It  has  lately  been  translated  into 
English  and  issued  in  England  and  America.  Efforts 
of  many  kinds  are  made,  especially  in  what  concerns 
the  elevation  of  woman — a  work  pursued  with  stead- 
fastness by  MM.  Fallot,  Charles  Secretan,  Minault, 
Gouth,  Comte,  and  several  others." 

OTHER  EUROPEAN  COUNTRIES. 

Belgium  has  distinguished  herself  in  the  literature 
of  Christian  Socialism.  Colins,  born  in  Belgium  in 
1753,  should  perhaps  be  mentioned  here, 
tho  he  wrote  mainly  in  Paris,  and  devel- 
oped a  philosophy  in  most  respects  any-  •Polo-inni 
thing  but  Christian,  since  he  believed,  •DelSlum- 
strangely  to  say,  in  immortality,  but 
not  in  God.  As  an  ardent  land  nation- 
alizer,  however,  and  with  a  religious  spirit,  altho  a 
bizarre  theology,  he  perhaps  sowed  seeds  which  have 
sprung  up  in  Belgian  Christian  Socialism.  Huet  (g.  v.), 
born  in  1814,  was  an  out-and-out  Christian  Socialist. 
His  Le  Regne  Social  du  Christianisme,  published  about 
1850,  is  one  of  the  earliest  and  best  statements  of  Chris- 
tian Socialism  in  any  language.  ProfessordeLaveleye 
was  his  pupil,  and  says  of  this  book  that  it  has  not  re- 
ceived the  attention  it  deserves,  being  too  full  of  Chris- 
tianity for  most  socialists  and  too  full  of  socialism  for 
most  Christians.  A  Roman  Catholic  of  the  school  of 
Pascal  and  Bossuet,  he  protested  to  the  last  against 
ultramontanism,  and  for  a  liberal  Catholicism  and  a 
spiritual  secularity.  Professor  Emile  Louis  de  Lave- 
leye,his  most  distinguished  scholar,  belongs  to  the  same 
school.  Professor  of  Political  Economy  at  Liege,  he  is 
as  well  known  for  his  Christian  Socialism  as  for  his 
economic  and  sociological  writings.  A  Catholic, 
altho  of  the  extreme  liberal  type,  his  position  on 
Christian  Socialism  may  be  summed  up  in  the  passage 
from  the  introduction  to  his  Contemporary  Socialism, 
where  he  says :  "  Every  Christian  who  understands 
and  earnestly  accepts  the  teachings  of  his  Master  is  at 
heart  a  socialist ;  and  every  socialist,  whatever  may  be 
his  hatred  against  all  religion,  bears  within  himself  an 
unconscious  Christianity.  Professor  C.  Perin,  of  the 
Roman  Catholic  University  of  Louvain,  belongs  to 
the  ultramontane  school.  His  treatise  on  Wealth 
in  Christian  Society  was  published  in  1861.  Later  he 
published  a  work  on  the  Laws  of  Christian  Society, 
which  was  prefaced  by  a  pontifical  breve,  dated 
1875.  In  1879116  published  a  work  on  Christian  Social- 
ism, to  which  was  added  an  address  he  delivered  at  the 
opening  of  the  Congress  of  the  Directors  of  the  Roman 
Catholic  Workman's  Associations,  at  Chartres,  August 
Q,  1878.  Perin  founds  social  order  on  Divine  authority, 
but  trusts  largely  to  the  moral  rather  than  the  dogmatic 
influence  of  the  Church.  Industry,  he  believes,  should 
be  organized,  both  paternally  and  fraternally,  under 
employers,  and  yet  with  a  Christian  fraternal  spirit. 
(For  further  details,  see  COLINS  ;  HUET  ;  LAVELEYE  ; 
PERIN.)  With  all  these  and  other  Christian  Social- 
ist writers  in  Belgium,  one  is  not  surprised  to  find  much 
fruit.  Roman  Catholic  Workman's  Associations  have 
existed  in  Belgium  some  25  years.  Altho  in  many 
ways  not  popular  organizations  among  the  masses, 
since  they  are  very  largely  managed  and  controlled  by 
priests  and  Jesuits,  they  do  reach  many  workmen,  and 
their  frequent  congresses  have  been  very  influential. 
On  the  occasion  of  the  congress  at  Liege  in  1886,  Pope 
Leo  XIII.  addressed  a  favorable  letter  to  the  Bishop  of 
Liege,  which  was  enthusiastically  received.  The  In- 
ternational Catholic  Congress  at  Liege  in  1887,  under 
the  presidency  of  the  Cardinal  Archbishop  of  Rheims, 
and  attended  by  prelates  from  all  over  Europe  as  well 
as  by  Belgian  members  of  Parliament  and  employers 
of  labor,  gave  large  attention  to  social  questions,  and 
took  position  largely  on  the  lines  advocated  by  Profes- 
sor Perin.  At  the  congress  at  Liege  in  1800  there  were 
1500  delegates,  including  10  bishops.  The  Catholic 
movement,  however,  in  Belgium  has  two  schools,  one 
of  which  would  oppose  Catholicism  to  the  socialist 
movement,  and  try  and  defeat  it ;  the  other  would 
work  with  the  socialists  so  far  as  possible,  and  try  and 
Christianize  their  movement.  Both  parties,  however, 
are  opposed  to  radical  democratic  socialism,  and  are, 
therefore,  violently  opposed  by  the  Belgian  socialists, 
who  would  away  with  pope  and  bishop,  as  well  as 
capitalist  and  king. 

In  other  European  countries  Christian  Socialism  has 
a  less  hold.  In  Geneva,  in  Switzerland,  however, 
there  are  two  societies  of  Christian  Socialist*,  and  these 
extend  their  influence  very  largely  through  all  Switz- 
erland. One  of  these,  the  Christian  Swiss  Society  of 
Social  Economics,  is  mainly  an  educational  society, 


Christian  Socialism. 


258 


Christian  Socialism. 


•working  among  the  educated  classes.  Its  president  is 
M.  Frederic  Necker,  a  descendant  of  Madame  de  Stael. 
It  numbers  among  its  members  many  of 
the  prominent  Swiss  Protestant  clergy- 
men,  but  has  also  many  professors,  busi- 
ness  men,  and  bankers.  The  venerable 
Countries,  and  well-known  Professor  Charles  Sec- 
retan,  of  Lausanne,  was  among  its  direct- 
ors and  a  firm  Christian  Socialist  in  the 
larger  sense  of  the  term.  The  other  society,  the  Society 
for  the  Practical  Study  of  Social  Questions,  works 
among  the  working  classes,  and  attempts  to  come  into 
contact  with  the  non-Christian  Swiss  socialists.  It  is  un- 
der the  lead  of  the  Geneva  pastor,  M.  H.  Rqerich,  and  is 
mainly  useful  in  publishing  some  admirable  altho 
radical  Christian  Socialist  literature.  It  publishes  a 
monthly  paper,  La  Solidarite,  at  Imprimerie  Dubois, 
Quai  des  Moulons,  Geneva  ;  price,  for  foreign  coun- 
tries, 75  cents.  Roman  Catholic  Christian  Socialism  in 
Switzerland  has  little  development,  altho  not  a  few  of 
the  priests,  notably  one  at  Chur,  speak  openly  on  this 
question,  following  the  recent  lead  of  the  Pope  (see 
THE  CHURCH  AND  SOCIAL  REFORM  ;  ROMAN  CATHOLIC 
CHURCH).  In  Austria  Christian  Socialism  was  first  ad- 
vocated by  a  Protestant,  Rudolph  Meyer,  but  he  was 
effectively  seconded  by  Roman  Catholics— Prince  von 
Leichtenstein,  Counts  Blome  and  Kuefstein,and  most  of 
all  by  Baron  von  Vogelsang,  the  founder  of  the  organ- 
ized movement.  Austrian  Christian  Socialism  is,  how- 
ever, little  more  than  patronage  of  working  men  in  the 
interests  of  Rome.  Other  countries  have  done  still 
less,  altho  Rev.  M.  Kaufmann  (q.  v.),  in  his  Christian 
Socialism,  says :  "  As  the  eye  travels  over  the  map, 
different  countries  at  once  call  up  before  the  mind 
figures  of  prominent  Christian  Socialists  in  every  di- 
rection. The  Scandinavian  North  suggests  the  vener- 
able figure  of  the  late  Bishop  of  Zeeland,  and  his  work 
on  Socialism  and  Christianity  as  a  Fragment  of  Chris- 
tian Ethics.  Italy  reminds  us  of  the  social  studies  of 
Rafaele  Mariano  in  his  work  on  Christian  Catholicism 
and  Culture.  To  this  in  Italy  should  be  added  the 
great  name  of  Mazzini  (q.  v.),  who,  tho  neither  a  Chris- 
tian nor  a  socialist,  as  they  were  presented  to  him  in 
his  days,  was  one  of  the  truest  Christian  Socialists  of 
the  century,  as  witnessed  to  bv  his  Duties  of  Man  and 
other  writings.  (See  MAZZINI.) 

THE  UNITED  STATES. 

Christian  Socialism  in  America  has  made  a 
more  recent  appearance.  This  is  due  undoubt- 
edly mainly  to  economic  conditions  in  part  to 
the  American  idea  of  the  divorce  of  Church  and 
State,  which  has  meant  too  often  the  divorce  of 
secular  and  religious  life.  There  have  long 
been  those,  however,  in  America  who  have  in- 
dividually looked  this  way.  Many  of  the  par- 
ticipants in  the  Brook  Farm  and  the  early  Fou- 
rier experiments  acted  on  motives  largely  those 
of  Christian  Socialism.  As  early  as  1849  Henry 
James,  Sr.,  in  a  lecture  delivered  in  Boston, 
argued  the  identity  of  Christianity  and  Social- 
ism. In  1872  a  Christian  Labor  Union  was  or- 
ganized in  Boston  under  the  lead  of  George  E. 
McMill,  Edward  H.  Rogers,  Hon.  T.  Wharton 
Collins  (of  New  Orleans),  the  Rev.  Jesse  H. 

Jones,  Henry  T.  Delano,  and  others.  The  Rev. 
esse  H.  Jones  from  1874-75  published  a  paper 
in  Boston  called  the  Equity,  really  a  paper  of 
Christian  Socialism.  The  writings  of  the  Rev. 
R.  Heber  Newton,  D.D.,  of  Drs.  Lyman  Ab- 
bott, Rylance,  Washington  Gladden,  Professor 
R.  T.  Ely,  are  well  known.  Yet  were  there  no 
Christian  Socialists,  so-called,  in  America  till 
organization  was  effected  in  Boston,  April  15, 
1889,  largely  under  the  lead  of  the  Rev.  W.  D.  P. 
Bliss.  It  was  called  the  Society  of  Christian 
Socialists,  and  adopted  the  following  principles  : 

"  To  exalt  the  principle  that  all  rights  and  powers 
are  gifts  of  God,  not  for  the  receiver's  use  only,  but 
for  the  benefit  of  all ;  to  magnify  the  oneness  of  the 
human  family,  and  to  lift  mankind  to  the  highest  plane 
of  privilege,  we  band  ourselves  together  under  the 
name  of  Christian  Socialists. 


"  I.  We  hold  that  God  is  the  source  and  guide  of  all 
human  progress,  and  we  believe  that  all  social,  politi- 
cal, and  industrial  relations  should  be  based  on  the 
fatherhood  of  God  and  the  brotherhood  of  man,  in  the 
spirit  and  according  to  the  teachings  of  Jesus  Christ. 

"  II.  We  hold  that  the  present  commercial  and  in- 
dustrial system  is  not  thus  based,  but  rests  rather  on 
economic  individualism,  the  results  of  which  are  : 

"  (i)  That  the  natural  resources  of  the  earth  and  the 
mechanical   inventions  of    man   are  made  to  accrue 
disproportionately  to  the  advantage  of  the  few  instead 
of   the  many.     (2)  That    production    is 
without  general  plan,  and  commercial 
and  industrial  crises  are  thereby  pre-     Society  of 
cipitated.    (3)  That  the  control  or  busi-      fViriotion 
ness    is   rapidly    concentrating    in    the     ^""suai 
hands  of  a  dangerous  plutocracy,  and     Socialists. 
the  destinies  of    the  masses  of  wage- 
earners  are  becoming  increasingly  de- 
pendent on  the   will   and  resources  of   a  narrowing 
number  of  wage-payers.    (4)  That  thus  large  occasion 
is  given  for  the  moral  evils  of  mammonisnij    reck- 
lessness,   overcrowding,    intemperance,    prostitution, 
crime. 

"  III.  We  hold  that  united  Christianity  must  protest 
against  a  system  so  based  and  productive  of  such  re- 
sults, and  must  demand  a  reconstructed  social  order, 
whichj  adopting  some  method  of  production  and  dis- 
tribution that  starts  from  organized  society  as  a  body 
and  seeks  to  benefit  society  equitably  in  everyone  of 
its  members,  shall  be  based  on  the  Christian  principle 
that  '  We  are  members  one  of  another.' 

"  IV.  While  recognizing  the  present  dangerous  ten- 
dency of  business  toward  combinations  and  trusts,  we 
yet  believe  that  the  economic  circumstances  which  call 
them  into  being  will  necessarily  result  in  the  develop- 
ment of  such  a  social  order,  which,  with  the  equally 
necessary  development  of  individual  character,  will 
be  at  once  true  socialism  and  true  Christianity. 

"  V.  Our  objects,  therefore,  as  Christian  Socialists, 
are  : 

"  d)  To  show  that  the  aim  of  socialism  is  embraced 
in  the  aim  of  Christianity.  (2)  To  awaken  members 
of  Christian  churches  to  the  fact  that  the  teachings  of 
Jesus  Christ  lead  directly  to  some  specific  form  or 
forms  of  socialism  ;  that,  therefore,  the  Church  has  a 
definite  duty  upon  this  matter,  and  must,  in  simple 
obedience  to  Christ,  apply  itself  to  the  realization  of 
the  social  principles  of  Christianity. 

"  VI.  We  invite  all  who  can  subscribe  to  this  decla- 
ration to  active  cooperation  with  us,  and  we  urge  the 
formation  of  similar  fellowships  in  other  places 
throughout  the  land." 

This  society  included  members  of  all  churches.  Its 
president  was  a  Baptist,  the  Rev.  O.  P.  Gifford,  and 
among  its  officers  Rev.  P.  W.  Sprague  (Episcopalian) 
and  Mrs.  Mary  A.  Livermore  (Universalist).  Branch 
societies  were  also  started  in  many  cities.  The  society 
also  established,  in  1889,  a  monthly  organ,  The  Dawn, 
for  some  years  published  in  Boston  by  Mr.  Bliss.  The 
society,  however,  no  longer  exists.  Mr.  Bliss  has 
established  an  Episcopal  mission,  the  Church  of  the 
Carpenter,  in  Boston,  which  supports  the  name  and 
principles  of  Christian  socialism,  but  through  the 
country  the  organization  has  not  taken  root.  This  is, 
perhaps,  however,  somewhat  due  to  the  fact  that 
Christian  Socialism  has  in  one  form  or  another  very 
largely  entered  the  churches  themselves.  The  Daivn 
in  January,  1893,  published  a  list  of  some  700  clergy- 
men more  or  less  actually  engaged  in  Christian  Social 
reform.  In  the  Episcopal  Church,  a  Church  Social 
Union  (q.v.)  has  been  established  that  has  reached  1000 
members.  In  the  Baptist  Church  a  Brotherhood  of 
the  Kingdom  (q.v.)  has  been  formed. 
Still  larger  and  more  influential  is  the 
American  Institute  of  Christian  Sociol-  American 
ogy  (q.v.),  which  is  not  confined  to  any 
one  denomination.  In  many  colleges 
and  divinity  schools  there  are  now 
either  chairs  or  courses  of  lectures  in  Sociology. 
Christian  Sociology.  Especially  active 
in  this  work  has  been  the  Rev.  G.  D. 
Herron,  D.D.,  Professor  of  Christian 
Sociology  at  Iowa  College,  Grinnell,  la.  Professor 
Herron  is  author  of  many  small  but  brilliant  books, 
and  is  constantly  lecturing  or  holding  institutes  of 
Christian  Sociology  in  all  sections  of  the  country. 
The  Rev.  Graham  Taylor,  Professor  of  Christian 
Sociology  in  Chicago  Theological  Seminary,  is  also- 
working,  tho  more  conservatively,  on  Christian  social 
lines.  The  Kingdom,  a  monthly  of  applied  Christianity, 
published  in  Minneapolis,  has  reached  a  circulation  of 
some  20,000.  Almost  all  Church  papers  in  the  United 
States,  notably  The  Outlook  (see  ABBOTT)  and  The 


Christian 


Christian  Socialism. 


259 


Christian  Socialism. 


Christian  Statesman,  published  in  Alleghany,  Pa.,  are 
full  of  earnest  articles  on  Christian  social  reform.  Much 
of  this  movement,  however,  is  not  committed  to  the  defi- 
nite principles  of  Christian  Socialism,  nor  to  the  radi- 
cal measures  (advocated  in  The  Dawn  in 
this  country  and  among  most  English 
Views  of     Christian  socialists.      The  emphasis   of 
Dr   P    D       ^r'  Herron's  teaching,  e.g.,  is  upon  the 
JJT.  IT.  if.     coming  of  the  kingdom  of  God  and  the 
Herron.       enthronement  of    Christ  as  king  over 
all  social  life.     Savs  a  reviewer  of  Dr. 
Herron's  work  :  "  His  spirit  is  one  of  in- 
tense loyalty  to  Jesus  Christ,  demanding  His  immedi- 
ate enthronement  in  those  spheres  of  action  in  which 
most  Christians  and  the  world  have  denied  Him  sover- 
eignty.   There  are  no  books  that  breathe  a  stronger 
personal  attachment  to  a  risen  living  Lord  than  his. 
His  basal  principle  is  the  Cross— self-sacrifice  as  the 
law  for  Church  and  society,  State,  nation,  and  world, 
as  well  as  for  individual  life.    And  this  he  iterates 
and  reiterates  with  an  intensity  and  passionate  eager- 
ness, a  particularity  and  a  wideness  of  scope  that  no 
man  in  history  has  attempted  (so  far  as  I  know)  this 
side  of  Paul.     'In  the  class  room  from  day  to  day,  as 
well  as  in  the  pulpit  on  Sundays,  he  seems  determined 
to  know  nothing    but  Jesus  Christ  and  Him   cruci- 
fied.'" 

Dr.  Herron  steadily  declines  to  go  into  detailed 
schemes  for  the  reconstruction  of  society.  He  believes 
it  to  be  the  function  of  Christian  sociology  not  to  enter 
such  details,  but  to  present  the  general  principles  ac- 
cording to  which  a  true  society  must  be  constructed. 
Without  fear  or  favor,  however,  Dr.  Herron  condemns 
the  present  industrial,  social,  and  ecclesiastical  con- 
ditions, and  demands  their  reformation  in  the  name  of 
Christ. 

On  the  other  hand,  the  Christian  Socialism  advocated 

by  77ie  Dawn  and  a  few  of  the  more  rad- 

ical  Christian  Socialists  of  the  country 

Radical       does  advocate  the  definite  measures  of 

Christian     the  socialist  program,  yet  ever  in  the 

<5npialic-n      name  of  and  based  upon  the  life  and 

socialism.     teachm>fs  of  jesus  Christ.    Says  a  tract 

by  the  Rev.  W.  D.  P.  Bliss  : 

"  Christian  Socialism  is  the  application  to  society  of 
the  way  of  Christ.  It  believes  that  Christ  has  a  social 
way.  and  that  only  in  this  way  are  there  healing  and 
wholeness  for  the  nations.  Christian  Socialists  do  not 
deny  the  necessity  of  individual  Christianity.  The 
first  thing  to  do  is  for  the  individual  to  accept  Christ. 
Repentance,  faith,  baptism,  the  sacraments,  the  indi- 
vidual spiritual  life— Christian  Socialism  is  no  substi- 
tute for  these.  It  is  no  salvation  by  the  wholesale,  by 
machinery,  by  power  of  environment ;  it  is  no  new 
gospel  of  modern  thought.  It  is,  rather,  simply  the 
carrying  out  of  the  full,  old  gospel,  which  is  to  all  peo- 
ple. It  holds  that  Christian  Socialism  follows  from  and 
is  involved  in  personal  obedience  to  Christ.  It  is  first 
Christian.  Its  starting-point  is  the  Incarnation. 

"  But  this  being  so,  it  quickly  adds,  that  while  Chris- 
tian Socialism  follows  from  personal  obedience  to 
Christ,  it  is  not  enough  to-day  to  say  that  all  that  is 
needed  is  for  the  individual  to  follow  Christ.  This, 
while  true,  is  too  indefinite.  It  begs  the  question. 
IV e  need  to  be  told  what  it  means  to  follow  Christ. 
Those  sentimental  Christians  who  will  listen  to  naught 
else,  and  say  that  all  that  is  necessary  is  for  individu- 
als to  obey  Christ,  and  to  induce  others  to  follow  Him, 
are  in  danger  of  saying,  '  Lord,  Lord,'  without  showing 
what  the  Lord  would  have  us  do.  Christian  Socialism 
tries  to  voice  the  social  law  that  it  has  learned  from 
Christ. 

"  First,  it  declares  that  all  men  are  the  children  of 
God's  creation,  and  that  in  the  Son,  who  is  God's  eter- 
nal purpose  manifest  in  the  flesh,  their  sonship  is  to  be 
realized,  they  by  Him  being  reunited  to  God.  This  is 
the  starting-point  of  Christian  Socialism.  But  from 
this  much  follows.  It  follows  that  men  are  not  merely 
individuals ;  they  are  born  united ;  they  are  born  in 
one  family.  It  is  not  necessary,  therefore,  to  develop 
an  organism.  The  world  is  one.  We  simply  need  to 
realize  what  we  are.  Society  makes  the  individual, 
more  than  the  individual  makes  society.  Society  be- 
gins in  God.  This  being  so,  the  first  social  necessity 
is  to  recognize  this.  We  are  not  to  attempt  to  develop 
a  social  system  that  starts  from  the  individual,  but 
simply  to  develop  the  social  unity  we  derive  from  God. 
"Second,  the  law  for  the  social  life  Christian  Social- 
ism finds  in  the  Old  Testament.  The  Mosaic  revela- 
tion gives  the  law  for  society.  It  founded  a  theocracy 
on  earth.  God  was  the  Universal  Father  ;  every  man 
of  the  theocracy  a  brother.  Property  in  land  was  not 
absolute  ;  the  land  was  conceived  as  belonging  to  God. 
No  individual  could  own  it  in  fee  simple.  He  could 


only  use  it.  In  its  use  he  was  inalienably  protected. 
It  came  to  him  through  the  family  as  an  inalienable 
inheritance.  If,  through  poverty  or  misfortune,  he 
temporarily  parted  with  it,  it  returned  to  him  in  the 
year  of  jubilee.  No  landless,  homeless  class  could, 
therefore,  be  permanently  developed  among  the  He- 
brews. (See  JUDAISM.) 

"The  law  went  farther.  It  cared  especially  for  the 
poor,  the  oppressed,  the  children,  the  fatherless,  the 
widow.  Usury  (or  interest :  all  scholars  agree  that  the 
two  words  originally  meant  the  same  thing)  was  posi- 
tively forbidden  between  members  of  His  kingdom. 
The  law  provided  for  every  one's  independence.  It 
not  only  provided  land  for  the  worker,  but  defended 
him  in  the  ownership  of  clothes,  tools,  etc.  (capital), 
which  could  not  permanently  be  taken  from  him.  If 
taken  as  a  pledge,  they  must  be  returned  before  night. 
No  permanent  mortgage  indebtedness  was,  therefore, 
possible  on  either  land  or  capital  ;  that  is,  the  law 
was  truly  socialistic  in  providing  in  the  name  of  organ- 
ized society  for  both  land  and  capital  for  every  family. 
And  this  was  not,  be  it  remembered,  a  law  of  mere  in- 
dividual righteousness.  In  order  to  reap  its  benefits, 
the  family  had  to  belong  to  the  theocracy.  The  Jew 
could  take  interest  from  a  foreigner  ;  the  foreigner 
could  be  enslaved,  even  killed.  The  law  was  essen- 
tially national  and  institutional. 

"  Third,  this  law  can  only  be  fulfilled  in  Jesus  Christ. 
The  Hebrew  law  did  not  work  :  no  law  can  work  ;  it 
is  not  the  function  of  law  to  work  ;  man  must  ivork  the 
law;  hence  the  Christ,  hence  conversion,  hence  the 
sacraments,  hence  the  means  of  grace.  Jesus  Christ 
came  to  enable  us  to  fulfil  the  law.  What  the  law 
could  not  do,  in  that  it  was  weak  through  the  flesh, 
that  Jesus  Christ  came  to  fulfil :  only  the  spiritual  life 
must  not  replace  the  law,  but  fulfil  it.  This  is  the  di- 
vine unity.  Individualism  forgets  law  ;  institutional- 
ism  forgets  grace.  A  true  socialism  fulfils  the  social 
law  through  grace.  The  Old  Testament  gives  the 
world  its  social  track  ;  Jesus  Christ  gives  the  locomo- 
tive power.  To  preach  as  Tolstoi  and  most  Protestants 
do,  the  latter  without  social  organization,  is  to  try  and 
run  a  locomotive  without  a  track.  No  wonder  that  it 
lands  them  in  the  ditch  of  impossibilities  and  absurdi- 
ties. Protestantism  has  run  the  world  into  a  quagmire. 
Jesus  Christ  is  the  locomotive  power  drawing  the 
world  along  the  social  track. 

"  And  notice  that  tho  the  locomotive  is  above  the 
track,  the  track  must  be  laid  down  first  and  the  loco- 
motive stand  upon  it.  Hence  the  Old  Testament  be- 
fore the  New,  the  majesty  of  Sinai  before  the  Sermon 
on  the  Mount,  the  law  before  the  Gospel. 

"  fourth,  this  law,  fulfilled  through  grace,  must  be 
fulfilled  socially.  Protestantism  has  here  made  a 
grievous  mistake.  But  to  make  a  mistake  here  is  to 
misconceive  the  whole  Incarnation.  In  Christ,  God 
became  man  on  earth.  He  took  all  humanity  into 
Himself.  Christ  was  not  only  a  man,  but  MAN— man 
in  his  entirety  ;  man  in  all  that  is  in  man  or  possible  to 
man — save  sin  ;  man  in  art,  in  science,  in  letters,  in 

Eolitics,  in  society,  in  commerce,  in  industry.  In  the 
ncarnation  all  life  entered  into  God,  and  God  into  all 
life.  God's  laws  are  practical.  What  is  impractical 
is  not  divine.  Now,  individualism  has  been  found  im- 
practical. Under  it  men  have  tried  to  do  good.  They 
have  tried  to  carry  out  the  Golden  Rule  on  individual 
lines,  and  they  have  failed.  We  do  not  say  they  have 
wholly  failed.  No  earnest  effort,  even  tho  mistaken, 
wholly  fails.  But,  generally  speaking,  they  have  fail- 
ed. Large  numbers  of  business  men  say  to-day  that 
the  Golden  Rule  cannot  be  applied  to  business.  They 
are  right,  on  the  present  system  of  business,  because 
the  system  is  wrong.  You  '  cannot  serve  God  and 
Mammon.'  You  cannot  apply  God's  laws  to  the  devil's 
methods.  The  two  do  not  mix.  Pathetic,  noble  but 
impractical  are  the  desperate  efforts  of  Christian  men 
and  women  to  do  good  and  be  Christ-like  in  modern 
business.  It  is  a  hopeless  task.  God's  way  demands 
a  social  basis. 

"  Fifth,  Christian  Socialism  would  strive  to  fulfil 
the  social  law  through  grace,  by  striving  to  build  up 
practically  a  Socialism  based  on  Christ. 

"  It  would  aid  the  eight-hour  movement.  It  would 
reduce  the  hours  of  labor  in  factory  and  in  shop,  that 
men  may  have  longer  hours  of  labor  in  the  home,  the 
library,  and  the  church.  Christian  Socialism  would 
favor  direct  legislation,  through  the  initiative,  the 
referendum,  and  proportional  representation,  purging1 
our  politics  of  corruption,  breaking  down  the  machine, 
and  teaching  the  people  self-government.  It  would 
emancipate  woman  as  well  as  man.  It  does  not  be- 
lieve in  a  democracy  of  half  the  people.  It  would  de- 
velop a  true  municipalism,  as  is  being  done  in  Bir- 
mingham, Glasgow,  London,  Berlin,  and  other  cities. 


Christian  Socialism. 


260 


Christian  Social  Union. 


Glasgow,   by  spending  $7,0x30,000  in  tearing  down  and 
rebuilding  the  worst  tenements,  and  by  municipally 
clearing  courts  and  passages  ;  by  provid- 
ing municipal  baths,  wash-houses,  etc., 
A  Christian  has  reduced  her  death-rate  from  54  to 
Socialist      29    Per   I00°-     This  Christian   Socialism 
out     usu      considers     practical    Christianity.      It 
Program,      would  have  the  city  employ  the  unem- 
ployed, in  ways  not  to   compete    with 
present    labor.       Says    Turgot,    whom 
Matthew  Arnold  calls  '  the  wisest  statesman  France 
ever  had  : '  '  God,  when  He  made  man  with  wants  and 
rendered  labor  an  indispensable  resource,  made  the 
right  of  work  the  property  of  every  individual ;  and 
this  property  is  the  first,  the  most  sacred,  and  the  most 
imprescriptible  of  all   kinds  of  property.'    It  would 
have  cities  obtain  the  funds  for  doing  this  by  conduct- 
ing gas  works,  surface  railroads,  etc.,  for  a  profit  for 
the  city,  instead  of  having  them  owned  by  rich  capi- 
talists favored  by  city  franchises. 

"Christian  Socialists  would  have  the  nations  own 
and  manage  railroads,  the  telegraph,  expressage,  etc. 
In  every  way  it  would  replace  competition  by  frater- 
nal combination,  and  it  would  press  toward  reform  in 
all  these  ways.  It  is  not  one  reform.  It  is  many  re- 
forms on  one  principle.  Perhaps  most  important  of  all 
is  land  reform.  Christian  Socialism  would  revert  to 
the  Bible  principle,  that  God  is  the  owner  of  all  the 
earth,  and  men  only  entitled  to  its  use.  It  would, 
therefore,  favor  the  reclaiming  of  the  land  for  the  use 
of  all  the  people,  by  taxing  land  values  on  a  graduated 
scale,  and  increasingly  every  few  years,  till  finally 
the  whole  value  of  the  natural  resources  of  the  earth 
be  taken  for  the  people,  and  not  for  the  favored  few. 
Christian  Socialism  would  not  go  out  of  the  world  to 
save  the  world.  It  would  be  in  it,  tho  not  of  it. 
Gradually  it  would  influence  cities,  and  States,  and 
nations." 

References  :  (a)  Historical :  Oiven  and  the  Chris- 
tian Socialists,  by  Professor  E.  R.  A.  Seligman,  in  the 
Political  Science  Quarterly  (June,  1886) ;  Christian 
Socialism,  by  Rev.  M.  Kaufmann  (London,  1888);  The 
Socialism  of  To-Day,  by  De  Laveleye  (Eng.  trans., 
London) ;  The  Church  in  Germany  and  the  Social 
Question,  bvj.  G.  Brooks,  in  The  New  World  (Decem- 
ber, 1892)  ;  The  Social  Movement  in  French  Protes- 
tantism, in  The  New  World  (June,  1893)  i  Stegmann  and 
Hugo's  Handbuch  des  Socialismus,  art.  Christlicher 
Socialismus  ;  Catholic  Socialism,  by  F.  S.  Nitti  (Lon- 
don, Sonnenschein,  1895).  (V)  Statement  of  Principles  : 
Christian  Socialism,  a  tract  by  F.  D.  Maurice  (1849 ; 
republished  by  the  [Eng.]  Christian  Social  Union) ; 
Social  Aspects  of  Christianity,  by  B.  F.  Westcott,  the 
Bishop  of  Durham  (London,  1887) ;  The  Incarnation 
and  Common  Life,  by  the  same  (London,  1893) ;  Chris- 
tian Socialism,  a  tract  by  Stewart  D.  Headlam  (Lon- 
don Fabian  Society);  Christian  Socialism — What  and 
Why,  by  Rev.  P.  W.  Sprague  (New  York,  1891) ;  Social- 
ism and  Spiritual  Progress,  a  tract  by  Miss  Vida  D. 
Scudder  (Boston,  1891)  :  The  New  Redemption  and  the 
Christian  Society,  by  Rev.  G.  D.  Herron  (New  York, 
1893  an<i  I8_94) ;  What  Christian  Socialism  Is  and  The 
Social  Faith  of  the  Catholic  Church,  tracts  by  Rev. 
W.  D.  P.  Bliss  (Boston,  1894).  (See  also  CHRIST  AND 
SOCIAL  REFORM  ;  CHRISTIANITY  AND  SOCIAL  RE- 
FORM ;  THE  CHURCH  AND  SOCIAL  REFORM.) 

CHRISTIAN  SOCIALIST  LEAGUE, 
THE,  is  an  English  organization  which  has 
grown  out  of  a  society  called  the  Ministers' 
Union,  formed  in  London,  March  2,  1893.  This 
society  adopted  the  name  Christian  Socialist 
League  February  8,  1894,  and  framed  a  new 
constitution,  of  which  the  following  are  the 
clauses  of  general  interest  : 

OBJECTS. 

To  assist  in  the  reconstruction  of  society  upon 
the  principles  of  Jesus  Christ,  by  means  of  (a) 
lectures  and  sermons  ;  (b)  publications  ;  (c )  civic, 
personal,  and  other  efforts. 

MEMBERSHIP. 

i.  Candidates  shall  be  proposed  and  seconded 
by  members  from  personal  knowledge,  and  shall 
sign  the  following  declaration  :  "  This  country 


cannot  accurately  be  called  Christian  so  long  as 
the  people  in  their  collective  capacity,  by  their 
social,  industrial,  and  commercial  arrange- 
ments, practically  deny  the  Fatherhood  of  God 
and  the  brotherhood  of  men.  The  members  of 
the  Christian  Socialist  League  believe  that  the 
principles  of  Jesus  Christ  are  directly  applicable 
to  all  social  and  economic  questions,  and  that 
such  application  to  the  conditions  of  our  time 
demands  the  reconstruction  of  society  upon  a 
basis  of  association  and  fraternity." 

2.  Candidates  shall  be  elected  by  a  unanimous 
vote  of  the  executive  present  and  voting. 

3.  A  minimum  subscription  of  i  shilling  shall 
be  paid  upon  election  and  at  each  annual  meet- 
ing- 
Branches  of  the  League  have  been  formed  in 

Glasgow,  Liverpool,  Lymington,  Walthamstow, 
Forest  Gate,  and  Islington.  Several  lecture 
tours  have  been  undertaken  and  considerable 
activity  developed.  The  League  is  unsectarian, 
and  uses  the  word  Christian  in  the  broadest 
sense.  The  membership  is  about  250.  The 
President  is  the  Rev.  John  Clifford,  D.D.  (y.v.) ; 
its  Vice-President,  J.  Bruce  Wallace  (g.v.)  ;  its 
Secretary,  John  H.  Belcher,  40  Alexander  Road, 
Wimbledon. 

CHRISTIAN  SpCIALISTS,  THE  SO- 
CIETY OF,  a  society  organized  in  Boston, 
U.  S.  A.,  in  1889,  but,  altho  not  disbanded,  not 
now  in  active  existence.  (See  CHRISTIAN  SO- 
CIALISM.) 

CHRISTIAN    SOCIAL    UNION,    THE, 

was  founded  in  England  in  1889.  The  Rev. 
Wilfrid  Richmond  gave  during  Lent  of  that 
year  four  lectures  on  Economic  Morals  at  Sion 
College  in  London.  The  four  meetings  were 
presided  over  by  the  Rev.  Canon  B.  F.  Wes- 
cott  (now  Bishop  of  Durham),  the  Rev.  Canon 
C.  W.  Furse,  the  Rt.  Rev.  the  Lord  Bishop  of 
Marlborough,  and  the  Rev.  Canon  H.  S.  Hol- 
land. At  the  close  of  the  lectures  a  provisional 
committee,  with  the  Rev.  Canon  H.  S.  Holland 
as  chairman,  was  appointed,  which  chose  the 
name  and  formulated  the  objects  of  the  society. 
The  first  regularly  constituted  branch  was  or- 
ganized at  Oxford,  November  16,  1889.  The 
London  branch  began  in  1890.  The  Oxford 
branch  has  been  mainly  engaged  in  the  system- 
atic study  of  economic  facts  ;  the  London  branch 
has  been  more  active  in  holding  public  meet- 
ings, organizing  courses  of  sermons  and  issuing 
addresses  on  definite  political,  social,  and  indus- 
trial problems. 

The  principles  of  the  Union  declare  that  the 
Union  consists  of  Churchmen  who  have  the  fol- 
lowing objects  at  heart : 

1.  To  claim  for  the  Christian  law  the  ultimate  au- 
thority to  rule  social  practice. 

2.  To  study  in  common   how  to    apply  the  moral 
truths  and  principles  of  Christianity  to  the  social  and 
economic  difficulties  of  the  present  time. 

3.  To  present  Christ  in  practical  life  as  the  Living 
Master  and  King,  the  enemy  of  wrong  and  selfishness, 
the  power  of  righteousness  and  love. 

Members  are  expected  to  pray  for  the  well-being  of 
the  union  at  Holy  Communion,  more  particularly  on  or 
about  the  following  days  :  The  Feast  of  the  Epiphany, 
the  Feast  of  the  Ascension,  the  Feast  of  St.  Michael 
and  all  Angels. 

The  president  of  the  Union  is  Dr.  Brooke 
Foss  Wescott,  the  Lord  Bishop  of  Durham,  its 


Christian  Social  Union. 


261 


Church  and  Social  Reform. 


secretary  the  Rev.  J.  Carter,  of  Pusey  House, 
Oxford.  The  president  of  the  Oxford  branch  is 
the  Rev.  Canon  Gore.  The  chairman  of  the 
London  branch  is  the  Rev.  Canon  H.  Scott  Hol- 
land, and  its  secretary  the  Rev.  Percy  Dearmer. 
There  are  now.(i895)  27  branches  and  about  2600 
members.  Of  these,  about  one  quarter  are  resi- 
dent in  London,  one  fifth  in  Oxford.  The  Union 
publishes  the  Economic  Review,  one  of  the  fore- 
most of  the  economic  quarterlies  in  England, 
and  the  London  and  Oxford  and  other  branches 
issue  tracts  and  studies  of  special  topics.  The 
Union  in  all  its  branches  holds  frequent  meet- 
ings for  lectures,  discussion,  and  study.  The 
London  branch  has  a  loan  library,  and  the 
whole  Union  lays  great  stress  upon  economic 
study.  The  action  of  the  London  branch  has 
been  mainly  in  holding  conferences  and  issuing 
manifestoes,  etc.,  on  practical  questions  as  they 
have  come  up  in  local  elections  and  the  develop- 
ment of  city  life.  A  recent  feature  has  been  the 
institution  of  courses  of  sermons  on  social  sub- 
jects in  various  London  churches,  but  especially 
at  St.  Edmund's,  Lombard  Street,  during  Lent, 
when  crowded  audiences,  largely  of  business 
men,  have  listened  to  the  foremost  preachers  of 
the  English  Church.  The  spirit  of  the  Union 
may  be  seen  in  the  following  quotations  from  a 
tract,  The  Ground  of  Our  Appeal,  by  Canon 
Scott  Holland  : 

"  i.  We  start  from  the  conviction  which  has  been  for 
so  long  stamped  on  every  heart  that  feels  or  brain 
that  thinks  that  the  time  is  come  to  vote  urgency  for 
the  social  question.  We  believe  that  political  prob- 
lems are  rapidly  giving  place  to  the  industrial  prob- 
lem, which  is  proving  itself  more  and  more  to  be  the 
question  of  the  hour.  .  .  . 

"2.  We  are  of  those  who  are  convinced  that  the 
ultimate  solution  of  this  social  question  is  bound  to  be 
discovered  in  the  person  and  life  of  Christ.  He  is 
'the  Man  ;'  and  He  must  be  the  solution  of  all  human 
problems.  That  is  our  primal  creed.  .  .  . 

"It  is  true  that  this  relationship  of  His  to  the  social 
life  of  men  is  less  obvious  and  direct  than  His  rela- 
tionship to  their  sorrows  or  their  sins  as  the  Redeem- 
er. For  the  victory  which  gained  Him  this  living 
lordship  over  all  that  man  is  was  •won  by  Him  not  in 
the  social,  or  economic,  or  political,  but  in  the  spiritual 
sphere.  He  redeemed  men's  souls  from  sin.  That 
was  His  primary  task ;  .  .  .  but  its  significance  is 
bound  to  tell  on  every  level  of  existence  down  to 
which  the  influence  of  the  victorious  Spirit  reaches. 
The  whole  of  human  nature  is  to  be  brought  within 
the  sway  of  the  'New  Man.'  And  human  nature  is 
corporate  |  'man  is  a  social  animal.'  The  natural 
bonds  which  hold  together  men  into  societies  and 
races  must,  of  necessity,  receive  the  new  inflowing 
force  which  comes  to  them  out  of  the  supremacy  of 
Him,  who  gathers  all  men  into  Himself. 

"  3.  But  this  application  of  the  redemptive  force  of 
Christ  to  actual  society  can  be  no  very  simple  matter. 
The  problems  raised  by  human  society  are  manifold, 
intricate,  and  immense  ;  and  however  firm  our  con- 
viction may  be  that  Christ  is  Himself  their  one  and 
only  solution,  yet  the  solution  of  a  difficult  problem 
•must,  of  necessity,  be  itself  difficult  ;  and  if  the  per- 
plexities have  been  themselves  a  matter  of  long  and 
gradual  growth,  then  their  undoing,  also,  will  be  slow 
and  gradual. 

"These  are  the  questions;  and  they  can  only  be 
answered  by  those  who  have  got  long  past  the  merely 
sentimental  assertion  that  Christ  is  all  in  all,  and 
have  set  themselves  to  the  solid  task  of  discovering 
what  that  solemn  truth  really  and  precisely  means, 
and  have  worked  it  down  into  "the  concrete  facts,  and 
have  surveyed  and  estimated  the  full  need  of  the  cir- 
cumstances, and  striven  to  make  clear  to  themselves 
what  is  the  first  step,  and  what  the  second,  and 
the  third,  if  that  great  royalty  of  Christ  is,  in  very 
deed,  ever  to  be  made  good  here  on  earth,  amid  men 
as  they  are,  and  after  a  history  such  as  they  have 
hitherto  had. 

"  We  cannot  all  of  us  undertake  such  a  study  as  this 
involves  ;  we  have  not  the  leisure  or  the  brains.  But 


that  is  just  why  we  should  all  take  some  direct  meas- 
ures for  keeping  in  touch  with  those  who  have  the 
faculties  and  the  opportunities  that  we  lack.  Some 
servants  of  the  Church  there  must  be  who  will  give 
themselves  seriously  to  the  training  that  such  a  task 
involves.  .  .  .  They  will  arrive  at  the  discussion  pos- 
sessed by  two  deep  convictions  :  First,  that  the  present 
situation  is  intolerable  ;  and,  secondly,  that  its  solution 
must  be  found  in  the  unfaltering  assertion  of  moral,  as 
supreme  over  -mechanical,  laws.  ...  It  is  to  collect 
together  such  men  as  this,  it  is  to  foster  and  to  enlarge 
such  a  spirit,  that  the  Christian  Social  Union  exists." 

It  should  be  added  that  the  Union  is  com- 
mitted to  no  one  school  of  economic  thought, 
altho  its  tendencies  are  recognized  in  the  fact 
that  its  teachings  are  often  called  in  England 
the  new  Christian  Socialism.  For  the  differ- 
ence, however,  between  its  position  and  those 
of  the  early  and  other  Christian  Socialists  see 
that  article.  There  are  affiliated  societies  in  the 
United  States,  Canada,  South  Africa,  and  Aus- 
tralia, but  the  branch  in  the  United  States  is 
now  called  the  Church  Social  Union  (g.v.). 

CHURCH  AND  SOCIAL  REFORM, 
THE. — In  another  article  we  treat  of  Christian- 
ity and  Social  Reform  ;  it  seems  necessary, 
however,  to  consider  here  the  Church  and  So- 
cial Reform  in  an  article  by  itself  ;  first,  because 
very  many  make  a  sharp  distinction  between 
the  ideal  relations  of  Christianity  to  reform  and 
the  actual  relations  of  the  Church  to  reform, 
and,  secondly,  because  whatever  be  one's  opin- 
ion concerning  the  Church,  all  are  agreed  upon 
the  immense  power  wielded  by  the  Church, 
be  it  for  evil  or  for  good,  and  also  upon  the  in- 
tricate connection  between  the  Church  and 
the  advancement  or  retardation  of  social  reform. 
We  consider  the  subject  under  the  following 
heads : 

1.  The  Apostolic  Church. 

2.  The  Primitive  Church  after  the  Apostolic 
Period. 

3.  The  Medieval  Church. 

4.  The  Church  from  the  Reformation  to  the 
Present  Time. 

5.  The  Modern  Church. 

6.  The  General    Possible    Relations    of  the 
Church  to  Social  Reform. 

i.  THE  APOSTOLIC  CHURCH. 

We  here  consider  the  Church  as  commencing 
with  the  apostles  and  their  followers  in  the  up- 
per chamber  at  Jerusalem.  (For  the  beginnings 
of  the  Church  in  the  Hebrew  theocracy,  and  the 
relations  of  that  theocracy  to  social  reform,  see 
JUDAISM  ;  for  the  teachings  of  Christ  in  regard 
to  society,  see  CHRIST  AND  SOCIAL  REFORM.) 
That  the  Church  as  organized  in  Jerusalem  had 
vital  relation  to  social  life  needs  no  reiteration. 
(See  article  COMMUNISM,  etc.)  The  indisputable 
record  is  that  the  members  had  ' '  all  things  in 
common,"  and  that  to  each  was  given  "  accord- 
ing as  any  man  had  need."  It  is,  however, 
perhaps  necessary  to  point  out  that  this  was  not 
an  accident  or  mere  passing  incident  in  the  his- 
tory of  the  apostolic  Church,  born  of  the  enthu- 
siasm of  its  first  love,  but  rather  the  necessary 
and  logical  result  of  the  very  character  and  na- 
ture of  the  Church.  The  first  Christians  of  Jeru- 
salem were  drawn  from  among  the  Jews  or  from 
among  the  proselytes  to  the  Jewish  faith,  the 
' '  strangers  within  the  gates. ' '  They  were 


Church  and  Social  Reform. 


262 


Church  and  Social  Reform. 


therefore  familiar  with  the  social  teachings  and 
requirements  of  the  Jewish  law  and  the  Jewish 
Scriptures.  Any  one  who  knows 
what  these  were — their  care  for  the 
The  Church  afflicted,  the  oppressed,  the  father- 
of  the  Upper  less  and  the  widow,  their  minute 
Chamber,  directions  as  to  the  organization  of 
social  life,  their  provisions  for  se- 
curing land  in  perpetuo  to  every 
individual  for  use,  while  in  ownership  it  was 
held  as  belonging  to  God,  their  prohibition 
of  usury  and  oppression  in  every  form,  and, 
above  all,  the  recognition  of  all  this  as 
binding  because  it  was  the  law  of  God,  to  be 
taught,  upheld,  and  enforced  by  the  institutes 
and  officers  of  the  national  religion — any  one, 
we  say,  who  at  all  realizes  this  cannot  wonder 
that  the  first  act  of  the  first  Christian  Church 
was  to  apply  its  pentecostal  love  to  the  conduct 
and  the  ordering  of  property  and  of  the  social 
life.  Jesus  Christ  had  enforced  this  spirit.  He 
had  taught  both  by  word  and  deed  that  He  had 
come  as  a  King,  with  authority  over  all  life,  so- 
cial as  well  as  spiritual.  He  had  fed  the  hun- 
gry, healed  the  sick,  raised  the  dead.  He  had 
entered  Jerusalem  as  a  King.  He  had  in  every 
word  taught  of  the  kingdom  of  heaven  as  the 
great  summation  of  His  life  and  as  near  at  hand, 
on  earth  as  truly  as  in  heaven.  (See  CHRIST 
AND  SOCIAL  REFORM.) 

Yet  it  must  be  also  noted  that  this  so-called 
communism  of  the  Church  of  Jerusalem  was  not 
one  of  law  and  of  requirement.  Love  was  the 
fulfilling  of  the  law.  The  incident  of  Ananias 
and  Sapphira  (Acts  v.  i-n)  shows  that  there 
was  no  requirement  to  renounce  private  prop- 
erty in  land  or  houses.  Until  the  disciples  had 
given  property  to  the  Church,  their  property  re- 
mained their  own.  It  was  only  out  of  their  love 
that  ' '  as  many  as  were  possessors  of  lands  or 
houses  sold  them  and  brought  the  prices  of  the 
things  that  were  sold  and  laid  them  at  the  apos- 
tles' feet,  and  distribution  was  made  unto  each, 
according  as  any  one  had  need."  But  with 
this  caveat  against  the  conception  of  the  primi- 
tive communism  of  the  Church  as  a  formal,  com- 
pulsory one,  too  much  emphasis  cannot  be  laid 
upon  it  as  a  fact,  and  as  the  necessary  and  logi- 
cal outcome  of  their  love  and  of  their  faith. 

Nor  are  we  to  think  of  it  as  peculiar  to  the 
Church  at  Jerusalem.     While  it  is  true  that  we 
do  not  know  so  much  of  the  communism  of  any 
other  Church,  and  while  but  little 
has  come  down  to  us  in  any  way  of 
Primitive    the  life  of  other  Christian  churches 
Christianity,  of    the   first   century,   the    indica- 
tions nevertheless  are  very  strongly 
against  the  communism  of  the  Jeru- 
salem church  being  exceptional.     All  that  we 
know  points  to  its  not  being  exceptional.     In 
the  Book  of  the  Acts  and  in  the  Epistles  there 
are  abundant  references  to  the  life  of  love  as 
carried  on  in  the.se  other  churches.     We  have 
Dorcas,  or  Tabitha,  at  Joppa  (Acts  ix.  36)  "  full 
of  good  works. ' '    Paul  writes  to  the  Corinthians 
(2  Cor.  ix.  6)  about  giving  to  the  poor.    He  praises 
the  Christians  of  Macedonia  (2  Cor.  viii.  2)  for 
giving  almost  beyond  their  power.     He  orders 
the  churches  both  of  Galatia  and  Corinth  (i  Cor. 
xvi.  2)  to  lay  by  a  store  for  charity  "  on  the  first 
day  of  the  week,"  as  each  person  was  pros- 


pered. St.  James  declares  that  "  pure  religion 
and  undefiled  before  our  God  and  Father  is 
this  :  to  visit  the  fatherless  and  widows  in  afflic- 
tion, and  to  keep  himself  unspotted  from  the 
world."  We  read  of  the  churches  at  Troas 
(Acts  xx.  6)  and  at  Corinth  holding  agapa  or 
love  feasts,  where  they  came  together  to  break 
bread.  Jude  12  indicates  that  this  was  a  com- 
mon custom  in  all  the  churches,  i  Tim.  v.  3  in- 
dicates the  duty  of  the  widow  (or  deaconess)  to 
wash  the  saints'  feet,  entertain  strangers,  bring 
up  children,  relieve  the  afflicted.  Hospitality  is 
continually  urged.  The  slave  is  to  be  treated 
as  "  a  brother  beloved"  (Philemon  xvi.).  These 
are  but  few  of  the  incidental  references  in  the 
New  Testament  to  the  life  of  the  apostolic 
Church,  indicating  that  the  life  of  the  churches 
everywhere  was  like  that  of  the  Church  at  Jeru- 
salem, a  communism  of  love,  though  not  of  law 
and  of  requirement.  If  it  be  said  that  the  fact 
that  St.  Paul  took  up  a  collection  for  the  poor 
saints  at  Jerusalem  is  indicative  of  a  peculiar 
condition  in  that  Church,  and  that  their  com- 
munism and  giving  up  of  private  property  had 
brought  them  into  special  poverty,  it  may  be 
said,  on  the  other  hand,  that  the  Church  at  Jeru- 
salem was  under  notorious  and  excessive  perse- 
cution, as  during  the  first  century  the  churches 
throughout  the  rest  of  the  Roman  Empire  were 
not,  and  this  is  sufficient  to  account  for  their  es- 
pecial need  of  help.  From  the  days  of  Nehe- 
miah,  as  has  been  well  said,  to  those  of  Sir 
Moses  Montefiore,  it  has  been  customary  to  send 
aid  to  Jerusalem.  The  argument,  therefore,  for 
holding  that  the  communism  at  Jerusalem  was 
peculiar  is  invalidated  by  the  general  probability 
and  indication  that  it  was  not  the  case. 

And  this  is  rendered  the  more  probable  by  one 
other 'strong  circumstance.  It  appears  (cf.  Hein- 
rici,  The  Christian  Church  of  Corinth  and 
the  Religious  Communities  of  the  Greeks  in 
the  Zeitschrift  fitr  wissenschaftlische  Theolo- 
gie,  1876,  iv.  ;  Uhlhorn's  Christian  Charity  in 
the  Ancient  Church,  and  the  whole  of  C.  Os- 
born  Ward's  The  Ancient  Lowly  )  that  as  soon 
as  the  Church  emerges  into  recognized  form,  its 
legal  position  in  the  Roman  Empire  was  as  a 
collegium,  very  much  resembling  the  collegia 
tenuiorum,  or  sodalities  of  the  poor,  organized 
to  collect  contributions  for  the  poor  or  for  special 
ends,  such  as  burial,  etc.  For  a  full  account  of 
these,  see  GUILDS  ;  but  we  must  here  note  the 
similarity  between  these  and  the  early  churches 
in  their  social  life. 

Tertullian  uses  the  same  words,  steps  and  area,  for 
the  contribution  and  contribution  chest  of  the  Church 
as  were  technically  employed  in  the  collegia  for  their 
collections.  These  collegia  had  their  presiding  officers, 
or  magistri,  their  meeting  places,  more  or  less  humble, 
according  to  their  wealth.  They  had  regular  meeting 
times  and  dues  for  various  purposes,  mainly  of  ben- 
efit, but  sometimes  for  carousals.  They  had  banquets 
or  meals  together.  Some  of  them  had  considerable 
wealth,  lands,  houses,  etc.,  being  donated  to  them  by 
wealthy  members  or  patrons.  On  appointed  days 
there  were  sportula,  or  distributions  of  bread,  wine,  or 
money  among  the  members.  Members  were  called 
brothers  and  sisters,  and  their  presiding  officers 
fathers  and  mothers  (for  there  were  women  among 
them  as  truly  as  men).  It  is  evident  how  close  these 
were  in  resemblance  to  the  social  organization  of  the 
Church  at  Jerusalem,  with  its  contributions,  its  offi- 
cers, its  gifts  of  houses  and  land,  its  common  meals,  its 
organized  distribution  "in  the  daily  ministration"  to 
the  widows  and  those  in  need.  Now  if  these  collegia, 
so  exactly  in  this  respect  like  the  Church  in  Jerusalem, 


Church  and  Social  Reform. 


263 


Church  and  Social  Reform. 


existed  through  all  the  empire,  as  seems  proven,  and 
that  legally  the  churches  all  through  the  empire  were 
regarded  as  collegia,  and  used  the  very  technical 
terms  of  the  collegia,  does  it  not  indicate  almost  be- 
yond a  doubt  that  the  picture  given  in  the  acts  of  the 
Church  at  Jerusalem  is  a  picture  of  every  church  in 
the  apostolic  days,  with  its  life  and  feasts  of  Christian 
love,  and  deeds  of  charity,  and  voluntary  and  common 
renunciation  of  private  property,  and  also  with  its 
spots  on  its  feasts  of  charity,  in  the  murmuring  of  the 
Grecians  at  Jerusalem  because  their  widows  were 
neglected  in  the  ministration,  and  also  in  the  excesses 
to  which  the  love-feasts  were  carried  in  Corinth  and  in 
other  places  ? 

The  Church,  even  in  apostolic  days,  was  by 
no  means  immaculate  ;  it  was  being  saved,  not 
wholly  sanctified  ;  but  its  very  essence  and  its 
inmost  spirit  was  a  life  of  brotherhood  and  of 
practical  love  upon  this  earth. 

2.    THE   PRIMITIVE    CHURCH   AFTER   APOSTOLIC 
DAYS. 

We  come  here  into  fuller  light,  and  may  con- 
sider the  subject  in  detail,  dividing  the  subject 
into  parts,  considering,  first,  the  spirit  of  equal- 
ity and  of  brotherhood  that  pre- 
vailed in  the  primitive  Church.   The 
Spirit  of     Roman  Empire  was  full  of  poverty 
Equality,     and  distress.     Slavery  was  univer- 
sal.     Uhlhorn    estimates    that    at 
Rome  under  Augustus  there  were 
580,000  proletarians  needing  support  to  90,000 
senators,   knights,    soldiers,    and    traders    not 
needing  support,  and  this  does  not  include  the 
slaves,  who  composed  the  large  masses  of  the 
population.     (See  CITIES.)    At  Athens   at  one 
time,  according  to  some  historians,  there  were 
400,000  slaves  to  31,000  citizens  ;  according  to 
others,  200,000  to  100,000.     In  Italy,  according 
to  Blair,  there  were  under  Claudius  nearly  30,- 
000,000  slaves  to  7, 000,000  free  men  ;  and  though 
these  figures  may  be  too  high,  according  to  all, 
the  slave  population  was  in  an  immense  major- 
ity.    This,  of  course,  meant  widespread  suffer- 
ing beneath  a  corrupt  aristocracy  of  enormous 
wealth. 

The  working-class  lived,  and  little  more.  Momsen 
reckons  the  Roman  bushel  of  wheat  at  i  denarius, 
and  this  was  the  usual  day's  wage.  Meat  was  pro- 
portionally dear.  Diocletian-  fixed  the  price  of  beef 
and  mutton  at  about  30  cents  the  kilogram,  and  a  fowl 
at  the  same  price.  A  modest  dwelling  in  the  upper 
stories  of  one  of  the  large  lodging-houses  at  Rome 
came  to  about  $80.  On  the  other  hand,  the  wealth  of 
the  few  was  enormous.  The  augur,  Cn.  Lentulus,  and 
Narcissus.  Nero's  freedman,  were  said  to  own  $22,000,- 
ooo.  Lat  if  undid  were  growing.  Cascilius,  a  freedman  of 
Augustus,  left  in  his  will,  Pliny  tells  us,  4116  slaves.  It 
is  true  that  this  does  not  indicate  either  such  wealth  on 
the  part  of  the  rich,  or  such  poverty  on  the  part  of  the 
laborer  as  we  have  to-day  ;  but  the  worst  of  the  slave 
condition  under  the  Roman  Empire  was  the  lack  of 
civil  or  moral  standing  :  he  could  be  sold,  killed,  vio- 
lated, thrown  to  the  fishes  at  pleasure  with  impunity. 
Such  was  the  society  in  which  the  Christian  Church 
took  root.  In  CHRISTIANITY  AND  SOCIAL  REFORM  we 
have  traced  the  influence  of  Christianity  upon  the 
laws  and  organized  society,  and  have  shown  how  it 
gradually  overthrew  slavery.  Here  we  are  simply 
concerned  with  what  the  Church  did  directly  as  a 
church,  and  upon  this  point  it  was  to  introduce  the 
feeling  of  equality  and  of  brotherhood,  in  opposition 
to  aristocracy  and  slavery.  The  Church  spread  at 
first,  it  is  evident,  mainly  among  the  slaves  and  the 
oppressed.  Hence  it  was  powerless  directly  to  affect 
the  legislation  of  proud  emperors  and  senators,  but  it 
did  welcome  the  slave  to  its  fold  as  an  equal  and  it  did 
practice  brotherhood  among  men.  It  taught  that  be- 
ing descended  from  one  Father,  all  men  were  equal. 
"We  are  all  born  alike,  both  emperors  and  beggars," 
said  an  early  Christian  writer  (Brevariumm  Psalt.,  in 


opp.  Hieron.,  vol.  ii.,  p.  133).  "Thou  sayest  that  thy 
father  is  consul  and  thy  mother  holy  and  good,"  says 
Chrysostom  ;  "  what  does  it  matter  to  me  ?  Show  me 


thy  own  life,  for  it  is  only  by  that  I  can  be  able  to  judge 


vast  republic,  a  great  family  of  God's  children,"  writes 
Tertullian  (Apol.   xxxviii.).     The  whole  of  Christian- 
ity the  early  Church  found  in  charity  rather  than  in 
hope  or   faith  (Zeno    Veron,   Book  I.,  tract  2,  p.  in). 
Chrysostom  puts  it  above   fasts  or  solitary  penances. 
Love,  gentleness,  almsgiving,  are   greater,  according 
to  him,  than  celibacy  (Horn.  I.,  in    Matt.,  §  7).     "  Love 
on  earth  must  be  without  thought  of  earthly  profit  or 
heavenly  recompense"  (Orig.,  Contra  Cels.,  I.,  67,  vol. 
i.,  p.  382).    Gregory  Nazianzen  says :  "  Rich  and  poor, 
strong  and  weak,  servant  and  freeman,  have  one  only 
Head,   from  whom    everything  comes,   Christ  Jesus. 
What  the  members  of  the  body  are  for  each  other, 
each  among  us  is  for  his  brothers,  and  all  for  each 
(Greg.  Naz.,  Or.  16,  vol.  i.,  p.  243).     Of  this  unity  the 
agapcz,  or    love-feasts,    were    symbols.     "  Here    they 
brought  the  poor  and  the  needy"  (Constit.  Apost.,  II., 
28,  p.  243).    The  Church,   Augustine  calls  "  a  spiritual 
republic  in  the  midst  of  a  pagan  society"  (£>e  opere  Mon- 
ach,  chap,  xv.,  vol.  yi.,  p.   363).     At  first 
at  least  the  Christian   Church   did  not 
favor  monasticism.     Their  communism       Spirit  of 
was  not-at  all  like  the  Essenes.     "  Chris-  Brotherhood 
tians,"  says  one,  "  are  not  distinguished  * 
from  other  nations  either  by  language, 
dress,  or  habits.  They  do  not  shut  them- 
selves up  in  particular   towns,    but  live  where  they 
were  born,   in    the    midst   of  Greeks  or    barbarians. 
They  are  different  from  pagans  in  conduct,  and  their 
life  is  altogether  distinct'^  (Ep.  ad.  Diogn.,  chap,  iii.,  p. 
237).    They  honored  the  magistrates  and  prayed  for 
them,  and  for  the   emperor,   who   was  their  earthly 
head,  asjesus  Christ  was  head  in  the  kingdom  of  God 


ipr 

giving  divine  honors  to  the  emperors,  bowing  before 
idols,  swearing  by  their  genii.  Here  they  were  in- 
flexible. The  aged  Polycarp,  summoned  by  the  pro- 
consul to  swear  by  the  genius  of  Caesar,  refused  to  do 
so,  but  was  willing  to  obey  in  all  else.  Ambrose  reck- 
ons it  among  the  duties  of  an  ecclesi- 
astic to  take  an  interest  in  the  oppressed 
and  suffering.  "  Your  office  will  shine  Belation  to 
gloriously,"  he  writes,  "  if  the  oppres-  *».-  gtate 
sion  of  widows  and  orphans  attempted 
by  the  powerful  should  be  hindered  by 
the  servants  of  the  Church  ;  if  you  show 
that  the  commandment  of  the  Lord  is  more  to  you 
than  the  favor  of  the  rich"  (De  Offic.,  II.,  22).  Atha- 
nasius  excommunicated  the  viceroy  of  Lydia,  notorious 
for  his  cruelty  and  excesses,  and  Basil  declared  that 
the  Church  agreed  with  him  (Bas.  Ep.,  16).  Syne- 
sius  of  Ptolemais  excluded  from  the  Church  the  Pre- 
fect Andronicus  for  the  same  reason,  having  first  in 
vain  warned  him  (Synesii  Epp.,  57,  58,  72).  When  the 
inhabitants  of  Antioch  were  trembling  before  the 
wrath  of  the  emperor,  because  they  had  overthrown 
his  statues,  Bishop  Flavian  went  to  Constantinople 
to  intercede,  while  Chrysostom  preached  his  fa- 
mous "statue  sermons,  and  when  prosecutions 
began,  a  monk,  seizing  the  bridle  of  the  judges  as 
they  were  riding,  cried  :  "  Tell  the  emperor  you  are 
not  only  an  emperor,  but  a  man,  and  those  you  reign 
over  are  your  fellowmen.  Human  nature  was  made 
in  the  image  of  God  ;  do  not  then  so  mercilessly  and 
cruelly  destroy  the  image  of  God."  The  story  of  Am- 
brose himself  expelling  Theodosius  the  Great  from 
both  Church  and  sacrament  till  he  did  public  penance, 
for  having  allowed  his  soldiers  a  massacre  at  Thessa- 
lonica,  is  well  known.  The  Church  became  the  sanctu- 
ary of  the  oppressed.  When  a  debtor,  sued  for  17  sol- 
idi  (about  $150),  fled  to  the  Church,  Augustine  paid 
the  debt.  He  who  violated  the  right  of  sanctuary  was 
excommunicated. 

Next  to  the  spirit  of  the  equality  and  brother- 
hood and  protection  to  the  oppressed,  we  notice 
what  the  primitive  Cnurch  did  for  the  family 
and  for  woman.  Under  Rome  woman  was 
either  the  slave,  the  toy,  or  the  property  of  man. 
The  Church  recognized  her  equality. 

• 

"I  do  not  know  anything  more  unjust,"  said  Augus- 
tine of  the  Roman  laws  which  kept  women  in  an  infe- 


Church  and  Social  Reform. 


264 


Church  and  Social  Reform. 


rior  position  (De  Civil.  Dei.  iii.,  chap,  xxi.,  vol.  vii., 
p.  63) ;  and  all  the  Fathers  teach  the  equality  of  man 
and  woman  (Clem.  Alex.,  Pacing.,  I.,  4, 
vol.  i.,  p.  103  ;  Greg.  Naz.,  Or.  31.  vol. 
•m.»  rn.~~~\.  i-,  P-  502?  Greg.  Nys.,  Or.  i,  in  Verba 
The  Church  A£  ^w..  vol.  i.,p.  151).  Marriage  was 
and  Woman,  regarded  in  its  spiritual  aspect  as  for 
eternity  an  association  of  souls  rather 
than  of  bodies  (Athenag.,  Leg:,  chap, 
xxxiii.,  p.  311).  It  was  a  type  of  the  union  of  Christ 
with  His  Church  (Chrysost.,  Horn.,  12  in  cpl.,  §  5, 
vol.  xi.,  p.  419).  Some  of  the  Fathers,  such  as 
Ambrose  and  Augustine,  began  to  exalt  celibacy 
and  virginity  above  marriage,  but  in  the  begin- 
ning it  was  not  so ;  and  was  never  so  with  all 
the  Fathers.  With  Chrysostom  a  true  man  and  wife 
joined  in  sacred  union  show  a  holier  life  than  the  in- 
habitants of  many  a  monastery  (Horn.,  /.,  in  Rom.  xvi. 
3,  vol.  iii.,  p.  175).  In  marriage,  the  woman,  according 
to  the  Fathers,  was  wedded  to  the  husband  as  the 
Church  to  its  Head.  Chrysostom  says  :  "  Woman  can 
neither  carry  arms  nor  vote  in  the  assemblies,  nor 
manage  the  commune,  but  she  can  weave  thread,  give 
better  advice  than  her  husband  about  domestic  mat- 
ters, rule  and  keep  order  in  her  household,  superintend 
the  servants,  and  bring  up  the  children.  Each  sex  has 
its  special  vocation.  God  has  not  given  all  to  one.  He 
has  wisely  divided  it"  (Chrysost.,  Quales  Ducendce  sint 
Uxores,  vol.  iii.,  p.  127).  "Nothing,"  he  says  further, 
"can  better  mold  man  than  a  pious  and  wise  woman" 
(Chrysost.  /.  c.  ;  Sermo,  4,  in  Gen.,  §  i,  vol.  iy.,  p.  659). 
Mixed  marriages  between  pagans  and  Christians  were 
frowned  upon.  Second  marriages  were  discouraged. 
Tertullian  said  that  "  he  who  marries  again  commits  a 
decent  kind  of  adultery"  (Athenag.,  Leg:,  33,  p.  311). 
Montanists  absolutely  forbade  second  marriages,  but 
after  the  time  of  Augustine  it  was  a  heresy  to  con- 
demn second  marriages.  Adultery  was  the  only  ad- 
mitted cause  of  divorce,  and  then  separation  was 
usually  recommended.  Purity  was  required  of  both 
sexes  equally.  "The  laws  of  the  Caesars  are  different 
from  the  laws  of  Christ,"  says  Jerome.  "  With  us,  on 
the  contrary,  what  is  not  permitted  for  women  is  also 
forbidden  for  men"  (Ep.  77,  Ann.  399,  vol.  i.,  p.  459). 
Nevertheless,  condemning  strictly  their  vice,  the 
Church  welcomed  the  Magdalenes,  and  many  of  them 
became  noble  martyrs.  Pelagia,  a  celebrated  cour- 
tesan of  Antioch,  was  converted  and  retired  to  a  con- 
vent, and  spent  the  rest  of  her  life  in  humble  piety. 
Afra  died  for  her  Savior  in  Augsburg  with  three  ser- 
vants, who,  having  followed  her  in  vice,  followed  also 
in  conversion.  Similarly  high  was  the  position  of  the 
Ch-urch  in  regard  to  children.  At  a  time  when  abor- 
tion and  exposure  were  frequent,  the  Fathers  declared 
that  to  cause  a  child  to  perish  by  abortion  is  to  destroy 
the  work  of  God.  God  is  the  father  of  all  life,  however 
incomplete  it  be.  Those  guilty  of  it  were  excluded 
from  the  Church  for  10  years  (Const.  Apost.,  vii.,  3, 
p.  366).  Exposure  was  still  more  condemned.  The 
Church  welcomed  the  children.  "  If  old  sinners,"  says 
Cyprian,  "  are  received  in  the  Christian  community, 
how  much  with  greater  reason  shall  the  new-born  child 
be  received,  who  has  not  yet  committed  sin  ?"  (Ep.  59,  p. 
99).  This  was  true  even  of  natural  children.  They 
were  still  under  God's  paternal  care,  and  to  be  wel- 
comed by  the  Church  (Methodius,  Conviv.  x.  Virgi- 
num,  or.  2,  in  Combelis).  According  to  Chrysostom, 
what  has  upset  the  whole  world  is  that  man  has  not 
cared  more  for  his  own  children  (Horn,  de  Viduis,  vol. 
iii.,  p.  317).  Chrysostom  and  Jerome  especially  urge 
ttpon  mothers  to  rightly  influence  the  children.  Thus 
we  have  in  the  early  Church  Monica,  the  mother  of 
Augustine  ;  Nonna,  the  mother  of  Gregory  of  Nazian- 
zus ;  Anthusa,  the  mother  of  Chrysostom.  The  first 
schools  that  may  be  called  primary  were  kept  in  the 
fourth  century  by  Christian  priests  (Palladius,  Vita 
Chrys.  ;  in  Opp.,  vol.  xiii.,  p.  77).  Basil  during  his  rule 
made  it  an  especial  duty  (Regula  Fusius.  Tract.,  in- 
terrog.,  15  et  23,  vol.  ii.,  p.  355). 

We  come  next  to  the  relation  of  the  primitive 
Church  to  the  laboring  classes.     These,  accord- 
ing to  all   classic  antiquity,  were 
despised.     Artisans,   according    to 
The  Church  Aristotle,  were  not  worthy  of  the 
and  the      name  of  citizens  (O.,  chap,  ii.,  i). 
Working     Almost  all  manual  and  most  mental 
Classes.      work  was  done  by  slaves.     By  the 
Christian  Church  work  was  honor- 
'ed.     They  neither  felt  themselves 
to  be  miserable  nor    disgraced    because  they 


had  to  work  with  their  hands  (Ep.  ad.  Zcnain 
et  Serenum,chap.  xvii.,  in  Opp.  Just.  M-art., 
p.  416).  They  remembered  Christ  the  carpen- 
ter and  Paul  the  tent-maker.  The  Apostolic 
Constitutions  forbid  a  man  to  mix  with  the  idle 
crowd,  and  advise  him  to  engage  in  useful 
work,  having  his  soul  turned  toward  God  (Book 
I.,  chap.  iv.).  The  necessity  of  teaching  youth- 
ful arts  to  children  was  dwelt  upon  (Cons fit. 
Apost. ,  Book  IV. ,  chap.  xi. ,  p.  301).  They  taught 
that  if  a  man  did  not  work,  "  neither  should  he 
eat. ' ' 

The  relation  of  the  Church  to  slavery  has 
been  much  discussed.  The  primitive  Church 
did  not  immediately  seek  to  overthrow  slavery, 
but  did  undermine  it.  Before  the  Reformation 
slavery  had  wholly  disappeared  from  Christian 
lands,  and  long  before  that  it  had  almost  dis- 
appeared. The  Church  started  among  the  poor, 
and  despised  by  the  powerful,  had  not  the 
power  to  abolish  the  institution  in  any  legal 
way.  But  while  the  Church  long  allowed  sla- 
very, it  did  much  to  alleviate  it,  and  welcomed 
the  slave  as  an  equal ;  only  in  later  years  did 
the  Church  ever  practise  slavery. 

"  No  one  is  a  slave  by  nature,"  say  Clement  of  Alex- 
andria and  Basil  (Clem.  Alex.,  Pcedag.,  III.,  chap,  xii., 
vol.  i,  p.  207 ;  Basil,  De  Spir.,  s.,  I.,  chap,  xxi.,  vol.  in., 
p.  42).  Chrysostom  says  God,  who  created  the  two- 
first  beings  free  and  equal,  never  created  slaves  to 
serve  them  (Horn.  22  in  Eph.,  §  2,  vol.  xi.,  p.  167).  Some 
of  the  Fathers  held  that  slavery  was  punishment,  but 
they  held  so  of  all  work,  and  yet  that  work  was  honor- 
able. "  I  call  noble  and  lord,"  says  Chrysostom,  "  the 
slave  who  is  covered  with  chains,  if  it  accords  with 
his  life ;  I  call  him  low  and  ignoble  who  in  the  midst 
of  dignities  retains  an  enslaved  soul"  (Or.  in  Terra 
Motum  et  Laz.,  §  7,  vol.  i.,  p.  782).  In  the  Church 
slavery  was  only  an  accidental  external  condition 
which  did  not  affect  the  moral  worth.  Again  and 
again,  the  Church  taught  that  Christianity  was  service. 
Christians  called  themselves,  like  St.  Paul,  servants 
or  bondservants  (SouAoi)  of  Christ.  Ignatius  wrote  of 
the  slaves :  "  Let  them  continue  to  serve  without  mur- 
muring, and  God  will  give  them  a  better  than  earthly 
liberty"  (Ad.  Polvc.,  chap,  iv.,  p. 41).  Slaves  were  recom- 
mended to  bear  servitude  in  the  passing  world  of 
exile,  where  none  is  free,  and  beyond  which  the  Chris- 
tian expects  deliverance  and  glory  (August.,  De  Agone 
Christiana,  chap,  vii.,  vol.  vi.,  p.  i8i).  In  451,  the 
Council  of  Chalcedon  forbade  the  convents  to  receive 
slaves  without  the  consent  of  their  masters,  •'  in  order 
that  the  name  of  God  be  not  dishonored"  (Canon  IV.). 
Many  slaves  bore  noble  testimony  to  their  master, 
Christ,  such  as  Potamiaena,  Eutyches,  Victorinus,  Maro, 
Nereus,  Vitalis,  and  others.  But  while  bidding  the 
slave  be  patient,  the  Church  spoke  plainly  to  the  Mas- 
ter. Said  Chrysostom  :  "  Do  not  imagine  that  an  injury 
to  a  slave  will  be  regarded  as  indifferent,  because  it  is 
only  to  a  slave.  The  laws  of  the  world  see  a  difference 
between  the  two  races  ;  but  the  laws  of  the  common- 
wealth of  God  ignore  it"  (Chrysost.  Horn.  22,  in  Eph.,  §  2, 
vol.  xi.,  p.  167). 

We  observe  the  difference  between  the  recog- 
nition of  slavery  by  the  primitive  Church  and 
its  recognition  too  frequently  by  the  Church  in 
modern  times.  The  primitive  Church  recog- 
nized it  as  a  human  institution,  which  they  were 
to  submit  to.  The  modern  Church  too  often 
tried  to  prove  slavery  a  Divine  institution. 
Masters  were  told  by  the  primitive  Church  to 
love  their  slaves  as  sons  and  as  equals  (Constit. 
Apost. ,  Book  IV. ,  chap.  xii. ,  p.  302).  The  Church 
refused  to  receive  the  gifts  of  the  master  who  ill 
treated  his  slaves  (Constit.  Apost.,  Book  IV., 
chap,  vi.,  p.  197).  There  were  in  the  early 
Church  families  where  master  and  servants 
formed  one  family. 

When  Thecla  was  cited  to  appear  before  the  tribunal, 


Church  and  Social  Reform. 


265 


Church  and  Social  Reform. 


50  of  her  slaves,  urged  by  gratitude,  appeared  in  her  fa- 
vor (Actass.,  January,  vol.  i.,  p.  601).  Paula,  a  descend- 
ant of  Paulus,  JEmilius,  Leo,  and  Fabiola  are  spoken 
of  as  the  servants  rather  than  the  mistresses  of  their 
women.  But  the  Fathers  went  farther  than  to  counsel 
gentleness.  They  urged  masters  to  free  their  slaves. 
Gregory  Nazianzen  and  Chrysostom  are  prominent  in 
such  exhortations,  and  many  masters  did  the  same. 
The  earliest  instance  that  has  come  down  to  us  is  that 
of  Hermes,  Prefect  of  Rome  under  Trajan,  who  em- 
braced Christianity  with  his  wife,  children,  and  1250 
slaves,  whom  he  freed  on  the  day  of  their  baptism, 
Easter  day,  with  ample  assistance  to  enable  them  to 
gain  a  livelihood.  He  himself  afterward  suffered 
martyrdom  with  Bishop  Alexander,  who  had  been  the 
means  of  his  conversion.  Another  prefect  of  Rome, 
Chromatius,  under  Diocletian,  freed  his  1400  slaves, 
saying  that  those  who  had  God  for  their  father  ought 
not  to  be  the  servants  of  man.  Melania,  with  the  con- 
sent of  her  husband,  Pinius,  freed  8000  slaves  ;  Ovonius, 
a  French  martyr,  5000. 

The  Church  especially  did  her  utmost  to  end 
the  horrors  of  the  gladiatorialcorriloa.\s,  and  the 
degradation  of  the  theatrical  exhibitions.    The 
Church  refused  baptism  to  gladia- 
tors unless  they  gave  up  their  pro- 
Gladiatorial  fession.    Lactantius said  :  "Instead 
Combats,     of  buying  and  feeding  wild  beasts, 
ransom  prisoners  and  feed  the  poor ; 
instead  of  bringing  together  men  to 
kill  each  other,  go  and  bury  the  innocent  dead" 
(Div.   Instit.,  Book  VI.,  chap,  xii.,  vol.  i.,  p. 
470).     From  the  theaters,  at  this  time  grossly 
immoral,  Christians    were    warned    to    absent 
themselves.     Those  who,  in  spite  of  warnings, 
still  attended,  were  declared  unworthy  of  Chris- 
tian communion. 

Christians  were  urged  to  find  their  exhibitions  in 
nature.  "  What  theater,"  says  one  writer,  "construct- 
ed by  the  hand  of  man  can  equal  these  wonders  of 
creation"  (Tract.de Spect.,  in  Opp. Cypr.,  p.3i2) !  Actors 
who  became  Christians  and  had  no  other  means  of 
earning  a  livelihood,  such  as  Euchratius,  were  provid- 
ed for  by  the  Church  through  the  efforts  of  Cyprian. 

We  come  now  to  consider  the  relation  of  the 
primitive  Church  to  the  poor,  and  in  its  property 
relations  in  general.  This  may  be  said  to  be  a 
more  or  less  faithful  carrying  out  of  the  volun- 
tary communal  life  of  Jerusalem.  There  seems 
to  be  no  evidence  that  there  was  anywhere  es- 
tablished by  the  primitive  Church  a  mechanical 
communism.  Voluntary  communism  seems  to 
have  been  the  ideal  to  which  they  always  tend- 
ed, though  sometimes  very  vaguely  and  remote- 
ly. The  emphasis  was  on  love.  "It  is  not  the 
census,"  said  Ambrose,  "but  the  qualities  of 
the  soul,  that  show  the  rich  man"  (Ep.,  chap. 
Ixiii.,  §  89,  vol.  ii.,p.  1044).  Barnabas,  in  warm- 
ly commending  charity,  argues  that  "  we  ought 
not  to  consider  anything  as  belonging  to  our- 
selves alone,  but  to  share  everything  with  our 
neighbor  ;  for  if  there  is  communion  in  spiritual 
and  everlasting  things,  with  how  much  greater 
right  ought  it  to  exist  in  these  material  things" 
(chap,  xix.,  p.  52).  Ambrose  of  Milan  wrote, 
"  Nature  created  everything  for  common  use. 
If,  then,  there  are  men  who  are  excluded  from 
the  enjoyment  of  the  products  of  the  earth,  it  is 
contrary  to  nature.  The  unequal  division  of 
this  wealth  is  the  result  of  egoism  and  violence. 
Nature  is  the  mother  of  common  right,  usurpa- 
tion is  the  mother  of  private  right"  (De  Off, 
Minis  tr.,  Book  I.,  chap,  xxviii.,  §  132,  vol.  ii., 
P-  35). 

The  early  Church  opposed  riches  as  hindering  salva- 
tion, but  Augustine,  Ambrose,  Jerome,  and  others 


teach  that  riches  are  not  to  be  condemned  in  them- 
selves. "  Neither  is  every  poor  man  a  saint,  .  .  .  nor 
is  every  rich  man  condemned,"  wrote  one  (Asterius, 
De  Divite  et  Lazaro,  p.  13).  "  The  hand  of  the  Chris- 
tian," said  the  same  writer,  Asterius,  "  ought  only  to  be 
held  out  to  give  alms,  never  to  seize  what  does  not  be- 
long to  him  (Horn,  de  CEconomo,  Jm'quto,  p.  23).  The 
giving  of  charity  the  primitive  Church  exalted.  "It  is 
better  to  do  the  works  of  charity  than  to  ornament 
churches,  or  to  enrich  them  with  precious  vases" 
(Hieron.,  Ep.  130,  vol.  i.,  p.  991).  The  priests  were  to 
lead  in  this,  especially  the  bishops.  The  Apostolic  Con- 
stitutions lay  down  their  duties  in  these  words  :  "To 
orphans  take  the  place  of  a  father  ;  to  widows  give  the 

Erotection  that  they  would  have  from  their  husbands  ; 
elp  young  people  who  desire  to  marry  with  your 
counsels  ;  find  work  for  the  artisans  ;  have  pity  on  the 
infirm  ;  receive  strangers  beneath  your  roof  ;  give  food 
and  drink  to  those  who  are  hungry  and  thirsty  and 
clothes  to  the  naked ;  visit  the  sick  and  help  the 
prisoners"  (Book  IV.,  2,  p.  295).  Charity  was  to  cost 
sacrifice.  We  read  of  the  early  Christians  fasting 
that  they  might  give  to  the  poor  (Constit.  Appst.,  V. 
xx.,  p.  331).  Deaconesses  were  appointed  to  aid  poor 
women.  Under  Bishop  Cornelius,  toward  the  close  of 
the  third  century,  the  Church  of  Rome  supported  more 
than  1500  poor  people.  The  Church  of  Antioch,  in  the 
time  of  Chrysostom,  maintained  more  than  3000.  The 
Church  of  Rome,  under  Bishop  Sotir,  in  the  second 
half  of  the  second  century,  and  100  years  later,  under 
Bishop  Stephen,  sent  money  collected  in  distant  prov- 
inces, sometimes  to  help  populations  wasted  in  famine, 
sometimes  to  lighten  the  burdens  of  the  persecuted. 
Prelates  sold  the  vases  and  ornaments  of  their  churches 
to  aid  the  poor.  This  was  done  by  Cyril, 
by  Acacius,  Bishop  of  Amida,  who  sold 
420  vases  and  sent  back  to  freedom  7000  Bansoming 
imprisoned  Persians,  and  by  Deogratias,  po-ntiwna 
of  Carthage.  Augustine  and  Ambrose  ^aP"ves- 
did  it  to  ransom  captives.  Paulinus  of 
Nola  and  Hilary  of  Aries  sold  their 
large  estates  for  the  poor.  Martin  of  Tours  sacrificed  his 
sacerdotal  robes.  The  Bishop  of  Escupere,  of  Tou- 
louse, went  hungry  and  used  only  basket  and  glass  for 
the  bread  and  •wine  of  the  Eucharist,  in  order  to  help 
the  poor.  When  the  martyr  Lawrence  was  asked  by 
the  pagan  governor  for  the  treasures  of  the  Church, 
he  showed  him  the  poor.  Peter,  the  tax-gatherer,  in 
the  time  of  Justinian,  on  being  converted,  expiated  his 
harshness  by  selling  himself  to  a  slave  merchant  for 
the  benefit  of  the  poor.  Clement  of  Rome  writes  to  the 
Church  in  Corinth  :  "  We  have  among  us  many  who 
have  given  themselves  to  servitude  in  order  that 
others  might  be  free."  It  is  told  of  Bishop  Eleusis,  of 
Cyzicus,  that  he  took  the  pagan  temples  and  made 
them  into  hospitals  for  the  old  and  widowed.  The 
first  orphan-houses  are  of  this  period,  and  were  cared 
for  by  priests.  Special  collections  were  made  for 
prisoners.  The  poor  denied  themselves  a  day's  food  to 
give  to  these.  The  funds  of  the  Church  were  used  to 
ransom  brothers  sentenced  to  public  works  or  the 
arena.  The  Church  was  the  asylum.  Even  Alaric,  on 
taking  Rome,  is  reported  to  have  'spared  those  who 
took  refuge  in  the  churches.  The  innocent  went  to  the 
bishops  for  redress.  In  the  midst  of  universal  anarchy, 
the  bishops  raised  their  voices  in  behalf  of  outraged 
humanity.  It  was  one  of  their  special  duties  to  save 
defenseless  men  from  the  hands  of  powerful  oppressors 
and  to  intercede  with  the  emperors  and  magistrates  in 
their  behalf  j  to  undertake  long  journeys  and  brave  all 
wrath,  provided  the  cause  of  those  in  whom  they  were 
interested  was  just.  Most  frequently  we  find  bishops 
giving  assistance  to  country  people,  who  suffered  from 
the  rapacity  of  the  fiscal  agents,  the  avarice  of  the 
usurers,  the  oppression  of  great  proprietors.  For  the 
sick,  the  primitive  Church  did  much,  even  for  the 
lepers.  Basil  advises  that  lepers  be  not  deserted,  but 
be  loved  the  more  for  the  miseries  of  their  desolation. 
During  the  plague  of  Carthage,  about  250  A.D.,  and 
during  that  of  Alexandria,  the  Christians  showed  great 
bravery  and  love.  The  first  hospitals  are  due  to  the 
Church,  the  first  being  established  in  tke  early  part  of 
the  fourth  century.  From  the  latter  half  of  this  century 
they  multiplied  greatly.  The  most  important  of  these 
was  founded  by  Basil  in  Caesarea.  It  rpse,says  Gregory 
Nazianzen,  like  a  new  town,  providing  lodgings  for 
travelers,  rooms  for  invalids,  workshops  for  the  poor, 
provision  for  lepers.  It  bore  the  name  of  Basilias. 
Chrysostom  founded  several  hospitals.  By  the  time  of 
Theodosiusmost  of  the  large  towns  had  hospitals.  The 
hermit  Thalassius  founded  one  for  the  blind. 

The  early  Church  was  especially  remarkable 
for  its  sacrifices  in  behalf  of  its  enemies.     Ter- 


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266 


Church  and  Social  Reform. 


tullian  could  truly  say  that  ' '  if  all  men  loved 
their  friends,  the  Christians  alone  knew  how 
to  love  their  enemies"  (Ad  Scap.,  i.,  p.  69). 
The  Fathers,  too,  with  their  profound  re- 
spect for  human  life,  unanimously  condemned 
capital  punishment.  The  Council  of  Elvira  (A.D. 
305)  excludes  the  magistrates  whose  duties  as 
decemvirs  caused  them  to  judge  cases  involving 
capital  punishment  from  joining  in  worship  dur- 
ing the  year.  The  emphasis  the  early  Church 
put  upon  hospitality  is  well  known,  as  is  also 
its  universal  opposition  to  war. 

It  is  well  to  notice  the  organization  of  the 
Church  for  practical  charities.  At  first  there 
was  little  or  none. 

"We  give  to  all  and  communicate  to  every  one  who 
is  in  need,"  says  Justin  (Apolog.,  i.,  14).  The  shepherd 
of  Hermas  says  :  "  Give  simply  to  all, 
without  asking  doubtfully  to  whom  thou 
r>v.n-*;t;»°  givest,  but  give  to  all"  (Pastor  Hermcz. 
onariues.  Mand.,  II.).  Clement  of  Alexandria 
warns  against  trying  to  judge  who  is  de- 
serving and  who  undeserving  (Qut's  divis 
salvus.,  chap.  xiii.).  Concerning  the  giving  up  of  prop- 
erty, Hermas  says  to  Christians :  "  You  are  dwelling 
here  in  a  foreign  city.  Would  any  one  dwelling  in  a 
foreign  city  provide  himself  with  fields  and  expensive 
accommodations?"  (Similet^  I.)  The  Church  was  in  the 
world,  but  not  of  it.  "  We  are  no  Brahmans  nor  Indian 
gymnosophists ;  no  wild  men  of  the  woods  and  sepa- 
ratists from  life.  We  are  mindful  of  the  gratitude  which 
we  owe  to  the  Lord  our  God,  and  do  not  despise  the  en- 
joyment of  His  works,"  wrote  Tertullian  (Apolpg.,  42). 
But  the  Fathers  everywhere  counseled  simplicity  of 
life.  "On  the  road  to  heaven,"  says  Clement,  "the 
best  provision  is  frugality,  moderation  is  the  shoe,  and 
beneficence  the  staff  (Pcedagog.  III.,  7).  Clement  pities 
the  insatiable  who  collect  their  dainties  from  all  parts 
of  the  world,  with  whom  "the  basting  ladles  and  the 
kitchen  form  the  central  point  of  existence"  (Pcedagog., 
I.,  i).  In  an  old  catalogue  of  the  apostles,  Peter,  An- 
drew, and  the  sons  of  Zebedee  are  fishermen  ;  Philip, 
an  ass  driver ;  Bartholomew,  a  vegetable  gardener ; 
James,  the  son  of  Alphseus,  a  mason.  Later,  when  the 
Church  became  corrupt,  men  like  Chrysostom  vehe- 
mently attacked  the  luxury  of  the  day.  Said  Chrysos- 
tom of  the  luxuriously  dressed  woman :  "  Of  how 
many  poor,  O  woman,  dost  thou  bear  upon  thine  arms 
the  spoils !"  Yet,  even  when  the  Church  was  at  her 
simplest,  there  was  some  organization  for  charity. 
Deacons,deaconesses,and  widows,  who  were  considered 
officers  in  the  Church,  had  special  charge  of  the  chari- 
ties, but  always  under  the  direct  guidance  of  the  bish- 
ops. Alms  were  collected  and  distributed  largely  at 
the  agaptz,  which  were  first  suppers  in  common  for  all 
church-members,  later  suppers  for  the  poor,  and  finally 
occasions  of  drunkenness  and  excesses.  Montanism 
tried  to  react  from  these  excesses  and  any  compromise 
with  the  world  by  strict  discipline  and  limiting  church- 
membership  to  the  select  few,  but  this  was  to  make  the 
Church  separatist  and  sectarian  and  sacrifice  her  power 
as  a  Church  for  the  world.  It  taught  the  Church  to 
distinguish  between  the  "religious  and  the  "  secular," 
sending  the  "  religious"  into  monasticism  and  asceti- 
cism, and  the  "  secular"  into  worldliness. 

Gradually  we  find  as  a  result  of  this  the  alli- 
ance of  the  Church  with  the  State,  still  more  de- 
veloping its  worldliness,  till  it  came  to  palliate, 
allow  and  endorse  and  even  own  slaves  (so  that 
even  so  pure  a  spirit  as  Gregory  the  Great  makes 
no  apology  for  having  a  fugitive  slave  brought 
back  "  by  any  means"  from  Otranto,  though  he 
was  also  torn  from  wife  and  children,  to  serve 
as  a  baker  in  Rome).  The  Church  gradually 
thus  became  full  of  all  such  worldliness  as  called 
forth  the  burning  protests  of  Chrysostom.  On 
the  other  hand,  we  have  the  development  of 
monasticism,  for  the  social  results  of  which  see 
MONASTICISM.  Still  through  all  the  earlier  cen- 
turies the  Church  was  not  only  the  friend  but 
the  leader  of  social  reform.  If  she  did  not  abol- 
ish slavery  or  advocate  all  the  social  reforms 


that  are  suggested  to-day,  it  was  because  they 
were  not  proposed.  She  was  at  least  on  the  side 
of  the  most  radical  reform  there  was,  or,  rather, 
the  mother  and  the  life  of  all  reform.  On  the 
whole,  well  could  Tertullian  point  to  the  life  and 
love  of  the  Church,  which  to  the  jealous  hatred 
of  its  enemies  was  a  reproach.  "  See  how  they 
love  one  another,"  mocked  these  enemies  ;  "  as 
if  they  were  ready  to  die,  the  one  for  the  other. ' ' 
"  Yes,"  said  Tertullian,  "  we  love  one  another  ; 
we  are  brothers,  for  we  have  a  common  Father, 
and  the  same  Spirit  has  led  us  from  darkness  to 
light.  We  are  also  your  brothers,  because,  al- 
though you  are  our  persecutors,  you  are  men  like 
us.  We  support  one  another  ;  we  have  every- 
thing in  common  except  our  wives  ;  each  one 
freely  brings  his  offering  to  relieve  the  poor,  the 
sick,  orphans,  widows,  travelers,  and  prisoners. 
We  are  not  incapable  of  the  business  of  life,  for 
do  we  not  live  with  you,  sharing  your  habits  and 
necessities  ?  We  do  not  retire  into  forests  ;  we 
do  not  flee  from  life  ;  we  use  everything  with 
thanksgiving  ;  we  sail  with  you  ;  we  mix  with 
you  in  the  Forum,  in  camp,  in  commerce  ;  we 
refrain  only  from  your  spectacles,  sacrifices,  dis- 
orders, and  crimes"  (Apologeticus,  about  198 
A.D.). 

3.  THE  MEDIEVAL  CHURCH. 

In  this  section  we  shall  not  enter  so  much  into 
detail,  because  the  details  are  given  in  other  arti- 
cles :  that  on  the  CANON  LAW,  which  belongs 
almost  exclusively  to  the  medieval  Church,  and 
the  general  article  on  CHRISTIANITY  AND  SOCIAL 
REFORM,  Christian  influence,  in  the  Middle  Ages 
at  least,  being  admittedly  almost  identical  with 
Church  influence.  Yet  a  few  general  characteri- 
zations may  here  be  made,  and  one  or  two  points 
elucidated. 

We  notice,  first,  that  the  medieval  Church 
was  always  the  great  leveler  ;  that  the  clerical 
order  was  the  one  profession  in  which  it  was 
possible  for  a  man  of  the  humblest  birth  to  attain 
to  the  highest  position.  This  was  less  by  virtue 
of  express  enactment  than  in  consequence  of  the 
facts  (a)  that  the  Church  remained  free  from  the 
distinctions  of  classes  that  grew  up  in  the  civil 
State,  and  (b)  that  the  churchman,  as  the  rule  of 
celibacy  became  universally  accepted  in  Latin 
Christendom,  could  be  raised  to  arfy  rank  with- 
out the  drawback  of  his  founding  a  family  of 
nobles.  Many  a  peasant  heard  doubtless  of  the 
learned  Grostete,  the  son  of  a  serf,  the  most  dis- 
tinguished scholar  of  thirteenth  century  Oxford, 
of  the  Oxford  which  existed  long  before  a  col- 
lege was  founded — the  friend  of  the  reforming 
friars,  the  enemy  of  the  Roman  court,  the  advo- 
cate of  England  for  the  English ;  and  was 
eager,  out  of  his  scanty  means,  to  buy  the  li- 
cense that  his  son  might  go  to  the  schools  and 
take  orders.  The  possibility  of  rising  was,  it  is 
true,  not  confined  to  churchmen  ;  but  that  which 
was  the  exception  among  the  laity  was  common 
among  the  clergy  ;  and  in  one  important  point, 
with  respect  to  slavery,  the  exemption  of  the 
clerical  status  from  the  classes  of  civil  society 
produced  a  remarkable  relaxation  of  class  con- 
ditions. 

It  was  not,  however,  for  many  centuries  that  it 
became  the  accepted  doctrine  that  an  ordained 
person  was  ipso facto  a  free  man. 


Church  and  Social  Reform. 


267 


Church  and  Social  Reform. 


If,  however,  in  the  fifth  century  it  could  be 
conceived  as  possible  that  a  man  might  be  a 
clergyman  and  yet  a  slave,  this  idea  early  gave 
way  before  another,  which  presumed  that  if  a 
slave  were  ordained  with  the  knowledge  of  his 
lord,  and  without  any  objection  raised  by  him, 
he  was  a  free  man,  tho  not  formally  manu- 
mitted. 

For  the  effect,  however,  of  the  medieval 
Church  upon  slavery,  see  CHRISTIANITY  AND 
SOCIAL  REFORM.  It  must  not  be  forgotten  that 
before  the  time  of  the  Reformation  slavery,  and, 
in  some  countries  like  England,  even  serfdom, 
had  disappeared  from  Christendom.  The  me- 
dieval Church  had  put  it  down. 

We  notice  next  as  characteristic  of  the  medi- 
eval Church  its  monasteries  and  nunneries  and 
Church  brotherhoods  of  various  kinds,  not  only  as 
centers  of  Christian  equality,  but  as  asylums  for 
the  oppressed  and  as  centers  of  brotherhood 
life  and  work.  Says  Thorold  Rogers  upon  this 
point : 

"The  relief  of  destitution  was  the  fundamental  re- 
ligious duty  of  medieval  Christianity,  I  might  have 
said  of  Christianity  itself.    In  ancient  polities  it  might 
be  the  duty  of  the  State  to  relieve  distress  ;  it  was 
always  its  prudence,  if  it  cared  for  security.  _  To  get 
abundant  supplies  of  food  for  the  poorer  citizens  in 
one  way  or  the  other  was  the  constant  anxiety  of  demo- 
cratic Athens  and  of  imperial  Rome.    But  from  the 
very  first  Christianity  transferred  this  duty  from  the 
State  to  the  individual,  and  to  the  voluntary  corpora- 
tion.   The    early    Church  undoubtedly 
preached  patience,  but  it   much  more 
•M**,.     »«,.;«=    emphatically    inculcated    the    duty   of 
monasteries.  almsgiving.    The    contribution    of    the 
tithe  was  enforced  in  order  that  a  third 

Fart,  at  least,  of  the  proceeds  should  go 
the  deserving  poor.  In  the  fifteenth 
century  nothing  moves  the  righteous  wrath  of  Gas- 
coigne  more  than  the  teaching  of  Pecock  to  the  effect 
that  ecclesiastical  revenues  enjoyed  by  churchmen 
can  be  disposed  of  according  to  the  discretion  of  the 
recipient  as  freely  as  the  proceeds  of  private  property. 
After  heresy,  simony,  and  sorcery,  thfe  heaviest  charge 
which  could  be  leveled  against  a  churchman  was  that 
of  avarice,  and  a  covetous  priest  who  hoarded  his 
revenues  was  lucky  if  the  charge  of  avarice  was  not 
coupled  with  those  graver  vices  to  which  I  have  re- 
ferred. We  may  be  certain,  too,  that  the  duty  which 
was  so  generally  imposed  on  them  by  public  opinion— 
the  force  of  which  is  not  yet  extinct— was  inculcated 
by  them  on  others.  In  times  of  plenty,  too,  food  was 
often  given  with  wages.  A  wealthy  monastery  or 
college  would  find  a  place  at  the  servants'  table  for  the 
artisans  whom  they  employed  without  much  grudging, 
and  still  more  would  the  poor  at  the  gate  not  be  sent 
away  empty-handed.  Where  mendicancy  was  no  dis- 
grace, almsgiving  was  like  to  be  considered  the  most 
necessary  and  the  most  ordinary  of  the  virtues. 

"  It  has  been  often  said  and  often  denied  that  the 
monasteries  supplied  the  want  which  the  poor  law, 
two  generations  after  the  dissolution  of  these  bodies, 
enforced.  That  the  monasteries  were  renowned  for 
their  almsgiving  is  certain.  The  duty  of  aiding  the 
needy  was  universal.  Themselves  the  creatures  of 
charity,  they  could  not  deny  to  others  that  on  which 
they  subsisted.  But  some  orders  were  under  special 
duties.  The  Hospitalers  were  bound  to  relieve  casual 
destitution.  Hence,  when  Waynfiete  procured  the  sur- 
render of  the  house  of  the  Oxford  Hospitalers,  he 
bound  his  college  to  the  duties  which  the  surrendered 
house  had  performed,  duties  which,  it  is  almost  super- 
fluous to  say,  were  speedily  evaded.  So  again  tn» 
preaching  and  begging  friars  were  the  nurses  of  the 
sick,  especially  of  those  who  labored  under  infectious 
diseases.  There  were  houses  where  doles  of  bread  and 
beer  were  given  to  all  wayfarers,  houses  where  the  sick 
were  tended,  clothed,  and  fed,  particularly  the  lepers. 
There  were  nunneries,  where  the  nuns  were  nurses 
and  midwives;  and  even  now  the  ruins  of  these  houses 
contain  living  record  of  the  ancient  practices  of  their 
inmates  in  the  rare  medicinal  herbs  which  are  still 
found  within  their  precincts.  In  the  universal  destruc- 
tion of  these  establishments,  the  hardest  instruments 
of  Henry's  purposes  interceded  for  the  retention  of 


some  among  the  most  meritorious,  useful,  and  un- 
blemished of  them.  It  is  possible  that  these  institu- 
tions created  the  mendicancy  which  they  relieved,  but 
it  cannot  be  doubted  that  they  assisted  much  which 
needed  their  help  "  (Work  and  Wages,  p.  416). 

What  an  enormous  part  in  the  polity  of  the  Middle 
Ages  was  played  by  these  monasteries  is  well  known. 
The  estates  of  the  monasteries  are  said  over  and  over 
again  to  have  comprised  a  third  of  the  knight's  fees  in 
England.  Most  of  these  religious  houses  were  founded 
before  the  close  of  the  thirteenth  century,  many  of 
them  in  the  early  ages  of  the  Saxon  polity.  Only  a 
few  were  founded  in  later  times.  Besides  these  mo- 
nastic estates,  the  bishops  and  the  chapters  held  large 
possessions. 

Many  of  the  English  towns  grew  up  round  monas- 
teries. The  piety  of  the  converted  Saxons  led  them  to 
spend  lavishly  in  the  foundation  of  these  institutions, 
and  the  principal  part  of  the  documents  which  have 
been  preserved  from  a  period  antecedent  to  the  Con- 
quest refer  to  these  early  monasteries.  Thus  the  town 
of  Oxford  grew  up  under  the  shadow  of  the  great 
monasteries  of  St.  Frideswide  and  Osney.  Such  was 
the  origin  of  Abingdon,  of  Reading,  of  St.  Albans,  of 
Coventry,  of  Durham. 

That  these  centers  of  religious  life  were  cen- 
ters also  of  humble  brotherly  work  is  also  well 
known.  Says  Palgrave's  Dictionary  of  Politi- 
cal Economy  : 

"  The  lands  held  by  a  religious  house,  at  least  those 
in  its  immediate  vicinity,  were,  as  a  rule,  cultivated  by 
the  brotherhood  itself,  and  the  personal  interest  thus 
devoted  to  the  work  produced  better  results  than  the 
enforced  labor  of  bondmen.  The  evidence  of  the 
Domesday  survey  goes  to  show  that  the  Church  lands 
were  in  a  higher  state  of  cultivation  than  other  prop- 
erty. The  monks  also  employed  themselves  in  clear- 
ing forests,  draining  marshes,  and  making  roads  and 
bridges  (cf.  Lingard,  i.,  267  seq.  ;  Cunningham^  Growth 
of  English  Industry  and  Commerce  in  the  Early  and 
Middle  Ages,  p.  64  seq.,  i8go) ;  and  the  Cistercian  order, 
through  the  activity  which  it  displayed  in  sheep-farm- 
ing, promoted  in  a  singular  degree  the  production  of 
the  staple  commodity  of  England.  Through  the 
immense  extent  of  their  property,  variously  estimated 
in  the  thirteenth  and  fourteenth  centuries  from  a 
quarter  to  a  half  of  the  total  landed  property  of  Eng- 
land (Wycliffe,  de  Eccl.,  xv.,  p.  338 ;  cf.  Pearson,  His- 
tory of  England,  ii.,497, 1867),  the  churches  and  religious 
houses  came  to  take  an  important  share  in  the  indus- 
trial development  of  the  country  ;  and  it  is  acknowl- 
edged that  the  clergy  were  mild  landlords  (see  gen- 
erally Stubbs,  Constitutional  History,  iii.,  562).  The 
attacks  of  the  Lollards  upon  the  landed  property  of 
the  Church  were  inspired  rather  by  a  priori  objections 
to  the  system  itself  than  by  any  actual  abuses  to  which 
it  led ;  and  the  considerations  which  Bishop  Pecock, 
writing  in  the  middle  of  the  fifteenth  century,  alleged 
on  the  opposite  side  are  probably  in  the  main  just. 
'  The  treuthe  is,'  he  says,  'that  the  tenementis  and  alle 
the  possessiouns  with  her  purtenauncis,  which  the 
clergie  (religiose  or  not  religiose)  holden  and  hauen, 
is  better  meintened  and  susteyned  and  reparid  and 
kept  fro  falling  into  nouzt  and  into  wildirness,  than 
if  tho  same  tenementis  and  possessiouns  with  her 
purtenauncis  weren  in  the  hondis  of  grete  lordis, 
or  of  knyztis,  or  of  squyeris.  .  .  .  The  tenauntis, 
occupying  tho  tenementis  and  possessiouns  with 
purtenauncis  vndir  the  clergie,  ben  esilier  tretid, 
lasse  disesid,  and  not  greeued  bi  extorcioun,  as  thei 
schoulden  be,  if  thei  helden  the  same  tenementis  and 
possessiouns  of  temporal  lordis  or  of  knyztis  and 
squyers.'  Among  other  points  in  favor  of  those  who 
held  of  the  Church,  Pecock  notices  that  their  tenure 
was  less  liable  to  be  disturbed  than  that  of  those  who 
held  under  lay  lords  (Represser  of  Overmuch  Blaming 
of  the  Clergy,  vol.  ii.,  p.  370  seq.,  ed.  Babington,  1860). 
It  has  been  noticed  by  critics  least  friendly  to  the 
medieval  Church  that  it  was  such  causes— the  known 
advantage  to  the  tenant— that  did  much  to  reconcile 
public  opinion  to  the  enormous  estates  held  by  the 
Church  (Pearson,  History  of  England,  vol.  ii.,  p.  502  ; 
Rogers,  vol.  i.,  p.  160).  That  at  the  close  of  the  Middle 
Ages  the  state  of  things  was  somewhat  altered,  and 
the  abuses  which  had  arisen  with  respect  to  the  man- 
agement of  Church  property  called  forth  well-founded 
complaints  (cf.  Dyaloge  betwene  a  Gentillman  and  a 
Husbandman,  1530,  ed.  Arber,  1871,  p.  134  seq.:  Ballads 
from  Manuscripts,  ed.  Furnivall,  1869,  vol.  i.),  need 
not  be  denied." 

But  it  was  not  only  manual  work  that  was 


Church  and  Social  Reform. 


268 


Church  and  Social  Reform. 


performed  by  the    monks  and  clergy.      Says 
Rogers  : 

"The  clergy,  in  the  widest  sense  of  the  term,  con- 
tained nearly  the  -whole  of  what  we  should  call  the 
professional  classes.  The  architects,  the  physicians, 
the  lawyers,  the  scribes,  the  teachers  of  the  Middle 
Ages,  were  almost  always  clergymen,  and  when  em- 
ployed in  these  callings  were  rewarded  for  their  ser- 
vices with  benefices.  We  know  but  few  of  the  men 
who  designed  the  great  cathedrals,  churches,  and 
castles  of  the  Middle  Ages— those  buildings  which  are 
the  wonder  of  our  age  for  their  vastness,  their  exquisite 
proportions,  and  their  equally  exquisite  detail.  But 
when  we  do  know,  as  it  were  by  accident,  who  the 
builder  was,  he  is  almost  always  a 
clergyman.  It  seems  as  tho  skill  in 

The  Clergy  architecture,  and  intimate  acquaint- 
of  the  ance  with  all  which  was  necessary  not 
"  .  only  for  the  design  of  the  structure,  but 

Middle  Ages,  for  good  workmanship  and  endurance, 
were  so  common  an  accomplishment, 
that  no  one  was  at  the  pains  to  proclaim 
his  own  reputation  or  to  record  the  reputation  of 
another.  It  is  known  that  we  owe  the  designs  of 
Rochester  Castle  and  the  Tower  to  one  ecclesiastic. 
It  is  recorded  that  William  of  Wykeham  was  Edward 
III.'s  architect  at  Windsor,  as  well  as  his  own  at 
Winchester  and  Oxford,  and  of  various  handsome 
churches  which  were  built  during  his  long  episcopate. 
It  is  probable  that  Waynflete  designed  the  beautiful 
buildings  at  Magdalen  College  ;  and  it  is  alleged  that 
Wolsey,  in  his  youth,  planned  the  matchless  tower, 
•which  has  charmed  every  spectator  for  nearly  four 
centuries.  But  no  one  knows  who  designed  and  car- 
ried out  a  thousand  of  those  poems  in  stone  which 
were  the  glory  of  the  Middle  Ages,  and  have  been 
made  the  subjects  of  servile  and  stupid  imitations  in 
our  own. 

"  The  monks  were  the  men  of  letters  in  the  Middle 
Ages,  the  historians,  the  jurists,  the  philosophers,  the 

Ehysicians,  the  students  of  nature.  It  is  owing  to  their 
ibors  that  we  know  anything  of  our  annals,  of  the 
•events  by  which  the  political  history  of  England  is 
interpreted.  They  were  often  frivolous,  frequently 
credulous,  but  they  collected  the  facts  to  the  best  of 
their  ability.  It  is  true  that  the  material  which  they 
put  into  shape  is  far  less  in  quantity  than  those  vo- 
luminous archives  are  which  are  preserved  in  our 
national  collection.  But  these,  tho  of  great  col- 
lateral value,  would  have  but  little  constructive 
importance  in  the  absence  of  the  chronicles  which  the 
monks  compiled.  This  is  abundantly  illustrated  by 
the  history  of  the  fifteenth  century  and  part  of  the 

sixteenth 

"  I  am  convinced  that  schools  were  attached  to  every 
monastery,  and  that  the  extraordinary  number  of 
foundation  schools  established  just  after  the  Reforma- 
tion of  1547  was  not  a  new  zeal  for  a  new  learning,  but 
the  fresh  and  very  inadequate  supply  of  that  which 
had  been  so  suddenly  and  disastrously  extinguished." 
( Work  and  Wages,  p.  162). 

And  it  must  be  remembered  that  they  were  not 
monks  of  the  lower  ranks  who  did  manual  and  literary 
•work,  but  ecclesiastics  of  the  highest  rank.  We  find 
such  men  as  Hilary  of  Aries  one  of  the  leading  prel- 
ates in  the  French  Church,  working  in  the  field. 
Bucket,  the  Archbishop  of  Canterbury,  when  he 
visited  a  monastery  in  harvest  did  not  hes'itate  to  labor 
in  the  fields.  St.  Dunstan  is  reported  to  have  been  an 
excellent  blacksmith. 

For  what  the  medieval  Church  did  to  put 
down  feuds,  to  bring  in  "the  peace  of  God," 
etc.,  see  CHRISTIANITY  AND  SOCIAL  REFORM. 
"We  notice  here  the  influence  of  the  Church 
•upon  the  State.  The  political  influence  of  the 
medieval  Church  was  enormously  great.  Un- 
doubtedly much  of  it  was  due  to  ambition  for 
temporal  power,  especially  with  the  Roman  see, 
and  wherever  her  spirit  went ;  but  equally  un- 
doubtedly, apart  from  all  question  of  ambition, 
the  medieval  Church  often  used  her  enormous 
power,  and  especiallly  did  many  of  her  leading 
prelates  use  their  commanding  influence,  to  pro- 
tect the  rights  of  the  common  people  against  the 
aggression  both  of  the  barons  and  of  the  king. 
We  can  cite  only  a  few  examples,  but  they  are 
strewn  on  every  page  of  medieval  history.  In 


The  Poor 
Priests. 


England,  Stephen  Langton,  Archbishop  of 
Canterbury,  was  the  leader  and  the  prime 
mover  in  wresting  from  King  Richard  the 
Magna  Charta,  which  has  now  become  the  birth- 
right of  every  Englishman  and  American.  In 
France,  the  life  of  Bernard  of  Clairvaux  is  filled 
with  records  of  masterly  and  effectual  resistance 
against  the  wrongs  and  violence  of  the  barons. 
In  Italy,  the  political  influence  of  Savonarola, 
the  Dominican  monk,  can  hardly  be  overesti- 
mated, and  these  are  shining  illustrations  of 
what  was  done  in  an  humbler  way  and  on  a  lesser 
scale  by  thousands  of  brave  medieval  church- 
men. The  influence  of  Wycliffe's  poor  priests, 
and  above  all  of  John  Ball  (g.v.),  must  not  be 
forgotten.  Says  Thorold  Rogers  : 

"  The  poor  priests  alone  could  traverse  the  country 
by  right,  and,  without  suspicion,  advise  their  follow- 
ers. They  were  precisely  the  personswho  could  organ- 
ize resistance  among  the  serfs,  could  win  and  keep 
their  confidence,  and  could  be  trusted 
with  their  subscriptions,  their  plans,  and 
their  communications.  Wycliffe's  poor 
priests  had  honeycombed  the  minds  of 
the  upland  folk  with  what  may  be 
called  religious  socialism.  By  Wycliffe's 
labors  the  Bible  men  had  been  intro- 
duced to  the  new  world  of  the  Old  Testament,  to  the 
history  of  the  human  race,  to  the  primeval  garden 
and  the  young  world,  where  the  first  parents  of  all  man- 
kind lived  by  simple  toil,  and  were  the  ancestors  of 
the  proud  noble  and  knight,  as  well  as  of  the  down- 
trodden serf  and  despised  burgher.  They  read  of  the 
brave  time*  when  there  was  no  king  in  Israel,  when 
every  man  did  that  which  was  right  in  his  own  eyes, 
and  sat  under  his  own  vine  and  his  own  fig-tree,  nonrj 
daring  to  make  him  afraid.  They  read  how  God, 
through  His  prophet,  had  warned  Israel  of  the  evils 
which  would  come  to  them  when  a  king  should  rule 
over  them,  and  how  speedily  this  was  verified  in  the 
conduct  of  the  young  Rehoboam,  with  his  depraved 
and  foolish  counselors,  of  how  woe  had  been  predicted 
to  the  people  over  whom  a  child  should  rule.  The 
God  of  Israel  had  bade  His  people  be  busbandmen, 
and  not  mounted  knights  and  men-at-arms.  But, 
most  of  all,  the  preacher  would  dwell  on  his  own  pro- 
totype, on  the  man  of  God,  the  wise  prophet  who  de- 
nounced kings  and  princes  and  high  priests,  and,  by 
God's  commission,  made  them  like  a  potter's  vessel  in 
the  day  of  His  wrath,  or  on  those  bold  judges,  who 
were  zealous  even  to  slaying.  For  with  this  book,  so 
old,  yet  so  new,  the  peasant  preacher— we  are  told 
that  many  learned  to  read  when  they  were  old  that 
they  might  tell  the  Bible  story— could  stir  up  the  souls 
of  these  clowns  with  the  true  narrative  of  another 
people,  and  would  be  sure  that  his  way  to  their  hearts 
and  their  confidence  would  be,  as  it  always  has  been 
with  the  leaders  of  a  religious  revival,  by  entirely 
sympathizing  with  their  wrongs,  their  sufferings,  and 
their  hopes.  And  when  they  told  them  that  the  lords 
had  determined  to  drag  them  back  to  their  old  serf- 
dom, the  preacher  could  discourse  to  them  of  the 
natural  equality  of  man,  of  the  fact  that  all,  kings, 
lords,  and  priests,  live  by  the  fruits  of  the  earth  and 
the  labor  of  the  husbandman,  and  that  it  would  be 
better  for  them  to  die  with  arms  in  their  hands  than 
to  be  thrust  back,  without  an  effort  on  their  part,  into 
the  shameful  slavery  from  which  they  had  been  de- 
livered. And  as  their  eyes  kindled,  and  they  grasped 
their  staves,  he  could  tell  them  to  keep  their  ears  open 
for  the  news  of  their  deliverance,  that  on  the  pass- 
word being  given,  they  were  at  once  to  hie  to  the  ap- 
pointed place,  where  a  great  work  could  be  done  for 
God's  people  by  His  appointed  servant"  ( Work  and 
Wages,  p.  254).  It  is  true  that  the  correctness  of  this 
'^view  has  been  questioned,  but  that  it  is  largely  true  is 
perhaps  fixed.  Green  says  that  in  the  preaching  of 
John  Ball,  "the  mad  priest  of  Kent,"  England  "first 
listened  to  the  knell  of  feudalism  and  the  declaration 
of  the  rights  of  man."  For  an  account  of  somewhat 
similar  movements  on  the  continent,  see  BRETHREN 
OF  THE  COMMON  LIFE  ;  COMMUNISM  ;  MIDDLE  AGES,  etc. 
But  already  in  noticing  these  movements  that  were 
reformatory  of  the  Church,  as  well  as  of  society,  we 
are  in  the  dark  days  when  Rome,  led  by  her  earthly 
ambition  and  desire  for  temporal  power,  had  forgotten 
the  life  of  the  spirit ;  and,  first,  the  papacy  itself  had 
grown  utterly  and  scandalously  corrupt,  and  was. 


Church  and  Social  Reform. 


269 


Church  and  Social  Reform. 


completely  dominated  by  worldly  policy,  and  then 
gradually  the  poison  spread  from  the  head  to  feet  and 
members  till  the  whole  medieval  Church,  save  for 
reforming  movements  like  those  led  by  Wycliffe, 
Huss,  and  Savonarola,  became  dead  in  trespasses  and 
sins— the  higher  clergy  profligate  mammon-servers, 
the  lower  clergy  profligate  servers  of  the  senses  ;  the 
monasteries  (tho  not  always  even  then)  too  com- 
monly centers  of  vice,  the  nunneries  homes  of  license 
for  the  monks.  But  on  this  we  need  not  dwell,  tho 
it  must  be  remembered  in  obtaining  a  true  picture  of 
the  effect  of  the  medieval  Church  upon  social  reform  ; 
yet  there  is  little  danger  in  Protestant  lands  of  its  be- 
ing forgotten.  We  are  more  apt  to  forget  that  the 
poison  of  corruption  came  from  the  worldliness  of 
Rome,  and  that  for  long  centuries,  even  after  Rome 
was  herself  corrupt,  the  Catholic  Church  (in  England 
especially,  never  wholly  subject  to  Rome)  was  the 
great  purifying,  liberating,  civilizing,  Christianizing 
factor  of  medieval  life.  For  the  close  relation  be- 
tween many  of  the  medieval  trade  guilds  and  the 
Church,  see  GUILDS.  Almost  all  guilds  had  their  pa- 
tron saint  and  their  church,  where  they  went  for  solemn 
worship,  and  whose  clergy  took  an  active  interest  in 
their  life,  religion  and  business  being  continually  in- 
terblended  in  medieval  life. 

4.  FROM    THE   REFORMATION    TO   THE   PRESENT 
TIME. 

With  the  Reformation,  or  at  least  soon  after, 
when  the  principles  of  the  Reformation  had  be- 
come well  established  in  reformed  countries,  we 
have  a  great  change  in  the  history  of  the  Church 
and  social  reform.  That  Protestantism,  by 
reaching  the  individual,  has  along  certain  lines 
done  much  for  social  reform,  no  thoughtful  man 
can  deny.  But  the  Protestant  churches  as  a 
whole  accomplished  but  little.  Rome,  too,  since 
the  Reformation  has  done  until  recently  even 
less.  The  Reformation,  in  its  appeal  to  personal 
faith,  to  the  right  of  private  judgment,  to  the 
letter  of  the  Scriptures,  had  largely  the  effect, 
both  on  Roman  and  Protestant  churches,  of 
exalting  belief,  creeds,  dogma,  and  discussion 
above  life.  It  divided  Protestantism  into  so  many 
sects,  each  discussing  and  battling  to  sustain 
its  own  peculiar  belief  and  separate  church  ma- 
chinery, as  to  cause  the  reform  of  the  social  life 
to  be  until  recently  almost  forgotten.  This,  too, 
has  been  intensified  by  two  other  elements  in 
Protestant  faith.  First,  its  exaltation  of  what  it 
calls  "  the  spiritual  life,"  largely  meaning  by 
this  a  life  that  finds  its  chief  interest  in  the  life 
hereafter,  leading  to  what  has  been  well  called 
"other  worldliness  ;"  and  secondly,  the  ten- 
dency to  individualism.  This  combination  of 
tendencies  in  Protestant  thought  has  at  times 
almost  wholly  divorced  Church  life  from  the  life 
of  this  world  ;  and  it  is  therefore  no  wonder  that 
in  the  history  of  THE  CHURCH  AND  SOCIAL  RE- 
FORM we  have  after  the  Reformation  nearly  a 
blank.  There  are,  however,  exceptions  to  be 
noted.  First,  the  early  Protestants — for  exam- 
ple, the  Anabaptists  of  Germany — referring  di- 
rectly to  the  New  Testament,  learned  there  of 
its  communism,  and  not  a  few  at- 
tempts were  made  to  reproduce  it. 
Social  It  has  led  to  a  long  series  of  Prot- 
Uprisings  estant  attempts  at  communism 
of  the  (see  article  COMMUNISM),  some  of 
Reformation,  them  very  successful — for  example, 
the  Shakers  (g.v.).  But,  in  the  first 
place,  these  attempts  were  made  by 
sects,  and  therefore  were  so  limited  by  various 
narrow  and  peculiar  doctrinal  requirements  as 
to  very  materially  limit  their  influence  ;  while 
secondly,  they  were  based  on  the  belief  that 


Christians  must  go  out  from  the  world  and  be 
separate,  rather  than  on  the  Catholic  doctrine 
that  the  whole  world  is  God's,  and  the  duty  of 
Christians  is  to  remain  in  the  world,  tho  not 
of  it,  and  to  bring  it  wholly  into  subjection  to  its 
King.  The  second  exception  to  the  divorce 
between  the  Protestant  churches  and  the  social 
life  was  in  the  attempt  of  many  of  the  first  Prot- 
estant leaders,  such  as  Calvin, Crom- 
well, and  the  Pilgrim  Fathers  in 
America,  to  set  up  a  theocracy  on  The  Puritan 
earth,  with  their  particular  church  Theocracy. 
organization  as  the  interpreter  of 
the  Divine  will.  These  efforts  have 
passed  into  history,  and  are  now  as  much  marked 
by  their  complete  failure  and  their  renunciation 
by  all  Protestant  sects  as  they  were  once  marked 
by  intense  faith  in  their  efficacy.  The  attempts 
belong  to  the  first  years  of  Protestantism,  when 
its  principles  were  held  in  the  glow  of  enthusi- 
asm, fanned  by  persecution  and  martyrdom. 
Protestantism,  as  soon  as  it  reached  its  logical 
outcome,  conceived  this  world  for  the  most  part 
to  be  "  a  dreary  wilderness,"  from  which  the 
individual  is  saved  by  the  efficacy  of  his  personal 
faith  in  the  atoning  blood  of  Christ ;  Christianity 
to  be  the  salvation  of  the  individual  soul,  and  the 
Church  to  be  but  the  coming  together  of  the  in- 
dividuals who  are  being  saved.  While  later 
Protestant  thought  in  Unitarianism  and  even 
in  orthodox  circles  has  given  up  much  of  this 
soteriology,  still  the  divorce  of  the  Church  from 
practical  social  matters,  has  until  recently  re- 
mained. The  individualism  of  Protestantism  is 
admitted  by  friend  and  declared  by  foe.  As 
applied  to  economics,  it  had  its  good  and  its 
bad  effect.  Undoubtedly  it  has  produced  a 
period  through  which  both  the  world  and  the 
Church  had  to  pass.  Economic  and  religious 
individualism  are  largely  identical.  Says  Pal- 
grave's  Dictionary  of  Political  Economy  : 

"  Guizot,  Seebohm,  K.  Marx,  and  E.  de  Laveleye  de- 
clare alike  that  the  'history  of  capital  and  the  suprem- 
acy of  private  interest,'  i.e.,  commerce  in  its  modern  as- 
pect, commenced  contemporaneously  with  the  period  of 
the  Reformation,  accompanied,  as  that  movement  was. 
by  many  discoveries  and  inventions,  and  the  recovered 
sense  of  personal  freedom  and  responsibility.  In 
Protestantism  and  Catholicism  in  their  Bearing  upon 
the  Liberty  and  Prosperity  of  Nations,  by  Emile  de 
Laveleye  (1875),  the  progress  of  economic  enterprise  is 
attributed  to  the  superior  education  and  enlightenment 
fostered  by  Protestantism.  De  Tocqueville  ascribes 
to  the  Puritan  discipline  of  the  first  set- 
tlers the  same  result  in  the  commercial 
expansion  of  the  United  States.  From  Protestant- 
Luther  to  Protestant  divines  of  the  pres-  _•  _,  T-JJ-^J 
ent  day  the  moral  force  of  the  dignity  of  lsm  inaivm- 
labor  and  the  duty  of  cheerful  exertion  UallStlC. 
in  the  subduing  the  earth  by  economic 
effort  have  been  held  up  to  admiration, 
and  have  given  an  impulse  to  the  economic  life  of 
Protestant  countries.  The  Wealth  of  Nations  ap- 
peared in  1775-76,  and  marks  a  revolution  of  thought 
as  truly  as  in  the  world  of  industry.  '  The  machine  is 
somewhat  in  the  nature  of  Protestantism,'  says  Dean 
Uhlhorn  in  his  brochure  on  Katholicismus  und  Protes- 
tantismus  gegeniiber  der  socialen  Prage  (1887).  Pri- 
vate property  is  encouraged  by  Protestantism.  Luther, 
in  his  Sermon  on  Usury  (1579),  speaks  of  three  grades 
'  of  dealing  well  and  worthily  with  temporal  goods.' 
The  highest  is  to  allow  ourselves  to  be  despoiled  of  it 
without  offering  opposition ;  the  lowest  is  to  take 
neither  profit  nor  interest,  tho  he  sees  objections  to 
this  ideal  being  realized.  While  Erasmus  complained 
of  the  'rage  of  ownership,'  Protestantism  endeavored 
to  make  a  compromise,  maintaining  the  ideal  in  theory 
and  encouraging  what  Fr.  A.  Lange  calls  a  '  moderate 
egoism,'  or  '  ethical  materialism,'  in  practice  (see  Ge- 
schichte  afes  Materialismus,  i.,  254,  294.  Cf.  J.  E.  Thor- 


Church  and  Social  Reform. 


270 


Church  and  Social  Reform, 


old  Rogers  on  The  Economic  Interpretation  of  History, 
1888,  p.  83).  Liberation  of  industry  follows  logically 
from  that  of  liberty  of  thought,  developing  the  five 

Eoints  of  industrial  independence — freedom  of  labor, 
ree  trade  in  land,  free  movement  of  capital,  freedom 
of  industrial  enterprise,  and  a  free  market  regulated 
by  demand  and  supply :  it  further  implies  the  removal 
of  all  governmental  and  trade  restrictions — in  a  word, 
Laissez-faire.  Individualism  in  religion  and  in  indus- 
try go  together." 

It  is  not  therefore  strange  that  slavery,  suppressed 
in  Europe  by  the  medieval  Church,  reappeared  in  the 
slave  trade  after  the  Reformation,  practised  by  both 
Protestant  and  Roman  peoples.  It  is  not  strange  that 
all  the  evils  which  are  laid  at  the  door  of  individual- 
ism and  competition  should  be  largely  condoned, 
sometimes  defended,  and  at  least  allowed  and  not 
seldom  practised  by  individualistic  and  competing 
churches.  Individual  Protestants  like  Wilberforce,  and 
Howard,  and  Chalmers,  and  Shaf  tesbury,  and  Garrison 
(for  at  least  in  Garrison's  early  reform  days  he  was  a 
believer  in  the  Church),  and  Gough,  and  a  long  list  of 
noble  Protestants  may  have  done  much  for  social  re- 
form, and  no  one  can  challenge  the  effect  upon  the 
daily  moral  life  of  Protestantism  among  the  Scotch 
Covenanters,  the  English  and  American  Puritans,  or 
the  more  ordinary  life  of  many  a  parish  in  Scotland  or 
town  in  New  England  (such  as  Northampton,  Mass., 
under  Edwards,  when  nearly  the  entire  population 
were  in  church  every  Sabbath,  and  600  out  of  a  popula- 
tion of  uoo  were  members  of  the  Church) ;  yet  the 
point  is  only  too  well  sustained  that  the  Protestant 
churches  as  organizations  have  had  little  to  do  with 
social  reforms. 

5.  THE  MODERN  CHURCH. 

With  the  modern  Church  we  reach  a  new  era. 
The  Church  of  to-day  can  by  no  means  be  fair- 
ly accused  of    doing    nothing   for    humanity. 
Those  who  accuse  it,  as  many  do  in  unsparing 
terms,  of  being  separated  from  the  masses  and 
not  battling  for  social  reform,  mean  that  it  does 
not  battle  for  certain   ideas  of    reform.     For 
charity  and  in  certain  lines  of  re- 
form the  Church,  in  all  its  history, 
.  Activity     never  accomplished  more  than  to- 
of  the       day.     If    charity  (in    the    modern 
Church.      sense)  be  the  fulfilling  of  the  law, 
no  one  acquainted  with  the  facts 
can    condemn    the    Church.     And 
this  should  not  be  forgotten  even  by  those  who 
do  not  believe  that  such  charity  is  the  fulfilling  of 
the  law.     Those  who  would  put  justice  before 
charity  must  themselves  be  just  enough  to  give 
the  Church  credit  for  what  she  is  doing.     The 
real  state  of  the  case  seems  to  be  not  that  the 
Church  is  inactive,  for  she  is  immensely  active, 
but  that  she  is  not  active  along  the  lines  most 
needed  in  the  opinion  of  most  progressive  think- 
ers.    We  shall  therefore  point  out  here  the  lines 
upon  which  the  modern  Church  is  active,  and  in 
the  next  section  point  out  the  position  she  might 
take. 

We  cannot  here  enter  into  details  concerning 
separate  churches  and  church  organizations. 
For  these  see  ANGLICAN  POSITION,  BAPTIST,  CON- 
GREG  ATIONALIST,  METHODIST,  PRESBYTERIAN, 

PROTESTANT  EPISCOPAL,  ROMAN  CATHOLIC,  UNI- 
TARIAN, and  UNIVERSALIST  CHURCHES  in  their  re- 
lation to  social  reform.  We  consider  here  only 
those  activities  which  hold  more  or  less  true  of 
all  churches. 

The  first  of  these  is  the  marked  activity  of  the 
churches  in  sustaining  our  great  charitable  institu- 
tions. Especially  in  our  larger  cities,  like  New  York, 
our  great  hospitals,  for  example,  are  almost  solely 
due  to  the  churches.  Many  of  our  best  educational 
institutions,  too,  are  the  direct  offspring  of  our  churches 
(see  CHARITY  ORGANIZATION  SOCIETIES;  HOSPITALS; 
EDUCATION,  etc.).  The  immense  activity  of  the 
Church  in  these  respects  can  hardly  be  realized,  save 


by  a  detailed  study,  and  if  one  adds  to  this  the  enor- 
mous benefactions  given,  the  sums  contributed,  and 
the  charities  and  institutions  founded  by  individual 
members  of  the  Church,  and  largely  as  the  result  of 
the  constant,  quiet  teaching  and  inculcation  of  Chris- 
tian pulpits,  the  influence  of  the  Church  for  the  social 
uplift  of  humanity  can  scarcely  be  exaggerated. 

Second,  in  spite  of  severe  criticism  from  those  who- 
believe  that  our  churches,  or  at  least  church-members, 
are  guilty  in  supporting  political  parties  wedded  to 
the  saloon  interest,  it  cannot  be  denied  that  in  other 
ways  at  least  our  churches  are  exerting  a  vast  in- 
fluence for  temperance  (see  TEMPERANCE  ;  PROHIBI- 
TION ;  WOMAN'S  CHRISTIAN  TEMPERANCE  UNION  \. 
CHURCH  TEMPERANCE  SOCIETY,  etc.). 

Thirdly,  the  churches  are  exerting  a  growing  social 
influence  through  the  development  of  numerous  so- 
called  "institutional  churches,"  where  charities  and 
classes  and  clubs  and  benefit  societies  are  developed 
and  maintained  of  the  most  various  kinds,  and  largely 
on  the  lines  of  social  reform.  These  will  be  noticed  in 
more  detail  in  the  articles  on  the  several  churches. 
We  here  refer  only  to  such  churches  and  institutions  as 
the  East  Side  House  of  St.  Bartholomew's  Church,  New 
York  City;  the  work  at  St.  George's,  in  the  same  city  ; 
at  Berkeley  Temple,  Boston  ;  the  People's  Palace, 
Jersey  City ;  the  Temple  College,  connected  with 
Grace  Church,  Philadelphia  ;  the  Church  of  the  Paul- 
ist  Fathers,  in  New  York  City  ;  in  London,  the  Oxford 
House,  Mansfield  House,  Newman  House,  and  num- 
berless others  in  all  the  important  cities  and  towns  of 
Europe  or  America.  For  Germany  and  France,  see 
article  CHRISTIAN  SOCIALISM. 

Fourthly,  many  general  movements  for  social  re- 
form, like  the  social  work  of  the  Salvation  Army,  the 
immensely  important  educational  work  of  the  Chautau- 
qua  movement,  of  the  University  Extension,  the 
battle  for  Social  Purity,  the  Social  Settlement  Idea — 
these  and  a  hundred  others  are,  first,  the  indirect  re- 
sult of  Church  teaching  and,  secondly,  very  largely 
supported  by  Church  people,  and  not  seldom  directly 
in  connection  with  the  Church. 

Fifthly,  the  main  influence  of  the  modern  Church  on 
Social  Reform  we  have  yet  to  notice  in  its  deep,  vital 
influence  through  the  development  of  individual  char- 
acter. That  the  whole  present  influence  of  the  Church 
upon  character  is  good  many  may  doubt ;  that  the 
total  effect  of  its  influence  is  good  a  few  radicals  may 
question  ;  but  that  the  Church  helps  to  develop  purity^ 
kindness,  filial  and  marital  love,  general  honesty, 
patriotism,  temperance,  the  sacredness  of  life,  the 
supremacy  of  duty,  and  that  these  are  immensely  im- 
portant social  forces,  no  man  can  deny.  It  is  fre- 
quently said  that  the  main  •work  of  the  Church  is  not 
to  teach  social  reform,  but  to  prepare  and  move  in- 
dividuals to  develop  social  reform.  Into  this  private 
fundamental  work,  however,  in  an  encyclopaedia  of 
Social  Reform  we  cannot  largely  enter ;  yet  must  it 
never  be  forgotten  by  those  who  would  ask  what  the 
Church  is  doing. 

Often  those  who  condemn  the  Church  know 
her  only  as  she  was  twenty  or  more  years  ago, 
and  know  not  that  a  wholly  new  life  and  spirit 
have  entered  into  her  to-day.  And  yet  no  fair 
reviewer  of  the  question  can  deny  that  along  cer- 
tain lines  the  Church  is  far  from  being  or  doing 
what  she  should.  Almost  all  social  thinkers  are 
now  agreed  that  the  social  evils  of  the  day  arise 
in  large  part  from  social  wrongs,  in  monopolies 
of  land,  of  money,  of  machinery,  of  railroads, 
and  of  capital  of  other  kinds.  They  are  also  all 
agreed  that  whatever  be  their  especial  economic 
views,  in  some  way  society  has  a  large  part  to- 
play  in  righting  these  wrongs,  and  that  such  re- 
forms are  therefore  at  present  needed  as  much 
as  the  personal  charities  and  activities  of  the 
Church.  Now  it  is  in  this  large 
field  that  the  Church  does  so  little. 
Many  earnest  churchmen  claim  that 
this  is  a  field  which  the  Church 
should  not  enter.  But  this  is  exactly 
the  difficulty  urged  by  social  reform- 
ers. They  claim  that  the  Church  has  no  ade- 
quate conception  of  what  she  could  and  should 
do.  If  Jesus  Christ  be  the  King  of  all  life  (see 


Failure 

of  the 

Church. 


Church  and  Social  Reform. 


271 


Church  and  Social  Reform. 


CHRISTIANITY  AND  SOCIAL  REFORM),  surely  the 
Church,  as  working  for  Him,  should  demand 
that  all  life  obey  Christ,  and  surely  the  political, 
social,  and  industrial  spheres  are  a  part  of  hu- 
man life.  It  is  more  than  hinted  that  while  the 
churches  do  much  for  charity  (often,  however, 
in  their  wealth  giving  of  that  which  costs  them 
little),  they  fear  to  take  up  these  fundamental 
social  questions  because  they  have  become  iden- 
tified with  and  dependent  upon  wealthy  donors 
interested  in  sustaining  these  private  and  class 
monopolies.  City  clergymen,  with  their  (often) 
large  salaries  and  luxurious  homes,  are  espe- 
cially scorned,  hated,  and  denounced  by  work- 
ing men,  who  claim  that  these  men  are  not  true 
followers  of  the  Nazarene  Carpenter.  ' '  We  de- 
nounce and  leave  the  Church,"  say  these  labor 
leaders,  "  not  because  it  is  Christian,  but  pre- 
cisely because  it  is  not  Christian."  In  these 
lines  it  is  easy  to  see  how,  in  spite  of  their  grow- 
ing activities,  the  churches  are  still  denounced 
as  false  to  their  pretended  creed  and  duty. 
Nevertheless  even  on  this  line  there  is  a  great 
change.  Under  articles  CHRISTIAN  SOCIALISM 
and  the  respective  articles  on  the  various  Chris- 
tian churches  will  be  found  much  evidence  of 
this.  Clergymen  of  all  denominations  are  com- 
ing to  see  that  Christ  really  meant  His  kingdom 
to  come  on  earth  and  all  kingdoms  of  this  earth, 
including  the  kingdoms  of  politics,  trade,  indus- 
try, etc. ,  to  become  a  portion  of  His  kingdom. 
It  is  significant  that  a  new  policy  is  proposed 
for  foreign  and  home  missions,  whereby  the 
Church  should  organize  its  converts  into  Chris- 
tian, industrial  and  social  communities,  as  indeed 
the  Moravian  missionaries  have  long  done. 
Certainly  a  new  life  is  in  the  Church,  altho 
when  one  realizes  the  social  need  and  the  power 
that  is  in  the  Christ  the  Church  professes  to 
serve,  the  little  done  seems  lost  in  the  undone 
vast.  (See  also  CHURCH  AND  THE  WORKING 
MEN.) 

6.  THE   GENERAL   POSSIBLE  RELATIONS  OF  THE 
CHURCH  TO  SOCIAL  REFORM. 

The  Church  either  has  taken  or  may  take  at 
least  six  possible  positions  in  relation  to  social 
reform. 

i.  It  is  claimed  that  the  Church  has  no  rela- 
tion to  social  reform  ;  that  the  only  mission  of 
the  Church  is  to  rescue  individual  souls  from  a 
perishing  world,  and  save  them  for 
a  spirit  life  to  come.     This,   tho 
Merely  to    not    often    nakedly    admitted    in 
Rescue  the  words,  is  a  position,  as  we  have 
Individual,  seen,  that  has  often  been  taken  in 
the  past  and  is  still  not  unf  requent- 
ly  practically  taken  by  many  Prot- 
estant churches  and  sects  to-day.     It  is,  how- 
ever, now  given  up,  in  words  at  least,  by  almost 
all  educated  and    thoughtful    Christians,   and 
needs  small  consideration.     The  Christ  who  fed 
the  hungry,  healed  the  sick,  and  prayed  that 
His  kingdom  might  come  on  earth,  surely  never 
meant  His  Church  to  neglect  the  bodies  and 
earthly  relationship  of  men. 

"Think  of  that  long  series  of  works  of  Christ  which 
are  generally  now  called  'miracles,'  but  which  St. 
John,  at  any  rate,  used  to  call  '  signs,'  significant  acts 
showing  what  kind  of  a  person  Christ  was,  and  what 
He  wished  His  followers  to  be  ;  and  you  will  find- 


without  troubling  for  the  moment  how  they  were  done, 
but  merely  considering  what  all  those  who  believe 
they  happened  are  bound  to  learn  from  them — that 
they  were  all  distinctly  secular,  socialistic  works : 
works  for  health  against  disease,  works  restoring 
beauty  and  harmony  and  pleasure  where  there  had 
been  ugliness  and  discord  and  misery,  works  taking 
care  to  see  that  the  people  were  properly  fed,  works 
subduing  nature  to  the  human  good,  works  showing 
that  mirth  and  joy  have  a  true  place  in  our  life  here, 
works  also  showing  that  premature  death  has  no  right 
here." 

2.  It  is  claimed  that  while  a  new  social  era 
shall  come  on  earth,  it  will  only  come  with  the 
personal  advent  of  Christ,  or  can  only  be  realized 
by  prayer  and  spintual  development,  so  that 
practically  the  Church  to-day  has  nothing  to  do 
for  distinctively  social  reform.     This  position  in 
effect  and  sometimes  in  words  is  taken  by  many 
Adventists  and  so-called  Holiness  people,  and 
by  not  a  few  in  churches  nominally  not  holding 
to  these  views.     It  is  almost  as  demoralizing  a 
position  as  the  first.     As  the  first  position  de- 
thrones God  in  this  world,  so  this  position  cuts 
the  nerve  of  Christian  activity  and  makes  the 
Christian  not  a  worker  for  the  coming  of  the 
kingdom,  but  a  parasite  without  healthy  life. 
Christ  said  to  His  disciples,  "  Go  ye  into  all  the 
world."     He  bade  them  heal  the  sick,  feed  the 
hungry,  clothe    the  naked.     Undoubtedly  the 
true  Christian  will  depend  on   Christ  for  his 
power,  but  this  is  no  excuse  for  the  lack  of 
action  and   obedience    to    Christ's    command. 
Christ  did  the  wonderful  secular  works  we  have 
noticed  above,  and  then  said  to  His  disciples, 
"  He  that  believeth  on  Me,  works  that  I  do  shall 
he  do  also,  and  greater  works  than  these  shall  he 
do." 

3.  The  Church  may  claim  that  while  it  should 
work,  its  work  is  to  be  confined  to  the  indi- 
vidual ;  that   only  by  saving  individuals  and 
building  them  up  into  a  true  char- 
acter can  it  finally  save  society,  so 

that  for  a  society  as  a  whole  the    To  Beach 
Church  has  no  message  or  duty,    the  World 
This  position  is  not  unfrequently  through  the 
asserted,  and  is  continually  acted  Individual 
upon.     It  is  the  distinctively  Prot-       Alone. 
estant    conception.      Undoubtedly 
the  Church's  first  message  and  first 
work  is  for  the  individual  ;  but  if  society  be  a 
portion  of  human  life,  and  Jesus  Christ  be  the 
rightful  King  of  all  life,  He  has  a  law  and  ideal 
for  society  which  the  Church  must  declare  and 
strive  to  realize.     Perfecting  only  individuals  is 
to  attempt  to  build  up  a  temple  by  polishing  the 
bricks,  but  forgetting  the  mortar  which  binds 
them  together.     Humanity  is  an  organism.     It 
has  one  father.    We  are  brothers,  and  our  broth- 
ers' keepers.     No  one  can  live  alone.     We  are 
affected  by  environment.     When  open  sewers 
are  running  through  the  streets  it  is  folly  mere- 

¥'  to  tell  the  individual  to  live  a  healthy  life, 
he  community  has  a  duty  to  perform — to  close 
the  sewer — and  as  a  community  to  obey  the  laws 
of  health.  So  there  is  a  social  morality  and  a 
social  Christianity  which  the  Church  must  teach, 
and  to  which  it  must  lead.  Too  often  the  posi- 
tion that  the  Church  has  only  a  duty  to  the  indi- 
vidual is  a  mere  excuse  for  not  performing  un- 
pleasant social  duties.  On  the  other  hand,  it  is 
not  to  be  forgotten  that  because  the  Church  has 
a  social  duty  this  must  not  be  made  the  occa- 


Church  and  Social  Reform. 


272 


Church  and  Social  Reform. 


sion,  as  it  sometimes  is,  of  neglecting  personal 
spirituality. 

4.  The  position  may  be  taken  that  the  Church 
has  a  social  duty  to  perform,  and  that  since 
there  is  no  true  life  apart  from  religion,  the 

Church  should  build  up  an  ecclesi- 
astical social  life,  and  have  naught 
To  Develop  to  do  with  the  so-called  secular  in- 
Church       stitutions  of  society  or  State.     This 
Social       is  a  position  that  has  led  to  notable 
Institutions,  movements  in  history — the  various 
efforts  at  organizing  church  com- 
munisms and  church  theocracies. 
It  is  involved  in  the  position  of  the  temporal 
power  of  the  Church  of  Rome.     It  is  the  tend- 
ency to-day  which  is  developing  so  much  insti- 
tutional Christianity,  and  which,  if  rightly  bal- 
anced by  other  conceptions,  is   wholly  good. 
Christ  undoubtedly  bids  His  disciples  to  feed 
the  hungry  and  clothe  the  naked  and  develop 
true  social  (including  industrial)  life.     But  it 
must  be  remembered  that  if  Christ  is  the  King 
of  all  life,  and  if  the  State  is  to  be,  the  State 
must  be  Christianized,  and  therefore  the  Church 
has  a  mission  to  the  State  as  well  as  practical 
work  to  do  by  herself.     "  Much  can  be  done  by 
churchmen  who  remember  that  the  State  is  a 
sacred  organization  as  well  as  the  Church.    They 
can  unite  with  socialists  of  every  sort  in  their 
endeavor  to  seize  the  State  and  to  use  it  for  the 
well-being  of  the  masses  instead  of  the  classes. ' ' 

5.  Men  can  go  to  the  contrary  extreme  and 
say  that  since  the  State  should  be  Christian,  the 
Church  is  not  so  much  to  build  up  Christian  in- 
stitutions herself  as  to  be  the  spir- 

To  Work  itual  inner  life  in  the  State,  that  shall 
through  induce  the  State  to  develop  such 
the  State,  institutions.  This  is  to  an  extent 
the  medieval  and  Catholic  concep- 
tion of  the  Church.  According  to 
this  conception,  the  Church  is  to  be  the  witness, 
the  voice,  the  conscience,  the  soul,  of  which  the 
State  is  the  body,  and  the  State  (municipal  or 
national)  is  therefore  rather  than  the  Church  the 
hand  which  is  to  build  the  true  social  structure. 
This  may  be  perhaps  the  highest  ideal  of  the 
Church  of  the  future,  when  the  State  shall  be 
truly  Christianized  ;  but  till  the  State  be  truly 
Christian — and  the  best  States  are  far  from  this 
now — the  Church  certainly  has  not  only  a  social 
message  to  deliver,  but  a  social  work  to  do.  This 
position  also  is  in  especial  danger  of  degenerat- 
ing into  the  mere  preaching  of  platitudes  and 
glittering  generalities.  If  the  Church  is  to  be 
the  conscience  and  soul  of  the  nation,  it  must  not 
only  bid  the  nation  be  good,  but  declare  in  defi- 
nite cases  what  is  the  path  of  right. 

6.  The  truest  position  is  probably  one  which 
finds  some  truth  in  all  the  above  views,  even  in 
the  crudest,  and  works  in  every  way  to  build  up 
the  kingdom  of  heaven. 

In  an  address  upon  The  Needs  of  the  City, 
before  the  Evangelical  Alliance,  convened  in 
Boston,  December  4,  1889,  Professor  Ely  sug- 
gested the  following  needs,  which  in  themselves 
show  what  the  Church  could  do  on  especial  mu- 
nicipal problems.  Professor  Ely  mentioned  the 
need 

i.  Of  a  profound  revival  of  religion,  not  in  any 
narrow  or  technical  sense,  but  in  the  broadest,  largest, 
fullest  sense,  a  great  religious  awakening  which  shall 


shake  things,  going  down   into   the   depths  of  men's 
lives  and  modifying  their  character.    The  city  needs 
religion,  and   without   religion   the  sal- 
vation of  the  city  is  impossible. 

2.  The    first    need    restated    from    a   A  Proposed 
different  point  of  view,  a  renaissance  of     Program. 
nationalism  or  municipalism.     Said  Pro- 
fessor Ely  : 

"  Societies  have  failed  and  will  fail.  They  cannot, 
acting  simply  as  societies,  do  the  work.  Their  re- 
sources are  inadequate,  the  territory  they  can  cover  is 
too  small,  and  their  power  is  insufficient.  The  Evan- 
gelical Alliance  simply  as  such  can  never  do  the  work. 
The  Evangelical  Alliance,  like  other  societies,  must 
put  itself  behind  municipal  government  and  recognize 
the  reform  and  elevation  of  municipal  government  as 
one  of  the  chief  features  of  its  work.  It  must  strive  to 
establish  among  us  true  cities  of  God.  There  is  plenty 
of  room  for  the  individual  and  for  individual  activity. 
Not  all  the  work  can  be  done  by  government,  altho 
without  government  very  little  can  be  accomplished. 
But  in  addition  to  strictly  private  work,  there  is  room 
for  any  amount  of  individual  work  in  stimulating 
official  work  and  in  cooperation  with  official  work. 

"  We  must  recognize  this,  and  the  sooner  we  recog- 
nize it  the  better.  .  .  .  The  most  successfvil 
work,  says  Barnett  after  his  long  striving,  is  done  by 
the  Education  Act,  the  Poor  Law,  and  other  socialistic 
legislation.  That  that  is  the  most  successful  work  is 
also  illustrated  by  the  life  and  career  of  the  seventh 
Earl  of  Shaftesbury,  who  carried  through  Parliament 
legislation  which  has  benefited  millions  of  Englishmen. 
If  simply  by  touching  a  person  you  could  confer  a  dis- 
tinct benefit  on  the  person  touched,  it  would  take  you 
twenty  years  to  benefit  as  many  people  as  have  been 
benefited  by  legislation  chiefly  due  to  this  great  phil- 
anthropist. 

3.  Education  of  all  kinds. 

4.  Good  amusements,  gymnasiums,  parks,  etc. 

5.  Public  baths,  washhouses,  etc. 

6.  Improvement  of  artisans'  dwellings. 

7.  Organized  medical  relief. 

8.  Temperance. 

Such  are  the  main  needs  of  our  cities  as  con- 
sidered by  Professor  Ely,  and  they  suggest  a 
large  program  for  the  Church. 

National  churches  might  do  still  more.  It  was 
proposed  at  the  World's  Congress  on  the  Church 
and  the  Labor  Movement,  that  among  the  first 
things  for  the  Church  to  do  was  in  conventions 
and  conferences,  and  finally  national  councils, 
to  create  true  ideals  of  social  and  industrial  life, 
teaching  men  of  our  day  what  conscience  de- 
mands in  the  daily  life,  even  as  the  canon  law 
(<?.v.)  of  the  Middle  Ages  expressed  then  the 
sense  of  the  Church  on  such  questions  of  the 
daily  life  as  taking  of  interest,  etc.  The  Church, 
to  do  this,  needs  not  to  lay  down  laws,  but  it 
should  lift  up  practical  ideals. 

Again,  the  Church  in  pulpit,  church  paper,  con- 
ference, and  convention  should  protest  against 
great  social  wrongs  and  oppressive  monopolies 
and  tyrannies,  and  agitate  for  such  far-reaching 
reforms  as  the  lessening  of  the  hours  of  labor, 
the  progressive  taxation  of  great  incomes,  the 
nationalization  of  land  and  of  monopolized  capi- 
tal, the  employment  of  the  unemployed.  Says  a 
leading  Christian  Socialist  in  England,  Rev.  S. 
D.  Headlam  :  ' '  Lastly,  I  come  to  what  is  the  main 
plank  in  the  platform  of  the  Christian  Socialist, 
the  chief  political  reform  at  which  he  aims, 
being  bound  by  his  creed  to  go  to  the  very  heart 
of  the  matter  ;  to  be  content  with  no  tinkering. 
It  is  summed  up  in  the  resolution  which  was 
moved  by  the  English  Land  Restoration  League 
in  Trafalgar  Square  ;  after  which  the  authori- 
ties, being  Conservative  authorities,  wisely  set- 
tled that  no  more  should  be  said  there  for  the 
present.  It  ran  as  follows  :  '  That  the  main 
cause  of  poverty,  both  in  the  agricultural  dis- 
tricts and  in  the  great  centers  of  population,  is 


Church  and  Social  Reform. 


273 


Church  and  the  Working  Men. 


the  fact  that  the  land,  which  ought  to  be  the 
common  property  of  all,  is  now  monopolized  by 
a  few  ;  and  that  therefore  those  who  want  to  cut 
away  at  the  root  of  poverty  must  work  to  restore 
to  the  people  the  whole  of  the  value  which  they 
give  to  the  land,  to  get  for  the  people  complete 
control  over  the  land,  and  to  that  end  see  to  it 
that  those  who  use  land  pay  for  the  use  of  it  to 
its  rightful  owners,  the  people. '  "  Perhaps,  first, 
above  all  else  the  Church  should  see  to  it  that 
her  own  life  is  rightly  fashioned  ;  that  she  or- 
ganize her  needy  converts  in  home  and  foreign 
fields  into  true,  self-supporting  Christian  com- 
munities ;  that  she  see  to  it  that  her  own  churches 
be  built  and  her  church  papers  and  prayer-books 
be  printed  by  united  labor  working  during  just 
hours  at  righteous  wages.  A  church  that  did 
this,  led  by  clergy,  living  from  the  Christ  life  in 
humility  and  self-sacrifice  and  lifting  up  her 
voice  for  the  oppressed  against  every  oppressor, 
would  be  indeed  a  church  following  her  Master 
in  social  reform. 

References  :  For  the  relation  of  the  Early  Church  to 
Social  Reform,  see  C.  L.  Brace's  Gesta  Christi  : 
Schmidt's  history  of  the  subject ;  N.  C.  Koun's  Arius 
the  Libyan,  church  histories,  etc.  For  the  medieval 
Church,  see  Canon  Fremantle's  The  World  the  Subject 
of  Redemption,  also  Brace,  Schmidt,  and  church  his- 
tories, as  above.  For  the  modern  Church,  see  R.  T.  El  y 's 
Social  Aspects  of  Christianity  :  F.  W.  Sprague's  So- 
cialism from  Genesis  to  Revelation  ;  R.  A.  Wood's  Eng- 
lish Social  Movements ;  Rev.  and  Mrs.  S.  A.  Barnet's 
Practicable  Socialism  ;  G.  D.  Herron's  The  Christian 
Society.  (See  also  CHRIST  AND  SOCIAL  REFORM  ;  CHRIS- 
TIANITY AND  SOCIAL  REFORM  ;  CHRISTIAN  SOCIAL- 
ISM, etc.) 

CHURCH  AND  THE  WORKING  MEN, 
THE. — Much  has  recently  been  said  and  writ- 
ten about  the  separation,  existing  or  declared  to 
be  existing  at  present,  between  the  Christian 
Church  and  the  so-called  working  portion  of  the 
community.  Before  we  consider  the  question, 
a  few  general  facts  must  be  noted  which  are  not 
always  remembered  in  this  discussion.  In  the 
first  place,  it  must  be  remembered  that  Chris- 
tianity is  not  losing,  but  rather  gaining  rapidly 
in  numbers  in  relation  to  the  population  as  a 
whole.  This  is  true  both  of  the  United  States 
and  of  the  world. 

There  were,  according  to  Ferussac's  Bulletin  Univer- 
se/ (for  1500-1800),  Professor  Schem's  Statistics  of  the 
World  (for  1875)  and  M.  Fourneir  de  Flaix  (for  1895,  as 
quoted  in  The  World  Almanac) : 

TOO  millions  of  Christians  in  the  year  1500. 


389 

447 


1875. 
1895. 


More  persons  have  been  added  to  the  Christian  faith 
in  this  century  than  in  all  previous  centuries  put  to- 
gether. 

Of  the  United  States,  Dr.  Josiah  Strong  says 
(The  New  Era,  p.  203) : 

"According  to  the  best  available  statistics,  the  Evan- 
gelical communicants  in  the  United  States  in  1800  were 
7  per  cent,  of  the  population.  In  1880  they  had  risen  to 
20.07  per  cent.,  and  in  1890  to  21.42. 

"Thus,  the  proportion  of  Evangelical  church-mem- 
bers to  the  population  was  three  times  as  large  in  1890 
as  in  1800." 

Nor  is  the  Church  losing  in  quality  of  life. 
It  has  never  shown  in  all  its  history  such  vitality 
as  at  present.  This  is  seen  in  the  remarkable 
growth  of  its  activities.  Robert  Raikes  com- 


menced the  first  Sunday-schools  in  London  only 
a  little  over  a  century  ago.  To-day  there  are  in 
the  world  22,476,050  enrolled  in  Sunday-schools, 
and  over  2,000,000  of  Sunday-school  teachers. 
The  Young  Men's  Christian  Association,  organ- 
ized in  1844,  has  to-day  5000  branches  in  the 
United  States  alone.  The  Woman's  Christian 
Temperance  Union,  .begun  in  1874,  has  400,000 
members.  The  Salvation  Army  has  11,036  offi- 
cers. The  Chautauqua  movement  numbers 
200,000.  The  Young  People's  Society  of  Chris- 
tian Endeavor,  begun  only  in  1881,  has  over 
2,000,000  members  to-day. 

Nor  is  the  Church  lacking  in  very  great  hu- 
manitarian efforts.    Institutional  churches  (q.v.}, 
whose  special  function  it  is  to  work  among  the 
so-called  working    classes   and  to 
care  for  the  whole  man,  soul  and 
body  and  mind,  are  character  istic  The  Favor- 
of  modern  Christianity.     They  are   able  View. 
to  be  found  in  all  our  large  cities 
and  in  most  of  our  larger  towns. 
One  church  alone  in  New   York   City  spends 
$100,000  annually,  and  mainly  in  practical  chari- 
ties.    The  annual  sum  spent  in  various  charities 
in  London,  and  largely  by  Christians,  is  no  less 
than  $25,000,000  (C.  S.  Loch,  Charity  Organi- 
zation, p.  43).    And  these  institutional  churches 
and  many  other  churches  do  reach  working  men. 
The  opposition  of  working  men  to  the  Church 
is  audible  ;  it  comes  largely  from  the  members 
of  labor  organizations,  but  these  are,  after  all,  a 
small  minority  of  the  working  classes ;  and  among 
those  who  do  not  belong  to  labor  organizations 
and  whose  voices  are  not  often  heard  in  the 
labor  movement,  there  are  thousands  and  thou- 
sands of  working  men,  and  beyond  all  question 
a  growing  number  of  working  men,  who  are 
regular  and  quiet  attendants  upon   Christian 
churches.     Some  of  these  churches  believe  they 
have  solved  the  question,  "  How  to  reach  the 
working  man  ?" 

Nevertheless,  in  spite  of  this  view,  there  is 
quite  a  different  and"  a  more  serious  side  to  the 
question.     Because  the  communicants  in    the 
churches  are  increasing  faster  than 
the  population,  and  because  certain 
churches     are    reaching    working  The  TTnfavor- 
men,  it  does   not   follow  that  the    able  View. 
Church  is  growing  in  the  number 
of  its  adherents  and'  in  its  general 
hold  upon  the  community.     The  fact  seems  to 
be  that  the  number  of  communicants  is  grow- 
ing, but  that  church  attendance  is  falling  off  ; 
that  the  proportion  of  attendants  who  are  non- 
communicants  has  been  greatly  reduced.     The 
Church  seems  to  be  doing  a  better  work  among 
certain  classes,  but  not  to  be  gaining  the  masses. 
Dr.  Strong  said  in  the  first  edition  of  Our  Coun- 
try (p.  216) : 

"  Our  churches  are  growing,  our  missionary  opera- 
tions extending,  our  benefactions  swelling,  and  we 
congratulate  ourselves  upon  our  progress ;  but  we 
have  only  to  continue  making  the  same  kind  of  prog- 
ress long  enough,  and  our  destruction  is  sure." 

In  his  second  edition  he  says,  in  place  of  the  above  : 
"  The  Church  of  Christ  has  aroused  herself  in  some 
measure,  but,  so  far  as  I  can  judge,  the  dangerous  and 
destructive  elements  of  society  are  still  making  greater 
progress  than  the  conservative." 

In  the  New  Era  he  says  (p.  204) :  "Few  appreciate  to 
what  extent  we  have  now  become  a  non-church-going 
people.  Mr.  Moody  said  a  few  years  ago  :  'The  gulf 
between  the  Church  and  the  masses  is  growing  deeper, 


Church  and  the  Working  Men. 


274 


Church  and  the  Working  Men. 


•wider,  and  darker  every  hour.' . . .  If  the  many  towns 
and  cities  which  have  been  investigated  in  various 
States  are  fairly  representative  of  the  whole  country, 
we  may  infer  that  less  than  30  per  cent,  of  our  popula- 
tion are  regular  attendants  upon  Church,  that  perhaps 
20  per  cent,  are  irregular  attendants,  while  fully  one 
half  of  the  people  of  the  United  States,  or  more  than 
32,000,000,  never  attend  any  church  service,  Protestant 
or  Roman  Catholic." 

As  for  the  churches  who  do  reach  working  people, 
it  is  doubtful  if  they  reach  many  of  the  best  of 
the  working  class.  Dr.  Strong  implies  that  they  do.  He 
says  (idem,  p.  221) :  "  The  Church  is  spending  her  ener- 
gies on  the  best  elements  of  society,  her  time  is  given 
to  teaching  the  most  intelligent,  she  is  medicating  the 
healthiest,  she  is  salting  the  salt,  while  the  determinat- 
ing masses,  which  include  the  most  ignorant  and  vi- 
cious, the  poorest  and  most  degraded,  are  alike  beyond 
her  influence  and  her  effort." 

We  doubt  if  this  is  the  fact.  The  Church 
seems  to  us  to  be  reaching  the  comfortable  and 
the  very  poor,  but  not  the  best,  at  least  not  the 
best  among  the  working  classes — certainly  not  . 
those  in  organized  labor,  and  these  we  believe 
to  be  the  best  among  working  men.  These 
working  men  who  believe  that  they  are  not  re- 
ceiving their  just  dues,  that  they  are  wronged 
by  the  capitalist  class,  look  on  charitable  insti- 
tutions not  as  an  expression  of  Christian  love, 
but  as  a  mere  sop  to  Cerberus. 

Says  Rev.  S.  L.  Loomis  (Modern  Cities, 
p.  82)  : 

"  It  will  not  be  difficult  to  convince  those  who  are  ac- 
quainted with  the  life  of  our  cities  that  the  Protestant 
churches,  as  a  rule,  have  no  following  among  the  work- 
ing men.  Everybody  knows  it.  Go  into  an  ordinary 
church  on  Sunday  morning,  and  you  see  lawyers,  phy- 
sicians, merchants,  and  business  men  with  their  fami- 
lies ;  you  see  teachers,  salesmen,  and  clerks,  and  a  cer- 
tain proportion  of  educated  mechanics  ;  but  the  work- 
ing man  and  his  household  are  not  there.  It  is  doubtful 
if  one  in  20  of  the  average  congregation  in  English- 
speaking  Protestant  city  churches  fairly  belongs  to  this 
class ;  but  granting  the  proportion  to  be  so  great  as  one 
in  10  or  one  in  s,  even  then  you  would  have  two 
thirds  of  the  people  furnishing  only  one  tenth  or  one 
fifth  of  the  congregation." 

Dr.  Washington  Gladden  said  in  1885  :  "  In  my  own 
congregation,  which  worships  in  a  very  plain  church, 
the  seats  of  which  are  free,  in  a  neighborhood  easily 
accessible  to  the  working  classes,  and  which  has  been 
known  always  as  an  extremely  democratic  congrega- 
tion, I  find  only  about  one  tenth  of  the  families  on  my 
list  belonging  to  this  class.  .  .  .  This  is  the  result  of  re- 
peated special  efforts  made  in  the  interest  of  the  work- 
ing classes,  with  several  courses  of  lectures  on  Sunday 
evenings  for  their  benefit." 

In  this  connection  Dr.  Gladden  added  :  "  How  is  it 
with  the  other  extreme  of  society?  In  this  same  city  I 
asked  one  of  the  best-informed  citizens  to  make  me  out 
a  list  of  50  of  the  leaders  of  business.  He  did  not 
know  my  reason  for  wishing  such  a  list,  but  after  it 
was  put  into  my  hands,  I  found  that  55  per  cent,  of 
these  men  were  communicants  in  the  churches,  and 
that  77  per  cent,  of  them  •were  regular  attendants  upon 
the  churches.  A  large  proportion  of  the  capitalists  are 
more  or  less  closely  identified  with  the  churches,  while 
of  the  laborers  only  a  small  share  are  thus  identified, 
and  the  number  tends  to  decrease  rather  than  increase." 
A  similar  inquiry  in  an  Eastern  city  of  about  40,000  in- 
habitants showed  that  three  fifths  of  the  leading  citi- 
zens were  church  -members,  while  four  fifths  were  regu- 
lar church  attendants. 

The  situation  in  England  seems  to  be  the  same. 
Canon  Parrar,  speaking  of  the  Church  of  England, 
says  (Harper's  Magazine,  May,  1891) :  "  Not  3  per  cent, 
of  the  working  classes,  who  represent  the  great  mass 
of  the  people,  are  regular  or  even  occasional  communi- 
cants.'' 

Concerning  me  feeling  of  working  men  to  the 
Church,  Dr.  Strong  says  (The  New  Era, 
p.  214) : 

"  The  Committee  on  the  Work  of  the  Churches  of  the 
Massachusetts  Congregational  Association  made  in- 
quiries as  to  the  attitude  of  the  working  men  of  Massa- 


chusetts toward  the  churches.  Circulars  were  sent  to 
some  200  State  and  local  labor  leaders.  The  many  fail- 
ures to  reply,  together  with  the  tone  of  curt  refusals  to 
answer,  or  the  return  of  blank  circulars,  indicated  any- 
thing but  a  kindly  feeling  toward  the  churches.  Most  of 
the  replies  sent  expressed  the  opinion  that  laboring  men 
have  been  alienated  from  the  churches.  'The  causes 
given  of  alienation  are  all  modifications  of  the  charge 
that  churches  and  preachers  are  allied  with  and  subser- 
vient to  the  "  oppressing  class."  '  '  Seldom  is  the  Church 
just  enough  even  to  be  neutral.  It  is  a"  mammonized  " 
institution;  it  belongs  to  the  plutocrats,'  etc.  (Rev. 
John  P.  Coyle,  The  Churches  and  Labor  Unions,  The 
forum,  August,  1892). 

"Like  charges  are  common  at  labor  meetings.  At  such 
a  meeting  in  Union  Square,  New  York  City,  one  of  the 
foremost  representatives  of  organized  labor  in  the 
United  States,  a  man  of  national  reputation,  occupied 
some  20  minutes  in  pouring  out  a  lava  stream  of  vitu- 
peration against  the  Church  and  its  ministers,  both 
Protestant  and  Roman  Catholic.  The  Young  Men's 
Christian  Association  was  called  'that  scab  institu- 
tion.' 'Cooper's  Institute  did  more  good  in  a  week 
than  all  the  New  York  churches  in  a  year,'  and  a  cer- 
tain New  York  daily  paper  '  represented  the  spirit  of 
true  brotherhood  more  in  a  single  issue  than  the  Chris- 
tian  ministers,  the  parasites  of  society,  could  do  in  an 
age  of  their  hired  mouthings.'  And  these  utterances 
were  lustily  cheered  by  the  large  audience  of  working 
men. 

"  In  their  struggles,  working  men  have  little  expecta- 
tion of  sympathy  or  help  from  the  churches.  They  do 
not  appreciate  the  fact  that,  apart  from  their  own 
class,  most  of  those  who  are  seeking  to  secure  the 
rights  of  labor  are  Christian  men.  and  a  large  propor- 
tion of  them  clergymen.  Still  it  is  not  strange  that  the 
attitude  of  a  majority  of  churches  and  ministers 
should  be  supposed  to  represent  the  whole.  Professor 
R.  T.  Ely  writes  :  'The  secretary  of  the  Journeymen 
Bakers'  National  Union  sent  out  appeals  to  the  clergy 
of  New  York  and  Brooklyn  to  preach  against  Sunday 
labor,  and  help  them  to  abolish  it.  Five  hundred  circu- 
lars were  sent  out,  but  little  response  was  met  with. 
In  a  reply  to  a  query  as  to  their  success,  the  disgusted 
secretary  sent  this  answer  to  the  writer  of  the  present 
paper :  "  Out  of  the  500  circulars  sent  to  the  clergy  of 
New  York  and  Brooklyn  half  a  dozen  answered.  You 
will  have  a  hard  time,  Professor,  to  convince  the  toilers 
of  this  country  that  the  clergy  will  ever  do  anything 
for  them."  "... 

"  When  those  classes  which  in  all  Christian  history 
have  been  the  most  susceptible  to  the  Gospel  become 
the  least  susceptible  to  it,  there  is  something  wrong, 
something  abnormal.  Has  human  nature  changed? 
Has  the  Gospel  changed  ?  Is  it  not  worth  while  to  ask 
whether  indifference  or  antipathy  to  the  Church  is  iden- 
tical with  indifference  or  antipathy  to  the  Gospel? 
And  when  that  question  has  been  answered  it  will  be 
in  order  to  inquire  whether  the  gospel  we  preach  is 
really  Christ's  Gospel. 

"Recent  investigators  have  stated  that  the  'German 
Social  Democrats,  tho  hostile  to  official  Christian- 
ity, are  ready  to  avow  themselves  followers  of  Jesus.' 
This  led  the  committee  of  the  Massachusetts  Congrega- 
tional Association,  when  making  the  inquiries  already 
referred  to,  to  ask  whether  the  working  men  who  disbe- 
lieve  in  the  churches  also  disbelieve  in  Jesus,  '  With 
few  exceptions  the  answers  are  that  belief  in  Jesus  is 
common  ;  and  this  testimony  is  borne  in  many  cases 
with  much  warmth.  ...  It  is  commonly  said  that  if 
the  churches  and  ministers  would  be  faithful  to  Jesus, 
no  alienation  would  exist.'  It  has  been  repeatedly 
said  by  working  men  that  they  do  not  disbelieve  in 
Christianity,  but  in  '  Churchianity."'  The  distinction 
was  made  clear  and  marked  by  that  great  audience  in 
New  York  which  applauded  the  name  of  Christ  and 
hissed  a  mention  of  the  Church. 

"  We  need  not  stop  to  inquire  in  what  sense  men  who 
disbelieve  in  the  Church  'believe  in  Jesus.'  This  dis- 
tinction, on  which  they  insist,  forbids  the  assumption 
that  the  masses  are  indifferent  or  hostile  to  the  Gospel 
because  they  are  indifferent  or  hostile  to  the  Church  ; 
and  forces  upon  us  the  question  whether  the  Church 
really  teaches  and  exemplifies  the  Gospel  of  Christ. 

"The  Church  teaches  the  gospel  of  personal  salva- 
tion ;  but  this  is  only  one  half  of  Christ's  gospel.  He 
preached  the  gospel  of  the  Kingdom,  which  is  the  gos- 
pel of  social  regeneration.  He  taught  the  gospel  of 
human  brotherhood  as  well  as  that  of  divine  Father- 
hood, and  laid  down  the  aw  of  both  ;  and  the  second 
fundamental  law  of  Christ  which  is  the  organic  law 
of  a  normal  society  the  Church  has  neglected,  If  she 
had  accepted  and  inculcated  and  exemplified  this 
teaching  of  Christ  as  the  practical  law  of  every-day 


Church  and  the  Working  Men. 


life,  it  is  quite  safe  to  say  she  would  never  have  lost 
her  hold  on  the  masses." 

To  sum  up  the  attitude  of  the  working  men  to 
the  Church,  they  largely  regard  the  Church  as 
hopelessly  mammonized,  its  ministers  a  class  of 
professional  talkers  who  receive  comfortable 
salaries  from  rich  people  for  managing  their 
"  spiritual  clubs"  and  doling  out  a  little  charity 
in  place  of  justice  from  the  large  profits  taken 
by  the  rich  out  of  the  poor.  They  are  never 
weary  of  comparing  the  lives  and  salaries  of 
modern  ministers  with  the  life  of  Christ,  and  the 
practice  of  modern  churches  with  that  of  the 
Church  of  the  Upper  Chamber  in  Jerusalem. 
It  is  well,  therefore,  that  the  Church  is  rousing 
herself  to  an  interest  on  social  questions.  Few 
realize  how  wide  is  this  movement. 

The  Dawn  two  years  ago  published  a  list  of  several 
hundred  clergymen  who  had  shown  their  interest  in 
the  labor  movement  by  some  public  utterance,  or 
joining  some  society  for  the  study  of  social  problems. 
The  Christian  Social  Union,  an  organization  in  the 
Protestant  Episcopal  Church,  for  the  study  and  preach- 
ing of  Christ  s  social  law,  has  reached  a  membership  of 
1000,  very  largely  clergymen.  The  American  Institute 
of  Christian  Sociology  has  reached  as  many  more  in 
all  churches.  The  Brotherhood  of  the  Kingdom,  mainly 
a  Baptist  organization,  works  on  the  same  lines  with 
commendable  zeal.  In  New  York  City,  the  Church 
Association  for  the  Advancement  of  the  Interests  of 
Labor,  another  Episcopal  organization,  has  a  board  of 
conciliation  and  arbitration,  with  Bishop  Potter  at  its 
head,  which  has  been  instrumental  in  settling  more 
than  one  strike.  This  association  holds  meetings  in 
various  Episcopal  churches,  where  the  cause  of  the 
workers  is  strenuously  urged.  In  Boston,  the  Church 
of  the  Carpenter  has  existed  five  years,  for  the  purpose 
of  rousing  the  Church  to  do  its  duty  on  social  matters, 
and  has  some  of  the  most  prominent  trade-unionists  of 
the  country  in  its  membership.  The  Society  of  Chris- 
tian Socialists,  that  was  organized  in  Boston,  has  be- 
come defunct,  but  its  truths  have  gone  widely  through 
the  land.  Almost  every  city  and  town  has  at  least  one 
clergyman  who  boldly  proclaims  the  rights  of  the 
working  man.  Clergymen  to-day  not  infrequently  aid 
strikes  by  public  and  private  utterance.  In  several 
theological  schools  Christian  sociology  is  taught,  while 
such  writers  as  Professor  R.  T.  Ely,  Rev.  G.  D.  Herron, 
Dr.  Lyman  Abbott,  Washington  Gladden,  and  such 
papers  as  the  Daivn,  of  Boston,  the  Kingdom,  of  Min- 
neapolis, spread  Christian  social  thought  far  and  wide. 

CHURCH  ASSOCIATION  FOR  THE 
ADVANCEMENT  OF  THE  INTERESTS 
OF  LABOR,  THE.— This  society,  commonly 
known  as  "  C.  A.  I.  L.,"  was  founded  in  1887,  in 
New  York  City,  by  communicants  of  the  Protes- 
tant Episcopal  Church.  The  Rt.  Rev.  F.  D.  Hun- 
tington, Bishop  of  Central  New  York,  was  elected 
president.  It  was  felt  that  the  Church  should 
take  active  measures  to  show  her  sympathy  with 
the  laboring  classes  in  their  struggle  for  justice, 
and  C.  A.  I.  L.  grew  out  of  a  desire  to  carry  this 
sympathy  into  effect.  Its  object  is  "the  ad- 
vancement of  the  interests  of  labor  by  the  appli- 
cation of  the  principles  of  the  Gospel  of  Jesus 
Christ,"  and  its  five  principles  are  as  follows  : 

1.  It  is  of  the  essence  of  the  teachings  of  Jesus 
Christ  that  God  is  the  Father  of  all  men,  and 
that  all  men  are  brothers. 

2.  God  is  the  sole  possessor  of  the  earth  and 
its  fulness  ;  man  is  but  the  steward  of  God's 
bounties. 

3.  Labor  being  the  exercise  of  body,  mind, 
and  spirit  in  the  broadening  and  elevating  of 
human  life,  it  is  the  duty  of  every  man  to  labor 
diligently. 

4.  Labor,  as  thus  defined,  should  be  the  stand- 
ard of  social  worth. 


275 


Church  Social  Union. 


5.  When  the  divinely  intended  opportunity  to 
labor  is  given  to  all  men,  one  great  cause  of  the 
present  widespread  suffering  and  destitution 
will  be  removed. 

The  Association  works  by  sermons,  prayer, 
corporate  communion,  lectures,  distribution  of 
literature,  political  action,  and  cooperation  with 
other  societies.  It  is  confined  in  membershop 
to  communicants  of  the  Protestant  Episcopal 
Church  or  churches  in  communion  with  it,  and 
has  among  its  members  38  bishops  of  the  Ameri- 
can Church  and  four  bishops  of  the  Canadian 
Church.  In  New  York  City  it  has  recently  been 
very  active  in  working  for  the  passage  of  indus- 
trial legislation,  in  holding  meetings  in  Episco- 
pal churches  where  representatives  of  the  work- 
ing classes  are  invited  to  state  their  wrongs  and 
desires,  while  representatives  of  the  employees' 
interests  are  also  heard.  The  society  has  also 
established  a  Council  of  Conciliation  and  Me- 
diation, with  Bishop  Potter,  of  New  York  City, 
at  its  head  which  has  been  influential  and  suc- 
cessful in  conciliating  and  terminating  more 
than  one  important  strike. 

CHURCH  SOCIAL   UNION,  THE.— The 

Church  Social  Union  is  a  society  in  the  United 
States,  organized  in  New  York  City  under  the 
name  of  the  Christian  Social  Union,  April  3, 
1891.  The  prime  mover  was  the  Rev.  Robert  A. 
Holland,  S.T.D.,  of  St.  Louis,  who  had  just 
then  spent  some  time  in  Oxford  and  become 
deeply  interested  in  the  work  of  the  English 
Christian  Social  Union  (q.v .).  The  society  was 
organized  here  with  the  same  principles  and  on 
the  same  lines  as  the  English  union  (q.v.\  The 
president  was  the  Rt.  Rev.  F.  D.  Huntington, 
S.T.D.,  Bishop  of  Central  New  York,  and  the 
secretary,  Professor  R.  T.  Ely,  of  Johns  Hop- 
kins University,  Baltimore,  Md.  The  society 
issued  several  bulletins,  and  sent  the  Rev. 
W.  D.  P.  Bliss  on  a  preaching  and  organizing 
tour.  Many  branches  were  formed,  and  a  mem- 
bership of  looo  secured.  But,  after  Professor 
Ely's  removal  to  the  University  of  Wisconsin, 
the  union,  with  a  scattered  executive,  failed  to 
maintain  activity,  and  almost  came  to  an  end. 
November  17,  1894,  however,  it  was  reorgan- 
ized in  Boston  ;  the  name  was  changed  to  the 
Church  Social  Union  ;  a  new  constitution  was 
adopted  ;  the  Union  was  placed  on  a  distinc- 
tively churchly  basis  ;  an  executive  commit- 
tee was  chosen  with  a  working  majority  in  Bos- 
ton. As  a  result,  activity  has  again  been  reached. 
The  union  publishes  two  monthly  series  of 
papers,  one  upon  the  general  principles  of  the 
Union,  the  other  upon  concrete  economic  or  so- 
cial themes.  Membership  is  limited  to  the  Prot- 
estant Episcopal  Church  or  any  Church  in  com- 
munion with  it ;  but  any  person  can  subscribe 
for  its  publications  ($i  per  year).  Election  to 
membership  is  not  necessary.  Its  present  mem- 
bership (1895)  is  about  500  ;  its  president,  the  Rt. 
Rev.  F.  D.  Huntington  ;  its  secretary,  the  Rev. 
George  Hodges,  D.D.,  Cambridge,  Mass.  The 
declared  objects  of  the  Union  are  identical  with 
the  principles  of  the  English  Christian  Social 
Union  (g.v.~),  but  under  its  new  constitution  the 
Church  Social  Union  has  also  adopted  as  a  fur- 
ther statement  the  principles  of  the  Church  As- 
sociation for  the  Advancement  of  the  Interests 


Church  Social  Union. 


276 


Cigar-Makers'  Union. 


of  Labor  (g.v.},  since  it  was  proposed  to  amal- 
gamate the  two  societies,  tho  the  amalgama- 
tion was  not  finally  accomplished, 

CHURCH    TEMPERANCE    SOCIETY. 

— This  is  the  shorter  name  of  the  ' '  Temperance 
Society  of  the  Protestant  Episcopal  Church  of 
the  United  States  of  America. ' '  It  was  organ- 
ized in  1 88 1.  It  is  under  the  general  control  of 
an  executive  board  of  30  members,  and  of  the 
.  bishops  of  the  Church  who  act  as  vice-presi- 
dents. The  object  is  threefold  :  i.  Promotion 
of  temperance  ;  2.  Rescue  of  the  intemperate  ; 
3.  Removal  of  the  causes  of  intemperance.  Its 
basis  is  thus  defined  : 

' '  Recognizing  temperance  as  the  law  of  the 
Gospel,  and  total  abstinence  as  a  rule  of  con- 
duct essential  in  certain  cases  and  highly  desir- 
able in  others,  and  fully  and  freely  according  to 
every  man  the  right  to  decide,  in  the  exercise 
of  his  Christian  liberty,  whether  or  not  he  will 
adopt  said  rule,  this  Society  lays  down  as  the 
basis  on  which  it  rests  and  from  which  its  work 
shall  be  conducted,  union  and  cooperation  on 
perfectly  equal  terms  for  the  promotion  of  tem- 
perance between  those  who  use  temperately  and 
those  who  abstain  entirely  from  intoxicating 
drinks  as  beverages. ' ' 

The  country  is  divided  into  four  general  de- 
partments :  i.  Central,  including  New  York, 
New  Jersey,  and  Connecticut  ;  2.  New  Eng- 
land, including  Maine,  New  Hampshire,  Ver- 
mont, Massachusetts,  and  Rhode  Island ;  3. 
Pennsylvania,  including  Pennsylvania,  Dela- 
ware, and  Maryland  ;  4,  Ohio,  including  Ohio, 
Michigan,  and  Indiana. 

For  remedial  agencies  the  Society  names  the 
following:  i.  The  Gospel ;  2.  Coffee-houses  as 
counteractives  to  saloons  ;  3.  Improved  dwell- 
ings for  the  poor  ;  4.  Healthy  literature.  To 
help  supply  the  last-named  want,  it  publishes  a 
monthly  paper  called  Temperance  (New  York). 
Its  policy  is  that  of  restriction  rather  than  pro- 


hibition. It  aims  at  (i)  prohibition  of  sale  on 
Sunday  ;  (2)  prohibition  of  sale  to  minors  ;  (3) 
prohibition  of  sale  to  intoxicated  persons  ;  (4) 
high  license  or  tax  of  $1000  on  every  saloon  ; 
(5)  only  one  saloon  to  each  500  people  ;  (6)  local 
option. 

No  pledge  is  administered  to  a  child  without 
the  written  consent  of  his  parents.  No  alterna- 
tive pledge  can  be  taken  until  the  person  sub- 
scribing to  it  is  21  years  of  age.  No  life-pledge 
is  given  to  any.  The  conditions  of  membership 
are,  assent  to  the  constitution  and  the  payment 
of  $i  a  year.  Outgrowths  of  the  Society  are 
juvenile  organizations  called  the  Knights  of 
Temperance  and  Young  Crusaders.  The  cen- 
tral office  of  the  Society  is  at  the  Church  Mis- 
sion House,  281  Fourth  Avenue,  New  York 
City.  Its  secretary  is  Robert  Graham. 

CIGAR-MAKERS'  INTERNATIONAL 
UNION  OF  AMERICA,  THE.— The  first 
union  of  cigar-makers  was  formed  early  in  the 
fifties  in  Baltimore,  Md.,  but  it  was  not  until 
June  22,  1864,  that  a  National  Cigar-makers' 
Union  was  formed,  which,  at  the  convention 
held  in  Buffalo  in  1867,  was  changed  to  the 
Cigar-Makers'  International  Union  of  America. 
This  Union  is  one  of  the  strongest  trade-unions 
in  America,  and  numbers  at  present  close  to 
30,000  members,  or  about  65  per  cent,  of  the 
skilled  cigar-makers  of  America.  Persons  en- 
gaged in  cigarette-making  or  who  work  in  tene- 
ments or  cigar  sweat  shops  are  not  eligi- 
ble. 

The  union  is  remarkable  for  the  high  dues 
paid  by  its  members,  and  therefore  for  its  finan- 
cial strength,  its  resulting  ability  to  gain  advan- 
tages from  employers  (often  without  a  strike), 
and  also  its  ability  to  care  for  its  sick  or  unem- 
ployed members. 

The  following  table  shows  the  amount  paid  in 
benefits  by  the  International  Union  in  the  last 
15  years : 


YEAR. 

Strike 
Benefit. 

Sick 
Benefit. 

Death 
Benefit.     ' 

Travel 
Benefit. 

Out  of  Work 
Benefit. 

879  

$3,668.38 
4,950.36 
21,797.68 
44,850.41 
27,812.13 
i43>547-36 
61,087.28 
54,402.61 
13,871.62 
45,303.62 
5,202.52 
18,414.27 
33.531  -78 
37,477.60 
18,228.15 
44,966.76 

880  

$2,808.15 
12,747.09 
20,386.64 
37,135.20 
39,632.08 
26,683.54 
3*,s3S-7* 
49,281  .04 
42,894.75 
43,540.44 
37,914.72 
53,535-73 
47,732-47 
60,475.11 
42,154-17 

881  

$3>987-73 
17,145.29 
22,250.56 
3I.S5I-50 
29,379.89 
42,225.59 
63,900.88 
58,824.19 
59,519.94 
64,660.47 
87i472-97 
89,906.30 
104,391.83 
106,758.37 

$75.00 
1,674.25 
2,690.00 
3,920.00 
4,214.00 
4,820.00 
8,850.00 
21,319.75 
19175.50 
26,043.00 
38,068.35 
44,701.97 
49,458.33 
62,158.77 

882  

883  

884  

885  

886  

887  

888  

889  

890  .... 

$22,760.50 
21,223.50 
17,460.75 
89,402.75 
174,517.25 

891  

892  

80-3... 

894  

Total  

$579,112.38 

$781,975.51 

$287,168.92 

$548,756.84 

$325,364.75 

Total  benefits  paid  in  1894 $430,555-32 

Grand  total  of  benefits  paid 2,522,378.40 


The  cash  in  the  International  treasury  on  January 
i,  1894,  was  close  to  $500,000.  This  amount  was  consider- 
ably reduced  during  the  last  year,  owing  to  the  heavy 
drafts  made  upon  the  treasury  to  meet  the  payment 
of  the  "out-of-work"  benefit.  The  amount  of  availa- 
ble funds  January  i,  1895,  was  $340,788.66. 

We  quote  at  length  the  following  from  the 


Report  of  the  Bureau  of  Labor  of  Minnesota 
(1891-92,  p.  256),  because  it  gives  a  convincing 
statement  of  the  value  of  such  unions.  The  re- 
port says  (in  condensed  form)  : 

"  In  judging  the  cigar-makers,  it  should  be  borne  in 
mind  that  .they  occupy  a  field  in  the  industrial  world 


Cigar- Makers'  Union. 


277 


Cigar-Makers'  Union. 


the  most  difficult  of  all  in  which  to  achieve  success. 
Their  labor  comes  constantly  into  sharp  competition 
•with  that  of  the  workers  in  tenement-house  factories, 
or  'sweating  dens.'  It  is  also  met  by  the  product  of 
the  cheap  Chinese  labor  that  has  found  a  home  in  our 
borders.  No  other  class  of  American  toilers  is  forced 
to  meet  this  sharp  and  peculiar  competition  to  the 
same  extent.  The  cigar-makers  in  the  tenement-houses 
work  long  hours  at  very  small  compensation.  Many 
of  them  toil  for  12  and  14  hours  and  even  longer  each 
day.  These  workers  do  not  belong  to  the  union.  They 
are  unorganized.  Now,  while  these  unorganized  cigar- 
makers  thus  labor  long  hours  at  a  very  low  compensa- 
tion for  the  most  part,  the  members  of  the  International 
Union  toil  for  only  eight  hours  a  day.  This  eight-hour 
-work  day  was  secured  by  them  in  the  year  1886,  and 
lias  since  that  time  been  maintained.  The  product  of 
their  toil  is  constantly  sold  in  competition  with  that 
produced  in  the  sweating  dens  and  by  the  cheap  prison 
and  Chinese  labor.  This  fact  must  be  borne  in  mind 
in  judging  their  success  in  maintaining  their  eight- 
hour  work  day. 

"The  insurance  benefits  of  the  cigar-makers  are  five 
in  number.  They  are  known  as  the  strike,  sick  or  dis- 
ability, death,  out-of-work,  and  traveling  benefits. 
The  first  of  these,  the  strike  benefit,  is  paid  to  those 
members  of  the  union  who  are  out  of  work  by  reason 
of  a  strike  which  has  been  approved  by  the  proper 
authorities  of  the  organization.  This  benefit  applies 
to  those  suffering  by  lockouts  in  the  same  way.  Mem- 
bers out  of  work,  from  either  of  the  above  causes,  re- 
ceive a  benefit  of  $5  a  week  for  the  first  16  weeks 
of  the  labor  trouble— after  that  time  the  strike  allow- 
ance is  only  $3  a  week,  and  that  sum  is  continued  un- 
til a  settlement  of  the  difficulty  or  the  strike  is  de- 
clared off.  The  regulations  for  the  giving  of  this  strike 
fund  are  all  framed  so  as  to  make  it  difficult  to  have  a 
strike  unless  the  cause  is  a  just  one.  A  strike  cannot 
be  supported  for  any  length  of  time  except  by  vote  of 
the  24,000  members.  They  secure  all  the  facts  in  the 
case  by  the  examination  of  their  paid  agents.  These 
agents  report  the  facts  of  the  strike  as  they  find  them, 
and  on  the  facts  thus  presented  the  members  vote. 
They  decide  whether  the  strike  shall  longer  be  sus- 
tained. If  they  vote  nay,  no  more  money  of  the  order 
can  be  paid  out  for  the  particular  labor  difficulty. 

"  Members  who  have  been  in  good  standing  for  not 
less  than  one  year  are  entitled,  in  case  they  become 
sick,  to  what  is  called  a  sick  benefit.  This  is  the  pay- 
ment of  $5  a  week  for  a  period  not  to  exceed  13  weeks 
in  any  one  year.  No  member  is,  however,  privileged 
to  draw  this  benefit  if  he  or  she  has  brought  on  the  ill- 
health  by  intemperance,  debauchery,  or  other  immoral 
conduct.  No  member  can  draw  more  than  one  benefit 
at  any  one  time.  Thus,  he  cannot  draw  a  strike  bene- 
fit while  receiving  a  sick  benefit,  or  the  reverse.  The 
same  principle  applies  to  all  the  other  gratuities  of  the 
order.  Members  not  entitled  to  sick  benefits,  owing  to 
their  not  having  been  members  for  a  full  year,  are  not 
suspended  for  non-payment  of  dues  while  sick.  They 
have  four  weeks  in  which  to  pay  those  dues  after 
their  return  to  work  subsequent  to  any  illness. 

"  Upon  the  death  of  a  member,  who  has  been  such  for 
one  year,  the  sum  of  $50  is  paid  by  the  Cigar-makers' 
Union  toward  defraying  the  expenses  of  his  funeral 
or  cremation.  This  sum  is  paid  to  the  nearest  of  kin 
of  the  deceased  member.  Upon  the  death  of  a  mem- 
ber, who  has  been  such  for  two  consecutive  years,  the 
sum  of  $200  is  paid  in  the  same  way  and  for  the  same 
purposes.  To  the  heirs  of  one  who  has  been  a  mem- 


ber for  ten  consecutive  years  is  paid,  at  death,  the  sum 
of  $350,  and  to  those  of  a  member  for  15  consecutive 
years  is  paid,  in  the  same  way,  $550.  Upon  the  death 
of  a  wife  or  widowed  mother  depending  upon  him  for 
support  of  any  member  who  has  been  such  for  two 
consecutive  years,  the  sum  of  $40  is  paid  to  the  mem- 
ber thus  afflicted. 

"  A  member  having  paid  weekly  dues  for  a  period  of 
one  year  is  entitled  to  an  out-of-work  benefit  of  $3 
per  week,  and  50  cents  for  each  additional  day.  A 
member  having  received  this  benefit  for  six  weeks  is 
not  entitled  to  the  payment  for  seven  weeks  there- 
after, and  not  more  than  $72  shall  be  paid  to  any  one 
individual  as  an  out-of-work  benefit  during  any  one 
year.  A  member  losing  his  employment  through  in- 
toxication, disorderly  conduct,  dishonesty,  or  courting 
his  discharge  through  bad  workmanship  or  otherwise, 
is  not,  however,  entitled  to  an  out-of-work  benefit  for 
eight  weeks  thereafter. 

"  The  foregoing  benefits  are  gifts  or  payments  not  to 
be  returned  to  the  union  by  the  recipient.  In  addition 
to  them  the  union  maintains  a  system  of  loans  to  those 
members  out  of  work  in  any  place,  unable  to  secure 
occupation  there,  and  desirous  of  traveling  to  gain 
work  elsewhere.  The  object  of  this  loan  is  to  furnish 
the  member  with  a  sum  sufficient  to  pay  his  car  fare  to 
the  town  where  he  can  gain  work.  He  cannot  receive 
more  than  sufficient  to  take  him  to  his  proposed  des- 
tination. Neither  can  he  receive,  at  any  one  time, 
more  than  $12,  nor  more  then  $20  in  the  aggregate 
until  the  first  loan  has  been  repaid.  A  member,  to 
be  entitled  to  this  loan,  must  have  been  in  good  stand- 
ing continuously  for  at  least  one  year  preceding.  The 
total  amount  loaned  by  the  order  since  the  establish- 
ment of  this  benefit  was,  January  i,  1802,  $398,395.09. 
Of  that  amount  all  had  been  repaid  but  $60,764.74. 
Doubtless  some  part  of  these  loans  will  never  be  re- 
paid, owing  to  the  death  of  a  few  members  before  they 
have  had  a  chance  to  discharge  their  obligations. 
Another  small  part  must  be  lost  through  members 
who  desert  the  union  after  obtaining  the  loan.  The 
total  lost  through  these  causes  cannot  be  accurately 
determined  even  by  the  officers  of  the  union.  It,  how- 
ever, is  small  and  cannot  exceed  five  per  cent,  of  the 
amount  trusted  out  in  this  way.  .  .  . 

"In  placing  an  estimate  upon  the  value  of  this  service 
of  the  union  to  its  members  it  should  be  recalled  that 
the  cigar-makers  follow  a  calling  attended  with  many 
uncertainties.  There  is  a  constant  moving  about 
among  the  members.  The  average  worker  is  tempo- 
rarily out  of  a  job  two  or  three  times  a  year.  Without 
the  aid  of  such  a  free  employment  bureau,  as  has  been 
described  above,  he  would  be  forced  to  lose  more  or 
less  time  hunting  for  situations  and  pay  greater  or 
less  sums  every  year  to  employment  agencies  for  the 
same  purpose.  The  economy  and  wisdom  of  the  man- 
agement of  the  union  can  then  be  judged  by  its  ex- 
penses in  maintaining  this  system  of  free  employment 
agencies  for  its  members.  .  .  . 

"  In  addition  to  the  sums  paid  as  insurance  and  travel- 
ing benefits  the  cigar-makers  expend  large  sums  of 
money  for  definite  purposes,  either  to  advance  certain 
special  interests  of  the  members  of  the  craft  as  a 
whole,  or  to  promote  the  cause  of  organized  labor,  or 
for  general,  charity.  Charity,  in  various  forms,  calls 
for  considerable  sums  of  money  each  year.  These 
disbursements,  authorized  by  the  international  rules, 
and  paid  from  the  common  treasury  of  the  order,  are 
given  in  the  following  table.  (We  give  the  table  only  in 
abridged  form.) 


YEAR. 

Benefits  Given. 

Assistance  to 
Unions,  Aid  to 
Strikes,  etc. 

Total  Disbursed 
for  Objects  of 
the  Union. 

Expenses  of 
Management. 

Added  to  Re- 
serve Fund. 

5882      .        

!883  

1884  

TT 

298,066  86 

3885   ...         

Q 

1886  

60  556  85 

1887  

1888       .                     .               .... 

1889  

83,897.96 

9i7 

1890  ...           

1891                         ....               ... 

38,877.19 

• 

i   39 

Total  

$373,859.15 

"The  figures  given  include  all  sums  paid  as  strike 
benefits,  and  also  all  amounts  given  to  unions  on  strike, 
etc.  The  average  for  the  first  five  years  is  $8177,  and 


for  the  last  five  only  $1353.  From  this  it  can  be  seen 
that  the  general  tendency  of  the  union  is  to  decrease 
the  amounts  paid  by  the  organization  for  strikes.  This 


Cigar- Makers'  Union. 


278 


City  and  Social  Reform, 


j»roves  the  truth  of  the  claim  made  for  the  organiza- 
tion that  it  seeks  to  lessen  these  labor  disturbances, 
and  also  that  this  desirable  end  is  advanced  by  the  ex- 
istence of  a  large  reserve  fund  such  as  the  cigar- 
makers  at  present  have  at  their  command.  Another 
fact  to  be  noted  in  this  connection  is  this  :  The  aver- 
age expense  of  management  increases  as  the  strike 
disbursements  decrease.  This  tends  to  show  that  the 
effort  of  the  union  is  being  more  and  more  directed  to 
lessen  or  prevent  strikes  and  lockouts.  The  success  of 
the  movement  on  the  part  of  the  organization  may  be 
measured  by  the  amounts  saved  in  strike  expendi- 
tures. This,  for  the  last  five  years,  averaged  $6824 
less  than  it  was  for  the  preceding  five.  .  .  . 
.  "  If  the  affairs  of  the  Prudential,  Metropolitan,  Ger- 
mania,  and  John  Hancock,  the  four  companies  doing 
an  '  industrial '  business  in  the  United  States,  were 
all  to  be  conducted  on  the  same  economical  basis,  the 
saving  effected  over  the  present  administration  would 
amount  to  over  $5,000,000  in  the  year  1891.  This  is  a 
sum  greater  than  the  loss  to  employers  and  employees 
in  the  United  States  by  the  strikes  of  that  year.  If 
strikes  are  to  be  deplored  and  avoided  whenever  pos- 
sible, this  large  relative  cost  of  managing  '  industrial' 
life  insurance  by  the  business  corporations  should  call 
for  remark,  and  the  saving  effected  by  this  trade- 
union  commended. 

"  Strikes  occur  only  rarely.  They  attract  attention  as 
large  conflagrations  by  the  glare  and  smoke  and  noise 
which  they  occasion.  The  unions  are  frequently 
placed  in  that  glare  and  din,  and  that  side  of  their 
activity  has  most  attracted  popular  attention.  But 
the  business  activities  of  the  unions,  their  administra- 
tion of  their  benefits  and  charities,  are  all  conducted  in 
quiet.  They  attract  no  man's  attention.  That  busi- 
ness management,  in  the  case  of  the  cigar-makers, 
lessens  strikes  and  pays  for  its  costs  in  that  way  in  a 
twofold  manner.  That  union  also  saves  its  members 
several  times  its  costs  in  its  quiet  work  of  securing 
them  employment.  And  the  foregoing  comparisons 
indicate  that  the  union,  in  the  same  unobtrusive  man- 
ner, dispenses  industrial  insurance  and  other  benefits 
with  a  saving  which  balances  all  strike  expenses  and 
all  other  disbursements  growing  out  of  the  application 
of  union  principles.  Here  is  a  saving  far  in  excess  of 
the  loss  which  attracts  popular  attention.  The  union 
should  have  the  credit  for  this  side  of  its  activities." 

In  1880  the  International  Union  adopted  a 
trade-mark,  known  as  the  "blue  label."  It  is 
estimated  that  it  has  spent  $1,000,000  in  adver- 
tising this  label,  and  with  great  success,  so  that 
the  label  is  widely  used  as  a  guarantee  of  union- 
made  cigars.  The  cigar-makers  were  the  first 
American  international  trade-union  to  adopt 
the  referendum  in  electing  its  officers,  amend- 
ing its  constitution,  and  deciding  all  important 
questions.  The  prominent  members  of  the 
union  are  Samuel  Gompers  (ff.v.),  long  presi- 
dent of  the  American  Federation  of  Labor,  and 
Adolph  Strasser,  for  14  years  its  president. 
George  W.  Perkins  is  the  present  (1895)  presi- 
dent. 

CIRCULATION.  See  CONTRACTION  AND 
EXPANSION  OF  CURRENCY  ;  also  CURRENCY. 

CITIZENS'  LAW  AND  ORDER 
LEAGUE.  See  LAW  AND  ORDER  LEAGUES. 

CITY  AND  SOCIAL  REFORM,  THE.— 

A  city  may  be  defined  in  general  as  a  large  or 
important  town  ;  more  accurately,  it  is  an  incor- 
porated municipality,  usually  governed  by  a 
mayor,  aldermen,  and  common  council.  The 
number  of  inhabitants  required  to  constitute  a 
city  in  the  United  States  is  usually  10,000,  but 
in  some  western  States  it  is  as  low  as  3000.  In 
Great  Britain  a  city  is  usually  a  corporate  town 
which  is  or  has  been  the  seat  of  a  bishop.  We 
consider  the  subject  in  this  article  under  five 
heads  :  I.  History — (a)  ancient;  (£)  medieval  ; 
(c)  modern.  II.  Present  Status.  III.  Statistics. 
IV.  Need  of  Reform.  V.  Methods  of  Reform. 


I.  THE  HISTORY  OF  THE  CITY. 

The  origin  of  cities  loses  itself  in  the  unknown  past- 
They  existed  along  the  valleys  of  the  Nile,  the  Tigris, 
and  Euphrates,  by  the  rivers  of  India,  and  upon  the 

Elains  of  Mexico  and  Peru.  Discoverers,  as  at  Troy, 
ave  often  found  the  ruins  of  one  city  buried  many 
feet  below  the  ruins  of  another,  these  in  turn  many 
feet  below  the  present  soil.  Into  this  interesting  sub- 
ject of  the  primitive  cities  we  cannot  go.  It  is  doubt- 
ful if  these  early  cities  from  the  stand- 
point of  social  science  had  any  true 
civic  life.  They  seem  to  have  been 
gigantic  conglomerations  of  walled-in 

Eopulations,   ruled    by  some   despot  or 
amily  of  lords  or   priests,  who  some- 
times, indeed,  gave  to  the  city  a  rude 
splendor  and  developed  monumental  art,  yet  without 
allowing  to  the  citizens  any  corporate  life  of  their  own. 
The  inhabitants  were  simply  the  slaves  of  some  king, 
perhaps  the  devotees  of  some  god.     It  is  in  Greece  that 
we  come  to  the  first  actual  city  in  the  sense  of  the  cor- 


Ancient 
Cities. 


The  Classic 
City. 


porate  unity  of  many  citizens.  Greek  social  polity 
(g.v.)  turned  upon  the  conception  of  the  city,  begun  un- 
doubtedly as  a  colony  from  some  patriarchal  clan, 
but  early  developing  organized  democratic  life.  (See 
ATHENS.)  Many  of  the  cities,  however,  were  long 
oligarchies,  and  often  even  after  democratic  life  had 
been  gained  some  family  or  families  would  gain  the 
power  and  establish  an  oligarchy.  Sometimes  an  in- 
dividual would  gain  the  power  and  establish  a  tyranny, 
which  was,  however,  personal,  rarely  in- 
herited. The  city  was  usually  supre'me, 
and  not  a  part  of  any  State.  It  domi- 
nated the  country  around,  made  treaties, 
waged  war,  etc.  It  was  in  the  eyes 
of  the  citizen  sacred,  his  Church  as  well 
as  his  home.  The  city  entered  into, 
ruled,  and  conducted  all  kinds  of  activities.  It  built 
temples,  markets,  theaters,  gymnasia.  It  conducted 
worship,  games,  instruction.  It  sent  out  colonies  and 
ruled  commerce.  It  worked  mines,  fields,  and  facto- 
ries. It  supported  its  free  citizens  rather  than  was  sup- 
ported by  them.  (See  ATHENS.)  Citizenship  was  lim- 
ited, but  the  assemblage  of  the  citizens  was  supreme. 
Often,  however,  officers  were  nominally  elected  who 
were  virtually  irresponsible.  Next  to  the  citizens 
came  a  class  of  "  aliens,"  subject  natives  or  foreigners, 
having  special  rights  on  payment  of  special  taxes.  At 
the  bottom  of  the  whole  structure  in  every  city  were 
the  slaves.  Even  a  democracy  of  free  men  was  simply 
a  democracy  of  slave-owners.  Thus  at  Athens  there 
were  at  one  time  at  least  140,000  slaves,  10,000  resident 
aliens,  and  21,000  male  citizens.  (For  the  condition  of 
these  slaves,  see  SLAVERY.)  Two  gigantic  evils  re- 
sulted :  First,  danger  of  servile  revolts,  which  not 
infrequently  broke  out  with  terrible  results  (see 
GUILDS),  and  were  put  down  only  by  relentless  cruelty  ; 
secondly,  class  antagonisms  were  roused  between  other 
classes  of  citizens.  Civil  war  became  the  order  of  the 
day.  The  State  was  either  paralyzed  by  internal  con- 
flict or  demoralized  by  corruption.  Slavery  ate  out  the 
life  of  ancient  cities.  In  the  Roman  civilization  grad- 
ually the  city  lost  its  sovereignty  and  became  a  part  of 
the  empire,  furnishing  the  transition  to  the  medieval 
city. 

In  the  early  Middle  Ages  the  city  lost  power  before 
the  military  chieftain  and  the  robber  castle.  Feudal- 
ism (q.v.}  magnified  the  country  over  the  city.  Where 
feudalism  was  weak,  as  in  South  France, 
or  in  Italy,  or  where  natural  condi- 
tions were  favorable,  as  along  the  Adri-  - 
atic  coast,  the  Rhine,  and  the  northern 
coast  of  Europe,  cities  were  developed 
soonest.  In  the  north  the  struggle  of 
the  cities  for  independence  was  fiercer  and  their  de- 
velopment, therefore,  slower,  but  stronger.  They  grew 
by  work,  by  art,  by  commerce,  not  by  war.  All  through 
the  eleventh  and  twelfth  centuries  they  developed 
rapidly.  The  Italian  republics,  the  cities  of  the  Han- 
seatic  League,  the  Flemish  and  English  cities,  tho  often 
dominated  by  a  fierce  and  quarrelsome  nobility,  tended, 
on  the  whole,  to  develop  the  rule  of  the  trader  rather 
than  of  the  noble  or  the  chieftain.  They  became  first 
the  creator  and  then  the  creature  of  the  guilds  (<?.z'.). 
Gradually  as  the  national  life  developed  itself,  the  city 
became  but  a  part  of  the  nation,  ready  to  gain  commer- 
cial rights  and  privileges  and  representation  in  Parlia- 
ment, for  contributions  to  the  royal  treasury.  Where 
the  royal  power  was  greatest  the  cities  lost  their  power 
first,  as  in  France,  and  England,  and  Spain  ;  later,  in 
Germany  and  Italy.  Free  thought,  however,  devel- 
oped in  the  cities,  and  the  Reformation  and  the  Renais- 
sance were  largely  matters  of  the  city.  The  medieval 


City  and  Social  Reform. 


279 


City  and  Social  Reform. 


city  was  a  democracy  more  truly  than  the  classic 
cities,  but  not  at  all  so  pervasive.  It  ruled  commerce 
and  trade ;  it  sharply  watched  the  market  and 
attempted  to  fix  prices,  decide  industrial  disputes,  but 
it  did  not  conduct  activities,  as  did  the  Greek  city. 
The  medieval  city  was  ruled  by  the  individual  citizens 
more  than  it  ruled  them.  Yet  the  city  played  a  much 
larger  part  in  industrial  and  social  life  than  ordinarily 
to-day.  Mr.  Albert  Shaw  (Municipal  Government  in 
Great  Britain,  p.  21)  gives  the  following  sketch  of  a 
medieval  town  : 

"  The  rise  of  town  life,  which  dignified  mercantile 
pursuits  and  handicrafts,  had  opposed  the  system  of 
leagued  and  equal  freemen,  of  burgesses,  of  incorpo- 
rated citizenship,  to  the  feudal  military  system  of  lord- 
ship and  vassalage.  And  this  was  a  great  preparatory 
step  toward  modern  institutions  and  conditions.  We 
know  that  there  was  a  certain  dignity  and  form  about 
municipal  life  that  appears  well  in  the  retrospect.  We 
have  surviving,  here  and  there,  a  fine  old  medieval 
town-hall,  or  guild-hall,  with  its  banq.ueting-chamber 
and  its  council-room.  There  was  much  stateliness  in 
the  office  of  mayor ;  and  the  old  maces  of  mayoral 
authority  survive  to  this  day.  Then  there  was  im- 
pressiveness  in  the  liveries  that  the  freemen  of  the 
guilds  disported  on  formal  occasions.  As  for  munic- 
ipal conveniences,  those  were  times 
when  life  was  simple,  and  '  modern  im- 
Tb.6  provements'  not  so  much  as  dreamed 

TVTprh'p-iral      about.    The  streets  were  narrow,  with 
-ineuievdi     the  houses  built  close  upon  them.    The 
tlty.          paving    was    of   the    rudest  character. 
There  was  simple  surface  drainage,  and 
no  garbage  removal  or  cleansing  system. 
Water  was  supplied  from  a  few  town  fountains  or 
public  wells.     Street-lighting  had  not  been  invented, 
and  early  hours  were  prescribed.    Most  towns  had  a 
skirting  of  common  lands,  where  the  cows  were  pas- 
tured, and  where,  in  many  cases,  fuel  was  procured. 
The  houses  were,  in  large  part,  built  of  wood ;  and  in 
spite  of  vigilant  'watch  and  ward'  and  compulsory 
hearth  precautions,  destructive  fires  were  not  infre- 
quent.   The  death-rate,  of  course,  was  high.    There 
was  infection  in  the  wells,  and  no  means  of  checking 
the  spread  and  fatality  of  the  frequent  'plagues'  that 
swept  the  towns.    But  the  science  of  public  sanitation 
being  undiscovered,  these  things  were  accepted  piously 
as  inscrutable  visitations  of  God." 

The  modern  city  is  somewhat  of  a  return  to  the 
Roman  city.    It  is  the  creature  of  the  State.    The  in- 
dustrial and  political  revolutions  of  the  last  century 
shattered  the  ancient    rights    and   privileges  of   the 
medieval  boroughs    and    guilds.      The  city  has  had 
little  sovereign  power.    Nevertheless,  the  growth  of 
the  factory  system,  and,  above  all,  the 
development  of  railroads  and  centers  of 
Modern       commerce,   has  crowded    people    more 
History.       a nd  more  into  cities.    Cities  have  grown 
in    size,  but   not    in    corporate    power. 
Hence    they    have    become    unwieldy, 
shapeless,  confused,  with  often  little-  true  civic  life. 
The  modern  divorce,  too,  between  Church  and  State 
has  at  least  temporarily  hurt  the  city  in  a  portion  of 
its  life.    It  has  given  to  the  city  responsibilities  which 
the  city  has  not  always  been  willing  to  accept.    The 
poor  and  needy  have  been    left   to  seek    from  con- 
fused private  charities  \vhat  formerly  they  received 
from  the  Church  as  part  of  the  organized  city  life. 
The  problems  of  modern  city  life  grew  out  of  this 
sudden  development  of  cities  without  a  corresponding 
development  of  organic  municipal  life. 

II.  PRESENT  STATUS. 

The  modern  city  in  England,  France,  and 
the  United  States,  markedly,  and  to  a  less  ex- 
tent in  Germany,. is  the  creature  of  the  State. 
It  can  only  do  what  it  is  chartered  to  do  by  the 
State.  It  has  in  some  cases  almost  lost  the 
right  of  self-government.  It  raises  its  own 
rates,  but  often  has  its  taxes  collected  for  it  by 
national  officials  ;  it  is  in  many  cases  responsible 
for  its  own  peace  and  order,  but  it  has  no  con- 
trol over  an  armed  force,  and  has  to  ask  for  its 
help  if  it  requires  it.  On  the  other  hand,  it  ex- 
ercises many  local  functions  which  in  the  Mid- 
dle Ages  were  left  to  the  Church  or  to  compul- 
sory or  voluntary  private  effort. 

Poor  relief,  education,  sanitation,  police,  the 


supplying  of  light  and  water,  are  usually  in  the 
hands  of  the  city,  while  the  conduct  of  justice, 
of  national  defense,  of  postal  communication, 
and  commercial  regulation  are  in  the  hands  of 
the  State. 

Considering  first  American  cities,  we  find  a 
general  similarity  coupled  with  considerable 
variety  in  the  details  of  their  charters  and  con- 
stitutions. They  are  all  the  creations  of  the 
State.  Formerly  each  city  received  an  especial 
charter  ;  now  cities  of  a  certain  size  in  the  same 
State  are  liable  to  receive  similar 
charters.  These  charters,  too,  dif- 
fer according  to  the  time  when  they  American 
were  issued.  The  older  charters  are  Cities. 
apt  to  contain  provision  for  mayors 
with  short  terms  and  limited  pow- 
ers ;  for  two  legislative  bodies  with  large  pow- 
ers, generally  modeled  after  State  constitutions. 
Later  charters  show  suspicion  of  municipal  legis- 
lative bodies,  and  develop  so-called  non  partizan 
commissions.  Still  later  charters  are  apt  to  trust 
very  large  powers  to  the  mayor,  as  in  the  recent 
charter  of  Greater  New  York,  hoping,  by  making 
one  man  responsible,  to  secure  efficiency  and 
purity.  The  mayor  is  always  elected  directly 
by  the  people  and  for  a  term  of  office  varying 
from  one  to  six  years,  the  present  tendency 
being  to  extend  his  term  of  office.  He  has  a 
large  veto  power,  and  is  often  given  a  very 
great  power  in  appointing  commissions,  depart- 
ment heads,  etc.  The  Mayor  of  New  York,  ac- 
cording to  the  recent  charter,  ruling  the  second 
largest  city  in  the  world  and  over  more  people 
than  are  contained  in  most  States,  has  powers 
in  many  ways  greater  than  those  of  the  Presi- 
dent of  the  United  States.  His  powers  are  al- 
most autocratic.  The  American  mayor  is  often 
given  very  great  discretionary  powers,  too,  in 
enforcing  legislation  as  to  Sunday  closing,  etc. 
His  salary,  in  the  larger  cities,  reaches  $10,000. 
This  policy  of  entrusting  such  large  powers  to 
the  mayor  is  sometimes  called  a  sink-or-swim 
policy.  It  gives  a  good  mayor  large  opportu- 
nity, but  it  also  gives  the  same  to  a  bad  mayor, 
and  makes  it  very  desirable  for  a  corrupt  ma- 
chine to  elect  its  man.  It  seems  to  be,  on  the 
whole,  a  step  away  from  democracy.  In  Eu- 
rope, where  city  government  is  much  purer,  the 
mayor  has  no  such  powers. 

The  work  of  administration  in  American  cities 
is  usually  carried  on  by  departments,  often  or- 
ganized as  boards  or  commissions.  These  are 
sometimes  elected  by  the  people,  sometimes 
appointed  by  the  legislature,  sometimes  ap- 
pointed by  the  mayor — the  tendency  at  present 
being  to  the  latter  method.  They  are  usually 
disconnected  ;  they  are  meant  to  be  "  non-parti- 
zan  ;"  they  become  often  the  very  center  of 
"  politics"  and  of  jobs.  As  they  control  all  the 
small  offices,  they  can  employ  a  great  many  of 
their  "  ring."  The  fact  that  they  are  often  non- 
partizan  and  consist  of  three  men  gives  one 
man  very  great  power,  because  by  siding  with 
either  other  member  of  the  commission  he  can 
swing  the  commission,  and  yet  not  be  alone  re- 
sponsible. Education  is  usually  treated  as  a 
distinct  matter  from  the  other  departments,  and 
the  commissioners  of  education  are  more  fre- 
quently elected  by  the  people.  The  city  legis- 
lature is  usually  composed  of  two  houses,  gen- 


City  and  Social  Reform. 


280 


City  and  Social  Reform, 


erally  called  a  Board  of  Aldermen  and  a  Com- 
mon Council.  Members  of  both  houses  are 
elected  by  the  citizens,  divided  into  wards,  tho 
sometimes  aldermen  are  elected  on  a  "  general 
ticket."  Almost  universally  members  of  the 
Common  Council  must  live  in  the  wards  they 
represent.  Members  of  neither  body  are  paid 
except  in  a  few  large  cities,  but  often,  if  not 
usually,  obtain  large  illicit  revenues  as  "  boodle 
aldermen"  or  corrupt  councilors.  They  are 
elected  usually  at  the  same  time  and  more  often 
on  the  same  platform  as  national  and  State 
officers,  and  usually  on  party  lines.  Municipal 
elections  become  thus  mainly  a  squabble  for 

Earty  power,  in  which  the  machine  and  the  ring 
ourish,  and  where  the  honest  citizen  is  help- 
less.    Nevertheless  American  cities,  with  rapid 
growth,  enormous  wealth,  and  large 
opportunities  for  jobs  and  corrup- 
Corruption.  tion,  are  the  most  influential  polit- 
ical bodies  in  the  land.     Municipal 
prizes    are  greater    than    national 
prizes.  Hence  the  greater  inducement  to  the  cor- 
rupt, while  the  honest  bestir  themselves  in  vain. 
For  further  details  as  to  American  cities,  see  MAYOR  ; 
FIRE  DEPARTMENTS;   POLICE;    PARKS:    TAXATION; 
WATER  WORKS  ;  GAS  ;  ELECTRICITY  ;  MUNICIPALISM  ; 
EDUCATION;   BATHS;   STREET  RAILWAYS,  etc.;  also 
other  sections  of  this  article. 

Municipal  reform  in  Great  Britain  belongs  mainly  to 
the    last    20    years,   yet  in    a    sense    dates  from    the 
Scotch  Municipal  Government  Act  of    1833,   and  for 
England    from    the    Municipal  Reform 
Bill  of  1835.    These    bills    were    conse- 
Great        quent  upon   the   great  Reform  Bill  of 
Britain.       1832  reconstructing  the    Parliamentary 
boroughs.    They  admitted    to    burgess 
rights  all  property  owners  and  all  occu- 
piers of  rented  property  valued  at  £10  per  annum. 
These  remained  substantially  in  force  till  the  act  of 
1882  consolidated  all  acts  bearing  on  the  subject  into 
one  municipal  code.    By  the  Local  Government  Act  of 
1888,  cities  having  over  50,000  inhabitants  became  dis- 
tinct counties    for  administrative    purposes.      Under 
these    bills    and    some    special    bills    enlarging   their 
functions  England's  towns    exist   to-day.     Says    Mr. 
Albert  Shaw  (Municipal  Government  in  Great  Britain, 
p.  30): 

"The  whole  substance  of  British  municipal  govern- 
ment is  condensed  in  the  following  clause : 

"'The  municipal  corporation  of  a  borough  shall  be 
capable  of  acting  by  the  council  of  the  borough,  and 
the  council  shall  exercise  all  powers  vested  in  the  cor- 
poration by  this  Act  or  otherwise.' 

"  All  that  the  burgesses  have  to  do  is  to  elect  the 
councilors,  and  they  do  the  rest.  Any  burgess  is 
eligible  to  the  council.  In  addition,  certain  property 
and  rate-paying  qualifications  admit  to  eligibility  for 
the  council  those  suburbans  who  live  beyond  i  but 
within  15  miles  from  the  limits,  yet  have  their  busi- 
ness interests  in  the  town.  The  councilors  are  elected 
for  three  years,  and  one  third  of  them  retire  annually. 
The  aldermen  and  mayor  are  an  integral  part  of  the 
council,  the  law  stating  specifically  that  '  the  council 
shall  consist  of  the  mayor,  aldermen,  and  councilors.' 
The  aldermen  'shall  be  fit  persons  elected  by  the  coun- 
cil.' They  hold  their  office  six  years.  They  are  one 
third  as  many  as  the  councilors.  The  act  declares  • 

"  '  A  person  shall  not  be  qualified  to  be  elected  or  to 
be  an  alderman  unless  he  is  a  councilor  or  qualified 
to  be  a  councilor.  If  a  councilor  is  elected  to,  and 
accepts,  the  office  of  alderman,  he  vacates  his  office  of 
councilor.' 

"  Half  the  aldermen  retire  every  three  years.  When 
the  council  confers  aldermanic  rank  upon  its  own 
members,  special  elections  in  the  wards  fill  the  vacant 
councilorships. 

"The  clause  relating  to  the  choice  of  a  mayor  is  as 
follows  : 

" '  The  mayor  shall  be  a  fit  person  elected  by  the 
council  from  "among  the  aldermen  or  councilors  or  per- 
sons qualified  to  be  such.'  " 

The  English  franchise  is  very  complicated  and  very 
different  in  different  portions  of  the  United  Kingdom. 
The  franchise  is  often  different  for  Parliamentary, 
town  council,  school  board,  and  parochial  board  elec- 


tions.   It  turns  on  the  household  rather  than  the  indi- 
vidual.    Mr.  Shaw  says  (idem,  p.  45) : 

"The  English  municipal  electorate  excludes  in  prac- 
tice nearly  all  the  unmarried  men,  all  floating  laborers 
and  lodging-house  sleepers,  and  nearly  all  the  serving^ 
class.     Furthermore,  in  judging  of  the 
political  effects  of  the   extension  of  the 
franchise  to  the  humblest  householders,  I  he 

it  must  be  borne  in  mind  that  the  exploi-  Suffrage, 
tation  of  the  votes  of  the  ignorant, 
vicious,  and  indifferent  in  English  cities 
by  demagogues  or  party  agents  is  so  extremely  diffi- 
cult that  it  does  not  count  for  anything  at  all  in  election 
results.  The  extraordinarily  severe  laws  against 
bribery,  direct  and  indirect,  apply  to  municipal  elec- 
tions, and  it  is  next  to  impossible  to  get  a  British, 
voter  to  the  polls  who  does  not  contemplate  the  con- 
test with  some  glimmering  of  interest  and  intelligence. 
In  Scotch  towns  the  slums  do  not  vote  because  they 
evade  the  rate-collector  and  are  not  registered.  In 
English  towns,  altho  registered  by  canvassers, 
they  do  not  care  about  voting,  and  are  a  neglected 
field  so  far  as  political  missionary  work  goes.  The 
organized  working  men  vote,  of  course  ;  and  they  seem 
to  vote  with  more  intelligent  and  distinct  purpose  than 
any  other  class  in  the  community.  Of  the  women  rate- 
payers nothing  is  to  be  said  except  that  their  voting  is 
variable,  sometimes  being  high  in  proportion  to  their 
numbers,  and  sometimes  low,  depending  upon  their 
interest  in  particular  candidates  or  special  issues. 
Their  disposition  to  espouse  party  causes  seems  very 
marked,  but  it  is  not  to  be  relied  upon  as  unthinking- 
or  as  oblivious  of  the  qualities  of  candidates.  Obvi- 
ously, the  franchise  needs  simplification,  altho  for 
municipal  purposes  it  is  difficult  to  see  what  desirable 
end  would  be  gained  by  changing  the  principle  from 
that  of  a  household  franchise  to  a  personal  one." 

The  English  municipal  council  having  large  powers 
attracts  to  itself  the  best  men.  They  receive  no  salaries, 
and  the  chances  for  profit  through  contracts  or  jobs  are 
very  remote.  The  position  is  one  of  high  honor.  Able 
men  are  continually  reelected.  Generally  speaking, 
the  mayoralty  is  conferred  as  an  honor,  the  power 
lying  not  with  the  mayor,  but  with  the  council.  Says. 
Mr.  Shaw  (idem,  p.  63)  : 

"English,  Scotch,  and  Irish  municipal  government 
is  simply  government  by  a  group  of  men  who  are  to  be 
regarded    as  a  grand  committee   of  the  corporation, 
the  corporation  consisting  of  the  whole 
body  of  burgesses  or  qualified  citizens. 
In  Glasgow  it  is  a  committee  of  78 ;   in 
Edinburgh,  of  41 ;  in  Manchester,  of  104  ;       Council. 
in    Birmingham,   of    72  ;    in    Liverpool, 
Leeds,  Sheffield,  and  most  of  the  large 
English  towns,  of  64  ;  in  Dublin,  of  60  ;  in  Belfast,  of  40 j. 
and  in  the  other  incorporated  towns  of  the  United 
Kingdom  it  varies  from  12  to  64,  according  to  their  size. 
So  far  as  these  bodies  have  authority  to  pass  bylaws 
at  all,  their  authority  is  complete,  and  nobody  obtrudes 
a  veto.    They  appoint  and  remove  all  officials.    They 
have  entire  charge  of  municipal  administration,  dis- 
tributing the  work  of  departmental  management  and 
supervision    to    standing    committees    of    their    own 
number,  which  they  organize  and  constitute  as  they 
please.    If  such  a  local  government  cannot  be  trusted, 
the  fault  is  with  popular  institutions.    It  is  quite  cer- 
tain to  be  as  good  a  government  as  the  people  con- 
cerned deserve  to  have.    The  location  of  responsibility 
is  perfectly  definite.     When  the  Glasgow  city  improve- 
ment scheme  became  unpopular  with  the  voters  be- 
cause  it  was  proving  more  expensive  than  its  pro- 
jectors had  promised,  the  chairman  of  the  committee 
was  retired  by  his  constituents  at  the  end  of  his  term. 
The  taxpayers  hold  every  member  of  council  respon- 
sible for  his  votes." 

The  most  important  office  is  that  of  clerk  of  the  cor- 
poration, often  a  life  position. 

Municipal  structure  in  Germany  varies  somewhat  in 
different  States  and  in  different  cities,  yet  has  every- 
where certain  similar  characteristics.  In  Prussia  it  is- 
based  on  the  Stein  and  Hardenburg  re- 
forms of  the  early  part  of  the  century. 
The  Prussian  franchise,  both  in  the  mu- 
nicipalities  and  in  the  kingdom,  is  based 
upon  a  division  of  the  population  accord 
ing  to  the  taxes  paid.  The  wealthiest 
class,  which  pays  one  third  of  the  taxes,  has  one  third  of 
the  suffrage.  The  middle  class,  which  pays  a  second 
third  of  the  taxes,  has  another  third  of  the  power  ;  while 
the  remaining  third  is  left  to  the  whole  remainder  of  the 
population.  In  the  constitution  of  the  empire,  how- 
ever, and  in  many  German  cities  outside  of  Prussia, 
the  franchise  is  based  on  manhood  suffrage  as  de- 
manded by  the  revolutionists  of  1848.  In  all  cases 


City  and  Social  Reform. 


281 


City  and  Social  Reform. 


however,  the  city  council  (Gemeindwalf)  has  the  munic- 
ipal power.  Its  members  are  usually  elected  for  six 
years,  one  third  going  out  of  office  every  two  years. 
The  executive  power  is  exercised  by  the  burgomaster 
or  mayor  and  a  body  of  department  chiefs,  called 
magistrates.  These  are  elected  by  the  council,  and 
have  practically  a  life  tenure.  They  are  selected  for 
expert  knowledge  and  ability.  A  city  will  sometimes 
advertise  for  an  experienced  mayor.  The  magistrates 
are  either  highly  salaried  men  or  men  of  position  who 
serve  without  salary.  They  form  a  council  called  the 
Magistratsrath.  With  this  constitution  in  all  German 
cities,  the  council,  through  the  burgomaster  and  magis- 
trates, conducts  the  city  government  as  a  father  would 
a  household.  The  city  can  do  anything  that  it  is  not 
forbidden  to  do— the  reverse  of  the  American  theory. 
It  is  supposed  to  do  all  that  is  necessary  to  the 
best  interests  of  the  community.  The  cities  as  a  rule 
furnish  their  own  water  supply,  gas,  electric  lighting 
They  strictly  rule  the  running  of  the  horse-cars,  etc. 
They  build  and  maintain  baths,  lavatories,  abattoirs, 
markets,  savings  banks,  pawn  shops,  etc.  They  care 
minutely  and  effectively  for  sewerage,  street-paving, 
cleaning,  and  lighting.  German  cities  provide  syste- 
matically, too,  for  the  relief  of  the  poor.  The  cities  are 
subdivided  into  districts,  with  a  visitor  for  each. 
Workpeople  must  be  insured  by  the  municipalities  or 
the  State  ;  compulsory  education  is  provided  at  low 
rates  ;  manual  training  and  gymnastic  drill  is  a  part  of 
the  education.  German  cities  are  thus  households, 
carefully  watched,  regulated,  kept  clean  and  healthful. 
Taxation  is  generally  not  high,  no  small  portion  of  the 
municipal  revenue  coming  from  municipal  activities 
or  franchises,  carefully  sold  at  rates  very  favorable  to 
the  city  corporation.  (See  also  BERLIN.) 

The    French  municipality  is  intimately    connected 
with  the  old  communes  or  townships,  which  in  the 
early  history  of  France  won  a  high   degree  of  local 
autonomy,  and  played  no  small  part  in 
the  national  history.    (See  FRANCE  AND 
France        SOCIAL  REFORM.)     These  ancient  com- 
munes, however,  had  gradually  lost  all 
autonomy,  and  become  but  administra- 
tive parts  of  the  absolutism  of  the  Louis. 
The  Revolution  instantly  liberated  them,  but  under 
Napoleon  they  again  became  but  units  of  his  highly 
centralized  system— a  system,  however,  with  some  at- 
tempt at  justice  and  freedom.      Changing    with  the 
changes  of  France,  the  communes  at  present,  under  the 
third  republic,  have  considerable  local  power,  yet  are 
by  no  means  free  from  the  control  of  the  central  govern- 
ment.   The  act  of  1884,  which  is  virtually  the  act  under 
which  they  exist  to-day,  increases  the  local  powers  of 
the  communes  materially,  yet  leaving  very  much  to  be 
desired  by  the  radicals  and  socialists,  who  in  France, 
more  than  inmost  countries,  center  their  ideals  around 
the  autonomy  of  the  old  communes.     (See  COMMUNE 
AND  FRANCE.)   According  to  the  present  system,  some 
of  these  communes  are  municipalities,  some  of  them 
rural  townships.     According  to  the  present  law,  they 
are  governed  by  a  mayor,  with  his  executive  assist- 
ants,  and  a  council.    The  council  elects   the  mayor, 
and  the  council  is  elected  by  manhood  suffrage  in  the 
communes.    The  councilors  hold  office  for  four  years, 
and  all  retire  together.    The  council  holds  four  "regu- 
lar sessions  a  year,  lasting  from  15  days  to  six  weeks, 
tho  the  mayor  may  call  extra  sessions.    The  council 
appoints  consultative  committees,  but  the  mayor  has 
all   executive  power  with  his  assistants.     He  "has  the 
appointing  power,  subject  to  the  approval  of  the  prefect 
of  the  department,  the  representative  of  the  central 
government.    The  council  has  large  authority  in  the 
levying  of  taxes,  voting  of  public  works,  etc.,  but  usual- 
ly subject  to  the  approval  of  the  department  authori- 
ties. 

Paris  has  in  many  ways  less  local  autonomy  than 
any  other  city  in  France.  In  the  Revolution  she  gained 
her  old  communal  freedom,  and  has  at  every  revo- 
lution, but  it  was  taken  away  by  the  various  imperial 
governments,  and  has  only  been  partially  granted 


holds  true  of  all  civilized  countries.  German 
cities  are  growing  faster  than  American  cities, 
except  Chicago  and  a  few  smaller  Western 
cities.  Berlin  is  seven  times  as  large  as  it  was 
in  1830.  The  Courier  of  Hanover  gives  the 
following  statistics  : 


New  York  
Berlin  

.  .  .  1870.  950,000 

.  ..      1890.  1,515,301 

Boston  
Hamburg  

.  .  .  1875.  342,000  
...  1875.  263,540  

1890.     448,000 
1890.      568,666 

Baltimore  

Leipsic  

St.  Louis  

Munich  

i  90.     451,000 

35  > 

Cincinnati  
Breslau  

...  1880.  255,139  
.  ..  1880.  272,900  .... 

.  .  .  .     1890.      296,908 
...     1890.      335,186 

by  the  republic.  Paris  is  largely  still  governed  by 
the  prefect  of  the  department  of  the  Seine,  and  his 
colleague,  the  prefect  of  the  police.  The  city  is  divid- 
ed into  20  arrondissements,  and  in  each  there  is  a 
central  building  called  the  mairie,  the  bureau  of  an 
officer  called  the  maire.  There  is,  however,  a  munic- 
ipal council  with  considerable  power,  and  the  ten- 
dency is  to  develop  municipal  self-control. 

III.  STATISTICS  OF  CITIES. 

The  rapid  growth  of  modern  cities  is  one  of 
the   distinguishing   notes    of    the   century.     It 


This  unhealthy  growth  of  the  German  cities  is  all 
the  more  remarkable  when  we  remember  that  Ger- 
many has  to  suffer  much  from  emigration,  while 
America  profits  by  immigration.  The  natural  conse- 
quence of  this  centralization  is  that  the  country  dis- 
tricts are  suffering  from  want  of  hands,  while  the 
cities  are  overburdened  with  the  unemployed. 

It  is  the  same  in  France.  Frederic  Mistral  describes 
the  ill  effects  of  this  centralization  in  the  Temps,  Paris  : 
"  All  the  intelligence  of  the  country  gathers  in  Paris, 
without  returning  to  the  provinces.  France,  one  of 
the  richest  countries  in  the  world,  where  grain,  wine, 
oil,  and  beef  are  produced  in  superabundance,  and 
which  produces  the  best  possible  fighting  material, 
seems  destined  to  go  under,  because  everything  is  done 
according  to  the  routine  prescribed  by  the  capital. 
Much  trouble  is  taken  to  colonize  and  improve  foreign 
parts,  while  the  French  provinces  are  neglected. 
Much  of  the  wealth  which  is  gathered  in  Paris,  both 
material  and  intellectual,  is  wasted,  because  no  proper 
return  is  made  to  the  provinces." 

Mr.  Albert  Shaw  says  (Municipal  Government  in 
Great  Britain,  pp.  15-17):  "While  the  entire  increase 
of  the  French  nation  from  the  census  of  1886  to  the 
census  of  1891  was  less  than  125,000,  there  was  in  those 
five  years  a  growth  of  340,000  in  the  aggregate  popula- 
tion of  the  56  largest  cities  and  towns— those  having 
more  than  30,000  people.  .  .  . 

"  Urban  population  grows  apace  also  in  Holland  and 
Belgium.  One  third  of  the  Netherlanders  live  in  towns 
of  20,000  people  or  more,  and  a  quarter  of  the  Belgians 
are  similarly  grouped.  In  the  25  years  from  1868  to 
1893,  the  Holland  towns  of  this  class  advanced  from 
possessing  exactly  one  fourth  to  exactly  one  third  of 
the  whole  people.  ...  In  30  years  Rome  and  Milan 
have  more  than  doubled  their  population  ;  Florence 
has  come  little  short  of  the  same  achievement ;  Turin 
and  Genoa  are  about  70  per  cent,  larger  than  in  1864  ; 
overcrowded  Naples  has  gained  100,000  people  ;  Pa- 
lermo has  added  nearly  as  many  ;  and  numerous  large 
communes  have  gained  50  per  cent." 

Of  the  United  Kingdom  Mr.  Shaw  says  (idem,  pp.  12- 
15) :  "  In  Scotland,  and  the  north  of  England  especially, 
the  change  from  rural  to  urban  conditions  has  been 
revolutionary.  At  the  beginning  of  the  nineteenth 
century  (census  of  1801)  the  total  population  of  Scot- 
land was  1,600,000,  and  only  a  small  proportion  was 
made  up  of  town  dwellers.  According  to  the  census 
of  1891,  the  total  population  had  grown  to  more  than 
4,000,000,  of  which  only  928,500  were  strictly  rural.  The 
town  population  was  2,631,300,  and  the  villagers,  form- 
ing an  intermediate  class,  numbered  465,800.  The 
rural  population  had  declined  absolutely  in  the  10 
years  from  1881,  the  decrease  being  5^  per  cent.,  while 
in  the  previous  10  years,  from  1871  to  1881,  there  had 
also  been  a  loss  of  4  per  cent.  The  town  population, 
on  the  other  hand,  had  increased  18  per  cent,  from 
1871  to  iSSi,  and  14  per  cent,  from  1881  to  1891.  ...  In 
England  the  Reform  Act  of  1835  dealt  with  178  munici- 
pal corporations  in  England  and  Wales,  and  since  that 
time,  under  Queen  Victoria,  125  new  charters  of  incorpo- 
ration have  been  granted.  By  the  census  of  1891,  the  178 
old  corporations  had  a  total  population  of  5,483,000,  and 
that  of  the  12^  new  corporations  was  s, 512,000.  The 
population  of  England  and  Wales  in  1891  was  29,000,000  ; 
and  11,000,000  people  were  living  in  302  cities  and  towns 


City  and  Social  Reform. 


282 


City  and  Social  Reform. 


possessing  full  municipal  governments.  This  does 
not  include  approximately  6,000,000  inhabitants  of  the 
'Greater  London,'  or  several  million  people  who  are 
in  the  suburban  districts  of  large  towns,  or  in  com- 
munities living  under  urban  conditions  but  not  em- 
braced within  the  present  boundaries  of  municipal 
corporations.  .  .  .  One  third  of  the  whole  population 
is  now  in  towns  of  over  100,000  inhabitants,  and  nearly 
.another  third  is  in  towns  having  from  10,000  to  100,000 
people.  For  20  years  the  growth  of  the  towns  having 
from  10,000  to  250,000  people  has  been  at  the  average 
rate  of  2  per  cent,  a  year,  or  20  per  cent,  a  decade. 
Thus  town  life  will  soon  prevail  for  three  fourths  of 
the  English  people." 

The  growth  of  cities  in  the  United  States  is  better 
known.     "  In  1790  one  thirtieth  of  the  population  of  the 
United  States  lived  in  cities  of  8000  inhabitants  and 
over  ;  in  1800,  one  twenty-fifth  ;   in   1810,  and  also  in 
1820,   one  twentieth ;    in    1830,    one  six- 
teenth ;   in    1840,    one    twelfth ;  in    1850, 
The  United  one  eighth ;  in  1860,  one  sixth ;  in  1870,  a 
States          little  over  one  fifth ;  and  in  1880,  22.5  per 
cent.,  or  nearly  one  fourth.     From  1790 
to  1880  the  whole  population  increased 
twelvefold,  the  urban  population  eighty- 
six  fold.    From  1830  to  1880  the  whole  population  in- 
creased a  little  less  than  fourfold,  the  urban  popula- 
tion thirteenfold.    From  1870  to  1880  the  whole  popula- 
tion increased  30  per  cent.,  the  urban  population  40 
per  cent.     During  the    half   century    preceding  1880, 
population  in  the  city  increased  more  than  four  times 
as  rapidly  as  that  of  the  village  and  country.    In  1800 
there  were  only  six  cities  in  the  United  States  which 
had  a  population  of  8000  or  more.    In  1880  there  were 
286,  and  in  1890,  437." 

Says  Dr.  Strong  in  The  New  Era,  p.  197  :  "  In  1880  the 
number  of  our  cities  having  a  population  of  8000  or 
more  was  286 ;  in  10  years  the  number  had  leaped  up 
to  443.  A  hundred  years  ago  we  had  but  six.  Be- 
tween 1870  and  1890  the  number  of  cities  having  a 
population  of  100,000  or  more  doubled,  rising  from  14 
to  28.  In  a  number  of  States  nearly  all  the  increase  of 
population  from  1880  to  1890  was  in  the  cities.  Of  the 
total  increase  in  Maryland,  the  one  city  of  Baltimore 
furnished  fully  nineteen  twentieths."  The  following 
table  gives  a  few  cities  among  the  many  which  made  a 
very  remarkable  growth  : 


CITIES  AND  TOWNS. 

POPULATION. 

IN- 
CREASE. 

1880. 

1890. 

Per  Cent. 

Birmingham,  Ala  

3,086 

5°3,l85 
10,358 
35,629 
3,483 
736 
3,200 
3,533 
350 
1,098 

26,178 

1,099,850 
38,067 
106,713 
33>"5 
10,338 
38,316 
42,837 
19,922 
36,006 

748 
118 
267 
199 
850 

i,3°4 
1,097 

1,112 
5,592 

3>>79 

•Chicago,  111        

Dallas,  Tex  .  .   .  .».  . 

Denver,  Col  

Duluth,  Minn  

El  Paso,  Tex  

Kansas  City,  Kan  

Seattle,  Wash  

Spokane  Falls,  Wash  
Tacoma,  Wash  

Says  the  Bulletin  on  the  social  statistics  of  cities  for 
the  census  of  1890:  "While  the  older  States— namely, 
those  in  the  North  Atlantic  group — still  lead  in  the 
number  of  cities  and  total  population  living  therein, 
the  North  Central  and  Western  groups  have  made 
large  gains,  trie  former  having  increased  the  number 
of  cities  50,  or  72.46  per  cent.,  with  an  actual  gain  in 
population  of  2,693,155,  or  96.07  per  cent.,  and  the  latter 
13  cities,  or  130  per  cent.,  with  an  actual  increase  in 
population  of  487,610,  or  118.13  Per  cent. 

"  States  that  have  made  the  most  marked  gains  in 
their  populations  living  in  cities  of  this  class  areas  fol- 
lows :  Nebraska,  438.87  per  cent.;  Minnesota,  265.71  per 
cent.;  Oregon,  223.82  per  cent.;  North  Carolina,  214.27 
percent.;  Colorado  204.51  percent.;  Kansas,  194.79  pel- 
cent." 

Says  Dr.  Strong  ( The  New  Era,  p.  188) :  "  If  the  rate  of 
growth  and  movement  of  population  from  1880  to  1890 
continue^  until  1920,  the  city  will  then  contain  up- 
ward of  70,000,000  more  than  the  country." 

Thr,  World  Almanac  for  1895  prints  the  following 
statistics  of  populations : 


CITIES. 

Census 
Year. 

Popula- 
tion. 

London  

Paris  '  .       

New  York*  

Canton  

est 

Berlin  

1      ' 

Tokio,  Japan  

Vienna  .... 

Philadelphia  (municipality)  
Chicagof  

892 

1,142,653 

St.  Petersburg  

889 

i   99»   5 

Pekin  

Brooklyn  (State)*  

802 

Constantinople  

88  e; 

Calcutta  

801 

Brooklyn  

890 

Bombay  

891 

Rio  de  Janeiro^  

802 

Concerning  the  density  of  population  in  cities,  the 
census  Bulletin  for  1890  (see  above)  gives  it  for  Amer- 
ican cities  as  follows  : 


CITIES. 

Popula- 
tion. 

Square 

Miles. 

POPULATION 

TO 

Each 
Square 
Mile. 

Each 
Acre. 

New  York         

i,5i5,3°i 
1,099,850 
1,046,964 
806,343 
45i>770 
448,477 
434,439 
298,997 
296,908 
261,353 

40.22 
160.57 
129.39 
26.46 
61-35 
35-28 
28.38 
15.46 
25.00 
24.88 

37,675-31 
6,849.66 
8,091.54 
30,474.04 
7,363-81 
12,711.93 

i5,307-93 
19,340.04 
11,876.32 
10,504.54 

58.87 
10.70 
12.64 
47-62 
11.51 
19.86 
23  92 
30.22 
18.56 
16.41 

Chicago    

Philadelphia  

Brooklyn  

St.  Louis  

Boston  

Baltimore  

San  Francisco  

Cincinnati  

Cleveland  

According  to  Mulhall  (1892),  the  density  of  population 
was,  for  London,  52  per  acre  ;  Paris,  154  ;  Vienna,  258  ; 
Berlin,  264. 

This,  however,  gives  little  idea  of  the  overcrowding 
in  certain  portions  of  cities.    Thus  the  average  popula- 
tion in  New  York  City  per  acre  is  58.87, 
but  in  Ward  10  of  that  city  it  rises  to  the   Overcrowd  - 
frightful    number  of  478    to    the   acre.          • 
Says  Edward    Marshall   in  the    North 
American  Review  for  December,  1893  : 

"Six  small  down-town  wards  may  with  confidence 
be  spoken  of  as  forming  the  most  crowded  spot  on 
earth.  No  obtainable  statistics  of  English  or  conti- 
nental cities  show  a  population  approaching  that  of 
this  district  of  New  York.  .  .  .  The  population  per 
square  mile  of  these  six  wards  was  given  in  1890  as— 

Seventh 197,200 

Tenth 357,888 

Eleventh 262,720 

Thirteenth 295, 104 

Fourteenth 198,272 

Seventeenth. 252,834 

"This  is  an  average  for  the  whole  district  of  252, 834  to 
the  square  mile.  Even  the  lowest  of  these  figures 
shows  a  higher  population  than  occurs  anywhere  else  ; 
and  the  population  of  the  Tenth  Ward  to  any  given 
area  is  more  than  twice  that  credited  to  the  most  thick- 
ly populated  district  of  old  London,  where  175,816  peo- 
ple to  the  square  mile  dwell Several  con- 


*  New  York  State  census  of  1892.  The  population  of 
the  territory  embraced  within  the  limits  of  "  Greater 
New  York,"  as  proposed  by  the  commission,  is  over 
3,000,000.  t  A  school  census  taken  in  Chicago  in  1892 
revealed  an  estimated  population  of  upward  of  1,400,- 
ooo.  J  Official  estimate. 


City  and  Social  Reform. 


283 


City  and  Social  Reform. 


tinental  cities  contain  more  crowded    districts  than 
London  ever  did,  but  none  approaches 
the  terrifying  congestion  of  pur  '  team- 
o    ingTenth.'"   Related  to  density  of  popu- 
et  lation,  largely  as  effect  to  cause,  is  the 
death-rate  of  cities.    According  to  the 
above-mentioned    census  Bulletin,   the 
death-rate  of  American  cities  is  as  follows  : 


CITIES. 

Number 
of  Persons 
per  Acre. 

Approxi- 
mate Death- 
Rate  for  Cen- 
sus Year. 

Newark  

16 

New  York  

28  6 

28    A 

Washington     

2e    8 

Brooklyn     

48 

24    8 

Baltimore  

Denver  

San  Francisco  

Philadelphia       

Cincinnati  

16 

Detroit    

16 

Buffalo  

Milwaukee  

St.  Louis  .... 

Indianapolis  

16 

18.8 

St.  Paul               

16.7 

Minneapolis  

14  8 

In  crowded  wards  it  is  much  higher,  says  the  Bulle- 
tin. 

Taking  the  three  most  densely  populated  wards  in 
Boston,  Chicago,  and  Cincinnati,  and  comparing  them 
as  to  death-rates  with  the  three  least  densely  populated 
wards  in  each  of  the  above  cities,  the  following  re- 
sults are  obtained  : 


CITIES. 

Wards. 

Average 
Number  of 
Persons 
per  Acre. 

Average 
Death- 
Rate. 

8,    9,  16 

166 

29.40 

Boston  

4 

18.61 

Chicago  

5,  16,  19 

98 

22.20 

Chicago  

i 

16.90 

Cincinnati  

7,  10,  13 

153 

29.90 

Cincinnati  

i,  29,  30 

3 

I8.I7 

According  to  Mulhall  (1890),  the  death-rate  (1878-80)  in 
London  was  ai.i  ;  Berlin,  27.6 ;  Glasgow,  25.3  ;  Birming- 
ham, 19.8  ;  Paris,  28.6 ;  Manchester,  25.5.  According  to- 
A.  R.  Conkling,  however  (City  Government  in  the 
United  States,  1894),  Berlin  has  reduced  her  death-rate 
to  about  20. 

Coming  to  the  statistics  of  municipal  finances,  cen- 
sus Bulletin  No.  82,  prepared  by  Mr.  J.  K.  Upton, 
gives  us  the  fullest  information,  reporting  in  detail  as- 
to  ioo  out  of  443  cities  in  the  United  States,  having  a 

Eopulation  or  8000   or   upward.     We  take  from  it  the 
sllowing  tables : 


TOTAL  RECEIPTS  AND  EXPENDITURES  OP  ioo  PRINCIPAL  OR    REPRESENTATIVE  CITIES    OF 

THE  UNITED   STATES. 


RECEIPTS. 

Taxes $139,283,226  Libraries 

Special  assessments,  streets  and  bridges. ..  13,296,035  Schools.. 

Special  assessments,  sewers 1,380,057  Fire 

11,782,307  Health... 

3.4", 539  Lighting 


EXPENDITURES. 


$818,202 

26,198,173 

11,865,402 

2,280,317 

7.747)3I3 

Fees,  fines,  and  penalties 2,714,464       Police 17,817,435 

Waterworks 18,826,269       Charitable  objects 7,166,901 

Interest  on  deposits 575)057       Streets  and  bridges 33,580,209 

Income  from  funds  and  investments 10,852,461       Sewers.. 6,943,519 

Miscellaneous 12,880,033       Buildings  and  improvements 9,715,070 

Parks  and  public  grounds 12,672,494 

Salaries 11,833,458 

Waterworks 19,086,751 

Interest  on  debt r. . .  32,250,368- 

Miscellaneous  34,651,043 


Total  ordinary  receipts $215,001,448 

Loans 84,352,668 

Funds  and  transfers 18,381,673 

From  State  or  county 5>443i947 

Balance,  cash  on  hand  beginning  of  year..  35,844,656 


Grand  total    $359,024,392 


Total  ordinary  expenses $234,626,655 

Loans 59,488,191 

Funds  and  transfers 28,330,353 

Balance,  cash  on  hand  end  of  year ..       36,579,193. 


Grand  total $359,024,392 


Comparing  detailed  amounts  expended  by  cities 
with  those  expended  by  States,  the  magnitude  of 
municipal  expenditures  is  clearly  exhibited. 

Omitting  amounts  on  account  of  loans,  transfers, 
and  funds,  the  ordinary  expenditures  of  the  State  of 
Massachusetts  for  the  year  ending  December  31,  1889, 
as  compiled  by  this  office,  was  $4,955,669.  With  like 
omissions,  the  expenditures  for  the  city  of  Boston  for 
the  year  named  amounted  to  $16,117,043.  Like  ordi- 
nary expenditures  of  the  States  of  New  York,  Massa- 
chusetts, Pennsylvania,  Ohio,  Missouri,  and  Illinois, 
the  six  largest  States  in  the  Union  in  population,  for 
one  year  amounted  in  the  aggregate  to  $28,859,010, 
while  in  the  same  period  the  ordinary  expenditures  of 
New  York  City  alone  amounted  to  $48,937,604.  The 
State  of  New  York  expended  in  1889,  for  legislative, 
executive,  and  judicial  purposes,  $1,619,127,  an  amount 
considerably  exceeding  like  expenditures  in  any  other 
State  ;  but  the  amount  for  the  same  period  paid  for 
salaries  alone  for  such  'purposes  in  certain  cities  was 
as  follows  :  New  York,  $3,488,834  ;  Brooklyn,  $2,325,684  ; 
Philadelphia,  $1,131,376. 


The  approximate  administrative  expenditures  in- 
clude that  part  of  the  ordinary  expenditures  presumed 
to  be  necessary  for  the  conduct  of  ordinary  city  affairs. 
To  determine  the  amount  there  has  been  deducted  in 
each  case  from  the  ordinary  expenditures  of  the  city 
the  amount  expended  for  libraries,  schools,  public 
buildings,  charitable  objects,  and  waterworks  or  use 
of  water. 

The  expenditures  on  account  of  construction  of  new 
streets,  bridges,  and  sewers,  and  for  the  purchase  and 
opening  of  new  grounds  for  parks  and  places,  could 
not  in  many  cases  be  separated  in  the  reports  from 
those  incurred  for  the  maintenance  of  such  works  and 
grounds  already  in  use.  No  deduction  of  their  amount 
could  therefore  be  made  in  ascertaining  the  ordinary 
expenses  of  administration,  as  otherwise  would  have 
been  done.  Expenditures  for  such  purposes,  it  is 
thought,  were  unusually  large  in  the  cities  of  New 
York,  Chicago,  Philadelphia,  St.  Paul,  St.  Louis,  and 
San  Francisco  for  the  years  reported. 


City  and  Social  Reform, 


284 


City  and  Social  Reform. 


TOTAL  AND  PER  CAPITA  ORDINARY  AND  ADMINISTRATIVE  EXPENDITURES  AND  RECEIPTS. 


CITIES. 

ORDINARY  EXPEN- 
DITURES. 

APPROXIMATE 
ADMINISTRATIVE 
EXPENDITURES. 

Total 
Ordinary 
Receipts. 

Principal 
of 
Loans. 

Principal 
of  Funds 
and 
Transfers. 

From 
State  or 
County  for 
Schools, 
etc. 

Total. 

Per 

Capita. 

Total. 

Per 
Capita. 

$1,761,958 
7.7791638 
436,516 
16,117,043 
625,724 
16,839,675 
6,751,294 
154,242 
1,582,363 
18,402,336 
6,453.976 
2,891,257 
1,753,646 
795.049 

3»°77.°37 
1,224,282 
923,862 
6541843 
2.056,733 
1,534,112 
3,962,656 
2,464,901 
689,602 
2,828,743 
48,937.694 
11563,303 
19,845,121 
3,086,320 
397.379 
2,890,482 
2,194,723 
6,205,440 
5,482,793 
5.639,934 

$18.56 
17.91 
22.85 
35-94 
12.80 
20.88 
26.41 

iQ-57 
22.60 
16.73 
21.74 
1  1.  06 
19.89 
7-45 
14-95 
16.46 
17-36 

6.21 

12.62 
11.56 
24.05 
13-56 
8  48 
11.69 
32-30 
11.13 
18.95 
12.93 
8-57 
21.87 
16.39 
13-74 
41.18 
18.86 

$1,182,756 
5,618,832 
325,584 
10,647,928 
559,068 
13,981,943 
4,696,954 
94,722 
1,103,793 
12,132,045 
5,206,638 
1,965,632 
1,472,007 
482,059 
s,535,I52 
839,244 
757,823 
611,283 
1,722,946 
936,243 
2,888,298 
1,993,937 
661,217 
2,544.402 
36,203,653 
1,455,363 
14,624,662 
2,ii4,533 
393,478 
2,275,490 
1,572,633 
5,023,915 
3,676,243 
4>I75,i72 

$12.46 
12.93 
17.04 
23-74 
11.44 
17-34 
18.37 
6.49 
15-76 
11.03 
17-54 
7-52 
16.70 
4.52 
12.31 
11.28 
14.24 
5.80 
10.57 
7-05 
17-53 
10-97 
8  13 
10.51 
23.89 
10.36 

13-97 
8.86 
8.48 
17.22 
11.75 

II.  12 
27.61 
13.96 

$1,658,415 
7.409,935 
453,767 
15,046,209 
566,962 
13,681,816 
5,202,999 
167,334 
1,489,309 
18,158,831 
6,379,325 
3,195,442 
950,057 
973,766 
2,640,529 
1,225,859 
909,010 
626,259 
1,682,343 
1,051,008 
3,041,863 
2,33I>479 
610,527 
3,000,298 
41,734,162 
1,334,88s 
20,919,403 
3,914,464 
437,538 
2,890,206 
1,983,790 
6,223,697 
4,492,174 
5,222,559 

$97,500 
2,879,000 
102,000 
7,717,000 
443,009 
4,792,000 
1,122,528 
96,500 
655,000 
333,566 
1,003,163 
453,3oo 
1,193,100 

57,ooo 
360,000 
283,600 
111,249 
5,728,734 

1,329,625 
2,033,000 
320,000 
1,040,958 
32,205,970 
322,158 
436,724 

2,020,184 

'93.433 
3,666,867 
828,557 
256,800 

$79,782 
21,148 

2,360,189 
4,828 

8,221 
2I2,OOO 
I59>199 
361,769 
194,017 
380,968 

68,614 
11,254 

111,205 

«)987,796 
329 
342,003 

85,719 
14,662 
492,038 
17,682 

$53,4io 
162,142 
",399 
918,516 
22,849 

102,863 

10,066 
137,621 

33,842 

24,934 
23>346 

417,476 

78,646 
309,817 

735,509 

286,360 
51,802 

27,230 
64,000 
69,817 

667,114 

Buffalo        

Fall  River  

Hartford     

Jersey  City  

New  Orleans  

Pittsburgh.          

Portland,  Ore  

Providence  

Rochester  ,  

St.  Louis  

St.  Paul  

San  Francisco  — 

CITIES. 

Net  Ordinary 
Taxes. 

SPECIAL 
ASSESSMENTS. 

NET  LICENSES. 

Net  Fees, 
Fines,  and 
Penalties. 

Water- 
works. 

Interest  on  De- 
posits. 

Income  from 
Funds  and 
Investments. 

Miscellaneous. 

Streets 
and 
Bridges. 

Sewers. 

Liquor. 

Other. 

$940,160 
5,148,638 
248,673 
10,371,154 
418,008 

$152,785 
260,016 
3,362 
30,225 
16,131 

$137,580 

4,073 
84,135 

$5',595 

$15,201 
46,015 

$5,652 
9,497 

$323,697 
820,253 
39,878 
1,698,602 

$16,503 
180,861 

$2,070 

873,7M 
120,142 

','43.45' 

$13,172 
251,802 

37,639 
512,568 
44,204 

'83,057 
10,148 

79,734 
831,000 

219,647 

252,  2O> 

'7 

39,727 

72,9" 
39,084 
42,064 
21,655 
49,212 
122,841 

157,032 
359,305 
6,570 
254,512 
517,703 
9,872 
3,957,003 
230,554 
79,436 
172,439 

22,774 
'59,3'2 
37',  3" 
64,899 

Bangor  

755,968 
71,027 

355,925 
282,678 

40 
2,131,897 
699,128 

3'0,435 
32,402 

190,395 
138,848 

77,134 

37,579 
3,633 
72,946 
'3,935 
716 

5,924 
590,342 
144,726 
45,838 
10,499 
109,082 
11,688 
5,470 

231,666 
'3,959 
31,652 
24,676 
466 
4,873 
106,186 
18,863 
22,901 
7,644 
19,199 
870 
",592 
5  081 

Bridgeport,  Conn  — 
Brooklyn  

1,468,825 
547,257 
33,9o8 
239,744 
1,767,624 
718,624 
478,996 
136,927 
6,000 

129,967 

58,738 
4,477 
26,542 

106,879 

407,887 
1,420,617 
135,221 
17,921 

37.120 

21.957 
30,000 
147,058 

Buffalo      

3,974,922 
114,646 
1,126,934 
7,402,713 
2,671,609 
1,949,849 
694,083 
609,363 
1,988,878 

"7,736 

3,580 
11,308 
4,921,782 
459,569 

49,912 

336,588 

'  s',870 
'6,275 

652 

53,626 

Chicago  

Cleveland  

Detroit     

Fall  River    

Hartford      

764,154 
471,207 
1,072,314 
915,497 
2,398,866 
1,303,672 
548,997 

4,284 

95,968 
4,'93 

7,429 

23,079 

Jersey  City  
Kansas  City  

171,532 

214,055 

Minneapolis  

4,588 
118,127 
',758 

142,448 
37,4" 

250.000 
297^249 

218,459 
1,441,020 

610,145 
17,025 

116,968 
45,740 
853,700 
385,000 
249,360 

21,632 
4,854 

5',70i 
5,788 
'0,937 

157,514 

530 

104,890 

Newark  
New  Haven     

58,069 
4,129,218 

1,461,838 

67,747 

120,852 

New  York  
Omaha  

29,79i,39' 
1,263,116 
12,086,936 
2,684,501 
149,820 
2,046,962 
',398,854 
3,266,224 
',579,675 
3,023,454 

2,068,015 
35,420 

375,7i8 
45,636 
25,794 
342,975 
84,199 
1,464,843 
1,080,801 

',299 
27,728 

66,895 
32,080 
157,383 

268,076 

422,664 
11,897 

64,683 

95,349 
'5,955 
458 
539,"4 
32,338 
239,913 

454,555 
13,219 
570,194 
75 
250 
12,519 
12,249 
178,474 
69,38^ 
296,056 

2,747,548 

2,205,559 
541,908 

399,742 

952,689 
583,571 

162,048 
62 

152 

3,357 
69,133 
6,055 

Philadelphia     

Pittsburg  
Portland,  Ore  

Providence      

Rochester  

St.  Louis  '.  . 

St.  Paul  

San  Francisco  

City  and  Social  Reform.  285  City  and  Social  Reform. 

ORDINARY  EXPENDITURES  IN   DETAIL. 


CITIES. 

EDUCATIONAL. 

MAINTENANCE  AND  CONSTRUCTION. 

Libraries. 

Schools. 

Fire. 

Health. 

Light- 
ing. 

Police. 

Charitable 
Objects. 

Streets 
and 
Bridges. 

Sewers. 

$259,050 
982,954 
42,401 
1,918,241 

1,536,086 
747,669 
26,788 
281,241 
3,238,659 
49,335 

$94,687 
282,229 
18,943 
872,455 
45,851 
i3*,9%7 
303,021 
12,156 
55,56o 
989,975 
330,648 
253,264 
6i,335 
107,554 
322,365 
47,525 
7i>339 
79,693 
"3,249 
120,360 
245,980 
136,827 
87,335 
235,978 
2,019,957 
70,164 

669,974 
226,775 
73,2i8 
161,527 
140,909 
48i,777 
225,045 
462,873 

$10,412 
91,586 

582,941 
3,837 
147,854 
17,911 
835 
21,135 
176,853 
43,86i 
32,086 
14,802 
62,580 
41,275 
2,752 
2,824 
3,337 
1,172 

20,510 

11,617 
20,247 
^3,331 

85,313 
34,0" 

24,721 
27,017 
74,88s 

I97.731 
3  ",505 
8,638 
592,3i8 
26,458 
481,857 
260,342 
8,877 
45,005 
919,235 
222,608 
'64,575 
48,309 
50,000 
129,097 
27,031 
39,248 
51,271 

77,543 
162,254 

63,097 
184,831 

713,449 
40,000 
385,668 
125,124 
23,235 
146,734 
151,314 
3i3>599 

$135.053 
779,942 
",736 
1,184,282 
38,683 
126,265 
373,820 
4,069 
87,401 
1,514,665 
469,196 
294,866 
55,932 
92,000 
296,247 
90,491 
63,354 
61,261 
333,790 
166,465 
194,242 
211,905 
117,728 
152,728 
4,607,445 
87,102 
1,929,003 
299,674 
50,702 
250,654 
130,811 
557,"4 

$62,363 
217,043 
16,419 
1,022,673 
55,ooo 
73,50° 
78,445 
3,350 
58,876 
22,411 
260,894 
83,171 
2,810 

37,555 
61,104 
68,278 

S,i'i2 

500,000 
30,217 

$278,721 
973,273 
30,583 
1,717,363 
68,660 
829,850 
215,825 
21,548 
345,722 
4,879,009 
i,399,558 
282,832 
952,369 
53,000 
997,559 
92,453 
"6,557 

95,231 
139,642 

742,000 

$i5i,745 
167,292 
21,347 
803,467 

13,919 
83,447 
177,649 
9,627 
66,695 
584,941 
189,781 

16,572 

3  ',035 
318,691 
53,332 
8,029 
4,439 
19,396 

610,166 

Baltimore     

$57.499 

Bangor  

162,827 
11,656 

Bridgeport,  Conn  

Brooklyn  

Buffalo        

3,821 
2,408 
9,490 
84,063 

Cleveland  

2,003 

302,990 

375,877 
188,510 

97,76i 

Detroit    

27,864 
10,144 

Hartford          

Indianapolis  

Jersey  City  

3i3,"3 

637,544 
470,964 

182,825 
4,082,246 

2,646,352 
615.053 

341,876 
326,052 

Kansas  City  

Minneapolis  

127,203 

Newark  

10,000 

15,102 
2,390,403 

483,817 
78,406 
1,302 
13,275 
75,553 
354,262 
30,084 
86,904 

126,251 
206,193 
4,624,185 
851  ,090 
2,107,665 
337,592 
91,576 
281,524 
508,160 
1,258,899 
1,832,094 
1,409,663 

133,189 
5,357 
176,366 
154,468 
463,828 

66",ic)8 
115,169 
161,855 
147,052 

327,359 

New  Orleans  

New  York   

25,000 
14,018 

Omaha  

'Philadelphia  

Pittsburg  

Portland,  Ore  

3.500 
1,126 

Rochester  

St.  Louis  

St.  Paul  

13,795 
30.746 

784,432 
992,414 

San  Francisco  

68,207 

288,106 

54I,I59 

ORDINARY  EXPENDITURES  IN   DETAIL. 


CITIES. 

Public 
Buildings 
and 
Improve- 
ments. 

Parks  and 
Public 
Grounds. 

Salaries. 

Water- 
works 
or  Use  of 
Water. 

Interest  on 
Debt. 

Miscella- 
neous. 

Albany  

$31,440 
173.837 

649,536 
",325 

64',428 
616 

23,489 
23,439 
38,281 
18,632 
36,459 
10,390 

73,964 
2,440 
8,600 
12,890 

268,138 

11,061 

3,849 
10,075,925 

16,473 
404,465 

5.051 

187,520 
97.990 

$84,472 
72,241 
8,570 
588,051 
21,709 
2,325,684 
150,583 

27,917 
488,350 
160,924 

49,945 
72,000 
225,738 
27,780 

27.4*4 
86,394 
82,714 
70,402 
18,912 
19,267 
"7,645 
3,488,834 
150,152 
1,131,376 
61,588 
26,739 
68,205 
76,756 
466,221 

259,284 

$257,789 
874,095 
52,112 
973,47i 

1,237,025 
1,031,755 
23,813 
116,368 
2,020,8^7 
600,669 
446,660 

257,296 
73,647 

55,493 

36,650 
10,000 
67,380 
279,394 

16,000 

64,296 
3,172,583 
66,490 

1,332,253 
278,328 

24r,434 
209,801 
697,392 
680,185 
24,175 

$223,939 
2,012,260 
136,946 
2,444,504 
82,606 
2,223,570 
487,469 
25,782 
199,491 
780,176 
',865,750 
488,203 
202,090 

oV,578 
206,482 
171,863 
199,088 
918,360 

78,357 
258,936 
267,861 
61,523 
585.591 
7,146,215 

3,326,411 
706,950 
33,265 
492,717 
108,432 
1,250,966 
492,206 
117,291 

$74,556 
754,667 
88,821 
1,213,011 
245,020 
7,631,429 
2,645,906 
n,2ia 
23!,3?8 
1,775,402 
486,031 
43I>I74 
34,194 
3,500 
62,638 
288,958 
276,009 
76,659 
110,943 
410,804 
315,670 
1,358.432 
3°,  '49 
1,031,983 
3,227,946 

8s,9!4 
4,120,959 
322,819 
23,494 
734,239 
79,859 
375,412 
1,126,898 
701,230 

Baltimore          

$29,215 
1,391,903 

11,121 
192,650 

3,161 
",595 
904,271 
336,440 
395,794 
19,530 
10,000 
26,942 
69,787 

Bridgeport,  Conn  

Buffalo                  

Burlington  

Cambridge  ...        

Chicago  

Columbus     

Detroit    

Fall  River  

Hartford  

Indianapolis..        ... 

6,910 
2,452 
30,489 

Jersey  City  

Newark  

New  Haven  

2,385 
22,118 
3,063,809 

27.432 
758,037 

New  York  

Omaha  

Philadelphia          

Pittsburg  

Portland,  Ore  

2,599 
14,907 
9,558 
129,871 
298,054 
330,523 

Providence  

Rochester  

St.  Louis  

St.  Paul  

San  Francisco  

City  and  Social  Reform. 


286 


City  and  Social  Reform, 


Concerning  the  debts  of  American  municipalities, 
Mr.  Conkling  (City  Government  of  the  United  States, 
p.  170)  says  : 

"  A  table  of  the  increase  of  population,  taxable  valua- 
tion, taxation  and  debt  in  15  of  the  chief  cities  of  the 
United  States,  from  1866-75,  is  as  follows  : 

Increase  in  population 70.5  per  cent. 

Increase  in  tax  valuation 156.9  per  cent. 

Increase  in  debt 270.9  per  cent. 

Increase  in  taxation 363.2  per  cent. 

"  The  increase  in  debt  has  been  most  notable  in  the 
large  cities.  .  .  . 

''The  sudden  increase  of  the  debt  of  New  York  dur- 


ing the  reign  of  the  Tweed  ring  is,  perhaps,  the  most 
remarkable  of  any  large  city.  During  the  two  years 
preceding  the  downfall  of  that  ring  in  1871  the  increase 
of  the  city's  debt  was  $40,650,648.  On  July  i,  1894,  the 
net  funded  debt  of  New  York  City  was  $104,339,634,  and 
the  State  of  New  York  is  practically  out  of  debt. 

"  A  city  having  a  low  rate  of  taxation  has  often  a 
large  bonded  debt.  .  .  . 

"  The  tax-rate  of  cities  is  often  a  delusion  and  a 
snare,  for  the  reason  that,  where  the  municipal  authori- 


ties refuse  to  make  an  appropriation,  application  is. 
made  to  the  Legislature  for  authority  to  issue  bonds. 
This  method  of  financial  juggling  is  adopted  in  the 
city  of  New  York.  .  .  . 

"The  city  of  Chicago  is  about  to  reissue  at  4  per 
cent.  $1,787,000  worth  of  bonds  that  have  borne  interest 
at  7  per  cent. 

"  Many  of  the  small  cities  in  the  United  States  are 
now  selling  bonds  at  the  rate  of  4  and  5  per  cent. 
These  bonds  are  sometimes  exempted  from  municipal 
taxation.    In  the   District  of  Columbia 
registered    bonds,    guaranteed    by   the 
United  States  Government  and  bearing        Debts 
interest  at  3.65  per  cent.,  have  been  is- 
sued recently.    The  issue  is  limited  to 
$5,000,000,  and  is  exempt  from  all  taxes. 
The  city  bonds  in  several  Western  States  are  fair  in- 
vestments, because  the  city  debt  is  limited  by  the  State 
Constitution  to  5  per  cent,  of  the  assessed  valuation  of 
the  taxable  property." 

The  World  Almanac  for  1895  gives  the  following  sta- 
tistics of  municipal  debts  and  tax  rates  in  the  United 
States,  as  furnished  by  the  mayors  of  the  respective 
cities  : 


CITIES. 

Estimated 
Population, 
January  i,  1895 

Net  Public  Debt. 

Assessed  Valua- 
tion of  all  Taxable 
Property, 

Per  cent,  of 
Actual  Value.* 

Tax 

Rate.t 

Baltimore,  Md  

75 

1.70 

1.28- 

Brooklyn,  N.  Y  

549,146,112 

70 

2.62 

Chicago,  111  

& 

4.76 

Cincinnati,  O  

188,751,350 

58 

2.70 

Cleveland,  O          

2.81 

New  York  City  (c)  

Philadelphia,  Pa  

52,758,845 

75 

1.85 

San  Francisco,  Cal.        

60 

1.61 

Washington,  D.C  

40 

1.50 

*  This  is  the  percentage  of  assessment  upon  actual  valuation,     t  Tax  on  each  $100  of  assessed  valuation, 
(a)  Report  of  December,  1893.     (6)  About  10  per  cent.    (£)  Approximate. 

Mr.  J.  J.  O'Meara  (Municipal  Taxation  al  Home  and  Abroad,  1894,  pp.  26,  27)  gives  the  following  statistics  for 
Europe  : 


CITIES. 

Population. 

Debt. 

Per  Capita. 

Birmingham  ..        

£21  i^s.  dd. 

London  County  Council  

748 

Glasgow  

656,185 

6,718,516 

10     4      7 

Manchester  .  .  . 

20     3      4 

Paris  

Concerning  the  expenditures  of  cities,     Mr.  A.   R. 
Conkling  (idem.,  p.  174)  gives  the  following  table  : 


CITIES. 

Expenditure 

Population. 

London  

Paris  

Berlin.  .'.  

11,868,000 

New  Yorkt  

Chicago  

Philadelphia              

Boston  

*  In  1890. 

t  Excluding  about  $3,500,000  for  improvements  by 
assessments  and  by  the  issue  of  bonds. 
J  The  mean  of  the  federal  and  police  census. 


The  cost  of  government  per  capita  is  in  London, 
$11.46  ;  in  Paris,  $26.61,  and  in  Berlin,  $11.97.    In  tne  city 
of  New  York  the  rate  was  $5  in   1850. 
At  the  end  of  Tweed's  administration, 
in  1871,  it  was  $18.66  ;  and  in  1893,  exclud-     TT{nancea 
ing  the  expenditure  for  assessments,  it 
was  $24.01. 

In  Europe  large  revenues  are  received 
from  municipal  activities,  franchises,  etc.  Mr.  Leroy 
Beaulieu  believes  that  in  the  near  future  the  great 
source  of  city  revenues  will  be  public  halls,  markets, 
slaughter-houses,  gas-works,  public  conveyances,  etc. 
(See  the  comparative  table  on  the  next  page.) 


1891.  An  analysis  ot  tnese  taoies  win  snow  tnat  me 
larger  cities  of  Europe  apparently  carry  heavier  mu- 
nicipal debts  than  are  borne  by  the  larger  cities  of  the 
United  States  ;  but  the  analysis  will  also  show  that  this 
is  only  apparently  the  case.  If  the  European  cities, 
have  larger  debts,  they  have  larger  assets.  They  have 
largely  borrowed  for  permanent  investments  that  pay 
the  interest  on  the  money  borrowed.  American  cities, 
too  often  borrow  to  pay  running  expenses. 


City  and  Social  Reform. 


287 


City  and  Social  Reform. 


CITIES. 

Total  Receipts. 

Assets. 

Taxes. 

Other  Sources. 

Birmingham  

London  County  Council  

Manchester  

**'      'o 

Glasgow  .     .. 

ft 

Paris  

0 

i        >4   3 

Boston  

»4     »°9 

Chicago  

1,966,685 

New  York  .  .  . 

i  5  i  5 

These  various  data  for  Europe  and  America  may  be  tabulated  thus  : 

COMPARATIVE  STATISTICS  OF  FIVE  AMERICAN  AND  FIVE  EUROPEAN   CITIES. 


CITIES. 

Population  in 
Thousands. 

Persons  to  Acre. 

Death-Rate. 

Annual  Expendi- 
tures in  Thousand 
Dollars. 

Per  Capita. 

Ordinary  Taxes. 

Per  Capita. 

Municipal  Gas.* 

Municipal  Water 
Works.* 

Municipal  Rail- 
ways* 

Mun.  Tenement 
Improvements.  * 

Municipal  Baths.* 

Total  Municipal- 
ism.* 

Park  Area  for  1 
1,000  Persons. 

Proportion  of  Ex- 
penditure for 
Education. 

26    6 

Ska 

18 

A.8 

R 

og 

' 

6.73 

New  York    

1,801 

28 

85iI4I 

56 

Philadelphia  

12,086 

10.58 

Berlin        

$T"> 

5° 

IOO 

478 

678 

2,388 

6 

5. 

Paris  

2,480 

28 

?6 

4.02 

o 

IOO 

o 

o 

o 

IOO 

16 

Average   

6c 

$15 

$5,841 

$3-74 

60 

80 

4° 

60 

80 

16.5 

*  In  these  columns,  municipal  ownership  and  operation  is  marked  100;  municipal  ownership  and  private  opera- 
tion is  marked  50.  t  This  is  receipts. 


It  appears  from  this  table  that  the  larger  American 
cities,  compared  with  the  leading  European  cities, 
altho  not  so  crowded,  have  a  higher  death-rate,  cost 
their  citizens  twice  as  much  money,  tax  their  citizens 
more  than  three  times  as  much,  furnish  less  park  area, 
and  spend  a  smaller  proportion  of  their  receipts  for 
education  American  cities  seek  a  large  proportion 
of  their  receipts  from  taxes  ;  European  cities  receive 
a  large  share  of  their  receipts  from  municipal  enter- 

E  rises  and  assets  of  one  kind  or  another,  her  cities 
jading  in  the  municipalization  of  gas,  surface  rail- 
roads, improved  tenements,  baths,  etc.  America  leads 
in  municipal  water  works,  the  one  large  municipal 
activity,  which  in  few  cities  is  depended  upon  for  rev- 
enue. In  all  revenue-producing  municipalism  Europe 
leads.  From  such  a  table  it  is  easy  to  see  how  Ameri- 
can cities  lead  in  taxes  and  in  death-rate,  European 
cities  in  health  and  municipalization. 

IV.  THE  NEED  OF  REFORM. 
(a)  In  America. 

Says  Mr.  James  Bryce  (American  Common- 
wealth, vol.  i.,  p.  608)  : 

"There  is  no  denying  that  the  government  of  cities 
is  the  one  conspicuous  failure  of  the  United  States. 
The  deficiencies  of  the  national  Government  tell  but 
little  for  evil  on  the  welfare  of  the  people.  The  faults 
of  the  State  governments  are  insignificant  compared 
with  the  extravagance,  corruption,  and  mismanage- 
ment which  mark  the  administrations  of  most  of  the 
great  cities.  For  these  evils  are  not  confined  to  one  or 
two  cities.  The  commonest  mistake  of  Europeans  who 
talk  about  America  is  to  assume  that  the  political 
vices  of  New  York  are  found  everywhere.  The  next 
most  common  is  to  suppose  that  they  are  found  no- 
where else.  In  New  York  they  have  revealed  them- 


selves on  the  largest  scale.  They  are  'gross  as  a 
mountain,  open,  palpable.'  But  there  is  not  a  city 
with  a  population  exceeding  200,000  where  the  poison 
germs  have  not  sprung  into  a  vigorous  life  ;  and  in 
some  of  the  smaller  ones,  down  to  70,000,  it  needs  no 
microscope  to  note  the  results  of  their  •growth." 

Says  Mr.  Andrew  D.  White  (The  f'onim,  December, 
1890) :  "  Without  the  slightest  exaggeration  we  may  as- 
sert that,  with  very  few  exceptions,  the  city  govern- 
ments of  the  United  States  are  the  worst  in  Christen- 
dom—the most  expensive,  the  most  in- 
efficient, and    the    most    corrupt.     The 
city  halls  of  these  larger  towns  are  the    Municipal 
acknowledged  centers  of  the  vilest  cor-    cornintion 
ruption.    They  are  absolutely  demoral-    V>O11UPHOU* 
izing,  not  merely  to  those  who  live  un- 
der their  sway,  but  to   the   country  at 
large.    Such  cities,  like   the   decaying    spots  on  ripe 
fruit,   tend  to  corrupt  the   whole  body  politic.    As  a 
rule,  the  men  who  sit  in  the  councils  of  our  larger  cities 
dispensing  comfort  or  discomfort,  justice  or  injustice, 
beauty  or  deformity,  health  or  disease,  to  this  and  to 
future  generations,  are  men  who  in  no  other  country 
would  think  of  aspiring  to  such   positions.    Some  of 
them,  indeed,  would  think  themselves  lucky  in  keeping 
outside  the  prisons.  .  .  .     Few  have  gained  their  posi- 
tions by  fitness  or    bv   public    service ;   many    have 
gained  them  by  scoundrelism  ;  some  by  crime.  .  .  .It 
has  been  my  lot  also  to  have  much  to  do  with  two  in- 
terior American  cities  of  less  size — one  of  about  100,000 
inhabitants,  the  other  of  about  12,000.     In  the  former  of 
these,  I  saw  a   franchise   for   which    $1,000,000   could 
easily  have  been  obtained,  given  away  by  the  common 
council.    I  saw  a  body  of  the  most  honored  men  in  the 
State  go  before  that  council  to  plead  for  ordinary  jus- 
tice and  decency.    I  saw  the  chief  judge  of  the  highest 
court  of  the  State,  one  of  his  associate  judges,  a  circuit 
judge    of  the   United   States,   an  honored  member  of 
Congress,  two  bishops,  the  president  and  professors  of 
a  university,  and  a  great  body  of  respected  citizens 


City  and  Social  Reform. 


288 


City  and  Social  Reform. 


urge  this  common  council  not  to  allow  a  railway  cpr- 
poration  to  block  up  the  entrance  to  the  ward  in  which 
the  petitioners  lived,  and  to  occupy  the  main  streets  of 
the  city.  They  asked  that,  if  it  were  allowed  to  do  so, 
it  might  be  required,  in  the  interest  of  human  life, 
either  to  raise  its  tracks  above  the  streets  or  to  protect 
the  citizens  by  watchmen  and  gateways,  and  to  pay  a 
fair  sum  for  the  privilege  of  cutting  through  the  heart 
•of  a  populous  city.  All  was  utterly  in  vain.  I  saw 
that  common  council,  by  an  almost  unanimous  vote, 
pass  a  bill  giving  away  to  this  great  corporation  all 
this  franchise  for  nothing,  sc  far  as  the  public  knew, 
and  without  even  a  requirement  to  protect  the  cross- 
ings of  the  most  important  streets  ;  and  I  soon  after- 
ward stood  by  the  mutilated  body  of  one  of  the  noblest 
of  women,  beheaded  at  one  of  these  unprotected  street 
crossings  while  on  an  errand  of  mercy.  So,  too,  in  the 
smaller  of  these  two  interior  cities,  while  the  sewerage 
and  the  streets  were  in  such  bad  condition  as  to  de- 
mand the  immediate  attention  of  the  common  council, 
I  saw  the  consideration  of  these  interests  neglected  for 
months,  and  the  main  attention  of  the  council  given  to 
a  struggle  over  the  appointment  of  a  cemetery-keeper 
at  a  salary  of  $10  a  week." 

Says  Mr.  A.  R.  Conkling  (Citv  Government  z«  the 
United  States,  pp.  a,  10)  :  "  The  character  of  the  aver- 
age city  legislator  is  well  known  to  those  who  come  in 
contact  with  him;  but  for  the  benefit  of  the  closet 
student  of  American  municipal  government,  I  give  an 
extract  from  a  non-partisan  report  on  the  representa- 
tives of  the  city  of  New  York  in  the  Legislature.  The 
description  will  generally  apply  to  the  aldermen  of 
American  cities.  The  Eighth  Annual  Record  of  As- 
semblymen and  Senators  from  the  City  of  New  York, 
published  by  the  City  Reform  Club,  referring  to  a  very 
prominent  assemblyman,  says  :  '  He  received  six  or 
seven  years'  schooling  in  the  public  schools  of  this  city. 
His  early  associations  were  not  good.  He  was  em- 
ployed in  various  newspaper  delivery  offices  for  sev- 
eral years.  He  afterward  became  a  liquor-dealer, 
then  an  undertaker,  then  a  liquor-dealer  again.  Last 
year  he  called  himself  a  lawyer,  and  this  year  a  plumb- 
er. As  a  matter  of  fact,  he  has  recently  opened  a  new 

saloon  at  35 Street.    He  does  not  use  tobacco,  nor 

drink  intoxicating  liquors.  ...  He  belongs  to  the 
worst  class  of  barroom  politicians.  He  has  engaged  in 
street  brawls,  poses  as  a  fighter,  and  is  a  typical  New 
York  "tough.7'  As  a  legislator  he  is  preposterous. 
He  is  dishonest,  and  has  been  accused  upon  the  floor  of 
the  House  of  using  money  to  defeat  certain  bills.  .  .  . 
Altogether  he  is  perhaps  "the  most  dangerous  man  that 
the  city  has  ever  sent  to  Albany.'  Another  assembly- 
man is  thus  described  :  '  He  was  born  in  New  York 
City,  of  American  parents.  He  was  educated  in  the 
public  schools  and  was  admitted  to  the  bar.  .  .  .  He 
had  no  conception  of  his  duties,  and  seemed  lacking  in 
ordinary  intelligence.  ...  He  associated  with  and 
followed  the  lead  of  the  most  corrupt  element  in  the 
Legislature."' 

In  1876  New  York  State  appointed  a  commission, 
with  W.  M.  Evarts  as  Chairman,  "  to  devise  a  plan  for 
the  government  of  cities  in  the  State  of  New  York." 
It  summed  up  the  present  evils  as  follows  : 

"  i.  The  accumulation  of  permanent  municipal  debt : 
In  New  York  it  was,  in  1840,  $10,000,000 ;  in  1850,  $12,000,- 
ooo ;  in  1860,  $18,000,000  ;  in  1870,  $73,000,000  ;  in  1876,  $113,- 
000,000." 

The  commission  adds  :  "  The  magnitude  and  rapid 
increase  of  this  debt  are  not  less  remarkable  than  the 
poverty  of  the  results  exhibited  as  the  return  for  so 

Erodigious  an  expenditure.  It  was  abundantly  suf- 
cient  for  the  construction  of  all  the  public  works  of  a 
great  metropolis  for  a  century  to  come,  and  to  have 
adorned  it  besides  with  the  splendors  of  architecture 
and  art.  Instead  of  this,  the  wharves  and  piers  are  for 
the  most  part  temporary  and  perishable  structures ; 
the  streets  are  poorly  payed ;  the  sewers  in  great 
measure  imperfect,  insufficient,  and  in  bad  order ;  the 
public  buildings  shabby  and  inadequate  ;  and  there  is 
little  which  the  citizen  can  regard  with  satisfaction, 
save  the  aqueduct  and  its  appurtenances  and  the  pub- 
lic park.  Even  these  should  not  be  said  to  be  the 
product  of  the  public  debt;  for  the  expense  occa- 
sioned by  them  is,  or  should  have  been,  for  the  most 
part,  already  extinguished.  In  truth,  the  larger  part 
of  the  city  debt  represents  a  vast  aggregate  of  moneys 
wasted,  embezzled,  or  misapplied. 

"  2.  The  excessive  increase  of  the  annual  expendi- 
ture for  ordinary  purposes."  In  1816  the  amount  raised 
by  taxation  was  less  than  one  half  per  cent,  on  the 
taxable  property;  in  1850,  1.13  per  cent.;  in  1860,  i.6q 
per  cent.;  in  1870,  2.17  per  cent.;  in  1876,  2.67  per  cent. 
"  The  increase  in  the  annual  expenditure  since  1850, 
.as  compared  with  the  increase  of  population,  is  more 


than  400  per  cent.,  and  as  compared  with  the  increase 
of  taxable  property,  more  than  200  per  cent." 

The  commission  suggest  the  following  as  the  causes  : 

"  i.  Incompetent  and  unfaithful  governing  boards 
and  officers. 

"  2.  The  introduction  of  State  and  national  politics 
into  municipal  affairs. 

"  3.  The  assumption  by  the  Legislature  of  the  direct 
control  of  local  affairs." 

Concerning  this  last  cause,  the  commission  says  : 

"  It  may  be  true  that  the  first  attempts  to  secure  leg- 
islative intervention  in  the  local  affairs  of  our  principal 
cities  were  made  by  good  citizens  in  the  supposed  in- 
terest of  reform  and  good  government,  and  to  counter- 
act the  schemes  of  corrupt  officials.    The  notion  that 
legislative  control  was  the  proper  remedy  was  a  seri- 
ous mistake.    The  corrupt  cliques  and 
rings  thus    sought  to   be    baffled  were 
quick  to  perceive  that  in  the  business     Causes  of 
of    procuring  special  laws    concerning   nni-Mrnfinii 
local  affairs  they  could  easily  outmatch   wwrupuon. 
the  fitful  and  clumsy  labors  of  disinter- 
ested citizens.    The  transfer  of  the  con- 
trol of  the  municipal  resources  from  the  localities  to_ 
the  (State)  capitol  had  no  other  effect  than  to  cause  a 
like  transfer  of  the  methods  and  arts  of  corruption, 
and  to  make  the  fortunes  of  our  principal  cities  the 
traffic  of  the  lobbies.    Municipal  corruption,  previously 
confined  within  territorial  limits,  thenceforth  escaped 
all  bounds  and  spread  to  every  quarter  of  the  State. 
Cities  were  compelled  by  legislation  to  buy  lands  for 
parks  and  places  because  the  owners  wished  to  sell 
them  ;  compelled  to  grade,   pave,  and   sewer  streets 
without  inhabitants,  and  for  no  other  purpose  than  to 
-  award  corrupt  contracts  for   the  work.    Cities  were 
compelled  to  purchase,  at  the  public  expense,  and  at 
extravagant  prices,  the  property  necessary  for  streets 
and  avenues,   useless  for  any  other  purpose  than  to 
make  a  market  for  the  adjoining  property  thus  im- 
proved.   Laws  were  enacted  abolishing  one  office  and 
creating  another  with  the   same    duties  in  order  to 
transfer  official  emoluments  from  one  man  to  another, 
and  laws  to  change  the  functions  of  officers  with  a 
view  only  to  a  new  distribution  of  patronage,  and  to 
lengthen  the  terms  of  offices  for  no  other  purpose  than 
to  retain  in  place  officers  who  could  not  otherwise  be 
elected  or  appointed." 

Concerning  the  second  cause  suggested  by  the  com- 
mission, Mr.  Henry  C.  Lea  makes  the  following  scath- 
ing indictment :  ""The  most  dangerous  enemies  of  re- 
form are  not  the  poor  men  or  the  ignorant  men,  but 
the  men  of  wealth  and  position,  who  have  nothing  to 
gain  from  political  corruption,  but  show  themselves  as 
unfitted  for  the  right  of  suffrage  as  the  lowest  pro- 
letarian, by  allowing  their  partisanship  to  enlist  them 
in  the  support  of  candidates  notoriously  bad,  who 
happen,  by  control  of  the  party  machinery,  to  obtain 
the  regular  nominations."  (See  RINGS.) 

This,  however,  by  no  means  exhausts  all  the  causes 
of  municipal  corruption.  Of  another  potent  cause  Mr. 
Francis  Bellamy  says  :  "  Another  cause  of  municipal 
misgqvernment  is  the  uncertainty  of  responsibility, 
especially  in  its  executive  branches.  Various  depart- 
ments, which  should  work  in  closest  harmony,  owe 
their  appointment  to  as  many  different  authorities; 
and  often  not  only  do  not  cooperate,  but  actually  pur- 
sue cross  purposes.  At  one  time  Philadelphia  was 
found  to  be  possessed  by  four  boards  with  power  to 
tear  up  the  streets  at  will,  but  none  whose  duty  it  was 
to  see  that  they  were  properly  relaid.  Or  here  is  an 
example  of  a  composite  officialdom  which  may  happen 
any  day:  a  'citizens'  ticket'  mayor,  a  Republican 
street  commissioner,  both  elected  by  the  people  ;  other 
appointments  filled  by  men  acceptable  to  a  Demo- 
cratic Board  of  Aldermen  ;  a  police  commission  named 
by  the  governor,  together  with  the  State  Legislature 
interfering  on  occasion.  With  such  a  mixture  it  is 
not  easy  to  fix  responsibility  for  maladministration. 
Non-partisan  commissions  of  four  members,  two  from 
each  party,  is  another  favorite  and  specious  arrange- 
ment by  which  the  people  are  prevented  from  calling 
either  party  to  account.  This  non-partisan  contri- 
vance is  also  an  open  door  for  the  most  unblushing  divi- 
sion of  spoils  in  the  department  between  the  '  workers  ' 
of  both  parties.  ...  It  is  imperative  that  responsibil- 
ity be  defined  and  located.  The  people  must  know 
where  the  trouble  lies,  and  whom  to  call  to  account 
when  things  go  wrong.  There  must  no  longer  be  a 
dissipation  of  responsibility  between  mayor  and  alder- 
men and  councilmen,  and  then  through  executive 
commissions,  for  whose  composition  and  actions  no 
one  can  be  held  strictly  accountable.  The  people  of 
Boston,  for  instance,  do  not  know  [the  charter  has  been 
now  changed.— Ed.]  where  to  lay  the  blame  for  many 


City  and  Social  Reform. 


289 


City  and  Social  Reform. 


municipal  disorders.  Mayor  and  street  commissioner, 
scnool  board,  and  the  two  chambers  are  elected  by  the 
people.  Treasurer,  auditor,  superintendent  of  the 
streets,  and  104  other  officials  are  appointed  by  mayor 
and  aldermen  together.  There  are  40  distinct  execu- 
tive departments  which  depend  on  mayor  and  alder- 
men. The  police  department  is  controlled  by  the  gov- 
ernor and  his  council.  The  State  also  appoints  a  fire 
marshal  to  investigate  fires,  while  the  city-appointed 
firemen  put  them  out.  The  various  departments  are 
headed  by  commissions  of  three  or  five  men,  and  by 
another  ingenious  contrivance,  these  men  are  ap- 
pointed by  the  mayor  singly,  only  one  each  year  ;  so 
that  the  mayor  can  never  control  any  commission  of 
three  until  his  second  year,  nor  any  commission  of  five 
until  his  third  year,  if  he  lasts  so  long.  But  these  are 
not  all  the  obstacles  the  people  meet  in  finding  out  who 
is  accountable.  If  seven  ®f  the  12  aldermen  are  not  in 
sympathy  with  the  mayor,  they  can,  by  dictations  or 
bargains,  put  such  a  restriction  on  his  appointments 
that  he  finds  himself  without  control  of  the  executive 
departments  of  which  he  is  the  nominal  head.  It  is  in- 
deed, as  an  English  journal  said,  'the  craftiest  combi- 
nation of  schemes  to  defeat  the  will  of  democracy 
ever  devised  in  the  world.'  " 

Still  another  cause,  and  many  believe  the  prime 
cause,  why  American  city  government  is  so  corrupt, 
and  particularly  why  so  few  of  our  best  citizens  in- 
cline to  take  office,  is  the  low  sphere  given  in  America 
to  municipal  activities.  In  the  progressive  cities  of 
Europe,  the  city  undertakes  large,  important  func- 
tions. In  America  these  are  carried  on  by  private  cor- 
porations. These  corporations  pay  many  times  the 
salaries  paid  to  most  city  officials.  Is  it  any  wonder 
that  they  can  get  the  best  men,  and  the  cities  the  worst  ? 
The  municipality  is  made  the  tool  of  the  corporations. 
But  nevertheless  the  corporations  get  their  franchises 
from  the  city,  and  are  affected  by  legislation  ;  hence,  it 
pays  them  to  "influence"  the  low  set  of  politicians  to 
whom  we  have  left  our  municipal  government.  Is  it 
any  wonder  that  corruption  results?  Says  Mr.  Francis 
Bellamy  : 

"  Why  is  the  municipal  government  of    Berlin  or 
Birmingham  or  Glasgow  so  much  less  corrupt   and 
more  efficient  than  ours?    Certainly  not  because  their 
citizens   are    more    intelligent   or    more    moral    than 
Americans.    One  reason  certainly  is  that  the  machin- 
ery is  more  simple  and  direct.     But  the  deepest  reason 
is  that  the  functions  are  so  much  more 
extensive  that  not  only  are  the  most  ca- 
Corporation  pable  men  led  to  take  office,  but  the  peo- 
Influence      ple  generally  are  attentive  to  the  prob- 
'     lems    which    the   many-sided    business 
of  the  city  presents. 

"I£  it  is  objected  that  monopolies 
should  be  kept  out  of  politics,  we  can  only  reply  that 
monopolies  are  in  politics.  They  depend  on  legisla- 
tures and  city  councils  and  on  politicians  and  lobby- 
ists for  their  very  existence.  Private  monopolies  have 
debauched  our  politics,  and  are  a  continual  menace  to 
uncorrupted  government.  Our  recent  West  End  Rail- 
way scandal  in  Boston  is  only  less  than  the  Broadway 
Surface  bribery  of  New  York  aldermen;  but  both  go 
to  show  how  terrible  is  the  pressure  which  great  nat- 
ural monopolies  can  bring  to  bear  to  extort  franchises. 
The  interests  of  such  immense  enterprises  as  elevated 
railways,  surface  railways,  gas  works,  electric  light- 
ing plants,  and  water  works  are  necessarily  antago- 
nistic to  the  interests  of  the  public.  Th<jy  serve  the 
Eeople,  but  their  motive  is  dividends,  and  not  the  com- 
jrt  of  the  people  or  the  improvement  of  the  city. 
They  absorb  the  best  business  talent  and  the  best 
legal  shrewdness  into  their  service,  that  they  may  se- 
cure privileges  at  public  sacrifice.  They  employ  a 
candidate  for  Governor  of  Massachusetts  to  defeat  in 
legislative  committee  the  natural  petition  of  Danvers 
town  people  that  they  may  be  allowed  to  do  their  own 
electric  lighting.  And  they  employ  an  ex-Governor 
of  Massachusetts  to  lobby  for  the  passage  of  an  ele- 
vated railroad  bill,  which  gives  fullest  freedom  to  the 
company  without  the  public  receiving  a  dollar  of  com- 
pensation. Monopolies  will  be  in  politics  in  a  bad 
sense  until  the  people  take  them  into  politics  in  a  good 
sense  by  undertaking  their  operation  themselves.  In 
this  way,  too,  municipal  reform  is  more  apt  to  follow 
extension  of  the  city's  business  than  to  go  before  it. 

"  Connected  with  this  cause  of  municipal  misman- 
agement is  the  irresoluteness  and  indifference  of  the 
people  themselves.  Some  are  apathetic.  It  has  been 
estimated  that  the  stay-at-home  vote  at  city  elections 
amounts  to  one  fourth  of  the  number  of  registered 
voters.  This  stay-at-home  vote  carries  the  balance  of 
power.  It  carries  also  hidden  in  its  pocket  the  power 
of  rebuke  for  misgovernment,  for  it  is  composed  of  the 


City 
Poverty. 


more  intelligent  of  the  citizens.  There  is  not  so  much 
to  fear  from  the  Irish  vote  or  the  German  vote  as  from 
this  absentee  vote.  The  foreign  vote  is  susceptible  of 
disintegration ;  it  may  negative  itself.  But  the  ab- 
staining vote  is  solid  against  good  government.  At 
intervals,  after  some  particularly  atrocious  conduct, 
this  vote  is  invaded  by  indignation,  and  some  fraction 
of  it  shakes  off  its  languor  and  makes  itself  felt  at  the 
polls.  But  it  is  only  a  spasm.  It  is  the  rush  of  raw 
volunteers  against  regulars.  The  regulars  may  be 
broken,  but  they  can  wait.  Their  turn  will  come 
again  presently.  Meanwhile,  the  stay-at-homes  return  < 
to  their  habit,  imagining  that  by  earnestly  doing  their 
duty  for  two  or  three  years  they  have  conquered  thel 
power  of  corruption,  and  that  it  is  not  necessary  to 
continue  the  fight  till  it  is  driven  from  the  field." 

All  the  needs  of  city  reform,  however,  are  by  no 
means  confined  to  political  evils  (for  the  evils  of  over- 
crowding, etc.,  see  SLUMS  ;  TENEMENTS,  etc.);  but  these 
must  not  be  forgotten  in  thinking  of  municipal  condi- 
tions. Eighty  per  cent,  of  New  York  City's  population 
live  in  tenements;  only  33  per  cent,  in  Boston  own  the 
houses  they  live  in.  Of  those  occupying  hired  houses, 
only  i6J^  live  in  single  tenements;  the  rest  crowd  togeth- 
er in  tenements  of  two  or  more  families.  Of  slum  life, 
the  author  of  Socialism  and  Christianity  says  (p.  205) : 

"  Think  of  a  plat  of  ground  200  feet  square  providing 
a  permanent  home  for  nearly  600  persons,  giving  to 
each  a  space  of  8  feet  by  9  !  But  even  so  scanty  a  pro- 
vision is  palatial  when  the  facts  are  more  closely 
examined.  Sixteen  families  composed  of  80  persons  in 
a  single  25-foot  dwelling  are  common.  ...  In  a 
room  12  by  8  and  5^  feet  high  inspected 
in  1879,  it  was  found  that  nine  persons 
slept  and  prepared  their  food.  .  .  . 
In  another  room,  located  in  a  dark 
cellar,  without  screens  or  partitions, 
were  huddled  together  two  men  with 
their  wives  and  a  girl  of  14,  two  single 
men  and  a  boy  of  17,  two  women,  and  four  boys,  9,  10, 
ii,  and  15  years  old— fourteen  persons  in  all " 

But  this  is  only  one  half  of  the  picture.  Not  only  do 
we  have  this  terrible  poverty  in  our  cities,  but  we  have 
it  close  by  the  side  of  extreme  wealth.  Says  Dr. 
Josiah  Strong  : 

"It  is  the  city  where  wealth  is  massed  ;  and  here  are 
the  tangible  evidences  of  it  piled  many  stories  high. 
Here  the  sway  of  Mammon  is  widest,  and  his  worship 
the  most  constant  and  eager.  Here  are  luxuries 
gathered — everything  that  dazzles  the  eye  or  tempts 
the  appetite  :  he'reisthe  most  extravagant  expenditure. 
Here,  also,  is  the  congestion  of  wealth  the  severest. 
.  .  .  How  are  such  items  as  the  following,  which 
appeared  in  the  papers  of  January,  1880,  likely  to  strike 
discontented  laborers?  'The  profits  of  the  Wall  Street 
kings  the  past  year  were  enormous.  It  is  estimated 
that  Vanderbilt  made  $30,000,000:  Jay  Gould,  $15,000,- 
ooo ;  Russell  Sage,  $10,000,000;  Sidney  Dillon,  $10,000,- 
ooo ;  James  R.  Keene,  $8,000,000 ;  anrt  three  or  four 
others  from  $1,000,000  to  $2,000,000  each  ;  making  agrand 
total  for  10  or  12  estates  of  about  $80,000,000.'  " 

It  is  these  terrible  contrasts  which  form  a  large  part 
of  the  problem  of  the  city. 

When  the  unemployed,  sleeping  in  crowded  tene- 
ments, in  police  stations,  in  empty  wagons,  under  the 
shelter  of  some  friendly  roof,  go  out,  with  little  or  no 
breakfast,  to  look  for  work  ;  when,  after  a  long  day's 
fruitless  search,  they  return  to  pale-faced  wives  and 
hungry  children,  one  can  scarcely  wonder  that  they 
grow  weary  and  discouraged,  reckless  and  desperate  ; 
but  when,  in  addition  to  this,  they  pursue  their  search 
for  bare  existence  along  streets  lined  with  palaces 
groaning  with  superabundance,  one  wonders  that 
anarchy  does  not  arise  in  every  modern  city  ;  one  ad- 
mires the  self-control  and  patience  of  the  poor. 

Connected  with  these  contrasts  is  the  composite 
character  of  our  city  populations. 

Though  only  about  one  third  of  the  population  of  the 
United  States  is  foreign  by  birth  or  parentage,  this 
element  rarely  constitutes  less  than  two  thirds  of  our 
larger  cities,  and  often  more  than  three  fourths. 

Charity  attempts  relief,  but  the  foremost  charity 
workers  (see  CHARITY  ORGANIZATION)  are  declaring 
to-day  that  the  misery  increases  faster  than  charity 
can  relieve  it.  The  amounts  spent  annually  for  poor 
relief,  private  or  public,  in  England  and  America  is 
very  many  millions ;  yet  the  need  is  greater  still. 
Perhaps,  more  exactly,  the  need  is  for  new  conditions 
that  shall  make  charity  less  necessary.  To-day  misery 
and  affluence,  the  beggar  and  the  capitalist,  the  prosti- 
tute and  the  millionaire  exist  side  by  side. 

The  following  is  a  table  of  the  nationality  of  some  of 
the  larger  American  cities,  according  to  the  census  of 


City  and  Social  Reform. 


290 


City  and  Social  Reform. 


CITIES. 

Total 
Foreign 
Born. 

British- 
Ameri- 
cans. 

.2 
"C 

J-H 

English. 

Scotch. 

Germans. 

Austrians. 

French. 

Italians. 

New  York  

8,308 

Chicago,  111  

i 

c  fig  c 

Philadelphia,  Pa  

2,584 

_  .'~  T 

0 

Brooklyn,  N   Y  

»      3 

St.  Louis,  Mo  

2  OO8 

i  586 

2,402 

Boston,  Mass  

*  ,- 

me 

A    7l8 

Baltimore,  Md  

666 

*jj 

824 

San  Francisco,  Cal  

126,811 

'         £ 

A  fifia 

Cincinnati,  O  

i4 

i?R 

CITIES. 

Russians. 

Hungarians. 

Bohemians. 

Poles. 

Norwegians. 

Swedes. 

Danes. 

Spaniards. 

Chinese. 

New  York      

887 

Chicago,  111  

7,683 

i,  818 

24,086 

7.097 

584 

Philadelphia,  Pa  

7»879 

189 

2    189 

1^6 

78  C 

Brooklyn,  N.  Y  

663 

1,887 

A  871 

1.8^0 

5 

££ 

St.  Louis,  Mo  

1,538 

875 

876 

285 

Boston,  Mass         

1  88 

86  1 

Baltimore,  Md  

163 

i,  -168 

81 

San  Francisco,  Cal  

167 

82 

1,785 

Cincinnati,  O  

978 

28 

16 

4 

Connected  with  this  foreign  population  of  our  cities 
is  the  saloon  problem.  Says  Dr.  Josiah  Strong  (Our 
Country,  pp.  181  and  133)  : 

"  East  of  the  Mississippi  there^  was, -in  1880,  one  saloon 
to  every  438  of  the  population  ;  in  Boston,  one  to  every 
329 ;  in  Cleveland,  one  to  every  192  ;  in  -Chicago,  one  to 
every  179  ;  in  New  York,  one  to  every  171 ;  in'  Cincin- 
nati, one  to  every  124.  Of  course  the  demoralizing  and 
pauperizing  power  of  the  saloons  and  their  debauching 
influence  in  politics  increase  with  their  numerical 
strength.  .  .  .  The  liquor  trade  boasts  that  in  New 
York  City  alone  it  controls  40,000  votes.  That  the 
saloons  are  the  great  centers  of  political  activity  is 
evident  from  the  fact  that  out  of  1002 
primary  and  other  political  meetings 
held  in  New  York  during  the  year  pre- 
ceding the  November  election  of  1884,  633 
were  held  in  saloons  and  86  were  held 


Intemper- 
ance. 


next  door  to  saloons,  while  only  283  were 
held  apart  from  them.  These  saloons 
and  their  keepers  are  controlled  by  a  few  strong 
men.  In  1888,  of  the  saloons  in  New  York  City, 
4710  were  subject  to  chattel  mortgages,  which  aggre- 
gated $4,959,578  in  value.  An  overwhelming  proportion 
of  these  mortgages  were  held  by  brewers,  one  firm 
holding  upward  of  200,  and  another  600  ;  which  being 
interpreted  means  that  two  firms  controlled  upward 
of  800  centers  of  political  influence  in  New  York." 

Such  are  some  of  the  evils  connected  with  American 
cities.  (See  also  PROSTITUTION;  GAMBLING;  UNEM- 
PLOYMENT; PAUPERISM;  CRIME;  SLUMS,  etc.). 

(b)  Europe. 

The  evils  of  modern  city  life  are  by  no  means 
confined  to  American  cities. 

Said  Professor  Huxley  (Social  Diseases  and  Worse 
Remedies) :  "  Any  one  who  is  acquainted  with  the  state 
of  the  population  of  all  great  industrial  centers,  •whether 
in  this  or  other  countries,  is  aware  that,  amid  a  large 
and  increasing  body  of  that  population,  la  misere 
reigns  supreme.  .  .  .  I  have  no  pretensions  to  the  charac- 
ter of  a  philanthropist,  and  I  have  a  special  horror  of 
all  sorts  of  sentimental  rhetoric  ;  I  am  merely  trying  to 
deal  with  facts,  to  some  extent  within  my  own  knowl- 
edge, and  further  evidenced  by  abundant  testimony, 
as  a  naturalist ;  and  I  take  it  to  be  a  mere  plain  truth 
that  throughout  industrial  Europe  there  is  not  a  single 
large  manufacturing  city  which  is  free  from  a  vast 
mass  of  people  whose  condition  is  exactly  that 


described,  and  from  a  still  greater  mass  who,  living 
just  on  the  edge  of  the  social  swamp,  are  liable  to  be 
precipitated  into  it  by  any  lack  of  demand  for  their 
produce.  And,  with  every  addition  to  the  population, 
the  multitude  already  sunk  in  the  pit  and  the  number 
of  the  host  sliding  toward  it  continually  increase." 

What  Professor  Huxlev  means  by  la  misere  is  ap- 
parent when  he  says  (idem) :  "  It  is  a  condition  in 
which  the  food,  warmth,  and  clothing  which  are  neces- 
sary for  the  mere  maintenance  of  the  functions  of  the 
body  in  their  normal  state  cannot  be  obtained ;  in 
which  men,  women,  and  children  are  forced  to  crowd 
into  dens  wherein  decency  is  abolished  and  the  most 
ordinary  conditions  of  healthful  existence  are  impos- 
sible of  attainment ;  in  which  the  pleasures  within 
reach  are  reduced  to  bestiality  and  drunkenness ;  in 
which  the  pains  accumulate  at  compound  interest,  in 
the  shape  of  starvation,  disease,  stunted  development, 
and  moral  degradation  ;  in  which  the  prospect  of  even 
steady  and  honest  industry  is  a  life  of  unsuccessful 
battling  with  hunger,  rounded  by  a  pauper's  grave." 

What  life  in  London  means  for  hundreds  of  thousands 
can  be  seen  by  the  following  from  The  Bitter  Cry  of 
Outcast    London,   speaking    of    London's  tenements : 
"To get  into  them  you  have  to  penetrate  courts  reek- 
ing with  poisonous  and  malodorous  gases,  arising  from 
accumulations  of  sewage  and  refuse  scattered  in  all 
directions,  and  often  flowing  beneath  your  feet ;  courts, 
many  of  them  which  the  sun  never  penetrates,  which 
are  never  visited  by  a  breath  of  fresh  air.     You  have 
to  ascend  rotten  staircases,  grope  your  way  along  dark 
and  filthy  passages  swarming  with  vermin.    Then,  if 
you  are  not  driven  back  by  the  intolerable  stench,  you 
may  gain  admittance  to  the  dens  in  which  these  thou- 
sands of  beings  herd  together.     Eight    feet  square  ! 
That  is  about  the  average  size  of  very  many  of  these 
rooms.    Walls  and  ceiling  are  black  with  the  accretions 
of  filth  which  have  gathered  upon  them  through  long 
years  of  neglect.    It  is  exuding  through  cracks  in  the 
boards ;  it  is  everywhere.  .  .  .    Every 
room  in  these  rotten  and  reeking  tene- 
ments houses  a  family,  often  two.    In       London 
one  cellar,  a  sanitary  inspector  reports 
finding  a  father,  mother,  three  children, 
and    four    pigs.  .  .  .     Here    are    seven 
people  living  in  one  underground  kitchen,  and  a  little 
dead  child  lying  in  the  same  room.  Elsewhere  is  a  poor 
widow,  her  three  children,  and  a  child  who  had  been 
dead   13  days.     Her    husband,   who  was    a  cabman, 
had  shortly  before  committed  suicide.  .  .  .    In  another 
apartment,  nine  brothers  and  sisters,  from  29  years  of 
age  downward,  live,  eat,  and  sleep  together.    Here  is 


City  and  Social  Reform. 


291 


City  and  Social  Reform. 


a  mother  who  turns  her  children  into  the  street  in  the 
early  evening,  because  she  lets  her  room  for  immoral 
purposes  until  long  after  midnight,  when  the  poor  little 
wretches  creep  back  again,  if  they  have  not  found  some 
miserable  shelter  elsewhere.  Where  there  are  beds, 
they  are  simply  heaps  of  dirty  rags,  shavings,  or  straw  ; 
but  for  the  most  part  these  miserable  beings  find  rest 
only  upon  the  filthy  boards.  .  .  .  There  are  men  and 
women  who  lie  and  die,  day  by  day,  in  their  wretched 
single  room,  sharing  all  the  family  trouble,  enduring 
the  hunger  and  the  cold,  and  •waiting,  without  hope, 
without  a  single  ray  of  comfort,  until  God  curtains 
their  staring  eyes  with  the  merciful  film  of  death." 

Nor  is  this  condition  true  only  of  a  few  worst  slums. 
As  regards  the  4,000,000  of  persons  in  the  metropolis, 
Mr.  Charles  Booth  tells  us  that  37,610,  or  0.9  per  cent., 
are  in  the  lowest  class  (occasional  laborers,  loafers,  and 
semi-criminals);  316,834,  or  7.5  per  cent.,  in  the  next 
(casual  labor,  hand-to-mouth  existence,  chronic  want) ; 
038,293,  or  22.3  per  cent.,  form  "the  poor"  (including 
alike  those  whose  earnings  are  small,  because  of  irreg- 
ularity of  employment,  and  those  whose  work,  though 
regular,  is  ill-paid).  These  classes,  on  or  below  the 
"poverty  line  of  earnings  not  exceeding  a  guinea  a 
week  per  family,  number  together  1,292,737,  or  30.7  per 
cent,  of  the  whole  population.  To  these  must  be  added, 
09,830  inmates  of  workhouses,  hospitals,  prisons,  indus- 
trial schools,  etc.,  making  altogether  nearly  1,400,000 
persons  in  this  one  city  alone  whose  condition  even  the 
most  optimistic  social  student  can  hardly  deem  satis- 
factory (Labor  and  Life  of  the  People,  edited  by  Charles 
Booth,  1891,  vol.  ii.,  pp.  20,  21). 

Says  the  Fabian  Tract  No.  5  (revised  ed.) :  "  In  Lon- 
don one  person  in  every  five  will  die  in  the  workhouse, 
hospital,  or  lunatic  asylum.  In  1892,  out  of  86,833  deaths, 
48,061  being  20  years  of  age  and  upward,  12,713  were  in 
workhouses,  7707  in  hospitals,  and  411  in  lunatic  asy- 
lums, or  altogether  20,831  in  public  institutions  (Regis- 
trar-General's Report,  1892,  C— 7,  238,  pp.  2,  72,  and  96). 
The  percentage  in  1887  was  20.7  of  the  total  deaths;  in 
1888  it  rose  to  22.2,  in  1891  to  24.2,  and  in  1892  it  was  23.9. 

"  It  is  worth  notice  that  a  large  number  of  those  com- 
pelled in  their  old  age  to  resort  to  the  workhouse  have 
made  ineffectual  efforts  at  thrifty  provision  for  their 
declining  years.  In  1890-91,  out  of  175,852  inmates  of 
workhouses  (one  third  being  children,  and  another 
third  women),  no  fewer  than  14,808  have  been  members 
of  benefit  societies.  In  4593  cases  the  society  had 
broken  up,  usually  from  insolvency  (House  of  Commons 
Return,  1891,  Nos.  366  and  130—8).  Considering  that 
comparatively  few  of  the  inmates  are  children,  it  is 
probable  that  one  in  every  three  London  adults  will  be 
driven  into  these  refuges  to  die,  and  the  proportion  in 
the  case  of  the  'manual  labor  class  '  must,  of  course, 
be  still  larger." 

London,  though  the  largest,  is  not  alone  in  the  evil 
condition  of  its  working  masses.  In  England  the  in- 
dustrial friendly  societies  have  in  each  large  town  their 
•'proscribed  streets."  The  Liverpool  Victoria  Legal 
Friendly  Society  proscribes,  for  Liverpool  alone,  on 
account  of  their  insanitary  character,  167  "streets 
wherein  no  members  of  the  Society  may  be  entered" 
(Circular  of  October  13,  1886).  Yet  these  unhealthy 
streets  are  not  too  bad  to  be  the  only  homes  of  thou- 
sands of  the  poorer  citizens  of  that  commercial  center. 

Says  Mr.  Frederick  Harrison:  "To  me,  at  least,  it 
would  be  enough  to  condemn  modern  society  as  hardly 
an  advance  on  slavery  or  serfdom,  if  the  permanent 
condition  of  industry  were  to  be  that  which  we  behold, 
that  90  per  cent,  of  the  actual  producers  of  wealth  have 
no  home  that  they  can  call  their  own  beyond  the  end 
of  the  week ;  have  no  bit  of  soil,  or  so  much  as  a  room 
that  belongs  to  them ;  have  nothing  of  value  of  any 
kind  except  as  much  old  furniture  as  will  go  in  a  cart ; 
have  the  precarious  chance  of  weekly  wages  which 
barely  suffice  to  keep  them  in  health  ;  are  housed  for 
the  most  part  in  places  that  no  man  thinks  fit  for  his 
horse ;  are  separated  by  so  narrow  a  margin  from 
destitution,  that  a  month  of  bad  trade,  sickness,  or  un- 
expected loss  brings  them  face  to  face  with  hunger  and 
pauperism.  .  .  .  This  is  the  normal  state  of  the  aver- 
age workman  in  town  or  country"  (Report  of  Indus- 
trial Remuneration  Conference,  1886,  p.  429). 

V.  METHODS  OF  REFORM. 
(a)  Administrative. 

Different  classes  of  thinkers  advocate  very 
various  methods  of  reform.  The  commission  in 
New  York  State  referred  to  above  (see  Sec.  IV.) 
made  the  following  recommendations  : 


"  (a)  A  restriction  of  the  power  of  the  State  legislature 
to  interfere  by  special  legislation  with  municipal  gov- 
ernments or  the  conduct  of  municipal  affairs.* 

"  (b)  The  holding  of  municipal  elections  at  a  different 
period  of  the  year  from  State  and  national  elections. 

"  (c)  The  vesting  of  the  legislative  powers  of  munici- 
palities in  two  bodies :  A  board  of  aldermen,  elected  by 
the  ordinary  (manhood)  suffrage,  to  be  the  common 
council  of  each  city.  A  board  of  finance  of  from  six  to 
15  members,  elected  by  voters  who  had  for  two  years 
paid  an  annual  tax  on  property  assessed  at  not  less 
than  $500  G£ioo),  or  a  rent  (for  premises  occupied)  of 
not  less  than  $250  G£SO).  This  board  of  finance  was 
to  have  a  practically  exclusive  control  of  the  taxation 
and  expenditure  of 'each  city,  and  of  the  exercise  of  its 
borrowing  powers,  and  was  in  some  matters  to  act 
only  by  a  two-thirds  majority. 

"  (d)  Limitations  on  the  borrowing  powers  of  the 
municipality,  the  concurrence  of  the  mayor  and  two 
thirds  of  the  State  Legislature,  as  well  as  of  two  thirds 
of  the  Board  of  Finance,  being  required  for  any  loan 
except  in  anticipation  of  current  revenue. 

'•'•(e)  An  extension  of  the  general  control  and  appoint- 
ing power  of  the  mayor,  the  mayor  being  himself  sub- 
ject to  removal  for  cause  by  the  governor  of  the 
State." 

The  large  movement  for  municipal  reform  in 
the  United  States,  which  has  resulted  in  the  for- 
mation of  municipal  reform  leagues  or  civic 
clubs  in  all  the  large  cities,  and  has  now  grown 
into  a  national  municipal  league,  is  not  com- 
mitted to  one  definite  program,  yet  nevertheless 
does  largely  favor  in  all  cities  a  similar  program. 
It  may  be  said  in  general  to  favor  municipal  re- 
form, first,  by  rousing  the  attention  of  all  classes 
of  citizens,  especially  among  the  educated 
classes,  to  take  an  active  interest  in  the  conduct 
of  civic  affairs  ;  second,  by  fixing  municipal  re- 
sponsibility through  the  simplification  of  munici- 
pal systems  ;  by  such  measures  as  increasing 
the  power  of  the  mayor,  abolishing  the  bicam- 
eral system,  doing  away  with  so-called  non- 
partisan  boards  and  appointing  single  responsi- 
ble commissioners  in  their  place,  substituting 
biennial  or  triennial  elections  for  annual,  reduc- 
ing the  number  of  departments,  etc.  ;  third,  by 
divorcing  municipal  from  national  politics,  in- 
troducing proportional  representation,  etc.  But 
this  movement  is  so  important  that  we  can  only 
consider  it  an  an  article  by  itself.  -(See  MUNICI- 
PAL REFORM  ORGANIZATIONS.) 

Somewhat  opposed  to  this  program,  at  least 
in  asserting  that  it  does  not  reach  the  bottom  of 
municipal  evils,  is  the  view  of  those  who  believe 
that  the  one  first  and  greatest  way  to  reform 
city  administration  is  to  give  it  a  large  function. 
Says  Professor  R.  T.  Ely  {The  Christian  Union, 
October  9,  1890)  : 

"  We  are  reversing  the  order  of  nature  in  planning 
to  reform  city  government  first  and  then  to  carry  out 
changes  and  to  make  improvements  in  behalf  of  the 
poorer  classes.  Let  any  one  name  a  city  where  this 
policy  has  been  successfully  pursued.  I  know  of 
none. 

"  When  the  Hon.  Joseph  Chamberlain  and  his  friends 
took  hold  of  the  corrupt  and  inefficient  city  government 
of  Birmingham,  they  at  once  'devised  large  measures,' 
including  the  purchase  of  gas  and  water  works  by  the 
city.  A  public  library  followed  ;  public  parks,  im- 
proved dwellings  for  the  poor,  large  public  undertak- 
ings, broad  and  generous  measures,  have  been  an 
essential  part  of  municipal  reform  and  improvement 
in  cities  like  Berlin  and  Glasgow  ;  they  have  not  fol- 
lowed a  purification  of  politics,  but  have  helped  to  ele- 
vate political  life. 

"  Has  the  experience  of  this  country  been  different  ? 
Not  at  all.  When  the  city  government  of  Baltimore 
was  worse  than  it  is  to-day,  when  the  '  Plug  Uglies ' 
and  '  Blood  Tubs  '  were  a  terror,  the  government  was 
improved  by  adding  to  its  functions  a  paid  police  and 
a  paid  fire  department.  Extension  of  functions  within 
a  proper  sphere  improves  government. 


City  and  Social  Reform. 


292 


City  and  Social  Reform. 


"  When  civil-service  reformers  in  New  York  come 
before  the  people  with  large  and  generous  plans  of 
reform,   with  a  program    including  adequate  school 
accommodations,  strict  enforcement  of  the  compulsory 
education  law,  better  sanitary  measures,  public  owner- 
ship and  management  of  gas  and  electric  light  plants, 
playgrounds  for  children,   public  parks  in    crowded 
sections,  and  strict  enforcement  of  laws  for  the  protec- 
tion of  working  children,  and  when  leading  citizens 
pledge  themselves  to  these  reforms,  they  will  arouse 
an  enthusiasm  which  will  sweep  the  city.      Austin, 
Texas,  and  several  smaller  places  have 
recently  been  carried  by  large  majori- 
Professor     t'es  f°r  practical,  tangible  reforms.    A 
TMV  part    of    the  program    in    Austin    was 

*'  public  water  and  electric  lighting  works, 

and  the  reform  party  ousted  an  opposi- 
tion which  had  been  elected  by  a  large 
majority.    It  is  estimated  that  one  half  of  the  voters 
changed  their  votes. 

"Another  fundamental  fact  is  that  the  program 
which  I  propose  will,  when  carried  out,  arouse  munic- 
ipal pride  and  self-respect.  It  will  awaken  what  you 
may  call  a  self-consciousness.  Cities  with  us  do  not, 
as  it  were,  respect  themselves.  They  are  like  men 
who  have  lost  their  self-respect,  •while  they  are  de- 
spised by  private  corporations,  whose  tool  they  be- 
come. 

"  Another  fundamental  fact,  the  last  which  may  now 
be  mentioned,  is  that  you  cannot  separate  local  from 
national  politics  by  merely  talking  about  it.  National 
politics  are  supreme  in  the  minds  of  voters  because 
they  deal  with  real  issues,  like  tariff  reform,  the  silver 
question,  pensions,  federal  election  laws.  When  local 
politics  come  to  mean  what  they  should,  when  they  in- 
volve easily  understood  issues  of  moment  to  all,  then 
we  will  see  less  '  blind  attachment  to  party  and  party 
candidates.'  " 

While  private  corporations  carry  on  larger 
functions  than  the  city,  they  will  employ  the 
best  men.  While  the  city  officials  are  inferior 
men,  and  the  corporations  can  gain  from  and  are 
dependent  upon  city  legislation,  corruption 
must  result.  Such  is  the  argument  of  those  who 
believe  that  the  one  way  to  purify  the  city  is  to 
enlarge  its  functions.  For  the  details  of  this 
argument,  however,  see  MUNICIPALISM. 


(b)  Social  Reforms, 

For  the  details  of  these  reforms  see  EDUCA- 
TION ;  MANUAL  TRAINING  ;  BATHS  ;  LAVATORIES  ; 
TENEMENTS  ;  PARKS  ;  STREET  RAILWAYS  ;  TEM- 
PERANCE ;  CHARITY  ORGANIZATIONS  ;  MUNICIPAL- 
ISM,  etc.  The  following  program  was  laid  by 
Professor  R.  T.  Ely  before  the  meeting  of  the 
Evangelical  Alliance  in  Boston,  December  4, 
1889.  He  said  : 

"  i.  Let  me  first  mention  the  means  of  education 
which  should  be  liberally  provided,  and  which  should, 
for  the  most  part,  be  gratuitously  offered.  I  do  not 
speak  simply  of  schools  of  the  lower  grades,  but  of 
schools  of  all  grades,  and  of  much  besides  schools.  I 
would  thus  broaden  the  way  to  success,  and  utilize  all 
talent  in  the  community.  With  these  schools  I  would 
establish  a  sifting  process,  so  that  only  the  more  gifted 
should  advance  to  higher  grades.  Such  a  scheme  has 
already  been  working  in  New  York  State  for  some 
time.  There  are  State  scholarships,  entitling  the  re- 
cipients to  free  tuition  in  Cornell  University,  and  one 
of  them  is  offered  for  competition  in  each  assembly 
district  each  year.  There  are  thus  over  500  all  told.  It 
may  be  that  the  ideal  thing  is  a  public  educational 
system,  comprising  all  grades  of  school  up  to  and  in- 
clusive of  the  university.  .  .  .  But  public  education 
does  not  begin  early  enough  for  the  needs  of  the  city. 
The  majority  of  children  in  cities  are  under  bad  home 
influences,  and  free  kindergartens  should  be  a  part  of 
the  school  system.  It  is  all  very  well  to  talk  about  the 
work  of  the  family,  but  what  about  the  majority  of 
children  in  large  cities,  for  whom  no  wholesome  family 
life  exists?  I  have  sometimes  feared  that  my  good 
friend,  Dr.  Dike,  favored  reactionary  elements  in  not 
taking  into  account  sufficiently  the  actual  situation. 
Industrial  training  ought  to  be  made  important  every- 


where, and  I  note  •with  satisfaction  the  progress  it  is 
making  in  Boston.     Mr.  Brace  speaks  of 
industrial  schools  as  the  best  agency  for 
reforming  the  worst  class  of  children  in  Education 
cities,  and  the  experience  of  the  Elmira  •**«"*»**i 
Reformatory  in  New  York  shows  that 
a    majority  even    of    young    convicted 
criminals  can  be   reformed   by  it,  when   coupled  with 
good    discipline.      We    find  that   many  criminals  and 
paupers  are  uneducated  and  untrained  in  any  trade. 
The  apprenticeship  system  is    antiquated,   and    city 
dwellings  furnish   no  opportunity  for   girls   to   learn 
womanly  occupations.     Preparation  for  life  must  for 
all  come  from  the  school  ;  for  the  many  it  is  the  only 
place  whence  it  can  come.  .  .  . 

"But  our  educational  system  should  not  cease  to  pro- 
vide for  people  when  they  leaye  school.  Education 
ought  to  end  only  •with  life.  This  brings  me  to  men- 
tion such  educational  facilities  as  free  libraries,  free 
reading-rooms  within  convenient  distance  of  every 
part  off  the  city,  perhaps  in  many  cases  attached  to 
school  houses,  and  open  after  school  hours. 
.  "  University-extension  lectures  ought  to  be  provided, 
and  Mr.  Dewey,  of  New  York,  has  been  working  on 
some  large  plans  for  extension  lectures  to  be  connected 
with  the  public  schools  of  New  York  State,  and  to  be 
conducted  under  the  auspices  of  the  Board  of  Regents. 
Private  undertakings,  like  Chautauqua,  could  well 
supplement  •whatever  public  authority  does. 

Schoolhouses  should  be  better  utilized  as  gather- 
ing places  for  clubs,  debating  societies,  and  all  bodies 
of  men  who  would  give  guarantee  of  proper  behavior. 
Open  in  the  evening,  they  would  help  to  counteract 
the  baleful  influences  o-f  the  saloon. 

"  Art  galleries  and  museums— which  may  multiply 
the  value  of  pictures  and  other  enjoyable  articles  a 
hundredfold,  by  rendering  them  accessible  to  all — may 
be  mentioned  under  this  general  head,  and,  in  my 
opinion,  they  ought  all  to  be  open  on  Sunday.  I  do 
not  believe  in  leaving  a  free  field  to  the  devil  every 
seventh  day. 

"  It  goes  without  the  saying  that  religious  education 
is  an  important  part  of  all  education,  and  that  the 
Church  should  become  more  active  than  ever,  and  be- 
come tu  a  greater  extent  than  at  present  a  real  people's 
Church.  Church  buildings  also  are  not  as  fully  utilized 
as  they  might  be. 

"  2.  As  a  second  item,  and  one  closely  connected,  I 
mention    playgrounds,   parade    grounds,  play-rooms, 
and  gymnasiums.     I  would  include  universal  military 
drill  for  boys  and  young  men.     Experi- 
enced educators  will  tell  you  what  a  re- 
markable agency  physical  drill  is  for 
the  cultivation  of  good  morals ;  half  of 
the  wrong-doings  of   young  rascals  in 
cities  is  due  to  the  fact  that  they  have 
no  innocent  outlet  for  their  animal  spirits. 

"  3.  The  third  item  is  free  public  baths  and  public 
wash-houses,  like  those  which  in  Glasgow  have  proved 
so  successful. 

"  4.  The  fourth  item  is  public  gardens  and  parks  and 
good  open-air  music. 

"  5.  Very  important  in  all  large  cities  is  an  improve- 
ment of  artisans'  dwellings,  and  the  housing  of  the 
poor  generally.  All  those  who  work  among  the  poor 
speak  about  the  great  obstacle  to  reform  and  improve- 
ment found  in  rent.  Mr.  Barnett  speaks  of  it  as  ab- 
sorbing a  large  proportion  of  the  earnings  of  artisans — 
namely,  the  fourth  of  a  regular  income— and  Mr.  Brace 
speaks  of  it  repeatedly.  A  lady  working  in  connec- 
tion with  the  Charity  Organization  of  Baltimore  spoke 
of  it  thus  a  few  days  since  in  conversation  :  '  Rent  1  Oh, 
that  is  the  dreadful  thing  !  The  rent  of  the  poor  just 
goes  on  increasing  all  the  time  ;  so  do  their  appetities  ; 
but  these  have  to  •wait,  while  the  rent  has  to  be  paid  ! ' 

"  I  cannot  speak  of  the  many  things  which  can  be 
done  and  which  are  being  done  to  improve  the  hous- 
ing of  the  poorer  urban  classes.  One  of  the  most 
promising  reforms,  it  seems  to  me,  is  to  obey  the  law 
and  assess  all  unimproved  city  land  up  to  its  full  value, 
the  very  last  dollar  of  its  value,  and  then  exempt  all 
new  dwellings  from  taxation  for  a  period  of  five  years. 
A  somewhat  similar  plan  appears  to  have  produced 
excellent  results  in  Vienna.  Of  course,  this  alone  is 
not  sufficient. 

"  6.  My  sixth  item  is  complete  municipalization  of 
markets  and  slaughter-houses,  rendering  food  inspec- 
tion easier  and  more  thorough. 

"  7.  The  seventh  item  is  organized  medical  relief, 
rendering  medical  attendance  and  medicines  accessi- 
ble to  the  poor  without  a  sacrifice  of  self-respect  and 
independence.  .  .  . 

"  8.  Poor  relief  ought  to  be  better  organized,  alms- 
houses  should  be  workhouses  and  workhouses  should 


City  and  Social  Reform. 


293 


Civic  Church,  The. 


be  industrial  schools.  .  .  .  Any  one  may  witness  in  Ger- 
many the  beneficial  effects  of  an  extensive  pension 
system.  It  is  a  great  economy  of  resources,  as  small- 
er salaries  are  sufficient  under  a  pension  system  ;  it 
diminishes  poverty  and  pauperism,  and  thus  relieves 
the  public  treasuries.  It  prevents  anxiety,  and  checks 
the  greed  begotten  of  uncertainty.  An  extension  of 
the  principle  of  insurance  is  desirable  for  similar 
reasons. 

"  9.  The  ninth  item  is  improved  sanitary  legislation 
and  administration.  Great  strides  have  already  been 
made  in  this  direction,  but  probably  the  urban  death- 
rate  among  children  of  the  poor  under  five  years  of 
age  could  still  be  reduced  one  half. 

"  10.  The  next  item  is  a  better  regulation  of  the 
liquor  traffic  where  its  suppression  is  impossible.  I 
think  something  better  than  high  license  is  practi- 
cable. .  .  . 

"  But  temperance  reform  ought  to  include  positive 
measures,  as  well  as  negative,  and  how  effective  posi- 
tive measures  are,  Mr.  Brace's  book  amply  demon- 
strates. The  use  of  town  halls  and  school-rooms  for 
political  and  other  gatherings  in  England  has  proved 
a  good  temperance  measure.  Do  not  simply  drive  out 
the  saloon— replace  it. 

"  ii.  Municipal  savings  banks.  Such  institutions 
have  produced  most  gratifying  results  in  many  Ger- 
man cities.  Deposits  should  be  invested  in  city  bonds 
and  other  good  securities.  The  investment  in  city 
bonds  would  tend  to  give  depositors  a  realizing  sense 
of  what  they  have  at  stake  in  municipal  government. 

"  12.  Ownership  and  management  by  the  city  of 
natural  monopolies  of  a  local  character,  like  electric 
lights,  gas  works,  street-car  lines,  docks,  etc. 

"  I  will  not  enumerate  further  items  in  this  connec- 
tion. I  have  already  said  that  the  individual  force  and 
energy  of  citizens  should  be  used  to  inaugurate  and 
carry  out  these  reforms.  I  would  utilize 
in  a  higher  degree  than  heretofore 
Municipal!-  the  help  of  women.  Police  matrons 
ration  have  done  something  for  one  class  of 
zauoii.  our  urban  population  in  several  Ameri- 
can cities,  and  in  Glasgow  lady  health 
inspectors  have  proved  an  efficient  ad- 
junct to  the  health  department.  Lady  members  of 
school  boards  have  done  good  service  in  several  cities. 

"  We  should  also  have  private  associations  ot  women 
to  insist  on  the  enforcement  of  law.  Something  has 
been  done  in  New  York  by  the  Ladies'  Health  Pro- 
tective Association,  which  aims  to  secure  enforce- 
ment of  sanitary  legislation  and  to  insist  on  a  proper 
street-cleaning  service.  We  ought  also  to  have  in 
every  city  ladies'  public  educational  associations,  to 
stimulate  the  educational  authorities  and  to  see  that 
the  last  letter  of  the  law  is  obeyed  ;  in  New  York,  for 
instance,  see  that  schoolhouses  are  provided  for  all 
children,  and  that  the  compulsory  educational  law  is 
enforced. 

"  We  should  also  have  business  men's  associations, 
clergymen's  associations,  and  the  like,  all  to  help  to 
make  the  life  of  public  servants  who  neglect  their  duty 
a  burden  to  them. 

"  Whence  shall  come  the  resources  for  these  reforms  ? 
I  have  already  given  the  answer.  A  moderate  and 
conservative  municipalism  will  provide  resources.  It 
is  simply  necessary  to  utilize  public  resources.  Comp- 
troller Myers,  of  New  York,  recently  said  that  he 
could  pay  all  the  expenses  of  the  city  government 
from  dock  rents,  miscellaneous  receipts,  and  the  an- 
nual value  of  street  car  and  other  similar  franchises. 
Berlin  pays  over  15  per  cent,  of  its  expenses  from  the 

Erofits  of  gas  works ;  Richmond,  Va.,  when  I  last 
joked  at  the  report,  about  7  per  cent.  We  have 
also  electric  lighting  as  a  source  of  revenue.  Then  we 
have  plans  which  I  have  elsewhere  described  for 
securing  a  portion  of  the  increment  of  city  real  estate 
for  the  public,  and  that  without  depriving  any  one  of 
his  property  rights.  Inheritances,  and  particularly 
collateral  inheritances,  may  be  taxed,  and  intestate 
collateral  inheritances  might  be  even  abolished.  Re- 
sources for  every  needed  reform  can  be  found  in 
abundance  whenever  any  honest  search  is  made  for 
them.  We  have  yet  no  adequate  idea  of  the  public 
resources  of  a  great  city. 

"  Government  is  the  God-given  agency  through 
•which  we  must  work.  To  many,  I  am  aware,  this  is 
not  a  welcome  word,  but  it  is  a  true  word.  We  may 
twist  and  turn  as  long  as  we  please,  but  we  are  bound 
to  come  back  to  a  recognition  of  this  truth.  Societies 
have  failed.  Society,  particularly  as  organized  in  city 
councils  or  city  governments,  to  adopt  what  is  with  us 
the  more  comprehensive  designation,  must  recognize 
the  work  we  want  done  as  the  concern  of  the  com- 
munity, and  must  themselves  do  it.  The  most  success- 


ful work,  says  Barnett,  after  his  long  striving,  is  done 
by  the  education  act,  the  poor  law  and  other  social- 
istic legislation.    That  that  is  the  most  successful  work 
is  also  illustrated  by  the  life  and  career  of  the  seventh 
Earl  of  Shaftesbury,  who  carried  through  Parliament 
legislation  which  has  benefited   millions  of   English- 
men.   If  simply  by  touching  a  person  you  could  con- 
fer a  distinct  benefit  on  the  person  touched,  it  would 
take  you  20  years  to  benefit  as  many  people  as  have 
been  benefited  by  legislation  chiefly  due 
to  this  great  philanthropist.    Also  the 
experience    of  Elberfeld,    Berlin,    and  government 
other  German  towns,  so  celebrated  for     v 
the  administration  of  charity,  confirms 
what  is  here  said.     Their  success  is  due 
to  private  cooperation  with  official  work.     '  If  nations 
had  been  ennobled  by  wars  undertaken  against  an 
enemy,  towns  may  be  ennobled  by  work  undertaken 
against  the  evils  of  poverty.' 

"  Societies  have  failed  and  will  fail.  They  cannot, 
acting  simply  as  societies,  do  the  work.  Their  re- 
sources are  inadequate,  the  territory  they  can  cover  is 
too  small,  and  their  power  is  insufficient.  The  Evan- 
gelical Alliance  simply  as  such  can  never  do  the  work. 
The  Evangelical  Alliance,  like  other  societies,  must  put 
itself  behind  municipal  government  and  recognize  the 
reform  and  elevation  of  municipal  government  as  one  of 
the  chief  features  of  its  work.  It  must  strive  to  establish 
among  us  true  cities  of  God.  There  is  plenty  of  room  for 
the  individual  and  for  individual  activity.  Not  all  the 
work  can  be  done  by  government,  altho  without 
government  very  little  can  be  accomplished.  Bu.t,  in 
addition  to  strictly  private  work,  there  is  room  for  any 
amount  «£  individual  work  in  stimulating  official 
work  and  in  cooperation  with  official  work.  .  .  . 

"It  takes  a  great  effort  and  persistent,  unflagging- 
zeal  to  keep  alive  a  few  industrial  schools  like  those 
which  Mr.  Brace  has  established  in  New  York.  He 
has  my  admiration  for  his  great  work,  but  I  cannot 
help  asking  the  question,  If  a  little  more  energy  had 
been  used  in  stimulating  public  authorities  and  co- 
operating with  them,  would  not  greater  things  have 
been  accomplished  ?  Shameful,  incredibly  disgraceful 
as  it  may  be  to  the  authorities  of  New  York  City,  14,- 
ooo  children  in  that  city  were  this  fall  turned  from  the 
doors  of  the  public  schools  because  there  was  not  room 
for  them.  Now,  with  200  children  to  a  school,  it  would 
take  70  private  schools  to  educate  these  children, 
whereas  the  energy  and  zeal  necessary  to  support  10 
such  schools  expended  in  enlightening  the  public  and 
stimulating  the  conscience  of  the  municipal  authori- 
ties would  have  rendered  this  criminal  record  an  im- 
possibility." 

Says  Rev.  Mr.  Barnett,  after  17  years  in  East  London  : 

"  The  first  practical  work  is  to  rouse  the  town  coun- 
cils to  the  sense  of  their  powers ;  to  make  them  feel 
that  their  duty  is  not  to  protect  the  pockets  of  the  rich 
(by  reducing  taxes  and  turning  children  away  from 
public  schools,  as  in  New  York),  but  tc  save  the  peo- 
ple." And  "the  care  of  the  people  is  the  care  of  the 
community  and  not  of  any  philanthropic  section." 

References:  The  Ancient  City,  by  Fustel  de  Cou- 
Ianges(i8gi) ;  article, C/Vv,by A.  K.  Connel,  in  Palgrave's 
Dictionary  of  Political  'Economy  :  Municipal  Taxation 
at  Home  and  Abroad,  by  J.  J.  O'Meara  (London,  1894) ; 
Municipal  Government  in  Great  Britain,  by  Albert 
Shaw  (1895) ;  A  Study  in  Municipal  Government,  Ber- 
lin (1893),  by  James  Pollard  ;  The  London  Program, 
by  Sidney  Webb  (1891) ;  Local  Government,  by  M.  D. 
Chalmers  (English  Citizen  Series,  1893);  Civil  Govern- 
ment in  the  United  States,  by  J.  Fiske  (1890);  City 
Government  in  the  United  States,  by  A.  R.  Conkling 
(1895) ;  chaps.  1.,  li.,  and  Hi.  in  The  American  Common- 
wealth, by  James  Bryce  (chap.  Hi.,  by  Seth  Low, 
3d  ed.,  18951 ;  Modern  Cities  and  their  Religious  Prob- 
lems, by  S.  L.  Loomis  (1887)  ;  The  Needs  of  the  City, 
address  by  R.  T.  Ely  before  the  Evangelical  Alliance 
in  Boston  (1889) ;  Proceedings  of  the  National  Confer- 
ence for  Good  City  Governmen t'  in  Philadelphia  (1894) 
(this  book  contains  a  very  complete  bibliography  of 
articles  and  papers  on  municipal  reform) ;  Census 
Bulletin,  82 ;  Expenditures  and  Receipts  of  100  of  the 
Principal  Cities  in  the  United  States.  (See  also  MU- 
NICIPALISM ;  BIRMINGHAM  ;  BERLIN  ;  GLASGOW  ;  LON- 
DON ;  PARIS;  SLUMS;  TENEMENTS;  GAS;  ELECTRIC 
LIGHTING;  STREET  RAILWAYS ;  BATHS,  ETC.) 

CIVIC  CHURCH,  THE.— A  movement 
originated  and  directed  mainly  by  W.  T.  Stead 
(q.v. ) ,  the  London  journalist.  It  aims  to  secure 
the  organization  and  cooperation  of  all  philan- 
thropic workers  in  every  community.  At  pres- 


Civic  Church,  The. 


294 


Civic  Church,  The. 


ent  it  is  little  more  than  an  unrealized  ideal  ; 
but  its  purpose  and  principles  are  so  directly  in 
the  line  of  social  reform,  that  we  give  it  here  as 
complete  a  description  as  possible.  To  give  Mr. 
Stead's  own  words,  and  the  reasons  upon  which 
he  based  his  conception  of  a  civic  church,  he 
writes  :  ' '  The  great  want  of  the  age  is  a  church 
— a  church  which  will  not  be  a  mere  sect,  but  a 
real  church,  a  working  church,  a  church  coex- 
tensive with  the  community  in  which  it  exists  ; 
a  church  which,  like  the  old  Church,  has  the 
power  of  excommunication,  and  exercises  it ;  a 
church  which  embraces  the  whole  range  of  hu- 
man life,  and  which  influences  all  the  affairs  of 
life,  alike  in  personal  conduct  and  in  affairs  of 
municipal  and  national  government.  Until  we 
can  constitute  a  church  which  will  somehow  or 
other  do  the  things  which  the  old  Church  used 
to  do,  and  which  the  modern  Church  largely 
shirks  doing,  we  shall  never  get  the  key  of  the 
solution  of  the  social  problem."  The  funda- 
mental idea,  therefore,  of  the  civic  Church  is 
that  of  intelligent  and  fraternal  cooperation  of 
all  those  who  are  in  earnest  about  making  men 
and  things  better  than  they  are  to-day.  Specu- 
lative or  religious  differences  would  exclude  no 
one  from  membership.  It  would  not  necessarily 
antagonize  the  existing  Christian  churches,  but 
would  bear  the  same  relation  to  them  that  the 
main  drain  of  a  city  bears  to  the  wash-basins  of 
private  families.  It  would  be  distinctively 
Christian  in  that  it  accepts  the  example  and 
teaching  of  Jesus  Christ  as  authoritative,  and 
adopts  as  its  motto  self-sacrifice  for  the  wel- 
fare of  others.  Its  demand  is  that  every  indi- 
vidual life*  must  be  helpful  to  the  community, 
and  that  the  community  place  no  stumbling- 
blocks  in  the  way  of  individual  development. 
The  ultimate  object  of  the  civic  Church  is  the 
reconstitution  of  human  society  through  the 
brotherly  cooperation  of  all  who  are  willing  to 
take  trouble  to  promote  the  welfare  of  others. 
The  field  of  its  operations  is  the  whole  range  of 
the  life  of  man,  and  especially  so  far  as  it  touches 
the  life  of  his  brother  man.  Practically,  it  is 
the  spiritual  counterpart  of  the  town  council, 
and  is  to  be  established  in  every  large  center  of 
population  on  the  principle,  "  One  town,  one 
Church."  It  is  composed  of  representatives 
and  delegates  from  all  the  churches  and  all  or- 
ganizations that  seek  the  good  of  the  com- 
munity. The  civic  Church  would  thus  bring 
all  moral  and  philanthropic  institutions  into  sym- 
pathetic communication  with  one  another  ;  it 
would  energize  separate  organizations  and  unify 
all  moral  forces.  Necessarily  it  would  become 
an  electoral  center,  a  ' '  moral  caucus. ' '  It  would 
keep  moral  questions  to  the  front  in  all  times  of 
election,  prevent  the  nomination  of  dishonest 
and  immoral  candidates,  and  endeavor  to  elect 
conscience  as  the  spiritual  mayor  of  the  town. 
The  duties  of  the  civic  Church  may  be  consid- 
ered as  relating  to  the  various  stages  of  human 
life. 

I.  To  THE  INFANT. 

The  civic  Church  would  begin  with  the  child 
before  its  birth.  It  would  insist  upon  the  infi- 
nite responsibility  of  parentage,  and  an  improve- 
ment in  ordinary  ante-natal  conditions.  Lying- 
in  hospitals  would  be  established,  and  healthy 


homes  for  foundlings.  The  civic  Church  would 
demand  that  every  child  be  accorded  the  right 
to  two  legal  parents.  The  nourishment  of  young 
children  would  be  inquired  into  ;  the  creche  or 
something  better  would  be  established  where 
necessary  ;  cruelty  to  children  would  be  pre- 
vented, and  child  insurance  investigated. 

II.  To  THE  CHILD. 

The  civic  Church  would  seek  to  secure  to  every 
child  its  natural  play- time,  and  prevent  early 
child  labor.  It  would  endeavor  to  provide  parks 
or  buildings  in  which  city  children  might  play. 
The  education  of  children  would  not  be  over- 
looked ;  kindergartens  would  be  established  and 
school  walls  brightened  with  pictures.  Home- 
less children  would  be  removed  from  work- 
houses and  distributed  where  possible  among 
the  childless  homes.  Toys  and  picture-books 
would  be  collected  from  the  wealthier  families 
and  placed  in  the  homes  of  the  alleys  and  slums. 

III.  To  THE  YOUTH. 

A  system  of  scholarships  is  proposed  which 
would  enable  the  poorest  student  to  graduate 
from  the  University.  The  civic  Church  would 
use  all  its  influence  to  provide  for  young  men 
and  young  women  reading-rooms,  evening 
classes,  rooms  and  open  places  for  recreation, 
bathing-houses,  gymnasiums,  etc.  It  would 
devise  some  means  of  instructing  boys  and  girls 
ripening  into  maturity  regarding  the  simple 
physiological  truth  about  their  own  bodies. 
The  housing  of  young  people  who  have  come 
alone  to  the  large  cities  would  be  the  object  of 
much  endeavor. 

IV.  To  THE  ADULT. 

As  to  the  services  which  the  civic  Church 
might  render  to  the  adult  citizen,  Mr.  Stead  has 
prepared  a  catalogue  of  possible  and  helpful 
reforms  which  we  here  append. 

THE  ADULT  AS  A   CITIZEN. 

1.  The  education  of  the  householder  as  to  his  civic 
and  national  responsibilities. 

2.  The  stimulating  of  an  intelligent  interest  in  politi- 
cal and  municipal  issues. 

3.  The  keeping  moral  issues  to  the  front,  as  caucuses 
keep  party  issues. 

4.  The  representation  of  the  unrepresented,  whether 
women,  children,  paupers,  or  subject  races. 

5.  The  cultivation  of  patriotism  and  the  religion  of 
citizenship. 

6.  The  stemming  the  tide  of  national  hatreds,  and 
claiming  justice  even  for  the  enemy. 

7.  The  formation  of  volunteer  corps. 

8.  The  establishment  of  life  and  fire  brigades. 

THE  ADULT   AS  A  WORKER. 

1.  The  development  of  self-reliance  and  mutual  help 
by  the  formation  of  trade-unions. 

2.  The  shortening  of  excessive  hours  of  labor. 

3.  The  enforcement  of  the  laws  for  the  protection  of 
labor. 

4.  The  encouragement  of  industrial  arbitration. 

5.  The    promotion    of    copartnership    between    em- 
ployers and  employed. 

6.  The  appointment  of  women  inspectors  for  women 
workers. 

7.  The  prevention  of  sweating. 

8.  The  payment  of  sailors'  wages  before  leaving  ship. 

THE   ADULT    IN  SICKNESS. 

1.  Provident  dispensaries. 

2.  Hospitals— general,  infectious,  and  convalescent. 

3.  Health  lectures. 

4.  Sick  nurses. 


Civic  Church,  The. 


295 


Civil  Service  Reform. 


5.  Medical  comforts. 

6.  Change  of  air  for  convalescents. 

7.  Lying-in  hospitals. 

8.  Blind  asylums. 

g.  Deaf  and  dumb  institutions. 
10.  Lunatic  asylums. 

THE  ADULT  IN  THE    WORKHOUSE. 

1.  Women  on  Boards  of  Guardians. 

2.  Brabazon  scheme  for  employment  of  aged. 

3.  Decoration  of  walls  of  wards. 

4.  Library  for  inmates. 

5.  Supply  of  papers  and  magazines. 

6.  Constant  supply  of  visitors. 

7.  Occasional  excursions  and  treats. 

8.  Handkerchiefs  and  night-gowns  for  the  bedridden, 
g.  Tobacco  and  snuff  for  the  aged. 

10.  Lantern  and  other  entertainments. 

11.  Music,  instrumental  and  vocal. 

THE  ADULT  AT    LEISURE. 

1.  A  minimum  of  public-houses,  and  those  well  con- 
ducted. 

2.  Saturday  night  and  Sunday  closing. 

3.  Clubs  for  men  and  women — temperance  hotels. 

4.  Free  library  and  reading-rooms. 

5.  Popular  social  evenings  in  board  schools. 

6.  Good  theatre  and  decent  music-hall. 

7.  Bands  in  parks. 

8.  The  preservation  of  open  spaces. 
g.  Shade-trees  and  seats  in  streets. 

10.  Kiosks,    lavatories,   and    drinking    fountains    in 
streets. 

11.  Lantern  lectures. 

12.  University  extension  lectures. 

13.  Museums  and  art  galleries. 

14.  Open  churches  and  organ  recitals. 

THE  ADULT    IN   BUSINESS. 

1.  Honest  friendly  societies. 

2.  Old  age  pensions. 

3.  Advisory  council  re  investments. 

4.  Trade  protection  societies. 

5.  Cooperative  societies. 

6.  The  poor  man's  banker — Monts  de  Piete — popular 
banks. 

7.  The    providing   of    adequate   drinking  fountains 
and  lavatories  in  workshops  and  factories. 

8.  The  establishment  of  the  six  days'  working  week. 

9.  Dining-halls  with  music. 

THE  ADULT  OUT  OF  WORK. 

1.  Establishment  of  labor  registries. 

2.  The  creation  of  labor  colonies. 

3.  The  direction  of  emigration. 

4.  The  improvement  of  casual  wards. 

5.  The  organization  of  charitable  relief. 

6.  Temporary  work  for  the  unemployed. 

7.  The  development  of  cottage  industries. 

8.  Every  man  his  allotment. 

THE  ADULT    AT  HOME. 

Instead  of  slums,  improved  dwellings. 

A  good  water  supply. 

Sanitary  drainage. 

Free  baths  and  washhouses. 

A  garden  for  every  home,  if  it  is  only  a  window- 


i. 

2. 

3- 

4- 

box 
6. 
7- 


Cheap  transit  by  tram  and  rail. 
Municipal  lodging-houses. 
Visitors  for  doss-houses. 
Cooperative  homes. 


THE  ADULT  IN   DEATH. 

1.  Homes  for  the  dying. 

2.  Reformed  funerals. 

3.  Cremation. 

MISCELLANEOUS. 

1.  Enforcing  the  law  against  gambling. 

2.  Discouraging  prostitution. 

3.  The  poor  man  s  lawyer. 

4.  Cab-shelters. 

5.  Enforcement  of  law  against  smoke. 

6.  Preventing  the  pollution  of  rivers. 

7.  Music  and  visiting  in  prison. 

8.  Prison-gate  brigade. 

g.  Rescue  homes  and  inebriate  asylums. 

10.  Country  holidays. 

11.  Pilgrimages — historical  and  religious. 

Such  is  the  ideal  of  the  civic  Church  ;  its  real- 
ization would  establish  a  kind  of  humanitarian 


episcopate.  But  it  is  coming  nearer  than  an 
ideal  in  many  English  towns,  where  the  idea 
has  been  adopted  and  the  principles  put  in 
practice.  Every  attempt  as  yet  along  the  lines 
of  the  civic  Church  program  has  resulted  in  a 
marked  strengthening  and  energizing  of  the 
forces  of  reform. 

CIVIL     SERVICE     REFORM. —  In    the 

United  States,  civil  service  reform  is  under- 
stood to  mean  a  reformation  in  the  method  of 
selecting  public  officials  who  hold  appointive 
positions.  At  present  the  majority  of  public  ap- 
pointments are  liable  to  be  made  upon  the  "  spoils 
system"  (g.v.\  or  by  favor  rather  than  from  rea- 
son of  special  fitness  of  the  appointee.  Civil 
service  reformers  seek  by  various  means  to 
make  fitness  the  first  test  of  officials,  and  to 
make  them  more  truly  servants  of  the  public  by 
making  them  less  dependent  on  the  good  will 
of  an  individual  for  their  appointment  to  and 
tenure  of  official  positions. 

The  system  of  appointment  by  favor — or 
"  patronage,"  as  it  is  well  called — tho  practised 
previously  in  New  York  and  some  other  States, 
did  not  appear  in  America  in  national  politics 
until  during  the  administration  of  President 
Jackson,  who  used  the  power  vested  in  him  to 
arbitrarily  dismiss  the  holders  of  appointive 
positions  and  distribute  the  offices  among  his 
own  supporters.  Previous  to  that  time  all  offices 
except  those  with  specified  limit  of  tenure  were 
practically  held  during  good  behavior,  and  so 
rarely  were  civil  service  officials  removed  that 
during  the  first  40  years  the  total  was  but  70. 
In  1820  an  act  was  passed  whereby  the  tenure 
of  office  by  all  who  were  charged  with  receipt 
and  disbursement  of  public  moneys  was  limited 
to  four  years — the  object  being  to  reduce  the 
opportunity  of  fraud.  It  had,  however,  a  fur- 
ther effect,  which  was  viewed  with  much  appre- 
hension by  Thomas  Jefferson  and  other  far-see- 
ing statesmen.  It  placed  a  multitude  of  official 
positions  at  the  disposal  of  the  President,  and 
with  such  opportunity  it  would  'be  almost  im- 
possible to  refrain  from  using  the  power  for  per- 
sonal or  party  advantage.  Their  apprehensions 
were  only  too  well  founded  ;  for  when  Presi- 
dent Jackson  took  office  it  was  openly  declared 
that  the  public  offices  were  the  spoils  of  the 
great  Democratic  victory,  and  the  spoils  be- 
longed to  the  victors.  When  the  offices  had 
been  filled  by  the  partisans  of  one  side,  it  was 
only  to  be  expected  that  there  would  be  retalia- 
tion, and  a  new  set  of  partisan  office-holders  ap- 
pointed when  their  opponents  gained  power. 

Than  this,  nothing  could  be  more  demoraliz- 
ing ;  the  politicians  and  the  questions  they  dis- 
cussed inevitably  lost  quality,  the  partisans  in 
office  having  an  eye  to  retaining  their  office,  and 
their  opponents  looking  forward  to  being  able 
to  supplant  them,  the  motive  being  the  "  spoils" 
rather  than  principles.  As  a  natural  sequence, 
politics  began  to  be  regarded  as  a  means  of 
making  a  livelihood  ;  and  "  assessments"  (see 
ASSESSMENTS)  were  levied  on  the  office-holders, 
which  they  would  be  practically  compelled  to 
pay,  as  their  quota  of  the  expense  of  an  election 
campaign  which  should  maintain  their  party  in 
office. 

This  system  of  "  spoils,"  as  it  is  called,  which 


Civil  Service  Reform. 


296 


Civil  Service  Reform. 


permeates  practically  the  whole  of  the  United 
States  politics,  federal,  State,  and  municipal,  is 
the  direct  raison  d'etre  of  the  "  machine  poli- 
tics," with  the  "bosses,"  "rings, "and  all  the 
chicanery  and  fraud  which  have  gone  to  make 
the  term  "  politician"  a  byword  of  scorn. 

When  the  principle  of  appointment  and  tenure 
of  office  by  "  favor"  became  general,  it  soon  be- 
came evident  that  the  President  would  have  to 
share  the  "patronage"  with  Congress.  The 
result  was  that  each  Congressman  of  the  Presi- 
dent's party  began  to  have  chief  control  of  the 
appointments  in  his  State  or  district.  This 
privilege  soon  came  to  be  looked  upon  as  a 
"right"  pertaining  to  the  position — a  doctrine 
still  largely  held. 

Under  the  "spoils  system"  the  abuse  of  power 
became  so  flagrant  that  several  proposals  were 
made  to  remedy  the  evil,  and  in  1853  an  act  was 
passed  prescribing  examinations  for  certain  offi- 
cial positions.  This,  however,  soon  degenerated 
into  a  farce.  With  the  rapid  increase  of  federal 
offices,  due  to  opening  up  new  territory  after  the 
war,  the  abuses  became  even  more  intolerable. 
In  1867  Mr.  T.  A.  Jenckes,  of  Rhode  Island,  in- 
troduced into  Congress  a  bill  looking  toward 
civil  service  reform,  and  by  1871  public  senti- 
ment was  strong  enough  to  bring  about  the 
passing  of  a  law  by  which  the  President  was 
authorized  to  make  civil  service  rules  and  to  re- 
quire test  examinations.  The  leader  in  the  agi- 
tation was  the  Hon.  George  William  Curtis 
(g.v).  President  Grant  established  a  system  of 
competitive  examinations,  under  the  direction  of 
a  civil  service  commission,  and  made  Mr.  Cur- 
tis chairman.  The  results  were  beneficial  in 
every  way.  Silas  W.  Burt,  in  the  New  York 
custom  house,  and  T.  L.  James  and  Henry  G. 
Pearson,  in  the  New  York  Post  Office,  worked  re- 
form, but  not  to  the  liking  of  the  supporters  of 
' '  patronage' '  politics,  and  Congress  soon  refused 
appropriations  for  it ;  its  work  was  consequent- 
ly suspended,  and  it  proved  of  little  value  except 
in  paving  the  way  for  a  more  complete  measure. 
About  the  same  time  competitive  examinations 
were  commenced  by  the  Naval  Officer  at  New 
York,  and  the  custom  house  at  that  place  gradu- 
ally came  to  adopt  the  system  with  excellent 
effect ;  but  this  was  a  merely  local  attempt  and 
not  required  by  law.  Notwithstanding  Grant's 
message  to  Congress,  urging  the  support  of  the 
commission,  authorized  in  1871,  the  messages  of 
Hayes,  Garfield,  and  Arthur  calling  for  an  effi- 
cient measure  to  reform  the  civil  service,  and 
executive  orders  forbidding  political  assessments 
(which  orders  soon  became  dead  letters),  noth- 
ing was  accomplished  till  the  latter  part  of  1882. 
Then  a  bill  (often  known  as  the  Pendleton  Bill) 
was  introduced  by  a  Democrat,  Senator  Pendle- 
ton, for  reforming  the  civil  service.  It  was  ap- 
proved by  President  Arthur,  January  16,  1883. 
This  bill  prohibited  all  political  assessments  and 
the  appointment  of  more  than  two  members  of 
the  same  family  to  public  office.  It  created  a 
civil  service  commission,  consisting  of  three  per- 
stms,  not  more  than  two  from  one  political  party, 
to  be  appointed  bv  the  President  and  confirmed 
by  the  Senate.  The  rules  framed  by  the  com- 
mission for  carrying  out  the  purposes  of  the  act 
are  subject  to  the  approval  of  the  President. 
The  act  applies  to  offices  of  more  than  50  per- 


sons in  the  departments  at  Washington,  and  in 
the  customs  and  postal  departments,  with  such 
exceptions  as  heads  of  departments,  confiden- 
tial clerks,  etc. 

This  act  was  amended  in  1884,  so  as  to  make 
it  mandatory  in  all  cities  with  a  population  of 
20,000  and  over.  According  to  an  article  by 
Theodore  Roosevelt,  the  prominent  civil  service 
reformer,  and  long  one  of  the  commissioners 
(in  Scribner' s  Monthly,  August,  1895) : 

"  From  the  beginning  of  the  present  system  each 
President  of  the  United  States  has  been  its  friend,  but 
no  President  has  been  a  radical  civil  service  reformer. 
Presidents  Arthur,  Harrison,  and  Cleveland  have  all 
desired  to  see  the  service  extended  and  to  see  the  law 
well  administered.  No  one  of  them  has  felt  willing  or 
able  to  do  all  that  the  reformers  asked,  or  to  pay  much 
heed  to  their  wishes,  save  as  regards  that  portion  of 
the  service  to  which  the  law  actually  applied.  Each 
has  been  a  sincere  party  man,  -who  has  felt  strongly  on 
such  questions  as  those  of  the  tariff,  of  finance,  and  of 
our  foreign  policy,  and  each  has  been  obliged  to  con- 
form more  or  less  closely  to  the  wish  of  his  party  asso- 
ciates and  fellow  party  leaders,  and  of  course  these 
party  leaders  and  the  party  politicians  generally 
wished  the  offices  to  be  distributed  as  they  had  been 
ever  since  Andrew  Jackson  became  President.  In 
consequence  the  offices  outside  the  protection  of  the 
law  have  still  been  treated  under  every  administration 
as  patronage,  to  be  disposed  of  in  the  interests  of  the 
dominant  party.  .  .  . 

"The  advance  has  been  made  purely  on  two  lines, 
that  is,  by  better  enforcement  of  the  law,  and  by  inclu- 
sion under  the  law,  or  under  some  system  similar  in 
its  operations,  of  a  portion  of  the  service  previously 
administered  in  accordance  with  the  spoils  theory. 
Under  President  Arthur  the  first  classification  was 
made,  which  included  14,000  places.  Under  President 
Cleveland,  during  his  first  term,  the  limits  of  the  classi- 
fied service  •were  extended  by  the  inclusion  of  7000 
additional  places.  During  President  Harrison's  term 
the  limit  was  extended  by  the  inclusion  of  about  8000 
places;  and  hitherto,  during  President  Cleveland's 
second  term,  by  the  inclusion  of  some  6000  places ;  in 
addition  to  which  the  natural  growth  of  the  service 
has  been  such  that  the  total  number  of  offices  now 
classified  is  over  40,000.  .  .  . 

"  By  the  inclusion  of  the  railway  mail  service,  the 
smaller  free  delivery  offices,  the  Indian  school  service, 
the  internal  revenue  service,  and  other  less  important 
branches,  the  extent  of  the  public  service  which  is 
under  the  protection  of  the  law  has  been  more  than 
doubled,  and  there  are  now  nearly  50,000  employees  of 
the  Federal  Government  who  have  been  withdrawn 
from  the  degrading  influences  that  rule  tinder  the 
'spoils  system.'  This  of  itself  is  a  great  success  and  a 
great  advance,  tho,  of  course,  it  ought  only  to  spur 
us  on  to  renewed  effort.  In  the  fall  of  1894  the  people 
of  the  State  of  New  York,  by  popular  vote,  put  into 
their  constitution  a  provision  providing  for  a  merit 
system  in  the  affairs  of  the  State  and  its  municipalities  ; 
and  the  following  spring  the  great  city  of  Chicago 
voted,  by  an  overwhelming  majority,  in  favor  of  apply- 
ing in  its  municipal  affairs  the  advanced  and  radical 
Civil  Service  Reform  law  which  had  already  passed 
the  Illinois  Legislature." 

In  Massachusetts  the  system  has  become  quite  firmly 
established. 

The  success  of  the  movement  has  been  very  largely 
due  to  the  activity  of  the  Civil  Service  Reform  League. 
Such  an  association  was  formed  in  New  York  about 
1876.  It  did  not  long  endure,  but  in  1880  was  revived 
under  the  presidency  of  Mr.  Curtis.  Other  associa- 
tions were  formed  in  Brooklyn,  Boston,  Philadelphia, 
and  elsewhere,  and  in  August,  1881,  these  associations 
met  at  Newport  and  formed  a  National  Civil  Service 
Reform  League,  under  the  presidency  of  Mr.  Curtis 
and  then  of  the  Hon.  Carl  Schurz. 

In  May,  1896,  President  Cleveland  went  still 
further,  and  included  practically  all  the  85,200 
Federal  employees  under  the  civil  service  law, 
thus  completing  the  reform  in  the  Federal  ser- 
vice. This  will  mean  that  with  the  exception 
of  a  few  heads  of  departments  all  public  servants 
will  have  to  prove  their  fitness  by  passing  an 
open  competitive  examination  as  to  their  knowl- 


Civil  Service  Reform. 


297 


Civil  Service  Reform. 


edge  of  and  ability  to  undertake  the  special 
work  of  the  position  they  seek  to  fill.  It  is  also 
proposed  that  the  practical  ability  of  the  candi- 
date be  tested  by  making  the  appointment  only 
a  provisional  one  for  a  specified  time,  after 
which,  if  he  prove  satisfactory,  the  appoint- 
ment to  be  permanent,  subject  to  good  be- 
havior. 

Competitive  examinations  are  opposed  by 
some  civil  service  reformers  on  the  ground  that 
they  may  at  times  debar  those  really  most  fit  for 
the  positions  by  giving  mere  ability  to  "  cram" 
for  an  examination  an  advantage  over  more 
solid  merit  and  efficiency.  The  method  of  selec- 
tion advocated  by  many  who  oppose  the  com- 
petitive examination  is  to  leave  it  in  the  hands 
of  the  head  of  each  department,  but  ensuring 
fitness  by  taking  away  the  power  of  arbitrary 
dismissal,  making  the  tenure  of  office  for  a  fixed 
term,  thus  making  the  head  of  the  department 
careful  in  his  own  interest  to  appoint  those  whom 
his  experience  would  show  to  be  most  efficient. 

Concerning  the  next  important  step  in  civil 
service  reform  in  the  United  States,  Mr.  A.  R. 
Kimball  writes  in  The  Oiitlook  (May,  1894)  that 
in  a  debate  of  the  previous  winter 

,  "  Senator  Lodge,  of  Massachusetts,  touched  upon  the 
weak  spot  of  the  present  law — the  spot  which  is  attract- 
ing the  attention  and  centering  the  discussion  of  all 
actively  interested  in  civil  service  reform — when  he 
said:  'The  Senator  from  New  Hampshire  (Mr.  Gal- 
linger)  made  a  point  in  regard  to  the  injustice  of  ar- 
bitrary promotions,  reductions,  and  removals.  The 
point  is  very  well  made.  There  are  arbitrary  promo- 
tions, reductions,  and  removals,  and  the  reason  for 
these  injustices  to  meritorious  clerks  arises  from  the 
fact  that  neither  promotions  nor  reductions  nor  re- 
movals come  within  the  scope  of  the  law  in  any  re- 
spect ;  they  remain  within  the  range  of  favoritism  and 
patronage.  That  is  the  reason  why  they  bristle  with 
injustice  at  every  point.'  That  it  was  the  intention  of 
the  framers  of  the  law  to  leave  promotions,  reductions, 
and  removals  at  the  mercy  of  partisanship  was  ex- 
pressly stated  by  Senator  Cockrell,  who  was  in  the 
Senate  when  the  law  was  passed.  He  said  :  '  It  was 
intended,  and  was  so  declared  by  Dorman  B.  Eaton 
and  others,  who  wrote  in  regard  to  the  proposed  law, 
simply  to  guard  the  entrance  into  office,  and  had  no- 
thing to  do  with  the  back  door,  or  exit.  It  protected 
no  man  in  office.  It  was  simply  to  relieve  the  depart- 
ments and  all  from  the  pressure  of  appointments  and 
changes  in  subordinate  positions  in  the  departments, 
and  to  make  a  test  of  fitness  and  qualification  for  those 
places  before  appointments  were  made.'  .  .  . 

"The  '  injustices'  to  'meritorious  clerks,' with  which 
the  practical  operation  of  the  law  'bristles,' as  Senator 
Lodge  put  it,  owing  to  the  fact  that  it  governs  appoint- 
ments simply,  and  not  promotions,  reductions,  and  re- 
movals, are  constantly  illustrated.  .  .  . 

"  The  spoilsman  who  wants  to  substitute  a  man 
4  with  a  pull '  for  a  good  man  holding  a  given  place 
sends  for  a  list  of  eligibles,  with  the  announcement 
that  a  certain  removal  is  to  be  made,  '  for  the  good  of 
the  service,'  of  course.  If  the  spoilsman's  man  is  on 
the  list  of  eligibles,  why,  the  substitution  is  made  at 
once.  If  not,  the  civil  service  people  are  informed  that 
it  has  been  decided  'not  to  make  that  change  just  at 
present.'  Then  the  spoilsman  waits  until  he  thinks  his 
man  is  on  the  eligible  list  all  right.  The  process  is  re- 
peated until  the  man  '  with  a  pull '  gets  the  job. 

"The  next  step,  then,  in  reform,  obviously,  is  to 
limit  the  absolute  power  of  removal  as  now  exercised 
by  heads  of  departments.  This  is  what  is  aimed  at  in 
the  proposed  Letter-carriers'  Tenure-of-office  Bill,  a 
bill  approved  by  Theodore  Roosevelt,  who  writes  that 
the  letter-carriers,  '  I  am  glad  to  say,  realize  that  the 
only  trouble  with  the  Civil  Service  Law  is  that  it  does 
not  go  far  enough.  The  commission  should  have 
much  more  power  than  it  has  now,  so  as  to  prevent 
dismissals  for  partisan  reasons,  and  to  allow  every 
public  servant  a  chance  to  see  any  charges  made 
against  him  and  to  be  heard  in  his  own  defense  before 
he  is  dismissed.'  The  Buffalo  Express  strongly  states 
the  argument  for  the  bill  :  '  The  Express  has  never 


regarded  the  privilege  of  unlimited  removal  as  any- 
thing but  a  concession  to  the  spoilsmen,  which  may 
have  been  politic  in  the  early  days  of  the  reform,  but 
which  the  movement  is  now  strong  enough  to  aban- 
don. Why  should  the  entrance  to  the  civil  service 
be  carefully  guarded  and  the  exit  left  wide  open?  It 
is  absurd  and  unjust  to  require  a  man  to  undergo 
severe  tests  before  he  receives  an  appointment,  and 
then  to  give  him  no  guaranty  of  retaining  it  during 
good  behavior.'  .  .  . 

"But  the  argument  is  not  wholly  with  the  advocates 
of  the  change,  even  from  the  reform  standpoint.  The 
Civil  Service  Chronicle,  of  Indianapolis,  whose  stand- 
ing as  an  able  and  zealous  advocate  of  reform  is  not 
open  to  question,  says,  in  discussing  the  Letter-car- 
riers' Bill :  '  The  executive  department  should  have 
the  power  of  dismissal ;  this  is  essential  to  discipline 
and  efficiency.  The  Civil  Service  Law  is  right  in  this 
respect.  It  is  true  that  heads  of  offices  take  a  mean 
and  dishonest  advantage  of  this  power,  as  was  done  in 
Topeka,  Terre  Haute,  Fort  Wayne,  and  elsewhere. 
The  remedy  for  that  is  public  opinion  and  punishment 
by  the  President.  Information,  hovyeyer,  is  an  abso- 
lute necessity,  and  to  this  end  the  Civil  Service  Com- 
mission should  have  power  to  investigate  every 
change  in  the  public  service  within  its  charge,  and  to 
report  the  facts.  Upon  such  facts  public  opinion  and 
the  President  could  act,  and  the  time  would  speedily 
come  when  heads  of  offices  would  be  ashamed  to  trick 
employees  out  of  their  places.  It  is  unnecessary  to  re- 
peat that  every  dismissed  employee  should  be  entitled 
at  the  time  to  an  honest  and  fairly  complete  written 
statement  of  reasons,  and  that  those  reasons  should  be 
a  part  of  the  office  records." 

"  The  question  of  the  next  step  in  civil  service  re- 
form— a  question  •which  is  likely  to  attract  no  small 
share  of  public  attention  in  the  immediate  future- 
amounts  simply  to  this  :  Is  it  better  to  impair,  possibly, 
to  some  small  extent,  the  efficiency  of  government  de- 
partments by  depriving  executive  officers  of  the  abso- 
lute power  of  removal  ?  or  is  it  better  to  leave  'meri- 
torious clerks  '  at  the  mercy  of  partisanship,  when  the 
removal  of  such  clerks,  and  the  consequent  defiance  of 
the  spirit  of  reform,  must  also  impair  the  morale  and 
efficiency  of  the  service  ?  If  one  were  sure  of  the  in- 
terposition of  that  public  opinion  on  •which  the  Civil 
Service  Chronicle  counts,  it  •would  be  easy  to  accept  its 
view.  But  public  opinion  is  slow  to  be  aroused  to  the 
point  of  making  itself  felt.  Meanwhile,  the  artificial 
checks  which  represent  the  best  public  opinion  are  its 
surest  protection,  even  if  at  times  they  prove  hamper- 
ing and  obstructive.  For  these  reasons  it  seems  prob- 
able that  a  majority  of  civil  service  reformers  will 
come  to  agree  with  Mr.  Roosevelt  in  his  view  of  the 
wisdom  of  limiting  the  absolute  power  of  removal." 

The  English  civil  service  was,  in  earlier  times, 
in  a  condition  of  political  corruption  which  dif- 
fered chiefly  from  the  "  spoils  system"  of  the 
United  States  in  the  fact  that  the  civil  servants 
were  more  the  tools  of  those  in  power  and  much 
less  responsible  as  accomplices.  It  probably 
reached  the  worst  point  during  the  reign  of 
James  II.,  who,  Macaulay  says,  "was  deter- 
mined to  keep  in  public  employment  only  such 
gentlemen  as  should  be  disposed  to  support  his 
policy.  .  .  .  The  commissioners  of  customs  and 
excise  were  ordered  to  attend  His  Majesty  at 
the  treasury.  Then  he  demanded  from  them  to 
support  his  policy,  and  directed  them  to  re- 
quire a  similar  policy  from  all  their  subordi- 
nates. ' ' 

In  every  town  and  village  the  court  used  its 
power,  tampering  with  the  elections  of  members 
of  Parliament  and  all  public  officers,  with  the 
result  that  when  the  revolution  of  1688  ousted 
James  II.  and  called  William  of  Orange  to  the 
English  throne,  "  with  rare  exceptions  all  those 
in  office  and  all  those  connected  with  the  court 
or  politics  were  seething  sources  of  corrup- 
tion." 

Even  with  the  new  dynasty,  tho  some  re- 
forms were  made,  the  "  spoils  system"  still  con- 
tinued to  dominate  civil  service,  the  only  change 
being  that  instead  of  the  king  being  the  sole 


Civil  Service  Reform. 


298 


Clifford,  John. 


source  of  appointments,  they  were  largely  be- 
stowed as  rewards  for  party  zeal  in  the  interests 
of  the  dominant  political  party  of  the  time.  In 
1782  an  administration  was  elected  pledged  to 
certain  reforms  in  the  civil  service,  but  it  was 
not  till  1855  that  any  real  reform  was  accom- 
plished. An  order  in  Council  was  then  adopt- 
ed, whereby  for  certain  offices  the  candidates 
had  to  pass  a  competitive  examination,  and  the 
position  bestowed  for  merit  quite  irrespective 
of  party  politics.  Despite  the  most  strenuous 
opposition  from  the  friends  of  the  old  system  of 
patronage,  the  new  reform,  started  chiefly  as  an 
experiment,  was  so  successful  that  in  1870  the 
system  of  competitive  examination  and  appoint- 
ment for  merit  was  made  to  apply  throughout 
the  whole  of  the  English  civil  service. 

References :  Dorman  B.  Eaton's  Civil  Service  in 
Great  Britain  :  A  History  of  Abuses  and  Reforms,  and 
their  Bearing's  upon  American  Politics  (Harpers,  New 
York,  1880);  Publications  of  the  National  Civil  Service 
Reform  League  (William  Potts,  Secretary,  56  Wall 
Street,  New  York  City) ;  articles  by  H.  C.  Lodge,  Cie«- 
/#ry,  October,  1890;  by  Theodore  Roosevelt,  Atlantic, 
February,  1895,  and  Scribner's,  August,  1895.  (See  also 
CORRUPTION  ;  MUNICIPAL  REFORM  ;  CURTIS  ;  ROOSE- 
VELT, etc.) 

CLARK,  JOHN  B.,  was  born  in  Providence, 
R.  I.,  in  1847,  and  educated  at  the  public  high 
school,  Brown  University  (two  years),  Amherst 
College  (two  years),  Heidelberg  University,  and 
University  of  Zurich  (about  two  and  one  half 
years).  He  received  the  degrees  of  A.M.  and 
Ph.D.  at  Amherst.  He  traveled  as  student  and 
tourist  in  France,  England,  Germany,  Italy, 
and  Switzerland,  returning  to  America  in  1875. 
He  became  Professor  of  Political  Economy  and 
History  at  Carleton  College,  Northfield,  Minn.  ; 
Professor  of  History  and  Political  Science  at 
Smith  College,  1881-92  ;  Professor  of  Political 
Economy  at  Amherst  College  in  1892-1895,  and 
is  now  Professor  of  Political  Economy  at  Colum- 
bia College.  He  has  been  Lecturer  on  Economic 
Theory  at  Johns  Hopkins  University  since  1892, 
andis  (1895)  President  of  the  American  Economic 
Association.  His  writings  are  :  Philosophy  of 
Wealth  ;  Capital  and  Its  Earnings  (a  mono- 
graph of  the  American  Economic  Association) ; 
Modern  Distributive  Process  (written  jointly 
with  Professor  F.  H.  Giddings,  of  Bryn  Mawr 
and  Columbia)  ;  Wages  (a  monograph  of  the 
American  Economic  Association,  written  joint- 
ly with  Mr.  Stuart  Wood,  of  Philadelphia)  ;  arti- 
cles in  the  Yale  Review,  the  Qiiarterly  Jour- 
nal of  Economies,  the  Annals  of  the  American 
Academy  of  Political  and  Social  Science,  and 
La  Revue  a" Economic  Politique  (Paris),  and 
other  magazines. 

CLARKE,  WILLIAM,  was  born  at  Nor- 
wich, England.  He  graduated  at  Cambridge 
University  (Historical  Tripos),  1876  ;  he  gave 
political  lectures  throughout  England,  and  grad- 
ually worked  into  journalism.  He  wrote  articles 
in  the  British  Quarterly  Review,  Contempo- 
rary Review,  North  American  Review,  Po- 
litical Science  Quarterly,  English  Illustrated 
Magazine,  and  New  England  Magazine. 
He  wrote  for  the  Star  and  Echo  of  London, 
and  became  connected  with  the  London  Daily 
Chronicle  in  1890  ;  he  edited  Mazzini's-  Essays 
and  also  Political  Orations  for  the  Camelot 
Series  ;  wrote  a  critical  work  on  Walt  Whit- 


man for  Sonnenschein's  Social  Science  Series  ; 
and  the  essay  on  The  Industrial  Basis  in 
Eabian  Essays  on  Socialism.  A  prominent 
member  of  the  Fabian  Society,  he  was  a  dele- 
gate to  the  Paris  Labor  Congress  in  1889.  He 
is  widely  known  in  the  United  States  by  his 
letters  on  social  and  political  subjects,  published 
mainly  in  The  Outlook,  and  by  his  lectures 
delivered  in  Chicago,  New  York,  Boston,  and 
elsewhere,  since  published  in  the  New  Eng- 
land Magazine. 

CLARKSON,  THOMAS  (1760-1846),  was 
one  of  the  most  persistent  and  influential  of 
English  abolitionists.  He  commenced  his  life- 
work  in  1825,  while  at  Cambridge,  by  writing  a 
prize  essay  against  the  principle  of  slavery.  He 
secured  the  cooperation  of  Wilberforce  (g.v.), 
who  undertook  the  parliamentary  campaign. 
Clarkson  became  one  of  the  leading  members 
in  the  anti-slavery  society  formed  in  1823.  His 
benevolence  led  him  to  take  part  in  many  other 
philanthropic  endeavors,  most  notably  in  pro- 
viding homes  for  sailors  in  the  English  seaport 
towns.  Among  his  many  anti-slavery  publica- 
tions are  the  following  :  Essay  on  the  Impolicy 
of  the  African  Slave-trade  ;  History  of  the 
Abolition  of  the  African  Slave-trade ;  The 
Cries  of  AJrica  to  the  Inhabitants  of  Europe  ; 
and  also  the  Grievances  of  our  Mercantile  Sea- 
men a  National  and  Crying  Evil. 

CLEARING  HOUSES  are  institutions 
where  the  settlement  of  mutual  claims,  espe- 
cially of  banks,  are  effected  by  the  payment  of 
differences  called  balances.  To  the  clearing 
house  are  sent  all  checks  and  drafts  upon  banks 
or  other  mercantile  houses,  and  when  all  are  in, 
each  bank  pays  over  or  receives  the  difference 
between  the  checks  or  drafts  it  has  brought  in 
and  the  checks  or  drafts  that  have  been  brought 
in  against  it.  It  thus  enables  large  quantities 
of  accounts  to  be  settled  in  an  easy  and  expedi- 
tious way.  The  system  originated  in  London 
between  1750  and  1770.  In  the  United  States  it 
was  not  introduced  till  1852,  but  since  this  date 
has  had  a  very  large  development.  In  1890 
there  were  60  clearing  houses,  with  some  700 
members.  The  Paris  Chamber  of  Compensa- 
tion was  established  in  1872.  In  England  the 
system  has  been  applied  in  a  Produce  Clearing 
House,  and  more  recently  in  a  Railway  Clearing 
House.  (See  COMMERCE.) 

CLIFFE,  LESLIE.  See  LESLIE,  THOMAS 
E.  C. 

CLIFFORD,  JOHN,  was  born  in  Sawley, 
Derbyshire,  in  1836,  and  at  the  age  of  n  worked 
in  a  factory  near  Nottingham.  At  the  age  of 
14  he  was  received  into  the  Baptist  Church,  and 
soon  became  a  student  of  the  General  Baptist 
College.  In  1862  he  took  charge  of  the  Praed 
Street  Baptist  Church,  in  London,  of  which 
church  he  is  still  pastor,  altho  the  growth  ot  the 
congregation  has  compelled  the  removal  to  the 
present  chapel  in  Westbourne  Park.  In  con- 
nection with  his  work  Dr.  Clifford  pursued 
studies  and  took  degrees  and  honors  at  London 
University.  He  has  added  an  educational  in- 
stitute to  his  own  church,  where  1500  names 
stand  enrolled  in  various  classes.  Dr.  Clifford 
is  known  to-day  for  his  active  interest  in  social 
reform,  his  pulpit  being  open  to  Tom  Man  and 


Clifford,  John. 


299 


Coal  Industry. 


other  socialists.  He  was  one  of  the  founders 
and  is  now  president  of  the  Christian  Socialist 
League  (q.v .).  His  address  on  The  Effect  of 
Socialism  on  Personal  Character  has  been 
printed  as  a  Christian  socialist  tract. 

CLUBS.  See  WORKING  MEN'S  CI.UBS  ;  WORK- 
ING GIRLS'  CLUBS  ;  WOMEN'S  CLUBS. 

COAL  INDUSTRY.— (See  also  MINES  AND 
MINING.)  It  is  not  known  when  coal  first  came 
into  use  for  household  and  industrial  consump- 
tion. It  seems  to  have  been  used  in  England 
at  least  as  early  as  825  A.D  ,  and  probably  long 
before  this.  It  forms  to-day  one  of  the  most 
important,  if  not  the  most  important,  branch  of 
mining.  According  to  Mulhall,  the  production 
from  1801-89  has  been  as  follows  : 


COUNTRIES. 

Approximate 
No.  of  Tons. 

Approximate 
Value. 

Great  Britain  

$10640000000 

United  States  

'A^O'OOO'OOO 

Russia  

3i        » 

Total  

The  area  of  the  world's  coal  fields,  according  to  the 
same  authority,  is,  in  square  miles : 

China  and  japan,  200,000 ;  United  States,  194,000 ; 
India,  35,000  ;  Russia,  27,000  ;  Great  Britain,  q,ooo  ;  Ger- 
many, ;3,6oo  ;  France,  1,800  ;  Belgium,  Spain,  and  other 
countries,  1,400.  Total,  471,800. 

The  coal  fields  of  China,  Japan,  Great  Britain,  Ger- 
many, Russia,  and_  India  contain  apparently  303,000,- 
000,000  tons,  which  is  enough  for  700  years,  at  present 
rate  of  consumption.  If  to  the  above  be  added  the 
coal  fields  in  the  United  States,  Canada,  and  other 
countries,  the  supply  will  be  found  ample  for  1000 
years,  and  probably  for  a  vastly  longer  period. 

The  present  production  of  coal,  according  to  the 
Statesman's  Year  Book  for  /&y,  is  : 


Tons. 

Value. 

United  Kingdom  (1893)  

164,325,795 

$279,049,040 

France  (1892)  
Belgium  (1893)  

26,178,701 

According  to  the  eleventh  census,  the  product  of  the 
United  States  in  1889  was,  in  short  tons  of  2,000  Ibs. : 


STATES. 

Tons. 

STATES. 

Tons. 

Alabama  

3,378,484 

Nebraska     and 

Dakotas  

California    and 
Oregon  

New  Mexico  
Ohio  

486,983 

Pennsylvania  : 

Georgia  &  North 
Carolina  

Anthracite  
Bituminous  .... 

45.544,97° 

Illinois  
Indiana  
Indian  Territory 

12,104,272 
2.845.057 

Tennessee  
Texas  
Utah  

1,925,689 
128,216 

Virginia  : 

•*  ' 

Kansas  

Anthracite.  .  .  . 

2,817 

Bituminous  . 

865  786 

Maryland  
Michigan    

2.93Q.7I5 

Washington  
West  Virginia.  .  . 

993,724 
6,231,880 

Wyoming.. 

Montana  

Total  product,  1889,  short  tons,  140,730,288,  equivalent 
to  125,652,056  long  tons  of  2,240  Jbs, 


In  Great  Britain  the  principal  coal  fields  He 
(in  the  order  named  as  to  size)  in  South  Wales, 
Yorkshire  and  Derbyshire,  Northumberland 
and  Durham,  Scot,  Lancashire,  and 
Cheshire.  In  Europe,  the  princi- 
pal coal  fields  lie  in  a  line  through-  Great 
out  the  north  of  France  and  Bel-  Britain, 
gium,  in  the  easterly  district  of 
Silesia  and  Russia,  and  in  basins 
in  Southern  and  Central  France,  Saxony,  and 
Bohemia.  The  collieries  of  Northumberland  and 
Durham  hold  the  first  place  among  the  English 
mines,  and  their  colliers  belong  to  the  aristoc- 
racy of  labor.  Before  organization  among  them, 
however,  their  condition  was  pitiable  in  the  ex- 
treme, as  can  be  seen  in  the  evidence  collected 
in  the  Royal  Commission's  report  on  the  Condi- 
tion of  the  Children  Employed  in  Mines  in 
1842.  As  a  result,  the  early  efforts  at  improv- 
ing their  condition  were  attended  with  bitter 
and  tumultuous  contests,  and  strikes  were  fre- 
quent. A  national  miners'  association  sprang 
up  in  1843,  and  at  its  conference,  in  Glasgow, 
in  1844,  70,000  men  were  represented.  Never- 
theless, after  a  disastrous  strike  in  that  year  it 
broke  down,  and  there  was  no  effective  organi- 
zation till  a  national  union  was  established  in 
1863,  mainly  owing  to  the  efforts  of  Alexander 
Macdonald  (q.v.},  who  was  for  15  years  the 
miners'  trusted  leader.  Under  his  lead  the 
miners  agitated  for  an  eight-hour  bill  for  boys, 
but  not  for  men.  The  principle  of  the  Durham 
and  Northumberland  miners,  who  controlled 
the  union  at  this  time,  as  distinguished  from 
those  of  other  counties,  has  always  been  to  at- 
tempt to  gain  higher  wages  and  shorter  hours 
through  trade-union  effort  rather  than  through 
legislation.  Macdonald's  own  aim,  however, 
was  to  establish  a  standard  of  life,  and  he  looked 
for  aid  in  legislation  to  establish  this.  From 
1864-69  strikes  were  constant.  In  1872  repre- 
sentatives of  the  Durham  miners  and  of  the  coal- 
owtiers  met  and  established  a  Standing  Joint 
Committee  (see  ARBITRATION  AND  CONCILIATION), 
and  the  same  step  was  soon  taken  in  Northum- 
berland. In  1876  a  sliding  scale  (g.'v.)  was 
agreed  upon.  These  methods  of  adjusting  diffi- 
culties, however,  have  by  no  means  prevented 
all  strikes.  Strikes  in  the  coal  trade  have  taken 
place,  notably  in  1879,  in  1886-87,  in  1890,  and 
the  largest  strike  of  all  in  1893,  when  all  Eng- 
land was  affected,  and  a  settlement  was  only 
reached  by  the  Government's  proposal  of  con- 
ciliation. The  English  miners'  movement  has 
thus  become  divided.  The  Durham  and  North- 
umberland miners  advocate  efforts  at  raising 
wages  and  reducing  hours  by  trade-union  or- 
ganization and  agreement  with  the  coal-owners 
and  adoption  of  the  sliding  scale  ;  the  other 
miners'  unions  favor  the  limiting  of  production 
and  an  eight-hour  day,  and  more  recently  a  liv- 
ing wage  to  be  gained  by  legislation.  Gradually 
the  old  miners'  Union  has  shrunk  up  to  Northum- 
berland and  Durham,  and  in  1888  a  new  miners' 
Federation  was  formed  at  Manchester  to  advo- 
cate the  opposing  policy.  The  national  confer- 
ences, which  have  been  long  held  by  the  miners 
down  to  1889,  were  called  by  the  Union  ;  since 
then  they  have  been  called  by  the  Federation. 
This  Federation  has  grown  from  36,000  mem- 
bers in  1888  to  200,000  in  1893,  making  it  the 


Coal  Industry. 


300 


Coal  Industry. 


leading  trade-union  in  England.  Wages  in  the 
English  coal  mines  vary.  The  hours  are  short. 
In  Durham,  Schulze  Gaevernitz  (Social  Peace, 
p.  182)  puts  the  wages,  on  the  authority  of  the 
secretary  of  the  coal  owners,  at  4.3.  8d.  a  day  for 
a  seven-hour  shift. 

In  France,  and  especially  in  Belgium,  the 
wages  of  coal  miners  are  much  lower,  and  have 
led  to  repeated  strikes.  In  the  last-named  coun- 
try alone,  of  the  countries  of  Western  Europe, 
women  have  until  very  recently  worked  under 
ground.  (For  the  wages,  see  BELGIUM  AND  SO- 
CIAL REFORM.)  In  Germany,  wages  for  under- 
ground miners  varied  in  1890  from 
65  cents  per  day  in  Silesia  to  $i 

Europe,  in  Dortmund.  The  miners  in  Si- 
lesia seem  wholly  unorganized. 
Women  are  only  employed  above 
ground,  and  in  the  State  mines  not  at  all.  Im- 
portant strikes  in  the  western  mines  took  place 
in  1889  and  1892. 

The  chief  mining  districts  of  the  United 
States  are  the  anthracite  coal  district  of  East- 
ern Pennsylvania,  the  bituminous  coal  district, 
which  includes  Western  Pennsylvania,  Ohio, 
Illinois,  and  Indiana,  and  the  coal  and  iron 
mines  of  Colorado.  A  few  mines  are  also  to  be 
found  in  the  Southern  States  and  in  Califor- 
nia. 

In  the  United  States  coal  mining  has  led  to 
some  of  the  most  bitter  industrial  conflicts. 

John  McBride,  a  leader  of  the  miners,  writes 
in  George  E.  McNeill's  The  Labor  Movement 
in  America  (1887,  p.  241) : 

"  Scattered    in  remote    districts — frequently  many 
miles  away  from  the  towns — and  shut  off  almost  en- 
tirely from  social  intercourse,  the  opportunities  for  the 
interchange  of  ideas  and  the  upbuilding  of  compact, 
serviceable  organizations  have  necessarily  been  slight. 
Nor  is  this  all.    The  coal  miner  has  been  of  necessity  a 
;  bird  of  passage.     Different  seasons  have  found  him  in 
i  different  localities,  as  the  opportunities  for  work  have 
\  offered.  .  .  .  There   have   been  other  difficulties.  .  .  . 
i  One  of  the  most  serious  of  these  has  been  the  employ- 
ment of  farm-hands  in  the  mines  during  the  winter 
1  season.      This    practice    has    introduced   an    element 
1  which  had  nothing  to  gain  by  such  organizations  as  the 
skilled  miners  were    striving   to    build    up.  .  .  .    To 
them  it  was  of  little  consequence  whether  the  wages 
were  high  or  low.     Employment  in  the  mines  was  not 
their  chief  dependence."    Mr.   McBride  tells  us  that 
the  earliest  efforts  at  organization  were  in  1857.    In 
January,   1861,  a  national  American  Miners'  Associa- 
tion was  formed,  with  Daniel  Weaver  for  president.    It 
was  largely  confined  to  the   Belleville  Tract,  Illinois. 
Soon  after  a  tailor,  John  Hinchliffe,  started  a  paper,  the 
Weekly  Miner.    He  was  later  elected  president  of  the  as- 
sociation, and  in  1871  elected  by  the  miners  to  the  legis- 
lature, and  in  1873  chosen  State  Senator. 
Other  associations  sprang  up,  but  all  dis- 
TVTinprej'   Or    aPPeared  in  the  strikes  of  1867  and  1868. 
.B     .  "      In  1871  an  organization  was  effected  at 
ganizations.  Bloomington,   111.    Associations  sprang 
up  also  elsewhere,  notably  the  Miners' 
and    Laborers'    Benevolent    and     Pro- 
tective   Association    in   Pennsylvania.     This  became 
strong,  and  endured  through  several  strikes.     In  1873 
a  National  Association  of  Miners  was  organized  at 
•  Youngstown,  O.    Unions  multiplied  in  Pennsylvania, 
1  Maryland,  Ohio,  Indiana,  Michigan,  West  Virginia,  and 
\  Kentucky.     In  1875  the  association  was  in  the  zenith  of 
'  its  favor,  but  strikes  sprang  up  and  were  nearly  all  fail- 
I  ures.    The  same  year  the  order  of  the  Knights  of  Labor 
'  began  to  spread  among  the  miners,  and  grew  rapidly.  In 
1882  the  Ohio  Miners'  Amalgamated  Association  was 
formed,  and   in    September  12,  1885,  the  present  Na- 
tional Federation  of  Miners  and  Mine  Laborers  in  the 
United    States.     (See    MINERS'    UNIONS.)    Daniel  Mc- 
Laughlin  was  the  first  president.    Strikes,  meanwhile, 
were  common.    In   1874  and   1875  the  companies  im- 
ported many  Italians,  colored  men,  and,  later,  Hun- 


garians, and  these  became  the  source  of  many  strikes. 
Professor  Bemis  says  (%'fte  Outlook,  May  12,  1894)  :  "In 
October,  1885,  after  a  series  of  fearful 
strikes  in  Southern  Ohio,  which  has  made 
theHockingValley  forever  famous,Colo- 
nel  W.  P.  Rend,  of  Chicago,  a  well-known 
operator,  and  officers  of  the  miners' 
unions  met  at  Chicago  to  arrange  a  com- 
promise. In  the  forenoon  only  three  operators  attend- 
ed, but  after-dinner  more  were  induced,  by  the  urgent 
solicitations  of  Mr.  Rend,  to  come  in,  and  the  confer- 
ence adjourned  to  meet  at  Pittsburgh  in  December.  A 
larger  attendance  was  there  secured,  and  another  ad- 
journment was  had  to  Columbus,O.,where,in  February, 
1886,  an  agreement  was  reached  by  a  majority  of  the 
soft-coal  operators  of  Pennsylvania,  Ohio,  Indiana, 
Illinois,  and  West  Virginia  to  fix  a  scale  of  wages  for 
the  year  according  to  an  agreed-upon  basis.  The 
rates  differed  roughly  with  the  difficulties  of  mining. 

"  But  while  the  ope'rators  in  Ohio  have  always  lived 
up  to  the  agreement,  and  were  able  to  advance  wages 
from  60  to  70  cents  a  ton  and  live  in  peace  with  their 
men,  the  inability  of  the  unions  to  organize  and  bring 
into  line  the  unions  of  Southern  Illinois  gave  a  pretext 
to  the  Northern  Illinois  operators  to  withdraw  and  cut 
wages  in  1889,  as  is  vividly,  bitterly  described  by  Mr. 
Henry  D.  Lloyd  in  his  Strike  of  the  Millionaires 
against  Miners.  Indiana  followed  Northern  Illinois, 
but  Ohio  and  Western  Pennsylvania  continued  faithful 
most  of  the  time,  and  met  in  yearly  conference  over 
wages  and  other  conditions  of  employment. 

"The  miners  of  Western  Pennsylvania  had  agreed 
through  their  organizations  to  receive  from  their  em- 
ployers 79  cents  a  ton  for  coal  for  the  year  ending  May 
i.  1894.  Ohio  miners,  because  of  slightly  better  condi- 
tions for  mining,  had  contracted  with  their  employers 
to  receive  70  cents  in  most  of  the  mines.  The  depres- 
sion in  general  business  last  fall  caused  the  shutting 
down  of  the  ironworks  about  Pittsburgh,  and  the 
trouble  began.  The  fault  seems  to  haye  been  wholly 
the  employers',  if  my  informant  in  this  matter,  him- 
self a  prominent  coal  operator  and  employer  of  over 
2500  miners  in  that  and  other  fields,  is  reliable  authority. 
Many  of  the  Pennsylvania  operators  deliberately 
broke  their  contract  with  the  miners'  organization  by 
cutting  wages  from  79  cents  to  69  cents,  in  the  hope 
that  by  so  doing  they  could  secure  a  monopoly  of  the 
coal  market.  Unfortunately,  the  miners'  organization 
in  these  mines  was  too  weak  to  protest.  Thereupon 
Mr.  John  McBride,  then  President  of  the  Miners'  Union, 
called  together,  apparently  without  solicitation,  the 
operators  in  Western  Pennsylvania,  who  had  held  to 
their  agreement.  Stating  that  the  miners  felt  that  the 
more  unscrupulous  employers  should  not  be  allowed 
to  wrong  those  operators  who  kept  their  agreement,  he 
relieved  the  latter  of  their  contract  to  pay  79  cents. 
Thereupon  the  employers  who  had  first  cut  wages 
made  another  reduction  to  55  cents.  Cut  followed  cut, 
until  the  wages  are  from  45  cents  to  50  cents  in  Western 
Pennsylvania.  The  operators  in  the  Hocking  Valley 
were  forced  to  reduce  their  wages  from  70  cents  to 
50  cents  on  February  17,  but  maintained  all  the  time 
the  friendly  relations  with  the  miners'  unions.  A 
few  conspicuous  operators  of  Ohio  even  championed 
the  cause  of  the  men  as  one  to  be  indorsed  by  the 
operators,  if  only  the  unscrupulous  operators  could  be 
brought  to  terms.  It  has  been  found,  operators  tell 
me,  that  reduction  in  wages  has  reduced  their  profits 
more  than  proportionately,  since  now  they  can  sell 
their  screen  lump  coal  at  but  70  cents  at  the  mine,  and 
their  family  coal  at  $1.05  to  $1.10,  while  the  small  coal, 
which  is  not  estimated  in  determining  the  wages  of 
miners,  but  which  formerly  sold  at  50  cents  and  more, 
can  no  longer  be  marketed  because  of  the  fall  in  price 
of  better  grades.  As  the  reduction  in  price  increased, 
the  output  and  business  interests  of  the  country  were 
not  benefited  to  any  appreciative  degree,  for  coal  at 
the  mines  now  sells  "for  about  one  half  of  the  ^rice  in 
England,  as  Schoenhoff  and  the  United  States  Bureau 
of  Labor  Statistics  have  shown,  and  only  a  ton  to  a 
ton  and  a  half  is  used  in  making  a  ton  of  iron,  so  that 
the  change  of  30  cents  a  ton  in  wages  means  a  change 
of  only  from  30  cents  to  40  cents  in  iron. 

"  According  to  the  United  States  Bureau  of  Labor 
Statistics,  the  6.75  short  tons  of  coal  used  in  making  a 
ton  of  steel  rails  cost,  in  labor  of  mining,  $5.27.  A  fall 
of  even  one  third  in  wages  would  thus  reduce  the  cost 
of  steel  rails  only  $1.76;  and  rails  in  1890,  when  this 
computation  was  made,  were  selling  at  $24.67. 

"  From  the  report  of  this  same  bureau  on  textile  fac- 
tories it  appears  that  the  fuel-cost  averages  about  2 
percent.,  rarely  exceeding  3  per  cent.,  of  the  total  costs. 
Evidently  the  reduction  of  wages  in  coal-mining  can- 


Coal  Industry. 


301 


Coal  Industry. 


not  have  materially  stimulated  industry  or  greatly 
benefited  the  home  consumer. 

"  Under  these  circumstances  the  miners  find  that  cut- 
throat competition  in  the  midst  of  weak  labor  organi- 
zations and  a  low  standard  of  living  brings  them  as 
nearly  to  the  iron  law  as  has  been  witnessed  in  any  re- 
cent experience  in  the  sweat  industries.  No  wonder 
they  are  resorting  to  the  one  weapon  left — a  systematic 
quitting  of  work.  Fortunately,  the  miners  of  Southern 
Illinois,  who,  as  has  been  stated,  never  were  in  unions, 
and  thus  gave  an  excuse,  at  least,  for  the  breaking 
away  from  the  Columbus  scale  of  Northern  Illinois  and 
then  of  Indiana,  have  begun  to  join  the  ranks  of  the 
strikers." 

Since  Professor  Bemis's  writing,  the  strike  of 
which  he  speaks  has  ended.  Only  a  few  trifling 
concessions  have  been  gained.  (For  a  vivid 
sketch  of  a  coal  strike,  see  H.  D.  Lloyd's  A 
Strike  of  Millionaires  against  Miners).  In 
1887  and  1888  important  strikes  occurred  in  the 
Lehigh  and  Schuylkill  districts  against  the 
Reading  Railroad,  both  being  finally  lost. 

Yet  the  agitation  of  these  strikes  has  produced 
some  fruit,  partly  in  better  legislation,  partly  in 
the  willingness  of  some  of  the  operators  to  treat 
with  the  organizations  of  their  men.  In  few 
trades,  however,  are  there  more  differences  be- 
tween operating  companies,  and  too  often  the 
unscrupulous  are  able  to  secure  the  control. 

According  to  the  Illinois  report  for  1890,  there 
has  been  a  gradual  decline  both  in  the  value  of 
coal  and  in  the  rate  of  wages  ;  the  former  has 
fallen  from  $1.51  a  ton  in  1882  to 
$1.02  in  1890,  and  the  latter  from 
Wages.      80.2  centsaton  in  1883  to 68. 3  cents 
in  1890.     This  is  now  the  price  for 
hand  mining,  and    about    80  per 
cent,  of  the  coal  is  still  mined  by  hand.     Ma- 
chine mining  was  not  generally  introduced  until 
1888,  and  is  not  as  well  paid  as  hand  mining. 
Wages  for    machine    cutters  are    from   $2  to 
$2.50  for  a  day  of  10  hours  ;  drillers,  blasters, 
and  timbermen  get  $2,   and  laborers,   $1.75. 
Hand  miners  average  $2.23  a  day,  while  very 
few  machine  cutters  get  over  $2,  owing  to  the 
smaller  amount  of  skill  required  in  their  work. 
The  truck  system  of  paying  wages  prevails  to 
some  extent,  and  deductions  are  made  for  pow- 


der, lights,  and  tool-sharpening.  The  falling 
of  coal  or  slate  from  the  roof  of  the  mine  is  the 
most  common  cause  of  accidents. 

The  fact  that  the  wages  of  miners  are  kept 
low  is  due  in  part  to  the  large  supply  of  foreign 
labor,  available  at  the  shortest  notice,  to  fill  the 
places  of  men  on  strike.  A  number  of  Poles, 
Hungarians,  and  Italians  are  employed  in  the 
Pennsylvania  mines  ;  they  are  housed  in  sheds 
belonging  to  the  mine  owners,  and  can  live  at  a 
very  small  cost.  According  to  a  journalist  who 
was  examined  before  the  Select  Committee  on 
the  Importation  of  Contract  Labor  in  1889  on 
the  results  of  a  special  inquiry  conducted  by  him 
into  the  condition  of  the  miners,  the  effect  of 
the  rapid  introduction  of  foreign  labor  into  the 
mines  had  been  to  reduce  wages  50  per  cent., 
the  foreign  laborers  receiving  sometimes  no 
more  than  from  40  to  50  cents  a  day. 

The  introduction  of  foreign  labor  has  been 
most  widely  used  in  the  mines  owned  by  the 
railroad  companies.  Since  those  companies 
began  to  engage  in  mining  enterprises  they 
have  practically  destroyed  competition.  Ac- 
cording to  an  agreement  made  among  them- 
selves in  1876,  it  was  stated  "  that  each  trans- 
porting company  shall  be  held  responsible  for 
the  faithful  adherence  to  these  regulations  on 
the  part  of  all  individual  shippers  using  its  lines 
to  carry  coal  to  competitive  points. ' '  The  com- 
panies, which  included  the  Philadelphia  and 
Reading,  the  Jersey  Central,  the  Delaware, 
Lackawanna  and  Western,  and  the  New  York, 
Lake  Erie  and  Western,  sometimes  buy  up  the 
output  of  individual  mines,  or  compel  their  own- 
ers to  submit  to  terms  by  refusing  the  cars  re- 
quired for  transport  or  raising  the  freight  rates. 
In  the  same  way  cars  are  withheld  from  the 
workmen  when  the  companies  wish  to  restrict 
the  output  of  coal  for  the  sake  of  maintaining 
prices. 

The  following  table,  compiled  from  Census 
Bulletin  No.  74,  gives  the  wages  of  employees  in 
the  coal  mines  of  Ohio,  Illinois,  and  Indiana  for 


ABOVE  GROUND. 

FOREMEN  OR 
OVERSEERS. 

MECHANICS. 

LABORERS. 

BOYS  UNDER  16 
YEARS. 

Total 
number 
em- 
ployed. 

Average  num- 
ber employ- 
ed. 

Average  wages 
per  day. 

Average  num- 
ber of  days 
worked. 

Average  num- 
ber employ- 
ed. 

Average  wages 
per  day. 

Average  num- 
ber of  days 
worked. 

Average  num- 
ber employ- 
ed. 

Average  wages 
per  day. 

Average  num- 
ber of  days 
worked. 

Average  num- 
ber employ- 
ed. 

Average  wages 
per  day. 

Average  num- 
ber of  days 
worked. 

Ohio  

221 

217 

74 

$2.28 
2.29 
2-34 

244 
262 
255 

334 
625 
160 

$1.92 

2.OI 
1.84 

235 
266 
256 

1,420 
1,678 
426 

$1.51 

i-53 

1.47 

102 
201 
192 

83 
64 
6 

$0.77 
0.83 
°-73 

187 
200 
152 

2,058 
2,584 
666 

Illinois  

Indiana  

Ohio... 

BELOW  GROUND. 

FOREMEN  OR 
OVERSEERS. 

MINERS. 

LABORERS. 

BOYS  UNDER  16 
YEARS. 

17,285 
21,350 
5,782 

221 
3°S 
'35 

$2.32 
2-35 
2-37 

245 
256 
170 

14,733 

15,386 
4,738 

$1.96 
2.OI 

1.88 

181 
177 
i75 

i,955 
5,062 
820 

$1.63 
1-77 
1.70 

l8S 
199 
!82 

376 

597 

89 

$0.71 
0.90 
0.76 

181 
176 
184 

Illinois  

Indiana....         

Coal  Industry. 


302 


Coal  Industry. 


In  the  bituminous  coal  mines  of  Pennsylva- 
nia, according  to  Census  Bulletin  No.  67,  53,780 
employees  received  an  average  of  $393  per  year. 
But  this  is  only  a  general  average.  Professor 
Bemis  (The  Outlook,  May  12,  1894)  writes  : 

"  Of  500  workers  in  the  bituminous  coal  mines,  rated 
as  typical  in  Ohio,  Indiana,  Pennsylvania,  West  Vir- 
ginia, and  Alabama  in  1890  by  the  United  States  Bu- 
reau of  Labor  Statistics,  86,  or  17  per  cent.,  earned 
under  $300,  and  166  others,  or  33  per  cent.,  earned  from 
$300  to  $400  per  year.  Over  half  of  the  500  earned 
under  $400,  and  715  per  cent,  earned  under  $500.  .  .  . 

"  According  to  computations  of  the  writer,  based  on 
the  census  of  1890,  as  given  in  the  bulletins,  the  aver- 
age wages  of  the  24,323  miners  in  Illinois  were  only 
$6.87  a  week;  of  the  19,591  Ohio  miners,  $6.76;  of  the 
53,780  bituminous  miners  of  Pennsylvania,  $7.55  ;  and 
of  the  70,669  anthracite  men,  $6.21.  The  report  for  1892 
of  the  Ohio  Bureau  of  Labor  Statistics  confirms  this, 
for  it  gives  the  average  weekly  earnings  in  1892  in  that 
State  as  $6.67.  In  most  States  wages  average  about  $2  a 
day  when  the  men  have  work,  but  this  is  usually  not 
over  200  days  in  the  year.  The  influence  of  high 
charges  in  the  company  stores  in  further  diminishing 
these  meager  wages  need  not  be  described.  The 
Illinois  Supreme  Court,  two  years  ago,  blind  to  the 
opposite  decisions  of  Eastern  and  English  courts  and 
the  dictates  of  common  sense,  refused  to  sustain  a  law 
against  them,  because  an  interference  with  the  '  free- 
dom of  contract'  guaranteed  in  the  Constitution." 

This  review  of  the  strikes  and  wages  condi- 
tions existing  in  the  coal  mines  brings  out  the 
relations  of  the  great  railroad  corporations  to 
coal  mining.  On  this  point  we  quote  from  the 
address  delivered  by  Mr.  Henry  D.  Lloyd,  of 
Chicago,  before  the  Interstate  Anti-trust  Con- 
ference at  Chicago,  June  6,  1893.  He  says  : 

"  Within  the  last  30  years  95  per  cent,  of  the  anthra- 
cite coal  of  America,  practically  the  entire  supply,  it 
is  reported  to  Congress  this  year,  has  passed  from  the 
1  ownership  of  private  citizens,  many 

thousands  in  number,  into  the  posses- 
Monopolies.  si°n   of  the    railroads   controlling   the 
highways  of  the  coal  fields.    These  rail- 
roads have  been  undergoing  a  similar 
process  of  consolidation,  and  are  now  the  property  of 
eight  great  corporations.     This    surrender    of   their 
property  by  the  individual  coal  mine  owners  is  a  con- 
tinuing process  in  operation  at  this  moment,  for  the 
complete  extinction  of  the  'individual'  and  the  inde- 
pendents in  this  field.    It  is  destined,  according  to  the 
report  of  Congress,  to  end  in  the  entire  absorption  of 
the  entire  anthracite  coal  fields  and  collieries  by  the 
common  carriers. 

"  Anthracite  coal  is  geographically  a  natural  monop- 
oly contained  in  three  contiguous  fields,  which,  if  laid 
close  together,  would  not  cover  more  than  8  miles 
by  60.  But  bituminous  coal,  altho  scattered  in  ex- 
haustless  measures  all  over  the  continent,  is  being 
similarly  appropriated  by  the  railroads,  and  its  area 
is  being  similarly  limited  artificially  by  their  interfer- 
ence. 

"  '  Railroad  syndicates,'  says  the  Congressional  in- 
vestigation of  1888,  are  buying  all  the  best  bituminous 
coal  lands  along  their  lines  in  Missouri,  Kansas,  Colo- 
rado, Arkansas,  Tennessee,  Alabama,  and  other  West- 
ern States  and  Territories,  no  doubt  with  a  view  of 
levying  tribute  upon  the  people's  fuel  and  the  indus- 
trial fires  of  the  country. 

"  The  process  of  consolidation  is  shown  by  official 
and  judicial  investigation  to  have  been  in  progress  in 
the  bituminous  fields  at  least  as  far  back  as  1870,  with 
the  same  purposes,  methods,  and  results  as  in  the 
anthracite  fields,  tho  more  slowly,  on  account  of  the 
greater  number  and  vastness  of  the  deposits. 

"  The  bituminous  fields  from  Pennsylvania  to  the 
Pacific  coast  are  narrowed  to  the  territory  along  the 
railroads,  and  narrowed  there  again  to  the  mines 
owned  or  favored  by  the  railroad  managers.  .  .  . 
i  "  Tho  coal  is  an  article  of  commerce  greater  in 
volume  than  any  other  natural  product  in  the  United 
States  carried  on  railroads,  amounting  to  not  less  than 
130,000,000  tons  a  year,  and  tho  the  appliances  for  its 
transportation  have  been  improved  and  the  cost  cheap- 
ened every  year,  so  that  it  can  be  handled  with  less 
cost  and  risk  than  almost  any  other  class  of  freight, 
the  startling  fact  appears  in  the  litigations  before  the 
Interstate  Commerce  Commission  and  the  investiga- 


tions by  Congress  that  freight  rates  have  been  ad- 
vanced instead  of  being  decreased,  are  higher  now 
than  they  were  in  1879,  and  that  coal  is  made  by  these 
confederated  railroads  to  pay  rates  vastly  higher  than 
the  average  of  all  other  high  and  low  class  freight, 
nearly  double  the  weight  on  wheat  or  cotton.  These 
high  freight  rates  serve  the  double  purpose  of  seeming 
to  justify  the  high  price  of  coal  and  of  killing  off  year 
by  year  the  independent  coal  producers.  What  the 
railroad  coal  miner  pays  for  freight  returns  to  its 
other  self,  the  railroad.  What  the  independent  coal 
producer  pays  goes  also  to  the  railroad,  his  competitor. 
This  excess  over  just  and  reasonable  rates  or  trans- 
portation,' says  the  report  to  Congress  in  1893,  'con- 
stitutes an  available  fund  by  which  they  (the  railroads) 
are  enabled  to  crush  out  the  competition  of  indepen- 
dent coal  producers.' 

"By  these  means,  as  Congress  found  in  1888,  the  rail- 
road managers  have  forced  the  independent  miners  to 
sell  to  them  or  their  friends  at  the  price  they  chose  to 
pay.  They  were  the  only  possible  buyers,  because 
only  they  were  sure  of  a  supply  of  cars  and  of  freight 
rates  at  which  they  could  live. 

"The  private  operators  thus  being  frozen  put  are 
able,  as  the  investigation  by  the  New  York  Legislature 
in  1878  showed,  to  produce  coal  more  economically 
than  the  great  companies,  because  not  burdened  with 
extravagant  salaries,  royalties  and  leases,  interest  on 
fictitious  bonded  debts,  and  dividends  on  false  capi- 
talization of  walered  stock.  By  the  laws  of  supply 
and  demand  they  would  compete  out  the  unwieldy 
corporation,  but  these  administer  a  superior  political 
economy  in  their  supply  and  demand  of  cars  and 
freight  rates. 

"'The  railroad  companies  engaged  in  mining  and 
transporting  coal  are  practically  in  a  combination  to 
control  the  output  and  fix  the  price.  They  have  a 
practical  monopoly  of  the  production,  the  transporta- 
tion and  the  sale  of  anthracite  coal.'  This  is  from  the 
House  of  Representatives'  report  of  1893,  and  such  ha& 
been  the  finding  in  all  the  investigations  for  20  years. 

"  The  anthracite  collieries  of  Pennsylvania  could 
now  produce  50,000,000  tons  a  year.  The  railroads  re- 
strict them  to  40,000,000  or  41,000,000,  nine  or  ten  million 
tons  less  than  they  could  furnish  to  ward  off  the  frosts 
of  winter,  and  to  speed  the  wheels  of  the  world,  and 
this  creation  of  artificial  winter  has  been  in  progress 
from  the  beginning  of  the  combination. 

"  In  the  10  months  between  February  and  Novem- 
ber, 1893,  the  price  of  coal  in  the  East,  as  investigated 
by  Congress,  was  advanced  by  the  coal  railroads  as 
much  as  $1.25  and  $1.35  a  ton  on  the  kinds  used  by 
housekeepers.  '  The  combinations,'  the  report  of  Con- 
gress says,  'exercise  even  a  more  baleful  influence  on 
the  production  and  transportation  of  coal  for  the 
Western  market.'  The  extortion  in  the  price  fixed  by 
the  railroads  was  found  by  Congress  in  1888  to  be  an 
average  of  $i  a  ton,  considerably  more  than  $i  a  ton 
on  all  consumed  in  the  United  States,  or  $39,000,000 
in  that  year,  and  now  $40,000,000  to  $41,000,000  a  year. 
The  same  investigation  found  that  between  1873  an<i 
1886,  $200,000,000  more  than  a  fair  market  price  was 
taken  from  the  public  by  this  combination. 

"  This  is  anthracite  alone.  How  many  hundreds,  per- 
haps thousands  of  millions  more  have  been  taken  by 
the  railroads  which  control  the  bituminous  coal  fields 
from  Pennsylvania  to  the  Pacific  there  are  no  adjudi- 
cated means  of  estimating.  .  .  . 

"  Congress  found  in  1888  that  the  coal  companies  in  the 
anthracite  regions  keep  thousands  of  surplus  laborers, 
on  hand  to  underbid  each  other  for  employment  and 
for  submission  to  all  exactions  ;  hold  them  purposely 
ignorant  when  the  mines  are  to  be  worked  and  when 
closed,  so  that  they  cannot  seek  employment  else- 
where ;  bind  them  as  tenants  by  compulsion  in  the 
companies'  houses,  so  that  rent  shall  run  against  them, 
•whether  wages  run  on  or  not,  and  under  leases  by 
which  they  can  be  turned  put  with  their  wives  and 
children  on  the  mountain-side  in  midwinter  if  they 
strike  ;  compel  them  to  fill  cars  of  larger  capacity 
than  agreed  upon  ;  make  them  buy  their  powder  and 
other  working  outfit  of  the  companies  at  an  enormous 
advance  on  the  cost ;  compel  them  to  buy  coal  of  the 
company  at  the  company's  price,  and  in  many  cases  to 
buy  a  fixed  quantity — more  than  they  need  ;  compel 
them  to  employ  the  doctor  named  by  the  company, 
and  to  pay  him  whether  sick  or  well  ;  *  pluck'  them  at 
the  company's  stores,  so  that  when  pay  day  comes 
around  the  company  owes  the  men  nothing,  there 
being  authentic  cases  where  '  sober,  hard-working 
miners  toiled  for  years  or  even  a  lifetime  without 
having  been  able  to  draw  a  single  dollar,  or  but  a  few 
dollars  in  actual  cash  ;  in  debt  until  the  day  they 
died  ;'  refuse  to  fix  the  wages  in  advance,  but  pay 


Coal  Industry. 


3°3 


Cobden,  Richard. 


them  upon  some  hocus-pocus  sliding  scale,  varying 
with  the  selling  price  in  New  York,  which  the  railroad 
slides  to  suit  itself,  and,  most  extraordinary  of  all,  re- 
fuse to  let  the  miners  know  the  prices  on  which  their 
living  slides ;  a  fraud,  says  the  report  of  Congress, 
'on  its  face.' 

"  The  companies  dock  the  miners'  output  arbitrarily 
for  slate  and  other  impurities,  and  so  can  take  from 
their  men  from  5  to  50  tons  more  in  every  hundred  than 
they  can  pay  for. 

"  In  order  to  keep  the  miners  disciplined  and  the  coal 
market  undersupplied,  the  railroads  restrict  work,  so 
that  the  miners  often  have  to  live  for  a  month  on  what 
they  can  earn  in  six  or  eight  days,  and  these  restric- 
tions are  enforced  upon  their  miners  by  holding  cars 
from  them  to  fill,  as  upon  competitors  by  withholding 
cars  to  go  to  market.  Labor  organizations  are  forbid- 
den, and  the  men  intentionally  provoked  to  strike  to 
affect  the  market. 

"  The  laboring  population  of  the  coal  regions,  finally, 
is  kept  down  byspecial  policemen  enrolled  under  special 
laws,  and  often  in  violation  of  law,  by  the  railroads 
and  coal  and  iron  companies  practically  when  and  in 
•what  numbers  they  choose,  and  practically  without 
.responsibility  to  any  one  but  their  employers,  armed 
as  the  corporations  see  fit  with  army  revolvers,  or 
Winchester  rifles,  or  both,  made  detectives  by  statute, 
and  not  required  to  wear  their  shields,  provoking  the 
people  to  riot  and  then  shooting  them  legally.  '  By 
the  percentage  of  wages,'  says  the  report  of  Congress, 
'by  false  measurements,  by  rents,  stores,  and  other 
methods  the  workrrfan  is  virtually  a  chattel  of  the  oper- 
ator.' 

>  "The  investigation  of  1888  showed  that  the  carrier 
drives  out  both,  operator  and  owner,  obtains  the  prop- 
erty, works  the  mine,  disciplines  the  miner,  lowers 
•wages  by  the  importation  of  Huns  and  Italians,  re- 
stricts the  output,  and  advances  the  price  of  coal  to  the 
public.  It  is  enabled  to  commit  such  wrongs  upon  in- 
dividuals and  the  public  by  virtue  of  exercising  abso- 
lute control  of  a  public  highway. 

"  Moved  mainly  by  the  disappearance  of  a  free  mar- 
ket in  oil  and  coal,  the  people  of  Pennsylvania  arose  in 
1873  and  adopted  a  new  constitution.  To  put  an  end 
to  the  consolidation  of  all  the  anthracite  coal  lands 
into  the  hands  of  the  railroads,  this  constitution  for- 
bade common  carriers  to  mine  or  manufacture  articles 
for  transportation  over  their  lines,  or  to  buy  land  ex- 
cept for  carrying  purposes.  These  provisions  of  the 
constitution  have  been  disobeyed  'defiantly.'  'The 
railroads  have  defiantly  gone  on  acquiring  title  to 
hundreds  of  thousands  of  acres  of  coal,  as  well  as  of 
neighboring  agricultural  lands,'  says  the  Congres- 
sional committee  of  1888.  'They  have  been  aggres- 
sively pursuing  the  joint  business  of  carrying  and 
mining  coal.'  So  far  from  quitting  it,  'they  have  in- 
increased  their  mining  operations  by  extracting  bitu- 
minous as  well  as  anthracite.' 

"Instead  of  enacting  'appropriate  legislation,'  as 
commanded  by  the  new  constitution  to  effectuate  its 
prohibitions,  the  Legislature  has  passed  laws  to  nullify 
the  constitution  by  preventing  forever  any  escheat  to 
the  State  of  the  immense  area  of  lands  unlawfully 
held  by  the  railroads.  Every  effort  breaking  down  to 
meet  the  evil  by  State  action,  failure  was  finally  con- 
fessed by  the  passage,  in  1878,  by  the  Pennsylvania 
Legislature,  of  a  joint  resolution  asking  Congress  to 
legislate  '  for  equity  in  the  rates  of  freight,'  and  to  this 
day  the  will  of  the  people  of  Pennsylvania,  as  de- 
clared in  their  sovereign  utterance,  has  found  among 
these  corporations  none  so  poor  as  to  do  it  rever- 
ence. 

"  In  1887  Congress  passed  the  interstate  commerce  law 
and  established  the  interstate  commerce  commission 
to  enforce  justice  on  the  railroad  highways,  in  the 
language  of  the  committee  reporting  it,  '  without  ex- 
pense to  the  shipper,  without  delay  and  without  resort 
to  litigation.'  The  failure  of  the  commission  has  been 
calamitous.  The  independent  mine  owners  of  Penn- 
sylvania appealed  to  it  for  the  justice  promised  '  with- 
out expense,  without  delay  and  without  litigation.' 
Two  years  and  a  half  were  consumed  in  the  proceed- 
ings. The  commission  decided  that  the  rates  the  rail- 
roads charged  were  unreasonable  and  unjust,  and 
ordered  them  reduced.  But  the  decision  has  remained 
unenforced  and  cannot  be  enforced.  The  railroads 
treat  the  commission  with  the  same  contumely  they 
visit  on  the  constitution  of  Pennsylvania,  and  two 
years  after  its  decision  Congress  in  1893  found  their 
rates  to  be  50  cents  a  ton  higher  than  what  the  com- 
mission had  declared  to  be  just  and  equitable.  The 
independent  oil  refiner  of  Pennsylvania  and  Ohio  has 
fared  still  more  disastrously,  before  the  commission. 
In  one  proceeding,  for  more  than  four  years  they  have 


been  appealing  for  rescues  from  rates  which  are  press- 
ing them  to  death,  but  in  vain.  The  delay  is  'killing,' 
they  recently  pleaded,  but  the  delay  continues.  The 
interstate  commerce  law  provides  for  the  imprison- 
ment in  the  penitentiary  of  those  guilty  of  the  crimes 
it  covers.  But  the  only  conviction  had  under  it  has 
been  of  a  shipper  for  discriminating  against  a  rail- 
road. No  railroad  man  has  been  brought  to  punish- 
ment for  the  countless  crimes  committed  by  railroads 
against  shippers. 

"  Congress  has  passed  an  anti-trust  law  ;  many  of  the 
States  have  passed  anti-trust  laws  ;  there  have  been 
appeals  to  the  courts  for  redress  under  conspiracy 
laws  and  for  forfeiture  of  charters.  Nothing  has  come 
of  all  this  legislation  and  litigation.  The  sugar  trust, 
the  oil  trust,  have  been  forced  to  hang  put  new  signs  ; 
in  New  Jersey  one  of  the  leases  binding  two  of  the 
coal  combinations  together  has  been  broken,  but  the 
sugar  and  the  oil  and  the  coal  monopolies  do  not  wane 
but  wax.  .  .  . 

"  To  remove  the  tariff  on  coal  would  have  brought  the 
product  of  Nova  Scotia  into  competition  •  with  our 
American  rings  12  months  ago.  But  within  the  year 
the  mines  of  Nova  Scotia  have  been  syndicated  by 
American  capitalists,  and  it  -will  be  they  who  will  win 
when  the1  tariff  is  taken  off  coal.  Monopoly  moves 
across  tariff;  there  are  already  several  international 
trade  combinations,  and  there  will  be  more  before 
there  are  fewer. 

"  A  real  interstate  commerce  law  with  a  uniform 
classification  of  freight  for  the  whole  country,  under  a 
few  simple  heads,  with  rates  inflexibly  the  same  for 
all  shippers,  wholesale  or  retail,  under  each  head  on 
the  post-office  principle,  and  with  rates  fixed  by  the 
Legislature  and  cut  down  to  figures  which  would  pay 
the  legal  rate  of  interest  on  the  present  actual  cost  of 
reduplicating  the  right  of  way  and  equipment,  would 
20  years  ago  have  prevented  the  confiscation  of  the 
property  of  the  many  who  had  to  use  the  highways 
into  the  treasuries  of  the  few  who  owned  the  high- 
ways. But  not  to-day.  The  members  of  the  coal 
combination  are  Siamese  twins.  Chang  runs  the  rail- 
road, Eng  runs  the  coal  mines.  Chang  has  been  charg- 
ing high  freights  to  ruin  the  independents,  and  Eng, 
also  to  ruin  the  independents,  has  been  selling  coal  for 
less  than  cost,  counting  this  freight  extortion  as  part 
of  the  cost.  The  net  has  caught  the  fish.  The  inde- 
pendents are  ruined— 95  per  cent,  of  them.  Make 
Chang  put  down  freights  as  low  as  you  please,  Eng 
will  put  up  the  price  of  coal.  Coal  is  his  private  prop- 
erty, and  he  has  a  right  to  do  with  it  what  he  will. 

"The  syndicating  of  bituminous  coal  lands  has  also 
gone  so  far  that  the  owners  by  combination  and  com- 
petitive market  wars  could  suppress  all  rivals  and  fix 
the  supply  and  the  price  independent  of  any  help  from 
highway  privilege.  They  have  grown  great  enough 
by  that  help  to  do  without  it,  and  to  prevail  for  the 
future  by  the  mere  mass  of  their  millions.  .  .  : 

"Even  if  the  insignificant  minority  stilf  living  in  the 
coal,  oil,  and  other  centralized  industries  continue  to 
survive  no  relief  for  the  public  can  be  expected  from 
them.  They  might  be  saved  by  railroad  reform,  but 
they  would  take  advantage  of  the  prices  set  by  the 
ruling  power.  It  is  a  well-known  law  of  trade  that 
where  an  overshadowing  power  over  prices  and  con- 
ditions has  been  gained  by  any  element,  the  minority 
take  the  benefit  of  the  standard  it  upholds.  'The 
public,  however,  must  bear  in  mind,'  says  the  report 
of  Congress  of  1893,  '  that  where  so  preponderating  a 
quantity  of  any  given  article  is  controlled  by  one  or- 
ganization, it  will  be  natural  that  the  holders  of  the 
smaller  portion  should  fall  into  line  with  the  price 
fixed  by  the  larger.  This  has  been  the  case  within  the 
last  season.'  " 

COBDEN,  RICHARD,  born  near  Midhurst, 
in  Sussex,  June  3,  1804  ;  died  in  London,  April 
2,  1865.  His  father  was  a  farmer,  but  at  an 
early  age  he  entered  a  London  warehouse,  and 
after  a  time  became  traveler  for  the  firm.  In 
1832  he  started  a  cotton-printing  business  of  his 
own  at  Manchester  and  Sabden. 

There  are  three  great  political  agitations  with 
which  his  name  will  be  always  connected — the 
repeal  of  protective  duties,  the  movement  against 
war  and  military  expenditure,  and  the  one  in 
favor  of  commercial  treaties. 

The  general  spirit  of  his  whole  policy  is  well 
expressed  in  the  motto  quoted  by  himself  (in 


Cobden,  Richard. 


3°4 


Coffee-Houses. 


England,  Ireland,  and  America)  from  George 
Washington:  "The  great  rule  of  conduct  in 
regard  to  foreign  nations  is,  in  extending  our 
commercial  relations,  to  have,  with  them,  as  lit- 
tle political  connection  as  possible." 

He  believed  that  a  nation's  first  care  was  for 
its  own  household,  and  that  political  and  mili- 
tary entanglements  interfered  with  the  perform- 
ance of  a  nation's  duty  in  this  respect.  He 
preached  the  policy  of  non-intervention,  oppos- 
ing with  Bright  the  war  with  Russia  and  China. 
He  maintained  that  the  prosperity  of  the  nation 
demanded,  not  military  glory  and  conquest,  but 
a  larger  population  and  a  wider  trade.  Cobden 
and  the  "  Manchester  school"  of  politicians  erred 
in  mistaking  the  welfare  of  merchants  and 
manufacturers  for  the  welfare  of  the  whole  na- 
tion ;  their  standpoint  was  that  of  the  employer 
of  labor,  not  that  of  the  people.  They  were  the 
advocates  of  direct  taxation.  Cobden  has  been 
denounced  as  a  mere  pleader  for  a  ' '  let  alone' ' 
policy  in  matters  of  trade  ;  but  it  must  be  re- 
membered that  in  his  day  British  trade  was 
hampered  by  absurd  governmental  restrictions 
from  which  it  is  free  to-day.  A  policy  which  was 
best  then  may  be  unwise  at  the  present  time. 
Cobden  did  much  for  the  cause  of  free  educa- 
tion. It  was  largely  owing  to  his  efforts  that 
the  Manchester  Athenaeum  was  established. 

We  need  not  here  enter  into  the  details  of  his 
busy  political  career,  and  shall  only  mention 
one  more  conspicuous  service  which  he  ren- 
dered, not  only  to  his  own  country,  but  to  the 
United  States  as  well.  Devoted  as  he  was  to 
the  arts  of  peace,  the  outbreak  of  the  American 
Civil  War  was  to  him  an  event  most  deeply  to 
be  deplored.  From  first  to  last  his  sympathies 
were  with  the  North,  because  the  South  was 
contending  for  slavery.  He  was  extremely  anx- 
ious that  Great  Britain  should  adopt  a  just  and 
worthy  attitude  toward  the  struggle  ;  and  when, 
therefore,  vessels  which  sailed  from  English 
ports  committed  depredations  upon  American 
commerce,  he  sternly  and  forcibly  brought  the 
question  before  the  House  of  Commons.  Altho 
attacked  for  a  time  on  every  side  because  of  his 
manly  stand  for  honor  and  fair  play,  he  persist- 
ed in  a  series  of  speeches  to  maintain  his  posi- 
tion. His  death  was  the  occasion  of  many  trib- 
utes of  honor  and  esteem,  all  classes  uniting  in 
confessing  him  to  be  a  statesman  who  was  un- 
swerving in  his  fidelity  to  conscience  and  to 
what  he  believed  to  be  the  best  interests  of  his 
country. 

CODE  NAPOLEON.— Few  codifications  of 
law  have  played  the  part  or  had  the  influence  of 
the  Code  Napoleon.  There  were  two  kinds  of 
law  in  France  before  the  Revolution — the  writ- 
ten and  the  customary  law.  The  latter  varied 
greatly  in  the  different  judicial  centers,  and 
many  consolidations  had  been  unsuccessfully 
attempted.  The  confusion  remained  until  1789, 
when  the  Constituent  Assembly  attempted  the 
task.  Napoleon  approved,  and  appointed  a  com- 
mission to  draw  up  a  code.  This  was  accord- 
ingly done,  the  code  being  based  upon  the 
existing  French  legal  traditions  and  upon  an- 
cient law.  The  work  was  subjected  to  criticism 
forthwith  ;  but  in  the  midst  of  the  discussion 
Napoleon  withdrew  the  code,  expelled  the  op- 


position, and  divided  the  remainder  into  com- 
mittees which  were  to  discuss  the  clauses  with 
the  Conseil  d' Etat.  By  1810  their  work  was 
finished.  The  code  is  divided  into  five  por- 
tions :  (i)  The  code  civil ;  (2)  the  code  de  pro- 
cedure civile  ;  (3)  the  code  de-  commerce  ;  (4) 
the  code  d'instruction  criminelle,  and  (5)  the 
code  penal.  These  portions  are  independent  of 
one  another.  All  previous  legislation  was  super- 
seded by  this  code  ;  and  it  has  been  largely 
copied  throughout  Europe.  Its  brevity  has  been 
condemned  by  some,  who  point  out  a  lack  of 
definiteness  and  clearness  of  statement.  It 
leaves  much  to  the  judgment  and  good  sense  of 
the  court.  Naturally  this  has  brought  about 
considerable  conflict  of  decisions,  and  given 
birth  to  a  large  number  of  legal  commentaries. 
Precedents  are  not  considered  binding  in 
France  ;  and  there  is  always,  therefore,  some 
doubt  as  to  what  the  decision  in  any  given  case 
may  be. 

COFFEE-HOUSES.— Coffee-houses  as  ri- 
vals of  liquor  taverns  have  been  favored  almost 
from  the  beginning  of  the  active  temperance 
agitation.  As  early  as  1830  and  1831  there  was 
a  coffee-house  movement  in  Scotland,  under  the 
auspices  of  temperance  societies,  resulting  in 
the  successful  operation  of  such  establishments 
in  nearly  all  the  principal  towns  and  cities,  but 
many  of  them  at  that  time  sold  the  lighter  alco- 
holic beverages  as  well  as  tea  and  coffee.  It 
was  in  protest  against  this  practice  that  the 
Dunfermline  Society,  September  21,  1830, 
formed  itself  into  the  "  Dunfermline  Associa- 
tion for  the  promotion  of  temperance  by  the 
relinquishment  of  all  intoxicating  liquors,"  and 
passed  a  resolution  agreeing  "to  give  no  en- 
couragement or  support  to  any  coffee-house 
established  or  receiving  countenance  from  any 
temperance  society,  for  the  sale  of  intoxicating 
liquors"  (Dawson  Burns's  Temperance  History, 
vol.  i.,  p.  48).  In  1844  (zbtd,  p.  248)  "the  cof- 
fee-houses of  Glasgow,  conducted  on  strict  tem- 
perance principles,  and  provided  with  news- 
rooms, etc. ,  were  in  some  respects  much  superior 
to  the  coffee-taverns  and  palaces  of  the  present 
day."  But  it  is  more  recently,  and  in  England 
especially,  that  the  coffee-house  has  become  a 
prominent  feature  of  the  temperance  movement. 
Liverpool,  Birmingham,  Bradford,  and  other 
large  cities  in  England  are  plentifully  supplied 
with  these  places,  while  in  London,  where  the 
development  has  been  slower,  a  large  number 
of  establishments  have  been  opened  by  the  Lock- 
hart  Coffee-House  Company,  with  the  prospect 
of  a  rapid  increase  in  the  number.  Two  weekly 
newspapers  in  London,  the  Temperance  Caterer 
and  the  Refreshment  News  (the  latter  the  or- 
gan of  the  Coffee-Tavern  Protection  Society) 
are  especially  devoted  to  the  coffee-house  move- 
ment and  its  interests.  In  1872  Rev.  Charles 
Garrett  conceived  the  idea  of  a  coffee-saloon  in 
Liverpool,  which  should  combine  every  attrac- 
tion of  the  liquor-saloon  except  the  bar,  and  a 
company  was  formed,  and  such  a  place,  with 
reading-room  attached,  was  opened  near  the 
docks.  Refreshments  were  served  at  the  cheap- 
est rates.  The  enterprise  was  so  successful  that 
there  are  at  present  in  Liverpool  more  than  60 
of  these  cocoa-rooms,  as  they  are  called,  while 


Cof  fee-Houses. 


3°5 


Coinage. 


the  British  Workman's  Cocoa-House  Company, 
of  Liverpool,  which  has  them  in  charge,  has  in 
no  year  paid  less  than  10  per  cent,  dividends. 
Coffee-houses  were  established  in  Bradford  after 
their  success  was  manifest  in  Liverpool,  and  the 
Bradford  Coffee- House  Company  has  opened  20 
places  in  that  city  and  its  suburbs.  Birming- 
ham also  is  plentifully  supplied  with  coffee- 
houses, or  coffee-house  hotels,  and  they  are  suc- 
cessful from  a  business  point  of  view,  as  well  as 
influential  in  molding  temperance  sentiment. 
The  coffee-house  movement  has  extended  into 
Canada  and  Australia,  but  has  made  little  prog- 
ress in  the  United  States.  Probably  the  near- 
est approaches  to  the  English  coffee-house  to  be 
found  in  this  country  are  the  temperance  res- 
taurants established  in  various  cities  by  enter- 
prising or  philanthropic  persons,  those  opened 
and  very  successfully  managed  by  Joshua  L. 
Baily,  in  Philadelphia,  being  especially  worthy 
of  mention. 

Another  form  of  the  coffee-house  work  is 
found  in  the  rooms  opened  in  Boston  by  the 
New  England  Department  of  the  Church  Tem- 
perance Society.  The  emphasis  is  placed  in 
these  rooms  upon  the  social  aspect,  very  little 
attention  being  paid  to  the  sale  of  food  and 
drink.  Pool  tables  and  other  games  are  provid- 
ed, smoking  is  allowed,  and  the  aim  has  been  to 
afford  all  the  freedom  of  the  bar-room  without 
the  slavery,  which  is  the  penalty  that  has  to  be 
paid  in  places  where  social  freedom  means  so- 
cial drinking.  Once  a  week  in  each  of  these 
rooms  a  program  of  entei'tainment  and  instruc- 
tion is  provided,  and  one  of  the  greatest  suc- 
cesses of  this  kind  of  work  has  been  found  in 
the  number  of  cultivated  men  and  women  who 
come  to  talk  about  anything  which  interests 
themselves  and  in  the  yearly  improving  atten- 
tion and  appreciation  on  the  part  of  the  young 
men  who  frequent  the  rooms.  Now  and  then 
the  talk  will  be  a  religious  one,  but,  as  a  rule, 
these  are  not  preaching  places. 

There  is  always  plenty  of  water,  for  those 
who  visit  these  rooms  are  thirsty  people.  As  a 
rule  they  prefer  water  to  coffee.  The  rooms 
are  smoky  ;  tobacco  is  not  sold,  but  there  is  no 
restriction  upon  smoking. 

General  good  order  prevails  ;  when  parties 
get  turbulent  beyond  control,  the  doors  are 
labeled  ' '  closed  for  a  week  on  account  of  dis- 
order," and  in  every  instance  the  disturbers, 
missing  their  privileges,  have  returned  and 
apologized. 

The  general  idea  is,  of  course,  to  make  the 
rooms  as  nearly  like  a  liquor  saloon  as  possible, 
without  the  liquor.  But  good  reading  matter, 
illustrated  papers,  etc.,  in  abundance  is  pro- 
vided. 

The  mere  fact  that,  at  the  lowest  estimate, 
the  attendance  in  the  Boston  coffee-rooms  has 
averaged  during  some  seasons  over  300  young 
men  each  night,  is  a  sufficient  argument  for 
going  on  with  the  work  ;  for  this  average  of  300 
a  night  means  an  attendance  during  one  month 
of  7800  ;  during  six  months,  of  46,800  ;  during 
four  years,  of  187,200. 

COGNETTI  DE  MARTIIS,  SALVA- 
TORE,  was  born  at  Bari,  Italy,  in  1844,  and  in 
1 868  became  a  professor  in  the  Institute  of 


Technology  of  that  place.  The  next  year  he 
accepted  a  similar  position  in  Mantua,  and  in 
1876  became  Professor  of  Political  Economy  in 
the  University  of  Turin.  Professor  Cognetti, 
according  to  Cossa,  may  be  classed  with  the 
Italian  sociological  school.  He  has  especially 
studied  the  economic  functions  of  animal  and 
savage  life,  and  by  investigations  in  philology, 
etc.,  has  thrown  much  light  on  the  origins  of  so- 
cialism in  antiquity.  He  has,  however,  studied 
modern  economic  conditions,  and  particularly 
those  of  the  United  States.  Among  his  best- 
known  books  are  Delle  Attinenze  tra  I'eco- 
nomia  sociale  e  la  storia  (Florence,  1866)  ;  Le 
Forme  primitive  net"  evoluzione  economica 
(Turin,  1881)  ;  //  Socialismo  negli  State  Uniti 
d'  America  (Turin,  1887)  ;  and  Socialismo  An- 
tico  (1889). 

COHN,  GUSTAV,  born  December  12,  1840, 
at  Marienwerder,  in  West  Prussia  ;  studied  in 
Berlin  and  Jena  ;  Fellow  of  the  Royal  Statisti- 
cal Seminary  of  Berlin,  1867-68,  afterward  at 
Heidelberg  and  the  Polytechnic  at  Riga.  In 
1873  he  visited  England,  and  as  a  result  of  his 
studies  published  his  Untersuchungen  uber  die 
englische  Eisenbahnpolitik.  In  1875  ne  was 
called  to  the  Polytechnic  at  Zurich,  and  in  1884 
as  regular  professor  to  the  University  of  Got- 
tingen.  One  of  the  foremost  economists  in  Ger- 
many, his  writings  have  been  numerous.  Per- 
haps his  best-known  works  are  his  System  der 
National  QLkonomie  (1886),  in  which  his  chap- 
ters on  cooperation,  the  normal  labor  day,  and 
freedom  of  industry  are  of  special  value  ;  and  his 
Finanzwissenschaft  (1889).  His  studies  of  the 
Swiss  and  German  system  of  taxation  are  of  the 
highest  value. 

COIT,  STANTON,  was  born  in  1857  in  Co- 
lumbus, O.  ;  graduated  at  Amherst,  1879,  and 
took  the  degree  of  Doctor  of  Philosophy  at  Ber- 
lin, 1885.  Studying  social  conditions,  and  living 
himself  in  a  tenement  among  the  poor,  he  found- 
ed the  Neighborhood  Guild  (y.v.)in.  the  Tenth 
Ward  in  New  York  City  in  1887,  and  became 
one  of  the  founders,  and  for  two  years  head 
worker  of  the  University  Settlement  in  that 
city.  He  was  for  several  years  lecturer  with 
Professor  Adler  (q.v.}  of  the  New  York  Society 
for  Ethical  Culture.  In  1888  he  succeeded  Mr. 
Moncure  D.  Con  way,  in  London,  as  lecturer  of 
the  South  Place  Ethical  Society,  and  instituted 
a  Neighborhood  Guild  in  London,  and  later 
founded  and  became  head  of  the  West  London 
Ethical  Society.  He  was  one  of  the  founders 
and  is  still  one  of  the  associate  editors  of  the 
International  Journal  of  Ethics.  His  main 
works  are  Neighborhood  Guilds,  both  in  Eng- 
lish and  German  ;  Die  ethische  Bewegung  in 
Religion,  issued  in  Germany,  and  several  lec- 
tures in  one  volume,  translated  into  French  and 
published  as  La  Religion  basee  sur  la  morale. 

COINAGE  (see  also  CURRENCY)  is  the  fash- 
ioning of  pieces  of  metal  and  impressing  upon 
them  suitable  devices  for  use  as  money.  The 
first  coins  were  probably  simple  pieces  of  metal 
marked  as  containing  a  certain  weight,  the 
names  of  many  early  coins  being  identical  with 
denominations  of  weight.  The  earliest  writers, 
too,  give  values  in  definite  weights.  The  in- 


Coinage. 


306 


Collectivism, 


vention  of  coined  money  is  claimed  by  Herodo- 
tus for  the  Lydians,  and  the  coins  of  Sardis  of 
800  B.C.  are  known.  ^Egina  is  said  to  have  had 
coins  in  750  B.C.  The  Chinese,  however,  claim 
to  have  coined  money  in  B.C.  3289,  and  Williams 
recognizes  their  claim  to  have  coined  money  at 
least  as  early  as  B.C.. 2356.  Coins  were  probably 
first  issued  by  individuals  and  later  by  govern- 
ments. To-day  it  is  all  but  universally  recog- 
nized that  to  coin  money  is  the  peculiar  attrib- 
ute of  government  alone.  If  individuals  coined 
money  some  might  do  it  honestly,  but  some 
might  do  it  dishonestly,  and  the  ignorant  and 
inexperienced  might  thus  easily  be  defrauded. 
For  United  States  coinage  see  CURRENCY. 

COLBERT,  JEAN  BAPTISTS,  born  at 
Rheims,  1619  ;  died  at  Paris,  1683.  His  father 
was  a  wool  merchant.  He  rose  from  office  to 
office,  till  he  became  one  of  the  greatest  minis- 
ters France  has  ever  had.  In  1661  he  became 
comptroller-general.  His  first  reform  was  to 
reduce  the  taille- — a  direct  property  tax — and  to 
establish  a  departmental  office.  He  was  espe- 
cially noted  for  his  love  of  system  and  regularity 
in  industry  and  commerce.  Frequently  his 
regulations  were  strict  even  to  severity.  His 
economic  method  was  to  organize  industry,  sus- 
tain it  by  custom-house  regulations  and  protec- 
tion, and  to  create  model  manufactures  by  grants 
of  money  or  privilege.  All  financial  dishon- 
esties he  strove  with  laudable  severity  to  check. 
His  mind  was  not  sufficiently  profound  to  estab- 
lish a  complete  system  ;  he  dealt  with  immediate 
difficulties,  and  overcame  them  by  his  energy 
and  good  sense.  He  interested  himself  in  the 
shipping  trade  and  in  the  arts  and  sciences,  en- 
couraging the  arts  by  liberal  presents  and  pen- 
sions. In  1663  he  founded  the  Academy  of  In- 
scriptions and  Belles  Lettres,  and  in  1668  the 
Academy  of  the  Sciences. 

COLINS.JEAN  GUILLAUME  CESAR 
ALEXANDRE  HIPPOLYTE,  Baron  de, 

was  born  at  Brussels  in  1783.  He  entered  the 
French  army  at  an  early  age,  and  won  many 
honors.  In  1833  he  settled  down  to  a  quiet  life, 
and  pursued  at  Paris  his  scientific  and  social 
studies.  In  1835  he  issued  his  first  work,  entitled 
Le  Pact  Social.  In  it  he  advocated  collecti- 
vism, and  declared  that  "immovable  property 
belongs  to  all. ' '  Numerous  other  works  on  so- 
cial questions  followed,  and  he  continued  to 
write  until  his  death  in  1859. 

Colins  and  his  disciples  call  their  system  Ra- 
tional Socialism.  They  believe  in  spiritualism 
and  atheism,  as  they  deny  the  existence  of  a 
God,  while  at  the  same  time  affirming  the  im- 
mortality of  the  human  soul.  Morality,  they 
say,  is  sufficiently  based  upon  personal  immor- 
tality. All  men  are  equal,  free,  moral,  and 
therefore  responsible  beings.  M.  de  Laveleye, 
in  his  Socialism  of  To-day,  gives  the  following 
concise  account  of  their  economic  doctrines  : 

"As  man  is  a  responsible  agent,  his  every  action 
must  infallibly  and  inevitably  be  rewarded  or  pun- 
ished according  as  it  does  or  does  not  conform  to  the 
rules  imposed  by  his  conscience  ;  and  this  sanction,  in 
order  to  be  inevitable,  must  take  place  in  a  subsequent 
existence. 

"  The  aggregate  of  indisputable  reasonings  consti- 
tutes '  impersonal  reason,"  which,  when  looked  upon 
as  prescribing  a  rule  of  action,  may  be  called  '  sover- 
eignty.' 


"  From  the  '  immateriality  of  the  sensibility  '  flowr 
according  to  Colins,  other  consequences  touching 
man's  relations  to  the  material  world,  that  is  to  say, 
touching  his  social  economy.  Man  alone,  he  says, 
works ;  man  alone  is  an  agent,  properly  so  called. 
The  material  world  is  the  patient  on  which  man  acts, 
with  the  aim  of  producing  something.  Originally  there 
existed  only  man  and  the  earth  on  which  he  lived  :  on 
the  one  hand,  labor  ;  and  on  the  other,  the  soil  or  raw 
material,  without  which  all  labor  would  be  impossible. 
But  from  the  joint  action  of  these  two  elements  of  pro- 
duction there  soon  came  into  being  wealth  of  a  peculiar 
kind,  in  which  labor  was,  as  it  were,  accumulated, 
which  was  movable  and  separate  from  the  soil.  This 
was  capital.  It  assists  production  and  is  the  handmaid 
of  labor,  but  in  order  to  make  use  of  it,  a  material  to 
which  it  can  be  applied  is  indispensable.  From  the 
necessity  to  which  man  is  subject  for  a  material  on 
which  to  expend  his  labor,  there  results,  according  to 
Colins,  the  following  important  consequence  :  Labor  is 
free  when  the  raw  material,  the  soil,  belongs  to  it ; 
otherwise  it  is  enslaved.  Man  therefore  can,  in  fact, 
only  exercise  his  energy  with  the  permission  of  the 
owners  of  the  raw  material ;  and  he  who  requires  the 
authority  of  another  before  he  can  act  is  clearly  not 
free.  In  order,  then,  that  all  the  members  of  the  com- 
munity should  become  permanent  proprietors  of  the 
national  soil,  the  soil  must  be  collectively  appro- 
priated. 

"  The  collective  appropriation  of  the  soil  implies,  in 
the  first  place,  that  it  should  be  at  the  disposal  of  all 
who  wish  to  utilize  it ;  and  secondly,  that  the  rent,  paid 
by  the  tenants  to  the  community,  should  be  expended 
for  the  common  benefit  of  all.  According  to  the  Bel- 
gian socialist,  there  are  only  two  entirely  distinct 
methods  of  holding  land :  first,  that  adopted  at  the 
present  day,  in  which  the  soil  is  given  up  to  individu- 
als, or  to  certain  classes  of  individuals,  and  labor  is- 
enslaved  ;  secondly,  the  system  of  the  future,  under 
which  the  soil  will  be  collective  property,  and  labor 
will  be  free. 

"  The  above  relates  to  the  production  of  wealth.  Let 
us  now  consider  the  way  in  which  rational  socialism 
regulates  its  distribution. 

"  When  labor  is  free — as  is  necessarily  the  case  when 
the  land  is  accessible  to  all— every  one  can  live  with- 
out being  obliged  to  accept  wages  from  anybody.  In 
that  case,  a  man  would  work  for  others  only  if  they 
offered  him,  as  wages,  more  than  he  could  gain  by 
working  for  himself.  This  situation  is  expressed  in 
economic  terms  by  saving  that  then  wages  would  tend 
to  a  maximum,  and  when  it  exists,  the  distribution  of 
wealth  is  so  affected  that  the  larger  share  of  the  prod- 
uct goes  to  labor  and  the  smaller  to  capital.  But 
when  labor  is  enslaved,  the  laborers  are  forced  under 

Eain  of  starvation,  to  compete  with  one  another  in  of- 
jring  their  labor  to  those  who  possess  land  and  capi- 
tal ;  and  then  their  wages  fall  to  what  is  strictly  nec- 
essary for  existence  and  reproduction ;  while  if  the 
holders  of  wealth  do  not  need  labor,  the  unemployed 
laborers  must  disappear.  Wages,  then,  tend  to  a  min- 
imum, and  the  distribution  of  wealth  takes  place  in 
such  a  way  that  the  greater  part  goes  to  the  land- 
owners and  capitalists,  and  the  smaller  to  the  laborers. 
When  labor  is  free,  every  man's  wealth  increases  in 
proportion  to  the  toil  he  has  expended  ;  but  when  labor 
is  enslaved,  his  wealth  grows  in  proportion  to  the  cap- 
ital he  has  accumulated. 

"  From  these  two  opposite  modes  of  distribution  flow, 
according  to  Colins,  the  two  following  consequences, 
each  of  which  has  reference  to  one  or  other  of  the  two 
systems  of  holding  land  above  described.  When  land 
is  owned  by  individuals,  the  wealth  of  one  class  of  the 
community  and  the  poverty  of  the  other  increase  in 
parallel  lines,  and  in  proportion  to  the  growth  of  intel- 
lectual power  ;  but  when  land  is  collectively  appropri- 
ated, the  wealth  of  all  increases  in  proportion  to  the 
activity  of  each,  and  to  the  advance  of  civilization. 

"  Colins  has  also  developed  some  original  views  on  the 
history  of  communities,  which  have  been  reproduced 
by  M.  L.  de  Pottre  in  his  Dictionnaire  Rationnel." 

COLLECTIVISM  is  a  term  used  sometimes 
in  this  country,  but  frequently  in  France,  to  de- 
note socialism  as  distinguished  from  anarchism 
or  communism,  both  of  which  are  sometimes, 
tho  we  believe  wrongfully,  included  under  so- 
cialism. Collectivism  is  also  used  sometimes  to 
include  both  nationalism  and  socialism,  where 
some  might  make  a  difference  between  these 
two. 


Colwell,  Stephen. 


3°7 


Commerce. 


COLLEGE  SETTLEMENTS.  SeeWoM- 
EN'S  COLLEGE  SETTLEMENTS. 

COLWELL,  STEPHEN,  born  in  Virginia 
in  1800,  and  admitted  to  the  bar  in  his  native 
State,  relinquished  the  profession  of  law  to  be- 
come an  iron  merchant  in  Philadelphia,  where  he 
lived  till  his  death  in  1872.  He  studied  and  wrote 
much  on  political  economy,  being  a  protection- 
ist. He  was  a  frequent  contributor  to  the  pe- 
riodicals of  his  time.  His  best-known  work 
is  77/i?  Ways  and  Means  of  Commercial  Pay- 
ment, published  in  1858.  In  it  he  attempts  to 
give  a  full  analysis  of  the  credit  system,  and 
contends  that  error  has  always  been  made  in 
not  distinguishing  between  money  of  gold  and 
silver,  and  forms  of  credit.  His  work  is  also 
valuable  because  of  its  historical  inquiry  into 
the  growth  of  the  credit  system,  and  reveals 
throughout  independence  of  thought  and  re- 
search. He  refused  to  accept  the  view  that  the 
quantity  of  money  is  the  controlling  factor  in 
determining  prices.  In  1865  he  was  appointed 
a  member  of  the  revenue  commission,  and  in 
the  year  following  made  a  valuable  report  on 
taxation.  Among  his  more  extended  writings 
may  be  mentioned  The  Relative  Position  in 
our  Industry  of  Foreign  Commerce,  Domestic 
Production,  and  Internal  Trade  (Philadelphia, 
1850),  and  an  American  edition  of  Frederick 
List's  National  System  of  Political  Economy 
(Philadelphia,  1856),  for  which  he  wrote  a  prelim- 
inary essay.  His  other  writings  of  economic 
interest  are  The  Claims  of  Labor,  and  their 
Precedence  to  the  Claims  of  Free  Trade  ;  Gold, 
Banks,  and  Taxation  and  State  and  National 
Systems  of  Banks,  Expansion  of  the  Cur- 
rency, the  Advance  of  Gold,  and  the  Defects 
of  the  Internal  Revenue  Bill  of  June,  1864. 

COMBINATIONS.  See  MONOPOLIES  ; 
STRIKES. 

,  COMMERCE  (from  Latin  com,  together,  and 
•  mercari,  to  trade)  is  sometimes  used  for  the  in- 
terchange of  any  goods  or  property,  but  more 
correctly  for  the  interchange  of  goods  on  a 
large  scale  and  between  different  countries  or 
different  portions  of  one  country. 

The  first  race  to  carry  on  commerce  on  a 
large  scale  was  the  Phoenician,  first  in  Tyre 
and  Sidon,  and  then  in  the  Phoenician  colony 
of  Carthage.  Much  of  the  commerce  of  Rome 
was  tribute  rather  than  trade.  With  the  break- 
ing up  of  the  Roman  Empire  commerce  lan- 
guished till  the  rise  of  the  free  cities  of  Italy, 
Venice,  Florence,  and  Pisa.  Commerce  was 
also  much  quickened  by  the  crusades.  The  free 
cities  of  Germany  and  the  Netherlands,  which 
formed  the  Hanseatic  League,  created  a  still 
greater  commerce.  The  introduction  of  the 
mariner's  compass  into  Europe  in  1302  and  the 
discovery  of  the  New  World  and  of  the  Cape  of 
Good  Hope  vastly  developed  commerce,  particu- 
larly in  Spain,  Portugal,  and  England,  and  later 
in  the  Netherlands.  By  the  seventeenth  cen- 
tury Spain  and  Portugal  had  lost  their  prestige, 
and  England  has  become  the  great  commercial 
nation  of  the  world.  In  medieval  times  com- 
merce was  greatly  restricted  by  dues,  taxes,  and 
laws.  After  the  discovery  of  the  New  World, 


governments  tried  to  favor  commerce  by  grant- 
ing monopolies,  trading  privileges,  etc.,  often 
doing  more  harm  than  good.  Since  the  begin- 
ning of  the  present  century  laissez  faire  has 
been  the  general  policy.  But  see  PROTECTION. 

Enormous  strides  have  been  made  within  this 
century  in  the  development  of  commerce.  At 
the  beginning  of  the  century  men  lived  to  a 
very  large  extent  in  isolated  communities.  Only 
a  few  good  roads  existed.  Even  in  England 
rivers  rather  than  roads  were  the  channels  of 
commerce.  It  took  many  days  to  go  from  Edin- 
burgh to  London  in  the  speediest  way.  When 
the  battle  of  Waterloo  was  fought  (1815)  it  took 
three  days  for  the  news  to  arrive  in  London. 
Dr.  Atkinson  as  late  as  1847  was  eight  months 
in  going  from  New  England  to  Oregon  ;  he 
returned  in  six  days.  Foreign  commerce  was 
largely  limited  to  voyages  made  by  ships  fitted 
out  or  chartered  for  the  special  trip,  and  often  a 
commercial  venture  of  the  captain  himself. 
Each  nation  and  each  section  of  the  nation  had 
to  raise  its  own  food.  Hence  the  failure  of  a 
crop  in  one  locality  meant  a  famine,  and  famines 
were  numerous.  To-day  the  world  has  become 
a  single  market.  The  use  of  steam  as  a  motor 
power  on  land  and  sea,  and  the  use  of  electricity 
for  conveying  intelligence  has  revolutionized 
commerce.  Merchants  in  England  make  pur- 
chases in  India  the  same  day,  and  on  the  next 
day  the  purchased  goods  start  on  their  journey. 
The  Suez  Canal  has  reduced  the  voyage  between 
London  and  Calcutta  to  30  days  instead  of  200. 
It  has  destroyed  2,000,000  of  tonnage.  Fresh 
fruit,  raised  in  California,  is  sold  in  London. 
Fresh  meat  is  carried  from  New  York  to  Liver- 
pool for  one  cent  a  pound.  Boxed  meats  have 
been  carried  from  Chicago  to  London  at  one 
half  a  cent  a  pound.  The  productions  of  North 
America,  South  America,  Australia,  Russia,  and 
Egypt  battle  for  the  English  market.  It  has 
been  calculated  that  railways  have  added  to  the 
power  of  the  human  race  a  force  somewhat 
greater  than  that  of  a  horse  working  12  days 
for  every  inhabitant  of  the  globe.  It  cost  $10 
in  1887  to  do  railroad  service  which  before  the 
railroad  would  have  cost  $200,  and  therefore 
usuallv  was  not  done  (Wells'  Recent  Economic 
Changes}.  In  1879  the  railways  of  Great  Brit- 
ain conveyed  629,000,000  passengers  (Mulhall). 
Says  Dr.  Strong,  in  Our  Country : 

"  Any  one  as  old  as  the  nineteenth  century  has  seen  a 
very  large  proportion  of  all  the  progress  in  civilization 
made  by  the  race.  When  seven  years  old  he  mighj 
have  seen  Fulton's  steamboat  on  her  trial  trip  up  the 
Hudson.  Until  20  years  of  age  he  could  not  have 
found  in  all  the  world  an  iron  plow.  At  30  he  might 
have  traveled  on  the  first  railway  passenger  train. 
Fifty  years  later  the  world  had  220,000  miles  of  railway. 
For  the  first  33  years  of  his  life  he  had  to  rely  on  the 
tinder-box  for  fire.  He  was  38  when  steam  communi- 
cation between  Europe  and  America  was  established. 
He  had  arrived  at  middle  life  (44)  when  the  first  tele- 
gram was  sent.  Thirty-six  years  later  the  world  had 
604,000  miles  of  telegraph  lines." 

Nor  is  the  tide  of  progress  ceasing.  It  has 
increased  almost  more  in  the  latter  portion  of 
the  century  than  the  first.  Steamers  construct- 
ed in  1870  to  1873  were  largely  displaced  in  1876 
or  sold  at  half  price.  Freight  rates  on  grain 
from  Bombay  were  32.5  cents  per  bushel  in  1880 
and  16.2  cents  in  1885.  In  1870,  47  hands  were 
employed  for  every  1000  tons  capacity  entered  or 


Commerce. 


308 


Commerce. 


cleared  in  the  British  mercantile  marine  ;  in  1885 
only  27.7  hands  were  necessary.  In  1860,  12 
cents  were  the  lowest  rate  that  lasted  for  any 
time  for  transporting  a  bushel  of  grain  from 
New  York  to  Liverpool  ;  but  in  1885  the  aver- 
age rate  was  5  cents.  The  average  charge  for 


moving  one  ton  of  freight  by  rail  in  the  United 
States  was  2|  cents  in  1869,  and  1.06  in  1887 
(Wells'  Recent  Economic  Changes).  Perhaps, 
however,  the  best  indication  of  the  growth  and 
importance  of  commerce  is  in  the  following 
tables  : 


AGGREGATE  VALUE  OF  IMPORTS  AND   EXPORTS   FOR  VARIOUS   COUNTRIES  IN  MILLIONS  OF 
POUNDS  STERLING,  ACCORDING  TO  MULHALL'S  DICTIONARY  OF  STATISTICS. 


1720. 

I750* 

1800. 

1850. 

1860. 

1870. 

1880. 

1889. 

67 

698 

8 

36 

I  -JO 

q67 

8 

48 

118 

Holland  and  Belgium  

6 

8 

61 

86 

136 

United  States  

17 

62 

136 

l65 

308 

62 

103 

228 

576 

1,024 

The  World                      

88 

832 

1,489 

The  trade  of  the  world  in  millions  ot  pounds 
sterling  is  given  by  Mulhall  as  : 

Merchan- 
dise Im- 
ported for 
.  Consump- 
tion per 
Capita. 

DOMESTIC  MER- 
CHANDISE. 

Imports 
and  Ex- 
ports of 
Merchan- 
dise Car- 
ried in 
American 
Vessels. 

Imp 

jrts.          Exports. 
YEARS 

Exports, 
per  Cent. 

Exports  of 
Agricul- 
tural Prod- 
ucts (per 
Cent  of 
Total  Ex- 
ports.) 

228               8,301 
787              12,157 
771                8,961 

The  total  imports  and  export 
per  inhabitant  have  been,  accoi 

s  of  Great  Britain 
•ding  to  Mulhall  :      jf^' 

,    .    j      1869! 
*   •*•    *      1870. 

$ 

10.44 

9-33 
0-45 
i.  06 
2.65 
3-8o 
5.91 
3.26 
1.97 
0.29 
9.49 

Q.2I 
8.99 
•51 

.68 

.64 
.05 
.16 

•  32 

.89 
•65, 

.88 

10 

•35 
•36 

•44 
.64 
9.32 

i 

&7-73 
7.29 
7.29 
9-77 
0.83 

o.SS 
2.12 

3.31 
1.36 
1.64 
2.72 
4-39 
4.29 
6.43 
7.23 

3-97 
4.98 
3.20 
2.94 
1.  60 
1.98 
1.40 
1.52 
3-50 
3.63 
5-53 
2.44 

2-73 

75-34 
70.19 

75-35 
78.40 
70.74 

74-13 
76.10 

79-37 
76.95 
71.67 
72.63 
77.07 
78.12 
83.25 
82.63 

75-^1 
77.00 
73-98 
72.96 
72.82 
74.40 

73-23 
72.87 

74-51 
73-69 
78.69 
74-°5 
72.28 

Per  Cent. 
33-87 
35-u 
33-i8 
35-59 
31-87 
29-I5 
26.37 
27.17 
26.21 
27.67 
26.91 
26.31 
22.99 

17-43 
16.49 
15-77 
16.04 
17.16 
15-29 
iS-S^ 
14.30 
13.98 
14-34 
12.87 
12.46 
12.34 
11.54 
13.30 

1687  

I         0         2           TQ7- 

1874. 

1810     .         

1820  

1840                                

iSso 

!86o                 

1870                  

1880  

23         <       .              T«»^ 

Tftfir* 

1886. 
The  total  imports  and  exports  of  the  United     ^87  . 
States  per  inhabitant  down  to  1860  were,  accord-      *gg®' 
ing  to  Mulhall  :                                                              1890! 
1891. 

1810  .   j          

£   TC 

1840... 

1850 13-5° 

1860 21.50 

1870 20.25 

1880 30.75 

1889  25.00 

From  1867-94  inclusive  the  per  capita  foreign 
commerce  of  the  United  States  is  given  by  the 
United  States  Bureau  of  Statistics  as  follows  : 

The  chief  imports  from  1826  to  1886  were  in 
millions  of  dollars  :  Sugar,  $2315  ;  coffee,  $1380  ; 
woolens,  $1710  ;  cottons,  $1245  ;  silks,  $1310  ; 
linens,  $630  ;  iron  manufactures,  $565.  The 
cnief  exports  were  :  Cotton,  $6625  ;  grain, 
$3510  ;  meat,  $1540  ;  petroleum,  $825  ;  tobacco, 
$950. 


imported  in  millions  of  dollars  is  given  by  the 
Bureau  of  Statistics  as  follows  : 


Exports. 

Imports. 

i8j.s.   . 

1855.         

218 

!865  ,  . 

166 

238 

1875.     .  .                 

1885  

1894  

8Q2 

654 

How  small  a  portion  this  foreign  commerce  of 
the  United  States  is  of  the  total  commerce  can 


Commerce. 


3°9 


Commons, 


be  seen  by  a  few  figures.  In  1890  the  total  ex- 
ports were  $857,828,684  (including  both  domes- 
tic and  foreign  exports),  but  the  total  value  of 
simply  the  articles  manufactured  in  that  year 
was  $9,372,437,283.  There  were  mined  in  that 
year  and  largely  transported,  often  a  long  ways, 
140,882,729  tons  of  coal  ;  9,202,703  tons  of  pig 
iron  were  produced.  The  three  larger  cereal 
crops  alone  were  valued  at  $1,311,255,615.  (See 
also  EXPORTS  ;  IMPORTS  ;  MANUFACTURES  ;  AGRI- 
CULTURE, etc.) 

COMMERCIAL    CRISES.     See  CRISES. 

COMMERCIAL  FAILURES.     See  BANK 

FAILURES  ;  BANKRUPTCY. 
i 

COMMON  CARRIERS.— The  law  distin- 
guishes between  private  or  special  carriers 
and  common  carriers.  By  the  former  are  meant 
persons  who  carry  persons  or  goods  not  as  a 
business,  but  only  on  occasion  or  by  special 
agreement.  Common  carriers  are  those  who 
carry  as  a  business,  inviting  the  employment  of 
the  public  generally.  The  latter  are  bound  by 
the  law  to  serve  without  favoritism  all  who  de- 
sire to  employ  them,  and  are  liable  for  the  safety 
of  all  goods  intrusted  to  them  except  by  losses 
from  the  act  of  God  or  from  public  enemies,  or 
unless  special  exemption  has  been  agreed  upon. 
In  respect  to  persons,  they  are  liable  for  injuries 
which  they  might  have  prevented  by  special 
care.  Drivers,  log  drivers,  and  others  who  do 
not  literally  carry  property  have  been  in  part 
exempted,  also  telegraph  companies.  (See 
STRIKES  ;  FRANCHISES  ;  MUNICIPALISM,  etc.) 

COMMON  LAW. — It  is  generally  consid- 
ered and  has  been  expressly  recognized  by  the 
courts  of  the  United  States  that  the  common 
law  of  England  is  the  basis  of  American  law, 
on  the  well-known  English  doctrine  ' '  that  when- 
ever a  new  and  uninhabited  country  was  found 
out  by  English  subjects,  as  the  law  is  the  birth- 
right of  every  subject,  so,  wherever  they  go, 
they  carry  their  laws  with  them,  and  therefore 
such  new-found  country  is  to  be  governed  by 
the  laws  of  England,  tho  after  such  country  is 
inhabited  by  the  English,  acts  of  Parliament, 
made  in  England  without  naming  the  foreign 
plantation,  do  not  bind  them." 

Ordinarily  in  the  United  States  those  States 
which  constitttted  the  original  thirteen  colonies 
fix  upon  the  time  of  their  settlement  as  the  date 
at  which  the  decisions  and  statutes  made  in  Eng- 
land cease  to  form  part  of  their  common  law. 
The  other  States  generally  agree  upon  the  year 
1607,  the  year  of  the  earliest  English  coloniza- 
tion. Yet  principles  which  were  established  in 
England  after  these  dates  are  in  many  cases  re- 
garded as  parts  of  our  municipal  law.  To  prove 
a  certain  principle  part  of  our  common  law  it  is 
not  now  required  that  it  should  have  been  prac- 
tically enunciated  before  1607.  If  the  principle 
involved  was  recognized  before  that  date,  it  is 
regarded  as  sufficient,  without  requiring  a  prec- 
edent for  every  practical  application  of  the  prin- 
ciple. In  short,  to  sum  up  the  varying  authority 
of  English  law  : 

"  English  precedents  prior  to  the  settlement  of  this 
country  are  looked  upon  as  of  binding  authority,  except 
jn  so  far  as  they  are  affected  by  the  peculiar  condition 


and  requirements  of  our  citizens.  Such  precedents 
rendered  subsequent  to  the  settlement  and  prior  to  our 
independence  are  viewed  with  great  deference,  but  are 
not  deemed  absolutely  conclusive.  Such  precedents 
rendered  subsequent  to  our  independence  are  account- 
ed worthy  of  respect  and  attention,  but  have  no  further 
weight  attached  to  them." 

Whatever  portions  of  the  United  States  which 
have  been  acquired  by  treaty  or  purchase  re- 
tained their  previous  systems  of  law  until  abro- 
gated by  the  proper  authorities  and  replaced  by 
new  enactments. 

The  common  law  may  be  called  an  unwritten 
one,  having  been  in  some  cases  handed  down 
as  a  mere  tendency.  In  some  particulars  the 
traditions  have  taken  definite  form,  as  in  the  law 
of  primogeniture,  the  jurisdiction  of  the  courts, 
etc.  Most  of  the  laws  have  been  developed  since 
the  last  century.  Few  are  of  great  antiquity. 
It  thus  naturally  follows  that  conflicting  deci- 
sions are  given  since  the  common  law  is  so  in- 
definite and  traditional.  It  has  never  yet  been 
systematized  to  a  regular  code.  A  court  may 
even  reverse  its  own  decision,  if  sufficient  rea- 
son is  shown  for  so  doing.  Where  all  decisions 
are  consistent  the  law  is  regarded  as  estab- 
lished. Any  single  decision  may  be  set  aside 
by  equal,  tho  not  by  inferior,  courts.  The  mari- 
time and  ecclesiastical  courts  of  England  recog- 
nize some  of  the  rules  of  the  civil  and  canon  law 
as  part  of  the  common  law.  Almost  any  long- 
established  custom  may  become  part  of  the 
common  law  in  England,  especially  if  its  prac- 
tice dates  from  about  the  reign  of  Richard  I. 

COMMONS  (see  also  LAND  ;  COMMUNES  ; 
FEUDALISM).  The  first  colonists  of  America 
divided  land  among  themselves  in  proportion 
to  the  size  of  their  families  ;  and  in  some  parts 
of  New  England  according  to  rank.  For  many 
years,  however,  in  Plymouth  pasture  lands  were 
assigned  by  lot  in  town  meetings,  and  wood  was 
cut  down  and  hauled  in  common.  The  forests 
were  for  more  than  a  century  known  as  ' '  com- 
mons." In  1710  Plymouth  comprised  over 
30,000  acres  of  common  land,  and  to-day  there 
are  still  over  200  acres  of  ' '  town  land, ' '  chiefly 
forest. 

In  the  old  town  of  Sandwich  there  is  still  a  parcel 
of  land  known  as  the  "Town  Neck."  This  is  owned 
by  a  company  of  24  proprietors,  the  descendants  or 
heirs  of  the  first  settlers  of  the  town.  Originally. the 
Town  Neck,  like  other  common  lands,  belonged  to 
the  whole  town.  In  the  town  records,  under  the 
date  May  22,  1658,  stands  the  following  note :  "  If 
an  inhabytant  wanteth  land  to  plant,  hee  may  have 
some  in  the  Towne  Neck,  or  in  the  common  for  six 
yeare  and  noe  longer."  Later,  in  1678,  April  6,  towns- 
men are  given  liberty  to  improve  Neck  lands  "noe 
longer  than  ten  yeares,  and  then  to  be  at  the  towns- 
men's ordering  againe."  In  the  year  1695  the  use  of 
the  Town  Neck  was  restricted  to  the  heirs  of  original 
proprietors,  and  the  land  was  staked  out  into  38  lots. 
The  lots  were  not  fenced  off,  and  the  whole  tract  con- 
tinued to  lie  as  a  common  field,  under  the  authority  of 
the  entire  body  of  proprietors,  like  the  arable  lands  of 
a  Germanic  village  community.  In  1695,  April  4,  it  was 
agreed  that  the  Town  Neck  should  be  improved  for 
the  future  as  a  common  field,  until  the  major  part  of 
those  interested  should  see  cause  otherwise  to  dispose 
or  improve  the  same.  The  common  fence  was  to  be 
made  up,  and  a  gate  to  be  provided  bv  May  i.  A 
field-driver  or  hay  ward  was  to  keep  the  Town  Neck 
clear  of  creatures,  and  to  impound  for  trespass.  In 
1700  it  was  voted  that  the  Neck  be  cleared  of  creatures 
by  April  16,  and  that  no  part  of  the  land  be  improved 
for  tillage  other  than  by  sowing. 

Lately,  it  has  been  proposed  to  sell  this  land  to  a 
private  company  for  the  Cape  Cod  Canal,  a  proposal 
which  the  Massachusetts  Nationalists  have  strongly 


Commons. 


310 


Communism, 


opposed.  The  above  is  only  one  instance  of  the  sur- 
vival of  communal  lands  in  New  England.  In  Salem 
there  were  10  fields  which  belonged  each  to  a  number 
of  proprietors,  who  had  individual  rights,  but  were 
subject  to  communal  authority,  a  majority  vote  being 
supreme.  They  were  tilled,  sown,  reaped  in  common. 
And  this  was  only  a  part  of  their  communism.  The 
forests  around  Salem  were  long  kept  "  for  the  com- 
mons of  the  towne,  to  serve  it  for  wood  and  timber." 
No  townsman  could  make  profit  by  exporting  the  logs 
or  lumber,  but  every  man  was  free  to  take  all  he  need- 
ed for  fencing,  fuel,  or  building  purposes.  Like  many 
other  towns,  Salem  had  large  tracts  of  meadow  land, 
where  every  man  had  liberty  to  mow.  After  the  grass 
crop  had  been  gathered,  the  cattle  of  the  town  were 
turned  into  the  meadows  to  graze.  Along  the  Connec- 
ticut River  this  custom  continued  until  quite  recent 
times.  Boston  Commons  was  thus  used  for  many  gen- 
erations. The  TownJNeck,  in  Salem,  which  is  now  a  pub- 
lic pleasure  ground,  remained  a  common  pasture  for 
milch  cows  until  lately.  At  present  there  are  300  acres 
of  common  land,  called  the  "  Great  Pastures,"  being 
the  last  remnant  of  a  vast  tract  of  4000  acres.  It  is 
owned  by  the  descendants  of  the  original  commoners. 
In  1640  the  town  voted  that  "none  of  the  commons 
within  the  cattle  range  should  be  granted  to  any  indi- 
vidual use."  Generally,  however,  the  increase  of 
population  led  to  the  gradual  breaking  up  of  the  system 
of  communism.  It  was,  however,  only  after  a  long 
contest  that  the  landless  citizens  triumphed  over  the 
village  patricians.  The  immediate  result  of  the  aboli- 
tion of  common  lands  was  very  beneficial  to  the  inter- 
ests of  the  community,  as  the  number  of  small  land- 
owners was  increased. 

It  is  not  only  in  New  England  that  traces  of  the  early- 
land  communism  appear,  but  in  all  English  or  Dutch 
settlements.  There  were  commons  in  Nantucket,  New 
York,  New  Jersey,  Delaware,  Pennsylvania,  Mary- 
land, Virginia,  and.  the  Carolinas.  Almost  everywhere 
in  the  South  certain  communal  customs  prevailed. 
Forests,  streams,  and  foot-paths  are  generally  regarded 
as  common  to  all.  The  court-greens  in  Southern 
towns  are  as  free  as  village  greens  or  commons.  An- 
napolis has  a  town  pasture  which  is  typical  of  scores 
of  others.  In  the  Southern  parishes  the  glebe  lands 
are  only  an  ecclesiastical  phase  of  the  original  commu- 
nism, separated  and  administered  by  church  boards 
for  church  purposes,  similar  to  the  town  lands  of  New 
England,  which  yielded  support  to  the  schools  and 
clergy. 

References  :  The  Survival  of  Land  Community  in 
New  England,  an  article  in  The  Nation,  January  10, 
1878,  by  W.  F.  Allen:  the  Johns- Hopkins  University 
Studies  in  Historical  and  Political  Science,  vol.  i.,  No. 
2,  on  The  Germanic  Origin  of  New  England  Towns, 
and  Nos.  9  and  10,  on  Village  Communities  of  Cape  Ann 
and  Salem. 

COMMONS,  JOHN  ROGERS,  was  born  at 
Hollandsburg,  O.,  in  1862,  educated  in  public 
schools,  .and  graduated  at  Oberlin  College. 
He  studied  political  science  at  Johns  Hopkins 
University  in  1889-90,  receiving  the  degree  of 
A.M.  from  Oberlin  in  1890.  He  became  tutor 
in  Economics  at  Wesleyan  University,  Middle- 
ton,  Conn,  1890-91  ;  Associate  Professor  of  Po- 
litical Economy  at  Oberlin,  1891-92,  and  since 
that  time  for  three  years  Professor  of  Political 
Economy  and  Social  Science  in  Indiana  Uni- 
versity, and  since  1895  in  Syracuse  University. 
Deeply  interested  in  social  reforms,  he  was  one 
of  the  founders  of  the  American  Proportional 
Representation  League  (g.v.),  and  was  active 
in  the  American  Institute  of  Christian  Sociology 
(g.v.).  He  is  author  of  Distribution  of  Wealth, 
published  by  Macmillan  (1893),  and  Social  Re- 
form and  the  Church,  published  by  Crowell  & 
Co.  (1894).  He  belongs  to  no  one  school  ex- 
cept as  holding  to  the  so-called  ethical  view  of 
political  economy.  He  favors  a  tariff  on  prod- 
ucts where  there  is  domestic  competition,  free 
trade  where  there  is  domestic  monopoly,  but 
holds  the  tariff  of  minor  importance.  He  fa- 
vors the  nationalization  and  municipalization 
of  natural  monopolies,  and  the  complete  gov- 
ernmental control  of  currency.  This  year 


(1896)  he  has  published  another  book,  Propor- 
tional Representation. 


COMMUNE 

COMMUNE. 


OF      PARIS.       See     PARIS 


COMMUNE,  COMMUNALISM,  AND 
COMMUNARDS. — A  commune  (from  Latin 
communis,  common)  is  in  general  a  community 
organized,  or  the  government  of  such  a  commu- 
nity. Under  the  Roman  Empire  every  prov- 
ince appears  to  have  had  its  own  provincial  diet 
or  assembly,  called  a  concilium  or  commune, 
and  these  are  held  by  some  to  have  been  the 
first  attempts  at  representative  assemblies.  But 
see  COMMUNISM  ;  MIR,  etc.  In  the  Middle  Ages 
many  cities  and  towns  formed  confederacies  of 
citizens,  and  all  such  confederacies  of  towns  or 
provinces  were  called  communes.  We  read  of 
the  Commune  of  Florence,  the  Commune  of 
Paris,  etc.  In  France  especially  these  communes 
at  one  time  developed  very  considerable  power 
and  obtained  large  rights  which  they  gradually 
lost  under  the  centralizing  tendencies  of  the 
government  of  the  Louis.  Beginning  with  the 
Revolution,  however,  there  has  been  a  constant 
agitation  for,  and  some  serious  insurrections  in 
order  to  gain,  the  supremacy  of  the  old  com- 
munes. This  has  led  to  a  theory  particularly 
popular  in  France,  which  would  make  the  com- 
mune the  political  and  social  center,  and  do 
away  with  all  central  government  save  a  loose 
federation  of  communes.  This  was  the  ideal  of 
Bakounin  (g.v.),  and  is  the  view  of  most  anar- 
chist communists.  (See  ANARCHISM,  section 
*  "  Anarchist  Communism.")  It  was  this  theory 
that  largely  led  to  the  rising  of  the  Paris  Com- 
mune (g.v.)  in  1871.  One  who  advocates  this 
view  is  sometimes  called  a  communard,  tho  this 
phrase  has  been  particularly  appropriated  for 
the  supporters  of  the  Paris  Commune.  Profes- 
sor R.  T.  Ely  and  other  writers,  however,  pre- 
fer the  word  comimtnalist  for  the  believer  in 
this  theory.  (See  also  COMMUNISM  ;  PARIS  COM- 
MUNE.) 

COMMUNISM,  the  economic  theory  which 
advocates  the  total  or  partial  abolition  of  the 
right  of  private  property,  actual  ownership  be- 
ing ascribed  to  the  community  as  a  whole  or  to 
the  State.  Says  Palgrave's  Dictionary  of  Po- 
litical Economy  : 

"  Communism  is  the  theory  which  teaches  that  the 
labor  and  the  income  of  society  should  be  distri- 
buted equally  among  all  its  members  by  some  con- 
stituted authority.  For  an  example  of  what  commu- 
nists mean  by  equal  division  of  labor  and  income,  the 
following  explanation  may  suffice :  '  Here  equality 
must  be  measured  by  the  capacity  of  the  worker  and 
the  need  of  the  consumer,  not  by  the  intensity  of  the 
labor  and  the  quantity  of  things  consumed.  A  man 
endowed  with  a  certain  degree  of  strength,  when  he 
lifts  a  weight  of  10  Ibs.,  labors  as  much  as  another  man 
with  five  times  the  strength  when  he  lifts  50  Ibs.  He 
who,  to  satisfy  a  burning  thirst,  swallows  a  pitcher  of 
water,  enjoys  no  more  than  his  comrade  who,  but 
slightly  thirsty,  sips  a  cupful.  The  aim  of  the  com- 
munism in  question  is  equality  of  pains  and  pleasures, 
not  of  consumable  things  and  workers'  tasks  '  (Buon- 
arroti, Conspiration  de  Babeuf,  i.  297)." 

Says  John  Stuart  Mill  {Political  Economy, 
Book  II.,  chap,  i.) : 

"  The  assailants  of  the  principle  of  individual  prop- 
erty may  be  divided  into  two  classes :  those  whose 
scheme  implies  absolute  equality  in  the  distribution  of 


Communism. 


Communism. 


the  physical  means  of  life  and  enjoyment,  and  those 
who  admit  inequality,  but  grounded  on  some  principle, 
or  supposed  principle,  of  justice  or  general  expediency, 
and  not,  like  so  many  of  the  existing  social  inequalities, 
dependent  on  accident  alone.  At  the  head  of  the  first 
class,  as  the  earliest  of  those  belonging  to  the  present 
generation,  must  be  placed  Mr.  Owen  and  his  fol- 
lowers. M.  Louis  Blanc  and  M.  Cabet  have  more  re- 
cently become  conspicuous  as  apostles  of  similar  doc- 
trines (though  the  former  advocates  equality  of 
distribution  only  as  a  transition  to  a  still  higher 
standard  of  justice,  that  all  should  work  according  to 
their  capacity,  and  receive  according  to  their  wants). 
The  characteristic  name  for  this  economical  system  is 
communism,  a  word  of  continental  origin,  only  of  late 
introduced  into  this  country.  The  word  socialism, 
which  originated  among  the  JEnglish  communists,  and 
was  assumed  by  them  as  a  name  to  designate  their 
own  doctrine,  is  now,  on  the  Continent,  employed  in  a 
larger  sense  ;  not  necessarily  implying  communism, 
or  the  entire  abolition  of  private  property,  but  applied 
to  any  system  which  requires  that  the  land  and  the 
instruments  of  production  should  be  the  property,  not 
of  individuals,  but  of  communities  or  associations,  or 
of  the  government." 

This  is  probably  the  best  use  of  the  word,  tho 
there  is  some  authority  for  using  the  word  ' '  com- 
munism" simply  as  identical  with  extreme  and 
radical  socialism.  It  is  unnecessary,  however, 
to  use  two  words  for  the  same  thing,  and  com- 
munism is  being  limited  more  and  more  by  the 
best  writers  to  apply  to  that  school  of  socialists 
who  believe  in  holding  all  property  in  common, 
except  the  merest  personal  effects,  and  giving 
to  every  man  equally,  in  contradistinction  to 
socialists,  who  would  only  have  capital,  or  the 
means  of  production,  in  common. 

HISTORY. 

Communism  has  always  existed,  to  more  or  less  an 
extent.    According  to  Laveleye  (q.v. ;  see  also  PROPER- 
TY) and  many  other  sociologists,  communism  was  the 
earliest  known  form  by  which  property 
was  held,  as  evidenced  in  existing  con- 
Primitive    ditions  among  the  North  American  Ind- 
ri     uuvo    jans  an(j  most  savages,  and  as  witnessed 
Communism,  to  by  the  Russian  Mir,  the  Javan  Dessa, 
and  many  other  Asiatic  and  European 
survivals  from  primitive  forms.    This 
has   been    strenuously  denied    by  some    authorities, 
notably  by  Fustel  des  Coulanges  ;  the  denial  is  more 
apparent  than  real,  since  they  admit  that  property  was 
held  by  some  great  chief  or  strong  man  for  the  com- 
munity fraternally  or    feudally  rather   than    in   the 
ordinary  sense  or  private  property.     The  Buddhist 
monasteries,  where  the  devotees  renounced  marriage 
and  property,  are  another  early  communistic  attempt. 
Pythagoras,   Plato  and  Aristotle    and    other    Greeks 
largely    favored    communism.      (See    PLATO ;    ARIS- 
TOTLE.)   Some  of  the  Jews,  the  Essenes  and  Thera- 
peutae  taught  and  practised  communism.    (See   ES- 
SENES.   See  also  PROPERTY.) 

The  early  Christian  Church  was,  in  places  at  least, 
undoubtedly  largely  communistic.  (See  CHURCH  AND 
SOCIAL  REFORM.)  We  are  distinctly  told  of  the  first 
Christian  church  at  Jerusalem,  that  they  had  all  things 
in  common.  It  was,  however,  a  perfectly  voluntary 
communism.  Christians  were  not  required  to  renounce 
private  property.  Peter  said  to  Ananias  of  the  price 
of  his  land,  part  of  which  Ananias  had  kept  back — 
"  While  it  remained  was  it  not  thine  own,  and  after  it 
was  sold,  was  it  not  in  thine  own  power?"  Yet  the  fact 
remains  that,  led  by  the  power  of  love,  some  early  Chris- 
tians did  practise  communism.  After  the  third  cen- 
tury the  Church  became  a  much  more  worldly  power, 
but  in  the  fourth  century  the  communistic  tendency 
developed  into  the  communistic  monarchism  of  the 
anchorites  and  monks.  Ever  since  there  have  been 
various  communistic  orders  and  sects  appearing  in 
the  Christian  Church— the  Humiliates ; 
the  Beghards  and  Beguines  ;  the  various 
Modipval  mendicant  orders  of  the  Middle  Ages: 
m  l  the  Brethren  of  the  Free  Spirit,  in  the 

tommumsm.  thirteenth  century ;  the  Adamites,  dur- 
ing the  Hussite  wars.    This  last  advo- 
cated the  community  of    women,   and 
some  of  the  other  sects  and  orders  degenerated  into 
disorder  and  excesses  ;  but,  on  the  whole,  considering 


the  ages  in  which  they  appeared,  they  usually  stood 
for  the  purest  and  most  vital  Christianity  of  their 
times.  Often  these  communities  of  brotherly  love 
were  the  only  spots  of  quiet  in  the  darkness  and  blood- 
shed of  lawless  ages.  (See  MONASTICISM  and  MIDDLE 
AGES.) 

The  Reformation  developed  a  new  impulse  toward 
communism,  as  indeed  has  been  the  case  with  every 
new  religious  movement.  The  Peasant  War  in  Germany 
was  largely  an    outcome  of    the  com- 
munistic idea  working  out  among  the 
peasantry,    but    the    influence    mainly    rnv. 
appeared    in   the    organization    of   the 
Heavenly  Prophets,  by  Storch,  the  Ana-        mation. 
baptists  in  Munster,  the   Libertines  of 
Geneva,  the  Familists  of  Holland  and 
England,  and  the  Buchanites  of  Scotland.    The  com- 
munistic principle  is  also    present   in  a  purer  form 
among  the  Herrnhuters  (Moravians)  and  in  some  com- 
munities of    Auvergne.     In  Germany  many  commu- 
nistic   sects  arose    in    the   eighteenth  century.     (See 
ANABAPTISTS;  PEASANT'S  WAR  ;  MORAVIANS,  etc.) 

The  eighteenth  century  also  saw  a  wave  of  com- 
munistic thought  in  France.     Morelly  (q.v.),  in  his  Code 
de  la  Nature  (1755),  taught  that  man  naturally  pos- 
sesses every  virtue,  and  is  only  depraved  by  bad  in- 
stitutions, the  chief  of  which  is  private 
property.    He  declared  that  it  would  be 
"  in  conformity  with  the  intentions  of          The 
nature,"  if  every  citizen  contributed  to  T?:,,>1toanf>i 
the  resources  of  the  State,  in  accordance  -""o1 
with  his  strength,  talents,  and  age,  and     Century, 
in  return  were  wholly  maintained  at  the 
public  expense.     Mably  (q.v.),  who  was 
a  brother  of  Condillac,    endeavored   to  show,   in  op- 
position to  Mercier  de  la  Riviere  (q.v.),  that  private 
property  in  land  is  not  the  natural  and  necessary  basis 
of  society.    On  the  contrary,  he  said,  society  could  ex- 
ist without  property,  as  is  proved  by  the  cases  of  Sparta, 
the  Jesuits  in  Paraguay,  and  the    monastic  orders  ; 
while  the  establishment  of  property  in  land  and  in- 
equality  of  condition  has  been  the  great  source  of 
avarice,  ambition,  and  vanity. 

Babeuf  (q.v.)  and  his  fellow-conspirators  of  1796,  call- 
ing themselves  the  "Equals,"  were  the  most  remark- 
able representatives  of  this  thought.  In  the  Babouvist 
Utopia,  as  described  by  Buonarroti,  every  one  is  al- 
lotted two  different  occupations,  the  one  light  and  the 
other  hard.  To  give  variety  and  change  of  scene,  all 
are  employed  by  turns  in  the  transport  and  postal 
services.  Those  who  will  not  work  are  treated  as 
thieves.  Education,  carried  on  in  vast  boarding- 
schools,  subordinates  the  family  to  national  life.  Dis- 
tribution is  to  follow  the  strictest  equality.  In  Eng- 
land Robert  Owen  is  the  great  teacher  of  communism ; 
but  for  his  views,  see  OWEN. 

COMMUNISM  IN  AMERICA. 

The  history  of  American  communism  divides  itself 
into  three  portions  :  Religious,  Fourierite,  and  what 
may  be  called,  for  lack  of  a  better  name,  Secularist 
Communisms.  The  religious  communities  were  the 
first,  and  have  been,  on  the  whole,  the  largest  and  the 
most  successful.  The  Fourierite  communities  have 
been  the  most  brilliant.  The  secularist  communities 
have  been  the  most  varied  and  the  most  numerous. 

Many  of  the  early  colonists  practised  principles  and 
forms  somewhat  communistic.    Both  at  Plymouth  and 
Jamestown  some  land  was    held    in   common.     (See 
COMMONS.)     The    Labadists  in    Maryland  (1684-1722), 
Johann  Kelpius'  colony  of  "The  Woman  in  the  Wilder- 
ness,"  in  what  is    now    Philadelphia   (1605-1704),  the 
Dunker  celibates  at  Ephrata  in  Lancaster  County,  Pa. 
(1713),  and  a  community  at  Snowhill,  near  Harrisburg, 
Pa.   (1820),  all  practised    more    or    less    communism. 
Better  known  are  the  Shakers  (q.v.\  or  more  exactly, 
the   Shaking    Quakers,    followers  of    "  Mother"  Ann 
Lee.      Their    first    establishment,    Mt.     Lebanon,    in 
Columbia  County,    N.  Y.,  is    still  the   home  of   the 
strongest    Shaker    settlement    in    the    land,    existing 
and  growing    in    wealth     to-day,    after  a  history  of 
104  years,   a  living  contradiction    to  those   who   con- 
sider communism  utterly  beyond  the  pale  of  practi- 
cality.   Living  in  groups  or  families,  quietly,   work- 
ing in  common  for  the  good  of  all,  and 
practising  equal   enjoyment    of    what- 
ever is  produced,  economic  failure  they     Religiout 
have  never  known,  and  to  the  future  PA™  muni  cm 
they  look   forward   with  stedfast  hope.  Communism. 
Their  religious  tenets  we  cannot  here 
discuss.    Suffice    it    to    say  they  enter 
upon  their  communal  life   with  religious  conviction, 
and  carry  it  on  in  a  spirit  of  the  deepest  duty.    That, 


Communism. 


312 


Communism. 


however,  the  Shaker  communities  are  a  complete  suc- 
cess we  by  no  means  believe  ;  that  they  will  continue 
to  endure  we  are  more  than  doubtful.  Their  religious 
spirit  and  their  character  of  faithfulness  and  honesty 
have  been  their  safeguard.  The  latter  will,  doubtless, 
remain  with  the  faithful  few,  but  how  if  advancing 
thought  and  education  undermine  their  religious 
faith,  and  men  and  women  decline  to  become  followers 
of  Ann  Lee?  Already,  in  spite  of  economic  success, 
their  communities  seem  slowly  dwindling.  (See  SHA- 
KERS.) 

Next  in  age,  and  perhaps  next  in  importance  among 
the  religious  communists,  stand  the  Harmonists,  or  the 
followers  of  George  Rapp.  George  Rapp  was  born  in 
Wiirtemberg  in  1757,  ar>d  came  to  this  country  with  a 
little  band  of  followers  in  1803.  Settling  first  in  Penn- 
sylvania, they  moved  soon  to  Harmony,  Ind.,  and, 
later,  in  1824,  selling  out  to  Robert  Owen,  they  went  to 
Economy,  near  Pittsburg.  Practising  celibacy,  they 
are  dependent  upon  converts  for  numerical  growth, 
and  converts  do  not  come.  Their  communism  is  also 
a  part  of  their  religion  and,  as  they  believe,  the  con- 
sequence of  Christianity.  It  makes  them  faithful, 
honest,  successful,  but  the  spirit  of  to-day  hungers  for 
something  larger  than  the  straitened  tenets  of  these 
German  dissenters. 

They  are  to-day  enormously  wealthy,  largely 
i through  investments  of  their  first  earnings;  but  the 
number  of  the  society  is  very  small,  most  or  those  now 
living  at  Economy  simply  being  hired  workers,  and 
already  there  is  talk  of  ending  the  community.  (See 
ECONOMY.) 

_Wurtemberg  seems  to  have  been  prolific  in  commu- 
nists. In  1817,  persecuted  in  their  home,  there  came  to 
this  country  a  little  band  of  Separatists,  as  they  called 
themselves,  led  by  Joseph  Baumeler,  and  with  the  as- 
sistance of  some  Quakers  purchased  land  at  Zoar,  in 
Pennsylvania,  where,  practising  communism,  they  ex- 
ist to-day,  prosperous  and  rich.  Zoar  and  Amana — 
the  latter  being  in  Iowa — are  the  strongest  communis- 
tic societies  in  the  United  States,  excepting  only  the 
Shakers.  Among  Separatists  marriage  is  allowed,  and 
they  number  now  some  300  or  400  souls.  Professor 
R.  T.  Ely  gave  their  wealth  in  1886  as  $1,500,000,  or  a 
per  capita  wealth  of  $5000,  against  the  average  per 
capita  wealth  of  the  United  States,  which  is  not  over 
$1000.  Who  shall  say  that  communism  cannot  finan- 
cially succeed?  (See  ZOAR.) 

Next  to  Zoar  comes  Amana,  another  German  col- 
ony of  a  sect  beginning  in  the  Fatherland  in  the  eigh- 
teenth century,  but  not  attaining  strength  till  1817, 
when  Christian  Metz  became,  as  he  believed,  an  "in- 
strument" of  revelation  to  lead  his  followers  on  to  a 
higher  and  a  communal  life.  They  came  to  this  country 
in  1842  and  settled  near  Buffalo,  N.  Y.,  whence  they  re- 
moved to  Ebenezer  and  later  to  Amana,  in  Ohio,  in 
1855.  Amana  is  not  a  village,  but  a  plain  with  seven 
villages  all  tied  together  in  the  bonds  of  communism. 
The  Amana  community  believes  in  marriage  and  the 
family,  and  is  upon  the  whole  perhaps  the  broadest 
and  most  attractive  existing  communism  in  America. 
This  community  too  is  to-day  very  wealthy.  (See 
AMANA.) 

Among  religious  communities  must  undoubtedly  be 
included  the  Oneida  Community,  or  the  "  Perfection- 
ists," established  by  John  Humphrey  Noyes,  at  Oneida, 
N.  Y.,  in  1847,  with  a  smaller  community  at  Walling- 
ford.  Economically,  this  community  too  succeeded, 
being  wrecked  on  other  lines.  But  Noyes  believed  in 
what  he  would  call  collective  marriage.  He  claimed 
that  it  was  not  free  love,  since  the  relations  between 
men  and  women  •were  not  left  to  the  shifting  caprice  of 
love  or  of  desire,  but  were  entered  into  with  religious 
ceremony  and  thoughtfulness.  Only  one  woman  was 
not  tied  to  one  man,  or  vice  versa,  but  all  were  tied  to- 
gether. Enduring  many  years,  New  York  State  was, 
on  account  of  their  marital  practices,  at  last  made  too 
hot  for  them,  and  the  community  as  a  religious  com- 
munity dissolved  in  1881,  existing  to-day  only  as  a 
joint-stock  concern  for  the  management  of  their 
wealth.  (See  ONEIDA.) 

Such  have  been  the  main  but  by  no  means  the  only 
religious  communistic  socialists  in  the  United  States. 
Hopedale,  in  Massachusetts,  founded  by  Rev.  Adin 
Ballon  (y.v.),  a  relative  of  the  great  Universalist ; 
Brockton,  in  New  York  State,  founded  by  Thomas  L. 
Harris,  now  of  California,  and  author  of  The  New  Re- 
public :  Mountain  Cove  Community  (spiritualistic), 
with  the  home  of  the  O_akseites  in  Aurora,  in  Oregon, 
and  Bethel,  in  Missouri,  are  all  of  interest,  and  have 
endured  for  a  longer  or  shorter  time  successfully,  most 
of  them  splitting,  however,  finally  on  the  rocks  of  dis- 
cord or  of  unwise  management.  Brook  Farm  might 
t>e  considered  a  religious  community,  first  Unitarian 


or  Transcendental  and  then  Swedenborgian  ;  but  as 
it  finally  became  a  Fqurierite  phalanx,  and  belongs  to 
the  same  epoch  in  time,  we  consider  it  under  that 
head.  (See  HOPEDALE,  etc.) 

The    Fourierite    wave    of    communistic    socialism 
swept  over  this  country  from  1840-50.     In  1840  Albert 
Brisbane  published  his  Social  Destiny  of  Man,  a  pres- 
entation of  Fourierism.     In  1843  Horace  Greeley  open- 
ed the  columns  of  the  New  York  Tribune  to  the  teach- 
ings of  Brisbane,  and  socialistic  articles  appeared  in 
its  columns  at  first  once  a  week  and  then  every  day. 
There  was  a  rush  into  Fourierite  com- 
munities or  "phalanxes."    "By   1843," 
say  Noyes  in  his  American  Socialisms,  TV.,, _:,..„;_..„ 
"phalanxes  by  the  dozen  were  on  the  *°a«e«sm. 
march  for  the  new  world  of  wealth  and 
harmony."    A  paper  entitled   The  Pha- 
lanx was  started  and  edited  by  Brisbane.    In  1844  a 
national  convention  of  associations  was  held  at  Clin- 
ton Hall,   New  York    City,  with  George  Ripley  for 
president  and  Charles  A.  Dana,  Brisbane  and  Horace 
Greeley  among  the  vice-presidents. 

The  Sylvania  Association  was  the  first  phalanx,  and 
was  located  in  Lacka waxen.  Pa.  It  had  145  members 
and  owned  2300  acres  of  land.  Greeley  was  one  of  its 
officers.  It  existed  two  years  and  then  failed,  mainly 
from  lack  of  management.  There  was  said  to  have 
been  not  a  practical  farmer  among  them.  It  was  the 
type  of  most  of  the  Fourierite  communities. 

The  North  American  phalanx  was  the  most  success- 
ful, enduring  12  years.  Situated  in  Monmouth,  N.  J., 
it  commenced  in  1843  with  12  members  and  a  capital  of 
$8000.  By  1844,  it  had  77  members  and  a  capital  of 
$28,000.  In  1854  it  suffered  heavily  from  fire  and  then 
more  from  dissension,  coming  to  an  end  in  1855. 

Noyes,  in  his  book,  enumerates  34  phalanxes,  most  of 
them,  however,  too  insignificant  to  deserve  mention 
here.  Undoubtedly  the  greatest  and  best  of  them  all 
was  Brook  Farm,  near  Boston.  It  did  not  begin  as 
a  Fourierite  phalanx.  It  was  at  first  simply  a  coopera- 
tive farm  and  school  under  the  lead  of  George  Ripley. 
His  thought,  however,  fell  on  friendly  soil,  and  Bos- 
ton's culture  and  Boston's  genius  joined  the  new  enter- 
prise. Not  professedly  religious,  it  was  still  largely 
Unitarian,  or,  more  exactly,  Transcendental.  George 
Ripley,  Dr.  J.  C.  Warren,  Theodore  Parker,  Margaret 
Fuller,  and  George  William  Curtis  were  all  more  or 
less  interested,  many  of  them  being  residents.  Ralph 
Waldo  Emerson  and  Dr.  Charming  were  also  interest- 
ed, tho  not  residents.  The  Dial,  published  from  1840-44 
by  Margaret  Fuller,  was  its  main  organ.  The  best 
brains  of  Boston  delighted  to  come  here  ;  its  members 
discussed  philosophy  and  milked  cows  and  hoed  pota- 
toes, greatly  to  their  enjoyment  and  their  health,  if 
not  greatly  to  the  benefit  of  their  pockets.  In  1844  it 
became  avowedly  Fourierite  and  then  gradually  •went 
down,  partly  from  misfortune  in  having  its  central 
house  or  phalanstery  burned,  partly  because  its  inter- 
est was  spasmodic  and  not  enduring,  mainly  from 
lack  of  business  management.  In  1846  it  was  practi- 
cally at  an  end. 

The  trouble  with  all  the  Fourierite  communities  was 
that  they  were  fanciful  and  theoretical  schemes,  not 
simple  and  natural  growths.  They  had  little  definite 
religious  spirit  to  hold  them  together.  They  had  little 
business  headship.  At  the  least  discouragement  and 
misfortune  they  melted  away.  Only  religious  com- 
munism, the  facts  seem  to  prove,  can  be  successful. 

We  come  now  to  the  third  class  of  communities, 
which,  tho  the  most  numerous,  are  on  the  whole  of  the 
least  importance.      We  have   called  them    secularist 
communities,  not  because  they  all  held 
secularist  doctrines,  but  as   indicating 
their  opposition  to  any  spiritual  or  re-        Secular 
vealed  religion.    The  first  and  most  in-  Communities. 
teresting  or  these  was  New  Harmony. 
In  1824,  after  his  industrial  experiments 
at    New    Lanark,   in    Scotland,    Robert 
Owen,  who  may  be  almost  called  the  father  of  English 
socialism,   bought  as    above  related,   of  the  German 
Rappists,   Harmony,   and    calling  it  New  Harmony, 
established  his  colony.     Entering  into  land  and  build- 
ings prepared  by  the  Rappists,  some  QOO  persons  were 
gathered  from  all  portions  of  the  United  States.    Edu- 
cation was  made  prominent ;  religious  thought  was 
unfettered  ;  all  worked  for  the  good  of  all.    Hope  was 
on  every  hand.    But  there  was  no  deep  religious  bond 
of  union.    Dissensions  sprang  up.     Various  methods 
of  conducting  the  community  were  attempted,  some 
wholly  communistic,  others  only  partly  so  ;  Mr.  Owen 
was  at  one  time  sole  manager,  at  another  time  a  com- 
mittee was  elected  to  manage  the  community ;  sepa- 
ration was  tried,  to  let  different  parties  manage  affairs 
in  different  ways,  but  the  trouble  lay  not  in  the  mode 


Communism. 


313 


Communism. 


of  management,  but  in  the  lack  of  the  spirit  of  unity.  In 
1827  the  community  was  virtually  at  an  end.  (See  NEW 
HARMONY  ;  OWEN.) 

Akin  to  this,  tho  more  enduring-,  was  the  non-relig- 
ious community  of  Icaria,  established  in  1848  by  some 
French  followers  of  Cabet,  the  author  of  the  charming 
communistic  romance,  Voyage  in  Icarie.  Headed  by 
Cabet  himself,  it  numbered  at  one  time  1500  souls,  and 
for  five  or  six  years  was  successful.  Dissensions, 
however,  set  in,  and  finally  Cabet  and  170  adherents 
departed  and  removed  to  St.  Louis,  Mo.,  where  the  en- 
thusiast died  in  1856,  tho  the  community  lingered  on  till 
1895. 

Such  are  the  two  mam  non-religious  communities. 
Upon  others,  too  numerous  to  mention,  we  need  not 
dwell.  They  have  all  been  unimportant. 

Since  the  close  of  the  Fourierite  period  in  1850  there 
has  been  no  important  movement  toward  communism 
till  the  present  socialistic  impulse,  which  is  not  yet 
over,  and  which  has  produced  Kaweah  in  California, 
Topolobampo  in  Mexico,  the  Ruskin  Colony  in  Ten- 
nessee, and  other  experiments.  (See  KAWEAH  ;  TOPO- 
LOBAMPO, etc.) 

In  England  even  John  Ruskin,  in  his  St.  George's 
Community,  attempted  an  artistic  communism.  (See 
RUSKIN.)  He  says  in  his  Fors  Clavigera  :  "  For  indeed 
I  am  myself  a  communist  of  the  old  school,  reddest 
also  of  the  red." 

Concerning  communism  in  general,  Mill  says  {Politi- 
cal Economy,  book  ii.,  chap,  i.) : 

"  Whatever  may  be  the  merits  or  defects  of  these 
various  schemes,  they  cannot  be  truly  said  to  be  im- 
practicable. No  reasonable  person  can  doubt  that  a 
village  community,  composed  of  a  few 
thousand  inhabitants  cultivating  in 
Mill  On  joint  ownership  the  same  extent  of  land 
Communism  wmcn  at  present  feeds  that  number  of 
people,  and  producing  by  combined 
labor  and  the  most  improved  processes 
the  manufactured  articles  which  they 
required,  could  raise  an  amount  of  productions  suffi- 
cient to  maintain  them  in  comfort ;  and  would  find  the 
means  of  obtaining,  and  if  need  be  exacting,  the 
quantity  of  labor  necessary  for  this  purpose  from 
every  member  of  the  association  who  was  capable  of 
work. 

"  The  objection  ordinarily  made  to  a  system  of  com- 
munity of  property  and  equal  distribution  of  the  prod- 
uce, that  each  person  would  be  incessantly  occupied 
in  evading  his  fair  share  of  the  work,  points,  undoubt- 
edly, to  a  real  difficulty.  But  those  who  urge  this  ob- 
jection, forget  to  how  great  an  extent  the  same  diffi- 
culty exists  under  the  system  on  which  nine  tenths  of 
the  business  of  society  is  now  conducted.  The  objec- 
tion supposes  that  honest  and  efficient  labor  is  only  to 
be  had  from  those  who  are  themselves  individually  to 
reap  the  benefit  of  their  own  exertions.  But  how 
small  a  part  of  all  the  labor  performed  in  England, 
from  the  lowest  paid  to  the  highest,  is  done  by  persons 
working  for  their  own  benefit.  From  the  Irish  reaper 
or  hodman  to  the  chief  justice  or  the  minister  of  State, 
nearly  all  the  work  of  society  is  remunerated  by  day 
wages  or  fixed  salaries.  A  factory  operati  /e  has  less 
personal  interest  in  his  work  than  a  member  of  a  com- 
munist association,  since  he  is  not,  like  him,  working 
for  a  partnership  of  which  he  is  himself  a  member.  .  .  . 

"  Another  of  the  objections  to  communism  is  similar 
to  that  so  often  urged  against  poor  laws  :  that  if  every 
member  of  the  community  were  assured  of  subsist- 
ence for  himself  and  any  number  of  children,  on  the 
sole  condition  of  willingness  to  work,  prudential  re- 
straint on  the  multiplication  of  mankind  would  be  at 
an  end,  and  population  would  start  forward  at  a  rate 
which  would  reduce  the  community  through  succes- 
sive stages  of  increasing  discomfort  to  actual  starva- 
tion. There  would  certainly  be  much  ground  for  this 
apprehension  if  communism  provided  no  motives  to 
restraint,  equivalent  to  those  which  it  would  take 
away.  But  communism  is  precisely  the  state  of  things 
in  which  opinion  might  be  expected  to  declare  itself 
#vith  greatest  intensity  against  this  kind  of  selfish  in- 
temperance. Any  augmentation  of  numbers  which 
diminished  the  comfort  or  increased  the  toil  of  the 
mass  would  then  cause  (which  now  it  does  not)  imme- 
diate and  unmistakable  inconvenience  to  every  in- 
dividual in  the  association  ;  inconvenience  which  could 
not  then  be  imputed  to  the  avarice  of  employers,  or 
the  unjust  privileges  of  the  rich.  In  such  altered  cir- 
cumstances opinion  could  not  fail  to  reprobate,  and  if 
reprobation  did  not  suffice,  to  repress  by  penalties  of 
some  description,  this  or  any  other  culpable  self-in- 
dulgence at  the  expense  of  the  community.  The 
communistic  scheme,  instead  of  being  peculiarly  open 
to  the  objection  drawn  from  danger  of  over-popula- 


tion, has  the  recommendation  of  tending  in  an  especial 
degree  to  the  prevention  of  that  evil. 

"  A  more  real  difficulty  is  that  of  fairly  apportioning 
the  labor    of    the    community    among    its   members. 
There  are  many  kinds  of  work,  and  by  what  standard 
are  they  to  be  measured  one  against  an- 
other?   Who  is  to  judge  how  much  cot- 
ton    spinning,    or     distributing    goods  Difficulties. 
from  the  stores,  or  bricklaying,  or  chim- 
ney sweeping,  is  equivalent  to  so  much 
plowing?    The    difficulty  of    making  the   adjustment 
between  different  qualities  of  labor  is  so  strongly  felt 
by  communist  writers,  that  they  have  usually  thought 
it  necessary  to  provide  that  all  should  work  by  turns 
at  every  description  of  useful  labor  :  an  arrangement 
which,  by  putting  an  end  to  the  division  of  employ- 
ments, would  sacrifice  so  much  of  the  advantage  of 
cooperative  production  as  greatly  to  diminish  the  pro- 
ductiveness of  labor.    Besides,  even  in  the  same  kind  of 
work,  nominal  equality  of  labor  would  be  so  great  a 
real  inequality,  that  the  feeling  of  justice  would  revolt 
against  its  being  enforced.     All  persons  are  not  equal- 
ly fit  for  all  labor ;  and  the  same  quantity  of  labor  is 
an  unequal  burden  on  the  weak  and  the  strong,  the 
hardy  and  the  delicate,  the  quick  and  the  slow,  the 
dull  and  the  intelligent. 

"  But  these  difficulties,  though  real,  are  not  neces- 
sarily insuperable.  The  apportionment  of  work  to  the 
strength  and  capacities  of  individuals,  the  mitigation 
of  a  general  rule  to  provide  for  cases  in  which  it  would 
operate  harshly,  are  not  problems  to  which  human  in- 
telligence, guided  by  a  sense  of  justice,  would  be  in- 
adequate. And  the  worst  and  most  unjust  arrange- 
ment which  could  be  made  of  these  points,  under  a 
system  aiming  at  equality,  would  be  so  far  short  of 
the  inequality  and  injustice  with  which  labor  (not  to 
speak  of  remuneration)  is  now  apportioned,  as  to  be 
scarcely  worth  counting  in  the  comparison.  We  must 
remember  too  that  communism,  as  a  system  of  society, 
exists  only  in  idea;  that  its  difficulties,  at  present,  are 
much  better  understood  than  its  resources  ;  and  that 
the  intellect  of  mankind  is  only  beginning  to  contrive 
the  means  of  organizing  it  in  detail,  so  as  to  overcome 
the  one  and  derive  the  greatest  advantage  from  the 
other. 

"  If,  therefore,  the  choice  were  to  be  made  between 
communism  with  all  its  chances,  and  the  present  state 
of  society  with  all  its  sufferings  and  injustices;  if  the 
institution  of  private  property  necessarily  carried  with- 
it  as  a  consequence,  that  the  produce  of  labor  should 
be  apportioned  as  we  now  see  it,  almost  in  an  inverse 
ratio  to  the  labor— the  largest  portions  to  those  who 
have  never  worked  at  all,  the  next  largest  to  those 
whose  work  is  almost  nominal,  and  so  in  a  de- 
scending scale,  the  remuneration  dwindling  as  the 
work  grows  harder  and  more  disagreeable,  until  the 
most  fatiguing  and  exhausting  bodily  labor  cannot 
count  with  certainty  on  being  able  to  earn  even  the 
necessaries  of  life — if  this,  or  communism,  were  the 
alternative,  all  the  difficulties,  great  or  small,  of  com- 
munism would  be  but  as  dust  in  the  balance.  But  to 
make  the  comparison  applicable,  we  must  compare 
communism  at  its  best  with  the  rtgime  of  individual 
property,  not  as  it  is,  but  as  it  might  be  made. 

"  The  perfection  both  of  social  arrangements  and  of 
practical  morality  would  be  to  secure  to  all  persons 
complete  independence  and  freedom  of  action,  subject 
to  no  restriction  but  that  of  not  doing  injury  to  others  ; 
and  the  education  which  taught  or  the  social  institu- 
tions which  required  them  to  exchange  the  control  of 
their  own  actions  for  any  amount  of  comfort  or  afflu- 
ence, or  to  renounce  liberty  for  the  sake  of  equality, 
would  deprive  them  of  one  of  the  most  elevated  char- 
acteristics of  human  nature.  It  remains  to  be  dis- 
covered how  far  the  preservation  of  this  characteris- 
tic would  be  found  compatible  with  the  communistic 
organization  of  society.  No  doubt  this,  like  all  the 
other  objections  to  the  socialist  schemes, 
is  vastly  exaggerated.  The  members  of 
the  association  need  not  be  required  to  Freedom. 
live  together  more  than  they  do  now, 
nor  need  they  be  controlled  in  the  dis- 
posal of  their  individual  share  of  the  produce,  and  of 
the  probably  large  amount  of  leisure  which,  if  they 
limited  their  production  to  things  really  worth  produc- 
ing, they  would  possess.  Individuals  need  not  be 
chained  to  an  occupation  or  to  a  particular  locality. 
The  restraints  of  communism  would  be  freedom  in 
comparison  with  the  present  condition  of  the  majority 
of  the  human  race.  The  generality  of  laborers  in  this 
and  most  other  countries  have  as  little  choice  of  oc- 
cupation or  freedom  of  locomotion,  are  practically  as 
dependent  on  fixed  rules  and  on  the  will  of  others  as 
they  could  be  on  any  system  short  of  actual  slavery  : 


Communism. 


Compensation. 


to  say  nothing  of  the  entire  domestic  subjection  of  one 
half  the  species,  to  which  it  is  the  signal  honor  of 
Owenism  and  most  other  forms  of  socialism  that  they 
assign  equal  rights,  in  all  respects,  with  those  of  the 
hitherto  dominant  sex.  But  it  is  not  by  comparison 
with  the  present  bad  state  of  society  that  the  claims 
of  communism  can  be  estimated.  .  .  . 

<rlt  is  yet  to  be  ascertained  whether  the  communistic 
scheme  would  be  consistent  with  that  multiform  de- 
velopment of  human  nature,  those  manifold  unlike- 
nesses,  that  diversity  of  tastes  and  talents,  and  variety 
of  intellectual  points  of  view,  which  not  only  form  a 
great  part  of  the  interest  of  human  life,  but  by  bring- 
ing intellects  into  a  stimulating  collision,  and  by  pre- 
senting to  each  innumerable  notions  that  he  would  not 
have  'conceived  of  himself,  are  the  mainspring  of 
mental  and  moral  progression." 

For  the  Communists  of  Paris  in  1871,  see  PARIS, 
COMMUNE  OF.  (See  also  ANARCHISM;  BABEUF: 
CHURCH  AND  SOCIAL  REFORM  ;  COOPERATION  :  PROP- 
ERTY ;  PROUDHON  ;  SOCIALISM.) 

References:  Histoire  du  Sociaiisme,  by  B.  Malon 
(1879);  Life  Written  by  Himself,  by  R.  Owen  (vol.  i., 
1857 ;  vol.  i.  A.,  continuation  of  appendices,  1858) ; 
Outline  of  the  Various  Social  Systems  and  Commu- 
nities which  have  been  founded  on  the  Principle  of 
Cooperation,  by  M.  Hennell  (1844)  ;  History  of  Coopera- 
tion in  England,  by  G.  J.  Holyoake  (vol.  i.,  1875 ; 
vol.  ii.,  1879) ;  History  of  American  Socialisms,  by 
J.  H.  Noyes  (1870) ;  Communistic  Societies  of  the  United 
States,  by  C.  Nordhoff  (1875). 

COMMUNIST  ANARCHISM.  See  AN- 
ARCHISM, Section  II. 

COMMUNITIES.— A  community  may  be 
defined  in  a  general  way  as  any  body  of  per- 
sons living  together  in  one  place  or  under  one 
regime.  It  follows  that  .all  communities  are 
not  necessarily  communistic.  (For  those  that 
are  communistic,  see  COMMUNISM  ;  for  monastic 
communities,  see  MONASTICISM  ;  for  the  early 
or  primitive  communal  life,  see  PROPERTY,  also 
MIR  ;  for  various  community  experiments,  see 
AMANA  ;  BROOK  FARM  ;  ECONOMY  ;  ICARIA  ;  KA- 
WEAH  ;  NEW  HARMONY  ;  NORTHAMPTON  ;  ONEIDA  ; 
RUBBER  COLONY  ;  SHAKERS  ;  TOBOLOBAMPO,  etc.) 
It  must  not  be  forgotten,  however,  that  there  are 
communities  which  come  under  none  of  these 
heads,  but  which  consist  of  bodies  of  persons  es- 
tablishing a  new  village,  town,  or  group  of  people 
who  desire  to  live  in  a  certain  way  or  under  cer- 
tain conditions.  Often  a  company  will  be  formed 
to  buy  land,  open  it  up,  and  sell  it  to  emigrants 
or  people,  who  will  improve  it  according  to  cer- 
tain methods  or  on  certain  conditions.  Sev- 
eral important  Western  cities  and  towns  have 
arisen  in  this  way.  Greeley,  Col. ,  is  an  instance 
of  this.  Important  instances  of  colonies  which 
form  real  communities  and  are  yet  by  no  means 
communistic  are  the  Jewish  colonies  established 
in  New  Jersey  by  the  Baron  Hirsch  Fund.  The 
largest  of  these  is  Woodbine,  with  some  5000 
acres,  tilled  by  500  colonists.  Rosenhagen, 
bought  in  1882,  has  25,000  acres,  occupied  to- 
day by  about  90  families.  A  community  of  a 
different  type,  mainly  cooperative,  is  being  de- 
veloped by  Mr.  N.  O.  Nelson  at  Leclaire,  111. 
(q.v.).  There  have  been  at  various  times  at- 
tempts at  communities  of  almost  every  descrip- 
tion— vegetarian  communities,  spiritualistic  com- 
munities, cooperative  communities,  etc.  The 
large -majority  of  them,  however,  have  been  too 
ephemeral  to  deserve  separate  notice,  and  their 
condition  is  too  changeable  to  allow  of  exact 
statistics.  (See  COMMUNISM,  etc.) 

COMPENSATION.— Among  the  most  diffi- 
cult problems  arising  in  social  reform  is  the 
question  how  far,  if  at  all,  individuals  should 


be  compensated  by  Government  when  the  Gov- 
ernment decides,  for  the  public  good,  to  take  a 
business  from  them  that  they  hitherto  have  con- 
ducted under  the  permission  of  the  law.  The 
problem,  too,  is  very  different  in  different  forms 
of  industry  or  traffic.  If  railroads  are  national- 
ized, what  compensation,  if  any,  should  be  given 
to  the  present  stockholders  is  of  necessity  a 
different  question  from  the  question  what  com- 
pensation, if  any,  should  be  given  to  liquor 
manufacturers  and  sellers  when  their  business 
is  forbidden  and  their  establishments  closed. 
The  Fourteenth  Amendment  to  the  United 
States  Constitution  says  :  ' '  No  State  shall  make 
or  enforce  any  law  which  shall  abridge  the  priv- 
ileges or  immunities  of  citizens  of  the  United 
States,  nor  shall  any  State  deprive  any  person 
of  life,  liberty,  or  property  without  due  process 
of  law,  nor  deny  to  any  person  within  its  juris- 
diction the  equal  protection  of  the  laws. ' '  Under 
the  right  of  Eminent  Domain  (q.v.),  according 
to  the  first  amendment  the  Government  can  in- 
deed take  any  property  that  it  deems  necessary 
for  the  public  good,  but  only  upon  the  payment 
to  the  former  owners  of  a  fair  valuation  of  the 
property,  the  valuation  to  be  made  by  an  im- 
partial tribunal.  In  different  States  the  details 
of  the  laws  determining  the  compensation  vary, 
but  in  substantially  all  they  demand  that  the 
value  of  the  property  is  not  to  be  measured  by 
its  present  use,  but  to  be  estimated  on  the  use 
to  which  it  may  be  put,  based  on  the  uses  of 
men  of  ordinary  business  foresight  and  pru- 
dence. The  complications  that  may  arise  under 
such  laws  are  naturally  very  great. 

As  applied  to  compensation  to  liquor  manu- 
facturers and  sellers,  when  their  business  is  for- 
bidden by  a  State,  early  legal  decisions  did  not 
favor  compensation  ;  but  January  21, 1886,  Judge 
Brewer  decided,  in  the  case  of  Kansas  ex  rel. 
John  Walruff,  et  al.,  that  "  national  equity  as 
well  as  constitutional  guaranty  forbids  such  a 
taking  of  private  property  for  the  public  good 
without  compensation."  Other  similar  cases 
arising  and  being  diversely  decided  by  State 
courts  December  5,  1887,  the  Supreme  Court  of 
the  United  States  decided,  by  a  vote  of  seven 
to  one,  that  compensation  was  not  necessary, 
on  the  ground  that  all  property  held  in  this  coun- 
try is  held  under  the  implied  obligation  that  the 
owner's  use  shall  not  be  injurious  to  the  com- 
munity. The  decision  said  : 

"  The  power  which  the  States  unquestionably 
have  of  prohibiting  such  uses  by  individuals  of 
their  property  as  will  be  prejudicial  to  the  health, 
the  morals,  or  the  safety  of  the  public  is  not,  and 
— consistently  with  the  existence  and  safety  of 
organized  society — cannot  be  burdened  with  the 
condition  that  the  State  must  compensate  such 
individual  owners  for  pecuniary  losses  they  sus- 
tain by  reason  of  their  not  being  permitted  by  a 
noxious  use  of  their  property  to  inflict  injury 
upon  the  community.  ...  It  is  true  that  when 
the  defendants  in  these  cases  purchased  or  erect- 
ed their  breweries  the  laws  of  the  State  did  not 
forbid  the  manufacture  of  intoxicating  liquors. 
But  the  State  did  not  thereby  give  any  assur- 
ance or  come  under  an  obligation  that  its  legis- 
lation upon  that  subject  would  remain  un- 
changed. ' ' 

In  England  there  has  been  considerable  popu- 
lar agitation  upon  this  subject.  In  1888  Lord 


Compensation. 


Competition. 


Salisbury,  then  in  office,  introduced  a  local  gov- 
ernment bill,  of  which  an  important  feature  was 
a  provision  for  recognizing  a  vested  interest  in 
existing  liquor  licenses  by  granting  compensa- 
tion to  liquor  sellers  whose  applications  for  re- 
newals should  be  refused.  It  was  claimed  that 
the  object  of  the  bill  was  to  reduce  the  number 
of  licenses.  Mr.  Gladstone  and  the  Liberals 
strongly  opposed  the  bill,  and  it  was,  amid  much 
excitement,  after  rinding  a  dwindling  majority 
in  its  favor,  on  separate  readings,  finally  with- 
drawn. 

The  problem  of  compensation  to  the  stockhold- 
ers of  railroads  and  other  forms  of  business 
which  cannot  at  all  be  considered  "prejudicial 
to  the  health,  morals,  or  safety"  of 
the  public,  and  which  yet  may  be 
Compensa-  nationalized  or  monopolized,  is  ob- 
tion  for  vipusly  another  matter.  The  Con- 
Sociologic  stitution  evidently  calls  for  compen- 
Industries.  sation  to  the  owners  of  such  proper- 
ty at  its  full  present  and  within  rea- 
sonable limits,  prospective  market 
value.  The  fact  that  the  value  concerned  may 
consist  very  largely  of  a  franchise  originally  ob- 
tained from  the  State,  perhaps  on  terms  utterly 
unjust  to  the  State,  seems  to  make  no  legal  dif- 
ference. The  franchise  is  owned  to-day  by  the 
stockholders,  however  gained,  and  has  to-day  a 
certain  value,  however  watered.  Unless,  there- 
fore, illegal  fraud  can  be  proven,  the  owners  of 
the  property  seem  to  be  entitled  by  the  Consti- 
tution to  full  compensation.  The  more  con- 
servative friends  of  nationalizing  or  municipaliz- 
ing industries  believe  that  the  present  owners 
should  receive,  irrespective  of  how  the  value  of 
their  property  has  been  gained,  full  compensa- 
tion for  present  and  prospective  values.  They 
argue  this  both  on  the  grounds  of  equity  and  of 
expediency.  It  is  equitable,  they  say,  because 
these  people  have  invested  in  such  enterprises 
under  the  guaranty  of  the  Constitution,  and 
that  guaranty  should  be  kept  even  if  the  Gov- 
ernment did  make  a  mistake  in  granting  the 
franchise.  It  is  expedient,  they  say,  because, 
in  a  democratic  country  the  socialization  of  in- 
dustries cannot  be  effected  unless  the  people 
vote  it,  and  if  compensation  be  not  promised,  it 
will  enlist  against  the  proposal  the  interests  of 
wealthy,  influential,  and  numerous  stockholders. 
Even  when  there  has  been  dishonesty  in  the 
obtaining  of  the  franchise,  the  dishonesty  has 
usually  been  on  the  part  of  the  few  managers 
and  not  of  the  general  stockholders  ;  so  that  to 
make  the  general  stockholders  in  this  case  suffer 
would  be  doubly  unjust  and  inexpedient.  (For 
a  fuller  statement  of  this  view,  see  a  quotation 
from  Professor  Ely,  in  article  NATIONAL  MO- 
NOPOLIES.) 

On  the  other  hand,  many  radical  reformers 
hold  that  to  compensate  the  present  owners  of 
railroad  and  other  similar  stock  at  anything  like 
its  present  face  market  and  prospec- 
tive value  would  be  utterly  unjust 
Views       to  a  community  that  has  already 
Opposing     been  too  indulgent  to  the  corpora- 
Compensa-   tions,  and  would  render  nugatory 
tion.        many  of  the   purposes  for  which 
socialization  is  proposed.     At  least 
one  of  the  objects  of  the  socializa- 
tion of  industry  (see  SOCIALISM)  is  to  substitute 


a  cooperative  for  a  capitalistic  civilization.  If, 
then,  the  face  value  of  the  present  watered  and 
inflated  stock  is  to  be  given  to  the  owners  of  a 
socialized  industry,  it  will  by  no  means  lessen 
the  amount  of  capital  to  be  invested,  and  that 
amount  will  simply  go  in  some  way  to  perpetu- 
ate the  capitalistic  sum.  Thinkers  of  this  school, 
therefore,  propose,  as  does  the  Fabian  Society 
of  England,  to  grant  no  compensation,  but  to 
grant  relief  to  any  of  the  poor  stockholders  who 
may  be  reduced  to  extremity  by  the  socializa- 
tion. This  is  defended  ethically  on  the  ground 
that  the  value  of  the  stock  of  present  railway 
and  similar  corporations  has  scarcely,  in  any 
case,  been  the  result  of  real  effort  or  sacrifice  on 
the  part  of  its  holders.  It  has  been  gained,  in 
many  cases,  by  first  obtaining  from  the  Govern- 
ment, and  often  for  nothing,  large  concessions 
of  land  or  capital  ;  second,  this  original  sum  has 
been  very  largely  watered,  sometimes  50  per 
cent,  or  more.  (See  WATERED  STOCK.)  What 
work  has  been  done  on  the  railroads  has  been 
done  often  by  poorly  paid  employees ;  the 
amount  of  money  put  in  by  the  stockholders 
themselves  is  often  very  little.  Still  other  per- 
sons would  grant  some  compensation,  but  only 
as  much,  perhaps,  as  would  correspond  to  the 
money  actually  paid  in,  or,  perhaps,  to  the 
amount  for  which  the  present  plant  could  be  to- 
day replaced.  Constitutional  difficulties  would 
be  met,  by  persons  not  believing  in  compensa- 
tion, by  proving  what  probably  could  be  proved 
in  almost  all  cases,  that  the  corporation  has  in 
some  way  violated  the  terms  of  its  franchise, 
and  so  cannot  stand  upon  that. 

Still  another  school  of  thought  upon  this  point 
would  get  around  the  difficulty  by  recognizing 
it  and  having  the  government  not  buy  up  the 
railroads,  etc.,  but  build  new  roads,  and  by  com- 
petition running  out  those  managed  by  private 
corporations.  Some  would  make  this  a  way  of 
employing  the  unemployed,  of  issuing  non-inter- 
est-bearing bonds,  etc. 

Such  are  some  of  the  diverse  ways  in  which 
the  problem  is  met  to-day  by  different  men. 
See  RAILROADS  ;  NATIONAL  MONOPOLIES  ;  SO- 
CIALISM.) 

COMPETITION  (Lat.,  com,  and  petere,  to 
seek  together)  is  in  social  science  the  strife  of 
the  individual  or  of  a  group  of  individuals  to 
gain  the  utmost  possible  profit,  rent,  or  wage  in 
free  rivalry  with  other  individuals  or  groups  of 
individuals.     It  is  defined  in   Palgrave's  Dic- 
tionary of  Political   Economy  as   "the  free 
action    of  individual   self-interest."     But  this 
is  not  enough.     The  free  action  of  individual 
self-interest  may  lead  a  man  into  cooperation 
or  socialism,  the  opposites  of  com- 
petition.       The    distinctive   .char-   Definitioni 
acteristic  of  competition  is  in  its 
being  the   free   action  of    self-in- 
terest in  fair  rivalry  with  some  other  indi- 
vidual or  group  of  individuals.     One  man 
cannot  compete.     He  must  compete  with  some- 
body.   This  is  seen  in  the  derivation  of  the  word, 
from  com  and  pet  ere,  to  seek  with. 

Competition,  so  conceived,  is  held  by  most  to 
be  to-day  the  supreme  law  of  trade.  As  such 
it  is  defended  by  believers  in  present  indus- 
trial methods,  is  bitterly  condemned  by  socialist 


Competition. 


316 


Competition. 


reformers,  while  perhaps  the  majority  of  minds 
and  almost  all  political  economists  to-day,  see- 
ing evils  in  unlimited  competition,  would  mod- 
ify its  free  play,  but  not  supplant  it  by  any  other 
principle.  Still  another  school  of  thought  de- 
nies that  we  have  free  competition  to-day,  and 
declares  that  what  is  needed  to  save  us  from  our 
present  industrial  ills  is  not  less  competition,  but 
more  competition.  We  must  notice  these  four 
views  : 

I.  The  believers  in  competition  usually  assert  first 
that  it  is  the  law  of  nature,  and  they  sometimes  add 
that  it  is  "  therefore  the  law  of  God."    "Theorists  and 
sentimentalists  may  talk  as  they  will,"  say  the  believ- 
ers in  competition,     of  abolishing  the  strife  for  self  or 
the  struggle  for  existence,  the  play  of 
self-interest ;  but  the  fact  remains  that 
The  Argu-    this  principle  always  has  existed  in  the 
ment   for     world>  always  has  ruled  the  world,  has 
produced  and  exists  most  in  the  most 
Competition,  progressive  civilizations."    "  Progress," 
says  Professor  Flower  (Reply  to  an  Ad- 
dress by  the  Trades  Council,  New  Castle, 
September,  1889),  "  has  been  due  to  the  opportunity  of 
those  individuals  who  are  a  little  superior  in  some  re- 
spects to  their  fellows,  of  asserting  their  superiority, 
and  of  continuing  to  live,  and  of  promulgating  as  an 
inheritance  that  superiority."    "To  formulate  this  as 
the  immutable  law  of  progress  since  the  beginnings  of 
life    has    been,"    Mr.  Benjamin  Kidd  tells  us  (Social 
Evolution,  p.  34),  "  one  of  the  principal  results  of  the 
biological  science  of  the  century."     "  It  is,"  says  Pro- 
fessor Flower,  "  the  message  which  pure  and  abstract 
biological  research  has  sent  to  help  us  on  with  some  of 


tion  must  not  only  always  accompany  progress,  but 
that  they  must  prevail  among  every  form  of  life  which 
is  not  actually  retrograding."  Socialism,  therefore, 


Classes. 


(idem,  p.  210).  This  is  the  main  argument  urged  in  a 
hundred  forms  by  the  believers  in  competition.  Com- 
petition is  the  source  of  progress.  We  must,  therefore, 
have  competition  in  order  to  have  progress.  Theolog- 
ical writers  sometimes  add  that  this  is  the  law  of  God. 
But,  secondly,  competition  is  defended  as  working 
on  the  whole  for  the  good  of  all  classes.  Most  orthodox 
economists  take  this  position.  Professor  Fawcett 
(Political  Economy,  book  ii.,  chap,  ii.),  says  of  competi- 
tion : 

"  The  poverty  of  the  poor  is  often  attributed  to  it; 
but  we  shall  have  reason  to  show  that  it 
is  no  enemy  to  the  working  classes. 
For  the  Good  Without  it,  their  poverty  would  be  ren- 
Of  411  dered  doubly  severe  ;  for  it  is  an  active 
spirit  of  competition  which  maintains 
the  capital  from  which  the  wages  of  the 
laborers  are  paid.  Competition  be- 
friends the  W9rking  classes  in  other  re- 
spects ;  it  cheapens  commodities,  and  ensures  that  the 
maximum  of  wages  shall  always  be  paid.  Competi- 
tion is  not  confined  to  one  class ;  it  may  be  as  rife 
among  buyers  as  among  sellers,  or  among  the  em- 
ployers as  among  the  employed.  Individuals  who  have 
goods  to  sell  are  anxious  to  realize  as  large  profits  as 
possible  ;  but  when  there  is  competition,  a  trader  can- 
not be  paid  more  than  what  is  termed  a  fair  price  for 
his  goods,  because  if  he  attempts  to  obtain  more  than 
the  ordinary  price  he  will  be  undersold 
by  other  traders.  When  buyers  com- 
pete with  each  other  they  are  anxious 
to  secure  the  greatest  gains,  or,  in  other 
words,  to  buy  upon  the  best  possible 
terms  ;  and  thus,  when  buyers  are  each  intent  on  pur- 
chasing on  the  most  favorable  terms,  a  commodity  is 
sure  to  realize  what  it  is  worth.  It  therefore  follows 
that  if,  on  the  one  hand,  competition  prevents  a  trader 
obtaining  exceptionally  high  profits,  on  the  other  hand 
it  ensures  to  him  a  fair  price  for  his  goods.  Some, 
perhaps,  may  think  it  unfortunate  that  employers, 
stimulated  by  a  desire  to  realize  the  largest  gains, 
should  seek  to  engage  their  laborers  on  the  lowest 
possible  terms.  _  But  such  conduct  upon  the  part  of  the 
employers  inflicts  no  injury  upon  the  laborers  ;  for 
whenever  there  is  activity  of  competition,  an  individu- 
al manufacturer  or  trader  is  as  powerless  to  get  labor- 
ers to  work  for  him  at  less  than  the  ordinary  wages  as 


Wages. 


he  would  be  to  buy  cotton  at  a  cheaper  rate  than  his. 
fellow-manufacturers.  The  price  of  cotton  is  main- 
tained because  there  are  those  who  are  anxious  to 
purchase  it ;  the  rate  of  wages  is  also  maintained  by 
those  who  are  anxious  to  purchase  labor.  Competi- 
tion, consequently,  exerts  no  tendency  to  reduce  prof- 
its or  wages  ;  the  tendency  is  rather  one  of  equaliza- 
tion." 

Another  form  of  the  same  argument  is  that  competi- 
tion works  for  the  good  of  all  because  it  tends  to  make 
each  one  and  each  nation  do  what  he  can  do  best. 
Where  each  individual  and  each  nation  is  striving  in  a 
free  market,  that  individual  and  that  nation  that  can 
do  given  work  or  produce  a  given  commodity  the  best 
will  win.  We  will  thus  have  the  survival  of  the  fittest. 
But  there  is  something  which  each  man  and  each  na- 
tion can  do  best.  Therefore  under  free  competition 
each  man  and  each  nation  will  do  what  he  or  it  can  do 
best,  and  all  be  benefited  by  the  exchange. 

Thirdly,  believers  in  competition  say  nothing  can  be 
substituted  for  it.  Palgrave's  Dictionary  of  Political 
Economy  says:  "It  is  difficult  even  to  imagine  upon 
what  other  principle  certain  complicated  transactions 
of  modern  trade  and  industry  could  be  regulated." 

"The  difficulty  of  finding  any  adequate  substitute 
for  it  (the  motive  of  self-interest)  is  an  almost  invinci- 
ble obstacle  in  the  way  of  reconstructing  society  on 
any  but  its  present  individualistic  basis"  (Sidgwick). 

Jevons  says  (Scientific  Primer,  ch.  vii.) :  "  There  is 
no  way  of  deciding  what  is  a  fair  day's  wages"  outside 
competition." 

Lastly,  the  believers   in  competition 
defend  it  on  the  ground  that  it  tends  to     Develops 
make  individuals  self-reliant,  indepen-  c0ifRci 
dent,  inventive,  alert,  quick  to  conceive,  oeu-.n,eiiance. 
strong  to  execute,  ready  to  dare.    They 
point  out  that  the  most  progressive  na- 
tions are  those  where  competition  has  had  the  greatest 
development. 

II.  Coming  to  the  views  of  those  who  disbelieve  in 
competition,  they,  in  the  first  place,  deny  that  competi- 
tion and  the  struggle  for  existence  is  the  only  cause  of 
progress.  Says  Charles  Kingsley  :  "  That  self-interest 
is  a  law  of  human  nature  I  know  well ;  that  it  ought  to 
be  the  root  law  of  human  society  I  deny,  unless  soci- 
ety is  to  sink  down  again  into  a  Roman  empire  and  a 
cage  of  wild  beasts."  "Competition,"  said  F.  D.  Mau- 
rice, "  is  put  forth  as  the  law  of  the  universe.  This  is 
a  lie.  The  time  is  come  to  declare  it  a  lie  by  word  and 
deed." 

That  competition  and  the  struggle  for  existence  have 
entered  into  and  do  still  enter  into  the  progress  of  the 
world,  no  one  denies;  it  is  simply  denied  that  it  is  the 
only    way    of   making    progress.      Mr. 
Xidd's  new  Social  Evolution,  that  lauds 
competition  as  '•  the  immutable  law  of     Ike  Argu- 
progress,"  is  f  ull  of  instances  of  progress          t  „_„:_..* 
in    civilization    made    by  the    spirit  of™61 
altruism  and  self-sacrifice.    Even  ani-  Competition. 
mals  (like  the  beaver  and  the  ant)  pro- 
gress by  cooperation.     Human  society- 
has  progressed  immeasurably  by  organization,  by  com- 
bination,  by    cooperation.    It  is  not  true  that  those 
States  are  the  most  progressive  where  competition  is 
the  least  controlled.    One  chief  function  of  the  State  is 
to  limit  competition,  and  when  the  State  has  reached 
the  fullest  development,  as  in  Germany,  England,  and 
America,  then  civilization  is  the  best.     Biology,  if  it 
asserts  that  competition  is  the  law  of  progress,  has 
studied  the  lower  forms  of  life  more  than  the  higher. 
It  is  almost  more  true  that  progress  is  proportional  to 
man's  escape  from  competition.    Competition  patterns 
after  the  brutes ;  cooperation  patterns  after  the  nobler 
instincts  of  humanity. 

It  is  not,  however,  claimed  by  the  disbelievers  in 
competition  that  competition  has  no  place  in  society. 
They  simply  argue  for  an  evolution  of  competition. 
Competition  does  tend  to  the  survival  of  those  most  fit 
to  compete  in  the  form  of  struggle  in  which  the  com- 
petition takes  place.  The  primitive  competition  was 
purely  physical.  Men  fought  with  bare  hands,  with 
clubs,  or  with  spears,  poisoned  arrows,  etc.  It  produced 
physical  giants— Agamemnons,  Hercules,  Nimrods. 

There  were  giants  in  those  days."  But  gradually  de- 
veloping combination,  law,  order,  the  State,  checked 
the  competition  of  force  and  replaced  it  by  a  competition 
more  intellectual.  Did  the  race  deteriorate?  No;  it 
simply  developed  a  higher  form  of  leaders,  the  Alex- 
anders, Hannibals,  Caesars,  Napoleons  of  society. 
To-day  cooperation,  combination,  arbitration  are  re- 
placing the  competition  of  conquerors  ;  competition  is 
now  industrial.  It  is  developing  leaders  in  that  form 
of  competition—"  Napoleons  of  finance" — the  Roths- 
childs, the  Jay  Goulds,  Carnegies,  Rockefellers,  etc. 


Competition. 


Competition. 


What  the  disbelievers  in  industrial  competition  ask  is 
not  that  competition  be  wholly  done  away  with,  but 
simply  that  it  be  lifted  up  to  a  higher  level.    As  the 
State  now  in  the  main  prevents  physical  competition 
and  protects  the  life  of  the  weakest  citizen,  so  they 
would  have  the  State  replace  industrial  competition 
by  fraternal  co-operation,  and  set  men  free  to  compete 
for  honor  in  art,  in  science,  in  learning.    This,  they  say, 
will  produce  not  degeneration,  but  simply  a  higher 
type  of  men.    They  deny  that  industrial  competition 
produces  the  best  citizens.    It  exists  nowhere  so  fierce- 
ly as  in  the  United  States.    What  is  the  result?    Smart 
business  men— the  "  smartest"  in  the  world.    But  are 
these    the    highest   type    of   men  ?     Says  Mr.   Bryce, 
American  Commomvealth  (part  iv.,  chap.  81) :  "  In  no 
country  does  one  find  so  many  men  of  eminent  ca- 
pacity for  business,  shrewd,  forcible,  and  daring,  who 
are  so  uninteresting,  so  intellectually  barren,  outside 
the  sphere  of  their  business  knowledge."    Industrial 
competition  produces  a  survival  of  the  industrially 
smart,  with  little  reference  to  their  morals.    Morals  do 
help  to  a  slight  extent,  but  very  slight.   Says  John  Stu- 
art Mill  (fortnightly    Review,   February,   1879)  :    "  If 
persons  are  helped  in  their  worldly  ca- 
reer by  their  virtues,  so  are  they,  and 
ri/.m-na4-;<-;Ar>  perhaps  quite  as  often,  by  their  vices ; 
Competition  £y  se^vilYty  and  sycophancy,  by  hard^ 
Does  not      hearted  and  close-fisted  selfishness,  by 
Produce  the   the  permitted  lies  and  tricks  of  trade, 
Best  ky  gambling  speculations,  not  seldom 

••••"  by  downright  knavery.  Energies  and 
talents  are  of  much  more  avail  for  suc- 
cess in  life  than  virtues  ;  but  if  one  man 
succeeds  by  employing  energy  and  talent  in  some- 
thing generally  useful,  another  thrives  by  exercising 
the  same  qualities  in  out-generaling  and  ruining  ;i  ri- 
val. It  is  as  much  as  any  moralist  ventures  to  assert, 
that,  other  circumstances  being  given,  honesty  is  the 
best  policy,  and  that  with  parity  of  advantages  an  hon- 
est person  has  better  chances  than  a  rogue.  Even 
this  in  many  stations  and  circumstances  of  life  is  ques- 
tionable ;  anything  more  than  this  is  out  of  the  ques- 
tion. It  cannot  be  pretended  that  honesty,  as  a  means 
of  success,  tells  for  as  much  as  a  difference  of  one  sin- 
gle step  on  the  social  ladder.  The  connection  between 
fortune  and  conduct  is  mainly  this,  that  there  is  a  de- 
gree of  bad  conduct,  or  rather  of  some  kinds  of  bad 
conduct,  which  suffices  to  ruin  any  amount  of  good 
fortune:  but  the  converse  is  not  true;  in  the  situ- 
ation of  most  people  no  degree  whatever  of  good 
conduct  can  be  counted  upon  for  raising  them  in 
the  world,  without  the  aid  of  fortunate  accidents." 
As  for  what  competition  means  to  the  working  class- 
es, says  Louis  Blanc,  quoted  by  Mill  in  the  above  re- 
view : 

"  What  is  competition  from  the  point  of  view  of  the 
workman?  It  is  work  put  up  to  auction.  A  contractor 
wants  a  workman  ;  three  present  themselves.  '  How 
much  for  your  work  ? '  *  Half  a  crown  ;  I  have  a  wife 
and  children.'  '  Well ;  and  how  much  for  yours?'  'Two 
shillings  ;  I  have  no  children,  but  I  have  a  wife.'  '  Very 
well ;  and  now  how  much  for  you? '  '  One  and  eight- 
pence  are  enough  for  me;  I  am  single.'  "Then  you 
shall  have  the  work.'  It  is  done  ;  the  bargain  is  struck. 
And  what  are  the  other  two  workmen  to  do  ?  It  is  to 
be  hoped  they  they  will  die  quietly  of  hunger.  But 
what  if  they  take  to  thieving  ?  Never  fear  ;  we  have 
the  police.  To  murder?  We  have  got  the  hangman. 
As  for  the  lucky  one,  his  triumph  is  only  temporary. 
Let  a  fourth  workman  make  his  appearance,  strong 
enough  to  fast  every  other  day,  and  his  price  will  run 
down  still  lower  ;  there  will  be  a  new  outcast,  a  new 
recruit  for  the  prison  perhaps  !  .  .  . 

"  Who  is  so  blind  as  not  to  see  that  under  the  system 
of  unlimited  competition,  the  continual  fall  of  wages 
is  no  exceptional  circumstance,  but  a  necessary  and 
general  fact?  Has  the  population  a  limit  which  it  can- 
not exceed?  Is  it  possible  for  us  to  say  to  industry — 
industry  given  up  to  the  accidents  of  individual  ego- 
tism and  fertile  in  ruin— can  we  say  :  '  Thus  far  shalt 
thou  go,  and  no  farther'?  The  population  increases 
constantly  ;  tell  the  poor  mother  to  become  sterile, 
and  blaspheme  the  God  who  made  her  fruitful,  for  if 
you  do  not  the  lists  will  soon  become  too  narrow  for 
the  combatants.  A  machine  is  invented  ;  command  it 
to  be  broken,  and  anathematize  science,  for  if  you  do 
not,  the  1000  workmen  whom  the  new  machine  de- 
prives of  -work  will  knock  at  the  door  of  the  neighbor- 
ing workshop,  and  lower  the  wages  of  their  com- 
panions. Thus  systematic  lowering  of  wages,  ending 
in  the  driving  out  of  a  certain  number  of  workmen,  is 
the  inevitable  effect  of  unlimited  competition.  It  is  an 
industrial  system  by  means  of  which  the  working 
classes  are  forced  to  exterminate  one  another." 

If  it  be  answered  to   this  that  such   is  not  the  fact  ; 


that  the  working  classes  are  not  exterminating  each 
other  ;  that  their  condition  has  steadily  risen  through 
the  century,  and  that  the  higher  workmen   of  England 
and  America,  for  example,  do  not  fear  the  competition 
of  China  and  India,  it  is  to  be  said,  "  Yes,  it  is  true  that 
wages  have  risen  ;  but  is  this  the  result  of  competi- 
tion?   Is  it  not  because  competition  has  to  no  little  ex- 
tent been  limited  in  England  and  America  by  trade- 
union  combination  and  factory  legislation  ?    Have  not 
higher  wages  and  shorter  hours  as  a  rule  been  forced 
from  unwilling  employer  by  organized  labor  and  by 
legislation  ?"    Until  trade-unions  were  developed,  and 
before  there  were  efficient  factory  laws,  when  com- 
petition was  unrestrained,  wages  were  lower  and  con- 
ditions more  terrible  among  working  men  than  ever 
in  English  history.     In  the  Middle  Ages  competition 
was,  somewhat  restrained  by  feudalism,  and  later  by 
monopoly  grants.    Only  in  the  latter  part 
of  the  last  century  and  first  of  this  has 
competition  been  at  all  unlimited.    Now  Competition 
of    this    period    Thorold    Rogers    says      MA«IO^TI 
(Work  and  Wages,  p.  63) :  "  1  am  con-      ^oaern.     , 
vinced  that  at  no  period  of  English  his- 
tory for  which  authentic  records  exist 
was  the  condition  of  manual  labor  worse  than  it  was 
from  1782-1821,  the  period  in  which  manufacturers  and 
merchants  accumulated  fortunes  rapidly,  and  in  which 
the  rent  of  agricultural  land  was  doubled." 

The  trouble  with  competition  is  that  it  puts  even 
those  manufacturers  and  employers  who  •would  be 
just  at  the  mercy  of  those  who  are  willing  to  do  any- 
thing for  gain.  Says  Professor  Henry  C.  Adams,  Ph.D. 
(An  Interpretation  of  the  Social  Movements  of  Our 
Time,  p.  n ): 

"  Without  legal  regulation  the  struggle  between  men 
for  commercial  supremacy  will  surely  force  society  to 
the  level  of  the  most  immoral  man  who  can  sustain 
himself.  The  fittest  to  survive  unregulated  competi- 
tion will  be  he  who  is  morally  the  least  fit  to  live.  For 
purpose  of  illustration,  suppose  10  manufacturers  com- 
peting with  each  other  to  supply  the  market  with  cot- 
tons. Assume  that  nine  of  them,  recognizing  the 
rights  of  childhood,  would  gladly  exclude  from  their 
employ  all  but  adult  labor.  But  the  tenth  man  has  no 
moral  "sense.  His  business  is  conducted  solely  with  a 
view  to  large  sales  and  a  broad  market.  As  child  labor 
is  actually  cheaper  than  adult  labor,  he  gives  it  a  decid- 
ed preference.  What  is  the  result  ?  Since  his  goods 
come  into  competition  with  the  goods  of  the  other 
manufacturers,  and  since  we  who  buy  goods  only  ask 
respecting  quality  and  price,  the  nine  men  whose  mor- 
al instincts  we  commend  will  be  obliged,  if  they  would 
maintain  themselves  in  business,  to  adopt  the  methods 
of  the  tenth  man,  whose  immoral  character  we  con- 
demn. Thus  the  moral  tone  of  business  is  brought 
down  to  the  level  of  the  worst  man  who  can  sustain 
himself  in  it." 

As  for  the  assertion  that  competition  is  necessary  to 
produce  independence,  self-reliance,  and  individual  ex- 
ertion, the  socialists  who  would  supplant  competition  by 
cooperation  do  not  argue  for  paternalism.  Says  a 
socialist  writer  :  "  Socialists  are  the  opposite  of  pater- 
nalists.  The  socialists  of  Germany,  for  example,  re- 
cently cast  1,500,000  votes  against  the  so-called  paternal 
socialism  of  the  emperor.  It  is  the  wealthy  Carnegies 
who  would  manage  all  business  and  give  of  their  for- 
tunes for  the  good  of  working  men,  who  are  the  real 
paternalists  of  the  day.  Under  democratic  socialism 
the  people  would  be  the  government,  and  work  and 
manage  for  themselves.  It  would  be  the  very  '  open 
sesame'  of  character.  Each  man  would  then  have  to 
work.  No  drones  here  ;  no  beggars  living  on  the  rich  ; 
no  wealthy  parasites  fattening  on  the  poor.  If  any 
man  refused  to  work  he  would  be  left  to  starve,  yet 
with  no  one  to  blame  but  himself,  for  every  man  would 
then  have  an  opportunity  to  work.  By  simply  doing  a 
few  hours  of  honest  work  each  day  for  a  few  years  of 
his  life  (each  man  choosing  his  own  kind  of  work,  the 
more  disagreeable  kinds  of  work  being  favored  by 
less  hours  being  demanded  in  them,  so  that  men  would 
be  found  to  choose  even  them),  every  man  would  be 
sure  of  an  honest  competence.  Does  any  man  assert 
that  this  would  not  produce  better  and  more  indepen- 
dent character  than  we  have  to-day?  No  sycophancy 
of  employee  to  employer ;  no  dependence  of  profes- 
sional men  upon  patrons ;  no  servility  of  men  of  gen- 
ius to  men  of  money.  There  would  still  be  competi- 
tion, but  for  honor,  not  for  money.  Men  would  battle 
to  see  who  should  best  serve  the  community,  and  so  be 
honored  by  their  fellow-men  ;  they  would  not  be 
forced  to  battle,  as  men  are  forced  to  battle  to-day, 
however  much  they  hate  it,  to  undercut  their  rivals, 
or  enter  into  'combines'  against  the  public.  Com- 
petition for  honor  w"ould  alone  be  appealed  to,  as  that 
alone  would  mean  success.  Mrs.  Annie  Besant  well 


Competition. 


Comte,  Auguste. 


says,  '  It  is  instructive  to  notice  that  these  very  forces 
may  already  be  seen  at  work  in  every  case  in  which 
subsistence  is  secured,  and  honor  alone  supplies  the 
stimulus  to  action.  The  soldier's  subsistence  is  cer- 
tain, and  does  not  depend  on  his  exertions.  At  once 
he  becomes  susceptible  to  appeals  to  his  patriotism,  to 
his  esprit  de  corps,  to  the  honor  of  his  flag  ;  he  will 
dare  anything  for  glory,  and  value  a  bit  of  bronze, 
which  is  the  "reward  of  valor,"  far  more  than  a  hun- 
dred times  its  weight  in  gold.  Yet  many  of  the  pri- 
vate soldiers  come  from  the  worst  of  the  popula- 
tion.' 

"  She  continues,  '  Or  take  the  eagerness,  self-denial, 
and  strenuous  effort  thrown  by  young  men  into  their 
mere  games  !  The  desire  to  be  captain  of  the  Oxford 
eleven,  stroke  of  the  Cambridge  boat,  victor  in  the 
foot-race  or  the  leaping— in  a  word,  the  desire  to  excel 
— is  strong  enough  to  impel  to  exertions  which  often 
ruin  physical  health.  Everywhere  we  see  the  multi- 
form desires  of  humanity  assert  themselves  when  once 
livelihood  is  secure.' " 

'  The  final  argument  of  the  opponents  of  competition 
to-day  is,  that  competition  cannot  endure,  that  com- 
petition inevitably  leads  to    combination,  and    that, 
therefore,  the    only  question  is   not    a 
choice  between  competition  or  cqmbina- 
Competition  tion,    but   between    different   kinds   of 
•P!       i  combinations.    Starting  with    competi- 

A»eveiops>  tioll)  the  few  strong  competitors  find 
Combination,  that  it  pays  to  combine.  They  there- 
fore combine,  and  establish  a  private 
monopoly.  The  problem  thus,  for  the 
people,  becomes  not  whether  they  shall  compete  or 
combine,  but  whether  they  shall  submit  to  the  rule 
of  private  combinations  or  democratically  combine 
themselves  through  the  State.  It  is  a  question  of 
monopoly  vs.  monopolies,  of  democracy  vs.  the  worst 
kind  of  an  oligarchy,  the  rule  of  the  plutocrat.  The 
choice  comes,  they  say,  not  between  socialism  or 
individualism,  but  between  socialism  and  pluto- 
cracy. 

These  opponents  of  industrial  competition  thus  as- 
sert that  competition  is  not  the  only  condition  of  prog- 
ress ;  that  cooperation  in  the  State  has  been  at  least 
as  much  a  source  of  progress  ;  that  industrial  competi- 
tion develops  the  smart  trickster  rather  than  the  true 
man  ;  that  it  treads  down  the  weak  and  the  altruistic, 
in  the  mad  rush  for  gold  ;  that  it  develops  sycophancy 
"and  the  rule  of  gold  rather  than  independence ;  that 
socialism,  municipalism,  cooperation  are  proving  to- 
day that  industrial  competition  is  not  necessary  to  a 
progressive  society.  (See  MUNICIPALISM  ;  SOCIAL- 
ISM :  COOPERATION  ;  BIRMINGHAM  ;  GLASGOW  ;  BER- 
LIN.) 

III.  Many  minds  to-day  and  most  professed  political 
economists  would  not  abolish  industrial  competition, 
but  simply  limit  it.    Says  Professor  Jevons,  in  the  last 
chapter  of  his   The  Slate  in  Relation  to  Labor,  sum- 
ming up  his  whole  argument :  "The  subject  is  one  in 
which  we   need  above  all  things— dis- 
crimination.   Restrictions    on   industry 
Political     are  not  good  nor  bad  per  se,  but  accord- 
•P--,  .    ing  as  they  are  imposed  wisely  and  with 

JLCOnomistS.  go(^d  intentions,  or  foolishly,  and  with 
sinister  intentions.  Primd  facie,  indeed, 
restriction  is  bad,  because  Providence 
is  wiser  than  the  legislator — that  is  to  say,  the  action 
of  the  natural  forces  of  evolution  will  ensure  welfare 
better  than  the  ill-considered  laws  of  the  prejudiced 
and  unskillful  legislator.  But  reason  is  a  Divine  gift, 
and  where  upon  the  grounds  of  clear  experience  inter- 
preted by  logical  reasoning  we  can  see  our  way  to  a 
definite  improvement  in  some  class  of  people  without 
injuring  others,  we  are  under  the  obligation  of  en- 
deavoring to  promote  that  improvement.  The  greater 
part  of  the  interference  of  trade  societies  is  objection- 
able, because,  though  directed  toward  the  welfare  of  a 
part,  it  is  directed  against  the  welfare  of  the  rest  of 
the  community.  All  other  industrial  problems  must 
be  solved  by  similar  careful  estimation  of  the  total 
utilitarian  results. 

"  If  such  be  a  true  view  of  the  case,  it  is  clear  that 
there  can  be  no  royal  road  to  legislation  in  such  mat- 
ters. We  cannot  expect  to  agree  in  utilitarian  esti- 
mates, at  least  without  much  debate.  We  must  agree 
to  differ  ;  and  though  we  are  bound  to  argue  fearlessly, 
it  should  be  with  the  consciousness  that  there  is  room 
for  wide  and  bond  fide  difference  of  opinion.  We  must 
consent  to  advance  cautiously,  step  by  step,  feeling 
our  way,  adopting  no  foregone  conclusions,  trusting 
no  single  science,  expecting  no  infallible  guide.  We 
must  neither  maximize  the  functions  of  government  at 
the  beck  of  quasi-military  officials,  nor  minimize  them 
according  to  the  theories  of  the  very  best  philosophers. 
We  must  learn  to  judge  each  case  upon  its  merits,  in- 


View. 


terpreting  with  painful  care  all  experience  which  can 
be  brought  to  bear  upon  the  matter." 

This  is  probably  the  view  of  most  professional  econ- 
omists to-day,  though  as  to  Jevons'  assertion  that  Prov- 
idence works  through  competition,  it  may  be  ques- 
tioned if  the  State  is  not  quite  as  much  a  natural  de- 
velopment under  Providence  as  any  fiercest  competi- 
tion. 

IV.  We  must  not  forget  the  view  of  those  who  as- 
sert that  we  do  not  have  competition  to-day.  They 
say  that  under  various  laws  of  protective  private  prop- 
erty in  land,  men  are  not  free  to  com- 
pete. They  trace  most  monopolies  in 
America,  for  example,  to  a  protective  The  Indi- 
tariff,  and  the  most  radical  among  them 
assert  that  as  long  as  the  law  recognizes 
private  property  in  land,  men  cannot  be 
really  free  to  compete.  Some  would 
abolish  all  taxes,  save  on  land  values. 
The  total  value  of  the  land,  which  no  individual  has 
created,  they  would  take  by  taxation  for  the  community 
that  has  given  land  its  value,  and  then,  thus  putting  all 
men  on  a  natural  equality,  they  would  let  man  be  abso- 
lutely free  to  work,  sell,  or  cooperate  as  he  -will.  They 
argue  that  men,  when  natural  opportunities  are  not 
monopolized,  are  so  nearly  equal  in  ability,  that  no  man 
could  take  much  advantage  of  his  neighbor,  but  each 
would  be  led  to  do  that  which  he  could  do  best,  and 
exchange  the  fruits  of  his  activity  in  equality  and  in 
freedom.  (For  a  complete  statement  of  this  view,  see 
SINGLE  TAX.)  It  is  said,  on  the  other  hand,  that  men 
are  not  equal  in  abilitv  ;  that  even  on  free  land  the 
smart,  the  shrewd,  the  strong  would  soon  lord  it  over 
the  altruistic  and  the  weak,  and  free  competition  lead 
to  the  tyranny  of  the  shrewdest  and  smartest  com- 
petitor. 


COMPULSORY    ARBITRATION. 

ARBITRATION. 


See 


COMPULSORY  EDUCATION.  See  EDU- 
CATION. 

COMPULSORY  VOTING.    See  SUFFRAGE. 

COMSTOCK,  ANTHONY,  was  born  in 
New  Canaan,  Conn.,  March  7, 1844,  and  educat- 
ed in  the  academies  of  New  Canaan  and  New 
Britain.  From  1863-65  he  served  in  the  Union 
army.  Since  March,  1873,  he  has  been  post- 
office  inspector,  and  secretary  and  chief  special 
agent  of  the  New  York  Society  for  the  Suppres- 
sion of  Vice  since  its  organization  in  1873.  In 
20  years  the  society  has  made  1795  arrests  and 
seized  and  destroyed  44^  tons  of  obscene  matter 
and  17  tons  of  gambling  materials.  He  has 
written  Frauds  Exposed (1880)  ;  Traps  for  the 
Young  (1883) ;  Gambling  Outrages  (1887)  ; 
Morals  "versus  Art  (1887).  See  ART. 

COMTE,  ISIDORE  AUGUSTE  MARIE 
FRANCOIS  XAVIER,  was  born  at  Mont- 
pellier,  France,  January  19,  1798.  He  studied 
at  the  Polytechnic  School  in  Paris,  and  early 
attracted  attention  by  his  speculations.  He 
became  acquainted  with  St.  Simon  (q. ?/.),  and 
entered  enthusiastically  into  his  theories.  In 
1820  Comte  was  appointed  to  prepare  an  ex- 
position of  the  Politique  Positive  of  the  St. 
Simonians.  The  work  did  not  satisfy  St.  Simon, 
who  deplored  the  absence  of  the  "  religious  and 
sentimental  aspects"  of  his  system.  In  1825, 
on  the  death  of  St.  Simon,  Comte  broke  off  alto- 
gether from  the  school,  and  in  after  years  was 
accustomed  to  speak  slightingly  of  his  old  mas- 
ter's abilities.  In  1826  Comte  was  attacked  by 
a  cerebral  disorder,  brought  on  by  "  overwork 
and  heart  anxieties. "  He  recovered,  however, 
and  in  1832  was  appointed  teacher  of  mathe- 
matics at  the  Ecole  Polytechnique,  which  posi- 


Comte,  Auguste. 


Conciliation,  Courts  of. 


tion  he  held  for  20  years,  till  he  was  forced 
to  resign  in  1852,  on  account  of  differences  with 
his  colleagues.  He  died  at  Paris,  September  5, 
1857- 

Comte's  works  are  :  Cours  de  Philosophic  Pos- 
itive  (6  vols. ,  Par.  1830-42  ;  freely  translated  into 
English  and  condensed  by  Harriet  Martineau, 
2  vols.,  1853)  ;  Traite  Elementaire  de  Geome'- 
trie  Analytique  (1843)  ;  Traite"  d'  Astronomie 
Populaire  (1845)  ;  Discours  sur  /' Ensemble  du 
Positivisme  (1848) ;  Systeme  de  Politique  Posi- 
tive (4  vols.,  1851-54  ;  Eng.  trans.,  1875,  et  seg., 
Longmans)  ;  and  Catttchisme  Positiviste,  ou 
Sommaire  Exposition  de  la  Religion  Univer- 
selle  (i  vol.,  Par.  1852).  In  brief,  Comte's  cen- 
tral and  governing  doctrine  is  this  : 

The  race  (like  the  individual)  necessarily  passes 
through  three  intellectual  stages— the  theological,  the 
metaphysical,  and  the  positive.  "  The  theological  con- 
ception assumes  the  direct  intervention  of  an  intelli- 
gent agent,  presiding  over  the  universe,  to  whom  is 
attributed  the  arbitrary  distribution  of  each  modifica- 
tion undergone  by  nature.  The  metaphysical  concep- 
tion searches  for  some  entity  to  whose  intervention  the 
phenomena  in  question  are  to  be  ascribed.  The  positive 
conception  disregards  all  causes  and  addresses  itself 
solely  to  the  study  of  phenomena  as  they  present  them- 
selves to  the  senses"  (Ward's  Dynamic  Sociology,  vol. 
i.,  p.  93).  The  theological  conception,  Comte  tells  us, 
ruled  to  the  thirteenth  century  ;  the  metaphysical,  in 
western  Europe,  to  the  close  of  the  eighteenth.  To- 
day man  asks,  according  to  him,  simply  what  are  phe- 
nomena, without  seeking  for  intelligent  agent  or  inter- 
vening entity.  Sociology  under  the  first  period,  he 
argues,  assumed  God  as  the  center  of  society  ;  in  the 
second  period,  it  forgot  God,  yet  found  naught.  It 
was  critical,  negative,  destructive  ;  its  only  positive 
tendencies  were  in  wild,  visionary  and  anarchistic 
schemes,  like  those  of  most  of  the  French  revolution- 
ists. To-day,  he  says,  sociology  must  be  constructive, 
based  not  on  assumption  of  God  or  man,  but  only  on 
proved  facts. 

This  leads  us  to  Comte's  great  distinction  as  a  sociol- 
ogist, that  he  first  gave  sociology  a  place  as  a  science. 
His  merit  is  to  have  laid  emphasis  upon  facts  rather 
than  upon  theories ;  to  have  given  us  a  plan  of  arrang- 
ing facts,  which,  if  not  a  good  plan,  at  least  teaches  us 
to  have  some  plan,  to  insist  upon  action  and  legislation 
based  upon  knowledge  of  facts. 

Says  Dr.  Ingram  of  Comte  (History  of  Political  Econ- 
omy, p.  196):  "  The  negative  movement  which  filled  the 
eighteenth  century  had  for  its  watchword  on  the  eco- 
nomic side  the  liberation  of  industrial  effort  from 
both  feudal  survivals  and  governmental  fetters.  But 
in  all  the  aspects  of  that  movement,  the  economic  as 
well  as  the  rest,  the  process  of  demolition  was  histori- 
cally only  the  necessary  preliminary  condition  of  a 
total  renovation,  toward  which  western  Europe  was 
energetically  tending,  tho  with  but  an  indistinct  con- 
ception of  its  precise  nature.  .  .  .  The  critical  philos- 
ophy which  had  wrought  the  disorganization  could 
only  repeat  its  formulas  of  absolute  liberty,  but  was 
powerless  for  reconstruction.  And  hence  there  was 
seen  throughout  the  West,  after  the  French  explosion, 
the  remarkable  spectacle  of  a  continuous  oscillation 
between  the  tendency  to  recur  to  outworn  ideas  and  a 
vague  impulse  toward  a  new  order  in  social  thought 
and  life,  this  impulse  often  taking  an  anarchical  char- 
acter. 

"  From  this  state  of  oscillation,  which  has  given  to  our 
century  its  equivocal  and  transitional  aspect,  the  only 
possible  issue  was  in  the  foundation  of  a  scientific 
social  doctrine  which  should  supply  a  basis  for  the 
gradual  convergence  of  opinion  on  human  questions. 
The  foundation  of  such  a  doctrine  is  the  immortal 
service  for  which  the  world  is  indebted  to  Auguste 
Comte. 

"  The  leading  features  of  sociology,  as  he  conceived 
it,  are  the  following:  (i)  it  is  essentially  one  science, 
in  which  all  the  elements  of  a  social  state  are  studied 
in  their  relations  and  mutual  actions ;  (2)  it  includes  a 
dynamical  as  well  as  a  statical  theory  of  society  ;  (3)  it 
thus  eliminates  the  absolute,  substituting  for  an  im- 
agined fixity  the  conception  of  ordered  change  ;  (4) 
its  principal  method,  tho  others  are  not  excluded,  is 
that  of  historical  comparison  ;  (5)  it  is  pervaded  by 
moral  ideas,  by  notions  of  social  duty,  as  opposed  to- 
the  individual  rights  which  were  derived  as  corol- 


laries from  the  jus  natures :  and  (6)  in  its  spirit  and 
practical  consequences  it  tends  to  the  realization  of  all 
the  great  ends  which  compose  '  the  popular  cause ;' 
yet  (7)  it  aims  at  this  through  peaceful  means,  replacing 
revolution  by  evolution.  The  several  characteristics 
we  have  enumerated  are  not  independent  ;  they  may 
be  shown  to  be  vitally  connected  with  each  other." 

In  the  fourth  volume  of  the  Philosophic  Positively)), 
Comte  marks  out  the  broad  division  between  social  stat- 
ics and  social  dynamics— the  former  studying  the  laws 
of  social  coexistence,  the  latter  those  of  social  develop- 
ment, together  forming  sociology,  which  to  him  is  the 
master  science,for  in  his  remarkable  ordering  of  science 
he  shows  how  the  different  sciences,  as  they  emerge  into 
the  clear  light  of  positivism,  take  their  proper  place,  all 
leading  up  to  sociology  as,  so  to  speak,  the  architect 
who  builds  up  the  thought  of  society,  using  other  sci- 
ences as  materials.  Yet  is  Comte  essentially  a  dog- 
matist. He  starts  out  with  asserting  that  "  the  essen- 
tial spontaneous  sociability  of  the  human  species,  in 
virtue  of  an  instinctive  penchant  for  a  life  in  common, 
can  in  no  way  be  henceforth  contested."  In  the  mat- 
ter of  the  dynamics  of  sociology,  Comte  finds  the  great 
forces  of  life  in  the  instinct  for  material  self-preserva- 
tion, in  the  battle  of  the  attributes  of  humanity  over 
those  of  animality,  and  in  the  restlessness  of  ennui. 
Of  laissez  faire  Comte  was  no  friend.  He  favored  a 
State  ruling  all  life,  conducted  by  a  scientific  priest- 
hood. Such  were,  in  brief,  the  teachings  of  the  world's 
first  great  sociologist. 

Comte's  sociologic  weakness  is  that  he  himself  knew 
little  of  sociologic  facts.  He  discovers  the  ocean  and 
tells  us  that  we  ought  to  know  it,  but  not  much  of  the 
ocean  does  he  himself  report. 


CONCENTRATION  OF  WEALTH. 

WEALTH. 


See 


CONCILIATION,  COURTS  OF.— For 
conciliation  as  applied  to  the  settlement  of  in- 
dustrial disputes,  see  ARBITRATION  AND  CON- 
CILIATION ;  but  the  principle  of  the  settlement 
of  disputes  by  conciliation,  as  developed  espe- 
cially in  the  Norwegian  courts  of  conciliation,  is 
capable  of  a  very  general  application. 

The  first  establishment  of  tribunals  of  con- 
ciliation seems  to  have  been  in  Denmark  in  1795, 
and  in  Norway  in  1797,  but  the  germ  of  the  idea 
was  developed  in  the  French  Revolution  and 
adopted  in  the  system  of  civil  justice  created  in 
March,  1790,  by  the  National  Assembly.  Ac- 
cording to  this  idea,  proposed  by  Thouret,  jus- 
tices of  the  peace  were  to  be  elected  by  the  peo- 
ple in  each  canton  and  to  have  the  power  of  de- 
ciding without  appeal  cases  not  involving  over 
50  livres.  They  were,  Louis  Blanc  tells  us,  to  be 
considered  as  outside  the  judicial  order,  "on 
the  threshold  of  the  Temple  of  Justice  to  warn 
intending  litigants  away."  Thouret,  judging 
by  the  name  chosen,  got  his  suggestion  from 
England  ;  but  the  first  real  application  of  the 
plan  was  in  Denmark.  In  France  the  plan  did 
not  survive  the  Revolution.  In  1795  courts  of 
conciliation  were  actually  established  in  'Den- 
mark, and  in  1797  in  Norway.  The  preamble 
to  the  royal  edict  establishing  them  says  : 

"  Inasmuch  as  it  has  come  to  our  notice  that  peas- 
ants and  other  lowly  good  and  true  subjects  in  our 
dominions  are  incited  to  quarrel  about  trrfling  things 
by  dishonest  lawyers,  'who  generally  keep  their 
clutches  on  their  unsuspecting  clients  till  they  have 
robbed  them  of  all  their  property,  we  have,  etc." 
Then  follows  the  establishment  of  the  new  institu- 
tions. 

Few  laws  were  ever  more  popular,  and  the  plan 
has  stood  the  test  of  time.  Every  city,  every 
village  of  at  least  20  families,  and  every  parish 
constitutes  a  separate  "  district  of  conciliation." 
The  court  is  made  up  of  two  men,  chosen  for 
three  years,  by  the  voters  of  the  district.  The 


Conciliation,  Courts  of. 


320     Cong.  Church  and  Social  Reform. 


court  meets  weekly  in  the  cities  and  monthly  in 
the  country.  It  is  not  public.  Admissions  or 
concessions  made  by  any  party  cannot  be  used 
against  him  in  court.  But  a  party  willing  to 
settle  before  the  commissioners  can  receive  a 
certificate  to  that  effect.  Appearance  is  com- 
pulsory, and  the  court  has  power  in  all  civil  and 
private  cases.  The  method  of  procedure  is  very 
simple.  The  plaintiff  states  his  case  in  writing. 
A  fee  of  25  cents  is  charged  for  the  summons, 
and  50  cents  more  if  settlement  is  reached. 
These  are  the  total  costs.  Evidence  may  be 
submitted.  Personal  attendance  is  necessary 
except  in  cases  of  extreme  sickness,  etc.  Rules 
and  forms  play  a  small  part.  The  personal  ele- 
ment is  mainly  relied  on.  The  judges  are  usu- 
ally personally  known.  In  Norway  it  is  stated 
that  75  per  cent,  of  the  cases  can  be  settled  in 
these  courts  of  conciliation.  During  the  year 
1888,  103,969  civil  actions  were  begun  in  Nor- 
way. Of  these,  2300  cases  were  dismissed  by 
the  courts  of  conciliation.  Of  the  remaining 
101,669,  no  less  than  81,015,  or  80  per  cent,  were 
conciliated  ;  7886  more  were  adjudicated  by 
the  courts  of  conciliation,  thus  settling  nearly 
nine  tenths  of  the  whole  number. 

Some  attempt  has  been  made  to  introduce 
similar  courts  into  the  United  States,  but  only 
in  North  Dakota,  the  most  Norwegian  State, 
has  anything  really  been  accomplished. 

On  March  10,  i8g3,  the  Governor  of  North  Dakota 
affixed  his  signature  to  "  an  Act  providing  for  the 
establishment  of  courts  of  conciliation,  and  prescrib- 
ing the  mode  of  procedure  in  the  same." 

This  Act  provides  as  follows  : 

"  Sec.  I.  There  shall  be  elected  at  the  same  time  and 
in  the  same  manner  as  the  justices  of  the  peace,  in 
each  town,  incorporated  village,  and  city,  from  the 
qualified  voters  thereof,  four  commissioners  of  con- 
ciliation, whose  term  of  office  shall  be  two  years,  and 
until  their  successors  are  duly  elected  and  qualified. 

"  Sec.  II.  At  the  time  of  issuing  the  summons  in  any 
civil  action  begun  before  a  justice  of  the  peace,  the 
justice  shall  issue  a  subpoena  summoning  two  of  the 
commissioners  of  conciliation  elected  for  the  town, 
village,  or  city  where  the  action  is  brought,  to  appear 
before  him  at  the  time  and  place  designated  in  the 
summons,  which  subpoena  shall  be  served  at  least 
three  days  before  the  return-day,  and  in  the  same 
manner  as  a  summons  is  required  to  be  served  in 
actions  in  the  district  court.  If  either  party  fails  to 
appear  at  the  time  designated  in  the  summons,  judg- 
ment shall  be  entered  against  the  party  so  failing  to 
appear,  as  is  now  provided  by  statute.  If  both  parties 
appear,  they  shall  then  go  before  the  justice  and  the 
two  commissioners  summoned,  as  aforesaid,  and  state 
their  differences,  which  statements,  or  so  much  there- 
of as  is  necessary  to  show  the  issue  between  the 
parties,  shall  be  reduced  to  writing  by  the  justice  and 
entered  on  his  docket,  and  shall  constitute  the  plead- 
ings in  the  case.  The  parties  shall  then  introduce 
such  evidence  as  they  may  think  proper  in  the  order 
and  under  the  restrictions  prescribed  by  the  commis- 
sionefs  and  justice.  It  shall  be  discretionary  with  the 
justice  and  commissioners  •whether  or  not  the  witnesses 
shall  be  sworn  before  testifying. 

"  After  hearing  and  considering  all  the  evidence 
offered,  it  shall  be  the  duty  of  the  justice  and  com- 
missioners, to  the  best  of  their  abilities,  to  persuade 
the  parties  te>  agree  to  an  amicable  settlement  of  their 
differences  on  such  terms  as  are  just  and  equitable. 
If  an  agreement  is  reached,  it  shall  be  entered  by  the 
justice  on  his  d9cket  in  the  form  of  a  judgment  of  the 
court  of  said  justice ;  provided  that  no  agreement 
shall  be  entered,  unless  it  can  be  put  in  the  form  of  a 
judgment  now  authorized  by  law  to  be  entered  by 
justices  of  the  peace.  At  the  hearing  herein  provided 
for,  each  party  must  appear  in  person,  or  by  an  agent 
duly  authorized  in  writing  to  appear.  No  attorney 
shall  be  allowed  in  any  way  to  appear  or  act  in  any 
proceeding  for  either  of  the  parties  or  otherwise.  If, 
at  such  hearing,  the  parties  are  not  able  to  agree  to  an 
amicable  settlement,  the  case  shall  be  adjourned  for 
trial  for  such  time  as  the  justice  shall  designate, 


which  shall  not  be  less  than  one  week,  and  the  justice 
shall  allow  the  parties  such  time  as  he  may  think 
proper  in  which  to  file  amended  pleadings.  The  action 
shall  then  proceed  to  trial  and  judgment  as  is  now 
provided  by  law. 

"  Sec.  III.  The  commissioners  shall  receive  the 
same  mileage  and  per  diem  as  is  now  paid  jurors. 
The  fee  of  the  commissioners,  justice,  and  officer 
shall  be  included  in  the  settlement,  and  paid  by  the 
party  designated  in  the  judgment.  If  a  commissioner 
disobey  the  subpoena  of  the  justice,  he  shall  be  pro- 
ceeded against  in  the  same  manner  as  a  juror  who 
fails  to  appear  when  summoned. 

"  Sec.  IV.  No  part  of  the  proceedings  had  before 
the  justice  and  commissioners  shall  be  admitted  as 
evidence  or  considered  at  the  trial  of  the  case,  nor 
shall  the  commissioners  who  took  part  in  the  hearing 
be  allowed  to  testify." 

This  is  not  much  compared  with  the  Norwegian 
system  and  yet  a  beginning.  References :  Two  arti- 
cles on  Courts  of  Conciliation,  by  Nicolay  Grevstad 
in  The  Atlantic  for  September,  1891,  and  November, 


CONFISCATION.     See  COMPENSATION. 

CONGREGATIONAL  CHURCH  AND 
SOCIAL  REFORM,  THE.— Democracy  in 
religion,  the  fundamental  principle  and  raison 
d' etre  of  Congregationalism,  has  made  it  a  re- 
formatory force  in  modern  life.  In  the  stand 
for  freedom  of  worship  taken  by  a  few  church- 
men within  the  Church  of  England  in  1567  and 
thereafter,  began  the  far-reaching  movement 
that  issued  in  ecclesiastical  Separatism,  Indepen- 
dency, Nonconformity  and  Congregationalism, 
and  in  the  many  reformatory  tendencies  toward 
social  democracy  necessarily  involved  therein. 
The  first  organization  of  this  force  was  effected 
in  Bridewell  Prison  by  those  incarcerated  for 
holding  religious  services  at  a  wedding  in  Plumb- 
ers' Hall,  London,  who  provided  for  a  continu- 
ance of  the  same  during  their  term  of  imprison- 
ment and  thereafter.  Under  the  leadership  of 
Robert  Browne,  others  became  Separatists,  at 
first  only  from  ' '  the  world, ' '  but  involving  there- 
by the  principle  of  their  separation  from  the  state 
church,  and  of  the  church  from  the  state  by 
establishing  the  ecclesiastical  right  of  self-gov- 
ernment and  local  autonomy.  Thriving  under 
the  persecution  which  branded  Nonconformity 
in  religion  as  treason  to  the  state,  and  punished 
it  with  death,  the  blood  of  their  martyr  minis- 
ters became  the  seed  of  the  social  revolution  of 
the  English  people.  Barrowe  and  Greenwood, 
in  1593,  formulated  this  growing  sentiment  into 
a  polity  which,  because  it  vested  the  only  recog- 
nized ecclesiastical  authority  in  the  local  con- 
gregation, came  to  be  known  as  Congregational. 
The  only  chance  for  the  survival  and  growth  of 
this  tender  plant  of  liberty  being  in  transplanta- 
tion to  more  hospitable  soil,  the  little  village 
congregation  of  Scrooby  ' '  resolved  to  go  into 
the  Low  Countries,  where  they  heard  was  free- 
dom of  religion  for  all  men." 

Resident  long  enough  in  Holland  to  be  deeply 
impressed  with  the  civil  and  religious  liberties, 
popular  education,  local  self-government,  and 
democratic  tendencies  of  the  Dutch,  who  were 
then  the  freest  and  most  progressive  people  in 
Europe,  the  Pilgrim  Fathers  again  tried  the  ex- 
periment of  planting  the  free  life  on  English 
soil  in  the  new  world. 

With  their  landing  at  Plymouth,  the  process 
of  settling  the  New  England  by  church  congre- 
gations began.  "  In  pursuit  of  religious  free- 
dom they  established  civil  liberty.  Meaning 


Cong.  Church  and  Social  Reform.     321    Cong.  Church  and  Social  Reform. 


only  to  found  a  church,  they  gave  birth  to  a  na- 
tion ;  and  in  settling  a  town  in  Connecticut,  they 
commenced  an  empire." 

The  reformatory  force  of  the  Congregational  - 
ists  both  in  England  and  America  has  been  most 
profoundly  and  practically  felt  in  the  political 
life  of  both  countries. 

The  ecclesiastical  polity  of  these  locally  au- 
tonomous congregations  of  worshipers  became 
the  formative  principle  and  framework  of  their 
politics  when  they  formed  themselves  into  the 
colonial  bodies  politic.  November  "21,  1620, 
when,  in  accordance  with  the  farewell  letter  of 
instruction  from  their  pastor,  John  Robinson, 
the  pilgrims  signed  their  compact  in  the  cabin 
of  the  Mayflower,  is  declared  by  Bancroft  to  be 
"the  birth-hour  of  popular  constitutional  lib- 
erty. ' '  But  constitutional  government  in  Amer- 
ica had  another,  tho  Congregational  source. 
It  is  to  be  traced  through  the  independence  of 
the  town,  as  that  political  unit  was  first  consti- 
tuted in  Connecticut.  There  the  federation  of 
three  independent  self-governing  towns  con- 
stituted the  commonwealth.  These  three  orig- 
inal towns  were  the  Congregational  churches  of 
Hartford,  Windsor,  and  Wethersfield.  Their 
compact,  made  with  each  other  in  Hartford, 
January  14,  1638,  more  than  that  of  the  May- 
Jiower,  is  to  be  regarded  as  ' '  the  first  written 
constitution,  in  the  modern  sense  of  the  term, 
as  a  permanent  limitation  of  governmental 
power  known  in  history."  This  first  constitu- 
tional government  was  forged  out  in  fact  and 
formulated  in  statute  by  men  who,  on  May  31, 
1638,  had  heard  Thomas  Hooker,  the  pilgrim 
pastor  of  these  migratory  towns,  preach  from 
Deut.  i  :  13  these  political  doctrines  of  Chris- 
tianity : 

"  Doctrine  I.  That  the  choice  of  public  magistrates 
belongs  unto  the  people  by  God's  own  allowance. 

"  II.  The  privilege  of  election,  which  belongs  to  the 
people,  therefore  must  not  be  exercised  according  to 
their  humors,  but  according  to  the  blessed  will  and 
law  of  God. 

"  III.  They  who  have  power  to  appoint  officers  and 
magistrates,  it  is  in  their  power  also  to  set  the  bounds 
and  limitations  of  the  power  and  place  unto  which 
they  call  them. 

"  Reasons  :  i.  Because  the  foundation  of  authority 
is  laid  firstly  in  the  free  consent  of  the  people. 

"  2.  Because,  by  a  free  choice,  the  hearts  of  the  peo- 
ple will  be  more  inclined  to  the  love  of  the  persons 
•chosen  and  more  ready  to  yield  obedience. 

"  '  Here  is  the  first  practical  assertion  of  the  right  of 
the  people,'  writes  Alexander  Johnston  in  his  volume 
on  Connecticut,  'not  only  to  choose,  but  to  limit  the 
powers  of  their  rulers,'  an  assertion  which  lies  at  the 
root  of  the  American  system. 

"  '  It  is  on  the  banks  "of  the  Connecticut,  under  the 
mighty  preaching  of  Thomas  Hooker,  and  in  the  Con- 
stitution to  which  he  gave  life,  if  not  form,  that  we 
draw  the  first  breath  of  that  atmosphere  which  is  now 
so  familiar  to  us.  The  birthplace  of  American  de- 
mocracy is  Hartford.'  This  historian  also  attributes 
that  union  of  the  democratic  and  federative  ideas,  and 
the  peculiar  constitution  of  our  Congress  in  the  differ- 
ent basis  of  the  Senate  and  the  House  of  Representa- 
tives, to  Connecticut's  long  maintenance  of  a  federa- 
tive democracy,  which,  as  we  have  seen,  grew  out  of 
her  three  Congregational  townships. 

"  The  civil  codes  of  the  colonies  at  first  consisted  of 
the  'Judicials*  and  the  'Body  of  Liberties,'  pub- 
lished by  their  early  ministers,  and  long  thereafter 
were  proposed  by  their  successors. 

"  Altho  more  tolerant  than  the  Puritan  colonists,  and 
more  liberal  in  refusing  to  restrict  the  suffrage  to  the 
Church  membership,  the  Pilgrim  body  politic  was  vir- 
tually the  civic  assembly  of  the  congregation,  and  the 
congregation  was  the  religious  society  of  citizens. 
Of  this  reciprocal  relation  of  their  independent  church 
and  state  the  '  ecclesiastical  societies '  remain  as  the 
survivals  of  the  days  when  the  legal  voters  of  the 

21 


town  provided  the  financial  support  of  the  church  and 
were  recognized  as  having  a  right  to  act  conjointly 
with  its  members  in  control  of  its  temporal  affairs,  and 
even  in  the  selection  of  its  minister.  Taxation  carried 
with  it  the  right  to  representation. 

"The  apprehension  of  Episcopacy,  which  was  being 
forced  upon  the  colonists,  'contributed  as  much  as  any 
other  cause,'  so  John  Adams  wrote,  'to  arouse  the 
common  people  to  close  thinking  on  the  constitutional 
authority  of  Parliament  over  the  colonies.'  The  Dec- 
laration and  War  of  Independence  were  the  conse- 
quences of  this  thinking.  How  much  the  Congrega- 
tional pulpit  contributed  toward  both  is  in  evidence. 
Resistance  to  encroachments  upon  civil  liberties  was 
urged  by  the  old  war  cry  of  religious  liberty.  Pro- 
tests against  the  Stamp  Act  and  other  English  aggres- 
sions rang  out  on  Sabbaths  and  fast  days.  Church 
buildings  were  seized  and  occupied  by  British  soldiers 
to  prevent  their  use  as  revolutionary  centers.  The 
constructive  influence  of  the  churches  in  building  the 
colonies  into  the  nation  is  illustrated  in  pastor  May- 
hew's  letter  to  James  Otis,  in  which  he  wrote :  '  You 
have  heard  of  the  communion  of  the  churches  ;  while 
I  was  thinking  of  this  in  my  bed,  the  great  use  and 
importance  of  a  communion  of  the  colonies  appeared 
in  a  strong  light.'  " 

The  anti-slavery  reform  was  largely  prompt- 
ed and  promoted  by  the  Puritan  and  pilgrim 
spirit  embodied  in  Congregational  churches. 
As  early  as  1839  the  "  Arnistad  Committee"  was 
formed  in  New  York  for  the  legal  defense  and 
religious  instruction  of  a  cargo  of  negroes  cap- 
tured on  the  slave  schooner  Arnistad.  They 
were  declared  free  by  the  United  States  Su- 
preme Court,  taught  at  Farmington,  Conn.,  and 
sent  back  to  Africa.  This  and  other  similar  or- 
ganizations united  to  constitute  the  American 
Missionary  Association  in  1846,  which  from  the 
beginning  has  deserved  recognition  as  the  fore- 
most expert  agency  for  raising  the  abject,  re- 
storing the  subject,  and  reclaiming  the  alien  ele- 
ments of  American  population,  At  first  this 
association  scattered  its  work  in  Africa,  Jamaica, 
Hawaii,  Siam,  and  Egypt,  while  at  home  it 
espoused  the  cause  of  the  Indians,  the  fugitive 
negro  slaves,  and  the  struggling  and  persecuted 
anti-slavery  churches  East  and  West, 

In  1836  Congregationalists,  upon  securing  con- 
trol of  the  recently  founded  Oberlin  College, 
made  it  the  first  educational  institution  which 
accepted  the  basis  of  Christian  equality  and 
opened  its  full  privileges  to  all  alike,  irrespec- 
tive of  color  or  previous  condition  of  servitude. 
It  founded  its  theological  department  to  receive 
the  students  from  another  seminary  which  had 
proscribed  the  discussion  of  slavery.  Subse- 
quently it  was  the  first  college  to  open  its  doors 
to  women  upon  the  same  terms  as  to  men. 

In  1851  Mrs.  Harriet  Beecher  Stowe  honored  her 
distinguished  Congregational  lineage  by  publishing 
Uncle  Tom's  Cabin,  which  defeated  the  execution  of 
the  Fugitive  Slave  Law  and  made  emancipation  pos- 
sible, as  did  her  brother,  Henry  Ward  Beecher,  later, 
by  his  overpowering  advocacy  of  the  abolition  of 
slavery  and  the  cause  of  the  Union.  The  struggle  for 
the  freedom  of  the  soil  of  the  Western  States  called 
upon  the  children  of  the  Pilgrims  to  become  the  Pil- 
grim Fathers  of  the  New  England  colonies  in  Western 
territory,  which  restricted  slavery  to  the  South  and 
marked  the  beginning  of  the  end  of  it.  Entering  the 
Southern  States  with  the  Union  armies,  the  American 
Missionary  Association  began  the  work  of  educating 
to  self-help  and  citizenship  the  millions  of  slaves  whose 
freedom  it  had  helped  secure. 

Its  schools,  colleges,  universities,  educational 
funds,  industrial,  technical,  and  professional  training, 
and  its  churches  are  the  greatest  forces  at  work  in  the 
nation  for  civilizing,  Christianizing,  and  unifying  the 
negro,  Indian,  Chinese,  and  mountain  white  elements 
of  its  population. 

The  reformatory  movements  in  the  American 


Cong.  Church  and  Social  Reform.    322 


Congress. 


body  politic  cannot  be  accounted  for  without 
recognizing  the  large  part  which  Congregational 
educational  institutions  have  borne  in  them  all. 
Harvard,  Yale,  Mount  Holyoke,  and  the  New 
England  colleges  ;  Oberlin,  Marietta,  Beloit, 
Whitman,  and  the  Western  colleges  have  woven 
their  names  into  the  social  and  political  history 
of  the  country.  The  acquisition  of  the  rich  and 
vast  Northwest  Territory  of  Oregon  and  Wash- 
ington was  due  to  Marcus  Whitman,  the  pioneer 
missionary  and  educator,  whose  famous  ride  to 
the  nation's  capital  saved  the  "  great  American 
desert"  to  the  sisterhood  of  States.  One  in  four 
of  the  entire  male  membership  of  churches  in 
the  interior  and  trans-Mississippi  States  was  en- 
rolled in  the  Union  army  during  the  Civil  War. 
To  reformatory  literature  the  churches  and 
schools  of  this  order  have  contributed  names 
than  which  none  are  more  illustrious.  Of  the 
periodicals  which  have  formed  and  led  public 
opinion  in  these  directions,  such  as  the  Inde- 
pendent, Christian  Union,  Youth' s  Compan- 
ion, and  others,  many  owe  their  origin  and  suc- 
cess to  the  aggressive  spirits,  born  of  these 
churches,  who  founded  and  conducted  them. 

In  the  adjustment  of  church  life  and  work  to 
the  changed  social  conditions  in  city  centers 
and  large  towns,  the  Congregationalists  have 
been  foremost.  The  so-called  "institutional" 
churches,  which  by  corporate  effort  and  organ- 
ized agencies  seek  to  Christianize  conditions  of 
common  life,  have  been  from  the  first  and  still 
are  found  in  the  Congregational  fellowship. 
The  contemporary  sociological  movement  in  life, 
literature,  and  education  has  found  no  quicker 
and  more  practical  response  than  in  Congrega- 
tional theological  seminaries.  While  Harvard 
University  was  the  first  to  offer  social  ethics  as 
an  elective  course  to  its  divinity  students  in 
1880,  Andover  introduced  the  same  in  1887  ; 
Hartford  prescribed  sociology  as  necessary  to 
graduation  in  1880  ;  Chicago  established  an  en- 
tire department  exclusively  devoted  to  sociologi- 
cal training  in  1890,  and  Yale  a  distinct  profes- 
sorship of  social  ethics  in  1894.  In  Iowa  Col- 
lege, likewise,  a  department  of  Applied  Chris- 
tianity was  founded.  In  connection  with  three 
of  these  seminaries  social  settlements  have  been 
successfully  inaugurated — the  Andover  House, 
now  the  South  End,  in  Boston,  Chicago  Com- 
mons, and  the  Hartford  Settlement.  Among 
the  foremost  specialists  in  sociology  and  social 
economics  a  notably  large  proportion  are  Con- 
gregational professors  and  ministers.  While  it 
cannot  be  said  of  any  class  of  the  American 
churches  that  they  are  to  American  social  re- 
form movements  what  Mr.  Gladstone  called  the 
Nonconformist  churches  of  Great  Britain — viz. , 
"The  backbone  of  the  Liberal  Party" — yet  the 
Congregational  churches  of  America,  by  virtue 
of  their  polity,  principles,  and  history,  have  a 
supreme  opportunity  to  exemplify  and  make 
more  largely  possible  a  Christian  social  democ- 
racy. What  these  churches  have  always  in 
principle  and  often  in  practice  stood  for  in 
America  they  have  planted  in  many  lands  and 
nations  by  that  splendid  world  movement  of 
Christian  civilization  in  which  their  American 
Board  of  Foreign  Missions  has  led,  and  where- 
by the  kingdom  of  God  is  coming  to  earth. 

GRAHAM  TAYLOR. 


CONGRESS.— In  separate  articles  we  treat 
of  the  House  of  Representatives  and  the  Sen- 
ate, considering  under  this  article  only  the  his- 
tory of  the  development  of  Congress  as  a  por- 
tion of  the  political  system  of  the  United  States, 
and  those  characteristics  of  Congress  which  be- 
long to  both  the  House  and  the  Senate.  Con- 
gress as  it  now  exists  is  the  result  of  a  long  evo- 
lution. 

The  first  union  that  was  formed  between  the  Ameri- 
can colonies  was  as  early  as  1643.  A  union  was  form- 
ed to  resist  the  Indians  between  the  colonies  of  the 
Massachusetts  Bay,  Plymouth,  Connecticut,  and  New 
Haven,  under  the  name  9f  "  The  United  Colonies  of 
New  England."  A  more  important  step  to  union  was 
in  1754,  when,  at  the  request  of  the  "lords  commissioners 
for  trade,"  commissioners  from  seven  of  the  colonies — 
Massachusetts,  New  Hampshire,  Rhode  Island,  Con- 
necticut, New  York,  Pennsylvania,  and  Maryland — 
met  in  Albany  and  held  prolonged  sessions.  The  ob- 
ject of  this  convention  was  to  form  a  treaty  with  some 
of  the  Indian  tribes,  and  to  consider  the  best  means 
for  defending  America  against  France.  But  the  com- 
missioners carried  their  views  much  farther  than  had 
been  intended  by  the  Government.  A  plan  of  union 
was  proposed  by  Dr.  Franklin,  who  \vas  a  member  of 
the  convention,  providing  for  a  confederation  of  all 
the  colonies,  with  a  council  to  be  chosen  triennially, 
and  a  president  to  be  appointed  by  the  crown.  Tlie 
president  and  council  were  to  have  power  to  regulate 
all  affairs  with  the  Indians,  to  control  settlements  on, 
lands  which  should  be  purchased  from  the  Indians,  to 
govern  such  settlements,  to  raise  soldiers,  build  forts, 
and  equip  vessels  for  guarding  the  coast  and  protect- 
ing the  trade.  They  were  to  have  power  to  make  laws- 
for  the  execution  of  these  purposes,  and  to  levy  duties 
and  taxes  as  they  might  think  proper.  The  president 
was  to  have  the  veto  power  on  all  laws  and  acts  of  the 
council,  and  it  was  his  duty  to  see  that  the  laws  were 
properly  executed.  The  plan  never  went 
into  operation,  but  was  important  in  pre- 
paring the  way  for  what  followed,  when  Origin  of 
in  1765,  on  a  proposition  made  by  Massa-  Coneress 
chusetts,  a  congress  met  in  New  York  voiigices. 
to  consider  the  Stamp  Act.  Massachu- 
setts, Rhode  Island,  Connecticut,  New 
York,  New  Jersey,  Pennsylvania,  Delaware,  Mary- 
land, and  South  Carolina  elected  commissioners.  Vir- 
ginia, North  Carolina,  and  Georgia  were  not  repre- 
sented, the  governors  of  these  colonies  having  refused 
to  call  the  assemblies  together  to  appoint  delegates. 
New  Hampshire  thought  it  prudent  not  to  send  dele- 
gates, altho  she  approved  the  plan. 

This  was  the  first  general  meeting  of  the  colonies  for 
the  purpose  of  considering  their  relations  to  the  mother 
country.  As  a  result,  the  Stamp  Act  was  repealed, 
but  the  British  ministers  imposed  new  duties  quite 
as  obnoxious.  The  colonies  determined  to  form  a 
closer  union,  and  sent  delegates  to  Philadelphia  with 
the  general  authority  "  to  meet  and  consult  together 
for  the  common  welfare."  This  was  the  first  Con- 
tinental Congress.  It  was  suggested  by  Massachusetts. 
On  September  5,  1774,  delegates  from  12  of  the  13  col- 
onies assembled  at  Philadelphia.  Georgia,  the,youngest 
colony,  alone  was  unrepresented.  Among  the  members 
were  John  Adams  and  Samuel  Adams.of  Massachusetts, 
Roger  Sherman,  of  Connecticut,  John  Jay,  of  New  York, 
George  Washington,  Peyton  Randolph,  Richard  Henry 
Lee,  and  Patrick  Henry,  of  Virginia.  Randolph  was 
chosen  president,  and  the  congress  proceeded  to  busi- 
ness. 

The  first  resolution  adopted  was  one  which  subse- 
quently proved  of  great  importance.  It  provided  as 
follows:  "  That  in  determining  questions  in  this  con- 
gress, each  colony  or  province  shall  have  one  vote." 
This  rule  of  equal  State  suffrage  remained  in  force 
through  the  entire  history  of  the  second  Continental 
Congress,  and  down  to  the  adoption  of  the  Constitution 
in  1789. 

The  session  was  short,  and  the  business  quickly  dis- 
patched. The  Congress  adopted  an  address  to  the 
king,  one  to  the  people  of  Great  Britain,  another  to  the 
inhabitants  of  the  several  colonies,  and  another  to  the 
inhabitants  of  Quebec.  It  was  the  confident  belief  of 
the  majority  ofthe  members  of  this  Congress,  that  the 
measures  which  they  had  adopted  would  produce  a 
redress  of  their  grievances.  They  adjourned  after 
recommending  that  another  Congress  should  convene 
on  May  10  of  the  next  year,  provided  that  a  redress  of 
grievances  was  not  previously  obtained. 


Congress. 


323 


Congress. 


The  breach,  however,  between  England  and  the 
colonies  became  wider.  Consequently,  in  accordance 
with  the  recommendation  of  the  first  Continental  Con- 
gress, delegates  were  appointed  by  the  several  colo- 
nies, who  met  in  Philadelphia  on  May  10,  1775.  This 
body  is  known  as  the  second  Continental  Congress.  It 
became  the  national  government  of  the  people,  and 
continued  its  sessions  for  14  years. 

The  delegates  to  this  Congress  were  chosen  in  some 
instances  by  the  colonial  legislatures,  and  in  other 
cases  by  conventions  of  the  people.  Their  object  was 
not  to  establish  a  new  government,  and  they  had  little 
thought  of  independence.  Before  they  had  assembled, 
however,  General  Gage,  at  Boston, .  had  commenced 
open  hostilities.  Massachusetts  sent  a  letter  to  Con- 
gress giving  an  account  of  the  battles  of  Lexington 
and  Concord,  and  requesting  the  ad  vice  and  assistance 
of  the  Congress.  The  journal  of  Congress  shows  that 
in  this  letter  was  the  following  suggestion  :  "  With  the 
greatest  deference  we  beg  to  suggest  that  a  powerful 
army  on  the  side  of  America  is  considered  by  us  as  the 
only  means  left  to  stem  the  rapid  progress  of  a  tyran- 
nical ministry."  The  Congress  at  once  appreciated 
the  urgency  of  the  case,  and  felt  obliged  to  take  meas- 
ures to  put  the  country  in  a  state  of  defense,  and  so 
practically  assume  control  over  the  military  opera- 
tions of  the  colonies.  They  organized  an  army,  and 
appointed  a  commander-in-chief.  They  created  a  con- 
tinental currency  by  issuing  bills  of  credit.  They  es- 
tablished a  treasury  department  and  a  post-office  de- 
partment, and  from  time  to  time  adopted  regulations 
concerning  commerce ;  in  fact,  they  drifted,  apparent- 
ly without  design,  into  the  exercise  of  sovereign  pow- 
ers. With  the  story  of  the  Declaration  of  the  Inde- 
pendence of  the  United  States'  accomplished  by  this 
Congress  we  are  not  here  concerned,  but  rather  with 
the  development  of  its  powers. 

On  July  21,  1775,  Dr.  Franklin  submitted  to  the  as- 
sembly of  delegates  a  plan  entitled  "Articles  of  Con- 
federation and  Perpetual  Union  of  the  Colonies." 
This  appears  to  have  been  the  basis  of  a  plan  reported 
to  Congress  from  a  committee  July  12,  1776,  which  is  in 
the  handwriting  of  Mr.  John  Dickinson,  or  Delaware, 
to  which  as  amended  the  Congress  agreed  on  Novem- 
ber 15, 1777,  and  which  they  recommended  for  adoption 
to  the  several  States.  But  the  ratification  by  all  the 
States  was  not  completed  till  March  i,  1781,  near  the 
close  of  the  war,  when  Maryland  was  the  last  of  the 
States  to  give  its  consent.  These  articles  formed  the 
compact  of  confederation,  and  settled  the  powers  of 
that  Congress,  which  continued,  very  feebly,  the  Fed- 
eral Government  until  the  adoption  of  the  Constitution 
of  1787. 

It  had  but  the  most  meager  power.  It  was  an 
executive  without  power  to  execute.  It  was  a  single 
House,  composed  of  delegates  from  States,  each  of 
which  expressly  retained  "its  sovereignty,  freedom, 
and  independence."  Each  had  the  right  at  anytime 
to  recall  and  replace  its  delegates  ;  and  even  their 
compensation  was  paid  by  the  States  sending  them,  so 
that  no  bond  should  hold  them  to  the  common  govern- 
ment. Voting  was  by  States.  The  separate  States  re- 
tained their  sovereignty,  refused  at  will  their  quota 
of  contributions  for  national  debts  and  national  ex- 
penses, managed  foreign  and  interstate  commerce  to 
suit  their  local  interests,  and  made  partial  compacts 
with  neighboring  States  in  a  manner  which  produced 
a  general  confusion  bordering  upon  anarchy.  But 
more  union  was  necessary.  In  his  Tlie  Critical  Period 
of  American  History,  Professor  Fiske  shows  how  the 
country  was  "  drifting  toward  anarchy"  (chap.  iv.). 
The  difficulty  was  met  by  the  Constitution  (q.v.)  of 
1787,  the  present  Constitution  of  the  United  States. 
According  to  this,  all  legislative  powers  grantedby  the 
Constitution  of  the  United  States  are  vested  in  Con- 
gress, which  consists  of  the  Senate  and  the  House  of 
Representatives.  The  powers  of  Con- 

_  -     gress  are  enumerated  in  Article  i,  Sec- 

Powers  01     tion  8,  of  the  Constitution,  and  all  powers 

Congress,  not  granted  to  Congress,  or  prohibited 
to  the  States,  are  reserved  to  the  States 
or  to  the  people ;  but  the  power  of 
Congress  is  absolute  within  the  scope  of  its  author- 
ity. The  Senate  is  composed  of  two  members  from 
every  State,  regardless  of  size  or  population ;  the 
members  of  the  House  are  apportioned  on  the  basis 
of  population.  Thus,  while  m  the  House  the  in- 
fluence of  the  people  is  felt  directly,  according  to 
their  numbers,  the  Senate  provides  the  means  of  de- 
fending the  smaller  States  from  the  possible  encroach- 
ments of  the  larger ;  and  to  assure  the  Safety  of  the 
smaller  States,  the  Constitution,  Article  5,  provides  that 
"no  State  without  its  consent  shall  be  deprived  of  its 
equal  suffrage  in  the  Senate."  Bills  that  have  passed 


both  Houses  are  sent  to  the  President,  who  may  either- 
sign  or  veto  them,  or  do  neither,  in  which  case  the  bill 
becomes  a  law  after  10  days  unless  Congress  has  pre- 


will  be  declared  unconstitutional  by  the  Supreme 
Court,  if  that  body  is  appealed  to  by  either  party  to 
any  controversy  arising  in  an  attempt  to  enforce  such 
laws.  Each  House  is,  by  the  Constitution,  "the  judge 
of  the  elections,  returns,  and  qualifications  of  its  own 
members." 

Each  Congress  must  have  at  least  two  sessions.  A . 
new  Congress  comes  into  existence  on  March  4  in  each, 
odd  year.  The  first  regular  session  begins  on  the  first  - 
Monday  of  December  following.  This  session  may- 
hold,  if  the  two  Houses  choose,  through  the  entire; 
year,  or  they  may  adjourn  at  any  time  during  the: 
year.  Their  second  regular  session  begins  on  the  first 
Monday  of  December  following,  and  that  session  must 
close  by  March  4  following,  when  the  new  Congress 
comes  into  existence.  The  members  of  both  Houses 
receive  a  salary  from  the  Federal  Government. 

Congress  has,  from  time  to  time,  increased  the  com- 
pensation of  its  members  from  $6  a  day  in  the  House, 
and  $7  a  day  in  the  Senate,  until,  by  a  law  passed  in 
1874,  the  compensation  of  each  Senator  was  fixed  at 
$5000  per  annum,  and  the  salary  of  each  Representa- 
tive at  $5000.  The  pay  of  the  Speaker  of  the  House 
and  of  the  Vice-President,  or,  if  there  isnone,  the  Presi- 
dent of  the  Senate  pro  tempore,  is  $8000  per  annum. 
All  these  salaries  are  besides  mileage  and  many  other 
perquisites. 

No  Senator  or  Representative  can  hold  any  office 
under  the  United  States  during  his  membership. 
This  prevents  cabinet  officers  from  being  members  of' 
Congress. 

"  All  bills  for  raising  revenue  originate  in  the- 
House  of  Representatives ;  but  the  Senate  may  pro- 
pose or  concur  ivith  amendments,  as  on  other  bills. 

Every  bill  which  shall  have  -passed  the  House  of 
Representatives  and  the  Senate  must,  before  it  be- 
comes a  law,  be  presented  to  the  President  of  the 
United  States;  if  he  approve  he  signs  it,  but  if  not  he^ 
returns  it,  with  his  objections,  to  that  House  in  which 
it  originated,  who  enter  their  objections  at  large  orr 
their  journal,  and  proceed  to  reconsider  it.  If  after 
such  reconsideration  two  thirds  of  that  House  agree 
to  pass  the  bill,  it  is  sent,  together  with  the  objections, 
to  the  other  House,  and  if  approved  by  two  thirds  of 
that  House,  it  becomes  a  law.  If  any  bill  is  not  re- 
turned by  the  President  within  10  days  (Sundays  ex- 
cepted)  after  it  has  been  presented  to  him,  it  becomes 
a  law,  unless  the  Congress  by  their  adjournment  pre- 
vent its  return,  in  which  case  it  does  not. 

Coming  now  to  the  important  subject  of  how 
this  system  works,  we  notice,  first,  the  general 
characteristic  that  Congress  works  mainly  by 
committees.  With  357  members  of  the  House 
and  90  Senators  (the  present  number)  it  is  obvi-  ' 
ous  that  all  legislation  cannot  be  put  into  shape 
by  Congress  as  a  whole.  If  there  was  no  divi- 
sion of  labor,  little  legislation  could  be  enacted. 
It  does  not  follow,  however,  that  the  present  sys- 
tem is  the  best  for  dividing  the  work. 

In  England,  Parliament  is  divided  into  two 
well-defined  parties,  the    one  supporting,  the 
other  opposing  the  ministry  in  power.     Each, 
party  has  its  regular  leaders  or  whips,  and  these 
leaders  plan  the  legislation,  their  followers  usu- 
ally supporting  them  as  armies  follow  a  gen- 
eral.    Between  these  two  parties  legislation  is 
whipped  into  being.     Only  to  a  comparatively 
small  extent    are    committees  en 
trusted  with  preparing  or  discuss- 
ing  bills.     In  Congress,  however,  Committees, 
while  there  are  the  two  great  par- 
ties  and   party  caucuses,  commit- 
tees are  relied  upon  to  outline  all  legislation  and 
report  them  to  Congress  for  final  action.     This 
in  itself  seems  harmless  and  wise  ;  but  as  at 
present  conducted  the  system  is  of  very  great 
evil.     Why  this  is  so  can  in  a  moment  be  5een. 


Congress. 


324 


Congress. 


The  number  of  bills  before  each  Congress  is 
large,  reaching  into  the  thousands  ;  only  the  few 
most  important  can  be  adequately  discussed  by 
Congress  as  a  whole.  All  others,  if  they  are 
favorably  reported  by  the  committees  to  which 
they  are  referred,  can  be  and  usually  are  passed 
with  little  or  no  discussion.  It  follows  that  the 
fate  of  most  bills  depends  not  upon  Congress  as 
a  whole,  but  upon  the  small  committees  to  which 
they  are  referred.  The  committees  usually  sit  in 
secret.  They  ordinarily  give  a  public  hearing 
to  the  friends  and  opponents  of  a  measure,  but 
the  final  voting  of  the  committee  is  usually  in 
secret.  This  gives  the  utmost  opportunity  for 
underhand  influence  and  corruption.  Small 
•changes  can  be  made,  bills  can  be  defeated  or 
wholly  altered  at  the  last  moment  and  then 
rushed  through  Congress.  Especially  is  this 
the  case  with  personal  bills  and  special  legisla- 
tion. The  fate  of  a  bill  thus  often  depends  on 
the  make-up  of  the  committee.  Now  the  ap- 
pointing of  the  committees  is  made  for  the 
House  by  the  speaker,  which  gives  him  enor- 
mous and  sometimes  dictatorial  power.  In  the 
Senate,  the  committees  are  voted  on  by  the  Sen- 
ate ;  but  in  both  cases  they  are  almost  invariably 
appointed  in  consultation  with  the  leaders  of  the 
party  in  power  and  for  strictly  party  purposes. 
The  Senate  has  toward  50  standing  committees  ; 
the  House  over  50.  Besides  these,  special  com- 
mittees are  continually  being  appointed.  The 
most  important  standing  committees  are  the  fol- 
lowing :  Ways  and  means  ;  appropriations  ; 
elections  ;  banking  and  currency  ;  accounts  ; 
rivers  and  harbors  ;  judiciary  (including  changes 
in  private  law,  as  well  as  in  courts  of  justice)  ; 
railways  and  canals  ;  foreign  affairs  ;  naval 
affairs  ;  military  affairs  ;  public  lands  ;  agricul- 
ture ;  claims  ;  and  the  several  committees  on 
the  expenditures  of  the  various  departments  of 
the  administration  (war,  navy,  etc.). 

Each  congressman  is  usually  put  upon  some 
committee  (a  committee  usually  consisting  of 
from  3  to  1 1  members)  ;  but  the  more  important 
committees  and  the  chairmanship  of  all  com- 
mittees are  usually  given  to  old  party  leaders 
who  often  hold  the  same  committeeship  year 
after  year,  and  are  always  (in  the  case  of  stand- 
ing committees)  appointed  for  the  two  years' 
session  of  Congress. 

It  is  obvious  from  these  conditions  what  a 
grip  party  machinery  has  upon  Congress,  and 
how  helpless  against  the  machine  is  the  indi- 
vidual congressman.  Especially  in  the  last  days 
of  Congress,  when  bills  are  rushed  through, 
enormous  influence  is  brought  to  bear  upon  any 
obstreperous  member  who  dares  to  resist  the 
party's  will.  Corrupt  special  legislation  can 
thus  be  easily  gotten  through,  provided  that  the 
party  leaders  acquiesce.  This  gives  enormous 
power  to  lobbyists,  who  know  what  ropes  to 
pull.  A  bill  can  be  defeated  or  rendered  suc- 
cessful by  inducing  the  leaders  to  refer  it  to  the 
right  committee.  In  the  committee  the  purchase 
or  influencing  of  one  or  two  votes  will  usually 
decide  legislation.  Considering  the  enormous 
financial  interests  involved  in  most  congres- 
sional legislation,  the  wonder,  perhaps,  is,  not 
at  the  corruption,  but  at  the  lack  of  corruption 
in  Congress. 

The   system,  however,  is  more  effective  in 


stopping  legislation  than  in  enacting  it.  It  is 
easier  to  stop  a  bill  than  to  pass  it.  Most  bills 
are  choked  in  committees.  Almost  any  bill  can 
be  conveniently  pigeon  holed  and  not  reported. 
Hence  the  defeat  of  most  reform  legislation  in 
which  the  great  parties  are  not  immediately  in- 
terested. Almost  all  bills  are,  as  a  matter  of 
course,  passed  to  a  first  and  second  reading  and 
then  referred  to  a  committee,  where  it  is  said 
that  over  nine  tenths  of  all  bills  stop.  Occasion- 
ally a  committee  is  compelled  to  report  a  bill, 
but  usually  not.  When  reported,  it  is  rarely 
stated  how  large  a  majority  or  who  of  the  com- 
mittee favored  or  rejected  the  bill.  The  parties 
thus  responsible  for  the  adoption  or  rejection  of 
a  measure  are  often  unknown.  The  whole  sys- 
tem may  be  considered  one  of  secret  legislation. 

The  system,  too,  enables  the  administration  to 
exert  a  strong  but  unseen  influence  on  Congress. 
In  the  English  Parliament  the  Cabinet  appears 
in  Parliament  to  propose  and  defend  its  meas- 
ures. In  Congress  the  Cabinet  does  not  openly 
appear.  But  it  can  appear  before  and  influence 
the  committees,  and  yet  this  most  important 
connection  between  the  administration  and  Con- 
gress is  wholly  secret. 

This  committee  system  is  the  most  important 
characteristic    of    congressional    working,   but 
others  are  of  only  less  moment.     Congress  is 
rendered  largely  inefficient  for  wise 
patriotic  legislation  by  the  fact  that 
since  all  senators  and  representa-  Other  Char- 
tives  must,  when  elected,  be  inhab-   acteristics. 
itants  of  the  State  or  district  they 
represent,  each  member  is  all  but 
expected  to  speak  and  vote,  not  for  the  good  of 
the  country  as  a  whole,  but  of  his  particular 
section.     Debates,  therefore,  become  sectional 
rather  than  of  real  statesmanship.     Again,  the 
above  fact  often  keeps  out  of  Congress  the  best 
men.     If  a  leading  Republican  happens  to  re- 
side in  a  Democratic  State,  or  -vice  -versa,  he 
has  little  or  no  chance  of  election  to  Congress. 
Any  congressman  who   rises  above    sectional 
feeling  and  for  the  good  of  the  country  opposes 
the  interests  of  his  section  can  be  retired,  and 
no  other  section  of  the  country  can  elect  him. 
Machine  politics,  rather  than  fitness,  elect  con- 
gressmen.    Terms  of  office,  too,  in  Congress, 
especially  for  Representatives,  being  short,  and 
the  intricacies  of  politics  often   preventing  re- 
nomination,  few  congressmen  have  power  to  ac- 
complish much.     Before  they  have  well  learned 
the  ropes  their  term  of  office  has  expired.     The 
result  is  that  few  congressmen  have 
a  chance  to  develop  statesmanship. 
This  is,  of  course,  more  true  in  the      Lack  of 
House  than  in   the  Senate.     The      States- 
House  is  usually  a  confused  mass  of    manship. 
new  men  whom  the  country  does 
not  know,  managed  by  a  Speaker 
who  becomes  an  autocrat,  ruling  through  commit- 
tees which  can  alone  be  influenced  by  trained 
lobbyists  who  know  the  ropes. 

In  the  Senate,  men  have  more  training  and 
are  better  known  ;  but  it  is  a  notorious  fact  that 
the  best  men  of  the  country  are  not  in  the  Sen- 
ate, and  the  difference  between  the  Senate  to- 
day and  in  former  times  can  be  seen  by  compar- 
ing the  names  of  Senators  early  in  the  century 
with  those  now  in  office.  Yet  degenerate  as  is 


Congress. 


325 


Congress. 


the  Senate,  it  is  far  more  efficient  than  the 
House,  and  it  is  to  this  body  that  the  country 
has  often  had  to  look  to  save  it  from  the  worst 
legislation  or  from  the  aggressions  of  the  execu- 
tive. 

Congressmen  notoriously  to-day  do  not  repre- 
sent the  people,  but  special  interests  and  great 
moneyed  corporations.  This  may  be  the  result, 
not  of  any  particular  fault  in  the  Constitution, 
but  of  the  prevailing  plutocracy,  yet  the  fact  re- 
mains. The  Congress  is  almost  the  only  great 
national  legislative  body  owned  wholly  by  the 
well-to-do.  In  the  legislative  bodies  of  Ger- 
many, France,  Italy,  Switzerland,  and  Belgium 
there  is  a  large  and  growing  number  of  socialists 
representing  the  toiling  classes.  In 
Parliament,  even  after  the  Con- 
Composition  servative  victories  of  the  last  elec- 
of  Congress,  ti on,  there  are  13  labor  men.  In 
Congress  there  is  not  one.  In  the 
Senate  of  the  Fifty-fourth  Congress, 
1895-97,  there  were  about  88  members  (not  in- 
cluding the  senators  from  Utah).  Of  these  57 
were  lawyers,  2  were  termed  capitalists,  i  manu- 
facturer, 2  merchants,  2  railroad  presidents,  2 
miners,  i  brewer,  i  steamship  manager,  i  raiJ- 
road  and  coal  operator,  i  car  builder,  2  bankers. 
The  remaining  15  members  out  of  the  88  were  3 
journalists,  4  public  officials,  3  farmers,  i  lit- 
erary man,. i  physician,  i  clergyman,  i  planter, 
i  stock  grower.  In  the  House,  out  of  356  mem- 
bers, 228  were  lawyers,  14  bankers,  15  manufac- 
turers, 12  merchants,  4  real  estate  dealers,  2  con- 
tractors, 2  capitalists.  Of  the  remaining  79,  27 
were  farmers.  5  journalists,  5  public  officials,  4 
planters,  5  physicians,  8  editors,  and  the  rest 
scattering.  A  Congress  thus  constituted  be- 
comes almost  inevitably  the  tool  of  interested 
corporations  and  dominated  by  corporation  at- 
torneys. 

The  two  Englishmen  who  most  recently  have 
studied  American  political  developments — one 
favorably,  the  other  unfavorably — have  come  to 
the  following  conclusion  as  to  Congress  :  Mr. 
Lecky,  in    his  Democracy  and  Liberty,  says 
that  Mr.   Bryce,  in  his  American 
Commonwealth,  tho  trying  to  min- 
Corrnption.  imize  the  gravity  and  significance 
of  the  situation,  has  to  admit  that 
several  prominent  men  of  both  par- 
ties in  the  Senate  have  been  suspected  of  com- 
plicity in  railroad  jobs  and  revenue  reforms  ; 
that  all  legislation  affecting  corporations  and 
manufactures  is  systematically  managed,  or  at 
least  influenced  by  corruption  ;  that  about  5  per 
cent,  of  both  houses  of  Congress  take  direct 
money  bribes  ;  that  from  1 7  to  20  per  cent,  are 
pretty  certainly  open  to  corruption,  and  a  much 
larger  number  suspected  to  be  dishonest.     (For 
further  evidence  on  this  point,  see  PLUTOCRACY  ; 
LOBBIES,  etc.) 

These,  however,  tho  the  main  evils  in  Con- 
gress, are  not  the  only  ones. 

Another  characteristic  of  Congress  is  that 
there  is  no  connection  between  money-raising 
and  money-spending.  Bills  for  revenue  origi- 
nate in  the  House  and  are  referred  to  one  com- 
mittee— the  Committee  of  Ways  and  Means. 
The  bills  for  spending  money  are  referred  to 
the  Committee  on  Appropriations,  the  Commit- 
tee on  Rivers  and  Harbors,  and  various  commit- 


tees on  departments,  like  the  army,  navy,  pen- 
sions, etc.  The  whole  committee  system  breaks 
up  all  unity  in  Congress. 

Another  important  characteristic  of  Congress 
is  that  when  the  Senate  and  House  disagree 
on  the  details  of  a  bill,  as  continually  happens, 
.  a  conference  committee  is  appointed,  and  this 
committee,  meeting  in  secret,  shapes  the  final 
and  important  details  of  many  bills  to  which 
the  Senate  and  House  are  almost  compelled  to 
assent  on  pain  of  failing  to  pass  any  bill  at  all. 

Such  are  some  of  the  evils  of  the  present 
workings  of  Congress. 

It  is  not  to  be  denied  that  there  is  a  more 
favorable  side.  (For  a  review  of  this,  see  CON- 
STITUTION.) Perhaps  the  wonder  is  not  that 
Congress  is  so  bad,  but  that  it  is  so  good. 

How  to  make  it  better  is  a  question  much  dis- 
cussed.    The  problem,  as  far  as  discussion  goes, 
seems  to  be  to  increase  the  opportunity  for  dis- 
cussion in  the  House  and  to  check 
discussion    in     the    Senate.     The 
House,  especially  under  the  rules     Reforms 
brought  in  by  Mr.  Reed,  is  far  too    Proposed. 
much  under  the  thumb  of  the  Speak- 
er.    The  Senate,  under  the  claim 
of  senatorial  courtesy,  talks  too  much  and  acts 
too  little. 

But  these  reforms  do  not  go  to  the  bottom  of 
the  matter.  Probably  the  reforms  most  needed 
in  Congress  are  reforms  out  of  Congress,  that 
will  send  better  men  there  and  weaken  the  in- 
fluence of  the  corporations  ;  but  passing  this  by, 
the  more  immediate  reforms  proposed  are  to 
change  the  requirement  that  congressmen  in- 
habit the  districts  they  represent  and  to  length- 
en the  term  of  office.  These  proposals,  how- 
ever, are  by  no  means  assented  to  by  all.  A 
large  body  of  reformers  believe  that  relief  can 
be  obtained  only  by  the  principles  of  the  Refer- 
endum and  Initiation  (g.v.),  which  will  largely 
take  from  Congress  its  power  of  legislation  and 
vest  it  in  the  people.  Others  believe  that  Con- 
gress should  adopt  the  English  system  of  a 
ministry  represented  in  Congress,  defending 
its  measures  and  opposed  by  an  organized  op- 
position. Concerning  present  evils  and  the 
English  system,  Mr.  Gamaliel  Bradford,  in  the 
Annals  of  the  American  Academy  of  Politi- 
cal and  Social  Science  (November,  1893)  says  : 

"  When  the  next  Congress  assembles  there  will  be 
356  members — and  the  reasoning  is  just  as  good  for 
the  Senate  with  its  88  members— all  precisely  equal. 
Probably  not  more  than  one  half  of  the  members  have 
ever  been  there  before,  and  very  few  for  more  than 
one  term.  .  .  .  They  can  do  nothing  at  all  till  they 
have  elected  a  speaker.  That  speaker  makes  up,  at 
his  absolute  discretion,  the  standing  committees,  some 
50  in  number,  to  whom  everything  is  referred." 

What  Mr.  Bradford  proposes  in  place  of  this 
legislation  by  irresponsible  committees  and  lord- 
ly senators  is  to  make  of  the  members  of  the 
Cabinet  leaders,  with  a  voice  in  Con- 
gress, such  as  the  members  of  the 
English  Cabinet  have  around, whom     Methods 
independent  members  as  well  as   of  Reform. 
parties  can  rally,  and  against  whose 
lead  an  opposition  can  be  openly 
formed,  the  people  being  left  free  to  decide  be- 
tween the  two  policies.     Woodrow  Wilson,  in 
his  Congressional  Government,  advocates  the 
abolition  of  standing  committees,  and  recom- 


Congress. 


326 


Conservative  Party. 


mends  that  the  Cabinet  should  have  seats  in 
Congress  ard  be  advisers  of  both  President  and 
Congress.  Albert  Stickney,  in  his  A  True  Re- 
public, argues  that  we  cannot  have  a  true  re- 
public until  our  Constitution  be  revised.  He 
proposes  the  abolition  of  the  term  system,  the 
giving  to  Congress  all  the  legislative  and  re- 
moving power,  but  no  appointing  power,  which 
he  would  place  wholly  in  the  hands  of  the  Presi- 
dent and  department  heads.  Radicals  in  Amer- 
ica usually  look  for  reform  by  proposing  to  give 
to  Congress  only  the  shaping  of  bills,  as  stated 
above. 

References :  Bryce's  The  American  Commonwealth 
(revised  edition,  Macmillan,  1895);  W.  Wilson's  Con- 
gressional Government  (Houghton,  Mifflin  &  Co.,  1885) ; 
Gamaliel  Bradford's  Congress  and  the  Cabinet  (Ameri- 
can Academy  of  Political  and  Social  Science,  1892) ; 
Albert  Stickney's  A  True  Republic  (Harper,  1890).  See 
also  CONSTITUTION  OF  THE  UNITED  STATES. 

The  following  shows  the  present  composition 
of  the  Fifty-fifth  Congress  (March  4,  1897,  to 
March  4,  1899) : 


The  following  table  shows  party  divisions  in 
Congress  since  1856  : 


STATES. 

SENATE. 

HOUSE. 

a 

• 

Q 

d 

4> 

P4 

O« 

O 

(X 

Silver.* 

£ 

a 

a 

8 

P. 
0) 

« 

P. 

O 

£ 

i 

2 
2 

2 

6 

2 

3 

Colorado  

Connecticut  

Delaware  

Florida  

Illinois                          .... 

5 
4 

17 
9 

Kansas  

2 

6 

2 

4 

4 

Maine       

! 

6 

I 
I 

4 

2 

Nevada  

New  Hampshire  

* 

New  Jersey        

8 

North  Carolina  

5 

4 

North  Dakota  

Ohio               

6 

South  Carolina  

7 

i 

South  Dakota  

8 

2 

Texas                     

Utah                

8 

2 

2 

Washington    

i 

I 

I 

i 
i 

4 

Total  

34 

45 

7 

4 

*34+ 

206 

i6| 

CONGRESSES. 

SENATE. 

HOUSE. 

Dem. 

Rep. 

Ind. 

Dem. 

Rep. 

Ind. 

XXXV  

39 
38 

10 

9 

20 
26 

£ 

S 

2 
2 

5 

131 

101 

42 

75 

92 
"3 
106 

IO2 

H 
23 
28 

9 

XXXVI  

XXXVII  

XXXVIII  

XXXIX  

XL  

49 
78 
103 
92 
68 
5i 
48 
38 
98 
04 
68 
59 
36 

20 
04 

H3 
IS' 
138 
194 
I07 
142 
129 
146 
124 
1  2O 

'53 
166 
88 
126 
246 

> 
14 

iet 

lot 

it 
it 

4 

'81! 
81] 
73 

XLI    

ii 
17 

20 

29 

39 

44 

3« 
36 

34 
37 
37 
39 
44 
39 

58 
57 
47 
43 
36 
32 
37 
4°§ 
42 
39 
39 
47 
38 
42 

'?: 

2* 
1* 

'it 

2! 

3!l 

31 

XLII  

XLIII  

XLIV            

XLV       

XLVI  

XLVII    

XLVIII  

XLIX     

L        

LI  

LII  

LIHf  

LIV.:  . 

*  Three  Silver  Republicans  and  i  Silver  Fusionist. 

t  Including  15  members  classed  as  Fusionists. 

$  Including  3  members  classed  as  Silver  party  men. 


Parties  as  constituted  at  the  beginning  of  each  Con- 
gress are  given.  These  figures  were  liable  to  change 
by  contests  for  seats,  etc. 

*  Liberal  Republicans. 

t  Greenbackers. 

J  David  Davis,  Independent,  of  Illinois. 

§  Two  Virginia  Senators  were  Readjusters,  and 
voted  with  the  Republicans. 

I!  People's  party,  except  that  in  the  House  of  Repre- 
sentatives of  the  Fifty-fourth  Congress  one  member  is 
classed  as  Silver  party. 

1  Three  Senate  seats  were  vacant  (and  continued 
so)  and  two  Representative  seats  were  unfilled  (Rhode 
Island  had  not  yet  effected  a  choice)  when  the  session 
began.  Rhode  Island  subsequently  elected  two  Re- 
publicans. 

CONRAD,  JOHANNES  C.— Professor  Con- 
rad was  born  in  West  Prussia  in  1839.  He 
studied  at  Berlin  and  Jena.  In  1868  he  became 
Docent  and  then  professor  of  political  economy 
at  Jena,  but  in  1870  was  called  to  Halle.  In 
1872  he  commenced  assisting  his  father-in-law, 
Professor  Hildebrand,  in  the  editorship  of  the 
Jahrbucher filr  Nationalokonomie  itnd  Statis- 
tik,  and  in  1878  became  sole  editor.  He  is  in 
economics  identified  with  the  historical  school. 
Among  his  writings  are  :  Die  Nationalokono- 
mie  der  Gegenwart  und  Zukitnft  (1848)  ; 
Liebig' 's  Ansicht  v.  der  landivirschaftl.  Bo- 
denerschopfung  (1864).  Since  1889  he  has  been 
chief  editor  of  the  important  H aridw  drier  hue  h 
der  Staatswissenschaften. 

CONSENT,  AGE  OF.  See  AGE  OF  CONSENT. 

CONSERVATIVE  PARTY  AND  SO- 
CIAL REFORM,  THE  (English).— The  use 
of  the  term  Conservative,  as  applied  to  an  Eng- 
lish political  party,  dates  from  about  1831,  when 
the  discussions  over  Catholic  emancipation  and 
parliamentary  reform  were  bringing  up  new 
issues  and  teaching  the  more  progressive  Tories 
to  call  themselves  Conservatives,  as  the  more 
progressive  Whigs  were  learning  to  call  them- 
selves Liberals.  The  leaders  of  this  movement 
called  themselves  Conservatives,  because,  altho 
they  admitted  the  necessity  of  reform,  they  de- 
sired to  conserve  by  every  constitutional  means 
the  existing  institutions  of  the  country,  both  ec- 
clesiastical and  civil,  and  to  oppose  such  meas- 


Conservative  Party  and  Soc.  Ref.    327      Conservative  Party  and  Soc.  Ref. 


tires  and  changes  as  they  believed  would  impair 
these  institutions.  Mr.  Wilson  Crocker  is  cred- 
ited with  the  first  use  of  the  word,  when  he 
spoke  in  the  Quarterly  Review  of  being  con- 
scientiously attached  ' '  to  what  is  called  the 
Tory,  but  which  might  with  more  propriety  be 
called  the  Conservative  Party. ' '  Sir  Robert  Peel 
was  at  this  time  the  leader  of  the  party.  Disraeli 
was  just  coming  into  notice.  The  party  early 
took  an  active  part  in  social  reform.  If  it  is, 
on  the  whole,  to  the  Liberal  Party  that  England 
owes  its  extension  of  the  suffrage  giving  the 
working  classes  their  opportunity  in  politics,  it 
is  to  the  Conservative  Party  that  much  of  Eng- 
land's advance  in  industrial  legislation  must  be 
credited.  The  first  modern  factory  bill  was 
brought  in  by  the  elder  Peel  in  1802,  tho 
the  first  effective  bill  was  that  of  1833  ;  and  it  is 
to  Lord  Ashley,  afterward  Lord  Shaftesbury 
(q.v.),  that  we  owe  the  ensuing  bills  of  1842, 
1844,  and,  above  all,  the  ten-hour  bill  of  1847. 
The  Liberal  Party  of  this  epoch,  led  by  the 
school  of  Cobden  and  Bright,  was  committed  to 
suffrage  reform  and  laissez  fatre  in  industry. 
Its  leaders  therefore,  as  a  rule,  bitterly  opposed 
industrial  legislation.  The  Conservative  Party 
naturally,  then,  supported  such  legislation  for  two 
reasons  :  first,  to  oppose  the  Liberals,  since  the 
Conservatives  were  a  party  of  the  landlords  and 
of  "the  country"  in  contrast  to  the  free-trade 
manufacturers,  who  were  largely  Liberals  ; 
and,  secondly,  because  the  Conservatives  num- 
bered among  themselves  such  zealous  philan- 
thropists as  Lord  Shaftesbury,  who  on  some- 
what paternal  principles  worked  for  the  benefit 
of  the  oppressed  workers  in  mines  and  factories. 
Thus  early  were  sown  the  seeds  of  the  later  so- 
called  ' '  Tory  Democracy. ' '  The  bitterest  op- 
ponent of  this  legislation  was  John  Bright.  We 
thus  see  the  historic  grounds  for  the  connection 
between  the  Conservative  Party  and  industrial 
legislation.  Yet  it  took  talent  to  develop  this 
into  a  political  factor,  and  this  was  largely  done 
for  the  Conservative  Party  by  Benjamin  Dis- 
raeli. In  1845  Disraeli  published  his  Sybil,  and 
in  this  boldly  advocated  a  so-called  ' '  Young 
England  Toryism. ' '  He  attacked  the  principles 
of  Sir  Robert  Peel,  and  declared  that  Peel  was 
leading  the  Conservative  Party  into  the  ene- 
my's forts.  He  said  that  Peel  "  had  caught  the 
Whigs  bathing,  and  run  away  with  their 
clothes."  He  showed  that  the  Reform  Bill  had 
created  a  young  England,  and  that  it  was  for 
the  Conservative  Party  to  champion  the  cause 
of  industrial  protection  for  the  working  classes 
against  the  middle  class  laissez  fatre  of  the 
Liberals.  Whatever  one  may  think  of  Disraeli, 
and  whatever  were  his  motives,  there  is  no 
doubt  that  he  followed  this  policy  more  or  less 
faithfully  through  his  brilliant  career,  and  laid 
the  basis  of  the  Conservative  policy  which  has 
extended  the  poor  laws,  assisted  emigration, 
checked  foreign  immigration,  and  favored  in- 
dustrial legislation. 

But  the  exactions  of  political  situations  have 
compelled  both  Liberal  and  Conservative  par- 
ties in  England  to  outbid  each  other  in  intro- 
ducing popular  legislation.  The  connection  of 
the  Liberal  Party  with  the  Irish  Home  Rule 
movement,  having  led  Mr.  Gladstone  to  ex- 
tremely socialistic  measures  on  the  Irish  land 


question,  the  Conservatives,  as  usual,  had  to  go 
them  one  better,  and  the  result  has  been  Lord 
Randolph  Churchill  and  the  Tory  Radicalism 
of  the  so-called  "Liberal  Unionists."  This 
meteor-like  statesman  outdid  Disraeli  in  fa- 
voring radical  legislation  in  order  to  win  sup- 
port for  Conservative  principles.  In  1880  he 
began  to  develop  his  program,  and  by  1886  he 
was  strong  enough  for  a  few  months  to  have 
almost  the  key  to  the  political  situation.  His 
program  was  non-intervention  in  foreign  poli- 
tics, reduction  of  army  and  navy  expenditure, 
household  suffrage,  equal  electoral  districts, 
democratic  elective  councils,  abolition  of  Lon- 
don coal  and  wine  dues,  free  education,  peasant 
proprietorship  in  Ireland  by  State  purchase. 
With  this  radical  program  he  succeeded  in  cre- 
ating a  strong  following.  In  concert  with  his 
mother  and  wife,  he  formed  the  Primrose 
League.  As  chairman  of  the  Conservative  cau- 
cus, he  placed  this  body  on  a  democratic  basis. 
More  recently  and  more  enduringly  Mr.  Cham- 
berlain, with  his  "  Liberal  Unionists,"  has  to 
an  extent  stood  for  the  same  policy,  but  with 
a  distinct  falling  away  from  the  progressive 
policy  he  so  brilliantly  carried  out  in  Birming- 
ham (g.v.*).  This  radicalism  has  led  to  somewhat 
of  an  opposition  in  the  Conservative  Party,  yet  it 
has  had  its  effect  in  the  almost  revolutionary 
extension  of  local  self-government  granted  by 
the  Conservative  Government  of  1888,  and  the 
extension  of  factory  acts,  truck  acts,  sanitary 
acts,  Costigan's  dwelling  acts,  the  allotments 
acts  of  1886 — all  of  which  are  Conservative 
measures. 

It  is  true  that  the  Liberal  Party  (<p.v.)  in  its 
Newcastle  program  has  gone  still  further,  but 
it  shows  why  English  working  men,  weary  of  the 
large  promises  and  slight  fulfilment  of  the  Lib- 
eral Party,  could,  not  without  at  least  some  ex- 
cuse, vote  for  the  Conservatives  in  1895.  Never- 
theless, it  must  be  said  that  the  attitude  of  some 
of  the  Liberal  leaders  against  the  liquor  interests 
had  in  many  localities  more  to  do  with  bringing 
the  Conservatives  into  power  than  any  particu- 
lar fondness  of  the  working  classes  for  the  Con- 
servatives, and  what  was  not  due  to  this  was 
rather  due  to  dissatisfaction  with  the  lack  of  ac- 
tion by  the  Liberals  than  hope  of  any  action 
from  the  Conservatives.  Nevertheless,  some  of 
the  more  progressive  Conservatives  have  out- 
lined something  of  a  program  on  social  reform. 
Sir  John  Gorst,  writing  in  the  Nineteenth  Cen- 
tury for  August,  1895,  advocates  the  creation 
of  permanent  boards  of  arbitration  and  concili- 
ation, with  authority  to  conciliate  industrial 
troubles,  the  employment  of  the  unemployed 
by  establishing  free  labor  registries  and  experi- 
mental labor  colonies,  employees'  liability  laws, 
the  adjustment  of  the  poor  laws  to  care  for  de- 
pendent children,  placing  them  out  when  possi- 
ble, and  for  the  aged  granting  a  free  State  pen- 
sion. Mr.  Whitelaw,  Unionist,  advocate  for 
N.  E.  Lanark,  advocated  in  the  late  election  a 
resolute  foreign  policy  to  help  trade,  pensions 
for  the  aged,  improved  workmen's  dwellings, 
compensation  for  accidents,  boards  of  concilia- 
tion, increased  inspection  of  dangerous  trades, 
restriction  of  alien  pauper  immigration,  reform 
of  the  licensing  system,  and  of  registration. 
It  remains  to  be  seen  what  the  government  will 


Conservative  Party  and  Soc.  Ref.     328 


Conspiracies. 


do,  but  undoubtedly  the  majority  of  the  party 
are  not  ready  for  all  the  above  measures,  and 
will  probably  carry  out  no  more  than  they  are 
obliged  to.  Few  Socialists  in  England  look 
forward  with  any  hope  to .  even  the  most  allur- 
ing promises  of  this  Tory  Democracy.  The  Lib- 
erty and  Property  Defense  League  (<?.v.)  are 
doing  all  they  can  to  protest  against  this  incipi- 
ent socialism  of  both  the  Conservative  and  Lib- 
eral parties.  The  Earl  of  Wemyss,  speaking 
in  the  House  of  Lords  August  15,  1887,  pro- 
tested against  the  "  socialism  at  St.  Stephen's," 
and  declared  that  in  that  year  alone  there  were 
83  "socialistic"  bills  before  Parliament,  39 
brought  in  by  Liberals  and  44  by  Conserva- 
tives. Yet  when  one  compares  the  little  done 
and  the  much  promised,  few  friends  of  social 
progress  in  England  believe  that  real  progress 
will  come  from  either  party. 

CONSID£RANT,  VICTOR  PROSPER, 

was  born  at  Salins,  Jura,  October  12,  1808.  He 
studied  at  Paris  in  the  Polytechnic  School,  en- 
tered the  army  as  an  engineer  officer,  but  re- 
signed his  commission  in  1831  to  spread  Fourier- 
ite  socialism.  He  took  part  in  the  socialistic 
experiment  of  1832  at  Conde-sur-Vegre,  and 
was  associated  with  Fourier  as  editor  of  La 
Phalanstere.  In  1834  Considerant  published 
La  destinee  social e,  3  vols.  (1834-45).  When 
Fourier  died,  in  1837,  Considerant  became  the 
chief  of  the  Fourierites ;  was  editor  of  La 
Phalange  (1836-43),  and  of  a  daily  paper,  La 
Democratic  Pacifique  (1843-50).  He  was 
chosen  to  the  Republican  constituent  assembly 
of  1848  a's  representative  for  Loiret.  In  1849 
he  was  returned  as  member  for  Paris  for  the 
Legislative  corps,  but  on  account  of  certain  in- 
discreet acts  he  was  soon  compelled  to  retire 
from  the  country.  He  went  to  Belgium,  and 
thence,  in  1853,  to  Texas,  where  he  afterward 
organized  the  unsuccessful  socialistic  colony  of 
La  Reunion.  He  was  naturalized,  and  stayed 
in  Texas  till  1869,  when  he  returned  to  live  in 
quiet  in  Paris.  Among  his  works  are  a  Mani- 
feste  de  I'ecole  societair'e  (1841) ;  Exposition 
abregte  du  systeme  phalansterien  (1841) ;  The- 
orie  de  r education  naturelle  (1845) ;  Principes 
du  socialisme  (1847) !  Theorie  du  droit  de  Pro- 
priete  et  du  droit  au  Travail  (1848)  ;  L  apoca- 
lypse, on  la  prochaine  renovation  democrat- 
ique  (1849). 

CONSOLIDATION     OF    RAILROADS. 

See  RAILROADS  ;  MONOPOLIES  ;  TRUSTS,  etc. 

CONSPIRACIES  (in  Trade,  etc.).— A  con- 
spiracy may  be  denned  in  general  as  a  combi- 
nation of  two  or  more  persons  to  commit  in 
concert  some  reprehensible,  injurious,  or  illegal 
act.  Conspiracy  laws  are  the  laws  forbidding 
such  combinations.  According  to  the  common 
law  of  England,  which  is  also  the  basis  of  the 
American  law,  conspiracy  laws  forbid  combina- 
tions 

(i)  To  falsely  charge  another  person  with  a  crime 
punishable  by  law.  (2)  To  wrongfully  injure  or  preju- 
dice a  third  person,  or  an)'  body  of  men.  (3)  To  com- 
mit any  offense  punishable  by  law.  (4)  To  do  any  act 
with  intent  to  pervert  the  cause  of  justice.  (5)  To  ef- 
fect a  legal  purpose  with  a  corrupt  intent  or  by  improper 
means.  (6)  Until  recently  and  even  now  in  malicious 
ways  combinations  to  raise  wages. 

Under  the  United  States  laws  the  following  are  the 


things  a  concerting  to  do  which  made  between  two  or 
more  persons  constitutes  the  offense  of  conspiracy  : 
(i)  An  agreement  to  overthrow  the  Gov- 
ernment of,   or  levy  war  against,    the 
United  States  ;  to  overthrow,  put  down,       General 
or  destroy  by  force,   or  oppose  the   au-         Laws 
thority  thereof  ;  by  force  to  prevent,  hin- 
der, or  delay  the  execution  of  any  law 
of    the  United   States,    or    by   force  to 
sei/e,  take,  or  possess   any    property  of  the  United 
States,  contrary  to  the  authority  thereof.    (2)  To  deter 
a  party  or  witness  from  attending  or  testifying  in  a 
court  of  the  United  States,  or  to  injure  one  on  account, 
or  to  influence  a  verdict  or   indictment   by  grand  or 
petit  jury,  and  to  impede  the  due  course  of  justice  with 
intent  to    destroy   equal    protection   of  laws.    (3)  To. 
hinder  or  prevent  any  person  from  voting  or  qualify- 
ing to  vote  at  any  election,  or  to  injure,  oppress,  or  in- 
timidate any  citizen  in  the  full  exercise  or  enjoyment 
of  the  right  or  privilege  secured  by  the  Constitution  or 
laws  9f  the  United  States.     (4)  To  hinder  by  force  or 
intimidation  any  person  from  occupying   or  holding 
office  under  the  United  States,  or  to  injure  such  officer 
on  account.    (5)  To  induce  any  officer  of  the   United 
States  to  leave  any  State,  or  to  injure  such  officer  on 
account.    (6)  To  defraud  the  United  States  by  obtain- 
ing approval  of  any  false  claim  against  the  same.    (.7) 
To  cast  away  any  vessel  with  intent  to  defraud  the 
underwriters. 

Besides  these  the  various  States  have  their  special 
laws.  Criminal  conspiracies  in  the  United  States 
consist  not  in  the  accomplishment  of  any  unlaw- 
ful purpose,  nor  in  any  one  act  moving  toward 
that  purpose,  but  in  the  actual  concert  and  agreement 
of  two  or  more  persons  to  effect  the  unlawful  thing  so 
concerted  or  agreed  upon.  Mere  concert  in  itself  is 
not  a  crime,  for  associations  to  prosecute  a  felon  have 
been  held  to  be  lawful  ;  but  it  is  the  object  or  purpose 
of  the  concerting  that  make  the  offense.  Where  the 
object  or  intent  if  carried  into  effect  would  be  a  wrong, 
then  concert  is  indictable,  as  ati  a^t  in  itself-  tending  to 
produce  it ;  as,  for  instance,  to  support  a  cause,  in 
itself  just,  by  false  testimony.  A  combination  to  do  a 
criminal  act  is  indictable  ;  also  an  agreement  or  con- 
federation to  do  a  lawful  act  by  unlawful  means  ;  be- 
cause, in  the  first  instance  named,  the  act  being  in 
itself  criminal,  a  conspiracy  to  do  it  must  in  the  very 
nature  of  things  be  also  criminal,  while  in  the  second 
instance,  the  means  being  unlawful,  it  matters  not 
what  may  be  the  act  to  be  done. 

In  this  cyclopedia  we  are  specially  concerned 
with  the  application  of  conspiracy  laws  to  indus- 
trial combinations.  For  their  application  to 
combinations  to  raise  prices,  fares,  etc. ,  see  MO- 
NOPOLIES. We  consider  here  simply  their  appli- 
cation to  combinations  of  working  men — a  sub- 
ject which  has  a  long  and  important  history. 

The  general  theory  in  the  Middle  Ages  of  the 
relation  of  the  workman  to  the  State  was  one  of 
tutelage.  The  law  undertook  to  control  him  at 
well-nigh  every  point.  This  was  largely  at- 
tempted through  the  guild.  The  old  craft  guilds 
were  originally  composed  of  apprentices,  jour- 
neymen, and  masters,  joined  in  one  association. 
As  the  guilds,  however,  grew  in  wealth  they 
became  more  and  more  purely  instruments  of 
the  masters  to  oppress  the  journeymen.  These 
naturally  resented  this,  and  formed  combina- 
tions of  their  own,  usually  secret,  and  some- 
times under  the  guise  of  religious  brotherhoods, 
but  really  organized  to  protect  their  rights.  It 
was  against  these  brotherhoods  that  the  first 
laws  concerning  workmen's  combinations  were 
directed. 

As  early  as  1383  the  city  authorities  of  London  issued 
a  proclamation  forbidding  all   congregations,  covins, 
and  conspiracies  of  workmen  in  general.    In  1387  three 
journeymen  cordwainers  were  carried 
to  Newgate  for  trying  to   found  a  bro- 
therhood.   In   1415  the   brotherhood   of    Workmen's 
tailors    was    for    a    while    suppressed. r/vmVii  tint-inns 
An  early  law  of  Henry  VI.  forbade •the<'0mbinatlons. 
yearly  confederation  of  the  masons,  on 
the  grounds  that  these  gatherings  tend- 
ed to  destroy  the  force  of  the  famous  Statute  of  Ap- 
prentices, which  had  tried  to  fix  wages  at  the  wages 


Conspiracies. 


329 


Conspiracies. 


of  1327.  In  1548  a  more  general  statute  of  Edward  VI. 
prohibited  all  conspiracies  and  covenants  not  to  make 
or  do  work  but  at  a  certain  price,  under  penalt}',  on  a 
third  conviction,  of  a  loss  pt  an  ear  and  the  pillory. 
This  act  was  not  repealed  till  1824.  In  the  Elizabethan 
period  the  famous  poor  laws  were  passed  decreeing 
that  wages  should  be  fixed  by  justices  of  the  peace, 
etc.  This  led  to  numberless  combinations  and  prose- 
cutions, particularly  during  the  eighteenth  century. 
The  earlier  laws  forbade  combinations  of  masters  and 
of  workmen  alike.  The  later  laws  were  directed 
against  workmen  only.  In  1799  they  were  combined  in 
a  general  act,  repealed  and  replaced  the  next  year  by 
40  Geo.  III.  c.  106,  which  prohibited  all  combinations  for 
raising  wages  or  reducing  hours.  Mr.  Justice  Stephen 
says  of  this  act  {History  of  the  Criminal  Law  of  Eng- 
land, vol.  iii.,  p.  20)  :  "The  only  freedom  for  which  it 
seems  to  me  to  have  been  specially  solicitous  is  the 
freedom  of  the  employers  from  coercion  by  theirmen." 
This  act  was  in  force  till  1824,  during  all  the  period 
when  the  workmen  were  feeling  the  first  results  of  the 
factory  system,  and  were  breaking  machinery,  etc.  In 
1803  three  linen  weavers  were  sent  to  jail  simply  for 
carrying  a  letter  requesting  help  from  other  workmen. 
At  last,  in  1824,  a  change  came,  due  to  Joseph  Hume,  in 
Parliament,  and  Francis  Place,  a  London  tailor,  out  of 
Parliament.  All  previous  statutes  so  far  as  they  related 
to  working  men  were  repealed,  and  workmen  combin- 
ing to  advance  wages  or  lessen  hours  were  not  liable 
to  prosecution  for  conspiracy.  But  the  masters  next 
year  succeeded  in  changing  this  and  replacing  it  by 
the  6  Geo.  IV.  c.  129.  This  new  act,  while  it  repealed 
the  previous  statutes,  did  not  in  express  terms  legalize 
combinations  of  workmen— the  legality  of  such  com- 
binations was  left  to  be  dealt  with  by  the  common  law 
— it  simply  rendered  men  liable  to  punishment  for  the 
use  of  threats,  intimidation,  molestation,  and  obstruc- 
tion directed  toward  the  attainment  of  the  objects  of 
trade-unions.  A  few  alterations  in  the  act  were  made  by 
22  Viet.  c.  34.  The  recommendations  of  the  royal  com- 
mission of  1867  on  trade-unions  led  to  the  repeal  of  the  6 
Geo.  IV.  c.  129,  and  the  22  Viet.  c.  34,  by  the  38  and  39 
Viet.  c.  31,  and  the  38  and  39  Viet.  c.  32,  which  declared 
that  the  purposes  of  a  trade-union  were  not  to  be  deemed 
unlawful  by  reason  merely  that  they  were  in  restraint 
of  trade,  and  carefully  defined  what 
acts  should  be  deemed  criminal  offenses. 
Present  Eng-  The  protection  afforded  by  these  acts 
lish  Taw  was  greatly  diminished  by  the  gradual 
iisii  •L>ttw<  extension  of  the  common  law  doctrine  of 
conspiracy,  and  at  length,  in  1875,  the 
act  was  repealed  and  replaced  by  the 
Conspiracy  and  Protection  Act,  38  and  39  Viet.  c.  86. 
According  to  this  act,  an  agreement  between  two  or 
more  persons  to  do  any  act  in  furtherance  of  a  trade 
dispute  is  not  indictable  as  a  conspiracy  if  such  act 
committed  by  one  person  is  not  punishable  as  a  crime. 

Such  is  a  brief  record  of  English  legislation 
on  this  subject,  but  it  does  not  show  the  bitter 
struggle  of  the  working  men  against  these 
combination  laws.  In  1834  the  case  of  the  six 
Dorchester  laborers  elicited  general  indigna- 
tion. These  poor  and  ignorant  men,  of  good 
previous  record  and  characters,  were  convicted 
nominally  of  administering  unlawful  oaths, 
really  of  committing  the  crime  of  combination. 
They  were  transported  to  Australia  and  sold  to 
labor  contractors  for  £i  per  head.  It  aroused 
all  English  labor.  A  monster  meeting  was  held 
in  Copenhagen  Fields,  attended,  it  was  said, 
by  400,000  persons  ;  50,000  workmen  marched 
to  the  official  residence  of  Lord  Melbourne,  pre- 
senting a  petition  for  clemency  signed  by 
266,000  persons.  Pardon  was  finally  granted 
against  strong  protests  from  the  manufacturers, 
but  was  not  properly  promulgated,  and  some  of 
the  convicted  only  heard  of  it  by  accident  after 
years  of  slavery.  All  through  this  period  there 
were  conspiracy  prosecutions  and  condemna- 
tions. One  of  the  most  important  of  these  was 
the  prosecution  of  the  Wolverhampton  tin-plate 
workers  in  1851,  at  a  cost  of  some  $19,220. 
There  had  been  a  strike,  and  the  strikers  picket- 
ed the  factory,  and,  inducing  workmen  to  keep 


away,  had  brought  the  business  to  a  standstill. 
They  were  charged  with  conspiracy,  and  con- 
victed under  common  law  misdemeanor,  pun- 
ishable by  two  years  of  penal  servitude.  It  was 
this  conviction  that  brought  the  first  modifica- 
tion of  the  law  of  1825.  In  the  sixties  a  series 
of  conspiracy  trials  led  to  the  commission  of 
1867,  which  resulted,  in  1871,  in  the  change  of 
the  law  and  a  careful  definition  of  what  was  a 
conspiracy  in  trade  disputes.  This  law,  tho 
generally  an  advance,  on  one  point — the  right 
of  the  workman  to  address  another  employee 
during  a  strike— was  retrograde,  and  led  to  the 
great  act  of  1875.  Since  1875  three  main  cases 
have  arisen — those  of  the  engineers'  strike  at 
Erith,  of  the  shoemakers'  at  Bethnal  Green, 
and  the  bricklayers'  in  Lambeth.  The  first  was 
on  a  charge  of  "  picketing,"  accompanied  with 
approximate  mobbing  ;  the  second  was  on  a 
charge  of  picketing,  with  threats  of  personal 
violence,  and,  according  to  George  Howell 
(Conflicts  of  Capital  arid  Labor,  1878,  p.  338), 
the  men  were  condemned  to  two  months'  im- 
prisonment, because  they  were  unable  to  prove 
their  innocence  or  disprove  the  evidence  against 
them.  The  third  case  was  a  trial  on  charge  of 
a  strike,  the  accusers  not  bringing  any  charge 
of  picketing  or  personal  interference  ;  the  charge 
being  not  on  the  ground  of  strikes  in  general 
being  a  combination,  but  that  this  particular 
strike  was  a  conspiracy.  For  the  trial  of  John 
Burns  and  others  at  Old  Bailey,  and  for  similar 
trials  on  the  charge  of  using  seditious  language, 
etc.,  see  ENGLAND  AND  SOCIAL  REFORM. 

In  the  United  States,  the  first  trial  for  con- 
spiracy to  raise  wages  was  in  1741,  when  certain 
journeymen  bakers  of  New  York  City  were  con- 
victed for  conspiring  not  to  bake, 
till  their   wages  were    raised.     It 
does  not  seem,  however,  that  any      United 
sentence    was    passed.     The    first       States 
case  of  which  complete  records  exist        Law. 
was  the  trial  of  journeymen  boot 
and  shoemakers  of  Philadelphia  in 
1806.     They  were  found  "  guilty  of  a  combina- 
tion to  raise  their  wages,"  and  were  fined  $8 
each  and  costs.     The  next  important  case  was 
that  of  the  people  of  the  State  of  New  York 
against  James  Melvin  and  others  in  1809.     It 
was  finally  decided  July  12,   1810,  before  the 
Mayor  of  New  York  City,  against  the  men,  be- 
cause, tho  possibly  a  combination  not  to  work 
except  for  certain  wages  might  not  be  indict- 
able, they  were  organized  to  compel  members 
of  their  union  not  to  work  if  the  union  voted  to 
strike. 

The  same  position  was  taken  in  a  court  of 
quarter  sessions  for  Alleghany  County,  Pa., 
when  Judge  Roberts  said  :  "It  is  not  for  de- 
manding high  prices  that  these  men  are  indict- 
ed, but  for  employing  unlawful  means  to  exact 
these  prices,  for  using  means  prejudicial  to  the 
community.  ...  A  conspiracy  to  compel  an 
employer  to  have  only  a  certain  description  of 
persons  is  indictable."  Similar  verdicts  were 
rendered  in  various  trials. 

In  1834,  in  Hartford,  Conn.,  the  Thompson  - 
ville  Carpet  Manufacturing  Company  brought 
suit  against  W.  Taylor  and  others  for  conspir- 
ing to  raise  the  price  of  wages,  hindering  others 
from  working,  and  declaring  a  strike.  The 


Conspiracies. 


330 


Conspiracies. 


defendants  won.  The  court  charged  the  jury 
that  a  peaceable  arguing  with  workmen  not  to 
work  except  for  a  certain  price  was  not  a  ground 
for  civil  action. 

In  1840  certain  journeymen  of  the  Boston 
Bootmakers'  Society  were  indicted  for  con- 
spiracy in  the  municipal  court.  They  were 
convicted  in  the  lower  court,  but  the  Supreme 
Court  did  not  sustain  the  verdict.  It  is  claimed 
by  labor  leaders  that  the  decision  of  Judge  Shaw 
decided  definitely  that  men  have  a  right  to  com- 
bine to  raise  wages.  The  Third  Annual  Re- 
port of  the  United  States  Commission  of 
Labor  says  (p.  1130)  that  this  is  a  mistake,  but 
that  the  verdict  was  not  sustained  simply  be- 
cause the  indictment  was  not  rightly  framed. 

Chief  Justice  Shaw,  in  his  decision,  said  : 

"  The  general  rule  of  the  common  law  is,  that  it  is  a 
criminal  and  indictable  offense  for  two  or  more  to 
confederate  and  to  combine  together,  by  concerted 
means,  to  do  that  which  is  unlawful  or  criminal,  to  the 
injury  of  the  public,  or  portions  or  classes  of  the  com- 
munity, or  even  to  the  rights  of  an  individual.  This 
rule  of  law  may  be  equally  in  force  as  a  rule  of  the 
common  law,  in  England  and  in  this  Commonwealth  ; 
and  yet  it  must  depend  upon  the  local  law  of  each 
country  to  determine  whether  the  purpose  to  be  ac- 
complished by  the  combination,  or  the  concerted 
means  of  accomplishing  it,  be  unlawful  or  criminal  in 
the  respective  countries.  .  .  . 

"  Without  attempting  to  review  and  reconcile  all 
the  cases,  we  are  of  opinion,  that  as  a  general  de- 
scription, tho  perhaps  not  a  precise  and  accurate 
definition,  a  conspiracy  must  be  a  combination  of  two 
or  more  persons,  by  some  concerted  action,  to  accom- 
plish some  criminal  or  unlawful  purpose,  or  to  accom- 
plish some  purpose  not  in  itself  criminal  or  unlawful, 
by  criminal  or  unlawful  means." 

The  next  important  cases  were  those  of  the 
Master  Stevedores'  Association  vs'.  Peter  H. 
Walsh  and  others,  decided  in  1867,  important 
because  Judge  Daly  reviewed  adjudications;  and 
the  case  of  some  members  of  the  Knights  of 
Labor  of  District  Assembly  No.  91,  arrested 
March,  1887,  for  alleged  interference  with  the 
employees  of  John  H.  Hanan  and  Gardner  & 
Estes,  shoe  manufacturers  of  New  York  City,  im- 
portant for  the  opinion  delivered  by  Judge  Bar- 
rett. Nevertheless,  no  new  principles  were 
established,  and  the  case  was  appealed.  Mean- 
while, many  of  the  States  have  enacted  legisla- 
tion on  this*  subject. 

In  New  York,  by  the  act  of  1870,  labor  unions 
are  made  lawful  ;  also  the  peaceful  and  orderly 
combinations  in  any  trade  or  profession  to  se- 
cure an  advance  in  rates  of  wages  or  compensa- 
tion, or  maintenance  of  such  ;  but  combination 
of  workmen  to  raise  their  wages  by  conspiring 
to  compel  journeymen  to  conform  to  rules  estab- 
lished by  the  conspirators  for  the  purpose  of 
regulating  the  price  of  labor,  and  to  carry  such 
rules  into  effect  by  overt  acts,  ate  indictable, 
and  not  within  the  scope  of  the  act.  Several 
attempts  have  been  made  to  do  away  with  the 
operation  of  this  act,  by  the  enactment  of  others 
tending  against  the  workmen,  but  they  have 
not  been  successful. 

In  Pennsylvania,  by  the  act  of  June  14,  1872, 
trade-unions  were  made  lawful  ;  the  act  pro- 
vides that  it  shall  be  lawful  for  laborers,  work- 
men, or  journeymen,  acting  either  as  individuals 
or  as  members  of  any  club,  society,  or  associa- 
tion, to  refuse  to  work  or  labor  for  any  person 
or  persons,  whenever  in  his,  her,  or  their  opin- 
ion the  wages  paid  are  insufficient,  or  the  treat- 


ment of  such  laborers,  journeymen  or  workmen 
by  the  employers  is  brutal  or  offensive,  or  the 
continued  labor  of  such  laborers,  journeymen,  or 
workmen  would  be  contrary  to  the  rules,  regu- 
lations, or  by-laws  of  any  club,  society,  or  or- 
ganization to  which  he,  she,  or  they  belong, 
without  subjecting  them  in  so  refusing  to  work 
or  labor  to  prosecution  or  indictment  for  con- 
spiracy under  the  criminal  laws  of  the  State  ; 
provided  that  the  rules  of  such  society  shall  not 
conflict  with  the  constitution  of  the  State,  also 
that  the  act  shall  not  prevent  the  prosecution 
and  punishment  under  existing  laws.  This  act 
was  supplemented  by  the  act  of  March  22,  1877, 
which  in  order  to  provide  for  the  better  protec- 
tion of  passengers  upon  railroads,  and  insure 
the  prompt  transportation  and  delivering  of 
freight,  enacts  that  in  case  of  strikes  by  loco- 
motive engineers  and  railroad  employees,  and 
the  abandonment  by  them  of  their  engines  and 
trains  at  points  other  than  their  schedule  desti- 
nations, endangering  the  safety  of  passengers 
and  subjecting  shippers  of  freight  to  great  in- 
convenience, delay,  and  loss,  it  shall  be  a  mis- 
demeanor for  any  engineer  or  other  employee 
to  abandon  engines  and  trains  at  points  other 
than  their  destination,  with  a  view  to  incite 
others  to  strike,  or  to  refuse  to  give  aid  in  the 
movement  of  cars  of  other  companies,  or  to  in- 
terfere with  other  employees,  or  to  obstruct 
tracks  or  injure  property  of  the  company,  and 
upon  conviction  punishes  with  fine  and  impris- 
onment. Such  are  examples  of  recent  State 
legislation. 

The  recently  commenced  Bulletin  of  the  De- 
partment of  Labor,  in  its  first  number  (Novem- 
ber, 1895,  p.  98),  thus  summarizes  the  present 
state  of  the  common  law  bearing  upon  combi- 
nations : 

"  Every  one  has  the  right  to  work  or  to  refuse  to 
•work  for  whom  and  on  what  terms  he  pleases,  or  to 
refuse  to  deal  with  whom  he  pleases ;  and  a  number 
of  persons,  if  they  have  no  unlawful  object  in  view, 
have  the  right  to  agree  that  they  will  not  work  or  deal 
with  certain  persons,  or  that  they  will  not  work  under 
a  fixed  price  or  without  certain  conditions.  The  right 
of  employees  to  refuse  to  work  either  singly  or  in 
combination  is  balanced  by  the  right  of  employers 
to  refuse  to  engage  the  services  of  any  one  tor  any 
reason  they  may  deem  proper.  ...  In  short,  both  em- 
ployers and  employees  are  entitled  to  exercise  the 
fullest  liberty  in  entering  into  contracts  of  service, 
and  neither  party  can  hold  the  other  responsible  for 
refusing  to  enter  into  such  contracts." 

It  has  been  held,  however,  that  employees  in 
separate,  independent  establishments  have  no 
right  to  combine  for  the  purpose  of  preventing 
workmen  who  have  incurred  the  hostility  of  one 
of  them  from  securing  employment  upon  any 
terms,  and  by  the  method  commonly  known  as 
blacklisting,  debarring  such  workmen  from  ex- 
ercising their  vocation,  such  a  combination  be- 
ing regarded  as  a  criminal  conspiracy. 

On  the  other  hand,  a  combination  of  em- 
ployees, having  for  its  purpose  the  accomplish- 
ment of  an  illegal  object,  is  unlawful  ;  for  in- 
stance, a  conspiracy  to  extort  money  from  an 
employer  by  ordering  his  workmen  to  leave  him 
and  deterring  others  from  entering  his  service 
is  illegal,  and  an  association  which  undertakes 
to  coerce  workmen  to  become  members  thereof 
or  to  dictate  to  employers  as  to  the  methods  or 
terms  upon  which  their  business  shall  be  con- 
ducted by  means  of  force,  threats,  or  intimida- 


Conspiracies. 


33 !   Constitution  of  the  United  States. 


tion,  interfering  with  their  traffic  or  lawful  em- 
ployment of  other  persons,  is,  as  to  such  pur- 
poses, an  illegal  combination.  Commissioner 
Wright  says,  in  the  World  Almanac  for  1895 
(P-  94)  : 

"  The  States  having  laws  prohibiting  boycotting  in 
terms  are  Illinois  and  Wisconsin. 

"  The  States  having  laws  prohibiting  blacklisting'  in 
terms  are  Colorado,  Florida,  Georgia,  Illinois,  Indiana, 
Iowa,  Missouri,  Montana,  North  Dakota,  Virginia, 
and  Wisconsin. 

•'  The  following  States  have  laws  which  may  be 
fairly  construed  as  prohibiting  boycotting:  Alabama, 
Connecticut,  Georgia,  Indiana,  Maine,  Michigan,  Min- 
nesota, Missouri,  Montana,  New  Hampshire,  New 
York,  North  Dakota,  Oregon,  Rhode  Island,  South 
Dakota,  Texas,  and  Vermont. 

"  The  following  States  have  laws  which  may  be 
fairly  construed  as  prohibiting  blacklisting:  Maine, 
Michigan,  Minnesota,  New  Hampshire,  New  York. 
Oregon,  Rhode  Island,  South  Dakota,  Texas,  and 
Vermont." 

Recent  decisions  have,  however,  opened  up 
the  whole  question.  March  25,  1893,  Circuit 
Judge  Billings,  at  New  Orleans,  held  that  the 
terms  of  the  Anti-Trust  Act,  in  ref- 
erence to  combinations  in  restraint 
Recent  of  trade,  applied  to  laborers  as  well 
Decisions,  as  capitalists,  and  that  a  combina- 
tion to  allow  no  Avork  to  be  done  in 
moving  interstate  commerce  was 
within  the  prohibition  of  the  statute  ;  tho  the 
mere  refusal  to  work  or  a  combination  not  to 
work,  with  no  intimidation  to  prevent  others 
from  working,  would  not  contravene  the  stat- 
ute. April  3  of  the  same  year  Judge  Ricks,  of 
the  United  States  District  Court,  at  Toledo,  O. , 
having  previously  issued  an  injunction  restrain- 
ing the  Lake  Shore  Railroad  from  refusing  to 
take  freight  from  or  to  the  Ann  Arbor  Road, 
whose  engineers  were  on  strike,  fined  for  con- 
tempt of  court  an  engineer  of  the  Lake  Shore 
Road  who  refused  to  take  a  freight  car  from  the 
Ann  Arbor  Line.  At  the  same  day  and  place 
Judge  Taft,  of  the  Circuit  Court,  granted  an 
order  restraining  Chief  Arthur,  of  the  Brother- 
hood of  Locomotive  Engineers,  from  enforcing 
a  law  of  their  association  requiring  members  to 
boycott  freight  and  cars  from  any  road  on  which 
a  Brotherhood  strike  existed.  Both  of  these  de- 
cisions were  based  on  the  Interstate  Commerce 
Act.  April  8,  1893,  Judge  Speer,  of  the  United 
States  Circuit  Court,  at  Macon,  Ga. ,  granted  a 
petition  of  the  Brotherhood  of  Locomotive  En- 
gineers, that  the  receiver  of  a  road  in  the  court's 
control  should  contract  with  the  organization  in 
reference  to  terms  of-  service,  tho  he  sustained 
the  above  decisions.  December  19,  1893,  Judge 
Jenkins,  at  Milwaukee,  granted  an  injunction 
restraining  the  officers  of  an  employees'  organi- 
zation from  carrying  out  a  threat  to  strike  on  a 
road  in  the  receivers'  hands.  April  6,  1894,  he 
modified  the  language,  but  insisted  on  "the 
right  of  a  court  of  equity  to  restrain  a  strike  on 
a  railway."  April  5,  1894,  the  Circuit  Court  at 
Omaha  refused,  under  similar  circumstances,  to 
enjoin  employees  from  striking.  October  i, 
1894,  the  Circuit  Court  of  Appeals  at  Chicago 
modified  the  decision  of  Judge  Jenkins,  and 
held  that  ' '  the  rule  is  without  exception  that 
equity  will  not  compel  the  actual  affirmative 
performance  by  an  employee  of  merely  personal 
services  any  more  than  it  will  compel  an  em- 
ployer to  retain  in  his  personal  service  one  .  .  . 


who  is  not  acceptable  to  him."  The  evils  of 
strikes,  it  held,  must  be  met  by  legislation,  and 
"  in  the  absence  of  such  legislation  the  right  of 
one  in  the  service  of  a  quasi  public  corporation 
to  withdraw  therefrom  whenever  he  sees  fit 
must  be  deemed  so  far  absolute  that  courts  of 
equity  cannot  interfere."  But  the  injunction 
was  sustained  so  far  as  it  prohibited  employees 
from  combining  or  conspiring  to  quit  the  service 
of  receivers  with  the  object  of  crippling  the  prop- 
erty in  their  custody,  either  by  obstructing  the 
management  or  by  using  force  or  intimidation 
against  employees  who  chose  to  work.  For 
the  recent  developments  of  this  question,  see 
INJUNCTIONS. 

References  :  Report  of  the  United  States  Commis- 
sion of  Ladar,  1887  ;  Report  of  New  York  Bureau  of 
Statistics  of  Labor  for  1890  ;  Howell's  Conflicts  of  Cap- 
ital and  Labor. 

CONSTITUTION  OF  THE  UNITED 
STATES,  THE.— For  a  general  view  of  con- 
stitutions, see  CONSTITUTIONALISM.  We  consider 
here  the  working  of  the  United  States  Constitu- 
tion especially  in  relation  to  social  reform.  The 
Continental  Congress,  which  declared  the  in- 
dependence of  the  United  States,  was  a  revo- 
lutionary body,  called  into  existence  by  the 
necessity  of  common  action  between  the  colo- 
nies in  protecting  their  rights,  and  when  it  was 
so  voted,  of  obtaining  their  independence. 

It  gave  itself,    in  1877,   a  new  legal  character    by 
framing  the  Articles  of  Confederation  and  Perpetual 
Union,  whereby  the    13  States  entered  into  a    "firm 
league    of    friendship ;      but    this    con- 
federation was  rather  a  league  than  a 
national  government.     Each    State,  ac-  Beginning's. 
cordi'ng  to  the  articles,    retained    "  its 
sovereignty,     freedom,     and     indepen- 
dence, and  every  power,  jurisdiction,  and  right  which 
is  not  by  this  confederation  expressly  delegated  to  the 
United  States  in  Congress  assembled." 

There  was  no  Federal  execution,  no  Federal  judi- 
ciary, no  Federal  taxing  power,  no  means  of  paying  an 
army,  or  any  Federal  bills,  save  as  the  States  volun- 
tarily contributed  money.  The  confederation  did  not 
work.  It  was,  in  fact,  little  better  than  anarchy,  as 
men  like  George  Washington  declared.  Some  firmer 
union  was  evidently  needed. 

In  1786  delegates  from  five  States  met  at  Annapolis, 
Md.,  and  recommended  that  Congress  call  a  general 
convention  to  consider  the  condition  of  the  Union  and 
needed  amendments  to  the  Constitution.  Congress 
did  so,  recommending  the  States  to  send  delegates  to 
a  convention  which  should  "revise  the  Articles  of 
Confederation,  and  report  to  Congress  and  the  several 
legislatures  such  alterations  and  provisions  therein  as 
shall,  when  agreed  to  in  Congress  and  confirmed  by 
the  States,  render  the  Federal  Constitution  adequate 
to  the  exigencies  of  government  and  the  preservation 
of  the  Union." 

The  convention  thus  summoned  met  at  Philadelphia 
on  May  14,  1787,  became  competent  to  proceed  to  busi- 
ness on  May  25,  and  sat  nearly  five  months.  Every 
State  was  represented  save  Rhode  Island.  George 
Washington  was  chosen  President,  and  the  leading 
men  of  the  country  were  the  delegates  It  boldly  de- 
cided to  prepare  a  wholly  new  Constitution,  to  be  con- 
sidered and  ratified  neither  by  Congress  nor  the  State 
legislatures,  but  by  the  people  of  the  several  States. 
The  delegates  were  55,  and  30  signed  the  Constitution ; 
the  debates  were  secret ;  the  difficulties  were  very 
great. 

Two  tendencies  manifested  themselves,  which 
led  to  the  formation  of  the  two  great  political 
parties  which,  under  different  names,  have  divid- 
ed American  political  life.  On  the  one  hand 
was  a  strong  desire  for  a  national  unity,  with  a 
highly  developed  central  power  ;  on  the  other, 
a  still  more  powerful  fear  of  centralization  and 


Constitution  of  the  United  States.    332    Constitution  of  the  United  States. 


the  desire  to  retain  the  sovereignty  of  each  State. 
As  is  well  known,  the  constitution  adopted 
was  a  compromise  between  these  two  tenden- 
cies. The  framers  of  the  Constitu- 
tion had  the  experience  of  the  Eng- 
Fundamental  lish  Constitution  to  go  by,  with  its 
Principles.  Cabinet, its  House  of  Commons,  and 
its  House  of  Lords.  They  had  the 
State  constitutions,  which  had  to 
an  extent  been  modeled  after  the  English  pat- 
tern, modified  by  the  peculiarities  of  the  differ- 
ent States  as  they  had  grown  up  under  the  dif- 
ferent charters  originally  granted  to  the  differ- 
ent colonies.  On  the  other  hand,  the  minds, 
particularly  of  the  Virginian  delegates,  were 
filled  with  theories  regarding  the  natural  rights 
of  individuals,  derived,  in  fact,  from  Rousseau 
and  other  French  writers,  and  made  them  very 
jealous  of  granting  power  to  any  government. 
The  Constitution  framed  was  a  resultant  of 
these  and  other  forces.  The  framers  had  in  mind 
the  principle  of  English  common  law,  that  an  act 
done  by  any  official  person  or  law-making  body 
beyond  his  or  its  legal  competence  is  simply 
void,  which  principle  Mr.  James  Bryce  declares 
became  the  key  to  their  difficulties.  They  care- 
fully assigned  to  different  branches  of  the  gov- 
ernment certain  fixed  forms  which  they  held  it 
necessary  for  them  to  hold,  and  all  powers  not 
mentioned  were  therefore  retained  in  the  hands 
of  the  people.  They  sought  so  to  divide  the  pow- 
ers between  federal  and  State  governments,  and 
between  the  different  branches  of  government, 
that  no  branch  should  absorb  too  much  power 
or  trespass  upon  the  power  of  another  branch. 

September  17,  the  convention  adjourned  to 
submit  its  result  to  the  people  of  the  various 
States  for  ratification.  Then  began  a  struggle. 
It  was  declared  by  many  that  the  Constitution 
gave  too  much  power  to  the  central  government. 
Men  said  that  liberty  would  perish.  It  was  as- 
serted that  freedom  won  from  George  III.  was 
being  slain  by  her  own  children.  The  vote  to 
ratify  was  nearly  defeated  in  Massachusetts  and 
New  York.  Several  of  the  States  suggested 
amendments,  and  most  of  these 
were  adopted,  in  1791,  soon  after 
Adoption,  the  adoption  of  the  Constitution  it- 
self, in  ten  amendments,  called, 
after  the  English  precedent,  a  Bill 
or  Declaration  of  Rights.  The  first  State  to 
ratify  the  Constitution  was  Delaware,  Decem- 
ber 7,  1787.  When  nine  States  had  ratified,  the 
Constitution  was  to  be  adopted,  and  this  was 
accomplished  when  New  Hampshire  ratified, 
June  21,  1788,  by  a  majority  of  n.  Four  days 
after  Virginia  ratified,  not  knowing  of  New 
Hampshire's  vote  ;  next  New  York  and  North 
Carolina.  Rhode  Island  had  sent  no  delegates 
to  the  convention,  but  finally  ratified,  May,  1790. 
Congress  voted  that  the  Constitution  go  into 
effect  March  4,  1789.  Elections  had  previously 
been  held,  and  on  that  day  the  first  Congress 
under  the  new  Constitution  met,  but  for  lack  of 
a  quorum  did  not  organize  till  April.  Then  the 
electoral  votes  were  counted  in  the  presence  of 
both  Houses,  and  George  Washington  was 
found  elected  President,  and  inaugurated  April 
30,  1789,  in  New  York  City. 

The  characteristic    feature  of    the  American  Con- 
stitution is  its  union  of  Federal  and   State  Govern- 


ment. The  Federal  Government  was  restricted  to  the 
minimum  of  power  necessary  to  a  national  union, 
yet  the  State  governments  were  pre- 
vented from  exerting  undue  power.  Analysis 
The  Constitution  being  a  creature  of 
the  States,  only  the  States  can  amend 
it.  (See  AMENDMENTS  TO  THE  CONSTITUTION.)  The 
States,  too,  form  the  national  Government  by  choos- 
ing presidential  electors,  senators,  and  fixing  the 
franchise  which  qualifies  the  citizens  to  vote  for  repre- 
sentatives. On  the  other  hand,  the  Federal  court  is 
supreme  in  the  interpretation  of  the  Constitution,  and 
can  overrule  any  State  or  National  legislation  which 
it  decides  to  be  unconstitutional.  (See  JUDICIARY.)  The 
President  and  Congress,  too,  have  power  over  the 
States  in  certain  specified  matters,  the  presumption, 
however,  always  being  in  favor  of  the  State.  The 
States  cannot  make  treaties,  tax  exports  or  imports, 
save  with  the  permission  of  Congress.  They  must 
surrender  fugitives  from  justice  in  other  States.  They 
can  be  sued  by  other  States  or  foreign  powers  in 
Federal  courts.  Congress  has  power  to  establish  uni- 
form bankruptcy  laws.  Resistance  to  Federal  author- 
ity or  attacks  on  Federal  property  may  be  repulsed  by 
Federal  troops.  In  all  other  cases  States  are  to  act, 
tho  they  may  call  upon  the  Federal  Government  for 
aid. 

The  Federal  Government  comes  into  direct  contact 
with  the  people  of  the  States  by  the  Federal  courts, 
its  taxing  power,  its  power  to  raise  an  army,  above  all, 
by  the  election  of  Presidential  electors  and  representa- 
tives to  Congress  by  the  people.  It  was  on  these  two 
last  points  that  the  framers  of  the  Constitution  found 
their  greatest  difficulty.  Whether  the  States  should 
be  represented  in  Congress  as  States,  or  simply  by  the 
representatives  of  the  people,  was  a  burning  question. 
The  smaller  States  desired  representation  as  States, 
while  the  opponents  of  this  position  declared  that 
this  would  be  unjust,  since  it  would  give  the  few  peo- 
ple in  the  smaller  States  equal  power  with  the  large 
Eopulations  in  large  States.  The  question,  too,  of 
tates  rights  versus  the  Federal  Government  was  in- 
volved. It  was  finally  settled  by  having  the  members 
of  one  house — the  Senate — elected  by  the  State  Govern- 
ment, and  the  members  of  the  lower  house— the  House 
of  Representatives — elected  by  the  people,  the  num- 
ber or  the  latter  depending  on  the  population  of  the 
State. 

The  election  of  the  President  caused  even  more  dis- 
cussion, but  was  finally  decided  by  having  the  people 
choose  electors  who  should  choose  the  President.  (For 
the  working  of  this,  see  ELECTORAL  COLLEGE.)  The 
chief  matters  which,  as  national,  were  intrusted  to  the 
Federal  Government  were  : 

The  conduct  of  the  national  defense,  and  the  making 
of  treaties. 

The  maintenance  of  federal  courts.    • 

Commerce,  foreign  and  domestic. 

Currency. 

Copyrights  and  patents. 

The  post-office. 

Taxation  for  general  purposes. 

Protection  of  citizens  against  unjust  legislation  by 
States  (Amendments  XIV.,  XV.). 

The  three  branches  of  Government  established  by 
the  Constitution  were  the  executive,  the  legislative, 
and  the  judicial.  It  was  attempted  to  make  these  in- 
dependent of  each  other  and  coordinate, 
with  such  a  balance  of  powers  that  no 
branch  could  wield  too  much  power. 
To  the  President  (q.v.)  is  given  the  su- 
preme executive  power.  He  has  com- 
mand of  the  army  and  navy,  he  can 
make  treaties  and  appoint  ambassadors 
and  consuls,  but  must  have  the  advice  and  consent  of  the 
Senate.  He  appoints  the  judges  of  the  Supreme  Court 
and  all  high  federal  officers,  but  again  must  have  the 
consent  of  the  Senate.  He  can  grant  reprieves  and 
powers  except  in  cases  of  impeachment.  He  can  sum- 
mon both  Houses  on  occasion.  He  can  veto  any  bill 
or  resolution  of  Congress.  He  must  inform  Congress 
of  the  state  of  the  Union,  and  recommend  legislation. 
He  must  see  that  the  laws  be  executed.  He  is  pre- 
vented from  exerting  too  much  power,  because  he  can 
raise  no  money  to  pay  an  army ;  he  can  appoint  no 
officers  unless  the  Senate  approves ;  he  cannot  prevent 
legislation  passed  over  his  veto  ;  he  can  be  impeached 
for  faithlessness  in  office.  The  legislative  power  is 
given  to  the  Senate  and  House  of  Representatives 
(ff-V-).  No  federal  officer  can  be  a  member  of  Congress. 
This  is  an  attempt  to  preserve  the  independence  of  the 
legislature.  It  has  the  po\yer  to  enact  all  federal  laws, 
to  vote  taxes  and  appropriations,  to  borrow  money,  to 
regulate  commerce,  to  coin  money,  to  establish  post' 


The 
President. 


Constitution  of  the  United  States.    333    Constitution  of  the  United  States. 


offices  and  roads,  to  declare  war,  to  raise  and  support 
armies,  to  determine  the  certificates  and  to  count  the 
votes  of  the   Presidential    electors,    to 
impeach  and  to  try  the   President,   to 
p.  judge    of   the    elections,    returns,    and 

o  '  Gratifications  of  its  members.  Congress 
is  limited  in  the  exercise  of  its  power, 
because  it  cannot  change  the  Constitu- 
tion, it  can  pass  no  bill  unapproved  by  the  Presi- 
dent except  by  a  two-thirds  vote,  and  no  bill  of 
Congress  is  valid  if  declared  to  be  unconstitutional 
by  the  Supreme  Court.  The  members  of  the  House 
of  Representatives  must  be  elected  every  second  year 
by  the  people  of  their  several  States,  and  all  bills  for 
raising  revenue  must  originate  in  the  House  of  Repre- 
sentatives ;  but  the  Senate  may  propose  or  concur 
with  amendments.  To  the  Senate  is  given  the  power 
of  approving  or  advising  in  the  matter  of  executive 
appointments  and  treaties. 

To  the  federal  judiciary  is  given  the  power  of  inter- 
pretation of  the  Constitution,  and  the  trial  of  all  cases 
in  law  and  equity  arising  under  the  Constitution,  the 
laws  of  the  United  States,  United  States  treaties,  con- 
troversies between  States,  controversies  to  which  the 
United  States  is  a  party,  and  controversies  between 
a  State  and  citizens  of  another  State,  or 
between  citizens  claiming  lands  under 
Judic ia  grants  of  different  States,  and  between 
'•  States  or  citizens  and  foreign  States  or 
subjects.  (For  the  working  of  the  feder- 
al j  udiciary,  see  JUDICIARY.)  Its  power 
is  limited  simply  to  the  interpretation  of  the  Constitu- 
tion and  of  the  law.  Trials  of  all  crimes,  except  in 
cases  of  impeachment,  must  be  by  jury.  (See  INJUNC- 
TION.)  All  federal  judges  have  a  life  tenure,  subject  to 
impeachment  by  the  House  of  Representatives,  and 
trial  by  the  Senate.  Such  are  the  main  features  of  the 
American  Constitution.  Certain  actions  are  express- 
ly forbidden.  A  writ  of  habeas  corpus  may  not  be 
suspended  save  in  cases  of  rebellion  or  invasion.  No 
ex  post  facto  or  bill  of  attainder  may  be  passed.  No 
tax  or  duty  may  be  laid  on  articles  exported  from  any 
State.  No  preference  by  regulation  of  commerce  may 
be  given  to  one  State  over  another.  No  money  may  be 
drawn  from  the  treasury  save  in  consequence  of  ap- 
propriation made  by  law.  No  title  of  nobility  may  be 
§  ranted,  and  no  person  holding  office  under  the  United 
tales  may  receive  a  present  or  title  from  any  king, 
prince,  or  foreign  State.  All  duties,  imposts,  and  ex- 
cises must  be  uniform  through  the  States.  See  also 
AMENDMENTS  TO  THE  CONSTITUTION,  forbidding  any 
law  respecting  an  establishment  of  religion,  or  curtail- 
ing the  free  exercise  of  religion,  free  speech,  freedom  of 
the  press,  the  right  to  peaceable  assembly,  to  petition 
Government,  to  keep  and  bear  arms,  to  trial  by  jury 
on  indictment  by  a  grand  jury  for  capital  or  infa- 
mous crime,  and  trial  by  jury  in  all  criminal  prosecu- 
tions. By  other  amendments,  the  powers  not  delegated 
by  the  Constitution,  nor  prohibited  by  it  to  the  States, 
are  reserved  to  the  States  or  the  people.  No  State  may 
enact  or  enforce  any  law  abridging  the  privileges  or 
immunities  of  any  citizen.  The  right  of  citizens  to 
vote  shall  not  be  abridged  on  account  of  race,  color, 
or  previous  condition  of  servitude.  Neither  slavery 
nor  involuntary  servitude,  except  as  punishment  upon 
conviction  for  crime,  shall  be  allowed. 

Such  is  a  general  account  of  the  Constitution 
of  the  United  States.  Its  practical  working, 
while  open  to  not  a  few  serious  criticisms,  has 

undoubtedly  been  a  success.    Even 

its  most  serious  defect  may  be  said 
Successes,    to  be  the  result  of  its  virtues.     At 

the  present  time,  when  condition? 

are  so  different  from  those  undei 
which  it  was  drafted,  the  Constitution,  with  its 
slow  process  for  amendment,  seems  to  bind  the 
nation  against  its  will  and  unduly  check  wise 
action.  But  this  defect,  if  defect  it  be,  is  as- 
suredly the  result  of  the  strength  of  the  Consti- 
tution, and  a  strength  absolutely  needed  both 
in  the  days  of  weakness  when  the  nation  was 
young,  and  in  the  days  of  strength  when  the 
nation  was  rocked  with  discussions  over  the 
question  of  State  rights. 

De  Tocqueville  60  years  ago  was  more  hope- 
ful of  the  future  of  the  separate  States  than  of 


the  Union.  He  believed  that  with  the  first  seri- 
ous difference  in  views  the  Union  would  be  dis- 
solved At  the  time  of  the  Rebellion  most  Eu- 
ropeans and  some  Americans  believed  that  the 
end  of  the  Union  was  come.  A  strong  con- 
stitution was  needed.  To  day  the  Union  exists 
more  firmly  knit  than  ever,  and  no  small  part  of 
this  must  be  attributed  to  the  wisdom  and 
strength  of  the  Constitution.  Perhaps,  too,  the 
greatest  triumph  of  the  Constitution  has  been 
that  it  has  so  marvelously  succeeded  in  its  com- 
promise between  federal  and  State  powers. 
This  was  the  greatest  difficulty  presented  to  the 
f  ramers  of  the  Constitution  ;  it  has  been  till  now 
the  burning  question  of  American  politics.  The 
Constitution  has  weathered  the  storm.  A  small 
republic  is  comparatively  easy  to  conduct.  In 
the  United  States  alone  are  giant  States  confed- 
erated in  one  republic. 

Again,  the  Constitution,  for  the  first  time 
in  history,  has  enabled  a  great  nation  with- 
out radical  constitutional  changes  to  preserve 
popular  liberties.  In  the  late  election  of  1896  a 
people  numbering  over  70,000,000  went  into  an 
intense  and  even  passionate  contest,  one  in 
which  the  numbers  on  each  side  were  about 
equal,  which  raised  issues  of  section  and  still 
more  issues  of  class— an  election  in  which  each 
party  believed  it  stood  for  the  preservation  of 
liberty  and  for  the  defeat  of  principles  subver- 
sive of  honest  and  free  government,  and  yet 
under  a  Constitution  framed  a  century  ago,  the 
nation  has  come  out  of  the  conflict  whole  and 
unharmed.  Surely  such  a  Constitution  has 
stood  the  test  of  time.  It  has  succeeded,  too, 
in  the  main  in  realizing  that  division  of  powers 
which  its  authors  thought  so  necessary.  The 
President  has  not  been  able  to  defy  Congress  ; 
Congress  has  not  been  able  to  ignore  the  Presi- 
dent. If  the  Supreme  Court  has  been  able  to 
exert  at  times  enormous  power,  it  has,  after  all, 
usually  but  recorded  the  popular  verdict.  If, 
as  a  large  majority  believe,  in  1876  a  President 
duly  elected  was  set  aside  for  his  rival  candi- 
date, the  claims  of  the  two  were  nearly  equal, 
so  that  gross  injustice  was  not  done.  If,  more 
recently,  a  decision  of  the  Supreme  Court  pre- 
vented an  income  tax  which  a  large  majority  of 
the  people  desired,  there  can  be  no  doubt  that 
the  decision  will  ultimately  be  reversed,  provided 
the  people  continue  to  demand  such  a  tax.  No 
constitution  can  work  without  favor.  Consid- 
ering the  vigor  with  which  the  nation  has  acted 
in  emergencies  and  the  moderation  and  freedom 
of  its  general  policy,  the  experience  of  the  cen- 
tury must  be  thought  to  bear  out  the  verdict  of 
Mr.  Gladstone,  that  "  as  the  British  Constitution 
is  the  most  subtle  organism  which  has  proceed- 
ed from  progressive  history,  so  the  American 
Constitution  is  the  most  wonderful  work  ever 
struck  off  at  a  given  time  by  the  brain  and  pur- 
pose of  man." 

There  have  been,  however,  notable  failures 
in  the  working  of  the  Constitution.     Some  of 
these  we  consider  elsewhere.     The 
plan  of    the   electoral   college  has 
been     a    notorious    failure.      (See    Failures. 
PRESIDENCY.)    The  whole  presiden- 
tial election  machinery  is  out  of  gear 
and  gives  undue  prominence  to  certain  States 
and  certain  cities.     Vast  classes  of  citizens  are 


Constitution  of  the  United  States.    334 


Constitutionalism. 


practically  disenfranchised.  (See  PROPORTIONAL 
REPRESENTATION.)  Congress  has  very  serious 
defects.  (See  CONGRESS.) 

Above  all,  the  Constitution  in  many  ways 
does  not  really  give  the  people  a  chance  to  rule. 
It  has  been  said  that  it  is  based  on  the  theol- 
ogy of  Calvin  and  the  philosophy  of  Hobbes. 
It  was  the  work  of  men  who  believed  in 
total  depravity,  and  they  seem  to  have  bound 
men  at  every  point. 

To  many  social  reformers  this  seems  the  su- 
preme vice  of  the  American  Constitution,  that  by 
its  legalism,  resting  on  individualism,  it  prevents 
strong  social  action.  In  the  Fed- 
eral Government,  as  in  our  States 
Indi-  and  cities,  all  powers  not  enumer- 
vidualism.  ated  in  constitution  or  in  charter 
are  reserved  to  the  people — that  is, 
to  individuals.  Democrat  and  Re- 
publican may  contend  for  strict  or  for  broader 
construction,  but  both  agree  that  what  is  not  or 
cannot  be  read  into  the  Constitution  is  illegal 
and  unconstitutional.  Back  of  Congress  and 
above  Congress  is  the  sovereign  State  ;  back  of 
the  State  and  above  the  State  is  the  town  meet- 
ing ;  back  of  the  town  meeting  and  above  the 
town  meeting  are  John  Smith  and  Henry  Jones, 
and  Congress  may  do  only  what  John  Smith  and 
Henry  Jones  have  contracted  to  allow  Congress 
to  do.  This  theory  of  the  social  contract  is 
wrought  into  the  very  warp  and  woof  of  our 
national  life.  It,  more  than  aught  else,  makes 
America  the  bete  noire  of  all  who  would  develop 
the  social  organism.  Our  government  is  not  an 
organism,  but  a  mechanism.  We  can  do  naught, 
because  we  have  not  the  machinery,  or  rather 
because  we  have  too  much  machinery.  Is  it  pro- 
posed for  the  city  to  employ  the  unemployed,  is 
Congress  asked  to  attack  the  sweating  system, 
the  ardent  reformer  is  told,  not  that  the  pro- 
posed action  is  impractical,  not  that  it  is  unjust, 
but  that  it  is  unconstitutional  ;  it  is  "  not  so 
nominated  in  the  bond."  Over  America  to- 
day there  hangs  a  dead  hand,  born  of  the  atomic 
or  individual  theory,  that  the  State  can  only  do 
that  which  sovereign  and  separate  individuals 
have  contracted  that  it  may  do.  Such  at  least 
is  the  view  of  many  American  socialists. 

Again,  many  criticise  the  Constitution  as  giv- 
ing too  much  power  to  the  Supreme  Court. 
Since  this  court  has  the  final  decision  as  to  what 
legislation  is  or  is  not  constitutional,  and  since 
any  legislation  which  it  decides  to  be  unconsti- 
tutional is  thereby  rendered  null,  the  Supreme 
Court  can,  by  forcing  the  Constitution  (and  what 
meaning  cannot  on  occasion  be  read  into  any 
long  legal  document),  prevent  any  legislation 
whatsoever  that  the  Supreme  Court  happens  not 
to  fancy.  The  recent  decision  of  the  Supreme 
Court  as  to  the  unconstitutionality  of  the  income 
tax  is  quoted  as  a  case  in  point.  For  this  mat- 
ter, however,  see  JUDICIARY. 

References  :  James  Bryce's  The  American  Common- 
wealth, 2  vols.  (revised  ed.,  Macmillan,  1895)  ;  J.  Piske's 
Civil  Government  in  the  United  States  (Houghton, 
MifSin  &  Co.,  1890)  and  American  Political  Ideas  (Har- 
per, 1885) ;  Jesse  Macy's  Our  Government  (Ginn  & 
Co.,  1890);  W.  A.  Howry's  Studies  in  Civil  Govern- 
ment (Silver  Rogers  &  Co.,  1887) ;  C.  Nordhoff's  Poli- 
tics for  Youn?  Americans  (Harper,  1877) ;  W.  Wilson's 
State  and  Federal  Governments  of  the  United  States 
(Heath  &  Co.,  1890) ;  Albert  Stickney's  A  True  Repub- 


lic (Harper,  1871.)) ;  Simon  Sterne's  Constitutional  His- 
tory and  Political  Development  of  the  United  States, 
(Putnam,  1888) ;  H.  E.  Von  Hoist's  Constitutional  and 
Political  History  of  the  United  States  (translated  from 
the  German  by  J.  J.  Lalor,  8  vols.,  Callaghan  &  Co., 


CONSTITUTIONAL    AMENDMENTS. 

See  AMENDMENTS  TO  THE  CONSTITUTION. 

CONSTITUTIONALISM.— Most  civilized 
States  are  governed  under  constitutions  varying 
in  form  and  precision. 

The  utility  of  a  constitution  for  any  given 
people  must,  of  course,  depend  very  greatly 
upon  the  nature  and  traditions  of  that  people. 
•There  may  be  but  a  brief  framework  stating  the 
trend  of  governmental  authority  and  functions, 
or  a  definite  plan  of  organization  of  the  various 
departments.  The  constitution  may  be  to  guard 
the  masses  from  the  tyrannical  power  of  an 
executive  or  despot,  or  to  protect  the  people 
from  themselves — i.e.,  from  the  turbulent  and 
ambitious  elements  and  from  the  rash  and  hasty 
expression  of  popular  feeling. 

It  is  important,  however,  that  a  distinction  be 
made  between  simple  charters  and  bills  of 
rights,  and  a  form  of  government  crystallized 
into  a  document  which  defines  the  scope  and 
functions  of  departments  and  officers.  The  for- 
mer long  antedate  the  latter. 

' '  A  constitution  is  a  system  of  principles, 
laws,  and  rules  combined  in  a  written  document 
or  established  by  prescriptive  usage,  for  the 
government  of  a  nation  or  State"  (Century  Dic- 
tionary). In  strong  contrast  are  the  unwritten 
British  constittttion,  composed  of  charters,  tradi- 
tions, and  usages,  and  the  recent  State  constitu- 
tions, which  closely  define  the  duties  of  officers 
and  rigidly  prescribe  the  limits  of  the  several 
departments. 

Altho  writers  upon  the  history  of  constitutions 
usually  trace  their  origin  to  Magna  Charta,  or 
to  the  Roman  laws  of  the  twelve  tables,  or  pos- 
sibly even  to  the  Ten  Commandments,  written 
constitutions,  in  the  present  understanding  of 
the  terms,  have  nearly  all  been  made  since  the 
United  States  Constitution  of  1787,  and  all  have 
been  greatly  influenced  by,  if  not  mostly  found- 
ed upon  it. 

The  French  people,  in  the  years  between 
1789-91,  framed  a  constitution  to  effect  the 
change  from  an  absolute  monarchy  to  a  limited 
monarchy.  It  was  not  modeled  upon  that  of  the 
United  States  or  directly  upon  any  other,  yet 
the  United  States  and  English  constitutions 
each  were  strong  influences.  The  Massachu- 
setts Constitution,  mentioned  below,  was  car- 
ried to  France  by  John  Adams  and  circulated  to 
a  limited  extent  in  1780  ;  and  Benjamin  Frank- 
lin had  already  discussed  with  the  French  phi- 
losophers the  Pennsylvania  Constitution. 

In  1783  Franklin  published  in  the  French 
language  all  of  the  constittitions  of  the  13 
States  of  the  new  republic,  with  notes.  These 
publications,  with  a  vast  array  of  historical 
causes,  contributed  to  the  form  and  mat- 
ter of  the  Constitution  of  1791.  Ten  other 
constitutions  have  been  made  by  or  for  the 
French  since  that  date — five  of  them  repub- 
lican and  five  of  them  monarchical.  The 
organic  law  of  the  present  republic,  formed 
since  the  overthrow  of  Napoleon  III.,  in  1870, 


Constitutionalism. 


335 


Constitutionalism. 


was  adopted  by  the  National  Assembly  at  Ver- 
sailles in  1875.  It  is  the  shortest  of  the  written 
constitutions  of  important  nations  or  States. 
The  provisions  are  few  and  simple.  The  out- 
lines of  organization  are  given,  and  the  remain- 
der is  to  be  provided  for  by  ordinary  statutes  of 
the  chambers.  Precedents  established  in  former 
constitutions  and  such  provisions  of  earlier  laws 
as  are  not  incompatible  with  the  new  republican 
law  still  remain  in  force.  The  influence  of  the 
series  of  revolutions  in  France  and  elsewhere 
brought  about  constitutions  in  many  of  the 
smaller  German  States  between  1820-36.  The 
general  political  upheaval  in  Europe  in  1848  and 
the  few  years  following  resulted  in  many  more, 
the  characters  of  which  cannot  be  examined  in 
a  brief  article. 

Switzerland  deserves  notice,  however,  for  one 

feature  connected  with  its  latest  constitution. 

The  first  one  formed  in  Switzerland  was  in  1798, 

on  the  pattern  of.  that  of  the  French 

republic.     A  civil  war  gave  birth 

History,  to  the  constitution  of  1848,  and  in 
1874  the  present  one  was  adopted 
by  a  popular  vote.  In  all  but  one 
(Freiburg)  of  the  cantonal  constitutions  based 
upon  and  guaranteed  by  the  federal  constitution, 
the  people  have  the  right  to  demand  that  all 
important  legislation  be  referred  directly  to 
them.  "  It  may  even  be  said  that  in  some  can- 
tons the  councils  merely  formulate  the  laws, 
while  the  people  pass  them"  (Woodrow  Wilson, 
The  State,  §  519).  In  general,  however,  the 
laws  are  submitted  to  popular  vote  only  upon 
demand  by  petition  of  a  specified  number  of 
voters. 

The  English  Constitution  is  of  another  type, 
and  yet,  directly  or  remotely,  has  influenced 
nearly  all  others.  It  is  a  collective  name  for  the 
principles  of  public  policy  on  which  the  govern- 
ment is  based.  It  embraces  statutory  .law,  cus- 
tom, tradition,  and  precedent.  No  one  docu- 
ment outlines  the  whole  system  of  government. 
"  The  British  Constitution  is  a  barrier  which 
yields  under  the  pressure  of  circumstances  as 
often  as  that  pressure  reaches  a  certain  degree 
of  intensity,  but  a  barrier  which  never  breaks, 
being  steady  and  firm  despite,  or  rather  on  ac- 
count of  its  flexibility"  (C.  Borgeaud,  Political 
Science  Quarterly,  vol.  vii.,  p.  613).  It  is  main- 
tained not  by  safeguards  formulated  within  it- 
self, but  because  it  has  the  sanction  of  time  and 
the  protection  of  a  conservative  privileged  class 
and  the  loyalty  of  the  people. 

The  British  colonies  in  North  America,  Aus- 
tralasia, and  elsewhere  have  written  constitu- 
tions in  general  features  conforming  to  the  prac- 
tices and  precedents  of  the  English  Govern- 
ment, the  most  noteworthy  being  the  responsi- 
ble ministry. 

The  most  recent  government  on  earth  (1894), 
organized  under  a  written  constitution,  is  the 
republic  of  Hawaii.  Its  fundamental  law  em- 
braces provisions  similar  to  parts  of  those  of 
Great  Britain  and  of  the  United  States. 

The  South  American  States  and  Mexico, 
which  achieved  their  independence  of  Spain  in 
the  first  quarter  of  the  nineteenth  century,  are 
all  now  living  under  formal  republican  constitu- 
tions. The  limits  of  this  article  will  not  permit 
o£  an  examination  of  either  these  or  the  afore- 


mentioned English  colonial  constitutions.  Suffi- 
cient to  say,  however,  in  all  the  recent  ones  the 
tendencies  are  markedly  in  the  same  directions 
as  in  those  which  will  be  considered  more 
closely. 

A  constitution  comes  from  a  sovereign  power, 
and  its  nature  must  depend,  then,  upon  what 
power  is  recognized  as  sovereign.  It  may  come 
from  a  king  in  the  form  of  a  charter  or  grant 
while  he  is  absolute,  and  in  order  to  get  a  recom- 
pense of  some  -kind  ;  later  he  may  grant  it  be- 
cause the  people  are  so  far  recognized  as  the 
source  of  power  that  he  is  forced  to  a  compact, 
so  one  is  agreed  upon  by  the  ruler  and  the  rep- 
resentatives of  the  people.  Later,  when  the 
people  are  acknowledged  as  sovereign,  the  con- 
stitution proceeds  from  them — i.e., 
they,  by  representatives,  draw  it 
up  and  then  ratify  it  by  a  stipulated  Theory. 
majority.  The  theory  of  the  con- 
stitution is  really  far  to  seek.  It  is 
found  directly  connected  with  the  origin  of  a 
State.  Three  theories  are  proposed  for  the  ori- 
gin of  a  State — the  theological,  the  historical, 
and  the  contract  theory.  The  contract  theory, 
the  work  of  J.  J.  Rousseau,  is  interesting  in 
this  connection  as  a  curiosity,  and  because  so 
many  of  its  expressions  have  crept  into  consti- 
tutions. The  theory,  in  brief,  is  that  a  State 
originates  in  the  agreement  of  individuals  to 
establish  it.  The  theory  itself  has  often  been 
refuted  by  showing  that  men  have  always  been 
associated  in  groups,  larger  or  smaller,  and  that 
society  in  this  sense  needs  no  definite  agree- 
ment, but  rather  is  a  state  of  nature.  It  is  cer- 
tain that  the  idea  of  a  contract  only  entered  the 
comprehension  of  men  ages  after  they  had  al- 
ready well-established  forms  of  society,  ruler 
and  ruled,  law  trials  and  judges. 

The  preamble  of  the  Massachusetts  Constitu- 
tion of  1780  is  so  much  like  a  quotation  from 
Rousseau's  Contrat  Social,  that  the  framers  of 
that  instrument  must  either  have  believed  in 
Rousseau  or  have  interpreted  him  in  another 
manner  than  the  common  one — that  is,  instead 
of  understanding  his  contract  to  be  the  basis  of 
association,  it  may  have  been  only  a  philosophi- 
cal device  for  explaining  the  relations  of  the  in- 
dependent members  of  an  already  free  State. 
Tho  professing  itself  to  be  a  contract  between 
individuals,  such  a  contract  is  really  by  the 
ratification  of  the  citizens  of  the  State, the  fun- 
damental law  and  not  a  mere  contract  and 
equalizer  of  rights. 

We  shall  make  no  effort  to  detail  the  probable 
steps  between  the  recognition  of  binding  con- 
tracts as  in  practice  by  the  Romans,  charters  of 
medieval  towns  and  monasteries,  and  the  nine- 
teenth century  State  and  national  written  in- 
struments. All  medieval  charters,  especially 
the  MagnaCharta,  signed  by  King  John  in  1215, 
and  early  colonial  charters  have  their  place  in 
the  order  of  development  of  constitutions  ;  but 
the  Fundamental  Orders  of  Connecticut  (1639)  is 
the  first  document  which  created  a  complete 
form  under  which  a  government  was  organized. 
This  document,  which  was  not  superseded  by  a 
constitution  till  1818,  must  be  taken  as  the  real 
and  immediate  origin  of  the  present  constitu- 
tions of  Christendom.  The  Puritan  is  to  be  • 
credited  with  the  introduction  of  the  written 


Constitutionalism. 


336 


Constitutionalism. 


constitution  into  political  life.  The  Fundamen- 
tal Orders  of  Connecticut  was  the  first,  and 
there  were  two  others  emanating  from  the 
Puritans  in  England  m  1647  and  1653. 

Whether  a  constitution,  after  it  is  ratified, 
shall  be  effective  or  not  depends  entirely  upon 
how  firmly  its  principles  are  already  an  accept- 
ed part  of  the  national  consciousness,  and  hence 
how  far  it  faithfully  reflects  the  national  will. 

Numerous  instances  might  be  cited  where 

constitutions  have  either  been  imposed  upon  a 

people  who  did  not  thus  already  experience  the 

sentiments  contained  in  them,  or 

where  people  themselves,   having 

Authority,  overturned  an  existing  government, 
have  framed  a  constitution  contain- 
ing principles  which  c"all  forth  no 
patriotic  response  from  the  mass  of  the  people. 
Constitutions,  like  poets,  are  not  made.  A  con- 
stitution, to  be  at  all  effective,  must  be  an  evo- 
lution. No  wonder  that  the  new  States  of  the 
United  States  should  find  their  constitutions  to 
work  fairly  well,  and  the  numerous  States  nomi- 
nally set  free  by  France  in  her  revolutionary 
period  should  find  almost  the  exact  opposite. 
In  one  case  the  whole  experience  of  the  past 
two  or  three  generations  has  been  in  a  constitu- 
tional atmosphere  and  in  contact  with  the  much 
praised  and  almost  worshipped  United  States 
Constitution,  while  in  the  other  a  newly  pre- 
pared paper  constitution  was  presented  to  those 
who  were  almost  totally  unfitted  for  it  by  their 
previous  political  experience.  It  is  not  at  all 
uncommon  to  find  Americans  and  others  who 
are  such  worshipers  of  their  constitutions  that 
they  believe  their  principles  to  be  of  universal 
application,  amazed  to  find  that  these  consti- 
tutions, when  imposed  on  people  of  different 
training,  do  not  work  satisfactorily. 

In  a  period  of  84  years,  France  has  had  u  con- 
stitutions. The  abandonment  of  one  and  the 
adoption  of  another  has  in  each  instance  been 
accompanied  by  a  revolution  or  a  coup  d'etat 
or  a  national  calamity. 

The  history  of  the  South  American  constitu- 
tions is  almost  a  continuous  tale  of  adoption, 
revolution,  and  a  new  instrument.  May  it  not 
be  a  pertinent  question  whether  even  a  sover- 
eign people  have  authority  over  the  next  and 
succeeding  generations  ? 

The  authority  of  a  constitution  is  certainly  not 
sufficient  to  prevent  revolution,  yet  often  it  has 
taken  revolution  to  amend  a  constitution. 
Those  who  make  a  constitution,  appreciating 
their  own  necessity  for  altering  the  form  of  gov- 
ernment, should  also  appreciate  that  others  may 
wish  to  modify  theirs  without  the  accompani- 
ment of  revolution. 

The  most  important  feature  of  American  con- 

stitutions  is  the  division  of  governmental  powers 

into  the  three  heads — legislative,  executive,  and 

judicial — and  the  definition  of  the 

powers  of  each.     The  main  difficul- 

Principles.  ties  that  have  arisen  among  these 
departments  have  been  from  the 
encroachment  of  one  department 
upon  another.  The  numerous  alterations  in  the 
State  constitutions  during  the  last  100  years  have 
mostly  been  in  the  direction  of  limiting  the  func- 
tions of  legislatures  and  enlarging  the  power 
of  the  executive.  Possibly  this  has  grown  from 


observing  that  in  the  Federal  Government  dur- 
ing the  same  period  Congress  has  been  en- 
croaching on  the  executive,  and  it  has  been 
easier  to  modify  the  State  constitutions  than 
that  of  the  United  States.  In  both  State  and 
national  government  the  judicial  department 
has  been  steadily  gaining  in  importance. 

It  is  rather  a  disappointment  to  those  who,  in 
idolizing  the  Constitution,  think  that  its  framers 
were  so  inspired  that  they  could  strike  off  at 
once  such  a  remarkable  instrument,  to  learn  that 
the  Constitution  is  not  nearly  so  much  the  result 
of  inspiration  and  foresight  as  it  is  the  result  of 
a  series  of  compromises  The  compromises 
were  the  result  of  the  collision  in  the  convention 
of  two  forces  which  are  present  in  all  political 
bodies — viz.,  the  centralizing  and  decentraliz- 
ing, otherwise  the  aristocratic  and  democratic 
forces.  The  first  class  is  fearful  of  the  power  of 
the  masses,  and  the  second  of  the  tyranny  of 
office-holders.  The  aristocratic  faction  fearing 
the  thoughtless  despotism  of  majority  rule,  en- 
deavored to  make  a  government  popular  in 
form,  yet  of  such  a  nature  that  it  could  be  con- 
trolled by  a  minority  which  would  presumably 
be  from  the  better  side  of  society,  and  to  so 
plan  that  amendments  could  with  great  diffi- 
culty be  made  and  no  radical  change  adopted 
as  the  result  of  popular  clamor.  With  one  party, 
then,  in  the  convention  fearing  the  masses,  and 
the  other  a  possible  tyrant,  the  resulting  Consti- 
tution was  reasonably  satisfactory  to  both,  but 
for  different  reasons.  John  Adams,  in  a  private 
letter,  recapitulates  the  arrangements  whereby 
one  department  acts  as  a  check  upon  another. 
"  First,  the  States  are  balanced  against  the  gen- 
eral Government.  Second,  the  House  of  Repre- 
sentatives is  balanced  against  the  Senate  and 
the  Senate  against  the  House.  Third,  the 
executive  authority  is  in  some  degree  balanced 
against  the  Legislature.  Fourth,  the  judiciary 
is  balanced  against  the  Legislature,  the  execu- 
tive and  State  governments.  Fifth,  the  Senate 
is  balanced  against  the  President  in  all  appoint- 
ments to  office  and  treaties.  Sixth,  the  people 
hold  in  their  own  hands  the  balance  against 
their  own  representatives  by  periodical  elec- 
tions. Seventh,  the  legislatures  of  the  several 
States  are  balanced  against  the  Senate  by  sexen- 
nial elections.  Eighth,  the  electors  are  balanced 
against  the  people  in  their  choice  of  President 
and  Vice- President"  (Works,  vol.  vi.,  p.  467). 
If  these  checks  were  all  operative  now,  just  as 
was  expected  by  those  who  placed  them  in  the 
Constitution,  the  work  of  the  Government  would 
be  even  slower  to  express  the  real  feeling  of  the 
nation  than  now.  But  even  with  the  last-men- 
tioned check  entirely  nullified,  and  some  of  the 
others  not  fully  operative,  through  certain  prac- 
tices that  have  grown  up,  the  work  of  govern- 
ment has  in  several  instances  been  so  clogged 
as  to  have  well-nigh  stopped. 

It  is  very  doubtful  whether,  in  the  develop- 
ment of  society  along  the  lines  which  are  appar- 
ent, one  generation  ought  to  legislate  for  an- 
other. Each  generation,  perceiving  its  own 
needs  and  difficulties,  and  devising  some  means 
of  satisfying  and  obviating  them,  also  feels  that 
if  the  arrangements  by  which  they  have  sur- 
mounted difficulties  can  be  made  into  fixed 
laws,  then  difficulties  of  the  same  kind  will  not 


Constitutionalism. 


337 


Constitutionalism. 


occur  in  the  future.  Thus  those  who  planned  the 
Constitution  of  1787  intended  to  guard  against 
innumerable  possible  dangers.  One  evidence 
that  they  cannot  prepare  for  changed  conditions 
is  that  the  method  planned  for  the  election  of 
President,  when  tried,  worked  suc- 
cessfully for  only  four  elections. 
United  An  amendment  was  made  and  put 
Scates.  into  effect  in  1804,  so  modifying 
the  mode  of  election  as  to  vote  by 
the  electors  for  President  and  Vice- 
President  separately.  This  portion  of  the  pro- 
vision is  still  operative,  but  the  whole  aim  of 
separating  the  choice  of  President  from  the  nec- 
essary excitement  of  popular  election  has  been 
defeated,  and  the  electors  have  become  mere 
machines,  to  cast  ballots  according  to  instruc- 
tions. This  would  be  no  calamity,  but  rather 
in  accord  with  the  growing  tendency  to  elect 
all  officers  if  the  real  voice  of  the  people  were 
heard,  or  even  the  voice  of  the  majority.  This, 
however,  has  not  been  the  case.  In  several 
elections  the  successful  candidates  have  not  re- 
ceived a  majority  of  the  votes  cast,  and  in  two 
elections  not  even  as  many  popular  votes  as  the 
defeated  -candidates  ;  but  the  only  way  in  which 
the  people  have  been  able  to  express  their  dis- 
satisfaction with  the  prescribed  form  in  the  Con- 
stitution has  been  by  an  evasion  of  the  real  in- 
tent in  Article  XII.  of  amendments  in  such  a 
manner  that  the  article  is  nullified  without 
being  violated  in  the  letter.  After  the  twelfth 
amendment,  in  1804,  no  amendment  was  possi- 
ble until  the  social  upheaval  caused  by  the  Civil 
War,  and  it  seems  indeed  apparent  that  no 
amendment  further  is  possible  without  revolu- 
tionary proceedings  and  excitement. 

In  the  absence  of  ability  to  amend  there  must 
be  some  way  of  permitting  Government  authori- 
ties to  act  according  to  the  exigencies  of  the  oc- 
casion, where  there  is  no  provison  for  or  against, 
or  where  a  literal  reading  would  seem  to  ob- 
struct. This  way  has  been  through  the  right  of 
interpretation.  Instead  of  seeking  the  proba- 
ble intent  of  the  writers  of  the  document,  there 
should  rather  be  sought  the  view  of  the  pres- 
ent political  power — i.e.t  the  people.  Under  a 
government  where  the  constitution  is  estab- 
lished and  ordained  by  the  people  it  is  absurd 
to  consider  the  people  ruled  by  the  thoughts  or 
intents  of  a  past  generation.  Their  utterances, 
-even  though  they  be  in  the  form  of  a  funda- 
mental law,  can  really  be  binding  only  when 
they  are  the  reflection  of  the  will  of  the  living 
power.  Hence  in  a  government  which  rests 
ultimately  for  its  support  upon  the  whole  people, 
or  that  portion  of  the  people  which  molds  public 
opinion,  the  interpretation  of  a  constitution  must 
be  that  which  best  reflects  the  "  prevalent  sense 
of  right,"  or  that  which  is  the  interpretation  of 
the  present  possessors  of  political  power.  "  The 
cases  are  not  rare  in  which  forced  construction 
has  been  resorted  to  in  order  to  justify  the  exer- 
cise of  powers  which  are  deemed  necessary  by 
public  opinion.  Nor  can  we  expect  to  prevent 
altogether  this  tendency  to  strain  and  force  the 
literal  meaning  of  the  constitution  in  order  to 
bring  it  into  conformity  with  that  unwritten 
constitution  which  is  the  real  constitution,  and 
which  embodies  the  living  rules  of  conduct  ; 
for  the  unwritten  constitution  is  steadily  but 


slowly  changing  under  the  pressure  of  popular 
opinion  and  public  necessities,  checked  only  by 
the  popular  reverence  for  the  written  word" 
(C.  G.  Tiedeman,  The  Unwritten  Constitution, 
p.  136). 

The  following  table  of  facts,  obtained  from 
the  constitutions  of  all  the  States  in  the  Union, 
will  partially  illustrate  the  tendencies  of  the 
present  in  constitution-making.  The  constitu- 
tions called  ' '  earliest' '  are  those  which  were 
first  actually  put  in  practice  in  the  government 
of  each  State,  and  were  mostly  adopted  between 
1776  and  1850,  and  the  "  latest"  are  mostly  those 
which  have  been  adopted  since  the  Civil  War. 
The  earliest  and  latest  of  each  State  are  the 
ones  meant : 

In  the  earliest  constitutions  7  States  had  a  4-year 
term  for  governor. 

In  the  latest  constitutions  20  States  have  a  4-year 
term  for  governor. 

In  the  earliest  constitutions  12  States  had  a  2-year 
term  for  governor. 

In  the  latest  constitutions  18  States  have  a  a-year 
term  for  governor. 

Two  States  have  decreased  the  term  of  governor. 

Five  States  have  increased  the  term  of  governor 
from  i  to  4  years. 

In  latest  constitutions  4  have  term  of  governor  i  year. 

In  latest  constitutions  2  have  term  of  governor  3 
years. 

In  earliest  constitutions  9  elected  governor  by  Legis- 
lature or  by  Assembly  and  Council. 

In  latest  constitutions  all  elect  governor  by  all  voters. 

In  earliest  8  executives  had  a  veto  to  be  overruled  by 
a  majority. 

In  earliest  13  executives  had  a  veto  to  be  overruled 
by  a  two-third  majority. 

In  earliest  10  constitutions  had  no  provision  on  sub- 
ject of  veto. 

In  latest  4  constitutions  have  no  provision  on  sub- 
ject of  veto. 

No  constitution  before  1845  (Texas)  gave  the  execu- 
tive authority  to  veto  items  in  a  bill,  and  with  this  ex- 
ception none  till  after  the  Civil  War. 

In  latest  constitutions  5  pass  a  bill  over  veto  by  a 
mere  majority. 

In  latest  constitutions  24  pass  a  bill  over  veto  by  a 
two-third  majority. 

In  latest  constitutions  16  allowed  items  in  bills  to  be 
vetoed.  (Some  confined  to  appropriations.) 

In  latest  constitutions  30  have  biennial  sessions  of 
the  Legislature. 

Fourteen  of  this  30  have  been  changed  from  annual 
to  biennial. 

One  of  this  30  have  been  changed  from  semi-annual 
to  biennial. 

One  has  changed  from  semi-annual  to  annual. 

Fifteen  Legislatures  have  always  been  biennial. 

In  earliest  constitutions  4  have  members  of  lower 
House  hold  2  sessions. 

In  latest  constitutions  6  have  members  of  lower 
House  hold  two  sessions. 

Tho  the  people  themselves  are  responsible 
for  the  legislators  whom  they  are  unwilling  to 
trust,  they  have  in  all  the  more  recent  constitu- 
tions so  shown  their  distrust  as  to  make  the 
constitution  in  length  more  like  a  code  of  laws, 
and  have  imposed  restrictions  of  various  kinds 
upon  the  legislative  power.  Several  causes 
may  be  assigned  for  this  untrustworthiness  in 
legislatures,  such  as  the  spoils  system,  the  politi- 
cal boss  system,  small  salaries,  suggesting  dis- 
honest dealings  with  public  money,  etc.  ;  hence 
special  legislation  in  certain  enumerated  cases 
is  prohibited.  These  prohibitions  amount,  in 
the  Constitution  of  Montana,  to  35,  and  in  that 
of  North  Dakota  to  100. 

Another  method  which  legislators  have  used 
for  making  questionable  laws  is  by  means  of 
riders  to  appropriation  bills,  and  by  introducing 
doubtful  appropriations  into  general  appropria- 


Constitutionalism. 


338 


Consumption. 


tion  bills.  The  people  have  guarded  against 
this  to  a  certain  extent  by  giving  to  the  governor 
in  at  least  16  of  the  States  the  right  to  veto  par- 
ticular items  in  a  bill,  while  endorsing  the  re- 
mainder and  causing  it  to  become  a  law. 

All  the  latter  constitutions  are  really  of  a  dif- 
ferent class  from  the  older  ones,  and  represent 
new  tendencies  in  the  people.  This  is  espe- 
cially apparent  in  the  development  of  the  fourth 
department  of  government — viz.,  the  adminis- 
trative. In  a  few  States  this  is  made  a  distinct 
department  of  government,  but  in  general  it  has 
not  yet  been  separated  from  the  executive.  Cer- 
tain bureaus  and  officers,  such  as  those  of  agri- 
culture, railroads,  land,  and  insurance  commis- 
sioners, indicate  direct  connection  of  the  eco- 
nomic interests  of  the  people  with  the  adminis- 
tration of  the  States.  The  people  in  the  early 
days  of  the  republic  knew  nothing  of  these  in- 
terests, and  were  quite  content  to  leave  them  all 
to  the  Legislature.  But  now  the  skill  of  experts 
to  collect  and  classify  information  in  these  vari- 
ous fields  is  demanded  in  order  that  legislation 
may  be  intelligent  rather  than-  experimental, 
and  to  the  immediate  welfare  of  the  whole  peo- 
ple. These  officers  are  now  in  every  State 
chosen  by  the  qualified  electors  instead  of  by 
the  legislatures,  and  indeed  nearly  all  officers 
which  were  in  the  earlier  constitutions  appointed 
by  the  Legislature  are  now  chosen  at  a  general 
election.  The  State  judiciary  is  also  now  elective. 

In  addition  to  reducing  the  frequency  of  legis- 
lative sessions,  the  length  of  session  in  many  of 
the  States  is  limited  to  a  period  of  from  40  days 
(the  briefest)  to  (in  general)  90  days,  or  by  pre- 
scribing a  definite  salary  for  the  whole  period, 
thus  offering  an  incentive  to  briefness  ;  or  a  per 
diem  compensation,  to  be  stopped  after  a  speci- 
fied number  of  days.  The  multitudinous  re- 
strictions placed  in  all  the  more  recent  constitu- 
tions on  legislative,  executive,  and  other  State 
officers  shows  clearly  the  desire  of  the  voters  to 
retain  power  in  their  own  hands. 

While  the  great  length  of  the  later  instru- 
ments would  seem  to  indicate  a  crystallization 
of  the  governmental  powers,  and  hence  the  re- 
moval of  them  from  the  people,  in  truth  the  op- 
posite of  this  is  the  case.  The  ease  of  amend- 
ment by  general  vote,  the  checks  put  on  the 
officers,  the  change  in  several  instances  of  the 
impeaching  power  from  the  Senate  to  the  As- 
sembly— these  and  other  considerations  point 
rather  toward  a  retaining  of  the  powers  of  the 
government  in  the  hands  of  the  people. 

In  the  preamble  or  bills  of  rights  introducing 
most  of  the  constitutions,  the  statement  is  curtly 
made  that  all  political  power  is  inherent  in  the 
people. 

A  feature  of  the  Constitution  of  Washington 
of  1889  is  the  provision  for  home  rule  in  the 
cities — i.e.,  the  charters,  instead  of  being  grant- 
ed by  the  Legislature,  as  in  other  States,  are  to 
be  framed  by  the  inhabitants — a  noticeable  step 
in  the  direction  of  real  democracy. 

Trusts  and  monopolies,  developments  of  the 
last  few  decades,  are  not  left  open  to  arrange- 
ments by  and  with  the  legislatures,  but  are 
regulated  by  a  code  of  laws  enacted  by  all  elec- 
tors and  embodied  in  the  constitution  under  the 
head  of  provisions  for  "  Corporations  other  than 
Municipal. ' ' 


Between  I776andi894,  in  constitutions  have 
been  adopted  in  the  United  States.  This,  of 
course,  means  that  many  of  the  States  have  re- 
modeled or  made  anew  their  constitutions,  as 
well  as  that  Territories  have  made  constitutions 
and  become  States.  One  State  only  (Massachu- 
setts) has  lived  the  whole  time  under  one  con- 
stitution, while  Kansas  has  changed  her  consti- 
tution oftener  than  any  other  State.  Only  14 
of  the  States  retain  their  original  constitutions, 
and  six  of  these  are  the  recently  admitted  ones — 
Montana,  Washington,  the  two  Dakotas,  Idaho* 
and  Wyoming. 

The  United  States  Constitution,  lacking  flexi- 
bility, has  failed  to  allow  for  changed  conditions, 
and  has  been  modified  only  by  the  effects  cf 
war,  by  nullifying  portions  in  spirit 
if  not  in  letter,  and  by  forced  con- 
struction.    According  to  the  appar-    Summary, 
ent  trend  of  present  national  life, 
amendments  would  seem  to  be  de- 
manded for  the  election  of  United  States  Senate, 
President,  and  Vice-President  by  direct  vote. 

The  modifications  of  State  constitutions — viz., 
increasing  power  of  executive,  curtailing  power 
of  legislative  departments,  shortening  legisla- 
tive sessions  in  length  and  frequency,  election 
of  many  officers  formerly  otherwise  chosen, 
embodying  in  the  constitution  laws  concerning 
tendencies  regarded  as  dangerous— all  are  in- 
dications of  the  sovereign  people's  determina- 
tion to  retain  in  their  own  hands  the  actual  man- 
agement of  government,  and  to  delegate  power 
solely  for  purposes  of  administration,  and  that 
in  such  a  manner  that  all  responsibility  can  be 
located. 

The  reforms  which  are  next  likely  to  be  pro- 
posed are  the  referendum  and  proportional  rep- 
resentation. (See  REFERENDUM  ;  PROPORTIONAL 
REPRESENTATION.) 

References  :  Annals  of  (he  American  Academy  (Sep- 
tember, 1891) ;  Recent  Constitution  Making-  in  tiic 
United  States  (Political  Science  Quarterly),  Decem- 


Unwritten  Constitution,  by  C.  G.  Tiedeman  ;  Johns 
Hopkins  University  Studies  (third  series)  ;  The  Con- 
stitutions (Documents)  of  the  New  States,  by  George 
Emory  Fellows. 

CONSUMPTION  may  be  defined  in  social 
science  as  the  use  of  commodities  or  of  anything 
having  exchange  value  (q.v.}. 

"  Consumption,"  says  Adam  Smith,  "  is  the  sole  end 
and  purpose  of  all  production,  and  the  interest  of  the 
producer  ought  to  be  attended  to  only  so  far  as  it  may 
be  necessary  for  promoting  that  of  the  consumer/' 
"Later  criticism,"  says  Professor  Nicholson  in  Pal- 
grave's  Dictionary  of  Political  Economy,  "  has  thrown 
doubt  on  the  possibility  of  making  such  a  sharp  dis- 
tinction between  the  interests  of  producers  and  con- 
sumers. Apart  from  women,  who  are  largely  employ- 
ed in  domestic  duties,  ami  old  men,  invalids,  and 
children,  the  number  of  those  returned  in  the  census 
of  any  civilized  country  as  'unoccupied'  is  extremely 
small,  and  thus  the  great  majority  of  the  adult  males 
are  both  producers  and  consume'rs.  Accordingly  the 
conditions  as  regards  health,  variety,  moral  and  in- 
tellectual effects  on  the  worker  of  the  work  done,  etc., 
are  of  coordinate  importance  with  the  amount  and 
quality  of  the  definite  commodities  consumed." 

J.  S.  Mill  ( Polit,  Economy,  bk.  i,  chap,  iii.,  sec.  5)  makes 
the  important  distinction  between  productive  and  un- 
productive consumers.  He  says:  "All  the  members 
of  the  community  are  not  laborers,  but  all  are  con- 
sumers, and  consume  either  unproductively  or  produc- 
tively. Whoever  contributes  nothing  directly  or 
indirectly  to  production  is  an  unproductive  consumer. 


Consumption. 


339 


Contraction  of  Currency. 


The  only  productive  consumers  are  productive  labor- 
ers :  the  labor  of  direction  being,  of  course,  included, 
as  well  as  that  of  execution.  But  the  consumption 
even  of  productive  laborers  is  not  all  of  it  productive 
consumption.  There  is  unproductive  consumption  by 
productive  consumers.  What  they  consume  in  keep- 
ing up  or  improving  their  health,  strength,  and  capaci- 
ties of  work,  or  in  rearing  other  productive  laborers 
to  succeed  them,  is  productive  consumption.  But  con- 
sumption on  pleasures  or  luxuries,  whether  by  the  idle 
or  by  the  industrious,  since  production  is  neither  its 
object  nor  is  in  any  way  advanced  by  it,  must  be 
reckoned  unproductive  ;  with  a  reservation,  perhaps, 
of  a  certain  quantum  of  enjoyment  which  may  be 
classed  among  necessaries,  since  anything  short  of  it 
would  not  be  consistent  with  the  greatest  efficiency  of 
labor.  That  alone  is  productive  consumption  which 
goes  to  maintain  and  increase  the  productive  powers 
of  the  community  ;  either  those  residing  in  its  soil,  in 
its  materials,  in  the  number  and  efficiency  of  its  in- 
struments of  production,  or  in  its  people." 

For  an  analysis  of  consumption  and  the  amount  of 
consumption  of  various  utilities  by  various  nations 
and  classes,  see  EXPENDITURE. 

The  subject  of  consumption  is  specially  treated  in 
Roscher's  Political  Economy  and  in  Schonberg's 
Handbook,  by  Professor  Lexis. 

CONTINENTAL  CURRENCY.  See  CUR- 
RENCY. 

CONTRACTION  AND  EXPANSION  OF 
CURRENCY. — There  are  few  monetary  ques- 
tions more  important  th'an  that  of  the  contrac- 
tion and  expansion  of  the  currency.  We  shall 
consider  the  subject  under  four  heads,  support- 
ing each  point  by  quotations  from  recognized 
authorities,  and  in  case  of  divergence  of  view, 
from  representatives  of  the  various  views.  We 
consider  : 

I.  The  Economic  Principles  Involved. 

II.  The  Practical  Importance  of  the  Subject. 

III.  The  Facts  as  to  the  United  States. 

IV.  Proposed  Remedies. 

I.  THE  ECONOMIC  PRINCIPLES  INVOLVED. 

These,  fortunately,  are  not  in  debate.  Upon 
them  all  economists  are  practically  more  agreed 
than  upon  almost  any  other  principles  in  eco- 
nomic science.  They  are  : 

(a)  That  a  contraction  of  the  currency  tends 
to  lower  prices,  and,  vice  versa,  that  an  expan- 
sion of  the  currency  tends  to  raise  prices.  Says 
Ricardo  : 

' '  That  commodities  will  rise  and  fall  in  price 
in  proportion  to  the  increase  or  diminution  of 
money  I  assume  as  a  fact  that  is  incoutroverti- 
ble.  That  such  would  be  the  case  the  most 
celebrated  writers  on  political  economy  are 
agreed. ' ' 

Says  Jevons  (Primer  of  Political  Economy, 
chap,  xii.,  p.  79)  :  "  If  the  quantity  of  money 
increases,  its  value  is  likely  to  decrease,  so  that 
more  money  is  given  for  the  same  commodity, 
and  vice  versa." 

Says  Mill  (Political  Economy,  Book  III., 
chap.  viii. ,  §  2)  :  "If  the  whole  volume  of  money 
in  circulation  were  doubled,  prices  would  double. 
If  it  was  only  increased  one  fourth,  prices  would 
rise  one  fourth." 

Says  President  Walker  :  "  That  prices  will 
fall  or  rise  as  the  volume  of  money  be  increased 
or  diminished  is  a  law  that  is  as  unalterable  as 
any  law  of  nature." 

The  reason  for  this  is  of  course  simple.  When 
a  currency  expands  there  is  more  money  to 
meet  the  demands  of  trade.  People  are  able  to 


give  more  to  purchase  what  they  desire  ;  hence 
the  seller  can  raise  his  prices.  It  is,  of  course, 
implied  that  the  currency  has  expanded  more 
than  the  demand  for  it.  If,  as  is  often  the  case, 
a  slight  expansion  of  currency  is  accompanied  by 
a  greater  expansion  in  the  volume  of  exchang- 
ing, so  that  more  currency  is  needed,  the  slight 
absolute  expansion  of  the  currency  is  more  than 
counterbalanced  by  the  greater  expansion  of 
the  need  or  demand  for  it,  and  there  is,  there- 
fore, virtually  not  an  expansion  but  a  contrac- 
tion of  the  currency,  and  prices  fall  instead  of 
rising.  Of  course  also  by  expansion  of  cur- 
rency is  meant  currency  in  circulation  actually 
available  for  making  exchanges.  If  in  any 
country  currency  is  coined  or  issued,  no  matter 
in  how  great  quantities,  and  is  locked  up  either 
in  government  vaults  or  withdrawn  from  active 
circulation  by  private  or  other  cornering  of  the 
money  market,  there  is  no  real  expansion  of  the 
currency.  But,  allowing  for  these  two  simple 
and  yet  not  always  remembered  exceptions,  or 
apparent  exceptions,  the  above  principle  invari- 
ably holds. 

(o)  Economists  are  agreed  that  it  follows  from 
the  above  that  a  contraction  of  the  currency 
tends  to  benefit  the  credit  class,  and  that,  vice 
versa,  an  expansion  of  the  currency  tends  to 
benefit  the  debtor  class.  Says  President  An- 
drews (An  Honest  Dollar,  p.  8)  : 

"  Increase  in  the  value  of  money  robs  debtors.    It 
forces  every  one  of  them  to  pay  more  than  he  cove- 
nanted—not   more     dollars,    but    more 
value,  the  given  number  of  dollars  em-  r/vn +1-0 />«•!*« 
bodying    at  date    of    payment   greater  ^ 
value  than  at    date    of  contract.      De-      Tends  to 
crease  in  the  value  of  money  robs  cred-  Benefit  Cred- 
itors, necessitating  each   to  put  up,   in      jj.  (jiasfl 
payment  of  what  is  due  to  him,  with  a 
smaller   modicum    of  value    than    was 
agreed  upon." 

Says  Professor  Symes  (Political  Economy, 
p.  109) : 

"  If  prices  have  risen  by  20  per  cent,  it  is  little  satis- 
faction to  the  creditor  that  he  is  receiving  the  amount 
in  money  that  was  promised  him,  for  he  can  now  only 
purchase  10  things  with  that  which  when  the  loan  was 
made  would  purchase  12.  Every  rise  in  prices  bene- 
fits debtors  at  the  expense  of  creditors  ;  and  converse- 
ly every  fall  in  prices  benefits  creditors  at  the  expense 
o'f  debtors." 

So  substantially  say  Jevons,  Walker,  Cheval- 
lier,  and  all  authorities,  altho  all  have  not  real- 
ized the  importance  of  the  subject.  It  should, 
however,  be  realized  what  this  means.  The 
credit  class  is,  generally  speaking,  the  small 
class  who  live  directly  or  indirectly  upon  invest- 
ments. The  debtor  class  is  the  large  class  of 
producers  in  any  nation.  Contraction  of  the 
currency,  therefore,  aids  the  investor  as  an  in- 
vestor, and  expansion  aids  the  worker. 

A  full  amount  of  currency,  aiding  the  produc- 
ing class,  who  are  also  the  main  consumers  of 
any  country,  creates  a  demand  for  goods,  stimu- 
lates trade  and  investment,  and  so  very  mate- 
rially aids  every  wage-worker.  This  is  true,  of 
course,  only  of  an  expanding  sound  currency. 
Expansion  of  an  unsound  currency  eventually  at 
least  aids  no  one  except  a  few  speculators,  and 
hurts  the  wage-worker  most  of  all.  But  this  is 
another,  altho  most  important  question.  (See 
MONEY.)  In  this  article  we  are  concerned  sim- 
ply with  the  quantity,  not  with  the  quality  of 
money. 


Contraction  of  Currency. 


34° 


Contraction  of  Currency. 


We  consider  at  this  point  one  objection  some- 
times raised.  It  is  said  that  the  farmer  is  not 
hurt  by  a  contracting  Currency,  because,  tho 
he  receive  less,  he  has  to  pay  out  less  ;  but  the 
mortgaged  farmer  has  already  made  his  main 
purchases  when  prices  were  up,  and  now  has  to 
sell  when  prices  are  down.  Turn  it,  therefore, 
which  way  we  will,  producers,  including  farm- 
ers, wage-workers,  professional  men  whose 
salaries  or  incomes  are  liable  to  change,  and 
small  manufacturers  or  storekeepers,  who  are 
conducting  business  on  borrowed  capital,  are 
hurt  by  a  contracting  currency,  while  the  non- 
producing  classes — capitalists  of  all  kinds  and 
men  whose  salaries  are  not  exposed  to  change 
— are  hurt  by  an  expanding  currency. 

(c)  Economists  are  agreed  that  what  is  wanted 
is  an  "elastic  currency" — that  is,  a  currency 
that  can  decrease  in  volume  when  prices  go  up 
and  increase  when  prices  go  down,  thus  operat- 
ing to  check  the  increase  and  decrease.  Exact- 
ly on  what  basis  this  should  be  done  there  is, 
however,  disagreement. 

Gold  monometallists  hold  that  the  general 
price  of  labor  should  remain  constant,  so  that  the 
debtor  may  return  as  much  command  over  labor 
as  he  originally  received.  Bimetallists  affirm 
that  the  general  price  level  of  commodities 
should  remain  constant,  so  that  the  creditor 
should  receive  no  more  command  over  consump- 
tion goods  than  he  originally  loaned. 

A  more  subtle  plan  recently  proposed  by  Pro- 
fessor E.  A.  Ross,  in  the  Annals  of  the  Ameri- 
can Academy  (November,  1893),  holds  that  total 
utility,  and  not  either  the  amount  of  commodi- 
ties or  their  labor  cost,  is  the  standard  to  which 
money  should  conform  in  order  to  do  justice  as 
a  standard  of  deferred  payments.  But  what- 
ever be  the  standard,  all  are  agreed  that  cur- 
'  rency  should  change  in  quantity  to  balance  the 
rise  and  fall  in  prices. 

Says  President  Andrews  (An  Honest  Dollar, 
?.8): 

"  Were  money  merely  a  medium  of  exchange,  some- 
thing to  be  spoken  into  being  for  each  act  of  traffic  and 
then  annihilated,  permanence  in  its  worth  could  be 
dispensed  with.  But  money,  also,  besides  furnishing 
our  system  of  value-denominations,  measures  value, 
serves  as  a  reservoir  of  value,  and  as  a  standard  for 
deferred  payments.  To  fulfil  ideally  any  one  of  the 
last-named  offices  it  must  preserve  its  general  pur- 
chasing power  unchanged." 

Said  Major  Winn,  of  Massachusetts,  in  a 
speech  in  Faneuil  Hall,  October  7,  1891  : 

"  What  is  an  honest  dollar?  What  do  you  use  dollars 
for?  A  measure  of  value,  of  course,  a  yardstick  for 
your  exchanges.  Now,  if  you  were  exchanging  cloth 
in  the  market,  what  would  you  think  of  a  yardstick 
which  some  days  was  a  few  inches  too  long,  and  others 
a  few  inches  too  short,  but,  on  the  whole,  •was  steadily 
growing  longer?  You  wouldn't  call  it  an  honest  yard- 
stick. .  .  . 

"The  only  honest  dollar  is  a  dollar  invariable  in 
value  relative  to  the  mass  of  commodities  in  general, 
as  other  weights  and  measures  are  relatively  to  their 
standards.  Can  we  produce  it  ?  We  keep  the  stand- 
ards of  weight  and  measure  under  glass,  that  a  breath 
may  not  affect  or  a  grain  of  sand  abrade  them.  Why 
not  use  equal  care  with  the  standards  of  value?" 

Says  Professor  Commons,  of  Syracuse  Uni- 
versity (in  The  Voice,  September  14,  1893) : 

"  An  elastic  currency  is  one  in  which  the  volume  of 
money  expands  at  the  time  when  prices  begin  to  fall, 
thereby  preventing  the  fall,  and  in  which,  on  the  other 


hand,  the  volume  contracts  when  prices  show  a  ten- 
dency to  rise,  thus  preventing  the  rise." 

To  this  we  say  all  economists  are  agreed — 
that  is,  as  to  its  desirability.  Whether  it  is  pos- 
sible to  have  such  a  dollar  is  another  question, 
and  one  on  which  economists  are  not  agreed. 
But  as  to  its  desirability  there  is  no  question. 
No  one  desires  a  yardstick  which,  when  one 
makes  a  loan,  measures  one  yard,  and  when  one 
comes  to  return  the  loan  measures  off  twice  as 
much  cloth  and  calls  it  one  yard. 

We  pass,  then,  to  consider 

II.  THE  PRACTICABLE  IMPORTANCE  OF  THE  SUB- 
JECT. 

This  is  also  admitted  to-day  by  all  thinkers, 
altho  it  has  not  always  been  sufficiently  real- 
ized. Says  President  Andrews  (An  Honest 
Dollar,  p.  13) : 

"  Jevons,  at  any  rate,  is  too  moderate.  After  enor- 
mous admissions  touching  the  ravages  of  changing 
currency  values,  he  almost  apologizes  for  the  change 
in  money  value,  on  the  ground  that  the  sorrows  spring- 
ing from  it  are  mostly  occult,  and  that  the  people 
habitually  refer  them  to  other  causes.  The  question 
is  not  whether  the  infelicities  accompanying  these 
monetary  vicissitudes  are  appreciated  or  not,  but 
whether  they  are  real  and  serious.  That  they  are  both 
will  be  the  conviction  of  every  student  in  proportion 
to  his  acquaintance  with  them.  ...  It  is  certain  that 
none  who  have  not  made  the  subject  a  study  at  all 
adequately  conceive  the  magnitude  of  the  evil. 

Says  Professor  Commons  ( The  Voice,  Septem- 
ber 14,  1893)  : 

"  What  is  the  significance  of  price  fluctua- 
tions ?  Nothing  less  than  the  very  essence  of 
modern  industry.  ...  It  is  estimated  that  the 
debts  of  the  world  are  $100,000,000,000.  Every 
nation,  State,  county,  city,  and  township  is  a 
debtor.  These  debts  run  from  three  months  to 
three  decades.  All  business  and  productive  en- 
terprises are  a  speculation.  The  farmer  bor- 
rows money  expecting  to  sell  wheat  at  a  certain 
price  and  pay  his  debt  in  money.  Meanwhile, 
the  price  of  wheat  falls  50  per  cent.  Where  one 
bushel  would  have  paid  his  debt  when  contract- 
ed, it  now  requires  two  bushels,  and  the  burden 
of  the  debt  has  grown  100  per  cent.  During 
the  past  20  years  this  is  exactly  what  has  oc- 
curred. .  .  .  When  we  consider  that  the  pri- 
vate debts  of  the  country  are  one  half  the  value 
of  the  country,  it  is  no  wonder  that  panic,  de- 
pression,-idleness,  and  despair  are  upon  -us." 
(For  statement  as  to  the  public  debt,  see  later 
on  in  this  article.)  At  the  last  Paris  Monetary 
Conference  of  the  leading  financiers  of  the 
world,  President  Andrews  says  (see  MONETARY 
CONFERENCES)  :  "  The  vast  injustice  which  the 
fall  of  prices  causes  in  the  payment  of  debts  and 
the  fulfilment  of  contracts  was  dwelt  upon  some- 
what— less,  doubtless,  than  would  have  been  the 
case  had  it  been  seriously  questioned  by  any." 
Mr.  Balfour  recently  said  before  an  audience  of 
London  bankers  and  merchants,  "  It  is  perhaps 
the  most  deadening  and  benumbing  influence 
that  can  touch  the  enterprise  of  a  nation." 
With  these  statements  from  trained  economists 
there  is  no  need  to  quote,  and  there  is  much 
excuse  for  the  sometimes  hysterical  utterances 
of  the  papers  and  leaders  of  the  farmers'  move- 
ment in  this  country,  who  hold  that  by  contrac- 
tion of  the  currency  they  have  been  deliberately 
robbed  over  and  over  again. 


Contraction  of  Currency. 


Contraction  of  Currency. 


It  is  of  far  more  importance  to  pass  on  to  con- 
sider 

III.  THE  FACTS  IN  THE  UNITED  STATES. 

These  can  be  fully  studied  only  in  a  complete 
review  of  the  currency  of  the  United  States. 
(For  this,  see  CURRENCY.)  We  here  consider 
only  such  facts  as  bear  directly  upon  the  case, 
and  mainly  those  since  the  war.  For  the  ante- 
bellum period  we  present  from  Amasa  Walker 
(Science  of  Wealth)  the  following  charts  : 


DIAGRAM 

Mimon*"*  ""  Votew  *  Cun*ocJT  »nd  «ne  Import,  fcr  ConmmpUon  for  at  jem. 

'  o!r°"  "J4-18SO. 

'Oirreocy 


IM  >OF  TS. 


f 


Million, 

of 
import* 


This  diagram  shows  at  once  how  close  gen- 
eral prosperity,  as  measured  by  imports,  follows 
upon  an  increased  currency.  Taken  with  the 
next  diagram,  which  we  print  in  the  next  col- 
umn, taken  from  the  same  source  and  showing 
how  closely  prices  follow  fluctuations  in  cur- 
rency, we  have  the  clearest  possible  evidence 
both  of  the  truth  of  principles  asserted  above  in 
this  article,  and  also  of  the  vast  importance  of 
the  subject  to  the  general  prosperity  of  the  na- 
tion. Discussions  about  the  inflation  or  contrac- 
tion of  currency  usually  turn  about  conditions 
since  the  war.  It  is  well  to  have  this  plain  show- 
ing drawn  from  ante-bellum  facts.  Had  we 
room  we  could  quote  still  other  of  Mr.  Walker's 
admirable  charts,  showing  the  effect  of  an  in- 
creased currency  in  still  other  directions,  all 
proving  the  intimate  connection  between  an 
abundance  of  good  currency  and  national  wel- 
fare. 

For  the  period  since  the  war  we  must  ask  two 


questions  :  First,  has  the  currency  expanded  or 
contracted  in  volume  ?  Secondly,  how  have 
general  prices  changed  ?  We  shall  then  be  in 


DIAGRAM. 

Showing  th«  Corresponding  Fluctuation*  in  Currency  and  Prices  fcr  26  year*. 
1834-1810. 


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» 

a  condition  to  see  how  the  problem  of  currency 
contraction  and  expansion  really  affects  the 
United  States.  We  ask  : 

(a)  Has  there  been  contraction  or  expansion 
of  our  currency  since  the  war  f 

This  is  a  disputed  point.  We  shall  give  both 
sides. 

According  to  the  authorities  at  Washington, 
no  contraction  has  taken  place.  In  the  reports 
of  the  Secretary  of  the  Treasury  appear  the 
data  printed  in  the  table  on  the  next  page. 

It  should  be  presumed,  however,  that  the  data 
reported  by  the  secretary  are  really  misleading 
on  several  points.  He  gets  the  per  capita  cir- 
culation by  dividing  the  total  amount  in  circu- 
lation by  the  total  population  ;  but  during  the 
war  millions  of  people  in  the  South  were  not 
using  United  States  money — at  least  not  entire- 
ly. They  had  a  currency  of  their  own.  The 
secretary  should  either  have  divided  the  cur- 
rency only  by  the  Northern  population,  or  have 
added  the  Southern  currency  to  the  Northern 
and  have  divided  by  the  total  population.  Either 
process  would  show  a  larger  per  capita  circula- 
tion during  the  war  days. 


Contraction  of  Currency. 


342 


Contraction  of  Currency. 


STATEMENT  SHOWING  THE  AMOUNTS  OF  MONEY   IN  THE  UNITED   STATES,    IN   THE   TREAS- 
URY AND  IN  CIRCULATION,  ON  THE  DATES  SPECIFIED  FROM  1860  TO  1892. 


YEAR. 

Amount  of 
Money  in 
United  States. 

Amount  in  Cir- 
culation. 

Population. 

Money 
per  Capita. 

Circula- 
tion per 
Capita. 

,860       

$442,102,477 
452,005,767 
358,452,079 
674,867,283 
705,588,067 
770,129,755 
754,327,254 
728,200,612 
716,553,578 
7i5,35i>i8o 
722,868,461 
741,812,174 
762,721,565 
774>445,6io 
806,024,781 
798,273,509 
790,683,284 
763,053,847 
791,253.576 
,051,521,541 
,205,929,197 
,406,541,823 
,480,531,719 
,643,489,816 
1705,454,189 
,817,658,336 
,808,559,694 
,900,442,672 
,062,955,949 

>075>350,7" 
,144,226,159 
,195,224,075 
,372,599,5°* 
,323,402,392 
,421,461.747 

$435,407,252 
448,405,767 
334,697,744 
595,394,038 
669,641,478 
714,702,995 
673,488,244 
661,992,069 
680,103,661 
664,452,891 
675,212,794 
715,889,005 
738,309,549 
751,881,809 
776,083,031 
754,101,947 
727,609,388 
722,314,883 
729,132,634 
818,631,793 
973,382,228 
,114,238,119 
,174,290,419 
,230,305,696 
,243,925,969 
,292,568,615 
,252,700,525 

,317,539,143 
,372,170,870 
,380,361,649 
,429,251,270 
,497,440,707 
,601,347,187 
,596,701,245 
,661,835,674 

31,443,321 
32,064,000 
32,704,000 
33,365,000 
34,046,000 
34,748,000 
35,469,000 
36,211,000 
36,973,000 
37,756,000 
38,558,371 
39,555,000 
40,596,000 
41,677,000 
42,796,000 
43,951,000 
45,137,000 
46,353,000 
47,598,000 
48,866,000 
50,155,783 
51,316,000 
52,495,000 
53,693,000 
54,911,000 
56,148,000 
57,404,000 
58,680,000 
59,974,000 
61,289,000 
62,622,250 
63,975,ooo 
65,520,000 
66,946,000 
68,397,000 

$14.06 
14.09 
10.96 
20.23 
20.72 
22.16 
21.27 
20.  1  1 
19.38 
18.95 
18.73 
18.75 
18.70 
18.58 
18.83 
i8.:6 
17-52 
16.46 
16.62 
21.52 
24.04 
27.41 
28.20 
30.60 
31.06 
32-37 
S'-S0 
32-39 
34-39 
33-86 
34-24 
34-31 
36.21 
34-70 
35-40 

$13.85 
13.98 
10.23 
17.84 
19.67 
20.57 
18.99 
18.28 
18.39 
17.60 

17-5° 
18.10 
18.19 
18.04 
18.13 
17.16 
16.12 

15-58 
15-32 
16.75 
19.41 
21.71 
22.37 
22.91 
22.65 
23.02 

21.82 

22-45 
22.88 

22.52 
22.82 
23-41 
24-44 

23.85 

24.30 

!86i  ...         

jS62                                

j863             .  .            

Z864         

1865                              

j866       

1867  

1868  

1870  ....          

1871  

1872  

1873  . 

1874  

1875  

1876  

1877  

1878  .    .    .    . 

1879  

1880.. 

1881  .... 

1882  .   .. 

1881..  . 

1884  

1885  

1886  

1887  

1888  

1889  

1890  

1891  

1892  

1891... 

1894  

NOTE.— The  difference  between  the  amount  of  money  in  the  country  and  the  amount  in  circulation  represents 
the  money  in  the  Treasury. 

Currency  certificates,  act  of  June  8,  1872,  are  included  in  the  amount  of  United  States  notes  in  circulation  in 
the  tables  for  the  years  1873-91  inclusive  ;  in  1892  they  are  reported  separately. 

The  foregoing  tables  present  the  revised  figures  for  each  of  the  years  given. 


This  assuredly  seems  to  show  that  our  cur- 
rency in  the  United  States  has  not  been  con- 
tracting, but  steadily  expanding.  Equally  as- 
suredly, however,  there  is  another  and  a  more 
important  side.  Vast  portions  of  this  currency 
are  not  available  for  the  common  people,  and 
some  portion  of  this  claimed  currency  is  not 
available  for  any  one. 

According  to  the  Treasurer's  report  for  1892, 
for  example,  of  the  $1,601,347,187  reported  in 
circulation  July  i,  1892,  $408,568,824  was  in  gold 
coin.  Now,  except  on  the  Pacific  slope,  the 
common  people  do  not  see  gold  from  year's  end 


to  year's  end.  Large  amounts  of  money,  too, 
are  known  to  be  hoarded,  and  therefore  not  in 
circulation,  but  which  the  report  counts  as  in 
circulation.  That  this  amount  is  included  in 
the  report  may  be  shown  by  going  still  further 
into  details.  The  report  of  the  Director  of  the 
Mint  (p.  161,  Treasurer's  Report)  shows  how 
the  amount  of  gold  in  circulation  is  obtained. 
It  says  : 

"  The  ownership  of  the  stock  of  United  States 
coin  and  of  the  gold  and  silver  bullion  in 
the  country  on  July  i,  1892,  is  exhibited  in  the 
following  table  : 


OWNERSHIP   OF  GOLD   AND  SILVER  IN  THE  UNITED   STATES  JULY  i,   1892. 


OWNERSHIP. 

Gold  Coin 
and  Bullion. 

SILVER  COIN  AND  BULLION. 

Total  Gold 
and  Silver 
Coin  and 
Bullion. 

Silver 
Dollars. 

Subsidiary 
Silver  Com. 

Silver 
Bullion. 

Total 
Silver. 

United  States  Treasury  

$114,601,767* 
190,751,  183$ 
358,922,385 

$3o,3o8,448t 
32,989,995§ 
350,690,292 

$14,224,714 
5,579,302 
57,717,462 

$77,068,783 

$121,601,945 
38,569,297 
410,142,302 

$236,203,712 
229,320,480 
769,064,687 

National  banks  (July  12,  1892)  
Private  banks  and  individuals  .  . 

Total  

i>734,548 

$664,275,335 

$413,988,735 

$77,521,478 

$78,803,331 

$570,313,544 

$1,234,588,879 

*  Gold  coin  and  bullion  in  Treasury,  exclusive  of  $141,235,339  gold  certificates  outstanding, 
t  Silver  dollars  in  Treasury,  exclusive  of  $326,880,803  silver  certificates  outstanding. 
\  Includes  $94,028,100  Treasury  and  clearing-house  gold  certificates. 
§  Includes  $25,523,399  silver  certificates  held  by  national  banks. 


Contraction  of  Currency. 


343 


Contraction  of  Currency. 


And  (p.  1 60)  it  says  : 

"  It  may  be  proper  to  repeat  here  that  the  basis  of 
the  annual  tabulations  of  the  stock  of  gold  coin  in  the 
United  States  was  the  actual  amount  of  gold  coin  in 
the  Treasury  and  in  national  banks  on  June  30,  1872, 
with  an  addition  of  $20,000,000  as  an  estimate  of  the 
minimum  amount  of  gold  coin  in  circulation  in  the 
States  of  the  Pacific  Slope. 

"  No  allowance  was  made  in  the  initial  estimate  for 
any  stock  of  gold  outside  of  the  Treasury  and  national 
banks  or  for  any  gold  in  circulation  in  the  States  east 
of  the  Rocky  Mountains. 

"Since  that  date  the  official  estimates  presented 
from  year  to  year  have  been  compiled  by  adding  to 
the  actual  visible  stock  June  30,  1872,  the  coinage  of 
the  mints  (less  recoinage  of  our  own  coins)  and  the 
gain  (or  loss)  by  import  and  export  of  our  own  coin  as 
registered  at  the  custom  houses,  with  an  annual  al- 
lowance for  melting  of  United  States  coin  for  use  in 
the  industrial  arts  based  upon  three  censuses  taken  by 
the  Bureau  of  the  Mint  of  the  jewelry  trade. 

"In  the  case  of  silver  the  stock  of  silver  dollars  is  es- 
timated to  be  the  coinage  since  March  i,  1878,  and  the 
stock  of  subsidiary  silver  coin  the  coinage  since  1873, 
with  an  estimate  of  the  amount  in  the 

Statistics  country  at  that  date  of  $5,000,000,  and 
"  •  the  annual  gain  or  loss  by  coinage  and 
import  and  an  annual  allowance  for 
melting  in  the  industrial  arts,  as  in  the  case  of  gold." 

There  is,  theref6re,  no  slightest  allowance 
here  for  money  hoarded,  lost,  or  taken  by  emi- 
grants and  others  out  of  the  country  but  not 
registered  at  the  custom-house.  All  moneys 
coined  since  1872  in  the  case  of  gold,  and  since 
1878  for  silver,  are  considered  by  the  treasurer 
as  in  circulation.  That  this  is  not  the  case  ; 
that  large  amounts  have  been  hoarded,  lost,  or 
taken  from  the  country  is  notoriously  true,  tho 
statistics  of  the  amounts  may  not  be  available. 
Unquestionably,  therefore,  the  reports  include 
from  this  cause  moneys  in  circulation  that  can- 
not be  properly  so  called. 

Again  the  report  misleads  because  it  does  not 
fairly  represent  the  circulation  in  the  later  war 
days. 

The  secretary's  report  states  the  "  amount  in  circu- 
lation" in  1865  to  have  been  $714,702,995.  This  evident- 
ly includes  only  United  States  notes  (greenbacks)  and 
notes  of  National  and  State  banks  and  coin,  and  omits 
all  interest-bearing  legal  tenders.  When  Hugh  Mc- 
Culloch  was  Secretary  of  the  Treasury  in  1865,  he 
stated  the  paper  circulation  to  be  substantially  as 
follows  :* 

United  States  notes  and  fractional  currency  $454,218,038 

Notes  of  National  banks 185,000,000 

Notes  of  State  banks 65,000,000 

Estimated  5  per  cent,  and  compound  in- 
terest notes 30,000,000 

Total $734,218,038 

The  last  item  here  mentioned  is  conceded  by  Secre- 
tary McCulloch  as  being  too  low.  It  does  not  include 
any  of  the  seven-thirties,  of  which  $830,000,000  were  out- 
standing (p.  17).  "  Many  of  the  small  denominations 
'(he  says)  were  in  circulation  as  money,  and  all  of 
which  tend  in  some  measure  to  swell  the  inflation  " 
(p.  9).  The  total  quantity  of  interest-bearing  legal 
tenders  outstanding  October  31,  1865,  were  (see  Re- 
port, p.  17) : 

Compound  interest  notes $173,012,141 

Seven-thirty  Treasury  notes  830,000,000 

Treasury  notes  5  per  cent 32,536,901 

Total $1,035,549,042 

To  what  extent  these  notes  should  be  counted  as  cir- 
culation is  doubtful.  Certainly  the  amount  held  by 
banks  should  be  so  considered  in  so  far  as  they  were 
a  legal  reserve  against  deposits.  The  comptroller  re- 
ports the  banks  as  holding  $74,261,847  compound  inter- 
est notes,  and  estimates  that  $10,000,000  besides  are  in 
circulation.  (Report  on  the  Finances,  1865,  p.  64.) 

*  See  Report  on  the  Finances,  1865,  pp.  9,  10. 


The  fact  is,  that  besides  the  $714,000,000  given  by  the 
secretary  in  1892,  there  were  also  $1,000,000,000  latent 
legal  tenders  which  were  alternately  being  injected 
into  and  withdrawn  from  circulation,  and  which  were 
a  legal  tender  together  with  their  accumulated  inter- 
est. A  conservative  estimate  would  place  the  circula- 
tion at  $800,000,000  in  1865.  Now  the  population  for  1865 
is  stated  in  the  report  of  1892  to  have  been  34,748,000. 
This  evidently  includes  9,000,000  population  of  the 
Southern  States,  which  had  its  own  Confederate  cur- 
rency. If  the  secretary  wishes  to  calculate  the  per 
capita  circulation  for  34,000,000  people,  he  should  in- 
clude the  currency  used  by  all  those  people.  Other- 
wise he  should  deduct  the  9,000,000  Southern  popula- 
tion, leaving  25,000,000  Northerners  with  $800,000,000  cur- 
rency, equal  to  $32  per  capita  instead  of  the  $20.58 
actually  estimated. 

The  contraction  of  the  currency,  therefore, 
from  1865  proceeded  from  $32  to  $15.32  per  capita 
in  1878,  when  it  was  arrested  by  the  Bland  Bill. 

Since  1878  there  has  been  an  apparent  expan- 
sion to  $24. 30  per  capita  ;  but  this  has  been  in 
subsidiary  and  token  money,  and  not  in  the 
standard  money — gold  ;  whereas  the  contraction 
from  1865-78  was  a  contraction  of  what  was  then 
the  only  effective  standard — paper  money. 

And  this  takes  into  no  account  the  increase  of 
business  over  the  increase  of  population.  We 
shall  consider  this  more  at  length  in  a  moment, 
but  must  first  note  an  objection  that  seems  to 
vitiate  our  argument.  It  is  said  that  the  amount  of 
currency  really  makes  very  little  difference,  be- 
cause the  vast  majority  of  our  monetary  transac- 
tions are  done,  not  by  money,  but  by  instru- 
ments of  credit  for  which  money  only  furnishes 
the  basis.  The  one  thing  we  are  told  is  to  have 
this  basis  reliable  and  trustworthy  ;  its  amount 
matters  little.  Professor  Commons  (in  the  arti- 
cle above  mentioned  in  The  Voice)  has  well 
stated  the  objection  and  well  answered  it. 

"There  is  a  current  statement  emanating  from  the 
reports  of  the  Comptroller  of  the  Currency,  and  based, 
on  the  statements  ot  bank  officers  throughout  the  Union 
to  the  effect  that  only  7  per  cent,  of  the 
business  of  the  country  is  paid  for  in 
cash  ;  the  other  93  per  cent,  is  represent-      Professor 
ed  by  credit  instruments,  such  as  checks      r/wtim/vna 
and  drafts.     From   this   statement  it  is      ^OD1II10I1B' 
sought  to  minimize  the  share  of  money 
in  influencing  the  range  of  prices.     The 
conclusion  is  reached  that  93  per  cent,  of  general  prices 
is  based  on  credit  and  only  7  per  cent,  on  money,  and 
therefore  that  the  question  of  the  volume  of  money  in  a 
country  has  very  little  significance  compared  with  the 
importance  of  a  good  credit  system. 

"But  there  are  two  objections  to  this  conclusion. 
What  would  be  thought  of  the  sanity  and  the  conclu- 
sions of  a  man  who  should  gather  statistics  only  from 
the  meat  markets  in  the  land  and  then  should  expound 
the  statement  that  95  per  cent,  of  all  the  industry  of 
the  country  consisted  of  fresh  meat  and  only  5  per  cent, 
of  the  country's  industry  consisted  of  all  other  kinds 
of  commodities  ?  The  conclusion  is  no  less  credible 
than  is  the  aforesaid  statement  regarding  credits.  The 
statistics  are  gathered  only  from  enterprises  whose 
sole  business  almost  is  dealing  in  credits.  But  if  you 
go  to  the  retail  merchant  he  will  say  25  per  cent,  to  75 

Eer  cent.,  and  even  100  per  cent.,  of  his  business  is  paid 
jr  in  cash.  The  farmer  uses  very  few  checks  and 
drafts.  The  millions  of  day  laborers  use  none  at  all. 
Taking  the  country  as  a  whole,  perhaps  not  50 per  cent, 
of  all  transactions  are  settled  by  credit  instruments, 
while  the  cash  of  the  country  must  be  actually  trans- 
ferred in  settling  the  other  50  per  cent." 

President  Andrews  (An  Honest  Dollar,  p. 
26)  takes  the  same  position,  and  says  : 

'•While  substitutes  for  money  have  been  multiplying 
in  certain  directions,  others  have  been  withdrawn. 
The  truck  system  of  paying  factory  help  is  dying  out. 

"  More  significant  is  that  increase  in  the  division  of 
labor,  by  which  many  important  products,  like  wagons, 
harnesses,  shoes,  and  clothing,  whose  manufacture  used 
to  begin  and  end  under  the  same  roof,  are  now  gotten 


Contraction  of  Currency. 


344 


Contraction  of  Currency. 


•up  by  a  dozen,  more  or  less,  different  establishments. 
The  wagon-maker  buys  his  wheels  of  one  man,  his 
bodies  of  another,  his  tops  of  another.  Nearly  all 
country  shoemakers,  for  new  work,  purchase  the  up- 

Eers  ready  made  and  the  soles  all  cut  from  some  city 
rm.  Blacksmiths  no  longer  make  their  nails,  rarely 
even  point  them,  and  almost  never  think  of  forging  a 
shoe  or  a  bolt.  All  these  things  they  purchase.  .  .  . 

"  Two  years  ago  I  found  a  man  who  had  for  a  decade 
owned  and  carried  on  the  chief  store  in  a  flourishing 
New  England  village  ignorant  how  to  draw  a  check. 
If  this  in  the  East,  how  slight  must  be  the  play  of  bank- 
ing methods  in  the  West  and  South !  The  gross  per 
capita  mode  of  estimating  monetary  need  is  fallacious, 
and  I  never  appeal  to  it,  but  it  is  tar  more  applicable 
in  this  country  than  in  England. 

"The  per  capita  capital  surplus,  undivided  profits, 
and  individual  deposits  in  banking  institutions  of  all 
kinds  was,  on  January  i,  1887,  for  the  entire  United 
States,  $76. 19.  For  Rhode  Island,  the  highest  figure,  it 
was  $304.83  ;  for  Massachusetts,  next  highest,  $297.86 ; 
for  New  York,  third  highest,  $251.08.  For  Mississippi  it 
•was  but  $3.23— the  lowest ;  for  Arkansas,  $4.20 ;  for 
North  Carolina,  $5.45  ;  for  South  Carolina,  $9.61.  .  .  . 

"With  nations,  as  with  individuals,  those  best  able 
to  get  credit  use  it  least.  In  all  the  wealthiest  countries 
the  proportion  of  cash  payments  to  total  volume  of  trade 
is  steadily  increasing.  According  to  Rae,  from  70  to 
go  per  cent,  of  the  world's  business  is  done  on  credit. 
In  Germany,  Siam,  and  Canada  the  proportion  is  90 
per  cent.  ;  in  Belgium  and  China,  80.  Credit  traffic  has 
its  feeblest  development  in  Holland ;  its  strongest  in 
Turkey  and  Yucatan.  With  progress  in  economic  or- 
ganization, the  sphere  of  credit  becomes  less  extensive, 
its  operation  more  intensive  and  useful.  Cash  pay- 
ments, getting  the  mastery  first  in  wages,  in  retail 
trade,  and  in  raw  products,  spread  gradually  over  other 
fields,  shutting  up  credit  to  its  most  helpful  and  least 
dangerous  functions.  People  are  everywhere  more 
and  more  replacing  book  credit  by  bills,  long  credit  by 
short,  mercantile  credits  by  banking  credits,  and  bank- 
ing credits  themselves  they  are  making  more  widely 
effective  and  available  by  specializing  the  organiza- 
tion of  financial  institutions  to  particular  branches  of 
industry." 

The  question  of  the  amount  of  currency,  then, 
cannot  be  dodged  by  the  statement  that  credit 
fills  all  gaps.  On  the  other  hand,  let  us  now  see 
how  great  has  been  the  increase  in  the  demand 
for  currency.  Mr.  W.  C.  Fisher,  in  a  careful 
study  of  the  facts  of  the  case  (Appendix  to  An 
Honest  Dollar,  p.  47),  admits  an  actual  increase 
of  circulation,  but  not  in  proportion  to  the  in- 
creased demand.  He  says  : 

"  In  the  period,  1870-1888,  there  was  an  increase  in  the 

fer  capita  circulation  outside  of  the  Treasury  from 
20.24  to  $22.46  ;  but  the  increase  in  the  amount  of  ex- 
changing—that is,  in  the  demand  for  money — seems  to 
have  been  much  greater.  For  example,  Poor's  figures 
show  that  the  amount  of  railway  freight  transportation 
rose  from  about  2^  tons  in  1868  to  9.2176  tons  in  1887 ; 
while  the  Census  gives  the  per  capita  wealth  in  1870  as 
$780,  and  in  1880  as  $870.  But  the  large  numbers  which 
express  the  business  of  America  are  best  understood 
when  reduced  to  percentages,  and  I  have,  therefore, 
taken  the  amount  of  money  in  the  circulation  and  the 
amounts  of  production,  consumption,  exchange,  etc., 
in  1870,  as  the  bases,  and  have  computed  the  increase 
in  percentages  to  the  latest  years  for  which  data  are 
accessible. 

"  The  standard  against  which  the  growth  of  industry 
is  to  be  measured  in  this  connection  is  the  rate  of  in- 
crease in  the  amount  of  circulating  medium  ;  and  for 
this  the  figures,  from  1870,  are  to  1886,  59  per  cent. ;  to 
1887,  70  per  cent ;  to  1888,  77  per  cent.  Population  to 
1888  shows  an  increase  of  59  per  cent.  ;  cereal  crops,  97 
per  cent.  ;  pig  iron  produced,  290  per  cent.  ;  bales  of 
cotton,  112  per  cent.  ;  postal  receipts,  notwithstanding 
two  reductions  in  the  charges,  167  per  cent.  ;  railway 
mileage,  235  per  cent.  From  1870  to  1887  some  of  the  in- 
crements are  :  cotton  consumed,  101  per  cent.  ;  tea,  106 
per  cent. ;  coffee,  117  per  cent. ;  sugar,  88  per  cent. ; 
wool,  87  per  cent.  ;  tonnage  entered  and  cleared  in  the 
foreign  trade,  114  per  cent.  ;  freight  carried  on  13  trunk 
lines,  carrying  22  per  cent,  of  total  in  the  United  States, 
317  per  cent.  ;  ton-miles  of  freight  transportation  on 
same  lines,  333  per  cent. ;  insurance  against  fire  report- 
ed to  the  New  York  Department  being  80  to  90  per 
cent,  of  the  whole  203  per  cent.  To  1886  there  was  an 
increase  in  the  coal  mined  of  225  per  cent.  ;  in  hay  cut, 


70  per  cent. ;  in  potatoes,  46  per  cent. ;  in  tobacco,  37 
per  cent.  Other  figures  or  the  same  general  bearing 
might  be  given,  but  they  would  only  fortify  what  is 
already  proved  by  the  cumulative  evidence  or  the  fore- 
going— that  is,  that  since  1870  the  money  worth  of  this 
country  has  increased  much  more  rapidly  than  has  the 
amount  of  money  in  circulation." 

Mr.  Fisher  comes  finally  to  these  conclusions  : 

"  I.  That  the  increase  of  the  currency  has  not  at  all 
kept  pace  with  the  expansion  of  industry. 

"  II.  Improvements  in  the  means  of  communication 
and  in  the   facilities    for    transporting 
money,  the  extension  of  savings  institu- 
tions, and  the  rising  value  of  money  it-  Increase  not 
self,  have  all  probably  had  a  slight  ten-        TJanid 
dency  to  accelerate  the  circulation  ;  but        ' ,     * 
the  total  effect  of    these   causes   must      tnougn. 
have  been  quite  inconsiderable. 

"III.  The  operations  of  the  clearing 
houses  are  presumably  a  fair  index  of  the  use  of 
checks,  and  seem  to  show  but  a  very  moderate  expan- 
sion during  the  period  under  consideration.  The 
amount  of  the  clearings  at  New  York  per  head  of  the 
population  of  the  country  has  each  year  since  1883  been 
less  than  in  any  one  of  the  years  between  1863  and 
1874,  or  between  1879  and  1884,  and  has  exceeded  by 
only  a  little  the  clearings  in  the  years  of  depression 
which  intervened  between  the  panic  of  1873  and  the  re- 
vival of  1879.  It  is  scarcely  safe  to  draw  conclusions 
from  the  scanty  data  of  the  other  clearing  houses  ;. 
but,  so  far  as  these  go,  they  point  in  the  same  direc- 
tion. If  the  amount  of  deposits  against  which  checks 
may  be  drawn  be  taken  as  the  index  of  the  extent  to 
which  they  are  actually  drawn,  a  slightly  greater  in- 
crease seems  probable  ;  but  there  is  nothing  to  indi- 
cate that  the  use  of  checks  has  increased  at  equal  rate 
with  the  exchanging  of  the  country.  An  examination 
of  the  conditions  under  which  book  accounts  fully  take 
the  place  of  money  and  checks  will  make  it  quite  «lear 
that  the  range  of  this  substitute  for  money  not  only  is 
not  extending,  but  is  rather  growing  narrower." 

Such,  then,  seems  to  be  the  well-substantiated 
facts,  that  credit  does  not  replace  the  use  of 
money  to  at  all  the  extent  popularly  claimed, 
and  that  it  is  doing  so  less  rather  than  more, 
and  that,  secondly,  the  treasurer's  figures  are 
not  to  be  implicitly  accepted  without  analysis  ; 
while  even  accepting  them,  it  is  plain  that  the 
claimed  expansion  of  the  currency  has  not  kept 
pace  with  the  increase  of  demand,  thus  making, 
even  on  this  basis  of  the  treasurer's  figures,  a  vir- 
tual contraction  of  the  currency,  and  on  the  basis 
of  fairer  figures,  a  criminal  contraction  which 
has  damaged  every  debtor  and  every  worker  in 
our  land.  But  this  is  only  one  half  the  ques- 
tion. If,  as  we  have  seen,  to  have  an  honest 
dollar  it  is  necessary  to  have  one  which  will 
always  purchase  the  same  amount  of  value  or 
total  utility  of  standard  commodities,  so  that 
the  farmer,  for  example,  who  borrows  the  cost 
of  10  loads  of  hay  will  not,  in  order  to  repay  the 
same  nominal  sum,  have  to  pay  back  20  loads, 
let  us  ask  : 

How  have  prices  varied  in  the  United  States 
since  the  war  ?  Notoriously,  generally  speak- 
ing, they  have  declined  ;  how  much,  we  shall 
see  in  a  moment.  But  this  is  the  same  as  to  say 
that  the  value  of  money  has  appreciated — that 
is,  every  dollar  will  buy  more  of  the  average 
commodities.  Consequently,  he  who  lent  a  dol- 
lar soon  after  the  war  and  receives  it  back  now 
receives,  or  even  if  he  does  not  receive  it,  by 
law  has  a  right  to  more  value  as  measured  in 
commodities  than  he  lent.  Let  us  see  how 
much  this  is.  There  are  several  ways  of  meas- 
uring the  facts.  One  may  consider  gold  the 
standard,  and  see  how  prices  have  fallen  ;  or 
one  may  consider  silver  the  standard,  and  see 
how  prices  have  fallen  ;  or  one  may  consider 


Contraction  of  Currency. 


345 


Contraction  of  Currency. 


prices  the  same,  and  see  how  gold  and  silver  for  September,  1893,  has  presented  the  facts  in 
have  appreciated.  In  some  admirable  tables  the  two  first  ways.  We  present  them  here  by 
Edward  B.  Howell,  in  the  Review  of  Reviews  permission  : 

CHART  I.     SHOWING  THE  FALL  IN  PRICES,  GOLD  BEING  THE  STANDARD. 


CHART  II.     SHOWING  THE  FALL  IN  PRICES  AND  APPRECIATION  IN  GOLD,  SILVER  BEING  THE  STANDARD. 


/076  //ZZ  / 


'6eo  /88J  isez  /aea  f8&4  /ess  /&#&  /as?  JOSB  /eay  /0fo  f«9Z  IQ9Z 


,UJ£>  f/66  />«/  S.Z/3  l.W 


Chart  11. 


"In  these  tables,  says  Mr.  Howell,  "the  statistics 
for  the  intrinsic  value  of  the  silver  dollar  as  measured 
by  gold  are  taken  from  the  last  report  of  the  Director 
of  the  Mint.  The  20  leading  commodities  whose  per- 
centages are  averaged  include  cotton,  with  three  or 
four  of  its  staple  fabrics,  wool,  corn,  wheat,  wheat 
flour,  mess  pork,  butter,  eggs,  leather,  anthracite  and 
bituminous  coal,  etc.,  such  as  constitute  the  chief 
sources  of  America's  wealth.  If  more  commodities 
had  been  included,  or  different  ones,  the  showing 
might  have  been  modified  somewhat,  but  not  mate- 
rially, for  what  is  true  of  the  fall  of  these  commodities 
is  true  of  all." 

The  statistics  for  these  commodities  were 
taken,  Mr.  Howell  also  tells  us,  from  govern- 
ment statistical  returns. 

Now  the  question  arises  whether  this  fall  in 
prices  has  been  occasioned  by  improved  meth- 
ods in  production,  etc.,  or  by  the  appreciation 
of  money  1  Mr.  Howell  answers  this,  and  says  : 


"  An  editorial  in  the  June  Century  denies  the  appre- 
ciation of  gold,  and  claims  that  the  fall  of  prices  has 
been  due  to  improved  methods  of  production  and  dis- 
tribution. It  is  impossible  to  wholly  disprove  a  state- 
ment that  is  partially  true.  No  doubt  improved 
methods  of  production  have  lowered  the  prices  of  cer- 
tain commodities.  In  most  of  the  commodities  named 
above  there  have  been  no  materially  improved 
methods  of  production  in  the  last  20  years.  In  Chart 
III.  I  have  compared  the  range  in  price  of  a  commodity 
in  which  there  have  been  improved  methods  of  pro- 
duction with  two  others  in  which  there  have  not.  The 
methods  of  producing  steel  r^ils  have  been  greatly  im- 
proved in  20  years,  and  as  a  result  the  price  has  taken 
a  veritable 'header.'  Yet  butter  and  eggs  have  also 
declined  in  price,  tho  there  have  been  no  improve- 
ments made  on  the  ordinary  cow  and  hen  as  methods 
of  producing  them.  In  other  words,  improved  facilities 
may  in  some  cases  have  augmented  a  fall  that  has 
been  due  to  another  and  more  universal  cause." 

Here  is  his  Chart  III  : 


•/  I/as 

92\:ie, 


too 

ffO 


<=> 


efe 


Contraction  of  Currency. 


346 


Contraction  of  Currency. 


We  see  thus  plainly  that  while  improved  pro- 
duction undoubtedly  has  lowered  the  price  of 
many  commodities,  money  has  even  apart  from 
this  appreciated. 

But  whatever  be  the  cause  (for  a  further  study 
of  this  subject  see  SILVER  ;  BIMETALLISM  ;  CUR- 
RENCY), we  are  here  concerned  simply  with  the 
fact  that  money  has  appreciated.  How  much 
this  is  the  case  is  well  illustrated  by  President 
Andrews  (An  Honest  Dollar,  p.  13) : 

"Our  national  debt  on  September  i,  1865,  was  about 
two  and  three  quarter  billions.  It  could  then  have 
been  paid  off  with  eighteen  million  bails  of  cotton  or 
twenty-five  million  tons  of  bar  iron.  When  it  had 
been  reduced  to  a  billion  and  a  quarter,  thirty  million 
bales  of  cotton  or  thirty-two  million  tons  of  iron 
would  have  been  required  to  pay  it.  In  other  words, 
while  a  nominal  shrinkage  of  about  fifty-five  per  cent, 
had  taken  place  in  the  debt,  it  had,  as  measured  in 
either  of  these  two  world-staples,  actually  been  en- 
larged by  some  50  per  cent.  .  .  .  Between  1870  and 
1884  the  debt  of  the  United  States  decreased  not  very 
far  from  three  quarters  of  a  billion  dollars.  Yet  if  we 
take  beef,  corn,  wheat,  oats,  pork,  coal,  cotton,  and 
bar  iron  together  as  the  standard— assuredly  not  a  bad 
one— the  debt  not  only  did  not  decrease  at  all,  but  ac- 
tually increased  by  not  less  than  50  per  cent." 

Now,  it  can  be  seen  what  expansion  and  con- 
traction of  the  currency  means  to  the  producing 
and  debtor  class  of  this  country.  As  with  pub- 
lic debts,  so  with  private  debts.  Measured  by 
what  a  dollar  will  buy  from  1870-84,  every  debt 
increased,  according  to  President  Andrews's 
statement,  threefold.  Immediately  after  the 
war  American  enterprise  filled  the  West  with 
new  farms.  The  farmers  borrowed  money,  and 
mortgaged  their  farms  to  get  stock  and  "  plant. ' ' 
To-day  their  unpaid  debt  has  increased  three- 
fold in  value.  Contraction  in  the  currency  will 
increase  their  debt  still  more.  Expansion  in 
currency  will  reduce  their  debt  to  nearer  its 
value  when  they  contracted  the  debt.  Can  any 
one  wonder  that  almost  desperately  the  farmer, 
mortgaged  often  beyond  all  hope  of  payment, 
battles  desperately,  wildly,  pathetically  for  an 
enlarged  circulation,  be  it  of  silver,  paper,  or 
aught  else  that  seems  to  promise  relief  ?  Is  it 
any  wonder,  too,  that  in  his  desperate  condition 
(see  MORTGAGES)  he  makes  mistakes,  and  is  will- 
ing to  get  money,  even  of  bad  quality,  if  he 
can  only  get  quantity  ?  When  it  is  remembered, 
too,  that,  according  to  the  best  authorities  (see 
BIMETALLISM),  it  is  at  least  very  doubtful  if  there 
be  gold  enough  in  the  world  to  do  the  business 
of  the  world,  is  it  any  wonder  that  those  already 
burdened  under  a  load  of  money  contraction 
and  falling  prices  struggle  desperately,  some- 
times almost  insanely,  for  bimetallism  or  any- 
thing which  promises  deliverance  from  the  fur- 
ther contraction  of  the  currency  and  the  appre- 
ciation of  gold  value  by  what  they  consider 
"  the  gold  conspirators  of  the  world"?  For  a 
fuller  study  of  the  situation,  see  CURRENCY  ;  but 
here,  from  the  best  authorities  and  principles 
accepted  by  all  economists,  we  can  see  some- 
what of  the  appalling  results  of  monetary  con- 
traction in  the  United  States. 

We  therefore  come  to  consider 

IV.  PROPOSED  REMEDIES. 

(a)  Choose  that  standard  which  varies  least, 
which  is  gold,  say  some  ;  which  is  silver,  an- 
swer others.  But  either  vary  very  much  in 


value.     (See  SILVER  ;  GOLD.)    Is  there  no  better 
way  ? 

(b)  Choose  both,   say  the   bimetallists.     (See 
BIMETALLISM.)     But  even  this  is  not  sufficiently 
elastic,  and  if  it  were,  seems  to-day  to  be  impos- 
sible.     Says     Professor    Commons    (in    article 
already  quoted) : 

"  Both  bimetallism  and  monometallism  leave  the 
regulation  of  the  volume  of  currency  to  the  wasteful, 
irregular  frolics  of  nature.  A  truly  elastic  currency 
can  be  obtained  only  by  substituting  scientific  human 
design  for  nature's  unconscious  lottery. 

"  But  the  insuperable  obstacle  to  bimetallism  is  the 
impossibility  of  reaching  an  international  agreement. 
The  United  States  have  invited  the  nations  of  Europe 
to  three  international  conferences,  but  to-day  an 
agreement  is  no  nearer  than  14  years  ago,  when  the 
first  conference  was  held.  Until  the  last  year  or  two 
it  may  have  been  possible  that  the  United  States,  with 
their  boundless  resources  and  industry,  could  have 
maintained  the  parity  of  the  two  metals  without  the 
help  of  the  European  nations.  But  no  longer  does 
there  remain  any  doubt.  We  must  face  the  fact  now 
that  the  money  policy  of  Europe  is  dictated  by  a 
league  of  the  money-lenders  and  the  army  chiefs. 
The  masses  of  the  people  are  ignorant,  apathetic,  and 
powerless.  With  millions  of  gold  collected  into 'war 
chests,'  regardless  of  cost,  with  Austria-Hungary  sud- 
denly calling  for  $200,000,000  of  gold,  and  now  at  last 
with  India,  for  centuries  (as  a  Frenchman  has  said) 
the  historical  'abyss  of  silver  from  which  there  is  no 
return,'  with  the  mints  of  India  ostracizing  the  white 
metal  at  the  command  of  the  money  princes  of  Eng- 
land, there  is  no  hope  that  the  United  States  alone  can 
maintain  free  silver  coinage.  Already  our  gold  has 
been  rapidly  disappearing  and  has  reached  the  danger 
line  with  a  law  considerably  short  of  free  coinage. 
Should  the  greater  measure  be  enacted  the  rest  would 
follow,  and  our  foreign  trade  would  be  reduced  to  a 
gambling  joust,  like  that  of  Mexico." 

It  has  therefore  been  proposed  to 

(c)  Choose  some  standard  or  standards,  and 
increase  the  quantity  by  a  commission  controlled 
by  fixed  law,  taking  it  out  of  the  hands  of  politi- 
cal interests.     For  this  several  detailed  plans 
have  been  presented. 

Professor  Walras,  of  Lausanne,  would  work 
a  priori.  He  judges  that  the  volume  of  com- 
merce, the  volume  of  money,  and  the  relation 
between  the  two  can  all  be  so  closely  figured 
out  and  followed  that  threatened  changes  in 
general  prices  may  be  forecast  and  prevented. 
President  Andrews  would  follow  a  similar  plan, 
but  work  a  posteriori.  His  method,  he  says, 
"  would  involve  (i)  the  critical,  official  ascertain- 
ment of  the  course  of  prices  ;  (2)  the  use  of  some 
form  of  subsidiary  full  legal  tender  money  ;  and 
(3)  the  injection  of  a  portion  of  this  into  circula- 
tion, or  the  withdrawal  of  a  portion  therefrom, 
according  as  prices  had  fallen  or  risen. 

"  There  is,  of  course,  much  labor  and  care  in- 
volved in  determining  the  course  of  prices  ;  but 
the  task  can  be  accomplished,  with  all  sufficient 
exactness,  without  excessive  difficulty.  Plans 
for  a  compound  standard  of  value  have  been 
numerous.  The  articles  composing  them,  it  is 
always  and  justly  urged,  must  be  staples,  and 
must  be  the  same  in  kind,  quality,  and  amount 
at  all  the  successive  listings.  There  are  five 
conditions  besides  these  on  which  stress  should 
be  laid.  One  is  that  the  commodities  must  be 
taken  from  each  of  the  two  great  classes,  those 
subject  and  those  not  subject  to  the  law  of 
diminishing  return,  as  far  as  possible  in  the  pro- 
portion which  each  bears  to  the  total  consump- 
tion. The  second  is  that  those  articles  must  be 
chosen  which  are  the  least  subject  to  accidental 
and  artificial  fluctuations,  as  by  customs  regu- 


Contraction  of  Currency. 


347 


Contraction  of  Currency. 


lations,  peculiarity  of  seasons,  weather,  and  the 
like.  Thus  Soetbeer  is  doubtless  right  in  think- 
ing prices  in  Hamburg,  which  till  lately  has 
been  a  wholly  free  market,  somewhat  more  nor- 
mal than  those  of  London  even.  The  third  is 
that  the  greater  the  number  of  staples  the  bet- 
ter, provided  the  just  indicated  requirements  be 
adhered  to.  The  fourth  is  that,  as  a  rule,  prices 
are  to  be  registered  in  all  the  major  markets  of 
the  country  or  countries  whose  prices  are  in 
question.  In  not  a  few  cases,  as  wheat  and 
standard  silver,  London  prices  would  serve  as 
well  for  other  countries  as  for  Great  Britain. 
For  many  staples  trustworthy  price  records  are 
now  kept,  as  by  the  London  Economist  and  Ga- 
zette. For  others,  new  or  more  accurate  records 
would  have  to  be  instituted.  The  fifth  special 
condition  is  that  of  quantity  coefficients — an  ar- 
rangement by  which  the  figures  for  each  com- 
modity are  made  to  enter  into  the  grand  total  a 
number  of  times  in  proportion  to  the  quantity 
of  it  consumed. 

"At  intervals,  now,  whether  directly  or  in- 
dex-numberwise,  as  may  be  found  intrinsically 
the  more  correct  as  well  as  the  less  subject  to 
mistakes  of  calculation,  the  entire  price-list  of 
the  articles  determined  on  is  to  be  added  up. 
The  geometrical,  the  arithmetical,  or  the  har- 
monic mean  may  be  sought.  If  the  amount  at 
any  addition  is  greater  than  at  the  last,  general 
prices  have  risen  ;  money  has  grown  cheaper, 
has  lost  in  purchasing  power  ;  too  much  of  it  is 
in  circulation  ;  some  must  be  withdrawn. 

"  If,  on  the  contrary,  the  amount  is  less  than 
at  the  last  summation,  prices  have  fallen  ;  money 
has  grown  dearer,  has  gained  in  value  ;  too  lit- 
tle of  it  is  in  circulation,  and  more  must  be  set 
free  or  coined,  to  redress  the  balance.  In  a 
word,  inflate  or  contract,  rarefy  or  condense,  so 
as  to  keep  the  footing  of  your  great  price-list 
perpetually  the  same. 

' '  The  universally  conceded  equity  of  a  com- 
posite value  standard  would  in  this  way  be  in- 
corporated in  the  monetary  system  itself,  and 
would  spread  to  all  the  exchange  transactions 
of  the  nation.  The  very  knowledge  of  an  exist- 
ing purpose  thus  to  regulate  would  do  much  to 
regulate." 

The  Hon.  Henry  Winn,  of  Massachusetts,  has 
formulated  a  plan  not  dissimilar.  In  the  speech 
quoted  above  he  says  : 

"It  seems  to  me  that  the  remedy  lies  in  a  currency 
of  legal  tender  treasury  notes,  not  redeemable  at  any 
fixed  ratio  in  coin,  but  receivable    for  at  taxes  and 
public  dues,  and  kept  as  nearly  as  pos- 
sible,  by  expansion  or  contraction    of 
Views  of     their  volume,  at  a  fixed  par  in  value  by 
Economists    comparison  of  the  average  market  price, 
11  '   in  such  currency,  of  a  specified  number 
of  commodities  selected  as  affording  the 
best  barometer  of  values.    The    value 
ratio  of  the  dollar  to  this  fixed  par  should  be  declared 
at  stated  periods  by  a  commission   of  experts,  who 
might  be  authorized  to  reject,  for  declared  cause,  any 
commodity  of  which  the  price  should  appear  abnormal 
or  forced,  replacing  it  from  a  list  of  authorized  sub- 
stitutes.   The  basis  of  their  action  would  be  so  com- 
pletely public  that  fraud  would  not  occur.    All  time 
and  overdue  debts  should  by  law  be  payable  by  such 
an  amount  of  this   currency  as  •would    give    to  the 
creditor  value  equivalent  to  value  given  by  him,  as 
determined  by  the  ratio  for  the  period  when  the  debt 
was  contracted  compared  with  the  ratio  at  the  time  of 
payment,  with  his  interest,  and  no  more. 

In  ordinary  transactions  and  account  current  the 
ratio  or  variation  would  not  enter  or  be  thought  of, 
and  the  only  inconvenience  would  be  a  computation  at 


settlement  of  time  obligations,  involving  perhaps  half 
the  usual  labor  required  to  compute  interest. 

"Thus  currency  at  i.io  would  indicate  that  it  would 
buy  one  tenth  more  of  the  commodities  than  when  it 
was  at  par,  and  at  go  it  would  buy  one  tenth  less.  So 
a  note  for  $1000  given  when  currency  is  at  90  would  be 
paid  at  $818.18  when  currency  is  no  ;  and  given  at  no 
would  be  paid  at  $122.22  with  currency  at  90." 

Finally  Professor  Commons  has  presented  a 
plan,  perhaps  the  wisest  in  the  present  situation. 
It  is  a  combination  of  President  Andrews' s  plan 
with  one  proposed  by  Secretary  Windom  in 

1889.  Says  Professor  Commons  (Annals  of  the 
American  Academy,  September,  1893)  : 

"  In  the  April  number  of  The  Forum  Mr.  Jose  F.  de 
Navarro  proposes,  instead  of  the  present  system  of 
silver  certificates  and  treasury  notes  redeemable  in 
silver  dollars,  to  substitute  a  system  of  bullion  notes 
redeemable  in  silver  bullion  at  the  gold  price  of  silver 
on  the  day  of  payment.  This  is  essentially  the  plan  sub- 
mitted to  Congress  in  1889  by  Secretary  Windom,  who 
proposed  to  restrict  the  issue  of  these  bullion  notes  to 
the  yearly  commercial  value  of  the  product  of  the 
American  mines.  This  would  have  resulted  in  an  annual 
jncrease  of  the  currency  of  about  $55,000,000  ($57,600,040 
in  1891).  All  the  advantages  of  the  plan  as  claimed  by 
Mr.  de  Navarro  may  be  readily  conceded.  It  would 
check  at  once  the  scare  about  the  loss  of  our  gold.  In 
fact,  with  such  a  system  of  currency,  the  United  States 
could  dispense  with  gold  altogether.  This  is  a  contin- 
gency, however,  which  neither  Secretary  Windom  nor 
Mr.  de  Navarro  seems  to  have  considered  safe  or  al- 
lowable. Yet  further  consideration  will  show  that, 
having  adopted  the  system  of  bullion  notes,  every  dol- 
lar of  gold  now  on  hand  might  be  exported  to  Europe, 
and  every  new  ounce  from  the  mines  might  follow  it, 
yet  every  dollar  of  American  currency  would  be  as 
good  as  a  gold  dollar.  Should  all  the  gold  leave  the 
country  in  this  way,  cablegram  reports  from  London 
every  day  would  give  the  gold  price  of  silver,  just  as 
the  Director  of  the  Mint  to-day  receives  prices  to 
guide  him  in  the  purchase  of  bullion  under  the  act  of 

1890.  Every  bullion  note  presented  to  the  Treasury 
would  be  redeemed  in   silver  bullion   at   the  world's 
gold  price  of  silver  on  that  day,  and  would,  therefore, 
be  equal  to  a  redemption  in  gold  on  the  markets  of  the 
world. 

"  If  these  principles  be  true,  may  not  the  United 
States  go  further  and  adopt  a  scientifically  elastic  sys- 
tem of  currency,  based  on  bullion  notes?" 

Professor  Commons  then  goes  on  to  state  the 
plans  of  Professor  Walras  and  President  An- 
drews, and  objects  to  them  on  the  ground  that 
they  would  make  the  subsidiary  money  mere 
token  money,  which,  when  prices  were  rising, 
could  not  be  contracted  except  by  issuing  bonds 
redeemable  in  silver  certificates,  since  it  could 
not  sell  silver  for  the  certificates,  and  when 
prices  were  falling  could  only  be  expanded  by 
an  injection  of  depreciated  coins. 

"  But,"  says  Professor  Commons,  "these  objections 
would  not  hold  if  the  subsidiary  money  were  bullion 
notes  redeemable  in  silver  bullion  at  the  current  gold 
price  of  silver.  With  such  an  amendment,  the  scheme 
of  President  Andrews  could  be  carried  out  with  emi- 
nent success  by  the  United  States  alone.  We  could  be- 
come the  great  regulator  of  world-prices,  and  not 
with  great  loss,  such  as  France  incurred  when  she 
played  that  role  under  simple  bimetallism,  but  with 
unexampled  profit.  Our  six  hundred  millions  of  gold 
would  go  abroad  in  just  the  quantities  we  desired  and 
keep  up  Europe's  prices,  while  we  would  be  doing 
business  on  a  gold  basis  without  need  of  the  gold. 
The  monetary  commission,  if  prices  were  falling, 
would  purchase  silver  bullion  at  its  market  value  at 
any  figure  below  $1.29  per  ounce,  and  legal-tender  cer- 
tificates would  be  issued  in  payment  thereof,  in  such 
quantities  as  were  necessary  to  keep  up  prices.  Then, 
again,  if  prices  were  rising  above  the  standard,  the 
commission  could  sell  silver  bullion  at  its  market 
value,  and  could  lock  up  the  certificates  received  there- 
for, thus  contracting  the  currency  without  the  issue  of 
bonds.  With  the  expansion  of  the  country,  however, 
it  is  likely  that  the  purchase  of  bullion  rather  than  its 
sale  would  be  the  normal  operation. 

"It  may  be  objected  that  quantity  of  money  is  not 


Contraction  of  Currency. 


348 


Contract  Labor. 


the  only  factor  influencing  the  rise  and  fall  of  prices, 
but  that  inflation  and  collapse  of  credit  have  the  same 
effect.  This  is  undoubtedly  true.  But  credit  depends 
largely  on  the  prospects  of  the  money-supply.  The 
knowledge  that  a  commission  of  experts  is  ready  to 
contract  the  currency  will  prevent  undue  and  over- 
inflated  credits,  and  the  knowledge  of  power  to  ex- 
pand the  currency  will  give  infinite  confidence  and 
power  of  resistance  in  times  of  panic  and  depression. 

"The  possible  objection  that  the  stock  of  bullion  in 
the  vaults  of  the  Government  may  become  depreciated 
and  the  Government  may  lose  through  corners  or 
otherwise,  when  it  sells  bullion,  need  have  little 
weight.  In  the  first  place,  there  will  be  more  buying 
than  selling,  which  would  stiffen  the  price  of  silver. 
And,  secondly,  tho  the  bullion  value  should  fall, 
the  Government  would  be  as  safe  as  it  is  at  present 
with  $100,000,000  gold  to  redeem  $340,000,000  greenbacks 
and  some  $400,000,000  of  silver  certificates.  Let  the 
United  States  adopt  this  plan,  and  we  should  be  inde- 
pendent of  international  monetary  conferences  and 
bimetallic  treaties.  An  international  money  would  be 
created  which  the  nations  of  Europe  would  soon  be 
driven  to  imitate." 

Such  are  the  main  ways  proposed  for  the  meet- 
ing of  the  evil.  For  still  other  plans  for  an 
elastic  paper  currency,  see  PAPER  MONEY.  For 
references,  see  MONEY  and  BIMETALLISM.  For 
the  latest  facts  in  regard  to  the  circulation, 
see  SILVER. 

Revised  by  PROF.  J.  R.  COMMONS. 

CONTRACT  LABOR.— When  a  national, 
municipal,  county,  or  other  government  desires 
to  erect  a  building  or  undertake  any  other  work, 
like  printing,  supplying  the  army,  etc. ,  the  cus- 
tom has  grown  of  giving  out  the  work  to  be 
done  by  some  contractor  or  contractors,  who 
usually  sign  a  contract  with  the  government  to 
do  the  work  or  furnish  the  required  supplies 
for  a  certain  sum,  taking  the  responsibility  of 
purchasing  the  material,  hiring  the  workmen, 
and  concluding  the  whole  work.  Even  private 
persons  and  corporations  usually  give  to  con- 
tractors the  job  of  doing  for  them  all  work  not 
wholly  in  the  lines  of  their  own  industry.  Busi- 
ness, therefore,  done  on  contract  forms  a  very 
large  proportion,  particularly  of  the  building, 
constructing,  and  furnishing  trades.  This 
method  of  business  has  grown  up  mainly  for 
two  reasons  :  Firstly — and  this  reason  applies 
particularly  to  private  corporations  and  indi- 
viduals— because  it  is  usually  the  easiest  method. 
An  individual  or  a  corporation,  and  to  a  less  ex- 
tent government,  has  not  often  either  the  time 
or  the  ability  to  conduct  an  operation  apart 
from  his,  her,  or  its  own  line  of  industry,  and 
it  is  therefore  much  easier  and  sometimes  the 
only  possible  way  to  give  the  whole  job  to  some 
contractor,  whose  exact  business  it  is  to  do  the 
kind  of  work  that  may  be  required,  and  leav- 
ing to  him  all  responsibility  for  details,  to  pay 
him  a  lump  sum  for  the  completed  work,  usually 
with  certain  specified  requirements  and  by  a 
specified  time.  Secondly,  it  is  usually  claimed — 
and  this  reason  is  applied  particularly  to  gov- 
ernments— that  it  is  cheaper  to  lei  out  the  work 
than  for  the  government  or  in- 
dividual to  do  it  for  himself  or  it- 
Arguments  self.  This  second  reason  naturally 
for.  springs  in  part  from  the  first  reason. 
What  we  know  little  about  we  can- 
not do  cheaply.  A  contractor  whose 
special  business  it  is  to  undertake  a  work  can 
naturally  do  it  more  cheaply.  This,  it  is  true, 


might  be  obviated,  especially  on  the  part  of 
governments  that  are  always  having  such  works 
performed,  by  hiring  paid  specialists  not  to 
take  a  contract  for  the  work,  but  to  conduct 
it  for  the  government  itself  ;  but  this,  it  is 
usually  said,  is  expensive.  It  is  a  common 
opinion  in  business  and  public  circles  that 
public  work  is  never  as  cheaply  done  as  pri- 
vate work.  Public  work,  carried  out  by  paid 
officials  and  employees,  it  is  said,  is  always  com- 
paratively expensive,  because  it  is  no  one  per- 
son's interest  to  see  that  the  work  is  cheaply 
done.  The  only  party  that  suffers  if  it  is  not 
cheaply  done  is  the  general  public,  and  the  pub- 
lic often  knows  little  if  anything  about  it,  and 
when  it  does  know  is  often  unable  to  speedily 
and  readily  act  in  the  matter.  Consequently, 
it  is  said,  government  work  is  usually  carried 
out  by  corrupt  officials  and  lazy,  inefficient  em- 
ployees. Contract  labor  is  cheaper,  it  is  argued, 
because  rival  contractors  will  bid  against  each 
other  to  do  a  job  as  cheaply  as  possible  in  order 
to  get  the  job,  and  will  then  see  for  the  advan- 
tage of  their  own  pockets  that  their  men  do 
work  cheaply.  To  insure  this,  legislation,  and 
often  the  special  legislation  authorizing  the  un- 
dertaking, requires  that  the  work  be  bidden  for 
in  the  open  market,  and  the  job  be  given  to  the 
contractor  agreeing  to  do  it  for  the  lowest  fig- 
ure. Therefore  exact  specifications  of  what  is 
wanted  are  usually  advertised  by  the  govern- 
ment, and  sealed  bids  from  various  contractors 
are  received  for  doing  the  work,  and  at  a  cer- 
tain time  the  bids  are  opened  and  the  contract 
awarded  to  the  contractor  offering  the  best 
terms.  This,  until  recently  at  least,  has  been 
almost  universally  regarded  as  the  best  way  of 
getting  work  done. 

But  three  main  difficulties  have  resulted  from 
this  system.  In  the  first  place,  it  has  developed 
some  of  the  greatest  political  scandals  of  mod- 
ern times.  It  being,  of  course,  for  the  interest 
of  the  contractor  to  get  all  he  can  from  the  gov- 
ernment for  doing  the  job,  it  has  repeatedly 
happened  that  contractors  in  some  way  bribe 
the  administration  or  the  officials  in  charge  of 
the  works  to  award  them  the  job,  even  when 
they  do  not  offer  the  lowest  price.  So  fre- 
quently does  this  happen,  that  public  officials 
expect,  as  a  matter  of  course,  to 
be  bought  in  this  way,  and  a  job 
is  created  simply  to  afford  a  chance  Arguments 
to  the  officials  to  sell  the  contract,  against. 
Sometimes  contractors  seem  all  but 
compelled  to  bribe  their  way  to  re- 
ceiving a  contract.  Not  infrequently  officials 
will  form  bogus  companies  of  their  own,  and 
award  a  contract  to  themselves  at  exorbitant 
rates,  and  then  secretly  sublet  the  contract  to 
some  company  or  contractor,  pocketing  them- 
selves the  enormous  difference.  "Jobs"  of 
this  kind,  especially  in  municipal  governments, 
have  at  times  in  America  been  almost  the 
rule.  (See  JOBS.)  Secondly,  it  being  the  in- 
terest of  the  contractor  not  only  to  get  a  high 
price  for  his  work,  but  having  gotten  a  high 
price,  to  perform  it  as  cheaply  as  possible, 
he  often  defrauds  the  public,  and  sometimes 
with  the  connivance  of  public  officials,  by  fur- 
nishing anything  but  the  specified  quality  of 
material  and  the  specified  quality  of  work. 


Contract  Labor. 


Contract  Labor. 


The  rotten  jobs  that  have  been  thus  put  upon 
the  people  disgrace  almost  all  American  cities, 
and  exist  wherever  the  contract  system  is  found. 
Thirdly,  it  being  the  interest  of  the  contractor 
to  pay  low  wages  to  his  men,  the  contract  sys- 
tem has  often  become  synonymous  with  the  em- 
ployment of  the  lowest  forms  of  imported  labor, 
to  the  exclusion  of  the  more  educated  workmen 
of  the  country.  Roads  are  built,  dwellings, 
etc. ,  put  up  in  America  by  contractors  who  em- 
ploy imported  Italian  and  Hungarian  labor, 
while  American  workmen  go  idle  for  lack  of 
employment.  This  not  unnaturally  has  greatly 
incensed  trade-unionists,  and  they  continually 
urge,  and  occasionally  succeed  in  compelling 
municipal  governments  to  give  the  preference 
to  workmen  resident  in  the  city  ;  but  more  and 
more  are  they  agitating  for  the  abolition  of  the 
whole  contract  system,  which  has  proved  itself 
fruitful  of  such  corruption,  and  is  built  often 
upon  the  low  wages  of  working  men.  They 
argue  that  it  is  the  first  duty  of  a  government 
to  be  just  to  its  own  citizens,  and  that  it  has  no 
right  to  leave  the  management  of  public  works 
to  irresponsible  contractors.  They  would  have 
government  employ  its  own  workmen  at  fair 
prices,  for  fair  hours,  and  avoid  the  costs  of 
paying  middlemen  and  contractors.  They  claim, 
too,  that  this  will  really  give  the  public  both 
better  and  cheaper  work.  They  do  not,  of 
course,  claim  that  all  corruption  will  disappear, 
but  that  work  conducted  by  public  officials  can 
be  more  easily  investigated  and  watched  than 
work  given  out  to  private  contractors.  Such 
are  the  general  arguments  on  both  sides.  We 
close  this  article  by  giving  a  statement  of  a  rep- 
resentative believer  in  the  contract  system  and  a 
representative  believer  in  the  public  doing  its 
own  work.  For  the  contract  system  the  Hon. 
Nathan  Matthews,  Jr.,  the  Mayor  of  Boston, 
said  in  his  valedictory  address,  January  5,  1895  : 

"  One  of  the  chief  difficulties  in  municipal  govern- 
ment under  democratic  institutions  is  the  treatment 
of  the  labor  problem  in  its  various  aspects.  The  rela- 
tions between  the  municipal  corporation  and  its  em- 
ployees engaged  in  manual  labor  are  everywhere  the 
cause  of  unceasing  agitation  and  discussion  ;  and  this 
is  particularly  the  case  in  Boston,  where  from  the 
earliest  times  a  larger  proportion  of  the  public  work 
has  been  done  by  day  labor  than  in  the  other  large 
cities  of  the  country.  The  collection  of  garbage,  at 
first  let  out  to  contractors,  was  intrusted  to  a  depart- 
ment of  the  city  government  to  be  handled  directly 
by  its  employees,  as  early  as  1824  ;  and  in  the  same  year 
a  street-cleaning  service  was  inaugurated  upon  the 
day-labor  plan.  The  lighting  of  the  public  lamps, 
which  prior  to  1868  had  been  done  by  the  gas  com- 
panies or  other  contractors,  was  at  various  times  be- 
tween that  year  and  1870  handed  over  to  the  lamp  de- 
partment, and  has  since  been  attended  to  by  the 
employees  of  that  department.  Work  upon  the  streets 
was  done  very  largely  by  day  labor  as  early  as  1850  ; 
sewers  have  been  built  by  day  labor  from  an  early 
period  ;  the  laying  of  pipes  for  our  waterworks  has 
almost  always  been  done  by  the  day ;  since  1865  the 
construction  of  the  great  basins  has  frequently  been 
attempted  by  day  labor  ;  and  a  large  part  of  the  work 
of  park  constructions  since  1882  has  been  done  by  the 
dav. 


vr|jiui*jii4     etuu      uimduia      \aiiiii_uii.      vu     OCV*UIG     &UXVUKU 

written  specifications,  by  day  labor  employed  directly 
by  the  city  departments,  and  to  let  all  works  of  large 
construction  out  by  contract. 

"The  day-labor  system,  even  if  excluded  entirely 
from  works  of  large  construction,  costs  the  city  very 
much  more  than  contract  work,  as,  owing  to  the 
higher  rate  of  wages  paid,  the  smaller  number  of 


hours,  and  the  large  number  of  holidays  and  half- 
holidays  without  loss  of  pay,  the  city  pays  about  60 
per  cent,  more  than  the  market  rate  of 
wages.*    A  further  loss  is  experienced 
through  the  necessity  of  furnishing,  so 
far  as  practicable,  permanent  employ-  Dsy  Labor. 
ment  throughout  the  year,  and  also  by 
the  continued  employment  of  men  who 
have  grown  old  in  the  service  of  the  city. 

"  On  the  other  hand,  a  good  deal  of  the  city's  work 
could  not  be  done  by  contract  without  constant  com- 
plaints from  the  citizens  that  it  was  not  properly  done. 
This  applies  to  the  collection  of  garbage,  the  cleaning 
of  streets,  the  lighting  of  lamps,  and  other  work  of 
the  sort,  the  proper  execution  of  which  is  in  the  nature 
of  things  a  matter  of  opinion,  and  therefore  incapable 
of  accurate  specification  in  a  written  contract.  In  the 
next  place,  work  in  the  nature  of  jobbing — of  which 
there  is  a  great  deal  in  the  street  department— prob- 
ably costs  no  more  under  this  system  than  if  let  out 
by  contract,  for  the  reason  that  the  profits  of  the  mid- 
dleman in  small  jobs  are  necessarily  large.  '.Then 
there  is  a  class  of  work  difficult  of  inspection,  such  as 
the  laying  of  water-pipes,  which  it  is  for  the  interest  of 
the  city  to  have  done  by  day  labor,  even  if  it  costs 
more,  in  order  that  the  city  authorities  maybe  certain 
that  it  is  well  done. 

"  Notwithstanding  all  that  can  be  said  against  the 
execution  of  public  works  by  day  labor,  I  am  satisfied 
that  it  is  on  the  whole  for  the  advantage  of  the  city 
that  work  of  the  character  mentioned  should  be  done 
in  this  way ;  and  as  to  the  high  rate  of  wages,  shorter 
hours  of  work,  and  other  privileges  which  swell 
the  cost,  it  may  be  said  that  the  wages  paid  to  the 
city  laborers  have  not  been  increased  since  1882  ;  t 
that  the  hours  of  labor  are  regulated  by  statute  ;  and 
that  if  the  city  is  to  employ  day  labor  at  all,  it  has 
been  found  practically  necessary  that  the  laborers 
should  receive  high  wages,  permanent  employment  so 
far  as  practicable,  and  generally  a  more  liberal  treat- 
ment than  in  private  work.  Whether  city  laborers 
work  as  faithfully  as  those  employed  by  contractors 
depends  on  circumstances,  principally  on  the  disci- 
pline of  the  department  and  the  energy  of  its  foremen. 

"  Passing  now  to  the  consideration  of  works  of  con- 
struction, we  find  wholly  different  conditions.  Here 
the  cost  of  the  day-labor  system  is  very  much  greater 
than  contract  work,  and  the  results  are  in  no  respect 
more  satisfactory. 

"  While  there  are  opportunities  for  collusion  and 
corruption  in  the  contract  system,  still  these  oppor- 
tunities can  be  and,  so  far  as  my  experience  goes,  are 
avoided  with  comparative  ease.  Contracts  for  work 
of  this  character  can  be  so  drawn  as  to  permit  of  ac- 
curate inspection,  and  with  upright  and  watchful 
heads  of  departments  there  is  no  reason  why  public 
•work  of  this  sort  cannot  be  carried  on  fully  as  cheaply 
and  quickly  as  private  work. 

"  I  have  been  at  some  pains  to  secure  accurate  com- 
parisons of  the  cost  of  works  of  large  construction 
done  by  day  labor  and  by  contract,  and  the  following 
instances  are  given  by  way  of  illustration :  At  Lake 
Cochituate,  in  1887,  about  50,000  cubic  feet  of  shallow 
flowage  work  was  done  by  day  labor,  at  a  cost  of 
$28,837.16;  while  the  following  year  about  57,000  cubic 
yards  of  similar  work  was  done  by  contract  for  $16,- 
202.25.  Stripping  54,000  cubic  yards  of  loam  from  the 
bottom  of  Basin  6  cost  by  day  labor  71  cents  per  cubic 
yard ;  while  the  average  of  five  sections  let  out  by 
contract,  involving  the  removal  of  about  400,000  cubic 
yards,  cost  about  40^  cents  a  cubic  yard.  Rubble 
masonry  was  built  on  Basin  6  by  day  labor  at  a  cost 
of  $12.50  per  cubic  yard,  and  by  contract  for  $7.50  per 
cubic  yard.  The  work  on  Basin  No.  5  (that  now  under 
construction,  estimated  to  cost  $2,500,000  for  land  and 
construction)  is  being  done  by  contract  ;  while  the 
greater  part  of  the  work  at  Basin  No.  6  was  done  by 
day  labor  ;  and  the  following  table  shows  a  compari- 
son of  the  results  obtained  ;J 


*  The  cost  in  the  street  department  alone  of  holi- 
days and  half -holidays  amounts  to  nearly  $75,000  per 
annum.  A  city  laborer  (unskilled)  receives  about  24 
cents  per  hour  of  actual  work,  while  the  contractors 
pay  about  15  cents. 

t  When  they  were  fixed  by  vote  of  the  city  council 
at  not  less  than  $2  per  day. 

t  The  city  engineer,  from  whom  these  figures  are 
obtained,  makes  the  following  explanation  : 

In  the  item  of  496,007  cubic  yards  of  stripping  is  in- 
cluded one  section  of  00,810  cubic  yards,  which  was 
very  difficult.  Excluding  that  section,  the  average 
cost  of  stripping  405,197  cubic  yards  was  35^4  cents  per 


Contract  Labor. 


Contract  Labor. 


- 

DAM 

No.  5. 

DAM 

NO.  6. 

Contract. 

Contract. 

City. 

Stripping  of  basin  and 

Sodding  embankment.. 

0.28 

6.61 

Plastering  Portland  ce- 

Delivering    gravel    on 
embankment  

0.206  (est.) 

Spreading  and  rolling.. 
Stripping  496,207   cubic 
yards  

0.119  (est.) 

0.226 

Stripping   110,232  cubic 
yards. 

"  The  plan  now  being  pressed  by  certain  labor  or- 
ganizations (not  composed  of  city  employees)  for  the 
construction  of  public  buildings  by  day  labor  em- 
ployed directly  by  the  city  is  too  preposterous  for  dis- 
cussion. The  city  has  no  opportunity  to  give  constant 
employment  to  the  skilled  labor  required  in  building 
operations,  and  would,  therefore,  be  unable  to  secure 
the  best  workmen  ;  it  has  no  plant ;  the  administration 
of  such  work  would  greatly  enlarge  the  scope  of  polit- 
ical patronage ;  the  cost  may  be  safely  set  down  as 
two  or  three  times  that  of  the  present  system  ;  and  all 
the  advantages  to  be  gained  from  competition  under 
our  present  admirable  contract  law  would  be  lost. 

"  Between  the'demands  of  the  taxpayer  for  the  ex- 
ecution of  all  public  works  by  contract,  and  the  de- 
mands of  the  labor  organizations  that  all  public  works 
should  be  done  by  the  day,  I  believe  that  the  safe, 
reasonable,  and  prudent  course  to  follow  in  the  public 
interest  is  the  system  now  and  for  some  time  past  in 
operation.  According  to  this,  all  work  of  large  con- 
struction is  done  by  contract,  through  competition, 
except,  perhaps,  in  certain  special  cases  of  peculiar 
difficulty ;  while  jobbing,  maintenance,  repairs,  and  • 
other  work  of  the  kind,  including  all  that  cannot  be 
accurately  specified  and  inspected,  is  done  by  day 
labor  employed  directly  by  the  city  departments  upon 
liberal  terms,  in  respect  to  wages,  hours,  holidays, 
and  length  of  employment." 

i  To  this  it  may  be  said  that  even  if  contract 
labor  be  cheaper,  it  is  at  least  questionable  if  a 
city  should  seek  cheapness  by  importing  or  en- 
couraging the  importation  of  cheap,  ignorant 
laborers,  who  are  often  a  danger  and  a" burden 
to  the  community,  and  who  prevent  its  own 
citizens  from  earning  a  fair  living  ;  but  it  is 
even  argued  that  experience  shows  that  con- 
tract labor  is  not  cheaper.  Mr.  Sydney  Webb, 
in  a  paper  read  before  the  Economic  Section  of 
the  British  Association  for  the  Advancement  of 
Science  in  1894,  relates  the  experience  of  the 
London  Council.  He  says  : 

"  We  come  to  an  altogether  different  range  of  criti- 
cism when  we  consider  the  council's  determination  to 
dispense,  wherever  possible,  with  the  contractor,  and 
execute  its  works  by  engaging  a  staff  of  workmen 
under  the  supervision  ot  its  own  salaried  officers. 

cubic  yard.  The  city  work  necessarily  costs  more 
than  that  done  by  contract  for  the  reason  that  the  city 
pays  in  the  country  $2  for  nine  hours'  work,  gives 
one  half-day  per  week  during  four  months,  all  holi- 
days, and  two  days  for  voting.  The  men  work  from 
eight  to  nine  months  per  year.  This  makes  the  price 
paid  for  one  hour  of  actual  work  about  24  cents,  while 
the  contractor  pays  in  ordinary  years,  in  the  country, 
13  cents  per  hour. 

The  division  of  cost  of  building  the  dams  is  about 
as  follows :  Labor,  67  per  cent. ;  teaming,  13  per  cent.  ; 
tools,  etc.,  20  per  cent. ;  and  on  this  basis  the  city  must 
pay  1.42  times  as  much  as  the  contractor  for  the  same 
effort.  For  stripping,  the  division  of  cost  would  be 
for  labor,  75  per  cent. ;  teaming,  20  per  cent. ;  tools, 
etc.,  5  per  cent. ;  and  the  city  must  pay  1.49  times  as 
much  as  the  contractor. 


KesuItS. 


This  has  been  fiercely  attacked  as  being  palpably  and 
obviously  opposed  to  political  economy  and  business 
experience.  It  is  worth  while  to  place  on  record  the 
facts.  The  first  case  is  that  of  watering  and  cleaning 
the  bridges  over  the  Thames,  a  service  which  the 
Metropolitan  Board  of  Works  let  out  to  a  contractor. 
The  new  council  perversely  went  into  calculations 
which  led  the  members  to  believe  that  the  contractor 
was  making  a  very  good  thing  out  of  the  job,  and 
finally  to  decide  upon  engaging  labor  direct.  There 
have  now  been  over  three  years  experience  of  the  new 
system,  with  the  result  that,  whereas  the  contractor 
charged  +s.  ^/zd.  to  *,s.  io%d.  per  square  yard,  the  work 
is  now  done  at  an  average  cost  of  33.  zd.  a  square  yard, 
everything  included. 

"  In  July,  1892,  it  was  necessary  to  do  the  annual 
cleaning  and  repairing  of  the  council's  offices.  The 
architect's  estimate  for  the  work  as  executed  was  ^740. 
Instead  of  giving  this  work  to  a  contractor,  the  archi- 
tect was  asked  to  engage  a  foreman  and  artisans,  and 
have  it  done  under  his  own  supervision.  The  result  of 
the  experiment  was  that  the  total  cost  was  .£686,  an  ap- 
parent saving  of  .£54. 

"This,  however,  was  merely  a  matter  of  hiring  labor, 
no  constructive  work  being  involved.  It  is  interesting 
to  trace  the  stages  by  •which  the  council  was  driven, 
by  force  of  circumstances,  to  its  present  position  of 
builder.  The  first  piece  of  actual  building  executed 
by  the  council  •was  a  schoolhouse  at  Crossness.  The 
architect's  estimate  was  ^1800,  and  tenders  were  in- 
vited in  due  course.  The  lowest  tender 

g  roved  to  he  .£2300.  After  considerable 
esitation  the  Main  Drainage  Committee 
resolved  to  try  to  save  this  large  ex- 
cess  over  the  estimate,  and  set  to  work 
to  do  the  job  under  its  own  officers. 
Certain  items  which  had  been  put  down 
at  ;£ii2  were  omitted,  reducing  the  estimate  to  ^1688", 
and  the  lowest  tender  to  .£2188.  The  actual  cost  proved 
to  be  .£1652  only,  a  saving  of  .£536.  But  the  case  which 
finally  convinced  three  out  of  every  four  members  of 
the  council  of  the  desirability  of  executing  their  own 
works  was  the  York  Road  sewer.  The  engineer 
estimated  the  cost  at  .£7000,  and  tenders  were  in- 
vited in  the  usual  manner.  Only  two  were  sent  in,  one 
for  .£11,588,  and  the  other  for  j£n,6o8.  The  council  de- 
termined to  do  the  work  itself,  with  the  result  that  a 
net  saving  of  .£4477  was  made. 

"  This  remarkable  result  naturally  created  a  sensation 
among  the  contracting  world,  and  attempts  were 
made  to  impugn  the  engineer's  figures.  In  his  crush- 
ing reply  he  pointed  out  that  the  contractors  had  reck- 
oned out  their  tenders  at  absurdly  high  prices  in  near- 
ly every  detail,  charging,  for  instance,  60^.  and  -jos.  per 
cubic  yard  for  brickwork  and  cement,  whereas  the 
work  was  done  at  ws.  It  is  clear  from  the  particulars 
given,  and  from  facts  notorious  at  the  time,  that  an 
agreement  had  been  come  to  by  the  contractors  not  to 
compete  with  one  another  for  this  job,  in  order  to  in- 
duce the  council  to  abandon  its  fair  wages  clause.  The 
council  preferred  to  abandon  the  contractor. 

"  The  outcome  was  the  establishment,  in  the  spring  of 
1893,  of  a  Works  Committee,  to  execute  works  required 
by  the  other  committees  in  precisely  the  same  manner 
as  a  contractor.  The  Works  Committee  has  an  entirely 
distinct  staff,  and  keeps  its  own  separate  accounts.  The 
committee  requiring  any  work  prepares  its  own  esti- 
mate, as  if  tenders  •were  going  to  be  invited,  and  the 
Works  Committee  is  asked  whether  it  is  prepared  to 
tindertake  the  work  upon  that  estimate.  Up  to  the 
present  date  16  separate  works,  varying  in  amount 
from  .£100  to  .£4094,  have  been  completed,  and  the  ac- 
counts settled  and  checked  by  the  comptroller.  The 
result  shows  an  aggregate  net  saving  of  .£2420,  or  over 
8  per  cent. 

"  Now,  it  is  obvious  that,  incomplete  as  statistics  nec- 
essarily are,  and  difficult  as  it  must  always  be  to  de- 
cide a  question  of  policy  upon  mere  statistical  results, 
the  figures,  as  far  as  they  go,  afford  no  assistance  to 
those  who  denounce  the  council's  action,  and  are  dis- 
tinctly encouraging  to  its  progressive  members.  No 
sound  induction  on  such  a  matter  can,  however,  be 
made  upon  mere  statements  of  profit  and  loss,  extend- 
ing, too,  over  a  very  brief  period. 

"  When  we  thus  find  even  the  count}'  councils  in  rural 
districts  giving  up  the  contractor,  it  ceases  to  be  sur- 
prising that  the  town  council  of  Manchester,  in  the  city 
of  Cobden  and  Bright,  now  manufactures  its  own  bass- 
brooms,  or  even  that  the  ultra-conservative  com- 
missioners of  sewers  of  the  city  of  London  actually  set 
the  county  council  an  example  by  manufacturing  their 
own  carts.  The  superiority  of  direct  municipal  em- 
ployment, under  salaried  supervision,  to  the  system  of 
letting  out  works  to  contractors  has,  in  fact,  be'en  slow- 


Contract  Labor. 


Convict  Labor. 


ly  borne  in  on  the  best  municipal  authorities  all  over 
the  country  by  their  own  administrative  experience, 
quite  irrespective  of  social  or  political  theories." 

Comparing  the  present  cooperative  system  in  New 
Zealand  with  the  former  contract  system,  the  Under 
Secretary  for  Public  Works  in  that  colony  says : 
"  The  contract  system  had  many  disadvantages.  It 
gave  rise  to  a  class  of  middlemen,  in  the  shape  of 
contractors,  who  often  made  large  profits  out  of  their 
undertakings.  Under  this  cooperative  system  works 
are  carried  out  for  their  actual  value — no  more  and  no 
less.  .  .  .  Work  also  is  better  done  under  the  coop- 
erative than  under  the  contract  system."  See  NEW 
ZEALAND  AND  SOCIAL  REFORM. 


CONVICT  LABOR.— It  is  now  almost  uni- 
versally conceded  that  convicts  of  all  kinds 
should  as  a  rule  be  made  to  work  at  some  use- 
ful form  of  labor  during  their  imprisonment  (see 
PENOLOGY)  ;  but  the  important  problem  arises 
how  convicts  may  be  employed  at  useful  work 
without  diminishing  the  demand  for  the  labor 
of  honest  workmen  outside  of  penal  institutions. 
The  manufacture  of  commodities  by  the  en- 
forced labor  of  convicts,  who  are  paid  nothing, 
enables  prison  authorities,  if  they  are  allowed 
to  do  so,  to  sell  these  commodities  at  prices  with 
which  firms  employing  paid  laborers  cannot  pos- 
sibly compete,  and  so  tends  to  lower  the  wages 
of  honest  laborers  by  taking  the  market  from 
the  employing  firms.  Naturally  this  condition 
of  things  is  bitterly  resented  by  labor  organiza- 
tions, who  see  their  livelihood  taken  from  them. 
That  it  is  not  an  unreasonable  feeling  will  be 
seen  by  the  facts  stated  in  this  article.  That  it 
is  not  a  small  matter  can  be  seen  by  the  num- 
ber of  convicts  in  the  United  States.  In  1886 
there  were  no  less  than  45,277  convicts  in  the 
United  States  engaged  in  productive  labor  (Sec- 
ond Annual  Report  of  the  Commissioner  of 
Labor,  p.  51).  Between  1880  and  1890  our 
prison  population  had  increased  45  per  cent. 
(Statistics  of  the  Tenth  Census  and  Bulle- 
tin 71,  72,  and  95  of  the  Eleventh  Census.) 
Yet  the  community,  in  its  desire  to  reduce  taxes, 
by  making  the  convicts  support  themselves,  and 
also  to  benefit  the  convicts  themselves  by  teach- 
ing them  a  trade,  has  repeatedly  allowed  convict 
labor  to  thus  injure  honest  labor.  Even  when 
the  produce  of  convict  labor  is  not  sold  in  com- 
petition with  the  product  of  honest  labor,  but 
simply  made  to  produce  the  necessities  of  the 
prisoners  themselves — i.e.,  making  their  own 
clothing,  prison  buildings,  etc. ,  it  still  makes  the 
convict  do  work  which,  if  not  done  by  convicts, 
would  have  to  be  given  to  outside  labor,  and  so 
increase  the  demand  for  their  labor,  and  thus 
tend  to  raise  their  wages.  On  the  other  hand, 
to  keep  convicts  in  idleness  is  physically  in- 
human to  the  convicts  and  not  for  the  good  of 


the  community,  since  a  convict  trained  to  idle- 
ness, when  he  is  discharged  is  almost  the  worst 
foe  a  community  can  have.  The  results  of  train- 
ing convicts  to  work,  as  is  done  at  Elmira  (q.v.\ 
are  so  markedly  beneficial,  that  it  would  seem 
criminal  to  prevent  such  results.  Nor  is  the 
problem  to  be  solved  by  teaching  the  convicts  to 
labor  at  useless  tasks  or  in  producing  commodi- 
ties which  are  to  be  destroyed.  This  is  a  waste 
of  labor  that  no  wise  economy  can  seriously  ad- 
vocate. The  problem,  therefore,  becomes  very 
intricate,  and  is  the  only  problem  we  shall  con- 
sider under  this  head.  For  the  different  ways 
in  which,  for  the  convict's  own  good  or  reforma- 
tion, it  is  wise  to  have  them  labor,  see  PENOL- 
OGY ;  ELMIRA  REFORMATORY,  etc. 
We  ask  here  simply  how  can  con- 
victs be  made  to  labor  without  The 
affecting  the  interests  of  honest  Problem. 
laborers.  It  is,  of  course,  to  be  re-  Stated, 
membered  that  this  problem  only 
arises  under  a  system  of  society 
where  men  can  only  get  a  living  by  doing  all 
the  work  they  can  get.  No  man  cares  to  work 
at  long  hours  of  hard  labor  for  the  sake  of  work- 
ing. The  modern  laborer  only  looks  upon  work 
as  a  privilege,  because  it  is  his  only  way  of  living. 
Under  a  socialistic  system,  when  all  production 
was  for  the  community,  to  be  divided  in  some 
way  equitably  among  the  citizens,  the  more  that 
was  produced  the  more  each  citizen  would  get, 
and  the  honest  laborer,  therefore,  would  be  de- 
lighted to  have  the  convict  work  for  him.  The 
convict  labor  problem,  therefore,  belongs  solely 
to  the  wage  system.  Under  this  system,  how- 
ever, it  is  a  difficult  one.  Undoubtedly  the  gen- 
eral solution  of  it  lies  in  setting  the  convict  to 
produce  that  which,  if  he  did  not,  would  not  be 
produced  ;  but  how  to  reach  this  end  is  the  ques- 
tion. The  problem  is  of  such  importance  and 
of  such  difficulty  that  Congress  in  1886  directed 
the  United  States  Commissioner  of  Labor  to  es- 
pecially investigate  and  report  upon  the  prob- 
lem. It  is  this  report  that  we  condense  here, 
considering  : 

I.  The  extent  to  which  convict  labor   com- 
petes with  honest  labor. 

II.  The    best    way    of    employing    convicts 
without  injuring  the  interests  of  outside   labor. 

The  report  {Second  Annual  Report  of  t/ie 
Commissioner  of  Labor,  p.  51)  gives  for  three 
classes  of  penal  institutions — viz.,  institutions 
of  severe  penalties,  of  moderate  penalties,  and 
institutions  mainly  reformatory — the  following 
summary  of  convicts  engaged  in  productive 
work  at  the  close  of  the  year  1886  in  the  United 
States  : 


CLASS. 

EMPLOYED  IN  PRODUCTIVE 
LABOR. 

Engaged  in 
Prison 
Duties. 

Idle  and. 
Sick. 

Aggre- 
gate. 

Male. 

Female. 

Total. 

I  .. 

32,625 

5,4°7 

41767 

1,036 
452 
990 

33,661 
5,859 
5,757 

8,146 
3,205 

3,749 

2,705 
775 
402 

44,5" 
9,839 
9,99s 

II  

Ill  

Total  

42,799 

2,478 

45,277 

15,100 

3,972 

64,349 

Convict  Labor. 


352 


Convict  Labor. 


The  following  shows  the  industries  in  which  con- 
victs were  employed  and  the  amount  of  free  labor  dis- 
placed : 


INDUSTRIES. 

Con- 
victs. 

Free 
Laborers 
Re- 
quired 
for  the 
Same 
Work. 

Approxi- 
mate or 
True 
Value  of 
Goods 
Made  or 
Work 
Done. 

Agricultural  implements 

651 
667 

529 
528 

$664,090 
834,963 

c,^78 

Brick           ....         

861 

286,787 

Brooms,  brushes,  etc  

2,123 

i,545 
163 

834,955 
95,497 

Carriages  and  wagons.  .  . 
Clothing           

1,376 

i,i55 

1,989,790 
2,199,634 

Farming,  gardening,  etc. 

3,569 

3,8i7 
2,435 

762,313 
1,280,006 

Harnesses  and  saddlery.. 

i,4S5 

i,°33 

1.374,404 
1,159,097 

228 

252 

63,890 

Mining  

3,228 

1,696,075 

1,088 

1,046,779 

Public  works  

611 

631 

242,547 

Stone                       .... 

4,876 

Stoves,  hollow  ware,  etc. 

1,845 
763 

1,277 
564 

1,254,125 

462,499 

368 

338,431 

1,150 

752,631 

Total                      

28,753,999 

The  report  says  of  these  tables  : 

"  By  this  summary  it  is  seen  that  the  total  value  of 
goods  made  and  work  done  by  productive  labor  in  the 
penal  institutions  of  the  whole  country  is  $28,753,999.13. 
It  took  45,277  convicts  one  year  to  produce  this  total 
value.  It  would  have  taken  35,534  free  laborers  to 
have  produced  the  same  quantity  of  goods  in  the  same 
time  j  or,  in  other  words,  a  free  laborer  is  equal  to  1.27 
convict,  or,  to  reverse  the  statement,  one  convict  is 
equal  to  .78  of  a  free  laborer. 

1'The  State  producing  the  largest  amount  of  convict- 
made  goods  is  New  York,  the  value  there  being  $6,236,- 
f 20.98.    The  next  State  in  rank  is  Illinois,  producing 
3,284,267.50   worth   of   convict-made    goods.     Indiana 
comes  next,  with  a  product  of  the  value  of  $1,570,901.37  ; 
while  Ohio  stands  next  in  line,  with  a  product  of  the 
value  of  $1,368,122.51  ;  then  Missouri,  $1,342,020.07  ;  then 
Pennsylvania,  $1,317,265.85.    Kansas  ranks  next,  with  a 
product    worth    $1,270,575.77.    Tennessee  comes   after 
Kansas,  with  only  $1,142,000;   then  Michigan,  $1,087,- 
735.62,  and,  last  of  the  States  producing  over  $1,000,000 
worth,   New  Jersey,  $1,019,608.32.    Each  of  the  other 
States  and  Territories  drops  below  the  million-dollar 
point,  Dakota  coming  at  the  bottom  of  the  list,  with 
a  product  of  $11,577.36.    It  is  interesting  to  examine 
these  values  by  industries.    Boots   and    shoes    lead, 
the  product  being  $10,100,279.61,  or  35.13  per  cent,  of  the 
whole  product  of  the  penal  institutions 
of  the  country,   $28,753,999.13;  the  next 
Convict-made  largest  item  being  the  manufacture  of 
p      j  clothing,  which  is  $2, 199,634. 25,  while  car- 

uuuua.        riages  and  wagons  are  manufactured  to 
the  value  of  $1,989,790.     In  all  other  in- 
dustries the  product  is  less  than  $2,000,- 
ooo,  the  smallest  being  lumber,  to  the  value  of  $63,890. 
These  values  are  for  the  year  covered  by  the  investiga- 
tion. 

"In  regard  to  the  competition  with  the  industries 
of  the  whole  country,  a  few  figures  will  suffice  :  The 
total  manufactured  products  of  the  United  States,  ac- 
•cording  to  the  tenth  census,  amounted  to  $5,369,579,191. 
The  total  product  of  all  the  penal  institutions  for  the 
year  covered  by  this  investigation  amounted  to  $28,- 
753,999,  which  is  •$%  of  i  per  cent,  of  the  value  of  the 
total  products  of  the  industries  of  the  country.  To 
produce  the  products  of  the  industries  of  the  whole 
country  in  1880,  there  were  paid  in  wages  $947,953,795, 
or  $i  in  wages  to  $5.66  in  product.  The  wages  paid  by 
contractors  and  lessees  to  States  and  counties  for  the 
labor  of  convicts,  from  which  resulted  a  product^af  the 
value  of  $28,753,993,  was  $3,512,970,  or  $i  in  convict  labor 
-wages  to  $8.19  of  product  of  convict  labor." 


In  its  final  summary  from  these  facts  the  report  says 
(p.  372) : 

"It  is  perfectly  evident,  from  information  drawn 
from  the  tables,  that  the  competition  arising  from  the 
employment  of  convicts,  so  far  as  the  whole  country  is 
concerned,  would  not  of  itself  constitute  a  question 
worthy  of  serious  discussion.  The  product  of  the 
prisons  is  but  £,*„  of  i  per  cent,  of  the  total  mechanical 
products  of  the  country.  The  whole  prison  population 
of  those  institutions  in  which  productive  labor  is  car- 
ried on  is  but  i  in  1000  of  the  population  of  the 
country,  and  those  engaged  in  convict  productive 
labor  but  i  in  300  of  those  engaged  in  free  mechani- 
cal labor.  These  facts,  however,  do  not  invalidate  the 
claim  that  locally  and  m  certain  industries  the  compe- 
tition may  be  serious  and  of  such  proportions  as  to 
claim  the  most  earnest  attention  of  legislatures.  It  is 
firmly  established  by  all  the  testimony  adduced  in  this 
report  that  such  is  the  fact.  Working  men,  individu- 
ally, everywhere,  and  collectively  through  their  or- 
ganizations; manufacturers,  individually,  and  collec- 
tively through  association  ;  penologists,  commission- 
ers, and  legislators,  both  State  and  Federal,  have  ar- 
rived at  this  conclusion." 

Concerning  the  different  ways  in  which  convicts  are 
employed  in  production  and  the  way  in  which  they 
should  be  employed,  so  as  not  to  compete  with  honest 
labor,  it  must  be  remembered  that  there  are  in  the 
United  States  several  different  systems  of  convict 
labor  more  or  less  in  vogue.  There  is  (i)  the  contract 
system,  under  which  a  contractor  engages  to  employ  a 
certain  number  of  convicts  at  a  certain  price  per  day, 
the  convicts  to  be  employed  as  a  general  thing  within 
the  prison  walls,  the  State  usually  furnishing  power 
and  machinery.  This  system  was  (in  1886)  the  most 
prevalent.  (2)  The  piece-price  system.  Under  this 
system  the  contractor  has  nothing  to 
do  with  the  convicts ;  he  simply  fur- 
nishes the  prison  officers  with  material, 
and  the  officers  return  the  completed 
work  made  by  the  convicts,  and  the 
Government  receives  a  fixed  price  for 
the  work.  (3)  The  public  account  sys- 
tem, according  to  which  the  prisoners  produce  under 
State  management,  the  produce  is  sold,  and  all  the 
profits  go  to  the  State  for  the  general  good  of  the  com- 
munity. (4)  The  lease  system,  whereby  the  State  leases 
its  convicts  to  a  lessee  or  contractor  for  a  round  sum, 
the  lessee  taking  the  convicts,  managing  them,  guard- 
ing them,  and  working  them  for  a  profit.  The  number 
of  convicts  employed  under  these  various  systems  in 
1886  and  the  value  of  the  goods  they  produced  were  as 
follows : 


Various 
Systems. 


SYSTEM. 

Con- 
victs. 

Free 
Laborers 
Re- 
placed. 

Value. 

Public  account  system. 
Contract  system  
Piece-price  system  

14,827 

15,67° 
5,676 

io>57i 
",443 
3,986 

$4,086,637.87 
18,096,245.74 
2,379,180.52 
4,191,935.00 

Total  .  .  . 

4^,277 

i<;,si4 

$28,753,999.11 

We  now  come  to  the  definite  question  how 
convicts  can  be  best  employed  with  the  least 
minimum  ot  injury  to  outside  labor.  On  this 
the  report  says  in  substance,  first,  that  in  some 
way  the  convict  must  be  made  to  labor.  To 
abolish  convict  labor  would  either  make  the  con- 
victs insane,  or  if  they  escaped  this  fate,  have 
them  go  from  the  prison  more  demoralized  and 
vicious  than  ever,  to  demoralize  and  render 
vicious  those  with  whom  they  came  in  contact. 
(See  PENOLOGY.)  The  report  then  considers  vari- 
ous propositions  that  have  been  made  for  meet- 
ing the  difficulty. 

i.  The  establishment  of  a  penal  colony.  This, 
says  the  report,  "is  often  advocated  as  an  effective 
plan  for  removing  criminals  from  society,  and  for  sup- 
porting them  in  such  a  way  that  no  competition  what- 
ever could  arise  from  their  being  employed  in  pro- 
ductive labor.  The  suggestion  is  predicated  upon  a 


Convict  Labor. 


353 


Convict  Labor. 


constitutional  amendment,  to  be  adopted,  of  course,  by 
the  States,  giving  to  the  Federal  Congress  power  to 
regulate  police  matters.     This  sugges- 
tion, therefore,  cannot  be  entertained  as 
Penal         a  practical  plan,  for  it  is  not  reasonable 
p  ,      •  to  suppose  that  the  separate  States  of 

UMMMM  tne  ymon  w;il  take  the  course  necessary 
for  its  adoption,  and  the  States  as  in- 
dividuals cannot  adopt  any  such  plan, 
because  of  the  small  proportions  of  the  prison  pop- 
ulation of  each  State.  The  penal  colony  plan  has 
been  abandoned  by  some  nations  that  had  adopted  it. 
(See  PENOLOGY,  section  England.)  Moreover,  it  is 
not  reasonable  to  suppose  that  the  moral  sentiment  of 
the  nation  will  ever  permit  the  herding  of  criminals  in 
any  section  of  the  land,  whether  in  Alaska  or  on  any 
of  the  islands  within  the  jurisdiction  of  the  United 
States ;  for  the  establishment  of  a  penal  colony  would 
entail  upon  a  single  community  all  the  evil  results  now 
seen  to  accrue  from  hereditary  taint.  Neither  the 
prison  reformer  nor  the  producer,  whether  employer 
or  employed,  can  afford  to  increase  the  opportunities 
for  perpetuating  the  criminal  classes. 

"  2.  The  employment  of  prisoners  upon  public  works 
and  ways. — The  adoption  of  this  plan  would  not  avoid 
competition  in  labor,  but  it  would  completely  remove 
any  real  or  supposed  competition  in  prices — that  is,  it 
would  not  affect  the  products  of  manufactures. 

"This  proposition  is  warmly  advocated  both  by  manu- 
facturers and  by  working  men.     It  is  plausible  and 
somewhat  seductive.  It  removes  the  actual  competition 
from  one  realm  to  another.     By  indus- 
trial labor  in  the  prisons  the  contractor 
Public        competes  with  products  of    industries 
Works         m  Prjce  anc*  sale.    The    manufacturer 
•        has  his  goods  to  sell,  and  his  operatives 
their  labor ;    and  both  desire    to    keep 
prices  up.     In  transferring  prison  labor 
to  public  works,  the  State  would  not  compete  with  the 
price  of  artisans'  or  laborers'  work,  but  with  the  work 
itself.     The  brick  and  stone-masons,  the  carpenters 
and  painters,  the  hodcarriers  and  tenders,  would  not 
find  the  price  of  their  labor  affected  to  any  material 
extent,  but  would  find  the  market  for  that  labor  oc- 
cupied to  the  extent  of  the  works  in  process  of  con- 
struction. 

"  It  has  been  suggested  that  the  State  might  engage 
in  some  work  that  would  not  be  performed  unless  by 
convicts,  such  as  macadamizing  the  roads  of  the  whole 
State.  This  would  necessitate  one  of  two  things — 
either  the  preparation  of  stone  at  the  prisons,  involv- 
ing the  transportation  to  the  prison  from  the  source  of 
supply  and  from  the  prison  to  the  place  for  use,  or  the 
mobilization  of  the  convicts  at  the  points  not  only  of 
supply,  but  of  consumption,  involving  a  heavy  ex- 
pense for  guard  duty  and  confinement. 

Such  work  would  be  costly  work  to  the  State.  This 
is,  perhaps,  of  no  particular  consequence,  as  the  con- 
victs must  be  supported  in  some  way,  but  at  best  the 
plan  offers  a  mere  palliative,  shifting  the  burden  from 
skilled  to  unskilled  labor,  and  would  result  in  aggra- 
vating many  of  the  evils  which  grow  out  of  the  em- 
ployment of  convicts.  It  would  seem  fairer  to  distrib- 
ute the  work  of  the  convicts  among  different  trades 
than  to  concentrate  all  their  work  upon  public  improve- 
ments, and  thus  compete  mainly  with  one  form  of 
labor  alone. 

"  3.  The  employment  of  comricts  in  manufacturing 
goods  for  Government. — If  our  State  governments  sup- 
ported large  bodies  of  troops  and  the  Federal  Govern- 
ment had  a  large  standing  army  the  plan  might  have 
some  force  in  it,  altho  in  some  European  countries, 
where  the  consumption  of  goods  of  the  coarser  grades, 
such  as  shoes  and  army  clothing,  camp  equipage,  har- 
nesses, etc.,  is  very  large,  the  plan  has  not  been  made  to 
work  very  successfully,  on  account  of  the  objections  of 
army  officers  to  the  manufacture  in  prisons  of  the 
goods  they  require  for  the  equipment  of  their  forces, 
the  objections  arising,  not  only  on  account  of  the 
quality  and  make  of  the  goods,  but  on  account  of  the 
impracticability  of  massing  "a  force  in  any  way  so  as 
to  supply  goods  upon  emergencies.  The  experience  of 
these  countries,  however,  is  worth  but  little  in  the 
United  States,  for  the  same  conditions  do  not  exist. 
If  each  State  should  supply  all  its  wants,  so  far  as  the 
kinds  of  goods  that  are  usually  made  in  prisons  are 
concerned,  the  result  would  be  the  employment  of  but 
a  very  small  fraction  of  the  convicts  of  the  State.  In 
Illinois  this  amount  of  employment  could  have  been 
utilized  last  year  to  the  extent  of  less  than  $50,000,  and 
this  is  a  fair  specimen  of  the  demands  of  other  States. 
It  is  urged,  however,  that  the  United  States  Govern- 
ment requires  supplies  sufficient  to  warrant  the  con- 
stant, or  nearly  constant,  employment  of  the  convicts 


I 


Goods 
Stamped. 


of  the  different  States  under  contracts  which  might  be 
made  by  the  heads  of  departments  requiring  the 
goods.  An  examination  of  these  wants  shows  that  the 
entire  expenditures  of  all  the  executive  dapartments 
of  the  United  States  Government  for  furniture,  cloth- 
ing, mail-bags,  harnesses,  wagons,  infantry,  cavalry, 
and  artillery  equipments,  clothing  for  the  Indian  ser- 
vice, etc.,  and  for  such  other  things  as  are  now  made 
in  the  different  prisons  of  the  various  States,  for  the 
fiscal  year  ending  June  30,  1886,  amounted  to  a  sum  little 
less  than  $4,000,000,  while  the  total  product  of  the 
prisons  of  the  country  amounted  for  that  year  sub- 
stantially to  $29,000,000.  This  answers  the  suggestion 
completely.  If  it  could  be  adopted,  however,  com- 
petition in  the  wages  of  labor  and  in  the  price  of 
goods  would  be  avoided,  altho  the  individual  concerns 
now  manufacturing  the  goods  used  by  the  Govern- 
ment would  lose  that  much  trade,  which  would  also 
result  in  the  loss  of  so  much  labor." 
,,  4.  The  exportation  of  the  products  of  convict  labor  is 
sometimes  suggested  as  a  solution  of  the  whole  prob- 
lem. It  is  not  easy  to  see  how  the  exportation  of  the 
Products  of  the  prisons  of  the  country  can  be  made, 
jr  there  is  no  demand  for  such  products  at  all  pro- 
portioned to  the  need,  and  the  same  objection  may  be 
made  to  the  counter  proposition  to  prohibit  the  sale  of 
convict-made  goods  outside  of  the  State  in  which  they 
are  manufactured.  If  this  could  be  done  by  establish- 
ing custom  houses  on  the  borders  of  each  State  (an 
impossible  and  undesirable  step) ,  there  would  be  no 
such  demand  for  prison-made  goods  as  would  prevent 
their  coming  into  direct  competition  with  outside 
labor.  It  would  thus  utterly  fail  of  solving  the  prob- 
lem how  to  avoid  competing  with  outside  labor. 

"  5.  Convict -made  goods  to  be  stamped  '•prison-made '  is 
a  suggestion  very  frequently  offered,  either  as  a  partial 
or  as  a  full  remedy  in  the  case.  In  the  majority  of  in- 
stances this  would  defeat  the'  very  ob- 
jects for  which  the  suggestion  is  prof- 
fered, for,  as  a  rule,  prison-made  goods  Convict-made 
do  not  sustain  the  character  for  quality 
and  faithfulness  of  manufacture  belong- 
ing to  the  products  of  free  labor,  and  if 
all  convict-made  goods  were  stamped  in 
accordance  with  the  suggestion,  the 
competition  in  prices  and  sales  would  simply  be  inten- 
sified. The  carrying  out  of  the  plan  would,  however, 
make  a  general  boycott  of  prison-made  goods  very- 
easy  of  accomplishment.  The  laws  of  some  States  al- 
ready compel  such  marking,  and  with  curious  results. 
In  one  State,  where  some  of  the  convicts  are  employed 
in  making  cigars,  the  boxes  are  stamped  '  Prison- 
made,'  or  whatever  the  law  demands  ;  but  over  this 
stamp  the  internal-revenue  stamp  of  the  United  States 
is  placed  ;  so,  while  the  law  of  the  State  is  complied 
with,  the  sale  of  the  goods  meets  with  no  interference 
by  the  law.  In  another  locality  a  certain  prison  has  a 
reputation  of  making  most  excellent  goods  in  a  certain 
line,  and  these  goods  stand  so  high  in  the  market  that 
outside  manufacturers  have  been  known  to  stamp  the 
products  of  their  free  shops  'Prison-made.'  This 
plan  would  only  result  in  a  palliation  of  some  forms 
of  the  difficulties  and  an  aggravation  of  others. 

"  6.   The  payment  of  wages  to  convicts. — Some  sincere 
friends  of  labor  suggest  that  State  governments  pay  to 
prisoners  for  their  labor  wages  equivalent  to  those  paid 
outside  labor  for  the  same  quantity  of 
work    performed   or  amount  of  goods 
produced,    and    then  sell  the  products    p,,.™,-,,*  ftf 
in  the  open  market,  charging  the  pris-    •r»ynuj 
oners  for  their  maintenance,  and  leaving       Wages. 
any  surplus  which   might  accrue  over 
such  charge  in  the  hands  of  the  pris- 
oners.   On  the   face   of  it  this  suggestion  is  exceed- 
ingly attractive  in  some  ways.    If  it  were  practicable, 
it  would  lead  the  prisoners  to  an  ambitious  discharge 
of  their  duties,  and  would  invest  the  product  with  a 
cost  for  labor  and  material  equal  to  goods  produced 
outside  prison  walls.     An  examination  of  the  facts  re- 
lating to  income  and  expenses,  however,  dissipates  the 
attractive  elements  of  such  a  plan,  and  reduces  it  to 
the  impracticable,  for,  under  the  most  favorable  cir- 
cumstances of  prison  labor,  as  exhibited  in  the  con- 
tract system,  the  average    income    from  such   labor 
pays  but  65  per  cent,  of  the  running  expenses  of  the 
prisons  of  the  country.    Of  course,  if  the  prisoners  were 

Eaid  wages  equivalent  to  those  paid  outside, the  income 
rom  labor  would  be  greater,  provided  the  goods  could 
be  sold.  The  result  financially,  however,  would  prob- 
ably be  that  the  State  would  pay  the  convicts  for  their 
labor  and  have  to  take  back  all  such  wages  for  main- 
tenance, and  draw  on  the  treasury  through  appropria- 
tions for  deficiencies.  This  becomes  significantly 
true  by  an  examination  of  the  table  on  income  and 


Convict  Labor. 


354 


Convict  Labor. 


expenses,  so  far  as  overtime  work  is  concerned.  Of 
course,  overtime  work  is  allowed  in  but  few  institu- 
tions, but  in  those  wherein  it  is  allowed  the  amount  is 
not  sufficient  to  create  much  hope  that  the  convicts 
could  earn  enough  with  safety  to  the  State  for  each 
man  to  pay  his  share  of  the  running  expenses  of  the 
institution  in  which  he  lived.  The  suggestion  is 
worthy,  however,  of  most  serious  consideration  and 
study.  It  is  apparently  new,  and  it  would  be  interest- 
ing to  have  some  institution  make  the  experiment." 

7.  The  reduction  of  hours  of  labor  in  prisons  is  a  sug- 
gestion often  made  as  one  calculated  to  reduce  the 
output  of  prisons,  and  thereby  the  amount  of  competi- 
tion from  the  sale  of  products  ;  but  while  this  might  be 
wise,  it  would  be  a  very  partial  remedy  of  the  difficul- 
ties complained  of,  since  outside  industries  are  moving 
toward  the  eight-hour  day. 

8.  Diversified  industries. — This  is  a  plan  prominent!  y 
presented,  and  would  meet  the  problem  by  scattering 
the  competition  over  as  many  trades  as  possible,  and 

therefore  reducing  the  evil  in  any  one 
trade   to  a    minimum.    One  difficulty, 

Diversified    }loweyeri  i?  tnat  great  diversity  of  labor 

wivi    s>meii    jn  prison  js  not  practicable,  except  by 

Industries,   the  possession  of  such  diversified  plant 
as   is    almost    impossible    in   ordinary 
prisons.     States  have  often  limited  by 
law  the  number  of  prisoners  to  be  employed  in  any 
one  industry  ;  but  even  a  small  number  in  any  indus- 
try may  lower  the  wages  in  that  industry.    Moreover, 
however  scattered,  the  total  number  of  persons  dis- 
placed by  prison  labor  may  be  the  same,  altho  not  so 
noticeable  as  when  concentrated  in  one  trade. 

"  9.  The  utilization  of  convicts  upon  farms. — This  plan 
would  cover,  if  adopted,  but  a  limited  field.  In  some 
of  the  great  farming  States,  and  in  the  South,  it  might 
be  practicable,  temporarily.  The  advantages  of  such 
a  plan  have  been  well  stated  by  Governor  Gordon,  of 
Georgia,  his  reasons  for  recommending  it  being  as  fol- 
lows : 

"It  would  at  once  eliminate  from  our  penitentiary 
system  the  serious  objections  to  the  old  plan  of  close 
confinement,  and  the  equally  grave  objections  to  the 
present  plan  of  leasing. 

"  It  would  confine  the  convicts  thus  employed  to  such 
labor  as  would  least  compete  with  the  honest  labor  of 
the  State. 

"It  would  place  the  State  in  direct  and  full  control  of 
its  prisoners. 

"  It  would  restore  to  the  State  the  full  power  to  en- 
force the  exact  punishment  imposed  by  the  courts. 

"  It  would  place  upon  the  State  the  just  responsibility 
for  guarding  the  health  of  the  convicts,  and  would  con- 
fine them  to  the  most  healthful  employments. 

"  It  would  enable  the  State  to  separate  them  at  all 
times  according  to  classes,  conditions,  sexes,  and  fitness 
for  different  kinds  of  labor,  and  to  institute  methods 
for  reformation  with  greater  promise  of  success. 

"  It  would  make  such  portion  of  the  penitentiary  at 
least  self-sustaining,  I  think,  and,  with  proper  manage- 
ment, might  cause  it  to  yield  a  larger  net  revenue,  per 
capita,  than  that  now  derived  from  leasing. 

The  adoption  of  this  plan  would  in  a  very  few  years 
arouse  the  farming  population  of  the  country,  and  the 
opposition  to  convict  farm  labor  would  be  greater  than 
any  which  now  exists  against  the  employment  of  con- 
victs in  mechanical  pursuits ;  but  as  a  temporary  mat- 
ter, and  in  some  favorable  localities,  it  offers  great 
advantages.  Certainly,  it  would  be  well  in  all  States 
to  carry  on  small  farms  with  prisons,  the  work  to  be 
done  by  convicts,  and  the  products  to  be  used  for  the 
prison  itself,  but  not  to  enter  the  market. 

"  10.  Hand-labor  under  the  public-account  system. — • 
This  plan  offers  many  advantages  over  any  other  that 
has  been  suggested  to  the  Bureau.    It  involves  the  car- 
rying on  of  the  industries  of  a  prison  for 
the  benefit  of  the  State,  but  •without  the 
Hand-Labor,  use  of  power  machinery,  tools  and  hand- 
machines  only  being  allowed,  the  goods 
to  be  made  to  consist  of  such  articles  as 
boots  and  shoes,  the  C9arse  woolen  and  cotten  cloths 
needed  for  the  institution  or  for  sale  to  other  institu- 
tions, harnesses  and  saddlery,  and  many  other  goods 
now  made  by  machinery  or  not  now  made  at  all  in 
prisons.     With  such  a  plan  in  vogue  throughout  the 
United  States,  or  in  the  majority  of  the  States,  there 
could  be  no  complaint  as  to  the  effect  of  convict  labor 
upon  the  rates  of  wages  or  upon  the  sale  of  goods, 
either  in  price  or  in  quantity.    The  convicts  cculd  be 
employed  under  the  direction  and  supervision  entirely 
of  the  prison  officers.     None  of  the  objections  or  disad- 
vantages arising  under  the  contract  system,  or  the 
piece-price  modification  thereof,  or  under  the  public- 
account  system  with  power  machinery,  can  be  raised 


against  this  plan.  The  adoption  of  it  would  leave  the 
State  free  to  undertake  the  very  best  and  most  humane 
efforts  for  the  reformation  of  prisoners." 

It  would  be  an  expensive  plan,  but  would  reform  the 
convict  and  reduce  competition  to  a  minimum.  Says 
the  report : 

"The  objection  as  to  expense  is  not  one  of  sufficient 
importance  to  merit  very  serious  consideration.  An 
objection,  however,  is  raised,  which  comes  closer  to 
the  prisoner  himself,  and  that  is  that  if  this  plan  should 
be  adopted,  he  goes  out  of  the  prison  unfitted  to  take 
part  in  the  industries  as  they  are  now  carried  on—  that 
is,  with  power  machinery.  Is  this  objection  valid?  In 
the  first  place,  it  is  seldom  that  a  discharged  convict 
enters  the  trade  or  the  calling  which  he  practised  while 
in  a  prison,  as  they  are  at  present  conducted.  If  he 
works  at  boots  and  shoes  in  the  prison,  he  runs  a  peg- 
ging machine,  or  a  stitching  machine,  or  a  skiving  ma- 
chine, or  a  heeling  machine,  and  if  the  objection  is 
valid,  when  he  goes  he  is  limited  to  running  that  par- 
ticular machine,  except  in  this,  that  any  man,  skilled 
in  the  running  of  any  machine,  can  easily  run  any 
other  machine  to  a  certain  extent ;  but  suppose  he 
learns  in  the  prison  the  whole  trade  of  shoemaking, 
from  cutting  the  stock  to  polishing  the  edges,  is  he  at 
a  disadvantage  when  he  leaves?  His  chances  of  earn- 
jng  a  living  as  a  cobbler,  where  he  works  on  his  own 
responsibility  and  by  himself,  are  greater  than  if  he 
depended  on  getting  into  a  great  shoe  factory.  If 
he  learns  to  run  a  hand-loom  in  weaving  flannel  or 
cotton  cloth,  is  he  thereby  deprived  of  any  advantage 
when  he  leaves  the  prison  walls?  He  is  better  fitted  to 
enter  a  cotton  factory  or  woolen  mill  than  if  he  had 
not  had  that  experience,  and  far  better  fitted  than  the 
thousands  who  have  been  imported  to  engage  in  such 
work.  If  he  is  employed  in  making  harnesses,  which 
is  almost  entirely  hand-work,  he  has  a  profitable  trade 
when  he  leaves  the  prison.  And  so  in  almost  any  other 
direction.  The  convict  who  has  spent  his  term  of  sen- 
tence on  hand-made  goods  is,  to  say  the  least,  as  well 
qualified  to  earn  his  living  when  released  as  if  he  had 
been  employed  with  the  aid  of  power  machinery.  So 
this  objection  has  no  real  vital  elements  in  it,  or  any 
elements  of  sufficient  vitality  to  prevent  the  adoption 
of  the  plan. 

"  Does  not  this  plan  offer  the  best  possible  oppor- 
tunities for  the  technical  education  of  convicts  in  all 
the  various  uses  of  tools,  both  in  wood  and  metal 
working  ? 

"  Suppose  such  a  system,  then,  could  be  adopted,  and 
the  evidence  shows  that  the  system,  on  the  whole, 
offers  the  best  features  of  any  that  has  been  suggested 
to  the  Bureau,  how  can  it  be  made  to 
prevail  in  this  country,  where  there  are 
48  distinct  State  or  territorial  govern-    oftT,Pi.10;nT, 
ments?    The  system  has  this  peculiar    Conclusion. 
quality  in  it,  that  each  State  could  adopt 
it  without  concerted  action,   altho  the 
advantages  to  be  gained  by  individual  adoption  would 
be  small  compared  with  "those  to  be  gained  by  its 
general  adoption  ;  but  whatever  plan  is  adopted  must 
be  adopted  by  the  States  individually.    No  plan  for 
general  adoption  can  be  suggested  except  one  to  be 
enforced,  by  the  United  States    Congress  under  the 
rights  to  be  granted  it  through  a  constitutional  amend- 
ment.   If  one  State,  however,  adopts  a  plan,  and  that 
plan  proves  fairly  successful,  the  other  States  will 
wheel  into  line.    .    .    . 

"The  plans  which  have  been  treated  comprehend 
the  majority  of  those  which  have  been  suggested  to 
the  Bureau,  or  which  have,  as  already  stated,  been 
observed  as  coming  from  those  who  have  investigated 
the  subject  of  convict  labor.  It  is  clear  to  the  mind 
of  the  writer  that  the  facts  sustain  the  complaints 
against  the  contract  system  to  a  sufficient  degree  to 
make  it  an  objectionable  system,  but  they  also  show — 

"That  such  system,  however,  is  the  most  profitable  ; 

"That  most  of  the  plans  offered  simply  shift  the 
burden  from  one  class  in  the  community  to  another, 
but  that  with  one  exception  they  do  not  provide  for 
the  support  of  prisons  by  the  whole  people  ;  and 

"  That  the  only  plan  offered  which  does  accomplish, 
or  approximately  accomplish  this,  is  that  involving  the 
employment  of  convicts  under  the  public-account 
system  without  the  use  of  power  machinery. 

"  There  are  other  considerations,  however,  in  regard 
to  this  whole  question,  which  are  quite  as  important  as 
the  method  of  employment,  but  which  affect  the  re- 
sults of  employment.  It  is  of  far  more  consequence  to 
the  working  man  of  this  country  to  reduce  crime,  and 
consequently  the  number  of  criminals,  than  it  is  to 
adopt  this  or  that  system  of  labor  ;  biit  if  there  can  be 
adopted  a  satisfactory  system  of  labor  and  a  con- 
temporaneous reduction  of  the  number  of  criminals, 


Convict  Labor. 


355 


Cooper,  Thomas. 


View. 


the  highest  possible  results  will  have  been  reached. 
Labor  is  more  thoroughly  interested  in  securing  the 
absence  of  crime  and  of  the  criminal  than  in  the  ques- 
tion as  to  how  the  criminal  shall  be  employed.  .  .  . 
"The  true  interests  of  the  working  men  demand  as 
much  the  study,  by  themselves  and  their  leaders,  of 
rigid  and  practical  moral  questions  as  the  study  of 
economic  matters.  As  already  intimated,  convict  labor 
is  of  no  great  account  compared  with  the  presence  of 
crime  itself,  and  to  avoid  the  presence  or  crime  its 
commission  must  be  prevented.  It  is  not  enough  to 
shut  up  criminals,  and  the  tendency  to  lessen  terms  of 
imprisonment  has  not  been  salutary.  .  .  . 

So,  the  convict-labor  question  involves  not  only  the 
system  of  work  under  which  the  convict  shall  be  em- 
ployed, but  the  higher  consideration  of  a  more  states- 
manlike treatment  of  the  question  of  crime  itself  than 
has  yet  prevailed."  (See  PENOLOGY  ;  CRIMINOLOGY.) 

So  far  the  report.  It  may  be  added  that  the  objec- 
tion to  the  various  proposals  for  meeting  the  convict- 
labor  problem  always  turns  upon  and  implies  the 
difficulty  of  outside  labor  in  securing 
well-paid  work.  Provided  that  outside 
labor  were  treated  better,  there  would 
be  no  objection  on  the  part  of  working 
men  to  treating  the  convict  in  any  way 
that  might  seem  best  for  his  or  the  com- 
munity's advantage.  What  working 
men  object  to  is  letting  convicts  earn  their  support  or 
reformation  at  the  expense  of  outside  labor.  They 
object  to  having  convicts  better  treated  than  free 
laborers.  Even  the  plan  favored  in  the  above  report 
of  the  employing  of  convicts  under  the  public-account 
system  at  hand  work  would,  the  report  says,  graduate 
the  convicts  in  a  condition  much  better  fitted  to  earn 
their  own  living  than  many  honest  laborers.  Even  to- 
day many  laborers  commit  crime  in  order  to  be 
imprisoned.  It  is  exceedingly  questionable,  then, 
whether  the  problem  is  not  to  improve  the  condition 
and  opportunities  of  outside  labor,  and  then  to  approach 
the  convict-labor  problem.  Socialists  would  have  the 
State  provide  all  with  well-paid  work,  and  maintain 
that  crime  would,  in  the  first  place,  largely  disappear, 
and,  secondly,  could  then  be  wisely  handled.  Whether 
this  be  so  or  not  must  be  discussed  in  the  articles  SO- 
CIALISM and  UNEMPLOYMENT  ;  but  this  side  of  the  case 
must  not  be  forgotten  in  treating  the  convict-labor 
question. 

References  :  See  the  Report  of  the  United  States 
Commission  of  Labor  for  i88b  :  also  PENOLOGY  and 
CRIMINOLOGY  for  further  references. 

COOKING  SCHOOLS.—  Schools  for  the 
teaching  of  cooking  have  been  established  in 
England  many  years.  As  early  as  1863  Mrs. 
Mitchell  opened  a  school  of  cookery  at  in  Great 
Portland  Street,  London.  By  1876  there  was  a 
Northern  union  of  schools  of  cookery  in  Eng- 
land, which  included  many  training  schools, 
and  has  supplied  teachers  for  all  the  world.  The 
schools  of  Glasgow,  Liverpool,  and  South  Ken- 
sington have  taken  the  lead.  Cooking  is  now 
being  introduced  into  the  English  board  schools 
as  well  as  others.  France  and  Belgium  have 
also  followed  suit,  usually  teaching  laundry 
work  in  connection  with  cookery. 

In  the  United  States  instruction  in  cookery 
was  first  given  to  public  school  children  under 
the  auspices  of  the  Young  Women's  Christian 
Association  in  1880,  but  private  schools  were 
established  before  this.  In  1872  Juliet  Corson 
was  made  secretary  of  the  Free  Training  School 
for  Women,  and  devoted  herself  to  the  study  of 
healthy  and  economical  dietetics.  In  1876  she 
established  the  New  York  School  of  Cookery. 
In  1877  Maria  Parloa  lectured  on  cooking  in 
Boston,  and  opened  a  school.  She  also  gave 
classes  and  lectures  at  various  seminaries  and  in 
evening  schools.  In  1882  she  opened  her  own 
school  in  New  York.  In  1883  the  North  Ben- 
net  Street  Industrial  School,  in  Boston,  estab- 
lished teaching  in  cooking  for  classes  from  the 
public  schools.  In  1885  Mrs.  Hemenway  estab- 
lished a  vacation  cookery  school,  and  in  the  fall 


it  was  accepted  by  the  school  committee  as  Bos- 
ton School  Kitchen  No.  i.  In  1888  the  city  as- 
sumed charge  of  it,  and  soon  established  other 
similar  schools.  Mrs.  Hemenway  also  estab- 
lished a  normal  school  in  cooking.  The  exami- 
nations require  a  grammar  school  education  and 
special  acquirements  in  domestic  and  household 
economy,  in  the  principles  and  processes  of  cook- 
ing in  chemistry  and  physiology  as  applied  to 
cookery.  Under  the  name  of  the  New  England 
Kitchen,  Mrs.  Ellen  H.  Richards,  of  the  Massa- 
chusetts Institute  of  Technology,  with  the  as- 
sistance of  Mrs.  Mary  H.  Abel,  has  worked  care- 
ful and  valuable  experiments,  and  other  experi- 
ment stations  have  been  started  in  the  United 
States,  following  somewhat  the  theories  of  nutri- 
tion and  of  food  values  expounded  in  recent 
years  by  Vait  and  the  physiologists  of  the 
Munich  school.  Most  women's  colleges,  many 
Western  agricultural  colleges,  the  Drexel  Insti- 
tute, in  Philadelphia,  and  the  Pratt  Institute,  in 
Brooklyn,  give  courses  in  domestic  science. 

References  :  Report  of  Massachusetts  Commission  on 
Industrial  Education,  1893.  See  also  article  HOUSE- 
HOLD ECONOMIC  ASSOCIATION. 

COOPER,  PETER,  was  born  in  New  York 
City,  February  12,  1791.  The  son  of  a  hatter, 
he  received  a  meager  education,  and  entered 
the  trade  of  carriage-making.  He  gradually, 
however,  took  up  one  enterprise  after  another, 
with  continuous  success.  In  1830  he  estab- 
lished the  Canton  Iron  Works,  at  Canton,  Md., 
where  he  constructed  from  his  own  designs  the 
first  locomotives  ever  made  in  the  United 
States.  Soon  after  he  established  a  rolling  and 
wire-mill  in  New  York.  In  1845  he  moved  it 
to  Trenton,  and  made  it  the  largest  rolling-mill 
of  the  day  in  the  United  States.  He  built  three 
blast  furnaces  in  Phillipsburg,  and  conducted 
other  similar  enterprises.  He  was  one  of  the 
chief  supporters  of  the  laying  of  the  Atlantic 
cable  and  other  important  enterprises.  Deeply 
interested  in  the  free  education  of  the  industrial 
classes,  he  gave  the  money  for  and  laid  the 
corner-stone  of  the  Cooper  Union  in  1854,  and 
saw  its  completion  in  1859,  to  be  "  forever  de- 
voted to  the  instruction  and  improvement  of 
the  inhabitants  of  the  United  States  in  practical 
science  and  art. ' '  He  gave  $200,000  as  an  en- 
dowment during  his  life,  and  $100,000  by  his 
will.  The  original  cost  when  he  conveyed  it  to 
the  trustees  was  $630,000.  In  1876  Mr.  Cooper 
was  candidate  lor  the  Presidency  of  the  Green- 
back (q.v.)  or  National  Independent  Party,  and 
received  some  100,000  votes.  He  died  in  New 
York  City,  April  4,  1883.  He  published  Ideas 
for  a  Science  of  Good  Government,  in  Ad- 
dresses, Letters,  and  Articles  on  a  Strictly 
National  Currency,  Tariff,  and  Civil  Service 
(New  York,  1883). 

COOPER,  THOMAS,  born  in  Leicester, 
England,  March,  1805  ;  died  in  Lincoln,  July  15, 
1892.  The  son  of  a  poor  widow,  he  learned  the 
shoemaker's  trade.  At  the  age  of  23  he  opened 
a  school  in  Lincoln,  and  a  year  later  became  a 
Wesleyan  Methodist  local  preacher.  In  1839  he 
went  to  London  to  engage  in  journalism,  but 
finding  little  success,  he  later  returned  to  Leices- 
ter and  joined  the  Chartists.  He  published  a 
newspaper  in  their  interests,  and  was  nominated 


Cooper,  Thomas. 


Cooperation. 


for  Parliament.  He  addressed  many  meetings, 
and  aroused  great  excitement.  A  riot  occurred 
at  Hanley  after  he  left  ;  at  Manchester  military 
guards  were  placed  in  the  street.  He  was  ar- 
rested and  taken  back  to  Staffordshire  on  a 
charge  of  arson  in  connection  with  the  Hanley 
riot,  but  he  proved  that  he  was  not  there  when 
the  offense  was  committed.  He  was  then  ar- 
raigned for  conspiracy  and  sedition  and  tried 
before  Sir  Thomas  Erskine,  March,  1843.  He 
defended  himself  eloquently,  but  was  con- 
demned to  two  years'  imprisonment  in  Stafford 
jail,  during  which  time  he  wrote  the  greater 
part  of  an  epic,  the  Purgatory  of  Suicides, 
dealing  with  the  social  and  religious  questions 
of  the  age.  After  his  release  he  wrote  several 
other  books  of  poetry  and  prose.  He  joined 
Mazzini's  International  League,  but  took  no 
part  in  the  Chartist  agitation  of  1 848  on  account 
of  differences  with  O'Connor.  He  lectured  on 
political  and  historical  subjects.  Having  been 
a  sceptic  for  10  years  and  a  follower  of  Strauss 
in  1855,  he  changed  his  views  and  lectured 
against  atheism.  In  1859  ne  became  a  Baptist 
preacher.  Later  his  health  broke  down,  and 
W.  E.  Forster  and  Samuel  Morley  obtained  for 
him  a  small  annuity.  In  1882  he  published  his 
autobiography. 

COOPERATION.— We  consider  this  sub- 
ject in  this  article  under  five  heads  :  I.  Defini- 
tion ;  II.  Varieties  of  Cooperation  ;  III.  History 
and  Statistics  of  Cooperation  in  England  and 
her  Colonies,  France,  Germany,  Belgium,  Hol- 
land, Switzerland,  Italy,  Austria,  and  the 
United  States  ;  IV.  Methods  of  Cooperation  ; 
V.  Arguments  for  and  Objections  to  Coopera- 
tion. 

We  commence  with 

I.  DEFINITION. 

Cooperation  (from  Latin  co  and  operare,  to 
work  together)  is  used  specifically  in  social 
science  for  the  voluntary  union  of  persons,  in 
joint  production,  distribution,  purchase,  or  con- 
sumption, apart  from  government,  on  equitable 
principles  and  for  their  mutual  benefit.  Such 
is,  perhaps,  a  rightly  exclusive  and  inclusive 
definition.  Yet  it  must  be  admitted  that  the 
word  is  used  by  good  authority  both  in  a  larger 
and  a  narrower  sense. 

George  J.  Holyoake,  for  example,  defines  it  as  "the 
concert  of  manyfor  compassing  advantages  impossible 
to  be  reached  by  one,  in  order  that  the  gain  may  be 
fairly  shared  by  all  concerned  in  its  attainment" 
(History  of  Cooperation,  vol.  i.,  p.  68).  But  this  defini- 
tion is  obviously  top  broad.  This  definition  would 
include  the  State,  socialism,  communism,  every  trades- 
union,  almost  every  church,  society,  trust,  monopoly, 
or  combination  of  any  kind.  To  use  words  so  loosely 
is  to  misuse  them,  even  tho  it  be  admitted  at  the  same 
time  that  the  essence  of  the.  cooperative  idea  does 
often  lie  deep  in  all  concerted  life,  especially  in  the 
true  State,  the  true  church,  the  true  trades-union.  Yet 
cooperation  is  not  socialism,  communism,  trades- 
unionism,  or  aught  else  but  cooperation,  and  should 
not  be  confused  with  them.  On  the  other  hand,  the 
word  has  been  too  narrowly  used.  It  has  been 
said  to  mean  simply  "the  voluntary  union  of  con- 
sumers or  producers  for  the  purchase  or  production  of 
commodities  and  the  division  of  profits  on  the  basis  of 
the  amount  purchased  or  produced  by  the  coopera- 
tors."  But  this  is  too  narrow.  It  identifies  one  form 
of  cooperation  with  cooperation  itself.  There  are 
other  forms.  Each  form  of  cooperation,  indeed,  is 
claimed  by  some  to  be  the  true  form,  but  this  claim 
cannot  be  allowed.  The  definition  given  above  is  be- 
lieved to  be  inclusive  of  all  forms  of  cooperation  and 


exclusive  of  all  else.  We  may  therefore  proceed  to 
distinguish  cooperation  from  various  propositions 
•which  have  been  confused  with  it,  and  first  from  ordi- 
nary joint-stock  enterprises. 

Says  Mr.  E.  V.  Neale,  the    veteran   cooperator  :    "  It 
is   not    unimportant    that   cooperators    should    make 
clear  to  themselves  in  what  the  essential  difference  be- 
tween simple  joint-stock  enterprises  and  enterprises 
truly    cooperative    consists.     The   clear 
apprehension  of  this    difference  would, 
1   believe,  go  far  to   remove   the   half-    Not  Joint- 
heartedness    which    checks    the    prog-      stockism 
ress  of  cooperation  from  the    indiffer- 
ence shown  by  too  many  cooperators  to 
their  own  professed  principles. 

"In  a  certain  sense  and  to  a  certain  extent  all  joint- 
stock  companies  are  cooperative.  The  capitalists  who 
form  them  club  their  resources  for  some  common  pur- 
pose ;  they  choose  the  managers  of  the  concern  by 
common  acts ;  they  share  together  the1  profits ;  they 
bear  together  the  losses  of  their  venture.  Why,  then, 
are  they  not  truly  entitled  to  be  called  cooperators  ? 
Because  all  these  acts,  according  to  the  common  con- 
stitution of  joint-stock  companies,  are  done  simply 
from  the  desire  of  the  parties  who  do  them  to  promote 
their  own  immediate  advantage. 

"  No  doubt  joint-stock  companies,  i.e.,  companies 
registered  under  the  Joint-Stock  Companies  Acts, 
might  be  formed  for  a  purpose  of  a  far  higher  char- 
acter. I  deal  with  these  companies  only  in  the  char- 
acter which  they  commonly  assume  ;  in  which  they 
continually  enter  into  an  injurious  competition  with 
cooperative  enterprises.  And  I  say  this  is  the  essen- 
tial distinction  between  the  two.  Joint-stock  ccm- 
j:>anies  are  trading  corporations,  established  to  carry 
on  business  for  the  benefit  of  those  who  set  them  up, 
by  means  of  any  contracts  which  the  recognized  rules 
of  justice,  enforced  by  courts  of  law,  permit.  Cooper- 
ative societies  are  trading  corporations,  formed  to 
carry  on  business  in  accordance  with  principles  of 
justice  more  perfect  than  those  now  enforced  by  courts 
of  law  ;  principles  voluntarily  adopted  by  their 
founders,  who  resolve  to  seek  their  own  advantage 
only  through  and  in  subordination  to  these  principles, 
and  would  regard  the  proposal  to  depart  from  them,  in 
order  to  gain  some  greater  advantage  for  themselves, 
as  a  bribe  to  wropg-doing.  In  this  higher  aim  the 
true  strength  of  cooperation,  its  inner  strength,  con- 
sists." 

Again,  cooperation  must  be  distinguished  from  so- 
cialism, communism,  and  all  similar  theories.  Socialism 
and  communism  attempt  cooperative  life  in  all  its  in- 
dustrial aspects.  Cooperation  admits  of  persons 
uniting  only  for  certain  industrial  ends.  Communism 
contemplates  communal  colonies  or 
separate  communes ;  socialism  aims  at 
the  development  of  cooperative  life  by 
the  zvhole  community,  the  town,  the 
citv,  the  State,  the  nation.  Cooperation 
differs  from  both  in  allowing  a  few  in- 
dividuals in  a  community,  without  leaving  their  homes 
or  social  environments,  to  unite  for  special  cooperative 
purposes.  Cooperation  springs  from  individuals,  so- 
cialism from  the  naturaf  or  geographical  unity  of  a 
community.  Socialism  gives  prominence  to  political 
methods.  Cooperation  per  se  makes  little  or  no  use  of 
political  life.  The  distinction  thus  between  coopera- 
tion, on  the  one  hand,  and  socialism  and  communism,  on 
the  other,  is  marked.  And  yet  it  must  be  pointed  out 
that  the  two  ideas  are  by  no  means  inconsistent.  The 
distinction  lies  more  in  the  methods  than  in  the  aims, 
and  even  the  methods  may  be  united,  altho  not  blended. 
The  Belgian  socialists,  for  example,  have  developed  a 
strong  cooperative  movement.  It  were  doubtless  well, 
whenever  possible,  if  all  socialists  and  cooperators 
should  work  together.  There  is  no  reason  in  their 
aims  why  they  should  not.  As  a  matter  of  fact,  most 
socialists  do  theoretically  believe  in  cooperation,  only 
considering  it  unpractical  on  a  small  scale,  while  most 
cooperators  believe  their  movement  to  be  an  education 
toward  and  preparation  for  the  true  socialism,  in  a 
cooperative  state,  a  cooperative  commonwealth,  a  co- 
operative civilization. 

Still   more   carefully    must   cooperation   and   profit- 
sharing    be     distinguished,    for    tho   in    some    aspects 
similar,  they  are   in   reality   in  economic  and  ethical 
principles  radically  distinct.     Coopera- 
tion is  a  union   of  consumers   or    pro- 
ducers for  their  common  benefit.  Jfot   Profit- 
Profit-sharing  (see    PROFIT-SHARING) 
is  simply  the  employee  sharing  beyond 
his  wages  to  some  greater  or  less  extent 
in  the  profits  of  his  employer.     Cooperation  starts  with 
the  worker.    Profit-sharing  starts  with  the  employer. 


Cooperation. 


357 


Cooperation. 


Cooperation  gives  the  worker  a  voice  in  the  man- 
agement. Profit-sharing  is  the  employer  giving  his 
employee  no  voice  in  the  management,  but  simply  a 
slight  interest  in  the  profits.  Cooperation  is  fraternal. 
Profit-sharing  is  paternal.  Cooperation  tends  to  de- 
velop the  individual  worker  by  giving  him  a  share  in  the 
responsibility.  Profit-sharing  gives  him  a  little  interest 
in  the  business,  but  with  no  general  responsibility  Co- 
operation thus  immediately  aims  higher,  and  is  more 
difficult  to  put  in  successful  operation.  It  comes  into 
competition  with  gigantic  private  combinations  and 
corporations.  Profit-sharing,  tho  temporarily  not  aim- 
ing so  high,  claims  to  be  more  practical  in  preparing 
the  way  for  eventual  cooperation,  and  in  not  antago- 
nizing great  corporations,  but  rather  in  carrying  into 
these  very  corporations  the  principles  of  equity  and 
fraternity  and  generosity.  Which,  then,  is  to  be  pre- 
ferred will  depend  largely  on  the  temper  and  character 
of  the  parties  concerned  in  the  given  case  ;  we  are  here 
concerned  simply  with  pointing  out  the  difference. 

II.  VARIETIES  OF  COOPERATION. 

Cooperation  may  be  divided  into  at  least  three 
distinct  kinds,  and  these,  it  must  be  remem- 
bered, are  capable  of  subdivision  into  an  almost 
infinite  number  of  methods  and  combination  of 
methods  in  carrying  on  cooperation.  We  may, 
however,  indicate  three  general  classes,  leaving 
the  history  and  argument  to  suggest  the  sub- 
divisions. The  three  classes  are  : 

1.  Societies  of  distribution  or  consumption, 
where  consumers  unite  to  bring  together  or  to 
maintain  together  stores  of  goods  where  mem- 
bers can  buy  at  a  cheaper  rate,  or  with  some 
advantage  to  themselves.    Such  are  cooperative 
stores,  wholesale,  retail,  etc. 

2.  Societies  of  production,  where  producers 
combine  to  gain  the  advantage  of  combination 
in  production,  and  to  sell  the  collective  or  indi- 
vidual work.     Such  cooperators  are  their  own 
capitalists.    They  may  cooperate  in_  manufactur- 
ing, or  in  agriculture,  or  in  any  department  of 
production. 

3.  Societies  of  credit  or  banking,  where  ac- 
counts of  credit  are  opened  with  the  members, 
and  loans  advanced  to  ths  members  at  favorable 
terms  on  fair  securities.     Such  societies,  in  nu- 
merous   modifications,   as    cooperative    banks, 
friendly  societies,  burial  societies,  building  so- 
cieties, etc.,  exist  in  most  cities.     Owing,  how- 
ever, to  these  societies  being  in  many  ways  dif- 
ferent from  the  other  kinds  of  cooperation,  we 
shall  consider  them  in  articles  by  themselves 
under  their  separate  heads.     (See  BUILDING  SO- 
CIETIES ;  COOPERATIVE  BANKS,  etc.) 

Between  these  various  classes  of  cooperation 
it  is  necessary  carefully  to  distinguish,  for  one 
class  is  often  perfectly  practical  when  the  other 
is  not.  Distributive  cooperation  has  been  large- 
ly successful,  but  was  not  the  first  attempted, 
and  is  by  many  severely  criticised.  Productive 
cooperation  was  first  attempted,  and  is  unques- 
tionably the  highest  kind,  but  not  unnaturally 
has  met  the  least  success.  Credit  cooperation 
has  been  the  most  successful,  but  as  being  near- 
est to  ordinary  business  methods  and  least  de- 
veloping the  principle  of  cooperation  is  by  many 
not  considered  true  cooperation. 

The  respective  merits  of  these  various  kinds 
of  cooperation  will  be  best  considered  after 
studying 

III.  THE  HISTORY  OF  COOPERATION. 

We  notice  first  the  beginnings  of  cooperation, 
and  then  consider  it  in  the  principal  leading 


countries  where  it  has  been  developed.  For  its 
beginnings  we  quite  from  George  J.  Holyoake, 
the  eminent  author  of  the  History  of  Coopera- 
tion in  England  : 

Writing  in  the  Fortnightly  Review  (August, 
1887),  he  tells  us  that  cooperation  dates  from 
the  latter  portion  of  the  last  century. 

"  Ambelakia,"  he  says,  "was  almost  a  cooperative 
town,  as  may  be  read  in  David  Urquhart's  Turkey  and 
its  Resources.    So  vast  a  municipal  partnership  on  in- 
dustry has  never  existed  since.    The  fishers  on  the 
Cornish  coast  carried  out  cooperation  on  the  sea,  and 
the  miners  of  Cumberland  dug  ore  on  the  principle  of 
sharing  the  profits.    The   plan   has  been  productive 
of  contentment  and  advantage.     Gruyere  is  a  coopera- 
tive cheese,  being  formerly  made  in  the 
Jura  Mountains,  where  the  profits  were 
equally  divided  among  the  makers.    In         Early 
1777,  as  Dr.  Langford  relates  in  his  Cen-  Cooperation. 
tury  of  Birmingham  Life,  the  tailors  of 
that  enterprising  town  set  up  a  coopera- 
tive workshop,  which  is  the  earliest  in  English  record. 
.    .     .      Shute   Harrington,    Bishop  of    Durham,   who 
established  at  Mongewell,    in    Oxfordshire,  the   first 
known    cooperative    store  ;    while     Count    Rumford 
and  Sir  Thomas  Bernard    published  in  1795,  and  for 
many  years  after,  plans  of  cooperative  and  social  life, 
far  exceeding  in  variety  and   thoroughness  any  in  the 
minds  of  persons  now  living." 

"  The  only  apostle  of  the  social  state  in  England," 
continues  Mr.  Holyoake,  "  at  the  beginning  of  this  cen- 
tury, was  Robert  Owen,  and  to  him  we  owe  the  cooper- 
ation of  to-day.  With  him  it  took  the  shape  of  a 
despotism  of  philanthropy.  Lord  Sidmouth  and  the 
Duke  of  Kent  gave  him  their  personal  influence  to 
advance  his  views.  Mr.  Owen  carried  into  practical 
use  his  ideas  in  his  New  Lanark  Mills  for  educating 
his  work-people,  and  with  a  success  that  has  had  no 
imitators  except  Godin,  of  Guise,  whose  Palace  of  In- 
dustry is  known  throughout  civilization.  Jeremy 
Bentham,  who  held  shares  in  New  Lanark,  said  it  was 
the  only  investment  he  had  made  that  paid  him.  It 
was  here  that  Mr.  Owen  set  up  a  cooperative  store  on 
the  primitive  plan  of  buying  goods  and  provisions  at 
wholesale  and  selling  them  to  the  working  men's 
families  at  cost  price. 

"  The  benefit  which  the  Lanark  weavers  enjoyed  was 
soon  noised  abroad,  and  clever  workmen  elsewhere 
began  to  form  stores  to  supply  their  families  in  the 
same  wav.  The  earliest  instance  of  this  is  the  Eco- 
nomical Society  of  Sheerness,  commenced  in  1816,  and 
which  is  still  doing  business  in  the  same  premises 
and  also  in  adjacent  ones  lately  erected.  Its  rules 
stated  that  its  object  was  'to  supply  the  members 
with  wheaten  bread  and  flour  and  butchers'  meat.' 
The  great  war  had  long  deprived  them  of  both,  and 
this  society  was  commenced  by  intelligent  dockyard- 
workmen,  who,  altho  better  paid  than  ordinary  work- 
men, were  yet  subject  to  privations.  .  .  . 

"  Cooperation  was  also  put  to  use  on  the  Sussex  coast, 
where  Lady  Noel  Byron  aided  it,  in  order  that  the 
savings  of  the  store  might  assist  poor  men  in  the  way 
of  self-employment,  by  keeping  market  gardens,  and 
setting  up  tailors',  shoemakers',  and  carpenters'  shops. 
The  desire  of  workmen  to  become  their  own  masters, 
and  the  double  prospect  of  independence  and  profit, 
spread  the  idea  over  the  country  as  a  new  religion  of 
industry.  The  cooperative  stores  now  changed  their 
plan.  They  sold  retail  at  shop  charges,  and  saved  the 
difference  between  retail  and  cost  price  as  a  fund  with 
which  to  commence  cooperative  workshops.  By  1830 
from  300  to  400  cooperative  stores  had  been  set  up  in 
England.  There  are  records  of  250  societies,  distribu- 
tive and  productive,  existing  at  that  period,  cited  in 
the  History  of  Cooperation." 

Such  is  Mr.  Holyoake's  review  of  the  early  history  of 
cooperation.  Yet  the  real  history  of  cooperation  does 
not  commence  until  1844  in 

ENGLAND. 

England  is  the  classic  home  as  the  birthplace  of 
cooperation  as  a  practical  movement.  Its  beginnings 
here  we  have  seen.  But  the  eirly  movement  died 
away. 

It  should  not  be  forgotten  that  cooperation  received 
its  first  practical  solution  at  the  hands  of  the  few  poor 
weavers  of  Rochdale,  in  North  England,  who  saved  up 
a  few  shillings,  afterward  investing  them  in  a  bag  of 
flour,  which  they  distributed  among  themselves  at  cost 
price.  It  was  this  humble  enterprise  which  marked 


Cooperation. 


358 


Cooperation. 


the  beginning  of  the  great  Rochdale  system,  that  now 
counts    its    establishments   by  thousands,  its  invest- 
ments and  profits  by  millions  of  pounds  sterling,  and 
takes  its  name  from  those  poor  weavers,  the  Rochdale 
Pioneers.     April  25,  1844,  the  day  when  this  society 
commenced  work,  is  a  red-letter  dayjn 
t'le  history  of  cooperation. 

Rochdale         When  their  society  began  it  only  had  28 
Pioneers,     members— £28  of   funds—and   the  first 
year  made  no  profit.    In  its  second  year 
it  had  74  members,  .£181  in  funds,  .£710  of 
business,  and   made  £22  profit,  2%  per  cent,  of  which 
was  used  as  a  fund  for  education.    In  1876  its  members 
were  8892,  its  funds  were  .£254,000,  its  year's  business  ex- 
ceeded .£305,000,  its  profits  were  more  than  .£50,500.     Its 
profits  have  since  been  greater,  tho,  from  causes  it 
would  be  a  digression  to  explain,  they  are  now  less. 
(For  details,  see  ROCHDALE  PIONEERS.) 

The  methods  of  the  Rochdale  and  other  early  stores 
were  very  simple,  as  the  following  early  account  will 
show.  "  The  societies  have  a  public  store,  where  goods 
are  sold  even  to  those  who  are  not  members.  The 
condition  of  membership  is  the  payment  of  a  few 
pence.  At  certain  intervals,  further  payments  of  a  few 
pence  are  required  from  the  new  member  (in  most 
cases  21A  pence  a  week,  or  10  pence  a  month),  until  their 
aggregate,  together  with  the  interest  and  dividends 
placed  to  his  credit,  amount  to  the  prescribed  mini- 
mum share  in  the  undertaking.  The  sum  in  Rochdale 
was  at  first  £4  ($19.36),  afterward  £5  ($24.30);  in  Man- 
chester, however,  only  £i  ($4.84).  Each  member  has 
the  privilege  of  letting  his  share  increase  to  ^iop  ($484) ; 
althp,  in  case  of  an  excess  of  capital,  the  society  can 
diminish  the  amount.  Each  member  can,  after  pre- 
vious notice,  demand  that  his  share,  over  and  above 
the  minimum  share,  be  paid  back  to  him,  after  an  in- 
terval varying  according  to  the  amount  ;  the  minimum 
share  itself,  however,  is  not  paid  back  to  the  member 
when  he  resigns,  but  may,  with  the  approval  of  the  so- 
ciety, be  carried  over  to  the  credit  of  another,  who 
thus  becomes  himself  a  member. 

"A  distribution  of  the  net  profits  is  made  quarterly. 
After  an  interest  at  the  rate  of  5  per  cent,  per  annum 
has  been  deducted  from  the  shares  of  the  members, 
and  21A  per  cent,  of  the  profits  have  been  applied  to  the 
educational  fund,  the  balance  is  placed  to  the  credit 
of  the  members,  in  proportion  to  the  purchases  that 
each  has  made  at  the  store  during  the  preceding 
three  months.  The  members  are  liable  for  no  losses 
beyond  the  value  of  their  respective  shares.  This 
right  of  allotment  is  governed  by  a  special  statute  of 
August  7,  1862,  which  secures  to  the  companies  the 
same  legal  rights  possessed  by  an  individual. 

"  Every  month  there  is  a  general  meeting,  in  which 
every  member  has  a  vote.  By  this  meeting,  an  Execu- 
tive Committee  of  12  is  elected  to  manage  the  business 
of  the  society  for  one  year,  which  holds  a  weekly  ses- 
sion. This  is  the  gist  of  the  rules  of  the  English  soci- 
eties, which  differ  only  in  minor  particulars." 

In  1849  commenced  the  Christian  Socialist  movement 
of  the  Rev.  F.  D.  Maurice— the  "Master,"  Charles  Kings- 
ley,   Vansittart  Neale,  Thomas   Hughes,   and,  above 
all,  J.  M.  Ludlow,  the  real  founder  of  the 
.  movement.    (For  their   general  princi- 

Cnnstian     p]es  and  the  history  of  their  movement, 

Socialists,  see  CHRISTIAN  SOCIALISM.)  It  is  suffi- 
cient here  to  state  that  their  efforts 
were  important,  not  for  the  immediate 
results,  since  these  were  meager,  but  for  the  impetus 
they  gave  to  the  cooperative  ideal,  and  to  its  ethical 
and  enduring  character.  They  started  a  society  for 
aiding  cooperative  production,  and  as  the  result  some 
cooperative  tailor  shops  were  begun.  These,  however, 
either  did  not  live  or  were  merged  in  the  larger  Roch- 
dale movement.  A  more  enduring  result  was  the  gain- 
ing by  the  Christian  Socialist  leaders  successive  im- 
provements in  laws  which  gave  cooperative  stores  legal 
protection,  and  enabled  cooperators  to  become  bank- 
ers, to  hold  land,  and  to  increase  their  savings  to  .£200 ; 
which  last  provision  led  to  some  stores  becoming  rich, 
through  the  prospect  it  opened  to  members  to  acquire 
houses.  This  legislation  with  the  ethical  principles 
they  so  brilliantly  advocated  was  the  real  contribution 
of  the  Christian  Socialists  to  cooperation. 

It  is,  however,  the  Rochdale  movement  that  we  must 
study  to  follow  the  real  development  of  English  co- 
operation. By  1856  the  Pioneers  had  a  capital  of  £12,- 
Qoo,  and  sold  not  only  articles  of  grocery,  but  bread, 
meat,  and  clothing.  In  1855  they  commenced  coopera- 
tive production,  first  hiring  a  small  room,  in  which 
they  placed  a  few  looms,  the  beginning  of  their  co- 
operative cotton  mills.  It  was  a  success.  Says 
Professor  Fawcett  (Manual  of  Political  Economy,  p. 
266): 


"  Encouraged  by  this  first  success,  the  promoters  of 
the  undertaking  determined  to  extend  their  operations, 
and  part  of  a  mill  was  accordingly  rented.  Their  cap- 
ital at  that  time  was  about  .£5000,  and  the  system  of 
conducting  the  business  was  as  simple  as  it  was  excel- 
lent. A  dividend  of  5  per  cent,  on  capital  was  the 
first  charge  on  profits.  After  this  dividend  had  been 
secured,  the  remaining  profits  were  di- 
vided into  two  equal  snares.  One  of 
these  shares  was  given  as  an  extra  Growth  Of 
dividend  on  capital,  and  the  other  was  Cooperation. 
distributed  as  a  bonus  among  the 
laborers  employed.  Each  laborer's 
share  of  this  bonus  was  proportioned  to  the  aggregate 
amount  of  wages  he  had  earned.  The  most  therefore 
was  given  to  those  who  worked  with  the  greatest  reg- 
ularity and  the  greatest  skill ;  and  as,  in  addition  to 
this  bonus,  the  wages  current  in  the  trade  were  paid, 
it  was  natural  that  the  best  efforts  of  those  employed 
were  stimulated,  and  the  most  prudent  operatives  in 
the  locality  were  powerfully  attracted  to  an  undertak- 
ing where  their  labor  received  an  extra  remunera- 
tion, and  where  they  obtained  a  lucrative  investment 
for  their  savings.  The  undertaking  developed  so  rap- 
idly that  soon  a  larger  mill  was  required  than  any  that 
could  be  rented.  It  was  therefore  resolved  to  build 
one  :  it  was  commenced  in  1856,  and  completed  in  1860, 
at  a  cost  of  .£45.000.  The  mill  was  fitted  with  the  best 
machinery  and  was  complete  in  every  respect.  So 
confident  were  the  workmen  of  the  success  of  the 
scheme  that  the  outlay  involved  in  the  erection  of  this 
mill  did  not  exhaust  the  capital  they  were  willing  to 
invest,  and  accordingly  a  second  mill  was  soon  com- 
menced. These  mills  had  scarcely  time  to  get  into  full 
working  when  the  breaking  out  of  the  civil  war  in 
America  brought  the  cotton  trade  of  Lancashire  into  a 
state  of  unprecedented  depression.  Long  after  many 
of  the  surrounding  manufactories  had  been  closed  the 
cooperative  mills  courageously  struggled  on." 

Better  times  were  awaiting  them.  Meanwhile,  the 
success  of  their  movement  had  created  efforts  at  co- 
operation all  over  England,  particularly  at  Manchester, 
Halifax,  Huddersfield,  Leeds,  Newcastle,  and  Oldham. 
The  last  named  became  a  cooperative  town.  Says  Mr. 
E.  B.  Osborn,  in  Palgrave's  Dictionary  of  Political 
Economy :  "The  '  Oldham  Building  and  Manufacturing 
Society,'  the  first  of  its  kind  registered  under  the 
Joint-Stock  Companies  Act,  was  founded  in  1858 : 
capital,  ,£1000  in  £5  shares.  The  promoters  were  mem- 
bers of  the  Oldham  Industrial  Cooperative  Society. 
Calls  on  shares  were  to  be  j,d.  weekly,  and  the  di- 
rectors were  paid  6d.  a  week  for  their  services.  Sev- 
eral months  elapsed  before  all  the  shares  were  taken 
up,  and  a  longer  delay  occurred  before  the  society's 
business,  weaving,  could  begin.  At  the  end  of  the 
first  quarter's  working,  a  dividend  of  7^  per  cent,  was 

gaid,  but  afterward  the  looms  were  run  at  a  loss.  The 
ifficulty  of  disposing  of  the  manufactured  goods,  dis- 
putes among  the  directors,  and  between  the  share- 
holders and  non-shareholders  employed  by  the  com- 
pany, and,  above  all,  the  unsuitability  of  the  climate 
for  weaving,  led  to  this  result.  It  became  necessary  to 
make  a  radical  change  in  the  scheme,  and  accordingly 
the  promoters  decided  to  increase  the  capital  to  .£14,870, 
and  build  premises  for  cotton-carding  and  spinning. 
The  engines  were 'christened  '  in  1863,  and  under  the 
new  name  of  the  'Sun  Mill  Company'  business  was 
carried  on  through  the  period  of  the  Cotton  Famine 
(see  COTTON  FAMINE)  eventually  with  considerable 
profit." 

The  success  of  these  somewhat  numerous -stores  led 
to  united  effort.   In  1863  the  present  Cooperative  Whole- 
sale Society,  Limited,  was  founded  as  the   North  of 
England   Cooperative   Wholesale   Soci- 
ety, Limited.     It  confined  itself  at  first   _,      -iirunie 
to  purchasing  articles  at  wholesale  price    ifl-e   "  "•£ 
and   selling  them  to  cooperative  soci-  sale  Society. 
eties  and  companies,  whether  members 
or   not,  at  a    small    profit,   which  was 
divided  half  yearly  among  all  customer  societies  In 
proportion  to  their -purchases,  mere  customers  receiv- 
ing only  half  dividends,  customer  members  whole,    Its 
sales  in   1865  (the  first  complete   year  of  its  working) 
were  .£120,754.    In  1872  these  had  reached  .£1,153,132.    In 
1872,  however,  the  society  began  production,  purchas- 
ing some  buscuit  works,  and  starting  in  Leicester  a 
boot  factory  in  1873,  then  soap  works  in  1874,  other  boot 
works  at  Heckmondwike  in  1880.      Leather-currying 
was  entered  on  in  1886,  a  woolen  mill  taken  over  in  1887. 
Cocoa  works  were  opened  in  1887,  a  ready  made   cloth- 
ing department  in  1888  (clothing  having  been   already 
made  up  in  two  branches  as  an  adjunct  to  the  woolen 
cloth  and  draperv    departments) ;   a  corn    mill    was 
opened  in  1891,  jam-making  entered  on  in  1892,  and  a 


Cooperation. 


359 


Cooperation. 


printing  department  undertaken,  besides  building  de- 
partments in  the  society's  three  English  branches — 
Manchester,  London,  and  Newcastle  (there  is  also  a 
branch  at  New  York).  In  addition  to  these  there  is  a 
shipping  department,  the  society  having  quite  a  little 
fleet  of  its  own.  During  the  quarter  ending  June  30, 
1894,  the  society  purchased  a  factory  at  Leeds  for  the 
manufacture  of  ready-made  clothing. 

Says  Mr.  J.  M.  Ludlow  (Atlantic  Monthly,  January, 
1895),  to  whom  we  are  indebted  for  these  statistics : 
"  The  success  of  the  society  as  a  whole  has  been  pro- 
digious. Its  business  in  the  distributive  departments 
during  the  last  quarter  (ended  June  30)  was  ,£2,272,946, 
or  at  the  rate  of  upward  of  .£9,000,000  a  year,  making  it 
one  of  the  largest  commercial  establishments  in  the 
world." 

This  society  soon  led  to  another.  Says  Mr.  Ludlow  : 
"  The  Scottish  Cooperative  Wholesale  Society  was  es- 
tablished in  1868.  It  entered  upon  production  in  1880 
with  a  shirt  factory,  followed  in  the  same  year  by  a 
tailoring  department  (the  two  were  united  in  1888),  by 
a  cabinet  factory  in  1884,  boot  works  in  1885,  currying 
works  in  1888,  a  slop  factory  in  1890,  and 
a  mantle  factory  in  1891.  A  printing 
office  had  been  opened  in  1887,  to  which 
business  ruling  and  bookbinding  were 
afterward  added.  Preserve-making  and 
tobacco-cutting  have  also  been  entered 
on.  Many  of  the  productive  departments  have  been 
grouped  together  on  12  acres  of  land  at  Shieldhall 
on  the  Clyde,  about  three  miles  from  Glasgow.  The 
requisite  buildings  have  been  put  up  by  the  building 
department  of  the  society,  as  well  as  several  of  its 
warehouses  ;  and  latterly  a  large  flour  mill  at  Chance- 
lot,  near  Leith — I  believe  the  latest  productive  venture 
of  the  society — has  been  built  by  it. 

"The  Scottish  Wholesale  Society  has  paid  bonus  to 
labor  since  November,  1870.  The  principle  on  which 
such  bonus  has  been  granted  has  varied,  but  by  an 
alteration  of  rules  made  in  1892  bonus  is  credited  to  all 
employed  at  the  same  rate  on  wages  as  on  purchases, 
half  the  bonus  remaining  on  loan  at  4  per  cent." 

In  1869  the  first  annual  cooperative  congress  was  held, 
and  congresses  have  been  held  annually  since.  The 
present  reports  of  these  congresses  cover  over  200  large, 
closely  printed,  two-column  pages,  and  give  the  latest 
information  of  the  movement.  Before  these  con- 


Legal 
Bights. 


Scottish 
Wholesale. 


gresses  England's  bishops  and  foremost  preachers 
are  invited  to  preach,  and  her  ablest  statesmen  and 
leaders  in  social  reform  are  eager  to  appear.  The 
various  cooperative  societies,  boards,  and  organiza- 
tions in  England  are  now  limitless.  There  is  a  cooper- 
ative union,  which  represents  the  federated  coopera- 
tive industrial  and  provident  societies. 

What  it  has  done  in  the  way  of  gaining  legal  advan- 
tages for  cooperative  societies  may  be  summed  up 
under  two  main  heads. 

1.  The  incorporation  of  the  societies,  by  which  they 
have  acquired  the  right   of  holding  in 

their  own  name  lands  or  buildings  and 
property  generally,  and  of  suing  and 
being  sued  in  their  own  names,  instead 
of  being  driven  to  employ  trustees. 

2.  The  Industrial  and  Provident  Soci- 
eties Act,  1876,  which  consolidated  into 

one  act  the  laws  relating  to  these  societies,  and,  among 
many  smaller  advantages  too  numerous  to  be  mention- 
ed in  detail,  gave  them  the  right  of  carrying  on  bank- 
ing business  whenever  they  offer  to  the  depositors 
the  security  of  transferable  share  capital. 

The  literature  furnished  by  the  union  is  varied  and 
extensive.  It  publishes  some  hundreds  of  leaflets, 
pamphlets,  and  books  for  propaganda  purposes.  Lists 
and  specimens  may  be  had  from  the  secretary. 
Among  the  writers  are  Messrs.  Holyoake,  Hughes, 
Kaufmann,  Tom  Mann,  E.  V.  Neale,  and  Beatrice  and 
Sidney  Webb.  One  of  its  most  useful  publications  is  a 
Manual  for  Cooperators,  edited  by  T.  Hughes  and  E. 
V.  Neale.  Its  280  pages  contain  an  introductory  histor- 
ical sketch  of  cooperation,  and  treat  of  the  relations 
between  cooperation  and  different  philanthropic,  polit- 
ical, and  social  movements. 

September  2,  1871,  was  published  the  first  number  of 
the  Cooperative  News,  the  recognized  organ  of  English 
cooperators.  It  is  a  penny  weekly  published  in  Man- 
chester by  a  federation  of  cooperative  societies.and  had 
in  1894  a  circulation  of  41,500.  For  13  years  the  co- 
operative wholesale  societies  have  issued  an  Annual 
giving  full  statistical  tables  and  diagrams  of  the 
growth  of  cooperation. 

The  following  table,  taken  from  the  report  of  the 
Twenty-sixth  Annual  Congress  (1894),  shows  the  de- 
tails of  this  growth : 


COOPERATION  IN  ENGLAND,  IRELAND,   SCOTLAND,   AND  WALES   FROM   z86i   TO   1893. 
Compiled  by  H.  R.  Bailey,  Newcastle-on-Tyne. 


Societies 
Making 
Returns. 

Members. 

Share 
Capital. 

Loan 
Capital. 

Trade. 

Profit. 

1861  

45° 

460 
5°S 
867 
9'5 
1,052 
1,242 
1,300 
1.375 
746 
748- 
980 
1,026 
1,163 
1,165 
1,144 
1,181 
1,169 
1,183 
1,230  ~. 
i.MS 
1,165 
1,264 
1,288 
1,296 
1,291 
1,369 
1,438 

1,435 
1,509 
1,682 

48,184 
91,502 
108,588 
129,429 
148,586 

'74,993 
171,897 
208,738 
220,000 

2.49.  "3 
262,188 
300,931   — 
387.701 
411,252 
479,284 
507,857 
528,582 
560,703 
573,084 
604,063 
642,783  —  •• 
654,038 
681,691 
849,615 
803,747 
835,200 
896,910 

943,949 
1,014,086 
1,056,152 
1,126,516 
1,222,821 

£ 

333,290 
S10^1 
573,582 
684,182 
819,367 
1,046,310 

1,475,199 
2,027,776 
2,000,000 
2,034,261 
2,305,95i 
2,785,777-' 
3,512,962 
3,903,608 
4,700,990 
5,304,019 
5,487,959 
5,730,218 
5,747,841 
6,232,093 
6,937,284 
7,289,359 
7,500,835 
8,205,073 

8,799,753 
9,297,506 
9,817,787 
10,383,882 
11,187,409 
12,067,425 
12,064,693 
14,105,181 

£ 

£ 
1,512,117 

2,349,055 
2,626,741 
2,836,606 
3,373,847 
4,462,676 
6,001,153 
8,113,072 
8,100,000 
8,202,466 
9,437,471 
11,388,590 
15,662,453 
16,358,278 
16,088,077 
19,909,699 
21,374,013 
21,128,316 
20,365,602 
23,248,314 
24,926,005 
26,573,551 
28,089,310 
29,295,227 
29,882,679 
3r>253,757 
32,697,253 
36,005,235 
39,089,087 
41,503,196 
46,915,965 
49,599,800 

£ 

!862  

54,452 

73,543 
89,122 
107,263 
118,023 
I36,734 
184,163 
190,000 
197,128 

215,553 
344,509    ^ 
497,750 
586,972 
844,620 
919,762 
1,073,265 
872,686 
1,495.243 
1,341,290 

1,483,583-    ' 
1,463,959 
1,538,544 
1,717,050 
1,827,109 
1,999,658 
2,044,498 
2,282,519 
2,517,940 
2,790,545 
3,054,262 
3.357,i2i 

166,302 
213,623 
224,460 
279,226 
372,307 
398,578 
425,542    . 
500,000 

555,435 
670,721 
~  807,748 
1,119,023 
1,226,010 
1,425,267 
1,741,238 
1,900,161 
1,817,943 
i,949,5i4 
',579,873 
1,979,57° 
2,106,958 
2,324,031 
2,658,646 
2,883,761 
2,966,343 
3,069,268 
3,304,843 
3,628,608 
4,079,281 
4,548,417 
4,674,893 

1863   ...                           

1864   

j865     

t866  

Z867  

!868  

j869*                                  

1871   

1872     

1873  

1875   

j876  

1877  

^78               

1879  

jS8o                       

!88i         

1882                

1883  

1884  

1885  

1886        

1887  

1888  

1889      

1890  

1891  

1892  

Total  

638,360,711 

53,602,596 

*  No  return  published  in  1869  ;  these  figures  are  an  estimated  amount. 


Cooperation. 


360 


Cooperation. 


The  following  tables  from  the  same  report  give  the  details  of  the  present  condition  : 
A   SUMMARY  FOR  ALL  THE  SECTIONS. 


NAME  OF  SECTION. 

No.  of  Societies. 

No.  of 
Members 
at  end  of 

1893. 

LIABILITIES. 

ASSETS. 

Share 
Capital  at 
end  of 
1893. 

Loan 
Capital  at 
end  of 

1893. 

Reserve 

Fund  at 
end  of 
1893. 

Value  of 
Salable 
Stock  at 
end  of 

1893. 

Value  of 
Land, 
Bldgs.,  & 
Fixd.  Stk. 
at  end  of 
1893. 

Allowed 
for  De- 
preciation 
during 
1893. 

Invest- 
ments at 
end  of 

1893. 

46 
251 
158 
496 
33i 
247 
126 

2,561 
120,700 
169.525 
569,638 
213,220 
161,765 
61,178 

£ 
18,066 
958,096 
1,836,301 
8,232,279 
1,762,362 
1,256,809 
493.047 

£ 

6,712 
139.448 
108,615 
1,649,163 
1,376,462 
146,609 
30,864 

£ 

600 

42,395 
60,621 

330.705 
187,389 

!32,333 

29>si3 

£ 

4,233 
386,233 
590,845 
2,782,584 
1,090,807 
742,981 
215,605 

£ 

25,198 
573.238 
744.875 
4,032,107 
1,263,864 
736,981 
206,039 

£ 

2,138 
19,936 
29,864 
191,149 
54,616 
26,889 
8,820 

£ 

4-483 
322,002 
§06,323 
4,109,816 
1,266,282 
340,711 
162,824 

Northern  

Northwestern  

Scottish  

Southern  

Western  

Totals  

1.655 

1,298,587 

14,556,960 

3.457.873 

783,556 

5,813,288 

7,582,302 

332,412 

7,012,441 

A  SUMMARY  FOR  ALL  THE  SECTIONS. 


NAME  OF  SECTION. 

TRADE. 

PROFITS. 

Received 
for  Goods 
Sold  during 
1893. 

Trade 
Charges 
during 

1893. 

Total  Net 
Profit  Made 
during 
1893. 

Applied  for 
Educational 
Purposes 
during 
1893. 

Applied  for 
Charitable 
Purposes 
during 
1893. 

Subscription 
to 
Central 
Board. 

£ 
225,437 
2,580,983 
5,700,713 
26,008,737 
9,993.635 
4,485,523 
1,439,277 

£ 

16,265 
209,854 
343,969 
1,269,611 
560,115 
469,202 
107,663 

£ 

4,450 
219,054 
860,560 
2,158,079 
1,051,125 
222,966 
161,770 

£ 

£ 

5 
1,905 
2,954 
22,517 
4,047 
1,194 

484 

£     s.     d. 

14     i      8 
480  10      5 
732     o      5 

2,212       5         7 

689  18       i 
574  12       3 
278     8       8 

2,520 
2,583 

21,774 
4,124 
2,233 

1,253 

Northwestern  

Scottish  

Southern  

Western  

Totals  

5o>434>305 

2,976,679 

4,678,004 

34,487 

33,  "6 

4,981  17       i 

DETAILED   SUMMARY   OF  THE  SOCIETIES. 


ot 

5 

No.  of 
Members 
at  end  of 
1893. 

LIABILITIES. 

ASSETS. 

No.  of  Societ 

Share 
Capital  at 
end  of 
1893. 

Loan 
Capital  at 
end  of 
1893. 

Reserve 
Fund  at 
end  of 

1893. 

Value  of 
Salable 
Stock  at 
end  of 

1893. 

Value  of 
Land, 
Bldgs.,  & 
Fixd.  Stk. 
at  end  of 
1893. 

Allowed 
for  De- 
preciation 
during 
1893. 

Invest- 
ments at 
end  of 

1893. 

Distributive  Societies 
Productive  Societies.. 
Supply  Associations. 
Fed.  of  Creameries.  .  . 
Eng.  Wholesale  Soc.: 
Distributive  
Productive  

1,465 
176 
ii 
i 

i 

1,202,738 
31.563 
62,982 
16 

1,010 

£ 

12,581,742 
720,626 
540,225 
138 

173,005 
397,143 

6,777 

137,304 

£ 
1,391,901 
442,277 
73,038 
542 

909,780 

£ 

519.767 
53,609 
100,168 

£ 

3,698,703 
441,347 
505,688 
64 

633,568 
184,265 

274,666 
74,987 

£ 

5.751.196 
599,288 
301,562 
64 

408,879 
188,928 

270,276 
62,109 

£ 

224,553 
35.672 
9,699 

3 

34,307 
14,977 

10,251 

3,950 

£ 

6,193,293 
150,281 
154,302 

21,564 

345,592 

Scot.  Wholesale  Soc.  : 
Distributive  

i 

278 

640,326 

88,448 

168,973 

Productive  

Totals  

1,655 

1,298,587 

14,556,960 

3,457,873 

783,556 

5,813,288 

7,582,302 

333,413 

7,012,441 

Cooperation. 


361 


Cooperation- 


DETAILED  SUMMARY  OF  THE  SOCIETIES. 


TRADE. 

PROFITS. 

Received 
for  Goods 
Sold  during 
1893. 

Trade 
Charges 
during 
1893. 

Total  Net 
Profit  Made 
during 
1893- 

Applied  for 
Educational 
Purposes 
during 
1893. 

Applied  for 
Charitable 
Purposes 
during 
1893. 

Subscription 
to 
Central 
Board. 

Distributive  Societies  

£ 

32,5S3i°70 
2,450,300 
2,723,690 
45.5!6 

8,770,990 
755,177 

2,840,018 

295,544 

£ 
2,140,407 

281,743 
283,743 
2,006 

196,525 

£ 

4,321,304 
107,676 
68,818 

£ 
33i?83 
604 

£ 
24,200 
842 
89 
5 

7,520 

£     s.     d. 
4,562  18       5 
159  18      6 

58    15         2 

05       o 
150     o       o 

Productive  Societies  

Supply  Associations  

Federation  of  Creameries  
English  Wholesale  Society  : 
Distributive  

69,073 
15*083 

70,234 
16,816 

IOO 

Productive  

Scottish  Wholesale  Society  : 
Distributive  

72,255 



450 

50    o      o 

Productive  

Totals        

50,434,305 

2,976,679 

4,678,004 

34,487 

33)  Io6 

4,981  17     I 

n.™ 
uy. 


Says  Mr.  N.  O.  Nelson  (The  Outlook,  April  27,  1895), 
summarizing  the  history  of  English  cooperation  : 

"  Cooperation  has  already  passed  beyond  the  experi- 
mental stage.     In  Great  Britain  alone  it  now  handles  a 
business  of  over  $250,000,000  a  year,  from  which  a  profit 
of  over  $25,000,000  is  returned  on  pur- 
chases, besides  paying  5  per  cent,  inter- 
est  on  capital  and  accumulating  a  sur- 
pjus     There   are  nearly  2000  retail  as- 
sociations, of  which  many  have  several 
branches.     Some  of  the  societies  have 
as  high  as  30,000  members.    The  annual  sales  of  the 
Leeds  Society  exceed  $4,500,000. 

"Twenty-five  years  ago  the  retail  stores  formed  a 
federation  and  established  a  wholesale  society.  Fifty 
millions  a  year  is  the  business  now  done  by  the  whole- 
sale society.  It  has  its  own  buyers  in  the  important 
supply  centers  of  the  world,  buying  from  first  hands. 
It  owns  six  steamships,  which  carry  its  cargoes  from 
the  continent  and  from  Ireland.  It  does  the  banking 
and  the  insurance  for  the  cooperative  societies  and  in- 
dividuals. 

"  The  membership  of  those  societies  which  are  regu- 
larly incorporated  and  report  to  the  Government  is 
now  1,450,000,  which  represents  a  population  of  about 
7,000,000,  or  one  fifth  of  the  United  Kingdom.  The  so- 
cieties predominate  in  the  great  manufacturing  mid- 
land counties  ;  in  Lancashire  and  Yorkshire  probably 
one  half  the  people  are  cooperators. 

"  This  whole  system  has  grovyn  from  a  little  club  of 
28  very  poor  workmen  who  joined  together  just  50 
years  ago  to  buy  their  tea  and  flour  at  wholesale,  for 
cash,  and  deal  it  out  to  themselves  at  the  ordinary  retail 
prices,  for  cash.  That  pioneer  society  now  has  12,000 
members  and  nearly  $2,000,000  capital.  Two  principles 
were  adopted  and  rigidly  adhered  to  —  cash  payments 
and  full  market  prices.  These  seem  small  matters,  but 
they  are  in  fact  far-reaching.  For  cash  they  can  buy 
at  the  lowest  value,  and  for  cash  they  can  sell  without 
loss  of  bad  debts  and  with  less  account-keeping. 
They  cannot  become  insolvent,  and  they  know  all  the 
time  just  how  business  is  going.  By  charging  the  full 
market  price,  and  incurring  only  the  necessary  ex- 
penses for  distributing  the  goods,  they  accumulate  a 
profit  fund.  This  profit  is  made  up  in  large  part  of 
what  in  private  business  goes  out  m  advertising,  ex- 
pensive premises,  bad  debts,  and  disproportion  be- 
tween fixed  expenses  and  business  done.  Those  who 
know  something  of  business  will  recognize  that  these 
items  amount  to  a  large  percentage  on  sales  and  form 
a  constant  danger  to  capital  itself.  The  customers  and 
the  proprietors  being  the  same  persons,  the  customer 
reverses  the  usual  order  and  seeks  the  store.  Divi- 
dends being  upon  purchases  and  not  upon  capital,  the 
member  has  the  strongest  possible  incentive  to  do  all 
his  trading  at  the  store. 

"  Customarily  he  may  become  a  member  by  subscrib- 
ing for  one  share  of,  say,  $50,  and  paying  thereon  75 
cents  or  $i.  The  remainder  may  be  paid  by  applying 
the  dividend  on  his  purchases.  He  thus  becomes  a 
small  capitalist  by  the  mere  process  of  trading  at  the 
store.  Simple  interest  is  allowed  on  capital,  and  a 
surplus  is  built  up,  but  the  divisible  profits  fall  to  the 
consumers  in  proportion  to  their  respective  purchases. 


Each  member  has  one  vote,  regardless  of  the  number 
of  his  shares.  A  percentage  of  the  profits  is  set  aside 
to  provide  libraries,  lectures,  and  propagandist  litera- 
ture. The  original  Rochdale  Society  has  a  most  com- 
plete library,  chemical  laboratory,  astronomical  in- 
struments, and  branch  libraries  and  reading-rooms  at 
the  branch  stores. 

"  In  connection  with  the  stores,  especially  the  whole- 
sale, factories  have  been  started  on  the  capital  accumu- 
lated in  the  surplus  funds.  They  have  many  shoe  fac- 
tories, one  of  which  is  the  largest  in  the  world.  They 
have  extensive  flour-mills,  cloth-mills,  bakeries,  soap 
factories,  and  farms,  and  are  gradually  covering  the 
whole  field  of  their  consumption.  Having  abundant 
capital,  experienced  managers  and  men,  and  consum- 
ers within  their  own  organized  ranks,  the  chief  diffi- 
culties of  manufacturing  are  eliminated.  They  are 
thus  bringing  face  to  face  the  actual  producer  and  con- 
sumer, without  the  interposition  of  any  middleman  or 
private  profit.  The  association  and  members  being  on 
a  cash  footing,  they  are  not  nearly  so  dependent  on 
depression  in  trade.  Consumption  is  not  cut  off,  and 
the  factories  are  not  obliged  to  respond  to  the  first 
breath  of  financial  stringency.  Thus  it  is  that  work 
in  cooperative  factories  is  much  steadier  than  in  pri- 
vate hands." 

For  further  information  as  to  English  cooperation, 
see  COOPERATIVE  BANKS  ;  COOPERATIVE  FARMS  ;  CO- 
OPERATIVE PRODUCTION. 

THE  COLONIES. 

The  Royal  Commission  on  Labor  report  that  in  1889 
"  little  evidence  was  found  of  cooperation  in  industry 
or  trade,  and  none  at  all  of  participation  in  profits  by 
working  meni"  They  recommend  that 
a  labor  bureau  shall  be  established,  and 
that,  if  established,  it  shall  publish  from  Canada  and 
time  to  time  such  information  respect- 
ing  cooperation  and  profit-sharing  as 
may  be  obtainable.  Distributive  stores 
exist  in  Toronto  and  London,  Ontario. 
One  of  the  London  stores  sells  goods 
considerably  cheaper  than  other  establishments  in  the 
town,  and  another  sells  goods  to  stockholders  at 
wholesale  prices.  Members  must  pay  cash,  and  their 
orders  are  then  executed  at  a  wholesale  house.  They 
receive  3  per  cent,  discount,  but  this  is  reserved  for  the 
support  of  a  reading-room  and  for  other  expenses. 
There  is  a  cooperative  store  at  the  Sydney  Mines, 
Nova  Scotia,  which  has  been  in  operation  more  than 
20  years.  The  stock  is  owned  by  the  miners,  and  they 
are  only  allowed  credit  up  to  the  amount  which  they 
have  invested  ;  outsiders  must  pay  cash.  A  similar 
store  is  reported  to  exist  at  the  International  Mines, 
Nova  Scotia.  No  other  instances  of  even  comparative- 
ly successful  cooperation  are  recorded,  with  the  ex- 
ception of  two  cooperative  building  societies,  one  at 
Hamilton,  Ontario,  and  the  other  at  Halifax.  One 
htindred  and  twenty-eight  houses  had  in  1888  been 
built  with  the  help  of  loans  from  this  association,  and 
all  but  five  of  these  were  owned  by  mechanics.  The 
Halifax  Association  is  a  cooperative  savings  and  loan 
association,  which  lends  money  to  stockholders  only 


land. 


Cooperation. 


362 


Cooperation. 


on  real  estate  security.  Borrowers  receive  $234  for 
each  share,  the  face  value  of  which  is  $240,  and  pay 
$2.40  monthly  in  instalments  and  interest. 

Cooperation  has  little  hold  in  Australasia.    Accord- 
ing to  evidence  given  before  the  Royal  Commission  on 
Strikes,  New  South  Wales,  the  establishment  of  purely 
cooperative    business    undertakings    is 
hindered  in  Australia  by  the  difficulty  of 
Australia    raising  sufficient  money  on  such  security 
,     XT          as    workmen  can  give.     However  this 
ana    JN  ew    may  bei  practical  experiments  in  Austra- 
Zealand.     lia  have  been  few  and  far  between.    The 
Mosgiel  Woolen  Factory  at  Ashburton, 
New  Zealand,  which  is  conducted  upon 
cooperative  principles,  has  proved  a  financial  success  ; 
in  1891  it  paid  a  dividend  of  8  per  cent,  upon  the  share 
capital.    But  perhaps  the  greatest  success  in  coopera- 
tion that  has  as  yet  been  achieved  in  Australia  is  that 
recorded  by  the  Victorian  butter  factories  and  cream- 
eries, which  were  established  with  Government  assist- 
ance in  1888,  and  which  in  1891-02  exported  5,207,944  Ibs. 
of   butter  to  England.    The  Government  fitted  up  a 
traveling    dairy  and    sent    lecturers  throughout  the 
colony  to  give  practical  instruction  ;  they  also  grant  a 
bonus  on  every  pound  of  exported  butter,  graduated 
on  the  price  which  the  butter  fetches  in  the  London 
market.    The    farmers,  thus  encouraged,  send  their 
milk  to  a  creamery  or  a  butter  factory  in  which  they 
hold  shares,  and  receive  every  fortnight  the  proportion 
due  to  them  according  to  the  price  of  butter.    There 
are  360  such  factories  now  in  existence  in  Victoria. 


The  following  review  of  cooperation  in  France  and 
the  other  countries  of  Europe  is  mainly  based  upon  and, 
in  part,  abridged  from  the  reports  on  the  various 
countries  of  the  (English)  Royal  Commission  on  La- 
bor, 1893-04.  France,  while  the  classic  home  of  profit- 
sharing  (a.v.\  has  had  little  development  of  coopera- 
tion. In  the  early  half  of  the  century,  while  there  was 
much  discussion  of  the  principles  of  cooperation,  it 
usually  took  the  form  of  plans  for  cooperative  com- 
munities or  communism,  and  little  resulted.  What  did 
result  will  be  best  studied  under  COMMUNISM  ;  FOUR- 
IERISM;  ST.  SIMON;  BUCHEZ:  GUISE,  etc.  Coopera- 
tion proper  in  France  dates  from  the  Revolution  of 
1848,  when  the  National  Assembly  opened  a  credit  of 
$630,000  to  be  loaned  to  cooperative  societies.  July  15 
of  that  year  a  council  was  established  to  control  the 
loans.  In  six  months  there  were  480  requests  for  loans, 
amounting  to  $5,400,000.  Only  29  could  be  complied 
with,  and  that  partially.  Few  of  these  prospered,  and 
on  the  establishment  of  the  empire  a  decree  of  March 
25,  1852,  abolished  all  workmen's  societies.  The  law  of 
1867  gave  an  opportunity  for  cooperation,  but  little  was 
done.  In  1881  M.  Flouquet  endeavored  to  favor  coop- 
erative societies  in  Paris,  and  in  1888  certain  privileges 
and  exemptions  from  taxation  were  given  to  all  coop- 
erative societies  in  France.  In  spite  of  this  little  has 
developed.  The  socialists  of  France  have  usually  re- 
pudiated cooperation  and'profit-sharing  as  reactionary, 
and  the  attention  of  capitalists  and  of  the  well-to-do 
has  been  mainly  called  to  profit-sharing  (q.y.\  Never- 
theless gradually  some  cooperative  societies  have  de- 
veloped. The  Almanack  de  la  Cooperation  Franftust 
for  1893  (p.  93)  publishes  a  list  of  81  productive  societies, 
besides  cooperative  dairies  and  fruit  farms,  3  building 
societies,  18  cooperative  banks.  For  the  building  so- 
cieties and  banks,  see  COOPERATIVE  BANKS.  Besides 
these  there  were  942  cooperative  supply  associations. 
One  of  the  most  flourishing  of  these,  the  Society  of  the 
XVIII.  Arrondissement  of  Paris,  was  established  in 
1886.  and  owns  premises  costing  $68,000.  In  the  first 
half  of  1892  its  sales  were  $81,817.  Another  society,  La 
Moissoneuse,  was  founded  by  18  men  in  1874.  It  has  to- 
day 17  departments,  with  13,574  members,  employs  150 
workpeople,  and  does  an  annual  business  of  $1,400,000. 
There  are  similar  societies  among  the  railway  em- 
ployees and  the  miners.  A  society  at  Nimes,  L'Abeille 
Nimoise,  founded  in  1883,  works  very  closely  after  the 
Rochdale  system.  In  1886  a  Comite  Central  de  1'Union 
Cooperative  was  established.  See  also  PROFIT-SHAR- 
ING ;  GUISE  ;  LECLAIRE  ;  BOUCICAUT,  etc. 

GERMANY. 

Cooperation  in  Germany  has  developed  more  recent- 
ly, but  with  considerable  strength.  Says  the  English 
Labor  Commission's  report  on  Germany  : 

"The  cooperative  movement  as  a  whole  began  much 
later  in  Germany  than  in  England  or  France,  and  in 
its  first  beginning  it  took  a  different  form.  England 


had  made  a  start  with  distributive  cooperation  from 
the  point  of  view  of  cheapening  the  necessaries  ot  lite, 
and  France  had  begun  with  productive 
cooperation  among  laborers  and  small 
artisans,  but  the  first  attempts  at  co-      Schulze- 
operation  in  Germany  arose  from  the  .        . 

desire  on  the  part  of  the  artisan  class  to    JieuizBui. 
relieve  the  distress  due  to  factory  com- 
petition, by  obtaining  the  credit  and  the 
raw  material  necessary  for  their  work  at  a  more  rea- 
sonable   cost.    In    1848    certain    loan  associations,   or 
people's  banks   (Darlehnskassenvereine),  were  estab- 
lished, but  as  they  lent  money  without  interest,  and 
were  subsidized  by  philanthropic  outsiders,  they  soon 
came  to  be  regarded  by  the  artisans  as  mere  charitable 
associations,  and  were  held  in  small  esteem.    In  1849 
Herr  Schulze-Delitzsch,  who  tor  years  was  the  lite  and 
soul  of  the  cooperative  movement  in  Germany,  founded 
the  first  cooperative  society  for  the  purchase  of  raw 
material  among   13   cabinet-makers    in    Dehtzsch,  his 
native  town.     A  shoemakers'  cooperative  society  soon 
followed,  and  the  results  of  these  two  first  attempts 
were  so  favorable  that  during  the  next  few  years  a 
considerable  number  of  such  societies  were  formed  in 
the  neighboring  towns.     In  1850  Herr  Schulze  founded 
the  first  of  his  loan   associations   (Vorschussvereine), 
which  differed  from  the  earlier  banks  in  that  the  per- 
sons to  whom  loans  could  be  granted  must  themselves 
be  members  of  the  association  paying  regular  monthly 
contributions.    They  thus   themselves    indirectly  fur- 
nished   the    security   for    the    credit    afforded    them. 
After  a  time  both  the  societies  for  procuring  raw  ma- 
terial and  the  loan  associations  were   federated,  and 
the  security  thus  afforded  by  the  unlimited  liability  of 
all  the  members  of  all  the  associations  for  the  obliga- 
tions of  any  one  association  rendered  it  easy  to  procure 
the    necessary  capital.      Tho    the    societies    for    pro- 
curing raw  material    form    the   necessary   basis    for 
productive  cooperation,  the   highest    development  of 
the  cooperative  idea,  their  expansion  was   less  rapid 
than    that   of    the  loan   associations   •which  had  been 
founded  later.    Productive  cooperation  itself  scarcely 
appears  at  all,  and  indeed,  as  has  been  already  stated, 
it  has  at  no  time  been  able  to  show  a  very  successful 
record  in  Germany.     Herr  Schulze  himself  was  averse 
to  premature  effort  in  this  direction,  and  held  that  suc- 
cess must  be  preceded  by  a  long  preliminary  educa- 
tion in  other  forms  of  cooperation.     Between  1860  and 
1870  a  movement  was  set  on  foot  for  the  establishment 
of  retail  distributive    societies    (Konsumvereine),  and 
the  attention  of  the  working  classes  was  attracted  to 
these  stores  by  the  quarrel   which  resulted   between 
Schulze  and  Lassalle.     The  history  of  cooperation  in 
Germany  has  since  been  a   continuous   progress.    I 
has  not    yet    been   possible   to   establish    a  wholesale 
society,  but  the  rapidly   increasing   number    of    dis- 
tributive societies   are   strongly    in   favor  of    such    a 
measure,  and  Dr.  Crtiger  speaks  of  its  early  adoption 
as  probable.    The  movement  has  spread  from  industry 
to  agriculture.     The  necessity  of  economy  in  procur- 
ing the  requisite  stock  and  implements,  if  agriculture 
is  to  be  pursued  at  a  profit,  is  now  generally  recog- 
nized, and  cooperative  societies   for   the  purchase  of 
agricultural  necessaries,  cooperative  dairies,  coopera- 
tive workshops,  and  agricultural  banks  or  loan  asso- 
ciations    are     exceedingly    numerous.      Cooperative 
societies  for  the  settlement  of  estates  in  the  Eastern 
Provinces  are  the  latest  development,  and  cooperation 
as  applied  to  the  actual  working  of  the  land  is  regarded 
by  many  authorities  in  Germany  as  likely  to  te  pro- 
ductive of  most  important  results.     Much  of  the  suc- 
cess of  cooperation    in    Germany    may   be   ascribed, 
according  to  Dr.    Cruger,   to  the  fact   that   at  a  very 
early  period  the  individual   societies  were  organized 
into  larger  associations,  and    thus    enabled   to  profit 
by  each  other's  experience  and  to    afford  each  other 
necessary  support.     In    1859   a   congress   of  members 
of  loan  associations  was  summoned  by    Herr  Schulze 
to  Weimar ;  here   a  central    committee  was  appoint- 
ed, with  Herr    Schulze    at  the    head,   which    in   1864 
developed   into   the    General    Association   of  German 
Cooperative  Societies  (Allgemeiner  Verband  Dtutscher 
Enverbs  und  Wirtschaftsgenosscnschaften\  including 
all  forms  of  cooperation   within  its  limits.     The  secre- 
tary of  the  association    publishes  a  yearly   report  of 
the  financial  position  of  the  societies,  -with   a  critical 
account  of  the  progress  of  the  various  forms  of  cooper- 
ation.   The  association   is   subdivided    into    33  minor 
associations,  some  for  certain  provinces    or    districts, 
others   for    particular   trades.     The   directors     of  the 
smaller  associations  constitute  the  committee   of   the 
general  association,  whose  duty  is  to  advise  the  secre- 
tary in  all  important  matters.    The  secretary  is  him- 
self elected  at  the  annual  meeting  of  the  association. 


Cooperation 


363 


Cooperation. 


The  agricultural  cooperative  societies  possess  a 
similar  organization,  founded  with  Herr  Schulze's 
assistance  in  1883,  and  known  as  the  German  Agricul- 
tural Cooperative  Union  ( Vereinigung  der  landwirt- 
schaftlichen  Genossenschaften  des  Deutschen  Reichs). 
In  1889  it  included  1730  credit  associations,  975  associa- 
tions for  procuring  raw  material,  931  cooperative 
dairies,  and  101  other  cooperative  societies.  The  peas- 
ants' land  banks,  founded  by  Dr.  Raiifeisen,  have  an 
association  of  their  own,  and.  there  are  other  smaller 
federations  of  cooperative  societies."  (See  COOPERA- 
TIVE BANKS.) 

Such  is  a  general  view  of  German  cooperation  in 
actual  effort,  but  its  real  beginning  is  to  be  found 
even  before  the  efforts  of  Schulze-Delitzsch  in  the 
•work  of  Hiiber  (q.v.),  who  as  early  as  1838  was  invited 
by  Friedrich  Wilhelm  IV.  to  establish  in  Berlin  a  paper 
called  the  Janus,  advocating  cooperation. 

On  May  31,  1893,  according  to  statistics  furnished  to 

the  English  Cooperative  Congress  by  Dr.  F.  Schneider, 

and  printed  in  its  report  for  1894  (p.  141),  cooperative 

institutions  are  of  the  following  classes  : 

4791  people's  banks  against  4401  on  May 

Stfltiatir>a      31.     l892  '•     277°    societies    carrying     on 

Statistics.     various  trades  against  2840  on  May  31, 

1892 ;   1283  distributive  societies  against 

1122  on  May  31,  1892  ;  77  building  societies 

against  55  on  May  31,  1892  ;  8921  on  May  31,  1893,  against 

8418  on  May  31,  1892.     Dr.  Schneider  adds  : 

"  Trading  societies,  as  we  record  at  the  commence- 
ment, show  a  decrease  in  numbers.  Especially  is  this 
falling  off  noticeable  in  the  societies  of  handicrafts- 
men, altho  year  by  year  the  example  of  a  few  societies 
which  have  been  in  existence  over  30  years  for  the 
purpose  of  supplying  the  necessary  unworked  material 
to  tailors  and  shoemakers,  proves  that  such  material 
can  be  obtained  from  these  societies  considerably 
cheaper  than  from  the  merchant.  Unfortunately,  how- 
ever, the  present  feeling  among  handicraftsmen  is 
not  favorable  to  cooperation.  The  cooperative  ware- 
houses and  productive  societies  also  show  a  decline  in 
numbers.  .  .  . 

"  Some  of  the  various  classes  of  agricultural  societies 
have  likewise  experienced  a  decline.  In  some  places 
they  appear  to  have  proceeded  with  the  establishment 
of  societies  for  the  supply  of  raw  agricultural  produce, 
where  the  essential  conditions  for  the  existence  of 
such  societies  have  not  been  present,  and  consequently 
many  of  the  concerns  have  ceased  to  exist.  On  the 
other  hand,  the  number  of  agricultural  productive 
societies,  mostly  dairies,  has  gone  up  in  1892  and  1893 
from  1087  to  1196.  The  Agricultural  Union  at  the  end 
of  1893  numbered  1868  societies  with  150,000  members 
•(including  551  country  banks).  The  General  Union  of 
German  Industrial  and  Agricultural  Cooperative 
Societies  was  composed  at  the  end  of  1893  of  1480 
societies,  with  a  membership  of  not  under  500,000. 

"Of  the  distributive  societies  344  (against  302  in  1891) 
have  published  their  balance  sheets  for  1892.  We 
tabulate  therefrom  the  most  important  figures,  com- 
paring them  with  the  corresponding  figures  for  1891. 


1892. 

1891. 

Total  number  of  members  
Sales  for  year      

2431529 

229,126 

Working  capital  — 
In  members'  share  claims  ... 
In  reserve  funds  

240,231 

223,066 

In  loans  

Amount  owing  to  societies  for 
goods  

ier.-^S^ 

"  These  outstandings  for  goods  issued  arise  owing  to 
several  of  the  societies  not  strictly  adhering  to  the 
principle  of  cash  sales.  At  the  end  of  1892,  92  societies 
(against  75  ending  1891)  had  £11,856  (against  £10,492  in 
1891)  outstanding  for  goods  sold  on  credit.  Where  true 
economic  principles  are  observed  it  may  sometimes  be 
excusable  (with  such  goods  as  coals,  potatoes)  to  sell 
on  credit,  but  unfortunately  many  large  outstanding 
accounts  cannot  be  explained  away  in  this  manner. 
Of  the  membership  of  distributive  societies  dependent 
work-people  of  the  various  trades  form  56.7  per  cent. ; 
tradesmen,  13.9  per  cent. ;  doctors,  chemists,  public 
officials,  etc.,  8.7  per  cent.  All  classes  are  represented 
on  the  membership  roll  of  distributive  societies  as  they 
are  in  the  People's  Banks,  altho  naturally  in  a  different 
ratio.  Eight  building  societies  have  reported  progress. 
Ten  societies  had  1609  members,  with  £16,494  share 
capital,  £3501  reserve  fund,  £106,720  in  loans  repayable 


after  the  lapse  of  at  least  two  years  and  in  mortgages, 
£5458  in  loans  repayable  under  two  years.  On  the 
other  hand  the  property,  completed  and  in  course  of 
erection,  was  estimated  at  £90,403,  the  land  not  yet 
built  upon,  £17,750.  Of  the  99  houses  built  from  time 
to  time  by  one  society,  33  had  passed  into  the  hands  of 
individual  members. 

According  to  the  English  Labor  Commission  report, 
the  2840  trade  societies  of  May,  1892,  were  divided 
as  follows  : 

(1)  Raw  Material  Societies,  the  members  of  which 
combine  for  the  purchase,  at  wholesale  prices,  of  the 
raw  materials  necessary  for  their  trades,  the  great  ma- 
jority (1020  out  of  1130)  being  agricultural. 

(2)  Work  Associations,  the  special  object  of  which  is 
the  purchase,  with  capital  subscribed  by  the  members, 
of  tools,  machinery,  etc.,  which  is  then  hired  by  mem- 
bers at  a  fixed  rate,    the  moneys  so  received  being 
divided  among   the  members  in  proportion  to  their 
shares  ;  a  certain  sum  having  first  been  put  aside  for 
a  reserve  fund.    The  great  majority  of  these  associa- 
tions (299  out  of  312)  are  agricultural. 

(3)  Depot  Associations,  which  provide  a  general  store 
or  shop  in  which  members  may  sell  the  produce  of 
their  trade.    The   loan   societies  very  often  carry  on 
business  with  these  by  advancing  money  to  members 
on  the  security  of  their  goods.    They  also,  under  cer- 
tain circumstances,  have  something  of  the  nature  ot 
raw  material  and  productive  societies.    There  are  said 
to  have  been  71  of  these  associations  in  operation  on 
May  31  last  (64  industrial  and  7  agricultural). 

(4)  Productive  Associations,  of  which  the  report  men- 
tions altogether  1238 — 1014  being  dairy  societies,  while 
73  exist  for  other  purposes,  including  cattle-rearing, 
forestry,  and  fishing,  and  151  are  industrial. 

BELGIUM. 

The  beginning  of  the  cooperative  movement  in  Bel- 
gium was  simultaneous  with  the  formation  in  Paris, 
after  the  revolution  of  1848,  of  a  large  number  of  pro- 
ductive cooperative  societies.  A  considerable  number 
of  tailors',  shoemakers',  and  printers'  cooperative  soci- 
eties were  established  in  Brussels  and  Ghent,  but  were 
with  one  exception,  shortly  afterward  dissolved.  The 
first  distributive  societies  were  the  cooperative  baker- 
ies established  in  1854  at  Ghent  and  Antwerp,  but  these 
also  enjoyed  only  a  brief  existence.  A  certain  number 
of  societies  for  the  purchase  of  stores  for  the  winter 
were  established  a  little  later,  chiefly  among  the  mem- 
bers of  friendly  societies ;  in  1865,  12  of  these  societies 
were  in  existence.  Between  1864,  when  the  first  "  peo- 
ple's bank  "  was  instituted  at  Liege,  and  1873,  a  large 
number  of  societies  were  established,  mainly  through 
the  influence  of  the  Internationale,  but  the  lack  of 
recognition  and  protection  by  the  law,  as  well  as  of 
proper  organization  among  the  working  classes,  and  in 
some  cases  the  bad  management  and  dishonesty  on  the 

Eart  of  the  managers,  brought  about  the  dissolution, 
y  1873,  °£  almost  all  the  societies,  with  the  exception 
of  the  various  distributive  societies  established  in  1869 
at  the  Mariemont  and  Bascoup  collieries.  In  1867,  M. 
Anspach,  the  burgomaster  of  Brussels,  established 
cheap  dining-rooms  for  working  men,  one  of  which 
still  remains  in  Brussels.  In  1871  M.  Bara  brought 
forward  a  bill  for  the  recognition  of  cooperative  socie- 
ties, which  became  law  in  1873,  and,  with  certain  slight 
modifications  introduced  in  1886,  still  remains  in  force. 
In  January,  1878,  however,  there  existed  only  13  co- 
operative societies  established  in  accordance  with  this 
law,  and  of  these  10  were  people's  banks. 

The  real  development  of  cooperation  in  Belgium  has 
been  in  connection  with  the  Belgium  socialist  move- 
ment.   (See  BELGIUM  AND  SOCIAL  RE- 
FORM.)   In  1879,  largely  under  the  lead 
of  the  socialist    Anserle,    a  cooperative  Cooperation 
bakery   was     begun    in    Ghent.      This  ft_j 

movement  has  given  cooperation  in  Bel-  .  " 

gium  a    firm    hold.     Between  1885  and     Socialism, 
the  end  of  1892,  303  societies  were  estab- 
lished, whereas  only  45  were  instituted 
between    1873   and  1884.     Agricultural  cooperative  so- 
cieties were   commenced  in  1885.    There  are  also  co- 
operative   dairies,    drug    stores,    insurance    societies, 
banks,  and  distributive  societies  of  many  kinds. 

At  present,    no    general    federation  of  cooperative 
societies  has  been  formed  in  Belgium.    In  1869  a  feder- 
ation of  people's  banks  was  established, 
which  holds  an  annual  congress,  and  in 
1887  the  question  of  federation  was  de-       General 
bated  at  a  congress  of  delegates  from     Condition. 
cooperative  distributive  societies,  con- 
voked by  the  "  Vooruit,"  and  a  provision- 
al committee  was  appointed.     At  the  annual  congress 
of  the  Labor  Party  in  1890  the  question  was  again  in- 


Cooperation. 


364 


Cooperation. 


troduced,  and  a  few  days  later  a  federal  council  was 
established  at  Ghent.  About  the  same  time,  the  co- 
operative societies  of  Government  employees  instituted 
a  federation,  to  which  13  societies  of  employees  are  now 
(1893)  affiliated.  A  local  federation  of  cooperative 
societies  was  established  at  Liege  about  1891. 

The  really  most  general  cooperative  organization  in 
Belgium  is  the  Labor  Party,  which  is  so  strong  and  so 
thoroughly  organized  that  by  declaring  a  general 
strike,  it  forced  the  Legislature,  against  its  will,  to 
grant,  the  recently  very  much  enlarged  suffrage. 
(For  further  details  see  BELGIUM  AND  SOCIAL  REFORM.) 

A  cooperative  bakery  and  club  called  Vooruit 
were  formed  at  Ghent,  followed  soon  by  a  similar 
society  in  Brussels  called  the  Maison  du  Peuple.  Soon 
the  movement  spread  through  all  the  Belgian  towns. 
The  most  important  societies  are  those  at  Brussels, 
Antwerp,  Ghent,  Liege,  Louvain,  Charleroi,  Namur, 
Verviers,  La  Louviere,  and  "  Le  Pregrls"  at  Jolimont. 
In  industrial  centers  such  as  Charleroi,  Borinage,  and 
the  Center  of  Hainault,  the  cooperative  society  be- 
gan by  selling  flour  and  butter,  but  it  was  soon  found 
that  a  cooperative  bakery  could  produce  bread  far 
more  cheaply  than  it  could  be  produced  by  each  fam- 
ily for  their  own  consumption.  With  the  exception  of 
the  cooperative  society  at  Jolimont,  where  bread  is 
sold  at  the  lowest  possible  price,  these  societies  have 
almost  all  adopted  the  system  of  the  Pioneers  of  Roch- 
dale, selling  at  the  current  trade  prices,  and  dividing 
the  profits  realized  at  the  end  of  a  certain  period,  gen- 
erally a  year  or  six  months. 

The  movement,  however,  is  wholly  in  the  hands  of 
the  (socialist)  Parti  ouvrier,  and  no  small  portion  of 
the  profits  are  spent  for  socialist  education,  literature, 
and  propaganda.  The  club  houses  are  centers  of  so- 
cialism, and  usually  one  must  belong  to  the  party 
to  have  the  benefits  of  the  society. 

The  great  society  "La  Maison  du  Peuple"  at 
Brussels,  begun  1882,  is  representative.  It  was  legally 
established  in  1888,  and  in  1893  it  numbered  10,000  mem- 
bers, and  manufactured  more  than 
.  100,000  loaves  a  week.  It  possesses  real 

La  Maison    property,   having   a  tool-store,  a  libra- 

du  Peuple.  ryi  an<i  other  premises,  worth  in  all 
several  hundred  thousand  francs.  The 
objects  of  the  society  are  to  establish 
and  work  bakeries,  and,  as  the  funds  allow,  to  establish 
butchers'  shops,  restaurants,  cooperative  workshops, 
general  provision  shops,  libraries,  reading-rooms,  and 
other  institutions.  Its  duration  is  fixed  at  30  years 
from  July  ist,  1888.  The  minimum  capital  of  the  so- 
ciety is  16.000  francs,  and  its  liability  is  limited  to  the 
amount  of  the  assets.  Each  share  is  worth  10  francs, 
payable  in  four  half  yearly  installments.  Persons  who 
wish  to  join  the  society  must  purchase  a  share  and 
adhere  to  the  program  of  the  Labor  Party  (Parti 
ouvrier),  to  which  it  is  affiliated.  Members  •who  deal 
for  one  month  elsewhere  than  at  the  society's  estab- 
lishments, or  otherwise  infringe  the  rules,  may  be  ex- 
cluded by  the  council  of  management  and  a  majority 
of  two  thirds  at  the  general  meeting.  A  member  who 
has  resigned  or  been  excluded  receives  his  share,  and 
the  dividends  to  which  he  is  entitled,  in  bread  or 
other  goods  sold  by  the  society,  except  in  special 
cases,  when  he  may  be  paid  in  cash.  General  meet- 
ings are  convoked  quarterly  by  the  council  of  man- 
agement, which  meets  at  least  twice  a  month,  and 
consists  of  members  of  all  the  sections.  An  executive 
committee,  to  carry  out  the  decisions  of  the  council 
and  the  sections,  is  composed  of  one  member  from 
each  section.  The  sections  consist  of  six  members, 
five  elected  by  the  general  meeting  and  one  by  the 
men  employed  (personnel)  in  that  branch  ;  the  bakery 
section  is  composed  of  nine  members,  two  of  whom 
represent  the  men  employed.  Deductions  from  the 
half  yearly  dividends  are  made  of  2}^  per  cent,  for 
the  staff,  and  of  25  per  cent,  for  a  reserve  fund,  at  least 
half  of  which  is  employed  for  socialist  propaganda, 
and  the  remainder  is  added  to  the  funds.  Each  mem- 
ber pays  five  centimes  a  week  to  the  provident  fund, 
from  which  he  is  allowed,  in  case  of  sickness,  seven 
loaves  weekly  for  two  years.  In  1890  a  medical  aid 
society  (Service  mtdico-pharmaceutique)  was  estab- 
lished, •which,  for  a  weekly  payment  of  five  centimes 
for  each  person,  provides  members  of  the  cooperative 
society  and  of  the  Brussels  federation  of  the  Labor 
Party  with  medical  attendance  and  medicine  gratis. 

HOLLAND. 

Dutch  cooperative  associations  are  subject  to  a  spe- 
cial law  passed  in  1876,  which  determines  their  scope 
and  constitution.  Several  cooperative  associations 
existed  before  this  law  was  passed,  but  their  number 
has  since  been  considerably  increased. 


The  cooperative  form  of  association  has  been  applied 
to  building  societies  and  credit  banks,  as  well  as  to  the 
more  usual  forms  of  distribution  and  production.  The 
principal  productive  societies  are  two  printing  estab- 
lishments situated  respectively  at  the  Hague  and  at 
Leeuwarden,  the  cooperative  bakery  "  Volharding" 
at  the  Hague,  and  another  at  Amsterdam. 

The  Leeuwarden  printing  establishment  has  been  in 
existence  for  17  years,  during  which  time  it  has  paid 
an  annual  dividend  of  from  7  to  10  per  cent,  over  and 
above  the  5  per  cent,  interest  on  share  capital.  Some 
10  workmen  out  of  a  staff  of  38  are  shareholders. 

The  Volkarding  bakery  at  the  Hague  is  managed 
chiefly  by  socialists,  tho  the  socialist  party  as  such 
has  nothing  to  do  with  it.  The  workmen's  wages  at 
this  bakery  are  higher  than  elsewhere,  and  the  hours 
are  much  shorter;  there  is  no  Sunday  work  and  the 
hours  per  day  are  only  eight.  In  1890  the  bakery  paid 
a  dividend  of  n  per  cent.,  in  1891  of  10  per  cent.,  and  in 
1892  the  price  or  bread  was  reduced  i  cent  per  kil- 
ogram. 

Cooperation  has  succeeded  better  where  it  has  con- 
fined its  efforts  to  retail  distribution.  In  1886  the  num- 
ber of  these  associations  was  stated  as  33,  and  coopera- 
tive shops  are  now  to  be  found  at  Amsterdam,  Rotter- 
dam, the  Hague,  Haarlem,  Leiden,  and  many  other 
towns  and  villages. 

The  most  important  among  distributive  societies, 
that,  namely,  known  as  the  Eigen  Hulp,  was  founded 
at  the  Hague  in  1887  with  the  object  of  supplying  the 
working  classes  with  the  necessaries  of  life  at  very 
moderate  prices.  It  has,  however,  lately  developed 
into  what  is  practically  a  joint-stock  supply  associa- 
tion, with  branches  in  all  the  large  towns,  and  drawing 
its  customers  chiefly  from  the  upper  classes.  The 
"Social  Interest  Society"  was  formed  to  counteract 
the  aristocratic  tendencies  of  the  Eigen  Hulp.  The 
rise  of  cooperation  in  Haarlem  is  attributed  to  the 
discussions  which  took  place  among  working  men 
during  the  congress  of  the  Internationale at  the  Hague 
in  1872.  The  employees  of  the  Holland  Railway  Co.  at 
Haarlem  thought  that  the  projects  of  the  socialists, 
•were  somewhat  visionary,  and  as  a  step  toward  more 
practical  results  they  formed  an  association  for  the 
purchase  of  coal,  potatoes,  rice,  etc.,  on  cooperative 
principles.  The  numerous  building  societies  which 
now  exist  in  Haarlem  are  the  result  of  this  begin- 
ning. 

The  Verbruiks-  Vereenigingoi  Rotterdam  was  found- 
ed in  1874.  Every  member  must  hold  a  share  of  the 
value  of  25  florins.  The  accounts  are  made  up  quar- 
terly, and  the  net  profits  divided  among  the  members 
in  proportion  to  the  value  of  their  purchases. 

All  these  societies  are  strictly  local,  and  no  central 
organization  exists. 

SWITZERLAND. 

Cooperative  distributive  societies  formed  on  the 
English  pattern  were  founded  in  Switzerland  at  an 
earlier  date  than  in  any  other  continental  country. 
The  institution  soon  took  firm  root,  and  now  63  socie- 
ties, exclusive  of  local  branches,  are  reported  in  vari- 
ous parts  of  the  country.  The  most  usual  form  of  the 
distributive  society  is  an  association  for  the  wholesale 
purchase  of  food  and  household  commodities.  The 
articles  bought  at  wholesale  prices  are  sold  to  cus- 
tomers at  prices  varying  from  5  to  7  per  cent,  below 
those  of  ordinary  retail  dealers.  Some  societies  have 
also  undertaken  the  management  of  restaurants,  where 
a  meal  of  soup,  meat,  and  vegetables  can  be  had  for 
about  40  c.  (8  cents). 

The  capital  is  formed  either  by  weekly  subscriptions 
or  by  the  issue  of  small  interest-bearing  notes  for 
sums  as  low  as  three  frs.  The  net  profits  go  to  form  a 
reserve  fund  or  to  extend  the  operations  of  the  society. 


it  realized  a  net  profit  of  39,000  frs.  The  average  quar- 
terly dividend  of  this  society  is  12  per  cent.,  its  reserve 
fund  amounts  to  19,000  frs.,  and  its  capital  consists  of 
19,000  frs.  in  shares  of  10  frs.  each.  One  of  the  oldest 
and  most  important  associations  is  the  Consumverein 
of  Zurich.  This  society  was  founded  in  October,  1853, 
by  eight  members  of  the  Griitliverein,  with  a  joint 
capital  of  75  frs.,  -which  they  employed  in  the  purchase 
and  sale  of  cigars.  At  the  end  of  a  month  the  member- 
ship had  increased  to  19,  and  by  the  end  of  January, 
1852,  128  new  members  had  been  enrolled.  The  joint 
capital  was  employed  in  making  and  selling  bread. 
Our  figures  are  taken  from  the  (English)  Labor  Report. 
The  cooperative  principle  has  been  applied  with 
great  success  to  banking  operations  in  Switzerland, 


Cooperation. 


365 


Cooperation. 


where  242  out  of  the  total  number  of  savings  banks  are 
owned  by  cooperative  societies.  Some  600  cooperative 
societies  of  various  kinds  are  now  in  existence  ;  these 
include  305  cooperative  dairies,  besides  a  large  num- 
ber of  societies  for  the  insurance  of  cattle,  fire  insur- 
ance, etc. 

ITALY. 

Cooperation  in  Italy,  as  we  shall  in  a  moment  see, 
connects  itself  with  the  past,  yet  has  only  recently 
been  thoroughly  organized.  In  1886  and  1887  the  first 
and  second  congresses  of  Italian  cooperators  met  at 
Milan,  and  the  Federation  of  Italian  Cooperative  So- 
cieties was  constituted.  A  central  committee  was  ap- 
pointed, reports  on  the  progress  of  cooperation  in  Italy 
were  read,  and  accounts  of  the  sums  expended  by  the 
federation  were  rendered.  A  journal,  La  Cooperazione 
Italiana^  was  established,  statutes  for  the  federation 
were  drawn  up,  and  an  international  federation  of  co- 
operative societies  was  projected. 

The  most  marked  and  peculiar  success  of  coopera- 
tion in  Italy  has  been  of  cooperative  societies  of  day 
laborers.    The  origin  of  day  laborers'  associations  has 
been  traced  back  to  the  companies  of 
Lombard  masons,   who,   in  the   Middle 
Day  Labor-  Ages,  wandered  through  Europe  build- 
ers' Unions,   ing  cathedrals  and  palaces.     The  move- 
ment has  developed  in  an  extraordinary 
manner  since  1888,  especially  in  Romag- 
na,  where  it  first  began,  and  where  the  metayer  sys- 
tem,   which  has  now  almost  disappeared,  was  once 
widely  diffused. 

In  October,  1887,  the  deputies  Marin,  Badaloni, 
Tedeschi,  and  Villanqva  made  an  appeal  to  the  peas- 
ants of  Rovigo  (Polesine),  urging  them  to  form  a  coop- 
erative societv.  Their  appeal  was  published  in  La 
Cooperazione  Italiana  as  an  appendix  to  the  Report  of 
the  Second  Congress  of  Italian  Cooperators,  but  it 
met  with  no  response.  In  October,  1888,  Signer  Marin 
opened  a  "cooperative  campaign,"  which  lasted  for  a 
whole  year.  The  first  conference  was  held  at  Conta- 
rina  on  November  24,  and  soon  afterward  a  day 
laborers'  cooperative  society  was  formed.  Other 
conferences  followed,  and  fresh  associations  were  con- 
stituted at  Isola  di  Ariano,  Papozze,  Laura,  Gavello, 
and  many  other  places.  In  all  15  day  laborers'  socie- 
ties were  established,  besides  four  associations  of  day 
laborers  and  builders.  These  19  unions  had  almost 
8000  members,  drawn  from  the  ranks  of  the  poorest 
peasants  in  Italy.  In  1890  Signer  Marin  was  using  his 
utmost  efforts  to  unite  them  all  in  a  federation  (con- 
sorzio),  in  order  to  enable  them  to  undertake  important 
public  works. 

The  organization  of  these  societies  and  the  system  of 
payment  to  members  which  is  observed  are  very  sim- 
ple. The  society  makes  a  contract  for  a  given  piece 
of  work  at  a  given  price,  and  then  sublets  the  work  by 
the  piece  to  gangs  (squadre)  of  its  members.  It  pro- 
vides the  necessary  tools  if  the  •workmen  do  not 
possess  them,  and  gives  a  price  equal  to  that  which  it 
has  received,  minus  the  expenses  of  administration. 
While  the  work  goes  on  the  members  receive  instal- 
ments of  pay  for  their  immediate  maintenance.  When 
the  work  is  finished  the  quantity  done  by  each  man  is 
estimated,  and  he  is  paid  a  proportionate  share  of  the 
profits. 

The  most  important  associations  are  those  of  Ra- 
venna and  Budrio. 

Cooperative  dairies  also  occupy  a  prominent  place 
in  Italy.  (See  COOPERATIVE  FARMING.) 

The  first  distributive  societies  in  Italy  were  founded 
early  in  the  second  half  of  this  century.  A  cooperative 
store  was  started  in  1853  by  the  General  Society  of  the 
Working  Men  of  Turin,  followed  by  an- 
other at  Alessandria,  which  was  opened 
Distributive.  in  '854.  The  capital  of  many  of  these 
original  societies  was  obtained  by  means 
of  subscriptions  from  wealthy  persons, 
and  in  some  places  they  were  even  organized  by  the 
municipal  authorities.  To  this  form  of  distribution 
others  opposed  the  more  purely  cooperative  English 
type,  based  upon  the  scheme  of  the  Rochdale  Pio- 
neers. They  believed  that  the  consumers  would  bene- 
fit more  by  receiving  the  profits  of  the  society  in  the 
form  of  dividends  than  by  a  constant  diminution  of  re- 
tail prices.  The  Italian  Industrial  Association  was 
formed  at  Milan,  to  promote  the  development  of  in- 
dustry in  Italy,  by  the  foundation  of  people's  banks, 
benefit  societies,  and  strictly  cooperative  societies  of 
consumption  and  production.  Other  associations  •with 
the  same  objects  were  instituted  in  several  Italian 
towns,  and  a  newspaper,  called  Cooperation  and  Indus- 
try, was  started.  In  1864,  distributive  societies  on  the 
English  system  were  founded  at  Como,  San  Pier 


d'Arena,  and  Milan,  and  between  1867  and  1870  many 
others  arose  at  Bologna,  Belluno,  Cremona,Chiaravalle, 
Citta  di  Castello,  Faenza,  Ferrara,  Imola,  Lodi,  Lugo, 
Piacenza,  Siena,  Treviso,  Udine,  Verona,  Vicenza, 
Venice,  and  elsewhere.  In  1865  there  appear  to  have 
been  about  52  such  societies  in  Italy,  and  by  the  end  of 
1873  this  number  had  risen  to  85,  including  16  associa- 
tions on  the  English  system.  Unfortunately  the  hopes 
raised  by  this  brilliant  beginning  were  destined  to 
disappointment.  The  Italian  distributive  societies 
were  a  foreign  importation  and  the  result  of  many 
isolated  forces ;  they  lacked  unity  in  direction,  in 
form,  and  in  aims.  The  severe  English  type,  with  its 
complicated  system  of  reckoning,  could  not  be  main- 
tained, for  the  consumers,  urged  by  necessity,  pre- 
ferred a  great  immediate  fall  of  prices  to  the  slow  ac- 
cumulation of  profits.  The  original  stores  have  suc- 
ceeded better,  especially  the  one  at  Milan. 

In  1864  a  woman's  cooperative  store  was  started  in 
Turin.  In  1888  the  men's  stores  distributed  goods  to 
the  value  of  1,051,840  lire,  and  the  women's  stores  had 
effected  sales  to  the  value  of  600,966  lire.  Both  so- 
cieties sold  below  the  market  prices,  yet  in  1888  their 
respective  realized  profits  amounted  to  20,128  lire  and 
7,318  lire. 

Another  form  of  Italian  cooperation  are  associations 
among  railway  officials.  They  are  of  recent  origin, 
but  are  becoming  widely  diffused  throughout  Italy. 
They  are  formed  by  means  of  small  shares,  varying 
from  20  lire  to  100  lire.  Their  object  is  to  provide  the 
members  and  their  families  with  the  necessaries  of 
life,  of  good  quality,  and  at  a  moderate  price.  With 
this  purpose  they  open  cooperative  stores  for  the  sale 
of  necessaries  to  the  members,  and  some  even  directly 
produce  salted  meat  (satumi),  bread,  and  other  com- 
modities. They  all  appear  to  sell  their  goods  below  the 
market  price.  Some  even  pay  no  interest  to  the  share- 
holders, and  sell  at  cost  price,  with  a  slight  addition 
for  the  expenses  of  the  society  and  for  the  reserve 
fund.  Others  sell  at  a  higher  price,  dividing  the  profits 
among  the  shareholders,  or  using  them  to  increase  the 
number  of  shares.  These  societies  have  a  great  ad- 
vantage in  the  ease  and  cheapness  with  which,  owing 
to  their  connection  with  the  railway,  they  can  convey 
goods  from  one  place  to  another.  The  first  coopera- 
tive society  among  railway  officials  in  Italy  was 
founded  at  Turin  in  1873. 

"The  question  of  improving  the  dietary  of  the  peas- 
antry is  one  of  great  and  increasing  importance  in 
Italy."    In    Northern    Italy  the    staple    food    of    the 
agricultural  population  is  Indian  corn, 
which  often  induces  pellagra  from  being 
used  in  a  damaged    condition.      Since  Bakehouses. 
1860  the  question  of  establishing  cooper- 
ative and  other  bakehouses  in  the  rural 
districts    has    been    before  the  public. 
Don  Rinaldo  Anelli  started  a  small  cooperative  bake- 
house at  Bernate,  which  proved  a  great  success.    In 
1884  the  Government  offered  to  pay  half  the  expense 
of  starting  new  establishments,  and  by  1885  the  total 
number  of  cooperative  bakehouses  in  Italy  had  risen 
to  38.    Some  of  these,  however,  appear  to  have  been 
subsequently  closed  with  loss,  and  Signer  Volpi,  a 
landed  proprietor  of  the  province  of  Milan,  is  of  opin- 
ion that  the  peasantry  are  not  yet  ripe  for  cooperation, 
but  that  it  is  the  personal  duty  of  the  landlord  to  see 
that  his  tenants  are  well  and  properly  fed.    The  vari- 
ous communes  and  the  Milan  Savings  Bank,  as  well  as 
the  Ministry  of  Agriculture,  have  voted  subsidies  for 
the  same  purpose. 

A  beginning  has  been  made  toward  the  formation 
of  cooperative  farming  associations  in  Italy,  but  the 
movement  is  not  as  yet  of  much  importance. 
The  statistics  of  cooperation  in  Italy  in  1891  were  : 

Dairies 208 

Day  Laborers'  Societies 49 

Masons' 43 

Industrial 109 

Manufacturers 52 

Raw  Material 9 

Building 69 

Distributive ....     681 

Various 22 

Total 1,243 

AUSTRIA. 

The  first  and  still  to-day  the  most  numerous  cooper- 
ative societies  in  Austria  are  the  loan  societies,  modeled 
after  the  German.  They  began  to  come  into  existence 
between  1850  and  1860.  Distributive  societies  are  the 
next  in  importance.  Building  societies  were  com- 
menced about  1870.  Productive  societies  number  only 


Cooperation. 


366 


Cooperation. 


about  200,  and  of  these  more  than  one  half  in  Vienna. 
There  are  besides  cooperative  dairies,  societies  for 
buying  raw  material,  etc.  There  is  a  general  cooper- 
ative union,  which  in  1892  had  a  membership  of  217 
societies.  The  Austrian  State  Handbook  for  iSqj,  p. 
236,  reports  2301  cooperative  societies  of  all  kinds  in 
Austria,  1882  being  loan  societies  and  324  distributive. 

THE   UNITED   STATES. 

Cooperation  in  the  United  States  has  had  a 
very  much  longer  and  fuller  history  than  is  usu- 
ally realized.  It  has  reached  very  large  propor- 
tions. In  cooperative  credit  associations  it  is 
scarcely  equalled  ;  in  attempts  in  cooperative 
communities  it  has  led  the  world,  and  seems  to- 
day as  fertile  in  new  attempts  as  ever  in  its  his- 
tory. It,  however,  is,  except  in  the  cooperative 
bank  movement,  utterly  unorganized  as  a  na- 
tional movement,  and  most  of  its  early  attempts 
have  proved  of  short  duration.  Dr.  R.  Heber 
Newton,  in  his  Social  Studies  (1887),  gives  the 
following  interesting  table  of  the  main  events 
in  the  history  of  American  cooperation  : 

1730  (about).— Share  system  introduced  into  New  Eng- 
land fisheries. 

1752.— Fire  assurance  introduced  in  Philadelphia. 
"  The  Philadelphia  Contributionship  for  the  Insur- 
ance  of  Houses  from  Loss  by  Fire."    Benjamin 
Franklin  first  director.    Corporation  still  prosper- 
ing. 

1767.— Life  insurance  introduced  in  Philadelphia. 
"  The  Corporation  for  the  Relief  of    Widows  and 
Children  of  Clergymen  in  the  Communion  of  the 
Church  of  England  in  America."     Composed  of 
clergymen.    Still  flourishing. 
1819.— Mutual  assurance  bodied  in  a  national  order— 

the  Odd  Fellows. 

1820-30.— Owen's  movement ;  socialistic. 
1830-40.— Loan  and  building  societies  formed  in  Phil- 
adelphia. 
New  England  Association  of  Farmers  and  Mechanics 

agitate  the  formation  of  stores. 
Labor  organizations  in   New  England    open    some 

stores. 

1840-50. —Brook  Farm,  Hopedale,  etc. 
Fourierite  phalanxes. 

New  England  Protective  Union  builds  up  a  system 

of  stores  ;  which  at  their  height  did  a  business  of 

about  $2,000,000  per  annum ;  some  of  which  still 

survive. 

The    earliest    essay    in    cooperative    production — 

Tailors'  Association  in  Boston  (1849). 
1850-60. — Loan    associations    arise    in    Massachusetts. 
Associate  dairies  started  in  New  York.    Anaheim. 
1860-70.— Stores  started  in  several  States. 
Productive  societies  also. 

Revival  of  building  and  loan  associations  in  Penn- 
sylvania. 

Mutual  assurance  assumes  business  forms. 
Renewed  attempts  at  cooperative  production. 
Ship-yard  in  Baltimore  (1865),  in  Boston  (1866) ;  ma- 
chine   shop    in   Philadelphia   (1866) ;    foundries  in 
various  cities  ;    shoe  manufactory  in  Lynn  and  in 
North    Adams    (about   1868) ;     cigar  manufactory 
in  Westfield,  Mass.  (1869). 

1870-80. — Knights  of  St.  Crispin  agitate  cooperation. 
Founding  and  growth  and  decline  of  the  Patrons  of 
Husbandry ;  which  order  claimed  to  save  in  one 
year  (1874)  $12,000,000  to  its  members,  through  its 
cooperative  agencies. 

Founding  and  growth  of  the  Knights  of  Honor— a 
great  mutual  assurance  association.  Still  flourish- 
ing- 
Founding,  growth,  and  dissolution  of  the  Sovereigns 
of  Industry  ;  which  order  did  a  cooperative  busi- 
ness in  one  year  (1877)  of  $3,000,000  ;  representing  a 
saving  to  its  members  of  $420,000 ;  all  of  its  stores 
being  on  the  Rochdale  plan  ;  some  of  which  are 
still  prosperous. 

Scattered  stores  in  many  States ;  Massachusetts  re- 
porting 15  independent  stores  organized  since  1870. 
Philadelphia  Industrial  Cooperative  Society  organ- 
ized (1875). 

Independent  productive  societies  in  many  States. 
Rapid  growth  of   associate  dairies,  of  which  there 

are  now  5000  in  the  United  States. 
Rapid  growth  of  mutual  assurance  companies  ;  the 


Patrons  of  Husbandry  having  at  one  time  in  one 
State  alone  38  fire  insurance  companies ;  three 
companies  in  one  count}*  carrying  over  $1,000,000  of 
risks  ;  New  York  State  claiming  300,000  members 
of  various  mutual  assurance  societies  at  end  of 
decade. 

Rapid  growth  of  building  and  loan  societies  in  Penn- 
sylvania, which  now  number  over  600  in  Philadel- 
phia, with  a  membership  of  75,000  and  a  capital  of 
$80,000,000 ;  which  number  in  Pennsylvania  from 
1500  to  1800 ;  which  have  led  to  investment  of  $100,  - 
000,000  in  real  estate  in  Philadelphia  alone. 

Revival  of  loan  associations  in  Massachusetts ; 
where  are  now  over  22  societies  incorporated,  hav- 
ing a  total  membership  of  over  6000. 

Institution  of  loan  associations  in  New  Jersey,  Ohio, 
California,  etc.  ;  New  Jersey  reporting  106  asso- 
ciations in  1880 ;  Ohio  reporting  the  incorporation 
of  307  associations  during  the  seven  years  preced- 
ing the  report  (1880) ;  total  estimated  societies 
(1880),  3000  in  United  States,  with  membership  of 
450,000  ;  and  aggregate  capital  of  $75,000,000. 

Experiments  in  colonization. 

1880,  et  seq.— Formation  of  the  New  England  Cooper- 
ative Association. 

Revival  of  the  Patrons  of  Husbandry. 

Greatly  quickened  growth  of  cooperation  in  all 
lines. 

Development  of  the  Knights  of  Labor. 

Organization  of  the  Central  Labor  Union. 

Formation  of  the  American  Cooperative  Union. 

Reports  from  all  directions  of  new  enterprises. 

Thus  far  Dr.  Newton,  writing  in  1886.  If, 
however,  he  had  written  later,  he  would  have 
had  to  add  a  less  favorable  outlook.  The  co- 
operative ventures  of  the  Knights  of  Labor  (q.  z/.) 
and  those  of  the  Patrons  of  Husbandry  have 
almost  wholly  disappeared  to-day.  What  en- 
dures to-day  are  only  a  few  strong  cooperative 
stores,  and  numerous,  tho,  as  a  rule,  poorly- 
managed  and  weak  and  small  attempts  at  co- 
operative colonies  and  communities  of  many 
kinds.  Coming  now  to  details  of  the  history, 
we  pass  over  the  system  in  the  New  England 
Fisheries  as  Profit-sharing  (q.v.)  rather  than 
cooperation.  The  early  attempts  at  insurance 
in  Philadelphia  will  be  considered  under  INSUR- 
ANCE. The  cooperative  efforts  of  Owen,  the 
Fourierites,  and  other  communities  will  be  best 
studied  under  COMMUNISM.  The  subject  of  co- 
operative credit  is  considered  under  BUILDING 
ASSOCIATIONS  and  COOPERATIVE  BANKS.  We 
therefore  come,  as  the  beginning  of  American 
cooperation  proper,  to  the  formation  of  the  New 
England  Protective  Union.  We  shall  consider 
first  distributive  cooperation  and  then  produc- 
tive cooperation. 

Mr.  John  G.  Kaulback,  a  wholesale  grocer  of  Boston, 
took  the  initiatory  step.     A  member  of  the  New  Eng- 
land Association  of  Mechanics  and  Working  Men,  he 
proposed  to  the  members  that  they  con- 
tribute a  certain  sum  individually,  pur- 
chase certain  necessaries  of  daily  con-    New  Eng- 
sumption,  and  meet  weekly   to   divide  IOT,;I  prn4.0/, 
them.     A  so-called   dividing  store  was  J°.na  *r?lec- 
opened.      From    this    small    beginning,    live  Union. 
step  by  step,  the  work   went  on  until 
the  year   1845,  when  the  first  protective 
union  store  was  organized  and  began  business.    Some 
dozen  or  more  persons  with   "faith  in  God  and  the 
right  "  thus  began  in  an  upper  room  over  the  Boylston 
Market,  their  first  purchase  a  box  of  soap   and  one 
half  box  of  tea.    Out  of  this  Working  Men's  Protective 
Union    grew    the    New    England    Protective   Union, 
which  was  organized  January,  1847.      The  12  local  di- 
visions thus  organized,   of  which  10  were  in   Massa- 
chusetts, grew  so  rapidly  that  in  1850  there  were  106 
divisions.     The  membership  in  83  of  them   was  5109, 
and  the  capital  in  84  of  them  was  $71,890.36.     By  Octo- 
ber. 1851,  the  number  of  divisions  had  grown  to  403,  of 
which  167  reported  a  capital  of  $241,712,  and   165  re- 
ported sales  for  the  year  of  $1,606,825.    The  siiccess  of 
the  union  was  largely  due  to  Mr.  Albert  Wright,  the 
energetic  secretary,  down  to  1850. 


Cooperation. 


367 


Cooperation. 


Discord  finally  split  the  organization.  The  new 
branch  took  the  name  of  The  American  Protective 
Union.  The  old  organization  showed,  in  1855,  72  di- 
visions reporting,  with  4,527  members,  an  aggregate 
business  of  $1,130,719.29.  The  decline  set  in  during 
the  next  year.  The  new  branch  did  a  business,  be- 
tween 1853  and  1858,  ranging  from  $1,000,000  to  $1,536,- 
ooo  per  annum.  In  1859,  the  board  of  government  be- 
lieved that  there  were  600  stores  in  operation.  By  this 
time  the  decline  had  begun  in  this  branch  also.  The 
aggregate  business  for  1859  was  only  $930,376.36.  Both 
branches  were  soon  practically  defunct.  The  great 
majority  of  the  local  stores  were  gradually  wound 
up,  or  passed  into  ordinary  joint-stock  concerns,  or 
into  private  hands.  The  civil  war  put  an  end  to 
most  of  the  few  that  lingered  on  that  far.  A  hand- 
ful endured  even  that  strain,  and  some  live  still,  un- 
der new  names  generally,  e.g.,  the  stores  in  Worcester, 
New  Bedford,  Natick,  etc.  During  the  war  no  gen- 
eral society  for  cooperation  was  in  existence,  but  not 
a  few  local  stores  were  opened,  some  very  success- 
fully. 

From  1873  to  1875,  the  Patrons  of  Husbandry  (q.v  .), 
founded  in  Washington  in  1867,  developed  coopera- 
tion. 

In  six  months  of  1873,  more  than  10,000  granges  were 

formed.      The  membership   doubled   in  1874.    At  the 

meeting  of  the  National  Grange,  in  November,  1875, 

the  secretary   reported  24,290  granges, 

with  a  membership  of  763,263.    The  min- 

Fatrons  Of    utes   of    the    National    Grange    show, 

Husbandry,  from  the  start,  a  discussion  of  various 

schemes  of  cooperation,  with  references 

to  experiments  actually  made.    The  fa- 

vorite method  was  an  imperfect  form  of  cooperation, 

in  which  each  local  grange  resolved  itself  into  a  pur- 

chasing club,   and  the   various  granges  of   a    State 

united  to  support  a  general  agent,  who,  combining  the 

orders  of  the  scattered  clubs,  bought  in  large  quanti- 

ties at  a  considerable  discount,  and  shipped  by  car- 

load to  the  several  granges  at  reduced  rates.    The 

business  of  these  agencies  became  immense.    Penn- 

sylvania had  an  agency  store  in  Philadelphia,  which 

was  filled  from  top  to  bottom  with  samples.    The  Ohio 

agency,  in  one  year  (1875),  ran  a  business  of  a   few 

thousand  dollars  up  to  "not  far  from  one  million," 

with  a  saving  to  the  granges  of  $240,725.40. 

These  business  methods,  however,  led  to  losses,  and 

the    Rochdale    system  was  widely  developed.      The 

rapid  growth  of  the  movement,  however,  brought  on  a 

reaction,  and  another  order  arose  to  develop  the  next 

wave  of  cooperation.    This  was  the  Sovereigns  of  In- 

dustry^ secret  order  with  ritual  founded 

in   1874,  to    do  for   the  artisan    classes 

CnTTavain-na    what  the  Patrons  of  Husbandry  were 

sovereigns    doing.  for  the  farmers.    Its  first  presi- 

01  Industry,  dent  was  William  H.  Earle,  of  Worcester, 

Mass.,  and  its  national  organizer  John 

Orvis.    It,  too,  grew  very  rapidly.    The 

second    annual    council    reported    166   councils,   with 

20,000  members.    In  1877,  the  National  Council  had  re- 

ports from  councils  in  17  States  and  Territories.    At 

first,  the  members  of  a  local  council  used  to  club  to- 

gether in  buying  at  a  certain  store,  saving  thus  from 

jo  to  20  per  cent.    They  would  buy  flour  by  the  carload, 

saving  from  two  to  three  dollars  a  barrel.      A  gen- 

eral distributing  agency  was  established  in  Chicago, 

through  which  all  local  councils  could  procure  goods 

direct,  at  cost.    The  General  Council  urged  upon  the 

order  the  establishment  of  cooperative  stores  on  the 

Rochdale  system,  and  clearly  and  accurately  enun- 

ciated the  principles  and  methods  of  that  system  in  a 

plan  which  was  printed  for  free  distribution.    This 

plan  was  somewhat  adopted,  but  not  generally,  until 

many  of  the  councils  had  suffered  by  loose  and  unor- 

ganized methods  and  dissatisfaction  had  set  in.    The 

movement  had  reached  large  proportions,  94  councils 

alone  in  1877  doing  a  business  of  $1,089,372.    In  Wor- 

cester a  Sovereigns  of  Industry  was  erected  at  a  cost 

of  $35,000.    By  1880,  however,  the  order  had  collapsed, 

though  not  a  few  stores  in  various  parts  of  the  Union 

still  remain  as  a  result  of  the  movement. 

The  next  great  order  to  take  up  cooperation  was  the 
Knights  of  Labor  (q.v.\  organized  in  Philadelphia  in 
in  1869,  but  which  became  general  only  early  in  the 
eighties,  and  then  grew  with  mushroom 
growth.    The  fourth  plant  in  its  prin- 
of   c'ples  declared  for  the  "establishment 
cooperative  institutions,  productive 
and  distributive."  Cooperation,  mainly 
productive,  was  therefore  early  agitated 
by  the  Knights,  and  led  to  many  attempts 
in  all  parts  of  the  Union,  but  few,  if  any  of  them,  with 
enduring  success.    The  mushroom  growth  of  the  order 


T    i 
Labor. 


has  been,  after  1886,  followed  by  a  steady  and  rapid 
decline,  and  of  their  cooperative  efforts  scarcely  any- 
thing endures.  What  exists  to-day  out  of  all  these 
waves  of  cooperation  are  a  few  local  and  disconnected 
stores  and  productive  companies.  Some  of  these,  how- 
ever, are  very  strong  and  successful,  and  instances  of 
them  we  shall  name  in  a  moment. 

We  pause  now  to  consider  the  history  of  productive 
cooperation  in  America.    The    movements   thus   far 
noticed,  with  the  exception  of  that  of  the  Knights  of 
Labor,  were  mainly  distributive.    The  first  productive 
association  of  which  we  have  any  record  was  that  of 
the  Boston  Tailors'  Associative  Union, 
which  was  formed  in  1849,  but  did  not 
endure  long.    Dr.  Newton  in  his  article    prn;> ,•,«,+; —a 
(see  above)  mentions  similar  attempts  _    ° 
at    shipyards   in    Baltimore    (1865) ;    in  Cooperation. 
Boston  (1866) ;   a  machine-shop  in  Phil- 
adelphia   (1866) ;     foundries    in  various 
cities — Troy,  Albany,  Cleveland,  Cincinnati,  St.  Louis 
(1865-68);    shoe    manufactories    in    Lynn    and    North 
Adams,  Mass.  (dr.  1868)  ;  a  cigar  manufactory  in  West- 
field,  Mass.  (1869) ;  a  machine-shop  in  Greenfield,  Mass. 
(1870).     Says  Dr.  Newton  : 

"The  most  promising  of  these  early  experiments 
was  the  stove  foundry  of  the  Iron  Molders  Interna- 
tional Union.  This  was  started  in  1867,  in  Allegheny 
County,  Pa.,  the  10,000  members  of  the  union  having 
been  expected  to  become  stockholders.  The  paid-up 
capital,  however,  proved  insufficient  in  a  critical 
moment — the  oft-repeated  experience — and  the  enter- 
prise.failed. 

"  The  decade  1870-80  experienced  a  marked  increase 
in  the  number  of  productive  societies.  In  the  mid-year 
of  this  decade,  Massachusetts  had  16  productive  so- 
cieties reporting  to  the  State,  and  nine  not  reporting, 
tho  duly  chartered.  All  but  one  of  these  had  been 
organized  since  1870.  The  16  societies  reporting  gave 
an  aggregate  paid-in  capital  of  $114,210.  The  nine  not 
reporting  were  incorporated  for  $47,110.  Other  so- 
cieties were  known  to  exist.  These  societies  were 
located  in  Lowell,  Truro,  Weymouth,  Westborough, 
Chelmsford,  East  Templeton,  Holyoke,  Somerset, 
North  Adams,  Newburyport,  Orange,  Marlborough 
(2),  Boston  (2),  Stoneham  (3),  Fall  River  (4),  Lynn  (4), 
Westfield  (8).  Their  work  may  be  classified  as  follows : 
furniture-making  (i),  chair-making  (i),  foundry  work 
(i),  manufacture  of  gas  (i),  dairy-work  (i),  cotton  man- 
ufacturing (i),  printing  (2),  the  building  of  houses  (4), 
cigar-making  (5),  boot  and  shoe  manufacture  (9).  An 
illustration  of  their  work  may  be  taken  at  random  in 
the  Cooperative  Furniture  Company  of  Orange,  which 
in  1879  sold  chamber  sets  to  the  value  of  $15,743.52.  A 
very  promising  association  was  the  Rochdale  Cotton 
Manufacturing  Association,  of  Fall  River,  organized 
in  1874,  with  a  share  subscription  of  $125,000.  This  was 
the  work  of  a  philanthropic  mill-owner,  whose  family 
took  the  largest  amount  of  the  stock.  It  had  a  short 
career.  Ohio  had  a  number  of  associations  for  manu- 
facturing, but  the  cooperative  feature  did  not  long 
survive  in  the  few  societies  that  were  successful.  One 
of  these  associations  had  a  capital,  in  1877,  of  $100,000, 
but  lapsed  into  a  joint-stock  concern,  votes  counting 
not  by  persons,  but  by  shares.  .  .  . 

"  A  number  of  these  societies  were  the  results  of 
strikes.  The  strike  at  North  Adams,  e.g.,  on  the  intro- 
duction of  Chinese  labor,  led  to  the  establishment  of  a 
cooperative  shoe  factory.  A  report  says :  '  The  men 
speak  with  pride  of  their  new  feelings  of  self-reliance 
and  freedom,  as  well  as  of  the  quality  of  their  work.' 
.  .  .  The.  Patrons  of  Husbandry  were  reported  in  the 
Economist  of  November  8,  1876,  as  having  '30  manu- 
facturing associations,  whose  capital  ranges  from  $200,- 
ooo  to  $500,000 ;  .  .  .  16  grist-mills,  one  of  which  pro- 
duces TOO  barrels  of  flour  per  day  ;  .  .  .  3  tanneries  and 
6  smitheries.' 

"  The  Sovereigns  of  Industry  contemplated  entering 
upon  this  field,  and  made  some  essays  in  it,  e.g.,  the 
Kingston  Cooperative  Foundry  Company,  in  Kingston, 
Mass.  Its  members  consisted  chiefly  of  picked  men 
from  other  foundries.  It  organized  with  a  capital  of 
$8000.  Details  of  the  experience  of  this  and  other  so- 
cieties have  vanished  with  the  order." 

This  brings  us  down  to  the  attempts  of  the  Knights 
of  Labor  and  the  present  time.  The  attempts  of  the 
Knights  were  most  various  and  most  widespread,  in- 
cluding boot  and  shoe  companies  in  Massachusetts, 
painters'  and  decorators'  associations  in  Minneapolis, 
clothing  companies,  tobacco  factories,  plumbers'  asso- 
ciations, printing  companies,  mining  associations,  etc. 
All  these,  however,  as  Knights  of  Labor  organizations 
have  come  to  grief,  and  only  a  few  of  them  remain  in 
any  form.  Nevertheless,  not.  a  few  strong  productive 
cooperative  enterprises  have  secured  enduring  form. 


Cooperation. 


368 


Cooperation. 


Says  the  Report  on  the  United  States  of  the  (English) 
Royal  Commission  on  Labor  : 

"The  most  successful  cooperative  enterprises  of  a 

productive   character  are  those  existing  among  the 

coopers    of    Minneapolis.    Between    1874  and   1886  no 

fewer  than  nine  associations  have  been 

formed  there  which  conduct  business  on 

Minneapolis  cooperative  principles.  As  early  as  1868 
the  experiment  of  renting  a  small  shop 
v/oopers.  &n^  selling  the  product  direct  to  the 
mills  was  tried  by  a  few  journeymen 
coopers;  they  allowed  themselves  the 
ordinary  rate  of  wages,  calculated  on  the  piece  system, 
and  then  divided  the  profits  in  proportion  to  the  work 
done.  A  suspension  of  trade  in  the  flour  mills  caused 
the  discontinuance  of  the  enterprise,  and  on  its  re- 
sumption in  1870,  it  proved  a  financial  success,  but  a 
failure  from  the  cooperative  point  of  view,  owing  to 
the  determination  of  the  treasurer,  who  had  secured  a 
large  contract  for  himself  instead  of  for  the  firm,  to 
set  up  as  a  master  cooper.  The  rapid  increase  of  the 
milling  industry  and  the  consequent  influx  of  coopers 
to  supply  the  demand  for  barrels  caused  the  labor 
market  in  Minneapolis  to  become  overstocked ;  the 
wages  of  coopers  fell  so  low  that  the  former  coopera- 
tors  decided  in  1874  to  renew  their  experiment.  Hav- 
ing obtained  the  promise  of  a  contract,  the  Cooperative 
Barrel  Company  was  formally  incorporated  under  the 
laws  of  Minnesota,  and  entered  upon  a  prosperous 
career.  There  were  16  members  at  the  outset,  who 
were  to  be  equal  shareholders,  and  to  receive  a  share 
of  the  profits  in  proportion  to  the  work  done  by  each. 
The  membership  increased  rapidly,  and  by  the  spring 
of  1885  it  had  reached  120,  besides  20  employees  working 
for  wages,  while  the  paid-up  capital  amounted  to 
$50,000.  The  introduction  of  machinery  in  that  year 
caused  some  members  to  retire,  as  there  was  no  longer 
sufficient  work  for  all,  and  the  nttmbers  have  since 
stood  at  90.  The  assets  of  the  company  are  $58,000  and 
the  liabilities  $13,000,  so  that  the  net  value  of  its  prop- 
erty amounts  to  $45,000,  or  $500  for  each  member. 
About  three  fourths  of  the  members  are  married,  and 
nine  tenths  of  the  married  members  own  their  own 
houses,  so  that,  according  to  the  statement  of  the  Presi- 
dent of  the  Association,  nearly  all  the  members  have 
property  worth  from  $3000  to  $10,000.  About  25  of 
them  are  of  American  birth,  35  are  Scandinavians,  and 
20  Irish  ;  the  rest  being  of  various  nationalities.  The 
other  establishments  have  had  a  similar  history  ;  all 
have  been  more  or  less  successful,  tho  in  one  case, 
that  of  the  Twin  City  Barrel  Company,  the  treasurer 
absconded  with  about" $75,  and  his  defalcation  resulted 
in  a  great  loss  of  mutual  confidence  among  the  mem- 
bers." 

Cooperative  dairies  have  also  had  considerable  de- 
velopment in  the  United  States.  In  1886  the  combined 
business  of  the  Massachusetts  creameries  amounted  to 
$500,000.  Ohio  possesses  a  nvtmber  of  these  creameries 
and  cheese  factories ;  in  the  latter  case  the  factories 
are  generally  rented  to  reliable  tenants,  who  contract 
to  manufacture  the  milk  delivered  daily  into  cheese  at 
75  cents  for  each  cwt.  Sometimes  the  dairy  farmers 
allow  the  manufacturer  so  much  for  each  hundred 
cheeses,  and  then  divide  the  remaining  proceeds. 
There  are  similar  establishments  in  Iowa,  and,  indeed, 
in  most  agricultural  districts. 

Such  are  the  great  classes  of  cooperative  enterprises 
in  the  United  States  down  to  the  present  time,  except 
those  which  are  cases  of  profit-sharing  and  building 
and  credit  associations,  both  of  which  are  considered 
under  their  respective  heads.  The  latter  associations 
form,  however,  it  must  be  remembered,  by  far  the 
most  successful  form  of  cooperation  in  this  country. 

The  present  condition  of  cooperation  in  the  United 
States  is  very  difficult  to  state,  owing  to  the  utter  lack 
of  any  national  cooperative  union  or  the  collection  of 
any  reliable  data  on  a  large  scale.    Ef- 
forts at  the  establisment  of  a  national 
•Di.otxvr.4-  P«Y,    union    or  bureau    have  recently  been 
H  •»  made,  but  with  little  efficiency.    Many 
dltion.        successful  local  cooperative  undertak- 
ings are  known  to  exist.    Says  Mr.  N. 
O.   Nelson,    himself    the    founder   and 
manager  of  perhaps  the  best  cooperative  enterprise  in 
the  United  States,  at  Leclaire,  111.,  a  full  account  of 
which  will  be  found  under  the  head  Leclaire,  111.  (writ- 
ing in  The  Outlook,  April  27,  1805) : 

"  In  the  United  States  cooperation  is  far  behind  Eng- 
land and  France.  Spasmodic  movements  have  been 
inaugurated,  but  they  have  stranded  on  the  rocks  of 
credit  or  politics  or  low  prices.  The  discoveries  in 
business  principles,  which  the  Rochdale  working  men 
cooperators  may  be  credited  with  making — namely, 
cash  dealings,  market  prices,  dividends  on  purchases, 


and  an  ever-accumulating  surplus — have  been  over- 
looked or  ignored  by  the  American  wage-earner,  who 
feels  no  need  of  small  economies  when  wages  are  high 
and  work  abundant,  and  who  has  nothing  to  spare  for 
a  business  venture  when  bad  times  leave  him  stranded. 
The  Rochdale  plan  looks  puny  and  prosy  to  open- 
handed  Americans  who  do  not  understand  its  prin- 
ciples and  its  possibilities. 

"  But  the  start  has  been  made.  Genuine  Rochdale 
stores  are  to  be  found  in  every  part  of  the  Union. 
Most  of  them  are  young  and  small,  but  there  are  some 
with  a  membership  numbering  from  i  to  2000,  and 
sales  as  high  as  $250,000  a  year.  Lawrence,  New  Bed- 
ford, and  Springfield,  Mass.,  Brattleboro'.  Vt.,  Tren- 
ton, N.  J.,  Lyons,  la.,  Olathe,  Kan.,  Galveston,  Tex.— all 
have  prosperous  and  growing  societies." 

A  letter  from  Mr.  Nelson  gives  the  following  infor- 
mation in  regard  to  some  representative  existing  asso- 
ciations : 

"The  Lyons  Cooperative  Association  at  Lyons,  la., 
grew  out  of  the  Knights  of  Labor,  and  was  started  in 
1886  ;  the  initial  subscribed  capital  being  $6.57.  This 
store  had  in  1891  10  employees,  5  horses,  3  delivery  wag- 
ons, and  an  annual  retail  trade  of  from  $60,000  to  $75,- 
ooo  a  year.  They  pursued  the  conservative  policy  of 
depreciating  fixed  plant,  and  paying  8  per  cent,  per 
annum  on  capital.  Its  capital  was  in  1890,  $20,720,  the 
net  profits,  $1917  ;  it  owns  its  own  store,  and  buys  en- 
tirely for  cash. 

"  At  Trenton,  N.  ].,  a.  cooperative  store  grew  out  of 
labor  disturbances  in  i885j  and  started  with  90  mem- 
bers. They  paid  up  $150  m  cash,  agreeing  to  pay  50 
cents  a  week  toward  a  full  share.  The  store  had  in 
1890,  $11,745  capital ;  $90,440  sales;  net  profits,  $14,808  ; 
total  sales  for  six  years  amounting  to  $441,247  ;  and  in 
that  period  paid  back  to  the  customers  $60,000  in  divi- 
dends and  interest. 

"  The  Cooperative  Store  of  Allegan,  Mich.,  was 
started  in  1875.  Its  sales  in  1890  were  $193,827.  Sales 
are  on  the  cost  plan  ;  the  expenses  and  interest  on 
capital  amount  to  less  than  5  per  cent,  on  the  business 
done. 

"  The  Johnson  County  Cooperative  Association,  of 
Olathe,  Kan.,  started  business  in  1876,  with  a  capital  of 
$800.  It  had  in  1891  a  capital  of  $105,000  ;  s_ales  of  $208,- 
ooo,  and  net  profits  of  $15,722. 

"  The  Texas  Cooperative  Association,  of  Galveston, 
Tex.,  started  business  in  1879,  with  a  capital  of  $250. 
It  had  in  1890  a  capital  of  $80,945  ;  709  shareholders,  and 
divided  $14,798." 

The  latest  statistics  in  regard  to  some  of  the  repre- 
sentative cooperative  stores  in  this  country  are  as  fol- 
lows— Arlington  Cooperative  Association,  of  Law- 
rence, Mass,  (central  stores  and  two  branches,  with 
grocery,  fuel,  and  dry  goods  departments)  : 

CASH  STATEMENT  FOR  FORTY-SECOND  QUARTER 
ENDING  MARCH  31,  1895. 

RECEIPTS. 

January  i,  cash  on  hand $5,161.88 

Sales 72,336.58 

Shares  and  instalments 9,446.15 

Initiation  fees 74-00 

Sale  of  manure 17.00 

Rents 87.75 

Sale  of  fixtures 35-00 


7,158.36 


EXPENDITURES. 


Interest  and  dividend  paid  out $2,074.32 

Shares  and  instalments  canceled 5,827 . 46 

Horse-keeping 639.81 

Expense 975.33 

Salaries,  merchandise 3,117.92 

dry  goods 260.44 

"         fuel 1,752.92 

Purchases 47,396.84 

Freight 316.04 

Non-members'  dividend 34-86 

Insurance  and  taxes 97-43 

Fixtures 511-51 

Cash  on  hand 24,153.48 


Gross  profits. 


$87,158.36 
.$14,071.18 


Natick  Protective  Union  (established  December  10, 
1866,  in  Natick,  Mass.)  : 

Amount  of  sales  for  the  year  1804,  $85,140;  of  this 
amount,  $52,443  was  sold  from  the  store  at  a  profit  of 


Cooperation. 


369 


Cooperation. 


$1003.76  and  $32,697  from  the  market  at  a  profit  of 
$1421.01. 

The  profits  of  the  year,  $2424.77,  and  the  balance  of 
profits  of  the  previous  year,  $133.17,  gives  $2557.94  for 
interest  and  dividend. 

Industrial  Cooperative  Association,  of  New  Bedford, 
Mass,  (dealers  in  groceries,  provisions,  and  general 
merchandise),  organized  January  27,  1876 ;  capital 
stock,  $20,278.41 ;  shares,  $10  ;  present  rate,  5  per  cent.  : 

QUARTERLY  REPORT  FOR  THE  QUARTER  ENDING 
SEPTEMBER  n,  1894. 

RECEIPTS. 

Balance  on  hand $374.38 

Cash  for  merchandise  sold  Central 5,723.92 

"       merchandise  sold  Branch  No.  i 4,171.95 

"       merchandise  sold  Branch  No.  2 7,486.81 

"       shares 383-97 

rents 248.84 

"       dividends 32-64 


PAYMENTS. 


^18,422.51 


All  expenses $17,510.05 

Dividends  and  interest 614. 12 

Balance 298 . 34 


$18,422.51 

Farmers'  and  Mechanics'  Exchange,  of  Brattleboro, 
Vt.  (commenced  business  April,  1877) : 

Business  in  1894,  $83,400 ;  shareholders,  507,  at  $5  a 
share. 

Recently  the    various   farmers'  organizations  have 
made  various  attempts  at  cooperative  purchasing,  etc., 
with  varying  success,  and  too  recently  to  show  per- 
manent results.    As  an  example,  the  secretary  of  the 
Farmers'  Supply  Company  reports  in  January,  1894  : 
"  We    point    with  pride  to  our  first   n 
months'    trial    under    the   most  trying 
Farmers'     financial  conditions  possible.    We  handle 
din-nitr  Pnm     nothing  at  present  but  coal  and  groce- 
bupply  U>m-  ries    in  ji  months  we  sold  $4327.35  worth 
pany.         of  groceries  and  $3864.92  worth  of  coal, 
at  a  cost  to  us  of  $745.50.     Our  gross 
profit  was  17  per  cent.,  and  cost  of  hand- 
ling 9  per  cent.,  leaving  a  net  profit  of  8  per  cent,  to 
shareholders  on  every  dollar  sold,  which  gave  us  95  per 
cent,  net  profit  on  our  average  paid-up  stock  for  the  n 
months.    In  round  numbers  we  sold  to  shareholders 
$3000  and  to  outsiders  $5000  worth  of  goods.    In  mak- 
ing dividends,  we  pay  10  per  cent,  on  paid-up  stock  and 
16  per  cent,  on  each  dollar's  worth  of  goods  purchased 
by  a  member,  besides  making  a  donation  of  $70  to  one 
of  our  members,  and  carrying  $50  over  to  next  year. 
We  paid  cash  for  all  we  bought,  and  sold  in  the  same 
way.    We,  started  with  31  members,  and  we  now  have 

79- 

The  present  popular  but  not  usually  effectively  or- 
ganized cooperative  efforts  are  at  cooperative  commu- 
nities. A  few  of  these,  notably  the  one  at  Tennessee 
City,  Tenn..  are  strong.  Most  of  them  are  very  weak 
and  ephemeral.  They  are,  however,  best_  studied  un- 
der communism. 

IV.  METHODS  OF  COOPERATION. 

No  one  can  study  the  history  of  cooperation, 
particularly  in  England,  without  discovering 
two  almost  contradictory  methods  and  ideals  at 
work. 

Says  Beatrice  Potter  (Mrs.  Sidney  Webb),  the 
author  of  The  Cooperative  Movement  in  Great 
Britain,  in  a  tract  on  The  Relation  between 
Cooperation  and  Trade  s-itnionism  : 

"  On  the  one  hand,  we  have  associations  of  consumers, 
such  as  the  corn  mills,  the  stores,  and  the  wholesale 
societies,  who  together  transact  over  95  per  cent,  of 
the  cooperative  trade  of  the  country.  On  the  other 
hand,  we  have  a  few  associations,  not  of  consumers, 
but  of  producers,  such  as  the  Eagle  Brand  Boot 
Works,  at  Leicester,  or  the  Slipper  Makers'  Society  at 
Newcastle.  The  idea  of  the  associations  of  consumers 
is  that  of  the  cooperative  or  socialist  state— the  man- 
agement of  industry  by  salaried  officials  for  the  profit 
of  the  whole  community.  The  ideal  of  the  rival  form 
of  industrial  cooperation  consists  of  groups  of  self- 
governing  workers  owning  alike  the  instrument  and 


the  product  of  their  labor,  and  competing  for  profit  in 
the  markets  of  the  world.  These  ideals  appear  to  me 
antagonistic  to  each  other,  and  mutually  exclusive. 
But,  however  that  may  be,  they  most  assuredly  present 
separate  problems,  and  are  as  different  in  their  limi- 
tations and  their  advantages  as  they  are  in  their  aims." 

These  two  forms  of  cooperative  industry  have 
each  had  earnest  supporters,  tho  the  ideal  of  the 
Association  of  Consumers  has  had  much  the 
larger  following.  The  Association  of  Producers 
was,  however,  the  earlier  ideal,  and  has  been 
strenuously  advocated  to  the  last  by  such  men 
as  E.  V.  Neale  and  Thomas  Hughes.  Said  Mr. 
Neale  at  the  Congress  of  1886  : 

"  The  original  pioneers  looked  forward  to  self-em- 
ployment, and  the  many  advantages  that  might  thus 
be  brought  within  their  reach,  as  the  goal  to  be  at- 
tained through  the  accumulation  of  the  profits  on  their 
own  purchases.  Their  successors,  to  whom  the  idea 
of  self-employment  has  melted  into  the  haze  of  a  dis- 
tant future,  have  too  commonly  got  to  look  on  the 
profits  on  their  purchases  as  so  much  addition  to  their 
ordinary  income  ;  and  have  even  been  disposed  to 
measure  the  benefits  of  the  store  by  the  amount  of  this 
addition — the  actual  dividend  on  their  purchases — 
without  caring  to  inquire  closely  how  much  of  it  is 
legitimately  earned  in  the  ways  as  specified  above,  and 
how  much  has  come  out  of  their  own  pockets  by  arbi- 
trary additions  to  the  prices  of  the  goods  sold.  These 
departures  from  the  original  idea  have  produced  a  re- 
actionary movement,  a  tendency  to  place  the  benefits 
of  the  store  not  where  they  really  lie  in  the  collective 
action  which  they  make  possible,  and  the  educational 
and  recreative  resources  that  the  members  may  obtain 
by  their  union  beyond  what  they  could  secure  individ- 
ually, but  simply  in  the  power"  of  getting  what  they 
want  at  a  cheaper  rate,  by  selling  to  themselves  as 
nearly  as  may  be  at  cost  price." 

On  the  other  hand,  Mr.  Thomas  Tweddell  said 
in  his  inaugural  address  at  the  Congress  of 
1894: 

"To  my  mind  the  most  melancholy  episode  in  the 
whole  history  of  cooperation  was  that  in  which  Messrs. 
Neale  and  Hughes,  a  year  or  two  ago,  took  their  fare- 
well of  the  movement,  pointing  out  how  they  had 
striven  to  direct  it,  how  they  had  held  this  ideal  of  the 
self-governing  profit-sharing  workshop  aloft,  and  how 
cooperators  had  resolutely  refused  to  follow.  I  respect 
these  leaders,  one  of  whom  has  since  taken  a  perma- 
nent farewell  of  us,  and  crossed  that  'bourne  from 
which  no  traveler  returns.'  I  respect  them  from  their 
consistency,  their  courage,  their  devotion.  But  while 
conceding  to  the  fullest  extent  that  respect  which  is 
their  due,  we  may  be  permitted  to  doubt  whether, 
after  all,  the  theory  of  the  few  has  been  consistently 
right,  and  the  practice  of  the  many  has  been  persist- 
ently wrong.  I  incline  rather  to  the  belief  that  the  im- 
agination of  the  movement  has  been  captivated  by  a 
beautiful  ideal  presented  with  all  the  charm  that  elo- 
quence and  earnestness  could  lend  to  it,  but  which,  if 
experience  is  any  guide,  is  delusive  and  impracticable, 
and  which,  like  the  fabled  treasure  said  to  be  buried 
beneath  the  rainbow,  ever  recedes  as  you  pursue  it. 

"  Originating  in  the  Utopian  dreams  of  French  social- 
ists like  Duchez,  Fourier,  and  Louis  Blanc,  this  idea 
was  introduced  to  England  by  the  Christian  Socialists 
about  the  year  1849,  and  was  made  the  subject  of  much 
earnest  and  self-sacrificing  propaganda.  The  theory 
which  they  endeavored  to  enforce,  as  described  by 
one  of  their  number,  was  '  the  conception  of  workers 
as  brethren— of  work  as  coming  from  a  brotherhood  of 
men  associated  for  their  common  benefit,  who  there- 
fore rejected  any  notion  of  competition  with  each  other 
as  inconsistent  with  the  true  form  of  society,  and  with- 
out formally  preaching  communism  sought  to  form  in- 
dustrial establishments  communistic  in  feeling,  of 
which  it  should  be  the  aim,  while  paying  ordinary 
wages  and  interest,  to  apply  the  profits  of  the  business 
in  ways  conducive  to  the  common  advantage  of  the 
body  whose  work  produced  them.'  This  beautiful 
and  captivating  ideal,  which  lends  itself  so  freely  to 
platform  declamation,  and  is  so  admirably  adapted  to 
win  acquiescence  from  a  sympathetic  audience,  has 
been  sedulously  preached  from  the  year  1849  until  now, 
and  with  what  result  ? 

"  From  a  work  published  recently  by  Miss  Potter  (a 
name  that  will  live  in  our  movement,  although  the  lady 


Cooperation. 


Cooperation. 


herself  has  recently  abandoned  it)— from  Miss  Potter's 
volume,  which  ought  to  be  read  by  every  cooperator, 
I  quote  the  following  : 

"  '  Of  some  hundreds  of  associations  of  producers 
known  to  have  existed  before  1870  only  three  remain. 
And  passing  over  the  dead  bodies  of  some  hundred  so- 
cieties registered  from  1870  to  the  present 
day,  let  us  rapidly  survey  the  actual  ex- 
Productive  isting  societies  which  have  been,  or  claim 
a  e     ioHnna  to  have  been,  organized  in  the  interests 
Associations  Q^  tne  producer.    I  take  as  a  basis  of  our 
not    Success-  investigations    the    list  of    cooperative 
ful.  productive  societies  published  in  the  Re- 

port of  the  Central  Board  for  1890.  First 
we  must  eliminate  from  this  list  the  pro- 
ductive departments  of  the  wholesale 
societies,  and  the  corn  mills  and  baking  societies 
avowedly  organized  in  the  interests  not  of  the  pro- 
ducer, but  of  the  consumer.  Secondly,  we  must  cast 
out  as  unworthy  societies  such  as  Mitchell  Hey,  reg- 
istered under  the  Industrial  and  Provident  Societies 
Act,  but  which  have  practically  become  joint-stock 
associations,  participating  neither  profit  nor  govern- 
ment with  the  workers.  Thus,  from  a  list  of  106  sep- 
arate societies,  with  a  turnover  of  £2,308,028,  we  are  re- 
duced to  74  manufacturing  and  5  agricultural  associa- 
tions, with  an  aggregate  turnover  of  £455,477-  Of  the  74 
manufacturing  societies  20  are  not  in  working  order. .  .  . 
We  have  therefore  a  remainder  of  54  manufacturing  as- 
sociations and  5  agricultural  associations.  .  .  .  Now  this 
cursory  examination  of  all  the  present  forms  of  coopera- 
tion that  represent  even  in  the  vaguest  and  most  remote 
degree  the  aspirations  of  the  Christian  Socialists,  re- 
veals one  all-important  fact.  The  ideal  advanced  by 
the  Christian  Socialists,  and  constantly  forced  by  the 
individualist  school  of  cooperators  on  the  attention  of 
the  stores  and  the  wholesale  societies— this  fair  vision 
of  a  brotherhood  of  workers,  of  a  self-governing  coop- 
erative workshop,  in  which  the  manager  and  committee 
are  to  be  elected  by  the  members  from  among  their  own 
body— vanishes  into  an  indescribable  industrial  phan- 
tom, which,  unlike  the  texture  of  real  existence,  be- 
comes more  and  more  imperceptible  with  the  applica- 
tion of  the  magnifying  glass.  For  when  we  look  care- 
fully into  these  54  societies,  we  discover  that  over  one 
third  of  the  trade  is  transacted  by  establishments 
which  are  simply  capitalist  associations  adopting  some 
scheme  of  protit-sharing.  It  is  true  that  a  small  pro- 
portion of  them  compel  or  encourage  workers  to  be- 
come shareholders.  But  in  all  cases,  without  a  single 
exception,  outside  shareholders  hold  the  balance  of 
power.  If  we  turn  our  magnifying  glass  from  off  the 
bulk  of  the  trade  on  to  the  majority  of  the  societies,  we 
lay  bare  a  positive  evil  instead  of  a  harmless  self-delu- 
sion. So-called  associations  of  workers  are  constant- 
ly resolving  themselves  into  associations  of  small 
masters,  into  an  industrial  organization  which  is  per- 
ilously near  if  not  actually  included  within  the  sweat- 
ing system,  or  we  discover  associations  of  workers  so 
indifferent  and  skeptical  of  the  advantages  they  offer 
as,  employers  that  they  prefer  the  security  of  private 
trade  and  leave  the  cooperative  workshop  open  to  hire- 
lings. Or,  again,  we  watch  associations  beginning  with 
fervor  and  success,  but  surrendering  in  the  course  of  a 
year  or  two  at  discretion  to  a  dictator  ;  or  we  see  far- 
sighted- promoters  carefully  securing  their  own  posi- 
tion as  irremovable  managers.  Thus  these  54  associa- 
tions, with  a  trade  of  £449,228,  disperse  in  various  direc- 
tions, and  we  are  left  with  our  microscope  pointed  at 
eight  minute  specks  on  our  industrial  system,  as  the 


that  form  of  cooperation  bequeathed  to  us  by  the 
Pioneers  is  the  only  one  which  has  stood  the  test  of 
practical  experience,  the  organization — not  of  capital- 
ists, not  of  workers,  not  of  sellers,  but  of  consumers, 
and  the  reasons  why  it  has  succeeded  when  other  forms 
have  failed  are  because 

IT   RESTS   UPON   THE   WIDEST  SOCIAL  AND  ECONOMIC 
BASIS. 

"  In  our  discussions  on  this  subject  we  are  too  apt,  I 
think,  to  commit  the  mistake  of  assuming  that  the 
worker  and  the  consumer  are  two  distinct  and  con- 
flicting agents,  or,  in  other  words,  that  the  community 
is  divided  into  two  great  classes,  production  being  the 
function  of  the  one  and  consumption  that  of  the  other. 
Such  a  classification  is  absurd  and  untrue.  We  may 
divide  the  human  race  on  the  basis  of  sex,  or  of  nation- 
ality, or  of  color,  because  such  divisions  are  absolute  ; 
but  we  cannot  divide  it  into  producers  and  consumers, 
because  one  class  embraces  and  includes  the  other.  As 


well  divide  the  race  into  human  beings  and  females. 
Take  away  the  human  beings,  and  where  will  the 
females  be  ?  And  so  take  away  the  consumers,  and 
where  will  the  producers  be  ?  In  making  consump- 
tion, therefore,  the  basis  of  their  organization,  the 
Pioneers  selected  the  widest  possible  foundation  upon 
which  it  could  rest." 

The  same  result  is  the  opinion  of  Mr.  N.  O. 
Nelson,  in  this  country.  He  says,  in  his  Out- 
look article  : 

"  The  most  feasible  method  of  getting  into  coopera- 
tive manufacturing  is  through  the  cooperative  store. 
Store-keeping  takes  less  money  to  start  with,  is  simpler 
in  its  operations,  and  when  once  under 
good  headway  easily  accumulates  capi- 
tal   for    factory   plants.  .  .  .      Working       How  to 
men  who  really  want  to  better  the  con-    commence. 
dition  of  their  class  should  get  together, 
familiarize  themselves  with  the  work- 
ing details,  and  make  a  beginning  in  a 
small  way.    The  difficulties  to  be  encountered  are  not 
so  much  the  business  itself  as  the  people's  indifference. 
Where  as  many  as  50  can  be  gotten  together  and  im- 
bued with  the  proper  spirit  a  safe  start  can  be  made. 
Some  members  can  pay  their  shares  in  full,  and  others 
50  cents  or  $i   a  week.     Some   vacant   room    can  be 
rented  cheaply  or  obtained  for  nothing  ;  the  work  can 
be  done  evenings  by  volunteers  or  by  some  one  out  of 
work  for  small  pay.    The  beginning  should  be  con- 
fined to  staple  articles  of  f9od,  and  books  should  be 
kept  under  advice  of   a  friendly   bookkeeper.     Care 
should  be  taken  to  keep  the  expenses  so  proportioned 
to  the  business  that  a  fair  net  profit  will  be  made  from 
the  start.    Purchases  and  sales  should  be  rigidly  cash, 
and  prices  should  be  the  same  as  at  the  neighboring 
retail  stores.    Every  one  of  the  50  should  be  a  mission- 
ary to  explain  the  plan  to  his  friends  and  get  them  to 
join.    Members  should  loyally  do  all  their  trading  at 
the  store,  even  at  some  inconvenience.    Undertaken 
in  this  way,  a  cooperative  store  can  be  started  any- 
where and  be  assured  of  success." 

There  is,  however,  another  view.  The  Labor 
Copartnership,  the  publication  of  the  Feder- 
ated Productive  Societies,  reports  120  in  the 
Federation,  a  large  part  of  which  are  well  estab- 
lished, strong  and  healthy.  They  are  doing 
very  active  propagandist  work  ;  about  30  of  the 
largest  ones  have  formed  a  guarantee  company 
to  receive  loans  at  4  per  cent.,  to  be  lent  under 
careful  conditions  to  productive  societies.  The 
Federation  has  frequent  meetings,  similar  to  the 
Cooperative,  Union,  district  meetings  and  con- 
gresses. They  do  an  enormous  amount  of  lec- 
turing and  stimulating  and  advising,  especially  ,^ 
through  ^UHi  Vivian,  Thomas  B.lan,dford,  and 
N.  Williams,  w'ho"  are  devoting  themselves  en- 
tirely to  this  program.  George  Jacob  Holyoake  -f-~ 
is  President  of  the  Federation,  and  E.  O.  Green- 
ing, of  the  Agricultural  Association,  and  J. 
Greenwood,  of  the  Hebden  Bridge  Fustian 
Manufacturing  Company,  are  active  promoters. 
Independent  production  is  more  difficult  to  start 
and  make  successful  in  the  competitive  field 
than  the  stores.  But  in  a  good  cooperative 
field,  as  there  now  is  in  England,  many  are  un- 
able to  see  any  constitutional  difficulty  in  the 
way  of  such  associations,  big  and  little,  spread- 
ing on  an  extensive  scale.  They  believe  the 
conditions  of  success  to  be  now  all  present  in 
England,  and  that  the  rapid  growth  which  has 
occurred  in  the  last  two  years  will  henceforth 
be  continually  accelerated. 

Perhaps  one  of  the  most  needed  things  in 
making  cooperation  a  success  is  not  to  claim  it 
as  a  substitute  for  other  social  reforms,  but  to 
claim  for  it  a  place  in  social  reform.  In  Eng- 
land and  Belgium  they  are  rapidly  learning  this 
lesson.  Said  Beatrice  Potter  (Mrs.  Sidney- 
Webb),  in  a  paper  read  at  a  conference  of  trade- 


Cooperation. 


Cooperation. 


union  officials  and  cooperators  at  Tynemouth, 
August  15,  1892  : 

"  I  contend,    therefore,    that    the    cooperative    and 
trade-union  movements  are  the  necessary  complement 
of  each  other.    In  the  cooperative  society  or  the  munic- 
ipality   the    citizen     consumer    unites 
with  his  fellows  to  control  and  manage 
Cooperation  f°r  their  common  benefit  as  much  as 
and  Trade-    P08?'13'6  of  the  industry  which  supplies 
.  "   their  needs.    Their  aim  must  necessarily 

Unions.  be  to  obtain  good  articles- at  a  low  ex- 
pense of  production.  But  as  they  them- 
selves are  also  producers,  it  is  easy  for 
them  to  realize  the  truth  of  Owen's  great  principle, 
that  the  community  is  in  the  long  run  injured,  not 
profited,  by  any  beating  down  of  the  standard  of  life 
of  its  members.  These  same  citizen-consumers  com- 
bine, therefore,  among  themselves  in  a  second  organi- 
zation, according  to  industries,  in  order  that  in  no  case 
may  the  heedlessness  of  the  consuming  majority  de- 
press the  condition  of  the  minority  in  which  any  one 
set  of  producers  is  bound  to  find  itself.  Without  co- 
operation, voluntary  or  municipal,  there  is  no  guaran- 
tee that  any  industry  will  be  carried  on  for  ^the  public 
benefit ;  without  trade-unionism  there  is  no  security 
that  this  public  benefit  will  not  be  made  a  source  of 
injury  to  the  minority  of  producers.  Combinations  of 
workers  may,  therefore,  be  regarded  as  a  permanent 
element  in  the  democratic  State,  whether  the  control 
over  industry  be  in  the  hands  of  voluntary'assqciatiqns 
of  consumer's  or  in  those  of  the  State  or  municipality 

itself 

"  My  conclusion,  therefore,  is  that  trade-unionists 
and  cooperators  are  in  duty  bound  to  swell  and  main- 
tain each  other's  organizations  in  every  possible  way. 
The  artisan  cooperator  who  is  not  also  a  member  of 
his  trade  society  is  a  traitor  to  all  the  essential  prin- 
ciples of  the  cooperative  faith.  The  trade-unionist 
who  is  not  a  cooperator  is  hugging  his  chains  as  a 
wage-slave  without  taking  his  part  in  the  struggle 
toward  the  democratic  control  of  industry.  And  both 
trade-unionist  and  cooperator,  let  me  add,  are  forget- 
ful of  their  rightful  duties  and  responsibilities  unless 
they  are  also  active  citizen  politicians,  eager  to  secure 
their  full  share  of  control  over  those  branches  of  co- 
operation in  which  the  proper  unit  of  administration 
is  not  the  store  or  the  trade  society,  but  the  munici- 
pality or  the  State." 

V.  ARGUMENTS  FOR  AND  OBJECTIONS  TO 
COOPERATION. 

The  argument  against  cooperation  is  never 
against  cooperation  as  an  ideal,  but  simply 
against  it  as  a  practical  method  of  social  reform. 
On  this  line  the  opposition  to  cooperation  has 
been  varied  and  often  strong  ;  the  argument, 
however,  being  different  against  different  forms 
of  cooperation. 

i.  Against  distributive  cooperation  it  has  been 
claimed  (tho  in  part,  as  we  shall  see,  unjustly) 
that  while  it  enables  the  cooperative  consumer 
to  obtain  lower  prices  and  save  some  of  the 
profits  that  would  otherwise  go  to  middlemen, 
it  does  not  tend  to  raise  wages,  and  may  even 
tend  to  lower  wages  through  the  interest  the 
purchasing  cooperators  have  in  purchasing  as 
cheaply  as  possible. 

As  a  matter  of  fact,  cooperation  has  not  been  proved 
to  pay  the  lowest  wages.    The  cooperative  Wholesale 
Society  in  England  is  an  agent  fur  1,000,- 
ooo  cooperators,  and  pays  union  wages  ; 
Consumer    s°i  with  the  rarest  exceptions,  do  all  co- 
operators.  The  argument,  therefore,  that 
,  cooperation  lowers  wages  must  be  given 

Producer.  up.  Says  Mr.  N.  O.  Nelson,  of  St.  Louis, 
xipon  this  point  :  "  As  the  consumer  and 
producer  is  the  same  person,  he  is  bene- 
fited as  well  by  economy  in  his  purchases  as  by  profit 
on  his  work.  When  buying  in  a  competitive  market, 
there  is  no  other  practical  method  than  to  buy  the 
cheapest  for  given  quality.  Such  buying  does  not 
imply  expedients  or  sharp  practices.  There  is  no 
apparent  reason  for  cooperative  buying  depressing 
prices.  So  far  as  consumers  are  producers,  if  the 
purchase  price  be  lowered,  so  is  the  selling  price. 
The  function  of  the  middleman,  to  get  a  profit  for 
himself,  is  eliminated,  because  the  profit  goes  to  reduce 


the  cost  to  the  consumer.  With  rare  exceptions  if  any 
the  cooperative  factories  pay  union  wages,  and  the 
operative  can  in  every  instance  make  himself  a  co- 
operative consumer.  The  English  Unionists  do  not 
now  claim  that  coqperation  lowers  wages.  They  did 
so  formerly  only  in  furtherance  of  the  union  cause, 
as  the  only  means  of  improving  the  working  man's 
condition.  Tom  Mann  is  now  lecturing  for  coopera- 
tion, and  the  union  congresses  of  the  last  few  years 
have  unqualifiedly  indorsed  cooperative  stores  and 
factories.  The  sweating  charge  against  the  Whole- 
sale is  entirely  unfounded." 

2.  On  the  other  hand,  it  is  claimed  that  pro- 
ductive cooperation  tends  either  to  develop  lit- 
tle companies  or  groups  of  producers  competing 
against  each  other,  or,  if  these  little 
companies  combine  into  one  whole, 
to  develop  a  monopoly  which    is  Competition, 
either  against  the  community,  or, 
if    large    enough,  to    include    the 
whole  community,  is  socialism  and  not  coopera- 
tion.    Says  Beatrice  Potter  (Mrs.  Sidney  Webb), 
in  her  tract  Cooperation  and  Trade-  Unions  : 

11  Let  us  suppose,  for  instance,  that  the  cooperative 
corn  mills  in  the  north  of  England  were  owned  and 
managed,  not  by  associations  of  consumers,  but  by  the 
workmen  now  employed  in  each  of  them.  It  is  clear 
that  there  would,  in  that  case,  be  no  room  for  the  pres- 
ent Millers'  Trade-Union,  and  strikes  against  employ- 
ers would  be  unknown.  But  should  we  by  this  social 
revolution  have  achieved  industrial  peace  ?  Our  self- 
governing  corn  mills  would  be  forced  inevitably  to 
adopt  one  of  two  courses.  The  workers  in  each  mill 
might,  in  the  first  place,  preserve  their  entire  indepen- 
dence of  the  other  mills,  and  they  would  all  compete 
with  each  other  for  the  custom  of  the  community. 
This  course  is,  in  fact,  the  one  pursued  by  such  asso- 
ciations of  producers  as  already  exist.  But,  unfortu- 
nately, this  unrestrained  competition  unevitably  leads, 
in  bad  times,  to  the  lengthening  of  the  hours  of  labor 
of  the  associated  producers,  and  the  reduction  of  their 
remuneration.  Profit  disappears,  at  any  rate  for  a 
time,  and  it  becomes  a  question  of  working  longer  and 
for  less  than  before,  in  order  to  avoid  running  behind- 
hand and  seeing  their  whole  capital  disappear. 

"  But,  on  the  other  hand,  the  self-governing  work- 
shops, if  they  ever  came  to  be  the  typical  form  of  co- 
operative industry,  might  be  wise  enough  to  avoid  this 
disastrous  competition  by  learning  a  lesson  from  the 
American  capitalist.  We  might,  in  fact,  have  a  '  ring  ' 
of  flour  producers  against  the  consumer.  A  few  years 
ago  there  was  actually  an  attempt  to  form  a  flour  syn- 
dicate in  the  north  of  England,  which  broke  down 
through  the  determined  opposition  of  the  mills  owned 
by  associations  of  consumers.  If  these  mills  had 
been  owned  and  governed  by  the  workers  in  them, 
they  might,  in  order  to  avoid  the  horrors  of  unre- 
strained competition,  have  fallen  in  with  this  arrange- 
ment. Instead  of  the  spectacle  of  the  sweating  sys- 
tem, we  should  then  have  before  us  a  gigantic  '  ring  or 
'combine  '  of  capitalist  workers,  associated  to  keep  up 
prices  against  their  customers.  We  should,  indeed, 
have  done  away  with  the  Millers'  Trade-Union,  with 
its  modest  and  legitimate  desire  to  maintain  the  stand- 
ard of  life  of  its  members.  But  we  should  have 
created  in  its  place  a  body  of  monopolists,  exploiting 
the  public  for  their  own  private  gain.  Industrial  con- 
flict would  have  been  replaced  by  industrial  oppres- 
sion." 

But  this,  again,  is  argument  not  against  co- 
operation, but  against  its  misuse,  and  any  social 
reform  may  be  misused.  Mrs.  Webb  in  her 
tract  argues  not  against  cooperation,  but  for 
the  necessity  of  combining  trade  unionism  with 
cooperation — a  combination  which  is,  fortunate- 
ly, rapidly  on  the  increase  in  England.  In  the 
great  miners'  strike  in  England  last  year  the  min- 
ers were  very  greatly  helped  by  the  large  funds 
they  had  to  draw  from  in  their  shares  and  de- 
posits in  the  cooperative  stores.  The  tendency 
of  cooperation  to  develop  little  competing  groups 
of  cooperative  producers  is  a  very  real  one,  but 
is  an  evil  only  incident  to  the  beginnings  of  co- 
operation, and  its  cure  is  not  less  cooperation, 
but  more  cooperation, 


Cooperation. 


372 


Cooperation. 


3.  A  stronger  argument  against  cooperation 
is  that  it  so  fixes  the  mind  of  investors  and  co- 
operators  on  saving  or  earning  a  few  cents  that 
he  forgets  questions  of  much  larger  economic 
importance.     Says  Beatrice  Potter  in  the  tract 
quoted  above  : 

"  It  would  be  a  fatal  error  if  the  million  members  of 
cooperative  societies  allowed  their  comparatively 
small  interests  as  dividend  receivers  for  one  moment 
to  divert  their  attention  from  their  much  vaster  inter- 
ests as  wage-earners  and  citizens.  The  dividends  of  a 
cooperator  amount  on  an  average  to  about  £3  a  year, 
or  just  about  a  farthing  per  hour  on  his  wages.  A 
'  good '  cooperator,  dealing  pretty  constantly  at  the 
store,  will  make  perhaps  double  this  amount,  or  a 
halfpenny  per  hour  of  his  working  time.  Now  I  need 
not  remind  you  how  very  easy  it  is  to  lose  a  half- 
penny per  hour  in  wages  for  the  want  of  a  strong  trade- 
union.  Take,  for  instance,  the  Amalgamated  Society 
of  Carpenters,  with  its  500  branches  all  over  the  king- 
dom. Their  standard  rates  of  wages  vary  from  $. 
per  hour  in  some  towns  up  to  g/4d.  per  hour  in  others — 
a  difference  equal  to  no  less  than  18  times  as 
much  as  the  average  cooperator  makes  out  of  his 
store.  In  a  score  of  towns  last  year  the  carpenters 
gained  a  rise  or  suffered  a  fall  of  a  halfpenny  an  hour 
on  their  wages— more  than  they  stood  to  gain  in  cash 
if  they  could  have  suddenly  sprung  at  one  bound  into 
as  successful  cooperators  as  the  men  of  Durham  them- 
selves. .  .  .  Cooperators  must  not,  in  their  zeal  for 
their  own  movement,  lose  sight  of  the  vital  importance 
of  maintaining,  all  along  the  line,  the  dyke  of  the 
standard  rate  of  wages.  If  the  cooperative  artisans  in 
any  town  lag  behind  their  fellows  elsewhere,  even  to 
the  extent  of  an  advance  of  a  farthing  an  hour  which 
might  have  been  gained  by  strong  trade-unionism, 
they  will  probably  have  lost  as  much  in  actual  cash  by 
the  end  of  the  year  as  they  will  have  gained  by  all 
their  devotion  to  the  cooperative  store.  The  engineers 
at  Keighley,  for  instance,  a  strongly  cooperative  town, 
are  earning  at  least  ios.  a  week  less  than  the  engineers  , 
at  Manchester ;  a  fact  which  can,  I  think,  only  be  ac- 
counted for  by  the  superior  capacity  for  trade  combi- 
nation exhibited  by  Lancashire  mechanics.  It  will 
hardly  be  maintained  that  the  £5  a  year  dividend  of 
the  Keighley  '  good  cooperator  '  is  equivalent  to  the  £26 
a  year  additional  wages  earned  by  the  Manchester 
'  good  trade-unionist.'  " 

Yet  this,  again,  is  no  argument  against  co- 
operation, but  simply  for  (as  Mrs.  Webb  uses  it) 
a  combination  of  cooperation  with  trade-union- 
ism. Cooperation  may  not  accomplish  all  things, 
but  a  penny  saved  is  a  penny  earned,  and  trade- 
unionists  in  England  have  learned  that  they 
cannot  afford  to  sneer  at  the  millions  of  pounds 
in  the  English  cooperative  movement,  gained 
by  saving  pennies. 

4.  Perhaps  a  still  stronger  argument  against  co- 
operation is  that  it  not  only  is  in  danger  of  mak- 
ing men  forget  larger  economic  interests,  but 

tends  to  positively  develop  a  com- 
petitive mercantilism,  instead  of  a 
Mercan-     truly    socialistic    spirit.     There    is 
tilism.       some  truth  in  this  ;  nevertheless,  it 
is  also  true  that  cooperation  tends 
to  develop  mercantilism  less  than 
does  the  ordinary  life  of  commerce,  and  hence 
is  a  step  in    advance.     Cooperation  does  not 
claim  to  introduce  the  ideal  at  once,  but  only  to 
be  a  long  first  step  toward  that  ideal. 

5.  The  main  argument  against  cooperation, 
as  applied  to  the  United  States  at  least,  is  that 
it  is  almost  an  impossibility  to  introduce  it  suc- 
cessfully to-day  except   through  the  form  of 

profit-sharing,  against  which  form 
there  are  especial  arguments.     (See 
Difficulties.  PROFIT-SHARING.)   Cooperation,  un- 
less introduced  by  some  large  and 
established  firm,  some    schools  of 
thought  claim,  can  scarcely  expect  to  succeed 
in  the  United  States.     The  reason  is  that  in  the 


United  States,  as,  perhaps,  nowhere  in  the 
world,  have  we  developed  large,  powerful  cor- 
porations and  monopolies.  Nowhere  is  compe- 
tition so  organized  as  in  the  United  States. 
With  mills,  stores,  and  all  forms  of  business  car- 
ried on  by  these  gigantic  corporations  and  mo- 
nopolies, it  is  almost  impossible  for  the  small 
cooperative  store  to  successfully  compete. 
Against  corporations  able  to  run  a  year  or 
more  at  a  loss,  in  order  to  run  out  the  small  ven- 
ture, small  cooperation  is  helpless.  Too  often, 
too,  these  corporations  do  not  need  to  run  out 
the  small  venture.  Small  cooperative  ventures 
too  often  run  themselves  out.  They  can  rarely 
be  well  managed,  because  good  managers  can 
get  larger  salaries  than  the  small  venture  can 
afford  to  pay,  and  even  when  well  managed,  the 
small  venture  cannot  buy,  or  manufacture,  or 
sell  on  a  small  scale  so  cheaply  as  the  corpora- 
tion on  a  large  scale.  Small  cooperation  is, 
thus,  often  hopeless,  swallowing  up  the  hard- 
earned  money  invested  in  it,  and  sometimes,  in 
spite  of  the  best  intentions,  becoming  a  veritable 
sweating  den,  simply  because  of  the  inability  of 
the  small  venture  to  compete  with  large  stores 
and  yet  pay  living  wages. 

This,  we  say,  is  usually  the  case,  but  not  al- 
ways. Where  a  small  cooperative  venture  is 
fortunate  enough  to  secure  a  good  manager, 
where  it  can  secure  some  capital,  where  there  is 
a  community  or  a  body  of  working  men  willing 
to  support  it,  where  there  is  willingness  and  de- 
termination to  carry  it  through,  then  in  trades 
and  under  circumstances  where  the  competition 
is  not  too  intense,  the  cooperation  may  suc- 
ceed. Such  cases  are  by  no  means  wanting  in 
the  United  States,  tho  exceptional. 

One  must  not  be  misled  by  the  success  of  the 
English  movement.  In  the  .  first  place,  the 
foundations  of  that  success  were  laid  before 
business  was  so  monopolized  as  it  is  to-day  by 
large  corporations,  while  even  to-day  in  Eng- 
land monopoly  is  not  so  developed  as  in  the 
United  States.  Secondly,  it  must  be  remem- 
bered that  95  per  cent,  of  English  cooperation  is 
consumptive,  not  productive — in  other  words, 
the  least  beneficial  form  of  cooperation  to  the 
producer.  Thirdly,  some  so-called  cooperative 
successes  are  not  cooperative  at  all,  but  profit- 
sharing,  which  is  a  very  different  thing.  Even 
in  England,  Sidney  Webb  says  (in  his  tract  on 
English  Progress  toward  Social  Democracy}  : 

"  Less  than  one  four  hundredth  part  of  the  industry 
of  the  country  is  yet  carried  on  by  cooperation.  The 
whole  range  of  industrial  development  in  the  larger 
industries  seems  against  it ;  and  no  ground  for  hope 
in  cooperation  as  a  complete  answer  to  the  social  prob- 
lem can  be  gained  from  economic  science.  It  fails  to 
deal  even  with  the  real  elements  of  the  case.  It  may 
claim  to  obviate  competition  ;  but,  as  Mill  himself 
quotes,  '  the  deepest  root  of  the  evils  and  iniquities 
which  fill  the  industrial  world  is  not  competition,  but 
the  subjection  of  labor  to  capital,  and  the  enormous 
share  which  the  possessors  of  the  instruments  of  pro- 
duction are  able  to  take  from  the  produce.'  Coopera- 
tion can  make  no  real  defense  against  the  continuance 
of  the  exaction  of  this  'enormous  share  ' — rent  and  in- 
terest—the continued  individual  enjovment  of  which 
it,  indeed,  actually  presupposes.  It  affords  a  valuable 
moral  training,  a  profitable  savings  bank  for  invest- 
ments, and  a  temporary  means  of  interesting  the 
worker  in  the  industrial  a'ffairs  of  his  country.  But  or- 
dinary joint-stock  investment  is  now  rapidly  outgrow- 
ing it,  and  is  already  160  times  as  great  as  cooperation. 
Now  even  the  most  enthusiastic  believer  in  the  virtues 
of  association  will  hardly  expect  salvation  merely  from 
a  rigime  of  joint-stock  companies  ;  and  this,  and  not  co- 


Cooperation. 


373 


Cooperative  Banks. 


operation,  is  clearly  the  line  in  which  our  industrial 
development  is  rapidly  traveling,  so  far  as  all  large 
enterprises  are  concerned.  The  final  goal  of  many  in- 
dustries is,  moreover,  obviously  not  the  cooperative 
society,  but  the  municipality.  Nearly  twice  as  much 
capital  is  already  invested  by  town  councils  in  a  single 
industry  (gas  supply)  as  the  whole  12,000,000  of  the 
accumulations  of  the  1500  cooperative  societies.  A 
larger  extension  of  '  municipal  industry '  is  made  every 
year  than  the  progress,  great  as  it  is,  of  the  coopera- 
tive industry.  Already,  where  there  is  most  coopera- 
tion, there  is  also  most  municipalization." 

But  this  statement  in  part  answers  itself.     It 
shows  that  cooperation  and  municipalization  and 
socialism  can   develop   together.     In  Belgium, 
as  we  have  seen,  cooperation  practi- 
cally supports  the   socialist  move- 
Cooperation  ment  and   gives  it    an  organized 
and         strength,  perhaps  greater  than  that 
Socialism,    of  any  other  country.     In  England, 
trade-unionism,  socialism,  and  the 
cooperative  movement  are  coming 
to  see  that  they  are  natural  allies,  and  can  be  of 
the  greatest  benefit  to  each  other.     Mr.  N.  O. 
Nelson  writes  : 


"  There  is,  probably,  nothing  that  has  been  so  great 
an  aid  to  the  growth  "of  the  socialistic  and  radical  re- 
forms now  being  actively  and  successfully  prosecuted 
in  England,  as  the  education  which  a  million  and  a  quar- 
ter of  cooperators  have  received  in  the  value  of 
workers'  mutual  operations,  and  the  feasibility  of  self- 
help.  There  is  one  pre-eminent  value  in  cooperation 
as  compared  with  reforms,  which  must  be  inaugurated 
by  political  methods.  The  former  can  produce  some 
available  and  influential  results  at  once,  and  continu- 
ously ;  the  latter  must  do  an  enormous  amount  of 
political  work  before  a  majority  can  be  persuaded  and 
stirred  up  to  final  action,  and  of  course  many  reforms 
fail  altogether  for  lack  of  persistence. 

"As  to  the  95  per  cent,  of  cooperators  who  are 
merely  consumers,  there  is  no  difference  whatever 
between  a  10  per  cent,  dividend  on  purchases  and 
a  10  per  cent,  dividend  or  increase  in  wages.  There 
is  really  more  opportunity  for  education  in  connec- 
tion with  a  cooperative  store  than  a  factory.  In  the 
factory,  it  must  be  in  the  main  a  one-man  power,  each 
man  working  in  the  same  automatic  way  that  he  does 
for  a  private  employer.  In  a  cooperative  store  there  is 
greater  freedom ;  there  are  elections  ;  there  is  ser- 
vice on  committees ;  there  are  meetings ;  and  also, 
as  there  may  be  in  any  cooperative  association,  libra- 
ries, reading-rooms,  lecture  courses  and  the  like. 

"  While  cooperation  is  greatly  preferable  to  profit- 
sharing  in  the  technical  sense,  it  is  nevertheless  true 
that  profit-sharing  is  cooperative  to  a  large  extent. 
Its  chief  objection  is,  that  it  does  not  introduce  dem- 
ocratic responsibility  in  the  selection  of  managers  and 
the  conduct  of  the  business,  and  is  dependent  solely  on 
the  initiative  and  friendly  disposition  of  a  single  pro- 
prietor or  corporation  stockholders. 

"  The  recent  business  history  of  this  country  goes  to 
show  that  enormous  combinations  are  palpable  fail- 
ures ;  witness  the  Cordage,  National  Lead,  Cotton- 
Seed  Oil,  and  numerous  other  great  aggregations. 
All  of  these  have  actually  lost  money.  The  reason  for 
this,  which  was  not  at  first  apparent,  is,  that  the  at- 
tempt to  run  at  many  different  points  and  for  many  dif- 
ferent markets,  under  one  head,  does  not  get  sufficient- 
ly careful  attention  to  the  details  of  operations.  It  will 
probably  be  found  that  a  single  factory  of  fairly  good 
dimensions  and  self-contained  is  the  most  likely  to 
succeed ;  and  a  decided  advantage  would  be  gained 
for  it  if,  besides  having  the  careful  personal  super- 
vision of  its  chief  owner,  it  also  had  the  concurrent 
interest  of  all  of  its  workers.  The  enormous  retail 
stores  are  not  necessarily,  nor  probably,  disposed 
to  sell  any  lower  than  they  need  to  ;  and  it  is  a  fact 
that  they  make  very  handsome  profits.  A  coopera- 
tive store,  while  it  would  have  a  much 
harder  time  getting  started  in  a  city 
Small  Stores  large  enough  to  have  these  large  and 
well-established  retail  stores,  would 
nevertheless  be  perfectly  able  to  com- 
pete with  them,  when  once  established . 
For  apparent  reasons,  it  is  much  harder 
to  start  a  dry-goods  or  drapery  store  than  in  the 
smaller  goods,  such  as  groceries,  meats,  shoes,  furni- 
ture, and  the  like.  In  all  considerable  cities  there 


are  large  stores  ;  yet  there  are  a  multitude  of  small 
stores  and  shops  of  every  conceivable  sort.  It  would 
probably  be  found,  too,  that  the  big  retail  stores  of  any 
large  city  do  not  supply  the  inhabitants  of  that  city  and 
vicinity  with  anything  like  the  hundredth  part  of  the 
goods  of  all  kinds  consumed  by  the  inhabitants. 
There  is  plenty  of  room  for  cooperative  stores  or  fac- 
tories, if,  as  a  matter  of  fact,  they  have  any  economic 
advantages.  If  Mr.  Brassey  believes  that  .£5000  a  year 
insures  a  more  competent  manager  than  .£500, 1  venture 
my  opinion,  as  a  business  man  of  25  years'  experience, 
that  he  is  mistaken.  It  is  more  frequently  the  case, 
that  the  larger  the  price  the  less  the  service  that  is 
actually  rendered.  There  is  a  great  deal  of  pure  fic- 
tion and  sentiment  about  a  large  part  of  the  few  high- 
priced  salaries  paid  in  the  commercial  world. 

41  Profit-sharing,  introduced  by  wealthy  manufactur- 
ers, is,  by  no  means,  the  only  way  in  which  cooperative 
factories  can  be  started.  It  is,  in  fact,  practicable  to 
start  them  just  as  nearly  all  other  factories  have  been 
started,  by  beginning  in  a  small  way.  The  advantages 
of  a  large  and  well-equipped  factory  over  a  small  one 
are  not  so  great  as  may  be  supposed.  The  large  man- 
ufacturer has  many  purely  extravagant  ways,  which 
the  small  manufacturer  does  not  indulge  in.  The  best 
paying  planing  mill  in  this  city  [St.  Louis],  year  after 
year,  is  the  Mechanics,  which,  while  not  cooperative  in 
the  true  sense,  was  started  entire' y  by  striking  work- 
men on  capital  which  they  had  scraped  together  of 
their  own,  and  the  stock  is  still  mainly  held  by  the  men 
who  work  in  the  factory.  Other  planing  mill  masters 
here  admit  that  they  have  the  advantage,  and  make 
more  money  than  any  other  mill  in  the  city.  A  coop- 
erator,  who  is  at  one  and  the  same  time  a  member  of  a 
cooperative  store  at  which  he  buys  his  goods,  and  a 
member  of  a  cooperative  factory,  gets  (not  quite,  but) 
nearly  all  he  produces.  What  he  pays  in  taxes  which 
should,  by  right,  be  secured  from  land  value  tax,  is 
about  the  only  thing  that  he  loses ;  and  he  gains  be- 
sides a  very  great  advantage  over  the  mere  members 
of  a  trade-union." 

References,  for  England.— The  History  of  Coopera- 
tion in  Rochdale  (Part  1.  only,  1844-57  ;  1893)  i  History  ' 
of  Cooperation  (2  vols.,  1885):  The  Cooperative  Move- 
ment of  To-Day,  all  by  G.  J.  Holyoke  ;  A  Manual  for 
Cooperators.  by  T.  Hughes  and  E.  V.  Neale  (1881) ; 
Working  Men  Cooperators,  by  A.  H.  D.  Acland  and  B. 
Tones ;  JLt/k,  Times,  and  Labors  of  Robert  Owen,  by 
Lloyd  Jones ;  The  Cooperative  Movement  in  Great 
Britain,  by  Miss  B.  Potter  (1891) ;  Methods  of  Indus- 
trial Remuneration,  by  D.  F.  Schloss ;  Cooperative 
Production,  by  B.  Jones  (1894).  See  also  the  Reports  of 
the  English  Cooperative  Congresses,  published  by  the 
Cooperative  Union,  Limited,  Corporation  Street,  Man- 
chester ;  the  valuable  Annuals  of  the  Cooperative 
Wholesale  Societies,  published  at  i  Ballour  Street,  Man- 
chester ;  The  Cooperative  News,  published  weekly  at 
Manchester.  For  Europe  the  best  references  are  the 
reports  on  the  various  countries  of  the  English  Royal 
Commission  on  Labor.  For  America  we  have  The 
History  of  Cooperation  in  the  United  States^  pub- 
lished by  thejonns  Hopkins  University  Studies  in  His- 
torical and  Political  Science  (1888) ;  Cooperation  as  a. 
Business,  by  C.  Barnard  (1881) ;  Mqnual_of  Distribu- 
tive Cooperation,  by  Carroll  D.  Wright,  in  Massachu- 
setts Labor  Report,  1885. 

Revised  by  N.  O.  NELSON. 

COOPERATIVE  AGRICULTURE.    See 

COOPERATIVE  FARMING. 

COOPERATIVE  BANKS  may  be  defined 
as  cooperative  organizations  for  mutual  finan- 
cial aid.  They  are  organizations  mainly  of  peo- 
Ele  possessed  of  little  or  no  capital,  and  with 
mited  incomes  from  wages  or  any  other  source, 
whereby  they  can  put  their  small  savings  to- 
gether and  create  a  fund  from  which  the  mem- 
bers can  borrow  at  low  rates  of  interest. 

In  the  United  States  such  banks  are  usually 
spoken  of  as  Building  Associations,  and  are  con- 
sidered under  that  head,  but  it  must  not  be  for- 
gotten that  these  associations  are  truly  and  not 
seldom  are  called  cooperative  banks,  and  that 
their  special  and  marked  development  in  this 
country  make  the  United  States  one  of  the 
pioneer  countries  and  chief  homes  of  this  form 
of  cooperation.  Apart  from  the  building  and 


Cooperative  Banks. 


374 


Cooperative  Banks. 


loan  associations  of  the  United  States,  however, 
Germany  is  the  classic  home  of  cooperative 
banking.  Schulze-Delitsch  and  Raiffeisen  are 
the  two  great  founders  of  the  movement,  tho 
there  existed  some  germs  of  the  idea  before 
their  time. 

In  this,  as  in  so  many  other  things,  China  claims  to 
be  the  originator,  and  Mr.  Wolff,  in  his  People's  Banks  : 
a  Record  of  Social  and  Economic  Success,  finds  other 
germs  in  the  early  banks  of  Italy,  in  some  of  the  early 
communities  among  the  German  artisans  who  were 
taken  to  Russia  to  develop  the  trades  there.  As  early 
as  1830  the  German  Gall  (q.v.)  proposed  to  fight  capita'l 
by  putting  together  the  pennies  of  the  poor. 

But  the  ones  to  really  develop  cooperative 
banking  were  Schulze-Delitsch  and  Raiffeisen. 
Of  these  two  men,  each  commencing  his  work 
without  the  knowledge  of  the  other, 
Raiffeisen   seems   to    have  begun 
Beginnings,  slightly  the  earlier,  and  to  have 
developed  the  more  strictly  cooper- 
ative system  ;  yet  Schulze  was  the 
first  to  gain  for  the  movement  popularity  and 
general  following. 

Schulze-Delitsch  (<?.v.),  a  prominent  German 
Liberal  and  a  man  of  some  wealth  and  position, 
was  deeply  moved,  by  the  sufferings  of  the  poor, 
in  the  days  of  the  Revolution  of  1848,  and  de- 
vised his  system  of  cooperative  banking  for 
their  relief.  In  conjunction  with  his  friend, 
Dr.  Bernhardi.  of  Eilenburg,  he  commenced  his 
work  among  the  joiners  of  Delitsch  and  the 
shoemakers  of  Eilenburg.  He  first  formed  sim- 
ply a  sort  of  provident  fund,  but  established  his 
first  credit  association  in  1850.  His  ideas  and 
example  took  root  and  found  a  large  following. 
In  1863  he  was  opposed  by  the  Socialist  Las- 
salle  (y.v.),  and  in  several  debates  before  work- 
ing men's  organizations  Lassalle  carried  the 
audience  with  him  against  Schulze-Delitsch, 
whom  he  considered  a  reactionary  Liberal. 
Yet  Delitsch  adhered  to  his  work,  and  when  he 
died,  in  1883,  be  saw  a  network  of  his  banks  all 
over  Germany  and  in  adjoining  countries.  Of 
the  exact  nature  of  his  system  and  of  its  status 
we  shall  speak  later  ;  meanwhile,  we  turn  to  the 
system  of  Raiffeisen. 

F.  W.  R.  Raiffeisen  (g.v.\  in  Westerwald, 
began  his  work  by  establishing  a  cooperative 
bakery,  and  then  a  cooperative  bank  in  1849. 
It  had  only  a  capital  of  ^300.  Contesting 
against  great  odds,  his  system  was  little  known 
till  1874,  but  before  his  death,  in  1888,  "  Father 
Raiffeisen,"  as  he  was  called,  saw  his  system  a 
distinguished  success. 

The  following  gives  the  essential  points  of 
difference  in  the  two  systems  : 

The  Schulze-Delitsch  credit  associations  put  the 
lender's  interest  foremost ;  Raiffeisen,  on  the  contrary, 
places  the  borrower's  interest  as  the  keystone  of  his 
system.  He  aims  at  social  benefit,  not  at  business 
profits.  Every  member  joining  one  of  the  Schulze  as- 
sociations is  expected  to  take  one  share  valued  at 
from  $40  to  $125  (each  association  determining  the 
value  of  its  shares).  This  share  may  be  paid  for  in 
small  instalments.  The  shares  draw  dividends  rang- 
ing from  i  to  30  per  cent.  Some  associations  have  de- 
clared dividends  of  nearly  60  per  cent.  This  is  gained 
by  charging  a  somewhat  high  rate  of  interest.  Loans  are 
only  made  to  members  and  are  for  short  periods,  never 
more  than  90  days.  As  security,  mortgages,  pledges, 
bills,  and  sureties  are  taken.  These  associations  are 
managed  by  a  well-paid  committee  whose  salaries  are 
increased  by  commissions  based  on  the  amount  of 
business  done.  In  order  to  increase  their  commissions, 
a  committee  often  takes  bad  securities.  In  1892  the  as- 


The  Two 
Systems. 


sociations  borrowed  about  one  fourth  of  this  amount, 
mostly  from  private  individuals. 

The" Raiffeisen  loan  banks  were  established  to  assist 
borrowers,  and  at  the  same  time  to  free  the  small 
agriculturists  from  the  merciless  grasp  of  usurers. 
Raiffeisen  offered  to  supply  the  peas- 
antry with  money  if  they  would  sub- 
scribe to  his  rules.  As  his  aim  was  to 
benefit  the  poorest  classes  he  exacted 
nothing  from  those  joining,  and  as  most 
members  were  agriculturists,  he  made 
long  credits  the  rule.  Each  bank  mem- 
bership is  confined  to  a  small  district.  Within  this 
district  members  are  elected  with  great  care  and  dis- 
crimination. No  difference  is  recognized  between  the 
poor  and  rich  except  that  the  latter  are  allowed  to  take 
the  brunt  in  the  administration.  There  is  an  executive 
committee  consisting  of  five  members  and  a  council 
of  supervision  consisting  of  six  or  nine  members,  ac- 
cording to  the  size  of  the  banking  society.  None  of 
these  officers  receive  a  cent  of  remuneration.  Only 
one  man  connected  with  a  bank  is  paid,  viz.,  the 
cashier,  and  he  has  no  say  whatever  in  the  employ- 
ment and  the  distribution  of  the  money.  All  banking 
in  the  ordinary  sense  is  strictly  forbidden.  The  banks 
are  loan  banks  and  their  sole  instrument  is  credit.  No 
dividends  are  paid.  All  profits  go  into  a  reserve  fund, 
which  is  used  to  meet  deficiencies  or  losses  or  it  is 
voted  to  some  public  work  or  charity.  Money  is 
loaned  only  to  members,  and  no  request  for  a  loan  is 
granted  until  after  a  careful  examination  is  made  into 
the  object  of  the  loan,  whether  it  is  economically 
justified,  and  if  found  to  be  so  the  applicant  for  a 
loan  is  never  refused.  When  the  money  is  granted  it 
must  be  used  for  the  specific  object  for  which  it  was 
recmested.  The  rate  of  interest  usually  charged  is  5 
per  cent.  The  banks  obtain  their  money  from  various 
sources,  paying  from  3^  to  4  per  cent.  They  have 
more  money  than  they  can  use,  as  their  reputation  is 
excellent.  In  the  43  years  of  their  existence  neither 
member  nor  creditor  has  ever  lost  a  penny.  The  lend- 
ing is  on  character,  no  pledges  or  mortgages  are  taken 
as  security,  but  simply  a  note  of  hand  backed  by  one 
or  two  other  members.  It  is  thought  by  many  that 
one  of  the  strong  points  of  these  loan  banks  is  that 
they  are  based  on  the  unlimited  liability  of  members. 

In  both  the  main  object  is  to  found  an  association 
which  grants  credit  to  persons  who  would  otherwise 
scarcely  be  able  to  procure  it,  except  at  an  exorbitant 
rate  on  the  security  of  funds  composed  of  small  regu- 
lar contributions  made  by  all  the  members.  Before 
the  passing  of  the  law  of  1889,  loans  were  sometimes 
made  to  non-members,  but  the  law  forbade  this  ex- 
tension of  the  business  of  the  associations  on  the 
§  round  that  it  destroyed  their  cooperative  character, 
ince  1889  also  the  liability  of  the  members  has  been 
no  longer  universally  unlimited  ;  but  according  to  Dr. 
Criiger  experience  has  shown  that  associations  with 
limited  liability  have  not  always  proved  able  to  pro- 
cure the  necessary  capital.  On  the  whole,  he  regards 
it  as  probable  that,  in  the  future  loan  associations 
which  do  not  possess  any  very  large  capital  will  be 
organized  on  the  basis  of  unlimited  liability,  unless 
local  circumstances  determine  them  to  adopt  the  con- 
trary principle.  Tho  agreeing  in  their  main  object, 
the  Schulze-Delitsch  and  Raiffeisen  banks  differ  con- 
siderably in  other  details.  The  former  admit  mem- 
bers of  every  class,  and  think  this  safer,  since  it  is  im- 
probable that  a  demand  on  the  bank  will  occur  in 
every  industry  at  once  ;  the  latter  limit  their  advan- 
tages to  agriculturists.  The  former  charge  high  in- 
terest (8  to  i2  per  cent.),  and  pay  high  dividends,  with 
salaried  officers.  The  latter  charge  low  rates  and 
have  no  salaried  officers,  and  claim  to  be  more  ethical, 
while  the  former  they  consider  merely  commercial. 

A  connection  between  the  associations,  however,  is 
maintained  by  means  of  the  Central  Agricultural  Bank 
for  Germany.  The  General  Secretary's  Union,  pre- 
sided over  by  Dr.  Raiffeisen  until  his  death,  and  since 
then  by  his  son,  aims  to  extend  the  system.  The  firm 
of  Raiffeisen  &  Co.  has  been  founded  to  supplement 
the  funds  of  the  association,  and  render  them  inde- 
pendent of  subsidies  hitherto  granted  by  the  Prussian 
Ministry  of  Agriculture.  The  firm  publishes  a  jour- 
nal, The  Cooperative  News  (Genossenschaftsblatt). 

The  Schulze-Delitsch  and  Raiffeisen  systems  are  not, 
however,  the  only  ones  in  Germany.  Mr.  Wolff  men- 
tions, besides  the  Buernverein  or  cooperative  associa- 
tions of  the  Roman  Catholic  Church,  which  do  not  a 
little  at  supplying  credit,  the  Haas,  Westphalian, 
Franconian,  Posen,  and  Broich  banks. 

In  1889  a  general  German  agricultural  cooperative 
union  was  established,  and  gave  a  great  impetus  to 
agricultural  cooperation. 


Cooperative  Banks. 


375 


Cooperative  Banks. 


The  total  number  of  cooperative  credit  asso- 
ciations in  Germany,  exclusive  of  the  Bauern- 
verein,  is  some  4800,  with  500,000  members,  and  a 
capital  of  from  100  to  125  million  dollars.  Finan- 
cial statements  are  published  for  1076  out  of  the 
4401  societies,  showing  that  in  1891  the  sums 
advanced,  including  extensions  of  loans  previ- 
ously granted,  amounted  to  1,561,610,000  marks 
(,£78,080,000)  as  compared  with  1,641,574,191 
marks  (,£82,079,000)  in  1890,  representing  an  av- 
erage of  3035  marks  (.£152)  per  member  in  1891, 
as  compared  with  3111  marks  (£156)  in  1890. 

On  May  i,  1891,  3746,  or  about  95.8  per  cent, 
of  the  whole  number  of  credit  and  loan  associa- 
tions were  based  on  the  principle  of  unlimited 
liability  ;    in  148  the  liability  was 
limited.;  while  in  18,  founded  by 
Success  in    Herr  von  Broich,  there  was  an  un- 
Germany.    limited  liability  to  be  called  upon 
to  make  subsidiary  payments.    The 
number  of  bankruptcies  among  loan 
associations  between  1876  and  1886  was  only  36. 
With   regard  to  the   Raiffeisen   banks,   Dr. 
Criiger  reports  that  in  1 890  364  of  these  associ- 
ations, with  33,166  members,  had  assets  worth 
17,184,362  marks,  and  liabilities  amounting  to 
17,011,439  marks.     The  net  profits  were  172,590 
marks,   and    the  reserve    fund  about    822,000 
marks.     In  1891  the  735  banks  belonging  to  the 
Neuwied  association,  with  70,000  members,  did 
business  to  the  extent  of  30,000,000  marks.     In 
1892-93   the  assets  of  635  banks  amounted  to 
27,182,348  marks,  and  their  liabilities  to  27,122,- 
036  marks. 

Cooperative  banking  has  spread  from  Ger- 
many into  other  countries,  especially  into  Italy. 
The  report  on  Italy  of  the  (English)  Royal  Com- 
mission on  Labor  tells  us  that  the  question  of 
providing  credit  for  the  working  classes  was 
raised  as  early  as  1858,  in  the  Congress  of  Work- 
ing Men's  Associations  held  at  Vercelli.  The 
discussion  was  renewed  at  the  next  annual  meet- 
ing held  at  Novi,  and  again  at  Milan  in  1860, 
when  certain  proposals,  put  forward  by  Signer 
V.  Boldrini,  were  carried. 

Meanwhile,  Signor  Luzzatti,  in  a  series  of 
lectures  delivered  at  Milan,  in  the  course  of 
1863  and  1864,  refuted  the  opinions  advanced  by 
Signor  Boldrini,  recommending  in- 
stead   the    promotion    of    popular 
Italy.        credit  by  means  of  co-operation  and 
reciprocity,  and  advocating  the  es- 
tablishment of  people's  banks  sim- 
ilar to  those  founded  in  Germany  on  the  Schulze- 
Delitsch  system,  and  his  advice  prevailed. 

The  movement  quickly  spread  through  Lombardy, 
Tuscany,  Emilia,  Romagna,  and  Venetia,  and  finally 
penetrated  into  the  southern  provinces.  In  1866  there 
were  8  people's  banks  in  Italy,  with  a  total  capital  of 
1,940,000  lire  ;  by  1871  the  number  had  risen  to  64,  wit^i 
a  paid-up  capital  (capitale  versato)  of  23,968,984  lire, 
and  a  subscribed  capital  (capitale  sottoscritto)  of  26,- 
640,440  lire  ;  by  1881  it  had  reached  171,  with  a  paid-up 
capital  of  41,538,042  lire,  and  a  subscribed  capital  of  43,- 
449,670  lire.  Notwithstanding  financial  crises,  coopera- 
tive banks  have  continued  to  increase  both  in  number 
and  importance  during  the  last  10  years,  and  it  may  be 
noted  that  in  1887,  a  year  of  acute  crisis,  101  new  banks 
were  started,  chiefly  in  the  south.  By  the  end  of  1890 
the  total  number  of  Italian  cooperative  credit  societies 
was  738,  with  a  paid-up  capital  of  92.000,000  lire,  and  a 
nominal  capital  (capitale  nominate)  of  about  100,000,000 
lire.  This  rapid  progress  is  probably  due  partly  to 
the  action  of  cooperative  congresses  and  the  support 
of  other  cooperative  societies,  and  of  the  Neapolitan 
and  Sicilian  banks,  and  other  banks  of  issue. 


In  1887  there  was,  on  an  average,  one  people's  bank 
for  every  46,809  inhabitants  in  the  kingdom,  and  these 
banks  were  most  numerous,  relatively  to  the  popula- 
tion, in  Apulia  and  Basilicata,  a  fact  which  is  the  more 
striking  when  it  is  considered  that  the  means  of  ob- 
taining credit  were  formerly  in  a  most  primitive  state 
in  these  southern  districts,  where  the  peasantry  were 
completely  in  the  power  or  the  local  usurers. 

The  people's  banks  have  been  to  some  extent  trans- 
formed, or  rather  they  have  been  supplemented  by  the 
institution  of  other  popular  credit  societies,  based 
generally  on  the  same  principle,  and  organized  on 
similar  lines,  but  differing  in  their  character  and  in 
their  aims  from  the  original  associations.  Some  of 
these  societies  are  called ""  workmen's  banks"  (banche 
Operate,  casse  operate),  "  workmen's  credit  banks" 
(banche  di  credito  per  gli  Operai),  "  popular  Tjanks" 
(casse  popolari\  names  which  show  the  predominance 
of  working  men  in  the  new  associations.  In  one  such 
bank  at  Modigliana,  at  the  end  of  1882,  out  of  350  share- 
holders (soci)  122  were  working  men,  while  the  Coopera- 
tive Working  Men's  Bank  of  Cortado  had  a  total  of  337 
shareholders,  and  numbered  no  less  than  202  opera- 
tives and  63  agricultural  day  laborers. 

A  new  form  of  credit  cooperation  has  been  intro- 
duced into  Italy  during  the  last  few  years  by  the  in- 
stitution of  rural  loan  banks  on  the  Raiffeisen  system. 
These  banks  were  first  started  in  1883  by  Signor  Leone 
Wollemborg,  to  protect  the  rural  laborers  and  small 
landed  proprietors  of  Venetia  and  Friuli  against  the 
exorbitant  demands  of  money-lenders,  by  making  it 
possible  for  them  to  borrow  capital  at  a  moderate  rate 
of  interest. 

La  Cooperazione  Rurale,  the  organ  of  the  Federation 
of  Italian  Rural  Banks,  mentions  in  the  leaflet  issued 
on  January  15,  1893,  tnat  at  the  en<i  °f  December, 
1892,  there  were  50  rural  banks  in  Italy  which  had  re- 
ceived a  total  of  about  198,697.08  lire  in  deposits,  had 
granted  about  554,761.76  lire  in  loans,  and  retained 
about  20,862.73  lire  in  reserve. 

In  other  countries  the  development  has  not 
been  so  great.  Austria  in  1890  had  1489  credit 
out  of  a  total  of  1898  cooperative  societies. 
Hungary  had,  in  1889,  576  coopera- 
tive credit  societies.  In  Russia 
there  were,  in  1883,  1000  cooperative  Other 
credit  societies  with  207,259  mem-  Countries, 
bers,  but  the  number  of  societies 
has  since  dwindled  to  some  800. 
Switzerland,  in  1891,  reported  20  cooperative 
banks  with  a  capital  of  ^"88,987,032,  and  many 
other  cooperative  societies  partly  doing  the  work 
of  banks.  The  Scandinavian  countries  have 
done  little  in  this  direction,  and  Holland  has 
but  few.  In  Belgium  there  has  been  more  ac- 
tivity. In  1865  Leon  d'Andrimont  started  the 
first  Banque  Populaire  at  Liege,  and  to-day 
there  are  some  15  such  banks  with  a  constitu- 
ency of  11,000.  Besides  these,  there  are  some 
Unions  de  Credit.  France  has  a  few  Banques 
Populaires,  but  they  are  little  different  from 
joint-stock  societies.  The  function  of  coopera- 
tive banks,  too,  is  partly  fulfilled  by  the  Syndi- 
cats  Agricoles,  and  by  Catholic  societies  founded 
by  Father  Ludovic  de  Besse.  The  government 
policy  of  aiding  the  savings-banks  has,  perhaps, 
prevented  the  extension  of  cooperative  bank- 
ing. In  England,  the  home  of  cooperation  of 
other  kinds,  cooperative  credit  has  had  little 
development,  but  is  now  making  a  beginning. 
In  December,  1893,  an  agricultural  banks  asso- 
ciation was  formed  to  aid  in  establishing  such 
banks,  and  its  committee  decided  that  the  Raif- 
feisen system  had  been  found  the  most  uni- 
formly successful.  For  the  very  great  exten- 
sion of  cooperative  credit  in  the  United  States, 
see  BUILDING  ASSOCIATIONS  ;  for  the  principles 
involved,  see  COOPERATION. 

References:  H.  W.  Wolff's  People's  Banks  (i893> 
See  also  COOPERATION. 


Cooperative  Colonies. 


376 


Cooperative  Farming. 


COOPERATIVE  COLONIES.-The  prin- 
ciple of  cooperation  has  been  applied  in  recent 
times  to  the  formation  of  innumerable  colonies, 
or  attempt  at  colonies.     The  more  successful  of 
these  we  consider  under  their  respective  names, 
but  there  are  many  more  which  we  can  only 
mention.      They  are  cooperative  colonies  dis- 
tinctly ;  communistic  colonies  we  consider  under 
the  head  of  COMMUNISM.     The  exact  principles 
governing  the  cooperative  colonies  are  almost 
as  numerous  as  the  colonies,  but  they  all  turn 
more  or  less  around  the  central  idea  of  a  num- 
ber of  colonists  taking  shares  in  the  purchase 
of    land,    each    share    representing  a    certain 
amount  of  land,  assessing  themselves  to  meet 
improvements  for  the  common  good,  and  so  de- 
veloping the  value  of  each  share.     Each  share- 
holder here  owns  his  own  land,  and  there  is  no 
communal  ownership    as    under   communism. 
Colonies  of  this  general  description  have  been 
made  by  Swedes  at  New  Sweden,   Me.;    by 
Swiss,  near  Chattanooga,  Tenn. ;  by  Russians, 
in  Middlesex  County,  Va. ;  by  Italians,  in  Bowie 
County,  Tex.;  by  Germans,  at  Anaheim,  Cal. 
There  is  a  German  Catholic  colony  at  Marion- 
feld,  Martin  County,  Tex. ;  a  cooperative  colony  at 
Pasadena,  Tex. ;  numerous  colonies  of  Russian 
Jews  in  New  Jersey  (see  COMMUNITIES),  Illinois, 
Iowa,  and  Texas  ;  a  colony  of  Russian  Men- 
nonites  (y.v.)  in  Kansas,  Scandinavians  in  Da- 
kota  and    Minnesota.     The    establishment    of 
New  Rugby,  in  Tennessee,  by  Thomas  Hughes, 
in  1880,  led  to  quite  a  number  of  English  col- 
onies in  Cranford,  Woodbury,  Plymouth,  and 
Sioux  counties  in  Iowa.     The  Cinctnnatian  of 
May  16,  1895,  gives  the  names  of  still  other  co- 
operative colonies  :  Fairhope  Colony,  Battles, 
Ala. ;  Gibbonsonville  Cooperative  Colony,  Grand 
Blanc,  Mich.;  Manistique  Colony,  Manistique, 
Mich.;    Grander  Age  Colony,  Handsborough, 
Miss.;    Cooperative  Colony,  Greenwood,   Ark. 
It  must  not,  however,  be  supposed  that  all  these 
colonies  are  established  institutions.     Many  of 
them  will  probably  be  non-existent  before  this 
book  reaches  its  readers,  while  new  efforts  will 
be  taking  their  places,  but  such  lists  as  these 
show  how  general  and  deep-seated  is  the  ideal 
of  a  cooperative  life.     It  must  not  be  forgotten, 
too,  that  this  does  not  include  the  communistic 
colonies,  which  are  almost  as  many  more,  and 
which,  as  a  rule,  have  been   more-  successful 
(see  AMANA  ;  ECONOMY  ;  ICARIA  ;  KAWEAH  ;  NEW 
HARMONY  ;  ONEIDA  ;  RUSKIN  COLONY  ;  SHAKERS  ; 
ToBOLOBAMpo  ;  ZOAR,  etc.)  ;  and  these  are  col- 
onies in  the  U  nited  States  alone.     For  cooper- 
ative colonies  and  attempts  more  or  less  on  this 
line  in  other  countries,  see  COOPERATION  ;  CO- 
OPERATIVE  FARMING  ;    GODIN  ;    LECLAIRE  ;    see 
also  COMMUNITIES  and  COMMUNISM. 

COOPERATIVE  COMMONWEALTH, 
THE. — A  designation  often  applied  to  the  ideal 
socialistic  state  (see  SOCIALISM).  It  indicates 
that  socialism  is  not  to  be  regarded  as  a  despo- 
tism or  paternalism  governing  the  people,  but 
rather  as  a  fraternal  brotherhood,  where  indus- 
try is  to  be  conducted  through  the  cooperation 
of  all  the  members  of  the  community.  In  its 
term  commonwealth,  it  distinguishes  socialism 
from  mere  cooperation,  which  may  be  the  co- 
operation simply  of  a  few  individuals  in  a  com- 


munity. Socialism,  or  the  cooperative  common- 
wealth, is  the  cooperation  of  the  whole  commu- 
nity, and  not  of  a  few  individuals  only.  The 
name  "  cooperative  commonwealth"  is  also  the 
title  of  a  work  descriptive  of  socialism  by 
Laurence  Gronlund  (g.v.),  the  first  and  one  of 
the  ablest  presentations  of  socialism  which  has 
appeared  in  the  United  States. 

COOPERATIVE  DAIRIES  have  had  a 
very  large  success.  Recent  statistics  put  them 
at  1014  in  Germany,  305  in  Switzerland,  208  in 
Italy,  while  they  are  to  be  found  in  successful 
operation  in  England,  France,  Belgium,  Aus- 
tria, the  United  States,  Australia,  and  else- 
where. (See  COOPERATIVE  FARMING.) 

COOPERATIVE  DISTRIBUTION.— For 

the  history  and  statistics  of  cooperative  distribu- 
tion in  different  countries,  see  COOPERATION, 
Section  III.  For  the  contrast  and  opposition 
between  cooperative  distribution  and  coopera- 
tive production,  see  COOPERATIVE  PRODUCTION. 

COOPERATIVE  FARMING.  (See  also 
COOPERATION.) — The  application  of  cooperation 
to  agriculture  has  been  from  the  first  the  con- 
stant dream  of  all  interested  in  cooperation  in 
any  way.  It  formed  an  important  part  of  the 
plans  of  Robert  Owen  (q.v.\  and  has  led  to  the 
formation  of  innumerable  communities.  These 
attempts,  however,  are  best  considered  under 
the  head  of  COMMUNITIES.  In  this  article  we 
notice  the  attempts  at  cooperative  agriculture 
not  by  communities,  but  by  cooperators  free 
from  community  life. 

ENGLAND. 

The  earliest  English  experiment  of  that  kind, 
and  one  of  the  best  known,  is  the  one  made  by 
Mr.  John  Gurdon,  at  Assington,  Suffolk,  com- 
mencing in  1829. 

In  that  year  Mr.  Gurdon  let  an  off-hand  farm  to  20 
laborers  of  his  parish  at  the  ordinary  rates  of  farm 
rent,  but  agreeing  to  lend  them  capital  without  inter- 
est, provided  they  would  each  advance  £2  as  guaran- 
tee.   A  manager,  accountant  and  stock-keeper  were 
to  be  selected  ;  any  man  convicted  of  fraud  or  crime 
was  to  forfeit  his  share  ;  the  capital  was  to  be  paid 
back  as  profits  arose.     The  society  was  called  the  As- 
sington Agricultural  Cooperative  Society.    It  was  suc- 
cessful, and  Mr.  Gurdon,  in  1854,  lent  another  smaller 
farm  in  the  same  way  to  34  more  laborers.    In  1864  Mr. 
Gurdon  reported  to  the   Social  Science 
Congress  that    there   were  on   the  two 
farms  39  men  who,  out  of  their  profits,     Early  Ex- 
had  paid  back  all  the  capital  he  had  ad-    periments. 
vanced,  and  owned   stock  and  crops  on 
the  farms  valued  at  £$o   a  share.     In 
1892  the  larger  association  was  still  existent,  with  21 
members,  and  each   share    worth  ^40,  but  only  one 
member  of  the  society   worked  on  the  farm.    In  1883 
the  younger  society  was  broken  up  by  a  long  series  of 
disastrous  years,  tho  each  shareholder  received  £16  IDS. 
for  every  £3  paid  in.     However,  a  new  association  was 
formed,  and  struggled  on.     It  took  increased  land,  but 
had  to  pay  a  heavy  rent,  and  in  1892  voted  that  unless 
the  landlord    would   reduce   his  rent  25  per  cent,   it 
must  disband. 

In  1831  Mr.  T.  G.  Craig,  a  disciple  of  Robert  Owen, 
was  invited  by  an  Irish  landlord,  Mr.  J.  S.  Vandaleur. 
to  form  a  cooperative  society  at  Rathlakine  (or  Rala- 
kine).  A  society  was  formed  with  28  men,  12  women  and 
52  children.  It  was  successful  for  two  years,  when  it 
was  suddenly  broken  up  by  the  flight  of  Mr.  Vandaleur, 
who  had  ruined  himself  by  gambling. 

About  the  same  time  Lord  Wallascourt  commenced 
another  Irish  experiment,  and  reported  it  in  1846  a  suc- 
cess. After  these  early  efforts,  we  find  record  of  no 
experiments  of  this  kind  in  England  till  Mr.  William 


Cooperative  Farming. 


377 


Cooperative  Farming. 


Lawspn's  attempt  at  Blennerhasset,  Cumberland,  com- 
mencing in  1861.  Mr.  Lawson  became  an  enthusiast  on 
cooperation,  and  devoted  a  farm  of  420  acres  to  it.  He 
found  his  people,  however,  apathetic.  At  first  only  one 
voted  for  his  plan.  Two  years  later  only  eight  would 
vote  at  all,  and  three  voted  against  it.  They  were  afraid 
of  his  experiments,  and  doubted  his  ability.  However,  a 
start  was  made.  There  was  a  weekly  "  Open  Council ; " 
there  were  free  reading-rooms,  library  and  schools, 
baths,  concerts,  festivals,  etc.  Mr.  Lawson  introduced 
a  steam  plow.  To  help  make  profits,  Mr.  Lawson 
mortgaged  his  farm  and  invested  in  American  securi- 
ties. In  1872,  however,  the  farm  did  not  pay,  and  was 
sold  at  a  total  loss  of  .£18,622.  The  failure,  however, 
was  laid  to  Mr.  Lawson's  methods,  not  to  cooperation. 
February  i,  1873,  Mr.  Waller  Morrison  made  a  co- 
operative attempt  in  the  parish  of  Brampton  Bryan. 
The  shares  were  £5,  and  no  one  could  become  a  mem- 
ber without  Mr.  Morrison's  approval.  He  rented  the 
society  a  farm  of  148  acres  at  £140,  and  later  .£130.  The 
experiment  endured  till  1879,  when  a  small  deficiency 
was  reported. 

The  North  Seaton  Cooperative  Farming  Society, 
founded  in  1873,  has  been  more  successful.  It  began  in 
a  small  way  by  some  colliers  cooperating  to  establish  a 
cooperative  dairy,  and  has  made  a  small  dividend  each 
year.  In  1891  it  had  a  capital  of  .£330  and  104  mem- 
bers. 

In  1883  Mr.  Bolton  King  commenced  an  experiment 
at  Radbourne  Manor  Farm,  under  very  generous 
rules,  but  it  was  not  successful. 

Such  are  some  of  the  earlier  typical  experiments  in 
England.      Lately,  much  general  attention  has  been 
given  to  the  subject,  and  there  has  been  much  success- 
ful result.    In  connection  with  the  fail- 
ure of  many  efforts,  it  must  not  be  for- 
'RriHo'h        gotten  how  depressed  has  been  the  con- 
ariutui       dition  of    all   British    agriculture.    In- 
Agriculture.  deed,  it  has  been  this  very  depressed 
condition  that  has  been  the  main  cause 
of   so  much    attention  being   given  to 
cooperative  attempts  in  the  hope  of  their  meeting  the 
need.    Said  Mr.  G.  Thorpe  at  a  conference  at  Manches- 
ter, December  16, 1893,  in  regard  to  agricultural  cooper- 
ation : 

"  The  grave  condition  of  British  agriculture  is 
exciting  no  small  amount  of  interest  in  nearly  every 
class  and  condition  of  society.  One  can  scarcely  take 
up  a  daily  paper  without  finding  some  reference  to  it. 

8uite  recently  it  had  been  debated  in  the  House  of 
ommons  by  leading  agriculturists,  who  take  as  a  rule 
a  gloomy  view  of  the  situation,  and  especially  if  they 
be  large  landholders  as  well.  No  great  reform  meet- 
ing is  held  in  any  part  of  the  country  without  the  land 
question  or  agriculture  being  discussed  ;  indeed,  the 
Government  have  already  appointed  a  royal  commis- 
sion to  make  the  fullest  inquiry  into  the  causes  which 
have  led  to  its  present  depressed  state.  It  has  forced 
the  formation  of  an  Agricultural  Union  composed  of 
laborers,  farmers,  and  landowners.  The  union  has 
held  two  great  national  meetings  in  London  for  the  ex- 
press purpose  of  calling  the  nation's  attention  to  agri- 
cultural grievances,  and  to  enlist  its  support  and  sym- 
pathy for  their  removal  by  legislative  enactments. 
.  .  .  The  average  price  of  wool  from  1871  to  1881  was 
3is.  j,d.  per  stone,  and  for  the  10  years  ending  1891,  us. 
•$d.  In  other  words,  there  is  a  loss  of  .£19  13.?.  on  every 
ioo  sheep,  and  since  there  are  over  33,000,000  of  them  in 
the  United  Kingdom,  it  follows  that  from  this  source 
alone  the  loss  to  the  farming  population  annually  must 


be  very  great.  ...  In  1872  the  average  price  of  wheat 
was  57-y.  per  quarter  ;  for  the  10  years  ending  1881,  50^.  ; 
for  the  10  years  ending  1891,  34^.  n^.,  and  for  the  last 
.  month  in  December,  1893,  25^.  ^d.  It  has  been  estimated 
that  through  a  fall  in  prices  the  loss  on  wheat,  barley, 
and  oats,  during  the  last  15  years,  to  the  agricultural  in- 
terest is  equal  to  .£193,000,000.  .  .  .  The  decrease  in  acres 
of  wheat  last  year  (1893),  compared  with  1892,  is  322,350, 
or  14.5  per  cent.,  and  with  the  previous  year  409,798,  or 
i7.S  per  cent.  ;  and  since  there  are  not  more  than 
2,000,000  acres  at  present  devoted  to  wheat  in  the  United 
Kingdom,  it  follows  that  if  the  same  ratio  of  reduction 
goes  on,  we  as  a  nation  will  cease  to  grow  wheat  in  less 
than  five  years  from  now.  The  average  yield  per  acre 
for  1893  is  put  down  at  26  bushels,  which  means 
6,500,000  quarters,  and  since  our  annual  consumption 
amounts  to  about  28,958,000,  we  shall  be  dependent 
upon  the  foreigner  for  nearly  22^  million  quarters 
during  the  year  1894.  The  number  of  cattle  has  de- 
creased also  during  the  same  period  by  244,107,  and 
sheep  by  1,454,370.  Therefore,  we  haye  this  serious 
fact,  contemplate  it  as  we  will,  that  while  the  daily  ad- 
dition to  our  population  is  between  700  and  800,  our 
home-food  products  have  decreased  during  the  past 
year  from  3.5  per  cent,  to  14.5  per  cent.,  with  every  ten- 
dency to  a  still  further  decrease  in  the  items  here 
named  in  1894.  ...  I  have  given  you  these  facts  and 
figures  to  prove  (if  proof  is  required),  first  the  de- 
pressed state  of  ur  farming  industry,  and  in  the 
second  place  to  show  that  there  is  a  market  at  our 
very  door  for  all  the  produce  we  as  cooperators  can 
obtain  from  the  land.  Mr.  George  Gale,  in  a  letter  to 
the  Leeds  Mercury,  December  22, 1892,  stated  that  'dur- 
ing the  last  .to  years  nearly  300,000  small  holdings  have 
been  destroyed,  in  many  cases  in  order  to  satisfy  the 
greed  of  men  who  desire  to  hold  more  land  than  they 
can  effectively  use.'  He  further  states  that  there  is 
not  a  county  in  England  to-day  in  which  small  farms 
are  not  at  a  premium  at  double  the  rent,  or  nearly  so. 
compared  with  the  6000  large  farms  which  are  unlet, 
ranging  from  $s.  to  £i  per  acre.  Indeed,  our  allotment 
system  has  given  such  overwhelming  evidence  in 
favor  of  small  farms  that  we  may  safely  anticipate  in 
the  near  future  a  gradual  breaking  up  of  large  farms 
into  lesser,  for  the  simple  reason  that  lesser  ones  re- 
quire in  proportion  a  larger  number  of  men  to  look 
after  them  than  large  ones  in  proportion  to  their 
yield.  That  something  is  being  done  to  reduce  the 
size  of  large  farms  is  shown  by  the  returns  in  regard 
to  the  progress  of  allotments.  In  1885  the  number  of 
allotments  in  England  was  348,872,  but  in  1890  they  had 
increased  to  441,024,  or  26  per  cent." 

The  result  of  such  a  depressed  condition  of  affairs 
has  been  to  make  the  English  cooperators  at  once  very 
anxious  to  apply  cooperation  to  agriculture,  and  very- 
cautious  in  the  attempt.    At  the  Congress  held  in  Edin- 
burgh in  1883,  the  president,  the  Rt.  Hon.  W.  E.  Bax- 
ter, M.P.,  laid  especial  stress  upon  the 
subject,  and  as  the  result    a    Scottish 
Farming  Association  was  founded.    It       Recent 
has  met  with  a  marked  success,  altho     Aftum-nto 
with  great  difficulties.     More  recently    A«-«'emP<'s' 
several  successful  English  distributive 
societies  have  taken  up  a  farm  to  oper- 
ate cooperatively  in  connection  with  their  stores,  and 
not  a  few  successful  farms,  dairies,  and  creameries  have 
thus  been  commenced. 

According  to  the  report  of  the  Central  Cooperative 
Board  for  1894,  the  following  are  the  statistics  of  co- 
operative farming  in  Great  Britain  : 


SECTION. 

So- 
cieties. 

Acreage. 

Capital. 

Rent. 

Profit. 

Loss. 

Midland  

6 

180^ 

/3  6<x 

flA.6 

Northern  

I  A*  1  1£ 

qi8 

/^2 

North-western  

6i6l2 

266 

Scottish  

800 

Southern  ^  

288 

Western  

460 

18* 

Total  

j£5i525 

,£1,670 

Cooperative  Farming. 


378 


Cooperative  Farming. 


The  report  for  1891  gives  details  of  several  farms  at  that  time  : 


NAME  OF  SOCIETY. 

County. 

Acreage. 

Capital. 

Rent. 

Profit  in 
1890. 

Loss  in 
1890. 

Derby  . 

26 
n'/i 
14 

64 

74 
52}£ 

IOO 

28 

5° 

122 

1  88 
10 
25 
48 

TOO 
370 

iS 

36 

103 

3° 
282 
223 

£7°° 
1,000 

850 
927 

250 

981 

75 
I  So 

7.331 
2,200 

IS 

'3^8 
1,500 
4,000 
80 
250 

1,200 

3O2 

3>362 
3>I27 

£7S 
38 

IOO 

154 

116 
150 

I2Q 

95 
116 

88 
27 
90 

i75 
190 
600 

45 
73 
280 

211 

£34 
6 

92 
35 
45 
33 

21 

48 
480 

£5 

71 

39 

646 

18 
25 

35i 

T            In  '  '  ' 

L/incoln  

T 

Worcester  T  

Rinlev 

Derby  ,  

Aspatria  

Cumberland  
Northumberland  

Cumberland  

Durham  

Yorkshire.  ...        

Durham  

Newcastle-on-Tyne  

West  Stanley 

Northumberland  
Durham  

Bingley  
Halifax 

Yorkshire  

Lancashire  

Mirfield       

Yorkshire  

Lancashire  

Devon  

Northumberland  

Scottish  Farming  

Renfrew  
Suffolk  

The  three  last  on  the  list  are  farms  worked  by  sepa- 
rate farming  societies  ;  all  the  others  are  farms  attach- 
ed to  stores. 

The  above  tables  do  not  include  attempts  at  profit- 
sharing  (<?.v.)  in  agriculture. 

OTHER  EUROPEAN  COUNTRIES. 

Cooperative   agriculture  in    France    has  developed 
mainly  along  the  lines  of  cooperative  dairies,  and  of  so- 
called  syndicats  agricoles,  for  cooperative  societies  for 
purchasing  at  favorable  rates.     "  Of  the 
success  of  these  syndicates,"  says  Mr. 
•r,  H.  W.  Wolff  in  the  Economic  Journal, 

.c  ranee,        "there  can  be  no  doubt.    Begun  isost 
modestly  scarcely  10  years    ago    by  a 
handful  of  agriculturists  brought  into 
union  by  Professor  Tanviray,  of  Blois,  they  have  in 
little  time  overspread  France,  multiplying  in  all  to 
the  number  of  1300,  with  about  600,000  members,  and 
doing  an  annual    business    at   present    of    100,000,000 
francs,  which  promises  to  grow  rapidly  to  higher  fig- 
ures.   They  are  to  be  met  with  in  almost  every  part  of 
France. 

"  The  syndicates  help  the  vine-grower  and  the  sugar- 
beet  grower,  the  horse-breeder  and  the  market-gar- 
dener ;  they  lend  a  hand  in  the  destruction  of  obnox- 
ious insects,  the  embankment  of  watercourses,  fumiga- 
tion for  keeping  off  the  frost ;  they  have  even  provid- 
ed French  agriculture  with  boards  of  conciliation  and 
arbitration,  and  insurance  of  laborers  against  acci- 
dents ;  and,  above  all  things,  they  have,  in  M.  Gatal- 
lier's  apt  words,  wholly  '  democratized '  the  use  of 
artificial  manures,  insecticides,  feeding  stuffs,  etc., 
placing  what  was  formerly  a  luxury  reserved  for  the 
rich  within  the  easy  reach  of  the  poor,  improving  the 
quality,  reducing  the  market  price  by  from  20  to  30  per 
cent.,  and  yet  increasing  the  annual  consumption  from 
the  paltry  figure  of  52,000,000  francs— barely  more  than 
2,000,000  for  all  France — to  120,000,000  francs." 

The  constitution  of  these  associations,  which  were 
avowedly  promoted  in  order  to  "suppress  socialism," 
varies  considerably  :  "  Most  of  the  syndicats  have 
two  classes  of  members — the  rich,  who  take  up  heavy 
shares,  must  not  borrow,  and  are  bound  to  remain 
members  for  a  definite  time— five  years  or  so  ;  these  are 
the  membres  fondateurs  ;  and  the  poor,  who  take  up 
smaller  shares,  are  free  to  leave,  and  who  may  borrow, 
these  are  the  membres  effectifs." 

Agricultural  cooperative  societies  in  Belgium  date 
from  1885,  when  the  first  was  established  at  Landen. 
Others    exist    at    Perck,  Tirlemont,    Ghent,    Marche, 
Genappe,  Hasselt,  Liege,  Tongres,  Namur,  Grivegnee, 
Virginal,  Jodoigne-Perwez,  Cerexhe-Melin,  and  Bree  , 
the  last  of  these  was  instituted  in  1890. 
•Ralrri-nm        All    these   societies    were    founded    by 
.Belgium.      iarge  landowners  and    farmers.    With 
the  exception  of  the  two  last  mentioned, 
their  object  is  to  purchase  and  retail  to  members,  fod- 
der, corn,  and  other  articles.    The  cooperative  dairy 
at  Cerexhe-Melin,  established  in  1889,   is  the  earlies't 
instance  of  an  agricultural  productive  society  in  Bel- 


gium. At  the  end  of  the  same  year  another  coopera- 
tive dairy  was  instituted  at  Peuthy,  with  a  minimum 
capital  of  2000  francs,  divided  into  80  shares  of  25  francs. 
Twenty  shares  have  been  purchased  by  purveyors  of 
milk,  the  remainder  by  other  persons  admitted  to 
membership.  Each  member  is  paid  according  to  the 
quality  of  the  milk  supplied  by  him,  after  a  slight  de- 
duction has  been  made  for  the  expenses  of  the  dairy. 
The  dairy  at  Bree,  established  in  1890,  has  now  (1893)  Ir 
members,  all  farmers,  and  works  satisfactorily. 

Cooperative  agriculture  in  Germany  has  had  a  very 
large  development,  perhaps  because  Germany  is  the 
classic  home  of  the  cooperative  land  banks.    (See  CO- 
OPERATIVE BANKS.)    In   1883  a  German  agricultural 
cooperative  union  was  formed,  which  in  1889  included 
credit  societies  or  land  banks,  associa- 
tions for  buying  raw  material,  dairies, 
and  other  societies.     In  May,  1892,  there     Germany, 
were  1020  agricultural  societies  for  buy- 
ing raw  material,  299  for  buying  tools, 
etc.,  1014  dairies,  and  some  80  stores,  and  societies  for 
cattle  rearing,  forestry,  etc.    (See  COOPERATION  ;  CO- 
OPERATIVE PRODUCTION,  etc.) 

Switzerland  has  305  cooperative  dairies  and  various 
cooperative  land  bank  societies  for  insuring  cattle, 
etc. 

In  Italy  cooperative  dairies  occupy  a  prominent 
position.  In  some  districts  the  cooperative  dairies 
have  existed  from  time  immemorial,  in  others  they  are 
of  more  recent  origin.  They  have  different  names, 
and  are  not  all  organized  after  the  same  pattern.  The 
simplest  and  most  primitive  form  is  that  of  "milk- 
lending"  (prestito  del  latte),  A  number  of  cattle- 
breeders  agree  to  lend  each  other  their  milk  day  by 
day  in  turns.  The  member  whose  turn  it  is  to  receive 
the  milk  makes  it  into  cheese  and  butter  in  his  own 
cottage,  for  his  own  profit.  In  some  places  each  man 
possesses  all  the  necessary  utensils  for  cheese-making, 
in  others  they  are  common  property,  and  are  carried 
from  house  to  house.  This  custom,  which  in  many  dis- 
tricts has  been  observed  for  centuries,  still  exists,  ac- 
cording to  Professor  Ugo  Rabbeno,  in  certain  Alpine 
valleys  and  in  southern  Italy.  The  report  of  the  Direc- 
tor General  of  Statistics  for  1890,  however,  states  that 
the  usage  of  "milk-lending"  does  not 
appear  to  be  practised  anywhere  at  the 
present  day.  Italy. 

"Milk-lending"  has  been  almost  if  not 
entirely  superseded  by  the  "  alternating 
system"  (sistema  turnario],  which  is  also  very  ancient. 
All  the  producers  of  milk  in  a  village  unite  to  employ 
a  cheese-maker  to  look  after  a  cottage  and  a  set  of 
cheese-making  utensils,  which  they  hold  in  common, 
and  to  help  in  working  up  the  common  supply  of  milk. 
Each  small  cultivator,  when  he  has  produced  as  much 
milk  as  can  be  worked  up  in  a  day,  has  a  right  to  the 
whole  produce  of  one  day's  cheese  and  butter-making. 
On  the  day  appointed  him  he  goes  up  to  the  cottage, 
laden  with  fire-wood,  rennet,  and  salt,  superintends 
and  helps  in  the  cheese  and  butter-making,  and  pays 
all  expenses  incurred.  The  butter  he  at  once  sells,  or 
carries  away  with  him.  The  cheese  is  marked  with 


Cooperative  Farming. 


379 


Cooperative  Farming. 


his  name,  and  is  kept  for  salting  in  the  common  stock 
until  the  time  for  selling  it  arrives.  This  system  of 
cooperative  dairy  farming  is  found  in  the  Alpine  dis- 
tricts in  Piedmont,  Friuli,  Carniola,  Emilia,  and  parts 
of  Lombardy. 

The  dairies  in  1891  were  208.  A  beginning  has  also 
been  made  at  cooperative  bakeries  and  farming  itself, 
for  the  benefit  of  the  peasants,  but  as  yet  with  little  re- 
sult. (See  COOPERATION,  section  "Italy.") 

THE  UNITED  STATES. 

The  following  account  is  taken  from  the  Report  on 
the  United  States  of  the  English  Royal  Commission  on 
Labor  (1893).  There  exist  to-day  no  accurate  statis- 
tics. Several  of  the  stores  mentioned  in  this  account 
have  since  failed,  but  newer  ones  have  been  started. 
There  is  much  talk  to-day  and  many  attempts — mainly 
weak  ones — at  cooperative  agricultural  communities. 
(See  COMMUNITIES.)  The  account  in  the  report  is,  in 
part,  as  follows : 

"  In  the  10  years  which  succeeded  the  war,  farmers 
suffered  greatly  from  the  low  prices  at  which  they 
were  obliged  to  sell  their  produce  and  the  ruinously 
high  prices  demanded  by  the  retail  traders  for  agricul- 
tural implements  and  machinery  and  for  the  necessa- 
ries of  life.  To  remedy  this  evil  the  Grangers  inaugu- 
rated a  cooperative  system  whereby  farmers  might 
combine  to  obtain  goods  in  large  quantities  direct 
from  the  manufacturers,  or  to  contract  with  local  mer- 
chants to  supply  them  at  reasonable  prices.  The  so- 
called  Grange  stores  arose  in  this  way,  for  the  pur- 
chasing and  distributing  agencies  found  it  convenient 
to  have  central  warehouses  and  stores  in  which  to  con- 
duct their  growing  business.  Want  of  business  knowl- 
edge and  incompetent  agents  led  to  the  collapse  of 
many  of  these  stores ;  but  a  consider- 
able number  were  successful,  and  still 
The  continue  to  nourish.  Many  successful 

Grane-era      branches  exist  in  Maine,   New  Hamp- 
°  shire,   Connecticut,  and  the  more  agri- 

cultural parts  of  New  England,  tho 
here  the  need  for  them  is,  perhaps,  less 
keenly  felt  than  farther  West.  The  Patrons'  Coopera- 
tive Corporation  of  Portland,  Me.,  has  a  capital  of 
$40,000,  and  does  an  annual  trade  of  $175,000.  Most  of 
these  stores  sell  goods  at  low  prices  to  members  of  the 
Grange,  and  divide  the  profits  between  the  share- 
holders. 

"  In  the  Northwestern  States  the  Grange  movement 
has  had  considerable  influence,  and  there  are  a  num- 
ber of  stores.  The  most  successful  is  the  Farmers' 
Exchange  at  Grinnell,  la.,  founded  in  1874.  The  mem- 
bership is  not  now  restricted  to  patrons  of  husbandry, 
and  the  profits  are  divided  among  the  shareholders ; 
indeed,  no  Grange  store  appears  to  have  actually 
adopted  the  Rochdale  principle  of  dividends  to  pur- 
chasers, tho  any  purchaser  of  $20  worth  of  goods  has 
recently  been  allowed  an  extra  dollar's  worth  at  the 
Farmers'  Exchange.  The  history;  of  the  Farmers' 
Protective  Association  of  Des  Moines,  la.,  is  of  some 
interest.  In  1880  the  Washburn  &  Moen  Manufac- 
turing Company  of  Worcester,  Mass.,  had  obtained  a 
monopoly  of  the  manufacture  of  barbed  wire  fencing, 
by  buying  up  a  number  of  the  patents  and  then  claim- 
ing the  proprietorship  of  the  principle  of  a  barbed  wire 
fence.  Their  claim  was  sustained  by  the  decision  of  a 
Federal  court  sitting  in  Illinois,  and  they  then  formed 
a  combination  whereby  40  establishments  were  licensed 
to  make  and  sell  a  limited  amount  of  barbed  fencing 
at  a  fixed  price,  paying  a  royalty  on  each  pound  to  the 
Washburn  Moen  Company.  Retail  prices  were  in- 
creased 40  per  cent.,  and  the  farmers  in  revolt  deter- 
mined to  employ  an  agent  to  secure  the  wire  for  them 
at  a  lower  rate.  The  first  agent  was  won  over  by  the 
company,  but  a  second  was  appointed  who  obtained 
the  necessary  supply  from  an  unlicensed  factory  at 
Grinnell.  In  1883  the  case  was  tried,  and  the  claim  of 
the  company  was  disallowed.  In  1885  a  monopoly  in  a 
special  and  favorite  kind  of  wire  was  again  sanctioned, 
and  the  Grinnell  factory  found  itself  obliged  to  close, 
whereupon  the  farmers  established  a  factory  of  their 
own  at  Des  Moines,  which  regulates  prices,  tho  its  own 
product  is  comparatively  small.  In  Ohio,  Indiana, 
Michigan,  Kansas,  and  the  West  and  South  generally, 
Grange  stores  are  to  be  found,  tho  in  Ohio  they  have 
been  comparatively  unsuccessful." 

ADVISABILITY  OF  COOPERATIVE  FARMING. 

Concerning  the  general  advisability  of  cooperative 
agriculture,  the  following  extracts  from  a  paper  read 
by  Mr.  W.  G.  Loyeday,  of  Rugby,  at  ihe  Cooperative 
Congress  of  1887  in  England,  tho  primarily  applicable 


to  that  country,  is  of  general  application.    He  says  (in 
part) : 

"  Notwithstanding  the  present  deplorable  state  of 
agriculture,  and  the  wretched  condition  of  a  large  por- 
tion of  the  land,  I  believe  that,  without  returning  to 
the  policy  of  taxing  bread,  agriculture  can  be  restored 
to  its  former  prosperity  and  trade  participate  in  its  bless- 
ings, by  cooperators  and  cooperation  putting  back  the 
land  into  the  hands  of  the  people.  But  for  agriculture, 
even  in  the  hands  of  cooperators,  to  become  perma- 
nently successful,  it  is  absolutely  necessary  tor  us  to 
purchase  the  land  that  we  intend  to  cultivate.  This 
will  require  the  efforts  and  capital  of  cooperative  soci- 
eties for  years  to  come.  It  may  be  the  slowest  means 
of  getting  cooperators  upon  the  land,  but  I  am  con- 
vinced it  is  the" safest,  and  that  the  end  will  abundantly 
justify  the  means.  Far  be  it  from  me  to  say  that  no  so- 
ciety ought  to  engage  in  farming  land  that  may  be 
taken  on  reasonable  terms  and  under  favorable  con- 
ditions ;  but  I  do  consider  it  to  be  absolutely  necessary^ 
in  order  that  cooperators  may  farm  with  safety  and 
profit,  that  they  should  own  the  land  they  cultivate. 
The  following  reasons  have  guided  me  in  coming  to 
this  conclusion  :  i.  The  miserable  condition  of  the 
land.  2.  The  unfavorable  restrictions  under  which 
the  tenant  farmers  often  labor.  The  foul,  poor,  neg- 
lected state  of  the  land  speaks  for  itself.  An  enormous 
amount  of  labor  must  be  put  into  it  before  it  will  yield 
crops  sufficient  to  pay  the  cultivator.  Draining,  ditch- 
ing, fencing,  cleaning  and  manuring  are  immediately 
necessary ;  in  other  words,  much  money  must  be  sunk 
in  a  farm,  such  as  cooperators  would  be  likely  to  se- 
cure, before  there  could  be  a  fair  return  of  profits. 
There  would  be  no  difficulty  with  many  societies  in 
finding  money  to  meet  these  requirements,  nor  would 
there  be  lack  of  spirit  to  invest  it,  but  there  is  the 
almost  absolute  certainty  that  it  would  never  return  to 
them  again.  As  yearly  tenants  they  would  be  entirely 
at  the  mercy  of  the  landlord,  who  could  either  raise 
the  rent  and  make  them  pay  for  the  improvements, 
and  so  prevent  them  from  receiving  their  money  in 

Erofits  ;  or  he  could  turn  them  out  and  let  the  improved 
irm  to  another  tenant  at  a  higher  rent,  and  so  put 
their  outlay  into  his  own  pocket.  .  .  . 

"  The  kind  of  land  to  be  purchased  for  cooperative 
enterprise  is  worthy  of  serious  consideration.    Cheap- 
ness should  not  be  the  mam  or  only  object  in  view. 
Cheap  land,  like  other  cheap  things,  is  not  always  the 
most  profitable.     Heavy  clay  land  should  be  avoided 
at  any  price,  at  least  for  the  present.    A 
mistake  at   starting    might    retard    the 
progress  of  cooperative  agriculture.    A     Practical 
farm  that  can  be  worked  under  reason-        AdviW 
able  conditions,   in   moderate   weather,        ^.uvii/e. 
should  not  be  refused  because  it  is  foul. 
Labor   and    capital,   if    judiciously  ap- 
plied, will  improve  it  and  make  it  yield  a  profitable  re- 
turn.   But  I  would  warn  societies  against  taking  land 
of  tbis  description  to  farm,  as  yearly  tenants  or  upon 
short  leases.    Indeed,  there  are  baits  on  land  as  well  as 
in  the  water,  and  those  who  swallow  them  may  find  a 
hook  in  them.     It  is  impossible  for  me  to  mention  the 
exact  size  a  farm  should  measure,  for  the  simple  reason 
that  no  standard  size  would  be  suitable  in  every  case. 
The  society's  purse  should  in  each  case  be  the  rule  by 
which  the  farm  should  be  measured.    In  other  words, 
take  no  more  land  than  you  have  money  to  stock  and 
•work  properly,  whether  your  farm  measure  20  or  200 
acres.    A  farmer  without  capital  is  a  worker  with  both 
hands  tied  behind  his  back. 

"  Societies  that  engage  in  farming  must  choose  for 
themselves  the  best  system  of  cultivating  their  land. 
No  uniform  system  can  be  profitably  adopted  in  all 
places  and  under  all  conditions.  If  the  farm  produce 
can  be  consumed  at  home,  the  expense  of  carriage  will 
be  dispensed  with,  and  the  profits  increased  by  doing 
without  the  middleman.  The  nature  and  quality  of 
the  soil  must  be  taken  into  consideration,  or  the  best 
efforts  may  end  in  failure.  But  a  few  general  remarks 
on  the  size  of  farms  and  on  the  profitable  working  of 
them  may  not  be  out  of  place  here,  and  may  be  useful 
to  societies  about  to  engage  in  farming  whose  mem- 
bers have  had  no  practical  experience  in  these  matters. 
In  many  respects  a  farm  of  moderate  size  should  be 
preferred.  It  gives  ampler  scope  for  the  employment 
of  agricultural  implements,  so  useful  to  farmers  in 
cleaning  the  land  and  helping  on  the  heavy  farm 
work.  Besides,  the  small  farmer  has  often  cast  upon 
him  the  unpleasant  and  sometimes  unsuccessful  work 
of  borrowing  of  his  neighbor  those  things  which  are 
so  needful  for  his  use,  but  too  expensive  for  him  to 
purchase.  Better  opportunities  too  are  given  for  grow- 
ing a  variety  of  crops  to  feed  the  stock  with  during  the 
winter  on  a  moderate  than  on  a  small  farm.  .  .  . 


Cooperative  Farming. 


380 


Cooperative  Production. 


"  Dairy  farming  is  becoming-  the  rule,  but  it  has 
brought  little  relief  to  the  farmers  as  a  class.  In  my 
opinion,  for  dairy  farming  and  feeding  to  become  prof- 
itable, the  plow  must  again  become  partner  with  the 
milk-pail.  There  has  been  a  divorce,  but  the  separa- 
tion has  brought  neither  pleasure  nor  profit.  Roots 
and  corn  are  necessary  to  successful  dairy  farming. 
The  mixed  farm  gives  the  farmer  considerable  advan- 
tages in  his  business.  He  can  make  the  whole  of  his 
land  contribute  to  his  success,  and  the  arable  portion 
of  it  will  prove  as  profitable  as— perhaps  more  so  than 
the  pasture.  A  heavy  root  crop,  tho  costing  a  large 
amount  for  labor,  will  be  found  invaluable  in  the  win- 
ter for  dairy  and  feeding  purposes.  The  farm  should 
supply  straiv  for  litter  and  for  chaff,  to  return  to  the 
land  in  manure  ;  green  clover,  which  cannot  Jae  sur- 
passed for  feeding  purposes  and  for  milk,  and  when 
dried  will  furnish  the  horses  with  food  for  the  winter  ; 
corn  to  feed  mutton,  beef,  pork,  and  poultry,  and  the 
remainder  can  be  taken  to  market ;  roots  for  sheep 
and  cattle,  which  will  probably  make  the  best  return 
of  all.  The  root  crop,  besides  furnishing  the  farmer 
with  his  best  food  supply  for  his  cattle  in  winter,  gives 
him  the  best  opportunity  for  cleaning  his  land,  and 
leaves  it  in  better  condition  for  the  next  crop.  Should 
the  hay  crop  prove  a  failure,  the  loss  would  not  be  felt 
so  severely  if  the  farmer  had  corn,  straw,  and  clover 
to  fall  back  upon.  I  have  made  no  attempt  to  give 
lists  of  figures  showing  that  so  much  land  can  be  se- 
cured for  a  certain  rent,  that  there  must  be  so  much 
outlay  for  labor,  manure,  and  other  expenses,  and  that 
the  receipts  for  corn,  meat,  milk,  and  eggs  amount  to 
so  much,  leaving  a  balance  in  favor  of  or  against  the 
tenant.  Farming  by  figures  on  paper  may  be  pleasant, 
but  it  is  not  very  practical ;  but  farming  on  land  is 
practical  work.  And  what  we  as  cooperators  want  to 
know  is,  how  it  can  be  made  profitable.  The  results 
given  by  those  who  are  engaged  in  agriculture  may  be 
of  great  interest  and  some  service  to  us,  as  also  may  a 
knowledge  of  their  methods  of  cultivation,  but  these 
will  only  be  of  partial  use ;  for  the  same  outlay  in  the 
same  manner  on  another  farm  will  produce  different 
results.  Neither  has  any  scientific  nor  new-fangled 
system  of  farming  been  referred  to,  because  there  is 
no  '  royal  road '  to  fortune  in  farming,  by  which  every 
one  who  walks  upon  it  is  brought  to  certain  success.  In 
farming  one  ounce  of  practical  knowledge  is  worth 
one  ton  of  theory.  And  this  knowledge  must  be 
gained  to  a  very  great  extent  by  observation  and  prac- 
tical experience.  The  secret  of  success  in  any  system 
of  farming  is  the  art  of  burying  in  the  land  carefully, 
constantly,  and  securely,  a  large  amount  of  time,  tal- 
ent, labor,  and  manure,  and  of  waiting  patiently  to  see 
it  rise  again,  under  the  blessing  of  Providence,  in  a 
continual  harvest,  to  reward  the  worker  for  his  toil. 
Poultry  and  fruit-growing  should  have  particular  at- 
tention on  cooperative  farms."  (For  references,  see 
COOPERATION  .) 

COOPERATIVE   PRODUCTION.  — The 

student  of  cooperation  (q.v.)  will  find  in  that 
movement  two  ideals  at  work,  not  only  sepa- 
rate and  distinct,  but  to  an  extent  contradictory 
and  mutually  opposing.  These  two  ideals  are 
cooperative  production,  or  workers  cooperating 
to  produce  goods  for  the  benefit  of  themselves 
as  producers,  and  cooperative  distribution  (q.v.), 
or  persons  cooperating  to  purchase  together  for 
their  benefit  as  consumers.  It  is  true  that  it  is 
quite  possible  to  exaggerate  the  opposition  be- 
tween these  two  ideals.  All  producers  are  con- 
sumers and  most  consumers  are  producers,  and 
this  should  never  be  forgotten.  Nevertheless 
it  does,  in  carrying  the  cooperative  idea,  make 
deep  difference  even  now  whether  you  consider 
first  and  foremost  the  interest  of  the  producer 
or  the  consumer,  and,  above  all,  it  leads  to  still 
greater  differences.  Cooperative  production  is 
by  no  means  impossible  under  a  general  system 
of  individualism.  Cooperative  distribution  is 
much  more  apt  to  lead  straight  to  socialism. 
Why  this  is  so  we  shall  see  in  a  moment.  Un- 
der cooperative  production  a  little  or  a  large 
body  of  workers  agree  to  work  together,  not 
under  an  employer,  but  cooperatively,  altho 


usually  choosing  one  or  more  of  their  number 
to  manage  the  business.  They  then  sell  Lhe 
product  of  their  united  labor  and  divide  the 
profit  equally,  or  according  to  the 
amount  or  value  of  work  done  by 
each  according  to  some  equitable  Cooperative 
system  previously  agreed.  The  Production 
unit  of  cooperative  production  is  vs. 
thus  the  body  of  workmen  who  pro-  Distribution, 
duce  together.  It  is  true  that  vari- 
ous bodies  of  cooperating  workmen 
may  federate,  and  so  develop  one  large  coopera- 
tive productive  body,  and  possibly  eventually  a 
complete  cooperative  civilization,  resting  on  the 
cooperation  of  workers,  but  this  is  really  indi- 
vidualism and  not  socialism,  since  it  rests  on 
the  cooperating  of  individual  workmen  who 
choose  to  come  together.  Under  cooperative 
distribution,  on  the  other  hand,  it  is  not  the 
producees  who  come  together,  but  it  is  people 
who  agree  to  cooperate  in  making  purchases, 
and  so  getting  cheaper  prices,  partly  by  buying 
by  the  wholesale,  partly  by  doing  away  with 
the  middleman.  Now  this  in  itself  is  not  so- 
cialism, but  it  does  lead  toward  it,  for  the  rea- 
son that  it  tends  to  unite  all  classes  of  the  com- 
munity, and  appeals  to  the  poorer  workers  even 
more  than  to  the  better  paid,  and  so  lends  itself 
to  the  communal  and  collective  organization  of 
society  much  more  quickly  than  cooperative 
production.  Cooperative  production  is  so  much 
more  difficult  to  start  than  cooperative  distribu- 
tion or  cooperative  stores,  that  it  is  usually  only 
the  higher  class  of  laborers  who  can  cooperate 
in  production,  or  if  the  less  educated  do  attempt 
it  and  succeed,  it  is  not  seldom  under  the  guid- 
ance of  some  individual  or  society  of  the  more 
educated.  Cooperative  production  thus  almost 
insensibly  tends  to  develop  little  groups  of 
skilled  workmen  whose  interest  is  to  sell  as 
highly  as  possible  for  their  own  good.  Its  ideal 
is  the  self-help,  the  self-development,  the  inde- 
pendence of  the  producer.  Cooperative  dis- 
tribution, on  the  other  hand,  can  be  commenced 
by  almost  any  one.  Even  the  poorest  can  agree 
to  club  their  purchases  together  and  so  start  a 
cooperative  store.  Anybody,  too,  can  purchase 
there.  It  thus  tends  not  to  develop  little  groups 
of  competitive  producers  cooperating  for  their 
own  good,  but  larger  groups  interested  in  buy- 
ing cheap,  and  so  saving  middlemen,  etc.,  and 
thus,  as  some  claim,  leading  to  a  cooperative 
commonwealth  resting  not  on  the  producers 
as  producers,  but  on  the  whole  community. 
Recognizing  all  the  community,  it  strives  to 
give  each  a  chance  to  live,  and  so  does  not 
in  the  long  run  tend  to  lower  wages  in  order 
to  get  commodities  cheap,  tho  it  must  be  ad- 
mitted that  at  first,  in  the  endeavor  to  buy 
cheap,  cooperative  stores  have  been  tempted  to 
scrimp  wages  in  order  to  lessen  cost.  This  ten- 
dency has,  however,  not  endured,  and  as  a  mat- 
ter of  fact  distributive  cooperation  has  not  in 
the  long  run  lessened  wages.  (See  COOPERA- 
TION, Section  V.) 

We  do  not  need  here  to. dwell  upon  the  his- 
tory or  statistics  of  cooperative  production. 
They  will  be  found  under  cooperation.  It 
should  be  said,  however,  that  cooperative  pro- 
duction was  the  earlier  ideal  in  the  cooperative 
movement.  It  was  the  ideal  of  the  first  Eng- 


Cooperative  Production. 


381 


Cooperative  Production. 


lish  Christian  Socialists  (q.v.} — Maurice,  Kings- 
ley,  Ludlow,  E.  V.  Neale,  Hughes.     It  is  still 
the  ideal  ot  the  survivors  of  this  lit- 
tle group,  and  generally  of  the  older 
History.     English  cooperators.      Messrs.    E. 
V.  Neale  and  Hughes  have  at  times 
severely  criticised  the  present  Eng- 
lish cooperative  movement,  because  the  major- 
ity (tho  not  all)  of  English   cooperators  have 
gone  over  to  the   distributive  ideal.     On  the 
Continent,  too,  cooperative  production  was  the 
•first  ideal,  and  still  has  a  larger  following  than 
in  England.     (See  below  in  this  article.)     In 
the  United  States  also  cooperative  production 
had,  on  the  whole,  the  first  support.     Witness 
the  various  attempts  which  have  now  for  the 
most  part  passed  away  of  cooperative  produc- 
tive communities,  cooperative  workshops,   co- 
operative mines. 

On  the  other  hand,  the  advocates  of  distribu- 
tive cooperation  claim  that  actual  experience 
shows  that  this  is  at  once  the  easiest,  the  most 
practical,  and  ultimately  the  most  beneficent 
kind  of  cooperation.  It  is  unquestionably  the 
kind  that  has  thrived  best  in  all  countries,  tho 
.some  claim  (see  below)  that  this  is  now  chang- 
ing. In  England  the  contest  between  the  two 
schools  of  cooperators  has  elicited  no  small  at- 
.tention.  The  great  English  cooperative  whole- 
sale society  has  come  to  stand  in  the  main 
for  the  distributive  idea,  the  Scottish  wholesale 
for  the  productive  idea.  Of  the  present  situa- 
tion in  Great  Britain,  John  Graham  Brooks  says, 
writing  in  the  Political  Science  Quarterly 
(vol.  x.,  p.  538): 

"  Over  this  relation  of  the  worker  to  the  profits,  a 
long  and  somewhat  bitter  fight  has  been  waged.  Year 
.after  year  resolutions  have  been  passed,  such  as  that 
in  Bristol,  1893,  urging  'the  principle  of  copartnership 
of  labor  as  an  essential  of  industrial  cooperation.'  A 
few  great  leaders  of  the  Christian-Socialist  movement 
still  attend  the  congresses  to  shape  and  urge  such  reso- 
lutions. These  seem,  however,  only  a  respectful  con- 
fession to  the  framers.  The  resolution  is  not  kept  nor 
is  it  meant  to  be  kept  by  the  great  body  of  those  who 
•control  the  real  business  of  cooperation.  It  is  true 
that  the  Scottish  Wholesale  pays  a  bonus  to  labor  (the 
English  society  abolished  bonus  in  1876)  and  comes 
distinctly  closer  to  the  hope  of  those  who  wish  to  make 
•capitalists  of  the  laborers.  Yet  it  is  all  plain  in  this 
history  that,  so  far  as  actual  achievement  is  concerned, 
the  form  of  ideal  cherished  by  the  Christian  Socialists 
is  losing  its  hold. 

"  So  far  as  this  is  denied,  appeal  must  be  made  to  the 
superiority  and  more  hopeful  condition  of  the  Scottish 
Wholesale,  which  still  keeps  the  welfare  of  the  pro- 
ducer (as  against  the  consumer)  clearly  in  view.  Bonus 
is  now  given  to  labor,  as  profits  are  given  to  the  con- 
sumer. The  Investment  Society  exists  to  bring  the 
workers  into  the  Wholesale  as  shareholders,  and  care 
is  taken  to  make  the  investments  of  the  Wholesale 
also  cooperative  investments.  In  a  word,  the  ideal  of 
the  Scottish  society  regards  the  worker  as  producer, 
making  it  possible  for  the  laborer  to  become  a  share- 
holder and  '  capitalist.'  It  wishes  profits  to  go  to  him 
as  a  worker.  Before  the  royal  commission,  Mr.  Max- 
well stated  this  as  his  '  highest  ideal.' 

"  Both  the  leaders  of  the  English  societies,  Mr.  Mit- 
•chell  and  Mr.  Jones,  place  their  emphasis  not  on  the 
producer,  but  upon  the  consumer.     This  difference  is 
not  without  importance.     The  old  idea 
would  (as  profit-sharing  does)  help  the 
Argument    £l?te_  workers.     The  newer  and  more  so- 
ajrainst       cialistic  idea  is  to  raise  the  standard  of 
o         .        living  among  the  mass.    The  older  writ- 
Cooperative  ers,  'like  Ludlow,  laid  stress  upon   the 
Production,   greater   moral   significance  of  produc- 
tion.    Consumption     was    regarded    as 
selfish,  while  production  was  unselfish  ; 
"'the  divine  element  in  man  is  the  productive  one,  the 
•consuming   element  is  the  terreire, '  etc.    It  must  be 
confessed  that  this  moral  distinction  is  not  a  helpful 


one.  The  more  socialistic  view  lends  itself  quite  as 
fitly  to  ethical  fervors  as  the  other— is  indeed  made 
the  ground  of  a  higher  moral  appeal.  The  very  aim 
of  this  more  democratic  cooperation  is  'to  eliminate 
all  other  motives  in  business  except  those  that  can  be 
honestly  recompensed.'  'Where  production  and  con- 
sumption so  work  that  profit  on  price  is  abolished,  so- 
cial utilities  may  exchange  in  such  manner  that  none 
may  rob  another/  '' 

The  main  argument,  however,  against  co- 
operative production  is  made  from  experience. 
Beatrice  Potter  (now  Mrs.  Sidney  Webb),  in 
her  The  Cooperative  Movement  in  Great 
Britain,  shows  that  95  per  cent,  of  cooperation 
in  England  is  distributive.  She  says  : 

"Of  some  hundreds  of   associations    of    producers 
known  to  have  existed  before  1870  only  three  remain. 
And  passing  over  the  dead  bodies  of  some  hundred  so- 
cieties registered  from  1870  to  the  pres- 
ent day,  let  us  rapidly  survey  the  actual 
existing  societies  which  have   been,  or    Productive 
claim  to  have  been,  organized  in  the  in-  AoQAPiatinna 
terests  of  the  producer.     I  take  as  a  ba-  asso«ai 
sis  of  our  investigations  the  list  of  coop-  not  SUCCCSS- 
erative  productive  societies  published  ful. 

in  the  Report  of  the  Central  Board  for 
1890.  First  we  must  eliminate  from  this 
list  the  productive  departments  of  the  wholesale  soci- 
eties, and  the  corn-mills  and  baking  societies  avowed- 
ly organized  in  the  interests  not  of  the  producer,  but 
of  the  consumer.  Secondly,  we  must  cast  out  as  un- 
worthy societies  such  as  Mitchell  Hey,  registered  un- 
der the  Industrial  and  Provident  Societies  Act,  but 
which  have  practically  become  joint-stock  associa- 
tions, participating  neither  profit  nor  government 
with  the  workers.  Thus,  from  a  list  of  106  separate 
societies,  with  a  turnover  of  .£2,308,028,  we  are  reduced 
to  74  manufacturing  and  5  agricultural  associations, 
with  an  aggregate  turnover  of  £455,477.  Of  the  74 
manufacturing  societies  20  are  not  in  working  order.1' 

The  completest  study  of  cooperative  produc- 
tion, however,  is  Mr.  Benjamin  Jones's  Cooper- 
ative Production  (two  vols.,  Oxford,  1894). 
Mr.  Jones  is,  however,  London  manager  of  the 
Cooperative  Wholesale  Society,  and  a  disbeliever 
in  cooperative  production,  and  it  is  claimed, 
therefore,  that  his  conclusions  and  even  his 
statistics,  which  are  very  strongly  against  co- 
operative production,  are  unfair. 

As  a  statement  favorable  to  cooperative  pro- 
duction, we  quote  from  an  article  on  coopera- 
tive production  by  Henry  W.  Wolff,  in  the 
Economic  Review  (January,  1895).  It  says  : 

"  In  Italy  cooperative  societies  of    working  brick- 
layers, stonemasons,  and  even  ordinary  navvies  have 
become  a  recognized  institution.     Germany  already 
possesses  some  very  successful  produc- 
tive cooperative   societies.     In  France, 
the  Associations  Ouvrieres  are  moving     Argument 
onward   on  a    triumphal   progress.    In  *„_  rnnTI(VPa 
England,  the  small  band  of  productive  *?r  ^°opt 
associations,  applying  the    cooperative  tive  ProdUC- 
principle  as  yet  only  in  the  more  or  less          tion. 
elementary  form    of    copartnership    of 
labor,  constitute  at  present  actually  the 
only  section  of  the  cooperative  host  which  has  any 
victories  to  show.      Cooperative    supply    appears    to 
have  met  with  something  like  a  check,  and  almost  to 
be  coming  to  a  standstill.     The  roll  of  societies  newly 
forming  does  not  equal  the  number  of  those  dropping 
out  of  existence.     As  against   1471  societies  existing  in 
1892,  there  were  in  1893  only  1465  ;  and,  tho  members 
have  increased  from  1,143,962  to  1,202,738,  sales  have  not 
kept  pace  with  such  advance,  and  profits  have  dwin- 
dled.   The  last  balance-sheet  published  by  the  Whole- 
sale Society  actually  shows  a  decline  of  sales  to  have 
taken  place,  amounting  to  £105,793  on  the  three  months. 
At  the  same  time  there  has  been  abundant  wreckage. 
The  total  of  1313  supply  associations  existing  in  1891 
survived,  so  to  speak,  by  the  graveside  of  no  less  than 
844  societies  registered  between    1870  and    1889,    but 
passed  away  since.     Copartnership  societies,   on  the 
other  hand,  have  slowly  multiplied,  and  at  the  time 
of  writing  number  108,  with  every  promise  of  further 
increase." 


Cooperative  Production. 


382 


Copyright. 


Mr.  Wolff  then  goes  on  to  vehemently  criticise 
Mr.  Jones's  book,  and  says  : 

"It  is  quite  true  that  the  organization  of  cooperative 
production  constitutes  a  most  difficult  problem,  and 
that  we  have  in  the  past  fallen  into  many  serious  mis- 
takes. What  great  movement  has  fared  otherwise  ? 
Errando  discimus.  Swift  tells  of  a  general  who 
was  asked  in  his  old  age  why  he  won  so  many  battles. 
'  Because  I  lost  so  many  when  I  was  young,  so  went 
the  reply.  Even  without  his  remarkably  ingenious 
handling  of  facts,  which,  to  apply  Mr.  Chamberlain's 
figure,  converts  a  harmless  picture  gallery  into  a 
'Chamber  of  Horrors,'  Mr.  Jones  could  not  have 
found  it  difficult  to  string  together,  out  of  past  experi- 
ence, a  tolerably  formidable  catalogue  of  failures. 
Dr.  Hantschke,  in  his  book,  written  in  a  very  different 
spirit,  does  exactly  the  same.  But  he  rightly  observes 
that,  as  an  argument  bearing  on  the  question,  one 
single  success  proves  very  much  more  than  any  num- 
ber of  failures.  Even  among  Mr.  Jones's  long  calen- 
dar of  charges  it  is  not  difficult  to  pick  out  many  a 
case  calculated  to  inspire  encouragement.  Men  have 
begun  well,  have  striven  well,  have  almost  or  partially 
succeeded.  But  fashion  has  changed  ;  ill  luck  has 
had  its  sway  ;  things  have  gone  against  them.  Such 
reverses  are  not  unknown  among  non-cooperative  en- 
terprises. There  Have  been  other  forces  at  work  to 
mar  results.  The  jealousy  of  the  Wholesale  Society 
stands  for  not  a  little  in  past  cooperative  failures. 
The  want  of  judgment  shown  in  the  relief  work  done 
by  the  Aid  Association  is  accountable  for  some  more. 
It  is  an  utter  mistake  to  seek  to  prop  up  productive 
concerns  by  little  doles  of  .£25  or  ,£50,  coming  from 
outside.  Such  support  has,  indeed,  often  proved  fatal, 
because  the  Aid  Association,  however  willing  to  lend 
when  things  went  well,  showed  itself  extremely  care- 
ful to  call  in  its  loans  the  moment  that  the  horizon  be- 
came clouded.  The  proper  aid  association  for  a  co- 
operative workshop  is  a  cooperative  bank,  which  gives 
support,  as  a  matter  not  of  charity,  but  of  business, 
and  therefore  compels  borrowers  to  calculate  well 
their  chances  of  success  before  they  borrow.  Apart 
from  all  this,  pur  productive  associations  have,  like 
many  others,  in  not  a  few  instances  started  on  ob- 
viously wrong  lines.  They  have  chosen  unfavorable 
ground,  or  else  selected  precarious  trades.  .  .  . 

"  What  the  cooperative  workshops  therefore  main- 
ly want  is  sound  instruction  of  the  employees  in  busi- 
ness ways,   in  bookkeeping   and    shop-management, 
and  in  strict  adherence  to  cooperative 
principles.    How  very  apt  even  the  best 
Successes,     of  our  cooperators  have  been,  in  the  past, 
to  sin  against  this  sound  canon  of  coop- 
eration appears  very  strikingly  from  a 
comparison  which  Dr.  Hantschke  draws  between  the 
very  successful  weaving-mill  of  Lubbecke  in  West- 
phalia, founded  on  the  philanthropic  model  by  the  Rev. 
P.  Bloink,  and  the  Atlas  Iron  Works,  of  Southwark, 
founded  in  1851    by  the   late    Mr.   Vansittart    Neale. 
Both    establishments   were   based  practically  on  the 
same    principle.      They    were    philanthropically    co- 
operative workshops.    Looking  at  the  general  want 
of    success  of   our  own  cooperative    weaving-works 

Eointed  out  by  Mr.  Jones,  the  presumption  seemed  to 
e  against  the  German  establishment.  Nevertheless, 
it  has  achieved  very  signal  success,  while  Mr.  Neale's 
works  have  failed  simply  because  Mr.  Neale,  after 
laying  down  his  money,  left  the  men  to  themselves, 
whereas  Pfarrer  Bloink  took  them  personally  in  hand, 
and  trained  them  step  by  step  to  business  manage- 
ment, until  he  could  trust  them  to  carry  on  the  con- 
cern by  themselves.  Similarly,  it  is  to  their  good  for- 
tune in  securing  a  capable  bookkeeper  and  a  very  able 
manager,  that  the  Milan  cabinet-makers  owe  their 
success.  And  it  is  the  business  capacity  of  men  like 
M.  Buisson  which  has  led  the  French  Associations 
Ouvrtires  to  triumph.  It  really  seems  to  matter  less 
on  what  basis  a  cooperative  workshop  is  in  the  first 
instance  started,  whether  as  a  purely  working  men's 
establishment,  or  as  a  philanthropic  or  partial  copart- 
nership venture,  so  long  as  its  management  is  kept  on 
strictly  cooperative  lines.  Sound  instruction  in  busi- 
ness ways  and  in  cooperative  practice  appears  to  be 
really  the  chief  essential  to  success.  And  it  is  on  this 
ground  that  our  labor  association  has  been  already 
found  so  extremely  serviceable.  It  shows  cooperators 
how  they  ought  to  set  to  work.  It  provides  them  with 
teachers  and  leaders  for  as  long  as  is  necessary.  It 
has  no  funds  to  give  ;  but  it  gives  what  is  better.  It  is 
for  this  reason  that  it  has  shown  itself  so  fruitful  of 
satisfactory  results.  .  .  . 

"  Associations  of  the  kind  described,  unions  of  what 
Mr.  Ludlow  has  called  'associated  self -employees,' 


are,  however,  manifestly  practicable  only  in  small 
establishments,  or  else  in  enterprises  in  which  the 
main  element  contributed  to  production  is  labor.  It 
is  so  in  the  Milan  Cabinet-makers'  Society,  a  body  of 
about  500  members  scattered  over  26  villages.  It_is  so_ 
to  an  even  greater  degree  in  the  Italian  Societa  det 
mur atari,  and  Societa  dei  braccianti—  societies  of 
•working  stonemasons  and  bricklayers,  or  else  of  mere 
ordinary  navvies,  who,  as  the  official  Relazione  re- 
ferred to  shows,  have  carried  out  very  considerable 
contracts— more  particularly  since  the  passing  of  the 
Baccarini  law  has  empowered  public  bodies,  giving 
out  such  contracts,  to  dispense  in  their  case  with  the 
ordinary  condition  of  caution  money.  Here  we  have 
the  great  problem,  which  was  long  considered  hope- 
less, solved— cooperative  production  applied  to  un- 
skilled labor.  And  wherever  the  societa  have  been 
well  officered,  they  are  allowed  to  have  done  their 
work  well.  I  have  this  from  men  in  authority  who 
are  opposed  to  the  system.  The  Relazione  puts  the 
total  value  of  contracts  executed  by  the  societa  trom 
May,  1888,  to  December  31,  1891,  at  5,300,000  lire  (.£212,- 
ooo).  Since  then  these  societies  have  carried  out 
larger  contracts  still,  and  have  done  all  their  work 
well  wherever  ably  led." 

Such  are  the  pros  and  cons  of  cooperative 
production  and  distribution.  (For  the  general 
history  of  such  cooperation,  for  its  statistics  and 
the  surprising  development  of  cooperation  as  a 
whole,  see  COOPERATION.) 

COOPERATIVE  STORES.  See  COOPER- 
ATIVE DISTRIBUTION. 

COOPERATIVE  WORKSHOPS.  See 
COOPERATIVE  PRODUCTION. 

COPYRIGHT  is  the  exclusive  right  to  pub- 
lish intellectual  productions,  such  as  books, 
papers,  plays,  paintings,  sculptures,  designs, 
music,  photographs,  etc. 

The  first  copyright  law  of  England  dates 
from  1710,  tho  somewhat  previous  to  that  ex- 
clusive rights  of  publication  had  been  granted 
for  limited  periods.  The  law  of  1710  granted 
copyrights  to  authors  for  21  years  for  books 
then  in  print  ;  for  books  to  be  printed  it  granted 
copyright  to  publishers  for  14  years,  and  then 
to  the  authors,  if  living,  for  another  14  years. 
After  various  changes,  by  the  law  of  1842,  copy- 
right could  be  given  for  42  years,  or  to  seven 
years  after  the  author's  death.  Foreigners 
could  acquire  copyright  by  publishing  in  Eng- 
land. 

In  Germany,  copyright  laws  date  from  1837, 
and  by  the  law  of  1845  could  be  extended  to  30 
years  after  the  author's  death. 

In  France,  copyright  exists  for  the  life  of  the 
author  or  his  widow,  for  20  years  for  his  chil- 
dren, and  for  10  years  for  other  heirs.  The  Bel- 
gian law  is  the  same,  except  that  all  heirs  can 
hold  copyright  for  20  years  after  the  author's 
death. 

Copyright  in  the  United  States,  by  laws  dat- 
ing from  1790,  were  granted  only  to  citizens  or 
residents.  Art.  i,  Sec.  8  of  the  Constitution 
authorizes  Congress  to  issue  copyrights  to  au- 
thors and  patents  to  inventors.  There  is  no 
limitation  to  science  in  the  strict  sense  of  the 
word,  nor  to  the  useful  as  distinguished  from 
the  fine  arts.  All  books,  maps,  charts,  musical 
compositions,  engravings,  photographs  (or  neg- 
atives), chromos,  statues,  etc.,  whatever  the 
subject  may  be,  are  included,  and  so  are  all 
inventions. 

In  England,  authors  have  rights  to  their 
works  by  common  law  as  well  as  by  statute  ; 
but  in  this  country  the  right  is  derived  entirely 
from  legislation.  Prior  to  the  adoption  of  the 


Copyright. 


383 


Copyright. 


Constitution,  the  States  granted  copyrights,  and 
the  first  act  of  Congress  on  the  subject  recog- 
nized the  rights  thus  granted.  The  first  law 
gave  to  the  authors  the  exclusive  right  to  their 
works  for  14  years',  with  liberty  of  renewal  tor 
a  like  period.  In  1832  the  term  was  made  28 
years,  with  the  right  to  renew  for  14  years 
longer.  The  present  law  is  as  follows  : 

Section  4952  of  the  Revised  Statutes  of  the  United 
States,  in  force  December  i,  1873,  as  amended  by  the  act 
of  June  18,  1874,  as  amended  by  the  act  of  March  3,  1891, 
provides  that  the  author,  inventor,  designer  or  proprie- 
tor of  any  book,  map,  chart,  dramatic  or  musical  com- 
position, engraving,  cut,  print,  or  photograph  or  nega- 
tive thereof,  or  of  a  painting,  drawing,  chromo,  stat- 
uary, and  of  models  or  designs  intended  to  be  per- 
fected as  works  of  the  fine  arts,  and  the  executors,  ad- 
ministrators, or  assigns  of  any  such  person,  shall,  upon 
complying  with  the  provisions  of  this  chapter,  have 
the  sole  liberty  of  printing,  reprinting,  publishing, 
completing,  copying,  executing,  finishing,  and  vending 
the  same  ;  and,  m  the  case  of  a  dramatic  composition, 
of  publicly  performing  or  representing  it,  or  causing 
it  to  be  performed  or  represented  by  others.  And 
authors  or  their  assigns  shall  have  exclusive  right  to 
dramatize  or  translate  any  of  their  works  for  which 
copyright  shall  have  been  obtained  under  the  laws  of 
the  United  States. 

A.  printed  copy  of  the  title  of  the  book,  map,  chart, 
dramatic  or  musical  composition,  engraving,  cut,  print, 
photograph  or  chromo,  or  a  description  of  the  paint- 
irig,  drawing,  statue,  statuary,  or  model  or  design  for 
a  work  of  the  fine  arts,  for  which  copyright  is  desired, 
must  be  delivered  to  the  Librarian  of  Congress,  or  de- 
posited in  the  mail,  within  the  United  States,  prepaid, 
addressed  "LIBRARIAN  OF  CONGRESS,  WASHINGTON, 
D.  C."  This  must  be  done  on  or  before  day  of  publica- 
tion in  this  or  any  foreign  country. 

The  printed  title  required  may  be  a  copy  of  the  title- 
page  of  such  publications  as  have  title-pages.  In  other 
cases,  the  title  must  be  printed  expressly  for  copyright 
entry,  with  name  of  claimant  of  copyright.  The  style 
pf  type  is  immaterial,  and  the  print  of  a  typewriter  will 
be  accepted.  But  a  separate  title  is  required  for  each 
entry,  and  each  title  must  be  printed  on  paper  as  large 
as  commercial  note.  The  title  of  a  periodical  must  in- 
clude the  date  and  number ;  and  each  number  of  a 
periodical  requires  a  separate  entry  of  copyright. 

The  legal  fee  for  recording  each  copyright  claim  is 
50  cents,  and  for  a  copy  of  this  record  (or  certificate  of 
copyright  under  seal  of  the  office)  an  additional  fee  of 
50  cents  is  required,  making  $i,  if  certificate  is  wanted, 
•which  will  be  mailed  as  soon  as  reached  in  the  records. 
In  the  case  of  publications  which  are  the  production  of 
persons  not  citizens  or  residents  of  the  United  States, 
the  fee  for  recording  title  is  $i,  and  50  cents  additional 
for  a  copy  of  the  record.  Certificates  covering  more 
than  one  entry  in  one  certificate  are  not  issued. 

Not  later  than  the  day  of  publication  in  this  country 
or  abroad,  two  complete  copies  of  the  best  edition  of 
each  book  or  other  article  must  be  delivered,  or  de- 
posited in  the  mail  within  the  United  States,  addressed 

''LIBRARIAN     OF     CONGRESS,     WASHINGTON,     D.     C.," 

to  perfect  the  copyright. 

The  freight  or  postage  must  be  prepaid,  or  the  pub- 
lications enclosed  in  parcels  covered  by  printed  Pen- 
alty Labels,  furnished  by  the  Librarian,  in  which  case 
they  will  come  FREE  by  mail  (not  express},  without 
limit  of  weight,  according  to  rulings  of  the  Post  Office 
Department.  Books  must  be  printed  from  type  set  or 
plates  made  in  the  United  States  ;  photographs  from 
negatives  made  in  the  United  States ;  chromos  and 
lithographs  from  drawings  on  stone  or  transfers  there- 
from made  in  the  United  States.  Without  the  deposit 
of  copies  above  required,  the  copyright  is  void,  and 
a  penalty  of  $25  is  incurred.  No  copy  is  required  to  be 
deposited  elsewhere. 

The  law  requires  one  copy  of  each  new  edition  where- 
in any  substantial  changes  are  made  to  be  deposited 
with  the  Librarian  of  Congress. 

No  copyright  is  valid  unless  notice  is  given  by  insert- 
ing in  every'copy  published,  on  the  title-page  or  the 
page  following,  if  it  be  a  book  ;or  if  a  map,  chart,  mu- 
sical composition,  print,  cut,  engraving,  photograph, 
painting,  drawing,  chromo,  statue,  statuary,  or  model 
or  design  intended  to  be  perfected  as  a  work  of  the  fine 
arts,  by  inscribing  upon  some  portion  thereof,  or  on  the 
substance  on  which  the  same  is  mounted,  the  following 
words,  viz.:  "  Entered  according  to  act  of  Congress,  in 

the  vear ,  bv ,  in  the  office  of  the  Librarian 

of  Congress,  at  Washington,"  or,  at  the  option  of  the 


person  entering  the  copyright,  the  words :  "  Copy- 
right, 18— ,  by ." 

The  law  imposes  a  penalty  of  $100  upon  any  person 
who  has  not  obtained  copyright  who  shall  insert  the 
notice,  "Entered  according  to  Act  of  Congress"  or 
"  Copyright,"  etc.,  or  words  of  the  same  import,  in  or 
upon  any  book  or  other  article. 

The  copyright  law  secures  to  authors  and  their  as- 
signs the  exclusive  right  to  translate  or  to  dramatize 
any  of  their  works  ;  no  notice  is  required  to  enforce 
this  right. 

The  original  term  of  copyright  runs  for  28  years. 
Within  six  months  before  the  end  of  that  time,  the  au- 
thor or  designer,  or  his  widow  or  children,  may  secure 
a  renewal  for  the  further  term  of  14  years,  making  42 
years  in  all. 

Applications  for  renewal  must  be  accompanied  by 
printed  title  and  fee  ;  and  by  explicit  statement  of  own- 
ership, in  the  case  of  the  author,  or  of  relationship,  in 
the  case  of  his  heirs,  and  must  state  definitely  the  date 
and  place  of  entry  of  the  original  copyright.  Within 
two  months  from  date  of  renewal  the  record  thereof 
must  be  advertised  in  an  American  newspaper  for 
four  weeks. 

The  time  of  publication  is  not  limited  by  any  law  or 
regulation,  but  the  courts  have  held  that  it  should  take 
place  within  a  reasonable  time.  A  copyright  may  be 
secured  for  a  projected  as  well  as  for  a  completed 
work.  But  the  law  provides  for  no  caveat,  or  notice  of 
interference— only  for  actual  entry  of  title. 

Copyrights  are  assignable  by  any  instrument  of  writ- 
ing. Such  assignment,  to  be  valid,  is  to  be  recorded  in 
the  office  of  the  Librarian  of  Congress  within  60  days 
from  execution.  The  fee  for  this  record  and  certifi- 
cate is  $i,  and  for  a  certified  copy  of  any  record  of  as- 
signment, $r. 

A  copy  of  the  record  (or  duplicate  certificate)  of  any 
copyright  entry  will  be  furnished,  under  seal  of  the 
office,  at  the  rate  of  50  cents  each. 

In  the  case  of  books  published  in  more  than  one  vol- 
ume, or  of  periodicals  published  in  numbers,  or  of  en- 
gravings, photographs,  or  other  articles  published  with 
variations,  a  copyright  must  be  entered  for  each  vol- 
ume, or  part  of  a  book,  or  number  of  a  periodical,  or  va- 
riety,as  to  style,  title, or  inscription,  of  any  other  article. 
To  complete  the  copyright  on  a  book  published  serially 
in  a  periodical,  two  copies  of  each  serial  part,  as  well 
as  of  the  complete  work  (if  published  separately), 
should  be  deposited. 

To  secure  copyright  for  a  painting,  statue,  or  mode  1 
or  design  intended  to  be  perfected  as  a  work  of  the  fine 
arts,  a  definite  title  and  description  must  accompany 
the  application  for  copyright,  and  a  photograph  of  the 
same,  as  large  as  "  cabinet  size,"  mailed  to  the  Libra- 
rian of  Congress  not  later  than  the  day  of  publication 
of  the  work  or  design.  The  fine  arts,  for  copyright 
purposes,  include  only  painting  and  sculpture,  and  arti- 
cles of  merely  ornamental  and  decorative  art  should 
be  sent  to  the  Patent  Office  as  subjects  for  Design 
Patents. 

Copyrights  cannot  be  granted  upon  trade-marks, 
nor  upon  names  of  companies  or  articles,  nor  upon  an 
idea  or  device,  nor  upon  prints  or  labels  intended  to  be 
used  for  any  article  of  manufacture.  If  protection  for 
such  names  or  labels  is  desired,  applications  must  be 
made  to  the  Patent  Office,  where  they  are  registered, 
if  admitted,  at  a  fee  of  $6  for  labels  and  $25  for  trade- 
marks. 

This  is  the  law  for  domestic  copyright.  At 
last,  after  years  of  endeavor,  an  international 
copyright  law  has  been  passed. 

The  provisions  as  to  copyright  entry  in  the  United 
States  by  foreign  authors,  etc.,  by  act  of  Congress  ap- 
proved March  3,  1891  (which  took  effect  July  i,  1891),  are 
the  same  as  the  foregoing,  except  as  to  productions  of 
persons  not  citizens  or  residents,  which  must  cover  re- 
turn postages,  and  are  $i  for  entry,  or  $i.qo  for  entry 
and  certificate  of  entry  (equivalent  to  4$.  517.  or  6s.  id.). 
All  publications  must  be  delivered  to  the  Librarian  at 
Washington  free  of  charge.  The  free  penalty-labels 
cannot  be  used  outside  of  the  United  States. 

The  rights  of  citizens  or  subjects  of  a  foreign  nation 
to  copyright  in  the  United  States  extends  by  Presiden- 
tial proclamations  to  Great  Britain,  France,  Belgium, 
Switzerland,  Germany,  Italy,  Denmark,  and  Portugal. 

Every  applicant  for  a  copyright  should  state  distinct- 
ly the  full  name  and  residence  of  the  claimant,  and 
whether  the  right  is  claimed  as  author,  designer,  or 
proprietor.  No  affidavit  or  witness  to  the  application 
is  required. 

International  copyright  arrangements  between  the 


Copyright. 


384 


Corporations. 


United  States  and  foreign  countries  now  include  Great 
Britain  and  her  possessions,  France.  Germany,  Italy, 
Belgium,  Portugal,  Denmark,  and  Switzerland. 

For  an  American  citizen  to  secure  copyright  in  Great 
Britain,  three  conditions  are  necessary  : 

1.  The  title  should  be  entered  at  Stationers'  Hall, 
London,  the  fee  for  which  is  5*.  sterling,  and  ss.  ad- 
ditional if  a  certified  copy  of  entry  is  required. 

2.  The  work  must  be  published  in  Great  Britain  or 
in  her  dominions  simultaneously  with  its  publication  in 
the  United  States. 

3.  Five  copies  of  the  publication  are  required — one 
for  the  British   Museum  and  four  on  demand  of  the 
Company  of  Stationers  for  four  other  libraries. 

Copyright  may  be  secured  in  France  by  a  foreigner 
by  depositing  two  copies  of  the  publication  at  the  Min- 
istry of  the  Interior  at  Paris.  No  fee  nor  entry  of 
title  required. 

To  secure  copyright  in  Belgium  a  foreigner  may  reg- 
ister his  work  at  the  Department  of  Agriculture,  In- 
dustry and  Public  Works  at  Brussels. 

In  Switzerland,  register  of  title  at  the  Department  of 
Commerce  and  Industry  at  Berne  is  optional,  not  oblig- 
atory ;  fee  two  francs.  If  registered,  deposit  of  one 
copy  is  required. 

The  Librarian  of  Congress  cannot  take  charge  of  any 
copyright  entries  or  arrangements  with  other  countries. 

Concerning  the  infringement  of  copy,  the  Librarian 
of  Congress  makes  the  following  statement  to  inquiries 
as  to  remedies  for  infringement  of  copyright : 

No  question  concerning  the  validity  or  a  copyright 
can  be  determined  under  our  laws  by  any  other  author- 
ity than  a  United  States  court. 

This  office  has  no  discretion  or  authority  to  refuse  any 
application  for  a  copyright  coming  within  the  provis- 
ions of  the  law,  and  all  questions  as  to  priority  or  in- 
fringement are  purely  judicial  questions,  with  which 
the  Librarian  has  nothing  to  do.  A  certificate  of  copy- 
right is  prima  facie  evidence  of  an  exclusive  title,  and 
is  highly  valuable  as  the  foundation  of  a  legal  claim  to 
the  property  involved  in  the  publication. 

As  no  claim  to  exclusive  property  in  the  contents  of 
a  printed  book  or  other  article  can  be  en- 
forced under  the  common  law,  Congress 


.  —       lea  in  tne      Act  to  revise,  consolidate, 

Copyright,    and  amend  the  statutes  relating  to  pat- 
ents and  copyrights,"  approved  Julys, 
1870.    If  you  obtain  a  copyright  under 
the  provisions  of  this  act,  you  can  claim  damages  from 
any  person  infringing  your  rights  by  printing  or  sell- 
ing trie  same  article  ;  but  upon  all  questions  as  to  what 
constitutes  an  infringement,  or  what  measures  of  dam- 
ages can  be  recovered,  all  parties  are  left  to  their 
proper  remedy  in  the  courts  of  the  United  States. 

CORNERS. — A  corner  in  commerce  may  be 
defined  as  the  purchase  or  contract  to  purchase 
enough  of  a  commodity  to  enable  one  to  fix  its 
price.  A  man  who  corners  a  market  usually 
agrees  to  take  at  a  future  date  enough  of  a  com- 
modity to  enable  him  to  fix  its  price,  and 
compel  the  speculators  who  have  promised  to 
sell  at  that  time,  thinking  that  they  could  buy 
cheap,  to  buy  instead  at  the  terms  fixed  by 
himself  at  an  advanced  price.  For  instances 
of  cornered  market  and  the  fortunes  thus  made 
and  the  speculators  and  dealers  ruined,  see 
SPECULATION. 

CORN  LAWS  were  certain  laws  in  England 
repealed  in  1846,  but  coming  down  from  most 
ancient  times,  restricting  the  trade  in  grain. 
The  first  corn  laws  are  at  least  as  old  as  1360, 
of  the  reign  of  Edward  III. ,  while  even  before 
that  date  there  seems  to  have  been  a  general 
prohibition  of  the  exportation  of  corn.  The 
object  of  prohibiting  exportation  was  to  prevent 
the  price  of  grain  rising  too  high.  There  were 
continual  changes  in  the  corn  laws.  By  an  act 
of  1436  it  could  only  be  exported  when  the  price 
of  wheat  was  below  6^.  3d.  In  1463  this  was 
exactly  reversed.  By  some  laws  it  could  only 
be  exported  when  and  where  the  king  decreed. 


The  law  depended  on  the  class  in  power.  In 
1670  the  land  interest  got  a  law  passed  forbid- 
ding importation,  unless  the  price  was  53^.  4*/. 
or  more.  At  the  time  of  the  Revolution  a 
bounty  was  awarded  on  exportation.  (See 
BOUNTIES.)  For  a  century  the  law  oscillated 
from  import  duty  to  bounty.  In  1773,  by 
Burke' s  act,  exportation  was  prohibited  when 
the  price  reached  44^.;  at  48^.  it  allowed  im- 
portation at  a  normal  duty  of  6at.  It  was 
claimed  that  this  kept  the  price  down  in  the  in- 
terests of  the  poor,  and  that  even  a  bounty 
worked  in  the  same  way,  since  it  encouraged 
the  raising  of  more  corn  than  was  needed,  and 
so  tended  to  lower  the  price.  By  acts  of  1814 
and  1828  a  sliding  scale  was  fixed.  Gradually 
the  contest  over  the  corn  laws  became  very 
bitter.  Supporters  of  the  laws  claimed  that 
protecting  grain  raising  helped  the  country  by 
bringing  poor  land  into  cultivation  and  employ- 
ing men  ;  that  it  tended  to  free  the  country 
from  foreign  dependence  ;  that  it  enabled  the 
landed  proprietors  to  patronize  manufactures. 
These  views  were  mainly  held  by  the  landed 
interests  and  by  most  of  the  working  classes. 
On  the  other  hand,  the  free  traders,  led  by 
Cobden  and  Bright,  used  the  well-known  argu- 
ments for  free  trade  (g.v.).  In  1843  Sir  Robert 
Peel  tried  a  modification  of  the  sliding  scale, 
and  finally,  through  the  exertions  of  the  Anti- 
Corn  Law  League,  the  laws  were  repealed  in 
1846.  The  results  have  not  met  the  extreme 
fears  or  claims  of  either  side.  Evil  prognosti- 
cations have  not  been  fulfilled,  and  the  prices 
have  not  fallen,  as  was  hoped.  (For  the  princi- 
ples involved,  see  FREE  TRADE  and  PROTEC- 
TION.) 

CORPORATIONS. — A  corporation  may  be 
defined,  in  general,  as  a  body  formed  and  au- 
thorized by  law  to  act  as  a  single  individual  in 
carrying  out  the  purposes  for  which  it  is  incor- 
porated. It  is  the  creature  of  the  state,  and 
can  do  only  that  which  it  is  allowed  to  do  by 
the  state  in  the  act  which  gives  it  birth,  but 
within  those  limits  it  can  act  as  freely  as  any 
individual.  Corporations  are  usually  divided 
into  public  and  private  corporations. 

"  Over  the  former  the  Legislature,  as  the  trustee  or 
guardian  of  the  public  interests,  has  the  exclusive  and 
unrestrained  control  ;  and  acting  as  such,  as  it  may 
create,  so  it  may  modify  or  destroy,  as  public  exigency 
requires  or  recommends.  .  .  .  Private  corporations, 
on  the  other  hand,  are  created  by  an  act  of  the  Legisla- 
ture, which,  in  connection  with  its  acceptance,  is  re- 
garded as  a  compact,  and  one  which,  so  long  as  the 
body  corporate  faithfully  observes,  the  Legislature  is 
constitutionally  restrained  from  impairing,  by  annex- 
ing new  terms  and  conditions,  onerous  in  their  opera- 
tion, or  inconsistent  with  a  reasonable  construction  of 
the  compact."  (Atiffell  and  Ames  on  Corporations,  §  31, 
chap,  i.) 

Corporations  are  of  comparatively  recent 
growth.  Says  Professor  Ely,  in  his  articles  on 
The  Grotut'h  of  Corporations,  in  Harper's 
Magazine  for  1887  : 

"  In  30  years,  in  the  second  half  of  the  eighteenth 
century,  only  one  corporation  was  formed  in  Massa- 
chusetts, and  that  was  of  an  eleemosynary  character. 
When  Alexander  Hamilton  wrote  his  celebrated  re- 
port on  the  establishment  of  the  First  United  States 
Bank  in  1790,  there  existed  only  three  banking  corpo- 
rations in  the  United  States.  Some  estimate  that 
railway  corporations  own  one  fourth  of  the  wealth 
of  the  country,  but  they  did  not  begin  to  exist  until 


Corporations. 


385 


Corporations. 


more  than  half  a  century  had  elapsed  after  the  pro- 
mulgation of  the  Declaration  of  Independence.  Gas 
companies,  which  have  been  so  fruitful  a  source  of 
corruption  in  States  and  municipalities,  did  not  exist 
at  all  in  the  eighteenth  century,  and  not  in  large  num- 
bers much  before  1830.  Manufactures  were  carried  on 
in  the  last  century  in  insignificant  shops  by  men  of 
little  wealth  and  of  no  great  social  importance." 

It  was  the  general  opinion  a  hundred  years 
ago  that  corporations  or  joint-stock  companies 
could  not  succeed,  because  they  did  not  appeal 
to  the  stimulus  of  self-interest  as  much  as  pri- 
vate concerns,  and  therefore  must  go  down  in 
competition  with  them.  The  opinion  of  Adam 
Smith,  in  his  Wealth  of  Nations  (1776),  is  well 
known  when  he  says  : 

"  The  trade  of  a  joint-stock  company  is  always  man- 
aged by  a  court  of  directors.  This  court,  indeed,  is 
frequently  subject  in  many  respects  to  the  control  of  a 
general  court  of  proprietors.  But  the  greater  part  of 
those  proprietors  seldom  pretend  to  understand  any- 
thing of  the  business  of  the  company.  .  .  .  The  direc- 
tors of  such  companies,  however,  being  the  managers 
rather  of  other  people's  money  than  of  their  own,  it 
cannot  well  be  expected  that  they  should  watch  over 
it  with  the  same  anxious  vigilance  with  which  the 
partners  in  a  private  copartnery  frequently  watch 
over  their  own.  Like  the  stewards  of  a  rich  man,  they 
are  apt  to  consider  attention  to  small  matters  as  not 
for  their  master's  honor.  .  .  .  Negligence  and  profu- 
sion, therefore,  must  always  prevail,  more  or  less,  in 
the  management  of  the  affairs  in  such  a  company.  .  .  . 
That  a  joint-stock  company  should  be  able  to  carry  on 
successfully  any  branch  of  foreign  trade,  when  private 
adventurers  can  come  into  any  sort  of  open  and  fair 
competition  with  them,  seems  contrary  to  all  experi- 
ence. .  .  .  The  only  trades  which  it  seems  possible  for 
a  joint-stock  company  to  carry  on  successfully,  with- 
out an  exclusive  privilege,  are  those  of  which  all  the 
operations  are  capable  of  being  reduced  to  what  is 
called  a  routine,  or  to  such  uniformity  of  method  as 
admits  of  little  or  no  variation." 

Nevertheless  corporations,  altho  only  com- 
paratively recently  of  large  growth,  have  ex- 
isted at  least  some  400  years.  Says  Professor 
Ely,  in  the  article  mentioned  above  : 

"The  earliest  home  of  the  corporation  engaged  in 
the  pursuit  of  gain  appears  to  have  been  Italy.  In  the 
fifteenth  century  creditors  of  the  State  put  together 
their  claims — their  bonds,  as  we  should  say — and  used 
them  as  the  basis  of  a  banking  business.  The  first  one 
of  these  banking  corporations  was  the  Bank  of  Genoa, 
founded  in  1407.  The  seventeenth  century  is  remark- 
able for  the  number  of  celebrated,  indeed,  one  may 
say  epoch-making  joint-stock  companies  for  foreign 
trade,  created  in  Holland,  France,  and  England.  The 
first  of  these  great  corporations  for  international  trade 
was  the  Dutch  East  India  Company,  founded  in  1602. 
Other  companies  followed  in  Holland,  and  the  English 
East  India  Company,  destined  to  play  a  role  in  the 
world's  history,  was  established  in  I^QQ,  and  received 
a  charter  modelled  on  that  of  the  Dutch  East  India 
Company  in  1613.  Other  companies  were  soon  formed, 
and  some  of  them  assisted  in  the  development  of  the 
American  continent.  The  London  Company,  the  Ply- 
mouth Company,  and  the  Hudson  Bay  Company  may 
be  mentioned.  France  followed  in  1628  with  the  Com- 
pagnie  des  Indes  Occidentals,  and  in  1664  with  the 
Compagnie  des  Indes  Orientales.  Germany  did  not 
begin  the  creation  of  trading  corporations  so  early, 
and  there  appears  to  be  no  record  of  any  such  institu- 
tion before  the  foundation  of  the  Wiener  Orientalische 
Compagnie  in  1719. 

"Banking  corporations  were  created  in  the  seven- 
teenth and  eighteenth  centuries  in  Sweden,  England, 
Germany,  Holland,  and  elsewhere.  Some  of  these 
banks  were  of  vast  national  and  international  impor- 
tance, but  there  were  comparatively  few  of  them. 
Burke  tells  us  that  in  1750  there  were  in  England  not 
more  than  '  12  bankers'  shops  out  of  London.' 

"Stock-jobbing  and  corporate  swindling  flourished 
at  an  early  date.  Laws  were  passed  in  Holland  in 
1621,  1624,  and  in  1677  to  check  speculation  and  to  pro- 
tect the  public.  In  1720  we  have  in  France  the  disas- 
trous failure  of  John  Law's  notorious  Compagnie  des 
Indes,  better  known  as  the  Mississippi  Company.  .  .  . 

"The  reaction  against  corporations  was  so  extreme 
in  England  that  joint-stock  companies,  save  such  as 


should  be  chartered  by  royal  grant  or  by  Parliament, 
were  forbidden  by  the  '  Bubble  Act'  of  1720,  and  it  was 
not  until  1855  that  associations  with  limited  liability 
could  be  called  into  existence  otherwise  than  by  spe- 
cial act." 

To-day,  however,  almost  all  large  business 
interests  are  conducted  by  corporations.  In 
the  single  State  of  Texas  80  charters  were 
granted  in  90  days  in  1885.  Professor  Ely 
in  the  above  article  estimates  the  wealth  of  cor- 
porations in  the  United  States  at  one  fourth  of 
the  total  wealth,  and  quotes  Abram  S.  Hewitt 
as  stating  that  corporations  now  own  from  one 
half  to  one  third  the  capital  of  the  civilized 
world.  Another  authority  declares,  too,  that 
the  wealth  of  corporations  in  the  United  States 
is  increasing  three  or  four  times  as  fast  as  that 
of  private  concerns.  According  to  an  estimate 
made  by  the  English  Economist  of  November 
6,  1886,  the  accumulation  of  -capital  in  England 
between  1875  and  1885  amounted  to  nearly 
^1,000,000,000,  of  which  ;£  186.000,000  was  at- 
tributed to  "  home  railways,"  and  ^200,000,000 
to  other  joint-stock  companies,  or  nearly  40  per 
centum  of  the  increase  belonged  to  corpora- 
tions. 

The  New  York  World  si  December  21,  1895, 
estimates  the  British  holdings  in  American  com- 
panies as  follows  : 

Railroad  stocks  and  bonds $1,250,000,000 

Mines     ;       150,000,000 

Gaslight  companies 50,000,000 

Such  are  a  few  statistics  illustrating  the  gigan- 
tic part  played  to-day  b}r  corporations.  Natu- 
rally there  arise  from  such  a  situation  difficult 
industrial  and  social  problems.  Business  is  to- 
day passing  out  of  individual  responsibility. 
Individuals  may  yet  control  and  guide  business 
on  a  large  scale,  but  they  do  it  usually  through 
corporations,  and  therefore  the  responsibility 
falls  on  the  corporation,  not,  at  least  technically, 
upon  them.  This  gives  rise  to  the  expression 
' '  soulless  corporation. ' '  Corporations  are  man- 
aged usually  by  a  small  body  of  directors,  and 
the  shareholders  often  know  little  if  anything 
of  the  details  of  the  management.  Now  the 
directors  being  paid  to  manage  the  business  for 
the  stockholders,  to  do  this  faithfully  and  to 
consider  only  the  interests  of  their  stockhold- 
ers is  considered  the  one  duty  of  the  director. 
Therefore  even  upright  and  honest  directors  are 
apt  to  forget  all  other  elements  in  the  conduct 
of  their  business  but  the  making  of  the  largest 
dividends  that  shrewd  management  will  allow. 
As  a  result,  the  condition  of  the  employees  of  the 
corporation  and  the  effect  of  the  business  upon 
the  public  are  often  utterly  overlooked  ;  not 
seldom,  too,  even  the  directors  of  a  corporation 
know  themselves  nothing  or  little  about  the 
condition  of  their  employees.  This  is  usually 
left  to  the  treasurer  or  the  department  ' '  boss, ' ' 
who  hires  the  hands,  pays  them,  and  is  the  only 
one  of  the  management  who  comes  into  direct 
contact  with  the  ' '  hands. ' '  His  interest  and  his 
hope  of  advancement  lie  in  being  able  to  buy 
labor  and  material  cheap  and  sell  the  product 
at  good  prices.  That  is  what  he  is  hired  to  do. 
As  a  result,  there  is  often  a  complete  divorce  of 
the  employees  and  the  stockholders,  who  are  yet 
really  the  legally  responsible  party.  Often, 
too,  the  stock  changes  hands.  American  min- 
ing stock,  for  instance,  may  be  owned  one  day 


Corporations. 


386 


Corruption  in  Politics. 


by  an  English  lord,  the  next  by  a  Scotch  capi- 
talist, the  third  by  a  German  baron,  again  by 
an  American  widow.  Under  such  shifting 
ownership  individual  responsibility  of  owner- 
ship becomes  very  vague,  and  great  moral  evils 
naturally  result.  Individualists  would  meet  the 
difficulty  by  appeal  to  a  deeper  ethical  sense  of 
responsibility,  both  among  stockholders  and 
directors ;  socialists  assert  that  corporations, 
having  already  socialized  industry  in  the  inter- 
ests of  the  few,  the  only  way  out  is  now  to  so- 
cialize it  in  the  interests  of  the  many,  and  put 
it  under  the  control  and  operation  of  the  re- 
sponsible community.  They  argue  that  the  de- 
velopment of  corporations  and  monopolies  is 
making  socialism  easy.  Business  to-day  is  con- 
ducted by  salaried  managers  for  bodies  of  pri- 
vate men.  What  can  be  easier,  they  ask,  than 
for  these  trained  managers  to  do  exactly  the 
same  thing  for  the  body  politic  ?  Socialism  can 
thus  come,  they  assert,  with  a  modicum  of 
change  in  present  methods,  perhaps  by  the 
public  simply  buying  the  stock.  (See  COMPEN- 
SATION ;  SOCIALISM  ;  MONOPOLIES  ;  TRUSTS,  etc.) 

CORRUPTION   IN    POLITICS.— Under 

their  respective  heads  we  consider  special  kinds 
or  cases  of  corruption.  (See  ASSESSMENTS  ; 
BROADWAY  STEALS  ;  CONTRACT  LABOR  ;  JOBS  ; 
LEXOW  INVESTIGATION  ;  PLUTOCRACY  ;  STANDARD 
OIL  MONOPOLY  ;  TAMMANY  ;  WHISKY  RING,  etc. ; 
see  also  CITIES  ;  CIVIL  SERVICE  REFORM.)  We  re- 
cord here  the  conclusions  of  some  careful  inves- 
tigators and  students  of  general  conditions. 

Professor  Jeremiah  W.  Jenks,  of  Cornell  Uni- 
versity, writing  in  The  Century  Magazine  for 
October,  1892,  on  Money  in  Practical  Politics, 
gives  the  following  facts  as  to  corruption  among 
voters  : 

"  The  proportion  of  voters  who  are  subject  to  money 
influence  is  very  great.  I  have  had  estimates  given 
me  many  times  by  men  whose  knowledge  is  based 
upon  experience,  and  I  find  that  the  localities  are  not 
very  uncommon  where  from  10  to  35  per  cent,  of  the 
voters  are  purchasable.  In  one  county  in  New  York, 
in  which,  perhaps,  the  Mugwump  vote  is  larger  in  pro- 

Eortion  to  the  total  vote  than  in  any  county  in  the 
tate,  and  in  which  the  largest  city  has  some  12,000  in- 
habitants, about  20  per  cent,  of  th<=  voters  were  pur- 
chased in  1888.  .  .  .  The  evil  is  not  confined  to  the 
cities  nor  to  any  one  State.  The  probability  is  that, 
all  things  considered,  in  such  a  State  as  New  York  the 
farmers  are  as  corrupt  as  the  residents  of  the  cities." 

Professor  Jenks  points  out  how  the  poli- 
tician classifies  the  voters  under  his  jurisdiction 
as  Republicans,  Democrats,  and  "  doubtfuls  ;" 
the  author  then  says  : 

"  These  doubtful  voters  will  not  be  divided  carelessly 
into  '  blocks  of  five  and  each  block  put  into  the  hands 
of  a  trusty  man,'  but  each  doubtful  voter,  being 
known,  with  his  habits,  his  work,  his  associates,  is 
considered  individually.  If  he  is  one  whose  vote  can 
be  affected  by  honest  persuasion,  the  man  in  the  party 
who  would  be  likely  to  have  most  influence  with  him 
is  selected  to  work  -with  him,  and  to  influence  his  vote 
by  fair  means,  if  possible.  If  he  is  a  man  whose  vote 
must  be  purchased,  he  is  assigned  to  the  worker  who 
can  purchase  him  to  the  best  advantage.  If  the  num- 
ber of  'floaters'  or  '  commercials,' as  they  are  vari- 
ously called,  is  relatively  large  to  the  number  of  work- 
ers, it  may  well  be  that  they  will  have  to  be  purchased 
in  blocks  of  fives  or  blocks  of  tens  ;  or,  again,  owing  to 
social  reasons,  they  at  times  can  best  be  bought  in 

froups  or  clubs,  or  traded  ;  but  in  all  cases  where  the 
est  work  is  done,  each  individual  '  floater,'  whether 
bought  singly  or  as  one  of  a  group,  is  looked  after 
personally  by  the  man  best  competent  to  handle  him." 


The  same  issue  contains,  in  editorial  com- 
ment on  Professor  Jenks's  article,  the  following 
significant  statement : 

"  In  Rhode  Island,  for  example,  where  money  has 
been  used  corruptly  in  every  election  since  the  war, 
and  in  some  before  and  during  the  war,  there  are 
known  to  be  about  5000  purchasable  voters  in  a  total 
of  54,000,  or  nearly  10  per  cent,  of  the  whole  number. 
These  are  distributed  over  the  State,  ranging  from  10 
in  the  smaller  towns  to  1000  in  the  cities,  but  in  every 
case  their  names  and  individual  prices  are  matters 
of  record.  .  .  .  Prices  range  from  $2  to  $5  a  head,  ac- 
cording to  demand." 

Speaking  in  confirmation  of  what  Professor 
Jenks  has  said  regarding  the  keeping  of  poll 
books  in  which  voters  are  classified  according 
to  their  politics  and  their  incorruptibility  or 
venality,  the  editor  of  the  Century  adds  : 

"  In  some  sections  of  the  State  [New  York]  the  num- 
ber of  purchasable  voters  enrolled  on  these  books  is 
said  to  exceed  the  number  of  those  belonging  to  either 
party.  What  is  true  of  New  York  is,  in  a  greater  or 
less  degree,  true  of  nearly  every  other  State  of  the 
Union  in  which  the  strength  of  the  two  great  parties  is 
evenly  balanced." 

The  editor  of  The  Nation,  discussing  the  price 
of  votes  (vol.  Iv. ,  p.  274),  declares  that  they 
have  "  gone  up"  in  New  York. 

"  The  very  careful  and  trustworthy  observer  who 
has  been  traveling  in  the  interior  of  the  State  for  the 
Evening  Post,  reports  that  votes  which  could  be  had 
for  '  the  defense  of  American  industry  '  for  $5  m  1888 
are  now  held  firm  at  $20  apiece." 

One  of  the  most  noteworthy  investigations 
of  recent  times  was  made  by  Professor  J.  T. 
McCook,  of  Hartford,  Conn.,  published  in  The 
forum  for  September,  1892,  in  which,  from 
secret  lists  furnished  him  by  politicians,  he  con- 
structs tables  for  20  towns  and  one  city  in  Con- 
necticut, showing  the  number  of  votes  that  are 
known  to  politicians  to  be  purchasable.  He 
finds  that  15.9  per  cent,  of  the  whole  number 
of  votes  is  venal. 

Says  Mr.  C.  N.  Gregory,  in  a  paper  read  be- 
fore the  Historical  and  Political  Science  Associ- 
ation of  the  University  of  Wisconsin  : 

"  The  political  corruption  of  a  considerable  percent- 
age of  voters  is  commonly  confessed,  and  this  per- 
centage is  a  danger  and  injury  to  all  the  rest.  The 
periodicals  have  abounded  in  articles  upon  this  sub- 
ject within  the  past  year.  In  some  parts  of  New  York 
the  number  of  purchasable  voters  is  said  to  exceed 
that  of  those  who  cannot  be  bought,  and  this  state- 
ment finds  a  place  in  the  most  influential  magazine  of 
that  State.  In  Rhode  Island  it  is  computed  at  about  10 
per  cent.  Professor  J.  J.  McCook  in  a  remarkable  ar- 
ticle in  the  Forum,  and  upon  tables  which  are  at  least 
persuasive,  finds  about  16  per  cent,  of  the  voters  in 
Connecticut  purchasable.  I  do  not  believe  so  large  a 
percentage  in  our  own  State  is  venal,  but.  no  one  can 
touch  practical  politics,  or  talk  confidentially  with 
those  who  have  touched  them,  without  finding  an 
amount  of  assessing,  subscribing,  treating,  promising, 
and  colorable  hiring,  shameful  and  degrading  to  vo- 
ters and  candidates  alike. 

"  How  small  a  percentage  of  corrupt  change  will  af- 
fect results  is  surprising.  At  the  recent  election  in 
Wisconsin  for  1892  there  were  371,559  votes  cast  for 

governor,  and  the  majority  of  Governor  Peck  over 
olonel  Spooner  was  7598.  From  this  it  is  plain  that  a 
change  of  but  15  votes  more  than  i  per  cent,  would 
have  defeated  Governor  Peck,  his  doctrines,  and  his 
party,  and  seated  Colonel  Spooner  and  his  friends, 
and,  Governor  Peck's  majority  being  larger  than 
President  Cleveland's  in  Wisconsin,  a  still  smaller 
change  would  have  reversed  the  result  in  the  State  as 
to  the  federal  election." 

Of  municipal  corruption,  Andrew  D.  White, 
in  The  Forum  for  December,  1890,  introduces 
an  article  on  The  Government  of  American 


Corruption  in   Politics. 


387 


Corruption  in  Politics. 


Cities  with  words  which  no  honest  citizen  of 
these  unfortunate  municipalities  will  question  : 

"  Without  the  slightest  exaggeration,  we  may  assert 
that,  •with  very  few  exceptions,  the  city  governments 
of  the  United  States  are  the  worst  in  Christendom,  the 
most  expensive,  the  most  inefficient,  and  the  most  cor- 
rupt. No  one  who  has  any  considerable  knowledge  of 
our  own  country  and  of  other  countries  can  deny  this. 

"Among  our  greatest  municipalities,  we  naturally 
look  first  at  New  York  and  Philadelphia.  .  .  .  One  has 
but  to  walk  along  the  streets  of  these  and  other  great 
American  cities  to  notice  at  once  that  some  evil  prin- 
ciple is  at  work.  Everywhere  are  wretched  wharves, 
foul  docks,  inadequate  streets,  and  inefficient  systems 
of  sewerage,  paving,  and  lighting.  Pavements  which 
were  fairly  good  at  the  beginning  have  been  taken  up 
and  replaced  with  utter  carelessness,  and  have  been 
prematurely  worn  out  or  ruined.  The  stranger  seek- 
ing to  find  his  way  in  the  first  of  these  great  cities  is 
guided  by  a  few  signs  giving  the  names  of  streets  ;  in 
the  most  frequented  quarters  there  are  generally  none 
at  all.  Obstacles  of  all  sorts  are  allowed ;  tangled  net- 
works of  wire  frequently  exist  in  such  masses  over- 
head as  to  prevent  access  to  buildings  in  case  of  fire, 
and  almost  to  cut  off  the  rays  of  the  sun.  Here  and 
there  corporations  or  private  persons  have  been  al- 
lowed to  use  the  streets  in  such  manner  as  to  close 
them  to  the  general  public.  In  wet  weather  many  of 
the  most  important  thoroughfares  are  covered  with 
reeking  mud  ;  in  dry  weather  this  mud,  reduced  to  a 
impalpable  dust,  containing  the  germs  of  almost 
every  disease,  is  blown  into  the  houses  and  into  the 
nostrils  of  the  citizens. 

"The  city  halls  of  these  larger  towns  are  the  ac- 
knowledged centers  of  the  vilest  corruption.  They 
are  absolutely  demoralizing,  not  merely  to  those  who 
live  under  their  sway,  but  to  the  country  at  large. 
Such  cities,  like  the  decaying  spots  on  ripe  fruit,  tend 
to  corrupt  the  whole  body  politic.  As  a  rule,  the  men 
who  sit  in  the  councils  of  our  larger  cities,  dispensing 
comfort  or  discomfort,  justice  or  injustice,  beauty  or 
deformity,  health  or  disease,  to  this  and  to  future  gen- 
erations, are  men  who  in  no  other  country  would 
think  of  aspiring  to  such  positions.  Some  of  them,  in- 
deed, would  think  themselves  lucky  in  keeping  out- 
side the  prisons.  Officials  intrusted  with  the  expendi- 
ture of  the  vast  wealth  of  our  citizens  are  frequently 
men  whom  no  one  would  think  of  entrusting  with  the 
management  of  his  private  affairs,  or,  indeed,  of  em- 
ploying in  any  capacity.  Few  have  gained  their  posi- 
tions by  fitness  or  by  public  service ;  many  have 
gained  them  by  scoundrelism  ;  some  by  crime." 

In  reading  these  statements  of  political  cor- 
ruption, however,  it  must  not  be  thought  that 
only  politics  are  corrupt.  The  amount  of  cor- 
ruption in  private  business  can  never  be  wholly 
known,  but  see  STOCK-GAMBLING  ;  MONOPOLIES  ; 
WATERED  STOCK  ;  STANDARD  OIL  MONOPOLY,  etc. 
It  must  not  be  forgotten  that  much  of  the  polit- 
ical corruption  comes  from  private  corpora- 
tions. For  facts  upon  this  point,  see  PLUTOC- 
RACY. As  early  as  1871,  however,  Charles 
Francis  Adams  said  (chapters  on  Erie,  p.  97) : 

"  Public  corruption  is  the  foundation  on  which  cor- 
porations always  depend  for  their  political  power. 
There  is  a  natural  tendency  to  coalition  between  them 
and  the  lowest  strata  of  political  intelligence  and 
morality.  ...  It  is  a  new  power  for  which  our  language 
contains  no  name.  We  know  what  aristocracy,  autoc- 
racy, democracy  are,  but  we  have  no  word  for  gov- 
ernment by  moneyed  corporations.  .  .  .  The  influence 
of  corporations  and  of  class  interests  is  steadily  de- 
stroying that  belief  in  singleness  of  purpose  which 
alone  enables  a  representative  government  to  exist." 

Of  the  causes  of  corruption,  Professor  Jenks 
writes  in  his  Century  article. 

He  begins  with  the  assumption  that  corruption  is 
the  fundamentally  inherent  vice  of  democratic  gov- 
ernment." He  believes,  however,  that  the  mass  of  the 
people  wish  pure  elections,  and  that  corruption  may 
be  so  limited  as  to  do  away  with  its  serious  effect  on 
government.  He  finds  the  causes  of  electoral  corrup- 
tion as  it  exists  to  day  in  "natural  motives  and  often 
good  ones,"  and  illustrates  this  apparent  paradox  by 
citing  the  influences  brought  to  bear  on  German  offi- 
cials under  Bismarck,  to  secure  support  of  the  govern- 
ment, from  patriotic  motives,  and  the  subsidizing  of  the 


press  in  France  from  the  secret  service  fund,  presum- 
ably in  the  interest  of  the  country.  "In  like  manner 
many  an  employer  who,  directly  or  indirectly,  has 
coerced  his  employees  into  voting  as  he  believes,  feels 
that  only  his  party's  policy  is  right,  and  that  his  act  is 
therefore  laudable  and  in  the  workmen's  interest. 
Many  a  party  leader  who  has  raised  corruption  funds 
and  directed  their  expenditure  has  sincerely  believed 
that  his  party  could  not  win  without  bribery,  and  that 
the  success  of  the  opposition  would  be  a  far  more  seri- 
ous evil  to  the  country  than  the  bribing  of  a  few  '  float- 
ers '  whose  moral  sense  was  already  blunted.  If  the 
influence  of  bribery  ended  with  the  single  act,  the 
argument  would  be  strong." 

Professor  Jenks  goes  on  to  show  that  the  larger 
number  of  bribing  politicians  have  far  more  selfish 
aims ;  they  work  for  money  and  office,  while  a  large 
proportion  of  the  ignorant  men  who  receive  bribes  are 
not  even  conscious  that  they  are  committing  any  seri- 
ous wrong.  Even  the  intelligent  classes  are  not  fully 
awake  to  the  wrong  involved,  it  would  seem,  since 
college  students  often  receive  traveling  expenses  to 
and  from  the  polls  from  the  party  committees.  "  The 
nature  of  corruption  and  the  difficulty  of  controlling  it 
appear  more  clearly,  too,  when  we  consider  its  extent 
and  the  places  where  it  is  most  prevalent.  People 
who  live  in  districts  that  are  '  safe '  for  either  party, 
especially  if  the  people  are  also  fairly  well  to  do,  have 
no  conception  of  the  subject.  In  such  places,  there  is 
only  here  and  there  a  case  of  corruption,  and  that  is 
mostly  some  kind  of  treating  given  to  add  force  to  an 
argument,  or  it'  is  covered  under  the  head  of  paying 
for  services  at  the  polls.  Where,  however,  the  district 
is  a  close  one,  and  the  ignorant  voters  are  numerous, 
the  proportion  treated  or  bribed  is  high.  In  such  dis- 
tricts it  is  uncommon  for  25  to  50  per  cent,  to  be  thus 
managed,  while  cases  are  found— as  they  have  been 
found  in  similar  circumstances  in  England  and  else- 
where, for  we  are  no  worse  by  nature  than  other  peo- 
ple—where nearly  all  the  voters  are  corrupted.  As 
was  said  at  the  beginning,  corruption  is  the  normal 
condition  of  a  country  with  many  ignorant  voters  and 
great  electoral  prizes.  It  will  always  be  found,  unless 
special  measures  are  taken  to  prevent  it." 

For  reform  methods  in  dealing  with  corrup- 
tion, see  CORRUPT  PRACTICES  ACT  ;  CIVIL  SERVICE 
REFORM  ;  MUNICIPAL  REFORM  MOVEMENTS  ;  CITY, 
etc. 

THE   MASSACHUSETTS   LAW. 

In  1892  Massachusetts  enacted  a  law  that  ap- 
proaches nearer  to  the  English  act  than  any 
American  measure  yet  passed.  It  applies  to 
all  public  elections,  including  elections  by  the 
Legislature  or  by  city  council,  and  nominations 
by  caucus  or  convention.  The  only  exception  to 
it  is  the  election  of  town  officers  in  towns.  It 
provides  for  a  complete  and  public  account  of 
all  political  expenditures.  This  is  its  main  fea- 
ture ;  but  it  falls  short  of  the  English  act  by  not 
restricting  the  amount  to  be  spent  and  by  not 
specifying  legal  objects  of  expenditure.  With 
the  exception  of  personal  expenses,  no  candi- 
date is  allowed  any  expenditure  to  secure  his 
own  election  otherwise  than  through  a  political 
committee.  This  political  committee  is  held 
responsible  for  violations  of  the  law. 

The  law  defines  the  term  "political  committee"  to 
include  "every  committee  or  combination  of  three  or 
more  persons  who  shall  aid  or  promote  the  success  or 
defeat  of  a  political  party  or  principle  in  a  public  elec- 
tion, or  shall  aid  or  take  part  in  the  nomination,  elec- 
tion or  defeat  of  a  candidate  for  public  office."  It 
furthermore  provides  that  every  individual  who,  "act- 
ing otherwise  than  under  the  authority  and  in  the  be- 
half of  a  political  committee,"  receives  or  disburses 
money  for  any  of  the  above-named  purposes,  shall  be 
subject  to  the  requirements  of  the  act.  "Every  such 
committee  is  required  to  have  a  treasurer,  who  must, 
within  30  days  after  an  election,  if  the  total  receipts  or 
expenditures  of  the  committee  exceed  $20,  file  a  sworn 
statement  'setting  forth  all  the  receipts,  expenditures, 
disbursements  and  liabilities  of  the  committee  and  of 
every  officer  and  other  person  acting  under  its  author- 
ity and  in  its  behalf.'  A  voucher,  '  stating  the  particu- 
lars of  expense,' must  be  kept  for  every  payment  of 
over  five  dollars.  Thus  the  whole  subject-matter  of 


Corruption  in  Politics. 


388 


Corrupt  Practice  Act. 


political  expenditures,  by  whomsoever  made,  is  in- 
tended to  be  brought  within  the  scope  of  the  law  and 
made  a  matter  o£  record  and  public  concern." 

Political  committees  are  not  permitted  to  ask 
candidates  for  money,  but  candidates  may  make 
voluntary  contributions.  An  organization  has 
been  formed  known  as  the  Election  Laws 
League  of  Massachusetts,  to  watch  over  the  en- 
forcement of  the  law.  This  league  has  thus  far 
been  free  from  partisanship,  and  reports  encour- 
aging progress.  Hon.  Josiah  Quincy,  Assistant 
Secretary  of  State  of  Massachusetts,  writes  thus 
of  the  law  in  The  Forum  : 

"  While  it  cannot  be  said  that  there  has  been  any 
very  active  or  widespread  public  interest  in  the  opera- 
tion of  the  law,  as  was  the  case  when  the  Australian 
ballot  system  was  introduced,  there  has  thus  far  been 
no  declared  opposition,  but  a  strong  public  sentiment 
in  its  favor,  and  the  leading  newspapers  have  given  to 
it  their  full  support.  The  mere  publicity  given  to  the 
expenses  incurred  has  undoubtedly  tended  somewhat 
to  limit  their  amount  and  restrict  their  purposes,  and 
this  tendency  may  be  found  to  increase.  But  the  law 
did  not  on  its  first  trial  work  a  very  marked  change  in 
either  of  these  respects.  The  requirement  as  to  the 
publication  of  the  names  of  contributors  undoubtedly 
tended  to  check  contributions,  and  it  was  found  that 
many  who  had  been  accustomed  to  give  money  liber- 
ally for  political  purposes,  from  purely  unselfish  and 
Eublic-spirited  motives,  were  seriously  disinclined  to 
ice  the  necessary  publicity.  The  fact  that  a  national 
election  was  pending,  however,  allowed  such  persons 
to  send  their  contributions  to  the  respective  national 
committees  to  be  appropriated  for  use  in  Massa- 
chusetts, the  result  being  that  both  the  Republican 
and  Democratic  State  Committees  returned  their  re- 
spective national  committees  as  contributing  over 
$20,000  each  to  their  funds.  This  requirement  at  the 
time  of  the  passage  of  the  law  met  with  the  opposition 
of  many  persons  who  were  otherwise  friendly  to  its 
provisions,  and  it  is  still  an  open  question  whether  it 
is  not  susceptible  of  too  easy  evasion." 

NEW   YORK   CORRUPT   PRACTICE   ACT. 

This  has  been  characterized  as  the  ' '  weakest 
of  our  American  laws  to  restrict  the  spending  of 
money  for  election  purposes."  Instead  of  de- 
manding an  account  of  expenditures  from  the 
political  committee,  it  requires  it  of  the  candi- 
date. As  has  been  shown  by  several  trials  of 
the  law,  the  candidate  names  sundry  unimpor- 
tant and  legitimate  expenses  of  his  own,  and 
then  gives  the  amount  which  he  has  handed 
over  to  the  political  committee.  There  is  no  in- 
vestigation as  to  what  the  committee  has  done 
with  the  money.  The  candidate  may  in  various 
ways  evade  the  law — by  giving  money  indirectly 
to  the  committee,  or  by  falsifying  his  returns. 
The  public  gains  only  a  more  or  less  correct 
idea  of  the  "assessments"  paid  by  candidates 
for  the  ' '  honor' '  conferred  upon  them  by  nomi- 
nation. See  also  MUNICIPAL  REFORM  LEAGUE 
and  LAW  AND  ORDER  LEAGUE. 

CORRUPT  PRACTICE  ACT.— The  agi- 
tation against  political  corruption  in  this  coun- 
try has  drawn  attention  to  the  Corrupt  Practice 
Act,  which  has  been  passed  in  England,  and  has 
been  in  general  copied  in  Massachusetts  and  to 
a  less  extent  in  New  York,  and  is  being  consid- 
ered in  other  States. 

The  present  British  Corrupt  Practice  Act,  of  which 
Sir  Henry  James  was  author,  was  passed  in  1883. 
Previous  to  1883  there  were  three  corrupt  practices 
known  to  the  law  in  England  •  bribery,  treating,  and 
undue  influence.  The  act  of  that  year  added  a  fourth, 
by  declaring  that  "  personation,  and  the  aiding,  abet- 
ting, counseling,  and  procuring  the  commission  of 
the  offense  of  personation,"  should  be  a  corrupt  prac- 
tice. 


The  British  law  is  very  explicit  in  its  definition  of 
briber}'.  "Every  person  is  pronounced  guilty  of  it 
who  directly  or  indirectly,  by  himself  or  by  any  other 
person,  gives,  lends,  or  agrees  to  give  or  lend,  or  offers,  ( 
promises,  or  promises  to  procure  or  to  endeavor  to 
procure,  any  money  or  valuable  consideration,  or  any 
office,  place,  or  employment,  to  or  for  any  voter,  or  to 
or  for  any  person  on  behalf  of  any  voter,  or  to  or  for 
any  person  in  order  to  induce  any  voter  to  refrain 
from  voting,  or  who  in  any  similar  manner  seeks  to 
induce  any  person  to  procure  or  endeavor  to  procure 
the  return  of  any  person  to  parliament  or  the  vote  of 
any  voter  at  any  election.  Every  person  is  also  pro- 
nounced guilty  of  bribery  who,  in  consequence  of  any 
of  the  forbidden  acts  mentioned,  procures  or  endeavors 
to  procure  the  election  of  a  candidate,  or  who  advances 
or  pays  or  causes  to  be  paid  any  money  to  or  to  the  use 
of  any  other  person  with  the  intent  or  knowledge  that 
it  shall  be  expended  wholly  or  in  part  in  bribery ;  and 
every  voter  who,  directly,  receives,  either  before  or 
during  election,  any  consideration  of  the  kind  forbid- 
den in  the  anti-bribery  provision  above  summarized, 
either  for  voting  or  refraining  from  voting,  is  also  pro- 
nounced guilty  of  bribery;  as  also  is  any  person  who, 
after  election,  directly  or  indirectly,  by  himself  or  by 
any  other  person  in  his  behalf,  receives  any  money  or 
valuable  consideration  on  account  of  any  person  hav- 
ing voted,  or  refrained  therefrom,  or  having  induced 
any  other  person  to  vote  or  refrain  from  voting." 

Treating  is  also  forbidden  with  explicitness.  "Any 
person  is  pronounced  guilty  of  it  who  corruptly  or  by 
himself,  or  by  any  other  person  either  before,  during 
or  after  an  election,  directly  or  indirectly  gives  or  pro- 
vides, or  pays  wholly  or  in  part  the  expenses  of  giving 
or  providing  any  meat,  drink,  entertainment,  or  pro- 
vision to  or  for  any  person  for  the  purpose  of  corruptly 
influencing  his  vote,  or  inducing  him  to  refrain  from 
voting,  or  on  account  of  himself  or  any  other  person 
having  voted  or  refrained  from  voting,  or  being  aboiit 
to  do  one  of  these  things  ;  and  every  voter  who  accepts 
such  forbidden  attentions  is  equally  guilty. 

"  In  regard  to  undue  influence,  every  person  is  guilty 
of  that  who  directly  or  indirectly,  by  himself  or  by  any 
other  person  in  his  behalf,  makes  use  of  or  threatens  to 
make  use  of  any  force,  violence  or  restraint,  or  inflicts 
or  threatens  to  inflict  by  himself  or  by  any  other  per- 
son any  temporal  or  spiritual  injury,  damage,  harm  or 
loss  upon  or  against  any  person  to  induce  or  compel 
him  to  vote  or  to  refrain  from  voting,  or  on  account  of 
his  having  done  either  of  these  things,  or  who  by  ab- 
duction, duress  or  any  fraudulent  device  or  contri- 
vance impedes  or  permits  the  free  exercise  of  the  fran- 
chise of  any  elector.  Personation  is  also  defined  and 
forbidden." 

The  penalties  attached  to  a  conviction  of  these  of- 
fenses are  for  bribery,  treating,  and  undue  influence, 
each  of  which  is  a  misdemeaner,  imprisonment  with  or 
without  hard  labor  for  a  term  not  exceeding  one  year, 
or  a  fine  not  exceeding  200  pounds ;  for  personation, 
which  is  a  felony,  fora  term  not  exceeding  two  years 
with  hard  labor.  If  it  is  found  by  the  election  court 
that  the  offenses  of  treating,  or  undue  influence,  have 
been  committed  by  a  candidate,  or  that  the  offenses  of 
bribery  and  personation  have  been  committed  by  or 
with  his  knowledge  or  consent,  he  is  declared  ineligible 
ever  after  to  hold  a  seat  in  the  House  of  Commons  in 
the  county  or  borough  in  which  the  offenses  were 
committed. 

To  prevent  objectionable  expenditures,  the  law  re- 
stricts the  employment  of  agents,  clerks,  messengers 
and  others  within  a  very  narrow  limit.  "  Voluntary 
efforts  are  made  to  take  the  place  of  paid  labor.  But 
it  was  anticipated  that  there  would  be  a  strong  desire 
to  evade  such  a  restriction  by  making  contracts  to 
carry  on  the  election  work  in  place  of  the  candidate 
employing  persons  for  that  purpose.  And  so  the  plan 
of  controlling  the  amount  of  expenditure  by  a  fixed 
schedule  was  accepted,  and  it  has  certainly  proved 
most  beneficial  in  practice.  By  the  eighth  section  of 
the  act  it  is  enacted  that  no  sum  shall  be  paid  and  no 
expenses  incurred  by  any  candidate  in  excess  of  any 
maximum  amount  in  that  behalf  specified  in  the  first 
schedule  to  the  act.  Any  breach  of  this  prohibition 
by  a  candidate  or  his  election  agent  is  an  illegal  prac- 
tice." 

From  $1000  to  $3500  is  the  maximum  amount 
which  may  be  expended  in  a  parliamentary 
election.  As  a  result  of  this  law  there  has  been 
a  thorough  reformation  in  British  election  meth- 
ods, rendering  them  at  least  as  pure  as  those  of 
any  country.  In  most  localities  corrupt  prac- 


Corrupt  Practice  Act. 


389 


Cost  of  Production. 


tices  have  ceased  to  exist.  Since  the  operation 
of  the  law  no  member  has  been  unseated  for 
bribery,  and  three  general  elections  have  been 
held. 

CORVEE,  a  tax  levied  on  the  laboring 
classes,  and  paid  by  them  in  a  certain  number 
of  days  of  labor,  either  wholly  unremunerated 
or  remunerated  at  a  rate  less  than  the  ordinary 
rate  of  wages.  In  particular  such  taxation  has 
been  applied  to  the  construction  and  mainte- 
nance of  roads  and  bridges,  each  locality  being 
compelled  to  defray  the  cost  of  such  works  by 
contributions  of  labor.  It  is  a  system  that  has 
come  down  from  feudal  times,  when  the  serf 
was  compelled  to  give  his  lord  a  certain  amount 
of  labor.  It  exists  to-day  in  certain  European 
and  some  not  wholly  civilized  countries.  (See 
TAXATION.) 

COSSA,  LUIGI,  was  born  in  1831  at  Milan. 
He  received  the  degree  of  LL.D.  from  the  Uni- 
versity of  Pavia  in  1853.  In  1860  he  was  made 
full  professor  of  political  economy  at  Pavia,  and 
later  in  the  University  of  Milan.  Cossa,  well 
known  also  abroad  as  a  litterateur,  is  to-day 
one  of  the  most  prominent  of  Italian  thinkers 
upon  political  economy,  and  from  his  school 
have  come  most  of  the  younger  economists. 
His  style  as  an  author  is  distinguished  for  its 
conciseness.  His  best-known  works  are  his 
Guide  to  the  Study  of  Political  Economy 
(translated  from  the  second  Italian-  edition 
[1877]  1880),  considered  by  many  not  always  ac- 
curate, but  still  the  most  complete  manual  of  its 
kind,  and  his  Taxation,  its  Principles  and 
Methods  (1888). 

COST   OF   LIVING.     See  EXPENDITURES. 

CpST  OF  PRODUCTION.— Cost  of  pro- 
duction may  be  defined  as  the  amount  of  exer- 
tion or  sacrifice  requisite  to  the  production  of 
any  article.  Says  Professor  Marshall  in  his  Ele- 
ments of  Economics  of  Industry  (p.  214)  : 

"  The  exertions  of  all  the  different  kinds  of  labor 
that  are  directly  or  indirectly  involved  in  making  it ; 
together  with  the  abstinences  or  rather  the  waitings 
required  for  saving  the  capital  used  in  making  it :  all 
these  efforts  and  sacrifices  together  •will  be  called  its 
real  cost  of  production.  The  sums  of  money  that 
have  to  be  paid  for  these  efforts  and  sacrifices  will  be 
called  either  its  money  cost  of  production,  or,  for 
shortness,  its  expenses  of  production ;  they  are  the 
prices  which  have  to  be  paid  in  order  to  call  forth  an 
adequate  supply  of  the  efforts  and  waitings  that  are 
required  for  making  it ;  or,  in  other  words,  they  are 
its  supply  price." 

,     Marshall  adds  in  a  note  : 

"  Mill  and  some  other  economists  have  followed  the 
practice  of  ordinary  life  in  using  the  term  cost  of 
production  in  two  senses,  sometimes  to  signify  the  dif- 
ficulty of  producing  a  thing,  and  sometimes  to  express 
the  outlay  of  money  that  has  to  be  incurred  in  order 
to  induce  people  to  overcome  this  difficulty  and  pro- 
duce it.  But  by  passing  from  one  use  of  the  term  to 
the  other  without  giving  explicit  warning,  they  have 
led  to  many  misunderstandings  and  much  barren  con- 
troversy." 

Concerning  the  analysis  of  the  various  ele- 
ments which  enter  into  the  cost  of  production, 
Mill  says  (Principles  of  Political  Economy, 
Book  III.,  chap,  iv.) : 

"  The  component  elements  of  cost  of  production 
have  been  set  forth  in  the  first  part  of  this  inquiry. 
The  principal  of  them,  and  so  much  the  principal  as  to 


be  nearly  the  sole,  we  found  to  be  labor.  "What  the 
production  of  a  thing  costs  to  its  producer,  or  its  series 
of  producers,  is  the  labor  expended  in  producing  it. 
If  we  consider  as  the  producer  the  capitalist  who 
makes  the  advances,  the  word  labor  may  be  replaced 
by  the  word  wages  :  what  the  produce  costs  to  him  is 
the  wages  which  he  has  had  to  pay.  At  the  first 
glance  indeed  this  seems  to  be  only  a  part  of  his  out- 
lay, since  he  has  not  only  paid  wages  to  laborers,  but 
has  likewise  provided  them  with  tools,  materials,  and 
perhaps  buildings.  These  tools,  materials,  and  build- 
ings, however,  were  produced  by  labor  and  capital ; 
and  their  value,  like  that  of  the  article  to  the  produc- 
tion of  which  they  are  subservient,  depends  on  cost  of 
production,  which  again  is  resolvable  into  labor.  The 
cost  of  production  of  broadcloth  does  not  wholly  con- 
sist in  the  wages  of  weavers,  which  alone  are  directly 
paid  by  the  cloth  manufacturer.  It  consists  also  of 
the  wages  of  spinners  and  woolcombers,  and  it  may  be 
added,  of  shepherds,  all  of  which  the  clothier  has  paid 
for  in  the  price  of  yarn.  It  consists  too  of  the  wages 
of  builders  and  brickmakers,  which  he  has  reimbursed 
in  the  contract  price  of  erecting  his  factory.  It  partly 
consists  of  the  wages  of  machine-makers,  iron-found- 
ers, and  miners.  And  to  these  must  be  added  the 
wages  of  the  carriers  who  transported  any  of  the 
means  and  appliances  of  the  production  to  the  place 
where  they  were  to  be  used,  and  the  product  itself  to 
the  place  where  it  is  to  be  sold.  .  .  . 

"But  in  our  analysis,  in  the  first  book,  of  the  requi- 
sites of  production,"  we  found  that  there  is  another  nec- 
essary element  in  it  besides  labor.  There  is  also  capi- 
tal ;  and  this  being  the  result  of  abstinence,  the  prod- 
uce, or  its  value,  must  be  sufficient  to  remunerate,  not 
only  all  the  labor  required,  but  the  abstinence  of  all 
the  persons  by  whom  the  remuneration  of  the  differ- 
ent classes  of  laborers  was  advanced.  The  return  for 
abstinence  is  profit.  And  profit,  we  have  also  seen,  is 
not  exclusively  the  surplus  remaining  to  the  capitalist 
after  he  has  been  compensated  for  his  outlay,  but 
forms  in  most  cases  no  unimportant  part  of  the  outlay 
itself.  The  flax-spinner,  part  of  whose  expenses  con- 
sists of  the  purchase  of  flax  and  of  machinery,  has  had 
to  pay,  in  their  price,  not  only  the  wages  of  the  labor 
by  which  the  flax  was  grown  and  the  machinery  made, 
but  the  profits  of  the  grower,  the  flax-dresser,  the 
miner,  the  iron-founder,  and  the  machine-maker.  All 
these  profits,  together  with  those  of  the  spinner  him- 
self, were  again  advanced  by  the  weaver,  in  the  price 
of  his  material,  linen  yarn  :  and  along  with  them  the 
profits  of  a  fresh  set  of  machine-makers,  and  of  the 
miners  and  iron-workers  who  supplied  them  with  their 
metallic  material.  All  these  advances  form  part  of 
the  cost  of  the  production  of  linen.  Profits,  therefore, 
as  well  as  wages,  enter  into  the  cost  of  production 
which  determines  the  value  of  the  produce.  .  .  . 

"  Besides  the  natural  and  necessary  elements  in  cost 
of  production — labor  and  pro  fits — there  areothers  which 
are  artificial  and  casual,  as,  for  instance,  a  tax.  The 
tax  on  malt  is  as  much  a  part  of  the  cost  of  production 
of  that  article  as  the  wages  of  the  laborers.  The  ex- 
penses which  the  law  imposes,  as  well  as  those  which 
the  nature  of  things  imposes,  must  be  reimbursed 
with  the  ordinary  profit  from  the  value  of  the  produce, 
or  the  things  will  not  continue  to  be  produced." 

We  come  to  a  more  vexed  question  when  we 
ask  if  rent  enters  into  the  cost  of  production. 
Mill  says  : 

"  Does  rent  enter  into  the  cost  of  production  ?  and 
the  answer  of  the  best  political  economists  is  in  the 
negative.  The  temptation  is  strong  to  the  adoption  of 
these  sweeping  expressions,  even  by  those  who  are 
aware  of  the  restrictions  with  which  they  must  be 
taken  ;  for  there  is  no  denying  that  they  stamp  a  gen- 
eral principle  more  firmly  on  the  mind  than  if  it  were 
hedged  round  in  theory  with  all  its  practical  limita- 
tions. But  they  also  puzzle  and  mislead,  and  create 
an  impression  unfavorable  to  political  economy,  as  if  it 
disregarded  the  evidence  of  facts.  No  one  can  deny 
that  rent  sometimes  enters  into  cost  of  production.  If 
I  buy  or  rent  a  piece  of  ground,  and  build  a  cloth 
manufactory  on  it,  the  ground  rent  forms  legitimately 
a  part  of  my  expenses  of  production,  which  must  be 
repaid  by  the  product.  And  since  all  factories  are 
built  on  ground,  and  most  of  them  in  places  where 
ground  is  peculiarly  valuable,  the  rent  paid  for  it 
must,  on  the  average,  be  compensated  in  the  values  of 
all  things  made  in  factories.  In  what  sense  it  is  true 
that  rent  does  not  enter  into  the  cost  of  production  or 
affect  the  value  of  agricultural  produce  will  be  shown 
in  the  succeeding  chapter," 


Cost  of  Production. 


39° 


Cotton  Industry. 


He  then  goes  on  to  argue  the  familiar  princi- 
ple that  since  there  cannot  long  be  two  prices  in 
an  open  market  for  the  same  thing,  and  since 
the  amount  of  population  creates  a  demand  for 
land  enough  to  raise  the  necessities  of  life,  the 
price  of  such  commodities  must  be  fixed  high 
enough  to  cover  the  cost  of  production  on  the 
most  unproductive  and  expensive  land  that  is 
needed.  Into  that  price  rent  cannot  enter,  be- 
cause if  rent  was  paid  for  such  land,  people  own- 
ing land  of  less  value  could  produce  the  necessi- 
ties of  life  without  rent  and  bring  down  the 
price.  Rent,  therefore,  cannot  enter  into  the 
price  of  commodities  produced  at  the  land  which 
fixes  the  price.  People,  it  is  true,  owning  better 
land  can  command  a  rent,  because  their  land 
can  produce  more,  or  the  same  amount  at  less 
cost,  and  yet  they  can  sell  its  products  at  the 
same  price  as  that  raised  on  poorer  land.  But 
this  rent  is  gained  from  the  superior  market 
value  of  the  land  ;  it  does  not  enter  into  the  cost 
of  producing  that  which  fixes  the  market  value 
of  any  commodity.  Mill  sums  up  his  view  thus  : 

"  Rent  is  not  an  element  in  the  cost  of  production  of 
the  commodity  which  yields  it,  except  in  the  cases 
(rather  conceivable  than  actually  existing)  in  which  it 
results  from  and  represents  a  scarcity  value.  But 
when  land  capable  of  yielding  rent  in  agriculture  is 
applied  to  some  other  purpose,  the  rent  which  it  would 
have  yielded  is  an  element  in  the  cost  of  production 
of  the  commodity  which  it  is  employed  to  produce." 

Such  is  Mill's  view,  and  practically  all  econo- 
mists are  agreed  with  him.  Palgrave's  Diction- 
ary of  Political  Economy  says  : 

"  The  fundamental  law  of  cost  (or  rather  expenses) 
of  production  may  be  thus  stated  :  The  normal  selling 
price  of  any  article  tends  to  be  such  as  to  yield  the  wages, 
interest,  and  profits  involved  in  the  expenses  of  pro- 
duction. If  the  price  is  above  this  rate,  labor  and  cap- 
ital are  attracted  to  the  industry,  the  supply  is  in- 
creased, and  the  price  falls ;  while  conversely,  if  the 
remuneration  is  not  so  high,  labor  and  capital  are  re- 
pelled and  the  price  rises.  But  it  must  be  observed 
that  in  any  established  industry,  owing  to  the  want  of 

Eerfect  mobility  of  labor  and  capital,  the  effect  of  a 
ill  in  price  due  to  a  lessened  demand  for  the  product 
on  the  part  of  other  industrial  groups  may  be  to  cause 
a  quasi-permanent  fall  in  the  rates  of  wages  and  profits 
in  that  industry  ;  and  thus  lower  for  a  considerable 
time  the  expenses  of  production.  (See  WAGES.)  If,  how- 
ever, we  assume  that  mobility  is  perfect,  or  allow  time 
for  the  full  effect  of  the  forces  which  determine  wages 
and  profits,  the  normal  expenses  of  production  are 
given  in  the  law  as  stated. 

"  Besides  labor  and  capital  in  the  ordinary  sense  of 
the  terms,  raw  material  is  required.  This  raw  mate- 
rial, however,  is  itself  the  product  of  labor  and  capital, 
and  so  far  would  come  under  the  analysis  just  given. 
Bu  t  since  Ricardo  gave  such  prominence  to  the  econom- 
ic theory  of  rent,  the  text-books  have  emphasized 
the  fact  that  raw  material  is  more  directly  dependent 
upon  natural  sources  of  supply,  and  that  these  sources 
of  supply  may  be  exploited  at  unequal  costs.  This 
leads  to  the  position  that  when  there  is  a  difference 
in  the  cost  of  producing  the  various  parts  of  the  normal 
supply,  the  normal  price  must  be  such  as  to  give  a  fair 
return  to  that  portion  produced  under  most  unfavor- 
able circumstances. 

"  On  the  whole,  it  may  be  said  that  economic  rent,  if 
it  can  be  actually  separated  from  the  other  elements 
in  cost  according  to  the  hypothesis  assumed,  does  not 
enter  into  cost,  but  that  practically  other  factors  are 
closely  combined  with  it  to  form  rent  in  the  popular 
acceptation  of  the  term,  and  that,  in  this  sense,  rent 
often  does  form  part  of  the  cost." 

(On  the  still  more  important  and  much  more 
vexed  question  whether  the  cost  of  production 
determines  market  value,  see  VALUE.) 


COTTON  FAMINE,  THE,  was  occasioned 
by  the  War  of  the  Rebellion,  declared  in  1861. 
It  created  in  England  the  greatest  industrial 
depression.  In  1860  the  cotton  trade  of  Eng- 
land had  reached  an  enormous  activity.  There 
were  2650  mills,  with  30,000,000  spindles,  mak- 
ing from  4000  to  6000  revolutions  per  minute, 
and  employing  440,000  hands,  56  per  cent,  of 
them  women,  10  per  cent,  children.  The  fixed 
capital  was  ,£54,000,000  ;  the  wages  paid  that 
year,  ,£11,500,000.  Of  the  1,391,000,000  Ibs.  of 
cotton  imported,  1,120,000,000  Ibs.  came  from  the 
United  States.  April,  1861,  Fort  Sumter  was 
bombarded.  The  Federal  Government  early 
established  a  blockade  of  the  Southern  ports. 
Only  by  running  this  blockade  could  cotton  be 
sent  to  England.  The  price  of  cotton  in  Liver- 
pool rose  from  i\d.  to  i-zd.  The  dealers  made 
fortunes,  but  the  mills  gradually  had  to  shut 
down.  It  was  not  that  there  was  not  cotton  ; 
at  first  there  was  plenty,  but  for  the  manufac- 
tured goods  there  was  no  market.  There  was 
a  glut.  In  November  49  mills  shut  down  and 
119  worked  half  time.  The  distress  among  the 
low-paid  operatives  began  to  be  intense.  Re- 
lief committees  were  appointed,  and  soup  kitch- 
ens opened.  Cotton  district  relief  funds  were 
opened  by  Lancashire  and  some  London  papers. 
The  Lord  Mayor  established  a  Mansion  House 
committee,  which  received  subscriptions  from 
all  over  the  world.  In  1862  only  524,000,000 
bis.  of  cotton  were  imported.  At  Christmas  of 
that  year  247,000  were  totally  out  of  work,  and 
165,000  only  partially  employed  ;  234,000  were 
in  receipt  of  relief.  The  rate  of  wages,  how- 
ever, was  not  reduced.  The  operatives  were 
set  against  that.  Relief  came  from  the  United 
States  as  well.  Three  vessels,  the  George  Gris- 
ivold,  the  Achilles,  and  the  Hope  were  char- 
tered and  sent  to  Liverpool  with  food  and  cloth- 
ing. In  June  a  Public  Works  Act  was  passed, 
the  Government  advancing  ,£1 ,200,000.  Private 
subscriptions  reached  ,£2,000,000.  But  gradu- 
ally the  manufacturers  sold  off  their  stock  and 
began  manufacturing  again  at  high  prices,  com- 
pelled by  high  raw  material.  (See  CRISES.) 

COTTON  INDUSTRY,  THE.— The  old- 
est cotton-producing  country  of  the  world  is 
India,  tho  early  mention  of  it  is  made  in  Egypt. 
In  the  United  States  the  introduction  of  the 
plant  is  traced  as  far  back  as  1536,  tho  the  ex- 
port trade  did  not  commence  till  about  1770, 
when  a  shipment  of  2000  Ibs.  was  made.  In 
1791  the  shipments  reached  189, 316  Ibs.  ;  in  1800, 
17,789,803  Ibs.  ;  in  1821,  124,000,000  Ibs.  ;  in 
1831,  277,000,000  Ibs.  ;  in  1841,  530,000,000  Ibs.  ; 
in  1851,  927,000,000  Ibs.  ;  in  1860,  2,160,000,000 
Ibs.  Prices  fell  gradually  from  is.  bd.  per 
pound  in  Liverpool  in  1793,  to  <-,%d.  or  ^d.  After 
that  the  expansion  of  trade,  and  especially  the 
War  of  the  Rebellion  and  the  abolition  of  slavery, 
raised  prices  to  8d.  and  occasionally  above  that, 
tho  since  1875  they  have  fallen  again.  In  1871  a 
failure  of  the  crop  reduced  the  export  of  cotton 
to  933,000,000  Ibs.  Inventive  genius,  superior 
farming  and  energy  have  given  the  United 
States,  however,  a  firm  grasp  upon  the  trade. 
For  recent  times  the  abstract  of  the  eleventh 
census  gives  the  following  as  the  cotton  crop  of 
the  United  States  : 


Cotton  Industry. 


39' 


Cotton  Industry. 


YEAR 

COTTON. 

Acres. 

Bales. 

1890  

20,175,270 
1.14,480,019 

7.472,5" 
5,755,359 
3,011,996 

5,387,052 
2,469,093 

1880  

1870  

1860  

1850  

1893-94- 

1890-91. 

1887-88. 

Exports  to  Europe  

Bales. 

Bales. 

Bales. 

Consumption  U.  S.,  Can- 
ada, etc  

2,508,850 

Total  

6,861,854 

As    to    the     cotton     consumption     of    the 
The  division  between  the  home  and  foreign     world,  the  World  Almanac  gives  the  follow- 
consuinption  was  as  follows  :  ing  : 


CONSUMPTION  BALES,  400  LBS. 

Great 
Britain. 

Total 
Europe. 

United 
States. 

India. 

Total 
World. 

3,572,000 
3,640,000 
3,744,000 
3,666,000 
3,433,000 
3,628,000 
3,694,000 
3,841,000 
3,770,000 
4,016,000 
4,233,000 
3,977,000 
3,583,000 
4,040,000 

6,528,000 
6,838,000 
7,124,000 
7,046,000 
6,688,000 
7,093,000 
7,334,000 
7,637,000 
7,839,000 
8,296,000 
8,771,000 
8,401,000 
8,159,000 
8,824,000 

2,118,000 
2,197,000 
2,375,000 
2,244,000 
1,909,000 
2,278,000 
2,423,000 
2,530,000 
2,685,000 
2,731,000 
2,958,000 

3,220,000 
3,189,000 
2,830,000 

37I>4Qo 
385,600 
447,400 
520,700 
584,800 
630,300 
711,800 
771,670 
870,880 
988,293 
1,155,328 
1,142,619 
1,147,588 
1,199,234 

9,017,400 
9,424,600 
9,946,400 
9,810,700 
9,181,800 
0,001,300 
0,468,800 
0,938,670 
1,394,880 
2,015,293 
2,884,328 
2,863,619 
2.495,588 
2,853,234 

1881-82  

1882-83  »  

1883  84  .... 

1885-86  «  <  t  

1  886-87  

1887-88  

1888-89  

As  to  the  supply,  the  following  is  the  estimate 
of  Ellison  &  Co.  for  1894-95  > 


Total. 


America        

Bales. 

8,248,000 

East  Indies        

Total  

Average  weight  

468 

The  importance  of  the  cotton  trade  is  very 
great,  and  has  been  almost  wholly  developed 
within  a  century.  The  invention  of  Wyatt's 
spinning-roller  in  1730,  of  Kay's  fly-shuttle  in 
1738,  of  Hargreaves'  spinning-jenny  in  1764,  of 
Arkwright's  water-frame  (patented)  in  1769, 
Crompton's  mule  in  1779,  Cartwright's  loom  in 
1785  in  England,  and  Whitney's  cotton-gin  in 
1793  in  America,  has  created  the  trade.  It  is 
estimated  in  England  that  4,500,000  persons  de- 
pend for  their  livelihood  on  the  condition  of 
the  cotton  trade.  For  the  United  States  the 
abstract  of  the  eleventh  census  gives  the  follow- 
ing figures  : 


INDUSTRY. 

Year. 

Number 
of  Estab- 
lishments 
Reporting. 

AVERAGE   NUMBER  OF 
EMPLOYEES  AND  TOTAL 
WAGES. 

Cost  of  Ma- 
terials Used. 

Value  of 
Products, 
including 
Receipts 
from  Cus- 
tom Work 
and   Repair- 
ing. 

Employees. 

Wages. 

Cotton,  cleaning  and  rehandling  

jiSgo 
|  1880 

(1890 
1  1880 

(1890 
1  1880 

j  1800 
|  1880 

I  1890 
(  1880 

(  1890 
1  1880 

13 

2IO 

$54,068 

$415,005 

$525,595 

Cotton,  compressing  

52 
29 

1,637 

3,000 
i,  008 

7,660 

1,228,619 
573,°°5 

781,798 

254,309 
326,808 

542,481 

2,624,027 
1,271,700 

2,367,450 

Cotton,  ginning  

Cotton  goods  

905 
1,005 

6 
31 

221,585 
185,472 

18 
131 

329 

69,489,272 
45,614,419 

3,T5o 
38,069 

154,257 

154,912,979 
"3,765,537 

5,980 
170,198 

1,592,041 

267,981,724 
210,950,383 

11,950 
262,351 

1,906,622 

Cotton  ties  

Cotton  waste  

Cotton  Industry. 


392 


Coxey  and  "  Coxeyism." 


The    World  Almanac  puts  the  spindles  in 
operation  in  this  trade  as  follows  : 


1894. 

1892. 

1889. 

Great  Britain  

45,270,000 
27,350,000 
15,841,000 
3,650,000 

45)35°i°°° 

26,405,000 
15,277,000 
3,402,000 

43,500,000 
24,000,000 
14,175,000 
2,760,000 

Continent  

United  States  
East  Indies  

Total  

92,111,000 

90,434,000 

84,435,000 

COULANGES,  NUMA  DENIS,  FUSTEL 

DE,  was  born  in  Paris  in  1830.  A  member  of  the 
Institute  and  Director  of  the  Ecole  Normale 
Superieure,  Fustel  de  Coulanges  is  best  known 
in  social  science  for  his  important  studies  in  the 
history  of  early  civilizations  and  primitive  ten- 
ures of  land  and  other  property.  His  best- 
known  works  are  :  La  cite  antique,  etude  sur 
le  culte,  le  droit,  les  institutions  de  la  Grice 
et  de  Rome  (1864) ;  La  Gaule  Romaine  ;  His- 
toire  des  institutions  politiques  de  I'ancienne 
France  (7  vols.) ;  and  various  essays,  an  impor- 
tant one  of  which,  appearing  in  the  Revue  des 
Questions  Historiques  for  April,  1889,  has  been 
translated  into  English  under  the  title  The  Ori- 
gin of  Property  of  Land,  edited  by  W.  J.  Ash- 
ley, M.  A.  (1891).  It  was  La  citt  antique  which 
gave  De  Coulanges  his  first  name  ;  his  Institu- 
tions is  his  great  life  work.  He  died  in  1889, 
before  his  work  was  completed,  but  a  creator  in 
the  realm  of  historical  economic  research.  He 
has  freely  criticised  M.  de  Laveleye's  theories 
of  the  communistic  primitive  property  in  land, 
arguing  that  property  in  land  was  always  held 
on  the  seigneurial  rather  than  the  communal 
tenure. 

COUNTY  COUNCILS  (English).— On 
March  19,  1888,  Mr.  C.  T.  Ritchie,  for  the  Gov- 
ernment (Conservative)  of  Lord  Salisbury,  in- 
troduced into  Parliament  a  so-called  Local  Gov- 
ernment Bill,  which  took  a  long  step  in  the 
direction  of  self-government,  and  an  important 
fact  of  which  was  the  creation  of  county  coun- 
cils. Hitherto  the  government  of  England's 
counties  and  the  conduct  of  county  works  had 
been  conducted  by  a  most  complicated  system 
of  various  local  boards  and  bodies,  created  by 
numerous  and  sometime  conflicting  acts  of  Par- 
liament. It  had  been  long  felt  that  the  reform 
of  local  government  was  absolutely  necessary. 
The  new  bill,  therefore,  was  well  received.  It 
was,  in  the  course  of  its  various  readings,  much 
changed,  but  on  July  19  the  bill  finally  passed 
through  committee.  By  this  act  (51  and  52 
Viet.  c.  41)  England  and  Wales  were  divided 
into  60  administrative  counties  and  62  county 
boroughs.  Over  these  were  placed  councils 
consisting  of  elected  councilors  and  nominated 
aldermen.  These  councils  are  entrusted  with 
the  administrative  and  financial  business  of  the 
county. 

They  can  authorize  the  sanitary  authorities  to  take 
land  compulsorily  for  allotments  ;  they  maintain  and 
control  roads  and  bridges  ;  enforce  the  River  Pollution 
Prevention  Act ;  license  theaters  ;  vary  the  season  for 
protecting  wild  birds ;  enforce  orders  of  the  Privy 
Council  as  to  contagious  diseases  of  animals  or  insects  ; 
license  factories  and  magazines  of  explosives ;  regu- 
late fishery  districts ;  provide  and  manage  asylums, 


reformatory  and  industrial  schools;  decide  compen- 
sation for  damage  from  riots ;  verify  weights,  meas- 
ures, and  regulate  gas-meters,  etc. 

Certain  counties  possess  special  powers.  (For  Lon- 
don, see  LONDON  COUNTY  COUNCIL.)  All  persons  reg- 
istered as  local  government  voters,  all  persons  en- 
titled to  be  so  registered  except  as  to  residence,  but 
who  live  within  15  miles  of  the  county,  and  are  rated 
to  the  poor  at  .£30  per  annum,  or  possess  .£1000  of 
property,  and  all  persons  owning  property  can  be 
county  councilors.  Electors  must  own  or  occupy  land 
or  tenement  worth  ^10  per  year,  must  have  residedthere 
six  months,  have  paid  all  rates  and  taxes  ;  or  if  he  has 
paid  all  rates  and  taxes,  and  have  resided  there  12 
months,  he  may  vote,  tho  the  building  he  occupy  be 
not  worth  .£10.  The  aldermen  are  elected  by  the  coun- 
cil, and  compose  one  third  of  the  number  of  council- 
ors. County  councilors  hold  office  three  years,  and 
retire  together.  Aldermen  hold  office  six  years  ;  one 
half  retire  every  third  year.  The  revenue  of  the  coun- 
cil is  two  fifths  of  the  probate  duty,  the  local  taxa- 
tion licenses,  the  county  rates,  which  in  1886-87 
amounted  to  .£130,000,000  for  England  and  Wales,  vary- 
ing from  iTW-  in  Lancaster  to  6d.  in  Montgomery. 
Councils  can  borrow  for  periods  not  exceeding  30 
years.  (See  also  LONDON  COUNTY  COUNCIL.) 

References  :  A.  Macmarron's  The  Local  Government 
Act,  1888  (London,  1888). 

COURCELLE-SENEUIL,  JEAN  GUS- 
TAVE,  was  born  at  Dordogne,  Chile,  December 
22,  1813.  He  was  at  first  a  merchant,  but  later 
occupied  himself  with  the  study  of  economics. 
In  1848  he  held  for  a  short  time  a  post  under  the 
Minister  of  Finance  ;  from  1853-63  he  was  Pro- 
fessor of  Political  Economy  at  the  University  of 
Santiago,  in  Chile.  Since  1879  he  has  been 
State  Councillor  ;  since  1882  Fellow  of  the  Acad- 
emy of  Naval  and  Political  Science.  His  best- 
known  works  are  £tudes  sur  la  science  sociale 
(1862)  ;  Operation  de  Banque  (1853) ;  Traite 
thdorique  et  pratique  d'  hconomie  politique 
(1867),  one  of  the  best-known  treatises  on  the 
subject  in  the  French  language. 

COURTS.     See  JUDICIARY. 

COXEY,  JACOB  SELCHER,  AND 
"COXEYISM."— The  movement  popularly 
called  "  Coxeyism,"  or  the  formation  of 
"  armies"  or  companies  of  unemployed  men  or 
of  those  sympathizing  with  them  to  peaceably 
march  to  Washington,  and  give  Congress  and 
the  country  visible  evidence  of  the  distress  of 
the  unemployed,  and  thus  induce  legislation  to- 
meet  the  need,  is  a  movement  which  has  gained 
its  name  from  Mr.  J.  S.  Coxey,  of  Ohio,  to  an 
extent  the  originator  of  the  movement,  and  the 
"general"  of  the  leading  "  army  ;"  but  it  seems 
to  be  a  movement  that  sprang  up  sporadically 
at  the  same  time  in  various  parts  of  the  country 
out  of  the  distress  and  lack  of  employment  in 
the  hard  times  of  1894.  (F°r  an  account  of  these 
times,  see  CRISES  ;  UNEMPLOYMENT.) 

Jacob  Selcher  Coxey  was  born  in  Pennsyl- 
vania in  1854,  and  after  leaving  school  when 
he  was  13  worked  for  10  years  in  a  rolling-mill, 
leaving  this  to  enter  business  on  his  own  ac- 
count. In  1879  he  purchased  a  sandstone  quarry 
at  Masillon,  O.,  where  he  has  since  lived,  and 
in  1889  he  added  to  other  ventures  a  stock  farm 
in  Kentucky,  making  a  specialty  of  blooded  rac- 
ing horses.  He  prospered,  and  is  reputed  by 
his  neighbors  to  be  worth  some  $200,000,  an. 
honest  and  successful  business  man.  Originally 
an  Episcopalian,  he  has  become  a  theosophist, 
and  is  said  to  have  believed  that  he  and  his 
lieutenant,  Browne,  are  between  them  sharers 
of  the  reincarnation  of  Christ. 


Coxey  and  "  Coxeyism." 


393 


Coxey  and  "  Coxeyism." 


Long  interested  in  public  questions,  in  1892 
he  dratted  a  bill,  which  was  presented  in  Con- 
gress, calling  upon  the  Federal  Government  to 
construct  a  general  county  road  system  in  the 
United  States,  and  to  meet  the  expense  of  this 
by  issuing  $500,000,000  of  treasury  notes  to  be  a 
legal  tender  for  all  debts.  The  bill,  however, 
was  pigeonholed  by  Congress,  and  this  led  Mr. 
Coxey  to  more  radical  agitation.  There  now  ap- 
peared on  the  scene  a  Mr.  Carl  Browne. 

Mr.  Carl  Browne  was  born  near  Springfield, 
111.,  in  1849.  He  became  a  painter,  and  painted 
a  "  Lord's  Supper"  and  panoramas  of  the  Yo- 
Semite,  of  the  Franco  Prussian  Wai,  and  other 
subjects,  which  were  exhibited  all  over  the 
United  States.  In  1872  he  married  and  settled 
in  Berkeley,  Cal.  At  the  time  of  the  great  Penn- 
sylvania strikes  of  1877  (see  STRIKES)  he  came 
out  for  the  cause  of  Labor,  and  later  support- 
ed Dennis  Kearney's  agitation  by  cartoons  and 
in  a  newspaper.  He  then  threw  himself  into 
the  Greenback  and  later  the  Populist  move- 
ments. Christmas  Day,  1892,  his  wife  died  of 
pneumonia,  and  it  was  during  her  last  days  that 
he  was  converted  to  theosophy,  believing  that 
he  absorbed  his  wife's  soul.  He  went  to  the 
World's  Fair  at  Chicago  in  1893  and  met  Mr. 
Coxey  at  a  bimetallic  convention.  He  later  vis- 
ited Mr.  Coxey,  and  was  sent  by  him  to  Chicago 
to  induce  the  American  Federation  of  Labor  to 
endorse  the  Good  Roads  plan.  He  succeeded, 
and  there  devised  the  plan  of  marching  the  un- 
employed to  Washington.  Mr.  Coxey  approved 
the  plan.  They  finally  decided  to 
p  ,  .  start,  and  did  start  from  Masillon, 
ooxey  sArmy.  Easter  morning)  March  24,  1894. 

They  planned  to  reach  Washing- 
ton on  May  i ,  to  present  a  petition  to  Congress 
on  the  steps  of  the  Capitol,  and  then  to  camp 
there  until  Congress  acted  upon  two  bills  to  be 
presented  by  Senator  Peffer  (g.v.) — a  Good 
Roads  bill  and  a  Non-interest  Bearing  Bond  bill. 
As  Mr.  Coxey  was  very  busy,  tho  he  accom- 
panied the  army,  with  his  wife,  daughter,  and  a 
little  infant  son,  whom  he  named  "  Legal  Ten- 
der," he  left  the  whole  management  of  the  army 
to  Mr.  Browne.  The  plan  was  to  get  an  army 
of  100,000  ;  as  a  matter  of  fact,  they  never  had 
over  500.  It  was  a  motley,  altho  perfectly  order- 
ly company.  It  took  a  religious  coloring.  They 
called  the  army  "  The  Commonweal  of  Christ" 
and  bore  a  banner  with  a  portrait  of  Christ,  and 
the  legend  "  Death  to  interest-bearing  bonds." 
As  they  left  Masillon,  a  negro  carrying  the 
American  flag  marched  ahead.  Then  on  a  gray 
horse  rode  Carl  Browne,  in  the  dress  of  a  cow- 
boy, with  buckskin  coat,  fringed  down  the 
sleeves  and  plastered  with  decorations,  a  broad- 
brimmed  sombrero  on  his  head,  around  his  neck 
an  amber  necklace  given  him  by  his  wife.  Next 
came  the  trumpeter,  "  Windy  Oliver,"  the  as- 
trologer, "  Cyclone"  Kirkland,  of  Pittsburg,  and 
seven  musicians.  "  General"  Coxey  came  next 
in  a  buggy  drawn  by  two  bay  mares.  Behind 
rode  Mrs.  Coxey  with  her  infant  child  and  her 
sister.  Then  came  another  negro  carrying  the 
banner  of  the  Commonweal  ;  next  the  army 
proper  of  100  men,  expected  to  swell  on  its  way 
to  Washington  to  100,000,  and  accompanied  on 
either  side  by  43  newspaper  men.  Three  wagons 
carried  a  circus  tent  and  supplies.  As  a  rule, 


the  army  was  supplied,  however,  with  victuals 
by  people  on  the  way,  but  went  often  hungry. 
Crowds  gathered  to  see  them  at  every  point. 
On  Sundays  Browne  preached,  with  continual 
allusion  to  Scripture  prophecies.  They  met 
many  difficulties,  such  as  a  snow-storm  in  cross- 
ing the  Blue  Mountains.  Some  of  their  men 
were  arrested  as  vagrants.  Dissension  arose, 
but  they  persevered.  After  reaching  the  Chesa- 
peake and  Ohio  Canal  they  were  transported  for 
90  miles.  Everywhere  they  preserved  good  or- 
der. Mr.  Coxey  boasted  that  not  a  chicken  had 
been  stolen  on  their  march. 

Meanwhile,  the  idea  had  set  other  "  industrial 
armies"  marching.  Much  larger  than  Coxey's 
army  was  an  army  numbering  at  one  time  2000, 
raised  by  Mr.  C.  T.  Kelly,  in  San  Francisco, 
which  started  April  3.  Another  army  from  the 
Pacific  coast  started  from  Los  Angeles,  under 
"  General"  Lewis  S.  Frye.  They  numbered  at 
first  700  men,  and  later  1000.  The  Pacific  armies 
said  little  about  good  roads,  but  wanted  the 
irrigation  of  the  desert.  They  sometimes  in- 
duced the  railway  companies  to  carry  them. 
Frequently  they  seized  freight  trains.  This 
brought  them  several  times  into  contact  with 
the  police,  and  they  found  themselves  confront- 
ed with  Gatling  guns.  But  almost  everywhere 
they  were  supported,  aided,  and  sometimes 
ftted  by  the  people. 

Still  other  armies  were  organized.  Dr.  J.  H. 
Randall  raised  an  army  of  1000  in  Chicago. 
"  General"  Hogan  formed  an  army  of  500  in 
Montana.  There  were  other  smaller  move- 
ments. "General"  Fitzgerald  led  an  army  of 
60  from  Boston,  organized  out  of  an  agitation  in 
that  city  led  by  Morrison  I.  Swift.  A  larger 
company  joined  this  army  in  Connecticut.  C.  C. 
Jones  organized  an  army  of  100  or  200  in  Penn- 
sylvania. The  West,  however,  furnished  the 
most  men.  A  second  army  under  "  General" 
Vinette  was  organized  in  Los  Angeles.  It 
finally  numbered  950  men.  Other  companies 
were  organized  in  Oklahoma,  Nevada,  Colora- 
do, Missouri,  and  there  were  temporary  move- 
ments in  other  States. 

Meanwhile,  the  "  Common wealers"  reached 
Washington  the  last  of  April.  May  i,  in  a  sol- 
emn procession,  the  army  marched  to  the  Capi- 
tol to  present  its  petition.  Thousands  flocked 
to  see  the  sight.  But  when  Mr.  Coxey  alighted 
he  is  said  to  have  walked  on  the  grass,  and  he, 
Carl  Browne,  and  Mr.  Jones  were  arrested  "  for 
trespassing  on  the  grass."  Mr.  Coxey  handed 
his  address  to  the  reporters,  and  was  hurried 
away  by  the  police.  The  army  quietly  returned 
to  its  camp.  Coxey,  Browne,  and  Jones  were 
imprisoned  20  days.  When  they  came  out  the 
movement  was  practically  at  an  end.  The  army 
was  maintained  for  awhile,  but  gradually 
disbanded.  Congress  had  been  somewhat 
frightened,  and  considerable  talk  and  discussion 
arose  as  to  conditions  that  led  to  such  armies  ; 
but  no  serious  action  was  taken.  "General" 
Coxey  himself,  however,  has  en- 
tered politics  more  earnestly  than  _,,  ,,  . . 
ever,  and  in  1895  was  nominated 
for  governor  by  the  People's  Party 
of  Ohio,  and  polled  52,675  votes,  the  Populist 
vote  for  President  in  Ohio  in  1892  being  only 
14,850. 


Coxey  and  "Coxeyism.5 


394 


Credit. 


The  other  armies  continued  for  awhile  after 
May  i.  "  General"  Kelly's  army  got  as  far 
east  as  Iowa.  They  were  mainly  transported 
by  the  railroads  and  assisted  by  citizens  and 
sometimes  by  the  mayors.  It  was  thought  a 
good  thing  to  help  these  unemployed  men  east, 
where  it  was  expected  they  would  find  work.  At 
Council  Bluffs,  the  railroads  refusing  transporta- 
tion, some  of  the  army  captured  a  train  from  the 
transfer  yards.  The  Governor  considered  call- 
ing out  the  militia,  but  "  General"  Kelly  de- 
cided to  return  the  train.  Mayor  Bemis,  of 
Omaha,  promised  1500  Ibs.  of  meat,  2000  loaves 
of  bread,  2000  Ibs.  of  coffee,  and  the  army  quiet- 
ly marched  on.  The  army  organized  by  "  Gen- 
eral" Hogan  in  Montana  had  a  more  serious 
time.  It  captured  a  Northern  Pacific  train  at 
Butte  City.  As  the  road  was  in  the  hands  of 
the  United  States  Court,  it  was  directly  under 
federal  jurisdiction,  and  orders  were  at  once  is- 
sued by  Judge  Caldwell  for  United  States  depu- 
ties to  capture  the  train.  They  attempted  this 
at  Billings,  and  the  citizens,  siding  with  the  "  in- 
dustrials," the  deputies  fired  on  the  "  mob." 
One  citizen  was  fatally  shot  and  others  wound- 
ed. This  enraged  the  people,  and  they  helped 
the  "  industrials"  to  escape.  At  Forsyth,  how- 
ever, the  flying  train  was  finally  captured,  and 
the  "  army"  surrendered. 

Such  were  the  main  incidents.  Gradually  the 
movement  came  to  an  end.  Returning  oppor- 
tunities for  work  absorbed  most  of  the  men  and 
the  rest  disbanded.  With  its  bizarre  side  the 
movement  had  its  serious  side,  at  least  as  an 
evidence  of  the  lack  of  employment  among  large 
bodies  of  law-abiding  citizens.  The  men  of 
these  armies  were  not  tramps  or  law-breakers. 
They  simply  asked  for  work.  Of  290  "indus- 
trials" selected  at  random  from  "  General"  Ran- 
dall's Chicago  army,  Professor  Hourwitch,  of 
the  University  of  Chicago,  says  :  "  One  half 
were  American  born,  two  thirds  were  English- 
speaking  men  ;  they  averaged  from  30  to  32  in 
age  ;  181  were  skilled  mechanics  ;  of  115  ques- 
tioned only  2  were  uneducated  ;  26  had  at- 
tended high  school  or  college  ;  only  5  or  6 
appeared  of  questionable  character  ;  70  were 
trade-unionists. ' '  Carlyle  said  of  a  similar  Man- 
chester "insurrection  in  England:"  "An  in- 
surrection that  can  announce  the  disease  and 
then  retire  with  no  balance  account  of  grim 
vengeance  opened  anywhere  has  attained  the 
highest  success  possible  for  it." 

References:  Henry  Vincent's  The  Story  of  the  Com- 
monweal (Chicago,  1894) ;  Coxeyism,  an  article  by  W. 
T.  Stead,  in  the  (American)  Review  of  Revieivs  for  July, 

1894. 

.  CRAFT  GUILDS.     See  GUILDS. 

CRANE,  WALTER,  was  born  in  Liverpool 
in  1845  ;  the  son  of  Thomas  Crane,  a  miniature 
and  portrait  painter.  Apprenticed  in  1859  to 
W.  J.  Linton,  the  eminent  wood-engraver,  poet, 
and  chartist,  Walter  Crane  learned  from  him 
reform  ideas,  as  well  as  lessons  in  art.  A  promi- 
nent member  of  various  art  societies  and  com- 
mittees, an  examiner  at  the  national  competition 
of  drawings  at  South  Kensington  since  1879, 
elected  an  associate  of  the  Royal  Society  of  Paint- 
ers in  Water  Colors  in  1888,  he  was  associated 
with  the  movement  against  the  Royal  Academy 


in  1886,  and  favored  the  establishment  of  a  na- 
tional exhibition  in  which  all  arts  should  be 
represented.  In  1888  he  founded  with  other 
decorative  artists  the  Arts  and  Crafts  Exhibition 
Society,  and  became  its  first  president.  Suc- 
cessful as  a  painter,  he  is  even  better  known  as 
a  designer  and  decorator  of  books,  etc.  In  1891 
an  exhibition  of  his  works  was  held,  and  the 
collection  was  also  taken  to  the  United  States 
and  Germany,  Mr.  Crane  accompanying  it.  In 
1884  he  became  associated  with  the  socialist 
movement,  largely  under  the  influence  of 
William  Morris  (g.-v.),  and  has  lectured  and 
written  for  it,  besides  making  numerous  de- 
signs for  socialist  books  and  papers.  In  1892 
he  was  appointed  director  of  the  Manchester 
Municipal  School  of  Art. 

CREAMERIES.  See  COOPERATIVE  DAIRIES. 

CREDIT  is  a  term  used  in  political  economy 
in  so  many  different  ways  and  in  so  many 
shades  of  meaning  that  it  is  almost  impossible 
to  define  it  so  as  to  cover  all  its  uses.  Certain- 
ly many  of  the  definitions  given  to  it  by  econo- 
mists are  faulty.  Credit  is  defined  by  John 
Stuart  Mill  as  ' '  permission  to  use  the  capital  of 
another  person."  Professor  Roscher  defines  it 
as  ' '  the  power  to  use  the  goods  of  another,  vol- 
untarily granted  in  consideration  of  the  mere 
promise  of  value  in  return."  Credit  has  also 
been  defined  as  "  confidence  in  the  ability  of 
another  to  make  a  future  payment. ' ' 

Professor  Knies,  of  Heidelberg,  has  defined 
credit  as  merely  ' '  a  commercial  transaction  be- 
tween two  parties,  in  which  the  services  or  the 
value  rendered  by  the  one  falls  in  the  present, 
and  the  counter  service  or  counter  value  of  the 
other  in  the  future. ' ' 

Says  Professor  Ely  :  "  There  are  three  ele- 
ments in  a  business  transaction  to  which  we 
apply  the  term  credit :  first,  the  present  transfer 
of  goods  ;  second,  the  use  of  the  goods  trans- 
ferred ;  third,  the  future  retransfer  of  the  goods 
or  an  equivalent — that  is,  repayment." 

But  these  definitions,  while  emphasizing  im- 
portant points,  do  not  cover  all  the  uses  of  the 
word,  nor  give  even  its  central  idea.  Professor 
Jevons  does  better,  in  his  Primer  of  Political 
Economy,  in  reminding  us  that  credit  comes 
from  the  Latin  credo,  and  means  belief.  Any 
one  who  sells  on  credit  does  so  in  the  belief  that 
the  purchaser  who  does  not  pay  at  the  time  will 
do  so  in  the  future.  Credit  is  trust.  A  man,  a 
government,  or  a  currency  that  has  good  credit 
is  trustworthy.  As  such,  credit  enters  into  all 
life.  It  has  been  said  that  there  is  scarcely  a 
human  being  in  a  civilized  country  who  does 
not  transact  a  piece  of  credit  business  almost 
every  day  of  his  life.  The  workman  hired  by 
the  week,  and  paid  at  its  end,  gives  his  employer 
credit  from  Monday  morning  to  Saturday  even- 
ing. The  same  workman,  when  getting  a  coat 
made  for  himself,  even  altho  he  engaged  to  pay 
ready  money  on  delivery,  gets  credit  from  the 
tailor  during  the  making. 

Into  monetary  transactions  of  a  more  ambi- 
tious nature  credit  enters  still  more  largely,  and 
in  many  forms  credit  is  the  instrument  for  the 
greater  number  of  exchanges.  Money  is  used, 
but,  in  the  latest  development  of  credit  econ- 


Credit. 


395 


Credit  Mobilier. 


omy,  only  as  "small  change."  Banks  are  the 
chief  organs  of  society  for  credit  economy.  We 
live  now  in  a  period  of  credit,  and  in  business 
circles  the  volume  of  money  is  small  when  com- 
pared with  the  amount  of  annual  transactions 
in  what  are  called  instruments  of  credit,  by 
which  we  mean  principally  checks,  drafts,  and 
bills  of  exchange.  An  American  bank  in  a 
large  city  will  in  a  day's  business  frequently 
handle  over  $40  in  instruments  of  credit  for 
every  dollar  in  actual  money.  According  to 
Rae,  from  70  to  90  per  cent,  of  the  monetary 
transactions  of  the  world  are  done  on  a  credit 
basis.  Nevertheless,  there  is  serious  doubt  if 
this  is  not  an  exaggeration.  President  An- 
drews, in  An  Honest  Dollar,  gives  elaborate 
reasons  for  questioning  whether  the  proportion 
is  so  large  as  is  generally  supposed.  He  shows 
that  clearings  for  many  years  have  fallen  in 
numbers  in  this  country  and  in  England  ;  that 
never  since  1882  has  the  New  York  Clearing 
House  cleared  in  an  autumn  week  a  sum  reach- 
ing the  billion  figures,  which  was  a  regular 
thing  that  year.  Some  credit  substitutes  for 
cash  have  been  disappearing.  The  truck  sys- 
tem is  dying  out.  Barter  in  rural  communities 
is  disappearing.  Book  accounts  between  neigh- 
bors, once  common,  are  now  rare.  "  With  na- 
tions, as  with  individuals,"  says  President  An- 
drews, ' '  those  who  have  the  most  credit  need  use 
it  the  least. ' '  Credit  traffic  has  its  fullest  devel- 
opment in  Holland  ;  its  strongest  in  Turkey 
and  Yucatan.  Cash  payment  getting  the  mas- 
tery, first  in  wages,  in  retail  trade,  and  in  raw 
products,  spread  gradually  over  other  fields, 
shutting  up  credit  to  its  most  useful  and  least 
dangerous  functions.  Many  authorities  agree 
with  President  Andrews,  others  do  not.  (For 
the  economic  principles  involved  in  and  growing 
out  of  credit,'  see  MONEY  ;  CONTRACTION  AND 
EXPANSION  OF  CURRENCY  ;  PANICS,  etc.) 

CREDIT  CYCLES.     See  CRISES. 

CREDIT  FONCIER  (credit  based  on  land, 
tromfond,  bottom  or  ground)  is  the  name  of  a 
large  society  established  in  France  in  1852  on 
the  plan  of  borrowing  money  by  mortgaging 
land  (for  a  sum  not  exceeding  half  its  value), 
and  repaying  the  borrowed  money  with  interest 
in  small  and  regular  instalments.  Down  to 
the  beginning  of  1892,  the  Credit  Foncier  had 
loaned  $28,800,932. 

CREDIT  MOBILIER  (credit  on  movable  or 
personal  property)  is  the  name  of  a  large  joint- 
stock  company  in  France,  sanctioned  by  the 
Government  in  1852,  with  a  capital  of  $12,000,- 
ooo.  Its  object  was  (i)  to  initiate  trading  enter- 
prises of  all  kinds  on  the  principle  of  limited 
liability  ;  (2)  to  supersede  or  buy  up  trading 
companies — <?.,£".,  railway  companies,  and  to 
issue  scrip  and  shares  of  its  own  for  the  shares 
and  bonds  of  the  company  ;  (3)  to  carry  on 
banking  business  on  the  principle  of  limited 
liability.  It  commanded  at  first  great  success, 
and  planned  to  extend  itself  all  over  Europe 
and  issue  obligations  to  the  amount  of  $48,000,- 
ooo.  This  was  forbidden  by  Government,  and 
the  stock  at  once  fell.  Since  then  its  dividends 
have  greatly  varied,  till  its  affairs  were  wound 
up  in  1868. 


CREDIT  MOBILIER,  IN  UNITED 
STATES  HISTORY.— The  Credit  Mobilier 
was  the  name  of  a  corporation  to  deal  in  railway 
stocks,  around  which  has  gathered  one  of  the 
most  extensive  scandals  in  the  history  of  this 
country,  tho  some  believe  that  many  of  the 
names  connected  with  it  have  been  treated  with 
gross  injustice.  It  is  inextricably  bound  up  with 
the  history  of  the  building  of  the  Pacific  Rail- 
road, and,  therefore,  we  must  begin  with  this. 

In  1863  there  was  talk  of  a  railroad  ultimately  to 
reach  across  the  continent,  and  Congress  was  induced 
to  pass  an  act  incorporating  a  company  for  the  pur- 
pose of  building  a  railroad  and  telegraph  between  a 
point  in  the  territory  of  Nebraska,  on  the  xooth  merid- 
ian, and  a  point  on  the  western  boundary  of  Nevada. 
The  capital  authorized  by  the  act  was  $100,000,000. 
The  company  was  granted  a  right  of  way  200  feet  wide 
through  the  public  lands,  a  right  to  take  grounds  for 
stations  and  other  necessary  buildings  |  and  the  right 
also  to  take  from  any  adjacent  public  lands  earth, 
stone,  timber,  and  other  materials  for  construction. 
Beside  this  a  grant  of  land  was  made  of  alternate  sec- 
tions along  the  whole  line,  20  miles  wide.  The  act  also 
authorized  the  company,  on  the  completion  and  equip- 
ment of  40  consecutive  miles,  to  call  upon  the  Secre- 
tary of  the  Treasury  for  United  States  6  per  cent. 
bonds,  at  the  rate  of  $16,000  a  mile,  this  loan  to  be  a  first 
mortgage  on  the  whole  line  and  equipment.  For  300 
miles  of  the  road,  however  (the  most  mountainous  and 
difficult  part),  the  loan  was  to  be  $48,000  per  mile,  to  be 
issued  as  each  20  miles  was  completed.  On  still  an- 
other part  the  loan  was  to  be  at  the  rate  of  $32,000  a 
mile.  This  was  the  act  incorporating  "the  Union 
Pacific  Railroad  Company."  Under  this  charter,  how- 
ever, nothing  was  done  for  a  long  time  ;  $100,000,000  of 
capital  are  always  difficult  to  raise,  particularly  in  the 
midst  of  a  great  civil  war  ;  and  besides  this,  the  capital 
under  the  act  was  to  be  bona-fide  paid-up  stock— for 
every  certificate  issued  by  the  company  the  company 
must  have  received  its  full  value  in  lawful  money  of 
the  United  States.  In  this  condition  affairs  remained 
for  two  years,  when  it  occurred  to  some  ingenious  and 
hopeful  men  that  the  act  might  perhaps  be  modified  so 
as  to  make  the  enterprise  a  less  difficult  one.  They 
accordingly  applied  to  Congress  and  obtained  what 
they  asked.  There  was  about  this  time  a  very  general 
feeling  of  interest  in  the  enterprise  :  "  it  was  felt  by 
the  people  that  we  ought  to  have  a  railroad  connecting 
the  Atlantic  with  the  Pacific,  a  great  national  highway, 
bringing  the  products  of  China  and  Japan— their  silks 
and  teas  and  their  labor— to  our  very  doors."  The  news- 

Eapers  were  in  favor  of  it.  Mr.  Lincoln  himself  gave  it 
is  warm  support.  The  legislation  applied  for  was 
granted  with  a  sort  of  enthusiasm.  This  time  the  com- 
pany received  for  a  land  grant,  instead  of  5  alternate 
sections  per  mile,  10  ;  the  grant  was  made  40  miles  wide 
instead  of  20 ;  provisions  in  the  former  act  in  favor  of 
the  Government  were  repealed,  and  the  road  was  em- 
powered to  issue  first  mortgage  bonds  for  an  amount 
equal  to  the  United  States  loan  whenever  they  had 
completed  20  miles  of  road.  This  act  made  the  United 
States  loan  a  second  instead  of  a  first  mortgage.  In 
return  for  all  this,  it  was  provided  that  the  Govern- 
ment directors  should  be  five  in  number,  instead  of  two. 
The  land  grant  by  this  new  act  was  equivalent  to  12,800 
acres,  or  20  square  miles  for  every  mile  of  road. 

Still  little  or  nothing  was  done.  Half  a  million  only 
was  subscribed  till  (in  1865)  Mr.  Ames  decided  to  take 
the  road  on  his  own  shoulders.  He  did  so,  and  thought 
he  saw  a  way  out  of  the  difficulty.  While  he  could  not 
build  the  road  under  the  provisions  of  that  bill,  it  was 
possible,  he  thought,  to  do  it  "  by  a  contracting  com- 
pany, to  which  parties  owning  stock  could  subscribe  a 
limited  amount  and  be  in  no  danger  of  losing  any 
more  than  they  subscribed." 

There  was  at  this  time  in  existence  a  charter  granted 
in  Pennsylvania  in  i8sq,  to  a  fiscal  agency,  to  negotiate 
loans  for  railroads,  and  take  construction  contracts. 
Its  name  had  been  changed  to  the  Credit  Mobilier  of 
America,  but  its  stock  was  now  almost  worthless,  and 
the  liabilities  of  its  stockholders  very  limited  ;  and  it 
occurred  to  Mr.  Ames  that  he  would  buy  it  out  for  a 
few  thousands,  and  let  the  Credit  Mobilier  build  the 
road.  Mr.  George  Francis  Train  seems  to  have  been 
the  presiding  genius  of  the  old  agency,  and  he  was  ap- 
proached, and  the  Credit  Mobilier  changed  hands. 

We  are  now  ready  to  understand  the  construction 
of  the  Union  Pacific  Railroad.  First,  238  miles  were 
built  by  the  Union  Pacific  Railroad  at  a  cost  of  $27,- 


Credit  Mobilier. 


396 


Cremation. 


ooo  per  mile,  and  then  contracts  were  made  with 
Oakes  Ames,  H.  M.  Hoxie,  and  one  Davis  to  complete 
the  rest.  No  one  of  these  really  did  anything  but 
turn  their  contracts  over  to  the  Credit  Mobilier  Com- 
pany. Mr.  Hoxie  at  the  time  he  took  his  contract 
was  simply  running  a  local  ferryboat.  The  Credit 
Mobilier  Company  contracted  to  build  the  first  100 
miles  for  $42,000  a  mile ;  the  second  100  for  $45,000  a 
mile  ;  the  third  100  for  $96,000  a  mile ;  the  fourth  for 
$80,000  a  mile ;  the  fifth  for  $90,000  a  mile,  and  the 
sixth  for  $96,000  a  mile.  This  was  made  to  apply  to  the 
238  miles  already  constructed,  less  the  actual  cost,  so 
that  for  the  first  200  miles  the  Credit  Mobilier,  without 
doing  a  stroke  of  work,  cleared  a  profit  of  some  millions 
on  that  portion  alone  for  work  they  did  not  do.  The 
profit  on  the  entire  road  above  all  expenses  was  estima- 
ted by  a  Congressional  committee  at  at  least  $43,925,- 
328.34. 

Credit  Mobilier  shares  naturally  were  valuable. 
Oakes  Ames,  at  that  time  a  member  of  Congress, 
in  December,  1867,  entered  into  contracts  with  various 
members  of  the  House  of  Representatives  to  sell  to 
them  stock  of  the  Credit  Mobilier  at  par,  merely  stat- 
ing that  it  was  a  good  investment,  and  in  some  cases, 
in  answer  to  a  direct  question,  asserting  that  no  em- 
barrassment to  them  could  flow  from  it,  as  the  Union 
Pacific  had  received  all  the  aid  that  it  wanted  from 
the  Government.  Some  of  the  members  that  thus 
bought  stock  paid  for  it ;  for  others  Ames  advanced 
the  money,  agreeing  to  apply  the  dividends  of  the 
stock  to  the  payment  of  the  indebtedness.  Two  divi- 
dends received  in  1868  sufficed  to  pay  for  the  entire 
stock  of  the  latter  class  of  members  and  left  a  small 
balance  due  to  them.  Among  these  members  was 
James  A.  Garfield,  of  Ohio,  and  in  the  Presidential 
campaign  of  1880  his  connection  with  this  matter  was 
brought  up  against  him.  Charges  based  on  the  affair 
had  also  been  circulated  during  the  campaign  of  1872, 
and  on  the  assembling  of  Congress  a  committee  of  in- 
vestigation was  ordered  by  the  House  on  the  motion 
of  the  Speaker,  James  G.  Blaine.  The  committee  was 
appointed  by  a  Democrat  temporarily  acting  as  Speak- 
er, and  consisted  of  two  Democrats,  two  Republicans, 
and  one  Liberal  Republican.  The  committee  recom- 
mended theexpulsion  of  Oakes  Ames,  of  Massachusetts, 
and  of  James  Brooks,  of  New  York,  the  former  for 
having  attempted  to  bribe  members  by  sales  of  stock 
below  its  value,  the  latter  for  having  received  stock 
from  the  Credit  Mobilier  much  below  its  value,  know- 
ing that  it  was  intended  to  influence  his  action.  They 
were  not  expelled,  but  were  subjected  to  "the  abso- 
lute condemnation  of  the  House."  The  committee 
further  found  that  the  national  appropriation  had  been 
"  distributed  in  dividends  amongthe  corporators  ;  that 
the  stock  had  been  issued,  not  to  men  who  paid  for  it 
at  par  in  money,  but  who  paid  for  it  not  more  than  30 
cents  on  the  dollar  in  roadmaking  ;  that  of  the  Govern- 
ment directors,  some  of  them  have  neglected  their 
duties  and  others  have  been  interested  in  transactions 
by  which  the  provisions  of  the  organic  law  have  been 
evaded  ;  that  at  least  one  of  the  commissioners  appoint- 
ed by  the  President  has  been  directly  bribed  to  betray 
his  trust  by  the  gift  of  $25,000"  {Report  of  the  Wilson 
Committee,  p.  iii.-iv.). 

It  is  claimed,  however,  by  many  that  it  was  not 
proven  that  Mr.  Ames  had  induced  Congressmen  to 
take  the  stock  for  any  corrupt  purpose,  since  he  claimed 
that  the  Union  Pacific  had  nothing  more  to  gain  from 
Congress.  Able  lawyers  and  capable  business  men 
assert  that  if  there  was  some  dishonesty  and  peculiar 
bookkeeping,  Mr.  Ames  and  other  leading  members 
were  not  responsible,  but  simply  made  some  shrewd 
contracts  and  a  large  venture  when  capital  was  slow, 
and  reaped  unexpectedly  large  profits  by  perfectly 
legitimate  means. 

References:  Forty-second  Congress,  third  session, 
House  Report,  78  ;  J.  B.  Crawford's  Credit  Mobilier 
(Boston,  1880). 

CREMATION. — Cremation,  or,  as  it  is  some- 
times called,  incineration,  is  the  rapid  decompo- 
sition of  human  bodies  by  means  of  extreme 
heat.  All  decomposition  or  disintegration  is, 
of  course,  effected  through  the  agency  of  heat, 
and  the  length  of  time  which  is  occupied  in  the 
process  depends  upon  the  degree  of  heat  that  is 
employed.  If  the  heat  be  reduced  to  the  point 
at  which  water  freezes,  decomposition  ceases, 
or  proceeds  so  slowly  as  to  be  imperceptible. 
When  bodies  are  placed  within  the  ground,  so 


that  no  more  heat  than  that  which  is  naturally 
contained  in  the  earth  can  act  upon  them,  de. 
composition  goes  on  perceptibly,  but  still  very 
slowly.  During  its  progress  new  compounds 
are  formed,  and  some  of  these  find  their  way 
into  the  air  as  fetid  and  noxious  gases,  while 
others,  in  a  liquid  form,  contaminate  the  water 
which  has  its  origin  in  the  neighborhood. 

To  such  an  extent  is  this  accomplished,  that 
high  medical  and  chemical  authorities  have  pro- 
nounced the  opinion  that  organic  substance  can 
never  undergo  what  may  be  called  spontaneous 
decomposition  without  so  contaminating  the 
adjacent  air  and  water  as  to  impair  the  health 
of  those  living  in  the  neighborhood,  and  to 
shorten  the  average  duration  of  life.  The  rapid- 
ity with  which  these  noxious  emanations  are 
liberated  is  in  direct  ratio  to  the  temperature  up 
to  a  certain  point.  Beyond  this  point  the  proba- 
bility of  producing  these  secondary  compounds 
is  diminished  as  the  heat  is  increased  ;  until,  at 
length,  with  the  high  degree  which  is  generated 
in  a  modern  cremation  furnace,  their  formation 
is  reduced  to  an  impossibility.  After  their  seg- 
regation the  constituents  of  the  body  are  driven 
off  so  rapidly  that  no  time  is  permitted  for  re- 
combinations before  they  have  been  received  in 
a  second  superheated  chamber,  where  their 
capacity  for  harm  is  destroyed  and  their  affini- 
ties neutralized  or  changed.  As  elements  they 
are  expelled  into  the  outer  air  and  there  ab- 
sorbed and  assimilated  by  those  forms  of  life  of 
which  they  are  the  natural  sustenance  and 
nourishment. 

The  process  of  disintegration,  or  resolution 
into  elements,  is  thus  seen  to  be  the  same,  what- 
ever may  be  the  method  employed  to  encom- 
pass the  result.  The  discovery  and  employment 
of  the  best  method  of  effecting  this  object,  in 
the  case  of  human  bodies,  is  one  of  the  most 
momentous  questions  that  can  engage  the  at- 
tention of  man.  It  is  believed  by  many  that  a 
large  proportion  of  the  diseases  which  afflict 
mankind  are  due  to  the  slow  decomposition  of 
organic  matter  within  or  upon  the  earm.  The 
vast  aggregations  of  humanity  in  the  large 
cities  of  the  Old  World,  and  the  tendency  to  the 
same  topical  accumulation  in  the  New,  give  the 
matter  to-day  an  importance  greater  than  it 
ever  had  before.  "Cemeteries,"  as  was  once 
said  by  an  English  prelate,  "  ha\e  become  not 
only  a  difficulty,  an  expense,  and  an  inconven- 
ience, but  an  actual  danger."  When  thousands 
of  bodies  are  interred  yearly  in  a  limited  area, 
the  earth  becomes  in  time  so  saturated  with  the 
liquid  resultants  of  decomposition,  that  it  is  in- 
capable of  further  absorption.  Then,  whatever 
be  the  character  of  the  soil,  the  decomposition 
becomes  still  less  rapid,  and  its  gaseous  prod- 
ucts find  their  way  directly  into  the  air.  To  the 
power  of  escape  which  these  gases  possess  there 
appears  to  be  practically  no ,  limit.  They  are 
said  to  have  been  detected  arising  from  organic 
matter  within  the  earth  at  a  distance  of  ten  feet 
from  the  surface. 

But  it  is  not  in  modern  times  only  that  circumstances 
have  compelled  a  consideration  and  discussion  of  the 
means  by  which  the  human  body  can  be  best  disposed 
of  after  death.  In  Rome  both  inhumation  and  crema- 
tion were  employed,  and  either  was  expressly  per- 
mitted by  the  Roman  law.  It  was  found,  however, 
that  accumulations  of  decomposing  bodies  within  the 


Cremation. 


397 


Cremation. 


boundaries  of  the  cities  was  not  favorable  to  the 
health  of  the  community,  and  cemeteries  were  removed 
to  the  rural  districts.  Cicero  tells  us  that  by  one  of 
the  twelve  tables  it  was  decreed  that  Iwminem  mor- 
tuunt  in  urbe  ne  sepelito  neve  urito.  From  the  founda- 
tion of  the  empire  to  about  the  fifth  century  of  the 
Christian  era  burial  in  the  earth  was  almost  entirely 
abandoned,  and  cremation  substituted. 

When  the  burning  of  the  dead  was  first  adopted  by 
the  Greeks  is  not  settled.  By  many  its  inception  is 
thought  to  havt»  had  no  connection  whatever  with 
sanitary  considerations,  but  that  it  was  put  int6  prac- 
tice during  the  Trojan  war,  so  that  the  remains  of  the 
slain  chieftains  might  be  the  more  easily  conveyed 
back  to  their  native  land.  This,  however,  is  doubt- 
ful. Homer  certainly  does  not  mention  it  as  an  inno- 
vation, but  speaks  of  it  as  if  it  were  a 
common  custom.  It  is  tolerably  cer- 
Greeks,  tain,  nevertheless,  that  it  was  not  em- 
Romans  and  P'°yed  on  sanitary  grounds  ;  for  when 
itomans  ana  £  became  the  established  custom,  the 
Jews.  rite  was  denied  to  those  who  committed 
suicide,  to  children  who  died  before 
having  cut  their  teeth,  and  to  those 
who  were  killed  by  lightning. 

Among  the  ancient  Jews,  also,  both  methods  appear 
to  have  been  in  use  ;  and,  strange  as  it  may  seem 
among  a  people  whose  customs  were  almost  gener- 
ally based  upon  sanitary  considerations,  the  health  of 
the  living  had  no  manifest  association  with  the  dis- 
posal of  the  dead.  The  burning  of  the  body  was  os- 
tensibly regarded  as  the  more  honorable  manner,  and 
the  ceremony  was  performed  as  a  mark  of  respect  to 
the  memory  of  the  deceased  ;  while  it  was  explicitly 
denied  to  those  whose  lives  were  regarded  as  having 
reflected  discredit  upon  the  nation. 

Among  these  nations,  and  by  the  Hindus  at  the 
present  time,  as  well  as  with  the  native  Australian, 
the  American  Indian,  and  other  savage  tribes,  the 
means  by  which  cremation  was  effected  was  the  open 
pyre,  consisting  generally  of  a  platform  of  rough  logs, 
upon  the  top  of  which  were  placed  both  the  body  and 
the  bier  upon  which  it  had  been  brought.  The  flames 
were  fed  with  oil,  and  perfumes  •were  plentifully  sup- 
plied for  the  purpose  of  counteracting  the  odors  that 
arose  from  the  burning  body.  So  conducted,  it  was 
to  the  health  of  the  survivors  a  menace  worse  than  in- 
terment in  the  earth,  and  there  can  be  no  regret  felt 
that  the  Christians  abolished  the  custom. 

This  they  did  so  thoroughly  that,  for  a  period  of 
1500  years,  we  do  not  know  of  any  cremation  having 
taken  place  in  Europe.  From  the  end  of  the  fourth 
century  of  the  Christian  era  until  the  year  1658,  we  do 
not  find  the  subject  even  mentioned  in  European 
literature.  The  essay  of  Sir  Thomas  Browne  upon 
non-burial  was  then  published,  and  caused  a  tempo- 
rary interest  in  the  subject.  This  soon  died  out ;  and, 
with  the  exception  of  a  work  from  the  pen  of  Scippio 
Piattoli,  published  in  1774,  we  hear  no  more  of  the 
matter  until  the  period  of  the  French  Revolution, 
\vhen  an  investigation  was  ordered  and  made,  with- 
out being  followed  by  a  practical  result. 

In  1817  Dr.  Jamieson  published  in  the  Proceedings  of 
the  Royal  Society,  Edinburgh,  a  paper  on  The  Origin 
of  Cremation,  and  in  1822  public  attention  was  di- 
rected, in  a  forcible  manner,  to  the  merits  of  the  ques- 
tion. In  July  of  that  year  the  poet  Shelley  and  his 
companion  Williams  were  drowned  bv  the  upsetting 
of  a  boat  in  the  Ligurian  sea.  Their  bodies  were 
washed  ashore  near  Leghorn.  The  quarantine  laws  of 
Tuscany  required  the  burning  of  all  material  drifting 
in  from  the  sea.  Byron  and  Shelley  had  made  an 
agreement  that  whichever  died  first  should  be  cre- 
mated by  the  survivor.  Thus,  by  a  singular  coinci- 
dence, was  Byron  compelled  by  legal  enactment  to 
perform  on  the  body  of  his  friend  a  ceremony  which 
had  been  prearranged,  but  in  the  conduct  of  which 
he  had  expected  to  meet  with  powerful  opposi- 
tion. 

This  burning  of  the  body  of  Shelley  upon  the  Italian 
shore  of  the  Mediterranean  was  very  fully  described 
by  Trelawney,  who  was  a  witness  of  the  ceremony. 
It  attracted  a  great  amount  of  notice  and  comment. 
Discussions  concerning  the  relative  merits  of  inhuma- 
tion and  incineration  were  started,  and  conducted  with 
earnestness  and  ability.  For  the  first  time  in  its  his- 
tory, Science  bestowed  its  attention  upon  the  subject. 
It  pronounced  so  emphatically  its  opinion  that  injury 
was  done  to  the  living  by  the  accepted  method  of 
burying  the  dead,  that  public  attention  was  more  or 
less  focussed  upon  the  sanitary  aspect  of  the  question, 
and  the  way  was  prepared  for  the  permanent  litera- 
ture and  the  practical  efforts  which  were  put  forth  a 
few  years  later,  and  have  continued  to  make  .their  ap- 


pearance, with,  tut  short  intermissions,  until  the  pres- 
ent time. 

Altho  the  first  step  toward  a   practical  realization 
of  the  desires  of  those  who  believed  that  good  would 
result  from  the   substitution  of  cremation  for  earth 
burials  was  made  in  England,  yet  for 
more  than  one  reason  must  Italy  be  re- 
garded  as  the  pioneer  in  Europe  of  the       Modern 
modern  scientific  system  of  reducing  to         Times, 
a  minimum  the  time  required  for  the 
disintegration  of  the  human  body.    It 
was  chiefly  through  the  efforts  of  Drs.  Pini  and  Cris- 
toforis  that  the  first  Italian  cremation    society   was 
formed.    This  was  done  in  1876,  in  the  city  of  Milan. 
In  1877  incineration,  as  a  substitute  for  inhumation, 
was  endorsed  by  a  medical  congress  which   met  in 
that  city.    In  this  vear  also  two  other  societies,  those 
of  Cremona  and  Lodi,  were  formed,   and  Rome  and 
Udine  followed  suit  in  1879.    Several  others  have  since 
been  established,  and  to-day  Italy  stands  first  in  Eu- 
rope as  regards  the  number  of  its  societies,  as  well  as  of 
appliances  for  putting  cremation  into  operation.    This 
result  is,  no  doubt,  greatly  due  to  the  fact  that  the 
church  does  not  in  that  country  appear  to  oppose  the 
system,  as  its  clergy  do  in  almost  every  other  land. 

In  Prussia,  altho  the  subject  has  been  much  agitated, 
and  notwithstanding  the  fact  that  Berlin  possesses  one 
of  the  largest  cremation  societies  in  the  world,  the 
state  of  the  law  has,  so  far,  acted  as  a  veto  upon  all 
attempts  at  practical  application.  In  other  parts  of 
the  German  Empire  crematories  have,  however,  been 
constructed.  The  first  of  these  was  in  Dresden,  but 
this  turned  out  a  premature  attempt  on  the  part  of 
the  Saxons  to  change  a  prevailing  custom  ;  for  after 
two  incinerations  had  taken  place  further  operations 
of  the  kind  were  forbidden.  Gotha  remained  for 
several  years  the  only  place  in  Germany  where  crema- 
tion could  be  carried  into  effect ;  but  appliances  for 
that  purpose  now  exist  at  one  or  two  other  places, 
such  as  Hamburg  and  Heidelberg. 

In  1874  the  first  attempt  to  carry  the  change  into 
England  was  made  by  the  formation  of  the  Cremation 
Society  of  England.  For  several  years  the  parliament 
of  the  country  was  asked  to  take  such  action  as  should 
legalize  cremation.  At  length  the  body  of  a  child 
was  cremated,  and  the  father  was  prosecuted  upon 
the  charge  of  having  performed  an  illegal  act.  At  the 
trial,  however,  the  presiding  judge  laid  down  the  rule, 
that,  provided  it  was  done  without  creating  a  nui- 
sance, there  was,  in  the  law,  nothing  which  was  in- 
fringed by  this  method  of  disposing  of  a  body.  At 
this,  the  crematorium  of  the  society  was  at  once 
opened  and  has  since  continued  in  operation.  The 
action  of  this  society  aroused  an  interest  in  the  sub- 
ject in  other  parts  of  England,  and  in  the  latter  part 
of  1888  a  society  was  formed  in  Manchester,  where  a 
crematory  has  since  been  erected,  and  is  now  in 
operation. 

In  Switzerland  Zurich  led  the  way  in  1873,  and  since 
then  incinerators  have  been  constructed  in  that  city 
and  in  Geneva.  France  cremates  her  dead  in  con- 
siderable numbers,  and  Sweden  has  manifested  great 
activity  in  the  matter,  crematories  being  in  operation 
in  Stockholm  and  Gottenburg.  In  Portugal  has  been 
passed  a  law  which  many,  who  have  bestowed  time 
and  thought  upon  the  subject,  think  should  be  in 
force  in  every  civilized  community.  The  cremation 
of  those  who  die  of  contagious  diseases  is  made  obli- 
gatory. In  Denmark,  Holland,  Belgium,  Russia,  and 
Austria  great  interest  has  been  manifested  in  the 
subject,  and  there  are  clear  indications  that  before 
long  some,  if  not  all,  of  these  countries  will  possess 
the  means  of  incinerating  their  dead.  The  number  of 
cremated  bodies  is  undoubtedly  still  quite  small  when 
a  comparison  is  made  with  the  number  of  persons 
who  die  each  year  ;  yet,  when  consideration  is  had  to  the 
shortness  of  the  time  in  which  the  matter  has  occupied 
public  attention  in  what  may  be  termed  a  serious 
manner,  and  scientifically  constructed  apparatus  has 
been  employed,  it  must  be  said  that  the  progress 
•which  has  been  made  is  such  as  cannot  fail  to  be  satis- 
factory to  the  advocates  and  promoters  of  the  innova,- 
tion. 

This  remark  applies  with  equal  force  to  the  United 
States.  The  first  effort  to  form  a  cremation  society 
in  this  country  was  made  in  1874  in  the  city  of  New 
York.  The  financial  stress  of  the  time  was  such,  how- 
ever, that  it  was  found  impossible  to  raise  the  money 
which  was  regarded  as  necessary  to  launch  properly 
an  enterprise  which  was  then  in  such  strong  opposi- 
tion to  general  sentiment.  The  project  died,  and  for 
seven  years  the  subject  lay  in  quiescence.  In  1881, 
two  societies  were  formed  :  the  New  York  Crema- 
tion Society,  to  prepare  public  opinion  for  a  recep- 


Cremation. 


398 


Cremation. 


tion  of  the  theory,  and  the  United  States  Cremation 
Company  to  construct  the  machinery  necessary  for 
putting  that  theory  into  practice. 

While  this  agitation  -was  going  on  and 
.         the  stock  of  the  cremation  company  was 

The  United  being    disposed   of,     Dr.    F.    Julius  Le 
States.        Moyne,  of    Washington,   Pennsylvania, 
put  up  a  small  building  with  a  furnace 
intended  for  the  cremation  of  his  own 
body.    In  the  mean  time  other  bodies  were  received 
and    incinerated    in    order    to  familiarize  the  public 
mind  with  this  method  of  disposing  of  the  dead.  Thirty- 
eight  bodies  were  reduced  to  ashes  in  this  building,  the 
last  of  which  was  done  in  September,  1884. 

Early  in  1884  the  Cremation  and  Funeral  Reform 
Society,  of  Lancaster,  Pa.,  was  organized,  and  in 
November  of  the  same  year  the  crematory,  which 
it  had  built,  was  completed  and  opened  to  the  pub- 
lic. In  1885  the  United  States  Cremation  Com- 
pany, which  had  met  with  serious  drawbacks  in  the 
prosecution  of  its  work,  got  its  apparatus  into  work- 
ing order  and  conducted  its  first  cremation.  During 
the  same  year  a  society  was  formed  in  Buffalo,  N.  Y., 
and  a  fine  building  erected.  This  incinerated  its  first 
body  in  the  following  December. 

Besides  those  named,  four  societies  were  formed  in 
1885.  The  Michigan  Cremation  Society  was  formed  at 
Detroit,  but  it  was  not  until  nearly  two  years  later 
that  its  crematory  was  brought  into  use.  The  Balti- 
more Cremation  Company  found  difficulty  in  the  pur- 
suit of  its  plans,  and  it  was  not  until  nearly  five  years 
afterward  that  its  apparatus  was  complete  and  the 
first  incineration  took  place.  The  San  Francisco  Cre- 
mation Company  was  still  more  unfortunate,  and  it 
was  not  until  quite  recently  that  it  was  in  a  position 
to  carry  out  its  objects;  while  at  Davenport,  la., 
the  crematory  of  the  Northwestern  Cremation  So- 
ciety, organized  in  the  same  year,  opened  its  building 
to  the  public  in  the  year  1891. 

The  Cincinnati  Cremation  Company  was  organized 
in  1884,  but,  like  many  others,  t  had  to  overcome  ob- 
stacles in  the  furtherance  of  its  designs,  and  it  was 
not  until  two  years  later  that  it  was  in  a  position  to 
receive  its  first  body  for  cremation.  In  1886  the  Phila- 
delphia Cremation  Society  first  saw  the  light,  and  as 
soon  afterward  as  its  building  could  be  erected  it  was 
dedicated  to  the  service  of  the  public.  The  board  of 
health  of  that  city  has  also  stationed  a  crematory  ad- 
jacent to  the  municipal  hospital,  for  the  purpose  of 
disposing  of  the  pauper  dead  and  those  who  have 
died  of  contagious  diseases  in  the  hospital. 

In  Pittsburg  is  located  a  crematory  in  which,  it  is 
said,  more  bodies  of  prominent  Americans  have  been 
reduced  to  ashes  than  in  any  other  in  the  country. 
The  furnace  is  situated  in  an  undertaking  establish- 
ment, and  among  the  bodies  cremated  here  may  be 
mentioned  those  of  Emma  Abbott,  Major  McKee, 
commander  of  the  Allegheny  Arsenal,  and  Professor 
Arbogast,  a  local  musician  of  considerable  note. 
This  crematory  is  peculiar  in  being  the  only  one  in 
the  world  situated  on  a  busy  street  in  the  heart  of  a 
great  city,  and  likewise  the  only  one  that  has  the  advan- 
tage of  natural  gas  for  fuel.  It  is  noted  particularly 
tromthis  fact,  and  in  foreign  journals  is  always  spoken 
of  as  the  "natural-gas  crematory."  About" seven  or 
eight  hours  are  required  to  heat  the  furnace  to  the 
proper  temperature.  Within  one  hour  or  one  hour  and 
fifteen  minutes  after  a  body  is  introduced,  nothing  re- 
mains but  the  ashes.  Not  more  than  a  few  feet  from 
the  crematory  is  an  apartment  intended  as  a  receiv- 
ing vault  as  well  as  for  the  temporary  reception  of 
urns. 

More  than  a  passing  remark  must  be  given  to  the 
crematorium  at  Troy,  N.  Y.  This  building  is,  per- 
haps, the  most  beautiful,  as  it  certainly  is  the  most 
costly  structure  of  the  kind  in  the  United  States.  It 
stands  in  Oakwood  Cemetery,  on  the  edge  of  a  cliff 
300  feet  high,  overlooking  the  Catskill  Mountains  and 
the  waters  of  the  Hudson.  It  was  erected  by  Mr.  and 
Mrs.  William  S.  Earl,  of  Troy,  as  a  memorial  to  their 
only  son,  who  died  March  3,  1887,  after  having  become, 
while  traveling  in  Europe,  so  favorably  impressed 
with  cremation  as  there  conducted,  that  he  had  de- 
sired his  own  body,  at  death,  to  be  subjected  to  the 
same  process.  This  was  done  at  Buffalo  on  April  20 
of  the  same  year.  The  memorial  is  a  magnificent 
granite  structure,  136  feet  in  length  and  70  feet  wide, 
with  a  tower  90  feet  high.  It  has  been  made  a  gift  to 
the  cemetery  company  with  the  reservations  that  a 
place  of  burial  shall  be  provided  within  for  the  mem- 
bers of  the  Earl  family  ;  that  there  shall  be  a  uniform 
charge  for  cremation  to  all  applicants ;  and  that  the 
chapel  shall  be  free  for  funeral  services  to  all  owners 
of  lots  in  the  cemetery.  The  edifice  contains  two  fur- 


naces, placed  beneath  the  room  in  which  the  retorts 
are  situated ;  and,  by  a  combination  of  gases,  which 
enter  the  retort  at  different  points,  an  intense  heat  can 
be  engendered  with  the  consumption  of  a  compara- 
tively small  quantity  of  fuel. 

A  few  words  must  also  be  said  about  Waterville, 
N.  Y.  In  the  cemetery  of  this  village  has  been  erected 
a  very  pretty  little  Gothic  structure,  which  has  been 
presented  to  the  cemetery  company  by  Mr.  William 
Osborne,  one  of  its  directors.  The  building  was  fin- 
ished in  the  autumn  of  1891,  and  contains  a  furnace 
7  by  ii  feet,  constructed  of  fire-brick.  The  sarcopha- 
gus in  which  the  body  is  incinerated  is  10  feet  long, 
3  feet  •wide,  and  2  feet  high,  in  which  it  is  said  to  be 
possible  to  obtain  a  temperature  of  2000  degrees 
Fahrenheit.  The  erection  of  this  crematorium  in  a 
village  cemetery,  and  the  formation  of  cremation  so- 
cieties among  the  trades-associations  of  the  country, 
mark  a  distinct  epoch  in  the  history  of  the  subject. 
They  show  that  the  seed  is  taking  root  in  difficult 
ground,  and  permit  the  indulgence  of  the  hope  that 
progress  will  be  continuous  until  this  system  of  re- 
turning our  bodies  to  the  dust  of  which  they  are 
formed  will  become  the  prevailing  custom  in  civilized 
communities. 

The  history  of  the  movement  in  New  England  is  well 
worth  a  few  words  of  notice.  It  was  not  until  the 
year  1883  that  any  attempt  was  made  to  introduce 
cremation  into  this  part  of  the  United  States,  and  not 
until  November,  1885,  that  the  endeavor  was  success- 
ful. The  delay  was  occasioned  bv  the  fact  that  such 
a  society  could  not  be  formed  in  Massachusetts  with- 
out the  passing  by  the  Legislature  of  a  special  act 
authorizing  the  proceeding.  After  the  society  -was 
organized  it  was  found  impossible  to  raise  the  neces- 
sary funds  for  carrying  out  its  purposes.  At  the  ex- 
piration of  three  years,  the  attempt  was  abandoned. 

This  was  in  Boston.  In  Worcester  a  like  endeavor 
met  with  a  similar  fate  ;  but  while  in  the  former  in- 
stance the  society  itself  was  dissolved,  in  the  latter 
case  it  was  allowed  to  continue  in  existence. 

In    the  latter  part   of    1890,    the  matter  was  again 
brought  before  the    public  in  Boston.      Even  then  it 
was  found  impracticable  to  launch  the  enterprise  with 
reasonable  hope  of  obtaining  the  neces- 
sary subscriptions.      An    "  educational 
society"  was,  therefore,  formed,  and  the     later  De- 
work  of  disseminating  information  up-   velonments 
on  the  subject  was  inaugurated.     Early    vc-ul'*"y 
in    1892    proposals    were    made    to   the       m  this 
Worcester  corporation  to   allow  the  re-      Country! 
organization  of  their  society  in  Boston. 
The  plan  was  agreed  to,  and  the  change 
was    carried   into    effect.      The  advance   in    general 
opinion  was   such   that  the   stock  of  the  newly  con- 
structed organization  was  disposed  of  with  compara- 
tive alacrity,  and"  by  the  end  of  1893  the  Massachusetts 
Cremation  Society  was  able  to  announce  that  it  was 
prepared  to  receive  bodies  for  incineration. 

Thus  it  will  be  seen  that,  altho  the  first  of  the  exist- 
ing operative  crematories  in  the  United  States  of 
America  was  not  in  operation  until  the  year  1885,  yet 
at  the  end  of  1893,  a  period  of  somewhat  more  than 
eight  years,  there  were,  in  this  country,  at  least  15  of 
these  appliances  for  the  rapid  disintegration  of  the 
human  body.  Of  these,  New  York  possessed  four,  at 
New  York  City,  Buffalo,  Troy,  and  Waterville  ;  Penn- 
sylvania, four,  at  Philadelphia  (two),  Lancaster  and 
Pittsburg  ;  California,  two,  at  San  Francisco  and  Los 
Angeles  ;  and  the  following  States  one  each  :  Missouri, 
at  St.  Louis  ;  Ohio,  at  Cincinnati ;  Michigan,  at  Detroit ; 
Maryland,  at  Baltimore  ;  Iowa,  at  Davenport ;  Illinois, 
at  Chicago,  and  Massachusetts,  at  Boston.  In  addition 
to  these  there  isone  at  Washington,  Pa.,  of  which  men- 
tion has  been  made  ;  and  one  was  erected  at  San  An- 
tonio, Tex.,  but  was  destroyed  by  fire  in  1891,  and  has 
not  yet  been  rebuilt. 

The  furnaces  used  in  Europe  are  principally  those 
invented  by  Siemens,  Brunetti,  Gorini,  and  v'enini. 
The  latter  system  is  also  in  use  at  Buffalo  and  Troy, 
N.  Y.  In  the  basement  of  the  building  is  a  gas  gen- 
erator, through  the  bottom  of  which  is  admitted  a 
quantity  of  air  not  sufficient  to  allow  of  the  combus- 
tion of  the  entire  quantity  of  fuel,  which  is  wood. 
The  top  portion  of  the  wood  is  thus  distilled  while  the 
lower  is  burning.  The  gases  arising  from  these  two 
processes  are  carried  to  the  sarcophagus,  as  the  in- 
cinerating chamber  has  been  aptly  named,  where  they 
are  met  by  a  volume  of  heated  air,  and  ignited  by  a 
fire  just  under  their  point  of  union.  This  produces  a 
Bunsen  flame  of  intense  heat,  which,  coming  into  con- 
tact with  the  body,  soon  releases  the  liquid  and  gaseous 
components,  which  are  carried  off  into  a  flue,  •where 
another  Bunsen  flame  receives  them  and  despatches 


Cremation. 


399 


Crime. 


them  to  the  chimney,  where  a  third  Bunsen  burner 
makes  a  thorough  combustion  certain,  should  the 
smallest  amount  of  deleterious  product  have  by  any 
possibility  escaped  from  the  two  furnaces  through 
which  they  had  already  passed. 

In  the  San  Francisco  building  has  been  placed  a  fur- 
nace which  is  the  invention  of  Richard  Schneider,  of 
Dresden.  The  result  is  here  also  achieved  by  a  sort 
of  Bunsen  combination  of  air  and  gas ;  but  in  this 
coke  is  used  instead  of  wood.  The  greatest  number 
of  crematoriums  in  the  United  States  are  supplied 
with  apparatus  contrived  by  Dr.  M.  L.  Davis,  of  Lan- 
caster, Pa.  By  his  system  the  flame  created  by  the 
fuel  does  not  come  into  contact  with  the  body  to  be 
cremated.  The  sarcophagus  is  directly  over  the  fur- 
nace ;  its  bottom  is  solid,  while  the  sides  and  ends  are 
pierced  with  holes,  by  means  of  which  the  heated  air 
of  the  furnace  has  free  access  to  the  subject,  while 
the  flames  are  not  allowed  to  enter  the  chamber 
which  contains  it.  All  the  volatile  emanations  from 
the  body  are  conducted  through  another  highly  heated 
chamber,  where  they  are  rendered  odorless  and  harm- 
less before  they  find  their  way  into  the  chimney. 

The  method  employed  at  Boston  is  also  the  produc- 
tion of  an  American  inventor.  The  principle  of  the 
Bunsen  burner  is  here  again  brought  into  use.  The 
fuel  employed  is  petroleum,  and  the  gas  from  this  is,  at 
its  entrance  to  the  sarcophagus,  met  with  a  current  of 
air,  forced  in  by  means  of  a  steam  fan,  and  then  ignited. 
The  flue  by  which  the  gaseous  products  of  the  combus- 
tion are  carried  off  is  heated  by  another  aerated  gas 
flame  of  equal  intensity,  and  nothing  that  can  be 
made  sensible  to  either  the  eye  or  the  nose  is  allowed 
to  issue  from  the  chimney. 


Among  the  advantages  to  be  derived  from 
substituting  cremation  for  burial  besides  those 
which  are  said  to  appertain  to  the  sanitary  as- 
pect of  the  question,  it  is  urged  that  the  cost  of 
the  former  is  quite  small  when  compared  with 
that  of  placing  a  body  in  the  ground.  It  is  nec- 
essarily admitted  that,  so  far  as  show  and  cir- 
cumstance are  concerned  in  the  conduct  of  a 
funeral,  there  is  no  limit  to  the  expense  that 
may  be  incurred  in  the  one  case  as  in  the  other. 
But  the  necessary  outlay  for  cremation  is  small 
when  placed  by  the  side  of  the  indispensable 
expenditure  involved  in  the  purchase  of  ground 
and  the  decent  and  reverent  deposition  of  a 
body  therein.  This  will  have  weight  with  those 
by  whom  the  scientific  features  of  the  question 
would  be  passed  without  notice.  Altho  it  will 
no  doubt  be  a  long  time  before  the  burial  of  the 
dead  is  abolished  in  Christian  countries,  yet 
there  seems  but  little  doubt  that  cremation  is 
yearly  commending  itself  more  and  more  to  the 
thoughtful,  and  that  it  will  gradually  work  its 
way  into  general  acceptance. 

JOHN  STOKER  COBB. 

The  World  Almanac  for  1893  gives  the 


STATISTICS  OP  CREMATION   IN  THE  UNITED  STATES,   1876-93. 


CREMATORIES. 

1876-84. 

1885. 

1886. 

l887. 

1888. 

1889. 

1890. 

1891. 

1892. 

iSga. 

Total. 

New  York  

82 

61 

86 

108 

176 

St.  Louis  

60 

60 

'  , 

Philadelphia  

28 

6i 

28 

Buffalo        

16 

1  88 

Los  Angeles  

Detroit  

128 

Pittsburgh        

8 

80 

Lancaster,  Pa  

36 

13 

3 

6 

88 

Washington,  Pa  

78 

,8 

Other  places  

80 

178 

Total  

46* 

The  World  Almanac  adds  : 

"The  total  number  of  deaths  in  the  United  States  in 
1893  was  about  900,000  ;  the  number  of  persons  cremat- 
ed that  year,  552.  As  crematories  have  been  in  exist- 
ence in  the  United  States  since  1876,  these  statistics  in- 
dicate that  the  movement  favoring  the  burning  of  the 
dead  is  not  making  much  progress. 

"  There  are  23  cremation  societies  or  incorporated 
companies  in  the  United  States.  At  the  crematory  at 
Fresh  Pond,  Long  Island,  N.  Y.,  the  price  of  incinera- 
tion is  $35.  Children  under  ten  years,  $25.  This  does 
not  include  transportation  or  undertaker's  services. 
No  special  preparation  of  the  body  or  clothing  is 
necessary.  The  body  is  always  incinerated  in  the  cloth- 
ing as  received.  The  coffin  in  which  the  body  is  car- 
ried to  the  crematory  is  never  allowed  to  be  removed 
from  the  building,  but  is  burned  after  the  incinera- 
tion. In  every  instance  of  death  from  contagious 
disease  the  coffin  will  be  burned  with  the  body,  and  no 
exposure  of  the  body  will  be  permitted.  Incineration 
may  be  as  private  as  the  friends  of  the  deceased  de- 
sire. On  the  day  following  the  incineration  the  ashes 
will  be  deliverable  at  the  office  of  the  company,  in  a 
receptacle  provided  by  it,  free  of  cost." 

References :  Modern  Cremation,  by  Sir  H.  Thomp- 
son, London,  1891  ;  Earth  Burial  and  Cremation,  by 
A.  G.  Cobb,  New  York,  1892. 

CRIME. — For  the  general  subject  of  crime, 
see  CRIMINOLOGY.  For  a  study  of  criminals,  see 


CRIMINAL  ANTHROPOLOGY.  For  the  treatment 
of  criminals,  see  PENOLOGY.  We  consider  here 
simply  :  I.  The  Statistics  of  Crime  by  Coun- 
tries ;  II.  Statistics  by  nature  of  Crime  and 
Criminals  ;  III.  The  Question,  Is  Crime  upon 
the  Increase  ? 

I.  STATISTICS  BY  COUNTRIES. 
AUSTRIA.* 

CONVICTIONS  OF 


v  Crimes. 

Misdemeanors. 

891  

880..., 

28,516 

888  

887  .         .... 

886                      

rfi-3.8^7 

885  

30,865 

882        

*  These  statistics  are  collated  from  various  volumes 
of  The  Statesman's  Year  Book. 


Crime. 


Crime. 


BELGIUM.* 


GREAT  BRITAIN. 


CRIMINALS  SENTENCED. 

Assize 
Courts. 

Correctional 
Tribunals. 

870  

05 

37 

!3 

84 
27 
3° 
27 
97 
"3 

22,254 
40,808 
45,606 
46,976 
39i996 
40,273 
40,753. 
40,275 
43,660 

880  

885....  

886  

887  

888  

889  

890  

891  

CONVICTED  OF  SERIOUS  OFFENSE. 

England 
and  Wales. 

Scotland. 

Ireland. 

1871  

11,946 

",353 
9,242 
9,055 
9,607 
9.797 

2,184 
1,832 
1,825 
1,823 
1,778 
1,903 

2  257 

2  698 

i  193 

1  255 
i  196 
1378 

!88i  

j8go                      

iggi            

1892  

i8oa.  .  . 

DENMARK.* 


Convicted  of 
Crimes. 

1885  

1890  

Q  807 

Besides  these  there  were  summarily  convicted  of 
minor  offenses  in  1890-91  in  England  and  Wales,  602,573  i 
in  Scotland,  104,793  !  i*1  Ireland,  197,976.  This  shows  a 
net  increase  of  these  petty  offenses  in  England  and 
Wales  of  18  per  cent,  in  five  years. 


THE  COLONIES.* 

CANADA. 


FRANCE.* 


CONVICTIONS  IN 

Assize 
Courts. 

Correctional 
Tribunals. 

Police 
Courts. 

88^... 

3,  no 
3,082 
3,028 
3,"8 
3>'79 
3,°34 

197,394 
195,725 
211,797 
210,805 
216,461 
2i5>993 

451,227 
470,904 
450,773 
451,369 
443,763 
429,988 

884  

885  

886  

887  

QQQ 

Summarily 
Convicted. 

Convicted  in 
Higher  Courts. 

1888  

l892.   

l893  

NEW   SOUTH  WALES. 


Summarily 
Convicted. 

Sent  to 
Higher  Courts. 

1893  

1892   .     ..          

1888  

co.8?6 

UERMAN   KMPIRE.* 

Convictions  in 
Courts  of 
First  Instance. 

Per  10 
Inhabit 

NEW  ZEALAND 

,000                                                   (Europeans.) 

ants 

4                           260 
x>                         180 
i                         214 
5                         192 
i                         224 

883  

330,128 
345,977 
343,o87 
353,00° 
356,357 
350,665 
369,644 

381,45° 
391,064 

422,327 

02 
06 
04 
08 
08 
05 

IO 
12 
12 
19 

884  

885  

.6                1889           i3,8( 

886  

.2 

887  
888  

•4 

•5                                                                    VICTORIA. 
.1 

f9  

1890  
891  

.0 
'4                  892  21,6: 

4                         1,142 
o                         1,142 
4                         1,129 
8                      1,023 

7                              873 

891  22,2! 

1891. 

89 

180 

112 

174 
I76 

'31 
173 

99 
84 
77 
•    72 

IOO 

888.  ..                                                     2^c 

l8f2. 

Hamburg  

ITALY.* 

1889. 
Prussia  

.8 

Convictions. 

East  Prussia  
West  Prussia  

A                                     88l 

296,710 
315,409 
332,079 
337,394 
315,359 
340,381 
351,218 
335,753 
360,235 
370,305 

Berlin  

•  4                                     884 

Posen  

2                           885 

Saxony  

.7                   886 

Hanover  

i                   887 

Rhineland  

.9                   888         .... 

Hohenzollern  

.9                   889 

1892. 
Wurtemberg  

890  ... 

891  

.3                   802 

*  These  statistics  are  collated  from  various  volumes  of  The  Statesman's  Year  Book. 


Crime. 


401 


Crime. 


JAPAN.* 


GEOGRAPHICAL  DIVISIONS. 


CRIMES. 

Serious. 

Lesser. 

1885      

5,636 
3,  '74 
2,431 
3,260 
3,260 
3.249 

103,732 
73,279 
86,555 
137,268 

154,087 
160,884 

1888  

1889     .    .       ..         

1  3go          

iggi  

1892  

Men. 

Women. 

Negroes. 

North  Atlantic  

24,883 

South  Atlantic  

8,863 

North  Central  

18,873 

981 

2,738 

South  Central    

10,381 

Western  

258 

75,924 

6,4°5 

24,277 

NETHERLANDS.* 


PRISONERS  TO  EACH  MILLION  OF  POPULATION  IN 

1880  AND  1890. 


• 

CONVICTIONS  IN 

Cantonal 
Courts. 

District 

Tribunals. 

T887            

66,143 
69,622 
79,9" 
83,725 

17,262 
17,428 
19,257 
20,054 

1891..          

1  892  

1893  

1880. 

1890. 

Increase. 

North  Atlantic  

1,288 

North  Central   

862 

888 

26 

South  Central  

1,466 

316 

United  States  

146 

RUSSIA.* 


PRISON  POPULATION,  JAN- 
UARY i,  1892. 

Men. 

Women. 

Under  judgment  

1,895 

Condemned  to  prison 

57,082 

5,668 

Condemned  to  exile  

12,938 

761 

Waiting  transport  to  Siberia.  . 
Kept  by  administration  

6,815 
850 

896 

Voluntarily  following  

1,754 

PRISONERS,  WHERE  FOUND. 

45,233 
19,861 
3,264 
9,968 
2,308 
794 
901 

Hospitals  for  insane         

82,329 

SWITZERLAND.* 


Prison  Population. 


1892. 
1893. 


4,658 
4,426 


THE    UNITED    STATES. 

For  the  United  States,  the  compendium  to 
the  Eleventh  Census  (Part  II.,  p.  161)  puts  the 
total  number  of  prisoners,  January  i,  1890,  at 
82,329,  of  whom  75,924  were  men  and  6405  were 
women  ;  57,310  were  white  and  25,019  colored. 
It  gives  the  following  details  : 
WHITE. 


Men. 

Women. 

Total. 

Parents  native  

20,101 
2,729 
11,766 
13,869 
4,420 

936 
152 
835 
2,063 

43° 

21,037 
2,881 
12,601 
15,932 
4,859 

One  parent  foreign  
Hoth  parents  foreign  

52,894 

4,416 

57.3  10 

COLORED. 

Men. 

Women. 

Total. 

22,305 
406 

12 

3°7 

1,972 

i 
15 

24,277 
407 

J3 

322 

Indians  

23,030 

1,089 

25,019 

*  These  statistics  are  collated  from  various  volumes 
of  The  Statesman's  Year  Book. 


Besides  these  prisoners  there  were  14,846  juvenile  de- 
linquents in  reformatories,  making  a  total  of  97,175. 

The  compendium  gives  us  also  the  following  state- 
ments, among  others,  as  to  the  birthplace  of  the  par- 
ents of  prisoners  in  the  United  States  :  Canada,  4388  ; 
England,  5997  ;  Scotland,  1996  ;  Ireland,  29,184  ;  France, 
1036 ;  Germany,  9987  ;  Italy,  1209  ;  Mexico,  1483  ;  Nor- 
way, 487  ;  Poland,  339 ;  Russia,  382 ;  Sweden,  775  ; 
Switzerland,  384. 

II.  STATISTICS  OF  THE  NATURE  OF  CRIMES  AND 
CRIMINALS. 

(a)   THE   UNITED   STATES. 

The  following  analysis  of  crime  in  the  United 
States  is  abridged  from  the  summary  prepared 
by  Professor  R.  P.  Falkner,  Ph.D.,  as  based 
upon  statistics  for  1890  collected  by  the  War- 
dens' Association  of  the  United  States  and  Can- 
ada. Says  Professor  Falkner : 

"  At  its  meeting  in  1890  the  Wardens'  Association 
recognized  the  need  of  annual  statistics  of  prisons,  and 
endorsed  a  plan  there  presented  for  obtaining  these 
statistics  through  its  own  agencies.  ...  In  the  follow- 
ing the  results  of  this  first  year's  work  are  exhibited  : 

"  The  figures  presented  are  in  the  main  for  peniten- 
tiaries. While  there  are  institutions  in  the  list  which 

fl """Jy  are  not  so  classed,  yet  the  percentage  of  short-term 

sentences  is  very  small.  There  are  only  4.63  per  cent 
of  the  prisoners  serving  sentences  of  less  than  one 
year's  duration.  In  the  bulletin  of  the  Eleventh  Cen- 
sus [No.  106],  which  gives  the  sentences  of  convicts  in 
penitentiaries  in  1890,  we  find  5.65  per  cent,  whose  sen- 
tences are  for  loss  than  one  year.  This  is  conclusive 
that  in  the  following  pages  we  are  dealing  with  peni- 
tentiary convicts.  In  actual  practice,  no  hard-and-fast 
line  is  drawn  between  the  penitentiaries  and  jails. 
The  former  contain  almost  exclusively  long-term  con- 
victs, and  it  is  needless  to  insist  on  the  well-known 
fact  that  they  differ  in  many  essential  respects  from 
the  prisoners  convicted  of  lesser  crimes  and  for  shorter 
periods. 

"  On  June  i,  1890,  there  were  45,233  convicts  in  the 
penitentiaries  of  the  United  States.  The  tables  of 
this  report  contain  the  data  relating  to  9859  prison- 
ers who  were  received  in  various  institutions  during 


Crime. 


402 


Crime. 


the  year  1890.  Judging  from  the  sentences  of  the 
prisoners  confined  on  June  i,  the  total  number  of 
prisoners  received  in  all  penitentiaries  in  the  year 
1890  must  have  been  in  the  neighborhood  of  17,000. 
It  would  appear,  therefore,  that  the  figures  pre- 
sented comprise  considerably  over  one  half  of  the 
entire  number  which  might  come  within  the  scope  of 
the  inquiry,  and  this  must  be  accounted  a  very  re- 
markable result  for  the  first  attempt  of  an  inquiry 
that  has  been  wholly  voluntary. 

"  It  furnishes  the  best  evidence  that  the  value  of  the 
work  is  thoroughly  appreciated,  and  gives  great  en- 
couragement to  the  hope  that  at  a  seconcf  or  third 
trial  the  tables  will  comprise  the  entire  number  of 
prisoners  received  in  the  penitentiaries  in  the  year. 
When  that  result  is  reached,  we  shall  have  valuable 
material  for  ascertaining  the  quantity  of  crime  in  the 
United  States,  and  its  variation  from  year  to  year.  In 
the  mean  time,  our  use  of  the  present  figures  must  be 
confined  to  the  discussion  of  the  qualities  of  prisoners 
as  revealed  by  the  inquiry.  We  have  been  forced  to 
draw  our  conclusions  from  the  totals  for  the  United 
States,  omitting  Canada. 

"  Among  the  9859  prisoners  included  in  the  tables  there 
are  only  227  femafes,  or  2.30  per  cent,  of  the  whole  num- 
ber. This  proportion  seems  extremely  small,  and  might 
be  explained  either  by  the  fact  that 
females  are  not  sent  to  the  penitentiaries, 
Sex.  °r  it  may  be  indicative  of  the  fact  that 

females  do  not  commit  the  more  serious 
crimes  which  involve  long  sentences. 
That  our  low  percentage  does  not  arise  from  the 
more  or  less  arbitrary  selection  of  the  institutions 
in  our  tables  is  shown  by  the  fact  that  on  June  i, 
1890,  the  proportion  of  females  in  all  the  penitenti- 
aries as  shown  by  the  census  was  3.96  per  cent. 
The  supposition  noted  above,  that  long-term  female 
convicts  may  be  confined  elsewhere  than  in  penitenti- 
aries, is  rebutted  by  the  fact  that  in  1880  of  all  prison- 
ers sentenced  for  at  least  one  year's  imprisonment  only 
2.78  per  cent,  were  women.  The  number  given  there- 
fore is  about  that  which  should  be  expected  according 
to  this  evidence.  It  is  of  interest  to  note  some  of  the 
deviations  from  this  average,  especially  to  ascertain 
where  the  q uota  of  female  prisoners  is  high.  From  the 
tables  which  are  presented  it  will  be  seen  that  the  pro- 
portion of  colored  to  the  total  number  is  19.65  per  cent., 
while  the  proportion  of  colored  females  to  the  total 
number  of  females  is  39. 1 1  percent.  We  must  naturally 
expect  therefore  to  find  tne  quota  of  female  prisoners 
largest  in  those  States  which  have  a  considerable 
colored  population.  It  is  not  surprising  to  find  the 
average  exceeded  in  southern  Illinois,  Kentucky,Mary- 
land  and  North  Carolina.  There  are,  it  must  be  ad- 
mitted, other  institutions  which  exceed  the  average, 
but  they  are  not,  like  these,  typical.  In  some  cases  it  is 
e  vident  from  the  table  that  all  the  female  convicts  from 
the  State  are  in  one  institution,  and  in  others  that  the  ta- 
bles contain  only  one  of  several  institutions  of  the  State. 

"  As  the  number  of  female  prisoners  in  the  various 
institutions  is  very  small  indeed,  they  are  not  specifi- 
cally enumerated  in  the  series  of  tables  for  the  separate 
institutions.  In  a  second  series  of  tables,  which  com- 
bine the  various  facts  ascertained  with  the  crimes  for 
which  sentenced,  females  are  treated  separately,  and 
an  occasion  will  there  be  offered  to  study  the  manifes- 
tations of  crime  which  may  be  peculiar  to  the  sex. 

"  Nearly  one  fifth  of  the  convicts,  19.65  per  cent.,  are 
colored.  This  proportion  is  far  in  advance  of  the  num- 
ber of  colored  in  the  population.  In  1880  there  were 
13.12  per  cent,  of  colored  in  the  popula- 
tion of  the  United  States  at  large,  but 
Race  Nativ-  as  our  tables  do  not  include  some  of  the 

it  '  ^  States  in  which  the  colored  race  is  most 
ly,  numerous,  this  comparison  is  not  a  fair 

Parentage,  one.  If  we  consider  the  colored  popula- 
tion in  the  States  which  figure  in  our 
table,  we  have  the  still  more  striking 
contrast  of  19.65  per  cent,  among  the  convicts,  and  only 
5.59  per  cent,  among  the  general  population.  This 
enormous  contingent  furnished  by  the  colored  race  of 
our  penitentiaries  is  seen  in  nearly  all  the  States. 

"The  question  of  race  is  simpler  than  that  of  nation- 
ality. The  answer  to  the  question  as  to  the  proportion 
in  which  the  foreign  element  of  the  population  contrib- 
utes to  the  crime  class  will  demand  a  more  careful 
weighing.  In  1880  the  foreign  born  numbered  13.32  per 
cent,  of  the  population  of  the  United  States,  while  18.77 
per  cent,  of  the  prisoners  in  the  tables  were  born  in 
foreign  countries.  But  again  the  comparison  does  not 
do  justice  to  the  facts,  since  our  tables  omit  a  number 
of  States  in  the  South,  where  the  foreign  population  is 
quite  slight.  In  the  States  which  figure  in  the  tables, 
the  proportion  of  foreign-born  to  the  total  population 


was,  in  1880,  16.72  per  cent.  It  will  be  noted  that  the 
difference  between  the  foreign-born  in  the  penitentia- 
ries and  outside  of  them  is  very  slight.  But  it  must  be 
remembered  in  this  connection  that  we  are  speaking 
of  penitentiaries,  and  not  of  all  the  prisons  in  the  land. 
We  find  wide  divergencies  between  the  different  sec- 
tions of  the  country.  While  in  some  a  greatly  dispro- 
portionate number  of  foreign-born  are  inmates  of  the 
prisons,  there  are  others  in  which  the  proportions  are 
almost  identical  for  the  prisons  and  for  the  general 
population,  and  still  others  where  a  less  proportion  are 
round  in  the  prisons  than  in  the  community.  The  latter 
States  are  Illinois,  Michigan,  Iowa,  Nebraska,  Minne- 
sota, the  Dakotas,  Maryland,  Kentucky,  and  Rhode 
Island.  Here  are,  it  will  be  noticed,  two  distinct 
groups,  one  Southern,  where  the  foreign-born  popula- 
tion forms  an  inconsiderable  element  of  the  communi- 
ty, and  one  Western,  where  the  foreign-born  element  is 
very  important.  In  the  latter  case,  there  can  be  no 
doubt  that  the  favorable  showing  of  the  foreign  ele- 
ment is  to  be  traced  to  the  predominant  nationalities, 
German  and  Scandinavian.  Rhode  Island  seems  anom- 
alous. 

"  These  comparisons,  tho  they  are  often  made,  are  in 
essential  features  defective.  For  it  will  be  remem- 
bered that  the  foreign-born  are  mostly  adults,  while 
the  native-born  include  not  only  the  children  of  native 
parents,  but  also  the  children  of  foreign-born  parents. 
The  importance  of  this  fact  in  this  connection  will  be 
seen  at  once  from  the  facts  that  in  1880  as  many  as  43.83 
per  cent,  of  the  native  population  were  under  18  years 
of  age,  while  among  the  foreign-born  the  correspond- 
ing number  was  only  9.17  per  cent.  Hence,  it  is  evi- 
dent that,  in  estimating  the  criminal  tendencies  of 
these  two  elements,  we  can  compare  the  criminals 
with  the  adult  population  only,  and  not  with  the  total. 
For  this  purpose,  the  adult  population  has  been  taken 
to  include  all  persons  18  years  or  over.  We  find  the 
proportion  of  foreign-born  to  have  been  in  the  whole 
United  States,  21.05  per  cent.,  and  in  the  States  in- 
cluded in  our  table,  26.31  per  cent.  Thus  since,  ac- 
cording to  our  tables,  18.77  Per  cent,  of  the  convicts 
were  foreign-born,  it  would  not  appear  that  this  ele- 
ment is  furnishing  more  than  its  proportion  to  the 
population  of  the  penitentiaries. 

"  Turning  now  to  the  States,  and  reversing  our  pre- 
vious comparison,  we  find  the  States  which  contain  a 
greater  proportion  of  foreign-born  convicts  than  for- 
eign-born adults  in  the  population  at  large  to  be 
Maine,  Vermont,  New  York,  Nevada,  Oregon,  Wash- 
ington, and  North  Carolina.  Disregarding  the  last 
named,  where  the  foreign-born  population  does  not 
reach  i  per  cent.,  and  where  purely  accidental  forces 
would  affect  the  result,  we  have  again  two  groups,  this 
time  the  extreme  East  and  the  extreme  West.  Here 
again  the  character  of  the  predominant  foreign  ele- 
ments gives  the  explanation  of  the  fact  observed. 

"Before  turning  our  attention  to  the  question  of  the 
ratio  in  which  the  different  nationalities  which  make 
up  our  foreign  element  contribute  to  the  population 
of  the  prisons,  we  may  consider  the  foreign  element  as 
a  whole  from  the  facts  brought  out  relating  to  parent- 
age. The  figures  on  this  subject  are  not  so  complete 
as  those  on  other  points,  tho  it  is  to  be  noted  that  of 
6075  native-born  whites,  we  have  the  facts  concern- 
ing the  parentage  of  3897,  or  nearly  two  thirds.  Lest, 
however,  it  might  be  supposed  that  this  figure  is  too 
small  to  show  the  distinctive  features  of  the  criminal 
class  in  this  regard,  we  have  introduced  into  the  fol- 
lowing comparison  the  figures  for  all  the  penitentiaries 
as  shown  by  the  census  of  1890.  A  stttdy  of  these  fig- 
ures will  throw  light  on  our  problems  : 

PARENTAGE   OF  THE  NATIVE  WHITE  IN   PERCENT- 
AGES. 


Popula- 

In Peni- 

All Peni- 
ten- 

tion 
U.  S. 
1880. 

ten- 
tiaries 
Studied. 

tiaries 
U.  S. 

Both  parents  native  

77.46 

53-84 

55-6' 

Father     nativ 

5,     mother 

] 

foreign  

'•55 

2.72 

[     7-56 

Mother      natr 

e,      father 

foreign 

3.63 

5.67 

1        ;-        t 

Both  parents  foreign  
One  or  both  unknown..  . 

29.07 
8.70 

28.51 
8.32 

Total  

IOO.OO 

IOO.OO 

100.00 

Crime. 


403 


Crime. 


"  It  will  be  seen  that  the  percentage  of  native  whites 
of  foreign  or  mixed  parentage  is  considerably  greater 
in  the  prisons  than  in  the  population  at  large.  On  the 
other  hand,  the  figures  given  above  make  it  plain  that 
the  disproportion  is  not  so  overwhelming  as  is  com- 
monly supposed.  The  final  word  has  not  yet  been  said 
on  this  subject,  and  there  can  be  little  doubt  that  the 
figures  on  nationality  and  parentage  to  be  furnished 
by  the  eleventh  census  will  form  a  much  safer  basis 
for  comparisons  of  this  sort  than  those  of  the  tenth 
census. 

"  We  can  form  a  judgment  of  the  manner  in  which 
the  different  foreign  elements  contribute  to  the  pris- 
ons by  comparing  the  proportions  in  which  the  differ- 
ent nationalities  figure,  first  in  the  population  at  large 
and  then  in  the  prisons.  It  is  to  be  regretted  that  the 
census  figures  for  1890  on  this  subject  are  not  available 
at  present  for  this  purpose.  The  figures  for  1880  may 
be  misleading,  inasmuch  as  the  character  of  the  for- 
eign immigration  has  changed  so  much  in  the  past  dec- 
ade. In  order  to  secure  a  basis  of  comparison,  not 
strictly  exact  perhaps,  in  all  points,  but  still  overcom- 
ing this  difficulty,  we  shall  add  to  the  population  in 
1880  the  immigrants  that  have  landed  on  our  shores 
between  1880  and  1890.  If  we  do  not  resort  to  some 
such  method  we  should  find  certain  elements  in  the 
prison  population,  as  Italians,  Hungarians,  and  others, 
which  were  hardly  represented  in  the  population  at 
large.  In  the  following  comparison  we  give  the  per- 
centage of  each  nationality  among  the  foreign  popula- 
tion of  1880  plus  the  foreign  immigration  of  the  years 
1880-90,  and  also  the  percentage  of  each  element  of  the 
group  of  foreign-born  convicts  comprised  in  our  ta- 
bles : 


Population. 

In  Peniten- 
tiaries 
Studied. 

British  America  

13.85 

England  

Wales            

Germany  

27.78 

21.66 

2.82 

4.76 

.60 

1.  15 

Poland                            

81 

Italy  

2.61 

5*44 

5.06 

France  

1.28 

Spain  

.08 

.16 

Others                 

7.36 

Total  .  . 

IOO.OO 

100.00 

"  From  this  comparison  it  results  that  the  prominent 
elements,  with  the  exceptions  of  the  German  and 
Scandinavian,  on  the  one  hand,  and  the  British  Ameri- 
can, on  the  other,  appear  in  about  the  same  proportions 
in  the  populations  as  in  the  prisons.  In  the  first  two 
cases  named  the  showing  is  notably  in  favor  of  these 
elements.  In  the  aggregate  they  furnish  10  per  cent, 
less  of  the  total  among  the  prisoners  than  they  do 
in  the  population.  On  the  other  hand,  the  British 
American  furnishes  slightly  more  to  the  prisons  than 


to  the  population.  The  difference  is  notably  marked 
in  the  case  of  the  Italians  and  the  Mexicans  ;  here 
the  disproportion  is  very  great.  It  is  also  large  in 
some  other  cases,  but  these  are  not  considerable  ele- 
ments either  in  the  population  at  large  or  among  the 
convicts  in  our  tables. 

"  We  can  in  a  more  restricted  way  compare  the  par- 
entage of  the  prisoners  and  of  the  general  popula- 
tion. In  this  comparison  the  immigration  of  the  last  10 
years  will  not  affect  the  result,  since  the  comparison  is 
confined  to  the  native  whites  having  foreign  fathers. 
We  can  use  for  this  purpose  the  figures  for  1880  for  the 
population,  and  finding  the  percentage  of  each  nation- 
ality to  the  whole,  we  have  this  comparison  : 

PARENTAGE  OF  NATIVE  PERSONS  HAVING  FOREIGN 
FATHERS. 


Population, 
1880. 

In  Peniten- 
tiaries 
Studied. 

British  America  

4.92 

A  OQ 

51.80 

Great  Britain,  exclusive  of 

38.04 

21.38 

1.70 

5.80 

Total            

"  It  will  be  seen  that  so  far  as  Germany,  Scandinavia 
and  Great  Britain  exclusive  of  Ireland  are  concerned, 
this  comparison  agrees  with  that  just  given  above,  and 
that  the  children  follow  in  the  ways  of  their  fathers. 
But  Ireland  presents  a  curious  case  :  It  would  appear 
from  these  comparisons,  if  the  methods  followed  be 
correct,  that  while  in  the  first  generation  the  Irish  ele- 
ment does  not  furnish  more  than  its  appropriate  con- 
tingent of  foreign-born  children,  that  among  the  sec- 
ond generation  of  native-born  persons  of  foreign  de- 
scent, Ireland  furnishes  considerably  more  than  its 
share.  This  result  is  certainly  quite  remarkable,  and 
will  hardly  be  accepted  until  it  has  stood  the  test  of 
other  investigations  besides  our  own. 

"  An  examination  of  the  general  average  shows  that 
a  comparatively  small  number  of  the  prisoners  exceed 
30  years  of  age,  in  round  numbers  only  one  third  of  the 
entire  number.    An  examination  of  the  separate  States 
•will  show  great  uniformity  in  this  re- 
spect, there  being  but  few  cases  in  which 
the  deviation  from  the  average  is  very          Age. 
marked.    Two  causes  of  deviation  from 
the  average  occur,  one  purely  accidental, 
the  classification  of  prisoners  in  the  different  prisons  of 
the  State,  and  the  other  founded  on  the  fact  that  in  some 
of  the  recently  settled  States  the  proportion  of  men  in 
the  prime  of  life  is  generally  higher  than  in  the  older 
States.    The  comparative  youth  of  the  inmates  of  peni- 
tentiaries is  a  striking  fact  which  is  observed  every- 
where. It  may  be  of  interest,  therefore,  to  study  in  what 
proportions  the  different  ages  of  society  are  represent- 
ed in  the  prisons.    It  must  be  remembered  that  the 
prisons  are  recruited  from  the  adult  population;  and 
we  must  compare  the  prisoners  with  this.     Now,  if  we 
divide  the  population  of  the  United  States  in  1880  over 
18  years  of  age,  according  to  the  same  classification  as 
in  our  table,  we  have  the  following  percentages  in  each 
class : 


Under 

20. 

2O  to  24. 

25  to  29. 

30  to  39. 

40  to  49. 

50  to  59. 

60  to  69. 

70  and 
over. 

Adult  population,  1880  

Per  cent. 
7.60 
18.43 

Per  cent. 
18.06 
28.73 

Per  cent. 
14.82 
19.62 

Per  cent. 
22.61 
20.54 

Per  cent. 
15-83 

7-74 

Per  cent. 
11.04 
3-24 

Per  cent. 
6.50 
1.19 

Per  cent. 

3-54 

.21 

Table  VI  

"  It  will  be  noted  that  if,  in  the  above  statement,  the 
age  of  17  had  been  taken  as  the  lowest  limit  of  the 
adult  population,  the  class  under  20  would  have  been 
about  10  per  cent.,  and  the  other  classes  slightly  less. 
We  may  confine  ourselves  more  properly  to  the  age 
classes  above  the  twentieth  year.  It  is  to  be  observed 
that  in  the  period  30  to  39,  the  quota  of  criminals  ap- 
proximates the  proportion  of  that  class  in  the  com- 


munity at  large.  After  that  age  the  proportion  of 
criminals  rapidly  diminishes.  In  some  of  the  States  it 
was  observed  that  the  higher  age  classes  are  more 
strongly  represented  than  on  the  average.  An  in- 
stance selected  at  random  is  Oregon,  where,  in  the 
period  30  to  49,  the  number  of  criminals  is  considerably 
higher  than  in  the  whole  country.  But  we  also  find 
that  in  the  adult  population  of  that  State,  these  peri- 


Crime. 


404 


Crime. 


Conjugal 


ods  comprise  42.08  per  cent,  of  the  population,  as 
against  38.44  per  cent,  in  the  whole  United  States. 
Similar  phenomena  are  to  be  observed  in  a  number  of 
States. 

"  As  many  as  68.75  per  cent,  of  the  prisoners  are  un- 
married. If  we  follow  closely  the  figures  of  the  sepa- 
rate States  we  shall  find  that  where  the  age  is  high  a 
larger  number  of  convicts  are  married. 
It  would  be  rather  rash  to  draw  from 
the  table  any  conclusions  on  marriage  as 
a  preventive  of  crime,  since  the  figures 
may  show  either  that  married  men  do 
not  commit  crime  or  that  criminals  do 
not  marry.  It  is  to  be  regretted  that  the 
tenth  census  did  not  tabulate  the  returns  on  conjugal 
condition,  as  this  would  give  us  a  basis  of  comparison. 
In  the  lack  of  such  comprehensive  figures  we  can  pre- 
sent only  some  facts  in  regard  to  Massachusetts,  taken 
from  the  census  of  that  State  in  1885.  There  were  in 
that  State  572,726  males  who  had  attained  the  age  of  20 
years,  and  of  these  171,428,  or  29.93  per  cent.,  were  sin- 
gle. In  our  tables  there  are  7861  males  of  20  years  or 
over,  and  assuming  that  all  the  married  are  over  20 
years  of  age,  there  are  4920,  or  62.58  per  cent.,  single.  It 
•will  be  seen  that  this  figure  is  far  in  advance  of  that 
for  the  men  of  Massachusetts.  But  it  must  be  remem- 
bered that  the  convicts  are  largely  young  men.  If  we 
should  take  any  considerable  number  of  persons  from 
the  free  population  with  the  same  age  constitution  as 
that  for  the  convicts  in  our  table,  we  should  find  that 
the  number  of  single  persons  approached  much  more 
closely  to  that  of  the  convicts  than  it  does  in  the  gen- 
eral population  constituted  as  it  is. 

"  Among  the  occupations  followed  by  the  prisoners 

prior  to  their  entrance  into  the  prison,  the  group  of 

professional   and  personal  occupations  predominates 

with  72.09  per  cent.    This  class  includes 

common    laborers,  and  they  form  the 

Occupation,  great  bulk  of  the  group.    But  in  order 

to  arrive  at  a  proper  view  we  must  com- 

pare occupations  of  the  prisoners  with 

those  of  the  people.    In  1880  there  were  reported  17,- 

392,099  persons  engaged  in  gainful  occupations,  and 

they  were  thus  distributed  : 


Population, 
1880. 

Prisoners. 

Agriculture  

Per  cent. 

Per  cent. 

Personal  and  professional  .  . 
Trade  and  transportation  .  . 
Mining,  manufacturing,  and 

23.42 
10.41 

72.09 
3-'7 

6.55 

IOO.OO 

96.98* 

"  The  figures  here  quoted  show  us  plainly  that  the 
higher  the  character  of  the  daily  pursuits  the  greater 
the  unlikelihood  of  falling  into  crime.  They  show 
that  prisoners  as  a  rule  are  accustomed  only  to  the 
rudest  kind  of  labor.  In  the  main  they  are  unskilled, 
and  probably  also  irregularly  employed. 

"  As  many  as  19.56  per  cent,  of  the  prisoners  could 
not  read  or  write.    The  proportion  is  quite  high,  even 
tho  it  may  not  point  to  the  fact  that  lack  of  education 
is   the  chief    cause    of    crime.    In    the 
population  over  10  years  of  age  in  1880, 
Education.    tne  percentage  of   persons  who  could 
not  read  and  write  in  the  States  named 
in  the  tables  was  7.88  per  cent.    In  all 
the  States  we  find  the  proportion  of  persons  unable  to 
read  or  write  in  the  prisons  considerably  higher  than 
in  the  free  population.    It  is  this  ratio  which  should  be 
observed,  and  not  the  absolute  amount  of  illiteracy  in 
the  prisons.    Where  this  is  very  high,  we  find  that  il- 
literacy is  also  high  in  the  general  population.    The 
question  was  asked  on  the  cards  as  to  the  number  of 
years  of  school  attendance,  but  the  replies  were  not 
sufficiently  numerous  nor  uniform  to  permit  of  tabu- 
lation.   As  knowledge  increases  a  certain  minimum  of 
information,  such  as  reading  and  writing,  is  not  diffi- 
cult to  obtain.    Many  persons  who  have  these  powers 
may  still  have  received  the  smallest  amount  of  educa- 
tion.   They  may  be  unable  to  do  anything  more  than 


*  Furthermore,  2.79  per  cent,  of  no  occupation  and 
0.23  per  cent,  of  criminal  pursuits. 


barely  read  and  write.  It  would  be  interesting,  there- 
fore, if  some  further  test  of  educational  acquirements 
could  be  applied. 

"  The  foregoing  tables  have  treated  of  qualities 
which  the  prisoner  has  in  common  with  other  men. 
We  now  come  to  those  which  are  peculiar  to  him, 
which  relate  to  his  crime.  The  classifi- 
cation is  that  followed  in  the  census  of 
1880.  Crimes  against  property  com-  Crime, 
prise  almost  exactly  three  fourths  of  gentance 
the  entire  number,  crimes  against  the 
person  approximately  one  sixth  of  the 
number,  while  the  remainder  is  about 
equally  divided  between  crimes  against  society  and 
those  against  government.  If  we  now  examine  the 
ratios  in  the  various  States,  we  shall  find  that  among 
the  various  institutions  represented  the  fluctuation 
from  the  average  in  the  class  of  crimes  against  prop- 
erty is  not  considerable.  It  is  exceeded  by  10  per 
cent,  only  in  the  reformatories  of  New  York,  Penn- 
sylvania, Minnesota,  and  Texas,  and  these  are  all  in- 
stitutions which  receive  only  certain  classes  of  per- 
sons convicted  of  crime.  A  fall  of  10  per  cent,  below 
the  average  is  found  only  in  western  Pennsylvania, 
Vermont,  Nevada,  and  Arizona.  In  the  class  of 
crimes  against  the  person  the  variation  from  the  aver- 
age is  more  marked.  If  we  take  as  a  test  of  this 
fluctuation  a  range  of  3  per  cent,  on  either  side  of  the 
average,  which  is  roughly  proportional  to  the  to  per 
cent,  taken  above,  we  shall  find  as  many  as  13  institu- 
tions which  show  their  excess  over  the  average,  and 
in  some  cases  the  excess  is  quite  large.  As  it  was 
stated  above,  the  crimes  against  the  person  constitute 
very  nearly  one  sixth  of  all  the  crimes  committed,  but 
we  find  that  in  Arizona,  Kentucky,  and  Nevada, 
North  Dakota,  Oregon,  Vermont,  and  in  the  Hunts- 
ville  penitentiary,  Texas,  this  class  makes  up  as  much 
as  one  quarter  of  the  total.  This  class  of  crimes  falls 
below  10  per  cent,  of  the  total  in  the  reformatories 
mentioned  above,  in  the  State  House  of  Correction  in 
Michigan,  the  Women's  Prison  in  Indiana,  and  in  the 
State  Prison  of  Rhode  Island.  The  category  of  of- 
fenses against  society  is  somewhat  more  heterogene- 
ous in  the  elements  which  compose  it  than  those  which 
we  have  just  considered  somewhat  in  detail.  The 
variation  from  the  average  in  the  table  is  very  wide, 
but  as  the  large  figures  may  be  made  up  of  serious  of- 
fenses against  the  public  morals,  or  lighter  offenses, 
concerning,  for  instance,  regulations  for  the  public- 
health,  it  is  difficult  to  judge  the  meaning  of  the  fig- 
ures without  a  more  minute  analysis  than  we  have 
been  able  to  make. 

"  Crimes  against  property  are  most  frequent  among 
the  native  white,  crimes  against  the  person  among  the 
colored.  89111  colored  and  foreign  white  are  con- 
siderably higher  in  crimes  against  the  person  than 
the  native  white.  Crimes  against  society  average 
about  the  same  in  the  three  groups,  while  those 
against  government  are  much  below  the  average 
among  the  colored,  doubtless  for  lack  of  opportunity. 
Among  the  females  crimes  against  the  person  are  more 
numerous  than  among  the  males,  least  frequent 
among  the  native  white,  and  most  among  the  foreign 
white.  On  the  other  hand,  crimes  against  society  as- 
sume an  importance  among  the  females  which  they 
do  not  have  among  the  males,  and  the  native  white 
lead  off.  As  a  result  the  crimes  against  property, 
while  they  still  form  the  majority  of  the  crimes,  con- 
stitute only  59.91  per  cent,  as  against  76.01  per  cent, 
among  the  males. 

"  It  may  be  worth  noting  that  about  one  tenth  of  the 
prisoners  on  our  list  are  serving  under  the  indetermi- 
nate sentence  (see  PENOLOGY).  If  the  penitentiary 
convicts  sentenced  in  1800  be  17,000,  it  will  be  seen  that 
5  per  cent,  are  being  subjected  to  the  reformatory 
treatment. 

"  The  persons  sentenced  in  the  year  1890  were,  for 
the  most  part,  novices  in  crime.  It  will  be  seen  that 
only  16.30  per  cent,  of  them  had  been  in  prison  before. 
I  wish  that  we  could  believe  it.  When  we  find  that  in 
European  countries  the  number  of  repeaters  mounts 
up  to  60,  70,  and  even  So  per  cent.,  we  must  have  some 
doubts  as  to  the  truth  of  the  statements  of  the  table. 
In  fact,  our  means  of  tracing  criminals  after  they 
leave  prison  are  so  defective  that  it  is  not  improbable 
that  twice  as  many  have  been  in  prison  before  as 
would  appear  from  our  table." 

Thus  far  Professor  Falkner.  As  to  homicides, 
the  Chicago  Tribune  has  kept  and  printed  an 
annual  record,  upon  which  the  following  table 
has  been  based  : 


Crime. 


4°5 


Crime. 


MURDERS  AND  LYNCHINGS  IN  THE  UNITED  STATES, 


YEARS. 

Murders 
and 
Homicides. 

Legal 
Executions. 

Lynchings. 

!886  

81 

1887                .... 

1888  

2,184 

87 

,889    

98 

1890  

1891         

1892  

6,791 

ID/ 

236 

1893  

6,615 

126 

1894*  

7,747 

112 

165 

Total  

917 

The  figures  in  the  first  column  represent  man- 
slaughter of  all  kinds  when  perpretrated  by  an  indi- 
vidual, whether  by  premeditation  or  passion,  or  by  an 
insane  person,  or  in  self-defense,  rioting,  duels,  and 
resisting  arrest  by  officers  of  the  law.  The  number  of 
homicides  in  the  partially  reported  year  1894  is  swol- 
len by  the  deaths  of  rioters  and  others  in  the  strike 
disturbances  of  July.  The  percentage  of  executions 
to  killings  in  the  nine  vears  included  in  the  table  is 
2.20.  The  percentage  o!  killings  to  total  deaths  from 
all  causes,  same  period  (estimated),  is  0.52,  or  about  52 
per  10,000. 

The  compendium  to  the  Eleventh  Census  (Part  ii., 
p.  192)  gives  the  following  summary  of  the  classifica- 
tion of  crimes  committed  by  prisoners  enumerated  in 
the  census  of  1890. 


CRIMES. 

Number. 

Per  Cent. 

Against  government  

1,839 
18,865 
17,281 
37,707 
6,637 

2.2 
22.9 

21.  0 
45-8 

8.1 

Against  the  person  

Against  property  

Total 

82,329 

100.0 

OTHER  COUNTRIES. 

For  England,  Professor  Mayo-Smith's  Statistics  and 
Sociology,  p.  267,  gives  from  the  English  judicial  statis- 
tics for  1891  the  following  facts  : 


1879-80. 

1890-91. 

CRIMES  AGAINST 

Num- 

Per 

Num- 

Per 

ber. 

Cent. 

ber. 

Cent. 

Property  without  vio- 

70.276 

75 

25,086 

67.1 

Property  with  violence 
Property,  malicious  

mffjB/v 

6,782 
6O7 

*3 
i  .1 

5,938 
513 

A 
16 

1.4 

The  person  

2.8«;e; 

5,  A 

O.OC2 

Q 

Forgery  and  counter- 
feiting .            .... 

*1^JJ 
If  TOO 

•*T 
2  .  I 

O»  JO* 
446 

I  .  2 

Not  included  in  above. 

1,798 

3-4 

4^v 

1,917 

5-1 

Total             

52,427 

IOO.OO 

37,252 

100.  0 

"The  characteristic  thing  in  this  classification  is  the 
Email  number  of  crimes  against  the  person,  tho  the 
proportion  has  increased  since  1880. 

"  In  Scotland  the  number  of  criminals  convicted  of 
offenses  against  the  person  appears  to  be  much  larger 
proportionately  than  in  England,  constituting  30  per 
cent,  of  the  total,  while  those  against  property  with- 
out violence  constitute  42  per  cent.,  and  those  against 
property  with  violence,  20  per  cent. 

"  In  Ireland,  owing  to  the  agrarian  agitation,  there 
has  been  an  abnormal  number  of  crimes  against  the  per- 
son under  the  head  of  intimidation,  and  of  malicious 
offenses  against  property.  In  1880,  for  instance,  over 
20  per  cent,  of  the  jury  trials  were  concerned  with  the 
former  offenses,  and  nearly  15  per  cent,  with  the  latter. 

*  To  October  17,  1894. 


In  1891,  the  malicious  crimes  against  property  con- 
stituted 14  per  cent,  of  the  whole ;  those  against  the 
person,  19.2  per  cent. ;  against  property  with  violence, 
5.6  per  cent.,  and  those  against  property  without  vio- 
lence, 50  per  cent. 

"  When  we  come  to  analyze  still  further  the  kinds  of 
crime,  we  reach  a  great  variety  of  classifications  and 
minute  subdivisions  which  make  comparison  entirely 
fruitless.  For  instance,  the  principal  indictable  of- 
fenses in  England  and  Wales  for  two  periods  were 
classified  as  follows : 


Murder 

Attempts  to  murder 

Shooting  at,  wounding 

Manslaughter 

Concealment  of  birth 

Unnatural  offenses 

Rape 

Defilement  of  girls  under  13  years  of 

age 

Defilement  of  girls  between  13  and  16 

years  of  age 

Assaults  with  intent 

Assaults ....  

Burglary  and  housebreaking 

Breaking  into  shops 

Robbery  and  attempts  with  violence.. 

Cattle,  horse,  and  sheep  stealing 

Larcenies,  etc 


569 

3>l69 
2,302 
373 
5°9 
27,797 

Total  indictable  offenses 43,962 


1885-86.  1890-91. 


136 

49 
652 
269 

90 
156 
290 


64 
789 
147 

02 
159 
232 


769 

454 

3,4i8 

2,047 

347 

376 

22,367 

37,252 


"  It  will  be  seen  from  this  table  that  more  than  one 
half  of  the  indictable  offenses  in  England  consists  of 
larcenies.  Attempts  to  murder  and  offenses  against 
morality  are  sufficiently  numerous,  but  comprise  only 
a  small  percentage  when  compared  with  the  crimes 
against  property.  The  crimes  against  morality  show 
an  alarming  increase." 

Concerning  the  age  and  sex  of  criminals  in  England 
and  Wales,  Mr.  Morrison  in  Crime  and  Its  Causes 
gives  the  following  tables  : 


POPUL 
ANI 

Under 
sand 
'5 

3° 
40 

5° 
60  and 

ATION  OF  ENGLAND 

)  WALES  IN  1871  : 

s  13-52 
under  15  22.58 
20  9.59 

PRISONERS 

I! 

Under  12.. 
12  and  und 
16 

21 

3° 

40 

5° 

60  and  upw 

IN  LOCAL  JAILS 

*  1888  : 

O.I 

er  16  2.8 

21  l6.I 

40  — 
50  — 
"          60  

.  ..   12.80 

40  
50.... 
60  

...  24.3 
...  14.7 
...    6.4 

upward.  .  . 

.     7.48 

ard  .  .  . 

•5.4. 

He  says  :  "  These  figures  show  that,  in  proportion  to 
the  population,  crime  is,  as  we  should  expect,  at  its 
lowest  level  from  infancy  till  the  age  of  16.  From  that 
age  it  goes  on  steadily  increasing  in  volume  till  it 
reaches  a  maximum  between  30  and  40.  After  40  has 
been  passed  the  criminal  population  begins  rapidly  to 
descend,  but  never  touches  the  same  low  point  in  old 
age  as  in  early  youth. 

"  Females  do  not  enter  upon  a  criminal  career  so 
early  in  life  as  males  ;*  in  the  year  1888,  while  20  per 
cent,  of  the  male  population  of  our  local  prisons  in 
England  and  Wales  were  under  21,  only 
12  per  cent,  of  the  female  prison  popu- 
lation were    under    that   age.    On   the  Age  and  Sex. 
other  hand,  women  between  21  and  50 
form  a  larger  proportion  of  the  female 
prison  population  than  men  between  the  same  ages 

*  Ages  and  proportion  per  cent,  of  males  and  fe- 
males committed  in  1889-90  : 


AGES. 

Males. 

Females. 

0.2 

3-' 

17-5 
28.4 
23.9 
14.2 
6.4 

6    2 
O.I 

o.o 
i.i 
10.7 
3'-4 
28.6 
'7-5 
6.8 
3-8 

O.I 

Crime. 


406 


Crime. 


do  of  the  male  prison  population.  The  criminal  age 
among  women  is  later  in  its  commencement  and 
earlier  in  coming  to  a  close  than  in  the  case  of  men." 

For  France,  Professor  Mayo-Smith  (idem,  p.  264) 
quotes  from  the  Zeitschrift  des  Preuss.  Bureaus,  1882, 
p.  46,  the  following  items  as  to  proportion  of  accused 
persons  per  1,000,000  inhabitants  : 


NUMBER   PER   100,000   PERSONS    OF    CRIMINAL    AGE 
CONDEMNED  FOR  CRIME  AGAINST 


CRIMES  AGAINST 

To- 
gether. 

Mis- 
demean- 
ors. 

Total. 

Person. 

Prop- 

erty. 

1830-39. 

67 

161 

228 

2,081 

2,3°9 

1840-49. 
1850-59. 

64 
64 

M7 
117 

211 

181 

2,983 
4,241 

3,  '9° 
4,420 

1860-69. 

51 

69 

120 

3,869 

3,980 

1870-79. 

51 

76 

127 

4,316 

4,443 

1887  — 

43 

70 

"3 

5,97° 

6,083 

The 

State. 

The 
Person. 

Prop- 
erty. 

Total. 

In  Agriculture  

78.4 

"  Industry  

S47    8 

"  Trade     and     com- 
merce   

294.1 

550.6 

62I.Q 

1,480.0 

"  Domestic  service... 
"  Other  and  no  occu- 
pation   

II.  2 

667  8 

37-2 

259-0 

307,8 

•7 

Out  of  the  4307  persons  tried  before  juries  in  France 
in  1887,  the  chief  accusations  were  larcenies,  1439 ; 
burglary,  robbery  and  arson,  524 ;  murder,  man- 
slaughter, infanticide,  and  fatal  assault,  779  ;  abortion 
and  rape,  726  ;  counterfeiting,  forgery,  and  embezzle- 
ment, 570.  The  causes  assigned  for  murder  were 
covetousness,  25  per  cent. ;  revenge,  22  ;  quarrels,  22  ; 
dissipation,  10 ;  adultery,  5  ;  unhappy  love,  4  ;  other 
causes,  12. 

For  Germany  the  Stat.  Jahrbuch  des  Deutschen 
Reichs,  1894,  gives  the  following  table  of  criminals  con- 
victed : 


This  general  classification  shows  extraordinary  dif- 
ferences between  the  different  classes.  The  most 
favorable  relations  are  found  among  the  domestic  ser- 
vants, the  next  in  agriculture,  the  next  in  industry, 
then  trade  and  commerce,  and,  finally,  those  with  other 
or  no  occupation.  The  number  for  these  five  classes 
stand  in  the  relation  of  i  -.2:  4:5:8. 

Comparisons  between  countries  are  dangerous,  be- 
cause the  laws  and  basis  of  statistics  in  different 
countries  are  so  different ;  but  Baron  Garofolo,  of 
Italy,  at  the  International  Congress  of  Charities  and 
Corrections  at  Chicago,  in  1893,  presente'd  the  follow- 
ing comparative  statistics  as  to  crime  : 

AVERAGE  NUMBER  OF  MURDERS  FROM  1881  TO  1887. 


Increase, 

1882  to  1892. 

Per  Cent. 

Crimes  against  the  State, 

public  order,  and  religion 
Crimes  against  the  person.. 
Crimes  against  property.  .  . 

51,623 
107,398 
169,334 

66,392 
157,928 
196,437 

28.6 

47 
16 

Total  

28 

Austria 

Hungary 

Spain 

Italy 

Germany 

France 

Belgium 

Holland 

England 

Scotland 

Ireland ./. 


ACCUSED  OF  THEFT  AND  ROBBERY. 


687 

i',584 
3,6o6 
577 
847 
J32 
35 
3" 
60 
129 


The   following  table,  quoted    by    Professor    Mayo- 
Smith  from  the  Allg.   Stat.  Archiv.,  vol.  iii.,  p.  368, 
fives  the  number  per  1000  persons  of  criminal  age  in 
ifferent  occupations  in  Germany  : 


Belgium  .......................................  n,ooo 

France  ...........................................  46,000 

Germany  ...............................  '  ..........  146,000 

England  .........................................  50,000 

Italy  ..............   ................................  125,000 

Mr.  W.  D.  Morrison,  of  Her  Majesty's  Prison  at 
Wandsworth,  England,  in  his  Crime  and  Its  Causes 
(1891),  gives  the  following  tables  : 


HOMICIDES  OF  ALL  KINDS  IN  THE  FOLLOWING  EUROPEAN  STATES. 


COUNTRIES. 

Population 
over  10 
Years. 

Years. 

TRIED. 

CONVICTED. 

Annual 
Average. 

Per  100,000 
Inhabitants. 

Annual 
Average. 

Per  100,000 
Inhabitants. 

Italy  

23,408,277 
17,199,237 
3I,°44,37° 
4,377,8i3 
19,898,053 
3,854,588 
2,841,941 
13,300,889 
10,821,558 
3,172,464 
35,278,742 

887 

883-6 
882-6 
881-5 
882-6 
882-6 
882-6 
883-6 
882-6 
882-6 
882-6 

3,606 
689 
847 
132 
318 
129 
60 
1,584 

35 
567 

15.40 
4.01 

2-73 
3.02 
i.  60 
3-35 

2.  II 
11.91 

I.  IO 

1.61 

2,805 

499 

580 

IOI 

151 

54 

21 
1,085 
625 
28 
476 

11.98 
2.90 
1.87 
2.31 
0.76 
1.40 
0.74 
8.16 
5-78 
0.88 
I-35 

Belgium  

England  

Ireland  

Scotland  

Spain  .... 

Hungary  

Holland        ... 

Germany  

For  statistics  of  prostitution  and  illegitimacy,  see 
those  articles. 

Marro,  of  Italy,  gives  the  following  table  of  ages  at 
which  507  offenders  first  began  to  commit  crime  : 


Under  10 —   1.5 

II  tO   15    17.0 

16  to  20 36.1 

21  to  25 20.  i 

361030 7.1 

31  to  35 5.1 

36  to  40 3.6 

Marro,  7  caratteri  dei  delinquente.    Studio  antro- 
pologico-sociologico,  p.  356. 


41  to  45 2.1 

46  to  50 23 

51  to  55 2.1 

56  to  60 8 

61  to  65 ;..       .8 

66  to  70 2 


Concerning  some  conclusions  from  statistical 
data,  Professor  Mayo-Smith  says  (idem,  p.  270) : 
"  It  is  an  old  observation  that  crimes  against 
the    person    are    more    numerous 
in  Southern  climates  than  crimes 
against  property,  and  vice  "versa.  Conclusions. 
.  .  .     These    old   observations    of 
Guerry  have  been  confirmed  in  a 
general  way  by  the  later  statistics.  ...     It  is 
apparent,  however,  that  effect  of  climate  and 
geographical  position  might  be  easily  obscured 


Crime. 


407 


Crime. 


by  the  influence  of  economic  and  social  condi- 
tions. It  is  pretty  well  determined  that  crimes 
against  the  person  are  more  numerous  in  sum- 
mer than  in  winter  ;  that  crimes  against  prop- 
erty are  more  numerous  in  winter  than  in  sum- 
mer. .  .  . 

"  Large  numbers  of  the  criminals  are  illiter- 
ate. In  England,  of  those  committed  to  prison 
in  1891,  22.8  per  cent,  could  neither  read  nor 
write  ;  74.2  per  cent,  could  read,  or  read  and 
write  imperfectly  52.9  per  cent,  could  read  and 
write  well.  .  .  . 

"  Hard  times  increase  the  number  of  crimes, 
especially  of  crimes  against  property.  A  gen- 
eral rule  has  been  laid  down  that  as  the  price  of 
food  increases  crimes  against  property  increase, 
while  crimes  against  the  person j  decrease." 
(See  also  CRIMINOLOGY.) 

III.  Is  CRIME  INCREASING  ? 
This  is  a  very  difficult  and  complicated  ques- 
tion. Men  of  careful  judgment  and  extended 
knowledge  come  to  very  different  opinions.  The 
answer  depends,  in  the  first  place,  on  the  period 
one  is  speaking  of.  Comparing  the  present  cen- 
tury with  other  centuries,  at  least  the  grosser 
forms  of  crime  are  certainly  diminishing.  Speak- 
ing simply  of  the  present  century,  the  decrease 
of  crime  is  perhaps  less  clear  ;  but  as  concerns 
security  of  life  and  property  from  direct  violence, 
advance  has  unquestionably  been  made.  Speak- 
ing of  the  immediate  present,  the  case  is  still 
more  difficult.  The  fact  seems  to  be  that  some 
crimes  are  on  the  increase  and  some  on  the  de- 
crease. Professor  Mayo-Smith  comes  to  the 
conclusion  (Statistics  and  Sociology,  p.  265) 
that  gross  crimes  are  decreasing  and 
the  smaller  crimes  increasing.  Even 
Difficulties  this,  however,  is  by  no  means  cer- 
of  Answer,  tain.  It  is  most  difficult  and  per- 
haps all  but  impossible  to  compare 
the  amount  of  crime  in  one  coun- 
try with  that  in  another,  or  the  amount  in  one 
period  with  that  of  another.  Statistics,  even 
when  carefully  collected,  often  utterly  mislead. 
One  reason  for  this  is  that  laws  materially  differ. 
What  is  a  crime,  forbidden  by  law,  at  one  period 
and  in  one  country  is  not  forbidden  in  another 
country  or  at  another  period.  Crimes  against 
education  acts  in  some  countries  cannot  be  com- 
mitted, because  there  are  no  education  acts. 
Crimes  as  to  drinking  largely  swell  the  modern 
statistics  of  crime  ;  yet  in  former  days,  when 
everybody  drank,  and  frequently  to  excess, 
offenses  of  drunkenness  were  not  crime.  Again , 
in  former  days  no  statistics  of  crime  were  taken. 
Even  in  recent  days  they  have  been  taken  very 
incompletely.  To-day  a  very  much  larger  pro- 
portion of  criminality  is  punished  and  recorded 
than  ever  before  in  the  world's  history.  In- 
creased statistics  of  crime,  both  as  to  arrests 
and  convictions,  may  therefore  indicate  not  an 
increase  of  crime,  but  an  increase  of  the  moral 
sense  of  the  community  and  of  the  efficiency  of 
the  repression  of  crime.  Says  the  Eleventh 
Annual  Report  of  the  Massachusetts  Bureau 
of  Statistics  of  Labor  (pp.  178  and  193)  :  "  Civ- 
ilization has  raised  many  things  formerly  con- 
sidered perhaps  as  immoral  and  as  offenses 
against  moral  law  into  well-defined  crimes,  and 
subject  to  punishment  as  such.  The  result  is, 


we  are  constantly  increasing  the  work  of  crimi- 
nal courts  by  giving  prosecuting  officers  new 
fields  to  canvass,  and  by  adding  to  the  list  of 
offenses  defined  as  crimes.    .    .    . 
The  number  of  offenses  designated 
as  crimes  by  the  criminal  code  of      Change 
Massachusetts     comprehended,    in     of  Laws. 
1860,    158    offenses    punishable  as 
crimes,  while  the  code  of  Virginia 
for  the  same  year  recognized  but  io8,or  50 less." 
Perhaps  still  more  important  is  the  change  as  to 
collecting  the  knowledge  of  crime.     Of  the  ap- 
parent growth   of  crime,  the   Boston  Journal 
(July  ii,  1879)  says  :  "The  ubiquitous  reporter 
is  responsible   for   the  gloomy  showing.     His 
note-book  and  pencil  are  everywhere,  and  the 
telegraph  is  the  ready  agent  for  transmitting 
views  to  all  parts  of  the  world.  .  .  .     We  have 
had  the  curiosity  to  look  back  over  some  early 
files  of  the  Journal  in  order  to  show  by  com- 
parison the  change  which  has  taken  place.     Se- 
lecting an  issue  of  the  paper  at  random  we  find 
that  out  of  32  columns  contained  in  the  paper, 
precisely  one  third  of  a  column  is  taken  up  with 
telegraph  news,  and  two  thirds  of 
a  column  with  local  news,  half  of 
the  latter  space  being  devoted  to  an    Growth  of 
account  of    tenement-house  life."  Knowledge. 
Says  another  writer  :  "  Years  ago 
a  crime  had  to  be  of  unusual  pro- 
portions to  make  its  way  into  an  adjoining  State. 
Only  the  great  crimes  could  cross  the  continent. 
But  now  we  see  and  know  everything.    We  skim 
the  whole  creation  every  morning,  and  put  the 
results  in  our  coffee . ' ' 

It  is  only  with  a  clear  recognition  of  these 
changes  in  conditions  that  we  can  approach  the 
question  whether  crime  is  on  the  increase.     But 
remembering  these  changes,  let  us  look  for  a 
moment  to  past  epochs  and  compare  them  with 
the  present.     For  social  evils  to-day,  see  PROS- 
TITUTION ;  but  compare  these  with  classic  days, 
when  the  noblest    philosophers  practised  and 
openly  defended  not  only  prostitution,  but  un- 
natural vice  ;  when  in  the  baths  of 
Rome  thousands  of  men  and  wom- 
en were  abandoned  en   masse  to      Classic 
the  lowest  crimes.     Without  refer-      Times. 
ring  to  Rome  under  her  degenerate 
Caesars,    under    Augustus     10,000 
gladiators  fought,  and  their  bloody  games  were 
applauded  by  Stoic  philosophers  and  by  vestal 
virgins.     Naturally  recklessness  of  life  spread 
everywhere,  and  philosophy  defended  the  right 
of  the  master  to  kill  or  to  torture  his  slaves. 

The  immorality  of  Rome  and  Greece  cannot 
be  credited,  scarcely  described,  in  a  modern 
cyclopedia.     Take  it  in  other  lands.     In  Eng- 
land before  the  Norman  Conquest  it  was  the 
custom  to  buy  men  and  women  in  all  parts  of 
England  and  carry  them  to  Ireland  for  sale,  the 
buyers  usually  making  the  women  pregnant  to 
insure  a  better  price  (Life  of  Bishop 
Wolstan}.    The  one  aim  of  life  was 
to  escape  being  slain  if  a  man,  and  Middle  Ages. 
being  violated   if  a  woman.     The 
violence  and  crime  and  bloodshed 
of  the  Middle  Ages  are  well  known.    The  Peace 
of  God,  when  for  a  few  days  a  week  men  agreed 
not  to  murder,  was  instituted  to  preserve  society 
from    absolute    disintegration.     Murders,  trea- 


Crime. 


408 


Crime. 


sons,  brawls,  poisonings  were  on  every  hand. 
A  nobleman  declared  war  against  Frankfort  be- 
cause a  lady  had  not  danced  with  his  cousin. 
Together  with  occasional  good  men  in  the 
Church,  the  vilest  men  sat  in  the  chair  of  St. 
Peter's  ;  priests  went  from  their  mistresses  to 
the  altar,  and  the  nunneries  were  like  brothels. 
The  Reformation  and  Puritanism  checked  im- 
morality with  an  unnatural  condemnation  of  all 
joys,  that  reacted  in  a  carnival  of  vice  and  crime. 
In  1723  Lady  Mary  Montagu  wrote  :  "  Honor, 
virtue,  and  reputation,  which  we  used  to  hear 
of  in  the  nursery,  are  as  much  laid 
aside  as  crumpled  ribbons. "  Says 
Eighteenth  Lecky  (England  in  the  Eighteenth 
Century.  Century,  vol.  i.,  p.  482) :  "  The  im- 
punity with  which  outrages  were 
committed  on  the  ill-lit  and  ill- 
guarded  streets  of  London  during  the  first  half 
of  the  eighteenth  century  can  now  hardly  be 
realized.  In  1712  a  club  of  young  men  of  the 
higher  classes,  who  assumed  the  name  of  Mo- 
hawks, were  accustomed  nightly  to  sally  out 
drunk  into  the  streets  to  hunt  the  passers- 
by.  .  .  .  One  of  their  favorite  amusements, 
called  'tipping  the  lion,'  was  to  squeeze  the 
nose  of  their  victim  flat  upon  his  face,  and  to 
bore  out  his  eyes  with  their  ringers.  .  .  .  [An- 
other] favorite  amusement  was  to  set  women  on 
their  heads  and  commit  various  indecencies  and 
barbarities  on  the  limbs  that  were  exposed.  .  .  . 
Country  gentlemen  went  to  the  theater  as  if  in 
a  time  of  war,  accompanied  by  their  armed  re- 
tainers." Macaulay,  in  his  well-known  picture 
of  England  of  the  seventeenth  century,  con- 
firms the  same  picture  of  London  being  utterly 
unsafe  by  night,  while  the  country  was  unsafe 
by  night  or  day.  Banditti  and  highwaymen  in- 
fested the  roads  near  London,  and  ruled  the 
remoter  sections. 

In  America  Puritanism  first  enforced  a  rigid 
morality,  which,  however,  gradually  declined. 
Drunkenness   became  prevalent.     Says   Theo- 
dore Parker  (Speeches,  Addresses, 
and  Occasional  Sermons,  pp.  341- 
Early  Days  97)  :  "  It  is  recorded  in   the   Pro- 
in  America,  bate    Office    that    in    1678,  at  the 
funeral  of  Mrs.  Mary  Norton,  widow 
of  the  celebrated  John  Norton,  one 
of  the  ministers-of  the  First  Church  in  Boston, 
51^  gallons  of  the  best  Malaga  wine  were  con- 
sumed by  the  mourners.  .  .  .     Towns  provided 
intoxicating  drink  at  the  funeral  of  paupers. ' ' 
The  Rev.  Leonard  Woods  says  :  "  I  remember 
when  I  could  reckon  up  among  my  acquaint- 
ances 40  ministers  who  were  intemperate. ' '    Ac- 
cording to  Dr.  Dorchester,  to  whom  we  are  in- 
debted for    much   of    the    above    information 
(Problems  of  Religious  Progress,  p.  301),  the 
per  capita  consumption  of  distilled  spirits  in  the 
United  States  was,  in  1810, 4.30  galls.  ;  1820,  7.26 
galls.  ;  1830,  6.02  galls.  ;  1840,  2.54  galls.  ;  1850, 
2.21  galls.  ;  1860,  2.86  galls.  ;  1870,  2.05  galls.  ; 
1880,  1.27  galls.  ;  1890,  1.40  galls.  ;    1893,  1.51 
galls. 

Intemperance  led  to  quarrels  and  duelling. 
Says  Dr.  Dorchester  (idem,  p.  484) :  "  Not  less 
than  14  of  the  most  prominent  statesmen  in  the 
United  States,  not  to  speak  of  many  of  lesser 
rank,  were  concerned  in  duels  in  the  first  half  of 
the  present  century."  The  Christian  Advo- 


cate of  November  30, 1876,  argues  that  financial 
dishonesty  was  greater  earlier  in  the  century 
than  now.  It  says  :  "  In  the  time  of  Van  Buren 
the  loss  was  $21.15  on  every  $1000  ;  now  it  is 
only  26  cents. ' '  Whatever  one  thinks  of  these 
statements,  it  is  evident  that  there  were  gross 
evils  in  other  countries  and  in  former  decades 
which  statistics  cannot  cover,  but  which  must 
not  be  forgotten  in  studying  the  questions  of 
crime. 

Coming  to  the  period  when  statistics  are  avail- 
able, the  best  that  can  be  done  is  to  put  side  by 
side  the  views  of  those  who  do  and  of  those 
who  do  not  believe  that  crime  is  on  the  in- 
crease. 

Mr.  W.  D.  Morrison,  of  H.M.  Prison,  Wands- 
worth,  England,  strongly  maintains  that  crime 
is  on  the  increase.  He  says  (Crime  and  its 
Causes,  p.  12) : 

"  Most  of  the  principal  authorities  in  Europe 
and  America  are  emphatically  of  opinion  that 
crime  is  on  the  increase.  In  the  United  States, 
we  are  told  by  Mr.  D.  A.  Wells*  and  by  Mr. 
Howard  Wines,  an  eminent  specialist  in  crimi- 
nal matters,  that  crime  is  steadily  increasing, 
and  that  it  is  increasing  faster  than  the  growth 
of  the  population. 

"  Nearly  all  the  chief  statisticians  abroad  tell 
the  same  tale  with  respect  to  the  growth  of 
crime  on  the  Continent.     Dr.  Mischler.  of  Vien- 
na, and  Professor  von  Liszt,  of  Marburg,  draw 
a  deplorable  picture  of  the  increase  of  crime  in 
Germany.     Professor  von  Liszt,  in  a  recent  arti- 
cle, f  says  that  15,000,000  persons  have  been  con- 
victed by  the  German  criminal  courts  within  the 
last  10  years  ;  and,  according  to  him,  the  out- 
look for  the  future  is  somber  in  the  last  degree. 
In  France,  the  criminal  problem  is  just  as  for- 
midable and  perplexing  as  it  is  in  Germany  ; 
M.  Henri  Joly  estimates  that  crime  has  increased 
in  the  former  country  133  per  cent, 
within  the  last  half  century,  and  is 
still  steadily  rising.     Taking  Vic-  Crime  said 
toria  as  a  typical  Australasian  col-      to  be  on 
ony,  we  find  that  even  in  the  An-  the  Increase, 
tipodes,  which  are  not  vexed  to  the 
same  extent  as  Europe  with  social 
and  economic  difficulties,  crime  is  persistently 
raising  its  head,  and  altho  it  does  not  increase 
quite  as  rapidly  as  the  population,  it  is  never- 
theless a  more    menacing  danger  among  the 
Victorian  colonists  than  it  is  at  home.:}: 

"  Is  England  an  exception  to  the  rest  of  the 
world  with  respect  to  crime  ?  Many  people  are 
of  opinion  that  it  is,  and  the  idea  is  at  present 
diligently  fostered  on  the  platform  and  in  the 
press  that  we  have  at  last  found  out  the  secret 
of  dealing  successfully  with  the  criminal  popu- 
lation. As  far  as  I  can  ascertain,  this  belief  is 
based  upon  the  statement  that  the  daily  average 

*  "  In  the  United  States,  while  crime  has  diminished 
in  a  few  States,  for  the  whole  country  it  has,  within  re- 
cent years,  greatly  increased.  In  1850  the  proportion 
of  prison  inmates  was  reported  as  one  to  every  3448  of 
the  entire  population  of  the  country  ;  but  in  1880  this 
proportion  had  risen  to  one  for  every  855.  These  re- 
sults are  believed  to  be  attributable  in  the  Northern 
States  mainly  to  the  great  foreign  immigration,  and  in 
the  Southern  to  the  emancipation  of  the  negroes." 
(Recent  Economic  Changes,  p.  345.) 

t  Zeitschrift  fur  die  gesamte  Strafrechtswissen- 
scliaft  ix.  472,  sg. 

%  See  Statistical  Register  for  Victoria,  Part  viii. 


Crime. 


409 


Crime. 


of  persons  in  prison  is  constantly  going  down. 
Inasmuch  as  there  was  a  daily  average  of  over 
20,000  persons  in  prison  in  1878,  and  a  daily 
average  of  about  15,000  in  1888,  many  people 
immediately  jump  at  the  conclusion  that  crime 
is  diminishing.  But  the  daily  average  is  no 
criterion  whatever  of  the  rise  and  fall  of  crime. 
Calculated  on  the  principle  of  daily  average,  12 
men  sentenced  to  prison  for  one  month  each 
will  not  figure  so  largely  in  criminal  statistics 
as  one  man  sentenced  to  a  term  of  18  months. 
The  daily  average,  in  other  words,  depends 
upon  the  length  of  sentence  prisoners  receive, 
and  not  upon  the  number  of  persons  committed 
to  prison,  or  upon  the  number  of  crimes  com- 
mitted during  the  year.  Let  us  look  then  at  the 
number  of  persons  committed  to  local  prisons, 
and  we  shall  be  in  a  position  to  judge  if  crime 
is  decreasing  in  England  or  not.  We  shall  go 
back  20  years,  and  take  the  quinquennial  totals 
as  they  are  recorded  in  the  judicial  statistics  : 

Total  of  the  5  years,  1868  to  1872 774.667 

Total  of  the  5  years,  1873  to  l877 866,041 

Total  of  the  5  years,  1884  to  1888 


If  statistics  are  to  be  allowed  any  weight  at  all, 
these  figures  incontestably  mean  that  the  total 
volume  of  crime  is  on  the  increase  in  England 
as  well  as  everywhere  else.  It  is  fallacious  to 
suppose  that  the  authorities  here  are  gaining 
the  mastery  over  the  delinquent  population. 
Such  a  supposition  is  at  once  refuted  by  the 
statistics  which  have  just  been  tabulated,  and 
these  are  the  only  statistics  which  can  be  im- 
plicitly relied  upon  for  testing  the  position  of  the 
country  with  regard  to  crime. 

"  Seeing,  then,  that  the  total  amount  of  crime  is  regu- 
larly growing,  how  is  the  decrease  in  the  daily  average 
of  persons  in  prison  to  be  accounted  for?  This  de- 
crease may  be  accounted  for  in  two  ways.  It  may  be 
shown  that  altho  the  number  of  people  committed  to 
prison  is  on  the  increase,  the  nature  of  the  offenses  for 
which  these  people  are  convicted  is  not  so  grave.  Or, 
in  the  second  place,  it  may  be  shown  that,  altho  the 
crimes  committed  now  are  equally  serious  with  those 
committed  20  years  ago,  the  magistrates  and  judges 
are  adopting  a  more  lenient  line  of  action,  and  are  in- 
flicting shorter  sentences  after  a  conviction.  Let  us 
for  a  moment  consider  the  proposition  that  crime  is 
not  so  grave  now  as  it  was  20  years  ago.  In  order  to 
arrive  at  a  fairly  accurate  conclusion  on  this  matter, 
we  have  only  to  look  at  the  number  of  offenses  of  a 
serious  nature  reported  to  the  police.  Comparing  the 
number  of  cases  of  murder,  attempts  to  murder,  man- 
slaughter, shooting  at,  stabbing  and  -wounding,  and 
adding  to  these  offenses  the  crimes  of  burglary,  house- 
breaking,  robbery,  and  arson— comparing  all  these 
cases  reported  to  the  police  for  the  five  years  1870-74 
with  offenses  of  a  like  character  reported  in  the  five 
years  1884-88,  we  find  that  the  proportion  of  grave 
offenses  to  the  population  was,  in  many  cases,  as  great 
in  the  latter  period  as  in  the  former. 

SERIOUS  CASES  REPORTED  TO  THE  POLICE  IN  PRO- 
PORTION TO  THE  POPULATION.  ANNUAL  AVERAGE 
FOR  FIVE  YEARS. 


Murder. 

Attempts  to 
Murder. 

Man- 
slaughter. 

1884  88  

i  to  168,897 

1870-74  
1884-88  

Shooting, 
Stabbing, 
etc. 

i  to  35,033 
i  to  38,607 

Burglary. 

i  to  10,188 
i  to    7,892 

House- 
breaking. 

i  to  17,338 

Shorter 
Sentences. 


This  table  shows  that  since  1870-74  there  has  been  an 
increase  in  murder,  attempts  to  murder,  burglary,  and 
housebreaking,  and  a  decrease  in  manslaughter,  rob- 
bery, and  arson.  The  decrease  in  shooting,  stabbing, 
wounding,  etc.,  is  very  small.  (Cf.  Judicial  Statistics 
for  1874  and  1888,  p.  xvi.) 

This  shows  clearly  that  crime,  while  it  is  increasing 
in  extent,  is  not  materially  decreasing  in  seriousness  ; 
and  the  chief  reason  the  prison  population  exhibits  a 
smaller  daily  average  is  to  be  found  in 
the  fact  that  judges  are  now  pronounc- 
ing shorter  sentences  than  was  the  cus- 
tom 20  years  ago.  We  are  not  left  in  the 
dark  upon  this  point ;  the  judges  them- 
selves frequently  inform  the  public  that 
they  have  taken  to  shortening  the  terms 
of  imprisonment.  The  extent  to  which  sentences  have 
been  shortened  within  the  last  20  years  can  easily  be 
ascertained  by  comparing  the  committals  to  prison  and 
the  daily  average  of  the  quinquenniad  1868-72  with  the 
committals  and  the  daily  average  of  the  quinquenniad 
1884-88.  A  comparison  between  these  two  periods 
shows  that  the  length  of  imprisonment  has  decreased 
26  per  cent.  In  other  words,  whereas  a  man  used  to 
receive  a  sentence  of  12  months'  imprisonment,  he  now 
receives  a  sentence  of  nine  months;  and  whereas  he 
used  to  get  a  sentence  of  one  month,  he  now  gets  21 
days.  If  it  be  a  serious  offense,  or  if  the  criminal  be  a 
habitual  offender,  he  now  receives  18  months'  impris- 
onment, whereas  he  used  to  receive  five  years'  penal 
servitude.  As  far  as  most  judges  and  stipendiary  mag- 
istrates are  concerned,  sentences  of  imprisonment  have 
decreased  in  recent  years  more  than  26  per  cent.  ;  and 
if  there  was  a  corresponding  movement  on  the  part  of 
chairmen  of  Quarter  Sessions,  the  average  decrease  in 
the  length  ot  sentences  would  amount  to  50  per  cent. 
But  it  is  a  notorious  fact  that  amateur  judges  are,  with 
few  exceptions,  more  inclined  to  pronounce  heavy 
sentences  than  professional  men. 

"  We  have  now  arrived  at  the  conclusion  that  crime 
is  just  as  serious  in  its  character  as  it  was  20  years  ago, 
and  that  it  is  growing  in  dimensions  year  by  year  ;  the 
next  point  to  be  considered  is,  the  relation  in  which 
crime  stands  to  the  population.  Crime  may  be  in- 
creasing, but  the  population  may  be  multiplying  faster 
than  the  growth  of  crime.  Is  this  the  condition  of 
things  in  England  at  the  present  day?  We  have  seen 
that  the  criminal  classes  are  increasing  much  faster 
than  the  growth  of  population  in  France  and  the  United 
States.  Is  England  in  a  better  position  in  this  respect 
than  these  two  countries  ?  At  the  present  time  there  is 
one  conviction  to  about  every  50  inhabitants,  and  the 
proportion  of  convictions  to  the  population  was  very 
much  the  same  20  years  ago.  If  we  remember  the  im- 
mense development  that  has  taken  place  in  the  indus- 
trial school  system  within  the  last  20  years — a  develop- 
ment that  has  undoubtedly  had  a  great  deal  to  do  with 
keeping  down  crime — we  arrive  at  the  conclusion  that,' 
notwithstanding  the  beneficent  effects  of  industrial 
schools,  the  criminal  classes  in  this  country  still  keep 
pace  with  the  annual  growth  of  population." 

Of  the  United  States,  Mr.  H.  M.  Boies  (Pris- 
oners and  Paupers,  p.  i)  says  :  "  The  Eleventh 
Census  of  the  United  States,  as  it  is  being  pub- 
lished, furnishes  statistics  of  a  national  growth 
in  numbers,  wealth,  and  general  prosperity  un- 
paralleled in  the  history  of  civilization.  .  .  . 
Some  of  the  disclosures  made  are,  however, 
shocking,  if  not  appalling,  in  the  highest  degree 
to  our  confidence  in  the  future.  One  of  these  is 
the  abnormal  and  disproportionate  increase  in 
the  criminal  class  in  society.  That  increase  is 
from  i  in  3500  of  our  population  in  1850  to  i  in 
786.5  in  1890,  or  of  445  per  cent.  ;  while  the 
population  has  increased  but  1 70  per  cent,  in  the 
same  period. 

"  In  the  last  decade,  with  an  increase  of  24.5 
per  cent,  in  population,  the  number  of  the  in- 
mates of  our  penitentiaries,  jails,  and  reforma- 
tories has  increased  45.2  per  cent,  or  nearly 
twice  faster  than  the  general  population." 

Dr.  Josiah  Strong  (Our  Country,  p.  57)  says  : 

"  From  1870  to  1880  the  population  increased 
30.06  per  cent.  During  the  same  period  the 
number  of  criminals  increased  82.33  per  cent. 


Crime. 


410 


Crime. 


In  1850,  there  were  290  prisoners  to  every  million 
of  the  population  ;  in  1860,  there  were  607  to 
each  million  ;  in  1870,  there  were  853,  and  in 
1880  there  were  1169.  That  is,  in  30  years  the 
proportion  of  criminals  increased  fourfold. ' ' 

He  lays  this  mainly  to  foreign  immigration. 
But  see  Professor  Falkner's  analysis  above. 

Mr.  George  R.  Stetson,  writing  in  the  Ando- 
ver  Review  for  December,  1884,  argues  a  de- 
cadence in  Massachusetts  even  among  the  na- 
tive white  population.  He  says  : 

"  By  the  United  States  Census  returns  for  1850  we 
find  that  the  total  population  of  Massachusetts  was  994,- 
514  and  the  number  in  prisons  1236,  or 
i  prisoner  to  824+  of  the  population,  and 
Massacnu-    in  1880,   with  a  population  of  1,783,085, 
setts.         there  were  in  prisons  3659,  or  i  prisoner 
to    487+    of    the    population ;    in  other 
words,  our  prison  population,  in  propor- 
tion to  the  whole  population,  has  nearly  doubled  in  30 
years. 

"  If  it  is  objected  that  this  does  not  show  the  actual 
amount  of  crime  for  which  our  own  institutions  are  re- 
sponsible, owing  to  the  great  number  of  idle,  ignorant, 
and  vicious  immigrants  landed  upon  our  shores,  we 
Answer,  that  the  examination  of  the  statistics  of  our 
native  prisoners,  from  which,  of  course,  the  foreign 
element  is  entirely  excluded,  will  show  that  their  num- 
ber, when  compared  with  the  whole  native  population, 
has  increased  from  i  in  1267+  as  in  1850,  to  i  in  615+ 
in  1880,  as  can  be  ascertained  by  the  following  table 
compiled  from  the  United  States  Census  : 


Total 
Popula- 
tion. 

Native 
Popula- 
tion. 

Prison- 
ers. 

Native 
Prison- 
ers. 

Propor- 
tion. 

1850  

1860..:.. 

994.514 
1,783,085 

827,430 
i.  339.594 

1,236 
3.659 

653 
2.175 

i  in  1.267  -)- 
i  in    .615  -j- 

"  Stated  in  another  form,  our  native  criminal  popu- 
lation has  more  than  doubled  in  30  years,  notwith- 
standing our  system  of  public  instruction,  our  churches, 
our  schools,  our  charitable  institutions,  and  all  the  ed- 
ucational efforts  and  appliances  known  to  modern  civil- 
ization. 

"  In  addition,  we  find  by  the  same  table  that  in  1850 
over  one  half,  and  in  1880  nearly  two  thirds,  of  the  total 
number  of  the  prison  population   were  natives.     As 
convincing  as  these  statistics  of  our  re- 
.  trogradation  seem,  they  are  thrown  into 

.Foreign  Pop-  obscurity  by  the  really  appalling  fact 
illation.       •which  appears  in  the  Report  of  the  Pris- 
on    Commissioners    for   Massachusetts 
in  1884  (p.  126) — namely,  that  the  entire 
number  of  arrests  for  crime  for  the  year  ending  Sep- 
tember 30,  1883,  was  65,000,  or  one  arrest  for  every  29+ 
of  the  inhabitants  of  this  commonwealth  ;  and  assum- 
ing that  five  persons  constitute  a  family,  we  have  the 
alarming  result  of  one  arrest  to  every  six  families  in 
the  entire  State." 

It  should  be  remembered,  however,  that  the 
foreign  born  by  no  means  measure  the  contribu- 
lion  of  foreign  conditions  to  America.  Says 
Dr.  Josiah  Strong  (Our  Country,  p.  57) : 

"  The  hoodlums  and  roughs  of  our  cities  are, 
most  of  them,  American  born  of  foreign  parent- 
age. Of  the  680  discharged  convicts  who  ap- 
plied to  the  Prison  Association  of  New  York  for 
aid  during  the  year  ending  June  30,  1882,  442 
were  born  in  the  United  States,  against  238  for- 
eign born  ;  while  only  144  reported  native  par- 
entage against  536  who  reported  foreign  parent- 
age. 

"  The  Rhode  Island  Workhouse  and  House 
of  Correction  had  received,  to  December  31, 
1882,  6202  persons  on  commitment.  Of  this 
number,  52  per  cent,  were  native  born  and  76 
per  cent,  were  born  of  foreign  parentage.  Of 


the  182  prisoners  committed  to  the  Massachu- 
setts Reformatory  for  Women  in  1880-81,  81  per 
cent,  were  of  foreign  birth  or  parentage.  While 
in  1880  the  foreign  born  were  only  13  per  cent, 
of  the  entire  population,  they  furnished  19  per 
cent,  of  the  convicts  in  our  penitentiaries,  and 
43  per  cent,  of  the  inmates  of  workhouses  and 
houses  of  correction." 

See,  on  the  other  hand,  Professor  Falkner's 
analyses  above,  in  Sec.  II. 

Mr.  W.  F.  Spaulding,  too,  in  the  Forum  for 
January,  1892,  shows  that  the  increase  of  com- 
mitments in  Massachusetts  is  almost  wholly  for 
drunkenness,  and  that  for  serious  crimes  there 
has  been  a  decrease. 

Of  the  United  States  generally  there  is  still 
wider  room  for  difference  of  opinion.  The  sta- 
tistics unquestionably  show  not  only  a  large  ab- 
solute growth  in  the  number  of  prisoners,  but  a 
growth  in  the  proportion  to  the  population.  Yet 
it  is  unquestionably  true  that  the  early  statistics 
were  not  complete.  The  only  question  is  as  to 
how  complete  are  the  present  statistics. 

In  England,  in  opposition  to  Mr.  Morrison, 
Mr.  E.  F.  Du  Cane,  Inspector  of  Prisons,  argues, 
in  the  Nineteenth  Century  for  March,  1893, 
that  crime  is  rapidly  on  the  decrease.  He  holds 
that  the  statistics  brought  forward  to  show  an 
increase  of  crime  are  misleading,  because  they 
include  offenses  that  are  not  really  crimes,  but 
simply  show  an  extension  of  law.  "  Offenses," 
he  says,  "  against  the  Education  Acts  could  not 
be  committed  before  1870,  but  they  count  for 
96,601  in  1890-91."  He  argues,  also,  that  to  add 
the  number  of  criminals  and  the  juveniles  com- 
mitted to  industrial  reformatories,  and  then  quote 
the  number  as  indication  of  an  increase  of  crime 
is  like  adding  the  number  of  cases  of  small- 
pox and  the  number  vaccinated  to  prevent  their 
having  the  disease,  and  using  the  whole  num- 
ber to  show  the  spread  of  the  disease.  He 
argues  similarly  of  the  increase  of  the  po- 
lice. So,  too,  one  must  not  look  at  the  number 
tried  for  crime,  but  at  the  actual  number  of 
crimes  committed.  More  people 
may  be  tried  as  the  police  grow 
more  competent ;  but  the  question  Crime  Said 
is,  How  many  crimes  are  com-  to  be  on  the 
mitled?  As  to  this,  he  says  the  Decrease, 
average  number  in  local  prisons  in 
1876-77  was  20,361  ;  in  1890-91, 
12,663.  At  the  end  of  1869  there  were  9726  con- 
victs in  prison.  On  March  31,  1892,  there  were 
4701.  He  says  these  facts  cannot  be  explained 
by  the  shortening  of  sentences.  If  there  has 
been  any  shortening,  it  is  not  enough  to  account 
for  so  large  a  decrease.  He  says  that  we  must 
distinguish  between  what  most  people  mean 
by  crimes  and  mere  offenses  against  education, 
acts.  etc.  The  judicial  statistics  define  crimes 
in  five  classes  : 

I.  Offenses  against  the  person,  including  as- 
saults. 

II.  Offenses  against  property  with  violence. 

III.  Offenses  against   property  without  vio- 
lence, including  stealing,  embezzlement,  offenses 
against  the  game  acts,  etc. 

IV.  Malicious  offenses  against  property,  de- 
stroying fences,  fruit,  trees,  etc. 

V.  Forgery   and  offenses    against    the    cur- 
rency. 


Crime. 


411 


Criminal  Anthropology. 


Of  these,  Mr.  Du  Cane  gives  the  following 
facts,  meaning  by  the  word  "  indictable"  those 
not  summarily  dealt  with. 

"Indictable  offenses  in  these  five  classes  have  fallen 
as  a  whole  since  1867-68,  when  the  number  was  57,- 
812,  and  the  fall  has  been  almost  continuous  since 
1877-78,  when  the  number  was  52,307,  till  in  1890-91  the 
number  was  35,335.  Summary  offenses  in  the  same 
five  classes  have  been  falling  since  1873-74,  when  the 
number  was  192,440.  In  1890-91  the  number  was  159,- 
534-" 

Of  the  different  classes,  he  says  that  indictable  of- 
fenses in  Class  I.  fluctuated  very  much  before  1884-85, 
when  they  suddenly  rose,  and  stood  in  1885-86  at  3626, 
since  when  they  have  fallen  somewhat,  and  stood  in 
1890-91  at  3352.  Summary  offenses  in  Class  I.  have 
fallen  almost  continuously  from  100,422  in  1875-76  to 
77,857  in  1890-91. 

In  Class  •!!.  he  says  it  is  almost  impossible  to  give 
the  fluctuations  of  indictable  offenses,  tho  since  1881-82 
the  tendency  has  been  to  fall.  The  summary  offenses 
in  this  class  are  too  small  to  be  noticed.  They  never 
have  been  over  87,  and  sometimes  have  been  as  low 
as  i. 

In  Class  III.  indictable  offenses  have  fallen  almost 
continuously  from  41,341  in  1877-78  to  25,086  in  1890-91. 
This,  he  says,  is  explained  by  some  as  due  to  the  Sum- 
mary Jurisdiction  Act  of  1879,  which,  he 
thinks,  only  accounts  for  a  diminution 
Statistics  for  ot  3000  out  of  a  net  fall  of  16,000.  The 

England  summary  offenses  were  increased  by 
o  •  the  diminution  in  the  indictable  of- 

fenses, for  they  remained  about  the 
same  from  1879  to  1882,  when  they  were 
72,434,  since  when  they  have  steadily  fallen  to  62^990  in 
1890-91. 

In  Class  IV.  indictable  offenses  have  scarcely  chang- 
ed, being  about  600.  Summary  offenses  have  fallen 
from  25,800  in  1873-74  to  18,675  in  1890-91. 

In  Class  V.  offenses  have  fallen  from  2839  in  1856-57 
to  446  in  1890-91. 

Mr.  Du  Cane  quotes  various  authorities  to  sub- 
stantiate these  indications,  a  recent  report  of  the 
Commissioner  of  Police  of  the  metropolis  say- 
ing : 

"  The  criminal  returns  for  1800  disclose  a  most  satis- 
factory record  for  the  year.    The  felonies  relating  to 
property  numbered  17,491,  or  2053  fewer  than  in  1889, 
tho  the  figures  for  1889  were  a  marked 
improvement  on  those  for  the  preceding 
London.       year.  .  .  .    There  were  fewer  offenses 
of  this  kind  committed  in  the  metrop- 
olis during  1890  than  in  any  year  since 
1875.     But  in   1875  the  felonies  of  this  class  were  rel- 
atively to  the    population  in  the  ratio    of   4.182  per 
1000,  whereas  last  year  the  proportion  per  1000  was 
only  3.002,  or  less  than  half  the  number  considered 
normal  20  years  ago.  .  .  .    Serious  crimes  against  the 
person  were  also  relatively  to  population   fewer  than 
ever  before.    It  thus  appears  that  there  was  greater 
security  for  person  and  property  in  the  metropolis 
during  1890  than  in  any  previous  year  included  in  the 
statistical  returns.    It  should  be  remembered  that  in 
relation  to  police  work  the  difficulties  of  dealing  with 
crime,  as  each  decade  adds  a  million  to  the  population 
of  the  metropolis,  are  augmented  in  a  ratio  far  greater 
than  that  of  the  arithmetical  increase." 

The  Chief  Constable  of  Liverpool  says  : 

"  Never,  since  the  first  publication  of  returns  of 
crime  in  Liverpool  (i.e.,  since  1857),  have  the  statistics 
disclosed  so  small  an  amount  of  crime  or  so  large  a 
success  in  making  criminals  amenable  to  justice  as 
those  for  the  year  ended  September  29,  1891." 

Mr.  Grosvenor,  just  before  leaving  the  Home 
Office,  read  to  the  Statistical  Society  in  1890  a 
paper  entitled  The  Abatement  of  Crime ',  in 
which  he  summed  up  the  matter  thus  : 

"  Combined  causes  have  materially  assisted  in  secur- 
ing the  abatement  shown  to  have  taken  place  in  nearly 
all  classes  of  crime  during  the  last  20  years,  while  the 
great  reduction  in  the  number  of  known  thieves  and 
other  suspected  persons  at  large,  as  well  as  in  the  houses 
of  bad  character  which  they  frequent,  and  more  es- 
pecially the  extraordinary  diminution  in  the  number 
of  receivers  of  stolen  goods,  has  made  manifest  the 


increasing  efficiency  of  the  police.  When  to  this  is 
added  the  fact  that  during  the  period  in  question  the 
population  of  England  and  Wales  has  increased  by 
nearly  6,500,000,  we  must  admit  that  the  many  agencies 
enlisted  for  the  purpose  of  diminishing  the  number  of 
criminals  have  beeji  most  successfully  applied,  and 
the  result  cannot  fail  to  afford  the  utmost  satisfaction 
and  encouragement  to  all  who  are  anxious  for  the  im- 
proved moral  and  physical  advancement  of  our  na- 
tion." 

Mr.  Du  Cane  quotes  Sir  William  Harcourt  as  saying  : 
"  It  is  better  to  be  an  optimist  after  full  inquiry  than  a 
pessimist  without." 

References  :  Professor  Mayo-Smith's  Statistics  and 
Sociology  (1895) ;  W.  D.  Morrison's  Crime  and  its 
Causes  (1891) ;  Dr.  Daniel  Dorchester's  Problems  of 
Religious  [and  Moral]  Progress  (1895). 

CRIMINAL     ANTHROPOLOGY    is    the 

science  of  the  study  of  the  criminal.  Altho 
there  were  previously,  of  course,  much  consid- 
eration and  some  shrewd  judgments  as  to  crim- 
inals, the  science  of  criminal  anthropology  may 
be  said  to  date  from  1876,  when  Cesare  Lom- 
broso  published  his  epoch-making  work,  L'  Uomo 
Delequente.  (For  a  general  consideration  of 
crime,  see  CRIMINOLOGY  ;  for  the  statistics  of 
crime,  see  CRIME.) 

To  understand  what  the  scientific  study  of  a 
criminal  means,  we  give  in  detail  important 
points  noted  by  Benelli,  Tamburini,  and  Lorn- 
broso. 

Generalities.— Name,  age,  country,  profession,  civil 
state. 

i.  Anthropometrical  examination.— Development  of 
skeleton,  stature,  development  of  muscular  system, 
weight.  Color :  of  skin,  hair,  iris,  uniformly  colored, 
double  coloration,  peripheral  and  central,  non-uniform- 
ly  colored,  color  predominant,  color  not  predominant, 
beard.  Piliferous  system.  Tatooing.  Craniometry : 
face,  height,  bizygomatic  -diameter,  facial  type,  facial 
index  ;  nose  :  profile,  dimensions,  direction,  anomalies  ; 
teeth:  form,  dimensions,  anomalies;  ey-  ;  neck  ;  tho- 
rax ;  lungs  ;  heart ;  genital  organs  ;  disfigurements. 

a.  Examination  of  sensibility.—  Touch  :  electric  cur- 
rent, left  hand,  right  hand,  tongue  ;  aesthesiometer  of 
Weber :  right  hand,  left  hand,  tongue.  Pain  :  algome- 
ter  of  Lorn  broso  :  left  and  right  hands,  tongue.  Sensi- 
bility :  muscular,  topographic,  thermic,  meteorologi- 
cal, magnetic,  metallic,  hypnotic,  hypnotic  credulity, 
visual,  acoustic,  olfactive,  gustative,  chromatic,  sensual 
(generative) ;  first  sensual  relations, aberrations ;  anom- 
alies. 

3.  Examination  of  motility. — Voluntary  movements  : 
gait,   speech,   language,   writing,   reflexes;    muscular 
force  ;  dynamometry ;  manual  skill;  anomalies. 

4.  Examinationof  vegetative  functions.—  Circulation, 
respiration,  thermogeny  ;    digestion  ;  secretions  :  sali  • 
va,  urine,  sweat. 

5.  Psychical      examination. — Perception    (illusions); 
ideation  (hallucinations);  reasoning;  will  (impulsion) ; 
memory;  intelligence:  works,   writings;  slang;  con- 
science |  sentiments  :  affective,  moral,  religious  ;  pas- 
sions ;    instincts ;    sleep ;    moral  sense ;    habitual    ex- 
pression of  physiognomy ;  psychometry  ;  anomalies. 

6.  Anamnestic examinations. — Family,  parents  ;  state 
of  family;  daughters;  sons;  age  of  parents-,  history, 
diseases,   crimes  of  parents.    Precedents ;  education, 
instruction,    intellectual    and   political    development, 
diseases ;  traumatic  accidents,  crimes,  habitual  charac- 
ter,   occupation   preferred.     Latest  information  :   last 
crimes,  cause  of  crime,  repentance,   admissions,  ner- 
vous diseases  and  mental  anomalies  (intercurrent) ; 
inquiries. 

In  regard  to  these  various  points,  however, 
criminologists  are  by  no  means  agreed  as  to 
their  being  a  criminal  type.  In  his  Crime  and 
its  Causes  (chap,  vii.)  Mr.  W.  D.  Morrison 
brings  out  the  variety  of  conclusions  He  says 
(we  abridge  his  words),  as  to  height :  ' '  Lom broso 
says  that  Italian  criminals  are  above  the  average 
height  ;  Knecht  says  German  criminals  do  not 
differ  in  this  respect  from  other  men  ;  Marro 
says  the  stature  of  criminals  is  variable  ;  Thorn- 


Criminal  Anthropology. 


412 


Criminal  Anthropology. 


son  and  Wilson  say  that  criminals  are  inferior 
in  point  of  stature  to  the  average  man.     What- 
ever may  be  the  case  on  the  Conti- 
nent, there  can  be  little  doubt  that 
Physiology,  as  far  as  the  United  Kingdom  is 
concerned,  the  height  of  the  crimi- 
nal class  is  lower  than  that  of  the 
ordinary    citizen.     In    Scotland    the    average 
height    of    the    ordinary    population    is    67.30 
inches  ;  the  average  height  of  the  criminal  popu- 
lation,  as  given    by  Dr.    Bruce  Thomson,   is 
66.95  inches.     According   to   Dr.   Beddoe,  the 
average  height  of  the  London  artisan  popula- 
tion is  66.72   inches  ;    the  average  height  of 
the  London  criminal  64.70  inches  ;  the  aver- 
age height  of  Liverpool  criminals,  according  to 
Danson,  is  66.39  inches. 

"As  to  weight,  Lombroso  and  Marro  assert 
that  Italian  criminals  weigh  more  than  average 
citizens.  On  the  other  hand,  the  weight  of  Lon- 
don criminals  is  almost  the  same  as  that  of  Lon- 
don artisans,  but  inferior  to  the  weight  of  the  arti- 
san population  in  the  large  English  towns  taken 
as  a  whole.  The  average  weight  of  London  crim- 
inals is  136  Ibs.  ;  average  weight  of  London 
artisans,  137  Ibs.  ;  average  weight  of  artisans 
in  large  towns  generally,  138  Ibs.  The  London 
criminal  is  considerably  inferior  in  weight  to  the 
well-to-do  classes,  as  will  be  seen  from  Mr.  Gal- 
ton's  Health  Exhibition  statistics.  Average 
weight,  Health  Exhibition,  143  Ibs.  ;  average 
weight,  most  favored  class  (Roberts),  152  Ibs. 
Respecting  the  skulls  of  criminals,  the  inquiries 
of  continental  investigators  have  so  far  led  to 
very  conflicting  results.  It  is  a  contention  of 
Lombroso's  that  the  skulls  of  criminals  exhibit 
a  larger  proportion  of  asymmetrical  peculiarities 
than  the  skulls  of  other  men.  On  this  point 
Lombroso  is  supported  by  Manouvrier.  But 
Topinard,  an  anthropologist  of  great  eminence, 
is  of  an  opposite  opinion.  He  carefully  exam- 
ined the  same  series  of  skulls  as  had  been  ex- 
amined by  Manouvrier — the  skulls  of  murderers 
— and  he  discovered  no  marked  difference  be- 
tween these  and  other  skulls.  At  present  we 
must  wait  for  further  light  before  anything  can 
be  said  with  certainty  with  respect  to  the  crim- 
inal skull. 

"  Just  as  little  is  known  at  present  about  the 
brain  of  criminals  as  about  the  skull.  Some 
years  ago  Professor  Benedict  startled  the  world 
by  stating  that  he  had  discovered  the  seat  of 
crime  in  the  convolutions  of  the  brain.  He 
found  a  certain  number  of  anomalies  in  the  con- 
volutions  of  the  frontal  lobes,  and  he  came  to 
the  conclusion  that  crime  was  connected  with 
the  existence  of  these  anomalies.  But  he  had 
omitted  to  examine  the  frontal  convolutions  of 
honest  people.  When  this  was  done  by  other 
investigators,  it  was  found  that  the  brain  con- 
volutions of  normal  men  presented  just  as  many 
anomalies,  some  investigators  (Dr.  Giacomini) 
said  even  more  than  the  brains  of  criminals. 
According  to  Dr.  Bardeleben,  there  is  no  such 
thing  as  a  normal  type  of  brain.  Weight  of 
brain  is  a  much  simpler  question  than  brain 
type,  but  so  far  it  is  impossible  to  say  whether 
the  criminal  brain  is  heavier  or  lighter  than  the 
ordinary  brain.  The  solution  of  this  compara- 
tively simple  point  is  beset  by  a  certain  number 
of  obstacles. 


' '  An  examination  of  the  criminal  face  has  so 
far  led  to  no  definite  and  assured  results.  In 
the  imagination  of  artists  the  criminal  is  almost 
always  credited  with  a  retreating  forehead.  As. 
a  matter  of  fact,  representatives  of  the  anthro- 
pological school  assure  us  that  this  is  not  the 
case.  After  comparing  the  foreheads  of  539 
delinquents  with  the  foreheads  of  100  ordinary 
men,  he  found  that  criminals  had  a  smaller  per- 
centage of  retreating  foreheads  than  the  aver- 
age man.  He  also  found  that  projecting  eye- 
brows, another  trait  which  is  supposed  to  be  a 
criminal  peculiarity,  were  almost  as  common 
among  ordinary  people  as  among  offenders 
against  the  law.  Projecting  ears  i£  another 
peculiarity  which  is  often  associated  with  the 
idea  of  a  criminal.  But  Dr.  Lannois  states  that 
after  a  careful  examination  of  the  ears  of  43 
young  offenders,  he  found  them  as  free  from 
anomalies  as  the  ears  of  other  people. 

"  Careful  inquiries  have  been  undertaken  by 
criminal  anthropologists  into  the  color  of  the 
hair,  the  length  of  the  arms,  the  color  of  the 
skin,  tattooing,  sensitiveness  to  pain  among  the 
criminal  population  ;  but  these  laborious  inves- 
tigations have  so  far  led  to  few  solid  conclu- 
sions. According  to  Lombroso,  insensibility  to 
pain  is  a  marked  characteristic  of  criminals,  but 
M.  Joly  denies  this.  In  this  connection  it 
must  be  borne  in  mind  that  a  prolonged  period 
of  imprisonment  will  change  the  face  of  any 
man,  whether  he  is  a  criminal  or  not.  If  a  man 
spends  a  certain  number  of  years  sharing  the 
life,  the  food,  the  occupations  of  five  or  six  hun- 
dred other  men,  if  he  mixes  with  them  and  with 
no  one  else,  he  will  inevitably  come  to  resemble 
them  in  face  and  feature.  A  remarkable  illus- 
tration of  this  fact  has  recently  been  brought  to 
light  by  the  Photographic  Society  of  Geneva. 
'  From  photographs  of  78  old  couples,  and  of 
as  many  adult  brothers  and  sisters,  it  was  found 
that  24  of  the  former  resembled  each  other  much 
more  strongly  than  as  many  of  the  latter  who 
were  thought  most  like  one  another.'  It  would, 
therefore,  seem  that  the  action  of  unconscious 
imitation,  arising  from  constant  contact,  is 
capable  of  producing  a  remarkable  change  in 
the  features,  the  acquired  expression  frequently 
tending  to  obliterate  inherited  family  resem- 
blances. According  to  Piderit,  physiognomy  is 
to  be  considered  as  a  mimetic  expression  which 
has  become  habitual.  The  criminal  type  of 
face,  so  conspicuous  in  old  offenders,  is  in  many 
cases  merely  a  prison  type. 

"Summing  up  our  inquiries  respecting  the 
criminal  type,  we  arrive,  in  the  first  place,  at  the* 
general  conclusion  that  so  far  as  it  has  a  real 
existence  it  is  not  born  with  a  man,  but  origi- 
nates either  in  the  prison,  and  is  then  merely  a 
prison  type,  or  in  criminal  habits  of  life,  and  is 
then  a  truly  criminal  type.  As  a  matter  of  fact, 
the  two  types  are  in  most  cases  blended  togeth- 
er, the  prison  type,  with  its  hard,  impassive 
rigidity  of  feature,  being  superadded  to  the  gait, 
gesture,  and  demeanor  of  the  habitual  criminal. 
In  combination  these  two  types  form  a  profes- 
sional type  and  constitute  what  Dr.  Bruce  Thom- 
son has  called  '  a  physique  distinctly  character- 
istic of  the  criminal  class.'  It  is  not,  however, 
a  type  which  admits  of  accurate  description, 
and  its  practical  utility  is  impaired  by  the  fact 


Criminal  Anthropology. 


Criminal  Anthropology. 


that  certain  of  its  features  are  sometimes  visible 
in  men  who  have  never  been  convicted. 

"  In  regard  to  psychological  characteristics, 
deficiencies  in  memory,  imagination,  reason,  are 
three  undoubted  characteristics  of  the  ordinary 
criminal  intellect.  Of  course,  there 
are  very  many  criminals  in  which 
Psychology,  all  these  qualities  are  present,  and 
whose  defects  lie  in  another  direc- 
tion, but  taken  as  a  whole  the  crim- 
inal is  unquestionably  less  gifted  intellectually 
than  the  rest  of  the  community. 

"  Respecting  the  emotions  of  criminals,  it  is 
much  more  difficult  to  speak,  and  much  more 
easy  to  fall  into  error.  The  only  thing  that  can 
be  said  of  them  for  certain  is  that  they  do  not, 
as  a  rule,  possess  the  same  keenness  of  feeling 
as  the  ordinary  man.  Some  Italian  writers 
make  much  of  the  religiosity  of  delinquents  ; 
such  a  sentiment  may  be  common  among  offend- 
ers in  Italy  ;  it  is  certainly  rare  among  the  same 
class  in  Great  Britain.  The  cellular  system  puts 
an  effective  stop  to  anything  like  active  hostility 
to  religion  ;  but  it  is  a  mistake  to  argue  from 
this  that  the  criminal  is  addicted  to  the  exercise 
of  religious  sentiments.  The  family  sentiment 
is  also  feebly  developed  ;  the  exceptions  to  this 
rule  form  a  small  fraction  of  the  criminal  popu- 
lation. 

"  The  will  in  criminals,  when  it  is  not  impair- 
ed by  disease,  is,  in  the  main,  dominated  by  a 
boundless  egoism.  He  may  have  a  sense  of 
duty  or  a  fear  of  punishment,  but  his  immense 
egoism  demands  gratification  at  any  cost. 

*'  The  criminal's  will  is,  however,  usually  dis- 
eased. In  some  cases  of  this  description  the 
will  is  practically  annihilated  ;  in  others  it  is 
under  the  dominion  of  momentary  caprice  ;  in 
others,  again,  it  has  no  power  of  concentration, 
or  it  is  the  victim  of  sudden  hurricanes  of  feel- 
ing which  drive  everything  before  them.  Per- 
sons afflicted  in  this  way,  when  not  drunkards, 
are  generally  convicted  for  crimes  of  violence, 
such  as  assault,  manslaughter,  murder.  They 
experience  real  sentiments  of  remorse,  but 
neither  remorse  nor  penitence  enables  them  to 
grapple  with  their  evil  star.  The  will  is  stricken 
with  disease,  and  the  man  is  dashed  hither  and 
thither,  a  helpless  wreck  on  the  sea  of  life. 

' '  There  are  thus  immense  differences  between 
criminals.  But  it  can  be  shown  that  criminals, 
taken  as  a  whole,  exhibit  a  higher  proportion  of 
physical  anomalies,  and  a  higher 
percentage  of  physical  degeneracy 
Degeneracy,  than  the  rest  of  the  community. 
With  respect  to  the  mental  condition 
of  criminals,  it  cannot  be  establish- 
ed that  it  is,  on  the  whole,  a  condition  of  insanity, 
or  even  verging  on  insanity.  But  it  can  be 
established  that  the  bulk  of  the  criminal  classes 
are  of  a  humbly-developed  mental  organization. 
Whether  we  call  this  low  state  of  mental  devel- 
opment, atavism,  or  degeneracy  is,  to  a  large  ex- 
tent, a  matter  of  words  ;  the  fact  of  its  wide- 
spread existence  among  criminals  is  the  impor- 
tant point. 

' '  The  results  of  this  inquiry  also  show  that  de- 
generacy among  criminals  is  sometimes  inherit- 
ed and  sometimes  acquired.  It  is  inherited  when 
the  criminal  is  descended  from  insane,  drunken, 
•epileptic,  scrofulous  parents  ;  it  is  often  acquired 


when  the  criminal  adopts  and  deliberately  per- 
sists in  a  life  of  crime.  The  closeness  of  the 
connection  between  degeneracy  and  crime  is, 
to  a  considerable  extent,  determined  by  social 
conditions.  A  degenerate  person,  who  has  to 
earn  his  own  livelihood,  is  much  more  likely  to 
become  a  criminal  than  another  degenerate  per- 
son who  has  not.  Almost  all  forms  of  degen- 
eracy render  a  man  more  or  less  unsuited  for 
the  common  work  of  life  ;  it  is  not  easy  for  such 
a  man  to  obtain  employment ;  in  certain  forms 
of  degeneracy  it  becomes  almost  impossible.  A 
person  in  this  unfortunate  position  often  becomes 
a  criminal,  not  because  he  has  strong  anti  social 
instincts,  but  because  he  cannot  get  work. 
Physically,  he  is  unfit  for  work,  and  he  takes  to 
crime  as  an  alternative. 

"  Another  important  result  is  the  close  connec- 
tion between  madness  and  crimes  of  blood.  We 
have  seen  that  almost  one  third  of  the  cases  of 
conviction  for  wilful  murder  are  cases  in  which 
the  murderer  is  found  to  be  insane.  And  this 
does  not  represent  the  full  proportion  of  mur- 
derers afflicted  men  tally  ;  a  considerable  percent- 
age of  those  sentenced  to  death  have  this  sen- 
tence commuted  on  mental  grounds.  In  Ger- 
many, from  26  to  28  per  cent,  of  criminals  suffer- 
ing from  mental  weakness  escape  the  observa- 
tion of  «the  courts  on  this  point,  and  so  else- 
where. The  actual  percentage  of  criminals  who 
suffer  from  mental  disorders  is  probably  much 
greater  than  is  generally  supposed. ' ' 

So  far  Mr.  Morrison.  Mr.  H.  M.  Boies,  in  his 
Prisoners  and  Paupers  (chap,  xii.),  says  : 

"  Herr  Sichart,  director  of  prisons  of  Wurtemburg, 
found  by  inquiry  extending  over  several   years,  and 
including  1714  cases,  that  'over  one  fourth  of  the  Ger- 
man prison  population  had  received  a  defective  organi- 
zation from  their  ancestry,  •which  manifests  itself  in  a 
life  of  crime.'    Dr.  Vergilio  says  that  'in  Italy  32  per 
cent,  of  the  criminal  population  have  in- 
herited criminal  tendencies  from  their 
parents.'    According  to   Dr.  H.  Mauds-     TTereditv 
ley,  '  the  idiot  is  not  an  accident,  nor  the  eiuiy. 

irreclaimable  criminal  an  unaccountable 
causality.'    Of  the  527  convicts  received 
in  the  Eastern  Penitentiary  of  Pennsylvania  in  1890,  93 
were  upon  their  third  or  more  sentence.     Seventeen 
of  these  had  been  detected,   arrested,  tried,  and  con- 
victed more  than  six  times.     One  of  them  was  to  serve 
his   fourteenth    sentence ;    68  of  these  prisoners  had 
relatives  who  were  then  or  had  been  in  prison  ;  and  103 
were  received  upon  their  second  sentence. 

"  In  a  paper  on  Criminal  Anthropology,  read  before 
the  National  Prison  Association  in  Cincinnati,  Dr.  H. 
D.  Wey,  physician  to  the  New  York  State  Reforma- 
tory, quotes  from  Dr.  J.  S.  Wright  : 

"  '  The  concurrent  and  unanimous  testimony  of  those 
who  are,  from  their  experience  and  knowledge,  most 
competent  to  judge,  is  :  that  the  great  underclass  of 
criminals  have  more  or  less  defective  organizations, 
especially  as  relates  to  their  nervous  system,  and  more 
especially  as  to  their  brain  ;  that  they  are  more  or  less 
deficient  in  moral  sense,  showing  in  this  respect  the 
lack  of  development  or  result  of  decay  ;  the  best  and 
last  developed  sense,  the  moral  sense,  disintegrating 
first  of  all ;  that  they  are  perversely  wicked  and  in- 
domitably inexpedient,  committing  crimes  when  do- 
ing right  would  be  of  more  use  to  them  ;  that  they  are 
as  passionate  as  the  wild  beasts  of  the  forest,  and  as 
restless  as  the  ocean  that  heaves  with  every  gust  of 
wind  ;  that  they  are  at  war  with  mankind  and  ever  in 
commotion  with  themselves  ;  that  they  are  like  the 
ship  beaten  out  by  the  storm— the  ship  without  com- 
pass, rudder,  or  captain  ;  they  are  formed  and  fash- 
ioned by  the  hand  of  an  evil  genius  whose  name  is  bad 
heredity,  and  whose  handmaid  is  ignorance  ;  and  that 
they  cannot  be  very  much  reformed,  and  that  their 
reformation  ought  to  have  begun  in  their  ancestors." 

"  Dugdale  in  his  study  of  the  '  Juke  '  family  traces 
1200  criminals  and  paupers  impregnated  with  the 


Criminal  Anthropology. 


414 


Criminal  Anthropology. 


vicious  blood  of  one  ancestor  in  seven  generations,  who 
cost  the  public  over  $1,300,000. 

"Rev.  O.  McCulloch,  of  Indianapolis,  discovered  and 
identified  1750  descendants  of  Ben  Ishmael,  living  in 
Kentucky  in  1790,  who  had  been  criminals  and  paupers, 
among  whom  121  were  prostitutes.  In  six  generations 
75  per  cent,  of  the  cases  treated  in  the  City  Hospital  in 
Indianapolis  were  of  the  tribe  of  Ben  Ishmael.  Court 
Pastor  Stocker,  of  Berlin,  investigated  the  history  of 
834  descendants  of  two  sisters,  the  eldest  of  whom  died 
in  1825.  Among  these  he  found  76  who  had  served  116 
years  in  prison  for  serious  crimes,  164  prostitutes,  106 
illegitimate  children,  17  pimps,  142  beggars,  64  paupers 
in  almshouses  ;  estimated  to  have  cost  the  State  more 
than  $500,000. 

"The  trustees  of  the  Children's  Home  in  Washington 
County,  O.,  in  their  eighteenth  annual  report,  state 
that  66  per  cent,  of  the  inmates  of  their  home  from  that 
county  in  the  preceding  two  years  had  been  related  by 
blood  or  marriage. 

"  Major  McClaughry,  the  eminent  penologist  who 
had  charge  of  the  Joliet  Prison  in  Illinois  for  many 
years,  and  lately  resigned  the  superintendence  of  the 
Huntington  Reformatory  in  Pennsylvania,  to  accept 
the  office  of  Chief  of  Police  in  Chicago,  says,  'that 
criminal  parentage,  and  association,  and  neglect  of 
children  by  their  parents,'  are  the  great  causes  of  the 
increase  of  criminality  in  America. 


"  The  best  authorities  abroad  fix  the  proportion  of 
the  incorrigible  at  from  25  to  32  per  cent,  of  the  con- 
victs. In  America  it  is  undoubtedly  larger,  because 
we  have  so  long  offered  an  open  haven  of  refuge  to  all 
people,  without  any  application  of  our  proverbial 
common  sense  to  penal  legislation  and  management." 

Mr.  Arthur  MacDonald,  in  his  Criminology, 
adds  many  important  facts,  giving  more  weight 
to  Professor  Lombroso's  conclusion  than  does 
Mr.  Morrison.  (See  above.)  He  says  : 

"  From  79  children  less  than  12  years  of  age  confined 
in  houses  of  correction,  among  whom  were  40  thieves, 
27  vagabonds,  7  homicides,  and  3  whose  crime  is  not 
stated,  Lombroso  finds  as  predominat- 
ing anomalies :  30  with  deformed  ears, 
21  with  small,   retreating  foreheads,   19  Asymmetry. 
plagiocephalic,  16  with  projecting  cheek- 
bones,   14  with  prominent  jaws,  7  with 
raised  frontal  sinuses,  6  hydrocephalic,  5  cross-eyed, 
14  with  facial    asymmetry,   10  with   physiognomy  of 
cretins,  9  goitrous,  and  9  with  deformed  nose." 

The  following  table  is  based  upon  3000  cases 
studied  by  independent  investigators,  by  Lom- 
broso,  Legge,  and  Amodei : 


TABLE    OF    ASYMMETRY. 


MALES. 

FEMALES. 

Normal. 

Criminal. 

Criminal. 

Normal. 

Savage. 

Insane. 

Per  Cent. 
20.  o 
18  o 
25.0 
9.0 
28.0 
5-0 
0.8 
4-i 
27.0 
18.0 
i-5 
25.0 
6.0 
29.0 
4-5 
52.0 

2.0 

6.0 
6.0 
34-0 
29.0 
13.0 
15.0 
6.0 

6.3 

27.0 

2.O 
29.0 

1  6.0 

2-5 

15.0 

Per  Cent. 

42.0 
31  o 
37-o 

12.  0 

59-° 
9.0 

3-° 
16.0 
15.0 
36.0 

3-4 
62.0 

2.0 

37-o 
10.6 
24.0 
7-5 
18.0 
6.0 
34-o 
30.0 
31.0 

22.  0 
25.0 
I.O 

43-o 
9.0 
50.0 
23.0 

10.0 

6.0 
46.0 

Per  Cent. 

2  I.O 
3I.O 
26.O 

5-o 
46.0 

1-7 
3-2 
3-2 
8.1 
6.8 
6.6 
29.0 

3-2 

25.0 

3-3 
3-3 

32.0 
7-6 

33-o 

3-° 
11.5 

9.2 

Per  Cent. 
17.2 
17.2 
'3-3 

IO.O 

20.  o 
6.8 

3-4 

IO.O 

19.0 
o-5 
6-5 

IO.O 

6.9 

O.I 

6.9 

Per  Cent. 

IOO. 

8.0 
5-1 

5-4 
26.0 

12.0 
IOO. 

40.0 

IOO. 
IOO. 

6e!o 

IOO. 

Per  Cent. 

24.0 
50.0 
28.0 
9.0 
68.0 
3-8 

2-7 

14.0 
67.0 
63.0 

80.0 
18.0 
0.5 

Cranial  sclerosis  

Sutures  ("  soudees  ")     

Suture  ("  metopique  ")  

Wormian  bones    

Epactal  bone  

Fusion  of  atlas  with  occipital  bone  

Middle  occipital  fossa  

Hollow  of  Civini  

Receding  forehead  

Frontal  Appophyses  of  the  temporal  bone.  . 
Superciliary  ridges  and  developed  sinuses.. 
Anomalies  of  lower  teeth  

Large  jaws  

Very  large  jaws  

Traces  of  the  intermaxillary  suture  
"  Oxycephalic  "  

Double  sub-orbitary  fossa  

"  Subscaphocepalic  "  

Prognatism  

Projecting  zygomaticapophyses  

Nasal  Glabella  much  depressed  ....        .... 

Platycephalic  

Asymmetry  of  the  face  

Asymmetry  of  the  teeth  

Projection  of  the  temporal  bones  

Frontal  beak  of  the  coronal  suture  
Depression  of  the  coronal  glands  

Wormian  bone  of  pterion  

Anomalies  of  the  occipital  fossa  

Feminality  

Virility  

Projection  of  the  orbital  angle  of  the  frontal 
bone  

15.0 

Concerning  the  intelligence  of  criminals,  Dr. 
MacDonald  says  : 

"  In  intelligence  the  criminal  is  below  the  average. 

It  must  be  remembered  that  the  wandering  and  un-- 

certain  life  of  a  criminal  and  'his  knocking  about  in 

the   world  favor  a  development  of  his 

intelligence.    The  first  in  Europe  to  in- 

Inte]ligence.  vestigate  and  establish  an  average  were 

the  Spaniards.    Out  of  53,600  about  67 

per  cent,  had  a  fair  intelligence,  10  per 

cent,  were  below  the  average,  and  18  per  cent,  were 

depraved  mentally  ;  less  than   i   per  cent,   possessed 

hardly  any  intelligence,  and  2%  per  cent,  could  not  be 

classified. 

"  Lombroso  gives  the  following  table  as  to  educa- 
tion : 


Delinquents. 
(5°7) 

Normals. 
(100.) 

i.  Analphabets  

Per  Cent. 

Per  Cent. 

6 

2.  Elementarv  instruction.. 
3.  Superior  instruction  

95 

12 

69 
27 

"  Here  507  criminals  are  compared  with  100  normal 
men.  The  criminals  are  much  below  the  normals  in 
the  two  extremes,  but  not  in  the  elementary  instruc- 
tion. 

"  In  Austria  the  lowest  per  cent,  of  crime  (0.83  to  0.71 


Criminal  Anthropology. 


Criminology. 


per  cent.)  for  14  years  was  found  to  be  among  those 
engaged  in  scientific  work. 

"  With  poets  and  artists  crime  is  more  frequent ; 
they  are  dominated  more  by  passion  than  those  en- 
gaged in  severe  inductions  or  deductions. 

"  Criminality  is  more  frequent  among  the  liberal 
professions.  In  Italy  6.1  per  cent,  of  criminals  have 
superior  education  ;  in  France,  6.0  per  cent.  ;  in  Austria, 
from  3.6  to  3.  n  per  cent.  ;  in  Bavaria,  4.0  per  cent.  The 
proportion  is  here  relatively  greater  than  in  the  other 
classes  of  society  ;  it  is  easy  for  the  physician  to  give 
poison,  the  lawyer  to  cause  perjury  to  be  committed, 
and  the  teacher  rape.  Illiteracy  is  extremely  common 
among  prostitutes. 

"  As  compared  with  the  insane  ;  criminals  are  much 
more  lazy  ;  but  what  they  do  has  more  purpose.  Edu- 
cation tends  to  diminish  monomania,  religious  and 
epidemical  insanity,  insanity  of  murder,  and  it  gives 
to  crime  a  less  violent  and  less  base  appearance." 

Concerning  the  power  of  contagion  upon  crim- 
inals, Dr.  MacDonald  says  : 

"  Indirect  contagion  is  as  certain  as  the  direct. 
Aubry  gives  several  cases  in  illustration  : 

"  A  woman  of  Geneva,  Switzerland,  in  1885,  killed 
her  four  children,  then  tried  to  commit  suicide.  In 
her  autobiography  were  these  words :  '  As  a  woman 
did  it,  which  was  in  the  newspaper." 

"  In  1881  a  lad  of  15  years  stole  from  his  patron ; 
when  the  money  was  spent  he  found  a  child  and  stab- 
bed it  in  the  abdomen,  and  as  he  cut  its  throat  he 
said:  '  I  have  often  read  novels,  and  in  one  of  them  I 
found  the  description  of  a  scene  parallel  to  this  which 
I  have  executed.'  " 

Concerning  criminal  hypnotism,  see  HYP- 
NOTISM. 

As  a  result  of  the  study  of  the  criminal,  crimi- 
nologists  come  to  the  conclusions  as  to  the  treat- 
ment of  criminals  stated  in  the  articles  CRIMI- 
NOLOGY and  PENOLOGY.  Dr.  MacDonald  sum- 
marizes them  thus  : 

i.  It  is  detrimental  financially,  as  well  as  so- 
cially and  morally,  to  release  prisoners  when 
there    is    probability    of   their  re- 
turning to  crime  ;  for  in  this  case 
Summary,    the  convict  is  less  expensive  than 
the  ex-convict. 

2.  The  determinate  sentence  per- 
mits many  prisoners  to  be  released  who  are 
morally  certain  to  return  to  crime.  The  inde- 
terminate sentence  is  the  best  method  of  afford- 
ing the  prisoner  an  opportunity  to  reform  with- 
out exposing  society  to  unnecessary  dangers. 

3.  The  ground  for  the  imprisonment  of  the 
criminal  is,  first  of  all,  because  he  is  dangerous 
to  society.     This  principle  avoids  the   uncer- 
tainty that  may  rest  upon  the  decision  as  to  the 
degree  of  freedom  ;  for  upon  this  last  principle 
some  of  the  most  brutal  crimes  would  receive  a 
light  punishment. 

4.  The  publication  in  the  newspapers  of  crim- 
inal details  and  photographs  is  a  positive  evil 
to  society  on  account  of  the  law  of  imitation  ; 
and,  in  addition,  it  makes  the  criminal  proud  of 
his  record,  and  develops  the  morbid  curiosity 
of  the  people.     And  it  is  especially  the  mentally 
and  morally  weak  who  are  affected. 

5.  It  is  admitted  by  some  of  the  most  intelli- 
gent criminals,  and  by  prison  officers  in  gen- 
eral, that  the  criminal  is  a  fool  ;  for  he  is  oppos- 
ing himself  to  the  best,  the  largest,  and  the 
strongest  portion  of  society,  and  is  almost  sure 
to  fail. 

He  adds  :  "If,  as  Lombroso  thinks,  crime  is 
a  return  to  the  primitive  and  barbarous  state  of 
our  ancestors,  the  criminal  being  a  savage  born 
into  modern  civilization,  then  for  such  there  is 


little  hope  of  reformation.     But  these  are  crim- 
inals by  nature  and  constitute  a  very  small  pro- 
portion, less  than  one  tenth.    The  French  school 
of  criminology  has  shown  that  the 
greater  part  of  crime  arises  out  of 
social    conditions,    and    hence    is     Results, 
amenable  to  reformation,  by  the 
changing     of     these     conditions. 
Buechner  says  that  defect  of  intelligence,  pov- 
erty, and  want  of  education  are  the  three  great 
factors  in  crime.     Major  McClaughry,  of  wide 
prison  experience,  and  chief  of  the  Chicago  po- 
lice, considers  criminal  parentage  and  associa- 
tions, and  neglect  of  children  by  their  parents, 
as  first  among  the  causes  of  the  criminal  class. 
D'Olivererona,  author  of  a  French    work    on 
habitual  criminality,  asserts  that  three  fourths 
of  those  who  enter  prison  have  been  conducted 
to  crime  from  the  results  of  a  neglected  educa- 
tion. 

"  Now,  education,  in  the  narrow  sense  of  mere 
intellectual  instruction,  is  not  sufficient  to  reform 
children  who  spend  one  fourth  of  the  day  in 
school,  and  three  fourths  on  the  street  or  with 
criminal,  drunken,  or  idle  parents.  But  are 
there  not  reform  schools  ?  Yes  ;  but  no  provi- 
sion has  been  made  for  the  little  children. 

"  One  of  the  principal  facts  brought  out  at 
the  late  National  Prison  Congress  at  Baltimore 
was  that  all  prisons  should  be  reformatories. 
All  men,  no  matter  how  old  in  crime,  can  at 
least  be  improved  and  benefited  ;  that  is  to 
say,  the  best  prisons  of  the  future  will  be  re- 
formatory prisons,  and  the  main  means  of  re- 
form will  be  the  inculcation  of  good  mental, 
moral,  physical,  and  industrial  habits — in  other 
words,  education." 

Says  Mr.  Boies  :  "  Permanent  seclusion  for  the 
natural  and  incorrigible  criminal,  and  indeter- 
minate sentence  to  a  reform  school  or  reforma- 
tory for  first  and  second  convictions,  except  for 
the  most  heinous  crimes,  and  special,  perma- 
nent wardens  for  all  jails,  with  complete  reform 
of  management,  are  the  three  vitally  essential 
requirements  of  modern  penology  in  America." 

References  :  Arthur  MacDonald's  Criminology  (1852) 
and  The  Abnormal  Man  (1893)  L  Havelock  Ellis's  The 
Criminal  (1892) ;  H.  M.  Boies's  Prisoners  and  Paupers 
(1893) ;  W.  D.  Morrison's  Crime  and  its  Causes  (1891). 
(See  also  CRIMINOLOGY.) 

CRIMINOLOGY  is  the  science  which  treats 
of  the  nature,  causes,  growth,  and  prevention 
of  crime,  together  with  the  nature,  punishment, 
and  reformation  of  the  criminal.  Criminal  an- 
thropology is  that  portion  of  criminology  which 
treats  of  the  nature  of  the  criminal,  and  penol- 
ogy that  portion  which  treats  of  his  punishment 
and  reformation.  We  shall,  therefore,  treat 
these  subjects  under  their  respective  heads. 
(See  CRIMINAL  ANTHROPOLOGY  and  PENOLOGY.) 
The  statistics  and  character  of  crime  we  study 
under  CRIME.  In  this  article  we  consider,  I.  The 
Development  of  the  Science  of  Criminology  ; 
II.  The  Causes  of  Crime  ;  III.  The  Prevention 
of  Crime. 

I.  THE  SCIENCE. 

Criminology  is  a  comparatively  new  science. 
Penology  in  a  way  has  been  studied  as  long  as 
human  punishments  have  been  inflicted,  and 


Criminology. 


416 


Criminology. 


from  the  classic  times  there  has  been  more  or 
less  thought  and  written  as  to  the  nature  of 
crime  ;  yet  only  recently  has  crime  been  studied 
in  a  scientific  manner,  with  deduction  and  induc- 
tion from  carefully  observed  facts.  The  father 
of  modern  criminology  is  Professor  Cesare  Lom- 
broso,  of  Turin,  whose  epoch-making  work, 
L'uomo  delinquente,  appearing  in  1876,  may 
be  said  to  have  almost  created  the  science. 
Since  then  the  study  of  the  science  has  been 
general,  yet  Italy  still  leads.  Says  Dr.  Arthur 
MacDonald,  in  his  Abnormal  Man,  published 
in  1893  by  the  United  States  Bureau  of  Educa- 
tion : 

"  In  1885  the  first  international  congress  [for  the  con- 
sideration of  criminology]  was  held  at  Rome.  The 
second  congress  met  at  Paris.  At  first  the  scientific 
.study  of  criminology  was  looked  upon  with  suspicion. 
At  present  interest  in  the  subject  is  greatly  increasing. 
Like  every  new  science,  it  is  in  its  polemical  stage. 
The  Italians  are  the  innovators.  The  criminologists 
are  divided  into  two  parties :  one  emphasizes  the  pa- 
thological or  atavistic  causes  ;  the  other,  the  psycho- 
logical and  sociological.  The  latter  are  subdivided 
into  socialists,  who  would  account  for  everything  by 
the  inequality;  of  economic  conditions,  and  those  who 
take  into  consideration  all  social  phenomena.. 

"  Criminology  proper  maybe  divided  into  general, 
special,  and  practical.  General  criminology  consists 
in  a  summary  and  synthesis  of  all  the  facts  known. 
Special  criminology "  concerns  the  investigation  of 
individual  cases,  physically,  psychically,  and  histori- 
cally considered.  Here,  perhaps,  is  the  most  promis- 
ing field  for  the  advancement  of  criminology  as  a 
science.  The  practical  side,  which  includes  all  meth- 
ods and  institutions  for  the  prevention  or  repression 
of  crime,  is  the  most  familiar  to  the  public. 

"  The  subdivisions  of  criminal  anthropology  or  crim- 
inology and  its  relations  to  other  sciences  might  be  in- 
dicated as  follows : 

"Criminal  embryology  considers  the  analogies  of 
crime  in  the  vegetable  and  animal  kingdoms.  The 
anatomy  of  criminology  includes  more  especially  the 
craniology,  cerebrology,  histology,  an- 
thropometry and  physiognomy  of  the 
Subdivisions,  criminal.  In  criminal  psychology  one 
would  study  the  entire  psychical  life  : 
intelligence,  sentiments,  sensibility, 
ethics,  esthetics,  and  religion.  Criminal  sociology 
comprehends  the  association  of  criminals  ;  their  rela- 
tion to  the  State ;  economically,  and  in  connection 
with  poverty  and  misery.  Criminal  jurisprudence 
takes  into  consideration  all  criminal  laws  and  their 
underlying  principles.  Penology  treats  of  the  princi- 
ples, degrees,  and  methods  of  punishment.  Statistical 
criminology  has  for  its  object  the  arrangement,  classi- 
fication, and  summary  of  all  criminal  data,  and  their 
interpretation.  Criminal  hypnology  concerns  those 
hypnotic  and  partially  hypnotic  conditions  in  which 
crime  is  committed,  especially  in  the  case  of  hysteri- 
cal individuals.  Criminal  epidemiology  considers  those 
conditions  where,  through  imitation  or  by  a  sort  of 
contagion,  crime  suddenly  develops.  Criminal  tera- 
tology  treats  of  pathological  sexuality,  onanism,  ped- 
erasty, sodomy,  masochism  and  sadism,  and  saphism. 
Criminal  prophilaxy  considers  the  methods  of  preven- 
tion through  alterations  of  social  condition,  physical, 
intellectual,  moral,  and  religious  education  ;  by  means 
of  prisons,  transportation,  and  deportation.  The  plii- 
losophy.  of  criminology  takes  up  the  more  disputed 
questions  and  theories,  as  atavism,  infantilism  (natu- 
ral depravity  of  children),  degeneracy,  the  interpreta- 
tion of  psychical  and  physical  characteristics,  and 
crimino-psychiatrical  cases.  We  may  add  that  the 
whole  study  of  pathological  humanity  may  do  for  hu- 
manity what  pathology  has  done  for  medicine." 

Prominent  among  criminologists  are,  besides 
Lombroso,  the  Italians,  Beccaria,  Ferri,  Garo- 
folo,  Rossi,  Tenchini  ;  the  Germans,  Benedikt 
von  Holder,  Holtzendorf  ;  the  French,  Drs. 
Aubry,  Berillon,  Bernheim,  Corre,  Joly,  Lau- 
rent, Magnan,  Tarde  ;  the  English  and  Ameri- 
cans, Brockway,  Ellis,  Falkner,  MacDonald, 
Morrison,  Rylands,  E.  C.  and  F.  H.  Wines. 
T'o  show  the  present  development  of  the  sci- 
ence, we  quote  the  following  report  of  the  In- 


Various 
Views. 


ternational  Congress  for  Criminal  Anthropology 
in  Brussels  in  1892,  as  written  by  Dr.  MacDon- 
ald in  his  Abnormal  Man.  He  says  : 

"  Dimitri  Drill,  publicist  at  Moscow,  in  his  report  as 
to  the  fundamental  principles  of  criminal  anthropology 
or  criminology,  traced  the  origin  of  the  school  to  Gall, 
its  grandfather,  and  to  'Lombroso,  the  father  and 
founder.'  In  speaking  of  the  Italian  school,  he  acknowl- 
edged the  great  merits  of  Lombroso,  but  could  not  fol- 
low him  in  all  his  opinions.  His  resume  of  the  princi- 
ples and  tendencies  of  the  school  of  criminal  anthro- 
pology is  as  follows  : 

"  i.  Criminology  renounces  entirely  the  law  of  retali- 
ation as  end,  principal,  or  basis  of  all  judicial  punish- 
ment. The  basis  and  purpose  of  punishment  is  the 
necessity  of  protecting  society  against  the  sad  conse- 
quences of  crime,  either  by  moral  reclamation  of  the 
criminal  or  by  his  separation  from  society  ;  punish- 
ment is  not  to  satisfy  vengeance. 

"  2.  In  criminology  it  is  not  sufficient  to  study  the 
fact  of  crime  ;  the  criminal  himself  must  be  considered; 
it  becomes  necessary  to  define  the  causes  which  pro- 
duce crime,  to  study  the  sphere  of  action 
of  the  criminal  as  well  as  measures  for 
the  safety  of  society  against  his  acts. 
Criminology  does  not  study  the  crimi- 
nal in  the  abstract  and  speculate  over 
his  guilt  or  responsibility  ;  but  it  an- 
alyzes him  according  to  results  purely 
scientific,  and  •with  the  aid  of  exact  methods  which 
apply  equally  to  the  investigation  of  other  phenom- 
ena. 

"  3.  In  crime  the  results  of  two  factors  are  seen  re- 
ciprocally reacting :  first,  the  individual  peculiarities 
from  the  nature  ofthe  criminal  or  his  psycho-physical 
organization,  then  the  peculiarities  of  external  influ- 
ences, as  climate,  nature  of  country,  and  social  sur- 
roundings. 

"4.  Relying  upon  exact  results,  criminology  reveals 
the  criminal  as  an  organization  more  or  less  unfor- 
tunate, vicious,  impoverished,  ill-balanced,  defective, 
and  so  not  adapted  to  struggle  with  surrounding  con- 
ditions, and  consequently  incapable  of  maintaining 
this  struggle  in  legally  established  ways.  This  defect 
of  adaptation  for  the  majority  is  not  absolute,  but 
varies  with  the  conditions. 

"  5.  The  causes  of  crime  fall  into  three  categories : 
(a)  immediate,  which  arise  from  the  character  of  the 
criminal ;  (b)  more  remote,  which  are  hidden  in  his  un- 
favorable surroundings,  under  the  influence  of  which 
organic  peculiarities  are  developed  into  more  or  less 
constant  criminal  agents ;  (c)  predisposing  causes, 
which  push  these  ill-proportioned  and  viciously  devel- 
oped organizations  toward  crime. 

"6.  Thus  basing  crime  upon  scientific  grounds, 
criminology  has  as  its  purpose  a  fundamental  study  of 
the  actual  criminal  and  his  crimes  as  ordinary  phe- 
nomena which  it  must  investigate  throughout  their 
whole  extent,  from  their  genesis  to  their  full  growth 
and  final  development.  Thus  the  phenomenon  of 
crime  is  united  with  great  social  questions. 

"7.  Based  upon  these  principles,  criminology  logi- 
cally recognizes  an  absence  of  good  sense  in  repressive 
measures  determined  in  advance  as  to  their  duration 
and  specific  character.  Criminology,  on  the  contrary, 
affirms  the  necessity  of  studying  individual  peculiari- 
ties, before  rendering  decisions  in  advance.  The  term 
of  punishment  should  endure  so  long  as  the  causes  exist 
which  necessitate  it ;  it  should  cease  as  soon  as  the 
causes  do. 

"  Manouvrier,  who  is  professor  in  the  anthropo- 
logical school  at  Paris,  and  the  well-known  opponent 
of  Lombroso's  criminal  type,  in  his  paper  on  the  com- 
parative study  of  criminals  and  normal  men,  did  not 
find  any  real  distinctive  differences  except  in  sur- 
rounding conditions,  which  modify  the  associations  or 
combinations  of  habitudes  and  correlatively  the 
anatomical  confirmation. 

"  Dr.  Lacassagne,  professor  at  Lyons,  in  discussing 
the  primordial  sentiments  of  criminals,  distinguished 
three  classes  :  The  frontals  (intellectual),  the  parietals 
or  impulsive  class,  and  the  occipitals  or  the  emotional 
class  ;  the  brain  is  an  agglomeration  of  instincts  which 
at  a  given  moment  can  have  a  special  function,  and  it 
is  the  preponderance  of  one  of  these  instincts  which  can 
control  the  whole  situation  ;  this  explains  the  want  of 
reflection  and  of  prudence  in  criminals ;  cerebral 
equilibrium,  on  the  contrary,  indicates  virtue.  The 
occipital  instincts  are  in  close  relations  with  the  vis- 
cera, and  so  with  nutrition  ;  hence  the  importance  of 
these  as  social  factors.  This  indicates  that  in  the  future 
it  may  be  necessary  to  found  the  theory  of  criminality 
upon  cerebral  function. 


Criminology. 


417 


Criminology. 


"  One  of  the  most  important  papers  in  the  Congress 
was  that  on  '  Morbid  Criminal  Possession '  by  Dr. 
Magnan,  physician  and  superintendent  of  the  Ste. 
Anne  Insane  Asylum  at  Paris.  Such  a 
morbid  possession  consists  generally  of 
Tffnrhirt  an  ^ea  lsolated  and  independent  of  the 
moruiu  ordinary  course  of  thought ;  it  is  a  mode 
Possession,  of  activity  in  the  brain,  in  which  a  word 
or  image  imposes  itself  upon  the  mind, 
apart  from  the  volition  ;  in  the  normal 
state  this  idea  or  possession  gives  no  special  uneasiness, 
but  in  abnormal  personsit  can  produce  a  painful  agony 
and  become  irresistible.  In  the  normal  state  the  pos- 
session is  transitory  and  generally  easy  to  repress,  and 
does  not  involve  the  other  intellectual  operations. 
But  in  an  abnormal  or  diseased  subject  the  indiyidual 
can  be  irresistibly  pushed  to  acts  which  he  consciously 
disapproves  of.  Owing  to  a  want  of  knowledge  of 
such  states,  judicial  and  medical  errors  have  not  been 
infrequent.  Thus  a  person  pushed  by  the  possession 
of  the  irresistible  idea  to  murder  (generally  a  cher- 
ished friend),  altho  horrified  by  the  thought,  commits 
the  act.  One  of  Magnan's  patients,  when  having  a 
premonition  of  the  impulsion  coming  on,  would  shut 
herself  up  in  a  room  until  relieved.  .  .  . 

"  According  to  Dr.  Ladame,  professor  at  Geneva,  an 
individual  possessed  with  the  idea  of  murder  belongs 
to  the  group  of  hereditary  mental  degenerates;  such 
individuals  are  rare.  If  it  be  admitted  that  this  mor- 
bid possession  is  frequent,  on  the  other  hand  it  rarely 
pushes  to  homicide,  but  is  turned  toward  the  indi- 
vidual himself,  resulting  in  suicide.  Dr.  Ladame 
maintains  that  heredity  is  the  main  predisposing  cause, 
but  an  occasional  cause  is  also  necessary,  and  this  is 
principally  in  the  publication  of  details  in  great  crimes. 
An  acquired  predisposition  is  due  to  alcoholism.  It  is 
necessary  to  distinguish  between  insane  murderers 
and  those  pushed  to  murder  by  morbid  possessions. 
The  latter  belong  to  the  large  category  of  those  affected 
by  hereditary  insanity,  as  dipsomania,  kleptomania, 
etc.  The  possession  of  the  idea  of  murder  is  spo- 
radic, but  is  more  frequently  found  under  the  form 
of  a  moral  epidemic,  resulting  from  the  widespread 
knowledge  of  great  crimes  and  from  capital  execu- 
tions. 

"  No  question  stirred  up  more  discussion  than  crim- 
inal suggestion.  While  distinguished  men  were 
frankly  agnostic  as  to  conclusions  of  their  colleagues, 
yet  it  may  be  said  that  those  who  have  made  the  most 
experiments  on  both  normal  and  abnormal  subjects 
are  convinced  that  criminal  suggestion  and  hypnotism 
can  be  produced  experimentally,  and  actually  do  occur 
in  society. 

"  Dr.  Voisin,  physician  at  La  Salpetriere,  who  is  es- 
pecially qualified  to  speak  in  regard  to  hypnotism,  es- 
pecially as  to  its  therapeutical  value,  maintained  that 
criminal  suggestability  in  the  waking  or  hypnotic 
state  is  intimately  connected  with  debility  or  mental 
degeneracy  of  the  individual  to  whom  the  suggestion 
is  given.  There  is  a  small  number  capable  of  commit- 
ting criminal  acts  upon  the  example  of  degenerated 
impulsive  individuals.  The  penal  responsibility  of  an 
individual  having  committed  a  crime  under  the  influ- 
ence of  hypnotic  suggestion  should  be  declared  null, 
conforming  to  the  French  penal  code  (article  64),  which 
says  :  '  There  is  neither  crime  nor  misdemeanor,  if  the 
accused  was  in  a  state  of  dementia  at  the  time  of  the 
act,  or  if  he  has  been  constrained  by  a  force  which  he 
could  not  resist.'  As  to  its  therapeutical  value,  hypno- 
tism in  the  hands  of  a  physician  can  give  admirable 
results.  It  can  also  save  from  crime  and  from  the 
condemnation  of  the  innocent,  as  well  as  from  dis- 
ease. 

"  Dr.  Berillon,  editor  of  the  Revue  de  F  Hy-pnotisme, 
as  a  result  of  his  own  investigations  and  experiments 
in  criminal  suggestion,  believes  he  is  justified  in  con- 
cluding that  certain  individuals  present  in  the  waking 
state  such  a  suggestibility  that  it  would  be  possible  to 
make  them  execute  automatically  and  unconsciously, 
when  under  the  influence  of  verbal  suggestion,  mis- 
demeanors or  crimes.  If  it  is  shown  that  the  accused 
acted  under  such  suggestions,  he  should  not  be  held 
responsible.  On  the  other  hand,  authors  of  criminal 
suggestions  should  be  held  guilty  in  the  same  way  as 
those  who  by  abuse  of  authority  or  power  or  by 
machinations  provoke  the  accomplishment  of  a  crime 
or  misdemeanor,  or  simply  give  instructions  to  com- 
mit it  (French  penal  code,  article  60). 

"  Neither  Professor  Benedikt,  of  Vienna,  nor  Profes- 
sor Mendel,  of  Berlin,  believe  in  the  existence  of  crime 
by  suggestion.  Dr.  Masoin,  professor  at  Louvain, 
answered  that  negations  cannot  prevail  in  the  pres- 
ence of  facts.  Voisin  insisted  again  on  his  opinion, 
since  by  hypnotism  he  had  saved  from  condemnation 


a  woman,  to  whom  a  crime  had  been  suggested.  Dr. 
Houze,  professor  of  anthropology  at  Brussels,  be- 
lieved that  hysteria  could  be  cured  by  hypnotism,  and 
that  certainly  it  could  be  ameliorated  ;  he  believed 
also  in  the  reality  of  criminal  suggestion. 

"  Judge  Tarde,  of  Sarlat,  in  France,  well  known  as 
the  author  of  The  Laivs  of  Imitation  and  of  Social  and 
Penal  Philosophy,  gave  with  his  usual  analytical  finesse 
a  curious  and  paradoxical  discourse  on  the  Crimes  of 
Crowds.  Morally  and  intellectually  men  in  throngs 
are  less  valuable  than  in  detail,  that  is,  social  collec- 
tivity, especially  when  it  takes  the  form  of  a  crowd, 
is  morally  inferior  to  the  average  individual  in  the 
crowd  ;  thus  a  nation  is  not  as  moral  as  its  normal 
'citizen'  type;  the  public  are  not  as  moral  as  the  in- 
dividuals which  compose  it.  The  collective  spirit, 
which  we  call  parliament  or  congress,  is  not  equal  in 
rapid  or  sure  power  of  functioning,  or  in  profoundness 
or  amplitude  of  deliberation,  to  the  spirit  of  the  most 
mediocre  of  its  members,  whence  the  proverb  :  Sena- 
tores  bonivici,  senatus  autem  mala  bestia.  Even  a  lib- 
eral sect  will  become  intolerant  and  despotic ;  a 
crowd  still  more  so  ;  in  both  cases  despotism  in  any 
event  is  much  more  intolerant  and  despotic  than 
among  a  majority  of  the  members.  Why  ?  Because 
the  contiguity  and  concentration  of  opinions  are  mold- 
ed into  conviction  and  faith,  which  became  fanatical ; 
that  which  was  a  simple  desire  in  the  individual  be- 
comes a  passion  in  the  crowd.  The  crowd  is  a  retro- 
grade social  organism  ;  no  matter  how  perfect,  it  is 
passionate,  not  rational.  The  more  collective  a  crime 
the  less  it  is  punished.  The  best  police  force  cannot 
suppress  the  brutality  of  the  crowd,  unless  the  press 
cease  to  publish  that  which  produces  excitation  to 
crime  or  misdemeanor.  The  jury  will  not  punish  such 
crimes,  especially  when  they  have  a  political  color. 
Thus  the  necessity  of  an  exclusive  criminal  magistra- 
ture  is  shown.  The  punishment  should  be,  above  all, 
as  an  example.  The  individual  should  be  punished  in 
the  measure  that  his  impunity  is  dangerous. 

"  Dr.  Coutagne,  medical  expert  at  Lyons,  in  his  paper 
on  the  influence  of  the  profession  on  criminality,  ad- 
vocated the  increase  of  penalty  where  the  nature  of 
the  profession  aggravates  the  crime,  as  in  the  case  of 
abortion  by  physicians.  Following  the  principle  of 
social  necessity,  the  penalties  for  the  use  of  injurious 
substances  in  food,  defamation  of  character  by  journal- 
ists, etc.,  should  be  increased. 

"  The  respective  importance  of  anthropological  and 
social  elements  in  the  determination  of  penalty  -was 
considered  by  Dr.  Gauckler  ;  he  showed  that  the  essen- 
tial function  of  criminal  law  is  to  prevent  crime  by  in- 
timidation, and  that  this  function  is  conditioned  ex- 
clusively by  social  elements  ;  a  secondary  function  is 
to  be  assured  as  to  the  '  innocuity'  of  a  first  offender, 
and  also  in  some  degree  to  repair  the  prejudice  from 
which  a  victim  suffers. 

"  Professor  Von  Liszt,  of  the  University  of  Halle,  in 
considering  the  applications  of  criminal  anthropology, 
said  that  the  most  important  one  is  subordination  to 
criminal  sociology.    The  profound  difference  between 
criminals  by  nature  and  by  occasion  is  a  result  that 
can  be  immediately  applied  to  legisla- 
tion.   Among  the  delinquents  by  nature 
are    found  a  large   number   of  degen-     Criminal 
crated  individuals  especially  marked  by     SoniAloo-v 
heredity.    Punition  must  seek  to  com-  «"• 

bat  and  ameliorate  the  criminal  by  de- 
generacy ;  if  the  criminal  is  young,  the 
most    preferable    measures  are   those    of   education. 
Whether  the  criminal  is  incurable  or  not,  society  must 
be  protected  against  him  and  he  must  be  protected 
against  himself. 

"  Professor  Benedikt  submitted  the  following  resolu- 
tion, that  anthropological  and  biological  studies  are  in- 
dispensable tor  the  placing  of  penal  legislation  upon 
solid  foundations. 

"  Professor  Van  Hamel,  of  Amsterdam,  in  his  report 
on  measures  applicable  to  the  incorrigible,  concluded 
that  the  principal  indication  of  incorrigibihty  is  recid- 
ivation  ;  against  recidivists  penalty  should  assume  the 
character  of  social  defense,  on  account  of  the  danger  ; 
there  should  be  indeterminate  detention  for  the  in- 
corrigible ;  there  should  be  periodic  deliberations  as 
to  such  cases,  and  a  large  latitude  left  to  competent 
authority,  which  should  be  judiciary. 

"  In  treating  of  the  same  question,  Professor  Alimena 
held  to  the  idea  of  long  and  increased  imprisonment 
proportionate  to  the  number  of  crimes  ;  and  for  those 
guilty  of  small  misdemeanors,  especially  with  recid- 
ivists, an  abolition  of  short  terms  of  punishment,  and  a 
substitution  of  obligatory  labor  in  special  institutions, 
in  companies  for  work  and  in  interior  colonization. 
There  should  be  perpetual  relegation  or  deportation 


Criminology. 


418 


Criminology. 


for  criminals  who  have  passed  the  maximum  of  re- 
cidivation. 

"  Professor  Thiry,  of  Liege,  held  to  the  word  incorri- 
gible in  the  relative  sense  ;  for  him  the  basis  of  incorri- 
gibility  is  the  permanent  moral  influence  to  which  the 
individual  succumbs  ;  he  did  not  believe  in  perpetual, 
but  in  indeterminate,  detention  ;  there  was  also  no 
necessity  for  judiciary  intervention  to  prolong  or  in- 
terfere with  the  detention,  as  administrative  responsi- 
bility and  the  supervision  already  in  use  were  suffi- 
cient to  prevent  arbitrary  action. 

"  Dr.  Maus  formulated  his  conclusions  as  follows  : 
The  measures  to  be  taken  in  regard  to  hardened  re- 
cidivists should  be,  first,  those  that  are  best  known  ; 
to  send  into  the  prison  asylums  those 
whose  recidivation  has  a  pathological 

Recidivists,  cause ;  to  increase  considerably  and  in  a 
gradual  manner  the  duration  of  the  pun- 
ishment until  it  becomes  perpetual  for 
the  serious  crimes  ;  finally  to  render  repression  more 
subjective  by  applying  it  with  a  view  to  reforma- 
tion, according  to  the  state  of  the  criminal  and  the 
nature  of  the  crime.  Such  a  difficult  task  requires 
not  only  specialists  with  experience  and  knowledge  of 
insanity,  but  perhaps  it  cannot  be  accomplished  with- 
out the  aid  of  sincere  devotion  and  sacrifice.  Preven- 
tion also  plays  a  role  in  combatting  the  social  causes  of 
recidivation,  as  degeneracy,  alcoholism,  prostitution, 
misery,  etc.  ;  these  factors  render  vain  in  great  part  the 
efforts  of  the  penitentiary,  producing  more  recidivists 
than  the  penitentiary  can  correct. 

"  Professor  Prins,  of  Brussels,  who  is  the  general  in- 
spector of  prisons,  placed  the  indeterminate  sentence 
under  two  heads :  delinquency  for  misery  and  for  de- 
generacy ;  but  in  regard  to  repression  proper,  he  saw 
freat  practical  difficulties  for  those  who  are  incorrigi- 
le  and  criminal  by  passion.  As  to  the  liberation  of 
the  incorrigible,  relatively  speaking,  the  appreciation 
of  a  judge  or  administrator  is  not  sufficient  guarantee. 
The  solution  of  the  question  of  the  incorrigible  lies  in 
a  progressive  aggravation  of  punishment  ;  and  it  is 
especially  necessary  to  renounce  prison  luxury. 

"  Dr.  Paul  Gamier,  chief  physician  of  the  '  Prefecture 
de  Police'  of  Paris,  in  considering  the  necessity  of  a 
psycho-moral  examination  of  certain  accused  persons 
as  a  duty  of  the  court,  said,  if  it  is  deemed  excessive  to 
ask  judicial  authorities  to  organize  a  medical  inspec- 
tion for  the  accused — which  does  not  take  the  place  of 
the  medico-legal  expert,  but  designates  to  him  the 
cases  to  be  inquired  into — it  is  nevertheless  a  necessity 
in  presence  of  frequent  judicial  errors.  A  magistrate 
intrusted  with  so  delicate  a  mission  as  to  decide 
whether  a  medico-legal  expert  is  needed  should  at 
least  possess  certain  indispensabl  e  notions  of  a  scientific 
order  to  make  such  decision.  If  the  judge  orders  ex- 
perts, he  should  be  able  to  judge  of  their  utility  and  to 
control  the  results  through  special  knowledge  ;  but 
such  special  knowledge  necessary  for  the  interpreta- 
tion of  scientific  facts  is  outside  the  domain  of  a  mag- 
istrate, however  brilliant  and  judicious  he  may  be." 

As  to  the  principles  of  the  science,  different 
schools  would,  of  course,  state  them  differently. 
Dr.  MacDonald,  in  his  report,  states  them  thus  : 

"The  relation  of  criminality  to  the  other  forms  of 
pathological  and  abnormal  humanity  is  one  of  degree. 
If  we  represent  the  highest  degree,  as  crime,  by  Ae, 
A5,  say,  would  stand  for  insane  criminality,  and  A4  for 
alcoholism,  perhaps,  A*  for  pauperism,  Aa  for  those 
weak  forms  of  humanity  that  charity  treats  more 
especially,  and  A  for  the  idea  of  wrong  in  general,  par- 
ticularly in  its  lightest  forms.  Thus,  crime  is  the  most 
exaggerated  form  of  wrong ;  but  these  forms  are  all 
one  in  essence.  A  drop  of  water  is  as  much  water  as 
is  an  ocean. 

"  It  is  difficult  to  draw  a  distinct  line  between  these 
different  forms  of  wrong.  This  will  become  evident 
from  the  fact  that  they  are  dovetailed  one  into  the 
other.  Thus,  when  cross-questioning  criminals,  one 
often  feels  that  not  only  are  their  minds  weak  and 
wavering,  but  that  they  border  close  on  insanity.  The 
same  feeling  arises  after  an  examination  of  confirmed 
paupers.  Here  alcoholism  is  one  of  the  main  causes  ; 
the  individual,  on  account  of  his  intemperate  habits, 
finds  difficulty  in  obtaining  employment,  and  this 
forced  idleness  gradually,  from  repetition,  develops 
into  a  confirmed  habit.  Pauperism  may  be,  in  some 
cases,  hereditary,  but  it  is  too  often  overlooked  that 
the  children  of  paupers  can  acquire  all  such  habits  from 
their  parents,  and  so  it  can  be  carried  from  one  gen- 
eration to  another,  without  resorting  to  heredity  as  a 
cause,  which  is  too  often  a  name  to  cover  up  our  igno- 
rance of  all  the  early  conditions.  The  extent  to  which 


alcoholism  is  involved  in  all  forms  of  humanitarian 
pathology  is  well  known  ;  it  is  often  indirectly  as  well 
as  directly  the  cause  of  leading  the  young  into  crime  ; 
the  intemperate  father  makes  himself  a  pest  in  his  own 
home  ;  the  children  remain  out  all  night  through  fear  ; 
this  habit  leads  to  running  away  for  a  longer  time. 
Altho  not  thieves,  the  children  are  compelled  to 
steal  or  to  beg,  in  order  to  live ;  and  thus  many  be- 
come confirmed  criminals  or  paupers,  or  both.  The 
great  evil  about  alcoholism  is  that  it  too  often  injures 
those  around,  who  are  of  much  more  value  than  the 
alcoholic  himself.  It  makes  itself  felt  indirectly  and 
directly  in  our  hospitals,  insane  asylums,  orphan  asy- 
lums, and  charitable  institutions  in  general.  However 
low  the  trade  of  the  prostitute  may  be,  alcohol  is  her 
greatest  physical  enemy. 

"  As  just  indicated,  some  of  the  lesser  degrees  of  ab- 
normal and  pathological  humanity  may  be  considered 
under  the  head  of  charitological.  These  are  represent- 
ed by  the  different  kinds  of  benevolent  institutions, 
such  as  asylums  for  the  insane  and  feeble-minded,  for 
the  inebriate  ;  hospitals,  homes  for  the  deaf,  dumb,  and 
blind,  for  the  aged  and  orphans,  etc. ;  and  institutions 
for  defectives  of  whatever  nature. 

"  It  is  evident,  however,  that  the  term  charitological 
may  not  only  be  applied  to  what  is  pathological  or  ab- 
normal, but  also  to  that  which  is  physiological  or  nor- 
mal. Thus  it  can  refer  to  institutions  of  quite  a  differ- 
ent order,  but  yet  none  the  less  charitable  in  nature. 
We  refer,  of  course,  to  educational  institutions,  the 
majority  of  which  are  a  gift  to  the  public,  and  espe- 
cially to  those  who  attend  them.  It  is  obvious  enough 
that  every  student  is,  in  some  measure,  a  charity  stu- 
dent from  the  well-known  fact  that  the  tuition  money 
in  most  cases  pays  a  very  small  part  of  the  expenses. 

"  Now,  no  distinct  line  can  be  drawn  between  penal 
and  reformatory  institutions,  and  between  reform- 
atory and  educational  institutions  ;  it  is,  again,  a  ques- 
tion of  degree.  But,  in  saying  this,  it  is  not  meant  that 
difference  in  degree  is  of  little  consequence.  On  the 
contrary,  it  is  very  important  to  distinguish  between 
penal,  reformatory,  and  educational  for  practical  rea- 
sons, as  in  the  classification  of  prisoners,  not  all  of 
whom  are  criminals.  In  a  sense,  all  education  should 
be  reformatory. 

"  But,  it  may  be  asked,  where  can  a  subject  end  ?    It 
goes  without  saying  that  divisions  are  more  or  less 
arbitrary,  if  we  are  seeking  reality,  for  things  are  to- 
gether, and  the  more  we  look  into  the 
world  the  more  we  find  it  to  be  an  or- 
ganic mechanism  of  absolute  relativity.    Principles. 
Most  human  beings  who  are  abnormal 
or  defective  in  any  way  are  much  more 
alike  than  unlike  normal   individuals ; 
and  hence,  in  the  thorough  study  of  any  single  individ- 
ual (microcosmic  mechanism),  distinct  lines  are  more 
for  convenience.    Thus  the  difficulties  of  distinguish- 
ing between  health  and  disease,  sanity  and  insanity, 
vegetable  and  animal,  are  familiar.    Whatever  may  be 
said  from  the  educational  point  of  view  about  abnor- 
mal cases  is  generally  true,  with  few  modifications,  of 
the  normal.    Education  and  pedagogy  are  thus  to  be 
included  to  some  extent  in  a  comprehensive  charito- 
logical system. 

"  But  altho  the  distinct  separation  of  one  wrong  from 
another  is  not  easy,  yet  the  decision  as  to  the  highest 
form  of  wrong  may  not  be  so  difficult.  This  form  con- 
sists, without  doubt,  in  the  act  of  depriving  another  of 
his  existence  ;  no  act  could  be  more  radical  ;  the  least 
that  could  be  said  of  any  one  is  that  he  does  not  exist. 
The  desire  for  existence  is  the  deepest  instinct  in  na- 
ture ;  not  only  in  the  lower  forms  of  nature,  but  an- 
thropologically considered,  this  feeling  manifests  it- 
self in  the  highest  aspirations  of  races.  In  mythology, 
religion,  and  theology  the  great  fact  is  existence  here- 
after, and  in  philosophy  it  has  gone  so  far  as  preexist  - 
ence  of  the  soul.  Perhaps  the  deepest  experience  we 
have  of  non-existence  is  in  the  loss  ot  an  intimate  friend, 
when  -we  say  so  truly  that  part  of  our  existence  has 
gone  from  us.  It  is  death  which  makes  existence 
tragic. 

"  Now,  the  degrees  of  wrong  may  be  expressed  in  a 
general  way  in  terms  of  existence  ;  that  is,  in  depriv- 
ing another  of  any  of  his  rights  we  are  taking  from  him 
some  of  his  existence,  for  existence  is  qualitative  as 
well  as  temporal ;  that  is,  it  includes  everything  that 
gives  to  life  content. 

"Thus,  in  this  sense,  a  man  of  40  may  have  had  more 
existence  than  another  at  80,  where  the  former's  life  has 
been  broader,  richer  in  experience  and  thought,  and 
more  valuable  to  others. 

'*  We  may  say  in  general  that  the  existence  of  a  per- 
son is  beneficial  or  injurious  in  that  degree  in  which  it 
is  beneficial  or  injurious  to  the  community  or  human- 


Criminology. 


419 


Criminology. 


ity.  This  statement  is  based  upon  the  truism- that  the 
whole  is  more  than  any  of  its  parts. 

"  The  degrees  of  wrong,  therefore,  should  depend 
upon  the  degree  of  danger  or  injury  (moral,  intellectual, 
physical,  or  financial)  which  a  t nought,  feeling,  will- 
ing, or  action  brings  to  the  community. 

"This  same  principle  should  be  applied  to  degrees  of 
exaggerated  wrong  or  crime. 

"  But  it  may  be  said,  should  not  the  degree  of  free- 
dom or  of  personal  guilt  be  the  main  basis  for  the 
punishment  of  the  criminal?  The  force  of  this  objec- 
tion is  evident ;  historically,  the  idea  of  freedom  has 
been  the  basis  of  criminal  law  ;  it  has  also  been  sanc- 
tioned by  the  experience  of  the  race  ;  and  altho  no 
claim  is  made  of  carrying  it  into  practice  without  seri- 
ous difficulties  in  the  way  of  strict  justice  (difficulties 
inevitable  to  any  system),  yet  it  has  not  only  been  an 
invaluable  service,  but  a  necessity  to  humanity.  This 
is  not  only  true  on  criminal  lines,  but  this  idea  has  been 
the  conscious  basis  of  our  highest  moral  ideas. 

"  But  at  the  same  time  it  must  be  admitted  that  the  e  x- 
aggeration  of  the  idea  of  freedom  has  been  one  of  the 
main  causes  of  vengeance,  which  has  left  its  traces  in 
blood,  fire,  martyrdom,  and  dungeon  ;  and  tho  at  pres- 
ent vengeance  seldom  takes  such  extreme  forms,  yet 
it  is  far  from  extinct.  On  moral  and  on  biblical 
grounds,  as  far  as  human  beings  are  concerned,  ven- 
geance can  find  little  support ;  an  example  of  its  im- 
practicability is  the  fact  that  some  of  the  best  prison 
wardens  never  punish  a  man  until  some  time  after  the 
offense,  so  that  there  may  be  no  feeling  on  the  part  of 
either  that  it  is  an  expression  of  vengeance.  The  of- 
fender is  generally  reasoned  with  kindly,  but  firmly, 
and  told  that  he  must  be  punished,  otherwise  the  good 
discipline  of  the  prison  could  not  be  maintained,  which 
means  that  he  is  punished  for  the  good  of  others.  With 
few  exceptions,  a  revengeful  tone  of  manner  toward 
the  prisoner  (the  same  is  true  outside  of  prison)  always 
does  harm,  for  it  stirs  up  similar  feelings  in  the  pris- 
oner, which  are  often  the  cause  of  his  bad  behavior  and 
crime,  and  need  no  development.  Kindness  with  firm- 
ness is  the  desirable  combination.  Vengeance  pro- 
duces vengeance. 

"  But,  taking  the  deterministic  view  of  the  world,  the 
highest  morality  is  possible.  One  proof  is  that  some 
fatalists  are  rigidly  moral.  A  psychological  analysis 
will  show  that  persons  who  are  loved  and  esteemed  are 
those  whose  very  nature  is  to  do  good— that  is,  they 
would  not  and  could  not  see  a  fellow-being  suffer  ; 
that  is,  from  the  necessity  of  their  nature,  they  were 
from  infancy  of  a  kind  disposition.  We  admire  the 
sturdy  nature  who,  by  long  struggle,  has  reached  the 
moral  goal ;  but  we  cannot  love  him  always.  He  is 
not  always  of  a  kind  disposition  •  this  is  not  a  necessity 
of  his  nature.  As  the  expression  goes,  'There  are 
very  good  people  with  whom  the  Lord  Himself  could 
not  live.' 

"  Is  it  not  the  spontaneity  of  a  kind  act  that  gives  it 
its  beauty,  where  there  is  no  calculating,  no  reasoning, 
no  weighing  in  the  balance,  no  choice  ?  The  grace  of 
morality  is'in  its  naturalness.  But  go  still  further. 
Do  we  like  a  good  apple  more  and  a  bad  apple  less  be- 
cause they  are  necessarily  good  or  bad  ?  And  if  we  ad- 
mitted that  every  thought,  feeling,  willing,  and  acting 
of  men  were  as  necessary  as  the  law  of  gravity,  would 
we  like  honest  men  less  and  liars  more  ?  True,  we 
might  at  first  modify  pur  estimation  of  some  men,  but 
it  would  be  in  the  direction  of  better  feeling  toward 
all  men. 

"  But,  whatever  one's  personal  convictions  may  be, 
questions  of  the  freedom  of  the  will  and  the  like  must 
be  set  aside,  not  because  they  are  not  important,  but 
simply  because  enough  is  not  known  re- 
garding the  exact  conditions  (psycho- 
Reason  for  logical  and  physiological)  under  which 
Imnrison-  w?  act  an(^  thi11^-  If  we  were  obliged  to 
withhold  action  in  the  case  of  any  crim- 
ment.  inal  for  the  reason  that  we  did  not 
know  whether  the  will  is  free  or  not 
(allowing  for  all  misconceptions  as  to  this 
whole  question),  the  community  would  be  wholly  un- 
protected. If  a  tiger  were  loose  in  the  streets,  the  first 
question  would  not  be  whether  he  was  guilty  or  not. 
We  should  imprison  the  criminal,  first  of  all,  because 
he  is  dangerous  to  the  community. 

"  But  if  it  be  asked,  how  there  can  be  responsibility 
without  freedom  ?  the  answer  is  that  there  is  at  least 
the  feeling  of  responsibility  in  cases  where  there  is 
little  or  no  freedom  ;  that  is,  there  is  sometimes  no 
proportion  between  the  feeling  of  responsibility 
and  the  amount  of  responsibility  afterward  shown. 
The  main  difficulty,  however,  is  that  in  our  present 
state  of  knowledge  it  is  impossible  to  know  whether 
this  very  feeling  of  responsibility  or  of  freedom  is  not 


itself  necessarily  caused  either  psychologically  or 
physiologically  or  both.  If  we  admit  that  we  are 
compelled  to  believe  we  are  free  (as  some,  indeter- 
minists  seem  to  claim),  \ye  deny  freedom  in  this  very 
statement.  Another  obvious  and  practical  ground  for 
our  ignorance  as  to  this  point  is  the  fact  that,  altho 
for  generations  the  best  and  greatest  minds  have  not 
failed  to  give  it  their  attention,  yet  up  to  the  present 
time  the  question  remains  sub  judice.  If  we  carried 
out  practically  the  theory  of  freedom,  we  should  have 
to  punish  some  of  the  greatest  criminals  the  least, 
since,  from  their  coarse  organization  and  lack  of  moral 
sense,  their  responsibility  would  be  very  small. 

"There  is  no  objection  to  speaking  of  freedom  in  the 
sense  that  a  man  as  an  individual  may  be  free  in  re- 
gard to  his  surroundings  and  can  influence  those 
around  him,  as  is  the  case  in  strong  characters  which 
can  be  independent  of  their  outward  environment,  and 
so  act  freely.  But  to  say  that  within  the  man  himself, 
within  his  character  or  personality  (body  and  mind), 
there  is  freedom,  is  going  entirely  beyond  our  knowl- 
edge, for  there  is  little  or  nothing  demonstrated  con- 
cerning the  workings  or  relations  of  brain  and  mind. 

"  Dr.  Paul  Carus  well  expresses  a  similar  idea  when 
he  says:  'A  free  man,  let  us  say  an  artist,  full  of  an 
idea,  executes  his  work  vyithout  any  compulsion  ;  he 
works  of  his  own  free  will.  His  actions  are  dej;er- 
mined  by  a  motive  of  his  own,  not  by  foreign  pressure. 
Therefore,  we  call  him  free.' 

"A  scientific  ethics  must  regard  the  question  of 
freedom  as  an  unsettled  problem.  Any  ethics  would 
be  unethical  in  taking  as  one  of  its  bases  so  debatable 
a  question. 

"  Our  general,  sociological,  ethical  principle  (as 
above  stated)  is  that  the  idea  of  ivrong  depends  upon 
the  moral,  intellectual,  physical,  and  financial  datiger 
or  injury  which  a  thought,  feeling,  willing,  or  acting 
brings  to  humanity. 

"  But,  accepting  this  principle,  the  important  ques- 
tion is,  just  what  are  these  thoughts,  feelings,  wilhngs, 
and  actions,  and  by  what  method  are  they  to  be  de- 
termined ?  The  first  part  of  this  question,  on  account 
of  the  narrow  and  limited  knowledge  at  present  in 
those  lines,  can  be  answered  only  very  imperfectly,  if 
at  all.  As  to  the  method,  that  ot  science  seems  to  us 
the  only  one  that  can  eventually  be  satisfactory.  By 
the  application  of  the  scientific  method  is  meant  that 
all  facts,  especially  psychological  (sociological,  his- 
torical, etc.),  physiological,  and  pathological,  must 
form  the  basis  of  investigation.  Psychological  facts 
that  can  be  scientifically  determined,  as  affecting  hu- 
manity, beneficially  or  not,  are  comparatively  few  in 
number.  Physiologically,  more  facts  can  be  deter- 
mined as  to  their  effect  on  humanity.  But  it  is  preemi- 
nently in  the  field  of  pathology  that  definite  scientific 
results  can  be  acquired.  As  to  the  difficulty  of  inves- 
tigating psycho-ethical  effects,  it  may  be  said  physio- 
logical psychology  and  psycho-physics  have  not  as  yet 
furnished  a  sufficient  number  of  scientific  facts. 

"  By  the  scientific  application  of  chemistry,  clinical 
and  experimental  medicine,  with  vivisection,  to  physi- 
ology, many  truths  of  ethical  importance  to  humanity 
are  made  known.  But  there  is  much  here  to  be  de- 
sired ;  for  example,  what  is  said  about  questions  of 
diet  and  ways  of  living  in  general  is  scientifically  far 
from  satisfactory.  The  development  of  pathology  in 
medicine  has  been  without  precedent.  Its  direct  eth- 
ical value  to  humanity  is  already  very  great ;  but  the 
outlook  into  the  future  is  still  greater.  It  is  only  nec- 
essary to  mention  the  discovery  of  the  cholera  and 
tuberculosis  germs  (a  conditio  sine  qua  non  of  their 

grevention).  Immunity  in  the  case  of  the  latter  would 
e  one  of  the  greatest  benefactions  yet  known  to  the 
race.  Medicine  can  be  said  to  be  the  study  of  the  fu- 
ture, especially  in  the  scientific  and  prophylactic 
sense.  It  is  to  experimental  medicine  that  scientific 
ethics  will  look  for  many  of  its  basal  facts. 

"In  emphasizing  the  scientific  method  as  the  most 
important  it  is  not  intended  to  exclude  others.  The 
a  priori  method  has  been  of  inestimable  value  to  philos- 
ophy, ethics,  and  theology,  and  to  science  itself  in  the 
forming  of  hypotheses  and  theories,  which  are  often 
necessary  anticipations  of  truth,  to  be  verified  after- 
ward. The  a  priori  method  is  related  to  the  a  posteriori 
method  as  the  sails  to  the  ballast  of  the  boat :  the 
more  philosophy,  the  better,  provided  there  are  a  suf- 
ficent  number  of  facts  ;  otherwise  there  is  danger  of 
upsetting  the  craft.  ' 

"  The  present  office  of  ethics  is,  as  far  as  the  facts 
will  allow,  to  suggest  methods  of  conduct  to  follow 
and  ideals  to  hold  that  will  bring  humanity  into  a  more 
moral,  physiological,  and  normal  state,  enabling  each 
individual  to  live  more  in  harmony  with  nature's  laws. 
Such  an  applied  ethics  must  study  especially  the 


Criminology. 


420 


Criminology. 


phenomena  manifested  in  the  different  forms  of  patho- 
logical humanity  and  draw  its  conclusions  from  the 
facts  just  gathered. 

"But  there  are  many  scientists  who  look  with  sus- 
picion upon  the  introduction  of  philosophical  thought 
and  methods  into  their  field.     We  may  call  them  pure 
scientists  ;  that  is  to  say,  those  who  believe  that  the 
term  scientific  truth  should  be  applied 
only  to  that  form  of  truth  which  can  be 
Responsibil-  directly  verified  by  facts  accessible  to 
jt_  all.    Yet  from  this  point  of  view  the  ar- 

'*  rangement,   classification,  formation  of 

hypotheses  and  theories,  or  philosophi- 
cal conclusions  are  not  necessarily  ille- 
gitimate, provided  those  processes  are  clearly  distin- 
guished from  each  other  and  rigidly  separated  from 
the  facts.  Perhaps  the  study  which,  more  than  all 
others,  will  contribute  toward  a  scientific  ethics  is 
criminology,  the  subject-matter  of  which  touches  the 
popular  mind  very  closely,  owing,  in  a  great  measure, 
to  the  influence  of  the  press  ;  and  tho  this  has  its 
dangers,  yet  it  is  the  duty  of  this,  as  of  every  science, 
to  make  its  principles  and  conclusions  as  clear  as  pos- 
sible to  the  public,  since  in  the  end  such  questions 
vitally  concern  them. 

"  Crime  can  be  said,  in  a  certain  sense,  to  be  nature's 
experiment  on  humanity.  If  a  nerve  of  a  normal  or- 
gaifism  is  cut,  the  organs  in  which  irregularities  are 
produced  are  those  which  the  nerve  controls.  In  this 
way  the  office  of  a  nerve  in  the  normal  state  may  be 
discovered.  The  criminal  is,  so  to  speak,  the  severed 
nerve  of  society,  and  the  study  of  him  is  a  practical 
way  (tho  indirect)  of  studying  normal  men.  And 
since  the  criminal  is  seven  eighths  like  other  men,  such 
a  study  is,  in  addition,  a  direct  inquiry  into  normal 
humanity. 

"The  relation  also  of  criminology  to  society  and  to 
sociological  questions  is  already  intimate,  and  may  in 
the  future  become  closer.  Just  what  crime  is  at  pres- 
ent depends  more  upon  time,  location,  race,  country, 
nationality,  and  even  the  State  in  which  one  resides. 
But  notwithstanding  the  extreme  relativity  of  the 
idea  of  crime,  there  are  some  things  in  our  present  so- 
cial life  that  are  questionable.  A  young  girl  of  inde- 
pendence, but  near  poverty,  tries  to  earn  her  own  liv- 
ing at  $3  a  week,  and  if,  having  natural  desires  for  a 
few  comforts  and  some  taste  for  her  personal  appear- 
ance, she  finally,  through  pressure,  oversteps  the 
bound,  society,  which  permits  this  condition  of  things, 
immediately  ostracizes  her.  It  borders  on  criminality 
that  a  widow  works  15  hours  a  day  in  a  room  in 
which  she  lives,  making  trousers  at  10  cents  a  pair,  out 
of  which  she  and  her  family  must  live,  until  they 
gradually  run  down  toward  death  from  want  of  suf- 
ficient nutrition,  fresh  air,  and  any  comfort.  It  is 
criminally  questionable  to  leave  stoves  in  cars,  so  that 
if  the  passenger  is  not  seriously  injured,  but  only 
wedged  in,  he  will  have  the  additional  chances  of 
burning  to  death.  It  has  been  a  general  truth,  and  in 
some  cases  is  still,  that  so  many  persons  must  perish 
by  fire  before  private  individuals  will  furnish  fire  es- 
capes to  protect  their  own  patrons.  It  is  a  fact  that 
over  5000  persons  are  killed  yearly  in  the  United  States 
at  railroad  grade  crossings,  most  of  whose  lives  could 
have  been  spared  had  either  the  road  or  the  railroad 
passed  either  one  over, the  other.  But  it  is  said  that 
such  improvements  would  involve  an  enormous  ex- 
pense ;  that  is  practically  to  admit  that  the  extra 
money  required  is  of  more  consequence  than  the  5000 
human  lives.  And  yet,  strange  as  it  may  seem,  if  a 
brutal  murderer  is  to  lose  his  life,  and  there  is  the 


least  doubt  as  to  his  premeditation,  a  large  part  of  the 
community  is  often  aroused  into  moral  excitement,  if 
not  indignation,  while  the  innocently  murdered  rail- 
road passenger  excites  little  more  than  a  murmur. 

"  There  is,  perhaps,  no  subject  upon  which  the  pub- 
lic conscience  is  more  tender  than  the  treatment  of  the 
criminal. 

"  Psychologically,  the  explanation  is  simple,  for  the 
public  have  been  educated  gradually  to  feel  the  mis- 
fortune and  sufferings  of  the  criminal ;  it  is  also  easier 
to  realize,  since  the  thought  is  confined  generally  to 
one  personality  at  a  time. 

II.  CAUSES  OF  CRIME. 

Writers,  of  course,  vary  very  considerably  in 
their  opinions  as  to  the  causes  of  crime. 

At  the  Birmingham  meeting  of  the  (English) 
National  Association  for  the  Promotion  of  Social 
Science,  held  in  1868,  the  Rev.  H.  S.  Elliot 
gave  the  following  table  as  to  the  causes  of 
crime,  which  he  had  compiled  out  of  personal 
observation  : 

Bad  company 351 

Drink 205 

Poverty 52 

Opportunity 77 

Want  of  principle 67 

Temper 96 

Immorality 39 

Wantonness 

Incapacity n 

Other  causes 102 

Total 1,000 

Mr.  L.  G.  Rylands  says,  in  his  Crime  and 
its  Causes,  from  which  we  quote  the  above 
table  (p.  46) : 

"  To  sum  up,  the  active  causes  of  all  kinds 
are  these  :  Defective  training,  or  total  absence 
of  any  ;  immoral  associates  and  bad  example 
in  prison  as  well  as  out  of  it ;  drink,  idleness, 
and  the  hereditary  transmission  of  evil  tenden- 
cies. These  causes,  however,  frequently  over- 
lap, and  one  is  often  found  to  be  the  effect  of 
another  ;  the  only  perfectly  simple  and  abso- 
lutely final  division  is  into  two  mains  heads  : 
Heredity  and  Environment." 

Considering  the  separate  items  here  men- 
tioned, various  writers  have  emphasized  vari- 
ous causes.  In  his  Prisoners  and  Paupers, 
Mr.  H.  M.  Boies,  member  of  the  Pennsylvania 
Board  of  Public  Charities,  emphasizes  the  causes 
of  evil  surroundings  and  intemperance.  He 
says  that  intemperance  causes  more  than  75  per 
cent,  of  the  crimes  committed,  while  our  cities 
furnish  90  per  cent,  of  our  criminals,  and  in  sup- 
port of  which  statement  he  presents  the  follow- 
ing table  : 


PERCENTAGE  OF  URBAN  POPULATION  AND  CRIMINALS  IN  CERTAIN  STATES.* 


Number 
of  Cities. 

Percentage  of 
Urban  Popu- 
lation to 
Total. 

One  Criminal 
to  Every 

Total 
Criminals. 

The  United  States  

786.5 

Vermont  

7.6 

Maine  

6 

641 

New  Hampshire    .... 

Pennsylvania....        

Connecticut  

41.8 

New  Jersey  

480. 

2,948 

Rhode  Island.  

57  6 

556* 

621 

New  York  

57.8 

Massachusetts  

66. 

3,182 

District  of  Columbia  .       .          

548. 

*  Collated  from  the  Bulletin  of  the  Eleventh  Census. 


Criminology. 


421 


Criminology. 


He  shows  the   same   by   the  following  as   to      mining  and  manufacturing  towns,  supplies  2023  of  the 

criminal  population  of  the  same  date,  or  one  in  272.7  of 
jn  ns^vi  vnmfl  •  ,  v  -^         r™  >     •     „ 1  __  <.i zi 4.1 . 


Pennsylvania  : 


its  population.  This  is  nearly  three  times  the  average 
of  the  State.  Philadelphia  furnishes  about  seven  and 
a  half  times,  and  Allegheny  nearly  nine  times  as  many 


"The  county  of  Allegheny,  where  are  the  cities  of       , 

Pittsburg  and  Allegheny,  with  a  joint  population  of       criminals  as  the  average  of  the  rural  counties. 
343,440  out  of  551,959  in  the  county,  largely  made  up  by          "  A  similar  condition  exists  in  regard  to  pauperism. 

COMPARATIVE    STATISTICS    OF    PAUPERISM    BY    RURAL    AND    URBAN    COUNTIES    AND    THE 

STATE  OF  PENNSYLVANIA.* 


State  of 
Pennsylvania. 

County  of 
Philadelphia. 

County  of 
Allegheny. 

Rural 
Counties. 

5,258,041 
9,026 

20,858 
4,826 
606 
800 

74 
56l 
3.301 
183 

1,046,964 
2,877 

16,913 
1,406 
108 
90 

12 

75 
2,271 
97 

551.950 
719 

5Q2 
352 
86 
ii 
5 
31 
551 
23 

1,673,556 
2,075 

5.265 
2,427 

*59 

58 
37 
291 

3° 
»9 

Inmates  of  homes,  asylums,   and   other  charitable 
institutions,  and  receiving  temporary  aid  
Insane  hospitals  

Institutions  for  feeble  minds  

Other  institutions  

Homes  and  private  families  

Average  daily  occupants  of  hospital  beds  
Institutions  reporting  

Total  

40,052 
•759 

23*752 
2.268 

2.347 
•425 

10,342 
.618 

*  Collated  from  the  Report  of  the  Board  of  Public  Charities  for  iSqo. 


City  life,  with  its  crowded  slums  and  tene- 
ments, he  considers  one  great  cause  of  crime. 
He  says : 

"  Humanity  crowded  into  cities  divides  itself  into 
three  distinct  strata  in  their  extreme  divergence,  altho 
so  gradually  merging  together  as  to  leave  no  positive 
line  of  demarcation  between  them.  At  the  top  of  the 
social  scale  is  the  wealthy  class,  able  to  live  without 
labor,  and  to  indulge  itself  in  the  gratification  of  most 
of  its  desires.  Next  below  is  the  middle  class  of  work- 
ers, living  in  comfort  without  extreme  luxury.  At 
the  bottom  all  the  rest,  the  largest  number  of  all ; 
hustled  and  swirled  in  the  fierce  currents  of  life  hither 
and  thither  ;  packed  and  crowded  into  such  tenements 
as  are  left  to  them  ;  mostly  unable  to  procure  or  inca- 
pable of  enjoying  any  but  the  baser  sensual  pleas- 
ures ;  mixed  indiscriminately  in  their  habitations,  and 
everywhere  with  the  most  vicious  of  mankind,  with 
everything  to  corrupt  and  but  little  to  improve  them. 
"The  influences  ot  city  life  upon  these  three  classes 
are  different  in  nature  and  degree.  The  two  upper 
are  extensively  reached  by  the  conservative  and  ele- 
vating privileges  of  intellectual  and  religious  culture 
and  stimulation  ;  the  lower  but  slightly.  Wealth  and 
the  power  it  confers  tend  to  engender  in  the  highest 
stratum  a  sense  of  independence  of,  and  superiority 
over,  the  rules  and  regulations  of  human  and  divine 
law.  Selfishness  and  indulgence  weaken  the  moral 
sense  and  physical  powers ;  the  incessant  pursuit  of 
pleasure  by  individuals  disturbs  and  disrupts  family 
relations  |  domestic  enjoyment  is  abandoned  for  the 
more  exciting  attractions  of  'society,'  and  the  family 
home  becomes  but  little  better  than  a  hotel  to  sleep 
and  eat  in  when  not  otherwise  engaged. 
As  a  consequence,  marriage  tends  to 
City  Life,  become  simply  an  arrangement  of  con- 
venience like  the  home ;  children  are 
committed  to  the  training  of  hired 
nurses  and  tutors  ;  parental  responsibilities  are  ignored 
or  neglected,  and  one  by  one  the  members  of  the 
highest  class  sink  out  or  it,  by  loss  of  health,  char- 
acter, or  wealth,  and  it  makes  its  contribution  to 
criminality  or  pauperism  in  due  time  from  those 
ruined  in  it.  The  display  of  luxury  and  splendor  by 
the  wealthy  also,  doubtless,  excites  ambitions  and  de- 
sires among  those  who  are  unable  to  gratify  them 
honestly,  which  leads  to  dishonesty  and  crime.  The 
inability  of  many  of  the  young  who  are  in  association 
with  the  wealthy  to  maintain  the  expense  of  a  family 
in  a  style  to  •which  they  are  accustomed  operates  to 
discourage  matrimony,  and  conduces  to  licentious- 
ness and  the  increase  of  prostitution.  It  is  commonly 
understood  that  social  morals  and  religion  are  at  their 
lowest  ebb  in  the  upper  and  nether  strata  of  society 
the  world  over. 
"  The  great  intervening  mass  of  citizens  which  con- 


stitute the  social  leaven,  ordained  to  save  the  whole 
lump,  are  exposed  to  grave  dangers  of  a  different 
nature  in  city  life.  They  are  subjected  to  tempta- 
tions of  the  most  attractive  and  insidious  kinds. 
Vice  clothes  itself  in  its  most  alluring  vesture  in  great 
cities.  The  most  capable  and  skiltul  of  the  vicious 
and  immoral  naturally  seek  and  find  here  their  most 
fruitful  field  of  operation,  as  well  as  opportunity  to 
hide  themselves  amid  the  thronging  thousands.  Gor- 
geous saloons  for  gambling,  drinking,  and  prostitution 
invite  the  unwary  on  all  sides.  Traps  for  the  innocent 
are  baited  with  every  kind  of  'entertainment ;'  names 
are  invented  to  clothe  wrong-doing  in  the  garments  of 
respectability,  and  the  constant,  necessary  familiarity 
with  the  various  forms  of  vice  which  abound  leads 
the  unwary  first  to  'endure,  then  pity,  then  embrace.' 
The  density  of  population  affords  also  opportunity  for 
secret  indulgence  in  sinful  practices,  without  attract- 
ing attention.  People  live  for  years  in  houses  whose 
doorsteps  are  only  separated  by  an  iron  railing  with- 
out knowing  one  another.  Thousands  spend  their 
lives  in  'flats,'  with  other  families  above  and  below 
them,  others  in  hotels  and  boarding-houses.  The  hus- 
band and  father  is  absent  regularly  every  day  at  his 
business,  the  home  deserted  ;  Sunday,  being  the  only 
day  when  the  whole  family  is  together,  becomes  a  day 
of  enjoyment  and  recreation  j  religion  wanes  and  dies, 
and  its  restraints  and  elevating  influences  disappear. 
•"  Worse  than  all,  the  children  are  compelled  to  play 
in  the  streets,  and  to  associate  with  all  they  meet 
there  ;  to  learn  all  the  evil  known  by  the  worst.  Here 
they  become  familiar  with  every  form 
of  evil  and  sin.  The  curbstones  and 
doorsteps  of  the  respectable  resident  Child  Life. 
portion  of  large  cities,  crowded  with 
children  on  a  pleasant  evening,  are  often 
a  painful  sight  to  a  philanthropist.  Girls  and  boys  of 
all  ages  and  kinds,  sporting  promiscuously  of  neces- 
sity where  every  foul  nighthawk  seeks  its  prey,  lose 
the  lovely  innocence  of  childhood  before  they  reach 
their  teens,  and  each  generation  of  city  growth  takes  a 
lower  level  in  purity  and  morals  as  its  average  than  the 
preceding.  Parents,  too,  absorbed  in  the  urgent  com- 
petitions and  activities  of  business  and  pleasure,  be- 
come more  and  more  prone  to  delegate  the  nurture 
and  admonition  of  their  children  to  the  day-school  and 
Sunday-school  teacher— often  to  omit  the  latter  en- 
tirely. Family  training  and  duties  grow  lax  as  com- 
munal social  requirements  increase.  As  the  divinely 
instituted  responsibilities  are  ignored,  the  conserva- 
tive and  elevating  influence  of  domestic  life  declines  ; 
so  the  community  takes  the  place  of  the  family. 

"It  is  a  threatening  and  dangerous  change  which 
substitutes  public  pleasures  for  private  enjoyments,, 
or  a  public  for  a  private  life  in  society,  obliterating 
the  home  from  the  consciousness  and  recollections  of 
a  people. 

"  An  inordinate  eagerness  to  accumulate  wealth  is 


Criminology. 


422 


Criminology. 


inflamed  in  the  ranks  of  the  successful ;  a  speculative 
spirit  akin  to  gambling  depraves  honest  business.  .  .  . 
"  If  the  life  of  the  upper  classes  of  citizens  conduces 
to  degradation,  what  shall  be  said  of  the  lower  and 
lowest?  What  can  be  expected  from  the  helpless  and 
hopeless  ;  tne  dregs  of  Immunity,  settled, 
out  of  the  ferment  of  civilization  in  the 
Slums.  cities  ?  Their  want  and  misery,  immo- 
rality and  vice,have  reached  bottom,  and 
can  descend  no  farther  with  life.  The 
shocking  and  deplorable  condition  of  the  '  submerged  ' 
has  been  forcibly  portrayed  by  General  Booth  of  the 
Salvation  Army  and  other  recent  writers.  Whole 
families  (14,  even,  were  found  in  one  room)  huddled 
in  single  garret  or  cellar  rooms,  to  feed  together  on 
garbage,  and  sleep  together  on  rags  and  straw  gath- 
ered on  the  streets ;  murderers,  robbers,  thieves, 
worn-out  drunkards,  and  prostitutes  crowding  to- 
gether in  vile  dens :  establishing  communities  which 
the  police  scarcely  dare  enter  after  dark  ;  filling  sin- 
gle tenements  with  the  population  of  a  village  ;  whole 
precincts  living  in  actual  if  not  open  defiance  of 
the  law  of  God  and  man,  of  decency,  of  health,  of  hon- 
esty, social  welfare,  morals,  and  religion.  Their  num- 
bers, constantly  recruited  by  criminal  fugitives  from 
every  direction,  have  no  thought  or  study  but  to  prey 
upon  society,  and  to  educate  one  another  in  the  inge- 
nuities of  vice.  Few,  feeble,  and  futile  are  the  efforts 
that  are  made  to  rescue  or  help  or  save  them,  and  even 
these  are  received  with  a  snarl  like  that  with  which 
the  hunted  street  cur  takes  a  morsel  from  the  hand  of 
pity.  .  .  . 

"Amid  such  environments  society  is  corrupted 
chiefly  by  the  frightfully  increasing  vices  of  Sabbath 
desecration,  intemperance,  fornication,  and  gambling. 
To  these  debasing  influences  are  to  be  attributed 
largely  the  shocking  increase  of  pauperism  and  crim- 
inality from  cities.  These  are  the  honor  destroyers, 
the  family  disrupters,  the  youth  corruptors,  the 
corroders  of  vitality,  the  obliterators  of  morality,  the 
savage  enemies  of  religion  in  cities.  They  all  assail 
classes  with  equal  virulence  and  assiduity.  They  are 
the  common  enemies  of  Christianity  and  humanity, 
grown  already  into  such  proportions  and  power  in  our 
cities  as  to  threaten  the  public  welfare  and  endanger 
the  State.  They  have  been  ignored  and  tolerated  or  un- 
wisely dealt  with  so  long,  that  they  have  acquired  a 
status  and  strength  which  displays  its  arrogance  even  in 
the  organization  of  the  government  which  should  sup- 
press them.  They  demand  and  often  receive  official 
protection,  instead  of  police  extinction.  Public  senti- 
ment, even,  is  half  disposed  to  recognize  and  accept.their 
presence  as  an  inevitable  necessity.  With  a  contempt 
bred  of  familiarity  many  question  and  doubt  the  pos- 
sibility of  their  control  or  eradication,  while  their 
minions  and  votaries,  with  amazing  audacity,  assert 
and  proclaim  their  immunity  from  interference.  The 
burglar,  the  robber,  and  embezzler  might,  with  equal 
propriety,  make  common  cause  with  their  pals,  and 
claim  a  right  to  exercise,  unchallenged,  their  nefarious 
professions.  .  .  . 

"Another  prolific   source    of  crime  and  pauperism 
in  cities  is  the  gambling  spirit  which  pervades   all 
classes.    From  speculation  in  real  property  or  in  the 
paper  tokens  of  property,  such  as  stocks 
and  bonds,  and  social  card-playing  for 
Speculation,  money,  down  through  the  gilded  gam- 
bling saloons,  glittering  with  an  almost 
regal    splendor,    and    made    attractive 
with  almost  every  luxury  of  temptation  to  appetite ; 
through   the  private   poker-rooms  of  the  hotels  and 
liquor-saloons ;   through    skilfully    disguised    lottery 
schemes ;   plain    betting   on    competitions,  on  horse- 
races, on  base-ball  games  :  indeed  on  every  undecided 
event,  the  desire    and    effort    to    acquire   the   prop- 
erty of  another  without  labor,  or  without  the  render- 
ing of  a  fair  equivalent  of  value,  seems  to  permeate 
and  corrupt  a  constantly  increasing  proportion  of  city 
people.    The  inevitable  losses  which  befall  the  losing 
halfT  and  the  hope  of  retrieving  them  where  they  were 
made,  are  the  incitements  to  more  frauds,  embezzle- 
ments, misappropriations,  robberies,  and  even  thefts, 
than  are  the  demands  of  actual  want.    .    .    . 

"  Another  modern  development  of  urban  life  con- 
trary to  nature  and  prejudicial  to  good  morals  is  be- 
coming recognizable  in  the  multiplication  of  'clubs' 
of  all  kinds.  Some  of  these  are  useful  as  midday  re- 
sorts for  those  engaged  at  a  distance  from  home. 
Others  are  unobjectionable  when  formed  for  the  pro- 
motion of  a  laudable  object.  But  when  they  become 
substitutes  for  home,  and  are  made  to  satisfy  the  de- 
sires and  wants  of  young  men  apart  by  themselves, 
they  deserve  the  condemnation  and  discouragement  of 
every  Christian,  moralist,  philanthropist,  and  patriot. 


"  The  New  York  City  Directory  contains  the  names 
of  242  of  such  clubs  as  "having  sufficient  prominence  to 
warrant  record  there.  Besides  these,  there  are  the 
unnumbered  small  coteries,  unnamed  or  unknown  be- 
yond their  immediate  membership,  which  exist  in 
all  parts  of  the  city.  This  lead  of  the  metropolis  is 
being  followed  to  a  greater  or  less  extent  in  all  im- 
portant cities,  and  the  tendency  to  club  life  appears 
to  be  growing.  Inspired  in  the  inception  largely  for 
the  comfort  and  convenience  of  the  unmarried  young 
men  abounding  in  the  cities,  by  providing  opportunity 
and  temptation  to  indulgence  of  all  kinds  in  compara- 
tive privacy,  especially  for  convivial  drinking  and 
social  gambling,  they  not  only  threaten  the  young 
there  with  the  dangers  of  intemperance  and  gambling, 
but  so  ameliorate  the  loneliness  and  discomforts  of 
bachelor  life  as  to  become  an  obstacle  and  hindrance 
to  marriage.  It  is  said  that  the  sales  of  liquor  in  some 
of  the  most  popular  clubs  in  New  York  exceed  those 
of  any  bar-room  in  the  city." 

It  may  be  noted  also  that,  according  to  Levas- 
seur  (vol.  ii.,  p.  455),  urban  population  in  France 
has  a  criminality  double  that  of  the  rural  popu- 
lation ;  while,  according  to  W.  D.  Morrison 
{Mind,  vol.  i.,  N.  S.,  p  512),  London,  with  less 
than  one  fifth  of  the  population  of  England  and 
Wales,  furnishes  one  third  the  indictable  crimes. 

Concerning  intemperance  as  a  cause  of  crime, 
Mr.  Boies  says  : 

"  We  have  attributed  the  abnormal  increase  of 
criminality  and  pauperism  in  the  United  States  large- 
ly to  an  increase  of  intemperance.  Alcoholic  drink- is 
estimated  to  be  the  direct  or  indirect  cause  of  75  per 
cent,  of  all  the  crimes  committed,  and  of  at  least  50 
per  cent,  of  all  the  sufferings  endured  on  account  of 
poverty,  in  this  country  and  among  civilized  nations." 

For  a  contrary  opinion,  see  POVERTY,  CAUSES 
OF. 

Mr.  Boies  enforces  his  statement  by  the  fol- 
lowing quotations. 

E.  C.  Wines,  D.D.,  LL.D.,  President  of  the 
International  Penitentiary  Congress  of  Stock- 
holm, author  of  State  of  Prisons  in  the  Civil- 
ized World,  etc. ,  testifies  : 

"  Intemperance  is  a  proximate  cause  of  a  very  large 
proportion  of  the  crime  committed  in  America.  Fully 
three  fourths  of  all  the  prisoners  with  whom  I  have 
personally  conversed  in  different  parts  of  the  country 
admitted  that  they  were  addicted  to  an  excessive  use 
of  alcoholic  liquors.  ...  In  a  circular  letter  which  I 
once  addressed  to  the  wardens  of  all  our  State  prisons, 
this  question  was  put  to  them,  among  others :  '  What 
is  your  opinion  as  to  the  connection  of  strong  drink 
and  crime?'  The  answers  were  all  one  way.  Mr.  Pol- 
lard, of  Vermont,  did  but  echo  the  general  sentiment, 
tho  he  put  it  more  sharply  than  most,  when  he  said  : 
'  My  opinion  is  that  if  intoxicants  were  totally  eradi- 
cated, the  Vermont  State  Prison  would  hold  all  the 
criminals  in  the  United  States.'  "* 

William  Tallack,  Secretary  of  the  Howard 
Association,  London,  England,  author  of  De- 
fects of  Criminal  Administration,  Penologi- 
cal  and  Preventive  Principles,  etc.,  testifies  : 

"  It  is  unquestionable  that,  in  most  countries,  the 
worst  sufferings  inflicted  upon  women,  children,  and 
dumb  animals  are  perpetrated  under  the  influence  of 
intoxicating  drink,  for  this  is  provocative  of  both  cruel- 
ty and  lust.  .  .  .  Most  crimes  must  be  and  are  attrib- 
utable to  intemperance.  .  .  .  What  is  the  origin,  in 
innumerable  instances,  of  the  wretchedness  of  those 
homes  which  it  is  a  calamity  for  a  child  to  be  born 
into?  It  is  intemperance.  And  what  is  the  main 
source  of  that  poverty  which  causes  so  many  children 
to  be  either  neglected  or  driven  into  evil  courses  ? 
Again  it  is  unquestionably  intemperance. "t 

Ex-Chief-Justice  Noah  Davis,  of  the  New 
York  Supreme  Court,  testifies  : 

*  State  of  Prisons,  pp.  112,  113. 

t  Penological  t'rincipies,  pp.  296,  380. 


Criminology. 


423 


Criminology. 


"  Among  all  causes  of  crime,  intemperance  stands 
out  the  unapproachable  chief.  That  habits  of  intem- 
perance are  the  chief  causes  of  crime,  is  the  testimony 
of  all  judges  of  large  experience."* 

Dr.  Harris,  of  the  Prison  Association  of  New 
York,  testifies  : 

"  That  fully  85  per  cent,  of  all  convicts  give  evidence 
of  having  in  some  larger  degree  been  prepared  or 
enticed  to  do  criminal  acts  because  of  the  physical  and 
destructive  effects  upon  the  human  organism  of 
alcohol,  "t 

The  State  Board  of  Charities  of  Massachu- 
setts, in  their  report  of  1869,  testify  : 

"  The  proportion  of  crime  traceable  to  this  great 
vice  (intemperance)  must  be  set  down,  as  heretofore, 
at  not  less  than  four  fifths." 

Hon.  Sanford  M.  Green,  Judge  of  the  Su- 
preme and  Circuit  Courts  of  Michigan,  testifies  : 

"  That  it  (intemperance)  is  the  parent  of  pauperism. 
That  it  is  the  chief  cause  of  crime.  "J 

John  C.  Park,  District  Attorney  of  Suffolk 
County,  Mass.,  testifies  : 

"  While  district  attorney  I  formed  the  opinion  (and 
it  is  not  a  mere  matter  of  opinion,  but  is  confirmed  by 
every  hour  of  experience  since)  that  ninety-nine  hun- 
dredths  of  the  crime  in  the  commonwealth  is  produced 
by  intoxicating  liquors." 

Mr.  Fisk,  in  a  report  of  the  United  States 
Commissioner  of  Education,  1871,  testifies  : 

"  At  the  Deer  Island  House  of  Industry,  Boston,  88 
per  cent,  of  the  committals  were  for  drunkenness  and 
gj  percent,  of  the  confinements  were  connected  with 
strong  drink." 

Charles  S.  Hoyt,  Secretary  of  the  State  Board 
of  Charities  of  New  York,  testifies  : 

"  After  an  examination  made  of  the  inmates  of  the 
various  poorhouses  of  the  State  in  1875,  numbering 
12,614,  that  84.36  per  cent,  of  the  males  and  41.97  per 
cent,  of  the  females  were  intemperate  ;  and  of  4047 
insane  examined,  79.21  of  the  males  had  been  intem- 
perate, and  21.44  per  cent,  of  the  females." 

A  few  other  minor  causes  may  be  mentioned. 
Mr.  Forbes  Winslow,  Physician  to  the  British 
Hospital,  says,  in  his  Youthftd  Eccentricity  a 
Precursor  of  Crime  (p.  85)  : 

"  The  great  publicity  given  to  the  minutiae  of  atro- 
cious crimes  in  the  public  press  is  undoubtedly  a  fruit- 
ful source  of  crime  in  this  and  other  countries.  The 
evil  is  a  great  and  admitted  one  ;  the  remedy  has  yet 
to  be  be  discovered  which  does  not  come  under  the 
accusation  of  interfering  with  the  liberty  rightly  ex- 
ercised in  most  matters  by  the  press.  There  is  always 
floating  on  the  surface  of  society  a  numerous  class  of 
persons  of  questionable  moral  sense,  ripe  and  ready 
for  any  kind  of  vice,  eager  to  seize  hold  of  any  excuse 
for  the  commission  of  grave  offenses  against  person 
and  property.  This  class  is  generally  more  or  less 
affected  by  the  publication  of  the  minute  details  of 
murder,  suicide,  and  other  crimes.  They  tend,  as  it 
were,  to  form  the  type  of  the  moral  epidemic,  and  to 
give  form  and  character  to  the  criminal 
propensities.  Many  years  ago,  Esquirol, 
The  Press,  a  leading  authority  in  lunacy,  with 
many  others  of  the  period  of  which  I 
write,  complained  bitterly,  even  then, 
of  the  effect  of  the  public  press  in  increasing  the 
amount  of  maniacal  crimes.  This  was  at  a  time  when 
newspapers  were  comparatively  scarce,  but  since  then, 
I  regret  to  say,  the  tendency  for  the  sensational  has 
been  gradually  but  surely  increasing,  to  the  damage 
and  detriment  of  its  youthful  readers,  ever  eager  to 
gloat  over  the  description  of  a  crime  or  an  execution. 
The  daily  reports  which  appear  in  the  press  as  to  the 

*  Address  before  the  National  Temperance  Society 
1878. 

t  The  Relations  of  Drunkenness  (o  Crime. 
\  Crime,  p.  37  et  seq. 


health,  deportment,  the  general  conduct  of  a  notorious 
criminal,  his  behavior,  quotations  from  his  letters, 
scenes  in  prison,  are  surely  the  strongest  induce- 
ments to  many  weak-minded  persons  to  take  the  same 
means  of  acquiring  notoriety  by  following  in  the 
steps  of  the  criminal  in  question.  .  .  . 

"  In  dealing  with  the  influence  of  the  bar  on  the 
spread  of  crime,  I  allude  to  the  impressive  and  elo- 
quent addresses  made  for  the  defense  in  some  sensa- 
tional cases. 

"  The  law  of  any  land  is  that  it  allows  no  man's  guilt 
until  it  is  proven,  and  all  are  entitled  to  such  defense 
as  the  law  allows.  But,  being  conscious  of  the  fact, 
what  a  powerful  incentive  to  crime  is  the  love  of 
notoriety  !  Let  any  one  glance  over  the  detailed,  im- 
passioned speeches  of  those  learned  in  the  law,  plead- 
ing for  their  client's  sake,  the  thrilling  and  soul-stir- 
ring perorations  of  those  conscientiously  pleading  for 
very  life,  to  save  a  fellow-creature  from  the  gallows, 
and  let  him  calmly  consider  whether  to  be  thus  spoken 
of  would  not  be,  to  hundreds,  a  strong  incentive  to  go 
and  do  likewise,  in  order  to  be  thus  exalted  by  such 
advocates  at  the  bar." 

Other  causes  for  crime  exist  besides  those  of 
unhealthy  city  life  and  intemperance.  Mr.  Car- 
roll D.  Wright,  in  a  paper  published  by  the 
American  Academy  of  Political  and  Social  Sci- 
ence, says  concerning  the  economic  causes  of 
crime  : 

"  All  great  social  questions,  on  careful  analysis,  re- 
solve themselves,  in  a  more  or  less  degree,  into  some 
phase  of  what  we  call  the  labor  question,  and  certain- 
ly the  causes  of  crime,  in  a  sociological  sense,  cannot 
be  studied  without  considering  the  status  of  man  in 
the  prevailing  industrial  order,  for  among  all  the 
causes  for  criminal  action,  or  for  the  existence  of  the 
criminal  class,  we  find  that  economic  conditions  con- 
tribute in  some  degree  to  their  existence.  This,  how- 
ever, is  only  a  phase  of  criminology.  It  is  this  phase 
which  has  been  given  me  as  a  subject  for  discus- 
sion. .  .  . 

"  Guizot  has  said  that  labor  is  a  most  efficient  guar- 
antee against  the  revolutionary  disposition  of  the 
poorer  classes.  He  might  have  added  that  labor, 
properly  remunerated,  is  an  effective  guarantee 
against  the  commission  of  crime.  Certainly  hunger 
leads  to  more  crime  of  a  petty  nature,  perhaps,  than 
any  other  one  cause. 

"In  the  study  of  economic  conditions,  and  whatever 
bearing  they  may  have  upon  crime,  I  can  do  no  bet- 
ter than  to  repeat,  as  a  general  idea,  a  statement  made 
some  years  ago  by  Mr.  Ira  Steward,  of  Massachusetts, 
one  of  the  leading  labor  reformers  in  that  State  in  his 
day.  He  said  :  '  Starting  in  the  labor  problem  from 
whatever  point  we  may,  we  reach,  as  the  ultimate 
cause  of  our  industrial,  social,  moral,  and  material 
difficulties,  the  terrible  fact  of  poverty.  By  poverty 
we  mean  something  more  than  pauperism.  The  lat- 
ter is  a  condition  of  entire  dependence  upon  charity, 
while  the  former  is  a  condition  of  want,  of  lack,  of 
being  without,  tho  not  necessarily  a  condition  of  com- 
plete dependence.' 

"  It  is  in  this  view  that  the  proper  understanding  of 
the  subject  given  me,  in  its  comprehensiveness  and 
the  development  of  the  principles  which  underlie  it, 
means  the  consideration  of  the  abolition  of  pauperism 
and  the  eradication  of  crime ;  and  the  definitions 
given  by  Mr.  Steward  carry  with  them  all  the  ele- 
ments of  those  great  special  inquiries  embodied  in  the 
very  existence  of  our  vast  charitable,  penal,  and  re- 
formatory institutions,  'How  shall  poverty  be  abol- 
ished, and  crime  be  eradicated?'  The -discussion  is  a 
very  old  one,  and  neither  modern  professional  labor 
reformers,  nor  philanthropists,  nor  criminologists,  nor 
penologists  have  any  patents  upon  the  theme.  The 
progress  of  the  world  may  be  read  as  well  by  statutes 
in  the  humanity  of  law,  in  the  existence  of  prisons,  in 
the  establishment  of  charitable  institutions,  and  by 
the  economic  conditions  which  surround  labor,  as  by 
written  history  ;  for,  as  the  condition  of  labor  rises, 
pauperism  and  crime  must  fall  in  the  general  scale. 

"To  say  that  pauperism,  and  crime  as  an  attendant 
evil,  follow  the  unemployed  more  mercilessly  than  the 
employed,  would  be  to  make  a  statement  too  simple 
in  its  nature  to  invite  serious  consideration.  Yet  the 
history  and  the  statistics  of  labor  and  the  conclusions 
resulting  from  their  study  in  their  relation  to  pauper- 
ism and  crime  present  most  interesting  and  valuable 
features.  Criminal  conditions,  the  evils  we  are  con- 
sidering,  have  always  existed,  no  matter  what  the  so- 


Criminology. 


424 


Criminology. 


cial  or  legal  status  of  men  ;  under  the  most  favorable 
as  well  as  under  the  most  unfavorable  conditions ; 
under  liberal  and  under  despotic  government ;  in  bar- 
barous and  in  enlightened  lands  ;  with  heathenism  and 
with  Christianity  ;  under  a  variety  of  commercial  sys- 
tems ;  and  yet  they  are,  in  a  philosophic  sense,  a  re- 
buke to  a  people  living  under  constitutional  liberty. 

"Employment  of  the  unemployed  will  not  crush 
pauperism  and  crime,  even  if  every  able-bodied  man 
in  the  country  could  be  furnished  with  work  to-mor- 
row. Universal  education  will  not.  The  realization 
of  the  highest  hopes  of  the  temperance  and  labor  re- 
formers will  not.  The  general  adoption  of  the  Chris- 
tian religion  will  not.  But  all  these  grand  and  divine 
agencies  working  together  will  reduce  them  to  a  mini- 
mum, and  make  that  community  which  tolerates  them 
indictable  at  the  bar  of  public  opinion,  the  most  pow- 
erful tribunal  known. 

"  Physical  agencies,  without  all  the  higher  elements, 
can  do  but  little.  The  early  history  of  this  country 
and  the  history  of  all  countries  where  civilization  has 
made  any  headway  teach  this  truth. 

"  The  proposition  that  pauperism  and  crime  are  less 
frequent  in  cultured  communities  will  not,  I  suppose, 
be  debated.  It  is  true  that  the  intelligent,  skilled  la- 
borer is  rarely  found  either  in  a  penal  or  a  charitable 
institution;  nor  is  the  person  who  has  the  elementary 
education  sufficient  to  enable  him  to  read,  write,  and 
make  his  own  calculations  so  liable  to  become  a  charge 
as  the  one  who  has  not  these  qualifications.  I  am,  of 
course,  aware  that  the  full  accuracy  of  these  state- 
ments is  oftentimes  questioned  ;  yet  it  is  statistically 
true  that  enough  of  knowledge  to  be  of  value  in  in- 
creasing the  amount  and  quality  of  work  done,  to  give 
character,  to  some  extent  at  least,  to  a  person's  tastes 
and- aspirations,  is  a  better  safeguard  against  the  in- 
roads of  crime  than  any  code  of  criminal  laws.  I 
must,  of  course,  consider  this  point  as  a  fact,  and  shall 
not  weary  you  with  the  oft-repeated  arguments  and 
the  usual  array  of  figures  used  to  convince  legislators 
that  it  is  wise  economy  to  foster  our  educational  insti- 
tutions. This  being  conceded  as  to  intellectual  or  men- 
tal acquirements,  including  elementary  book-learning, 
how  does  the  fact  affect  the  matter  under  considera- 
tion? Simply  that  the  kind  of  labor  which  requires 
the  most  skill  on  the  part  of  the  workman  to  perform 
insures  him  most  perfectly  against  want  and  crime,  as 
a  rule. 

"  This  statement  is  fortified  by  such  statistics  as  are 
available.  Of  4340  convicts,  at  one  time,  in  the  State  of 
Massachusetts,  2391,  or  68  per  cent.,  were 
returned  as  having  no  occupation. 

Unemploy-       "  The  adult  convicts  numbered  at  that 

m  ~j.          time  3971.    Of  these  464  were  illiterate; 

and  the  warden  of  the  State  prison,  for 

the  year  in  question,  stated  that  of  220 

men  sentenced  during    that  year,    147 

were  without  a  trade  or  any  regular  means  of  earning 

a  living. 

"  In  Pennsylvania,  during  a  recent  year,  nearly  88 
per  cent,  of  the  penitentiary  convicts  had  never  been 
apprenticed  to  any  trade  or  occupation  ;  and  this  was 
also  true  of  68%  per  cent,  of  the  convicts  sentenced  to 
county  jails  and  workhouses  in  the  same  State  during 
the  same  year. 

"In  Mr.  Frederick  Wines'  recent  report  on  homicide 
in  the  United  States,  in  1890,  it  is  shown  that  of  6958 
men,  5175,  or  more  than  74  per  ceat.  of  the  whole,  were 
said  to  have  no  trade.  .  .  . 

"Furthermore,  it  is  true,  so  far  as  the  statistics 
which  I  have  been  able  to  consult  demonstrate,  that 
during  periods  of  industrial  depressions  crime  of  al- 
most all  grades  is  increased  in  volume.  The  difficulty 
of  demonstrating  this  feature  of  my  subject  to  any 
full  extent  lies  in  the  fact  that  our  criminal  statistics 
are  given  for  periods,  and  not  year  by  year.  Could  we 
have  annual  statements  of  the  convictions  in  all  our 
States,  so  that  such  statements  could  be  consulted 
relative  to  economic  conditions,  I  feel  sure  that  we 
should  find  a  coordination  of  results  that  would  startle 
us  all.  We  should  find  that  the  lines  of  crime  rise  and 
fall  as  the  prosperity  of  the  country  falls  and  rises. .  .  . 

"  It  is  perfectly  true  that  unsanitary  conditions,  and 
all  conditions  that  work  a  deterioration  in  the  health 
of  people,  lead  to  uneconomic  conditions.  Bad  air, 
bad  housing,  bad  drainage,  lead  to  intemperance  and 
want.  It  requires  no  argument  to  show  that  these  are 
precursors  of  crime.  Anything  that  brings  about  a 
higher  rate  of  mortality  among  the  children  of  the 
poor  leads  to  crime,  and  it  is  perfectly  deducible  from 
facts  that  are  known  that  any  occupation  which  insures 
a  high  rate  of  mortality  among  the  children  of  its  par- 
ticipants tends  to  conditions  most  favorable  to  the 
prevalence  of  pauperism  and  crime. 


"  The  displacement  of  labor  through  the  application 
of  improved  machinery  temporarily,  and  to  the  indi- 
vidual, produces  a  condition  of  want  which  may  or  may 
not  be  remedied  by  the  increased  labor  demanded 
through  invention.  Society  can  be  easily  answered 
by  stating  the  benefits  which  come  to  it  through  inven- 
tive genius,  but  it  is  a  poor  answer  to  the  man  who 
finds  the  means  of  supporting  his  family  taken  from 
him.  But  with  the  progress  of  invention  and  the  con- 
sequent elevation  ot  labor  both  pauperism  and  crime, 
so  far  as  society  is  concerned,  have  correspondingly 
decreased.  This  is  true  in  more  senses  than  one.  The 
age  of  invention,  or  periods  given  to  the  development 
and  practical  adaptation  of  natural  laws,  raises  all 
peoples  to  a  higher  intellectual  level,  to  a  more  com- 
prehensive understanding  of  the  world's  inarch  of 
progress. 

"  But  the  question  of  the  removal  of  poverty  and  the 
suppression  of  crime  is  not  wholly  with  the  working 
man  ;  the  employer  has  as  much  to  learn  as  he,  and  he 
is  to  be  holden  to  equal,  if  not  greater,  responsibility. 
Ignorant  labor    comprehends    ignorant 
employer.    Insomuch  as  the  profits  of 
labor  are  equitably  shared  with  labor,        Labor. 
insomuch  is  poverty  lessened,  and  inso- 
much as  poverty  is  lessened,  insomuch 
is  crime  decreased.    The  employer  should  always  re- 
member that  if  conditions  become  ameliorated,  if  life 
becomes  less  of  a  struggle,  if  leisure  be  obtained,  civ- 
ilization, as  a  general  rule,  'advances  in  the  scale.    If 
these  conditions  be  reversed,  if  the  struggle  for  exist- 
ence tends  to  occupy  the  whole  attention  of  each  man, 
civilization  disappears  in  a  measure,*  communities  be- 
come dangerous,  and  the  people  seek  a  revolutionary 
change,  hoping  by  chance  to  secure  what  was  not  pos- 
sible by  honest  labor. 

"  In  a  State  in  which  labor  had  all  its  rights  there 
would  be,  of  course,  little  pauperism  and  little  crime. 
On  the  other  hand,  the  undue  subjection  of  the  labor- 
ing man  must  tend  to  make  paupers  and  criminals, 
and  entail  a  financial  burden  upon  wealth  which  it 
would  have  been  easier  to  prevent  than  to  endure  ;  and 
this  prevention  must  come  in  a  large  degree  through 
educated  labor. 

"  Do  not  understand  me  as  desiring  to  give  the  im- 
pression that  I  believe  crime  to  be  a  necessary  accom- 
paniment of  our  industrial  system.  I  have  labored  in 
other  places  and  at  other  times  to  prove  the  reverse, 
and  I  believe  the  reverse  to  be  true.  Our  sober,  in- 
dustrious working  men  and  women  are  as  free  from 
vicious  and  criminal  courses  as  any  other  class.  What 
I  am  contending  for  relates  entirely  to  conditions  af- 
fecting the  few.  The  great  volume  of  crime  is  found 
outside  the  real  ranks  of  industry. 

"The  modern  system  of  industry  has  reduced  the 
periods  of  depression  from  the  long  reaches  extending 
over  half  a  century  under  older  systems.  These  peri- 
ods have  been  reduced  to  decades"  and  half  decades  of 
years.  The  time  will  come  when  periods  of  depres- 
sion will  occur  only  for  the  few  months  of  a  single 
year,  and  when  this  time  comes  the  columns  of  the  sta- 
tistics of  crime  will  show  a  receding  quantity.  Infi- 
nitely superior  as  the  modern  system  is  over  that  which 
has  passed,  the  iron  law  of  wages,  when  enforced  with 
an  iron  hand,  keeps  men  in  the  lowest  walks  of  life, 
often  on  the  verge  of  starvation.  As  intelligence  in- 
creases and  is  more  generally  diffused,  the  individual 
man  wants  more,  has  higher  aspirations  for  himself 
and  his  family;  but,  under  the  iron  law  of  wages,  at 
times,  all  these  desires  and  aspirations  are  hard  to  sat- 
isfy. The  modern  system  produces  mental  friction  ; 
a  competition  of  mind  has  taken  the  place,  in  a  large 
measure,  of  mere  muscular  competition,  and  the  lag- 
gard'in  the  industrial  race  may  lose  his  mind  or  his 
conscience,  in  the  latter  case  causing  him  to  develop 
into  the  criminal.  The  economic  condition  or  environ- 
ment of  this  particular  man  leads  him  inevitably  to 
crime." 

On  the  other  hand,  and  in  opposition  to  the 
above  views,  Mr.  VV.  D.  Morrison,  of  the  (Eng- 
lish) Wandsworth  Prison,  in  his  volume  Crime 
and  its  Causes,  denies  that  destitution  or  pov- 
erty are  powerful  factors  in  producing  crime. 
He  says  that  if  destitution  were  a  prominent 
factor  in  producing  crime,  the  crimes  most  preva- 
lent would  be  begging  and  theft.  Yet,  he  says, 
out  of  the  total  number  of  cases  tried  in  Eng- 
land and  Wales  during  the  year  1887-88,  726,698* 

*  Rawlinson's  Origin  of  Nations, 


Criminology. 


425 


Criminology. 


or  only  8  per  cent. ,  were  offenses  against  prop- 
erty, excluding  cases  of  malicious  damage,  and 
only  7  per  cent,  offenses  against  the  Vagrancy 
Acts.  This  makes  only  15  per  cent.,  yet  he  ar- 
gues that  all  these  cases  cannot  be  laid  to  des- 
titution, because  his  inquiries  show  that  fully 
one  half  of  the  offenders  of  this  class  had  work 
when  they  committed  the  offense.  Add  to 
these  the  great  bulk  of  juvenile  offenders  and 
those  who  steal  because  of  a  thievish  disposi- 
tion, and  there  is  only  a  small  percentage  left. 
Yet  this  is  not  all.  Many  offenders  of  this 
class  are  habitual  criminals,  professional  bur- 
glars, shoplifters,  etc.,  who  are  able  often  to 
pay  counsel  high  fees  ;  these  cannot  be  said  to 
be  driven  to  crime  through  destitution.  As 
for  vagrants,  we  must  not  forget  the  large  class 
of  habitual  or  professional  beggars  who  will  not 
work  (see  TRAMP),  who  are,  perhaps,  destitute, 
but  not  destitute  from  necessity.  He  says  M. 
Monod,  of  the  Ministry  of  the  Interior  in  France, 
arranged  with  some  merchants  and  manufac- 
turers to  offer  work  at  4  frs.  (80  cents)  per  day  to 
any  persons  he  sent  them.  In  eight  months,  727 


beggars  applied  to  him  for  help,  and  were  told 
to  come  the  next  day  and  receive  a  letter  which 
would  enable  them  to  get  work  at  the  above 
price.  Four  hundred  and  fifteen  never  came , 
138  more  came,  but  never  presented  their  letter. 
Of  the  whole  number  only  18  continued  at  work 
three  days.  Mr.  Morrison  figures,  after  careful 
argument,  that  only  4  per  cent,  of  the  criminal 
population  commit  crime  from  destitution.  As 
for  poverty  as  distinguished  from  destitution, 
Mr.  Morrison  argues  that  not  much  crime  can 
be  due  to  poverty,  because  if  it  were  there 
would  be  most  theft  where  there  was  the  most 
poverty  ;  and  he  says  this  is  not"  the  fact,  and 
presents  the  appended  table,  extracted  from  a 
larger  one  by  Signor  L.  Bodio,  Director-General 
of  Statistics  tor  Italy.  The  calculations  for  every 
country  except  Spain  are  based  on  the  census 
of  1880  or  1881  ;  the  calculations  for  Spain  are 
based  oa  the  census  of  1877.  In  all  the  coun- 
tries except  Germany  and  Spain  the  calcula- 
tions are  based  on  an  average  of  five  years  ;  tor 
Germany  and  Spain  the  average  is  only  two 
years. 


Italy, 

France,       1879-83 

Belgium,    1876-80 

Germany,  1882-83 

England, 

Scotland, 

Ireland, 

Hungary,  1876-80 

Spain,    '     1883-84 


1880-84    Annual  trials  for  theft  per  100,000  inhabitants,    221 
"  "  "  121 


262 
228 
289 

IOI 

82 

74 


Mr.  Morrison  says  : 

"  To  what  conclusions  do  the  statistics  contained  in 
this  table  point  ?  It  is  useless  burdening  this  chapter 
with  additional  figures  to  prove  that  England  and 
France  are  the  two  wealthiest  countries  in  Europe. 
The  wealth  of  England,  for  instance,  is  perhaps  six 
times  the  wealth  of  Italy ;  but,  notwithstanding  this 
fact,  more  thefts  are  annually  committed  in  England 
than  in  Italy.  The  wealth  of  France  is  enormously 
superior  to  the  wealth  of  Ireland,  both  in  quantity  and 
distribution,  but  the  population  of  France  commits 
more  offenses  against  property  than  the  Irish.  Spain 
is  one  of  the  poorest  countries  in  Europe,  Scotland  is 
one  of  the  richest,  but  side  by  side  with  this  inequality 
of  wealth  we  see  that  the  Scotch  commit,  per  100,000  of 
the  population,  almost  four  times  as  many  thefts  as 
the  Spaniards.  With  the  exception  of  Italy  it  is  the 
poorest  countries  of  Europe  that  are  the  least  dishon- 
est, and,  according  to  our  table,  even  the  Italians  are 
not  so  much  addicted  to  offenses  against  property  as 
the  inhabitants  of  England. 

"  Perhaps  the  most  instructive  figures  in  these  inter- 
national statistics  are  those  relating  to  England  and 
Ireland.  The  criminal  statistics  of  the  two  countries 
are  drawn  up  on  very  much  the  same  principles  ;  the 
ordinary  criminal  law  is  very  much  the  same,  and 
there  is  very  much  the  same  feeling  among  the  popu- 
lation with  respect  to  ordinary  crime  ;  in  fact,  with  the 
exception  of  agrarian  offenses,  the  administration  of 
the  law  in  Ireland  is  as  effective  as  it  is  in  England. 
On  almost  every  point  the  similarity  of  the  criminal 
law  and  its  administration  in  the  two  countries  almost 
amounts  to  identity,  and  a  comparison  of  their  crimi- 
nal statistics,  in  so  far  as  they  relate  to  ordinary  of- 
fenses against  property,  reaches  a  high  level  of  exacti- 
tude. What  does  such  a  comparison  reveal  ?  It  shows 
that  the  Irish,  with  all  their  poverty,  are  not  half  so 
much  addicted  to  offenses  against  property  as  the 
English,  with  all  their  wealth,  and  it  serves  to  confirm 
the  idea  that  the  connection  between  poverty  and 
theft  is  not  so  close  as  is  generally  imagined. 

"International  statistics,  then,  as  far  as  they  go, 
point  to  the  conclusion  that  it  is  the  growth  of  wealth, 
rather  than  the  reverse,  which  has  a  tendency  to  aug- 
ment the  number  of  offenses  against  property,  and 
national  statistics,  as  far  as  England  is  concerned,  ex- 
hibit a  similar  result.  .  .  . 

"  If  we  look  at  crime  in  general,  instead  of  that  par- 


ticular form  of  it  which  consists  in  offenses  against 
property,  it  will  likewise  become  apparent  that  it  is 
not  so  closely  connected  with  poverty  as 
is  generally  believed.    The  accuracy  of 
Indian  criminal  statistics  is  a    matter  Poverty  not 
that    has   already    been    pointed     out.     _  cftn8e  of 
When  these  statistics  are  placed  side  by        j*  . 
side  with  our   own  what  do  we  find?       Crime. 
According  to  the  returns    for   the  two 
countries  in  the  year  1888,  it  comes  out 
that  in  England  one  person  was  proceeded  against 
criminally  to  every  42  of  the  population,  while  in  India 
only  one  person  was  proceeded  against  to  every  195. 
In  other  words,  official  statistics  show  that  the  people 
of  England  are  between  four  and  five  times  more  ad- 
dicted to  crime  than  the  people  of  India.    On  the  sup- 
position that  poverty  is  the  parent  of  crime,  the  popu- 
lation of  India  should  be  one  of  the  most  lawless  in 
the  world,  for  it  is  undoubtedly  one  of  the  very  poor- 
est.   The  reverse,  however,  is  the  case,  and  India  is 
justly  celebrated  for  the  singularly  law-abiding  char- 
acter of  its  inhabitants.  .  .  . 

"A  further  illustration  of  the  same  fact  will  be 
found  on  examining  the  prison  statistics  of  the  United 
States.  According  to  an  instructive  paper  recently 
read  bv  Mr.  Roland  P.  Falkner  before  the  American 
Statistical  Association,  the  foreign-born  population  in 
America  is,  on  the  whole,  less  inclined  to  commit 
crime  than  the  native-born  American.  In  some  of  the 
States— Maine,  New  Hampshire,  Vermont,  and  Cali- 
fornia—'  the  foreign  born,'  says  Mr.  Falkner,  'make  a 
worse  showing  than  the  native.  In  a  great  number  of 
cases,  notably  Massachusetts,  Pennsylvania,  and  Ten- 
nessee, we  notice  hardly  any  difference.  Elsewhere 
the  showing  is  decidedly  in  favor  of  the  foreign  born, 
and  nowhere  more  strongly  than  in  Wisconsin  and 
Minnesota.'  (SeeCRiMK.)  It  is  perfectly  certain  that 
the  foreign-born  population  of  the  United  States  is- 
not,  as  a  rule,  so  well  off  economically  as  the  native- 
born  citizen.  The  vast  proportion  of  the  emigrant 
population  is  composed  of  poor  people  seeking  to 
better  their  condition,  and  it  is  well  known  that  a 
large  percentage  of  the  hard,  manual  work  done  in 
America  is  performed  by  those  men.  The  economic 
condition  of  the  average  native-born  American  in 
superior  to  the  economic  condition  of  the  average 
emigrant;  but  the  native  American,  notwithstanding 
his  economic  superiority,  cuts  a  worse  figure  in  the 
statistics  of  crime.  .  .  . 


Criminology. 


426 


Criminology. 


"  A  further  illustration  of  this  significant  truth  is  to 
be  witnessed  in  the  Antipodes.  In  no  quarter  of  the 
world  is  there  such  widespread  prosperity  as  exists 
in  the  colony  of  Victoria.  All  writers  and  travellers 
are  unanimous  upon  this  point.  Nowhere  in  the  world 
is  there  less  economic  excuse  for  the  perpetration  of 
crime.  Work  of  one  kind  or  another  can  almost  al- 
ways be  had  in  that  favored  portion  of  the  globe. 

"  Even  in  the  worst  of  times,  if  men  are  willing  to  go 
'  up  country,'  as  it  is  called,  occupation  of  some  sort 
is  certain  to  be  found,  and  trade  depression  never 
reaches  the  acute  point  which  it  sometimes  does  at 
home. 

"  Nevertheless,  on  examining  the  criminal  statistics 
of  the  colony  of  Victoria,  what  do  we  find  ?  Accord- 
ing to  the  returns  for  1887,  one  arrest  on  a  charge  of 
crime  was  made  in  every  30  of  the  population,  and  on 
looking  down  the  list  or  offenses  for  which  these  ar- 
rests were  made,  it  will  be  seen  that  Victoria,  notwith- 
standing her  widely  diffused  material  well-being,  is 
just  as  much  addicted  to  crimes  against  person  and 
property  as  some  of  the  poor  and  squalid  States  of 
Europe.  It  may  be  said  in  extenuation  of  this  con- 
dition of  things  that  Victoria  contains  a  larger  grown- 
up population,  and,  therefore,  a  larger  percentage  of 
Eersons  in  a  position  to  commit  crime  than  is  to  be 
jund  in  older  countries.  This  is,  to  a  certain  extent, 
true,  but  the  difference  is  not  so  great  as  might  at  first 
sight  be  supposed.  Assuming  that  the  criminal  age 
lies  between  15  and  60,  we  find  that  in  the  seven 
Australasian  colonies  563  persons  out  of  every  1000  are 
alive  between  these  two  ages.  In  Great  Britain  and 
Ireland  559  persons  per  1000  are  alive  between  15  and 
60.  According  to  these  figures,  the  difference  between 
the  population  within  the  criminal  age  in  the  colony, 
as  compared  with  the  mother  country,  is-  very  small, 
and  is  quite  insufficient  to  account  for  the  relatively 
high  percentage  of  crime  exhibited  by  the  Victorian 
criminal  statistics. 

"  All  these  considerations  force  us  back  to  the  con- 
clusion that  an  abundant  measure  of  material  well- 
being  has  a  much  smaller  influence  in  diminishing 
crime  than  is  usually  supposed,  and  compels  us  to  ad- 
mit that  much  crime  would  still  exist  even  if  the  world 
•were  turned  into  a  paradise  of  material  prosperity  to- 
morrow." 

If  it  be  asked  to  what  causes  Mr.  Morrison  does  lay 
excess  of  crime,  it  is  to  be  answered,  to  the  effect  of 
climate  and  season. 

To  prove  the  first  point,  he  shows  that  while  race 
makes  some  difference  in  the  amount  of  crime,  people 
of  different  races  do  not  materially  differ  in  the 
amount  of  crime  they  commit  in  the  same  climate, 
while  people  of  the  same  race  do  materially  differ  in 
different  climates.  He  shows  that  in  the  proportion 
of  murders  to  the  population  in  European  countries 
(see  HOMICIDE),  Italy,  Spain,  and  Hungary  head  the 
list ;  Austria  and  Belgium  come  next ;  Prance,  Ireland, 
and  Germany  follow  ;  England,  Scotland,  and  Holland 
stand  at  the  bottom.  He  shows  that  this  cannot  be 
due  to  the  conditions  of  civilization  or  economic  con- 
ditions, because  poor  countries  and  uncivilized  coun- 
tries do  not  by  any  means  always  have  many  murders. 
M.  de  Quatretages  argues  that  in  crime  white  men  are 
scarcely  more  moral  than  black.  If  poverty  were  the 


cause  of  the  difference,  why  should  Ireland  be  so  dif- 
ferent from  Italy  ?  For  the  same  reason  it  cannot  be 
religion.  In  America  he  argues  that  white  men  of  the 
South  commit  more  homicides  than  white  men  of  the 
North.  Above  all,  he  compares  the  Australian  colony 
of  Victoria  with  Great  Britain.  He  argues  that  the 
population  in  Victoria  is  better  than  the  average  in 
Great  Britain,  its  general  prosperity  greater,  its  police 
more  thorough,  and  yet  he  shows  crime  to  be  much  more 
frequent  in  V ictoria  in  proportion  to  the  population. 

In    the    same   line    of    argument,  Mr. 
Morrison  shows  that  crime,  from  Octo- 
ber to  February,  falls  with  the  falling       Climate. 
temperature,    and    from     February    to 
October  climbs  with  the    climbing  tem- 
perature.   He  says   that  the  cause  of  this  cannot  be 
economic,  because  in    the  summer  it  is  easier  to  get 
work.    He  shows,  too,  that  in  summer  there  are  more 
offenses  against  prison  order  than  in  winter. 

Thus  far  we  have  been  considering  the  effect 
of  environment  upon  crime.  But  heredity  con- 
tributes to  the  result.  Says  Mr.  H.  M.  Boies 
(Prisoners  and  Paupers,  pp.  266,  279) : 

"  We  believe  it  is  established  beyond  controversy 
that  criminals  and  paupers,  both,  are  degenerate  ;  the 
imperfect,   knotty,   knurly,    worm-eaten,    half   rotten 
fruit  of  the  race.  In  short,  both  criminality  and  pauper- 
ism are  conditions  and  not  dispositions.    The  mind,  the 
intellectual  faculties,  and  the  soul,  the  moral  faculties 
— which  are  the  motive  powers  of  character,  which  con- 
stitute the  man— have  their  home  in  his  body,  to  which 
they  are  conformed,    which  they  represent,  and  by 
which  they  are   limited  and  controlled 
in  their  operations,  as  well  as  in  their 
conditions.    A  normal  character  is  not     Heredity. 
to  be  expected  in  an  abnormal  physique, 
nor  a  sound  and  healthy  character  in  a 
diseased  constitution. 

"  The  law  that  '  like  begets  like  '  is  by  no  means  con- 
fined to  criminals  and  paupers,  but  operates  inexor- 
ably in  all  classes  and  conditions  of  people.  A  taint  of 
hereditary  drunkenness,  insanity,  suicide,  epilepsy, 
idiocy,  deaf-mutism,  cancer,  syphilis,  gout,  rheuma- 
tism, tuberculosis  or  scrofulous  diathesis  in  the  blood 
is  a  symptom  of  degeneration,  likely  to  be  intensified 
by  propagation  in  succeeding  generations  until  the 
tainted  family  becomes  extinct.  Intermarriage  with 
those  tainted  diffuses  weakness,  deformity,  and  ab- 
normality through  the  social  structure,  deteriorates 
and  contaminates  all  who  issue  from  such  unions. 
These  things  are  well  known  and  completely  estab- 
lished. We  have  not  space  for  the  argument  here." 

The  diagramic  history  of  eight  families,  given 
below,  are  taken  from  Dr.  Strahan's  book 
(Marriage  and  Disease,  a  study  of  hereditary 
and  the  more  important  family  degenerations, 
1892)  and  illustrate  the  evil  more  impressively 
than  argument. 


M 

CASE  No.  I.,  p.  49. 
].  E  's  FAMILY. 
M                                                      F 

a  fit. 

54- 

A  suicide.    AZt.  56. 
Married.     No  issue. 

Died  of  cancer  of                                  Died  in 
stomach.    JEt.  66.                                       JEt. 

M 

Died  of  can- 
cer of  stom- 
ach. J&\~  58. 

Left  five  chil- 
dren. 

M                       F 
Died  of  con-    Died  of  con- 
vulsions,        sumption. 
JEt.  13  weeks.              | 
Married  several 
years.  No  issue. 

M 

F                              F                         M 
Died  of  con-        Died  of  con-    Healthy.     Ha 
sumption.            sumption.           seven  chil- 
1                        JEt.  16.                 dren. 
Married  several 
years.  No  issue.                                             Epile 
sane 
men. 
child 
NO.  II.,  p.  108. 

K.  S  's  FAMILY. 
F 

S 

M 
ptic.    Twice     fn- 
Testes  in  abdo- 
Married.      No 
ren. 

Epileptic. 

I                     Had  sister  insane. 

i.                   i 

Epileptic.    Dead.        Epileptic. 
No  issue.                and  insane 
issue. 

1                                    1 
M                                   F                                    F 
Dead           Idiot.                       Sane  as  yet.          Insane.           Suicidal. 
No        Impotent.                           (                    Incurable.    No  issue. 
Nine  children. 
Some  imbecile. 

Criminology. 


Criminology. 


No.  III.,  p.  125. 
Father,  a  drunkard, 

Son, 
A  drunkard,  disgustingly  drunk  on  his  wedding  day. 


t 

1                                  1                                  III 

Died  of  con- 
vulsions. 

Died  of  con-           Idiot  at  22  years           Suicidal.     A        Peculiar  and       Repeatedly 
vulsions.                      of  age.                       dement.                irritable.           insane. 

Nerv 

D  us  and 

depressed. 

No.  IV.,  p.  137. 

M 

Died  mad. 

1                                   1                                  1                               1 
M                                M                                M                            M 

Imbecile.                  Irritable.                  Died  of  brain  disease. 
1 

£ 

!                           1                           1        1        1        1        1         1        1 

Epileptic.                 Epileptic.                         '234567 

Imbecile. 

All  seven  died  in  convulsions. 

No.  V.,  p.  138.                                                  No.  VI.,  p.  166. 

F 

M                                          F 

A  suicide. 

Mute.                   |             Normal. 

1 

F                     *                                      1                                             1 

M 

M 

Insane.        Epileptic.                            M                                              F 

Insane.^  m^                                                 Mute     No  issue                         Normal.            | 

Normal. 

!                                                                          Ill 

I* 

| 

|                               |                                           F                     F                      M 

Excitable. 

Dull.                 Epileptic.                               Mute.             Mute.           Normal.         | 

Normal. 

Imbecile.                                                                                                  M 

Mute. 

First  Generation. 


No.  VII.,  p.  831. 

J.  G.  A 's  FAMILY  HISTORY. 

Paternal  side. 
Grandfather.     A  drunkard. 


1  G 

)  Grandmother.     Normal. 


Second  Generation. 


Uncle. 
Uncle. 


A  drunkard. 
A  drunkard. 


Uncle.    An  epileptic. 

Father.    Excitable  and  irritable. 


Maternal  side. 
Grandmother.     "Odd." 
Grandfather.     Normal. 
Uncle.    Epileptic. 
Uncle.    Rheumatic,  totally  cripple, 

and  his  daughter  also. 
Uncle.    Rheumatic. 
Aunt.     Rheumatic. 
Mother.     Died  in  asylum. 


Third  Generation 


M 


Asthmatic. 


Daughter.    Has  had  rheumatism  and  has  heart  disease. 
Son.    Now  insane. 

Son.    Died  a  few  days  old  of  convulsions. 
Son.    Now  a  chronic  maniac  in  an  asylum. 

Daughter.    Suicidal  melancholia  ;  died  in  an  asylum  ;  no  issue.    Family  ex- 
tinct. 

No.  VIII.,  p.  303. 
S.  H 's  FAMILY. 


Somewhat  weak-minded. 


Healthy.        Died  in  infancy  in  convulsions. 


Drowned.  Epilep- 
tic. 


Idiot. 


I  I  I 

12  13  14 

Died  in    Healthy.  Scrofu-] 
infancy  in  lous. 

convulsions. 


It  is  true  that  most  scientists'"  to-day  believe 
that  environment  has  greater  influence  on  char- 
acter than  heredity,  and  that  heredity  trans- 
mits only  the  natural  and  not  the  acquired  habits 
of  the  parent.  Says  Mr.  Morrison  (Crime  and 
its  Causes,  p.  189)  : 

"The  son  of  a  rope-dancer  does  not  inherit  his 
father's  faculties  for  rope-dancing,  nor  the  son  of 


an  orator  his  father's  ready  aptitude  for  public  speech, 
nor  the  son  of  a  designer  his  father's  acquired  skill  in 
the  making  of  designs.  All  that  the  son  inherits  is  the 
natural  faculties  of  the  parent,  but  no  more.  Hence 
it  follows  that  the  son  of  a  thief,  on  the  supposition 
that  thieving  comes  by  habit  and  practice,  does  not 
by  natural  inheritance  acquire  the  parent's  criminal 
propensity.  As  far  as  his  natural  faculties  are  con- 
cerned he  starts  life  free  from  the  vicious  habits  of  his 
parent,  and  should  he  in  turn  become  a  thief,  as  some- 
times happens,  it  is  not  because  he  has  inherited  his 


Criminology. 


428 


Criminology. 


father's  thievish  habits,  but  because  he  has  himself 
acquired  them.  It  is  imitation,  not  instinct,  which 
transforms  him  into  a  thief ;  and  if  he  is  removed 
from  the  influence  of  evil  example  he  will  have  al- 
most as  small  a  chance  of  falling  into  a  criminal  life 
as  any  other  member  of  the  community." 

"  Nevertheless,  natural  characteristics  are 
transmitted.  In  a  recent  communication  to  a  Ger- 
man periodical,  Herr  Sichart,  Director  of  Pris- 
ons in  the  kingdom  of  Wiirtemberg,  has  shown 
that  a  very  high  percentage  of  criminals  are  the 
descendants  of  degenerate  parents.  Herr  Si- 
chart's  inquiries  extended  over  several  years  and 
included  1714  prisoners.  Of  this  number  16  per 
cent,  were  descended  from  drunken  parents  ;  6 
per  cent,  from  families  in  which  there  was  mad- 
ness ;  4  per  cent,  from  families  addicted  to  sui- 
cide ;  i  per  cent,  from  families  in  which  there 
was  epilepsy.  In  all,  27  per  cent,  of  the  offend- 
ers examined  by  Herr  Sichart  were  descended 
from  families  in  which  there  was  degeneracy. 
According  to  these  figures,  more  than  one  fourth 
of  the  German  prison  population  have  received 
a  defective  organization  from  their  ancestry, 
which  manifests  itself  in  a  life  of  crime. ' ' 

"  In  France  and  Italy  the  same  state  of  things 
prevails.  Dr.  Corre  is  of  opinion  that  a  very 
large  proportion  of  persons  convicted  of  bad 
conduct  in  the  French  military  service  are  dis- 
tinctly degenerate  either  in  body  or  mind. 
Dr.  Virgilio  says  that  in  Italy  32  per  cent,  of 
the  criminal  population  have  inherited  criminal 
tendencies  from  their  parents."  Of  England 
Mr.  Morrison  says  : 

"  The  population  in  the  local  jails  in  i888-8g,  between 
the  ages  of  21  and  40,  constituted  54  per  cent,  of  the 
total  prison  population,  while  the  same  class  between 
the  ages  of  40  and  60  formed  only  20  per  cent,  of  the 
prison  population.  One  half  of  this  drop  in  the  per- 
centage of  prisoners  between  40  and  60  may  be  ac- 
counted for  by  the  decreased  percentage  of  persons 
between  these  two  ages  in  the  general  population. 
The  other  half  can  only  be  accounted  for  by  the  ex- 
tent to  which  premature  decay  and  death  rage  among 
criminals  who  have  passed  their  fortieth  year.  In 
other  words,  the  number  of  criminals  alive  after  40  is 
much  smaller  than  the  number  of  normal  men  alive 
after  that  age. 

"  A  direct  proof  of  the  extent  of  degeneracy  in  the 
shape  of  insanity  among  persons  convicted  of  murder 
can  be  found  in  the  judicial  statistics.  The  number 
of  persons  convicted  of  wilful  murder,  not  including 
manslaughter  or  non-capital  homicides,  from  1879  to 
1888  amounted  to  441.  Out  of  this  total  i43,  or  32  per 
cent.,  were  found  insane.  Of  the  299  condemned  to 
death,  no  less  than  145,  or  nearly  one  half,  had  their 
sentences  commuted,  many  of  them  on  the  ground  of 
mental  infirmity.  The  whole  of  these  figures  de- 
cisively prove  that  between  40  and  50  per  cent,  of  the 
convictions  for  wilful  murder  are  cases  in  which  the 
murderers  were  either  insane  ormentally  infirm." 

The  socialist  view  of  the  causes  of  crime  is 
that  they  may  be  summed  up  in  one  word,  en- 
vironment, produced  by  a  capitalistic  system. 
It  agrees  with  Mr.  Boies  when  he  says  (Pris- 
oners and  Paupers,  p.  263) : 

"  We  have  been  convinced  by  our  study  that  most  of 
those  characteristics  which  have  hitherto  been  treated 
as  causes,  such  as  ignorance,  intemperance,  poverty, 
disease,  and  defects,  are  symptoms  indicating  a  social 
state  or  condition  of  crime  and  pauperism,  rather 
than  causes  of  them." 

Most  of  the  above  quotations  are  simply 
illustrations  of  the  power  of  environment  pro- 
duced by  capitalism  upon  character.  As  for 
Mr.  Morrison's  supposed  proof  that  want  and 
destitution  do  not  produce  crime,  because  there 


is  more  crime  in  wealthy  countries  like  England 
and  France  than  in  poor  countries  like  Ireland 
and  Italy,  Mr.  Morrison  forgets  that  the  average 
wealth  of  a  country  does  not  prove  that  there 
are  not  poor  people  there.  England  and  France 
are  wealthier  than  Ireland  and  Italy,  but  still 
there  may  be  more  desperate  poverty,  above 
all,  more  poverty  crowded  in  great  cities,  in 
wealthy  countries  than  in  poor.  India  is 
poor  and  comparatively  free  from  crime  (not 
necessarily  free  from  immorality),  but  India  does 
not  have  the  kind  of  poverty  produced  by  a 
capitalist  system.  It  is  not  poverty  simply,  but 
poverty  and  bad  environment,  produced  by  a 
seeking  after  profits  which  blesses  neither  the 
wealthy  nor  the  poor,  and  tends  to  increase 
crime  in  both  classes. 

III.  THE  PREVENTION  OF  CRIME. 

If  the  cause  of  crime  be  poor  homes,  intem- 
perance, lack  of  proper  education  for  children, 
lack  of  family  life,  etc.,  it  is  easy  to  see  that  the 
way  to  prevent  crime  is  to  reduce  intemperance, 
educate  children,  and  give  a  proper  environ- 
ment to  all  classes.  Said  Mr.  Charlton  T.  Lewis, 
President  of  the  New  York  Prison  Association , 
in  the  opening  address  at  the  International 
Congress  of  Charities  and  Corrections  at  Chi- 
cago in  1893  : 

"There  is  now  stirring  in  the  general  mind  a  sense 
that  we  are  on  the  eve  of  one  of  the  greatest  social 
revolutions  which  mankind  has  ever  experienced,  and 
that  the  revolution  will  be  a  reorganization  of  society, 
a  reconstitution  of  law,  a  reformation  of  the  courts, 'a 
reconstruction  of  the  system  of  dealing  with  crime.  .  .  . 
The  business  of  society  in  protecting  itself  against  the 
criminal,  or  warring  against  crime,  in  striking  the 
blow  of  vengeance  at  the  criminal,  has  given  place  to 
the  work  of  charity  to  the  criminal." 

How  society  can  bring  proper  education  and 
environment  to  all  classes  is  too  vast  a  subject 
to  be  considered  here.  It  is  the  subject  of  this 
whole  encyclopedia.  (See  especially  EDUCA- 
TION ;  INDUSTRIAL  EDUCATION  ;  UNEMPLOYMENT  ; 
CITY  ;  TENEMENT-HOUSE  QUESTION  ;  SLUMS  ; 
TEMPERANCE  ;  CHARITY  ORGANIZATIONS  :  SOCIAL- 
ISM, etc.) 

A  few  points  here   may  be  noted.     Says  Mr.  Boies 
(Prisoners  and  Paupers} :  "  The  problem  then  is  that 
of  the  reformation  of  city  life.  ...    It  is  important 
that  an  improved  system  of  public  char- 
ities should  be  organized  in  all  cities  to 
prevent  the  abuse  of  benevolence.    The        Social 
'  organization  of  charity,'  which  has  be- 
gun  under  this  necessity,  ought  to  be 
perfected    and    sustained    by    law.      It 
should  comprehend  within  its  scope  the 
reinstatement  of  the    family  unit  in   its   original  po- 
tentiality in  urban  life.      It   must  endeavor  to  adapt 
the    family  to  its    urban    environments,   and    urban 
environments  to  the  essential  family  privacy  and  in- 
tegrity. 

"The  very  plan  and  method  of  institutional  charity 
is  a  mistake  in  almost  every  direction.  It  violates  the 
primordial  principle  of  the  social  organization  by  the 
effort  to  substitute  communal  treatment  for  the  natural 
family  arrangement.  .  .  . 

"  The  general  consensus  of  the  wisest  students  of 
sociology  is  coming  to  favor  a  smaller  classification 
and  a  more  domestic  provision  for  dependents,  that 
which  most  closely  rese'mbles  and  reproduces  private 
family  relations  in  the  reduced  classification,  as  most 
hopeful  of  wide  and  permanent  success.  .  .  . 

"  These  factors  of  the  problem  of  city  life  seem  to 
require  the  exercise  of  public  power.  .  .  . 

"  One  of  the  primary  objects  of  good  local  govern- 
ment in  cities  should  be  the  restoration  of  a  fair 
equilibrium  in  density  of  population.  .  .  . 


Criminology. 


429 


Criminology. 


"  The  Health  Department  of  New  York  reported  in 
1891  a  count  of  37,358  tenement  houses  in  the  city,  oc- 
cupied by  276,565  families  and  1,225,411  souls.  This 
shows  an  increase  of  over  200,000  in  tenement  popula- 
tion in  three  years,  and  an  average  of  32.8  occupants  to 
each  tenement !  The  average  density  of  the  22  largest 
cities  in  the  country  was  15.92  persons  to  the  acre,  so 
that  the  greatest  density  in  New  York  was  32  times, 
and  in  Philadelphia  10  times  the  average. 

"  It  ought  to  be  the  province  of  the  Government  to 
relieve  this  social  congestion.  People  do  not  live  in 
misery  from  choice,  but  because  they  are  unable  to 
escape  it.  Let  society,  in  self-protection,  open  up  the 
way  of  escape  if  it  can,  and  nature  will  relieve  itself. 
Real  estate  in  cities  increases  in  value  according  to  its 
accessibility  to  transportation  terminals  and  occupa- 
tion centers.  The  poor  abide  where  they  obtain  sub- 
sistence, because  they  cannot  afford  the  time  and 
money  to  live  farther  away.  Offer  them  cheap  and 
quick  transfer  to  healthier  and  better  homes,  and  they 
will  quickly  spread  themselves  out  of  their  stifling 
abodes. 

"  It  becomes  a  public  necessity,  then,  to  provide 
rapid  and  cheap  transportation  from  centers  to  sub- 
urbs. .  .  . 

"An  autonomic  municipality  should  and  would 
greatly  improve  its  police.  It  would  recognize  its  in- 
creased dependence  upon  it,  and  the  importance  of 
making  it  the  absolutely  safe  reliance  which  it  should 
be.  The  municipal  police  is  the  public  executive  force, 
the  manifestation  of  the  authority  and  power  of  the 
people's  government.  Instead  of  being  the  tool  of 
politicians,  it  must  be  made  entirely  independent  of 
and  superior  to  partisanship.  .  .  . 

"  All  our  cities  must  provide  for  the  adaptation  of 
the  rising  generations  to  the  probable  needs  of  the 
coming  time,  for  the  general  advantage  indeed,  but 
especially  to  reduce  the  herds  "of  the  idle — the  prolific 
source  ot  crime  and  poverty.  This  provision  cannot 
safely  be  left  longer  to  the  bequests  of  the  benevo- 
lent. It  has  become  a  necessary  function  of  govern- 
ment, as  imperative  as  the  public  school,  as  palpable 
and  obligatory  as  the  provision  of  almshouses,  asy- 
lums, and  prisons,  and  a  thousand  times  better.  A 
fraction  of  the  sums  expended  in  maintaining  these 
would  be  sufficient  to  transform  idleness  into  earning, 
and  largely  empty  them  of  their  inmates— an  ounce 
of  prevention,  equivalent  to  many  pounds  of  ineffec- 
tual cure. 

"  It  will  be  necessary  to  remove  those  who  are  in- 
capable, by  nature  or  disposition,  of  adaptation  to  a 
higher  life  to  the  simpler  requirements  of  the  country, 
to  locations  where  labor  suitable  to  their 
abilities  is  in  demand.  The  time  has 
Employment,  come  when  the  public  welfare  requires 
not  only  that  the  advantages  of  adapta- 
tion shall  be  general  and  sufficient,  but 
also  that  the  privileges  of  a  constant  and  even  equilib- 
rium of  work  and  labor  shall  be  maintained  uniform- 
ly, and  without  friction.  The  ease  and  economy  of 
modern  facilities  of  travel  and  transportation,  in 
America  certainly,  have  not  only  made  great  famines 
impossible,  but  human  idleness"  inexcusable.  If  the 
hands  are  unfit,  and  cannot  be  made  fit  for  the  work  at 
hand,  let  society  see  to  it  that  they  are  taken  where  fit 
work  waits." 

As  to  intemperance,  Mr.  Boies  advocates  tax- 
ing liquor  enough  to  make  it  meet  the  expense 
of  a  greatly  increased  number  of  asylums,  Kee- 
ley  institutes,  etc. ,  and  the  gradual  reduction  of 
intemperance  by  strict  laws  restricting  or  pro- 
hibiting the  sale  of  liquor  to  minors,  paupers, 
etc.,  and  punishing  offenders.  He  would  also 
have  coffee  houses  and  other  substitutes  for  the 
saloon ,  and  have  the  State  teach  hygienic  cook- 
ing to  all  classes.  (See  TEMPERANCE.) 

The  State,  he  says,  cannot,  however,  do  all. 
The  redemption  of  the  urban  population  is  not 
to  be  expected  from  the  action  of  the  Government 
alone,  altho  this  may  facilitate  it.  Government 
may  restrict  and  abolish  drinking-saloons,  gam- 
bling saloons,  and  brothels.  It  may  punish  vice 
and  crime  ;  it  may  chase  immorality  from  public 
sight.  It  must  provide  for  the  helpless  indigent, 
and  put  forth  effort  to  reform  the  criminal  in  its 
hands.  But  the  reformation  and  elevation  of 


society  at  large   devolves  upon  philanthropy, 
patriotism,  and  the  Church  of  Christ. 

On  this  point  Mr.  Forbes  Winslow  says 
( Youthful  Eccentricity  a  Precursor  to  Crime) : 

"  An  education  which  merely  instructs  will  encourage 
crime.  One  which  coordinates  the  faculties  of  the 
mind,  which  gives  exercise  to  reason  and  judgment, 
at  the  same  time  that  it  represses  without  ignoring  the 
instinctive  part  of  man's  nature,  will  elevate  his  posi- 
tion in  the  scale  of  the  creation,  and  turn  those  faculties 
to  the  services  of  his  fellow-creatures  which  otherwise 
would  be  employed  to  their  destruction.  If  the  emo- 
tions be  constantly  trampled  down  and  invariably 
subordinated  to  reason,  they  will  in  time  assert  their 
claims,  and  break  forth  in  insanity  or  crime  :  if  they 
be  constantly  indulged,  the  result  will  probably  be  th« 
same.  ...  I  am  no  opponent  to  the  diffusion  of 
knowledge  ;  but  I  am  to  that  description  of  informa- 
tion which  has  only  reference  '  to  the  life  that  island 
not  to  that  which  is  to  be.'  Such  a  system  of  instruc- 
tion is  of  necessity  defective,  because  it  is  partial  in  its 
operation. 

"Teach  a  man  his  duty  to  God,  as  well  as  his  obliga- 
tions to  his  fellow-men ;  lead  him  to  believe  that  his 
life  is  not  his  own,  and  we  disseminate  principles  which 
will  give  expansion  to  those  faculties  that  alone  can 
fortify  the  mind  against  the  commission  of  a  crime 
alike  repugnant  to  all  human  and  Divine  laws." 

Concerning  the  methods  of  reaching  the  eco- 
nomic causes  of  crime,  Mr.  Carroll  D.  Wright 
says,  in  the  paper  quoted  above  : 

"  Trade  instruction,  technical  education,  manual 
training— all  these  are  efficient  elements  in  the  reduc- 
tion of  crime,  because  they  all  help  to  better  and  truer 
economic  conditions.  I  think,  from  what  I  have  said, 
the  elements  of  solution  are  clearly  discernible.  Justice 
to  labor,  equitable  distribution  of  profits  under  some 
system  which  I  feel  sure  will  supersede  the  present, 
and  without  resorting  to  socialism,instruction  in  trades, 
by  which  a  man  can  earn  his  living  outside  a  penal  in- 
stitution, the  practical  application  of  the  great  moral 
law  in  all  business  relations— all  these  elements,  with 
the  more  enlightened  treatment  of  the  criminal  when 
apprehended,  will  lead  to  a  reduction  in  the  volume  of 
crime,  but  not  to  the  millennium." 

So  far  as  heredity  contributes  to  crime,  Mr. 
Boies  would  meet  it  by  strict  marriage  laws. 
He  says  (Prisoners  and  Paupers,  p.  277)  : 

"  It  is  an  astonishing  and  incomprehensible  fact  to 
the  student  that  society,  among  all  the  plans  and  proj- 
ects it  is  continually  devising  for  the  benefit  and  ele- 
vation of  humanity,  has  in  our  modern  civilization 
utterly  overlooked  and  ignored  the  one  vital  social 
function  upon  which  improvement  of  the  race  depends. 
Marriage,  which  constitutes  the  social  unit,  which 
creates  the  family,  whence  the  generations  succeed  one 
another  in  upward  or  downward  progress,  has  been 
left  by  philanthropy,  by  Church  and  State,  except  by 
the  recognition  and  solemnization  of  the  fact  itself, 
almost  as  entirely  unregulated  as  it  was  in  the  days  of 
savage  life,  as  it  is  among  wild  animals.  The  union  of 
the  pair  upon  whose  fitness  will  depend  the  physique 
and  character  of  the  next  generation  is  submitted  by 
society  to  'natural  selection  '  and  'chance.'  If  other- 
wise influenced  at  all,  it  is  solely  by  material  consider- 
ations of  selfish,  temporary  importance  rather  than 
those  affecting  the  real  object  and  purpose  of  the  union, 
the  children  who  are  to  come  of  the  union.  Itis  doubt- 
ful if  one  in  a  thousand  of  those  who  marry  ever  take 
this  subject  into  consideration  in  their  selections.  If 
they  were  to  do  so,  indeed,  there  would  be  no  proper 
method  available  to  determine  the  questions  needing 
settlement.  So  this  seriously  vital  function  is  settled  by 
caprice  and  'chance.'  The  chances  remaining  about 
the  same,  the  results  have  been  about  the  same  for 
thousands  of  years,  save  for  the  multiplication  of  the 
unfit.  .  .  . 

"  Society  has  willingly  expended,  and  continues  each 
year  to  expend,  vast  sums  of  money  and  great  labor  in 
the  support  of  religious  institutions,  preachers,  and 
churches  for  the  moral  elevation  of  the  people.  It  sub- 
mits cheerfully  to  pay  the  largest  share  of  the  public 
tax,  and  contributes  immense  amounts  in  addition, 
benevolently,  to  promote  their  intellectual  progress. 
It  founds  and  supports  medical  colleges,  stimulates 
physical  culture  by  encouraging  athletic  games  and 


Criminology. 


Crises. 


sports,  and  advocates  the  improvement  of  the  physique 
in  every  imaginable  direction.  Religion  and  philan- 
thropy join  their  forces  in  ceaseless  and  exhausting 
effort  to  stem  the  resistless  tide  which  appears  to  be 
sweeping  the  race  over  the  cataract  of  extinction,  sus- 
tained by  faith  in  the  eternal  promise  of  a  millennium 
rather  than  encouraged  by  any  palpable  success. 
They  contend  valiantly  against  overwhelming  results, 
ignorant  or  oblivious  of  the  easily  controlled  causes. 

"Let  it  once  assume  the  regulation  of  the  propaga- 
tion of  the  race  with  wisdom  and  faithful  efficacy,  and 
all  the  other  burdens  and  labors  will  become  light  and 
full  of  promise,  hope,  and  fruit.  It  must  control  this 
vital  function  of  marriage  for  the  public  welfare,  as 
well  as  for  the  private  good  of  the  individual.  This 
control  is  sanctioned  and  required  by  the  divine  right 
of  self-preservation,  and  has  become  an  imperative 
duty  to  the  race  and  to  God— a  duty  supreme  in  im- 
pulse and  in  consequence. 

"  Nor  is  its  performance  impeded  by  great  difficulties. 
The  ^tentative  measures  which  have  been  enacted,  the 
previous  license,  the  consent  of  parents  or  guardians 
for  minors,  the  prohibited  marriage  of  the  idiot  and 
raving  maniac,  have  secured  unanimous  approval.  So, 
eventually,  the  common-sense  of  mankind  will  endorse 
the  enactment  of  whatever  provisions  are  essential  to 
the  common  welfare. 

"  We  recommend,  as  the  next  step,  the  enactment  of  a 
code  regulating  marriage  fully  in  these  respects,  and 
by  some  such  methods,  as  follows : 

"  First,  it  should  be  required  that  a  license  must  in 
all  cases  be  obtained  from  a  county  official  before  a 
legal  marriage  can  be  made. 

"Second,  severe  penalties  should  be  imposed  upon 
any  who  perform  the  marriage  ceremony  without  the 
presence  of  the  prescribed  license,  which  should  have 
a  blank  upon  it  for  the  marriage  certificate,  with  the 
ages,  residence,  parentage,  nativity,  and  race  of  the 
parties  ;  the  signature  of  witnesses,  and  the  certificates 
of  one  or  more  reputable  physicians,  under  oath,  testi- 
fying to  a  knowledge  of  the  following  facts,  derived 
from  personal  acquaintance  with  the  persons  and  fam- 
ilies of  the  parties,  or  from  other  satisfactory  evidence. 

"  That  they  are  both  of  proper  marriageable  age.  in 
good  health,  sound  and  complete  physically,  neither 
intemperate,  criminals,  nor  paupers ;  whether  either 
parents  or  grandparents  were  lunatics,  drunkards, 
idiotic,  epileptic,  congenitally  blind,  dear,  or  deform- 
ed, or  or  syphilitic,  cancerous,  scrofulous,  or  tuber- 
culous constitution. 

"The  license  papers  should  be  issued  in  duplicate, 
and  one  copy  with  all  blanks  filled  should  be  filed  and 
recorded  in  the  county  clerk's  office.  A  false  certifi- 
cate by  a  physician  should  prevent  the  further  prac- 
tice of  his  profession.  The  law  should  strictly  pro- 
hibit the  marriage  of  females  under  20,  and  males 
under  25 ;  of  males  over  45  with  females  over  40  who 
have  not  passed  the  period  of  child-bearing  (for  out- 
side of  these  limitations  of  age  it  is  generally  under- 
stood healthy  children  are  exceedingly  improbable,  if 
not  impossible) ;  of  habitual  criminals,  paupers, 
tramps,  and  vagrants  ;  of  the  insane,  idiotic,  epileptic, 
paralytic,  syphilitic,  intemperate,  cancerous,  scrofu- 
lous, and  tuberculous  ;  the  congenitally  blind,  deaf, 
defective,  or  deformed  ;  the  children  or  grandchildren 
of  parents  possessed  of  these  taints,  or  of  suicides, 
which  is  of  itself  presumptive  evidence  of  degener- 
acy. 

"  The  infraction  of  this  law  or  the  cohabitation  with 
prohibited  persons  should  be  punished  by  the  per- 
manent seclusion  of  both  parties  in  the  penitentiaries 
provided  for  life  confinements. 

"  This  is  neither  a  complicated  nor  impracticable 
scheme.  Consider  what  the  results  would  be.  In  the 
brief  course  of  one  generation  all  the  inherited  rotten- 
ness and  corruption  of  the  ages  would 
be  purged  out  of  the  people.  The 

Control  of    criminal  and  pauper  class,  as  a  class, 

Marriae-e      would  become  extinct.     Penitentiaries, 

aulf  rl*5 Ot  jails,  almshouses,  insane  asylums,  idiot, 
deaf  and  dumb  and  blind  asylums 
would  be  largely  depopulated.  Intem- 
perance, the  fruitful  mother  of  all  evil,  sin,  and  suffer- 
ing, would  become  a  rare  vice  ;  "suicide,  the  refuge  of 
conscious  incompetence,  which  has  increased  at  the 
rate  of  33  per  cent,  in  25  years  in  England,*  and  quite 
as  much  here,  would  be  an  almost  unknown  crime  ; 
the  growing  burden  of  inordinate  taxation  and  benev- 
olence for  the  dependent  would  be  lifted  from  so- 
ciety ;  the  evils  of  divorce  would  cease,  chronic  dis- 
eases would  disappear  almost  entirely,  and  temporary 
ailments  be  robbed  of  more  than  half  their  terrors  ; 

*  Marriage  and  Disease,  p.  88. 


more  than  half  of  the  poignant  grief  and  affliction 
over  the  untimely  death  of  children  would  be  avoided  ; 
health  and  strength  and  ruddy  cheeks  would  delight 
the  eyes  and  hearts  that  now  grieve  over  puny  forms 
and  wan  faces  ;  doctors'  bills  would  no  longer  drain 
the  family  resources ;  the  earning  power  or  the  next 
generation  would  be  magnified,  its  capacity  for  intel- 
lectual improvement  and  education  increased,  its  sus> 
ceptibility  to  moral  and  religious  influence  and  gov- 
ernment intensified,  and  the  whole  race  rebound  from 
the  depression  of  its  past  with  a  buoyancy  and  power 
equal  to  the  full  development  of  its  age  of  steam  and 
electricity." 

For  the  treatment  of  prisoners  and  its  impor- 
tant bearing  on  the  prevention  of  crime,  see 
PENOLOGY. 

References :  Criminology,  by  Dr.  Arthur  MacDon- 
ald  (New  York  City,  1893).  This  volume  has  an  intro- 
duction by  Dr.  Cesare  Lombroso,  of  Turin,  and  a  com- 
plete bibliography  of  the  subject.  Abnormal  Alan,  by 
Dr.  Arthur  MacDonald,  United  States  Bureau  of  Edu- 
cation ;  Crime  audits  Causes,  by  W.  D.  Morrison  (Lon- 
don, 1891):  L'homme  criminel,  etude  anthropologique 
et  mldico-legale,  par  Cesare  Lombroso,  traduit  sur  la 
IVe  edition  italienne,  avec  preface  par  M.  Letourneau 
(Paris,  188?) ;  La  criminologie,  etude  sur  la  nature  du 
crime  et  la  theorie  de  la  penalite,  par  R.  Garofalo, 
agreg6  de  1'universite  de  Naples  (Paris,  1888) ;  Hypno- 
tism, and  Crime,  by  Dr.  J.  M.  Charcot  (The  Forum, 
April,  \%cp)\Penological and  Preventive  Principles,  with 
special  Reference  to  Europe  and  America,  by  William 
Tallack,  Secretary  of  the  Howard  Association  (Lon- 
don, 1889) ;  Prison  Statistics  of  the  United  States  for 
j8qo,  by  Roland  P.  Falkner,  Ph.D.  (Philadelphia,  1892) ; 
The  Restoration  of  the  Criminal,  a  sermon  by  Fred- 
erick H.  Wines  (Springfield,  111.,  1888);  Crime:  Its 
Cause  and  Remedy,  by  L.  Gordon  Rylands  (London, 
1889) ;  Prisoners  and  Paupers,  by  H.  N.  Boies  (New 
York  and  London,  1893).  (See  also  articles  CRIME  and 
PENOLOGY.) 

CRISES  (COMMERCIAL  AND  MONE- 
TARY).— A  time  of  general  difficulty  and  press- 
ure in  commercial  and  monetary  circles,  if  acute, 
is  called  a  crisis  ;  if  prolonged  it  is  usually  called 
a  period  of  depression.  A  crisis,  too,  must  not 
be  confused  with  a  panic.  A  panic  starts  with 
a  group  of  speculators,  perhaps  occasioned  by 
some  disastrous  event  or  report  of  a  disastrous 
effect.  The  market  is  upset.  Weaker  firms 
fail  ;  yet  there  is  no  general  crisis  and  the  mar- 
ket soon  recovers.  A  crisis  lasts  longer  and  is 
general,  tho  it  is  often  connected  with  panics. 
Crises,  whatever  be  their  cause,  usually  follow 
a  certain  course,  which  it  is  asserted  by  some 
writers,  Jevons  prominently  among  them,  fol- 
lows a  certain  cycle.  Jevons  in  his  Political 
Economy  Primer  thus  describes  them.  He  tells 
us  (pp.  1 15-1 19)  that  the  cause  of  this  cycle  is 
not  well  understood,  but  then  says  : 

"There  can  be  no  doubt  that  in  some  years  men  be- 
come confident  and  hopeful.  They  think  that  the 
country  is  going  to  be  very  prosperous,  and  that  if  they 
invest  their  capital  in  new  factories,  banks,  railways, 
ships,  or  other  enterprises,  they  will  make  much  profit. 
When  some  people  are  thus  hopeful,  others  readily 
become  so  too,  just  as  a  few  cheerful  people  in  a  party 
make  everybody  cheerful.  Thus  the  hopefulness 
gradually  spreads  itself  through  all  the  trades  of  the 
country.  Clever  men  then  propose  schemes  for  new 
inventions  and  novel  undertakings,  and  they  find  that 
they  can  readily  get  capitalists  to  subscribe  for  shares. 
This  encourages  other  speculators  to  put  forth  pro- 
posals, and  when  the  shares  of  some  companies  have 
risen  in  value,  it  is  supposed  that  other  shares  will  do 
so  likewise.  The  most  absurd  schemes  find  supporters 
in  a  time  of  great  hopefulness,  and  there  thus  arises 
what  is  called  a  bubble  or  mania. 

"  When  the  schemes  started  during  a  bubble  begin  to 
be  carried  out,  great  quantities  of  materials  are  re- 
quired for  building,  and  the  prices  of  these  materials 
rise  rapidly.  The  workpeople  who  produce  these 
materials  then  earn  high  wages,  and  they  spend  these 
wages  in  better  living,  in  pleasure,  or  in  buying  an 


Crises. 


43 * 


Crises. 


Course  of 
Crises. 


unusual  quantity  of  new  clothes,  furniture,  etc.  Thus 
the  demand  for  commodities  increases,  and  trades- 
people make  large  profits.  Even  when  there  is  no 
sufficient  reason,  the  prices  of  the  remaining  com- 
modities usually  rise,  as  it  is  called,  by  sympathy,  be- 
cause those  who  deal  in  them  think  their  goods  will 
probably  rise  like  other  goods,  and  they  buy  up  stocks 
in  the  hope  of  making  profits.  Every  trader  now 
wants  to  buy,  because  he  believes  that  prices  will  rise 
higher  and  higher,  and  that,  by  selling  at  the  right 
time,  the  loss  of  any  subsequent  fall  of  prices  will  be 
thrown  upon  other  people. 

"This  state  of  things,  however,  cannot  go  on  very 
long.  Those  who  have  subscribed  for  shares  in  new 
companies  have  to  pay  up  the  calls — that  is,  find  the 
capital  which  they  promised.  They  are  obliged  to 
draw  out  the  money  which  they  had  formerly  deposit- 
ed in  banks,  and  then  the  bankers  have  less  to  lend. 
Manufacturers,  merchants,  and  specu- 
lators, who  are  making  or  buying  large 
stocks  of  goods,  wish  to  borrow  more 
and  more  money,  in  order  that  they 
may  have  a  larger  business,  the  profit 
seeming  likely  to  be  so  great.  Then, 
according  to  the  laws  of  supply  and 
demand,  the  price  of  money  rises,  which  means  that 
the  rate  of  interest  for  short  loans,  from  a  week  to 
three  or  six  months  in  duration,  is  increased.  The 
bubble  goes  on  growing,  until  the  more  venturesome 
and  unscrupulous  speculators  have  borrowed  many 
times  as  much  money  as  they  themselves  really  pos- 
sess. Credit  is  said  to  be  greatly  extended,  and  a 
firm  which  perhaps  owns  a  capital  worth  ,£10,000  will 
have  undertaken  to  pay  .£200,000  or  .£300,000  for  the 
goods  which  thev.  have  bought  on  speculation. 

"  But  the  sudden  rise  which,  sooner  or  later,  occurs  in 
the  rate  of  interest,  is  very  disastrous  to  such  specu- 
lators ;  when  they  began  to  speculate  interest  was, 
perhaps,  only  2  or  3  per  cent. ;  but  when  it  becomes 
7  or  8  per  cent.,  there  is  fear  that  much  of  the  profit 
will  go  in  interest  paid  to  the  lenders  of  capital. 
Moreover,  those  who  lent  the  money,  by  discounting 
the  speculators'  bills,  or  making  advances  on  the  se- 
curity of  goods,  become  anxious  to  have  it  paid  back. 
Thus  the  speculators  are  forced  at  last  to  begin  selling 
their  stocks  at  the  best  prices  they  can  get.  As  soon 
as  some  people  begin  to  sell  in  this  way,  others  who 
hold  goods  think  they  had  better  sell  before  the  prices 
fall  seriously  ;  then  there  arises  a  sudden  rush  to  sell, 
and  buyers  being  alarmed,  refuse  to  buy  except  at 
much  reduced  rates.  The  bad  speculators  now  find 
themselves  unable  to  maintain  their  credit,  because,  if 
they  sell  their  large  stocks  at  a  considerable  loss,  their 
own  real  capital  will  be  quite  insufficient  to  cover  this 
loss.  They  are  thus  unable  to  pay  what  they  have  en- 
gaged to  pay,  and  stop  payment,  or,  in  other  words, 
become  bankrupt.  This  is  very  awkward  for  other 
people,  manufacturers,  for  instance,  who  had  sold 
goods  to  the  bankrupts  on  credit ;  they  do  not  receive 
the  money  they  expected,  and  as  they  also  perhaps 
have  borrowed  money  while  making  the  goods,  they 
become  bankrupt  likewise.  Thus  the  discredit  spreads, 
and  firms  even  which  had  borrowed  only  moderate 
sums  of  money,  in  proportion  to  their  capital,  are  in 
danger  of  failing.  .  .  . 

"  No  one  ventures  to  propose  a  new  scheme  or  a  new 
company,  because  he  knows  that  people  in  general 
have  great  difficulty  in  paying  up  what  they  promised 
to  the  schemes  started  during  the  bubble.  This  bub- 
ble is  now  burst,  and  it  is  found  that  many  of  the  new 
works  and  undertakings  from  which  people  expected 
so  much  profit  are  absurd  and  hopeless  mistakes.  It 
was  proposed  to  make  railways  where  there  was  noth- 
ing to  carry ;  to  sink  mines  where  there  was  no  coal 
nor  metal ;  to  build  ships  which  would  not  sail  ;  all 
kinds  of  impracticable  schemes  have  to  be  given  up, 
and  the  capital  spent  upon  them  is  lost. 

"  Not  only  does  this  collapse  ruin  many  of  the  sub- 
scribers to  these  schemes,  but  it  presently  causes 
workpeople  to_be  thrown  out  of  employment.  The 
more  successful  schemes  indeed  are  carried  out,  and, 
for  a  year  or  two,  give  employment  to  builders,  iron 
manufacturers,  and  others,  who  furnish  the  materials. 
But  as  these  schemes  are  completed  by  degrees,  no 
one  ventures  to  propose  new  ones  ;  people  have  been 
frightened  by  the  losses  and  bankruptcies  and  frauds 
brought  to  light  in  the  collapse,  and  when  some  peo- 
ple are  afraid,  others  readily  become  frightened  like- 
wise by  sympathy.  In  matters  of  this  kind,  men  of 
business  are  much  like  a  flock  of  sheep  which  follow 
each  other  without  any  clear  idea  why  they  do  so. 
In  a  year  or  two  the  prices  of  iron,  coal,  timber,  etc., 
are  reduced  to  the  lowest  point ;  great  losses  are  suf- 


fered by  those  who  make  or  deal  in  such  materials, 
and  many  workmen  are  out  of  employment.  The 
working  classes  then  have  less  to  spend  on  luxuries, 
and  the  demand  for  other  goods  decreases ;  trade  in 
general  becomes  depressed  ;  many  people  find  them- 
selves paupers,  or  spend  their  savings  accumulated 
during  previous  years.  Such  a  state  of  depression 
may  continue  for  two  or  three  years,  until  speculators 
have  begun  to  forget  their  failures,  or  a  new  set  of 
younger  men,  unacquainted  w>h  disaster,  think  they 
see  a  way  to  make  profits.  During  such  a  period  of 
depression,  too,  the  r  cher  people,  who  have  more  in- 
come than  they  spend,  save  it  up  in  the  banks.  Busi- 
ness men  as  they  sell  off  their  stocks  of  goods  leave  the 
money  received  in  the  banks  ;  thus  by  degrees  capital 
becomes  abundant,  and  the  rate  of  interest  falls. 
After  a  time  bankers,  who  were  so  very  cautious  at 
the  time  of  the  collapse,  find  it  necessary  to  lend  their 
increasing  funds,  and  credit  is  improved.  Then  be- 
gins a  new  credit  cycle,  which  probably  goes  through 
much  the  same  course  as  the  previous  one." 

Such  is  Jevons's  description  of  a  general  crisis  ; 
crises  started  by  particular  causes  we  shall  con- 
sider under  the  history  of  crises  below.     It  is 
necessary  now  to  point  that  Jevons 
and  other    economists   claim  that 
general  crises    not   only  follow  a  Periodicity. 
somewhat  fixed  course,  but  occur 
at  somewhat  fixed  periods.     Thorn- 
ton, Tooke,  Langton.  Mr.  John  Mills,  of  Man- 
chester, and  Jevons  have  all  treated  this  subject 
at  length.     Palgrave's  Dictionary  of  Political 
Economy  says  : 

"  An  enumeration  of  recorded  years  of  acute  commer  • 
cial  distress— 1753,  "763,  1772-73,  1783,  1793,  1815,  1825, 
1836-139,  1847,  1857,  1866,  1878,  1800— suggests  periodicity. 
During  these  140  years  trade  and  banking  have  been 
carried  on  in  war  and  peace,  with  a  silver  standard, 
with  a  gold  standard,  under  a  suspension  of  cash  pay- 
ments, in  times  of  plenty  and  in  times  of  want  j  but 
the  fatal  years  have  come  round  with  a  consider- 
able approach  to  cyclical  regularity.  While  admitting 
that  the  commercial  crises  to  which  this  generation  has 
been  exposed  have  been  less  acute  than  those  which 
afflicted  the  close  of  the  last  and  the  beginning  of  the 
present  century,  the  fact  of  their  recurrence  in  some- 
thing like  periodicity  remains." 

Jevons  explained  crises  in  part  by  bad  crops, 
and  these  by  sun-spot  periods.  He  says,  in  a 
communication  to  the  British  Association  (1862) : 

"There  is  a  periodic  tendency  to  commercial  dis- 
tress and  difficulty  during  these  months  (October  and 
November).  It  is  when  great  irregular  fluctuations 
aggravate  this  distress,  as  in  the  years  1836,39,  1847, 
1857,  that  disastrous  breaches  of  commercial  credit 
occur." 

And  again  (Journal  of  the  Statistical  Society  of  Lon- 
don, 1866,  vol.  xxix.,  p.  249):  "These  changes  arise  from 
deficient  or  excessive  harvests,  from  sudden  changes 
of  supply  or  demand  in  any  of  our  great  staple  articles, 
from  periods  of  excessive  investment  or  speculation, 
from  wars  and  political  disturbances,  or  other  fortui- 
tous occurrences  which  we  cannot  calculate  upon  and 
allow  for."  Still  further  developing  the  notion  of 
periodicity,  Jevons  (Political  Economy,  1878,  Science 
Primers)  says:  ;l Good  vintage  years  on  the  continent 
of  Europe,  and  droughts  in  India,  recur  every  10  or  n 
years,  and  it  seems  probable  that  commercial  crises 
are  connected  with  a  periodic  variation  of  weather  af- 
fecting all  parts  of  the  earth,  and  probably  arising 
from  increased  waves  of  heat  received  from  the  sun  at 
average  intervals  of  10  years  and  a  fraction.'1 

The  invention  of  this  theory  of  "  credit  cycles" 
can  be  traced  to  Mr.  John  Mills,  of  Manchester 
(paper  on  "  Credit  Cycles  and  the  Origin  of 
Commercial  Panics,"  Transactions  of  the  Man- 
chester Statistical  Society,  December,  1867). 
Mr.  Mills  discusses  the  pathology  of  crises  ;  and 
after  alluding  to  "  the  occult  forces  which  swell 
or  diminish  the  volume  of  transactions  through 
a  procession  of  years, ' '  thus  speaks  of  periodicity  : 


Crises. 


43  2 


Crises. 


"  It  is  an  unquestionable  fact  that  about  every 
ten  years  there  occurs  a  vast  and  sudden  increase 
of  demand  in  the  loan  market  followed  by  a 
great  revulsion  and  a  temporary  destruction  of 
credit." 

A  perhaps  safer  position  is  to  say  that  while 
the  cause  of  crises  lies  in  the  various  motives 
which  lead  men  to  overspeculation,  and  in  the 
psychological  principles  which  make  the  act  of 
one  mind  or  of  a  few  minds  influence  a  whole 
community,  so  that  overspeculation  creates  a 
general  overspeculation,  in  the  above-suggested 
ideas  may  lie  the  secret  of  crises  returning  so 
frequently  about  once  in  ten  years.  Many 
causes,  however,  may  lead  to  crises.  Macleod's 
Dictionary  of  Political  Economy  puts  the 
causes  of  commercial  crises  as  follows  : 

l%  i.  Along-continued  very  low  rate  of  interest.  Per- 
sons in  such  times  who  have  nothing  but  the  interest 
of  small  capitals  to  live  on  are  so  strained  in  their 
means  that  they  look  out  for  more  profitable  invest- 
ments. At  such  times  wild  speculators  are  sure  to 
abound  to  take  advantage  of  the  credulous.  One 
scheme  breeds  another,  and  a  speculative  fever  seizes 
upon  the  public  like  a  mania.  Multitudes  of  schemes 
are  set  afloat  for  no  other  purpose  than  gambling  in 
the  shares.  Numbers  of  persons  then  rush  to  buy  the 
shares  merely  for  the  sake  of  selling  them  again, 
knowing  full  well  that  a  crash  must  come,  but  hoping 
to  make  a  lucky  hit  during  the  fever.  Then,  at  last, 
either  when  calls  come,  supposing  them  ever  to  get  to 
that  stage,  or  when  the  circle  of  dupes  is  found  to  be 
exhausted,  prices  begin  to  waver  and  every  one  rushes 
to  sell,  and  of  course  things  fall  asrapidlyasthey  rose, 
and  then  comes  the  crash. 

"2.  When  some  new,  large  market  is  opened  at 
home  or  abroad,  in  which  extraordinary  gains  are 
realized  by  the  first  adventurers,  numbers  then  rush 
in  and  over-production  takes  place,  and  the  herd  of 
adventurers  is  ruined. 

"3.  A  great  and  general  failure  of  some  great  crop 
necessary  for  subsistence.  The  enormously  increased 
price  deranges  the  demand  for  other  things  ;  the  sui- 
den  rise  of  price  tempts  great  speculation,  sure  to  be 
followed  by  enormous  disasters. 

"  4.  A  great  derangement  of  the  ordinary  course  of 
trade  from  some  great  general  cause,  such  as  the  sud- 
den commencement  or  the  sudden  termination  of  a 
•war.  The  sudden  cessation  of  demand  for  some  arti- 
cles deranges  the  calculations  of  the  producers  of  them, 
and  the  sudden  demand  for  large  quantities  of  others 
raises  their  price  suddenly,  and  gives  rise  to  immense 
speculations  in  them,  which  are  sure  to  be  overdone 
and  end  in  general  ruin. 

"  Each  of  these  causes  separately,  if  on  a  sufficient 
scale,  may  produce  a  commercial  crisis ;  but,  as  several 
of  them  may  happen  together,  it  will,  of  course,  be 
proportionably  intensified." 

Of  peculiarly  monetary  crises  the  Report  of  the 
United  States  Monetary  Commission  of  1876 
gives  a  description  from  which  we  quote  the  fol- 
lowing extracts  : 

"The  worst  effect,   however,   economically  consid- 
ered, of  falling  prices,  is  not  upon  existing  property 
nor  upon  debtors,  evil  as  it  is,  but  upon  laborers,  whom 
it  deprives  of  employment  and  consigns  to  poverty, 
and  upon  society,  which  it  deprives  of  that  vast  sura 
of  wealth  which  resides  potentially  in 
the  vigorous  arms  of  the  idle  workman. 
Contraction  A  shrinking  volume  of  money  transfers 
of  Monev     ex'stm&  property  unjustly,  and  causes 
j  77  .     '     a     concentration     and    diminution     of 
and  Crises,    wealth.     It  also  impairs  the  value  of  ex- 
isting property  by  eliminating  from  it 
that  important  element  of  value    con- 
ferred upon  it  by  the  skill,  energy,  and  care  of  the 
debtors  from  whom  it  is  wrested.     But  it  does  not  de- 
stroy any  existing  property,  while  it  does  absolutely 
annihilate    all    the    values    producable  by  the  labor 
which  it  condemns  to  idleness.     The  estimate  is  not  an 
extravagant  one  that  there  are  now  in  the  United 
States  3,000,000  persons  willing  to  work,  but  who  are 
idle  because  they  cannot  obtain  employment. 

"  Money  capital,  labor,  and  other  forms  of  capital 
are  the  warp  and  woof  of  the  economical  system. 


Labor,  cooperating  with  the  forces  of  nature,  is  the 
source  of  all  wealth,  and  to  reach  the  highest  degree 
of  effectiveness,  it  must  be  classified  through  the  aid 
of  capital  and  supported  by  capital  during  the  process 
of  production  and  be  measured  and  paid  in  money, 
each  unit  of  which  is  a  sight  draft  on  all  other  forms 
of  property,  bearing  a  value  in  proportion  to  the  num- 
ber of  such  drafts.  In  order  that  any  country  may 
reach  the  maximum  of  material  prosperity,  certain 
conditions  are  indispensable.  All  its  labor,  assisted 
by  the  most  approved  machinery  and  appliances,  must 
be  employed,  and  the  fruits  of  industry  must  be  justly 
distributed.  These  conditions  are  utterly  impossible 
when  the  money  stock  is  shrinking  and  the  money 
value  of  property  and  services  is  declining.  Howso- 
ever great  the  natural  resources  of  a  country  may  be, 
however  genial  its  climate,  fertile  its  soil,  ingenious, 
enterprising,  and  industrious  its  inhabitants,  or  free 
its  institutions,  if  the  volume  of  money  is  shrinking 
and  prices  are  falling,  its  merchants  will  be  over- 
whelmed with  bankruptcy,  its  industries  will  be  par- 
alyzed, and  destitution  and  distress  will  prevail.  .  .  . 

"The  peculiar  effect  of  a  contraction  in  the  value  of 
money  is  to  give  profit  to  the  owners  of  unemployed 
money,  through  the  appreciation  of  its  purchasing 
power,  by  the  mere  lapse  of  time.  It  is  falling  prices 
that  robs  labor  of  employment  and  precipitates  a  con- 
flict between  it  and  money  capital,  and  it  is  the  ap- 
preciating effect  which  a  shrinkage  in  the  volume  of 
money  has  on  the  value  of  money  that  renders  the 
contest  an  unequal  one,  and  gives  to  money  capital  the 
decisive  advantage  over  labor  and  over  other  forms  of 
capital  invested  in  industrial  enterprises.  Idle  ma- 
chinery and  industrial  appliances  of  all  kinds,  instead 
of  being  productive  of  profit,  are  a  source  of  loss. 
They  constantly  deteriorate  through-  rust  and  waste. 
They  cannot  escape  the  assessor  and  tax-gatherer  as 
the  bulk  of  money  does,  and  must  pay  extra  insurance 
when  idle.  Labor,  unlike  money,  cannot  be  hoarded. 
The  day's  labor  unperformed  is  so  much  capital  lost 
forever  to  the  laborer  and  to  society.  It  being  his  only 
capital,  his  only  means  of  existence,  the  laborer  can- 
not wait  on  better  times  for  better  wages.  Absolute 
necessity  forces  him  to  dispose  of  it  on  any  terms 
which  the  owners  of  money  may  dictate.  These  are 
the  conditions  which  surround  the  laborer  throughout 
the  commercial  world  to-day.  The  labor  of  the  past  is 
enslaving  the  labor  of  the  present.  At  least  that  por- 
tion of  the  labor  of  the  past  which  has  been  crystal- 
lized into  money  is  enabled  through  a  shrinkage  of  its 
volume  and  while  lying  idle  in  the  hands  of  its  owners 
to  increase  its  command  over  present  labor  and  over 
all  forms  of  property,  and  to  transform  vast  numbers 
of  honest  and  industrious  workmen  into  tramps  and 
beggars.  These  laborers  must  make  their  wants  con- 
form to  their  diminished  earnings.  They  must  con- 
tent themselves  with  such  things  as  are  absolutely  es- 
sential to  their  existence.  Consumption  is  therefore 
constantly  shrinking  toward  such  limits  as  urgent 
necessities  require.  Production,  which  must  be  con- 
fined to  the  limits  indicated  by  consumption,  is  con- 
stantly tending  toward  its  minimum,  whereas  its  ap- 
pliances, built  up  under  more  favorable  conditions, 
are  sufficient  to  supply  the  maximum  of  consumption. 
Thus  idle  labor,  idle  money,  idle  machinery,  and  idle 
capital  stand  facing  each  other,  and  the  stagnation 
spreads  wider  and  wider." 

HISTORY    OF    CRISES. 

In  1634  there  was  a  crisis  over  tulips  which 
became    a  furore    in    Holland.     This  mania 
lasted  four  years  before  it  burst.     But  the  first 
crisis  of  the  modern  type  occurred  in  1720  over 
the  speculative  plans  of  John  Law  in  forming 
his  Mississippi  Company.     His  company  pos- 
sessed in  I7i9over2i  ships  and  nearly  $1,000,000. 
Shares  went  up  to  many  times  their  value.   Spec- 
ulation developed  like  a  fever  in 
France  and  England.     In  France 
the  currency  was  inflated.    The  fall  Early  Crises. 
was  precipitate.     About  the  same 
time.itoo,  in  England  was  developed 
the  South  Sea  Bubble  (g.v.).    Various  companies 
united  into  one  South  Sea  Company,  but  they 
were    largely  fraudulent,  and  tho  leading  to 
great  speculation,  soon  utterly  failed.     In  1763 
and   1799  there  were  crises  in  Hamburg.     In 


Crises. 


433 


Crises. 


Crisis  of 
1825. 


England  there  were  crises  in  1783,  1793,  1795- 
1797,  in  connection  with  the  American  and 
French  wars.  In  1815  there  was  a  severer  crisis 
at  the  close  of  the  Napoleonic  wars.  Hitherto 
the  French  ports  had  been  closed  to  England. 
After  the  peace  England  undertook  to  flood  Eu- 
rope with  manufactures.  But  there  was  ' '  over- 
production" (g.v.)  and  a  crisis.  In  1825  there 
was  another  crisis,  an  account  of  which,  together 
with  the  accounts  of  the  next  succeeding  crises, 
so  far  as  they  concern  England,  we  abridge 
from  the  account  by  G.  H.  Pownall  in  Palgrave's 
Dictionary  of  Political  Economy.  It  was  one 
of  the  most  severe  : 

"  At  this  date  speculation  ran  very  high,  for  the  most 
part  in  loans  and  mining  adventures,  and  other  in- 
vestments abroad.  The  foreign  exchanges  were  so 
much  depressed  as  to  be  the  cause  of  a 
nearly  continuous  drain  on  the  bullion 
of  the  bank.  This  foreign  drain,  Tooke 
remarks,  was  not  counteracted  by  any 
operation  of  the  bank  ;  it  was  suffered, 
he  observed,  to  run  its  course,  till  it 
ceased  of  its  own  accord,  that  is  by 
simple  efflux,  toward  the  close  of  the  summer.  Many 
and  heavy  banking  failures,  and  a  state  of  commercial 
discredit,  preceded  and  formed  the  earlier  stage  of 
the  panic.  The  tendency  to  speculation,  and  the  un- 
due extension  of  credit,  was  preceded,  probably 
caused,  and  certainly  favored  and  promoted,  by  the 
low  rate  of  interest  which  had  existed  for  some  time 
previously;  and  this  low  rate  of  interest  was  appar- 
ently prolonged  by  the  operations  of  the  Bank  of 
England.  Facility  of  banking  accommodation,  which 
had  existed  for  some  time  previously,  favored  undue 
extension  of  credit. 

"  This  gradually  led  on  to  the  great  difficulties  of  the 
year. 

"  In  the  summer  of  1822  the  bank  reduced  its  rate  of 
discount  from  5  to  4  per  cent. 

"The  great  severity  of  the  pressure  extended  over  a 
very  short  time,  hardly  more  than  three  weeks.  Some 
banking  failures,  principally  in  the  provinces,  in  the 
month  of  December,  were  followed  by  the  failure  of 
several  banks  in  London.  A  severe  drain  on  the  re- 
sources of  the  Bank  of  England  took  place.  The 
accidental  discovery,  for  such  it  was  said  by  Mr.  Har- 
man  in  his  evidence  in  1832  (Bank  Charter  Report, 
1832)  to  have  been,  of  an  amount  of  £i  notes  which 
had  been  put  away  in  the  bank  was,  doubtless,  a  for- 
tunate circumstance  ;  for  altho  the  sum  was  not  large 
(between  .£700,000  and  ,£800,000),  it  served  to  meet  the 
peculiar  difficulty  of  that  time,  which  consisted  in  an 
extensive  distrust  of  the  small  note  country  circula- 
tion, and  it  is  probable  that  it  had  an  immediate  and 
very  great  effect  in  stopping  the  demand  from  the 
provinces  for  gold."  (Tooke.) 

"  Tooke  describes  the  spirit  of  speculation  aroused  as 
follows  :  '  This  possibility  of  enormous  profit  by  risk- 
ing a  small  sum  was  a  bait  top  tempting  to  be  re- 
sisted ;  all  the  gambling  propensities  of  human  nature 
were  constantly  solicited  into  action  ;  and  crowds  of 
individuals  of  every  description— the  credulous  and 
the  suspicious,  the  crafty  and  the  bold,  the  raw  and  the 
experienced,  the  intelligent  and  the  ignorant ;  princes, 
nobles,  politicians,  placemen,  patriots,  lawyers,  physi- 
cians, divines,  philosophers,  poets,  intermingled  with 
women  of  all  ranks  and  degrees  (spinsters,  wives,  and 
widows) — hastened  to  venture  some  portion  of  their 
property  in  schemes  of  which  scarcely  anything  was 
known  except  the  names.' 

"The  recoil  from  these  speculations  was  inevitable. 
The  country  banks,  whose  advances  and  whose  issues 
of  notes  had  both  exceeded  the  limit  of  prudence, 
were  among  the  principal  sufferers.  Several  London 
banks  likewise  failed.  A  remark  made  by  Mr.  Hus- 
kisson,  'that  we  were  within  a  few  hours  of  a  state 
of  barter,'  has  often  been  quoted  as  showing  the 
severity  of  the  trial  the  country  passed  through. 
The  turning-point  appears  to  have  been  in  the  week 
ending  Saturday,  December  17,  1825.  On  that  day,  ac- 
cording to  a  statement  made  by  Mr.  Richards,  then 
deputy  governor  of  the  bank,  '  whether  from  fatigue, 
or  whether  from  being  satisfied,  the  public  mind  had 
yielded  to  circumstances,  and  the  tide  turned  at  the 
moment  on  that  Saturday  night.'  The  greater  part 
of  1826  was  a  time  of  considerable  depression,  but  by 
1827  the  trade  and  manufactures  of  the  country  had 
resumed  their  usual  and  steadv  course." 


The  crisis  in  America  was  at  its  height  in  1826.  In 
July  metal  had  disappeared  from  the  banks.  Discount 
rose  from  20  to  30  per  cent.  By  August  failures  were 
general. 

The  monetary  disturbances  of  1836-37  are  not  in- 
cluded by  Tooke  among  the  memorable  commercial 
crisis.  "It  was  confined  in  a  great  measure  to  two 
branches  of  trade,  the  American  and  East  Indian,  in- 
cluding China.  The  Bank  of  England  raised  its  rate 
of  discount  to  5  per  cent.,  and  laid  some  restriction 
upon  the  bills  of  the  American  houses,  who  were 
notoriously  overtrading." 

But  in  the  United  States  this  crisis  was  most 
severe.     Early  in  1836  President  Jackson  coun- 
seled an  increase  of  circulation  at  the  expense 
of  small  notes,   and  gold  began   to  come  to 
America  ;  but  by  the  above-mentioned  action 
of  the  Bank  of  England  credit  was  withheld, 
and  failures  in  this  country  became  numerous. 
Gold  in  1837  went  back  to  England,  and  the 
crisis  in  the  United  States  was  general.     Seven 
hundred  banks  stopped  payment. 
It  was  the  worst  period  since  the 
Revolutionary  War.     Early  in  1838        Crisis 
there  was  prosperity  again,  but  a     of  1837. 
crisis  breaking  out  in  France  and 
Belgium,  with  a  great  draft  of  gold 
from  the  Bank  of  England,  which  came  near 
stopping  specie  payment,  the  crisis  in  the  United 
States  became  still  more  formidable.     On  Octo- 
ber 10  the  United  States  Bank  (see  BANKS  AND 
BANKING)  was  compelled  to  close  its  doors.     In 
l839>  959  banks  stopped  payment.     There  were 
33,000  failures,  with  a  loss  of  $440,000,000. 

The  crisis   of    1847  affected  England  more. 
The  failure  of  the  potato  crop  in  1846  caused  the 
need  for  a  heavy  importation  of  corn.     "  The 
price  of  corn  was  very  high  in  1847, 
the  average  in  May  being  gzs,  lod. 
per  quarter,  but  the  imports  rose        Crisis 
in    proportion.       The    result    was     of  1847. 
the  failure  of  many  houses  in  the 
corn     trade,    which     became     the 
signal  for  other  heavy  bankruptcies.     Several 
banks   succumbed,    and    credit    was    severely 
shaken." 

Meanwhile  the  anxiety  and  alarm  were  caus- 
ing hoarding,  and  it  appeared  not  unlikely  that 
the  banking  department  of  the  Bank  of  England 
might  be  compelled  to  stop  payment  while  there 
was  more  than  ^6,000,000  of  specie  in  the  issue 
department.  Some  of  the  leading  city  bankers 
had  an  interview  with  the  prime  minister,  and 
the  desired  relaxation  was  given.  The  official 
letter  recommended  "  the  directors  of  the  Bank 
of  England,  in  the  present  emergency,  to  en- 
large the  amount  of  their  discounts  and  ad- 
vances, upon  approved  security."  A  high  rate, 
8  per  cent.,  was  to  be  charged,  to  keep  these 
operations  within  reasonable  limits  ;  a  bill  of  in- 
demnity was  promised  if  the  arrangement  led  to 
a  breach  of  the  law.  The  extra  profit  derived 
was  to  be  for  the  benefit  of  the  public.  No 
really  adequate  reason  has  ever  been  given  for 
this  last  stipulation,  unless  it  is  supposed  to 
have  been  made  to  prevent  the  bank  from  main- 
taining the  extra  rate  unduly  long. 

The  effect  of  the  Government  letter  in  allay- 
ing the  panic  was  complete.  When  anxiety 
as  to  obtaining  bank  notes  or  gold  was  re- 
moved, the  immediate  pressure  shortly  disap- 
peared. 

The  crisis  of  1857  began  in  America.     New 


Crises. 


434 


Crises, 


Crisis 
of  1861. 


Crisis 
of  1866. 


companies  had  been  forming  in  all  directions. 
There  was  an  unusual  importation  of  European 
goods.     The  banks  were  unable  to 
resist  the  monetary  pressure,  and 
Crisis       on   August   24  they  stopped  pay- 
of  1857.     ment ;  5123  failures  were  counted, 
with  liabilities  of  $299,000,000.    The 
enormous  fall  of  values,  however, 
brought  back  gold,  and  by  January,  1858,  most 
of  the  banks  had  resumed.     It  affected  England 
later,  but  most  severely.     The  suspension  of 
the  Bank  Act  of  1844  eased  the  market  some- 
what, but  the  industrial  crises  were  even  more 
marked.     Hundreds  of  thousands  of  workmen 
were  unemployed.    Riots  became  frequent.  The 
crisis  passed,  but  then  gradually  reached  suc- 
cessively France,  Germany,  the   Scandinavian 
States,  Austria,  Italy,  South  America. 

The  crisis  of  1861  affected  England  in  January 
and  France  in  the  autumn,  and  was 
brought  on  by  England's  having  to 
pay  a  heavy  balance  in  favor  of 
the  United  States.  The  rate  of  dis- 
count in  France  had  to  rise  to  8 
per  cent,  to  bring  back  cash. 

The  crisis  of  1866  was  mainly  in  England, 
once  more  causing  a  suspension  of  the  Bank 
Act,  and  was  marked  by  the  mem- 
orable "  Black  Friday"  and  of  the 
failure  of  the  almost  historic  house 
of  Overend,  Gurney  &  Co.  Sep- 
tember 23,  1869,  saw  a  "  Black  Fri- 
day" in  New  York,  but  it  was  mainly  local  and 
connected  with  gold  speculation. 

During  the  first  three  quarters  of  1873  the 
general  prosperity  of  the  United  States  seemed 
undiminished  ;  but  on  September  18,  1873,  the 
most    extraordinary    panic    began 
which  this  country  has  ever  wit- 
Crisis       nessed,  and  reached  its  height  about 
of  1873.     the  middle  of   October.     It  pros- 
trated   thousands    of    commercial 
houses,  cut  off  the  wages  of  hun- 
dreds of  thousands  of  workmen,  and  overthrew 
the  Stock  Exchange.     It  swept  down  the  entire 
banking  system  of  the  country.     Even  savings 
banks  closed  their  doors.     It  broke  off  the  nego- 
tiation of  American  securities  in  Europe,  and 
prostrated  business  in  every  way.     The  causes 
were  involved.    • 

The  closing  of  the  War  of  the  Rebellion  had 
seen  the  commencement  of  great  industrial 
activity  in  the  United  States.  From  1869-73 
enormous  amounts  of  money  were  invested  in 
commercial  enterprises.  The  cost  of  the  rail- 
road construction  of  those  five  years  is  estimated 
at  $1,700,000,000,  while  municipalities  and  pri- 
vate corporations  borrowed  money  for  vast  un- 
dertakings. The  land  grant  policy  and  cheap 
transportation  developed  a  new  West.  In  Eu- 
rope the  opening  of  the  Suez  Canal  stimulated 
commerce.  Interest  was  based  on  the  high 
prices  of  war  time.  There  was  increased  need 
of  currency.  Instead  of  this  the  policy  of  re- 
sumption and  contraction  (see  CONTRACTION  AND 
EXPANSION  OF  CURRENCY)  limited  the  amount 
of  currency  below  the  demand.  Prices  fell, 
whether  owing  to  contraction  of  currency  or 
cheaper  processes  of  production  is  a  disputed 
point.  (See  BIMETALLISM.)  Both  causes  were 
probably  at  work.  But  it  is  not  disputed  that 


prices  fell.  Heavy  crops  and  an  unusually  large 
demand  for  money  precipitated  the  impending 
crisis,  September  18  the  great  house  of  Jay 
Cooke  &  Co. ,  of  New  York,  failed.  This  brought 
trouble  to  Fish  &  Hatch,  and  to  McCulloch  of 
London.  The  worst  immediate  effects  of  the 
crisis  were  soon  met.  The  bankers  met  and 
voted  :  i.  To  issue  $10,000,000  loan  certificates, 
and  still  later  $10,000,000  more.  2.  A  general 
movement  on  the  part  of  the  banks  to  make 
large  payments  in  checks  only,  certified  as  ' '  good 
through  the  Clearing  House."  3.  Purchase  of 
bonds  by  the  Treasury  amounting  to  $13,500,000, 
which  liberated  an  equal  amount  of  legal  ten- 
ders. 4.  The  advantage  taken  by  the  savings 
banks  of  the  thirty  days'  notice  of  withdrawals 
by  depositors.  5.  The  closing  of  the  Stock  Ex- 
change from  the  2oth  to  the  3oth  of  the  month. 
Great  pressure  was  brought  to  bear  upon  the 
United  States  Treasurer  to  afford  relief  by  issu- 
ing United  States  notes  ;  but  he  declined,  and 
only  consented  to  sell  $13,000,000  bonds. 

The  immediate  crisis  was  stayed  ;  but  in  in- 
dustrial lines   1874  was  worse  than  1873,  and 
there  was  depression  till  1877.     The  great  rail- 
road strikes  of  that  year  made  matters  worse. 
In  1878  there  was  improvement,  and  this  con- 
tinued till  1883.     In  1884  another  crisis  occurred, 
tho  of  less  serious  character,  and  depression  con- 
tinued through  the  strikes  and  industrial  trou- 
bles, which  continued  till  1886.     Confidence  was 
then  in  a  degree  restored,  and  with 
some  depression  in    1888,  till  the 
crisis  of   1890.     That  year  promi-       Crisis 
nent  English  houses  which  had  in-     of  1890. 
vested  in  Argentine  Republican  and 
African  securities  were  disturbed, 
and  finally  on  December  15  even  the  great  house 
of  Baring  Brothers  suspended.     In  France  the 
great  coffee  syndicate  failed.     But  the  Bank  of 
England  stood  firm,  and  a  syndicate  of  strong 
houses  liquidated  the  debt  of  Baring  Brothers. 
It  affected  the  United  States  almost  as  much, 
tho  not  so  much  in  the  form  of  a  crisis  as  of  add- 
ing to  depression,  continuing  without  much  im- 
provement to  the  great  crisis  of  1893. 

The  crisis  of  1893  was  in  many  ways  different 
from  all  other  crises.     It  was  only  very  slightly 
due  to  overspeculation,  almost  purely  to  mone- 
tary conditions,  yet  it  affected  not 
only    financial  circles,    but  indus- 
try all    over    the    United    States.       Crisis 
Early  in  the  year  there  was  wide-     of  1893. 
spread  financial  unsteadiness,  with 
securities  on  the  down  grade.     In 
Congress  there  was  discussion  over  the  repeal 
of  the  silver-purchasing  act  of  1890.     (See  CUR- 
RENCY.)    During  May  and  June  there  was  no 
improvement,  tho,  with  the  exception  of  the  Na- 
tional Cordage  Company,  no  important  houses 
were  seriously  affected.     June  26,  however,  it 
was  announced  that  India  had  stopped  the  free 
coinage  of  silver.     It  at  once  sent  the  price  of 
silver  bullion  down  to  the  lowest  point  ever  re- 
corded, and  all  stocks  went  down.     The  mines 
of  Colorado  and  other  silver  States  were  at  once 
stopped  and  their  workmen  left  unemployed. 
There  was  a  panic.     Western   and  Southern 
banks  began  to  fail.     Hoarding  set  in,  even  in 
the    East.     Currency    became    scarce.     Many 
manufactories  shut  down.     Even  strong  manu- 


Crises. 


435 


Cunningham,  William. 


facturing  companies  could  not  get  change  to 
pay  their  men.  Wealthy  men  with  unques- 
tioned credit  could  not  get  checks  cashed.  All 
the  banking  centers  except  Chicago  began  to 
have  recourse  to  clearing-house  certificates.  In 
New  York  during  the  summer  these  certificates 
reached  the  sum  of  $38,280,000.  Early  in  Au- 
gust bank  and  treasury  notes  commanded  a 
premium  as  high  as  4  per  cent,  in  New  York. 
There  was  a  money  dearth.  The  President 
called  an  extra  session  of  Congress,  which  opened 
August  7.  It  was  claimed  by  the  monometallists 
that  the  money  panic  was  caused  by  a  lack  of  con- 
fidence in  the  United  States  monetary  policy, 
from  fear  that,  tho  silver  was  depreciating,  the 
United  States  would  be  committed  to  depreciat- 
ed silver.  In  the  House  a  bill  was  therefore  in- 
troduced by  Mr.  Wilson,  according  to  the  sug- 
gestion of  the  President's  message,  repealing 
the  silver-purchase  bill,  tho  renewing  the  pledge 
to  maintain  the  parity  of  gold  and  silver  at  the 
existing  or  some  other  ratio.  On  the  other 
hand,  it  was  claimed  by  the  free-silver  men  that 
the  financial  crisis  was  caused  by  the  lack  of 
money  resulting  from  the  purpose  of  the  gold 
manipulators  to  drive  silver  from  the  world,  en- 
hance the  value  of  gold,  and  increase  their 
profits.  It  was  claimed  that  ever  since  1873  this 
policy  had  resulted  in  a  contracted  currency, 
low  prices,  suffering  for  the  debtor  classes,  stop- 
page of  manufactories,  etc.,  a  long  depression, 
and  that  now  by  a  last  stroke  the  crisis  had  been 
brought  on  by  the  bankers  trying  to  drive  sil- 
ver completely  from  the  market.  The  conflict 
was  bitter  in  Congress  and  through  the  country, 
the  sentiment  of  the  West  and  South  being  bit- 
ter against  the  capitalistic  East.  Finally,  Au- 
gust 28,  the  Wilson  Bill  was  carried  by  a  vote  of 
240  to  no,  and  the  silver-purchase  clause  re- 
pealed. Then  began  a  still  more  heated  strug- 
gle in  the  Senate.  Not  till  October  30  was  a  bill 
introduced  by  Senator  Voorhees  repealing  the 
silver-purchase  law,  but  declaring  for  the  parity 
of  gold  and  silver  in  stronger  terms,  substituted 
for  the  Wilson  Bill  passed  by  the  Senate  by  a 
vote  of  43  to  32,  accepted  by  the  House  by  a 
vote  of  192  to  94,  and  signed  by  the  President 
November  i. 

Meanwhile  the  crisis  was  already  checked. 
By  the  middle  of  August  confidence  began  to 
return.  By  September  the  premium  on  cur- 
rency vanished.  Foreign  investors  began  send- 
ing in  money,  taking  advantage  of  the  low  price 
of  stocks.  Only  one  private  banking  firm  in 
New  York  City  had  failed  and  only  one  na- 
tional bank.  Of  the  301  bank  suspensions  from 
May  i  to  July  22, 93  per  cent,  were  in  the  South 
and  West.  Yet  the  business  failures  from  April 
i  to  October  i  were  8105  against  4171  for  those 
months  in  1892,  with  liabilities  of  $284,663,624 
against  $41,110,322  for  1892.  Thus  the  number 
of  failures  had  doubled  and  the  liabilities  had 
increased  nearly  sevenfold.  Three  great  rail- 
way systems  were  sent  into  the  hands  of  receiv- 
ers :  the  Northern  Pacific,  the  Union  Pacific, 
and  the  Erie.  For  further  details  of  this  crisis 
and  for  references,  see  CURRENCY.  For  various 
other  views  as  to  the  causes  of  crises,  see  ar- 
ticles SILVER  QUESTION  ;  CONTRACTION  AND  EX- 
PANSION OF  CURRENCY  ;  MONOMETALLISM  OVER 
PRODUCTION  ;  SOCIALISM. 


CRUSADES,  SOCIAL  EFFECT  OF.— 

The  crusades  covering  the  interval  from  the 
eleventh  to  the  thirteenth  centuries,  and  partly 
inclusive  of  these,  exercised  the  most  profound 
influence  upon  Europe  ;  not  only  upon  those 
directly  engaged,  but  upon  popes,  kings,  and 
emperors  ;  upon  the  relations  of  Church  and 
State,  and  upon  the  development  of  literature, 
education,  and  art.  Classes  were  broken  up, 
and  nations  were  brought  together.  The  eco- 
nomic conditions  of  Europe  were  changed.  The 
decay  of  the  Western  empire  had  broken  off  the 
intercourse  between  the  East  and  West,  and 
completely  ended  the  maritime  traffic  which  had 
been  begun  by  the  Phoenicians.  It  was  this  de- 
struction of  naval  commerce  that  compelled  the 
Crusaders  to  march  overland  to  Asia.  The  cru- 
sades revived  the  trades  of  ship-building  and 
merchandising,  and  dotted  the  Mediterranean 
with  sails.  Asia  Minor  exchanged  products  with 
Norway  and  Sweden.  An  enormous  impulse 
was  thus  given  to  manufactures  and  agricul- 
ture. Neglected  industries  were  developed, 
and  new  arts  and  occupations  introduced  from 
the  East.  The  crusaders  learned  in  Greece  the 
manufacture  of  silk,  in  Tyre  the  art  of  glass- 
making,  in  Africa  the  cultivation  of  maize  and 
sugar-cane,  and  in  Damascus  the  working  of 
metals  and  making  of  cloth.  Manufactures 
necessitated  the  growth  of  large  towns,  which 
was  one  of  the  most  notable  results  of  the  cru- 
sades. Great  wealth,  with  all  its  good  and  evil 
consequences,  began  to  flow  into  the  cities  of 
Italy,  Germany,  France,  Flanders,  and  other 
European  countries. 

References  :  Bfanqui,  Histoire  de  I'Economit  Poli- 
tique  en  Europe  ;  Guizot,  History  of  Civilization  in 
Europe  ;  Ranke,  Weltgeschichte,  viii 

CUNNINGHAM,  WILLIAM,  is  best 
known  in  economic  thought  as  the  leading 
English  advocate  of  the  historical  or  empirical 
study  of  social  phenomena.  Graduated  from 
Trinity  College,  Cambridge,  in  1873,  and  or- 
dained the  same  year,  he  devoted  his  early  years 
mainly  to  historical,  theological,  and  ecclesiasti- 
cal studies  Deputy  to  the  Knightsbridge  pro- 
fessor, 1881,  and  since  1887  Vicar  of  St.  Mary's 
the  Great,  Cambridge,  he  has  given  his  later 
years  largely  to  economic  history.  In  1882  ap- 
peared the  first  edition  of  his  important  work, 
The  Growth  of  English  Industry  and  Com- 
merce^ which  Professor  Ashley  (q.i>.)  calls  the 
first  attempt  that  had  been  made  to  trace  the 
whole  course  of  English  economic  development. 
He  has  since  developed  this  book  into  a  practi- 
cally new  work,  the  first  volume  of  which  ap- 
peared in  1890  and  the  second  in  1892.  In  1884 
he  published  his  Christian  Opinion  on  Usury  ; 
in  1885,  Politics  and  Economics,  an  Essay  on 
the  Nature  of  the  Principles  of  Political 
Economy  and  a  Survey  of  Recent  Legislation  ; 
in  1886  5.  Austin  and  his  Place  in  the  History 
of  Christian  Thought ;  in  1887,  Political  Econ- 
omy Treated  as  an  Experimental  Science  ;  in 
1891,  Use  and  Abuse  of  Money.  In  1891  he  was 
made  Tooke  Professor  of  Political  Economy  at 
King's  College,  London,  and  also  elected  to  a 
fellowship  at  Trinity,  Cambridge.  He  is  a 
D.Sc.  of  Edinburgh  and  D.D.  of  Cambridge. 


Currency. 


436 


Currency. 


CURRENCY.— (See  also  MONEY  ;  BANKS 
AND  BANKING  ;  GOLD  ;  SILVER  ;  BIMETALLISM  ; 
MONOMETALLISM  ;  PAPER  MONEY  ;  CONTRACTION 
AND  EXPANSION  OF  CURRENCY  ;  CRISES  ;  MONE- 
TARY CONFERENCES  ;  GREENBACKISM,  etc.)  The 
word  currency  may  be  defined  as  money  in  cir- 
culation, or  the  commodity  or  commodities  in 
use  in  any  country  as  the  medium  of  exchange. 
Money  (g.v.)  is  the  general  and  philosophic 
term  ;  currency  is  money,  with  emphasis  upon 
its  passing  irom  hand  to  hand.  For  a  state- 
ment, therefore,  of  the  economic  principles  and 
different  theories  of  money,  see  MONEY.  We 
present  here  an  historical  review  of  the 

UNITED  STATES  CURRENCY, 

our  main  authorities  being,  for  the  earlier 
periods,  Professor  Sumner's  History  of  Ameri- 
can Currency,  and  Bolles'  Financial  History 
of  the  United  States  ;  for  the  later  periods, 
the  reports  ot  the  Secretary  of  the  Treasury, 
the  Comptroller  of  the  Currency,  the  Director 
of  the  Mint,  and  the  Record  of  Political  Events 
in  the  Political  Science  Quarterly. 

I.    COLONIAL  PERIOD. 

From  Professor  Sumner  we  learn  that  the  first 
colonies  to  this  country  brought  little  English 
or  European  currency  with  them,  and  soon 
found  need  for  more. 

Winthrop  wrote  to  his  son  in  1630  especially  to  bring 
^150  or  ,£200  with  him.  A  married  clergyman  in  those 
days  was  allowed  .£30  per  annum.  Carpenters  and 
skilled  workmen,  who  were  greatly  in  demand,  were 
forbidden  to  take  over  \?.d.  and  later  2S.  per  day. 
When  explorers  reached  Long  Island  Sound,  they 
found  the  Indians  more  advanced  in- civilization  than 
their  northern  neighbors,  and  using  a  circulating 
medium  of  exchange,  consisting  o£  beads  of  two 
kinds,  one  white,  made  out  of  the  end  of  a  periwinkle 
shell,  and  the  other  black,  made  out  of  the  dark  part 
of  a  clam  shell.  They  were  rubbed  down  and  polish- 
ed, and  when  artistically  arranged  in  strings  or  belts 
formed  objects  of  real  beauty.  These  beads  circu- 
lated among  the  Indians  as  money,  one  black  bead 
being  reckoned  as  worth  two  white  ones,  and  were 
known  as  wampum,  or  wa.mpiim.peag  or  peag.  The 
colonists  came  to  use  them  first  in  their  trade  with 
the  Indians,  and  then  among  themselves.  In  Massa- 
chusetts they  became  by  custom  the  common  cur- 
rency of  the  colony,  and  were  made  a  legal  tender  in 
small  sums.  "The  white  man,"  says  Professor  Sum- 
ner, "  also  proved  his  superiority  by  counterfeiting 
it."  A  fathom  or  belt  of  wampum  consisted  of  360 
beads,  and  one  fathom  of  white  would  buy  furs  valued 
at  $s.  sterling.  Barter  was  also  at  this  time  continu- 
ally used,  and  various  commodities  did  duty  for 
money.  In  1635  musket  bullets  were  used  for  change 
at  a  farthing  apiece.  And  the  more  barter  was  used 
because  money  was  scarce,  the  scarcer  money  be- 
came. Interest  in  1664  was  8  per  cent.  Merchants 
drained  the  people  of  their  cash.  In  1652  Massachu- 
setts set  up  a  mint  to  coin  silver — the  famous  "pine 
tree "  coinage.  She  coined  shillings, 
sixpences,  and  threepences.  The  coins 
Pine  Tree  'were  to  be  of  sterling  alloy  {$  nne, 
Coinage  an<^  the  sniUin&  worth  iod.  sterling.  It 
8  was  taken  in  England  at  25  per  cent, 
discount,  and  declared  to  be  not  of  even 
weight  or  fineness.  Barter,  however, 
•continued.  Silver  was  smuggled  out  of  the  country  or 
clipped.  The  silver  which  came  to  the  colony  con- 
sisted mainly  of  Spanish  pillar  coins.  They  were  not 
allowed  to  be  circulated.  In  1686  a  bank  was  proposed, 
and. seems  to  have  made  issues,  but  soon  disappeared. 
Andrews  stopped  the  mint  about  1688.  The  first  en- 
during issue  ot  paper  money  made  in  the  colonies  was 
in  1690,  six  years  before  the  founding  of  the  Bank  of 
England. 

An  expedition  had  been  sent  out  against  Canada, 
and  returning  without  spoils,  and  in  a  state  of  misery, 
the  soldiers  were  clamorous  for  their  pay.  So  £7000 


were  issued  in   notes  from  $s.   to   .£5.    The  form  of 
these  notes  or  bills  was  as  follows  : 

"  This  indented  bill  of  ioj.,  due  from  the  Massa- 
chusetts colony  to  the  possessor,  shall  be  in  value 
equal  to  money,  and  shall  be  accordingly  accepted  by 
the  treasurer  and  receivers  subordinate  to  him  in 
all  public  payments,  and  for  any  stock  at  any  time  in 
the  treasury."  The  soldiers  disposed  of  them  at 
one  third  discount  till  1692,  when  the  Government 
ordered  that  they  be  received  at  5  per  cent,  advance 
over  coin,  and  promised  to  redeem  them  in  money 
within  12  months.  This  kept  them  at  par  20  years. 
There  were  continually  at  every  new  crisis  new 
issues  of  money.  Another  expedition  against  Canada 
in  1709  meant  a  new  large  issue.  Connecticut  and  most 
of  the  colonies  also  issued  a  small  amount.  South 
Carolina  probably  issued  more  money  than  any  other 
colony.  In  1709  the  time  for  redemption  in  Massachu- 
setts was  set  at  four  years  and  then  later,  and  the 
paper  began  to  depreciate.  In  Connecticut  there 
were  four  prices  for  "pay,"  "pay  as  money," 
"money,"  and  "trusting."  "Pay"  was  barter  at 
Government  prices.  "Money"  was  Spanish  or  New 
England  coin.  "Pay  as  money"  was  barter  cur- 
rency at  prices  one  third  less  than  the  Government 
rate  ;  "trusting"  was  an  enhanced  price  according  to 
time.  The  merchant  asked  his  customer  how  he 
would  pay  before  fixing  his  price. 

In  1715  John  Colman  proposed  a  land  bank,  -which 
in  those  days  meant  simply  an  issue  of  paper  based 
on  land.    Such  an  issue  was  made.     Banking  was  ar- 
resting attention  the  world  over.    The  Land  Bank  of 
England  dates  from    1685,   the    Austrian    enterprises 
from  1700,  John  Law's  scheme  from  1715,  and  the  South 
Sea  Company  from  1711.    In  1720  trade  was  stagnant, 
and  there  was  a  great  cry   for  more  issues.     At  the 
same  time  the  commissioners  of  the   New  England 
colonies  became  alarmed    at   the   ten- 
dency to  further  increase  of  paper  notes. 
The  English  Parliament  forbade  bank-  Land  Banks, 
ing  except  under  its  charter,  and  for- 
bade  the    colonial    governments   from 
emitting  bills.     Later  the  restriction  was  modified  to 
permit  an  issue  for  government  expenses  only.    In 
1739  a  "land  bank  "  was  set  in  operation,  which  loaned 
its  notes  for  3  per  cent,  per  annum  interest,  and  5  per 
cent,  in  principal,  both  payable  in  merchandise.    This 
bank  became  a  factor  in  politics,  and  as  fortunes  were 
to  be  made  through  it,  the  "  land  bank,"  says  Sumner, 
"resisted  its  fate  by  social  and  political  intrigues. 
In  1740  Parliament  required  its  wind  up,  but  it  man- 
aged to  evade  the  requirement. 

Rhode  Island  had  the  severest  experience,  as  it  issued 
bills  the  most  recklessly.  Parties  were  no  longer 
Whig  or  Tory,  but  Creditor  and  Debtor.  In  1721 
Massachusetts  issued  ^100,000,  and  forbade  buying  or 
selling  silver  ;  but  this  could  not  be  stopped.  It  led  to 
the  above-mentioned  instructions  from  Parliament  to 
forbid  the  governors  signing  any  acts  for  emitting 
bills,  and  the  history  of  the  next  20  years  is  a  history 
of  struggle  over  this.  In  1749  the  paper  issue  of 
Massachusetts  was  ^2,466,712.  Parliament  at  this  time 
ransomed  Louisbourg  from  the  colonies,  and  paid 
Massachusetts  in  silver  and  copper  .£138,649  sterling, 
which  at  n  to  i,  the  ruling  exchange,  nearly  cancelled 
the  paper,  and  Massachusetts  found  herself  with  a 
specie  currency.  Other  colonies,  and  Rhode  Island 
in  particular,  clung  longer  to  paper  money. 


2.    TO    THE   WAR   OF   THE   REBELLION. 

We  now  come  to  the  times  of  the  Revolution. 
The  colonies  commenced  the  war,  many  of  them 
with  paper  already  in  circulation.  To  issue 
paper  money  was  the  one  way  in  which  they 
were  accustomed  to  meet  a  crisis.  The  Conti- 
nental Congress  ordered  in  May,  and  issued  in 
August,  1775,  paper  for  300,000  Spanish  dollars, 
on  the  faith  of  the  "  Continent,"  redeemable  in 
three  years  in  gold  and  silver.  This  went  on 
till  $9,000,000  were  thus  issued.  In  1776  depre- 
ciation began.  In  1779  Congress  was  at  its 
wits'  end.  It  tried  to  force  paper  money  into 
circulation  by  making  it  legal  tender,  and  by 
fixing  prices,  but  this  only  increased  deprecia- 
tion. In  1780  the  bills  were  worth  only  two 
cents  on  the  dollar.  The  following  table,  con.- 


Currency. 


437 


Currency. 


densed  from  Gouge's  History  of  Continental 
Money,  gives  the  issues  and  depreciation  : 


Amount  issued  up   to  and   inclusive  of  the 
year — 


1776 

Added  in  1777 

i778 

1779 

1780 

"          1781 


$20,064,464 
26,426,333 
66,965,269 

149,703,856 
82,908,320 
11,408,095 


(  Rate  of  exchange  I 
|  for  gold  or  silver  )" 


Total,     $357,476,541 

The  French  alliance  in  1779  enabled  Congress 
to  borrow  money,  and  it  attempted  to  limit  the 
outstanding  issues  of  paper  money  to  $200,000,- 
ooo,  but  did  not.     The  loss  of  value  of  the  entire 
issue  became  complete  in  1781,  and  having  been 
gradual,  as  it  passed  from  hand  to  hand  through 
several  years,  came  to  be  regarded  in  the  light 
of  an  involuntary  tax  for  the  maintenance  of 
the  war,  which  in  general  had  fallen  severely 
on  people,  according  to  their  means,  tho  in  cases 
it  produced  shameful  wrongs.     Nevertheless, 
of  this  depreciation  of   the  conti- 
nental paper  money,  it  should  be 
Continental  added  that  it  struggled  against  fear- 
Currency,     f  ul  odds.     Congress  issued  the  bills, 
but  only  the  individual  States  could 
redeem  them.     Congress  collected 
no  duties  on  imports  or  internal  revenue.     For 
Congress  it  was  all  outgo  and  no  income.     The 
continental  money  was  made  payable  in  coin 
which  was  at  a  premium.     The  wonder  is  that 
it  circulated  as  well  as  it  did. 

The  colonies  were  contending  with  the  great- 
est nation  on  earth,  whose  armies  had  generally 
been  victorious  on  land,  who  was  conceded  to 
be  the  mistress  of  the  seas.  The  colonies  were 
poorly  prepared  for  war.  They  had  no  army, 
no  navy,  no  fortifications,  no  arms,  no  ammuni- 
tion, no  credit,  no  money.  The  odds  were  im- 
mensely against  them,  viewed  from  a  military 
standpoint.  The  contest  was  not  only  doubt- 
ful, but  from  any  standpoint  except  justice  and 
right  was  overwhelmingly  in  favor  of  Great 
Britain.  Under  these  circumstances  it  would 
have  been  difficult  to  maintain  a  State  paper 
circulation  at  par  had  Congress  adopted  the  best 
method  of  doing  it.  But  with  the  means  adopt- 
ed, it  is  astonishing  that  any  success  attended 
their  efforts.  So  that,  while  the  continental 
paper  money  must  be  admitted  to  have  failed, 
small  argument  can  be  drawn  from  it  as  to  the 
failure  of  such  money  under  proper  conditions. 
But  the  real  currency  of  this  period  was  the  note 
circulation  of  banks,  under  either  national  or 
State  charters,  altho  some  metal  was  coined. 
For  a  fuller  consideration  of  this  period,  we 
therefore  refer  the  reader  to  the  article  BANKS 
AND  BANKING. 

In  January,  1782,  the  Bank  of  North  America 

was  chartered  in  Philadelphia,  with  a  capital 

of  $400,000.    Seventy  thousand  dollars  in  specie 

were  put  into  its  capital  by  citizens, 

TT  -t  j       and  the  remainder  by  the  Govern- 

gl11. e         ment  in  specie  or  foreign  exchange 

rates       Qut  o£  &  foreign  loan.     The  bank 

Banks.       ,     -,  • .         .    .     ,°  .          . 

had  its  origin  in  a  union  of  citizens 

to  supply  the  army.  They  issued 
the  bank's  notes  in  pay.  Gouge,  in  his  History 
of  Paper  Money  and  Banking  in  the  United 
States,  published  in  1833,  shows  that  it  was  a 
mistake  to  suppose  that  that  bank  aided  the 


Jan.  i,  1777 
1778 
1779 
1780 
1781 
1782 


for  i 


Government,  as  its  stockholders  only  paid  in 
$70,000,  or  seven-fortieths  of  its  capital.  The 
Government  deposited  $254,000,  and  was  credit- 
ed by  Robert  Morris  with  that  amount  of  stock 
in  the  bank.  The  individual  directors  thus  ac- 
quired the  power  to  circulate  $400,000  in  the 
bank's  notes,  and  loaned  the  Government  and 
others  their  own  money  and  the  $400,000  addi- 
tional money  which  the  Government's  deposits 
and  sanction  soon  made  current  at  par.  The 
dividends  were  soon  from  12  to  16  per  cent,  for 
the  stockholders.  "  In  1785,"  says  Gouge,  "  the 
effects  of  its  operation  began  to  be  apparent.  .  .  ,. 
A  temporary  plentifulness  of  money,  followed  by 
great  scarcity,  usury,  ruin  to  the  many,  riches- 
to  the  few."  In  1785  the  Legislature  of  Penn- 
sylvania repealed  its  charter,  but  it  existed 
under  its  old  congressional  charter  till  Penn- 
sylvania finally  rechartered  it.  In  1785  and 
1786  Shay's  rebellion  broke  out  in  New  Eng- 
land. It  was  an  insurrection  of  debtors  who 
were  suffering  from  a  collapse  of  the  currency 
and  return  to  specie  values.  They  clamored  for 
paper.  The  rebellion  was  put  down  by  force  ; 
but  Massachusetts  passed  a  law  delaying  the 
collection  of  debts.  In  Rhode  Island  the  Paper 
Money  Party  carried  the  election  of  1786,  and 
,£100,000  were  issued  by  vote  of  the  rural  dis- 
tricts against  the  cities. 

The  new  federal  Constitution,  framed  in  1787, 
had  decreed  that  no  State  "  shall  coin  money, 
emit  bills  of  credit,  or  make  anything  but  gold 
and  silver  coin  a  tender  in  payment  of  debts  ;" 
and  this  would  seem  to  have  forever  barred  a 
State  from  giving  charters  to  banks  of  issue, 
since  it  would  seem  that  a  State  Legislature 
could  not  delegate  to  private  corporations  a 
power  the  Constitution  had  denied  to  the  State 
itself.  Nevertheless,  the  rage  for  banking  be- 
came so  extreme,  excited  largely  by  the  high 
profits  of  the  Bank  of  North  America,  that 
Massachusetts,  New  York,  and  Maryland  gave 
charters  to  banks  which  United  States  courts 
did  not  abrogate.  The  Bank  of  North  America 
had  already  been  chartered,  and  it  was  held" 
that  "  bills  of  credit"  were  not  meant  to  cover 
bank-notes.  The  courts  have  held  that  a  State 
may  authorize  bank  issues  when  it  itself  owns 
all  the  stock  ;  when  the  Legislature  appoints 
the  directors  ;  when  the  faith  of  the  State  is 
pledged  for  the  redemption  of  the  bills,  and 
when  they  are  receivable  for  public  dues,  pro- 
vided also  that  the  capital  is  paid  in  and  the 
bank  may  be  sued  (Story,  fourth  edition,  vol  i., 
p.  227,  note).  On  the  question,  Can  the  national 
Government  do  what  the  States  cannot  do  under 
this  clause  ?  the  courts  have  decided  that  it  can. 

When  it  was  proposed,  however,  in  the  con- 
stitutional convention  to  give  to  Congress  the 
right  to  emit  bills  of  credit,  it  was  defeated  by 
a  vote  of  nine  States  to  two. 


Currency. 


438 


Currency. 


Thus  began  the  great  flood  of  State  banking, 
which  did  not  terminate  till  the  War  of  the  Re- 
bellion. (See  BANKS  AND  BANKING.)  The  first 
United  States  bank  was  chartered  in  1791,  and 
expired  in  1811.  The  second  United  States 
bank  was  opened  January  i,  1817,  and  finally 
suspended  February  4,  1841.  The  Secretary 
of  the  Treasury  began  to  interfere  with  the  bank 
market  directly  about  1814.  (For  the  whole 
struggle  of  the  Government  and  of  the  State 
banks  against  the  national  bank,  and  for  the 
effect  of  the  national  and  State  bank  issues  upon 
the  currency,  see  BANKS  AND  BANKING.)  In  1786 
Congress  passed  a  coinage  law  upon  a  plan  pre- 
sented by  Thomas  Jefferson. 

The  Constitution  (Article  i,  section  8,  clause  5)  had 
vested  in  Congress  the  right  to  coin  money  and  to 
regulate  the  value  thereof,  and  the  Act  of  Congress  of 
April  2,  1792,  was  the  first  act  respecting  coinage,  en- 
titled "An  act  establishing  a  mint  and  regulating  the 
coins  of  the  United  States."  The  ninth  section  of  this 
act  provided  : 

"  That  there  shall  be  from  time  to  time  struck  and 
coined  at  the  said  mint,  coins  of  gold,  silver,  and  cop- 
per of  the  following  denominations,  values,  and  de- 
scriptions, viz.:  Eagles— each  to  be  of  the  value  of  $10 
or  units,  and  to  contain  247  grains  and  four  eighths  of 
a  grain  of  pure,  or  270  grains  of  standard  gold." 

After  providing  for  half  eagles,  each  to  be  of  half 
the  value  of  the  eagle,  and  quarter  eagles,  each  to  be 
of  one  fourth  of  the  value  of  the  eagle,  the  section 
continues,  as  follows : 

"  Dollars  or  units — each  to  be  of  the  value  of  a 
Spanish  milled  doljar  as  the  same  is  now  current,  and 
to  contain  371  grains  and  four  sixteenth  parts  of  a 
grain  of  pure,  or  416  grains  of  standard  silver." 

The  act  also  provided  for  half  dollars,  quarter  dol- 
lars, dimes,  and  half  dimes,  each  to  contain,  respec- 
tively, one  half,  one  fourth,  one  tenth,  and  one  twen- 
tieth of  the  pure  silver  contained  in  the  dollar.  The 
coinage  of  cents  and  half  cents  of  copper  was  also 
provided  for. 

It  thus  declared  the  dollar  to  be  the  unit  of 
value,  and  it  measured  this  value  in  silver. 

The  money  unit  of  the  United  States  had  been 
already  established  in  1785  by  the  Continental 
Congress  as  the  dollar.     This  was  a  well-known 
coin,  and  had  been  in  constant  use 
for  many  years.     Indeed,  it  corn- 
Adoption  of  peted  with  the  pound  as  a  measure 
a  Currency,  of  value  ;  in  some  transactions  the 
pound  measure  was  used  ;  in  other 
transactions    the    dollar    measure. 
Persons  expressed  their  transactions  in    their 
books  of  account  either  in  pounds  or  dollars  ; 
but  for  a  long  period  the  quantity  coined  was  so 
small  that  it  was  necessary  to  use  foreign  coins 
for  monetary  purposes.     Congress  first  author- 
ized their  use  in  1793,  declaring  at  what  rates 
they  should  pass  current,  and  that  they  should 
be  a  legal  tender  for  the  period  of  three  years 
from  the  time  the  mint  began  operations.    When 
that  time  expired  their  use  was  renewed  by  addi- 
tional legislation  for  short  periods  until  1809. 
To  determine  their  value,  they  were  assayed  an- 
nually, and  from  the  information  thus  obtained 
Congress  could  act  intelligently  in  fixing  the 
rates.    After  the  supply  of  domestic  coin  became 
ample,  foreign  coins  ceased  to  be  used  much  as 
money,  tho,  as  they  were  mingled  with  the  do- 
mestic coinage,  they  were  to  be  constantly  seen 
until  the  suspension  of  specie  payments  in  1861, 
when  all  coin  disappeared. 

By  the  act  of  1792  the  proportion  of  pure  gold  to  the 
alloy  in  gold  coins  was  made  by  this  act,  u  parts 
gold,  and  one  part  alloy,  the  alloy  being  composed  of 


silver  and  copper.  The  proportion  of  pure  silver  to 
the  alloy  in  silver  coins  was  made  1485  parts  fine  silver 
to  179  parts  alloy.  The  reason  for  this  proportion  of 
silver  to  alloy  was  that  the  alloy  was  found  in  that 
proportion  in  the  Spanish  dollars  then  current.  These 
coins  having  been  a  long  time  in  circulation  were  more 
or  less  worn,  and  their  assay  did  not  show  the  exact 
original  weight  of  the  coin,  and  probably  not  the 
exact  original  proportion  of  alloy.  The  alloy  in  the 
silver  dollar  consisted  of  44%  grains  of  copper,  mak- 
ing the  dollar  892.4  fine  ;  this,  by  the  act  of  1837,  was 
changed  to  41  %  grains  of  copper,  making  the  standard 
nine  tenths  fine.  Section  n  of  the  act  provided  : 

"  That  the  proportional  value  of  gold  to  silver  in  all 
coins  which  shall  by  law  be  current  as  money  within 
the  United  States,  shall  be  as  15  to  i,  according  to 
quantity  in  weight  of  pure  gold  or  pure  silver ;  that 
is  to  say,  every  15  Ibs.  weight  of  pure  silver  shall  be 
of  equal  value  in  all  payments  with  i  Ib.  weight  of 


and  a  dollar  of  silver  371.25  grains— being  exactly  15  to 
i.    Section  14  provided  : 

''That  itshall  be  lawful  for  any  person  or  persons  to 
bring  to  the  said  mint  gold  and  silver  bullion,  in  order 
to  their  being  coined  ;  and  that  the  bullion  so  brought 
shall  be  there  assayed  and  coined  as  speedily  as  may 
be  after  the  receipt  thereof,  and  that  tree  of  expense 
to  the  person  or  persons  by  •whom  the  same  shall  have 
been  brought.  And  as  soon  as  the  said  bullion  shall 
have  been  coined,  the  person  or  persons  by  whom  the 
same  shall  have  been  delivered  shall,  upon  demand, 
receive  in  lieu  thereof  coins  of  the  same  species  of 
bullion  which  shall  have  been  so  delivered,  weight  for 
weight,  of  the  pure  gold  or  pure  silver  therein  con- 
tained. 

Section  16,  which  follows,  made  the  coinage  of  both 
metals  equally  a  lawful  tender  in  all  payments  what- 
soever, thus  establishing  the  free  coinage  and  full 
legal  tender  of  both  metals  without  limit,  at  the  ratio 
of  i^  to  i.  The  exact  language  of  section  16  of  the 
act  is : 

"  That  all  the  gold  and  silver  coins  which  shall  have 
been  struck  at,  and  issued  from  the  said  mint,  shall  be 
alawfultenderina.il  payments  whatsoever;  those  of 
full  weight  according  to  the  respective  values  herein- 
before declared,  and  those  of  less  than  full  weight  at 
values  proportional  to  their  respective  weights.'r 

The  ratio  of  15  to  i  for  American  coins  was  not  ex- 
actly in  accordance  with  the  ratio  which  then  prevail- 
ed in  European  countries.     Silver  was  slightly  over- 
valued and  gold  a  little  undervalued. 
The  result  was  that  the  metallic  money 
of  the  United  States  during  this  period       15  to  1. 
consisted    mostly    of  silver    coins    and 
largely  of  foreign  coins.     But  $11.908,890 
of  gold  altogether  were  coined  from  1793  to  l83#>  ar|d 
this  was  generally  soon  exported.     The  production  of 
gold  for  the  same  period  in  the  United  States  is  given 
at  $14,000,000. 

The  act  of  May  8,  1792,  provided  for  the  purchase  of 
copper,  "  not  exceeding  150  tons,"  "  to  be  coined  into 
cents  and  half  cents, >Y  which,  by  the  act  of  April  2, 
1792,  were  to  contain  respectively  n  and  5^  penny- 
weights. The  act  of  January  14,  1793,  provided  that 
the  cent  piece  should  contain  208  grains  of  copper  and 
the  half  cent  104  grains. 

The  act  of  February  9,  1793,  prescribed  the  rates  at 
which  foreign  gold  and  silver  coins  should  be  legal 
tender  in  the  United  States.  This  act  provided  that 
Spanish  milled  dollars  should  be  legal  tender  "  at  the 
rate  of  too  cents  for  each  dollar,  the  actual  weight 
whereof  shall  not  be  less  than  17  pennyweights  and 
7  grains."  Section  2  of  this  act  provided,  tTThat  at 
the  expiration  of  three  years  next  ensuing  the  time 
when  the  coinage  of  gold  and  silver,  agreeably  to  the 
act  entitled  '  An  act  establishing  a  mint  and  regulat- 
ing the  coins  of  the  United  States,'  shall  commence  at 
the  mint  of  the  United  States  (which  time  shall  be  an- 
nounced by  the  proclamation  of  the  President  of  the 
United  States),  all  foreign  gold  coins  and  all  foreign 
silver  coins,  except  Spanish  milled  dollars  and  parts 
of  such  dollars,  shall  cease  to  be  a  legal  tender,  as 
aforesaid." 

Section  5  of  the  act  of  March  3,  1795,  provided  for 
the  deduction  of  two  cents  per  ounce  from  deposits 
of  silver  bullion  when  below  the  standard  of  the 
United  States  and  four  cents  per  ounce  from  gold  bul- 
lion below  the  standard  to  cover  the  cost  of  refining. 

Only  the  copper,  however,  at  this  time  was  coined, 
and,  being  below  standard,  depreciated.  They  bore  13 
circles  linked  together,  with  a  small  circle  in  the  mid- 
dle, around  this  the  words  "  United  States,"  and  in  the 


Currency. 


439 


Currency. 


centre  "  We  are  one."    On  the  opposite  a  sun-dial  with 
the  words  "  Fugio"  and  "  1787"  on  either  side,  and  "  Mind 
your  business,    below  the  dial.    The  real  currency  of 
the  United  States  at  this  time  consisted  mainly  of  bank 
notes,    nominally    convertible,    issued    by    chartered 
banks.     In  1794,  the  first  silver  was  actually  coined, 
the  dollar  weighing  416  grains,  1485  parts  pure  to  179 
parts  alloy.      Gold  was  first  coined  m 
1795,  the  eagle  weighing  270  grains,  JJ 
pure,  so  that  one  dollar  contained  24.75 
Currency     grains  pure  gold.    It  was  assumed  that 
Changes,     silver  was  to  gold  as  15  to  i,  but  the 
actual  market  value  was  15^  to  i.    With 
slight  amendments   the  above  was  the 
coinage  to  1834,  when  there  was  a  change. 
The  act  of  June  28,  1834,  changed  weight  and  fineness 
of  the  gold  eagle,  making  it  258  grains  of  .899225  fine- 
ness, or  232  grains  of  pure  gold. 

No  change  was  made  in  our  silver  coins  by  the  act  of 
1834.    Why  the  ratio  should  have  been  changed  at  this 


time  from  15  to  i,  as  established  in  1792,  to  16  to  i,  -31 
years  after  the  French  act  of  1803,  which  had  practically 
fixed  the  ratio  for  all  Europe  at  15^  to  i,  is  difficult  to 
understand.  The  reason  usually  given  is  that  under 
the  ratio  of  15  to  i  little  or  no  gold  came  or  stayed  here, 
and  new  mines  of  gold  having  been  discovered  in 
North  Carolina  and  Georgia  about  this  time,  the  higher 
ratio  was  adopted  in  order  to  give  the  gold  a  higher 
rating  relatively  to  silver,  and  thereby  keep  it  here. 

But  it  worked  evil,  and  the  act  of  January  18, 1837,  es- 
tablished .900  as  the  standard  fineness  of  both  gold  and 
silver.  It  left  the  weight  of  the  gold  dollar  unaltered 
(thus  slightly  increasing  its  value)  and  reduced  the 
weight  of  the  silver  dollar  to  412^5  grains. 

Between  the  act  of  1792,  establishing  the  mint,  and  the 
act  of  1837,  no  change  whatever  was  made  in  the  silver 
coins,  and  the  only  change  made  in  these  coins  by  the 
act  of  1837  was  the  change  in  the  alloy  from  44%  grains, 
as  contained  in  the  dollar  of  the  act  of  1792,  to  41^ 
grains,  the  pure  silver  being  left  the  same  exactly  by 
the  act  of  1837  as  it  was  in  the  original  act  of  1792.  The 
pure  gold  was  changed  from  24.75  grains  to  a  dollar,  as 
in  the  act  of  1792,  to  23.22  grains,  as  fixed  in  the  act  of 
1837.  As  371 J4  grains  is  the  weight  of  pure  silver  in  our 
present  standard  dollar,  it  will  be  seen  that  this  unit 
has  therefore  never  varied  in  weight  of  pure  metal 
through  all  the  changes  of  our  mint  laws.  It  stands  to- 
day the  same  dollar  it  was  when  our  money  system 
was  established. 

The  change  in  the  ratio  to  16  to  i,  in  1834,  while  the 
European  ratio  stood  at  15^  to  i,  led  to  the  exportation 
of  nearly  all  our  full-weight  silver  coins.  For,  by  this 
variation  in  the  ratio  between  the  two  metals  in  the 
United  States  and  in  Europe,  full-weight  silver  coins 
were  worth  for  export  a  little  more  than  3  per  cent, 
more  than  our  gold  coins ;  and  as  our  subsidiary  coins 
contained  proportionally  the  same  weight  of  pure  silver 
contained  in  the  dollar  piece,  it  was  as  profitable  to  ex- 
port these  coins  as  the  dollar  piece  :  consequently  the 
country  was  well-nigh  depleted  of  small  coins.  To 
remedy  this  evil,  Congress  by  the  act  of  February  21, 
1853,  reduced  the  weight  of  the  half-dollar  from  206^ 
grains  to  192  grains  standard  silver,  and  the  smaller 
silver  coins  in  proportion.  Until  this  act  fractional 
silver  coins  were  legal  tender  for  all  sums ;  but  by  this 
act  they  were  made  legal  tender  for  $5  only.  Deposits 
of  silver  for  coinage  into  fractional  pieces  for  the  ben- 
efit of  the  depositor  were  no  longer  received,  but  pro- 
vision was  made  for  the  purchase  of  silver  bullion  on 
government  account  for  the  fabrication  of  the  light- 
weight subsidiary  coins. 

Passing  by  legislation  concerning  foreign 
coin  (which  by  the  act  of  February  21,  1857, 
was  deprived  of  currency)  and  concerning 
minor  currency,  we  now  reach  the  period  of  the 
War  of  the  Rebellion.  Yet  it  must  not  be  for- 
gotten that  through  all  this  period  the  currency 
of  the  country  was  really  very  largely  the  bank 
notes,  and  that  the  great  currency  problems 
and  movements  of  the  day  were  connected 
with  the  banks  and  the  battle  of  the  various 
administrations  for  or  against  the  national  and 
State  banks.  (For  all  this  interesting  period, 
however,  see  BANKS  AND  BANKING.) 

3.   THE  PERIOD  OF  THE  WAR  OF  THE  REBELLION. 

At  the  breaking  out  of  the  Rebellion,  the 
Government  found  itself  destitute  of  the  means 


necessary  to  carry  on  a  gigantic  war,  and  un- 
able to  procure  such  means  from  ordinary 
sources.  Salmon  P.  Chase,  of  Ohio,  had  been 
nominated  Secretary  of  the  Treasury  by  Mr. 
Lincoln,  and  after  much  hesitation  had  accept- 
ed. He  was  without  experience,  but  trusted  by 
the  people.  He  had  a  difficult  problem  to  meet. 
Howell  Cobb  had  worked  under  the  preceding 
administration  to  ruin  the  credit  of  the  Govern- 
ment, and  tho  General  J.  A.  Dix,  after  Mr. 
Cobb's  retirement,  had  done  his  best,  he  had 
had  to  borrow  at  12  per  cent,  interest,  and 
raised  only  $5,000,000  of  treasury  notes  at  that. 

Mr.  Chase  first  negotiated  some  small  loans 
under  the  authority  already  existing,  and  on 
July  4,  1 86 1,  Congress  convened  to  enact  meas- 
ures for  suppressing  the  war.     A 
loan  of  $250,000,000   was   author- 
ized,   duties    were    increased,    an  War  Loans. 
internal  revenue  system  was  adopt- 
ed, and    a  direct  tax  of   $20,000,- 
ooo    was    laid.     The    States  were    offered    15 
per  cent,  reduction  if  they  paid  the  tax,  and  this 
course  was  taken  by  all  the  States  except  those 
in  rebellion,  Delaware,  and  two  of  the  territo- 
ries, altho  much  of  the  money  was  paid  by  fit- 
ting out  troops,  and  brought  in  no  revenue  to 
the  general  Government.     Tax  commissioners 
were  appointed  to  enforce  the  law  in  the  insur- 
rectionary States,  and  they  made  levies  and  sold 
land,  and  after  a  long  effort  collected  a  portion 
of  the  tax  assessed  on  them. 

As  soon  as  Congress  adjourned,  Mr.  Chase 
went  to  New  York  to  effect  the  loan,  obtaining 
a  promise  of  $150,000,000.  Subscription  books 
for  a  "  popular  loan"  were  opened  and  brought 
in  $24,678,866,  and  the  banks  agreed  to  make 
up  the  rest.  The  thought  was  naturally  in  peo- 
ple's minds,  What  if  we  do  not  support  the  Gov- 
ernment ? 

The  banks  proposed  that  they  should  pay 
their  respective  portions  over  to  one  or  two 
banks,  and  that  the  secretary  should  draw  it 
out  by  issuing  checks  like  an  ordinary  borrow- 
er. Congress  had  voted  to  suspend  the  law  for- 
bidding the  Government  from  receiving  any- 
thing but  specie.  The  banks  said  that  this 
would  be  the  easiest  way  for  them,  as  the  checks 
would  then  simply  go  through  the  clearing 
house  like  other  checks.  Mr.  Chase,  however, 
insisted  that  the  banks  pay  the  Government  in 
gold.  They  undertook  to  do  so,  but  sought  a 
promise  that  the  treasury  notes,  which  had  been 
authorized  to  the  extent  of  $50,000,000,  should 
not  be  issued.  Tho  not  making  any  formal 
promise,  Mr.  Chase  assured  the  banks  that  their 
wishes  should  be  regarded.  Soon,  however, 
the  notes  began  to  appear  in  circulation.  The 
effect  was  soon  apparent.  The  banks  could  pro- 
vide for  the  redemption  of  their  own  circulation, 
but  as  the  Government  had  only  so  much  gold 
as  the  banks  could  furnish,  the  banks  must  pro- 
vide for  the  redemption  of  the  Government 
notes  or  they  must  circulate  without  any  foun- 
dation. The  banks,  therefore,  feared  the  notes. 

They,  however,  appeared  in  small  quantities 
at  first,  and  as  the  gold  paid  out  quickly  came 
back  again  in  the  way  of  ordinary  deposits,  all 
went  well.  But  as  soon  as  the  quantity  of  the 
treasury  issues  became  considerable,  the  gold 
did  not  return  to  the  banks  as  before,  and  see- 


Currency. 


440 


Currency. 


ing  that  it  was  rapidly  disappearing,  the  banks, 
on  December  28,  1861,  concluded  to  suspend 
specie  payments  on  the  Monday  following  (De- 
cember 30). 

The  balance  of  the  $150,000,000  they  agreed 
to  pay  the  Government  was  paid  in  paper. 
Professor  Sumner  says  that  the  banks  suspend- 
ed unnecessarily.  Nevertheless  they  had  done 
so,  and  the  Government  was  compelled  thereby 
also  to  suspend  specie  payment.  But  more 
money  was  needed.  Public  sentiment  favored 
the  issue  of  treasury  notes.  Mr.  Chase,  in  his 
report  (see  BANKS  AND  BANKING),  had  already 
proposed  the  creation  of  a  national  banking  sys- 
tem, but  it  was  seen  that  this  could  not  be  de- 
veloped in  time.  Money  was  needed  then.  Mr. 
E.  G.  Spaulding,  of  New  York,  therefore,  two 
days  after  the  suspension  of  the  banks,  intro- 
duced a  bill  into  the  House  authorizing  the 
issue  of  $50,000,000  of  treasury  notes  to  be  legal 
tender  in  payment  of  all  debts  in 
the  United  States  and  receivable  by 
Greenbacks.  Government  for  all  dues  to  the 
United  States.  It  was  referred  to 
the  Committee  of  Ways  and  Means, 
consisting  of  Thaddeus  Stevens,  Chairman  ; 
J.  S.  Morrill,  of  Vermont ;  T.  S.  Phelps,  of  Mis- 
souri ;  E.  G.  Spaulding,  of  New  York  ;  V.  B. 
Horton,  of  Ohio  ;  Erastus  Corning,  of  New 
York  ;  S.  Hooper,  of  Massachusetts  ;  Horace 
Maynard,  of  Tennessee  ;  and  J.  L.  N.  Strat- 
ton,  of  New  Jersey.  The  committee  duly  con- 
sidered it,  increased  the  amount  to  $100,000,000, 
and  reported  it  favorably  by  a  vote  of  five  to 
four,  altho  Mr.  Stratton  finally  consented  to  cast 
a  favorable  vote  only  to  bring  it  before  the 
House.  Stevens,  Spaulding,  Hooper,  and  May- 
nard voted  for  it.  It  immediately  created  great 
discussion  and  interest.  Delegates  from  the 
banks  came  to  Washington  and  protested. 
James  Gallatin,  President  of  the  Gallatin  Bank 
of  New  York,  made  the  principal  speech,  and 
proposed  a  counter  plan  of  taxation,  and  to 
make  a  loan  Avith  the  banks  as  depositories,  the 
Government  to  issue  $100,000,000  treasury  notes 
for  two  years,  to  be  receivable  for  public  dues 
except  duties  on  imports.  The  consultation  im- 
mediately resulted  in  nothing  except  that  later 
the  delegates  favored  Mr.  Chase's  proposals  of 
a  national  banking  system.  Meanwhile  the 
$100,000,000  Legal  Tender  Note  Bill  came  be- 
fore the  House  for  debate  January  28.  It  was 
claimed — and  on  this  point  Stevens  had  at  first 
hesitated — that  the  bill  was  unconstitutional, 
since  the  Constitution  provides  that  "  no  State 
shall  .  .  .  make  anything  but  gold  and  silver 
coin  a  tender  in  payment  of  debts."  It  was  an- 
swered that  this  pertained  only  to  States.  The 
preceding  clause  in  the  same  section,  "  No  State 
shall  emit  bills  of  credit,"  has  always  been  so 
understood.  Mr.  Pendleton,  of  Ohio,  made  the 
best  plea  against  its  constitutionality.  It  was 
believed  by  many  that  Mr.  Chase  doubted  its 
constitutionality,  and  he  was  appealed  to  ;  but 
he  wrote  that  necessity  seemed  to  demand  it. 
Mr.  Morrill  proposed  a  counter  scheme.  Mr. 
Stevens  closed  the  debate,  arguing  that  it  was 
"a  measure  of  necessity,  not  of  choice."  An 
amendment  was  passed  increasing  the  amount 
to  $150,000,000  ;  but  the  $50,000,000  authorized 
by  the  July  act  of  the  previous  year  were  to  be 


retired.     The  act  finally  passed  by  a  vote  of  93 
to  59. 

On  February  10  the  bill  was  reported  by  the 
Finance  Committee  of  the  Senate,  with  various 
amendments — among  others,  that  the  notes 
should  not  be  receivable  for  ' '  interest  on  bonds 
and  notes,  which  shall  be  paid  in  coin,"  and  an 
amendment  relating  to  the  issuing  of  certifi- 
cates, which,  said  Mr.  Fessenden,  the  Chairman 
of  the  Committee,  "  was  very  much  desired  by 
the  banks  in  all  the  cities."  This  was  opposed 
by  Senator  Sherman,  and  answered  by  Mr. 
Fessenden,  who,  however,  opposed  the  bill  as 
"a  confession  of  bankruptcy,"  "bad  faith," 
and  "a  stain  on  the  national  honor,"  altho  he 
admitted  that  if  it  were  necessary  to  issue  legal - 
tender  notes  to  sustain  the  Government,  he- 
should  have  no  hesitation  in  doing  so.  The  bill 
passed  the  Senate  by  a  vote  of  30  to  7.  Return- 
ing to  the  House,  after  a  strong  contention  with 
the  Senate,  its  principal  amendments  were 
finally  concurred  in.  As  a  fair  specimen  of  the 
supporters  of  the  bill,  few  of  whom  would  have 
voted  for  it  had  the  notes  not  been  made  legal 
tender,  we  quote  Mr.  Wilson,  of  Massachusetts, 
who  said,  February  13,  1862  : 

"If  the  legal-tender  clause  is  not  retained  in  this, 
bill,  I  shall  vote  against  it  under  any  and  all  circum- 
stances. ...  I  shall  vote  for  every  measure  to  sustain 
these  notes  by  sustaining  the  credit  and 
good  faith  of  the  nation Your  man- 
men 


Legal 
Tender. 


ufacturers,  your  merchants,  your  men 
who  have  their  hundreds  of  millions 
trusted  out  in  all  parts  of  the  country, 
are  for  this  measure,  for  it  is  their  protec- 
tion and  their  interest.  You  will  find  that 
the  families  of  your  soldiers  who  are  to  receive  a  small 
pittance  from  the  men  who  are  fighting  the  battles  of 
your  country  in  the  field  are  in  favor  of  stamping  upon 
these  notes  the  words  '  legal  tender,'  so  that  when  that 
little  pittance  comes  from  the  field  to  them  to  support 
them  at  home,  they  can  use  it  to  pay  their  necessary 
debts  and  support  themselves  without  having  to  go 
through  the  process  of  broker-shavings.  ...  I  believe 
the  sentiment  of  the  nation  approaches  unanimity  in 
favor  of  this  legal-tender  clause.  .  .  .  The  intelligence 
I  obtain  from  all  portions  of  the  country  is  to  the  same 
effect.  .  .  . 

Senator  Sherman  said  the  same  day  : 

"  I  do  believe  there  is  a  pressing  necessity  that  these 
demand  notes  be  made  a  legal  tender,  if  we  want  to 
avoid  the  evils  of  a  depreciated,  dishonored  paper  cur- 
rency. I  do  believe  we  have  the  constitutional  power 
to  pass  such  a  provision,  and  that  the  public  safety  now 
demands  its  exercise.  .  .  .  We  have  the  concur- 
rence of  the  Chamber  of  Commerce  of  the  city  of  New 
York,  the  opinion  of  the  Committee  on  Public  Safety 
of  the  city  of  New  York,  composed  of  distinguished 
men,  nearly  all  of  whom  are  good  financiers,  who  agree 
fully  in  the  same  opinion.  I  may  say  the  same  in  re- 
gard to  the  Chambers  of  Commerce  of  the  city  of 
Boston,  of  the  city  of  Philadelphia,  and  of  almost  every 
recognized  organ  of  financial  opinion  in  this  country. 
They  have  said  to  us  in  the  most  solemn  form  that  this 
measure  was  indispensably  necessary  to  maintain  the 
credit  of  the  Government.  .  .  .  I  desire  to  show  the 
necessity  of  it  from  reason. 

"  We  have  to  raise  and  pay  out  of  the  treasury  of  the 
United  States  before  July  i  next,  according  to  the  es- 
timate of  the  Committee  of  Ways  and  Means,  the  sum 
of  $343,235,000.  Of  this  sum,  $100,000,000  is  now  due  and 
payable  to  your  soldiers,  to  contractors,  to  the  men 
who  have  furnished  provisions  and  clothing  for  your 
army,  to  your  officers,  your  judges,  and  your  civil  mag- 
istrates. 

"  Where  will  you  get  this  money? 

"  A  question  of  hard  necessity  presses  you.  We 
know  very  well  that  this  money  cannot  be  obtained  of 
the  banks." 

The  bill  finally  passed  as  amended  by  a  vote 
of  97  to  22,  and  was  signed  by  the  President 
February  25. 


Currency. 


441 


Currency. 


On  February  19,  1862,  the  Hon.  Mr.  Spauld- 
ing  spoke  to  the  amendments  of  the  Senate  to  the 
legal  tender  bill  : 

"  Mr.  Chairman,  I  desire  especially  to  oppose  the 
amendments  of  the  Senate  which  require  the  interest 
on  bonds  and  notes  to  be  paid  in  com  semi-annually, 
and  which  authorizes  the  Secretary  of  the  Treasury 
to  sell  6  per  cent,  bonds  at  the  market  price  for  coin  to 
pay  the  interest.  ...  It  might  be  very  pleasant  for 
the  holders  of  the  7  3-10  Treasury  notes  and  6  per  cent, 
bonds  to  receive  their  interest  in  coin  semi-annually, 
but  very  disastrous  to  the  Government  to  be  com- 
pelled to  sell  its  bonds  at  ruinous  rates  of  discount 
every  six  months  to  pay  them  gold  and  silver,  while  it 
would  pay  only  treasury  notes  to  the  soldier,  sailor, 
and  all  other  creditors  of  the  Government.  I  am  op- 
posed to  all  those  amendments  of  the  Senate  which 
make  unjust  discriminations  between  the  creditors  of 
the  Government.  A  soldier  or  sailor  who  performs 
service  in  the  army  or  navy  is  a  creditor  of  the  Gov- 
ernment. The  man  who  sells  food,  clothing,  and  the 
material  of  war  for  the  use  of  the  army  and  navy  is  a 
creditor  of  the  Government.  .  .  .  All  are  creditors  of 
the  Government  on  an  equal  footing,  and  all  are  equal- 
ly entitled  to  their  pay  in  gold  and  silver.  I  am  op- 
posed to  all  those  amendments  of  the  Senate  which 
discriminate  in  favor  of  the  holders  of  bonds.  .  .  . 
Why  make  this  discrimination?  Who  asks  to  have 
one  class  of  creditors  placed  on  a  better  footing  than 
another  class?  Do  the  people  of  New  England,  the 
Middle  States,  or  the  people  of  the  West  and  North- 
west, or  anywhere  else  in  the  rural  districts,  ask  to 
have  any  such  discrimination  made  in  their  favor  ?  . .  . 

"  No,  sir  ;  no  such  unjust  preference  is  asked  for  by 
this  class  of  men.  They  ask  for  the  legal-tender  note 
bill  pure  and  simple.  They  ask  for  a  national  currency 
which  shall  be  of  equal  value  in  all  parts  of  the  coun- 
try. .  .  .  They  want  a  currency  secured  by  adequate 
taxation  upon  the  whole  property  of  the  country  which 
will  pay  the  soldier,  the  farmer,  the  mechanic,  and  the 
banker  alike  for  all  debts  due.  .  .  . 

"  Who,  then,  are  they  that  ask  to  have  a  preference 
given  to  them  over  other  creditors  of  the  Govern- 
ment? Sir,  it  is  .  .  .  a  class  of  men  who  are  very  sharp 
in  all  money  transactions.  They  are  not  generally 
among  the  producing  classes,  not  among  those  who  by 
their  labor  and  skill  make  the  wealth  of  the  country, 
but  a  class  of  men  that  have  accumulated  wealth— men 
who  are  willing  to  lend  money  to  the  Government  if 
you  will  make  the  security  beyond  all  question,  give 
them  a  high  rate  of  interest  and  make  it  payable  in 
coin.  .  .  .  Safe,  no  hazard,  secure,  and  the  interest 
payable  'in  coin.'  Who  would  not  be  willing  to  loan 
money  on  such  terms?" 

On  February  20,  Thaddeus  Stevens,  closing 
the  debate  upon  this  bill,  said  : 

"I  approach  the  subject  with  more  depression  of 
spirits  than  I  ever  before  approached  any  question. 
No  personal  feeling  influences  me.  I  hope  not,  at 
least.  I  have  a  melancholy  foreboding  that  -we  are 
about  to  consummate  a  cunningly  devised  scheme 
which  will  carry  great  injury  and  great  loss  to  all 
classes  of  the  people  throughout  this  Union,  except 
one. 

"  With  my  colleague  I  believe  that  no  act  of  legisla- 
tion of  this  Government  was  ever  hailed  with  as  much 
delight  throughout  the  whole  length  and  breadth  of 
this  Union  by  every  class  of  people,  without  any  ex- 
ception, as  the  bill  we  passed  and  sent  to  the  Senate. 
...  It  is  true  there  was  a  doleful  sound  came  up 
from  the  caverns  of  bullion  brokers  and  from  the  sa- 
loons of  the  associated  banks.  .  .  .  They  fell  upon  the 
bill  in  hot  haste,  and  so  disfigured  and  deformed  it 
that  its  very  father  would  not  know  it.  ...  It  is  now 
positively  mischievous.  ...  It  makes  two  classes  of 
money — one  for  the  banks  and  brokers  and  another  for 
the  people." 

In  speaking  of  the  mutilated  bill,  he  said 
later  : 

'•  We  did  not  yield  until  we  found  that  the  country 
must  be  lost  or  the  banks  be  gratified,  and  we  have 
sought  to  save  the  country  in  spite  of  the  cupidity  of 
the  wealthy  citizens." 

To  the  legal-tender  act  Judge  Kelley,  on 
January  15, 1876,  in  Philadelphia,  refers  in  these 
words  : 


"But  the  patriots  to  whom  I  have  referred  had 
studied  the  Constitution  of  the  United  States.  They 
knew  that  it  had  imposed  upon  them  the  duty  of  sav- 
ing the  nation.  They  knew  that  money  is  the  sinew 
of  war.  .  .  .  A  marvelous  child  was  that  'rag  baby.' 
It  lighted  the  fires  in  every  forge  and  furnace  in  the 
country ;  it  hired  ships  and  bought  others.  ...  It 
rallied  an  army  of  75,000  men,  and  we  soon  after  heard 
ringing  through  the  streets  shouts  of  well-paid  and 
well-clad  soldiers—1  We're  coming,  Father  Abraham, 
300,000  more.'  It  met  all  demands,  and  the  free  States, 
with  the  great  war  on  its  hands,  were  prosperous  as 
they  had  never  been  before." 

Of  the  Senate's  limitations  he  said  : 

"  That  crime  perpetrated  by  the  Senate  of  the  United 
States,  or  that  blunder  worse  than  a  crime,  has  cost 
the  American  people  more  than  all  the  war  would 
have  cost  had  the  House  bill  been  adopted  as  origi- 
nally passed." 

Even  Senator  Sherman  said,  in  1862  : 

"If  we  can  compel  one  citizen  to  take  this  paper 
money,  why  not  another  and  another?  Is  it  any  less 
the  violation  of  contracts  in  one  case  than  another  ? 
Do  not  all  citizens  hold  their  property  subject  to  un- 
limited power  of  taxation  ?  Do  not  all  share  in  the 
blessings  of  Government,  and  should  not  all  share  in 
its  burdens?  Shall  we  inflict  a  loss  only  on  those  who 
trust  the  labor  for  the  Government,  and  relieve  the 
selfish,  avaricious,  idle,  unpatriotic  citizen  who  will 
neither  fight  for,  lend  to,  nor  aid  the  Government  ? 

"  Sir,  to  make  all  these  share  in  the  burden  of  the 
war,  and  to  relieve  those  who  risk  life  and  property  in 
its  defense,  I  would  waive  a  constitutional  doubt." 

Such,  even  in  the  opinion  of  men  not  Green- 
backers,  was  the  effect  of  this  limitation. 

On  the  other  hand,  by  many  believers  in  spe- 
cie it  is  claimed  that  it  has  not  even  yet  been 
proved  that  any  such  notes  were  needed,  and  that 
the  United  States  could  not  have  gotten  along 
without  issuing  these  notes.  However,  the  bill 
passed,  and  was  soon  followed  by  another  of 
$150,000,000  more. 

Many  who  voted  for  the  first  bill  strongly  op- 
posed the  second  ;  but  it  passed  and  became  a 
law.  The  banks,  tho  prudently  confining  their 
issues  for  a  time  after  suspending 
specie  payments,  turned  a  fresh 
issue  into  the  swollen  stream.  Hav-  Second  Issue, 
ing  suspended  specie  payment  they 
could  issue  as  much  as  they  chose. 
As  soon  as  the  legal- tender  notes  appeared,  the 
banks  could  legally  use  these  for  redeeming 
their  own  issues,  and  thus  the  way  had  been 
made  easy  for  an  enormous  inflation.  Some  of 
the  banks  did,  in  truth,  collect  the  legal-tender 
notes  and  substitute  their  own  to  a  much  larger 
amount.  The  increase  in  one  year,  after  sus- 
pension of  specie  payment,  was  $56,000,000 
(Treasurer's  Report,  1866,  p.  67).  This  was  one 
of  the  causes  of  enmity  on  the  part  of  Congress 
against  the  banks,  and  helped  onward  the  crea- 
tion of  a  rival  system  and  the  imposition  of  the 
tax  of  10  per  cent,  on  the  State  bank  issues, 
which  finally  drove  them  out  of  existence. 

At  this  time  this  was  one  of  the  strongest 
arguments  made  for  issuing  more  treasury 
notes.  Mr.  Hooper,  of  Massachusetts,  said  in 
the  debate  : 

"  I  confess  that  I  can  see  no  limit  to  a  depreciation  of 
the  currency  that  may  be  produced  by  the  banks  ;  and 
were  it  not  that  I  have  great  faith  in  the  prudence  and 
wisdom  and  patriotism  of  those  who  manage  the  banks, 
I  should  have  great  apprehension  in  regard  to  it,  as  no 
obligation  is  now  recognized  by  them  to  redeem  their 
circulation,  many  of  the  States  having  legalized  the 
suspension  of  specie  payments." 

Another  member  said  of  the  banks  : 


Currency. 


442 


Currency. 


"They have  authority  to  buy  up  our  bonds  in  the 
market,  to  take  up  our  circulation,  and  put  their  cir- 
culation in  place  of  it,  and  that  is  what  they  are  doing 
all  the  time,  and  the  question  is  whether  we  shall  pay 
these  people  6  per  cent,  upon  our  bonds  for  furnish- 
ing no  better  currency  than  we  can  furnish  ourselves. 
...  In  other  words,  it  is  a  struggle  on  the  part  of 
the  banking  institutions  of  the  country  to  bleed  the 
Government  of  the  United  States  to  the  tune  of  6  per 
cent,  on  every  dollar,  which  is  necessary  for  the  Gov- 
ernment to  use  in  carrying  on  this  struggle  for  our  in- 
dependence and  our  life.  Senatoi  Sherman  said  the 
same  in  milder  form:  "The  legal-tender  notes  are 
actually  kept  out  of  circulation  by  the  depreciated 
bank  paper  of  the  country  ;  and  every  issue  you  make 
increases  that  tendency.  Every  new  "issue  of  treasury 
notes  is  only  a  bid  for  new  inflation  by  the  banks,  and 
thus  the  better  money  of  the  United  States  is  hoarded 
and  laid  away,  and  the  paper  money  which  is  issued 
on  the  credit  of  it  is  thrown  on  the  country,  producing 
inflation  and  derangement  of  our  monetary  system, 
and  I  believe  in  the  end  will  produce  disaster."  (A.  S. 
Bolles's  Financial  History  of  the  United  States,  vol. 
iii.,  pp.  79,  80.) 

Senator  Chandler,  of  Michigan,  spoke  strong- 
ly against  the  issue,  but  it  passed.  Deprecia- 
tion set  in  and  gold  rose.  By  August,  Profes- 
sor Sumner  says  that  specie  had  disappeared. 
July  ii  postage- stamps  were  made  legal  pay- 
ment to  the  Government  in  quantities  not  ex- 
ceeding $10.  Corporations  and  individuals  be- 
gan to  issue  "  shin-plasters,"  and  in  many  cases 
made  them  exchangeable  for  commodities. 
Cities  and  towns  issued  small  notes  payable  in 
taxes  or  lawful  money.  This  was  forbidden  by 
Congress  for  amounts  less  than  $i.  In  March, 
1863,  Congress  authorized  the  secretary  to  issue 
fractional  currency  to  an  amount  not  exceeding 
$50,000,000.  But  already  by  February,  1863, 
Congress  had  issued  $400,000,000  of  treasury 
notes  (the  last  $100,000,000  of  these  being  in 
January,  1863,  to  pay  the  soldiers),  and  had  in- 
dorsed $60,000,000  more  of  other  notes  with  the 
legal- tender  quality,  besides  the  postage-stamps, 
etc. 

The  next  step  we  give  in  the  words  of  Mr. 
A.  S.  Bolles  (Encyclopedia  Americana,  article 
FINANCE)  : 

"  The  same  'law  which  authorized  the  first  issue 
of  legal-tender  notes  also  authorized  the  issue  of 
$500,000,000  of  bonds  bearing  6  per  cent,  interest  and 
payable  after  five  and  within  20  years.  The  interest 
was  payable  in  gold  collected  from  import  duties,  and 
at  this  early  date  Congress  also  provided  that  one  per 
cent,  of  the  public  debt  should  be  discharged  annually. 
At  first  the  bonds  sold  very  slowly,  but,  in  the  mean 
time,  the  Government  procured  considerable  funds  by 
two  kinds  of  temporary  loans.  The  first  consisted  of 
certificates  of  indebtedness,  which  were  nothing  more 
than  certificates  given  to  such  creditors  of  the  Govern- 
ment as  would  take  them,  payable  in  a  year,  or  sooner 
if  it  desired,  and  bearing  6  per  cent,  interest.  The 
other  kind  of  temporary  loan  consisted  at  first  of 
$25,000,000,  and  finally  increased  to  $100,000,000,  of  de- 
posits of  treasury  notes  by  the  banks  to  the  Govern- 
ment, which  bore  not  exceeding  5  per  cent,  interest, 
and  which  they  could  demand  after  30  days'  notice." 

To  some  members  of  Congress  this  operation 
of  the  treasury  seemed  to  be  wholly  for  the 
benefit  of  banks,  as  the  Government  could  make 
no  use  of  money  which  it  was  liable  to  pay  at 
such  a  short  notice.  In  truth,  however,  the 
Government  did  use  all  of  the  money  thus 
loaned,  so  that  it  was  a  highly  favorable  opera- 
tion of  the  Government.  To  provide  more  ade- 
quately for  the  payment  of  these  deposits,  if 
they  should  be  demanded  when  the  Govern- 
ment was  not  able  to  respond,  an  issue  of  $50,- 
000,000  legal-tender  notes  was  authorized  for  this 
purpose.  When  the  country  became  full  of 


these  notes  the  bonds  began  to  sell.  Arrange- 
ments were  made  with  Jay  Cooke  &  Co..  and 
large  quantities  were  sold  by  them.  Mr.  Chase 
then  withdrew  their  sale  and  tried  bonds  at  only 
5  per  cent.  No  one  wanted  these,  and  the  debt 
rapidly  increased. 

Meanwhile  the  bill  establishing  the  national 
banking  system  had  been  at  last  enacted.  (See 
BANKS  AND  BANKING.)  It  was  Mr.  Chase's  fa- 
vorite measure.  He  had  outlined 
it  in  his  first  report  and  empha- 
sized it  in  his  second,  and  President  National 
Lincoln  strongly  favored  it.  A  Banking 
sentiment  against  the  State  banks  System. 
had  developed  partly  through  their 
expansion  of  notes  to  replace  or  at 
least  add  to  the  treasury  notes,  and  so  cause  in- 
flation. Many  believed  that  there  was  a  gen- 
eral policy  of  the  banks  to  cause  inflation,  and 
so  drive  specie  into  their  hands,  to  be  used  later 
when  the  crash  should  come.  Even  a  bank  offi- 
cer in  Pennsylvania  wrote  in  December,  1862  : 
"  The  present  expansion  of  the  banks  is  unjus- 
tifiable. .  .  .  They  will  continue  to  expand 
until  the  bubble  bursts  or  the  iron  hand  of  the 
Government  interferes  to  save  the  people.  This 
ad  libitum  issue  of  paper  is  filling  up  all  the 
channels  of  circulation  and  forcing  specie  into  the 
clutches  of  hoarders  and  the  hands  of  brokers" 
(Bolles's  financial  History,  vol.  iii.,  p.  135). 
Many  believed  that  but  for  the  bank  issue  the 
Government  notes  would  not  have  depreciated. 
Mr.  Chase  himself,  in  his  report  for  1863,  said 
of  these  bank  issues  :  "  Were  these  notes  with- 
drawn from  use  it  is  believed  that  much  of  the 
now  very  considerable  difference  between  coin 
and  the  United  States  notes  would  disappear. ' ' 
Amasa  Walker,  of  Massachusetts,' in  a  speech 
prepared  but  not  delivered^  wrote  :  "  Could  I 
have  my  own  wishes,  I  should,  as  I  have  before 
insisted,  instead  of  creating  a  rival  system,  lay 
a  tax  of  3  percent,  semi-annually  on  all  present 
bank  circulation,  drive  it  entirely  out  of  exist- 
ence, and  fill  its  place  with  the  legal-tender 
notes  of  the  Government,  so  that  on  the  return 
of  peace  and  specie  payments  by  the  Govern- 
ment and  banks,  there  would  be  no  credit  cur- 
rency issues  except  those  made  by  the  national 
currency,  which,  by  suitable  limitation,  might  al- 
ways be  kept  at  par  with  gold"  (Bankers' Maga- 
zine, 17,  p.  833).  Senator  Sherman  had  said 
in  the  Senate,  July  4,  1862  :  "  When  you  issue 
your  pay  money  now,  as  you  are  compelled  to 
issue  it,  it  becomes  the  basis  of  other  issues  by 
the  banks,  and  the  inflation  which  you  are  com- 
pelled to  give  becomes  a  double  inflation  from 
its  consequence  on  the  banks  of  the  United 
States.  When  the  Government  of  the  United 
States  issued  $150,000,000  of  notes,  if  there  had 
been  no  depreciated  bank  paper  money  in  the 
United  States,  that  of  $150,000,000  would  this 
moment  have  been  at  par  with  gold." 

With  this  hostility  to  the  State  from  very  dif- 
ferent sources  it  was  not  strange  that  a  national 
banking  system  should  be  favored.  Mr.  Chase 
was  obstinate  in  his  purpose  of  effecting  it.  A 
bill  for  its  creation  was  introduced  into  the  Sen- 
ate by  Mr.  Sherman,  and  supported  at  length 
by  him.  Mr.  Collamer  opposed  the  bill  in  an 
elaborate  speech,  saying  that  it  would  destroy 
the  State  banks  and  create  a  monopoly  that 


Currency. 


443 


Currency. 


would  give  the  Secretary  of  the  Treasury  too 
much  power.  The  bill  passed  by  a  vote  of  23 
to  21.  In  the  House  similar  bills  had  been  de- 
bated before,  but  not  enacted,  and  the  debate 
was  now  brief,  Mr.  Spaulding  and  Mr.  Fen- 
ton,  both  of  New  York,  supported  it.  Mr. 
Baker,  of  the  same  State,  principally  opposed 
it.  It  passed  by  a  vote  of  78  to  64  on  February 
20,  1863,  and  received  the  President's  signature 
February  25.  The  bill  (see  BANKS  AND  BANK- 
ING) provided  for  an  issue  of  $300,000,000.  Yet 
no  issues  appeared  till  December  21,  and  con- 
versions of  the  State  banks  did  not  take  effect 
until  after  the  amendments  of  the  bill  the  next 
year,  the  act  of  March  3,  1865,  which  forced 
their  conversion  by  a  tax  of  10  per  cent,  on  all 
issues  of  State  banks,  and  the  decision  that 
the  act  was  constitutional.  Then  the  process 
went  on  rapidly.  But  we  are  anticipating. 
Many  claimed  that  the  delay  was  because  the 
banks  wanted  to  send  the  treasury  notes  to  a 
lower  point  before  they  bought  them  all  and 
exchanged  them  for  bonds,  which  meanwhile 
Mr.  Chase  was  gradually  placing.  Into  all  the 
details  of  the  placing  of  these  bonds  we  need 
not  enter.  When  Mr.  Chase  found  that  he  could 
not  place  the  bonds  at  5  per  cent,  he  had  re- 
course to  the  issue  of  more  legal- 
tender  notes  which  he  induced 
Inflation.  Congress  to  authorize  till  the  cur- 
rency was  depreciated  to  a  point 
where  he  could  place  these  bonds. 
Thus,  wittingly  or  unwittingly,  he  played  into 
the  hands  of  the  bond-buyers,  who  bought  these 
bonds  with  a  depreciated  currency,  and  then 
held  them  for  the  contraction  which  later  they 
forced.  On  the  last  day  of  the  fiscal  year  1864 
Mr.  Chase  retired  from  the  office  of  the  treasury 
and  Mr.  William  P.  Fessenden,  of  Maine,  took 
his  place.  Mr.  Chase,  not  a  banker  by  profes- 
sion and  without  much  experience  in  financier- 
ing, had  yet  proved  himself  obstinate  and  un- 
willing to  learn.  Whatever  were  his  inten- 
tions— and  it  must  be  allowed  that  they  were 
probably  good  and  his  difficulties  great — he  had, 
yet  without  consenting  to  what  the  bankers  de- 
sired on  many  points,  actually  played  into  their 
hands.  Men  said  that  his  ambition  to  be  presi- 
dent had  been  his  weakness.  Mr.  Fessenden 
was  a  man  of  different  type.  He  determined, 
if  possible,  to  issue  no  more  treasury  notes.  He 
advertised  for  a  loan,  the  lenders  to  receive 
treasury  notes  payable  in  three  years,  with 
semi-annual  interest  at  7.3  per  cent,  in  lawful 
money.  The  response  was  not  great — the  sol- 
diers themselves,  however,  taking  over  $20,000,- 
ooo.  Once  more  then  he  endeavored  to  sell 
bonds,  and  was  successful.  Bids  reached  nearly 
$70,000,000,  and  the  premium  offered  was  4  per 
cent,  and  higher.  He  continued  this  general 
policy  till,  being  reelected  to  the  Senate,  he  re- 
tired from  the  treasury  on  March  5,  1864,  and 
Hugh  McCulloch  took  his  place.  In  April,  Rich- 
mond was  captured,  and  soon  after  the  Confed- 
erate armies  surrendered.  Mr.  McCulloch  knew 
that  he  would  now  need  a  large  sum  for  trans- 
portation, pay,  and  bounties.  To  use  his  own 
words,  ' '  As  it  was  important  that  these  requi- 
sitions should  be  promptly  met,  and  especially 
important  that  not  a  soldier  should  remain  in 
the  service  a  single  day  for  want  of  means  to 


pay  him,"  the  secretary  perceived  the  necessity 
of  realizing  as  rapidly  as  possible  the  amount — 
$53,000,000 — still  authorized  to  be  borrowed 
under  the  act  of  March  5,  1865.  The  7.3  per 
cent,  notes  had  proved  to  be  a  popular  loan,  and 
altho  a  security  on  longer  time  and  lower  inter- 
est would  have  been  advantageous  to  the  Gov- 
ernment, the  secretary  considered  it  advisable, 
under  the  circumstances,  to  continue  to  offer 
these  notes  to  the  public,  and  to  avail  himself, 
as  his  immediate  predecessors  had  done,  of  the 
services  of  Jay  Cooke  in  the  sale  of  them.  The 
result  was  in  the  highest  degree  satisfactory.  .  .  . 
No  loan  ever  offered  in  the  United  States,  not- 
withstanding the  large  amount  of  Government 
securities  previously  taken  by  the  people,  was 
so  promptly  subscribed  for  as  this.  Before  Au- 
gust i  the  entire  amount  had  been  taken. ' '  This 
was  the  last  war  loan.  The  other  great  war 
loans  had  been  : 

$500,000,000,  authorized  February  25,  1862  ;  $900,000,000, 
March  3,  1863  ;  $200,000,000,  March  3,  1864  ;  $400,000,000, 
June  30,  1864  ;  $600,000,000,  March  3,  1865. 

The  acts  for  legal-tender  notes  may  be  thus  sum- 
marized : 

$150.000,000,  February  25,  1862;  $150,000,000,  July  n, 
1862  ;  $150,000,000,  January  17  and  March  17,  1863  ;  $400,- 


000,000,  March  3,  1863 ;  six  per  cent,  interest-bearing 
notes,  running  not  longer  than  two  years  ;  $400,000,000, 
Tune  30, 1864,  and  January  28, 1865,  7.3  per  cent,  interest- 
bearing  notes,  running  for  three  years  or  longer. 

The  cost  of  the  war  was  estimated  at  $6,844,571,431.03 
(Sen.  Doc.,  No.  206,  46  Cong.,  Second  Session).  The  ex- 
penditure by  States  and  ^Municipalities  was  $46?>954>- 
364  (Bolles's  Financial  History,  vol.  iii.,  p.  245). 

It  will  be  seen  that  the  issue  of  non-interest- 
bearing  legal-tender  notes  was  comparatively 
not  large.  Their  effect  has  been  probably  ex- 
aggerated. Prices  rose  not  only  because  of  in- 
flation, but  because  of  the  enormous  demand  for 
arms  and  other  commodities  by  the  Govern- 
ment. The  price  of  gold  was  comparatively 
but  slightly  affected  by  the  issue.  It  went  up 
and  down  according  as  war  reports 
were  unfavorable  or  otherwise. 
Gold  speculation  was  also  rife.  Speculation. 
Hugh  McCulloch,  Comptroller  of 
the  Currency,  said,  in  his  second 
report :  "  Hostility  to  the  Government  has  been 
as  decidedly  manifested  in  the  effort  that  has 
been  made  in  the  commercial  metropolis  of  the 
nation  to  depreciate  the  currency  as  it  has  been 
by  the  enemy  in  the  field,  and  unfortunately 
the  effort  of  sympathizers  with  the  rebellion  and 
of  the  agents  of  the  rebellious  States  to  prostrate 
the  national  credit  has  been  strengthened  and 
sustained  by  thousands  in  the  loyal  States  whose 
political  fidelity  it  might  be  ungenerous  to  ques- 
tion. Immense  interests  have  been  at  work  all 
over  and  concentrated  in  New  York  to  raise  the 
price  of  coin,  and  splendid  fortunes  have  been 
apparently  made  by  their  success.  .  .  .  Gold 
has  been  a  favorite  article  to  gamble  in.  ... 
The  effect  of  all  this  has  been,  not  to  break 
down  the  credit  of  the  Government,  but  to  in- 
crease enormously  the  cost  of  the  war  and  the 
expense  of  living  ;  for,  however  small  may  have 
been  the  connection  between  the  price  of  coin 
and  our  domestic  products,  every  rise  of  gold, 
no  matter  by  what  means  effected,  has  been 
used  as  a  pretext  by  holders  and  speculators  for 
an  advance  of  prices,  to  the  great  injury  of  the 
Government  and  the  sorrow  of  a  large  portion 


Currency. 


444 


Currency. 


of  the  people."  He  again,  in  the  same  re- 
port, gives  a  statement  of  the  price  of  gold  in 
the  New  York  market  from  January,  1862,  to 
September,  1864,  and  then  adds  :  "  None  of 
these  fluctuations  (from  a  premium  of  23^  to 
185)  were  brought  about  by  an  increase  or  de- 
crease of  the  currency  ;  on  the  contrary,  gold 
rose  the  most  rapidly  when  there  was  no  con- 
siderable increase  of  the  currency,  and  fell  in 
the  face  of  large  additions  to  it.  Nothing  can 
be  more  conclusive  of  the  incorrectness  of  the 
opinion  that  gold  is  always  the  standard  of 
value,  and  that  the  high  price  during  the  prog- 
ress of  the  war  is  the  result  of  an  inflated  cur- 
rency, than  this  brief  statement  of  its  variations 
in  the  New  York  stock  market."  A  senator 
(Globe,  April  15,  1864,  p.  1645)  stated  a  partial 
cause  of  gold  fluctuations  :  "  It  is  the  immense 
business  that  your  citizens  are  now  carrying 
on,  domestic  as  well  as  foreign  ;  it  is  the  im- 
mense amount  of  bonds  which  your  local  cor- 
porations throughout  the  whole  extent  of  the 
United  States  are  issuing  for  the  purpose  of 
accomplishing  some  particular  local  or  general 
improvement.  The  whole,  in  one  sense,  is  a 
\  species  of  currency,  by  means  of  which  the 
,  business  of  the  country  is  being  conducted. ' ' 
*  Whatever  were  the  causes,  however,  prices  did 
rise.  Money  was  so  plentiful  that  the  demand 
for  products  of  the  Old  World,  especially  those 
of  luxury,  was  unparalleled.  Fortunes  were 
made  by  speculation ,  and  the  basis  laid  for  the 
change  of  our  social  life  from  one  of  compara- 
tive simplicity  to  comparative  luxury.  One 
thing  only  did  not  rise  in  proportion.  Wages 
were  the  slowest  of  any  "  commodity'/  to  ad- 
vance. They  suffered  the  most  from  the  specu- 
lation. Mr.  McCulloch  said,  in  a  speech  at  Fort 
Wayne,  1865  :  "  Men  are  apparently  getting 
rich,  while  morality  languishes  and  the  produc- 
tive industry  of  the  country  is  being  diminished. 
Good  morals  in  business,  and  sober,  persever- 
ing industry,  if  not  at  a  discount,  are  consid- 
ered too  old-fogyish  for  the  present  times." 
To  many  the  creation  of  this  tendency  was  the 
worst  legacy  left  the  country  by  the  speculators 
during  the  war. 

4.    SINCE   THE   WAR. 

As  soon  as  the  war  was  over  there  was  gen- 
eral talk  of  a  return  to  specie  payment.  Mr. 
McCulloch,  then  Secretary  of  the  Treasury, 
strongly  recommended  this,  and  prepared  for  it. 
The  President,  in  his  annual  message,  sustained 
the  Secretary,  and  boards  of  trade  and  similar 
organizations  all  over  the  land  endorsed  the 
position.  "  Five  years  ago,"  said  Mr.  Lincoln, 
"  the  bank-note  circulation  of  the  country 
amounted  to  $200,000,000  ;  now  the  circulation, 
bank  and  national,  exceeds  $700,- 
000,000.  The  simple  statement  of 
Restriction,  the  fact  recommends  more  strongly 
than  any  words  of  mine  could  do 
the  necessity  of  our  restraining  this 
expansion.  The  gradual  reduction  of  the  cur- 
rency is  the  only  measure  that  can  save  the 
business  of  the  country  from  disastrous  calami- 
ties ;  and  this  can  be  almost  imperceptibly  ac- 
complished by  gradually  funding  the  national 
circulation  in  securities  that  may  be  made  re- 
deemable at  the  pleasure  of  the  Government." 


Many,  however,  objected  to  a  reduction  of  the 
currency.  They  argued  that  it  would  reduce 
prices  and  injure  trade,  raise  the  value  of  the 
bonds  already  taken,  and  the  debt  of  the  debtor 
classes.  (See  CONTRACTION  AND  EXPANSION  OF 
CURRENCY.)  The  Secretary  met  these  criticisms 
as  best  he  could,  arguing  mainly  that  it  was  bet- 
ter to  get  to  specie  payments  as  rapidly  as  pos- 
sible and  prevent  getting  more  debts,  even  if  it 
did  hurt  the  debtor  class  to  some  extent.  "  The 
process,"  he  said,  "need  not  be  injuriously 
rapid."  There  was  a  long  and  warm  debate  in 
Congress,  Messrs.  Morrill,  Hooper,  and  Went- 
worth  strongly  favoring  contraction,  Messrs. 
Kelly  and  Boutwell,  with  Mr.  Sherman,  in  the 
Senate,  strongly  opposing.  There  were  many 
amendments,  and  the  Secretary  was  finally 
authorized  to  retire  $4,000,000  of  notes  a  month. 
The  bill  passed  the  House  by  83  to  53,  47  mem- 
bers not  voting.  In  the  Senate  only  seven  voted 
against  it  (act  of  April  12,  1866).  By  1868  there 
was  such  stringency  in  the  money  market  that 
a  bill  to  suspend  the  retiring  of  the  legal-tender 
notes  was  hurriedly  passed.  In  1870  the  banks 
were  authorized  to  increase  their  circulation  to 
the  amount  of  $54,000,000,  but  a  similar  amount 
of  the  loan  certificates  were  to  be  destroyed. 
With  the  opening  of  General  Grant's  adminis- 
tration (1869)  Mr.  McCulloch  had  been  supersed- 
ed by  G.  S.  Boutwell,  and  in  October  of  that 
year  he  issued  $1,500,000  legal- tender  notes  to 
relieve  a  Wall  Street  stringency,  and  the  next 
year  a  larger  amount ;  but  he  was  so  criticised 
that  he  and  Mr.  W.  A.  Richardson,  who  suc- 
ceeded him  March  17,  1873,  retired  the  issue. 
This  was  the  year  of  the  great  crisis,  and  Mr. 
Richardson  had  hardly  become  Secretary  when 
the  cyclone  struck  the  country,  and  Mr.  Rich- 
ardson was  induced  to  issue  more  notes.  He, 
however,  asked  Congress  to  decide  whether  the 
Secretary  should  be  allowed  to  do  this  whenever 
a  crisis  came,  and  the  House  voted  that  notes 
could  be  issued  up  to  $400,000,000.  This  was 
the  effect  of  the  growing  protest  against  Mr. 
McCulloch 's  policy  of  contraction.  The  debtor 
class  were  beginning  to  cry  out,  and  the  crisis 
of  1873  brought  this  to  a  head.  The  bill  was 
then  carried  to  the  Senate  and  debated.  Mean- 
while, general  interest  and  excitement  were 
aroused.  A  bill  to  establish  free  banking  had 
been  introduced  into  the  House.  The  whole 
country  seemed  full  of  plans  to  prevent  another 
crisis.  Over  sixty  different  bills  were  sent  to 
the  Senate  finance  committee  proposing  every 
conceivable  step — from  establishing  an  elastic 
currency,  as  proposed  by  General  Butler,  to  the 
resumption  of  specie  payments,  proposed  by 
Messrs.  Cox  and  Pierce.  The  Senate  finally 
voted  to  increase  the  legal-tender  notes  to  $400,- 
000,000,  and  to  authorize  an  additional  issue  of 
$46,000,000  of  bank-notes,  to  be  distributed  in 
the  South  and  West.  This  bill  the  President 
vetoed,  the  specie  and  bank  men  believing  this 
to  be  "  one  of  thecrovrning  glories  in  President 
Grant's  civil  career"  (Bolles's  Financial  His- 
tory, vol.  iii. ,  p.  289);  the  inflationists,  as  friends 
of  the  bill  were  called,  believing  that  it  showed 
that  the  President  was  under  the  influence  of 
the  bankers  and  bondholders.  Early  the  next 
session  a  bill  was  introduced  by  Mr.  Sherman 
in  the  Senate  entitled  "  An  act  to  provide  for 


Currency. 


445 


Currency. 


the  resumption  of  specie  payments."  Upon 
it  all  the  Republican  senators  were  agreed  ex- 
cept Mr.  Schurz. 

The    main    features    were     the 
withdrawal  of  $80  of  the  legal-ten- 
Resumption,  der  notes  for  each  issue  of  $100  of 
national  bank-notes,  until  the  ag- 
gregate amount  should  be  reduced 
to  $300,000,000,  and  the  accumulation  of  coin 
from  customs  duties  and  the  sale  of  bonds.     The 
question  arose,  Could  the  treasury  notes  thus 
withdrawn   be  reissued?     When  Mr.  Sherman 
was  asked,  he  replied  that  the  question  must 
be  left  unsettled.      It  .was  seen  that  if  they 
could  be,  the  intent  of  the  law  could  be  defeat- 
ed.    It  was  a  defective,  double-faced  law.     Op- 
position  in  Congress  to  any  kind  of  a  resump- 
tion measure  was  strong. 

But  the  bill  passed.  As  a  matter  of  fact, 
the  secretaries,  Bristow  and  then  Merrill,  grad- 
ually retired  the  legal-tender  notes,  till  in  March, 
1877,  Senator  Sherman  himself  became  treasurer. 
He  completed  the  work.  He  sold  as  the  bill  al- 
lowed, but,  as  the  former  treasurers  had  not 
done,  bonds  enough  for  coin  to  resume  specie 
payments.  An  arrangement  was  entered  into 
with  the  banks,  and  on  January  i,  1878,  specie 
payments  were  wholly  resumed,  to  the  delight 
of  the  friends  of  specie  and  amid  the  indigna- 
tion of  a  growing  greenback  party.  We  have 
followed  this  portion  of  our  subject  to  its  conclu- 
sion ;  but  simultaneously  with  this  question  of 
resumption  other  great  currency  questions  were 
being  discussed,  and  were  connected  with  it. 
From  the  beginning  one  of  the  great  objections 
raised  to  the  issue  of  legal-tender  notes  had 
been  their  alleged  unconstitutionality,  Mr.  Pen- 
dleton,  of  Ohio,  making  perhaps  the  strongest 
speech  on  that  side.  The  State  courts  decided 
in  favor  of  the  law,  with  the  single  exception  of 
the  Supreme  Court  of  Pennsylvania.  The  Court 
of  Appeals  of  New  York  at  an  early  day  de- 
clared the  law  to  be  constitutional.  But  all  felt 
that  the  question  would  not  be  settled  until  it 
reached  the  United  States  Supreme  Court. 
When  it  finally  came  before  that  tribunal  in 
1867,  Mr.  Chase  was  the  chief  justice.  He  and 
four  of  his  colleagues  (Nelson,  Grier,  Clifford, 
and  Field)  decided  against  the  constitutionality 
of  the  law,  the  other  three  dissenting.  It  was 
said  that  Mr.  Chase  now  decided  against  the 
constitutionality  of  what  he  himself  had  once 
favored,  because  he  thought  it  would  aid  his 
presidential  chances.  At  the  time  of  rendering 
this  decision,  however,  two  vacancies  existed, 
which  were  soon  after  filled.  The  attorney- 
general,  R.  E.  Hoar,  then  applied  for  a  reargu- 
ment  of  the  question  in  another  case.  He 
claimed  that  the  former  decision  had  been 
made  when  the  bench  was  not  full,  and  that 
a  question  of  such  transcendent  importance 
ought  not  to  be  declared  as  definitely  settled 
until  all  the  members  had  expressed  an  opinion. 
The  judges  who  concurred  in  the  opinion  given 
were  opposed  to  opening  the  question  ;  but 
those  who  dissented,  uniting  with  the  two  new 
appointees,  constituted  a  majority,  and  decid- 
ed in  favor  of  another  argument.  The  de- 
cision in  the  second  case  sustained  the  law.  At  a 
later  period  another  question  was  raised — name- 
ly, that,  admitting  it  was  constitutional  to  issue 


such  notes  in  time  of  war,  could  this  be  legally 
done  in  a  time  of  peace  ?  The  court  in  the  sec- 
ond case  maintained  that  if  the  issuing  of  such 
notes  was  necessary  to  supply  the  absolute 
necessities  of  the  treasury,  that  if  nothing  else 
would  have  enabled  the  Government  to  main- 
tain its  armies  and  navy,  nothing  else  would 
have  saved  the  Government  and  the  Constitu- 
tion from  destruction,  while  the  legal-tender 
acts  would,  could  any  one  be  so  bold  as  to  as- 
sert that  Congress  had  transgressed  its  powers  ? 
Whether  they  were  needful,  the  court  declared, 
was  a  question  for  Congress  to  decide.  If  it 
was  a  question  for  Congress  in  the  second  case, 
it  was  equally  so  in  the  last  case,  so  the  court 
decided,  and  thus  the  law  stands.  This  case 
was  not  decided  till  March,  1883. 

Another  great  question  of  this  period  was  con- 
cerning the  paying  off  of  the  public  debt.  In 
September,  1865,  it  stood  at  its  maximum, 
$2,757,689,571.  Public  sentiment  favored  its 
being  paid  as  rapidly  as  possible.  It  was  need- 
ful to  make  provision  for  the  debts  as  they  ma- 
tured, and  Secretary  McCulloch's 
policy  was  to  take  up  from  time  to 
time  such  portions  of  it  as  could  Conversion 
be  advantageously  converted  into  into  Bonds. 
bonds  or  paid  in  currency  before 
maturity,  so  as  to  avoid  the  neces- 
sity of  accumulating  large  sums  of  money  or  of 
being  compelled  to  sell  bonds  at  the  last  mo- 
ment, when  perhaps  the  condition  of  the  market 
would  prevent  their  sale  on  advantageous  terms. 
He  asked  and  received  from  Congress  large  dis- 
cretionary powers  as  to  the  sale.  He  then 
drew  in  as  rapidly  as  he  thought  possible  the 
temporary  loans,  certificates  of  indebtedness, 
the  compound  interest  notes,  by  converting 
them  into  bonds  at  6  per  cent.  He  also  kept  a 
large  gold  reserve.  Most  people  believed  that 
Mr.  McCulloch  acted  wisely  and  well.  Not  all, 
however.  His  withdrawing  of  the  temporary 
loans,  etc.,  practically  acted  as  a  reduction  of 
the  currency,  since  they  were  to  no  little  extent 
used  as  currency,  and  some  of  them  had  been 
endowed  with  the  legal-tender  quality.  Men 
began  to  feel  the  pressure.  By  1868  the  last  of 
the  temporary  obligations  had  been  funded,  and 
$271,496,018  of  the  public  debt  had  been  paid. 
This  was  well  ;  but  men  began  to  question. 
Bond-seekers  were  buying  the  bonds  for  legal- 
tender  treasury  notes  at  their  face  value,  which 
they  had  got  perhaps  at  a  depreciation  even 
down  to  two  or  three  for  one  dollar,  and  were 
now  drawing  interest  in  gold,  and  would  get 
the  principal  in  gold.  For  some  of  this  pay- 
ment in  gold  there  was  no  help,  as  the  bond- 
holders had  seen  to  it  that  while  the  soldiers 
and  others  could  be  paid  in  paper,  the  law  read 
that  their  interest  should  be  paid  in  gold.  But 
of  all  the  bonds  this  was  not  true.  Of  some  of 
them  the  law  did  not  say  in  what  their  interest 
or  principal  should  be  paid.  This  was  true  of 
the  $500,000,000  five-twenty  loan  of  1863.  The 
question  now  arose  called  "the  Ohio  idea," 
whether  it  was  not  justifiable  to  pay  this  off  in 
legal-tender  notes.  The  secretary  was  pro- 
nounced in  his  utterances  that  they  should  be 
paid  in  gold,  and  that  honesty  demanded  this. 
It  was  argued  that  as  this  was  expressly  stated 
of  other  bonds,  this  was  the  implicit  understand- 


Currency. 


446 


Currency. 


ing  in  regard  to  all  the  bonds.     On  the  other 

hand,  it  was  held  that  the  mere  fact  that  it  was 

not  stated  so  of  some  and  was  stated  of  others 

showed  there  was  a  difference.     Debate  ran  high 

through  all  the  country,  and,  with  other  causes, 

led  to  the  formation  of  the  Greenback  Party, 

tho  many  State  conventions  of  all, 

and  especially  of  the   Democratic 

The  Green-  Party,  favored  paying  these  bonds 
back  Party,  in  paper.  Mr.  Tilden,  however,  and 
the  leaders  of  the  Democratic  Party 
in  the  East,  mainly  favored  gold 
payment.  Failing  to  get  Congress  to  pay  in 
paper,  some  extremists  favored  repudiation. 
Credit  was  said  to  be  damaged.  Congress  there- 
fore, in  March,  1869,  passed  the  so-called  Credit 
Strengthening  Act,  pledging  the  faith  of  the 
United  States  to  pay  all  principal  and  interest 
in  gold  save  where  the  law  authorizing  an  issue 
had  expressly  provided  that  it  could  be  paid  in 
other  currency  than  gold  or  silver.  This  was 
received  with  joy  and  boasting  by  those  who 
believed  in  specie,  which  they  called  "honest 
money,"  and  was  denounced  as  the  influence 
of  the  bondholder  upon  legislation  by  the  grow- 
ing number  of  believers  in  ' '  soft  money, ' '  and 
by  not  a  few  who  did  not  so  believe,  but  yet 
feared  the  bondholder's  power. 

It  is  in  these  votes,  one  by  one  enacted  in 
favor  of  the  so-called  "money  power,"  that 
one  must  look  for  the  basis  of  the  Greenback 
charge  of  a  "gold  conspiracy,"  which  has 
played  so  important  a  part  in  the  Greenback 
and  People's  party  movements. 

Many  soldiers  pronounced  the  enactment  un- 
scrupulous. They  had  faced  opposing  ranks — 
had  saved  the  nation  and  kept  its  banner  from 
trailing  in  the  dust.  They  protested  against 
these  privileges  being  granted  to  a  few  bond- 
holders by  this  Government  when  it  could  not 
keep  its  faith  with  them.  They  demanded  res- 
titution, and  asked  their  representative  in  Con- 
gress, General  James  B.  Weaver,  to  introduce 
a  bill  in  that  body  asking  that  the  difference 
between  paper  and  coin  payment  be  made  to 
them  as  per  agreement,  but  Congress  would 
not  hear. 

In  1870  a  bill  was  introduced  into  the  Senate 
by  Mr.  Sumner,  among  other  things,  exempting 
all  national  bonds  from  taxation,  State  or  na- 
tional, it  being  urged  that  to  tax  them  would 
be  simply  to  lower  their  value,  so  that  the  Gov- 
ernment would  sell  them  for  less,  and  thus  lose 
whatever  she  should  gain  from  them  by  taxa- 
tion. After  much  debate,  this  was  enacted. 
The  Greenbackers,  however,  claimed  that  the 
bank  influence  was  growing  more  and  more. 
The  Greenback  claim  was  that  a  "  bank  con- 
spiracy" had  caused  the  greenbacks  to  be  de- 
preciated by  putting  limitations  on  their  legal- 
tender  value  and  by  themselves  inflating  the 
currency  with  their  own  notes  ;  that  they  had 
then  caused  needless  bonds  to  be  issued  by  the 
Government ;  that  they  had  next,  when  the 
greenbacks  had  got  low  enough,  bought  these 
bonds  with  the  depreciated  greenbacks,  the 
Government  taking  them  at  their  par  value  ; 
that  they  then  caused  Congress  to  vote  that  the 
capital  and  interest  in  them  all  should  be  paid 
in  gold,  and  that  they  should  not  be  taxed.  It 
was,  moreover,  charged  that  the  banks  and 


bondholders,  having  got  the  bonds  with  a  de- 
preciated currency,  were  now  inducing  the  Gov- 
ernment to  contract  the  currency  by  withdraw- 
ing the  notes  under  the  color  of  returning  to  an 
"  honest"  specie  basis,  and  by  funding  the  debt 
to  make  the  debt  more  permanent.  The  whole 
national  banking  system  was  declared  to  be  an 
organization  to  make  the  debt  permanent.  It 
was  declared  that  when  Congress  voted  to  pay 
all  interest  and  principal  in  coin,  amounting  to 
many  hundreds  more  of  gold  and  silver  coin 
than  were  in  its  resources  to  pay,  it  was  proof 
that  the  Government  intended  the  debt  never 
to  be  paid  off,  but  to  be  the  abiding  benefit  of 
the  bondholding  class.  Had  not  Mr.  Chase 
said  in  1862  of  the  national  banking  system  : 

"  The  central  idea  of  the  measure  is  the  establish- 
ment of  a  sound  uniform  currency  throughout  the 
country  upon  the  foundation  of 'national  credit (in  other 
words,~upon  a  national  debt),  making  this  the  settled- 
policy  of  the  country.'" 

If,  now,  this  settled  policy  was  based  on  the 
national  debt,  using  it  to  furnish  the  people  with 
a  permanent  circulation,  did  it  not  prove  that 
the  debt  was  to  be  permanent  ?  Comparing  the 
Government's  treatment  of  the  favored  bond- 
holder with  its  treatment  of  the  soldier,  who  was 
paid  in  paper,  and  the  poor  man,  whose  debt 
was  increased  by  contracting  the  currency,  the 
Greenbackers  roused  bitter  feeling  against  the 
gold  policy. 

Nevertheless,  the  secretaries  went  steadily 
on  funding  the  debt,  and  paying  it  off  slowly. 
Into  all  the  details  we  need  not  enter.  The 
process  went  on  under  the  secretaries  McCul- 
loch,  Boutwell,  Richardson,  Bristow,  Morrell, 
Sherman,  Windom,  Folger,  Gresham.  The  sec- 
retaries were  able  to  get  lower  and  lower  inter- 
est, till  Secretary  Windom  was  able  to  get  3$  per 
cent.,  and  later,  when  rechartering  (see  BANKS 
AND  BANKING),  the  national  banks  were  allowed 
to  exchange  the  "  Windoms"  of  3^  per  cent,  to 
other  bonds,  with  longer  time  to  run,  bearing 
only  3  per  cent.  On  November  i,  1884,  the  net 
debt  was$i, 408, 482, 948. 69.  In  19  years  the  debt 
had  been  reduced  $1,347,948,622  74,  and  the 
annual  interest  charge  $103,653,866.37. 

"In  the  management  of  its  debt,"  said  Mr.  McCul- 
loch,  then  again  Secretary  of  the  Treasury,  "  the  United 
States  had  been  an  example  to  the  world.    Nothing 
has  so  much  surprised  European  states- 
men as  the  fact  that  immediately  after 
the  termination  of  one  of  the  most  ex-   Paying  the 
pensive,  and  in  some  respects  exhaust-         Debt 
ive,  wars  that  has  ever  been  carried  on,         A»COV. 
the    United    States    should   have  com- 
menced the  payment  of  its  debts  and 
continued    its    reduction    through  all  reverses  until 
nearly  one  half  of  it  has  been  paid.    .    .    .    It  is  true 
that  all  this  has  been  effected  by  heavy  taxes,  but  it  is 
also  true  that  these  taxes  have  neither  checked  enter- 
prise nor  retarded  growth." 

But  there  are  other  sides  to  this  statement. 
For  the  argument  that  these  heavy  protective 
war  tariffs  were  paid  by  the  consumers,  see 
FREE  TRADE.  We  notice  here  another  point. 
Greenbackers  and  some  not  Greenbackers  said 
that  by  contracting  the  currency  the  Govern- 
ment, while  paying  off  a  part  ot  the  debt,  was 
making  the  remainder  of  the  debt  really  worth 
more,  measured  by  what  it  would  buy,  than  the 


Currency. 


447 


Currency. 


original  debt.     President  Andrews  (An  Honest 
Dollar,  p.   13)  says  :  "  Our  national  debt  on 

September  i,  1865,  was  about  two 

and  three  quarter  billions.  It  could 
Falling  then  have  been  paid  off  with  eigh- 
of  Prices,  teen  million  bales  of  cotton  or 

twenty-five  million  tons  of  bar  iron. 

When  it  had  been  reduced  to  a  bill- 
ion and  a  quarter,  thirty  million  bales  of  cotton , 
or  thirty- two  million  tons  of  iron,  would  have 
been  required  to  pay  it.  In  other  words, 
while  a  nominal  shrinkage  of  about  55  per 
cent,  had  taken  place  in  the  debt,  it  had,  as 
measured  on  either  of  these  two  world  staples, 
actually  been  enlarged  by  some  50  per  cent." 
When  a  trained  economist  says  this,  it  can  be 
fancied  what  has  been  said  by  men  feeling  as 
the  Greenback  Party  felt  on  this  question.  It 
was  of  not  much  use  for  Mr.  McCulloch  to  talk 
to  them  of  how  the  debt  had  been  paid  off,  when 
they  held  that  he  and  his  fellow-secretaries  had 
made  the  debt  that  was  left  worth  more  than 
the  original  debt,  and  had,  moreover,  in  propor- 
tional measure,  increased  the  debt  of  every  farm- 
er who  had  a  mortgage  on  his  farm,  or  every 
poor  man  who  owed  any  money.  It  is  perfectly 
true  that  by  no  means  all  this  appreciation  of 
the  value  of  the  debt  could  be  laid  to  the  con- 
traction of  the  currency.  Undoubtedly  a  large 
part  must  be  laid  to  invention,  skill,  and  the 
general  progress  in  lowering  the  expense  of  pro- 
duction, so  that  a  dollar  can  now  go  twice  as 
far  in  many  ways  as  in  war  times,  and  in  this 
progress  all  classes  have  had  part.  (See  MONO- 
METALLISM.) Nevertheless,  to  men  who  held 
that  when  they  borrowed  a  dollar  it  represented 
a  certain  possibility  of  purchase  in  the  market, 
they  ought  in  all  equity  to  be  asked  only  to  re- 
turn the  same  possibility  of  purchase,  the  same 
real  value,  and  that,  therefore,  if  when  they 
came  to  return  the  dollar,  it  had  appreciated;, 
no  matter  how,  enough  to  be  worth  the  price  it 
was  when  they  borrowed  it,  they  ought  in  equity 
only  to  be  asked  to  return  50  cents.  To  such 
people,  maddened  by  what  at  least  looked  like 
a  favoring  of  the  bondholding  class,  we  can 
readily  see  what  paying  debts  which  had  doubled 
in  value  came  to  mean,  and  how  bitterly  they 
denounced  any  approach  to  contraction  of  the 
currency,  which  would  still  more  increase  the 
value  of  their  debts  (for  a  discussion  of  this 
position,  see  CONTRACTION  AND  EXPANSION  OF 
CURRENCY)  ;  but  a  realization  of  this  thought  is 
necessary  to  understand  the  bitterness  of  feel- 
ing and  expression  which  characterized  many 
of  the  Greenback  leaders  and  to-day  character- 
izes many  of  their  successors,  the  leaders  in  the 
People's  Party,  robbed,  as  they  believe,  by  the 
influence  upon  Congress  of  the  bondholders. 

And  early  in  the  seventies  came  one  more  ele- 
ment to  fan  their  wrath — an  element  which  has 
developed  to-day  into  a  question  of  prime  im- 
portance to  currency,  and  must  therefore  be 

well    understood.     After   the  sus- 

Silver       pension  of  specie  payment  during 

Suspension.  the  war,  Congress  did  not  much 

concern    itself    with    the  coinage. 

There  were  minor  changes  in  minor 
coins.  In  1867  a  conference  held  in  Paris,  at 
which  19  nations  were  represented,  proposed  a 
single  gold  standard  and  coins  of  equal  weight 


and  fineness.  The  Senate  Finance  Committee 
strongly  favored  this ;  but  as  the  existing 
five-franc  gold  piece  was  to  be  the  unit,  it  would 
have  reduced  the  gold  dollar  in  this  country  3$ 
per  cent. ,  and  Congress  was  not  ready  for  this, 
it  would  have  reduced  the  public  debt  $90,000,- 
ooo,  and  private  debts  proportionally.  In  1870 
Mr.  Knox,  the  Deputy  Comptroller  of  the  Cur- 
rency, reported  to  Congress,  at  the  request  of 
the  Secretary  of  the  Treasury,  concerning  the 
mint  laws,  which  had  not  been  revised  since 
1837.  Among  other  things,  the  report  proposed 
to  discontinue  the  coinage  of  silver  dollars.  The 
-  reason  assigned  was  that  the  silver  dollar  was 
at  a  premium,  and  had  long  been  so,  and  had 
therefore  long  ceased  to  be  a  coin  of  circulation , 
being  bought  and  melted  by  manufacturers  of 
silverware.  According  to  Bolles's  Financial 
History,  vol.  iii.,  p.  378,  the  bill  proposed  by  the 
report  was  reported  by  the  Finance  Committee 
of  the  Senate,  discussed  two  days,  passed,  and 
sent  to  the  House,  where  it  was  exhaustively 
discussed  by  Mr.  Hooper  and  others,  Mr.  Kel- 
ley,  chairman  of  the  Coinage  Committee,  favor- 
ing, and  saying  that  the  bill  had  received  as  care- 
ful attention  as  he  had  ever  known  a  committee 
to  bestow  on  any  measure,  having  gone  over 
the  bill  not  only  section  by  section,  but  line 
upon  line  and  word  upon  word.  According  to 
Upton's  Money  in  Politics,  p.  20,  the  report  of 
the  deputy  comptroller  distinctly  stated  that  the 
bill  accompanying  it  proposed  to  discontinue 
the  issue  of  the  silver  dollar  pieces  ;  the  House 
considered  it  during  five  sessions  ;  the  bill  was 
printed  13  times  by  order  of  Congress  and  once 
by  the  commissioners  revising  the  statutes.  It 
passed  the  House  by  a  vote  of  no  to  13.  Yet 
later,  as  we  shall  see,  congressmen  asserted  that 
they  had  not  known  that  the  bill  contained  this 
measure,  and  that  it  had  been  passed  surrepti- 
tiously. They  asserted  that  the  act  was  nomi- 
nally one  for  the  codification  of  the  coinage  laws, 
and  new  legislation  was  not  supposed  to  be  in- 
troduced into  a  codifying  act  unless  the  atten- 
tion of  both  houses  was  called  to  the  change. 
The  act  was  exceedingly  long,  and  no  congress- 
man could  be  held  responsible  for  not  having 
noticed  the  few  lines  first  omitted  and  then  in- 
serted by  which  silver  was  demonetized.  The 
debate  which  took  place  in  the  Senate  was  upon 
the  minor  point  whether  the  mints  should  charge 
three  tenths  of  one  per  cent,  for  coinage,  or  coin 
free.  Mr.  Kelley,  of  Pennsylvania,  who  intro- 
duced the  codifying  act  into  the  House,  express- 
ly stated  that  the  principal  change  proposed  re- 
lated to  certain  officials  of  the  mint.  In  1876, 
when  the  knowledge  of  the  great  change  that 
had  been  made,  and  its  consequences,  had  be- 
come apparent,  Mr.  Kelley  introduced  the  bill 
to  restore  silver  to  its  old  place  in  the  coinage, 
and  permit  greenbacks  to  be  payable  in  the  gold 
or  silver  which  they  promised.  Not  only  a  great 
many  members  of  Congress  stated  that  they 
voted  for  the  codifying  act,  not  knowing  the 
great  change  it  made,  but  so  careful  a  political 
economist  as  President  Walker  has  written 
that  the  bill  had  been  a  law  for  several  months 
before  he  ever  heard  of  this  feature  in  it.  The 
debate  shows  that  a  few  members  of  Congress 
did  know  that  the  single  standard  was  estab- 
lished, but  most  of  them  at  least  attached  no 


Currency. 


448 


Currency. 


importance  to  it,  for  the  country  was  then  using 
neither  gold  nor  silver,  and  the  bullion  value  of 
a  silver  dollar  had  for  many  years  been  $1.03  in 
gold,  the  price  offered  by  the  French  mints. 
Only  a  few  experts  were  aware  of  the  legisla- 
tion against  silver  which  had  just  been  entered 
upon  by  European  nations,  and  which  has  re- 
sulted in  making  the  debts  of  Christendom  pay- 
able in  gold  alone.  The  codifying  act  was 
drafted  by  experts,  and  upon  them  the  responsi- 
bility for  its  wording  rests,  tho  it  does  not  neces- 
sarily follow  that  they  were  guilty  of  a  plot,  since 
few  knew  how  it  would  result. 

But  the  results  at  least  were  momentous,  and  . 
Greenbackers  and  believers  in  free  silver  gen- 
erally believe  it  to  have  been  a  part  of  a  world- 
wide plot  to  demonetize  silver,  con- 
tract currency,  and  so  enhance  the 
Conspiracy  value  of  the  gold  loaned  by  the 
Charged,  gold  kings  and  capitalists  in  Amer- 
ica, and  especially  in  England  (see 
BIMETALLISM  ;  CONTRACTION),  and 
' '  traitor' '  is  but  among  the  milder  names  they 
have  heaped  upon  Senator  Sherman  and  others, 
for,  as  they  believe,  selling  themselves  to  the 
gold  interest.  For  hardly  had  the  bill  been  en- 
acted when  silver  began  to  fall  as  compared 
with  gold.  The  amount  of  silver  in  the  dollar 
could  be  bought  now  for  only  98  cents  in  gold  ; 
in  1874  for  96  cents  ;  in  1876  for  97^  cents  ;  in 
1877  for  90  cents.  An  agitation  to  remonetize 
silver  was  started.  Mr.  Reagan  in  1875  intro- 
duced a  bill  into  the  House  to  make  silver  dol- 
lars legal  tender  to  the  amount  of  $50.  The 
Senate  amended  the  bill,  and  authorized  the 
coinage  of  a  silver  dollar  nine-tenths  fine  and 
weighing  4i2T8ff  grains  troy  to  be  legal  tender  to 
the  amount  of  $20  in  one  payment,  except  for 
duties  and  interest  on  the  public  debt.  Each 
House  passed  the  amendment.  The  silver  ex- 
citement now  became  universal.  The  statement 
was  constantly  made  that  silver  had  been  de- 
monetized by  stealthy  means.  The  silver  pro- 
ducers wanted  silver  remonetized,  and  were 
joined  by  the  growing  number  of  those  who 
wanted  the  currency  expanded,  and  who,  hav- 
ing failed  in  securing  the  payment  of  the  bond- 
ed debt  in  paper,  now  wanted  it  paid  in  silver. 
It  became  a  theme  of  general  discussion  in  the 
United  States.  It  was  a  prolific  source  of  debate 
in  the  Forty-fourth  Congress  ;  and  on  August 
15,  1876,  the  Senate  initiated  a  joint  resolution 
for  the  appointment  of  a  joint  commission  of 
three  senators,  three  members  of  the  House, 
with  experts,  not  exceeding  three,  to  be  select- 
ed by  the  former,  whose  duty  was  to  inquire  : 

"  First,  into  the  change  which  has  taken  place  in  the 
relative  value  of  gold  and  silver ;  the  causes  thereof, 
whether  permanent  or  otherwise  ;  the  effects  thereof, 
upon  trade,  commerce,  finance,  and  the  productive  in- 
terests of  the  country,  and  upon  the  standard  of  value 
in  this  and  foreign  countries ;  second,  into  the  policy 
of  the  restoration  of  the  double  standard  in  this  coun- 
try ;  and,  if  restored,  what  the  legal  relation  between 
the  two  coins,  silver  and  gold,  should  be  ; 
third,     into    the     policy  of   continuing 
Monetary    legal-tender  notes  concurrently  with  the 
r«™      »;««  metallic  standards,  and  the  effects  there- 
in?,, a        o£  uPon  the  labor-  industries,  and  wealth 
Of  1876.       of  the  country ;    fourth,    into    the  best 
means  for  providing  for  facilitating  the 
resumption  of  specie  payments." 
The  commission  as  organized  consisted  of  Senators 
John  P.  Jones,  Lewis  V.  Bogy,  and  George  S.  Boutwell ; 
Randall  L.  Gibson,  George  Willard,   and  Richard  P. 


Bland,  of  the  House  of  Representatives;  William  S. 
Groesbeck,  of  Ohio,  and  Professor  Francis  Bowen,  of 
Massachusetts,  with  George  M.  Weston,  of  Maine,  sec- 
retary. Circulars  were  issued  by  the  commission  to 
men  of  eminence  in  monetary  studies,  to  authors,  bank- 
ers, and  business  men  in  the  United  States  and  Eu- 
rope. The  chambers  of  commerce  in  the  cities  were 
invited  to  furnish,  and  did  furnish,  lists  of  persons 
most  competent  to  give  information.  The  United 
States  representatives  in  foreign  countries  were  re- 
quired to  aid  in  the  work.  The  commission  entered 
upon  its  duties  with  energy,  collected  vast  stores  of 
information,  and  were  aided  by  the  most  eminent 
political  economists  and  financial  writers  of  all  schools, 
who  were  glad  to  have  such  an  opportunity  for  the 
elucidation  and  comparison  of  their  views.  The  main 
substance  of  the  report  was  submitted  and  ordered  to 
be  printed  March  2,  1877.  The  conclusions  of  the  com- 
mission were  unanimous. 

The  conclusions  of  the  majority  of  the  committee  on 
the  first  questions  submitted  were  :  That  the  recent 
production  of  silver  relatively  to  gold  has  not  been 
greater  than  formerly  ;  that  the  (then)  recent  fall  in 
the  price  of  silver  was  not  caused  by  any  recent  large 
production,  but  mainly  by  the  concurrent  demonetiza- 
tion of  silver  in  Germany,  the  United  States,  and  the 
Scandinavian  States,  the  closure  of  the  mints  of  Europe 
to  its  coinage,  the  temporary  diminution  of  the  Asiatic 
demand,  the  exaggeration  of  the  actual  and  prospec- 
tive yield  of  the  Nevada  silver-mines,  and  a  prevailing 
idea  that  the  efforts  of  holders  of  Government  securi- 
ties would  bring  about  its  demonetization  ;  that  gold 
is  more  fitful  in  production  than  silver ;  that  the  av- 
erage production  of  both  is  more  steady  than  of  either 
one  ;  ''that  to  annihilate  the  monetary  function  of  one 
must  greatly  increase  the  purchasing 
power  of  the  other,  and  greatly  reduce 
prices  ;"  that  "  silver  to  the  amount  of  Eeport. 
$3,000,000,000  in  coin,  the  accumulation 
of  50  centuries,  is  so  worked  into  the 
web  and  woof  of  the  world's  commerce  that  it  cannot 
be  discarded  without  entailing  the  most  serious,  con- 
sequences, social,  industrial,  political,  and  commer- 
cial ;"  that  "the  evil  is  enormously  aggravated  by  se- 
lecting gold  as  the  metal  to  be  retained  and  silver  as 
the  metal  to  be  rejected  ;"  that  "  the  exchanges  of  the 
world,  and  especially  of  this  country,  are  continually 
and  largely  increasing,  while  the  supplies  of  both  the 
precious  metals,  taken  together,  if  not  diminishing  are 
at  least  stationary,  and  the  supply  of  gold,  taken  by 
itself,  is  falling  off  ;  and  that  to  submit  the  vast  and 
increasing  exchanges  of  this  country  and  the  world  to 
be  measured  by  a  metal  never  to  be  depended  on  in  its 
supply,  and  now  actually  diminishing  in  its  supply, 
would  make  crisis  chronic,  and  business  paralysis 
perpetual."  Covering  the  second  question  the  com- 
mission recommend  the  restoration  of  the  double 
standard  and  the  unrestricted  coinage  of  both  metals. 
The  report  on  the  third  question  for  solution  refers  to 
the  answer  to  the  fourth — viz.,  "  the  best  means  for  pro- 
viding for  facilitating  the  resumption  of  specie  pay- 
ments." To  this  question  the  report  answers,  that 
"  the  remonetization  of  silver  is  a  measure  essential 
to  specie  payments,  and  may  make  such  payments 
practicable."  The  commission  believe  "that  the  re- 
rnonetization  of  silver  in  this  country  will  have  a  pow- 
erful influence  in  preventing,  and  probably  will  pre- 
vent, the  demonetization  of  silver  in  France  and  other 
European  countries ;"  that  remoneti/ation  by  the 
United  States,  even  without  change  in  legislation  else- 
where, will  draw  to  us  silver  from  other  countries 
•while  it  is  cheap,  in  exchange  for  what  we  have  to 
export;  and  that  this  country  will  have  the  benefit 
of  the  rise  which  the  committee  believe  will  take 
place  in  its  value  when  the  temporary  causes  of 
its  depression  have  passed.  The  report  concludes 
with  these  words  :  "  If  the  States  of  the  Latin  Union, 
or  other  countries  in  Europe,  abandon  the  double 
standard  after  we  readopt  it,  or  because  we  readopt  it, 
it  will  be  a  policy  on  their  part  through  which  great 
advantages  will  inure  to  us,  and  great  disasters  will 
befall  them.  It  would  inaugurate  in  the  United  States 
an  era  of  prosperity,  based  upon  solid  money,  ob- 
tained on  profitable  terms,  and  under  circumstances 
necessarily  stimulating  to  our  industry  and  com- 
merce." 

"Finally,  the  commission  believe  that  the  facts  that 
Germany  and  the  Scandinavian  States  have  adopted 
the  single  gold  standard,  and  that  some  other  Euro- 
pean nations  may  possibly  adopt  it,  instead  of  being 
reasons  for  perseverance  in  the  attempt  to  establish  it 
in  the  United  States,  are  precisely  the  facts  which 
make  such  an  attempt  entirely  impracticable  and  ruin- 
ous. If  the  nations  on  the  continent  of  Europe  had  the 


Currency. 


449 


Currency. 


double  standard,  a  gold  standard  would  be  possible 
here,  because,  in  that  condition,  they  would  freely  ex- 
change gold  for  silver.  It  was  that  condition  which 
enabled  England  to  resume  specie  payments  in  gold  in 
1821.  The  attainment  of  such  a  standard  becomes  dif- 
ficult precisely  in  proportion  to  the  number  and  im- 
portance of  the  countries  engaged  in  striving  after  it ; 
and  it  is  precisely  in  the  same  proportion  that  the 
ruinous  effects  of  striving  after  it  are  aggravated.  To 
propose  to  this  country  a  contest  for  a  gold  standard 
with  the  European  nations  is  to  propose  to  it  a  disas- 
trous race,  in  reducing  the  price  of  labor  and  com- 
modities, in  aggravating  the  burdens  of  debt,  and  in 
the  diminution  and  concentration  of  wealth,  in  which 
all  the  contestants  will  suffer  immeasurably,  and  the 
victors  even  more  than  the  vanquished." 

Mr.  Boutwell  alone  made  a  minority  report  against 
remonetization  of  silver,  except  on  a  previously  agreed 
basis,  adopted  in  conjunction  with  European  nations. 
Professor  Francis  Bowen  expressed  his  dissent  from 
the  conclusions  of  the  majority  of  the  committee  at 
much  length  ;  and  while  he  argued  for  the  gold  basis 
alone,  he  finally  reported  in  favor  of  the  remonetiza- 
tion of  silver,  on  adding  to  the  quantity  of  pure  silver 
in  a  dollar  enough  to  make  its  bullion  value  equal  to 
the  then  value  of  gold  per  dollar,  and  also  recom- 
mended the  reduction  of  the  value  of  our  gold  coins, 
so  that  a  $5  piece  shall  be  the  equivalent  of  the 
English  pound  sterling.  Meanwhile  a  bill  had  been 
introduced  into  Congress  in  1876,  providing  for  the 
free  coinage  of  silver.  The  speeches  were  volumi- 
nous. The  bill  was  amended  limiting  the  maximum 
amount  to  $4,000,000  a  month,  with  a  minimum  of 
$2,000,000,  no  silver  to  be  coined  on  private  account. 
Upon  its  passage  President  Hayes  promptly  vetoed  it, 
but  it  was  passed  over  his  veto  by  both  houses  by  act 
of  February  28,  1878,  the  so-called  Bland  bill,  from  its 
author,  R.  P.  Bland,  of  Missouri.  The  excitement  and 
also  the  effort  to  obtain  international  bimetallism  in- 
duced Congress  to  insert  the  following:  "Section  2. 
That  immediately  after  the  passage  of  this  act,  the 
President  shall  invite  the  governments  of  the  countries 
•composing  the  Latin  Union,  so  called,  and  of  such 
other  European  nations  as  he  may  deem  advisable,  to 
join  the  United  States  in  a  conference  to  adopt  a  com- 
mon ratio  between  gold  and  silver,  for  the  purpose  of 
establishing,  internationally,  the  use  of  bimetallic 
money,  and  securing  fixity  of  relative  value  between 
those  metals ;  such  conference  to  be  held  at  such 
place  in  Europe  or  the  United  States,  at  such  time 
within  six  months,  as  may  be  mutually  agreed  upon 
by  the  executives  of  the  governments  joining  in 
the  same,  whenever  the  governments  so  invited,  or 
any  three  of  them,  shall  signify  their  willingness  to 
unite  in  the  same."  The  section  further  provides  that 
the  President  shall  appoint  three  commissioners  to  the 
•  conference.  Ex-Governor  Reuben  E.  Fenton,  of  New 
York,  William  S.  Groesbeck,  of  Ohio,  and  Professor 
Francis  A.  Walker  were  appointed.  Subsequently 
the  President  was  authorized  to  add  to  the  list  of  dele- 
gates Mr.  S.  Dana  Horton,  of  Ohio,  an  accomplished 
monetary  student  and  author.  Paris  was  chosen  as 
the  place  of  conference.  Austria-Hungarv,  Belgium, 
France,  Great  Britain,  Greece,  Italy,  the  Netherlands, 
Russia,  Sweden-Norway,  and  Switzerland  sent  their 
ablest  representatives.  The  German  government  alone 
declined  to  participate  in  the  conference,  tho  a  second 
time  invited. 

The  conference  opened  its  session  August  10,  1878. 
Leon  Say,  Minister  of  Finance  in  France  under  the 
presidencies  of  Thiers  and  MacMahon,  was  made  presi- 
dent of  the  conference,  and  Mr.  Fenton,  vice-president. 
In  his  opening  address  to  the  conference,  Mr.  Say 
stated  the  reasons  which  had  induced  the  five  States 
composing  the  Latin  Union,  "  while  preserving  to  sil- 
ver its  legal-tender  quality,  to  restrict  its  coinage 
within  narrow  limits,  and,  within  the  past  year,  to 
suspend  it  entirely."  These  reasons  were  the  adop- 
tion by  Germany  of  the  single  standard  of  gold,  and 
the  great  production  of  the  American  silver  mines. 
While  Germany  continued  to  gather  and  sell  her  sil- 
ver, he  thought  it  would  be  difficult  to  determine  the 
value  at  which  silver  might  be  rated  when  that  dis- 
turbing element  in  its  present  value  was  out  of  the 
•way.  The  Latin  Union,  therefore,  while  glad  to  join  in 
the  American  efforts  to  fix  a  ratio  of  value  between 
silver  and  gold,  "  as  a  measure  of  prudence  has  re- 
mained in  an  expectant  attitude."  Mr.  Fenton  then 
presented  the  call  to  the  conference  in  the  words  of  the 
act  of  Congress.  After  a  lengthy  discussion,  continu- 
ing through  six  sessions,  marked  on  the  whole  by  the 
position  in  which  France  found  herself,  of  approving 
the  double  standard  in  theory  but  not  able  as  yet  to 
enter  into  any  agreement  in  regard  to  it  in  practice 


(little  Switzerland  alone  unequivocally  advocating  the 
single  gold  standard  both  in  theory  and  practice),  the 
European  representatives  gave  the  American  repre- 
sentatives the  following  answer : 

"  i.  That  it  is  necessary  to  maintain  in  the  world  the 
monetary  functions  of  silver,  as  well  as  those  of  gold, 
but  that  the  selection  for  use  of  one  or  the  other  of  the 
two  metals,  or  of  both  simultaneously,  should  be  gov- 
erned by  the  special  position  of  each  State  or  group  of 
States. 

"  2.  That  the  question  of  the  restriction  of  the  coinage 
of  silver  should  equally  be  left  to  the  discretion  of  each 
State  or  group  of  States,  according  to  the  particular 
circumstances  in  which  they  may  find  themselves 
placed ;  and  the  more  so  in  that  the  disturbance  pro- 
duced during  the  recent  years  in  the  silver  market  has 
variously  affected  the  monetary  situation  of  the  sev- 
eral countries. 

"3.  That  the  differences  of  opinion  which  have  ap- 
peared, and  the  fact  that  even  some  of  the  States  which 
have  the  double  standard  find  it  impossible  to  enter 
into  a  mutual  engagement  with  regard  to  the  free  coin- 
age of  silver,  exclude  the  discussion  of  the  adoption  of 
a  common  ratio  between  the  two  metals." 

Messrs.  Rusconi  and  Baralis  of  Italy  at  the  seventh 
session  entered  a  protest  against  the  response  of  the 
majority  of  the  European  delegates  as  follows  : 

"  i.  That  by  the  adoption  of  the  formula  proposed, 
the  conference  does  not  respond  to  the  question  which 
was  put  to  it,  and  that  in  systematically  avoiding  to 
pronounce  itself  upon  the  possibility  or  impossibility  of 
a  fixed  relation,  to  be  established  by  way  of  interna- 
tional treaty,  between  coins  of  gold  and  silver,  it  leaves 
its  task  unfinished. 

"2.  That  since   the  French   law  established  such  a 
relation  (1785)  between  the  two  metals,  the  oscillations 
of  their  relative  value  had  been  without 
importance,  whatever  had  been  the  pro- 
duction of  the  mines.  Report  of  the 

"3.  That   consequently,   a  fortiori,  if  rnmmiaainn 
the  law  of  France  had  been  alone  able  to  Commission. 
accomplish  the  result,  then  on  the  day 
when  France,  England,  and  the  United 
States,  by   international   legislation,  should  agree  to 
establish  together    the   relation  of  value  of  the  two 
metals,  this  relation  would  be  established  upon  a  basis 
so  solid  as  to  become  unshakable." 

Mr.  Goschen,  on  the  part  of  England,  desired  it  to  be 
distinctly  understood  that  the  adhesion  of  himself  and 
colleagues  to  the  response  was  because  it  did  not  pro- 
nounce for  a  double  standard  ;  and  that  he  desired  with 
equal  distinction  "  to  combat  the  theory  of  the  econ- 
omists who  demand  the  universal  adoption  of  the  sin- 
gle gold  standard— a  measure  which,  in  my  view, 
might  be  the  cause  of  the  greatest  disasters."  Mr.  De 
Thoerner,  the  Russian  delegate,  expressed  a  decided 
adherence  to  the  single  standard  of  his  country— gold. 
Count  Von  Kuef  stein,  of  Austria,  said  that  "in  presence 
of  the  explanations  which  had  been  given,  from  which 
might  be  inferred  an  admission  of  the  impossibility  of 
an  international  arrangement  for  the  double  standard, 
he  felt  himself  obliged  to  declare  that  if  he  adhered  to 
the  formula  proposed  by  the  European  delegates,  it 
was  precisely  because  in  his  view  it  did  not  exclude 
the  idea  that  such  an  arrangement  was  possible." 

The  practical  work  of  the  conference  closed  with  the 
reading  of  the  following  rejoinder,  signed  by  the  four 
American  delegates,  to  the  response  of  the  European 
delegates : 

"The  representatives  of  the  United  States  regret 
that  they  cannot  entirely  concur  in  all  that  has  been 
submitted  to  them  by  a  majority  of  the  representatives 
of  European  States.  They  fully  concur  in  a  part  of  the 
first  proposition,  viz.,  that  '  it  is  necessary  to  maintain 
in  the  world  the  monetary  functions  of  silver,  as  well  as 
those  of  gold,'  and  they  desire  that  erelong  there  may 
be  adequate  cooperation  to  obtain  that  result.  They 
cannot  object  to  the  statement  that  'the  selection  for 
use  of  one  or  the  other  of  these  two  metals,  or  of  both 
simultaneously,  should  be  governed  by  the  special  po- 
sition of  each  State;'  but  if  it  be  necessary  to  maintain 
the  monetary  functions  of  both  metals,  as  previously 
declared,  they  respectfully  submit  that  special  positions 
of  States  may  become  of  but  secondary  importance. 

"  From  so  much  of  the  second  proposition  as  assigns 
as  a  special  reason  for  at  present  restricting  the  coin- 
age of  silver,  'that  the  disturbance  produced  during 
the  recent  years  in  the  silver  market  has  differently 
affected  the  monetary  situations  of  the  several  coun- 
tries,' they  respectfully  dissent,  believing  that  a  policy 
of  action  would  remove  the  disturbance  that  produced 
these  inequalities." 

The  report  of  this  monetary  conference,  prepared  by 
Mr.  S.  Dana  Horton,  secretary  of  the  American  dele- 


Currency. 


45° 


Currency. 


gation,  forpis  vol.  v.  of  the  executive  documents  of  the 
United  States,  printed  by  order  of  the  Senate  in  the 
third  session  of  the  XLVth  Congress,  1878-79.  In  addi- 
tion to  the  journal  of  the  proceedings  of  the  confer- 
ence, and  a  collection  of  the  monetary  tables  and  statis- 
tical tables  submitted  by  each  delegation,  it  contains  a 
large  variety  of  relevant  matter  of  English  and  Amer- 
ican legislation  on  money,  with  classic  treatises  and  re- 
ports on  monetary  questions.  Besides  these  it  repub- 
lishes  entire  the  proceedings  of  the  first  monetary 
conference  held  in  Paris,  June,  1867  ;  the  whole  forming 
a  volume  of  918  pages. 

In  the  United  States,  the  silver  agitation  went 
on.  The  act  of  1873  was  specially  unpopular  at 
the  West,  and  was  violently  assailed  as  well  as 
vigorously  defended,  and  numerous  resolutions 
were  introduced  into  the  Forty- fifth  Congress  to 
restore  the  silver  dollar.  Novem- 
ber 5,  1877,  Mr.  Bland  moved  to 
Act  of  1878.  suspend  the  rules  of  the  House  and 
pass  a  bill  providing  ' '  that  there 
shall  be  coined  at  the  several  mints 
of  the  United  States  silver  dollars  of  the  weight 
of  41 2|  grains  troy  of  standard  silver,  as  provid- 
ed in  the  act  of  January  18, 1837,  on  which  shall 
be  the  device  and  superscriptions  provided  by 
said  act ;  which  coins,  together  with  all  silver 
dollars  heretofore  coined  by  the  United  States 
of  like  weight  and  fineness,  shall  be  a  legal 
tender  at  their  nominal  value  for  all  debts  and 
dues  public  and  private,  except  where  otherwise 
provided  by  contract ;  and  any  owner  of  silver 
bullion  may  deposit  the  same  at  any  United 
States  coinage-mint  or  assay  office,  to  be  coined 
into  such  dollars,  for  his  benefit,  upon  the  same 
terms  and  conditions  as  gold  bullion  is  deposit- 
ed for  coinage  under  existing  laws.  All  acts 
and  parts  of  acts  inconsistent  with  the  provi- 
sions of  this  act  are  hereby  repealed." 

This  was  agreed  to  and  passed  by  a  vote  of  164  to 
34,  and  it  went  to  the  Senate.  Mr.  Allison  moved  in  the 
Senate  to  amend  by  striking  out  the  last  clause  com- 
mencing "  and  any  owner"  and  inserting  the  following  : 

"  And  the  Secretary  of  the  Treasury  is  authorized  and 
directed,  out  of  any  money  in  the  treasury  not  other- 
wise appropriated,  to  purchase,  from  time  to  time, 
silver  bullion,  at  the  market  price  thereof,  not  less  than 
$2,000,000  per  month,  nor  more  than  $4,000,000  per 
month,  and  cause  the  same  to  be  coined  monthly, 
as  fast  as  so  purchased,  into  such  dollars.  And  any 
gain  or  seigniorage  arising  from  this  coinage  shall  be 
acounted  for  and  paid  into  the  treasury,  as  provided 
under  existing  laws  relative  to  the  subsidiary  coinage  ; 
jbrovided,  that  the  amount  of  money  at  any  one  time 
invested  in  such  silver  bullion,  exclusive  of  such  re- 
sulting coin,  shall  not  exceed  $5,000,000." 

The  Bland  Bill  with  Allison's  amendment 
passed  the  Senate  February  15,  1878,  by  a  vote 
of  49  to  22.  The  bill  went  back  to  the  House 
for  concurrence  February  21,  1878,  when  it 
passed  by  a  vote  of  203  to  72. 

President  Hayes  vetoed  the  bill  February  28, 
and  in  the  same  day  it  was  passed  over  his  veto 
by  a  vote  of  196  to  73  in  the  House  and  46  to  19 
in  the  Senate. 

June  9,  1879,  an  act  was  passed  raising  the 
limit  of  legal  tender  for  subsidiary  silver  coins 
to  $10,  and  also  providing  for  their  redemption 
in  full  legal-tender  money. 

In  the  Forty-ninth  Congress  a  proviso  was 
attached  to  the  sundry  civil  appropriation  bill 
authorizing  the  issue  of  one,  two,  and  five  dol- 
lar silver  certificates.  This  provision  has  oper- 
ated to  remove  in  a  measure  the  objections  to 
silver  where  large  sums  are  required  in  small 
denominations,  as  in  pay-rolls  on  railroads  and 
other  like  operations. 


The  year  1881,  however,  saw  a  renewed  mone- 
tary agitation,  when  France  and  the  United 
States  jointly  issued  a  call  to  a  monetary  confer- 
ence. It  met  in  Paris  on  April  19,  14  govern- 
ments being  represented  at  the  opening,  and 
delegates  from  Great  Britain,  India,  and  Can- 
ada being  present  a  part  of  the  time.  The 
United  States  representatives  were  William  M. 
Evarts,  Allen  G.  Thurman,  Timothy  O.  Howe, 
and  S.  Dana  Horton.  This  conference,  which 
continued  its  sessions  with  some  breaks  for 
nearly  two  months,  indicated  a  still  great  ap- 
proval of  the  theory  of  bimetallism,  but  still 
could  come  to  no  agreement  or  line  of  action, 
England  and  Germany  being  still  unwilling  to 
act.  The  United  States,  therefore,  were  still 
left  to  act  alone.  No  change,  however,  was 
made  in  our  currency,  these  years  being  marked 
by  large  decreases  in  the  public  debt  and  a  dis- 
cussion of  what  to  do  with  the  "  surplus"  in  the 
treasury.  On  July  12,  1882,  an  act  was  passed 
providing  for  the  extension  of  the  charters  of 
the  national  banks,  the  running  out  of  whose 
charters  had  created  considerable  discussion. 

The  year  1883,  however,  was  marked  by  finan- 
cial depression  and  many  failures,  caused  part- 
ly by  poor  crops  and  overspeculation,  and  fell 
particularly  on  the  iron  trade.  Yet  there  was  no 
panic  till  May,  1884,  when  it  fell  in  force,  altho 
in  speculative  rather  than  in  commercial  circles. 
In  1885  there  was  a  general  improvement,  yet 
the  Secretary  of  the  Treasury  and  the  President 
alike  in  their  annual  messages  recommended 
the  repeal  of  the  silver  bill  of  1878  ;  but  Con- 
gress declined  to  act,  and  the  next  year  like- 
wise, altho  it  also  declined  to  pass  a  free  silver 
bill.  In  1887,  a  year  of  prosperity,  there  was 
still  more  discussion  of  the  "  surplus"  in  the 
treasury,  and  again  an  effort  to  repeal  the  sil- 
ver bill  of  1878,  but  still  Congress  refused.  In 
1888  the  revenue  of  the  United  States  was  over 
$1,000,000  a  day.  The  circulation 
of  the  national  banks  was,  however, 
contracting,  and  Congress  could  Panic 
still  not  be  prevailed  upon  to  repeal  of  1890. 
the  silver  law.  In  1890  the  failure 
of  several  London  houses,  and 
notably  Baring  Brothers,  owing  mainly  to  a  crisis 
in  the  Argentine  Republic,  was  to  some  extent 
followed  by  a  stringency  in  the  market  here, 
and  by  the  now  famous  Sherman  Act  of  July 
14,  1890,  the  treasury  was  directed  to  purchase 
4,500,000  ounces  of  silver,  or  so  much  as  might 
be  offered  at  the  market  price,  not  to  exceed  $i 
for  3713-  grains  of  pure  silver,  and  to  issue  in 
payment  therefor  treasury  notes  to  be  a  legal 
tender  in  payment  of  all  debts,  public  and  pri- 
vate, except  where  otherwise  expressly  stipu- 
lated in  the  contract,  and  when  held  by  a  na- 
tional bank  to  be  counted  as  a  part  of  its  re- 
serve. The  act  further  declared  that  the  Secre- 
tary of  the  Treasury  should  redeem  such  notes 
upon  their  presentation  in  gold  or  silver  coin  at 
his  discretion,  and  that  the  "established  policy  of 
the  United  States  was  to  maintain  the  two 
metals  on  a  parity  with  each  upon  the  existing 
legal  ratio,  or  such  ratio  as  might  be  provided 
by  law.  The  act  was  a  compromise,  but  the 
effect  was  to  put  into  circulation  every  month 
about  $6,000,000  in  the  certificates  authorized, 
and  so  its  issue  created  much  discussion,  it 


Currency. 


Currency. 


finally  passing  in  the  House  by  a  vote  of  112  to 
90,  and  in  the  Senate  by  39  to  26. 

We  now  come  to  the  critical  year  of  1893. 
Early  in  the  year  gold  began  to  go  to  Europe, 
caused  mainly  by  the  failures  of  the  Baring 
Brothers  above  referred  to,  and  the 
resultant  stringency  in  the  London 
Panic  market,  which  continued  to  this 
of  1893.  time  ;  still  more  by  failures  of 
Australian  banks,  and  yet  more  by 
the  decision  of  Austria-Hungary 
and  Roumania  to  change  to  the  gold  standard. 
With  all  the  world  except  the  United  States 
thus  declaring  for  gold  (see  BIMETALLISM),  the 
friends  of  gold  in  the  United  States  began  to 
urge  that  we  could  not  continue  to  use  silver  in 
the  face  of  the  position  of  all  the  other  great 
powers.  They  declared  that  all  the  gold  would 
go  to  these  other  nations,  and  the  United  States 
become  a  silver  nation,  and  silver  depreciate, 
and  give  us  all  the  results  of  a  depreciated  cur- 
rency. They  therefore  agitated  for  the  repeal 
of  the  Sherman  bill  of  1890.  It  is  claimed,  too, 
that  in  order  to  force  a  slight  pinch  in  the  mar- 
ket, and  so  induce  people  to  feel  that  something 
was  wrong,  and  therefore  demand  the  repeal  of 
the  Sherman  act,  some  of  the  banks  began  to 
decrease  their  circulation  and  decline  credit.  If 
this  is  the  case,  they  little  knew  what  they  were 
bringing  upon  themselves.  Credit  was  decreas- 
ing, failures  beginning,  silver  falling,  when 
suddenly  came  the  news  (June  26)  that  the  Ind- 
ian Government  had  decided  to  stop  the  free 
coinage  of  silver.  Coming  upon  the  other 
above-mentioned  causes,  it  created  at  once  a 
crisis.  The  day  after  the  news,  silver  experi- 
enced a  heavy  drop,  and  silver  mines  in  Colo- 
rado began  to  close.  Men  were  discharged  all 
over  the  country.  Anxiety  was  everywhere. 
Silver  conventions  were  held  in  Denver,  July 
ii,  and  Chicago,  August  8.  Men  and  women 
began  to  draw  their  money  from  the  banks,  and 
to  hoard  what  they  could.  There  came  a  marked 
money  famine.  Banks  really  solvent  were  com- 
pelled to  close  because  they  could  not  get  ready 
currency.  Manufacturers  with  abundant  credit 
closed  because  they  could  not  get  currency  to 
pay  their  help.  Business  was  prostrated,  and 
millions  lost.  The  newspapers  industriously 
circulated  the  opinion  that  the  panic  was  due  to 
hoarding  of  men  and  withdrawal  of  credit,  from 
lack  of  "  confidence,"  and  fear  that  the  United 
States  would  have  a  depreciated  silver  cur- 
rency, and  argued,  therefore,  that  the  Sherman 
Bill  must  be  repealed  and  the  United  States, 
with  the  rest  of  the  world,  declare  for  gold. 
Mr.  Cleveland  was  induced  to  call  an  extra  ses- 
sion of  Congress  and  urge  repeal.  The  account 
of  the  ensuing  struggle,  together  with  the  ac- 
count of  the  bond  issues  of  the  last  two  years, 
we  abridge  from  the  reliable  record  of  events 
printed  in  the  Political  Science  Quarterly. 
According  to  this  authority,  Congress  met  Au- 
gust 8.  The  silver  men,  without  reference  to 
party  lines,  took  an  attitude  of  energetic  resist- 
ance to  any  project  for  unconditional  repeal. 
On  August  ii  a  bill  was  introduced  by  Mr.  Wil- 
son, of  West  Virginia,  repealing  the  purchase 
clause,  but  renewing  the  pledge  to  maintain  the 
parity  of  gold  and  silver  coin  at  the  existing  or 
some  other  ratio.  At  the  same  time  an  order  of 


procedure  was  adopted,  providing  for  a  debate 
of  14  days,  to  be  followed  immediately  by 
voting.  This  program  was  carried  out,  and  the 
votes  were  taken  August  28.  All  the  amend- 
ments were  rejected,  those  proposing  free  coin- 
age by  majorities  ranging  from  140  on  the  17:1 
ratio  to  100  on  the  20  :  i,  and  that  reviving  the 
Bland  Act  by  a  majority  of  77.  The  bill  was 
then  passed  by  a  vote  of  "240  to  no.  In'the  Sen- 
ate much  more  serious  difficulty  arose  in  seek- 
ing to  carry  out  the  policy  recommended  by 
President  Cleveland.  After  much  caucusing, 
with  unsatisfactory  results,  Senator  Voorhees, 
Chairman  of  the  Finance  Committee,  at  last  in- 
troduced a  repeal  bill,  August  29,  with  a  "  par- 
ity" pledge  in  more  verbose  form  than  that  of 
the  Wilson  Bill,  and  with  a  recommendation  of 
bimetallist  policy  for  the  Government.  The  sil- 
ver men  immediately  submitted  a 
substitute  proposing  free  coinage  of 
silver  at  the  ratio  of  20  :  i.  Vari-  Sherman 
ous  plans  were  suggested  for  a  com-  Bill 
promise  between  unconditional  re-  Repealed, 
peal  and  free  coinage,  but  the  atti- 
tude of  the  administration  was 
steadily  hostile  to  any  such  idea.  On  the  other 
hand,  suggestions  as  to  the  introduction  of  some 
form  of  closure  in  the  Senate  met  little  favor. 
On  October  n,  when  it  had  become  pretty  clear 
that  there  was  a  majority  for  unconditional  re- 
peal, Mr.  Voorhees  asked  for  a  continuous  ses- 
sion till  a  vote  should  be  taken,  but  after  a  ses- 
sion of  nearly  40  hours,  occupied  by  speeches 
by  the  silver  men  and  calls  of  the  House,  a 
quorum  could  no  longer  be  obtained,  and  the 
Senate  adjourned  without  voting.  Attention 
now  became  concentrated  exclusively  upon 
the  possibility  of  either  compromise  or  closure. 
While  propositions  looking  to  the  latter  alter- 
native were  under  serious  and  heated  discus- 
sion, a  scheme  of  compromise  that  proposed 
making  the  date  of  repeal  12  or  18  months  in 
the  future  and  coining  in  the  interval  all  the  sil- 
ver purchased,  was  accepted  by  the  silver  Demo- 
crats, and  seemed  likely  to  secure  enough  sup- 
port to  unite  the  majority  party,  when  the 
authoritative  announcement  that  the  President 
did  not  approve  the  scheme  turned  the  current, 
and  the  project  failed.  Thereupon  the  Demo- 
cratic silver  senators  reluctantly  gave  up  the 
struggle,  October  23,  and  the  remainder  of  the 
opposition  acknowledged  the  hopelessness  of 
preventing  a  vote.  The  final  speeches  of  the 
debate  were  made,  the  various  amendments 
were  voted  down  by  majorities  averaging  about 
10,  and  on  October  30  the  Voorhees  Bill,  hav- 
ing been  substituted  for  the  Wilson  Bill,  was 
passed  by  a  vote  of  43  to  32.  The  substitute 
was  accepted  by  the  House,  194  to  94,  and  be- 
came law  by  the  President's  approval,  Novem- 
ber i. 

The  inference,  however,  is  by  no  means  to  be 
made  that  all  the  voters  for  repeal  were  friendly 
to  gold  monometallism.  Many  of  them  felt  that 
the  Sherman  Bill,  in  itself  popular  with  neither 
monometallists  nor  bimetallists,  had  been  pre- 
sented to  the  country  as  the  cause  of  the  panic, 
so  that  its  repeal  would  at  least  tend  to  restore 
confidence,  when  Congress  could  then  go  on  to 
permanently  legislate  as  it  saw  wise.  Some 
felt,  too,  that  since  the  supply  of  gold  in  the 


Currency. 


452 


Currency. 


world  is  not  adequate  to  doing  the  world's  busi- 
ness, if  the  United  States,  with  the  rest  of  the 
world,  voted  to  adopt  a  gold  standard,  the  strain 
would  be  so  great  that  all  countries  would  be 
compelled  to  remonetize  silver,  so  that  this  would 
be  the  quickest  way  to  reach  international  bi- 
metallism. Thus  the  vote  on  the  bill  was  by  no 
means  a  test  of  the  strength  of  monometallism. 
Nevertheless,  its  passage  has  been  bitterly  de- 
nounced by  the  believers  in  silver  and  an  ex- 
panded currency,  and  the  continued  depression 
through  the  country  they  laid  largely  to  its  pas- 
sage. 

The  marked  features  of  1894  and  1895  in  the 
history  of  the  currency  have  been  the  bond  is- 
sues of  the  Government  and  their  sale  to  private 
syndicates.  December  20,  1893,  the  Secretary 
of  the  Treasury,  in  his  report  to  Congress,  esti- 
mated that  the  year  ending  June  30,  1894,  would 
show  a  deficit  of  $28,000,000.  He  asked  author- 
ity, therefore,  to  issue  a  3  per  cent, 
bond,  redeemable  in  five  years,  and 
Bond  Issues,  recommended  that  the  denomina- 
tions be  low,  so  as  to  enlist  the  in- 
terest of  the  masses  of  the  people. 
Another  suggestion  for  meeting  the  emergency 
was  the  issue  of  a  3  per  cent,  one-year  bond,  to 
be  sold  or  paid  out  to  Government  creditors  at 
par.  Mr.  Carlisle  described  the  decrease  in  the 
gold  reserve  for  greenback  redemption,  and 
dwelt  upon  the  necessity  of  some  scheme  which 
should  enable  him  to  keep  up  that  reserve  as 
well  as  to  pay  the  current  expenses  of  the  Gov- 
ernment. While  endorsing  the  principles  of 
the  tariff  bill  pending  in  the  House  of  Repre- 
sentatives, he  thought  it  would  bring  a  revenue 
some  $50,000,000  less  than  what  would  be  neces- 
sary, and  to  meet  this  deficit  he  advocated  an 
increase  of  the  tax  on  distilled  spirits,  and  the 
imposition  of  new  taxes  on  cigars  and  cigarettes, 
cosmetics,  perfumeries,  legacies  and  successions, 
and  incomes  from  investments  in  corporate  se- 
curities. From  the  beginning  of  the  period 
under  review  the  condition  of  the  treasury, 
which  the  Secretary's  report  showed  to  be  so 
bad,  grew  worse  and  worse.  Expenditures  ran 
steadily  far  ahead  of  receipts,  and  the  balances 
on  hand,  both  of  gold  and  of  currency,  tended 
rapidly  to  extinction.  On  January  13  Secretary 
Carlisle  submitted  to  the  Finance  Committee  of 
the  Senate  a  statement  showing  that  the  excess 
of  expenditures  over  receipts  to  that  date  had 
reached  $43,000,000,  and  that  at  the  same  rate 
the  deficit  for  the  year  would  be  $78,000,000,  or 
nearly  three  times  what  he  had  estimated  in  his 
report  in  December.  The  gold  reserve  was 
down  to  $74,000,000,  and  the  Secretary  declared 
that  the  ordinary  expenses  of  the  Government 
would  soon  have  to  be  paid  wholly  out  of  that 
fund.  Unless  something  were  promptly  done 
by  Congress  to  authorize  the  issue  of  low-rate 
bonds,  he  announced  that  he  would  put  forth 
high-rate  bonds  under  the  power  granted  by  the 
Resumption  Act  of  1875.  No  steps  having  been 
taken  by  Congress,  on  January  17  the  Secretary 
announced  a  bond  issue  of  $50,000,000.  The 
bonds  were  to  be  redeemable  after  10  years,  and 
to  bear  5  per  cent,  interest,  payable  in  coin. 
No  bid  would  be  accepted  lower  than  117.223, 
the  equivalent  of  a  3  per  cent,  bond  at  par. 
The  treasury's  policy  was  immediately  antago- 


nized by  the  silver  party,  who  wanted  the  finan- 
cial emergency  tided  over  by  the  coinage  of  the 
seigniorage.     The  House  Judiciary  Committee 
adopted  a  resolution  denying  the  power  claimed 
by  the  Secretary  to  use  the  proceeds  of  the  bonds 
for  paying  the  current  expenses  of  the  Govern- 
ment, and  under  the  auspices  of  the  Knights  of 
Labor  a  suit  was  brought  for  an  injunction  to 
restrain  the  Secretary  from  issuing  the  bonds. 
Financiers  found  fault  with  the  method  of  the 
issue,  and  claimed  that  there  was  absolutely  no 
chance  for  profit  under  the  terms  imposed.     On 
the  last  day  of  the  term  allowed  for  bids,  how- 
ever, the  New  York  bankers,  after  several  con- 
sultations with  Mr.  Carlisle,  decided  to  sustain 
him,  and  subscribed  for  some  $45,000,000.     The 
subscription  terminated   February   i,  and  the 
total  amount  called  for  was  about  $58,000,000. 
The  treasury  gold  balance  meanwhile  had  run 
down  to  $65,500,000,  but  the  proceeds  of  the 
bonds  raised  it  for  a  while  above  the  $100,000,- 
ooo  mark.     Congress  had  a  lively  struggle  over 
the  Seigniorage  Bill.     This  measure,  introduced 
in  the  House  by  Mr.  Bland,  provided  for  the 
immediate  coinage  of  silver  in  the  treasury  to 
an  amount  equal  to  the  difference  between  the 
cost  and  the  coin  value  of  the  bullion  purchased 
under    the    Sherman    Act,    which     difference 
amounted  to  about  $55,000,000.     The  bill  pro- 
vided that  certificates  should  be  issued  on  this 
seigniorage  as  fast  as  coined,  or  faster,  if  the 
needs  of  the  treasury  required.     A  second  sec- 
tion directed  that,  after  the  seigniorage  was  dis- 
posed of,  the  remaining  bullion  in  the  treasury 
should  be  coined,  and  the  treasury  notes  based 
on  it  should  be  redeemed  and  replaced  by  silver 
certificates.     This  bill  was  passed  in  the  House, 
March  i,  by  168  to  129,  the  majority  consisting 
of  Democrats  and  Populists,  with  19  Southern 
and  Western  Republicans  ;  the  mi- 
nority, of    Republicans,    with    49 
Eastern  Democrats.    In  the  Senate  Seigniorage 
the  friends  of  the  bill  took  parlia-        Bill. 
mentary  advantage  of  a  little  care- 
lessness on  the  part  of  its  adversa- 
ries to  cut  off  the  long  debate  that  was  expected, 
and  on  March  15  the  bill  passed  by  44  to  31,  10 
Republicans  for  and  nine  Democrats  against  it. 
On  the  2gth  President  Cleveland  vetoed  the  bill. 
His  general  position  was  that  of  favor  to  the 
idea  of  coining  the  seigniorage,  but  of  hostility 
to  this  particular  bill,  and  especially  to  the  sec- 
ond section,  which  went  beyond  this  simple 
idea.     He  objected  to  the  phraseology  of  the 
bill,  which  was  in  places  ambiguous,  but  found 
a  wider  ground  for  his  veto  in  the  belief  that 
"  sound  finance  does  not  commend  a  further  in- 
fusion of  silver  into  our  currency  at  this  time, 
unaccompanied  by  further  adequate  provision 
for  the  maintenance  in  our  treasury  of  a  safe 
gold   reserve."     The   President  expressed,   in 
conclusion,  a  willingness  to  see  the  seigniorage 
coined,  if  at  the  same  time  provision  were  made 
for  a  low-rate,  short-term  bond  to  protect  the 
gold  reserve.     On  the  question  of  overriding 
this  veto,  the  vote  in  the  House,  April  4,  stood 
144  to  115,  not  two  thirds  in  the  affirmative. 

By  June  22  the  gold  reserve  was  down  to  $62,- 
000,000.  The  New  York  banks  at  this  time  came 
to  the  rescue,  and  supplied  the  export  demand. 
In  the  uncertainty  over  the  tariff,  custom  re- 


Currency* 


453 


Currency. 


ceipts  were  small  and  the  condition  of  the  treas- 
ury very  low.  With  some  variations,  however, 
the  gold  reserve  in  the  treasury  remained  at 
about  the  above  amount  till,  November  13,  sub- 
scriptions were  invited  for  $50,000,000,  in  10 
years  5  per  cent,  bonds,  and  the  whole  amount 
was  awarded  to  a  syndicate  at  117.077,  making 
the  rate  of  interest  2.878.  This  raised  the  gold 
reserve  to  $112,000,000,  but  this  immediately 
began  to  dwindle.  Secretary  Carlisle  intro- 
duced into  Congress  a  plan  for  reorganizing  the 
banking  system  so  as  to  protect  the  treasury 
against  demands  for  redemption  of  legal  tenders 
and  develop  State-bank  currency,  but  it  was 
defeated,  and  by  June  28  the  gold  reserve  was 
down  to  $52,463,173,  the  lowest  point  since  re- 
sumption in  1879.  The  same  day  President 
Cleveland  sent  an  energetic  message  to  Con- 
gress to  empower  the  issue  of  a  low-rate  bond. 
Congress  declined  to  act,  and  another  bond 
issue  followed,  February  7,  when  the  gold  re- 
serve was  only  $41,743,136.  A  contract  was 
made  with  the  banking  houses  of  Belmont, 
Rothschild,  and  Morgan,  for  the  purchase  of 
3,500,000  ounces  of  gold  to  be  paid  for  in  30 
years,  4  per  cent,  bonds,  on  terms  which  made 
the  price  about  104^  and  the  amount  $62,317,- 
500,  The  contract  provided  that  half  the  gold 
should  be  procured  abroad .  and  the 
bankers  were  given  an  option  on 
Bond  Issue  any  other  bonds  that  could  be  is- 
to  Morgan  sued  up  to  October  iv  and  on  their 
Syndicate,  part  they  undertook  "  to  exert  all 
financial  influence  and  [to]  make 
all  legitimate  efforts  to  protect  the 
treasury  of  the  U  nited  States  against  the  with- 
drawal of  gold"  during  the  same  period.  The 
4  per  cents,  were  soon  put  on  the  market,  and 
the  quotation  rose  at  once  to  118.  The  admin- 
istration was  violently  attacked,  tho  it  defended 
itself  by  showing  that  the  New  York  sub-treas- 
ury was  within  48  hours  of  suspension  of  gold 
payments,  and  that,  therefore,  the  treasury  was 
at  the  mercy  of  the  bankers.  Nevertheless  the 
sale  of  bonds  to  the  syndicate  was  widely  de- 
nounced, some  papers,  like  the  New  York 
IVorld,  demanding  an  investigation  of  the 
"  scandal"  by  Congress,  in  part  basing  its  sur- 
mises on  the  fact  that  Mr.  J.  P.  Morgan  was  a 
former  client  of  Mr.  Cleveland,  and  Mr.  Stetson, 
the  legal  adviser  of  Mr.  Morgan  and  the 
agent  of  the  syndicate  in  its  negotiations,  a 
partner  of  Mr.  Cleveland  when  Mr.  Cleveland 
practised  law  in  New  York  in  the  interval  be- 
tween his  first  and  second  administrations.  The 
IVorld  figured  the  profits  of  the  transaction  to 
the  syndicate  as  follows  : 

Face  of  loan $62,315,000 

Syndicate  premium  at  104.49 2,797,943 


United  States  gets $65,112,942 

Syndicate  profit  to  112  J^ 4,835,644 


What  inside  jobbers  pay $69,948,587 

Inside  jobbers' profit  to"n8 3,583,113 


The  public  pay  and  the  United  States  should 

have  received $72,531,700 

United  States  has  lost $8,418,757 

Compounded  as  a  sinking  fund  at  4  per  cent. 

for  30  years,  this  lost  profit  would  be...   .$27,628,676 
Or  nearly  one  half  the  original  loan. 


PROFIT  ANC   LOSS 

Belmont  &  Morgan  buy. $62,315,000  at  104.49    $65,112,943 
Belmont  &  Morgan  sell..  62,315,000  at  112.25      69,948,587 

Belmont  &  Morgan  profit... ,., $4,835,644 

Inside  jobbers  buy $62,315,000  at  112.25    $69,948,587 

Inside  jobbers  sell., 62,315,000  at  118.          73,531,700 

Inside  jobbers'  profit $3.583,113 

General  public  buy $62,315,000  at  118...     $73,351,700 

Loss  by  United  States  to  the  jobbers $8,418,757 

Commenting  editorially  upon  this  showing, 
the  IVorld  said  : 

'  The  bonds  are  worth  much  more  than  112^,  and  the 
public  was  not  allowed  to  buy  any  of  them,  tho 
subscriptions  were  eagerly  sent  in  for  10  times  the 
issue  at  a  much  higher  price  than  the  112*4  at  which 
the  syndicate  allotted  the  securities  to  its  members. 

"These  people  took  the  bonds  as  well  as  the  profit, 
and  they  will  now  proceed  to  take  another  heavy  profit 
by  marking  the  securities  up  to  their  actual  market 
value. 

"  Does  anybody  now  suppose  that  Mr.  Cleveland 
1  did  the  best  he  could '  when  he  secretly  sold  these 
bonds  to  his  former  client's  syndicate  at  10414?  With 
New  Yorkers  anxious  for  ten  times  the  issue,  and  with 
London  bankers  bidding,  as  they  did  yesterday,  for 
$600,000,000  at  4^5  points  above  the  syndicate  distribut- 
ing price,  can  there  be  any  doubt  that  the  issue  could 
have  been  sold  in  the  open  market  for  greatly  more 
than  was  got  for  it  ?  Was  there  any  necessity  or  ex- 
cuse for  a  secret  negotiation  with  speculators  to  dis- 
credit the  Government  and  give  millions  of  its  money 
away?  Is  there  any  possible  reason  for  supposing 
that  a  public  at  home  and  abroad  which  to-day  wants 
ten  or  twenty  times  the  issue  at  three  or  four  times  the 
premium  would  have  failed  to  take  this  $62,315,000  at  a 
much  better  price  than  that  at  which  it  was  sold,  if 
the  issue  had  been  offered  openly  in  the  market  ?" 

Whatever  were  the  profits,  the  syndicate  kept 
its  word  as  to  protecting  the  treasury  until  Oc- 
tober i,  when  it  dissolved.     Soon  after  the  re- 
serve again  began  to  diminish,  and  there  was 
talk  of  another  issue.     Congress  on  its  conven- 
ing refused  to  relieve  the  situation.     Mr.  Mor- 
gan formed  another  syndicate,  and  proposed  to 
buy  the  bonds  on  substantially  the  same  basis 
as  before.     Some  papers,  and  par- 
ticularly the    New    York    World, 
agitated  for  making  it  a  so-called     "  Public 
popular  loan,  and  finally  succeeded       Loan." 
in  forcing  this  from  the  Govern- 
ment.    Sealed  bids  were  put  in  up 
to  February  5,  and  it  was  found  that  the  whole 
issue  of  $200,000,000  was  more  than  subscribed 
for  at  an  average  of  about  in  instead  of  104,  as 
offered  by  the  syndicate,  saving  the  Government 
some  $7.000.000,  without  counting  interest  for  30 
years.     Such  a  result  justified  papers  like  the 
World  in  claiming  that  the  previous  sale  to  the 
syndicate  might  also  have  been  public. 
The  World  said  editorially  February  8, 1896  : 

"  The  Wall  Street  operator  who  buncoed  the  Govern- 
ment out  of  8  or  10  million  dollars  in  last  year's  bond 
deal,  and  had  his  arrangements  perfected  to  repeat 
the  grab  on  a  larger  scale  this  year,  and  would  have 
succeeded  but  for  the  IVorld,  is  certainly  not  above 
criticism.  Neither  are  the  remnants  of  Mr.  Carlisle's, 
reputation  sufficient  to  cover  a  transaction  of  this 
sort. 

"There  is  something  still  to  be  explained  in  this 
affair.  The  suggestion  of  a  Congressional  investiga- 
tion is  timely.  It  might  well  be  extended  to  coyer  the 
negotiations  to  which  Mr.  Morgan  was  invited  at 
Washington  by  some  member  of  the  administration, 
and  which  led  to  the  formation  of  his  famous  blind 
pool  to  take  $200,000,000  of  bonds  in  exchange  for  gold 
at  '  about  the  price '  of  the  sale  in  February,  1895.  The 
flood-light  of  publicity  is  needed  for  this  whole  trans- 


Currency. 


454 


Currency. 


Western  papers  bitterly  condemned  all  issue 
of  bonds  at  any  price.  Said  the  Chronicle  (Re- 
publican) of  San  Francisco  : 

"  It  matters  very  little  to  the  American  people 
whether  a  sale  of  bonds  nets  a  few  millions  more  or 
less.  The  thing  to  take  into  consideration  is  the  fact 
that  with  a  balance  of  nearly  $175,000,000  in  the  Treasury, 
the  President  deliberately  authorizes  the  creation  of 
another  $100,000,000  of  indebtedness  for  a  period  of  30 
years.  Between  the  date  of  their  emission  and  their 
final  redemption  these  bonds  will  call  for  the  payment 
of  $130,000,000  in  interest,  or  $20,000,000  more  than  the 
amount  borrowed.  And  for  what  purpose  are  these 
bonds  sold  ?  To  maintain  a  gold  reserve  for  the  re- 
demption of  United  States  currency — an  impossible 
feat  under  existing  circumstances.  The  futility  of 
such  attempts  has  already  been  exhibited.  It  has  been 
shown  that  the  gold,  as  rapidly  as  accumulated,  will 
be  drawn  out  of  the  Treasury  so  long  as  it  is  needed 
for  export  purposes." 

The  feeling  of  the  People's  Party  and  the  ex- 
tremer  free  silver  men  can  be  seen  in  a  compara- 
tively moderate  quotation  from  the  sensational 
utterance  of  Senator  Tillman,  of  South  Carolina, 
spoken  on  the  floor  of  the  Senate  January  29,.  1 896. 
He  charged  that  the  sound-money  cry  was  part 
of  "  a  damnable  scheme  of  robbery,"  having  in 
view,  first,  the  utter  destruction  of  silver  as  a 
money  metal ;  second,  the  increase  of  the  pub- 
lic debt  by  the  issue  of  gold  bonds  ;  and  third, 
the  surrender  to  corporations  of  the  power  to 
issue  all  paper  money  and  to  give  them  a  mo- 
nopoly of  that  function.  This,  he  averred,  in- 
cluded the  control  of  the  presidential  nomina- 
tions of  both  the  Democratic  and  Republican 
parties  in  1892  by  an  Eastern  gold  ring  and  the 
stock  gamblers  of  Wall  Street.  Accusing  the 
President  of  weakening  on  tariff  reform  for  a 


financial  platform  cunningly  drafted  to  force  a 
gold  standard  upon  the  people,  he  said  : 

"Rothschild  and  his  American  agents  graciously 
condescend  to  come  to  the  help  of  the  United  States 
Treasury  in  maintaining  the  gold  standard,  which  has 
wrought  the  ruin,  and  only  charges  a  small  commission 
of  10  million  or  so.  Great  God  !  that  this  proud  Gov- 
ernment, the  richest,  most  powerful  on  the  globe, 
should  have  been  brought  to  so  low  a  pass  that  a  Lon- 
don Jew  should  have  been  appointed  its  receiver,  and 
presume  to  patronize  us ! 

"  The  encroachments  of  the  Federal  Judiciary,  and 
the  supineness  and  venality— corruption,  I  say— of  the 
representative  branches  or  the  Government  are  causes 
of  deep  concern  to  all  thinking  and  patriotic  men.  We 
are  fast  drifting  into  government  by  injunction  in  the 
interest  of  monopolies  and  corporations,  and  the  Su- 
preme Court,  by  one  corrupt  vote,  annuls  an  act  of 
Congress  looking  to  the  taxation  of  the  rich." 

Even  the  World,  while  condemning  Mr.  Till- 
man's  speech,  said  : 

"  It  is  unfortunately  true  that  the  relations  between 
the  Executive  and  Wall  street  have  been  unduly  close; 
that  the  Treasury  has  been  managed  in  the  interests 
of  syndicates  ;  that  the  enforcement  of  the  anti-trust 
laws  has  been  turned  into  a  mockery  ;  that  the  attempt 
to  adjust  taxation  in  proportion  to  wealth  has  been  de- 
feated by  a  majority  decision  of  the  Supreme  Court ; 
that  the  influence  o'f  plutocracy  is  manifest  in  the  com- 
position of  the  Senate,  in  the  control  of  legislation,  and 
in  the  organization  of  national  parties,  conventions 
and  campaigns." 

For  most  recent  events,  see  SILVER  QUESTION. 

Following  are  the  tables  giving  various  statis- 
tics as  to  United  States  currency,  the  first  show- 
ing the  present  money  system  of  the  United 
States  as  compiled  by  G.  B.  Waldron,  of  the  New 
York  Voice,  from  official  sources.  It  shows  the 
kinds  of  money  in  use  in  the  treasury,  in  na- 
tional banks,  and  in  circulation  July  i,  1895  : 


Gold  Coin. 

Silver  Dollars. 

Subsidiary 
Silver  Coin. 

Minor  Coin. 

Gold 
Certificates. 

First  authorized  

April  2,  1792. 
25.8  grains  to 
dollar. 
.900 

Unlimited. 
No  restriction. 

$20 
IO 

5 
2.50 
Unlimited. 

For  all  public 
dues. 

For  gold  certifi- 
cates. 

April  2,  1792. 
412)$  grains. 

.000 

Amount  requir- 
ed   to  redeem 
Treasury 
notes. 
No  restriction. 

$i 

Unlimited      im- 
less  stipulated 
in  contract. 
For     all    public 
dues. 

For    silver    cer- 
tificates or 
smaller   silver 
coin. 

April  2,  1792. 
385.8  grains  to 
dollar. 
.900 

$50,000,000* 

No  restriction. 

50  cents. 
25  cents. 
10  cents. 

Not  to  exceed 

$IO. 

For    all    public 
dues     to     the 
amount  of  $10. 

For  minor  coin. 

In     "lawful 
m  o  n  e  v  "    in 
sums  of  $20  or 
anv     multiple 
the'reof. 

$761772.563 
16,552,845 
60,219,718 

5,834,241 

54.385*477 
$0.78 

April  2,  1792. 
5  c.  77.16  grains, 
i  c.  48  grains. 
5  c.-75<  copper, 
25)1  nickel, 
i  C.-95*  copper, 
5%  tin  and  zinc. 
Discretion  of 
Secretary      of 
the  Treasury. 

No  restriction  . 

5  cents, 
i  cent. 

Not  to  exceed  25 
cents. 

For    all     public 
dues     to     the 
amount    of   25 
cents. 

March  3,  1863. 

Weight                         

Issue  suspended 
when  gold  re- 
serve falls  be- 
low $100,000,000 

Depositors       of 
gold  coin  and 
bullion. 

$10,000        $100 

5,000         50 
1,000          20 

Not  a  tender. 

For    all     public 
dues. 

For     gold    coin 
and    other 
money. 

In  gold  coin. 

$48,460,959 
88,300 
48,381,569 

22,425,600 
25.955.969 

$o-37 

To  whom  first  issued*  

Legal  tender  

In     "lawful 
money"     in 
sums     of     not 
less  than  $20. 

July  i,  1805  : 
Total  coined  or  issued..  . 

$579,422,971 
09,147,914 
480,275,057 

117,476,837 
362,798,220 
$5.19 

$423,289,219 
371,306,057 
51,983,162 

7,248,059 
44,735,103 
$0.64 

Held  by  National  Banks 

Currency. 


455 


Currency. 


Silver 
|      Certificates. 

United  States 
Notes. 

Currency 
Certificates. 

Treasury  Notes 
of  1890. 

National 
Bank-Notes. 

First  authorized  

Feb.  28,  1878. 

Feb.  25,  1862. 

June  8,  1872. 

July  14,  1890. 

Feb.  25,  1863. 

Weight  

Fineness  

Limit  of  issue  

Silver  dollars  in 
Treasury. 

Depositors       oJ 
silver  dollars. 

$I,OOO            $IO 

5°o             5 

100                   2 

5°                   * 

Not  a  tender. 

For    all    public 
dues. 

For    silver    dol- 
lars and  frac- 
tional silver, 
[n  silver  dollars. 

$328,894,504 
9,162,752 
3J9>73i>752 

30,127,457 
289,604,295 
$4.14 

$346,681,0168 
No  restriction. 

$10,000       $20 

5,OOO               IO 

1,000            5 

500                   2 
IOO                   I 

5° 
Unlimited     un- 
less stipulated 
in  contract. 
For    all     public 
dues       except 
duties  on   im- 
ports   and   in- 
terest on  pub- 
lic debt. 
For  any  money 
except       gold 
certificates. 
In  coin  in  sums 
of  $50  and  over 
at     sub-treas- 
uries in    New 
York  and  San 
Francisco. 

$346,681,016 
81,571,560 
265,109,456 

123,185,172 
141,924,284 
$2.03 

United       States 
notes  in  Treas- 
ury. 
National  banks. 

$10,000 
5,000 

Not  a  tender. 
Not  receivable. 

For    United 
States  notes. 

In       United 
States  notes. 

$55,755.ooo 
350,000 
55,405,000 

45,330,70° 
10,075,000 
$0.14 

$152,584,417!! 

Depositors       of 
silver    bullion 
purchased    by 
Government. 

$1,000              $10 

loo            5 

50                    2 

20               I 

Unlimited      un- 
less stipulated 
in  contract. 
For    all     public 
dues. 

For  any  money 
except       gold 
certificates. 
In  '"coin." 

$146,088,400 
30,109,692 
"5,978,708 

9o)(     of     United 
States  bonds. 

National  banks'! 

$1,000              $10 

500              5 

IOO                    2 
50                     I 
20 

Not  a  tender. 

For    all    public 
dues       except 
duties  on    im- 
ports  and    in- 
terest on  pub- 
lic debt. 
For   silver    and 
minor  coin. 

In     "lawful 
money"     at 
Treasury       or 
bank  of  issue. 

$211,691,035 
4,643,480 
207,047,546 

6,025,709 

20i,oat,747 
$2.88 

To  whom  first  issued*  

Legal  tender           

Receivable*  

Kxchangeable*  

Redeemable*  

July  i,  1895: 
Total  coined  or  issued  .  .  . 
In  Treasury  

In  circulation  

Held  by  National  Banks 
July  ii,  1895  

Net  circulationt   

"5,978,708 
$1.66 

Per  capita,  nett  

On  the  basis  of  an  estimated  population  of  69,878,- 
ooo  on  July  i,  1895,  there  was  a  total  circulation  out- 
side of  the  Treasury  and  the  National  banks  of  $1,246,- 
478.805,  or  $17.83  per  capita. 

Concerning  the  present  amount  of   money   in  the 


United   States,   the  report  of  the  Treasurer  for  1894 
gives  the  following  statement : 

According  to  the  revised  estimates  the  stock  of  gold, 
silver,  and  paper  money  in  the  United  States  on  June 
30,  1893  and  1894,  was  composed  as  follows  : 


KIND. 

June  30,  1893. 

June  30,  1894. 

KIND. 

June  30,  1893. 

June  30,  1894. 

Gold  coin  

$346,681,016 

Gold  bullion         

78  c^i  nS-j 

44,781,118 

Silver  dollars  

National  bank-notes  

178,713,872 

Fractional  silver  coin  

66,387,899 

Silver  bullion  

119,113,911 

128,764,624 

Silver  certificates  
Currency  certificates  

33°»957»5<>4 

337,148,504 

Total  paper  currency.  .  .  . 

$1,109,988,808 

$1,170,190,080 

Total  coin  and  bullion  ... 

Aggregate  

The  estimated  effective  stock  of  money,  which  is  ar- 
rived at  by  eliminating  from  the  list  or  paper  issues, 
the  certificates  of  deposit,  and  Treasury  notes,  as 


merely  representative,  on  June  30  in  each  of  the  last 
five  years,  was  as  follows  : 


KIND. 

1890. 

1891. 

1892. 

1893. 

1894- 

Gold 

6   02 

$^46   582   852 

Silver  

615,861,484 

Notes  

525,394,888 

Total      

$1,683,469,582 

$1,805,675,218 

*  By  the  Government. 

t  Total  circulation  outside  of  Treasury  less  amount  held  by  National  banks. 

t  Acts  of  July  14,  1875,  and  April  17,  1876,  limited  issue  to  amount  required  to  retire  fractional  paper  cur- 
rency. This  limit  was  increased  to  $50,000,000  by  act  of  July  22,  1876.  After  resumption  of  specie  payments, 
1878,  considerable  fractional  silver  reappeared  which  had  been  issued  previously. 

§  Amount  outstanding  when  the  act  of  May  31,  1878,  forbade  their  further  retirement. 

ii  Amount  outstanding  when  the  silver-purchasing  clause  was  repealed,  November  i,  1893. 

^  And  reissued  by  the  banks  for  general  circulation. 


Currency. 


456 


Currency. 


The  following  three  tables  from  the  Report 
of  the  Treasurer  give  the  gold  and  silver  coin 
and  bullion  ;  gold,  silver,  and  currency  certifi- 
cates :  United  States  notes  and  national  and 


State  bank-notes,  and  the  estimated  money  in 
the  United  States  and  distribution  thereof  on 
July  i  of  each  year  from  1872-94  : 


JULY  i. 

GOLD. 

SILVER. 

COIN  AND  BULLION. 

CERTIFICATES.^ 

IN  TREASURY. 

In  Treas- 
ury, in- 
cluding 
Bullion. 

Coin  in 
Circula- 
tion. 

Total. 

In  Treas- 
ury. 

In  Circu- 
lation. 

Total. 

Standard 
Silver  Dol- 
lars and 
Bullion. 

Subsidi- 
ary Coin. 

TotaL 

1872  

*$25,  OOO,OOO 
*25,  OOO,OOO 
*25,000,000 
*25,  OOO,OOO 

1873  

1874  

1875  

1876  

$6,363,606 
2,952,653 
6,860,506 
8,903,401 
24,350,482 
27,247,697 
28,048,631 
28,486,001 
29,600,720 
31,236,899 
28,886,947 
26,963,934 
26,044,062 
25,124,672 
22,792,718 
19,629,480 
14,227,774 
",945,257 
17,738,968 

$6,363,606 
2,952,653 
21,920,334 
42,i43>3>8 
73,9°o,333 
93,202,368 

"8,433,355 
144,882,236 
169,217,134 
200,688,897 
213,410,230 
248,860,980 
280,683,125 
314,614,466 

346,597,273 
399,556,803 
448,467,830 
493>3l6,36o 
5  1  3,!74,  33s 

1877  

*25,  OOO,OOO 
*25,  OOO,OOO 

1110,505,362 
225,695,779 
315,312,877 
358,251,325 
344,653,495 

340,624,203 
341,668,411 

358,219,575 

376,540,681 

391,114,033 
376,481,568 
374,258,923 

4°7,3'9,i63 
408,568,824 
408,535,663 
495,976,730 

1878  

$15,059,828 
33>239,9I7 
49,549,851 
65,954,671 
90,384,724 
116,396,235 
139,616,414 
169,451,998 
184,523,283 
221,897,046 
254,635,063 
289,489,794 
323,804,555 

379,927,323 
434,240,056 
481,371,103 
495,435,370 

1879  
1880.  
1881  
1882     .... 

$135,236,475 
126,145,427 
163,171,661 
148,506,390 
198,078,568 
204,876,594 
247,028,625 
232,554,886 
277,979>654 
314,704,822 
303,581,937 
321,304,106 
239,263,689 
255.706,511 
189,162,022 
131,316,471 

$245,741,837 
351,841,206 
478,484,538 
506,757,715 
542,732,063 
545,500,797 
588,697,036 
590,774,461 
654,520,335 
705,818,855 
680,063,505 
695,563,029 
646,582,852 
664,275-335 
597,697,685 
627,293,201 

$133,880 
40,700 
23,400 
8,100 
22,571,270 
27,246,020 
I3>593,4io 
55,129,870 
30,261,380 
20,928,500 
36,918,323 
26,732,120 
32,423,360 
15,530,310 
1,399,000 
48,050 

$15,279,820 
7,963,900 
5,759,520 
5,029,020 
59,807,370 
71,146,640 
126,729,730 
76,044,375 
91,225,437 
121,094,650 
117,130,229 
130,830,859 
120,063,069 
141,093,619 
92,642,189 
66,339,849 

$15,413,700 
8,004,600 
5,782,920 
5,037,120 
82,378,640 
98,392,660 
140,323,140 
I3r>l74,245 
121,486,817 
142,023,150 
154,048,552 
157,562,979 
152,486,429 
156,623,929 
94,041,189 
66,387,899 

1883  

1884  

1885  
1886  

1887  

1888  
!88g  

1890  
1891  
1892  

1893  
1894  

*  The  coin  in  circulation  includes  the  subsidiary  silver  in  circulation  on  the  Pacific  coast  from  1872  to  1878. 

t  Gold  coin  became  available  for  circulation  January  i,  1879,  as  a  result  of  the  resumption  act  of  January  14, 
1875. 

t  Gold  certificates,  being  representative  of  gold  coin,  became  available  as  circulation  on  the  resumption  of 
specie  payment,  January  i,  1879. 


SILVER. 


COIN  IN  CIRCULATION. 

CERTIFICATES.t 

CERTIFICATES,  ACT  OF  JUNE  8, 

JULY  i. 

1872. 

Standard 
Dollar. 

Subsidiary 
Coin.* 

Total. 

In  Treas- 
ury- j. 

In  Circu- 
lation. 

Total. 

In  Treas- 
ury. 

In  Circu- 
lation. 

Total. 

1872  

t873  

t 

»            _„ 

&               ooo 

1874  

*     5, 

^31,515,000 

8          ' 

1875  

755,000 

'o     'ooo 

50,755,000 

1876  

445,000 

32,565,000 

32,840,000 

1877  

37,884,853 

it  884  S<;Q 

i  13'Tooo 

1878  

$1,209,259 

53,918,322 

J/,UU/MU:>J 
55-I27,573 

$1,455,520 

$7,080 

$1,462,600 

570,000 

46,245,000 

46,815,000 

1879  

8,036,439 

61,346,584 

69,383,023 

2,052,470 

414,480 

2,466,950 

1,450,000 

29,355,000 

30,805,000 

1880  

20,110,557 

48,511,788 

68,622,345 

6,584,701 

5,789,569 

12,374,270 

360,000 

14,235,000 

14,595,000 

1881  

29,342,412 

46,839,364 

76,181,776 

12,055,801 

39,110,729 

51,166,530 

275,000 

11,650,000 

11,925,000 

1882  

32,403,820 

46,379,949 

78,783,769 

11,590,620 

54,506,090 

66,096,710 

75,000 

13,245,000 

13,320,000 

1883  

35,651,450 

46,474,299 

82,125,749 

15,996,145 

72,620,686 

88,616,831 

315,000 

13,060,000 

13,375,000 

1884  

40,690,200 

45,660,808 

86,351,008 

23,384,680 

96,427,011 

119,811,691 

195,000 

12,190,000 

12,385,000 

1885  

39,086,969 

43,702,921 

82,789,890 

38,370,700 

101,530,946 

139,901,646 

200,000 

29,585,000 

20,785,000 

1886  

52,668,623 

'   46,173,990 

98,842,603 

27,861,450 

88,116,225 

"5,977,675 

250,000 

18,250,000 

18,500,000 

1887  

55,548,721 

48,583,865 

104,132,586 

3,425,133 

142,118,017 

145,543,I5° 

310,000 

8,770,000 

9,080,000 

1888  

55,527,396 

50,362,314 

05,889,710 

28,732,115 

200,759,657 

229,491,772 

250,000 

14,665,000 

14,915,000 

1889  

54,457,299 

51,477,164 

05,934,463 

5,474,181 

257,155,565 

262,629,746 

240,000 

16,955,000 

17,195,000 

1890  

56,278,749 

54,032,587 

10,311,336 

3,983,513 

297,556,238 

301,539,751 

500,000 

11,890,000 

12,390,000 

1891   

58,826,179 

58,219,220 

17,045,399 

7,479,219 

307,235,966 

314,715,185 

1,905,000 

21,875,000 

23,780,000 

1892  

56,817,462 

63,293,704 

20,111,166 

4,920,839 

326,693,465 

331,  614,  3°4 

590,000 

29,840,000 

30,430,000 

'893  

56,929,673 

65,469,866 

22,399,539 

4,133,656 

326,823,848 

33°,957,5°4 

690,000 

11,715,000 

12,405,000 

1894  

52,564,662 

58,510,957 

11,075,619 

10,157,768 

326,990,736 

300,000 

58,935,000 

59,235,000 

*  Subsidiary  silver,  which  disappeared  from  circulation  in  1862,  was  reintroduced  under  operation  of  the  act 
of  January  14,  1875. 

t  Silver  certificates  were  authorized  by  acts  of  February  28,  1878,  and  August  4,  1886. 


Currency. 


457 


Currency. 


JULY  i. 

CURRENCY. 

UNITED  STATES   NOTES. 

NATIONAL  BANK-NOTES. 

In  Treas- 
ury. 

In  Circu- 
lation. 

Total. 

In  Treas- 
ury. 

In  Circu- 
lation. 

Total. 

$11,33!.  320 
30,050,855 
68,578,548 
84,055,245 
70,889,906 
75,689,998 
72,020,121 
74i39i.Q04 
33,020,559 
30,204,092 
34,670,589 
36,498,839 
40,183,802 

45i°47.379 
41,118,317 
28,783,797 
53i345.976 
47,196,825 
23,882,039 
25.348,656 
37,121,112 
27,621,590 

80,091,414 

$346,168,680 
316,949,145 
313,421,452 
29J.7i6,335 
298,882,378 
284,074,344 
274,660,895 
272,289,112 
313,660,457 
316,476,924 
312,010,427 
310,182,177 
306,497,214 
3OI>633,637 
305,562,699 
317,897,219 
293i335.o4o 
299,484,191 
322,798,977 
321,332,3°o 
309,559,904 
319,050,426 
266,589,602 

$357.5oo.ooo 
356,000,000 
382,000,000 
375.771  580 
369,772  284 
359.764  332 
346,681  016 
346,681  016 
346,681  016 
346,681  016 
346,681  016 
346,681  016 
346,681  016 
346,681  016 
346,681  016 
346,681  016 
346,681  016 
346,681  016 
346,681  016 
346,681  016 
346,681  016 
346,681  016 
346,681  016 

$8,627,790 
8,304,586 
11,715,488 
13,861,463 
16,877,634 

15.759.847 
12,789,923 
8,286,701 
7,090,249 
5,296,382 
.    6,277,246 
8,217,062 
8,809,990 
9.945.7io 
v  4,034,416 
2.362,585 
7.055.541 
4,158,330 
4,365,838 
5,706,928 
5,462,333 
4,043,906 
6,635,044 

$329,037,005 
338,962,475 
340,265,544 
340,546,545 
316,120,702 
301,289,025 

3I:t>724,361 
321,404,096 
337.415,178 
349,746,293 
352,464,788 
347,856,219 
330,689,893 
308,631,001 
307,665,038 
276,855,203 
245,312,780 
207,220,633 
181,604,937 
162,221,046 
167,221,517 
174,669,966 
200,219,743 

$337,664,795 
347,267,061 
351,981,032 
354,408,008 
332,998,336 
317,048,872 
324,514,284 
329,691,697 
344,505.427 
355,042,675 
358,742,034 
356,073,281 
339.499.883 
318,576,711 
311,699,454 
279,217,788 
252,368,321 
211,378,963 
185,970,775 
167,927,077 
172,683,850 
1781713,872 
206,854,787 

1873  .. 

1874  .... 

1875  

!876  

1877  .. 

1878       

1879  

1880        ....                  ...           

!88i                

1882     

1883  

1884  

1885  

1886  

1887  

1888  

1889  

1890  

1891     

1892  

1893  

1894  

CURRENCY. 


JULY  i 

FRACTIONAL  CURRENCY. 

State  Bank- 
Notes  in  Circu- 
lation.* 

In  Treasury. 

In  Circulation. 

Total. 

1872  

$4,452,906 
6,723,360 
7,647,714 
4,224,854 
1.507,750 
161,476 
180,044 

Treasur 
9,879,713 

3,453,379 

6,334,613 

17,902,988 

$36,402,929 
38,076,005 
38,233,582 
37,904,570 
32,938,845 
20,241,661 
16,367,725 

y  Notes  Act,  Julj 

40,348,704 
98,258,692 
140,855,614 
134,681,429 

$40,855,835 
44,799,365 
45,881,296 
42,129,424 

34,446,595 
20,403,137 
16,547,769 

'  14,  1890. 

50,228,417 
101,712,071 
147,190,227 
152,584,417 

$1,700,935 
1.379.184 
1,162,453 
064,497 
i,°47.335 

l87i.. 

1875..              

1876         ....         

,878  

1  83O            ....          

1881  .   ..     

1882      

1883             

j884                          ...              .           

!88s    

,886    

,887                                 ..                ..         

1888           ....                

i  889           ....                  

1891                                            ..                

,892     ..              

1  80  4. 

The  following  two  tables  give  the  total  coin- 
age of  the  United  States  mints  from  1793  to 
1895,  as  given  in  the  reports  of  the  Director  of 
the  Mint,  and  the  money  in  circulation  since 
1872.  For  the  per  capita  circulation  before 
1872,  see  CONTRACTION  AND  EXPANSION  OF  CUR- 
RENCY, and  see  also  that  article  for  questioning 


the  correctness  of  the  showing  made  in  these 
reports.  Note  also  that  the  currency  certifi- 
cates (act  of  June  8,  1872)  are  included  in  the 
amount  of  United  States  notes  in  circulation 
in  the  tables  for  the  years  1873  to  1891  in- 
clusive ;  since  1891  they  are  reported  sepa- 
rately. 


*  State  bank-notes  ceased  to  circulate  after  passage  of  the  act  of  February  8,  1875,  which  laid  upon  them  a 
tax  of  10  per  cent.  They  were  not  receivable  for  public  dues,  and  therefore  do  not  appear  among  the  funds  in 
the  Treasury. 


Currency. 


458 


Currency. 


JULY  i. 

In  Treas- 
ury. 

In  Treas- 
ury _per 
Capita. 

In  Circula- 
tion. 

In  Circu- 
lation 
per 
Capita. 

Total 
Money. 

Total 
per 
Capita. 

Population 
June  i. 

1872  

$24,412,016 
22,563,801 
29,941,750 
44,171,562 
°3»*73»"§6 
40,738,964 
62,120,942 
232,889,748 
232,546,969 
292,303,704 
306,241,300 
413,184,120 
461,528,220 
525,089,721 
555.859,169 
582,903,529 
690,785,079 
694,989,062 
714,974,889 
697,783,368 
771,252,314 
726,701,147 
759,626,073 

$.60 
•54 
.70 

I.OI 

1.40 

.88 
1-3' 
4-77 
4.64 
5-66 
5-83 
7.70 
8.41 
9  35 
9.68 

9-93 
11.52 
"•34 
11.42 
10.91 
11.79 
10.87 
11.13 

$738,309,549 
751,881,809 
776,083,031 
754,101,947 
727,609,388 
722,314,883 
729,132,634 
818,631,793 
973,382,228 
,114,238,119 
,174,290,419 
,230,305,696 
,243,925,969 
,292,568,615 
,252,700,525 

,317,539,143 
,372,170,870 
,380,361,649 
,429,251,270 
,497,440,707 
,601,347,187 
,596,701,245 
,660,808,708 

$18.19 
18.04 
18.13 
17.16 
16.12 

15.58 
15-32 

16.75 
19.41 

21.71 

22.37 

22    91 
22.65 
23.02 
21.82 
22-45 
22.88 
22.52 
22.82 
23.41 
24-44 
23.87 

24-33 

$762,721,565 
774,445,6to 
806,024,781 
798,273,509 
700,683,284 
763,053,84? 
79I>253,576 
1,051,521,541 
1,205,929,197 
1,406,541,823 
1,480,531,719 
1,643,489,816 
',705,454,189 
1,817,658,336 
1,808,559,694 
1,900,442,672 
2,062,955,949 
2,075,350,711 
2,144,226,159 
2,195,224,075 
2,373,599,501 
2,323,402,392 
2,420,434,781 

$18.79 
18.58 
18.83 
18.16 
17-52 
16.46 
16.62 

21    52 
24.04 
27.41 
28.2O 
30.6l 
31.06 
32-37 

3'-5i 
32.39 
34-40 
33-86 
34-24 
34-31 
36.21 

34-75 
35-44 

$40,596,000 
41,677,000 
42,796,000 
43,951,000 
45,137,000 
46,353,000 
47,508,000 
48,866,000 
50,155,783 
51,316,000 
52,495,000 
53,693,000 
54,911,000 
56,148,000 
57,404,000 
58,680,000 
59,974,000 
61,289,000 
62,622,250 
63,975,ooo 
65,403,000 
66,826,000 
68,275,000 

1871 

1874   

187"; 

1876   .. 

j877  

,878..                        

1870... 

,880  

T88i  

!882     ....                

1883  

1884  

1885  

1886  • 

1887  

1888  

1889  

1890  

1891  

1892  

1893  

1894   

YKARS. 

Gold. 

Silver. 

Minor. 

Total. 

YEARS. 

Gold. 

Silver. 

Minor. 

Total. 

'793-'795 

$71,485.00 

$370,683.80 

$11,373.00 

$453,54i-8o 

1845  

$3,756,447-50 

$1,873,200.00 

$38,948.04 

$5,668,595.54 

1796  

77,960.00 

77,118.50 

10,324.40 

165,402.90 

1846.... 

4,034,177-50 

2,558,580.00 

41,208.00 

6,633,965.50 

1797  

128,190.00 

14,550.45 

9,5io-34 

152,250.79 

1847  

20,202,325.00 

2,374,450-00 

61,836.69 

22,638  611.69 

1798  

205,610.00 

330,291.00 

9,797-oo 

545,698.00 

1848  — 

3,775,512.50 

2,040,050.00 

64,157.99 

5,879,720.49 

1799  

213,285.00 

423,515.00 

9,106.68 

645,906.68 

1849  

9,007,761.50 

2,114,950.00 

41,984.32 

11,164,695.82 

1800  

317,760.00 

224,296.00 

29,279.40 

57i,335-4o 

1850  

3',98',  738-50 

1,866,100.00 

44,467.5° 

33,892,306.00 

1801  

422,570.00 

74,758.00 

13,628.37 

510,956.37 

1851  

62,614,492.50 

774,397-oo 

99,635.43 

63,488,524.93 

1802.    ... 

423,310.00 

58,343.00 

34,422.83 

516,075.83 

1852  

56,846,187.50 

999,410.00 

50,630.94 

57,896,228.44 

1803  

258,377-50 

87,118.00 

25,203.03 

370,698.53 

1853  

39,377,909-00 

9,077,57i-oo 

67,059-78 

48,522,539.78 

1804  

258,642.50 

100,340.50 

12,844.94 

371,827.94 

1854  

25,915,962.50 

8,619,270.00 

42,638.35 

34,577,870.85 

1805  

170,367.50 

149,388.50 

13,483-48 

333,239.48 

1855  

29,387,968.00 

3,501,245.00 

16,030.79 

32,905,243.79 

1806  

324,505.00 

471,319.00 

5,360.00 

801,084.00 

1856  

36,857,768.50 

5,142,240.00 

27,106.78 

42,027,115.28 

1807  

437,495-oo 

597,448.75 

9,652.21 

1,044,505.96 

1857  

32,214,040.00 

5,478,760.00 

178,010.46 

37,870,830.46 

1808  

284,665.00 

684,300.00 

13,000.00 

982,055.00 

1858  

22,938,413.50 

8,495,370-oo 

246,000.00 

31,679,783.50 

1809  

169,375.00 

707,376.00 

8,001.53 

884,752-53 

1859  

14,780,570.00 

3,284,450.00 

364,000.00 

18,429,020.00 

1810  

501,435.00 

638,773-50 

15,660.00 

1,155,868.50 

1860  

23,473>654-oo 

2,259,390.00 

205,660.00 

25,938,704-00 

1811.  ... 

497,905.00 

608,340.00 

2,495-95 

1,108,740.95 

1861  

83,395,530.00 

2,783,740.00 

101,000.00 

87,280,270.00 

1812  

29°,435-o° 

814,029.50 

10,755.00 

1,115,219.50 

1862  

20,875,997.50 

1,252,516.50 

280,750.00 

22,409,264.00 

1813  

477,140.00 

620,951.50 

4,180.00 

1,102,271.50 

1863  

22,445,482.00 

809,267.80 

498,400.00 

23,753,'49-8o 

1814  

77,270.00 

561,687.50 

3,578.30 

642,535.80 

1864  

20,081,415.00 

609,917.10 

926,687.14 

21,618,019.24 

1815  

3>'75-oo 

17,308.00 

20,483.00 

1865...   . 

28,295,107.50 

691,005.00 

968,552.86 

29,954,665.36 

1816  

28,575.75 

28,209.82 

56.781  17 

!866  

1817.  .  . 

607,783.50 

39,484.00 

j",  /U0-  j/ 

647,267.50 

1867.   ... 

j*,4  jj,v4D-u" 
23,828,625.00 

v°*,4^V'^5 
908,876.25 

1,819,910.00 

33,4°i,3'4-25 

1818  

242,940.00 

1,070,454.50 

31,670,00 

1,345,064.50 

1868  

I9,37I,387-50 

1,074,343.00 

1,697,150.00 

2u,557,4"-25 
22,142,880.50 

1819  

258,615.00 

1,140,000.00 

26,710.00 

1,425,325.00 

1869  

17,582,987.50 

1,266,143.00 

963,000.00 

19,812,130.50 

1820  

1,319,030.00 

501,680.70 

44,075.50 

1,864,786.20 

1870  

23,I98,787-50 

',378,255-50 

350,325-0° 

24,927,368.00 

1821  

189,325.00 

825,762.45 

3,890.00 

1,018,977.45 

1871  

21,032,685.00 

3,104,038.30 

99,890.00 

24,236,613.30 

1822  

88,980.00 

805,806.50 

20,723.39 

915,509.89 

1872  

21,812,645.00 

2,504,488.50 

369,380.00 

24,686,513.50 

1823  

72,425.00 

895,550.00 

967,975.00 

1873  

57,022,747.50 

4,024,747.60 

379,455.00 

61,426,950.10 

1824  

93,200.00 

1,752,477-00 

12,620.00 

1,858,297.00 

1874  

35,254,630.00 

6,851,776.70 

342,475.00 

42,448,881.70 

1825  

156,385.00 

1,564,583-00 

14,926.00 

J,735,894-oo 

1875  

32,951,940.00 

I5,347,893-00 

246,970.00 

48,546,803.00 

1826  

92,245.00 

2,002,090.00 

'6,344-25 

2.110,679.25 

1876  

46,579,452.50 

24,503,307-50 

210,800.00 

71,293,560.00 

1827  

131,565.00 

2,869,200.00 

23,577-32 

3,024,342-32 

1877.... 

43,999,864.00 

28,393,045.50 

8,525.00 

72,401,434.50 

1828  

140,145.00 

1,575,600.00 

25,636.24 

1,741,381.24 

1878  

49,786,052.00 

28,518,850.00 

58,186.50 

78,363,088.50 

1829.   ... 

295,7i7-50 

i,994,578.oo 

16,580.00 

2,306,875-50 

1879  

39,080,080.00 

27,569,776.00 

165,003.00 

66,814,859.00 

1830  

643,105.00 

2,495,400.00 

17,115.00 

3,155,620.00 

1880  

62,308,279.00 

27,411,693-75 

391,395-95 

90,111,368.70 

1831  

714,270.00 

3,175,600.00 

33,603.60 

3,923,473-6o 

1881  

96,850,890.00 

27,940,163.75 

428,151.75 

125,219,205.50 

1832  

798,435.00 

2,579,000.00 

23,620.00 

3,401,055.00 

1882  

65,887,685.00 

27,973,  132-00 

960,400.00 

94,821,217.00 

1833  --• 

978,550.00 

2,759,000.00 

28,160.00 

3,765,710.00 

1883  

29,241,990.00 

29,246,968.45 

1,604,770.41 

60,093.728.86 

1834  

3,954,270.00 

3,415,002.00 

19,151.00 

7,388,423.00 

1884  

23,991,756.50 

28,534,866.15 

796,483.78 

53,323,106.43 

'835  

2,186,175.00 

3,443,003.00 

39,489.00 

5,668,667.00 

1885  

27,773>OI2-50 

28,962.176.20 

191,622.04 

56,926,810.74 

1836  

4,135,700.00 

3,606,100.00 

23,100.00 

7,764,000.00 

1886  

28,945,542-00 

32,086,709.90 

343,186.10 

6i,375,438.oo 

1837  

1,148,305.00 

2,096,010.00 

55,583.00 

3,299,898.00 

1887  

23,972,383.00 

35.191,081.40 

1,215,686.26 

60,379,150.66 

1838  

1,809,765.00 

2,333,243-4° 

63,702.00 

4,206,710.40 

1888  

31,380,808.00 

33,025,606.45 

912,200.78 

65,318,615.23 

1839  

1,376,847.50 

2,209,778.20 

31,286.61 

3,617,912.31 

1889  

21,413,931.00 

35,496,683.15 

1,283,408.49 

58,194,022.64 

1840  

1,675,482.50 

1,726,703.00 

24,627.00 

3,426,812.50 

1890  

20,467,182.50 

39,202,908.20 

1,384,792.14 

61,054,882.84 

1841  

1,091,857.50 

1,132,750.00 

i5,973-67 

2,240,581.17 

1891  

29,222,005.00 

27,518,856.60 

1,312,441.00 

58,053,302.60 

1842  

1,829,407.50 

2,332,750-00 

23,833-90 

4,185,991.40 

1892  

34,787,222.50 

12,641,078.00 

961,480.42 

48,389,780.92 

1843  

8,108,797.50 

3,834,750-00 

24,283.20 

11,967,830.70 

1893.   ... 

56,997,020.00 

8,802,797.30 

','34,931-7° 

66,934,740.00 

1844  

5,427,670.00 

2,235,550.00 

23,987.52 

7,687,207.52 

1894  

79,546,160.00 

9,200,350.85 

438,i77-92 

89,184,688.77 

Currency. 


459 


Curtis,  George  William. 


The  following  is  the  coinage  of  the  silver  dollar  : 


l8<13  .  . 

X86i  

879  

j862  

880   

1845..  .. 

186^... 

881  

17n8 

1846 

!864  

882   

1847 

X865  

881  .. 

1800 

1848..  .. 

X366  

884  :  

28,136,875 

1801      . 

!867  

885  

1802.  .  . 

1850.  . 

X868  

886  .... 

31,423,886 

1803  

1851.  ... 

Z869  

887  

1804  .  . 

1852 

1870    

888 

1805  

1853  

1871  

889  

18^6  . 

1854  

1872.  

890    

1837  

1855  

891  

1838 

1856 

1874.  .  . 

892  

1839  

1857.  .  .. 

1875  

893  

18^0 

1858 

1876.. 

894* 

1841 

1859    . 

1877 

1842  

184,613 

1860.  .  . 

1878     ,  ... 

Total 

*  November  i,  1894. 

The   following,  compiled  from  the  report  of  the  Director  of  the  Mint,  gives  the  approximate  amount   ot 
money  in  the  world,  1893-94  : 


COUNTRIES. 

Ratio 
between 
Gold 
and  Full 
Legal- 
Tender 
Silver. 

Ratio 

between 
Gold  and 
Limited- 
Tender 
Silver. 

Gold  Stock. 

Silver  Stock. 

Uncovered 
Notes. 

PER  CAPITA. 

Gold. 

Silver. 

Paper. 

Total. 

United  States  

i  to  15.98 

to  14.95 
to  14.28 
to  14.38 
to  13.957 
to  14.38 
to  14.38 
to  14.38 
to  14.38 
to  14.38 
to  14.08 
to  13.69 
to  15 
to  14.88 
to  15 
to  i5# 
to  14.28 
to  15.68 

$661,000,000 
540,000,000 
800,000,000 
618,000,000 
54,000,000 
96,000,000 
15,000,000 
500,000 
40,000,000 
40,000,000 
124,000,000 
19,000,000 
28,000,000 
422,000,000 
50,000,000 
105,000,000 
120,000,000 
5,000,000 

45,000,000 
80,700,000 

$624,000,000 
112,000,000 
500,000,000 
215,000,000 
54,900,000 
16,500,000 
15,000,000 
3,000,000 
155,000,000 

10,000,000 

85,000,000 
56,000,000 
12,000,000 
41,000,000 
44,000,000 
7,000,000 
15,000,000 
50,000,000 
8,000,000 
30,000,000 
81,300,000 
950,000,000 
725,000,000 
110,000,000 
5,000,000 
4,400,000 

$469,000,000 
127,000,000 
110,000,000 
84,000,000 
54,000,000 
179,000,000 
12,000,000 
23,400,000 
105,000,000 
49,000,000 
187,000,000 
37,000,000 
12,000,000 
550,100,000 

$9.81 
14.17 
20.89 
12.51 
8.85 
3-16 
5-"t7 
•23 
2.28 
8.51 
3.00 
4-i3 

$9.25 
2.94 
i3-05 
4-35 
9.00 
•54 
5-!7 
1.36 
8.86 
2.13 
2.06 
12.17 

$6.96 

3-33 
2.87 
1.70 
8.85 
5-89 
4.14 
10.63 
6.00 
10.42 

4-53 
8.04 

$26.02 
20.44 
36.81 
18.56 
26.70 
9-5Q 
14.48 

12.22 
17.14 

21.00 

9-59 
24-34 

United  Kingdom..  ... 

France  

i  to  is* 

Belgium  

i  to  i5# 
i  to  15'^ 
i  to  15* 
i  to  15^ 
i  to  iSH 

Italy     

Switzerland    

Greece  

Portugal  

Austria-Hungary  .... 

Netherlands       

i  to  istf 

Scandinavian  Union.. 

Russia   

i  to  15^ 

I  tO  I5ft 

3-40 

•33 

4-44 

8.17 

J-3<» 
26.05 
19.85 
5.00 

3-78 
19.67 
4.00 
3-44 
1.80 
28.94 

10.00 

Turkey  

Australia..        

1.63 

Egypt    

2,000,000 
4,000,000 
600,000,000 

17-65 
•44 
•15 
1-3' 

2.20 
438 
2.42 

.87 

"    .18 

1.  21 
17-49 

Mexico  

i  to  i6# 

Central  America  
South  America  
Japan  

I  tO  I5# 
I  to  15* 
i  to  16.18 



India  

i  to  15 

37,000,000 

3-31 
1.  80 

•'3 

China  

The  Straits  

28.O1 

Canada    ...        

i  to  14.95 

14,000,000 
21,000,000 

29,000,000 

2.92 

1.04 

6.04 

Cuba,  Hayti,  etc  
Total  

I  tO  15^ 

$3,901,900,000 

$3,931,100,000 

$2,  7OO,OOO,OOO 

See  also  CONTRACTION  AND  EXPANSION  OF  CUR- 
RENCY; BIMETALLISM;  GREENBACKISM  ;  PRICES; 
GOLD;  and  for  the  most  recent  information,  SILVER. 

References :  W.  G.  Sumner's  History  of  American 
Currency  (1878) ;  C.  F.  Dunbar's  Laws  of  the  United 
States  Relating  to  Currency  and  Finance  from  1789  to 
1890;  Alberts.  Bolles's  Financial  History  of  the  United 
States ;  for  recent  times,  see  Record  of  Political 
Events  in  the  Political  Science  Quarterly ;  for  the 
greenback  view,  see  B.  S.  Heath's  Labor  and  Finance 
Revolution ,-  for  the  free  silver  view,  see  W.  A.  Har- 
vey's Coin's  Financial  School ;  for  the  bimetallic  view, 
see  E.  B.  Andrews's  An  Honest  Dollar  ,-  for  the  mono- 
metallist  view,  see  Horace  White's  Money  and  Banking 
Jllustrated  by  American  History.  See  also  BIMETAL- 
LISM; SILVER;  GREENBACKisM,"etc. 

CURTIS,  GEORGE  WILLIAM,  was  born 
in  Providence,  R.  I.,  February  24,  1824.  His 
father,  a  business  man,  desiring  him  to  continue 
in  his  footsteps,  placed  him  in  an  importing 
house  in  New  York  City.  A  year  later,  how- 
ever, the  son  threw  off  the  restraints  of  this  un- 


congenial life,  and  with  his  elder  brother  joined 
the  community  at  Brook  Farm,  Mass.,  being  the 
youngest  member  of  that  distinguished  com- 
pany. Mr.  Curtis  remained  four  years  at 
Brook  Farm,  going  thence  with  his  brother 
to  Concord,  Mass.,  where  they  lived  for  two 
years,  keeping  up  the  admiring  friendship  he 
had  formed  with  Emerson,  Hawthorne,  and 
others. 

In  1846  Mr.  Curtis  went  to  Europe,  and  dur- 
ing his  travels  contributed  letters  to  the  New 
York  Tribune.  On  his  return,  in  1851,  he  be- 
came connected  editorially  with  that  paper.  In 
1852  he  became  one  of  the  editors  of  Putnam' s 
Monthly,  and  when  it  passed  into  the  hands  of 
a  firm  that  failed,  he  paid  off  the  debt,  tho  it 
took  16  years.  In  1853  he  began  a  career  as  a 
lyceum  lecturer,  and  soon  became  one  of  the 
most  popular  speakers  of  the  day.  The  ele- 


Curtis,  George  William. 


460 


Dangerous  Trades. 


gance  and  dignity  of  his  manner,  the  melody 
and  sympathetic  quality  of  his  voice,  the  grace 
and  easy  flow  of  his  language,  made  him  a  gen- 
eral favorite.  In  1856  he  was  married  to  Anna 
Shaw,  daughter  of  Francis  George  Shaw,  the 
philanthropist.  In  1857  he  became  permanently 
associated  with  the  Harpers,  as  editor  of  the 
"  Easy  Chair,"  the  remarkable  series  of  papers 
which  he  had  commenced  in  1853.  The  pre- 
vious year  he  had  become  chief  editorial  writer 
for  Harper' s  Weekly,  a  position  he  held  till 
his  death. 

In  1860  Mr.  Curtis  was  a  delegate  to  the  con- 
vention that  nominated  Mr.  Lincoln,  and  in 
Harper' s  Weekly  and  on  the  platform  he  en- 
thusiastically advocated  the  cause  of  the  Union 
and  emancipation. 

In  1864  he  was  again  delegate  to  the  National 
Republican  Convention,  and  was  candidate  for 
Congress  in  the  First  New  York  District,  but 
was  defeated.  In  1867  he  was  delegate  to  the 
convention  for  revising  the  Constitution  of 
New  York  State.  In  1868  he  was  a  Presidential 
elector  on  the  Republican  ticket.  We  now  come 
to  his  great  work  for  civil  service  reform,  when, 


in  1871,  General  Grant  appointed  him  one  of 
the  commissioners  to  draw  up  rules  to  regulate 
the  civil  service.  Yet  in  1876  Mr.  Curtis  opposed 
the  renomination  of  President  Grant  for  a  third 
term.  In  that  year  a  civil  service  league  had 
been  formed  in  New  York  State,  and  in  1880  it 
was  revived,  and  Mr.  Curtis  became  its  presi- 
dent. This  was  superseded  a  year  later  by  the 
National  Civil  Service  Reform  League,  which 
was  essentially  of  his  organization.  In  the 
same  year  Mr.  Curtis  supported  General  Gar- 
field's  candidacy  for  President,  being  again  a 
delegate  to  the  National  Republican  Conven- 
tion, and  in  1884  he  again  held  a  seat  in  that 
body,  working  earnestly  against  the  nomination 
of  Mr.  Blaine.  In  1890  he  became  Chancellor  of 
the  University  of  the  State  of  New  York,  of  which 
he  had  been  a  regent  since  1864.  He  died  at 
his  home  on  Staten  Island,  August  31,  1892.  His 
best-known  works  are  :  Nile  Notes  of  a  Hoiv- 
adji  (1851)  ;  Lotits  Eating  (1852)  ;  Potiphar 
Papers  (1853)  ;  Trumps  (1862)  ;  Eulogy  on 
Wende  II  Phil  lips  (\§b$y,  Motley's  Correspond- 
ence (1890)  ;  From  the  Easy  Chair  (1892). 


D. 


DANGEROUS  TRADES.— The  study  of 
dangerous  or  unhealthy  trades  and  occupations 
has  been  carried  to  a  much  further  extent  in 
England  than  in  this  country.  Particularly 
does  Dr.  Arlidge's  exhaustive  work  on  The 
Diseases  Incident  to  Various  Occupations, 
published  in  1892,  give  us  the  fullest  informa- 
tion. From  a  study  of  this  great  work  and 
similar  sources  in  a  tract  on  Dangerous  Trades, 
published  by  the  Humanitarian  League  of 
England,  we  abridge  the  following  account : 

"  In  the  white-lead  trade,  pre-eminent  for  its  fatal 
effects  upon  the  workers,  dust  is  a  constant  factor  in 
their  lives,  and  they  are  continually  exposed  to  the 
influence  of  the  deadly  '  saturnine  '  poi- 
soning. That  lead  is  highly  poisonous 
White-Lead  is  no  new  discovery.  Its  effects  were  well 
Trade  known  to  the  ancients.  Yet  in  this 
trade  the  roughest  and  most  dangerous 
part  of  the  work  is  done  by  women,  as 
it  needs  less  muscular  strength  than 
work  which  is  far  less  perilous. 

"  This  will  readily  be  understood  by  a  glance  at  the 
process  of  white- lead  making  ;  the  deadly  white  carbo- 
nate being  manufactured  from  the  ordinary  blue  lead. 

"  It  is  mostly  women  of  the  very  poorest  and  rough- 
est class  who  offer  themselves  to  work  in  the  white- 
lead  factory.  'The  widow  who  has  a  family  to  support, 
the  wife  of  a  drunken  husband,  the  girl  whose  char- 
acter will  not  bear  scrutiny  '—these  are  the  applicants 
for  employment. 

"Here,  after  a  varying  degree  of  exposure,  she  be- 
comes anaemic.  It  may  be  that  her  gums  show  a  very 
faint  blue  line,  or  perchance  her  teeth  and  gums  are  per- 
fectly sound,  and  no  blue  line  is  discernible.  Coinci- 
dently  with  the  anaemia  she  has  been  getting  thinner, 
but  so  gradually  as  scarcely  to  impress  itself  upon  her 
or  her  Friends.  Sickness,  however,  ensues,  and  head- 
aches, growing  in  intensity,  are  developed.  These  are 
frequently  attended  by  obscuration  of  vision  or  tem- 
porary blindness.  Such  a  girl  passes  into  what  appears 
to  her  friends  and  medical  adviser  as  ordinary  hys- 
teria. This  gradually  deepens  without  warning,  until 
she  is  suddenly  seized  with  a  convulsion,  beginning  in 
one  half  of  the  face,  then  involving  the  arm,  next  the 
leg  of  the  same  side  of  the  body,  until  the  convulsion, 
violent  and  purely  epileptic  in  its  character,  be- 
comes universal.  This  is  attended  by  loss  of  con- 
sciousness, out  of  which  she  passes  into  a  series  of  con- 
vulsions, gradually  increasing  in  severity,  in  one  of 


which  she  dies  ;  or  consciousness,  partial  or  perfect.  Is. 
regained,  either,  it  may  be,  for  a  few  minutes,  a  few 
hours,  or  days,  during  which  violent  headache  is  com- 
plained of,  or  she  is  delirious  and  excited,  aff  in  acute 
mania,  or  dull  and  sullen,  as  in  melancholia,  and  re- 
quires to  be  roused,  when  she  is  found  wandering,  and 
her  speech  is  somewhat  imperfect.  Without  further 
warning,  save  that  the  pulse,  which  had  become  soft,, 
with  nearly  the  normal  number  of  beats,  all  at  once 
becomes  low  and  hard,  she  is  suddenly  seized  with 
another  convulsion,  in  which  she  dies,  or  passes  into  a 
state  of  coma  from  which  she  never  rallies.  In  another 
case  the  convulsions  will  gradually  subside,  the  head- 
ache disappears  and  the  patient  recovers,  only  to  find 
that  she  has  completely  lost  her  eyesight— a  loss  that 
may  be  temporary  or  permanent." 

Yet  tho  the  trade  is  so  dangerous,  governments  have 
declined  to  interfere. 

Says  Mr.  Vaughan  Nash  :  *  "  The  children  of  the 
white-lead  worker  enter  the  world,  as  a  rule,  only  to 
die  from  the  convulsions  of  lead-poisoning ;  they  are 
either  born  prematurely,  or  die  within  the  first  year. 
These  facts  have  been  brought  before  the  country  from 
time  to  time.  Professor  Oliver  has  appealed  to  the 
British  Association  to  do  something  on  behalf  of  these 
unfortunate  people  ;  but  the  Home  Office  still  con- 
tinues its  inadequate  precautions,  and  its  inspection  of 
the  lead-poisoned.  What,  we  may  ask,  is  the  good  of 
scheduling  a  trade  as  dangerous,  and  drawing  up 
special  rules,  if  this  sort  of  thing  is  to  be  the  outcome 
of  it  ?  ....  The  duty  of  drying  up  such  poison  springs 
as  these  carbonate  "of  lead  works,  the  evil  effects  of 
which  are  only  begtin  when  the  fatal  white  powder 
sets  off  on  it's  journey  to  the  potteries,  the  house 
painter,  and  the  artist,  seems  too  clear  to  be  disputed. 
Various  substitutes  are  in  the  market,  and  the  Home 
Office  should  at  once  undertake  an  investigation  into 
their  merits  with  a  view  to  enforcing  a  safe  process." 

Of  the  phosphorus  trade  we  are  told  : 

"  Probably  but  few  people  are  aware  of  the  conditions 
under  which  this  industry  is  carried  on,  or  realize  that 
in  their  endeavors  to  save  an  occasional 
penny  they   are   dooming   numbers    of 
their  fellow-creatures  to  agonizing  suf-  Phosphorus 
ferings  and  to  death   by  slow  torture  ;        Trade 
still  less  do  they  realize  the   urgency  of        A*»UB. 
this    question.      The    peril    is    steadily 
growing,   for   the    sale    of    phosphorus 
matches  is  increasing,  and  that  of  the   Swedish   safety- 
matches  proportionately  diminishing.      The  cheapest 

*  Fortnightly  Review,  February,  1893,  p.  175. 


Dangerous  Trades. 


461 


Dangerous  Trades. 


kind  of  matches  (those  bought  by  the  very  poor  for  one 
penny  per  dozen  boxes)  are  tipped  with  the  common 
white  phosphorus,  a  substance  which  is  prepared  from 
powdered  bone  ash  by  mixing  it  with  sulphuric  acid. 

"  This  dangerous  substance,  even  when  kept  under 
water,  gives  off  deadly  fumes,  and  nothing  can  pro- 
tect the  workers  who  handle  it,  and  those  who  work  in 
the  room  with  it,  from  their  influence. 

"  The  women  who  use  it  begin  after  a  time  to  suffer 
from  toothache.  They  think  lightly  of  it,  perhaps 
have  some  decayed  teeth  extracted,  and  go  on  with 
their  work.  The  pain,  however,  continues  and  in- 
creases— first  the  jaw  and  then  the  •whole  face  swells 
up,  and  the  sight  on  this  side  of  the  face  is  often  af- 
fected. 

"  The  pain  is  agonizing.  I  have  heard  it  described 
by  a  sufferer  as  a  '  gnawing  and  tearing '  pain  ;  it  is, 
in  fact,  the  pain  of  cancer.  The  jaw  gradually  be- 
comes green,  then  black,  and  it  begins  to  discharge  ; 
and  now  the  odor  of  the  wound  becomes  offensive  to 
those  who  share  a  room  with  the  sufferer. 

"  Death  ensues  after  much  suffering,  and  both  be- 
fore and  after  death  the  jaw  is  seen,  if  examined  in  a 
dark  room,  to  be  alight  and  phosphorescent." 

Of  other  trades  the  same  source  says  : 

"  If  we  look  for  a  moment  at  one  of  the  largest  and 
oldest  established  trades,  one  of  the  most  necessary  to 
the  existence  of  a  civilized  community — 
the  linen  trade— we  find  bronchitis, 
flfhor  Tradna  pneumonia,  severe  rheumatism,  much 
uiaer  iraaes.  more  than  usually  prevalent,  in  conse- 
quence of  the  frequent  wet  feet  and  wet 
clothes  of  the  workers  engaged  in  deal- 
ing with  the  flax,  which  has  to  be  left  to  soak  in 
stagnant  water. 

"  In  the  preparing  and  carding  departments,  how- 
ever, the  mischief  is  even  more  serious,  for  there  the 
dust  which  is  inhaled  is  so  fine  and  of  such  an  irritat- 
ing character  that,  according  to  Dr.  Arlidge,  in  the 
vast  majority  of  instances  it  produces  lung  disease ; 
so  that  a  woman  who  starts  carding  at  17  or  18  usually 
begins  to  break  up  at  30. 

"The  chemical  laborers — such,  for  instance,  as  are 
employed  in  the  works  of  the  United  Alkali  Company, 
and  who  are  picked  from  the  very  strongest  and  most 
splendidly  built  men  to  be  found — do  not  live  as  a  rule 
to  be  48. 

"Glass-blowers,  who  are  exposed  to  more  than  tropi- 
cal heat,  when  still  under  40  years  of  age  are  pale  and 
thin,  prematurely  old  and  worn  out,  and  suffer  from 
headache  and  giddiness,  great  prostration,  and  occa- 
sional blindness. 

"It  is  amply  proved  that  'only  by  a  compulsory  re- 
duction of  ho'urs  can  adequate  relief  be  obtained  for 
the  chemical  workers.'  Plumbers  and  painters  suffer 
from  a  high  death-rate,  which  is  mainly  determined  by 
their  liability  to  lead-poisoning.  And  we  know  that 
printers,  tailors,  shop  assistants,  bakers,  and  book- 
binders often  work  in  so  close  and  vitiated  an  atmos- 
phere that  their  health  is  impaired  and  their  lives  are 
shortened. 

"  Another  dangerous  industry  is  the  trade  of  fur- 
cape-making,  which  is  carried  on  by  women  in  private 
workshops.  The  characteristics  of  this  trade  are  the 
existence  of  an  offensive  smell,  prejudicial  to  health, 
arising  from  the  skin  of  the  animals  used  in  trade,  and 
also  the  constant  presence  in  the  atmosphere  of  an 
irritating  fluff,  which  invades  the  nostrils  and  air-pas- 
sages and  hinders  respiration. 

"Again,  artificial-no wer-makers  suffer  much  from 
the  strain  upon  their  organs  of  sight  caused  by  the 
making  of  white  flowers  at  night  by  gaslight.  Chronic 
inflamed  eyelids  are  common  with  them,  as  a  conse- 
quence of  using  the  dry  colored  dust  which  surrounds 
them  while  they  work.  And  the  life  is  so  trying  that 
before  they  reach  the  age  of  40  they  are  prematurely 
old  and  worn  out. 

"  Again,  in  the  china  trade,  the  dust  is  extremely 
injurious  to  the  health  of  the  china  scourers  and  tow- 
ers. This  dust  consists  of  extremely  minute  particles 
of  flint,  the  jagged  edges  of  which  injure  the  lungs. 
The  towers,  whose  business  it  is  to  put  a  fine  surface 
on  the  revolving  plate  by  means  of  sandpaper,  are  ex- 
posed to  the  constant  play  of  the  clay  dust.  '  It  is 
rare  to  find  a  woman  who  has  worked'  for  any  time 
either  as  a  tower  or  china  scourer  who  is  free  from 
respiratory  troubles.'  The  scourers,  who  are  always 
women,  and  the  rougher,  more  ignorant  and  reckless 
of  their  sex,  have  to  brush  and  beat  off  the  dust  from 
the  chinaware  after  its  removal  from  the  saggars. 
Statistics  tell  us  that  the  percentage  of  deaths  in 
phthisis  and  respiratory  diseases  among  all  classes  of 


male  workers  in  the  potteries  is  three  times  as  great 
as  among  all  other  adult  male  workers. 

"  Speaking  of  the  potter's  trade,  Dr.  Arlidge  writes 
(p.  177)  thus  :  '  All  who  deal  with  the  clay  suffer  more  or 
less.  Potter's  dust  does  not  kill  suddenly,  but  settles, 
year  after  year,  a  little  more  firmly  into  the  lungs,  un- 
til at  length  a  case  of  plaster  is  "formed.  Breathing 
becomes  more  and  more  difficult  and  depressed,  and 
finally  ceases.'  " 

For  conditions  in  still  other  trades  we  turn  to 
an  account  prepared  by  Mr.  Vaughan  Nash,  and 
published  in  the  Cooperative  Wholesale  An- 
nual for  1893.  Of  the  Sheffield  cuttlery  trade, 
he  says  : 

"Every  one  is  proud  of  Sheffield,  and  its  manufac- 
turers boast  that  wherever  the  British  flag  flies  there  is 
Sheffield  trade  ;  and  when  it  flies  for  •war,  Sheffield 
steel  is  not  far  off.  It  has  a  school  of  protection  of  its 
own  for  Sheffield  goods,  so  keen  is  the  pride  it  takes  in 
its  cutlery.  But  what  a  life  the  Sheffield  workman 
lives  who  earns  his  bread  at  the  grindstone  !  Here  is 
what  the  medical  officer  for  Sheffield  says  about  the 
place  where  these  men  live  and  work : 

" '  Houses  of  the  poorest  description,  with  damp  walls 
and  cellars,  in  many  instances  standing  several  inches 
deep  in  water,  contaminated  with  sewage  and  giving 
out  foul  gases  into  the  rooms  above  ;  courts  confined 
and  occupied  by  large,  sodden  privy-middens  so  near 
to  the  dwellings  that  ventilation  becomes  impossible 
and  absolutely  dangerous ;  sink  pipes  discharging  in 
the  channels,  usually  defective,  and  allowing  the  slops 
to  form  stagnating  pools  before  reaching  the  gullies 
which  are  situated  often  50  yards  away ;  or,  what  is 
worse,  permitting  of  percolation  into  the  soil  of  the 
yard.  All  these  conditions  exist  in  many  parts  of  the 
district,  and  no  doubt  are  largely  accountable  for  the 
high  death-rate.  At  present  almost  every  available 
foot  of  ground  is  occupied,  if  not  by  houses  by  privies, 
stables,  or  outhouses  ;  the  air  is  stagnant  and  the  ground 
polluted  with  sewage  and  decomposing  matter. 

"  Hundreds  of  these  wretched  jerry-built  slum  houses 
have  been  turned  into  workshops  in  which  the  grinders 
and  cutlers  stoop  over  their  wheels.  Somewhere  in  the 
court  a  gas  engine  is  working,  and  a  network  of  bands 
are  connected  with  the  wheels  which 
whiz  around  in  every  dark  hole  and 
corner  that  they  can  be  squeezed  into.  Cutlery 
You  go  up  rickety  ladders  into  lofts  Trade. 
where  the  boards  are  worn  and  covered 
with  an  ancient  grime  of  steel  and  stone 
particles  of  file  dust  and  filth.  Here  you  will  find 
women  finishing  off  the  men's  work.  Very  likely  the 
water  comes  through  the  roof  when  it  rains  and  lays 
the  dust.  The  grinders  and  cutlers  rent  these  places. 
They  enjoy  the  privilege  of  freedom,  which,  in  this 
case,  is  one  of  the  strangest  and  most  ghastly  priv- 
ileges men  could  claim.  They  have  their  own  wheels 
and  their  own  tools.  They  pay  so  much  rent  for  the 
place,  so  much  rent  for  the  gas,  and  so  much  rent  for 
the  power  ;  meanwhile,  the  manufacturer,  so  called, 
sits  in  his  warehouse  or  office  giving  out  steel  in  the 
rough,  first  to  the  forger,  who  passes  it  to  the  grinder, 
and  so  on  to  the  polisher  and  finisher  until  the  round  is 
completed  and  the  finished  stuff  comes  back  into  the 
other  door  'warranted  best  Sheffield  cutlery.'  The 
trade  is  a  highly  skilled  one,  and  the  work  is  extremely 
hard.  The  wages  run  from  i6s.  for  light  grinders,  to 
255.  for  heavy  grinders.  The  wages  of  Sheffield  are 
literally  death.  The  lungs  of  the  cutler  and  grinder 
get  charged  in  the  course  of  time  with  the  metallic 
particles  given  off  during  their  work,  and  they  contract 
that  form  of  phthisis  locally  known  as  '  grinder's  rot.1 
These  particles,  owing  to  their  mineral  constitution  and 
sharp  jagged  outline,  are  peculiarly  harmful,  and  at 
last  the  lungs  can  stand  it  no  longer  and  cease  work. 


Grinders  died  from  all  causes  99 

Grinders  died  from  phthisis  and  respiratory  dis- 
eases    58 

Cutlers  died  from  all  causes 156 

Cutlers  died  from  phthisis  and  respiratory  dis- 
eases    73 


Grinders  died  from  all  causes 101 

Grinders  died  from  phthisis  and  respiratory  dis- 
eases    64 

Cutlers  died  from  all  causes 130 

Cutlers  died  from  phthisis  and  respiratory  dis- 
eases    59 


Dangerous  Trades. 


462 


Danton,  George  Jacques. 


Grinders  died  from  all  causes 131 

Grinders  died  from  phthisis  and  respiratory  dis- 
eases    92 

Cutlers  died  from  all  causes 171 

Cutlers  died  from  phthisis  and  respiratory  dis- 
eases     08 


Grinders  died  from  all  causes 121 

Grinders  died  from  phthisis  and  respiratory  dis- 
eases    87 

Cutlers  died  from  all  causes 147 

Cutlers  died  from  phthisis  and  respiratory  dis- 
eases     77 

"  If  the  131  grinders  who  died  in  the  year  1890  had 
shown  the  average  health  conditions  of  the  country, 
not  92  but  27  ought  to  have  died  from  phthisis  and  res- 
piratory diseases.  The  figures  show  how  terribly 
terge  is  the  proportion  of  these  diseases  to  the  total 
number  of  deaths,  and  yet  Dr.  Littlejohn,  the  Medical 
Officer  of  Health,  asserts  that  they  fall  far  short  of  the 
actual  facts,  as  many  workmen  at  the  cutlery  trade 
when  their  health  begins  to  fail  go  into  some  lighter 
occupation,  under  which  their  deaths  are  registered." 

Of  another  trade  he  says  : 

"  In  the  alkali  works  we  come  across  an  entirely  dif- 
ferent class  of  labor.  With  the  exception  of  the  men 
employed  in  the  construction  of  public  works,  there  is 
probably  no  finer  set  of  workmen  to  be 
found  in  the  country  than  those  in  the 
Alkali  employment  of  the  great  corporation 
Wnrka  known  as  the  United  Alkali  Company, 
wur&s.  This  company  has  acquired  nearly  all 
the  chemical  works  in  the  country,  and 
it  employs  something  like  20,000  men. 
The  conditions  under  which  these  men  work  have 
been  so  fully  brought  before  the  public  of  late  in  the 
press  and  before  the  labor  commission,  that  it  is  un- 
necessary to  deal  with  their  case  at  length.  A  distinc- 
tive feature  about  the  trade  is  that  it  wears  out  the 
workmen  prematurely  because  of  the  intensity  of  the 
toil,  the  alternations  of  heat  and  chill,  and  most  of  all 
the  exposure  to  noxious  vapors.  The  traveler  who 
passes  through  Widnes,  even  in  an  express  train, 
draws  up  the  window  to  keep  out  the  choking  sul- 
phurous fumes.  These  centers  of  the  chemical  in- 
dustry are  in  truth  '  hell-holes  '  for  those  who  have  to 
live  and  work  in  them.  Taking  one  week  with  another, 
most  of  the  men  do  their  12  hours  a  day  in  the  works, 
and  taking  one  man  with  another,  their  life  is  over  by 
the  time  they  are  47.*  The  gases  and  vapors  which  do 
the  mischief  bring  on  bronchitis,  and  in  the  winter- 
time the  hospitals  and  workhouses  are  full  of  patients 
from  the  chemical  works.  The  men  who  work  on  what 
is  called  '  salt-cake '  have  their  teeth  rotted  away  in 
the  course  of  time  by  the  hydrochloric  acid  {jas  ;  others 
suffer  from  contact  with  vitriol  ;  others  again  do  their 
work  in  air  which  is  filled  with  stinging  caustic  ;  the 
men  in  the  *  lime-house  '  constantly  get  burned  by  the 
action  of  the  perspiration  of  the  lime  particles  which 
settle  on  their  bodies ;  and  worst  of  all,  bleaching- 
powder  men  suffer  daily  semi-suffocation  and  bodily 
torture  of  a  dreadful  kind  in  the  chlorine  chambers, 
which  they  enter  with  their  mouths  swathed  with  a 
huge  protuberance  of  flannel.  Nothing  could  be  more 
barbarous  and  crude  than  the  labor  conditions  in  these 
works." 

In  the  United  States  the  reports  of  the  New 
Jersey  Bureau  of  Labor  Statistics  for  1889,  1890, 
and  1891  are  almost  the  only  adequate  study  of 
dangerous  trades.  These  reports  study  the  pot- 
tery, hat-making,  and  glass-blowing  trades. 
Of  the  pot-makers,  the  investigator  says  he  has 
seen  the  decay  of  three  generations  within  40 
years.  Among  the  hatters,  out  of  240  sizers  or 
makers,  76  had  catarrh,  44  rheumatism,  41 
coughs,  17  had  had  and  13  then  had  "  the 
shakes,"  12  constantly  caught  cold,  7  were  dys- 
peptics. The  workmen  paid  little  attention  to 
the  conditions  under  which  they  worked  ;  200  of 

*  I  make  this  statement  on  the  authority  of  the  medi- 
cal officer  of  health  for  St.  Helen's,  who  has  kindly 
supplied  me  with  the  figures. 


the  number  used  tobacco  or  stimulants  in  some 
form. 

In  the  United  States  one  of  the  most  danger- 
ous trades  is  work  upon  railways,  particularly  the 
work  of  brakemen,  in  coupling  and  uncoupling 
cars  not  provided  with  modern  couplings,  and  on 
walking  on  freight  cars  without  proper  defenses. 
During  the  year  ending  June,  1892,  there  were 
2554  employees  killed  and  28,268  injured,  which 
is  i  for  every  29  employed.  Ot  trainmen,  i  man 
was  killed  for  every  113  employed,  and  i  was 
injured  for  every  10  employed  {hiterstate  Com- 
merce Commission  Report,  1892,  pp.  68,  73,  78). 

For  statistics  as  to  mortality  in  different 
trades  and  the  difference  between  the  death- 
rates  of  the  working  class  communities  and 
wealthy  communities,  see  DEATH-RATES.  For 
the  dangers  of  machinery  to  the  life  and  limb 
of  children,  see  CHILD  LABOR,  section  "  United 
States." 

References :  Dr.  Arlidge's  The  Diseases  of  Occupa- 
tions (1892) ;  New  Jersey  l^abor  Reports  (1889-91).  (See 
also  DEATH-RATES  and  CHILD  LABOR.) 

DANTE  AND  SOCIAL  REFORM  (1265- 
1321). — The  great  Italian  poet  we  consider  here 
simply  in  his  influence  on  the  social  movement 
of  his  day.  But  this  was  not  small.  As  is  well 
known,  he  took  an  eager  part  in  public  affairs. 
Altho  of  a  family  traditionally  Guelph,  he  was 
a  Ghibelline,  favoring  the  Empire  against  the 
Church,  and  therefore,  for  what  he  believed  to 
be  the  deepest  good  of  Florence  and  Italy,  op- 
posing the  popular  party.  It  was  as  a  result  of 
the  strife  and  intrigues  arising  out  of  this  con- 
troversy that  he  was  expelled  from  Florence, 
and  given  the  bitter,  sad,  noble  life  out  of  which 
has  come  his  great,  mystic,  and  unfathomable 
song.  His  one  great  work  on  social  themes  is 
his  De  Monarc/tia,  written  in  Latin  in  rigid 
dialectical  method,  perhaps  about  1302,  tho  more 
probably  later.  In  any  case,  it  represents  his 
mature  Ghibelline  views.  He  asks  three  great 
questions  concerning  the  Roman  Empire  (De 
Monarchia,  I.,  II.)  :  i.  Whether  it  was  neces- 
sary for  the  welfare  of  the  world.  2.  Whether 
the  Roman  people  took  to  itself  by  right  the 
office  of  monarchy  or  empire.  3.  Whether  the 
authority  of  monarchy  comes  from  God  directly 
or  only  from  some  other  minister  or  vicar  of 
God.  He  believes  that  the  authority  of  the  em- 
pire came  from  God  direct ;  he  advocates  the 
theory  which  became  the  ruling  thought  of  the 
Middle  Ages,  and  which  has  affected  all  Euro- 
pean history — that  the  empire  and  the  Church 
are  two  parallel  coordinate  powers,  both  divine, 
both  owing  respect,  but  neither  owing  obedience, 
to  the  other.  It  is  this  ideal  that  is  revived  in 
the  German  ideal  advocated  by  Bismarck — e.g., 
of  the  Christian  State.  (See  GERMANY.) 

DANTON,  GEORGE  JACQUES,  was  born 
in  France  at  Arcis-sur-Aube,  in  1759.  Of  a  re- 
spectable family,  he  received  a  good  education 
and  entered  the  practice  of  the  law  in  Paris. 
Of  radical  views,  he  was  one  of  the  leaders  of 
the  club  of  the  Cordeliers,  which  was  from  the 
first  the  center  of  the  extreme  popular  party  in 
the  French  Revolution.  Danton  became  promi- 
nent in  the  Revolution  in  1792.  He  is  credited 
with  instigating  the  rising  of  the  bloody  insur- 


Danton,  George  Jacques. 


463 


Death  Penalty. 


rection  of  August  10  of  that  year,  which  began 
the  Reign  of  Terror.  The  next  day  he  was 
raised  to  the  post  of  Minister  of  Justice.  On 
September  2,  when  Paris  was  in  a  panic,  Dan- 
ton  made  a  bold,  powerful  speech  in  the  Assem- 
bly, closing  with  the  words,  "  Dare,  dare  again, 
and  forever  dare."  That  evening  several  hun- 
dred prisoners  were  massacred  in  the  prisons. 
His  admirers  claim  that  Danton  adopted  this  at- 
titude because  he  believed  that  a  little  audacity 
on  the  part  of  the  people  then  would  really  in 
the  end  most  preserve  life  as  well  as  liberty. 
As  a  member  of  the  convention  he  joined  the 
Mountain,  as  the  extremists  were  called,  and 
voted  for  the  death  of  the  king.  He  was  promi- 
nent in  the  establishment  of  the  revolutionary 
tribunal  ;  was  a  member  of  the  Committee  of 
Public  Safety  ;  aided  in  overthrowing  the  Giron- 
dists (q.v.)  ;  but  was  not  a  member  of  the  new 
Committee  of  Public  Safety,  being  unable  to  ap- 
prove their  excesses.  He  could  not,  however, 
prevent  them,  and  fell  into  a  sort  of  apathy  till 
at  last  Robespierre  moved  against  Danton.  He 
was  brought  before  the  Tribunal,  sentenced  and 
guillotined  April  5,  1794. 

Reference :  Gronlund's  Ca  Ira,  or  Danton  in  the 
French  Revolution,  gives  the  favorable  view  of  Dan- 
ton.  (See  also  FRENCH  REVOLUTION.) 


DARKEST  ENGLAND  SCHEME. 

SALVATION  ARMY. 


See 


DARWINISM.  See  EVOLUTION  AND  SO- 
CIAL REFORM. 

DAVITT,  MICHAEL,  was  born  of  poor 
Irish  peasants,  in  1846,  in  the  village  of  Straide. 
Mayo  County.  When  five  years  old  he  saw  his 
parents  evicted  from  their  home.  The  family 
emigrating  to  Lancashire,  he  was  employed  in 
a  cotton  mill,  and  at  the  age  of  n  lost  his  right 
arm  through  a  machinery  accident.  He  then 
attended  school  at  Harlingden  until  15,  when 
he  obtained  work  in  a  printing-office,  remain- 
ing seven  years.  He  joined  the  Irish  movement 
in  1866,  and  was  arrested  on  charge  of  treason 
in  1870,  and  sentenced  to  15  years  of  penal  servi- 
tude. After  seven  and  a  half  years  he  was  re- 
leased on  ticket  of  leave.  After  a  tour  of  the 
west  of  Ireland  and  a  visit  to  America,  he  re- 
turned to  his  native  country.  In  1879  he  start- 
ed the  land  agitation,  and  in  conjunction  with 
Mr.  Parnell  and  others  founded  the  Land 
League  ;  and  because  of  his  connection  with 
this  movement  has  endured  nine  years'  impris- 
onment. His  third  arrest  was  in  November, 
1879,  when  a  week's  imprisonment  followed. 
He  was  again  arrested  February  3,  1881,  on 
revocation  of  his  ticket  of  leave,  but  after  15 
months  was  again  released  on  ticket  of  leave, 
and  was  accorded  a  reception  by  Mr.  Parnell 
and  the  Irish  leaders.  In  February,  1883,  he 
was  once  more  arrested  for  a  speech  against  rent 
and  landlordism,  and  was  incarcerated  four 
months.  While  in  prison  in  Portland  in  1882  he 
was  elected  M.  P.  for  Meath,  but  was  disquali- 
fied by  vote  of  the  House  of  Commons.  He 
also  wrote,  while  in  prison  at  Portland,  Leaves 
from  a  Prison  Diary,  publishing  it  in  Decem- 
ber, 1884. 

In  1880  he  superintended  the  organization  of 
the  American  branch  of  the  Land  League,  mak- 


ing a  tour  from  New  York  to  San  Francisco  and 
back.  He  had  the  chief  direction  of  the  Land 
League  funds  during  the  famine  of  1879-80. 
He  is  a  constant  contributor  to  American  and 
colonial  newspapers,  and  Irish  and  English  re- 
views and  journals.  He  has  pronounced  views 
on  land  nationalization,  and  has  not  only  writ- 
ten in  its  advocacy,  but  has  made  many  speeches 
in  its  favor.  He  is  almost  the  only  one  of  the 
Irish  leaders  who  does  thus  advocate  industrial 
as  well  as  political  reforms.  In  1890  Mr.  Davitt, 
siding  with  Mr.  Gladstone,  demanded  the  re- 
tirement of  Mr.  Parnell  (q.v.)  because  of  his 
proven  immorality,  Mr.  Davitt  believing  that 
this  was  the  only  way  to  save  the  Home  Rule 
cause.  The  conflict  in  the  Irish  Party  and  in 
,  Ireland  became  bitter,  but  Mr.  Davitt  found  a 
large  following,  and  in  1892  was  returned  to  the 
House  of  Commons  as  member  for  North  Meath. 
In  the  late  election  (1895)  he  was  again  returned. 

DEAF  AND  DUMB  INSTITUTIONS.— 

The  first  public  institution  for  the  deaf  was 
opened  in  London,  England,  in  1792,  tho  in  1760 
Abbe  de  1'Epee,  in  Paris,  and  Thomas  Braid- 
wood,  in  Edinburgh,  had  gotten  together  classes 
of  the  deaf  and  dumb.  The  first  institution  of 
the  kind  in  America  was  opened  at  Hartford, 
Conn.,  in  1817,  owing  to  the  efforts  of  Dr. 
Gallaudet.  To-day  there  are  in  the  United  States 
49  public  boarding-schools  for  the  deaf,  12  pub- 
lic day-schools,  and  19  private  schools,  with  757 
instructors  and  9104  pupils.  In  England  and 
Wales  in  1881  there  were  2713  deaf-mute  chil- 
dren at  school,  with  22  public  institutions  and 
many  private  ones.  Germany  had  90  schools  ; 
France,  60 ;  Italy,  55  ;  Europe  and  America  over 
300.  The  aim  of  these  schools  is  to  teach  sign 
language,  finger  speech,  writing,  oral  speech, 
general  education,  and  useful  arts.  Their  suc- 
cess has  been  among  the  marvels  of  science  and 
humanity. 

DEATH  PENALTY.— The  infliction  of  the 
death  penalty  has  existed  among  all  peoples  and 
in  all  times.  Only  recently  has  there  been  any 
serious  agitation  for  its  abandonment.  In  the 
earliest  times  and  through  the  Middle  Ages  it 
was  often  accompanied  with  the  most  terrible 
tortures  that  the  mind  of  man  could  conceive. 
Death  on  the  wheel,  by  quartering,  by  flaying 
alive,  by  burning,  by  crucifixion,  by  immersion 
in  boiling  oil,  by  disemboweling — these  were  but 
a  few  of  the  simpler  methods.  The  death  pen- 
alty was  in  former  times  inflicted  for  all  manner 
of  crimes.  It  was  once  the  ordinary  punishment 
for  all  felonies  ;  in  England  it  was  the  certain 
doom  of  all  who  could  not  avail  themselves  of 
benefit  of  clergy — i.e.,  it  was  inflicted  on  all 
who  could  not  write.  Moreover ,  numerous  acts 
of  Parliament  created  felonies  without  benefit 
of  clergy.  Things  grew  worse  rather  than  bet- 
ter. Llorente  estimates  the  number  that  were 
buried  alive  under  the  Inquisition  alone  at 
31,912.  Rowe  divides  this  by  10.  Protestant 
England  has  her  shame.  Blackstone  mentions 
160  offenses  as  punishable  by  death.  Four  fifths 
of  these  had  been  added  during,  the  reign  of  the 
first  three  Georges.  Among  these  offenses  were 
stealing  in  dwelling-houses  to  the  amount  of 
4os.  ;  stealing  in  a  shop  to  the  value  ol  5$.  , 


Death  Penalty. 


464 


Death-Rate. 


counterfeiting  stamps  used  in  the  sale  of  hair 
powder  and  perfumery.  In  the  latter  part  of 
the  reign  of  George  III.,  due  to  the  efforts  of 
Sir  Samuel  Romilly,  much  of  this  was  abol- 
ished. Yet  has  capital  punishment  been  defend- 
ed in  all  times  and  by  the  greatest  philoso- 
Ehers.  The  Mosaic  and  the  Germanic  law  al- 
>wed  retaliation — a  life  for  a  life.  Plato  argued 
only  for  its  limitation  to  incorrigible  culprits, 
to  whom  life  was  not  the  most  advantageous 
state,  and  whose  death  would  serve  the  public 
good.  Grotius  treats  the  question  from  a  relig- 
ious point  of  view,  basing  his  argument  on  the 
laws  of  Moses.  Montesquieu  defends  it  as  a 
sort  of  retaliation  by  society,  based  on  the  na- 
ture of  things.  Rousseau,  following  Hobbes, 
defends  it  on  the  ground  that  the  criminal  is  a 
rebel  to  the  social  contract.  Kant  says  that  in 
the  social  contract  man  consents  to  the  penal 
law,  and  so  can  be  put  to  death.  Beccaria 
(g.v.),  in  his  Es say  on  Crimes  and  Punishments 
(i775).  was  the  first  to  argue  for  its  total  disuse. 
He  did  so  on  the  ground  that  society  had  no 
right  to  take  away  life,  since  it  did  not  give  life, 
and  that  it  was  not  the  punishment  most  deter- 
rent to  crime.  Bentham  argued  that  it  was  the 
most  deterrent.  Romilly  argued  that  if  it  is  not 
the  supreme  penalty,  and  society  has  the  right 
to  inflict  worse  penalty,  it  surely  has  that  right. 
The  main  arguments  for  capital  punishment 
have  been  based  on  the  absolute  justice  of  de- 
manding life  for  life,  on  Scripture  warrants, 
and,  above  all,  on  the  asserted  teaching  of  ex- 
perience that  the  death  penalty  is  actually  the 
most  deterrent  punishment,  and  therefore  the 
most  effective.  Men  have  striven  to  show  that 
where  the  death  penalty  has  been  abolished 
murder  has  decreased.  This,  on  the  other  hand, 
is  strenuously  denied  ;  and  the  argument  against 
the  death  penalty  is  based  on  the  denial  of  the 
right  of  the  State  to  take  life,  on  Christian  char- 
ity, and,  above  all,  on  the  claim  that  it  works 
evil,  brutalizes  the  community,  making  it  think 
life  cheap,  even  adding  a  horrible  fascination  to 
murder,  and  delivering  juries  from  convicting 
murderers,  etc. 

In  the  United  States  the  death  penalty  may 
be  given  in  most  States  for  treason,  murder, 
arson,  rape,  piracy,  robbery  of  the  mails  with 
jeopardy  to  life,  rescue  of  a  convict  going  to 
execution,  burning  a  vessel  of  war,  and  corrupt- 
ly destroying  a  private  vessel.  It  has  been  abol- 
ished in  Michigan  (1846),  Wisconsin  (1852), 
Rhode  Island  (1852),  Iowa  (1877),  Maine  (1887), 
and  New  York ;  but  has  been  restored  in 
Iowa  and  New  York.  In  1888  the  latter  State 
substituted  death  by  electricity  for  hang- 
ing. 

In  Europe  it  seems  going  out  of  use.  In  Hoi- 
land  there  have  been  no  executions  since  1860, 
and  the  penalty  was  abolished  in  1870.  In 
Roumania  it  was  abolished  in  1864  ;  Portugal  has 
done  the  same.  Switzerland  did  so  in  1 874,  but 
murders  increasing,  in  1879  the  cantons  re- 
established it  where  the  canton  so  votes.  It  re- 
mains abolished  in  15  cantons.  From  1870-79, 
of  805  persons  sentenced  to  death  in  Austria, 
only  16  were  executed  ;  in  Sweden,  only  3  out 
of  32  ;  in  Norway,  3  out  of  14  ;  in  Denmark,  i 
out  of  94  ;  in  Bavaria,  out  of  249  committed  for 
murder,  only  7  were  executed.  In  North  Ger- 


many, from  1869-78,  1301  were  convicted  of 
homicide,  484  sentenced,  but  only  i  executed — 
Hodel,  who  attempted  the  assassination  of  the 
Emperor.  The  death  penalty  for  political  crimes 
is  all  but  universally  abolished.  The  French 
Revolution  of  1830  declared  for  this,  and  it  was 
abolished  in  France  by  the  Constitution  of  No- 
vember 4,  1848,  and  the  law  of  June  8,  1850.  In 
Russia  it  has  been  retained  only  for  treason  and 
military  insubordination.  For  the  principles  in- 
volved, see  PENOLOGY. 

References  :  A.  J.  Palm's  The  Death  Penalty  (Ques-^ 
tions  of  tfte  Day  Series,  1891) ;  Basil  Montagu's  On 
the  Punishment  of  Death  (1809-13)  ;  Memoirs  of  Sir  S. 
Romilly  (1840)  ;  Jeremy  Bentham's  Rationale  of  Piin- 
ishment  (1830) ;  Report  of  Select  Committee  on  Capital 
Punishment,  New  York  State  Assembly  (1851) ;  Bec- 
caria's  Essays  on  Crimes  and  Punishments  (1775). 


DEATH-RATE.— For  the  subject  of  death- 
rate  and  of  birth-rate  compared  together,  see 
the  article  BIRTH  AND  DEATH-RATES,  prepared 
for  this  cyclopedia  by  Dr.  S.  W.  Abbott,  of  the 
Massachusetts  State  Board  of  Health.  We  give 
in  this  article  some  supplementary  information 
gathered  from  various  sources.  The  report  of 
the  Registrar-General  of  England  for  1893  gives 
the  following  table  of  the  death-rate  of  different 
countries  per  1000  of  the  population  (excluding 
the  still-born) : 


AVERAGE, 

1871-90. 

1893- 

1891. 

1892. 

Hungary  (15  years).... 
Austria  
Italy  

33-7 
30.6 
28.6 
26.0 
25.6 
22.8 

33-1 
27.9 
26.2 
23-4 
22.9 

35-o 
28.8 
26.3 
24.1 
23  4 

31-1 

33-3 
24.fi 

24.3 

Germany  (19  years)  
Prussia  

France  

Holland  

22.6 
22.1 
21.4 
20-4 
20-3 
ig.Q 
19.0 

18.0 
17.6 
16.9 

20.7 

20.8 
21.  0 
20.7 
20.  2 
2O.  O 
2O.  O 
18.4 

16.8 
i7-5 

21.0 

19-3 
21.8 
I8.S 
I9.O 
19.0 
19.4 
19.4 
17.9 
17.8 

19.9 
20.5 

SKJ-3 

19.4 
19.2 
19.1 
18.9 
17.9 

ie:; 

Switzerland  

Belgium  

Scotland  

England  and  Wales  — 
United  Kingdom  

Ireland  

Sweden  
Norway     

Concerning  the  death-rate  of  the  United 
States,  Professor  Mayo-Smith  (Statistics  and 
Sociology,  pp.  148,  133,)  says  : 

"  The  death-rate  in  the  United  States  is  very 
difficult  to  estimate,  owing  to  the  absence  in 
most  of  the  States  on  any  adequate  registration. 
The  total  number  of  deaths  reported  as  having 
occurred  in  1890  was  875,521,  giving  a  death- 
rate  of  only  13.98  per  1000.  In  some  States  and 
cities  the  registration  returns  were  used,  and 
there  we  have  a  death-rate  of  20.27  Per  1OO°  • 
while  in  those  States  where  the  returns  of  the 
enumerators  of  the  Eleventh  Census  were  alone 
used,  the  death-rate  was  only  10.79  Per  1000. 
Estimating  the  returns  as  deficient  by  30  per 
cent. ,  we  have  a  death-rate  for  the  whole  coun- 
try of  about  1 8  per  1000.  .  .  . 

"The  census  of  1890  gives  a  death-rate  of 


Death-Rate. 


465 


Death- Rate. 


17  for  native-born  whites  of  native  parentage  ; 
24.42   for  native-born  whites  of    foreign  par- 
ents ;  19. 85  for  foreign-born  whites  ; 
and  19.57  for  the  colored.     The  ex- 
United      cessive  rate  among  the  native-born 
States.       whites  of  foreign  parentage  is  due 
to  the  large  number  of  children  in 
that  class.     The  death-rate  of  the 
colored  is  a  trifle  less  than  that  of  all  the  whites  ; 
but  in  the  cities  the  death-rate  of  the  colored  is 
34.52,  while  that  of  the  whites  is  23.22. 

' '  Jews  show  everywhere  a  small  death-rate. 
Thus  in  Bavaria  in  1876  the  death-rate  for  Prot- 


estants was  25.5  ;  for  Catholics,  32.2  ;  for  Jews, 
1 8. 8  ;  average  for  the  whole  country,  30.3.  The 
low  rate  for  Jews  is  due  partly  to  their  lower 
birth-rate.  In  Prussia  it  was  shown  that  while 
they  were  13.25  per  mille  of  the  population,  they 
were  only  7.28  per  mille  of  those  dying  over  the 
average  of  15.  This  shows  the  preponderance 
of  the  Jews  in  the  upper  age  class. ' ' 

The  mortality  in  various  American  States  and 
cities  can  be  seen  by  the  following  table  of 
deaths  in  the  census  year  1889-90,  based  on 
the  returns  prepared  for  the  World  Almanac, 
1892  (p.  167),  by  the  Census  Office  : 


STATES  AND  TERRITORIES. 


Deaths. 


WHITE.* 


Native 
Born. 


Foreign 
Born. 


Colored. 


UNDER  FIVE  YEARS  OF 
AGE. 


White. 


Colored. 


Alabama 20,898 

Arizona 573 

Arkansas. 14,391 

California 171703 

Colorado  5i4S3 

Connecticut 14,47° 

Delaware   3.107 

District  of  Columbia 5,955 

Florida....   4,145 

Georgia 21,174 

Idaho 711 

Illinois L 53,123 

Indiana 24,180 

Iowa I7,52I 

Kansas  12,018 

Kentucky 23,877 

Loui  siana ...  16,354 

Maine 10,044 

Maryland 18,000 

Massachusetts 45,112 

Michigan 25,016 

Minnesota 15,488 

Mississippi 14,899 

Missoun 32,435 

Montana 1,012 

Nebraska 8,445 

Nevada 434 

New  Hampshire 7,074 

New  Jersey 3°,344 

New  Mexico 2,523 

New  York 123,117 

North  Carolina 18,420 

North  Dakota 1,716 

Ohio  49,844 

Oklahoma ..  352 

Oregon 2,575 

Pennsylvania 73,53° 

Rhode  Island 7,559 

South  Carolina J5,495 

South  Dakota 2,705 

Tennessee 23,854 

Texas 26,478 

Utah 2,118 

Vermont 5,425 

Virginia 23,232 

Washington 2,695 

West  Virginia 8,275 

Wisconsin 18,662 

Wyoming 414 

Totals t872,Q44 


9,215 
301 
10,089 
10,605 
3,929 
i°,733 
2,066 
2,512 
2,108 
9,356 
522 
39,336 
20,505 
13,381 
9.593 
17,446 

<5,953 

8,590 
11,279 
32,747 
18,117 
10,389 

5,834 

24,499 

625 

<S59i 
217 

5,704 
22,227 

2,234 
85,592 
10,886 

1,067 


302 

1,959 
56,401 

5,344 
4,73° 
1,869 

15,229 

18,096 
1,488 
4,556 

u,  600 
1,75° 
7,223 

11,508 
258 


320 
169 
274 

5,286 
921 

3,182 
241 
522 
176 
269 

">5 

11,650 
2,185 
3,221 
1,321 


1,164 
2,012 
n,327 
5,746 
4,775 

177 
4,005 

272 
1,451 

181 

849 


33,  '48 

69 

593 

8,151 

IS 

386 

12,648 

1,939 

178 

733 

428 

1,841 

574 

575 

400 

512 

328 

6,493 

95 


10,591 

3° 

3.627 
1,281 

86 

3°9 
695 

2,893 

1,806 

10,971 

34 

1,031 

862 

162 

701 

4,479 

7,716 

34 

4,421 

630 

412 

98 

8,560 

2,794 

26 

Qi 

20 
17 

1,344 
29 

1,903 

7>234 
4 

2,000 
20 
38 

2,383 
24 

10,448 
IT 

7,573 

5,190 
ii 

13 

10,819 
65 
5»9 
101 

7 


3,880 

130 
3,874 
4,234 
1,875 
4,188 

805 
1,054 

720 
3,667 

246 
20,795 
7,3r7 
5,187 
4,278 
6,789 
3>°94 
1,835 
5,346 
15,109 
8,267 
6,375 
2,095 
",390 

258 

3,570 

69 

1,809 
11,829 
1,014 
43,58o 
4,021 

763 

15,395 

133 

636 

24,824 

2,627 

1,767 

1,001 

5,363 
7,942 

837 

1,154 

3,937 

834 

2,724 

6,014 

127 


3-847 

1,168 

119 

32 

106 

282 

1,437 
642 

4.321 

2 

340 
298 

54 

248 

1,572 

2,592 

8 

1,981 
237 
127 

2,896 

1,105 

6 

33 

3 

642 
4 

715 
2,680 

6si 

5 
932 


3.7S6 
3 

2,754 
1,938 

2 

3 

3,999 

14 

178 

24 


596,055 


140,075 


"4,313 


264,784 


The  death-rate  of  each  State  and  of  each  por- 
tion of  the  community  can  be  ascertained  by 
comparing  the  number  of  deaths  with  the  popu- 
lation. (,See  POPULATION.)  But  before  compari- 


sons are  made,  see  the  caution  suggested  on 
page  469  ;  see  also  STATISTICS.  For  the  causes 
of  death  in  the  United  States,  see  the  next 
page. 


*  Including  birthplace  unknown  ;  total  number,  22,501. 
t  Exclusive  of  Indians  on  reservations. 


Death- Rate. 


466 


Death- Rate. 


DEATHS  IN  TWENTY-FIVE  PRINCIPAL  CITIES  IN  THE  CENSUS  YEAR  1889-90. 


CITIES. 

Total 
Deaths. 

WHITE. 

Col- 
ored. 

* 

<u 
Is 
M 

CITIES. 

Total 
Deaths. 

WHITE. 

Col- 
ored. 

* 

i 

"rt 
tf 

Na- 
tive 
Born. 

For- 
eign 
Born. 

Na- 
tive 
Born. 

For- 
eign 
Born. 

New  York,  N.  Y  
Chicago,  111  

4J,3?8 
23,162 
23.738 
2°,  593 
8,645 
11,117 
10,752 
7,060 
6,640 
5>736 
5,087 
6,875 
5,206 

27,141 

15,923 
16,837 
14,146 
50,300 
7,299 
6,616 
3,677 
4,437 
4,140 
3,502 
3,i98 
3,549 

14,747 
6,567 
5,36o 
5,990 
2,356 
3,462 
1,609 

2,573 
1,807 

1,444 
1,503 
1,294 
1,376 

062 
346 
i,3°9 
383 
935 
286 
2,450 
68  1 
386 
96 
40 
2,367 
232 

28.6 

21.  1 

22.6 

25-5 

19.1 
24.8 

24.7 

23.6 
22.3 

21.  9 

19.9 

28.4 

Washington,  D.  C.  .  . 
Detroit,  Mich  
Milwaukee,  Wis  
Newark,  N.  J  

5,955 
4,203 
3,942 
5,280 
2,440 
4,484 
3,5H 
1,397 
2,323 
2,240 

2,553 
2,955 

2,512 
2,871 
2,576 
3,737 
1,765 
3,"7 
1,962 
1,002 
1,526 
1,641 
1,643 
2,032 

522 
1,135 
1,286 
1,316 
598 
1,264 
606 
269 

7*5 
526 

323 
778 

2,893 
81 

12 

I9O 
26 

66 
917 
44 
4 
36 
469 
141 

25.8 
20.4 
19-3 
29.2 
14.8 

6.7 

Philadelphia,  Pa  
Brooklyn,  N.  Y  

St.  Louis,  Mo  

Minneapolis,  Minn  .. 
Jersey  City,  N.  J  
Louisville,  Ky  
Omaha,  Neb  

Boston,  Mass  

Baltimore,  Md  
San  Francisco,  Cal.. 
Cincinnati,  O  

Rochester,  N.  Y  
St  Paul  Minn 

Cleveland,  O  

Buffalo,  N.  Y  

Kansas  City,  Mo  
Providence,  R.  I  

New  Orleans,  La  ... 
Pittsburg,  Pa  

*  According  to  Census  Bulletin  on  Statistics  of  Cities. 


European 
Cities. 


Professor  Mayo-Smith  quotes  from  News- 
holme's  Vital  Statistics,  p.  143,  the  death-rate 
in  1887  for  all  England  and  Wales  as  IQ.I,  but 
for  28  large  towns,  20.8,  while  for 
Manchester  it  was  28.7  ;  Preston, 
27.9  ;  Newcastle,  25.3  ;  Brighton, 
16.9 ;  Derby,  17.1  ;  Nottingham, 
18.7  ;  London,  19.6  ;  Glasgow,  24.7. 
For  Germany,  he  quotes  the  Allge- 
meine  Statistische  Archiv,  1890,  p.  164,  with  a 
death-rate  in  1880-85  for  all  the  empire  of  27.2, 
with  a  high  rate  from  31.6  to  33.2  for  such  cities 
as  Munich,  Konigsberg,  and  Breslau,  while  in 
Frankfort  it  was  only  19.7  ;  Hanover,  21.9  ; 
Bremen,  21.8  ;  Stuttgart,  23.5  ;  Leipsic,  24.1 ;  Ber- 
lin, 27.8.  Mr.  A.  R.  Conkling,  however,  in  City 
Government  in  the  United  States,  says  that 
Berlin  has  reduced  her  death-rate  to  about  20. 
Mulhall  puts  the  death-rate  of  Paris  at  28.6. 

In  regard  to  infant  mortality,  the  Statistik  des 
Deutschen  Rezchs,  No.  44,  p.  71,  gives  the  fol- 
lowing table  (as  quoted  by  Professor  Mayo- 
Smith)  of  the  proportion  who  die  in  the  first  year 
out  of  each  100  born  living  : 


In  Bavaria . .   30 . 6 

European  Russia..  29.6 

West  Austria 25.6 

Italy 21.4 

Prussia 21.2 

Holland 20.3 


In  France 16.6 

Great  Britain 14.5 

Denmark 13.8 

Sweden 13.0 

Norway 10.4 

Ireland 9.7 


Concerning  the  causes  of  death,  the  World 
Almanac  gives  the  folio  wing  tables,  based  upon 
the  Eleventh  Census  for  the  United  States,  and 
upon  Mulhall  for  European  countries  : 

CAUSES  OF  DEATHS  IN  THE  UNITED  STATES 
IN  THE  CENSUS  YEAR  1889-90. 


Scarlet  fever 

Measles 

Whooping-cough 

Diphtheria  and  croup  

Enteric  fever 

Malarial  fever 

Diarrhoeal  fever 

Cancer  and  tumor 

Consumption 

Pneumonia 

Child-birth  and  puerperal  diseases. 


5,969 
9,256 
8,432 
41,677 
27,058 
i8,594 
74,7" 
20,984 
102,199 
76,496 
11,257 


CAUSES    OF    DEATHS    IN    EUROPEAN  COUNTRIES. 
APPROXIMATE  RATIOS  OF  VARIOUS  DISEASES  IN  10,000  DEATHS. 


DISEASES. 

Eng- 
land. 

France. 

Ger- 
many. 

Russia. 

Italy. 

Switzer- 
land. 

Bel- 
gium. 

Nether- 
lands. 

Scandi- 
navia. 

Apoplexy  

270 
1,150 

400 
310 

390 
400 
260 
1,270 
270 
35 
230 

IOO 

400 

2IO 

1,500 
150 
1,960 

210 

360 
30 
160 
900 
360 
50 
580 
95 
54° 

37° 
600 
300 

I,  IIO 

304 

310 

480 
140 
1,820 
280 

280 
220 
1  80 
950 
130 

350 
620 

33° 
1,020 
230 

Bronchitis  

Cancer  

Consumption  

I,IOO 

55 
36 
620 
184 
51° 
49 
4i 
402 
62 
130 

210 

1,120 
360 
48 
290 

180 
720 

IOO 

35 
20 
130 
80 
720 

Diphtheria  

Erysipelas        

Heart  disease  

2OO 
80 
I,I5O 
70 
40 
90 
1  80 
40 
480 

^l 

46 

600 

50 

IQO 

165 
450 

1  80 
15° 
57° 
50 

220 

Pneumonia      

710 

IOO 

40 

360 

70 

1  20 

280 

185 

Puerperal  fever  

25 
1  60 

Scarlet  fever  

10 
30 
60 
240 
50 

146 

140 
90 
150 
460 

280 

40 
140 

IOO 

460 

1  80 

Scrofula     

Small-pox  

8 
450 

54 
184 

112 

Whooping-cough  

Cancer.— Mental  worry,  says  Dr.  Herbert  Snow,  of  the  Cancer  Hospital,  is  the  chief  exciting  cause  of  can- 
cer. In  1888  in  England  the  number  of  deaths  from  cancer  was  17,506,  of  which  6284  subjects  were  males  and 
11,222  females. 

Phthisis  or  Consumption.— Among  100  people  of  each  trade,  the  ratios  of  those  suffering  from  it  were  :  Needle- 
makers,  70 ;  filemakers,  63  ;  lithographers,  48  ;  tobacconists,  37  ;  watchmakers,  37  ;  stonecutters,  36  ;  glassworkers, 
35  ;  hairdressers,  32  ;  weavers,  25  ;  painters,  25  ;  printers,  22  ;  shoemakers,  19  ;  glaziers,  18  ;  hatmakers,  16  ;  car- 
penters, 14;  masons,  13;  millers,  n ;  brewers,  n ;  tanners,  9;  bakers,  7;  butchers,  7;  charcoal-burners,  a; 


Death- Rate. 


467 


Death-Rate. 


Concerning  the  terrible  relation  between  over- 
crowded cities,  low  industrial  conditions,  and 
high  mortality,  we  have  abundant  testimony. 
Mr.  J.  A.  Hobson  (The  Evolution  of  Modern 
Capitalism,,  p.  334)  gives  the  following  table  of 
the  death-rate  in  town  and  country  districts  of 
England,  1851-90  :* 


ANNUAL  DEATHS  PER  1,000. 

Deaths  in  Town 

Districts      to 

YEARS. 

England 
and 
Wales. 

Town. 

Country. 

loo  Deaths  in 
Country       in 
equal     Num- 
bers Living. 

851-60... 

22.2 

24.7 

19.9 

124 

861-70.  .  . 

22.5 

24.8 

19.7 

126 

871-80.  . 

21.4 

23.1 

19.0 

122 

881  

18.9 

20.1 

16.9 

119 

882  

19.6 

2O.9 

'7-3 

121 

883  

iQ-5 

20.5 

17.9 

"5 

884  

iQ-5 

20.  6 

17.7 

117 

885  

19.0 

19.7 

17.8 

in 

886  

J9-3 

20.0 

18.0 

in 

887  

18.8 

19.7 

17.2 

"5 

888  

17.8 

20.9 

17.4 

114 

889  
890  

17.9 

19-3 

16.4 

118 

17.4 

1  2O 

Of  this  he  says  :  "  As  matters  stand  at  present,  the 
statistics  above  quoted  do  not  mark  the  full  extent  of 
the  difference  of  healthfulness  in  town  and  country. 
When  allowance  is  made  for  age  and  sex  distribution 
in  town  and  country  population,  the  difference  in 
death-rate  appears  much  greater.  For  in  the  towns 
are  found  (a)  a  much  larger  proportion  of  females  ;  (d) 
a  larger  proportion  of  adults  of  both  sexes  in  the 
prime  of  life  ;  (c)  a  much  smaller  proportion  of  very 
aged  persons  ;t  hence  if  conditions  of  health  were 
equal  in  town  and  country,  the  town  death-rate  would 
be  lower  instead  of  higher  than  that  of  the  country 
The  Report  of  the  Census  of  i88ij  calls  special  atten- 
tion to  this  point,  which  is  commonly  ignored  in  com- 
paring death-rates  of  town  and  country.  'If  we  take 
the  mean  (1871-80)  death-rates  in  England  and  Wales 
at  each  age-period  as  a  standard,  the  death-rate  in  an 
urban  population  would  be  20.40  per  1000,  while  the 
death-rate  in  the  rural  population  would  be  22.83. 
Such  would  be  their  respective  death-rates  on  the 
hypothesis  that  the  urban  districts  and  the  rural  dis- 
tricts were  equally  healthy.  We  know,  however,  as  a 
matter  of  fact  that  urban  death-rates,  instead  of  being 
lower  than  rural  death-rates,  are  much  higher.  The 
difference  of  healthiness,  therefore,  between  the  two 
is  much  greater  than  the  difference  between  their 
death-rates.' 

"The  same  facts  come  out  in  comparing  Paris  with 
the  rest  of  France.  At  each  age  the  death-rate  for 
Pans  is  higher  than  for  France. 


AGE.  § 

Paris, 
1886. 

France, 

1877-80. 

o  to    i  year  

i  to    5  years  

15  to  20  years  ....         .... 

30  to  40  years  

T?    f\ 

60  to  70  years  

"  The  English  statistics  indicate  a  slight  and  by  no 
means  constant  tendency  toward  a  diminution  of  the 
difference  between  town  and  rural  mortality,  due,  no 
doubt,  to  improvements  in  city  sanitation  and  to  some 
general  elevation  of  the  physical  environment  and 
standard  of  living  among  a  large  section  of  the  work- 
ing classes.  The  same  slight  tendency  is  visible  in 
1-  ranee.  During  the  period  1861-65  the  urban  death- 

*  Report  of  Commissioners,  etc.,  vol.  xxx.,  p.  65. 

t  Newsholm,  Vital  Statistics,  p.  137.  (Sonnenschein.) 

$  Vol.  iv.,  p.  23. 

§  Levasseur,  vol.  ii.,  p.  402. 


rate  was  26.1,  as  compared  with  21.5,  the  rural  death- 
rate  ;  during  the  period  1878-82  the  rates  were  respec- 
tively 24.3  and  20.9."* 

The  real  meaning,  however,  of  the  high  mor- 
tality of  towns  comes  out,  not  in  general  statis- 
tics, but  in  definite  comparisons  between  crowd- 
ed and  less  crowded  quarters,  between  districts 
of  the  poor  and  districts  of  the  well-to-do.  Says 
Dr.  C.  R.  Drysdale  (Report  of  Industrial  Re- 
nntneration  Conference,  p.  130) : 

"  At  present  the  average  age  at  death  among  the 
nobility,  gentry,  and  professional  classes  in  England 
and  Wales  was  55  years  ;  but  among  the  artisan  classes 
of    Lambeth    it    only    amounted    to    29 
years  ;  and  while  the  infantile  death- 
rate  among  the  well-to-do  classes  was  Death-rates 
such  that  only  eight  children  died  in  the  "TSj  T, 
first  year  of  life  out  of  100  born,  as  many  of  Blch  and 
as  30  per  cent,  succumbed  at  that  age        Poor. 
among  the  children  of  the  poor  in  some 
districts  of  our  large  cities.    The  only 
real  cause  of  this  enormous  difference  in  the  position 
of  the  rich  and  poor  with  respect  to  their  chances  of 
existence  lay  in  the  fact  that  at  the  bottom  of  society 
wages  were  so  low  that  food  and  other  requisites  of 
health  were  obtained  with  too  great  difficulty." 

Dr.  Playfair  says  that  18  per  cent,  of  the  chil- 
dren of  the  upper  class,  36  per  cent,  of  those  of 
the  tradesman  class,  and  55  per  cent,  of  those  of 
the  workmen  die  before  they  reach  five  years  of 
age  (quoted  at  p.  133  of  Dictionary  of  Statis- 
tics, by  Mr.  Mulhall,  who,  however,  thinks  it 
"  too  high  an  estimate"). 

The  infantile  death-rate  at  Bethnal  Green-is 
twice  that  of  Belgravia.  Holborn  (151,835)  and 
St.  George>s,  Hanover  Square  (149,748),  have  al- 
most equal  populations  ;  yet  in  the  former  1614, 
in  the  latter  only  1007  children  under  five  died 
in  1884  (Registrar-General's  Report,  1886, 
pp.  32,  126,  C — 4722). 

Some  of  this  high  death-rate  is  due  to  trade 
conditions,  but  mostly  to  town  conditions.  Says 
Mr.  Hobson  (idem,  p.  337) : 

"The  statistics  of  infant  mortality  are  conclusive 
upon  this  point.  In  comparing  the  death-rates  for 
town  and  country,  the  difference  is  far  wider  for 
children  below  the  industrial  age  than  for  adults  en- 
gaged in  industrial  work.  Mr.  Galton  has  calculated 
that  in  a  typical  industrial  town  the  number  of  chil- 
dren of  artisan  townsfolk  that  grow  up  are  little  more 
than  half  as  many  as  in  the  case  of  the  children  of 
laboring  people  in  a  healthy  country  district." 

A  high  death-rate  is  largely,  however,  the  re- 
sult of  poverty  in  city  or  town.  In  Paris,  the 
rich  quarters  of  the  Elysee  and  the  Opera  had 
a  death-rate  of  13.4  and  16.2  when  Menilmon- 
tant,  a  poor  quarter,  had  a  death-rate  of  31.3 
(Levasseur,  Pop.  Franc,aise,  vol.  ii.,  p.  403). 
The  comparative  mortality  in  different  trades 
has  been  tabulated  by  Newsholme  (  Vital  Sta- 
tistics, pp.  156,  157)  in  the  following  way  : 

(The  comparative  mortality  figure  in  the  last 
column  indicates  how  many  deaths  occur  out  of 
the  same  number  in  the  given  occupation  as  in 
the  number  of  the  average  population  in  which 
1000  deaths  occur.  Thus,  in  the  average  popu- 
lation, 1000  annual  deaths  occur  per  64,641 
males,  ages  25  to  65,  of  whom  41, 920  were  under 
and  22,721  were  over  45  years  of  age.  The  fig- 
ure for  clergymen,  556,  represents  the  mean 
mortality  of  the  clergy  between  25  and  65,  as 
compared  with  the  mortality  of  all  males  of  sim- 
ilar ages  in  England  and  Wales.) 

*  Levasseur,  vol.  ii.,  p.  155, 


Death-Rate. 


468 


Death-Rate. 


DEATH-RATES   OF  MALES,  2S-65  YEARS    OP   AGE,   IN   DIFFERENT   OCCUPATIONS  IN  1860-61-1871, 
AND  IN  1880-82,  AND  THEIR  COMPARATIVE  MORTALITY  FIGURES  IN  1880-82. 


OCCUPATION. 

MEAN  ANNUAL  DEATH-RATES  PER  1,000 
LIVING. 

COMPARATIVE 
MORTALITY 
FIGURE. 

1860-61-1871. 

1880-81-82. 

1880-82. 

YEARS  OF  AGE. 

YEARS  OF  AGE. 

AGE. 

25-45- 

45-65- 

25-45- 

45-65- 

25-65- 

11.27 

23.98 

10.16 
9.71 
32-43 

8-47 

25-27 

24.63 
36.20 

19.74 

1,000 

967 

2,182 

804 

Males  in  selected  healthy  districts  

Clergyman,  priest,  minister  

5-96 
6.74 

7.66 

17-31 
17-54 
17-32 

4.64 
5-52 
6.09 

7-13 
6.41 
8.00 
8-32 
7-77 
8.53 
7-54 
9.70 

8.53 
7-64 
7-79 
9.26 
7-97 
9-3» 
8-39 
9.04 
8.40 
8.70 
9-25 
9.29 
10.48 
11.14 
10.58 
10.73 

II.  12 

9.71 

9-99 
n-57 
10.77 
12.  16 

II.  21 
II.O7 
11.71 
12.52 
14.25 
I3-78 
13.64 
13.00 
15-39 
13-73 

18.02 

17.07 
15.29 
13-70 
14-77 

20.26 

20.62 

22.63 

15-93 

16.19 

16.53 
17.68 
19.98 

19.16 
19  74 
21.74 
20.57 
23.13 
20.96 
23.28 
25.11 
25.07 
22.64 
25-37 
23.36 
25.07 
25-03 
26.62 
26.12 
25-59 
25-67 
24.49 
23.46 
25.16 
26.47 
26.60 
27.50 
29.44 
28.03 
30-79 
29.08 
3'-7i 
32-49 
34-42 
33-00 
3*'*3 
32-39 
33-25 
34-25 
36-83 
4i-54 
33-68 
37-37 
45-H 
51-39 
53-69 
45-33 
50.85 
55-3° 

556 

599 
631 
701 
719 

771 

797 
820 
825 
842 
883 
887 
891 
896 

9°3 
911 
921 
921 
948 

957 
958 
969 

91 

996 

1,000 
1,015 
1,051 
1,071 
1,032 
i,  088 

1,122 
1,151 
I,I7O 
1,190 
1,202 
1,273 
1,275 
1,  3°5 

I.3H 
1,327 
1,361 
1,482 
i,5i9 
1,521 
1,565 
1,667 
1,742 
1,839 
1,879 
2,020 
2,205 

Gardener,  nurseryman  

9.82 

9-49 
11.26 

9-44 
10.84 
9.87 
14-34 

23-56 
17-05 
15.84 
21.36 
21.36 
22.97 
26.33 

Grocer  

Carpenter,  j  oiner  

Draper  and  Manchester  warehouseman  

Groom,  domestic,  coa,chman  

Coal-miners  (six  districts)  

9.50 
10.78 
10.43 
10.39 

"•73 
12.28 

9-32 
10.72 

«-43 

10.07 
14.28 
i3-!9 
I3-92 
12.92 
13.02 

27.90 
24.90 
26.57 
22.30 
22.91 
29.00 
26.65 
26.39 
27.16 
23.88 
28.88 
21.76 
23-56 
24.79 
29.38 

Watch  and  clockmaker  

Artist,  engraver,  sculptor,  architect  

Corn  miller      

Baker,  confectioner  

Blacksmith  

Commercial  clerk,  insurance  service  

Chemist,  druggist  

Tailor  

Printer  

Wool,  worsted  manufacture  (West  Riding)  

Cotton,  linen  manufacture  (Lancashire)  

13.81 
18.75 
J3-J9 
i3-'9 
12.48 
11.88 

24-55 
37-°5 
28.37 
29.32 
34-66 
32-74 

Law  clerk  

Butcher  

Glass  manufacturer  

Plumber,  painter,  glazier  

Cutler,  scissors,  needle,  saw,  toolmaker  
Carter,  carrier,  hauler  

Bargeman,  lighterman,  waterman  

14.99 
18.94 
15.11 
19.26 
15-94 
17-53 
18.01 

30.78 
34-76 
30.10 
36.86 
35-28 

42.87 
34-14 

Hairdresser  

Br  e  wer  

Chimney-sweep  

Innkeeper,  publican  

Filemaker    .  .   

16.27 
12.59 
11.94 
20.09 
18.35 
21.91 

42.30 
41-75 
41-73 
37.82 
40.64 
42.19 

Earthenware  manufacturer    

Costermonger,  hawker,  street  seller  

General  laborer  (London)  

Commenting  on  the  statistics  in  his  Amer- 
ican Charities,  p.  in,  Professor  Warner 
says  : 

"  The  mortality  in  a  given  occupation  may  be  high, 
not  because  the  occupation  is  unhealthful,  but  because 
persons  of  poor  health  are  likely  to  resort  to  it. 

"  But  the  entire  story  regarding  the  degenerative 
influences  brought  to  bear  upon  the  weaker  classes  of 
the  community  is  not  brought  out  by  the  study  of  oc- 
cupational mortality.  We  must  turn  to  the  matter  of 
class  mortality  in  order  to  obtain  this.  In  his  work 
on  The  Rate  of  Mortalitv,  etc.,  in  the  Upper  and  Pro- 
fessional Classes,  Mr.  Charles  Ansell,  Jr.,  gives  the  fol- 
lowing figures : 


OUT  OF  100,000  BORN 
ALIVE  THERE  WILL  BE 
LIVING 

End 
First 
Year. 

Age  of 
15- 

Age  of 
60. 

Peerage  families  

85,890 

51,166 

"  Upper     class      experi- 

•n.vjS 

"  English  life  tables"...  . 
"Carlisle  table"  

85,051 
84,610  , 

68,456 

36,983 

Death- Rate. 


469 


Death- Rate. 


"  That  is,  out  of  100,000  children  born  in  the  upper 
classes,  nearly  10,000  more  will  reach  the  age  of  15  than 
in  the  population  at  large.  The  influences  which  in- 
duce a  higher  rate  of  mortality  among  the  lower 
classes  are  given  by  Ansell  as  follows  : 

"  PHYSICAL.— (i)  Food  insufficient  in  quantity  and 
improper  as  to  kind  ;  (2)  deficiency  of  warm  clothing  ; 
(3)  want  or  delay  of  medical  attendance  in  illness  ;  (4) 
crowded  and  unhealthy  dwellings ;  (5)  neglect  on  the 
part  of  parents  (especially  when  the  mother  is  at 
work). 

"  MORAL. — (i)  Illegitimacy ;  (2)  children  being  a  bur- 
den upon  or  considered  as  such  by  their  parents ;  (3) 
parents  having  a  direct  pecuniary  interest  in  the 
death  of  their  children." 

Dr.  Grimshaw,  Registrar-General  of  Ireland, 
gives  the  experience  as  to  class  mortality  in  Dub- 
lin for  the  four  years  1883  to  1886,  and  says  : 

"  Referring  to  children  under  five  years  of  age,  the 
rates  per  1000  are  found  to  be  in  the  professional  class, 
20.52  ;  middle,  58.25  ;  artisan  class,  69.05 ;  general  ser- 


vice and  pauper  class,  108.73.  The  death-rates  are 
such  as  to  give  a  specially  high  percentage  of  persons 
under  15  in  the  second  and  third  classes.  The  death- 
rate  of  children  under  five  years  of  age  is  so  excessive 
in  Class  IV.  that  the  percentage  of  persons  under  15  is 
there  not  up  to  the  average." 

Commenting  on  this,  Professor  Warner  says  : 

"  Now  let.  us  notice  how  heavy  a  burden  the  condi- 
tion of  things  here   indicated  imposes  upon   Classes 
III.,  IV.,  and  V.,  as  compared  with  Classes  I.  and  II. 
Pressure  is  brought  to  bear  upon  the 
poor,  and  especially  upon  Class  III.,  in  a 
fourfold  way.     First,  the  number  under         Class 
15  years  of  age,  and  therefore   of  non-    Mortalitv 
producers,   is  relatively  high;    second,  uvuty • 

the    expense    of    a     disproportionately 
large  number  of  deaths  is  imposed  upon 
the  poor ;  third,  the  amount  of  sickness  is  dispropor- 
tionately large  ;  and,  fourth,  the  number  of  births  is 
larger  than  in  the  upper  classes.    Let  us  see  what  ef- 
fects these  influences  will  have  upon  a  population  of 
1000  in  each  class  : 


BURDENS  AND   BURDEN- BEARING  POWER  OP   1,000  PERSONS   IN  VARIOUS   CLASSES,  POPULA- 
TION OF  DUBLIN. 


CLASS. 

No.  of 
Persons 
under  15. 

Persons 
over  15. 

Deaths. 

Years  of 

Sickness. 

Years  of 
Health  for 
Persons 
over  15. 

Ratio  of 
Sickness  to 
Effective 
Health. 

I... 

II  

66^  i 

Ill  

678 

IV.  and  V  

7*  =;8 

66c  c 

i  •  08  8 

"  By  '  effective  health, '  as  used  in  the  table,  is  meant 
the  health  of  persons  15  years  of  age  or  over — that  is, 
of  persons  capable  of  doing  something  for  their  own 
support,  and  possibly  for  the  care  of  relatives.  It  will 
seem  from  the  table  regarding  burdens  and  burden- 
bearing  power,  that  in  Class  I.  there  will  be  one  year 
of  sickness  to  24.5  of  effective  health  ;  in  Class  II,  one 
to  12.6  ;  in  Class  III.  one  to  14  ;  and  in  Classes  IV-.  and 
V.  one  to  8.8.  Thus  we  have  some  explanation  of  how 
the  high  death-rate  among  the  unfortunate  classes 
operates  to  impose  burdens  that  crush  them. 

"  There  are  too  many  assumptions  involved  in  the 
derivative  tables  given  to  make  it  possible  to  consider 
the  results  reached  entirely  accurate,  but  in  their  gen- 
eral outline  the  figures  doubtless  reflect  the  actual 
situation." 

Thus  far  we  have  been  noticing  statistics  and 
facts  almost  exclusively.  Concerning  their  inter- 
pretation caution  must  be  exercised.  Says  Prof. 
Mayo-Smith  (Statistics  and  Sociology,  p.  149) : 

"  The  ordinary  basis  for  comparison  of  mortality  is  to 
take  the  number  of  deaths  per  1000  of  the  population. 
As  the  death-rate,  however,  is  greater  among  males 
than  among  females,  and  at  certain  age  periods  than  at 
others,  it  is  obvious  that  comparison  would  only  be  fair 
between  two  populations  where  the  sex  and  age  distri- 
bution was  exactly  the  same.  This  never  happens,  and 
even  in  the  same  population,  in  course  of  time,  the  sex 
and  age  distribution  may  vary.  The  use  of  the  crude 
death-rate  has  given  rise,  therefore,  to  many  criticisms. 
In  1881  the  general  rate  in  England  and  Wales  was  18.9 
per  1000  of  all  ages,  while  in  France  it  was  22.0 — i.e.,  3.1 
higher.  But  had  the  age  distribution  of  the  French 
population  been  identical  with  that  of  England,  the 
general  death-rate  would  have  been  20.9  and  not  22.0. 
Thus,  of  the  3.1  difference  between  the  two  rates,  2.0 
was  due  to  difference  of  health  condition  and  i.i  to 
difference  of  age  distribution." 

Various  plans  have  been,  therefore,  proposed 
for  correcting  the  death-rate  by  reducing  the 
population  to  a  common  standard. 

Professor  Edgeworth,  of  Oxford,  in  Pal- 
grave's  Dictionary  of  Political  Economy,  thus 
sums  up  the  generally  received  conclusions  as 
to  death-rates  : 


One  cause  of  variations  in  death-rate— namely,  "dif- 
ference of  age,  may  be  placed  in  a  category  of  causes 
which  are  of  practical  importance,  largely  on  the 
ground  that  it  is  necessary  to  allow  for  their  action  in 
order  to  estimate  the  effect  of  another  class  of  causes 
which  it  is  more  within  the  scope  of  human  art  to 
alleviate.  This  distinction  is  nearly  identical  with  Dr. 
Farr's  of  'causes  inherent  in  the  population,  and 
causes  outside  the  population  '  (  Vital  Statistics,  p.  159 
et  seq.).  Another  cause  belonging  to  the  first  category 
is  sex.  The  full  effect  of'this  cause  may  be  seen  on  in- 
spection of  a  life-table.  At  the  early  ages  the  differ- 
ence between  the  mortality  of  the  two  sexes  ismarked. 
At  the  zero  point  of  age  it  appears  that  the  proportion 
of  male  to  female  still-born  children  is  139:100.  For 
the  period  0-5  the  proportion  of  mortality  is  72  :  62  (ac- 
cording to  Dr.  Farr's  life-table  for  England  and 
Wales).  At  the  age  of  adolescence  female  mortality 
gains  upon  male,  but  again  lags  behind  at  later  ages. 
The  disturbing  effect  which  this  cause  exercises  on 
inferences  drawn  from  the  general  death-rate  is  not  so 
considerable  as  the  effect  of  age.  Mr.  Humphreys,  in 
his  paper  On  the  Value  of  Death-Rates  (Journal  of 
Stat.  Soc.,  xxxvii.,  p.  444),  contrasting  the  English 
towns  which  have  the  greatest  and  the  least  propor- 
tion of  male  to  female  inhabitants,  argues  that  the  ex- 
treme perturbation  of  the  general  death-rates  which 
may  be  expected  from  this  cause  is  not  more  than  two 
per  mille. 

"  Here  may  be  mentioned  the  effect  on  mortality  of 
the  variations  of  the  seasons.  Of  the  four  quarters  of 
the  year,  the  first  is  the  most  fatal  ;  next  comes  the 
fourth  ;  the  mortality  of  the  second  quarter  is  for  this 
country  on  an  average  in  excess,  but  occasionally  be- 
low, that  of  the  third  quarter  (Reports  of  the  Regis- 
trar-General, tables  showing  death-rates  in  each 
quarter  of  the  years  since  1838).  A  very  elegant  graphi- 
cal representation  of  such  vicissitudes  is  given  by  M. 
Levasseur  (after  M.  Janssens)  for  Belgian  infants,  in 
the  Jubilee  Volume  of  the  Statistical  Society,  1885,  p. 
232.  Quetelet's  investigations  of  seasonable  mortality 
in  Belgium  are  particularly  instructive  (Physique  So- 
ciale,  hv.  ii'.,  ch.  v.,  §8).  He  shows  that  the  curve  of 
death-rate  at  different  seasons  varies  for  different 
ages,  and  that  very  generally  it  presents  two  max- 
ima, one  in  winter,  the  other  in  summer.  Besides  the 
obvious  importance  attaching  to  such  observations, 
they  are  valuable  as  enabling  us  to  avoid  perplexity 
in  investigating  other  causes.  The  Registrar-General, 
in  the  investigation  which  will  be  presently  noticed 


Death- Rate. 


Death- Rate. 


concerning  the  death-rate  in  different  occupations, 
has  very  properly  selected  the  samples  (of  deaths)  on 
which  his  conclusion  is  based  from  all 
seasons  indifferently  (Supplement  to  the 
Season  Forty-fifth  Report  of  the  Registrar-Gen- 
'  era/,  p.  29).  A  sophist  by  taking  the 
samples  for  one  occupation  from  a 
healthy  season,  and  for  another  occu- 
pation from  an  unhealthy  season,  might  have  brought 
out  almost  any  conclusion  which  he  wanted. 

"Other  causes,  not  admitting  of  such  exact  measure- 
ment, are  race  and  climate  (including  properties  of 
soil,  water,  etc.). 

"  Also  it  may  be  expected  that  the  mortality  of  un- 
married persons  will,  cceteris  paribus,  be  particularly 
large.  The  married  have  the  advantage  at  almost  all 
ages,  as  is  shown  by  Dr.  Farr  ( Vital  Statistics,  p.  441, 
and  references  there  given).  But  it  is  a  nice  question 
whether  celibacy  can  be  regarded  as  a  cause  of  high 
death-rate.  The  high  death-rate  attending  celibacy 
may  be  a  case  of  post  hoc  not  propter  hoc  ;  the  finest 
individuals  being  selected  for  marriage ;  while  '  men 
with  a  weak  constitution,  ill  health,  or  any  great  in- 
firmity of  body  or  mind  will  not  often  wish  to  marry, 
or  will  be  rejected'  (Darwin,  Descent  of  Man,  part  i., 
ch.  v.). 

"  (b)  The  causes  which  have  been  mentioned  require 
to  be  taken  account  of  by  those  who  would  avoid  per- 
plexity in  investigating  another  set  of  causes  which 
are  perhaps  of  more  direct  practical  interest,  as  being 
capable  of  remedy  by  human  effort.  This  second 
category  of  causes  may  be  divided  under  four  heads  : 
(i)  vice,  (2)  unhealthy  occupations,  (3)  indigence,  and 
(4)  insanitary  residences — agencies  which  are  apt  to  be 
entangled  with  each  other  as  well  as  with  the  first  set 
of  causes. 

"  (i)  There  is  much  truth  as  well  as  exaggeration  in 
Sussmilch's  dictum  ascribing  the  chief  differences  in 
mortality  to  'the  manner  o?  life,  the  moral  circum- 
stances, virtue  and  vice,  indolence  and  industry.' 
One  example  is  the  great  mortality  of  illegitimate 
children.  Dr.  Farr  cites  instances  in  which  the  death- 
rate  of  illegitimate  infants  is  double  that  of  the  legiti- 
mate ( Vital  Statistics,  p.  198).  A  similar  excess  of 
mortality  among  illegitimate  children  is  shown  by 
Quetelet  (Physique  Sociale,  book  ii.,  ch.  vii.,  §2),  Wap- 
paeus (Bevolkerungs  Statistik,  parti.,  D.  214),  and  other 
continental  statisticians.  The  vice  or  drunkenness  is 
also  conspicuously  fatal.  On  this  subject  some  of  the 
most  recent  observations,  together  with  a  reference  to 
the  best  authorities,  will  be  found  in  the  Report  on  the 
Connection  of  Disease  with  Habits  of  Intemperance  by 
the  collective  investigation  of  the  British  Medical  As- 
sociation, edited  by  Isambard  Owen.  Among  the  ear- 
lier authorities  may  be  mentioned  Neison,  who  in  his 
Contributions  to  Vital  Statistics  fully  proves  the  con- 
nection between  deep  drinking  and  high  death-rate  ; 
bringing  out  the  remarkable  fact  that  spirits  are  more 
fatal  than  malt  liquors  (Contributions  to  Vital  Statis- 
tics, p.  218).  Another  authority  particularly  free  from 
suspicion  is  the  Registrar-General,  whose  statistics 
with  respect  to  occupations  (Supplements  to  Reports 
for  zSbj,  1875,  and  iSSj)  point  unmistakably  to  a  con- 
nection between  drink  and  death.  The 
mortality  of  hotel-keepers  and  their 

Tntpmneranee  servants    is    appalling  —  about   three 
intemperance.  times  as  great  as  that  o£  the  most 

healthy  classes.  Among  the  diseases  to 
which  the  classes  mentioned  and  sev- 
eral others  succumb,  '  alcoholism  '  plays  a  large  part 
(Supplement  to  Report  for  1885,  p.  xxx.  et  seq.). 

"  At  this  point,  however,  the  action  of  the  cause 
which  has  been  considered  fs  intermixed  with  that 
which  we  have  distinguished  as  cause  (2),  unhealthy 
occupations.  It  is  difficult  to  pronounce  with  respect 
to  the  mortality  in  some  occupations  how  much  there- 
of is  occasioned  by  unresisted  temptation  to  drink,  how 
much  is  due  to  other  circumstances.  Thus  in  the  case 
of  drivers  (Cab,  Omnibus,  Service,  loc.  cit.},  the  bill  of 
mortality  due  to  '  alcoholism '  is  particularly  large  ; 
but  the  same  class  also  succumb  in  numbers  to  phthisis 
and  diseases  of  the  respiratory  system,  which  may 
no  doubt  be  connected  with  the  exposure  incident  to 
the  occupations  in  question. 

"  (2)  The  observations  referred  to  prove  the  influence 
of  occupation  on  health  in  many  cases  to  be  real  and 
considerable.  The  number  of  deaths  observed  in  1881- 
82— more  than  400,000 ;  the  scrupulosity  above  noticed 
•with  which  these  samples  have  been  selected  impartial- 
ly from  healthy  and  unhealthy  seasons  ;  the  allowance 
for  the  effect  of  age  (expressed  in  the  last  column  of 
Table  J,  Supplement  to  the  Forty-fifth  Report,  1885,  p. 
xxvi.),  are  very  convincing.  The  suspicion  of  acci- 
dent is  precluded  by  the  general  agreement  between 


Economic 
Causes. 


the  statistics  for  1861-62,  1871,  and  1880-82.  The  same 
occupations  constantly  come  out  low  or  high  in  the 
scale  of  mortality.  At  one  end  of  the  scale  are  clergy- 
men with  a  coefficient  of  death-rate  or  '  comparative 
mortality  figure  '  556  ;  gardeners  and  farmers  with 
coefficients  respectively  599  and  681,  with  at  the  other 
end  of  the  scale  hotel-keepers  and  their  servants,  for 
whom  the  corresponding  figures  are  respectively  1521 
and  2205,  also  chimney-sweeps,  workers  in  earthen- 
ware (1742),  and  the  residual  class  of  general  laborer 
(2020).  (See  J.  T.  Arlidge,  M.D.,  The  Hygiene,  Diseases, 
and  Mortality  of  Occupations,  1892.) 

"(3)  In  the  last  case,  and  probably  some  others,  a 
further  cause — indigence — comes  into  play.  The  term 
indigence  must  be  construed  strictly  as  want  of  neces- 
saries, 'inadequate  warmth  and  food'  (Farr).  Mere 
absence  of  riches  is  not  fatal  to  life,  as  Keispn's  statis- 
tics with  respect  to  members  of  friendly  societies  show 
(Contributions  to  Vital  Statistics;  cf.  Wappaeus, 
Bevolkerungs  Statistik,  part  i.,  p.  201).  The  very  differ- 
ent consequences  of  actual  indigence  may  be  traced 
in  certain  statistics  of  class  mortality  among  the  popu- 
lation of  Dublin  compiled  by  Dr.  Grimshaw,  and  dis- 
cussed by  Mr.  Humphreys  in  a  paper  already  referred 
to  (Journal  of  the  Statistical  Society,  1887,  vol.  50). 
In  the  same  paper  reference  is  made  to  the  observa- 
tions made  by  Mr.  Ansell  and  Hodgson  and  others, 
proving  that  the  more  favored  classes  enjoy  greater 
vitality.  Especially  with  respect  to  infant  mortality 
is  the  poverty  of  the  poor  his  curse.  The  death-rate 
for  infants  under  five,  in  the  'general  service  '  class  of 
the  Dublin  population,  was  no  per  mille  ;  in  the  'pro- 
fessional' class,  22  per  mille  (ibid.,  p.  282).  So  the  mor- 
tality of  peers'  and  clergymen's  children  is  three  times 
less  than  the  mortality  of  infants  of  the 
same  age  in  large  towns  (Farr,  Vital 
Statistics,  p.  159).  These  conclusions  are 
confirmed  by  numerous  observations  on 
the  comparative  death-rate  in  the  poor- 
er and  more  flourishing  parts  of  towns  ; 
some  of  which  are  cited  by  Wappaeus 
(Bevolkerungs  Statistik,  part  i.,  p.  200). 

"(4)  Here,  and  indeed  generally,  mere  indigence, 
the  want  of  necessaries,  is  aggravated  by  a  fourth 
cause,  insanitary  conditions  of  residence,  or,  in  Dr. 
Farr's  more  exact  language,  '  exposure  to  poisonous 
effluvia  and  destructive  agencies.'  The  interaction  of 
these  two  causes  is  strikingly  exhibited  in  a  recent  ar- 
ticle in  the  Giornale  degli  Economists,  '•Nuova  Politico. 
Sanitaria,  in  Italia '  (March,  1891) ;  where  it  is  con- 
tended that  the  sanitary  measures  carried  out  in  Italy 
defeated  their  own  end.  For  the  taxpayer,  deprived 
by  the  burden  of  taxation  of  the  necessaries  of  life, 
becomes  thereby  more  exposed  to  the  shafts  of  disease. 
In  our  terminology  cause  (4)  might  be  reduced,  and  yet 
the  effect  would  be  more  fatal  if  concurrently  cause  (3) 
were  aggravated. 

"The  nature  and  variety  of  insanitary  conditions 
are  ably  discussed  by  Dr.  Farr  ( Vital  Statistics}.  A 
vast  mass  of  experience  as  to  the  evil  effect  of  crowd- 
ing is  summed  up  by  him  in  the  simple  formula  that 
the  mortality  of  districts  is  as  the  twelfth  root  of 
their  densities  (Vital  Statistics,  p.  175).  In  symbols 

The  fact  that  in  an  earlier  paper  the 

sixth  root  was  proposed,  and  that  in  the  formula  the 
index  .12  does  not  signify  the  twelfth,  but  rather  the 
eighth  or  ninth  root,  is  not  suggestive  of  extreme  pre- 
cision. At  any  rate,  the  law  makes  no  claim  to  be  niore 
than  empirical.  It  is  not  fulfilled  by  the  experience 
of  the  crowded  Peabody  Buildings,  where  the  mor- 
tality is  less  than  for  London  generally  (Newholme, 
Journal  of  the  Statistical  Society,  1891).  It  is  interest- 
ing to  inquire  whether  the  causes  or  death  which  ad- 
mit of  reduction  are  being  reduced  by  science,  or  : 

"  III.  More  generally,  and  without  reference  to  cau- 
sation, whether  a  decline  of  death-rate  attends  the 
progress  of  civilization.  The  most  extended  series  of 
observations  is  that  which  the  Swedish  census  presents 
(quoted  in  the  twenty-fifth  volume  of  the  Journal  of 
the  Statistical  Society,  and  by  Wappaeus,  op.  cit.,  p. 
229).  Looking  at  these  we  may  now  say  with  even  more 
truth  than  Malthus  said  :  'The  gradual  diminution  of 
mortality  since  the  middle  of  last  century  is  very 
striking.  According  to  Dr.  Farr,  '  the  mortality  of 
the  city  of  London  was  at  the  rate  of  80  per  1000  in  the 
latter  half  of  the  seventeenth  century,  50  in  the  eigh- 
teenth, against  24  in  the  present  day  '  (Vital  Statistics, 
p.  131). 

"  On  the  other  hand,  the  returns  for  France  and 
Russia,  extending  over  a  long  period  of  years,  which 
Wappaeus  adduces  (loc.  cit.),  do  not  show  a  marked 
decline.  And  it  is  remarkable  that  the  death-rate  for 


m       /D\    .12. 
m'~  VD/ 


Death-Rate. 


Debt. 


England  and  Wales  has  remained  virtually  unaltered 
for  the  greater  part  of  the  time  over  which  the  record 
extends,  from  1841  to  1871.  Since  that  period,  indeed,  a 
decline  has  set  in,  ascribed  by  some  to  improved  sani- 
tation." 

References :  Dr.  Arlidge's  The  Hygienic  Diseases 
and  Mortality  of  Occupations  (1892);  Nevvsholme's 
Elements  of  Vital  Statistics  (sd  edition,  1892) ;  Pro- 
fessor Mayo-Smith's  Statistics  and  Sociology  (1895; ; 
Professor  Warner's  American  Charities  (1894). 

DEBS,  EUGENE  V.,  was  born  in  Terre 
Haute,  Ind.,  in  1855,  the  son  of  a  respected 
grocer,  originally  an  Alsatian.  Educated  in 
the  public  schools,  including  the  high  school, 
and  later  attending  a  commercial  college  in  the 
evenings,  he,  in  1870,  commenced  working  in 
the  Vandalia  paint  shop  in  Terre  Haute,  but  in 
1871  got  a  position  as  fireman  on  a  Vandalia 
locomotive.  In  1874  he  got  a  better  place  in  a 
wholesale  grocery,  and  retained  this  five  years, 
till  he  was  triumphantly  elected  city  clerk  on 
the  Democratic  ticket,  and  re-elected  in  1881. 
His  future,  however,  was  to  lie  in  railway  labor 
organizations.  As  a  member  of  the  Brother- 
hood of  Locomotive  Firemen,  he  was  early 
elected  to  office,  and  for  twelve  years  served 
that  organization  as  grand  secretary  and  treas- 
urer, editing  also  the  Locomotive  Firemen' s 
Magazine ;  but  he  believed  that  all  railway 
employees  should  be  united  in  one  organiza- 
tion, and  so,  June  20,  1893,  he  established,  with 
the  aid  of  others,  the  American  Railway  Union. 
(For  an  account  of  this,  see  RAILWAY  EMPLOYEES' 
ORGANIZATIONS.)  As  its  president,  Mr.  Debs 
made  the  American  Railway  Union  one  of  the 
strongest  labor  unions  of  the  country,  and  was 
successful  in  a  strike  on  the  "  Great  Northern." 
May  ii,  1894,  the  operatives  at  Pullman ville 
struck,  and  after  futile  efforts  to  gain  a  settle- 
ment by  arbitration,  they  joined  the  American 
Railway  Union,  and  this  organization  took  up 
their  cause.  In  June  Mr.  Debs  ordered  a  boy- 
cott of  Pullman  cars.  (For  the  details  of  this 
strike,  see  PULLMAN  STRIKE.)  The  strike  grad- 
ually spread.  On  July  2  Judges  Wood  and 
Grosscup,  at  Chicago,  ordered  a  sweeping  "om- 
nibus" injunction.  On  the  basis  of  telegrams 
and  advice  sent  by  Debs  after  this,  he  and  his 
colleagues  were  arrested  on  two  indictments 
for  contempt  of  court,  and  were  tried  in  Sep- 
tember in  the  Federal  Circuit  Court  sitting  at 
Chicago.  Judge  Wood  did  not  render  a  ver- 
dict till  December,  but  then  condemned  Mr. 
Debs  to  six  months'  imprisonment,  and  his  com- 
panions to  three.  Appeal  was  taken  to  the  Su- 
preme Court  for  release  on  habeas  corpus,  the 
ground  being  that  an  equity  court  had  no  right 
to  issue  such  an  injunction,  and  thus  deprive 
men  of  trial  by  jury.  The  Supreme  Court,  how- 
ever, sustained  the  Circuit  Court,  and  Mr.  Debs 
and  his  companions  suffered  imprisonment  in 
Woodstock  Jail,  beginning  in  May,  1895.  Mr. 
Debs  was  liberated  in  November,  and  was  given 
an  ovation  in  Chicago.  He  is  to-day  one  of 
the  ablest  and  most  popular  labor  leaders  in 
America,  and  constantly  in  demand  as  a  speaker 
in  the  movement.  He  desires  to  further  labor 
organization  till  labor  men  can  all  unite  in  one 
great  strike  lor  their  rights  at  the  polls.  His 
imprisonment  without  jury  trial  many  believe 
to  be  one  of  the  most  dangerous  breaches  of 


constitutional  liberty    yet    perpetrated.       (See 
PULLMAN  STRIKE.) 

DEBT. — For  a  discussion  of  debt  in  its  eco- 
nomic relations,  see  CREDIT.  We  give  here  the 
main  facts  as  to  national,  State,  and  irmnicipal 
indebtedness,  with  particular  reference  to  con- 
ditions in  the  United  States.  National  debts 
of  long  duration  are  of  comparatively  modern 
date.  Ancient  governments  usually  met  their 
ordinary  expenses  by  extortionate  taxation, 
by  plunder,  and  by  warfare  on  foreign  cities 
and  countries.  Even  Napoleon  supported  his 
armies  when  abroad  largely  in  this  way. 

The  first  permanent  national  debt  was  creat- 
ed by  the  papal  government.  Only  a  small  por- 
tion of  the  money  raised  for  the  Pope  was  put 
into  his  treasury.  All  the  nations  of  Europe 
were  obedient  to  Pius  II.,  yet  he  was  so  greatly 
in  need  of  money  that  he  is  said  to  have  been 
able  to  afford  only  one  meal  a  day  for  a  consid- 
erable time,  and  was  obliged  to  borrow  200,000 
ducats  to  prepare  for  the  war  with  Turkey 
which  he  meditated.  Another  mode  of  raising 
money  was  to  create  and  sell  offices.  A  certain 
sum  was  immediately  paid  for  the  office,  and 
the  official  received  at  stated  times  thereafter  a 
fixed  sum  or  interest  during  his  life.  These  ar- 
rangements were  essentially  annuities.  The  in- 
terest was  raised  by  increasing  the  imposts  of 
the  Church. 

Sixtus  IV. ,  under  the  guidance  of  his  protho- 
notary  Sinolfo,  established  whole  colleges  by  a 
single  act,  and  sold  the  places  for  200  or  300 
ducats  each.  Leo  X.  carried  this  system  farther 
still,  encouraged  in  it  by  the  prosperity  which 
for  a  time  at  least  came  to  Rome  because  of  the 
large  sums  of  money  which  poured  into  the 
city.  Under  Clement  VII.  a  new  system  be- 
came necessary.  Hitherto  the  money  raised 
had  been  returned  in  the  way  of  interest,  the 
interest  ceasing  at  the  lender's  death.  The  first 
real  national  loan  was  one  received  by  Clement, 
amounting  to  200,000  scudi.  Clement  agreed 
to  pay  10  per  cent,  to  the  lender,  and  to  con- 
tinue payment  to  his  heirs.  The  interest  was 
charged  to  the  custom-house  revenues,  and  the 
lender  had  his  claims  secured  by  giving  him  a 
share  in  the  management  of  the  custom-house. 
No  capitalist  would  lend  his  money  except  where 
he  was  given  a  certain  amount  of  control  in  the 
government  affairs.  In  modern  days  lenders 
are  not  allowed,  directly  at  least,  to  have  a  share 
in  governmental  management  ;  but  they  still 
are  pledged  certain  revenues  in  payment  of  the 
debt.  Pitt,  in  England,  and  Alexander  Hamil- 
ton, in  America,  have  both  strongly  advised  this 
latter  course.  Venice  and  Genoa  were  the  next 
States  to  follow  the  lead  of  the  Pope,  and  after 
them  Florence,  Spain,  and  Holland. 

In  England  William  III.  was  obliged,  by  the 
expensiveness  of  his  wars,  to  borrow  money  and 
pledge  the  credit  of  the  State.  This  was  the  first 
English  loan  of  this  kind.  The  item  "  Interest 
and  Management  of  the  Public  Debt"  appears 
in  1694  for  the  first  time  in  English  accounts. 
The  first  funded  debt  was  $6,000,000,  borrowed 
at  this  date  from  the  Bank  of  England.  The 
term  "  fund"  meant  then  the  special  tax  which 
was  set  apart  for  interest  on  the  money  bor- 
rowed ;  whereas  now  the  word  is  understood  to 


Debt. 


472 


Debt. 


mean  the  money  itself.  After  this  another  loan 
of  $10,000,000  soon  followed,  and  Charles  II. 
had  his  private  debts  added  to  the  national 
debt. 

The  national  debt  of  France  began  in  1375  ; 
but  in  1597  Sully,  the  chief  minister  of  Henry 
IV. ,  reformed  the  financial  system  and  paid  the 
public  debt,  which  amounted  to  332,000,000 
livres.  Besides  this  he  remitted  20,000,000  of 
taxes  and  collected  a  surplus  of  17,000,000  livres, 


which  succeeding  French  kings  soon  wasted. 
During  this  early  period  the  Low  Countries  were 
most  heavily  freighted  with  debt.  At  Amster- 
dam it  was  a  common  saying  that  every  dish 
of  fish  was  paid  for  once  to  the  fisherman  and 
six  times  to  the  money-lender.  The  following 
table,  compiled  from  the  Eleventh  United  States 
Census  Reports  {Bulletin  64),  gives  the  national 
indebtedness  of  the  world  in  1890  : 


COUNTRIES. 

Debt  Less 
Sinking 
Fund,  1890. 

Debt 
per 
Capita. 

COUNTRIES. 

Debt  Less 

Sinking 
Fund,  1890. 

Debt 
per 
Capita. 

Argentine  Republic  

$284,867,069 
*2,866,339,539 
380,504,099 
14,763,367 
585.345,927 
85.192,339 
63,451,583 
33,004,722 
T4.446,  793>398 
77,577,719 
3,350,719.563 
11,184,400 
$881,003,592 
110,817,720 
8,464,662 
22,028,424 
41,864 
237,533,212 

$70.40 
70.84 
63.10 
12.38 
41.80 
31.96 
16.36 
15-66 
116.35 

o1'57 

87.79 
3.86 

3-27 
77-56 
22.92 
45-76 
2.69 

Hayti  

$13,500,000 
2,302,235 
63,394,267 
2,324,826,329 
305,727,816 
972,000 
113,606,675 
740,200 
430,589,858 
1,711,206 
13,973,752 
19,633,013 
382  175,655 
180,145,800 
3,491,018,074 
6,013,300 
9,865,256 
60,811,330 
1,251,453,696 
64,220,807 
10,912,925 
821,000,000 
517,278,200 
915,962,112 
22,517,437 

$14.06 
26.57 
146.77 
76.06 
7-83 
0.91 
9.98 
3-H 
95-56 
4.28 

7-'3 
59-56 
H5-77 
32-75 
30.79 
9-05 
16.17 
30.20 
73.85 
13-53 
3  72 
§37.20 
75.88 
'  14.63 

II    CO 

Austria-Hungary  

Hawaii    

Belgium    

Bolivia      

Italy               

Chile               

Colombia  

Denmark  

Montenegro  

France  

Netherlands  

German  Empire  

Great  Britain  and  Ireland..  .  . 

Ceylon  

Paraguay  

India         ....        ..        

Cape  of  Good  Hope  
Mauritius  

Roumania  
Russia                

Natal  

Salvador  

Bermudas  

Santo  Domingo      

Canada  

Servia  

Fiji  

678,800 
233,289.245 
184,898  305 
139,204,750 
102,177,500 

22,335,345 
179,614,005 
6,509,736 
107,306,518 
10,825,836 

5-4i 
214.87 
298.01 
333-46 
321  .00 
147.46 
161.63 
150.23 
49.06 
7-59 

New  South  Wales  
New  Zealand  
Queensland  

South  Australia    

Sweden  
Switzerland  
Turkey  

Tasmania  

United  States  

Victoria  

Venezuela  

Total    

Greece   

$27,396,055,389 

Guatemala  

*  In  these  amounts  there  is  included  debt  of  Hungary  for  1880,  $536,051,184  ;  for  1890,  $837,928,836.  Florin 
reckoned  at  50  cents. 

t  Inclusive  of  floating  debt,  but  exclusive  of  annuities  whose  capitalized  value  is  estimated  by  good  author- 
ity to  be  not  less  than  $2,000,000,000. 

%  The  rupee  is  reckoned  at  50  cents.  Its  exchange  value  in  1890  was  about  35  cents,  making  the  actual  face 
value  of  the  debt  about  30  per  cent,  less  than  the  amount  stated. 

§  Reckoning  the  population  of  European  and  Asiatic  Turkey  and  Tripoli  in  Africa. 


The  following  table  gives  the  outline  of  the 
history  of  Great  Britain's  national  debt : 


Principal. 

Annual 
Charge. 

Debt  at  the  Revolution  in  1688.. 
Debt    at    Accession    of    Queen 

£664,263 

£39^35 

Debt  at  Accession  of  George  I., 

Debt  at  Accession  of  George  II., 

Debt  in  1762  (George  III.,  1760).. 
Debt  at  beginning  of  American 
War  

138,865,430 

4,851,961 

Debt  at  conclusion  of  American 
War,  1784                 .  .          

Debt  at  Accession  of    George 
IV.,  1820          .. 

Debt    at    Accession    of    Queen 
Victoria,  1837     

Debt  March  -u,  i8cn.  .  . 

671*042,842 

*2^,  200*000 

An  exceedingly  large  proportion  of  national 
debts  have  been  caused  by  wars  The  four 
debts  of  the  United  States  were  incurred  by  war 

*  This  is  now  a  fixed  charge.—  Whitaker. 


expenditure,  as  were  also  the  debts  of  England, 
France,  the  Netherlands,  Russia,  Austria,  and 
Italy.  Italy,  France,  and  Germany,  and  espe- 
cially the  latter,  contracted  part  of  their  debt  by 
building  railroads  and  canals. 

But  with  many  nations,  and  especially  the 
weaker  ones,  loans  are  usually  negotiated  abroad . 
This  has  led  many  of  them  to  repudiate  their 
debts.  France,  perhaps,  did  this  first,  but  other 
nations  have  followed  her  example.  Spain  has 
repeatedly  compounded  with  her  creditors  ;  and 
Portugal,  Greece,  and  the  South  American 
States  have  repudiated  their  debts.  These  dis- 
honest nations  have  been  enabled  to  continue 
their  borrowing  only  through  the  aid  of  cunning 
bankers,  who  on  receipt  of  large  bribes  have 
undertaken  to  negotiate  loans.  Tables  have 
been  constructed  and  arguments  put  forward  in 
defense  of  the  policy  of  a  gradual  payment  of 
national  debts  ;  but  there  is  a  great  deal  of 
sophistry  in  these  calculations. 

Undoubtedly  the  great  reasons  why  debt-pay- 
ing is  so  unpopular  are  that  in  weak  countries  it 
requires  too  much  taxation,  and  in  wealthy 
countries  whose  credit  is  good,  bankers  like  to 
continue  the  loan  as  a  favorable  investment  for 


Debt. 


473 


Debt. 


themselves.  This  is  particularly  the  case  in 
Great  Britain  and  the  United  States.  It  is 
claimed  by  some  radicals  that  "  the  money 
power"  even  invents  war  scares  and  secures 
legislation  to  lower  the  receipts  of  the  Govern- 
ment in  order  to  make  an  excuse  for  fresh 
loans.  (See  CURRENCY.) 

NATIONAL   DEBT   OF   THE   UNITED   STATES. 

The  debt  of  the  United  States,  as  reported  to 
the  first  Congress  at  its  second  session,  1790-91, 
by  Alexander  Hamilton,  Secretary  of  the  Treas- 
ury, consisted  of  the  foreign  debt,  domestic 


debt,  and  State  debts.  The  secretary  recom- 
mended that  these  latter  be  assumed  by  the 
general  Government  ;  and  after  considerable 
discussion  this  was  agreed  to.  The  debt  then 
stood  : 

Domestic  debt $42,414,085 

Foreign  debt  11,710,378 

State  debts  (as  finally  assumed) 18,271,786 

Total $72,396,249 

The  foreign  debt  consisted  of  money  due  in 
France,  Holland,  and  Spain  for  loans  made  to 
us  during  the  Revolution.  Since  1791  the  debt 
has  varied  as  follows  : 


Statement  of  outstanding  Principal  of  the  Public  Debt  of  the  United  States  on  January  i  of  each  Year  from  1791 
to   842,  inclusive  ;  on  July  i  of  each  Year  from  1843  to  1886,  inclusive  ;  on  December  i  of  each  Year  from  i8~ 


to    892,  inclusive,  and  on  November  i,  1893,  J894,  and  1895. 


791  Ja 
792 
793 
794 
795 
796 

797 
798 

799 
800 
80  1 
802 
803 
804 
805 
806 
807 
808 
809 
810 
811 
812 

813 
814 
815 
816 
817 
8:8 
819 
820 
821 
822 
823 
824 
825 

n.  r  $75,463,476.52 

1826  Ja 
1827 
1828 
1829 
1830 
1831 
1832 

1833 
1834 
1835 
1836 
1837 
1838 
1839 
1840 
1841 
1842 
1843  Ju 
1844 
1845 
1846 
1847 
1848 
1849 
1850 
1851 
1852 
1853 
'854 
1855 
1856 
1857 
1858 
1859 
1860 

n.  i  $81,054,059.99 

1861  July  i  
j862   '   -   

$90,580,873.72 
524,176,412.13 
,119,772,138.63 
,815,784,370.57 
,680,647,869.74 
.773.236,173.69 

,678,126,103.87 
,611,687,851.19 

.588,452,213.94 

,480,672,427.81 

,253,251,328.78 
,234,482,993.20 
,251,690,468.43 
,232,284,531.95 
,180,395,067.15 

,205,301,392.10 

,256,205,892.53 
,340,567,232.04 
,128,791,054.63 
,077,389,253.58 
,926,688,678.03 
,892,547,412.07 
,838,904,607.57 
,872,340,557.14 
,783,438,697.78 

,664,461,536.38 
,680,917,706.23 

,617,372,419.53 

,549,206,126.48 

,546,961,695.61 
,563,612,455.63 
.549.556,353-63 

,626,154,037.68 

,717,481,779.90 

67,475,043.87 

1863 
1864 

,   

1865 
1866 
1867 
1868 

< 

39,123,191.68 

,  

ii 

8   866 

1869 
1870 
1871 
1872 

1873 
1874 
1875 

i 

'                 8    fi'  n   - 

i 

. 

i 

3,308,124.07 

|  

86,427,  120.88 

<  • 

H 

1876 

C 

1877 
1878 
1879 
1880 
1881 

Mil 

y  i  32,742,922.00 

'   

«  • 

1 

38,826,534.77 
47,044,862.23 
63,061,858.69 
63,452.773.55 

1882 
1883 
1884 
1885 
1886 
1887  DC 
1888 
1889 
1890 
1891 
1892 
1893  N 
1894 
1895 

1  '.'.'.'.'.'.'.'.'.*."'. 

81,487  846.24 

103,466,633.83 
95,529,648.28 
91,015,566.15 

59,803,117.70 
42,242,222.42 
35,586,858.56 

28,699,831.85 

44,911,881.03 
58,496,837.88 
64,842,287.88 

)V.  I  

90,269,777.77 
83,788,432.71 

It  will  be  seen  that  the  debt  was  considerably 
reduced  by  the  year  1812  ;  the  increase  between 
1812  and  1816  was  due  to  the  War  of  1812  ;  in 
1836  the  treasury  had  on  hand  a  surplus  of  over 
$40,000,000,  all  but  $5,000,000  of  which  was  or- 
dered by  Congress  to  be  distributed  among  the 
States,  on  certain  conditions  and  in  four  in- 
stalments. Three  of  these  were  paid,  but  not 
the  fourth.  The  increase  between  1847  and 
1849  was  due  to  the  Mexican  War.  After  the 
panic  of  1857  the  debt  began  to  increase.  The 
sudden  increase  in  1862  was  caused  by  the 
Civil  War.  During  that  struggle  in  1866  the 
debt  reached  the  highest  point  in  the  history  of 
the  country.  (See  FINANCE.)  The  total  amount 
of  loans  issued  by  the  Government  up  to  the 
outbreak  of  the  Civil  War  was  $505,353,591.95  ; 
between  that  time  and  July  i,  1880,  there  was 
issued  $10,144,589,408.69  ;  and  later  3^  per 
cent,  bonds  to  the  amount  of  $460,461  050,  ma- 
tured 5  and  6  per  cent,  bonds  extended  being  at 
that  rate,  and  3  per  cent,  bonds  to  the  amount 


of  $304,204,350,  for  the  purpose  of  extending  the 
above-mentioned  3^  per  cent,  bonds. 

At  its  highest  point  (1866)  the  debt  of  the 
United  States  exceeded  $2,700,000,000.  This 
was  composed  of  a  great  variety  of  different  ob- 
ligations, some  bearing  as  high  as  7-^  per  cent, 
interest.  Of  this  debt,  $830,000,000,  bearing 
interest  at  7T87  per  cent.,  matured  in  1867  and 
1868,  and  about  $300,000,000  other  debt  matured 
in  the  same  period.  To  meet  this  there  were 
issued  in  1865,  $332,998,950,  15  years,  6  per  cent, 
bonds  ;  in  1867,  $379,616,050,  15  years,  6  per 
cent,  bonds  ;  in  1868,  $42,539,350, 15  years,  6  per 
cent,  bonds;  in  1867  and  1868,  $85,150,000  de- 
mands, 3  per  cent,  certificates.  The  refunding 
act  of  1870  authorized  the  issue  of  not  more  than 
$200,000,000,  10  years,  5  per  cent,  bonds  ;  of  not 
more  than  $300,000,000,  15  years,  4^  per  cent, 
bonds  ;  of  not  more  than  $1,000,000,000,  30 
years,  4  per  cent,  bonds.  In  1871  this  was 
amended,  increasing  the  amount  of  5  per  cent. 
bonds  to  $500,000,000,  the  total  issue,  however, 


Debt. 


474 


Debt. 


not  to  be  increased  thereby.  Under  this  act 
there  were  issued  a  total  of  $412, 806, 450 of  5  per 
cent,  bonds,  and  after  1876,  $250,000,000  4^  per 
cent,  bonds.  In  1879  a  bill  was  passed  author- 
izing the  issue  of  $10  certificates,  bearing  4  per 
cent,  interest  and  exchangeable  into  the  4  per 
cent,  bonds  of  the  acts  of  1870  and  1871.  The 
net  result  of  all  these  changes  was  that  the  na- 
tional debt,  considerably  more  than  one  half  of 
which  was  in  1865  outstanding  at  6  percent,  and 
over,  was  in  1879  costing  but  4  and  4^  per  cent, 
for  more  than  one  half  of  its  then  principal.  In 
1881  over  $670,000,000  of  the  public  debt  run- 
ning at  5  and  6  per  cent,  matured.  Congress 
failed  to  provide  the  means  for  meeting  it,  and 
there  was  at  the  disposal  of  the  secretary  for 
this  purpose  only  the  surplus  revenue  and  some- 
what over  $100,000,000  of  4  per  cent,  bonds 
under  the  acts  of  1870  and  1871.  Under  these 


circumstances  the  secretary  (Windom)  made  a 
general  offer  to  the  holders  of  these  bonds  to 
extend  the  bonds  of  such  as  might  desire  it  at 
3^  per  cent. ,  redeemable  at  the  pleasure  of  the 
Government.  This  measure  was  a  complete 
success,  over  $460,000,000  bonds  being  extend- 
ed at  3 i  per  cent.  The  next  Congress  (in  1882) 
authorized  3  per  cent,  bonds,  redeemable  at  the 
pleasure  of  the  Government,  to  be  issued  in- 
stead of  the  bonds  extended  at  3^  per  cent. ,  and 
more  than  $300,000,000  were  so  issued.  Mean- 
while, the  reduction  of  the  debt  proceeded  so 
rapidly  that  the  last  of  the  3^  per  cents,  were 
called  for  payment  November  i,  1883,  and  the 
last  of  the  3  per  cents.  July  i,  1887,  leaving  out- 
standing only  the  4^  and  4  per  cent,  bonds.  (For 
further  information  regarding  the  debt  and  re- 
cent loans,  see  CURRENCY.) 


OFFICIAL  STATEMENT  OF  NOVEMBER  i,  1895. 


INTEREST-BEARING  DEBT. 

Funded  loan  of  1891 $25,364,500.00 

Funded  loan  of  1907 559,630,700.00 

Refunding  certificates 50,960.00 

.Loan  of  1904 100,000,000.00 

Loan  of  1925 62,315,400.00 

Aggregate  of  interest-bearing  debt,  ex- 
clusive of  United  States  bonds  issued 
to  Pacific  railroads,  as  stated  below —  $747,361,560.00 

DEBT   ON  WHICH  INTEREST  HAS  CEASED  SINCE 
MATURITY. 

Aggregate  debt  on  which  interest  has 
ceased  since  maturity $1,681,670.26 

DEBT  BEARING  NO  INTEREST. 

United  States  notes $346,681,016.00 

Old  demand  notes 54,847.50 

National  bank  notes : 

Redemption  account 23,706,619.00 

Fractional  currency  : 

Less  $8,375,934  estimated  as  lost  or  de- 
stroyed, act  of  June  21,  1879 6,893,394.14 

Aggregate  of  debt  bearing  no  interest..  $377,335,876.64 

CERTIFICATES  AND  NOTES  ISSUED  ON  DEPOSITS  OF 
COIN  AND  LEGAL-TENDER  NOTES  AND  PURCHASES 
OF  SILVER  BULLION. 

Gold  certificates $50,585,889.00 

Silver  certificates 342,409,504.00 

Certificates  of  deposit 57,015,000.00 

Treasury  notes  of  1890  141,092,280.00 

Aggregate  of  certificates  and  Treasury 
notes,  offset  by  cash  in  the  Treasury...  $591,102,673.00 


CLASSIFICATION   OF  DEBT  NOVEMBER   I,    1895. 

Interest-bearing  debt $747,361,560.00 

Debt  on  which  interest  has  ceased  since 

maturity 1,681,670.26 

Debt  bearing  no  interest 3771335,876.64 

Aggregate  of  interest  and  non-interest 
bearing  debt $1,126,379,106.90 

Certificates  and  Treasury  notes  offset  by 
an  equal  amount  of  cash  in  the  Trea- 
sury   591,102,673.00 

Aggregate  of  debt,  including  certificates 
and  Treasury  notes $1,717,481,779.90 

CASH  IN  THE  TREASURY. 

Gold  certificates $50,585,889.00 

Silver  certificates 342,409,504.00 

Certificates  of   deposit,  act 

June  8,  1872 57,015,000.00 

Treasury  notes  of  1890 141,092,280.00 


Fund  for  redemption  of  un- 
current  National  bank 
notes $8,250,722.82 

Outstanding  checks  and 
drafts 2,323,028.84 

Disbursing  officers'  bal- 
ances   26,690,586.34 

Agency  accounts,  etc 3,822,601.39 


51,102,673.00 


Gold  reserve...  $92,943,179.00 
Net    cash    bal- 
ance       87,004,819.48 


41,086,939.39 


179,947,998.48 

Aggregate $812,137,610.87 

Cash  balance  in  the  Treasury,  October 

31,  ^95 $179,947,998.93 


STATE,  COUNTY,  AND   MUNICIPAL   DEBTS. 

The  origin  of  State  debts  in  the  United  States 
dates  from  the  Revolutionary  War.  The  differ- 
ent States  contracted  debts  for  war  purposes, 
very  various  in  amount,  but  all  to  a  considerable 
degree  ;  and  the  Congress  of  the  Confederation 
promised  to  meet  every  claim  with  justice. 
After  the  war,  it  was  disputed  as  to  whether  the 
Government  should  assume  the  debt  of  any 
State.  It  was  urged  that  as  the  Government 
had  taken  over  the  customs  duties,  which  previ- 
ously had  belonged  to  the  States,  it  should  with 
this  chief  source  of  revenue  take  over  also  the 
debts  of  the  States.  But  the  motion  to  assume 
was  carried  by  only  two  votes  ;  and  while  $21,- 


500,000  was  assumed,  a  balance  of  $4,000,000 
was  left  unprovided  for.  In  spite  of  this  com- 
promise, the  States  continued  their  borrowing 
careers  until  $170,000,000  were  scored  against 
them  in  20  years.  This  money  was  declared  to 
have  been  spent  as  follows:  31  per  cent. ,  or 
$52,640,000,  were  expended  in  aiding  State 
banks  ;  $60,201,551  were  expended  for  canals  ; 
nearly  25  per  cent,  or  $42,871,084,  were  fur- 
nished to  railroads,  and  $6,618,958  for  turnpikes 
and  macadamized  roads,  and  the  balance  was 
expended  for  several  objects.  Over  $100,000,- 
ooo,  therefore,  were  spent  for  internal  improve- 
ments. 

The  greater  amount  of  this  money  had  been 
borrowed  from  British  creditors.     Before  very 


Debt. 


475 


Debt. 


long  the  States  became  uneasy  under  their  bur- 
den, and  at  last  turned  to  the  Federal  Govern- 
ment for  relief. 

In  1836  there  was,  as  we  have  seen,  a  surplus 
of  over  $40,000,000  in  the  Federal  treasury,  and 
$37,468,859  of  this  Congress  voted  to  divide 
among  the  States  in  proportion  to  their  popula- 
tion, provided  that  the  States  would  agree  to 
accept  it,  but  authorize  their  treasurers  to  return 
it  on  demand.  It  was  to  be  paid  in  four 
payments  during  1837,  three  only  of  which  were 
actually  made,  the  fourth  being  prevented  by 
the  panic  of  1837.  For  several  years  there  was 
an  annual  deficit,  and  the  States  could  get  noth- 
ing. They  were  in  great  distress.  In  1842  they 
owed  $198,818,736.  A  plan  was  presented  for 
assumption  of  the  State  debts  by  the  Government. 
This  plan  is  said  to  have  emanated  from  the  other 
side  of  the  Atlantic.  Benton  says  that  "  these 
British  capitalists,  connected  with  capitalists  in 
the  United  States,  possessed  a  weight  on  this 
point  which  was  felt  in  the  halls  of  Congress. 
The  disguised  attempts  at  this  assumption  were 
in  the  various  modes  of  conveying  Federal  money 
to  the  States  in  the  shape  of  distributing  surplus 
revenue,  of  dividing  the  public  land  money,  and 
of  bestowing  money  on  tho  States  under  the 
fallacious  title  of  a  deposit.  But  a  more  direct 
provision  in  their  behalf  was  wanted  by  these 
capitalists,  and  in  the  course  of  the  year  1839  a 
movement  to  that  effect  was  openly  made 
through  the  columns  of  their  regular  organ,  The 
London  Banker's  Circular,  emanating  from 
the  most  respectable  and  opulent  house  of  the 
Messrs.  Baring  Brothers  &  Co." 

The  British  capitalists  were  willing  to  reduce 
the  interest  one  half  if  the  Government  would 
assume  the  obligation.  It  was  not  done,  how- 
ever, and  the  indebtedness  increased.  The  in- 
debtedness of  the  Southern  section  was  in- 
creased far  more  after  the  war.  Under  the 
guise  of  being  needed  for  internal  improve- 
ments, many  loans  were  negotiated  under  sus- 
picious circumstances.  In  1870  and  in  1880  the 
debts  of  the  States  stood  thus  : 


1870. 

i860. 

New  England  States  

Middle  States  

79,834,481 

Southern  States  

Western  States  

Pacific  States  

Total  

$•552,866,898 

$2-0      22  08  1 

D    ,7 

The  reductions  shown  for  1880  were  made  by 
the  Middle  and  Western  States  by  actual  pay- 
ments ;  but  this  was  not  the  case  with  the  South- 
ern States.  Their  $60,000,000  of  reduction  were 
effected  by  the  much  easier  mode  of  repudia- 
tion. 

It  is  claimed,  however,  that  the  "  carpet-bag"  debts 
of  the  Southern  States,  under  which  some  of  them  are 
still  suffering,  wf-e  created  during  the  reconstruction 
period,  when  the  oouth  was  at  the  mercy  of  adventur- 
ers from  the  North  and  the  ranks  of  the  negro  popula- 
tion supported  and  protected  by  the  Federal  Govern- 
ment. These  burdens  aggregated  in  1871  some  $291,- 
626,015,  distributed  among  the  reconstructed  States  as 
follows:  Alabama,  $52,761,917;  Arkansas,  $19,398,000; 
Florida,  $1^,797.587;  Georgia,  $42,560,500;  Louisiana, 
$40,021,734 ;  North  Carolina,  $34,887,464  ;  South  Carolina, 


$22,480,516;  Texas,  $14,930,000;  Virginia,  $47,090,866.  It 
is  claimed  also  that  the  debts  of  the  Southern  States 
contracted  from  1861  to  1865  were  repudiated  by  order 
of  the  Federal  Government,  so  that  the  indebtedness- 
was  due  almost  wholly  to  "carpet-bag"  financiering. 

The  diminution  in  the  total  indebtedness  of  1880, 
which  stood  at  the  sum  of  $250,722,081,  and  is  the  in- 
debtedness of  38  States,  is  partly  due  to  this  repudia- 
tion. Recent  years,  however,  have  seen  a  very  large 
and  dangerous  increase  of  municipal  debts.  Mr.  Bryce, 
in  his  Tne  American  Commonwealth  (ist  edition,  vol.  i. 
chap.  43),  gives  the  following  account  of  the  growth  of 
these  debts :  "  Municipal  indebtedness  has  advanced, 
especially  in  the  larger  cities,  at  a  dangerously  swift 
rate.  Or  the  State  and  county  debt  much  the  largest 
part  had  been  incurred  for,  or  in  connection  with,  so- 
called  '  internal  improvements' ;  but  of  the  city  debt, 
tho  a  part  was  due  to  the  bounties  given  to  volun- 
teers in  the  Civil  War,  much  must  be 
set  down  to  extremely  lax  and  wasteful 
administration,  and  much  more  to  mere  .  . 

stealing,   practised  by    methods    to  be     Municipal 
hereafter  explained,  but   facilitated  by         Debt. 
the    habit    of    subsidizing,    or    taking 
shares  in,  corporate  enterprises  which 
had  excited  the  hopes  of  the  citizens. 

"  The  disease  spread  till  it  terrified  the  patient,  and 
a  remedy  was  found  in  the  insertion  in  the  constitu- 
tions of  the  States  of  provisions  limiting  the  borrowing 
powers  of  State  legislatures.  Fortunately  the  evil  had 
been  perceived  in  time  to  enable  the  newest  States 
(Minnesota,  Wisconsin,  Oregon,  Kansas,  Nevada,  Ne- 
braska, West  Virginia,  Colorado)  to  profit  by  the  ex- 
perience of  their  predecessors.  For  the  last  30  years, 
whenever  a  State  has  enacted  a  constitution,  it  has  in- 
serted sections  restricting  the  borrowing  powers  of 
States  and  local  bodies,  and  often  also  providing  for 
the  discharge  of  existing  liabilities.  Not  only  is  the 
passing  of  bills  for  raising  a  State  loan  surrounded  with 
special  safeguards,  such  as  the  requirement  of  a  two- 
thirds  majority  in  each  house  of  the  legislature ;  not 
only  is  there  a  prohibition  ever  to  borrow  money  for, 
or  even  to  undertake,  internal  improvements  (a  fertile 
source  of  jobbery  and  waste,  as  the  experience  of  Con- 
gress shows) ;  not  only  is  there  almost  invariably  a 
provision  that  whenever  a  debt  is  contracted  the  same 
act  shall  create  a  sinking  fund  for  paying  it  off  within 
a  few  years,  but  in  most  constitutions  the  total  amount 
of  the  debt  is  limited,  and  limited  to  a  sum  beautifully 
small  in  proportion  to  the  population  and  resources  of 
the  State.  Thus  Wisconsin  fixes  its  maximum  at  $200,- 
000  G£4°i°o°)  i  Minnesota  and  Iowa  at  $250,000  ;  Ohio  at 
$750,000  :  Nebraska  at  $100,000 ;  prudent  Oregon  at  $50,- 
ooo  ;  and  the  great  and  wealthy  State  of  Pennsylvania, 
with  a  population  now  exceeding  5,000,000  (Constitution 
of  1873,  Art.  ix.  §  4),  at  $1,000,000.  New  York  (Consti- 
tution of  1846,  Art.  vii.  §§  10-12)  also  names  a  million  of 
dollars  as  the  maximum,  but  permits  laws  to  be  passed 
raising  loans  for  'some  single  work  or  object,'  pro- 
vided that  a  tax  is  at  the  same  time  enacted  sufficient 
to  pay  off  this  debt  in  18  years  ;  and  that  any  such  law 
has  been  directly  submitted  to  the  people  and  approved 
by  them  at  an  election. 

"In  31  States,  including  all  those  with  recent  consti- 
tutions, the  legislature  is  forbidden  to  'give  or  lend 
the  credit  of  the  State  in  aid  of  any  person,  association, 
or  corporation,  whether  municipal  or  other,  or  to  pledge 
the  credit  of  the  State  in  any  manner  whatsoever  for 
the  payment  of  the  liabilities  present  or  prospective  of 
any  individual  association,  municipal,  or  other  corpo- 
ration' (Constitution  of  Missouri  of  1875,  Art.  iv.  §  45, 
a  constitution  whose  provisions  on  financial  matters 
and  restrictions  on  the  legislature  are  copious  and  in- 
structive. Similar  words  occur  in  nearly  all  Western 
and  Southern,  as  well  as  in  some  of  the  more  recent 
Eastern  constitutions),  as  also  to  take  stock  in  a  corpo- 
ration, or  otherwise  embark  in  any  gainful  enterprise. 
Many  constitutions  also  forbid  the  assumption  by  the 
State  of  the  debts  of  any  individual  or  municipal  corpo- 
ration. 

"  The  care  of  the  people  for  their  financial  freedom 
and  safety  extends  even  to  local  bodies.  Many  of  the 
recent  constitutions  limit,  or  direct  the  legislature  to 
limit,  the  borrowing  powers  of  counties,  cities?  or 
towns,  sometimes  even  of  incorporated  school  districts, 
to  a  sum  not  exceeding  a  certain  percentage  on  the 
assessed  value  of  the  taxable  property  within  the  area 
in  question.  This  percentage  is  usually  5  per  cent. 
(e.g.,  Illinois,  Constitution  of  1870,  Art.  ix.  §  12),  some- 
times (e.g.  Pennsylvania,  Constitution  of  1873,  Art.  ix. 
§  8)  7  per  cent ;  New  York  (amendment  of  1884),  i°  Per 
cent.  Sometimes  also  the  amount  of  the  tax  leviable 
by  a  local  authority  in  any  year  is  restricted  to  a  defi- 
nite sum— for  instance,  to  &  per  cent,  on  the  valuation. 


Debt. 


476 


Debt. 


(See,  for  elaborate  provisions  under  this  head,  the  Con- 
stitution of  Missouri  of  1875.)  And  in  all  the  States  but 
seven,  cities,  counties,  or  other,  local  incorporated 
authorities  are  forbidden  to  pledge  their  credit  for,  or 
undertake  the  liabilities  of  or  take  stock  in,  or  other- 
wise give  aid  to,  any  undertaking  or  company.  Some- 
times this  prohibition  is  absolute,  sometimes  it  is  made 
subject  to  certain  conditions,  and  may  be  avoided  by 
their  observance.  For  instance,  there  are  States  in 
which  the  people  of  a  city  can,  by  special  vote,  carried 
by  a  two-thirds  majority,  or  a  three-fifths  majority,  or 
(in  Colorado)  by  a  bare  majority  of  the  taxpayers, 
authorize  the  contracting  of  a  debt  which  the  munici- 
pality could  not  incur  by  its  ordinary  organs  of  govern- 
ment. Sometimes  there  is  a  direction  that  any  munici- 
pality creating  a  debt  must  at  the  same  time  provide 
for  its  extinction  by  a  sinking  fund.  Sometimes  the 
restrictions  imposed  apply  only  to  a  particular  class  of 


undertakings— e.g:,  banks  or  railroads.  The  difference 
between  State  and  State  are  endless  ;  but  everywhere 
the  tendency  is  to  make  the  protection  against  local  in- 
debtedness and  municipal  extravagance  more  and 
more  strict ;  nor  will  any  one  who  knows  these  local 
authorities,  and  the  temptations,  both  good  and  bad, 
to  which  they  are  exposed,  complain  of  the  strictness. 
"  Cases,  of  course,  occur  in  which  a  restriction  on  the 
taxing  power  or  borrowing  power  of  a  municipality  is 
found  inconvenient,  because  a  costly  public  improve- 
ment is  rendered  more  costly  if  it  has  to  be  done  piece- 
meal." 

The  following  statement  of  the  indebtedness 
of  the  States  and  Territories  in  1890  is  compiled 
from  the  abstract  of  the  Eleventh  United  States 
Census : 


GEOGRAPHICAL  DIVI- 
SIONS. 

TOTAL  COM- 
BINED DEBT 
LESS  SINK- 
ING FUND. 

PER  CAPITA  OF 
COMBINED  DEBT. 

STATE 
DEBT. 

COUNTY 
DEBT. 

MUNICIPAL 
DEBT. 

SCHOOL 
DISTRICT 
DEBT. 

1890. 

1890. 

1880. 

1890. 

1890. 

1890. 

1890. 

$467,968,615 

•  $26.89 

$37.28 

$25,140,357 

$27,585,070 

$405,572,083 

$9,671,105 

Maine    

$15,600,777 
8,148,362 

31785.373 
81,550,027 
13,042,117 
23.7031478 
201,763,217 
49.333.589 
71,041,675 

165,107,113 

$23.60 
21.64 
11.39 
36.42 

37-75 
3J-76 
33.64 
34  -H 
I3-5I 

18.64 

$35.81 
31.10 
13-54 
S'-SS 

46.91 

35-33 
43.06 
43-66 
25.03 

22.  IO 

$3.470,908 
2,691,019 
148,416 
7.267,349 
422,983 
3,740,200 
2,308,230 
1,022,642 
4,068,610 

89,652,873 

$434.346 
556,987 
5,108 
4,051,830 

$11,605,523 
4,718,025 
3,529,014 
70,230,848 

12,499.254 
18,322,371 
187,348,163 
42,990,338 
54,238,547 

67,610,380 

New  Hampshire.. 

$182,331 
102,835 

Massachusetts  

119,880 
1,610,360 
1,170,186 
1,592,479 
4,893,034 

18,299 

30-547 
10,936,638 
3,728,130 
7,841,484 

7,825,561 

New  York  

Pennsylvania  

South  Atlantic  

Delaware  

$2,919,084 
42,175,408 
19,781,050 

50,837,315 
2,532,460 
11,117,445 
13,295.637 
20,272,095 
2,176,619 

320,238,281 

$17.32 
40.46 
85.86 
30.70 
3-32 
6.87 
"•55 
11.03 
5-56 

I4-32 

$16.17 
44-  3  * 
126.66 
30.09 
2.65 
12.83 
14.25 
12.74 
9.89 

14.17 

$887,573 
8,434,368 
19,781,050 
34,227,234 
184,511 
7,703,100 
6,953.582 
10,449,542 
1,031,913 

41,656,112 

$618,400 
893,776 

$1,413,111 
32,847,264 

Maryland  

District  of  Columbia    .  .  . 
Virginia  ; 

1.774.535 
1,197,462 
1,514,600 
1,062,750 
429,380 
334,658 

60,110,453 

14,835,546 
1,132,188 
1,899,745 
5,279,305 

9,393>r73 
810,048 

184,219,923 

West  Virginia  

$18,299 

South  Carolina  

Georgia  

Florida  

North  Central  

25,251,793 

Ohio  

$71,065,386 
24,442,631 
41,841,649 
16,941,928 
10,440,580 
26,050,929 

".zrs.sJQ 
51.557.568 
3,842,790 
6,613,707 

15.535,772 
40,629,022 

ISS^SS.S11 

$19.35 
•11.15 
10.94 
8  09 
6.19 
20.  01 
5-90 
19.24 
21.03 
20.  ii 
14.67 
28.47 

12.60 

$16.59 
9.28 
I5-07 
7-36 
9.19 
14.51 
5.01 
27-79 
3-57 
8.82 
16.56 
15-97 

16.14 

$7,135,806 
8,538,059 
1,184,907 
5,308,294 
•  2,295,391 
2,239,482 
245,435 
",7591832 
703,769 
871,600 
253,879 
1,119,658 

66,281,194 

$7,797,005 
6,406,239 
11,016,380 
1,257,698 
1,529,681 
3>3T7,657 
3,416,889 
10,240,082 
1,372,261 
2,441,334 
5,5io,i75 
14,805,052 

19.177,151 

$52,888,263 

9-498-333 
26,456,965 
8,510,439 
6,303,605 
18,427,368 
6,391,772 
28,092,103 
711,665 
1,197,520 
7,124,506 
18,617,384 

52,576,623 

$3,244.3" 

Indiana  

Illinois    

3,l83,397 
1,865,497 
3",903 
2,066,422 
1,221,223 

1,465,551 
1,055,095 
2,103,253 
2,648,213 
6,086,928 

220,343 

Michigan    

Minnesota  

Iowa  

Missouri  

North  Dakota  

South  Dakota  

Nebraska  

Kansas  

South  Central  

$19,432,885 
29.543.843 

18,930,867 
6,011,347 

33.335.497 
20,172,063 

$10.46 
16.71 
.    12.51 
4.66 
29.80 
9.02 

$9.09 
26.42 
14.26 
4-38 
45.60 
7-34 

$1,671,133 
19,695,974 
12,413,196 
3,503,009 
16,008,585 
4.317,515 

$5,712,463 
2,172,059 
1,433,321 
1,230,299 
177,798 
6,891,714 

$11,880,417 
7,675,810 
5.084,350 
1,278,039 
17,140,114 
8,928,852 

$168,872 

Tennessee  

Alabama  

Mississippi  

Louisiana  

Texas  

33,98a 

Oklahoma  

Arkansas  

10,828,809 
43,641,122 

9.60 
14.41 

13-37 
13-85 

8,671,782 
6,266,853 

1,559,497 
21,349,810 

580,041 
14,484,051 

17,489 

1,540,408 

Western.  ... 

Montana  

$2,918,893 
1,647,381 
8,411,027 
2,831,538 

2,937.971 
767,501 

1.337.5°! 
1.594.333 
3,145,658 
2,479,860 
15.569,459 

$22.09 
27.14 
20.41 
18.44 
49.28 

3-°9 

29.23 
18.89 
9.00 
7.90 
12.89 

$19.54 
9.88 
18.67 
0.71 

9-33 
0.81 
22.48 

7-05 
3.r9 
4.86 
19.18 

$167,815 
320,000 
599.851 
870,000 
757.159 

$2,004,513 
1,083,790 
4,601,588 
1,815,083 
1,954,414 
49,859 
812,676 
1,234,987 
1,507,786 
905,711 
5,379,403 

$614,519 
243,5Qi 
2,955,962 
127,085 
200,165 
717,642 

$132,046 

253,626 
19,37° 
26,233 

Wyoming  

Colorado  

New  Mexico  

Arizona  

Utah  

Nevada  

509,525 
218,493 
300,000 
1,685 

2,522,325 

15,300 

111,642 
291,362 
186,020 
504,809 

Idaho  

29,211 
1,046,510 
1,386,444 
7,162,922 

Washington  

Oregon  

California  

Total  

$1,135,210,442 

$18.13 

$22.40 

$228,097,389 

$145,048,045 

$724,463,060 

$36,701,948 

Debt. 


477 


Debt. 


The    World  Almanac  gives  the  following 
statistics  of  the  debts  of  some  of  the  principal 


cities  of  the  United  States  as  reported  by  their 
mayors  for  January  i,  1896  : 


CITIES. 

Area  in 
Square 
Miles. 

Estimated 
Population, 
Jan.  i,  1896. 

Net  Public 
Debt. 

Assessed  Val- 
uation of  all 
Taxable  Prop- 
erty. 

Per  Cent, 
of  Actu- 
al Value. 

Tax 
Rate. 

Boston,  Mass  

37 
66« 
42 
189 

5* 

44* 

%t 

15 
66     . 
17* 

8* 
'3 
13 
4 

21 

55% 
65 
24* 
"9*5 

tn 

2* 

60 

42* 

fafc 

55* 
70 

494.205 
1,200,000 
350,000 
1,750,000 
365,000 
345,000 
150,000 
75,000 
300,000 
40,354 
60,000 
155.632 
30,000 
182,000 
150,000 
105,000 
250,000 
195,000 
1,906,438 
160,000 
1,350,000 
275,000 
40,000 
81,000 
360,000 
603,837 
150,000 
280,000 

$39.589,716 
52,045,000 
12,024,608 
17,188,950 
26,560,167 
5,950,104 
2,032,000 
83,985 
3,601,796 
701,549 

1,945,25° 
1,877,500 
1,000,000 
4,596,141 
3,874,689 
3,071,600 
6,076,750 
6,565,000 
113,277,686 
3,011,100 
29,806,589 
7,949,638 
1,317,800 
4,859,618 
243,675 
21,024,711 
9,460,000 
17,540,620 

$951,362,519 
566,376,667 
234,651,400 
244,476,825 
188,129,540 
135,700,000 
66,903,380 
16,515,140 
209,586,330 
20,441,000 
41,013,263 
106,373,345 
13,000,000 
85,000,000 
58,381,510 
31,045,766 

142,547,413 
136,293,279 
2,016,947,662 
19.654,466 
801,028,552 
287,322,894 
37,207,025 
47,689,025 
328,537.317 
326,463,600 
122,643,703 
402,575,792 

IOO 

70 
70 

10 

59 

33* 
33% 
70 
So 

45 
70 
80 
70 
40 
60 
5° 
50 

10 
IOO 

33« 
?o 

g 

40 

$1.28 
a.  74 
1.63 

2.83 
2.87 

1.  12 

i-57 

I.  10 

2.79 
i.  65 
1.18 
a-7S 
1-25 
1.89 
a-  34 
a-'S 
1.91 
4.40 
1.85 

1.20 

2.00 
2.78 

a.  35 

2.05 

2.00 
1-5° 

Brooklyn,  N.  Y        

Buffalo,  N.  Y  i  

Chicago,  111            .... 

Cincinnati,  O  

Cleveland,  O  

Denver,  Col     

Des  Moines,  la.  

Detroit,  Mich  

Dubuque,  la     

Duluth,  Minn        

Indianapolis,  Ind  

Jacksonville,  Fla  

Jersey  City,  N.  J  

Kansas  City,  Mo  

Memphis,  Tenn  ...        

Milwaukee,  Wis  

Minneapolis,  Minn  

New  York  City  

Omaha,  Neb  

Philadelphia,  Pa  

Pittsburgh  Pa     

Portland,  Me  

Portland,  Ore  

San  Francisco,  Cal  

St.  Louis,  Mo  

St.  Paul,  Minn  

Washington,  D.  C  

For  statistics  as  to  some  European  cities,  see 
CITIES,  Sec.  III. 

Bulletin  64  of  the  Eleventh  Census  gives  the 


following  summary  of  the  indebtedness  in  the 
United  States,  and  the  following  estimate  of 
the  indebtedness  of  the  world  : 


TOTAL  AND  PER  CAPITA  INDEBTEDNESS  OF  THE  UNITED   STATES,  THE   SEVERAL  STATES, 

TERRITORIES,  AND  COUNTIES. 


DIVISIONS. 

TOTAL  DEBT  LESS  SINK- 
ING FUND. 

BONDED 
DEBT. 

FLOATING 
DEBT. 

SINKING 
FUND. 

TOTAL  DEBT 
LESS  SINKING 
FUND  PER 
CAPITA. 

1880. 

1890. 

1890. 

1890. 

1890. 

1880. 

1890. 

Total  

$2,336,949,034 

$1,281,020,840 

$1,065,565,710 

$268,543,707 

$53.088,577 

$46.59 

$20.46 

The  United  States        

1,922,517,364 

290,326,643 
i   124,105,027 

915,962,112 

223,107,883 
141,950,845 

711,313,110 

223,128,544 
131,124,056 

*2O4,649,oo2 

47,804,012 
16,090,693 

47,824,673 
5,263,904 

38-33 

5-79 
2.47 

*4-«3 

3.56 
2.27 

The  several  States  and  Ter- 
ritories   

Counties  

*  Less  cash  in  Treasury. 
DEBT  OF  THE  WORLD. 


DIVISIONS. 

DEBT  LESS  -SINKING  FUND. 

Increase. 

Decrease. 

1890. 

1880. 

Total  

$26,917,096,680 

$25,818,521,219 

$1,098,575,461 

Foreign  nations  

25,636,075,840 
915,962,112 
223,107,883 
141,950,845 

23,481,572,185 
1,922,517,364 
290,326,643 
124,105,027 

2,154,503,655 

The  United  States  

$1,006,555,252 
67,218,760 

States  and  Territories  

Counties    

17,845,818 

For  a  study  of  private  debts  and  their  in- 
crease, see  MORTGAGES. 

References :  Maurice  Block's  Statisttque  de  la 
France  (for  Europe  generally) ;  R.  Dudley  Baxter's 
National  Debts  (London,  1871) ;  Statesman's  Year 
Book  ;  Mulhall's  Dictionary  of  Statistics  ;  Census  Re- 


ports for  1880  and  1890  /  Henry  C.  Adams's  Modern 
Public  Debts  and  the  Payment  of  Them,  in  Interna- 
tional Review  for  March  and  September,  1881  ;  article 
by  R.  P.  Porter  on  Debts,  in  the  Cyclopedia  of  Political 
Science :  G.  Watson  Green's  Repudiation  ;  Economic 
Tract  No.  n  of  Society  for  Political  Education  (New 
York,  1883),  Above  all,  H.  C.  Adams's  Public  Debts 


YorK,    i»»3),     Aoove  an,  n.  \. 
(New  York  :  Appleton,  1890). 


DeColins. 


478 


Degeneration. 


DE  COLINS.  See  COLINS. 

DE  COULANGES.    See  COULANGES. 

DEGENERATION.— To  whatever  school  of 
social  reform  one  belong,  whatever  be  his  view 
of  the  cause  of  present  ills  and  the  methods  to 
be  followed  to  remove  those  ills  and  to  advance 
to  any  ideal  condition,  whatever  that  ideal  may 
be,  one  cannot  escape  the  question  of  the  ability 
of  the  individuals  who  compose  society  to  con- 
duct the  methods  of  reform  believed  in,  and  to 
realize  the  ideal  conditions  that  may  be  desired. 
The  socialist,  who  dwells  most  upon  the  power 
and  function  of  society  in  developing  progress, 
must  meet  the  question  whether  the  individual 
be  capable  of  socialism  no  less  than  the  individu- 
alist must  consider  individual  ability.  We  there- 
fore consider  in  this  article  the  causes  which 
tend  to  lower  individual  ability  and  to  produce 
that  personal  degeneration  which  makes  the  in- 
dividual lower  than  the  norm  (de,  from,  and 
genus,  class  or  norm),  unfitted  to  play  his  proper 
part  in  life.  This  is  all  that  we  mean  here  by 
the  degenerate.  All  forms  of  unfittedness  for 
life  are  more  or  less  connected,  and  pass  by  de- 
grees from  the  slightest  unfittedness  to  the  ex- 
tremes of  vice,  intemperance,  and  disease. 

The  conception  of  degeneration  which  prevails 
to-day  in  the  study  of  mental  disease,  and  which 
lies  at  the  basis  of  Max  Nordau's  well-known 
book,  Degeneration,  was  first  clearly  defined 
by  Dr.  Morel  in  his  Traite"  des  De'ge'nerescences 
physiques,  intellectuelles  et  morales  de  I'Espece 
humaine  efrdes  Causes  quiproduisantces  varie"- 
tes  maladives,  published  in  Paris  in  1857.  He 
says,  p.  5  :  "  The  clearest  notion  we  can  form  of 
degeneracy  is  to  regard  it  as  a  morbid  deviation 
from  an  original  type.  This  deviation,  even  if  at 
the  outset  it  was  ever  so  slight,  contained  trans- 
missible elements  of  such  a  nature  that  any  one 
bearing  in  him  the  germs  becomes  more  and 
more  incapable  of  fulfilling  his  functions  in  the 
world  ;  and  mental  progress,  already  checked 
in  his  own  person,  finds  itself  menaced  also  in 
his  descendants. ' '  Such  degeneracy  shows  it- 
self, according  to  many  writers,  and  particular- 
ly Lombroso  (y.v.),  in  his  L'  Uomo delinquente, 
in  certain  physical  characteristics  termed  stig- 
mata, such  as  deformities,  stinted  growth,  asym- 
metry, etc.  Max  Nordau,  however,  argues 
that  there  are  also  certain  mental  stigmata 
which  appear  in  degeneracy  when  coupled  with 
affinity  for  art  or  literature.  Such  higher  de- 
generates he  considers  to  dwell  in  the  border- 
land between  reason  and  pronounced  madness. 
These  mental  stigmata  he  considers  to  be  the  lack 
of  moral  sense  or  of  moral  proportion,  egoism, 
impulsiveness,  emotionalism,  despondency,  fear  ; 
a  predilection  for  idle  reverie,  doubts  and  curi- 
ous surmisings  as  to  the  causes  of  the  universe, 
mysticism,  etc.  His  book,  which  has  been  by 
many  received  as  an  able  contribution  to  mod- 
ern thought,  and  by  others  as  a  weak  and  some- 
times ignorant  criticism  upon  new  forms  of  art 
and  literature,  is  a  minute  analysis  of  many  of 
the  foremost  works  of  art  and  literature  ot  the 
day,  with  the  result  of  convicting  most  of  the  art- 
ists and  litterateurs  of  the  day  of  being,  accord- 
ing to  Nordau,  degenerate. 

We  have  referred  to  this  book  to  show  how 
wide  is  the  range  that  has  been  covered  by  the 


word  degenerate.  The  causes  that  produce  such 
an  undefined  and  such  an  undefinable  phenome- 
non must  be  themselves  undefined  and  undefi- 
nable. .  Only  some  of  them  can  be  here  noted, 
and  one  must  beware  of  too  exact  statements, 
especially  as  to  the  degree  to  which  different 
causes  contribute  to  producing  character  and 
ability  below  the  norm.  The  main  causes  we 
can  here  only  name,  for  a  discussion  of  them  re- 
ferring the  reader  to  their  respective  heads.  In 
the  first  place,  we  are  met  by  the  old  question 
how  far  environment  and  heredity  contribute 
to  the  formation  of  character,  and  how  far  men 
form  their  own  characters.  Without  entering 
into  questions  of  philosophy,  it  is  not  difficult  to 
show  the  results  of  modern  careful  investigation 
upon  this  point.  In  Mr.  A.  G.  Warner's  Ameri- 
can Charities,  p.  34,  he  has  tabulated  the  re- 
sults of  careful  investigations  as  to  the  prime 
causes  of  poverty,  conducted  by  trained  charity 
organization  visitors  in  Baltimore,  Boston,  Buf- 
falo, Cincinnati,  and  New  York,  bj'  Mr.  Charles 
Booth  in  London,  and  results  tabulated  by 
Bohmert  for  76  German  cities.  This  tabulates 
practically  all  the  scientific  investigations  that 
have  been  made.  We  give  the  details  of  it  in 
the  article  POVERTY,  CAUSES  OF.  We  here  sim- 
ply point  out  some  of  its  results.  According  to 
this  table,  in  all  the  different  investigations 
taken  by  men  and  women,  humanitarians,  tho 
not  socialistically  inclined,  only  from  2.7  to  42.2 
per  cent,  of  the  cases  were  found  to  be  primarily 
due  to  causes  indicating  miscon- 
duct, while  the  causes  indicating 
misfortune  are  put  at  from  46.4  to  Misconduct 
92.5  per  cent.  According  to  this  or 
showing,  then,  poverty — and  since  Misfortune, 
poverty  and  degeneration  usually 
are  associated,  degeneration — is 
very  much  more  due  to  misfortune  than  miscon- 
duct. And  even  in  cases  of  poverty  due  to  mis- 
conduct, one  can  by  no  means  be  sure  how  much 
of  the  misconduct  is  due  to  bad  environment 
or  bad  heredity.  Misconduct  causes  much  pov- 
erty— of  that  there  is  no  question  ;  but  that  pov- 
erty also  causes  much  misconduct,  such  as  drink- 
ing, prostitution,  crime,  theft,  can  no  more  be 
questioned.  How  much  tendency,  too,  to  drink- 
ing, prostitution,  and  crime  is  inherited,  who  can 
say?  Cases  like  the  Jukes  (q.v,~)  show  the  ter- 
rible power  of  heredity.  The  extent  to  which 
people  thus  form  their  own  characters,  as  taught 
by  modern  science,  is  reduced  to  the  lowest  pro- 
portions. That  people  can,  however,  rise  out  of 
the  lowest  environment  to  the  highest  charac- 
ter, numerous  instances  indicate  ;  how  far  this, 
however,  is  due  to  heredity  remains  still  to  be 
ascertained. 

Coming  to  the  question  as  between  heredity 
and  environment,  which  is  the  more  effective 
cause,  we  are  again  on  a  contested  field  in  bio- 
logical controversy. 

Mr.  Spencer's  philosophy  is  mainly  based  on 
the  belief  that  heredity  accounts  for  much,  and 
that  acquired  characteristics  can  be  transmitted 
to  posterity.  Professor  Weismann  denies  this. 
Science  to-day  is  undecided  upon  the  point,  tend- 
ing perhaps,  however,  to  the  position  that  while 
Weismann  may  not  be  wholly  right,  and  acquir- 
ed characteristics  may  sometimes  be  transmitted, 
yet  for  the  future  race  selection  has  more  to  do 


Degeneration. 


479 


Degeneration. 


with  character  than  environment,  and  acquired 

character  cannot  largely  be  transmitted.     This, 

however,  does  not  prevent  environ- 

.„.  ,  ,..       ment  from  being  for  the  individ- 

neiwuty  uaj  more  important  than  heredity, 
or  in  which  seems  to-day  largely  proven, 
vironment.  For  further  details  upon  this  point, 
however,  see  HEREDITY. 

Coming  to  the  question  of  what  are  the  prin- 
cipal factors  in  environment  that  produce  de- 
generation in  the  individual,  perhaps  the  first 
that  should  be  named  is  lack  of  employment. 
This  has  the  highest  percentages  of  any  single 
cause  of  poverty  in  Professor  Warner's  table, 
its  percentages  running  from  2.2  per  cent,  to 
32.5  per  cent.,  while  insufficient  employment 
and  poorly  paid  employment  carry  the  percent- 
age much  higher.  Not,  perhaps,  so  much  as  a 
cause  of  poverty,  since  it  is  rather  a  result  of 
poverty,  but  certainly  as  a  cause  of  degeneration 
among  the  very  foremost  causes,  is  the  lack  of  a 
good  home.  This  is  probably  the  supreme  cause 
of  degeneration  as  far  as  environment  goes, 
mainly  because  it  is  the  cause  most  affecting  the 
early  years,  when,  by  all  experience,  character 
is  the  most  impressionable.  The  point  is  too 
well  known,  however,  to  need  dwelling  upon 
here.  For  an  alarming  confirmation  of  it,  see 
article  CRIMINOLOGY,  section  "  Causes  of  Crime." 
It  should,  perhaps,  however,  be  suggested,  too, 
that  in  noticing  the  terrible  effects  upon  char- 
acter of  lack  of  homes  and  poor  homes,  one 
should  not  forget  the  terrible  results  upon  char- 
acter of  unhappy  homes,  of  unhappy  marriages, 
and  family  quarrels.  (See  FAMILY.) 

Professor  Warner  puts  as  a  most  palpable 
social  cause  of  degeneration  accidents,  and 
shows  how  in  one  year,  ending  June  30,  1892, 
28,268  men  in  railway  employ  were  injured  on 
the  railways  of  the  United  States,  or  one  man 
for  every  29.  (See  RAILWAYS.  For  accidents 
in  manufactories  and  trades  to  children,  see 
CHILD  LABOR.)  It  must  not  be  forgotten  that 
the  worst  results  of  accidents  are  often  not  the 
direct  results,  but  the  indirect,  when  homes  are 
broken  up  through  the  inability  of  the  bread- 
winner to  maintain  the  family.  Akin  to  this  is 
the  effect  of  unhealthy  trades.  (See  DANGEROUS 
TRADES.)  The  effect  of  this,  however,  on  the  in- 
dividual and  the  family  can  be  only  seen  in  study- 
ing the  relative  death-rates,  and  perhaps  even 
more  the  relative  sick-rates  that  prevail  in  differ- 
ent occupations.  According  to  statistics  pre- 
pared by  Josef  Koroski,  as  quoted  by  Professor 
Warner  (idem,  p.  104),  if  we  start  at  the  age  of 
25  with  looo  persons  of  each  class,  there  will  be 
alive  at  the  end  of  35  years,  of  merchants,  587  ; 
of  tailors,  421  ;  of  shoemakers,  376  ;  of  servants, 
290  ;  of  day  laborers,  only  253.  The  total  num- 
ber of  years  of  life  for  the  merchants  will  be 
28,501,  and  of  the  laborers  only  22,317,  while, 
worse  yet,  of  the  years  falling  to  the  laborer, 
1493  will  be  years  of  sickness,  while  of  the  mer- 
chants' years  only  824  will  be  years  of  sickness. 
Such  are  some  of  the  social  causes  of  degen- 
eration. 

Among  the  causes  which  may  be  considered 
tinder  misconduct,  the  most  recent  thought 
gives  a  larger  place  to  sensuality  than  to  intem- 
perance. It  is  often  not  easy  to  tabulate  this  as 
a  cause  ;  but,  says  Professor  Warner  :  ' '  Careful 


observers  believe  it  to  be  a  more  constant  and 
fundamental  cause  of  degeneration  than  intem- 
perance.   It  certainly  effects  degen- 
eration of  a  more  or  less  pronounced 
type  in  a  much  larger  number  of  Sensuality, 
persons.    It  persists  almost  to  the 
end  in  the  most  degenerate  stock, 
while  at  the  same  time  it  is  operative  among 
the  healthier  classes."     It  has,  however,  been 
comparatively  little    studied.     The    effects    of 
venereal  disease  have  been  treated  at  length, 
but  the  amount  of  vitality  burned  out  through 
lust  has  never  been  and,  perhaps,  never  can  be 
adequately  measured.    Above  all,  it  brings  mul- 
titudes of  unhealthy  children  into  the  world, 
often  to  be  neglected  after  birth.    (See  ILLEGITI- 
MACY. ) 

Intemperance  is  much  more  readily  recog- 
nized as  a  cause  of  degeneration.  Says  Profes- 
sor Warner  :  "  Probably  nothing  in  the  tables 
of  the  causes  of  poverty,  as  ascer- 
tained by  cold  counting,  will  more 
surprise  the  average  reader  than  Intem- 
the  fact  that  intemperance  is  held  perance. 
to  be  the  chief  cause  in  only  from 
one  fifteenth  to  one  fifth  of  the 
cases,  and  that  where  an  attempt  is  made  to 
learn  in  how  many  cases  it  had  a  contributory 
influence,  its  presence  cannot  be  traced  at  all  in 
more  than  28.  i  per  cent,  of  the  cases.  (See  IN- 
TEMPERANCE.) Professor  Warner  sums  up  the 
case  by  saying  :  "  The  general  conclusion  re- 
garding drink  as  a  cause  of  poverty  is  sufficient- 
ly well  formulated  by  Mr.  Booth.  '  Of  drink  in 
all  its  combinations,  adding  to  every  trouble, 
undermining  every  effort  after  good,  destroying 
the  home  and  cursing  the  young  lives  of  the 
children,  the  stories  tell  enough.  It  does  Dot 
stand  in  apparent  chief  cause  in  as  many  cases 
as  sickness  and  old  age  ;  but  if  it  were  not  for 
drink,  sickness  and  old  age  could  be  better 
met. '  ' "  Such  are  the  chief  social  causes  of  de- 
generation, but  by  no  means  all.  Speculation 
in  the  market,  hopelessness  and  discouragement 
in  business — all  are  causes.  Perhaps  the  most 
powerful  causes  of  personal  degeneration  have 
not  yet  been  mentioned — the  psychical  causes. 
These  may  be  often  connected  with  religion. 
When  in  early  years  moral  teachings  have  been 
combined  with  certain  religious  dogma,  it  often 
happens  that  when  in  later  years  the  religious 
dogmas  are  given  up,  there  results,  for  a  time 
at  least,  a  moral  chaos.  Probably  far  more  de- 
moralizing both  in  extent  and  degree,  and  es- 
pecially to  the  young,  is  the  skepticism  as  to 
honor  and  virtue  which  results  from  seeing 
those  whom  they  have  been  taught  to  respect  at 
the  church  commit  acts  contrary  to  their  profes- 
sion. The  degeneration  of  character  that  arises 
from  this  source  can  never  be  measured,  but  it 
must  be  among  the  most  operative  causes.  Such 
considerations,  however,  lead  us  into  fields  too 
wide  to  be  covered  here,  and  apart  from  the 
limitations  of  this  cyclopedia.  Yet  this  and  a 
hundred  other  similar  psychological  forces  must 
never  be  forgotten  in  their  effect  upon  char- 
acter. 

How  far  such  an  analysis  of  the  causes  of 
degeneration  affect  the  question  of  the  wisest 
methods  in  social  reform  differenv  minds  will 
differently  estimate.  Socialists  argue  that  all 


Degeneration. 


480 


Demand  and  Supply. 


modern  science  tends  to  show  that  character  is 
almost  wholly  the  result  of  environment,  and 
hence  that  by  giving  right  environment  vice  and 
crime  will  disappear,  and  gradually  a  race  be  de- 
veloped capable  of  what  is  to-day  impossible. 
Individualists,  while  not  denying  the  power  of 
environment  upon  character,  fear  that  socialism 
will  result  in  weakened  character  and  impaired 
individuality,  by  tending  to  make  men  rely  too 
much  upon  society.  (See  SOCIALISM  ;  INDIVIDU- 
ALISM ;  EVOLUTION  ;  POVERTY,  CAUSES  OK  ;  CRIM- 
INOLOGY ;  PROSTITUTION.) 

References:  A.  G.  Warner's  American  Charities 
(chaps,  ii.  to  v.,  1895)  ;  Herbert  Spencer's  Principles 
of  Biology  (concluding  chapters,  1891) ;  August  Weiss- 
man's  Heredity ;  Lester  Ward's  Psychic  Factors  of 
Civilization  (1893) ;  Arthur  MacDonald's  Abnormal 
Man  (1893). 

DEMAND  AND  SUPPLY  in  political 
economy  may  best  be  considered  together  as 
correlates  of  each  other.  Demand  is  the  desire 
to  purchase  and  possess  coupled  with  the  power 
of  purchasing  ;  sometimes  called,  by  way  of 
distinction,  effectual  demand — a  phrase  origi- 
nated by  Adam  Smith.  Cairns  (Political  Econ- 
omy, I.  ii.,  sec.  2)  defines  demand  as  "  the  de- 
sire for  commodities  or  services  seeking  its  end 
by  an  offer  of  general  purchasing  power. "  Sup- 
ply is  correlatively  the  amount  or  quantity  of 
any  commodity  that  is  on  the  market  and  is 
available  for  purchase.  Cairns  defines  it  (ibid.) 
as  "the  desire  for  general  purchasing  power, 
seeking  its  end  by  an  offer  of  specific  commodi- 
ties or  services."  As,  then,  the  things  are  cor- 
relate, the  laws  of  supply  and  demand  are  cor- 
related. Marshall  states  them  thus ;  first  of 
Demand  (Economics  of  Industry,  pp.  69-71) : 

"  It  is  a  matter  of  common  experience  that  the  larger 
the  stock  which  sellers  determine  to  sell,  the  lower 
will  be  the  price  at  which  it  can  be  got  rid  of.  Vice 
•versd,  the  lower  the  price  at  which  anything  is  offered 
for  sale,  the  greater  is  the  amount  of  it  •which  can  be 
sold  off.  Examples  occur  to  us  every  day.  In  a  good 
apple  year,  the  price  of  apples  is  low ;  in  a  bad  year 
it  is  high.  At  the  end  of  the  season  a  fashionable  shop 
sells  off  at  a  great  reduction,  and  so  gets  many  cus- 
tomers. .  .  . 

"  The  lower  the  price  that  a  man  has  to  pay  for  a 
thing,  the  more  of  it  is  he  likely  to  buy.  A  fall  m  price 
will  not,  indeed,  make  every  purchaser  increase  his 
purchases.  It  might  in  the  case  of  sugar  ;  it  would  not 
in  the  case  of  carpets.  But  a  fall  in  the  price  of  car- 
pets would  induce  some  of  the  householders  in  a  large 
market  to  buy  new  carpets;  just  as  an  unhealthy 
autumn  increases  the  mortality  of  a  large  town,  tho 
many  persons  are  uninjured  by  it.  For  in  a  large 
market  there  must  be  some  who  are  doubting  whether 
to  replace  an  old  carpet  by  a  new  one  ;  and  their  de- 
cision will  be  affected  by  a  fall  in  the  price  of  carpets. 
There  will  not  be  any  exact  relation  between  the  fall 
in  price  and  the  increase  of  demand.  A  fall  of  one 
tenth  in  the  price  may  increase  the  sales  by  a  twen- 
tieth or  by  a  quarter,  or  it  may  double  them.  But  in 
a  large  market  every  fall  in  price  will  cause  an  in- 
crease of  demand.  The  law  of  demand  then  is  : 

"  The  amount  of  a  commodity  which  finds  purchas- 
ers in  a  market  in  a  given  time  depends  on  the  price 
at  which  it  is  offered  for  sale,  and  varies  so  that  the 
amount  demanded  is  increased  by  a  fall  in  price  and 
diminished  by  a  rise  in  price.  Its  price  measures  its 
final  utility  to  each  purchaser— that  is,  the  value  in  use 
to  him  of  that  portion  of  it  which  it  is  only  just  worth 
his  while  to  buy." 

Of  Supply  Marshall  says  (p.  76) : 

"The  interest  of  every  producer  of  a  commodity  is 
always  to  calculate  the  amount  of  it  that  is  being  pro- 
duced for  market.  If  this  amount  seems  likely  to  be 
small,  so  that  its  price  will  rise  above  its  expenses  of 
production,  he  will  produce  as  much  as  he  can,  so  as 
to  derive  as  much  benefit  as  possible  from  the  high 


price  which  he  anticipates.  If,  on  the  other  hand,  the 
amount  brought  to  market  seems  likely  to  be  so  great 
that  its  price  will  fall  below  its  expenses  of  produc- 
tion, then  he  will  check  his  own  production  so  far  as 
he  conveniently  can.  So  that  if  the  price  of  a  com- 
modity is  likely  to  be  higher  than  its  expenses  of  pro- 
duction, it  is  the  interest  of  each  producer  to  do  what 
he  can  to  increase  the  supply ;  and  the  effect  of  this 
is  to  lower  the  price  toward  its  expense's  of  production. 
And  if  its  price  is  likely  to  be  lower  than  its  expenses 
of  production,  it  is  the  interest  of  each  producer  to  do 
what  he  can  to  check  the  supply  ;  and  the  effect  of 
this  is  to  raise  the  price  toward  the  expenses  of  pro- 
duction. That  is  to  say  : 

"  Every  producer  of  a  commodity  calculates  the 
price  at  which  he  will  be  able  to  sell  it,  and  the  ex- 
penses of  producing  it.  He  thus  determines  whether 
to  increase  or  diminish  his  production.  If  there  is  free 
competition — that  is,  if  he  is  not  acting  in  combination 
with  other  producers— he  increases  or  diminishes  his 
supply  according  as  the  price  of  the  commodity  seems 
likely  to  be  greater  or  less  than  its  expenses  of  pro- 
duction. Thus  he  is  led  by  his  own  interests  to  act  in 
the  same  way  as  he  would  if  his  only  object  were  to 
regulate  the  amount  produced  so  that  it  could  just  be 
sold  off  at  a  price  equal  to  its  expenses  of  production. 

"  This  law  of  supply  may  be  called  the  law  of  nor- 
mal supply,  because  it  refers  to  the  results  that  are  in 
the  long  run  brought  about  by  free  competition.  Of 
course,  all  the  expenses  of  production  of  a  thing  are 
themselves  liable  to  variation.  Wages  may  rise  and 
fall,  the  rate  of  interest  may  rise  and  fall ;  and  so  on." 

Putting  these  two  laws  together,  Marshall 
goes  on  to  say  : 

"  The  laws  of  demand  and  supply  tell  us  that  a  rise 
in  price  lessens  the  amount  demanded  and  increases 
that  supplied,  and  that  a  fall  in  price  increases  the 
amount  demanded  and  lessens  that  supplied.  This 
competition  tends  to  make  the  exchange  value  such  as 
just  to  'equate  supply  and  demand,'  i.e.,  such  that  the 
amount  that  people  are  willing  to  sell  at  that  value  is 
equal  to  the  amount  which  can  find  purchasers  at  that 
value.  This  tendency  of  competition  to  equate  sup- 
ply and  demand  is  the  central  fact  of  the  theory  of  ex- 
change, whether  applied  to  normal  values  or  to  market 
fluctuations  of  value." 

Mill  says  on  this  point  (Political  Economy, 
Book  III.,  chap,  ii.,  sec.  4): 

"  Demand  and  supply,  the  quantity  demanded  and 
the  quantity  supplied,  •will  be  made  equal.  If  unequal 
at  any  moment,  competition  equalizes  them,  and  the 
manner  in  which  this  is  done  is  by  an  adjustment  of 
the  value.  If  the  demand  increases,  the  value  rises ; 
if  the  demand  diminishes,  the  value  falls  ;  again,  if  the 
supply  falls  off,  the  value  rises  ;  and  falls,  if  the  supply 
is  increased.  The  rise  or  the  fall  continues  until  the  de- 
mand and  supply  are  again  equal  to  one  another  :  and 
the  value  which  a  commodity  will  bring  in  any  mar- 
ket is  no  other  than  the  value  which,  in  that  market, 
gives  a  demand  just  sufficient  to  carry  off  the  existing 
or  expected  supply." 

The  above  are,  perhaps,  the  best  statements  of 
the  law  of  supply  and  demand,  which  has  played 
such  a  large  part  in  economic  thought  from  the 
days  of  Adam  Smith  to  the  present  time.  It 
refers,  however,  as  already  stated,  only  to  arti- 
cles which  are  not  monopolized,  and  also  which 
cannot  be  multiplied  indefinitely  at  pleasure. 
For  a  discussion  of  the  first  case,  see  MONOPOLY. 
Other  articles  have  no  exchange  -value  (g.v.), 
and  these  need  not  be  studied  in  the  science  of 
exchange,  to  which  the  subject  of  demand  and 
supply  belongs.  Nevertheless,  these  exceptions 
should  always  be  borne  in  mind,  especially  at 
the  present,  when  there  is  so  little  of  free  com- 
petition in  many  industries  and  so  much  of  com- 
bination. The  importance  of  the  so-called  law 
of  supply  and  demand,  which  has  hitherto  played 
a  part  in  economic  thought,  is  thus  being  very 
rapidly  diminished.  Certainly,  at  least,  gener- 
alizations that  have  been  so  rashly  made  on  the 
subject  must  be  carefully  scrutinized,  if  not 


Demand  and  Supply. 


Democracy. 


avoided.  To  say,  as  is  not  ^infrequently  done, 
that  demand  is  the  cause  of  supply,  is  as  rash  as 
to  say  that  supply  creates  demand.  Many  in- 
ventions have  come  into  the  market  before  there 
was  an  (effectual)  demand  for  them  ;  and  for 
many  demands,  as  for  flying  machines,  there  is 
no  supply.  No  amount  of  demand  will  supply 
a  Shakespeare,  and  no  amount  of  supply  can 
compel  a  demand  for  professors  of  Sanskrit. 
These  are  but  a  few  illustrations  of  the  many 
limits  there  are  to  the  working  of  this  boasted 
law.  One  school  of  economic  thought,  the 
Eight-Hour  philosophy  (g.v.),  denies  that  de- 
mand has  anything  to  do,  for  example,  in  deter- 
mining either  price  or  wages  ;  but  for  this  see 
WAGES  ;  VALUE. 


DEMOCRACY  (from  Greek  <%wc,  people, 
and  Kpareiv,  to  rule)  is  government  by  the  people, 
a  system  of  government,  or  the  state  where  a 
government  exists,  according  to  which  the  sov- 
ereign power  is  vested  in  the  people  as  a  whole, 
and  is  exercised  directly  by  them  or  by  repre- 
sentatives chosen  by  them.  In  Greece,  whence 
we  derive  the  name,  most  of  the  republics  or 
cities,  and  notably  Athens,  were,  at  their  best 
periods,  democracies,  if  by  the  word  people  in 
the  definition  of  democracy  is  meant  citizens. 
Yet  they  were  by  no  means  true  democracies, 
because  large  classes  of  the  people  —  some  say  a 
large  majority  —  were  slaves  and  not  considered 
citizens,  and  had  no  voice  in  the  government. 
Some  even  question  whether  the  United  States 
is  a  democracy,  since  even  here  a  large  half  of 
the  people  —  the  women  —  do  not  vote.  (See 
WOMAN'S  SUFFRAGE.)  Many  writers,  like  Aris- 
totle, claim  that  it  is  not  necessary,  however, 
that  all  classes  of  the  people  vote  to  constitute  a 
democracy.  He  believes  that  suffrage  should 
be  limited  to  the  citizen  class.  Where  all  vote, 
he  says,  it  is  an  ochlocracy,  or  mob  government. 
A  modern  author,  like  Professor  Burgess,  of 
Columbia  (Political  Science  and  Constitutional 
Law,  vol.  i.,  p.  72),  defines  democracy  as  ap- 
plied to  the  State  as  the  rule  of  the  majority. 
On  the  other  hand,  John  Stuart  Mill,  in  his 
Representative  Government,  makes  the  rule 
of  all,  not  of  a  majority,  and  certainly  not  of  a 
class,  the  essence  of  democracy.  He  says  : 

"  The  pure  idea  of  democracy,  according  to  its  defi- 
nition, is  the  government  of  the  whole  people  by  the 
whole  people  equally  represented.  Democracy,  as 
commonly  conceived  and  hitherto  practised,  is  the 
government  of  the  whole  people  by  a  mere  majority  of 
the  people,  exclusively  represented.  The  former  is 
synonymous  with  the  equality  of  all  citizens  ;  the  lat- 
ter, strangely  confounded  with  it,  is  a  government  of 
privilege,  in  favor  of  the  numerical  majority,  who 
alone  possess  practically  any  voice  in  the  State.  This  is 
the  inevitable  consequence  of  the  manner  in  which  the 
votes  are  now  taken,  to  the  complete  disfranchisement 
of  minorities. 

"  The  confusion  of  ideas  here  is  great,  but  it  is  so 
easily  cleared  up,  that  one  would  suppose  the  slightest 
indication  would  be  sufficient  to  place  the  matter  in 
its  true  light  before  any  mind  of  average  intelligence. 
It  \yould  be  so,  but  for  the  power  of  habit  ;  owing  to 
which  the  simplest  idea,  if  unfamiliar,  has  as  great 
difficulty  in  making  its  way  to  the  mind  as  a  far  more 
complicated  one.  That  the  minority  must  yield  to  the 
majority,  the  smaller  number  to  the  greater,  is  a  fa- 
miliar idea  ;  and  accordingly  men  think  there  is  no 
necessity  for  using  their  minds  any  further,  and  it  does 
not  occur  to  them  that  there  is  any  medium  between 
allowing  the  smaller  number  to  be  equally  powerful 
with  the  greater,  and  blotting  out  the  smaller  number 
altogether." 

31 


He  then  goes  on  to  make  a  strong  plea  for  pro- 
portional representation  (g.v.),  and  says  : 

"  Nothing  is  more  certain  than  that  the  virtual  blot- 
ting out  of  the  minority  is  no  necessary  or  natural  con- 
sequence of  freedom  ;  that,  far  from  having  any  con- 
nection with  democracy,  it  is  diametrically  opposed  to 
the  first  principle  of  democracy,  representation  in  pro- 
portion to  numbers.  It  is  an  essential  part  of  democ- 
racy that  minorities  should  be  adequately  repre- 
sented. No  real  democracy,  nothing  but  a-  false  show 
of  democracy,  is  possible  without  it." 

Of  the  advantages  of  democracy,  he  says  : 

"  There  is  no  difficulty  in  showing  that  the  ideally 
best  form  of  government  is  that  in  which  the  sover- 
eignty, or  supreme  controlling  power  in  the  last  resort, 
is  vested  in  the  entire  aggregate  of  the  community  ; 
every  citizen  not  only  having  a  voice  in  the  exercise 
of  that  ultimate  sovereignty,  but  being,  at  least  occa- 
sionally, called  on  to  take  an  actual  part  in  the  govern- 
ment, by  the  personal  discharge  of  some  public  func- 
tion, local  or  general.  .  .  . 

"  It  is  a  great  discouragement  to  an  individual,  and 
a  still  greater  one  to  a  class,  to  be  left  out  of  the  consti- 
tution ;  to  be  reduced  to  plead  from  outside  the  door 
to  the  arbiters  of  their  destiny,  not  taken 
into  consultation  within.  The  maximum 
of  the  invigorating  effect  of  freedom  Advantages. 
upon  the  character  is  only  obtained 
when  the  person  acted  on  either  is,  or  is 
looking  forward  to  becoming,  a  citizen  as  fully  priv- 
ileged as  any  other.  What  is  still  more  important 
than  even  this  matter  of  feeling  is  the  practical 
discipline  which  the  character  obtains  from  the  oc- 
casional demand  made  upon  the  citizens  to  exercise, 
for  a  time  and  in  their  turn,  some  social  function.  It 
is  not  sufficiently  considered  how  little  there  is  in  most 
men's  ordinary  life  to  give  any  largeness  either  to 
their  conceptions  or  to  their  sentiments.  Their  work 
is  a  routine ;  not  a  labor  of  love,  but  of  self-interest  in 
the  most  elementary  form,  the  satisfaction  of  daily 
wants ;  neither  the  thing  done  nor  the  process  of  do- 
ing it  introduces  the  mind  to  thoughts  or  feelings  ex- 
tending beyond  individuals  ;  if  instructive  books  are 
within  their  reach,  there  is  no  stimulus  to  read  them  ; 
and  in  most  cases  the  individual  has  no  access  to  any 
person  of  cultivation  much  superior  to  his  own.  Giv- 
ing him  something  to  do  for  the  public  supplies,  in  a 
measure,  all  these  deficiencies.  If  circumstances  allow 
the  amount  of  public  duty  assigned  him  to  be  consid- 
erable, it  makes  him  an  educated  man.  Notwith- 
standing the  defects  of  the  social  system  and  moral 
ideas  of  antiquity,  the  practice  of  the  dicastery  and 
the  ecclesia  raised  the  intellectual  standard  of  an  aver- 
age Athenian  citizen  far  beyond  anything  of  which 
there  is  yet  an  example  in  any  other  mass  of  men,  an- 
cient or  modern.  The  proofs  of  this  are  apparent  in 
every  page  of  our  great  historian  of  Greece. 

"  Still  more  salutary  is  the  moral  part  of  the  instruc- 
tion afforded  by  the  participation  of  the  private  citizen, 
if  even  rarely,  in  public  functions.  He  is  called  upon, 
while  so  engaged,  to  weigh  interests  not  his  own  ;  to 
be  guided,  in  case  of  conflicting  claims,  by  another 
rule  than  his  private  partialities  ;  to  apply,  at  every 
turn,  principles  and  maxims  which  have  for  their  rea- 
son or  existence  the  common  good;  and  he  usually 
finds  associated  with  him  in  the  same  work  minds  more 
familiarized  than  his  own  with  these  ideas  and  opera- 
tions, whose  study  it  will  be  to  supply  reasons  to  his 
understanding,  and  stimulation  to  his  feeling  for  the 
general  interest.  He  is  made  to  feel  himself  one  of 
the  public,  and  whatever  is  for  their  benefit  to  be  for 
his  benefit.  Where  this  school  of  public  spirit  does  not 
exist,  scarcely  any  sense  is  entertained  that  private 
persons,  in  no  eminent  social  situation,  owe  any  duties 
to  society,  except  to  obey  the  laws  and  submit  to  the 
government.  There  is  no  unselfish  sentiment  of  iden- 
tification with  the  public.  Every  thought  or  feeling, 
either  of  interest  or  of  duty,  is  absorbed 
in  the  individual  and  in  the  family.  The 
man  never  thinks  of  any  collective  in-  Morality. 
terest,  of  any  objects  to  be  purchased 
jointly  with  others,  but  only  in  compe- 
tition with  them,  and  in  some  measure  at  their  expense. 
A  neighbor  not  being  an  ally  or  an  associate,  since  he 
is  never  engaged  in  any  common  undertaking  for  joint 
benefit,  is  therefore  pnly  a  rival.  Thus  even  private 
morality  suffers,  while  public  is  actually  extinct. 

So  conceiving  of  democracy,  we  notice  here, 
tho  briefly,  its  growth  and  steady  development 


Democracy. 


Democracy. 


in  the  world.  The  first  democracies  of  the  world 
were  undoubtedly  the  city-states  of  ancient 
Greece.  In  Sparta  the  constitution  of  Lycurgus 
(about  850  B.C.),  tho  maintaining  the  ancient 
double  monarchy,  introduced  institutions  large- 
ly democratic.  The  kings  became  little  more 
than  presidents  of  a  senate  elected  by  the  gen- 
eral assembly  of  >  citizens  over  60  years  of  age. 
This  assembly  (an-sUa)  could  accept  or  reject 
all  laws  and  decide  on  war  and 
peace,  etc.  Ephors  were  created 
Greek  to  watch  over  the  constitution. 
Democracy.  The  immediate  result  was  to  raise 
Sparta  into  preeminence  in  Greece 
— a  position  she  never  wholly  lost 
till  she  finally  fell,  last  of  the  Greek  States,  be- 
fore the  power  of  Macedon.  Yet  her  democracy 
was  little  more  than  a  military  oligarchy  based 
upon  birth  and  age.  Athens  was  more  really 
democratic  in  her  best  period.  After  Codrus, 
the  las,t  of  her  kings  (1050  B.C.),  the  Eupatrids 
(nobles)  ruled  with  a  council  (/Joidf/)  on  Mars 
Hill  (Areopagus),  tho  all  citizens  could  meet  in 
the  agora  and  express  assent  or  dissent.  The 
Eupatrids  elected  archons;  first  for  life  and  then 
for  10  years.  B.C.  594  the  legislation  of  Solon 
created  constitutional  government,  admitting  all 
citizens  to  a  share  in  power,  but  giving  the  high- 
er orders  a  preponderating  influence.  This  gave 
way  to  the  dictatorship  of  the  Pisistratidse  till 
the  constitution  of  Clisthenes  (about  509  B.C.) 
introduced  a  complete  democracy,  so  far  as  free 
citizens  went.  All  such  could  vote.  Ten  stra- 
tegi,  elected  annually,  were  the  officers.  Then 
came  Athens'  classic  period  of  the  wars  with 
Persia  and  of  art  and  letters.  By  a  law  of  478 
B.C.  the  last  property  qualification  for  office  was 
swept  away.  Yet  the  continual  reelecting  of  a 
favorite  statesman  gave  the  republic  the  con- 
tinuity of  brilliant  leadership  like  that  of  Aris- 
tides,  Cimon,  and  Pericles.  Yet  within  a  century 
dissatisfaction  with  a  Sicilian  expedition  induced 
the  citizens  to  change  their  constitution  in  the 
direction  of  aristocracy,  resulting  finally  in  de- 
feat by  the  Macedonian  kingdom.  (For  the 
ideals  and  spirit  of  Greek  democracy,  see  ATH- 
ENS ;  PLATO  ;  ARISTOTLE  ;  POLITICAL  SCIENCE.) 

Democracy  in  Rome  begins  508  B.C.,  when  the 
patricians  expelled    Tarquin,   the  last  of    the 
kings.     Rome   was  now  ruled  by 
two  prastors  or  consuls  elected  by 
Rome.       the  centuries,  in  which  all  freemen 
were    enrolled.     Then    came    the 
long  struggle   between   the  patri- 
cians and  plebeians  ;  the  oppressions  of  the  for- 
mer ;  the  secessions  of  the  latter  from  the  city  ; 
the  creation  of  tribunes  to  defend  the  rights  of 
the  people  ;  the  election  of  the  decemvirs  ;  the 
return  to  the  consulate  ;  the  creation  of  censors 
and  military  tribunes  ;  the  growing  militarism  ; 
the  division   between  the  rich  and  the  poor  ; 
the  agrarian  laws  of  the  Gracchi  ;  the  triumph 
of  the  aristocracy  ;  the  creation  of  the  triumvirs ; 
the  development  of  the  empire.     Yet  through 
all  these  changes  ran  the  ideal  of  the  people  as 
sovereign.     (See    POLITICAL    SCIENCE.)     Lecky 
says  (History  of  European   Morals,   vol.  i., 
chap,    ii.)  that  even   under  the  empire    "the 
theory    of    the    Roman    Empire    was    that  of 
a  representative    despotism.     The  various  of- 
fices   of    the    republic  were    not   annihilated, 


but    they    were    gradually  concentrated  in   a 
single  man." 

Democracy  among  Germanic  nations  begins 
with  the  mark  or  clan  where  the  eorls  or  earls 
(leading  men)  elected  their  chief  or  voted  war 
and  peace,  while  the  free  ceorls  or  churls  de- 
clared assent  by  the  clash  of  arms.  This  early 
democracy,  however,  gradually  disappeared  in 
the  development  of  feudalism,  save  in  the  rights 
maintained  in  communities  like  the  Russian 
mtr,  and,  above  all,  in  the  Landsgememde,  the 
Swiss  cantons.  (See  COMMUNISM  ;  REFERENDUM.) 

The  real  democracy  of  the  Middle  Ages  is  to 
be  found  in  the  rise  of  the  free  cities  and  cen- 
ters of  art,  trade,  and  commerce,  like  Florence, 
Pisa,  Venice,  and  Genoa  in  the  south,  and 
Hamburg,  Nuremberg,  and  Frankfort  in  the 
north.  (See  CITY.)  The  southern  cities  aimed 
at  avowed  republicanism,  perhaps,  more  than 
the  northern,  but  save  for  fitful  periods,  as  in 
Florence,  were  really  under  dukes  and  aristocra- 
cies more  than  the  northern  cities.  In  the 
northern  free  cities  one  finds  the  real  parent  of 
modern  democracy. 

Modern  democracy  begins  as  an  idea  with  the 
Christian  teaching  of  the  brotherhood  of  man, 
the  Protestant  teaching  of  the  right  of  private 
judgment,  and  of  the  responsibility 
of  the  individual  to  God  alone.     It      w  , 
is  developed  in  theory  of  the  social       T.   ( 
compact  by  Locke,  Rousseau,  and         in 
the  various  French  writers  of  the 
eighteenth  century.     (For  the  ideas  of  this  pe- 
riod, see  NATURAL  RIGHTS.) 

But  all  history  enters  into  modern  democracy. 
Says  De  Tocqueville  in  the  Introduction  to  his 
Democracy  in  America  : 

"  We  shall  scarcely  meet  with  a  single  great  event  in 
the  lapse  of  700  years  which  has  not  turned  to  the  ad- 
vantage of  equality.  .  .  .  The  gradual  development 
of  the  equality  of  conditions  is  therefore  a  providential 
fact,  and  it  possesses  all  the  characteristics  of  a  divine 
decree  ;  it  is  universal ;  it  is  durable  ;  it  constantly 
illudes  all  human  interference,  and  all  events  as  well 
as  all  men  contribute  to  it." 

Democracy  began,  according  to  De  Tocqueville, 
with  the  Church,  when  the  clergy  opened  her  ranks  to 
all  classes,  and  "the  being  who  as  a  serf  must  have 
vegetated  in  perpetual  bondage  took  his  place  as  a 
priest  in  the  midst  of  nobles,  and  not  infrequently 
above  the  head  of  kings."  Next, he  says,  the  need  of 
civil  laws  gave  the  legal  functionary  a  place  by  the 
mailed  baron.  Thirdly,  the  nobility  being  exhausted 
by  wars  and  the  lower  classes  enriched  by  commerce, 
the  man  of  money  gained  position  by  the  side  of  the 
man  of  birth.  Next,  education,  science,  and  literature 
opened  to  any  one  of  ability  avenues  to  power.  "In 
the  eleventh  century  nobility  was  beyond  all  price  ; 
in  the  thirteenth  it  might  be  purchased  ;  it  was  con- 
ferred for  the  first  time  in  1270.  .  .  .  It  sometimes  hap- 
pened that  in  order  to  resist  the  authority  of  the  crown 
or  to  diminish  the  power  of  their  rivals,  the  nobles 
granted  a  certain  share  of  political  rights  to  the  people, 
or,  more  frequently,  the  kings  permitted  the  lower 
orders  to  enjoy  a  degree  of  power,  with  the  intention 
of  repressing  the  aristocracy.  .  .  .  Some  assisted 
democracy  by  their  talents  ;"  others  by  their  vices. 
Louis  XI.  and  Louis  XIV.  reduced  every  rank  beneath 
the  throne  to  the  same  subjection ;  Louis  XV.  de- 
scended himself  and  all  his  court  unto  the  dust.'' 

But  modern  democracy  finds  its  first  chief 
actual  development  in  the  United  States,  tho 
descended  from  English  ancestry.  Parliament 
was  in  a  sense  the  continuation  or  revival  of  the 
ancient  Witenagemote,  or  meeting  of  the  wise 
men  (eorls)  of  all  England.  If  it  did  not  rule 
England  in  form,  it  did  rule  through  the  purse. 
The  connection  between  taxation  and  repre- 


Democracy. 


483 


Democracy. 


sentation,  the  idea  that  no  man  could  be  taxed 
save  by  his  own  consent— that  and  the  kindred 
idea  embodied  in  the  Great  Charter 
won  from  King  John,  that  no  man 
English     could  be  condemned  without  a  trial 
Democracy,  by  his   peers—"  by  the   country" 
(see  JURY),  lie  at  the  basis  of  Eng- 
lish and  American  ideas   of  free- 
dom.   The  overthrow  of  feudalism,  the  struggle 
with  Charles,  the  Revolution  of  1688,  the  devel- 
opment of  constitutional  government,  had  made 
England  to  an  extent  democratic  by  confiding 
its  government  to  a  Parliament  elected  by  a 
limited  suffrage  to  represent  the  people.     The 
American  colonies  held  the  same  ideal  of  democ- 
racy, no  more  and  no  less.     The  doctrines  of 
natural  rights  (g.v.)  and  the  social  compact  to 
some  extent  found  acceptance  in  America  ;  but 
this  was  balanced  by  the  constructive  common 
sense  of  an  English  race  and  in  the  true  spirit 
of  Burke,  the  consciousness  of  national  develop- 
ment.     "  No   men  were  less  revolutionary  in 
spirit,"    says    Bryce,    "than    the 
fathers    of    the    American     Revo- 
The         lution."      The    spirit    of    George 
United       Washington  and  John  Adams  was 
States.       opposed  to  the  ideas  of  Paine,  of 
Rousseau,  and  even  of  Jefferson. 
Hamilton    openly  preferred    mon- 
archy to  democracy,  which   he   feared  would 
overthrow  morals  and  property  and  end  in  des- 
potism. American  democracy  was  thus  a  healthy 
natural  development  almost  forced  by  circum- 
stances on  the  people,  and  developed  by  a  race 
jealous  for  rights.     (For  the  constitutional  de- 
velopment of  American  democracy,  see  CONSTI- 
TUTION ;  CENTRALIZATION.) 

De  Tocqueville,  who  studied  America  in  1831,  found 
one  of  its  fundamental  characteristics  and  safeguards 
its  connection  between  liberty  and  religion.  "  The 
safeguard  of  morality,"  he  says,  "is  religion,  and  mo- 
rality is  the  best  security  of  law  and  the  surest  pledge 
of  freedom."  Another  great  tendency  which  he  finds 
in  the  United  States  at  this  period  is  one  to  decentral- 
ization. The  town  meeting  is  the  ideal. 
This  results  in  weak,  irregular  admin- 
De  Tocque-  istration,  but  its  political  results  aread- 
511  >n  Vie  mirable  in  interesting  all  portions  of  the 
vine  8  Yiew-  land  in  government.  "The  town  meet- 
ing is  to  liberty  what  primary  schools 
are  to  science."  De  Tocqueville  believed 
very  much  more  in  the  future  of  the  States  than  of  the 
Union  ;  he  believed  that  would  go  to  pieces  when  the 
States  desired  it  or  differed  in  policy.  How  com- 
pletely his  view  has  been  disproved  is  well  known, 
but  he  touched  here  on  the  burning  question  of  Amer- 
ican politics  for  more  than  half  a  century.  The  consti- 
tution of  the  Federal  Government,  however,  he  highly 
praises.  Its  balanced  division  of  powers  he  considers 
necessary  and  admirable.  The  election  of  the  Presi- 
dent by  electors  he  terms  a  most  happy  device.  He 
deplores,  however,  the  custom  of  electing  representa- 
tives as  mere  delegates  bound  by  instructions  as  tend- 
ing to  destroy  representative  government.  The  prac- 
tice of  electing  judges  he  criticizes,  and  praises  the 
independence  of  the  Supreme  Court ;  tho  speaking  of 
the  power  of  that  court  to  judge  as  to  the  constitution- 
ality and  therefore  legality  of  any  bill,  he  says,  "  A 
more  imposing  judicial  power  was  never  constituted 
by  any  people."  He  fears  the  power  of  majorities,  and 
says  that  the  main  evil  of  democratic  institutions  in 
the  United  States  arises  "not  from  their  weakness,  but 
from  their  overpowering  strength;"  he  is  "not  so 
much  alarmed  at  the  excessive  liberty  which  reigns 
in  that  country  as  at  the  very  inadequate  securities 
which  exist  against  tyranny.  ...  If  ever  the  free  insti- 
tutions of  America  are  destroyed,  that  event  may  be 
attributed  to  the  unlimited  authority  of  the  majority, 
which  may  at  some  future  time  urge  the  minority  to 
desperation  and  oblige  them  to  have  recourse  to  physi- 
cal force."  This  danger,  however,  is  mitigated  by  the 


absence  of  centralized  power,  the  wise  laws,  and  es- 
pecially by  the  morality,  religion,  and  intelligence  of 
the  people.  "  Despotism  may  govern  without  faith, 
but  liberty  cannot." 

With  these  institutions,  De  Tocqueville  says,  "the 
Union  is  as  happy  and  free  as  a  small  people  and  as 
glorious  and  strong  as  a  great  nation." 

The  effects  of  democracy  upon  the  people  of  the 
United  States,  he  considers  to  be  to  produce  medioc- 
racy.  They  worship  equality  more  than  liberty.  Great 
political  parties,  he  says,  have  disappeared.  The  coun- 
try contains  few  germs  of  revolution  ;  America  has  fac- 
tions but  not  conspiracies,  the  race  of  statesmen  has 
dwindled.  Universal  suffrage  does  not  guarantee  wise 
choice  of  officers.  Democracies  are  better  in  times  of 
peace  than  of  war.  They  develop  the  activities  of  the 
individual.  De  Tocqueville  says  :  "  This  ceaseless 
agitation  which  democratic  government  has  intro- 
duced into  the  political  world  influences  all  social  inter- 
course. I  am  not  sure  that  upon  the  whole  this  is  not 
the  greatest  advantage  of  democracy.  And  I  am 
much  less  inclined  to  applaud  it  for  what  it  does  than 
for  what  it  causes  to  be  done." 

Such  was  the  view  of  the  most  careful  critic 
of  American  institutions  at  the  close  of  the  first 
third  of  the  present  century.  How  accurately 
he  judged  upon  some  points,  how  utterly  events 
have  proved  him  wrong  upon  others,  is  appar- 
ent. The  Union  is  stronger  to-day  than  the 
States  ;  democratic  government  in  the  United 
States  has  not  been  proven  weak  in  war  or  fickle 
in  time  of  peace.  Majorities  have  rarely  been 
tyrannical.  Of  the  faults  which  have  appeared, 
Mr.  Bryce,  writing  in  1888,  says  (American 
Commonwealth,  ist  ed.,  chap,  xcv.)  : 

"We  have  seen  that  the  defects  commonly  attributed 
to  democratic  government  are  not  specially  character- 
istic of  the  United  States.  It  remains  to  inquire  what 
are  the  peculiar  blemishes  which  the  country  does 
show.  .  .  . 

"  First,  a  certain  commonness  of  mind  and  tone,  a 
want  of  dignity  and  elevation  in  and  about  the  con- 
duct of  public  affairs,  an  insensibility  to  the  nobler 
aspects  and  finer  responsibilities  of  national  life. 

"  Secondly,  a  certain  apathy  among  the  luxurious 
classes  and  fastidious  minds,  who  find  themselves  of 
no  more  account  than  the  ordinary  voter,  and  are 
disgusted  by  the  superficial  vulgarities  of  public  life. 

"  Thirdly,  a  want  of  knowledge,  tact,  and  judgment 
in  the  details  of  legislation,  as  well  as  in  administra- 
tion, with  an  inadequate  recognition  of  the  difficulty 
of  these  kinds  of  work,  and  of  the  worth  of  special 
experience  and  skill  in  dealing  with  them.  Because  it 
is  incompetent,  the  multitude  will  not  feel  its  incom- 
petence, and  will  not  seek  or  defer  to  the  counsels  of 
those  who  possess  the  requisite  capacity. 

"  Fourthly,  laxity  in  the  management  of  public 
business." 

Mr.  Lecky,  however,  in  his  still  more  recent 
Democracy  and  Liberty  (1896),  is  much  more 
severe  on  the  United  States.  Its  success  he 
considers  largely  due  to  its  wise  Constitution 
and  the  very  favorable  circumstances  of  its  trial. 
Yet  he  points  out  no  little  corruption  (see 
articles  CONGRESS,  PLUTOCRACY),  and  then  adds  : 

"  There  is,  however,  one  thing  which  is  worse  than 
corruption.    It  is  acquiescence  in  corruption.     No  fea- 
ture of  American  life  strikes  a  stranger  so  powerfully 
as  the  extraordinary  indifference,  partly  cynicism  and 
partly  good  nature,  with  which  notorious  frauds  and 
notorious  corruption  in  the  sphere  of  politics  are  viewed 
by  American  public  opinion."    Of  one  other  point  Mr. 
Lecky  says  :  "  It  must,  I  think,  be  added, 
that  modern  democracy  is  not  favorable 
to  the  higher  forms  of  intellectual  life.       Lecky's 
Democracy  levels  down  quite  as  much 
as  it  levels  up.   The  belief  in  the  equality 
of  man,  the  total  abstinence  of  the  spirit 
of  reverence,  the  apotheosis  of  the  aver- 
age judgment,  the  fever  and  the  haste,  the  advertising 
and  sensational  spirit  which  American  life  so  abun- 
dantly generates,  and  which  the  American  press  so 
vividly  reflects,  are  little  favorable  to  the  production 


Democracy. 


484 


Democracy. 


of  great  works  of  beauty  or  of  thought,  of  long  medi- 
tation, of  sober  taste,  of  serious,  uninterrupted  study. 
Such  works  have  been  produced  in  America,  but  in 
small  numbers  and  under  adverse  conditions." 

So  far  Mr.  Lecky.  He  seems  to  consider  most 
of  these  faults  the  direct  natural  and  all  but  in- 
evitable result  of  democratic  institutions,  tho  he 
considers  them  "  aggravated"  by  the  unneces- 
sary rule  that  congressmen  must  belong  to  the 
States  they  represent,  and  that  senators  should 
receive  large  salaries. 

Mr.  Lecky,  however,  does  not  seem  to  see 
how  far  political  corruption  in  America  is  the 
result,  not  of  democracy,  but  of  commercialism 
and  that  moneyed  aristocracy  which  DeTocque- 
ville  bade  Democrats  fear  60  years  ago.  Lecky 
does,  indeed,  say  that  the  industrialism  of  Ameri- 
can life  is  one  of  its  most  characteristic  fea- 
tures, and  that  its  influence  on  politics  has  been 
by  no  means  wholly  good  ;  he  does  also  notice 
the  fact  that  in  wealthy  America,  in  1893  alone, 
30,000  miles  of  our  railways  passed  into  the 
hands  of  receivers,  and  says,  "  What  an  amount 
of  gigantic  and  deliberate  dishonesty  as  well  as 
unscrupulous  gambling  does  such  a  state  of 
things  represent  !"  But  he  does  not  seem  to 
have  a  suspicion  how  far  corporations  corrupt 
democracy,  and  not  democracy  corporations. 
Of  this,  however,  we  shall  speak  later.  We  pass 
on  to  notice  briefly  the  result  of 
democracy  in  other  lands. 
Europe.  French  democracy  was  born  of 
ideals  of  natural  rights  falling  on  a 
nation  perhaps  more  despotically 
ruled  than  any  in  Europe.  These  ideals,  with 
those  of  altruism,  as  Mr.  Kidd  has  pointed  out 
in  his  Social  Evolution,  made  even  the  aristoc- 
racy aware  that  their  position  was  unjust,  and 
prevented  their  effectually  opposing  the  upris- 
ing of  the  oppressed.  The  result  was  an  ex- 
plosion. Says  De  Tocqueville  of  French  democ- 
racy (Introduction  to  Democracy  in  America) : 

"  The  existence  of  democracy  was  seemingly  un- 
known when  on  a  sudden  it  took  possession  of  the  su- 
preme power.  .  .  .  The  theory  was  then  submitted 
to  its  caprices ;  it  was  worshiped  as  the  idol  of 
strength,  until,  when  it  was  enfeebled  by  its  own  ex- 
cesses, the  legislator  conceived  the  rash  project  of  an- 
nihilating its  power,  instead  of  instructing  and  correct- 
ing its  vices.  The  consequence  of  this  has  been  that 
the  democratic  revolution  has  been  effected  only  in  the 
material  parts  of  society,  without  that  conco'mitant 
change  in  laws,  ideas,  customs,  and  manners  which 
was  necessary  to  render  such  a  revolution  beneficial." 

This  view  of  a  French  opponent  of  democracy, 
written  60  years  ago,  is  to  a  less  extent  true  to- 
day. The  French  Revolution  was  one  of  the 
middle  classes  rather  than  of  the  lowest.  The 
mass  of  the  people  were  not  ready  for  it. 
France,  therefore,  during  the  century  has  vi- 
brated between  emperor  and  commune.  Ple- 
biscites have  served  tyrants.  Between  1800 
and  1 88 1  France  had  n  revolutions  and  19  suc- 
cessive constitutions,  and  between  1870  and 
1894,  32  ministries. 

Still  democracy  has  steadily  grown,  and  is 
now  probably  more  firmly  established  in  France 
than  ever.  Her  suffrage  is  all  but  universal, 
the  main  restrictions  on  her  democracy  being  in 
the  Senate,  and,  for  Paris,  in  its  lack  of  self- 
government.  (See  PARIS.)  No  one  is  enthusi- 
astic over  the  French  Government.  Panama 


scandals,  coquetting  with  Russia,  the  steady 
growth  of  her  national  .debt  and  of  taxation,  in 
spite  of  her  widely  diffused  land  property  and 
her  popular  loans,  have  made  socialism  and,  to 
a  less  extent  anarchism,  the  popular  idols  in 
France. 

Switzerland  is  undoubtedly  the  most  demo- 
cratic and  one  of  the  most  prosperous  countries 
in  Europe.  Her  well-known  referendum  and 
initiative  we  consider  under  that  head.  In 
Switzerland  far  more  than  in  America  the  peo- 
ple rule.  This  is  undoubtedly  in  part  because 
of  the  smallness  of  her  territory  and  of  the  fact 
that  her  commercial  and  industrial  interests  have 
not  called  into  existence  the  great  corporations 
which  dominate  and  corrupt  American  politics  ; 
but  believers  in  democracy  argue  that  Switzer- 
land shows  that  the  cure  for  the  ills  of  democ- 
racy is  more  democracy.  France  and  America, 
they  say,  are  plutocracies.  With  the  referen- 
dum and  the  initiative,  so  that  the  legislative 
power  is  with  the  people,  with  a  president  (see 
SWITZERLAND)  who  is  little  more  than  a  figure- 
head, with  a  government  largely  decentralized 
between  cantons  and  municipalities,  with  a 
judiciary  not  allowed  to  enslave  a  people  by  in- 
terpreting a  constitution  framed  in  other  days 
for  other  needs,  Switzerland  is  really  demo- 
cratic, and  tho  not  a  land  of  extreme  wealth, 
she  holds  high  rank  in  popular  learning,  indus- 
try, and  prosperity  for  her  people. 

Other  countries  in  Europe,  tho  nominally 
monarchies,  are,  as  in  England,  Germany,  and 
Belgium,  almost  as  democratic  in  many  respects 
as  America  or  France.  In  the  extent  of  na- 
tional as  opposed  to  municipal  suffrage,  they 
rank  almost  with  America.  (See  ELECTIONS.) 
They  groan  under  standing  armies,  but  so  does 
republican  France.  Their  legislatures  repre- 
sent the  classes  more  than  the  masses  ;  but  Eng- 
land has  13  labor  men  in  Parliament,  Germany 
has  44  socialists  in  her  Reichstag,  Italy  15  in  her 
Parliament,  France  from  40  to  55,  Belgium  33, 
Holland  10,  while  in  the  Congress  of  the  United 
States  there  are  no  working  men.  Where  do 
the  people  most  truly  rule  ? 

Coming  now  to  the  arguments  for  and  against 
democracy,  Mr.  Lecky,  its  latest  critic,  says  of 
its  evil  results  : 

"  Sometimes  the  voter  will  be  directly  bribed  or  in- 
timidated.    He  will  vote  for  money  or  for  drink  or  in 
order  to  win  the  favor  or  avert  the  displeasure  of  some 
one  who  is  more  powerful  than  himself.  ...     A  still 
larger  number  of  votes  will  be  won  by  persistent  ap- 
peals to  class  cupidities.  ...      If  the  poorest,   most 
numerous,  and  most  ignorant  class  can  be  persuaded 
to  hate  the  smaller  class,  and  to  vote  solely  for  the 
purpose    of    iujuring    them,   the    party 
manager  will    have  achieved  his  end. 
.  .  .    As    education     advances,     news   Unfavorable 
papers  arise  which  are  intended  solely        View 
for  this    purpose,  and    they  are  often 
almost  the  only  reading  of  great  num- 
bers of  voters.    As  far  as  the  most  igno- 
rant class  have  opinions  of  their  own,  they  will  be  of 
the  vaguest  and   most  childlike  nature.  ...    A  man 
will  vote  blue  or  yellow  as  his  father  did  before  him. 
...    A  few  strong  biases  of  class  or  creed  will  often 
display  a  great  vitality.     Large  numbers,   also,  will 
naturally  vote  on  what  is  called  'the  turn-about  sys- 
tem.' ...    A  bad  harvest  or  some  other  disaster  over 
which  the  government  can  have  no  more  influence 
than  over  the  march  of  the  planets  will  produce  a  dis- 
content that  will  govern  dubious  votes.  .  .  .  The  evil  of 
evils  in  our  present  politics  is  that  the  constituencies 
can  no  longer  be  fully  trusted,  and  that  their  power 
is  so  nearly  absolute.  .  .  .    One  of  the  great  divisions 


Democracy. 


485 


Democracy. 


of  politics  in  our  day  is  coming  to  be  whether,  at  the 
last  resort,  the  world  should  be  governed  by  its  igno- 
rance or  by  its  intelligence."  Some  results  of  democ- 
racy Lecky  considers  to  be  a  lowered  character  of 
parliamentary  government  over  all  Europe  and  Amer- 
ica. All  countries  give  a  sigh  of  relief  when  legis- 
latures are  prorogued.  Wealth  still  rules,  but  wealth 
of  the  worst  kind.  Taxes  and  debts  are  increased,  one 
class  "  has  the  power  of  voting  taxes,  which  another 
class  must  almost  exclusively  pay."  Group  system 
and  log-rolling  are  developed,  machines  govern  par- 
ties. 

There  is,  however,  another  side  to  this. 
Even  Lecky  has  to  admit  that  democratic  insti- 
tutions have  enormously  advanced  both  the 
quantity  and  the  quality  of  popular  education, 
have  made  enormous  strides  in  caring  for  the 
public  health,  have  aided  factory  legislation, 
have  been  favorable  to  religious  liberty. 

It  is  true  that  he  carefully  shows  that  popular  edu- 
cation does  not  accomplish  all  the  good  sometimes 
claimed,  but  yet  he  cannot  bring  himself  to  actually 
oppose,  and  he  has  to  admit  that  oppo- 
sition to  much  education  for  the  toiling 
Favorable    classes  was  a  Tory  doctrine,  and  that 
v-  under  democracy  "  hardly  any  change 

v  lew.  jn  our  generation  has  been  more  marked 
than  that  which  has  made  education  of 
the  poor  one  of  the  main  functions  of 
the  Government."  .  .  .  "  At  the  same  time,"  he  says, 
"the  standard  of  popular  and  free,  or,  in  other  words, 
State  paid  education,  seems  steadily  rising."  Sanitary 
reform  he  calls  "perhaps  the  noblest  legislative 
achievement  of  our  age."  Of  religious  liberty  he  says, 
"  On  the  whole,  democracies,  at  least  in  the  Anglo- 
Saxon  race,  seem  to  me  favorable  to  religious  lib- 
erty." No  forms  of  liberty  are  more  loved  by  Eng- 
lish democracies  than  the  liberty  of  expression,  dis- 
cussion, and  association.  Incidentally  he  speaks  of 
"the  higher  wages,  the  better  payment  of  function- 
aries and  workmen  of  every  order  which  has  followed 
in  the  track  of  a  higher  standard  of  life  and  aspect." 
He  refers  to  the  "intense  and  many-sided  intellectual 
and  moral  energy  that  pervades  the  country."  He 
thinks  there  never  was  a  period  when  more  time, 
thought,  money,  and  labor  were  bestowed  on  the 
alleviation  of  suffering.  He  says,  "  No  feature  of  our 
century  is  more  remarkable  than  the  skill  with  which 
by  reformatories  and  industrial  and  other  schools,  by 
factory  laws,  by  the  diminution  of  insanitary  dwellings, 
and  by  the  better  regulation  of  the  drink  traffic,  modern 
philanthropy  has  succeeded  in  restricting  or  purify- 
ing the  chief  sources  of  national  crime."  .  .  .  "Not 
less  conspicuous  is  the  improvement  that  has  taken 
place  in  the  decorum,  civilization  and  humanity  of  the 
bulk  of  the  poor.  .  .  .  [while]  the  skilled  artizans  in  cur 
great  towns  within  the  memory  of  living  men  have  be- 
come not  only  the  most  energetic,  but  also  one  of  the 
most  intelligent  and  orderly  elements  in  English  life." 
The  closing  chapter  in  Mr.  Lecky's  book  in  which  he 
shows  the  almost  revolutionary  improvements  that 
democracy  has  introduced  in  respect  to  women  is  one 
long  argument  for  democracy.  Surely  if  a  critic  of 
democracy  has  to  admit  all  this,  we  need  not  regret 
that,  as  Mr.  Lecky  says,  democracy  is  for  a  considerable 
time  at  least  "  an  inevitable  fact." 

The  main  charge  Mr.  Lecky  brings  against 
democracy  is  that  it  makes  the  poor  tax  the  rich, 
but  most  will  think  that  that  is  an  advance  on 
the  Toryism  under  which  the  rich  tax  the  poor. 
Probably,  too,  it  is  true  that  democratic  legis- 
latures will  be  for  some  time  in  some  ways  in- 
ferior to  aristocratic  legislatures,  because  they 
admit  representatives  of  classes  whom  aristo- 
crats have  long  kept  ignorant.  But  if  democ- 
racy educates  the  people  and  raises  their  life,  it 
will  soon  raise  the  standard  of  the  representa- 
tives of  the  people.  Democracy,  as  De  Tocque- 
ville  discovered,  is  best  because  of  its  indirect 
results. 

There  are,  indeed,  those  in  America — and  the 
number  is  at  present  growing — who  ask  if  de- 
mocracy is  not  a  failure  ;  they  see  the  voters 
of  our  cities  bought  and  sold  ;  they  see  offices 


put  up  at  auction,  legislation  obtained  by  cor- 
rupt means.  They  think  this  due  to  the  igno- 
rance and  corruption  of  the  people,  and  there- 
fore they  desire  from  good  motives  to  restrict 
the  ballot.  They  look  with  envy  to  the  institu- 
tions of  Great  Britain  and  of  Germany,  where 
they  find  less  political  corruption  and  more  effi- 
cient government.  This  class  forgets  that  politi- 
cal corruption  may  be  due,  not  to  the  ignorance 
of  those  who  are  bought,  but  to  the 
corrupt  power  of  the  educated,  who 
buy.  They  forget  that  England  Cause  of 
and  Germany  have  recently  made  Plutocracy, 
rapid  advances  in  democracy,  and 
that  as  they  have  advanced  in  trust 
of  the  people  they  have  advanced  and  not  retro- 
graded in  political  and  municipal  purity.  The 
reason  for  their  comparative  municipal  purity 
and  our  municipal  corruption  may  be,  not  that 
they  are  less  democratic  than  we,  but  because 
with  them  the  Government  rules  the  corpora- 
tions ;  with  us  corporations  rule  the  Government. 
(See  CITY.)  This,  at  least,  is  a  view  that  needs 
to  be  remembered.  Whatever  be  the  truth,  the 
fact  cannot  be  denied  that  a  growing  class  in 
America  desire  to  restrict  the  suffrage,  to  have 
less  frequent  elections,  to  take  power  from  the 
common  people.  One  of  the  "  reforms"  pressed 
before  the  recent  Constitutional  Convention  in 
New  York  was  the  restriction  of  the  suffrage. 
In  Massachusetts,  the  effort  for  less  frequent 
elections  has  been  very  strong.  In  many  States 
"  educational  and  sometimes  property  qualifica- 
tions" are  being  mooted.  In  Ohio,  the  counsel 
of  a  great  trust  recently  said,  in  a  United  States 
court,  that  "too  many  people  vote."  It  is 
equally  clear  that  this  does  not  represent  the 
view  of  the  masses  of  the  country,  nor  of  some 
of  the  most  experienced  thinkers.  Professor 
Ely  (Christian  Union,  October  9,  1890)  quotes 
Mr.  Seth  Low,  when  Mayor  of  Brooklyn ,  as  say- 
ing that  universal  suffrage  is  not  the  cause  of 
bad  city  government.  Professor  Commons,  in 
Outlines  of  Lectures  on  City  Government, 
quotes  him  as  saying  :  "In  a  country  where 
wealth  has  no  hereditary  sense  of  obligation  to 
its  neighbors,  it  is  hard  to  conceive  what  would 
be  the  condition  of  society  if  universal  suffrage 
did  not  compel  every  one  having  property  to 
consider,  to  some  extent  at  least,  the  well-being 
of  the  whole  community."  Mr.  Albert  Shaw, 
who  perhaps  has  studied  municipal  administra- 
tion more  widely  than  any  other  writer,  in  an 
interview  published  by  the  Pall  Mall  Gazette, 
November  27,  1888,  makes  it  the  second  most 
important  principle  of  municipal  administration 
to  "  trust  the  people." 

The  masses  of  this  country  want  not  less  de- 
mocracy, but  more.  They  want  not  a  limited 
suffrage,  but  industrial  democracy  added  to  po- 
litical democracy.  Their  problem  is  not  how  to 
limit  the  suffrage,  but  how  to  save  the  political 
liberties  of  the  people.  Mr.  Henry  D.  Lloyd,  in 
an  address  before  the  Annual  Convention  of  the 
American  Federation  of  Labor,  in  Chicago,  De- 
cember, 1893,  speaking  of  present  evils  in 
America,  said  : 

"  The  pioneers  who  saw  a  generation  ago  the  thread 
that  would  lead  us  through  this  labyrinth  and  into  the 
free  air  have  now  become  a  multitude.  That  thread  is 
the  thread  of  democracy,whose  principles  must  and  will 
rule  wherever  men  coexist,  in  industry  not  less  surely 


Democracy. 


486 


Democracy. 


than  in  politics.    It  is  by  the  people  who  do  the  work 
that  the  hours  of  labor,  the  conditions  of  employment, 
the  division  of  the  produce  is  to  be  determined.  It  is  by 
them  the  captains  of  industry  are  to  be  chosen,  and 
chosen  to  be  servants,  not  masters.  It  is  for  the  welfare 
of  all  that  the  coordinated  labor  of  all  must  be  directed. 
Industry,  like  government,  exists  only  by  the  coopera- 
tion of    all,  and,  like  government,  it  must  guarantee 
equal  protection  to  all.    This  is  democracy,  and  de- 
mocracy is  not  true  only  where  men  carry  letters  or 
build  forts,  but  wherever  they  meet  in  common  efforts. 
"  The  declaration  of  independence  yesterday  meant 
self-government,   to-day  it   means    self-employment, 
which  is  but  another  kind  of  self-government.    Every 
dollar,   every  edifice,   every  product  of    human  toil 
is  the  creation  of  the  cooperation  of  all  the  people. 
But  in  this  cooperation  it  is  the  share  of  the  majority 
to  have  no  voice,  to  do  the  hardest  work  and  feed  on 
the  crumbs  of  life.    Not  as  an  exception,  but  univer- 
sally, labor  is  doing  what  it  does  not  want  to  do,  and 
not  getting  what  it  wants  or  what  it 
needs.      Laborers  want  to  work  eight 
TTeed  of  In-  hours  a  day  ;  they  must  work  ten,  four- 
dustrial  De    teen>  eighteen.    Crying  to  their  employ- 
ers, to  Congress,  to  legislatures  to  be 
mocracy.       rescued,  they  go  down  under  the  mur- 
derous couplers  and  wheels  of  the  rail- 
roads faster  than  if  they  were  in  active 
service  in  war,  marching  out  of  one  battle  into  another. 
They  want  to  send  their  children  to  school ;  they  must 
send  them  to  the  factory.     They  want  their  wives  to 
keep  house  for  them ;  but  they,  too,  must  throw  some 
shuttle  or  guide  some  wheel.    They  must  work  when 
they  are  sick  ;  they  must  stop  work  at  another's  will. 
.  .  .  This  is  an  impossible  situation.    No  human  so- 
ciety ever  held  together  on  such  terms.    This  is  con- 
trary to  the  most  sacred  principles  of  American  so- 
ciety.   This  is  government  without  consent,  and  it  is 
the  corner-stone  and  roof-tree  of  American  life  that 
we  will  have  none  of  it.     The  men  who  think  it  can 
continue  are  our  idlest  dreamers  and  most  impracti- 
cable theorists.  .  .  . 

"  Democracy  must  be  progressive  or  die.  It  was  by 
a  divine  instinct  of  right,  whether  they  knew  it  or  not, 
that  the  hundreds  of  men  who  found  themselves  these 
winter  nights  in  Chicago  without  a  roof  went  to  the 
city  hall.  That  is  the  house  of  democracy.  It  stands 
on  the  foundation  principle  that  the  people  live  and 
work  for  the  people.  The  city  hall  means  nothing  if  it 
does  not  mean  that  the  general  welfare,  not  the  ad- 
vantages or  privileges  of  a  few,  is  the  object  of  so- 
ciety. It  means  more — the  general  welfare  can  be 
properly  planned  only  if  all  have  a  voice,  and  the  plans 
can  be  properly  carried  out  only  when  all  join  their 
efforts.  The  city  hall  represents  an  institution  ready- 
made  for  any  purposp  of  the  common  good  for  which 
the  common  people  choose  to  use  it— an  institution  in 
which  they  are  equal  partners,  and  no  thanks  to  any 
one  but  themselves.  The  old  democracy  is  the  father 
of  this  new  democracy.  The  old  trade-union  is  to 
herald  this  greater  union.  The  people  who  vote  are 
bound  on  their  own  recognizance  to  get  the  indepen- 
dence and  knowledge  to  vote  right  and  free.  The  pub- 
lic schools  are  a  pledge  of  the  public  honor  that  every 
citizen  shall  be  able  to  buy  books  and  shall  have  time 
to  read  and  digest. 

"  The  progressive  genius  of  democracy  is  atone  with 
its  progressive  necessities.  '  A  house  divided  against 
itself  cannot  stand,'  said  Lincoln.  '  This  union  cannot 
permanently  endure  half  slave  and  half  free.'  It  is 
equally  true  that  all  cannot  remain  politically  free  if 
all  are  not  economically  free.  Political  freedom  is 
but  the  first  installment  of  economic  freedom." 

Nor  is  this  the  view  of  those  alone  who  are  so- 
cialistically  inclined.  Mr.  George  Gun  ton,  who 
opposes  socialism,  says  ( Wealth,  and  Progress, 
p.  205): 

"  Freedom  does  not  consist  in  the  mere  absence  of 
legal  barriers,  but  in  the  actual  power  to  go  and  to  do. 
The  poor  can  never  be  free  in  any  true  sense  of 
the  term.  Whoever  controls  a  man's  living  can  de- 
termine his  liberty.  Freedom  means  independence, 
which  nothing  but  wealth  can  impart.  Even  intelli- 
gence cannot  give  independence,  except  as  it  can  give 
wealth.  Poverty  and  freedom  are  incompatible  with 
each  other. 

"  Whatever  may  be,  theoretically,  the  form  of  gov- 
ernment, the  political  freedom — real  power  and  influ- 
ence— of  the  masses  is  always  proportionate  to  their 
industrial  prosperity  and  progress.  Thus,  the  political 
influence  of  the  masses  is  far  greater  under  the  present 


European  monarchies  than  it  was  under  the  ancient 
republics.  And  the  political  influence  of  the  masses  is 
greatest  to-day  in  those  countries  where  the  industrial 
conditions— real  wages— are  the  highest.  The  laboring 
classes  possess  more  political  influence  and  freedom 
in  England  under  a  monarchy  with  higher  wages,  than 
they  do  in  France  under  a  republic  with  lower  wages  ; 
and  there  is  still  more  real  democracy  with  higher 
wages  under  a  republic  in  America  than  with  lower 
wages  under  a  monarchy  in  England.  .  .  . 

"  It  is  not  and  never  was  true  that  liberty  enlightens 
the  world.  On  the  contrary,  our  democratic  institu- 
tions are  the  natural  consequence  of  our  industrial 
prosperity  and  superior  civilization  ;  and  liberty,  like 
morality,  instead  of  enlightening  the  world,  is  the 
golden  result  of  the  world  s  being  enlightened  by  the 
material  and  social  progress  of  society.  Were  this 
otherwise,  the  industrial  depressions  which  afflict  the 
Old  World  would  be  unknown  here.  The  notorious 
fact  is  that  the  frequency  and  severity  of  industrial 
depressions  are  as  great  under  the  democracies  of 
France  and  America  as  under  the  monarchies  of  Eng- 
land, Germany,  and  Belgium.  " 

Such  is  a  view  of  democracy  that  is  growing 
to-day. 

Be  this,  however,  as  it  may,  democracy  un- 
questionably for  weal  or  for  woe  has  the  future. 
Mr.  Kidd,  in  his  Social  Evolution,  shows  that 
it  is  the  underlying  principle  of  all  modern  prog- 
ress. Of  this  progress,  he  says  (p.  164)  : 

"It  has  consisted  essentially  in  the  gradual  breaking 
down  of  that  military  organization  of  society  which  had 
previously  prevailed  in  the  emancipation  and  enfran- 
chisement of  the  great   body  of  the  people,   hitherto 
universally  excluded  under  that  constitution  of  society 
from  all  participation  on  equal  terms  in  the  rivalry  of 
existence.    From  a  remote  time   down 
unto  the  period  in  which  we  are  living, 
we  have  witnessed  a  continuous  move-     Growth  of 
ment  in  this  direction.    The    progress    Democracy 
may  not  have   been  always   visible  to  i»vjr. 

the  current  generation    among    whom 
the  rising  waves  surge  backward  and 
forward,  but  looking  back  over  our  history,  we  mark 
unmistakably  the  unceasing  onward  progress  of  the 
slowly  advancing  tide.  .  .  .     And  it  tends  to  culminate 
in  a  condition  of  society  in  which  there  shall  be  no 
privileged  classes"  (p.  164). 

The  only  question,  then,  is,  accepting  democ- 
racy, how  to  save  it  from  defeat,  from  corrup- 
tion, from  misdirection.  For  this  see  various 
views  :  Direct  Representation,  through  which 
it  is  claimed  all  the  people  can  legislate,  and 
thus  take  away  from  corrupt  representatives  the 
power  to  sell  legislation  ;  Proportional  Repre- 
sentation, by  which  it  is  urged  that  all  parties 
and  all  views  and  all  interests  can  be  represented 
in  legislation,  the  rights  of  minorities  being  spe- 
cially protected  ;  Industrial  Reform,  by  which 
all  being  put  on  the  same  plane  economically 
and  being  able  to  earn  a  living  by  a  moderate 
amount  of  honest  toil,  will  not  be  easily  tempt- 
ed to  either  sell  their  vote  or  buy  legislation. 
(See  also  ANARCHISM  ;  CHRISTIAN  SOCIALISM  ; 
CIVIL  SERVICE  REFORM  ;  MUNICIPAL  REFORM  ; 
INDIVIDUALISM  ;  SINGLE  TAX  ;  SOCIALISM  ;  TEM- 
PERANCE.) All  these  are  claimed  by  various 
schools  of  thought  as  necessary  to  the  realiza- 
tion of  democracy. 

References:  J.  C.  Bluntschli's  The  Theory  of  the 
State  (tr.,  1892)  ;  J.  G.  Fichte,  The  Science  of  Rights  (tr., 
1889) ;  Sir  H.  Maine's  Popular  Government  (zd  ed., 
1886) ;  J.  S.  Mill's  Representative  Government  (1885) ; 
Giuseppe  Mazzini's  Thoughts  upon  Democracy  in  Eu- 
rope (tr.,  1877) ;  James  Bryce's  The  American  Common- 
wealth (sd  ed.,  1895) ;  Albert  Stickney's  A  True  Repub- 
lic (1890);  J.  R.  Lowell's  Democracy  and  other  Ad- 
dresses (1887) ;  Democracy,  a  lecture  by  Wordsworth 
Donisthorpe  (ad  ed.,  1886). 


Democratic  Party. 


487 


Democratic  Party. 


DEMOCRATIC  PARTY,  THE.  — The 
causes  of  the  rise  of  the  Democratic  Party  may 
be  briefly  stated  as  follows  :  The  Constitution 
of  the  United  States,  which  went  into  effect 
March  4,  1789,  had  been  adopted  only  after  a 
hard  struggle.  It  was  declared  by  many  that 
the  Constitution  gave  too  much  power  to  the 
central  government.  Men  said  that  liberty 
would  perish.  It  was  asserted  that  freedom 
won  from  George  III.  was  being  slain  by  her 
own  children.  The  vote  to  ratify  was  nearly 
defeated  in  Massachusetts  and  New  York.  It 
took  all  the  skill  of  Washington,  and  Franklin, 
and  Hamilton  to  get  it  ratified.  The  States 
were  jealous  of  the  powers  given  to  the  Federal 
Government,  and  the  people  were  jealous  of 
power  given  to  any  government.  The  Consti- 
tution was  only  adopted  because  it  was  believed 
that  the  powers  were  so  divided  between  the 
different  branches  of  the  Govern- 
ment and  each  branch  so  carefully 
Else  of  tied  up  with  constitutional  limita- 
the  Party,  tions  that  no  branch  could  gain  too 
much  power.  Nevertheless,  even 
so,  a  strong  anti-federalist  senti- 
ment or  party  sprung  up,  holding  that  the  Con- 
stitution should  be  strictly  interpreted  and  gov- 
ernment only  be  allowed  what  the  Constitution 
plainly  authorized  on  the  strictest  interpreta- 
tion. All  other  powers,  they  held,  were  reserved 
for  the  people.  It  was  this  feeling  which  led  to 
what  we  know  to-day  as  the  Democratic  Party, 
but  which  was  first  organized  under  other  names. 
It  may  be  said  to  have  'become  a  party  as 
early  as  1792.  The  Federalist  policy  or  the  ad- 
ministration of  Washington  only  increased  the 
anti-Federalist  feeling.  In  particular  was  the 
financial  management  of  Hamilton  and  the 
neutrality  of  this  country  in  the  war  between 
France  and  Spain  obnoxious  to  the  anti- Feder- 
alists. France  to  them  represented  democracy 
and  England  aristocracy  ;  the  one  was  loved, 
the  other  hated. 

An  impression  got  abroad  that  the  Federal- 
ists were  anti-republican,  and  that  they  actually 
wished   for  a  monarchy.     These  various  ele- 
ments of  disagreement  with  the  policy  of  the 
administration  began  to  coalesce  into  avowed 
opposition.     Jefferson  was  the  leader,  and  was 
not    backward    in     opposing    by    letters    and 
speeches   the  administration    of    Washington. 
The  party  first  took  the  name  of  the  Republican 
Party,  since  it  claimed  that  the  Federalists  were 
anti-republican.     The    first    authoritative    use 
of  this  party  name  occurs  in  a  letter  of  Jeffer- 
son to  Washington,  May  13,  1792. 
From  1793-96,  however,  the  party 
Name.       took  the  name  of  the  Democratic- 
Republican  Party  in  order  the  better 
to  win  the  allegiance  of  the  French 
or  democratic  school  of  thought.     This  is  still  the 
official  title  of  the  party  ;  but  about  1829,  when 
a  nationalizing  faction  had  broken  off  and  called 
themselves    National    Republicans   (see  WHIG 
PARTY),  the  residue  adopted  the  name  Democrat, 
by  which  the  party  is  to-day  popularly  known. 

The  fundamental  principle  of  the  part)', 
Jefferson  said,  was  "the  cherishment  of  the 
people."  It  believed  that  that  was  the  best 
government  which  governed  least.  It  advo- 
cated State  rights  against  too  extended  federal 


power.     It  stood  for  a  rigid  economy  in   the 
moneys  voted  for  government  expenditure.     Its 
leaders  believed  in  or  affected  great  plainness 
of  dress  and  conduct  in  government  officials.     It 
stood  for  the  strict  construction  not  only  of  the 
Federal  Constitution,  but  of  all  State  constitu- 
tion and  municipal  charters.     Back  of  Congress, 
to  an  extent  above  Congress,  was  the  sovereign 
State.     Back  of  the  State,  and  in  a  sense  above 
the  State,  was  the  town  meeting  or  the  local 
political  unit.      Back   of  the  town 
meeting    were    John    Smith    and 
Henry  Jones,  and  Congress,  State,    Principles, 
or    town    meeting    could   only   do 
what  John  Smith  and  Henry  Jones 
had  explicitly  contracted   or  voted   that  they 
might  do.     On  the  other  hand,  the  Federalists 
felt  that  a  somewhat  liberal  interpretation  of 
the  Constitution  and  a  somewhat  extended  con- 
ception of  the  function  of  the  Federal  Govern- 
ment was  absolutely  necessary  to  the  prosperity 
and  independence  of  the  country ;  that  otherwise 
it  would  be  little  more  than  a  loose  federation 
of  petty  sovereign  and  competing  republics,  like 
those  of  South  America.     Particularly  did  Ham- 
ilton carry  this  out  in  his  financial  policy.    This 
immediately  raised  somewhat  of  a  sectional  feel- 
ing.    The  South  was  almost  wholly  agricultural 
and  anti-Federalist.     The  North  was  commer- 
cial and  more  federalist.     Of  the  national  debt 
Jefferson  said  the  South  "  owed  the  debt  while 
the  North  owned  it."    The  anti- Federalists,  too, 
strongly  objected  to  the  administration's  policy 
of  a  national  bank.     (See  BANKS  AND  BANKING.) 
The  first  test  of  political  strength 
came  in  the  elections  of   1792,  tho 
it   was    scarcely    a    real    test    of       First 
strength,   for    Washington,   as    in    Election. 
1789,  was    easily   reflected    Presi- 
dent, and  what  anti- Federalist  or 
Democratic  opposition  there  was  was  scattered 
between  various  candidates  ;  but  when  the  third 
Congress  was  organized  in  1793  the  Republicans 
(Democrats)   were    in   the  majority.     In   1796 
there  was  more  of  a  test  contest.     John  Adams, 
the  Federalist  candidate,  received  71  electoral 
votes,  and  was  elected,  but  Jefferson  received  68, 
and  became  Vice-President.     The  administra- 
tion of  Adams  helped  the  Republicans  (Demo- 
crats) still  more. '   It  was  during  his  administra- 
tion that  the  famous  alien   and  sedition  laws 
were  passed,  an  exercise  of  power  by  Congress 
which  the   new   party  considered    unconstitu- 
tional beyond  a  doubt.     The  act  was  taken  by 
the  Democrats  as  a  sign  that  tyranny  was  rap- 
idly   developing.     Jefferson    considered    these 
laws  a  nullity  as  "  absolute  and  palpable  as  if 
Congress  had  ordered  us  to  fall  down  and  wor- 
ship a  graven  image. ' '    The  party,  led  by  Jeffer- 
son and  Madison,  protested  in  the  well-known 
Virginia  and  Kentucky  Resolutions  of  1798  and 
J799-     Their  spirit  has  been  the  spirit  of  the 
party  ever  since,  and  gave  the  clearest  expres- 
sion yet  of  the  doctrine  of  State  rights.     In  the 
next  election,  1800,  the  Republicans 
(Democrats)   carried    the   election, 
and  held  the  power  for  24  years.     Jefferson. 
Jefferson    was    elected    President, 
and  Burr,  also  Republican  (Demo- 
crat), Vice-President.     House  and  Senate  were 
also  of  the  same  party.    The  party  also  captured 


Democratic  Party. 


488 


Democratic  Party. 


most  of  the  States,  but  was  so  successful  that 
divisions  began  to  result.  Radical  and  con- 
servative Republicans  began  to  appear.  Jeffer- 
son's administration  was  popular,  and  not  the 
least  the  Louisiana  purchase,  tho  it  was  doubt- 
ful if  any  authority  for  this  could  be  found  in 
the  Constitution.  In  1804  Jefferson  wasreelect- 
ed  President  and  George  Clinton  Vice-Presi- 
dent. The  administration  now,  however,  adopt- 
ed a  policy  which  raised  opposition  in  its  own 
party.  It  favored  building  small  gunboats  for 
coast  defense  rather  than  a  strong  navy  for  the 
defense  of  commerce,  and  claimed  that  agricul- 
ture was  America's  true  interest,  not  commerce. 
This  would  have  defeated  the  party  in  1812  ex- 
cept for  the  growth  of  the  Western  States,  and 
Madison,  the  party  condidate,  was  successful. 
The  opposition  in  the  party,  however,  increased, 
led  by  Henry  Clay  and  Story  (afterward  Chief 
Justice).  The  opposition  favored  a  much  more 
national  policy,  and  Madison,  tho  adverse  to  it, 
was  coerced  into  following  a  war  policy,  and 
the  War  of  1812  was  declared.  This  made  the 
more  national  policy  of  the  Republican  (Demo- 
cratic) Party  popular,  and  the  Federalists  (g.v.) 
all  but  disappeared.  The  triumphant  party, 
however,  acted  very  little  on  its  original  princi- 
ples. In  1816  it  established  a  new  national  bank, 
modeled  after  Hamilton's,  and  im- 
posed a  low  protective  duty.  In 
Monroe.  1816  Monroe,  of  Virginia,  was  tri- 
umphantly elected.  In  1819-20  the 
House  passed  a  still  higher  tariff, 
which  the  Senate  rejected  ;  but  in  1824  a  still 
higher  tariff  became  law.  In  1820,  in  the  so- 
called  "era  of  good  feeling,"  Monroe  was  re- 
elected  almost  without  opposition.  In  that  year 
Florida  was  bought  and  Missouri  was  admitted 
as  a  slave  State.  This  led  to  large  conse- 
quences ;  henceforth  the  party,  strong  in  the 
South,  lost  in  the  North,  and  for  40  years  the 
party  at  the  North  had  to  excuse  the  course  of 
the  South.  The  party  was  broken  up  in  1824, 
and  John  Quincy  Adams  was  elected,  nominally 
of  the  party,  but  by  old  Federal  votes.  He  was 
opposed  by  the  bulk  of  his  party,  an  opposition 
which  ended  in  the  election  in  1828  of  Andrew 
Jackson.  At  this  election  the  people  for  the  first 
time  really  assumed  control  of  the  Government, 
because  in  all  the  older  States  there  had  been 
various  property  qualifications  to  the  suffrage. 
The  admission  of  newer  States  without  these 
qualifications  had  now  given  the  people  power. 
Adams  and  Jackson  had  both  called  themselves 
Republicans,  Adams  leading  the  "  administra- 
tion wing"  and  Jackson  "  the  opposition  wing  ;" 
but  after  the  election  the  Adams  men  called 
themselves  more  and  more  the  "  National" 
Party,  while  the  Jackson  men  called 
themselves  Democrats  or  Republi- 
Jackson.  can-Democrats.  Jackson  stood  for 
no  policy  save  one  of  opposition  to 
Adams,  and  when  in  power  he  first 
used  the  national  appointing  power  to  strength- 
en his  party  and  reward  his  friends.  ' '  To  the  vic- 
tors belong  the  spoils"  from  thenceforward  be- 
came a  too  well-known  motto.  He  also  favored 
the  theory  of  the  rotation  in  office.  He  devel- 
oped a  strong  strict  constructionist  policy,  and 
a  conflict  against  the  national  bank.  (See 
BANKS.)  In  the  matter  of  internal  improve- 


ments and  of  a  national  bank  Jackson's  policy 
signally  triumphed,  but  he  was  not  so  fortunate 
in  the  matter  of  the  tariff.  In  1832  a  protective 
tariff  was  passed  by  Congress,  which  he  thought 
his  best  course  to  sign. 

At  the  end  of  Jackson's  second  term  Van 
Buren,  who  had  been  Secretary  of  State  and 
then  Vice-President  with  Jackson,  was  elected 
against  the  Whig  candidate  in  1836.  By  this 
time  the  organization  of  the  Democratic  Party 
had  been  systematized  much  as  we  see  it  to- 
day. In  the  national  convention  of  the  party  at 
Baltimore,  May  5,  1840,  what  we  call  a  platform 
was  put  forth  for  the  first  time.  It  declared  that 
the  Federal  Government  was  one  of  limited 
powers,  opposed  expenditure  for  public  improve- 
ments and  a  charter  for  a  United  States  bank, 
and  favored  a  tariff  for  revenue  only.  No  sub- 
stantial change  was  made  in  the  various  plat- 
forms of  the  party  in  following  years  till  1864. 
Owing  to  depression,  ascribed  by  the  Whigs  to 
the  opposition  of  the  Democrats  to  commercial 
interests,  Van  Buren  was  defeated  for  a  second 
term  by  Harrison,  who  was,  however,  soon  suc- 
ceeded by  Tyler.  The  Democrats, 
however,  again  won  with  Polk  in 
1844.  The  issue  in  the  campaign  Slavery. 
had  been  the  annexation  of  Texas  ; 
for  now  the  slavery  element  was 
in  control  of  the  Democratic  Party  and  deter- 
mined to  gain  its  ends.  The  men  in  power  had 
little  of  the  prudent  policy  of  Van  Buren  and 
the  leaders  or  Jackson's  time.  The  war  with 
Mexico  followed.  As  a  result  a  large  territory 
was  added  to  the  country.  The  Wilmot  Pro- 
viso, which  excluded  slavery  from  this  territory, 
was  disapproved  of  by  the  Southern  division  of 
the  party,  and  the  Northern  Democrats  had  to 
yield.  But  these  dissensions  in  the  party  led  to 
its  defeat  in  1848,  and  Zachary  Taylor  (Whig) 
was  elected.  This  administration,  however, 
gradually  saw  the  Whig  Party  disappear,  the 
Free  Soil  Party  develop,  and  the  Democratic 
Party  become  a  party  in  the  complete  control  of 
the  South.  This  division  of  the  Whigs  led  to 
the  success  of  the  Democrats  in  1852  and  the 
election  of  Franklin  Pierce. 

The    Southern    majorities    for    Pierce    were 
heavy,  and  the  Southern  men  naturally  claimed 
preeminence.     Many  of  these  leaders  were  lack- 
ing in  prudence  and  altogether  too  aggressive 
in  advocacy  of  the  claims  of  slavery.     These 
new  Southerners  were  such  men  as  Davis,  Ste- 
phens, Toombs  of  Georgia,  and  R.  C.  Brecken- 
ridge  of  Kentucky.      Stephen  A.  Douglas  was 
almost  the  only  great  Democratic  leader  in  the 
North.    He  stood  for  the  "  popular  sovereignty" 
doctrine,  and  in  1854  brought  forward  his  Kan- 
sas-Nebraska Bill.     The  Missouri  Compromise 
had  forbidden  slavery  north  of  the  parallel  of 
36°  30'.    The  new  Territory  of  Kansas-Nebraska 
lying  north  of  this  limit  would  naturally  be  free. 
But  the  Kansas-Nebraska  Bill  asserted  the  prin- 
ciple of  non-intervention  by  Con- 
gress in  regard  to  slavery  in  States 
and  Territories,  and  declared  the     Missouri 
prohibition  of  slavery  in  the  Mis-  Compromise, 
souri  Compromise  Act  to  be  void. 
The  passage  of  the  bill  by  Congress 
led  immediately  to  the  revolt  of  many  Northern 
Democrats,  and  by  the  union  of  these  men  with 


Democratic  Party. 


489 


Democratic  Party. 


the  Northern  Whigs  and  with  other  elements 
the  Republican  Party  was  formed.  But  all  the 
Northern  Whigs  had  not  yet  joined  the  new 
party,  and  hence  another  Presidential  victory 
was  possible  for  the  Democrats.  They  put  up 
a  very  moderate  man  in  1856,  Buchanan,  and 
he  was  elected,  tho  he  had  not  a  majority  of  the 
popular  vote.  But  Buchanan's  administration 
was  the  last  the  Democratic  Party  was  to  con- 
trol for  years  to  come.  There  was  fighting  in 
Kansas  between  the  Free  State  and  the  Slave 
State  settlers.  The  Kansas-Nebraska  Bill  had 
deeply  moved  the  spirit  of  the  North,  and  the 
Democratic  Party  was  to  split  on  that  rock.  At 
the  convention  at  Charleston,  S.  C.,  April  23, 
1860,  the  Southern  and  Northern  delegates  could 
not  agree  upon  the  question  of  the  legality  of 
slavery  in  the  Territories.  The  Douglas  Demo- 
crats triumphed,  and  the  Southern  men  with- 
drew. Douglas  was  nominated  by  the  original 
convention  and  Breckenridge  by  the  seceding 
one.  Lincoln,  however,  the  Republican  candi- 
date, was  elected  by  180  out  of  303  electoral 
votes,  and  the  Civil  War  was  precipitated. 

For  many  events  of  the  period  1860-95  see 
REPUBLICAN  PARTY.     The  Democratic  Party  has 
been  for  much  of  this  period  in  opposition.    The 
leading  Democrats  of  the  North,  as 
soon  as  the  war  broke  out,  became 
War  Period.  "  War  Democrats,"  and  many  of 
them    in    time   Republicans.     But 
the  party  rallied  as  the  war  went  on 
and  began  to  advocate  peace.     The  suspension 
of  the   habeas  corpus  act  gave  rise  to  a  cry 
against    Lincoln's    government.     The    Demo- 
cratic platform  of  1 864  denounced  the  manage- 
ment of  the  war,  and  called  for  efforts  for  peace. 
McClellan  was  the  candidate  chosen,  and  he 
was  badly  defeated    by  Lincoln.     The  party 
protested  in  vain  against  the  Reconstruction 
measures.     It,  however,  succeeded  in  securing 
the  acquittal  of  President  Johnson  on  his  im- 
peachment. 

The  candidate  for  the  Presidency  in  1868, 
Governor  Seymour,  of  New  York,  was  defeat- 
ed. A  natural  reaction  from  the  forcible  Recon- 
struction policy  was  now  beginning.  A  Liberal 
Republican  convention,  intended  to  unite  Demo- 
crats and  Liberal  Republicans,  was  held  at  Cin- 
cinnati in  1872,  and  nominated  Horace  Greeley, 
of  New  York.  The  Democratic  convention  at 
Baltimore  ratified  the  Cincinnati  platform,  but 
Greeley  was  not  acceptable  to  many  Democrats, 
and  received  but  66  out  of  352  electoral  votes. 
In  the  forty-fourth  Congress  in  1875  the  Demo- 
crats for  the  first  time  for  years  had  a  large  ma- 
jority in  the  House  of  Representatives,  and 
maintained  it  till  1881.  At  one  time  they  con- 
trolled the  Senate,  but  the  Southern  vote  was 
divided  on  many  questions,  and  no  great  meas- 
ures were  passed.  The  platform  of  1876,  how- 
ever, demanded  a  tariff  for  revenue  only,  and 
reform  in  the  administration  of  the  government. 
Samuel  J.  Tilden,  of  New  York,  was  the  nomi- 
nee, and  the  result  of  the  voting  was  in  dispute. 
The  Republicans  had  184  electoral  votes,  one 
short  of  the  necessary  number.  But  in  Florida 
and  Louisiana  the  so-called  returning  boards  re- 
versed the  popular  vote,  and  gave  the  States  to 
Hayes,  the  Republican  candidate.  Feeling  ran 
so  high  over  this  that  Congress  created  an  elec- 


toral commission,  composed  of  five  senators,  five 
representatives,  and  five  justices  of  the  Supreme 
Court,  which  counted  the  votes  in 
favor  of  Hayes,  8  to  7,  and  he  was 
inaugurated.     In  1878-79  occurred       Tilden 
in  the  House  of  Representatives  a         and 
contest  over  the  appropriation  bills.       Hayes. 
In  1880  General  Winfield  S.  Han- 
cock, of  Pennsylvania,  was  the  can- 
didate  of   the  party  for   President,   and    was 
defeated    by  Garfield.     It  was  not  until  1893 
that    the    Democrats    secured    control    of    all 
branches    of    the    Government.      Meanwhile, 
in  1884,  they  had  succeeded  in  electing  to  the 
Presidency  Mr.  Cleveland,  then  Gov- 
ernor of  New  York,  over  Elaine. 
The  vote  was  very  close.     The  con-   Cleveland. 
test  was  fought  on  the  tariff  issue 
and  that  of  reform,  especially  civil 
service  reform  in  the  administration.     Republi- 
can divisions  and  the  desertion  from  the  party's 
ranks  of  many  who  were  dissatisfied  with  Mr. 
Blaine,  the    Republican    candidate,  aided  the 
Democrats.     But  the  Senate  remained  Repub- 
lican throughoutCleveland'sadministration,  and 
prevented  Democratic  legislation.     In  Decem- 
ber, 1887,  however,  President  Cleveland  sent  a 
message  to  Congress  strongly  advocating  tariff 
reform  in  the  direction  of  a  tariff  for  revenue 
only.    This  made  the  issue  for  the  coming  Presi- 
dential campaign  and  encouraged  the  House  at 
once  to  prepare  and  pass  the  so-called  Mills  Bill , 
a  measure  providing  for  greatly  reduced  cus- 
toms duties.     The  campaign  of  1888  was  fought 
between  Cleveland  and  Harrison,  the  Republi- 
can nominee,  upon  this  tariff  issue.     The  Re- 
publicans in  their  platform   had  advocated  a 
high-protection  policy.     General   Harrison  was 
elected  and  served  one  term,  till  defeated  in  the 
election  of  1892  by  Cleveland,  who  was  for  the 
third  time  a  candidate.     The  business  depres- 
sion which  existed  caused  the  President  to  call 
an  extra  session  of  Congress,  which,  notwith- 
standing the  opposition  of  the  silver  men,  re- 
pealed the  purchasing  clause  of  the  Sherman 
Act,  October  30,  1893.     A  tariff  bill  was  now 
framed  in  the  House  under  the  charge  of  William 
L.    Wilson,  of  West   Virginia.     This  so-called 
Wilson  Bill  made  free  much  raw  material  and 
reduced  the  duty  greatly  on  finished  products. 
The  bill  was  presented  to  the  House  in  Decem- 
ber, but  it  was  not  till  the  third  of  the  next  July 
that  it  passed  the  Senate.     It  had,  however, 
been  so  greatly  amended  by  the  conservative 
element  in  the  Senate  in  the  direction  of  protec- 
tion that  President  Cleveland  allowed  it  to  be- 
come law  without  his  signature.     The  depres- 
sion in  business  still  continued,  and  in  conse- 
quence of  this  and  of  the  tariff  legislation  the 
Democrats  were  badly  defeated  in  the  elections 
of  1894,  and  a  large  Republican  majority  was 
returned  to  the  House  of  Representatives.    Into 
Mr.  Cleveland's  foreign  policy  in  the  matter  of 
Hawaii  and  Venezuela  it  is  not  pos- 
sible to  enter  here.    In  regard  to  his 
financial  policy  he  may  be  said  to     Present 
have  steadfastly  opposed  the  free    Situation. 
silver  men  of  his  party,  and  to  have 
favored  a  gold  monometallism.    His 
views  are  those  of  the  bankers  and  capitalists 
of  his  party  rather  than  of  the  Free  Silver  Dem- 


Democratic  Party. 


490 


Denmark. 


ocrats  who  proved  themselves  at  the  Chicago 
Convention  of  1896  to  be  in  the  large  majority 
in  the  party.  (See  SILVER.)  How  genuine  is  the 
commitment  of  the  Democratic  Party  to  the  Chi- 
cago platform  some  question,  considering  it  only 
a  matter  of  wire-pulling,  but  most  consider  the 
party  to  have  entered  at  Chicago  upon  a  new 
epoch,  committed  to  the  battle  against  a  moneyed 
aristocracy  as  never  before,  and  as  notably  ex- 

S'essed  in  the  speeches  of  its  gallant  leader, 
r.  Bryan.  Some  think  that  the  party  will  tend 
toward  a  real  tho  perhaps  an  unavowed  social- 
ism. Others  hold  that  its  fundamental  princi- 
ples unalterably  commit  it  to  individualism,  to 
less  government  rather  than  to  more,  and  thus 
opposed  to  any  measures  looking  toward  social- 
ism. It  remains  to  be  seen  how  far  it  will  be 
affected  by  those  popular  movements  of  reform 
which  are  daily  growing  more  important  and 
significant.  For  the  platform  of  the  Democratic 
Party  in  1896,  see  Appendix. 

References:  J.  H.  Patton's  The  Democratic  Party 
(1884) ;  an  article  by  J.  S.  Morrill  on  Platforms  of  the 
Democratic  Party  in  1892  (North  American  Review, 
vol.  civ.)  ;  Lalor's  Cyclopaedia,  article  Democratic-Re- 
publican Party.  See  also  DEMOCRACY. 

DEMONETIZATION.  See  MONEY,  also 
CONTRACTION  AND  EXPANSION  OF  CURRENCY. 

DEMOREST,  W.  JENNINGS,  was  born 
June  10,  1822,  in  the  city  of  New  York,  and  re- 
ceived most  of  his  education  in  the  public 
schools.  At  20  years  of  age  he  commenced  his 
business  career  in  the  dry  goods  trade.  In  1860 
he  entered  the  editorial  and  publishing  busi-. 
ness,  and  soon  after  that  began  the  publication 
of  the  New  York  Illustrated  News  in  English 
and  German,  and  also  Young  America.  In 
1864  these  were  merged  into  the  present  Demo- 
rest's  Family  Magazine.  Mr.  Demorest  trav- 
eled extensively  and  wrote  largely  on  his  favorite 
themes  of  ethics,  especially  against  the  evils  of 
the  liquor  traffic.  He  distributed  nearly  50,000,- 
ooo  pages  of  tracts  on  this  question. 

Mr.  Demorest  was  active  in  the  great  Wash- 
ington movement,  and  was  one  of  the  origina- 
tors of  the  Sons  of  Temperance.  To  test  the 
question  of  the  constitutionality  of  slavery  he 
had  a  suit  instituted  and  well  on  its  way  toward 
the  Supreme  Court  when  President  Lincoln's 
emancipation  proclamation  was  issued.  He 
was  an  ardent  supporter  of  Fremont's  candi- 
dacy, and  with  Horace  Greeley  was  on  the  com- 
mittee which  urged  his  second  nomination. 
Altho  for  a  long  series  of  years  he  was  associ- 
ated as  an  equal  partner  in  one  of  the  largest 
printing  houses  in  America,  Mr.  Demorest  was 
interested  in  many  other  enterprises,  and  re- 
ceived numerous  medals  and  diplomas  for  his 
inventions.  He  opened  the  first  store  on  Four- 
teenth Street,  New  York. 

Actively  identified  with  the  Prohibition  Party, 
Mr.  Demorest,  since  1884,  was  a  tireless  worker 
for  its  success.  He  established  the  National 
Prohibition  Bureau  for  speakers  and  the  dis- 
tribution of  literature,  and,  true  to  his  early  con- 
victions, organized  the  National  Constitutional 
League,  through  which  he  was  pressing  a  test 
suit  up  to  the  Supreme  Court  to  establish  the 
unconstitutional! ty  of  license  to  the  liquor  traffic, 
when  his  death  occurred,  April  9,  1895.  He  pub- 


lished a  monthly  periodical  called  The  Consti- 
tution. He  served  the  party  as  a  candidate  for 
Mayor  of  New  York  City  and  for  Lieutenant- 
Governor  of  the  State.  An  interesting  feature 
of  Mr.  Demorest' s  services  for  the  cause  of  pro- 
hibition is  the  medal  contest  work  for  the  edu- 
cation of  the  youth  and  the  creation  of  public 
sentiment  in  favor  of  the  universal  prohibition 
of  the  liquor  traffic. 

DENISON,  EDWARD,  born  at  Salisbury 
in  1840,  was  the  son  of  Edward  Denison,  Bishop 
of  Salisbury.  Graduated  at  Eton  and  Christ 
Church,  Oxford  ;  from  1862-66  he  read  law,  in 
the  spring  of  1864  traveling  through  Southern 
Europe  and  Northern  Africa.  He  became  deep- 
ly interested  in  the  condition  of  the  poor,  and 
in  1867  took  a  lodging  among  the  tenements  in 
Philpot  Street,  Mile  End  Road,  East  London. 
He  resided  here  eight  months,  studying  the 
conditions  of  life,  building,  endowing,  and 
teaching  in  a  school.  He  was  one  of  the  origi- 
nal members  of  the  Society  for  Organizing 
Charitable  Relief  and  Repressing  Mendicity  in 
1869,  out  of  which  has  grown  the  Charity  Or- 
ganization Movement  (q.v.\  He  disbelieved  in 
giving  doles,  and  in  1868  went  to  Paris  and 
Edinburgh  to  study  the  working  of  the  Poor 
Law.  In  November  of  that  year  he  was  re- 
turned (a  Liberal)  to  Parliament  for  Newark, 
but  his  failing  health  prevented  his  continued 
attendance,  and  after  vainly  seeking  improved 
health  in  the  Channel  Islands,  he  went  on  a 
voyage  to  Australia,  but  died  in  Melbourne  Jan- 
uary 26,  1870,  two  weeks  after  his  arrival.  His 
letters  and  writings  have  been  published,  Lon- 
don, 1870. 

DENMARK  AND  SOCIAL  REFORM.— 

Denmark  was  first  an  elective  monarchy.  In 
1660,  however,  the  crown  was  made  hereditary. 
Her  present  constitution  dates  substantially 
from  1849.  The  executive  power  is  in  the  hands 
of  the  king  and  his  ministers,  the  legislative  pow- 
er in  the  Rigsdag,  acting  in  conjunction  with  the 
king.  The  Rigsdag  is  composed  of  a  Lands- 
thing,  with  66  members,  12  nominated  for  life 
by  the  Crown,  and  the  others  elected  by  the 
larger  taxpayers,  and  a  Folkething  of  102  mem- 
bers, elected  for  three  years  by  universal  suf- 
frage. All  members  are  paid  $1.50  per  day  and 
traveling  expenses. 

The  population   of  Denmark  (1890),  2,185,335 
on   an    area  of    15,289   square  miles,   gives  it 
a    density    of   143    per    square    mile.     Copen- 
hagen, the  capital,  has  a  popula- 
tion of    312,859.     The   established 
religion  is  Lutheran,  and  the  popu-    Statistics, 
lation  almost  purely  Scandinavian. 
Education  is  widely  extended,  and 
since  1814  has  been  compulsory.     The  public 
schools,  maintained  by  communal  rates,  are  free 
to  those  whose  parents  cannot  pay.     The  reve- 
nue for  1894  was  58,075,266  kroner,  and  the  ex- 
penditure, 62,152,474    kroner    (a    krone   =   25 
cents).     The    national    debt    was    182,108,483 
kroner,  accumulated  in  part  by  deficits,  in  part 
for  railways  and  harbor  defenses.     In  1893,  999 
English  miles  of  the  total  1292  in  the  empire  be- 
longed to  the  State.     The  telegraph  and  post 
are  in  the  hands  of  the  State.     The  soil  of  Den- 


Denmark. 


491        Departments  U.  S.  Government. 


mark  is  greatly  subdivided,  largely  due  to  the 
law.  The  leading  crops  are  oats,  barley,  rye, 
wheat,  potatoes,  and  hay.  For  1893  Denmark's 
imports  were  320,294,907  kroner,  and  exports, 
235,115,937  kroner.  The  exports,  mainly  to 
England,  consisted  largely  of  pork,  butter, 
eggs,  lard,  animals,  and  cereals.  December  31, 
1893,  Denmark  and  her  colonies  (Iceland,  Green- 
land, West  Indies)  possessed  3675  vessels,  of 
which  374  were  steamers. 

Agriculture  and  fishing  are  the  main  indus- 
tries.    Wages  are  low,  and  agriculture  on  the 
small  holdings  is  very  precarious.     According 
to  the  report  on  Denmark  of  the  (English)  Royal 
Commission  on  Labor,  1894,  the  average  annual 
wages  on    farms  are   224  kroner,  with  board, 
and  371   kroner  without.     Weekly  wages   for 
piece-work  in  Copenhagen  averaged  for  jour- 
neymen, 2268  ore  and  for  women 
1008  ore.     The  maintenance  of  a 
Industrial   single  man  in  Copenhagen  is  said 
Conditions,  to  cost  770  kroner,  and  of  a  man 
and  wife  996    kroner.      Hours  of 
labor  are  about  12,  with  one  or  two 
for  meals.     There  is  no  legal  limitation  for  adult 
hours  ;  but  since  1873  all  factories  have  been 
supervised,  and  by  various  bills  hours  for  chil- 
dren under  14  are  limited  to  6J  ;  under  18,  to  10. 
Under  10  they  cannot  work  at  all.     The  employ- 
ment of  children  seems  on  the  increase.  Employ- 
ees' liability  laws  have  been  much  agitated,  but 
little  has  been  done.     In  old  age  pensions  Den- 
mark has  gone  farther  than   most  countries. 
(See  OLD  AGE  PENSIONS..) 

Trade-unions  in  Denmark  owe  their  origin  to 
the  socialist  movement  of  1871,  tho  as  early  as 
1860  Herr  C.  V.  Rimestad  started  a  workman's 
union  for  education.     This  movement  was  de- 
veloped by  Pastor  Sonne,  of  North  Jutland,  who 
started  the  first  cooperative  society  in  1866.     In 
1874  there  were  92  unions  in  connection  with 
this  movement,  and  a  paper,  the 
Arbeiderin.  Cooperation,  however, 
Labor       has  had  little  success.     Loan  banks 
Movement,   have  been   established,  and  there 
were  in  189, 220  cooperative  dairies. 
The  trade-unions    numbered  400, 
with  a  membership  of  some  35,000,  about  20,000 
of  them  being  in  Copenhagen.     They  are  fed- 
erated in  one  organization.     Most  of  them  are 
socialistic. 

Socialism  entered  Denmark  in  1870  in  con- 
nection with  the  International  (g.v.),  under  the 
lead  of  Louis  Pio  and  Paul  Geleff .  A  paper  was 
started,  and  by  1872  the  International  counted 
8000  members  in  Denmark.  Strikes  were  in- 
augurated ;  but  in  1872  the  movement  was  sup- 
pressed by  the  police  and  the  leaders  impris- 
oned. Socialism  did  not  appear  again  in  strength 
till  1880,  when  it  developed  in  the  German  type. 
There  are  to-day  several  socialist  papers.  The 
Social  Demokraten,  of  Copenhagen,  a  daily, 
claims  a  circulation  of  26,000.  At  the  Copen- 
hagen Congress  in  1892  there  were  104  dele- 
gates, and  the  party  reported  to  the  Zurich  So- 
cialist Congress  of  1893  no  less  than  35,000  pay- 
ing members.  Socialist  club-houses  exist  in 
most  of  the  cities. 

References  :  The  best  English  authority  on  the  so- 
cial movement  is  the  above-cjupted  Report  on  Denmark 
of  the  English  Royal  Commission  on  Labor. 


DENSITY  OF  POPULATION.  See  CITY, 
Sec.  III.  ;  POPULATION. 

DEPARTMENTS  OF  THE  UNITED 
STATES  GOVERNMENT.— The  Constitu- 
tion gives  the  President  authority  to  ' '  require 
the  opinion  in  writing  of  the  principal  officer  in 
each  of  the  executive  departments,  upon  any 
subject  relating  to  the  duties  of  their  respective 
offices." 

This  presupposes  that  executive  departments 
will  be  established  in  order  that  the  various  and 
multiform  duties  which  pertain  to  the  several 
divisions  of  the  executive  work  of  the  national 
Government  shall  be  systematically  and  effi- 
ciently attended  to. 

The  various  executive  departments  have  been 
established  by  law.  These  are  now  eight  in 
number  :  i.  The  Department  of  State  ;  2.  The 
Department  of  the  Treasury  ;  3.  The  Depart- 
ment of  War  ;  4.  The  Department  of  the  Navy  ; 
5.  The  Department  of  the  Post-Office  ;  6.  The 
Department  of  the  Interior  ;  7.  The  Department 
of  Justice  ;  8.  The  Department  of  Agriculture. 

The  heads  of  these  eight  departments  consti- 
tute the  President's  Cabinet.  Their  official  titles 
are  as  follows  :  i.  The  Secretary  of  State  ;  2. 
The  Secretary  of  the  Treasury  ;  3.  The  Secre- 
tary of  War  ;  4.  The  Secretary  of  the  Navy  ; 
5.  The  Postmaster-General  ;  6.  The  Secretary 
of  the  Interior  ;  7.  The  Attorney-General  ;  8. 
The  Secretary  of  Agriculture. 

For  the  efficient  management  of  the  business, 
several  of  these  departments  are  subdivided  into 
bureaus. 

All  the  heads  of  departments  are  appointed 
by  the  President,  by  and  with  the  advice  and 
consent  of  the  Senate.  The  salaries  of  these 
officers  are  $8000  a  year  each. 

The  Department  of  State. — This  was  origi- 
nally styled  the  Department  of  Foreign  Affairs. 
The  name  was  soon  changed  to  the  Department 
of  State.  The  Secretary  of  State  is  generally 
considered  as  the  highest  officer  in  rank  of  the 
executive  departments  under  the  President.  It 
is  his  duty  to  keep  the  seal  of  the  United  States, 
and  to  affix  it  tp  all  commissions  issued  by  the 
President.  He  issues  all  proclamations  in  the 
name  of  the  President,  and  furnishes  copies  of 
papers  and  records  of  his  office  when  required. 

He  keeps  the  correspondence  with  foreign 
powers,  and  it  is  his  special  province,  also,  to 
preserve  the  original  of  all  laws,  public  docu- 
ments, and  treaties  with  foreign  powers.  It  is 
also  his  duty  to  conduct  the  correspondence  with 
our  ministers  and  consuls  to  other  countries, 
with  foreign  ministers  accredited  to  our  Govern- 
ment, and  to  him  is  confided  the  general  charge 
of  our  foreign  relations.  He  issues  passports  to 
our  citizens  visiting  foreign  countries,  and  it  is 
his  duty  to  issue  warrants  for  the  extradition  of 
criminals  to  be  delivered  up  to  foreign  govern- 
ments. 

The  Department  of  State  has  a  diplomatic  bu- 
reau, consular  bureau,  and  a  domestic  bureau. 

Public  Ministers  and  Consuls. — All  persons 
who  are  sent  abroad  to  represent  our  Govern- 
ment are  connected  with  the  Department  of 
State. 

The  different  ranks  of  our  ministers  are  as 
follows  :  i.  Ambassadors  ;  2.  Envoys  Extraor- 


Departments  U.  S.  Government.       492 


Dependent  Children. 


dinary  and  Ministers  Plenipotentiary  ;  3.  Min- 
isters Resident;  4,  Charges  d' Affaires ;  5. 
Secretaries  of  Legation. 

The  Secretary  of  Legation  is  the  clerk  to  the 
loreign  embassy.  Consuls  are  not  diplomatic 
agents  of  our  Government,  but  commercial 
agents  residing  abroad,  whose  duty  it  is  to 
watch  over  the  interests  of  our  commerce  and 
our  citizens,  in  the  ports  of  the  different  coun- 
tries. It  is  their  duty  also  to  protect  the  rights 
of  our  seamen.  We  have  at  the  present  time, 
in  foreign  ports,  20  or  25  consuls-general  and 
commercial  agents. 

The  Treasury  Department. — Of  late  years 
the  importance  of  this  department  has  greatly 
increased.  During  the  Civil  War  the  Govern- 
ment issued  bank  bills  termed  greenbacks,  and 
established  a  system  of  national  banks,  which 
have  increased  materially  the  number  of  officers 
and  employees  in  this  department.  Under  the 
Secretary  of  the  Treasury  are  the  following  offi- 
cers :  i.  The  Comptroller  ;  2.  Auditor  ;  3.  Treas- 
urer ;  4.  Register  ;  5.  Assistant  Secretary. 

This  department  has  charge  of  the  manage- 
ment of  the  revenue,  superintends  its  collection, 
and  grants  warrants  for  money  to  be  issued  from 
the  treasury,  in  pursuance  of  appropriations 
made  by  law,  and  generally  performs  all  need- 
ful services  relative  to  the  finances  of  our  coun- 
try. There  are  various  bureaus  in  the  Treas- 
ury Department,  as  :  i.  The  Bureau  of  the  First 
Comptroller ;  2.  The  Bureau  of  the  Second 
Comptroller;  3.  The  Bureau  of  the  First  Audi- 
tor ;  4.  The  Bureau  of  the  Second  Auditor  ;  5. 
The  Bureau  of  the  Third  Auditor  ;  6.  The  Bu- 
reau of  the  Fourth  Auditor  ;  7.  The  Bureau  of 
the  Fifth  Auditor  ;  8.  The  Bureau  of  the  Sixth 
Auditor  ;  9.  Treasurer  ;  10.  Register  ;  u.  Com- 
missioner of  Customs  ;  12.  Comptroller  of  Cur- 
rency ;  13.  Commissioner  of  Internal  Revenue  ; 
14.  Bureau  of  Statistics  ;  15.  The  Mint ;  16. 
Bureau  of  Engraving  and  Printing. 

The  Office  of  the  Coast  Survey  is  connected 
with  the  Treasury  Department.  This  office  pre- 
pares charts  from  actual  surveys  of  the  seacoast 
of  the  United  States. 

The  surveys  of  the  Great  Lakes  are  under  the 
control  of  the  War  Department. 

The  lighthouses  of  the  United  States  were 
formerly  under  the 'control  of  the  Treasury  De- 
partment, but  since  1852  this  branch  has  been 
committed  to  the  Lighthouse  Board  of  the 
United  States. 

This  Board  consists  of  three  officers  of  the 
army,  three  of  the  navy,  and  two  civilians  noted 
for  their  scientific  attainments,  with  the  Secre- 
tary of  the  Treasury  President  of  the  Board  ex 
officio.  This  Board  has  in  charge  more  than  1000 
lighthouses,  besides  light  vessels,  beacons,  and 
buoys  innumerable. 

Under  this  department  also  is  the  Supervising 
Architect,  who  has  general  charge  of  the  plans 
and  the  construction  of  all  United  States  build- 
ings, such  as  custom-houses,  court-houses,  post- 
offices,  etc. 

The  War  Department. — This  department 
has  various  subdivisions,  as  follows  :  i.  The 
Office  of  the  Adjutant-General ;  2.  The  Office 
of  the  Quartermaster-General  ;  3.  The  Office  of 
the  Commissary-General  ;  4.  The  Office  of  the 
Postmaster-General  ;  5.  The  Office  of  the  Chief 


6.  The  Ordnance  Office  ;  7.  The 
8.  The  Bureau  of  Military  Jus- 


of Engineers  ; 
Signal  Office 
tice. 

These  several  divisions  will  be  understood  from 
their  titles.  The  Bureau  of  Military  Justice  is  in 
charge  of  an  officer  with  the  rank  of  a  Briga- 
dier-General, called  a  Judge-Advocate-General. 

The  War  Department  has  the  supervision  of 
the  United  States  Military  Academy  at  West 
Point.  This  school  for  the  education  of  officers 
for  the  army  was  established  by  the  Government 
in  1802.  In  1886  the  number  of  cadets  author- 
ized by  Congress  was  344. 

The  Department  of  the  Navy.  —  By  an  act  of 
Congress,  passed  in  1862,  eight  bureaus  were 
established  in  the  Navy  Department,  as  fol- 
lows :  i.  The  Bureau  of  Yards  and  Docks  ;  2. 
The  Bureau  of  Equipment  and  Recruiting  ;  3. 
The  Bureau  of  Navigation  ;  4.  The  Bureau  of 
Ordnance  ;  5.  The  Bureau  of  Medicine  and 
Surgery  ;  6.  The  Bureau  of  Provisions  and 
Clothing  ;  7.  The  Bureau  of  Steam  Engineer- 
ing ;  8.  The  Bureau  of  Construction  and  Re- 
pairs. 

The  Government  maintains  a  naval  academy, 
which  is  established  at  Annapolis,  similar  to  the 
military  academy  at  West  Point. 

The  Department  of  the  Interior.  —  This  de- 
partment was  not  established  until  1849.  Under 
it  are  the  Patent  Office,  Pension  Office,  the 
Land  Office,  the  Bureau  of  Indian  Affairs,  the 
Science  Bureau,  and  the  Bureau  of  Education. 

The  Land  Office.  —  The  chief  officer  of  this 
bureau  is  styled  the  Commissioner  of  the  Gen- 
eral Land  Office.  Under  the  Commissioner  are 
the  following  officers  :  i.  Surveyors-General  ;  2. 
Registers  of  Land  Offices  ;  3.  Receivers  of  Land 
Offices. 

The  Post-Office  Department.  —  Probably  this 
is  the  oldest  department  under  our  Government. 
(See  POSTAL  SYSTEM.) 

The  Department  of  Justice.  —  The  office  of 
Attorney-General  was  created  by  the  first  Con- 
gress in  1789,  but  the  Department  of  Justice  was 
not  established  until  1870.  This  officer,  how- 
ever, has  always  been  recognized  as  a  member 
of  the  Cabinet.  Under  the  Attorney-General 
are  :  The  Solicitor-General,  four  Assistant  At- 
torney-Generals, a  Solicitor  of  Internal  Reve- 
nue, a  Naval  Solicitor,  an  Examiner  of  Claims, 
a  Solicitor  of  the  Treasury,  and  an  Assistant 
Solicitor. 

All  of  these  officers  are  appointed  by  the  Presi- 
dent and  Senate.  Besides  these  officers,  in  this 
department  are  employed  many  persons  as 
clerks,  copyists,  etc. 

Department  of  Agriculture.  —  In  February, 
1889,  the  Bureau  of  Agriculture,  heretofore  in 
the  Department  of  the  Interior,  was  by  an  act 
of  Congress  made  a  separate  department,  the 
chief  officer  of  which  is  the  Secretary  of  Agri- 
culture, who  is  a  member  of  the  Cabinet. 

WILLIAM  A.  MOWRY. 

(See  Studies  in  Civil  Government,  from 
which,  by  permission,  this  is  abridged.) 

DEPENDENT  CHILDREN.—  The  num- 
ber of  children  in  the  United  States  dependent 
upon  the  community  for  support,  according  to 
Mr.  Hart,  of  the  Minnesota  State  Board  of  Chari- 
ties and  Corrections,  as  quoted  by  Professor 


Dependent  Children. 


493 


Dependent  Children. 


Warner  (American  Charities,  p.  202),  is  74,000, 
employing  9000  to  care  for  them,  at  an  annual 
expenditure  of  $9,500,000.  To  these  figures 
should  be  added  the  14,846  inmates  in  juvenile 
reformatories  (g.v.)t  and  an  expenditure  of 
$2,000,000  per  year  for  maintaining  these.  The 
earliest  form  of  caring  for  infants  deprived  of  or 
deserted  by  their  parents  was  probably  the 
foundling  hospitals  started  by  the  Christian 
Church  about  the  seventh  century.  For  an  ac- 
count of  these,  see  FOUNDLING  HOSPITALS.  They 
are  still  to  be  found  in  most  large  cities,  often 
under  the  conduct  of  Sisters  of  Charity.  A 
method  far  more  generally  approved  to-day  by 
State  boards  of  charity  is  boarding  the  children 
out  in  good  homes  willing  to  take  them.  In  Mas- 
sachusetts about  $10  a  month  is  paid  for  boarding 
an  infant,  clothing  being  furnished  by  the  offi- 
cials, the  families  being  kept  under  strict  super- 
vision by  the  Board.  The  effort  is  being  made 
more  and  more  to  keep  the  mother  with  the 
child.  Says  Professor  Warner  (American  Chari- 
ties^ p.  212) : 

"  Experiments  in  the  cities  of  Boston  and  Philadel- 
phia have  shown  that  suitable  service  places  in  the  coun- 
try can  be  found  to  which  destitute  mothers  may  go,  tak- 
ing their  children  with  them.  '  The  demand  for  this 
class  of  help  usually  exceeds  the  supply,'  and  in  Phila- 
delphia between  400  and  500  mothers  with  their  children 
are  yearly  sent  to  situations  in  the  country.  If  judi- 
ciously placed,  a  majority  of  these  women  give  satisfac- 
tion to  their  employers,  and  are  satisfied  themselves.  It 
is  said  that  they  do  as  well  as  those  who  take  situations 
without  children,  and  in  many  instances  they  are  more 
reliable  for  help  in  the  country.  Of  course  a  destitute 
woman  with  no  one  to  help  her  support -her  child  has 
not  an  easy  life  before  her  ;  but,  on  the  whole,  life  will 
be  happier  and  healthier  in  every  way  if  she  is  aided 
in  keeping  her  child  than  if  she  is  aided  in  getting  rid 
of  it. 

"  Children  over  two  years  of  age  live  quite  persis- 
tently. Therefore,  as  regards  these,  we  do  not  need  to 
examine  so  closely  the  death-rate,  for  they  may  be 
very  improperly  cared  for  and  the  death-rate  still  be 
low.  The  first  question  of  importance  regarding  them 
is  upon  what  terms  they  shall  be  received  and  sup- 
ported as  dependents.  .  .  . 

"Perhaps  the  rule  of  the  Children's  Home  of  Cincin- 
nati, which  refuses  to  receive  a  child  for  more  than 
two  weeks  without  having  the  guardianship  of  the 
child  vested  in  the  Home,  affords  as 
much  latitude  as  ought  to  be  given.  It 

Children       is  urged  that  parents  are,   after  all,  the 

Received  ^est  guar<iians  of  their  children,  and  if 
^^  the  time  ever  comes  when  they  can  take 
care  of  their  own  it  is  better  that  the 
children  be  returned.  But  experience 
shows  that  it  has  a  bad  effect  on  parents  as  parents  to 
get  rid  of  the  care  of  their  children  for  a  time,  and 
that  they  spoil  the  life  of  a  child  by  selfishly  taking-  it 
home  when  they  think  it  is  old  enough  to  be  of  service. 
Parents  who  cannot  support  their  children  usually  have 
not  the  capacity  required  to  bring  up  a  child  in  a 
healthful  way  and  in  a  healthful  environment.  Besides 
this,  the  privilege  of  temporarily  disposing  of  a  child 
is  frequently  the  means  of  bringing  about  its  perma- 
nent abandonment.  As  affection  wanes  in  consequence 
of  absence,  parents  that  would  have  found  some  way 
to  support  their  children  rather  than  give  them  up  in 
the  first  instance  gradually  accustom  themselves  to 
the  idea  of  abandoning  their  offspring. 

"  A  stock  instance  of  the  effect  of  removing  children 
from  institutions  to  families,  with  the  result  that  the 
natural  parents  will  lose  sight  of  and  title  to  them,  is 
that  of  the  Union  Temporary  Home  in  Philadelphia. 
After  31  years  of  work,  it  was  decided  to  close  the 
Home  and  put  the  children  out  to  board.  Out  of  70 
children,  the  parents  of  all  but  nine  were  able  to  take 
good  care  of  them  themselves,  and  of  the  rest  three 
found  a  way  before  final  arrangements  were  found.  .  .  . 

"  In  1874  Michigan  established  a  State  Public  School 
at  Coldwater,  and  provided,  first,  that  children  ad- 
judged dependent  should  be  sent  there,  and  subse- 
quently placed  in  private  families  as  soon  as  possible  : 
second,  that  after  an  order  is  made  to  commit  a  child 
to  the  State  Public  School,  'the  parents  of  said  child 


shall  be  released  from  all  parental  duties  toward  and 
responsibility  for  such  child,  and  shall  thereafter  have 
no  right  over  or  to  the  custody,  services,  or  earnings  of 
such  child,  except  in  cases  where  the  said  Board  has. 
as  herein  provided  for,  restored  the  child  to  its  parents. 
The  result  of  this  system  in  Michigan  has  been  that, 
whereas  in  1874  she  had  600  dependent  children  sup- 

Eorted  by  public  authorities,  or  one  dependent  child 
jr  each  2223  inhabitants,  she  now  has  300,  or  one  in 
each  7256  inhabitants.  While  the  population  increased 
60  per  cent.,  the  number  of  dependent  children  de- 
creased 50  per  cent.  Not  only  is  this  true,  but  the  chil- 
dren that  have  passed  under  her  care  to  December  31, 
1892  (3,317),  have  been  well  cared  for,  and,  as  a  rule,  re- 
•stored  to  the  normal  population  of  the  State. 

"  New  York  took  a  different  course.  In  1875  she 
passed  the  so-called  'Children's  Law,'  which  forbade 
the  keeping  of  children  between  the  ages  ot  two  and 
16  years  in  the  almshouses.  It  further  provided  that  a 
dependent  child  should  be  committed,  if  possible,  to 
an  institution  controlled  by  the  same  religious  faith  as 
that  of  its  parents,  and  that  the  county  should  pay  the 
child's  board.  The  legal  guardianship  of  the  child  was 
not  mentioned,  and  so  remained  with  the  parents,  if  it 
had  any.  In  addition  to  this,  special  acts  were  subse- 
quently passed  enabling  certain  large  institutions  in 
New  York  City  to  receive  children  at  will,  and  collect 
from  the  county  two  dollars  per  week  for  the  care  of 
each.  It  only  remains  to  contrast  present  conditions  in 
New  York  with  those  in  Michigan.  On  October  31, 1892, 
there  were  in  the  city  and  county  almshouses  of  the 
State  of  New  York  963  children,  many  of  these,  how- 
ever, being  crippled,  diseased,  or  under  two  years  of 
age.  Besides  tnis,  there  were  in  the  private  institu- 
tions of  the  State,  but  supported  chiefly  by  the  cities 
and  counties,  an  army  of  24,074  children.  In  these 
private  institutions  alone  there  was  one  dependent 
child  to  each  270  persons  in  the  State.  If  we  include 
the  almshouse  children,  the  proportion  of  dependent 
children  to  the  population  is  one  to  260." 

After  the  child's  reception,  the  next  important 
problem  is  the  right  classification,  to  separate 
any  who  are  distinctly  wanting  in  vigor  of  body 
or  mind,  those  who  are  delinquent  or  unman- 
ageable, etc. 

Then  comes  the  important  question  of  the 
method  of  treatment-  Concerning  this,  Profes- 
sor Warner  says  : 

"Broadly  speaking,  there  are  two  systems  :  the  first 
is  the  institution  plan,  and  the  second  is  the  plan  of 
placing  out. 

"  Without  the  figures  of  the  Eleventh  Census  at  hand, 
it  is  impossible  to  tell  how  large  a  proportion  of  the 
dependent  children  of  the  country  is  in  institutions  ; 
but  it  is  a  comparatively  large  number.  To  build  in- 
stitutions for  children  has  been  the  common  and  obvi- 
ous thing  to  do  in  providing  for  them.  The  institution 
is  preferred  by  parents,  because  they  know  where  the 
child  is,  and  can  usually  visit  it,  and  frequently  can  re- 
tain the  right  to  take  it  back  again  when  they  will. 
Institutions  are  also  in  favor  with  the  benevolent,  be- 
cause the  work  done  is  so  manifest.  A  hundred  or  more 
children,  prepared  for  the  occasion,  make  an  attractive 
sight  to  the  board  of  directors  or  to  visitors.  .  .  . 

"  On  the  whole,  institutions  are  preferred  by  the  chil- 
dren themselves,  at  least  after  they  have  been  in  them 
for  some  time.     They  do  not  feel  at  home  outside  of 
the  sheltering  walls,  and  shrink  from  the 
rough  contact  of  ordinary  life.  .  .  .    The 
children  receive  many  negative  benefits.  Institutions. 
They  are  not   cold,  nor  dirty,  nor  neg- 
lected, nor  hungry,  nor  abused— that  is, 
if  the  management  is  good.     The  ^grosser  forms  of  pro- 
fanity and  vice  can  be  restrained  ;  their  attendance  on 
school  exercises  is  entirely  regular,  as  are  also  their 
hours  of  sleep  and  eating.     But  admitting  these  advan- 
tages, we  have  said  about  all  that  is  favorable  to  insti- 
tution life  for  children.     The  congregating  of  them  to- 
gether, which  we  found  in  the  case  of  infants  to  result 
in  high  mortality,  results  in  the  case  of  older  children 
in  a  low  vitality. 

"The  fundamental  fault  is,  perhaps,  that  life  is  made 
too  easy.  A  child  ought  to  have  more  opportunities  of 
hurting  himself,  or  getting  dirty,  or  being  insubordi- 
nate, than  can  possibly  be  accorded  to  him  here.  It  is 
a  pitiful  sight  to  see  a  hundred  children  together,  and 
none  of  them  making  a  fuss.  The  discipline  that  would 
make  a  good  soldier  ruins  a  child.  It  is  fatal  to  him  to 
march  in  platoons,  to  play  only  at  the  word  of  com- 
mand. As  a  matron  in  South  Australia  says,  '  They 


Dependent  Children. 


494 


Dependent  Children. 


[the  children]  never  grow  up  properly  if  you  have  a 
lot  of  them  together.  I  would  never  have  children  of 
two  or  three  years  of  age  there  ;  for  if  they  get  into  an 
institution  they  never  develop  into  anything  :  they 
only  grow  up  into  half-idiotic  men  and  women.  How- 
ever good  a  nurse  you  have,  she  cannot  draw  out  the 
intelligence  of  every  child,  and  nurse  it  as  it  would  be 
nursed  in  a  home.  .  .  .  We  have  only  five  now,  and 
they  are  as  bright  again  as  when  we  had  20.'  .  .  . 

"  A  great  part  of  the  evils  of  institution  life  comes 
from  the  mingling  of  individuals,  none  of  whom  have 
a  very  good  heredity  behind  them,  and  some  of  whom 
;  have  inherited  weak  constitutions  and  bad  moral 
tendencies.  It  is  a  continual  fight  on  the  part  of  ma- 
trons to  repress  skin  diseases  and  sore  eyes  ;  and  these' 
contagious  diseases  are  but  typical  of  the  contagious 
vices  which  are  not  so  obvious,  but  more  to  be  dreaded. 
That  institution  life  is  partly  faulty  because  of  the  low 
grade  of  children  who  are  received,  and  who  bring 
about  degeneration  in  each  other,  is  proved  by  the  ex- 
perience of  institutions  that  have  introduced  an  ele- 
ment of  artificial  selection,  which  separates  the  low 
from  the  more  highly  organized.  .  .  . 

"  Over  against  the  institution  plan  of  caring  for  de- 

pendent children  is  the  plan  of  placing  them  in  private 

families,    with    or    without    the    payment    of    board. 

There  are  two  tolerably  distinct  meth- 

ods of  procedure  in  this  work.    By  one, 

Placing-out  the  children    are   sent  to  a  great  dis- 

•  Flan  tance,  and  given  but  little  subsequent 

supervision  —  that  is  the  so-called  '  emi- 

gration plan  ;'  and  by  the  other  they  are 

placed  within  easy  reach  of  the  agency 

having  them  in  charge,  and  subsequent  supervision  is 

systematic  and  constant. 

"  In  London  a  large  number  of  children  are  sent  to 
the  colonies.  The  emigration  bureau  operated  in  con- 
nection with  Dr.  Bernardo's  homes  sends  about  500 
children  per  year  to  Canada  ;  and  some  of  these,  no 
doubt,  find  their  way  to  the  United  States.  The  plan 
is  to  drop  the  child  amid  new  surroundings,  as  care- 
fully as  is  conveniently  possible,  and  then  to  keep 
only  so  much  track  of  him  as  is  necessary  to  show  to 
contributors  or  others  that  a  goodly  proportion  of 
cases  turn  out  well.  The  child  is  simply  given  one 
more  chance  to  sink  or  swim.  .  .  . 

"Placing-out  as  a  speciality  has  been  carried  to  its 
most  satisfactory  results  by  such  public  institutions  as 
the  State  Board  of  Lunacy  and  Charity  in  Massachu- 
setts, and  the  State  School  for  Dependent  Children  at 
Coldwater,  Mich.,  and  by  such  private  associations  as 
the  Children's  Aid  Society  of  Massachusetts,  and  the 
Children's  Aid  Society  of  Pennsylvania.  With  these 
agencies  '  the  setting  of  the  solitary  in  families  '  is  a 
business.  The  following  description,  taken  not  literal- 


ly, but  in  substance,  from  Mr.  Folks's  article  on  Cliild- 
Saving  Work  in  Pennsylvania,*  will  give  the  best  idea 
of  how  this  system  operates.  The  Children's  Aid  So- 


ciety of  Pennsylvania  consists  of  a  central  society, 
with  county  committees  in  each  county  of  the  State, 
or  in  as  many  of  them  as  efficient  committees  can  be 
maintained,  who  have  received  from  the  directors  of 
the  poor  or  others  dependent  children,  whom  they 
place  at  once  in  families.  Usually  they  are  placed  in 
the  county  where  they  become  dependent  ;  but  when 
the  children  are  particularly  troublesome,  or  relatives 
interfere,  or  the  family  name  is  unfavorably  known  in 
the  locality,  the  main  office  often  removes  the  child  to 
a  distant  part  of  the  State.  A  large  proportion  of  the 
children  are  placed  in  Pennsylvania,  but  a  consider- 
able number  also  in  adjoining  States.  The  work  of 
the  main  office  is  conducted  under  the  supervision  of 
the  managers  by  a  corps  of  eight  salaried  officials, 
two  of  whom  are  men.  One  assistant  gives  her  whole 
time  to  the  problem  of  homeless  mothers  with  young 
children,  providing  for  them  service  places  to  which 
they  can  take  their  children.  Four  workers  are  trav- 
eling almost  constantly,  investigating  families  who 
have  applied  for  children,  visiting  children  •who  have 
been  placed  out,  or  taking  children  to  and  from  their 
homes.  Having  relied  so  largely  upon  the  family  plan, 
the  society  has  given  much  attention  to  the  elabora- 
tion of  the  details  of  its  administration,  and  has 
thrown  around  it  every  possible  safeguard.  Its  in- 
vestigation of  a  family  is  systematic  and  exhaustive, 
and  is  carefully  recorded.  The  applicant  fills  out  a 
blank  containing  26  questions  relating  to  the  various 
phases  of  the  family  life,  as  church  relations,  distance 
from  school,  size  of  farm,  occupation,  number  of  mem- 
bers of  family,  with  their  ages,  etc.  A  study  of  this 
return  usually  reveals  the  real  motive  of  the  applica- 


*  History  of  Child-Saving,  pp.  146,  147. 


tion,  and  gives  the  data  for  an  opinion  as  to  the 
material  fitness  of  the  family.  Their  moral  fitness  is 
ascertained  by  sending  a  list  of  questions  to  six  of  the 
neighbors,  stating  that  their  replies  are  confidential, 
and  that  the  appeal  to  them  is  not  known  to  the  appli- 
cant. A  personal  visit  completes  the  investigation. 
After  the  child  is  placed  out,  his  welfare  is  ascertained 
and  protected  by  from  one  to  five  personal  and  unan- 
nounced visits  each  year,  by  a  monthly  report  from 
the  teacher  of  the  public  schools,  and  a  quarterly  re- 
port from  the  pastor.  The  society  uses  neither  inden- 
ture nor  written  agreement,  the  terms  being  perfectly 
flexible,  and  subject  to  change  from  year  to  year  to 
suit  the  circumstances  of  each  individual  case.  This 
society  considers  institutions  for  normal  children 
needless,  and  has  even  had  good  success  in  boarding 
out  juvenile  delinquents  received  from  the  courts.  A 
similar  work  has  been  done  by  the  Massachusetts 
Children's  Aid  Society,  which  has  one  or  two  home- 
like institutions  where  abnormal  children  are  placed 
until  they  can  be  fitted  into  a  proper  home." 

Such,  in  brief,  is  Professor  Warner's  summary 
of  the  best  thought  of  the  world  as  to  the  care 
of  dependent  children  under  forms  of  civilization 
more  or  less  individualistic.  An  interesting 
topic  in  connection  with  this  is  the  treatment  of 
children  under  socialism.  Some  socialists  (con- 
fer Rebel's  Die  Fran),  having  argued  that  under 
socialism  all  children  should  be  brought  up  by 
the  community  under  proper  conditions  of  hy- 
giene and  with  a  thorough  and  complete  educa- 
tion, mental,  moral,  and  physical,  it  has  been 
said  that  this  would  so  tend  to  relieve  parents 
of  responsibility  that  we  should  be  met  with  all 
the  evils  of  overpopulation.  (See  MALTHUSIAN- 
ISM.)  To  this  point  Mill  says  (Political  Econ- 
omy, Book  II. ,  chap,  i.) : 

"There  would  certainly  be  much  ground  for  this 
apprehension  if  communism  provided  no  motives  to 
restraint   equivalent    to    those   which  it  would    take 
away.     But  communism  is  precisely  the  state  of  things 
in  which  opinion  might  be  expected  to  declare  itself 
with  greatest  intensity  against  this  kind  of  selfish  in- 
temperance.    Any   augmentation   of   numbers  which 
diminished  the  comfort  or  increased  the 
toil  of  the  mass  would  then  cause  (which 
now  it  does  not)  immediate  and  unmis-      Children 
takable  inconvenience  to  every  indiyidu-        TJndpr 
al    in    the    association;      inconvenience         unuer 
which  could   not    then   be   imputed    to    Socialism. 
the  avarice  of  employers  or  the  unjust 
privileges  of  the  rich.     In  such  altered 
circumstances  opinion  could  not  fail  to  reprobate,  and 
if  reprobation  did  not  suffice,  to  repress  by  penalties 
of  some  description,  this  or  any  other  culpable  self- 
indulgence  at   the  expense   of  the  community.    The 
communistic  scheme,  instead  of  being  peculiarly  open 
to  the  objection  drawn  from  danger  of  overpopula- 
tion, has  the  recommendation  of  tending  in  an  especial 
degree  to  the  prevention  of  that  evil." 

The  problem,  then,  being  reduced  to  proper 
proportions,  it  should  be  said  that  no  socialists 
would  compel  parents  to  bring  up  their  children 
in  State  institutions.  Perfect  freedom  would  be 
granted  in  this  respect,  provided  it  could  not  be 
proven  that  parents  abused  their  children  or 
failed  to  give  them  adequate  education.  With- 
in these  limitations  all  parents  would  be  perfect- 
ly free  to  rear  their  children  in  their  own  way. 
Now,  under  socialism  it  is  believed,  by  social- 
ists at  least,  that  all  parents  would  be  abundant- 
ly able  to  care  for  their  own  offspring.  It  is, 
therefore,  to  be  expected  that  most  parents 
would  under  socialism  prefer  to  care  for  their 
own  children,  certainly  until  able  to  attend 
school.  On  the  other  hand,  if  parents  able  to 
care  for  their  own  should  be  so  unnatural  as  to 
prefer  to  relinquish  the  care,  it  is  doubtful  if  it 
were  wise  to  leave  children  with  such  parents. 
Therefore  only  those  would  be  reared  by  the 


Dependent  Children. 


495 


Dike,  Samuel  Warren. 


State  who  would  not  have  favorable  homes. 
Nor  would  there  be  any  necessity  for  the  State 
to  rear  the  children  in  large  institutions.  The 
socialist  state,  like  the  present,  could  avail  itself 
of  all  the  experience  which  to-day  places  de- 
pendent children  in  separate  homes  and  pays 
for  them  there.  (See  also  JUVENILE  REFORMA- 
TORIES ;  CHILDREN'S  AID  SOCIETY  ;  FOUNDLING 
HOSPITALS  ;  SLUMS,  etc.) 

References :  H.  H.  Hart's  Economics  as  Part  of  the 
Child  Problem  (1893) ;  J.  A.  Riis's  Children  of  the  Poor 
(New  York,  1892)  ;  Florence  Davenport  Hill's  Children 
of  the  State  (London,  1889) ;  Report  of  the  Committee 
on  the  History  of  Child-Saving,  National  Conference 
of  Charities  (1893). 

DEPRESSION  OF  TRADE.— For  facts  as 
to  the  depression  of  trade,  see  CRISES  ;  WAGES  ; 
CURRENCY.  For  a  discussion  of  various  asserted 
causes,  see  OVERPRODUCTION  ;  FREE  TRADE  ; 
SILVER  ;  SOCIALISM  ;  SINGLE  TAX  ;  MONOPOLIES, 
etc. 

DE  TOCQUEVILLE.    See  TOCQUEVILLE. 

"  DETROIT  PLAN"  FOR  EMPLOYING 
THE  UNEMPLOYED.— This  was  a  plan  pro- 
posed and  carried  out  by  Mayor  Pingree  (y.v.), 
of  Detroit,  for  employing  the  unemployed  in  the 
hard  times  of  1894. 

Mayor  Pingree 's  proposition  was  that  the  idle 
land  about  the  city  should  be  used  to  furnish 
employment  for  the  idle  hands.  A  call  was 
issued  for  offers  of  vacant  lots  to  be  used  for 
market-gardening  purposes.  The  response  was 
liberal,  several  thousand  acres  being  offered. 
The  committee  having  charge  of  the  project  ac- 
cepted, plowed  and  harrowed  430  acres  (about 
7000  city  lots),  and  staked  the  land  off  in  lots  of 
from  one  quarter  to  one  half  an  acre  each. 
Three  thousand  persons  applied  for  the  oppor- 
tunity to  work,  but  the  committee,  from  lack  of 
funds,  was  able  to  provide  for  only  945  families. 
To  these  it  furnished  potatoes,  beans,  and  other 
seeds  sufficient  for  planting  their  plot,  and  super- 
vised the  work  that  was  done,  giving  instruction 
to  those  who  knew  nothing  about  gardening. 
The  committee's  report  upon  the  success  of  the 
experiment  was  extremely  favorable.  In  brief, 
it  read  as  follows  : 

"  About  nine  tenths  of  the  pieces  were  well  taken 
care  of.  The  committee  estimates  that  the  potato 
crop  averaged  about  15  bushels  per  lot,  •which  would 
give  14,175  bushels  of  potatoes  alone.  Large  quantities 
of  beans,  turnips,  and  other  vegetables  were  raised 
and  daily  consumed,  of  which  there  is  no  record,  the 
whole  being  sufficient  to  keep  the  people  from  want 
and  habits  of  idleness.  The  estimated  value  of  the 
crops  produced  was  $12,000  to  $14,000.  The  entire  cost 
to  the  committee  was  about  $3600.  The  committee 
finds  that  about  one  third  an  acre  is  sufficient  land  for 
a  family  to  raise  enough  potatoes  to  last  them  through 
the  winter  and  furnish  vegetables  through  the  summer. 
The  loss  by  theft  was  practically  nothing.  The  ex- 
periment has  clearly  demonstrated  that  many  of  the 
destitute  are  ready  and  willing  to  work,  and  that  a 
large  number  of  these  people  can  be  supported  by  util- 
izing vacant  land  on  the  outskirts  of  the  city,  and  that 
the  needy  are  thereby  assisted  without  creating  a  de- 
moralization in  the  habits  of  the  people  that  gratuitous 
aid  always  entails." 

The  plan  has  been  somewhat  copied  in  other 
cities.  (See  UNEMPLOYED.) 

DEWEY,  DAVIS  R.,  was  born  in  Burling- 
ton, Vt.,  in  1858.  He  is  an  A.B.,  of  the  Univer- 


sity of  Vermont,  graduating  in  1879.  He  taught 
in  Vermont  and  Chicago,  1879-83,  and  became  a 
Fellow  in  Economics  at  Johns  Hopkins  in  1885, 
and  Ph.D.  in  the  same  university  in  1886.  He 
then  began  instruction  in  economics  and  statis- 
tics at  the  Massachusetts  Institute  of  Tech- 
nology, Boston,  and  now  holds  a  professor- 
ship there  of  those  subjects.  In  1886  he  be- 
came the  Secretary  of  the  American  Statis- 
tical Association,  and  under  his  direction  the 
present  series  of  the  publications  of  that  as- 
sociation was  begun.  In  1894  he  was  appointed 
Chairman  of  the  Massachusetts  Commission  to 
Investigate  the  Subject  of  the  Unemployed,  and 
is  one  of  the  joint  authors  of  the  report  pub- 
lished by  that  commission.  (Boston,  1895.  Part 
I.,  Relief  Measures,  pp.  Iviii.,  200  ;  Part  II., 
Wayfarers  and  Tramps,  pp.  xxiii.,  100  ;  Part 
III.,  Public  Works,  pp.  xiii.,  122  ;  Part  IV., 
Causes,  pp.  Ixiii.,  24;  Part  V.,  Final  Report, 
Ixiii.,  130).  He  has  published  short  papers  in 
the  publications  of  the  American  Economic  As- 
sociation on  Street  Railways,  A  Study  of  Sta- 
tistics, and  The  Causes  of  Non-employment. 
His  main  interest  is  in  the  subject  of  statistics, 
as  evidenced  in  the  editing  of  the  publications 
of  the  American  Statistical  Association,  referred 
to  above,  and  in  various  reviews  and  articles  in 
newspapers  connected  with  that  subject. 

DICKENS,  CHARLES.— We  consider  the 
English  novelist  here  from  the  standpoint  of  so- 
cial reform.  Born  at  Landport,  Hampshire,  in 
1812,  and  entering  life  as  a  parliamentary  re- 
porter and  journalist,  he  early  won  that  insight 
into  life  which  enabled  him  to  portray  alike  the 
sufferings  and  wrongs  of  the  poor  and  the  fol- 
lies and  shams  of  society.  His  Pickwick  Papers, 
published  in  1837,  exhibited  almost  for  the  first 
time  the  life  and  manners  of  the  lower,  middle, 
and  the  working  classes  of  London  in  this  cen- 
tury. Nicholas  Nickleby,  his  next  effort,  at- 
tacked the  wrongs  and  cruelties  inflicted  upon 
the  wretched  pupils  of  the  cheap  schools  in 
Yorkshire.  Hard  Times  mocked  the  commer- 
cialism of  the  day  ;  all  his  novels,  such  as  Old 
Curiosity  Shop,  Martin  Chuzzlewit,  Dombey 
and  Son,  Bleak  House,  Little  Dorrit,  Great 
Expectations,  Oliver  Twist,  and  David  Cop- 
perfield — perhaps  his  greatest  work— have 
served  the  cause  of  social  reform  by  picturing, 
tho  ever  with  good  nature,  and  alwaj^s  with  an 
eye  for  the  ludicrous,  the  sufferings  and  wrongs 
of  the  poor,  the  foibles  and  delusions  of  society. 
Visiting  America  twice  and  writing  to  the  last, 
he  died  June  9,  1870. 

DIKE,  SAMUEL  WARREN,  was  born  in 
Thompson,  Conn.,  on  February  13,  1839  ;  grad- 
uated at  Williams  College,  where  he  took  high 
rank  as  a  scholar  in  1863,  and  entered  the  Hart- 
ford Theological  Seminary,  then  at  East  Wind- 
sor Hill  ;  but  after  two  years  went  to  Andover, 
where  he  graduated  with  the  Class  of  1866. 
After  a  year  and  more  of  ill  health,  further 
study,  and  a  few  months'  service  in  Pomfret, 
Conn.,  he  went  to  West  Randolph,  Vt.,  in  1868, 
where  he  had  an  active  ministry  in  the  Congre- 
gational Church  of  about  10  years.  In  1879  he 
removed  to  Royalton,  where  he  was  pastor  near- 
ly four  years,  and  remained  until  1887,  when  he 


Dike,  Samuel  Warren. 


496 


Diminishing  Return,  Law  of. 


left  Vermont  and  became  a  resident  of  Auburn- 
dale,  Mass. 

Mr.  Dike  devoted  himself  wholly  to  the  min- 
istry for  many  years,  but  was  active  in  the  social 
reforms  of  the  town  and  afterward  of  the  State, 
always  carefully  discriminating  between  eccle- 
siastical and  civic  functions.  In  1872  he  began 
writing  occasional  articles  for  the  Vermont 
Chronicle,  the  State  religious  newspaper  of 
the  Congregationalists  ;  and  in  1877  wrote  a 
series  of  editorials,  taking  the  ground  that 
wealth  is  to  afford  the  great  coming  question 
of  our  country.  They  attracted  considerable 
notice.  Mr.  Dike  had  long  given  much  thought 
to  the  family  and  its  problems,  and  in  that  year 
he  became  interested  in  the  subject  of  divorce, 
entering  into  statistical  research,  and  writing 
various  articles  on  the  subject.  In  1881  he  was 
asked  to  give  one  of  the  Monday  lectures  in  Bos- 
ton. In  this  lecture  he  took  the  ground  that  the 
divorce  question  is  but  a  part  of  the  larger  prob- 
lem of  the  family,  and  that  this,  in  turn,  is  inti- 
mately related  to  the  problems  of  property. 
That  year  a  New  England  Divorce  Reform 
League  was  organized,  taking  later  the  name  of 
National  League.  Mr.  Dike  became  its  corre- 
sponding secretary.  His  study  of  Sir  Henry  S. 
Maine's  works  had  led  him  to  see  the  historical 
place  of  our  present  problems  in  the  movement 
of  the  western  civilization  of  the  Aryans.  This 
kind  of  treatment  of  the  family  naturally  led 
into  the  broader  fields  of  sociology.  His  more 
important  articles  have  generally  been  devoted 
to  the  opening  up  of  original  work  in  some 
part  of  this  broad  field,  while  his  official  work 
in  the  League  has  kept  practical  measures  in 
movement  in  investigation,  education,  and  legis- 
lation. He  has  been  a  leader  in  securing  the 
great  report  of  the  Commission  of  Labor  on 
marriage  and  divorce,  and  in  the  establishment 
of  State  commissions  on  uniform  legislation  ;  he 
led  too  in  what  has  been  known  from  his 
series  of  articles  in  the  A  ndover  Review  and 
elsewhere,  as  the  Religious  Problem  of  the  Coun- 
ty Town,  having  proposed  and  assisted  in  the 
widely  known  statistical  investigation  of  Rev. 
Henry  Fairbanks,  in  Vermont ;  he  invented  the 
Home  Department  of  the  Sunday-school,  now 
extending  over  the  country  in  many  churches  ; 
he  has  helped  introduce  the  study  of  scientific 
sociology  in  higher  educational  institutions, 
where  he  is  a  frequent  lecturer.  His  sociologi- 
cal notes  in  the  A  ndover  Review,  and  his  orig- 
inal methods  of  studying  social  structure  and 
the  problems  of  sociology,  as  well  as  his  papers 
on  the  family,  have  attracted  the  attention  of 
eminent  scholars  in  this  country  and  Europe. 
Mr.  Dike  is  a  member  of  the  sociological  group 
of  fifteen  whose  papers  appeared  in  the  Century. 
He  received  the  degree  of  Doctor  of  Laws  in 
1888  from  Williams  College.  (See  NATIONAL 
DIVORCE  REFORM  LEAGUE.) 

DIMINISHING  RETURN,   LAW  OF.— 

Says  Professor  Marshall  {Economics  of  Indus- 
try, p.  21) : 

"  The  requisites  of  production  may  be  classed  as 
land,  labor,  and  capital.  We  have  now  to  seek  for  the 
law  of  fertility  of  land,  the  law  of  the  increase  of 
population,  and' the  law  of  the  growth  of  capital.  The 
latter  two  laws  depend  on  the  first,  which  goes  by  the 
name  of  the  law  of  diminishing  return. 


"  We  may  explain  the  meaning  of  this  name  by  an 
illustration.  We  shall  presently  see  that  the  law  does 
not  apply  to  all  new  countries  in  which,  tho  the  land  is 
fertile,  the  population  is  very  sparse.  But  let  us  sup- 
pose that  in  a  certain  district  there  are  20  agricul- 
tural laborers  to  the  square  mile,  and  that  in  the  sea- 
sons in  which  they  grow  wheat  they  raise  2000  quar- 
ters, which  is  at  the  rate  of  100  quarters  per  man.  If 
now  the  population  increases  so  that  there  are  30  agri- 
cultural laborers  to  the  square  mile,  there  will,  of 
course,  be  an  increase  in  the  produce  raised,  but  not  a 
proportional  increase.  Perhaps  the  produce  may  now 
be  2600  quarters,  so  that  the  amount  due  to  the  labor 
of  the  additional  10  laborers  is  600  quarters,  which  is 
at  the  rate  of  60  quarters  per  man.  Now  let  there  be  a 
further  increase  in  the  population,  till  there  are  35 
agricultural  laborers  to  the  square  mile  ;  there  will 
again  be  an  increase  in  the  total  produce  raised,  but 
again  not  a  proportional  increase.  Perhaps  the  prod- 
uce may  now  be  2850  quarters,  so  that  the  amount 
due  to  the  labor  of  the  last  five  laborers  is  250  quarters, 
which  is  at  the  rate  of  50  quarters  per  man. 

"  That  increase  in  the  amount  of  corn  raised  which 
is  due  to  the  labor  of  each  additional  laborer  may  be 
called  the  return  due  to  his  labor  ;  and  we  may  then 
say,  that  in  this  case  the  greater  the  number  of  men 
employed  on  the  land,  the  less  is  the  return  which 
would  be  due  to  the  labor  of  an  additional  man.  This 
result  illustrates  the  meaning  of  the  law  of  diminish- 
ing return. 

"But  so  far  no  account  has  been  taken  of  the  fact 
that  the  cultivation  of  land  requires  the  farmer's 
capital  as  well  as  the  laborer's  toil.  .  .  . 

"The  previous  illustration  represented  the  farmer 
as  sending  additional  laborers  into  the  farm,  and  then 
noticing  the  increase  of  produce  due  to  their  labor,  or 
the  return  to  their  labor.  We  may  now  suppose  that 
he  increases  by  successive  doses  (a  phrase  used  by 
James  Mill  to  denote  equal  amounts  of  capital  applied 
to  land)  the  capital  he  applies  to  the  land,  and  then 
notices  the  increase  due  to  each  successive  dose,  or,  as 
we  may  say,  the  return  due  to  each  dose." 

The  result,  Mr.  Marshall  goes  on  to  say,  will 
be  the  same,  a  diminishing  return  ;  and  he 
therefore  thus  states  the  law  :  "  An  increase  in 
the  amount  of  capital  (or,  to  speak  more  gener- 
ally, in  the  amount  of  effort)  applied  in  the  cul- 
tivation of  land  causes  in  general  a  less  than 
proportionate  increase  in  the  produce  raised." 

The  working  of  this  law,  however,  may  be 
modified  by  improvement  in  the  art  of  agricul- 
ture, and  by  special  circumstances  of  soils,  espe- 
cially in  new  countries. 

Mr.  Carey  ($?.z/.)anda  school  of  economists 
agreeing  with  him,  and  sometimes  called  the 
"American  school,"  have  taken  up  the  second 
point : 

"  These  economists  argue  that  history  shows  that 
the  best  lands  are  not  those  which  are  cultivated  first, 
but  that  the  order  of  settlement  of  new  countries  is 
the  passage  from  poorer  to  richer  soil.  The  causes  of 
this  are  various.  Mountain  districts  have  sometimes 
been  selected  on  account  of  the  means  of  defense 
which  they  offer  against  enemies  ;  but  more  often  the 
steep  and  self-draining  mountain-sides  were  chosen 
because  the  low,  rich  lands,  until  they  are  drained,  are 
infested  by  malarious  fevers. 

"In  fact,  if  land  is  very  rich,  full  of  luxuriant  under- 
growth or  marshy,  it  is  not  possible  to  cultivate  it  at 
all  with  only  a  small  expenditure  of  capital  and  labor. 
But  when  the  growth  of  population  and  the  advance 
of  civilization  give  the  means  of  bringing  such  land 
under  the  plow,  the  return  which  it  gives  will  abun- 
dantly repay  the  pains  that  have  been  spent  on  it. 
The  tasks  of  draining  marshy  lands  and  freeing  them 
from  malaria,  and  of  making  roads  and  railways,  are 
not  easily  performed  when  the  population  is  thin  and 
scattered.  These  writers  have  done  good  service  in  in- 
sisting on  the  fact  that  up  to  a  certain  point  the  greater 
the  numbers  in  a  country  the  greater  will  be  the  power 
of  organizing  labor  and  capital,  and  the  greater,  there- 
fore, will  be  the  return  from  land.  It  may  be  conceded 
to  them  that  until  this  point  is  reached,  land  may  be 
said  to  yield  an  increasing,  not  a  diminishing  return  ; 
and  that,  perhaps,  more  than  half  of  the  richest  land 
in  the  globe  is  yet  uncultivated. 

"  But  this  fact  is  not  inconsistent  with  the  law  of 
diminishing  return,  which  merely  asserts  that  the  re- 


Diminishing  Return,  Law  of. 


497 


Direct  Legislation. 


turn  to  capital  applied  to  land  diminishes,  provided 
that  there  is  already  a  dense  and  rapidly  increasing 
population,  and  comparatively  little  improvement  in 
the  arts  of  cultivation." 

Mr.  Marshall,  in  the  above-named  book,  goes 
on  to  apply  the  law  to  other  questions,  and  says  : 

"The  law  of  diminishing  return  is  said  to  apply  to 
mineral  as  well  as  to  agricultural  produce.  This  is 
not  strictly  true  ;  at  least  there  is  a  fundamental  dif- 
ference between  the  two  cases.  The  richness  of  cul- 
tivated lands  is  likely  to  increase ;  so  that  if  the  de- 
mand for  produce  were  to  remain  stationary,  it  could 
be  satisfied  with  continually  diminishing:  effort.  But 
every  mine  is  being  impoverished  by  being  worked. 
And  when  the  richest  mineral  strata  have  all  been 
discovered,  the  difficulty  of  satisfying  the  demand 
for  mineral  produce  must  increase,  even  if  the  demand 
should  remain  stationary.  Improvements  in  the  arts 
of  mining  may  retard  the  operation  of  this  law,  but 
cannot  entirely  prevent  it.  ... 

"  But  the  sternest  application  of  the  law  of  dimin- 
ishing return  is  to  space.  An  increased  application  of 
capital  and  labor  will  increase  to  some  extent  our 
supply  of  every  other  necessary ;  but  it  cannot  in- 
crease at  all  the  space  afforded  by  one  acre  of  ground, 
nor  the  sunlight  and  fresh  air  that  is  its  natural  en- 
dowment. The  evils  of  overcrowding  may  be  lessened 
by  better  drainage  and  better  means  of  transport. 
But  they  still  exist,  and  are  a  grievous  hindrance  to 
that  growth  of  numbers  and  vigor  which  would  other- 
wise be  brought  about  by  the  increase  of  wealth  and 
knowledge.  London  and  other  very  large  towns  at- 
tract great  numbers  of  the  healthiest  and  most  vigor- 
ous of  the  country  population.  They  earn  good 
wages  ;  their  children  get  abundant  food  and  clothing  ; 
but  they  seldom  have  sufficient  houseroom,  scarcely 
ever  any  play  that  is  really  healthy  and  joyous,  and 
never  perfectly  fresh  air.  So  they  grow  up  physically 
inferior  to  their  parents ;  and  their  children  in  turn 
are  inferior  to  them.  The  third  generation  of  London- 
ers are  with  but  few  exceptions  weaker  and  less 
healthy  than  the  average  of  Englishmen;  and  yet 
their  ancestors  are  the  very  pick  of  the  race,  whose 
offspring  would  under  favorable  circumstances  have 
done  much  to  raise  the  average  quality  of  Englishmen. 

"The  law  of  diminishing  return  tells  us  that  when 
population  has  reached  a  certain  density,  an  addi- 
tional amount  of  labor  and  capital  will  not  raise  a 
proportionately  increased  supply  of  food.  The  opera- 
tion of  this  law  is  delayed  by  the  progress  of  the  arts 
of  agriculture  and  manufacture,  and  by  bringing 
fresh  land  under  cultivation.  It  is  possible  that  when 
the  whole  world  is  well  cultivated,  it  may  afford  sup- 
port for  five  or  even  ten  times  as  many  people  as  there 
are  acres  in  the  earth's  surface.  But  a  limit  to  the 
growth  of  population  must  be  reached  at  last. 

"  The  surface  of  the  globe,  including  sea  and  land, 
is  about  600,000,000,000,000  square  yards.  If  we  suppose 
that  each  yard  allows  standing  room  for  four  persons, 
this  calculation  gives  room  for  2,400,000,000,000,000  per- 
sons. Next,  looking  at  the  rate  of  increase  of  the 
population  of  England  and  Wales,  we  find  that  it 
doubled  between  the  years  1801  and  1851.  At  this  rate 
of  increase  population  would  in 

16 
256 

(1024,  say)  1000 
1,000,000 
1,000,000,000,000 
1,000,000,000,000,000,000 

"  These  facts  show  that  sooner  or  later  the  growth 
of  population  must  receive  a  check  ;  but  they  do  not 
show  that  it  need  be  checked  at  present."  (See  POPU- 
LATION.) 

DIRECT  LEGISLATION  is  the  direct  and 
constant  control  of  law-making  by  the  people. 
In  small  communities  it  is  obtained  by  the 
whole  body  of  the  citizens  assembling  in  mass 
meeting  to  make  the  laws  to  govern  themselves. 
This  is  done  in  the  New  England  town  meeting, 
which  in  local  matters  is  the  supreme  legislative, 
executive,  and  judicial  power,  and  which  has 
been  the  method  of  country  government  in  New 
England  from  its  foundation,  and  from  here 
has  spread  to  many  other  parts  of  the  United 


ioo  years  multiply  itself  by 

200  " 
400 

500  |* 

20OO  " 

3-joo       " 


States.  It  is  seen  in  the  ancient  Teutonic  lands- 
gemeinde  still  surviving  in  several  of  the  Swiss 
mountain  cantons.  It  is  seen  in  almost  all 
clubs,  societies,  and  other  organizations  for  vari- 
ous purposes. 

In  communities  too  large  for  the  whole  mem- 
bership to  assemble  together  for  their  own  self- 
government,  it  is  obtained  by  mandatory  peti- 
tions and  votings  in  two  forms,  called  the  Initia- 
tive and  the  Referendum.  By  the  Referendum 
a  law  or  bill  must  be  held  for  a  certain  stated 
time — say  90  days — before  it  goes  into  effect. 
If  during  this  time  a  certain  per  cent. — say  5  per 
cent. — of  the  voters  sign  a  petition  to  have  it  re- 
ferred to  the  people,  it  is  held  till  the  next  elec- 
tion, when  the  people  vote  on  it.  A  majority 
against  prevents  it  from  becoming  a  law.  By 
the  Initiative,  if  a  certain  per  cent. — say  5  pei 
cent. — of  the  voters  sign  a  petition  for  a  law,  it 
goes  to  the  law-making  body,  and  there  takes 
precedence  of  all  other  measures.  They  must 
vote  on  it.  They  can  do  what  they  please  with 
it — pass,  amend,  reject,  lay  on  the  table.  If 
they  do  not  pass  it,  the  Referendum  takes  effect 
on  it,  and  at  the  next  election  the  people  vote 
on  it.  If  a  majority  vote  in  favor  of  it,  it  be- 
comes a  law  enacted  by  the  people.  These  two 
things  can  be  applied  to  local  as  well  as  to  State 
and  national  law-making  bodies. 

The  Referendum  alone  is  negative,  preven- 
tive ;  the  Initiative,  with  the  referendary  vot- 
ing, is  positive,  constructive.  The  Initiative  is 
the  impulse  or  creative  movement ;  the  Refer- 
endum is  the  deciding  or  will  movement.  They 
must  be  joined  as  man  and  wife.  Both  together 
make  direct  legislation. 

These  two  elements,  the  Initiative  and  Refer- 
endum, we  consider  in  detail  under  their  respec- 
tive heads  (q,v.\  We  consider  here  the  general 
principles  that  lie  under  both.  These  are  the 
complete  realization  of  democracy  and  the  puri- 
fication of  politics. 

Representation,  it  is  claimed,  does  not  repre- 
sent for  at  least  four  reasons  : 

"  i.  Whole  classes  composing  the  bulk  of  the  com- 
munity are  entirely  unrepresented  by  men  of  their  own 
class  and  condition,  who  are  the  only  ones  that  can 
fully  understand  their  wants  and  needs. 

"  2.  Political  parties  are  not  properly  represented, 
and  other  parties  not  at  all.  All  we  have  is  geograph- 
ical representation,  and  tho  that  may  have  been  useful 
a  century  ago,  it  is  useless  now  because  of  changed 
conditions. 

3.  From  its  very  nature,  representation  can  only 
roughly  approximate  the  wishes  of  the  community. 
Only  a  few  great  interests  can  be  thus  determined  ; 
where  many  issues  are  before  the  people  it  breaks 
down  completely. 

"4.  Representation  fails  because  of  the  weakness  of 
human  nature.  The  men  elected  often  leave  undone 
the  things  they  were  pledged  to  before  election,  and  do 
the  things  they  were  not  pledged  to,  and  in  many 
cases  they  do  it  because  they  have  been  bought." 

In  the  Senate  of  the  Fifty-third  Congress  64, 
or  over  70  per  cent.,  of  the  86  members  are 
lawyers,  6  are  bankers,  10  manufacturers  or  mer- 
chants, i  a  doctor,  i  a  farmer,  and  4  are  classed 
as  miscellaneous.  In  the  House,  with  346  mem- 
bers, 245,  or  over  70  per  cent.,  are  lawyers,  14 
bankers,  21  manufacturers  or  merchants,  5  doc- 
tors, 25  farmers,  8  editors,  and  28  miscellaneous. 
According  to  the  census  of  1880,  out  of  17,392,000 
persons  with  occupations,  64,000  were  lawyers, 
or  .37  of  i  per  cent.,  and  yet  they  numbered 
over  70  per  cent,  of  the  legislators.  Over  18^ 


Direct  Legislation. 


498 


Direct  Legislation. 


per  cent,  of  the  people  are  farm  laborers,  and 
25!  per  cent,  are  farmers  and  others  engaged  in 
agricultural  work,  making,  with  the  laborers,  44 
per  cent.,  and  they  had  i  senator  and  25  mem- 
bers in  the  House,  or  about  i  per  cent,  of  the 
legislators.  Domestic  laborers  number  6  per 
cent,  and  other  laborers  over  ip  per  cent.  How 
are  they  represented  ?  Perhaps  in  the  miscel- 
laneous ?  Nearly  io£  per  cent,  are  engaged  in 
trade  and  transportation.  Where  do  they  come 
in  ?  The  bankers  number  only  15,000,  or  .09  of 
i  per  cent. ,  and  they  have  one  hundred  times 
the  representation  they  are  entitled  to  in  the  6 
bankers  in  the  Senate  and  the  14  in  the  House. 
While  there  are  doubtless  enough  railway  attor- 
neys in  both  Houses  to  amply  represent  the  .38 
of  i  per  cent,  of  railroad  officials,  where  do  the 
236,000  railway  employees  come  in  ?  and  the 
204,000  draymen  ?  and  the  100,000  sailors  ?  and 
the  381,000  clerks?  and  the  120,000  book-keep- 
ers and  salesmen  ?  These  number  over  7  per 
cent,  of  the  population.  Doubtless  the  487,000 
traders  and  the  44,000  manufacturers,  number- 
ing 3  per  cent,  of  the  population,  are  represent- 
ed by  the  10  manufacturers  and  merchants  in 
the  Senate  and  the  21  in  the  House.  But  how 
about  the  rest  of  those  engaged  in  manufactur- 
ing ?  They  are  nearly  22  per  cent,  of  our  work- 
ing population. 

This  is  also  true  of  our  local  legislatures. 
During  the  decade  from  1880-90  the  lawyers 
numbered  nearly  60  per  cent,  of  the  Massachu- 
setts legislatures.  Of  the  1 5  cities  producing  the 
largest  values  in  manufactured  products,  New- 
ark, N.  J.,  has  the  largest  proportion  of  wage- 
workers  to  population.  Not  one  of  her  n  repre- 
sentatives in  the  State  legislatures  of  1894  or 
1895  is  a  wage- worker,  and  many  of  them  are 
lawyers. 

This  is  true  of  foreign  law-making  bodies. 
Four  hundred  and  fifty  thousand  railroad  share- 
holders in  England  have  22  members  in  Parlia- 
ment, while  380,000  railroad  employees  have 
none.  Eight  hundred  thousand  agricultural 
laborers  have  I,  and  the  land-owners  have  130 
besides  the  House  of  Lords.  One  hundred  and 
forty-eight  lawyers  are  M.P.'s,  and  they  are 
fewer  in  proportion  to  the  population  than  in 
this  country.  Ship-owners  have  25  representa- 
tives, and  220,000  seamen  have  i.  Coal-mine 
owners  have  21,  and  655,000  miners  have  7. 
There  are  1 5  mill-owners  in  Parliament  and  not 
one  operative.  Twenty-four  ironmasters  and 
not  one  worker.  This  is  true  of  all  law-making 
bodies.  Classes  are  not  represented. 

One  evil  effect  of  the  predominance  of  lawyer 
legislators  is  the  vast  amount  of  law  turned  out. 
Over  13,000  laws  were  passed  in  1890  by  the 
various  State  and  the  national  legislatures. 
New  Jersey  alone  passed  600  of  these,  and 
many  of  them  were  longer  than  the  whole  Jus- 
tinian code.  The  lawyer,  because  of  his  train- 
ing, uses  a  redundancy  of  words.  Many  laws 
are  so  complicated  that  a  large  share  of  the 
time  of  other  lawyers  hired  by  the  State  and 
called  courts  is  required  to  explain  them.  We 
are  almost  submerged  with  laws  ;  we  need  fewer 
and  simpler  laws.  Many  people  feel  that  the 
sessions  of  the  Legislature  are  an  evil  to  be 
dreaded  and  curtailed  as  much  as  possible. 
This  is  shown  by  the  growth  of  biennial  ses- 


sions. Over  half  of  the  State  legislatures  now 
meet  only  once  in  two  years.  Half  of  the  law- 
making  is  thus  saved. 

Many  of  these  legislators  are  noble,  patriotic 
men.  But  the  most  pure-minded  man  cannot 
help  being  biassed  by  his  training,  occupation, 
and  associates.  He  will  see  his  needs  clearer 
than  the  needs  of  those  in  other  walks  of  life. 
Belonging,  as  most  of  them  do,  to  the  "  elevat- 
ed classes,"  they  do  not  see  the  needs  of  the 
workers.  A  representative  body  to  be  of  the 
highest  usefulness  should  represent  all  classes 
of  the  community,  and  this  has  proved  under 
our  system  an  impossibility.  Under  any  sys- 
tem it  would  be  at  present  an  impossibility,  as 
the  lower  classes  do  not  yet  know  how  to  voice 
their  needs  and  aspirations  so  as  to  embody 
them  in  law.  Hence  representation  does  not 
represent,  because  large  classes  of  the  commu- 
nity are  entirely  unrepresented  in  the  law-mak- 
ing bodies. 

2.  Nor  are  political  parties  properly  represent- 
ed.    If  each  party  had  been  represented  in  the 
Fifty-third  Congress  in  proportion  to  the  num- 
ber of  votes  cast  for  that  party  there 

would  have  been  153  Republicans 
instead  of  127,  164  Democrats  in-    Kepresen- 
stead  of  218,  31   Populists  instead  tation  does 
of  9,  and  8  Prohibitionists  instead     not  Rep- 
of  none.     In  the  Fifty-fourth  Con-      resent, 
gress  there  would  be  165  Republi- 
cans instead  of  248,  135  Democrats 
instead  of  104,  44  Populists  instead  of  7,  and  8 
Prohibitionists  instead  of  none.     In  the  House 
of  Assembly  of  New  Jersey  for  1894  there  should 
be,  if  actual  votes  counted,.  33  Republicans,  24 
Democrats,  i  Populist,  i  Socialist- Labor,  and  i 
Prohibitionist  ;  but  instead  there  are  54  Repub- 
licans and  6  Democrats.     In  the  Essex  County 
delegation   to   the    Trenton    Legislature  there 
should  be  7  Republicans  and  4  Democrats  ;  but 
instead  there  are,  1 1  Republicans.     Representa- 
tion does  not  to-day  properly  represent  our  po- 
litical parties. 

The  introduction  of  religious  and  other  issues 
into  politics  shows  very  plainly  that  it  is  impos- 
sible for  representation  to  represent  OUT  religious 
parties  and  others. 

Geographical  representation  is  all  our  present 
system  provides.  A  century  and  more  ago  this 
was  a  vital  point.  In  one  small  local  commu- 
nity there  were  few  and  unimportant  class  divi- 
sions. That  locality  was  almost  homogeneous. 
A  man  from  it  could  represent  it  carrying  with 
him  to  the  central  body  its  local  flavor  and  get- 
ting its  local  wants.  Other  communities  differed 
from  it,  and  they  had  to  have  a  representative  of 
their  own.  But  with  the  growth  of  our  great  sys- 
tems of  transportation  and  intercommunication 
there  has  come  a  churning  up  of  our  people. 
The  local  lines  have  been  broken  down,  they  have 
been  made  more  homogeneous  as  a  people. 
But  the  growth  of  great  fortunes  and  the  so- 
cialization of  industries  in  huge  factories  has 
built  up  class  divisions  instead  of  the  locality 
divisions,  and  geographical  representation  is  to- 
day almost  useless. 

3.  Representation  does  not  represent  because 
no  one  man  can  perfectly  represent  another. 
No  two  human  beings  are  perfectly  alike.     Even 
if  the  best  man  is  always  elected,  there  are  some 


Direct  Legislation. 


499 


Direct  Legislation. 


issues  on  which  he  does  not  represent  many  of 
those  who  voted  for  him.  A  thinking  voter 
casts  his  vote  for  either  of  three  reasons  or  some 
combination  of  these  reasons.  First,  he  thinks 
the  platform  of  the  party  whose  candidate  he 
votes  for  suits  him  on  the  whole  better  than  that 
of  the  other  part}',  but  there  may  be  in  it  one 
or  more  planks  that  he  is  opposed  to.  Second, 
he  uses  the  opinions  or  record  of  the  candidate 
in  the  same  way  as  under  the  first  he  used  the 
platform.  Third,  he  votes  for  the  candidate  be- 
cause he  believes  in  his  honesty  of  purpose  and 
ability.  Yet  that  very  honesty  of  purpose  may 
lead  the  elected  candidate  to  pass  some  measure 
to  which  the  voter  is  much  opposed.  Even 
under  the  best  conditions  representation  cannot 
perfectly  represent. 

But  under  present  conditions  the  voter  often 
has  a  choice  of  evils.  The  party  machines,  rep- 
resenting only  the  political  wire-pullers,  nomi- 
nate ;  the  ignorant  voter  is  deluded  by  the 
shouting  of  party  shibboleths  ;  the  enthusiastic 
voter  is  drawn  in  by  torchlight  parades  and  vio- 
lent harangues  ;  the  corrupt  voter  is  bought  to 
do  something  that  will  be  for  his  permanent 
disadvantage,  and  the  intelligent  voter  is  dis- 
tracted by  the  multiplicity  of  issues  and  claims. 
Is  it  a  wonder  that  wrong  results  ?  And  after 
the  election,  an  issue  not  made  in  the  campaign, 
tho  it  may  have  been  foreseen  by  the  wire-pull- 
ers, comes  up  for  the  representative  to  vote  on, 
and  he  decides  it,  tho  unable  to  know  how  his 
constituency  would  have  him  vote.  From  its 
very  nature  representation  cannot  accurately 
follow  the  wishes  of  the  people. 

4.  Representation  does  not  represent  because 
human  nature  is  weak  and  the  law-maker  is 
bought  either  by  money  or  by  promise  of  power 
or  place.  Every  thinking  man  can  easily  show 
where  men  have  been  definitely  pledged  to  cer- 
tain measures  before  election,  and  then  have 
either  done  nothing  or  just  the  contrary.  Dur- 
ing the  eighties  the  Republican  Party  was  given 
the  power  to  reform  and  gradually  lower  the 
tariff  on  direct  pledges  embodied  in  its  platform 
and  in  the  speeches  of  such  leaders  as  Garfield, 
Elaine,  Sherman,  and  others.  In  1890  it  went 
back  on  its  pledges  and  passed  the  McKinley 
law,  which  raised  the  rates.  The  issue  was 
clearly  made  between  the  two  parties  ;  it  was 
the  main  issue,  and  on  it  the  people  gave  the 
power  to  the  Democratic  Party  in  the  election 
of  1890,  and  emphasized  it  by  the  election  of 
1892.  No  mandate  from  the  people  could  be 
clearer.  Yet  the  Democratic  Party  passed  a 
law  which  their  leader  in  the  House,  Mr.  Wil- 
son, said  was  a  perfidy,  and  which  Mr.  Cleve- 
land was  ashamed  to  sign.  There  is  no  ques- 
tion here  of  the  wisdom  or  otherwise  of  protec- 
tion. The  will  of  the  people,  as  clearly  ex- 
pressed in  the  elections,  was  not  carried  out. 
The  reason  it  was  not  carried  out  in  both  cases 
was  the  corruption  by  corporate  interests  of  the 
representatives  of  the  people. 

Direct  legislation,  it  is  claimed,  will  remedy 
these  ills.  It  will  represent  all  the  voters  of  all 
classes,  and  it  will  take  away  the  main  condi- 
tions of  a  corrupt  legislature,  because  the  legis- 
lators can  then  not  make  or  unmake  laws. 

This  is  the  system  used  in  all  deliberative 
bodies  :  A  man  rises  and  says,  "  I  move  so 


and  so,"  and  after  discussion,  the  body  votes  on 
it,  the  majority  deciding.    Under  the  Initiative,  5 
per  cent,  of  the  voters  rise  and  say, 
"  We  move  so  and  so,"  and  after 
discussion  led  by  their  representa-  Advantages, 
tives,  all  vote  on  it.     Often  a  soci- 
ety refers  a  matter  to  a  committee 
to  examine  and  report,  and  after  the  committee 
has  reported  the  body  takes  action  approving  or 
rejecting  the  report.     This  is  the  Referendum. 

This  is  the  principle  by  which  all  the  funda- 
mental laNvs  and  principles  of  our  government 
are  fixed.  The  people  vote  on  all  constitutions 
and  amendments  to  constitutions.  They  are 
the  final  authority  on  the  fundamental  law  of 
the  land.  If  they  are  capable  of  fixing  the  great 
principles  of  government,  they  ought  to  be  capa- 
ble of  deciding  on  the  by-laws  if  they  wish. 
The  principle  of  direct  legislation  is  entwined 
with  the  very  foundation  and  framework  of  our 
whole  system.  Why  should  it  not  be  extended 
to  the  minor  details  ?  The  people  have  tried  to 
do  this  by  lengthening  their  constitutions  and 
curtailing  the  powers  of  their  law-making  bodies. 
The  Constitution  of  New  Hampshire  in  1776 
had  600  words  ;  the  last  Constitution  of  Mis- 
souri, passed  in  1885,  has  26,000  words,  or  43 
times  as  many  as  that  of  New  Hampshire.  This 
is  a  clumsy  and  inefficient  way  of  getting  at  di- 
rect legislation  for  a  few  things.  It  is  hobbling 
the  feet  of  a  horse  to  prevent  his  running  away 
when  it  would  be  better  to  use  the  pair  of  reins 
of  the  Referendum  and  the  Initiative.  Often 
when  the  people  want  something  badly  they 
find  they  cannot  get  it  because  they  have  tied 
the  feet  of  their  horse. 

The  advantages  are  too  many  to  even  name 
fully  here.  It  will  remove  corruption,  because 
the  legislator  cannot  be  sure  of  delivering  the 
goods.  It  will  make  the  political  discussion  on 
measures  and  not  on  men,  as  at  present,  thus 
removing  much  of  the  mud-slinging  so  preva- 
lent to-day.  It  will  make  it  possible  to  intro- 
duce reforms  just  as  fast  as  the  people  really 
wish.  To-day  in  many  cities  the  majority  of 
citizens  desire  the  municipalization  of  the  natu- 
ral monopolies  (y.v.).  The  reforms  cannot  be 
carried,  because  the  corporations,  directly  or 
indirectly,  bribe  the  legislators  to  leave  them  in 
possession  of  franchises  which  bring  them  vast 
returns,  and  for  which  they  give  little  or  nothing, 
save  just  enough  to  buy  the  legislature.  From 
legislatures  as  to-day  constituted  little  or  no 
reform  can  be  expected.  Direct  legislation,  it 
is  claimed,  is  thus  the  key  to  all  reforms  to  be 
gained  by  legislation. 

Direct  legislation  has  had  a  long  and  wide- 
spread trial,  and  has  everywhere  worked  well. 
It  is  the  principle  of  the  old  New  England  town 
meeting.     It  has  existed  in  certain 
cantons  of  Switzerland  from  time 
immemorial.     It    exists    to-day   in  Experience. 
Switzerland  in   modern  form,  and 
gives  complete  satisfaction.     It  has 
been  used  and  is  being  more  and  more  used  in 
all  our  States  for  the  adoption  or  rejection  of 
constitutional  revisions  and  amendments.     It  is 
adopted  by  the  most  advanced  national  labor 
unions,  and  for  years  was  the  only  political  or 
legislative  demand  of  the  American  Federation 
of  Labor. 


Direct  Legislation. 


500 


Distribution. 


For  this  history,  however,  and  for  exact  meth- 
ods for  its  adoption,  see  REFERENDUM  ;  INITIA- 
TIVE. 

Direct  legislation  appeals  especially  to  Dem- 
ocratic Socialists.  As  socialism  means  brother- 
hood in  economic  and  industrial  life,  so  direct 
legislation  is  the  logical  fulfilment 
of  and  the  final  step  in  democracy, 

Socialism,  which  means  brotherhood  and 
equality  in  political  life.  Socialism 
is  democracy  carried  into  economic 
life.  Socialism  cannot  be  carried  out  or  even 
successfully  attempted  without  the  complete 
realization  of  democracy  through  direct  legisla- 
tion. If  it  is  attempted  without  complete  self- 
government  in  politics,  it  will  result  in  a  loss  of 
independence  and  a  new  slavery  more  severe, 
more  insidious,  and  more  difficult  to  throw  off, 
because  the  governing  class  will  then,  through 
corruption  -and  through  direct  control,  own  the 
government,  which  owns  all  the  means  of  pro- 
duction. The  reformer  will  then  have  no  ful- 
crum to  put  his  lever  on. 

With  direct  legislation,  the  people  will  be  ed- 
ucated in  self-government  ;  no  industry  will  be 
taken  over  by  any  government,  local,  State,  or 
national,  till  the  people  directly  interested  are 
persuaded  that  it  is  for  their  own  interest  to  do 
it,  and  it  will  be  taken  over  as  soon  as  they  are 
persuaded  of  this,  and  taken  over  without  seri- 
ous opposition  as  soon  as  the  will  of  the  people 
is  known,  because  opposition  will  be  useless. 

Direct  legislation  in  its  adoption  and  fullest 
realization  may  thus  be  considered  the  final 
step  in  democracy  and  the  first  step  toward  a 
rational  socialism.  Yet  it  can  be  advocated  on 
grounds  entirely  distinct  from  socialism,  and 
many  converts  made  among  those  who  think 
they  are  directly  opposed  to  socialism.  So  many 
reformers  feel  that  it  is  the  part  of  wisdom  to 
concentrate  attention  on  this  first  step.  And 
the  rapid  yet  sturdy  growth  of  the  movement  in 
the  United  States  is  encouraging  to  its  advo- 
cates. 

There  have  been  three  attempts  to  form  na- 
tional direct  legislation  societies,  but  little  has 
come  of  them.  The  movement  has  mainly 
worked  through  other  organizations.  One  or- 

fanization  was  commenced  in  1892,  with  J.  W. 
ullivan  as  provisional  president.  At  the  con- 
ference of  reform  forces  held  in  St.  Louis,  Mo. , 
in  December,  1893,  a  second  organization  was 
started,  with  Rev.  James  H.  Lathrop,  of  Ober- 
lin,  Kan.,  as  its  provisional  president.  He  has 
done  and  is  doing  a  good  deal  of  work  in  writ- 
ing letters,  but  organization  has  not  developed. 
The  third  was  started  at  Vineland,  N.  J. ,  in  Au- 
gust, 1895,  and  is  called  the  National  Direct 
Legislation  Reform  Society,  W.  A.  Daggett, 
President ;  Rev.  Adolph  Roeder,  Secretary ; 
but  it  has  never  done  more  than  a  local  work. 
Local  societies  have  been  much  more  active. 
Nevertheless,  the  main  movement  has  been 
through  the  spread  of  its  principles  in  other  or- 
ganizations. 

ELTWEED  POMEROY, 
Editor  Direct  Legislation  Record. 
The  principal  objections  raised  to  direct  legis- 
lation are,  first,  that  the  real  value  of  bills  de- 
pends on  their  details,  and  that  since  these  must 
be  left  to  the  legislators  in  any  case,  direct  rep- 


resentation will  only  give  the  people  the  form 
of  power.  Yet  since  nominally  the  people  will 
have  the  power,  corrupt  legislators  can  so  word 
bills  as  to  appear  to  serve  the  public  weal,  tho 
really  serving  some  private  interest,  and  yet 
throw  all  the  responsibility  on  the  people. 
Again,  it  is  claimed  that  people  prefer  to  vote 
for  men  in  whom  they  have  confidence  rather 
than  for  measures.  In  Switzerland,  20  refer- 
enda, from  1879-91,  drew  on  the  average  only 
58.5  per  cent,  of  the  votes.  "  The  result  of  the 
small  vote  is  that  laws  duly  considered  by  the 
national  legislature  and  passed  by  considerable 
majorities  are  often  reversed  by  a  minority  of 
the  voters."  The  recent  vote  on  "  right  to  em- 
ployment" was  rejected  4  to  i.  In  Ohio  an 
amendment  to  tax  franchises  of  corporations 
was  lost  three  times  because  the  constitutional 
75  per  cent,  failed  to  vote. 

It  is  claimed,  also,  that  direct  legislation  will 
set  the  voters  discussing  some  small  details, 
while  general  principles  will  be  neglected,  and 
the  result  will  be  retrogressive  rather  than  pro- 
gressive. It  is  claimed  by  some  that  democracy 
(q.v?)  is  itself  retrogressive.  As  to  the  claim 
that  direct  legislation  will  make  it  possible  to 
get  other  reforms  through  unwilling  legislatures, 
it  is  said  that  any  legislature  unwilling  to  pass 
real  reforms  would  defeat  direct  legislation  quite 
as  much. 

These  objections,  however,  are  not  so  much 
objections  to  direct  legislation  itself  as  reasons 
for  not  expecting  too  much.  Especially  in  city 
governments  every  petty  ordinance  and  bill  can- 
not be  referred  to  the  people.  If  too  many  bills 
are  so  referred  the  people  cannot  give  time  to 
acting  on  each  with  intelligence.  Representa- 
tives, therefore,  must  be  trusted  to  pass  some 
bills  and  draft  all  bills,  and  therefore  must  be 
carefully  done  and  made  responsible.  The  peo- 
ple, however,  could  and  should  vote  on  simple, 
large,  well-defined  measures,  and  to  do  so  would 
in  itself  educate  them  for  further  power. 


Newark,  N.  J.,  for  the  Direct  Legislation  League  of 
New  Jersey).  For  an  unfavorable  view,  see  an  article 
bv  A.  B.  Hart  on  the  Referendum  in  Switzerland,  in 
The  Nation  for  September  13,  1894.  See  also  REFER- 
ENDUM; INITIATIVE. 

DIRECT  TAXES.    See  TAXATION. 

DISPENSARY  LIQUOR  SYSTEM.    See 

SOUTH  CAROLINA  DISPENSARY  SYSTEM. 

DISTRIBUTION,  in  political  economy,  is 
that  large  and  important  part  of  the  subject 
which  studies  the  division  of  products  among 
the  independent  individuals,  or  classes  of  indi- 
viduals, who  compose  the  society.  As  the  ele- 
ments that  contribute  to  production  are  usually 
classed  as  labor,  capital,  and  natural  objects  or 
agencies,  the  fundamental  formula  of  distribu- 
tion is  usually  expressed  thus  : 

Produce  =  Rent  -f  Interest  +  Wages,  where, 

Produce  =  the  increase  made  in  material  wealth,  the 
net  produce  that  remains  after  any  auxiliary  capital 
that  may  have  been  consumed  is  replaced  ; 

Rent = the  total  amount  received  annually  for  the 
use  of  natural  objects  and  agencies  ; 

Interest  =  the  total  amount  received  annually  for  the 
use  of  capital ; 

Wages  =  the  total  amount  received  annually  in  re- 
muneration for  labor  of  whatever  kind. 


Distribution. 


Distribution. 


In  the  above  equation  we  include  under  "wages" 
the  remuneration  of  employers  for  the  work  of  or- 
ganizing, and  supervising  the  labor  of  others ;  -we  in- 
clude under  "  interest"  what  is  usually  called  rent, 
so  far  as  it  is  paid  for  anything  that  has  been  produced 
by  labor;  and  we  limit  the  word  "rent"  altogether 
to  payments  made  for  the  use  of  land  and  other  gifts 
of  nature. 

It  is  greatly  to  be  regretted  that  in  this,  and  other 
instances,  we  are  compelled  to  use  words  in  other  than 
their  ordinary  meaning  ;  but  where  ordinary  parlance 
confuses  things  fundamentally  different,  such  as  the 
"rent"  of  a  house,  and  the  "rent"  of  land,  things 
which  depend  on  altogether  different  laws,  our  only 
alternative  would  be  to  invent  new  terms,  the  signifi- 
cation of  which  it  would  be  still  more  difficult  to  under- 
stand. 

The  difficulty  is  perhaps  most  serious  in  the  case  of 
the  word  "wages."  If  the  word  "profits"  could  be 
taken  to  express  the  earnings  of  employers  for  the 
labor  which  they  undergo,  our  equation  might  be  put 
into  the  form  Produce  =  Rent  -(-  Interest  -f-  Profits  -f- 
Wages.  For  some  purposes  this  would  be  the  most 
convenient  form  of  the  equation.  But  the  word 
"profits"  is  almost  invariably  used  to  include  interest 
on  capital,  as  well  as  remuneration  for  employer's 
labor,  and  if  so  used,  the  second  form  of  the  equation 
would  count  twice  over  one  portion  of  interest.  The 
balance  of  advantage  seems  therefore  in  favor  of  the 
earlier  form  of  the  equation. 

In  reference  to  distribution  in  general  two 
questions  may  be,  and  in  economic  science  have 
been,  more  or  less  carefully  asked  :  What  is  the 
share,  and  what  in  equity  should  be  the  share 
of  these  various  elements?  As  each  question, 
however,  in  regard  to  each  element  demands  in 
itself  a  long  discussion,  each  is  entitled  to  a 
separate  article,  and  will  be  considered  under 
the  respective  subjects  of  Rent,  Interest, 
Profit,  Wages.  Thus  far  in  political  economy 
the  question  mainly  asked  as  to  distribution  has 
been  :  What  share,  as  a  matter  of  fact,  can  rent, 
interest,  and  wages  get,  where  each  element 
is  competing  to  get  all  it  can  ?  This  was  to 
Adam  Smith  and  his  followers  the  main  ques- 
tion, because,  experiencing  the  evils  of  the  un- 
wise State  interference  of  the  day,  they  believed 
that  the  best  state  of  affairs  for  the  public  was 
where  there  was  no  interference,  but  where  every 
one  was  left  free  to  secure  whatever  share  in  the 
distribution  he  could.  Believing  also  that  every 
one  was  best  able  to  look  out  for  his  own  inter- 
ests, they  held  that  it  was  for  the  general  good 
for  each  one  to  do  this.  They  asked  what  share 
under  this  condition  each  one  could  get,  believ- 
ing that  in  the  long  run  this  was  also  the  right 
share  for  him  to  get.  More  recently  and  mainly 
beginning  with  Mill,  men  have  asked  more  and 
more  the  ethical  question,  what  share  each 
should  get.  It  has  been  seen  that  under  the 
free  play  of  private  interests,  persons  monopoliz- 
ing the  ownership  of  natural  agencies  and  op- 
portunities, or  abundant  capital,  were  able  to 
get  a  vastly  larger  share  than  those  who  had 
only  their  labor  to  dispose  of.  Men  must  live, 
and  when  they  have  only  their  labor  to  dispose 
of  they  must  sell  it  day  by  day,  as  a  rule,  in  or- 
der to  earn  a  living.  Those  who  have  large 
capital  or  ownership  of  large  natural  opportuni- 
ties to  fall  back  upon,  are,  on  the  other  hand, 
not  compelled  to  sell  until  they  can  get  good 
prices.  Natural  opportunities,  again,  cannot  be 
indefinitely  supplied,  and  can  be  and  have  be- 
come largely  monopolized  ;  whereas,  under  the 
process  of  life,  the  supply  of  labor  is  much  more 
abundant,  and  therefore  the  limited  supply  of 
natural  opportunities  enables  rent  to  rise,  while 
the  large  supply  of  labor  tends  to  make  wages 


fall  ;  or,  if  other  causes  raise  wages,  to  prevent 
wages  from  rising  in  proportion  to  rent.  For 
these  and  other  causes  it  is  claimed  by  socialists 
and  others  that  the  free  play  of  private  interest 
between  rich  capitalists  and  landlords  and  poor 
laborers  is  not  fair  play,  and  not  truly  free  play 
(since  the  capitalist  and  landlord  are  compara- 
tively free,  but  the  laborer  is  often  the  slave  of 
his  circumstances).  Hence  the  question  is  ris- 
ing more  and  more  as  to  what  should  be  the 
basis  of  division,  and  many  proposals  have  been 
made.  It  is  proposed  that  laborers  combine  to 
get  a  larger  share.  Hence  we  have  Trade- 
Unions,  Knights  of  Labor,  etc.  It  is  proposed 
that  capitalists  and  landlords  give  a  larger  pro- 
portion of  the  produce  to  the  laborers  than  they 
are  able  to  secure  by  mere  private  struggle. 
Hence  we  have  proposals  for  profit-sharing 
and  various  charities.  It  is  proposed  that  labor- 
ers combine  to  be  their  own  capitalists  and  land- 
lords ;  hence  we  have  all  sorts  of  cooperative 
and  communistic  experiments.  It  is  asserted 
that  the  wealthy  classes  have  so  much  power  in 
their  hands  that  private  cooperation  cannot  suc- 
ceed in  competing  against  them,  and  hence  it  is 
proposed  that  all  the  people,  through  govern- 
ment (municipal,  State,  and  national),  secure  all 
the  means  of  production  (capital  and  land,  so  far 
at  least  as  land  is  used  for  production),  and  oper- 
ate them  collectively  for  the  equitable  good  of 
all ;  the  people  thus  being  their  own  employ- 
ers, capitalists,  and  landlords.  Hence  we  have 
Municipalism,  Nationalism,  Socialism.  It  is 
claimed  that  capitalists  and  landlords  have  been 
able  to  secure,  and  are  to-day  able  to  maintain 
their  large  share  in  distribution,  only  through 
the  favoritism  of  the  government.  Hence  we 
have  proposals  for  free  trade,  the  single  tax,  or 
the  freeing  of  competition  after  land  has  been 
removed  from  private  appropriation,  the  extreme 
proposals  of  the  very  great  minimizing  of  the 
State  in  individualism,  or  the  abolition  of  gov- 
ernment in  anarchism.  It  will  be  thus  seen 
how  the  large  proportion  of  the  social  reforms 
proposed  to-day  are  reforms  either  in  distribu- 
tion or  proposed  with  the  view  of  affecting  dis- 
tribution. Hence  a  large  proportion  of  this  vol- 
ume may  be  said  to  be  concerned  with  distribu- 
tion, and  for  the  various  proposals  the  reader 
must  look  under  the  names  given  above. 
.  It  should  be  added  that  a  few  men,  and  some  of 
them  of  great  ability  and  even  brilliancy,  like  Ed- 
ward Atkinson,  steadily  refuse  to  recognize  dis- 
tribution as  being  a  more  important  question 
to-day  than  formerly.  They  assert  and  under- 
take to  prove  that  if  labor  to-day  does  not  re- 
ceive as  large  a  share  in  distribution  as  it  should, 
it  is  receiving  at  least  a  continually  increasing 
share,  and  that  the  present  so-called  Labor  Ques- 
tion is  but  the  laborer  striving  for  a  still  larger 
share  because  he  has  been  lifted  up  to  a  plane 
of  education  and  of  conscious  wants  which  he 
has  never  occupied  till  now.  Hence  they  argue 
that  all  we  have  to  do  is  to  keep  on  in  the  opera- 
tion of  allowing  the  freest  play  to  private  inter- 
ests, only  aiming  continually  more  and  more 
at  education  in  the  broadest  and  deepest  sense, 
and  at  increase  and  saving  in  production  ;  so 
that  there  will  be  more  to  distribute.  This 
position  will  be  discussed  under  the  articles 
WAGES  and  SOCIALISM.  Whether  this  position 


Distribution. 


502 


Division  of  Labor. 


be  right  or  not,  however,  the  large  majority 
of  economists  and  workers  for  social  reform 
believe  that  it  is  not  the  case,  and  that  the 
problem  of  just  distribution  does  press  to-day 
as  never  before  ;  their  books,  therefore,  are 
filled  with  discussions  of  the  various  proposals 
to  secure  a  juster  distribution.  It  has  been  said 
that,  comparatively  speaking,  economic  thought 
has  solved  the  problem  of  the  production  of 
wealth,  and  the  question  now  is  mainly  how  to 
distribute  it.  It  should  be  added,  however, 
that  a  growing  number  of  socialists  argue  that 
our  present  distribution  is  unjust  because  grow- 
ing out  of  methods  of  production  radically  un- 
just, and  that,  therefore,  the  need  is  for  a  thor- 
ough change  in  industrial  methods,  both  as  to 
production  and  distribution,  and  beginning  with 
the  former.  (See  SOCIALISM  ;  WEALTH  ;  WAGES, 
etc.) 

References  :  J.  R.  Common's  Distribution  of  Wealth 
('893) ;  J-  A.  Hobson's  The  Evolution  of  Capitalism. 

DISTRIBUTIVE  COOPERATION.    See 

COOPERATIVE  DISTRIBUTION. 

DIVISION  OF  LABOR.— When  a  number 
of  workmen  are  engaged  in  any  work,  we  find 
that  each  man  usually  takes  one  part  of  the  work 
and  leaves  other  parts  of  the  work  to  his  mates. 
People  by  degrees  arrange  themselves  into  dif- 
ferent trades,  so  that  the  whole  work  done  in 
any  place  is  divided  into  many  employments  or 
crafts.  This  is  termed  division  of  labor,  and  is 
found  in  all  civilized  countries,  and  more  or  less 
in  all  states  of  society,  which  are  not  merely 
barbarous. 

Such  a  condition  of  affairs  naturally  has  both 
great  advantages  and  disadvantages.  Adam 
Smith's  classic  statement  of  the  advantages  of 
division  of  labor  has  been  added  to,  but  hardly 
surpassed.  He  found  them  mainly  three  : 

1.  Increase  of  dexterity  in   every  particular 
workman. 

2.  Saving  of  the  time  which  is  commonly  lost 
in  passing  from  one  kind  of  work  to  another. 

3.  The  invention  of  a  great  number  of  ma- 
chines, which  facilitate  and  abridge  labor,  and 
enable  one  man  to  do  the  work  of  many. 

There  can  be  no  doubt  as  to  the  increase  or 
dexterity  which  arises  from  practice.     Any  one 
who  has  tried  to  imitate  a  juggler,  or  to  play 
the  piano,  without  having  learned 
to  do  it,  knows  how  absurdly  he 
Advantages,  fails.     Adam  Smith  states  that  if  a 
blacksmith  had  to  make  nails  with- 
out having  been  accustomed  to  the 
work,  he  would  not  make  above  200  or  300  bad 
nails  in  a  day.    With  practice  he  might  learn  to 
make  800  or  1000  nails  in  a  day  ;  but  boys  who 
are  brought  up  to  the  nailer's  trade  can  turn 
out  2300  nails  of  the  same  kind  in  the  same 
time. 

Secondly,  division  of  labor  saves  time.  Be- 
fore one  can  make  anything  he  must  get  the 
right  tools  and  materials  ;  when  he  has  finished 
one  box  he  is  ready  to  make  another  with  less 
trouble  than  the  first ;  but  if  he  must  go  off  and 
do  something  quite  different,  such  as  to  mend  a 
pair  of  shoes  or  write  a  letter,  a  different  set  of 
implements  has  to  be  got  ready.  A  man,  as 
Adam  Smith  says,  saunters  a  little  in  turning 


his  hand  from  one  kind  of  employment  to  an- 
other. 

In  the  third  place,  Smith  asserted  that  the 
division  of  labor  leads  to  the  invention  of  ma- 
chines which  abridge  labor,  because  men,  he 
thought,  were  much  more  likely  to  discover  easy 
methods  of  attaining  an  object  when  their  whole 
attention  is  directed  to  that  object.  Workmen 
invent  modes  of  lessening  their  labor,  and  im- 
portant inventions  have  been  made  in  this  way. 
Division  of  labor  also  leads  to  invention,  because 
it  enables  ingenious  men  to  make  invention  their 
profession.  The  greatest  inventors,  such  as 
James  Watt,  Fulton,  Roberts,  Nasmythe,  Howe, 
Fairbairn,  the  Stephensons,  Wheatstone,  Besse- 
mer, have  cultivated  an  original  genius  by  care- 
ful study  and  long  practice  in  mechanical  con- 
struction. The  division  of  labor  also  greatly 
assists  invention,  because  it  enables  each  factory 
to  adopt  particular  kinds  of  machinery.  The 
division  of  labor  is  continually  becoming  more 
and  more  minute,  and  it  is  not  uncommon  to 
find  that  the  whole  supply  of  some  commodity 
is  furnished  from  a  single  manufactory,  which 
can  then  afford  to  have  a  set  of  machines  in- 
vented on  purpose  to  produce  this  one  com- 
modity. 

The  economy  of  inventions  is  best  attained 
when  it  is  the  business  of  a  certain  set  of  people 
to  study  every  new  invention  which  bears  on 
their  particular  trade  ;  for  each  new  leading 
idea  with  regard  both  to  processes  and  machin- 
ery has  many  practical  applications.  Knowledge 
is  acquired  in  working  out  one  invention  that  is 
likely  to  be  of  use  in  seeking  for  others.  If, 
however,  the  work  of  thinking  is  confined  to  a 
few,  division  of  labor  is  carried  too  far. 

There  are  other  advantages.  A  deal  of  labor 
is  often  saved  by  arranging  work  so  that  a 
laborer  may  serve  many  persons  as  easily  as 
one.  If  a  messenger  is  going  to  carry  a  letter 
to  the  post-office,  he  can  as  readily  carry  a  score. 
Instead  of  twenty  people  each  carrying  their 
own  letters,  one  messenger  can  do  the  whole  work 
without  more  trouble.  This  explains  why  the 
post-office  is  able  to  forward  a  letter  from  any 
part  of  the  country  to  the  other  for  two  cents. 
Multiplying  of  copies  is  another  great  gain  made 
possible  by  division  of  labor. 

When  the  proper  tools  and  models  for  making 
a  thing  are  once  provided,  it  is  sometimes  pos- 
sible to  go  on  multiplying  copies  with  little  fur- 
ther trouble.  To  cut  the  dies  for  striking  a 
medal  or  coin  is  a  very  slow  and  costly  work  ; 
but  when  once  good  dies  are  finished,  it  is  easy 
to  strike  a  great  many  coins  with  them,  and  the 
cost  of  the  striking  is  very  small.  The  printing 
press,  however,  is  the  best  case  of  multiplication 
of  copies. 

Almost  all  the  common  things  we  use  now, 
such  as  ordinary  chairs  and  tables,  cups  and 
saucers,  teapots,  spoons,  and  forks,  etc.,  are 
made  by  machinery,  and  are  copies  of  an  orig- 
inal pattern. 

A  further  advantage  of  the  division  of  labor  is 
that,  when  there  are  many  different  trades, 
every  person  can  choose  that  trade  for  which  he 
is  best  suited.  Each  man  will  generally  work 
at  the  trade  in  which  he  can  get  the  best  wages, 
and  it  is  an  evident  loss  of  skill  if  the  artisan 
should  break  stones  or  sweep  the  streets.  Now, 


Division  of  Labor. 


5°3 


Division  of  Labor. 


the  greater  the  division  of  labor  and  the  more 
extensive  factories  become,  the  better  chance 
there  is  for  finding  an  employment  just  suited 
to  each  person's  powers  ;  clever  workmen  do 
the  work  which  no  one  else  can  do  ;  they  have 
unskilled  laborers  to  help  them  in  things  which 
require  no  skill ;  foremen  plan  out  the  work  and 
allot  it  to  the  artisans  ;  clerks,  who  are  quick  at 
accounts,  keep  the  books,  and  pay  and  receive 
money  ;  the  manager  of  the  factory  is  an  in- 
genious experienced  man,  who  can  give  his 
whole  attention  to  directing  the  work,  to  mak- 
ing good  bargains,  or  to  inventing  improvements 
in  the  business.  Every  one  is  thus  occupied  in 
the  way  in  which  his  labor  will  be  most  produc- 
tive and  useful  to  other  people,  and  at  the  same 
time  most  profitable  to  himself. 

Lastly,  the  division  of  labor  allows  of  local 
adaptation — that  is,  it  allows  every  kind  of  work 
to  be  done  in  the  place  most  suitable  for  it. 
Each  kind  of  labor  should  be  carried  on  where 
it  is  most  productive  ;  but  this  cannot  be  done 
unless  there  be  division  of  labor  ;  so  that  while 
the  French  grow  wine,  weave  silk,  or  make  arti- 
cles de  Paris,  they  buy  the  cottons  of  Manches- 
ter or  the  coals  of  Newcastle.  When  trade  is  free 
and  the  division  of  labor  is  perfect,  each  town 
or  district  learns  to  make  some  commodity  bet- 
ter than  other  places.  In  England  watches  are 
made  in  Clerkenwell  ;  steel  pens  in  Birming- 
ham ;  needles  at  Redditch  ;  cutlery  at  Sheffield  ; 
pottery  at  Stoke  ;  ribbons  at  Coventry  ;  glass  at 
.St.  Helen's  ;  straw  bonnets  at  Luton,  etc. 

The  localization  of  industry  promotes  the  edu- 
cation of  skill  and  taste  and  the  diffusion  of 
technical  knowledge. 

Where  large  masses  of  people  are  working  at 
the  same  kind  of  trade,  they  educate  one  an- 
other. The  skill  and  the  taste  required  for  their 
•work  are  in  the  air,  and  children  breathe  them 
as  they  grow  up.  This  is  seen  particularly  in 
such  manufactures  as  those  of  glass  and  pottery. 

Again,  each  man  profits  by  the  ideas  of  his 
neighbors  ;  he  is  stimulated  by  contact  with 
those  who  are  interested  in  his  own 
pursuit  to  make  new  experiments  ; 
Division  of  and  each  successful  invention, 
Industries,  whether  it  be  a  new  machine,  a 
new  process,  or  a  new  way  of  or- 
ganizing the  business,  is  likely 
when  once  started  to  spread  and  to  be  improved 
upon. 

In  a  district  in  which  an  industry  is  localized 
a  skilled  workman  is  sure  of  finding  work  to 
suit  him  ;  a  master  can  easily  fill  a  vacancy 
among  his  foremen  ;  and  generally  the  economy 
of  skill  can  be  carried  further  than  in  an  isolated 
factory,  however  large.  Thus  both  large  and 
i'.mall  factories  are  benefited  by  the  localization 
of  industry  and  by  the  assistance  of  subsidiary 
trades.  But  these  benefits  are  most  important 
to  the  small  factories,  and  free  them  from  many 
of  the  disadvantages  under  which  they  would 
otherwise  labor  in  competition  with  large  facto- 
ries. 

Still  a  large  factory  has  many  special  advan- 
tages. 

Firstly,  greater  economies  can  be  attained  by 
a  large  than  by  a  small  factory  in  such  matters 
-as  the  arrangement  of  buildings,  steam  engines 
and  other  machinery  ;  and  again  in  such  work 


as  that  of  clerks,  doorkeepers,  stokers,  repairers 
of  machines,  etc.  One  high  chimney  can  make 
a  draft  for  a  large  furnace  as  well  as  for  a  small 
one  ;  one  doorkeeper  can  admit  500  men  as 
easily  as  50. 

Again,  a  large  factory  can  often  afford  to 
buy  a  machine  to  do  work  that  is  done  by  hand 
in  a  small  factory.  It  is  true  that  a  small  fac- 
tory devoted  to  one  short  stage  of  the  process  of 
manufacture  may  have  the  best  and  most  high- 
ly specialized  machinery.  But  such  a  factory 
would  not  come  into  existence  until  the  advan- 
tage of  having  special  machinery  for  this  stage 
had  become  well  established. 

Perhaps  the  greatest  economic  advantage  of 
large  factories  is  that  they  can  buy  in  large 
quantities,  and  thus  both  get  better  prices  and 
save  in  transportation. 

Whatever  may  be  the  result  of  the  contest  be- 
tween large  and  small  factories,  it  appears  cer- 
tain that  the  division  of  labor  will  continually 
increase.  This  increase  is  one  of  vital  impor- 
tance. It  adds  to  men's  power  over  nature,  and 
furthers  social  progress. 

There  are  said  to  be  about  36  distinct  kinds  of 
employment  in  making  and  putting  together 
the  parts  of  a  piano  ;  there  are  about  40  trades 
engaged  in  watch-making  ;  in  the  cotton  busi- 
ness there  are  more  than  100  occupations.  But 
new  trades  are  frequently  created,  especially 
when  any  new  discovery  takes  place  ;  thus, 
there  are  at  least  16  different  trades  occupied  in 
photography,  or  in  making  the  things  required 
by  photographers  ;  and  railways  have  produced 
whole  series  of  employments  which  did  not  exist 
fifty" years  ago.  In  the  shoe  trade,  D.  A.  Wells 
states,  in  his  Recent  Economic  Changes,  that 
there  are  really  62  distinct  mechanical  employ- 
ments. 

But  we  must  now  notice  the  disadvantages  of 
division  of  labor.  These  may  not  be  so  numer- 
ous, but  they  are  of  the  utmost  seriousness. 

In  the  first  place,  division  of  labor  tends  to 
make  a  man's  power  narrow  and  restricted  ;  he 
does  one  kind  of  work  so  constantly  that  he  has 
no  time  to  learn  and  practise  other  kinds  of 
work.  A  man  becomes,  as  it  has  been  said, 
worth  only  the  tenth  part  of  a  pin— that  is,  there 
are  men  who  know  only  how  to  make,  for  in- 
stance, the  head  of  a  pin. 

"  Think."  says  Dr.  Josiah  Strong,  "of  mak- 
ing pin-heads  10  hours  a  day,  every  working 
day  in  the  week  for  a  year — 20,  40,  50  years  ! 
A  nailer  .  .  .  does  his  day's  work  by  pressing 
into  the  jaws  of  an  ever- ravenous  machine  a 
small  bar  of  iron.  .  .  .  Think  of  making  that 
movement  for  a  lifetime.  ...  It  admits  of  lit- 
tle interest  and  no  enthusiasm  in  one's  work  ; 
and,  worst  of  all,  it  cramps  the  mind  and  belit- 
tles the  man.  Once  the  man  who  made  the  nail 
could  make  the  iron  fence  also  ;  now  he  cannot 
even  make  the  nail,  but  only  feed  a  machine 
that  makes  it. ' ' 

A  second  disadvantage  of  the  division  of  labor 
is  that  trade  becomes  very  complicated,  and 
when  deranged  the  results  are  ruinous  to  many. 
Each  person  learns  to  supply  only  a  particular 
kind  of  goods,  and  if  change  of  fashion  or  any 
other  cause  leads  to  a  falling  off  in  the  demand 
for  that  kind  of  goods,  the  producer  is  left  in 
poverty  until  he  can  learn  another  trade.  At 


Division  of  Labor. 


5°4 


Divorce  and  Marriage  Reform. 


one  time  the  making  of  crinoline  skirts  for  ladies 
was  a  large  and  profitable  trade  ;  now  it  has 
ceased  almost  entirely,  and  those  "who  learned 
the  business  have  had  to  seek  other  employ- 
ments.    But  each  trade  is  generally  well  sup- 
plied with  hands  perfectly  trained  to  the  work, 
and  it  is  very  difficult  for  fresh  workmen,  espe- 
cially when  old,  to  learn  the  new  work,  and  com- 
pete with  those  who  have  long  prac- 
tised it.     Even  if  he  be  fortunate 
Disad-       enough  to  get  work,  it  is  humiliat- 
vantages.    ing  and  exasperating  to  a  workman 
who,  at  the  cost  of  years  of  toil  and 
application,    has     acquired     skill, 
which  has  become  a  source  of  independence  and 
honest  pride,  to  find  himself  suddenly  supersed- 
ed by  a  machine  and  compelled  at  reduced 
wages  to  stand  and  guide  its  movements — a  ser- 
vice which  can  as  well  be,  and  soon  is,  per- 
formed by  a  girl.     But  the  laborer  not  only  suf- 
fers pecuniarily ;   he  is    socially  and  morally 
degraded.    Division  of  labor  contracts  the  sphere 
of  the  laborer,  renders  him  more  and  more  de- 
pendent upon  others,  dwarfs  him  mentally,  and 
thus  degrades  him. 

Is  it  any  wonder  that  labor  protests?  To 
adopt  a  system  of  compulsory  education,  which 
enlarges  working  men's  ideas  of  liberty,  equal- 
ity, and  manhood,  and  at  the  same  time  reduces 
them  to  industrial  machines,  will  inevitably  re- 
sult in  social  disturbances.  It  is  certain  that  the 
subdivision  of  labor  cheapens  production,  and 
is  therefore  an  economic  principle  which  will 
prevail  more  and  more  in  the  development  of 
industry. 

It  is  equally  and  lamentably  certain  that  little 
or  nothing  has  been  done  to  counteract  its  bale- 
ful effect  upon  the  character  of  laborers.  They 
cannot  afford  to  become  mere  automatons  at  the 
expense  of  their  manhood.  Because  machinery 
can  go  on  forever,  it  is  forgotten  that  flesh  and 
blood  cannot  do  the  same. 

There  are  disadvantages  to  the  community 
generally  apart  from  those  that  affect  the  labor- 
er. When,  under  the  division  of  labor,  a  whole 
town  becomes  dependent  upon  one  industry,  or 
one  branch  of  one  industry,  the  whole  town  be- 
comes too  dependent  upon  the  condition  of  that 
industry.  When  it  is  flourishing  the  town  is 
unhealthily  "  boomed  ;"  when  its  industry  de- 
clines it  is  "swamped."  The  discovery  of  a 
new  method  or  the  invention  of  a  new  machine 
may  ruin  a  whole  town  or  circle  of  towns.  Men 
become  not  the  masters,  but  the  slaves  of  ma- 
chines. They  do  not  possess  their  tools,  but 
are  possessed  by  them. 

Once,  again,  division  of  industry,  by  develop- 
ing machine  work  and  transforming  the  artisan 
into  a  tool,  displaces  handwork,  and  much  of  the 
freedom,  and  individuality,  and  beauty,  and 
variety,  and  originality  that  makes  medieval  art 
work  so  attractive.  It  lowers  esthetic  as  well 
as  moral  ideas.  Machine  work  becomes  the 
rule. 

However,  these  disadvantages  of  the  division 
of  labor  are  not  arguments  for  its  disuse,  but 
for  its  modification.  Undoubtedly  the  lowering 
of  a  man  into  a  tool  is  too  high  a  price  to  pay 
for  advantages  in  quantity  and  ease  of  produc- 
tion of  material  things  ;  but  the  question  is, 
whether  we  may  not  have  the  advantages  with- 


out the  disadvantages.     To  this  end  various 
methods  are  proposed.     The  most  important  is 
perhaps  the  reduction  of  the  hours  of  labor. 
(See  EIGHT-HOUR  MOVEMENT.)    This,  by  reduc- 
ing the  hours  when  men  should  do  their  routine 
work,  would  give  them  increased  opportunity 
to  develop  and  broaden  in  other  ways.     Again, 
nationalists  and  socialists  would  so 
order  society  that  every  man  should     _.ffi     . 
have  the  opportunity  to  labor,  so      . 1   5?  " 
that  if  demand  for  one  kind  of  labor  e  ' 

ceased  he  could  be  sure  of  being 
given  work  in  another  kind  of  labor.  (See  UN- 
EMPLOYMENT.) To  these  should  be  added  a  reform 
in  which  all  agree — the  development  of  techni- 
cal and  industrial  schools,  where,  if  men  choose 
specialties,  they  can  also  be  broadened  by  study 
and  development,  to  some  extent  at  least,  in 
other  lines.  All  progressive  thought  is  agreed 
that  stern  protest  by  word  and  deed  must  be 
made  against  the  tendency  to  reduce  the  man 
to  a  tool. 

Reference  :  J.  A.  Hobson's  The  Evolution  of  Capi- 
talism. 

DIVORCE  AND  MARRIAGE  REFORM. 

— The  movement  for  divorce  reform  in  the 
United  States  is,  on  the  whole,  the  best  point 
from  which  to  treat  the  general  subject  in  this 
work.  The  condition  of  the  divorce  laws  of 
Connecticut  drew  grave  criticism  from  Rev. 
Benjamin  Trumbull  in  the  last  century,  and  from 
the  elder  President  Dwight,  of  Yale,  a  genera- 
tion later.  Then,  in  1867,  President  Woolsey 
first  published  his  able  treatise  in  the  form  of 
articles  for  the  New  Eng  lander,  and  afterward 
in  a  separate  volume.  Little  immediately  came  of 
any  of  these  discussions.  But  in  1877  fresh  inter- 
est in  the  subject  in  Connecticut  and  Vermont, 
and  afterward  in  Massachusetts,  led  to  the  organ- 
ization of  the  New  England  Divorce  Reform 
League  in  1881,  which,  in  1885,  became  the  Na- 
tional Divorce  Reform  League.  Its  correspond- 
ing secretary  and  most  active  officer  is  the  Rev. 
Samuel  W.  Dike,  LL.D.,  Auburndale,  Mass. 
(q.v.}  It  does  not,  as  a  rule,  propose  definite 
measures  of  reform,  but  aims  "to  promote  an 
improvement  in  public  sentiment  and  legislation 
in  the  institution  of  the  family,  especially  as  af- 
fecting existing  evils  relating  to  marriage  and 
divorce."  It  seeks  to  unite  all,  whatever  their 
religious  faith  or  their  views  on  this  particular 
subject  may  be,  who  are  willing  to  cooperate  in 
the  general  aim  of  the  League.  It  holds  the  sub- 
jects of  marriage  and  divorce  to  be  so  insepa- 
rably connected  with  each  other,  and  through 
the  family  with  the  entire  social  order,  that  only 
in  study  and  work  broad  as  the  wider  relations 
of  its  special  subjects  can  the  best  results  be 
permanently  secured.  Scientific  sociology,  if 
one  may  so  speak  of  it,  is,  therefore,  a  necessary 
part  of  its  instrumentalities.  Careful  statistical 
inquiry  is  also  largely  used.  Constructive  work 
is  held  to  be  even  more  important  than  critical 
and  restrictive.  In  nearly  all  if  not  all  these 
methods  the  League  has  been  foremost  among 
social  reforms,  and  owes  much  of  its  success  to 
their  adoption.  The  official  investigation  of 
marriage  and  divorce  in  the  United  States  and 
Europe  was  proposed  by  its  secretary,  and  was 
largely  due  to  its  efforts.  The  League  has  been 


Divorce  and  Marriage  Reform. 


5°5 


Divorce  and  Marriage  Reform. 


a  leading  agency  in  bringing  the  whole  subject 
into  its  present  prominence  in  the  present  hope- 
ful movement  for  uniform  legislation,  and  in 
the  introduction  of  sociology  as  a  study  with  the 
educational  institutions  of  the  United  States. 
The  entire  range  of  these  subjects  has  also 
been  greatly  increased.  This  treatment  of 
divorce  in  the  closest  relation  to  the  family  was 
formerly  rare. 

The  marriage  laws  of  Europe  have  undergone  a 
very  great  change  within  a  century.  The  best  ac- 
count of  this  change,  as  it  affects  the  celebration  of 
marriage,  which  has  been  a  movement  rather  than  a 
reform,  in  the  popular  use  of  this  latter  word,  is  to  be 
found  in  a  series  of  papers  by  Frank  Gaylord  Cook  in 
the  Atlantic  Monthly  in  1888  and  1889,  which  unfor- 
tunately have  not  yet  been  put  into  book  form.  The 
other  features  of  the  change  can  best  be 
studied  in  the  report  mentioned  above, 
Europe.  ar>d  in  the  books  named  in  its  bibliogra- 
phy and  in  others  found  in  the  libraries. 
The  obligatory  civil  marriage  with  the 
optional  religious  celebration  has  come  to  prevail  in 
the  greater  part  of  Europe.  With  this  go  careful  pro- 
visions for  the  protection  of  the  parties  from  fraudu- 
lent marriages ;  for  the  consent  of  parents ;  for  the 
celebration  of  the  marriage  by  some  single  official  in 
each  locality,  or  at  most  by  a  few  ;  for  the  public  rec- 
ord and  preservation  of  the  facts  regarding  the  mar- 
riage, and  in  some  countries  for  the  record  of  all 
dissolutions  of  marriage  from  whatever  cause.  The 
reader  may  consult  the  official  report  for  the  chief 
points  in  the  present  imperial  marriage  law  of  Ger- 
many for  a  good  example  of  a  scientifically  con- 
structed marriage  law,  intended  to  cover  every  im- 
portant point,  and  especially  for  the  protection  it  gives 
against  bigamous  marriages.  Of  course,  these  sys- 
tems in  countries  which  readily  accept  close  official 
inquiry  and  supervision  in  domestic  affairs  could 
hardly  be  transferred  unchanged  to  the  United  States. 
Some  of  their  safeguards,  however,  should  be  adopted 
by  us.  But  caution  should  be  exercised  in  regard  to 
such  features  in  them  as  restrictions  upon  marriage 
relating  to  property  and  other  qualifications  for  a 
sound  domestic  life,"because  of  the  immoral  relations 
which  they  often  induce. 

In  our  own  country,  following  the  lead  of  Massa- 
chusetts, most  States  now  have  a  system  of  marriage 
license ;   many  require  some  sort  of    return  of    the 
licenses  to  a  local  authority,  but  only  21  provide  for 
returns  to  the  central  State  authorities  and  their  official 
publication.    Annual    divorce  statistics  are  still  tess 
available  in  this  country  than  those  of  marriage,  for 
only  eight  or  nine  States  provide  for  them.    In  Eu- 
rope  many   countries  carefully  collect 
and  publish  statistics  of  marriage  and 
The  United  divorce  each  year.  These  annual  returns 
Rtotao         and  tne  remarkable    collection  of   the 
oiaies.        United  States  Report  for  the  years  1867- 
86  taken  from  the  original  sources  for 
all  our  States,  Canada,  and  most  Euro- 
pean countries,  are  the  sources  of  present  statistics. 

No  attempt  is  made  here  to  give  the  chief  points  of 
the  marriage  laws  of  this  country  and  Europe,  both 
for  the  reason  that  space  will  not  permit  and  because 
the  excellent  and  convenient  digest  of  the  report  of  the 
Department  of  Labor  at  Washington,  which  can  be  ob- 
tained without  cost,  renders  this  unnecessary.  The 
same  remark  applies  to  divorce  laws.  Students  should 
always  fifst  consult  this  report.  The  vital  statistics  of 
the  United  States  census,  especially  those  of  the  cen- 
sus of  1890,  and  of  the  registration  reports,  notably 
those  of  Massachusetts,  Michigan,  and  Great  Britain  in 
English,  and  those  of  Germany,  France,  etc.,  are  ex- 
ceedingly instructive  on  the  movement  of  marriage 
and  birth-rates.  A  few  other  States  than  those  named 
also  have  very  good  reports.  A  paper  by  the  writer  of 
this  article  appeared  in  the  proceedings  of  the  Inter- 
national Statistical  Institute  for  1893,  and  in  the  publi- 
cations of  the  American  Statistical  Association  for 
December,  1893,  on  the  Condition  and  Needs  of  Statis- 
tics of  Marriage  and  Divorce.  A.  work  on  divorce  by 
Dr.  Henri  Morselli,  of  Italy,  the  distinguished  authority 
on  suicide  and  its  causes,  is  in  course  of  preparation. 

The  significance  of  the  increase  of  divorce 
must  be  sought  in  its  relation  to  the  family  and 
the  social  order  generally  rather  than  for  its 
bearing  on  individual  morality,  tho  its  evils  here 


are  serious  indeed.  Divorce  is  the  legal  disso- 
lution of  the  relation  of  husband  and  wife,  or, 
practically,  of  the  family,  before  its  termination 
by  the  natural  cause  in  the  death  of  one  of  the 
parties.  The  cases  of  divorce  represent  only 
those  unhappy  domestic  relations  where  for  any 
reason  the  parties  are  willing  to  seek  the  courts 
for  relief,  and  actually  get  it  in  a  decree  of  di- 
vorce. Two  things  should,  therefore,  be  noted 
with  care.  The  number  of  divorces  in  a  given 
period  are  by  no  means  equal  to  the  number  of 
families  in  which  serious  trouble  or  imperfect 
or  vicious  domestic  conditions  exist,  for  they 
only  show  the  number  of  this  greater  class  who 
prefer  divorce  to  further  endurance  of  real  or 
imaginary  troubles,  and  are  willing  to  go  to  the 
courts  for  it.  There  is  an  unknown  number  of 
families  from  which  the  actual  divorces  come, 
in  which  adultery,  desertion,  cruelty,  neglect, 
alienations,  and  lack  of  support  exist.  Then, 
on  the  other  hand,  the  lessened  hold  of  former 
convictions  of  the  sacredness  of  marriage,  the 
increase  of  those  ideas  which  make  it  easier  to 
assert  rights,  and  the  greater  familiarity  of  the 
people  with  the  thought  and  practice  of  divorce 
may  operate  in  a  way  to  increase  the  ratio  of 
divorces  to  population  beyond  the  increase  of  do- 
mestic evils.  Yet  with  the  decreasing  birth- 
rate, especially  among  the  classes  who  are  the 
best  able  to  rear  children  and  yet  are  not  physi- 
cally incapacitated  for  the  duties  of  parents  ;  the 
deliberate  practice  of  criminal  abortion  and  its 
kindred  vice  among  many  ;  the  increase  of  celi- 
bate life  and  the  social  vices  of  many  of  this 
class  as  well  as  of  the  married,  and  the  tendency 
in  certain  quarters  of  society,  even  among  wom- 
en, to  look  upon  marital  infidelity  with  less  ab- 
horrence than  formerly,  the  danger  of  an  exag- 
gerated opinion  of  the  significance  of  the  vast 
and  growing  volume  of  divorces  in  the  United 
States  is  not  very  great.  It  is  probably  more 
than  counterbalanced  by  the  insensibility  to  the 
evils  which  mark  large  numbers,  even  of  the 
better  class  of  our  people. 

A  few  statistics,  summaries  in  all  instances  from  the 
report  of  Mr.  Wright,  Commissioner  of  Labor,  or  for 
years  since  1886,  from  my  own  collections  from  official 
sources,  and  those  of  Australia  from  J.  A.  Coglan, 
Esq.,  Government  Statistician  of  New  South  Wales, 
which  Professor  Willcox,  of  Cornell  University,  se- 
cured, will  now  be  given  in  illustration  of  the  general 
movement,  and  to  bring  out  various  facts  regarding  it. 

For  the  two  extreme  years  covered  by  Mr.  Wright's 
report  we  have  the  following  figures  : 


COUNTRY. 

NUMBER  OF 
DIVORCES. 

1867. 

1886. 

T3° 
2,181    : 

13°    '• 
32 
19 
270 
396 
94 
28 

133 
163 
128 

IQO 

9i937 

354 

6,211 

372 
96 

143 
238 
917 

161 

53 
418 

345 
226 
396 

»5.535 

England  and  Wales  

Poland      

United  States        

*  Six  cantons. 


Divorce  and  Marriage  Reform. 


506 


Divorce  and  Marriage  Reform. 


It  should  be  said  of  France,  that  the  figures  given 
above  for  1886  include  both  separations  and  the  di- 
vorces under  the  new  law  of  1884.  In  1883,  the  separa- 
tions were  3010.  In  1887  the  absolute  divorces  num- 
bered 4685,  and  the  divorces  after  separation  for  three 
years  were  1112  or  5797  in  all. 

Other  countries  give  the  following  :  Canada  had  4 
divorces  in  1868  and  9  in  1888  ;  Denmark,  479  in  1871  and 
577  in  1881 ;  Ireland,  4  in  1871  and  7  in  1886 ;  the  German 
Empire,  5263  in  1882  and  8710  in  1889 ;  Prussia,  2329  in 
1881  and  3808  in  1886  ;  Switzerland  entire  had  1102  in  1876, 
the  first  year  under  the  Federal  law,  and  899  in  1886 ; 
Elsass-Lothringen,  56  in  1874  and  117  in  1886  ;  Hamburg, 
145  in  1880  and  287  in  1886;  Italy,  723  in  1869  and  591  in 
1890 ;  Norway,  33  in  1870  and  71  in  1890  ;  Roumania,  276  in 
1871  and  432  in  1880;  Finland,  55  in  1875  and  62  in  1886; 
Japan,  109,905  in  1884  and  109,088  in  1890,  or  about  one 
third  the  marriages.  Divorces  and  separations,  it 
should  be  said,  are  combined  in  one  total  in  the  above. 
France  granted  separations  only  between  1816  and  1884, 
while  Italy  has  always  granted  separations  only.  Rus- 
sia gives  the  number  of  divorces  reported  from  three 
of  the  religious  bodies  as  follows  :  Orthodox  Greek 
Church,  810  in  1886  and  1196  in  1885;  Evangelical  Augs- 
burg Confusion,  147  in  1867  and  188  in  1886 ;  Evangelical 
Reformed  Confusion,  7  in  1867  and  i  in  1886. 

In  New  South  Wales  divorces  and  separations  in- 
creased from  9  in  1875  to  51  in  1890 ;  in  Victoria,  from 
8  in  1867  to  40  in  1890 ;  in  Queensland,  from  4  in  1877  to 
8  in  1890,  but  separations  are  not  yet  reported ;  in 
South  Australia,  from  3  in  1867  to  n,  n  and  9,  in  1877- 
79  and  9,  ii,  ii  in  1883-85,  decreasing  to  6  and  2  in  1889 
and  1890.  West  Australia  granted  three  divorces  in 
1890 ;  Tasmania  granted  from  none  to  7  between  1867 
and  1890 ;  there  being  2  in  1890.  New  Zealand  granted 
24  divorces  in  1886  and  the  same  in  1890,  with  32  in  1888. 

In  the  eight  States  which  now  give  annual  statistics 

of  divorce,  the  movement  from  1886  onward  has  been 

as  follows :  Connecticut  granted  420  in  1886  and  475  in 

1891 ;  Indiana,  1655  in  1886  and  2235  in  90 

out  of  92  counties  in  1891 ;  Massachusetts, 

Statistics     5^5  m  J886  and  1045  in  1893  ;  Minnesota, 

r  379  in  1886  and  576  in  1892  ;  New  Hamp- 

Dy  states.  shire,  381  in  1886  and  412  in  1891 ;  Ohio, 
1889  in  1886  and  2544  in  1891 ;  Rhode  Isl- 
and, 257  in  1886  and  296  in  1892  ;  and  Ver- 
mont, 129  in  1886  and  165  in  1891,  in  12  of  its  14  counties. 

These  figures  show  that  divorces  are  everywhere 
increasing,  with  some  few  exceptions,  and  generally 
far  more  rapidly  than  the  increase  of  population. 
The  most  marked  exceptions  are  found  in  such  coun- 
tries as  Italy  and  Austria.  The  increase  is  seen  in 
countries  of  the  Greek  Church,  the  Lutheran  and 
other  Protestant  Confusions,  and  in  some  countries 
under  the  Roman  Catholic  faith.  In  the  United 
States,  it  is  found  in  all  parts  of  the  country.  Here, 
as  a  whole,  the  increase  is  about  two  and  one  half 
times  the  increase  of  the  population.  In  some  of  the 
older  States,  however,  divorces  increase  very  slowly, 
as  regards  population,  after  they  have  reached  the 
higher  rates  of  8  to  10  per  cent,  of  the  marriages.  But 
Indiana,  which  for  many  years  seemed  to  recover 
from  her  early  conditions  of  extremely  numerous 
divorces,  had  in  1891  a  divorce  to  less  than  each  1000  of 
her  population,  or  one  third  more  than  10  years  before. 

Of  the  divorces  in  the  United  States,  65.8  per  cent. 

were  granted  on  the  petition  of  the  wife.    Something 

of  this  is  due  to  the  fact  that  she  is  more  frequently  in 

the  position  to  take  the  initiative,  and 

some  of  it  is  due  to  the  commonly  as- 

Statistics     signed  reason  that  she  is  oftener   the 

fnr  TT -nit-orl  greater  sufferer  in  an  unhappy  mar- 
tea  riage.  That  38  per  cent,  of  the  total 
States.  were  granted  for  desertion,  20  per  cent, 
for  adultery,  16  per  cent,  for  cruelty, 
and  4  per  cent,  for  drunkenness,  is  no 
indication  of  the  distribution  of  the  real  causes,  for 
the  conditions  of  law,  ease  or  difficulty  of  proof  and 
the  condition  of  public  sentiment  are  large  elements 
in  the  problem.  For  example,  one  half  of  all  the 
divorces  for  drunkenness  in  the  United  States  occurred 
in  the  four  States  of  Illinois,  Ohio,  Iowa,  and  Massa- 
chusetts, which  indicates  that  conditions  favor  the  use 
of  this  plea  for  divorce  in  those  States,  and  not  that 
the  people  of  those  particular  States  are  more  intem- 
perate than  those  of  others.  The  special  examination 
of  29,665  divorce  cases  in  45  counties  in  12  selected 
States  showed  that  "in  20.1  per  cent,  of  the  whole 
number  intemperance  was  a  direct  or  indirect  cause." 

In  the  29,670  cases  just  noted,  "the  average  period  of 
married  life  between  marriage  and  separation  was 
681  years,  while  the  average  period  between  separa- 
tion and  divorce  was  3.02  years."  This  makes  9.83 
years  from  marriage  to  divorce.  For  the  United 


States  the  average  married  life  before  divorce  for  the 
20  years  is  9.17.  As  a  rule,  it  is  longer  in  the  older 
States  than  elsewhere.  Out  of  the  total  of  328,716 
divorces  granted  in  20  years,  25,371  were  granted  to 
parties  who  had  been  married  21  years  and  over,  or,  on 
an  average,  26.95  years.  The  largest  number,  how- 
ever, 27,909,  had  lived  together  four  years ;  the  next 
largest — 27,270— three  years ;  while  21,525  had  been 
married  only  two  years,  and  15,622  only  one  year.  The 
European  figures  generally  show  nearly  the  same 
average  length  of  married  life,  and  in  countries  where 
divorces  are  more  frequent,  nearly  the  same  propor- 
tion of  divorces  soon  after  marriage.  But  it  is  sad  to 
see  that  the  number  of  divorces  after  many  years  of 
married  life  is  increasing. 

In  14.6  per  cent,  of  the  cases,  the  positive  statement 
was  made  that  there  were  no  children.  And  in  43  per 
cent,  more  no  mention  was  made  of  children  as  enter- 
ing into  the  legal  proceedings.  Where  children  do  ap- 
pear, the  average  is  2.07  to  each  couple.  The  presence 
of  children,  especially  in  the  larger  families,  is  a  de- 
terrent from  divorce,  except  among  the  poorer  classes, 
where  it  often  leads  to  desertion  by  the  father,  and 
then  application  for  divorce  by  the  deserted  wife. 
Connecticut,  and  perhaps  other  States,  now  make  de- 
sertion and  refusal  of  support  a  criminal  offense. 

Important  light  is  thrown  on  migrations  from  one 
State  to  another  to  obtain  divorce  by  a  comparison  of 
the  place  of  marriage  with  that  or  divorce.  Of  the 
328,716  divorces  in  the  United  States  in  1867-86,  the 
place  of  marriage  is  given  in  the  libels  for  divorce, 
which  furnish  the  basis  of  the  official  statistics  in  289,- 
546  cases.  Of  the  remaining  31,389,  more  than  one 
fourth  were  in  Connecticut,  where  this  particular  is 
not  required  in  petitions  for  divorce.  But  of  the  289,- 
546  cases,  80.  i  per  cent,  were  married  in  the  States 
where  the  divorce  occurred,  leaving  19.9  per  cent,  to 
be  divided  between  those  who  migrated  without 
thought  of  divorce  at  the  time  and  those  who  left  the 
State  of  their  residence  to  seek  divorce  elsewhere. 
Allowing  for  the  migratory  character  of  our  popula- 
tion and  the  length  of  time  between  marriage  and 
divorce,  it  is  evident  that  conflicting  laws  actually 
affect  a  small  part  either  of  the  marriages  or  divorces. 
That  people  can  avail  themselves  of  the  conflicting 
laws  is  one  thing.  How  far  they  actually  do  this  is 
quite  another.  Considerations  of  time,  expense,  con- 
venience, and  social  restraints  all  operate  as  deterrents. 

In  1886  nine  States  and  Territories  permitted- 
marriage  after    divorce    without  the  slightest 
limitation,  and  15  more  practically  permit  re- 
marriage.    Nineteen   permit  mar- 
riage, but  under  certain  restrictions, 
such  as  exception  in  case  of  adul-  Legislation, 
tery,  permission  of  the  court,  re- 
striction for  six  months  to  both  par- 
ties, and  for  10  months  to  the  wife,  and  for  two 
or  three  years  to  the  defendant.     The  number 
of  persons  who  actually  remarry  after  divorce  un- 
fortunately is  unknown .     In  Connecticut  for  two 
recent  years  the  number  of  divorced  persons  who 
married  in  each  year  was  less  than  40  per  cent, 
of  those  divorced  in  the  same  years,  and  some 
European  figures  show  about  the  same  ratio. 
The  census  of  the  United  States  for  1890  gives 
120,496  divorced  persons  living  in  the  country 
at  that  time.    This  is  but  little  more  than  double 
the  number  probably  divorced  in  that  year,  and 
can  hardly  represent  the  number  of  persons  m 
transitu  between  divorce  and  remarriage  and 
the  large  number  who  do  not  remarry  at  all,  as 
statistics  of  this  class  are  difficult  to  collect. 

The  tendency  of  legislation  in  the  United 
States  for  the  last  10  years  has  been  in  the  right 
direction  with  slight  exceptions.  Marriage  and 
divorce  laws  are  gradually  being  changed  for 
the  better.  More  or  less  important  changes 
have  been  made  in  a  dozen  States,  and  with 
wholesome  results.  The  old  "  omnibus  clause" 
of  Connecticut  and  several  other  States  now  re- 
mains on  the  statute  book  of  Washington  alone. 
The  term  of  residence  before  a  party  can  apply 


Divorce  and  Marriage  Reform.          5°7  Divorce  and  Marriage  Reform. 


for  a  divorce  in  a  State,  which  ranges  from  90 
days  in  Oklahoma  to  five  years  in  Massachu- 
setts, has  been  raised  in  California,  Georgia,  and 
South  Dakota.  The  remarriage  of  the  de- 
fendant has  been  greatly  restricted  in  Maine, 
Massachusetts,  Michigan,  and  Vermont.  The 
last  two  now  require  delay  between  the  appli- 
cation and  trial,  and  some  have  recently  re- 
quired the  attention  of  the  attorney  of  the  State 
in  its  interests.  Delaware  forbids  the  trial  in 
its  courts  of  a  case  when  the  cause  occurred  out 
of  the  State  and  the  petitioner  was  a  non-resi- 
dent at  the  time,  unless  the  cause  alleged  is  also 
a  ground  for  divorce  in  the  State  from  which 
the  party  came.  This  movement  would  proba- 
bly have  gone  on  much  farther  but  for  another 
in  behalf  of  uniform  laws,  which  has  been  gath- 
ering momentum  for  several  years. 

Of  the  need  of  greater  uniformity  there  has 
been  no  doubt.  But  the  extent  to  which  it 
should  be  sought  and  the  way  to  secure  it  have 
been  warmly  discussed.  The  abuses  under 
conflicting  divorce  laws  and  the  quite  as  seri- 
ous ones  under  the  marriage  laws  are  well 
known.  The  marriage  laws  are  in  conflict  re- 
garding the  degrees  of  relationship,  consent  of 
parents,  age  at  which  parties  may  lawfully 
marry,  license  fees,  registration,  degree  of  pub- 
licity, and  the  effects  of  a  remarriage  after  di- 
vorce. The  divorce  laws  vary  in  regard  to 
causes  for  which  divorce  may  be  granted,  from 
no  divorce  or  marriage  laws  in  South  Carolina 
to  14  causes  for  divorce  in  New  Hampshire  ;  in 
respect  to  the  class  of  courts  and  their  practice  : 
to  residence,  restrictions  upon  remarriage  and 
effects  of  a  divorce. 

Naturally  public  attention  has  turned  to  the 
need  of  a  uniform  national  law  of  marriage  and 
divorce,  which  can  be  obtained  only  through  an 

amendment  of  the  Constitution  of 

the  United  States.    This  would  give 

A  Uniform  jurisdiction  over  these  subjects  to 

National     Congress  or  to  the  States  on  some 

Law.        prescribed   basis.     The  difficulties 

in  the  way  of  this  plan  are  serious. 

Some  of  them  are  :  The  consent  of 
the  States  to  the  transfer  of  a  portion  of  their 
reserved  powers  to  the  Congress,  with  the  pos- 
sibility at  least  that  in  time  the  closely  related 
parts  of  domestic  law  relating  to  wills,  inter- 
state succession  to  property,  and  the  like  would 
have  to  go  to  the  same  jurisdiction  as  marriage 
and  divorce  ;  the  difficulty  of  adopting  one  law 
for  a  great  variety  of  people  in  race  and  local 
customs  ;  the  risk  of  increasing  the  number  of 
divorces  under  some  law  reflecting  the  average 
opinion  of  Congress  ;  and  the  small  part  of  the 
marriages  and  divorces  that  would  really  be 
affected  by  uniform  legislation,  as  practically 
shown  by  the  statistics  already  given. 

Just  as  the  Government  report  was  to  appear, 
the  State  of  New  York  created  a  Commission  on 
Uniform  Legislation  on  a  plan  first  suggested 
by  ex-President  Woolsey,  of  Yale,  in  1881,  and 
invited  other  States  to  do  the  same.  At  present 
(December,  1893),  19  States,  including  the  most 
important,  have  created  similar  commissions. 
Two  or  three  conferences  have  already  been  held 
and  important  suggestions  made.  This  has  been 
called  the  most  important  movement  in  juristic 
work  since  the  adoption  of  the  Federal  Constitu- 


tion. Enough  States  are  already  in  it  to  do  good 
work  and  insure  success  so  far  as  it  can  be  won 
on  this  plan.  It  disturbs  no  rights  of  the  States  ; 
leaves  a  large  freedom  for  local  conditions  to 
shape  local  law  ;  can  reach  many  serious  abuses  ; 
and,  if  it  is  finally  made  evident  that  the  con- 
stitutional change  should  be  made,  the  work 
done  will  demonstrate  the  necessity  and  prepare 
the  way  for  the  necessary  amendment. 

But  it  is  clear  that  the  roots  of  reform  touch- 
ing marriage  and  divorce  lie  deep  and  spread 
far  in  the  social  soil.  It  cannot  be  too  strongly 
urged  that  these  are  but  organic  parts  of  the 
larger  problem  of  the  family  and  its  relation  to 
the  social  order,  and  that  constructive  work  of 
the  broadest  and  most  fundamental  order  must 
be  done.  A  generation  of  clergymen,  lawyers, 
teachers,  writers,  must  be  educated  in  the  sub- 
jects that  lie  about  the  family  before  we  can 
look  for  the  best  results  in  legislation  and  legal 
administration,  where,  by  the  way,  half  the 
work  of  legal  reform  in  divorce  is  to  be  done. 
This  work  is  now  going  on.  The  constant 
effort  of  the  Divorce  Reform  League  to  intro- 
duce the  study  of  the  family  and  of  sociology, 
especially  that  of  the  social  structure,  its  insti- 
tutions and  forces  from  a  sociological  point  of 
view  rather  than  the  general  one  of  the  several  so- 
cial sciences,  its  insistence  on  statistics,  together 
with  the  general  interest  of  many  others  in  so- 
ciology, are  telling.  Where  a  dozen  years  ago 
almost  no  work  was  done  in  these  subjects,  to- 
day nearly  all  the  higher  educational  institu- 
tions do  something,  and  some  of  them  have  very 
full  courses  on  the  family  and  sociology.  More 
recently  colleges  for  women  are  doing  more 
work  of  this  kind,  and  will  soon  put  into  society 
a  large  number  of  exceptionally  well-qualified 
students  and  leaders  of  reform. 

The  effect  of  this  upon  other  reforms  demands 
brief  notice  here.  The  fact  that  the  family  is 
germinal  of  the  other  great  social  institutions, 
and  enters  into  the  social  order  just 
as  tissue  makes  up  every  part  of  the 
human  body,  will  soon  compel  the  The  Family, 
attention  of  both  students  and  re- 
formers. The  modern  change  from 
the  exclusive  attention  to  the  individual  being, 
the  individual  institution,  or  a  single  class  of 
men  and  institutions,  to  the  individual,  the  in- 
stitution and  the  class  in  their  intricate  organic 
relations,  is  slowly  working  a  great  revolution 
in  the  methods  of  reform.  The.  method  popular 
just  now  in  some  quarters,  of  massing  a  great 
number  of  more  or  less  related  subjects  under 
one  leading  reform,  is  a  partial  abandonment  of 
the  old  individualistic  method  without  direct 
recognition  of  the  modern  one  of  organic  effort. 
Its  weakness  is  that  it  is  still  essentially  indi- 
vidualistic. More  and  more  will  criminal  reform 
and  that  of  intemperance,  poverty,  and  vice, 
turn  from  the  prison,  the  saloon,  the  almshouse, 
the  factory,  and  the  brothel  as  chief  points  of 
attack,  to  the  home  as  the  most  important  single 
center  of  successful  reform,  where  preventive 
and  constructive  work  can  be  done.  We  shall 
learn  to  do  less  "for  the  home,"  as  the  phrase 
goes,  and  do  more  through  it.  Both  Church  and 
State,  school  and  reform,  have  much  to  learn  in 
the  application  of  self-restraint  in  their  efforts 
"  for  the  home,"  that  the  home  may  get  on  its 


Divorce  and  Marriage  Reform. 


508 


Dock  Strike  of  London,  1888. 


own  feet  and  learn  the  nobler  lesson  of  Christian 
charity,  which  helps  most  and  best  when  it 
teaches  self-respect  and  encourages  self-help  as 
one  of  the  richest  gifts  of  God  to  man. 

This  article  has  made  no  reference  to  the  re- 
ligious doctrines  regarding  marriage  and  di- 
vorce. But  its  writer  will  simply  add  a  thought 
or  two.  He  will  not  go  into  ques- 
tions of  exegesis  for  want  of  space, 
Religious  and  because  that  must  be  left  for 
Ground,  experts  in  biblical  scholarship.  The 
hint,  however,  is  thrown  out  that 
the  time  is  soon  coming  for  a  re-ex- 
amination of  the  various  conclusions  of  past  dis- 
cussions under  the  methods  of  modern  scientific 
study.  This  may  revise  our  forms  of  statement 
and  defense,  while  it  may  not  change  the  sub- 
stance of  the  form  or  conclusions  of  various  parts 
of  the  Church.  Nor  should  this  surprise  the 
reader  who  recalls  the  far  better  knowledge  we 
have  of  the  individual  in  the  Bible  in  the  last 
century  since  the  social  and  political  place  of 
the  individual  man  began  to  be  more  fully 
understood.  The  Church  in  the  Christian  cen- 
turies has  studied  marriage,  divorce,  chastity, 
etc. ,  as  isolated  subjects,  rarely  taking  them  in 
their  connection  with  the  family,  which  it  has 
seldom  attempted  to  treat  until  of  late.  When 
it  learns  through  sociology  to  discriminate  insti- 
tutions, to  differentiate  and  coordinate  without 
obliterating  social  functions,  it  will  gain  new 
strength  in  some  if  not  in  all  of  its  old  and  funda- 
mental positions.  The  remarkable  thing  about 
the  most  important  utterance  of  Christ  about 
divorce  is  that  He  pointed  to  nature  in  the  con- 
stitution of  the  sexes  for  His  doctrine,  and  in 
His  statement  gave  the  fundamentals  of  the 
monogamous  family — that  is.  He  threw  the 
whole  subject  into  the  field  of  science,  and  thus 
made  it  the  common  problem  of  the  religious 
teacher  and  the  scientific  student. 

SAMUEL  W.  DIKE. 

References :  The  Annual  Reports  of  tlte    National 
Divorce  Reform  League.    See  also  FAMILY. 

DOCK  STRIKE  OF  LONDON,  1888, 
THE. — In  its  importance  to  the  whole  labor 
question  of  England,  this  strike  has  perhaps 
greater  relative  value  than  any  other  struggle 
within  the  last  decade.  To  understand  its  im- 
port, it  will  be  necessary  to  know  somewhat  of 
the  conditions  which  preceded  it.  The  East 
End  of  London  has  for  years  been  the  despair 
of  philanthropists  and  reformers.  It  seemed  to 
be  full  of  hopeless,  helpless  misery  that  was  be- 
yond any  one's  power  to  cope  with  ;  and  of  the 
most  hopeless  description  was  the  lot  of  the 
"  casual"  docker.  The  work  of  unloading  and 
carrying  to  the  warehouse  the  cargoes  of  ship 
requires  as  little  skill  as  any  labor  that  one  can 
do  ;  and  being,  for  that  reason,  work  that  any 
man  can  do,  it  had  become  the  refuge  of  all 
those  who  could  not  find  work  elsewhere.  But 
it  was  only  a  last  resort ;  for  the  force  of  compe- 
tition amdhg  the  men  had  made  the 

Occasion      rates  °f  PaY  so  l°w  an^  tne  chances 

'     '     of  work  so  uncertain  that  the  dock 

gates  were  practically  the  lowest 

rung  in  the  ladder.    The  hopeless  apathy  which 

the  men  displayed  to  all  attempts  to  organize 


them  into  unions  made  it  seem  that  all  efforts 
were  wasted.  When,  however,  the  Gas  Work- 
ers' Union  was  formed  in  1888,  and  the  gas  men 
gained  substantial  improvements  in  their  lot, 
the  "  dockers"  began  to  pluck  up  courage,  and 
the  trade-union  that  Mr.  Tillet  (g.v.)  was  or- 
ganizing grew  rapidly.  The  strike  itself  broke 
out  on  August  12  over  a  small  dispute  at  the 
South  West  India  Dock,  which  was,  however, 
only  the  spark  which  kindled  the  blaze.  The 
real  grievances  had  long  rankled  in  the  minds 
of  the  men.  Two  days  later,  all  the  men  from 
the  South  West  India  Dock  being  out,  they  sent 
to  Tom  Mann  ((f.v.),  asking  his  help  in  organiz- 
ing, and  in  calling  out  the  men  working  in  the 
other  docks,  which  are  dotted  here  and  there  for 
miles  along  the  Thames. 

After  two  days'  continual  speech-making  out- 
side the  various  dock  gates,  nearly  all  the  dock- 
ers responded  to  the  call.     John  Burns  (g.v.) 
now  volunteered  his  assistance,  and  from  this 
time  became  the  leading  figure  in 
the  struggle.    In  ten  days  the  whole 
of  the  riverside  workers,  including     Extent. 
all  the  stevedores,  painters,  sealers, 
corn    porters,    deal    porters,   coal- 
heavers,  seamen  and  firemen,  carmen,  lighter- 
men, bargemen,  and  all  whose  work  in  any 
way  affected  that  of  the  "  docker,"  came  out  on 
strike  ;  most  of  them  without  making  any  de- 
mand for  themselves,  but  simply  to  show  their 
sympathy  with  the -dockers,  and  strengthen  the 
claims  they  were  making.     Some  150,000  men 
were  involved.    Day  after  day  during  the  whole 
of  the  five  weeks  that  the  strike  lasted  mass 
meetings  were  held  on  Tower  Hill,  at  which  all 
the  news  and  the  orders  of  the  day  were  given  ; 
the  meetings  then  marching  in  procession  with 
banners  and  emblems  westward  to  the  city  and 
back.     The  leaders  meantime  worked  night  and 
day  at  the  gigantic  task  of  organizing  and  pro- 
viding sustenance  for  the  heterogeneous  mass 
now  depending  on  them.     Stirred  by  the  exam- 
ple of  the  riverside  workmen,  who  had  volun- 
tarily made    such  sacrifices,  all  England  was 
roused  to  sympathy  with  the  men,  and  liberal 
subscriptions  began  to  pour  in.    Clergymen  and 
members  of  the  nobility  subscribed.     At  least 
$200,000  passed  through  the  hands  of  the  com- 
mittee.    Nor  was  this  feeling  confined  to  Eng- 
land alone.     In  Australia  their  cause  was  taken 
up  in  an  unprecedented  manner,  subscriptions 
being  raised  in  all  quarters  ;  indeed,  the  gener- 
ous support  from  Australia  may  be  said  to  have 
ensured  the  victory,  for  thousands  of  pounds 
was  sent  from  thence  during  the  last 
two  weeks  of  the  strike.    From  first 
to  last  the  men  held  firm  to  their    Demands, 
demands,  which  were  :  "  No  man 
to  be  taken  on  for  less  than  four 
hours  at  a  time  ;  contract  work  and  piece-work 
to  be  abolished,  and  wages  to  be  raised  to  six 
pence  (12  cents)  per  hour,  with  eightpence  (16 
cents)  per  hour  for  overtime. ' '     All  who  knew 
the  conditions  of  dock  work  felt  that  the  de- 
mands were  so  moderate  that  the  men  could  not 
afford  to  accept  less  ;  while,  on  the  other  hand, 
the  dock  companies  remained  obdurate.     The 
whole  trade  of  the  port  of  London  was  at  a 
standstill  ;  the  effects  began  to  be  felt  in  every 
home,  until  the  general  public  began  to  take  a 


Dock  Strike  of  London,  1  888. 


5°9 


Domestic  Service. 


direct  interest  in  the  struggle,  demanding  that 
there  should  be  an  end  to  it.  On  September  6 
a  conciliation  committee  met  at  the  Mansion 
House  to  act  as  intermediaries  between  the 
directors  and  the  men.  To  this  committee, 
which  consisted  of  Cardinal  Manning,  the  Bishop 
of  London,  the  Lord  Mayor  of  London,  Sir  An- 
drew Lusk,  Sir  John  Lubbock,  and  Mr.  Sydney 
Buxton,  most  of  the  final  negotia- 
tions were  due.  Finally,  princi- 
Victory.  pally  through  the  efforts  of  Cardi- 
nal Manning  and  Mr.  Sydney  Bux- 
ton, the  strike  was  brought  to  a 
•close  on  September  14  by  the  directors  granting 
all  the  men's  demands,  which  were  to  come  into 
operation  on  November  4.  The  gaining  of  bet- 
ter conditions  by  the  dockers  is  the  least  impor- 
tant of  the  results  ensuing  from  this  strike.  It 
opened  a  new  page  in  the  history  of  English 
labor  movements.  Before  then,  with  very  few 
exceptions,  each  trade  had  been  obliged  to  fight 
its  own  battle  single-handed  ;  in  this  case  not 
only  did  all  the  kindred  workers  unite  with 
them,  undertaking  all  the  hardship  and  misery 
that  a  strike  means,  with  no  other  purpose  in 
view  than  the  betterment  of  their  brothers,  but 
all  the  other  trades  helped,  too,  by  money  and 
sympathy.  Never  before  was  the  feeling  of 
solidarity  so  greatly  evinced.  The  chord  so 
strongly  struck  has  wakened  into  life  the  public 
conscience  on  such  matters,  which  even  now  is 
taking  shape  in  the  various  labor  movements 
and  reforms  that  are  agitating  the  public  mind 
in  England. 

ALFRED  HICKS. 

DOLGEVILLE  is  the  name  of  a  little  manu- 
facturing town  in  the  Mohawk  Valley  in  New 
York  State,  220  miles  due  north  from  New  York 
City.  It  is  famous  for  the  cooperative  or  profit- 
sharing  experiments  carried  on  there  by  Mr. 
Alfred  Dolge.  Mr.  Dolge,  a  German,  came  to 
the  little  place,  then  called  Brockett's  Bridge,  in 
1874.  With  the  small  capital  at  his  command  he 
bought  an  old  tannery  there,  and  prospered,  and 
soon  added  a  felt  industry,  to-day  the  main  in- 
terest. At  first  he  made  felt  almost  solely  for 
pianos.  In  1883  he  commenced  making  the 
Dolge  "felt  shoe."  Prospering  in  this,  he  in- 
creased his  works,  and  now  employs  many  hun  - 
dred  men.  In  1887  the  name  of  the  place  was 
changed  to  Dolgeville.  As  early  as  1880  Mr. 
Dolge  started  a  mutual  aid  society  among  his 
•employees,  to  help  them  to  become  independent 
.and  capable  of  managing  their  own  affairs.  In 
1882  he  added  a  pension  plan,  entitling  each 
employee,  after  10  years  of  employment,  to  a 
pension  in  case  of  accident,  sickness,  or  old  age, 
•consisting  of  50  per  cent,  of  his  last  year's  sal- 
ary. If  he  had  worked  13  years,  it  was  to  be  60 
per  cent.,  and  so  on  till  he  who  had  worked  25 
years  was  to  be  entitled  to  100  per  cent.  In  1887 
Mr.  Dolge  added  still  another  element  to  his 
scheme — a  plan  of  life  insurance.  This  was 
simply  to  grant  a  life  insurance  of  $1000  to  each 
employee  who  had  worked  10  years,  and  another 
$1000  for  10  years'  more  service.  Mr.  Dolge 
has  also  built  a  club-house  with  gymnasium, 
library,  etc. ,  for  his  employees  ;  he  has  opened  a 
park  and  opened  a  free  evening  school ;  a  school 
society  has  been  formed  and  an  academy  founded. 


Mr.  Dolge  objects  to  "profit-sharing"  (g.v.), 
but  believes  that  one  of  the  greatest  factors  in 
harmonizing  labor  and  capital  will  be  "  the  edu- 
cation of  the  working  man." 

With  him  there  is  no  such  thing  as  "  profits." 
All  gains  are  "  earnings" — the  earnings  of  labor 
or  of  capital,  or  of  both  together.  The  labor 
may  be  manual  or  intellectual,  or  both  ;  the 
manual  labor  may  be  skilled  or  unskilled  ;  the 
intellectual  labor,  that  of  the  foreman,  the  super- 
intendent, the  general  manager,  the  inventor, 
the  salesman,  the  proprietor  (who  guides  all  and 
is  responsible  for  all). 

Mr.  Dolge  has,  therefore,  directed  all  his 
efforts  toward  securing  "  a  just  distribution  of 
earnings. ' '  To  do  this  he'  has  necessarily  had 
to  determine  what  the  exact  earnings  of  each  in- 
dividual in  his  business  were,  irrespective  of  the 
question  of  salaries  and  wages.  In  this  direc- 
tion he  has  had  some  success  in  a  most  elabo- 
rate system  of  book-keeping. 

Practically,  what  he  does  is  to  set  aside  each 
year  a  calculated  amount  of  profits  of  his  busi- 
ness for  the  benefit  of  his  men.  He  is  with 
them  naturally  popular,  and  his  works  a  happy 
community.  He  is  to-day  the  largest  felt  and 
felt-shoe  manufacturer  in  the  world,  doing  a 
business  of  about  $1,000,000  a  year,  with  an  im- 
port business  of  as  much  more.  Up  to  1890  the 
firm  had  paid  out  $170,000. 

DOLLAR.     See  CURRENCY. 

DOMESTIC  SERVICE.— The  condition  of 
domestic  service  in  the  United  States  has  been 
affected  by  two  historical  facts.     The  first  is  the 
change  made  within  a  hundred  years  by  the 
substitution  of  the  factory  system  of  manufac- 
tures for  the  previous  domestic  system.     This 
change,  involving  a  division  of  labor,  has  neces- 
sitated a  readjustment  of  the  work  within  the 
household.     It   has  increased  the  demand  for 
persons  giving  all  of  their  time  to  household 
work,  and  it  has  limited  the  supply.     The  divi- 
sion of  labor  is  not  yet  fully  accomplished,  and 
out  of  this  fact  grows  a  part  of  the  friction  found 
in  domestic  service.     The  second  historical  fact 
is  the  series  of  political  revolutions  of  the  cen- 
tury acting  in  connection  with  certain  economic 
and   social    forces.     Domestic  ser- 
vice in  America  has  had  three  dis- 
tinct   phases.      During    the    early     Develop- 
colonial  period  service  of  every  kind     ment  in 
was  in  general  performed  by  ' '  re-  the  United 
demptioners. "    The  colonization  of       States. 
the  New  World  gave  opportunity 
for  the  transportation  and  subse- 
quent employment  in  the  colonies  of  large  num- 
bers of  persons  who  as  a  rule  belonged  to  a  low 
class  in  the  social  scale.     These  redemptioners, 
who  paid  their  passage  to  this  country  by  sell- 
ing themselves  into  service,  were  found  in  all 
the  colonies,  tho  more  numerous  in  the  South- 
ern and  Middle  colonies  than  in  New  England. 
In  Virginia  and  Maryland  they  apparently  out- 
numbered  negro  servants  until  the  latter  part  of 
the  seventeenth    century.     Some  of  these  re- 
demptioners and  many  of  their  descendants  be- 
came in  time  wealthy  and  prominent  members 
of  their  communities,  especially  at  the  North,  but 
for  a  long  time  they  were  generally  considered 


Domestic  Service. 


Domestic  Service. 


the  offscourings  of  English  cities,  and  formed  a 
distinct  class  in  the  social  order  lower  than  their 
masters  or  employers.  In  view  of  this  fact,  a 
reproach  was  of  necessity  attached  to  all  belong- 
ing to  the  class  and  to  the  designation  applied 
to  them. 

A  second  phase  came  about  the  time  of  the 
Revolution,  when  at  the  North  the  indented 
servants  as  a  class  were  gradually  supplanted 
by  free  laborers  and  at  the  South  by  negro 
slaves,  who  inherited  with  large  interest  the  re- 
proach attached  to  redemptioners.  .  The  social 
chasm  that  had  existed  at  the  North  between 
employer  and  employee  under  the  system  of 
bond  servants  disappeared.  The  free  laborers, 
whether  employed  in  domestic  service  or  other- 
wise, were  socially  the  equal  of  their  employers, 
especially  in  New  England  and  in  the  smaller 
towns.  They  belonged  by  birth  to  the  same 
section  of  the  country,  probably  to  the  same 
community  ;  they  had  the  same  religious  belief, 
attended  the  same  church,  sat  at  the  same  fire- 
side, ate  at  the  same  table,  and  had  the  same  as- 
sociates as  their  employers.  They  were  in  every 
sense  of  the  word  "  help."  A  survival  of  this 
condition  of  affairs  is  seen  to-day  in  farming 
communities,  especially  at  the  West.  In  the 
South,  on  the  contrary,  the  social  chasm  became 
impassable,  as  negro  slavery  entirely  displaced 
white  labor. 

This  condition  of  democratic  service  at  the 
North  and  slavery  at  the  South  continued  in 
both  sections  from  the  time  of  the  Revolution 
until  about  the  middle  of  this  century.  Between 
1850  and  1870  four  important  political  changes 
revolutionized  the  character  of  domestic  service, 
and  have  introduced  the  third  period  in  the  his- 
tory of  the  subject. 

The  first  of  these  was  the  Irish  famine  in 
1845.  Previous  to  this  time  the  emigration  to 
this  country  from  Ireland  had  been  small,  aver- 
aging not  more  than  20,000  annually  between 
1820  and  1846.  In  the  decade  previous  to  the 
famine  the  average  number  of  arrivals  had  been 
less  than  35,000  annually.  In  1846  the  number 
was  51,752,  and  this  was  more  than 
doubled  the  following  year,  the  re- 
Emigration,  ports  showing  105,536  arrivals  in 
1847.  In  1851  the  number  of  ar- 
rivals from  Ireland  had  risen  to 
221,253.  Since  that  time  the  number  has  fluctu- 
ated, but  between  50,000  and  75,000  persons  an- 
nually came  to  this  country  from  Ireland.  A 
large  proportion  of  these  emigrants,  49  per 
cent,  during  the  last  decade,  have  been  women 
who  were  classed  as  ' '  unskilled  laborers. ' '  Two 
occupations  were  open  to  them.  One  was  in 
factories,  where,  as  manufacturing  processes 
became  more  simple,  unskilled  labor  could  be 
utilized.  The  Irish  emigrants  soon  displaced 
New  England  women,  who  found  new  oppor- 
tunities for  work  of  a  higher  grade.  The  sec- 
ond occupation  open  to  the  Irish  was  household 
service.  Here  physical  strength  formed  a  par- 
tial compensation  for  lack  of  skill  and  ignorance 
of  American  ways,  and  the  Irish  soon  came  to 
form  a  most  numerous  and  important  class  en- 
gaged in  domestic  employments. 

A  second  important  European  change  influ- 
encing the  condition  of  domestic  service  was  the 
German  Revolution  of  1848  with  the  events  pre- 


ceding and  resulting  from  it.  Before  this  period 
the  emigration  from  Germany  had  been  insig- 
nificant, fewer  than  15,000  coming  to  this  coun- 
try annually  between  1830  and  1840.  In  1840, 
owing  to  political  reasons,  the  number  had  risen 
to  29,704  ;  but  in  1841,  after  the  accession  of 
Frederick  William  IV.,  it  fell  to  15,291.  It  soon 
became  evident  that  the  hopes  raised  by  the  ac- 
cession of  the  new  monarch  were  without  foun- 
dation, and  emigration  rapidly  increased,  until 
the  number  of  emigrants  coming  to  America 
reached  nearly  75,000  in  1847.  During  the  year 
of  the  Revolution  the  number  decreased  ;  but 
the  failure  of  the  cause  of  the  revolutionary 
party  and  the  political  apathy  that  followed 
again  increased  the  movement  toward  America. 
This  reached  its  climax  in  1854,  when  the  num- 
ber of  Germans  arriving  in  this  country  was  215,- 
009 — a  number  equaled  but  once  since  that  time, 
altho  the  number  has  averaged  nearly  150,000 
annually  during  the  last  decade. 

A  large  number  of  these  emigrants  have 
been  women,  the  proportion  of  women  emigrat- 
ing from  Germany  being  greater  than  from  any 
other  foreign  country  except  Ireland.  The 
ranks  of  domestic  service  have  been  recruited 
from  their  number  also,  the  Germans  being- 
second  only  to  the  Irish  as  regards  the  number 
and  proportion  engaged  in  this  occupation. 

A  third  political  influence  affecting  the  ques- 
tion was  the  establishment  of  treaty  relations 
between  the  United  States  and  China  in  1844. 
This  fact,  and  the  discovery  of  gold  in  Califor- 
nia in  1848,  and  the  building  of  the  Union  Pa- 
cific Railroad  in  1867-69,  opened  the  doors  to 
the  emigration  of  considerable  numbers  of 
Chinese.  Many  of  these  found  their  way  into 
domestic  service,  and  on  the  Pacific  coast  they 
have  become  formidable  competitors  of  other 
nationalities  in  this  occupation. 

These  political  and  economic  conditions  in 
Europe  and  the  breaking  down  of  long-es- 
tablished customs  in  Asia  have  thus,  since  1850, 
brought  to  this  country  large  numbers  of  men 
and  women  who  have  performed  the  household 
service  previously  given  by  native-born  Ameri- 
cans. The  presence  of  the  Irish  in  the  East, 
the  Germans  in  the  West,  the  Scandinavians  in 
the  Northwest,  and  the  Chinese  on  the  Pacific 
coast  has  thus  introduced  a  new  social  as  well 
as  economic  element  at  the  North.  It  has  led 
to  a  change  in  the  relation  of  employer  and  em- 
ployee ;  the  class  line  that  was  only  faintly 
drawn  in  the  early  part  of  the  century  between 
employer  and  "  help"  has  been  changed  into  a 
caste  line,  which  many  employers  believe  it  to 
their  interest  to  preserve.  The  native  born 
American  fears  to  lose  social  position  by  com- 
ing into  competition  with  foreign  labor. 

While  this  change  has  been  taking  place  at 
the  North  in  the  character  of  the  service  owing 
to  political  conditions  in  the  Old  World,  a  sim- 
ilar change  has  taken  place  at  the  South  grow- 
ing out  of  the  abolition  of  slavery  in  1863.  The 
negroes  who  had  previously  performed  all  do- 
mestic service  for  their  personal  expenses  have 
since  then  received  for  the  same  service  a  small 
remuneration  in  money.  This  fact  prevents 
now  as  effectually  as  during  the  slavery  period 
any  competition  in  domestic  service  on  the  part 
of  native-born  white  employees. 


Domestic  Service. 


511 


Domestic  Service. 


Use  of 
Words. 


An  indication  of  these  various  changes  in  the 
condition  of  domestic  service  is  seen  in  the  his- 
tory of  the  word  "  servant."  As  used  in  Eng- 
land and  in  law  at  the  time  of  the  settlement  of 
the  American  colonies,  it  signified  an  employee, 
and  no  odium  was  in  any  way  attached  to  the 
word.  This  is  indicated  by  the  various  defini- 
tions given  in  the  early  dictionaries,  servant 
being  defined  as  "  a  man  or  woman 
that  serves  another."  But  five 
things  led  to  gradual  disuse  of  the 
word  :  First,  the  reproach  connect- 
ed with  the  word  through  the  char- 
acter and  social  rank  of  the  redemp- 
tioners  ;  second,  the  fact  that  when  the  redemp- 
tioners  gave  place  at  the  South  to  negro  slaves 
the  word  "servant"  was  transferred  to  this 
class,  and  this  alone  was  sufficient  to  prevent  its 
application  to  whites  ;  third,  the  leveling  tenden- 
cies that  always  prevail  in  a  new  country  ; 
fourth,  the  literal  interpretation  of  the  preamble 
of  the  Declaration  of  Independence  ;  and  fifth, 
the  new  social  and  political  theories  resulting 
from  the  intfoduction  of  French  philosophical 
ideas.  At  the  North  the  word  "help,"  as  ap- 
plied especially  to  women,  superseded  the  word 
"  servant,"  while  at  the  South  servant  was  ap- 
plied only  to  the  negro.  From  the  time  of  the 
Revolution,  therefore,  until  about  1850,  the  word 
' '  servant' '  does  not  seem  to  have  been  gener- 
ally applied  to  white  persons  of  American  birth 


in  either  section.  Since  the  introduction  of  for- 
eign labor,  at  the  middle  of  the  century,  the 
word  "servant"  has  again  come  into  general 
use  as  applied  to  white  employees  ;  not,  how- 
ever, as  a  survival  of  the  old  colonial  word,  but 
as  a  reintroduction  from  Europe  of  a  term  sig- 
nifying one  who  performs  so-called  menial 
labor,  and  restricted  in  its  use,  except  in  a  legal 
sense,  to  women  who  perform  domestic  service. 
The  present  use  of  the  word  has  come  not  only 
from  the  almost  exclusive  employment  of  for- 
eigners in  domestic  service,  but  also  because  of 
the  increase  of  wealth,  and  consequent  luxury  in 
this  country,  the  growing  class  divisions,  and 
the  adoption  of  many  European  habits  of  living 
and  thinking  and  speaking. 

Domestic  service  has  also  been  affected  by 
the  economic  conditions  of  the  century.  Some 
of  these  may  be  indicated  by  the  tabular  returns 
received  to  a  series  of  schedules  sent  to  employ- 
ers and  employees.  The  tables  represent  the 
returns  received  from  1005  employers  concern- 
ing 2545  employees,  and  the  returns  received 
from  719  employees.  These  returns  indicate 
the  general  conformity  of  domestic  service  to 
the  economic  laws  governing  other  industries 
and  also  .the  nature  of  the  economic  laws  devel- 
oped within  itself.  The  extent  to  which  do- 
mestic service  has  been  affected  by  foreign 
emigration  is  indicated  by  the  following  ta- 
bles : 


TABLE  I. 
PLACE  OF  BIRTH  OF  EMPLOYEES. 


NUMBER. 

] 

3ERCENTAGES 

PERSON  REPORTING. 

Native 
Born. 

Foreign 
Born. 

Not  Given. 

Native 

Born. 

Foreign 
Born. 

Not  Given. 

Employer  

TABLE  II. 
NUMBER  OF  FOREIGN  BORN  IN  DOMESTIC  SERVICE. 


PLACE  OF  BIRTH. 

PERSON  REPORTING. 

EMPLOYER. 

EMPLOYEE. 

Num- 
ber. 

Per 
Cent. 

Num- 
ber. 

Per 

Cent. 

Ireland  

653 
147 
128 

122 
104 
58 

53-88 
12.13 
10.56 
10.07 
8.58 
4-78 

217 
50 
37 
32 
42 
'7 

54-94 
12.66 
9-37 
8.10 
10.63 
4-3° 

Sweden  and  Norway. 
Germany         

Great  Britain    

British  America  
Other  countries.  .. 

Total  

1,212 

100.00 

395 

100.00 

The  conformity  of  domestic  service  to  the  gen- 
eral laws  governing  wages  is  shown  by  the  fol- 
lowing table.  It  shows  that  wages  in  domestic 
service,  as  in  other  occupations,  are  lowest  at 
the  South  and  highest  on  the  Pacific  coast. 


TABLE  III. 

AVERAGE  WEEKLY  WAGES  BY  GEOGRAPHICAL 

SECTION. 


GEOGRAPHICAL  SECTION. 

AVERAGE  WEEKLY 
WAGES. 

Men. 

Women. 

$7-57 
8.68 
7.62 
6.69 
4.86 
3-95 

$4-57 
3.60 
3.21 
3.00 

2-55 

2.22 

Middle  section  

Border  section  

Southern  section  

The  United  States   

$7.18 

$3-23 

Table  IV.  shows  that  in  domestic  service,  as 
elsewhere,  skilled  labor  commands  the  highest 
wages.  The  cook  is  the  skilled  workman.  The 
general  servant,  who  is  expected  to  unite  in  her- 
self all  the  functions  of  all  the  other  employees 
in  the  list,  becomes,  by  virtue  of  this  fact,  an 
unskilled  workman,  and  therefore  receives  the 
lowest  wages. 


Domestic  Service. 


512 


Domestic  Service. 


TABLE  IV. 


AVERAGE  WEEKLY  AND  DAILY  WAGES  BY  OCCUPA- 
TIONS. 


OCCUPATION. 

WEEKLY  WAGES. 

GENERAL  SCHEDULE  OF 

Boston 
Em- 
ployment 
Bureau. 

Employer. 

Employee. 

WOMEN  : 
Cook  

$3.80 

3-50 
3-3i 
3-23 
3-°4 

2.99 
2.94 

7.84 

6-54 
6.ii 
6.08 

$3.64 

3-27 
3-47 
3-'S 
3-27 

3.21 
2.88 

$4-45 
3-94 

y.86 

3-76 

3-34 
3-  16 

Parlor  maid  
Cook  and  laun- 
dress   

Chambermaid  .. 
Waitress 

Second  girl  
Chambermaid 
and  waitress.. 
General  servant 

MEN  : 
Coachman  
Coachman     and 
gardener  
Butler  

Cook   

Daily  Wages. 

WOMEN  : 
Seamstress  
Laundress  

MEN: 

$1.01 

.82 

1-33 
.87 

.... 

It  also  seems  to  be  true  in  domestic  service  as 
elsewhere  that  the  skilled  laborer  does  his  work 
better  than  the  unskilled  workman.  The  ques- 
tion was  asked  of  employers,  "  What  is  the  na- 
ture of  the  service  rendered?  Is  it  '  excellent,' 
'  good,'  '  fair,'  or  '  poor  '  ?"  The  replies  show 
that,  in  proportion  to  the  number  of  answers, 
the  largest  percentage  of  service  characterized 
as  "  excellent"  is  rendered  by  cooks,  while  the 
largest  percentage  characterized  as  "  poor"  is 
given  by  general  servants. 

It  was  also  found  that  the  wages  of  men  en- 
gaged in  domestic  service  are  higher  than  the 
wages  of  women.  This  will  be  seen  by  refer- 
ence to  Table  III.  and  Table  IV.  Two  things, 
however,  must  be  borne  in  mind  :  First,  that 
nearly  all  the  men  classified  as  cooks  are  em- 
ployed on  the  Pacific  coast,  where  wages  are 
relatively  high  ;  second,  that  40  per  cent,  of 
men  in  domestic  service  do  not  receive  board 
and  lodging  in  addition  to  cash  wages,  while 
only  2  per  cent,  of  women  so  employed,  princi- 
pally colored  women  and  laundresses,  do  not  re- 
ceive board  and  lodging.  But  altho  these  facts 
modify  the  discrepancy  between  the  wages  of 
men  and  women,  they  do  not  wholly  remove  it. 
Whether  the  difference  is  as  great  as  in  other 
occupations  cannot  be  here  stated. 

For  the  facts  on  this  point,  see  articles 
WAGES  and  WOMEN'S  WORK  AND  WAGES.  For 
a  consideration  of  the  facts,  see  articles  EIGHT- 
HOUR  PHILOSOPHY  and  PRODUCTION.  See  also 
HOUSEHOLD  ECONOMIC  ASSOCIATION. 

The  following  table  will  show  the  results  in 
regard  to  these  two  classes  of  employees  : 


TABLE  V. 
NATURE  OF  SERVICE  RENDERED. 


KIND  OF  SERVICE  RENDERED. 

OCCUPATION. 

Total 
Number 
of 

Not  An- 
swered. 

EXCELLENT. 

GOOD. 

FAIR. 

POOR. 

Replies. 

Num- 

Per 

Num- 

Per 

Num- 

Per 

Num- 

Per 

ber. 

Cent. 

ber. 

Cent. 

ber. 

Cent. 

ber. 

Cent. 

Cooks    

83 

113 

43 

58 

22 

8 

3 

General        ser- 

585 

53 

151 

26 

221 

38 

'77 

3° 

36 

6 

AVERAGE  WEEKLY  WAGES  BY  OCCUPATIONS,  REPORTED  BY  A  BOSTON  EMPLOYMENT  BUREAU. 


OCCUPATION 

Average 
Weekly 
Wages. 

Per  Cent. 
Receiving 
More  than 
the  Aver- 
age. 

Per  Cent. 
Receiving 
the  Same 
or  Less 
than  the 
Average. 

Highest 
Wages 
Received. 

Lowest 
Wages 
Received. 

Total 
Number. 

$?  16 

Second  girls  

o7.8 

Chambermaids.  ...           

3  86 

82 

0.76 

AS.  A. 

51.6 

5° 

80  4 

57 

48.7 

I.OO 

233 

55.6 

53 

Total  

2,438 

There  was  also  found  a  slight  tendency  tow- 
ard an  increase  in  wages  paid  by  employers,  as 


is  seen  by  the  table  which  follows  on  the  next 
page. 


Domestic  Service, 


Domestic  Service. 


TABLE  VI. 
COMPARISON  OF  WAGES  PAID. 


WAGES  PAID. 

NUMBER. 

PERCENTAGE. 

Men. 

Women. 

Total. 

Men. 

Women. 

Total. 

414 
54 

4 

1,638 
368 
67 

2,052 
422 
71 

87.72 
11.44 

.84 

79.02 
iy-75 
3-23 

80.^3 
16.58 
2.79 

The  average  high  rate  of  wages  is  indicated  by  Tables  VII.  and  VIII. 


TABLE  VII. 
CLASSIFIED  DAILY  AND  WEEKLY  WAGES  BY  OCCUPATIONS. 


OCCUPATIONS. 
SCHEDULE  OF  EMPLOYERS. 

EARNING  WEEKLY. 

Under  $i. 

A 

. 

. 

t*. 

00 

0- 

Over  $14. 

"3 
o 
E- 

5s 
»"° 

**3 

Is 

*! 

S| 

3 

•»<& 

5s 
&1 

5j 

*| 

XI  1- 

3 

|| 

3 

P 

'f.-C 
P 

WOMEN  : 
General  servants  

i 

33 
17 

6 

9 
6 

3 
ii 

25  ' 
5° 

21 

38 

44 
18 
43 

276 
76 
70 
104 
69 

45 
S2 
46 

3° 
18 

41 
86 

18 

23 

18 

5 
4 
5 
31 

2 

4 

2 

9 

606 
170 
141 
280 
133 

Q2 
I03 
125 

4 

Second  girls  

i 

4 

Cooks  and  laundresses      

4 
2 

I 

7 

3 

'i 

Chambermaids  and  •waitresses  

Chambermaids  

Waitresses  

I 

6 

Housekeepers  

Total           

9 

89 

495 

619 

252 

62 

8 

II 

i 

3 

5 

1.654 

MEN  : 

3 

2 

I 

2 

7 

5 

5 
ii 

8 

i 

18 

10 

3 

8 

22 
14 
2 

6 

21 

I? 

4 
3 
3 
3 

3 

12 

9 

i 

6 
no 

12 

3 

2 
II 

7 

I 
4 
II 

i 
3 

I 
6 

3 

44 
123 
109 
17 

Total 

7 

14 

25 

34 

46 

47 

'3 

25 

31 

20 

16 

4 

8 

3 

293 

EARNING  DAILY. 

WOMEN  :                   » 

244 

Seamstresses  

48 

51 

6 

Total  

g 

349 

MEN: 
Gardeners  

26 

87 

8 

1 

Choremen  

Total  

50 

IOI 

9 

i 

161 

SCHEDULE  OF  EMPLOYEES. 

EARNING  WEEKLY. 

General  servants  

16 

187 

383 
39 
45 

101 

23 
25 
36 
18 
4 

Second  girls  

18 

Cooks  and  laundresses  

4 
3 

6 

20 

6 
7 

22 

39 

15 
9 
16 

13 
23 

I 
6 

Cooks  

i 

II 

I 
I 

3 

i 

Chambermaids  and  waitresses  

r 

Waitresses  

Nurses  

Housekeepers  

Total    .          

2 

27 

221 

3i8 

80 

'9 

4 

i 

I 

I 

674 

Domestic  Service. 


Domestic  Service. 


TABLE  VIII.* 
AVERAGE  WEEKLY  AND  DAILY  WAGES  BY  OCCUPATIONS. 


OCCUPATION. 

PERSON  REPLYING. 

EMPLOYER. 

EMPLOYEE. 

Average 
Weekly 
Wages. 

Per  Cent. 
Receiving 
More  than 
the  Aver- 
age. 

Per  Cent. 
Receiving 
the  Same 
or  Less 
than  the 
Average. 

Average 
Weekly 
Wages. 

Per  Cent. 
Receiving 
More  than 
the  Aver- 
age. 

Per  Cent. 
Receiving 
the  Same 
or  Less 
than  the 
Average. 

WOMEN  : 
General  servants          

$2.94 
3-°4 
3-50 
3.80 
2.99 
3-31 
3-23 
3-53 
5-i5 

52-97 
40.00 
43-97 
45-71 
58.65 
47-83 
43-69 
36.00 
25.00 

47.<>3 
60.00 
56-03 
54-29 
41-35 
52.17 
56.31 
64.00 
75-oo 

$2.88 
3-27 
3-27 
3-64 
3-21 
3-47 
3-!5 
3-°3 
5-iS 

55-87 
53-85 
53-33 
43-S6 
52-17 
32.00 

44-44 
33-33 
25.00 

43-13 
46.15 
46.67 
56.44 
47.83 
68.00 
55  -56 
66.67 
75.00 

Second  girls  

Cooks  and  laundresses  

Cooks  

Chambermaids  and  waitresses  

Chambermaids        

Waitresses  

Nurses  

Housekeepers  

Total    

$3-23 

47-88 

52.12 

$3.11 

50.95 

49-05 

MEN: 
Butler$  

$6.11 
6-54 
7.84 
6.09 

50.00 
44-72 
46.79 
47.06 

50.00 
55-28 
53-21 
52.94 

.... 

.... 

.... 

Coachmen  and  gardeners  

Coachmen  

Cooks  

Total  

$6.93 

46.42 

53-58 

Average 
Daily 
Wages. 

WOMEN  : 
Laundresses  ..        .                

$0.82 

I.OI 

53-28 
39-05 

46.72 
60.95 

.... 

.... 

Seamstresses  

Total  

$0.90 

49.00 

51.00 

MEN: 

$1-33 
.87 

56.56 

43-59 

43-44 
56.41 

.... 

Choremen  

Total  

$1.29 

53-42 

46.58 

The  same  fact  is  also  seen  in  the  wages  reported  by  a  Boston  employment  bureau. 

TABLE  IX. 
CLASSIFIED  WEEKLY  WAGES  BY  OCCUPATIONS. 


OCCUPATION. 

EARNING  WEEKLY. 

3<& 
J| 

»13 

«*s 

3 

%£ 
*S 

N-O 
<&a 

3 

««t 

•°$S 

rW 

t»a 
3 

%£ 
&  h 
-i> 
*3 
»a 

3 

$5,  but 

under  $6. 

$6,  but 
under  $7. 

$7,  but 
under  $8. 

. 

?£ 

£>  <-• 
fv 

ofT3 

«>e 

-M  8 

3«9- 

*>  <~ 

-  <B 
#g 

3 

H 
11 

3 

"3 
o 
H 

8 

a 
i 

183 
41 
3 
3 
4 

577 
363 

39 

40 

29 
n 
119 
9 

T 
69 

347 

% 

45 
57 
27 

3 

914 

475 
574 
82 
50 
57 
233 
53 

Cooks  

MS 

2 

I 
I 

3 
15 

28 

4 

3 

4 

7 

45 

i 

i 
i 

i 

Laundresses  

Total  

18 

280 

1,187 

741 

170 

30 

5 

3 

4 

2,438 

*  In  the  classification  in  these  two  tables  the  employees  in  several  large  boarding-houses  were  omitted.  All 
of  those  included  under  the  term  "  nurses  "  are  nurse-girls,  with  the  exception  of  the  few  receiving  the  highest 
wages. 


Domestic  Service. 


Donisthorpe,  Wordsworth. 


These,  with  other  facts  and  tables  that  could 
be  given,  may  be  considered  as  showing  the 
general  conformity  of  domestic  service  to  eco- 
nomic law. 

Some  of  the  difficulties  presented  to  the  em- 
ployer of  domestic  service  have  been  indicated. 
They  may  be  summed  up  as  fol- 
lows :  the  difficulty  of  assimilating 
Difficulties,  into  the  family  those  who  are  of  a 
different    nationality,  and     conse- 
quently hold    different  industrial, 
social,  religious,  and  political  beliefs  ;  the  spirit 
of  restlessness  that  everywhere  prevails  among 
the  working  classes,  tho  not  peculiar  to  them, 
and  the  resulting  brief  terms  of  service  ;  the 
necessity  of  engaging  for  skilled  labor  the  assist- 
ance of  unskilled  laborers  ;  the  lack  of  reliable 
means  of  communication  with  those  desiring 
employment ;  the  prevailing  indifference  among 
employers  to  the  action  of  economic  law  and  the 
failure  to  realize  that  in  domestic  service  as  else- 
where the  course  followed  by  one  employer  has 
an  appreciable  effect  on  the  condition  of  the 
service  as  a  whole. 

On  the  side  of  the  employee  the  advantages 
in  domestic  service  as  an  occupation  are  high 
wages,  the  healthfulness  of  the  work,  that  it 
gives  the  externals  of  a  home,  training  in  house- 
hold affairs,  and  congenial  employment  to  those 
whose  tastes  lie  in  this  direction.  These  ad- 
vantages are  offset  by  the  disadvantages  that  lie 
in  the  fact  that  there  is  little  or  no  opportunity 
for  promotion  in  the  service,  the  utter  lack  of 
organization  in  the  occupation,  the  irregularity 
of  working  hours,  the  lack  of  free  time  evenings 
and  Sundays,  the  impossibility  of  having  more 
than  the  externals  of  a  home,  and  the  absence 
of  all  opportunities  for  personal  improvement 
and  social  advantages.  The  most  serious  disad- 
vantage is  the  badge  of  social  inferiority  placed 
on  the  class  of  domestic  employees.  This  badge 
consists  in  the  use  of  the  word  ' '  servant' '  and 
of  the  Christian  name  in  address,  the  wearing 
of  a  livery,  the  enforced  acknowledgment  of  so- 
cial inferiority,  and  the  giving  of  fees.  The 
latter  custom  has  perhaps  done  more  than  any 
other  one  thing  to  change  what  should  be  an 
honorable  employment  into  a  menial  service. 

The  underlying  difficulty  in  the  present  con- 
dition of  domestic  service  is  the  universal  failure 
to  recognize  it  as  a  part  of  the  great  industrial 
question  of  the  day.  Domestic  service  is  amen- 
able to  economic  law  in  precisely  the  same  man- 
ner as  are  other  forms  of  labor,  and  until  the 
study  of  the  subject  is  made  to  begin  at  this 
point  all  plans  to  bring  about  a  better  condition 
of  affairs  must  prove  fruitless. 

LUCY  M.  SALMON. 

It  is  often  asked  why,  if  women's  wages  are 
so  low  and  there  are  many  unemployed,  is  it 
frequently  so  difficult  to  get  servants  ?  The  an- 
swer is  that  women  free  from  family  ties  and  of 
character,  age,  and  ability  for  service,  are  not 
often  unemployed.  The  unemployed  problem 
is  mainly  of  men  and  of  women  with  family  ties 
or  other  disqualifications  for  service.  As  for 
low  wages,  there  is  a  plain  explanation.  Do- 
mestic service,  even  in  the  best  homes,  usually 
implies  constant  submission  to  one  person's  will, 
and  constant  confinement,  except,  perhaps,  for 


one  ' '  evening  out' '  a  week.  In  the  store  or  the 
factory,  girls  almost  always  have  all  their  even- 
ings and  Sundays  perfectly  free,  and  when  at 
work  are  with  others  under  fixed  regulations 
rather  than  under  a  personal  master.  Almost 
anybody  would  prefer  such  a  measure  of  free- 
dom, even  with  low  pay,  to  higher  pay  and  less 
freedom.  The  cure  perhaps  lies  in  making 
domestic  work  a  trade,  with  fixed  hours.  Miss 
Jane  Addams,  in  an  article  in  J^he  American 
Journal  of  Sociology  for  March,  1896,  finds  it 
perfectly  natural  that  girls  should  prefer  fac- 
tory labor,  with  its  social  equality  and  industrial 
independence.  She  says  : 

"If  the  'servant'  attitude  were  once  eliminated 
from  household  industry,  and  the  well-established  one 
of  employer  and  employee  substituted,  the  first  step 
would  be  taken  toward  overcoming'  many  difficulties. 
.  .  .  Most  of  the  cooking  and  serving  and  cleaning  of 
a  household  could  be  done  by  women  living  outside 
and  coming  into  a  house  as  a  skilled  workman  does, 
having  no  'personal  service  '  relation  to  the  employer. 
There  is  no  reason  why  the  woman  who  cleans  win- 
dows in  a  house  should  not  live  as  full  a  domestic  and 
social  life  as  the  man  who  cleans  windows  in  an 
office." 

ED. 

(See  HOUSEHOLD  ECONOMIC  ASSOCIATION  ; 
WOMEN'S  WORK  AND  WAGES.) 

DONI,  FRANCESCO,  was  born  in  Florence 
about  the  year  1503.  In  1552  appeared  at  Ven- 
ice his  /  Mondi,  and  the  year  after  his  /  /»- 
fernt,  in  which  he  describes  his  ideals  of  a 
communistic  state,  where  there  is  community 
both  of  property  and  of  wives.  The  books  were 
translated  into  French,  and  seem  to  have  ar- 
rested some  attention,  but  to  have  developed 
few  thoughts  that  were  new.  Doni  died  in  the 
year  1574. 

DONISTHORPE,  WORDSWORTH,  was 

born  in  Yorkshire,  England,  March  24.  1847  ; 
was  educated  at  Leeds  School  and  Trinity  Col- 
lege, Cambridge,  and  graduated  with  first-class 
honors  in  1869.  He  traveled  in  Europe,  and 
was  imprisoned  in  Strasburg  in  1870  for  taking 
part  in  a  riotous  republican  demonstration,  but 
was  soon  released.  He  was  called  to  the  bar  in 
1879.  He  was  imprisoned  in  1876  under  the 
Vaccination  Act,  but  was  successful  in  prevent- 
ing his  own  children  from  being  vaccinated. 
In  1880  he  founded  the  State  Resistance  Union , 
of  which  he  was  the  first  president.  In  1881 
the  basis  of  its  operations  was  widened  under 
the  title  of  Liberty  and  Property  Defense 
League,  and  the  Earl  of  Wemyss  became  its 
president.  In  1888  Mr.  Donisthorpe  retired 
from  the  association,  owing  to  differences  of 
opinion  as  to  the  proper  scope  of  the  League. 
During  the  years  1887-88  he  edited  Jus,  the 
organ  of  individualism.  In  1887  the  Free  Libra- 
ries Act  was  applied  to  Kensington,  and  he 
fought  the  question  till  1890,  when  the  vestry 
surrendered,  and  paid  his  share  of  the  rate,  to- 
gether with  his  costs.  A  full  account  of  the 
singular  correspondence  may  be  found  in  Lib- 
erty, March  7,  1891.  He  is  president  of  the 
Legitimation  League  at  present  (1894).  He  is 
occupied  in  lecturing,  writing  for  some  of  the 
papers  and  magazines,  and  is  preparing  several 
books  for  publication.  Among  his  writings  are  : 
Principles  of  Pluto  logy  (1876)  ;  Serfdom, 


Donisthorpe,  Wordsworth. 


Dow,  Neal. 


Wagedom  and  Freedom  (1880)  ;  Capitaliza- 
tion of  Labor  (1887)  ;  Individualism  (1889). 
He  also  wrote  Overlegislation  in  1883,  and 
again  in  1884  for  the  Liberty  and  Property  De- 
fense League,  and  contributed  an  essay  to  A 
Pie  a  for  Liber  ty'va.  1891  ;  The  Future  of  Mar- 
riage, in  the  Fortnightly  Review  (February, 
1892)  ;  Love  and  Law,  published  by  the  Legiti- 
mation League  ;  Bastardy,  in  the  Free  Re- 
view. In  1887  he  drew  an  Adulteration  Bill, 
which  was  brought  into  the  House  of  Lords  by 
the  Earl  of  Wemyss,  and  passed  the  first  read- 
ing, but  owing  to  the  lateness  of  the  session  was 
dropped.  It  has  not  since  been  revived.  He 
claims  to  belong  to  the  individualist  school, 
which  he  considers  "  Anarchist  in  principle  and 
final  aim,  but  opportunist  in  action.  So  long  as 
we  are  unprepared  for  private  enterprise  in  any 
department  of  activity,  such  as  the  enforcement 
of  the  fulfillment  of  contracts,  let  the  State  do 
such  work  as  well  as  it  possibly  can."  In  poli- 
tics he  calls  himself  Republican  ;  in  religion, 
atheist  ;  in  morals,  egoistic  hedonist. 

DONNELLY,  IGNATIUS,  was  born  in 
Philadelphia  November  3,  1831.  His  father, 
Dr.  Philip  Carroll  Donnelly,  was  an  eminent 
physician  in  that  city.  Alter  his  graduation 
from  the  high  school  he  entered  upon  the  study 
of  law,  and  in  1853  was  admitted  to  the  bar. 
Two  years  later  he  was  nominated  by  the  Demo- 
crats for  the  House  of  Representatives,  but  de- 
clined the  nomination.  In  1856  he  moved  West, 
where  he  has  spent  the  greater  part  of  his  life. 
In  1859  he  started  the  Dakota  County  Sentinel. 
In  1857  he  was  nominated  for  State  Senator  by 
the  Republicans,  but  was  defeated.  He  was 
the  first  to  organize  the  Dakota  County  Agricul- 
tural Society.  In  1859  he  was  elected  Lieuten- 
ant-Governor  of  Minnesota.  He  has  since  then 
taken  an  active  part  in  the  political  life  of  the 
West.  In  1874  he  started  the  Anti-Monopoly 
Party  of  Minnesota,  and  he  is  now  a  leader  in 
the  People's  Party.  Mr.  Donnelly  has  written 
The  Great  Cryptogram,  Atlantis,  Ragnarok, 
Doctor  Huguet,  Ccesar's  Column,  and  The 
Golden  Bottle,  all  of  which  have  been  widely 
read.  He  is  now  editor  of  The  Representative, 
a  leading  People's  Party  paper  published  in 
Minneapolis. 

DOUAI,  DR.  ADOLF,  a  German-American 
socialist,  was  born  in  Altenburg  in  1819.  He 
studied  philosophy  and  theology  in  Germany, 
and  became  a  private  tutor  in  Russia.  Receiv- 
ing the  degree  of  Doctor  of  Philosophy  at  Dor- 
pat,  he  returned  to  Altenburg  and  established 
a  private  school.  Arrested  and,  after  being 
once  discharged,  rearrested  and  imprisoned 
one  year  for  his  socialistic  utterances  and  his 
part  in  the  Revolution  of  1848,  he  escaped  to 
Texas  in  1852,  and  as  a  journalist  and  teacher 
traveled  through  many  of  the  States,  carrying 
socialism  with  him.  He  took  part  in  the  early 
socialist  organizations  in  New  York  City,  and 
was  editor  of  the  Ar better  Union,  established 
in  1871,  and  from  1878  to  his  death,  in  1888,  as- 
sociate editor  of  the  New  Yorker  Volkszei- 
tung. 

DOVE,  PATRICK  EDWARD,  was  born 
at  Lasswade,  near  Edinburgh,  Scotland,  in  1815. 


A  land-owner  devoted  to  philosophical  and 
economic  letters,  he  studied  in  France  and  Ger- 
many, as  well  as  Scotland,  and  in  1850  published 
The  Theory  of  Human  Progression  and  Natu- 
ral Probability  of  a  Reign  of  Justice,  the  First 
Part  of  a  Projected  Treatise  on  the  Science 
of  Politics.  It  arrested  attention  of  scholars 
like  Hamilton  and  Charles  Sumner.  In  it  he 
comes  to  conclusions  as  to  land  very  nearly  sim- 
ilar to  those  of  Henry  George  (q.v.~)  ;  and  Mr. 
George,  when  lecturing  in  Edinburgh  in  1884, 
praised  his  book  very  highly.  Some  have  even 
claimed  that  it  was  from  this  book  that  Mr. 
George  drew  some  of  his  ideas.  Dove  seems  to 
have  been  a  universal  genius,  writing  alike  on 
the  sport  of  Scotland,  theological  discussions, 
and  the  science  of  government.  He  contributed 
the  article  on  government  for  the  Encyclo- 
pedia Britannica,  and  won  recognition  by 
his  books  in  various  quarters.  He  died  in 
Scotland  in  1873. 

DOW,  NEAL.— General  Neal  Dow,  the 
"  Father  of  the  Maine  Law,"  was  born  in  Port- 
land, Me.,  March  20,  1804.  His  parents  and  all 
his  ancestors  for  many  generations  were  Friends, 
and  he  was  brought  up  in  that  faith.  His  edu- 
cation was  primarily  in  the  public  schools,  after- 
ward in  private  schools,  after  that  at  the  Port- 
land Academy,  and  then  at  the  Friends'  Acad- 
emy in  the  town  of  New  Bedford,  Mass. 

In  his  youth  he  was  a  Whig,  but  a  Republican 
as  soon  as  that  party  was  born.  He  became  a 
member  of  the  Prohibition  Pai  ty  as  soon  as  he 
became  satisfied  that  Prohibition  through  the 
Republican  Party  was  impossible.  He  was 
twice  Mayor  of  Portland,  and  twice  a  member 
of  the  Legislature.  In  his  first  mayoralty  term, 
in  1851,  he  framed  an  anti-liquor  bill  and  carried 
it  to  the  Legislature  two  days  before  its  ad- 
journment;  he  had  a  hearing  in  the  Representa- 
tives' Hall  in  the  afternoon  ;  the  bill  was  report- 
ed the  next  day  precisely  as  he  had  written  it, 
was  put  through  all  its  stages  by  a  vote  of  86  to 
40  in  the  House  and  18  to  10  in  the  Senate,  en- 
acted on  the  same  day,  and  took  effect  on  its  ap- 
proval by  Governor  Hubbard  (a  Democrat)  the 
next  day.  It  is  known  in  all  the  English-speak- 
ing world  as  "  the  Maine  law."  On  the  break- 
ing out  of  the  Rebellion  Mr.  Dow  entered  the 
army,  September,  1861,  as  colonel  of  the  Maine 
Volunteers,  of  1000  men,  which  he  recruited. 
He  also  recruited  the  Second  Maine  Battery  by 
special  commission  from  the  Secretary  of  War. 
In  April,  1862,  he  was  commissioned  brigadier- 
general  by  Mr.  Lincoln.  He  was  twice  wound- 
ed in  battle,  and  while  occupying  a  plantation 
house  outside  of  the  lines  was  captured  at  night 
and  taken  to  Libby  Prison  at  Richmond,  Va., 
where  he  was  retained  eight  months  and  then 
exchanged  for  Fitz-Hugh  Lee. 

He  has  visited  England  three  times,  deliver- 
ing about  500  addresses  under  the  auspices  and 
as  the  guest  of  the  United  Kingdom  Alliance. 
In  1880  he  was  the  candidate  of  the  Prohibition 
Party  for  President.  In  June,  1894,  the  com- 
pletion of  General  Dow's  ninetieth  year  was 
celebrated  by  memorial  meetings  all  over  the 
world.  A  vast  international  temperance  con- 
gress was  held  in  celebration  at  Prohibition 
Park,  Staten  Island,  N.  Y.,  at  which  eminent 


Dow,  Neal. 


Dress  Reform. 


speakers  and  thinkers  from  all  parts  of  this 
country  and  even  from  Europe  discussed  the 
temperance  question  in  all  its  phases. 

DRAGE,  GEOFFREY,  born  in  1860,  was 
educated  at  Eton  and  Christ  Church  College, 
Oxford.  He  then  traveled  for  some  years,  visit- 
ing foreign  universities,  studying  at  Berlin  and 
Moscow.  He  visited  America,  Africa,  and  Aus- 
tralia, attending  nearly  all  the  parliaments  of 
the  world,  and  taking  great  interest  in  political 
and  social  questions.  He  was  appointed  Secre- 
tary to  the  English  Royal  Commission  on  Labor 
in  1891,  and  organized  office  staff  ;  prepared  the 
series  of  reports  on  foreign  countries.  He  is 
author  of  Criminal  Code  of  Germany  (1885) ; 
Cyril  (1889,  a  novel  in  6th  ed.)  ;  Eton  and  the 
Empire  (1890,  sthed.) ;  The  Unemployed '(1894) ; 
Eton  and  the  Labor  Question  (1894,  2d  ed.) ; 
Old  Age  Pensions  (1895). 

DRED  SCOTT  DECISION.— In  1834  Dred 
Scott  was  a  negro  slave  of  one  Dr.  Emerson,  in 
Missouri,  and  taken  by  his  master  to  Rock 
Island,  111.,  where  slavery  was  prohibited  by 
statute.  In  1836  Dred  married  Harriet,  another 
slave  of  Dr.  Emerson's,  and  in  1838  returned  to 
Missouri  with  his  master.  Here  he  discovered 
that  by  decisions  of  Missouri  courts,  his  transfer 
by  his  master  to  Illinois  had  made  him  a  free  man. 
and  on  being  whipped  by  his  master,  he,  in  1848, 
brought  suit  against  him  for  assault  and  battery, 
and  obtained  judgment  in  his  favor.  On  ap- 
peal, the  Supreme  Court  of  Missouri,  in  1852,  by 
two  justices,  the  Supreme  Judge  dissenting,  re- 
versed the  decision  and  remanded  the  case  to 
the  Circuit  Court.  Soon  after  Dr.  Emerson  sold 
his  slaves  to  J.  F.  A.  Sanfprd,  of  New  York  City, 
and  the  case  became  still  more  involved.  It 
was  argued  in  the  Supreme  Court  of  the  United 
States  in  the  December  term  of  1855  and  1856, 
and  judgment  pronounced  March  6,  1857.  The 
court  decided,  7  judges  to  2,  that  the  Missouri 
court  had  not  jurisdiction,  and  directed  the  suit 
to  be  dismissed.  But  the  judges  went  on  to 
pronounce  general  judgments,  denying  the 
legal  existence  of  the  African  race  as  persons 
in  constitutional  law  ;  a  denial  of  the  supreme 
control  of  Congress  over  the  Territories,  and  a 
denial  of  the  constitutionality  of  the  Missouri 
Compromise.  The  decision  created  general  ex- 
citement. It  was  the  last  attempt  to  decide  the 
slavery  contest  by  form  of  law,  and  itself  did  not 
a  little  toward  precipitating  the  war.  J  udge  Cur- 
tis dissented  from  the  extent  of  the  decision,  and 
said,  "  A  great  question  of  constitutional  law, 
deeply  affecting  the  peace  and  welfare  of  the 
country,  is  not,  in  my  opinion,  a  fit  subject  to  be 
thus  reached."  (See  ABOLITIONIST  MOVEMENT.) 

DRESS  REFORM. — Near  the  beginning  of 
the  last  decade  of  the  nineteenth  century  dress 
reform  in  the  United  States  took  definite  shape 
under  the  auspices  of  the  National  Council  of 
Women.  Before  this  there  had  been  organized 
efforts  to  improve  the  dress  of  woman  ;  but  these 
movements  had  no  distinct  connection  one  with 
another,  either  in  precise  object  or  in  method 
of  procedure. 

Dress  reform  in  the  fifties  and  sixties,  the  first 


movement,  began  with  the  effort  of  individual 
women  to  emancipate  themselves  personally 
from  the  burdens  of  dress  then 
prevailing.  The  costume  adopted 
by  those  freedom-loving  women,  History. 
among  whom  were  Lucy  Stone, 
Elizabeth  Cady  Stanton,  and  others 
of  the  most  eminent  women  of  the  century,  was 
called  ' '  Bloomer' '  by  the  newspapers  and  the 
general  public,  after  the  name  of  one  of  the  ear- 
liest women  (but  not  the  first)  to  wear  the  cos- 
tume. It  was  simply  the  dress  of  the  period 
(which  was  usually  a  gathered  waist,  full  sleeves, 
often  "  flowing,"  and  a  plain  full  skirt)  loosened 
to  be  comfortable  and  shortened  nearly  to  the 
knees,  with  trousers  of  the  dress  material  either 
gathered  down  at  the  ankle  or  allowed  to  hang 
loose  to  the  foot.  This  new  style  of  dress  was 
at  first  welcomed  by  American  women,  as  made 
known  to  them  through  Mrs.  Bloomer's  Lily 
and  Horace  Greeley's  New  York  Tribune  ;  but 
other  newspapers  quickly  discovered  and  pub- 
lished the  fact  that  the  leaders  of  the  new  fash- 
ion were  not  only  Americans,  instead  of  Pari- 
sians, but  they  were  also  "  strong-minded," 
which  was  then  a  term  of  reproach.  Misrepre- 
sentation and  ridicule  were  quickly  brought  to 
bear  against  it,  and  more  or  less  social  martyr- 
dom became  the  lot  of  those  who  continued  to 
wear  the  divided  dress.  Few  had  the  fortitude 
to  wear  it  steadily  more  than  two  or  three  years  ; 
but  it  was  laid  aside  very  unwillingly  by  some, 
who  found  it  a  hindrance  to  other  public  work 
in  which  they  were  engaged.  Its  hygienic 
merits  were  soon  evident,  and  on  this  basis  a 
National  Dress  Reform  Association  was  organ- 
ized in  1856,  and  held  several  annual  conven- 
tions with  considerable  success.  It  was  sup- 
posed that  there  were  at  one  time  several  thou- 
sand women  scattered  through  the 
United  States  wearing  the  dress 
first  called  the  "Bloomer,"  and  "  Bloomers." 
afterward  the  "  American  cos- 
tume." Most  of  them  gradually 
abandoned  the  dress,  not  because — as  is  often 
asserted — the  dress  was  ugly  in  itself  (for  tight 
waists  and  enormous  hoops  were  then  "  in  fash- 
ion," and  many  men  as  well  as  women  declared 
that  the  fashionable  dress  was  far  less  artistic 
than  the  "  Bloomers"),  but  the  tyranny  of  fash- 
ion constantly  increased  with  the  growing  pow- 
er of  trade.  The  wide  diffusion  of  cut-paper 
patterns  of  the  Parisian  styles  and  of  illustrated 
and  seemingly  authoritative  fashion  articles  in 
the  leading  newspapers  had  begun  to  have  great 
influence  upon  public  opinion  and  public  taste. 
In  many  cases  the  gymnasium  dress  introduced 
by  Dr.  Dio  Lewis  took  the  place  of  the  "  Ameri- 
can costume,"  and  was  much  worn,  especially 
by  young  ladies  in  girls'  schools.  The  skirt  was 
of  "  bloomer"  length,  but  the  Turkish  trousers 
came  only  a  little  below  the  knees.  A  few  of 
the  early  dress  reformers  have  never  abandoned 
their  radical  reform  in  dress,  and  in  1874  there 
was  a  small  and  brief  revival  of  their  annual 
conventions  with  the  name  True  Dress  League. 
The  New  England  Woman's  Club,  one  of  the 
first  of  women's  clubs,  appointed  a  dress  reform 
committee  in  1873.  Believing  that  no  particu- 
lar change  in  outer  dress  was  possible  at  that 
time,  the  committee  especially  recommended 


Dress  Reform. 


Dress  Reform. 


improvements    in  the  undergarments  usually 
worn.     There  was  no  especial  advance  in  this 
respect  upon  the  practice  of  some  of  the  early 
dress  reformers,  few,  if  any,  of  whom  wore  cor- 
sets, and  some  of  whom  made  and  wore  "  com- 
bination undersuits. ' '     These  were  recommend- 
ed by  the  Boston  committee,  and 
have  since  been  known  as  "  dress 
Various      reform"  undergarments,  the  woven 
Propositions,  union  undersuits  having  come  quite 
generally  into  use.    They  were  wel- 
comed by  the  most  intelligent  wom- 
en, and  have  been  made  more  widely  known  by 
the  business  enterprise  of  Mrs.  Jenness  Miller 
and  other  women  who  have  lectured  on  the  sub- 
ject, exhibiting  the  garments  and  doing  much 
to  substitute  for  underskirts  the  "  divided  skirt, " 
which  the  Viscountess  Harberton  recommended 
to  English  women. 

The  National  Council  of  Women  of  the  United 
States,  at  its  first  triennial  convention,  in  Wash- 
ington, D.  C.,  February,  1891,  passed  a  resolu- 
tion, in  executive  session,  to  appoint  a  commit- 
tee of  women  to  report  suggestions  for  an  every- 
day business  dress  for  women. 

This  committee  was  appointed  at  an  execu- 
tive meeting  in  the  following  May.  Those  who 
accepted  their  appointments  with  instructions 
to  prepare  a  symposium  on  woman's  dress  for  a 
leading  magazine  and  to  report  the  committee's 
idea  of  a  business  dress  for  women  were  Fran- 
ces E.  Russell,  Chairman  ;  Frank  Stuart  Par- 
ker, and  Annie  Jenness  Miller.  Shortly  after- 
ward Octavia  W.  Bates  was  added  to  the  com- 
mittee. 

The  symposium,  comprising  papers  by  Grace 
Greenwood,  Elizabeth  Smith  Miller,  Annie 
Jenness  Miller,  Octavia  W.  Bates,  E.  M.  King, 
Frances  M.  Steele,  Viscountess  Harberton, 
Frances  E.  Russell,  and  an  introduction  by 
Mrs.  Mary  Wright  Sewall,  President  of  the  Na- 
tional Council  of  Women,  was  published  in  the 
Arena  for  September  and  October,  1892. 

The  committee's  report  of  an  every-day  busi- 
ness dress  for  women,   "  suitable  for  business 
hours,    for    shopping,    marketing, 
housework,    walking,     and     other 
National     forms  of  exercise, ' '  was  presented  in 
Councilor    December,  1892,  and  afterward  in- 
Women.     culcated  in  pamphlet  form.     It  rec- 
ommended the  same  improved  un- 
derwear which  had  already  been  ad- 
vocated, and  loose  dressing  of  neck,  arms,  waist, 
hands,  and  feet.  To  relieve  the  legs  from  the  cus- 
tomary hindrance  of  long  skirts  two  forms  were 
recommended,  each  capable  of  various  modifica- 
tions :  one.  the  divided  skirt,  called  the  "Syrian" 
in  England,  and  used  in  this  country  in  the  best 
gymnasia  for  women  (the  usual  full  skirt  being 
divided  just  above  the  knees  and  gathered  up 
around  each  leg  dually) ;  and  the  other,  a  gown, 
or  jacket  and  skirt,  with  the  drapery  falling  only 
a  little  way  below  the  knee,  equestrienne  trou- 
sers, leggings,  or  extra  high  boots  being  added 
as  desired  or  needed. 

These  costumes  seem  to  be  coming  into  use, 
but  have  not  been  very  generally  adopted  except 
for  the  gymnasium,  the  bicycle,  and  mountain- 
climbing.  One  session  of  the  National  Coun- 
cil of  Women,  held  during  the  Woman's  Con- 
gress of  Representative  Women  at  the  Colum- 


bian Exposition,  was  devoted  to  the  subject  of 
woman's  dress.  It  was  a  very  large  meeting, 
and  there  was  much  enthusiasm.  The  costumes 
recommended  by  the  committee  on  dress  were 
shown  from  the  platform  on  those  who  took  part, 
and  were  frequently  seen  on  the  fair  grounds 
during  the  summer. 

Within  the  two  and  a  half  years  since  the 
committee  began  its  work  there  has  been  a  great 
change  in  public  opinion.     About 
1500  of  the  most  eminent  or  influ- 
ential women  signed  the  following    Change  of 
agreement :  Opinion. 

"We,  whose  names  are  signed 
below,  consent  to  give  our  influence 
in  favor  of  an  improvement  in  woman's  dress, 
which  will  give  her  the  free  and  healthful  use 
of  the  organs  of  her  body  when  working  or  tak- 
ing exercise.  In  signing  this  paper,  we  do  not 
become  responsible  for  the  suggestions  of  any 
one  else,  nor  do  we  promise  to  wear  or  to  en- 
dorse any  particular  style  of  dress.  We  simply 
give  our  influence  to  help  start  a  strong  and 
healthy  movement  in  favor  of  freedom  and  com- 
mon sense  in  dress." 

The  first  signers  of  this  paper  were  May 
Wright  Sewall,  Lady  Henry  Somerset,  Frances 
E.  Willard,  Clara  Barton,  Harriet  Beecher 
Stowe,  Grace  Greenwood,  Mrs.  Henry  Ward 
Beecher,  Elizabeth  Stuart  Phelps  Ward. 

As  further  aid  in  influencing  public  opinion 
(or  keeping  the  rabble  respectful)  another  paper 
has  been  circulated  among  eminent  men,  saying 
that  they  are  ' '  among  the  men  of  America  who 
approve  of  this  effort  women  are  making. ' '  The 
first  signers  were  Dr.  E.  A.  Sheldon,  Principal 
of  Oswego  Normal  School  ;  Dr.  N.  S.  Davis,  long 
the  President  of  the  National  Medical  Associa- 
tion ;  T.  W.  Higginson,  and  Oliver  Wendell 
Holmes. 

The  committee  on  dress  of  the  National  Coun- 
cil of  Women  was  increased  after  the  close  of 
the  Columbia  Exposition  by  .three  members — 
Laura  Lee,  Bertha  Morris  Smith,  and  Annie  L. 
Sloane. 

There  is  great  hope  for  dress  reform  in  the 
Physical  Culture  and  Correct  Dress  Societies, 
the  first  one  of  which  was  organ- 
ized in  Chicago  in  1888.    There  are 
dress  reform  organizations  of  some     Physical 
kind  in  Sweden,  Germany,  France,      Culture, 
and  in  England,  where  Lady  Kar- 
berton  presides  over  the  Rational 
Dress  Society,  which  publishes  an  annual  Ga- 
zette.    The  United  States  took  the  lead  in  this 
work. 

Practical 'opposition  to  prevailing  fashion  is 
extremely  difficult  for  separate  women,  espe- 
cially because  whatever  is  odd  or  contrary7  to 
woman's  usual  custom  seems  "  unwomanly," 
and  is  called  ugly.  There  is-  a  strong  supersti- 
tion in  regard  to  Parisian  authority,  few  realiz- 
ing that  the  most  unwomanly  women,  or  the 
fashionable  courtesan  class,  are  the  leaders  of 
fashion  in  France,  and  thence  throughout  the 
civilized  world. 

There  are  the  strongest  hygienic  reasons  in 
favor  of  dress  reform,  as  most  of  the  peculiar 
"  female  diseases"  are  either  produced  or  great- 
ly aggravated  by  woman's  usual  dress.  Foolish 
fashions  waste  woman's  time,  thought,  and 


Dress  Reform. 


5J9 


East  India  Company. 


strength,  as  well  as  her  finances.  The  exag- 
gerations and  deformities  of  woman's  natural 
shape,  the  constant  emphasizing  of  the  fact  of 
sex,  and  the  unnecessary  appeal  her  artificial 
helplessness  makes  upon  masculine  protection, 
or  the  excuse  it  seems  to  offer  for  his  scorn  and 
abuse,  suggest  strong  reasons  for  this  reform  on 
moral  grounds.  The  welfare  of  generations  to 
come  depends  upon  it. 

FRANCES  E.  RUSSELL. 

References  :  Dress  Reform,  byJAbba  Goold  Woolson  ; 
What  to  Wear,  by  Elizabeth  Stuart  Phelps ;  What  is 
the  Matter  ?  by  Celia  B.  Whitehead  ;  Beauty  of  Form 
and  Grace  of  Vesture,  by  Frances  M.  Steele  ;  The  Weil- 
Dressed  Woman,  by  Helen  G.  Ecob.  Magazine  articles 
on  the  subject  are  to  be  found  in  the  North  American 
Review,  Arena,  Review  of  Reviews,  Chautauquan,  and 
other  periodicals. 

DRINK  PROBLEM  AND  DRINK 
TRAFFIC.  See  INTEMPERANCE  ;  TEMPERANCE; 
PROHIBITION  ;  HIGH  LICENSE,  etc. 

DRUNKENNESS.    See  INTEMPERANCE. 
DUMB.    See  DEAF  AND  DUMB. 

DUNKARDS,DUNKERS,ORTUNKERS 

(from  a  dialectical  form  of  German  Tunken,  one 
who  dips),  is  the  name  of  a  sect  of  American 
German  Baptists  who  call  themselves  Brethren. 
The  sect  is  said  to  have  been  founded  by  Alex- 
ander Wack  in  1708,  at  Schwarzenau,  in  West- 
phalia, an  outcome  of  the  Pietist  movement. 
Persecuted  at  home,  between  1719  and  1729  they 
came  to  America  and  settled  in  Pennsylvania, 
and  subsequently  in  other  States.  In  their 
early  history  the  sexes  dwelt  apart,  and  mar- 
riage, tho  not  forbidden,  was  discouraged.  A 
certain  community  of  goods  was  also  established. 
These  features  have  now  disappeared.  The 
sect  is  marked  by  its  simple  life  and  dress. 
Dunkards  refuse  to  take  oaths  or  serve  in  war. 
They  hold  love  feasts  and  celebrate  the  cere- 
monial of  feet-washing  and  the  anointing  of  the 
sick  with  oil.  Their  creed  is  evangelical  Chris- 
tianity. Their  ministers  usually  receive  no  sal- 
ary. Most  of  the  sect  are  farmers.  The  first 
settlement  was  "  Ephrata,"  near  Philadelphia, 
but  this  branch  has  nearly  died  out.  Accord- 
ing to  the  census  for  1890,  there  were  four 
bodies  of  Dunkards  with  73,795  members. 


DUNOYER,  CHARLES,  was  born  at  Car- 
ennac  (Lot)  in  1786.  Studying  law  at  Paris,  he 
became  interested  in  the  political  events  of  the 
day,  and  with  Charles  Comte  established,  in 
1814,  Le  Censeur,  but  the  Terreur  blanche 
compelled  them  to  discontinue  the  publication 
of  this  paper  in  1816.  They  resumed  it  18 
months  later,  but  modified  its  title  to  Le  Cen- 
seur Europeen.  The  increasing  severity  of 
the  press  laws,  however,  seriously  hampered 
them,  and,  finally,  the  assassination  of  the  Duke 
of  Berry,  in  1820,  and  consequent  troubles  led 
to  the  entire  suspension  of  the  paper.  After 
this  Dunoyer  devoted  himself  exclusively  to 
economics.  He  gave  at  Paris  in  the  Athenaum 
Institution  a  course  of  lectures  on  political 
economy  and  moral  science.  Appointed  pre- 
fect of  the  department  of  the  Allier,  he  was 
transferred  in  1832  to  the  prefecture  of  the 
Somme  ;  this  he  quitted  in  1838  to  enter  the 
Council  of  State.  The  Revolution  of  1848  was 
a  heavy  blow  to  him,  Royalist  and  Liberal  as 
he  was  in  his  political  convictions  ;  he  remained, 
however,  on  the  Council  of  State,  and  only  re- 
linquished his  seat  there  after  the  coup  d'etat 
of  1851.  Bitterly  hostile  to  the  Second  Empire, 
as  he  had  been  to  the  First,  he  wrote  a  work 
directed  against  the  new  order  of  affairs.  He 
died  in  Paris  in  1862.  Palgrave's  Dictionary 
of  Political  Economy,  from  which  our  account 
is  abridged,  says  of  Dunoyer  :  ' '  Dunoyer  was 
one  of  the  great  economists  of  the  nineteenth 
century.  He  wrote  with  much  force  in  support 
of  the  theory  of  '  immaterial  wealth,'  even  going 
so  far  as  to  say  that,  from  the  economic  point 
of  view,  no  '  wealth  '  could  be  other  than  '  im- 
material. '  He  was  a  warm  supporter  of  the  the- 
ories of  Malthus  on  population  ;  but  he  was  no 
believer  in  the  theory  of  rent,  considering  that 
there  was  only  one  factor  in  production — i.e., 
labor."  He  was  elected,  in  1832,  a  member  of 
the  Institute  (Acaddrnze  des  Sciences  morales 
et  politiques},  and  in  1845  president  of  the  So- 
ciety of  Political  Economy.  His  miscellaneous 
works  (Notices  d'tconomie  sociale},  and  the  sec- 
ond edition  of  his  chief  work,  La  Libertt  du 
travail,  were  published,  both  at  the  same  time, 
in  1886. 

DURHAM,  BISHOP  OF.    See  WESTCOTT. 
DWELLINGS.     See  TENEMENTS. 


E. 


EARNINGS.     See  WAGES. 


EAST  INDIA  COMPANY,  THE.— There 
have  been  various  East  India  Companies — 
Dutch,  French,  etc.  The  English  East  India 
Company  was  chartered  in  1600  as  a  "  Governor 
and  Company  of  Merchants  trading  to  the  East 
Indies."  Its  early  voyages  were  like  those  of 
any  company  of  the  times,  enjoying  a  monopoly 
of  a  certain  trade.  It  had  its  rivals  at  home 
and  abroad,  especially  with  the  Dutch.  As 
early  as  1602  it  established  a  factory  at  Bantam  ; 
in  1690  it  began  the  policy,  commenced  by  the 


Dutch,  of  defending  its  trade  prerogatives  by  ter- 
ritorial possession.  Its  ensuing  arbitrary  meas- 
ures caused  it  to  be  denounced  at  home,  but  it 
triumphed.  A  new  company  was  formed,  but  it 
amalgamated  with  the  old.  The  disruption  of 
the  Mogul  Empire  on  the  death  of  Aurangzeb, 
and  the  advance  of  the  French,  and  the  battle 
of  Plassey  (1757),  under  Clive,  put  the  company 
in  virtual  possession  of  India.  A  creature  of 
its  own  was  put  on  the  throne,  but  the  real 
power  was  a  council  composed  of  the  company's 
senior  civil  members.  Later  (1784),  Lord  Corn- 
wallis  as  Governor-General  gained  the  right 


East  India  Company. 


520 


Education. 


to  overrule  the  council.  Finally  the  great  Ind- 
ian Mutiny  produced  the  feeling  that  so  much 
power  should  not  be  left  with  a  private  com- 
pany, and  in  1858  India  was  transferred  to  the 
Crown.  (See  INDIA.) 

References  :  Bruce's  Annals  of  British  India  and 
James  Mill's  History. 

ECONOMICS.    See  POLITICAL  ECONOMY. 
ECONOMY.     See  THRIFT. 

ECONOMY,     COMMUNITY    AT.      See 

HARMONY. 

EDEN,    SIR    FREDERICK    MORTON 

(1766-1809),  a  graduate  of  Oxford,  and  chair- 
man and  one  of  the  founders  of  the  Globe  In- 
surance Company  ;  wrote  various  statistical  and 
other  monographs,  but  is  mainly  known  for  his 
great  work  on  the  poor,  which  is  described  by 
its  title,  which  is  almost  a  catalogue  :  The  State 
of  the  Poor,  an  history  of  the  labouring  classes 
in  England  from  the  Conquest  to  the  present 
period,  in  'which  are  particularly  considered 
their  domestic  economy  with  respect  to  diet, 
dress, fuel,  and  habitation,  and  the  "various 
plans  which  from  time  to  time  have  been  pro- 
posed and  adopted  for  the  relief  of  the  poor, 
together  -with  Parochial  Reports  relative  to 
the  administration  of  Workhouses,  and  Houses 
of  Industry  ;  the  state  of  Friendly  Societies, 
and  other  public  institutions,  in  several  agri- 
cultural, commercial,  and  manufacturing  dis- 
tricts, with  a  large  appendix  (1797).  A  store- 
house of  information,  it  ranks  with  the  travels 
of  Arthur  Young  as  one  of  the  first  sources  of 
economic  information  for  its  period. 

EDGE  WORTH,  FRANCIS  YSIDRO,  was 

born  at  Edgeworthstown,  Ireland,  in  1845.  Af- 
ter several  terms  at  Trinity  College,  Dublin,  he 
entered  Oxford  in  1867,  graduating  with  a  "  first 
class"  in  1869.  Devoting  himself  to  mathemat- 
ics, he  published  Mathematical  Physics  in 
1 88 1,  and  wrote  numerous  papers  on  statistical 
data  for  the  British  Association  and  other  bodies. 
He  lectured  on  political  economy  at  the  Ladies' 
Department  of  King's  College,  London,  and  in 
1888  was  appointed  to  a  professorship  of  po- 
litical economy  in  that  college,  and  in  1890,  on 
the  resignation  of  the  late  Professor  Thorold 
Rogers,  to  the  Tooke  Professorship  of  Econom- 
ic Science  and  Statistics  in  the  same  university. 
He  is  Secretary  of  the  British  Economic  Asso- 
ciation, and  editor  of  its  Journal. 

EDGEWORTH,  MARIA,  was  born  at 
Black  Bourton  in  1767,  the  daughter  of  R.  L. 
Edgeworth.  An  intimate  friend  of  Malthus, 
Richard  Jones,  and  Ricardo,  her  writings  aim 
to  popularize  and  inculcate,  among  children 
especially,  the  main  points  of  the  orthodox  school 
of  political  economy  with  its  worship  of  ' '  self- 
help"  and  individualism.  Her  Belinda,  Par- 
ents1 Assistant,  The  Orphans,  Moral  Tales, 
Papular  Tales,  Rosamond,  Egerton  Abbey, 
Castle  Rackrent  (1800),  The  Absentee,  Ennui, 
Ormond,  Helen  (1834)  are  not  all  concerned  with 


economics  directly,  but  point  varied  forms  of 
the  same  general  moral.  She  died  in  Edge- 
worthstown, Ireland,  in  1849. 

EDUCATION.— (See  also  INDUSTRIAL  EDU- 
CATION ;  KINDERGARTENS  ;  UNIVERSITY  EXTEN- 
SION, etc.)  All  schools  of  social  reform  are 
agreed  that  the  importance  of  education  in  a  true 
social  development  cannot  be  overestimated. 
The  most  thoroughgoing  individualist,  who 
would  have  the  State  play  no  part  in  education 
whatsoever,  and  the  extremest  socialist,  who 
would  have  the  State  do  all,  do  not  differ  in 
the  value  they  put  upon  education  itself. 
There  are,  indeed,  those — and  they  are  not  a 
few — tho  rarely  found  among  the  ranks  of  social 
reformers,  who  do  not  believe  in  a  high  degree 
of  education  for  all  classes.  They  nold  that 
while  mobility  between  classes  should  be  easy, 
and  there  should  be  always  a  carriere  ouverte 
aux  talents,  the  majority  of  what  is  called 
the  working  class  must  always  do  the  rou- 
tine, mechanical  drudgery  of  the  world,  and 
that  for  these  classes  much  education  simply 
unfits  them  for  the  work  they  have  to  do  and 
gives  them  aspirations  that  can  only  bring  un- 
happiness  when  they  are  not  realized.  Still 
another  class  of  people  oppose  what  is  called 
the  higher  education  of  women,  as  unfitting 
them  for  home  life  and  duties.  Yet  even  these 
disbelievers  in  high  education  for  all — and 
their  number,  it  is  to  be  feared,  is  not  small 
even  in  so-called  democratic  America — are  by 
no  means  disbelievers  in  education  itself.  They 
simply,  on  the  principle  of  division  of  labor,  be- 
lieve that  all  classes  do  not  need  the  highest 
branches  of  study. 

Sociological  discussions  as  to  education,  then, 
turn  not  upon  its  value,  but  upon  the  questions 
who  should  be  educated,  how  far  they  should  be 
educated,  what  a  true  education  consists  in, 
and  what  persons  or  institutions  should  conduct 
the  education.  We  shall  therefore  in  this  article 
consider  the  subject  under  five  heads  : 

I.  What  Education  Consists  in  ;  II.  The  His- 
tory of  Education  ;  III.  Statistics  of  Education  ; 
IV.  Need  of  Educational  Reforms  ;  V.  Pro- 
posed Reforms.  To  sketch  the  outlines  of  ped- 
agogics or  the  science  of  teaching  does  not  come 
within  the  province  of  this  work. 

I.  WHAT  EDUCATION  CONSISTS  IN. 

Education  (from  Lat.  e  and  ducere,  to  draw 
out)  is  usually  defined  as  the  process  of  devel- 
oping or  drawing  out  the  faculties  of  the  indi- 
vidual, or  the  training  of  human  beings  for  the 
various  functions  of  life.  The  thought  is  dwelt 
upon  that  education  is  not  to  cram  a  child's 
head  with  facts,  to  fill  it  with  unassimilated  in- 
formation, but  to  draw  out  and  develop  the 
character  and  individuality,  the  mind,  will,  and 
soul-power  of  the  pupil,  to  make  him  think  and 
act  for  himself.  But  this,  while  always  to  be 
remembered,  must  not  be  carried  too  far.  Ed- 
ucation, as  a  matter  of  fact,  does  to  a  large,  ex- 
tent and  must  to  a  large  extent  consist  in  im- 
parting information,  at  least  in  teaching  the 
pupil  to  acquire  information.  The  informed 
man  is  not  always  educated,  but  the  educated 
man  must  always  be  somewhat  informed.  He 


Education. 


S21 


Education. 


does  not,  indeed,  need  to  know,  and  it  is  im- 
possible that  he  should  know,  everything  on 
every  subject,  but  a  scholar  has  been  defined  as 
one  who  knows  something  about 
everything  and  everything  about 
Definitions,  something.  In  the  introductory 
chapter  to  his  book,  The  Education 
of  the  Greek  People,  Mr.  Thomas 
Davidson  says  that  education,  "in  so  far  as  it 
depends  upon  conscious  exertion,  is  that  process 
by  which  a  human  being  is  enabled  to  tran- 
scend his  original  nature  and  attain  his  ideal 
nature,  or  be  the  most  desirable  thing  that  he  can 
be.  The  end  attained  is  his  good."  Mr.  Da- 
vidson distinguishes  here  between  two  senses  of 
the  word  nature.  He  shows  that  it  may  mean 
"  the  character  or  type  with  which  a  thing 
starts  on  its  separate  career,  and  which,  with- 
out any  effort  on  the  part  of  that  thing,  but 
solely  with  the  aid  of  natural  forces,  determines 
that  career."  Thus  we  speak  of  the  nature  of 
an  acorn,  a  whelp,  a  cub.  Or  it  may  mean 
"that  highest  possible  reality  which  a  living 
thing,  through  a  series  of  voluntary  acts,  origi- 
nating within  or  without  it,  may  be  made  to  at- 
tain." Thus,  through  voluntary  acts  originating 
outside  of  them,  a  rose,  an  apple,  a  horse  may  be 
raised  to  a  degree  of  perfection  impossible  for  it 
by  itself.  Man,  by  voluntary  acts,  partly  without 
the  individual,  but  mainly  within,  can  so  rise  to 
an  ideal  nature,  to  which  his  so-called  "  natural" 
instincts  would  never  raise  him.  Says  Mr. 
Davidson  :  "  Nothing  could  be  more  prejudi- 
cial to  the  best  interests  of  education  than  any 
attempt  to  evoke  indiscriminately  the  tendencies 
of  the  child's  original  nature.  Hence,  all  the 
popular  talk  about  developing  the  child's  '  spon- 
taneity '  is  little  more  than  sentimental  cant, 
likely  enough  to  do  incalculable  mischief." 
Nevertheless,  it  must  not  be  forgotten  that  edu- 
cation is  primarily  the  development  of  the  indi- 
vidual, and  that  modern  pedagogics  more  and 
more  strive  not  to  make  the  pupil  informed,  but 
to  enable  him  to  make  good  individual  use  of 
the  information  he  acquires. 

This  means  that  education  must  proceed  upon 
three  main  lines.  Man's  nature,  original  or 
ideal,  is  usually  divided  into  three  main  facts — 
the  constitution  of  his  body,  his  mind,  and  his 
will.  If  education,  then,  be  the  development 
of  man's  original  nature  to  the  ideal,  it  must 
develop  body,  mind,  affections,  and  will — that  is, 
it  must  be  physical,  mental  and  moral,  or  relig- 
ious. In  trie  Greek  and  other  early  ideals  of 
education  this  was  remembered.  Later  in  the 
Middle  Ages,  perhaps  owing  to  the  conception  of 
Christianity  which  then  obtained,  the  body 
was  slighted  and  education  made  to  consist 
mainly  of  mental  and  moral  development.  Be- 
ginning with  the  seventeenth  century,  owing 
again,  perhaps,  to  the  popular  ideals  of  the  di- 
vorce of  Church  and  State,  and  to  the  taking  of 
education  from  the  hands  of  the  Church,  where 
it  had  been,  and  placing  it  in  the  hands  of  the 
State,  the  moral  part  of  education  was  slighted 
and  education  left  almost  purely  mental.  To- 
day, owing  to  the  development  of  science,  espe- 
cially of  oiology,  physiology,  and  sociology, 
men  are  seeing  the  reaction  of  body  upon  mind 
and  mind  upon  body,  and  our  schools,  particu- 
larly our  public  schools,  are  paying  much  more 


attention  to  the  development  of  the  body,  some- 
times, indeed,  carrying  this  to  an  excess.  The 
correlation  of  the  mental  and  moral  or  ethical 
sciences  is  also  to  a  greater  or  less  extent  seen 
and  somewhat  acted  upon.  Owing,  however, 
to  the  conflicting  and  opposing  ideas  men  have 
of  religion  and  its  connection  with  ethics  and 
morals,  the  teaching  of  ethics  may  be  called 
the  unsolved  problem  of  our  public  schools.  ' '  A 
sound  mind  in  a  sound  body"  was  the  Greek 
ideal.  The  development  of  the  will  was  the 
Roman  function.  To  develop  mind  and  body 
and  will  and  soul  is  the  problem  of  modern  peda- 
gogics. Mr.  Thomas  Davidson,  in  the  book 
above  cited,  The  Education  of  the  Greek  Peo- 
ple, published  in  the  International  Education 
Series  (1894),  gives  us  (chap,  i.)  one  of  the  latest 
and  most  complete  sketches  of  the  educative 
process  : 

"  When  the  human  creature  comes  into  the  world, 
and  for  some  time  after,  it  is  hardly  more  than  an 
animal,  with  animal  needs,  and  as  such  it  has  to  be 
treated."  The  first  step  in  education,  then,  should  be  to 
promote  bodily  health  and  ward  off  unfavorable  influ- 
ences. Warmth,  sleep,  and  good  diges- 
tion are  then  the  three  main  needs.  Soon 
the  child  begins  to  show  intelligence.  Outline  of 
"It  is  now  proceeding  to  build  up  its  T-fln/joHon 
own  world  by  means  of  selective  atten- 
tion, and  this  attention  may  be  artifi- 
cially divided  and  prolonged,  so  that  a 
rational  world  shall  result.  At  this  stage  the  aims  of 
the  educator  ought  to  be  (i)  to  direct  the  child's  atten- 
tion to  things  on  which  it  is  well  that  attention  should 
rest,  and  which  yield  impressions  fitted  to  give  a 
healthy  fundamental  tone  and  temper  to  the  whole 
character ;  and  (2)  to  sustain  that  attention  as  long  as 
possible.  ...  It  ought,  indeed,  never  to  be  forgotten 
that  most  of  the  difficulties  with  which  education  in  its 
later  stages  has  to  contend  are  due  to  two  causes  :  (i) 
the  presence  in  the  child's  mind  of  undesirable  and 
chaotic  impressions,  which  have  to  be  removed  and 
corrected  before  an  orderly  world  can  be  built  up  in 
it  ;  (2)  the  absence  of  the  power  of  continued  attention, 
or,  which  is  the  same  thing,  the  absence  of  power  of 
will."  Attention  is  best  secured  by  action.  Games 
should  be  selected  with  the  greatest  care.  "  In  select- 
ing objects  upon  which  to  direct  the  young  child's 
wakening  nature,  the  wise  parent  or  teacher  will  bear 
in  mind  that  the  intellect  has  two  closely  Dallied  func- 
tions :  (i)  to  recognize  distinctions  and  relations  of  fact ; 
(2)  to  recognize  distinctions  and  relations  of  worth. 
Bearing  in  mind,  further,  that  the  latter,  being  es- 
sentially the  moral  faculty,  is  the  more  important  o£ 
the  two,  he  will  give  preference  to  such  objects  and  oc- 
cupations as  are  calculated  to  fix  the  child's  attention, 
not  only  upon  relations  of  fact,  but  also  and  still  more 
upon  relations  of  worth."  Physical  culture,  with  a 
view  to  health,  grace  and  ease  of  movement— nothing 
of  the  athletic  habit— must  at  this  time  be  developed. 
The  kindergarten  (q.v.)  should  aim  at  the  above  princi- 
ples. 

After  the  seventh  year  or  thereabouts,  instruction 
may  largely  take  the  place  of  training.  "The  educa- 
tor will  now  endeavor  to  acquaint  the  child  •with  the 
rational  grounds  for  those  distinctions  and  correspond- 
ing actions  with  which  his  previous  training  has  made 
him  familiar,  and  to  prepare  the  way  for  action  of  a 
wider  scope,  based  upon  rational  knowledge."  But 
these  are  the  relations  or  laws  of  the  universe.  Into 
these  the  child  must  be  initiated.  To  enable  him  to 
study  these,  the  child  must  be  taught  the  instruments 
of  study — (i)  language,  (2)  number,  and  (3)  manual  fa- 
cility. He  must  learn  to  read  and  write,  to  perform 
arithmetical  operations,  and  practise  one  or  more  of 
the  material  arts.  This  last  will  give  "  (i)  mechanical 
skill,  (2)  a  habit  of  carefulness  and  thoughtfulness, 
closely  akin  to  conscientiousness,  and  (3)  a  knowledge 
of  the'forms  of  things,  and  a  sense  of  the  adaptation  of 
means  to  ends,  such  as  could  hardly  be  obtained  in 
any  other  way."  Then  the  child  can  acquire  the  ele- 
ments of  the  natural  sciences,  beginning  with  the  more 
mechanical,  and  also  learn  their  spiritual  meaning, 
studying  grammar,  logic,  esthetics,  ethics,  and  relig- 
ion. Under  grammar  is  included  all  linguistic  study  ; 
under  logic,  ideology  ;  tinder  aesthetics,  the  theory 


Education. 


522 


Education. 


and  to  some  extent  the  practice  of  the  spiritual  arts  ; 
under  ethics,  morals,  politics,  the  history  of  civiliza- 
tion, pedagogics,  the  social  sciences;  under  religion, 
the  laws  of  the  spiritual  sense,  and  of  the  world  of 
which  it  supplies  the  material.  Every  branch  of  study 
ought  to  be  both  a  science  and  an  art,  calling  into  play, 
not  only  the  passive  and  receptive  faculties,  but  also 
the  active  and  creative  ones.  Mr.  Davidson  divides 
the  time  of  education  into  five  periods,  to  vary,  of 
course,  with  individuals  and  with  circumstances  : 

First  period,  seven  years,  family  and  kindergarten  ; 
second  period,  three  years,  primary  school  ;  third 

Eeriod,  four  years,  grammar  school  ;  fourth  period, 
jur  years,  high  school  or  gymnasium  ;  fifth  period, 
four  years,  university,  with  fixed  curriculum. 

The  first  period  will  aim  at  developing  the  physical 
and  moral  faculties,  and  the  power  of  fixing  attention. 
The  second  will  be  occupied  chiefly  with  learning  the 
use  of  the  instruments  of  study.    The 
third  will  make  the  growing  boy  and 
Periods  in    girl  familiar  with  their  own  mental  proc- 
Education     essesi  an<l  with  general  notions  of  the 
"    world.      Memorizing    should    be    now 
much    developed.      Physical    exercises 
should    take    a  gymnastic  form.     The 
fourth  period— a  difficult  one — should  develop  a  good 
deal  of  vigor,  energetic  emotion,  and  strength  of  will. 
Art,  poetry,  and  romance  should  be  studied.    Games 
demanding  endurance  and  courage  should  be  chosen. 
The  fifth  period  should  aim  to  round  off  the  develop- 
ment of  the  individual  and  teach  the  philosophies  of  life 
and  of  the  world.     Oratory  and  writing  should  be 
studied,  developing  modesty  with  power.    Physically 
quiet  endurance  rather  than  violent  exercise  should 
now  be  sought.     The  college  life  should  not  consist 
largely  of  voluntary  studies.    The  study  of  the  spe- 
cialist must  come  after  this  general  education  has  been 
finished. 

II.  THE  HISTORY  OF  EDUCATION.* 

Tho  its  beginnings  were  prehistoric  and  its 
roots  in  the  family,  yet  the  real  history  of 
education  dates  from  a  comparatively  recent 
period. 

Owing  to  the  spirit  of  caste  and  to  pantheism, 
the  Hindu  ideal  in  education  was  contempt  for 
life  and  self-repression  rather  than  the  cultiva- 
tion of  individuality.  The  great 
reform  of  Buddhism  made  little 
Earliest  change  in  this,  since  Buddha  also 
Education,  taught  the  extreme  of  self-abnega- 
tion. The  Brahmins  had  full  con- 
trol of  education  among  the  Hin- 
dus, and  woman  was  not  admitted  to  share  in 
its  benefits. 

Chinese  education  is  peculiar  for  its  formal- 
ism ;  and  such  as  it  is  to-day  it  has  been  for 
ages.  It  is  thoroughly  superficial.  But  in  the 
matter  of  the  wide  diffusion  of  education  it 
has  been  asserted  that  the  Chinese  lead  the 
world. 

In  ancient  Egypt  education  reached  the  high- 
est level  ;  but  learning  was  monopolized  by  the 
priestly  class,  and  the  common  people  learned 
little  but  the  necessary  arts  of  life. 

Dittes  says  (Histoire  de  I'  Education  et  de 
I' Instruction,  translated  by  Redolfi,  p.  49)  : 
"  If  ever  a  people  has  demonstrated  the  power 
of  education  it  is  the  people  of  Israel."  During 
centuries  of  exile  from  their  own  country  the 
preservation  of  their  faith  and  manners  has  no 
doubt  been  greatly  aided  by  their  system  of 
education.  Hebrew  education,  however,  was 
domestic.  The  ideal  was  the  service  of  Jeho- 
vah. Moral  and  religious  instruction  was  thus 
the  chief  part  of  education.  Only  boys  were 

*  Partly  condensed  from  Canpayre's  History  of 
Pedagogy,  translated  by  W.  H.  Payne. 


taught  to  read  and  write.  The  events  of  the 
national  history  were  repeated  by  the  fathers 
to  the  children,  and  this  in  itself  aroused  patri- 
otism and  religious  emotion.  From  the  first 
century  after  Christ  Jewish  education  became 
public  as  well  as  domestic.  Boys  then  began 
to  go  to  school  at  the  age  of  six.  They  learned 
reading  and  writing,  grammar,  astronomy,  and 
some  natural  history.  All  knowledge  of  Gen- 
tile origin  was  kept  out  of  the  Jewish  schools 
by  the  rabbis.  The  education  was  thus  wholly 
lacking  in  the  Greek  culture  of  the  world  about 
them. 

Education  in  Greece  seems  to  have  been  main- 
ly a  spontaneous  growth  in  a  favored  soil,  tho 
it  was  also  consciously  directed  by 
legislators    and    philosophers.     In 
dealing     with     Greek     education,       Greek 
Sparta  and  Athens  must  be  consid-   Education, 
ered  separately.     At  Athens,   the 
training  of  the  mind  as  well  as 
that  of  the  body  was  aimed  at ;  at  Sparta,  the 
training  of  the  body  alone. 

The  elementary  instruction  of  the  young 
Athenians  of  good  family  consisted  of  gram- 
mar, gymnastics,  and  music.  The  poor  learned 
only  reading,  swimming,  and  trade.  The  or- 
ganization of  the  schools  of  grammar  and  music 
was  left  to  private  enterprise,  but  the  State  di- 
rected the  gymnasia.  Those  of  adult  years  at- 
tended the  schools  of  rhetoric  and  philosophy. 
It  is  especially  to  the  schools  of  philosophy  that 
modern  education  owes  a  debt  both  of  general 
ideas  and  of  method.  In  Plato's  dialogues  we 
have  given  the  teaching  of  Socrates  and  his 
method,  which  was  that  of  interrogation.  In 
the  Republic  we  have  Plato's  own  ideal  com- 
monwealth and  education  ;  in  which,  however, 
the  subjection  of  the  individual  to  the  State  is 
carried  to  an  extreme.  He  establishes  three 
castes  in  his  ideal  State,  for  each  of  which  there 
is  a  minutely  detailed  scheme  of  instruction. 
Plato  places  a  high  value  on  gymnastics,  but 
gives  precedence  to  music,  since,  according  to 
him,  the  soul  forms  and  develops  the  body. 
Moral  education,  in  Plato's  system,  is,  above 
all,  an  education  in  art.  The  soul  rises  to  the 
good  through  the  beautiful.  In  the  Laws,  writ- 
ten in  Plato's  old  age,  he  to  some  extent  quali- 
fies the  theories  of  the  Republic.  Of  Aristotle's 
theories  of  education  we  have  only  an  imperfect 
record. 

Education  at  Rome  may  be  said  to  have  been, 
till  the  conquest  of  Greece,  of  the  Spartan  type. 
After  that  period  it  was  formed  more  and  more 
on  the  Athenian  model.  Schools  were  not 
opened  in  Rome  till  toward  the  end  of  the  third 
century  B.C.  Oratory  became  more  and  more 
prominent  in  Rome  after  the  age  of  Augustus  ; 
and  we  have  in  parts  of  Quintilian's  Institutes 
of  Oratory  a  real  and  valuable  treatise  on  educa- 
tion. Roman  literature  is  poor  in  material  for 
educational  study.  The  Romans  seem  never 
to  have  considered  education  as  an  affair  of 
the  State.  Roman  education,  as  compared 
with  Greek,  may  be  called  practical.  Each 
is  a  distinct  type. 

The  education  of  the  earliest  generation  of 
Christians  was  obtained  in  the  pagan  schools,  in 
those  great  imperial  academies  which  existed 
even  down  to  the  fifth  century,  which  flourished 


Education. 


523 


Education. 


in  Europe,  Asia,  and  Africa,  and  attained  per- 
haps their  highest  development  and  efficiency 
in  Gaul.  The  first  attempt  at  a  special  education 
for  Christians  was  made  at  Alexandria,  devel- 
oped by  Clement  and  Origen.  The  later  Latin 
fathers  took  a  bolder  stand,  and  rejected  the 
suspicious  aid  of  heathenism.  Tertullian,  Cyp- 
rian, and  Jerome  wished  the  antagonism  be- 
tween Christianity  and  paganism  to  be  recog- 
nized from  the  earliest  years,  and  even  Augus- 
tine condemned  with  harshness  the  culture  to 
which  he  owed  so  much  of  his  power.  Yet  the 
Church  favored  education  and  instructed  her 
parish  priests  to  found  and  conduct  schools. 
The  stormy  times  of  the  early  Middle  Ages 
were  little  favorable  to  education.  They  were 
the  Dark  Ages.  What  intellectual  light  there 
was  was  in  the  monasteries.  (See  MONASTICISM.) 
Yet  for  the  most  part  this  was  limited  and  fet- 
tered by  ecclesiastical  traditionalism,  developing 
at  best  the  philosophy  of  the  schoolmen. 

A  most  important  part  of  the  monastery  was 
the  writing-room,  where  missals,  psalters,  and 
breviaries  were  copied  and  illuminated,  and 
too  often  a  masterpiece  of  classic 
literature  was  effaced  to  make  room 
Middle  Ages,  tor  a  treatise  of  one  of  the  fathers 
or  the  sermon  of  an  abbot.  Yet  the 
monasteries  of  Monte  Cassino, 
Fulda,  or  Tours  did  not  a  little  to  educate  their 
times  and  to  preserve  much  that  otherwise 
would  have  been  lost.  The  seven  arts  of  monk- 
ish training  were  grammar,  dialectics,  rhetoric, 
music,  arithmetic,  geometry,  astronomy,  which 
together  formed  the  trivium  and  quadrivtum, 
the  seven  years'  course.  One  of  the  earliest 
treatises  based  on  this  method  was  that  of  Mar- 
tianus  Capella,  who  in  470  published  his  Satyr  a, 
in  nine  books.  The  first  two  were  devoted  to  the 
marriage  between  Philology  and  Mercury,  the 
last  seven  were  each  devoted  to  the  considera- 
tion of  one  of  these  liberal  arts.  Cassiodorus, 
who  wrote  De  Septem  Discipltnts  about  500, 
was  also  largely  used  as  a  text-book  in  the 
schools.  The  Saracens  in  Spain  meanwhile, 
and  the  Greeks  in  the  Byzantine  Empire,  had 
preserved  ancient  learning,  if  their  schools  de- 
veloped little  new  thought. 

The  ninth  century  saw  beginnings  of  intel- 
lectual life.  In  the  twelfth  century  universi- 
ties began  to  develop  out  of  the  schools  attached 
to  the  cathedrals  and  monasteries.  When  a 
teacher  of  eminence  like  Abelard,  or  Peter  the 
Lombard  at  Paris,  or  Irenaaus  at  Bologna,  ap- 
peared, students  would  flock  around  him.  The 
members  of  the  studium  generate  would  form 
themselves  for  mutual  support  into  a  corporation 
called  a  university.  The  University  of  Paris 
existed  as  a  separate  body  as  early  as  1169. 
Toward  the  end  of  the  thirteenth  century  Pope 
Nicholas  I.  granted  it  the  right  of  endowing  its 
graduates  with  the  power  of  teaching  every- 
where. It  had  at  first  only  a  faculty  of  arts, 
divided  into  four  nations,  known  as  French, 
Picard,  Norman,  and  German  or  English.  Fac- 
ulties of  theology,  medicine,  and  canon  law  were 
added  in  the  seventeenth  century.  The  college 
of  the  Sorbonne,  founded  in  1250,  became  identi- 
fied with  the  faculty  of  theology.  The  Univer- 
sity of  Bologna  devoted  itself  mainly  to  law, 
and  numbered  12,000  students  at  the  end  of 


the  twelfth  century.     It  claims  to  be  the  old- 
est. 

"  According  to  the  Minerva  Jahrbuch  der  Universi- 
taten  der  Welt^  the  following  are  the  dates  of  origin  of 
the  older  universities:  1119,  Bologna,  Italy;  1180, 
Montpellier,  France  ;  1200,  Paris,  France  ;  1206  or  1249, 
Oxford,  England  ;  1209,  Valencia,  Spain  ;  1222,  Padua, 
Italy  ;  1224,  Naples,  Italy  ;  1229,  Toulouse,  France  ;  1239 
or  1250,  Salamanca,  Spain  ;  1257,  Cambridge,  England  ; 
1264,  Ferrara,  Italy  ;  1290,  Coimbra,  Portugal ;  before 
1300,  Lyons,  France  ;  1303,  Rome,  Italy ;  1307,  Perugia, 
Italy  ;  1316,  Pisa,  Italy  ;  1339,  Grenoble,  France  ;  1346, 
Valladolid,  Spain  ;  1347  or  1348,  Prague,  Bohemia,  Aus- 
tria ;  1361,  Pavia,  Italy  ;  1364,  Cracow,  Poland,  Austria  ; 
1365,  Vienna,  Austria  ;  1386,  Heidelberg,  Baden,  Ger- 
many ;  1402,  Wurzburg,  Bavaria,  Germany  ;  1404,  Tu- 
rin, Italy;  1409,  Aix,  France;  1411,  St.  Andrews,  Scot- 
land ;  1419,  Rostock,  Mecklenburg,  Germany  ;  1426,  Lou- 
vain,  Belgium;  1431,  Poitiers,  France;  1433,  Caen, 
France ;  1438,  Florence,  Italy  ;  1445,  Catania,  Sicily, 
Italy ;  1450,  Barcelona,  Spain  ;  1450  or  1451,  Glasgow, 
Scotland. 

There  was,  too,  at  least  one'  development  of 
popular  education.  Among  the  Brethren  of  the 
Common  Life  (g.v.),  who  were  found  in  the 
Northern  Netherlands,  education  was  for  all. 
The  metropolis  of  their  organization  was  Deven- 
ter,  the  best-known  name  among  them  that  of 
Gerhard  Groote.  They  devoted  themselves  with 
all  humility  and  self-sacrifice  to  the  education 
of  children.  Their  schools  were  crowded.  Bois- 
le-duc  numbered  1200  pupils,  Zwolle  1500.  For 
loo  years  no  part  of  Europe  shone  with  a 
brighter  lustre. 

But  already  Europe  was  preparing  for  the  re- 
vival of  learning.     The  conquest  of  Constanti- 
nople by  the  Turks  drove  Greek  teachers  and 
their  books  from  that  city  to  Italy. 
The   invention    of   printing  made 
books  accessible  for  all.     The  Re-          The 
naissance  preceded  the   Reforma-  Reformation, 
tion.     Through  all  Western  Europe 
the  "  new  learning"  made  schools 
popular.     Vittorino  da  Feltre  may  be  taken  as  a 
type  of  the  teachers  among  the  nobles  of  this 
era.     He  seems  to  have   reached  the  highest 
point  of  excellence  as  a  schoolmaster  of  the 
Italian  Renaissance. 

Thus  there  came  the  dawning  of  that  intel- 
lectual day  which  was  to  make  the  sixteenth 
century  an  epoch  in  the  history  of  human  thought 
and  aspiration.  The  mind  awoke  to  intuitions 
concerning  development  according  to  natural 
laws,  and  to  a  conception  and  hope  of  indepen- 
dence and  progress.  Erasmus,  Montaigne, 
Rabelais,  Calvin,  and  Melanchthon  did  much 
to  open  long-blinded  eyes.  They  brought  the 
schoolmaster  into  the  cottage,  and  laid  the  foun- 
dations of  the  system  which  is  the  chief  honor 
and  strength  of  modern  Germany — a  system  by 
which  the  child  of  the  peasant,  by  slow  but  cer- 
tain gradations,  receives  the  best  education 
which  the  country  can  afford.  Melanchthon, 
from  his  editions  of  school  books  and  his  prac- 
tical labors  in  education,  earned  the  title  of 
Praeceptor  Germanise.  Aristotle  had  been  de- 
throned from  his  preeminence  in  the  schools, 
and  Melanchthon  attempted  to  supply  his  place. 
He  wrote  elementary  books  on  each  depart- 
ment of  the  trivium — grammar,  dialectic,  and 
rhetoric.  He  made  some  way  with  the  studies 
of  the  quadrivium,  and  wrote  Initia  doctrince 
Physicce,  a  primer  of  physical  science.  He  lec- 
tured at  the  University  of  Wittenberg,  and  for 
10  years,  from  1519-29,  kept  a  schola  privata 


Education. 


524 


Education. 


in  his  own  house.  The  so-called  Latin  school, 
the  parent  of  the  gymnasium  and  the  lyceum, 
spread  all  over  Europe,  and  was  especially 
nourishing  in  Germany.  The  programs  and 
time-tables  in  use  in  these  establishments  have 
come  down  to  us,  and  we  possess  notices  of  the 
lives  and  labors  of  many  of  the  earliest  teach- 
ers. One  school  stands  preeminent  before  the 
rest.  Strasburg  educated  the  gilded  youth  of 
the  sixteenth  century  under  Sturm,  as  it  trained 
the  statesmen  and  diplomatists  of  the  eigh- 
teenth under  Koch.  John  Sturm,  of  Strasburg, 
was  the  friend  of  Ascham,  the  author  of  the 
Schoolmaster,  and  the  tutor  of  Queen  Eliza- 
beth. He  drew  his  scholars  from  the  whole  of 
Europe  ;  Portugal,  Poland,  England  sent  their 
contingent  to  his  halls.  In  1578  his  school  num- 
bered several  thousand  students  ;  he  supplied 
at  once  the  place  of  the  cloister  and  the  castle. 
His  pupils  would  write  elegant  letters,  deliver 
elegant  Latin  speeches,  be  familiar,  if  not  with 
the  thoughts,  at  least  with  the  language  of  the 
ancients.  The  Public  School  Commission  of 
1862  found  that  the  lines  laid  down  by  the  great 
citizen  of  Strasburg  and  copied  by  his  admirers 
had  remained  unchanged  until  within  the  mem- 
ory of  the  present  generation. 

John  Amos  Comenius  was  the  antithesis  to 
Sturm.  Born  a  Moravian,  he  passed  a  wander- 
ing life  in  poverty  and  obscurity.  But  his  ideas 
were  accepted  by  the  most  advanced  thinkers 
of  the  age.  His  school  books  were  spread 
throughout  Europe.  The  Janua  Littguarum 
Reserata  was  translated  into  twelve  European 
and  several  Asiatic  languages. 

Progressive  educators  of  our  time  echo  the 
words  of  Comenius  when  he  urges  the  instruc- 
tion of  the  young,  ' '  not  by  beating  into  them  a 
mass  of  words,  sentences,  and  opinions  gath- 
ered out  of  books,  but  by  opening  their  under- 
standing through  things  themselves." 

The  Protestant  schools  were  now  the  best  in 
Europe.  Catholics  would  have  remained  be- 
hind in  the  race  if  it  had  not  been  for  the 
Jesuits.  Ignatius  Loyola  devel- 
oped numerous  schools  through 
The  Jesuits,  the  order  which  he  founded,  and 
the  program  of  studies,  which 
dates  from  the  end  of  the  sixteenth 
century,  is  in  use,  with  certain  modifications, 
in  English  Jesuit  schools  at  the  present  day. 
In  ,15  50  the  first  Jesuit  school  was  opened  in 
Germany  ;  in  1700  the  order  possessed  612  col- 
leges, 157  normal  schools,  59  novitiates,  340 
residences,  200  missions,  29  professed  homes, 
and  24  universities.  The  College  of  Clermont 
had  3000  students  in  1695.  Every  Jesuit  college 
was  divided  into  two  parts,  the  one  for  higher, 
the  other  for  lower  education — the  studio,  sttpe- 
riora  and  the  studio,  inferiora.  The  studio, 
inferiora,  answering  to  the  modern  gymnasium, 
was  divided  into  five  classes.  The  first  three 
were  classes  of  grammar  (rudiments),  grammar 
(accidence),  and  syntax,  the  last  two  humanity 
and  rhetoric.  The  motto  of  the  schools  was 
lege,  scribe,  loquere — you  must  learn  not  only 
to  read  and  write  a  dead  language,  but  to  talk. 
Purism  was  even  more  exaggerated  than  by 
Sturm.  No  word  might  be  used  which  did  not 
rest  upon  a  special  authority.  The  order  dis- 
dained history,  science,  and  philosophy,  their 


labors  being  wholly  directed  to  the  propagation 
of  the  Catholic  faith,  and  the  ability  to  write  in 
Latin  in  the  most  approved  way. 

It  is  impossible  to  estimate  the  influence  of 
the  Jesuits  upon  the  world's  civilization.  They 
controlled  during  200  years  over  600  colleges  and 
many  universities,  a  control  lasting  till  almost 
the  end  of  the  eighteenth  century.  They  cared 
not  so  much  for  education  as  for  the  power  to  be 
gained  by  having  the  schools  in  their  hands. 
In  1831  Roothar,  the  general  of  their  order, 
somewhat  improved  their  curriculums,  but  mod- 
ern governments  have  on  the  whole  done  well 
to  oppose  these  schools.  They  taught  the  ac- 
complishments the  polite  world  wanted,  but 
stifled  thought  and  inquiry.  Montaigne,  Locke, 
and  Milton  all  criticised  this  form  of  education, 
and  gave  us  stimulating  and  suggestive  thoughts. 
Milton's  Tractate  of  tLducation  is  most  impor- 
tant. Meanwhile  at  Port  Royal,  in  France,  the 
Jansenists,  Arnauld,  Lancelot,  and  Nicoll  taught 
with  such  success  that  they  excited  the  jealousy 
of  the  Jesuits,  and  they  were  suppressed. 

Pascal,  Racine,  and  the  Mere  Angelique 
show  what  was  their  success.  The  Port  Royal 
Logic,  General  Grammar,  Greek,  Latin,  Ital- 
ian, and  Spanish  Grammars,  the  Garden  of 
Greek  Roots,  which  taught  Greek  to  Gibbon,  the 
Port  Royal  Geometry,  and  their  translations 
of  the  classics  held  their  place  for  over  a  century. 

We  come  now  to  the  great  name  of  August 
Hermann  Francke,  the  founder  of  the  school  of 
Pietists,  and  of  a  number  of  institutions  which 
now  form  almost  a  suburb  of  the  town  of  Halle, 
to  which  his  labors  were  devoted.  The  first 
scenes  of  his  activity  were  Leipzig  and  Dres- 
den ;  but  in  1692,  at  the  age  of  29,  he  was  made 
pastor  of  Glaucha,  near  Halle,  and  professor  in 
the  newly  established  university.  Three  years 
later  he  commenced  his  poor  school  with  a  capi- 
tal of  seven  guelders,  which  he  found  in  the  poor- 
box  of  his  house.  At  his  death  in  1727  he  left 
behind  him  the  following  institutions  :  a  pceda- 
gogium,  or  training  college,  with  82  scholars 
and  70  teachers  receiving  education,  and  at- 
tendants ;  the  Latin  school  of  the  orphan  asy- 
lum, with  3  inspectors,  32  teachers,  400  scholars, 
and  10  servants  ;  the  German  town  schools, 
with  4  inspectors,  98  male  teachers,  8  female, 
and  1725  boys  and  girls.  The  establishment 
for  orphan  children  contained  100  boys,  34  girls, 
and  10  attendants.  A  cheap  public  dining-table 
was  attended  by  255  students  and  360  poor 
scholars,  and  besides  this  there  was  an  apothe- 
cary's and  a  bookseller's  shop.  Francke's  prin- 
ciples of  education  were  strictly  religious.  The 
Franckesche  Stiftungen  are  still,  next  to  the 
university,  the  center  of  the  intellectual  life  of 
Halle,  and  the  different  schools  which  they  con- 
tain give  instruction  to  3500  children. 

The  Entile  of  Rousseau  was  published  in  1762. 
It  produced  a  profound    impression,  and    has 
affected  teaching  until  very  recent  times.    With 
him  nature  is   supreme.     He  pro- 
tests against  the  shams  of  govern- 
ment and  civilization,  and  pities  the    Kousaeau. 
sorrows  of  the  poor.     He  lays  great 
stress    on    the    earliest  education. 
The  first  year  of  life  is  in  every  respect   the 
most  important.     Nature  must  be  closely  fol- 
lowed.    The  chief  moral  principle  is,  do  no  one 


Education. 


Education. 


harm.  Emile  is  to  be  taught  by  the  real  things 
of  life,  by  observation  and  experience.  At 
twelve  years  old  he  is  scarcely  to  know  what  a 
book  is  ;  to  be  able  to  read  and  write  at  fifteen 
is  quite  enough.  Then  a  new  stage  opens, 
when  he  is  to  learn  history,  science,  and  the 
machinery  of  society.  Basedow,  a  friend  of 
Goethe  and  Lavater,  founded  a  school  some- 
what on  these  principles  at  Dessau,  and  later 
Salzmann  did  the  same  at  Schnepfenthal.  It 
was  the  age  of  romanticism. 

The  end  of  the  eighteenth  century  saw  a 
great  development  given  to  classical  studies, 
The  names  of  Cellarius,  Gesner,  Ernesti,  and 
Heyne  are  perhaps  more  celebrated  as  scholars 
than  as  schoolmasters.  To  them  we  owe  the 
great  importance  attached  to  the  study  of  the 
classics,  both  on  the  Continent  and  in  England. 
They  brought  into  the  schools  the  philology 
which  F.  A.  Wolf  had  organized  for  the  univer- 
sities. Johann  Heinrich  Pestalozzi  reverted  to 
concrete  education  from  objects.  Born  at  Zu- 
rich in  1745,  he  converted  his  house  into  an 
orphan  asylum  :  he  saved  from  degradation 
over  100  children  and  issued  volumes  on  educa- 
tion. He  died  in  1827  near  Basle,  overwhelmed 
with  mortification  ;  but  to-day  his  ideas  of  train- 
ing rather  than  instruction  are  accepted  in  ele- 
mentary schools  all  over  Europe.  Froebel  (q.v.} 
continued  his  work.  He  made  many  mistakes 
before  fixing  upon  his  final  vocation,  and  even 
this  proved  a  failure  so  far  as  he  personally  was 
concerned.  He  also,  a  victim  to  great  griefs, 
died  believing  that  his  life  had  been  lived  wholly 
in  vain. 

It  is  with  the  kindergarten  (g.v?)  that  we  as- 
sociate the  name  of  this  savior  of  little  children. 
To  him  the  child  was  a  plant  and  the  school  its 
nursery.  Tho  much  of  the  seed  which  he  sowed 
fell  in  stony  places,  much  also  fell  on  good 
ground  and  has  brought  forth  fruit  abundantly. 
Among  modern  contributors  to  the  methods 
of  education  the  names  of  Herbert  Spencer  (y.v.) 
and  Alexander  Bain  hold  a  high  place.  Mr. 
Huxley  did  a  great  deal  toward  teaching  exact 
science  in  a  popular  way.  The  name  of  Arnold 
will  always  be  remembered  in  England  as  the 
ideal  of  a  great  head  master.  But  already  are 
we  in  modern  times. 

In  the  United  States  the  school  was  planted 

side  by  side  with  the  Church.     The  colony  of 

Massachusetts  gave  a  grant  for  a  college  which 

later  was  to  become  Harvard  Uni- 

_,,  versity,  in  1636.     An  ordinance  for 

TT  -t  j       common    schools    was    passed    in 

S*11  1642.     Connecticut  that  same  year 

made  an  appropriation  for  schools 

already  established. 

The  first  institutions  of  secondary  instruction 
founded  in  America  were  modeled  on  the  "  pub- 
lic or  foundation  schools  of  England."  Boston, 
Cambridge,  Dorchester,  Salem,  Ipswich,  and 
Hadley,  of  Massachusetts,  and  Hartford  and 
New  Haven  had  so-called  grammar  schools 
established  in  the  seventeenth  century.  Their 
primary  design  was  to  fit  students  for  college. 
They  were  supported  both  from  the  public  fund 
and  from  endowments,  as  well  as  from  small 
tuition  fees.  Ezekiel  Cheever,  of  New  Haven, 
the  most  distinguished  of  New  England's  early 
teachers,  was  paid  ^20,  and  later  ,£30  a  year. 


The  clergymen,  however,  did  most  of  the  pre- 
paring of  students  for  the  colleges. 

In  1746  Samuel  Moody  graduated  at  Harvard 
College,  and  at  once  began  his  career  as  a 
teacher  in  the  York  Grammar  School  of  Maine. 
His  school  at  York,  tho  the  only  public 
school  in  town,  became  the  resort  of  scholars. 
In  1763  was  founded  the  Dummer  School  at 
Byfield,  Mass.,  the  first  of  the  New  England 
academies,  and  to  it  Master  Moody  was  trans- 
ferred. 

Phillips  Academy  at  Andover  and  Phillips 
Exeter  Academy  were  founded  by  members  of 
the  family  whose  name  they  bear  in  1778  and 
1782  ;  and  they  have  for  a  century  been  re- 
garded as  among  the  best  schools  in  America 
preparatory  for  college. 

Connecticut  was  the  first  of  the  States  to  estab- 
lish a  common-school  fund.     This  was  done  in 
1795.     New  York  followed  in  1805,  and  Massa- 
chusetts in  1834.     A  national  land 
ordinance  of    1785    dedicated   one 
thirty-sixth  part  of  the  western  ter-     Common 
ritory  then   in    possession   of    the      Schools. 
Government  to    common   schools. 
Down  to  1883  the  Government  had 

granted  for  common  schools  67,893,919  acres  ; 
^>r  agricultural  and  mechanical  colleges,  9,600,- 
ooo  ;  for  seminaries  or  universities,  1,395,920; 
to  be  valued  at  some  $250,000,000. 

But  by  the  side  of  the  academy  has  arisen 
since  1840  in  New  England  a  public  school,  like 
the  early  grammar  school,  designed  to  prepare 
students  for  college.  It  is  now  almost  univer- 
sally known  as  the  high  school. 

Throughout  the  West,  at  the  time  of  its  set- 
tlement, the  high  school  became  the  chief  insti- 
tution of  intermediate  instruction.  The  num- 
ber of  schools  of  this  grade  changes  from  year 
to  year,  and  also  with  important  changes  in  the 
school  laws,  but  nearly  all  towns  of  Western 
States  of  1 5, ooo  or  more  inhabitants  have  schools 
in  which  the  classical  studies  and  the  mathe- 
matics necessary  for  admission  to  college  can 
be  pursued. 

In  1857  the  National  Teachers'  Association 
was  organized,  and  reorganized  in  1870  as  the 
National  Educational  Association.  Its  object 
is  "to  elevate  the  character  and  advance  the 
interests  of  the  profession  of  teaching,  and  to 
promote  the  cause  of  popular  education  in 
the  United  States."  Any  person  in  anyway 
connected  with  the  work  of  education,  or  any 
educational  association,  is  eligible  to  member- 
ship. The  National  Council  of  Education  con- 
sists of  60  members,  selected  out  of  the  member- 
ship of  the  National  Educational  Association. 
The  association  has  200  life  members  and  an 
average  of  about  4000  annual  members. 

In  1867  a  national  department  of  education 
was  established,  reduced  the  following  year  to 
a  Bureau  of  Education.  Education  plays  from 
the  first  a  growing  part  in  the  State  constitu- 
tions, but  after  1837  it  becomes  very  prominent. 
The  first  normal  school  dates  from  1840,  erected 
at  Bridgewater,  and  was  due  to  the  efforts  of 
Horace  Mann  (?.v.). 

There  being  no  system  controlled  by  the  Na- 
tional Government,  diversity  obtains  in  the  dif- 
ferent States,  and  yet  there  is  a  remarkable 
similarity.  The  funds  are  primarily  raised  by 


Education. 


526 


Education. 


local  taxation,  and  when  there  is  a  State  Edu- 
cational Fund  it  is  divided  among  the  commu- 
nities in  proportion  to  their  needs  as  a  supple- 
ment, never  as  a  substitute.  The  State  law 
fixes  the  grades  of  study,  the  minimum  length 
of  term,  and  where  compulsory  attendance  pre- 
vails makes  additional  regulations.  Each  town 
or  city  chooses  its  own  school  board,  to  which 
it  entrusts  the  organization  and  management 
of  the  schools.  In  most  States  (in  Philadelphia 
since  1820,  New  York  since  1840,  and  Massa- 
chusetts since  1873)  school  books  are  provided 
free  to  the  scholars.  The  Boston  School  Com- 
mittee in  1887  declared  that  the  free  text  book 
has  undoubtedly  been  a  large  factor  in  filling 
our  high  schools  and  the  upper  classes  of  the 
grammar  schools. 

In  the  development  t>f  colleges  and  universi- 
ties Americans  have  not  been  backward,  mainly 
established  on  voluntary  lines  by  the  gifts  of 
successful  business  men,  tho  of  late 
State  universities  are  being  more 
Colleges,  developed.  John  Harvard,  dying 
in  1638,  gave  half  his  property  for 
the  establishment  of  Harvard  Col- 
lege. William  and  Mary  College  was  estab- 
lished in  Virginia  by  a  grant  from  the  English 
Government  in  1693.  Yale  College  was  estab- 
lished in  1700,  Princeton  in  1746,  Kings  (now 
Columbia)  College  in  1754,  Brown  University 
in  1764.  Some  of  these  have  now  grown  into 
universities,  but  most  of  America's  colleges  are 
not  universities.  Many  of  them  are  on  denomi- 
national foundations.  The  salaries,  compared 
with  the  wealth  of  the  country,  are  small. 
Small  opportunities  for  research  have  until  re- 
cently existed.  But  Johns  Hopkins  University, 
established  in  1876,  has  led  in  this,  and  fellow- 
ships established  at  Harvard,  Columbia,  Penn- 
sylvania, Chicago,  and  elsewhere  are  develop- 
ing much  post-graduate  study.  Women's  col- 
leges, commencing  with  Vassar  College,  in 
1 86 1,  are  now  multiplying. 

Mr.  Bryce,  in  his  The  American  Common- 
wealth, says  of  American  colleges  : 

"  In  America  the  universities  are  not  a  well-defined 
class  of  institutions.  Not  only  is  the  distance  between 
the  best  and  the  worst  greater  than  that  which  in  Ger- 
many separates  Leipzig  from  Rostock,  or  in  England 
Cambridge  from  Durham,  but  the  gradations  from  the 
best  down  to  the  worst  are  so  imperceptible  that  one 
can  nowhere  draw  a  line  and  say  that  here  the  true 
university  stops  and  the  pretentious  school  begins. 
As  has  been  observed  already,  a  large  number  present 
the  external  seeming  and  organization— the  skeleton 
plan,  so  to  speak — of  a  university  with  the  actual  per- 
formance of  a  rather  raw  school.  .  .  . 

"  Not  the  least  interesting  of  the  phenomena  of  to- 
day is  the  struggle  which  goes  in  the  Middle  and  West- 
ern States  between  the  greater,  and  especially  the 
State  universities,  and  the  small  denominational  col- 
leges. The  latter,  which  used  to  have  the  field  to 
themselves,  are  now  afraid  of  being  driven  off  it  by 
the  growth  of  the  former,  and  are  redoubling  their  ex- 
ertions not  only  to  increase  their  own  resources  and 
students,  but — at  least  in  some  States — to  prevent  the 
State  university  from  obtaining  larger  grants  from 
the  State  treasury.  They  allege  that  the  unsectarian 
character  of  the  State  establishments,  as  well  as  the 
freedom  allowed  to  their  students,  makes  them  less 
capable  of  giving  a  moral  and  religious  training.  But 
as  the  graduates  of  the  State  universities  become  nu- 
merous in  the  legislatures  and  influential  generally,  and 
as  it  is  more  and  more  clearly  seen  that  the  small  col- 
leges cannot,  for  want  of  funds,  provide  the  various 
appliances— libraries,  museums,  laboratories,  and  so 
forth — which  universities  need,  the  balance  seems 
likely  to  incline  in  favor  of  the  State  universities.  It 
is  probable  that  while  these  will  rise  toward  the  level 


of  their  Eastern  sisters,  many  of  the  denominational 
colleges  will  subside  into  the  position  of  places  of  pre- 
paratory training. 

"  One  praise  which  has  often  been  given  to  the  uni- 
versities of  Scotland  may  be  given  to  those  of  Amer- 
ica. While  the  German  universities  have  been  popu- 
lar, but  not  free,  while  the  English  universities  have 
been  free,  but  not  popular,  the  American  universities 
have  been  both  free  and  popular.  .  .  .  One  who 
recalls  the  history  of  the  West  during  the  last  50  years, 
and  bears  in  mind  the  tremendous  rush  of  ability  and 
energy  toward  a  purely  material  development  which 
has  marked  its  people,  will  feel  that  this  uncontrolled 
freedom  of  teaching,  this  multiplication  of  small  insti- 
tutions, have  done  for  the  country  a  work  which  a  few 
State-regulated  universities  might  have  failed  to  do. 
The  higher  learning  is  in  no  danger.  The  great  uni- 
versities of  the  East,  as  well  as  one  or  two  in  the  West, 
are  already  beginning  to  rival  the  ancient  universities 
of  Europe."  They  will  soon  have  far  greater  funds  at 
their  command  with  which  to  move  toward  the  same 
ideal  as  Germany  sets  before  herself  ;  and  they  have 
already  what  is  better  than  funds— an  ardor  and  in- 
dustry among  the  teachers  which  equals  that  displayed 
50  years  ago  in  Germany  by  the  foremost  men  of  the 
generation  which  raised  the  German  schools  to  their 
glorious  pre-eminence." 

III.  STATISTICS  OK  EDUCATION. 

(a)   THE    UNITED    STATES. 

The  report  on  education  in  the  eleventh  cen- 
sus states  elaborate  reasons  why  statistics  as  to 
education  for  many  of  the  States  must  be  taken 
with  reserve,  and  since  determined  on  different 
bases  in  different  States  and  at  different  periods 
must  not  be  too  blindly  used  in  making  com- 
parisons and  drawing  conclusions.  Jt  says  : 

"  Education  appears  for  the  first  time  in  census 
tables  of  the  United  States  in  1840,  so  that  the  census 
reports  on  that  subject  now  cover  a  period  of  50  years. 

"  The  conditions  in  1840  were  such  that  the  classifi- 
cation adopted  roughly  suggests  the  number  who  might 
respectively  be  classed  as  elementary,  secondary,  and 
superior  in  their  lines  of  study.  It  is  highly  probable 
that  the  very  small  number  of  special  institutions  then 
existing  under  private  or  public  beneficence  were  in- 
cluded m  the  general  summaries.  Such  institutions  in 
recent  census  years  have  been  grouped  by  themselves. 
In  the  report  of  1840  merely  the  number  of  pupils  was 
given,  without  sex  or  color.  The  nation  expected  but 
one  race  to  attend  school.  For  Massachusetts  alone 
the  number  in  elementary  schools  and  the  number  at 
public  charge  approached  agreement.  At  that  time 
Massachusetts  was  almost  singly  conspicuous  in  the 
general  maintenance  of  free  schools. 

"It  is  claimed  that  in  1840  a  union  graded  free  public 
school  was  organized  in  central  New  York,  and  in  1842 
a  similar  step  was  taken  at  Detroit,  Michigan.    What- 
ever   may  be  the  credit  due  for  lead- 
ing in  this  widening  of  the  public  free 
school,  there  was  between   1840  and  1850  Development, 
a  very  rapid  development  westward  of 
schools  depending  on  local  taxation  for 
support.    For  a  time  many  of  these  schools  derived 
some  assistance  from  tuition  fees,  not  only  of  non-res- 
idents, as  is  still  the  general  practice,  but  of  all  pupils, 
a  custom  not  yet  wholly  discontinued.     The  tables  for 
1850  indicate  the  growing  prominence  of  public  schools, 
but  in  the  change  of  conditions  the  classification  does 
not  so  fully  indicate  the  range  of  work  as  in  the  returns 
of  1840. 

"The  table  for  1860  illustrates  the  continued  growth 
of  the  public  free-school  sentiment  north  of  the  general 
line  suggested  by  the  Ohio  River,  with  a  marked  mod- 
ification in  Indiana,  where  the  authority  to  levy  ade- 
quate local  taxation  was  delayed  yet  later  by  reason 
of  a  decision  of  the  State  Supreme  Cpurt. 

"  The  table  for  1870  indicates  social  changes  as  com- 
pared with  the  table  for  1860.  The  great  civil  war  had 
intervened,  the  public  schools  in  the  older  Northern 
States  had  passed  the  stage  of  rapid  growth  belonging 
to  new  popular  institutions,  and  their  enlargement 
approximated  the  variations  in  population  more  than 
in  the  previous  decades.  In  this  decade,  however, 
there  were  indications  of  the  growth  of  the  public 
school  southward.  This  new  growth  must  not  be  mis- 
taken for  the  inauguration  of  public  schools.  The 
large  cities  of  the  South  had  efficient  public  schools 


Education. 


527 


Education. 


long  before,  and  all  States  from  Alabama  westward 
formed  from  the  public  domain  were  organized  like 
the  oldest  States  or  the  Northwest,  with  a  division  into 
Congressional  townships  and  the  grant  of  a  section  or 
square  mile  of  land  in  each  township  for  school  pur- 
poses. The  public  schools  of  the  South,  like  the  earlier 
public  schools  of  the  North,  appear  in  1870  largely  de- 
pendent on  tuition  fees  and  other  private  resources. 

"  The  table  for  1880,  unfortunately,  contains  only  the 
record  for  public  common  schools,  the  Census  Office 
haying  been  closed  before  the  material  gathered  for 
private  schools  and  for  superior  public  institutions  was 
ready  for  publication.  The  growth  of  public  schools 
in  the  South  was  very  great  in  the  decade,  as  well  as 
in  newly  settled  portions  of  the  North.  The  colored 
element,  almost  unschooled  in  earlier  decades,  begins 
to  appear  in  the  returns  of  public  school  attendance. 


"  The  summary  table  for  i8go  shows  a  continued 
growth  of  public  schools  in  the  South  and  West,  and 
among  the  old  Northern  States  a  relative  decline  as 
compared  with  population,  resulting  for  the  whole 
country  in  a  growth  slightly  greater  in  proportion  than 
the  growth  of  population.  Were  we  able  to  compare 
the  enrolment  in  all  schools  in  both  decades,  it  is  quite 
possible  that  the  gain  in  private  schools,  including  the 
parochial  schools,  would  exceed  the  apparent  local  de- 
cline in  public  school  enrolment,  so  that  no  indication 
of  decline  in  general  education  would  appear.  The 
unfortunate  failure  to  reach  results  for  private  schools 
in  1880  prevents  any  authoritative  comparison  with 
that  year. 

The  following  table  presents  the  general  changes 
that  have  apparently  taken  place  in  50  years  by  dec- 
ades : 


PUPILS   ENROLLED  IN  SCHOOLS,  NOT  INCLUDING  ALASKA,  EXCLUSIVE  (FOR    RECENT    DEC- 
ADES) OF  SPECIAL  CLASSES,  REFORMATORY,  CHARITABLE,  AND  INDIAN  SCHOOLS. 


ITEMS. 

1890. 

1880. 

1870. 

1860. 

1850. 

1840. 

Population  

38,558,371 

17,069,453 

All  schools  

3,642,694 

3,025,656 

Primary  and  common,  1840;  public,  1850,  etc.* 

i2,768,96st 

9,951,608 

6,228,060 

4.955.894 

3.354.173 

1,845,264 

The  errors  in  all  the  years  seem  to  have  had  a  fairly 
uniform  influence,  apparently  partly  due  to  the  con- 
stancy of  local  conditions.  The  variations  of  school 
age  and  methods  of  administration  must  modify 
the  value  of  any  comparisons  between  two  States. 
Great  local  changes  adjust  themselves  into  a  moderate 
general  effect.  In  illustration,  compare  the  twenty 
years  from  1850  to  1870,  and  the  twenty  years  from 
1870  to  1890.  Population  apparently  increased  in  the 
first  interval  66.26  per  cent,  and  in  the  second  62.41 
per  cent.  The  total  school  enrolment  seems  to  have 
increased  97.94  per  cent,  between  1850  and  1870,  and 


99.32  per  cent,  between  1870  and  1890,  rates  nearly  iden- 
tical. 

NOMINAL  AVERAGE  LENGTH  OF  SCHOOL  TERM  IN 
DAYS  FOR  EACH  STATE  AND  GROUP  OF  STATES  AND 
FOR  THE  UNITED  STATES. 

United  States 130 

North  Atlantic  division 160 

South  Atlantic  division 120 

North  Central  division 142 

South  Central  division 91 

Western  division 120 


SUMMARY  OF  SCHOOL  ENROLMENT,  CENSUS   OF  1800:   PUBLIC,  PRIVATE,   AND  PAROCHIAL, 
AS  DERIVED  FROM  THE  REPORTS  OF  SCHOOLS. 


TEACHERS. 


Aggre- 

WHITE.J 

COLORED. 

gate. 

Total. 

Male. 

Female. 

Total. 

Male. 

Female. 

The  United  States           

PUPILS. 

The  United  States  

6,612,648 

687.AO7 

APPARENT  RELATION  OF  PUBLIC  COMMON  SCHOOL  ENROLMENT  TO  POPULATION,  1890. 


STATES  AND  TERRITORIES. 

Population. 

Public  Common 
School 

Enrolment. 

Per  Cent,  of 
Enrolment  to 
Population. 

The  United  States§  

17-83 

South  Atlantic  division  

19.77 

North  Central  division  

22.40 

21.  2O 

16,980 

12.85 

*  "  Primary  and  common  "  in  1840 ;  "  public  "  in  1850,  1860,  and  1870 ;  "  public  common  "  in  1880  and  1890. 

t  Includes  64,478  additional  to  common  schools. 

$  Includes  unseparated  colored.  §  Alaska  is  omitted  from  the  comparison. 


Education. 


528 


Education. 


ENROLMENT  IN  PUBLIC    SCHOOLS  ADDITIONAL  TO   COMMON   SCHOOLS,  AS   DERIVED    FROM 

THE  REPORTS  OF  SCHOOLS. 

(THIS  TABLE  INCLUDES  STATE  UNIVERSITIES  AND  PROFESSIONAL  SCHOOLS.) 


i 

rEACHERS. 

Aggre- 

WHITE.* 

COLORED. 

gate. 

Total. 

Male. 

Female. 

Total. 

Male. 

Female. 

The  United  States  

2,841 

2,084 

66 

PUPILS. 

The  United  States  

•31.088 

SCHOOL    ENROLMENT,    CENSUS    OF     1800:     PUPILS     IN    PRIVATE    SCHOOLS,    EXCLUSIVE    OF 
PAROCHIAL  SCHOOLS,  AS  DERIVED  FROM  THE  REPORTS  OF  SCHOOLS. 


The  United  States  

804,204 

165,253 
187,827 
200,202 
54,749 

North  Atlantic  division  

North  Central  division  

196,173 

South  Central  division  

Western  division  ..           

SCHOOL   ENROLMENT,  CENSUS  OF   i8go :   PUPILS  IN  DENOMINATIONAL   SCHOOLS,  INCLUDING 

PAROCHIAL  SCHOOLS. 


STATES  AND  TERRITORIES. 

Aggre- 
gate. 

Roman 
Catholic. 

STATES  AND  TERRITORIES. 

Aggre- 
gate. 

Roman 
Catholic. 

The  United  States  

Colorado  

New  Mexico  

North  Atlantic  division  

Arizona  

South  Atlantic  division  

82,823 

Utah  

817 

North  Central  division  
South  Central  division  

476,759 

278,825 

Nevada  
Idaho  .              .... 

456 

378 

Western  division  

*f*l- 

Montana  

858 

2  066 

Wyoming  

2  '3 

ENROLMENT    IN    PUBLIC    SCHOOLS,   AS  SUPERIOR,  SECONDARY,  AND  ELEMENTARY,  CENSUS 
OF  1890,  AS  DERIVED  FROM  THE  REPORTS  OF  SCHOOLS. 

(THIS  GROUPING  HAS  ONLY  THE  VALUE  OF  A  CAREFUL  ESTIMATE,   OWING  TO  SCANT  RECORD  IN  SOME 

STATES.) 


SUPERIOR,  SECONDARY,  AND  ELEMENTARY. 


STATES  AND  TERRITORIES. 

Grand 

Aggre- 
gate. 

WHITE.*. 

COLORED. 

Grand 
Total. 

Male. 

Female. 

Grand 
Total. 

Male. 

Female. 

The  United  States  

12,769,864 

11,418,616 

5,829,616 

5,589,000 

1,351,248 

653,328 

697,930 

North  Atlantic  division  
South  Atlantic  division  
North  Central  division  

3,124,417 
1,758,285 
5,032,182 
2,334,694 
520,286 

3,095,050 
1,174,301 
4,972,305 
1,658,642 
518,318 

1,556,620 
610,720 
2,552,966 
841,920 
267,390 

1,538,430 

563,581 
2.419,339 
816,722 
250,928 

29,367 
583,984 
59,877 
676,052 
1,968 

14,153 

278,465 
29,294 
330,418 
998 

15,214 

305,519 
30,583 
345,634 
97° 

South  Central  division  

Western  division  

*  Includes  unseparated  colored. 


Education. 


529 


Education, 


STATES  AND  TERRITORIES. 

SUPERIOR. 

SECOND- 
ARY. 

ELEMEN- 
TARY. 

Aggre- 
gate. 

WHITE.* 

COLORED. 

Aggre- 
gate. 

Aggre- 
gate. 

Total. 

Male. 

Fe- 
male. 

Total. 

Male. 

Fe- 
male. 

The  United  States    

46,533 

44,969 

23,761 

21,208 

1,564 

760 

804 

3i*,°<)5 

12,412,236 

North  Atlantic  division  

is,979 
5,055 
18,301 
4,482 
2,716 

15,969 
4,460 
18,201 
3,624 
2,715 

5,654 
3»434 
10,580 
2,727 
1,366 

10.315 
1,026 
7,621 
897 
!,349 

10 

595  ! 

100    i 

858  ' 

i 

7 
203 

58 
491 

i 

3 
392 
42 

367 

94,967 
32,674 
130,587 
44,55i 
8,316 

3,013,471 
1,720,556 
4,883,294 
2,285,661 
509,254 

South  Atlantic  division  

North  Central  division  
South  Central  division  

Western  division  

ENROLMENT  IN  PROFESSIONAL  SCHOOLS,  CENSUS  OF   1890,  AS  DERIVED  FROM  THE  REPORTS 

OF  SCHOOLS. 


ALL  PROFESSIONAL  SCHOOLS,  PUBLIC  AND  PRIVATE. 

INSTRUCTORS. 

Aggre- 
gate. 

WHITE. 

COLORED. 

Total. 

Male. 

Female. 

Total. 

Male. 

Female. 

The  United  States  

7,929 

7,700 

6,599 

1,101 

229 

145 

84 

ALL  PROFESSIONAL  SCHOOLS,  PUBLIC  AND  PRIVATE. 

STUDENTS. 

Aggre- 
gate. 

WHITE. 

COLORED. 

Total. 

Male. 

Female. 

Total.            Male.          Female. 

The  United  States  

81,564 

77,214 

53,626 

23,588 

4,350                  2,591                 1,759 

ENROLMENT  BY  PROFESSIONS  IN  PROFESSIONAL  SCHOOLS  IN  THE  UNITED  STATES. 

INSTRUCTORS. 

STUDENTS. 

Aggre- 
gate. 

WHITE. 

COLORED. 

Aggre- 
gate. 

WHITE. 

COLORED. 

Male. 

Fe- 
male. 

Male. 

Fe- 
male. 

Male. 

Fe- 
male. 

Male. 

Fe- 
male. 

341 
891 
3,5°7 
953 
449 
1,788 

338 
863 
3-409 
031 
291 
767 

637 

22 

I58 
850 

2 

25 

31 

4-744 
8,473 
22,452 
7,128 
1,870 
36,897 

4,664 

7,599 
21,003 

6,933 
133 
13,297 

15 

66 

I.I75 

IQO 
1,708 

20,434 

64 
812 
260 
3 

1,446 

i 
i 
8 

Theology        

Technology  

School  of  Muses  

29 
1,720 

Pedagogy    

87 

84 

34 


*  Includes  unseparated  colored. 


Education.  530  Education. 

PUBLIC  SCHOOL  ENROLMENT  IN  CERTAIN  CITIES,  WITH  CENSUS  OF  1890. 


CITIES. 

TEACHERS. 

PUPILS. 

Aggre- 
gate. 

WHITE. 

Aggre- 
gate. 

WHITE. 

COLORED. 

Male. 

Female. 

Male. 

Female. 

Male. 

Female. 

Atlanta  

«3S 

1,187 
1,380 
i,9S8 
7iS 
no 
2,842 
766 
694 
214 
184 
235 
189 
104 
496 
509 
443 
422 
3,7°6 
282 
2,694 
618 
90 
68 
859 
i,i54 
454 

ii 
in 
168 
80 
47 
9 
175 
"5 
34 

22 

7 

84 
i,  060 

1,211 

1,860 
668 
97 
2,667 
636 
656 
192 
171 

7,880 

48,850 
68,798 
110,722 
34,583 
5,287 

J35,SSi 

36,659 
37,641 
14,009 
7,704 

2,522 

21,096 
35,609 
54,647 
16,900 
1,041 
66,461 

17,951 
18,760 

6,749 
3,655 
5,835 

2,400 
13,450 
10,270 
II,68l 

8,588 
98,029 
6,230 
77,762 
15,326 
2,270 
2,306 
22,673 
25,960 
8,116 

3,024 
21,005 
32,137 
54,439 
17,508 
1,762 
67,866 
17,108 

i8,453 
6,896 
3,972 
5,277 

2,477 
13,887 
10,322 
12,583 
9,378 
98,304 
6,661 
8o,8n 
15,688 
2,608 
2,378 
20,033 

27,334 
8,206 

1,094 
3,073 
505 
839 
78 
1,094 
612 
800 
198 
172 
40 
5 

35° 

426 

2,595 
806 
172 
1,658 

4 

'108 
2,449 

58 

1,240 
3,676 

547 
797 
97 
1,390 
612 
800 
224 
192 
37 
7 

450- 

447 

2,785 
806 
216 
1,877 

10 
112 

2,573 
62 

Baltimore  

Brooklyn  

Buffalo        

Chicago  

Cincinnati  

Denver  

Des  Moines  

Fall  River  

Hartford  

29, 
15 

63 

19 

34 
18 
329 
9 
99 
39 
6 
23 
65 
54 
46 

160 
73 
433 
490 

4°5 
378 
3,36i 
273 
2,567 
579 
84 
45 
794 
1,004 
406 

7,643 
5-677 
27-337 
20,592 
25,137 
23,346 
197,945 
13,279 
162,108 
31,014 
4,892 
4,684 
42,926 
58,316 
16,442 

Kansas  City  

Minneapolis                . 

Newark          

New  Orl  eans  

Omaha  .        

Philadelphia  

Pittsburg  

Portland,  Ore  

Salt  Lake  City  

San  Francisco  

St.  Louis  

St.  Paul  

REPORTED  FINANCES  OF  SCHOOL  DISTRICTS,  CENSUS  OF  1890. 


ORDINARY  RECEIPTS. 


STATES  AND  TERRITORIES. 

Total  Ordi-    i 
nary  Receipts.] 

Taxation. 

Funds, 
and  Rents. 

Miscellaneous. 

The  United  States  

$11,760,195 

$8,273,147  - 

$3,308,283 

8,685,223 

699,698 

North  Central  division  

5,642,528 

South  Central  division  

875,901 

Western  division      .             .          

STATES  AND  TERRITORIES. 

ORDINARY  EXPENDITURES. 

Value  of 
Buildings 
and  other 
Property. 

Debt  Les^ 

Sinking 
Fund. 

Total 
Ordinary 
Expendi- 
tures. 

Teachers' 
Wages. 

$88,705,992 

Construc- 
tion and 
Care  of 
Buildings. 

Libraries 
and  Ap- 
paratus. 

Miscel- 
laneous. 

The  United  States  

$138,786,393 

$24,224,793 

$1,667,787 

$24,187,821 

$37,593,854 

North  Atlantic  division  
South  Atlantic  division  

$47,625,548 
8,630,711 
62,815,531 
9,860,059 
9,854,544 

$28,067,821 
6,400,063 
39,866,831 
8,209,509 
6,161,768 

$10,687  114 
884  277 
9,869  489 
770  257 
2,013  656 

$455,077 
88,721 
769,134 
96,001 
258,854 

$8,415,536 
1,257,650 
12,310,077 
784,292 
1,420,266' 

$9,671,105 
18,299 
26,143,699 
220,343 
1,540,408- 

North  Central  division  

South  Central  division 

Western  division  

Education.  S31  Education. 

APPROXIMATE  RELATIVE  SECONDARY  ENROLMENT  AND  POPULATION,  1840-90. 


YEARS. 

Population. 

Approximate  Secondary  Enrolment. 

17,069,453 
23,191,876 
3*,443,32i 
33,558,371 
50,155,783 

62,622,250      -j 

Academies  and  grammar  schools  ...        

1860    .                 ... 

1870       

Academies,  day  and  boarding  schools  

..*7z6,688 

1880  

Not  published. 
Private  296,245 

(•    607,340. 

Public  311,095 

APPROXIMATE    NUMBER    OP    PUBLIC    SCHOOL    HOUSES    IN    THE    UNITED    STATES    FOR    THE 

CENSUS  YEAR. 


The  United  States  

North  Central  division  

97,166 

North  Atlantic  division    

South  Central  division  

38,962 
8.775 

42,949 

The  World  Almanac  for  1896  reports  the  following  statistics  as  prepared  by  the  United  States  Bureau  of 
Education  : 

UNIVERSITIES  AND  COLLEGES  OF  LIBERAL  ARTS  IN  THE  UNITED  STATES. 


STATES  AND  TERRITORIES, 
1893-94. 

Institutions. 

PROFESSORS  AND 
INSTRUCTORS. 

•                            STUDENTS. 

Preparatory 
Departments. 

Collegiate  Departments. 

Professional 
Departments. 

Total  Number. 

Preparatory 
Departments. 

Collegiate 
Departments. 

GRADUATE 
DEPART- 
MENTS. 

Professional 
Departments. 

TOTAL  NUMBER   IN 
ALL  DEPARTMENTS. 

Resident. 

Non-resident. 

d 

"3 
1 

Female. 

"3 

1 

North  Atlantic  division  

76 
65 
85 
208 
42 

347 
280 

355 
1,467 
260 

i,799 
669 

679 
2,600 

5i6 

987 

246 
259 
1,061 
3i8 

3,OI3 
1,094 
1,204 
4,609 
977 

5,859 
5,226 

7,775 
22,723 

3,605 

18,945 
5,798 
8,041 
23,914 
3,7*7 

1,496 
4°5 
92 
879 
154 

397 
29 
45 
5°i 

21 

6,434 
2,169 
2,446 
9,3°i 
<Ji5 

30,821 
",507 
15,036 
45,083 
6,058 

108,505 

2,830 
2,821 
5,74i 
20,261 

3,474 

33,651 
14,328 

20,777 
65,344 
9,53* 

South  Central  division  

North  Central  division  

United  States  

476 

2,709 

6,263 

2,871 

10,897 

45,188 

60,415 

3,026 

993 

21,265 

31,527 

143,632 

INCOMES  OF  UNIVERSITIES  AND  COLLEGES  OF  LIBERAL  ARTS  IN  THE  UNITED  STATES. 


INCOME  IN  1893-94. 

From 

STATES  AND 
TERRITORIES, 
1893-94. 

From 
Tuition 

From 
Produc- 
tive 

United 
States 
Govern- 
ment, 
State,  or 

Total 
Income. 

Benefac- 
•  tions. 

Libra- 
ries, 
Bound 
Vol- 
umes. 

Value  of 
Scientific 
Appara- 
tus and  Li- 
braries. 

Value  of 
Grounds 
and  Build- 
ings. 

Produc- 
tive 
Funds. 

Funds. 

Munici- 

pal Ap- 

propria- 

tions. 

N.  Atlantic  div  
S.  Atlantic  div.  ..  . 
S.  Central  div  
N.  Central  div  
Western  division. 

$2,575,005 
475,646 
532,871 
2,009,011 
263,972 

$2,861,588 
386,956 
458,852 
1,389,945 
179,7" 

$319,546 
247,856 
93,476 
1,457,926 
492,052 

$6,447,53' 
1,308,318 
1,203,350 
5,429,270 
977,143 

$2,302,843 
196,505 
302,446 
3,370,249 
2,853,197 

2,463,650 
620,389 
372,641 
1,806,240 
234,037 

$6,284,131 
1,098,884 
593,295 
3,669,577 
944,600 

$38,905,076 
10,834,200 
8,599,828 
34,237,829 
8,487,080 

$54,894,  131 
7,647,215 
6,860,512 
25,628,695 
3,496,099 

United  States  

$5,856,505 

S5,277,052 

$2,610,856 

$15,365,612 

$9,025,240 

5,496,957 

$12,590,487 

$101,064,013 

$98,527,052 

*  The  100,000  evidently  in  public  high  schools  offset  more  or  less  fully  the  elementary  pupils  in  this  line. 


Education. 


532 


Education. 


SPECIAL  INSTITUTIONS  OF  EDUCATION. 


1893-94. 

No.  of 
Institu- 
tions. 

No.  of 
Instruct- 
ors. 

No.  of 
Pupils. 

Volumes 
in 
Library. 

Value  of 
Scientific 
Appa- 
ratus. 

Value  of 
Grounds 
and 
Buildings. 

Commercial  schools  and  business  colleges     

SCHOOLS  FOR  DEFECTIVE  CLASSES. 
Public  boarding  schools  for  the  deaf  

626 

8,275 

$13,899 

$10,160,160 

Public  day  schools  for  the  deaf  

12 

46 

418 

1,050 

175 

223,500 

Private  schools  for  the  deaf          

85 

6:1 

3,085 

2,425 

185,177 

Public  institutions  for  the  blind  

35 

348 

3,489 

77,045 

21,810 

6,189,436 

Public  institutions  for  the  feeble-minded  

17 

161 

636 

4,062,520 

Private  institutions  for  the  feeble-minded  

46 

387 

170,000 

7,658 

621 

283 

3,658 

478 

41,666 

THE  COMMON  SCHOOLS  OP  THE  UNITED  STATES. 


REPORTED    BY   THE   STATISTICAL    ABSTRACT  OF 
THE  UNITED  STATES,  1895. 

Estimated 
Population 
5-18  years. 

Pupils 
Enrolled. 

Average 
Attendance. 

Teachers. 

3,293,714 

2,233,288 

95,464 

3,209,400 

1,981,336 

1,231,432 

45,338 

2,652,795 

1.699,672 

55,624 

North  Central  division  

7,088,250 

5,382,263 

3,601,503 

172,401 

Western  division  

886,321 

650,180 

443,001 

19,704 

United  States               .              

20,099,383 

13,960,288 

9,208,896 

388,531 

The  average  length  of  school  term  in  the  United 
States  was  139  days.  The  whole  number  of  male 
teachers  was  125,317 ;  female  teachers,  263,214 ;  paid 
for  salaries  of  superintendents  and  teachers,  $108,- 
476,638  ;  total  expenditures,  $170,639,081. 

(b)   OTHER   COUNTRIES. 

In  Great  Britain  the  highest  education  is  fur- 
nished by  the  universities  and  detached  col- 
leges.    Oxford,   Cambridge,   Durham,    Owens 
College  (Manchester),  the   Scotch  universities, 
and  Trinity  and   Queen's  in    Ireland,  are  of 
various  dates  ;  the  rest  are  quite  new.     In  1894 
Oxford  had  23  colleges  ;  Cambridge,  19  ;  there 
were  16  other  colleges  in  England 
and  Wales  ;  6  in  Scotland,  and  4  in 
Great       Ireland      There  were  in  these  68 
Britain,     colleges  1361  teachers,  of  whom  Ox- 
ford and  Cambridge  had  93  each  ; 
Kings  College,  London,  140  ;  Lon- 
don University  (which  is  only  an  examining 
body,  with  power  to  grant  degrees),  105  ;  Glas- 
gow, 89  ;   and  Dublin  University,  64.     There 
were  21,167  students,  of  which  Oxford  had  3256 
(undergraduates)  ;   Cambridge,  2839  ;   Newcas- 
tle, 2164  (in  1892,  including  evening  students)  ; 
London     University,     1093    (exclusive    of    its 
schools) ;  Kings  College,  London,  480  (and  even- 
ing schools  of  about  4000)  ;  Edinburgh,  2949  ; 
Glasgow,  1878  ;  Dublin,  1124.     There  are  four 
university  colleges  for  women  :  Newnham  (Cam- 
bridge) and  Girton  College  and  Lady  Margaret 
and  Somerville  Halls  (Oxford),  and  a  college  in 
London  and  one  in  Edinburgh,  with  about  600 
students  in  all.     There  are  also  various  techni- 
cal, medical,  agricultural,  and  other  institutions, 


but  which,  like  the  middle-class  schools,  are  en- 
tirely unorganized  and  of  which  no  reliable 
statistics  are  available.  Middle -class  education 
in  England  is  almost  entirely  in  private  hands. 
Of  elementary  education  the  Statesman's  Year 
Book  for  1895,  from  which  the  above  statistics 
are  taken,  says  : 

"  Up  to  the  beginning  of  this  century  elementary 
education  in  England  was  left  almost  entirely  to  the 
care  of  the  clergy  of  the  Established  Church.  '  In  1808 
the  British  and  Foreign  School  Society  was  founded, 
and  in  1811  the  National  School  Society,  the  latter  being 
under  the  authority  of  the  Church.  In  1833  Parliament 
for  the  first  time  voted  money  to  aid  in  the  building  of 
schools.  In  1839  a  Committee  of  Council  on  education 
was  appointed  to  watch  over  the  distribution  of  these 
subventions.  In  the  same  year  normal  schools  began 
to  be  built  and  received  aid  from  the  Committee  of 
Council.  In  1846  subventions  were  first  given  to  in- 
crease the  salaries  of  teachers,  and  in  1847  Catholic 
schools  were  admitted  to  these  benefits.  In  1853  grants 
began  to  be  given  to  schools  according  to  the  number 
of  pupils  in  attendance,  and  in  1862  the  grants  were 
made  to  depend  on  examination  results. 

"The  Elementary  Education  Act  of  1870  and  subse- 
quent amending  Acts  now  regulate  elementary  educa- 
tion in  England  and  Wales.  The  central  administrative 
authority  resides  in  the  Education  Department  or  Com- 
mittee of  Council  on  Education,  consisting  of  Lords  of 
the  Privy  Council,  with  the  President  of  the  Privy  Coun- 
cil as  President,  and  a  member  of  the  Privy  Council  as 
Vice-President,  who  represents  the  department  in  the 
House  of  Commons.  Sufficient  school  accommodation 
must  be  provided  in  every  district  for  all  the  resident 
children  between  the  ages  of  5  and  14.  The  boroughs 
and  parishes  are,  unless  the  educational  requirements 
are  otherwise  supplied,  formed  or  grouped  ir.to  school 
districts,  each  with  its  elected  school  board,  which  may 
compel  parents  to  send  their  children  to  school.  In 
boroughs  and  parishes  where  school  boards  are  not 
required  school  attendance  committees  are  appointed 
to  enforce  the  attendance  of  children.  On  April  i,  1893, 
there  were  in  England  and  Wales  2331  school  boards 
embracing  a  population  of  18,764,565,  and  781  school  at- 


Education. 


533 


Education, 


tendance  committees  embracing  a  population  of  10,277,- 
961.  The  obligatory  subjects  are  reading,  writing, 
arithmetic,  and  (for  boys)  drawing,  or  (for  girls)  needle- 
work. Optional  subjects  are  singing,  geography, 
science,  algebra,  modern  languages,  cookery,  etc.  In 
board  schools  unsectarian  religious  instruction  is 
given  ;  in  voluntary  schools  sectarian  doctrines  may  be 
inculcated.  There  are  seven  standards,  and  each  pupil 
should  pass  one  standard  every  year.  When  the  fourth 
standard  is  passed,  the  child,  if  12  years  of  ag2,  may 
leave  school.  A  'code'  providing  in  detail  for  the  reg- 
ulation of  schools  is  annually  prepared  by  the  depart- 
ment and  submitted  to  Parliament.  In  1891,  by  a  fee 
grant  of  ios.  for  each  child  between  3  and  15  years  of 
age  in  average  attendance,  to  be  paid  on  certain  con- 
ditions to  managers  of  public  elementary  schools,  edu- 
cation was  rendered  practically  free  in  England  and 
Wales.  On  June  i,  1893,  there  were  19,534  schools  re- 
ceiving the  fee  grant,  and  only  142  schools  had  refused 
it." 

As  to  compulsory  education,  says  a  Fabian 
tract  : 

"  The  provisions  of  the  Act  of  1870  were  very  lax  as 
to  compulsory  attendance.  Six  years  later  a  law 
stated  distinctly  that  the  parent  should  be  bound  under 
penalties  to  cause  his  child  to  receive  elementary  edu- 
cation, and  empowered  School  Boards  and  School  At- 
tendance Committees  to  make  by-laws  and  to  enforce 
the  compulsory  clauses ;  but  not  until  1880  were  these 
bodies  left  without  choice,  and  compelled  to  make  and 
to  profess  to  administer  local  rules  for  getting  the 
youngsters  to  school.  As  it  stands  the  law  is  very 
complicated,  and  varies  from  district  to  district.  A 
child  may  work  half-time  either  inside  or  outside  a 
factory  at  n  years  of  age.  In  both  cases  he  must  pass 
the  Standard'  for  partial  exemption  (usually  the  third) 
fixed  by  the  local  by-laws.  In  1200  districts  a  profi- 
ciency qualification  is  practically  not  enforced,  'the 
hole  is  so  big  that  it  will  admit  almost  everybody  ex- 
cept an  idiot.'  In  a  few  places  full-time  employment 
outside  a  factory  or  workshop  may  also  commence 
at  ii." 

On  August  31,  1894,  there  were  in  England 
and  Wales  5151  Board  schools,  11,897  National 
Society  schools,  503  Wesleyan,  985  Roman  Cath- 
olic, 1229  others.  There  were  50,689  certified 
teachers,  26,067  assistant,  and  28,379  pupil 
teachers. 

The  question  of  Board  schools  -vs.  Church 
schools  in  England  is  "  a  burning  question." 
Tho  there  is  an  active  minority  among  them 
that  favor  Board  schools,  the  majority  of  the 
Anglican  clergy  are  bitterly  opposed  to  them. 
They  strive  to  keep  education  just  so  far  as  pos- 
sible in  the  hands  of  the  Church.  They  advo- 
cate and  largely  obtain  the  giving  of  school 
funds  to  the  support  of  Church  schools,  divided 
among  the  various  religious  bodies  in  propor- 
tion to  their  strength.  They  consider  Board 
schools  atheistic  and  immoral.  The  intensity 
of  feeling  on  this  point  enters  into  and  turns 
many  local  elections.  Complaints  against  this 
system  are  incessant.  Says  a  Fabian  tract : 

"  Fourteen  thousand  six  hundred  and  eighty-four 
day  schools,  attended  by  2,300,000  children,  are  yet  un- 
der priyate  management.  In  many  towns  and  districts 
not  a  single  school  under  public  control  exists  ;  and 
even  in  big  towns,  where  school  boards  are  energeti- 
cally at  work,  their  denominational  rivals  stubbornly 
survive.  If  these  privately  managed  institutions  were 
entirely  supported  by  their  pious  patrons  there  would 
be  little  ground  for  agitation.  But  the  British  taxpayer 
is  compelled  to  find  nearly  four  fifths  of  their  funds, 
tho,  like  the  stupid,  easy-going  fellow  he  is,  he  permits 
the  so-called  '  voluntary'  subscribers  of  the  one  fifth  to 
control  the  schools. 

"In  the  majority  of  instances  the  clergyman  of  the 
parish  is  practically  the  manager  of  the  State-sup- 
ported voluntary  school.  He  appoints  the  teachers 
and  fixes  their  salaries,  regulates  the  supply  of  school 
materials,  superintends  the  religious  instruction,  and 
kindly  supervises  the  teachers'  manners.  .  .  . 

"  The  chief  blot  on  English  education  is  the  chaos 


which  prevails  above  the  primary  schools.  On  each  of 
the  three  occasions  when  Matthew  Arnold  examined 
and  reported  upon  Continental  systems  of  education, 
he  implored  the  English  Government  to  organize  Sec- 
ondary and  Higher  Education.  That  was  always  the 
burden  of  his  educational  song.  His  case  could  not  be 
refuted.  .  .  .  Secondary  education  is  the  Arcadia  of 
private  unregulated  enterprise.  Men  who  have  been 
driven  out  of  other  callings  imagine  that  Heaven  in- 
tended them  to  manage  a  private  school.  Their  en- 
trance to  the  trade  (it  is  not  recognized  as  a  profession) 
is  charmingly  easy.  No  apprenticeship,  experience, 
certificate,  or  proof  of  aptitude  is  required.  They  put 
mysterious  letters  after  their  names  to  which  no  edu- 
cational body  can  attach  a  meaning ;  they  issue  delu- 
sive prospectuses  ;  they  lure  shabby-genteel  people 
into  their  parlors  ;  and  the  thing  is  done." 

The  Board  schools,  however,  are  gaining  be- 
cause they  are  usually  better,  and  the  progress 
toward  popular  education  is  marked.  Says 
the  Labor  Annual  for  1895  : 

"  The  National  Union  of  Teachers,  numbering  25,000, 
met  in  Annual  Conference  this  year  for  the  first  time 
at  Oxford,  and  resolved  that  the  granting  of  teachers' 
certificates  should  be  placed  in  the  hands  of  an  Educa- 
cational  Council  on  which  primary  teachers  should  be 
adequately  represented.  Further  resolutions  urging 
the  registration  of  teachers,  formation  of  a  Ministry  of 
Education,  and  the  appointment  of  practical  men  as 
inspectors  were  also  passed.  The  National  Union  of 
Teachers  is  destined  to  be  the  future  Educational  De- 
partment under  Collectivism,  superseding  the  present 
objectionable  '  patchwork  system.' 

"  The  President  advocated  the  formation  of  District 
Boards  of  Education  throughout  the  country,  to  con- 
trol all  primary  and  secondary  work.  The  grant  from 
Imperial  sources  to  such  boards  should  be  a  fixed 
amount  per  head  of  the  school  population — i.e.,  of  the 
number  that  ought  to  be  in  the  school— paid  quarterly, 
and  of  sufficient  amount,  when  added  to  the  receipts 
from  local  rateSj  to  secure  efficiency  in  every  school, 
whatever  its  difficulties  or  needs.  Strict  annual  audits 
of  pre-estimated  costs,  termination  of  the  school  year 
at  the  same  date,  a  real  inspector  and  adviser,  and  a 
qualifying  instead  of  an  annual  pass  from  class  to  class 
would  bring  about  the  desired  popular  control.  His 
'local  control' proposals  were  reaffirmed  by  the  Con- 
ference. 

"  Popular  anticipations  with  regard  to  the  Assisted 
Elementary  Education  Act  of  1891  have  been  fulfilled, 
and  the  years-long  Socialist  agitation  for  Free  Educa- 
tion more  than  justified.  The  number  of  scholars  on 
the  registers  rose  from  4,824,623  in  1891  to  5,126,373  in 
1893,  an  increase  of  nearly  2^4  per  cent.,  the  average  at- 
tendance increased  by  nearly  6  per  cent.,  the  cost  per 
head  was  reduced  by  3J4</.,  and  the  Government  grant, 
which  spells  efficiency,  proportionately  increased. 
Only  132  schools  refused  the  Government  grant  in  1893, 
while  of  the  19,445  assisted  ones,  15,914  were  free  schools. 
Thus  there  were  4,236,867  free  scholars  and  only  889,506 
free-paying  children." 

"In  Scotland  from  1595  to  1872  elementary  edu- 
cation was  regulated  by  the  Act  of  James  VI., 
which  ordained  that  every  parish  should  have 
a  school  supported  by  revenues  derived  from 
the  land,  the  teachers  being  appointed  on  the 
recommendation  of  the  Presbyterian  ministers. 
By  the  Elementary  Education  Act  of  1872,  the 
Scotch  Education  Department  was  instituted, 
and  each  burgh  and  parish  or  group  of  parishes 
was  required  to  have  a  school  board  to  admin- 
ister both  elementary  and  middle  class  schools, 
and  to  enforce  the  attendance  of  children  from 
5  to  14  years  of  age.  In  1889,  by  a  capitation 
grant,  education  was  made  free  for  the  compul- 
sory standards  ;  in  1891  an  age  limit,  5  to  14, 
was  introduced"  (Statesman's  Year  Book). 

There  were  3105  inspected  schools  in  1893,  of 
which  2679  were  public,  free  for  the  compulsory 
standards.  The  average  attendance  was  542,- 
851.  In  Ireland  there  were,  in  1893  8459 
schools,  with  an  average  attendance  of  527,060. 
They  were  under  the  superintendence  of  a  body 


Education. 


534 


Education. 


of  "  Commissioners  of  National  Education  in 
Ireland."  Of  8418  schools  inspected,  3833  were 
Roman  Catholic  and  Protestant,  3485  non-Ro- 
man Catholic,  and  mo  Protestant.  (For  the 
colonies,  see  AUSTRALIA  ;  NEW  ZEALAND.  ) 

In  France  public  education  is  entirely  under 
the  supervision  of  the  government.  The  high- 
est schools  are  calledfacuttes  de  /' Etat.  There 
are  i$  facultes  des  lettres,  \<-)fac- 
^lltds  des  sciences,  15  facultes  de 
France,  droit  (law),  ifac ulte's  de  medicine, 
2  facult^s  or  Protestant  theology. 
In  1885  the  Roman  Catholic  theo- 
logical facultes  were  suppressed,  but  the  Ro- 
man Catholic  universities  exist  still  on  condi- 
tions. In  1896  there  were  8782  students  of  law, 
8685  of  medicine,  and  3076  of  pharmacy.  The 
budget  of  1895  devoted  $2,546,463  to  these  fac- 
ultls.  There  were  also  various  special  schools. 
Elementary  schools  were  little  developed  till 
the  middle  of  the  century.  In  1881  primary  in- 
struction was  made  free,  and  in  1882  obligatory 
for  children  from  6  to  13.  In  1886  all  schools 
were  put  under  charge  of  laymen.  In  1893-94 
there  were  in  France  (and  Algeria)  88,632  pri- 
mary schools  with  6,262,067  pupils  ;  70,037  of 
these  schools  were  public.  There  were  also  400 
secondary  public  schools,  with  95,877  pupils. 
The  money  spent  obligatory  and  voluntary  for 
elementary  education  in  1892  was  $37,260,000. 
The  number  of  untaught  children  was  75,000. 

The  attendance  law  of  France  enacts  that 
"  primary  instruction  is  obligatory  for  children 
of  both  sexes  between  the  ages  of  6  years  com- 
plete and  13  years  complete."  The  parent  is 
summoned  if  the  child  is  absent  four  half-days 
in  a  month.  For  repeated  absences  he  may  be 
fined  15  frs.  or  sent  to  jail  for  five  days.  How- 
ever, the  local  authorities  have  power  to  grant 
individual  children  long  holidays,  and  in  prac- 
tice the  law  is  softened.  No  man  may  teach  a 
primary  school  under  the  age  of  18. 

Education  in  Germany  is  practically  homo- 
geneous, under  a  national  system  beginning 
with  the  Volksschulen,  or  elementary  schools. 
Then  come  the  Burgerschulen 
and  the  Hohere  Burgerschulen, 
Germany,  which  fit  the  pupils  for  business 
life.  Children  go  to  different 
grades  of  schools  according  to  what 
the  parents  can  pay.  There  are  also  Fortbil- 
dungsschulen,  or  continuation  evening  schools 
for  children  of  the  working  classes.  The  Gym- 
nasia are  the  fully  developed  classical  schools 
preparing  the  pupil  in  nine  years  for  the  uni 
versity.  The  Progymnasia  do  not  have  the 
highest  classes.  The  Real  gymnasia  teach 
Latin,  but  not  Greek,  and  devote  more  time  to 
' '  modern  subjects. ' '  In  the  Realschulen  Latin 
is  wholly  displaced  in  favor  of  modern  lan- 
guages. There  are  also  numerous  Geiverbe- 
schulen,  or  technical  schools,  polytechnica,  nor- 
mal schools,  seminaries,  etc.  There  were, 
in  1895,  434  Gymnasia,  86  Progymnasia,  130 
Real  gymnasia,  109  Real  progymnasia,  33 
Oberrealschulen,  171  Realschulen,  and  93 
other  schools.  The  number  of  elementary 
schools  was  estimated  at  56,560,  with  7,925,- 
ooo  pupils.  The  immediate  expenditure  on 
elementary  schools  was  $60,600,000,  of  which 
$15,823,000  came  from  State  funds.  School  at- 


tendance is  compulsory.  Details  vary  in  the 
empire,  but  usually  the  school  age  is  from  6 
to  14.  There  were,  in  1894,  21  universities  with 
27,719  students.  Of  these  4979  were  in  Berlin 
(besides  3471  non-matriculated  students),  3067 
at  Leipzig,  3408  at  Munich,  1535  at  Halle,  1383 
at  Bonn  ;  4573  studied  theology,  7506  law,  8410 
medicine,  and  7230  philosophy. 

Austria    had,    in     1892,    18,874    elementary 
schools,  with  3,220,452  pupils,  176  Gymnasia, 
76  Realschulen,  and  8  universities  with  13,383 
students,   4919    being    at  Vienna. 
Hungary   had    16,942    elementary 
schools,  with  2,232,315  pupils,  153     Austria. 
Gymnasia,   33    Realschulen.   and 
3  universities,  with  4661  students, 
3604  at  Budapest.     There  were  also  seven  gov- 
ernment technical  high  schools  and  2121  special 
technical    institutes    in    Austria    with  449    in 
Hungary. 

In  Switzerland  there  is  no  centralization  of 
schools,  but  in  all  the  cantons  elementary  edu- 
cation is  compulsory  and  primary  instruction 
free.     Compulsory  education  is  not, 
however,  enforced  in  all  the  Roman 
Catholic  cantons.  There  were  5  uni-  Switzerland. 
versities,  174  professional  and  in- 
dustrial schools,  38  normal  schools, 
485   secondary,   8391   primary  and  679    infant 
schools  in  1894.     There  were,  in  1894,  2982  stu- 
dents in  the  5  universities  and  the  academies  of 
Fribourg  and  Neufchatel.     Of  these  1278  were 
foreigners. 

In  Neufchatel  attendance  is  compulsory  up  to 
1 6  years  of  age  ;  but  after  13  only  10  hours  a 
week  are  enforced.  Berne  demands  five  sixths 
of  the  possible  attendances  to  be  made  between 
6  and  15.  At  Zurich,  the  paradise  of  educa- 
tion, the  law  is  equally  stringent.  Children 
must  attend  the  primary  school  between  6 
and  13,  and  the  secondary  school  between  13 
and  16,  unless  exempted  for  special  reasons. 
But  out  of  a  population  of  105,000  only  200  chil- 
dren who  are  less  than  16  years  old  have  left 
school.  Attendance  is  required  every  day,  and 
penalties  are  inflicted  for  10  absences. 

In  Berne  no  one  can  teach  under  the  age  of 
19,  and  in  Zurich  no  one  under  20.  In  all  Swit- 
zerland the  maximum  number  of  pupils  in  a 
room  is  50,  and  it  is  usually  less.  Definite  in- 
struction in  the  religion  of  the  majority  is  given 
in  the  popular  schools.  An  article  in  the  Swiss 
Constitution  comman-ds  that ' '  the  public  schools 
shall  be  capable  of  being  attended  by  adherents 
of  all  confessions  without  injury  to  their  free- 
dom of  faith  and  conscience."  No  difficulty 
has  arisen.  Catholic  instruction  is  given  in 
Catholic  cantons  like  Lucerne  ;  Protestant  in 
cantons  like  Zurich. 

Sweden  has  2  universities  with  2084  students, 
and  in  1893  had  75  public  high  schools,  25  peo- 
ple's high  schools.     In  1893  there  were  10,889 
elementary    schools    with    705,905 
pupils.     The  expenditure  for  ele- 
mentary schools  was  $5,000,000,  of       Other 
which  about  one  quarter  came  from    Countries. 
the  State.      Norway  in    1891   had 
6144    public     elementary    schools 
with  232, 356  pupils,  and  1749  classes  with  55,371 
pupils.    There  were  82  public  secondary  schools 
with  1 1 ,044  pupils,  and  86  private  schools.  There 


Education. 


535 


Education. 


were  6  normal  schools  and  i  university.  Edu- 
cation is  compulsory. 

Denmark  has  2940  elementary  schools  with 
231,940  pupils,  22  agricultural  or  horticultural 
schools,  67  high  schools,  31  Latin  schools,  99 
commercial  or  technical  schools,  and  several 
colleges.  Elementary  education  has  been  com- 
pulsory since  1814.  Russia  had,  in  1893,  about  9 
universities  with  13,470  students,  22  higher 
schools,  618  middle  class  schools  for  boys,  373 
for  girls.  In  1887  there  were  46,880  elementary 
schools  with  408,721  pupils.  The  total  contri- 
bution for  schools  in  1894  was  about  $30,000,- 
ooo.  These  statistics,  however,  cannot  be  con- 
sidered as  complete. 

In  Holland  education  is  not  compulsory  nor 
necessarily  free.  Education  is,  however,  largely 
regulated  and  supported  by  the  State.  There 
are  4  universities,  152  intermediate  schools,  2993 
public  elementary  schools,  1331  private  and  991 
infant  schools.  Belgium  has  4  universities, 
various  special  schools,  34  royal  athenaeums  and 
colleges,  132  middle-class  schools,  5777  private 


schools,  1321  infant  and  1796  adult  schools. 
These  are  public,  but  there  are  many  private 
schools  and  colleges,  mainly  under  ecclesiastical 
care. 

In  Italy  there  were,  in  1893-94,  21  universities 
with  19,441  students,  1698  special,  superior,  com- 
mercial, normal,  and  technical  schools  and  col- 
leges, 5946  evening  schools,  46,569  public  pri- 
mary schools,  11,708  irregular  or  private  pri- 
mary schools,  2572  infant  schools.  Only  the 
lower  grade  education  is  compulsory.  Relig- 
ious instruction  is  given  when  parents  wish  it. 
The  instruction  in  all  schools,  public  and  pri- 
vate, is  regulated  by  the  State.  The  elementary 
schools  are  mainly  supported  by  the  communes. 
The  universities  are  maintained  by  the  State, 
other  schools  are  aided. 

The  following  table,  from  the  Report  of  the 
United  States  Commissioner  of  Education  for 
1889-90,  gives  a  comparative  view  of  education 
in  Europe  and  America  between  Kindergarten 
and  university,  arranged  according  to  ratio  of 
children  in  school : 


COUNTRIES. 

Date  of 
Census 
or  Esti- 
mate. 

Popu- 
lation. 

Date  of 
Report. 

Children 
Enrolled 
in  School. 

Ratio 
to  Popu- 
lation. 

Cost  of 
Elemen- 
tary In- 
struction 
per  capita 
of  Popu- 
lation. 

Pay  Tuition 
or  not. 

1890 
1890 

891 

890 

890 
890 

883 
890 
890 

890 

890 
890 
889 

891 
891 
891 

890 
891 

890 
891 
891 
890 

890 
8qo 
890 
890 
890 
887 
890 
889 
88  1 

890 
889 

891 
*  885 
*  887 

62,622,250 
5,589,382 

4,829,411 
1,656,817 

3,500,513 
29>959>388 

2,917,740 
3,027,613 
2,035,443 

49,421,064 
76,485 
180,443 
2i3°5,  9r6 

29,001,018 
4,033,103 
37,888,153 

622,530 
1,199,176 

4,784,675 
38>343,i92 
4,706,162 
4,564,565 

6,147,041 
23,895,413 
41,231,342 
17,335,929 
2,185,159 
17,550,246 
30,158,408 
2,187,208 
4,708,178 

3-154,375 
95,870,810 

2,162,759 

4,786,545 
5,500,000 

1890 
1890 

889 
889 

889 

*  890 

890 

890 
889 

890 
*  890 
890 
890 

890 
890 
890 

889 
888 

890 

889 
890 
890 

890 
889 
889 
889 
885 
885 
889 
884 
887 

890 

890 

889 
882 
890 

14.377,536 
1,187,792 

998,823 
342,764 

706,946 
5,874,390 

570,935 

574,3I5 
388,262 

9,300,000 
14,403 
32,191 
406,966 

4,825,560 
664,466 
6,184,858 

96,356 
308,507 

736,790 
5,807,157 
694,832 
657,611 

827,958 
3,132,088 
5,312,656 
2,180,568 
239,940 
1,859,183 
2,733i859 
Ho^SS 
276,688 

I7r,983 
*3,  000,000 

58,575 

126,471 
138,800 

23-3 

21.2 

20.8 
20.6 

2O.  2 
19.6 

19-5 
ig.O 
I9.O 

18.8 
18.7 
18.0 

17.6 

16.6 
16.4 
16.3 

15-6 
15-4 

15-4 
15.1 
14.7 
14.2 

13-5 
13-1 
12.9 

12.6 
II.  0 

10.6 
9.6 
6.4 
5-9 

5-5 
3-i 

2-7 

2.6 
2-5 

2.14 

1.85 

2.28 

1.86 

2.03 
3-34 
•  1.67 

2.17 
1.94 
t.5o 

1.30 
1.40. 

".So 

.70 
1-34 
1.05 
1.42 

1.  60 

t.22 
•  42 

1-54 

t.2I 

t-79 
•25 
t.I2 

t.i3 

t.23 

t.20 

Free. 

Pay   and    free 
schools. 
Free. 
Pay    and   free 
schools. 
Free. 
Pay    and   free 
schools. 
Free. 
Do. 
Pay    and  free 
schools. 

Free. 
Do. 
Pay    and   free 
schools. 
Do. 
Free. 
Pay   and    free 
schools. 
Free. 
Pay   and    free 
schools. 
Do. 
Free. 
Do. 
Pay   and    free 
schools. 
Do. 
Do. 

Do. 
Do. 
Do. 

Do. 

Pay   and   free 
schools. 
Free. 
Pay   and    free 
schools. 
Free. 
Small  fee. 
Free. 

Bavaria  

Baden  

Switzerland  

Western  States  (United  States)... 
Wiirteinberg  

Germany  (Empire).  

Bremen  

Finland    

England  and  Wales  

Scotland  

Great  Britain  and  Ireland  

Hamburg  

Norway  

Sweden  

Ireland  

Netherlands,  The  

Belgium  

Austria-Hungary      

Hungary  

Spain  

Italy  

Greece    

Portugal      

Bulgaria  

Russia  

Servia  

Turkey  •.  .... 

Roumania  

*  Estimated. 


t  From  State  only. 


Education. 


536 


Education. 


The  following  table  of  the  world's  larger  uni- 
versities is  arranged  according  to  number  of 


students.     The  attendance  stated  for  the  for- 
eign universities  is  that  of  winter  1890-91  : 


UNIVERSITIES. 

No.  of 
Students. 

UNIVERSITIES. 

No.  of 
Students. 

9,215 
6,220 
5,527 
5,527 
5.013 
4,328 
3,623 
3,55i 
3,533 
3,5°o 
3,473 
3,458 
3,29° 
3,IQ5 
3,182 
3,000 
2,500 

Northwestern  (Evanston,  111.)     ....        . 

2,413 
2,400 
2,400 
2,361 
2,200 
2,180 
2,136 
2,052 
2,000 

i,943 
1,891 
1,850 
1,820 
1,805 
1,795 
1,784 
1,782 

Yale  (New  Haven)  

Berlin        

Minnesota  

Calcutta  

Prague  (Bohemian)  

St   Petersburg  

Naples     

Glasgow  

Lake  Forest  (111.)  

Turin  

Columbia  (New  York)                    .... 

Pratt  Institute  (Brooklyn)                            .   . 

Madrid     .... 

Michigan            

Dorpat  

Pennsylvania  

Oxford  

IV.  NEED  OF  REFORM. 

In  the  United  States  the  most  striking  need 
of  reform  is  in  the  largest  cities.  Says  Professor 
Waetzoldt,  of  Berlin  (quoted  in  the  Report  of 
the  Commissioner  of  Education  for  1892-93) : 

"  It  is  almost  ludicrous  to  say  that  compulsory  edu- 
cation is  generally  adopted  in  the  United  States.  To 
understand  that  neglected  children  are  not  disposed  to 
go  to  school,  we  must  visit  the  labor  quarters  of  cities 
like  New  York,  Chicago,  etc.,  and  see  the  children 
come  out  of  the  factories.  .  .  . 

"According  to  authentic  reports  from  New  York, 
not  more  than  72  per  cent,  of  all  children  who  should 
go  to  school  can  be  induced  to  do  so  ;  28  per  cent. — the 
street  Arabs— never  attend  school.  The  greater  num- 
ber of  these  72  per  cent,  attend  only  during  three  to 
four  months  of  the  year,  and  only  about  30  percent,  go 
for  four  consecutive  years.  Statistics  referring  to 
these  conditions,  however,  are  always  very  imperfect. 
We  naturally  ask,  '  What  reason  have  children  for 
staying  away  from  school?'  I  have  at  hand  the  last 
school  report  from  Chicago.  The  school  year  extends 
from  one  summer  vacation  to  the  other,  from  Septem- 
ber till  June,  and  the  committee  of  investigation  round 
that  during  the  year  1891-92,  12,900  children  missed 
school  from  insufficient  causes ;  9275  were  notorious 
loafers  and  idlers,  who  could  not  be  forced  into  school. 
Among  these  youths  crime  finds  its  recruits.  The 
other  3130  cases  are  thus  accounted  for:  504  children 
did  not  goto  school  because  they  worked  away  from 
home ;  362  were  obliged  to  work  at  home  ;  571  were 
kept  at  home  by  parents  disapproving  of  education  ;  25 
because  of  physical  deformities;  390  victims  of  poverty 
stayed  at  home  for  want  of  clothing.  In  all  Chicago  32 
only  had  private  lessons  at  home  ;  879  •were  always 
sick ;  395  were  absent  for  unknown  reasons ;  65  were 
beyond  the  required  age,  tho  still  deficient  in  knowl- 
edge. 

"  As  many  as  1336  children  never  attended  school  on 
account  of  the  indifference  of  their  parents,  the  de- 
pravity of  the  father,  or  the  incorrigibility  of  the  chil- 
dren themselves.  The  reasons  given  for  the  latter 
were  intemperance  of  parents,  the  father  being  away 
from  home,  or  entire  abandonment  by  both  father  and 
mother.  Seventy-four  boys,  children  between  13  and 
14  years  of  age,  declared  that  their  fathers  drank, 
smoked,  and  never  came  home  at  night ;  500  boys  were 
said  to  be  in  the  house  of  correction  ;  100  in  prison. 
These  figures  certainly  show  a  very  bad  state  of  af- 
fairs ;  but  we  must  remember  that  a  city  like  Chicago 
grows  by  the  influx  of  people  from  all  parts  of  the 
earth,  who  are  not  always  the  worthiest.  The  follow- 
ing statements  are  much  worse.  In  spite  of  all  labor 
legislation  and  supervision  of  factories  in  the  United 
States,  certificates  for  permission  to  work  are  given  to 
children  who  should  be  going  to  school.  In  Chicago, 
during  one  year,  such  certificates  were  given  to  1077 
children,  484  of  whom  were  girls  ;  98  of  these  children 
were  10  years  old  ;  115,  n  years  old  ;  342,  12  years ;  and 


522,  13  years  old.  The  reasons  why  certificates  for  per- 
mission to  work  were  given  in  these  cases  were  because 
the  children  were  poor,  or  orphans,  or  had  been  aban- 
doned by  parents,  and,  most  frequently,  that  the  boy 
might  not  become  addicted  to  intemperance." 

Of  New  York  the  Outlook  of  August  17,  1895, 
says  : 

"The  recent  conference  of  Good  Government  Clubs 
in  the  metropolis  regarding  the  public  schools  brought 
out  some  astonishing  and  disgraceful  facts.  The  aver- 
age salary  of  teachers  and  supervisors  in  the  public 
schools  in  New  York  is  only  $677,  as  against  $762  in 
Brooklyn,  $780  ''n  Chicago,  $808  in  Cincinnati,  $883  in 
San  Francisco,  and  $1000  in  Boston.  The  expense  per 
head  of  the  school  population,  from  five  to  21  years  of 
age,  is  in  the  metropolis  only  $6.08,  as  against  $6.  74  in 
Cleveland,  $7  in  Chicago,  $7.07  in  Cincinnati,  $8.81  in 
San  Francisco,  and  $11.70  in  Boston.  The  value  of  the 
school  property  per  head  of  school  population,  from 
five  to  21  years  of  age,  is  in  New  York  only  $42.60,  as 
against  $54.80  in  San  Francisco  and  $81.18  in  Boston. 
In  New  York  City  the  number  of  children  not  in  any 
school  amounts  to  38  per  cent,  of  the  school  population, 
as  against  30  per  cent,  in  Boston  ." 

Of  Brooklyn,  Mr.  Maxwell,  Superintendent 
of  the  Schools  in  that  city,  says  : 

"  In  order  to  ascertain  the  efficiency  of  the  city  school 
system,  a  test  was  recently  made  of  the  proficiency  of 
pupils  in  the  first,  second,  and  third  grammar  grades. 
The  subject  of  the  examination  was  geometry,  at- 
tention being  paid  also  to  the  use  of  language  made  in 
the  written  papers.  It  was  supposed  that  no  subjects 
could  have  been  chosen  that  would  more  thoroughly 
and  justly  reveal  the  worth  of  the  instruction  the  pu- 
pils were  receiving.  The  result  of  the  examination  is 
not  one  upon  which  the  schools  can  be  congratulated. 

"  The   examination  papers   came   from   172    classes. 


'very  poor,'  and  25  failures.  A  maorty  o  te 
pupils  apparentlv  did  not  know  what  an  obtuse  angle 
or  an  isosceles  triangle  is  ;  their  methods  of  demonstra- 
tion were  clumsy  and  indirect  ;  they  evidently  de- 
pended more  upon  parrot-like  memory  than  upon  their 
reasoning  powers  ;  and  their  use  of  the  English  lan- 
guage was  inaccurate,  slovenly,  and  incoherent  to  a 
deplorable  degree.  These  factsindicate  unmistakably 
that  both  in  quantity  and  in  quality  the  instruction 
given  is  seriously  at  fault.  The  children  are  not 
taught  many  things  which  they  should  be  taught,  and 
they  are  taught  few  if  any  things  in  the  right  man- 
ner. 

"The  people  of  Brooklyn  pay  about  $2,000,000  a  year 
for  the  education  of  about  100,000  children  in  the  pub- 
lic schools,  or  $20  a  year  for  each  child." 

The  fact  is  that  neither  in  Brooklyn,  New 


Education. 


537 


Education. 


York,  Boston,  nor  Chicago  is  there  seating  capac- 
ity for  all  the  children  if  they  did  attend.     It  is 

generally  admitted  that  one  teacher 

cannot  instruct  with  the  best  results 
Lack  of  more  than  35  or  40  pupils.  Yet  in 
Sittings.  Brooklyn,  in  1893,  of  377  classes, 

231  had  between  60  and  70  pupils  ; 

65  between  70  and  80  ;  22  between 
80  and  90  ;  18  between  90  and  100  ;  2  between 
100  and  no  ;  16  between  120  and  130  ;  4  be- 
tween 130  and  140  ;  2  between  140  and  150  ; 
i  had  158  pupils.  In  1894  only  1800  additional 
sittings  were  offered  to  meet  an  annual  increase 
of  5000.  The  Report  of  the  Committee  on 
School  Houses  in  Boston  in  December,  1894, 
describes  the  situation  there  as  of  "  great  pub- 
lic exigency."  High  schools  built  to  accommo- 
date 150  suffice  for  272  pupils.  In  Minneapolis, 
of  16,000  children  enrolled  in  the  first  three 
grades,  one  third  can  receive  only  half  day  ses- 
sions. In  Philadelphia  8000  are  similarly  un- 
caredfor.  In  Milwaukee  2478  children.  In  1893, 
it  was  estimated  that  there  were  35,000  persons 
of  school  age  who  did  not  attend  school,  some 
of  them  refused  admission,  and  over  3000  pu- 
pils were  in  unfit  rented  rooms. 

In  the  Forum  for  1892-93  is  a  series  of  studies 
of  the  schools  in  the  larger  cities  of  the  United 
States  by  Mr.  J.  M.  Rice.  Summing  up  his 
findings,  he  says  (Forum,  vol.  xv.,  p.  506) : 

"In  quite  a  number  of  cities  the  schools  have  ad- 
vanced so  little  that  they  may  be  regarded  as  repre- 
senting a  stage  of  civilization  before  the  age  of  steam 
and  electricity.  In  other  cities  we  find  schools  that  are 
just  awakening  to  the  fact  that  progress  has  been 
made  in  the  spiritual  as  well  as  in  the  physical  world, 
and  in  still  others  we  find  schools  that  have  already 
advanced  considerably  along  the  line  of  progress.  .  .  . 
My  classification,  however,  applies  more  fully  to  the 
primary  than  it  does  to  the  grammar 
grades,  as  in  the  different  cities  the  for- 
City  Schools,  mer  vary  much  more  markedly  than 
the  latter.  .  .  .  The  general  educational 
spirit  of  the  country  is  progressive,  the 
schools  of  large  numbers  of  our  cities  now  laboring  in 
the  right  direction.  But  we  must  never  forget  that  in 
the  United  States  each  community  conducts  its  schools 
independently,  so  that  the  favorable  condition  of  the 
schools  in  one  locality  reflects  absolutely  no  credit  on 
those  who  manage  the  schools  of  another  locality."  In 
New  York  he  finds  schools  "  so  unsanitary  as  to  be  unfit 
for  the  habitation  of  human  beings."  "  There  is  abso- 
lutely no  incentive  to  teach  well.  .  .  .  A  teacher  scarce- 
ly imperils  her  position  by  doing  exceedingly  poor 
work.  .  .  .  Teachers  are  very  rarely  discharged  even 
for  the  grossest  negligence  and  incompetency.  .  .  . 
Nearly  all  appointments  are  made  by  'pulls,'  merit 
being  a  side  issue."  In  Boston,  he  finds  not  these  evils, 
but  others.  The  system  is  not  mechanical.  Teachers 
are  carefullv  selected,  usually  for  merit,  and  allowed 
liberty,  under  competent  superintendents.  The  per 
capita  cost  of  instruction  is  particularly  high.  Some 
of  the  grammar  schools  are  among  the  best  in  the 
country,  but  in  the  primary  grades  they  fall  "  far 
short  of  what  they  ought  to  be."  They  are  "purely 
mechanical  drudgery  schools."  Boston  schools  were 
once,  Mr.  Rice  believes,  among  the  best  in  the  country. 
Now  "  it  would  appear  as  if  the  Boston  schools  had 
during  this  time  been  resting,  meanwhile  allowing 
the  progressive  schools  to  run  ahead."  The  schools  of 
Philadelphia  are  "  a  striking  example  of  the  difficulties 
involved  in  advancing  schools,  when  those  in  authority 
use  their  offices  for  selfish  purposes,  .  .  .  and  .  .  .  the 
evils  consequent  upon  a  school  system  conducted  with- 
out a  responsible  head."  The  public  schools  of 
Chicago  are  "  not  in  advance  of  those  of  New  York  or 
Philadelphia,"  and  even  "the  least  progressive  of  the 
three."  The  principal  cause  of  this  is  "  the  marked  lack 
of  professional  strength  on  the  part  of  the  teachers." 
The  schools  of  St.  Paul,  Minneapolis,  and  Indianapo- 
lis, Mr.  Rice  finds  much  better.  In  St.  Louis,  he  says, 
"we  have  an  example  of  how  sad  the  lot  of  the  child 
may  become  when  the  superintendents  not  only  do 
practically  nothing  toward  raising  the  standard  of 


the  teachers,  by  instructing  them  in  the  science  of 
education,  but  when  they  do  much  to  depress  them 
by  examining  their  classes,  and  judging  them  by  re- 
sults alone."  Of  Baltimore  he  says  :  '•  Until  a  national 
change  is  effected,  those  attending  the  schools  of  that 
city  will  be  doomed  to  a  miserable  childhood." 

But  it  is  not  only  the  cities  where  many  chil- 
dren are  growing  up  without  schooling.  Says 
Professor  Waetzoldt  (see  above) : 

"Consider  the  number  of  school  days  in  a  year  in  the 
United  States.  The  annual  average  is  only  134.3.  I 
believe  in  Berlin  we  have  no  less  than  240.  Saturdays 
are  holidays  throughout  America.  The  134  school 
days  are  an  average  of  terms  varying  greatly  in  dif- 
ferent States.  In  the  North  Atlantic  States,  for  in- 
stance Massachusetts  and  New  York,  there  are  166 
days  in  a  school  year ;  in  the  South  Atlantic  States, 
for  instance  Maryland  and  Virginia,  97  ;  in  the  South. 
Central  States,  for  instance  Tennessee  and  Kentucky, 
88  ;  and  in  the  Western  States,  135  days;  New  Jersey 
averages  the  greatest  number  of  school  days,  192  ;  and 
North  Carolina  the  least,  59  ;  Illinois  has  148. 

"The  obligatory  course  ostensibly  requires  an  at- 
tendance of  eight  years,  from  the  sixth  to  the  four- 
teenth year.  The  course  of  the  so-called  primary- 
school  covers  the  first  four  years  ;  the  primary  school 
prepares  for  the  grammar  school,  the  course  of  which 
likewise  requires  four  years.  In  round  numbers,  12,- 
697,000  pupils  out  of  the  62,500,000  inhabitants  of  the 
Union  attended  these  elementary  schools  during  1890. 
Of  these  12,697,000  only  8,144,000  children  attended  every 
day  of  the  average  88  to  135  school  days ;  that  is  to  say, 
only  64  per  cent,  attended  regularly.  Every  day  of  the 
average  135  days,  36  out  of  every  too  pupils,  or  one  of 
every  three,  a  very  large  proportion,  missed  school. 
The  'best  attendance  is  found  in  Massachusetts.  In 
that  State  it  is  73.7;  in  South  Carolina,  73.4;  and  in 
New  Mexico,  80  per  cent.  But  this  happy  State  has 
only  63  days  in  a  school  year.  To  form  a  just  estimate 
of  the  general  statistics  referring  to  attendance  at 
school,  proper  allowances  must  be  made  for  the  greater 
or  fewer  number  of  school  days  in  the  year.  .  .  . 

"According  to  available  statistics,  the  schools  of 
Minnesota  are  the  ones  in  which  attendance  is  poorest, 
the  number  of  school  days  during  the  year  are  120,  and 
only  45  pupils  out  of  every  100  attend.  This  is  prob- 
ably too  small  an  average,  for  Minnesota,  I  believe, 
possesses  excellent  schools.  Even  in  a  State  as  old  as 
Maryland,  in  which  Baltimore  is  situat- 
ed, only  55  out  of  every  100  pupils  at- 
tended school  regularly.  In  the  United 
States  the  average  number  of  days  with 
a  full  attendance  \yere  86  out  of  the  134 — 
namely,  a  proportion  of  40  days  non-at- 
tendance to  every  pupil.  In  North  Car- 
olina the  number  of  days  of  full  attendance  averaged 
37  out  of  59  ;  in  Massachusetts,  135  out  of  177  ;  in  the  Dis- 
trict of  Columbia  (the  city  of  Washington  with  its  sub- 
urbs), 135  out  of  178  ;  in  New  York,  115  out  of  186,  and  in 
Illinois,  107  out  of  148. 

"  The  average  attendance  at  school  throughout  the 
United  States  covers  four  of  the  eight  years  ;  in  large 
cities  five  to  six  years ;  in  the  South  sometimes  only 
one  year,  occasionally  a  few  months  only.  This  cir- 
cumstance easily  explains  the  policy  of  many  cities  in 
omitting  all  studies  not  absolutely  necessary,  eventu- 
ally limiting  the  course  to  the  three  R's— '  reading, 
'riting,  and  'rithmetic.'  " 

Another  evil  that  Professor  Waetzoldt  points, 
out  is  the  low  pay  of  teachers,  and  conse- 
quently the  number  of  inferior  teachers.  He 
says  (idem)  : 

"  The  entire  school  expenditure  of  the  city  of  Chicago, 
with    a    population    in    1892    approximating    1,614,000, 
amounted  to  $4,015,000,  or  16,800,000  marks.    Two  and 
a  half  million  dollars,  considerably  more  than  one  half, 
was  appropriated  for  salaries.     S'alaries  of  principals 
of    grammar  schools  are  divided   into 
groups  proportionate  to  the  number  of 
classes  and  pupils  in  their  schools  and      Politics. 
the  amount  of  work  to  be   done.    The 
first  group  of    principals  of    grammar 
schools  receive  $1050  the  first  year,  and  the  salary  in- 
creases every  year   until   it  amounts  to  $1200.      The 
second  group    ranges   from    $1200  to  $1400,  the  third: 
group  from  $1400  to  $1600,  and  the  highest  group  from 
$2300  to  $2500. 

Principals  of  primary  schools  begin  with  $1050,  and 
never  receive  more  than  $1600.  In  a  city  like  Chicago, 


Country 
Schools. 


Education. 


538 


Education. 


•where  a  working  man  receives  on  an  average  of  $2  a 
day,  men  and  women  teachers  in  primary  schools  be- 
gin with  $400,  or  1620  marks,  for  the  first  year.  The 
second  year  they  receive  $475 ;  the  third,  $575  ;  the 
fourth,  $650  ;  the  fifth,  $700 ;  the  sixth  and  the  follow- 
ing years,  $775  ;  i.  e.,  teachers  can  receive  as  high  as 
3250  marks— a  proportionately  small  sum  considering 
the  necessity  of  the  position,  with  no  pension,  no  pro- 
vision for  widows,  etc.,  attached.  Teachers  in  gram- 
mar schools  are  somewhat  better  situated ;  they  re- 


The  so-called  school  cadets— pupil  teachers,  in  fact, 
whose  employment  was  a  necessity  in  years  past  in 
Prussia — also  receive  75  cents  a  day  for  their  work, 
which  they  perform  under  the  supervision  and  guid- 
ance of  a  regular  teacher.  When  we  compare  the  pur- 
chasing power  of  a  mark  and  a  dollar,  we  understand 
that  small  salaries  are  the  reason  the  teacher's  pro- 
fession receives  so  few  accessions.  .  .  .  To  merely 
touch  the  question  of  the  normal  training  of  teachers 
in  a  word,  Americans  themselves  best  know  that  on 
the  average  it  is  still  inadequate.  The  minority  of 
teachers  are  educated  at  normal  schools.  The  ever- 
changing  board,  the  superintendent,  or  occasionally  a 
lower  official,  often  influenced  by  politics,  decides  upon 
a  teacher's  capacity.  A  definite  educational  policy 
is  not  prescribed,  and  there  is  no  uniform  examina- 
tion. .  .  . 

"  I  very  well  know  that  America  has  excellent  insti- 
tutions and  brilliant  teachers,  but  we  must  not  look 
only  at  the  flower  so  willingly  held  out  to  us.  We  must 
not  limit  ourselves  to  cities  renowned  for  their  schools  ; 
we  must  ask  how  matters  are  in  general.  According 
to  the  judgment  of  a  very  competent  American  school- 
teacher, the  work  done  in  normal  schools  does  not  com- 
pare with  that  of  a  German  seminary.  Pedagogically 
.and  scientifically  restricted,  the  teacher  naturally  be- 
comes dependent.  The  principal  and  inspector  instruct 
him  weekly  and  even  daily,  prescribing  the  daily  les- 
sons in  every  detail.  Thus  the  opinion  gains  credence 
that  the  achievements  of  a  school  are  attributable  to 
the  board  and  inspectors,  and  not  to  the  teachers. 
Teachers  must  first  be  prepared. 

"  There  is  no  professional  body  of  teachers  with  de- 
terminative power,  no  faculty  meetings  that  have  de- 
cisive disciplinary  and  other  powers.  In  many  cities 
the  teacher  is  a  poor  day-laborer,  who  earns  his  bread 
in  sorrow  and  fear  of  the  Damocles  sword  of  loss  of 
position  which  hangs  over  his  head.  In  the  whole  coun- 
try there  is  no  profession  of  teaching  which  rests  on  an 
.average  uniform  education,  the  consciousness  of  pro- 
fessional work  and  its  magnitude  ;  the  nation,  as  such, 
does  not  recognize  it.  Teachers  have  no  representa- 
tive corporation  ;  what  we  hear  of  the  national  associa- 
tion of  teachers  and  the  great  congresses  are,  with  very 
few  exceptions,  all  efforts  emanating  from  secondary 
and  higher  schools,  in  which  only  principals,  inspec- 
tors, etc.,  participate.  This  deficient  professional 
preparation  of  the  public-school  teacher  is,  next  to 
political  influence,  the  most  vulnerable  point  of  the 
whole  American  school  system.  It  is  evident  that  the 
.achievements  of  even  a  highly  gifted  people  must  fall 
below  a  high  standard  under  such  a  regime." 

Of  politics  in  the  public-school  system  Pro- 
fessor Waetzoldt  says  : 

"  In  many  cities  the  administration  and  superintend- 
ence of  schools,  the  appointment  of  teachers,  and  pro- 
motions are  purely  political  questions.  Change  of  party 
rule  often  brings  about  a  change  of  the  whole  person- 
nel of  schools,  from  commissioners  and  superintendents 
•down  to  the  ranks  of  the  teachers.  This,  together  with 
other  things,  creates  a  want  of  stability  in  American 
schools  ;  there  are  no  traditions  of  pedagogic  experi- 
ences, neither  in  a  school  nor  in  a  city.  How  different 
in  Germany !  What  an  abundance  of  traditions  and 
pedagogical  experiences  are  collected  in  a  normal 
.school  100  years  old  !  In  America  hasty  experiments 
replace  the  slow  growth  in  Germany.  The  new  prin- 
cipal, the  new  member  of  the  school  board,  and  the 
new  administration  are  too  impatient  to  carry  out 
their  political  and  moral  views  and  ideas  during  their 
term  of  service.  No  one  has  time  to  finish  his  work, 
for  he  does  not  know  how  long  he  may  be  engaged  in 
it ;  but  everybody  experiments.  On  the  other  hand, 
this  constant  changing  is  an  advantage  to  education  ; 
nowhere  outside  of  America  are  new  ideas  more  easily 
.brought  to  light  and  put  into  practice." 

But  perhaps  the  deepest  evil  in  our  schools  is 


the  lack  of  moral  teaching.  Until  this  century 
moral  teaching  has  gone  principally  with  relig- 
ious teaching.  The  modern  divorce 
of  Church  and  State,  the  opposition 
of  secularists  to  all  religious  teach-  Immorality, 
ing,  and.  above  all,  the  opposing 
views  of  Protestant,  Roman  Catho- 
lic, and  other  religious  bodies,  having  led  to  the 
disuse  of  religious  teaching  in  public  schools,  a 
lowering  of  the  tone  and  the  time  given  to  moral 
teaching  has  almost  inevitably  tho  not  necessa- 
rily followed.  The  coming  of  the  children  of 
ignorant  emigrants  into  the  public  schools  has 
increased  the  difficulty,  while  many  of  our  native 
children  have  developed  immorality  equal  to  that 
of  the  foreign  element.  Many  parents  fear  to 
send  their  children  to  public  schools,  and  yet  it 
is  not  proven  that  the  moral  tone  of  most  pri- 
vate schools  is  better.  ' '  In  the  month  of  Decem- 
ber, 1 88 1,  a  California  State  Teachers'  Institute 
was  held  in  San  Francisco.  With  scarcely  a 
dissentient  voice  it  was  declared  that  the  chil- 
dren of  our  public  schools  were  addicted  to  lying 
and  dishonesty.  ...  A  committee  of  Massa- 
chusetts ladies  made  a  report  declaring  that  the 
'  teachers  almost  universally  complain  of  the 
prevalence  of  lying,  stealing,  profanity,  and 
impurity  among  their  scholars.'  (The  School 
Question,  pp.  97,  115.)  A  writer  in  the  At- 
lantic for  May,  1894,  argues  that  more  atten- 
tion is  being  given  to  the  teaching  of  moral 
purity,  but  says  that  in  a  large  class  of  young 
women  graduates  of  pubiic  schools,  in  one  of 
our  older  States,  all  but  two  confessed  to  hear- 
ing in  their  early  life  in  the  public  schools 
what  they  could  never  forget,  tho  no  words 
could  express  the  longing  they  felt  to  blot  it 
from  their  memory. 

This  statement  of  the  immorality  of  the  pub- 
lic schools  is  not  to  be  confused  with  the  Roman 
Catholic  assertion  that  they  are  "  godless,"  tho 
Roman  Catholics  and  some  others  connect  the 
two  propositions.  For  a  discussion  of  religion 
in  the  public  schools  see  article  under  that  head- 
ing. All  believe,  however,  that  in  some  better 
way  than  at  present  morals  and  ethics  need  to 
be  taught  in  public  and  private  educational  in- 
stitutions, and  all  agree  that  the  lack  of  this  is 
among  the  most  serious  evils  of  the  present 
time. 

In  regard  to  universities,  the  main  need  is  in- 
creased provision  for  research  and  ampler  en- 
dowments, with  a  vastly  increased  system  of 
scholarship  for  promising  stu- 
dents. Mr.  Charles  F.  Thwing 
(Forum,  vol.  xviii.,  p.  630)  states  Universities, 
that  the  average  cost  of  a  student 
per  year  at  the  better  colleges  is 
larger  than  the  total  income  of  the  average 
American  family.  He  says  that  every  element 
in  the  cost  of  an  education  has  increased  in  the 
last  60  years  three  or  fourfold.  To-day  a  higher 
education  for  most  people  is  impossible.  Says 
Kidd,  in  his  Social  Evolution :  "Even  from 
that  large  and  growing  class  of  positions  for 
which  high  acquirement  or  superior  education 
is  the  only  qualification,  and  of  which  we  con- 
sequently (with  strange  inaccuracy)  speak  as  if 
they  were  open  to  all  comers,  it  may  be  per- 
ceived that  large  proportions  of  the  people  are 
excluded — almost  as  rigorously  and  as  abso- 


Education. 


539 


Education. 


lutely  as  in  any  past  condition  of  society — by 
the  simple  fact  that  the  ability  to  acquire  such 
education  or  qualification  is  at  present  the  ex- 
clusive privilege  of  wealth. ' ' 

V.  PROPOSED  REFORMS. 

The  more  radical  proposals  of  the  extreme  in- 
dividualists who  would  abolish  all  State  schools, 
and  of  the  socialists  who  would  carry  State  com- 
pulsory education,  we  consider  later.  Special 
reforms  as  to  the  teaching  of  Temperance,  and 
as  to  Industrial  Education,  Evening  Schools, 
Normal  Schools,  University  Extension,  are  con- 
sidered under  these  special  heads. 

As  to  insufficient  school  accommodation,  the 
only  remedy  is  the  granting  of  enough  appro- 
priation to  provide  adequate  accommodations. 
Of  New  York  City  The  Outlook  of  August  17, 
1895,  says  : 

"  The  city  has  already  invested  $25,000,000  in  schooi 
property,  but  it  is  not  too  much  to  say  that  during  the 
next  decade  an  equal  sum  will  be  needed  to  provide 
properly  for  its  needs  in  both  teachers 
and    buildings.      At  present  the  latter 
In  Cities,     are  not  large  enough,  are  overcrowded, 
have  top  little  ventilation,  with  insuffi- 
cient air  and  light,   and  are  often  un- 
healthfully  located  and  have  few  good  playgrounds. 
The  enormous  population  in  the  congested  districts  of 
the  metropolis  makes  these  deficiencies  specially  piti- 
able.   Mr.  Augustus  Johnson  makes  a  good  suggestion 
in  respect  to  these  districts.     He  asks  : 

"  '  Is  it  better  to  have  five  schools  containing  1000 
children  each  within  gunshot  of  each  other,  surrounded 
by  overtowering  and  contagion-breeding  tenement- 
houses,  saloons,  and  nuisances  of  every  kind,  or  one 
large  school-house  for  5000  children,  covering  an  entire 
central  block,  which  shall  not  be  suffocated  by  its  sur- 
roundings and  crowded  by  nuisances  ?  Fronting  on 
four  streets,  with  an  inner  court  for  playgrounds, 
such  a  school  building  will  be  accessible  to  the  children 
living  on  four  or  five  blocks  from  each  front,  and,  be- 
cause covering  so  much  ground,  need  not  be  so  high  as 
to  endanger  the  health  of  children  no  w  obliged  to  climb 
many  times  daily  to  tha  fourth  or  fifth  story.  Such  a 
school  building  might  be  made  a  model  of  school  archi- 
tecture for  beauty  and  convenience,  an  object-lesson 
not  for  the  East  Side  only,  but  for  the  continent  and 
for  the  world.  New  York  may  well  afford  to  offer 
prizes  for  the  best  architectural  designs  for  such  a 
building.'" 

As  to  taking  the  schools  out  of  politics,  some 
propose  absolute  State  or  national  control,  as  in 
Germany.  This  is  opposed  by  most.  Mr.  J.  M. 
Rice  (Forum,  vol.  xvi.,  p  500)  favors  a  perma- 
nent State  Board  of  Education  composed  of  five 
or  six  educational  experts,  with  an  adequate 
number  of  superintendents.  He  favors  also 
laws  as  to  the  appointment  of  teachers,  so  that 
their  positions  may  not  be  used  for  purposes  of 
patronage,  laws  limiting  the  amount  of  mere 
memorizing  of  text-books,  laws  compelling  a 
certain  amount  of  objective  work,  laws  com- 
pelling the  employment  of  phonics  in  teaching 
children  to  read.  The  three  main  laws  for  a 
good  school  system  he  believes  to  be  (i)  divorce 
from  politics  in  every  sense  of  the  word,  (2)  thor- 
ough supervision,  (3)  development  of  profes- 
sional and  general  intellectual  strength  in  the 
teachers. 

In  regard  to  secondary  schools,  there  has  re- 
cently been  concerted  action. 

"  It  has  come  to  be  distinctly  recognized  that  any 
far-reaching  educational  reform  in  this  country  must 
begin  with  the  secondary  schools.  The  elementary 
school  is  helpless  if  the  secondary  school  refuses  to 
cooperate  with  it  in  raising  the  standard  of  scholar- 
ship and  improving  the  methods  of  instruction. 


"  Except  in  those  Western  States  where  a  State  Uni- 
versity stands  at  the  head  of  the  State  school  system — 
as   in   Michigan,    Minnesota,   and   Nebraska—there   is 
great  uncertainty  and  diversity  in  the 
relations    of  the   secondary   schools    to 
the  colleges,  and   in    the    work   of  the    Secondary 
secondary  schools  themselves.  To  reme-       cM,ftn1a 
dy  this  condition   of   things   there  was       ocaoois. 
begun  by  a  few  members  of  the  National 
Educational  Association,  in  the  summer 
of  1892,  a  movement  which  culminated  in  the  appoint- 
ment by  the  Association  of  a  committee  of  10,  of  which 
President  Eliot  of  Harvard  was  chairman.    The  report 
of  the  committee  was  printed  by  the  Bureau  of  Edu- 
cation as  a  public  document. 

"The  investigation  brought  to  light  the  fact  that 
more  than  40  separate  subjects  of  instruction  were  to 
be  found  on  the  programs  of  prominent  secondary 
schools.  On  all  points,  exce.pt  the  time  allotment,  the 
committee  was  unanimous  in  recommending  what 

E regressive  teachers  agree  in  considering  wisest  and 
est. 

"  The  committee  provides  in  tabular  form  the  mate- 
rial of  which  a  thousand  programs  may  be  made, 
and  then  gives  four  sample  programs  of  their  own. 
The  four  are  called,  respectively,  the  classical,  the 
Latin-scientific,  the  modern  language,  and  the  English. 
The  first  makes  provision  for  three  foreign  languages, 
one  of  which  is  modern.  The  second  finds  room  for 
Latin  and  one  modern  language.  The  third  embraces 
both  French  and  German,  but  no  ancient  language; 
while  the  fourth  provides  for  one  foreign  language, 
which  may  be  either  Latin,  French,  or  German.  No 
one  of  the  programs  excludes  the  study  of  the  nat- 
ural sciences,  history,  or  geography.  The  time-allot- 
ment among  the  several  subjects  affords  opportunity 
to  get  from  each  the  kind  of  mental  training  it  is 
specially  fitted  to  supply.  The  different  principal  sub- 
jects are  put  on  an  approximately  equal  footing.  All 
short  information  courses  are  omitted,  and  the  in- 
struction in  each  of  the  main  lines — vtz.,  language, 
science,  history,  and  mathematics — is  substantially 
continuous. 

"  The  committee  are  of  the  opinion  that,  under  exist- 
ing conditions  in  the  United  States  as  to  the  training  of 
teachers  and  the  provision  of  necessary  means  of  in- 
struction, the  classical  and  Latin-scientific  programs 
must  in  practice  be  distinctly  superior  to  the  other 
two.  In  other  words,  we  have  not  yet  reduced  the 
teaching  of  natural  science  and  the  modern  languages 
to  the  same  precision  that  is  found  in  the  case  of  the 
classics  and  mathematics." 

Coming  now  to  more  radical  views,  we  have 
two  opposing  extremes  :  the  socialist  view  that 
would  carry  compulsory  State  education  to  the 
farthest  degree,  and  the   extreme 
individualist  view  that  would  do 
away  with  all  State  schools.     So-     Socialist 
cialists  of  all  types  favor  the  fullest       View. 
development    of    State    education. 
Says  Mr.    Graham  Wallas,  in  the 
Fabian  Essays  : 

"If  this  generation  were  wise  it  would  spend  on  edu- 
cation not  only  more  than  any  other  generation  has 
ever  spent  before,  but  more  than  any  generation  would 
ever  need  to  spend  again.  It  would  fill  the  school 
buildings  with  the  means  not  only  of  comfort,  but  even 
of  the  higher  luxury  ;  it  would  serve  the  associated 
meals  on  tables  spread  with  flowers,  in  halls  surround- 
ed with  beautiful  pictures,  or  even,  as  John  Milton  pro- 
posed, filled  with  the  sound  of  music  ;  it  would  seri- 
ouslv  propose  to  itself  the  ideal  of  Ibsen,  that  every 
child  should  be  brought  up  as  a  nobleman. 

Says  Sidney  Olivier  (idem}  : 

"  The  ideal  of  the  school  implies,  in  the  first  place, 
leisure  to  learn  ;  that  is  to  say,  the  release  of  children 
from  all  non-educational  labor  until  mind  and  phy- 
sique have  had  a  fair  start  and  training,  and  the  aboli- 
tion of  compulsion  on  the  adult  to  work  any  more  than 
the  socially  necessary  stint.  The  actual  expenditure 
on  public  education  must  also  be  considerably  in- 
creased, at  any  rate,  until  parents  are  more  generally 
in  a  position  to  instruct  their  own  children.  But  as 
soon  as  the  mind  has  been  trained  to  appreciate  the  in- 
exhaustible interest  and  beauty  of  the  world,  and  to 
distinguish  good  literature  from' bad,  the  remainder  of 
education,  granted  leisure,  is  a  comparatively  inexpen- 


Education. 


54° 


Elberfeld  System. 


sive  matter.  Literature  is  become  dirt-cheap  :  and  all 
the  other  educational  arts  can  be  communally  enjoyed. 
The  schools  of  the  adult  are  the  journal  and  the  library, 
social  intercourse,  fresh  air,  clean  and  beautiful  cities, 
the  joy  of  the  fields,  the  museum,  the  art  gallery,  the 
lecture  hall,  the  drama,  and  the  opera  ;  and  only  when 
these  schools  are  free  and  accessible  to  all  will  the  re- 
proach of  proletarian  coarseness  be  done  away." 

Mr.  Sidney  Webb,  in  giving  in  the  Fabian 
Essays  a  statement  of  the  current  socialist  de- 
mands for  further  legislation,  gives  under  the 
head  of  educational  reform  the  following  state- 
ment : 

"  Object.— To  enable  all,  even  the  poorest,  children  to 
obtain  not  merely  some,  but  the  best  education  they 
are  capable  of.  ,  • 

"Means. — i.  The  immediate  abolition  of  all  fees  in 
public  elementary  schools,  Board  or  voluntary,  with  a 
corresponding  increase  in  the  Government  grant.  2. 
Creation  of  a  minister  for  education,  with  control  over 
the  whole  educational  system,  from  the  elementary 
school  to  the  university,  and  over  all  educational  en- 
dowments. 3.  Provision  of  public  technical  and  second- 
ary schools  wherever  needed,  and  creation  of  abun- 
dant public  secondary  scholarships.  4.  Continuation, 
in  all  cases,  of  elementary  education  at  evening 
schools.  5.  Registration  and.  inspection  of  all  private 
educational  establishments." 

In  America,  the  Socialist  Labor  party  includes 
among  its  social  demands  ' '  the  school  education 
of  all  children  under  14  years  of  age  to  be  com- 
pulsory, gratuitous,  and  accessible  to  all  by  pub- 
lic assistance  in  meals,  clothing,  books,  etc., 
where  necessary." 

Mr.  Lawrence  Gronlund,  in  his  Cooperative 
Commonwealth,  advocates  compulsory  educa- 
tion, with  support  of  the  children  and  youth  up 
to  the  twenty-first  year,  and  this  is  the  ideal  of 
most  socialists  in  Germany  and  elsewhere. 

Opposed  to  the  socialist  program  is  the  ex- 
treme individualist  proposition  to  do  away  with 
all  public  schools.  Even  Mr.  Spencer  talks  of 
the  "tyranny"  of  compulsory  education,  and 
"  the  cases  in  which  men  let  themselves  be 
coerced  into  sending  their  children  to  receive 
lessons  in  grammar  and  gossip  about  kings, 
often  at  the  cost  of  underfeeding  and  weak 
bodies."  (Justice,  p.  178,  American  edition.) 
He  says  : 

"  On  the  day  when  .£30,000  a  year  in  aid  of  education 
was  voted  as  an  experiment,  the  name  of  an  idiot  would 
have  been  given  to  an  opponent  who  prophesied  that 
in  50  years  the  sum  spent  through  im- 
perial   taxes   and    local    rates    would 
Extreme       amount  to  £10,000,000,  or  who   said  that 
T«/ii'TTi'/4r,aiiaf  tlle  &^  to  education  would  be  followed 
inoiviauausi  by  aids  to  feeding.  and  ciothing,  or  who 

Views.        said  that  parents  and  children  alike,  de- 
prived   of  all  opinion,   would,   even  if 
starving,   be  compelled  by  fine  or  im- 
prisonment to  conform  and  receive  that  which,  with 
Fapal  assumption,  the  State  calls  education.     No  one, 
say,  would  have  dreamt  that  out  of  so  innocent-look- 
ing a  germ  would  have  so  quickly  evolved  a  tyrannical 
system  tamely  submitted  to  by  people  who  fancy  them- 
selves free"  (A  Plea  for  Liberty,  p.  16).    He  considers 
that  it  leads  to  pauperization,  and  says  : 

"  Legislators  who  in  1833  voted  £20,000  a  year  to  aid 
in  building  school-houses  never  supposed  that  the  step 
they  then  took  would  lead  to  forced  contributions, 
local  and  general,  now  amounting  to  £6,000,000 ;  they 
did  not  intend  to  establish  the  principle  that  A  should  be 
made  responsible  for  educating  B's  offspring  ;  they  did 
not  dream  of  a  compulsion  which  would  deprive  poor 
widows  of  the  help  of  their  elder  children  ;  and  still 
less  did  they  dream  that  their  successors,  by  requiring 
impoverished  parents  to  apply  to  Boards  of  Guardians 
to  pay  the  fees  which  school  boards  would  not  remit, 
would  initiate  a  habit  of  applying  to  Boards  of  Guard- 
ians, and  so  cause  pauperization"  (The  Coming  Sla- 
very in  Man  vs.  The  State). 


Mr.  Mackay,  in  A  Plea  for  Liberty,  sum- 
ming up  the  individualist  argument,  says : 

"  If  men  will  grant  for  a  moment,  and  for  the  sake  of 
argument,  that,  as  some  insist,  our  compulsory,  rate-  ' 
supported  system  of  education  is  wrong  ;  that  it  is  in- 
jurious to  the  life  ot  the  poor;  that  it  reduces  the 
teacher  to  the  position  of  an  automaton  j  that  it  pro- 
vides a  quality  of  teaching  utterly  unsuited  to  the 
wants  of  a  laboring  population,  which  certainly  re- 
quires some  form  of  technical  training  ;  that  here  it 
is  brought  face  to  face  with  its  own  incompetence.,  for 
some  of  the  highest  practical  authorities  declare  that 
the  technical  education  given  in  the  schools  is  a  farce  ; 
that  therefore  it  bars  the  way  to  all  free  arrangements 
between  parents  and  employees,  and  to  the  only  sys 
tern  of  technical  education  which  deserves  the  name  ; 
if  this  or  even  a  part  of  it  is  true,  if  at  best  our  educa- 
tional system  is  a  makeshift,  not  altogether  intoler- 
able, how  terrible  are  the  difficulties  to  be  overcome 
before  we  can  retrace  our  steps  and  foster  into  vigor- 
ous life  a  new  svstem  !'' 

These  individualists,  doing  away  with  all  compul- 
sory or  State  education,  would  have  only  voluntary- 
schools  for  those  who  can  pay  for  them,  believing  that 
men  will  get  better  education  if  they  pay  for  it,  and 
that  those  who  can  pay  but  little  would"  value  that 
little,  and  get  what  they  did  more  suited  to  their  needs, 
if  it  cost  them  effort.  They  believe  that  here,  as  every- 
where, a  free  competition  or  education  means  the  de- 
velopment of  the  best  schools  and  the  best  school  sys- 
tem. 

Revised  by  THOMAS  DAJ/IDSON. 

References  :  Reports  of  the  Commissioners  of  Edit  ca- 
tion; Sonnenschein's  Cyclopedia  of  Education  (edited 
by  Fletcher,  1889 ;  this  gives  a  bibliography);  Horace 
Mann's  Letters  and  Reports  on  Education  (1867) ;  Her- 
bert Spencer's  Education,  Intellectual,  Moral,  and 
Philosophical  (1886);  Rousseau's  Emile,  with  notes  by 
Jules  Steeg  (1885) ;  Yro&bsl's Education  of  Man  .-  Pesta- 
lozzi's  How  Gertrude  Teaches  her  Children  ;  Richter's 
Levana;  Alexander  Bain's  Education  as  a  Science  (1886); 
Rosenkranz's  Philosophy  of  Education  (translated 
by  A.  C.  Brackett,  2d  ed.,  1886);  W.  J.  Shoup's  History 
and  Science  of  Education  (1891).  See  also  the  maga 
zines— Education  (Boston),  Educational  Review  (New 
York),  Educational  Times  (London),  Journal  of  Edu- 
cation (London),  ditto  (Boston).  (See  also  AGRICUL- 
TURAL SCHOOLS  ;  CHAUTAUQUA ;  COOKING  SCHOOLS  ; 
ILLITERACY  ;  INDUSTRIAL  EDUCATION  ;  KINDERGAR- 
TEN; UNIVERSITY  EXTENSION,  etc.;  also  article 
RELIGION  IN  PUBLIC  SCHOOLS;) 

EIGHT-HOUR  MOVEMENT  AND 
PHILOSOPHY.  See  SHORT-HOUR  MOVEMENT. 

ELBERFELD  SYSTEM.— Attention  has 

been  widely  attracted  to  the  methods  of  poor  re- 
lief adopted  in  Elberfeld,  and  copied  in  many 
German  cities.  In  1823  the  Prussian  Govern- 
ment authorized  each  commune  in  the  Diissel- 
dorf  circle  to  take  charge  of  its  own  poor  relief, 
but  until  1850  the  old  system,  founded  upon  that 
of  the  French  empire,  remained  in  vogue.  A 
system  in  the  charge  of  wealthy  individuals,  es- 
pecially Lutherans,  was  then  tried.  The  cost 
of  the  relief  in  1852  was  ^8932,  while  in  the 
Lutheran  community  it  was  30  per  cent,  higher 
than  in  the  rest  of  the  city.  At  the  instigation 
of  Daniel  von  der  Heydt,  a  banker  of  Elberfeld, 
the  existing  scheme  was  authorized. 

Here  is  the  system  in  brief  :  Elberfeld  is  one 
of  the  largest  manufacturing  towns  of  the  em- 
pire, and  contains  many  poor.  For  poor-law 
purposes  it  is  divided  into  364  sections,  each  sec- 
tion therefore  consisting  of  about  300  people 
more  or  less.  Every  14  sections  constitute  a 
district.  Over  each  section  of  300  inhabitants  is 
placed  an  almoner  ;  and  over  each  district,  which 
has  14  almoners,  is  appointed  an  overseer.  All 
these  officers  are  under  the  control  of  a  central 
committee  of  nine,  of  which  the  mayor  is  ex- 
officio  president,  four  members  are  town  council- 


Elberfeld  System. 


Elections, 


ors,  and  the  other  four  are  ordinary  citizens. 
The  364  almoners  and  26  overseers  are  unpaid, 
but  all  is  under  city  control. 

The  duties  of  the  almoners  are  extensive  and  pre- 
cise. Every  person  needing  relief  makes  application 
to  the  almoner  of  his  own  district.  It  is  then  the  duty 
of  the  almoner  to  institute  full  and  particular  inquiries 
into  all  the  circumstances  of  the  case.  He  is  also  re- 
quired to  keep  himself  constantly  informed  so  long  as 
the  applicant  may  continue  to  need  relief.  Every  fort- 
night the  14  almoners  of  each  district  meet  under  the 
presidency  of  the  district  overseer  ;  the  reports  of  each 
are  then  considered,  and  the  minute  book  prepared  for 
the  Central  Committee.  That  committee  also  meets 
fortnightly  on  the  day  following  the  meetings  of  the 
almoners  and  overseers.  The  small  size  of  the  sec- 
tions enables  each  almoner,  without  difficulty,  to  make 
himself  thoroughly  familiar  with  all  the  distress  of  his 
district,  and  with  every  exaggerating  or  favorably 
modifying  circumstance  connected  with  it.  Being  a 
citizen  and  not  a  paid  official,  he  has  no  interest  but  to 
state  the  facts  as  plainly  as  may  be,  and  to  secure  that 
the  relief  shall  be  such  as  is  best  suited  to  the  necessi- 
ties of  each  case.  Relief  is  granted  according  to  a  fixed 
and  uniform  scale,  which  is  so  framed  as  to  secure  that 
only  the  minimum  necessary  for  bare  subsistence  is 
supplied  to  the  applicant  and  his  family.  Any  small 
sums  he  may  earn  are  considered  and  deducted  so  as 
to  bring  his  rate  of  relief  to  the  standard  minimum. 
In  addition  to  money  help,  tools  may  be  lent— such  as 
sewing-machines  ;  and  furniture  also  may  be  provided. 
One  of  the  .instructions  of  the  almoner  is  that  he  is 
bound  to  use  every  possible  effort  to  secure  employ- 
ment for  those  who  may  be  in  receipt  of  relief. 

The  result  of  this  system  has  been  that  while 
from  1852-69  population  increased  from  50,000 
to  71,000,  the  number  of  paupers  declined  from 
8  to  1.5  per  cent.,  or  from  4000  to  1062,  and  the 
expenditures  from  ^8932  to  ^3860.  Yet  the 
poor  have  been  better  provided  for  than  former- 
ly under  individual  management.  (See  CHAR- 
ITY ORGANIZATION.) 

ELECTION  LAWS.  See  CORRUPTION  IN 
POLITICS. 

ELECTIONS.— We  briefly  consider  in  this 
article  the  working  of  elections  in  the  United 
States,  Great  Britain,  and  France. 

THE    UNITED    STATES. 

Qualifications  for  voting  in  the  United  States 
vary  somewhat  with  the  States,  but  are  largely 
the 'same.    Except  in  four  Western  States,  only 
males  can  vote  on  general  elections, 
and  in  most  States  on  school  elec- 
Qnalifi-      tions.     (See    WOMAN'S    SUFFRAGE.) 
cations.      In  all  States  voters  must  be  citizens, 
except  that  in  many  States  declared 
intention  to  become  a  citizen  quali- 
fies for  voting  under  certain  restrictions  of  time 
and  place.     A  residence  in  the  State  is  required 
in  all  States,  varying    from   three  months  in 
Maine  to  two  years  in  Missouri — one  year  being 
the  rule,  tho  it  is  six  months  in  many  States. 
Residence  usually  of  from  one  month  to  two 
months  is  required  in  county,  town,  and  precinct. 
Connecticut,  Massachusetts,  and  Mississippi  re- 
quire that  the  voter  can  read  or  understand  the 
Constitution.      Arkansas,    Delaware,    Georgia, 
Mississippi,  and  Pennsylvania  require  the  pay- 
ment of  a  tax.     In  all  the  States,  with   slight 
variations  as  to  details,  convicts,  idiots,  and  the 
insane  are  not  qualified  for  voting.     In  several 
States,   paupers.    United    States  soldiers,   and 
marines  are   disqualified.      In    most    Western 
States  the  Chinese  are  disqualified. 


Elections  in  the  United  States  are  numerous 
and  frequent,  and  here  is  one  of  the  main 
sources  of  their  evil.  Federal  elections  come 
every  four  years  ;  State  elections 
come  usually  every  year ;  muni- 
cipal elections  come  also  yearly,  Frequency. 
sometimes  on  the  same  day  and 
sometimes  on  different  days  from 
the  other  elections.  In  the  case  of  each  election 
(federal,  State,  and  municipal),  the  voter  has 
numerous  candidates  to  vote  for.  In  federal 
elections  he  votes  for  electors  for  President  and 
Vice-President  ;  in  State  elections  he  votes  for 
governor,  lieutenant-governor,  congressmen, 
representatives  to  the  State  legislatures,  secre- 
tary of  State,  attorney-general,  sometimes 
judges,  and  several  other  officers.  In  city  elec- 
tions he  usually  votes  for  mayor,  aldermen,  com- 
mon councilors,  school  board,  commissioners  of 
various  departments.  Besides  this  he  is  usually 
called  upon  to  vote  yea  or  nay  on  various  ques- 
tions of  granting  license  or  no.  For  each  office 
three  or  four  parties  each  nominate  different 
candidates.  The  result  is  that  frequently  the 
voter  has  to  have  before  him  several  hundred 
names.  The  ballot  upon  which  the  average  city 
voter  has  to  record  his  choice  is  often  a  blanket 
sheet  covered  with  confusing  names.  Under 
the  present  system,  then,  the  first  characteristic 
of  American  elections  is  that  even  the  voter  who 
desires  to  be  honest  cannot  go  by  his  own  per- 
sonal knowledge  of  the  candidates.  It  is  im- 
possible for  him  to  know  personally  and  to  judge 
between  the  claims  of  the  different  men.  He 
therefore  is  compelled  to  be  guided  in  his  choice 
by  his  party,  by  hearsay,  or  by  the  press.  Here 
comes  in  the  opportunity  of  the  professional  poli- 
tician. 

If  a  man  will  give  all  his  time  to  the  pulling 
of  small  political  ropes,  he  has  his  busy  neigh- 
bors at  enormous  advantage.  He  can  go  around 
and  drum  up  votes  for  a  particular  candidate  : 
he  can  work  through  the  press  ;  if  he  can  run 
the  party  machine,  he  has  the  ward  vote  in  his 
grasp,  and  the  average  busy  citizen  is  helpless. 
He  can  do  this  even  without  recourse  to  corrup- 
tion. But  he  has  to  live  while  he  is  doing  this 
work.  Hence  the  temptation  to  get  his  living 
by  politics.  They  give  abundant  opportunity. 
To  most;  political  positions  a  salary 
is  attached.  If  a  man  can  get  elect- 
ed, it  will  pay  him  to  give  a  portion  Professional 
to  the  man  who  elects  him.  Hence  Politicians, 
candidates  can  afford  to  give  some- 
times large  sums  to  professional 
politicians  who  can  secure  their  election.  Again, 
and  perhaps  quite  as  frequently,  the  professional 
politician  is  appointed  himself  to  a  small  office 
by  the  party  or  clique  he  has  helped  to  elect, 
and  thus  maintained  to  do  the  same  work  in  an- 
other election.  Often  the  duties  of  the  office 
are  small  and  the  holder  can  give  almost  all  his 
time  "to  running  ward  politics."  Sometimes 
offices  are  created  with  only  nominal  duties,  sim- 
ply to  create  a  living  for  these  professional  poli- 
ticians. Sometimes  they  are  appointed  to  large 
offices  and  depute  their  duties  to  some  one  else, 
while  they  attend  to  "  politics."  Against  such 
professional  politicians  the  ordinary  citizen  is 
well-nigh  helpless.  The  ward  politician  knows 
every  voter  in  his  precinct,  He  checks  all  who 


Elections. 


542 


Elections. 


are  sure  Republicans  and  all  who  are  sure  Dem- 
ocrats. Then  he  studies  the  doubtful  or  inde- 
pendent whose  vote  will  really  decide  the  elec- 
tion. Some  of  these  can  be  directly  bought, 
some  influenced,  some  fooled,  some  frightened. 
He  treats  each  one  in  his  own  way.  He  prom- 
ises some  men  appointments  as  policemen  or  as 
street  cleaners,  etc. ;  he  induces  some  to  vote  for 
his  party,  because  if  they  do  they  will  enable 
some  cousin  to  become  a  policeman  and  receive 
a  sorely  needed  income.  The  ramifications  of 
interested  votes  go  very  far,  and  the  profes- 
sional politician  knows  all  the  twists.  He  stands 
in  with  the  saloon-keeper,  and  sometimes  with 
the  dive-keeper,  and  thus  swings  the  liquor  vote 
and  the  dive  vote.  He  knows  and  flatters  the 
leading  Italian  and  Polish  politicians  of  the  ward, 
and  so  swings  the  large  foreign  vote.  Against 
such  machinations  the  non-professional  voter 
can  do  little. 

But  thus  far  we  have  considered  the  profes- 
sional politician  alone,  and  with  his  power  sim- 
ply based  upon  the  frequency  and  complexity 
of  elections  and  the  impossibility  that  the  citizen 
who  does  not  give  all  his  time  to  politics  -can  de- 
feat such  machinations. 

When,  however,  the  professional  politicians 

band  together,  they  become  inconceivably  more 

irresistible.     And   the    system  almost  compels 

such  banding.     In  the  complexity  of  elections, 

each  party  has  to  appoint  various  committees  to 

run  the  campaign.     There  are,  first  of  all,  the 

national  committee,  then  State  committees,  city 

committees,     county     committees, 

ward  committees,  district  commit- 

The         tees.     Some  of  these  remain  always 

Machine,  active  ;  others  are  appointed  for 
campaigns.  The  committees  that 
are  best  banded  together  and  give 
most  time  and  thought  and  money  to  politics 
usually  win.  Thus,  a  machine  is  almost  in- 
evitably developed.  Under  the  present  system 
of  election  by  State  electoral  votes,  certain 
States  become  "pivotal. "  The  vote  of  these 
States  often  turns  upon  the  vote  of  great  cities. 
A  party  that  can  carry  New  York  City  and  Chi- 
cago and  Philadelphia,  and  other  large  cities, 
has  an  enormous  advantage.  Hence  city  ma- 
chines are  developed,  organized  through  profes- 
sional politicians  in  all  the  wards.  When  a  na- 
tional election  comes  they  can  deliver  the  city 
vote,  and  to  a  less  extent  similar  committees  de- 
liver the  county  vote. 

It  is  not,  however,  in  national  politics  so  much 
as  in  municipal  politics  that  the  machines  find 
their  main  power.  City  offices  are  often  more 
lucrative  than  national  offices.  Hence  holders 
of  city  offices  can  afford  to  pay  more  to  the  ma- 
chine that  elects  them.  Again,  city  offices  often 
have  far  more  appointing  power.  The  machine 
that  captures  the  city  government  can  appoint 
to  hundreds  of  petty  clerkships  and  positions,  as 
policemen,  street-cleaners,  etc.  Hence  the  ma- 
chine often  prefers  to  rule  the  city  than  the 
State.  Once  more  and  mainly  the  members  of 
the  city  government  continually  have  enormous- 
ly valuable  franchises  and  jobs  to  bestow  or  to 
control.  A  change  in  the  mere  wording  of  a 
bill  will  make  a  difference  often  of  hundreds  of 
thousands  of  dollars.  It  is  obvious  that  here 
corrupt  legislators  can  gain  large  sums  from  in- 


terested parties.  To  control  such  legislation  is 
a  prize,  often  in  value  beyond  all  others  to  the 
city  machine.  Hence  the  ring  (g.v.),  a  large 
share  of  the  city  corruption,  and  the  motives  for 
dishonest  elections. 

Nor  are  these  conditions  which  we  have  de- 
scribed the  only  elements  in  the  situation.  There 
is  the  great  fact  that  a  large  proportion  of  the 
city  vote  comes  from  people  in  part  ignorant 
and  in  part  with  little  permanent  interest  in  the 
community.  In  the  city,  too,  few  know  more 
than  a  few  of  their  neighbors.  In  this  igno- 
rance is  the  wire-puller's  opportunity.  Another 
element  is  in  the  rush  of  American  life  that 
makes  it  still  more  impossible  for  all  except  the 
professionals  to  follow  the  details  and  the  dry 
work  of  political  machinery.  In  the  United 
States,  there  are  as  yet  but  few  who,  living  on 
income,  give  their  time  unpaid  to  the  public 
weal.  Such  a  class  is  developing,  but  we  shall 
see  in  a  moment  why  they  are  particularly  un- 
fitted to  cope  with  the  situation. 

Meanwhile  we  pass  to  notice  the  methods  by 
which  the  machine  controls  elections.   Its  strong- 
hold is  in  the  primary.     The  primary  is  deter- 
mined by  its  roll  of  ward  voters  en- 
titled to  vote  in  it.     This  roll  is 
prepared  by  the  ward  committee.    Primaries. 
It  knows  its  own  men.     Others  are 
admitted  to  the  primaries  on  the 
votes  of  those  already  admitted.    To  gain  ad- 
mission, one  often  has  to  give  a  pledge  to  sup- 
port the  committee.     Independent  men  are  got- 
ten rid  of  or  refused  admission.     Subservient 
primaries  are  thus  easily  gotten.     Honest  men 
object  to  such  measures,  and  either  stay  away  or 
give  up  in  disgust  after  fruitless  efforts  to  cap- 
ture the  primary. 

"At  the  last  Republican  primaries  in  New 
York  City  only  8  per  cent,  of  the  Republican 
electors  took  part.  In  only  8  out  of  24  districts 
did  the  percentage  exceed  10,  in  some  it  was  as 
low  as  2  per  cent.  In  the  Twenty-first  Assem- 
bly District  Tammany  Primary,  116  delegates, 
to  choose  an  Assembly  candidate,  were  elected 
by  less  than  50  voters.  In  the  Sixth  Assembly 
District  County  Democracy  Primary,  less  than 
7  per  cent,  of  the  Democratic  voters  took  part, 
and  of  those  who  did,  69  in  number,  nearly  one 
fourth  were  election  officers.  The  primary  was 
held  in  a  careless  way  in  a  saloon  while  card- 
playing  was  going  on"  (A.  C.  Bernheim  in  Po- 
litical Science  Quarterly  for  March,  1888). 

Bogus  lists  of  voters  are  often  made.  Men 
are  brought  in  from  other  districts  to  vote  for 
the  machine. 

When  the  primary  meets  a  "  slate"  is  brought 
in,  and  usually  the  names  on  it  receive  the  nomi- 
nation from  the  subservient  primary.  If  a  few 
opponents  are  present,  they  are  usually  allowed 
to  make  opposing  but  fruitless  nominations,  the 
committee  being  sure  of  the  result.  The  chair- 
man appointed  by  the  meeting  is  almost  always 
the  tool  of  the  committee.  If  there  should  be  a 
split  or  division,  sometimes  a  disturbance  is 
purposely  created,  and  in  the  confusion  the 
chairman  can  declare  the  nominations  carried. 
Often  shouters  and  roughs  are  brought  in  to 
shout  down  all  opposition.  Usually  when  there 
is  a  division,  it  is  merely  a  fight  within  the  party, 
between  two  ward  or  city  cliques,  for  offices, 


Elections. 


543 


Elections. 


both  of  which  are  subservient  to  the  machine. 
Honest  battles  in  the  primaries  are  almost  un- 
known, and  "  reformers"  have  almost  given  up 
in  despair  attempting  to  capture  the  primaries 
of  the  old  parties  under  the  present  system. 
Their  only  hope  seems  to  be  to  make  indepen- 
dent nominations  of  their  own.  They  some- 
times win,  in  cases  of  the  uprisings  of  indignant 
citizens,  but  the  indignation  does  not  last,  and 
pretty  soon  the  regular  work  of  the  old  party 
machine  wins  again.  Nor  is  there  usually- 
much  hope  in  playing  corrupt  Republican  pri- 
mary against  corrupt  Democratic  primary,  es- 
pecially in  city  politics,  because  the  machine 
which  once  gets  hold  of  a  city  usually  gets  such 
complete  hold  of  it  that  in  that  city  there  is  lit- 
tle rivalry  between  the  two  parties.  With  the 
rarest  of  exceptions.  New  York  City  is  always 
Democratic  and  Philadelphia  always  Republi- 
can. So  even  with  many  smaller  cities.  Even 
where  the  cities  are  uncertain,  certain  wards  in 
each  city  can  always  be  counted  on  for  a  cer- 
tain party.  Sometimes,  too,  the  same  munici- 
pal ring  controls  the  primaries  of  both  parties. 
Such  are  some  of  the  difficulties  of  reaching  the 
primaries. 

Above  the  primary  is  the  convention.  The 
convention  is  usually  safe  for  the  machine,  be- 
cause the  machine  has  already  captured  the  pri- 
maries that  send  the  delegates.  The  machine 
nominates  a  temporary  chairman,  and  he  is 
elected  usually  by  subservient  delegates ;  if 
not,  roughs  and  shouters  are  brought  in.  He 
names  the  committee  on  contested  seats,  which 
committee,  passing  on  the  titles  of  delegates, 
can  admit  the  friends  and  refuse  admission  to 
the  opponents  of  the  machine.  In  all  doubtful 
cases  the  machine  favors  itself.  It  then  gets 
the  chairman  of  the  convention,  and  has  practi- 
cally all  power  in  its  hands.  Such  are  some  of 
the  methods  of  American  electioneering. 

When  it  comes  to  the  voting,  the  ward  and 
county  committees  are  instructed  to  see  that  the 
full  party  vote  is  polled  and  that  all  the  doubt- 
ful are  canvassed.  Money  is  sent 
to  the  different  committees  to  buy 
Campaigns,  those  who  can  be  bought.  Men  are 
hired  to  go  among  the  trade-unions 
and  secure  the  labor  vote.  Papers 
are  bought  up  or  filled  with  paid  editorials  and 
paid  "  news."  The  papers  of  the  foreign  popu- 
lations are  subsidized.  Campaign  circulars  are 
prepared  suited  for  special  classes  and  addressed 
to  clergymen,  to  merchants,  to  "  the  American 
working  men."  "  Orators"  are  put  upon  the 
stump  and  sent  to  every  district.  National  ora- 
tors are  carried  in  special  trains  from  city  to 
city.  Carefully  prepared  reports  of  extempore 
speeches  by  the  rival  candidates  are  put  in  the 
daily  press.  Mud,  if  necessary,  is  slyly  thrown. 
Sometimes  lies  are  circulated  at  the  last  minute 
when  it  is  too  late  for  the  opposing  party  to  re- 
fute them.  "Claims"  are  made  showing  that 
all  the  country  is  going  one  way.  Processions 
and  monster  parades  are  formed.  Those  away 
from  home  get  their  railway  fare  paid  if  they 
will  go  home  and  vote  for  a  certain  party.  The 
railroads  grant  free  passage  to  those  who  will 
vote  in  their  interest.  Taxes  are  paid  for  votes. 
Minor  forms  of  corruption  are  resorted  to.  Such 
are  some  of  the  elements  of  American  elections. 


The  Australian  ballot  system  has  in  the  main 
done  away  with  direct  intimidation  at  the  polls, 
but  indirect  influences  still  remain.  In  the  elec- 
tion of  1896  many  manufacturers  are  reported 
to  have  said  to  their  employees  (and  perhaps  in 
perfect  honesty),  "  This  is  a  free  country  ;  you 
can  vote  exactly  as  you  please.  If  so  and  so  is 
elected  we  will  raise  your  wages  ;  if  so  and  so 
is  elected  we  will  shut  down  the  shop.  This  is 
a  free  country  ;  you  can  vote  exactly  as  you 
please. ' ' 

The  reforms  proposed  for  election  evils  in  the 
United  States  are  very  various.     Many  of  these 
we  discuss  in  particular  articles.      They  vary 
with  the  various  conceptions  of  the 
cause  of  the  evil.     Professor  Com- 
mons finds  a  main  cause  of  the  evil      Causes, 
in  the  fact  that  American  repre- 
sentatives must  be  elected  almost 
universally  from  the  district  in  which  they  live. 
This  limits  the  possible  candidates  and  gives  the 
machine  the  chance  to.pull  its  local  wires  and 
appeal  exclusively  to  local  interests.     He  would, 
therefore,  in  part  reform  elections  by  doing  away 
with  this  proviso.    In  company  with  many  others,, 
he  would  also  introduce  proportional  representa- 
tion ,  for  a  discussion  of  which  see  that  article. 
To  others  the  Referendum  and  the  Initiative  are 
the   one  way  of    escape.     (See   REFERENDUM.) 
Under  the  present  system,  independence  seems 
a  sham. 

Professor  Giddings  (Political  Science  Quar- 
terly, vol.  yii.,  p.  124)  asserts  that  "the  total 
possible  gain  or  loss  to  a  political  party  through 
strictly  independent  voting  does  not  exceed, 
under  the  most  favorable  circumstances,  5  per 
cent,  of  the  maximum  total  vote  of  a  presiden- 
tial year. ' '  This  statement  is  sustained  by  even 
the  unprecedented  "  landslides"  of  the  past  six- 
years. 

It  is  in  the  exaggerated  weight  of  small  fac- 
tions holding  the  balance  of  power  between  the 
two  parties  that  is  to  be  found  the  secret  of  the 
corrupt  influences  already  described.  The  great 
majority  of  the  voters  are  conservative,  and  do- 
not  readily  change  their  party.  Especially  in 
close  districts,  therefore,  interested  elements 
can  dictate  terms  to  both  parties.  This,  too, 
gives  the  bribable  vote  an  influence  far  in  ex- 
cess of  its  proportions. 

Mr.  Albert  Stickney ,  in  his  A  True  Republic, 
finds  the  cause  of  the  dominance  of  party  in  the 
term  system.  He  says  : 

"When  we  said  (as  we  did  in  effect  in  our  constitu- 
tion) all  public  servants  shall  depend  for  keeping  their 
offices,  not  on  whether  they  do  their  work  well  or  ill, 
but  on  carrying  the  next  election,  then,  instead  of 
giving  them  each  a  separate  interest  to  do  his  own 
work  well,  we  gave  them  all  one  common  interest  to- 
carry  the  next  election.  We  made  it  certain  that  they 
would  combine  and  form  parties  for  the  purpose  of 
carrying  elections. 

"  But  there  is  another  point.     The  knowledge  which 
all  men  had  that  at  the  end  of  a  fixed  time  there  would 
be  a  large  number  of  vacancies,  made  it  certain  that 
other  men  who  were  not  in  office  would 
combine  for  the  purpose  of  getting  out 
the  men  who  were  in  office,  and  getting    Term  Sys- 
in  themselves.    The  term  system  was          *.„_. 
certain  then  to  create  two  great  parties 
for  the  purpose  of  carrying  elections. 
The  men  who  were  in  formed  a  party  to 
keep  office.    The  men  who  were  out  formed  a  party  to 
get  office." 

For  other  conceptions  of  the  cause  of  the  evil 


Elections. 


544 


Elections. 


other  cures  are  proposed.  It  is  proposed  that 
elections  be  made  more  rare  and  men  be  elect- 
ed for  longer  terms.  It  is  advocated  that  fewer 
offices  should  be  made  elective,  and  that  more 
should  be  by  appointment,  and,  above  all,  by 
civil  service  (g.v.).  It  is  proposed  by  not  a  few 
to  limit  the  suffrage  under  one  form  or  another. 
It  is  said  that  national  and  municipal  elections 
should  be  put  on  different  days.  It  is  increas- 
ingly felt  that  the  methods  of  controlling  the  pri- 
maries should  be  changed  by  law.  Many  ways 
of  attempting  to  control  primaries  have  been 
proposed.  Most  of  the  States  have  laws  on  the 
subject,  but  none  are  effective.  The  best  are 
those  of  Kentucky  and  Missouri.  In  1879-80 
Kentucky  passed  a  law  calling  for  direct  nomi- 
nations at  the  primaries  without  a  delegate  con- 
vention. This  simplifies  machinery,  but  has 
not  reformed  it. 

The  Missouri  law — applicable  to  St.  Louis — 
provides  for  holding  primaries  under  the  super- 
vision of  the  regular  ejection  machinery,  with 
regular  judges  and  clerks  under  the  law  of  the 
State.  But  the  law  is  not  mandatory,  and  as 
the  expenses  are  to  be  met  by  the  parties  hold- 
ing the  caucus,  parties  are  not  anxious  to  be  at 
.an  expense  to  secure  their  own  reform.  A  bill 
has  been  proposed  in  Illinois  compelling  cau- 
cuses to  be  held  under  State  control.  For  a  re- 
view of  these  and  other  proposals,  see  an  article 
l>y  Edward  Insley  in  the  Arena  for  June,  1897. 
Others  believe  that  the  primaries  can  only  be 
reformed  by  requiring  the  use  in  them  of  the 
secret  ballot. 

Radicals,  however,  usually  argue  that  none  of 
these  proposals  really  go  to  the  bottom  of  the 
question.  If  elections  were  less  frequent  and 
terms  of  office  longer,  the  machine  would  still 
rule,  and  having  got  its  men  into  office,  could 
better  entrench  themselves  in  their  long  stay. 
Making  offices,  too,  subject  to  appointment  in- 
stead of  election  can  do  little  good  if  those  who 
make  the  appointments  can  be  dishonestly  elect- 
ed Limiting  the  suffrage  will  do  little  good. 
It  is  the  rich  and  educated  who  buy  votes  who 
are  at  least  as  dangerous  as  the  poor  who  sell 
their  votes.  (See  PLUTOCRACY  ;  DEMOCRACY.) 
The  separation  of  national  and  municipal  pol- 
itics can  avail  nothing  if  a  machine  rules  both. 
The  primaries  undoubtedly  should  be  con- 
trolled, but  even  were  nominations  as  well 
as  elections  by  secret  ballot,  interested  pro- 
fessional politicians  could  always  defeat  unin- 
terested desultory  secret  voting.  The  one  way 
to  secure  electoral  reform,  says  the  radical,  is  to 
interest  the  average  voter,  and  the  one  way  to 
interest  the  voter  is  to  give  him  a  program  that 
appeals  at  once  to  his  loyalty  and  his  inter- 
ests. 

The  respectable  and  wealthy  "reformers" 
who  are  trying  to  reform  American  politics  do 
not  succeed  because  they  are  investors  them- 
selves in  the  various  gas  companies,  car  com- 
panies, etc. ,  that  rule  our  cities  and  debauch  our 
politics.  Expand  the  function  of  the  city,  raise 
its  ideal,  and  it  shall  lead  to  purer  politics. 
Such  is  the  radical  view.  (See  CITY  ;  CORRUP- 
TION.) 

GREAT  BRITAIN. 

The  conduct  and  conditions  of  elections  in 
Great  Britain  are  quite  different  from  those  in 


the  United  States.  The  qualifications  for  the 
franchise  are  more  complicated  in  Great  Brit- 
ain, but  the  elections  are  less  frequent  and  for 
a  smaller  number  of  offices,  so  that  they  do  not 
give  the  same  opportunity  to  professional  politi- 
cians, while  the  very  strict  Corrupt  Practices  Act 
(g.v  )  makes  illegitimate  campaigns  too  dan- 
gerous to  be  profitable.  Again,  the  fact  that 
parliamentary  elections  do  not  come  at  stated 
times,  and  that  the  methods  of  nominating  can- 
didates are  very  simple,  give  comparatively  little 
opportunity  for  the  development  of  a  machine, 
tho  there  are  some  indications  that  the  multiply- 
ing of  officers  to  be  elected  is  developing  more  of 
a  machine. 

Qualifications  for  the  suffrage  differ  in  Eng- 
land and  Scotland,  etc.,  and  differ  for  parlia- 
mentary, municipal,  and  school  board  elections. 
In  Scotland  rates  are  levied  on  all 
householders,  and  for  the  parlia- 
mentary elections  all  men  who  have  The 
paid  their  rates  or  lodgers  who  oc-  Suffrage. 
cupy  quarters  worth  £10  a  year,  or 
all  occupiers  of  non-residence  prop- 
erty worth  £10  a  year,  or  owners  of  town  proper- 
ty worth  £10  a  year,  provided  the  men  live  within 
seven  miles  of  the  town,  can  vote.  This  allows 
some  to  have  more  than  one  vote  and  disenfran- 
'  chises  very  many  of  the  poorer  householders, 
who  dodge  their  rate  and  lose  their  vote.  It  is 
really  a  rate-payer's  enfranchisement.  Says  Al- 
bert Shaw  (Municipal  Government  in  Great 
Britain,  p.  42) :  "  The  whole  body  of  men,  who 
are  ignorant,  vicious,  and  irresponsible,  is  prac- 
tically outside  the  pale  of  politics  in  Glasgow  and 
Edinburgh ,  Dundee  and  Aberdeen. ' '  The  muni- 
cipal franchise  is  the  same,  except  that  women 
who  are  occupiers  or  rate-payers  may  vote,  and 
that  no  man  may  vote  in  more  than  one  ward. 
The  school  board  franchise  is  practically  the 
broadest  of  all,  because  it  is  not  dependent  on 
the  payment  of  rates,  and  because  the  ownership 
or  occupancy  of  property  worth  ^4  a  year  is  the 
limit,  and  not  ^10,  as  above.  In  1891  the  Glas- 
gow parliamentary  voting  list  numbered  78,738 
names  ;  the  municipal  list  added  the  names  of 
15,448  women  ;  the  school  board  list  numbered 
141,152. 

In  England,  the  legal  qualifications  are  prac- 
tically the  same,  but  they  work  differently,  be- 
cause while  in  Scotland  the  rates  are  collected 
directly  and  separately  from  owners  and  oc- 
cupiers, in  England  the  rates  for  the  tenements 
of  less  value  are  collected  from  the  landlords  at  a 
30  per  cent,  discount,  the  landlord  charging  it 
to  his  tenant.  There  is,  therefore,  for  the  poorer 
tenants  less  chance  of  dodging  the  rates,  and  so 
they  more  frequently  vote.  In  Birmingham, 
for  95,500  inhabited  houses,  Mr.  Shaw  finds 
81,100  parliamentary  voters.  This  system  of 
rate-paying  largely  disenfranchises  the  unmar- 
ried men.  In  the  parliamentary  borough  of  Bir- 
mingham, out  of  a  registration  of  72,000,  there 
were  only  400  lodgers  on  the  list.  The  list  of 
voters  being  drawn  from  the  rate-payers'  list, 
very  many  lose  their  franchise  because  they 
have  moved  since  the  list  was  made,  especially 
when  the  election  comes  late  in  the  year.  A 
late  election  is  said  to  favor  the  Conservative 
Party. 

Such  limitations  on  the  franchise  as  this  make 


Elections. 


545 


Elections. 


elections  in  Great  Britain  very  different  from 
those  in  America.  The  fact,  too,  that  elections 
do  not  all  come  at  the  same  time  attracts  gen- 
eral attention  to  each  separate  election,  and 
makes  dishonesty  more  difficult,  while  extend- 
ing the  interest  of  all  classes.  The  English  sys- 
tem of  "  heckling,"  or  of  having  the  candidate 
appear  before  his  constituents  with  any  one  free 
to  question  him,  is  often  only  a  farce,  but  some 
consider  that  it  interests  and  educates  the  sepa- 
rate voters.  The  main  reason,  however,  for 
purer  elections  is  the  important  Corrupt  Prac- 
tices Act  (<?.v.),  which  limits  the  amount  of  cam- 
paign expenses  that  may  be  incurred,  and  com- 
pels the  candidate  to  have  his  expenditures  all 
go  through  the  hands  of  one  man,  who  must 
make  a  rigid  report,  to  be  scrutinized  by  mem- 
bers of  the  other  party.  This  and  the  ease  of 
nominations,  with  the  irregularity  and  compara- 
tive infrequency  of  elections,  presents  the  devel- 
opment of  the  party  machine  system. 

Mr.  Albert  Shaw  (idem,  p.  47)  thus  describes 
the  nominating  and  polling  machinery  after  the 
election  writs  have  been  made  out : 

' '  The  names  of  candidates  must  be  left  at  the 
clerk's  office,  inscribed  upon  official  blanks,  a 
week  before  the  election.  Accompanying  each 
name  must  be  the  signature  of  a 
'  proposer,'  a  '  seconder,'  and  eight 
Nominations,  other  citizens.  Only  such  persons 
as  have  been  nominated  in  this  way 
may  be  voted  for.  Nominations 
being  all  in,  the  list  is  at  once  printed  and  con- 
spicuously bulletined.  The  announcement  con- 
tains the  full  names,  residences  (street  and  num- 
ber), and  occupations  of  the  nominees,  and  the 
names  of  the  proposer  and  seconder  in  each 
case.  If  only  one  nomination  has  been  made 
in  any  ward,  the  nomination  is  itself  the  elec- 
tion, and  the  polls  will  not  be  opened  in  that 
ward. 

This  is  a  good  and  sensible  system  upon 
its  face  ;  bat  experience  alone  can  tell  us  how 
any  piece  of  political  machinery  will  actually 
work.  Ought  this  system  to  be  productive  of 
many  nominations,  or  of  few  ?  The  most  natu- 
ral inference  would  seem  to  be  that  its  adoption 
would  increase  the  number  of  candidates,  since 
any- ten  men  may  secure  for  an  eleventh  man, 
without  expense,  the  official  announcement  of 
candidacy,  and  the  placing  of  the  candidate's 
name  upon  the  ballot  papers. 

"But  this  inference  is  not  justified  by  the 
facts.  In  recent  municipal  elections,  altho  party 
issues  have  been  introduced  to  a  quite  unprece- 
dented extent  and  the  number  of  ward  contests 
has  been  materially  increased  by  the  unwonted 
employment  of  the  occasion  for  a  testing  of 
strength  on  the  Home  Rule  question,  it  is  never- 
theless true  that  contests  have  been  confined  to 
a  minority  of  the  wards,  taking  all  the  towns 
together.  This  must  seem  to  the  American  ob- 
server a  remarkable  state  of  thmgs.  It  means 
that,  in  a  majority  of  the  wards,  public  opinion 
had  in  advance  agreed  so  decisively  upon  a  par- 
ticular man  that  nobody  was  nominated  against 
him,  and  the  entire  expense  and  distraction  of 
a  contest  at  the  polls  was  thus  obviated.  Closer 
inquiry  will  reveal  the  fact  that  by  far  the 
greater  number  of  these  cases  have  to  do  with 
the  reelection  of  men  already  in  the  council. 

35 


There  is  every  year  a  considerable  list  of  towns 
which,  in  spite  of  the  exceptionally  acute  condi- 
tion of  party  feeling  throughout  the  country, 
renew  one  third  of  their  councilors  without  a 
single  ward  contest,  all  the  new  members  ob? 
taining  their  seats  by  virtue  of  unopposed  norni? 
nations.  There  were  not  less  than  50  such  for- 
tunate towns  in  November,  1893.  These  are 
not  often  the  large  towns.  .  .  . 

"The  preliminary  selection  of  party  candi- 
dates usually  rests  with  ward  committees,  candi- 
dature being  accepted  and  ratified  by  the  voters 
in  open  ward  meetings,  where  municipal  ques- 
tions are  discussed.  The  American  primary 
election  or  party  caucus  system  is  quite  un- 
known, and  in  ordinary  cases  the  distinctions  of 
party  are  not  strenuously  emphasized.  The 
councilor  from  a  decidedly  Liberal  ward  is  likely 
to  be  a  Liberal ;  but  he  is  in  most  cases  as  en- 
tirely acceptable,  so  far  as  municipal  matters 
are  concerned,  to  the  Conservatives  as  to  the 
Liberals,  and  he  will  never  in  any  case  be  op- 
posed by  a  nominee  of  the  other  party  who  is 
brought  forward  for  the  sole  purpose  of  main- 
taining party  organization  in  the  ward.  An 
Englishman  is  not  often  willing  to  be  put  up  for 
a  place  merely  to  be  sacrificed.  The  extension 
of  the  franchise  is  resulting  in  more  elaborate 
and  more  democratic  forms  of  party  organiza- 
tion in  England  ;  and  it  is  not  unlikely  that  the 
future  may  see  party  lines  more  closely  drawn 
in  municipal  elections  than  they  have  been  up 
to  the  present  time — a  prospect  not  by  any 
means  welcome. 

"  Meanwhile,  however,  the  freedom  of  nomi- 
nation is  a  great  safeguard.  So  long  as  ten  citi- 
zens of  a  ward  can  place  a  candidate  on  the  offi- 
cial voting  paper,  there  is  no  great  danger  from 
party  machinery. ' ' 

The  method  of  balloting  need  not  be  described 
here.  It  is  secret  balloting.  (See  AUSTRALIAN 
BALLOT  SYSTEM.) 


The  French  electoral  system  is  quite  different 
from  either  that  of  the  United  States  or  Great 
Britain.     Here,  again,  we  do  not  have  the  ap- 
pearance of  the  party  machine,  as  in  the  United 
States,  tho  the  Government  often  plays  an  un- 
fortunate part  through  its  use  of  secret  service 
money  in  aiding  candidates  favorable  to  the  ad- 
ministration.    There  is  not  much  direct  bribery, 
on  account  of  the  strictness  of  the  law  ;  but  the 
candidate  who  can  spend  for  campaign  posters, 
meetings,  or  sometimes  for  bodies  of  supporters, 
who  will  keep  his  meetings  in  order  and  disturb 
or  break  up  the  meetings  of  his  rival,  has  an 
undue  advantage.     One  reason,  perhaps,  that 
the  party  machine  has  not  developed  is  that  the 
French  governments  have  been  so  unstable  and 
parties  broken  into  so  many  groups  that  there 
has  been  small  chance  for  strong  parties  to  de- 
velop.    A  more   effectual  reason, 
however,  is  the  use  of  the  second 
ballot.    According  to  the  law,  there       Second 
is  no  election  unless  some  candidate      Ballot, 
has  secured  at  least  one  quarter  of 
the  registered  voters,  or  at  least  a 
half  plus  one  of  the  votes  cast.     If  no  candidate 
has  received  this  another  polling  must  be  held 


Elections. 


546 


Electricity. 


a  fortnight  later,  when  a  simple  majority  of  the 
ballots  cast  suffice  for  a  choice.  The  result  of 
this  is  that  on  the  first  election  day  votes  may 
be  scattered  among  different  candidates  with- 
out risk,  for  they  all  tell  against  the  common 
enemy,  and  on  the  second  election  they  can  all 
be  rallied  for  that  candidate  of  a  party  who  has 
received  the  highest  vote.  The  first  ballot  thus 
serves  as  a  democratic  way  of  nominating  can- 
didates, with  little  need  of  conventions,  cam- 
paign committees,  etc.  Elections  were  former- 
ly by  the  scrutin  de  liste,  or  the  voting  for  all 
the  deputies  allotted  to  a  department  by  all  in 
the  department.  Now,  however,  some  elections 
are  universal,  or  the  election  of  one  candidate 
by  each  district. 

References :  See  the  books  quoted,  in  this  article. 

ELECTORAL     COLLEGE,   THE.— The 

Constitution  of  the  United  States  (see  PRESI- 
DENT) calls  for  the  election  of  the  President  by 
electors  chosen  by  the  people  of  each  State. 
This  body  of  electors  is  called  the  Electoral  Col- 
lege. Each  State  chooses  a  number  of  Presi- 
dential electors  equal  to  the  number  of  its  rep- 
resentatives in  both  Houses  of  Congress.  These 
electors  meet  in  each  State  on  a  day  fixed  by 
law  and  give  their  votes  in  writing  for  President 
and  Vice- President.  The  votes  are  transmitted, 
sealed,  to  the  Capitol,  and  there  opened  by  the 
President  of  the  Senate  in  the  presence  of  both 
Houses  and  counted.  The  electors  cannot  be 
members  of  Congress  nor  holders  of  any  fed- 
eral office. 

The  aim  of  this  law  was  to  secure  the  election 
of  the  President  in  a  quiet,  deliberate  way  by 
trusted  representatives  of  the  people.  It  was 
feared  that  the  masses  might  not  elect  the  best 


men  if  left  wholly  to  themselves,  and  that  pop- 
ular direct  elections  might  lead  to  disturbances. 
It  was  thought,  too,  that  as  the  electors'  votes 
are  counted  promiscuously,  and  not  by  States, 
each  elector's  voice  would  have  its  weight. 
He  might  be  in  a  minority  in  his  own  State, 
but  his  vote  would,  nevertheless,  tell,  because  it 
would  be  added  to  those  given  by  electors  in 
other  States  for  the  same  candidate. 

No  part  of  their  scheme  seems  to  have  been 
regarded  by  the  constitution-makers  of  1787 
with  more  complacency  than  this,  altho  no  part 
had  caused  them  so  much  perplexity.  No  part 
has  so  utterly  belied  their  expectations.  The 
Presidential  electors  have  become  a  mere  cog- 
wheel in  the  machine.  They  have  no  discre- 
tion, but  are  chosen  under  a  pledge  to  vote  for 
certain  men — a  pledge  of  honor  merely,  but  a 
pledge  which  has  never  (since  1796)  been  vio- 
lated. The  plan,  too,  has  done  positive  harm. 
It  has  made  the  election  virtually  an  election 
by  States,  for  the  present  system  of  choosing 
electors  by  "  general  ticket"  over  the  whole 
State  causes  the  whole  weight  of  a  State  to  be 
thrown  into  the  scale  of  one  candidate  and  party. 
Hence  in  a  Presidential  election  the  struggle 
concentrates  itself  in  the  doubtful  States,  where 
the  parties  are  nearly  equally  divided,  and  is 
languid  in  States  where  a  distinct  majority 
either  way  may  be  anticipated,  because,  since  it 
makes  no  difference  whether  a  minority  be  large 
or  small,  it  is  not  worth  while  to  struggle  hard 
to  increase  a  minority  which  cannot  be  turned 
into  a  majority.  Hence  also  a  man  may  be,  and 
has  been,  elected  President  by  a  minority  of 
popular  votes.  (See  PRESIDENT.) 

The  following  is  the  electoral  vote  of  the 
States  as  based  upon  the  Apportionment  Act  of 
February  7,  1891  : 


STATES. 

Electoral 
Votes. 

STATES. 

Electoral 
Votes. 

STATES. 

Electoral 
Votes. 

ii 
8 
9 

6 
3 
4 
*3 
3 
24 
15 
13 

10 

13 

8 
6 

8 
'5 
14 
9 
9 
i? 

3 
4 

10 

36 
ii 
3 
23 
4 

Pennsylvania  

32 

4 
9 
4 

12 
IS 

3 
4 

12 

6 

12 

3 
447 

Rhode  Island  

South  Carolina  

Minnesota  

South  Dakota  

Tennessee  

Texas  

Florida        

Utah  (now  admitted)  
Vermont  

Nebraska  

Virginia  

Washington  

Indiana  

New  Jersey  
New  York  

West  Virginia  

Wisconsin  

Wyoming  

Total  

Ohio      

Maine  .  ...        

Oregon  

Electoral  votes  necessary  to  a  choice. 


ELECTRICITY. — It  is  a  common  thought 
that  we  are  passing  out  of  the  age  of  steam  into 
the  age  of  electricity.  Not  a  few  believe  that 
this  will  change  the  whole  industrial  situation. 
Some  believe  that  it  will  make  unnecessary  the 
great  factory  with  its  attendant  evils,  etc.  Says 
David  A.  Wells  {Recent  Economic  Changes, 
p.  400) : 

"  Dr.  Werner  Siemens,  the  celebrated  German  scien- 
tist and  inventor,  in  a  recent  address  at  Berlin  on 


Science  and  the  Labor  Question,  claimed  that  the 
necessity  for  extensive  factories  and  workshops— in- 
volving large  capital  and  an  almost  '  slavish '  discipline 
for  labor — to  secure  the  maximum  cheapness  in  pro- 
dv 
fee 


turn  to  the  system  (now  almost  extinct)  of  independent, 
self-sustaining  domiciliary  labor '  by  the  introduction 
of  cheap,  compact,  easily  set  up  and  operated  labor- 
saving  machinery  into  the  smaller  workshops  and  the 
homes  of  the  working  men.  Should  the  difficulties  now 
attendant  upon  the  transmission  of  electricity  from 


Electricity. 


547 


Electricity. 


points  where  it  can  be  cheaply  generated,  and  its  safe 
and  effective  subdivision  and  distribution  as  a  motive 
force,  be  overcome  (as  it  not  improbable  they  ulti- 
mately will  be),  thus  doing  away  with  the  necessity  of 
multiplying  expensive  and  cumbersome  machinery — 
steam-engines,  boilers,  dams,  reservoirs,  and  water- 
wheels— for  the  local  generation  and  application  of 
mechanical  power,  there  can  be  no  doubt  that  most 
radical  changes  in  the  use  of  power  for  manufactur- 
ing purposes  will  speedily  follow,  and  that  the  antici- 
pations of  Dr.  Siemens,  as  to  the  change  in  the  rela- 
tions of  machinery  to  its  operatives,  may  at  no  dis- 
tant day  be  realized." 

This  is  not,  however,  so  sure.  It  is  more  than 
the  use  of  steam  or  water  power  that  produces 
the  large  factory.  (See  DIVISION  OF  LABOR.) 
When  one  realizes  the  large  plants  that  elec- 
tricity has  already  of  itself  necessitated,  and  the 
reappearance  in  electric  works  of  most  of  the 
old  industrial  problems,  one  cannot  be  so  san- 
guine of  electricity's  solving  the  factory  ques- 
tion. Electricity,  however,  may  lead  to  healthier 
and  more  roomy  factories,  with  its  easily  trans- 
mitted power. 

Another  way  in  which  electricity  may  affect 
society  is  by  rendering  possible  cooperative 
housekeeping.  When  the  telephone  can  enter 
every  home  and  electric  motors  can  be  in  every 
house,  many  domestic  operations,  like  sewing, 
etc.,  can  be  managed  by  electricity,  and  meals 
can  be  ordered  at  cooperative  ovens  by  telephonic 
order.  It  is  in  such  ways  that  many  believe 
that  our  "  domestic  problem"  is  to  be  largely 
worked  out.  In  any  case,  it  cannot  be  doubted 
that  electricity  will  immensely  affect,  as  it  has 
already  very  far  affected,  the  social  problem. 
When  one  realizes  how  far  the  weather  signal 
service  has  affected  and  may  affect  agriculture 
and  navigation,  how  commerce  to-day  is  de- 
pendent upon  the  telegraph,  one  can  see  how 
wide  already  are  its  results.  It  has  well-nigh 
displaced  the  horse-car.  In  lighting  it  is  still 
more  operative,  rendering  possible  many  in- 
dustrial operations  otherwise  impossible.  Yet 
the  applications  of  electricity  are  still  in  their 
infancy.  Says  Charles  D.  Lanier  in  the  Re- 
view of  Re-views  (July,  1893),  in  an  article  on 
Edison  (p.  50) : 

"Those  who  are  greatest  in  the  march  of  mechan- 
ical progress  confidently  predict  that  future  discoveries 
will  be  as  incredible  to  us  as  the  present  science  would 
be  to  our  forbears  of  two  centuries  back.  One  single 
further  secret  won  from  nature  will  open  a  practically 
limitless  field  for  electrical  introduction,  and  will 
probably  be  more  decided  in  its  quantitative  results, 
as  the  technicians  say,  than  any  invention  the  world 
has  seen.  It  is  the  direct  production  of 
electricity  from  oxygen  and  coal  (car- 
bon). At  present  we  burn  coal  to  ob- 
tain steam,  which  is  transmuted  into 
mechanical  energy  and  thence  into  elec- 
tricity. Before  the  energy  of  the  coal 
reaches  the  dynamo,  six  sevenths  of  its 
power  are  lost,  even  under  the  very  best 
conditions,  and  afterward  one  tenth  of  the  remainder. 
Find  a  way  to  dispense  with  the  steam  engine  in  this 
making  of  electricity,  and  we  have  multiplied  several 
times  the  available  mechanical  energy  of  the  world. 
Thousands  of  the  brightest  and  most  earnest  engineers 
and  chemists  are  now  striving,  generally  in  secret,  to 
obtain  this  gigantic  result— beside  which  the  philoso- 
pher's stone  was  but  a  bauble.  Edison  has  worked  on 
it,  and  confidently  predicts  that  the  discovery  will 
come. 

"  When  we  shall  have  made  this  eternal  saving  in  our 
fuel  supply,  the  Atlantic  steamships  will  need  only  a 
snug  little  coal  bin  for  250  tons  of  coal  instead  of  one 
for  2500  tons.  There  will  be  no  more  forced  draughts, 
and  grimy,  consumptive  stokers,  and  the  five-day 
record  will  be  an  uninteresting  reminiscence.  The 
great  English  shipbuilders  can  already  construct  a 


Future  of 
Electric 
Power. 


vessel  to  go  40  knots  an  hour,  if  only  she  could  burn 
2000  tons  of  coal  a  day  ;  then  she  will  only  have  t&  burn 
200.  Then  it  will  take  only  one  twentieth  of  an  ounce 
of  coal  to  carry  a  ton  one  mile  !  .  .  . 

"  I  asked  Mr.  Edison  what,  in  his  opinion,  was  the 
practical  speed  limit  on  the  horizon  of  electrical  loco- 
motion, and  he  answered,  'Perhaps  150  miles  an  hour.' 
He  made  at  Menlo  Park  one  of  the  first  important  ex- 
periments in  electrical  railways,  exhibiting  one  in  1882 
that  carried  cars  40  miles  per  hour.  But  before  we 
come  to  moving  heavy  trains  by  electricity,  to  which 
there  are  serious,  though  not  insuperable  obstacles, 
he  believes  that  we  shall  shoot  our  mail  through  the 
country  by  some  electrical  device,  of  telpherage  con- 
struction possibly.  .  .  . 

"The  terrible  danger  of  collision  with  icebergs  will 
be  lessened  through  an  application  of  that  same  small 
carbon  button  which  registered  a  millionth  of  a  degree 
of  heat.  An  apparatus  has  already  been  arranged  to 
effect  this— the  nearing  bergs  announcing  their  pres- 
ence through  the  increasing  cold,  which  the  tasimeter 
records.  Collisions  and  other  dangers  of  navigation 
are  rendered  much  less  formidable,  too,  by  the  power- 
ful electric  search  lights,  equal  to  many  thousand  can- 
dle power,  that  disclose  objects  for  miles  about  in 


their  mighty  glare. 
"A hundred  \ 


years  hence  we  shall  almost  certainly 
be  flying.  The  greatest  difficulty  at  present  in  the 
way  of  that  pleasing  performance  is  the  weight  of  the 
mdtor  and  fuel  relative  to  the  power  necessary.  The 
chemical  production  of  electricity  will  sweep  away 
that  obstacle  by  making  possible  the  construction  of 
motors  weighing  but  a  small  fraction  of  the  lightest 
now  constructed,  and  by  effecting  an  even  more  de- 
cided saving  in  fuel. 

"As  one  result  of  the  flying  machine  among  the  many 
which  it  will  affect  even  revolutionary  in  character, 
a  writer  has  pointed  out  that  we  shall  probably  be 
delivered  from  the  institution  of  war,  since  such  ter- 
rible destruction  will  be  possible  with  a  corps  of  fight- 
ing aeroplanes  that  no  nation  will  dare  to  risk  it. 

"Farming  by  electricity  has  been  successfully  tried 
in  the  Southern  States,  and  it  is  not  improbable  that 
we  shall  see  the  agriculturist  of  the  future  sawing  his 
wood,  cutting  his  ensilage,  shelling  his  corn,  threshing 
his  wheat  and  running  his  creamery  with  power  from 
a  small  electric  plant  owned  in  cooperation  with  a  half 
dozen  of  his  neighbors. 

"  We  should  be  whisking  our  heavy  baggage,  too  un- 
wieldy for  the  aeroplanes,  through  the  country  by 
electricity  applied  to  some  telpherage  or  other  system. 
We  shall  be  cooking  by  electricity,  and  heating  and 
lighting  our  houses,  our  cars  and  our  ships.  We  shall 
not  only  cook  our  meals  ;  we  shall  probably  serve 
them,  too,  to  judge  from  an  experiment  made  not  long 
ago  in  Baltimore  with  much  eclat.  .  .  . 

"  If  we  hear  by  electricity — through  the  telephone — 
why,  do  these  undismayed  men  ask,  can  we  not  see  at 
a  distance  by  the  same  agency  ?  The  vibrations  of 
light  are,  to  be  sure,  many  times  more  rapid  than  those 
of  sound  ;  but  it  is  merely  a  question  or  obtaining  a 
diaphragm  which  will  respond  to  those  vibrations. 
May  we  not  look  forward  to  seeing,  from  our  easy 
arm-chair  in  New  York,  the  latest  drama  at  the 
Theatre  Francais? 

"  And  since  hearing  is  but  a  tickling  of  the  brain  by 
vibrations,  may  we  not,  if  our  apparatus  for  introduc- 
ing these  vibrations  to  the  brain-centers  gets  out  of 
order — if,  in  short  we  are  deaf — lead  the  impulses  to 
the  brain  through  the  bones  of  the  head,  by  electrical 
means?" 

To  show  how  rapidly  progress  is  being  made 
in  electrical  science  we  quote  one  paragraph 
from  an  account  in  the  World  Almanac  for 
1896  of  the  progress  in  this  science  made  in 
i895  : 

"Power  transmission  by  electricity  experienced  a 
veritable  boom  during  1895.  The  cheapest  method  of 
generating  electric  current  to-day  is  by  means  of 
water-power,  which  is  made  to  drive  water-wheels, 
these  in  turn  operating  dynamos.  Companies  are  be- 
ing organized  all  over  the  country  to  develop  the  power 
of  every  available  waterfall.  The  great  advances  made 
in  the  last  few  months  in  the  perfection  of  what 
is  known  as  the  'multiphase'  or  'polyphase'  sys- 
tem, has  rendered  it  possible  to  transmit  current  to 
places  many  miles  distant  from  the  water-power.  The 
longest  distance  over  which  current  is  transmitted  is 
30  miles,  at  Bodie,  Cal.  At  Sacramento,  Cal.,  3000  horse- 
power is  transmitted  20  miles.  During  the  year  about 


Electricity. 


548 


Electric  Lighting. 


30  plants  were  installed  to  transmit  from  100  to  10,000 
norse-power  over  distances  varying  from  one  quarter 
of  a  mile  to  15  miles.  All  these  employ  the  alternating- 
current  in  one  of  its  many  forms.  The  completion  of 
the  great  plant  of  the  Niagara  Falls  Power  Company, 
which  utilizes  the  immense  power  of  Niagara  Falls 
for  the  generation  of  current,  was  fittingly  celebrated 
early  in  the  year.  The  ultimate  capacity  of  this  plant 
as  now  built  is  100,000  horse-power.  The  Company  is 
already  supplying  over  10,000  horse- power  to  manu- 
facturing plants  which  have  been  established  at  the 
Falls,  and  it  is  expected  that  Buffalo,  and  perhaps  even 
New  York  City,  may  receive  electricity  from  the  same 
source." 

Thus  realizing  the  immense  part  that  elec- 
tricity has  to  play  in  the  future,  it  becomes  of 
infinite  moment  to  ask  who  shall  own  these  im- 
portant powers.  Is  electrical  invention  to  add 
but  another  instance  of  the  truth  of  John  Stuart 
Mill's  assertion  (Political  Economy,  Book  IV., 
chap,  vi.)  that  "  hitherto  it  is  questionable  if  all 
the  mechanical  inventions  yet  made  have  light- 
ened the  day's  toil  of  any  human  being"  ?  Is 
the  motor  man  on  an  electric  car  better  off 
than  the  driver  of  a  horse  car  ?  He  has  more 
responsibility  and  care.  Is  he  at  all  proportion- 
ally better  remunerated?  It  is  worth  noting 
that  there  have  developed  in  the  United  States 
electric  trusts  and  combinations  with  vast  capi- 
tals and  extended  monopolies. 

ELECTRIC  LIGHTING,  MUNICIPALI- 
ZATION  OF. — (For  the  general  principles  in- 
volved, see  NATURAL  MONOPOLIES  ;  MUNICIPAL- 
ISM  ;  SOCIALISM.)  We  present  in  this  article  a 
study  of  the  'facts  from  standpoints  favorable 
and  unfavorable  to  municipalization.  From  the 
favorable  standpoint  we  quote  some  tables  and 
portions  of  an  article  by  Robert  J.  Finley  in 
the  Review  of  Reviews  for  February,  1893. 
Says  Mr.  Finley  : 

"Altho  it  has  been  less  than  six  years  since  the 
field  of  electric  lighting  was  first  entered  by  the  mu- 
nicipality, more  than  125  cities  in  the  United  States 
now  own  and  operate  plants.  The  movement  has  not 
been  a  local  one.  It  has  extended  across  the  country 
from  Bangor,  Me.,  to  Galveston,  Tex.  So  far  this 
movement  has  been  confined  chiefly  to  the  smaller 
cities,  but  the  larger  cities  are  beginning  to  discover 
that  the  element  of  size  is  not  necessarily  a  bar  to  their 
entrance  upon  the  same  course.  .  .  . 

"  The  number  of  cities  owning  electric  lighting  works 
would  be  even  greater  than  at  present  were  it  not  that 
in  many  States  municipal  corporations  are  prohibited 
by  constitutional  provisions  from  incurring  debt  be- 
yond a  small  per  cent,  of  the  taxable  basis  of  the  com- 
munity. Inability  to  issue  bonds  prevented  Milwaukee 
in  1889  from  establishing  a  city  plant.  Almost  invari- 
ably when  cities  thus  restricted  in  their  debt-creating 
power  have  applied  to  the  legislature  for  privilege  to 
borrow  money  with  which  to  construct  works,  repre- 
sentatives of  private  corporations  have  been  on  hand 
to  oppose  and,  if  possible,  to  defeat  the  bills.  .  .  . 

"  The  statistics  and  information  relating  to  munici- 
pal ownership,  given  in  this  article,  have  been  obtained 
by  direct  inquiry  and  are  based  upon  official  and  au- 
thoritative statements  coming  from  the 
various  cities  owning  electric-lighting 
Cost  of  Mil-  plants.    They  are  taken  as  the  result  of 
Ttioinal  •Via*    many  facts  secured— as  to  cost  and  full 
.     P.    ,    .       capacity  of  city  plant,  value  of  property 
trie  Llgntmg.occupied,    number    and    candle-power 
of    arc    lights,    and    number    of    lights 
burned,  and  cost  of  each  to  the  city. 
Of  7£  cities  from  which  data  were  gathered  only  23 
furnish  facts  from  which  the   cost  of   operation  and 
the  value  of  the    plants    and    buildings    can  be  de- 
termined, and  for  these  it  has  been  found  necessary, 
for  purposes  of  completeness  and  accuracy,  to  tabulate 
the  operations  of  the  plants  for  the  fiscal  year  1889-90. 
The  returns  for  the  succeeding  years  show,  so  far  as 
they  are  conclusive,  that  the  cities  have  been  able  to 
reduce  the  cost  much    below   the  average  given  in 
Table  I. 


"  From  this  table  it  is  seen  that  the  average  cost  of 
each  arc  light  owned  and  directly  operated  by  25 
cities  is  $53.04  a  year.  In  the  case  of  only  three  or 
four  of  the  cities  does  it  appear  that  interest  on  the 
investment  has  been  included.  Obviously,  account 
should  be  taken  of  both  interest  and  depreciation  of 
property,  which  items,  computed  at  12  per  cent,  of 
the  total  value  of  the  23  plants  and  buildings,  would 
add  $33.60  to  the  first  cost,  making  the  average  final 
cost  to  the  23  cities  operating  electric  lighting  plants 
$86.64  per  arc  light  per  year. 

"  There  is  one  important  factor  that  has  not  been 
considered  in  this  cost — namely,  the  profits  which 
many  of  the  cities  receive  from  light  supplied  to  pri- 
vate and  commercial  houses.  Staunton,  Va.,  for  in- 
stance, in  addition  to  lighting  its  streets,  derives  a 
revenue  from  this  source  almost  equal  to  the  cost  of 
operating  its  plant.  Hannibal,  Mo.,  draws  an  income 
of  $4000  a  year  from  rented  lamps,  and  Chariton,  la.,  it 
is  said,  earns  $15,000  a  year  in  the  same  way.  Eighty 
dollars  per  light  per  year  will  be  found  to  be  much 
nearer  the  real  cost  of  municipal  electric  lighting  in 
the  United  States,  if  the  receipts  from  commercial 
lamps  are  deducted. 

"  Table  II.  gives  the  contract  prices  paid  by  29  cities 
to  private  electric  lighting  companies  during  the  same 
period  covered  by  Table  I.  It  is  compiled  from  a  Gov- 
ernment report  on  gas  and  electric  lighting,  published 
as  Senate  Miscellaneous  Document,  no,  56,  Fifty-first 
Congress,  Second  Session,  and  the  aim  in  its  preparation 
has  been  to  select  from  the  parts  of  the  country  in 
which  the  23  municipal  works  are  situated  private 
plants  having  the  same  arc  light  capacity.  For  in- 
stance, Peoria,  111.,  with  a  capacity  of  233  arc  lights,  is  set 
over  against  Bloomington,  111.,  with  240  arcs.  Twenty- 
nine  cities  rather  than  23  have  been  taken,  for  the  rea- 
son that  in  six  of  the  cities  most  nearly  fulfilling  the 
conditions  upon  which  the  selections  were  based,  the 
cost  appears  to  be  abnormally  high.  The  average 
yearly  price  charged  for  each  of  the  arc  lights  by  the 
29  private  companies  is  shown  to  be  $106.01,  or  nearly 
$20  a  lamp  more  than  it  costs  the  23  cities  to  supply 
themselves  with  this  service.  This  price  is  only  $2.79 
greater  than  the  average  charged  by  all  the  private 
companies,  large  and  small,  in  the  12  States  covered  by 
the  tables,  and  cannot  be  regarded  as  due  to  excep- 
tional conditions.*  Most  of  the  contract  prices  given 
for  the  private  lamps  still  obtain,  and  therefore  the  two 
tables  fairly  represent  the  present  relative  costs  under 
municipal  and  private  control.  The  number  of  hours 
each  plant  was  operated  is  given  in  the  tables  for  the 
benefit  of  those  who  care  to  make  a  more  detailed  com- 
parison. . 

"  This  comparison  of  city  and  private  plants  of  equal 
arc  light  capacity,  and  subject  to  the  same  territorial 
conditions,  is  the  fairest  that  can  be  made,  excepting, 
perhaps,  that  between  the  cost  of  the  same  light  under 
the  two  systems.    Fortunately  even  this 
test  can  "be  applied,  as  several   of  the 
cities  now  owning  works  were   previ-    Comparison 
ously  to    assuming     control    furnished       ftf  Prippo 
\vithlightbyprivatecorporations.    Un-      "i          ^ 
til  March,  1889,  the  city  of  Elgin,   111.,      Charged. 
paid  local  companies  at  the  rate  of  $266.- 
66  per  arc  light  per  year  for  service  with 
which  it  now  supplies  itself  for  less  than  one  quarter 
of  this  sum.    Municipal  electric  lighting  costs  Lewis- 
ton,  Me.,  only  one  third,   and   Galveston,   Tex.,  one 
half  the  contract  prices  these  cities  formerly  gave  to 
private  companies.    Bangor,  Me.,  saves  $100  per  light 
by  the  change,  and  so  on.     If  the  reports  of  the  mayors 
of  various  cities  having  had  such  an  experience  are  to 
be  believed,  the  change  has,  in  every  instance,  brought 
more  efficient  service,  with  one  or  two  exceptions,  due 
to  special  and  temporary  causes. 

"  Many  of  the  municipal  electric  lighting  plants  are  ' 
operated  in  connection  with  municipal  water  works, 
and  this  is  one  of  the  chief  reasons  why  cities  furnish 
themselves  with  light  more  cheaply  than  private  com- 
panies perform  this  service.  By  uniting  these  two 
services  the  running  expenses  of  the  plant  are  made 
comparatively  light.  One  building  often  suffices  for 
both  water  and  lighting  plants,  and  the  same  power  is 
utilized.  Several  cities  have  found  it  necessary  to  add 
only  two  or  three  employees  to  the  water  works 
force. 

"Then,  too,  the  municipal  plant  is  not  operated  for 
profit,  while  the  prices  of  the  private  companies  are 
regulated  to  yield  a  return  on  the  investment.  Often 

*  The  list  given  in  the  Government  report  on  Gas 
and  Electric  Lighting  was  taken  as  the  basis  of  calcu- 
lation. 


Electric  Lighting. 


549 


Electric  Lighting. 


the  item  of  profits  represents  the  only  difference  be- 
tween the  cost  of  municipal  and  of  private  electric 
lighting. 

"  But  even  if  companies  could  do  the  lighting  as 
cheaply  as  municipalities,  it  is  a  doubtful  question 
whether  or  not  they  would.  Electric  lighting  is  one  of 
the  services  the  rates  of  which  are  practically  precluded 
from  the  regulating  influence  of  competition.  On  ac- 
count of  the  limited  number  of  companies  that  can 


operate  in  the  same  territory  at  one  time,  free  and 
natural  competition  is  made  impossible.  Rival  com- 
panies occupying  the  same  field  may  induce  a  tempo- 
rary lowering  of  the  price,  but  the  causes  which  render 
competition  inoperative  make  easily  possible  a  combi- 
nation of  the  one,  two  or  three  companies  ;  and  no  one 
needs  to  be  told  that  in  the  end,  if  not  at  the  time,  the 
consumer  pays  for  the  multiplication  of  engines,  dy- 
namos, lines  and  linemen. 


TABLE  I. 


CITIES  OPERATING  ELECTRIC  LIGHT- 
ING PLANTS. 

Number  of  Arc 
Lights,  2,000 
Candle-power. 

Period  of  Illumina- 
tion. 

Total  Cost  of 
Plant,  includ- 
ing Buildings. 

Cost  per  Arc 
Light  per  Year. 

Little  Rock   Ark             

in 
81 
240 
61 
80 
80 
60 
85 
184 
60 
140 

IOO 

'43 

80 
208 

| 

62 
82 

74 
60 

'75 

(  1200  candle  / 
5   ")     power.      j" 

8  hours. 
7  hours,  36  minutes. 
All  night. 
Dark  nights. 
10  hours. 
All  night. 
7  hours. 
M»on,  all  night. 
All  night. 
Moon,  all  night. 
All  night. 
Moon,  all  night. 
Moon,  all  night. 
Moon,  to  i  A.M. 
8  hours. 
Moon,  all  night. 
Dark  to  midnight. 
6  hours. 
All  dark  nights. 
7  hours. 
10  hours. 
7  hours. 

10  hours. 

$35,000 
43,000 
80,000 
21,000 
23,000 

21,000 

9,600 
25,000 
50,000 
15,000 
35.000 
15,000 
30,000 
24,000 
55.000 
23,000 
13,000 
34i5oo 
20,000 

20,000 
9,OOO 
40,000 

I7,OOO 

$54.00 
66.69 
50.00 
49.18 
43.00 
53.00 
40  oo 

58.50 
07.50 

50.00 

45.00 

54-75 
58.00 
23.60 
72.00 

35.00  (est.) 
38.00 
45.00 
87.00 

47-43 

40.00  (est.) 
87.60 

24.00 

Elgin   111           .  .                      

Molin'e   111      

Paris  111               .. 

Galion    O        

Marietta  O        

Titusville    Pa                      

Average  cost  per  light  per  year  of  arcs  operated  by  23  c: 
Interest  and  depreciation  at  12  per  cent,  total  cost  or  plant 

ties  

l53-°4 
33.60 

and  buildings  of  23  city-owned  electric 

$86.64 

TABLE  II. 


CITIES  SUPPLIED  BY  PRIVATE  COMPANIES. 

Number  of  Arc 
Lights,  2,000 
Candle-power. 

Period  of  Illumination. 

Contract  Price 
per  Arc  Light 
per  Year. 

All  night. 

$160.00 

Danville   111        .               ... 

go 

As  ordered. 

Moon,  all  night. 

Joliet   111               

All  night. 

Peoria   111         

Moon,  all  night. 

145.00 

Springfield   111             ..                 .... 

Moon,  all  night. 

Streator   111          

60 

All  night. 

S6 

All  night. 

IOO.OO 

85 

Moon,  all  night. 

100.00 

To  12  P.M. 

72.00 

Port  Scott,  Kan        ....        

Moon  schedule  to  i  A.M. 

80.00 

Moon  schedule  to  i  A.M. 

IIO.OO 

68 

9  hours. 

76.33 

Bath   Me                            

To  i  A.M. 

125.00 

Grand  Rapids,  Mich  

All  night. 

109.50 

Moon,  all  night. 

IOO.OO 

Kansas  City,  Mo  

128 

All  night. 

200.75 

Sedalia,  Mo  

Moon,  all  night. 

87.00 

Springfield,  Mo  

54 

Moon,  all  night. 

136.00 

Bellaire,  O     ..  .   .                             

Moon,  all  night. 

90.00 

Tremont,  O  

All  night. 

QO.OO 

Hillsborough,  O                                   

63 

Moon,  all  night. 

70.00 

Allentown,  Pa.                               

98 

All  dark  nights. 

IOO.OO 

Lebanon   Pa  

60 

To  12  P.M. 

80.00 

Ne  wcastle   Pa        .          

50 

All  night. 

80.  oo 

South  Bethlehem   Pa        

Moon  to  12  P.M. 

81.82 

Dallas,  Tex        

165 

All  night. 

95-85 

Houston,  Tex        ..."  

92 

All  night. 

150.00- 

5s 

All  night. 

IO2.0O 

Average  cost  per  light  per  year  of  arcs  operated  by  29  private  companies. 


$106.01 


NOTE.— All  night,  io#  hours.    Moon,  all  night,  6  hours.    Till  12  o'clock,  $%  hours. 


Electric  Lighting. 


Electric  Lighting. 


The  argument  against  municipal  lighting  is 
usually  based  on  the  corruption  of  city  govern- 
ments and  the  undesirability  of  extending  offi- 
cialism and  bureaucracy.  (For  this  general 
argument,  pro  and  con,  see  INDIVIDUALISM  ;  SO- 
CIALISM.) We  quote  here  an  article  on  Cost  Sta- 
tistics of  Public  Electric  Lighting,  by  Victor 
Rose  water  ( Publications  of  the  American  Statis- 
tical Association,  vol.  iii  )  showing  what  can  be 
said  against  statistics  which  prove  the  desirabil- 
ity of  municipal  ownership.  Mr.  Rosewater 
says  : 

"  Among  the  various  papers  published  upon  the 
subject  of  municipal  control  of  public  electric  light- 
ing the  showing  made  by  the  statistics  of  cost  is 
always  an  important  factor.  Whatever  be  the  point 
of  view  of  the  writers,  they  seem  to  present  their  own 
figures  and  yet  to  arrive  at  essentially  inconsistent  re- 
sults. What  I  propose  to  do  here,  then,  is  simply  to 
touch  upon  a  few  of  the  limitations  which  must  be 
borne  in  mind  by  any  one  who  wishes  to  give  these 
Statistics  their  due  scientific  weight. 

"  What  is  the  cost  of  an  electric  street  lamp  to  a 
city  ?  The  answer  naturally  suggesting  itself  would 
be  that  it  is  the  contract  price  paid  to  the  lighting  cor- 
poration. This  is  evidently  the  idea  that  controlled 
the  officials  of  the  Eleventh  Census  when  they  com- 
piled the  materials  for  Census  Bulletin  No.  100.  No 
extended  consideration  is  needed  to  learn  that  these 
figures  are  absolutely  without  significance.  The 
fatal  defect  lies  in  the  fact  that  they  do  not  show  the 
amount  of  lighting  service.  In  one  place  the  lamps 
may  burn  but  5  hours  nightly  for  only  20  nights  in  the 
month  ;  in  another  they  may  be  operated  all  of  every 
night.  Even  overlooking  minor  omissions,  which  will 
be  pointed  out  in  a  moment,  any  comparison  of  abso- 
lute contract  prices  is  fallacious  at  the  outset.  .  .  . 

"  Leaving  aside  the  census  bulletin,  we  may,  never- 
theless, still  find  an  authoritative  presentation  of  con- 
tract prices  of  public  electric  lighting  that  does  not 
have  its  chief  merit  in  giving  too  little  information.  I 
refer  to  a  report  of  the  Engineer  Commissioner  of  the 
District  of  Columbia. 

"  Here,  notwithstanding  the  fact  that  only  those 
cities  have  been  selected  in  which  the  lamps  burn  a 
period  popularly  known  as  'all  of  every  night,'  the 
actual  period  of  illumination  is  given  in  each  instance. 
We  also  have  data  upon  several  collateral  points.  But 
to  compare  the  cost  of  an  electric  lamp  supplied 
under  a  id-year  contract  with  that  of  one  supplied 
under  monthly  agreements  cannot  be  strictly  accurate. 

"  Again,  the  location  of  the  wires  may  be  a  factor 
influencing  the  cost  of  street  illumination  to  a  city,  in 
which  the  municipal  authorities  compel  the  franchised 
corporations  to  place  their  wires  under  ground. 
What  they  in  fact  do  is  to  compel  an  increased  capi- 
talization of  the  private  company  in  order  to  meet  the 
extraordinary  expenditure.  .  .  . 

"Analogous  to  the  distinction  just  noted  are-  the  dif- 
ferences founded  in  the  location  of  the  lamps.  These 
differences  take  on  three  distinct  forms  with  reference 
to  the  system  of  hanging,  with  reference  to  the  num- 
ber of  lamps,  and  with  reference  to  the  relative  profit- 
ableness of  the  district.  .  .  . 

"  If  we  turn  now  to  the  cost  statistics  of  electric 
lighting  under  municipal  ownership  of  the  plant,  we 
strike  a  set  of  complications  no  less  serious.  At  the 
very  beginning  of  every  such  investigation  we  find 
ourselves  in  the  chaos  of  American  municipal  book- 
keeping. When  no  two  cities  employ  the  same  system 
of  accounts,  when  in  the  same  city  the  reports  of  dif- 
ferent departments  furnish  irreconcilable  data,  the 
statistician  must  seek  to  extricate  himself  as  best  he 
can.  It  would  scarcely  be  stating  the  case  too  strong- 
ly if  we  should  say  that  out  of  the  probable  150  muni- 
cipalities owning  their  own  electric  lighting  plants  not 
5  could  present  an  intelligble  showing  of  their  opera- 
tions for  the  period  of  one  year.  The  blame  for  this 
does  not  attach  entirely  to  the  city  officials,  for  condi- 
tions exist  in  many  localities  which  render  a  clear 
financial  account  a  thing  next  to  impossibility.  .  .  . 

"  The  special  difficulties  arising  in  this  connection 
are  of  a  twofold  character — those  relating  to  the  cost 
of  the  installation,  and  those  relating  to  the  annual 
operating  expenses.  In  most  instances  the  bonded 
indebtedness  incurred  for  the  particular  purpose  does 
not  cover  the  entire  capital  outlay.  To  add  in  the 
proper  amount  of  interest  charges  requires,  then,  an 
assumed  capitalization.  Where  the  plant  is  conducted 


in  conjunction  with  other  monopolies  of  service,  with 
the  water-works,  for  example,  we  have  a  system  of 
joint  production  which  defies  a  statistical  separation 
of  expenditures.  The  same  obstacle  presents  itself  in 
relation  to  the  operating  expenses.  .  .  . 

"It  has  sometimes  been  attempted  to  compare  the 
cost  of  electric  lighting  in  the  same  city  under  con- 
tract with  private  companies  and  under  municipal 
ownership.  Figures  of  this  kind  are  valid  so  far  as 
they  go.  But  even  where  the  city  changes  from  one 
regime  to  another,  by  buying  out  the  private  corpora- 
tion or  by  constructing  its  own  plant,  we  can  never  be 
certain  that  the  conditions  remain  unchanged,  that  we 
are  comparing  similar  services.  Mr.  R.  J.  Finley  has, 
in  a  recent  magazine  article,  adopted  still  a  different 
procedure.  He  has  compiled  two  tables  representing 
the  two  systems,  each  table  showing  the  cost  of  light- 
ing in  a  number  of  cities  specially  chosen  with  refer- 
ence to  geographical  situation  and  industrial  condi- 
tions, in  order  to  counterbalance  the  one  against  the 
other.  The  plan  is  ingenious.  Sufficient  data  are 
given  to  convey  a  comprehensive  idea  of  the  situation, 
but  Mr.  Finley  also  gives  way  to  the  irresistible  im- 
pulse to  generalize  with  an  average.  His  average, 
like  the  others,  is  misleading  and  meaningless. 

"  If  this  review  of  the  cost  statistics  of  public  elec- 
tric lighting  can  serve  any  useful  purpose,  it  must  be 
to  emphasize  the  fact  that  in  such  matters  simplicity  is 
deception.  It  is  useless  to  seek  to  represent  a  compli- 
cated process  by  a  single  numerical  figure.  The  sta- 
tistics themselves  are  valuable,  but  must  be  employed 
as  bases  of  comparison  only  with  the  utmost  care,  and 
with  due  allowance  for  the  many  limitations  which 
affect  their  accuracy." 

It  will  be  seen  that  Mr.  Rosewater  does  not 
question  the  correctness  .of  Mr.  Finley's  facts 
which  we  have  given  above,  only  warning  us 
against  general  averages  and  broad  statements. 
Perhaps  the  best  means  of  arriving  at  the  truth, 
however,  is  comparing  the  experiences  of  the 
same  cities  under  private  and  municipal  opera- 
tion. Care  must  be  taken,  as  Mr.  Rosewater 
says,  in  instituting  this  and  all  comparisons  ; 
but  with  due  care  it  is  instructive.  Professor 
Frank  Parsons,  in  a  series  of  articles  in  the 
Arena  for  1895,  gives  the  following  table  as  to 
the  cost  per  lamp  before  and  after  public  owner- 
ship, the  "  after"  service  being  the  same  as  or 
better  than  the  service  it  replaced  : 


Before. 

After. 

$48 

183 

Peabody,  Mass  

185 

62 

Bay  City,  Mich  

58 

146 

Goshen,  Ind          

156 

Bloomington,  111  ,  

51 

Chicago,  111  

250 

96 

Elgin,  111                      

266 

Aurora,  111  

7° 

Fairfield,  la  

378 

7° 

Marshalltown,  la  

27 

Jacksonville,  Fla  

24 

5 

Of  this  table  he  says  : 

"The  statements  rest  upon  official  reports  and  re- 
turns of  municipal  officers.  The  figures  of  the  '  after' 
column  represent  the  cost  per  lamp  per  year  as  ascer- 
tained in  the  first  two  or  three  years  after  public  owner- 
ship began,  except  where  subsequent  years  show  a 
higher  cost  than  the  early  years,  in  which  case  the  said 
higher  yearly  cost  has  been  taken.  As  a  rule  the  cost 
in  later  years  is  less  than  the  cost  in  the  first  years  of 

Eublic  ownership  ;  for  example,  the  present  cost  per 
imp  per  year  in  Bangor  is  only  $34,  in  Lewiston,  $43, 
in  Bay  City,  $46,  etc.  The  case  of  Chicago  is  peculiar. 
The  public  plant  was  started  in  1887.  Census  bulletin 
ioo  places  the  cost  in  Chicago  at  $68  per  lamp,  but  this 
is  the  average  rate  for  all  the  electric  lamps,  rented  as 
well  as  public,  and  of  all  candle  powers.  Professor 
Ely's  Problems  of  To-day,  third  edition,  in  an  appendix 


Electric  Lighting. 


Electric  Lighting. 


written  in  1890,  puts  the  cost  in  Chicago  at  $55.  In 
1893  and  1894,  the  department  reports  make  the  cost 
$96.  ... 

"The  public-owned  Chicago  electric-light  plant 
works  under  a  great  disadvantage  from  not  being  able 
to  secure  from  the  legislature  a  permit  to  sell  commer- 
cial light.  Therefore  it  has  only  one  lamp  for  each  500 
feet  of  wire.  A  mile  of  wire  dissipates  as  much  energy 
as  a  2000  candle-power  light.  The  men  are  only  worked 
eight  hours,  are  paid  $2  a  day,  and  two  shifts  are  em- 
ployed, while  the  private  plant  works  one  shift  and 
pays  less— $35  to  $50  a  month.  The  private  company 
lights  56  lamps  for  $137  each,  in  the  district  where  wires 
have  to  be  buried,  and  by  a  new  contract  230  lamps  at 
$105  a  year  each  in  other  parts  of  the  city.  The  cost  of 
the  city-owned  lights,  nearly  all  of  which  are  in  the 
district  where  wires  have  to  be  buried,  is  about  $96,  and 
would  be  much  less  if  the  plant  could  be  fully  util- 
ized. .  .  . 

"All  the  plants  of  this  table  confine  themselves  to 
street  lighting,  except  the  Peabody  and  Jacksonville 
plants.  In  Peabody  the  superintendent  is  able  to  sep- 
arate with  satisfactory  accuracy  the  cost  of  the  street 
lamps  from  the  cost  of  commercial  lighting.  In  Jack- 
sonville, the  lamps  are  incandescent.  The  private 
company  has  been  charging  $24  a  year  for  all-night 
service.  The  public  plant,  which  has  just  been  built, 


offers  to  supply  the  same  service  at  $9,  and  the  cost  of 
operation  is  estimated  at  less  than  $5  a  year.  The  com- 
missioners have  carefully  studied  the  workings  of 
municipal  plants,  and  are  confident  of  a  good  profit  at 
the  prices  they  advertise.  The  plant  does  not  aim  to 
be  entirely  cooperative— it  is  cooperative  in  respect  to 
the  street  lamps,  but  expects  a  profit  from  commercial 
lighting.  This  expectation  of  the  commissioners  is 
fully  confirmed  by  the  tables  in  the  next  section  of 
this  report.  All  the  plants  of  the  table  except  that  of 
Jacksonville  have  been  a  considerable  time  in  opera- 
tion, and  the  figures  given  are  the  results  of  actual  ex- 
perience on  the  spot.  Most  places  that  possess  munic- 
ipal plants  did  not  have  any  electric  light  until  the  public 
plant  was  built.  If  it  had  not  been  for  this  circum- 
stance, the  table  would  be  much  longer  than  it  is." 

The  lighting  of  streets  in  many  cities  costs  the 
public  nothing,  for  the  municipally  owned  plants 
allows  them  to  sell  light  and  meet  the  expense 
of  street  lighting  from  the  profits.  Professor 
Parsons  gives  the  following  table  of  public 
plants  in  three  groups,  whose  profits  partly  meet 
the  cost,  wholly  meet  the  cost,  and  more  than 
meet  the  cost  : 


GROUP  A. 


Profit. 

St.  Clairsville,  O     

$28 

2,000  candle-power  average  9  hours  a  night. 

S  wanton,  Vt  

2,000  candle-power  all  night,  moon. 

Chehalis,  Wash  

8 

2,000  candle-power  all  night,  every  night. 

Indianola,  la  

1,200  candle-power  average  6  hours. 

Wellston,  O  

1,200  candle-power  average  6  hours. 

6% 

Madison,  N.  J  

Incandescent  30  candle-power. 

Newark,  Del  

Incandescent. 

*  Grand  Ledge  is  taken  from  Professor  Ely's  figures,  and  Chehalis  from  Director  Beitler's  report  to  the 
Philadelphia  Councils ;  the  rest  are  from  returns  made  directly  to  me. 

GROUP  B. 


Profit. 

"  Commercial  lights  pay  all  expenses"  (30  street  lamps  1,200  can-« 

Batavia,  111  

die-power  burned  all  night). 
"  Costs  nothing  —  all   expenses   paid  by  commercial  light"  (120 

Crete,  Neb  

street  arcs  all  night). 
"  Commercial  lamps  more  than  pay  expenses"  (50  street  arcs  1,200 

candle-power  till  midnight). 
"Commercial  lamps  pay  all  expenses  —  operation  and  interest." 

Middleton,  Pa.                

"500  incandescent  pay  all  expenses." 

Oxford,  O  

"  1,300  incandescent  pay  for  the  street  lamps." 

St.  Peter's,  Minn        

"  Lights  cost  nothing  —  1,000  incandescent  pay  all  expenses." 

GROUP  C. 


Profit. 

Farmville,  Va  

$340 
520 

650 
900 

Above  all  expenses,  fixed  charges,  and  operating,  and  giving  the 
city  free  25  full  arcs  averaging  6  hours  per  night. 
Above  all  operating  and  fixed  charges,  and  12  street  arcs,  free, 
of  2,000  candle-power. 
Above  all  operating  and  fixed  charges,  and  150  street  lamps  free. 
Above  all  operating  and  fixed  charges,  and  65  street  lamps  free. 
Blends  the  light  and  water  accounts.    The  report  for  the  year 
ending  March  i,  1895,  Pu*s  interest  and  operating  expenses  at 
$5,896  for  the  combined  departments.     The  income  of  the  de- 
partments, aside  from  taxes,  was  $6,052. 

Luverne,  Minn  

Falls  City  Neb  

Rockport,  Mo        

Alexandria,  Minn        

Professor  Parsons  says  : 

"  We  are  only  on  the  threshold  yet.  Our  towns  and 
cities  are  just  beginning  to  see  the  virtues  of  combin- 
ing commercial  lighting  with  their  street  work.  The 
business  is  developing  rapidly,  and  in  a  few  years  a 
city  that  levies  taxes  to  pay  for  its  street  lamps  will  be 


regarded  as  a  lingering  relic  of  an  embryonic  age.  In 
time  we  may  even  do  as  well  as  Berlin  and  Paris,  which 
make  the  city  franchises  pay  18  and  22  per  cent.,  re- 
spectively, of  all  municipal  expenditures.  I  hope  we 
shall  do  better ;  I  hope  to  see  the  day  when  public 
business  will  pay  the  whole  volume  of  public  ex- 
penses. 


Electric  Lighting. 


552 


Elmira  Reformatory. 


"  One  more  point  the  committee  must  make  in  this 
section.  The  transfer  of  business  from  private  to  pub- 
lic plants  is  a  benefit  to  consumers  as  well  as  to  those 
who  pay  taxes.  To  a  large  extent  the  two  classes  are 
one,  and  a  man  who  buys  light  for  his  store  or  his 
house,  and  helps  with  the  street-lighting  tax.  is  doubly 
benefited  by  the  public  plant,  once  by  the  diminution 
of  taxes,  and  once  by  the  cheapening  o£  commercial 
light. 

"  Braintree,  Mass.,  sells  incandescents  at  six  mills 
per  meter  hour  and  3^  to  $5  a  year.  St.  Clairsville 
sells  incandescents,  16  candle-power,  at  two-fifths  of 
a  cent  a  meter  hour,  or  40  cents  a  month.  Farmville 
charges  50  cents  a  month.  Swanton,  Vt.,  sells  incan- 
descents, 16  candle-power,  at  one  to  three  dollars  a 
year,  or  one- third  of  a  cent  an  hour  by  meter,  and  2000 
candle-power  arcs  at  $50  a  year.  In  Boston  the  citizens 
have  to  pay  50  to  90  cents  a  night,  or  $182  to  $328  a  year 
for  an  arc,  and  one  cent  per  hour  by  meter,  or  $10  a 
year,  for  an  incandescent  16  candle-power. 

"  Public  lighting  not  only  reduces  the  cost  of  street 
lamps  one  half,  two  halves,  or  even  three  halves,  but  it 
lowers  the  cost  of  commercial  light  also  about  one 
half  on  the  average,  and,  in  some  cases,  a  great  deal 
more  than  that. 

" '  How  is  it  that  public  plants  are  able  to  make  such 
tremendous  savings  ? '  Trie  reasons  are  many  ;  here 
are  some  of  them  : 

"  i.  A  public  plant  does  not  have  to  pay  dividends  on 
watered  stock. 

"2.  It  does  not  have  to  pay  dividends  even  on  the 
actual  investment. 

"3.  It  does  not  have  to  retain  lawyers  or  lobbyists,  or 
provide  for  the  entertainment  of  councilmen,  or  sub- 
scribe to  campaign  funds,  or  bear  the  expenses  of 
pushing  the  nomination  and  election  of  men  to  protect 
its  interests  or  give  it  new  privileges,  or  pay  blackmail 
to  ward  off  the  raids  of  cunning  legislators  and  offi- 
cials, or  buy  up  its  rivals,  etc. 

"4.  It  does  not  have  to  advertise  nor  solicit  business*. 

"  5.  It  is  able  to  save  a  great  deal  by  combination  with 
other  departments  of  public  service.  The  mayor  of 
Dunkirk  says  :  '  Our  city  owns  its  water  plant,  and  the 
great  saving  comes  from  the  city's  owning  and  operat- 
ing both  plants.  No  extra  labor  is  required  but  a  line- 
man. The  same  engineers,  firemen,  and  superinten- 
dent operate  both  plants,  and  the  same  boiler  power  is 
used.'  So  in  Bangor,  Marshalltown,  and  a  number  of 
other  places,  the  municipal  lighting  system  is  run  in 
connection  with  the  public  water  plant.  In  La  Sail  e  the 
fire,  water,  and  light  departments  are  consolidated.  A 
great  saving  in  the  cost  of  labor  and  superintendence 
results.  The  larger  the  cooperation  under  a  single 
skilful  management,  the  greater  the  economy  and  effi- 
ciency, other  things  being  equal.  The  plants  in  Al- 
legheny, Easton,  West  Troy,  South  Norwalk,  Peabody, 
Danvers,  and  Braintree  do  not  have  this  advantage  of 
combination. 

"6.  Public  ownership  has  no  interest  to  pay.  Even  if 
the  people  do  not  own  the  capital,  but  borrow  it,  they 
can  get  the  money  at  much  lower  rates  of  interest  than 
private  companies  have  to  pay.  Boston,  New  York, 
and  Philadelphia  can  borrow  at  3  per  cent — have  bor- 
rowed many  millions  at  that  rate.  Dunkirk  borrows 
at  the  same  rate ;  Allegheny  pays  3%  per  cent,  when 
she  borrows  ;  Easton,  West  Troy,  South  Norwalk,  Pea- 
body,  Braintree,  etc.,  4  per  cent.  Few  places  have  to 
pay  over  5  per  cent.  There  is  no  debt  on  the  Dunkirk, 
Allegheny,  or  West  Troy  plants,  but  these  are  the  rates 
those  cities  pay  when  they  borrow.  As  a  rule  private 
companies  are  obliged  to  pay  from  2  to  4  per  cent,  more 
than  the  municipality  in  which  they  are  located.  The 
Boston  Electric  Light  Company  reports  its  interest  pay- 
ments at  6  per  cent — 3  per  cent  higher  than  the  rate  at 
which  the  city  can  borrow.  The  average  interest  paid 
on  borrowed  money  by  the  private  companies  in  Massa- 
chusetts is  between  7  and  8  percent.,  while  the  average 
at  which  the  towns  and  cities  of  the  State  are  able  to 
borrow  is  between  4  and  5  per  cent. 

"It  is  not  to  be  expected  that  private  companies  will 
sell  as  cheaply  as  public  ;  with  equal  efficiency  of  man- 
agement it  costs  them  more  to  produce  light,  and  they 
must  have  interest  and  profits.  A  private  company  is 
run,  not  for  the  benefit  of  the  people,  but  for  the  profit 
of  the  owners.  It  is  perfectly  natural  for  an  electric- 
light  company  to  make  all  the  money  it  can  ;  that  is  no 
more  than  is  done  by  the  majoritv  of  businessmen  and 
corporations  in  every  line  of  trade." 

(For  references,  see  MUNICIPALISM.) 

ELLIOT,  EBENEZER,  the  Corn  Law 
Rhymer,  was  born  at  Masborough,  near  Shef- 


field, in  1781.  The  son  of  a  manufacturer  of  the 
somewhat  rough  early  type,  he  received  little 
education,  but  read  widely  and  early  wrote 
verse.  Entering  business  himself,  he  met  with 
some  success,  but  also  with  losses,  which  he  laid 
to  the  Corn  Laws.  He  developed  a  fierce  indig- 
nation against  the  law  that  had  kept  him  poor  as 
an  employer,  and  that  pressed  so  hardly  on  the 
workers  whom  he  wished  to  benefit.  In  The 
Splendid  Village,  The  Village  Patriarch, 
and,  above  all,  in  The  Ranter,  the  reader  feels 
the  depth  of  his  feeling  for  the  poor  and  his 
hatred  of  the  landlord  class.  In  the  Corn-law 
Rhymes  (1831)  the  whole  of  his  bitter  anger 
breaks  out,  and  made  the  famous  rhymes  play 
no  small  part  in  the  agitation  which  finally  abol- 
ished the  Corn  Laws.  He  died  soon  after  see- 
ing their  abolition  in  1849. 

ELLIS,  HAVELOCK.wasbornat  Croydon 
in  1859.  He  spent  some  years  of  his  early  life 
in  the  Australian  bush.  Tho  prepared  for  the 
medical  profession,  he  has  given  his  attention 
mainly  to  scientific  and  literary  studies.  He 
was  one  of  the  founders  of  the  Fabian  Society 
and  the  New  Fellowship.  He  is  general  editor 
of  the  Contemporary  Science  Series.  His  main 
writings  are  The  New  Spirit,  The  Criminal, 
Nationalization  of  Health,  and  Man  and 
Woman.  Mrs.  Ellis  (ne'e  Edith  Lees)  is  secre- 
tary of  the  New  Fellowship,  a  lecturer  on  social 
subjects,  and  author  of  A  Novitiate  for  Mar- 
riage, Democracy  in  the  Kitchen,  and  The 
Masses  and  the  Classes. 

ELMIRA  REFORMATORY,  NEW 
YORK. — The  sociological  experiments  and  re- 
sults arrived  at  in  Elmira  Reformatory,  New 
York,  are  of  such  importance  as  to  entitle  it  to 
an  article  apart  from  the  general  consideration 
of  penal  reform.  (See  PENOLOGY.) 

The  initial  official  step  taken  toward  the  estab- 
lishment of  the  Reformatory  was  the  creation 
in  1869  by  the  Legislature  of  a  Commission  "  to 
locate  a  State  penitentiary  or  industrial  reforma- 
tory in  the  Sixth  Judicial  District." 

The  first  inmates  were  received  on  July  24, 
1876,  being  transferred  from  Auburn  prison. 
Thereafter  most  of  the  work  of  construction  was 
carried  on  by  prisoners.  The  institution  did 
not  take  its  distinctive  position  in  the  prison  sys- 
tem of  the  State,  however,  until  April  24,  1877, 
when  the  bill  providing  for  the  "  indeterminate" 
sentence  was  incorporated  in  the  statutes. 

According  to  this  bill,  convicts  sent  to  Elmira 
cannot  be  sentenced  for  any  definite  term,  altho 
a  maximum  term  can  be  given.     The  length  of 
residence   of    the    convict    is    left 
wholly  to  the  decision  of  the  man- 
agement, and  this  gives  the  key  to      System, 
the  whole  institution.     On  his  ar- 
rival the  convict  is  carefully  exam- 
ined as  to  his  history,  mental  and  physical  char- 
acteristics, and  all  circumstances  of  his  case,  and 
is  then  treated  as  a  moral  patient,  built  up  into 
self-supporting  character  as  rapidly  as  possible, 
and  only  allowed  to  go  out  (unless  the  maximum 
term  intervenes)  when  in  the  opinion  of  the 
management  he  is  capable  of  self-supporting 
citizenship.     He  is,  however,  even  then  only  al- 
lowed to  go  out  for  the  first  six  months  on  parole, 


Elmira  Reformatory. 


553 


Elmira  Reformatory. 


being  kept  in  close  correspondence  with  the 
management  until  he  has  proved  himself  worthy 
of  absolute  freedom. 

Such  is,  in  brief,  the  thought  of  the  Reforma- 
tory. But  the  way  the  convicts  are  built  up  into 
character  is  by  teaching  the  convicts  to  work. 
In  1888  the  New  York  Legislature  passed  the 
Yates  Bill,  practically  prohibiting  the  industries 
then  being  carried  on  at  Elmira  by  the  convicts, 
and  absolutely  forbidding  the  application  of 
power  machinery  to  such  prison  labor  in  order 
to  prevent  its  competition  with  outside  labor.  It 
forced  the  prisoners  into  immediate  idleness, 
and  the  management  scarcely  knew  what  to  do. 
But  in  a  few  hours  the  whole  industrial  life  of 
the  institution  was  revolutionized.  Hitherto  the 
idea  had  been  to  carry  on  industries  partly  for 
the  good  of  the  convicts,  but  largely  to  pay  ex- 
penses. Now  all  thought  of  making  profit  was 
given  up  and  industrial  classes  were  commenced 
simply  for  the  good  of  the  men.  The  whole 
mass  of  convicts,  too,  for  sake  of  exercise,  were 
brought  out  and  drilled  in  military  exercise. 
The  result  of  both  measures  has  been  good  be- 
yond all  expectation.  The  military  exercise 
gives  the  convicts  a  carriage  and  bearing,  both 
mental  and  physical,  that  makes  them  wholly 
different.  To-day  they  form  a  notable  regiment 
of  men,  organized,  officered,  and  commanded  by 
those  convicts  proving  themselves  the  most 
worthy,  and  with  their  own  band,  and  all  ap- 
pointments of  a  regiment. 

The  following  account  of  the  Elmira  method 
we  abridge  from  the  Reformatory  Year  Book, 
mainly  written  and  printed  by  the  convicts  : 

All  individuals  committed  to  the  Reforma- 
tory, except  those  sentenced  by  federal  courts 
within  the  State  of  New  York,  are  brought  to 
the  institution  by  its  transfer  officer. 

The  neophyte  usually  has  an  opportunity  for 
several  hours'  calm  contemplation  before  he  is 
called  from  his  cell  for  his  first  conference  with 
the  _  General  Superintendent.  At  this  meeting 
he  is  subjected  to  a  searching  examination  of 
his  whole  history,  being  called  upon  to  furnish 
for  the  records  all  the  facts  within  his  ken  relat- 
ing to  his  parentage,  early  environment,  per- 
sonal habits,  and  present  ambitions.  The  infor- 
mation adduced  as  to  progenitors  often  has  an 
influence  in  deciding  the  trade  to  be  taught  to 
the  novice,  who  is  usually  unaccustomed  to  and 
unskilled  at  labor,  and  who  seldom  evinces  any 
choice.  The  class  of  manufacturing  mostly  car- 
ried on  in  the  vicinity  to  which  the  man  is  likely 
to  go  upon  his  release  is  also  an  important  fac- 
tor in  the  arrangement  of  trades  instruction. 
The  prisoners  are  divided  into  three  classes 
or  grades,  determined  by  the  character  of  the 
men,  their  conduct,  industry,  and  studiousness 
being  factors  in  securing  promotion  or  retro- 
gradation. 

The  grades  are  styled  the  Upper  First,  the  Lower 
First  and  the  Second.  Tyros  are  inducted  to  the  Lower 
£  irst  grade.  They  take  their  meals  in  their  rooms. 
By  maintaining  a  good  record  for  six  successive 
months  they  may  advance  to  the  Upper  First  grade 
from  which  alone  they  may  secure  release  prior  to  the 
expiration  of  the  maximum  term  for  which  they  can 
be  imprisoned.  Their  cells  are  more  commodious, 
they  are  provided  with  spring  beds,  and  they  eat  at 
tables  in  a  large  dining-room.  From  their  ranks  are 
chosen  the  officers  and  most  of  the  non-commissioned 
officers  of  the  regiment,  as  well  as  the  monitors  in  the 
shops  and  the  turnkeys  on  the  cell  blocks.  If  their 


records  continue  perfect  another  six  months  they  be- 
come candidates  for  conditional  release,  the  ultima- 
tum being  a  vote  of  confidence  by  the  Board  of  Man- 
agers and  the  securing  of  satisfactory  employment. 

The  downward  step  from  the  Lower  First  grade 
leads  to  the  Second,  or  convict,  grade.  Into  this  drop 
the  Lower  First  grade  men  whose  conduct,  school,  or 
labor  records  are  imperfect  for  two  or  three  months 
in  succession,  and  men  of  both  divisions  who  are  guilty 
of  insubordination  or  any  serious  infraction  of  rules, 
or  who  are  detected  in  the  commission  of  an  act  evi- 
dencing a  spirit  hostile  to  law  and  government.  Those 
who  are  reduced  to  this  class  forfeit  all  credit  marks 
and  may  only  secure  readmission  to  the  next  higher 
grade  to  take  a  fresh  start  for  the  parole  goal  by  earn- 
ing a  perfect  marking  for  three  successive  months. 
Those  who  fall  to  the  Second  grade  a  second  time  may 
not  emerge  from  it  for  six  months,  and  the  third 
degradation  is  not  followed  by  advancement  for  a 
year.  Its  wearers  are  quartered  in  the  smallest  cells, 
are  deprived  of  all  room  furniture  not  essential  to 
health  and  cleanliness,  have  no  sheets  on  their  beds, 
receive  no  tea  and  coffee  with  their  rations,  lose  the 
privilege  of  drawing  literature  of  any  kind  from  the 
library,  and  lose  their  right  to  receive  trades  instruc- 
tion as  such. 

The  engagements  of  each  inmate  are  intended  to 
absorb  his  thoughts  completely  during  most  of  his 
waking  moments,  and  they  are  sufficiently  varied, 
tho  systematized.  The  program  is  varied  for  in- 
dividuals. There  are  those  who  are  employed  at  pro- 
ductive labor  or  in  domestic  service.  A  majority  of 
the  trades-school  pupils  spend  a  portion 
of  two  days  a  week  in  the  drawing -class 
room.  Wednesday  and  Saturday  after-  Classes, 
noons  work  is  suspended  in  the  shops 
and  trades-class  rooms  and  the  four 
hours  are  devoted  to  drilling  and  military  ceremonies. 
There  are  evening  class  meetings  for  every  man  as 
often  as  twice  a  week,  and  for  those  most  nearly  illit- 
erate and  those  taking  special  courses  as  often  as  four 
times  a  week.  On  Sundays  there  are  classes  in  ethics. 
There  are  kindergarten  classes  for  the  underwittecl, 
classes  for  the  others  in  all  branches  of  study,  from 
elementary  subjects  to  the  higher  sciences  and  phi- 
losophy. The  elementary  classes  are  usually  taught 
by  advanced  convicts.  The  main  classes  are,  however, 
industrial.  There  are  classes  in  bricklaying  and 
plastering,  "blacksmithing,  horseshoeing,  bookbinding, 
barbering,  baking,  brass  finishing  and  molding,  boat- 
building, carpentry  and  cabinet-making,  electricity, 
fireman  s  work,  fresco-painting,  wood-finishing,  ma- 
chinery, molding,  plumbing,  printing,  pattern-mak- 
ing, photography,  stone-cutting,  stenography,  shoe- 
making,  steam -fitting,  stained-glass  setting,  tailoring, 
tinsmithing,  typewriting,  upholstering,  wood-carving, 
etc. 

"  Careful  instruction  is  given  in  every  depart- 
ment, mainly  by  the  convicts  themselves.  In 
many  workshops  containing  scores  or  even  hun- 
dreds of  workers,  convicts  are  the  only  teachers 
and  convicts  the  only  watch  on  guard.  Much 
attention  is  given  to  physical  training.  Every 
convict,  on  coming  in,  is  physically  examined, 
and  then  the  endeavor  is  made  to  develop  to- 
the  norm  that  which  is  abnormal. 

The  system  of  physical  training,  with  its  ac- 
companiment of  massage-bathing,  is  accom- 
plishing what  was  expected  of  it. 

Since  its  opening  there  has  been  confined 
within  the  Reformatory  precinct  a  limited  num- 
ber of  men  of  a  type  so  abnormal  as  not  to  be 
susceptible  of  betterment  through  the  applica- 
tion of  methods  resorted  to  in  the  cases  of  the 
majority.  Morbid  minds  and  undeveloped, 
poorly  nourished  and  diseased  bodies— results 
of  bad  environment  and  vicious  habits  or  the 
legacy  of  unhealthy  progenitors — had  made 
them  stupid,  slow,  disinclined,  if  able,  to  apply 
their  minds  to  the  acquirement  of  useful  knowl- 
edge, and  generally  unprogressive.  Many  of 
them  are  illiterate,  and  some  have  so  far  lost 
control  over  themselves  as  to  be  ranked  not 
much  above  idiots.  They  are  utterly  incapable 


Elmira  Reformatory. 


554 


Elmira  Reformatory. 


of  receiving  and  retaining  impressions  with 
sufficient  regularity  to  make  headway  in  the 
simplest  of  trades  taught  in  the  technological 
department,  and  they  are  fitted  only  for  incon- 
sequential work  in  the  shops.  In  conduct  they 
rank  with  the  incorrigibles,  often  because  they 
have  not  appreciation  of  the  distinction  between 
right  and  wrong.  They  are  not  to  be  stimulat- 
ed by  the  same  motives  and  ambitions  that 
affect  most  of  those  undergoing  the  rehabilitat- 
ing course.  Loss  of  privilege  by  way  of  penalty 
is  regarded  with  stolid  indifference.  For  men 
answering  this  description  and  for  those  suffer- 
ing from  physical  defects  which  may  be  reme- 
died by  systematic  muscular  effort,  the  physical 
training  department  accomplishes  an  amount  of 
good  that  cannot  be  satisfactorily  expressed  in 
words. 

One  of  the  more  recent  steps  is  the  adoption 

of  a  wage-earning  plan.     Each  man  is  credited 

with  his  earnings  in  labor  for  every  full  day's 

work  of  eight  hours  at  the  rate  of 

35  cents  per  day  in  the  Second,  45 

Wage       cents  per  day  in  the  Lower  First, 

Earning,     and  55  cents  per  day  in  the  Upper 

First  grade.     This  rate  is  not  fixed 

with  reference  to  an  estimate  placed 

upon  the  value  of  the  labor,  but  is  governed  by 

the  legal  provision  restricting  the  amount  that 

may  be  disbursed  to  inmates  to  10  per  cent,  of 

the  gross  earnings  of  the  Reformatory.     Fines 

are  imposed  for  bad  conduct. 

In  study,  a  demerit  of  $i  is  incurred  for  fail- 
ure in  any  subject  where  the  marking  is  not 
below  50  per  cent.  ;  below  50  per  cent,  and  not 
below  25  per  cent.,  $2  ;  below  25  per  cent.,  $3. 

From  his  earnings  each  man  is  required  to 
pay  for  what  he  receives  :  in  board  and  lodging 
at  the  rate  of  25  cents  per  day  in  the  Second,  32 
cents  per  day  in  the  Lower  First,  and  40  cents 
per  day  in  the  Upper  First  grade  ;  in  clothing, 
at  an  established  schedule  of  prices  ;  and  in 
medical  attendance,  at  the  rate  of  15  cents  per 
visit.  While  for  the  present  the  prices  of  board 
are  inflexible,  a  plan  is  under  consideration  by 
which  his  expenditure  in  this  direction  will  be 
placed  in  the  control  of  each  inmate. 

It  is  intended  that  any  total  credit  balance 
obtained  under  this  system  shall  be  placed  at 
the  disposal  of  the  inmate  earning  it  as  a  fund 
to  be  paid  him  on  his  release.     This 
can  take  place  (unless  the  maximum 
Parole.      term  of  imprisonment  be  reached 
first)  only  by  perfect  records  for  a 
certain  period,  and  the  confidence 
of  the  management  that  the  candidate  is  "  mor- 
ally, intellectually,  and  physically  capable  of 
earning  a  livelihood."     In  the  event  of  the  con- 
ditional release  being  authorized  there  is  still 
another  step  prior  to  its  realization  :  satisfac- 
tory employment  must  be  secured. 

The  principal  regulations  governing  paroled 
men,  which  are  printed  on  the  certificates  is- 
sued to  each,  are  these  : 

1.  The  graduate  shall  proceed  directly  to  the  place 
of  employment  provided  for  him  and  there  remain,  if 
practicable,  for  at  least  six  months  from  date. 

2.  In  case  he   finds  it  desirable  to  change  his  em- 
ployment or  residence,  he  shall  first  get  the  consent  of 
the  managers  through  the  General  Superintendent. ' 

3.  He  shall  on  the   first    of   every  month,    for    the 
period  of  six  months  or  more,  and  until  absolutely  re- 


leased by  the  managers,  forward  to  the  General  Su- 
perintendent a  report  of  himself  certified  by  his  em- 
ployer or  an  agent  of  the  managers,  which  report  shall 
state  whether  he  has  been  constantly  underpay  during 
the  month  and  if  not,  why  not,  and  how  much  money 
he  has  expended  and  saved,  together  with  a  general 
and  full  statement  of  himself  and  surroundings. 

4.  He  shall  in  all  respects  conduct  himself  honestly, 
avoid  low  and  evil  associations,  and  shall  abstain  from 
intoxicating  drinks. 

Each  man  is  advised,  prior  to  his  departure, 
that  he  need  not  fear  to  communicate  with  the 
management  in  case  he  loses  his  situation  or 
becomes  unable  to  labor  by  reason  of  sickness. 
He  is  assured  that  he  may  at  all  times  rely  upon 
the  aid  and  counsel  of  the  managers  and  super- 
intendent, and  that,  in  case  of  disaster,  he  may 
find  the  Reformatory  a  desirable  retreat.  If  the 
terms  of  the  conditional  release  are  faithfully 
complied  with  for  a  period  of  six  months,  the 
Board  of  Managers,  by  vote  at  one  of  their 
monthly  meetings,  grant  absolute  release,  which 
operates  the  same  as  a  pardon  by  the  Governor. 

The  results  of  the  plan  are  the  most  favor- 
able.   According  to  the  report  for  1895,  there  had 
been  received  on  the  indeterminate  term  up  to 
September  30,  1894,  6641  convicts.         * 
Of  these  4369  were  paroled,  the  re- 
maining 2272  being  either  still  in     Results, 
the  Reformatory,  or,  having  been 
released  by  expiration  of  the  maxi- 
mum term,  pardoned  out,  transferred  to  other 
State  prisons  or  having  died.     Of  the  4369  who 
had  been  paroled,  3628,  or  83  per  cent.,  are  re- 
ported to  have  probably  reformed  ;  2616  of  these 
served  their  complete  time  of  parole  and  earned 
their  absolute  release  ;  322  were  still  on  parole, 
while  the  remaining  one  half  had  been  lost  sight 
of,  but  who  are  counted  as  having  "  probably" 
reformed  ;  686,  or  15.7  per  cent.,  are  reported  as 
having  probably  returned  to  criminal  practices  ; 
303  have  been  returned  to  the  Reformatory  ; 
140  have  been  paroled  twice  ;  26  have  returned 
twice  ;  12  have  been  paroled  three  times  ;  and 
4  have  returned  three  times. 

Beyond  this  remarkable  showing  the  follow- 
ing statistics  are  instructive.  Of  those  indefi- 
nitely sentenced — 

12.3  per  cent,  inherited  insanity  or  epilepsy. 

38.3  "  "          drunkenness  clearly  traced. 

13.1  '  doubtful. 

48.6  "          temperate  habits. 

4.6  '  were  of  pauperized  ancestry. 

76.q  '  "      "  ancestry  of  no  accumulations. 

18.5  '  "      "         "         forehanded. 
54.1  "      "  homes  positively  bad. 
38.3  '  only  fair. 

7.6  '  "     "        "      good. 

58.1  "      at  home  up  to  time  of  crime. 

41.9  '  "      homeless  at       "      "       " 

19.3  '  "      illiterate. 

48.8  could  read  and  write  with  difficulty. 

28.6  '  had  common  school  education. 

3.3  '  high  school  or  more  education. 

42.8  '  Protestant  training  or  faith. 

45.6  R.  Catholic        " 

6.3  '  Hebrew 

4.3  none. 

88.3  were  in  good  health. 

1.4  '  "     deficient  in  natural  capacity. 
18.1         '  "     of  only  fair        " 

80.5  '  "      "  good  or  excellent  natural  capac- 

ity. 

33.8  seemed  of  absolutely  no  moral  sense. 
41.1         '  "  possibly  some 

20.9  '  "         "  ordinary 

3.2         '  "        "  specially    susceptible    moral 

sense. 

93.6  "         had  committed  offenses  against  prop- 

erty. 


Elmira  Reformatory. 


555 


Emerson,  Ralph  Waldo. 


6.6  per  cent,  had  committed  offenses  against  the  per- 
son. 
4        "         had    committed    offenses    against    the 

peace. 

56.9        "          were  between  16-20  when  admitted. 
33.0  20-25 

xo.i        "  25-30      "  " 


The  cost  of  maintenance  for  1892  was 
454.34.  Of  this  $7208.63  was  tor  prisoners' 
transportation  ;  $3801  for  cost  of  schools  ; 
$7596.63  for  physical  and  other  training.  The 
incidental  and  other  income  was  $40,019.72. 
The  operation  of  the  farm  during  the  year  yield- 
ed $5452.28.  The  per  diem  maintenance  cost 
was  38.9  cents.  The  number  of  inmates  Sep- 
tember 30,  1892,  was  1396.  The  Year  Book  of 
the  Reformatory,  bound,  printed,  and,  in  fact, 
written  by  the  convicts,  can  be  had  ordinarily 
on  application.  The  closing  sentence  of  one 
Year  Book  says  :  "  The  time  will  come  when 
every  punitive  institution  in  the  civilized  world 
will  be  destroyed,  and  all  places  for  the  treat- 
ment of  crime  be  hospitals,  schools,  workshops, 
and  reformatories."  (See  also  PENOLOGY; 
CRIME.) 

ELY,  RICHARD  THEODORE,  Ph.D., 
LL.D.,  Director  of  the  School  of  Economics, 
Political  Science,  and  History  of  the  University 
of  Wisconsin,  and  one  of  the  best-known  and 
popular  American  writers  on  social  and  eco- 
nomic questions,  was  born  in  Ripley,  N.  Y., 
April  13,  1854.  Until  18  he  lived  in  the  coun- 
try, working  on  a  farm  of  which,  for  a  time, 
he  had  entire  control.  His  father  was  a  civil 
engineer,  and  for  some  time  he  was  employed 
on  his  engineering  corps  in  laying  out  a  rail- 
road. After  completing  the  course  of  the  State 
Normal  School  he  entered  Dartmouth  College, 
going  from  there  to  Columbia  College,  where 
he  was  graduated  in  1876.  As  holder  of  fellow- 
ship of  that  institution  he  continued  his  studies 
in  German  universities,  receiving  the  degree  of 
Doctor  of  Philosophy  from  Heidelberg  in  1879. 

A  year  after  his  return  to  America  he  was 
called  to  Johns  Hopkins  University,  where  he 
was  Professor  of  Political  Economy  until  1892. 
In  1892  he  resigned  from  the  Johns  Hopkins 
University  to  take  the  position  he  now  holds  at 
the  University  of  Wisconsin. 

Professor  Ely  has  made  a  record  of  incessant 
activity  as  university  professor  and  lecturer. 
But  the  pressure  of  academic  duties  has  not  pre- 
vented Dr.  Ely  from  engaging  in  fields  of  prac- 
tical activity.  More  than  any  other  man  he  was 
identified  with  the  formation  of  the  American 
Economic  Association. 

In  Baltimore  he  was  for  one  year  (1885-86)  a 
member  of  the  city  tax  commission  and  for  two 
years  (1886-88)  a  member  of  the  State  Tax  Com- 
mission. 

Professor  Ely  has  taken  an  active  part  in  the 
Chautauqua  movement,  and  has  lectured  for 
several  years  at  the  annual  summer  assemblies. 

Among  other  institutes  and  societies  to 
which  he  belongs  may  be  mentioned  the  Inter- 
national Statistical  Institute,  the  Christian  So- 
cial Union,  of  which  he  was  the  first  and  a  most 
active  and  earnest  secretary. 

Dr.  Ely  has,  moreover,  found  time  to  write 
numerous  works  and  to  contribute  largely  to 
the  leading  periodicals  and  papers,  and  has 


grown  into  the  recognized  position  of  a  leader 
of  American  public  opinion  in  matters  of  eco- 
nomics and  applied  ethics. 

He  has  devoted  particular  attention  to  the 
study  of  taxation,  socialism,  the  labor  question, 
and  municipal  government.  Taxation  in  Amer- 
ican States  and  Cities  and  the  Labor  Move- 
ment in  America  represent  pioneer  work  in 
their  respective  fields.  Others  of  his  works 
have  attained  a  wide  circulation  and  gone 
through  several  editions.  These  are  :  French 
and  German  Socialism  in  Modern  Times 
(1883)  ;  The  Past  and  Present  of  Political 
Economy  (1884) ;  Problems  of  To-day  (1888) ; 
Social  Aspects  of  Christianity  and  An  Intro- 
duction to  Political  Economy  (1889),  Outlines 
of  Economics  (College  edition,  1894)  ;  Social- 
ism and  Social  Reform  (1894). 

Professor  Ely  has  been  criticised  as  a  senti- 
mentalist, but  has  never  flinched  from  his  posi- 
tion that  political  economy  ought  to  be  made 
useful  for  promoting  practical  reform  and  the 
elevation  of  the  masses.  He  has  been  branded 
as  a  socialist,  which  he  has  steadfastly  denied, 
tho  he  has  continued  none  the  less  earnestly  to 
write  and  speak  against  monopolies  and  in  favor 
of  every  reasonable  forward  step  which  could 
benefit  working  men. 

EMBARGO. — A  prohibition  affecting  com- 
merce by  national  authority,  which  has  been 
laid  in  various  forms  and  at  various  times  by 
various  nations.  Formerly  ships  belonging  to 
a  foreign  power  were  placed  under  embargo  in 
contemplation  of  war,  but  in  modern  times  this 
practice  has  been  discontinued,  and  the  only  oc- 
casion on  which  an  embargo  of  ships  is  now  re- 
sorted to  is  when  it  is  sought  to  use  reprisals  in 
the  case  of  any  specific  wrong  committed  by 
any  foreign  State. 

EMERSON,  RALPH  WALDO,  the  great- 
est of  American  philosophers,  was  born  in  Bos- 
ton, May  25,  1803.  He  entered  Harvard  Uni- 
versity in  1817,  graduating  in  1821,  and  became 
pastor  of  a  Unitarian  Church  in  Boston  in  1829. 
He  resigned  in  1832,  owing  to  differences  in 
thought  and  opinion.  After  that  he  lived  a 
retired  life,  chiefly  in  Concord,  writing  many 
books,  lectures,  etc.,  and  becoming  eminent  not 
only  as  an  author,  but  also  as  a  lecturer.  In  the 
midst  of  his  literary  labors  he  found  time  to 
manifest  his  interest  in  great  public  questions 
as  they  arose.  He  was  deeply  interested  in 
Brook  Farm  (y.v.),  tho  he  never  resided  there. 
He  was  earnest  and  outspoken  in  his  views 
against  slavery.  At  Waltham,  in  1845,  Emer- 
son attacked  slavery  with  no  feeble  weapon  : 

"  It  is  certain  that,  if  it  should  come  to  question,  all 
just  men,  all  intelligent  agents,  must  take  the  part  of 
the  black  against  the  white  man.  Then,  I  say,  'Never 
is  the  planter  safe  ;  his  house  is  a  den  ;  a  just  man 
cannot  go  there  except  to  tell  him  so.'  Nature  fights 
on  the  other  side  ;  and  as  power  is  always  stealing 
from  the  idle  to  the  busy  hand,  it  seems  inevitable 
that  a  revolution  is  preparing,  at  no  distant  day,  to  set 
these  disjointed  matters  right." 

In  1 844  he  had  touched  upon  another  crying 
evil,  the  seizure  of  colored  sailors  of  Massachu- 
setts when  they  went  into  the  ports  of  Caro- 
lina : 


Emerson,  Ralph  Waldo 


556 


Emigration. 


"  Gentlemen,  I  thought  the  deck  of  a  Massachusetts 
ship  was  as  much  the  territory  of  Massachusetts  as  the 
floor  on  which  we  stand.  It  should  be  as  sacred  as  the 
temple  of  God.  If  such  a  damnable  outrage  can  be 
committed  on  the  person  of  a  citizen  with  impunity, 
let  the  Governor  break  the  broad  seal  of  the  State  ;  he 
bears  the  sword  in  vain.  The  great-hearted  Puritans 
have  left  no  posterity.  The  rich  men  may  walk  in 
State  Street,  but  they  walk  without  honor ;  and  the 
farmers  may  brag  their  democracy  in  the  country, 
but  they  are  disgraced  men." 

As  early  as  1838  he  addressed  a  letter  to  Presi- 
dent Van  Buren  protesting  against  the  wrongs 
then  endured  by  the  Cherokee  Indians  at  the 
hands  of  the  Government.  His  anti-slavery 
speeches,  his  remarks  on  the  attack  made  upon 
Charles  Sumner  in  1856,  his  speech  in  behalf  of 
the  Kansas  farmers  in  the  same  year,  his  eulo- 
gies of  John  Brown  in  1859,  his  speech  of  wel- 
come to  Kossuth  at  Concord  Bridge  in  1852,  his 
speech  at  the  centennial  celebration  of  Concord 
Fight  in  1875,  and  many  other  brief  addresses, 
are  the  fearless  utterances  of  the  reformer.  He 
was  an  active  citizen  in  practical  ways,  and  was 
punctual  in  his  attendance  at  the  town  meetings, 
where  he  often  took  part  in  debates  ;  yet  he 
sympathized  to  some  extent  in  the  no-govern- 
ment theories  of  his  friends  AlcottandThoreau, 
influenced  by  his  partly  socialistic,  partly  indi- 
vidualistic philosophy.  He  died  at  Concord  in 
1882. 

ENGINEERS.  See  RAILWAY  EMPLOYEES' 
ORGANIZATION. 

EMIGRATION  (see  also  IMMIGRATION)  may 
be  defined  as  the  moving  of  families  or  indi- 
viduals from  one  country  or  one  portion  of  a 
country  to  permanently  reside  in  another  land 
or  portion  of  country.  In  the  form  of  coloniza- 
tion especially  it  is  as  old  as  civilization.  The 
ancient  cities  of  Troy,  Sidon,  as  well  as  the  bet- 
ter known  instances  of  the  Greek  cities,  repeat- 
edly adopted  the  expedient  of  assisted  coloniza- 
tion to  develop  commerce  and  relieve  the  over- 
crowding of  the  parent  city.  Back  of  this  and 
connected  with  this  are  the  repeated  instances  of 
tribes  and  clans  sending  out  branches  and  off- 
shoots to  settle  in  some  new  place.  Much  of 
this  was  connected  with  military  conquest,  but 
such  was  not  always  the  case.  The  so-called 
migration  of  the  nations  was  in  a  measure  emi- 
gration and  colonization.  In  modern  times  the 
discovery  of  the  New  World  led  to  a  renewed 
outbreak  of  emigration.  The  economic  and  in- 
dustrial pressure  of  our  own  times  has  led,  par- 
ticularly in  the  United  Kingdom,  not  only  to 
emigration,  but  to  its  preaching  by  some  as  a 
cure  for  industrial  ills. 

In  England  various  schemes  of  State-aided 
emigration  to  the  colonies  were  much  debated 
throughout  the  second  quarter  of  the  century, 
both  in  and  out  of  Parliament.  Such  were  those 
to  facilitate  emigration  from  the  south  of  Ire- 
land to  Canada  (1823)  and  to  relieve  distress  in 
the  Highlands  of  Scotland  (1841).  At  this  time, 
indeed,  the  idea  of  emigration  became  merged 
in  the  more  complex  idea  of  colonization. 

"Of  colonization,"  writes  Wakefield,  "the  principal 
elements  are  emigration,  and  the  permanent  settle- 
ment of  the  emigrants  on  unoccupied  land.  .  .  .  My 
fancy  pictures  a  sort  and  amount  of  colonization 


with  food  and  the  raw  materials  of  manufacture  ;  and 
by  gratifying  our  best    feelings    of    national    pride, 


through  the  extension  over  the  unoccupied  parts  of 
the  earth  of  a  nationality  truly  British  in  language, 
religion,  laws,  institutions,  and  attachment  to  the  em- 
pire." 

Mill  wrote  : 

"  The  exportation  of  laborers  and  capital  from  old 
to  new  countries,  from  a  place  where  their  productive 
power  is  less  to  a  place  where  it  is  greater,  increases 
by  so  much  the  aggregate  produce  of  the  labor  and 
capital  of  the  world.  It  adds  to  the  joint  wealth  of 
the  old  and  the  new  country  what  amounts  in  a  short 
period  to  many  times  the  mere  cost  of  effecting  the 
transport.  There  needs  be  no  hesitation  in  affirming 
that  colonization,  in  the  present  state  of  the  world,  is 
the  best  affair  of  business  in  •which  the  capital  of  an 
old  and  wealthy  country  can  engage." 

As  a  result,  there  has  been  not  only  great  emi- 
gration, but  all  sorts  of  plans  and  legislative  acts 
to  aid  emigration.  Says  Palgrave's  Dictionary 
of  Political  Economy : 

"In  1815  the  number  of  emigrants  from  the  United 
Kingdom  was  2081,  in  1820  it  was  25,729,  in  1830,  56,907  j 
in  that  year  the  Colonization  Society  was  formed  ;  in 
the  next  year  the  first  effort  was  made 
to  regulate  emigration ;  an  agent  gen- 
eral for  emigration  and  certain  '  South    Nature  of 
Australian '    commissioners    were    the  Ernie-rants 
chief   centers    of    authority    for    some 
years,  and  in  1840  the  Colonial  Land  and 
Emigration  Board  was  established    in 
Downing  Street.    It  had  become  clear  that  the  matter 
was  one  of  great  interest  both  to  the  mother  country 
and  the  colonies.     On  the  one  hand  was  the  theory  de- 
scribed as  'shoveling  out  the  paupers,'  on  the  other 
was  the  demand  that  no  emigrant  should  be  sent  to 
the  colonies  except  under  proper  safeguards,  and  with 
some  guarantee  of  his  fitness.    And  on  the  lines  which 
were  settled  50  years  ago  the  attitude  of  the  State  tow- 
ard emigration  has  remained  ever  since.    The  activ- 
ity of  societies  and  other  quasi-public  influences  has, 
however,  been  growing,  till  we  are  confronted  at  the 
present  day  with  the   efforts  of   Mr.  Arnold  White, 
Baron  Hirsch,  and  the  projects  of  the  Salvation  Army. 

"  We  can  now  examine  in  more  detail,  in  the  case  of 
our  own  country,  the  answers  to  the  questions  pro- 
pounded above. 

"  i.  As  regards  the  stamp  of  the  emigrants  from 
England  it  is  specially  noted  in  1845  that  one  half  were 
unskilled  laborers,  and  four  fifths  of  the  remainder 
agricultural  laborers  and  farmers,  the  great  bulk  be- 
ing exceedingly  poor  and  depending  on  immediate 
employment  for  subsistence.  And  a  study  of  the 
Board  of  Trade  returns  for  the  last  few  years  con- 
firms the  same  opinion.  '  There  seems  no  doubt,' 
says  Mr.  Giffen  in  a  recent  report,  '  of  the  broad  facts 
that  the  majority  of  the  adult  male  emigrants  are 
laborers,  and  of  single  adult  female  emigrants,  do- 
mestic servants.'  In  i8qi  (a  good  sample  of  the  years), 
out  of  189,756  adults  of  British  origin,  112,256  were 
males  and  77,500  females,  and  the  adult  males  were 
classified  as  follows : 

Agricultural  laborers '4)797 

Unskilled  laborers  and  miners,  etc 36,521 

Occupation  not  stated 26,663 

Mechanics  and  skilled  laborers 91717 

Farmers  and  graziers 3,704. 

Clerks,  shopkeepers,  etc 4)773 

Professional  men 11,467 

Miscellaneous 4,614 

"  It  may  reasonably  be  assumed  that  the  majority 
of  those  whose  occupations  are  not  stated  were  also 
unskilled  laborers ;  hence  it  is  probable  that  some 
70,000  out  of  112,256,  about  63  per  cent.,  were  of  this 
description." 

But  it  is  not  clear  that  emigration  has  accom- 
plished what  was  hoped  from  it.  The  pauper 
cannot  go,  despite  the  theory  that  emigration 
was  to  relieve  the  weakest  portion  of  the  com- 
munity ;  the  receiving  country  rejects  him,  and 
the  regulations  which  agents  of  government 
here  and  abroad  have  sought  to  enforce  con- 
stantly tend  to  encourage  the  better  class  of 
emigrant.  Macintyre,  writing  50  years  ago, 
insisted  on  this  :  "  Emigration,  as  it  is  carried 
on  from  this  country,  does  not  afford  any  relief 
to  the  masses  of  the  people  reduced  to  the  verge 


Emigration. 


5*7 


Employers'  Liability  Laws. 


of  starvation."  "The  conditions  required  of 
the  persons  selected  for  emigration  show  that 
they  are  picked  individuals. "  Emigration  has 
done  little  or  nothing  toward  elevating  the  low- 
est classes  of  the  people. 

The  most  skilled  artisans,  on  the  other  hand, 
do  not  generally  go  ;  and  it  is  doubtful,  then,  if 
the  productive  power  of  England  has  been  de- 
creased, while  the  productive  power  of  the  Eng- 
lish colonies  and  other  countries  has  been  in- 
creased. Whether  this  aids  the  country  from 
which  the  emigration  occurs  is  a  debated  point. 
(For  the  effect  on  the  countries  into  which  the 
emigration  flows,  and  for  statistics,  see  IMMI- 
GRATION. )  Of  other  countries  than  England  Pal- 
grave's  Dictionary  says  : 

"  Scotland  has  sent  out  a  steady  stream  of  emi- 
grants whose  departure  has  only  strengthened  those 
who  were  left  behind.  Ireland,  partly  from  poverty, 
partly  from  political  causes,  has  been  rapidly  depleted 
of  the  stronger  part  of  her  population.  In  examining 
the  emigration  from  other  countries,  we  also  find 
special  phases  to  arrest  us.  Norway  and  Sweden 
have  both  been  centers  of  a  large  emigration,  which 
now  appears  to  be  losing  strength.  In  Norway  the 
causes  and  effects  have  been  akin  to  the  case  of  Scot- 
land. In  Sweden  the  parallel  is  rather  with  Ireland. 
In  Italy  the  large  annual  emigration  is  becoming  a 
serious  drain,  and  the  face  of  the  country  is  already 
showing  this.  The  loss  of  the  more  enterprising 
peasantry  is  making  more  helpless  those  who  are  left 
behind.  Germany,  on  political  grounds,  is  struggling 
with  the  tendency  to  emigrate  ;  she  does  not  wish  to 
lose  her  soldiers  at  the  best  period  of  their  lives." 

(For  references,  see  IMMIGRATION.) 

EMINENT  DOMAIN.— The  right  of  emi- 
nent domain  is  the  right  to  take  private  prop- 
erty for  public  uses.  It  is  a  common  phrase  in 
America,  tho  until  recently  little  used  in  Eng- 
land, and  seems  to  be  derived  from  a  phrase  of 
Grotius  (Defure  Belli  ac  Pads,  1.  i.  chap.  iii. 
vi.  sec.  2).  The  Fifth  Amendment  to  the  United 
States  Constitution  provides  that  it  must  always 
be  used  with  just  compensation  to  the  owners 
of  the  property  taken.  (For  a  discussion  of  this, 
see  COMPENSATION.) 


EMPLOYMENT. 

UNEMPLOYMENT. 


See     OCCUPATION    and 


EMPLOYMENT  BUREAUS.    See  UNEM- 
PLOYMENT. 


EMPLOYERS. 

MANAGEMENT. 


See  PROFITS  ;  WAGES  OF 


EMPLOYERS'    LIABILITY    LAWS.— 

These  are  laws  holding  employers  liable  for  ac- 
cidents to  their  employees  when  legitimately 
engaged  in  doing  the  employer's  work.  The 
agitation  for  such  laws  has  played  and  still  plays 
no  small  part  in  the  labor  movement.  Of  the 
situation  in  America,  Mr.  Carroll  D.  Wright 
says  ( The  Industrial  Evolution  of  the  United 
States,  pp.  278-281)  : 

"  Under  the  common  law  as  it  exists  in  England  and 

America  and  in  the  greater  part  of  the  continent  of 

Europe,  where  the  Roman  law  is  the  precedent,  it  is 

the  rule  that  the  principal  is  responsible 

for  the  acts  of  the  agent,  the  same  as  if 

Common      he  performed  the  acts  himself.    There 

Law          are>   °^  course>  many  modifications   of 

this  rule  under  special  circumstances, 

but  the  general  rule  is  as  stated.    It  is 

curious,  however,  to  note  that  this  rule 

does  not  apply,  generally  and  in  broad  terms,  where 

the  person  injured  by  the  agent  or  employee  of  an- 


other is  also  an  agent  or  employee  of  the  same  prin- 
cipal ;  that  is,  in  simple  terms,  if  A  is  the  proprietor  of 
a  tactory,  a  works,  or  a  railroad,  and  B  and  C  are  em- 
ployees of  A,  and  Bis  injured  through  the  careless- 
ness or  negligence  of  C,  he  cannot  recover  of  the 
proprietor  A,  because  B  and  C  are  what  are  known 
under  the  common  law  as  coemployees,  and  the  de- 
fense of  coemployment  would  be  set  up  in  the  courts 
of  the  common  law,  under  which  it  would  be  claimed 
that  A  was  not  liable  to  B  for  any  damages  resulting 
from  injuries  received  through  the  negligence  of  C. 
This  doctrine,  too,  is  subject  to  modifications  and  re- 
strictions, but  the  broad  principle  is  as  stated.  Of 
course,  if  it  could  be  proved  by  B,  who  was  injured 
through  the  carelessness  or  negligence  of  C,  that  the 
carelessness  or  negligence  was  really  that  of  the  pro- 
prietor A,  then  he  could  recover,  but  not  otherwise. 

"It  is  usually  assumed,  under  the  common-law  rule, 
that  the  employee  engages  in  the  services  of  a  com- 
pany or  of  an  individual  employer  with  a  full  knowl- 
edge of  all  the  risks,  dangers,  and  responsibilities  of 
the  peculiar  employment,  and,  therefore,  assumes 
those  risks,  responsibilities,  and  liabilities  under  any 
dangers  which  exist ;  but  such  risks  which  the  em- 
ployee takes  are  considered  only  the  ordinary  risks. 
The  rule  does  not  apply  where  the  risk  is  not  of  such  a 
nature  as  to  be  reasonably  known  and  assumed,  nor 
does  it  apply  under  circumstances  where  the  risk  is 
known  to  the  employer,  but  not  to  the  employee,  nor 
where  the  employer  is  under  a  positive  duty  and  the 
injury  results  from  neglect  of  that  positive  duty,  nor. 
as  already  remarked,  when  the  injury  is  incurred 
through  the  negligence  of  the  employer  himself,  ex- 
cept, in  the  latter  case,  where  the  employee  may  have 
contributed  to  the  negligence." 

Of  the  coemployment  principle  Mr.  Wright  says  in 
part :  "  To  apply  this  rule  when  a  brakeman  on  a  rail- 
road line,  it  may  be  hundreds  of  miles  in  length,  by 
the  negligence  of  a  switchman  whom  the  brakeman 
never  saw,  whose  character  he  did  not  know  when  he 
entered  the  service,  and  to  whose  negligence  the 
brakeman  could  not  possibly  have  contributed,  re- 
ceives serious  personal  injury,  appears,  to  the  ordi- 
nary mind,  the  very  height  of  absurdity.  Under  the 
old  rule  the  brakeman  cannot,  under  the  circumstances 
just  described,  recover  any  damages  from  the  railroad 
corporation,  because  the  brakeman  and  the  switchman 
are  considered  as  coemployees  of  the  same  principal. 
So  in  a  factory,  the  attendant  of  a  loom  may  be 
quietly  and  industriously  attending  to  her  business  as 
a  weaver,  and  through  the  negligence  or  carelessness 
or  drunkenness  of  one  who  attends  the  engine  in  the 
engine-house  1000  feet  away,  loses  an  arm;  under 
these  circumstances  the  weaver  cannot  recover  dam- 
ages from  the  proprietor  or  owners  of  the  factory 
under  the  common-law  rule. 

"  These  illustrations  show  how  thoroughly  absurd 
that  rule  appears  to  many  men  and  to  many  most  ex- 
cellent lawyers  and  judges.    In  order  »to  remedy  the 
difficulty    recourse    has    been     had    to 
statutory  provisions,  by  which  the  rule 
is  abrogated  or  its  application  limited.        Recent 
The  first  attempt  at  such  limitation  was  T«n.ioi<,i-i«-n 
by  the    Parliament    of    Great    Britain.   -Legislation. 
After  long  agitation,  investigations  by 
parliamentary  committees,  and  discus- 
sions in  Parliament,  a  law  in  great  measure  abrogat- 
ing the  common-law  rule  was  enacted  in  1880  ;  and  that 
act  called  the  attention  of  employers  and  employees 
everywhere  to  the  inconsistencies  of  the  common  law. 
Many  corporations  resisted  the   enactment   of   laws 
which  would  tend,  as  they  claimed,  to  the  great  in- 
crease of  expenses  of  running  their  works  or  roads, 
and  much  fear  was  expressed   on  the  passage  of  the 
bill  through  Parliament  that  the  results  would  be  dis- 
astrous to  industry   and   prevent    dividends   on    the 
stock  of  railroads.   The  experience  of  the  English  law, 
however,  has  not  substantiated  such  fears,  while  one 
of  the  very  best  effects  of  the  law  has  been  to  induce 
greater  care  in  the  selection  of  agents.   It  may  be  that 
this  is  the  very  greatest  benefit  that  can  be  derived  from 
such  a  statute,  for  the   careful   administration  of  the 
railroad  service  is  one  of  the   most  vital  features  of 
railroad  management,   so  far  as  the  public   is   con- 
cerned ;  and  if  the  statutory  limitation  of  the  common 
law  stimulates  the  selection  of  the  very  best  skill  in 
the  employment  of  men,  it  certainly  justifies  its  en- 
actment.   It  is  true  that  the  financial  disasters  pre- 
dicted have  not  occurred. 

"  All  the  agitation  in  England  relktive  to  the  subject 
has  reappeared  in  the  United  States.  Labor  organi- 
zations demand  it  in  their  platforms  and  declarations 
of  principles,  learned  writers  have  insisted  upon 
the  justice  of  it,  and  judges  have  indorsed  it.  The 


Employers'  Liability  Laws. 


558 


England  ancTSocial  Reform. 


first  law,  however,  following  in  any  great  degree  the 
English  legislation  was  quietly  passed  by  the  Alabama 
legislature  February  12,  1885.  The  Massachusetts 
legislature,  after  several  years  of  consideration  and  a 
very  careful  investigation  of  the  law  and  facts  by  the 
Bureau  of  Statistics  of  Labor,  passed  an  act  to  extend 
and  regulate  the  liability  of  employers  to  make  com- 
pensation for  personal  injuries  suffered  by  employees 
in  their  service.  This  act  was  passed  in  1887.  These 
two  States^are  the  only  States  that  have  practically  re- 
enacted  th6  English  law  of  1880.  Many  other  States 
have,  in  some  way  and  to  some  extent,  weakened  the 
force  of  the  common-law  rule.  California,  Colorado, 
Dakota,  Florida,  Georgia,  Iowa,  Kansas,  Minnesota, 
Montana,  Wisconsin,  Wyoming,  Illinois,  Indiana,  Ken- 
tucky, Texas,  and  it  may  be  others,  have  in  some  way 
limited  the  old  common-law  rule." 

The  whole  question  of  employers'  liability  is  fully 
discussed  in  the  report  of  the  Massachusetts  Bureau 
of  Statistics  of  Labor  for  1883  ;  in  the  Eleventh  An- 
nual Report  of  the  Bureau  of  Statistics  of  Labor  and 
Industries  of  New  Jersey,  1888;  in  the  Fifth  Annual 
Report  of  the  United  States  Commissioner  of  Labor, 
i88g. 

The  English  law  provides  that : 

"  In  five  specified  cases  the  workman  who  has  sus- 
tained injury  through  the  action  of  a  fellow-workman 
may  bring  an  action  for  redress  as  thp  he  were  not  in 
the  same  employment.  Where  the  injury  happens  by 
reason  of  (i)  any  defect  in  the  works,  plant,  or  machi- 
nery ;  (2)  the  neglect  of  any  person  engaged  in  super- 
intendence ;  (3)  the  neglect  of  any  person  to  whose 
orders  the  workman  was  bound  to  conform  when  the 
injury  took  place;  (4)  the  act  of  any  fellow-servant 
done  in  obedience  to  the  rules,  by-laws,  or  instruc- 
tions (if  improper  or  defective)  of  the  employer  or  his 
delegate  ;  (5)  the  negligence  of  any  signalman,  points- 
man, or  person  having  charge  of  a  locomotive  on  a 
railway,  the  workman  is  put  on  the  same  footing  with 
the  public.  But  for  the  purpose  of  the  act '  workman  ' 
is  so  defined  as  to  exclude  seamen,  domestic  servants, 
and  any  servant  not  employed  in  manual  labor. 
When  an  injury  has  been  sustained  notice  must  be 
given,  and  the  action  must  be  brought  within  a  lim- 
ited time,  and  the  amount  of  the  compensation  must 
not  exceed  three  years'  earnings  of  a  workman  in  that 
employment.  If  the  injury  prove  fatal,  the  right  of 
action  passes  to  the  dead  man's  representative." 

The  act  was  originally  passed  for  seven  years 
only,  and  since  1887  has  been  renewed  from 
year  to  year.  Parliament  has  not  placed  the 
law  on  a  permanent  footing,  and  changes  and 
additions  are  constantly  being  agitated  for,  and 
will  doubtless  be  made. 

ENFANTIN,  PROSPER,  was  born  in  Paris 
in  1796.  Coming  under  the  influence  of  St. 
Simon  (y.v.),  he  acted  with  Bazard  (g.v.)  as 
leader  of  the  movement  after  St.  Simon's  death 
in  1825.  The  two  leaders  delivered  lectures 
and  attracted  considerable  of  a  following.  In 
1831  the  school  attempted  communism  on  some 
property  of  Enfantin's  at  Menilmontant.  But 
commencing  as  a  devotee  of  mysticism,  Enfan- 
tin  finally  adopted  the  doctrine  of  "  free  love  ;" 
this  brought  him  into  trouble  with  most  of  his 
fellow-religionists.  Bazard  differed  from  En- 
fan  tin,  who  became,  after  Bazard  retired,  the 
sole  chief  of  the  St.  Simonians,  called  "the 
supreme  father"  in  their  somewhat  fantastic 
religious  forms.  But  their  practices  produced 
troubles.  Enfantin  was  condemned  on  August 
28,  1832,  in  company  with  Charles  Duveyrier 
and  Michel  Chevalier,  to  a  year's  imprisonment 
and  a  fine  of  100  francs  for  having  assisted, 
without  previously  obtaining  permission,  in  the 
formation  of  an  association  consisting  of  more 
than  20  members,  and  in  the  promulgation  of 
articles  injurious  to  public  morality. 

The  penalty  was  before  long  commuted,  and 
Enfantin  made  his  way  to  Egypt,  where  he 


studied  the  question  of  piercing  the  Isthmus  of 
Suez. 

Subsequently  he  returned  to  Paris,  and  was 
appointed,  in  1845,  a  director  of  the  first  com- 
pany for  constructing  a  railway  from  Paris  to 
Lyons. 

After  the  Revolution  of  1848  he  founded,  in 
conjunction  with  Charles  Duveyrier,  the  jour- 
nal Le  Credit,  which  continued  to  appear  till 
1850.  Finally  Enfantin  became  the  adminis- 
trator of  the  second  Paris,  Lyons  and  Mediter- 
ranean Railway  Company!  a  post  which  he 
continued  to  hold  till  his  death,  at  Paris,  in 
1864. 

Before  the  fall  of  the  St.  Simonian  school,  En- 
fantin published,  in  conjunction  with  others, 
Doctrine  de  St.  Simon,  Exposition,  2  vols., 
1830-32  ;  afterward,  in  his  own  name,  Econo- 
mie  politique  et  Politique  ;  Morale,  etc. 

ENGEL,  ERNST,  was  born  in  Dresden  in 
1821,  and  after  completing  his  studies  and  trav- 
eling extensively,  he  became,  in  1848,  manager 
of  the  recently  founded  Royal  Saxon  Statistical 
Bureau.  In  1858,  on  account  of  attacks  from 
the  Saxon  Chamber,  which  his  official  activity 
had  called  out,  he  resigned  this  position  and 
founded  a  Mortgage  Insurance  Company  at 
Dresden,  but  in  1860  was  called  to  the  head  of 
the  Prussian  Statistical  Bureau  at  Berlin,  where 
he  remained  22  years,  earning  the  position  of 
one  of  the  leading  statisticians  of  Europe,  and 
issuing  many  private  as  well  as  official  works. 
(See  EXPENDITURES.)  In  1882  he  resigned  his, 
position,  and  has  since  resided  near  Dresden. 

ENGELS,  FRIEDRICH,  was  born  at  Bar- 
men in  1820.  A  clerk  from  1837-41,  he  dis- 
charged his  military  duties  and  then  entered 
his  father's  cotton  business  at  Manchester,  Eng- 
land. Visiting  Paris  in  1844,  he  met  Karl  Marx 
(g.v.)  there,  and  he  became  his  lifelong  friend. 
In  1847  he  went  with  Marx  to  Brussels.  Ban- 
ished from  Paris  and  Brussels,  Marx  and  Engels 
published  the  famous  communist  manifesto. 
(See  SOCIALISM.)  From  1848  to  May,  1849,  he 
was  with  Marx  on  the  Neuen  Rheinische  Zei- 
tung,  published  at  Cologne.  He  took  part  in 
the  South  German  uprising  of  1849.  On  the 
suppression  of  the  revolution  he  returned  to 
England  and  reentered  his  father's  business, 
remaining  in  it  till  1869  ;  after  this  he  resided 
in  London.  He  wrote  numerous  German  works, 
but  is  best  known  as  the  editor  of  the  second 
and  third  volumes  of  Karl  Marx's  works,  pub- 
lished after  Marx's  death.  Engels  spoke  10 
languages,  and  wrote  in  English  the  Condition 
of  the  Working  Classes  in  England  in  1848. 
Among  his  German  works  are  Die  Entwicke- 
lung  des  Sozialismus  von  der  Utopie  zur 
Wissenschaft  and  Der  Ursprung  der  Fam- 
ilie,  des  Privateigenthums,  und  des  Staats. 
He  died  in  London  in  1895. 

ENGLAND  AND  SOCIAL  REFORM.— 

In  this  article,  to  gain  continuity  of  develop- 
ment, and  for  convenience  of  reference,  we  out- 
line the  general  development  of  English  social 
reform,  referring  the  reader  to  separate  articles 
for  all  details. 


England  and  Social  Reform. 


559 


England  and  Social  Reform. 


I.  STATISTICS. 

The  supreme  legislative  power  in  the  British  Empire 
is  by  its  constitution  given  to  Parliament  (q.v.).  The 

E  resent  form  of  Parliament,  with  its  two  houses,  dates 
:om  the  fourteenth  century.  The  union  of  the  Eng- 
lish and  Scotch  parliaments  was  effected  in  1707,  and  of 
the  British  and  Irish  in  1801.  By  the  Reform  Bill  of  1832, 
the  constituencies  were  materially  increased  in  num- 
ber and  much  more  equitably  arranged. 
The  Reform  Bills  of  1867-68,  1884  and  1885 
Constitution,  extended  the  suffrage,  till  to-day  there 
is  practically  complete  household  suf- 
frage, and  to  a  less  extent  of  lodgers, 
tho  many  still  lose  their  vote  by  change  of  residence 
and  the  registration  system.  The  electors  are  4,862,758 
in  England,  619,091  in  Scotland,  and  747,  271  in  Ireland  — 
about  one  sixth  of  the  total  population  ;  135,605  voted 
in  1892  as  illiterates.  All  elections  are  secret  votes 
by  ballot.  The  executive  government  is  vested  nom- 
inally in  the  crown,  really  in  the  cabinet  of  ministers. 
The  unit  of  civil  government  is  the  civil  parish,  of 
which  there  are  14,684.  The  Local  Government  Acts 
of  1888  and  1894  created  respectively  county  councils 
and  parish  councils  elected  by  the  voters,  thus  giving 
complete  democratic  local  government.  Until  1894  the 
vestries  had  been  almost  wholly  in  the  power  of 
wealthy  parish  churchmen.  The  population  of  Great 
Britain  and  Ireland  in  1891  was  38,104.211,  for  an  area  of 
120,979  sq.  miles.  (See  POPULATION.)  Nearly  one  seventh 
of  the  total  population  is  concentrated  in  the  metrop- 
olis. The  population  per  square  mile  in  1891  was,  for 
England  and  Wales,  498  ;  Scotland,  135  ;  Ireland,  144. 

The  established  church  of  England  is  Protestant 
Episcopal,  with  two  archbishops  and  32  bishops  in 
England.  Private  persons  possess  the  right  of  presen- 
tation to  about  8500  benefices  ;  the  other 
benefices  belong  to  the  Queen,  the 
Religion,  bishops,  and  universities.  The  church 
income  from  ancient  endo  wments  is  esti- 
mated at  £5,469,417,  and  from  benefac- 
tions since  1703  at  .£284,386.  The  total  annual  income  of 
the  church  is  about  .£7,250,000.  The  number  of  clergy 
is  about  27,000  (24,232  doing  duty  in  the  church).  Other 
religious  bodies  in  England  have  about  15,000  chapels 
and  800,000  members.  The  Church  of  Scotland,  estab- 
lished in  1560,  is  Presbyterian,  with  1353  parishes  and 
1800  clergy.  The  Free  Church,  established  after  the 
Disruption,  has  1050  churches  and  1260  ministers. 
The  Episcopal  Church  has  266  clergy  and  268  churches 
or  missions.  The  "  Church  of  Ireland  "  (Protestant 
Episcopal)  was  disestablished  in  1869.  It  has  1500  cler- 

y, 1450  churches,  and  600,000  members.     The  Roman 

atholic  population  of  Ireland  in  1891  was  3,547,307. 
The  income  of  the  Church  of  Ireland  previous  to  the 
disestablishment  was  .£600,000,  and  by  the  act  of  dis- 
establishment, ,£7,500,000  were  allotted  to  it. 

For  EDUCATION  ;  JUDICIARY  ;  CRIME  ;  PAUPERISM  ; 
FINANCE  ;  DEBT  ;  ARMY  AND  NAVY,  see  those  articles. 

The  proportion  of  the  population  engaged  in  1891 
in  agriculture  was  1,311,720  ;  in  textiles,  1,128,589  ;  dress, 
1,099,833  ;  in  transport,  935,866  ;  in  mining,  561,637. 
From  1851  to  1891  the  proportion  of  the  population  en- 
gaged in  agriculture  decreased  from  20.9  to  9.9  per 
cent.;  those  in  manufacturing,  from  12.7  to  30.7.  Those 
engaged  in  transport  and  industrial  service  increased 
from  15.1  to  20.1. 

The  value  of  the  mineral  produce  in  1893  was 
,£70,767,651  (coal,  .£55,809,808  ;  iron,  £2,  827,947).  Those  em- 
ployed in  or  about  mines  were  718,747  (underground, 
570,978).  In  the  textile  industries  the  capital  employed 
is  now  about  ^200,000,000,  and  about  5,000,000  of  people 
are  dependent  upon  it.  More  than  one  half  of  the 
exports  of  England  consist  of  textiles.  The  principal 
exports  in  1894  were  cotton  ^£66,586,198),  woolens 
(£18,757,418),  iron  and  steel  (£18,731,140),  coal  (£17,375,- 
140),  machinery  (.£14,265,122),  chemicals,  apparel  and 
haberdashery,  linen,  hardware  and  cut- 

in  dust-rial       lery.    The  principal  imports  were  grain 
industrial.    and  flour  (£3^^  r£w  cotton  9jr. 

000,000)  ;  wool  —  sheep  and  lambs'  (£24,- 
000,000),  meat  (£22,000,000),  sugar  ("£19,000,000),  butter 
(£16,000,000),  wood  (.£17,000,000),  silk  (£12,000,000).  The 
exports  of  British  produce  in  1894  were  £216,194,239; 
the  total  imports,  £408,505,718.  The  sailing  vessels  in 
1893  numbered  8211,  with  34,659  men;  steam  vessels, 
2446,  with  27,809  men. 

There  were  in  1894,  20,908  miles  of  railway  open  in 
Great  Britain,  with  a  capital  of  ^800,000,000  in  England, 
£131,000,000  in  Scotland,  and  .£39,000  in  Ireland.  The 
expenses  were  .£47,000,000,  or  56  per  cent,  of  the  total 
receipts.  There  were  3813  miles  of  canals  and  214,804 
miles  of  telegraph  wire.  There  were  in  1894,  20,016 
post-offices.  Post,  telegraph  and  postal  savings  banks 


g 

C 


are  in  Government  hands.  (See  TELEGRAPH  ;  also  POS- 
TAL SAVINGS  BANKS.)  There  was  issued  in  1893  from 
the  Royal  Mint  £9,266,251  in  gold,  ,£1,008,971  in  silver, 
and  ,£46,664  in  bronze. 

II.  HISTORY. 

The  story  of  social  reform  in  England  begins 
in  the  earliest  times — begins  with  Alfred's 
efforts  at  establishing  justice  and  promoting 
learning,  if  not  with  Augustine  and  with  Aidan. 
The  early  English  Church  and  some  of  her 
kings  struggled  to  put  down  slavery.  Anselm 
and  Theobald  withstood  Norman  oppression. . 
In  1215  the  knights  at  Runnymede,  led  by  Ste- 
phen Langton,  Archbishop  of  Canterbury,  won 
from  King  John  the  Great  Charter,  with  its 
fundamental  rights  of  freedom,  freedom  from 
imprisonment  without  trial,  and  from  taxation 
without  the  consent  of  the  council  of  the  nation. 
In  1265  did  Earl  Simon  of  Montfort,  for  Henry 
III.,  summon  the  burgesses  to  Parliament,  and 
under  Edward  I.  they  came,  reasserting  the  old 
rights  of  the  Anglo-Saxon  Witenagemot. 

As  early  as  1360  did  John  Ball  (y.v.),  "the 
mad  priest  of  Kent,"  preach  a  medieval  Chris- 
tian socialism,  asking  in  the  name  of  the  com- 
mon folk  by  what  right  men  called  lords  were 
greater  folk  than  they,  and  declaring  that  only 
by  the  toil  of  the  villeins  these  lords  held  their 
estates.  Hanged  at  St.  Alban's  for  his  bold 
words  as  well  as  for  the  large  part  he  played  in 
the  Peasants'  Revolt,  his  spirit  has  never  wholly 
died  away,  and  continually  reappears  in  the 
most  unexpected  quarters.  One  finds  it  alike  in 
the  rough  poetry  of  Langland's  Piers  Plow- 
man (1377)  and  in  the  courtly  words  of  More's 
Utopia  (1516).  It  enters  in  milder  form  into 
Erasmus'  Christian  Prince,  and  again  in  Har- 
rington's Oceana  (1656).  It  is  voiced  in  Beller's 
proposed  College  of  Industry  (1695),  and  in 
Spence's  land  nationalization  of  1775.  (See 
these  names.)  The  Peasants'  Re- 
volt (g.v.)  itself  marks  an  epoch  in 
the  development  of  English  free-  Development. 
dom.  Remorselessly  put  down,  it 
yet  freed  England  from  serfdom, 
and  led  to  what  some  call  the  "  Golden  Age"  of 
Merrie  England.  But  after  the  Golden  Age 
came  the  Iron.  In  the  sixteenth  century  the 
nobles,  impoverished  by  the  long  French  wars 
and  the  wars  of  the  Roses,  drove  out  many  of 
their  humble  folk,  and  turned  their  fields  into 
sheep  walks  for  the  raising  of  wool  for  the 
Flemish  market,  and  at  the  same  time  fenced 
in  many  of  the  commons,  calling  forth  the  noble 
protest  of  Latimer's  sermons.  This  robbery  of 
the  land  by  those  who  were  its  rulers  but  not 
its  owners,  together  with  the  confiscation  of  the 
monasteries  and  other  causes,  produced  the 
landless  class  and  made  necessary  the  Poor 
Laws  (g.v.).  These  laws,  altho  turned  by  re- 
morseless magistrates  into  a  means  of  the  degra- 
dation of  England's  poor,  contained,  neverthe- 
less, the  socialistic  claim  of  the  right  of  every 
man  to  receive  opportunity  for  life  and  work 
from  the  State. 

The  contest  with  Charles,  the  Puritan  Com* 
mon wealth,  the  English  Revolution,  were  not 
movements  of  the  industrial  classes,  but  they  laid 
the  foundation  of  England's  political  democracy, 
and  contain  many  noble  lessons  of  equality  and 
democratic  spirit. 


England  and  Social  Reform. 


560 


England  and  Social  Reform. 


When,  in  the  eighteenth  century,  the  discov- 
ery of  steam-power  and  machine  production  de- 
veloped modern  industrial  England,  it  caused 
an  economic  revolution.  Under  the  laissez 
faire  teachings  of  Adam  Smith,  trade  threw  off 
restraint ;  manufacturers  robbed  cottages  of 
their  women  and  cradles  of  their  children  to 
employ  them  in  factories  utterly  without  sanita- 
tion, coining  their  blood  into  profits.  Em- 
ployees were  worked  like  slaves  and  housed 
more  poorly  than  the  beasts,  the  whispers  of 
Malthusianism  quieting  any  stirrings  of  the  con- 
science. It  was  necessary  that  men  be  killed, 
it  was  said  ;  there  was  not  room  for  all.  It  was 
these  conditions  that  led  to  modern  industrial 
legislation. 

In  1795,  Dr.  Aikin,  a  Manchester  physician, 
published  a  statement  concerning  the  evil  con- 
dition of  the  children  working  in  the  mills.  In 
1796  a  committee  was  formed  in 
Manchester  to  inquire  into  the 
Early  health  of  the  poor.  In  1802  the 
^Factory  elder  Peel  brought  in  and  passed 
Legislation,  the  first  bill  for  the  preservation  of 
the  health  and  morals  of  apprentices 
and  of  others  employed  in  cotton 
and  other  factories.  It  immediately  accom- 
plished nothing,  being  fatally  defective  ;  but  it 
established  the  principle.  Other  bills  intro- 
duced did  little  more.  In  1824  a  bill  was  passed, 
mainly  owing  to  the  efforts  of  Francis  Place, 
outside  of  Parliament,  and  Joseph  Hume  within, 
giving  trade-unions,  which  had  secretly  existed 
since  about  1700,  the  right  to  partially  organize. 
In  1830  Richard  Oastler,  speaking  for  the  anti- 
slavery  movement,  discovered  that  there  was 
"white  slavery"  in  England,  and  from  that 
date  gave  his  time  and  strength  in  poverty,  and 
even  when  imprisoned  for  debt,  to  exposing  the 
facts  of  factory  evils,  and  agitating  for  legisla- 
tion. He  accomplished  little,  however,  till  Lord 
Ashley,  afterward  the  Earl  of  Shaftesbury,  took 
up  his  cause.  T.  Sadler,  in  1831,  had  moved  a 
Ten  Hours'  Bill,  but  to  no  effect.  A  select  com- 
mittee was  appointed  in  the  matter  in  1832,  but 
only  to  gain  time  and  prevent  action.  Lord 
Ashley,  however,  now  taking  hold,  brought  in  a 
Ten  Hours'  Bill  for  Women  and  Children,  which 
was  read  a  second  time  in  1833.  It  was  vio- 
lently opposed,  even  by  such  individualists  as 
Richard  Cobden  and  John  Bright.  Finally 
Lord  Althorp  brought  in  for  the  Government 
and  carried  a  Compromise  Bill,  which  was  bet- 
ter than  nothing.  Oastler,  however,  continued 
his  agitation.  Children's  Employment  Com- 
missions of  1842  and  1843  published  terrible 
revelations.  A  Factory  Act  was  passed  in  1844, 
and  finally  the  Ten  Hours'  Bill  in  1847. 

Meanwhile  Robert  Owen,  at  his  mills  in  New 
Lanark,  had  been  putting  in  practice  various 
reforms,  and  in  the  year  1817  laid  a  scheme  of 
a  socialistic  community  before  the  House  of 
Commons.  This  act  is  sometimes  considered 
the  beginning  of  socialism  in  England  ;  but  it 
was  not  socialism  as  we  understand  the  word 
to-day.  Owen's  utopianism  and  evolutionary 
social  democracy  in  industry  have  little  in  com- 
mon. In  1825  Owen  purchased  New  Harmony 
in  the  United  States  and  started  his  short-lived 
community.  In  1835  he  founded  an  association 
of  all  classes  of  all  nations  ;  and  during  the  dis- 


cussions which  arose  over  this  the  words  "  social- 
ism" and  "  socialist"  seemed  first  to  have  been 
used  and  thence  to  have  been  borrowed  by  the 
French  writer  Reybaud  in  his  Reformateurs 
Modernes  (1839). 

The  passage  of  the  Reform  Bill  in  1832  had 
abolished  the  "pocket  boroughs"  and  given 
England  a  taste  of  democracy.  Slavery  (g.v.) 
was  abolished  in  the  British  colonies  in  1834. 
The  Poor  Laws  were  reformed.  The  middle 
classes  were  now  but  enfranchised,  but  these  re- 
forms did  little  for  the  workmen.  These  Owen 
reached.  The  Owenite  press,  the  Crisis,  the 
Pioneer,  the  Herald  of  the  Rights 
of  Industry,  and  other  papers, 
created  a  widespread  movement.  Robert 
Within  a  few  weeks  half  a  million  Owen. 
members  are  said  to  have  joined 
Owen's  Grand  National  Consoli- 
dated Trade-Union,  including  tens  of  thousands 
of  farm  laborers  and  women.  The  object  was 
to  put  an  end  to  all  competition.  The  wealthier 
classes  were  alarmed.  In  1834  six  Dorchester 
laborers  were  convicted  to  seven  years'  trans- 
portation for  the  mere  act  of  administering  an 
oath.  (See  CONSPIRACY  LAWS.)  Monster  labor 
congresses  were  held  ;  30,000  persons  took  part 
in  a  procession  in  London  protesting  against  the 
judgment ;  over  250,000  signed  a  petition. 
Strikes  were  numerous.  They  generally  failed, 
however.  A  levy  of  i8d.  per  member  hurt  the 
Grand  National.  It  was  too  hurriedly  organ- 
ized, and  did  not  endure.  The  trade-unions  all 
suffered.  Led  by  William  Cobbett  and  Will- 
iam Lovett  and  others,  working  men  began  to 
turn  to  political  methods. 

In  1838  a  representative  meeting  of  workmen 
drew  up  a  program  of  political  reforms  which 
they  held  to  be  necessary.  Speaking  to  the 
representatives,  the  Irish  orator  O'Connell  called 
it  their  charter,  for  which  they  must  strive. 
The  name  was  a  happy  one  ;  and  in  all  the  sub- 
sequent agitation  this  program  was  called  the 
"  People's  Charter,"  and  its  supporters  "  Chart- 
ists." The  charter  called  for  the  famous  "  six 
points" — manhood  suffrage,  equal  electoral  dis- 
tricts, vote  by  ballot,  annual  parliaments,  aboli- 
tion of  'property  qualification  for  members  of  the 
House  of  Commons,  and  payment  of  members 
of  Parliament  for  their  services.  Everywhere 
the  charter  was  received  "enthu- 
siastically by  the  workers.  Enor- 
mous meetings  were  held  in  sup-  Chartism, 
port  of  it.  Orators,  writers,  editors, 
and  poets  were  developed — O'Con- 
nor, Lovett,  Cleave,  Hetherington,  and  O'Brien 
being  among  the  leaders.  Every  center  had 
its  Chartist  journals.  But  there  soon  developed 
a  division  as  to  the  means  to  the  end.  Some 
were  in  favor  of  an  appeal  to  force,  while  many 
— probably  most — were  advocates  of  constitu- 
tional methods.  In  June,  1839,  a  petition  signed 
by  nearly  1,300,000  persons  was  presented  to  the 
House  of  Commons,  "  bound  in  iron  hoops,  four 
men  bearing  it,"  asking  that  the  charter  might 
be  considered.  By  a  large  majority  the  House 
of  Commons  refused  to  take  it  into  considera- 
tion. As  might  be  expected,  the  relations  be- 
tween the  Government  and  the  people  became 
very  much  strained  ;  public  meetings  were  for- 
bidden ;  riots  were  of  frequent  occurrence  ; 


England  and  Social  Reform. 


England  and  Social  Reform. 


while  in  secret  meetings  men  were  organizing 
and  drilling.  At  Newport,  Wales,  there  was  an 
attempt  made  to  rescue  from  prison  one  of  the 
leaders.  For  taking  part  in  this  outbreak  three 
of  the  local  leaders  were  condemned  to  death, 
one  of  whom  was  Frost,  a  magistrate,  who  had 
been  deprived  of  his  office  for  his  advocacy  of 
Chartism.  The  sentence  was  afterward  com- 
muted to  transportation.  The  agitation  con- 
tinued more  or  less  vigorously  until  1848,  the 
year  of  revolutions.  Risings  were  expected  in 
all  the  great  industrial  centers,  while  London 
was  the  center  of  uneasiness.  A  meeting  was 
called  on  Kennington  Common  for  April  10,  at 
which  it  was  expected  that  half  a  million  work- 
ers would  be  present.  A  procession  was  to  be 
formed  from  there  to  carry  the  petition  in  favor 
of  the  charter,  wilh  6,000,000  signatures,  to  the 
House  of  Commons.  Great  alarm  prevailed  ; 
the  procession  was  prohibited ;  the  military 
under  the  Duke  of  Wellington  was  called  out ; 
cannon  were  planted  to  cover  the  meeting-place 
and  the  exits,  and  nearly  200,000  civilians  were 
enrolled  as  special  constables.  After  all  these 
threatenings  the  gathering  on  the  Common  was 
not  as  large  as  had  been  anticipated,  a  heavy 
storm  interfering.  Not  100,000  were  present, 
and  as  any  other  course  would  have  been  sui- 
cidal, the  procession  was  given  up.  This  was 
the  end  of  Chartism.  Strange  as  it  may  seem, 
a  movement  which  was  truly  national  sud- 
denly collapsed  when  apparently  at  its  highest. 
During  all  the  ten  years  of  the  agitation  it  had 
been  largely  an  economic  change  that  was  de- 
sired. Political  change  was  only  sought  in 
order  to  secure  economi*  changes.  Every  con- 
stitutional means  had  been  tried  and  had  failed, 
and  now  the  Government  had  shown  that  if  an 
appeal  were  to  be  made  to  force,  it  would  use 
all  its  strength  to  crush  the  appeal,  and  would 
yield  no  quarter.  Just  while  men  were  pon- 
dering the  alternatives,  a  new  door  of  escape 
was  opened — gold  was  discovered  in  America, 
and  New  Zealand  and  Australia  were  calling 
for  colonists. 

The  repeal  of  the  Corn  Laws  in  1846,  after 
the  long  free-trade  agitation  of  Cobden  and 
Bright,  and  the  passage  of  the  Ten  Hours'  Bill 
in  1847,  gave  hope  of  relief. 

The  close  of  the  Chartist  agitation  witnessed 
the  birth  of  organized  Christian  socialism  (q.v.}. 
Stirred  by  the  events  of  the  Chartist  uprising 
and  moved  by  the  sufferings  particularly  of  the 
sweated  tailors  in  London,  and  of  the  agricul- 
tural laborers  in  the  country,  Charles  Kingsley 
and  Frederick  Denison  Maurice, 
clergymen  of  the  Church  of  Eng- 

Christian    land,    with    E.    Vansittart    Neale, 

Socialism.  Thomas  Hughes,  J.  M.  Ludlow  (see 
these  names),  organized  a  society 
under  the  avowed  name  of  Chris- 
tian Socialism.  They  published  pamphlets  and 
two  papers,  and  started  some  cooperative  stores. 
Their  papers  were  soon  discontinued ;  their 
stores  either  failed  or  were  swallowed  up  in  the 
larger  Rochdale  cooperative  movement ;  but 
their  thought  lived.  Kingsley 's  bold  denun- 
ciation of  the  soulless  Manchester  school  of 
political  economy,  his  brilliant  pictures  of  the 
sxifferings  and  efforts  of  the  poor,  sketched  in 
Yeast  (1848)  and  in  Alton  Locke  (1850),  and 

36 


the  deeper  philosophy  of  Maurice,  are  still  po- 
tent to-day. 

From  1850-80  English  trade-unionism  was 
taking  form  and  growing,  with  many  ups  and 
downs,  into  its  present  strength.  The  Roch- 
dale cooperative  movement,  beginning  in  1844, 
during  this  period  made  its  phenomenal  ad- 
vance. The  writings  of  Carlyle  and  of  Ruskin 
struck  strong  blows  against  the  orthodox  politi- 
cal economy.  In  1848  Mill  published  his  Po- 
litical Economy.  Henceforth  political  economy 
was  no  longer  to  be  a  dismal  science  of  theo- 
ries, but  a  discussion  of  how  to  meet  practi- 
cal industrial  problems.  Mill  himself,  in  his 
Autobiography,  came  to  announce  himself  a 
socialist.  There  were  other  radical  forces  at 
work.  From  1849  to  his  death  in  1883  Marx  re- 
sided in  London.  In  London,  also,  was  Maz- 
zini.  Opposed  to  socialism,  as  it  was  presented 
to  him,  he  really  preached  the  deepest  and  most 
ethical  socialism.  As  early  as  1847  Marx  and 
Engels,  corresponding  with  a  London  society, 
turned  this  society  into  a  communist  league  ; 
and  the  following  year  published  from  Brussels 
the  manifesto  of  the  communist  party.  In  1 862 
a  party  of  French  working  men  visited  the  In- 
ternational Exhibition  in  London  and  got  into 
communication  with  English  trade-unionists  ; 
and  on  September  28,  1864,  the  famous  Inter- 
national was  founded  at  St.  Martin's  Hall,  Lon- 
don. Professor  Beesly  presided,  and  Karl  Marx 
made  an  address.  It  was  not  at  first  a  socialistic 
organization.  Its  simple  aim  was  to  unite  the 
working  men  of  all  countries.  Naturally  it  took 
a  different  coloring  with  different  nations.  In 
England  it  meant  little  more  than  an  attempt 
at  international  trade-unionism,  and  took  no 
deep  root.  The  day  of  socialism  was  not  yet. 

Little  as  he  intended  it,  the  lectures  in  Eng- 
land of  Henry  George  (q.v.),  individualist  as  he 
proclaims  himself,  seem  to  have  been  the  occa- 
sion for  the  first  crystallization 
in  England  of  modern  socialist 
thought.  His  sharp  words  on  the  Socialism, 
land  question,  and  the  enormous 
circulation  of  Progress  and  Pov- 
erty, aroused  general  interest ;  yet,  when  or- 
ganization came,  the  forces  we  have  seen  already 
at  work  produced  socialism.  According  to  Sid- 
ney Webb  (Soda lism  in  England),  the  coercive 
measures  introduced  by  Mr.  Gladstone's  minis- 
try against  the  Irish  Land  League  had  alienated 
many  of  the  earnest  Radicals  from  the  Liberal 
Party.  It  became  evident  that  Liberalism  was 
not  inconsistent  with  shameless  international 
aggression  in  the  interests  of  the  officers  and 
the  bondholders.  The  neglect  of  English  social 
questions  became  more  and  more  pressingly 
felt.  The  ' '  Democratic  Federation' '  was  found- 
ed in  March,  1881,  by  the  efforts  of  Mr.  H.  M. 
Hyndman,  Mr.  Herbert  Burrows,  Miss  Helen 
Taylor  (stepdaughter  of  John  Stuart  Mill),  and 
some  others.  The  only  distinctively  socialist 
proposal  explicitly  set  forth  in  the  first  program 
of  this  organization  was  "  nationalization  of  the 
land,"  placed  ninth  in  the  list  ;  but  it  was  from 
the  first  essentially  a  socialist  body,  and  it 
changed  its  name  in  August,  1884,  to  the  "  So- 
cial Democratic  Federation"  (q.v.}.  Men  joined 
like  William  Morris,  Tom  Mann,  John  Burns, 
and  others. 


England  and  Social  Reform. 


562 


England  and  Social  Reform. 


This  federation  has  been  the  largest,  and  in 
many  ways  the  most  active,  of  all  English  so- 
cialist societies.  At  the  end  of  1884,  however, 
William  Morris  (g.v.)  withdrew  from  the  federa- 
tion, and  with  others  formed  the  Socialist 
League.  The  grounds  of  secession  were  main- 
ly personal,  but  the  new  society  soon  developed 
a  policy  of  its  own,  standing  fora  more  commu- 
nistic and  less  governmental  conception  of  so- 
cialism. Publishing  the  Commonweal  (1885), 
to  which  Mr.  Morris  gave  many  of  his  brilliant 
contributions,  it  exerted  no  small  influence. 
About  1892,  however,  the  organization  and  the 
Commonweal  came  under  anarchist  control  ; 
Mr.  Morris  withdrew,  and  the  organization  has 
virtually  died. 

A  far  more  potent  and  unique  organization  of 
English  socialists  is  the  Fabian  Society  (g.v.\ 
founded  in  1883,  and  to-day  still  adding  to  its 
strength.  Commenced  mainly  as  an  educational 
and  propagandist  center,  it  includes  members 
of  other  societies,  and  has  met  with  great  suc- 
cess. In  one  year  its  members  have  given 
thousands  of  lectures  and  distributed  still  more 
thousands  of  socialist  essays  and  tracts.  It  has 
influenced  political  parties,  economic  literature, 
and  trade-union  thought.  It  may  be  said  to 
have  created  the  London  County  Council  (g.v.), 
and  to  have  changed  the  thought  of  the  work- 
ing men's  clubs  of  London. 

These  various  societies,  taking  advantage  of 
industrial  depressions  and  discontent,  have  large- 
ly captured  the  English  trade-unions  for  social- 
ism.    This  "New  Trade-Unionism"  (q.'v.)  has 
grown  steadily  till  1895.     The  agitation  in  be- 
half of  the  unemployed  in  1886,  resulting  in  the 
prosecution  at  the  Old  Bailey  of  Messrs.  Hynd- 
man,    Burns,    Champion,   and    Williams,    led, 
altho  they  were  acquitted,  to  making  socialism 
known  and  somewhat  popular  among  the  Lon- 
don masses.     The  great  dock  strike  of  1889  saw 
the  turning  of  the  tide.     Messrs.  Ben  Tillett, 
Tom  Mann,  and  John  Burns,  all  socialists,  or- 
ganized the  dock  laborers  and  won.     It  led  to 
the  organization  of  other  trades  thus  far  unor- 
ganized.    These   new  unions    fol- 
lowed   the    new  leaders,  and  the 
New        movement  began  to  grow  in  the 
Trade-      rank  and  file  of  even  the  old  unions. 
Unionism.    By  1890  the  new  unionism  was  in 
the  majority  in  the  trade  congresses, 
and  in  1894  voted  to  support  only 
collectivist  candidates.     The  defeat  of  the  Lib- 
eral Party  in  1894,  however,  to  which  many  of 
the  old  trade-unionists  were  allied,  led  to  the 
older  trade-unions  securing  a  change  in  repre- 
sentation, giving  the  newer  trade-unions  less 
power,  and  thus  defeating  the  new  trade-union- 
ism at  the  Congress  of  1895.     Some  of  the  new 
trade-unions,  too,    have    not    endured.     Some 
claim  that  there  is  a  reaction  against  socialism 
and  a  return  to  agitation  on  older  lines. 

Labor  representatives  have  indeed  been  in 
Parliament  for  some  time.  In  the  general  elec- 
tion of  1873-74  no  fewer  than  13  "  labor  candi- 
dates' '  went  to  the  polls  ;  and  Alexander  Mac- 
donald  and  Thomas  Burt  (f.v.),  the  two  lead- 
ing officials  of  the  miners'  national  unions,  were 
elected  the  first  "  labor  members"  of  the  House. 
But  this  does  not  mean  any  general  political 
movement. 


Altho  largely  enfranchised  by  the  Reform 
Bill  of  1867,  English  workmen  in  their  trades 
congresses  even  rejected  amendments  in  favor 
of  manhood  suffrage  as  late  as  1882  and  1883. 
In  order  to  win  legal  recognition  at  all  for  their 
trade-unions,  the  leaders  had  had  to  plant  them- 
selves wholly  on  the  middle-class  ground  of  the 
individual  freedom  of  each  man  to  sell  his  labor 
as  he  pleased,  collectively  or  not.  Even  after 
trade-unions  were  themselves  in  1871  fully  legal- 
ized, even  when  "in  restraint  of  trade,"  their 
members  were  still  so  liable  to  prosecution  under 
vague  combination  laws,  that  the  unions  were 
engaged  in  a  battle  for  mere  existence  down  to 
1875.  At  this  date,  however,  the  Liberal  Party 
having  been  defeated  largely  by  the  division  of 
the  labor  vote,  a  Conservative  government  wiped 
away  the  last  vestige  of  the  combination  laws. 
But  this  long  struggle  for  life  had  so  indoc- 
trinated their  members  with  the  individualist 
economy,  that  save  for  a  few  leaders  like  Allan 
of  the  Engineers  and  Applegarth  of  the  Carpen- 
ters, the  average  trade-unionist  cared  nothing 
for  parliamentary  action.  Even  when  free  to 
act,  their  very  successes  made  the  trade-unions 
conservative.  Men  of  ability,  like  Mr.  Broad- 
hurst,  actually  opposed  eight-hour  legislation  ; 
a  motion  in  support  of  it  was  defeated  by  a 
large  majority  at  a  trade-union  congress  as  late 
as  1889.  The  old  trade-union  policy  favors  gain- 
ing shorter  hours  and  higher  wages  on  pure 
trade-union  lines,  developing,  too,  the  unions 
in  benefit  societies,  with  high  dues  and  strong 
trade  organizations. 

Trade-unions  in  England  in  1891  had  a  mem- 
bership of  925,232,  with-an  income  of  .£1,175,346. 
The  collectivist  policy  has,  however,  become 
among  many  so  popular  that,  weary  of  the  vast 
promises  and  slight  fulfilment  of  both  the  Lib- 
eral and  Conservative  parties,  they  have  organ- 
ized (January,  1893),  mainly  under  the  lead  of 
Mr.  Keir  Hardie,  elected  M.P. ,  an  independent 
labor  party,  its  object  being,  as  stated  in  the 
constitution  as  amended  in  February,  1894, 
"  the  collective  ownership  and  control  of  the 
means  of  production,  distribution,  and  ex- 
change." This  Independent  Labor  Party  is 
growing  rapidly  in  almost  all  parts  of  England, 
but  especially  in  the  north.  Robert  Blatchford's 
Merrie  England,  emphasizing  the  principles 
of  the  party,  is  estimated  to  have  reached 
2,000,000  readers. 

Municipalism,  however,  is  perhaps  the  main 
practical  form  that  English  socialism  is  at  pres- 
ent taking.     The  formation  of  the  county  coun- 
cils, and   particularly  of   the   London   County 
Council,  to  bring  together  under  one  control  the 
numberless  boards  and  vestries  that  had  power 
in  various  ways  in  London,  was  itself  a  step 
toward  socialism.     Says  Professor  Ely  (Social- 
ism  and   Social  Reform,  p.   60)  ; 
"  The  drift  is  unmistakable.     Two 
illustrations  will  suffice.     The  Lon-      Mnnici- 
don  County  Council   has  recently      palism. 
acquired  some   21  miles  of   street 
railways  (tramways),  and  proposes 
to  operate  these  lines.     While  the  ownership 
and  operation  of  municipal  monopolies  does  not, 
of   necessity,    mean    socialism — while,   indeed, 
an  anti-socialist  may  favor  such  ownership  and 
operation — the  significant  point  is  that  in  Lon- 


England  and  Social  Reform. 


563 


Essenes. 


don  the  change  was  brought  about  by  socialist 
intent,  and  as  part  of  a  socialist  program.  The 
second  illustration  is  found  in  the  abolition  of 
the  contract  system  in  the  construction  of  arti- 
sans' dwellings  by  the  municipality.  More  and 
more  is  the  policy  being  forced  of  making  the 
county  council  do  its  own  work  and  be  the  model 
employer. ' ' 

The  municipalism  of  cities  like  Birmingham 
and  Glasgow  is  well  known.  (See  MUNICIPAL- 
ISM  ;  also  these  cities.)  Based  on  such  facts  as 
these,  the  friends  and  the  foes  of  socialism  alike 
declare  that  socialism  is  coming  in  England.  Bit- 
terly does  Mr.  Herbert  Spencer,  for  example, 
complain  that  the  ' '  numerous  socialistic  changes 
made  by  act  of  Parliament,  joined  with  numer- 
ous others  presently  to  be  made,  will  by  and  by 
be  all  merged  in  State  socialism — swallowed  in 
the  vast  wave  which  they  have  little  by  little 
raised."  Of  this  the  passage  of  the  Parish 
Councils  Act,  in  1894,  is  a  noteworthy  instance. 
Some,  however,  claim  that  there  is  a  reaction. 
(See  INDIVIDUALISM  ;  ANARCHISM  ;  SPENCER  ; 
TRADE-UNIONS.)  The  Liberty  and  Property 
Defense  League  (g.v.)  and  writers  like  Spen- 
cer, Donisthorpe,  Herbert  (see  these  names), 
conduct  a  continuous  campaign  against  so- 
cialistic ideas.  Yet  the  general  drift  is  toward 
socialism. 

Says  Mr.  Sidney  Webb,  in  his  Socialism  in 
England:  "The  scientific  difference  between 
the  '  orthodox  '  economists  and  the  economic 
socialists  has  now  become  mainly  one  of  termi- 
nology and  relative  stress,  with  the  result  that 
one  competent  economist,  not  himself  a  socialist, 
publishes  regretfully  to  the  world  that  all  the 
younger  men  are  now  socialists,  with  many  of 
the  professors. ' ' 

In  the  Church,  the  Guild  of  St.  Matthew  and 
the  Christian  Social  Union  exert  no  little  influ- 
ence for  a  general  socialism.     The  Rev.  Stewart 
Headlam  and  Mr.  Bruce  Wallace, 
with  his  Brotherhood  Church  and 
Other       Trust,  are  among  the  most  active 
Movements,  socialist  workers    in   London.     In 
Manchester  and  elsewhere,  the  La- 
bor Church,  led  by  Mr.  John  Tre- 
vor, is  a  religious  movement  wholly  outside  of 
the  organized  churches,  but  voicing  the  deep 
religious  side  of  a  part  of  the  English  socialist 
movement. 

There  are  many  other  movements.  The  Land 
Nationalization  Society  (g.v.)  has  for  its  princi- 
pal exponent  the  eminent  naturalist,  Mr.  Alfred 
Russel  Wallace.  The  English  Land  Restora- 
tion League  (y.v.),  a  very  vigorous  organization 
of  widespread  influence,  adheres  more  closely 
to  the  principles  of  Mr.  Henry  George.  The 
cooperative  movement  is  very  strong.  It  has  in 
Great  Britain  and  Ireland  1589  societies,  with 
1,207,511  members  and  a  capital  of  £  17,000,000. 
(For  movements  for  WOMAN'S  SUFFRAGE  ;  THE 
TEMPERANCE  MOVEMENT  ;  SOCIAL  PURITY,  see 
those  subjects.  See  also  COOPERATION  ;  FACTORY 
LAWS  ;  SALVATION  ARMY  ;  TRADE-UNIONISM  ; 
UNEMPLOYMENT  ;  UNIVERSITY  EXTENSION.) 

Among  the  best  books  on  social  reform  in 
England  are  :  Freeman's  Growth  of  the  Eng- 
lish Constitution  ;  Green's  Short  History  of 
the  English  People  ;  Thorold  Rogers's  Six  Cen- 
turies of  Work  and  Wages  ;  Ashley's  Eng- 


lish Economic  History  and  Theory  (2  vols.) ; 
Hyndman's  Historical  Basis  of  Socialism  in 
England  ;  Gibbin's  Social  Reformers  ;  Jones's 
Life  of  Owen  ;  Wood's  English  Social  Move- 
ments ;  Mr.  and  Mrs.  Webb's  History  of  Trade- 
Unionism  ;  Webb's  Socialism  in  England; 
Toynbee's  Industrial  Re-volution  ;  Holyoke's 
History  of  Cooperation  ;  Schulze  Garvernitz's 
Social  Peace  ;  Bliss's  Handbook  of  Socialism* 

ENTAIL  in  law  means  "the  limitation  of 
land  to  certain  members  of  a  particular  family 
or  line  of  descent"  (Century  Dictionary}  or  "  an 
estate  settled  with  regard  to  the  rule  of  its  de- 
scent" (Wharton's  Law  Lexicon}.  The  origin 
of  entail  is  to  be  looked  for  in  feudalism  (q.v.), 
under  which  system  each  man's  rights,  duties, 
and  social  consideration  depended  on  his  rela- 
tion to  the  land,  and  therefore  it  seemed  well 
to  try  and  fix  the  tenure  of  land  and  permit  its 
disposition.  Entails  were  thus  a  political  and 
social  institution,  and  were  found  in  all  countries 
where  feudalism  existed.  They  have  disap- 
peared, however,  in  most  countries  in  the  polit- 
ical changes  of  the  last  of  the  eighteenth  cen- 
tury. In  England  they  have  survived,  tho 
greatly  changed  by  many  and  complicated 
laws. 

ENTREPRENEUR.— This  is  a  French 
word,  to-day  frequently  used  in  English  to  desig- 
nate the  person  who  organizes  and  directs  the 
productive  factors.  The  English  words  former- 
ly used  for  this,  undertaker  and  adventurer, 
are  now  used  in  other  senses.  (See  WAGES  OF 
MANAGEMENT.) 

ESSENES. — A  Jewish  sect  of  mystic  ascetics, 
who  combined  Jewish,  Greek,  and  Oriental  doc- 
trines with  communistic  and  ritualistic  modes 
of  life.  They  are  not  spoken  of  in  the  Bible, 
very  probably  because  they  dwelt  in  retired 
communities.  They  represented  the  mystic  and 
ascetic  forms  of  Judaism,  as  opposed  to  the  or- 
thodox Pharisees  and  rationalistic  Sadducees. 
Neither  their  name  nor  origin  have  been  satis- 
factorily explained.  They  left  us  no  writings 
of  themselves,  and  Philo  and  Josephus  are  our 
only  authorities  as  to  their  habits  and  beliefs. 
They  appear  to  have  separated  themselves  from 
the  commercial  and  political  life  of  the  cities  and 
towns,  and  to  have  dwelt  in  small  and  isolated 
villages.  Most  of  them  were  not  far  from  the 
Dead  Sea.  Their  most  distinctive  characteristic 
was  ascetic  communism.  They  literally  had  all 
things  in  common.  Philo  says  : 

"  There  is  no  one  who  has  a  house  so  absolutely  his 
own  private  property  that  it  does  not  in  some  sense 
also  belong  to  every  one  ;  for  besides  that  they  all 
dwell  together  in  companies,  the  house  is  open  to  all 
those  of  the  same  notions  who  come  to  them  from 
other  quarters.  There  is  one  storehouse  among  them 
all ;  their  expenses  are  all  in  common,  as  are  their 
garments  and  food.  They  do  not  retain  their  wages 
as  their  own,  but  bring  it  into  the  common  stock. 
They  take  care  of  their  sick  and  honor  their  elders."  ' 

Every  Essene  rose  before  sunrise,  and  with 
his  face  turned  toward  the  east,  repeated  his 
morning  prayer.  As  soon  as  the  light  per- 
mitted they  commenced  their  daily  labors,  farm- 
ing, bee-keeping,  cattle-raising,  and  such-like 
humble  occupations.-  Each  little  colony  had  in 


Essenes. 


564 


Estates. 


its  midst  a  room  or  hall  where  the  members  met 
together  at  regular  hours  daily.  They  kept 
apart  from  commerce,  war,  and  trade.  .  Their 
dress  was  as  plain  and  simple  as  possible — a 
light,  sleeveless  garment  in  summer,  and  in 
winter  a  warm  hairy  mantle.  They  cared  only 
for  decency  and  a  moderate  degree  of  comfort  ; 
all  luxury  and  show  were  unknown  among 
them.  Both  during  winter  and  summer  they 
wore  leathern  aprons.  At  n  A.M.  they  ceased 
work,  bathed,  dressed  themselves  in  spotless 
white  linen,  and  assembled  for  their  simple 
meal.  A  blessing  was  asked  before  the  meal, 
and  thanks  returned  after  by  a  priest.  They 
were  both  vegetarians  and  total  abstainers.  At 
the  close  of  the  meal  they  sung  a  hymn,  and 
then  worked  again  until  sunset.  The  seventh 
day  was  one  of  perfect  rest.  On  it  they  read 
^and  expounded  the  Law  and  their  own  peculiar 
writings.  As  their  asceticism  prohibited  them 
from  partaking  of  the  feasts  held  at  Jerusalem, 
-and  their  mode  of  worship  interfered  with  their 
entering  the  Temple,  they  broke  the  Law  in  one 
important  point — they  did  not  attend  the  regu- 
lar feasts  at  Jerusalem.  They  forwarded  their 
. gifts  instead.  The  majority  of  them  were  celi- 
bates, and  they  kept  up  their  numbers  by  adopt- 
ing children,  whom  they  taught  with  great  care 
•and  patience.  If  a  man  wished  to  join  them,  he 
was  obliged  to  submit  to  a  three  years'  noviti- 
-ate,  being  rigidly  excluded  from  their  gather- 
ings. At  the  end  of  each  year  he  was  advanced 
by  ceremonies  and  privileges,  and  after  three 
years  became  a  full  member.  The  only  time 
oaths  or  vows  were  allowed  was  during  the 
initiation  into  full  membership.  The  candidate 
was  bound  by  tremendous  oaths  to  be  worthy 
of  the  order  and  obedient  to  its  rules.  The 
Essenes  were  never  very  numerous.  Philo  gives 
their  number  as  4000.  After  the  destruction  of 
Jerusalem^  they  disappear  from  history. 

They  believed  in  the  immortality  of  the  soul, 
in  a  fixed  Providence,  in  the  future  rewards  of 
the  righteous,  and  punishment  of  the  wicked. 
They  did  not  believe  in  the  resurrection  of  the 
body.  They  were  said  to  practise  magic,  and 
were  believed  by  all  Jews  to  have  prophets 
among  their  members.  It  is  probable  that  they 
derived  from  the  Zoroastrian  religion  their  celi- 
bacy, sun  homage,  abstinence  from  sacrifice, 
magical  rites,  and  intense  striving  after  purity. 
They  were  everywhere  known  for  their  kind- 
ness to  the  sick  and  poor.  Their  knowledge  of 
roots  and  herbs  enabled  them  to  perform  many 
acts  of  healing  that  to  the  spectators  seemed 
miraculous.  They  were  greatly  averse  to  sla- 
very, and  always  opposed  it.  With  few  excep- 
tions they  abstained  from  all  public  affairs,  being 
invariably  modest  and  retiring.  Philo  gives  the 
three  chief  rules  of  their  conduct  as  follows  : 
"  The  love  of  God,  the  love  of  virtue,  and  the 
love  of  man. "  It  has  been  the  theory  of  some  ra- 
tionalists that  Jesus  spent  some  time  among  the 
Essenes,  and  sought  to  widen  and  propagate 
their  theology  and  communism.  (See  De  Quin- 
cey's  Essays  on  the  Essenes.) 

ESTATES  (from  Lat.  status,  stand  or 
status)  is  used  in  political  history  for  classes  or 
orders  in  society.  Since  the  earliest  civiliza- 
tions the  tendency  to  make  distinctions  in  the 


relative  position  of  one  set  of  people  toward 
others  has  appeared.  Plato,  in  his  Republic, 
divides  men  into  three  classes  :  philosophers  or 
magistrates,  warriors  or  gymnasts,  and  laborers 
or  artisans.  The  first  are  the  wise  thinkers, 
who  are  fit  to  rule  ;  the  second  the  fighters — men 
of  force  and  action  ;  the  third  are  the  bulk  of 
the  common  people,  whose  first  care  is  the  sup- 
plying of  every-day  necessities  ;  and  as  the  one 
or  other  element  predominated  in  the  nature  of 
the  individual,  so  he  became  either  philoso- 
pher, warrior,  or  artisan.  What  was  first,  how- 
ever, the  natural  selection  of  ability  soon  be- 
comes a  matter  of  inheritance  ;  and  after  a  time 
the  distinction  was  looked  upon  as  a  direct  act 
of  Deity.  The  castes  of  India,  tho  part  and 
parcel  of  the  Brahman  religion,  are  unmistak- 
ably of  such  origin.  According  to  Brahman 
theology,  Brahma  created  three  different  men  : 
one,  the  Brahman,  emanated  from  his  head, 
and  was  endowed  with  all  knowledge  of  science 
and  art ;  he  has  all  wisdom  and  is  king  and 
head  of  all  the  earth.  The  second,  the  Kohatriya, 
came  from  Brahma's  arms,  and  it  was  his  right 
and  duty,  under  the  control  of  the  Brahman,  to 
make  war  and  peace,  to  make  laws  and  execute 
them,  and  to  maintain  social  order  and  the  di- 
vision of  the  castes.  The  Vaisyas  sprang  from 
Brahma's  feet,  and  were  the  tillers  of  the  soil, 
the  artisans,  upon  whom  devolved  the  supply- 
ing of  all  the  physical  needs  of  humanity. 

The  development  of  the  modern  ' '  estates  of 
the  realm"  was  brought  about  originally  by 
the  same  natural  selection  of  the  fittest  leaders 
of  thought  and  the  strongest  protectors.  In 
France,  before  the  Revolution  of  1789,  the 
three  estates  were  king,  nobles,  and  clergy  ; 
while  the  three  estates  in  England  were  king, 
lords,  and  commons.  The  substitution  of  com- 
mons for  clergy  in  England  was  the  direct  re- 
sult of  the  Reformation,  and  of  the  more  inde- 
pendent thought  of  the  English  people.  The 
conditions  which  M.  Taine  speaks  of  as  being 
the  reason  of  the  power  of  the  clergy  undoubt- 
edly still  held  good  to  some  extent  in  England 
till  Henry  V1I1.  confiscated  all  their  property. 
The  English  clergy,  like  their  brethren  in  other 
new  civilizations,  were  not  only  the  most  learned 
men,  but  also  by  their  tact  became  powerful 
in  the  affairs  of  the  nation.  When,  however, 
the  Reformation  swept  away  their  monopoly  of 
power  over  men's  consciences,  and  when  they 
lost  their  enormous  estates,  a  new  element  be- 
gan to  arise.  From  early  times  the  system  of 
guilds  had  developed  a  certain  amount  of  local 
self-government  among  the  commoners,  who 
had  thereby  gained  confidence  in  their  own 
judgment ;  and  now  a  wish  to  act  for  them- 
selves in  matters  concerning  the  whole  nation 
grew  up,  which  finally  led  to  the  execution  of 
Charles  I.  and  founding  the  Commonwealth. 
From  that  time  the  clergy  ceased  to  have  an 
independent  standing  of  their  own  ;  and  tho  to- 
day the  bishops  have  seats  in  the  House  of 
Lords  by  right  of  their  office,  they  are  practi- 
cally no  more  than  a  section  of  the  privileged 
class.  Their  place  as  rulers  was  taken  by  the 
wealthy  commoners. 

In  France  the  "  three  estates"  continued  to 
hold  sway  long  after  their  beneficial  effects  had 
ceased  ;  until,  indeed,  the  load  of  oppression 


Estates. 


565 


Evans,  Frederick  William. 


had  become  more  than  could  be  borne.  As 
there  was  not  even  a  nominal  representation  of 
the  people,  the  evils  continued  until  the  volcanic 
wrath  of  the  people  swept  away  all  three  es- 
tates, and  put  the  management  entirely  into  the 
hands  of  the  bourgeois  commoners.  They, 
however,  were  not  yet  equal  to  the  task,  and  the 
warrior  had  again  to  be  looked  up  to.  The 
bourgeois  were  called  the  fourth  estate  ;  but  the 
great  mass  of  the  people — the  working  people — 
are  not  of  any  estate  as  yet,  tho  the  lesson  of 
history  goes  to  show  that  in  due  season  there 
will  be  no  distinctions  of  estates  or  classes. 
Modern  socialism  is  sometimes  considered  the 
rising  of  the  fourth  estate,  which  shall  abolish 
all  estate  and  introduce  equality.  (See  DEMOC- 
RACY ;  SOCIALISM.) 


ETHICS  AND  SOCIAL  REFORM. 

MORAL  ELEMENT  IN  SOCIAL  REFORM. 


See 


EVANGELICAL  ALLIANCE,  THE,  or- 
ganized in  London  in  1846,  through  the  efforts 
of  the  Rev.  William  Patton,  D.D.,  and  to-day 
with  branches  in  all  portions  of  the  world,  has 
in  its  meetings,  conventions,  etc.,  given  increas- 
ing attention  to  social  reforms.  Many  of  the 
most  important  recent  utterances  on  the  rela- 
tion of  Christianity  to  social  reform  (g.v.}  have 
been  made  at  its  meetings.  The  Evangelical 
Alliance  in  the  United  States  is  now  organizing 
local  branches  ' '  to  bring  conscience  to  bear  on 
the  life  of  the  nation" ;  to  close  the  chasm  be- 
tween the  churches  and  working  men  ;  to  gain 
the  strength  which  comes  from  organization." 
It  suggests  committees  on  the  following  lines 
of  work  : 

1.  Comity. — Through    this    committee    the    various 
church    extension    societies    of    the    city    should    be 
brought  into  touch,  so  as  to  prevent  overlapping  in 
some  neighborhoods  and  neglect  in  others. 

2.  Social  Conditions, — This  committee  should  inves- 
tigate the  religious  and  social  conditions  of  the  com- 
munity and  of  the  surrounding  country.    They  may 
appropriately  form  neighborhood  or  Church  Reading 
Circles,   Home-culture  Clubs,  and  Maternal  Associa- 
tions.   By  enlisting  the  cooperation  of  a  large  number 
of  judicious  women,  and   assigning  to  each  a  small 
district,  the  churches  can  come  into  friendly  and  help- 
ful personal  relations  with  all  of  the  needy  homes  of 
the  community,  and  bring  to  them  blessings,  sanitary, 
economic,  domestic,  and  spiritual. 

3.  Evangelization. — Through  this  committee  the  Al- 
liance should  care  for  the  religious  needs  of  prisons, 
workhouses,  and  neglected  neighborhoods. 

4.  Relief.— To  this  committee  will  be  referred  cases 
of  sickness  and  want  not  otherwise  provided  for. 

5.  Temperance. — This  committee  may  profitably  un- 
dertake, through  subcommittees,  work  along  various 
lines— e.g.,  public  meetings,  the  organization  of  church 
temperance  societies,  the  systematic  distribution  of 
wisely  selected  temperance  literature,  the  study  of 
the  local  problem,  with  a  view  to  finding  the  best  so- 
lution, etc. 

6.  Sunday  Observance. — Much  can  be  done  to  improve 
Sabbath  observance  by  showng  the  people  the  basis 
on  which  our  Sabbath  laws  rest,  which  is  very  com- 
monly unknown,  especially  by   foreigners.    Members 
of  Endeavor  Societies,  Ep  worth  Leagues,  and  the  like 
might  render  great  service  by  systematically  distribut- 
ing Sunday  and  temperance  literature. 

7.  Law  and  Order. — Under  this  general  head  special 
attention  will  be  paid  to    salons,  disorderly   houses, 
gambling,  and  Sabbath  desecration.    The  town  should 
be  districted  and  each  member  of  the  committee  as- 
signed a  district,  in  which  he  will  keep  vigilant  watch 
of  all  law-breakers. 

8.  Legal  Advice.— Good  legal  advisers  will  be  neces- 
sary. 

9.  Publication.— An  important  service  is    rendered 
by  preparing  a  digest  of  the  liquor,  tobacco,  gaming, 
and  Sunday  laws  of  the  State  ;  also  of  the  laws  speci- 


fying the  duties  of  public  officials,  such  as  Mayor, 
Prosecuting  Attorney,  the  Board  of  Excise,  Excise  In- 
spector, the  Police,  etc.  Knowledge  of  the  fact  that 
the  public  is  well  acquainted  with  the  law  will  often 
bring  officials  up  to  duty,  and  also  prevent  the  viola- 
tion of  law.  Furthermore,  knowledge  of  the  law  serves 
to  strengthen  public  opinion  in  regard  to  its  enforce- 
ment. This  digest  should  be  widely  scattered. 

Further  service  is  rendered  by  first  carefully  verify- 
ing facts  concerning  the  characters  and  records  of  un- 
worthy candidates  and  of  unfaithful  officials,  and  then 
giving  them  publicity  in  a  non-partisan  way.  An 
association  of  citizens  in  Boston  so  exposed  an  un- 
worthy candidate  for  the  mayoralty  as  to  force  him,  to 
leave  the  city. 

10.  Municipal  Reform.— Instead  of  "going  into  poli- 
tics," the  Alliance  will  aim  through  this  committee  to 
separate  municipal  elections  from  State  and  National 
politics.  It  will  insist  on  the  official  fitness  of  candi- 
dates, oppose  incompetent  and  corrupt  men,  and  sus- 
tain the  constituted  authorities  in  a  faithful  adminis- 
tration of  the  public  service. 

it.  Civic  Improvements. — Most  cities  in  the  United 
States  are  in  need  of    public   baths  and  lavatories.. 
Many  young  and  growing  cities  neglect 
to  niake  adequate  provision   for  parks 
until  it  is  too  late.  City  He- 

To  this  committee  many  suggestions         forms 
for  the  public  good  will  come,  also  com-         win".. 
plaints  of  abuses  and  nuisances.    These 
latter,   after    first    being    investigated, 
should  be  referred  to   the  proper  authorities.    Care- 
should  be  taken  not  to  antagonize  officials  unneces- 
sarily. 

12.  Labor. — Through    this    committee    the    Alliance 
will  seek  to  aid  labor  reforms,  to  encourage  the  arbi- 
tration of  labor  difficulties,  to  establish  labor  bureaus, 
form    working   girls'    clubs,    encourage    cooperative 
housekeeping    for    self-supporting   girls,   oppose    the 
sweating  evil    and    child-labor,   and  demonstrate  to 
working  men  the  desire  of  the  churches  to  serve  them 
in  every  legitimate  way. 

13.  Education  and  Recreation. — This  committee  will 
seek  to  create  an  intelligent    interest  in  the  public 
schools,  to  take  the  schools  out  of  politics,  to  see  that 
buildings  are  sanitary  and  that  they  provide  adequate 
accommodations,  that  school  laws,  like  that  requiring 
instruction  as  to  the  effects  of  alcohol  and  narcotics  on 
the  human  body,  are  enforced,  and  that  the  schools 
enjoy  the  best  facilities  for  attaining  the  highest  effi- 
ciency.   This  committee  might  appropriately  consider 
the  introduction  of  university  extension,  the  kinder- 
garten, manual  training,  cooking,  and  sewing  classes, 
.the  English  continuation  and  recreation  schools,  play- 
grounds, summer  excursions   for  poor  children  and 
sickly- mothers,  outing  clubs,  fresh  air  funds,  holiday 
houses,  and  the  like. 

14.  Legislation.—  This  committee,  by  means  of  peti- 
tions and  protests,  will   bring  to  bear  the  Christian 
conscience  of  the  community  on  the  legislature  of  the 
State  with  a  view  to  encouraging  good  and  defeat- 
ing bad  legislation  touching  social,  moral  and  religious 
interests.     Before  the  legislature  convenes,  this  com- 
mittee should  district  the  community  and  assign  to 
each  district  a  competent  person,  who,  on  short  notice, 
will  circulate  such  petitions  or  protests  as  the  Alliance 
may  decide  to  send  to  the  legislature. 

Further  information  can  be  had  from  the  gen- 
eral secretary  of  the  Evangelical  Alliance, 
United  Charities  Building,  Fourth  Avenue  and 
Twenty-second  Street,  New  York. 

EVANS,   FREDERICK   WILLIAM,  was 

born  in  Bromyard,  England,  in  1808.  Spend- 
ing his  boyhood  on  a  farm,  he  came  to  America 
with  his  father  and  brother,  George  Henry 
Evans  (q.v},  in  1820.  Apprenticed  to  a  hatter, 
he  managed  to  educate  himself,  and  later  trav- 
eled as  far  as  New  Orleans,  also  paying  a  visit 
to  England.  In  1830  he  joined  the  Shakers  at 
Mount  Lebanon,  N.  Y.,  and  in  1838  became 
assistant  elder  in  the  "  North  Family,"  and  in 
1858  elder  of  three  families.  From  1873-75  he 
edited  a  little  paper,  The  Shaker  and  Shaker- 
ess.  He  has  written  Compendium  of  Princi- 
ples, Rules,  Doctrines,  and  Government  of 
Shakers,  with  biographies  of  Ann  Lee  and 


Evans,  Frederick  William. 


566 


Evolution  and  Social  Reform. 


others    (1859)  ;    Autobiography  of   a   Shaker  Enrol- 

(1869)  ;   Tests  of  a  Divine  Revelation  (1869) ;  ment. 

Shatter   Communism  (1871);    Religious   Com-        £Jaimlv r- I'°°° 

mutfistn,  a  lecture  delivered  in   St.   George's  vSwntff                                                          'I™ 

Hall,  London  (1872);   The  Second  Appearing        Massachusetts ..........".................      24,820 

of  Christ  (1873).  Rhodelsland 7,623 

Conjiecticut   ..-. 2,883 

New  York 55,000 

,  EVANS,  GEORGE  HENRY  (brother  of  S§Sa:::::::::::::::.":::::::.:::::::r  J'^2 

the  above),  was  born  in  Bromyard.  England,  in 

1805.     He  came  with  his  father  and  brother  to  South  Atlantic  division 3,5io 

America  in  1820.     He  edited  and  published  the 

first  labor  papers  in    America:   The  Man,  at  Bfstrk^of'  Columbia 

T, .             *T  -v\    • «_       ,     _            ~-i7      TTr      i  •         » a-      .  uibincioEi^oiumDia 2.  s  10 

Ithaca,  N.Y.,  about  1822  ;   The  Working  Man  s  Virginia 550 

Advocate,   New    York,   a    part    of    the    time  South  Carolina zoo 

1825-30  ;  The  Daily  Sentinel  in  1837  in  New  N    th  Central  division 

-\  r          1                        II'                                 A                      •              *            -K.T                  TT          -f                    -1  *'       •  LI1    V^CIILI  ill    Ul  V  I  Si  Oil  ........   .,.. *•*•..........             2O.OOO 

York,  and   Young  America  in  New  York  and  1 

Rahway,  N.  J.,  1853.     The  demands  advocated  Ohio. 2,700 

by  Evans  and  printed  at  the  head  of  Young        ii^l0-18 "     ^t000 

/  .  ~      ™,        .    ,,      .  .  .«?  Michigan : 1,100 

America  were  :  i.  The  right  of  man  to  the  sou.  Wisconsin 3,ooo 

"Vote  yourself  a  farm."     2.  Down  with  mo-  Minnesota s',50o 

nopolies,  especially  the  United  States  Bank.    3.  ^°.wa---: I<000 

Freedom  of  public  lands.     4.  Homesteads  made  NeSka'. ".".'.".'. '.'."..'..'.' '.V. '.'.'.'.'.'.'.'.I'. \'.\::: .'.'."       i^ 
inalienable.     5.  Abolition  of  all  laws  for  the  col- 
lection of  debts.     6.  A  general  bankrupt  law.  South  Central  division 1,400 

7.  A  lien  of  the  laborer  upon  his  own  work  for  Kentucky . .                                                         TI^o 
his  wages.     8.  Abolition   of  imprisonment  for 

debt.     9.  Equal  rights  for  women  with  men  in  Western  division 4,4oo 

all  respects.     10.  Abolition   of  chattel  slavery  Colorado... 

and  of  wages  slavery,     n.  Land  limitation  to  Oregon...........'.".'.'  .'.'..'.'.'.'.'.'.'.'.'.'.'.'..".'.'.".'.'.'         200 

1 60  acres.     12.  Mails  in  the  United  States  to  run  California 4,000 

on  the  Sabbath.     Later  G.  H.  Evans  became  a 

friend  of  Horace  Greeley,  and  followed  the  poli-  .   SaYs  the  census  : 

tical  movements  of  the  time  with  interest.     He  .  « foany  cities  mam'tain  schools  from      to  q  0-clock 

died,  in  Uranviile,  JN.  J.,  in  1855.  P.M.  for  from  30  to  90  or  more  sessions  between  No- 

,  vember  and  May,   presumably  for  those  deprived  cc 

the  benefit  of  ordinary  schools  by  age  or  occupation. 

EVENING  SCHOOLS. — The  first  evening  "The  tone  of  reports  on    these    evening  or  night 
csrO-innl  fnr    r»r»v<s  anrl    o-irln   wVirv  harl    tr»  \vnrk-  all  schools  is  more   of   faith   in   their  future   possibilities 
tor  Doys  ana  girls  wno  naa  to  work  all  than  of  confidence  in  their  present  usefulness.    Meagre 
day  was  founded  in   Bristol,  England,  in    1806,  numbers,  irregular  attendance,  difficulty  of  discipline, 
by   the   Benevolent    Evening    Schools    Society.  exhaustion  of  both  pupils  and  teachers  by  the  employ- 
In  1811  the  Rev.  T.  Charles  established  an  even-  ments  ?f  «"»  day  damage  .to  day  schools  by  a  loss  of 
,    j.           ,    ,,         i   TD   i       •»«•     •         iu  t--  power  m  those  who  teach  in  night  schools  as  well  as 
ing  school  for  adults  at  Bala,  Merionethshire.  5ay  schools,  are  general  comments  relieved  by  some 
In  the  course  of  a  few  years  30  towns  possessed  statements  of  excellent  results. 

such  schools.  Bishop  Hinds  first  publicly  SUg-  "  A  somewhat  common  experience  is  a  zealous  fall 
gested  the  state  establishment  of  e/ening  schools  ^^'thf^lSSS,  £<1±^%FCSK 
in  a  letter  to  Mr.  Senior,  printed  in  1839.  ^n  followed  by  a  more  or  less  protracted  struggle  against 
1875  there  were  73  such  schools.  At  present  decline  till  it  is  decided  that  the  schools  had  better 
Kings  College,  the  University  of  London,  the  col- 
leges at  Nottingham,  Cardiff,  Newcastle,  Bris-  Reference:  See  EDUCATION. 
tol,  report  evening  classes,  with  students  vary- 
ing from  700  to  2000  or  more,  while  in  London  EVOLUTION  AND  SOCIAL  REFORM. 
various  technical  and  popular  institutes  do  their  —That  biological  principles  and  the  teachings 
main  work  in  evening  classes.  These  of  course  of  the  evolutionary  philosophy  have  an  impor- 
are  mainly  for  working  men  and  women,  tant  bearing  on  social  reform  is  to-day  all  but 
Some  of  the  trade-unions  have  taken  a  lead-  universally  admitted  ;  yet,  strange  to  say,  even 
ing  part  in  establishing  "recreative  evening  the  best  writers  and  authorities  are  utterly  dis- 
schools"  in  England.  agreed  as  to  the  reform  position  to  which  these 
In  France,  Italy,  and  Germany  evening  principles  lead.  Mr.  Herbert  Spencer  and  some 
schools  exist  for  children  employed  in  factories,  other  writers  use  the  theory  of  evolution  as  an 
In  Germany,  Sunday-schools  long  alone  met  argument  against  state  interference  with  private 
this  need  ;  but  the  evening  schools  are  replac-  property  and  the  necessity  of  industrial  compe- 
ing  these  for  adults.  >  tition  to  human  progress.  Mr.  Benjamin  Kidd 
In  the  United  States  the  last  census  says  :  ^  is  equally  clear  that  evolution  teaches  the  neces- 
sity of  a  great  expansion  of  state  interference, 

"  T^e  available  reports  for  public  night  schools  jus-  tho  it  must  be  an  interference  which  shall  pre- 

tify  the  following  statement,  as  approximately  indi-  ,-,  •             T,     ?  r 

eating  the  enrolment  in  the  States  named  :  Serve   and   not   destroy  competition.      Professor 

Huxley  uses  biology  to  ridicule  Spencer's  posi- 

Enrol-  tion,  while  Professor  Ritchie  and  most  social- 

m      •  ists  make  biology  prove  the  necessity  and  prac- 

states l63-s°o  ticability  of  an  organic  social  life,  where  indus- 

North  Atlantic  division 127.399  trial  competition  shall  disappear.     Finally  Pro- 


Evolution  and  Social  Reform. 


567 


Evolution  and  Social  Reform. 


fessor  S.  N.  Patton,  in  his  Theory  of  Social 
Forces,  a  work  published  in  January,  1896,  says 
(p.  5)  :  "  Even  the  theory  of  evolution  has  had 
as  yet  but  little  influence  on  the  social  concepts 
and  ideals  of  the  race  ;"  and  he  argues  that 
economics  are  psychological  quite  as  truly  as 
biological.  To  understand  this  confusion  it  is 
necessary  to  ask  what  evolution  is. 

"  Evolution,"  says  Professor  Huxley  (Evolution  in 

Biology),  "is  at  present  employed  in  biology  as  a  gen- 

eral name  for  the  history  of  the  steps  by  which  any 

living  being  has  acquired  the  morphological  and  the 

physiological  characters  which  distinguish  it."     He 

says  again  (American  Addresses,  p.  10)  :   "  The  hypo- 

thesis of  evolution  supposes  that  in  all 

this  vast  progression  there  is  no  breach 

Definitions    of  continuity,    .   .  .  but  that  the  whole 

«*  T?^/vi,,«.     „    might  be  compared  to  that  wonderful 

01  evolution.  process  of  development  which  may  be 

seen  going  on  every  day  under  our  eyes, 

in  virtue  of  which  there  arises  out  of 

the  semifluid,  comparatively  homogeneous  substance, 

which  we  call  an  egg,  the  complicated  organization  of 

one  of  the  higher  animals." 

But  we  can  be  more  definite  than  this.  Says 
Spencer  (First  Principles,  §  145)  : 

"  Evolution  is  an  integration  of  matter  and  concom- 
itant dissipation  of  motion,  during  which  the  matter 
passes  from  an  indefinite,  incoherent  homogeneity  to 
a  definite,  coherent  heterogeneity,  and  during  which 
the  retained  motion  undergoes  a  parallel  transforma- 
tion." But  the  word  is  often  used  in  a  still  narrower 
.sense  than  this,  a  sensg_which  identifies  it  with  some 
form  of  what  is  often  also  called  Darwinism,  and 
which  makes  it  the  theory-ef  "  the  derivation  or  de- 
scent, with  modification,  of  all  existing  species, 
genera,  orders,  classes,  etc.,  of  animals  and  plants 
from  a  few  simple  forms  of  life,  if  not  from  one"^Cen- 
tury  Dictionary).  , 

Thus  far  all  authorities  are  practically  agreed? 
But  when  we  come  to  ask  how  this  evolution 
has  taken  place  we  find  more  disagreement. 
We  do  not  here  refer  to  the  fundamental  ques- 
tions of  how  evolution  started  ;  whether  it  is 
teleological  ;  what  it  teaches  concerning  the 
existing  of  a  divine  power  in  or  above  nature. 
With  these  questions  we  are  not  here  concerned. 
But  the  authorities  differ  even  as  to  the  ways  in 
which  evolution  works  wholly  apart  from  the 
question  of  its  origination  or  any  divine  element 
in  it.  There  may  be  more  agreement  than  first 
appears,  but  it  is  necessary  to  refer  to  the  differ- 
ent views  of  evolution  in  order  to  understand 
their  bearing  on  social  reform. 

The  evolutionary  hypothesis  did  not  originate  with 
Charles  Darwin.  The  general  thought  of  evolution  is 
as  old  indeed  as  the  Indian  mystics  and  the  Greek 
physicists.  It  finds  a  comparatively  clear  expression 
in  Leibnitz's  principle  of  continuity,  and  plays  no 
small  part  in  all  German  philosophy.  Even  in  its 
Darwinian  form  it  appears  quite  explicitly  in  the  writ- 
ings of  Lamarck  (Paris,  1809-22),  of  Dr.  W.  C.  Wells,  of 
Charleston,  S.  C.  (1813),  and  of  Sir  Charles  Lyell(i8so). 
Lamarck  taught,  among  other  things,  that  the  produc- 
tion of  a  new  organ  in  an  animal  body  results  from 
the  supervention  of  a  new  want  (besoin)  continuing  to 
make  itself  felt,  and  a  new  movement  which  this  want 
gives  birth  to  and  encourages. 

It  is  this  law  which  has  been  principally  associated 

with  Lamarck's  name,  and  is  often  referred  to  as  his 

hypothesis  of  the  evolution  of  organs 

in  animals  by  appetence  or  longing,  al- 

Various       tho  he  did  not  teach  that  the  animal's 

T?nrma  nf  fh«  desires  affect  its  conformation  directlv, 

rorms  01  me  but  that  a]tered  wants  lead  to  altere-d 

ineory.  habits,  which  result  in  the  formation  of 
new  organs,  as  well  as  in  modification, 
growth,  or  dwindling  of  those  previ- 

ously existing. 


Mr.  Alfred  Wallace,  as  early  as  1855  (Ann.  and  Ma 
.Nat.  Hist.,  1855),  formally  announced  his  belief  in  t 


g: 
the 


theory  of  descent  of  species,  and  intimated  that  the 
manifest  adaptation  of  certain  varieties  to  their  sur- 
roundings secured  them  the  best  chances  of  perpetua- 
tion. Later  records  show  that  Mr.  Wallace  did  not 
stop  at  this  stage  of  development. 

But  it  was  Charles  Darwin  who,  in  his  great  book 
The  Origin  of  Species,  first  placed  the  idea  of  evolu- 
tion clearly  before  the  world  and  gained  the  gradual 
assent  of  almost  the  whole  thinking  world  to  his  ar- 
gument in  general,  if  not  in  detail.  Darwin's  theo- 
ry has  as  its  special  points  the  inherent  susceptibility 
and  tendency  to  variation  according  to  conditions  of  en- 
environment  ;  the  preservation  and  perfection  of  organs 
best  suited  to  the  individual  in  its  struggle  for  exist- 
ence ;  the  perpetuation  of  the  more  favorably  organ- 
ized beings,  and  the  destruction  of  those  less  fitted  to 
service ;  the  operation  of  natural  selection,  in  which 
sexual  selection  is  an  important  factor  ;  and  the  gen- 
eral proposition  that  at  any  given  time  any  given  or- 
ganism represents  the  result  of  the  foregoing  factors, 
acting  in  opposition  to  the  hereditary  tendency  to  ad- 
here to  the  type  or  '  breed  true.'  Since  Darwin's  day 
two  main  schools  have  arisen.  One  school,  sometimes 
called  the  Lamarckian,  holds  to  the  distinguishing  prin- 
ciple of  Lamarck,  that  acquired  variations  can  be  trans- 
mitted, and  that  since  these  variations  are  and  must 
be  adapted  to  external  agencies  and  surroundings, 
and  hence  of  greater  value  to  the  individual  and  the 
race,  such  variations  are  most  important  in  the  differ- 
entiation of  new  forms  of  life.  The  other  school,  follow- 
ing Weismann  in  Germany,  has  in  the  name  of  pure 
Darwinism  or  neo-Darwinism  claimed  that  there  is 
no  satisfactory  evidence  that  those  variations  which 
are  the  result  of  mechanical  causes  (acquired  varia- 
tions) can  be  inherited,  that  every  instance  in  which 
the  effects  of  use  and  disuse,  of  mutilations  and  pre- 
natal influences  and  the  like  are  supposed  to  be  shown 
are  capable  of  another  explanation. 

Most  embryologists  to-day  probably  incline  to 
the  school  of  Weismann  ;  but  the  other  side  is 
ably  supported,  nor  must  it  be  forgotten  that 
both  sides  admit  that  some  variations  at  least 
canbe  transmitted. 

Nor  must  the  agreement  of  the  two  schools 
and  the  general  acceptance  by  all  biologists  of 
the  principle  of  evolution  by  the  struggle  for  life 
and  the  survival  of  the  fittest  be  forgotten. 
Says  Mr.  Benjamin  Kidd  (Social  Evolution, 
P-  34)  : 

"Progress  everywhere  from  the  beginning  of  life 
has  been  effected  in  the  same  way,  and  it  is  possible  in 
no  other  way.  It  is  the  result  of  selection  and  rejec- 
tion. In  the  human  species,  as  in  every  other  species 
which  has  ever  existed,  no  two  individuals  of  a  gen- 
eration are  alike  in  all  respects.  There  is  infinite 
variation  within  certain  limits.  Some  are  slightly 
above  the  average  in  a  particular  direction  as  others 
are  below  it,  and  it  is  only  when  conditions  prevail 
which  are  favorable  to  a  preponderating  reproduction 
of  the  former  that  advance  in  any  direction  becomes 
possible.  To  formulate  this  as  the  immutable  law  of 
progress  since  the  beginning  of  life  has  been  one  of  the 
principal  results  of  the  biological  science  of  the  cen- 
tury, and  recent  work,  including  the  remarkable  con- 
tributions of  Professor  Weismann  in  Germany,  has 
all  tended  to  establish  it  on  foundations  which  are  not 
now  likely  to  be  shaken." 

With  such  a  succinct  statement  as  to  the  views 
of  various  schools  of  biologists  as  to  evolution, 
we  are  now  able  to  better  understand  the  bear- 
ings of  their  views  on  social  reform.  That  such 
a  view  must  have  deep  bearing  on  social  reform 
is  obvious.  That  man's  development  is  sub- 
ject, in  part  at  least,  to  the  same  laws  which 
govern  the  development  of  plants  and  brute 
animal  life  no  thinking  man  to-day  denies,  tho, 
as  we  shall  see,  good  authority  questions  whether 
these  are  the  only  laws  which  control  human 
progress.  We  pass,  therefore,  to  consider  the 
different  applications  of  evolutionary  thought  to 
social  reform. 

The  leadership  in  the  application  of  the  doc- 


Evolution  and  Social  Reform. 


568 


Evolution  and  Social  Reform. 


trine  of  evolution  to  social  science  belongs  un- 
doubtedly to  Herbert  Spencer  (g.v.),  tho  by  no 
means  all  scientists  follow  his  con- 
clusions. Comte  had  already  pre- 
Herbert  pared  the  way  by  treating  of  human 
Spencer,  history  as  a  natural  process  of  con- 
tinuous development,  and  much 
German  philosophy  tends  the  same 
way.  But  Herbert  Spencer's  First  Principles 
(1862)  first  developed  this  thought  into  a  con- 
nected system  (Synthetic  Philosophy),  while  his 
other  works  apply  the  thought  to  psychologic 
religion,  ethics,  sociology,  education,  etc.  Bage- 
hot's  Physics  and  Politics  applies  the  thought 
to  politics.  John  Fiske's  Cosmic  Philosophy 
applies  it  still  more  toman's  origin  and  develop- 
ment. 

Herbert  Spencer  makes  biology  teach  the  folly 
of  state  intervention  and  the  necessity  of  indus- 
trial competition.  He  argues  that  it  is  abso- 
lutely necessary  to  human  progress  that  each 
individual  should  stand  on  his  own  legs,  and 
that  the  "  fittest"  should  survive.  The  strug- 
gle, he  says,  should  go  on  "  without  violence" 
( The  Sins  of  Legislators  in  The  Man  versus 
The  State},  but  government  should  not  interfere. 
He  believes  this  process  to  be  really  benevolent, 
and  says,  "the  poverty  of  the  incapable,  the 
distresses  that  come  upon  the  imprudent,  the 
starvation  of  the  idle,  and  those  shoulderings 
aside  of  the  weak  by  the  strong,  which  leave  so 
many  in  shallows  and  in  miseries,  are  decrees  of 
a  large,  far-seeing  benevolence"  (quoted  by  Mr. 
William  M.  Salter  in  Anarchy  or  Government 
from  Social  Statics,  and  said  by  Mr.  Salter  to 
be  reaffirmed  with  approval  [save  as  regards  its 
teleological  implication]  in  The  Sins  of  Legis- 
lators, The  Man  versus  The  State}. 

Mr.  Spencer  also  believes  this  competition  to 
be  just.  Each  one  should  gain  "  neither  more 
nor  less  of  benefit  than  his  activities  normally 
bring"  (Sociology,  vol.  ii.,  §  575).  "  The  su- 
perior," he  says,  should  "  have  the  good  of  his 
superiority,  and  the  evil  of  his  inferiority," 
and  he  would  put  a  ' '  veto  on  all  public  action 
which  abstracts  from  some  men  part  of  the  ad- 
vantages they  have  earned,  and  awards  to  other 
men  advantages  they  have  not  earned"  (ibid., 
vol.  ii.,  §  567). 

Mr.  Spencer  gives  particular  instances  of 
what  he  means — he  condemns  public  libraries, 
public  museums,  and  public  schools,  since  these 
mean  the  taxation  of  the  more  well-to-do  for  the 
benefit  of  the  less  well-to-do,  and  every  one,  he 
maintains,  should  have  all  the  benefits  of  his 
exertions  to  himself,  and  none  should  have  more 
benefits  than  his  own  exertions  entitle  him  to 
( The  Sins  of  Legislators  and  the  Great  Politi- 
cal Superstition,  in  The  Man  versus  The  State. 
Cf.  Sociology,  vol.  ii.,  §  569). 

This  gives  Mr.  Spencer's  general  position, 
which  he  has  developed  at  length  in  his  Social 
Statics,  Man  versus  The  State,  etc.  (For  a 
fuller  statement  of  his  view,  see  SPENCER.) 

On  questions  of  the  method  in  evolution,  Mr. 
Spencer  follows  the  Lamarckian  view.  Mr. 
Benjamin  Kidd,  however  (in  his  Social  Evolu- 
tion} takes  Weismann's  theory.  Of  the  bearing 
of  this  difference  on  social  reform,  Mr.  Kidd 
says  (p.  191) : 


"  If  the  old  view  is  correct  and  the  effects  of  use  and 
education  are  transmitted  by  inheritance,  then  the  Uto- 
pian dreams  of  philosophy  in  the  past  are  undoubtedly 
possible  of  realization.  If  we  tend  to  inherit  in  our  own 
persons  the  result  of  the  education  and  mental  and 
moral  culture  of  past  generations,  then  we  may  ven- 
ture to  anticipate  a  future  society  which  will  not  de- 
teriorate, but  which  may  continue  to  make  progress, 
even  tho  the  struggle  for  existence  be  suspended,  the 
population  regulated  exactly  to  the  means  of  subsist- 
ence, and  the  antagonism  between  the  individual  and 
the  social  organism  extinguished,  even  as  Mr.  Her- 
bert Spencer  has  anticipated"  (Data  of  Ethics,  chap. 
xiv.).  But  if,  as  the  writer  believes,  the  views  of  the 
Weismann  party  are  in  the  main  correct  ;  if  there  can 
be  no  progress  except  by  the  accumula- 
tion or  congenital  variations  above  the 
average  to  the  exclusion  of  others  be-  Benjamin 
low  ;  if  without  the  constant  stress  of 


selection  •which  this  involves,  the  ten- 
dency  of  every  higher  form  of  life  is 
actually  retrograde  ;  then  is  the  whole 
human  race  caught  in  the  toils  of  that  struggle  and 
rivalry  of  life  which  has  been  in  progress  from  the  be- 
ginning.   Then  must  the  rivalry  of  existence  continue, 
humanized  as  to  conditions,  it  may  be,  but  immutable 
and  inevitable  to  the  end. 

Mr.  Kidd  argues  that  this  is  the  law  of  all 
progress.  He  says  (pp.  35-37)  : 

"  Looking  back  through  the  history  of  life  anterior  to 
man,  we  find  it  to  be  a  record  of  ceaseless  progress,  on 
the  one  hand,  and  ceaseless  stress  and  competition,  on 
the  other.  This  orderly  and  beautiful  world  which 
we  see  around  us  is  now  and  always  has  been  the 
scene  of  incessant  rivalry  between  all  the  forms  of  life 
inhabiting  it  —  rivalry,  too,  not  chiefly  conducted  be- 
tween different  species,  but  between  members  of  the 
same  species.  The  plants  in  the  greensward  beneath 
our  feet  are  engaged  in  silent  rivalry  with  each  other, 
a  rivalry  which  if  allowed  to  proceed  without  outside 
interference  would  know  no  pause  until  the  •weaker 
were  exterminated.  .  .  .  The  trees  of  the  forest  which 
clothe  and  beautify  the  landscape  are  in  a  state  of 
nature  engaged  in  the  same  rivalry  with  each  other. 
Left  to  themselves,  they  fight  out,  as  unn'istakable 
records  have  shown,  a  stubborn  struggle  extending 
over  centuries,  in  which  at  last  only  those  forms  most 
suitable  to  the  conditions  of  the  locality  retain  their 
places. 

"But  so  far  we  view  the  rivalry  under  simple  condi- 
tions ;  it  is  among  the  forms  of  animal  life  as  we  begin 
to  watch  the  gradual  progress  upward  to  higher  types 
that  it  becomes  many-sided  and  complex.  It  is  at  this 
point  that  we  encounter  a  feature  of  the  struggle 
which  recent  developments  of  biological  science  tend 
to  bring  into  ever-increasing  prominence.  The  first 
necessity  for  every  successful  form  engaged  in  this 
struggle  is  the  capacity  for  reproduction  beyond  the 
limits  which  the  conditions  of  life  for  the  time  being 
comfortably  provide  for.  .  .  .  Recent 
biological  researches,  and  more  par- 
ticularly the  investigations  and  conclu- 
sions of  Professor  Weismann,  have 
tended  to  greatly  develop  Darwin's 
original  hypothesis  as  to  the  conditions 
under  which  progress  has  been  made  in 
the  various  forms  of  life.  It  is  now  coming  to  be  rec- 
ognized as  a  necessarily  inherent  part  of  the  doctrine 
of  evolution,  that  if  the  continual  selection  which  is 
always  going  on  among  the  higher  forms  of  life  were 
to  be  suspended,  these  forms  would  not  only  possess 
no  tendency  to  make  progress  forward,  but  must 
actually  go  backward.  That  is  to  say,  if  all  the  individ- 
uals of  every  generation  in  any  species  were  al- 
lowed to  actually  propagate  their  kind,  the  average 
of  each  generation  would  continually  tend  to  fall  be- 
low the  average  of  each  generation  which  preceded  it, 
and  a  process  of  slow  but  steady  degeneration  would 
ensue. 

Mr.  Kidd  applies  this  principle  to  man,  and 
says  (pp.  31-34)  : 

"These  laws,  the  observer  soon  convinces  himself, 
have  not  been  suspended  in  human  society.  On  the  con- 
trary, he  sees  that  they  must  have  their  most  impor- 
tant seat  of  action  there.  To  recognize  this  truth,  one 
has  only  to  remember  that  the  discovery  which  in  our 
time  has  raised  biology  from  a  mere  record  of  isolated 
facts  to  a  majestic  story  of  orderly  progress  was  not 


Natural 
Selection. 


Evolution  and  Social  Reform. 


569 


Evolution  and  Social  Reform. 


suggested  by  the  study  of  life  among  the  lower  ani- 
mals.   The  law,  by  the  enunciation  of  which  Darwin 
most  advanced  the  science  of  the  nineteenth  century, 
took  shape    in  the  mind  of  the   great 
biologist,  after  observation    of  human 
Applied  to    society — that  society  in  particular  which 
«  we  see  around  us  at  the  present  day. 

'  Speaking  of  the  workings  of  his  mind 
before  the  Origin  of  Species  was  begun, 
Darwin  says :  '  In  October,  1838— that  is 
15  months  after  I  had  begun  my  systematic  inquiry,  I 
happened  to  read  for  amusement  Malthus  on  popula- 
tion ;  and  being  well  prepared  to  appreciate  the  strug- 
gle for  existence  which  every  where  goes  on,  from  long- 
continued  observation  of  the  habits  of  animals  and 
plants,  it  at  once  struck  me  that  under  these  circum- 
stances favorable  variations  would  tend  to  be  pre- 
served and  unfavorable  ones  to  be  destroyed.  The  re- 
sult of  this  would  be  the  foundation  of  a  new  species. 
Here,  then,  I  had  at  last  got  a  theory  by  which  to  work' 
( The  Life  and  Letters  of  Darwin,  by  his  son,  autobio- 
graphical chapter,  vol.  i.).  .  .  .  Looking  around  at  the 
lowest  existing  types  of  humanity,  and  comparing  them 
with  the  highest,  one  feels  immediately  constrained  to 
ask,  Do  we  ever  fully  realize  how  this  advance  of 
which  we  are  so  proud,  and  which  is  represented  by  the 
intellectual  social  distance  between  these  two  ex- 
tremes, has  been  brought  about?  We  talk  vaguely 
about  it,  and  take  for  granted  many  things  in  connec- 
tion with  it ;  but  the  number  of  those  who  have 
grasped  certain  elementary  biological  laws  of  which 
it  is  the  result,  and  which  have  controlled  and  directed 
it  as  rigidly  as  the  law  of  gravity  controls  and  di- 
rects a  body  falling  to  the  earth,  is  surprisingly 
small.  .  .  . 

"  At  the  outset  we  find  man  to  be  in  one  respect  ex- 
actly like  all  the  creatures  which  have  come  before 
him.  He  reproduces  his  kind  from  generation  to  gen- 
eration. In  doing  so,  he  is  subject  to  a  law  which 
must  never  be  lost  sight  of.  Left  to  himself,  this  high- 
born creature,  whose  progress  we  seem  to  take  for 
granted,  has  not  the  slightest  innate  tendency  to  make 
any  onward  progress  whatever.  It  may  appear 
strange,  but  it  is  strictly  true,  that  if  each  of  us  were 
allowed  by  the  conditions  of  life  to  follow  his  own  in- 
clinations, the  average  of  one  generation  would  have 
no  tendency  whatever  to  rise  beyond  the  average  of  the 
preceding  one,  but  distinctly  the  reverse.  This  is  not 
a  peculiarity  of  man  ;  it  has  been  a  law  of  life  from  the 
beginning,  and  it  continues  to  be  a  universal  law,  which 
we  have  no  power  to  alter." 

As  a  result  of  this  view,  Mr.  Kidd  believes 
that  to  insure  progress  society  must  insure  the 
perpetuation  of  competition.  This,  he  says,  is 
against  the  immediate  interests  of  the  indus- 
trially weaker  classes,  and  therefore  they  are 
advocating  socialism,  the  essence  of  which  Mr. 
Kidd  finds  to  consist  in  the  elimination  of  com- 
petition. But  Mr.  Kidd  says  this  cannot  prevail , 
because  it  would  mean  biological  detenoration 
and  death.  Through  all  our  Western  civiliza- 
tion Mr.  Kidd  finds  a  process  going  on  born  of 
the  superrational  sanctions  of  Christianity,  tend- 
ing to  altruism,  lifting  up  the  lower  classes,  by 
an  ever-widening  democracy  not  toward  social- 
ism, but  toward  a  condition  where  all  classes 
can  compete  on  planes  of  more  perfect  equality. 
He  says  (pp.  154-65) : 

"  The    Reformation   liberated,  as  it  were,  into  the 

Practical  life  of  the  peoples  affected  by  it  that  immense 
9dy  of  altruistic  feeling  which  had  been  from  the  be- 
ginning the  distinctive  social  product  of  the  Christian 
religion  "  (p.  154).  The  clue  to  modern  history,  he  says, 
lies  "  in  the  fact  that  it  has  consisted  essentially  in  the 
gradual  breaking  down  of  that  military  organization  of 
society  which  had  previously  prevailed  and  in  the  eman- 
cipation and  enfranchisement  of  the  great  body  of  the 
people  hitherto  universally  excluded  under  that  consti- 
tution of  society  from  all  participation  on  equal  terms 
in  the  rivalry  of  existence.  .  .  .  And  it  tends  to  culmi- 
nate in  a  condition  of  society  in  which  there  shall  be 
no  privileged  classes,  and  in  which  all  the  excluded 
people  shall  be  last  brought  into  the  rivalry  of  life 
on  a  footing  of  equality,  of  opportunity^  the  signifi- 
cance of  the  whole  process  consisting  in  its  tendency 
to  raise  the  rivalry  of  existence  to  the  highest  degree 
of  efficiency  as  a  cause  of  progress,  to  which  it  has  ever 
attained  in  the  history  of  life.  " 


Mr.  Kidd  thus  formulates  his  conclusions  as 
to  social  reform  (pp.  237,  238)  : 

"In  the  era  upon  •which  we  are  entering,  the  long, 
uphill  effort  to  secure  equality  of  opportunity,  as  well 
as  equality  of  political  rights,  will  of  necessity  involve 
not  the  restriction  of  the  interference  of  the  State,  but 
the  progressive  extension  of  its  sphere  of  action  to  al- 
most every  department  of  our  social  life.  The  move- 
ment in  the  direction  of  the  regulation,  control,  and  re- 
striction of  the  rights  of  wealth  and  capital  must  be 
expected  to  continue,  even  to  the  extent  of  the  State 
itself  assuming  these  rights  in  cases  where  it  is  clearly 
proved  that  their  retention  in  private  hands  must  un- 
duly interfere  with  the  rights  and  op- 
portunities of  the  body  of  the  people. 
But  the  continuity  of  principle  may  be  Not 

expected  to  remain  evident  under  the  Socialism 
new  appearances.  Even  in  such  cases,  »«"'i'U-l8IU' 
the  State  will,  in  reality,  assume  such 
functions  in  order  to  preserve  or  secure 
free  competition  rather  than  to  suspend  it.  Hence,  the 
general  tendency  must  be  expected  to  be  toward 
State  interference  and  State  control,  on  a  greatly  ex- 
tended scale,  rather  than  toward  State  management. 
It  may,  perhaps,  be  inferred  from  this  that  the  de- 
velopment of  society  in  the  direction  indicated  will  it- 
self be  a  movement  toward  socialism.  This  is  not  so. 
The  gulf  between  the  state  of  society — toward  which 
it  is  the  tendency  of  the  process  of  evolution  now  in 
progress  to  carry  us — and  socialism  is  wide  and  deep. 
The  avowed  aim  of  socialism  is  to  suspend  .that  per- 
sonal rivalry  and  competition  of  life,  which  not  only 
is  now,  but  has  been  from  the  beginning  of  life,  the 
fundamental  impetus  behind  all  progress.  The  in- 
herent tendency  of  the  process  of  social  development 
now  taking  place  among: us  is  (as  it  has  been  from 
the  beginning  of  our  civilization)  to  raise  this  rivalry 
to  the  very  highest  degree  of  efficiency  as  a  condition 
of  progress,  by  bringing  all  the  people  into  it  on  a 
footing  of  equality,  and  by  allowing  the  freest  possible 
play  of  forces  within  the  community,  and  the  widest 
possible  opportunities  for  the  development  of  every  in- 
dividual's faculties  and  personality.  This  is  the  mean- 
ing of  that  evolutional  process  which  lhas  been  slowly- 
proceeding  through_the  history  of  .the  Western  peoples.  ' 

Contrary  both  to  Mr.  Spencer  and  to  Mr.  Kidd 
are  the  views  of  Professor  Huxley.  Of  Mr. 
Spencer's  view,  Professor  Huxley  says  (Admin- 
istrative Nihilism,  an  address  delivered  to  the 
Midland  Institute,  October  9,  1871) : 

"  One  of  the  profoundest  ,of  living  English  philoso- 
phers, who  is  at  the  same  time  the  most~  thoroughgo- 
ing and  consistent  of  the  champions  of  astynomoc- 
racy,  has  devoted  a  very  able  and  ingenious  essay  to 
the  drawing  out  of  a  comparison  between  the  process 
by  which  men  have  advanced  from  the  savage  state  to 
the  highest  civilization,  and  that  by  which  an  animal 
passes  from  the  condition  of  an  almost  shapeless  and 
structureless  germ  to  that  in  which  it  exhibits  a  high- 
ly complicated  structure  and  a  corresponding  diversi- 
ty of  powers All  this  appears  to  be  very  just. 

But  if  the  resemblance  between  the  body  physiologi- 
cal and  the  body  politic  is  any  indication  not  only  of 
what  the  latter  is,  and  how  it  has  become  what  it  is, 
but  of  what  it  ought  to  be,  and  what  it  is  tending  to 
become,  I  cannot  but  think  that  the  real  force  of  the 
analogy  is  totally  opposed  to  the  negative  view  of 
State  function. 

"Suppose  that,  in  accordance  with  this  view,  each 
muscle  were  to  maintain  thatthe  nervous  system  had  no 
right  to  interfere  with  its  contraction,  except  to  pre- 
vent it  from  hindering  the  contraction  of  another  mus- 
cle ;  or  each  gland,  that  it  had  a  right  to  secrete,  so 
long  as  its  secretion  interfered  •with  no  other  ;  suppose 
every  separate  cell  left  free  to  follow  its  own  '  inter- 
ests/ and  laissez  faire  lord  of  all,  what  would  be- 
come of  the  body  physiological  ? 

"The  fact  is,  that  "the  sovereign  power  of  the  body 
thinks  for  the  physiological  organism,  acts  for  it,  and 
rules  the  individual  components  with  a  rod  of  iron.  .  .  . 
Hence,    if   the    analogy     of    the    body 
politic    with    the     body    physiological 
counts  for  anything,  it  seenis  to  me  to  Huxley  Op- 
be  in  favor  of  a  much  larger  amount  of  n...^  +-0  Snen- 
governmental  interference  than  exists  at  *™   ',          K 
present,  or  than  I,  for  one,  at  all  desire    cer  S  View, 
to  see.    But,  tempting  as  the  opportunity 
is,  I  am  not  disposed  to  build  up  any 
argument  in  favor  of  my  own  case  upon  this  analogy 
curious,  interesting,  and  in  many  respects  close  as  it 


Evolution  and  Social  Reform. 


57° 


Evolution  and  Social  Reform. 


is,  for  it  takes  no  cognizance  of  certain  profound  and 
essential  differences  between  the  physiological  and  the 
political  bodies." 

Professor  Huxley  then  goes  on  to  state  his 
own  views,  and  says  : 

"  When  men  living  in  society  have  once  become 
aware  that  their  welfare  depends  upon  two  opposing 
tendencies  of  equal  importance— the  one  restraining, 
the  other  encouraging,  individual  freedom— the  ques- 
tion, '  What  are  the  functions  of  government  ? '  is  trans- 
lated into  another — namely,  What  ought  we  men,  in 
our  corporate  capacity,  to  do,  not  only  in  the  way  of 
restraining  that  free  individuality  which  is  inconsis- 
tent with  the  existence  of  society,  but  in  encouraging 
that  free  individuality  which  is  essential  to  the  evolu- 
tion of  the  social  organization  ?  The  formula  which 
truly  defines  the  function  of  government  must  contain 
the  Solution  of  both  the  problems  involved^  and  not 
merely  of  one  of  them. 

"  Locke  has  furnished  us  with  such  a  formula,  in  the 
noblest,  and  at  the  same  time  briefest,  statement  of 
the  purpose  of  government  known  to  me  : 

'THE  END  OF  GOVERNMENT  IS  THE  GOOD  OF  MANKIND* 

(Of  Civil  Government,  §  229). 

"But  the  good  of  mankin  d  is  not  a  so  mething  which  is 
absolute  and  fixed  for  all  men,  whatever  their  capaci- 
ties or  state  of  civilization.  Doubtless  it  is  possible  to 
imagine  a  true  'Civitas  Dei,'  in  which  every  man's 
moral  faculty  shall  be  such  as  leads  him  to  control  all 
those  desires  which  run  counter  to  the  good  of  man- 
kind, and  to  cherish  only  those  which  conduce  to  the 
welfare  of  society  ;  and  in  which  every  man's  native 
intellect  shall  be  sufficiently  strong,  and  his  culture 
sufficiently  extensive,  to  enable  him  to  know  what  he 
ought  to  do  and  to  seek  after.  And  in  that  blessed 
state  police  will  be  as  much  a  superfluity  as  every 
other  kind  of  government. 

"  But  the  eye  of  man  has  not  beheld  that  state,  and 
is  not  likely  to  behold  it  for  some  time  to  come.  What 
we  do  see,  in  fact,  is  that  states  are  made  up  of  a  con- 
siderable number  of  the  ignorant  and  foolish,  a  small 
proportion  of  genuine  knaves,  and  a  sprinkling  of 
capable  and  honest  men,  by  whose  efforts  the  former 
are  kept  in  a  reasonable  state  of  guidance,  and  the 
latter  of  repression.  And  such  being  the  case,  I  do 
not  see  how  any  limit  whatever  can  be  laid  down  as  to 
the  extent  to  which,  under  some  circumstances,  the 

action  of  government  may  be  rightfully  carried 

The  question  when  to  draw  the  line  between  those 
things  with  which  the  state  ought,  and  those  with 
which  it  ought  not,  to  interfere,  then,  is  one  which  must 
be  left  to  be  decided  separately  for  each  individual 
case.  The  difficulty  which  meets  the  statesman  is  the 
same  as  that  which  meets  us  all  in  individual  life,  in 
which  our  abstract  rights  are  generally  clear  enough, 
tho  it  is  frequently  extremely  hard  to  say  at  what 
point  it  is  wise  to  cease  our  attempts  to  enforce  them." 

Professor  Huxley  wrote  before  Mr.  Kidd's 
Social  Evolution  appeared  ;  but  among  his 
latest  utterances  he  showed  that  there  was  a 
deep  division  to  be  drawn  between  the  biologi- 
cal laws  which  govern  the  development  of  the 
lower  forms  of  creation  and  those  which  govern 
man.  He  says  ( The  Struggle  for  Existence 
in  the  Nineteenth  Century,  February,  1888, 
pp.  165,  166)  : 

"  Society,  like  art,  is  a  part  of  nature.  But  it  is  con- 
venient to  distinguish  those  parts  of  nature  in  which 
man  plays  the  part  of  immediate  cause  as  something 
apart ;  and,  therefore,  society;  like  art,  is  usefully  to 
be  considered  as  distinct  from  nature.  It  is  the  more 
desirable,  and  even  necessary,  to  make  this  distinc- 
tion, since  society  differs  from  nature  in  having  a 
definite  moral  object ;  whence  it  comes  about  that  the 
course  shaped  by  the  ethical  man — the  member  of  soci- 
ety or  citizen — necessarily  runs  counter  to  that  which 
the  non-ethical  man — the  primitive  savage,  or  man  as 
a  mere  member  of  the  animal  kingdom — tends  to 
adopt.  The  latter  fights  out  the  struggle  for  existence 
to  the  bitter  end,  like  any  other  animal ;  the  former 
devotes  his  best  energies  to  the  object  of  setting  limits 
to  the  struggle. 

"The  history  of  civilization— that  is,  of  society,  is 
the  record  of  the  attempts  which  the  human  race  has 
made  to  escape  from  this  position  (i.e.,  the  struggle  for 
existence  in  which  those  who  were  best  fitted  to  cope 
with  their  circumstances,  but  not  the  best  in  any  other 


sense,  survived).  The  first  men  who  substituted  the 
state  of  mutual  peace  for  that  of  mutual  war,  what- 
ever the  motive  which  impelled  them  to  take  that 
step,  created  society.  But  in  establishing  peace,  they 
obviously  put  a  limit  upon  the  struggle  for  existence. 
Between  the  members  of  that  society,  at  any  rate,  it 
was  not  to  be  pursued  a  out  ranee.  And  of  all  the  suc- 
cessive shapes  which  society  has  taken,  that  most 
nearly  approaches  perfection  in  which  -war  of  indi- 
vidual against  individual  is  most  strictly  limited." 

Professor  D.  G.  Ritchie,  in  his  Darwinism 
and  Politics,  carries  the  argument  still  further, 
and  shows,  in  the  first  place,  that  "  the  survival 
of  the  fittest"  does  not  necessarily  mean  the 
survival  of  the  best.  He  says  : 

"The  phrase  '  survival  of  the  fittest '  is  very  apt  to 
mislead,   for  it  suggests  the  fittest  or  best  in  every 
sense  or  in  the  highest  sense,  whereas  it  only  means, 
as  Professor  Huxley  has  pointed  out,  '  those  best  fit- 
ted to  cope  with  their  circumstances '  (article  in  The 
Struggle   for   Existence,  in  Nineteenth  Century   for 
February,  1888,  p.  165),  in  order  to  survive  and  transmit 
offspring.     Now  when  we  come  to  consider  society,  we 
have  to  deal  with  a  very  complex  set  of  phenomena, 
and  what  is  fittest  in  one  aspect  may  not  be  fittest  in 
another.    But   natural    selection    implies   no    further 
morality  than 'nothing  succeeds  like  success.'    If  the 
struggle  for  food  and  mates  be  carried  on  on  its  lowest 
terms,  the  strongest  and  the  strongest  only  would  be 
selected.    But  cunning   can  do  a  great 
deal  against  strength.     Now  we  cannot 
be    sure    that    a   good   combination  of    «« Survival 
strength  and  cunning  will  be  selected  :   .*  ^ .  -p -t 
strength  in  some  cases,  cunning  in  oth-  °         „ 
ers,  is  what  we  find  by   comparing  dif-      test    Not 
ferent  species  of  animals   and  different     the  Best. 
races  of  men.    Again,  the  strongest  and 
largest  and  in  many  ways  finest  animals 
are  not  necessarily  those   most  capable  of  adapting 
themselves  to  changed  circumstances.    The  insignifi- 
cant may  more  easily  find  food  and  escape  enemies. 
We  cannot  be  sure  that  evolution  will  always  lead  to 
what  we  should  regard  as  the  greatest  perfection  of 
any  species.    Degeneration  enters  in  as  well  as  prog- 
ress.   The  latest  theory  about  the  Aryan  race  makes 
the  Aryans  come  from  the  north  of  Europe,  conquer 
the  feebler  races  of  the  south,  and,  having  proved  its 
fitness  in  this  way,  prove  its  unfitness  in  another  by 
being  less  capable    of    surviving  in  a  warm  climate 
than  they ;  so  that  an  Aryan  language  may  be  spoken 
where  there  remains  little  or  no  Aryan  blood.    Are  we 
entitled  to  maintain,  with  regard  to  human  races  and 
human  individuals,  that  the  fittest  always  survive,  ex- 
cept in  the  sense  in  which  the  proposition  is  a  truism, 
that  those  survive  who  are  most  capable  of  surviving  ? 

"Further,  we  must  emphasize  the  fact  that  the 
struggle  goes  on  not  merely  between  individual  and 
individual,  but  between  race  and  race.  The  struggle 
among  plants  and  the  lower  animals  is  mainly  be- 
tween members  of  the  same  species  ;  and  the  individu- 
al competition  between  human  beings,  which  is  so 
much  admired  by  Mr.  Herbert  Spencer,  is  of  this 
primitive  kind.  When  we  come  to  the  struggle  be- 
tween kinds,  it  is  to  be  noticed  that  it  is  fiercest  be- 
tween allied  kinds ;  and  so,  as  has  been  pointed  out, 
the  economic  struggle  between  Great  Britain  and 
the  United  States  is  fiercer  than  elsewhere  between 
nations.  But  so  soon  as  we  pass  to  the  struggle  be- 
tween race  and  race,  we  find  new  elements  coming  in. 
The  race  which  is  fittest  to  survive,  i.e.,  most  capable 
of  surviving,  will  survive  ;  but  it  does  not  therefore 
follow  that  the  individuals  thereby  preserved  will  be 
the  fittest,  either  in  the  sense  of  being  those  who  in  a 
struggle  between  individual  and  individual  would 
have  survived,  or  in  the  sense  of  being  those  whom  we 
should  regard  as  the  finest  specimens  of  their  kind.  .  .  . 
Admirable,  doubtless— this  scheme  of  salvation  for 
the  elect  by  the  damnation  of  the  vast  majority  ;  but, 
pray,  do  not  let  us  hear  anything  more  about  its  'be- 
neficence.' 

"  I  am  not  speaking  at  random  about  these  ethical 
applications  of  the  conception  of  struggle  for  exist- 
ence. Darwin  himself,  as  always,  is  most  cautious 
and  guarded  in  his  reference  to  anything  that  lies 
outside  his  own  special  sphere  of  observation.  He 
looks  forward  to  the  elimination  of  the  lower  races  by 
the  higher  civilized  races  throughout  the  world  (Life 
and  Letters,  I.,  p.  316).  He  points  out  how  'a  struggle 
for  existence,  consequent  on  his  rapid  multiplication,' 
has  advanced  man  to  his  present  high  condition  ;  'and 
if  he  is  to  advance  still  higher,  it  is  to  be  feared  that 


Evolution  and  Social  Reform. 


Exchange. 


he  must  remain  subject  to  a  severe  struggle.  Other- 
wise he  would  sink  into  indolence,  and  the  more  gifted 
men  would  not  be  more  successful  in  the  battle  of  life 
than  the  less  gifted '  {Descent  of  Man,  p.  319).  This, 
doubtless,  includes  the  old  objection  which  Aristotle 
brought  against  Plato's  communism,  that  man  needs  a 
stimulus  to  exertion  and  industry.  But  there  is  no 
jubilation,  no  exaltation  of  a  natural  law  into  an  ethi- 
cal ideal.  And  let  us  know  how  Darwin  modifies  this 
very  statement  in  the  words  that  follow  : 

"  '  Important  as  the  struggle  for  existence  has  been 
and  even  still  is,  yet  as  far  as  the  highest  part  of  man's 
nature  is  concerned  there  are  other  agencies  more  im- 
portant. For  the  moral  qualities  are  advanced,  either 
directly  or  indirectly,  much  more  through  the  effects 
of  habit,  the  reasoning  powers,  instruction,  religion, 
etc.,  than  through  natural  selection  ;  tho  to  this  latter 
agency  may  be  safely  attributed  the  social  instincts 
which  afforded  the  basis  for  the  development  of  the 
moral  sense.'  " 

Socialists,  however,  usually  go  farther  than 
any  of  the  above  writers,  and  argue  from  evo- 
lution not  only  that  the  struggle  for  existence 
is  not  the  only  law  of  human  progress,  but  that 
it  teaches  the  development  and  survival  of  com- 
bination over  competition.  Says  a  recent  writer 
(anonymously)  : 

"This  law  of  organic  evolution  does  not  stop  with 
the  development  of  the  physical.  It  is  the  same 
throughout  the  entire  realm  of  phenomena.  It  passes 

over  into  the  immaterial  and  builds  up 

political,  social,  and  moral  institutions  in 
Society  an  almost  precisely  the  same  manner  as 
flrtrnnism  physical  organisms  are  formed.  In  the 
urgaiusm.  political  aspect  of  the  world  the  start  is 

also    had  with  the  individual  or  unit. 

Then  follows  a  community  of  units,  the 
town,  for  instance.  The  same  law  of  development  or 
community  of  vital  interests  results  in  the  organiza- 
tion of  counties,  States  and  nations,  each  a  political 
organism,  with  functions  peculiar  to  its  specific  plane 
of  being  or  place  in  the  body  politic  ;  but  all,  when  per- 
fected, working  harmoniously  together  for  the  com- 
mon good  and  equal  rights  of  the  units,  the  individual 
men  and  women  that  form  the  organism  or  political 
body.  This  same  law  of  progressive  development  also 
foreshadows  the  time  when  there  will  be  a  confederacy 
of  nations,  a  political  world  organism,  a  race  unity, 
the  highest  functions  of  which  will  be  to  secure  to  the 
race — unit — man  the  freedom  of  a  fair  chance  in  the 
exercise  of  his  inalienable  right  to  preserve  and  en- 
hance his  inherent  individuality." 

Socialists  believe  in  the  evolution  of  compe- 
tition. Says  W.  D.  P.  Bliss  (Handbook  of  So- 
cialism, p.  21)  : 

"  Competition  was  once  mainly  physical  j  this  pro- 
duced the  survival  of  the  fittest  to  survive  in  physical 
strife.  'There  were  giants  in  those  days,'  the  Nim- 
rods,  the  Goliaths,  the  Agamemnons,  'kings  of  men.' 
Organized  society  gradually  restrained  that  physical 
strife,  and  competition  became  chiefly  military  be- 
tween States.  This  was  the  distinguishing  feature  of 
the  Greek  State  and  of  the  Roman  civilization.  It 
produced  an  Alexander,  a  Hannibal,  a  Caesar,  and 
continued  to  the  time  of  Napoleon,  and  is  not  yet  dead. 
But  gradually  advancing  fraternalism  has  replaced 
military  by  industrial  competition.  To-day  men  strive 
neither  with  guns  nor  with  poisoned  arrows,  so  much 
as  with  cornerings  of  the  market  and  with  poisoned 
groceries.  It  has  produced  the  survival  of  the  fittest 
to  survive  in  such  a  strife— the  Rothschilds,  the  Jay 
Goulds,  the  Vanderbilts,  the  Pullmans,  the  Napoleons 
of  finance.  Therefore,  socialists  do  not  urge  the  abo- 
lition of  competition.  They  simply  say  that  it  is  time 
to  lift  competition  to  a  higher  level,  and  make  it  intel- 
lectual, not  industrial.  As  organized  fraternalism  has 
to  a  large  measure  put  down  physical  strife,  and  is 
putting  down  militarism,  so  socialists  would  have  it 
gradually  supplant  industrial  competition  by  indus- 
trial cooperation." 

A  recent  work,  however,  on  social  evolution 
is  Professor  S:  N.  Patton's  Theory  of  the  Social 
Forces  (January,  1896).  He  says  (p.  7)  :  "  Evo- 
lution has  thus  far  been  studied  as  a  problem  of 
biology.  This  has  been  due  more  to  what  I 


would  call  a  happy  accident  than  to  any  neces- 
sity of  the  situation.  Darwin  admits  that  he 
obtained  the  clue  to  his  theory  through  reading 
Malthus's  Essay  on  Population,  and  in  many 
respects  the  attitude  of  the  author  of  the  Origin 
of  Species  is  that  of  an  economist.  It  is  only  by 
later  writers  that  the  economic  elements  in  the 
problem  are  neglected,  and  that  the  theory  is 
based  solely  upon  biologic  evidence.  The  happy 
accident  to  which  I  have  referred  is  the  fact 
that  the  history  of  past  organic  life  is  so  plainly 
recorded  in  the  various  organisms  of  the  present 
and  in  the  fossil  remains  of  earlier  forms. ' ' 

Professor  Patton  then  goes  on  to  argue  that 
evolution  is  the  result  of  the  action  of  environ- 
ment upon  organism  ;  that  biology  has  studied 
organism  (because  of  the  "  happy  accident"  that 
this  is  what  could  be  best  historically  studied), 
but  has  neglected  environment.  He  quotes 
Spencer  as  saying  (Psychology,  vol.  i.,  p.  134) : 
"  Throughout  biology  proper  the  environment 
and  its  correlated  phenomena  are  either  but  tacit- 
ly recognized,  or  overtly  and  definitely  recog- 
nized, are  so  but  occasionally,  while  the  organism 
and  its  correlated  phenomena  practically  monopo- 
lize the  attention. ' '  Here  Professor  Patton  finds 
the  weak  point  in  current  economic  discussions. 
They  have  overlooked  environment,  and,  says 
Professor  Patton  (p.  5),  "the  present  environ- 
ment of  the  race  is  so  different  from  its  prede- 
cessors that  a  new  social  philosophy  is  de- 
manded to  explain  its  effects. ' '  Hence  Profes- 
sor Patton's  essay  is  "an  attempt  to  recast  cur- 
rent social  philosophy  and  to  introduce  into  it 
elements  which  thus  far  have  been  overlooked." 
These  elements  are  largely  psychologic,  and, 
according  to  Professor  Patton,  deserve  to  rank 
equally  with  the  biologic  factors.  By  such  an 
analysis  of  man's  present  environment  Profes- 
sor Patton  forecasts  "asocial  commonwealth," 
based  upon  a  pure  pleasure  economy,  even  as 
state  socialism,  according  to  him,  is  the  ideal  of 
those  suffering  from  the  evils  of  a  fair  economy. 
This  social  commonwealth,  however,  he  says, 
must  not  be  assumed  to  be  the  highest  or  final 
state.  "  If  a  progressive  evolution  continues," 
he  tells  us  (p.  6),  '  '  other  societies  will  be  possi- 
ble, each  of  which  will  differ  from  its  predeces- 
sor as  radically  as  the  society  I  describe  differs 
from  our  present  society." 

References :  See  the  books  quoted  in  this  article. 
See  also  BIOLOGY. 

EXCHANGE,  in  economic  science,  may  be 
defined  as  the  giving  of  one  commodity  or  ser- 
vice for  another  commodity  or  service.  It  lies 
at  the  basis  of  almost  all  modern  production  and 
distribution.  Little  is  produced  to-day  by  one's 
self  for  one's  self.  Without  exchange  of  services 
and  of  commodities  there  could  scarcely  be 
production  or  distribution  on  any  large  scale. 
This  is  so  much  so  that  some  have  identified  all 
political  economy  as  the  science  of  exchange  or 
catallactics.  (See  POLITICAL  ECONOMY,  also  CAT- 
ALLACTICS.)  Others  have  proposed  to  do  away 
with  exchange  as  a  separate  title  or  subject, 
considering  it  under  production  and  distribution. 
Most  economists  make  it,  however,  a  distinct 
and  important  part  of  political  economy.  Adam 
Smith  attributes  exchange  to  the  division  of 
labor,  and  treats  it  before  he  considers  wages, 


Exchange. 


572 


Expenditures  (Family). 


profits,  or  rents  (  Wealth  of  Nations,  book  i. , 
chap.  iv.).  Both  James  and  John  Stuart  Mill  treat 
it  after  treating  of  production  and  distribution 
and  slight  exchange.  The  latter  says  :  "  Ex- 
change and  money  make  no  difference  in  the 
law  of  wages,  in  the  law  of  rent,  nor  in  the  law 
of  profit"  (Principles,  book  iii.,  chap.  xxvi.). 
On  the  other  hand,  most  economists  believe 
wages,  rent,  and  profit  are  not  possible  without 
exchange,  and  cannot  be  studied  till  we  under- 
stand exchange.  Professor  Walker  puts  ex- 
change at  least  before  distribution  ;  and  Profes- 
sors Sedgwick  and  Marshall  treat  distribution 
and  exchange  as  too  intimate  to  be  separated. 

Under  the  section  "  Exchange"  (Political 
Economy,  Part  III.,  revised  edition),  Professor 
Walker  says : 

' '  Under  the  title  '  Exchange  '  in  a  systematic 
treatise  on  political  economy,  I  would  consider 
the  ratios  of  exchange,  the  terms  on  which 
goods,  commodities,  articles  possessing  value, 
items  in  the  sum  of  wealth  exchange  for  one 
another.  Why  does  so  much  of  this  commodity 
exchange  for  so  much  of  that?"  It  is  obvious 
that  this  raises  the  whole  question  to-day  so 
much  mooted  of  value.  It  will,  therefore,  in 
this  encyclopedia  best  be  treated  under  the  head 
VALUE  (f.v.). 

EXCHANGE,  FOREIGN.  See  FOREIGN 
EXCHANGE. 

EXCHANGE,  STOCK.  See  STOCK  EX- 
CHANGE. 

EXCHANGE  VALUE.    See  VALUE. 

EXCISE  (from  Lat.  ex-cide,  cut  off)  is  a  duty 
laid  upon  any  commodity  produced  within  a 
country  in  distinction  from  those  custom  duties 
(see  TARIFF)  which  are  levied  upon  imports. 
The  derivation  implies  that  the  excise  is  some- 
thing cut  off  from  the  price  for  the  benefit  of 
the  state.  It  is  an  indirect  tax,  because,  tho 
levied  on  the  product,  it  falls  on  the  consumer. 
Excise  duties  are  an  old  form  of  duty,  begun  in 
England  under  this  name  as  early  as  1643,  being 
laid  on  ale  and  all  forms  of  intoxicating  drinks, 
and  later  on  a  long  list  of  articles  of  food  and 
clothing.  The  necessities  of  life  were  later  ex- 
cepted.  Excise  duties  were  at  first  duties  on 
commodities  produced  in  or  out  of  a  country. 
Robert  Walpole,  in  1733,  introduced  a  famous 
excise  scheme,  whereby  tobacco  and,  later, 


wine  paid  no  duty,  but  was  warehoused  under 
the  control  of  excise  officers,  and  paid  excise 
duties  only  as  sold  within  the  country.  It  pro- 
duced a  great  excitement,  and  was  abandoned. 
To-day  excise  duties  are  paid  in  England  on 
beer,  wine,  spirits,  tobacco,  dogs,  gun  and 
game  licenses,  carriages,  male  servants,  armorial 
bearings,  railway  tickets,  by  auctioneers,  ped- 
dlers, farm  brokers,  tavern-keepers,  etc. 

In  the  United  States,  excise  duties  were  dis- 
liked as  inheritances  from  the  English  Govern- 
ment, and  an  effort  was  early  made  to  enact  a 
constitutional  amendment  forbidding  excise 
duties  ;  but  in  1790  Hamilton  proposed  and  got 
passed  an  excise  duty  on  spirits.  In  1792  it  was 
lowered,  and  under  Jefferson  abolished.  The 
War  of  1812  led  to  an  excise  duty  on  distilled 
spirits,  domestic  refined  sugar,  salt,  carriages, 
etc.  But  in  1817  these  were  abolished,  and  no 
excise  duty  was  levied  till  the  internal  tax  of  1862. 
(See  INTERNAL  REVENUE.)  The  excise  duties  in 
Great  Britain  for  the  fiscal  year  ending  March 
31,  1895,  were  $129,378,130.  The  internal  reve- 
nue of  the  United  States  in  1895  was  $143,421,- 
672.  (For  a  discussion  of  excise  duties,  see 
TAXATION.) 

EXECUTIVE.  See  PRESIDENT  ;  SOVEREIGN, 
etc. 

EXPENDITURES  (FAMILY).— Accord- 
ing to  the  well-known  laws  formulated  by  Dr. 
Engels,  head  of  the  Prussian  Royal  Bureau  of 
the  Statistics  of  Labor,  expenditures  in  different 
families  conform  to  the  following  principles  : 

1.  That  the  greater  the  income,  the  smaller 
the  relative  percentage  of  outlay  for  subsistence. 

2.  That  the  percentage  of  outlay  for  clothing 
is  approximately  the  same,  whatever  the  income. 

3.  That  the  percentage  of  the  outlay  for  lodg- 
ing or  rent,  and  for  fuel  and  light,  is  invariably 
the  same,  whatever  the  income. 

4.  That  as  the  income  increases  in  amount 
the  percentage  of  outlay  for  sundries  becomes 
greater. 

These  principles  seem  in  the  main  substan- 
tiated by  the  most  careful  investigation.*  The 
most  extensive  investigation  thus  far  made  is 
probably  that  reported  by  the  United  States 
Commissioner  of  Labor  for  1891,  the  result  of 
which  we  condense  here.  It  is  based  on  inves- 
tigations in  the  iron,  coal,  glass,  cotton  and  wool- 
en industries.  The  following  tables  are  abridged 
from  the  report  (vol.  ii. ,  pp.  864,  865) : 


PERCENTAGE  OF  EXPENDITURES  IN   NORMAL  FAMILIES. 


OBJECTS   OF    EXPENDI- 
TURE, 

INCOME  UNDER 

$200. 

INCOME, 

$2OO-$3OO. 

INCOME, 

$5oo-$6oo. 

INCOME, 

$900-$  i,  ooo. 

INCOME  ALL 
SIZES. 

Europe. 

United 
States. 

Europe. 

United 
States. 

Europe. 

United 
States. 

Europe. 

United 
States. 

Europe. 

United 
States. 

Rent  

9.38 
5-38 
1.66 
19.08 
48.32 
16.18 

15.48 
7.07 

I.OI 
12  82 

49.64 
13.98 

12.05 
5-62 

1.68 
14.16 
49.62 
16.87 

14.65 

6-59 
.96 

M-33 
44.26 
19.21 

10.26 
3-32 
i-37 
15.21 
50.06 
19.78 

15.15 
5-63 

•97 
I5-27 
43-84 
19.14 

10.49 
5-19 

'•53 
14-15 
46.24 
22.40 

f 
14.96 
4.00 

•74 
16.84 
34-34 
29.12 

11.29 
4.88 

1-54 
15.00 
48.78 
18.51 

15-05 
5.01 
.90 

15-31 
41.05 

22.68 

Fuel  

Lighting  

Clothing         

Food      

Other  Purposes  

*  Dr.  Engels  is  now  publishing  a  series  of  studies  on  the  family  budgets  of  all  countries. 


Expenditures  (Family).  573  Expenditures  (Family). 

The  following  gives  comparisons  for  different  countries  for  the  above  industries  : 


COUNTRIES. 

Income. 

AVERAGE  EXPENDITURES. 

Rent. 

Fuel. 

Food. 

Other. 

United  States  

$657-39 
502.76 
413.80 
433-27 
320.02 
358-56 

$76.03 

47-21 
32.99 
39-93 
27.07 

25-44 

$26.67 
20.47 
'3-44 
15-99 
10.59 
23-48 

$250.62 
232.61 
182.21 
200.64 
168.82 
179.28 

$3°5 

202 
185 
I87 
I23 
I30 

Great  Britain  

Belgium    

CLOTHING. 

Socn 

:TIES. 

Husband. 

Wife. 

Children. 

Labor. 

Other. 

United  States  

$33.68 

$=u  87 

$24.84 

$8.64 

•Great  Britain.  ...          . 

8    44 

France  .   . 

^8  is 

3.78 

Belgium  

23.98 

12.^8 

48  25 

4  69 

5.08 

Germany  

25.88 

3.15 

Switzerland  

22.68 

II     78 

8.89 

COUNTRIES. 

Amuse- 
ments and 
Vacations. 

Intoxicat- 
ing 
Liquors. 

Tobacco. 

Books  and 
News- 
papers. 

Religion. 

Charity. 

United  States  

$13.38 

$22.82 

$10.66 

$6.41 

$7-99 

$^.Q^l 

Great  Britain  

6.74 

3.08 

11  38 

TI    8/t 

6  60 

Belgium  

1.83 

Germany  

3.87 

0.78 

Switzerland  ... 

1.76 

These  statistics  for  the  United  States  are  based  on 
the  expenditures  of  487  families  in  the  pig  iron  indus- 
try, 293  in  the  bar  iron,  70  in  the  steel,  309  in  the  bitumin- 
ous coal,  104  in  the  coke,  66  in  the  iron  ore,  639  in  the 
cotton,  323  in  the  woolen,  773  in  the  glass.  Each  indus- 
try was  averaged  separately,  and  the  above  averages 
are  the  average  of  the  industry  averages. 

For  Great  Britain,  the  statistics  are  based  on  the  ex- 
penditures of  39  families  in  the  pig  iron  industry,  73  in 
the  bar  iron,  72  in  the  steel,  137  in  the  bituminous  coal, 
ii  in  the  coke,  164  in  the  cotton,  59  in  the  wool,  and  22 


in  the  glass.  For  France  :  40  in  the  bar  iron,  61  in  the 
cotton,  128  in  the  wool.  For  Belgium  :  7  in  the  pig  iron, 
45  in  the  bar'  iron,  9  in  the  bituminous  coal,  4  in  the 
coke,  24  in  the  glass.  For  Germany  :  22  in  the  bar  iron, 
35  in  the  steel,  16  in  the  bituminous  coal,  10  in  the  coke, 
i7  in  the  iron  ore,  70  in  the  cotton,  23  in  the  woolen. 
For  Switzerland  :  46  in  the  cotton  industry. 

The  following  tables,  taken  from  various  earlier  in- 
vestigations in  Massachusetts,  Illinois,  and  Great  Bri- 
tain, and  quoted  in  the  above-mentioned  United  States 
report,  confirm  the  same  general  results. 


MASSACHUSETTS.-PERCENTAGES  OF  EXPENDITURES. -AMOUNT,  $754.42. 


ITEMS  OF  EXPENDITURE. 

Massachusetts 
Budgets, 

1883. 

Engel's 
Prussian 
Law. 

Massachusetts 
Bureau  Table, 
1875. 

Average. 

Subsistence  

$-000 

Clothing.  ...                      .     . 

Rent  

j 

Fuel  

Sundry  expenses         ...        .... 

5 

Totals  

COMPARATIVE  PERCENTAGES   OF   EXPENDITURES  BY  THE   FAMILIES  OF  WORKING  MEN   IN 
ILLINOIS,  MASSACHUSETTS,  GREAT  BRITAIN,  AND  PRUSSIA. 


ITEMS. 

Illinois. 

Massachusetts. 

Great  Britain. 

Prussia.* 

Average. 

Clothing    

18  oo 

18.27 

Rent  

53  48 

15.66 

Fuel         ....                .             

e   6l 

4.61    ' 

Sundries  

Totals        

$100  00 

$100  00 

$100.00 

f 

*  It  is  to  be  noted  that  for  Prussia  a  family  of  the  intermediate  class  is  taken. 


Exports  and  Imports. 


574 


Exports  and  Imports. 


EXPORTS  AND  IMPORTS.— We  devote 

this  article  exclusively  to  statistics  of  the  ex- 
ports and  imports  of  the  United  States  and  Great 
Britain.  (For  a  discussion  of  the  principles  in- 
volved, see  COMMERCE  ;  FREE  TRADE  ;  PROTEC- 
TION ;  VALUE,  etc .) 

THE  UNITED  STATES. 

According  to  the  Statistical  Abstract  of  the  United 
States  for  1895,  p.  83,  the  merchandise  imported  and 
exported,  and  the  annual  excess  of  imports  or  of 
exports  from  1845  to  1895  in  specie  values  were  as 
follows : 


YEAR 

ENDING 

JUNE 


1845. 
1846. 
1847. 


1850. 
1851. 
1852. 
1853- 
1854- 
1855- 
1856. 
1857. 
1858. 
1859. 
1860. 


1863. 
1864. 
1865. 


EXPORTS. 

Excess 

Imports. 

of  Import 
over  Ex- 

Domestic. 

Foreign. 

ports. 

$98,455,33° 

$7,584,781 

$113,184,322 

$7,144,21 

101,718,042 

7,865,206 

117,914,065 

8,330,81 

150,574,844 

6,166,754 

122,424,349 

—  34,317,24 

130,203,709 

7,986,806 

148,638,644 

10,448,12 

131,710,081 

8,641,091 

141,206,199 

855,02 

134,900,233 

9,475,493 

173,509,526 

29,i33,8<: 

178,620,138 

10,295,121 

210,771,429 

21,856,1- 

154,931,147 

12,053,084 

207,440,398 

40,456,11 

189,869,162 

13,620,120 

263,777,265 

60,287,9! 

215,328,300 

21,715,464 

297,803,794 

60,760,0- 

152,751,135 

26,158,368 

257,808,708 

38,899,2^ 

266,438,051 

14,781,372 

3Io,432,3I° 

29,212,8? 

278,906,713 

14,917,047 

348,428,342 

54,604,5! 

251,351,033 

20,660,241 

263,338,654 

—  8,672,6: 

278,392,080 

14,509,971 

33i,333,34i 

38,43i,2c 

316,242,423 

17,333,634 

353,616,119 

20,040,  6( 

204,899,616 

14,654,217 

289,310,542 

69,756,  7< 

179,644,024 

11,026,477 

189,356,677 

—  1,313,8! 

186,003,912 

17,960,535 

243,335,8i5 

3o,37i,3< 

143,504,027 

15,333,961 

316,447,283 

I57.6og,2( 

136,940,248 

29,089,055 

238,745,580 

72,716,2- 

YEAR 

30. 

EXPORTS. 

Imports. 

Excess 
of  Imports 
over  Ex- 
ports. 

Domestic. 

Foreign. 

1866  

$337,518,102 

$11,341,420 

$434,812,066 

$85,952,544- 

1867  

279,786,809 

^4,719.332 

395,761,096 

101,254,955 

1868  

269,389,900 

12,562,999 

357,436,440 

75,483,541 

1869  

275,166,697 

10,951,000 

417,506,379 

131,388,682 

1870  

376,616,473 

16,155,295 

435,958,408 

43,186,640 

1871  

428,398,908 

14,421,270 

520,223,684 

77,403,506 

1872  

428,487,131 

15,690,455 

626,595,077 

182,417,491 

1873  

505,033,439 

17,446,483 

642,136,210 

119,656,288 

1874  

569,433,421 

16,849,619 

567,406,342 

—  18,876,698 

1875  

499,284,100 

14,158,611 

533,005,436 

19,562,725 

525,582,247 

14,802,424 

460,741,190 

1877.  ... 

589,670,224 

12,804,996 

45i,323,I26 

—  151,152,094 

1878  

680,709,268 

14,156,498 

437,051,532 

—  257,814,234 

1879  

698,340,790 

12,098,651 

445,777,775 

—  264,661,666 

1880  

823,946,353 

11,692,305 

667,954,746 

—  167,683,912 

1881  

883,925,947 

18,451,399 

642,664,628 

—  259,712,718 

1882  

733,239,732 

17,302,525 

724,639>574 

—  25,902,683 

1883.   ... 

804,223,632 

19,615.770 

723,180,914 

—  100,658,488 

1884  

724,964,852 

15,548,757 

667,697,693 

—  72,815,916 

1885  

726,682,946 

15,506,809 

577,527,329 

—  164,662,426 

1886  

665,964,529 

!3,56o,3oi 

635,436,136 

—  44,088,694 

1887  

703,022,923 

13,160,288 

692,319,768 

—  23,863,443 

1888  

683,862,104 

12,092,403 

723,957,114 

28,002,607 

1889  

730,282,609 

12,118,766 

745,I3'.6s2 

2,730.277 

1890  

845,293,828 

12,534,856 

789,310,409 

—  68,518,275 

1891  

872,270,283 

12,210,527 

844,916,196 

—  39,564,614 

1892...   . 

1,015,732,011 

14,546,137 

827,402,462 

—  202,875,686 

1893.   ... 

831,030,785 

16,634,409 

866,400,922 

18,737,728 

1894  

869,204,937 

22,935,635 

654,994,622 

—  237,145,950 

793,392,599 

14,145,566 

731,969,695 

—  75,568,200 

The  minus  sign  (— )  before  the  amount  indicates  ex- 
cess of  exports  over  imports. 

According  to  the  same  authority,  the  values  of 
domestic  merchandise,  groviped  according  to  sources 
of  production,  exported  during  1860,  1870,  and  from 
1875  to  1895,  were  as  follows  : 


YEAR  ENDING 

JUNE  3o. 

EXPORTS  OF  DOMESTIC  MERCHANDISE  OTHER  THAN  MANUFACTURES.* 

EXPORTS  OF 
DOMESTIC 
MANUFACTURES. 

AGRICULTURE. 

MINING. 

FOREST. 

FISHERIES. 

MISCEL- 
LANEOUS. 

Values. 

Per 
Cent. 

Values. 

Values. 

Values. 

Values. 

Values. 

Per 
Cent. 

1860....          .  .. 

$256,560,972 
361,188,483 
430,306,570 
456,113,515 
459,734,M8 
536,192,873 
546,476,703 
685,961,091 

730>394,943 
552,219,819 
619,269,449 
536,3*5,318 
530,172,966 
484,954,595 
523,073,798 
500,840,086 
532,141,490 
629,820,808 
642,751,344 
799,328,232 
615,382,986 
628,363,038 
553,210,026 

81.13 
79-35 
76.95 
76.67 
72.63 
77.07 
78.12 
83.25 
82.63 

75-31 
77.00 
73-98 
72.96 
72.82 
74.41 
73-23 
72.87 
74-Si 
73-69 
78.69 
74.05 
72.28 
69-73 

$999,465 
5,026,111 
6,469,181 
7,122,989 
8,770,769 
6,732,119 
6,405,813 
5,863,232 
7,401,282 
8,175,692 
10,446,719 
15,022,255 
15,797,885 
13,654,286 
11,758,662 
17,993,895 
i9,947,5i8 
22,297,755 
22,054,970 
20,692,885 
20,020,026 
20,449,598 
18,509,814 

$10,299,959 
14,897,963 
19,165,907 
18,076,668 
19,943,290 
17,750,396 
16,336,943 
17,321,268 
19,486,051 
25,580,264 
28,636,199 
26,222,959 
22,014,839 
20,961,708 
21,126,273 
23,991,092 
26,997,127 
29,473,084 
28,715,713 
27,957,423 
28,127,113 
28,010,953 
28,576,235 

$4,156,480 
2,835,508 

4,874,660 

5,806,445 
5,737,879 
6,434,182 
6,282,368 
5,255,402 
5,556,439 
6,197,752 
6,276,375 

5,614,111 
5,955,122 
5,138,806 
5,155,775 
5,5i8,552 
7,106,388 
7,458,385 
6,208,577 
5,403,587 
5,541,378 
4,261,920 
5,328,807 

$3,879,655 

2,980,512 

5,742,506 

6,160,550 
4,861,219 
4,833,!64 
7,021,186 
6,689,345 
6,854,013 
6,271,859 
5,366,807 
5,417,322 
5,554,607 
4,7i3,I56 
5,!73,3io 
5,218,392 
5,414,579 
5,141,420 
3,612,364 
3,838,947 
3,936,164 
4,400,944 
4,171,974 

$40,345,892 
68,279,764 
92,678,814 
101,637,548 
133,933,549 
123,807,196 

"7,015,729 
102,856,015 
114,233,219 
134,7941346 
134,228,083 
136,372,887 

I47,I87,527 
136,541,978 
136,735,105 
130,300,087 
138,675,507 
151,102,376 
168,927,315 
158,510,937 
158,023,118 
183,718,484 
183,595,743 

12.76 
15.00 

16.57 
17.08 

21.  Id 
17.79 
16.72 
12.48 
12.92 
18.38 
16.69 

18.81 
20.25 
20.50 

'9-45 
19.05 
18.99 
17.87 
J9-37 
15.61 
19.02 

21  .14 
23-I4 

1870  

1875  

1876  

1877  

1878     

1870 

]88o         

1881    

1882                 

1883  

1884         

1885  

1886  

1887                 

1888   

1889.   . 

1890  

1891     

1892  

1893   

1894   

1801;.  .  . 

*  The  group  "  Other  than  manufactures"  embraces  substantially  all  articles  crude  or  slightly  enhanced  in 
value  by  manufacture. 

Note  i.  For  the  kinds  of  articles  embraced  in  the  respective  groups,  see  Appendix  to  the  Annual  Report  on 
Commerce  and  Navigation,  1893,  P-  cxxx. 

Note  2.  The  values  of  exports  of  products  of  domestic  agriculture  from  the  United  States  for  decennial 
fiscal  years  prior  to  1860  were  as  follows:  1820,  $41,657,673,  or  81  per  cent.;  1830,  $48,005,184,  or  82  per  cent.;  1840, 
$92,548,067,  or  83  per  cent.;  1850,  $108,605,713,  or  81  per  cent,  of  all  exports  of  merchandise. 


Exports  and  Imports. 


575 


Exports  and  Imports. 


The  value  of  some  main  exports  for  the  different  years  ending  June  30  was  : 


1889. 

1890. 

1891. 

1892. 

1893. 

1894. 

1895. 

Raw  cotton  .  ...l5al?s"" 

4,872,060 

5,020,913 

5,820,779 

5,891,4" 

4,431,220 

5,397,509 

6,965,358 

(  dolls..  .. 
Wheat..  ...^UiS,h-" 

237.775127° 
46,414,129 

250,968,792 
54,387,767 

290,712,898 
55,131,948 

258,461,241 
157,280,351 

188,771,445 
117,121,109 

210,869,289 
88,415,230 

204,900,990 
76,102,704 

j  dolls  
Wheat  flour  -j  ^b}f  '  •  ' 

41,652,701 
9*374,803 

45,275,906 
12,231,711 

51,420,272 
11,344,304 

161,399,132 
15,196,769 

93,534,970 
16,620,339 

59,407,041 
10,859,533 

43,805,663 
15,268,892 

45,296,485 

57,036,138 

54,705,616 

75,362,283 

75,494,347 

69,271,770 

51,651,928 

The  values  of  imports  of  merchandise,  grouped  according  to  degree  of  manufacture  and  uses,  from  18 
894,  were  as  follows  : 


ARTICLES— 


IN    A    CRUDE    CON- 

WHOLLY    OR    PAR- 

YEAR  ENDING 
JUNE  3o. 

OF  FOOD   AND 
LIVE  ANIMALS. 

ENTER  INTO  THE 
VARIOUS       PROC- 
ESSES      OF       DO- 
MESTIC        INDUS- 

FACTURED      FOR 
USE       AS      MATE- 
RIALS      IN      THE 
MAN  UFACTURES 

MANUFACTURED, 
READY  FOR  CON- 
SUMPTION. 

OF          VOLUNTARY 
USE,      LUXURIES, 
ETC. 

TRY 

AND       MECHANIC 

ARTS. 

Values. 

Per 

Cent. 

Values. 

Per 
Cent. 

Values. 

Per 

Cent. 

Values. 

Per 
Cent. 

Values. 

Per 

Cent. 

886  

$199,176,405 

3I-35 

$148,146,022 

23-31 

$78,843,160 

2.41 

$127,975,118 

20.14 

$81.295,431 

12.79 

887 

i  60 

89,848,790 

888  

147,988,782 

£. 

889        .  .... 

goo     . 

180,846,654 

891  

284,7*5,737 

33-72 

196,393,660 

23.27 

107,024,423 

2.91 

138,469,966 

16.21 

118,312,401 

13.89 

Sg,2          

12.66 

893  

16.56 

8oi  .. 

278,338,429 

42.49 

137,027^024 

20.92 

67,510,926 

0.31 

92,7I9,494 

14.15 

79,398,749 

12.13 

According  to  tables  prepared  by  the  Bureau  of  Statistics  of  the  Treasury  Department,  the  Foreign  Trade  of 
the  United  States  during  the  fiscal  year  ended  June  30,  1895,  was  as  follows  : 


EXPORTS. 


ARTICLES. 

Quantities. 

Values. 

ARTICLES.! 

Quantities. 

Values. 

MERCHANDISE. 

MERCHANDISE. 
Oil  cake  oil  cake  meal....  Ibs. 

$7,165,587 

Oils:  Animal  galls. 

578,445 

Books,  maps,  engravings,  and 

"      Mineral,  crude.  ...galls. 
"      Mineral,      refined       or 

111,285,264 

5,161,710 

<- 

"             Wheat  Flour, 

Paper,  and  manufactures  of 

bbls. 
All  other  

15,268,892 

51,651,928 

Paraffine,  Paraffine  wax..  Ibs. 
Provisions:  Beef  products.  Ibs. 

95,076,165 

3,569,614 
27,478,651 

Carriages,  horse,  and  railroad 

Hog  products.lbs. 
"           Oleomargarine, 

1,092,024,847 

89,757,428 

Chemicals,  drugs,  dyes,  and 

8,189,142 

Ibs. 
"          Other  meat  prod- 

88,199,775 

8,099,482 

ucts  

1,665,961 

"      Bituminous  tons 

2,374,988 

Seeds  :  Clover  Ibs. 

22,900,672 

2,124,997 

"       All  other  

724,148 

Manufactures  of 

Spirits,  Distilled,  .proof  galls. 

2,991,686 

Cotton,  Unmanufactured,  Ibs. 

3>5x7i433i*°9 

204,900,990 
!3,  789,810 

Sugar,  molasses,  syrup..  galls. 
"       Refined         Ibs. 

9,148,711 
8,833,522 

850,400 
406,924 

Fish              

Tobacco,  Unmanufactured, 

Flax,  hemp,  and  jute,  tnanu- 

Ibs. 

300,991,930 

25,798,968 
3,953,165 

1,543,458 

bbls 

818  711 

o 

27,115,907 

Fruits  and  nuts,  all  other  

3,OI7,473 

All  other  articles  

36,465,283 

Furs  and  fur  skins  
Hops  Ibs. 

17,523,388 

3,923,130 

Total     exports,      domestic 

$793,392,599. 

poses  

Iron  and  steel,  manufactures 
of   

$66,131,183 

"        Silver  ...        

$906,751,099 

Exports  and  Imports. 


576 


Exports  and  Imports. 


IMPORTS. 

MERCHANDISE  AND   SPECIE   IMPORTED    INTO  THE    UNITED   STATES    DURING    THE   FISCAL    YEAR    ENDED 

JUNE  3o,  1895. 


ARTICLES. 

Quantities. 

Values. 

MERCHANDISE. 

Bristles  Ibs. 

Chemicals,  drugs,    dyes,  and 

3ft848*l6< 

Coffee  Ibs. 

Cotton,  and  manufactures  of.. 

Fish    

Flax,    hemp,    jute,    etc.,    and 
manufactures  of  

Fruits  and  nuts  

66     ' 

Hats  and    bonnets,    materials 
for  

2,766,568 

Hops  .             Ibs. 

India-rubber        and        gutta- 
percha,  and  manufactures  of 

Iron    and    steel,    and    manu- 
factures of  

Jewelry,     and    manufactures 
of  gold  and  silver.  ... 

648,610 

Lead,  and  manufactures  of...  . 

2,488^584 

Leather,  and  manufactures  of. 

Liquors,  spirituous  and  malt.. 

ARTICLES. 

Quantities. 

• 

Values. 

MERCHANDISE. 
Molasses  galls 

Musical  instruments  

Paints  and  colors        

Paper,  and  manufactures  of 

Precious    stones,    and    imita- 
tions of,   not  set,  including 

Salt  Ibs. 

680,802 

Seeds  

"     Unmanufactured  ... 

Tea  Ibs. 

97,253,458 

Tin,  in   bars,  blocks,  pigs,  or 
grain,  etc  Ibs. 

16,888,61  > 

Toys  ..          

1,889,628 

Wines  

Wool,  and  manufactures  of  .  . 

68,418,208 

Total  merchandise  

Specie  :  Gold  

"       Silver  

Total  imports.  

$  76  660 

»     9» 

The  value  of  United  States  exports  of  merchandise  to  and  imports  of  merchandise  from  different  foreign 
countries  for  the  year  ended  June  30,  1895,  was  as  follows  : 


COUNTRIES. 

EXPORTS. 

Imports. 

COUNTRIES. 

EXPORTS. 

Imports. 

Domestic. 

Foreign. 

Domestic. 

Foreign. 

Austria-Hungary  
Azores  and   Madeira 
Islands  

$2,059,742 

256,195 
24,880,835 
3,430,202 
44,009,786 
90,615,551 
379,W 
152,544 

$66,030 

2,589 
36l,745 
45.124 
iti39>35i 
1,438,202 
L958 

$6,510,319 

25,963 
10,141,485 
324,827 
61,580,509 
81,014,065 
7,807 
327,201 

West  Indies  

$30,724,823 
4,399,216 
10,388 
15,135,125 
2,789,286 
2,498,856 
734,426 
2,106,534 

$839,007 
56,947 

$67,860,152 
7,675,270 

Argentine  Republic.. 
Bolivia  

Brazil  

29,954 
4,813 
07,446 
915 
28,679 

78,831,476 

4,465,561 
3,713,682 
821,666 
3,402,277 
10,274 
473,3'S 
2,699,648 
10,073,951 
20,545,289 
28,993,295 
776,476 
23,695,957 

IOO 

441,013 

3,089,951 

83,743 
4,620,828 
200,771 
7,888,961 
4,731,  366 
776,114 
48,394 
282,790 

9,775 
68,675 
6,629 

3,628,462 
90,776 
797,554 
1,382,673 

72,218 

Chile  

Colombia  

Germany  
Gibraltar  

Ecuador  
Guianas  

Paraguay  

Greenland,      Iceland, 
etc  

Peru  

626,897 
1,240,025 
3,706,978 
3,602,741 
3,967,990 
4,244,895 
4,559,242 

3,488 
21,976 
33,486 
1,099 
2,402 
8,145 

75,475 

Uruguay  

Italy 

16,241,595 
30,256,108 
2,960,526 

19,330 

5,164,847 

781,420 
10,916,632 

4,6418,086 

17,578 

4ii39° 

384,132,970 
797,788 
394,238 

3,706,132 

42,070,389 
2,010,980 

1,121,133 

6,372,827 
14,582,484 

167,496 

121,530 

755,677 
10,870 

11,448 
141 

10,437 

4,5'5 

343 

2,992,488 
23,776 
8,695 

335,643 

4,642,317 
89,308 

5,866 

256,542 
423,422 

2,728 

20,851,761 
15,182,581 
1,690,668 

1,890,976 
1,684,412 
10,558 
3,574,126 
2,531,327 
14,988,954 
2,097,702 

I59>oS3,243 
465,707 
181,809 

5,85i,6i5 

26,919,413 
3,803,299 

43I>836 

11,580,761 
15,635,788 

185,302 

Venezuela  

China  

Portugal  

;  East  Indies  

Roumania  

Hong  Kong  
Tapan.  .  . 

Russia,  Baltic,  etc  
Russia,  Black  Sea    .. 
Servia  
Spain  

Korea  .        .... 

Russia,  Asiatic  
Turkey  in  Asia  
All  other  Asia  

202,852 
130,236 
427,895 
8,938,760 
233,161 
3,648,472 

"9,255 
5,196,877 
221,827 

2,085 

Sweden  and  Norway. 
Switzerland    

British  Australasia... 
French  Oceanica  
Hawaiian  Islands  
Philippine  Islands  ... 
British  Africa,  etc  
•  Canary  Islands  

75i5o8 
19,490 
74,585 

6,501 
11,170 

Turkey  in  Europe  
Great  Britain  and  Ire- 
land   
Bermuda  

British  Honduras  
Dominion  of  Canada  : 
Nova    Scotia,    New 
Brunswick,  etc  .  .  . 
Quebec,        Ontario, 
etc  

Liberia  

18,159 

Madagascar  
Portuguese  Africa  
Turkey  in  Africa  : 
Esrvot  .  . 

167,920 
105,898 

137.630 

357 
64 

British  Columbia.  .  . 
Newfoundland       and 

Tripoli  

183  189 

Central   American 
States  

All  other  British  
All  other  Islands  and 
Ports        

636,887 
58,578 

910 

Miquelon,      Langley, 
etc  

Total          

$793,392,699. 

$14,145,566 

$731,969,965 

Exports  and  Imports. 


577 


Exports  and  Imports. 


GREAT  BRITAIN. 

According  to  the  Statesman's  Year  Book  for 
various  years,  the  declared  value  of  the  imports 
and  exports  of  merchandise  of  the  United  King- 
dom was  as  follows,  together  with  the  imports 
and  exports  to  and  from  the  most  important 
countries,  and  the  values  of  the  most  important 
articles.  One  half  the  value  of  the  British  and 
Irish  products  exported  consists  of  textiles. 
The  imports  consist  mainly  of  articles  of  food 
and  raw  cotton,  and  are  almost  twice  the  ex- 
ports of  British  produce. 

It  is  interesting  to  note  the  large  amount  of 
imports  from  the  United  States,  altho  the  value 
seems  to  have  decreased  during  the  past  few 
years. 


YEAR. 

Total 
Imports. 

Exports  of 
British 
Produce. 

Exports  of 
Foreign  and 
Colonial 
Produce. 

884  

^390,018,569 
370,967,955 
349,863,472 
362,227,564 
3%7,635,743 

427>637>595 
420,691,997 
435)441)264 
423,892,178 
405,067,690 
408,344,810 
416,687,630 

^233,025,242 
213,115,114 
212,725,200 
221,913,910 

234)534)9" 
248,935^95 
263,530,585 

247)235)15° 
227,077,053 
218,496,246 
215,824,333 
226,169,174 

.£62,942,341 
58)359)194 
56,234,263 
59,348,975 
64,042,629 
66,657,484 

64.721)533 
61,878,568 

64)563>"3 
5^)935)595 
57)96i>534 
59,970,763 

885  

886         

887  

888  

889  

890        .... 

891....         

892  

803.  .. 

894  

895  

IMPORTS. 

EXPORTS. 

1891. 

1892. 

1893. 

1894. 

1891. 

1892. 

1893. 

1894. 

India    .  .          

^32,000,000 
31,000,000 

12,000,000 

99,000,000 
104,000,000 
44,000,000 
27,000,000 
27,000,000 
17,000,000 
24,000,000 
10,000,000 
10,000,000 
8,000,000 
7,000,000 
3,000,000 
5,000,000 
4,000,000 
4,000,000 
3,000,000 

335,000,000 

^30,000,000 
30,000,000 
14,000,000 

97,000,000 
108,000,000 
43,000,000 
25,000,000 
28,000,000 
17,000,000 
15,000,000 
10,000,000 
10,000,000 
8,000,000 
8,000,000 
4,000,000 
5,000,000 
3,000,000 
3,000,000 
3,000,000 

326,000,000 

£26,000,000 
29,000,000 
13,000,000 

91,000,000 
91,000,000 
43,000,000 
26,000,000 
28,000,000 
16,000,000 
18,000,000 
10,000,000 
8,000,000 
8,000,000 
8,000,000 
4,000,000 
4,000,000 
3,000,000 
4,000,000 
2,000,000 

312,000,000 

^27,000,000 
31,000,000 

12,000,000 

93,000,000 
89,000,000 
43,000,000 
26,000,000 
27,000,000 
17,000,000 
23,000,000 
10,000,000 
9,000,000 
8,000,000 
9,000,000 
6,000,000 
4,000,000 
3,000,000 
3,000,000 
3,000,000 

314,000,000 

^31,000,000 
25,000,000 
7,000,000 

85,000,000 
27,000,000 
16,000,000 
18,000,000 
9,000,000 
7,000,000 
5,000,000 
4,000,000 
3,000,000 

2,000,000 

2,000,000 
4,000,000 
5,000,000 
6,000,000 
8,000,000 
6,000,000 

161,000,000 

^27,000,000 
19,000,000 
7,000,000 

74,000,000 
26,000,000 
14,000,000 
17,000,000 
8,000,000 
6,000,000 
5,000,000 
4,000,000 
3,000,000 
2,000,000 
2,000,000 
5,000,000 
6,000,000 
5,000,000 
7,000,000 
5,000,000 

152,000,000 

£28,000,000 
15,000,000 
7,000,000 

72,000,000 
23,000,000 
13,000,000 
17,000,000 
9,000,000 
7,000,000 
6,000,000 
3,000,000 
3,000,000 

2,000,000 

2,000,000 
5,000,000 
5,000,000 
4,000,000 
7,000,000 
5,000,000 

146,000,000 

.£29,000,000 

16,000,000 

6,000,000 

72,000,000 
18,000,000 
13,000,000 
17,000,000 
8,000,000 
7,000,000 
6,000,000 
3,000,000 
3,000,000 
2,000,000 
2,000,000 
4,000,000 
6,000,000 
4,000,000 
7,000,000 

5,000,000 

143,000,000 

Australasia.    .  . 

British  N.  America. 
Total    British    Pos- 
sessions   

United  States  

Germany  

Holland  

Belgium  

Russia  

Spain  

Egypt.  .. 

oweuen  

Denmark.        .... 

Argentine  Republic 
Turkey  

China  

Brazil  

Italy  

Total  Foreign  Coun- 
tries   

THE  PRINCIPAL  ARTICLES  OF  IMPORT. 


PRINCIPAL  ARTICLES  IMPORTED. 

1891. 

1892. 

1893. 

1894. 

1893. 

£61,000,000 
46,000,000 
27,000,000 
20,000,000 
19,000,000 
15,000,000 
14,000,000 
11,000,000 
10,000,000 
10,000,000 
9,000,000 
9,000,000 
7,000,000 
6,000,000 
7,000,000 
6,000,000 
6,000,000 
5,000,000 
4,000,000 

4,000,000 
2,000,000 

2,000,000 

700,000 
3,000,000 

2,000,000 

2,000,000 
1,000,000 
3,000,000 
3,000,000 
3,000,000 

^58,000,000 
37,000,000 
26,000,000 
22,000,000 
19,000,000 
15,000,000 
17,000,000 
11,000,000 
9,000,000 
10,000,000 
9,000.000 
9,000,000 
7,000,000 
6,000,000 
7,000,000 
7,000,000 
6,000,000 
6,000,000 
5,000,000 

3,000,000 
1,000,000 

2,000,000 

600,000 
3,000,000 
1,000,000 
2,000,000 
1,000,000 
3,000,000 
3,000,000 
3,000,000 

£51,000,000 
30,000,000 
24,000,000 
22,000,000 
22,000,000 

16,000,000 
15,000,000 

11,000,000 

8,000,000 
10,000,000 
9,000,000 
6,000,000 
7,000,000 
6,000,000 
7,000,000 
6,000,000 
6,000,000 
5,000,000 
5,000,000 

3,000,000 
1,000,000 
2,000,000 
500,000 
3,000,000 
1,000,000 
2,000,000 

1,000,000 

3,000,000 
4,000,000 
3,000,000 

^48,  000,000 
32,000,000 
24,000,000 

22,000,000 

19,000,000 
16,000,000 
17,000,000 
12,000,000 
9,000,000 
9,000,000 
9,000,000 
9,000,000 
7,000,000 
6,000,000 
7,000,000 
7,000,000 
7,000,000 
5,000,000 

5,000,000 
2,000,000 
2,000,000 
2,000,000 
500,000 
3,000,000 

1,000,000 

2,000,000 
1,000,000 
3,000,000 
3,000,000 
3,000,000 

£49,000,000 

30,000,000 
26,000,000 
23,000,000 
17,000,000 
16,000,000 
15,000,000 
15,000,000 
9,000,000 
10,000,000 
10,000,000 
8,000,000 
8,000,000 
6,000,000 
6,000,000 
6,000,000 
8,000,000 
5,000,000 

4,000,000 
2,000,000 
1,000,000 

2,000,000 

500,000 
3.000,000 
1,000,000 
2,000,000 

1,000,000 

4,000,000 
3,000,000 
3,000,000 

Wool   sheep,  and  lambs  

Butter  and  margarine  .... 

Silk  manufactures  

Flax,  hemp,  and  jute  

Tea  .         .            

Woolen  manufactures  

Animals  ,.. 

Oils           

Chemicals,  dye-stuffs,  etc  

Seeds    

Fruits  

Leather        .        ....        .... 

Wine  

Cheese  

Metals  : 
Copper  ore,  etc  .  . 

"        part  wrought,  etc  

Iron  ore  ...        .... 

"      in  bars  

"      manufactures  

Lead  . 

Tin  

Zinc  and  its  manufactures  

Eggs  

Coffee  

Tobacco  

37 


Exports  and  Imports.  578  Fabian  Society. 

THE  PRINCIPAL  ARTICLES  OF  EXPORT  (HOME  PRODUCE).* 


PRINCIPAL  ARTICLES  EXPORTED. 

1891. 

1892. 

1893. 

1894. 

l895. 

.£60,000,000 
11,000,000 

.£56,000,000 
9,000,000 

.£54,000,000 
9,000,000 

.£57,000,000 
9,000,000 

,£54,000,000 
9,OOO,OOO 

"     yarn  

Total  of  cotton  

71,000,000 

65,000,000 

63,000,000 

66,000,000 

63,OOO,OOO 

18,000,000 
3,000,000 

17,000,000 
4,000,000 

16,000,000 
4,000,000 

14,000,000 
4,000,000 

19,000,000 
5,OOO,OOO 

"        and  worsted  yarn  

Total  of  woolen  and  worsted  

22,000,000 

21,000,000 

20,000,000 

18,000,000 

25,OOO,OOO 

Linen  manufactures  

5,000,000 
800,000 
2,000,000 
7,000,000 

5,000,000 
800,000 
2,000,000 
6,000,000 

4,000,000 
1,000,000 

2,000,000 
5,OOO,OOO 

4,OOO,OOO 
900,000 
2,OOO,OOO 
5,OOO,OOO 

5,000,000 

900,000 
2,000,000 
5,000,000 

"       yarn  

Apparel  and  haberdashery  

Metals  : 
Iron,  pig  

2,000,000 
1,000,000 
3,000,000 
1,000,000 
7,000,000 
3,000,000 
4,000,000 
300,000 
2,000,000 

1,900,000 
1,000,000 
2,000,000 
700,000 
5,000,000 
3,000,000 
4,000,000 
300,000 
2,000,000 

1,000,000 
9OO,OOO 
2,000,000 
600,000 
4,OOO,OOO 
3,000,000 
3,000,000 
3OO,OOO 
2,000,000 

I,9OO,OOO 
800,000 
I,8oO,OOO 
600,000 
4,000,000 
2,000,000 
3,000,000 
200,000 
2,OOO,OOO 

2,000,000 

800,000 
1,900,000 
700,000 
4,000,000 
3,000,000 
3,000,000 
200,000 
2,000,000 

oar,  angle,  bolt  and  rod....        ..  . 

railroad,  of  all  sorts  

wire  

tin  plates  

hoops,  sheets,  and  plates     

cast  and  wrought,  of  all  sorts  

old,  for  remanufacture  

Steel,  wrought  and  un  wrought  

Total  of  iron  and  steel  

26,000,000 

21,000,000 

20,OOO,000 

18,000,000 

19,000,000 

Hardwares  and  cutlery  

2,000,000 

3,000,000 
15,000,000 
18,000,000 
8,000,000 

2,000,000 
3,000,000 
13,000,000 
16,000,000 
8,000,000 

2,OOO,OOO 
3,000,000 
I3,OOO,OOO 
14,000,000 
8,000,000 

1,000,000 
2,OOO,OOO 
14,000,000 
17,000,000 
8,000,000 

1,000,000 

2,000,000 

15,000,000 
15,000,000 
8,000,000 

Copper  

Machinery  

Chemicals  .... 

*  The  disagreement  in  the  totals  is  because  of  omission  of  the  smaller  figures. 
For  the  exports  and  imports  of  other  countries,  see  those  countries. 


F. 


FABIAN  SOCIETY,  THE  (AMERI- 
CAN).— A  movement  to  establish  in  America  a 
Fabian  Society  and  carry  on  a  work  like  that  of 
the  Fabian  Society  in  England  (see  the  next 
article)  was  commenced  in  Boston  in  February, 
1895,  under  the  lead  of  the  Rev.  W.  D.  P.  Bliss. 
Similar  beginnings  were  made  almost  simulta- 
neously in  California  and  Washington  under 
the  influence  of  Mr.  Lawrence  Gronlund.  A 
monthly  has  been  established  in  Boston,  The 
American  Fabian  (now  published  in  New 
York) ;  a  few  tracts  have  been  published,  and 
branches  started  in  Boston,  New  York,  Phila- 
delphia, Madison,  Wis.,  San  Francisco,  Seattle, 
Wash.,  and  a  few  other  places.  As  yet,  how- 
ever, little  definite  organization  has  been 
reached. 

FABIAN  SOCIETY,  THE  (ENGLISH).— 

The  Fabian  Society  is  an  organization  of  Eng- 
lish socialists,  formed  in  London  in  1883,  and 
to-day  one  of  the  most  influential  economic  and 
political  societies  in  England.  Its  basis  of  or- 
ganization is  as  follows  : 

"  The  Fabian  Society  consists  of  socialists. 

"  It  therefore  aims  at  the  reorganization  of  society 
by  the  emancipation  of  land  and  industrial  capital 
from  individual  and  class  ownership,  and  the  vesting 
of  them  in  the  community  for  the  general  benefit.  In 


this  way  only  can  the  natural  and  acquired  advantages 
of  the  country  be  equitably  shared  by  the  whole  people. 

"  The  society  accordingly  works  for  the  extinction  of 
private  property  in  land  and  of  the  consequent  indi- 
vidual appropriation,  in  the  form  of  rent,  of  the  price 
paid  for  permission  to  use  the  earth,  as  well  as  for  the 
advantages  of  superior  soils  and  sites. 

"  The  societv,  further,  works  for  the  transfer  to  the 
community  of  the  administration  of  such  industrial 
capital  as  can  conveniently  be  managed  socially.  For, 
owing  to  the  monopoly  of  the  means  of  production  in 
the  past,  industrial  inventions  and  the  transformation 
of  surplus  income  into  capital  have  mainly  enriched 
the  proprietary  class,  the  worker  being  now  dependent 
on  that  class  for  leave  to  earn  a  living. 

"  If  these  measures  be  carried  out,  without  compen- 
sation (though  not  without  such  relief  to  expropriated 
individuals  as  may  seem  fit  to  the  community),  rent 
and  interest  will  be  added  to  the  reward  of  labor,  the 
idle  class  now  living  on  the  labor  of  others  will  neces- 
sarily disappear,  and  practical  equality  of  opportunity 
will  be  maintained  by  the  spontaneous  action  of  eco- 
nomic forces  with  much  less  interference  with  personal 
liberty  than  the  present  system  entails. 

"  For  the  attainment  of  these  ends  the  Fabian  Society 
looks  to  the  spread  of  socialist  opinions,  and  the  social 
and  political  changes  consequent  thereon.  It  seeks  to 
promote  these  by  the  general  dissemination  of  knowl- 
edge as_  to  the  relation  between  the  individual  and 
society  in  its  economic,  ethical,  and  political  aspects. 

"  The  work  of  the  Fabian  Society  takes,  at  present, 
the  following  forms  : 

"  i.  Meetings  for  the  discussion  of  questions  connect- 
ed with  socialism. 

"2.  The  further  investigation  of  economic  problems, 
and  the  collection  of  facts  contributing  to  their  eluci- 
dation. 


Fabian  Society. 


579 


Fabian  Society. 


"  3.  The  issue  of  publications  containing  information 
on  social  questions,  and  arguments  relating  to  social- 
ism. 

"  4.  The  promotion  of  socialist  lectures  and  debates 
in  other  societies  and  clubs. 

"  5.  The  representation  of  the  society  in  public  con- 
ferences and  discussions  on  social  questions. 

"The  members  are  divided  into  local  groups,  are 
pledged  to  take  part  according  to  their  abilities  and 
opportunities  in  the  general  work  of  the  society,  espe- 
cially as  regards  their  own  localities,  and  altho  there 
is  no  compulsory  subscription,  are  expected  to  contrib- 
ute annually  to  the  society's  funds.  The  amount  of 
each  member's  subscription  is  known  only  to  the  Exec- 
utive Committee. 

"  The  society  seeks  recruits  from  all  ranks,  believing 
that  not  only  those  who  suffer  from  the  present  sys- 
tem, but  also  many  who  are  themselves  enriched  by 
it,  recognise  its  evils  and  would  welcome  a  remedy. 

"  The  society  meets  for  lectures  and  discussions  on 
two  Fridays  in  the  month,  at  f?P.M." 

The  society  attaches  small  importance  to  mere 
numerical  growth.  Its  rules  of  membership  are 
quite  strict. 

Candidates  resident  within  the  area  of  the  London 
groups  must  sign  a  declaration  that  they  accept  the 
basis  of  the  society,  must  attend  two  meetings  as 
visitors,  and  must  be  proposed  and  seconded  by  mem- 
bers from  personal  knowledge.  The  names  of  all  candi- 
dates must  be  printed  in  the  Fabian  News  every  month, 
and  they  shall  not  be  elected  before  the  second  meet- 
ing of  the  Executive  Committee  after  such  publication. 
The  proposer  and  seconder  must  sign  the  nomination 
paper,  and  must  each  forward  a  letter  to  the  Secretary 
stating  that  the  candidate  is  a  socialist,  and  likely  to 
be  a  useful  member  of  the  society.  Candidates  shall 
be  elected  by  an  unanimous  vote  of  the  Executive 
Committee.  If  a  candidate  be  rejected  his  proposer 
shall  have  a  right  of  appeal  to  the  society,  in  which 
case  a  ballot  shall  be  taken  at  a  private  meeting,  with 
due  notice  given,  when  one  black  ball  in  five  shall  ex- 
clude. 

Candidates  who  cannot  qualify  by  attending  the 
public  meetings  of  the  society  may  attend  meetings  of 
the  group  in  whose  area  they  reside,  and  on  the  rec- 
ommendation of  the  Secretary  of  the  group,  two  such 
attendances  shall  be  deemed  to  qualify. 

Every  candidate  for  election  shall  make  a  contribu- 
tion to  the  funds  of  the  society  prior  to  his  election, 
the  amount  being  returned  to  him  if  he  is  not  elected. 

The  Executive  Committee  may  by  an  unanimous 
vote,  for  special  reasons,  suspend  such  parts  of  this 
rule  as  specify  qualifications  for  membership,  except 
that  part  which  requires  acceptance  of  the  basis. 

Nevertheless,  the  growth  in  membership  has 
been  steady.  Its  present  membership  is  as  fol- 
lows : 

Number  of  members  in  London  groups 374 

Number  of  members  elsewhere 365 

Total  number 739 

Fabian  societies  exist  outside  of  England  in 

South  Australia,   Victoria,    Ireland,   Scotland, 

Canada,   and   the   United    States. 

(See  previous  article.)    The  secret 

Fabian      of  success  has  been  its  steady  work, 

Societies,    led  by  a  half  dozen  of  its  original 

members,  men  of  unusual  ability, 

who    are    now    becoming    known 

throughout  England,   and  who  have  steadily 

worked  together  from  the  first.     Says  its  efficient 

secretary,  Mr.  Edward  R.  Pease  : 

"The  society  has  never  attempted  to  form  itself  into 
a  political  party.  It  has  never  sought  a  large  member- 
ship, or  contemplated  running  candidates  of  its  own. 
It  has  adopted  the  general  rule  that  it  is  cheaper  and 
more  effective  to  write  for  the  public  press  than  to 
publish  an  organ  of  its  own ;  to  lecture  to  Radical 
clubs  rather  than  to  Fabian  branch  meetings;  to 
write  programs  for  Liberal  associations  rather  than  to 
create  a  new  organization  for  itself.  In  one  recent 
year  ng  members  reported  over  3300  lectures  delivered 
almost  entirely  to  outside  bodies.' 


Its  educational  work,  however,  has  by  no  means 
been  confined  to  writings.  It  has  published 
over  60  tracts,  many  of  them  having  a  very  large 
sale.  The  society  sold  in  1894-95  80,376  tracts 
at  a  penny  or  over,  and  literature  amount- 
ing in  all  to  $1400.  The  great  literary  success 
of  the  society,  however,  has  been  its  Fabian  Es- 
says. In  1889  a  course  of  seven  lectures,  which 
had  been  previously  delivered  before  the  society 
by  members  of  the  society  (George  Bernard  Shaw , 
Sidney  Webb,  William  Clarke,  S.  Olivier,  Gra- 
ham Wallas,  Annie  Besant,  and  Hubert  Bland) 
was  published  under  the  name  of  Fabian  Es- 
says in  Socialism,  and  met  with  most  marked 
success.  Over  30,000  copies  have 
been  sold  in  England,  and  two 
American  editions  have  appeared.  Method  of 
The  tracts  are  accurate  and  con-  Propaganda. 
cise  statements  of  industrial  facts 
or  explanations  of  the  application 
of  the  principles  of  socialism  to  actual  and 
existing  political  and  social  problems.  They 
have  treated  such  subjects  as  Facts  for  Social- 
ists ;  Why  are  the  Many  Poor  ?  Facts  for  Lon- 
doners ;  The  Worker's  Political  Program  ; 
What  Socialism  Is ;  An  Eight-Hoiir  Bill ; 
English  Progress  toward  Social  Democracy  ; 
Land  Nationalization  ;  A  Labor  Policy  for 
Public  Authorities  ;  Christian  Socialism.  One 
of  the  most  valuable  is  What  to  Read :  a  List 
of  Books  for  Social  Reformers.  It  includes  all 
the  best  books  on  economics,  socialism,  labor 
movements,  poverty,  etc.,  with  suggested  courses 
of  reading. 

The  society  publishes  a  little  monthly  record 
entitled  The  Fabian  News,  confined  mainly  to 
news  of  the  society  itself. 

Its  political  work  has  been  as  important  as  its 
educational. 

In  1888  the  Star  evening  newspaper  was  start- 
ed, and,  adopting  Fabian  ideas,  became  at  once 
an  enormous  success.  In  1889  the  people  of 
London  elected  their  first  County  Council,  and, 
.to  the  surprise  of  everybody,  the  Progressive 
majority  proved  to  be  socialist  in  all  its  leading 
ideas. 

In  1890  an  active  lecturing  campaign  was 
started  in  the  country  districts  by  Sidney  Webb, 
Bernard  Shaw,  Graham  Wallas,  William  Clarke, 
Hubert  Bland,  and  others,  and  in  a  short  time 
nearly  every  large  town  in  the  country  had 
formed  a  local  Fabian  Society  affiliated  with  the 
London  body. 

In  1892  the  second  London  County  Council 
election  was  fought  on  the  London  Programme, 
written  by  Sidney  Webb,  and  again  the  Pro- 
gressives secured  an  overwhelming  victory,  in 
which  every  Fabian  who  ran  as  a  Progressive 
was  elected.  In  national  politics  the  society  has 
not  yet  accomplished  much.  The  efforts  of  Fa- 
bians and  others  to  "  permeate"  the  Liberal  lead- 
ers with  collectivism  have  been  more  successful 
in  name  than  in  reality.  A  recent  move  of  the 
Fabians  was  a  manifesto  published  in  the  Fort- 
nightly Review  for  November,  1893,  pointing 
out  the  failure  of  the  Liberal  ministry  to  re- 
deem its  pledges,  especially  in  matters  of  admin- 
istration, and  calling  on  the  great  trade-unions 
to  run  their  own  candidates  at  the  next  election. 
In  the  recent  election  of  the  County  Council 
in  1894,  in  spite  of  the  Conservative  reaction, 


Fabian  Society. 


580 


Factory  Legislation. 


all  the  Fabian  Progressive  candidates  were 
still  successful.  Speaking  generally,  it  is  prob- 
ably not  too  much  to  say  that  the  phenomenal 
spread  of  socialism  in  England  is  largely  due, 
as  far  as  propaganda  goes,  to  the  work  of  the 
Fabian  Society.  Its  lectures  have  been  given 
wherever  an  opportunity  appeared  before  all 
classes,  but  very  largely  before  London's  work- 
ing men's  clubs.  Ten  years  ago  these  clubs 
stood  mainly  for  radical,  unthinking  individual- 
ism. Boasting  of  their  individual  freedom,  even 
when  they  were  really  slaves,  the  members  were 
more  busy  with  denouncing  Christianity  than 
in  working  for  reform.  To-day  both  radicalism 
and  orthodoxy  in  religion  are  little  talked  of, 
and  the  clubs  are  largely  political  clubs,  work- 
ing on  socialist  lines.  This  change  has  been 
brought  about  mainly  by  the  Fabian  Society. 
It  may  be  of  interest  to  Americans  to  know  that 
the  society  took  its  impetus  from  an  interest  in 
social  problems  occasioned  by  the  lectures  of 
Henry  George  in  England,  and  the  reading  of 
Progress  and  Poverty,  and  that  its  founders 
were  first  brought  together  by  Professor  Thomas 
Davidson,  of  New  York.  The  company  gath- 
ered by  Professor  Davidson  divided  into  two 
groups,  one  founding  the  ethical  movement  of 
the  New  Fellowship,  the  other  the  political  and 
economic  Fabian  Society. 

The  name  of  the  society  originated  in  the 
motto,  "  For  the  right  moment  you  must  wait, 
as  Fabius  did,  most  patiently,  when  warring 
against  Hannibal,  though  many  censured  his 
delays  ;  but  when  the  time  comes  you  must 
strike  hard,  as  Fabius  did,  or  your  waiting  will 
.be  in  vain  and  fruitless." 

"  Fabian  Socialism"  does  not  differ  from  any 
other  socialism  in  its  aims,  but  in  its  economic 
analysis  follows  the  theory  of  value  (?.v.)  held 
by  Jevons  rather  than  that  inherited  by  Karl 
Marx  and  the  German  socialists  from  Adam 
Smith  and  Ricardo.  In  propaganda,  Fabians 
usually  follow  a  progressive  policy  of  advanc- 
ing their  principles  through  any  party  where  an 
opening  may  be  found.  The  address  of  the 
Secretary  is  Edward  R.  Pease,  276  Strand,  Lon- 
don, W.  C. 

FACTORY  LEGISLATION.— The  body 
of  laws  which  has  come  into  existence  since 
the  opening  of  the  present  century  relating  to 
the  regulation  of  factories,  workshops,  and  all 
places  where  industry  is  carried  on,  comes  under 
the  general  title  of  "factory  legislation,"  and 
it  has  stamped  itself  most  emphatically  upon 
the  written  law  of  all  countries  where  the  fac- 
tory system  has  taken  root,  and  also  upon  the 
social  and  moral  laws  which  lie  at  the  bottom 
of  the  forces  which  make  written  law  what  it 
is.  The  establishment  of  the  factory  system  of 
labor,  resulting  in  the  congregation  of  large 
bodies  of  people  working  in  the  same  branches 
of  labor,  called  attention  to  industrial  condi- 
tions, and  while  prior  to  the  establishment  of 
the  factory  system  industrial  conditions  were 
apparently  much  worse  than  after  its  establish- 
ment, the  workers  under  the  old  system  were 
so  distributed  that  their  surroundings  did  not 
attract  public  attention,  or,  at  least,  the  atten- 
tion of  legislators  ;  but  when  great  bodies  were 
brought  under  one  roof  or  into  one  community, 


whatever  evils  existed  became  noticeable,  and 
the  attention  of  the  legislator  was  called  to 
them.  The  factory  system  was  first  instituted 
in  England.  At  the  time  there  were  few  laws 
relating  to  master  and  man  upon 
the  statute-books  of  England,  and 
those  which  did  exist  bore  mostly  In  England. 
upon  criminal  matters.  There  was 
one  law,  however,  in  force  which 
had  been  considered  by  many  as  an  obstruc- 
tion to  advancement  in  the  mechanic  arts,  but 
which,  with  the  establishment  of  the  factory 
system,  was  to  become  the  only  point  upon 
which  labor  legislation  could  turn.  This  old 
law  was  known  as  "  The  Apprenticeship  Act," 
and  was  passed  in  1562,  during  the  reign  of 
Elizabeth.  It  is  to  be  found  in  5  Elizabeth,  c. 
4.  It  provided  that  no  one  should  work  in  cer- 
tain trades  as  journeyman  until  after  an  ap- 
prenticeship of  seven  years.  It  was  under  this 
act  that  the  custom  of  apprenticing  pauper  chil- 
dren by  parish  officers  grew  up,  and  under  it 
there  grew  also  the  very  worst  practices,  for 
the  act  allowed  apprentices  to  be  worked  from 
5  A.M.  until  between  7  and  8  P.M.,  from  March 
to  September,  and,  as  the  law  expresses  it,  from 
September  to  March,  from  the  "  spring  of  the 
day  until  the  night  closed  in."  When  the  first 
cotton  factories  were  erected  in  England,  neces- 
sarily where  water-courses  were  found  sufficient 
to  supply  power,  they  became  so  numerous  in 
such  localities  that  the  supply  of  children  from 
the  immediate  neighborhoods  was  found  to  fall 
far  short  of  the  demand.  The  reverse  of  this 
condition  prevailed  in  the  agricultural  counties, 
where  general  misery  existed  on  every  hand. 
The  unprincipled  poor-law  guardians  in  the 
latter  counties,  being  anxious  to  rid  their  par- 
ishes as  speedily  as  possible  of  pauper  children, 
were  very  eager  to  meet  the  requirements  of 
the  industrial  communities  where  the  factory 
system  had  been  established  for  cheap  labor. 
Children  were,  therefore,  transferred  in  large 
numbers  to  the  North,  where  they  were  housed 
in  pent-up  buildings  adjoining  the  factories, 
and  were  kept  to  long  hours  of  labor.  These 
primary  facts  soon  drew  attention  to  the  evils 
of  the  factory  system  as  they  appeared  at  its  in- 
ception, and  for  the  first  time  the  consequences 
of  congregated  labor  were  made  clearly  ap- 
parent. A  generation  of  operatives  was  grow- 
ing up  under  conditions  of  comparative  physi- 
cal degeneracy,  of  mental  ignorance,  and  of 
moral  corruption  ;  and  it  was  then  that  the  great 
questions  began  to  be  asked,  Has  the  nation 
any  right  to  interfere  ?  Shall  society  suffer  that 
individuals  may  profit?  Shall  the  next  and 
succeeding  generations  be  weakened  morally 
and  intellectually  that  estates  may  be  enlarged  ? 
These  great  questions  forced  themselves  upon 
the  public  mind,  and  the  fact  that  pauper  ap- 
prentices might  be  better  off  under  such  ap- 
prenticeship than  in  the  workhouse 
had  no  great  weight  under  the  in- 
fluence of  the  religious  and  moral  The 
waves  which  affected  England  in  Nineteenth 
the  last  quarter  of  the  last  century.  Century. 
The  first  man  to  ask  such  power- 
ful questions  of  Parliament  was 
Sir  Robert  Peel,  in  the  year  1802.  Sir  Rob- 
ert was  a  master  manufacturer,  to  whom 


Factory  Legislation. 


Factory  Legislation. 


the  new  system  of  labor  had  brought  wealth 
and  power  and  station,  but  he  sought  to  remedy 
the  evils  which  he  knew,  from  his  own  personal 
experience,  had  grown  with  the  factory  sys- 
tem ;  so  in  1802  he  introduced  a  bill,  the  object 
of  which  was  to  interfere  by  law  with  the  natu- 
ral tendencies  of  unrestricted  competition  in  the 
labor  of  human  beings  ;  but  he  could  not,  under 
the  sentiment  of  the  English  legislature  that 
precedent  must  be  sacred,  go  very  far  beyond 
the  regulation  of  the  labor  of  parish  appren- 
tices. His  bill  was  therefore  entitled  "  An  act 
for  the  preservation  of  the  health  and  morals  of 
apprentices  and  others  employed  in  the  cotton 
and  other  mills  and  in  cotton  and  other  facto- 
ries." The  whole  notion  of  Peel's  measure  was 
that  as  apprentices  were  already  under  statu- 
tory provisions,  and  were  subjects  of  a  legal 
contract,  it  was  permissible  that  their  hours  of 
labor  should  be  regulated  by  positive  enact- 
ment ;  but  Parliament,  which  was  familiar  with 
restrictions  on  the  products  of  labor,  and  with 
restrictions  of  monopoly  on  labor  itself,  would 
not  listen  to  any  proposal  to  regulate  what  was 
called  "  free"  labor  for  the  purpose  of  avoiding 
even  the  most  frightful  moral  evils.  In  the 
case  of  apprentices,  however,  it  was  conceded 
that  restriction  might  be  tolerated.  Such  a  con- 
cession came  under  the  power  of  precedent,  and 
the  act  of  1562,  which  had  theretofore  been  an 
obstacle,  became  the  very  legal  precedent  the 
law-makers  of  England  must  have  before  they 
could  consent  to  protect  human  rights,  and  as 
that  law  had  regulated  the  hours  of  labor  of 
apprentices,  Parliament  crept  through  this  nar- 
row door,  and  allowed  Sir  Robert  Peel's  bill  to 
restrict  the  hours  of  labor  of  parish  apprentices 
at  work  in  the  factories  ;  and  so  the  first  factory 
act  known  in  legislation  was  passed.  This  act 
is  known  as  42  and  43,  George  III.,  cap.  73,  and 
while  it  was  of  no  great  value  to  the  operatives 
themselves,  it  has  been  of  .the  greatest  value  to 
the  world,  for  it  made  the  assertion,  which  has 
never  yet  been  retracted,  that  the  nation  did 
have  the  right  to  check  not  only  open  evils,  but 
those  which  grow  individually  through  the  na- 
ture of  employment.  It  dealt  simply  with  the 
unregulated  employment  of  apprentices.  By 
the  provisions  of  the  law  the  employer  was  com- 
pelled to  clothe  his  apprentices,  whose  work  was 
limited  then  to  twelve  hours  a  day,  night  work 
being  prohibited.  Every  apprentice  was  to  re- 
ceive daily  instruction  during  the  first  four 
years  of  his  time,  school  attendance  to  be  reck- 
oned as  working  time.  There  were  many  other 
regulations  embodied  in  the  act,  stimulated  by 
Sir  Robert  Peel.  The  law  was  substantially 
repealed  in  1814,  but  in  1815  Sir  Robert  Peel 
came  back  to  Parliament,  told  it  that  the  act  of 
1802  "  had  become  useless,  that  apprentices  had 
been  given  up,  but  that  the  same  exhausting 
conditions,  from  which  Parliament  had  intend- 
ed to  relieve  apprentices,  was  the  lot  of  thou- 
sands and  thousands  of  the  children  of  the  free 
poor,"  and  in  the  following  year 
(1816)  Parliament  instituted  a  great 
Progress,  inquiry  into  the  condition  of  the 
factory  population,  tho  it  did  not 
enact  a  new  law  until  1 819.  Under 
this  act  the  right  of  the  nation  to  limit  the  age 
at  which  children  might  be  admitted  to  the 


factories  was  established.  From  1816  to  the 
present  time  there  has  been  no  cessation  in  the 
attempts  to  regulate  by  law  some  of  the  condi- 
tions of  labor  ;  and  in  all  countries  where  the 
factory  system  has  taken  any  hold,  as  already 
stated,  factory  acts  are  to  be  found.  Such  legis- 
lation has  had  for  its  chief  object  the  regulation 
of  the  labor  of.  women  and  children,  but  its 
scope  has  been  constantly  enlarged  by  succes- 
sive and  progressive  amendments  until  law  has 
attempted  to  secure  the  physical  and  moral  well- 
being  of  the  working  man  in  all  trades  and  to 
give  him  every  condition  of  salubrity  and  of  per- 
sonal safety  in  the  workshops. 

The  most  elaborate  code  of  factory  laws  is 
that  of  Great  Britain,  the  present  act  being  a 
consolidation  of  all  the  acts  since  Sir  Robert 
Peel's  law  of  1802.     In  that  coun- 
try the   law   makes  provision  for 
sanitary  conditions,  for  safety  from      Present 
accidents  occurring  from  machin-     English. 
ery,    regulating    employment  and        Law. 
meal  hours  and  the  employment  of 
young  persons  and  women  and  chil- 
dren, providing  for  holidays,  for  the  education 
of  children,  for  certificates  of  fitness  for  employ- 
ment, regulating  overtime  and  night  work,  and 
embodying  a  great  many  minor  provisions,  all 
looking  to  the  well-being  of  the  operative. 

In  France,  the  factory  laws  relate  to  the  hours 
of  labor  and  regulate  some  of  the  conditions. 
Female  labor  under  ground  is  forbidden,  and 
boys  below  the  age  of  16  are  not  allowed  in  such 
work. 

Germany  has  a  fair  factory  code,  and  is  now 
in  the  experimental  years  of  a  great  system  of 
legal  and  compulsory  insurance  of  work  peo- 
ple, the  results  of  which  the  empire  and  the 
governments  of  other  continental  countries  are 
watching  with  great  interest. 

In  this  country  nearly  every  State  in  which 
textile  factories  are  found  has  factory  laws  of 
some  kind,  and  many  of  them  provide,  as  does 
Great  Britain,  a  body  of  factory  in- 
spectors for  the  enforcement  of  leg- 
islation.   Several  of  our  States  have        The 
regulated  the  age  at  which  children      United 
can  be  employed  in  any  manufac-      States, 
turing,  mechanical    or   mercantile 
establishment,  for  the  attendance 
upon  schools,  and  such  matters  ;  and  they  are 
following  rapidly  in  the  footsteps  of  Great  Brit- 
ain in  providing  that  proprietors  of  factories 
shall  make  specific  provision  against  accidents 
from  dangerous  machinery,  providing  penalties 
for  the  cleaning  of  machinery  while  running, 
etc.  ;  and  also  providing  that  factories  shall  be 
well  ventilated  and  kept  clean  ;  that  hoistways, 
hatchways,  elevators,  and  well-holes  shall  be 
protected  by  good  and  sufficient  trap-doors  or 
other  appliances  ;  that  establishments  of  certain 
height  shall  be  provided  with  sufficient  fire-es- 
capes, practically   constructed,  and  that  they 
shall  be  kept  in  good  repair  and  free  from  ob- 
struction.    Factory  acts,  varying  in  their  provi- 
sions, have  been  placed  upon  the  statute-books 
of  nearly  every  State  of  the  Union.     To  sum- 
marize these  into  a  digest  would  require  a  vol- 
ume by  itself,  but  the  principles  involved  in  the 
factory  legislation  are  those  indicated,  and  they 
relate  to  the  personal  well-being  and  the  safety 


Factory  Legislation. 


582 


Factory  Legislation. 


of  the  operatives  employed.  The  effect  of  the 
laws  everywhere  has  been  to  elevate  the  stand- 
ard of  employment,  to  improve  the  health  and 
increase  the  longevity  of  operatives,  to  reduce 
their  hours  of  labor  from  13  or  14  per  day  to  9 
or  10,  and  to  surround  them  with  good  sanitary, 
healthful  conditions.  Very  many  factory  and 
workshop  people  in  different  countries  find 
themselves  in  better  surroundings,  as  to  air  and 
general  sanitary  conditions,  while  at  work  than 
in  their  homes.  The  improvement  in  the  moral 
tone  has  been  sufficient  to  warrant  the  existence 
of  factory  legislation,  but  the  constant  elimina- 
tion of  children  from  factory  labor  is  one  of  its 
most  beneficent  results. 

The  student  of  factory  legislation  should  ex- 
amine. History  of  the  Factory  System,  by  R. 
Whateley  Cooke  Taylor  ;  a  Report  on  the  Fac- 
tory System,  in  Vol.  II.  of  the  Reports  of  the 
Tenth  Census,  and  Labor  Laws  of  the  United 
States  and  Territories,  United  States  Depart- 
ment of  Labor,  1892.  The  Reign  of  Law,  by 
the  Duke  of  Argyle,  is  also  a  work  dealing  with 
the  subject  from  a  philosophical  point  of  view, 
and  should  be  carefully  studied. 

CARROLL  D.  WRIGHT. 

For  further  consideration  of  factories,  see 
MACHINERY  ;  FACTORY  SYSTEM  :  LABOR  LEGIS- 
LATION. The  Political  Science  Quarterly 
publishes  annual  summaries  of  the  industrial 
legislation  of  each  year.  The  laws  are,  how- 
ever, so  continually  modified  and  added  to,  and 
in  the  United  States  are  so  various  in  various 


States  that  it  is  impossible  to  give  any  accurate 
detailed  statements  concerning  either  the  whole 
country  or  any  general  period.  The  questions 
of  the  short-hour  movement  (<?.v.)  and  of  arbitra- 
tion are,  perhaps,  the  factory  questions  most 
mooted  to  day  in  the  United  States.  In  Eng- 
land, the  question  of  a  living  wage  is  added. 
Some  believe  that  the  industrial  question  of  the 
day  is  rather  one  of  a  market  than  of  factory 
legislation  — at  least  the  capability  of  the  fac- 
tories to  produce  seems  to  exceed  the  capability 
of  the  people  to  ' '  consume, ' '  i. e. ,  to  buy.  As  the 
people  unquestionably  want  more  goods,  their 
inability  to  consume  means  a  lack  of  money  or 
faulty  distribution.  The  factories  may  not  be 
the  main  places  of  faulty  distribution,  but,  so 
far  as  they  are  concerned,  higher  wages  are  the 
main  need  in  order  to  produce  better  distribu- 
tion. It  is  questionable,  however,  if  this  can 
be  effected  or  even  materially  influenced  by 
legislation,  at  least  by  factory  legislation.  What- 
ever will  improve  the  general  market  will  un- 
doubtedly be  the  best  aid  to-day  to  factory  em- 
ployers and  employees.  In  many  factories  to-day 
the  tendency  is  not  to  short  hours,  but  to  short 
time.  Factories  run  at  rapid  speed  and  during 
long  hours  per  day,  are  often  shut  half  the  week 
or  for  weeks  together.  But  this  is  rather  a  gen- 
eral industrial  problem  than  a  factory  question. 
See  OVERPRODUCTION. 

Mr.  Hobson,  in  his  Evolution  of  Modern 
Capitalism,  pp.  322,  323,  gives  the  following  con- 
venient summary  of  the  leading  points  in  the 
development  of  factory  legislation  in  England  : 


DATE. 

Industries 
Affected. 

Class  of  Workers 
Chiefly  Protected. 

Nature  of  Regulations. 

Mode  of  Ad- 
ministration. 

Effectiveness. 

1802 

Cotton  and  "  other 

Apprenticed  pau-  12  hours  day.     Night-work 

Local    justices   to 

Virtually  inopera- 

mills"    (applied 

per  children. 

regulated.         Education, 

appoint  visitors. 

tive. 

exclusively      to 

sanitation. 

cotton). 

1819  I 

Do. 

Children  (not  pau-  Prohibition  of  work  under 

Do. 

Do. 

1820  f 

Do. 

pers). 

9  years.    Young  persons 

(under  16)  a  i2-hour  day. 

Regulation     for      meal- 

time .  Amendment  of  1802 

Act. 

1825 

Do. 

Do 

Shortened  Saturday  labor. 

Do. 

Generally  evaded. 

Penalties      provided       for 

(Millowners     and 

breach  of   factory  regu- 

relatives      pre- 

lations. 

vented  from  act- 

ing on  the  Bench 

in   reference    to 

factory  acts.) 

1833   I 

All  textile  indus- 

Children    an  d 

48  hours  week  for  children 

Government      in- 

i out  of  every  n 

is34  f 

tries. 

young  persons. 

(9-13),  69  hours  for  young 

spectors  (4). 

millowners  con- 

, 

persons  (13-18).   Prohibits 

victed  in  1834,  in 

night-work     for     young 

spite  of   defiant 

persons.    Children  in  silk 

attitude  of  mag- 

mills, 10  hours  day. 

istrates. 

1842 

Mines. 

Children  and  wo- 

No underground  work. 

Mine  inspectors. 

men. 

1844  ) 

Children,     young 

Factory       acts        applied. 

Government      in- 

Improved admin- 

to    \ 

1846  ) 

Printworks. 

persons,  women. 

"  False  relay"  system  for 
children     checked.       6% 

spectors. 

istration,        but 
"  false       relay" 

hours    day  for  children. 

system     reesta- 

Female    young    persons 
age  raised  to  21.   12  hours 

blished.       Fines 
inadequate. 

day     for     women.       No 

night-work  for  women. 

1847  1 

to     \ 

1850  ) 

Textile  factories, 
printworks,  etc. 

Do. 

10   hours    day,    afterward 
io!4  hours  day  for  young 
persons      and       women, 

Increased  staff  of 
Government  in- 
spectors. 

Largely  defied  or 
evaded  for  some 
time. 

practically  for  men. 

1860 

Bleaching         and 

Do. 

Do.,   with   special    regula- 

dyeing. 

tions  for  overtime. 

1860 

Coal      and      iron 

All  workers. 

Restriction  on  male  labor 

Mine  inspectors. 

mines. 

under    12.     Safety,    ven- 

tilation, etc. 

Factory  Legislation. 


583 


Factory  System. 


DATE. 

Industries 
Affected. 

Class  of  Workers 
Chiefly  Protected. 

Nature  of  Regulations. 

Mode  of  Ad- 
ministration. 

Effectiveness. 

1863 

Finishing       proc- 

Children,     young 

1 

esses  in  bleach- 

persons, women. 

ing1  and  dyeing, 

bakehouses,    al- 

kali works. 

1864 

Non-textile      fac- 

Do. 

!_  Factory    acts    generally 

tories    (earthen- 

r    applied. 

ware,        fustian 

cutting,          car- 

tridges,    lucifer 

matches,  paper- 

staining). 

1867 

All   factories  and 
workshops. 

Do. 

Factory     Acts     Extension 
Act.      Workshops  Regu- 

Workshops     Act 
left    at    first    to 

Workshops      Act 
dead    letter    in 

lation    Act,    applying  to 

local  authorities, 

1868-69.       Later, 

workshops.  Factory  rules 
affecting    hours,    educa- 

brought    under 
factory    inspect- 

fines    inade- 
quate.    Inspect- 

tion,   etc.,    in     modified 
form. 

ors,  1871. 

ors  inadequate. 

1867 

Agriculture. 

Children,  women. 

Act     for     Suppression    of 

Agricultural    Gangs  fix- 

ing minimum    age   at  8, 

regulating     employment 

of  women. 

1870 

P  rintworks, 
bleaching,    dye- 

Children,    young 
persons,  women. 

Application    of   chief  pro- 
visions   of    1867    Factory 

ing. 

Act. 

1871 

Brickworks      and 
fields. 

Children    and 
young      female 

Forbids  employment.    Im- 
proved     conditions     for 

persons. 

women. 

1873 

1878 

Agriculture. 
Factories,     work- 

Children. 
Children,      young 

Minimum  age  raised  to  10. 
Consolidation  of  Factories 

Increased  staff  of 

shops,     agricul- 
ture. 

persons,  women, 
(incidentally 

and  Workshops  Act  (ex- 
tending some   provisions 

inspectors. 

men). 

to  agriculture). 

1891 

Do. 

Do. 

Amendment   of    Factories 

Board    of    Trade 

and  Workshops  Act.  Age 

power  to  sched- 

for children  raised  to  n. 

ule      dangerous 

Protection  in  dangerous 

trades. 

trades. 

1892 

Shops. 

Children,      young 

Limits  working-day. 

persons. 

1893 

Various  trades. 

All  workers. 

Restrictions  on  dangerous 

Appointment      of 

1893 

Railways. 

Adult  males. 

trades. 
Restrictions    on    hours    of 

workingmen 
and   women   in- 

labor. 

spectors.          In- 

creased number 

of  inspectors. 

(For  the  details  of  American  factory  laws,  see 
LABOR  LEGISLATION.) 

FACTORY  SYSTEM,  THE.— Altho  what 
is  called  "the  factory  system"  is  a  product 
mainly  of  the  close  of  the  eighteenth  century, 
and  of  the  application  of  machinery  and  steam 
power  to  industry,  factories  existed  in  Greece 
and  Rome  and  in  the  older  civilizations  of 
Egypt,  Assyria,  India,  and  China.  In  the  later 
Middle  Ages  they  developed  in  all  the  indus- 
trial cities  in  connection  with  the  guilds  (g.v.). 
In  the  Elizabethan  age  they  are  said  to  have 
multiplied  in  England.  But  these  establish- 
ments were  not  factories  in  the  modern  sense. 
In  ancient  civilizations,  they  were  slave  shops, 
where  the  slaves  worked  under  a  taskmaster  ; 
in  medieval  days  they  were  shops  where  the 
master  workman  labored  with  his  apprentices 
and  his  journeymen. 

The  first  factory  in  the  modern  sense  seems 
to  have  been  a  silk  factory,  built  by  Sir  Thomas 
Lombe,  in  Derbyshire,  in  1719.  Through  all 
the  eighteenth  century  factories  multiplied  in 
England  as  industries  became  localized  in  cer- 
tain localities  or  sections.  The  main  cause, 
however,  of  the  development  of  the  present 
factory  system  was,  of  course,  the  invention  of 


machines  and  the  application  of  steam  power  in 
production,  necessitating  the  carrying  on  of  in- 
dustry in  buildings  especially  adapted  to  the 
purpose  and  in  connection  with  an  ever-increas- 
ing plant.  A  realization  of  what  a  change  this 
meant  in  production  can  be  seen  by  the  follow- 
ing picture  of  the  woolen  trade  before  the  de- 
velopment of  the  factory  system. 

"  The  work  was  entirely  domestic,  and  its  different 
branches  widely  scattered  over  the  country.  First, 
the  manufacturer  had  to  travel  on  horseback  to  pur- 
chase his  raw  material  among  the  farmers,  or  at  the 
great  fairs  held  in  those  old  towns  that  had  formerly 
been  the  exclusive  markets,  or,  as  they  were  called, 
'staples'  of  wool.  The  wool,  safely  received,  was 
handed  over  to  the  sorters,  who  rigorously  applied 
their  gauge  of  required  length  of  staple  and  merci- 
lessly chopped  off  by  shears  or  hatchet  what  did  not 
reach  the  standard  as  wool  fit  for  the  clothing  trade. 
The  long  wool  thus  passed  into  the  hands  of  the  comb- 
ers, and,  having  been  brought  back  to  them  into  the 
combed  state,  was  again  carefully  packed  and  strapped 
on  the  back  of  the  sturdy  horse,  to  be  taken  into  the 
country  to  be  spun.  .  .  .  Here,  in  each  village,  he  had 
his  agents,  who  received  the  wool,  distributed  it 
among  the  peasantry  and  received  it  back  as  yarn. 
The  machine  employed  was  still  the  old  one-thread 
wheel,  and  in  summer  weather  on  many  a  village 
green  might  be  seen  the  housewives  plying  their  busy 
trade,  and  furnishing  to  the  poet  the  vision  of  content- 
ment spinning  at  the  cottage-door.  Returning  in 
safety  with  his  yarn,  the  manufacturer  had  now  to 
seek  out  his  weavers,  who  ultimately  delivered  to  him 


Factory  System. 


584 


Factory  System. 


his  camblets  or  russels,  or  serges,  or  tammies  or  cali- 
mar>coes  (such  were  the  leading  names  of  the  fibers) 
ready  for  sale  to  the  merchant  or  delivery  to  the  dyer" 
(James,  History  of  the  Worsted  Manufacture,  p.  323 
[quoted  by  R.  Whately  Cooke  Taylor],  7^he  Modern 
factory  System,  pp.  61,  62). 

With  the  use  of  machinery  this  was  all 
changed.  All  the  processes  were  gradually 
brought  together  in  factories,  and  men,  women, 
and  very  soon  children  were  gathered  together 
to  tend  the  machines.  The  first  factories  were 
of  the  rudest  description,  and  the  employees 
were  worked  the  longest  hours  and  without  the 
least  regard  to  health  or  morality.  It  was  the 
day  of  absolute  laissez  faire.  There  were  no 
factory  laws  (f.v.),  and  experience  had  not 
taught  that  it  pays  the  employer  to  consider  the 
needs  and  health  of  his  employees.  Men  and 
women  were  worked  like  cattle  and  housed 
worse  than  the  cattle.  Women,  since  they 
would  work  cheaper,  displaced  men,  and  chil- 
dren soon  displaced  women.  The  horrors  of 
the  early  factory  system  to-day  can  scarcely  be 
credited.  Yet  the  facts  are  proven  by  the  un- 
questioned evidence  of  parliamentary  commis- 
sions and  English  Blue  Books. 

The  demand  for  children  commenced  and 
kept  pace  with  the  growth  of  the  whirling  spin- 
dles. When  the  adjacent  supply  was  found 
insufficient,  pens  were  established  on  the  banks 
of  the  canals,  into  which  hundreds  of  boys  and 
girls  were  collected,  from  scattered  cottages  and 
villages,  the  poorhouse  and  street,  and  shipped 
by  barge  to  feed  the  merciless  mills. 

Infants  five  years  old  were  allowed  to  work  in 
the  cotton  factories  from  five  in  the  morning 
until  eight  at  night,  and  in  the  bleaching  works 
uncomplaining  little  ones  of  1 1  and  under  were 
kept  continuously  at  labor  during  the  same 
hours  in  a  temperature  of  120°.  In  the  un- 
healthy occupation  of  pin-making  similar  con- 
ditions prevailed.  Children  often  walked  20 
miles  a  day  in  the  performance  of  their  tasks. 
Mothers  who  lived  near  the  cotton  factories  might 
be  seen  taking  their  crying  innocents  to  work 
at  dead  of  night.  Half  the  infants  of  Manches- 
ter died  before  three  years  of  age,  and  in  some 
districts  the  death-rate  under  20  was  larger  than 
in  other  parts  of  England  under  40.  In  portions 
of  factory  counties,  the  youthful  population  was 
physically  worn  out  before  manhood  ;  a  notable 
decrease  took  place  in  the  height  of  adults,  and 
the  effect  began  to  be  nationally  apparent  in  the 
physique  of  the  recruits  who  offered  themselves 
for  the  army  and  navy.  The  following  description 
shows  the  atrocity  of  these  early  factory  days  : 

"Traffickers  contracted  with  the  overseers  for  re- 
moving their  juvenile  victims  to  Manchester  or  other 
towns.  On  their  arrival,  if  not  previously  assigned, 
they  were  deposited  in  dark  cellars,  where  the  mer- 
chant dealing  in  them  brought  his  customers  and  where 
the  mill-owners,  by  the  light  of  lanterns,  being  enabled 
to  examine  the  children,  their  limbs  and  stature  having 
undergone  the  necessary  scrutiny,  the  bargain  was 
struck  and  these  poor  innocents  were  conveyed  to  the 
mills.  ...  In  verv  many  instances  their  labor  was 
limited  onlv  by  exhaustion,  after  many  modes  of  tor- 
ture had  been  unayailingly  applied  to  force  continued 
action.  .  .  .  Discrimination  of  sexes  was  not  regard- 
ed ;  vice,  disease  and  death  luxuriated  in  these  re- 
ceptacles of  human  woe"  (History  of  the  factory 
Movement,  by  Alfred  (pseud.),  vol.  i.,  chap,  ii.,  p-  17)- 

It  was  such  conditions  as  these  that  led  to  the 
factory  laws  (q.v.~)  of  England. 


In  the  United  States  the  factory  system  was 
not  developed  till  the  present  century.  It  was 
the  policy  of  England  to  prevent  her  American 
colonies  from  having  machinery,  in  order  to 
keep  them  dependent  upon  the  trade  of  the 
mother  country.  The  first  spinning-jenny  seen 
in  America  was  exhibited  in  Philadelphia  in 
1775.  Efforts  at  a  factory  were  made  at  Wor- 
cester, Mass.,  in  1780.  Parliament,  however, 
enacted  strict  laws,  forbidding,  under  severe  pen- 
alties, the  export  of  machinery  from  England. 
After  the  War  of  Independence  machinery  was 
rapidly  developed.  The  first  textile  factory  was 
erected  at  Beverly,  Mass.,  in  1787.  Samuel 
Slater,  whom  President  Jackson  called  "  the 
father  of  American  manufactures,"  erected  the 
first  factory  with  power  machinery  at  all  ade- 
quate in  Pawtucket,  R.  I.,  in  1790.  In  1794  Eli 
Whitney,  of  Massachusetts,  invented  in  Geor- 
gia the  cotton-gin.  Only  gradually,  however, 
did  the  factory  system  replace  home  industries. 
Women  preferred  to  work  in  their  homes,  and 
reluctantly  entered  the  factories.  The  early 
factory  employees  were  drawn  from  the  Ameri- 
can families  and  homes  in  the  neighborhood, 
and  from  the  most  intelligent  homes. 

The  spirit  and  intelligence  of  the  factory  girls 
of  Lowell  and  other  New  England  towns  are 
well  known.  But  gradually  conditions  changed. 
Factories  grew  larger  and  larger.  The  duties 
of  the  employees  grew  more  and  more  merely 
technical.  Immigration  set  in.  Factory  popu- 
lations developed.  The  moral  tone  of  the  fac- 
tory was  lowered.  Uneducated  girls  and  fami- 
lies, being  able  to  do  the  merely  manual  work 
of  tending  the  machines,  were  employed.  Grad- 
ually the  factory  system,  as  we  know  it  to-day, 
was  developed. 

In  his  report  of  the  Bureau  of  Statistics  of 
Labor  of  Massachusetts  for  1881,  Mr.  Carroll  D. 
Wright  said  (p.  466) : 

"  In  our  cotton  mills  especially,  the  women  and  chil- 
dren largely  exceed  the  men,  being  often  from  two- 
thirds  to  five-sixths  of  the  whole,  and  the  proportion  is 
steadily  increasing.  And  what  are  these  women  and 
children  but  the  very  weakest  and  most  dependent  of 
all  the  people  ?" 

Elsewhere  an  operative  testifies  : 

"  Mill  life  has  a  most  demoralizing  effect  upon 
women  and  children,  especially  on  girls  who  have  no 
parents  in  the  mills  to  watch  over  them.  I  will  not 

?ermit  my  girls  to  work  in  any  other  mill  than  the  one 
am  in,  and  where  I  can  keep  my  eye  on  them.  Not 
that  I  am  afraid  they  will  do  anything  wrong,  but  the 
influences  of  a  mill  are  very  bad.  If  a  child  of  a  ten- 
der age  goes  to  work  in  the  mill,  constantly  breathing 
a  temperature  of  90  degrees  both  winter  and  summer, 
it  is  sure  to  grow  up  puny  and  die  early.  I  get  so  ex- 
hausted that  I  can  scarcely  drag  myself  home  when 
night  comes." 

Another  operative  testifies  : 

"Young  girls  from  14  and  upward  learn  more  wick- 
edness in  one  year  than  they  would  in  five  years  out  of 
a  mill." 

Mr.  Connolly,  Factory  Inspector  of  New  York, 
says  (Report  for  1887,  pp.  31,  45,  46) : 

"  Many  children  overestimate  their  strength  and 
endurance,  and  take  hold  of  work  for  which  they  are 
unfitted  by  nature,  and  thus  work  themselves  into 
consumption  or  sustain  ruptures  or  other  bodily  dam- 
age. .  .  .  The  water-closets  for  males  and  females 
adjoin  each  other  in  95  per  cent,  of  the  workshops  and 


Factory  System. 


585 


Factory  System. 


factories  throughout  the  State  of  New  York,  where 
females  are  employed,  and  in  hundreds  of  cases  the 
sexes  both  use  the  same  retiring-rooms.  .  .  .  The  venti- 
lation of  the  average  water-closet  in  manufactories  is 
very  poor,  the  science  of  hygiene  not  being  well  under- 
stood or  considered  when  the  structures  were  erected. 
The  odors  very  often  have  no  other  escape  but  into  the 
work-rooms,  and  the  smell  is  very  perceptible  to  the 
nostrils  of  the  visitor.  Disease  must  of  necessity  bur- 
den the  air  of  these  institutions,  and  the  health  of  the 
operatives  be  gradually  but  surely  undermined." 

The  reader,  however,  must  not  consider 
these  descriptions  as  true  of  existing  condi- 
tions. 

There  has  been  in  most  States  considerable 
improvement.  Yet  many  condemn  even  the 
most  carefully  built  and  regulated  factory,  and 
believe  the  factory  system  itself  hurtful  and 
unnecessary.  Says  the  socialistic  author  of  Mer- 
rye  Englande  : 

"  What  are  the  invariable  accompaniments  of  the 
factory  system? 

"  Foul  air.  foul  water,  adulterated  foods,  dirt,  long- 
hours  of  sedentary  labor,  and  continual  anxiety  as  to 
wages  and  employment  in  the  present,  added  to  a  ter- 
rible uncertainty  as  to  existence  in  the  future. 

"  Look  through  any  great  industrial  town  in  the  col- 
liery, the  iron,  the  silk,  the  cotton,  or  the  woolen  in- 
dustries, and  you  will  find  hard  work,  unhealthy 
work,  vile  air,  overcrowding,  disease,  ugliness,  drunk- 
enness, and  a  high  death  rate." 

This  is  all  but  invariably  the  view  of  the  fac- 
tory system  held  by  labor  reformers.  Even  Mr. 
Hobson  (Evolution  of  Modern  Capitalism') 
argues  that  the  factory  system  breaks  up  family 
life.  He  says  (pp.  319,  320) : 

"Before  the  industrial  revolution  women  were  quite 
as  busily  and  numerously  engaged  in  industry  as  now, 
and  the  children  employed  in  textile  and  other  work 
were  often  worked  in  their  own  homes  with  more 
cruel  disregard  to  health  and  happiness  than  is  now 
the  case.  Even  new  the  longest  hours,  the  worst  sani- 
tary conditions,  the  lowest  pay,  are  in  the  domestic 
industries  of  towns  which  still  survive  under  modern 
industry.  But  tho  the  regular  factory  women  and  the 
half-timers  are  generally  better  off  in  all  the  terms  of 
their  industry  than  the  uninspected  women  and  chil- 
dren who  still  slaye  in  such  domestic 
industries  as  the  trimmings  and  match- 
Evils  of  box  trades,  the  growing  tendency  of 
tii  a  «wa«-am  modern  industry  to  engage  women  and 
me  oysiem.  children  away  from  their  homes  is 
fraught  with  certain  indirect  important 
consequences.  When  industry  was  chief- 
ly confined  to  domestic  handicrafts,  the  claims  of 
home  life  constantly  pressed  in  and  tempered  the  in- 
dustrial life.  The  growth  of  factory  work  among 
women  has  brought  with  it  inevitably  a  weakening  of 
home  interests  and  a  neglect  of  home  duties.  The 
home  h'as  suffered  what  the  factory  has  gained.  Even 
the  shortening  of  the  factory  day,  accompanied  as  it 
has  been  by  an  intensification  of  labor  during  the 
shorter  hours,  does  not  leave  the  women  competent 
and  free  for  the  proper  ordering  of  home  life.  Home 
work  is  consciously  slighted  as  secondary  in  impor- 
tance and  inferior  because  it  brings  no  wages,  and  if 
not  neglected,  is  performed  in  a  perfunctory  manner, 
which  robs  it  of  its  grace  and  value.  This  narrowing 
of  the  home  into  a  place  of  hurried  meals  and  sleep  is, 
on  the  whole,  the  worst  injury  modern  industry  has 
inflicted  on  our  lives^and  it  is  difficult  to  see  how  it 
can  be  compensated  by  any  increase  of  material  prod- 
ucts. Factory  life  for  women,  save  in  extremely  rare 
cases,  saps  the  physical  and  moral  health  of  the  fam- 
ily. The  exigencies  of  factory  life  are  inconsistent 
with  the  position  of  a  good  mother,  a  good  wife,  or  the 
maker  of  a  home.  Save  in  extreme  circumstances,  no 
increase  of  the  family  wage  can  balance  these  losses, 
whose  values  stand  upon  a  higher  qualitative  level. 

"The direct  economic  tendency  of  machine-industry 
to  take  women  and  children  away  from  the  home  to 
work  must  be  looked  upon  as  a  tendency  antagonistic 
to  civilization." 

There  is,  however,  another  view,  the  contrary 
of  this.  Mr.  Carroll  D.  Wright  argues  in  the 


American  supplement  to  the  Encyclopedia  Bri- 
tannica  (article  "Factory")  that  the  system, 
tho  by  no  means  perfect,  is  far  in  advance  of 
previous  methods  of  production.  He  says  : 

"  As  to  the  assumption  that  the  factory  tends  to  de- 
stroy domestic  ties  and  habits,  it  may  be  said  that  this 
charge  against  the  factory  grows  out  of  another  as- 
sumption :  that  the  cottage  ot  the  domestic  worker  was 
the  ideal  home.  It  is  poetry  which  calls  such  home  a 
cottage  ;  history  rather  calls  it  a  hut.  The  home  of 
the  worker  of  old  was  the  workshop  also,  and  the 
wheels  or  looms  disputed  with  the  inmates  for  the 
room.  Small,  close,  crowded,  with  bad  air  and  bad 
surroundings,  the  hut  was  occupied  day  and  night  by 
a  class  which  cannot  find  its  kin  under  the  factory  sys- 
tem, for  the  operative  of  to-day,  as  a  rule,  occupies  a 
home,  even  in  the  factory,  tenement  or  boarding-house, 
superior  in  every  sense  to  the  home  of  the  domestic 
worker.  The  morals  in  all  respects  under  the  individ- 
ual system  were  greatly  below  those  of  the  factory  op- 
eratives of  to-day.  The  evils  which  became  apparent 
during  the  early  days  of  the  factory  system  were  sim- 
ply the  results  of  bringing  together  the  labor  which 
had  become  pauperized  under  the  domestic  system, 
and  in  agricultural  districts.  The  employment  of 
young  children  is  now  forbidden  by  law  wherever  the 
factory  has  gained  a  strong  foothold.  The  factory  has 
not  so  much  destroyed  the  home  as  it  has  enabled 
members  of  broken  families  to  earn  a  livelihood.  If  it 
has  at  times  taken  the  mother  from  the  care  of  her 
young  children— the  worst  feature  of  the  employment 
of  married  women— it  has  enabled  more  who  had  no 
home  to  become  sslf-supporting.  .  .  . 

"  We    are    deceived    because    the  factory,  by  and 
through  the  perfection  of  machinery  and  the  develop- 
ment of  the  division  of  labor,  is  constantly  employing 
a  less  and  less  cultivated  class  of  operatives:  .  .  .  are 
too  apt  to  conclude  that  the   factory  degrades,  when 
the  fact  is  it  has  enabled  the  lower  order  to  step  up  in 
the  scale  of  employment,  in  living,  and  consequently 
in  civilization.    This  process  is  constantly  narrowing 
the  limits  of  the  class  which  occupies  the  lowest  step 
in  the  progress  of  society.     This  mission  alone  stamps- 
the  factory  system  as  an  active  element 
in  the  moral  elevation  of  the  race.     Of 
course  we  speak  of  the  factory  under   The  Favor- 
men  who  realize  that  they  have  some    aT)ie  View 
responsibility    beyond    declaring    divi- 
dends.    A  narrow-minded,  close-fisted 
employer,  who  regards   his  people   as  his  machines,, 
taking  no  pains  relative  to  their   moral   well-being, 
never  recognizing  that  by  congregating  labor  for  his. 
own  profit  he  owes  it  something  besides  wages,  such 
an  employer  will  have  a  factory  which  will  convince 
any  community  that  it  is  not  an  element  in  civilization. 
The  man  should  be  condemned,  not  the  system. 

"  If  it  could  be  shown  that  the  factory  leads  to  intem- 
perate habits,  it  would  follow  conclusively  that  it  is 
productive  of  unthrift  and  poverty— the  sure  condi- 
tions resulting  from  intemperance.  It  is  true  that  a 
great  deal  of  drunkenness  exists  in  factory  towns  and 
among  factory  operatives  ;  it  is  not  true  that  the  fac- 
tory is  the  creator  of  this. 

"  The  charge  that  the  factory  feeds  prostitution  and 
swells  the  criminal  lists  is  absolutely  unfounded.  This 
impression  first  grew  from  the  condition  of  Manches- 
ter, England,  where  a  large  cellarage  population, 
which  has  entirely  disappeared,  was  attributed  to  the 
factory.  It  has  been  shown  by  the  returns  from  the 
penitentiary  of  Manchester  that  the  ranks  of  prostitu- 
tion were  not  fed  from  the  factory,  eight  only  out  of  50 
coming  from  the  factory,  and  29  out  of  50  from  domes- 
tic service.  An  extensive  examination  of  the  crimi- 
nal records  of  a  large  number  of  British  factory  towns 
discloses  the  fact  that  neither  the  ranks  of  prostitution 
nor  the  criminal  lists  are  increased  to  such  extent  from 
the  factory  population  of  these  towns  as  from  other 
classes.  This  is  equally  true  in  this  country.  It  should 
be  borne  in  mind  that  "regular  employment  is  condu- 
cive to  regular  living,  and  that  regular  employment 
does  not  harmonize  with  a  life  of  prostitution,  intem- 
perance, and  crime.  The  virtue  of  the  factory  women 
of  this  country  and  of  Europe  will  compare  favorably 
with  that  of  any  other  class,  and  much  bett< 
with  many  departments  of  social  life.  Certainly  there 
is  nothing  in  factory  employment  conducive  to  vicious 
lives.  (See  PROSTITUTION'.) 

"  The  impression  that  the  factory  tends  to  mtellect- 
vial  degeneracy  is  a  greater  fallacy  than  the  preceding 
Through  the  simplification  of   mechanical    processes- 
ignorant  labor  is  congregated  in  factory  centres,  bxit, 
as  we  have  said,  it  is  not  created  nor  induced  by  the 


Factory  System. 


586 


Family. 


factory.  The  fact  that  ignorant  masses  are  enabled  by 
the  factory  to  engage  in  what  it  once  took  skilled  labor 
to  perform  has  given  the  widespread  impression  that 
the  factory  has  degraded  the  skilled,  when  the  truth 
is,  it  has  lifted  the  unskilled  ;  and  this  is  the  inevitable 
result  of  the  factory  everywhere.  Certainly  it  is  bet- 
ter for  the  persons  engaged  than  the  filthy  little  shop, 
occupied  by  a  few  foul-talking  people,  which  charac- 
terized the  dpmestic  system.  Instead  of  dwarfing  the 
minds  and  the  skill  of  the  skilful,  as  is  often  alleged, 
the  factory  enlarges  the  minds  and  increases  the  power 
of  the  unskilful. 

"_That  some  factory  employments  are  injurious  to 
hea'lth  is  true,  but  it  is  not  true  that  factory  employ- 
ment as  such,  in  comparison  with  any  other  mechani- 
cal employment,  is  unhealthy.  The  first  requisites  of 
a  watch-factory  are  neatness  and  abundance  of  light. 
It  is  now  recognized  that  no  man  can  do  his  best  work 
unless  he  is  physically  comfortable.  Before  the  sys- 
tem can  be  condemned  in  its  entirety,  it  must  be  shown 
that  it  is  worse  than  that  which  is  displaced.  We  need 
not  apologize  for  the  weaknesses  of  the  present,  for 
they  come  mostly  from  ignorance,  not  from  the  system. 
(See  also  WAGES  ;  LABOR  ;  CHILD  LABOR  ;  WOMAN'S 
WORK  AND  WAGES  ;  UNEMPLOYMENT  ;  PRODUCTIVITY  ; 
MANUFACTURING  ;  MACHINERY). 

References :  The  Modern  Factory  System,  by  R. 
Whately  Cooke  Taylor  (1891);  Evolution  of  Modern  Cap- 
italism, by  T.  A.  Hobson  (1894)  ;  Report  on  the  Factory 
System  of  the  United  States,  by  Carroll  D.  Wright,  in 
vol.  ii.  of  the  Tenth  Census  (1882) ;  The  Industrial 
Revolution,  by  Arnold  Toynbee  (1887). 

FAIR  TRADE.— During  the  period  of  in- 
dustrial and  commercial  depression  that  pre- 
vailed in  England  as  well  as  the  United  States 
from  1873-79,  the  idea  became  somewhat  popu- 
lar in  England  that  the  cause  in  the  case  of 
that  country  was  the  unfair  condition  which 
characterized  British  international  exchanges  ; 
Great  Britain  admitting  into  her  own  ports  with- 
out duty  nearly  all  the  products  of  foreign  na- 
tions, while  these  same  nations  at  the  same  time 
not  only  imposed  heavy  and  often  prohibitory 
duties  on  the  importation  into  their  territory  of 
British  products,  but  also  in  some  instances,  as 
in  the  case  of  the  beet-root  sugar  of  France, 
subsidized  competition  to  make  it  possible  to 
undersell  British  products  in  England's  own 
market  by  the  granting  of  bounties  on  exports. 

It  was  therefore  proposed  to  institute  a  system 
oifaz'r  trade  by  having  England  affix  to  each 
country  a  tariff  as  nearly  as  possible  correspond- 
ing to  the  tariff  which  such  country  enforced 
against  English  products.  The  proposition 
gained  some  passing  favor,  but  has  made  no 
serious  impression  on  England's  settled  policy 
and  conviction  that  free  trade  is  best.  (See 
FREE  TRADE.)  The  same  idea  has  to  some  ex- 
tent been  agitated  in  this  country  under  the 
name  of  reciprocity  (q.v.). 

FALKNER,  ROLAND  POST,  was  born 
in  1860  at  Bridgeport,  Conn.  He  was  graduat- 
ed with  the  title  of  A.B.  at  the  Philadelphia 
Central  High  School  in  1879  ;  entering  the 
Wharton  School  of  Finance  and  Economy  of 
the  University  of  Pennsylvania,  he  received  the 
degree  of  Ph.B.  in  1885.  Studying  at  Paris, 
Berlin,  Leipzig,  and  Halle,  he  received,  in 
1888,  the  degree  of  Ph.D.  at  Halle.  Becoming 
an  instructor  in  the  Wharton  School  of  Finance 
and  Economy,  he  was  elected  to  the  associate 
professorship  of  statistics  in  the  same  institu- 
tion in  1891.  The  same  year  he  was  chosen 
Statistician  of  the  Senate  Sub-committee  on  the 
Tariff — a  position  he  has  since  held.  He  was  the 
first  Corresponding  Secretary,  and  is  now  Vice- 
President  of  the  American  Academy  of  Political 


and  Social  Science.  He  has  been  from  the  be- 
ginning an  associate  editor,  and  is  now  editor 
of  the  Annals  of  the  Academy.  He  is  a  mem- 
ber of  various  learned  societies,  among  them  the 
American  Economic  Association  and  the  Ameri- 
can Statistical  Association.  Since  1890  he  has 
been  Assistant  Secretary  of  the  National  Prison 
Association.  His  writings  are,  among  numerous 
monographs  :  Prison  Statistics  of  the  United 
States  (1889)  ;  Statistics  of  Prisoners  (1890, 
1892)  ;  a  translation  of  Meitzen's  Geschichte, 
Theorie  und  Technique  der  Statistik  (1891)  ; 
The  Theory  and  Practice  of  Price  Statistics 
(1892),  etc. 

FAMILY.— By  the  word  family,  in  sociol- 
ogy, is  usually  meant  the  small  community 
formed  by  the  permanent  union  of  one  man  and 
one  woman,  or  of  one  or  more  men  with  one  or 
more  women,  together  with  the  children  born 
to  such  unions,  either  living  in  one  house  or 
forming  one  domestic  group.  This  word  is 
sometimes,  however,  used  to  include  the  ser- 
vants or  slaves  belonging  to  the  family  proper 
and  living  immediately  with  the  family  proper. 
Again,  going  to  the  opposite  extreme,  and  put- 
ting the  emphasis,  not  upon  the  living  together, 
but  upon  the  legal  or  the  blood  relation,  the 
word  is  used  to  denote  the  unity  of  those  relat- 
ed by  legal  blood  relation,  primarily  parents 
and  their  children  alone,  no  matter  where  they 
reside,  but  sometimes  made  to  include  parents, 
children,  uncles,  aunts,  cousins,  sons-in-law, 
daughters-in-law,  and  even  still  more  remote 
connections. 

Etymologically,  the  word,  by  most  authori- 
ties, is  derived  through  the  'La.imfamilia,  from 
the  Oscan/tf;«^/  (servus),  originally  signifying 
the  servile  property,  the  thrall  of  a  master,  and 
later  used  for  all  domestic  property,  things  as 
well  as  persons,  bearing  only  too  plain  impress 
of  what  we  shall  find  to  be  the  Roman  concep- 
tion of  the  family  relation. 

We  shall  consider  the  subject  under  the  fol- 
lowing heads : 

I.  The  Origin  of  the  Family.  II.  The  Pre- 
historic Family.  III.  The  Classic  Family.  IV. 
The  Early  Christian  Family.  V.  The  Medieval 
Family.  VI.  The  Modern  Family.  VII.  The 
Sociologic  Function  of  the  Family.  VIII.  Vari- 
ous Theories  of  the  Family  :  (a)  Theory  of  Per- 
manent Monogamy  ;  (b)  Theory  of  Ready  Di- 
vorce ;  (c)  Theory  of  Free  Love.  IX.  The 
Family  Threatened  and  How  to  Defend  it. 

I.  THE  ORIGIN  OF  THE  FAMILY. 

All  sociologists  find  the  origin  of  the  family 
in  general  in  the  sexual  relation,  but  as  to  the 
more  exact  form  of  its  origination  there  is  still 
diversity  of  opinion,  and  we  must  trace  a  devel- 
opment of  view.  Before  the  discussion  of  the 
question  in  the  scientific  spirit  in  the  study  of 
comparative  biology,  ethnology,  etc. ,  it  was  gen- 
erally held  by  orthodox  tradition  that  the  fam- 
ily arose  by  the  ordering  of  God  in  the  union  of 
the  first  man  and  the  first  woman.  When  sci- 
ence began  to  study  the  question,  and  the  hy- 
pothesis of  evolution  became  prevalent,  the  ear- 
lier writers — McLennan,  L.  H.  Morgan,  Bacho- 
fen,  Lubbock — generally  taught  that  the  sexual 


Family. 


587 


Family. 


relation  of  men  and  women  was  at  first  one  of 
promiscuous  union,  from  whence  the  family  was 
a  comparatively  late  evolution  in  the  process  of 
civilization,  through  the  survival  of  the  fittest — 
that  is,  in  this  case  the  institution  or  custom 
best  fitted  to  preserve  life.  Later  and  more 
careful  study  by  such  men  as  Sir  Henry  Maine, 
Herbert  Spencer,  Charles  Darwin,  Peschel, 
Starcke,  Letourneau,  Westermarck,  finds  that 
the  theory  of  promiscuous  union  is,  to  say  the 
least,  not  proven,  tho  these  writers  disagree  as 
to  what  to  put  in  its  place.  Sir  Henry  Maine 
holds  that  the  original  communities  of  men  may 
have  taken  "all  sorts  of  forms"  (Dissertations 
on  Early  Law  and  Custom,  p.  281).  Darwin 
says  : 

"  If  we  look  far  enough  back  on  the  stream  of  time. 
it  is  exceedingly  improbable  that  primeval  men  and 
women  lived  promiscuously  together.  Judging  from 
the  social  habits  of  man  as  he  now  exists,  and  from 
most  savages  being  polygamists,  the  most  probable 
view  is  that  primeval  man  aboriginally  lived  in  com- 
munities, each  with  as  many  wives  as  he  could  sup- 
port and  obtain,  whom  he  would  have  jealously 
guarded  against  all  other  men  "  (Descent  of  Man,  ii., 
p.  346). 

Spencer  holds  that  the  family  relation  evolved 
itself  thro  being  the  relation  best  fitted  to  pro- 
duce and  rear  children  (Principles  of  Sociology, 
vol.  i.,  part    3,  chap.  9).     Starcke 
finds  the  evolution  of  the  family 
Various      the  best  means  of  enjoying  proper- 
Views,      ty.     De  Coulanges  finds  the  family, 
at  least   in  Aryan  races,  forming 
around  the  religious  worship  of  an- 
cestors.    The    theories    of    Westermarck    and 
Letourneau  we  shall .  consider  later.     Yet  how- 
ever the  authorities  differ,   in  much  they  are 
agreed.  They  all  hold  that  out  of  ve  ry  various  be  - 
ginnings,  more  or  less  loose,  the  monogamic  fam- 
ily has  been  evolved  as,  for  one  rea- 
son or  another,  the  best  (altho  that 
General      this  is  a  finality  they  are  not  agreed). 
Conclusion.   They  all  hold  that  monogamy  was 
not,  as  a  rule,  the  first  form.  Among 
animals  different  forms  of  the  fam- 
ily exist,   yet  the  family  has    certainly  been 
evolved  on  the  plane  of  evolution  that  they  have 
reached  ;  why  not,  then,  among  even  the  earli- 
est and  lowest  men  ?    Among  only  a  few  wild 
animals  does  promiscuity  prevail.    A  strict  pair- 
ing is  the  rule  among  some  monkeys,  ruminants, 
ungulates,  and  predatory  animals  ;  other  mon- 
keys are    polygamous,   but    still    in    families. 
Moreover,  the  male  animals  are  jealous  of  the 
possession  of  females.     It  is  also  well  known 
that  promiscuity  tends  to  infecundity.     Yet  a 
study  of  all  the  facts  will  warn  one  from  dog- 
matism as  to  the  origin  of  the  family,  and  show 
the  variety  of  forms  which  the  family  relation 
has  taken  among  men.     We  therefore  condense 
some  of  the  arguments  for  an  origin  in  promis- 
cuity as  well  as  the  arguments  against  it. 

Of  the  arguments  for  the  origin  of  the  family 
in  promiscuous  union,  Mr.  Andrew  Lang  has 
made,  perhaps,  the  best  summary  in  his  article 
in  the  Encyclopedia  Britannica.  He  says  : 

"  The  following  facts  are  to  be  noticed  : 
"i.  At  whatever  epoch  civilized  travelers  have 
visited  peoples  of  less  cultivation,  they  have  noted, 
with  unconcealed  surprise,  not  the  family,  but  promis- 
cuity and  polyandry.  They  have  found  men  and 
women  living  together  in  what  seemed  unregulated 


community,  or  they  have  found  that  the  woman  had 
several  husbands,  and  often  that  these  husbands  were 
brothers.  .  .  .  Thus  Herodotus  says  of  the  Agathyrsi, 
a  Scythian  people  (iv.  104) :  '  They  have  their  women 
in  common,  that  they  may  all  be  brothers  of  each 
other.'  The  Nasamones  (iv.  172)  have  similar  cus- 
toms; of  the  Massagetse  (i.  216)  it  is  said  that  each 
marries  a  wife,  TOLVTJI<TI,  fie  firixoiva  xpewi'Tai.  Aristotle 
alludes  to  similar  promiscuity  among  the  Libyans 
(Pol.  ii.,  3,  9)  ;  they  have  their  women  in  common,  and 
distribute  the  children  by  their  likeness  to  the  men. 
Diodorus  Siculus  reports  the  same  manners  among 
the  Troglodytes  and  the  Ichthyophagi  on  the  coast  of 
the  Red  Sea.  .  .  .  Turning  to  modern  savages,  we 
find  the  custom  of  lending  wives,  as  an 
act  of  friendliness  and  hospitality,  very 
common.  This  may  be  no  more  than  Evidences  of 
mere  profligacy  in  a  society  where  promiBCnitv 
male  km  is  recognized ;  but  the  mar-  "OnUBCUlty. 
riage  custom  of  Thibet,  which  assigns 
to  a  woman  several  brothers  as  joint 
husbands,  cannot  be  thus  explained.  This  amazing 
practice  is  the  rule  of  life  '  among  30,000,000  of  re- 
spectable people  '  (Wilson,  Abode  of  Snow).  As  to  the 
area  over  which  some  form  of  polyandry  extends,  the 
reader  may  consult  Mr.  M'Lennan's  Primitive  Mar- 
riage (Edinburgh,  1865,  pp.  178,  183),  where  it  is  traced 
'to  points  half  round  the  globe.' 

"  2.  If  we  can  trust  the  traditions  of  Indo-European 
and  other  polite  peoples,  they  too  once  lived  in  a  stage 
which  can  hardly  be  discerned  from  promiscuity,  and 
they  too  allotted  many  husbands  to  one  wife.  Begin- 
ning with  Greece,  we  find  the  legend  in  Suidas  (p. 
3102),  that  the  women  of  Attica  abandoned  themselves 
to  unchecked  vice,  and  that  the  male  parentage  of 
children  could  not  be  ascertained.  According  to  the 
story  of  Varro  (Augustine,  De  Civ.  Dei,  1.  xviii.,  c.  9),  it 
was  Cecrops,  the  serpent  king,  who  first  instituted 
marriage,  just  as  the  Australian  natives  credit  the  liz- 
ard with  the  discovery.  The  Hindus  give  it  to 
Svetaketu,  before  whose  date,  'women  were  uncon- 
fined,  and  roamed  at  their  pleasure.  .  .  .  This  ancient 
custom  is  even  now  the  rule  for  creatures  born  as 
brutes,  .  .  .  and  it  is  still  practised  among  the  north- 
ern Kurus'  (Muir,  Sanscrit  Texts,  part  ii.,  p.  336). 
The  Egyptians  attributed  the  origin  of  marriage  to 
the  rule  of  Menes ;  the  Chinese  to  Fohi.  As  to  poly- 
andry among  Aryans  of  India,  a  famous  passage  in  the 
Mahabharata  tells  how  the  five  brothers  Pandava 
'  married  the  fair  Draaupadi  with  eyes  of  lotus  blue.' 
The  whole  legend  of  these  princes  is  so  marked  with 
the  stamp  of  polyandrous  institutions,  that  the  very 
terminology  of  polyandry,  the  system  of  nomenclature 
called  'classificatory,'  is  retained.  Granduncles,  in 
this  episode  of  the  Mahabharata,  as  among  the  Red 
Indians,  are  called  grandfathers,  and  uncles,  fathers. 

"  3.  If  the  practices  which   make  kindred  through 
males  difficult  or  impossible  to  recognize  were  ever 
universally  prevalent,  they  will  have  left  vestiges  of 
their  existence  in  the  custom  of  tracing  descent  through 
females.    Again,  where  that  custom  is  met  with,  tho 
marriage  has  become  fixed,  and  where  women  are  mis- 
tresses of  the  household  and  heads  of  the  family,  it  is 
not  easy  to  give  any  other  explanation  of  these  facts 
than  this,  that  they  are  survivals  from  a  time  when  the 
union  of  the  sexes  was  vague  and  temporary.    Where. 
then,  do  we  meet  with  examples  of  kindred  traced 
through  the  female  line  ?    Kindred  through  women  is 
recognized  in  Australia  (with  exceptions 
among  certain  tribes),  in  the  Marianne 
Islands,  in  Fiji,  Tonga,  and  some  other       Descent 
isles  of  the  Pacific,  and  in  the  Caroline        Tfono<l 
Islands.    Among  the  Kars  of  the  Golden  *  _, 

Chersonese,  the  tribes  are  divided  into  tnrougn  xe- 
Sgans,  who  recognize  male  descent,  and  males. 
Pwos,  who  reckon  by  the  mother's  side. 
The  natives  of  the  province  of  Keang-se 
'  are  celebrated  among  the  natives  of  the  other  Chinese 
provinces  for  the  mode  or  form  used  by  them  in  ad- 
dress, which  is  Laon  peaon,'  paraphrastically  trans- 
lated (Morgan,  Systems  of  'Consanguinity  and  Affinity  of 
the  Human  Family,  p.  452),  '  Oh,  you  old  fellow,  brother 
mine  by  some  of  the  ramifications  of  female  relation- 
ship !'  To  select  some  more  modern  instances  from 
M.  Giraud  Teulon's  collections  (Origine  de  la  Famille, 
Geneva,  1874,  p.  15),  the  Singhalese,  the  Nairs  of  Mala- 
bar, the  Kocchs,  an  Indian  tribe,  and  the  Zaporogue 
Cossacks,  with  the  red  men  of  North  America  as  a  rule, 
and  the  Indians  of  British  Guinea,  to  whom  we  may 
add  many  African  tribes  (Bowditch,  Mission  to  Asn- 
antee,  p.  185,  London,  1873  ;  Munzinger,  Ost-Afrikan- 
ische  Studien,  1864),  count  kindred  by  the  mother's 
side.  Another  collection  of  examples  will  be  found  in 
Mr.  M'Lennan's  Primitive  Marriage.  .  .  . 


Family. 


588 


Family. 


"4.  It  has  been  shown  that  the  actual  practices  of 
many  barbarous  races  make  the  existence  of  the  patri- 
archal, and  still  more  of  the  monogamous  family  im- 
possible, and  that  the  traditions  of  the  races  called 
Aryan,  with  many  fragments  of  their  customs,  testify 
to  a  similar  state  of  things  in  the  past  experiences  of 
nations  now  organized  on  the  basis  of  the  family.  We 
must  now  ask — (i)  Of  what  nature  are  the  wider  tribal 
associations  of  savages  ?  (2)  How  did  they  come  into 
existence  ?  (3)  Are  there  any  vestiges  of  similar  and 
similarly  formed  associations  among  peoples  which 
now  possess  strict  marriage  and  kinship  through  males  ? 
We  find  that  the  Australian  black  fellows  and  the  red 
men  of  North  America  are  grouped  in  local  tribes  which 
generally  are  named  from  the  lands  they  occupy. 
Thus,  the  Onondaga  are  people  of  the  hills,  the  Mo- 
hawks people  of  the  flint,  the  Senecas  people  of  the  great 
hills,  the  Oneidas  people  of  the  granite,  and  so  forth 
(Morgan,  League  of  the  Iroquois,  1851).  In  Australia 
the  tribes  take  the  names  of  districts,  as  Ballarat,  Wan- 
dyalloch,  and  Moreton  Bay.  Within  these  local  tribes 
there  are  smaMer  associations,  variously  called  '  clans,' 
'  families,' '  septs,' '  tribes,'  by  travelers.  They  are,  as  a 
rule,  governed  on  this  principle  in  Australia—'  All  the 
children  take  after  the  clan  of  their  mother,  and  no 
man  can  marry  a  woman  of  the  same  clan,  altho  the 
parties  be  born  of  parents  in  no  way  related,  accord- 
ing to  our  ideas  '  (G.  S.  Lang,  Aboriginals  of  Australia, 
Melbourne,  1865,  p.  10 ;  Gray's  Journals,  etc..  ii.  227). 
These  smaller  associations  which  may  not  intermarry 
are  named  after  some  animal,  vegetable,  or  other  pat- 
ural  object.  A  member  of  the  Kangaroo  associations 
may  not  slay  or  eat  the  kangaroo,  which 
he  holds  in  honor,  and  a  Paddymelon 
Tribes.  must  abstain  from  paddymelon.  The 
obvious  result  of  this  scheme  of  prohib- 
ited marriage  is  to  make  every  local  tribe 
contain  much  the  same  assortment  of  smaller  commu- 
nities. Looking  at  North  America,  we  find  the  local 
tribe  of  Senecas  to  be  composed  of  sets  of  persons 
called  by  the  name  of  Wolf,  Bear,  Turtle,  Beaver,  Deer, 
Snipe,  Heron,  Hawk,  and  many  of  the  same  names 
prevail  among  Cayugas,  Oneidas,  Mohawks,  and  the 
rest.  Just  as  in  Australia  no  man  may  marry  a 
•woman  of  the  same  name,  tho  she  may  have  been 
born  hundreds  of  miles  away,  and  may  be  no  sort  of 
relation  in  our  sense  of  the  word.  As  in  Australia,  the 
animal  or  plant  from  which  each  association  takes  its 
name  is  sacred  ;  in  America  it  is  called  the  totem.  .  .  . 
"The  essential  features  of  these  associations  and 
groups  of  kindred  are,  for  our  present  purpose— (i) 
Their  indubitable  growth  out  of  female  kinship,  and 
the  rule  which  prohibits  marriage  between  persons 
who  are  of  the  same  name,  and  own  descent  from  the 
same  plant,  animal,  or  thing;  (2)  their  existence  as 
stocks  of  different  blood  in  the  same  local  tribe  ;  and 
(3)  their  acknowledgment  of  kinship  with,  and  of  the 
duty  to  support  in  war,  or  to  revenge,  other  members 
of  the  same  name.  .  .  . 

"  5.  The  question  now  rises,  Do  we  meet  similar  as- 
sociations among  civilized  peoples  who  now  possess 
the  family  ?  First  we  find  Mr.  Hart,  of  Canton,  saying 
(Ancient  Society,  pp.  364,  365) :  '  In  some  parts  of  the 
country  large  villages  are  to  be  met  with,  in  each  of 
which  there  exists  but  one  family  name  ;  thus  in  one 
district  will  be  found,  say,  three  villages,  each  con- 
taining two  or  three  thousand  people,  the  one  of  the 
Horse,  the  second  of  the  Sheep,  and  the  third  of  the  Ox 
family  name.  .  .  .  Just  as  among  the  North  American 
Indians  husband  and  wife  are  always  of  different 
families— that  is,  of  different  surnames.  Custom  and 
law  alike  prohibit  marriage  on  the  part  of  people  hav- 
ing the  same  family  surname.  The  children  are  of  the 
father's  family— that  is,  they  take  his  surname.'  (Com- 
pare Narrative  of  Two  Mahometan  Travelers,  Pink- 
erton,  vol.  vii.).  The  Arabian  travelers  had  the  same 
law  at  home,  prohibiting  marriage  between  people  of 
the  same  family  name. 

"  Looking  at  India,  we  find  in  the  Institutes  of  Menu 
(iii.  5)  that  a  man  of  the  twice-born  classes  may  not 
marry  '  a  woman  descended  from  his  paternal  or  ma- 
ternal ancestors  within  the  sixth  degree, 
„      .  „.    .      nor  [in  words  believed  to  be  a  comment 
emi-l/lVl-    on  the  original]  one  who  is  known  by 
lized  Races,  her  family  name  to  be  of  the  same  prim- 
itive stock  with  his  father.'      No  one, 
that  is  to  say,  may  marry  within  the 
ghotra,  just  as  no  Red  Indian  may  marry  within  the 
limits  fixed  by  the  totem.    If  the  ghotra  was  counted, 
or  if  the  Chinese  family  name  ran,  on  the  female  side, 
Chinese  and  Brahmans  would  be  exactly  in  the  posi- 
tion of  Australian  blacks,  as  far  as  prohibited  degrees 
are  concerned.     Mr.  Cunningham  (Digest  of  Hindu 
Law,  Madras,  1877)  says  that  the  old  rule  about  the 


ghotra  is  falling  into  disuse,  and  that  local  custom  in 
many  places  permits  it  to  be  disobeyed.  Now,  just  as- 
observers  in  India  note  this  change  of  practice,  so  ob- 
servers among  the  Red  Indians  and  Australians  note 
another  change  of  practice.  Kindred  among  these 
peoples  is  very  gradually  beginning  to  be  reckoned  by 
the  male  line  ;  children  are  being  counted  among  some 
tribes  in  the  clan  of  the  father  (Morgan,  p.  86). 

"  Leaving  India,  and  turning  to  Greece  and  Rome, 
we  find  the  local  tribe,  and,  subordinate  to  the  tribe, 
two  forms  of  associations  called  the  yei/os  and  gens, 
which  are  prominent  in  early  history  and  gradually 
die  out.  Thus,  tho  in  the  Twelve  Tables,  as  we  have 
seen,  the  members  of  the  gens  succeed  to  the  property 
of  an  intestate,  yet  in  the  second  century  Gaius  de- 
clares (lust.,  iii.  17)  that  all  Gentile  law  had  fallen  into 
desuetude.  The  gens,  then,  was,  as  its  very  name  im- 
plies, a  form  of  kindred,  but  old  and  hastening  to  de- 
cay. .  .  . 

"  In  the  example  of  the  Greek  -yeVos  we  again  find  the 
common  name  a  patronymic,  generally  thought  to  be 
derived  from  a  hero.     We  find  that  all 
who  bore  the  name  shared  certain  re-  . 

ligious  rights,  and  before   Solon's  date    Classic  Cus- 
were  co-heirs  to  property,  and  took  up          toms. 
the  blood  feud  if  one  of  the  -yevos  were 
slain.    Yet  the  -yen-iJTcu.  are  often  defined 
as  not  akin  in  blood,  so  entirely   did  the  old  sense  of 
relationship  dwindle,  in  Greece  as  in  Rome.  .  .  . 

"It  has  been  usual,  almost  universal,  to  explain  the 
Greek  yevos  and  Roman  gens  by  simply  saying,  like 
Mr.  Freeman  (Comparative  Politics,  Macmillan,  1873,  p. 
in),  '  The  family  grew  into  the  clan,  the  clan  grew 
into  the  tribe.'  Mr.  Freeman  says  we  can  trace  this 
process  best  'among  men  of  our  own  blood.'  But 
when  we  examine  the  early  associations  of  the  English 
(Kemble's  Saxons  in  England,  vol.  i.  p.  458),  we  find, 
just  as  in  America,  just  as  in  Australia,  groups  of  kin- 
dred of  the  same  name— take  Billing,  by  way  of  ex- 
ample— scattered  from  north  to  south  through  all  the 
local  tribes.  We  have  seen  how  this  happens  in  Amer- 
ica and  Australia,  we  have  seen  that  there  the  family, 
in  Mr.  Freeman's  sense,  does  not  grow  into  the  clan. 
Did  it  do  so  in  Attica  and  Italy,  and,  if  so,  how  did  a 
tribe,  which  was  ex  hypothesi  but  a  swollen  clan,  con- 
tain so  many  stocks  which  claimed  distinct  origin  ar.d 
distinct  mythical  ancestors?  How  did  these  stocks 
come  to  be  scattered  through  local  tribes,  not  grouped 
in  one?  The  growth  of  savage  tribes  is  not  a  develop- 
ment of  the  family  ;  tribes  singularly  like  those  of 
savages  are  found  in  early  civilizations.  Had  the  two 
kinds  of  kindred  different  origins? 

"There  remains  a  point  to  notice.  The  thoroughly 
savage  totem-kindreds  revere  the  animal,  plant,  or 
other  object  from  which  they  take  their  name  and  claim 
descent,  and  they  use  it  as  a  badge.  For  Greek  and 
Rome  survivals  of  this  usage  see  Plutarch,  Thesftu  ; 
M'Lennan,  'The  \yorship  of  plants  and  animals,'  in  the 
Fortnightly  Review,  1869-70;  and  the  Antiquities  of 
Heraldry,  by  W.  S.  Ellis,  i86g.  If  the  ordinary  theory, 
that  the  tribe  and  clan  are  overgrown  families,  be  re- 
jected, the  converse  theory  may  be  stated  thus :  The 
totem-kindreds  of  savages  grow  up  through  exogamy 
and  female  kin.  The  change  to  male  kinship  (a  change 
which  is  demonstrably  taking  place  in  America  and 
Australia)  produced  something  like  the  Chinese  circle 
of  relationship.  The  substitution  of  the  name  of  a  fic- 
titious ancestor  for  that  of  the  sacred  plant,  animal,  or 
natural  object  produced  a  circle  of  affinity  like  the 
Hindu  ghotra  of  customary  religion.  The  decay  of 
the  prohibition  to  marry  within  the  kin  united  by  the 
family  name,  like  the  growing  laxity  of  rule  in  the 
ghotra,  produced  something  like  the  Greek  yei'os  and 
the  Roman  gens.  Nothing  remained  but  joint  relig- 
ious rites,  a  common  place  of  burial,  a  common  name, 
a  vague  feeling  of  connection,  traditions  of  the  prohibi- 
tion to  marry  within  the  gens,  the  duty  of  taking  up 
the  blood-feud,  and  vestiges  of  the  joint-heirship.  In 
process  of  time  the  intenser  affections  of  the  family 
caused  the  old  gentile  ties  to  disappear,  and  gentile 
law  became  an  empty  memory.  .  .  . 

"There  are  next  certain  customs  to  be  examined. 
which  tend,  as  far  as  they  go,  to  show  that  civilized 
society  passed  through  savage  stages.  The  chief  of 
these  customs  are  the  ceremony  of  capture  and  bridal 
etiquette.  As  to  the  ceremony  of  capture  it  is  super- 
fluous to  say  much,  as  the  subject  has  been  handled, 
with  complete  originalitv  and  copious  illustrations,  in 
M'Lennan's  Primitive  Marriage.  The  classic  example 
of  the  ceremony  of  capture  is  thus  stated  by  C.  O. 
Mtiller  (History  and  Antiquities  of  the  Doric  Face, 
English  translation,  Oxford,  1830,  vol.  ii.  p.  208)  :  '  Two 
things  were  requisite  as  an  introduction  and  prepara- 
tion to  marriage  at  Sparta  :  first,  betrothing  on  the 


Family. 


589 


Family. 


part  of  the  father ;  secondly,  the  seizure  of  the  bride. 
The  latter  was  clearly  an  ancient  national  custom.' 
Muller    then    describes   the    clandestine    intercourse, 
which  lasted  for  some  time,  before  the  man  '  brought 
his  bride,  and  frequently  her  mother, 
into    his    house.'      The    intercourse    of 
Capture.      bride  and  groom  among  the  Iroquois  of 
Lafitau's  time  was  likewise  clandestine. 
For  the  practice  in  Crete,  Muller  quotes 
Strabo,  x.  482,  D.    A  similar  custom  prevailed  in  Rome 
(Apuleius,  De  As.  Aur.  iv.;  Festus,  s.  v.  "Rapi"),  and 
was  supposed  to  be  derived  from  the  time  of  the  Sa- 
bines.     Mr.  M'Lennan  finds  the  practice  necessary  to 
the  constitution  of  the  relations  of  husband  and  wife 
among  the  Calmucks,  the  Tunguzians,  the  Khonds,  the 
Fuegians,  the  Welsh,  the  Arabs,  the  Irish,  and  various 
other  races.      He  explains    its  existence    by    the  in- 
stitutions of  exogamy  (i.e.,  the  rule  prohibiting  mar- 
riage between  people  of  the  same  blood),  and  by  the 
prevalence   of  hostility  between  the  tribes   of   rude 
times.  .  .  . 

"A  strange  piece  of  barbarous  etiquette  may  hint 
that  the  kindred  of  the  bride  and  groom  were  once 
hostile  groups.  The  daughter-in-law,  among  many 
races,  is  forbidden  to  speak  to  her  father-in-law ;  the 
mother-in-law  must  hide  when  she  sees  her  son-in-law. 
The  wives  treat  their  husbands  \vith  what  may  be  a 
survival  of  hostility,  and  never  name  them  by  their 
names.  Examples  are  collected  in  Sir  John  Lubbock's 
Origin  of  Civilization  (pp.  n,  12).  The  practices  are 
found  among  races  on  the  border  of  the  Polar  Sea,  in 
the  Rocky  Mountains,  in  Southern  Africa,  among  the 
Caribs,  Mongols,  and  Calmucks,  in  China,  in  Siberia, 
and  in  Australia.  To  these  instances  adduced  bv  Sir 
John  Lubbock  we  may  add  Bulgaria  (Dozon,  Chants 
Populaires  Bulgares). 

"  Herodotus  says  (i.  146)  that  the  wives  of  the  early 
lonians  would  not  call  their  husbands  by  their  name's 
nor  sit  at  meat  with  them,  and  instructed  their  daugh- 
ters to  practise  the  same  reserve.  The  reason  assigned 
is  that  the  women  were  originally  Carians,  whose 
v  parents  the  Ipnians  had  slain.  It  may  be  allowed  that 
this  world-wide  practice,  too,  testifies  to  a  time  when 
men  married  out  of  their  own  group,  and  all  groups 
were  hostile  each  to  the  other.  Perhaps  the  English 
local  custom,  which  forbids  the  parents  of  bride  and 
bridegroom  to  be  present  at  the  marriage  ceremony, 
holds  the  same  antiquity. 

"  We  have  now  to  note  the  widespread  existence  of  a 
system  of  nomenclature,  which  can  hardly  have  arisen 
in  times  when  the  monogamous  family  was  the  unit  of 
society.  Mr.  Lewis  Morgan,  of  New  York,  was  the 
discoverer  of  a  custom  very  important  in  its  bearing 
on  the  history  of  society.  In  about  two  thirds  of  the 
globe  persons  in  addressing  a  kinsman  do  not  discrim- 
inate between  grades  of  relationship.  All  these  grades 
are  merged  in  large  categories.  Thus,  in  what  Mr. 
Morgan  calls  the  'Malayan  system,'  'all  consan- 
guine!, near  or  far,  fall  within  one  of  these  relation- 
ships— grandparent,  parent,  brother,  sister,  child,  and 
grandchild."  No  other  blood-relationships  are  recog- 
nized (Ancient  Society,  p.  385).  This  at  once  reminds 
us  of  the  Platonic  Republic.  "  We  devised  means  that 
no  one  should  ever  be  able  to  know  his  own  child,  but 
that  all  should  imagine  themselves  to  be  of  one  family, 
and  should  regard  as  brothers  and  sis- 
ters those  who  were  within  a  certain 
Kinship,  limit  of  age  ;  and  those  who  were  of  an 
elder  generation  they  were  to  regard  as 
parents  and  grandparents,  and  those 
who  were  of  a  younger  generation  as  children  and 
grandchildren  (Timceus,  18,  Jowett's  translation,  first 
edition,  vol.  ii.,  1871).  This  system  prevails  in  the  Poly- 
nesian groups,  and  in  New  Zealand.  Next  comes  what 
Mr.  Morgan  chooses  to  call  the  Turanian  system.  '  It 
was  universal  among  the  North  American  aborigines,' 
whom  Mr.  Morganstyles  Ganowanians.  '  Traces  of  it 
have  been  found  in  parts  of  Africa'  (Ancient  Society, 
p.  386),  and  'it  still  prevails  in  South  India  among  the 
Hindus,  who  speak  the  Dravidian  language,'  and  also 
in  North  India,  among  other  Hindus.  The  system,  as 
Mr.  Morgan  says,  '  is  simply  stupendous.'  It  is  not 
exactly  the  same  among  all  his  miscellaneous  '  Tura- 
nians, *but,  on  the  whole,  assumes  the  following  shapes. 
Suppose  the  speaker  to  be  a  male,  he  will  style  his 
nephew  and  niece  in  the  male  line,  his  brother's  chil- 
dren, '  son'  and  '  daughter,"  and  his  grandnephews  and 
grandnieces  in  the  male  line,  'grandson'  and  'grand- 
daughter.' Here  the  Turanian  and  the  Malayan  sys- 
tems agree.  But  change  the  sex  ;  let  the  male  speaker 
address  his  nephews  and  nieces  in  the  female  line — the 
children  of  his  sister — he  salutes  them  as  'nephew' 
and  'niece',  and  they  hail  him  as 'uncle.'  The  reader 
is  referred  for  particulars  to  Mr.  Morgan's  great  work, 


Systems  of  Consanguinity  and  Affinity  of  the  Human 
Race  (Washington,  1871).'"' 

For  the  argument  for  the  origin  of  the  family 
in  other  than  promiscuous  union  we  may  turn 
to  many  authors,  but  best  to  Westermarck, 
who,  in  his  History  of  Human  Marriage,  has 
treated  this  portion  ot  the  subject  the  most  fully. 

He  argues  that  the  family  has  probably  existed 
from  the  beginning  of  the  human  race,  because  (i),  ac- 
cepting the  evolutionary  hypothesis  of  the  ascent  of 
man  from  the  lower  animals,  the  family  is  found 
among  many  of  the  higher  animals.  It  is  here  evidently 
an  evolution  ;  among  the  lower  animals  it  has  not  been 
found.  Among  the  invertebrata  the  young  owe  their 
preservation  mainly  to  chance.  Even  the  mothers  are 
exempted  from  nearly  all  care  for  their  progeny.  To 
the  male's  share  falls  nothing  but  the  function  of 

Eropagation.  The  mother  usually  does  nothing  but 
nd  a  place  to  lay  her  eggs,  perhaps  an  object  to  which 
she  may  fasten  them  ;  or  sometimes  something  with 
which  they  may  be  covered.  The  eggs  of  insects,  the 
highest  order,  are  hatched  by  the  heat  of  the  sun. 
Among  mammals  the  mother  has  great 
anxiety  for  her  young,  tho  the  father 
still  has  little,  and  is  sometimes  even  Animals. 
the  foe  of  his  young.  There  are  some 
mammals,  however,  where  the  father 
does  care  for  the  young,  such  as  whales,  seals,  hippo- 
potami, gazelles,  antelopes,  reindeer,  squirrels,  moles; 
and  some  carnivorous  animals,  as  a  few  cats  and  mar- 
tins, and  possibly  the  wolf.  Among  the  quadrumana 
what  was  before  the  exception  is  now  the  rule.  The 
male  and  female  live  in  pairs  during  the  rearing  of  the 
young,  and  sometimes  beyond,  the  father  being  the 
protector.  This  is  especially  true  of  the  gorillas  and 
man-like  apes.  The  father  usually  sleeps  at  the  foot 
of  the  tree  on  guard,  while  the  mother  and  young  are 
above.  Among  the  Siamangs  the  father  carries  about 
the  male  young  and  the  mother  the  female  young. 
Among  the  gorillas  the  father  sometimes  builds  a  rude 
nest  for  the  mother  until  after  delivery.  Among  all 
animals  there  seems  to  be  a  rut  season,  yet  among  the 
higher  animals  the  male  and  female  keep  together 
through  the  year.  The  evidence  seems  to  be  that  such 
family  life  is  evolved  through  natural  selection.  When 
the  father  protects  the  young  they  are  more  likely  to 
live.  Among  the  lower  animals  other  means  insure 
the  existence  of  the  species.  Among  most,  enough 
eggs  are  laid  to  allow  an  enormous  number  to  perish. 
Fish  spawn  enough  roe  to  more  than  fill  the  sea,  if  it 
•were  all  fecundated  and  hatched.  The  eggs  of  reptiles 
need  no  help  from  the  father.  Birds  and  mammals 
need  paternal  care,  and  thus  get  it.  Among  walruses, 
elephants,  and  bats,  the  females  seem  to  herd  to- 
gether with  their  young,  and  thus  seek  protection 
rather  than  from  the  males.  Among  the  Primates, 
marriage  (defined  as  "  a  more  or  less  durable  connec- 
tion between  male  and  female,  lasting  beyond  the 
mere  act  of  propagation,  till  after  the  birth  of  the  off- 
spring," p.  iq)  Westermarck  thinks  due  to  the  small 
number  of  the  young,  the  long  period  of  infancy,  and 
the  danger  involved,  incurred  by  the  young.  Mar- 
riage, he  says,  is  thus  rooted  in  family,  and  not  the 
family  in  marriage  (p.  22). 

Coming  now  to  man,  he  finds  the  family  existing 
from  the  start,    as    among   the   higher   animals,   tho 
more  developed.     He  says  that  the  asserted  promis- 
cuity of  certain  tribes  is  a  mistake,  and  does  not  exist, 
while  among  the  lowest  tribes  we  find  abundant  proof 
of  rude  family  life.     If  the  father  does  nothing  else,  he 
builds  the  hut.     Among  the  North  American  Indians 
it  is  considered  disgraceful  for  a  man  to  have  more 
wives  than  he  can  support.     Among  the  Fuegians,  a 
youth  can  marry  as  soon  as  by  fish  or  bird  catching  he 
can  support  a  wife.     Among  the  Australian  Kurnai,  a 
man,  as  a  Kurnai  once  said,  "  hunts,  fishes,  fights,  and 
sits  about."    Among  the  cannibals  of  New  Britain,  the 
chiefs  see  that  their  warriors  maintain  their  wives,  or 
the  warriors  are  punished  like  school- 
boys.   The  South  American   Guaranies 
will  not  risk  their  lives  in  hunting  while  Jarly  Fam- 
their  wives  are  pregnant;    some  tribes      ilvLife 
will  not  fight.      Among   the    Bechuana         * 
and  Kafirs,  the  youth  is  not  allowed  to 
marry  till  he  has  killed   a    rhinoceros. 
Family  life  is  thus  always  connected  with  the  support 
of  the  family.    Among  many  tribes  marriage  is  not 
thought  to  be  completed,  and  sometimes  is  not  recog- 
nized, unless  a  child  is  born  ;  among  the  Shawanese  and 
Abipones  and  other  tribes  the  wife  remains   at   her 
father's  house  till  she  has  a  child.     Among  the  African 


Family. 


59° 


Family. 


Baele,  the  childless  woman  is  not  considered  married. 
Among  the  Bedouins  of  Mount  Sinai,  a  wife  does  not  en- 
ter her  husband's  tent  till  far  advanced  in  pregnancy. 
In  Siam  a  wife  does  not  receive  her  dowry,  nor  among 
the  Aleuts  does  the  husband  pay  for  his  wife,  till  a 
child  is  born.  The  Igorrotes  of  Luzon  consider  no  en- 
gagement binding  till  the  woman  has  become  preg- 
nant. Among  many  of  the  wild  tribes  of  Borneo  there 
is  almost  unrestrained  intercourse  between  the  youth 
of  both  sexes :  but  if  pregnancy  occur,  marriage  is  held 
necessary.  Westermarck  thinks  that  among  men  there 
was  once  a  rutting  season.  Beaumarchais  says:  "  That 
which  distinguishes  man  from  the  beast  is  drinking 
without  being  thirsty,  and  making  love  at  all  seasons." 
Westermarck  says  this  was  not  always  so.  Every  ani- 
mal has  its  especial  rutting  season,  often  in  spring,  but 
not  always.  The  same  is  said  to  be  true  of  the  wild 
Indians  of  California,  the  Watch-an-dies  of  Australia, 
the  Tasmanians,  the  Hos,  an  Indian  hill  tribe,  and 
many  others.  They  have  great  religious  feasts  for 
procreation,  sometimes  regular  saturnalia,  as  among 
the  last  named,  when  men  become  like  animals,  and 
women  lose  all  modesty.  In  Rome  a  feast  of  Venus 
took  place  in  April,  and  curious  customs  looking  in 
this  direction  .can  be  traced  in  Germany,  England,  and 
other  countries.  Westermarck  finds  the  origin  of  the 
rutting  season  in  the  fact  that  at  certain  seasons  the 
young  are  more  likely  to  live,  and  that  this  season  dis- 
appears among  men,  because  they  are  more  and  more 
able  to  preserve  their  young  at  all  periods.  The  de- 
velopment of  separate  families  among  man  and  the 
higher  animals  is  said  to  be  due  in  part  to  the  difficulty 
in  getting  food.  They  must  separate  to  range  and  get 
food,  just  as  later  they  come  together  in 
tribes  for  defense.  Westermarck  be- 
Separate  lieves  that  the  theory  of  promiscuity 
Families  nas  ar*sen  from  mistakes  of  travelers 
not  understanding  family  customs,  and 
says  that  sometimes  unchastity  has 
been  increased  by  contact  with  civiliza- 
tion, as  the  aborigines  of  Australia  brought  into  con- 
tact with  the  lower  class  of  the  whites,  and  the  women 
of  the  South  Sea  Islands,  the  Sandwich  Islands,  and  Pat- 
agonia corrupted  by  licentious  sailors  and  adventurers. 
He  says :  "The  immorality  of  many  savages  is  certainly 
very  great,  but  we  must  not  believe  that  it  is  char- 
acteristic of  uncivilized  races  in  general.  There  are  nu- 
merous savage  and  barbarous  people— peoples  among 
whom  sexual  intercourse  out  of  wedlock  is  of  rare  oc- 
currence, unchastity,  at  least  on  the  part  of  the  woman, 
being  looked  upon  as  a  disgrace  and  even  a  crime  "  (p. 
61).  He  mentions  the  Kafirs,  the  equatorial  Africans, 
Dahomey,  the  Kabyles,  the  Central  Asian  Turks 
(among  whom  he  says  a  fallen  girl  is  reported  as 
unknown).  Among  the  Nias  of  the  Indian  Archipelago 
a  pregnant  unmarried  girl  and  her  seducer  are  both 
killed :  among  the  Hill  Dyaks  licentiousness  is  pro- 
hibited; and  thus  in  many  tribes  we  have  chastity 
side  by  side  with  tribes  of  great  licentiousness.  He 
mentions  among  the  chaste,  besides  the  above,  tribes 
of  the  Philippine  Islands,  New  Guinea,  Tasmania,  Loy- 
alty Islands,  Western  Victoria,  the  Aleuts,  Greenland, 
the  Northern  Indians,  the  Nez  Perces,  Apaches,  the 
South  Slavonians,  the  Finns,  the  primitive  Turko- 
Tartars.  He  quotes  Drury  as  saving^  that  in  Mada- 
gascar there  are  more  modest  women  in  proportion  to 
the  population  than  in  England  (Adventures  during 
fifteen  Years'  Captivity  on  the  Island  of  Madagascar, 
p.  323).  Westermarck  says  :  "  We  may  perhaps  say  that 
irregular  connections  between  the  sexes  have,  on  the 
whole,  exhibited  a  tendency  to  increase  along  with 
the  progress  of  civilization"  (p.  69).  Among  many 
savage  tribes  intercourse  is  very  free  among  the 
young,  but  after  pregnancy  there  is  great  strictness. 
Even  in  Scotland,  before  the  Reformation,  the  prac- 
tice of  "  hand-fastening  "  was  common,  whereby  at  the 
public  fairs  men  selected  female  companions  with 
whom  to  cohabit  for  a  year,  at  the  end  of  which  peri- 
od they  could  either  leave  or  marry.  The  very  ex- 
tended if  not  almost  universal  custom  of  lending 
wives  and  sometimes  children  and  servants  among 
savages,  Westermarck  refers  not  to  primitive  promis- 
cuous customs,  but  to  conceptions  of  hospitality,  the 
father  looking  upon  his  wife  and  children  as  property 
at  his  disposal.  So  too  with  the  jus  primes  noctes, 
which  has  so  generally  existed  in  fact  if  not  in  law ;  it 
was  held  as  a  property  right  belonging  to  the  strong. 
The  weaker  families  felt  honored  if  their  kings,  priests, 
or  rulers  made  use  of  their  wives.  This  custom  is 
very  common,  and  has  existed  very  recently  in  Russia. 
As  for  the  fact  that  relationship  is  usually  traced 
through  the  females,  Westermarck  gives  a  long  list 
of  tribes  where  it  is  traced  through  the  males,  and 
says  that  even  where  it  is  traced  through  the  fe- 


males,   there  are   a    good    many  other  reasons    that 
may  be  given  for  it  other  than  that  of  uncertainty 
of  the  paternity.      He  says,  for  one  reason,   that  in 
polygamous  families,  tho  paternity  be  certain,  the  re- 
lation  is   naturally   traced    through    the    mother,  to 
distinguish  the  one  wife's  offspring   from  another's. 
The  tie  of  the  child  to  the   mother  is  also  naturally 
much  closer  than  that  to  the  father,  so  that  in  tho 
"  classificatory  system"  of  blood  ties,  traced  through 
the  mother,  Westermarck  finds  no  evi- 
dence of  a  time  when  paternity  was  un- 
certain,   because     promiscuous    union       Tloo/>oTi4- 
was  the  rule.    He  shows,  too,  that  pro-       •uesceni 
miscuous  union  as  among  prostitutes       Traced 
tends  to  inf  ecundity,  and  therefore  is  not      through 
probable  as  the  origin  of  the  race  ;  also        Ma1p« 
that  the  natural  jealousy  of  men  and 
animals  is  contrary    to    it.    Polyandry 
he  shows  to  be  not  rare,  as  in  Thibet, 
but  that  is  usually   in   pastoral   peoples,  where  only 
one  husband  is  at  home  at  a  time.    He  gives  many 
instances   of  the  jealousy    of    men  over  their  wives. 
The   Fuegians  will  let  no  one,  especially  young  men, 
enter  their  huts.     The  Moquis  allow  their  wives  only 
to  work  indoors.     Licentiousness  and  jealousy  often 
go  together.    The    jealous    guard    of  Mohammedans 
over  their  harems   is    well    known.    A   Tartar   may 
repudiate    a    wife   who    shakes    hands   with    a   man. 
Among   the    nomadic   Koriaks    and  other  tribes,  the 
•women  refrain    from    dressing    their  hair  and  from 
washing,  and  dress  in  rags  to  prevent  their  husbands 
growing  jealous  of    them    and    killing    them.    Some 
Indians  are  said  to  cut  off  the  hair  and  even  noses  of 
their  wives,  to  render  them  safe  against  solicitation. 
Among  many  tribes    husbands   demand  virgins    for 
wives,  or  at  least,  as  with  the  negroes  of  Togoland, 
pay  a  higher  price  for  one.    The  Jewish  "tokens  of 
the    damsel's    virginity  "    are    well    known.    Among 
many  tribes  the  woman  belongs  to  her  husband  even 
after  his  death.     Among   the    Comanches,  in  Darien, 
Panama,  and  India,  and  many  other  countries,  a  man's 
wives  are  killed  at  his  death,  usually  burned.     Among 
many    other  tribes  the    wife  must  long  worship  his 
dead  body.    Second    marriages    are  frequently  con- 
demned.   All    these     are    indications    of    the    theory 
among  such  tribes  of  the  woman  as  the  property  of 
the  man.    Such  is  also  the  fact  that  often  the  daughter 
is  not  consulted  when  given  or  sold  in  marriage.    The 
fact  that  in  many  tribes  she  seems  to 
have  been  more  consulted  and  to  have 
had  greater  liberty  in  earlier  times  than   Woman  the 
in  later  may  be  explained   by  the  fact  prftr,or*_  nf 
that  at  first  marriage  and  the  family   •rr°P«srliy  <« 
were  mainly  matters  of  safety  for  the         Man. 
young,  into  which  relation  the  mother 
entered  more  freely,  and  only  gradually 
did  the  man  come  to  consider  himself  the  owner  of  his 
wife  and  children,  and  so  buy  his  wife  and  sell  his 
children.    Among   the  Eskimos,    and  the  same  often 
occurs  even  now  among  the  Turks,  parents  will  ar- 
range marriages  for  their  children  as  soon  as  they  are 
born.    Early  betrothals  exist  among  many  tribes.    In 
Australasia  girls  are  sometimes  promised  even  before 
they  are  born,  and  the  same  is  true  in  New  Guinea, 
New  Zealand,  and  Tahiti.     Among  the  North  Ameri- 
can Indians  the  woman  has  more  liberty.    Among  the 
Kurnai  the  girl   often  elopes  with  her  husband  and 
then  returns  and  elopes  two  or  three  times  till  she  is 
forgiven.    In  Radack  marriages  depended  on  a  free 
convention,  as  seemed  to  be   the   rule  in  Micronesia. 
Among  still   more  tribes  the    bride  is  stolen,  and  in 
most  marriage  ceremonies  the  capture  of  the  bride  by 
force  is  symbolized.     Over   the    children,  almost    all 
tribesgiye  full  power  to  the  parents.     Even  sons  may 
be  married  against  their  will.     "  In  Japan,"  says  Mr. 
Griffis,  "  the  Japanese  maiden,  as  pure  as  the  purest 
Christian  virgin,  will  at  the    command  of  her  father 
enter  the  brothel  to-morrow,  and  prostitute  herself  for 
life.    Not  a  murmur  escapes  her  lips  as  she  thus  filially 
obeys  "(The    Mikado's   Empire,    p.    555).    The    power 
over  children,  even  adult,  is  almost  universal  even  in 
semi-civilized  races,  and  in  Judea,  Greece,  and  Rome. 
According  to  Wallace,  the  father,  in  early  Russia,  was 
rather  the  administrator  of  a  labor  association  than 
anything  else.     Even   now    French    law    gives   great 
power  over  children  until  of  age. 

Among  all  tribes  and  nations  of  men  incest  has  al- 
ways awakened  horror,  but  there  have  been  various 
degrees  of  prohibited  marriages.  Many  tribes  have 
very  involved  and  far-reaching  systems  of  kinship, 
within  which  marriage  is  forbidden.  In  a  few  tribes 
men  will  marry  their  sisters,  and  among  the  Veddahs 
of  Ceylon  these  are  considered  the  proper  marriages. 
But  among  most  tribes  it  occasions  great  horror. 


Family. 


Family. 


Marriaere 


Many  tribes  practise  exogamy  (i.e.,  marriage  outside 
the  tribe)  ;  and  some  much  prefer  endogamy,  but  al- 
most all  seem  to  have  some  rule  or  practice.  The 
reason  for  the  horror  of  incest  and  the 
practice  of  exogamy  has  been  very  va- 
riously  stated.  By  some  it  has  been 
thought  due  to  an  observation  of  the 
better  results  of  cross-breeding  .than  of 
inbreeding;  by  others,  to  the  fact  that 
tribes  killed  their  own  female  children, 
as  being  expensive  to  rear  ;  by  others,  to  the  fact  that 
all  women  were  private  property,  and  it  was  cheaper 
and  more  glorious  to  capture  a  wife  from  a  hostile 
tribe.  These  explanations,  however,  while  with  some 
truth,  do  not  explain  all  the  facts.  There  seems  to  be 
an  innate  aversion  to  marriage  with  those  with  whom 
one  has  long  lived.  Even  horses  and  dogs  are  said  to 
prefer  those  of  other  stalls.  Marriage,  however,  by 
capture  has  usually  passed  into  marriage  by  purchase. 
The  price  is  often  one  of  service,  as  with  Jacob.  Some 
times  a  kinswoman  is  given  in  exchange.  The  most 
common  compensation  is  property.  Among  the  Cali- 
fornian  Karoks  a  wife  was  bought,  unless  unusually 
pretty  and  aristocratic,  for  half  a  string  of  dentalium 
shell.  In  British  Columbia  and  Vancouver  Island  the 
prices  range  from  £20  to  £40  ;  among  the  Kafirs,  from 
5  to  30  cows.  The  Damaras  will  give  a  girl  for  one 
cow.  In  Uganda,  a  wife  can  be  bought  for  three  bul- 
locks, or  six  sewing  needles,  or  a  pair  of  shoes. 
Among  the  Fijians  the  usual  price  is  a  whale's  tooth  or 
a  musket.  In  Japan  and  China  the  bridegroom  gives 

E  resents  to  the  bride,  and  this  is  sometimes  stipulated 
sr.    Among  early  Aryan  races  the  bride  was  usually 
bought.      In    the    Homeric    age    a    maid    was   called 
a\4>«7ipoia,  one  "who  yields  her  parents  many  oxen." 
Aristotle  says  that  the  ancient  Greeks  bought  their 
wives.     In  Germany,  the  expression  "  to  buy  a  wife" 
was  in  use  till  the  end  of  the  Middle  Ages.    The  giving 
of  the  ring  in  the  English  wedding  service  is  said  to  be 
a  relic  of  the  same  custom.    In  Servia,  in  the  begin- 
ning of  the  present  century,  Black  George  limited  the 
price  of  a  girl  to  one  ducat.     Presents  to  the  bride 
during  courtship  are  said  to  come  from  the  same  cus- 
tom.   In  many  tribes  the  adulterer  simply  pays  the 
husband  a  fine  for  stolen  property.   Women  are  bought 
for  what  they  can  do.    The   Fuegians  buy  as  many 
wives  as  possible  to  row  their  canoes.    The  purchase 
by  marriage,  however,  among  all  peoples 
has  more  or  less  disappeared.    In  many 
Wives  by    the  price  paid  for  the  bride  came  to  be 
p     .•L     .      given  by  the  father,  after  he  had  receiv- 
rurcaase.     ed  it>  to  the  brjde?  and  hence  rose  the 

custom  of  the  dower,  or  settling  of  a 
"portion"  by  the  father  upon  the  bride. 
With  this  conception  of  marriage  as  a  purchase  of  the 
wife,  it  is  easy  to  see  how  those  who  could  afford  it 
should  buy  many  wives,  and  polygamy  become  com- 
mon tho  not  universal  among  savage  tribes.  Many 
North  American  tribes  are  strictly  monogamic. 
Many  Asiatic  and  African  tribes  are  the  same,  includ- 
ing some  of  the  lowest,  as  the  Veddahs  of  Ceylon. 
But  in  almost  all  tribes  it  seems  to  be  mainly  a  matter 
of  money  and  power,  since  most  princes  have  many 
wives.  In  China  and  most  Mohammedan  countries, 
while  there  may  be  only  one  wife,  the  law  allows  con- 
cubines. Polyandry  is  much  rarer,  but  exists  among 
the  Aleuts,  sometimes  among  the  Esquimos.  Poly- 
andry is  not  unknown  to  the  Rig  Vedas.  It  seems  to 
have  existed  among  the  Picts,  and  to  have  developed 
mainly  in  mountainous  or  rude  climates,  where 
women  were  few,  and  men  would  combine  to  own  a 
wife,  the  one  staying  with  her,  while  others  would  be 
away  on  excursions  of  chase  or  war.  In  almost  all 
cases  woman  is  owned  for  service.  An  Arab  shiek 
said  of  his  four  wives  :  "  This  one  carries  water  ;  this 
grinds  the  corn  ;  this  makes  the  bread  ;  the  last  does  not 
do  much,  as  she  is  the  youngest  and  my  favorite." 
Polygamy  thus  means  a  division  of  labor,  and  is  some- 
times therefore  favored  among  savage  women.  Mo- 
nogamy seems  usually  to  have  gone  before  polygamy, 
and  then  to  have  returned.  Divorce  seems  almost 
tho  not  quite  universal.  A  wife  that  is  bought  can  be 
sold,  exchanged,  or  discarded.  Such,  then,  according 
to  one  of  the  best  modern  authorities,  is  the  origin  of 
the  family  -.first,  the  union  of  male  and  female,  animal 
or  man,  to  care  for  and  defend  the  young—  a  union  easily 
broken,  where  the  woman,  however,  has  considerable 
freedom;  second,  a  union  where  the  man  rules  the 
wife,  and  she  is  considered  his  property,  with  her  chil- 
dren, he  having  obtained  her,  at  first  by  capture,  and 
later  by  service,  exchange,  or  purchase,  and  where  she 
is  his  servant,  he  going  on  to  buy  as  many  wives  as  he 
can  afford  to  maintain  ;  and,  thirdly,  a  union  rising 
from  this  into  monogany,  and  with  more  liberty  for 


woman.     M.    Letourneau,   in  his  Evolution  of  Mar- 
riage, takes  substantially  the  same  ground  as  West- 
ermarck  in  his  view  of  the  origin  of  the  family.    In  the 
system  of  Totems  found  in  Australia,  and  essentially, 
tho  under  other  forms,  in  most  uncivilized  communi- 
ties,  he  sees  no  remnant  of  a  time  of  promiscuous 
intercourse,  or  trace  of  descent  through  the  mother, 
but  rather  a  property  institution,  which 
in  general  he  believes  marriage  to  be, 
marrying  together  in  general,  a  large       Totems 
number  of  men  and  women  connected 
by  one  totem.    M.  Letourneau  believes 
that  evolution  has  proven  the  enduring 
monogamic  marriage  to  have  been  thus  far  the  most 
fitted  to  survive,  but  holds  all  evidence  to-day  to  indi- 
cate that  the  marital  relation  is  now  evolving  still 
further  into  one  of  monogamic  marriage,  but  not  of 
enduring  monogamy,  but  rather  of  easy  divorce  and 
"free-love." 

II.  THE  PREHISTORIC  FAMILY. 

Passing,  then,  from  the  question  of  the  origin 
of  the  family,  we  come  next  upon  the  question 
of  its  form  in  civilized  society  as  it  exists  when 
fully  developed,  tho  not  yet  in  the  clear  light  of 
certain  history.  Here  we  are  met  with  two 
clear  types,  the  Semitic  and  the  Aryan.  The 
Semitic  family  is  patriarchal  and  polygamous. 
Semitic  races  know  little  of  individual  liberty. 
They  have  found  no  medium  be- 
tween the  anarchy  of  nomadic 
tribes  and  the  hard  tyranny  of  the  The 
despot.  They  have  given  the  world  Semitic 
its  religion  ;  above  all,  its  concep-  Family, 
tion  of  a  one  supreme  and  all-pow- 
erful Ruler.  The  family  has  par- 
taken of  this  conception.  It  is  founded  upon 
obedience  to  one  head.  The  wives  and  children 
are  slaves  ;  their  duty  is  to  serve  and  obey. 
Love  has  not  been  wanting,  yet  obedience  is  the 
fundamental  relation.  The  Bible  picture  of 
Jacob  with  his  wives  and  slaves  and  concu- 
bines and  flocks  and  herds  is  a  typical  in- 
stance. Women  were  objects  of  sale,  purchase, 
and  ownership.  The  fathers  of  the  bride  and 
groom  really  contract  the  marriage.  Marriage 
within  the  tribe  and  sometimes  within  the  kin 
is  the  rule.  Female  captives  are  taken  as  wives 
(see  the  Bible  stories),  marriage  is  universal, 
and  childlessness  is  a  disgrace.  Divorce  is  at 
the  pleasure  of  the  husband,  and  barrenness  is 
a  sufficient  cause.  Divorce  is,  however,  less 
common  than  the  introduction  of  a  second  wife. 
The  son  is  the  heir  instead  of  the  wife  or  daugh- 
ter. The  son  may  sometimes  inherit  even  the 
father's  wife.  (See  Absalom,  in  the  Bible,  when 
he  seizes  his  father's  throne.)  Yet  the  family 
is  strongly  developed.  It  is  the  social  unit. 
Family  relationship  and  descent  is  carefully 
maintained.  When  a  man  dies  childless  it  is 
his  brother's  duty  to  raise  children  for  him. 
(See  the  Levirate  in  Bible  customs.)  Land  is 
held  by  families. 

The  Aryan  family  is  monogamic.     It  is  also 
the  social  unit.     The  family  lives  separately.     It 
possesses  rights  and  never  dies.     The  principle 
and  purpose  for  which  tho  family  is 
founded  is  the  performance  of  the 
sacra  or  worship  of  ancestry.    Per-         The 
sonal  immortality  is  the  common       Aryan 
faith.     The  dead,  save  a  few  great     Family. 
souls  who,   some  believed,  might 
inhabit  heaven,  are  thought  to  de- 
scend into  the  earth.     Hades  is  there,  the  place 
not  only  of  the  wicked,  but  of  all,  or,  at  least, 
well-nigh  all. 


Family. 


592 


Family. 


"  For  Hades  underneath  the  ground, 
A  strict  examiner  is  found. 

— Eumenides,  273-275. 

in  another  place  makes  a  son  address 
his  dead  father :  "  Oh,  thou  who  art  a  god  under 
the  ground. ' '  Isaiah  says  :  ' '  The  grave  can- 
not praise  thee,  death  cannot  celebrate  thee  ; 
they  that  go  down  into  the  pit  cannot  hope  for 
thy  truth"  (Isa.  xxxviii.  18).  They  connected 
the  dead  with  the  tomb,  perhaps  as  living  there 
or  hovering  there.  Hence  they  brought  cakes, 
fruit,  wine,  milk,  fire,  etc.,  and  laid  them 
by  or  in  the  tomb. .  Ancestor  worship  they 
put  first.  In  India  Agni,  in  Italy  Vesta 
meant  the  sacred  fire  burned  to  ancestors. 
Prayers  to  Agni  and  to  Vesta  came  always 
first.  There  was  in  every  home  the  sacred 
fire,  never  allowed  to  go  out,  always  kept  pure, 
and  burning  only  certain  woods.  If  in  Rome 
there  was  one  day  in  the  year  when  all  ances- 
tral fires  were  allowed  to  go  out,  they  were  relit 
with  special  forms.  Near  the  home  of  the  liv- 
ing was  the  home  of  the  ancestral  dead.  It  was 
one  home  ;  in  one  part  lived  the  living,  and  in 
one  part  lived  the  dead.  On  certain  days  the 
living  ate  solemn  feasts  by  the  dead.  The  first 
thing  in  the  morning  and  the  last  at  night  they 
said  prayers  and  chanted  ancestral  hymns  be- 
fore the  sacred  fire.  Around  this  center  grew 
the  family.  Only  relatives  could  be  buried  in 
the  ancestral  home.  When  a  woman  married, 
she  left  her  home  and  her  gods  and  joined  the 
home  and  gods  of  her  husband.  The  fire  was 
their  protectress.  Hecuba  says  to  Priam  :  "Thy 
arms  will  not  defend  thee  ;  this  altar  will  pro- 
tect us. ' '  Generation  was  not  the  center  of  the 
family,  but  the  fire.  The  daugh- 
ter was  not  equal  to  the  son.  The 
The  object  of  marriage  was  to  bear  a 
Family  son  who  could  keep  up  the  family 
Fire.  fire.  If  sterile,  a  man  could  di- 
vorce his  wife  and  marry  again  ; 
or  in  Sparta  and  other  places,  in- 
troduce some  one  else  to  give  conception  to  the 
wife.  The  bridegroom,  according  to  some, 
"  must  marry  a  daughter  of  his  own  people  ;  he 
must  not  marry  a  woman  of  his  own  kin.  The 
race  on  the  one  side  and  his  own  name  on  the 
other  side  marked  the  limits  of  his  selection" 
(Hearn's  The  Aryan  Household,  p.  156).  Not 
every  son  could  receive  and  transmit  the  ances- 
tral obligations.  He  must  be  born  of  legitimate 
union.  In  neither  Greek,  Roman,  nor  German 
law  did  the  bastard  receive  recognition.  The 
legitimate  son  was  at  birth  received  into  the 
household  with  ceremonies  and  joy.  No  woman 
could  perform  the  sacra.  She  was  a  part  of 
the  household,  but  not  of  the  State.  Thwing 
( The  Family,  p.  22)  suggests  that  perhaps  she 
was  not  allowed  to  celebrate  the  sacra  because 
not  belonging  to  the  family  permanently,  as  she 
might  marry  and  belong  to  some  other  family. 
Chosen  for  a  religious  purpose,  the  wife,  how- 
ever, could  not  be  put  away  except  for  sterility  or 
sufficient  cause.  Such  is  the  Aryan  conception 
of  the  family,  perhaps  best  given  in  Fustel  de 
Coulanges'  Ancient  City.  This  ancestral  wor- 
ship seems  to  have  existed  with  more  or  less 
distinctness  among  the  Hindus,  Iranians,  Slavo- 
nians, Greeks,  and  Romans.  Even  Menu,  at 
the  time  he  wrote  his  laws,  calls  it  the  earliest 


religion  known  to  man.  ' '  The  Semitic  family, ' ' 
says  Thwing,  "is  the  germ  of  monarchy,  the 
Aryan  of  the  commonwealth. ' ' 

III.  THE  FAMILY  IN  CLASSIC  TIMES. 

It  is  still  a  religious  institution,  but  this  is  not 
made  so  prominent.  In  the  Homeric  type  there 
is  great  delicacy,  dignity,  tenderness,  simplic- 
ity, love.  No  trace  of  polygamy  appears.  Con- 
cubinage is  practised  only  by  a  few.  Of  domes- 
tic concubinage  there  is  no  trace.  The  essence 
of  marriage  lies  in  cohabitation, 
with  a  solemn  public  acknowledg- 
ment. Death  alone  dissolves  the  Homer. 
conjugal  relation.  The  love  of 
Penelope  for  Ulysses  has  rarely 
been  surpassed.  The  tenderness  of  Hector  and 
Andromache,  the  heroic  love  of  Alcester,  volun- 
tarily dying  that  her  husband  may  live,  the  filial 
piety  of  Antigone,  the  majestic  grandeur  of 
Polyxena,  the  saintly  resignation  of  Iphigenia, 
the  joyous,  modest  and  loving  Nausicaa — these, 
says  Lecky,  are  "  pictures  of  perennial  beauty, 
which  Rome  and  Christendom,  chivalry  and 
modern  civilization  have  neither  eclipsed  nor 
surpassed"  (History  of  European  Morals,  Am. 
ed.,  II.,  p.  296).  Women,  however,  are  servants. 
They  perform  indoor  work,  fetch  water,  and 
grind  flour.  Telemachus  bids  his  mother  mind 
her  spindle  and  loom  and  not  interfere  in  the 
debates  of  men. 

The  family  of  the  classical  period  proper  of 
Greece  is  more  religious  in  form  and  less  pure 
in  fact.  Concubinage  and  intercourse  with 
hetairai  are  not  only  allowed  by  the  State,  but 
publicly  favored.  The  wife  is  kept  well  at 
home.  She  is  married  by  her  parents.  Sopho- 
cles makes  a  woman  describe  the  lot  of  her  sex 
by  saying  :  "  When  we  are  grown  up  we  are 
driven  away  from  our  parents  and  paternal 
gods' '  (Frag.  Terms).  Athenians  marry  Athe- 
nians. The  wife  cares  for  the  house  and  does 
not  share  the  intellectual  life  of  her  husband. 
For  this  the  husband  goes  to  hetairai.  Demos- 
thenes says  frankly:  "We  have  hetairai  for 
our  pleasure,  wives  to  bear  us  children  and  to 
care  for  our  households"  (/corn  Nea^/jaf).  Soc- 
rates asks  :  "Is  there  a  human  being  with  whom 
you  talk  less  than  with  your  wife  ?"  (Xenophon, 
Economics,  III.,  12).  The  higher  hetairai,  like 
Aspasia,  were  queens  ;  the  lower 
lived  a  wretched  life.  The  wife 
superintends  the  servants,  cares  for  Greece. 
the  sick,  educates  the  children. 
Fidelity  is  required  of  the  wife. 
Laxity  is  allowed  the  husband.  Adultery  on 
the  part  of  the  wife  results  in  divorce  ;  the 
adulteress,  taken  in  the  act,  the  husband  can 
kill.  The  wife  has  some  rights.  She  can  bring 
action  against  her  husband.  The  Spartan  wife 
is  more  like  the  Homeric.  She  receives  a  large 
dower.  In  the  time  of  Aristotle  two  fifths  of 
the  territory  of  Sparta  had  come  into  the  pos- 
session of  women.  Their  morals  were  purer. 
The  Spartan  husband  was  accused  of  being 
ruled  by  his  wife.  The  ideal  of  Plato  was  far 
from  the  actual.  He  would  instruct  boys  and 
girls  alike  in  music,  gymnastics,  and  even  in 
war.  He  would  make  the  woman  and  man 
equal,  and  minimize  their  differences.  But  he 


Family. 


593 


Family. 


advocates  practically  sexual  communism,  yet 
the  reverse  of  licentiousness.  No  indulgence  is 
allowed  the  passions.  "  In  a  city  of  the  blessed, 
licentiousness  is  an  unholy  thing  which  the 
rulers  will  forbid"  (Republic,  Book  V.).  He 
would  have  as  great  care  in  breeding  men  as 
cattle.  The  State  should  put  an  end  to  the  ex- 
istence of  the  offspring  of  inferior  parents. 
Men  between  25  and  55  should  alone  marry 
women  of  20  to  40.  Precautions  should  be 
taken  that  neither  father  nor  mother  recognize 
their  offspring  ;  the  State  should  assume  the 
care  of  the  children  (Republic,  Book  V.). 

The  Roman  family  was  at  first  like  the  Ho- 
meric.    Phryne  nor  Aspasia  could  hold  sway 
there.     Marriage  was  of  three  kinds  :  Confar- 
reatio,  the  religious  ;  coemptio,  the 
civil  ;  usus,  effected  by  a  man  and 
Rome.       woman  living  together  for  one  year. 
The  husband  is  the  priest  of  the 
domestic  altar.     He  is  responsible 
for  the  perpetuity  of  the  family.     If  his  wife  is 
sterile  he  can  divorce  her.     He  has  the  right  to 
reject  or  accept  the  child  at  birth.     He  has  the 
right  to  join  his  daughter  in  wedlock  and  to 
compel  the  wedlock  of  his  son.     He  has  the 
right  to  exclude  the  son  from  the  family  hearth 
and  to  introduce  a  stranger.     He  is  the  judicial 
authority  in  the  household,  the  judge  of  his 
wife.     If  she  commit  adultery  he  can  put  her  to 
death.    Over  his  children  his  power  is  the  same. 
In  the  laws  of  Menu  we  read  : 

"  Woman  during  her  infancy  depends  upon  her 
father  ;  during  her  youth  upon  her  husband  ;  when 
her  husband  is  dead,  upon  her  sons  ;  if  she  has  no  son, 
on  the  nearest  relative  of  her  husband,  for  a  woman 
ought  never  to  govern  herself  according  to  her  own 
will"  (Laws  of  Menu,  v.  147,  148). 

This  was  true  in  Rome  as  well  as  India.  A 
mother  need  not  be  asked  to  consent  to  the 
marriage  of  her  only  daughter.  This  position 
was  true  only  of  marriage  by  confarreatio.  In 
usus  and  coeit^ptio  she  had  more  rights  ;  it  was 
more  of  a  bargain.  The  Roman  matron,  how- 
ever, had  dignity  if  not  power.  She  was  ad- 
dressed as  materfamilias,  as  her  husband 
paterfamilias.  She  pronounced  to  her  hus- 
band on  entering  his  household  "  Ubi  tu  Catus, 
ego  Caza,"  implying  equality  in  dignity.  She 
was  the  object  of  veneration.  She  had  her  place 
near  the  sacred  fire.  On  her  death  her  husband 
lost  his  place  as  priest.  Her  position  was  often 
happy.  Cato  thought  it  better  "to  be  a  good 
husband  than  a  great  senator"  (Mommsen's 
History,  III.,  chap.  13).  It  was  said  to  be  500 
years  after  the  foundation  of  the  city  before  the 
first  divorce  occurred.  This  was  the  divorce  of 
his  wife  by  Carvilius  Ruga,  B.C.  234,  on  account 
of  sterility,  and  for  his  oath's  sake,  tho  "  he 
loved  her  tenderly"  (Aulus  Gellius,  IV.,  3). 
After  the  Punic  wars  a  change  set  in.  Sylla, 
Caesar,  Antony,  and  Augustus  repudiated  their 
wives.  Divorce  was  a  religious  form,  not  a  civil 
one.  The  disintegration  and  immorality  that 
set  in  under  the  empire  are  well  known.  (See 
CHRISTIANITY  AND  SOCIAL  REFORM.)  Men  and 
women  outdid  each  other  in  wanton  indul- 
gences. Seneca  says  that  marriage  was  con- 
tracted to  give  piquancy  to  adultery  (De  Benef., 
III.,  16,  2,3).  Friends  exchanged  wives.  Yet 
there  were  brilliant  exceptions — Cornelia,  the 

38 


devoted  wife  of  Pompey  ;  Marcia,  the  friend, 
and  Helvia,  the  mother  of  Seneca.  Augustus 
tried  to  encourage  marriage  by  offering  rewards 
for  the  married,  and  decrees  against  the  unmar- 
ried, but  it  availed  not.  Rome  was  rotten  to  the 
core. 

IV.  THE  FAMILY  IN  EARLY  CHRISTIANITY. 

The  conception  of  marriage  as  a  lifelong 
union  of  one  man  with  one  woman,  and  that 
outside  of  this  any  sexual  relation  is  sinful, 
came  in  with  Christianity.  The  Hebrew  family 
was  Semitic  and  had  tolerated  polygamy,  tho 
after  the  captivity  it  was  little  practised,  and 
woman  had  much  influence.  (Cf.  Miriam,  Deb- 
orah, Jael,  Jezebel,  Athaliah.)  The  Greeks  hon- 
ored the  hetairai.  The  Romans  allowed  many 
forms  of  marriage.  The  Germans  allowed  their 
princes  many  wives.  Christianity  knows  but 
one  wife  -for  one  husband,  and  that  while  life 
lasts,  save  for  the  one  cause  of  fornication.  So 
Christ  taught  (Matt.  xix.  9).  For  man  and  wom- 
an there  is  but  one  standard.  Purity  is  to  be 
of  the  heart.  He  ' '  who  looketh  on  a  woman 
to  lust  after  her  hath  committed  adultery  with 
her  already  in  his  heart"  (Matt.  v.  28).  Chris- 
tianity does  not  give  detailed  enactment.  It 
elevates  the  whole  conception  of  woman  and  of 
marriage  to  a  spiritual  plane.  Christ  gives 
the  same  authority  and  power  to  the  mother  as 
the  father.  The  two  are  equal  and  the  two  are 
one.  St.  Paul  seems  to  have  had  a  lower  idea 
of  woman.  He  says  more  than  once,  "  For  the 
husband  is  the  head  of  the  wife, 
even  as  Christ  is  the  head  of  the 
Church"  (Eph.  v.  23).  He  com-  The  New 
mands  wives  to  be  subject  "to  their  Testament, 
own  husbands  in  everything" 
(Eph.  v.  24).  Celibacy  is  held  to 
be  better  than  marriage,  tho  marriage  may 
be  allowed  to  prevent  fornication  (i  Cor.  vii.  2). 
Yet  he  and  all  the  writers  of  the  Epistles  and 
Revelation  elevate  marriage  by  making  it  the 
symbol  of  the  relation  of  Christ  to  the  Church. 
The  Church  is  continually  spoken  of  as  the 
bride  of  the  Lamb.  Chastity  is  held  very  high 
through  all  the  early  Christian  centuries.  (See 
CHURCH  AND  SOCIAL  REFORM.)  "The  chaste 
woman,"  says  the  Clementine  homilies  (Clark's 
Ante-Nicene  Christian  Library,  pp.  220,221), 
' '  is  adorned  with  the  Son  of  God  as  with  a 
bridegroom.  She  is  clothed  with  holy  light. 
Her  beauty  lies  in  a  well-regulated  soul,  and 
she  is  fragrant  with  ointment,  even  with  a  good 
reputation.  She  is  arrayed  in  beautiful  vesture, 
even  in  modesty.  She  wears  about  her  precious 
pearls,  even  chaste  words.  And  she  is  radiant, 
for  her  mind  has  been  brilliantly  lighted  up. 
Into  a  beautiful  mirror  does  she  look,  for  she 
looks  into  God."  The  husband  is  not  forgot- 
ten :  "  He  who  wishes  to  have  a  chaste  wife  is 
also  himself  chaste — gives  her  what  is  due  to  a 
wife,  takes  his  meals  with  her,  keeps  company 
with  her,  goes  with  her  to  the  word  that  makes 
chaste,  does  not  grieve  her,  does  not  rashly 
quarrel  with  her,  does  not  make  himself  hateful 
to  her,  furnishes  her  with  all  the  good  things  he 
can,  and  when  he  has  them  not  he  makes  up  the 
deficiency  by  caresses"  (ibid.  221,  222).  In  the 
apostolical  constitutions  the  tendency  to  celibacy 


Family. 


594 


Family- 


is  beginning.  Bishops,  presbyters,  and  deacons 
are  forbidden  marriage.  They  need  not  repu- 
diate wives,  but  they  must  not  marry.  Deacon- 
esses are  to  be  virgins  or  widows.  The  rea- 
son for  this  is  plain — licentiousness  was  the  pre- 
vailing sin  of  the  times.  Christianity  in  this 
corrupt  age  produced  the  home.  Says  Origen  : 
"  There  is  not  a  Christian  community  which  has 
not  been  exempted  from  a  thousand  vices  and 
a  thousand  passions.  .  .  .  Compared  with  con- 
temporary pagans,  the  disciples  of  Christ  shine 
like  stars  in  the  firmament"  (Contra  Celsttm, 
L.  7,  iii.  29).  "  Concubina'' or  "concubinalis" 
is  never  found  on  the  grave  of  the  Christian 
wife.  In  one  respect  only  was  woman's  liberty 
narrowed  by  early  Christianity.  Under  Rome 
woman  had  gained  some  freedom  by  relinquish- 
ing religious  marriage  and  bargaining  for  free- 
dom in  the  civil  marriage.  Christianity,  by 
making  marriage  again  religious  and  not  civil, 
brought  her  legal  position  back  to  being  under 
her  husband  again.  The  old  law  proclaimed 
liberty  of  divorce  ;  the  Christian  declared  mar- 
riage indissoluble.  The  Christian  idea  of  the 
family  pervaded  later  legislation.  (See  CHRIS- 
TIANITY AND  SOCIAL  REFORM.)  It  restrained  the 
power  of  the  parent,  putting  love  in  place  of 
law.  The  freedom  of  the  Roman  matron  was 
bought  by  her  disgrace.  If  Christianity  took 
away  some  of  this  freedom,  it  was  by  taking 
away  her  disgrace.  It  is  for  Christianity  to-day 
to  give  her  freedom  without  weakening  family 
love.  The  early  and  medieval  Church  made  a 
fearful  mistake  in  the  overpraise  of  celibacy, 
yet  almost  all  the  Fathers  do  com- 
mit this  error.  Tertullian  says  ce- 
Asoeticism.  libacy  must  be  chosen  even  if  man- 
kind perish.  Origen  thought  mar- 
riage profane  and  impure.  St. 
Jerome  says,  tho  marriage  may  fill  the  earth,  it 
is  virginity  that  replenishes  heaven  (Wester- 
marck's  History  of  Marriage \  pp.  154,  155). 
The  same  feeling  is  found  in  other  religious 
writings.  The  Buddhistic  Dhammika  Sutta 
say  that  "  a  wise  man  should  avoid  married  life 
as  if  it  were  a  burning  pit  of  live  coals' '  (Monier 
Williams'  Buddhism,  p.  99).  Almost  all  sav- 
age religions,  too,  require  celibacy  of  their 
priests  and  holy  men  and  women.  A.  Munda  Kol, 
when  asked,  "  May  a  dog  sin  ?"  answered:  "If 
the  dog  did  not  sin  how  could  he  breed?"  In 
all  religions  a  veil  of  modesty,  however  trans- 
parent, is  drawn  over  all  the  relation  of  the 
sexes.  The  need  is  for  a  true  spirituality  that 
shall  not  draw  away  from  life,  but  shall  spiritu- 
alize all  of  life's  relations. 

V.  THE  MEDIEVAL  FAMILY. 

The  barbarians  who  invaded  the  empire  hon- 
ored woman.  The  family  was  pure.  Domestic 
virtues  prevailed.  Salvian  wrote  in  the  fifth 
century  (De  Gubernatione  Dei)  of  the  Romans 
and  the  Christians,  at  this  time  largely  infected 
by  Roman  impurity  : 

"  You,  Romans  and  Christians  and  Catholics,  are 
defrauding  your  brethren,  are  grinding  the  faces  of 
the  poor,  are  frittering  away  your  lives  over  the  im- 
pure and  heathenish  spectacles  of  the  amphitheater  ; 
you  are  wallowing  in  licentiousness  and  inebriety. 
The  barbarians,  meanwhile,  heathens  and  heretics 
tho  they  may  be,  and  however  fierce  toward  us,  are 


just  and  fair  in  their  dealings  with  one  another.  The 
men  of  the  same  clan  and  following  the  same  king 
love  one  another  with  true  affection.  The  impurities 
of  the  theater  are  unknown  among  them.  Many  of 
their  tribes  are  free  from  the  taint  of  drunkenness, 
and  among  all,  except  the  Slavs  and  the  Huns,  chastity 
is  the  rule." 

Monogamy  was  universal  save  among  the 
princes.  Divorce  was  uncommon.  Adultery 
was  punished  with  great  severity.  Women  ac- 
companied their  husbands  on  campaigns.  The 
great  invasions  were  migrations  of  families. 
The  German  family  was  a  republic.  Legally 
the  position  of  woman,  in  the  Germanic  States, 
as  they  began  to  crystallize,  was  a  mass  of  con- 
tradictions. One  code  grants  her  the  right  of 
inheritance  ;  another  denies  it.  One  causes  the 
wife  practically  to  be  sold  to  the  husband  ;  an- 
other causes  her  to  come  to  him  bringing  a 
dowry.  But  however  it  was  legally,  morally 
woman  was  ever  regarded  as  man's  equal  or 
superior.  She  was  not  confined  to  household 
cares.  In  battle  she  stood  in  the  rear  to  inspire 
the  warriors.  In  worship  she  stood  near  the 
priest,  examined  the  entrails,  and  pronounced 
the  verdict.  In  Iceland,  which  was  never 
touched  by  Roman  influence,  a  kiss  forced  upon 
woman  was,  in  the  twelfth  century,  punished 
with  exile.  Yet  in  other  Germanic  races  wom- 
an was  virtually  a  slave.  In  some  she  was  im- 
molated on  the  pyre  of  her  husband. 

As  royal  power  arose  and  civilization  became 
a  war  between  robber  barons,  more  and  more 
honor  was  almost  of  necessity  given    to  the 
physical  power  of  man.     Woman  needed  a  pro- 
tector.    She  was  more   and  more 
placed  under  tutelage.     Yet  as  feu- 
dalism became  settled  it  tended  to  Feudalism, 
develop    the    family.      The    lord, 
marked  off  from  his  dependents, 
was  more  forced  to  seek  equal  comradeship  with 
the  few  who  were  his  feudal  equals — his  family. 
It  tended  to  develop  the  individual  family.     It 
tended,  too,  to  put  the  family  on  terms  of  equal- 
ity.   The  children,  and  especially  the  eldest  son, 
were  more  honored.     This  developed  the  aris- 
tocratic pride  of  family.     But  this  lowered  the 
condition  of  the  dependent  family.     The  lord 
often  lorded  it  over  the  family  of  his  serf.     The 
legal  recognition  of  the  jus  primes  noctis  has 
been  denied  ;  but  in  practice  the  lord  undoubt- 
edly, by  might  if  not  by  right,  claimed  the  body 
of  the  female  serf.     His  serfs  could  not  marry 
without  his  will. 

When  feudalism  gradually  disappeared  the 
tutelage  of  woman  was  continued  by  habit  and 
legal  custom.     Chivalry,  however,  honored  the 
woman  as  a  jewel  to  be  guarded,  and  a  queen 
to  be  served  and  almost  worshiped.     Knights 
swore  "  to  fear,  revere,  and  serve  God  relig- 
iously ;   to    forward    the    faith    with   all  their 
strength,  and  to  die  a  thousand  deaths  rather 
than  renounce  Christianity  ;    to  maintain   the 
just  cause  of  the  weak,  such  as  of  widows,  or- 
phans, and  maidens,  in  a  good  quar- 
rel ;  to  expose  themselves  for  them 
according    as    necessity   required,     Chivalry. 
provided  it  was  not  against  their 
own  honor,  or  against  their  king 
or  natural  prince  ;   that   avarice,  recompense, 
gain,  or  profit  should  never  oblige  them  to  do 
any  action,  but  only  glory  and  virtue  ;  that  they 


Family. 


595 


Family. 


would  hold  themselves  bound  to  conduct  a  lady 
or  maiden  ;  that  they  would  serve  her,  protect 
her,  and  save  her  from  all  danger  and  all  insult, 
or  die  in  the  attempt ;  that  they  would  never  do 
violence  to  ladies  or  maidens,  altho  they  had 
gained  them  by  arms,  without  their  will  or  con- 
sent ;  that,  above  all  things,  they  would  be  faith- 
ful, humble,  and  would  never  fail  in  their  word, 
for  any  ill  or  loss  that  might  thence  happen  to 
them"  (Guizot's  History  of  Civilization,  IV., 
22-24).  In  Southern  Europe  the  vices  of  the 
Roman  Empire  had  more  endurance.  The 
home  was  degraded  ;  woman  an  inferior.  This 
was  encouraged  and  woman  corrupted  by  the 
growing  corruption  of  the  priests  with  their  en- 
forced celibacy.  Beginning  first  as  a  protest 
against  the  licentiousness  of  the  Roman  Empire, 
the  Church  praised  first  purity,  then  virginity, 
then  celibacy.  Marriage  was  allowed  to  pre- 
vent fornication  and  as  a  concession  to  the  flesh. 
This  degraded  it.  The  Manichean  doctrine 
spread,  that  the  body  was  evil  and  must  be  cru- 
cified with  its  desires.  Eustathius,  Bishop  of 
Sebastia,  before  the  close  of  the  fourth  century, 
asserted  that  the  married  cannot  be  saved,  and 
prayers  must  not  be  offered  in  their  houses  (Lea's 
Historical  Sketch  of  Sacerdotal  Celibacy,  p.  61). 
About  the  year  385  the  first  definite  rule  was 
issued  commanding  perpetual  celibacy  for  the 
clergy.  The  rise  of  monachism  hurt  the  fam- 
ily. Down  to  the  Protestant  Reformation  the 
monk  and  the  nun  were  held  up  as  "  the  relig- 
ious. ' '  Every  kind  of  concubinage  was  practised, 
tho  the  councils  thundered  against  it.  Occa- 
sionally the  Church  in  despair  seemed  to  surren- 
der and  allow  concubinage.  Convents  became 
brothels.  The  love  of  Abelard  and  Heloise  is 
indicative  : 

"  In  a  wordly  point  of  view,  it  was  better  for  him, 
as  a  churchman,  to  have  the  reputation  of  shameless 
immorality  than  that  of  a  loving   and 
pious  husband ;   and  this   was  so  evi- 
Profligacy  of  dently  a   matter    of    course,    that    she 
the  Clere'v    willm.&ly     sacrificed     everything,    and 
5J-  practised  every  deceit,  that  he  might 
be  considered  a  reckless  libertine,  who 
had  refused  her  the  only  reparation  in 
his  power"  (Lea's  Historical  Sketch  of  Sacerdotal  Celi- 
bacy, p.  283). 

The  Church,  with  exceptions,  yet  too  few,  be- 
came grossly  corrupt.  Cardinal  Hugo  said  to 
the  people  of  Lyons,  on  the  occasion  of  the  de- 
parture of  Innocent  IV.  (1251),  after  a  residence 
of  eight  years  : 

"  Friends,  since  our  arrival  here  we  have  done  much 
for  your  city.  When  we  came,  we  found  here  three  or 
four  brothels.  We  leave  behind  us  but  one.  We  must 
own,  however,  that  it  extends  without  interruption 
from  the  eastern  to  the  western  gate"  (Lea,  p.  356}. 

Asceticism  was  as  a  rule  only  apparent.  Says 
Caesarius  of  Heisterbach  (Dial.  Mirac.  Dist. 
XII.,  chap,  xix.) : 

_ "  Since  the  priesthood  mostly  lead  evil  and  incon- 
tinent lives,  they  soothe  rather  than  excite  the  con- 
sciences of  the  worldly." 

A  bull  of  Alexander  IV.  (1259)  declares  that 
the  people,  instead  of  being  reformed,  are  actu- 
ally corrupted  by  their  ministers.  Marriage,  it 
is  true,  was  regarded  as  a  sacrament,  but  the 
degradation  of  marriage  as  a  carnal  indulgence 
was  more  potent.  The  Church  degradation  of 
marriage  led  to  its  degraded  sense  of  woman. 


This  was  voiced  in  the  canon  law.  Woman 
was  regarded  as  the  means  of  man's  fall.  Man 
is  above  her,  between  her  and  God.  In  all  re- 
spects relative  to  the  condition  of  woman,  the 
canon  law  copied  Roman  law. 

VI.  THE  FAMILY  IN  MODERN  TIMES. 

It  has  been  a  favorite  charge  of  Roman  Cath- 
olics that  the  Protestant  Church  was  founded 
upon  lust :  in  England,  upon  the  unholy  pas. 
sion  of  the  king  ;  on  the  Continent,  upon  the 
broken  vows  of  a  monk  and  nun.  The  truth 
simply  is  that  one  of  the  first  blows  struck  by 
the  Reformers  was  against  the  enforced  celibacy 
of  the  clergy  ;  a  rule  which  Luther  character- 
ized as  angelic  in  appearance,  but  devilish  in 
reality.  The  importance  of  this  step  was  enor- 
mous. The  enthusiasm  with  which  the  com- 
mon people  greeted  this  step  was  a  proof  of  the 
evil  of  an  unmarried  clergy.  The  Romish 
Church,  while  not  allowing  divorce, 
reserved  for  itself  the  right  of  pro- 
nouncing marriages  between  rela-  Prot- 
tives,  within  a  marvelously  ingen-  estantism. 
ious  and  complicated  system  of  pro- 
hibited decrees,  as  null  and  void 
from  the  beginning.  Dispensations,  too,  were 
allowed  princes  and  nobles.  The  mass  of  the 
people  were  left  to  endure  the  burden  of  evils 
growing  out  of  the  sacramental  theory  of  mar- 
riage. In  demanding  impossible  virtues,  the 
Church  opened  wide  the  doors  for  all  possible 
vices.  Luther  allowed  divorce  on  the  ground 
of  adultery  only  ;  Zwingli  and  the  Zurich  or- 
dinances for  other  grave  reasons.  Calvin  took 
substantially  the  same  position  as  Luther.  Lu- 
ther even  allowed  Philip  the  Magnanimous,  of 
Hesse,  for  political  reason,  to  marry  two  wom- 
en. The  English  Church,  as  she  had  never 
been  wholly  under  the  control  of  Rome,  was  less 
changed,  there  being  less  to  change.  Enforced 
celibacy,  however,  was  voted  down  in  convoca- 
tion by  a  vote  of  53  to  22  in  1547,  and  marriage 
as  a  sacrament  was  rejected.  The  Puritans, 
revolting  against  the  Established  Church,  de- 
nounced the  right  of  the  priest  to  marry,  and 
declared  marriage  a  civil  contract.  This  was 
confirmed  by  the  New  England  Puritans.  John 
Robinson  says  :  "  We  cannot  assent  to  the  re- 
ceived opinion  and  practice  answerable  in  the  re- 
formed churches  by  which  the  pastors  thereof  do 
celebrate  marriage  publicly  and  by  virtue  of  their 
office"  (Apology,  45).  A  law  of  Plymouth 
Colony  (1633)  required  magistrates  to  legalize 
marriages.  It  was  doubtful,  however,  how  far 
the  people  approved  of  this.  In  1692  the  Massa- 
chusetts Province  laws  provided  that  marriage 
ceremonies  might  be  performed  by  ministers, 
and  this  has  become  the  rule  in  New  England  ; 
but  the  minister  performs  the  marriage,  as  far 
as  the  State  is  concerned,  not  in  his  capacity  as 
a  minister,  but  as  a  civil  officer,  duly  authorized 
by  the  State.  The  Church  of  England,  as  well 
as  of  Rome,  is  averse  to  this  theory — that  mar- 
riage is  a  civil  contract— and  has  thus  far  suc- 
cessfully resisted  the  tendency  to  the  complete 
secularization  of  marriage  in  England  ;  but  on 
the  Continent  it  has  grown  rapidly  with  the 
waning  power  of  Rome.  All  Protestant  sects 
tend  to  look  upon  adultery  as  the  only  cause  for 


Family. 


596 


Family. 


divorce,  while  Rome,  still  holding  marriage  to 
be  a  sacrament,  allows  separation,  but  holds  that 
the  bond,  once  formed,  is  dissoluble  only  by 
death. 

Other  influences  have  been  at  work  in  mod. 
ern  times  upon  the  family.     The 


Indi- 


Protestant    Reformation,  with    its 


.,     .."        emphasis  upon  individualism,  has 
8m>    steadily  tended  to  exalt  the  indi- 
vidual above  the  family.     Says  Sir 
Henry  Maine  (Ancient  Law,  pp.  163,  165) : 

"  The  movement  of  the  progressive  societies  has 
been  uniform  in  one  respect.  Through  all  its  course 
it  has  been  distinguished  by  the  gradual  dissolution 
of  family  dependency  and  the  growth  of  individual 
obligation  in  its  place.  The  individual  is  steadily- 
substituted  for  the  family,  as  the  unit  of  which  civil 
laws  take  account.  .  .  .  We  may  say  that  the  move- 
ment of  the  progressive  societies  has  hitherto  been  a 
movement  from  status  to  contract." 

Such  has  been  the  legal  effect  of  the  Reforma- 
tion upon  the  family.  The  family  is  less  the  social 
unit,  and  less  and  less  so  as  liberalism  prevails. 
In  England  the  Conservative  Party  is  said  to 
be  made  up  of  those  who  have  strong  ' '  family' ' 
affiliations.  In  regard  to  property,  the  old  com- 
mon law  gave  all  property  to  the  husband,  and 
tho  this  has  been  steadily  modified,  great  in- 
justices are  yet  done  to  woman  in  the  name  of 
law.  (See  WOMAN'S  RIGHTS.)  Protestantism, 
however,  while  it  has  tended  to  exalt  the  indi- 
vidual over  the  family,  and  to  give  the  woman 
a  standing  at  least  more  equal  with  the  man, 
cannot  as  yet  be  accused  of  having  hurt  the 
family  life.  Nowhere  in  the  world  has  there 
been  purer  family  life  than  in  Protestant  Ger- 
many, England,  Scotland,  and  America.  The 
Protestant  home  has  been  its  proudest  gem. 
Many  Protestant  countries  can  say  of  its  homes 
what  Burns  says  of  Scotland's  : 

"  From  scenes  like  these  old  Scotia's  grandeur  springs. 
That  makes  her  loved  at  home,  revered  abroad." 

Yet  equally  undoubtedly  a  change  has  come. 
(For  the  full  discussion  of  the  facts  of  the  mod- 
ern weakening  of  the  marriage  tie,  see  DIVORCE.) 
But  the  increase  of  divorce  is  one  of  the  best 
recognized,  because  most  apparent,  of  modern 
facts.     It  is  shown  by  the  National 
Department  of   Labor  (Report  on 
Divorce.      Marriage   and  Divorce,   p.    140) 
that  divorces  have  increased  in  the 
United  States  within   the   twenty 
years  before  the  report  more  than  twice  as  fast 
as  the  population.     And  this  is  perhaps  quite  as 
much  a  symptom  as  the  cause  of  the  decay  of 
the  family.     A  publication  of  the  National  Di- 
vorce Reform  League  for  1893  says  : 

"  We  might  spend  much  of  our  time  on  the  evils  that 
beset  the  family,  for  they  are  many  and  serious.  But 
brief  mention  of  a  few  is  enough.  Some  destroy  the 
very  constitution  of  the  family;  others  impair  its  en- 
vironment. We  name  the  enormous  number  and  in- 
crease of  divorces  ;  the  apparent  decrease  of  marriages 
and  the  haste  and  ignorance  that  mark  many  unions  ; 
the  prevalence  of  sexual  vice,  with  the  low  ideals  ot 
sex  that  lead  to  it ;  and  insensibility  to  the  sacred  ob- 
ligations of  paternity.  Then  there  are  the  open  or 
more  subtle  influences  that  make  our  civilization  al- 
most the  direct  foe  of  the  home.  We  point  to  the 
methods  of  business  involving'  absence  from  home, 
the  system  of  commercial  travelers  and  the  operation 
of  the  industrial  system  as  a  whole,  which  tends  to 
separate  the  household  in  both  business  and  labor  into 
its  constituent  individuals.  These  have  greatly  dis- 
turbed the  relation  of  the  centripetal  and  centrifugal 


forces  of  the  home  and  society.  Then,  again,  the 
solidarity  of  domestic  interest  is  weakened  by  other 
competitions.  There  are  the  fascinations  of  shopping, 
the  waste  of  time  over  mere  social  '  fads,'  and  the  in- 
creasing resort  on  the  part  of  women  to  clubs  and 
social  frivolities  among  themselves,  for  which  the 
neglect  and  absence  of  men  are  in  great  degree  re- 
sponsible ;  and  even  the  noble  desire  for  honest  intel- 
lectual improvement  and  for  charitable  work  have 
made  inroads  upon  the  home." 

More  open  evidences  of  social  corruption  exist. 
(For  details  as  to  the  extent  of  prostitution  in 
this  and  other  countries,  see  PROSTITUTION.) 
Evidence  is  not  wanting  of  the  increase  of  im- 
purity in  the  sexual  relation  among  factory 
populations.  The  development  of  the  tenement 
population  is  itself  an  indication  of  the  decay 
of  the  family.  In  New  York  City  80  per  cent, 
of  the  population  are  said  to  live  in  tenements. 

According  to  the  Report  of  the  Massachu- 
setts Bureau  of  Statistics  of  Labor  for  1892, 
67  per  cent,  of  the  population  of  Boston  live  in 
rented  houses.  Only  33  per  cent,  live  in  their 
own  homes,  and  even  this  is  too  hopeful  a  show- 
ing, because  of  these  33  per  cent.,  certainly 
some  live  in  mortgaged  homes  that  they  can 
scarcely  be  said  to  own. 

There  is  a  more  threatening  fact  than  this. 
67  per  cent,  occupy  rented  houses,  but  only  15 
per  cent,  live  in  single  tenements  ;  52  per  cent, 
crowd  together  in  tenements  occupied  by  two 
or  more  families  (Report  of  1892).  This  is 
for  the  whole  city.  In  certain  wards  the  sta- 
tistics are  still  more  appalling.  They  may  be 
said  to  be  "wards  without  a  home."  Of  the 
distinctively  so-called  "  working  class"  we  have 
no  recent  separate  statistics,  but  in  1876,  of 
55,515  male  wage  employees  in  Massachusetts, 
being  the  number  which  made  reliable  returns, 
during  the  extraordinary  census  of  the  preced- 
ing year,  concerning  their  owning  or  hiring  the 
houses  in  which  they  lived,  only  23  per  cent, 
owned  their  residence,  and  44^  per  cent,  of 
these  were  encumbered  with  mortgages,  leaving 
only  about  12  per  cent,  of  the  whole  number  who 
made  returns  in  the  full  possession  of  a  home. 

What'this  means  there  is  no  need  of  describ- 
ing. (For  its  significance  to  the  family,  see 
TENEMENT  LIFE.)  The  evidences  exist  on  every 
hand  that  the  preservation  of  the  family  is  a 
most  pressing,  if  not  the  most  pressing,  prob- 
lem in  modern  practical  sociology.  We  there- 
fore pass  to  consider 

VII.  THE  SOCIOLOGIC  FUNCTION  OF  THE  FAMILY. 

Save  for  a  few  extreme  radicals,  who  would 
abolish  the  family,  and  whose  position  we  shall 
consider  later,  all  sociologists  find  in  the  family 
the  social  unit,  the  keystone  of  society.  Says 
Professor  H.  B.  Adams,  as  quoted  by  Dr.  Dike 
in  his  address  before  the  Evangelical  Alliance, 
Washington,  D.  C.,  December  S,  1887  : 

"The  family,  oldest  of  institutions,  perpetually  re- 
produces the  ethical  history  of  man,  and  continually 
reconstructs  the  constitution  of  society.  All  students 
of  sociology  should  grasp  this  radical  truth,  and 
should  also  remember  that  the  school  and  college, 
town  and  city,  State  and  nation  are,  after  all,  but 
modified  types  of  family  institutions,  and  that  a  study 
of  the  individual  elements  of  social  and  political  life 
is  a  true  method  of  advancing  sociology  and  politics 
in  general." 

Says  Dr.  S.  W.  Dike  himself  in  the  same  ad- 
dress : 


Family. 


597 


Family. 


"I  do  not  fear  contradiction  from  any  competent 
scholar  in  political  science  when  I  say  that  the  study 
of  the  single  family  on  its  homestead  would  yield 
richer  scientific  knowledge  and  more  practical  results 
in  the  great  social  sciences  than  almost  any  other  sin- 
gle object  in  the  social  world.  Pursued  historically, 
the  student  would  find  himself  at  the  roots  of  prop- 
erty, separate  ownership  of  land,  inheritance,  rent, 
taxation,  free  trade,  and  tariff,  and  discover  the  germs 
of  international  law  and  the  State.  The  great  ques- 
tions of  the  day,  as  we  call  them,  are  little  more  than 
incidents  to  the  working  of  the  great  social  institu- 
tions ;  and  these,  we  have  already  seen,  are  the  expan- 
sions and  modified  forms  of  the  family,  amid  its  un- 
ceasing support  and  activity.  'Sociology,'  the  late 
Dr.  Mulford  used  to  say,  '  is  the  coming  science,  and 
the  family  holds  the  key  to  it.'  'The  family,'  he  also 
wrote,  '  is  the  most  important  question  that  has  come 
before  the  American  people  since  the  war.'  " 

Mr.  Gladstone  wrote  in  the  Nineteenth  Cen- 
tury for  February,  1889  : 

"  The  greatest  and  deepest  of  all  human  controver- 
sies is  the  marriage  controversy.  It  appears  to  be 
surging  up  on  all  sides  around  us.  ...  It  is  in  Amer- 
ica that,  from  whatever  cause,  this  controversy  has 
reached  a  stage  of  development  more  advanced  than 
elsewhere." 

What,  then,  is  definitely  the  sociologic  func- 
tion of  the  family  which  gives  it  such  extreme 
importance  ? 

I.  It  furnishes  the  two  elements  which  un- 
doubtedly contribute  more  than  any  other  to  the 
development  of  all  human  life  in  the  world — 
•viz.,  heredity  and  environment  during  the 
formative  period  of  life.  Biologists  may  dis- 
cuss which  of  these  most  affects  character — he- 
redity or  early  environment ;  but  all  are  agreed, 
whichever  of  these  is  the  more  powerful,  that  to- 
gether these  form  the  two  most  potent  influences, 
and  that  the  family  controls  or  may  control 
both.  "The  best  way  to  become  good,"  it  has 
been  well  said,  "  is  to  be  born  good. "  Out  of  5511 
convicts  at  Elmira  Reformatory  (g.v.)  38  per 
cent,  had  parents  known  to  be  in  temperate,  and 
13  per  cent,  more  of  doubtful  habits  ;  81  per 
cent,  had  parents  not  possessing  property  ;  44 
per  cent,  had  parents  of  little  or  no  education. 
The  power  of  home  in  childhood  is  equally  evi- 
dent. Of  these  same  5511  convicts,  54  per  cent, 
came  from  bad  homes,  38  per  cent,  more  from 
homes  "  only  fair  ;"  not  more  than  6  per  cent, 
came  from  homes  that  were  good  ;  42  per  cent, 
were  homeless  when  committed  ;  97  per  cent, 
came  from  bad  associations.  "  As 
the  twig  is  bent  the  tree  grows. ' ' 
The  Home.  "  A  child's  first  teacher  is  the  one 
who  first  loves  it ;"  and  usually 
this  is  the  mother.  It  is,  then,  the 
first  duty  of  the  family  to  see  that  the  child  is 
well  born,  and,  secondly,  well  nurtured.  These 
conditions  are  largely  personal  and  individual, 
moral  and  physiological,  rather  than  sociologi- 
cal, and  so  do  not  fall  within  our  province  in 
this  article.  Who  does  not  know  that  pure  par- 
ents, pure  generation,  pure  conception,  pure 
pregnancy  are  of  infinite  importance  to  pure 
birth  ?  So  with  mental,  moral,  and  physical 
health  in  every  form.  To  see  that  the  child  that 
is  born  has  this  is,  then,  the  first  sociological 
function  of  the  family.  This  implies,  however, 
and  necessitates  pure  marriage  :  so  that  the 
marriage  of  those  mentally,  morally,  or  physi- 
cally incapacitated  to  beget  healthy  children  is 
a  sociologic  sin.  Says  Professor  Jowett,  in  his 
introduction  to  Plato's  Republic  (ist  ed.,  vol. 
ii.,  130-132)  : 
"  The  late  Dr.  Combe  is  said  by  his  biographer  to 


have  resisted  the  temptation  to  marriage,  because  he 
knew  that  he  was  subject  to  hereditary  consumption. 
This  little  fact  suggests  the  reflection  that  one  person 
in  a  thousand  did  from  a  sense  of  duty  what  the  other 
nine  hundred  and  ninety -nine  ought  to  have  done." 

II.  But  purely  and  healthfully  born,  it  is,  sec- 
ond, the  function  of  the  family  to  see  that  the  child 
is  rightly  reared.     Its  first  duty  in  this  line  is 
undoubtedly  to  see  that  it  is  reared  in  an  atmos- 
phere of  love.     The  first  duty  of  parents  is  to 
love  each  other  and  their  offspring.     Theology 
would  teach  that  this  love  must  be  love  of  God 
and  man  ;    but  sociology  at   least 

says    that    they    must    love    each 
other.     Here  most  literally  love  is    Training. 
life.     Who  can  deny  or  doubt  the 
infinite   and  irreparable  loss  of  a 
childhood    reared  in    an    atmosphere  without 
love  ?    It  is  this  loss  which  as  we  shall  say  is 
sociologically  the  unanswerable  argument  for 
all  social  schemes,  that  would  take  away  the 
child  from  the  mother  or  father.     Of  the  nur- 
ture of  the  child  in  health  and  in  education, 
ethical  and  moral,  as  well  as  intellectual  and. 
physical,  we  cannot  here  speak,  but  it  suggests 
itself.     The  truest  education  a  child  receives  is 
in  its  home,  whether  that  home  be  a  palace  or  a 
city  alley.     Therefore,  as  for  other  reasons,  the 
frightful  significance  of  the  disappearance  of 
the  real  home  in  large  sections  of  our  cities  and 
growing  portions  of  our  population.     (See  DI- 
VORCE ;  TENEMENT  LIFE  ;  SLUMS,  etc.) 

III.  But  this  is  by  no  means  the  only  function 
of  the  family.     It  is,  thirdly,  the  function  of  the 
family  to  furnish  all  through  life  the  necessary 
atmosphere  of  love  and  peace  to  the  individual. 
It  is  not  necessary  that  every  one  should  be  mar- 
ried.    It  is  necessary  to   the  highest  life  that 
every  one  should  have  at  some  portion  at  least 
of  adult  life,  as  well  as  in  child- 
hood, the  joy  and  peace  of  life  in 

the  family.  "It  is  not  good  that  Law  of  Sex. 
the  man  should  be  alone"  is  the 
voice  of  sociology  as  well  as  of  God. 
Man  is  born  sexed.  Man  is  created  male  and 
female.  This  is  the  fact,  whoever  and  what- 
ever is  the  Creator.  And  the  law  of  sex  runs 
through  all  the  universe,  mental  and  moral,  as 
well  as  physical.  For  the  development  of  this, 
see  MARRIAGE  ;  we  simply  state  it  here.  It  is 
the  function  of  the  family  to  furnish  men  and 
women  with  the  opportunity  for  the  carrying 
out  of  this  sex  life,  mental  and  moral,  even 
more  than  physical.  Man  without  woman,  or 
woman  without  man,  is  a  biological  and  socio- 
logical abnormity.  It  indicates  an  abnormal 
condition  in  society  when  it  is  found  that  20  per 
cent,  of  the  women  of  England  and  44  per  cent, 
of  the  population  of  Belgium,  with  about  33  per 
cent,  in  Europe,  in  1875,  are  unwedded  ;  and 
when  we  read  the  startling  statistics  of  the  de- 
crease of  marriages  in  modern  civilization.  (See 
DIVORCE.)  It  is  to  the  shame  of  modern  science 
that  thus  far  this  subject  has  been  left  almost 
completely  untreated  from  the  standpoint  of 
science,  and  that  the  careful  literature  of  the 
subject  is  so  meager.  Only  latterly  are  we  mak- 
ing a  beginning  of  the  proper  development  of 
sociology  in  studying  the  family  by  the  collec- 
tion of  statistics.  Says  Dr.  Dike,  who  is  among 
the  foremost  students  of  this  question  in  this 
country,  in  a  pamphlet  issued  in  1890  : 


Family. 


598 


Family. 


"  It  is  becoming  more  clear  that  the  divorce  ques- 
tion is  inseparable  from  the  general  problem  or  the 
family,  and  that  the  latter,  including  the  former,  is  the 
real  subject  demanding  our  attention  as  a  nation,  and 
in  ever  larger  ways.  Until  within  10  years,  and  it  is 
still  too  true,  there  has  been  scanty  recognition  of  the 
family  in  any  of  the  ethical  or  political  discussions  of 
divorce,  and  comparatively  little,  except  in  the  law 
books,  of  the  intimate  relations  between  the  problems 
of  marriage  and  divorce ;  while  writers  of  neither 
class  studied  their  topies  as  parts  of  the  inclusive  sub- 
ject of  the  family.  Indeed,  the  reader  can  go  through 
the  State  constitutions,  law  books  and  ethical  discus- 
sions of  the  past  with  small  risk  of  stumbling  upon  any 
direct  reference  to  the  family.  Tho  the  gain  of  recent 
years  is  marked,  there  is  still  too  little  apprehension 
of  the  way  in  which  problems  of  divorce,  marriage, 
polygamy,  charity,  children,  and  those  of  education, 
economics,  politics  and  religion  merge  in  those  of  the 
family." 

It  maybe  said,  as  an  illustration,  that  the  En- 
cyclopedia Britanntca,  from  which  we  have 
quoted  above,  while  it  gives  47  pages  to  the 
subject  of  fortifications  and  101  pages  to  hydro- 
mechanics, devotes  less  than  10  pages  to  the 
family,  and  discusses  absolutely  nothing  in  those 
pages  but  the  origin  of  the  family,  as  if  that 
were  the  sole  important  matter.  Having,  then, 
discovered  somewhat  the  function  of  the  fam- 
ily, we  pass  to  ask  what  science  teaches  to  be 
the  best  form  of  the  family  ;  and  we  shall  con- 
sider this  portion  of  our  subject  under  three 
heads :  (a)  Permanent  Monogamy ;  (V)  Easy 
Divorce  ;  (c)  Free  Love  (including  under  this 
last  division  all  forms  of  the  family  other  than 
that  based  on  the  marriage  of  one  woman  to 
one  man). 


VIII.  VARIOUS  THEORIES  OK  THE  FAMILY. 

(a)   THEORY    OF    PERMANENT    MONOGAMY. 

The  form  of  the  family  where  marriage  is  be- 
tween one  man  and  one  woman,  and  indissolu- 
ble until  death,  save  for  cause  of  adultery  or 
similar  aggravated  causes,  is  by  many  consid- 
ered the  only  form  of  the  family  really  worthy 
of  the  name.  It  is  declared  to  be  the  best  form, 
for  the  following,  among  other  reasons  : 

1.  That  history  proves  it  to  be  that  form  of 
the  family  best  productive  of  the  highest  char- 
acter, individual  and  national.     The  supporters 
of  this  argument  point  to  the  Aryan  civiliza- 
tion ;  to  Greece  in  her  pure  days  ;  to  Rome 
when  she  had  the  monogamic  family  and  rare 
divorce  ;  to  the  early  Christian  centuries,  before 

false  theories  of  celibacy  and  vir- 
ginity broke  up  the  married  life  ;  to 
Advantages  Germany,  England,  Scotland,  Ire- 
of          land,  and  America,  and  to  the  indi- 
Monogamy.  viduals  produced  by  such  civiliza- 
tions as  compared  with  the  poly- 
gamic    civilizations    of    Asia    and 
Africa,  as  compared  with  Greece  and  Rome 
when  divorce  became  easy,  as  compared  even 
with  France,  Germany,  England,  and  especially 
America,  where  divorce  has  been  becoming  more 
and  more  easy.     They  argue  that,  theory  aside, 
facts  give  the  palm  to  monogamic  marriage  with 
rare  recourse  to  divorce. 

2.  It  is   argued  that    monogamic    marriage 
without  easy  divorce  is  far  better  for  child  nur- 
ture.    Easy  divorce,  they  say,  leads  to  broken 
homes   and   changing,  shifting  relations  that 


break  up  the  peace  and  quiet  and  love  neces- 
sary to  child  nurture. 

3.  It  is  argued  that  the  possibility  of  easy  di- 
vorce suggests  its  adoption  ;  that  the  men  or 
women  who  know  they  can  easily  obtain  divorce 
and  marry  again  are  led  to  think  of  it,  and  then 
to  lightly  want  it  and  seek  it  on  any  occasion 
when  passing  fancy  for    some    other    person 
prompts  it,  or  when  passing  displeasure  with 
their  married  partner  causes  a  desire  to  change. 
In  nine  cases  out  of  ten  it  is  claimed  that  the 
trouble  lies  at  least  in  part  with  both  parties, 
and  that  to  make  a  change  in  the  marital  rela- 
tion would  not  afford  relief,  since  one  cannot 
obtain  divorce  from  one's  self,  and  that  often  at 
least  one  would  thus  seek  change  without  find- 
ing relief  ;   thus,  to  say  the  least,   needlessly 
causing  the  breaking  up  of  homes  and  perhaps 
the  breaking  of  many  hearts. 

4.  It  is  claimed  that  easy  divorce  makes  mar- 
riage a  light  affair,  hence  lowering  the  sense  of 
both  its  solemn  responsibilities  and  its  possibili- 
ties of  unchanging  and  unequaled  mutual  con- 
fidence and  joy  and  love.    This,  it  is  said,  would 
make  men  and  women  enter  the  state  of  matri- 
mony more  carelessly  than  they  do  now,  instead 
of  "  reverently,  discreetly,  advisedly,  soberly, 
and  in  the  fear  of  God." 

5.  It  is  claimed  that,  since  sensual  desire  is 
more  liable  to  change  its  object  than  is  love,  a 
system  allowing  of  easy  divorce  and  change 
would  tend  to  elevate  the  lower  elements  in 
marriage  and  the  family,  making   them  mat- 
ters of  the  bodily  sexual  relations  rather  than 
of  the  moral  and  spiritual  relations. 

6.  It  is  claimed  that  easy  divorce  and  change 
are  repugnant  and  contrary  to  the  highest  ethi- 
cal and  moral  sentiment,  which  demands  love 
that  does  not  end  nor  change,  and  that  recog- 
nizes one  supreme  object  of  its  love,  a  love 
which  can  brook  no  rival. 

7.  Lastly,  but  for  Christians  first,  it  is  argued 
that  any  relation  other  than  that  of  the  union 
of  one  man  with  one  woman,  indissoluble  until 
death  save  for  cause  of  fornication, 

is  directly  contrary  to  the  revealed 

will  and  law  of  God  in  Christ,  who    Orthodox 

declared  positively   of  the  sexual       View. 

relation  that  "  for  this  cause  shall 

a  man  leave  father  and  mother  and 

shall  cleave  to  his  wife,  and  they  twain  shall  be 

one  flesh  ;"  and  again,  "  Whosoever  shall  put 

away  his  wife,  except  it  be  for  fornication,  and 

shall  marry  another,  committeth  adultery,  and 

whoso  marrieth  her  which  is  put  away  doth 

commit  adultery." 

Such  are  some,  tho  by  no  means  all,  of  the 
main  arguments  for  enduring,  monogamic  mar- 
riage. It  is  summed  up  for  Christians  in  the 
appeal  to  the  Christian  ideal  and  the  stern  testi- 
mony of  fact ;  and  to  non-Christians  in  the  tes- 
timony of  fact  alone,  that  easy  divorce  has  al- 
ways resulted  in  a  corrupt,  sensualized  society  ; 
while  enduring  monogamy  has  given  the  world 
the  highest  civilization,  the  happiest  home,  the 
purest  family  the  world  has  known.  Buttressed 
on  this  strong  ground,  the  believer  in  enduring 
monogamy  considers  his  position  impregnable, 
and  every  step  in  the  direction  of  easy  divorce 
an  assault  upon  the  very  foundation  of  true  so- 
ciety. 


Family. 


599 


Family. 


(b)  THEORY   OF   EASY   DIVORCE. 

The  argument  for  easy  divorce  claims  that  it 
meets  the  above  contention  at  every  point.  It 
says,  admitting  that  thus  far  enduring  monog- 
amy has  been  best  for  the  race,  and  has  thus 
far  produced  the  highest  civilization  on  account 
of  the  lower  elements  in  man's  nature,  which 
marriage  laws  and  difficult  divorce  have  done 
something  to  restrain,  does  it  follow  that  it  must 
always  be  so  ?  Is  love  never  to  be  trusted  ex- 
cept under  lock  and  key  ?  Have  we  such  rea- 
son to  be  satisfied  with  our  present  system  ? 
Defenders  of  easy  divorce  are  never  weary  of 
calling  attention  to  the  heart-burnings,  and 
quarrels,  and  dissensions  of  those  who  find  them- 
selves tied  together  for  life,  altho  love  may  have 
turned  to  hate.  They  say  that  what  they  argue 
against  is  not  enduring  monogamic  love,  but 
.against  an  enduring  monogamic  law  compelling 
men  and  women  to  live  together 
after  love  has  fled.  They  argue 
Unhappy  that  in  the  very  name  of  love  this 
Love.  is  an  outrage  upon  love.  They  say 
that  all  marriage,  except  marriage 
for  love,  is  an  acted  farce,  and  that 
when  love  ends,  the  pretense  of  love  should 
end.  Enforced  pretense  of  love,  they  say, 
when  love  is  really  gone,  is  the  fruitful  parent 
of  innumerable  ills,  quarrels,  hatred,  cruelty, 
refinements  of  mental  and  moral  torture,  deser- 
tion, unfaithfulness,  adultery,  prostitution,  mur- 
der. They  say  that,  instead  of  being  good  for 
childhood,  enforced  monogamy,  compelling 
children  to  live  where  only  the  pretense  of  love 
exists,  with  a  reality  of  hatred — a  condition  of 
affairs  discovered  by  children  only  too  easily — 
is  really  the  worst  atmosphere  in  which  child- 
hood can  be  reared.  They  argue  that,  in  fact, 
if  love  be  left  free  it  would  be  much  more  likely 
to  endure  than  when  attempted  to  be  enforced 
by  law,  so  that  easy  divorce  would  really  give 
us  more  enduring  true  love,  and  only  break  up 
those  sham  relations,  which  do  more  harm  than 
good.  They  argue  that  it  is  absurd  that  the 
most  solemn  relations  of  life  should  be  irretriev- 
ably fixed,  too  often  and  perhaps  usually,  by  the 
uneducated,  and  too  often  at  least  the  partially 
impure  fancy  of  a  young  man  for  a  young 
woman,  sometimes  of  an  irresponsible  boy  for 
an  inexperienced  girl.  As  for  reference  to  facts, 
they  argue  that  if  corruption  in  Greece  and 
Rome  did  accompany  the  development  of  di- 
vorce, it  is  not  proven  that  divorce  was  the 
cause.  They  say  that  it  is  far  more  likely  that 
the  breaking  up  faith  in  false  gods,  with  no 
higher  faith  taking  its  place,  at  least  till  Chris- 
tianity came,  did,  in  a  society  resting  on  a  mate- 
rial and  slave  basis,  cause  the  outbreak  of  cor- 
ruption, which  to  an  extent  made  use  of  divorce, 
but  which  marriage  was  equally  powerless  to 
restrain.  The  evidence  they  claim  is  that  cor- 
rupt marriage  is  worse  than  corrupt  divorce, 
They  say  that  in  our  own  times  the  cause  of 
.growing  profligacy  is  not  growing  divorce,  but 
growing  materialism  and  omnipresent  commer- 
cialism. They  point  to  such  women  as  George 
Eliot  and  such  men  as  Goethe  to  show  that  to 
break  away  from  legalized  relations  to  freer  love 
does  not  weaken  or  debase  character.  Such  is 
the  main  argument  for  easy  divorce.  We  shall 


see  in  a  moment  how  it  is  met,  but  pass  now  to 
the  arguments  of  those  who  carry  easy  divorce  to 
the  extreme  of 

(C)   FREE   LOVE. 

This,  it  must  be  stated  at  the  outset,  is  by  no 
means  of  necessity  material  and  animal  in  its 
motives  or  its  character.  Free  love  has  been 
defended  by  some  of  the  most  spiritual  and 
noble  of  mankind.  Plato  and  Campanella,  St. 
Simon  and  Fourier,  Shelley  and  William  Morris 
cannot  be  set  aside  as  in  their  ideals  "  mate- 
rial," "animal,"  or  "low."  Professor  Jowett, 
of  Oxford,  says  of  Plato,  in  his  introduction  to 
Plato's  Republic  (ist  ed.,  vol.  ii.,  pp.  145-147) : 

"  First,  we  may  observe  that  the  relations  of  the 
sexes  supposed  by  him  are  the  reverse  of  licentious  ; 
they  seem  rather  to  aim  at  an  impossible  strictness. 
.  .  ."  We  may  allow  that  his  conception  of  the  rela- 
tion of  the  sexes  takes  rank  among  the  great  original 
thoughts  of  mankind." 

The  ethical  standing  of  free  love  depends  on 
what  you  mean  by  free  love.  When  the  anar- 
chist Spies,  lecturing  on  anarchism  before  the 
Chicago  ministers,  was  asked  if  he  believed  in 
free  love,  he  answered,  "  As  opposed  to  bought 
love,  I  do."  We  must  therefore  understand 
what  is  meant  by  free  love  before  we  can  really 
discuss  it,  and,  as  a  matter  of  fact,  very  differ- 
ent and  even  opposing  theories 
of  the  family  relation  have  been 
classed  indiscriminately  under  this  Various 
phrase.  Some  of  these  are  indeed  Forms 
ignoble  and  base  ;  others  may  be  of  this 
mistaken,  but  are  not  intentionally  Theory, 
ignoble.  We  class  them  together 
in  this  article,  altho  distinguishing 
between  them  ;  first,  because  they  are  con- 
founded in  the  public  mind,  and  therefore  will 
be  looked  for  under  this  head,  and  the  article 
will  therefore  be  misleading  if  free  love  is  called 
either  unqualifiedly  pure  or  unqualifiedly  im- 
pure ;  secondly,  for  matter  of  convenience,  since 
it  would  confuse  to  have  too  many  heads  ;  third- 
ly and  mainly,  because  all  these  theories,  good 
and  bad  alike,  do  have  the  distinguishing  char- 
acteristic which  passes  by  the  name  of  free  love  ; 
they  all  are  opposed  to  the  limiting  by  law  of 
individuals  to  the  sexual  relation  of  one  man 
and  one  woman.  All  that  is  opposed  to  such 
limitation  is  rightly  characterized  under  the 
name  of  free  love  ;  altho  it  is  equally  necessary 
to  protest  against  the  indiscriminate  condemna- 
tion of  what  aims  to  be  pure  with  what  aims  at 
what  is  impure.  The  first  duty,  then,  is  to  dis- 
tinguish between  theories.  Let  us  do  this. 
Plato,  Campanella,  and  some  extreme  state  so- 
cialists (tho  by  no  means  the  majority  of  social- 
ists) have  argued  that  the  whole  matter  of  the 
begetting  and  rearing  of  children  should  be  left 
in  the  hands  of  the  State.  Socialism,  it  must  be 
remembered,  is  by  no  means  committed  to  this, 
as  Dr.  Schaffle,  who  is  not  a  socialist,  and  who 
is  also  of  the  highest  authority,  has  testified  in 
his  Quintessence  of  Socialism.  The  large  ma- 
jority of  socialists  do  not,  as  we  say,  accept  this 
form  of  free  love,  but  it  is  proposed  by  a  few  ex- 
treme worshipers  of  the  State  ;  and,  as  we  have 
said,  by  Plato  first  and  foremost.  In  a  sense  it 
is  not  free  love,  but,  as  Dr.  Jowett  has  pointed 


Family. 


600 


Family. 


put,  is  its  opposite.     Still  it  may  be  character- 
ized under  this  head  because  it  would  not  limit 
the  individual  to  the  sexual  rela- 
tion of  one  man  and  one  woman. 
Plato's       Its     advocates,     following     Plato, 
View.       would  have  the  State  or  community 
allow  or  control  the  sexual  inter- 
course of  men  and  women,  only 
within  certain  limits  of  age  and  certain  mental, 
physical,  and  moral  qualifications.    They  would 
have  children  thus  generated,  and  reared  by  the 
State,  no  father  or  mother  being  allowed  to 
know  their  own    children,  that  thus  children 
may  be  educated  equally  and  wisely  to  live  for 
the  State  and  not  for  the  disrupting  ties  of 
family.     Horrible  as  this  may  seem  to  many, 
it  is  well  at  least  to  notice  that  grave  thinkers 
have  found  some  good  in  it ;  we  should  at  least 
see  the  weak  point  of  modern  methods  and  ask 
if  we  may  not  improve  upon  these  without  tak- 
ing the  dire  alternative  proposed  by  Plato  and 
his  followers.     We  therefore  quote  once  more 
from  Professor  Jowett  (see  above),    where  he 
says  : 

"  No  one  can  have  observed  the  first  rising  flood  of 
the  passions  of  youth,  the  difficulty  of  regulating  them, 
and  the  effects  of  the  whole  mind  and  nature  which 
follow  them,  the  stimulus  which  the  mere  imagination 
gives  to  them,  without  feeling  that  there  is  something 
unsatisfactory  in  our  method  of  treating  them.  That 
the  most  important  influences  on  human  life  should  be 
wholly  left  to  chance  or  shrouded  in  mystery,  and  in- 
stead of  being  disciplined  or  understood,  should  be 
required  to  conform  only  to  an  external  standard  of 
propriety,  cannot  be  regarded  by  the  philosopher  as  a 
safe  or  satisfactory  condition  of  human  things.  Nor  is 
Plato  wrong  in  asserting  that  family  attachments  may 
interfere  with  higher  aims.  If  there  have  been  those 
who  '  to  party  gave  up  what  was  meant  for  mankind,' 
there  have  been  those  who  to  family  gave  up  what 
was  meant  for  mankind,  or  for  their  country.  The 
cares  of  children,  the  necessity  of  procuring"  money 
for  their  support,  the  flatteries  of  the  rich  by  the  poor, 
the  exclusiveness  of  caste,  the  pride  of  birth  or  wealth, 
the  tendency  of  family  life  to  divert  men  from  the 
pursuit  of  the  ideal  or  the  heroic,  are  as  lowering  in 
our  own  age  as  in  that  of  Plato.  And  if  we  prefer  to 
look  at  the  gentle  influences  of  home,  the  devotion  of 
one  member  of  a  family  for  the  good  of  others,  which 
form  one  side  of  the  picture,  we  must  not  quarrel  with 
him,  or  perhaps  ought  rather  to  be  grateful  to  him,  for 
having  presented  to  us  the  reverse." 

Professor  Jowett  also  shows  Plato's  aim  : 

"  The  arrangements  of  marriage  in  the  Republic  of 
Plato  aimed  at  one  object  only — the  improvement  of 
the  race.  In  successive  generations  a  great  develop- 
ment, both  of  bodily  and  mental  qualities,  might  be 
possible.  The  experience  of  animals  showed  that 
mankind  could,  within  certain  limits,  receive  a  change 
of  nature.  And,  as  in  animals,  we  should  commonly 
select  the  best  for  breeding  and  destroy  the  others,  so 
there  must  be  a  selection  made  of  the  human  beings 
whose  lives  are  worthy  to  be  preserved." 

Such  was  Plato's  argument.  If  the  ox  in  Eng- 
land has  been  bred  from  400  Ibs.  or  less  to  1200 
Ibs.  and  over,  and  men  are  of  more  value  than 
oxen,  why  not  give  a  little  attention  to  the 
breeding  of  men  ?  The  question  is  indeed  per- 
tinent, but  to  answer  it  in  the  affirmative  it  is 
not  necessary  to  say  that  the  State  or  law  should 
do  this.  May  not,  nay,  should  not,  free  indi- 
viduals be  educated  to  give  more  thought  to  the 
responsibilities  of  generation  ?  Continues  Pro- 
fessor Jowett : 

"  We  start  back  horrified  from  this  Platonic  ideal  in 
the  belief,  first,  that  the  instincts  of  human  nature  are 
far  too  strong  to  be  crushed  out  in  this  way  ;  secondly, 
that  if  the  plan  could  be  carried  out,  we  should  be 
poorly  recompensed  by  improvements  in  the  breed 


for  the  loss  of  the  best  things  in  life.  .  .  .  That  which 
existed  on  the  lower  level  of  customs  Plato  imagined 
he  was  raising  to  the  higher  level  of  nature  and  rea- 
son ;  while,  from  the  modern  and  Christian  point  of 
view,  we  regard  him  as  sanctioning  murder  and  de- 
stroying the  first  principles  of  morality.  .  .  .  There  is 
no  sentiment  or  imagination  in  the  connections  which 
they  [Plato's  men  and  women]  are  supposed  to  form  ; 
human  nature  is  reduced  as  nearly  as  possible  to  the 
level  of  the  animals,  neither  exalting  to  heaven  nor 
yet  abusing  and  over-indulging  the  natural  instincts. 
All  that  world  of  poetry  and  fancy  which  the  passion 
of  love  has  called  forth  in  modern  literature  and  ro- 
mance would  have  been  banished  by  Plato." 

It  is  thus  not  hard  to  see  the  obvious  defects 
and  the  outrageous  ethics  of  Plato's  proposition. 
The  only  question  is  whether  we  cannot  get 
some  of  the  ends  he  aimed  at — the  begetting 
and  rearing  of  better  men  without  adopting  his 
revolting  methods.  As  Dr.  Jowett  says  : 

"  We  cannot  deny  that  Christianity  or  any  other 
form  of  religion  and  society  has  not  been  able  to  cope 
with  this  greatest  and  most  difficult  of  social  prob- 
lems." We  need  not,  therefore,  say  that  the  present 
method  cannot  be  improved,  because  we  decline  to  call 
an  improvement  the  proposition  of  Plato  and  his  mod- 
ern successors  in  Campanella,  and  such  rigid  State 
socialists  as  Babeuf  and  his  fellow-worshipers  of 
mechanical  and  material  equality. 

Another  form  of  free  love,  adopted  not  by  so- 
cialists, but  by  some  sects  of  so-called  Christian 
communism,  in  place  of  the  monogamic  family, 
would  have  a  family  more  or  less  poly  garni  c, 
and  with  the  sexual  relations  not  left  to  promis- 
cuous and  thoughtless  desire,  but 
restrained,  guided,  and  sanctified 
by  religious  precepts,  instincts,  and    "  Perfec- 
life.      Such    have    been    the    pro-    tionists." 
posals  and  attempts  of  some  of  the 
older  Anabaptists  in  Germany,  the 
Perfectionists  of    Noyes'   Oneida  Community, 
and  the  Mormons,  with  other  kindred  religious 
and  semi-communistic  sects.     (For  the  details  of 
these,  see  ANABAPTISTS  ;    ONEIDA  COMMUNITY  ; 
MORMONISM.)    However  opposed  these  may  be 
in  the  moral  sense,  and  however  we  may  dis- 
sent from  them,  it  is  to  be  said  that  they  are  not. 
at  least  outwardly  moved  by  licentious  notions. 
The  Anabaptists   of  Germany  certainly  com- 
menced   with    most    religious    feelings.     The 
Oneida  Community  claimed  to  be  one  of  spir- 
itual Perfectionists.     They  declared  again  and 
again  that  neither  their  notions  nor  their  prac- 
tices were  licentious.    Noyes,  their  leader,  said  : 

"  Free  love  with  us  does  not  mean  freedom  to  love 
to-day  and  leave  to-morrow.  Our  communities  are 
families  as  distinctly  founded  and  separated  from 
promiscuous  society  as  ordinary  households.  The  tie 
that  binds  us  together  is  as  permanent  and  sacred,  to 
say  the  least,  as  that  of  marriage,  for  it  is  our  religion. 
.  .  .  Every  man's  care  and  every  man's  dollar  of  the 
common  property  is  pledged  for  the  maintenance  and 
protection  of  the  women  and  the  education  of  the 
children  of  the  community.  .  .  .  Whoever  will  take 
the  trouble  to  follow  our  track  from  the  beginning 
will  find  no  forsaken  women  or  children  by  the  way. 
In  this  respect  we  claim  to  be  in  advance  of  marriage 
and  common  civilization.  .  .  .  We  are  not  free-lov- 
ers in  any  sense  that  makes  love  less  binding  or  re- 
sponsible than  it  is  in  marriage"  (History  of  Ameri- 
can Socialisms,  pp.  639,  640). 

Their  practice  was  to  religiously  marry  all  the 
men  in  their  "  families"  or  communities  to  all 
the  women,  and  then  to  allow  sexual  intercourse 
between  any,  but  not  without  due  considera- 
tion and  consultation  as  to  the  -wisdom  and 
ethical  character  of  the  relation.  Ordinary 
marriage  and  the  family  led,  they  argued,  to 


Family. 


601 


Family. 


family  selfishness,  family  quarrels,  and  hypoc- 
risy. "  It  provokes,"  Noyes  wrote,  "  to  secret 
adultery,  actual  or  of  the  heart.  It  ties  together 
unmatched  natures.  It  sunders  matched  na- 
tures" (idem,  p.  628).  The  Mormons  use  sim- 
ilar arguments  and  base  their  faith  on  the  relig- 
ious ' '  revelations' '  to  Joseph  Smith  and  the 
polygamy  allowed  and  recorded  in  the  pages  of 
the  Old  Testament.  The  heart  can  love,  they 
claim,  more  than  one  person  at  one  time.  The 
more  one  loves,  they  say,  the  more  one  can 
love.  Love  for  one  wife  no  more  interferes, 
according  to  their  argument,  with  love  of  an- 
other wife  than  love  for  one  sister  interferes 
with  love  of  another. 

To  these  religious  forms  of  free  love,  perhaps, 
should  be  added  the  forms  proposed  by  St. 
Simon  and  Fourier  and  other  doctrinaires, 
which,  altho  especially  with  Fourier,  opposed  to 
religion  in  the  ordinary  sense,  and  designed  to 
be  simply  humanitarian,  were  advocated  with  a 
spirit  virtually  religious.  Their  theories  will  be 
found  under  the  respective  articles  ST.  SIMON  and 
FOURIER  ;  but  they  must  be  at  least  mentioned 

here.     They  would  have  society  in 

some  form  regulate  marriage,  and 
Elective  within  these  restrictions  have  wives 
Affinities,  in  common,  and  children  reared 

together  in  the  most  approved  way. 

The  modern  religious  sense,  when 
once  it  begins  to  wander  into  new  ways,  seems 
to  be  easily  led,  as  among  many  spiritualists,  to 
conceiving  new  marital  relations  of  "  elective 
affinities,"  "spiritual  wives,"  "heavenly  mar- 
riages," etc.  How  far  their  theories  are  put 
into  practice  cannot  be  said,  but  undoubtedly 
they  are  penetrating  society  very  fast.  Mor- 
monism  is  not  the  only  ism  in  America  that  has 
given  up  belief  in  strict  monogamic  marriage. 
Yet  many  claim  that  the  result  is  good.  A 
daughter  of  Brigham  Young  has  recently,  in  a 
leading  magazine,  described  the  happy  homes 
and  happy  childhood  of  polygamous  Mormons. 
But  this  is  exactly  where  the  strongest  argu- 
ment arises  against  all  forms  of  polygamous 
marriage.  In  spite  of  the  above  article  by  the 
daughter  of  Brigham  Young,  and  admitting 
possible  exceptions,  the  notorious  fact  remains 
that  no  polygamous  country  or  polygamous  sect 
has  begun  to  develop  the  character  produced  in 
monogamic  homes.  It  is  to  England  and  not 
to  Turkey,  to  America  and  not  to  Asia,  to  Kan- 
sas and  not  to  Utah,  to  Brook  Farm  and  not  to 
Oneida,  to  Christianity  and  not  to  Mormonism, 
that  one  looks  for  the  leaders  of  the  world.  The 
fruit  of  the  tree  of  polygamy  is  not  a  justifier  of 
the  tree.  Early  and  true  Christian  communism 
had  all  things  in  common  "  except  our  wives" 
(Tertullian).  Of  all  such  forms  of  free  love  Pres- 
ident Thwing  says  ( The  Family,  pp.  144,  145) : 

"The  prominence  that  either  system  (sexual  com- 
munism or  polygamy)  tends  to  give  to  the  sexual  na- 
ture, which  should  confessedly  be  held  in  subordina- 
tion ;  the  degradation  in  shame  which  it  imposes  on 
woman  j  the  physical,  intellectual,  as  well  as  moral 
corruption  which  it  works  in  man :  the  misery  and 
woe  which  it  is  obliged  to  place  on  the  head  of  child- 
hood ;  the  destruction  of  love  which  is  the  strongest 
simply  because  its  scope  is  the  narrowest ;  the  outrage 
of  instincts  which  by  natural  inheritance  have  become 
the  most  sacred,  suggest  arguments  against  both  sex- 
ual communism  and  polygamy.  Furthermore,  the 
equality  of  the  number  of  the  two  sexes  shows  that 
one  man  was  designed  in  marriage  for  one  woman." 


We  then  come  to  the  third  form  of  free  love, 
the  free  love  theory  par  excellence,  which  is 
held  to-day  by  many  socialists  (not  Christian), 
by  more  individualists,  and  by  all 
anarchists,  and  an  increasing  num- 
ber of  radical  men  and  women  of      Modern 
various   schools    of    thought.      Ac-   Free  Love. 
cording  to  these,  neither  the  State 
nor  organized  religion  should  have 
aught  to  do  with  control  of  the  family  or  of  the 
sexual  relation.     They  would   make    love  su- 
preme.    They  would  have  it  unfettered  by  any 
tie  whatsoever.     They  argue  that  compulsory 
love  is  not  love  ;  that  all   marriage  save  from 
love    is    sin  ;  that  when    love    ends   marriage 
ends.     They  would  have  (socialists   by  collec- 
tivism, and  anarchists  by  free  competition  or 
cooperation)  each  man  and  each  woman  free  to 
support  himself  or  herself  without  any  depend- 
ence upon  any  other  individual.     Then,  they 
say,  when  a  woman  gave  herself   in   love,  it 
would  not  be  for  reason  of  family,  or  position, 
or  custom,  or  support,  or  help  in  any  way,  but 
simply  because  she  loved.     They 
hold  that  this  would  produce  the 
purest,  and  highest,  and  perhaps     Children. 
the  most  enduring  love.     Some  of 
these  free  lovers  would  have  the 
State  guarantee  to  every  woman  during  preg- 
nancy an  income  to  keep  her  independent,  so 
that  she  should  never  have  to  sell  herself  in  any 
form  or  be  unable  to  care  in  the  most  hygienic 
way  for  her  child.     Others  would  have  the  State 
care  for  any  children  that  might  be  intrusted  to 
it,  without  compelling  any  mother  to  intrust  her 
child  to  its  care,  and  without  depriving  either 
father  or  mother  of  the  pleasure   of  knowing 
and  often  seeing  the  child.     In  this  way  they 
claim  that  every  child  would  have  at  least  the1 
opportunity  of  careful  nurture  without  the  loss 
of  parental  love.     Most  parents,  it  is  thought, 
when  economic  difficulties  were  out  of  the  way, 
would  prefer  to  rear  their  own  children  ;  only 
they  would  not  be  compelled  to.     Thus,  without 
losing  pure  parental  love,  we  should  be  rid  of  that 
monstrosity,  compulsory  love.     Marriage,  they 
claim,  thus  freed  from  control  of  either  priest  or 
town  clerk,  would  be  pure,  and  noble,  and  abid- 
ing.    Prostitution  would  disappear. 

That  this  system  would  work  for  the  majority 
of  the  population  under  the  present  industrial 
system,  the  more  thoughtful  supporters  of  this 
view  do  not  claim.  They  would  have  it  only 
in  connection  with  economic  reforms  that  would 
give  financial  independence  to  every  man  and 
woman.  They  would  also  urge  along  with  it 
such  physical,  mental,  moral,  and  ethical  edu- 
cation as  would  prevent  humanity  from  sinking 
into  material  and  animal  misuse  of  its  liber- 
ties. But  they  believe  that  humanity,  once  free 
from  dependence  upon  priest  and  policeman, 
would  rapidly  prove  itself  capable  of  pure  free 
love.  At  least  this  is  the  ideal  toward  which 
they  believe  that  law  and  practice  should  tend  ; 
and  for  themselves  and  those  sufficiently  "ad- 
vanced" they  think  it  perfectly  safe  to  try 
free  love  now.  Whatever  be  their  theory,  the 
practice  is  certainly  on  the  increase.  The  last 
law  that  they  would  take  from  love  would  be 
the  law  forbidding  marriage  below  a  proper  age. 
Only  when  society  can  be  trusted  to  prevent 


Family. 


602 


Family. 


this  without  law  would  they  remove  this  law. 
Such  is  the  theory  of  free  love  that  is  to-day 
most  rapidly  spreading.     Before  we  answer  it 
let  us  simply  add   that  a  fourth 
form  of  free  love  should  be  possi- 
Animalism,  bly  also  given  which  has  nothing 
ethical  or  pure  about  it,  which  is 
simple  libertinism  and  worse  than 
animalism,  since  no  brutes  would  fall  so  low. 
But  this,  tho  too  much  in  practice,  has  no  de- 
fenders to  whom  any  honest  mind  need  listen, 
and  therefore  needs  no  discussion  here.     The 
only  thing  is  the  question  whether  other  forms 
of  free  love,  however  differently  they  may  mean 
and  may  aim,  would  not  lead  to  this  form  of 
free  love,  a  fear  which  is  answered  on  the  part 
of  defenders  of  pure  free  love  by  the  question 
whether  our  present  monogamic  system  has  not 
already  led  to  it,  by  requiring  an  impossible  and 
mistaken   system,   the  parent  of  vice  and  se- 
cret corruption.     (See  PROSTITUTION.) 

We  are  now  ready  to  see  the  answer  that  be- 
lievers in  enduring  monogamic  marriage  give 
to  all  arguments  for  easy  divorce  and  free  love. 
This  is  that  while  humanity,  if  it 
were  perfect  and  not  swayed   by 
Answers  to  evil    lusts,    might    need    no    laws 
Free  Love,  against  impure  love  :  unfortunately 
humanity  does  need  them  only  too 
much,  and  that  in  this  matter  we 
do  still  need  and  shall  for  long  centuries,  as  far 
as  we  can  now  see,  still  need,  the  law  to  pre- 
vent marriage  becoming  a  farce,  and  prostitution 
disappearing  only  because  society  itself  has  be- 
come prostitution.     The  argument  that  mar- 
riage without  easy  divorce  tends  to  preserve 
marriage  after  love  has  become  hate,  producing 
homes  of  dissension  and  hate  instead  of  love,  is 
an  argument  against  the  abuse  of  marriage,  not 
against  marriage  itself.     When  married  people 
find  themselves  or  think  themselves  alienated, 
they  should  try  to  improve  their  married  life, 
not  try  to  end  it.     In  nine  cases  out  of  ten,  it  is 
urged,  people  who  cannot  get  along  together  in 
married  love  could  not  get  along  with  any  one 
in  marriage,  and  therefore  would  make  no  gain 
by  seeking  divorce  and  new  marriage.     The 
true  resource  is  not  to  change  their  condition, 
but  to  change  themselves.    The  remedy  against 
family  jars  is  not  the  divorce  court,  but  family 
love.     It  should,  however,  teach  us  to  be  more 
cautious  about  forming  marriage 
alliances.    In  this  direction  there  is 
Careful      vast  room  for  improvement.     It  has 
Marriage    been  suggested  that  the  law  should 
Laws.       go  back  to  the  old  custom  of  requir- 
ing the  publication  of  banns  and 
the  lapse  of  a  certain  period  be- 
tween the  publication  of  the  banns  and  the  per- 
mission to  marry.     If,  as  in  some  countries,  the 
difficult}'  of  contracting  marriage  or  obtaining 
divorce  produces  a  higher  rate  of  illegitimacy, 
the  cure  is  to  be  sought  not  by  lowering  the 
laws  to  suit  the  desires,  but  by  a  spiritual  and 
moral  raising  of  the  desires  to  fulfil  the  law. 
Even  if  the  latter  method  should  give  us  more 
technical  illegitimacy  for  awhile,  the  question  is 
whether  it  would  not  quickest  give  us  the  great- 
est purity.     There  is  said  to  be  less  illegitimacy 
in  Turkey  than  in  England  ;  but  is  it  not  because 
the  Mohammedan  law  allows  impurity  ?    Our 


aim  is  to  be  purity,  not  technical  legitimacy.  As 
a  matter  of  fact,  moreover,  it  is  shown  that  strict 
marriage  laws  and  difficult  divorce  do  not  in- 
crease illegitimacy.  Alone  among  the  States, 
South  Carolina  allows  no  divorce  whatsoever, 
and  yet  a  South  Carolina  judge  says:  "The 
working  of  this  stern  policy  has  been  to  the  good 
of  the  people  and  the  State  in  every  respect" 
(O'Neall  in  McCarty  -vs.  McCarty,  2  Strob.  6, 
ii  ;  see  Bishop,  Marriage  and  Divorce,  vol.  i. , 
p.  33).  The  Roman  Catholic  Church  allows  no 
divorce,  and  the  chastity  of  Roman  Catholic 
Ireland  is  unexampled  among  civilized  people. 
In  1878  the  percentage  of  illegitimacy  was  only 
2.31.  Germany  has  divorce  laws  much  looser 
than  England,  yet  has  much  more  immorality. 
So,  too,  with  the  Continent  generally,  compared 
with  England,  Scotland,  and  Ireland.  All  the 
evidence  seems  to  be  that  enduring  monogamic 
marriage  and  strict  laws,  so  that  those  who 
know  that  they  enter  the  marital  relation  know, 
also,  that  they  cannot  readily  escape,  operates  to 
produce  the  purest  society  and  the  happiest 
homes.  If  it  does,  not  unfrequently,  bind  to- 
gether ill-mated  pairs,  the  cure  lies  in  a  higher 
ethical  and  moral  life,  to  endure  till  death  do 
part,  and  to  learn  to  suffer,  which  often  means 
to  bring  love  out  of,  or,  rather,  in  place  of,  an 
evil  often  temporary  and  often  fancied. 

IX.  THE   FAMILY    THREATENED  AND    How  TO 
DEFEND  IT. 

Having  arrived  at  this  conclusion,  it  is  neces- 
sary to  realize  how  severely  family  life  is  threat- 
ened, and  how,  therefore,  it  may  best  be  de- 
fended. 

First :  It  must  be  admitted  that  well-nigh 
the  whole  tendency  at  present  is  toward  easy 
divorce,  if  not  free  love.  This  is  mainly  due 
to  the  individualistic  tendency,  from  which  on 
this  point  even  modern  socialism  has  not  learned 
to  differ.  It  came  in  with  the  Protestant  Refor- 
mation, and  the  Puritan  tendency  to  make 
marriage  a  civil  rather  than  a  religious  matter. 
Says  President  Thwing,  himself  a  Protestant, 
speaking  of  the  destruction  of  the  family,  in  the 
book  above  quoted : 

"  The  cause  underlying  and  in  a  sense  including  all 
other  causes  is  that  growth  of  individualism  which  is 
the  direct  product  of  the  Reformation." 

And  again  : 

"  The  conception  of  marriage  as  a  relation  purely 
secular  has  been  at  the  basis  of  our  modern  divorce 
legislation.  This  legislation  recognizes  the  right  of 
the  individual  and  the  right  of  the  State  to  an  interest 
in  the  dissolution  of  the  marriage  tie.  It  does  not  in 
the  least  recognize  any  peculiarly  sacred  character  in 
the  institution.  .  .  .  The  Puritan  protest  against  the 
Church  of  England,  no  less  than  the  protest  against 
the  Church  of  Rome,  has  had  its  effect  upon  the  pop- 
ular conception  of  marriage.  .  .  .  Among  the  mem- 
bers of  the  Anglican  or  Protestant  Episcopal  com- 
munions the  sacred  altar  is  preferred  as  the  place  for 
solemnizing  a  marriage  ;  and  in  these  churches  the 
religious  idea  of  marriage  is,  no  doubt,  better  pre- 
served than  in  any  other  Protestant  denomination" 
(  The  Family ',  pp.  158-162). 

It  must  also  be  admitted  that  the  tendency  to 
raise  the  legal  position  of  woman  has  been  at 
the  expense  of  the  indissolubility  of  the  family. 
Under  the  old  law  a  married  woman  had  no 
legal  existence.  As  she  has  been  granted  her 


Family. 


603 


Family. 


just  right  (and  there  are  still  many  rights  to  be 
granted),  the  law  of  the  family  has  been  weak- 
ened. This  makes  the  case  very  intricate.  To 
recognize  the  desirable  absolute  unity  of  the 
family,  and  still  to  recognize  the  equally  desira- 
ble independence  of  both  husband  and  wife,  is 
not  easy,  but  it  must  be  done.  Under  socialis- 
tic forms  of  society,  some  claim  it  will  be  easier, 
since  the  holding  of  property  will  be  simpler, 
and  it  is  property,  more  than  all  else,  that  causes 
the  legal  troubles  of  husband  and  wife. 

Secondly :  A  greater  danger  to  the  family 
than  the  tendency  to  individualism  is  the  eco- 
nomic difficulty  of  maintaining  the  family. 
Statistics  given  under  MARRIAGE 
will  show  that  a  fewer  and  steadily 
Prostitution,  fewer  number  of  young  men  are 
willing  to  undertake  the  economic 
burden  and  responsibility  of  main- 
taining a  wife  and  children.  The  statistics  of 
PROSTITUTION  will  show  that  this  is  taking  the 
place  of  the  family.  The  article  WAGES  will 
show  that  a  working  man's  wages,  even  in  such 
States  as  Massachusetts  and  Illinois,  are  not 
such  as  will  maintain  the  average  working 
man's  family,  and  therefore  his  wife  and  chil- 
dren are  more  and  more  being  compelled  to 
labor,  with  the  result  of  the  breaking  up  of 
family  life,  as  the  article  WOMAN  will  show. 
Once  more,  high  rents  and  developing  city  life 
are  breaking  up  homes  and  substituting  tene- 
ments, as  shown  in  Sec.  6  of  this  article.  Such 
is  simply  a  reference  to  economic  perils  to  the 
perils  that  might  fill  volumes.  Yet  there  are 
others. 

Thirdly :  Fashion  and  economic  pressure  are 
tending  to  divert  family  life  from  giving  true 
care  to  child  nurture.  Births  are  rapidly  de- 
creasing in  proportion  to  marriage.  (See  BIRTH- 
RATES.) Says  Dr.  Dike,  in  the  address  above 
quoted  : 

"  The  declining  fruitfulness  of  the  family — to  take 
up  the  second  test — especially  among  people  of  the  so- 
called  native  stock,  has  become  a  matter  of  serious 
concern.  In  Massachusetts,  the  mother  of  foreign 
birth  has  on  the  average  50  per  cent,  more  children 
than  the  mother  born  in  this  country.  It  is  true  that 
the  death-rate  among  children  of  foreign  parentage  is 
much  greater  than  among  the  others,  but  after  all  al- 
lowance for  this,  the  parent  of  foreign  birth  rears  a 
much  larger  percentage  of  children  than  the  other. 
And  notwithstanding  the  presence  of  the  foreign  ele- 
ment, the  birth-rate  in  some  of  the  older  States  is 
lower  than  in  most  European  countries,  and  is  steadily 
declining.  France  is  the  only  country  in  Europe 
whose  birth-rate  is  as  low  as  that  of  Massachusetts, 
and  France  is  alarmed  at  her  condition.  Massachu- 
setts is  indifferent,  for  she  can  still  recruit  her  popu- 
lation from  Ireland  and  Canada.  But  other  States 
are  doubtless  just  as  badly  off.  No  well-informed 
physician  believes  that  this  low  birth-rate  is  to  any 
great  degree  due  to  loss  in  reproductive  powers,  tho 
there  is  something  in  this— more,  however,  as  effect 
than  as  cause  of  a  declining  birth-rate.  In  three  or 
four  sections,  and  these  are  large  enough  to  be 
seriously  indicative,  the  physicians  are  of  the  opinion 
that  legitimate  children  would  be  50  per  cent,  more 
numerous  but  for  criminal  deeds.  This  refers  to  all 
classes  of  people  as  a  whole.  In  some  of  our  cities, 
and  among  intelligent  and  even  Christian  people,  and 
very  widely  too  in  rural  communities,  it  looks  as  if 
there  is  a  prevalent  and  growing  intention,  even  at 
the  cost,  if  need  be,  both  of  good  morals  and  law,  to 
let  the  inferior  classes  rear  most  of  the  children. 
Many  of  the  families  which  are  best  fitted,  so  far  as 
pecuniary  means  and  social  opportunity  are  con- 
cerned, are  deliberately  choosing  to  be  unfruitful. 
And  it  is  the  testimony  of  gynaecologists  that  more  of 
their  patients  come  from  this  class  than  from  those 
women  to  whom  maternity  has  brought  its  natural 
ills." 


Even  the  children  that  are  born  are  top  often 
neglected  by  their  mothers  ;  with  the  rich  be- 
cause they  can  hire  nurses,  and  with  the  poor 
because  the  mothers  have  to  go  out  to  work. 
In  some  factory  towns  it  seems  as  if  a  creche 
was  needed  beside  every  factory.  It  is  becom- 
ing true  that  motherhood,  and  therefore  family 
life,  are  disappearing.  The  rich  will  not  and 
the  poor  cannot  afford  to  rear  children.  The 
"two  children"  system  is  on  the  increase  in 
America  as  in  France. 

Fourthly:  The  preaching  of  "woman's 
rights"  is  not  sufficiently  accompanied  by  a 
preaching  of  woman's  duties.  Women  more 
and  more  board  instead  of  keeping  homes,  with 
no  duties  save  to  miseducate  themselves  in 
selfish,  idle  culture  or  charitable  "  fads. ' '  Wom- 
en, too,  in  private  counting-rooms  are  making 
"  the  typewriter  girl"  disreputable.  Free  love 
is  being  brought  down  to  "  freer"  practice. 

Such  are  some  of  the  perils  to  the  family. 
They  go  so  far  that  many  radicals  believe  that 
the  family,  whether  we  like  it  or  not,  cannot  be 
saved.  They  say  that  under  the  present  eco- 
nomic system  the  family  cannot  be  supported 
and  is  disappearing,  and  that  if  governments 
become  socialistic,  or  if  radical  individualism 
prevail,  free  love  will  become  the  custom  ;  so 
that  in  any  case  the  family  is  doomed.  What, 
then,  is  proposed  to  save  it  ? 

First :  Economic  changes  that  will  make  the 
family  possible.  Every  working  man  should 
receive  wages  high  enough  to  make 

it  possible  for  him,  first,  to  support    — 

1*          •  r          •**       i-i          i        •          .        x.conoinic 

his  wife    without   her    having    to     R  , 

work  for  wages  ;  second,  to  be  able 

to  own  his  own  home  in  comfort 

and  respectability.     This  will  make  the  family 

at  least  possible. 

Secondly :  Parenthood  and  wifehood  and 
husbandhood  should  be  preached  by  platform, 
pulpit,  and  press  as  truly  as  woman's  rights. 
Especially  should  an  equal  standard  for  male 
and  female  purity  be  required. 

Thirdly :  Whether,  with  the  Roman  Catho- 
lics, we  make  marriage  a  sacrament  or  not, 
marriage  should  be  considered  in  its  deepest 
ethical  and  religious  importance  and  not  merely 
as  a  civil  and  much  less  as  simply  a  physical 
contract.  The  radical  and  Protestant  pulpits 
must  learn  to  speak  as  plainly  on  this  matter, 
if  not  in  the  same  way,  as  do  the  Anglican  and 
Roman  churches. 

Fourthly  :  The  marriage  and  divorce  laws  of 
the  United  States  must  be  made  uniform  by 
amending  the  Constitution  to  give  Congress 
power  to  enact  such  laws,  and  then  to  prevail 
upon  our  Congressmen  to  enact  such  wisely. 
To-day  our  marriage  laws  differ  most  widely  in 
different  States  and  lead  to  grossest  evils.  A 
man  can  be  married  in  one  State,  divorced  in 
another,  marry  again  and  again,  and  be  di- 
vorced every  time.  If  he  have  issue,  some  of 
his  children  will  be  illegitimate  when  they  live 
in  one  State,  and  not  when  they  pass  into  an- 
other. In  some  States  they  can  inherit  prop- 
erty, and  in  others  not.  Says  Dr.  Dike  : 

"  The  present  state  of  the  law  that  regulates  and 

Srotects  the  family  is  a  very  great  source  of  danger, 
ur  marriage  laws  are  simply  inadequate.     Compare 
the  legal  protection  of  the  family  with  that  given  to  real 
estate.    Every  woman  who  owns  real  property  finds 


Family. 


604 


Family. 


ample  legal  protection.    She  may  have  a  Ibond  for  a 
deed.     The  written  deed  duly  made  out,  with  the  as- 
surance of  a  perfect  title,  signed,  sealed, 
witnessed  and  fully  recorded,  with  every 
Marriage     transfer  properly  noted,  so  that  not  only 
Laws          those   immediately  concerned,  but  the 
entire  public,  may  know  at  any  time  the 
exact  legal  condition  of  every  piece  of 
real  estate  in  the  land,  with  laws  aimed 
at    protection    against    fraud,  abuse  of   trust,  theft, 
incendiarism,     and    other    injuries— and    reasonably 
well   enforced  too— these  are   the  protections  which 
every  woman  has  for  her  property.      But  her    hold 
on  the  family  in  marriage  is  a  very  different  thing. 
In  more   than   one  third    of    the   States    and    Terri- 
tories a  marriage   is   legal  without  a  scrap  of  writ- 
ing  or    a    witness,    or  even   the    intervention  of   an 
official  of  any  sort.    No  decent  system  of  public  rec- 
ord   exists    in    many    States,   while    very    few    both 
keep  and  publish  these  records.    Where  licenses  are 
required,  the  mere  word  or  the  oath  of  an  interested 
party  is  the  basis  of  the  permit,  and  no  evidence  is  de- 
manded to  prove  freedom  from  a  former  marriage. 
We  have  to  take  the  people  who  move  into  our  com- 
munities, and  the  immigrants  from  Europe,  simply  on 
trust  in  respect  to  their  domestic  ties  ;  and  this  is  fre- 
quently shamefully  abused.     And  our  laws  protecting 
chastity  are  probably  less  frequently  enforced  than 
those  of  any  other  class,  unless  we  except  those  in  de- 
fense of  the  Sabbath.   The  legal  protection  of  property 
is  infinitely  superior  to  that  of  the  family. 

"  Our  divorce  laws  are  almost  as  various  as  the 
number  of  legislatures  that  make  them.  Divorces 
can  be  obtained  for  a  dozen  legal  causes  in  some 
States,  and  they  are  often  made  elastic  enough  to 
cover  every  conceivable  reason  for  divorce.  They  can 
be  obtained  in  2700  courts  in  the  United  States,  and  in 
some  legislatures  besides.  These  courts  sit  frequent- 
ly, and  sometimes  constantly,  in  open  court  or  private 
chambers.  The  procedure  is  often  so  easy  that  fraud 
is  frequent ;  and  disregard  of  the  rights  of  others, 
haste  and  the  eager  hurry  to  marry  another,  can  be 
readily  gratified,  and  in  some  States  divorce  can  be 
had  by  either  husband  or  wife,  almost  for  the  asking. 
The  conflicting  marriage  and  divorce  laws  of  the 
country  have  less  to  do  with  the  increase  of  divorces 
than  most  people  think,  but  they  are  a  great  evil  in 
their  opportunities  for  fraud,  and  in  the  uncertainty 
they  give  to  the  legal  status  of  the  married  or  divorced., 
as  they  pass  from  State  to  State,  and  of  their  children. 
And  not  the  least  of  the  evils  is  their  effect  on  the 
popular  ideas  of  what  marriage  and  the  family  are." 

Fifthly  and  lastly  :  If  the  position  of  those 
who  favor  enduring  monogamic  marriage  be 
correct,  that  easy  divorce  results  in  the  weak- 
ening of  the  family,  marriage  laws  should  be 
made  much  more  strict,  and  divorce  be  granted 
only  on  ground  of  adultery  or  the  most  serious 
reason.  A  strong  movement  in  this  direction 
has  been  made.  (See  DIVORCE.)  A  National 
Divorce  Reform  League  has  been  formed, 
with  Dr.  S.  W.  Dike  as  its  most  efficient  sec- 
retary. The  broadest  foundation  is  now  laid 
for  study  and  action  in  the  report  of  Hon.  Car- 
roll D.  Wright,  United  States  Commissioner  of 
Labor,  on  Marriage  and  Divorce  in  the 
United  States  from  1867  to  1886.  This  report 
contains  a  digest  of  the  laws  on  these  subjects, 
with  full  tables  and  careful  analyses  of  funda- 
mental facts,  together  with  an  appendix  show- 
ing the  similar  facts  for  the  greater  part  of 
Europe.  Congress  is  now  asked  to  provide  for* 
the  completion  of  the  work  thus  begun  and  for 
its  advance  in  certain  other  very  important 
directions. 

According  to  Dr.  Dike,  legislation  has  been 
improved.  This  improvement  began  in  the  re- 
peal of  the  notorious  "  omnibus  clause"  in  Con- 
necticut and,  with  some  restrictive  legislation, 
in  Vermont.  Since  1878  many  States  have 
made  changes  for  the  better  in  their  marriage 
and  divorce  laws,  retaining  nearly  if  not  quite 
everything  secured.  Mean  while,  nothing  has 


been  done  in  the  other  direction.  This  mere 
turn  in  the  tide  of  legislation  is  of  much  value. 
The  positive  gain  in  several  States  is  still  more 
hopeful. 

The  problem  of  uniformity  has  come  up 
within  these  years.  Much  has  been  said  about 
it.  The  amendment  of  the  Constitution  of  the 
United  States  in  the  interests  of  uniformity  has 
been  earnestly  advocated  and  sometimes  hotly 
opposed.  The  special  subjects  of  divorce,  mar- 
riage, and  polygamy  have  been  brought  for- 
ward in  succession,  each  apparently  calling  for 
national  uniformity.  At  the  present  moment, 
Dr.  Dike  tells  us,  several  important  steps  are 
being  taken.  Special  committees  of  the  Ameri- 
can Bar  Association  have  prepared  reports  on. 
the  subject  to  the  annual  meeting  of  the  Associa- 
tion. The  State  Bar  Association  of  New  York, 
and  perhaps  others,  are  also  at  work  upon 
this  problem.  The  most  important  step  toward 
uniformity,  however,  is  the  establishment  by 
law  of  a  commission  of  the  State  of  New  York 
charged  with  the  duty  of  engaging  other  States 
in  its  plan  of  uniformity,  if  found  practicable, 
through  concurrent  State  legislation.  Legis- 
lation on  these  subjects  has  had  much  attention 
in  some  European  countries  and  in  Canada  and 
Australia.  , 

The  idea  of  the  direct  use  of  the  home  itself 
as  the  true  starting  place  and  a  powerful  agent 
in  relief  of  the  poor,  in  the  removal  of  vice,  in 
the  prevention  of  vice  and  crime,  in  conversion 
from  sin,  and  for  the  advance  of  knowledge, 
virtue,  and  religion,  is  beginning  to  take  root  in 
the  popular  mind.  It  finds  some  expression  in 
the  homes  for  the  poor,  for  young  men  and 
working  girls,  in  building  associations,  in  the 
increasing  attention  of  prison  and  other  charita- 
ble reforms  to  bad  home  life  as  the  source  of 
supply  for  prisons  and  saloons.  Political  econ- 
omy has  got  on  so  far  as  to  treat  the  home  seri- 
ously. The  home  department  of  the  Sunday- 
school  is  another  expression  of  the  growing- 
idea.  Some  pulpits  have  of  late  years  taken 
the  home  into  a  larger  place  among  their 
themes.  Such  is  the  view  taken  by  the  Nation- 
al Divorce  Reform  League. 

Such  signs  are  hopeful,  but  many  reformers, 
are  asking  if  all  this  activity  is  not  mainly  re- 
actionary ;  if  the  true  causes  of  the  peril  to  the 
family  are  not  mainly  economic,  and  that  there- 
fore if  the  attention  of  true  friends  of  the  family 
should  not  be  concentrated  on  gaining  economic 
changes.  For  such  changes  at  present  social- 
ists, nationalists,  and  others  are  mainly  work- 
ing, and  too  frequently  these  are  tinged  with 
theories  of  free  love.  The  evil  is  too  deep- 
seated  for  cure  by  a  mere  purification  of  mar- 
riage and  divorce  laws.  In  spiritual  and  ethi- 
cal, national  and  individual  character  most  men 
place  hope,  and  not  in  mere  legislation.  (See 
also  SOCIAL  PURITY,  etc.) 

References :  Among  the  best  books  on  the  family 
are  E.  Westermarck's  The  History  of  Human  Mar- 


Martensen's  Ethics;  Mackenzie's  Social  Philosophy  ; 
Milford's  Nation;  Maurice's  Social  Morality.  On 
present  conditions  as  to  marriage  and  divorce,  see  the 
report  of  Carroll  D.  Wright,  Commissioner  of  Labor, 
on  Marriage  and  Divorce  (obtainable  free  by  writing 


Farmers'  Alliance. 


605 


Farmers'  Alliance. 


to  the  Labor  Department  at  Washington) ;  also  the 
reports  and  publications  of  the  National  Divorce  Re- 
form League  (g.  v.). 

FARMERS'  ALLIANCE  AND  KIN- 
DRED FARMERS' ORDERS,  THE.— Vari- 
ous national  orders  of  somewhat  similar  names 
and  almost  absolutely  similar  character  have 
sprung  up  within  the  last  ten  years  among  the 
farmers  of  the  United  States.  A  few  of  these 
commenced  as  local  organizations  1 6  or  17  years 
ago.  The  largest,  best  known,  and  politically 
the  most  active  of  these,  tho  often  called  The 
Farmers'  Alliance,  has  as  its  exact  title,  not 
that  name,  but  another,  The  National  Farm- 
ers' Alliance  and  Industrial  Union.  The  or- 
ganization that  correctly  bears  the  name  the 
Farmers'  Alliance  is  perhaps  more  general,  but 
smaller  and  of  less  political  activity. 

The  origin  of  all  these  orders  lies  in  the  de- 
pressed condition  of  the  agricultural  classes, 
Avhich  has  compelled  them  to  agitate  and  organ- 
ize for  their  own  protection,  if  not  for  their  sal- 
vation. (For  an  account  of  this,  see  FARMERS' 
MOVEMENT.)  In  a  sense,  the  parent  of  all  these 
orders  is  the  Grange,  or  Order  of  Patrons  of 
Husbandry,  founded  in  1867  ;  but  as  this  is  a 
much  older  organization,  and  has  pursued  a 
Avholly  different  policy,  we  consider  it  separate- 
ly. (See  GRANGE.) 

The  first  organization  bearing  the  name  Farmers' 
Alliance  seems  to  have  been  organized  by  W.  T.  Bag- 
gett  in  Lampasas  County,  Tex.,  in  1876,  for  the  pur- 
pose of  opposing  the  spoliation  of  the  public  lands  and 
the  bringing  to  j  ustice  of  land  and  cattle  thieves.  It  did 
not  endure,  but  the  idea  spread,  and  in  1879  Mr.  Bag- 
gett  organized  an  alliance  in  Parker  County,  and  the 
same  year  a  State  Farmers'  Alliance  was  effected.  By 
1886,  84  counties  were  represented,  and  the  following 
platform  adopted  : 

"  i.  To  labor  for  the  education  of  the  agricultural 
classes,  in  the  science  of  economical  government,  in  a 
strictly  non-partisan  spirit. 

"  2.  To  endorse  the  motto,  '  In  things  essential,  unity  ; 
and  in  all  things,  charity." 

"3.  To  develop  a  better  state,  mentally,  morally, 
socially,  and  financially. 

"4.  To  create  a  better  understanding:  for  sustaining 
civil  officers  in  maintaining  law  and  order. 

"  5.  To  constantly  strive  to  secure  entire  harmony 
and"  good-will  among  all  mankind,  and  brotherly  love 
among  ourselves. 

"6.  To  suppress  personal,  local,  sectional  and  na- 
tional prejudices;  all  unhealthy  rivalry  and  all  self- 
ish ambition." 

In  January,  1887,  a  meeting  was  held  at  Waco  for  the 
purpose  of  effecting  a  union  with  the  Farmers'  Union, 
an  association  of  Louisiana  farmers  which  had  been 
formed  March  10,  1886,  at  Antioch  Church.  The  union 
was  accomplished,  and  the  new  organization  bore  the 
name  of  the  Farmers'  Alliance  and  Cooperative  Union 
of  America,  with  C.  W.  McCune  at  its  head.  This 
new  order  spread  rapidly  in  the  States  of  Missouri, 
Kentucky,  Tennessee,  North  and  South  Carolina, 
Georgia,  Alabama,  and  Mississippi. 

At  that  time  another  famous  organization  was  oper- 
ating in  the  States  of  Arkansas,  Missouri,  Kentucky, 
and  Tennessee,  known  as  the  Agricultural  Wheel, 
which  began  under  the  leadership"  of  W.  W.  Tedford, 
at  Des  Arc,  Prairie  County,  Ark.,  February  15,  1882. 
At  a  meeting  held  at  Shreveport,  La.,  October  12,  1887, 
a  union  of  the  Wheel  and  Alliance  was  effected 
which  was  completed  at  Meridian,  Miss.,  December  5, 
1888,  the  organization  being  called  the  Farmers'  and 
Laborers'  Union  of  America. 

Up  to  this  time  the  Farmers'  Alliance  was  almost 
exclusively  a  Southern  institution,  a  secret  order  with 
grips  and  passwords,  but  it  had  taken  no  action  what- 
ever in  politics  except  to  impress  its  tenets  in  the 
minds  of  public  men.  In  the  spring  of  1877  there  had 
been  organized  by  Milton  George,  at  Chicago,  an  or- 
ganization called  the  National  Farmers'  Alliance, 
which  in  a  little  while  had  extended  into  the  States 
of  Illinois,  Wisconsin,  Minnesota,  Iowa,  Missouri,  Kan- 
sas, and  Dakota.  This  was  not  at  first  a  secret  order, 


but  held  open  meetings  and  transacted  its  business  in 
public.    Later,   however,   this  •was  changed,  and  the 
order  has  now  its  ritual  and  secret  work.     The  objects 
of  the  National  Farmers'   Alliance   are 
stated  to  be   to   unite  the    farmers  for 
the  promotion  of  their  interests  social-      National 
ly,  politically,  and  financially  ;  to  secure     Farmers' 
a  just  representation  of  the  agricultural      "»,,. 
interests  of  the  country  in  the  national      Alliance. 
congress  and  State  legislatures  ;  to  de- 
mand the  prohibition  of  alien  cattle  and 
land  syndicates ;  to  oppose  all  forms  of  monopoly  as 
being  detrimental  to  the  best  interests  of  the  public  ; 
to  demand  of  our  representatives  in  Congress  their 
votes  and  active  influence  in  favor  of  the  prompt  pass- 
age of  such  laws  as  will  protect  live-stock  interests 
from  contagious  diseases ;  and  to  demand  that  agri- 
cultural interests  shall  be  represented   by  a  cabinet 
officer." 

This  organization  is  sometimes  called  the  Northern 
Alliance.  Meanwhile,  still  another  organization,  the 
Farmers'  Mutual  Benefit  Association,  had  been  organ- 
ized in  southern  Illinois  in  1887,  and  had  extended  over 
Illinois,  Kentucky,  Missouri,  and  Kansas.  Its  chief 
object  was  to  resist  the  encroachments  of  monopoly. 

The  problem  now  was  to  unite  all  these  move- 
ments. The  first  meeting  of  the  Farmers'  and 
Laborers'  Union  of  America  was  appointed  for 
December,  1889,  at  St.  Louis.  Meanwhile  the 
National  Farmers'  Alliance  appointed  the  same 
time  and  place  for  it's  general  session ,  and  nego- 
tiations were  undertaken  for  the  still  further 
strengthening  of  the  movement  by  the  blending 
of  the  two  great  orders  now  remaining.  The 
Alliance  made  three  demands  upon  the  Union, 
as  conditions  on  which  they  would  join  it :  (i) 
The  name  should  be  changed  to  National  Farm- 
ers' Alliance  and  Industrial  Union  ;  (2)  the 
word  "  white"  should  be  stricken  out  of  the 
qualifications  for  membership  ;  (3)  the  question 
of  secrecy  in  organization  should  be  optional 
with  each  State.  The  first  of  these  demands 
was  granted,  and  the  name  proposed  is  now  the 
official  name  of  the  "  Southern"  Alliance  ;  the 
second  was  practically  complied  with  by  the 
new  constitution  ;  but  the  third  was  refused. 
The  net  outcome  of  the  conference  was  a  fail- 
ure of  the  attempt  to  unite,  and  for  this  failure 
the  question  of  secrecy  was  the  sole  cause. 
Kansas,  North  Dakota,  and  South  Dakota,  how- 
ever, deserted  the  "  Northern"  Alliance  and 
went  over  to  the  secret  order. 

A  union  platform  was,  however,  adopted,  and 
in  this  the  order  of  the  Knights  of  Labor  (g.v.) 
also  united.  The  platform  was  as  follows  : 

"  i.  That  we  demand  the  abolition  of  national  banks 
and  the  substitution  of  legal-tender  treasury  notes  in 
lieu  of  national  bank  notes,  issued  in  sufficient  volume 
to  do  the  business  of  the  country  on  a  cash  system ; 
regulating  the  amount  needed  on  a  per  capita  basis  as 
the  business  interests  of  the  country  expand  ;  and  that 
all  money  issued  by  the  Government  shall  be  legal 
tender  in  payment  of  all  debts,  both  public  and  pri- 
vate. 

"  2.  That  we  demand  that  Congress  shall  pass  such 
laws  as  shall  effectually  prevent  the  dealing  in  futures 
of  all  agricultural  and  mechanical  productions  ;  pre- 
serving a  stringent  system  of  procedure  in  trials  as 
shall  secure  prompt  conviction,  and  imposing  such 
penalties  as  shall  secure  the  most  perfect  compliance 
with  the  law. 

"  •}.  That  we  demand  the  free  and  unlimited  coinage 
of  silver. 

"  4.  That  we  demand  the  passage  of  laws  prohibit- 
ing the  alien  ownership  of  land,  and  that  Congress 
take  early  steps  to  devise  some  plan  to  obtain  all  lands 
now  owned  by  aliens  and  foreign  syndicates  ;  and  that 
all  lands  now  held  by  railroad  and  other  corporation  in 
excess  of  such  as  is  actually  used  and  needed  by  them, 
be  reclaimed  by  the  Government  and  held  to  actual 
settlers  only. 

"  s-  Believing  in  the  doctrine  of  'equal  rights  to  all 
and  special  privileges  to  none,'  we  demand  that  taxa- 


Farmers'  Alliance. 


606 


Farmers'  Movement. 


tion,  national  or  State,  shall  not  be  used  to  build  up 
one  interest  or  class  at  the  expense  of  another.  We 
believe  that  the  money  of  the  country  should  be  kept 
as  much  as  possible  in  the  hands  of  the  people,  and 
hence  we  demand  that  all  revenues,  national.  State  or 
county,  shall  be  limited  to  the  necessary  expenses  of 
the  Government  economically  and  honestly  adminis- 
tered. 

"  6.  That  Congress  Issue  a  sufficient  amount  of  frac- 
tional paper  currency  to  facilitate  exchange  through 
the  medium  of  the  United  States  mail. 

"  7.  We  demand  that  the  means  of  communication 
and  transportation  shall  be  owned  by  and  operated  in 
the  interest  of  the  people,  as  is  the  United  States  postal 
system. 


"  We,  the  undersigned,  do  hereby  pledge  ourselves 
on  our  sacred  honor  as  men  to  work  for  the  promotion 
of  the  above  principles,  with  the  view  that  they  may 
be  incorporated  into  the  law  of  the  land  ;  and  further 
agree  to  support  no  man  for  office  that  will  not  pledge 
himself,  if  elected,  to  carry  out  these  principles.  We 
further  agree  to  cooperate  with  any  movement  that 
may  be  inaugurated  in  conference  by  the  Farmers' 
Alliance,  Knights  of  Labor,  and  other  industrial  or- 
ganizations looking  toward  these  ends. 

"  We  further  agree  to  not  divulge  any  of  the  secrets 
or  business  of  the  organization  to  any  one  who  is  not  a 
member  of  the  same." 

The  convention  also  endorsed  the  so-called 
sub-treasury  scheme  (g.v.). 

Organization,  however,  still  went  on.  The 
Southern  Farmers'  Alliance  was  mainly  made 
up  of  the  middle  class,  composed  of  small  farm- 
ers and  mechanics.  It  claimed,  in  1890,  3,000,- 
ooo  members,  men  and  women.  The  colored 
farmers  were  now  to  organize  under  the  name 
of  The  Colored  Farmers'  National  Alliance 
and  Cooperative  Union.  The  first  Colored  Al- 
liance was  founded  in  Houston  County,  Texas, 
in  December,  1886.  In  January,  1891,  the  es- 
timated membership  was  1,250,000,  of  which 
number  700,000  were  adult  males,  and  150,000 
more  were  males  between  18  and  21  years  of 
age.  A  national  organization  was  effected  in 
1888,  and  as  the  organization  owes  its  existence 
largely  to  one  man — R.  M.  Humphrey,  a  white 
man,  formerly  a  Baptist  preacher — he  was  put 
at  the  head  of  the  Alliance. 

All  these  various  alliances  met  together  at 
Ocala,  Fla.,  December,  1890,  and  adopted  the 
so-called  Ocala  Platform,  not  materially  differ- 
ent from  the  St.  Louis  platform.  At  this  con- 
vention a  strong  effort  was  made  to  get  the  Al- 
liance to  form  a  new  political  party.  The  Alli- 
ance voted  not  to  do  so  as  an  alliance,  but  to 
allow  its  members  who  wished  to  do  so  as  indi- 
viduals. As  the  result  a  convention  was  called 
at  Cincinnati,  May  20,  1891,  the  People's  Party 
formed,  and  a  platform  drawn  and  nominations 
made  at  St.  Louis,  July  4,  1892. 

Since  the  Ocala  convention,  the  Farmers'  Al- 
liances have  been  virtually  identified  with  the 
People's  Party,  but  have  kept  up  their  separate 
organizations,  have  held  their  various  meetings, 
and  different  organizations  among  them  have 
voted  to  favor  various  cooperative  educational 
and  industrial  schemes,  such  as  cooperative 
railroads,  etc.  Little,  however,  has  been  ac- 
complished in  this  line ;  but  an  enormous 
amount  of  political  agitation  has  been  carried 
on. 

A  national  reform  press  has  been  organized, 
including  about  1000  newspapers  pledged  to 
support  the  demands  of  the  farmers'  movement. 
There  are  a  few  dailies,  but  the  most  are  week- 


lies. The  circulation  of  many  of  these  news- 
papers is  10,000  ;  some  reach  50,000 — one  per- 
haps 100,000.  These  are  scattered  over  the 
whole  country,  and  their  influence  cannot  but 
be  great.  Besides  these  reform  papers,  there  is 
the  agricultural  press,  an  instrument  of  educa- 
tional force  not  only  in  matters  relating  to  agri- 
culture, bat  also  in  subjects  of  political  and  eco- 
nomic science. 

The  National  Farmers'  Alliance  and  Indus- 
trial Union  still  exists,  but  its  main  strength  has. 
passed  into  the  political  movement.  (See  PEO- 
PLE'S PARTY  ;  SILVER.) 

The  National  Farmers'  Alliance  (separate 
from  the  above)  represents  State  alliances  in 
Iowa.  Nebraska,  North  Dakota,  South  Dakota, 
Washington,  Montana,  Missouri,  Minnesota, 
Wisconsin,  Illinois,  Indiana,  Ohio,  Pennsyl- 
vania, and  New  York. 

The  following  resolutions  were  adopted  by 
the  National  Alliance  at  the  fifteenth  annual 
meeting,  held  at  Chicago,  111.,  January  15, 1895  : 

"  Whereas,  the  farmers  of  the  United  States  outnum- 
ber any  other  class  of  citizens,  furnish  three-fourths  of 
the  commerce  of  the  country,  and  the  largest  propor- 
tion of  our  export  trade,  and  are  compelled  to  pay  the 
lion's  share  of  the  taxes  of  the  country,  and  have  al- 
ways been  loyal  and  faithful  to  the  Government  in 
time  of  war  as  well  as  in  peace  ;  and, 

"  Whereas,  we  recognize  the  supremacy  of  law,  the 
necessity  of  being  subject  to  the  same,  and  of  having 
persons  duly  authorized  to  frame  and  enact  them-; 
and, 

"  Whereas,  we  believe  the  people  to  be  sovereign  and 
the  public  officials  are  the  servants  of  the  people  ;  and, 

"Whereas,  that  the  evils  that  now  confront  the  farm- 
er are  the  result  of  unfriendly  legislation  to  the  inter- 
est of  agriculture  ;  therefore,  be  it 

"Resolved,  (i)  We  demand  in  pur  monetary  system  a 
regular  and  equitable  distribution  independent  of  self- 
ish and  greedy  combinations,  free  from  private  manip- 
ulations, with  stability  as  well  as  flexibility,  and 
value  as  well  as  volume.  (2)  We  demand  that  taxation, 
State,  National,  or  municipal,  shall  not  be  used  to 
build  up  one  interest  at  the  expense  of  another.  (3)  We 
demand  the  nationalization  of  the  means  of  transpor- 
tation and  communication  to  the  extent  that  the  State 
and  Interstate  commerce  laws  shall  be  made  mutually 
cooperative  and  harmonious  for  the  strict  and  abso- 
lute control  of  the  same  in  the  interest  of  the  people  ; 
that  the  pooling  clause  of  the  Interstate  commerce 
law  should  be  retained,  as  it  promotes  that  healthy 
competition  which  tends  to  reduce  freight  charges  to 
a  minimum,  while  pooling  sustains  them  at  the  maxi- 
mum. (4)  That  the  National  Farmers'  Alliance  will 
adhere  to  the  principles  set  forth  in  our  declaration  of 
purposes,  and  maintain  the  order  as  the  opponent  of 
unjust  trusts  and  combines,  and  favor  the  education 
of  our  membership  in  political  sentiment,  in  harmony 
with  our  principles,  controlling  no  political  party  and 
being  controlled  by  none,  but  each  individual  may  use 
his  own  judgment  in  the  exercise  of  his  right  of  fran- 
chise and  in  his  choice  of  methods  by  which  our  de- 
mands may  be  secured.  (5)  That  we  recommend  to  the 
Alliance  the  progressive  reading  course  for  farmers, 
and  the  same  be  under  full  control  of  an  advisory  com- 
mittee of  the  various  organizations  of  the  farmers, 
agricultural  colleges,  and  experimental  stations.  (6) 
That  a  restricted  franchise  has  ever  been  an  instrument 
of  oppression ;  that  the  right  of  elective  franchise 
should  be  exercised  without  regard  to  sex,  and  there 
should  be  equal  pay  for  equal  work.  (7)  That  the  anti- 
option  bill  now  pending  in  the  United  States  Senate 
should  be  enacted  into  law.  (8)  That  we  favor  such 
strict  legislation,  both  State  and  National,  as  will  pro- 
hibit the  adulteration  of  all  food  products. 

References  :  See  FARMERS'  MOVEMENT. 

FARMERS'  MOVEMENT,  THE.— The 
farmers'  movement  that  has  taken  place  in  the 
United  States  in  recent  years  is  due  to  the  de- 
pressed condition  prevailing  among  the  farming- 
population  in  all  sections  of  the  United  States, 


Farmers'  Movement. 


607 


Farmers'  Movement. 


but  particularly  in  the  West  and  South,  the  por- 
tions of  the  country  most  purely  dependent  upon 
agriculture.     This   depression   has 
taken  the  form  of  an  increase  of 
Causes,      farm    mortgages    coupled    with  a 
very  marked  fall    in    agricultural 
prices,  making  it  increasingly  diffi- 
cult for  the  farmer  to  meet  the  payments  on  his 
mortgage.    (For  a  full  study  of  these,  see  MORT- 
GAGES ;  PRICES.)    It  is  sufficient  to  state  here 
that,   according  to   Extra  Bulletin   98,  of  the 
4,767,179  farm  families  of  the  United  States  in 
1890,  34  per  cent,  were  tenant  farmers,  19  per 
cent,  owned  mortgaged  farms,  and  47  per  cent, 
owned  farms  unincumbered.     On   the  owned 
farms,  the  mortgage  indebtedness  is  $1,085,995,- 
960,  which  is  35.55  per  cent,  of  their  value,  and 
bears  interest  at  an  average  of  7.07  per  cent. 
The  percentage  of  incumbered  farms  was,  for 
the  United  States,  47  ;  Kansas,  30  ;  Iowa,  32  ; 


New  Jersey  and  Mississippi,  34  ;  Nebraska, 
Delaware,  and  South  Carolina,  35  ;  South  Da- 
kota, 39  ;  and  at  the  other  extreme,  Oklahoma, 
95  ;  Utah  and  New  Mexico,  85  ;  Arizona  and 
Idaho,  74  ;  Montana,  73  ;  Maine,  71.  Accord- 
ing to  the  abstract  of  the  eleventh  census  (p.  97), 
farms  cultivated  by  their  owners  increased  9. 56 
per  cent.;  rented  farms,  41.04  per  cent.,  and 
farms  rented  for  a  share  in  the  product,  19.65 
per  cent.  In  the  North  Central  division  farms 
cultivated  by  their  owners  increased  less  than 
i  per  cent.,  while  rented  farms  increased  nearly 
66  per  cent.  In  the  North  Atlantic  division, 
rented  farms  increased  only  about  6  per  cent. , 
while  farms  cultivated  by  their  owners  actually 
diminished.  The  farmers  thus  complain  that 
they  are  losing  possession  of  their  farms  and 
becoming  tenant  farmers.  The  farms,  too,  are 
depreciating  in  value  in  proportion  to  the  wealth 
of  the  country  very  rapidly. 


VALUATION  OF  FARMS  IN  THOUSANDS  OF  DOLLARS.* 


1850. 

1860. 

l870. 

1880. 

1890. 

Land  and  Buildings  

Implements  

Live  Stock  

Total  

Wealth  of  United  Stalest  

$65,037,000 

*  From  abstract  of  the  eleventh  census,  p.  99. 


t  From  statistical  abstract  (1894),  p.  373. 


That  is,  in  1850  the  farmers  owned  consider- 
ably over  half  the  wealth  of  the  United  States  ; 
in  1860,  nearly  one  half  ;  in  1870.  little  over  one 
third  ;  in  1880,  over  one  quarter  ;  in  1890,  con- 
siderably less  than  one  quarter. 

The  heaviest  burden  upon  the  farmers,  how- 


ever, has  been  in  the  fall  of  agricultural  prices. 
According  to  a  table  based  upon  quotations  from 
government  reports  and  prepared  by  Mr.  G.  B. 
Waldron  for  Tne  Voice  for  April  n,  1895,  the  fol- 
lowing has  been  the  fall  in  agricultural  prices  by 
decades.  (For  full  tables  of  prices,  see  PRICES.) 


AVERAGE  ANNUAL  WHOLESALE  PRICES  IN  NEW  YORK  CITY 
MARKETS. 

RELATIVE  COMBINED 
AVERAGE  OF  THE 
NINE  PRODUCTS  IN— 

4 

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1860-69     

1.901 

1.098 

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7  67-* 

184.4 

130.6 

126.2 

1.428 

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p.£ 

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109.0 

98.9 

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1880-89  

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5.628 

89.1 

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•547 

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5:368 

5.286 

80.9 

80.9 

124.7 

Says  Mr.  Waldron  : 

"  The  combined  average  price  of  all  the  products 
quoted  cannot  be  obtained  by  making  a  simple  aver- 
age of  the  nine  percentages  for  each  year,  since  this 
would  give  to  rye,  sugar,  and  tobacco,  each  represent- 
ing less  than  2  per  cent,  of  the  total  value  of  the  crops, 


the  same  importance  as  •wheat,  cotton,  corn,  and 
meats,  which  represent  from  11.5  to  37.5  per  cent,  of  the 
total  value  of  the  crops. 

"  In  the  small  table  which  follows,  the  total  farm 
values  of  these  crops  are  given  for  each  of  the  four 
census  years  1860,  1870,  1880,  1890,  and  the  percentage  of 
each  crop  to  the  total  value  of  the  crop  for  that  year  : 


Farmers'  Movement. 


608 


Farmers'  Movement. 


FARM 
PRODUCTS. 

TOTAL  FARM  VALUES  FOR  CENSUS  YEARS. 

PERCENTAGE  OF  EACH  CROP 
TO  THE  TOTAL  VALUE. 

1860. 

1870. 

1880. 

1890. 

1860. 

1870. 

1880. 

1890. 

"Wheat  

$124,635,545 
10,972,718 

43il6°i7Q6 
360,680,878 
*2ii,5i6,625 
ti4,ooo,ooo 
21,710,473 

$200,000,000 

$270,768,634 

16,428,150 

1341283,007 

572^91,245 
*303,  600,000 
tio,  500,000 
30,740,035 
$515,000,000 

$436,968,463 
14,992,686 
146,829,240 
694,818,304 
*27i,  636,121 
ti3,8oo,ooo 
38,758,215 
$800,000,000 

$342,491,707 
§16,721,869 
171,781,008 
597,918,829 
*3o8,424,27i 
716,000,000 
§43,666,665 
$900,000,000 

"•5 

I.O 

3-9 
33-2 
19.5 

1-3 

2.0 
27.6 

I4.6 
0.9 
7-2 

3°-9 
16.4 
0.6 
i-7 
27.7 

18.0 
0.6 
6.1 
28.7 

"•3 

0.6 
1.6 
33-i 

14.7 
0.7 
7.2 
24.9 
12.9 

0.7 
1.4 

37-5 

Rve  .. 

Oats 

Corn  

Cotton  

Sugar  
Tobacco.  .  .  . 
Meat  

Total  

$1,086,677,035 

$1,854,311,071 

$2,417,803,029 

$2,397,004,349 

IOO.O 

IOO.O 

IOO.O 

IOO.O 

*  Estimated  by  the  Department  of  Agriculture  from  the  movements  of  cotton  for  those  years, 
t  Estimated  by  T/te  Voice  from  statistics  of  the  Department  of  Agriculture  and  data  furnished  by  Messrs. 
Willett  and  Gray,  of  New  York  City. 

$  Estimated  by  the  Department  of  Agriculture  from  the  reports  of  farm  animals. 
§  Crop  of  the  preceding  year. 


"  This  indicates  the  weight  that  should  be  given  to 
each  farm  product  to  obtain  a  combined  average 
price. 

"  The  prices  in  gold  and  in  currency  coincide  except 
for  the  years  from  1862-78,  when  gold  was  at  a  pre- 
mium as  measured  in  currency.  Following  the  average 
annual  premiums  of  gold  for  these  years  as  given  in 
the  American  Almanac  for  1878,  the  average  gold 
prices  of  the  table  were  obtained. 

"The  prices  in  silver  are  based  upon  the  average 
London  price  of  silver  for  each  year  of  the  series  as 
given  in  the  report  of  the  director  of  the  mint." 

The  cause  of  this  fall  in  prices  we  cannot 
here  discuss.  (See  SILVER  ;  MONOMETALLISM.) 
A  large  part  of  the  Western  and  Southern  farm- 
ers, however,  believe  it  is  due  to  a  contraction 
of  the  currency  (g.v.\  and  particularly  to  the 
demonetization  of  silver  in  1873,  and  a  "con- 
spiracy" of  the  gold  kings  of  the  world.  Be 
this  as  it  may,  of  the  fact  of  the  fall  of  agricul- 
tural prices  and  its  effect  upon  the  farming 
population  there  can  be  no  question.  The  above 
figures  speak  for  themselves  ;  but  we  append  a 
few  significant  quotations.  Says  the  Rev.  Wash- 
ington Gladden,  D.D.  (Forum,  vol.  x.,  p.  315) : 

"  The  American  farmer  is  steadily  losing  ground. 
His  burdens  are  heavier  every  year  and  his  gains  are 
more  meager;  he  is  beginning  to  fear  that  he  may 
be  sinking  into  a  servile  condition.  He  has  waited 
long  for  the  redress  of  his  grievances ;  he  purposes  to 
wait  no  longer.  Whatever  he  can  do  by  social  com- 
binations, or  by  united  political  action,  to  remove  the 
disabilities  under  which  he  is  suffering,  he  intends  to 
do  at  once  and  with  all  his  might.  There  is  no  doubt 
at  all  that  the  farmers  of  this  country  are  tremen- 
dously in  earnest  just  now,  and  they  have  reason  to 
be.  Beyond  question  they  are  suffering  sorely.  The 
business  of  farming  has  become,  for  some  reasons, 
extremely  unprofitable.  With  the  hardest  work  and 
with  the  sharpest  economy,  the  average  farmer  is  un- 
able to  make  both  ends  meet ;  every  year  closes  with 
debt,  and  the  mortgage  grows  till  it  d'evours  the  land. 
The  labor  bureau  of  Connecticut  has  shown,  by  an  in- 
vestigation of  693  representative  farms,  that  the  aver- 
age annual  reward  of  the  farm  proprietor  of  that 
State,  for  his  expenditure  of  muscle  and  brain,  is 
$181.31,  while  the  average  annual  wages  of  the  ordinary 
hired  man  is  $386.36.  Even  if  the  price  of  board  must 
come  out  of  the  hired  man's  stipend,  it  still  leaves  him 
a  long  way  ahead  of  his  employer.  In  Massachusetts 
the  case  is  a  little  better  ;  the  average  farmer  makes 
$326.49,  while  his  hired  man  gets  $345." 

Says  Professor  C.  S.  Walker,  of  the  Massa- 
chusetts Agricultural  College  (Andover  Re- 
view, August,  1890,  pp.  129-33)  :' 

"The  farmer  trades  provisions  and  raw  material 
for  manufactures  and  for  money.  The  manufactures 


and  the  money,  which  are  the  stock  in  trade  of  the  city, 
are  commodities  which  are  easily  controlled  by  their 
owners,  who,  readily  combining  among  themselves, 
can  sell  or  hoard  very  much  as  they  please  ;  they  sell 
when  thev  choose  to  sell,  and  succeed  to  a  greater  or 
less  extent  in  fixing  their  prices.  The  provisions  and 
raw  material,  on  the  other  hand,  which  are  the  stock 
in  trade  of  the  country,  are  commodities  which  the 
farmers  are  compelled  to  throw  upon  the  market  all 
at  once  in  the  fall  of  the  year,  and  sell  at  any  price  the 
city  chooses  to  pay.  The  farmer  must  sell  ;  he  cannot 
help  himself.  The  cotton  and  tobacco  of  the  Southern 
farmer  are  already  mortgaged,  and  the 
money-lender  takes  the  crop  as  a  matter 
of  course.  If  there  should  be  a  few  who  Burdens, 
have  not  mortgaged  the  crop,  they  are 
nevertheless  in  debt,  and  these  debts 
must  be  paid.  The  Western  farmer  cannot  keep  his 
wheat,  corn,  and  oats,  his  poultry,  beef,  and  pork. 
He  has  no  facilities  for  storage.  As  a  consequence, 
every  fall  thousands  of  millions  of  dollars'  worth  of 
agricultural  produce  is  thrown  upon  the  market, 
enough  to  supply  all  home  demand  and  leave  a  sur- 
plus of  the  value  of  $500,000,000  for  export.  The  Amer- 
ican farmer,  then,  North,  South.  East,  and  West,  is 
forced  year  after  year  to  sell  to  the  city  his  products 
when  the  market  is  glutted  and  prices  are  lowest.  He 
sells  at  the  greatest  disadvantage.  This,  of  course, 
leads  us  to  infer  that,  when  he  buys,  he  buys  at  a 
great  disadvantage.  The  farmer  must  have  money 
to  pay  his  taxes  and  his  interest  in  the  fall,  but  that  is 
the  very  time  when  money,  being  a  commodity  in 
great  demand,  is  very  scarce  and  very  high.  With 
his  produce  forced  down  to  the  lowest  price  he  is 
forced  to  buy  money  that  is  up  to  the  very  highest 
price.  Again,  in  the  spring  the  farmer  is  forced  to 
buy  seed  and  fertilizers,  and  agricultural  implements 
and  labor  ;  he  has  no  money  with  which  to  pay  for 
them,  although  then  money  is  cheap.  He  pays  for 
them  with  his  note,  or  gets  trusted  for  them,  under 
such  circumstances  the  seller  has  the  advantage,  and 
the  farmer  is  forced  to  pay  the  highest  price  for  all  that 
he  gets.  So  it  has  come  to  pass  that  year  after  year, 
spring  time  and  autumn,  the  farmer  sells  cheap  and 
buys  dear,  and  buys  dear  and  sells  cheap.  .  .  . 

On  the  other  hand,  the  inhabitant  of  the  city  sells 
money  and  manufactured  goods  to  the  farmer  in  his 
need,  when  manufactured  goods  and  money  are  com- 

Earatively  scarce  and  at  the  highest  price,  in  exchange 
sr  provisions  and  raw  material  when  these  farm 
products  have  glutted  the  market.  With  such  condi- 
tions, continued  year  after  year,  it  is  not  strange  that 
the  city  should  grow  richer  and  richer  and  more  popu- 
lous and  crowded,  while  the  country  grows  poorer 
and  poorer  and  one  farm-house  after  another  is  aban- 
doned, that  city  tenements  may  be  raised  story  after 
story  and  sunk  deeper  and  deeper  in  the  earth.  Es- 
pecially are  we  not  surprised  at  this  movement  when 
we  find  that  the  city  is  the  place  where  the  burdens  of 
taxation  diminish  in  proportion  to  the  benefits  en- 
joyed, while  in  the  country  the  benefits  enjoyed  dimin- 
ish as  the  burdens  of  taxation  become  more  and  more 
crushing.  It  is  an  acknowledged  fact  that  the  great 
wealth  of  city  fortunes  easily  evades  taxation  and  con- 
tributes only  so  much  as  the  owners  choose  to  appro- 


Farmers'  Movement. 


609 


Farmers'  Movement. 


Eriate,  with  the  expectation  of  collecting  in  the  end 
rom  some  one  else. 

"  As  the  American  farmer  has  seen  wealth  and  pop- 
ulation concentrated  in  the  city,  he  has  at  the  same 
time  discovered  that  political  power  has  been  slipping 
from  his  grasp.  Before  and  during  the  war  the  nation 
turned  from  the  perusal  of  the  election  returns  of 
New  York  City  to  wait  for  the  majorities  that  should 
roll  up  from  the  counties  west  of  the  Hudson  ;  but  now 
the  vote  of  the  metropolis  settles  the  election.  Once 
the  public  opinion  of  the  farmer  was  a  power  in  legis- 
lature and  in  Congress,  but  now  the  city  supports  a 
lobby  at  every  State  capitol  and  at  Washington,  which 
says  to  the  constituents  from  the  rural  districts,  Thus 
far  and  no  farther  !  When  every  professional  lobbyist 
is  the  hired  man  of  the  city,  and  many  lawyers  of  in- 
fluence within  or  without  the  legislative  body  have  a 
retaining  fee  of  hundreds  or  of  thousands  in  their 
pockets,  the  farmer  has  little  chance  of  getting  his  bill 
safely  past  the  cordon  of  the  opposition.  The  landed 
aristocracy  of  Great  Britain  for  a  long  time  kept  their 
preeminence  by  seeing  to  it  that  the  common  people 
should  have  no  great  leader.  As  soon  as  one  of  their 
number  became  a  power  in  the  House  of  Commons, 
he  was  at  once  ennobled  and  buried  in  the  House  of 
Lords,  where  he  was  henceforth  harmless.  So  during 
the  past  generation,  as  soon  as  a  farmer  has  risen  to 
power  and  influence  among  his  fellows,  he  has  been 
courted  and  enriched,  made  a  stockholder  in  the  great 
corporation,  given  a  city  residence,  and  so  led  at 
length  to  forget  the  old  homestead  and  his  brothers  and 
sisters  struggling  with  fate  in  the  back  districts.  .  .  . 
The  manufacturing,  the  professional,  the  trading 
classes  have,  as  a  rule,  concentrated  in  the  cities ; 
their  interests  have  for  the  most  part  been  in  common  ; 
they  have  easily  combined  ;  they  have  acquired  the 
wealth  of  the  nation ;  they  have  the  press  in  their 
hands ;  they  control  the  school,  the  college,  and  the 
church  ;  they  are  dominant  in  the  caucus,  the  political 
convention,  the  State  and  National  legislature.  When 
their  interests  come  inconflict  with  thatof  the  farmers, 
it  requires  little  thought  to  discern  which  has  of  late 
years  prevailed.  One  might  speak  of  the  rapid  in- 
crease of  tenant  farming,  of  the  numbers  of  alien  land- 
lords already  counting  their  thousands  of  acres,  of  the 
vast  tracts  of  land  voted  to  railroad  and  other  corpo- 
rations, of  the  multiplication  of  mortgages,  of  the 
growth  of  the  debtor  class  among  agriculturists,  of  the 
condition  of  the  black  farmers  of  the  South,  of  the  im- 
portation of  European  peasants  to  take  the  abandoned 
farms  of  England,  but  it  is  hardly  necessary.  The 
fact  is  already  too  manifest  that  the  American  farmer 
at  the  close  of  the  nineteenth  century,  after  a  hundred 
years  of  republican  government,  is  directly  confronted 
with  the  question  whether  or  no  he  shall,  like  the 
tillers  of  the  soil  in  the  Old  World,  degenerate  from 
his  honorable  station  to  the  condition  of  the  serf." 

Nor  does  this  tell  the  whole  story.  The 
prices  at  which  the  staple  agricultural  products 
are  sold  are  fixed  by  the  competition  of  the 
world.  Protection  does  not  raise  the  farmer's 
price.  Says  Mr.  G.  T.  Powell,  an  experienced 
farmer  of  Columbia  County,  New  York,  in  a 
report  on  the  promotion  of  agriculture  in  New 
York  State  to  the  New  York  Association  for  Im- 
proving the  Condition  of  the  Poor,  published  by 
this  Society,  April,  1896. 

"  With  the  very  great  extension  of  railroad  lines  has 
come  a  steadily  decreased  cost  in  freight  rates,  es- 
pecially to  the  producers  farthest  removed  from  mar- 
kets. In  1870  freight  on  a  bushel  of  wheat  from  Chica- 
go to  New  York  by  rail  was  30  cents,  and  on  a  bushel 
of  corn  28  cents.  In  1890  the  cost  had  been  reduced  on 
wheat  to  14)^3  cents,  a  decrease  of  52  per  cent.,  and  on 
corn  to  u^j  cents,  a  decrease  of  59  per  cent. 

"  This  has  brought  entirely  new  and  changed  condi- 
tions to  the  farmers  of  New  York  and  of  the  East  gen- 
erally. Gradually  the  cattle  and  sheep  fattened  upon 
the  hillsides  of  well-fenced  farms  and  fed 
in  the  stables  of  comfortable  buildings 
International  have  been  displaced  in  our  home  mar- 

Competition.  k®ta  by,,rth?se  he.rd.ed  on  these  great, 
cheap   Western  plains  with  no  money 
invested  in  land  or  improvements,  and 
the   farmers  of  the  East,  as  one  of  the 
direct  results  of  this  rapid  development  in  transporta- 
tion, find  their  land,  with  the  improvements  of  years 
brought  to  it  in  money  and  toil,  reduced  to  the  level 


of  the  unimproved  land  of  the  new  West,  while  at  the 
same  time  the  market  value  of  their  land  has  been 
equally  seriously  affected. 

"  Emerson  once  said  :  '  A  man  thinks  he  owns  his 
farm,  when  the  fact  is  the  farm  often  owns  him,'  and 
this  is  particularly  true  at  the  present  time  of  our 
Eastern  farmers,  who,  in  many  instances,  and  I  may 
safely  say  quite  generally,  cannot  sell  their  property 
for  the  cost  of  the  buildings  and  fences  that  stand 
upon  the  land.  This  is  where  the  deep  sea  of  trouble 
comes  in  for  those  who  have  heretofore  loaned  money 
so  safely  upon  farm  property,  and  especially  to  those 
who  are  carrying  indebtedness. 

"  Every  civilized  country  true  to  the  natural  law  of 
desiring  to  provide  food  for  its  people  has  turned  its 
energies  upon  the  building  of  railroads  and  canals, 
and  improvement  of  rivers  and  harbors,  thus  reach- 
ing out  and  into  all  available  land  for  production. 

"  England  has  put  her  strong  hand  to  the  plow  in 
the  rich  soil  of  Africa,  and  is  bringing  out  wheat ;  by 
the  construction  of  the  Suez  Canal  she  reaches  over  to 
India  and  does  the  same  thing.  Her  ships  are  ever 
busy  bringing  out  the  food  and  other  products  of 
Australia,  while  her  capital  is  working  the  rich  soil 
and  cheap  labor  of  South  America  to  her  greatest  pos- 
sible benefit. 

"  Russia  has  also  kept  fully  apace  in  railroad  build- 
ing, and  she  will  soon  reach  the  completion  of  over 
2000  miles  of  railway,  with  tributaries  that  will  be  in 
readiness  to  handle  wheat  from  the  rich  soil  of  Siberia, 
where  labor  is  so  cheap  as  hardly  to  enter  into  the  ex- 
pense account. 

"The  extent  to  which  wheat  is  being  produced  in 
other  countries,  with  exceedingly  cheap  labor,  and  its 
effect  upon  the  American  wheat-grower,  will  be  seen 
in  the  following  figures,  in  a  single  week's  shipment 
from  these  points.  In  the  second  week  of  July,  1894, 
there  were  shipped  to  the  English  market  from  India, 
1,300,000  bushels  of  wheat ;  Russia,  1,520,000  bushels ; 
Australia,  3,800,000  bushels;  North  America,  5,700,000 
bushels  ;  South  America,  9,900,000  bushels. 

"  The  statement  accompanies  the  South  American 
shipment  that  the  wheat  was  grown  and  placed  on 
shipboard  for  37  cents  a  bushel,  with  a  profit  of  30  per 
cent,  on  the  money  invested." 

Says  another  witness  : 

"  I  have  calculated  that  the  produce  of  five  acres  of 
wheat  can  be  brought  from  Chicago  to  Liverpool  at 
less  than  the  cost  for  manuring  one  acre  for  wheat  in 
England"  (Testimony  of  W.T.  Harris,  a  leading  farm- 
er in  Devonshire,  England,  before  the  British  Commis- 
sion, 1886). 

Of  New  York  State  the  report  says  : 

"  While  increased  population  and  wealth  must  have 
greatly  increased  the  demand  for  agricultural  prod- 
ucts, the  estimated  value  of  farm  products  of  the 
State  of  New  York,  which,  according  to  the  United 
States  census,  was  figured  for  the  year  1869  at  $253,- 
526,153,  in  1889  fell  to  $161,593,009.  Of  course  this  was 
largely  attributable  to  the  general  fall  in  prices,  but 
this  fact  will  hardly  account  for  so  great  a  loss.  It 
may  be  noted  here  that  the  '  deserted '  farm  is  a  mis- 
nomer. It  is  quite  true  that  a  large  number  of  farm- 
ers have  failed  agriculturally  and  left  their  property 
to  the  mortgagee,  and  there  are  far  too  many  deserted 
farmhouses,  barns,  and  other  outbuildings,  but  the 
land  itself  has  been  absorbed  by  some  more  prosper- 
ous farmer  or  business  man  of  the  neighborhood. 
The  land,  therefore,  and  its  empty  buildings  are  not 
to  be  had  for  the  mere  asking.  A  large  portion  of 
this  absorbed  land  is  lying  idle,  and  its  houses  and 
barns  are  untenanted,  while  others  are  occupied  by 
renters  on  the  tenant  system." 

In  England,  the  depression  of  agriculture  is 
the  same.  A  royal  commission  on  the  subject 
has  been  appointed,  but  with  little  hope  of  more 
than  registering  the  disease.  Says  the  Satur- 
day Review  for  September  28,  1895  : 

"  It  is  not  too  much  to  say  that  not  Ireland,  not  the 
unemployed,  not  Local  Veto,  but  the  condition  of 
agriculture  is  the  great  and  instant  problem  of  the 
day.  During  the  last  20  years  prices  have  fallen  so 
enormously  as  to  leave  scarcely  a  sufficient  margin 
for  bare  livelihood.  As  a  result,  the  tendency  has 
been  continuously  to  throw  the  land  out  of  cultivation 
and  to  convert  it  into  grass  land.  In  the  20  years  be- 


Farmers'  Movement. 


610 


Farmers'  Movement. 


tween  1873  an(i  l893  nP  ^ess  than  1,735,631  acres  were 
thrown  out  of  cultivation  in  England  alone.  .  .  .  The 
rents  of  land  have  been  reduced  within  these  20  years 
by  amounts  varying  in  different  districts  from  10  to  40 
percent.  .  .  .  In'fine,  it  is  manifest  that  tenants  are  too 


mners  similarly  cannot  afford  to  make  any  fur- 
ther concessions  without  practically  giving  the  land 


Eoor  to  pay  even  the  largely  reduced  rents,  and  that 
ind-ov 
ther  co 
away." 

Various  propositions  are  made  in  England  to 
meet  the  difficulty  :  (i)  A  reduction  of  rent ;  (2) 
fair  trade,  if  not  protection  ;  (3)  cheaper  railway 
rates  ;  (4)  the  institution  of  light  railways  ;  (5) 
amendment  of  the  Agricultural  Holdings  Act  ; 
(6)  security  of  tenure  and  arbitration  ;  (7)  divi- 
sion of  rates  ;  (8)  revision  of  the  incidence  of 
taxation  ;  (9)  cooperation  ;  (10)  bimetallism  ;  (n) 
a  bounty  ;  (12)  an  alteration  of  the  Tithe  Com- 
mutation Act  of  1836  ;  (13)  agricultural  educa- 
tion ;  (14)  land  restoration  ;  (15)  socialism.  (For 
a  further  discussion  of  English  agricultural  con- 
ditions, see  COOPERATIVE  FARMING  ;  LAND  ;  NA- 
TIONALIZATION SOCIETY  ;  LAND  RESTORATION 
LEAGUE.) 

As  for  the  causes  of  the  depression  in  the 
United  States,  we  present,  first,  what  may  be 
called  the  conservative  view,  and,  second,  the 
radical  view.  The  report  of  the 
above-quoted  New  York  society,  in 
Causes,  answer  to  the  questions  sent  out  in 
New  York  State,  gives  the  follow- 
ing percentage  of  the  principal 
causes  assigned  :  Low-price  farm  products,  25 
per  cent.  ;  opening  of  Western  new  land,  15 
per  cent.  ;  price  of  labor  higher  in  proportion 
than  prices,  10  per  cent.  ;  loss  of  fertility  in  the 
soil,  8  per  cent.  ;  scarcity  of  good  farm  labor- 
ers, 4  per  cent.  ;  unjust  and  unequal  taxation, 
4  per  cent.  ;  want  of  tariff  protection  in  farm 
products,  3  per  cent.  ;  overproduction,  3  per 
cent. 

Mr.  G.  T.  Powell  mentions  the  following  causes : 

(a)  Ignorance  of  unlocking  farther  fertility. 

(£)  Rapid  development  of  wheat  production 
on  cheap  lands. 

(c)  Poor  roads. 

(</)  Lack  of  social  advantages. 

(e)  Too  many  acres  under  inferior  cultivation. 

(f)  International  causes. 

Too  many  farmers,  he  claimed,  did  not  intel- 
ligently cultivate  their  land,  paid  little  attention 
to  fertilizing,  were  not  wise  in  selecting  and 
managing  their  crops,  live  stock,  etc.  He  in- 
stanced cases  where  the  presence  of  agricultural 
schools,  experiment  stations,  etc.,  or  even  lec- 
tures on  agriculture  had  changed  the  outlook  of 
whole  communities,  turning  failure  into  suc- 
cess. Too  many  farmers  and  farmers'  families, 
according  to  this  report,  leave  the  farm  for  the 
city  because  they  think  they  can  have  more 
pleasure,  more  advantages,  more  fun  for  less 
work.  Sons  refuse  to  receive  a  farm  as  a  gift,  if 
they  must  work  it.  Mr.  Powell  states  that  some 
of  the  causes  of  the  depression  are  avoidable, 
others  not.  He  proposes  as  palliatives  : 

"  Greater  knowledge  on  the  part  of  the  farmers  to 
unlock  further  fertility  in  the  soil  and  supply  most 
economically  the  loss  of  fertility  occasioned  by  pro- 
duction. 

"  More  knowledge  of  the  developments  of  agricul- 
ture that  are  going  on  in  our  own  and  other  countries, 
that  we  may  avoid  certain  lines  of  competition  where- 
in no  profit  can  be  derived. 

"  Less  acres  better  cultivated,  that  maximum  yields 
can  be  obtained,  thereby  reducing  the  cost  of  produc- 
tion. 


"  Encouragement  of  forestry,  that  many  naked, 
widespread  acres  now  unprofitable  for  cultivation 
may  again  be  covered,  growing  trees  adding  perma- 
nent value  to  the  land,  modifying  temperature  and 
subserving  moisture. 

"  Planting  again  the  standard  of  the  advantages  and 
desirabilities  of  country  living  and  building  up  of 
country  homes. 

"  More  of  high  schools  in  rural  communities,  through 
consolidation  of  school  districts  where  better  educa- 
tional facilities  may  be  had  and  some  principles  of 
agriculture  taught. 

'"  Encouragement  of  small  land-holdings,  that  more 
people  may  have  homes  in  rural  communities,  thus 
making  possible  good  schools,  churches,  and  society. 

"  More  of  organization  and  of  the  extension  of  the 
Grange  and  farmers'  clubs,  to  study  business  interests 
closer  and  to  develop  greater  social  advantages  for  all, 
especially  for  the  young.  Better  highways,  that  prod- 
ucts may"  be  moved  at  least  cost,  and  schools,  churches, 
and  social  gatherings  reached  with  greater  ease. 
Free  rural  mail  delivery,  that  farmers  and  their  fami- 
lies may  be  in  closer  touch  with  the  world,  and  have 
daily  knowledge  of  markets  and  values.  Encourage- 
ment in  every  way  of  the  largest  possible  consumption 
of  all  products  by  producing  the  best,  and  getting 
them  before  the  consumers  in  the  most  attractive 
manner.  Removal  of  the  liquor  saloon,  as  its  exist- 
ence is  a  menace  to  moral  and  business  welfare,  and  is 
•without  excuse  in  a  rural  community.  The  establish- 
ment of  labor  exchanges  in  country  and  city,  that  the 
wants  of  employers  and  employees  may  be  better 
known  over  a  wide  territory. 

"  As  exhaustion  of  soil  is  occasioned  by  production 
to  supply  the  cities'  needs,  the  cities'  waste  in  sewer- 
age, garbage,  etc.,  should  be  collected,  manufactured, 
and  returned  to  the  country  for  restoring  in  this  way 
the  productivity  of  the  soil. 

"  The  establishment  in  every  county  in  the  State  in 
time  of  agricultural  schools  on  farms  where  instruc- 
tion and  intelligent  practice  may  be  combined,  and 
where  not  only  the  sons  and  daughters  of  farmers 
may  receive  training  and  more  skilful  work,  but  those 
also  who  are  inclined  to  go  from  the  city  to  the  coun- 
try might  be  taught  intelligent  management,  which 
would  result  in  many  seeking  land  investment,  and 
the  establishment  ..of  homes  in  the  country  by  city 
dwellers." 

Such  is  the  conservative  view.  The  radical 
view  does  not  deny  that  farmers  need  more  edu- 
cation and  wiser  methods,  but  does  not  admit 
that  this  goes  at  all  to  the  root  of  the  evil.  It 
points  out  that  as  long  as  a  few  farmers  improve 
their  methods  more  than  the  average  this  may 
give  those  few  success  by  giving  them  an  ad- 
vantage above  their  competitors  ;  but  that  if  all 
farmers,  or  even  the  majority  of  farmers,  adopt- 
ed these  methods,  they  would  sim- 
ply be  able  to  produce  larger  quan- 
tities at  cheaper  cost,  and  so  prices  Low  Prices. 
simply  go  down,  and  the  farmer  be 
left  financially  no  better  off  than 
before.  There  can  be  no  general  improvement 
for  the  farmer,  this  radical  view  believes,  until 
he  gets  better  prices — i.  e. ,  a  better  return  for 
his  labor.  Then,  when  he  is  prosperous,  he  will 
be  able  to  have  happy  homes,  good  schools, 
social  advantages,  which  will  keep  the  boys  on 
the  farm.  Even  Mr.  Powell  says,  "  Much  has 
been  said  and  written  about  '  How  to  keep  the 
boys  and  girls  on  the  farm.'  Let  them  see  some 
money  in  it,  and  that  will  solve  the  question." 
Now,  the  main  thing  that  has  lowered  prices, 
according  to  most  of  the  farmers  of  the  West 
and  South,  as  above  stated,  is  the  contraction 
of  currency,  voted,  the  farmers  assert,  by  the  po- 
litical dictation  of  the  gold  kings  of  the  East. 
Hence  the  People's  Party,  the  political  uprising 
of  the  Farmers'  Alliance,  etc.  (See  CONTRAC- 
TION OF  CURRENCY  ;  PEOPLE'S  PARTY  ;  FARMERS' 
ALLIANCE,  etc.) 

Nor  is  this  the  only  evil.    The  farmers  believe 


Farmers'  Movement. 


611 


Federal  Government. 


that  dishonest  legislation  and  dishonest  office- 
holders, by  iniquitous  laws  or  iniquitous  viola- 
tions of  just  laws,  have  allowed  great  railroad 
corporations,  foreign  syndicates,  favored  capi- 
talists, to  buy  up  at  a  song,  or  to  get  free  under 
abuse  of  the  Homestead  Law,  Desert  Land 
Laws  (see  PUBLIC  DOMAIN),  large  tracts  of  the 
best  land,  for  which  they  have  often  paid  noth- 
ing, and  on  them  to  create  bonanza  farms  worked 
with  machinery.  Here  producing  on  a  large 
scale,  and  with  no  mortgages  to  meet,  they  are 
able  to  raise  and  sell  grain  at  prices  with  which 
ordinary  farmers  cannot  compete.  Railroads, 
too,  and  grain  speculators  in  New  York  and  Chi- 
cago, the  farmers  claim,  create  corners  in  the 
market,  and  compel  the  farmers  to  sell  to  them 
almost  at  a  loss.  These  evils  the  farmers  be- 
lieve are  allowed  because  the  farmer  has  little 
voice  in  Congress.  Congress  is  made  up,  they 
declare,  of  corporation  lawyers  and  representa- 
tives of  the  capitalists  of  the  East.  Hence  in 
every  way,  while  all  farmers  admit  the  neces- 
sity of  education  and  improved  methods,  and 
are  organizing  for  education  in  their  Granges  and 
Farmers'  Alliances,  the  distinctive  aim  of  the 
recent  Farmers'  Movement  is  to  increase  the  cir- 
culation and  rescue  legislation  from  the  domina- 
tion of  the  railroads  and  mortgage-holders  who 
to-day  are  forcing  prices  down,  and  by  mort- 
gage foreclosures  driving  the  farmers  to  ruin. 
(See  PEOPLE'S  PARTY  ;  FREE  SILVER  ;  FARMERS' 
ALLIANCE  ;  CONTRACTION  AND  EXPANSION  OF  CUR- 
RENCY.) 

References:  Articles — The  Farmers'  Movement,  by 
C.  S.  Walker,  in  the  Annals  of  the  American  Academy 
of  Political  and  Social  Science  (vol.  iv.,  p.  700)  ;  The 
Embattled  Farmers,  by  Rev.  Washington  Gladden, 
D.D.  (The  Forum, vo\.  x.,  p.  315).  See  also  S.  S.  King's 
Bondholders  and  Bread-winners  and  Hamlin  Gar- 
land's Jason  Edwards.  See  also  SILVER. 

FARM  MORTGAGES.     See  MORTGAGES. 


FARM  OWNERSHIP. 
also  LAND. 


See   MORTGAGES, 


FARM  WAGES.    See  WAGES.   - 

FAUCHET,  CLAUDE,  was  born  at  Domes, 
France,  in  1744.  For  a  while  court  preacher  for 
the  Louis,  he  lost  his  position  owing  to  his  radi  • 
cal  views.  At  the  storming  of  the  Bastile  he 
took  an  active  part,  and  was  requested  to  pre- 
pare a  eulogy  over  those  who  fell  in  the  attack, 
and  as  a  result  produced  his  Discourse  upon 
French  Liberty,  in  which  the  central  idea  was 
the  union  of  the  gospel  of  love  with  the  program 
of  the  Revolution.  In  1790  he  was  instrumental 
in  establishing  a  society  or  circle  of  the  Friends 
of  Truth,  and  as  an  organ  of  the  club,  the 
Bouche  de  Fer  (The  Iron  Mouth),  a  paper  in 
which  he  developed  his  religious  ideas  in  union 
with  the  theories  of  Rousseau's  social  contract. 
"  Unite  the  Gospel  of  Christ  with  the  spirit  of 
freedom,"  was  Fauchet's  pregnant  utterance, 
"and  our  joy  shall  be  full."  In  1791  Fauchet 
was  elected  constitutional  Bishop  of  Calvados, 
and  sent  as  a  representative  to  the  Legislative 
Assembly  of  1792.  He  voted  against  the  guillo- 
tining of  the  king,  and  on  account  of  taking  this 
position,  and  because  of  his  landed  property,  he 


was  brought  before  the  revolutionary  tribunal 
and  guillotined  with  the  Girondists,  October  31, 
1793.  An  account  of  his  life  and  views  can  be 
found  in  Stegmann  and  Hugo's  Handbuch  des 
Socialismus,  article  "  Fauchet." 

FAWCETT,  HENRY,  son  of  William  Faw- 
cett,  a  magistrate  of  Salisbury,  was  born  in 
1833.  Educated  at  a  local  school  near  Salis- 
bury, at  Queenwood  College,  at  King's  College 
School,  London,  and  at  Trinity  Hall,  Cam- 
bridge, he  was  graduated  there  in  1856,  and 
subsequently  chosen  a  fellow.  He  first  practised 
law  in  London,  but  soon  left  this  for  political 
activity.  In  1858  an  accident,  while  shooting, 
left  him  totally  blind  for  life.  He  nevertheless 
lectured  on  finance  at  Oxford  and  Glasgow,  and 
elicited  general  attention.  In  1863  he  published 
his  chief  work,  A  Manual  of  Political  Econ- 
omy, which  has  been  much  used  as  a  text-book 
of  economics  of  the  orthodox  school.  He  was 
immediately  elected  to  the  chair  of  Political 
Economy  at  Cambridge.  In  1865  he  was  elect- 
ed M.P.  for  Brighton,  which  he  continued  to 
represent  till  1874.  He  was  a  Radical  of  the  old 
school;  but  made  his  mark  standing  for  woman 
suffrage,  refusing  on  principle  to  pay  any  but 
the  merest  official  expenses  of  his  election,  ad- 
vocating the  abolition  of  university  tests,  inves- 
tigating the  miseries  of  the  agricultural  laborer, 
etc.  In  1867  he  married  Milicent  Garrett  (see 
below).  In  1874  he  was  defeated  for  Brighton, 
but  returned  for  Hackney,  and  again  in  1880. 
The  same  year  he  became  Postmaster- General 
in  Mr.  Gladstone's  second  administration,  and 
would  have  been  a  member  of  the  Cabinet  but 
for  a  conscientious  scruple.  He  introduced 
many  reforms  into  the  postal  system.  In  1883 
he  was  elected  Lord  Rector  of  Glasgow  Univer- 
sity, and  received  the  titles  of  D.C.L.  and 
LL.D.  He  died  at  Cambridge,  November  6, 
1884.  A  strong  individualist,  with  little  origi- 
nality or  genius,  he  influenced  men  by  the  force 
of  his  personality.  His  best  works,  besides  his 
Manual,  are  The  Economic  Position  of  the  Lon- 
don Laborer  (1865)  ;  Free  Trade  and  Protec- 
tion (1878) ;  Essays  and  Lectures  (1872).  His 
Life  was  written  by  Leslie  Stephen  (1885). 

FAWCETT,  MILICENT  (ne'e  GAR- 
RETT), was  born  in  1847,  and  married  to 
Henry  Fawcett  in  1867.  She  assisted  her  hus- 
band in  all  his  studies,  and  in  1869  published  a 
Political  Economy  for  Beginners.  A  leader 
in  the  woman's  suffrage  movement,  she  has  also 
written  many  economic  essays  and  a  series  of 
tales  illustrative  of  political  economy. 

FEDERAL  COURTS.     See  JUDICIARY. 

FEDERAL  GOVERNMENT.— "  Stated 
broadly,  so  as  to  acquire  somewhat  the  force  of 
a  universal  proposition,"  says  Dr.  John  Fiske 
(American  Political  Ideas,  p.  133),  "  the  prin- 
ciple of  federalism  is  just  this  :  That  the  peo- 
ple of  a  State  shall  have  full  and  entire  con- 
trol of  their  own  domestic  affairs,  which  directly 
concern  them  only,  and  which  they  will  natu- 
rally manage  with  more  intelligence  and  with 
more  zeal  than  any  distinct  governing  body 
could  possibly  exercise  ;  but  that,  as  regards 


Federal  Government. 


612 


Federal  Government. 


matters  of  common  concern  between  a  group  of 
States,  a  decision  shall  in  every  case  be  reached, 
not  by  brutal  warfare  or  by  weary  diplomacy, 
but  by  the  systematic  legislation  of  a  central 
government  which  represents  both  States  and 
people,  and  whose  decisions  can  always  be  en- 
forced, if  necessary,  by  the  combined  physical 
forces  of  all  the  States. ' ' 

Federalism  has  been  practised  from  the  ear- 
liest times  among  certain  savage  races,  as  among 
some  of  the  North  American  Indians,  in  more 
developed  form  among  the  ancient  German 
tribes,  and  for  certain  purposes  among  the 
Greek  States,  the  English  heptarchy,  and  other 
peoples.  It  reached  a  still  fuller  development 
in  the  old  German  Empire,  but  has  been  prin- 
cipally developed  in  modern  republics. 

Says  Mr.  E.  V.  Robinson  (Annals  of  the 
American  Academy,  vol.  iii.,  p.  786)  : 

"There  can  be  no  security  against  despotism  but 
limitations  upon  the  Government ;  and  no  effective 
limitations  upon  the  Government  but  such  as  are  im- 
posed by  a  higher  power,  the  State,  and  enforced  by 
separate  and  coordinate  organs  of  government  created 
by  the  State  and  participating  in  the  action  of  the 
general  government.  But  this  is  the  Federal  State,  a 
form  long  considered  a  transition  stage  between  the 
league  of  States  and  the  simple  State,  but  now  recog- 
nized— in  other  countries  at  least — as  the  most  inter- 
esting and  significant  product  of  institutional  develop- 
ment. 

"  Its  importance  is  proved  by  its  success.    In  a  cen- 
tury the  new  form  has  overspread  the  earth.    1787  in 
the  United  States  ;  1848  and  1874  in  Switzerland  ;  1866 
to  1870  in  Germany ;  1867  in  Canada  and 
Mexico  ;  1889  in  Brazil ;  1891  in  Austral- 
History  of    asia — these  dates  record  a  progress  un- 
•KWUraliam    checked    by    reverse,    unparalleled    in 
J-eaeransm.  rapidjtyand  extent.  Federalism  has  suc- 
ceeded in  conditions  the  most  diverse  ; 
here    knitting    scattered    colonies  of  a 
kindred  race  into  a  nation  equally  strong  and  free  ; 
there  forming  hostile  races,  tongues,  and  creeds  into 
compact  and  vigorous  States.    It  is  strong  and  flexi- 
ble.    No  shock  has  severed  its  well-knit  meshes,  and 
nations  the  most  unlike  move  with  equal  freedom  in 
its  enveloping  folds.    The  whole  drift  of  the  political 
world  is  toward  federalism  to-day,  as  it  was  toward 
feudalism  in  the  tenth  century,  and  centralism  in  the 
fifteenth.    The  time  may  not  be  far  distant  when  a 
centralized  simple  State  will  be  as  great  an  anachro- 
nism as  a  mail-clad  knight  in  a  modern  army." 

Of  the  nature  and  development  of  the  chief 
modern  federal  governments,  Mr.  Robinson 
says  (idem,  pp.  787-790) : 

"  The  Canadian  Union  was  the  work  of  one  external 
sovereignty.  A  congress  of  delegates  appointed  by 
the  provincial  legislatures  framed  the  desired  consti- 
tution, which  was  then  (1867)  enacted  en  bloc,  as  an 
ordinary  statute,  by  the  British  Parliament. 

"  In  Switzerland  and  the  United  States  the  ordain- 
ing sovereignty  was  one  and  internal.  Previous  to 
1848  the  cantons  are  said  to  have  been  separately 
sovereign.  The  only  central  authority  was  tne  Diet, 
consisting  of  one  instructed  vote  from  each  canton. 
But  unanimity  was  not  required  for  decision,  conse- 
quently a  canton  could  be  bound  against  its  will,  and 
coerced  by  arms  if  it  resisted — as  occurred  in  the 
Sonderbund  war  in  1847.  Thus  Laband's  conception 
of  the  German  Empire  exactly  fits  the  Switzerland  of 
that  date  ;  sovereignty  rested  in  the  cantons  not  in- 
dividually, but  collectively.  There  were  not  as  many 
sovereignties  as  cantons,  but  one  sovereignty,  of 
which  the  cantons  were  cobearers  (Mittrdger).  To 
the  cantons  collectively  the  cantons  individually  were 
subject;  just  as  each  Roman  senator  was  subject  as 
an  individual  to  the  Senate  as  a  whole.  Following  the 
Sonderbund  war  a  committee  of  the  Diet  drafted  the 
new  constitution ;  the  Diet  itself  then  revised  and 
passed  it.  When  submitted  to  the  cantons  for  ap- 
proval, 15^6  cantons  accepted,  6J4  rejected  it.  The 
constitution  thereupon  went  into  effect  for  all  alike. 
The  sovereignty  in  the  old  confederation,  therefore, 
decreed  the  new  Federal  organization.  No  absolute- 


ly new    State   was  created,   but  a  rudimentary  ex- 
changed for  a  well-developed  form. 

"  The  same  was  true  in  America,  but  is  not  so  easily 
seen.    The   traditional   view   regards    the    individual 
States  as  separately  sovereign  under  the  Confedera- 
tion.   Article  2  declares :  '  Each  State  retains  its  sov- 
ereignty,   freedom,    and    independence."    .    .     .    But 
words  cannot  obliterate  facts.     The  States  could  not 
'  retain  '  what  they  had  never  possessed. 
They  had  always  been  subject  to  apo- 
litical superior.     First  to  England  ;  sec-       Modern 
ondly  to  the    Continental    Congress,  a  •|7«M3n,.n'liaTn 
revolutionary    body;    hence    de    facto  ret    rausm- 
sovereign;  and  thirdly,  under  the  Con- 
federation each  State  "individually  was 
subject  to  the  States  collectively.    In  the  American, 
as  in  the  Swiss  Confederation,   sovereignty  was  one 
and  the  States  were  its  cobearers ;  each  as  an  indi- 
vidual was  subject  to  the  States  collectively."    This, 
however,   is  a  disputed    point.    See  STATE  RIGHTS  ; 
CENTRALIZATION  ;  CONSTITUTION,  etc. 

He  continues : 

"  In  Germany,  the  situation  was  different  in  that  the 
contracting  States  had  been  and  still  were  separately 
sovereign.  August  18,  1866,  the  North  German  States 
provided  by  treaty  for  the  founding  of  a  Federal  State 
within  one  year,  the  constitution  to  be  drafted  by  a 
Conference  of  Envoys  at  Berlin,  and  passed  upon  by  a 
Reichstag  elected  on  the  basis  of  the  Frankfort  elec- 
tion law.  These  provisions  of  the  treaty  were  then 
enacted  by  the  State  legislatures  as  State  law.  State 
law  they  would  have  been  without  special  enactment, 
since  the  August  treaties  rested  upon  State  authority  ; 
State  law  they  had  to  be,  if  law  at  all,  since  law  re- 
quires a  law-giver,  and  only  the  States  then  legally 
existed.  Both  Reichstag  and  Conference  therefore 
rested  equally  on  State  authority.  The  Conference 
sat  December  15,  1866,  to  February  7,  1867.  Its  draft 
was  submitted  to  the  Reichstag  February  24  by  the 
King  of  Prussia,  in  the  name  of  the  associated  govern- 
ments. The  Reichstag  proposed  amendments  ;  these 
were  accepted  by  the  Conference.  Both  then  dis- 
solved and  disappeared.  The  bodies  created  by  State 
authorities  had  done  their  work,  but  the  States  were 
not  legally  bound  by  it,  any  more  than  the  British 
Parliament  was  legally  bound  by  the  recommenda- 
tions of  the  Canadian  Constitutional  Congress.  The 
States  did  ratify  the  report  of  their  agents,  and 
fixed  July  i,  1867,  as  the  day  for  it  to  go  into  operation. 
But  legally  they  could  as  well  have  rejected  it.  The 
lapse  of  the  specified  year  would  then  have  restored 
the  status  quo  ante  August  18,  1866.  If,  therefore,  the 
criterion  of  the  existence  of  a  new  State  be  the  exist- 
ence of  a  new  political  authority,  setting  a  limit  to 
older  authorities,  then  no  new  State  existed  prior  to 
the  ratification  of  the  constitution  by  all  the  States. 

"It  is  indeed  unquestionable  that  the  German  na- 
tion already  existed,  i.e.,  that  the  German  people 
were  conscious  of  common  interests,  feelings  and 
aspirations.  It  is  equally  unquestionable  that  such 
feelings  could  not  but  result  in  new  political  relations, 
and  that  in  an  historical  and  dynamical  sense,  the  na- 
tion did,  as  a  matter  of  fact,  employ  the  States  as  in- 
struments in  the  creation  of  a  new  State.  But  it  is 
generally  agreed  that  a  nation  is  not  a  State  politically 
organized,  and  a  State  cannot  be  said  to  give  its  po- 
litical organization,  because  such  organization  is  pre- 
requisite to  its  being  a  State." 

Mr.  Tames  Bryce  (The  American  Common- 
wealth, chaps,  xxix.,  xxx.)  sums  up  the  faults 
generally  charged  against  federal  forms  of  gov- 
ernment as  : 

"  i.  Weakness  in  the  conduct  of  foreign  affairs. 

"2.  Weakness  in  home  government — that  is  to  say, 
deficient  authority  over  the  component  States  and  the 
individual  citizens. 

"  3.  Liability  to  dissolution  by  the  secession  or  rebel- 
lion of  States. 

"4.  Liability  to  division  into  groups  and  factions  by 
the  formation  of  separate  combinations  of  the  com- 
ponent States. 

"  5.  Want  of  uniformity  among  the  States  in  legisla- 
tion and  administration. 

"6.  Trouble,  expense,  and  delay  due  to  the  complexi- 
ty of  a  double  system  of  legislation  and  administra- 
tion." 

Few  of  these  dangers,  he  thinks,  however, 
have  developed  in  the  United  States.  He  says  : 


Federal  Government. 


61. 


Feudalism. 


"All  that  can  fairly  be  concluded  from  the  history 
of  the  American  Union  is  that  Federalism  is  obliged 
by  the  law  of  its  nature  to  leave  in  the  hands  of  States 
powers  whose  exercise  may  give  to  political  contro- 
versy a  peculiarly  dangerous  form,  may  impede  the 
assertion  of  national  authority,  may  even,  when  long- 
continued  exasperation  has  suspended  or  destroyed 
the  feeling  of  a  common  patriotism,  threaten  national 
unity  itself.  Against  this  danger  is  to  be  set  the  fact 
that  the  looser  structure  of  a  Federal  government  and 
the  scope  it  gives  for  diversities  of  legislation  in  differ- 
ent parts  of  a  country  may  avert  sources  of  discord,  or 
prevent  local  discord  from  growing  into  a  contest  of 
national  magnitude." 

The  merits  of  the  federal  form  of  government 
he  considers  to  be  :  (i)  That  federalism  can  unite 
States  into  one  government  without  extinguish- 
ing local  governments,  legislatures,  and  patriot- 
ism ;  (2)  that  it  supplies  the  best  means  of  devel- 
oping a  vast  country  ;  (3)  it  prevents  the  devel- 
opment of  overcentralization  ;  (4)  it  interests 
people  in  local  self-government ;  (5)  it  secures 
the  good  administration  of  local  affairs  ;  (6)  it 
allows  of  experiments  in  legislation  ;  (7)  it  dimin- 
ishes the  risk  which  comes  from  size  and  diver- 
sity in  the  structure  of  a  nation  ;  (8)  it  relieves 
the  national  legislature  of  burdens  which  might 
prove  too  heavy.  All  these  advantages  Mr. 
Bryce  holds  true  of  the  United  States.  (But  see 
DEMOCRACY.  For  the  details  of  the  Federal 
Constitution  of  the  United  States,  see  CONSTI- 
TUTION. For  other  countries,  see  those  coun- 
tries.) 

References  :  Besides  the  books  quoted,  see  Woodrow 
Wilson's  The  State.  See  also  POLITICAL  SCIENCE. 

FEDERALIST,  THE.— A  series  of  85 
papers  written  by  Hamilton,  Madison,  and  Jay 
immediately  after  the  adoption  of  the  United 
States  Constitution,  and  published  in  the  Inde- 
pendent journal  of  New  York  from  October, 
1787,  to  March,  1788  ;  they  were  then  collected  in 
book  form  and  called  The  Federalist.  Ham- 
ilton (q.v.}  wrote  some  two  thirds  of  them,  and 
they  did  much  to  advance  the  cause  of  the  Fed- 
eralist Party  (q.v.). 

FEDERAL  PARTY,  THE,  was  the  name 
given,  at  the  time  of  the  adoption  of  the  Consti- 
tution, to  those  who  favored  the  Constitution 
as  framed  by  the  convention  at  Philadelphia  of 
1 787.  The  name  was  later  adopted  by  the  party 
developed  under  the  lead  of  Alexander  Hamil- 
ton (y.v.),  which  favored  a  strong  central  na- 
tional government,  friendly  relations  with  Great 
Britain  rather  than  with  France,  the  fostering 
of  commercial  interests,  the  assumption  of  the 
State  debts,  and  the  chartering  of  a  national 
bank,  etc.  It  controlled  the  general  govern- 
ment till  1801.  Says  Schouler  {History  of  the 
United  States,  vol.  i.,  p.  54) :  "  To  speak  logi- 
cally, it  was  the  anti-federal  party  that  sustained 
a  federal  plan,  while  the  Federalist  contended 
for  one  more  nearly  national. "  (For  a  discus- 
sion of  the  views  of  the  party,  see  CENTRALIZA- 
TION ;  STATE  RIGHTS  ;  CONSTITUTION  ;  DEMO- 
CRATIC-REPUBLICAN PARTY  ;  HAMILTON.) 

FERRARA,  FRANCESCO,  was  born  in 
Palermo,  Sicily,  in  1810,  and  was  Professor  of 
Political  Economy  in  the  University  of  Turin 
from  1849-64.  In  1867  he  was  Italian  Minister 
of  Finance,  and  at  another  time  elected  Sena- 
tor. He  was  editor  of  the  Giornale  di  Statis- 
lica,  1836-48.  He  introduced  the  ideas  of  Carey 


(y.v.)  into  Italy,  and  was  an  influential  leader 
in  Italian  economics.  (See  POLITICAL  ECONOMY, 
"Italy.") 

FERRARIS,  CARLO   FRANCESCO, 

was  born  in  1850  at  Montcalvo.  He  took  the 
degree  of  LL.D.  at  Turin,  and  •  subsequently 
studied  in  Germany  and  England.  He  has  held 
several  professorial  and  political  offices,  and 
since  1885  has  been  full  professor  of  statistics 
in  Padua.  In  1886  and  1887  he  was  also  a  mem- 
ber of  the  Italian  House  of  Deputies. 

The  recent  spread  of  German  thought  and 
methods  in  economics  and  statistics,  and  their 
influence  upon  the  social  policy  of  Italy,  may 
be  referred  in  no  small  measure  to  Ferraris,  as 
professor,  statesman,  and  author.  (See  POLITI- 
CAL ECONOMY,  "  Italy.") 

FEUDALISM  (from  early  middle  English 
fe,fee,feh,feo/i,  medieval  Latin  feodum,  cat- 
tle, property,  tribute),  a  social  system  prevalent 
in  one  form  or  another  in  Northern  and  West- 
ern Europe,  through  all  the  Middle  Ages,  ac- 
cording to  which  land  was  held  by  its  owners 
as  feuds  orfeifs  on  condition  of  paying  service 
to  a  superior  lord. 

The  origin  of  the  system  is  uncertain.  It 
seems,  however,  to  have  been  first  developed  in 
Germany.  Some  find  its  origin  in  the  Roman 
custom  of  making  grants  of  land  to  tribes  on 
condition  of  paying  certain  tribute  or  military 
service.  It  is  certainly  not  very  different  from 
certain  Roman  forms  of  land  ownership.  (See 
LAND.)  Most  authorities,  however,  trace  it  to 
older  and  more  fully  Germanic  and  perhaps 
Asiatic  origin — a  development,  it  may  be,  of  the 
early  forms  of  land  tenure.  (See  PRIMITIVE 
PROPERTY.)  German  chiefs  had  their  comitatus 
or  retinue  of  "  freemen"  surrounding  and  serv- 
ing them  in  peace,  and  especially  in  war.  Be- 
neath these  were  the  serfs  or  tillers  of  the  soil, 
dependent  on  the  freeman.  It  was  a  system  of 
society  partly  separate  from  and  eventually 
largely  replacing  the  relation  of  the  individual 
to  the  State.  Under  feudalism  the  individual 
placed  himself  or  was  placed  as  a  vassal  (a 
word  probably  of  Celtic  origin,  at  first  meaning 
servant)  under  a  superior.  He  was  said  to  be 
under  commendation  to  him,  and  for  the  pro- 
tection given  by  the  lord  he  owed  him  obse- 
quium,  or  willingness  to  serve.  Feudalism  was 
connected  with  the  older  Roman  system  of 
beneficia,  or  the  giving  of  property  for  use,  but 
with  responsibility  to  the  donor  or  heirs.  From 
this  system  grew  up  the  ecclesiastical  benefices. 
Feudalism  changed  the  beneficia  into  feuda — 
property  held  under  personal  allegiance,  allo- 
dia  being  property  held  in  fee  simple.  The  ser- 
vice paid  by  the  vassal  was  service  in  war  (ser- 
vice d'koste),  the  obligation  to  appear  at  his 
lord's  courts  (justitia),  money  payments  {aux- 
ilia),  and  homage.  ' '  Homage, ' '  says  the  Trea- 
tise of  Tenures,  "  is  the  most  honorable  service 
and  most  humble  service  of  reverence  that 
a  frank  tenant  may  do  to  his  lord,  for  when  the 
tenant  shall  make  homage  to  his  lord,  he  shall 
be  ungirt  and  his  head  uncovered,  and  his  lord 
shall  sit  and  the  tenant  shall  kneel  before  him 
on  both  his  knees  and  hold  his  hands  jointly  to- 
gether between  the  hands  of  his  lord,  and  shall 


Feudalism. 


614 


Fichte,  Johann  Gottlieb. 


say  this  :  '  I  become  your  man,  from  this  day 
forward,  of  life  and  limb,  and  of  earthly  wor- 
ship, and  unto  you  shall  be  true  and  faithful, 
and  bear  you  faith  for  the  tenements  that  I  claim 
to  hold  of  you,  saving  the  faith  that  I  owe  to 
our  sovereign  lord  the  king  ; '  and  then  the  lord, 
so  sitting,  shall  kiss  him."  The  tie  of  feudal- 
ism was  thus  essentially  a  personal  tie  for  the 
use  of  land. 

In  one  way  or  another  came  feudalism.     It 
grew  up  from  the  fifth  to  the  ninth  century, 
when  it  is  found  somewhat  fully  developed  in 
Germany,  and  developing  in  the 
adjacent  countries.     In  Germany, 
Origins,     however,  the  different  chiefs  were 
so  independent  that  a  centralized 
feudalism  never    appeared.     It  is 
among    the    Normans,   in    Gaul,    in    Aragon, 
through  large  portions  of  Italy,  and,  after  the 
Conquest,  in  England,  that  we  find  its  fully  de- 
veloped and  centralized  form. 

Here  all  land  is  held  as  belonging  to  the  king, 
representing  the  whole  people.     He  divides  the 
realm  among  his  barons,  to  rule  over  and  de- 
fend.    For  this  they  pay  tribute  to 
the  king  and  receive  tribute  from 
The  Feudal  their  retainers  or  vassals — the  trib- 
Principle.     ute  in  time  of  war  being  military 
service.     They  in  turn  divide  their 
baronies  among  the  lesser  nobility, 
and  they  among  the  freemen,  each  paying  trib- 
ute to  his  superior.     The  serfs,  finally,  live  on 
the  domain  of  the  lord  of  the  manor  (the  free- 
man), cultivate  it,  and  have  certain  rights  of 
domicile  and  pas  urage,  for  receipt  of  which 
they  pay  service  to  the  lord.     The  serf  pays  no 
tribute  to  the  king,  only  to  his  liege  lord  ;  the 
liege  lord  pays  to  his  superior,  and  so  on  up  to 
the  king.     This  is  the  feudal  idea  modified  in 
history  in  a  thousand  ways  and  by  a  thousand 
special  grants  and  privileges.     The  basis  of  the 
whole  system  is  the  land  tenure,  which  is  "  the 
sacramental  tie  of  all  public  relations." 

The  system,  however,  once  developed,  imme- 
diately began  to  change.     When  the  English 
kings  began  to  fight  in  France  it  became  more 
convenient  for  the  Northern  barons  to  give  pay- 
ments of  money  instead  of  military  service  ;  and 
the  king  preferred  this,  since  it  enabled  him  to 
hire  troops  who  would  serve  him  more  unques- 
tioningly.     Gradually    the    system    of    paying 
money  instead  of  service  developed  into  the 
rule.     Out  of  this  came  parliaments  (y.v),  first 
called  together  to  vote  supplies  for  the  king. 
But  out  of  this   came   also  other  institutions. 
Under  feudalism  proper  the  serf  paid  nothing 
to  the  king  directly,  but  only  to  his  superior 
lord.    When  the  king  wanted  money,  it  occurred 
to  his  councilors  that  he  might  get  money  by  tax- 
ing the  serf  as  well  as  the  lords.     The  early  poll 
taxes  were  resisted  (see  PEASANTS'  REVOLT),  but 
they  were  collected.    It  was  forgotten  or  ignored 
that  the  serf  already  paid  the  king  through  the 
lord ;  that  the  serf  only  paid  the  lord  because 
the  lord  paid  the  king.     The  lords 
were  quite  willing  to  have  the  serfs 
Devel-      pay  the  king-,   because  then  they 
opments.     could    claim    that    the    king    was 
paid,  and  keep  what  they  received 
as  their  own.     This  developed  the 
landlord  system  of  England.    Hitherto  the  lords 
had  ruled  their  lands,  not  as  owners,  but  as  rep- 


resentatives of  the  king,  and  what  they  received 
from  their  vassals  they  paid  over  to  the  king,  at 
least  in  part.  They  now  claimed  to  own  the 
land,  and  kept  the  tribute  as  rent.  The  king, 
they  said,  was  paid  through  taxes.  Out  of  this 
has  developed  modern  England. 

It  is  not  claimed  that  the  development  took 
this  simple  and  conscious  form  ;  but  it  explains 
a  large  portion  of  what  actually  occurred.  Un- 
der feudalism  the  vassal  did  not  pay  both  tax 
and  rent.  His  rent  or  service  was  his  tax.  Says 
Rogers  (Six  Centuries  of  Work  and  Wages, 
p.  56) :  •' '  There  was  in  the  thirteenth  century 
no  rent  paid  in  the  ordinary  sense  of  that  word. ' ' 
Such  conditions  have  led  to  two  extreme  views 
of  feudalism  :  the  one  too  favorable,  the  other 
too  severe.  According  to  one  view,  to  which 
conservatives  and  some  socialists  are  inclined, 
the  laborer  under  feudalism  was  better  off  than 
to-day.  Every  man  was  entitled  to  the  use  of  a 
little  land,  with  perhaps  a  cottage  and  the  right 
of  pasturage  and  of  getting  fuel  in  the  manorial 
woods,  all  on  the  one  condition  of  paying  a  lit- 
tle service  or  work  to  his  lord.  Each  man  had 
a  place,  a  lowly  place  indeed — a  cottage,  rough 
and  dark,  with  few  comforts.  But  then  the 
lord  did  not  have  modern  comforts,  and  at  least 
the  serf  was  sure  of  his  living  and  related  by 
ties  often  of  personal  regard  to  the  lord  on  whose 
estate  he  lived,  and  whom  he  could  occasionally 
see  and  know.  There  was  no  landless  class, 
and  there  was  not  the  modern  impersonal  ' '  cash 
nexus"  and  freedom,  which  is  often  a  freedom 
to  starve. 

The  other  view,  to  which  liberals  and  indi- 
vidualists are  inclined,  goes  to  the  other  ex- 
treme. It  dwells  upon  the  rough  home  and  food 
of  the  medieval  serf,  above  all  upon  his  oppres- 
sion by  his  lord.  He  had  a  place,  it  is  true,  but 
a  dog's  place  and  a  dog's  life.  How  vastly  bet- 
ter off,  it  is  said,  is  the  working  man  of  to-day. 
(For  a  fuller  discussion  of  this,  see  MIDDLE 
AGES.)  Feudalism  has  gone.  Serfdom  disap- 
pears in  England  after  the  Peasants'  Revolt 
(g.v.).  Feudal  tenures  were  abolished  by  act 
of  Parliament  in  England  in  1660  ;  in  Scotland 
in  1747.  In  France  they  disappeared  in  the 
Revolution  of  1789  ;  in  Germany  and  Austria, 
in  the  Revolution  of  1848-50.  In  each  country, 
however,  the  system  had  long  been  modified  by 
political  and  social  changes.  A  feudal  system  is 
said  to  have  early  developed  in  China  and 
Japan,  but  to  have  disappeared  in  the  former 
country  as  early  as  220  B.C.,  on  the  conquest  of 
the  country  by  Siang  Wang,  of  Tsin,  or  Tsin- 
shi-Hwang-ti.  In  Japan,  it  endured  till  1871, 
when  the  daimios  or  barons  surrendered  their 
lands  to  the  Mikado.  (See  JAPAN.) 

References  :  see  MIDDLE  AGES. 

FIAT  MONEY.  See  PAPER  MONEY  ;  MONEY  ; 
GREENBACK  PARTY. 

FICHTE,    JOHANN   GOTTLIEB.— This 

great  German  philosopher  we  consider  here  sim- 
ply from  the  standpoint  of  social  reform,  he 
being,  according  to  some,  the  real  father,  and 
at  least  the  first  manifestation,  of  the  great  Ger- 
man movement  toward  socialism. 

He  was  born  at  Rammenau,  in  Lusatia,  in 
1762.  Even  as  a  child  he  was  noted  for  his  con- 


Fichte,  Johann  Gottlieb. 


Finance. 


templative  spirit.  At  18  years  of  age  he  entered 
the  University  of  Jena,  studying  theology  at 
first,  but  soon  relinquishing  it  for  philosophy. 
On  leaving  college  he  earned  a  precarious  sup- 
port by  becoming  a  tutor,  wandering  from  place 
to  place.  In  1791  he  met  Kant  and  became  a 
zealous  follower.  In  the  following  year  he  wrote 
his  Critique  of  all  Revelation,  which  Kant 
highly  commended.  For  a  time  he  found  it  very 
difficult  to  obtain  even  the  means  of  subsist- 
ence ;  but  in  1 794  he  was  appointed  to  the  chair 
of  philosophy  at  Jena.  At  once  he  commenced 
to  expound,  or,  rather,  to  preach  his  system  of 
transcendental  idealism,  with  the  utmost  zeal 
and  enthusiasm.  He  soon  broke  loose  from 
Kant,  whose  philosophy  was  not  sufficiently 
idealistic  for  him.  As  he  said  to  a  friend, 
"  Kant  has  only  indicated  the  truth,  but  neither 
unfolded  nor  proved  it."  In  1799  a  groundless 
charge  of  atheism  removed  him  from  the  col- 
lege ;  and  he  took  up  his  residence  in  Berlin, 
still  lecturing  on  philosophy.  Six  years  later 
he  was  called  to  the  chair  of  philosophy  at  Er- 
langen.  It  was  here  that  his  famous  lectures 
on  The  Nature  of  the  Scholar  were  delivered. 
The  victories  of  Napoleon  stirred  all  his  patriot- 
ism, and  brought  forth  his  fervid  Addresses  to 
the  Germans.  On  the  restoration  of  peace  he 
was  elected  rector  of  the  University  of  Berlin, 
where  he  labored  with  his  accustomed  zeal  and 
energy  to  check  and  abolish  all  customs  that  ap- 
peared to  him  inconsistent  with  the  true  life  of 
scholarship.  In  1813,  on  the  outbreak  of  the 
war  of  independence,  his  wife  offered  herself  as 
hospital  nurse,  and  for  five  months  waited  upon 
the  sick  soldiers  with  unremitting  devotion  and 
tenderness.  She  was  then  taken  with  fever, 
and  after  a  long  struggle  recovered  only  to  pass 
on  the  infection  to  her  husband.  He  rapidly 
sank  under  it,  and  died  January  27,  1814. 

In  Fichte  were  united  the  profundity  of  a  phi- 
losopher, the  fire  of  a  prophet,  the  self-sacrifice 
of  a  patriot,  and  the  purity  and  devotion  of  a 
saint.  The  fundamental  notion  of  his  philoso- 
phy is  the  reality  of  the  ego,  which  posits  both 
itself  and  the  non-ego.  As  to  his  socialism,  the 
following  quotations  speak  for  themselves. 

In  his  Materials  for  the  Justification  of  the 
French  Revolution,  he  writes  :  "  Property  can 
have  no  other  origin  than  labor.  Whosoever 
does  not  work  has  no  right  to  obtain  the  means 
of  existence  from  society."  In  1796  he  pro- 
claimed ' '  the  right  to  property. ' '  He  says  in 
his  Principles  of  Natural  Right,  "  Whoso  has 
not  the  means  of  living  is  not  bound  to  recog- 
nize or  respect  the  property  of  others,  seeing 
that,  as  regards  him,  the  principles  of  the  social 
contract  have  been  violated.  Every  one  should 
have  some  property  ;  society  owes  to  all  the 
means  of  work,  and  all  should  work  in  order  to 
live."  In  his  book  on  The  State  in  Accordance 
-with  Right  (Rechtstaat),  he  foreshadows  a  col- 
lective organization  which  would  realize  what 
he  understands  by  right :  "  Labor  and  distribu- 
tion should  be  collectively  organized  ;  every  one 
should  receive  for  a  fixed  amount  of  labor  a 
fixed  amount  of  capital  which  would  constitute 
his  property,  according  to  right.  Property  will 
thus  be  made  universal.  No  person  should 
enjoy  superfluities  as  long  as  anybody  lacks 
necessaries  ;  for  the  right  of  property  in  objects 


of  luxury  can  have  no  foundation  until  each  citi- 
zen has  his  share  in  the  necessaries  of  life. 
Farmers  and  laborers  should  form  partnerships, 
so  as  to  produce  the  most  with  the  least  possible 
exertion."  The  essential  ideas  of  the  socialism 
of  to-day,  as  regards  both  the  notion  of  right 
and  its  realization,  are  contained  in  embryo  in 
the  foregoing  lines,  which  were  manifestly  oc- 
casioned by  Rousseau  and  the  eighteenth-cen- 
tury philosophers,  tho  modified  by  his  deep  and 
pietistic  Christianity. 

His  collective  works  have  been  published  by 
his  son  (1845-6).  His  popular  works  have  been 
translated  into  English  by  W.  Smith  (1848-9). 
Their  titles  are  :  The  Destination  of  Man  ; 
The  Vocation  of  the  Scholar  ;  The  Nature  of 
the  Scholar ;  The  Way  to  the  Blessed  Life  ; 
and  The  Characteristics  of  the  Present  Age. 
His  Rechtstaat  was  translated  by  A.  E.  Kroeger 
(1868-70). 

FIELDEN.  See  CHICAGO  ANARCHISTS,  last 
portion  of  the  article. 

FINANCE,  THE  SCIENCE  OF  (from 
medieval  Latin,  finis,  an  end,  or  payment  in 
settlement),  is  correctly  used  in  economics  for 
the  science  of  the  raising,  administration,  and 
expenditure  of  the  revenues  of  a  nation,  state, 
or  city.  The  word  finance  is  popularly  but  in- 
correctly used  for  the  discussion  of  the  subject 
of  money  ;  perhaps  because,  in  the  United 
States  especially,  questions  of  revenue  have 
been  so  intimately  connected  with  those  of 
money. 

In  classic  times,  while  there  was  often  wise 
management  of  the  public  finances,  there  was 
little  development  of   theory  or   principles   of 
finance.     The  work  of  Xenophon  on  the  rev- 
enues of  Athens  was  simply  a  discussion  as  to 
how  the  city  might   derive  sufficient  revenue 
from  its  own  territory.     He  recom- 
mends a  state  monopoly  of  silver 
mining.     The   Romans   developed  Development, 
still  less  theory.     The  first  modern 
development  of  the  science  was  by 
the  German    cameralists   (q.v.).     These  often 
gave  good,  practical  advice,  but  still  with  little 
system  or  theory.     From  the  seventeenth  cen- 
tury the  school  of  the  mercantilists  (q.v.)  began 
to  have  weight,  and  in  the  eighteenth  century 
the  school  of  the  physiocrats  (q.v.).     The  Ger- 
man cameralists  discussed  finance  largely  as  a 
matter  of  the  management  of  domains  and  mo- 
nopolies.    The    mercantilists    were    more    for 
duties,  customs,  and  bounties.     Under  the  in- 
fluence of  the  physiocrats  we  have  the  develop- 
ment of  the  idea  of  the   impot   unique,   the 
single  tax  on  land.     Under  Adam  Smith  and 
his  followers  we  have  the  development  of  the 
ideas  of  free  trade  and  the  substitution  of  other 
taxes  for  custom  duties.     In  the  development 
of  the  modern  science  of  finance  the  Germans 
lead.     They  divide  the  science  into  three  parts  : 
i.  The  organization  of  the  financial 
economy  ;    2.    Public    expenditure 
and  the  purposes  for  which  it  may     Content, 
be  made  ;  3.  Public   revenue  and 
the  sources  from  which  it  may  be 
derived.     The  ordinary    sources    of    revenues 
are  divided  into  three  kinds  .  (i)  from  agricul- 


Finance. 


616 


Fisheries. 


tural,  industrial,  or  commercial  enterprises 
(see  NATIONALISM  ;  MUNICIPALISM  ;  RAILROADS; 
POSTAL  SYSTEM  ;  TELEGRAPH)  ;  (2)  from  fees  ; 
(3)  from  taxation  (g.v), 

In  the  conduct  of  a  State's  financial  system, 
Professor  E.  J.  James  (article  "  Finance,"  La- 
tor's  Cyclopedia  of  Political  Science)  finds 
four  main  systems  :  i.  The  German,  where 
all  public  offices  are  filled  from  the  ranks  of 
persons  who  have  stiown  their  fitness  by  pre- 
scribed tests,  and  after  a  period  of  probation 
are  appointed  with  a  right  to  the  office  and  a 
salary  as  long  as  its  duties  are  properly  per- 
-formed  ;  2.  The  French  system,  where  the 
salaried  officer,  tho  professionally  educated, 
may  be  removed  at  pleasure  ;  3.  The  Ameri- 
can system,  in  which  the  salaried  officer  may  be 
removed  for  political  reasons  without  any  ques- 
tion of  fitness  ;  4.  The  voluntary  system,  where 
officers  are  filled  by  those  able  and  willing  to 
act  without  salary.  Professor  James  considers 
the  German  system,  tho  nominally  the  most 
expensive,  in  reality  the  cheapest  and  the  best. 
(See  REVENUE  ;  TAXATION.) 

References  :  Adolph  Wagner's  Finanzvoissenschaft 
(1877-82) ;  C.  F.  Bastable's  Public  finance  (.892).  See 
also  TAXATION. 

FIRE  DEPARTMENTS.— The  earliest 
fire  companies  were  composed  of  volunteers, 
tho  sometimes  inducements  to  join  were  held 
out  by  exempting  them  from  jury  duty.  They 
were  something  like  social  and  sometimes  po- 
litical clubs.  In  New  York,  the  firemen  be- 
came a  power  in  ward  politics.  The  paid  fire 
department  of  New  York  City  was  organized 
May  4,  1865.  Since  then  the  system  has  spread 
to  all  the  large  cities  and  attained  remarkable 
efficiency,  organized  usually  under  fire  commis- 
sioners. Fires  are  much  more  frequent  in 
America  than  in  Europe,  because  of  poorly 
constructed  houses  and  lack  of  construction  laws 
in  America.  This,  however,  is  being  changed. 
Partly  as  a  result,  the  American  fire  depart- 
ments are  generally  thought  to  be  much  more 
efficiently  developed.  In  London,  the  Fire 
Brigade  numbers  about  goo.  The  wages  have 
been  recently  raised  by  the  County  Council,  and 
the  efficiency  greatly  increased,  with  improved 
quarters  and  enormously  multiplied  fire  hy- 
drants. The  cost  of  the  department  is  only  one 
half  that  of  New  York,  but  fires  are  less  frequent 
than  in  many  small  American  cities.  The  Ber- 
lin force  is  about  900,  under  State  control.  In 
Paris  the  force  is  quasi-military. 

The  following  figures  are  from  Census  Bulle- 
tin No.  100  : 


ANNUAL  PROPERTY  LOSSES  IN  THE    UNITED 
STATES  BY  FIRES— 1886-95. 


CITIES 

Force. 

Annual 
Cost  of 
Depart- 
ment. 

Cost  of 
Force 
to  Each 
Head 
of 
Popu- 
lation. 

New  York,  N.  Y  

$i  06 

Chicago,  111  ...   

Philadelphia,  Pa  

o  60 

Brooklyn,  N.  Y  

St.  Louis,  Mo  

277,869 

Boston,  Mass  

i  78 

YEARS. 

Aggregate 
Property 
Loss. 

Aggregate 
Insurance 
Loss. 

1886  

/ 

1887  

f-    'I       'f  lo 

1888  

110,885,665 

1889  

1800  

rr>R            ' 

1891.               

1892  

1893  

f,      c 

1894  

1895*  

4  i        i4  4 

' 

7,       , 

*  Estimated. 

The  figures  in  the  above  table,  from  1875  to  1804  in- 
clusive, are  taken  from  the  Chronicle  Fire  Tables. 

The  average  annual  property  loss  by  fire  in 
foreign  countries,  compiled  from  Mulhall,  is  as 
follows  : 


COUNTRIES. 

Average 
Annual 
Loss. 

Cost  per 
Inhabi- 
tant. 

Ratio  of 
Insured 
Property 
per 
Cent. 

" 

Belgium  

" 

Canada  

France  

Germany  

Gt.  Britain  and  Ireland. 
Italv  

45,  '000,000 

1-37 

46 

Netherlands  

Russia  .     .         ...... 

TO'OOO* 

o  85 

Scandinavia  

o  80 

Spain  

'5     ' 

FISHERIES.— The  value  of  the  fisheries  of 
the  U  nited  States,  according  to  the  census  of 
1890,  was  :  Product  of  the  year  1889,  $44,277,- 
518  ;  capital  invested,  $43,602,123  ;  the  persons 
employed,  136,665  fishermen  and  26,683  shore- 
men. A  system  of  profit-sharing  was  intro- 
duced into  the  cod  and  mackerel  fisheries  of  the 
United  States  about  1730. 

.When  a  ship  was  built  the  builders  would 
take  shares  in  it — the  painter,  sail-maker,  rig- 
ger, captain,  and  all  who  were  to  man  it.  In 
trading,  the  whole  ship  was  divided  into  64 
shares.  The  builder  would  take  a  large  part, 
the  captain  and  mate  each  one  share  or  one  half 
share,  and  so  on  down  through  the  entire  crew. 
The  chief  owner  was  known  as  "  the  ship's  hus- 
band. ' '  He  determined  the  plans  of  the  voy- 
age. In  fisheries,  a  ship  would  be  held  in  five 
shares.  The  owner  held  two  fifths  and  the 
crew  (captain,  mates,  and  men)  held  three 
fifths.  Profits  were  divided  among  these  con- 
joint owners  according  to  the  shares  held.  The 
owner  kept  the  ship  in  repairs  and  the  whole 
company  paid  the  expenses.  This  custom  has 
only  in  small  part  been  kept  up — longest  in  the 
Maine  fishing  smacks.  To-day  the  fishers  are 
poorly  paid. 

In  Great  Britain  and  Ireland  the  value  of  the 
fisheries  reported  for  1895  was  ^"7,147,665.  The 
number  employed,  including  the  Channel 
Islands,  was  124,187.  In  France,  the  number 


Fisheries. 


617 


Food  Supply. 


enrolled  in  cod-fishing,  January  i,  1894,  was 
10,503,  and  for  coast-fishing,  74,129.  The  value 
of  the  fish  of  both  kinds  taken  in  1893  was 
$25,537,400. 

FLURSCHEIM,  MICHAEL,  was  born  at 
Frankfort-on-the-Main,  Germany,  January  27, 
1844,  and  educated  there  from  1850-60.  From 
1860-67  he  worked  in  banks  in  Frankfort,  Ber- 
lin and  Paris.  In  1867  he  went  to  the  United 
States,  where  he  worked  as  an  importer,  manu- 
facturer and  inventor — first  in  New  York,  and 
from  1870-72  in  Virginia.  In  1872  he  returned 
to  Germany,  first  engaged  in  a  journalistic  en- 
terprise (The  American  News),  and  in  1873  pur- 
chased the  Gaggenau  Iron  Works,  which  he 
conducted  for  15  years  with  great  success.  In 
1888  the  works  were  turned  into  a  limited  com- 
pany. He  introduced  new  industries  into  Ger- 
many, and  at  one  time  he  had  taken  out  over 
one  hundred  patents.  In  1883  he  began  to  de- 
vote a  part  of  his  time  to  social  reform.  The 
writings  of  Dr.  Theodor  Stamm  and  Henry 
George  opened  a  new  vista.  In  1884  his  first 
book,  Auf  Friedlichem  Wege  (By  Peaceful 
Means},  appeared.  In  1887,  with  the  aid  of  a 
friend,  he  founded  the  monthly,  Deutsch  Land, 
and  edited  it  until  1889,  when  it  was  continued 
by  the  German  Land  Nationalization  League 
(Deutsch  er  Bund  f  iir  Bodenbesitz  Reform),  which 
he  had  founded  in  1888.  Besides  this  society,  he 
was  the  originator  of  two  similar  societies,  in 
Switzerland  and  Holland,  and  in  1890  or  1891  he 
became  one  of  the  vice-presidents  of  the  Eng- 
lish Land  Nationalization  Society.  In  1886  he 
published  Deutschland  in  100  Jahren  (Ger- 
many in  a  Hundred  Years),  a  precursor  of  Bel- 
lamy's Looking  Backward  and  the  flood  of 
similar  writings  following  in  its  wake.  In  1889 
he  completed  and  soon  published  Der  Einzige 
Rettungsweg  (The  Only  Way  of  Salvation), 
and  in  1890  he  wrote  in  English,  Rent,  Interest 
and  Wages,  which  appeared  in  1891  (Reeves, 
London).  In  1894  he  published  Bausteine  fur 
Social  Reform  (Building  Stones  for  Social 
Reform).  In  1893  he  went  to  the  United  States 
and  to  Mexico,  to  assist  in  the  foundation  of  a 
cooperative  colony  on  land  nationalization  prin- 
ciples, because  he  thought  a  model  common- 
wealth to  be  one  of  the  most  efficient  means  of 
propaganda.  Tho  a  follower  of  Henry  George 
in  the  general  idea  that  common  land  owner- 
ship is  the  foundation-stone  of  social  reform, 
Mr.  Flurscheim  entirely  differs  from  him  in 
most  other  theories,  and  also  in  regard  to 
George's  proposal  of  the  single  tax,  which  he 
calls  confiscation.  He  prefers  full  land  na- 
tionalization, with  compensation  of  land-owners. 
He  considers  his  most  important  discovery  is 
his  crisis  theory,  which  in  fact  is  a  solution  of 
the  social  problem.  It  was  in  1888  that  he  com- 
pleted this  theory.  To  state  it  in  a  few  words, 
he  holds  that  the  cause  of  commercial  depres- 
sion, of  scarcity  of  work — in  fact,  of  the  modern 
social  problem,  is  that  the  very  rich  neither  con- 
sume the  total  of  their  incomes  nor  do  they  in- 
vest a  great  part  of  their  savings  in  products  of 
work  (machines,  houses,  steamers,  etc.).  They 
mostly  invest  in  spurious  capital,  consisting  of 
nothing  but  tribute  claims  that  give  no  oppor- 
tunity for  work,  but,  on  the  contrary,  by  in- 


creasing the  debts  of  the  people,  keep  back  their 
purchasing  power,  and  thus  prevent  this  power 
from  keeping  pace  with  the  increasing  produc- 
tive power  of  the  world,  without  which  it  must 
be  impossible  to  keep  at  work  all  producers, 
for  we  cannot  produce  if  we  do  not  consume. 

This  spurious  capital,  these  tribute  claims,  have 
their  foundation  mainly  in  private  land  owner- 
ship ;  for  rent  is  the  mother  of  interest  and  com- 
pound interest.  As  long  as  capital  can  invest 
in  land  and  thus  obtain  rent,  it  will  claim  inter- 
est, wherever  otherwise  invested.  When  capital 
can  no  more  purchase  rent,  it  will  be  offered  free 
of  interest  (of  interest  proper — i.e.,  of  interest 
less  risk  premium)  to  labor,  as  the  production  of 
capital,  when  unhampered  by  the  effects  of  pri- 
vate land  ownership,  will  exceed  the  demand, 
and  all  who  save  for  a  rainy  day  and  for  old 
age  will  be  glad  to  obtain  the  advantage  of  hav- 
ing their  savings  preserved  intact  for  the  day 
when  they  need  them. 

One  other  reform  he  proposed  lately,  which , 
tho  he  does  not  think  it  a  fundamental  one,  he 
judges  of  great  importance.  This  is  the  nation- 
alization of  commerce,  the  doing  away  with  all 
middlemen,  and  effecting  direct  exchange  of 
products  through  a  State  department,  that  mo- 
nopolizes it  just  as  letter-delivery  is  monopo- 
lized by  another  department.  He  desires  to 
restrict  individualism  to  production  where  com- 
petition is  a  stimulating  element,  whereas  it 
only  produces  waste  in  distribution.  This  sys- 
tem would  allow  the  introduction  of  another 
reform  which  is  possible  in  this  way— a 
money  reform.  Exchange  could  take  place 
through  warrants  issued  by  the  commercial  de- 
partment, or  checks  drawn  on  the  same,  which 
warrants  are  redeemable  only  in  goods  or  ser- 
vices. Metal  money  would  become  unnecessary 
or  could  be  restricted  to  small  coins. 

He  has  introduced  the  above  three  reform 
principles  into  the  by-laws  of  the  Mexican  col- 
ony, Freeland — i.e.,  common  land  ownership, 
monopolization  of  commerce  (distribution)  by 
the  community,  and  warrant  money. 

FOOD  SUPPLY.— The  science  of  nutrition 
is  yet  in  its  infancy.  The  chemical  standards 
of  nutrition  have  been  mainly  investigated  by 
Professor  Voit  and  others  in  Germany,  by  Sir 
Lyon  Playfair  in  England,  by  Professor  W.  O. 
Atwater,  Mrs.  Ellen  H.  Richards,  and  Mr.  Ed- 
ward Atkinson  in  the  United  States.  (See  ref- 
erences at  the  end  of  this  article.)  The  statis- 
tics of  the  nutritive  values  of  food  have  been 
clearly  presented  by  Professor  Atwater,  while 
Mr.  Atkinson's  invention  of  the  Aladdin  lamp 
has  almost  revolutionized  the  science  of  cook- 
ery, and  is  slowly  coming  into  general  prac- 
tice. The  following  tables  and  account  are 
abridged  from  the  tables  of  Professor  Atwater 
and  the  writings  of  Mr.  Atkinson  : 

The  animal  body  is  a  living  machine,  and, 
like  any  machine,  needs  fuel — i.e.,  food — to  en- 
able it  to  work,  and  also,  as  a  machine  does  not, 
it  needs  fuel  to  keep  it  alive  even  without  work. 
About  one  third  of  the  food  eaten  goes  to  main- 
tain life.  The  main  nutriments  of  the  body  are 
protein,*  fats,  and  carbohydrates.  What  is 

*  Some  chemists  deny  that  there  is  a  substance 
protein,  but  merely  various  proteid  substances. 


Food  Supply. 


618 


Food  Supply. 


called  protein  forms  tissue  (muscles,  tendon,  fat, 
etc  ),  and  serves  as  fuel.  Fats  form  fatty  tissue, 
and  serve  as  fuel.  Carbohydrates  are  trans- 
formed into  fat,  and  serve  as  fuel.  Alcohol 
serves  as  fuel,  but  does  not  form  tissue.  Tea 
and  coffee  do  neither.  The  standard  of  nutri- 
tion for  a  man  at  active  but  not  excessive  work 
is  700  grams  of  actual  nutritive  and  digestible 
material  free  of  water,  450  of  carbohydrates  or 
starch,  150  of  fats,  150  of  protein,  with  such 


mineral  ingredients  as  will  be  found  in  any 
miscellaneous  dietary  in  sufficient  measure. 
These  elements  will  yield  3.520  calories,  the 
calorie  being  the  amount  of  heat  necessary  to 
raise  one  kilo  or  1000  grams  of  water  i°  C.  In 
order  to  make  allowances  for  inevitable  waste, 
we  may  safely  adopt  4000  calories  as  the  aver- 
age units  of  nutrition  for  a  man  at  active  but 
not  excessive  work  for  one  day. 


STANDARDS  FOR  DAILY  DIETARIES. 


Protein. 

Fats. 

Carbo- 
hydrates. 

Total. 

Potential 
Energy. 

Grams. 

28 

Grams. 

Grams. 

Grams. 
180 

Calories.* 

765 

41          26          "       

41         6-15       "      

80 

1,860 

68 

518 

r-,6 

118 

i?6 

674 

695 

English      "      **  moderate  exercise  

"*        active  laborer  

156 

568 

3,630 

185 

568 

824 

80 

80 

460 

560 

2,815 

*l               it    t*    hard  work  

500 

800 

*  A  calorie  is  nearly  the  amount  of  heat  required  to  raise  two  quarts  of  water  i°  P. 


PERCENTAGES    OF    NUTRITIVE    INGREDIENTS,   WATER,    ETC.,    AND    ESTIMATED    POTENTIAL 

ENERGY  IN  FOOD  MATERIALS. 


EDIBLE  PORTIONS  OF  FOOD. 

Water. 

Protein. 

Fats. 

Carbo- 
hydrates. 

Mineral 
Matters. 

Calories  of 
Potential 
Power 
in  i  Ib. 

I 

66  7 

* 

*'      sirloin  

4 

OR    T 

41        leg  

CT     A 

•28  2 

Codfish  

82  6 

ic  8 

9- 

i   4 

71     6 

18  8 

8   2 

fine 

XT     r 



6  o 

1.2 

2.O 

7fo 

87     A 

A     8 

' 

Butter          

o  6 

&A     C 

o  cRe 

' 

R  n 

44       flour  

ii  6 

T-  6 

o  6 

Graham    "    

71   8 

i  8 

62  c 

Rye           "                  

11.7 

fl    1 

•78  i 

Buckwheat  flour  

6  < 

77   6 

*' 

V 

n  ft 

885 

68  i 

fixe 

i  R 

i  6 

Rice     

V5° 

o  8 

Turnips  

6  o 

o  8 

Cabbage  

6  2 

o  6 

o  6 

84  8 

Pears  

8? 

16  i 

o  6 

Alcohol. 

e  8 

88.1 

0.6 

6  8 

Rhine  wine  (red)  

86.9 

French  wine     .  .         

88.3 

8.1 

Sherry     *'              

Food  Supply. 


619 


Food  Supply. 


COST     OP    3000    CALORIES    OBTAINED      FROM 
DIFFERENT  FOOD  MATERIALS. 

Suet  at  6  cts.  a  Ib $4.40 

Potatoes  at  30  cts.  a  bush 5.00 

Corn  meal  at  3  cts.  alb 5.43 

Flour  at  4  cts.  a  Ib    7.26 

Sugar  at  6  cts.  a  Ib 10.41 

Beef  from  shin  and  flank  at  4  cts.  alb 12.00 

Sausage,  bacon,  and  ham  at  12-12%  cts.  a  Ib 12.78 

Beans  and  peas  at  10  cts.  a  quart 13.86 

Rice  at  8  cts.  a  Ib 15.69 

Skimmed  milk  at  2  cts.  a  quart 17.31 

Apples  at  4  cts.  a  quart , .'.  27.30 

Butter  at  35  cts.  a  Ib 30.74 

Milk  at  7  cts.  a  quart    34-74 

Cheese  at  14  cts.  alb 36-33 

Vegetables  at  5  cts.  a  Ib 61.50 

Beef,  medium  fat,  \vith  15  per  cent,  bone,  at  15^ 

cts.  per  Ib 100.00 

Eggs  at  18  cts 106.50 

From  the  above  table,  it  is  clearly  evident 
that  suet,  corn  meal,  and  flour  are,  at  present 
prices,  the  cheapest  kinds  of  food  ;  but  it  must 
not  be  supposed  that  the  above  table  teaches 
that  we  could  live  on  single  articles  of  food — 
suet  alone,  for  example — notwithstanding  it 
would  furnish  the  necessary  energy,  and  is 
cheap.  With  the  exception  of  wheat,  milk, 
eggs,  and  possibly  one  or  two  other  articles,  no 
single  food  contains  all  the  elements  in  the  right 
proportion.  We  need  what  are  called  nitrog- 
enous foods,  among  which  may  be  mentioned 
wheat,  lean  meats,  peas  and  beans.  We  also 
need  energy-producing  foods,  among  which 
may  be  mentioned  suet,  butter,  flour,  corn 
meal,  potatoes,  sugar,  etc.  Besides  these,  we 
still  need  mineral  matter,  usually  obtained  in 
proper  amount  from  the  meats  and  vegetables, 
water  and  air,  as  well  as  flavors  which  make 
things  taste  good. 

With  this  knowledge  of  the  elements  of  nutri- 
tion necessary,  and  of  their  relative  economic 
value,  it  is  possible  in  a  somewhat  scientific  way 
to  provide  for  the  food  supply  of 
the  population.     In  every  city  and 
Scientific     town  much  food  material  goes  to 
Supplying    waste  for  lack  of  time,  and  still 
of  Food,     more  for  lack  of  knowledge  in  pre- 
paring wholesome  dishes.  The  need 
is,  therefore,  being  felt  of  a  central 
station  or  kitchen  to  prepare  food  on  scientific 
principles,  and  distribute  it  daily  by  sale,  as 
bread  and  milk  are  distributed.     In  several  for- 
eign   countries,    notably    Germany,    people's 
kitchens  have  been  established.     In  1890  there 
were   14  Volkskuche  in  Berlin,    which  served 
2,187,807  meals  at  noon,  or  6000  per  day,  428 
to  each  kitchen.     Eighty  per  cent  of  the  meals 
cost  6J  cents  each  ;  14  per  cent,  cost  i^  cents, 
and  6  per  cent,  cost  34  cents.     The  cost  of  run- 
ning each  kitchen  was  $6500  per  year,  but  the 
oversight  was  voluntary.     The    6£-cent  meals 
contained  the  right  proportions,  and  consisted  of 
a  pint  and  a  half  of  soup,  and  three  pieces  of  meat 
or  fish  weighing  6|  oz.     The  dishes  prepared  are 
mainly  beans,  peas,  and  cabbage,  with  meats 
of  different  kinds.     In  January,   1890.  an  at- 
tempt at  the  wholesale  preparation  of  food  was 
begun  in  Boston  under  the  direction  of  Mrs. 
Hinman  Abel.     "  The  Story  of  the  New  Eng- 
land Kitchen"  has  been  interestingly  told,  and 
branches    have   been    opened    in    Providence, 
New  York,  and  elsewhere.     (See  also  COOKING 
SCHOOLS.) 

This  point  of  view  leads  to  the  question  of 


the  available  food  supply  of  nations.     Mr.  At- 
kinson, in  an  address  before  the  American  As- 
sociation for  the  Advancement  of 
Science,   at  Ann    Arbor,   August, 
1885,  argued  that  the  available  sup-    Available 
ply  is  all  but  unlimited.     He  said  :       Supply 
"The  so-called  law  of  population,      of  Food. 
that  population   tends  to   increase 
faster  than  the  means  of  subsistence 
has  no  foundation,  historically,  practically,  nor 
theoretically.     The    Ricardian    theory  of    rent 
will  have  no  basis  whatever. ' '     To  support  this 
statement,  he  argued  for  the  United  States  as 
follows  : 

"  The  area  of  the  Unite  States,  omitting  Alaska,  is  a 
trifle  less  than  3,000,000  square  miles.  In  a  broad  and 
general  way  we  may  assume  that  one  half  this  area  is 
good  arable  land,  or  quarter  good  pasture  land,  and 
one  quarter  forest,  mountain  and  mining  territory.  If 
112,500  square  miles  be  used  for  Indian  corn,  at  25 
bushels  to  an  acre,  it  would  produce  1,800,000,000  bush- 
els. This  is  largely  converted  into  pork  at  the  rate  of 
five  pounds  of  corn  to  one  pound  or  pork.  Assuming 
100,000,000  bushels  thus  converted  and  the  rest  used  for 
human  or  cattle  food,  the  product  of  pork  would  be 
nearly  equal  to  18,500,000  casks  or  its  equivalent  in  bacon; 
60,000,000  square  miles  used  for  wheat,  at  13  bushels  per 
acre,  yields  a  little  over  500,000,000  bushels.  Setting 
aside  an  ample  portion  for  seed,  this  gives  over  80,000,- 
ooo  persons  one  barrel  of  flour  per  year  ;  20,000,000  acres 
of  cotton,  at  the  wretched  average  of  half  a  bale  to  an 
acre,  would  yield  6,400,000  bales  in  a  year  ;  40,000  square 
miles  for  sheep  pasturage,  when  the  cur  dog  is  muzzled, 
could  easily  sustain  102,400,000  sheep,  or  four  sheep  to 
the  acre,  which  at  only  four  pounds  each  would  yield 
as  much  wool  as  we  now  consume  of  all  kinds,  both 
domestic  and  foreign ;  with  60,000  square  miles  for 

Easturage,  at  one  cow  to  two  acres  (and  if  to  the  fodder 
e  added  a  meal  from  the  cotton,  until  recently  almost 
wasted,  a  cow  could  be  supported  on  one  acre),  we 
could  increase  our  rations  of  milk,  eggs,  butter  and 
cheese,  and  still  sustain  19,200,000  cows.  A  large  pro- 
portion of  our  beef  is  now  produced  by  almost  semi- 
barbarous  methods  on  far  distant  plains  ;  with  fitted 
forage  enough  could  be  raised  on  60,000  square  nules 
at  500  pounds  to  an  acre  to  give  nearly  one  pound  of 
beef  to  a  population  of  60,000,000.  It  follows  that  our 
present  crops?  of  corn,  wheat  and  cotton  (1885)  and  a  very 
much  increased  product  of  the  dairy  and  poultry  yard, 
as  well  as  of  meat  and  wool,  could  be  raised  on  352,500 
square  miles,  or  upon  12  per  cent,  of  the  total  area.  If 
intensive  farming  were  adopted  by  men  of  intelligence 
and  with  capital  to  conduct  all  parts  of  the  work  in  a 
reasonably  good  way,  twice  as  much  could  be  raised.  " 

In  Western  Europe,  naturally,  the  food  sup- 
ply is  not  so  good.  Europe,  outside  of  Russia 
and  Turkey,  has  only  about  one  half  the  area 
of  the  United  States,  and  about  eight  times  its 
population.  Great  areas  of  good  land,  too,  in 
England  especially,  are  thrown  out  of  produc- 
tion by  the  land  system,  while  the  people  are 
fed  from  fields  from  5000  to  15,000  miles  distant. 
The  poorer  food  of  the  European  worker  is  one 
chief  cause  of  their  lower  productivity  (g.v.). 
(For  statistics  as  to  the  amounts  and  proportion 
of  income  spent  upon  food  by  the  working  men 
of  various  countries,  see  EXPENDITURES.) 

The  cost  of  food  in  the  United  States  can  be 
seen  by  table  on  the  next  page  prepared  by 
Mr.  Atkinson. 

We  close  this  article  by  a  statement  of  the 
revolution  created  in  the  science  of  food  by  Mr. 
Atkinson's  invention  of  the  Aladdin  oven.  He 
says  : 

"  If  the  present  consumption  of  the  country  be  esti- 
mated by  the  consumption  of  adult  factory  operatives, 
composing  a  large  proportion  of  females  and  a  lesser 
proportion  of  men  customarily  occupied  in  or  about  a 
cotton  factory  in  the  Eastern  or  Middle  States  com- 
bined, the  consumption  will  be  • 


Food  Supply. 


620 


Foreign  Exchange. 


Cents 
per 
Day 

U.  S. 
Population, 
per  Year. 

Meat,  poultry,  and  fish  per  day,  ^ 
to  i  tb        

Milk,  }^  ;  fresh  butter,  i>4  to   i}£ 

Eggs,  i  every  2  days  at  12  cts.  per 

5 

1.98 

Fruit  green  or  dry  

.62 

Salt,  spice,  ice  

Total  

"  It  occurred  to  me  one  day  that  heat  could  be  put 
into  a  box,  kept  there,  and  converted  into  work — the 
work  of  cooking.  What  sort  of  a  box  ?  An  iron  box  ? 
No ;  iron  will  not  hold  the  heat ;  it  wastes  it,  and 
seems  to  cook  the  cook  and  not  the  victuals.  The 
ovens  of  stoves  and  ranges  are  iron  boxes,  and  are, 
therefore,  not  fit  to  be  used.  Why  should  the  iron 
boxes  which  make  the  ovens  of  iron  stoves  and  ranges 
be  ventilated  ?  Because,  in  order  to  cook  food  in  them 
at  all,  such  an  excess  of  heat  must  be  supplied  that 
they  become  fat  boilers,  or  fat-rendering  machines  ; 
the  foul  smells  generated  in  this  process  are  not 
wanted  in  any  house.  ...  In  the  Aladdin  oven,  the 
heat  is  put  into  an  outer  oven  made  of  non-metallic 
and  non-heat-conducting  material,  which  is,  in  fact,  a 
form  of  stiff  paper  made  from  wood  pulp  combined 
with  other  substances.  Inside  is  a  food 
receptacle  nearly  as  large  as  the  outer 
The  Aladdin  oven,  made  of  sheet  metal.  The  heat 
0™.,  passes  around  the  thin  iron  wall  of  the 

inner  oven,  through  which  it  pene- 
trates in  even  measure.  This  inner 
oven  is  closed,  so  that  the  products  of 
combustion  and  the  direct  drying  heat  of  the  lamp 
cannot  enter  it.  It  cooks  any  and  all  kinds  of  food 
material  by  processes  corresponding  to  roasting,  bak- 
ing, simmering,  stewing,  braising,  sauteing,  broiling, 
and  grilling.  It  can  make  omelets  or  griddle  cakes, 
and  with  a  lamp  or  gas  burner  of  high  power  can  fry. 
Breakfast  for  a  family  of  eight  or  ten  can  be  prepared 
more  quickly  in  usual  forms  in  this  oven  by  the  use  of  a 
single  lamp  than  it  can  be  when  it  is  necessary  to  have  a 
fire  in  the  common  stove  of  range.  The  cooking  of  oat- 
meal, cracked  wheat,  hominy,  soups,  meats,  stews,  and 
many  kind  5  of  fruit  can  all  be  done  safely  and  thor- 
oughly at  night.  Dietaries  for  foods  cooked  in  this 
way  are  prepared,  providing  for  the  necessary  ele- 
ments of  customary  nutrition,  at  prices  from  95  cents  to 
$2  per  week.  At  present  the  price  of  life  to  about 
nine-tenths  of  the  people  of  this  land  of  abundance 
comes  to  one  half  or  more  of  their  income.  At  $52  per 
year,  the  food  necessary  to  sustain  50,000,000  adults,  the 
equivalent  of  a  population  of  65,000,000,  could  be  had 
for  $3,250,000,000." 

Revised  by  EDWARD  ATKINSON. 

References  :  The  Science  of  Nutrition  (iSgz),  includ- 
ing A  Treatise  iipon  the  Science,  by  Edward  Atkin- 
son ;  Dietaries  Carefully  Computed,  by  Mrs.  Ellen  H. 
Richards  ;  The  Nutritn'e  Values  of  Food  Materials 
(enlarged  in  subsequent  editions),  collated  from  the 
writings  of  Professor  W.  O.  Atwater.  See  also  a  series 
of  articles  by  Professor  Atwater  in  the  Century,  May, 
1887,  to  May,  1888. 

FOREIGN  EXCHANGE  may  be  defined 
as  the  rate  at  which  bills  of  exchange  or  drafts 
in  one  country  upon  another  are  exchanged  be- 
tween the  two  countries.  If  the  bills  of  ex- 
change drawn  in  one  country  on  another  coun- 
try equal  those  drawn  in  that  other  country 
upon  it,  the  exchange  between  the  two  countries 
is  said  to  be  at  par  ;  but  when  greater  in  one 
country  than  in  the  other,  the  exchange  is  said 
to  be  against  that  place  which  has  the  larger 
remittances  to  make. 

Professor  J.  E.  Symonds  (Political  Economy, 
p.  152)  gives  the  following  popular  explanation  : 


"  As  a  rule,  it  is  in  goods  and  not  in  money  that  na- 
tions pay  for  whatever  they  import.  Suppose  that  of 
three  countries  (A,  B,  and  C),  A  imported  goods  to  the 
value  of  £1,000,000  from  B,  and  B  imported  goods 
to  the  same  value  from  C,  and  C  from  A.  If  the  im- 
ports were  paid  for  in  gold,  it  would  be  necessary  to 
send  .£3,000,000  in  gold  to  discharge  the  liabilities,  and,  • 
in  the  end,  it  would  be  found  that  each  country  had 
neither  more  nor  less  of  gold  than  at  the  beginning  ; 
for  each  would  have  sent  and  received  .£1,000,000.  The 
cost  and  risk  of  sending  all  this  bullion  could  evidently 
be  avoided  if  all  the  debtors  had  paid  in  their  debts  to 
some  merchant  in  their  own  country,  and  that  mer- 
chant had  then  paid  the  creditors  in  that  country. 
This  is  what  is  practically  done,  only  that  instead  of  a 
single  merchant  in  each  country  acting  as  intermedi- 
ary, the  work  is  done  by  various  bill-brokers,  who  buy 
and  sell  bills  of  exchange,  which  are  practically  orders 
to  pay,  drawn  on  the  several  debtors  by  their  cred- 
itors. People  get  what  is  due  to  them  by  selling  such 
bills  to  a  broker;  they  pay  what  they  owe  by  buying 
similar  bills.  The  broker  gets  a  small  commission, 
and  the  debts  are  discharged  without  any  bullion  pass- 
ing from  country  to  country.  Hitherto  we  have  been 
speaking  of  countries  which  owe  the  same  amount, 
that  they  are  entitled  to  receive,  tho  their  debtors  and 
creditors  may  be  very  unequally  distributed  among 
foreign  countries.  In  practice,  on  course,  this  equality 
of  debts  and  claims  seldom  exists,  and  we  have  next 
to  ask  what  modifications  of  the  system  are  introduced 
in  consequence  of  the  inequality.  Let  us  suppose  the 
total  debts  due  from  English  to  Australian  merchants 
amount  to  ,£7,000,000,  and  the  total  due  from  Austra- 
lians to  Englishmen  amount  to  .£5,000,000.  If  we  ex- 
clude from  consideration  all  other  countries,  we  see 
that  it  is  possible  to  cancel  ,£5,000,000  of  English  in- 
debtedness against  the  Australian  indebtedness  in  the 
manner  we  have  described  above.  This  would  save 
the  cost  and  risk  of  sending  ,£12,000,000  half  round  the 
world;  but  there  are  still  .£2,000,000  to  be  sent.  ...  In 

Eractice  the  amount  would  be  sent  by  English  brokers  ; 
ut  they  would  charge  a  premium,  in  addition  to  their 
commission,  in  return  for  the  service  they  were  ren- 
dering to  the  English  debtors  ;  on  the  other  hand,  the 
brokers  would  be  willing  to  pay  some  premium  to  each 
Australian  debtor  who  buys  from  them,  for  such  a  bill 
diminishes  the  amount  of  the  balance  that  has  to  be 
sent  to  Australia.  In  the  case  we  have  mentioned,  the 
rate  of  exchange  is  said  to  be  against  England.  The 

Ehrase  simply  means  that  people  must  pay  a  premium 
jr  the  convenience  of  bills  payable  in  Australia,  in 
addition  to  the  broker's  commission  and  the  nominal 
value  of  the  bill,  and  the  explanation  of  this  necessity 
lies  in  the  fact  that  they  are  increasing  the  amount  of 
bullion  that  has  to  be  sent  half  round  the  world.  .  .  . 

"  The  rate  of  exchange,  as  explained  above,  is  due 
to  the  balance  of  indebtedness.  If,  however,  the  cur- 
rency of  either  country  is  debased  (say,  by  the  use  of 
unconvertible  paper),  there  will  of  course  be  a  modi- 
fication of  the  rate  of  exchange,  since  the  nominal  debt, 
reckoned  in  the  debased  currency,  will  be  greater  than 
if  it  were  reckoned  in  gold.  It  is  therefore  usual  to 
employ  the  expression  real  exchange  for  that  which 
grows  out  of  the  balance  of  indebtedness  ;  and  to  speak 
of  the  nominal  exchange  when  referring  to  variations 
due  to  the  condition  of  the  currency. 

"If  the  relation  between  two  countries  were  simply 
that  of  buying  and  selling,  and  if  all  payments  were 
made  in  bullion,   each  country's  imports  and  exports 
would  be  of  the  same  value.     This  is  implied  in  the 
very  nature  of  a  sale.     If  the   only  relation  between 
England  and  America  was  that  we  bought  cotton  and 
meat  to  the  value  of  £5,000,000,  and  sold  steel  rails  to  the 
value  of  ,£3,000,000  ;  and  if  the  excess  were  paid  for  in 
gold,  it  is  evident  that  exactly  £2,000,000  would  have  to 
be  sent  in  gold.     In  other  words,  a  country's  imports, 
including  bullion,  are  exactly  equal  to  its  exports,   so 
far  as  these  grow  simply  out  of  direct  sales.     But  as  a 
matter  of  fact  -we  do  not  find  this  equality.    The  im- 
ports of  the  United   Kingdom  greatly  exceed   its  ex- 
ports.   Taking,  for  instance,  the  year  1886,  we  find  that 
the  excess  was  over  £80,000,000.     In  1883 
it  was  over  £120,000,000 ;  and  altho  the 
excess  varies  from  year  to  year,   it  al-      Excess  of 
ways  amounts  to  a  gigantic  sum.    Many  7™.,,,,.+!,  OVpr 
people    regard    this    fact    with    alarm.  ln£lor 
They  say,  in  effect :  '  We  are  in  the  po-      H-XpOrtS. 
sition   of  a  man    living   beyond   his  in- 
come, of  a  manufacturer  who  habitually 
buys  more  than  he  can  sell.     We  must  be    either  run- 
ning into  debt,  or  steadily  trenching  upon  our  capital.*" 
In  reality,  however,   we  are   doing  neither  of  these 
things.    A  manufacturer  may  buy  more  than  he  sells, 
and  yet  not  be  advancing  toward  ruin.     His  income 


Foreign  Exchange. 


621 


Forestry. 


may  be  partly  derived  from  gifts  (say  from  a  son  in 
the  colonies),  and  partly  from  the  interest  on  some  capi- 
tal he  has  invested,  and  partly  from  the  remuneration 
for  services  he  is  rendering-  (say  in  carrying  the  goods 
of  some  other  tradesman).  Now  England  is  in  the 
position  of  such  a  manufacturer.  .  .  .  In  order  to  make 
this  clearer,  let  us  take  in  turns  the  three  sources  of 
income  we  have  referred  to  : 

"(i)  Gifts. — A  youth  has  crossed  the  Atlantic  and 
prospered  as  a  colonist.  He  sends  £2.0  a  year  to  the 
old  folks  at  home.  He  sends  it  in  the  form  of  a  bit  of 
paper,  which  is  in  effect  an  order  on  some  English 
banker.  But,  as  we  have  already  seen,  it  is  by  no 
means  certain  that  any  gold  will  be  sent  from  America 
to  pay  the  remittance.  It  may  be  more  profitable  to 
send  cotton.  This  ranks,  of  course,  as  an  import  into 
the  United  Kingdom,  and  accounts  for  a  portion  of  that 
excess  which  some  people  regard  with  horror.  In 
reality  it  is  a  free  gift,  a  pure  increase  to  the  wealth 
of  England. 

"  (2)  Interest  on  foreign  investments. — The  same 
considerations  apply  to  this  source  of  national  income. 
Englishmen  have  invested  money  in  foreign  railways. 
They  receive  their  interest  nominally  in  money.  But 
what  actually  comes  to  England  may  be  any  of  the 
products  of  the  indebted  country.  It  swells  the  excess 
of  imports,  and  is  an  enriching,  not  an  impoverishing 
of  the  country. 

"(3)  Payment  for  services  not  embodied  in  commodi- 
ties.— This  item  is  more  analogous  to  ordinary  trade. 
When  a  country  sends  exports  to  pay  for  imports,  it  is 
really  exchanging  services  for  services.  There  is  a 
simirkr  exchange  when  the  services  rendered  by 
either  country  are  not  embodied  in  commodities.  Sup- 
pose America  sent  us  only  cotton,  and  received  from 
us  only  cotton  goods,  but  that  the  trade  was  all  carried 
on  by  Englishmen,  in  English  vessels,  it  is  plain  that 
the  cotton  would  have  to  remunerate  not  only  our 
manufacturers,  but  also  our  shipbuilders  and  sailors. 
There  would  be  an  excess  of  imports  over  exports." 

The  main  causes  for  fluctuations  in  exchange 
value  are  the  balance  of  trade  between  different 
countries.  If  dealers  in  one  country,  A,  sell  in 
another,  B,  goods  of  more  value  than  dealers 
in  B  sell  in  A,  the  balance  of  trade  is  said  to  be 
against  B.  Consequently  quotations  in  A  for 
the  notes  of  B  declines.'  But  B  may  owe  an- 
other country,  C,  money  in  trade,  and  C  may 
owe  A.  Hence  bills  of  C  drawn  on  B  may  be 
sent  to  A,  and  so  the  former  depression  of  the 
money  of  B  in  A  is  balanced  by  the  depression 
of  the  money  of  A  in  B.  Foreign  exchanges 
thus  play  a  large  part  in  settling  the  debts  of 
one  country  to  another. 

Again,  money  goes  where  it  is  of  greatest 
value.  If  the  discount  in  one  country  rises, 
money  tends  to  go  there.  If  in  any  country 
there  is  lack  of  confidence,  money  is  sent  away 
for  safe  keeping-.  If  in  any  country  merchan- 
dise and  securities  are  depressed,  money  tends 
to  go  there  to  purchase  them  unless  there  is  too 
great  a  lack  of  confidence. 

Palgrave's  Dictionary  of  Political  Economy 
gives  the  following  axioms  as  controlling  the 
rate  of  exchange  : 

"(i)  The  current  rate  of  exchange  is  the  price  of  a  bill 
of  exchange.  (2)  This  is  governed  by  the  ordinary 
laws  of  supply  and  demand.  (3)  The  rate  of  exchange  • 
at  A  for  checks  on  B  tend  to  correspond  with  the 
rate  at  B  for  checks  on  A.  (4)  Most  bills  are  drawn 
at  usuance,  varying  from  jo  days  to  six  months,  and 
the  usual  exchange  quotation  applies  to  bills  at  usu- 
ance. (5)  As  the  bills  on  London  vastly  outnumber 
those  drawn  on  abroad  from  London,  the  demand  and 
supply  of  the  former  exercises  a  proportionately 
greater  influence  over  the  course  of  the  exchange— i.e., 
the  actual  rise  or  fall  takes  place  on  the  foreign  mar- 
ket, and  London  usually  merely  adjusts  its  rates  by  the 
telegraphed  quotations.  (6)  In  those  countries  where 
the  value  of  the  currency  oscillates  in  relation  to  gold, 
the  exchange  is  subject  to  two  sets  of  fluctuations,  the 
fluctuations  of  exchange  proper  and  the  fluctuations  in 
the  value  of  the  currency.  See  VALUE  ;  GOLD  ;  SILVER. 


FORESTRY  is  the  art  of  planting,  cultivat- 
ing, and  maintaining  forests.  The  important 
part  played  by  wood  in  modern  life,  coupled 
with  the  fact  that  the  supply  of  wood  is  de- 
pendent upon  the  slow  growth  of  trees,  so  that 
the  supply  for  one  generation  depends  upon  the 
action  taken  by  a  preceding  generation,  makes 
it  unsafe  to  leave  forestry  to  the  play  of  indi- 
vidual interests.  Consequently  all  civilized 
governments  appoint  forestry  commissions  or 
departments  to  see  that  existing  forests  are  not 
wasted,  and  the  supply  carefully  maintained.  In 
the  United  States,  with  our  once  seemingly  inex- 
haustible supply,  little  in  this  direction  has  been 
done  until  recently,  and  even  now  those  who 
are  informed  declare  that  we  have  as  yet  by  no 
means  taken  adequate  measures. 

According  to  the  chief  of  the  Forestry  Divi- 
sion of  the  Department  of  Agriculture,  the  total 
forest  area  of  the  United  States  (exclusive  of 
Alaska  and  Indian  reservations)  is  495,000,000 
acres.  He  states  that  at  the  present  rate  of  cut- 
ting, the  remainder  of  forest  land  in  the  United 
States  cannot  long  meet  the  enormous  demands 
on  its  resources.  Of  the  two  most  important 
timbers  for  building  purposes,  the  merchantable 
white  pine  of  the  Northwest  and  of  New  Eng- 
land is  practically  gone,  very  little  remaining, 
and  there  remains  of  the  merchantable  long- 
leaf  pine  of  the  South  only  about  1,500,000,000 
cu.  ft.  The  valuable  ash  will  probably  be  the 
first  to  be  exhausted.  Walnut  and  tulip  trees 
are  also  on  the  wane. 

The  present  annual  requirements  for  con- 
sumption of  forest  products  in  the  United  States 
are,  approximately,  over  24,000,000,000  cu.  ft., 
made  up  of  the  following  items  :  Lumber  mar- 
ket and  manufactures,  5,000,000,000  cu.  ft.  ; 
railroad  construction,  600,000  ooo  cu.  ft.  ;  char- 
coal, 250,000,000  cu.  ft.  ;  fences,  500,000,000  cu. 
ft.  ;  fuel,  18,000,000,000  cu.  ft.  ;  mining  timber, 
150,000,000  cu.  ft. 

According  to  Mr.  J.  E.  Jones,  writing  in  the 
Cosmopolitan,  not  less  than  45,000,000  acres 
are  cut  over  annually.  Fires,  however,  are  the 
worst  foes  of  American  forests.  They  have 
been  estimated  to  destroy  $12,000,000  of  woods 
annually.  In  1894  this  is  said  to  have  been  lost 
in  Minnesota  and  Wisconsin  alone.  Railroads 
have  done  much  harm  cutting  timber  right  and 
left.  Settlers  have  taken  much  in  spite  of  vari- 
ous congressional  laws.  (See  PUBLIC  DOMAIN.) 
An  American  Forestry  Association  (formerly 
Congress),  composed  of  delegates  from  all  the 
States,  was  founded  in  1881  and  meets  an- 
nually. 

By  act  of  March  3,  1891,  the  President  is  au- 
thorized to  make  public  forest  reservations.  Sev- 
enteen such,  comprising  17,500,000  acres,  have 
been  established  in  Colorado,  New  Mexico,  Cali- 
fornia, Arizona,  Wyoming,  Oregon,  Washing- 
ton, and  others  are  under  consideration.  A  bill 
to  provide  a  systematic  forest  administration 
for  these  was  passed  in  both  houses  of  the  last 
Congress,  but  failed  to  become  law. 

Some  of  the  States  have  passed  forestry  laws, 
and  arbor  days  (q.v.)  have  been  generally  es- 
tablished ;  yet  by  no  means  is  enough  being 
done.  Germany,  France,  and  Switzerland  are 
largely  increasing  their  government  forest  lands, 
and  they  bring  in  considerable  revenue. 


Foundling  Hospitals. 


622 


Fourier  and  Fourierism. 


References :  A  Monograph  of  the  American  Eco- 
nomic Association  in  May,  1891  ;  also  Reports  of  the  De- 
partment of  Agriculture. 

FOUNDLING  HOSPITALS.— In  ancient 
times  infanticide,  at  least  by  exposure,  was  fre- 
quent. Aristotle  and  Pliny  the  elder  defended 
it.  Institutions  for  the  rescuing  of  exposed  chil- 
dren do  not  seem  to  have  been  wholly  unknown, 
but  the  first  foundling  hospital,  or  hospital  for 
the  receipt  of  infants  abandoned  by  their  par- 
ents, appears  to  have  been  established  by  the 
bishop  at  Treves  in  the  sixth  century.  The  first 
authenticated  one  is  that  at  Milan,  probably 
established  in  obedience  to  Article  LXX.  of  the 
Council  of  Nice.  This  was  copied  elsewhere, 
the  usual  way  being  to  receive  the  infants  in  a 
marble  basin  in  front  of  the  cathedral.  In  the 
Middle  Ages,  foundling  hospitals  existed  in  all 
the  large  continental  cities,  tho  the  system  was 
early  abolished  in  Germany.  In  France  it  was 
early  condemned  as  leading  to  vice,  but  defend- 
ed as  preventing  infanticide,  and  continued. 
The  revolutionary  government  of  France  in 
1790  called  such  children  enfants  de  la  patrie, 
and  decreed  that  every  pregnant  girl  should 
receive  a  premium  of  $24.  This  was  abolished 
in  1811,  but  foundling  hospitals  maintained. 
They  exist  in  large  numbers  in  France  and 
Spain,  and  to  a  less  extent  in  other  countries. 
Those  in  Russia  are  the  largest.  The  medieval 
device  long  used  in  France,  and  perhaps  still 
used  there  in  some  parts  of  the  country,  consist- 
ed of  a  double  cradle.  When  the  child  had  been 
placed  in  the  cradle  on  the  outside  of  the  build- 
ing, the  contrivance  was  revolved,  ringing  a 
bell  as  it  turned.  By  this  process  the  child  was 
placed  in  the  institution  and  another  cradle  was 
waiting  at  once  for  the  next  comer.  The  pur- 
pose of  these  "  tours"  was  to  make  it  so  easy 
to  get  rid  of  babies  that  there  might  be  no 
temptation  to  infanticide.  The  agitation  for  the 
abolition  of  this  system  of  admission  was  bitter- 
ly resisted,  Lamartine  ^peaking  of  it  as  a  case 
of  ' '  figures  vs.  humanity. ' '  When  the  tours 
had  been  suppressed  in  some  of  the  depart- 
ments, attention  was  called  to  the  fact  that  in- 
fanticide increased  thereafter.  But  further  ex- 
amination of  the  statistics  showed  that  infanti- 
cide had  also  increased  in  those  departments 
where  the  tours  were  still  in  operation  ;  in  fact, 
it  had  increased  faster  in  the  latter  than  in  the 
former.  From  1869-73  there  were  received 
5076  infants,  of  whom  2037  died. 

A  cradle  was  formerly  placed  in  the  vestibule, 
in  which  infants  could  be  placed  without  ob- 
servation from  those  inside.  At  last,  however, 
they  began  to  come  two  or  three  in  a  single 
night  ;  so  now  the  cradle  is  put  inside  the  door, 
and  an  applicant  must  ring  the  bell.  If  a  moth- 
er brings  her  child,  she  is  asked  to  stay  and 
nurse  her  child  and  another.  If  she  refuses, 
she  is  allowed  to  depart  without  further  ques- 
tion, leaving  the  infant.  Perhaps  a  majority  of 
foundling  hospitals  in  the  United  States  make 
no  adequate  investigation  as  to  the  parenthood. 
The  general  opinion  of  those  most  scientifically 
studying  the  care  of  dependent  children  is 
growing  strongly  against  foundling  hospitals 
and  in  favor  of  receiving  abandoned  or  needy 
children  and  placing  them  in  families. 

The  Massachusetts  State  Board  of   Lunacy 


and  Charity,  following  the  example  of  the 
Massachusetts  Infant  Asylum,  boards  out  in- 
fants in  the  country  villages  about  Boston,  plac- 
ing them  with  women  who  bring  them  up  by 
artificial  feeding.  About  $10  per  month  is  paid 
for  the  board  of  each  child,  and  clothing  is  fur- 
nished by  the  officials.  (See  DEPENDENT  CHIL- 
DREN.) 

FOURIER  AND   FOURIERISM.— Fran- 

C.ois  Charles  Marie  Fourier  was  born  at  Besan- 
§on  in  1772.  Well  educated  and  much  trav- 
eled, but  losing  his  property  in  the  Revolution, 
he  served  two  years  in  the  army,  and  later  en- 
tered business  in  Lyons.  In  1803  he  published 
an  article  on  European  politics.  Becoming  in- 
terested in  social  questions,  he  published  anony- 
mously his  TMorie  des  Quatre  Mouvements 
(2  vols.,  1808).  He  believed  that  the  full  indul- 
gence of  human  nature,  with  all  its  passions, 
would  produce  happiness  and  virtue.  Society 
he  would  harmoniously  organize  in  groups 
(phalanxes)  of  1600  persons,  to  inhabit  a  phal- 
anstery, a  certain  proportion  to  do  one  kind  of 
work,  others  other  kinds,  and  to  regulate  their 
time  so  as  to  harmoniously  develop  all  sides  of 
life.  In  1812  the  death  of  his  mother  put  him 
in  possession  of  a  small  sum  of  money,  with 
which  he  retired  to  Bellay  in  order  to  perfect 
his  second  work.  The  Trait 4  de  r  Association 
Agricole  Domestique  was  published  in  two 
volumes  at  Paris  in  1822,  and  a  summary  ap- 
peared in  the  following  year.  After  its  publi- 
cation, the  author  proceeded  to  Paris  in  the 
hope  that  some  wealthy  capitalist  might  be  in- 
duced to  attempt  the  realization  of  the  project- 
ed scheme.  Later,  he  became  in  Paris  clerk  in 
an  American  firm.  In  1829  he  published  Le 
Nouveau  Monde  Industriel.  In  1831  he  at- 
tacked the  school  of  St.  Simon  (q.v.}.  He  now 
began  to  gain  followers,  particularly  Victor 
Considerant  (g.v.),  who  published  in  1834  his 
Destinee  Sociale^  the  most  important  work  of 
this  school.  In  1832  a  newspaper  was  attempt- 
ed, and,  with  many  interruptions,  published, 
till  it  was  suppressed  in  1850.  In  1832  Baudet 
Dulary  became  a  convert,  and  proceeded  to  es- 
tablish a  phalanstery  at  Conde  sur  Vesgre,  but  it 
soon  failed. 

Not  discouraged,  Fourier  lived  in  the  expec- 
tation that  some  rich  man  would  appear  and 
carry  out  his  ideas.  He  announced  that  he 
would  be  at  home  every  day  at  a  certain  hour 
to  receive  the  rich  man,  and  is  said  to  have 
done  so  each  day  till  his  death  in  1837. 

Fourierism  has  been  frequently  described, 
sometimes  in  ridicule,  sometimes  in  admiration. 
Henry  James,  Sr.,  says  of  Fourier's  writings  : 

"  Every  one  who  trusts  in  a  living  and  therefore  ac- 
tive God,  in  that  God  who  is  quite  as  active  and  origi- 
nal in  our  day  as  He  was  6000  years  ago— in  short, 
every  one  whose  hope  for  humanity  is  alert,  behooves 
to  acquaint  himself  forthwith  with  the  marvelous 
literature  of  socialism.  You  will  doubtless  find  things 
of  an  apostolic  hardness  to  the  understanding ;  you 
will  find  many  things  to  startle,  many  things  perhaps 
to  disgust  you  ;  but  you  will  find  vastly  more,  both  in 
the  way  of  criticism  and  of  constructive  science,  to 
satisfy  and  invigorate  your  understanding,  while  such 
glimpses  will  open  on  every  hand  of  God's  ravishing 
harmonies  yet  to  ensue  on  earth,  that  your  imagina- 
tion will  fairly  ache  with  contentment  and  plead  to  be 
let  off." 

John  Stuart  Mill  says  (Political  Economy \ 
Book  II.,  chap,  i.,  sec.  4) : 


Fourier  and  Fourierism. 


623 


Fourier  and  Fourierism. 


"  The  most  skilfully  combined,  and  with  the  greatest 
foresight  of  objections,  of  all  the  forms  of  socialism,  is 
that  commonly  known  as  Fourierism.  This  system 
does  not  contemplate  the  abolition  of  private  property, 
nor  even  of  inheritance  ;  on  the  contrary,  it  avowedly 
takes  into  consideration,  as  an  element  in  the  distribu- 
tion of  the  produce,  capital  as  well  as  labor.  It  pro- 
poses that  the  operations  of  industry  should  be  carried 
on  by  associations  of  about  2000  members,  combining 
their  labor  on  a  district  of  about  a  square  league  in 
extent,  under  the  guidance  of  chiefs  selected  by  them- 
selves. In  the  distribution,  a  certain  minimum  is  first 
assigned  for  the  subsistence  of  every  member  of  the 
community,  whether  capable  or  not  of  labor.  The  re- 
mainder or  the  produce  is  shared  in  certain  propor- 
tions, to  be  determined  beforehand,  among  the  three 
elements,  labor,  capital,  and  talent.  The  capital  of 
the  community  may  be  owned  in  unequal  shares  by 
different  members,  who  would  in  that  case  receive,  as 
in  any  other  joint-stock  company,  the  proportional 
dividends.  The  claim  of  each  person  on  the  share  of 
the  produce  apportioned  to  talent  is  estimated  by  the 
grade  or  rank  which  the  individual  occupies  in  the 
several  groups  of  laborers  to  which  he  or  she  belongs, 
these  grades  being  in  all  cases  conferred  by  the 
choice  of  his  or  her  companions.  The 
remuneration,  when  received,  would 
Fonrierism  Pot  °^  necessity  be  expended  or  enjoyed 
xouriensiu.  jn  common  ;  there  would  be  separate 
manages  for  all  who  preferred  them, 
and  no  other  community  of  living  is 
contemplated  than  that  all  the  members  of  the  as- 
sociation should  reside  in  the  same  pile  of  buildings, 
for  saving  of  labor  and  expense,  not  only  in  building, 
but  in  every  branch  of  domestic  economy  ;  and  in 
order  that,  the  whole  of  the  buying  and  selling  opera- 
tions of  the  community  being  performed  by  a  single 
agent,  the  enormous  portion  of  the  produce  of  indus- 
try now  carried  off  by  the  profits  of  mere  distributors 
might  be  reduced  to  the  smallest  amount  possible.  .  . 
"  According  to  the  Fourierists,  scarcely  any  kind  of 
useful  labor  is  naturally  and  necessarily  disagreeable, 
unless  it  is  either  regarded  as  dishonorable,  or  is  im- 
moderate in  degree,  or  destitute  of  the  stimulus  of 
sympathy  and  emulation.  Excessive  toil  need  not, 
they  contend,  be  undergone  by  any  one,  in  a  society  in 
which  there  would  be  no  idle  class  and  no  labor 
wasted,  as  so  enormous  an  amount  of  labor  is  now 
wasted,  in  useless  things,  and  where  full  advantage 
would  be  taken  of  the  power  of  association,  both  in  in- 
creasing the  efficiency  of  production  and  in  economiz- 
ing consumption.  The  other  requisites  for  rendering 
labor  attractive  would,  they  think,  be  found  in  the 
execution  of  all  labor  by  social  groups,  to  any  number 
of  which  the  same  individual  might  simultaneously 
belong,  at  his  or  her  own  choice  ;  their  grade  in  each 
being  determined  by  the  degree  of  service  which  they 
were  found  capable  of  rendering,  as  appreciated  by 
the  suffrages  of  their  comrades.  It  is  inferred,  from 
the  diversity  of  tastes  and  talents,  that  every  member 
of  the  community  would  be  attached  to  several 
groups,  employing  themselves  in  various  kinds  of  oc- 
cupation, some  bodily,  others  mental,  and  would  be 
capable  of  occupying  a  high  place  in  some  one  or 
more  ;  so  that  a  real  equality,  or  something  more  near- 
ly approaching  to  it  than  might  at  first  be  supposed, 
would  practically  result :  not  from  the  compression, 
but,  on  the  contrary,  from  the  largest  possible  devel- 
opment, of  the  various  natural  superiorities  residing 
in  each  individual. 

"  Even  from  so  brief  an  outline,  it  must  be  evident 
that  this  system  does  no  violence  to  any  of  the  general 
laws  by  which  human  action,  even  in  the  present  im- 
perfect state  of  moral  and  intellectual  cultivation,  is 
influenced,  and  that  it  would  be  extremely  rash  to 
pronounce  it  incapable  of  success,  or  unfitted  to  real- 
ize a  great  part  of  the  hopes  founded  on  it  by  its  par- 
tisans." 

Says  Professor  R.  T.  Ely  (French  ana  Ger- 
man Socialism,  p.  91-94) : 

"  The  central  idea  of  Fourier's  social  scheme  is  assp 
ciation.    The  all-pervading  attraction  which  he  dis- 
covered draws  man  to  man  and  reveals  the  will  of 
God.    It  is  passionate  attraction — attraction  passion- 
nelle.    It  urges  men  to  union.    This  law  of  attraction 
is  universal  and  eternal,  but  men  have  thrown  ob- 
stacles in  its  way  so  that  it  has  not  had 
free  course.      Consequently,    we   have 
His  System,  been  driven  into  wrong  and  abnormal 
paths.    When  we  return  to  right  ways— 
when  we  follow  the  directions  given  us 
by  attraction,  as  indicated  in  our  twelve  passions  or  de- 
sires—universal harmony  will  again  reign.    Economic 


goods— an  indispensable  condition  of  human  develop- 
ment— will  be  obtained  in  abundance.  Products  will 
be  increased  manyfold,  owing,  first,  to  the  operation 
of  the  passion  to  labor  and  to  benefit  society  ;  second- 
ly, to  the  economy  of  associated  effort.  ... 

"  A  social  organization  must  be  formed  which  will 
allow  free  play  to  our  passions,  so  that  they  may  com-> 
bine  harmoniously.  Our  present  society,  called  civili- 
zation, does  not,  and  cannot,  do  this.  It  is  a  system 
of  oppression  and  repression,  and  is  necessarily  a 
frightful  discord.  Harmony  can  only  be  found  in  com- 
binations of  suitable  numbers  in  communities  known 
as  phalanxes,  and  occupying  buildings  called  phalan- 
steries. Each  phalanx  is  a  unit,  a  great  family,  and 
dwells  in  a  single  building,  a  phalanstery.  What  is  it 
that  determines  the  proper  number  for  a  single 
phalanx  ?  It  is  again  the  twelve  passions  of  man. 
These  can  be  combined  in  820  different  ways  in  as 
many  individuals,  and  no  possible  combination  ought 
to  be  unrepresented  in  the  workers  of  any  phalanx,  or 
there  will  be  a  lack  of  perfect  harmony.  But  in  every 
community  there  will  be  found  old  men,  infants,  and 
those  disabled  on  account  of  illness  or  accident.  Pro- 
vision must  also  be  made  for  absences.  There  ought 
not,  then,  to  be  less  than  1500  or  1600  members  in  a 
phalanx,  tho  400  is  mentioned  as  a  possible  but  unde- 
sirable minimum ;  1800  to  2000  members  are  recom- 
mended. A  larger  number  would  produce  discord,  and 
is,  therefore,  inadmissible.  But  a  further  arrange- 
ment is  necessary.  These  different  characters  thrown 
together  helter-skelter  would  no  more  produce  har- 
mony than  it  would  for  one  blindfolded  to  draw  from 
a  bag  2000  combinations  of  notes  for  the  piano  and 
play  them  in  the  order  in  which  they  were  drawn.  On 
the  contrary,  they  must  be  ordered  intelligently  in 
series,  the  series  combined  into  groups,  and  the  groups 
into  the  phalanx." 

But  when  Fourier  fell  to  arranging  his  phalanx 
he  let  his  ideas  run  away  with  him  into  amus- 
ing absurdities.  He  maintained  that  if  Eng- 
land would  introduce  his  phalanxes  her  labor 
would  become  so  productive  that  she  could  pay 
off  her  national  debt  in  six  months  by  the  sale 
of  hens'  eggs.  He  would  divide  the  time  in 
his  phalanxes  into  fixed  mathematical  divisions, 
allotting  certain  periods  for  study,  for  wprk, 
for  amusements,  for  love-making,  etc.  He 
thought  that  his  mathematical  harmonies  en- 
abled him  to  understand  the  world  and  the  uni- 
verse. The  chief  of  a  phalanx  is  a  unarch. 
The  next  highest  officer  is  at  the  head  of  three 
or  four  phalanxes,  and  is  called  a  duarch.  Tri- 
archs,  tetrarchs,  pentarchs,  etc.,  follow  :  while 
the  highest  officer  of  the  world  is  the  omniarch, 
who  dwells  at  Constantinople,  the  capital  of  the 
world. 

The  duration  of  the  human  race  on  earth,  he 
held,  would  be  80,000  years,  divided  into  two 
periods  of  ascending  and  two  of  descending 
vibrations.  Lions  would  be  taught  to  draw 
wagons,  as  a  symbol  of  the  victory  of  man  over 
nature.  His  conception  of  the  relation  of  the 
sexes,  altho  giving  vent  to  some  noble  thoughts 
about  the  freedom  of  woman,  was,  to  say  the 
least,  contrary  to  conventional  views,  and,  ac- 
cording to  some,  utterly  gross  and  immoral. 
Such  are  some  of  the  fantasies  that  mingled 
with  Fourier's  profound  thoughts.  On  his 
tombstone  were  inscribed  words  which  were 
considered  to  give  the  key  to  his  whole  system  : 

"  Les  attractions  sont  proportioned  aux  destinies, 
La  serie  distribue  les  harmonies." 

Fourierism  from  1840-50  swept  over  the 
United  States  like  a  wave.  Brisbane  presented 
its  ideas  in  his  Social  Destiny  of  Man.  Horace 
Greeley  opened  the  columns  of  the  New  York 
Tribune  to  its  teachings.  Phalanxes  were  orga- 
nized by  the  dozen.  The  North  American  pha- 
lanx had  a  capital  of  $8000,  and  endured  twelve 


Fourier  and  Fourierism. 


624 


France  and  Social  Reform. 


years.  Brook  Farm  (q.v.)  became  a  Fourier  - 
ite  phalanx.  By  1855,  however,  all  had  disap- 
peared. The  Familistere  at  Guise,  erected  by 
Godin  (q.v.)  in  France,  is  the  only  existing 
monument  of  Fourierism  save  the  ideas  in  his 
works.  (See  SOCIALISM.) 

FRANCE    AND    SOCIAL    REFORM.— 

Referring  the  reader  to  various  articles  for  de- 
tails, we  give  here  a  summary  of  statistical  in- 
formation, and  of  the  development  of  social  re- 
form in  France. 

I.   STATISTICS. 

France,  a  republic  since  the  overthrow  of  Napoleon 
III.,  September  4,  1870,  vests  its  executive  power  in  a 
President  and  Ministry,  and  its  legislative  power  in  a 
Senate  and  Chamber  of  Deputies.  The  President  is 
elected  for  seven  years  by  the  Senate  and  Deputies 
united.  He  selects  his  Ministry  from  the  Chamber,  and 
appoints  to  all  civil  and  military  posts.  With  the  consent 
ot'  the  Senate  he  can  dissolve  the  Chamber  of  Deputies. 
The  deputies  are  elected  for  four  years  by  the  votes 
of  all  males  over  21  who  have  resided 
six  months  in  one  commune.  (See  ELEC- 
Constitution.  TIONS.)  The  Chamber  has  584  deputies, 
representing,  in  1893, 10,446,178  inscribed 
electors.  The  Senate  has  300  members 
elected  for  nine  years  from  citizens  40  years  old,  one 
third  retiring  every  third  year.  They  are  chosen  by 
an  electoral  body  of  delegates  of  the  municipal  coun- 
cil of  each  commune  and  the  deputy  councilors,  gen- 
eral and  district  councilors.  The  Senate  and  Cham- 
ber assemble  every  January,  and  must  remain  in  ses- 
sion; at  least  5  months  out  of  12.  Senators  and  deputies 
are  paid  $1800  per  year,  with  free  travel  on  State 
railways.  France  is  divided  into  87  departments  (3  in 
Algeria),  with  36.144  communes.  The  commune  is 
under  a  municipal  council  and  each  department  under 
a  prefect,  who  represents  the  executive  and  must  ap- 
prove all  acts  of  the  council.  Each  municipal  council 
elects  a  mayor,  who  is,  however,  under  the  prefect. 
Paris  (q.v.)  has  no  mayor,  tho  each  arrondissement 
(division)  has  a  maire.  The  arrondissement  is  a  dis- 
trict (362  in  France)  with  an  elected  conseil  d'  arron- 
dissement. 

The  population,  April  21,  1891,  was  38,243,192  on  an 
area  of  204,092  sq.m.  According  to  the  Annuaire  de 
r  Economie  Politique  et  de  la  Statistique  for  1895  (p. 
15),  the  marriages,  divorces,  and  relation  of  births  to 
deaths  was  as  follows  : 


YEAR. 

Mar- 
riages. 

Di- 
vorces. 

Births. 

Excess 
of  Births 
over 
Deaths. 

788>  

•3  6^6 

o 

f.      ,- 

1888  

276,848 

4,708 

882  639 

1889  

4  786 

85  646 

1890  

38  j.j.6* 

1891...  . 

285,458 

866  377 

1892  

1893  

6,184 

1  ^f- 

*  —  indicates  excess  of  deaths  over  births. 

According  to  the  same  authority  (p.  20),  the  follow- 
ing was  the  population  in  1891,  according  to  occupa- 
tions: 


OCCUPATION. 

Employers 
and 
Employed. 

Population. 

Agriculture  

17,435,888 

Industry      ..            

Commerce  

Public  service  
Public  administration  
Professions        

561,875 
240,20Q 

715,624 
699,611 

Living  on  income  

Unclassified... 

1,  1O1,  2  50 

OCCUPATION. 

Em- 
ployers. 

Clerks, 
etc. 

Work- 
men. 

Agriculture  

2,800,183 

Commerce.  .  .  .        

078.318 

Transport  

In  1881  there  were  in  France  29,201,703  Roman  Cath- 
olics, 692,800  Protestants,  and  7,684,906  who  declined  to 
make  declaration  of  belief.    In  the  budget  for  1896  the 
State  allows  $52,000  to  the  Administration  for  religion  ; 
$8,431,305  to  Roman  Catholics  ;  $308,380  to  Protestants, 
and  $33,506  to  Jews.     There  are  17  archbishops  and  67 
bishops ;   42,347  ecclesiastical   officials  were    paid   by 
the  State  in  1894.    At  the  end  of    1892 
there  were  55,600  secular  clergy  (includ- 
ing teachers).     In    1894    there  were  638     Religion. 
Eastors  of  the  Reformed  Church  and  62 
utheran.  (For  EDUCATION,  PAUPERISM, 
ARMY,  see  those  articles.)    The  courts  are  justices  of 
the  peace,  police  courts,   police    correctional  courts, 
courts  of  assizes  (with  12  jurors).  26  courts  of  appeal, 
and  i  court  of  cassation.     All  judges  are  nominated  by 
the  President.    For  further  details  on  this  phase  of  the 
subject  see  general  article  on  CRIME. 

The  budget  for  1896  is  as  follows  : 


REVENUE. 


Land  tax  : 

Land , 

Buildings , 

Personal  property 

Doors  and  windows 

Trade  licenses    , 

Tax  "  d'avertissement" 

Carriages,  horses,  and  other  special  taxes. 

Registration 

Stamps 

Customs 

Other  indirect  taxes 

Tax  of  4  per  cent,  on  movables 

Sugar 

Tobacco  monopoly 

Posts  and  telegraphs 

Domains  and  forests 

Various  revenues 

Matches  and  gunpowder 

Exceptional  resources 

Receipts  d'ordre. 


Total,  Algeria. 
General  total.. 


EXPENDITURES. 


Public  debt 

President,  Chamber,  and  Senate 

Finance 

Ministries: 

Justice 

Foreign  affairs 

Interior,  France 

War 

Marine 

Colonies 

Public  instruction 

Fine  arts.    

Worship 

Commerce,  industry,  posts,  telegraphs  . . 

Agriculture 

Public  works 

Expenses  of  Regie,  collecting  taxes,  etc.... 
Repayments,  etc 


Total  Algeria 

General  total 3,447,918,1 


Francs. 


118,607,919 

80,042,227 

90,470,476 

58,425,474 

125,580,402 

1,054,100 

47,920,585 

555,689,500 

188,402,500 

469,270,230 

588,343,000 

66,220,000 

196,473,000 

376,301,800 

215,014,350 

45,019,420 

10,318,862 

39,959, 3°° 

57,372,575 

64,816,354 


53,015,019 


3>448,3 1 7.093 


,219,792,036 
13,171,720 
19,471,260 

35,320,233 

15,984,800 

75,786,209 

651,174,820 

272,614,898 

79,018,500 

195,018,342 

8,148,985 

44,125.953 
198,213,197 

30,115,090 
270,639,764 
204,469,771 

40,842,000 

74,010,620 


France  and  Social  Reform. 


625 


France  and  Social  Reform. 


For  1894  the  estimated  ordinary  revenue  of  the  com- 
munes of  France  was  $143,818,009,  with  an  expendi- 
ture of  $136,^30,145,  and  debt,  March  31,  1893,  °f  $659,- 
383,225.  This  includes  $60,401,767  revenue,  $60,381,688  ex- 
penditure, and  $378^566,603  debt  for  Paris.  The  exports 
from  France  were,  in  1894,  $825,000,000  for  general  com- 
merce and  $613,000,000  for  special  gen- 
eral commerce,  including  all  goods,  and 

Commerce,  special  commerce  goods  of  French  origin 
or  (if  imported)  for  French  consumption. 
The  imports  for  1894  were  $959,000,000 
general  and  $770,000,000  special.  The  chief  imports,  mil- 
lions of  dollars,  in  1894,  were  :  Cereals,  $73.000,000 ;  raw 
wool,  $63,000,000;  oil  seeds,  $39,000,000  ;  raw  cotton,  $36,- 
000,000:  coal,  $34,000,000 ;  timber  and  wood,  $30,000,000 ; 
wine,  $29,000,000.  The  chief  exports  were  :  Woolen  tex- 
tiles, $48,000,000;  wine,  $46,000,000; silks,  $45,000,000  ;  small 
\vare,  $31,000,000.  In  1894,  $93,000,000  of  the  imports 
were  from  Great  Britain  and  Ireland,  $74,000,000  from 
Belgium,  $65,000,000  from  the  United  States,  $62,000,000 
from  Germany.  Of  the  exports,  $183,000,000  were  to 
Great  Britain  and  Ireland,  $95,000,000  to  Belgium,  $65,- 
000,000  to  Germany,  and  $36.000,000  to  the  United  States. 

The  mercantile  navy  had,  December  31,  1894,  14,332 
sailing  vessels  and  1196  steamers.  See  RAILWAYS; 
TELEGRAPHS;  POSTAL  SAVINGS  BANKS,  etc.  For 
French  agriculture,  see  AGRICULTURE.  The  product 
of  her  mines  in  1893  was  337,896,000  francs.  See  also 
FISHERIES  ;  RAILWAYS,  etc. 

The  number  of  savings  banks  (caisses  (Fepargne) 
in  1893  •was  544.  Of  these,  459  were  under  the  control  of 
the  municipal  councils  ;  56  •wholly  independent.  They 
had  1079  branch  offices  \succursales\  and  deposits  to 
the  value  of  3,244,494,413  francs.  The  postal  savings 
banks  had  674,318,599  francs. 

II.  SOCIAL  REFORM. 

Modern  social  reform  in  France,  as  else- 
where, rests  upon  the  past. 

Ancient  Gaul,  more  thoroughly  Latinized 
than  any  other  Roman  province  outside  of 
Italy,  fell  a  rich  prize  to  the  Gothic  invaders, 
and  they  here  developed  some  of  their  richest 
cities  and  strongest  States.  Only  gradually  did 
Paris  raise  herself  above  other  cities  and  de- 
velop in  France  a  strongly  centralized  govern- 
ment, a  process  largely  necessary  to  rescue 
France  from  the  weakness  in  which  she  was 
left  by  the  long  English  wars.  Yet  all  through 
the  country  lay  the  traditions  of  much  inde- 
pendence for  the  communes  or  townships  and 
local  divisions.  These  communes,  especially 
those  of  the  larger  cities,  stood  repeatedly  for 
their  rights,  and  treated  with  the  king  some- 
times as  all  but  equals.  But  the  process  of  cen- 
tralization went  on  apace.  When,  in  1358,  the 
Jacquerie  rose,  under  Etienne  Marcel,  to  battle 
for  constitutional  liberty,  they  were  mercilessly 
put  down.  The  Reformation  was  suppressed 
in  France  for  political  reasons,  and  the  suppres- 
sion aided  the  central  government.  The  court 
of  the  Louis  became  more  brilliant,  more  des- 
potic, more  corrupt  than  any  other  court  in  Eu- 
rope. The  result  could  be  but  a  revolution. 
The  French  Revolution  (g.v.)  did  only  what 
has  been  done  in  all  other  Western  countries — 
it  freed  the  bourgeoisie.  The  French  Revolu- 
tion was  largely  produced  by  English  ideas. 
The  philosophy  of  Rousseau  and  still  more  of 
the  Encyclopedists  came  from  the 
school  of  Locke.  But  it  took  in 
History.  France,  perhaps  because  of  the  Gal- 
lic character,  a  more  revolutionary 
and  more  radical  form.  The  genius 
of  Rousseau,  the  writings  of  Mably,  of  Morelly, 
of  Boissel,  of  Brissot  de  Warville,  even  the 
land  views  of  the  Physiocrats,  filled  France  with 
new  ideals  of  the  rights  of  man,  and  with  the 
conception  of  government  as  only  just  when 

40 


resting  upon  the  consent  of  the  governed.  It  is 
doubtful  if  the  French  masses  at  the  time  of  the 
Revolution  were  suffering  more  than  the  dwell- 
ers in  England's  manufacturing  centers  and  in 
her  agricultural  hamlets  ditring  the  same  period. 
But  the  despotism  of  the  Louis  gave  to  the 
Revolution  a  violent  form.  Nowhere  else  could 
a  Louis  say,  "  I  am  the  State  ;"  nowhere  else 
did  absolute  monarchy  go  down  in  such  a  whirl- 
pool of  passion.  The  suppression,  too,  of  the 
French  Reformation,  the  infidelity  of  the  En- 
cyclopedists, the  wit  of  Voltaire,  had  deprived 
France  of  faith.  The  Revolution  came  "  a  truth 
clad  in  hell  fire,"  yet  a  truth,  and  a  necessary 
one.  Napoleon's  cannon  put  down  the  Revolu- 
tion, but  could  not  put  down  ideas.  It  could 
only  make  France  the  scene  of  constant  revolu- 
tion and  insurrection. 

With  Louis  XVI.,  in  1792  (guillotined  in  1793), 
the  house  of  Bourbon,  which  had  ruled  since 
1589,  commencing  with  Henry  IV.,  met  its  fall, 
and  we  have  the  First  Republic.     From  1793-95 
the  Convention  ruled  ;  from  1795-99  the  Direc- 
tory ;  from  1 799-1804  Napoleon  as  Consul.    Then 
came  the  First  Empire,from  i8o4-i4,under  Napo- 
leon I.  (died  1821).     In  1814  the  house  of  Bourbon 
was  restored,  with  Louis  XVIII., 
1814-24;  Charles X.,  1824-30.  After 
the  Revolution  of  1830  we  have  the     Constitu- 
rule  of   the  house  of  Bourbon-Or-        tional 
leans  under  Louis  Philippe  (1830-    Changes. 
48).     Then  comes  the  Revolution  of 
1848,  and  the  second  Republic,  from 
February  to  December,  1848,  under  the  Provis- 
ional Government;  from  1848-52  under  Louis  Na- 
poleon.    In  1852  the  empire  was  restored  under 
Napoleon  III.,  who  died  in  1873.     In  1870  we 
have  the  declaration  of  the  third  Republic  and 
the  government  of  National  Defense,  in  1871  the 
uprising  of  the  Commune,  and  the  presidents 
Louis  A.  Thiers  (1871-73),  Marshal  MacMahon 
(1873-79),  F-  J-  P.  Jules  Grevy  (1879-87),  M.  F. 
Sadi  Carnot  (assassinated  June  24,  1893),  Casi- 
mir  Perier  (1893-95,  resigned;,   and  Felix   F. 
Faure  (1895). 

Such  is  the  bare  chronicle  of  the  constitu- 
tional changes  that  have  swept  over  France 
during  the  century.  There  have  been  continual 
smaller  changes  and  uprisings  and  ministerial 
crises  which  we  cannot  chronicle  here.  Through 
them  all  has  gone  the  struggle  for  a  republican- 
ism more  or  less  modified  by  the  communistic 
ideas  connected  with  the  old  communes. 

Sixty  years  before  Proudhon,  Brissot  de  War- 
ville, in  1776,  the  year  of  Adam  Smith's 
Wealth  of  Nations,  the  year  of  American  in- 
dependence, had  declared  that  property  (as  or- 
dinarily understood)  was  theft.  Babceuf  was 
the  first  to  battle  for  communism,  in  his  at- 
tempted insurrection  of  1797,  but  held  as  his 
ideal  an  utterly  artificial  dead  equality  to  be 
rigidly  enforced  by  the  State.  Insurrection 
crushed,  thought  was  the  only  outlet.  We 
come,  therefore,  to  a  long  period  of  Utopian  so- 
cialism. Details  of  each  author  and  school  will 
be  found  under  their  separate  names  ;  we  do 
little  more  than  chronicle  them  here,  to  bring 
out  the  continuity.  Fourier  in  1808  published 
his  Theorie  des  Quatre  Mouvements,  with  its 
strange  blending  of  mathematical  formulas,  of 
iar-reaching  thought,  and  of  impractical  sug- 


France  and  Social  Reform. 


626 


France  and  Social  Reform. 


gestions  for  artificial  association  and  forced  har- 
monies. It  produced  in  1834  Considerant's 
Destinte  Sociale,  and  his  attempted  phalanste- 
ries in  France  and  far  away  in  Texas  ;  besides 
this  it  led  to  Godin's  famous  Familistere  at 
Guise  (1859),  to  the  great  wave  of  Fourierist 
communism  that  swept  over  the  United  States 
from  1840-50.  Meanwhile  Saint-Simon,  an  aris- 
tocrat, become  revolutionary,  dreamed  in  1817 
of  an  industrial  scientific  collectivist  State,  and 
in  1825  of  a  Neo-Christianity,  a  church  which 
should  introduce  social  reform.  Calling  upon 
the  Pope  to  lead  in  this,  on  his  refusal  Saint- 
Simon  attempted  a  "  religion"  of  his  own,  which 
Hazard  and  Enfantin  developed  into  brief  popu- 
larity and  still  briefer  experiment  from  1830-33. 
In  1840  Cabet  published  his  Voyage  en  Icarie, 
and  the  colony  to  Icaria  in  America  was  started 
in  1848.  Meanwhile,  Colins,  Huet,  and  others 
were  writing,  while  from  England  came  the 
theories  of  Owen  and  the  reports  of  Chartism. 
This  long  period  of  Utopian  socialism  was  bro- 
ken by  the  July  Revolution  of  1830,  and  the  al- 
most constant  attempts  of  radicals  and  revolu- 
tionists like  Blanqui  (y.v.)  to  rouse  the  Paris 
Commune. 

In  1848  the  Revolution  of  that  year  and  the 
declaration  of  the  republic  gave  great  hopes  to 
the  radicals,  and  the  socialists,  mainly  under 
the  lead  of  Louis  Blanc,  demanded 
government  shops  for  the  unem- 
Eevolution  ployed.  The  provisional  govern- 
of  1848.  ment  nominally  yielded,  but  ap- 
pointed a  committee  constructed  to 
procure  the  mismanagement  of  the 
plan — a  trick  openly  denounced  by  Louis  Blanc. 
(See  ATELIERS  NATIONAUX.)  The  election  of 
Louis  Napoleon  to  the  presidency  and  the  coup 
d'dtat  of  December  2,  1851,  whereby  the  em- 
pire was  declared,  put  an  end  to  the  hopes  of 
the  socialists  till  the  overthrow  of  the  emperor 
in  1870,  the  declaration  of  the  third  and  present 
republic.  Conceiving  it  but  a  sham  bourgeois 
republic,  the  Commune  of  Paris  rose  March  18, 
1871,  but  were  eventually  defeated  by  the 
armies  of  the  National  Government.  (See  PARIS 
COMMUNE.)  Meanwhile,  the  International  had 
been  planted  in  France,  and  under  the  influ- 
ence of  Bakounin,  and  influenced  by  the  tradi- 
tions of  the  old  communes,  had  developed  an 
anarchistic  communism.  The  communards  of 
Paris,  scattered  after  the  Commune,  declared 
mainly  for  anarchism.  But  after  a  season  some 
of  the  leaders  became  convinced  of  the  imprac- 
ticability of  anarchism,  and  advocated  socialism 
of  the  Marxist  types.  In  1879  amnesty  was 
granted  to  communards,  and  Guesde,  Brousse, 
Malon,  and  others  returned  Marxist  socialists. 
A  strong  party  was  developed  for  collectivism. 
The  Egatttl,  the  Proletaire,  the  Droits  de 
I'Homme,  more  or  less  formally  committed  to 
collectivism,  at  least  spread  the  thought.  The 
Cri  du  Peuple,  founded  and  edited  by  Jules 
Valles,  had.  since  1876,  favored  Socialism. 
Collectivist  ideas  began  to  dominate  the  trade- 
unions.  General  congresses  of  working  men 
were  held  at  Paris  in  1876  and  Lyons  in  1878, 
and  were  largely  socialistic.  The  Congress  of 
1879  at  Marseilles  was  socialist  in  everything 
except  name. 

But  collectivism  was  not  easily  to  triumph. 


French  communist  anarchism  was  still  strong, 
and  represented  by  men  of  ability  and  standing, 
like  Kropotkin  and  Reclus,  still  more  by  a  spirit 
of  intense  and  fanatic  devotion,  such  as  has  fur- 
nished the  modern  dynamiters,  a  Vaillant  and 
a  Henri.  It  had  an  organ  of  marked  literary 
ability,  La  Revolte,  founded  by  Kropotkin  in 
Geneva  and  transferred  to  Paris  ;  it  had  a  paper, 
Le  Pere  Ptinard,  written  in  Parisian  argot, 
and  appealing  to  the  workmen  of  the  streets 
with  impassioned  violence.  Not  at  once  did 
French  socialism  clear  itself  from  such  anar- 
chism. The  socialist  movement  became  divid- 
ed. The  right  wing  was  for  bargaining  with 
the  political  radicals  and  for  practising  coopera- 
tion, and  was  hence  called  Opportunist  or  Co- 
operatist ;  the  left  wing  worked  with  the  anar- 
chists ;  only  the  center  was  for 
Marxian  collectivism.  In  1880,  at 
the  Congress  at  Havre,  division  be-  Socialism. 
came  open.  The  majority  favor- 
ing independent  political  collectiv- 
ist agitation,  the  right  wing,  which  desired  to 
work  through  existing  political  groups,  defect- 
ed, and  formed  the  Alliance  Socialiste  Republi- 
caine,  and  held  congresses  of  its  own  at  Paris  in 
1881  and  Bordeaux  in  1882.  The  anarchist  wing 
renounced  socialism  altogether.  The  great  ma- 
jority, the  center,  thus  free  to  act,  declared  for 
Marxian  socialism,  and  formed  themselves  into 
the  Parti  Ouvrier  Socialiste  Revolutionnaire  de 
France.  This  organization  held  a  congress  at 
Rheims,  November  21,  1881,  and  declared  Le 
Proldtaire  its  organ. 

But  even  this  organization  itself  divided. 
The  question  was  whether  to  agitate  for  a  com- 
plete socialist  program  at  once,  or  for  portions 
of  it  step  by  step,  as  might  seem  at  the  time  pos- 
sible. Those  accepting  the  latter  policy  were 
called  Possibilists,  the  former  Guesdists,  from 
their  leader,  Jules  Guesde.  Still  another  division 
took  place.  _M.  Brousse  split  the  Congress  of 
1882,  at  St.  Etienne,  on  a  vote  endorsing,  in- 
stead of  a  centralized  collectivism,  a  decentral- 
ized one  based  on  the  communes.  He  carried 
his  point,  36  to  27,  and  formed  the  Broussist 
group,  which  soon  became  one  of  the  largest, 
and  in  1889  succeeded  in  electing  M.  Joffrin  to 
the  Chamber  of  Deputies,  while  it  has  frequent- 
ly had  nine  members  in  the  Municipal  Council 
of  Paris.  Brousse  himself,  however,  as  we  have 
seen,  always  changeable,  now  calls  himself  a 
Republican  radical.  Besides  these  groups  there 
exists,  mainly  in  the  Chamber  of  Deputies,  still 
another  group,  founded  by  followers  of  the  old 
communist  Blanqui,  and  hence  called  Blan- 
quists. 

Such  are  still  to-day  the  main  French  socialist 
groups,  save  that  the  Alliance  Socialiste  Republi- 
caine  has  practically  ceased  to  exist,  and  that 
the  Possibilists  who  do  not  follow  M.  Brousse 
are  now  often  called  Allemanists,  from  their 
leader,  Jean  Allemane,  editor  of  their  organ, 
Le  Parti  Ouvrier.  Too  much  emphasis,  how- 
ever, must  not  be  put  upon  these  divisions. 
The  groups  are  continually  changing,  and  the 
French  system  of  the  second  ballot  (see  ELEC- 
TIONS) allows  the  socialist  groups  to  vote  for 
their  respective  candidates  in  the  first  ballot, 
and  to  unite  in  the  second  ballot  on  the  socialist 
candidate  of  any  group  who  has  received  the 


France  and  Social  Reform. 


627 


France  and  Social  Reform. 


most  votes  on  the  first  ballots.  This  has  en- 
abled the  socialists  to  carry  an  increasing  num- 
ber of  elections.  In  municipal  elections  they 
have  the  majority  in  very  many  cities,  and  so 
large  a  representation  even  in  the  Paris  munici- 
pal council,  that  they  are  sometimes  in  the 
majority.  Even  in  national  elections  they  have 
made  steady  progress.  In  1889,  the  socialists 
cast  only  91,000  votes  out  of  6,847,000,  or  1.30 
per  cent.  In  1891,  however,  they  cast  549,000, 
or  nearly  9  per  cent.  ;  and  in  1893  at  least  900,- 
ooo  votes,  increasing  the  number  of  their  depu- 
ties from  15  to  53,  without  counting  such  social- 
ist radicals  as  MM.  Goblet  and  Pelletan,  who 
are  now,  however,  declared  socialists.  A  French 
writer,  in  the  appendix  to  Professor  Ely's  So- 
cialism and  Social  Reform  (1894),  gives  the  fol- 
lowing statements  as  to  the  various  groups  : 

' '  The  socialistic  party  has  no  representatives 
in  the  Senate.  In  the  Chamber  of  Deputies 
there  are  about  60  socialistic  deputies  (53  social- 
ists and  7  socialist  radicals),  among  whom  the 
following  are  the  most  important  in  each  group  : 

"  Collecti vists  :  MM.  Guesde,  Chauvin,  Pierre 
Vaux. 

"  Blanquists  :  MM.  Vaiilant,  Chauvieres,  Wal- 
ter (recently  Mayor  of  St.  Denis),  Ernest  Roche. 

"  Possibilists  (Broussists)  :  MM.  Prudent- 
Dervilliers,  Lavy. 

"  Possibilists  (Allemanists) :  MM.  Faberot, 
Groussier,  Coutant,  Dejeante,  Avez,  Toussaint." 

Socialism,  however,  altho  the  largest  move- 
ment, is  by  no  means  the  only  social  reform 
movement.  The  anarchist  communists  have 
not  yet  disappeared,  as  witnessed  by  the  bombs 
thrown  by  Vaiilant  in  the  Chamber  ;  Henri,  in 
the  Cafe  Terminus  ;  and  the  assassination  of 
President  Carnot. 

These  terrible  deeds  have  caused  the  suppres- 
sion of  the  anarchist  papers  referred  to  above, 
and  the  deportation  of  most  of  the  leaders,  but 
thought  is  not  thus  suppressed. 

The  trade-union  movement  of  France  is  large- 
ly identified  with  the  political  movement,  tho 
not  wholly.     The  old  guild  system  was  over- 
thrown in  1791,  and  working  men's 
organizations  placed  under  a  ban. 
Trade-       Napoleon  I.  undertook  to  establish 
Unions,      compulsory    organizations  of    em- 
ployers and  employees,  with  the  em- 
ployers in  control,  but  with  little 
success.     Gradually,  however,  working   men's 
unions  developed.     They  won  partially  legal 
recognition  in  1864,  and  complete  freedom  of 
organization  in  1884.     The  following  tables  of 
French  industrial  organizations  are  all   taken 
from  the  Annuaire,  quoted  above.    It  should  be 
stated  that  the  word  syndicats  is  used  for  or- 
ganizations of  any  kind  of  employers  or  em- 
ployed. 

SYNDICATS,  OR  INDUSTRIAL  ORGANIZATIONS 
IN  1894. 


BY  TRADES. 


TRADE. 

Employers. 

Employed. 

Pood                                

97 

406 

Clothing               ...        

240 

Metal        

46 

212 

Paper  and  Printing  

7° 

IJI 

Textile         

28 

149 

59 

84 

Wood  Workers  

33 

112 

Miners  

9 

62 

NATURE. 

Number. 

Federation. 

Members. 

Employers  
Workmen  

1,518 
2,178 

29 
73 

122,251 

408,025 
29,124 

Agricultural  

i)093 

IS 

384,332 

The  attempt  to  unite  employers  and  em- 
ployees in  the  same  organization  has  not  suc- 
ceeded ;  and  the  temper  of  the  French  trade- 
unionist  has  grown  steadily  more  radical.  Strikes 
have  not  played  the  part  in  France  which  they 
have  in  some  countries,  but  in  the  textile  trades 
and  mining  they  have  been  numerous. 
The  general  strike  of  the  miners  in  1890  and 
that  of  the  miners  atCarmaux  in  1892  were  dis- 
tinguished by  increasing  bitterness  and  so- 
cialistic utterances.  According  to  the  report  on 
France  of  the  (English)  Royal  Commission  on 
Labor,  from  1888-91  there  were  1034  strikes, 
of  which  269  were  successful  and  217  compro- 
mised. France  has  played  a  leading  part  in  in- 
dustrial arbitration  (see  ARBITRATION),  with  its 
famous  conseils  des  Prudhommes,  and  recently 
the  French  Government  has  interfered  to  try 
and  settle  labor  disputes,  but  thus  far  with 
small  success.  The  main  activity  of  the  Gov- 
ernment in  relation  to  labor  organizations  has 
been  the  granting  of  aid  to  the  labor  bureaus, 
of  which  there  were  some  30  in  France  in  1892. 
The  Paris  Bourse  de  Travail  was  founded  in 
1887  with  an  annual  subsidy  of  eventually  50,000 
frs.  and  a  building  in  the  Rue  Jean  Jacques 
Rousseau.  In  1892  a  fine  building  was  provid- 
ed in  the  Rue  Chateau  d'Eau  at  a  cost  of  3,000,- 
ooo  frs.  Lit  by  electricity,  heated  and  com- 
modious, it  became  the  headquarters  of  over  200 
unions,  but  was  finally  closed  by  the  Govern- 
ment in  1894,  owing  to  its  having  become  a  head- 
quarters for  socialism.  The  Government  is, 
however,  doing  a  good  deal,  and  proposing 
more  in  the  way  of  old-age  pensions  (g.v.),  in- 
surance, etc.  In  1891  a  Higher  Council  of  Labor 
was  organized,  of  50  delegates,  elected  by  the 
syndicats,  but  under  the  Minister  of  Commerce. 

The  French  agricultural  syndicats  are  a  char- 
acteristic development,  and  have  served  to 
spread  the  cooperative  idea. 

Cooperation  in  France  was  early  advocated 
by  Fourier  and  Buchez,  sometimes  called  the 
father  of  French  cooperation.  The  revolution- 
ary Government  of  1848  took  up  the  idea  and 
voted  a  loan  of  3,000,000  frs.  to  cooperative  so- 
cieties ;  but  there  was  a  demand  for  27,000,000 
frs.,  and  the  coup  d'etat  checked  the  growth  of 
the  movement.  Later  cooperative  societies 
have  been  favored  by  the  Government  in  free- 
dom from  taxation,  etc.,  and  have  slowly  grown. 
In  1894  there  were  no  productive,  39  agricul- 
tural, and  980  consumptive  cooperative  socie- 
ties, with  24  popular  and  125  agricultural  co- 
operative banks.  The  cooperative  society  of  La 
Ruche  Stephanoise  was  organized  in  Paris  as 
early  as  1855. 


France  and  Social  Reform. 


628 


Franchises. 


Profit  sharing  in  France  has  had  not  a  larger 
but  a  stronger  development.  (See  PROFIT-SHAR- 
ING ;  GODIN  ;  BEAUMARCHAIS  ;  LECLAIRE,  etc.) 
There  were,  in  1891,  according  to  the  Rapport 
sur  les  Socie'te's  Cooperatives  (p.  60),  92  profit- 
sharing  societies  in  France.  Municipalism  in 
France  has  a  large  development  (see  PARIS), 
and  the  national  porcelain  works  at  Sevres,  the 
tapestries  of  Gobelin  and  Beauvais,  with  the 
15  national  tobacco  factories,  are  thought  by 
some  to  be  the  seeds  of  a  future  nationalism. 
(See  also  CHRISTIAN  SOCIALISM  ;  LE  PLAY, 
etc.) 

References  :  Report  of  the  (English)  Royal  Commis- 
sion on  Labor ;  Albert  Shaw's  Alunicipal  Government 
in  Continental  Europe  (1895).  See  also  SOCIALISM  ; 
ANARCHISM  ;  COOPERATION,  etc. 

FRANCHISE  (ELECTORAL).— (For  the 

principles  involved,  see    DEMOCRACY  ;    STATE.) 
We  give  here  the  qualifications  for  voting  in 
the  leading  countries.     In  the  United  States, 
all  citizens  qualified  by  their  respectives  States 
can  vote  for  representatives  and  Presidential 
electors.     (See  ELECTORAL  BOARD.)    In  general, 
all  male  citizens  over  21,  and  in 
many  States  all  males  over  2 1  who 
The         have  declared  their  intention  to  be- 
United       come  citizens,  can  vote.     In  most 
States.      States,  registration    is    necessary. 
Residence,    varying     from     three 
months    in   Maine  and   Michigan, 
to    two   years    in   Rhode    Island,  is  necessary 
in  all  States.    In   Massachusetts,   voters  must 
be  able  to  read,  and  in  Mississippi   to  read  or 
understand  the  Constitution  in  English.     Taxes 
must  have  been  paid  in    Delaware,  Florida, 
Georgia,  Pennsylvania,  and  Tennessee.     Wom- 
en, convicts,  idiots,  paupers,  are  disqualified  in 
most  States.     Women   can  vote  in  Wyoming 
and  Utah.     Colorado  has  voted  for  it.     The 
municipal  franchise  is  usually  the  same.    In  Kan- 
sas, women  vote  largely  on  municipal  elections  ; 
for  school  boards   they  vote   in   many  States. 
The  total  Presidential  vote  in  1892  was  12,110,- 
636,  in  a  population  of  64,000,000. 

In  Great  Britain,  for  parliamentary  elections, 
in  brief,  all  householders  who  have  paid  their 
rates,  or  all  lodgers  occupying  quarters  worth 
.£10  a  year,  or  all  occupiers  of  non- 
r  residence  property  worth  £\Q  ayear, 

.  .  or  owners  of  town  property  of 
Britain.  fag^  vajU6j  provided  they  live  within 
10  miles  of  the  town,  can  vote.  One 
person  can  thus  have  more  than  one  vote.  For 
municipal  and  school  board  elections,  the  qual- 
ifications are  broader.  (See  ELECTIONS.)  In 
Scotland,  the  poorer  classes  are  largely  dis- 
enfranchised by  dodging  the  rates.  In  Eng- 
land, their  rates  are  usually  collected  through 
the  landlords,  and  so  more  vote  ;  but  as  the 
lists  are  made  up  from  the  rate- payers'  list, 
many,  especially  of  the  poor  and  of  lodgers,  are 
disqualified,  because  they  have  moved.  In  1892 
the  total  vote  was  4,587,036  in  a  population  of 
38,000,000. 

In  France,  all  males  over  21  who  can  prove  a 
six  months'  residence  in  any  one  town  or  com- 
mune can  vote  in  municipal  or  national  elec- 
tions. In  1889  there  were  7, 953, 382  who  voted  out 
of  a  population  of  38,000,000  (1891). 

In  Germany,  the  members  of  the  Reichstag 


are  elected  by  universal  suffrage,  but  by  the 
present  division  of  electoral  districts  many  cities, 
like  Berlin,  have  less  than  their  pro- 
portional representation.     In  1890 
the  voters  were  7,261,659  out  of  a  Continental 
population  of  49,428,470.     The  suf-      Europe. 
f rage  of  the  different  States  of  the 
empire   and  of   the  municipalities 
are  much  more  limited.     Berlin  in  municipal 
elections  has  13  per  cent,  less  voters  than  in  the 
national  elections.     (See  BERLIN.) 

In  Austria  (q-v.}  there  has  been  recently  very 
general  agitation  for  universal  suffrage,  but 
there  are  still  numerous  property  qualifications. 

In  Switzerland,  all  males  over  21  can  vote. 
On  a  referendum,  November,  1895,  437,000 
voted  in  a  population  of  2,986,848. 

In  Belgium,  all  males  over  25  who  have  lived 
in  one  commune  one  year  have  one  vote,  but 
those  over  35,  married,  with  children,  and  pay- 
ing 5  frs.  a  year  in  house  tax,  or,  tho  only  25, 
having  real  property  of  2000  frs.,  or  its  equiva- 
lent in  Belgian  funds,  have  two  votes,  while 
professional  men  and  those  with  a  higher  edu- 
cation have  three  votes.  There  are  about  1,200,- 
ooo  electors  in  a  population  of  about  6,000,000. 
The  municipal  suffrage  is  much  more  limited. 

In  Holland,  voters  are  those  over  23  who  pay 
a  small  tax.  There  are  295,000  electors  in  a 
population  of  4,500.000. 

In  Italy,  men  vote  who  are  21,  can  read  and 
write,  and  who  pay  a  small  tax.  In  May,  1895, 
1,256,244  voted  in  a  population  of  about  30,000,- 


FRANCHISES,  in  social  science,  means  a 
privilege  or  grant  of  a  public  or  semi-public  na- 
ture conferred  on  individuals  or  corporations  by 
governments  (municipal,  State,  or  national). 

According  to  the  common  law,  the  franchise 
implies  a  mutual  obligation  between  the  Gov- 
ernment and  the  party  holding  the  franchise. 
The  Government  guarantees  to  strictly  carry 
out  the  grant  of  the  franchise  (the  franchise, 
however,  always  being  strictly  construed  against 
the  grantee),  and  the  grantee  agreeing  to  fur- 
nish the  public  all  the  facilities  for  which  the 
nature  of  the  franchise  calls.  The  owner  of  a 
ferry  franchise  thus  can  be  compelled  to  con- 
tinue to  run  his  boats,  the  failure  to  do  this  by 
common  law  forfeiting  his  grants.  It  is  assert- 
ed that  the  Government  cannot  repudiate  or 
withdraw  its  franchise,  once  granted.  (But  see 
EMINENT  DOMAIN.)  Where  the  charter  confer- 
ring the  franchise,  however,  contains  a  clause 
reserving  to  the  Legislature  the  right  to  annul 
or  vary  the  franchise  granted,  or  where  the 
charter  is  granted  subject  to  a  constitutional 
provision  or  general  act  reserving  to  the  Legis- 
lature such  a  power,  it  may  constitutionally  be 
exercised. 

Franchises  are  not  alienable  by  the  owner  or 
owners  thereof  without  express  legislative  au- 
thority. They  cannot,  therefore,  be  conveyed 
or  mortgaged  of  common  right.  They  cannot 
be  taken  in  execution  and  sold  so  as  to  convey 
any  title  to  the  purchaser. 

The  conditions  upon  which  franchises  are 
granted  are  among  the  subjects  which  need  the 
most  reform  in  the  United  States,  and  have  pro- 
duced the  greatest  scandals  and  corruptions. 


Franchises. 


629 


Fraternal  Organizations. 


especially  in  our  municipal  governments.  Im- 
portant and  valuable  franchises  are  again  and 
again  given  away  for  a  song  to  private  corpora- 
tions by  corrupt  aldermen,  bought  up  by  these 
corporations.  European  cities,  on  the  other 
hand,  rarely  grant  a  franchise  unless  the  cor- 
poration receiving  the  franchise  gives  the  city 
high  and  adequate  returns  of  various  kinds.  In 
Berlin,  for  example,  a  private  company  has  the 
franchise  to  operate  street  railways,  but  it  onlj' 
received  the  franchise  on  agreeing  to  pave  the 
streets  on  which  its  tracks  lie,  from  curb  to  curb  ; 
to  pay  a  portion  of  its  receipts  to  the  city, 
amounting  to  some  $250,000  annually  ;  and  in 
the  year  1911  to  turn  its  whole  plant  over  to 
the  city.  Compare  this  with  what  American 
cities  repeatedly  do  (to  say  nothing  of  notorious 
"  Broadway  steals")  in  giving  away  valuable 
franchises  for  a  song,  usually  because  the  fran- 
chise has  been  sold  by  the  corrupt  Council  or 
Board  of  Aldermen.  (See  CORRUPTION  ;  JOBS  ; 
MUNICIPALISM.) 

Professor  Bemis,  in  a  reaper  on  Some  Essen- 
tials in  the  Way  of  (^ranting  Municipal 
Franchises,  read  at  the  Minneapolis  Confer- 
ence for  Good  City  Government,  1894  (see  Pro- 
ceedings, p.  123),  makes  the  following  points 
as  requisites  of  a  good  franchise  : 

1.  The  mayor  should  have  the  right  of  abso- 
lute veto  upon  any  proposed  franchise. 

2.  Constitutional,  or,  if  that  is  not  possible,  a 
legislative,  limitation  to  the  length  of  time  for 
which  future  franchises  can  be  given,  such  term 
not  to  exceed  30  years  with  elevated  roads,  20 
years  with  gas  works  or  surface  street -car  lines, 
and  a  much    less  period  for  electric  light  and 
telephone  companies. 

3.  The    prohibition  of   renewing  franchises 
until  within  a  year  of  its  expiration,  otherwise 
companies  may  secure  a  renewal  from  a  corrupt 
council  before  the  people  are  aware  of  it. 

4.  The  expiration  of  all  franchises  for  exten- 
sions to  new  streets  with  the  expiration  of  the 
franchise  on  the  main  system  ;  otherwise  the 
city  is  prevented  from  entering  on  any  broad 
policy. 

5.  Extensions  on  new  streets  made  subject  to 
order  of  the  city,  with  appeal  possibly  to  some 
court  of  arbitration. 

6.  Complete  publicity  of  accounts,  with  the 
power  and  duty  vested  in  the  city  auditor  to 
prescribe  methods  of  book-keeping. 

7.  In  case  of  transportation  lines,  the  right  of 
the  city  to  require  increase  of  cars  to  the  capac- 
ity of  the  road  when  traffic  demands  it. 

8.  The  express  condition  that  the  company 
receiving  the  franchise  must,  at  its  expiration , 
if  not  securing  a  renewal,  sell  out  to  the  city  or 
another  company  that  may  receive  the    fran- 
chise, at  the  cost  of  duplicating  the  physical 
plant,  independent  of  any  value  based  on  earn- 
ing power. 

9.  The  sale  of  the  franchise  to  the  bidder  of- 
fering the  cheapest  and  best  service  or  largest 
revenue  to  the  city,  emphasis  being  laid  on 
cheap  and  good  service. 

10.  Two  years  before  the  expiration  of  every 
franchise,  the  citizens  should  have  the  opportu- 
nity to  vote  on  city  ownership,  and  if  the  latter 
is  carried,  the  city  to  own  and  operate  after  the 
expiration  of  the  franchise,  with  the  provision 


for  the  merit  system  in  the  civil  service,  and 
with  the  further  provision  that  every  five  years 
thereafter  for  10  or  15  years,  on  petition  of  a 
certain  number  of  citizens,  another  popular  vote 
should  be  had  on  the  question  of  continuing  city 
management.  (See  MUNICIPALISM.) 

FRANKLIN,  BENJAMIN,  was  born  in 
Boston,  Mass.,  in  1706,  of  poor  parents,  the  fif- 
teenth of  17  children.  Taken  from  school  in 
his  tenth  year,  he  became  two  years  later  an 
apprentice  in  the  printing  shop  of  his  brother, 
who  published  the  New  England  Couranf, 
and  for  which  Franklin  early  wrote.  Owing  to 
difficulties  with  his  brother,  he  escaped  to  Phila- 
delphia in  his  seventeenth  year,  and  almost 
absolutely  destitute.  After  a  series  of  difficul- 
ties and  adventures,  including  a  trip  to  Eng- 
land, he  gradually,  by  hard  work  and  ability, 
met  success.  In  1730  he  married  Miss  Reed. 
He  became  the  editor  and  proprietor  of  a  paper, 
7^i?  Gazette,  and  in  1732  of  Poor  Richard's  Al- 
manac. He  became  Clerk  of  the  General  As- 
sembly in  1736,  postmaster  in  1737,  and  repre- 
sentative in  1747.  In  1753  he  was  made  deputy 
postmaster-general  for  the  colonies.  In  1757 
he  went  to  England,  representing  Pennsyl- 
vania, Massachusetts,  Maryland,  and  Georgia 
with  great  success.  He  addressed  Parliament, 
opposing  the  Stamp  Act,  and  was  consequently 
deposed  from  the  postmastership.  Returning 
to  America,  he  was  a  delegate  to  the  Congress 
of  1775,  and  signed  the  Declaration  of  Inde- 
pendence. In  1776  he  was  sent  as  Minister  to 
France,  with  which  country  he  succeeded  in 
securing  an  alliance.  He  raised  loans,  and  in 
1782  signed  the  treaty  of  peace  with  England. 
Returning  to  Philadelphia,  he  became  president 
of  the  Supreme  Council  of  the  city  and  member 
of  the  Convention  for  Revising  the  Articles  of 
Union.  He  died  April  17,  1790,  and  Congress 
appointed  a  mourning  of  two  months  through 
the  States. 

He  founded  the  first  public  library  in  Phila- 
delphia in  1732,  "  the  mother  of  American  libra- 
ries," and  led  in  innumerable  municipal  im- 
provements. In  1752  he  discovered  the  idea 
of  lighting  Avith  electricity,  and  by  his  electri- 
cal and  other  scientific  discoveries  became  rec- 
ognized by  and  intimate  with  the  scientists  of 
all  Europe,  and  received  degrees  and  honors 
from  numerous  English  and  European  univer- 
sities. In  1752  he  organized  a  scientific  society 
which  became  the  American  Academy  of  Sci- 
ence. Turgot  said  of  him  :  "  Eripuit  ccelo fid- 
men,  sceptrumque  tyranm's." 

FRATERNAL    ORGANIZATIONS.— In 

England  these  are  usually  called  friendly  so- 
cieties (g.v.).  In  the  United  States  they  are 
very  numerous  and  play  an  important  part  in 
economic  and  social  development.  They  are 
opposed  by  a  small  and  demonstrative  but  earn- 
est minority  who  oppose  all  secret  societies. 
Many  believe  they  are  only  needed  to-day  be- 
cause the  Church  and  the  State  do  not  perform 
their  full  duties. 

According  to  the  World  Almanac  (1896),  the 
membership  of  the  principal  fraternal  organiza- 
tions in  the  United  States  and  Canada  is  as  fol- 
lows : 


Fraternal  Organizations. 


630 


Free  Trade. 


Odd  Fellows 939,307  standpoint  was  "  the  Wilmot  proviso,"  offered 

Knlght^pyVhias::::::::.::::::::::::-::::::::::  •£*»  ^Dav'^  Wilmot- of  Pennsylvania.  to  amend  a 

Ancient  Order  of  United  Workmen 341,371  bill  making  an  appropriation  to  negotiate  peace 

Knights  of  the  Maccabees ' 2oq,83i  with  Mexico.     It  read  :  "  There  shall  be  neither 

K4dcord£-of  Red  Men::::-;::::::::::::::  ;&$  *l*™y  n°r  involuntary  servitude  m  any  tern- 
junior  Order  of  United  American  Mechanics..  153,268  tory  on  the  continent  of  America  which  shall  be 
Modern  Woodmen  of  America , 144,403  hereafter  acquired  by  or  annexed  to  the  United 

TSSSk  Ord^r0nofF0resters  ofAmefica::::::::;   lll$37  StateS  by  ™tue  Of  this  appropriation  or  in  any 

Ancient  Order  of  Hibernians  of  America ii&m  manner  whatsoever,  except  for  crime. 

Knights  and  Ladies  of  Honor 84,000  It  created  great  excitement.     Calhoun  had 

Sons  of  Temperance........ 59,680  declared  that  the    annexation  of    Mexico  was 

Knights  of  the  Golden  Eagle s8,sss  -u-  -L. 

Order  of  United  American  Mechanics 55,689  necessary  to  protect  slavery,  which  was  an  in- 

American  Legion  of  Honor  55,055  stitution  placed  under  the  guaranty  of  the  Con- 
Woodmen  of  the  World 52,558  stitution  and  necessary  to  the  peace  and  pros- 
National  Union .  47,621?  -4.  £  iV.  1  CM.  i  JTV1- 

Catholic  Benevolent  Legion 4^106  perity  of  the  slave  States.  The  proviso  was  de- 
Order  of  Chosen  Friends 38,095  f  eated  in  the  Senate,  but  taken  up  in  the  North. 

Catholic  Mutual  Benefit  Association 38,000  A  convention  met  at  Buffalo,  August  9,  1848, 

^uta^S^S^".':::r:'\               ;    g£i  and  formed  the  Free  Soil  Party.     It  was  com- 

Independent  Order  of  B'nai  B'rith 30,500  posed  of  the  old  Liberty  Party  (<?.V.),  seceders 

Benevolent  and  Protective  Order  of  Elks 27,000  from  the  Democrats  and  Whigs,  and  a  faction 

Catholic  Knights  Of  America 24,000  nf  tViF>  r)Amnr-ra1-<;  r>a11*>rl    Rarn   hnm^re         Martin 

Improved  Order  of  Heptasophs 23,905  9J  tlie  Democrats  called  .Barn- burners.     Martin 

Order  of  the  Golden  Cross 20,257  Van   Buren    and    Charles   Francis   Adams,  of 

Royal  Templars  of  Temperance 19,210  Massachusetts,  were   nominated  for  President 

uLTed^?^^fm]K!l^;.^.±;     .    SS  and  Vice-fteadent      The  platform  disavowed 

Order  of  United  Friends 17,000  attacking  slavery  in  the  South,  but  simply  stood 

Irish  Catholic  Benevolent  Union 15,000  for  the  above  principle.     The  party  polled  over 

R?yald^^lfC^0|j^::::::::;:::::::     £!£  3oo,ooo  votes  and  elected  several  congressmen, 

Smaller  organizations  not  reported 73,209  among  them  Charles  Sumner ,  of  Massachusetts, 

; and  Salmon  P.  Chase,  of  Ohio.     The  conflict 

Total 4,764.098  then  came  over  the  admission  of  California,  and 

According  to  the  report  made  at  the  annual  when  it;  was  admitted  with  a  constitution  pro- 
meeting  of  mutual  benefit  life  insurance  asso-  hibiting  slavery,  the  Free  Soil  Party  lost  its 
ciations  in  1895,  their  number  of  members  was  mam  need  °*  existence.  Agitation,  however, 
3  638,815.  sprung  up  over  the  Fugitive  Slave  Law  (<?.v.), 
'The  membership  of  the  Independent  Order  and  the  Free  Soilers  met  in  1852,  and  nomi- 
of  Odd  Fellows,  which  includes  the  grand  nated  John  p-  Hale,  of  New  Hampshire,  and 
lodges  of  Australasia,  Germany,  Denmark,  and  George  W.  Julian,  of  Indiana,  and  polled  151,- 
Switzerland,  is  815,947,  female  members  not  in-  °°°  votes-  But  the  aggressive  policy  of  the 
eluded.  The  American  organization  is  not  in  South  roused  the  North  to  a  more  general  pol- 
affiliation  with  an  English  order  entitled  the  1CY.  and  the  Free  Soil  Party  was  merged,  m 
Manchester  Unity  of  Odd  Fellows,  who  num-  l856,  in  the  Republican  Party  (g.v.).  Its  cry 
ber  856,980.  The  Grand  United  Order  of  Odd  had  been  "  F(^e  soil,  free  speech,  free  labor, 
Fellows  of  America  (colored)  numbers  150,339.  and  ^ree  men-" 

The  Grand   Lodges  of  Masons  are  in   full 
affiliation  with  the  English  Grand  Lodge,  of 

which  the  Prince  of  Wales  is  Grand  Master,  and         FREE    TRADE. Free   trade    is  free   ex- 

the  Grand  Lodges  of  Ireland,  Scotland,  Cuba,  change  ;  and  free  exchange  is  exchange  that  is 

Peru,  South  Australia,  New  ISouth  Wales,  Victo-  f  ree.     This  looks  like  a  mere  truism  ;  but  if  it 

ria,  and  Mexico,  and  also  with  the  Masons  of  Ger-  js>  jt  is  one  generally  disregarded,  and  the  words 

many  and  Austria.     They  are  not  in  affiliation  are  used  in  an  entirely  different  sense.     Free 

and  do    not    correspond   with   the   Masons  of  trade  is  continually  spoken  of  as  a  doctrine,  a 

France.     Freemasonry  is  under  the  ban  of  the  theory,  or  a  principle.     These  uses  of  the  term 

Church  in  Spam,  Italy,  and  other  Catholic  coun-  are  permissible  for  the  sake   of  brevity;  but 

tries,  and  the  membership  is  small  and  scat-  when  it  is  never  used  in  other  ways  the  most 

tered.     (See  INSURANCE  ;  TRADE  UNIONISM,  etc.)  important   facts    of  the  controversy    are    for- 
gotten. 

FREELAND  is  the  English  name  of  a  Ger-  j    WHAT  Is  FREE  TRADE? 
man  book,  Freiland  ein  sociales  Zukunftsbild, 

written  by  the  eminent  Austrian  economist  and  No  exchange  is  perfectly  free  ;    nothing  is 

statesman.  Dr.  Th.  Hertzka,  advocating  social-  perfect  in  this  world.     But    that   exchange  is 

istic  principles,  and  outlining  an  imaginary  free  most  nearly  free  which  encounters  the  fewest 

socialistic  state  founded  in  Central  Africa.     It  obstacles.     It  makes  not  the  slightest  difference 

aroused  very  general  attention,  and  committees  whether  these  obstacles  are  natural  or  artificial  ; 

were  formed  in  various  countries  to  raise  money  the  only  question  is,  how  effective  they  are  as 

and  establish  such  a  State.     Pioneers  started  to  an  obstruction  to  exchange.     No    statute  ob- 

found  the  State,  which  eventually  wholly  failed,  structs  the  freedom  of  exchange  between  Buf- 
falo and  Tennessee,  while  severe  statutes  ob- 

FREE  SOIL  PARTY,  THE. — This  was  the  struct  exchange  between  Buffalo  and  Canada, 

name  of  a  political  party  that  appeared  in  the  Yet  exchange  between  Buffalo  and  Toronto  is, 

United  States  about  1846  in  the  course  of  the  in  every  instance,  much  more  free  than  it  is  be- 

abolitionist  movement.    (See  ABOLITIONIST.)    Its  tween  Buffalo  and  most  of  the  mountain  settle- 


Free  Trade. 


Free  Trade. 


ments  of  Tennessee.  A  tariff  of  loo  per  cent, 
does  not  obstruct  trade  half  as  effectually  as  a 
distance  of  100  miles  from  any  railroad  or  high- 
way. Often  it  happens  that  prejudice  and 
hatred  make  trade  impossible  where  no  law  in- 
terposes any  hindrance.  Often,  on  the  other 
hand,  strong  and  bitter  prejudices 
...  fi  .  .  are  unable  to  hinder  the  growth  of 
ion.  free  trade  between  antagonistic 
sections.  In  determining  the  ex- 
tent to  which  freedom  of  trade  exists  between 
any  two  districts,  we  must  always  take  into  ac- 
count all  the  obstacles  and  inquire  how  far  they 
are  effectual.  Tariffs  are  not  the  only  obstruc- 
tion or  even  the  chief  obstruction  to  free  trade. 
They  nullify,  to  some  extent,  natural  facilities 
for  exchange  ;  but  the  gradual  removal  of  natu- 
ral obstacles  also  nullifies,  to  some  extent,  the 
operation  of  tariffs.  The  obstacles  interposed 
by  nature,  in  the  first  instance,  are  always  far 
greater  than  any  which  can  be  interposed  by 
human  laws,  because  the  latter  are  always  more 
or  less  evaded,  while  the  former  never  can  be. 
The  laws  of  nature  originally  prevented  all  ex- 
change ;  then  they  prevented  exchange  between 
different  tribes  ;  they  still  make  exchange  diffi- 
cult between  different  nations  ;  and  the  great- 
est efforts  of  human  skill  and  energy  are  direct- 
ed simply  to  breaking  down  the  barriers  which 
nature  has  thus  put  up. 

Free  trade,  however,  by  a  figure  of  speech, 
stands  for  a  political  idea.  That  idea  is  that  it 
is  good  for  every  man  and  every  nation  to  ex- 
change good  things  with  each  other  ;  that  every 
necessary  obstruction  upon  such  exchange  is  a 
misfortune  ;  and  that  every  unnecessary  ob- 
struction is  a  wrong.  This  idea  implies  that 
human  governments  ought  not  to  hinder  such 
exchange,  or  to  regulate  it  in  any  other  manner 
than  as  may  be  necessary  for  the  prevention  of 
dishonesty,  oppression,  and  crime.  This  theory 
was  adopted,  so  far  as  internal  commerce  is  con- 
cerned, by  the  United  States  in  1789,  since 
which  time  no  State  has  been  permitted  to  put 
the  smallest  obstruction  in  the  way  of  commerce 
between  its  own  citizens  and  the  citizens  of  any 
other  State,  or  to  levy  any  taxes  whatever  upon 
imports  or  exports.  The  theory  of  absolute  free 
trade  demands  that  the  same  principle  shall  be 
applied  to  commerce  between  all  parts  of  the 
world. 

Free  trade,  as  a  political  theory,  in  the  more  lim- 
ited sense  usually  attached  to  it,  means  only  that 
no  taxes  shall  be  imposed  upon  imports  or  exports 
except  such  as  are  levied  for  pur- 
poses of  public  revenue  only,  and 
British      so    arranged,   in  connection  with 
Free        other  taxes,  that  no  private  profit 
Trade.       shall  be  made  out  of  their  incidental 
results  so  far  as  it  is  in  the  power 
of  legislation  to  prevent  it.     This 
is  what  is  often  called  British  free  trade,  be- 
cause it  is  the  system  adopted  in  Great  Britain 
and   Ireland,  by  gradual  steps,  beginning  in 
1846  and  completed  in   1860.     It  would,  how- 
ever, seem  more  accurate  to  call  this  the  non- 
protective  system.     For  a  tariff  may  easily  be 
devised  of  which  the  entire  revenue  would  go 
into  the  public  treasury,  which  would,  never- 
theless, be  nearly  as  destructive  of  trade  and 
commerce  as  a  protective  tariff.    Thus,  the  Brit- 


ish tax  on  tobacco,  which  is  absolutely  non-pro- 
tective (because,  in  order  to  secure  all  the  profit 
to  the  public  treasury,  no  tobacco  is  allowed  to 
be  grown  on  British  soil),  is  so  exorbitant  as  to 
cut  down  trade  in  tobacco  to  half  its  natural 
dimensions  ;  and  it  might  easily  be  made  so 
high  as  to  destroy  the  legitimate  trade  entirely. 
Such  extreme  taxation  would,  of  course,  be  in- 
consistent with  the  idea  of  revenue  ;  but  it  may 
often  happen  that  the  largest  amount  of  reve- 
nue could  be  obtained  from  a  tariff  which  de- 
stroyed at  least  half  the  natural  trade.  It  seems 
a  contradiction  in  terms  to  call  such  a  system 
one  of  free  trade.  Still,  that  is  all  which  is 
meant  by  a  vast  majority  of  those  who  speak  of 
free  trade. 

The  system  of  "  British  free  trade"  is  open  to 
serious  objection,  as  failing  to  prevent  that  pri- 
vate profit  which  it  assumes  to  exclude.  It  is 
most  skilfully  planned  to  prevent  domestic  pro- 
ducers from  collecting  the  equivalent  of  the  tax 
upon  foreign  competing  articles — for  it  taxes 
British  productions  of  the  same  kind  just  as 
heavily  as  any  foreign  article  is  taxed.  But  the 
tariff,  being  necessarily  confined  to  a  very  few 
articles,  has  to  levy  very  heavy  taxes  upon 
these  ;  and  thus  the  wholesale  trade  in  them  is 
confined  to  persons  who  have  capital  sufficient 
to  pay  these  taxes  in  cash.  Every  tax  upon 
production  or  exchange,  whether  for  revenue  or 
not,  thus  fosters  monopolies  and  seriously  re- 
stricts the  freedom  of  trade. 

Complete  free  trade,  therefore,  is  absolutely 
inconsistent  with  any  form  of  indirect  taxation. 
But  the  consideration  of  the  relative  merits  of 
the  systems  of  direct  and  indirect  taxation  must 
be  deferred. 

The  right  of  property  is  of  little  utility  and 
no  value  without  the  right  of  exchange.     The 
very  word   "  value"  implies   the   idea  of  ex- 
change ;  because,  while  there  may 
be  utility  in  the  possession  and  use 
of    an    article,   nothing  can  have  Essential  to 
value,  in   the  proper  meaning  of  Civilization. 
that  term,  except  as  measured  by 
the  possibility  of  exchange.     Even 
the  utility  of  property  is  very  small  without  the 
right  of  exchange.     Without  exchange  of  prod- 
ucts, each  man  must  raise  for  himself  every 
article  which  he  desires  ;   and  the  enormous 
labor  and  inconvenience  of  doing  this  would  al- 
ways keep  man  in  the  savage  state.     Indeed, 
there  are  few  savages  so  degraded  as  all  men 
would    be    if    trade    were  entirely   abolished. 
Every  obstruction  to  the  freedom  of  exchange 
of  good  things,  therefore,  is  a  step  backward, 
not  merely  toward  barbarism,  but  toward  abso- 
lute savagery. 

Every  civilized  man  recognizes  the  enormo'us 
advantages  of  civilization.  To  be  entirely  de- 
prived of  them  he  would  consider  as  a  punish- 
ment only  one  degree  less  severe  than  death  it- 
self ;  and  great  numbers  of  men  have  at  all  times 
preferred  death  to  such  a  fate.  Yet  free  trade 
and  civilization  are  so  inextricably  wrapped  up  in 
each  other  as  to  be  almost  identical.  Upon  the 
whole,  freedom  of  exchange  in  goods  and  ideas 
is  the  cause  and  civilization  the  effect  ;  yet  every 
step  forward  in  civilization  instantly  leads  to  a 
step  forward  in  free  exchange  just  as  truly  as 
every  advance  in  free  exchange  causes  an  ad- 


Free  Trade. 


632 


Free  Trade. 


vance  in  civilization.  There  is  no  difference  be- 
tween civilization  and  barbarism  except  that 
which  springs  directly  from  the  greater  freedom 
of  interchange  in  ideas  and  in  goods,  which  civ- 
ilized men  enjoy.  The  height  of  civilization,  in 
any  community,  large  or  small,  is  precisely 
measured  by  the  extent  to  which  it  is  able  and 
willing  to  exchange  its  thoughts  and  its  things 
with  those  of  other  communities.  The  passion 
for  obstructing  either  form  of  such  exchange  is 
merely  the  reaction  of  partially  civilized  natures 
against  civilization  itself.  Absolute  indepen- 
dence, which  is  the  avowed  aim  of  obstruction- 
ists, would  be  the  suicide  of  humanity.  We  are 
all — whether  individuals,  towns,  States,  or  na- 
tions— intended  to  be  dependent  upon  each 
other  ;  and  we  all  become  more  and  more  so 
with  every  succeeding  year.  The  most  highly 
developed  man  does  as  little  as  possible  for  him- 
self and  as  much  as  possible  for  others.  The 
most  highly  developed  nation  does  very  much 
the  same.  These  tendencies  are  simply  irre- 
sistible in  all  civilized  communities  ;  and  against 
these  gigantic  natural  forces  all  the  puny  efforts 
of  bigots,  whether  in  or  out  of  legislatures,  are 
in  vain. 

We  now  approach  the  line  of  division  between 
the  two  schools  of  thought  and  the  two  great 
parties  in  political  economy.  And  here  we 
meet  the  second  and  limited  defini- 
tion of  free  trade.  In  the  minds 
The  of  most  men  free  trade  means  sub- 
Protective  stantially  the  opposite  of  the  so- 
System.  called  "protective"  system;  and, 
therefore,  a  tariff  for  revenue  only, 
without;  any  element  of  protection 
in  it,  is  generally  supposed  to  be  the  equivalent 
of  free  trade,  altho  it  is  not.  "  Protection"  is  a 
system  under  which  trade  is  intentionally  ob- 
structed for  the  purpose  of  preventing  competi- 
tion between  different  producers  of  similar 
goods.  Its  method  of  reaching  this  result  is 
usually  either  by  heavy  taxes  upon  foreign  prod- 
ucts, or  by  absolute  prohibition  of  certain  classes 
of  such  products.  Other  methods,  such  as 
bounties,  may,  however,  be  used.  In  general, 
the  protective  system  is  supposed  to  be  drawn 
exclusively  upon  national  lines  ;  and  it  is  con- 
stantly assumed  that  the  only  question  between 
protectionists  and  free  traders  is  as  to  whether 
foreign  goods  should  be  admitted  in  free  com- 
petition with  domestic  goods.  But  this  was  not 
originally  so,  and  is  not  altogether  so  even  now. 
It  is  true  that,  while  all  American  protectionists 
are  agreed  in  obstructing  the  importation  of  for- 
eign goods  into  the  United  States,  so  far  as  they 
compete  with  similar  goods  produced  within 
the  United  States,  most  of  them  do  not  desire 
to  apply  a  similar  rule  between  the  several 
States  of  the  American  Union,  much  more  be- 
tween different  sections  of  the  same  State.  Yet 
a  vast  number  of  them  hold  a  different  opin- 
ion, and  would  put  up  barriers  between  the 
different  States,  and  sometimes  even  between 
different  counties  if  they  could.  Constant  ef- 
forts are,  indeed,  made  in  this  direction.  The 
Legislature  of  New  York  has  passed  laws  re- 
quiring all  stone  used  for  public  buildings  to 
be  dressed  and  finished  within  the  State  ;  and 
serious  efforts  have  been  made  to  compel  such 
stone  to  be  taken  from  New  York  quarries. 


The  common  councils  of  some  cities  have  re- 
peatedly made  efforts  to  prevent  the  admission 
into  those  cities  (for  public  use,  at  all  events)  of 
certain  classes  of  goods  made  in  other  cities. 
Heavy  license  fees  have  been  repeatedly  de- 
manded by  the  authorities  of  one  State  from 
citizens  of  other  States  undertaking  to  sell 
goods  within  its  borders.  Many  statutes  and 
ordinances  of  this  kind  have  been  enacted,  most 
of  which,  however,  have  been  held  void  by  the 
Supreme  Court  of  the  United  States  as  violative 
of  the  Federal  Constitution.  If  it  had  not  been 
for  the  existence  of  that  Constitution  and  the 
firmness  of  the  Supreme  Court  there  can  be  lit- 
tle doubt  that  long  before  this  time  such  laws 
and  ordinances  would  have  been  universal,  be- 
cause they  would  have  been  enacted  in  retalia- 
tion, even  in  States  where  the  people  disap- 
proved of  them  as  an  original  proposition.  The 
principle  underlying  such  statutes  and  ordi- 
nances is  precisely  the  same  as  that  which 
underlies  any  protective  tariff  whatever.  No 
intelligible  distinction  can  be  made  between  the 
two  cases.  No  sound  reason  can  be  given  for 
maintaining  a  protective  tariff  between  New 
York  and  Canada,  which  does  not  apply  with  a 
hundredfold  force  to  New  York  and  New  Jer- 
sey. This  will  become  plain  as  we  consider  the 
arguments  usually  made  in  favor  of  protection. 

II.  OBJECTIONS  TO  FREE  TRADE. 

The  principal  American  arguments  against 
free  trade  seem  to  be  :  That  we  ought  to  be  in- 
dependent of  foreign  countries  ;  that  imports  of 
merchandise  ought  to  be  forcibly  kept  below 
exports,  so  as  to  secure  a  "favorable  balance 
of  trade,"  which  will  "  keep  our  money  in  our 
own  country"  and  prevent  the  export  of  gold — 
which  is  assumed  to  be  a  great  injury  ;  that 
everything  which  we  import  which  we  could 
make  ourselves  necessarily  displaces  just  ' '  so 
much  American  labor,"  and  deprives  Ameri- 
cans of  that  amount  of  employment  and  wages, 
without  compensation  ;  that  the  admission  of 
goods  made  by  "  the  pauper  labor  of  Europe" 
inevitably  tends  to  reduce  American  wages  to 
the  European  level  ;  that  a  tax  ought  to  be  im- 
posed upon  foreign  goods  "  sufficient  to  equal- 
ize the  difference  between  foreign  and  Ameri- 
can rates  of  wages  ;"  that  "  our"  home  market 
belongs  to  "us,"  and  foreigners  ought  not  to  be 
allowed  to  "  invade"  it  without  paying  toll ;  that 
"  diversified  industries"  are  essential  to  national 
prosperity,  and  can  only  be  acquired  by  ' '  encour- 
aging" new  industries  through  protection  against 
foreign  competition  ;  that  every  new  industry 
is  a  distinct  addition  to  the  national  wealth, 
which  can  only  be  secured  by  protection  ;  that 
free  trade  would  reduce  prices,  and,  therefore, 
reduce  wages  ;  that  free  trade  would  increase 
prices  by  giving  to  foreigners  the  monopoly  of 
our  market,  while  protection  reduces  prices  by 
increasing  domestic  competition  ;  that  under 
free  trade,  foreigners  would  "flood  our  mar- 
kets" with  their  goods,  furnishing  everything 
so  cheaply  that  we  could  make  nothing  for  our- 
selves ;  that  under  free  trade  foreigners  could 
not  supply  us  with  one  tenth  of  the  articles 
which  we  need,  while  we  could  not  make  any 
ourselves,  and  should  therefore  have  to  go  with- 


Free  Trade. 


633 


Free  Trade. 


out  the  necessaries  of  life  outside  of  agricultural 
products  (Governor  Hoyt)  ;  that  the  tariff  is  not 
a  tax  ;  that  the  tariff  is  a  tax  upon  foreigners  ; 
that  a  revenue  tariff  is  a  tax  upon  Americans, 
while  a  protective  tariff  is  a  tax  only  upon  for- 
eigners (Major  McKinley)  ;  that  "  cheaper  coats 
involve  a  cheaper  man  and  woman  under  the 
coats"  (General  Harrison)  ;  that  "  cheap  and 
nasty  go  together"  (Major  McKinley)  ;  that  "  the 
vulture  loves  not  his  carrion  more  than  the  free 
trader  loves  cheapness"  (H.  C.  Baird) ;  that 
"cheap  merchandise  means  cheap  men,  and 
cheap  men  make  a  cheap  country,  and  that  is 
not  the  kind  which  our  fathers  builded,"  nor 
one  "  which  their  sons  mean  to  maintain"  (Major 
McKinley)  ;  that  coats  and  all  other  things  have 
been  made  cheaper  by  high  protective  tariffs 
than  they  ever  were  before  (Harrison,  McKin- 
ley, Aldrich,  etc.) ;  that  goods  cannot  be  made 
cheap  unless  wages  are  made  low  ;  and  that 
protection  makes  goods  cheap  and  wages  high. 
Many  other  arguments  are  or  have  been  in 
common  use  ;  but  those  here  cited  are  the  most 
familiar  at  present.  We  are  not  responsible  for 
their  contradictions  of  each  other.  No  argu- 
ment is  given  here  which  has  not  been  repeat- 
edly used  by  distinguished  champions  of  the 
protective  policy,  and  printed  in  publications  is- 
sued by  one  or  more  of  the  three  most  active 
protectionist  organizations.  The  most  contra- 
dictory utterances  sometimes  proceed  from  the 
same  mouth  ;  and  the  more  distinguished  and 
sincere  the  orator  is  the  more  certain  is  he  thus 
to  contradict  himself. 

The  protective  idea  is  by  no  means  peculiar 
to  America.  It  was  dominant  over  the  whole 
world  until  within  the  last  50  years,  with  the 
exception  of  a  few  cities,  like  the  Hanseatic 
League  ;  and  it  has  never  been  entirely  shaken 
off  by  any  nations  except  the  British,  Dutch, 
and  Belgians,  while  it  seems  to  be  regaining  its 
hold  upon  Belgium.  Holland  introduced  com- 
parative freedom  of  trade  in  advance  of  Great 
Britain,  but  only  in  a  partial  and  inconsistent 
manner,  jealously  excluding  foreigners  from  her 
colonial  trade.  China  and  Japan,  as  is  well 
known,  maintained  an  ideal  system  of  protection 
for  many  centuries — not  by  any  tariff,  but  by  the 
absolute  exclusion  of  imports.*  Naturally,  it  will 
be  found  that  the  arguments  in  favor  of  the 
system  are  irreconcilably  conflicting  in  different 
countries.  In  the  United  States,  the  one  argu- 
ment, which  overshadows  all  others,  is  the  dan- 
ger of  competition  with  countries  having  lower 
rates  of  wages.  But  in  all  continental  Europe 
producers  are  frantic  with  anxiety  to  exclude  the 
competition  of  countries  having  higher  rates  of 
wages  ;  and  in  Russia,  where  wages  are  lowest, 
the  tariff  is  highest.  Even  in  the  United  States 
the  highest  rates  of  protection  are  always  placed 
upon  the  productions  of  those  countries  where 
wages  approach  most  nearly  to  the  American 
standard. 

III.  REVIEW  OF  OBJECTIONS. 

I.  We  should  be  independent  of  foreign 
countries.  This  is  a  favorite  argument  with 
many  protectionists.  But  the  only  persons  who 

*  The  example  of  China  is  frequently  referred  to  by 
leading  American  protectionists  as  one  to  be  followed 
in  this  respect. 


are  independent  of  others  are  savages  of  the 
lowest  type.  The  only  nations  which  are  inde- 
pendent of  others  are  barbarous  or  half  civil- 
ized. China  presents  the  highest  type  of  an  in- 
dependent nation  ;  and  China,  many  centuries 
ago,  shutting  itself  in  from  the  rest  of  the 
world,  and  assuming  a  position  of  commercial 
and  industrial  independence,  stopped  all  growth 
except  in  mere  numbers,  and  all  improvement, 
moral,  intellectual,  and  material.*  Such  inde- 
pendence is  utterly  inconsistent 
with  civilization.  Every  step  tow- 
ard the  one  is  a  step  away  from  the  Foreign 
other.  Fortunately,  such  indepen-  Countries, 
dence  is  impossible  for  us.  The 
instinct  of  intelligent  humanity 
toward  mutual  dependence  and  the  exchange 
of  ideas  and  products  is  so  strong  that  no  laws 
and  no  absurd  prejudices  can  stand  in  the  way. 
Commerce  goes  on  and  will  go  on  in  spite  of 
tariffs  or  even  prohibitions.  The  instinct  is  a 
perfectly  sound  one.  The  richest  and  strongest 
men  are  the  most  dependent  upon  others.  All 
the  value  of  wealth  consists  in  the  power  which 
it  gives  to  its  possessor  to  command  the  services 
of  other  men.  All  the  glory  of  a  great  military 
chieftain  consists  in  the  vast  number  of  brave 
men,  upon  whom  he  is  absolutely  dependent, 
and  whom  he  has  inspired  with  a  just  confidence 
in  their  mutual  dependence  upon  him.  And 
nations  are  rich  and  strong  in  exact  proportion 
to  the  degree  in  which  they  have  established 
relations  of  mutual  dependence  between  them- 
selves and  other  nations. 

2.  The  balance  of  trade.     The  idea  that  the 
balance  of  trade  is  favorable  to  our  country, 
when  we  export  continually  goods  to  a  greater 
value  than  we  import,  is  almost  universal,  yet 
clearly  erroneous.     Imports  are  what  we  get ; 
exports  are  what  we  give.     It  is  impossible  that 
we  should  gain  a  profit  by  forever  giving  more 
value  than  we  receive  in  exchange.     Prosperity 
comes  from  steadily  importing  things  which  are 
of  greater  value  to  us  than  those  which  we  ex- 
port.    All  figures  as  to  the  balance  of  trade, 
moreover,  are  delusive.    No  two  countries  make 
up  their  trade  statements  upon  precisely  the 
same  principle.     Great   Britain    computes  the 
value  of  her  imports  upon  British  prices.    Amer- 
ica computes  hers  upon  foreign  prices.     The 
difference  is  fully  10  to  15  per  cent.  ;  because 
the   one    includes  freight,  insurance,  landing 
charges  and  profits,  while  the  other  does  not. 
Again,  our  exports  are  worth  much  more  to  for- 
eign recipients  than  they  are  to  us,  while  our 
imports  are  worth  much  more  to  us  than  they 
are  to  foreign  shippers.     Happily  for  us,  com- 
merce regulates  these  matters   for  itself,  and 
we  actually  import  every  year  much  more  in 
value  to  us  than  we  export.     Every  country 
not  plundered    by  foreigners   or   non-resident 
landlords  does  the  same. 

3.  The  drain    of  gold.     The  "balance   of 
trade"  delusion  rests,  however,  upon  another 
delusion,  as  to  the  existence  and  effect  of  a 
"  drain  of  gold."     It  is  supposed  that  the  con- 

*  The  example  of  China  in  this  respect  also  has  been 
often  referred  to  by  American  protectionists  as  one  to 
be  followed  by  us.  H.  C.  Carey  uniformly  declared 
himself  in  favor  of  "a  wall  of  fire  across  the  Atlantic," 
and  protectionist  candidates  for  Congress  have  pla- 
carded their  desire  for  "a  Chinese  wall." 


Free  Trade. 


634 


Free  Trade. 


stant  flow  of  gold  from  America  is  a  great  evil, 
and  that  this  evil  could  be  stopped  by  importing 
fewer  foreign  goods,  exporting  more  of  our  own, 
and  collecting  the  balance  in  gold,  or,  at  all 
events,  keeping  all  our  own  gold  at  home.  On 
the  contrary,  nothing  whatever  can  keep  our 
gold  at  home  ;  and  if  it  could  be  done  it  would 
be  a  national  disaster.  Our  country  produces 
more  gold  than  any  other,  and  more  gold  and 
silver  than  all  the  rest  of  the  world.  *  We  have 
no  use  for  seven  eighths  of  the  gold  which  we 
produce.  If  we  could  keep  it  all  at  home  we 
should  simply  pile  it  up  in  vaults,  as  we  have 
done  with  silver  for  fifteen  years.  But  the 
owners  of  gold  mines  could  always  get  more 
goods  for  their  gold  than  we  would  give,  and 
therefore  they  would  send  the  gold  abroad,  no 
matter  what  tariff  we  had.  Indeed,  the  higher 
the  tariff  the  less  does  gold  bring  at  home  ;  and, 
therefore,  every  advance  in  the  tariff  tends  to 
increase  the  export  of  gold.  The  official  statis- 
tics show  that  such  has  been  the  result  f  More 
gold  has  been  exported,  on  the  average,  annu- 
ally under  high  tariffs  than  under  low  tariffs. 
At  all  times  we  export  all  the  gold  which  other 
countries  are  willing  to  pay  for  ;  and  if  we  in- 
creased our  imports  of  merchandise  to  any  con- 
ceivable amount,  we  should  not  increase  our  ex- 
ports of  gold.  We  do  not  produce  enough  gold 
to  pay  for  one  twentieth  of  our  present  imports  ; 
and,  therefore,  if  we  doubled  our  imports  there 
could  be  no  further  "  drain  of  gold." 

4.  Displacement   of   American   labor.     No 
amount   of    foreign    productions   can  displace 
American  labor.    Every  ounce  of  foreign  goods 

must  be  paid  for  in  American 
goods,  produced  from  American 
Labor.  materials,  on  American  soil,  by 
American  labor.  For  every  dollar's 
worth  of  imported  goods  a  dollar's 
•worth  of  American-made  goods  must  be  export- 
ed. Therefore  precisely  as  much  employment 
is  given  to  American  labor  by  the  purchase  of 
imported  goods  as  by  the  purchase  of  home- 
made goods.  But,  it  is  said,  "the  foreigner 
will  demand  payment  in  gold  or  silver."  Let 
him  "  demand"  what  he  pleases,  he  cannot  get 
either  to  the  value  of  more  than  one  tenth  of 
what  he  sends  to  us,  for  the  conclusive  reason 
that  we  produce  no  more.  And  to  that  extent 
gold  and  silver  are  our  natural  productions, 
which  we  are  fully  as  anxious  to  sell  as  we  are 
our  surplus  wheat  or  pork.  Indeed,  after  abus- 
ing "the  foreigner"  for  50  years,  because  he 
would  buy  our  silver  at  higher  prices  than  we 
were  willing  to  give  for  it,  we  now  abuse  him 
because  he  will  not  buy  it  fast  enough  ;  and  it 
is  solemnly  proposed  in  Massachusetts  to  cut  off 
trade  with  England  unless  she  will  agree  to  buy 
silver  instead  of  wheat. 

5.  The  pauper  labor  of  Europe.     If  there  is 
any  such    thing    as  the   imported  product   of 
' '  pauper  labor' '   (which   is  a   contradiction  in 
terms,  since  paupers  necessarily  do  not  produce 
enough  by  their  labor  to  support  themselves, 
much  less  to  send  abroad),  the  only  effect  of  its 

*  In  1890  the  production  of  gold  was :  United  States, 
$32,845,000  ;  Australasia,  $30,416,500  ;  Russia,  $21,161,700. 

t  Average  annual  export  of  gold  and  silver,  from 
1847  to  1861,  under  low  tariffs,  $25,986,002.  Annual  aver- 
age for  next  30  years,  under  high  tariffs,  $29,853,698. 


exclusion  must  be  to  put  a  premium  upon  the 
importation  of  the  paupers  themselves,  bringing 
their  labor  into  direct  competition  with  Ameri- 
can labor  and  reducing  American  wages.  For 
paupers  are,  as  a  matter  of  course,  at  the  lowest 
point  at  which  life  can  be  sustained.  If  they 
are  dependent  for  even  this  subsistence  upon 
the  American  market  for  their  productions,  and 
they  are  shut  out  of  that  market  by  an  increase 
of  the  tariff,  they  must  and  will  carry  their 
hands  to  that  market.  For  many  years  it  was 
the  avowed  purpose  of  protectionists  to  produce 
this  result  ;  and  Henry  C.  Carey  pointed  to  the 
increase  of  immigration  as  a  proof  of  the  benefi- 
cent effects  of  protection  ;  while  in  1864  a  strong- 
ly protectionist  Congress  enacted  a  law  giving 
to  the  importers  of  pauper  laborers  a  lien  upon 
their  earnings  and  land,  for  the  cost  of  such  im- 
portation, and  enforcing  contracts  for  service 
made  abroad  at  less  than  American  prices. 
This  law  was  not  repealed  until  1884,  after  im- 
mense numbers  of  laborers  had  been  imported 
under  such  contracts. 

6.  Duties  to  equalize  wages.  This  is  the 
most  plausible  protectionist  argument.  But  in 
fact,  nine  tenths  at  least  of  American  workmen 
receive  less  wages,  in  proportion  to  the  value 
of  their  production,  than  do  workmen  in  any 
other  part  of  the  world.  They  receive  a  larger 
summer  day,  but  a  much  'smaller  sum  per  piece. 
All  over  the  world  high  wages  mean,  as  a  rule, 
cheap  labor.  American  wages  are  the  highest, 
and,  therefore,  American  labor  is  the  most  pro- 
ductive and  the  cheapest.  In  a  very  few  lines 
of  production  it  may  be  true  that  American  labor 
costs  more  per  piece  than  does  foreign  labor. 
A  "  duty  to  equalize  the  difference  in  wages," 
in  such  cases,  means  that  the  whole  mass  of 
American  laborers  are  taxed  to  repay,  to  the 
employers  of  a  very  few,  this  difference  in  cost. 
The  workmen  thus  employed  are  not  benefited, 
because  they  could  earn  just  as  good  wages  at 
some  different  work  ;  and  if  the  goods  which 
they  now  make  were  imported,  they  would  be 
employed  in  making  some  other  article  to  be  ex- 
ported in  payment  for  those  goods  at  the  same 
or  better  wages.  The  whole  benefit  of  such  a 
tax  goes  into  the  pockets  of  the  protected  em- 
ployers. Moreover,  such"  compensating  duties" 
are  never  confined  to  the  limits  of  compensa- 
tion ;  they  are  always  made  so  high  as  to  exceed 
the  whole  wages  paid.  Thus,  the  protective 
duties  levied  upon  coal  and  iron  ore  have  been 
for  many  years  75  cents  per  ton,  while  the  whole 
amount  of  wages  paid  for  the  production  of 
either  has  been  always  less  than  50  cents,  and 
often  .less  than  25  cents  per  ton.  The  protec- 
tive duty  on  steel  rails,  down  to  1894,  was  never 
less  than  $13. 44  per  ton,  and  was  for  many  years 
$28  ;  while  the  excess  of  labor  cost  in  America 
over  that  of  Europe  has  not,  for  many  years, 
amounted  to  $3  per  ton,  and  for  the  last  five 
years  has  not  exceeded  50  cents.  The  labor  cost 
in  steel  rails  is  now  less  in  America  than  in  any 
part  of  Europe.  Heavy  duties  are  imposed  upon 
cotton  goods  of  all  kinds,  altho  it  has  been  con- 
clusively proved  that  the  labor  cost  in  most 
of  such  goods  is  much  less  in  America  than  in 
any  part  of  Europe,  or,  indeed,  the  world,  and 
has  been  so  for  more  than  15  years.  A  "  pro- 
tective duty"  of  60  per  cent,  is  maintained 


Free  Trade. 


635 


Free  Trade. 


"  solely  to  enable  American  employers  to  pay 
to  their  workmen"  less  wages  than  are  paid  in 
Europe  for  the  same  work.* 

7.  Diversifying'  industries.  Professor  R.  E. 
Thompson  declares  that  the  fundamental  idea 

*  The  evidence  of  this  in  detail  would  occupy  too 
much  space.  It  is  given,  with  regard  to  the  cotton 
manufacture,  in  official  reports  of  the  State  Depart- 
ment—one made  by  Secretary  Evarts  in  1879,  and  the 
other  by  Secretary  Elaine  in  1881.  Both  state  explic- 
itly, as  a  result  of  all  the  investigations  made  by  the 
United  States  consuls  abroad,  that  the  higher  wages 
of  American  workmen  are  more  than  compensated 
for  by  the  still  greater  excess  in  their  production. 
The  same  fact  was  shown  in  a  report  made  by  Mr. 
James  Thornly  in  1879,  in  which  he  gave  in  detail  the 
precise  cost  of  labor  in  a  yard  of  cloth,  in  New  Eng- 
land and  in  Lancashire,  in  various  mills.  In  every  in- 
stance the  labor  cost  in  New  England  was  20  or  30  per 
cent,  less  than  in  Old  England.  His  tables  are  given 
in  Mr.  Blaine's  report  of  1881 .  This  result  is  confirmed 
by  the  census  of  1880,  which  showed  that  while  each 
English  cotton  worker  only  used  2660  Ibs.  of  cotton, 
each  American  worker  used  4290  Ibs.,  or  61  per  cent, 
more.  In  weaving,  the  very  same  operators  who  in 
England  attend  to  not  more  than  three  looms  each 
attend  in  America  to  at  least  five  and  often  more.  So 
in  other  manufactures.  In  1880,  the  average  produc- 
tion of  each  metal-worker  in  the  United  States  was 
valued  by  his  employers  at  $1684,  while  that  of  each 
British  metal-worker  was  valued  at  only  $780.  In  1886, 
the  coal-mine  owners  of  Maryland,  etc.,  testified  be- 
fore Congress  that  the  wages  paid  for  each  ton  of  coal 
did  not  exceed  40  cents  ( Testimony  Ways  and  Means 
Committee,  pp.  187,  191,  193) ;  while  in  England  96  cents 
were  paid,  and  in  Scotland  $1.00  (British  Statistical 
Abstract).  An  American  machine,  widely  used  in 
shoemaking,  which  registers  the  amount  of  work  done, 
shows  that  the  production  of  each  English  shoemaker 
is  upon  the  average  only  47)^  per  cent,  of  an  Ameri- 
can's production  ;  that  is  less  than  one  half.  But  evi- 
dences need  not  be  multiplied.  The  fact  is  fully 
admitted  by  the  best  protectionist  authorities — e.g., 
Professor  Thompson  (Political  Economy,  §  126),  the  Pro- 
tective Tariff  League  (Tariff  Committee  Report,  1882), 
and  Robert  P.  Porter  (New  York  Press,  October  3  and 
14,  1888). 

It  is  the  result  of  a  universal  law.  The  United  States 
census  of  1880  showed  that  high  wages  everywhere  re- 
sulted in  such  increased  production  as  to  make  them 
more  profitable  to  employers  than  low  wages.  Thus, 
to  give  only  a  few  examples  out  of  thousands,  the  ag- 
gregate average  rate  of  wages  and  net  production  of 
each  wage-earner  were  as  follows  : 

IN    ALL   INDUSTRIES. 


New  York  City. 

Philadelphia 

Baltimore  ... 


Wages. 


$427 
346 


Produc- 
tion. 


$8n 
675 
576 


IN    COTTON    GOODS. 


Wages. 

Produc- 
tion. 

Massachusetts  

$258 

New  York  

Georgia  

182 

IN    WOOLEN   GOODS. 


Wages. 

Produc- 
tion. 

Massachusetts  

New  York  

289 

Ohio  

of  the  protective  system  is  to  divert  industry, 
by  artificial  means,  into  channels  through  which 
it  would  not  otherwise  flow.  This  is  undoubt- 
edly a  correct  statement  of  the  philosophy  of 
protection,  as  held  by  all  its  intelligent  and  dis- 
interested advocates.  It  is  usually  expressed  as 
the  "diversification  of  industries;"  and  it  is 
earnestly  insisted  that  a  multitude  of  different 
new  industries  are  so  necessary  to  the  prosper- 
ity of  every  nation  that  they  must  be  forced  into 
existence  by  taxing  all  the  old  in- 
dustries for  their  support.  But  di- 
versity of  industries  is  neither  a  Diversified 
cause  nor  a  condition  of  prosperity.  Industries. 
The  mass  of  the  people  in  Califor- 
nia and  Australia  were  never  so 
prosperous  as  when  they  had  practically  only 
one  industry — the  digging  of  gold.  Their  in- 
dustries diversified  fast  enough  when  no  more 
gold  could  be  scraped  up  by  hand,  because  they 
no  longer  had  the  means  of  paying  other  people 
to  supply  them  with  other  articles.  Nothing 
ever  induces  men  to  diversify  their  industries 
except  the  pressure  of  comparative  poverty, 
caused  usually  by  the  decreasing  returns  from 
those  industries  in  which  they  were  previously 
engaged.  So  far  as  a  protective  tariff  really 
does  diversify  industries,  it  must  do  so  by  im- 
poverishing the  people,  because  it  can  be  done 
in  no  other  way.  This  would  be  true  even  of 
a  bounty  paid  to  those  entering  upon  a  new  in- 
dustry, because,  while  it  might  make  them 
rich,  it  must  be  taken  out  of  the  pockets  of  the 
people  at  large,  making  them  poorer  by  the 
amount  of  the  bounty  and  the  expense  of  its  col- 
lection and  distribution.  A  protective  tariff 
does  not  have  even  the  questionable  merit  of  a 
direct  bounty.  It  gives  nothing,  confers  no 
benefits,  creates  no  industry.  All  that  it  does 
or  ever  can  do  is  to  kill  some  existing  industry, 
to  ruin  some  persons  who  are  earning  an  honest 
living  by  providing  useful  things  for  their 
fellow-men — to  destroy,  never  to  build  up.  Its 
work  is  purely  destructive.  It  develops  noth- 
ing. After  a  new  tariff  tax  has  destroyed  one 
or  more  domestic  industries  by  preventing  the 
importation  of  the  materials  which  are  essential 
to  them,  those  who  are  thus  deprived  of  their 
usual  employment  and  income  look  round  for 
some  work  which  the  tariff  has  not  destroyed  ; 
and  thus  production  in  that  particular  line  is  in- 
creased. For  example,  before  1883  the  duty 
upon  both  rufflings  and  the  materials  out  of 
which  they  were  made  was  30  per  cent.  Some- 
body thought  he  could  make  the  materials  in 
America,  altho  they  were  then  all  imported,  so 
he  persuaded  Congress  to  put  a  duty  of  about 
125  per  cent,  on  them,  leaving  the  duty  on  the 
finished  manufacture  unchanged.  The  result 
was  that  the  manufacture  of  ruffling  here  was 
totally  destroyed,  and  thousands  of  work-people 
discharged.  They  could  not  get  employment  in 
making  the  materials,  for  they  did  not  know 
how  to  do  it.  Nobody  in  America  succeeded  in 
making  them.  So  rufflings  were  imported  in- 
stead of  the  materials  for  rufflings.  In  other 
cases  Americans  do  succeed  in  making  the  ma- 
terials after  being  "  protected"  out  of  the 
manufacture  of  the  finished  article  ;  and  then  it 
is  proclaimed  that  the  tariff  has  ' '  created  a  new 
industry,"  when  all  that  it  has  done  has  been 


Free  Trade. 


636 


Free  Trade. 


to  kill  an  old  one.  A  new  industry  is  not  neces- 
sarily any  addition  to  national  wealth  ;  and  cer- 
tainly a  new  industry  "created"  only  by  the 
destruction  of  an  old  one,  which  was  more  profit- 
able to  the  community  (as  must  needs  be  the 
case  where  a  heavy  tax  is  required  to  induce 
men  to  abandon  it  lor  the  new),  is  a  positive 
national  loss. 

8.  The  "flood  of  foreign  goods."     On  this 
point,  two  entirely  contradictory  arguments  are 
used  by  protectionist  authorities  of  equal  stand- 
ing.    The  most  common  assertion  is  that  if  the 
protective  barrier    were    removed,    foreigners 
would  "  flood  our  markets"  with  manufactures, 
if  not  with  other  things,  so  that  our  own  manu- 
factures would  be  entirely  destroyed  ;  all  pur 
wants  in  that  line  being  supplied  by  foreign 
producers.      But    as    statistics    prove    that    if 
all   European  countries    sent    to  America  the 
whole  of  their  surplus  products  they  could  not 
supply  us  with  one  tenth  of  the  manufactures 
which  we  annually  consume,  it  is  manifest  that 
there  could  be  no  such  "flood."     No  one  has 
pointed  this  out  more  clearly  than  Alexander 
Hamilton  did  a  century  ago  ;  and  it  is  even 
more  true  now  than  it  was  then.     Accordingly, 
Governor  Hoyt,  of  Pennsylvania  (in  his  book, 
which  is  one  of  the  standard  works  circulated 
by  the  Tariff  League),  insists  upon  this  fact, 
drawing  from  it   the   extraordinary  inference 
that  we  could  not  manufacture  anything  our- 
selves, on  account  of  the  low  prices  of  European 
goods,  and  yet  that  the  supply  of  such  goods 
would  be  so  small  that  nine  tenths  of  our  peo- 
ple "  would  have  to  go  without"  clothing,  tools, 
machinery,  and  all  other  manufactures.     The 
gigantic  absurdity  of  such  an  idea  ought  to  be 
so  plain  as  to  need  no  argument.     Obviously, 
before  any  such  result  could  occur,  the  prices 
of  European  and  American  manufactures  would 
be  equalized  ;  and  if  Americans  refused  to  pro- 

,  duce  on  those  terms,  European  prices  would 
advance,  by  reason  of  American  demand,  to  a 
point  which  would  induce  American  production 
upon  as  large  a  scale  as  ever.  With  cheaper 
prices  American  consumption  would  increase  so 
enormously  as  to  absorb  all  that  Europe  could 
possibly  send,  in  addition  to  a  larger  American 
production  than  there  is  now.  The  largest  out- 
put of  American  manufactures  has  always  oc- 
curred in  the  years  of  the  largest  importation  of 
foreign  manufactures  ;  and  so  it  always  will  be. 
Senator  Mills  has  demonstrated  this  to  be  the 
fact  by  official  statistics. 

9.  The  tariff  not  a  tax.     So  many  absurd 
and  contradictory  statements  are  made  under 
this  head,  that  it  is  almost  impossible  to  hold  a 
protectionist  down  to  any  of  them.     As  soon  as 
one  of  them  is  refuted  he  will  say  that  he  does 
not  hold  to   that,    but    does    hold    something 
else.     Not  having  an  acre  of  space,  we  must 

deal  with  only  one  of  these  asser- 
„,  tions,  which  Mr.  McKinley  delights 

T  riff       *n<     This  is> tnat  a  revenue  tariff  is 
™  a  tax  upon  our  own  people,  while  a 

protective  tariff  is  a  tax  upon  for- 
eigners. Thus,  the  duty  upon  raw 
sugar,  being  a  revenue  duty,  is  declared  by 
Messrs.  McKinley,  Aldrich,  and  Reed  to  have 
been  a  tax  on  Americans  of  $70,000,000  a  year. 
But  the  duty  of  half  a  cent  a  pound  upon  re- 


fined sugar,  under  which  the  Sugar  Refining 
Company  has  secured  a  profit  of  over  $15,000,- 
ooo  a  year,  is  purely  protective,  and  therefore 
must  be  paid  by  foreigners.  How  did  they  pay 
it  1  Not  as  much  as  $10,000  is  paid  by  anybody, 
foreigners  or  Americans,  as  duty  upon  refined 
sugar  in  any  year.  American  sugar  eaters  paid 
the  $15,000,000  we  know,  for  over  $10,000,000 
were  paid  out  in  dividends,  and  the  company 
avowedly  retained  $5,000,000  more  on  hand. 
Did  foreigners  kindly  remit  this  vast  sum  in 
order  to  fulfil  Mr.  McKinley's  doctrine  ?  If  so, 
who  got  the  money  ?  Did  the  sugar  refiners  or 
the  sugar  eaters  ? 

It  must  be  quite  clear  that  foreigners  do  not 
pay  the  tariff  tax  when  no  tax  is  collected.  But 
the  case  of  Sumatra  tobacco  has  been  mentioned, 
even  by  some  free  traders,  as  one  in  which  the 
foreigner  paid  at  least  part  of  the  tax.  Yet 
there  is  no  case  in  which  the  facts  more  clearly 
demonstrate  the  contrary.  The  duty  on  this 
tobacco  was  suddenly  raised  in  1890  from  75 
cents  a  pound  to  $2,  an  increase  of  $1.25.  Mill- 
ions of  pounds  were  imported  under  the  new 
duty.  The  foreign  price,  in  1889,  under  the  old 
duty,  was  84  cents.  How  could  the  foreigner 
pay  the  increased  duty  of  $1.25  out  of  84  cents  1 
Nor  was  the  foreign  price  reduced.  It  ad- 
vanced to  95  cents  in  1893  and  1894,  in  spite  of 
the  new  tariff.  Every  cent  of  this  tariff  tax 
was  paid  by  American  consumers. 

Tin  plates  are  often  cited  on  this  point. 
Quotations  are  given,  showing  that  the  price  in 
Wales  was  reduced,  after  the  increase  of  the 
tariff,  by  about  the  amount  of  such  increase. 
The  fact  is,  that  nine  months'  notice  of  the  ad- 
vance having  been  given,  the  American  demand 
was  so  intense  that  the  Welsh  mills  were  kept 
at  work  during  that  period  night  and  clay,  and 
of  course  Welsh  prices  were  advanced.  After 
the  new  tariff  took  effect  (July  i,  1891)  the 
American  demand  fell  off  at  once,  having  been 
supplied  for  a  long  time  in  advance.  Welsh 
prices  then  fell  back  to  their  original  point. 
Importations  being  eventually  resumed  in  1892, 
Americans  paid  the  old  and  regular  prices,  with 
the  duty  added.  Foreigners  did  not  pay  the 
tax  at  all. 

The  whole  foundation  for  the  pretence  that 
foreigners  ever  pay  any  part  of  our  tariff  taxes 
rests  upon  the  undoubted  fact  that  by  preventing 
ourselves  from  buying  the  things  which  we  want 
we  can  inflict  some  injury  upon  those  who  would 
be  glad  to  sell  them  to  us.  We  can  do  precisely 
the  same  thing  by  all  getting  drunk  three  times 
a  week,  or  by  setting  fire  to  our  houses  once  a 
year.  Any  injury  which  we  inflict  upon  our- 
selves produces  some  los£  to  our  neighbors  by 
preventing  us  from  doing  the  good  to  them 
which  we  should  otherwise  do.  All  civilized 
people  are  compelled,  by  the  fundamental  con- 
ditions of  civilization,  to  divide  their  profits  with 
each  other  ;  and  therefore  they  divide  their 
losses  with  each  other  also.  A  protective  tariff 
inflicts  vast  loss  upon  the  people  who  adopt  it  ; 
and  they  have,  therefore,  just  so  much  less  to 
share  with  the  rest  of  the  world.  To  that  ex- 
tent alone  they  can  injure  other  people  by  it. 
It  is  the  same  in  its  effects  as  a  hundred  great 
city  fires,  a  partial  failure  of  crops  or  a  general 
pestilence.  Any  country  enjoying  these  bless- 


Free  Trade. 


637 


Free  Trade. 


ings  can  safely  assure  itself  that  their  effects  are 
deeply  felt  in  other  lands. 

IV.  REAL  CAUSE  OF  THE  SURVIVAL  OF  THE 
PROTECTIONIST  IDEA. 

The  arguments  for  protection  are  so  incon- 
sistent, so  mutually  destructive,  and  so  utterly 
without  real  foundation  that  no  one  who  under- 
takes to  defend  it  ever  conducts  discussion  to  a 
logical  conclusion,  and  every  argument  on  that 
side  speedily  lands  in  a  mass  of  absurdities. 
Accordingly,  the  advocates  of  protection  almost 
invariably  concede,  when  they  enter  into  discus- 
sion at  all,  that  free  trade  is  correct  in  theory, 
but  will  not  work  in  practice.  They  insist  that 
experience  proves  that  protection  is  productive 
of  the  best  results  in  fact,  altho  they  admit  that 
logic  and  abstract  reason  are  opposed  to  it.  Of 
course,  nothing  can  really  be  sound  in  theory 
which  will  not  work  in  practice.  But  the  mass 
of  men  are  unable  to  justify  any  large  part  of 
their  practice  by  theories  ;  and  therefore  the 
faith  of  protectionists  is  not  shaken  by  their  in- 
ability to  find  reasons  for  it.  Yet  the  wide- 
spread popularity  of  the  protective  idea  indi- 
cates that  there  are  motives  lying  behind  the 
common  arguments  which  are  stronger  than 
any  of  the  arguments  put  forward  ;  and  it  is 
necessary  to  search  below  all  the  pretended  rea- 
sons assigned  to  find  the  real  foundations  of  pro- 
tectionism. 

As  the  motives  which  give  force  to  the  protec- 
tive idea  are  conflicting,  it  is  expedient  to  con- 
sider them  with  reference  to  the  several  classes 
which  have  different  interests,  but  which  agree 
in  supporting  a  policy  of  obstruction  and  exclu- 
sion. These  classes  are,  substantially,  the  land- 
owners, the  employers  of  productive  labor,  and 
their  employees.  Each  of  these  classes  has  an 
interest  distinct  from  and  in  some  respects  hos- 
tile to  the  others  ;  yet  in  the  Northern  States 
of  the  American  Union  a  majority  of  each  have 
generally  favored  restrictions  upon  the  influx  of 
wealth  from  abroad. 

i.  Landowners  as  a  class  are  not  predisposed 
to  a  protective  policy  in  any  country  which  has 
nothing  to  expect  in  the  way  of  foreign  compe- 
tition with  agricultural  products,  because  a  large 
majority  of  them  are  always  owners  of  agricul- 
tural lands.  Accordingly,  Adam  Smith  noticed, 
in  1775,  that  English  landlords  were  compara- 
tively liberal  in  their  views  ;  and  altho  they  had 
entire  control  of  the  British  Parliament,  which 
maintained  a  most  stringent  prohibitory  system, 
this  was  entirely  due  to  the  clamorous  demands 
of  merchants  and  manufacturers.  At  that  time 
England  exported  grain  almost  as  often  as  she 
imported  it.  But  within  40  years  afterward  the 
food  supply  of  Great  Britain  fell  permanently 
below  the  needs  of  its  population  ;  and  from 
that  moment  British  landlords  in  general  be- 
came the  most  fanatical  of  protectionists,  while, 
as  British  manufactures  extended  so  rapidly 
that  the  foreign  market  became  indispensable 
to  them,  manufacturers  gradually  became  free 
traders.  So  in  the  Southern  States  of  our 
Union,  after  cotton  became  their  staple  product 
the  landowners  had  nothing  to  gain  by  exclud- 
ing foreign  goods  ;  and  so  they  became  gener- 
ally free  traders.  A  majority  of  the  owners  of 


farms  all  over  the  United  States,  outside  of  a 
few  special  districts,  were  anti-protectionists  be- 
fore the  Civil  War,  and  so  continued  until,  a 
very  recent  period.  But  owners  of  mines,  quar- 
ries, and  similar  lands  are  naturally  inclined  to 
exclude  not  only  similar  foreign  products,  but 
also  all  articles  manufactured  from  those  prod- 
ucts ;  their  instinct  telling  them  that  the  rent  of 
their  mines  will  be  reduced  as  much  by  the  ad- 
mission of  the  finished  products  as  by  the  ad- 
mission of  the  raw  materials.  And  when  any 
country  begins  to  import  food  upon  a  large 
scale,  the  same  instinct  tells  landowners  gener- 
ally, outside  of  cities,  that  their  rents  are  brought 
into  competition  with  rents  elsewhere,  and  they 
speedily  become  protectionists.  In  the  long 
run,  landlords  are  the  only  class  which  profits 
by  protection.  Such  profits  as  tenant-farmers 
make  out  of  it  are  almost  instantly  swallowed 
up  by  increased  rents  ;  while  the  profits  of 
manufacturers  are,  considered  as  an  entire  class, 
gradually  absorbed  by  rents  and  royalties,  which 
are  the  same  thing. 

2.  Employers  of  labor  in  lines  of  production 
which  are  open  to  foreign  competition  have  a 
direct  interest  in  the  exclusion  of  such  competi- 
tion, which  naturally  makes  them  the  earliest 
and    most    ardent    protectionists.     The  whole 
profit  of  the  system  accrues  to  them,  in  the  first 
instance  ;  they  know  that  they  do  not  share  it 
with  their  employees  ;  and  they  do  not  readily 
see  how  much  of  it  is  extracted  from  them  by 
landlords.     Indeed,  the  first  profits  which  ac- 
crue by  a  sudden  increase  of  protective  duties 
do  remain  entirely  with  employers  ;  since  their 
rents  and  royalties  are  usually  fixed  for  a  term 
of  years,  and  their  workmen  are  content  with 
the  old  rate  of  wages,  because  so  many  are 
thrown  out  of  work  by  the  change  in  the  tariff 
that  the  others  are  thankful  to  continue  as  they 
are.     This  accounts,  in  part,  for  the  endless  de- 
mands of  American  manufacturers  for  higher 
and  still  higher  duties.     No  matter  what  bonus 
may  be  given  to  them  in  the  form  of  taxes  upon 
their  competitors,  the  landowner  takes  it  from 
them  in  the  course  of  three  or  four  years,  either 
by  a  direct  increase  of  rent  or  by  a  higher  price 
of  raw  materials.    Meanwhile,  foreign  rents  are 
depressed,  foreign   ingenuity  is  stimulated  by 
necessity,  competition  creeps  in  in  some  new 
form,  profits  fall  to  the  average  standard,  and 
new  clamors  arise  for  further  protection. 

3.  There  remains  that  vast  majority  in  every 
country  who  are  employed  by  others,  and  who 
depend  for  their  living  upon  ' '  obtaining  work. ' ' 
These  are  possessed  of  neither  land  nor  capital 
sufficient  to  produce  a  living  therefrom  by  their 
own  labor.     It  is  correctly  pointed  out  by  Henry 
George  that  such  men  naturally  come  to  look 
upon  work  itself  as  a  blessing,  and  upon  the 
man  who  "  gives  employment"  of  any  kind  as 
a  benefactor.     And  as  a  protective  tariff  un- 
doubtedly increases  the  amount  of  work  to  be 
done,  by  diverting  industry  from  channels  in 
which  large  results  are  obtained  by  small  effort 
into  those  in  which  small  results  are  obtained 
by  great  effort,  the  mass  of  mankind  overlook 
the  fact  that  wealth  is  diminished  because  they 
see  that  labor  has  been  increased.     It  is  in  vain 
that  a  protective  tariff  is  proved  to  produce  the 
same  effects  as  a  Chicago  fire  or  a  civil  war.     So 


Free  Trade. 


638 


Free  Trade. 


long  as  their  own  houses  are  not  burned  down 
nor  their  own  families  destroyed  by  war,  the 
mass  of  men  instinctively  think  of  fire  and  war 
as  new  openings  for  employment  and  conse- 
quent wages.  This  habit  of  thought  extends 
through  all  classes,  in  sympathy  with  the  major- 
ity. The  late  Mr.  Elaine  constantly  referred  to 
the  Mexican  War  of  1846,  the  European  civil 
wars  of  1848,  and  the  Crimean  War  of  1854  as 
direct  and  potent  causes  of  American  prosper- 
ity, under  and  in  spite  of  the  low  tariff  of  1846  ; 
and  his  sentiments  were  unanimously  echoed 
by  all  protectionists  in  perfect  sincerity.  The 
belief  that  the  great  Civil  War  of  1861-65  was 
the  cause  of  great  prosperity  to  the  Northern 
States  is  very  general,  both  at  the  North  and  at 
the  South.*  Men  of  the  highest  intelligence 
an'd  business  capacity  in  Europe  are  to-day  ter- 
rified by  the  fear  of  low  wages  and  calamity  to 
the  laboring  classes  as  the  result  of  any  general 
disarmament.  For,  as  one  of  the  ablest  of 
them  said  to  the  writer,  "  when  3,000,000  men 
are  suddenly  disbanded,  to  compete  for  employ- 
ment with  the  millions  already  struggling  for  a 
bare  living,  God  alone  knows  what  will  become 
of  them  all  !"  It  never  occurs  to  such  reasoners 
that  the  3,000,000  idle  soldiers  are  now  support- 
ed out  of  the  earnings  of  the  other  millions. 
All  which  they  can  see,  and  all  which  the  labor- 
ers themselves  are  apt  to  see,  is  that  there  are 
now  3,000,000  fewer  "competitors  for  employ- 
ment" than  there  would  be  if  the  soldiers  began 
to  earn  their  own  living.  Thus  the  great  evil 
of  land  monopoly  adds  to  all  its  other  baneful 
influences  the  training  of  the  masses  into  false 

*  All  these  ideas  are  mere  delusions.  War  may,  in- 
deed, be  necessary  for  the  purpose  of  avoiding  greater 
evils.but  it  never  of  itself  brings  any  benefit  either  to  the 
nations  engaged  in  it  or  to  neutral  nations.  The  only 
apparent  exception  to  this  rule  is  when  war  takes  place 
between  two  countries,  one  or  both  of  which  has  re- 
fused to  trade  freely  with  other  nations,  and  the  war 
drives  large  numbers  of  the  most  ingenious  and  indus- 
trious people  out  of  one  of  these  countries  into  some 
neutral  country,  to  which  they  transplant  their  wealth 
and  industry.  But  the  whole  of  that  benefit  would 
have  been  obtained  through  peace  and  free  trade, 
while  the  people  thus  driven  out  are  much  poorer  than 
they  would  have  been  had  they  remained  at  home, 
and  are  therefore  less  able  to  confer  benefits  upon  the 
country  of  their  adoption.  In  every  other  case,  war, 
no  matter  how  much  it  may  increase  the  trade  of  neu- 
tral countries  in  particular  lines,  always  reduces  their 
trade  and  profits,  considered  as  an  entirety.  Thus  the 
Crimean  War  of  1854  and  1855,  while  it  increased  the 
European  demand  for  American  grain  and  provisions, 
reduced  the  demand  for  American  cotton  to  at  least  as 
great  an  extent  and  injured  American  trade  in  many 
other  ways.  Accordingly,  it  is  an  indisputable  fact, 
proven  by  all  the  statistics  and  by  the  testimony  of 
protectionists  themselves,  that  the  two  years  of  the 
Crimean  War,  from  March,  1854,  to  March,  1856,  were 
years  of  comparatively  hard  times  in  America,  and 
certainly  the  worst  years  known  under  the  tariff  of 
1846. 

The  European  insurrections  of  1848  and  1849  also 
marked  a  period  of  depression  in  American  trade  and 
manufactures.  These  are  not  mere  coincidences  ;  for- 
eign wars  always  have  produced  and  always  will  pro- 
duce depression  in  this  as  well  as  every  other  civil- 
ized country. 

As  to  the  supposed  prosperity  derived  from  the  Civil 
War  of  1861,  it  is  well  known  by  every  one  who  was  in 
business  during  that  period  that  the  first  two  years  of 
that  war  were  years  of  hard  times,  low  wages,  and 
forced  economy  in  business  generally  ;  while  the  ap- 
parent prosperity  of  the  last  two  years  was  nothing 
but  the  intoxication  arising  out  of  a  forced  expansion 
of  the  currency,  which  drove  everybody  into  specula- 
tion, the  reaction  from  which  soon  brought  about  the 
hard  times  of  1867  and  the  following  year. 


views  of  their  own  situation,  and  it  incites 
them  to  seek  for  relief  in  methods  which  enor- 
mously aggravate  the  evils  under  which  they 
suffer. 

4.  We  have  already  begun  to  tread  upon 
ground  which  is  common  to  all  classes,  but 
much  remains  to  be  said.  As  already  indicat- 
ed, the  exclusion  of  foreign  goods  secures,  for 
at  least  a  short  time,  large  profits  to  a  small  class 
of  employers  who  are  necessarily  capitalists  or 
close  associates  of  capitalists  from  the  first,  who 
easily  combine  and  who  exercise  almost  irre- 
sistible control  over  the  organs  of  public  opinion 
and  over  legi  slation .  They  own  n  e wspaper s,  con- 
gressmen, political  parties,  and  even  churches. 
The  benefits  conferred  upon  this  small  class  are 
obvious  to  everybody  ;  the  increase  in  their 
wealth  appears  to  be  an  increase  in  the  wealth 
of  the  nation  and  a  proof  of  general  prosperity  ; 
while  the  injuries  caused  by  the  system  are 
widely  diffused  and  are  felt  mainly  by  those  who 
are  not  able  to  make  themselves  heard.  The 
susperstitious  reverence  for  money,  as  by  far 
the  most  important  form  of  wealth,  has  a  tre- 
mendous hold  upon  all  classes,  and  makes  them 
fearful  that  their  country  will  be  ruined  by  the 
outflow  of  goll  in  exchange  for  goods.  The 
old  idea,  that  whatever  one  man  gains  some 
other  man  must  lose,  has  also  still  a  strong  hold 
upon  the  popular  mind.  But,  more  than  all  be- 
sides, except,  perhaps,  the  idea  about  "  giving 
work,"  already  mentioned,  the  protective  sys- 
tem derives  its  vitality  from  that  instinctive 
hatred  of  strangers  which,  inherited  from  pre- 
historic times,  still  maintains  its  hold  upon  hu- 
man nature,  notwithstanding  all  the  veneer  of 
religion  and  civilization.  The  ancients  used 
only  one  word  to  express  the  ideas  of  both  ' '  for- 
eigner" and  "  enemy."  Altho  we  use  separate 
words,  we  have  only  partially  separated  the 
ideas.  International  enmities  are  never  quite 
extinct,  and  they  are  easily  kindled  into  a  flame. 
The  desire  to  injure  those  whom  we  intensely 
hate  is  far  stronger  among  us  all  than  any  de- 
sire of  profit  for  ourselves.  Hatred  of  the  Dutch 
was  the  supreme  motive  of  the  original  English 
navigation  laws.  Hatred  of  the  French  was  the 
sole  motive  of  the  enormous  differential  duties 
laid  upon  French  products  by  England  down  to 
the  time  of  Adam  Smith,  and  of  much  subse- 
quent British  tariff  legislation.  Hatred  of  Eng- 
land was  the  sole  motive  of  Napoleon's  prohib- 
itory system.  Hatred  of  England  inspires  and 
accounts  for  two  thirds  of  American  tariff  legis- 
lation. And  hatred  of  Canada,  aroused  by  the 
malignant  feelings  against  us  showed  by 
Canadians  during  our  Civil  War,  especially  at 
the  time  of  the  raid  on  St.  Alban's,  was  practi- 
cally the  only  cause  of  our  abrogation  of  the 
reciprocity  treaty  in  1866. 

V.  PRACTICAL  RESULTS  OF  FREE  TRADE  IN 
AMERICA. 

Protectionists  often  concede  that  free  trade  is 
correct  in  theory,  while  insisting  that  "  it  will 
not  work  in  practice."  They  "  take  their  stand 
upon  the  facts,"  which,  they  honestly  believe, 
contradict  the  theory.  Of  course,  it  is  absurd 
to  say  that  any  theory  can  be  correct  which 
does  not  fit  the  facts  ;  but  no  matter.  The  truth 
is  that  the  facts  all  confirm  the  theory.  Free 


Free  Trade. 


639 


Free  Trade. 


trade  means  simply  the  removal  of  obstacles  to 
trade  ;  and  freedom  of  trade  is  increased  when- 
ever more  obstacles  are  removed  than  are  raised 
up.  Now,  while  it  is  true  that,  since  1861.  ob- 
stacles to  trade  in  the  form  of  tariffs  have  been 
increased  in  the  United  States,  and  true,  also, 
that  such  obstacles  have  been  increased  all  over 
Europe  (except  in  Great  Britain  and  Ireland, 
Belgium  and  Holland),  since  1879,  it  is  not  at 
all  true  that  there  are,  upon  the  whole,  more 
obstacles  of  all  kinds  or  more  in 
aggregate  effect  in  either  America 
Results  in  or  Europe.  It  cannot  be  denied 
America,  that  the  vastly  larger  share  of  the 
increased  prosperity  which  has  come 
to  the  United  States  in  the  increase 
of  population,  of  manufactures  and  of  generally 
diffused  wealth  (leaving  out  of  consideration  the 
enormous  wealth  of  multi-millionaires)  has  gone 
to  the  section  west  of  the  Allegheny  Mountains. 
That  section  has  almost  monopolized  the  manu- 
facture of  iron  and  steel,  as  well  as  of  most 
heavy  and  cumbrous  goods.  In  1860  more  than 
three  fourths  of  all  these  things  were  produced 
east  of  the  Alleghanies.  In  1894  more  than 
three  fourths  of  the  same  goods  are  produced 
•west  of  the  Alleghanies.  Even  as  early  as  1880 
two  thirds  of  the  iron  and  steel  were  produced 
there.  It  is  probable  that  seven  eighths  are 
produced  there  now.  The  production  of  iron 
and  steel  in  New  England  has  been  killed  ;  in 
New  York  it  has  been  stunted  ;  in  New  Jersey 
and  Eastern  Pennsylvania  it  has  been  almost 
paralyzed.  Why  is  it  that  the  West  has  thus 
outstripped  the  East  in  the  manufacture  of  arti- 
cles in  which  the  East  had,  prior  to  1860,  such 
great  superiority  ?  It  is  not  due  to  lower  wages, 
for  wages  were  very  much  higher  in  the  West. 
It  is  not  due  to  cheap  capital,  for  rates  of  inter- 
est were  much  higher  in  the  West.  It  is  not 
due  to  superior  experience,  for  the  East  had  the 
experience  and  the  West  had  not.  Finally,  it 
is  not  due  to  "  protection,"  for  the  West  was 
utterly  unprotected  against  the  competition  of 
the  experience,  the  cheaper  capital,  and  the 
cheaper  labor  of  the  East ;  and  the  reduction  in 
railway  freight  charges  has  been  so  immense  as 
to  much  more  than  nullify  all  the  "  protection" 
against  Europe  granted  by  the  new  tariffs.  For 
example,  the  increased  protection  on  pig  iron 
has  been  little,  if  any,  more  than  $4  per  ton  ; 
while  the  reduction  in  freight  rates  between 
Liverpool  and  Chicago  has  been  fully  $12  per 
ton.  For  the  last  20  years  the  actual  obstacles 
to  the  importation  or  foreign  pig  iron  into  all 
the  region  west  of  the  Alleghanies  have  been 
less,  not  more,  than  they  were  under  "  the  free 
trade  tariff  of  1857  ;"  and  just  as  fast  as  these 
obstacles  were  removed,  so  fast  did  the  produc- 
tion of  pig  iron  in  that  region  increase.  On  the 
other  hand,  the  obstacles  to  the  admission  of 
foreign  iron  into  New  England  and  New  York 
have  been  increased,  the  decline  in  ocean 
freights  not  materially  counteracting  the  in- 
crease in  the  tariff  ;  and  the  iron  manufacture 
in  those  States  is  practically  dead.  This  is  a 
conclusive  demonstration,  from  actual  experi- 
ence, that  increased  freedom  of  trade  promotes 
manufactures  in  new  countries,  and  that  those 
countries  in  which  wages  are  highest  and  money 
dearest  can  compete  successfully  with  older 


countries  in  which  wages  are  low  and  money 
cheap.  Indeed,  the  entire  history  of  the  United 
States  is  one  continuous  illustration  of  the  im- 
mense benefits  of  free  trade.  Our  country  is 
larger  than  the  whole  of  Europe — Russia,  per- 
haps, excepted  ;  it  is  as  varied  in  the  character  of 
its  population  and  more  varied  in  its  climate  and 
soil  ;  in  short,  there  are  no  reasons  for  protec- 
tive tariffs  between  the  nations  of  Europe  which 
do  not  apply  with  even  greater  force  to  the  dif- 
ferent sections  of  the  United  States,  except  that 
the  United  States  are  confederated  and  the 
European  States  are  not ;  which  is  really  no  rea- 
son at  all.  The  absolute  freedom  of  trade  which 
exists  throughout  our  own  country  is  the  prin- 
cipal cause  (so  far  as  any  governmental  influ- 
ences are  concerned)  of  our  wonderful  national 
prosperity.  Its  beneficial  effects  have  been  so 
great  as  to  more  than  counterbalance  the  inju- 
ries inflicted  upon  us  by  stupid  legislation  and 
by  the  prejudices,  follies,  and  extravagance  of 
our  people.  It  was  the  instinctive  sense  of  this 
fact  which  aroused  the  tremendous  energy  and 
determination  of  the  Northwestern  States  dur- 
ing our  Civil  War.  Their  great  object  was, 
avowedly,  to  maintain  the  freedom  of  the  Mis- 
sissippi ;  which  was,  obviously,  only  another 
form  of  expressing  the  absolute  freedom  of  trade 
between  all  sections  of  the  Union. 

VI.  PRACTICAL  RESULTS  OF  FREE  TRADE  IN 
EUROPE. 

It  is  continually  assumed  by  American  pro- 
tectionists, in  discussing  the  question  of  relative 
wages,  that  the  low  wages  of  Europe  are  due  to 
free  trade.  Yet,  when  they  discuss  any  other 
branch  of  the  subject,  they  eagerly  assert  that 
Great  Britain  is  the  only  country  in  the  world 
in  which  free  trade  exists.  The  fact  is,  that 
nearly  every  nation  on  the  continent  of  Europe 
maintains  a  tariff  for  protection  as  well  as  for 
revenue.  As  nearly  as  it  is  practicable  to  classi- 
fy them,  their  tariffs  stand  in  the  following  or- 
der of  stringent  protectiveness  :  Russia,  Spain 
and  Portugal,  Italy,  France,  Austria,  Germany, 
with  the  smaller  countries  following  under  lower 
tariffs,  with  little  intentional  protection,  but  a 
good  deal  incidentally,  except  in  Holland  and 
Belgium,  where  incidental  protection  is  very 
slight.  Wages  are  at  the  lowest  point  in  Rus- 
sia, a  little  higher  in  Spain,  Portugal,  and  Italy, 
considerably  higher  in  France,  Austria,  and 
Germany,  and  far  higher  in  Great  Britain.  It 
is  clear  that  protection  does  not  help  wages  any- 
where in  Europe.  Still,  much  as  the  wages  of 
France  and  Germany  are  below  those  of  free 
trade  England,  it  is  certain  that  they  are  higher 
than  they  were  40  years  ago.  The  manufac- 
tures, trade,  and  commerce  of  all  Central  Eu- 
rope are  much  greater  than  they  were  at  that 
time.  The  wealth  of  all  Central  Europe  has 

S'eatly  increased  and  is  constantly  increasing, 
ave  these  results  come  from  increased  restric- 
tions on  trade  or  from  the  removal  of  such  re- 
strictions ?  American  protectionists 
point  to  the  existing  tariffs  of  Eu- 
rope as  an  evidence  that  European      Europe. 
prosperity  is  at  least  not  hindered 
by  protection,  if  not  caused  by  it. 
Now,  it  is  not  disputed  that  substantially  all  of 
the  improvement  in  the  condition  of  the  people 


Free  Trade. 


640 


Free  Trade. 


of  Europe,  such  as  it  is,  has  come  about  within 
the  last  40  years,  and  most  of  it  since  1860. 
But  highly  restrictive  as  most  European  tariffs 
undoubtedly  are  to-day,  not  one  of  them  (Rus- 
sia, perhaps,  excepted)  is  as  restrictive  as  it  was 
40  years  ago.  Between  1850  and  1860  there  was 
a  general  reduction  of  tariffs.  Germany,  in  par- 
ticular, repealed  most  merely  protective  duties 
in  1867.  France  had  comparatively  moderate 
duties,  under  the  Cobden  treaty,  from  1860-77. 
The  advance  of  both  Germany  and  France  under 
this  rdgime  of  greatly  reduced  protection  was 
vastly  more  rapid  than  it  had  ever  been  before. 
Other  European  countries  also  prospered  more 
than  ever  where  they  reduced  or  abandoned  the 
protective  policy.  Never,  in  all  their  history, 
had  there  been  any  such  advance  in  wages  or 
in  general  wealth  ;  and  this,  too,  in  spite  of  the 
enormous  losses  caused  by  the  terrific  wars  of 
1866  and  1870.  But  when  the  world-wide  de- 
pression of  1875  set  in,  many  of  the  people,  for- 
getting all  that  they  had  suffered  under  the  high 
protective  regime,  imputed  their  new  troubles 
to  the  abandonment  of  that  policy  ;  and  their 
rulers,  eagerly  desirous  of  more  revenue,  easily 
persuaded  them  to  consent  to  higher  duties. 
The  improvement — also  world-wide — of  1879-81 
confirmed  the  popular  impression  that  protec- 
tion was  a  benefit ;  and  all  Central  Europe  en- 
tered into  a  war  of  tariffs  and  of  trade  obstruc- 
tion. The  results  have  been  disastrous  to  all 
parties.  Italy  has  been  ruined  ;  France  has 
been  stunted  ;  and  in  Germany,  the  growth  of 
discontent,  turning  to  revolutionary  socialism 
for  relief,  has  been  most  portentous.  Nearly 
all  the  improvement  in  wages  and  in  general 
prosperity  which  had  been  gained  since  1865 
has  been  lost.*  But  no  country  has  gone  back 
to  the  old  regime  of  prohibitions  and  obstruc- 
tions which  existed  50  years  ago.  Belgium, 
which  is  a  very  small  country,  dependent  upon 
trade  with  its  neighbors  for  almost  everything, 
has  afforded  a  marvelous  example  of  the  advan- 
tages of  a  liberal  system.  Until  1855  it  main- 
tained a  protective  tariff,  under  which  its  prog- 
ress was  extremely  slow.  Throwing  off  protec- 
tive duties  in  1855,  it  entered  upon  a  career  of 
wonderful  prosperity ;  its  manufactures  and 
commerce  increased  at  a  rate  unparalleled  ;  and 
its  career  has  been  so  remarkable  that  Ameri- 
can protectionists  have  coolly  referred  to  it  as 
an  example  of  the  benefits  of  protection  30  years 
after  protection  had  been  abolished  !  Thus  the 
fact  is  that  the  prosperity  of  Europe,  such  as  it 
is,  has  come  under  a  relaxation  of  commercial 
restrictions  ;  and  the  cloud  which  has  come  over 
it  has  come  under  a  partial  renewal  of  those  re- 
strictions. There  is  another  important  factor, 
which  shall  be  considered  in  connection  with 
the  progress  of  Great  Britain  as  well  as  of  Eu- 
rope and  the  United  States. 

While,  as  already  stated,  Great  Britain  has 
never  had  the  courage  to  adopt  full  freedom  of 
trade,  she  has  still  come  nearer  to  it  than  has  any 
other  nation.  Down  to  1825  she  maintained  a 
more  rigid  system  of  "protection"  than  the 

*  Undoubtedly  a  large  part  of  this  depression  has 
been  caused  by  the  increase  of  standing  armies.  But 
these  armies  were  very  large,  and  were  greatly  in- 
creased during  the  period  of  lower  tariffs  and  rising 
prosperity. 


United  States  ever  knew,  and  much  more  rigid 
than  any  nation  in  Europe  (except,  perhaps,  Rus- 
sia) maintains  to-day.  Not  mere- 
ly were  enormous  duties  levied  upon 
all  articles  which  were  supposed  Great 
to  compete  with  British  pro-  Britain. 
ducers,  but  many  such  articles 
were  absolutely  prohibited.  In 
1825,  under  the  leadership  of  Huskisson,  consid- 
erable reductions  were  made  in  tariff  taxes, 
and  most  prohibitions  were  repealed.  But 
the  rate  of  protective  duties  was  still  left 
very  high,  ranging  from  25  to  75  per  cent. 
No  reduction  was  made  in  the  taxes  on 
foreign  grain  ;  and  many  articles  of  food 
were  practically  and  some  literally  prohibited. 
This  slight  measure  of  relief  to  commerce  was 
followed  by  a  slight  improvement.  Whereas, 
in  the  preceding  20  years,  the  value  of  British 
exports  had  increased  only  from  $184,000,000  to 
$188,000,000,  or  at  the  rate  of  $200,000  per  an- 
num, they  increased,  during  the  next  12  years, 
to  $230,000,000,  or  at  the  rate  of  $3,500,000  per 
annum.  Here,  however,  progress  stopped.  From 
1837-42  there  was  no  increase  whatever  in  the 
value  of  British  exports.  The  Whig  Govern- 
ment, altho  favorable  to  greater  freedom  of 
trade,  had  not  the  courage  or  the  power  to  relax 
commercial  restrictions,  and  even  deemed  itself 
forced,  by  the  necessities  of  revenue,  to  increase 
duties — a  measure  which  failed  to  bring  reve- 
nue, because  the  duties  were  too  high  already, 
but  which  did  injure  commerce  and  manufac- 
tures seriously.  In  1841  the  Whigs  were  turned 
out  of  office  by  Sir  Robert  Peel,  who,  altho  a 
Tory,  had  the  courage  to  reduce  duties  and  to 
impose  an  income  tax — measures  which  he  could 
compel  his  party  to  accept  and  the  House  of 
Lords  to  pass,  but  which  the  Whigs  could  not 
possibly  have  carried.  These  measures  gave 
some  immediate  relief,  altho  he  left  foreign  food 
substantially  prohibited  except  in  times  of  fam- 
ine. In  the  next  four  years,  from  1842-46,  Brit- 
ish exports  increased  from  $230,000,000  to  $280,- 
000,000,  or  at  the  rate  of  $12,500,000  per  annum. 
This  progress  was  ten  times  as  rapid  as  that 
which  had  taken  place,  upon  the  average,  dur- 
ing the  preceding  37  years  of  stringent  protec- 
tion. This  practical  test,  combined  with  the 
unanswerable  logic  of  Richard  Cobden,  entire- 
ly converted  Sir  Robert  Peel.  In  1846  he  de- 
clared himself  in  favor  of  entire  free  trade,  re- 
pealed the  very  corn  laws  which  he  had  come 
into  power  for  the  purpose  of  sustaining,  and 
reduced  all  protective  duties  to  very  low  rates. 
His  work  was  carried  on  after  his  death,  in  1850, 
by  his  disciple,  William  E.  Gladstone,  who,  in 
1853,  abolished  most  of  the  protective  duties  re- 
maining, and  in  1860  abolished  all  the  rest.  In 
1849  one  half  of  the  navigation  laws  were  re- 
pealed by  the  Whigs,  with  the  help  of  Peel  ; 
and  all  the  rest  were  repealed  by  the  ministry 
of  which  Gladstone  formed  a  part  in  1854.  Un- 
der this  policy,  British  exports  increased  at  a 
rate  never  dreamed  of  before.  Whereas,  under 
the  fully  protective  and  semi-protective  systems, 
they  had  increased  less  than  $100,000,000  in  40 
years,  they  increased  over  $040,000,000  in  the 
next  20  years — that  is,  from  $280,000,000  in  1846 
to  $920,000,000  in  1866.  In  order  to  appreciate 
the  value  of  these  figures,  it  must  be  remem- 


Free  Trade. 


641 


Free  Trade. 


bered  that  the  greater  part  of  British  manufac- 
tures are  and  long  have  been  exported  ;  so  that 
the  export  figures  have  for  very  many  years 
afforded  the  best  attainable  statistics  of  the 
progress  of  production  and  wealth. 

The  same  results  followed  the  adoption  of  free 
trade  in  navigation.  The  navigation  laws, 
originally  enacted  by  Cromwell,  out  of  hatred 
toward  the  Dutch,  were  the  pattern  of  those 
maintained  in  America  to-day.  They  rigidly 
forbade  the  purchase  of  foreign  ships,  the  man- 
ning of  British  ships  by  foreigners,  the  impor- 
tation of  goods  in  foreign  ships  from  any  ports 
except  those  of  the  country  in  which  such  goods 
were  produced,  and  so  on.  Even  Adam  Smith, 
while  clear-headed  enough  to  see  that  such  laws 
made  commerce  expensive,  was  deluded  into 
the  belief  that  they  really  promoted  the  growth 
of  British  shipping,  and  were,  therefore,  justi- 
fied as  a  measure  of  national  defense.  But  his 
error  in  this  respect  was  demonstrated  by  the 
immediate  effects  of  the  repeal  of  these  laws, 
which  was  begun  in  1849  and  completed  in 
1854.  The  increase  in  British  shipping  was 
slower,  under  those  laws,  than  it  had  been  be- 
fore. This  was  soon  pointed  out  by  one  or  two 
exceptionally  intelligent  writers  ;  but  their  crit- 
icisms were  unheeded.  But  by  1840  the  failure 
of  the  restrictive  system  had  become  so  marked 
that  it  attracted  general  attention.  During  the 
24  years  preceding  British  shipping  had  in- 
creased by  only  80,000  tons.  In  1849  all  restric- 
tions upon  foreign  ships  in  foreign  trade  were 
abolished.  The  increase  in  British  shipping 
then  became  much  greater  in  every  year  than 
it  had  been  in  the  wnole  24  years  from  1816-40. 
In  1854  the  coasting  trade  was  thrown  open  to 
all  ships,  and  the  last  vestige  of  "  protection  to 
British  shipping"  was  done  away  with.  The 
result  was  an  enormous  and  utterly  unprece- 
dented increase  in  British  ships  and  commerce. 
Whereas  in  1849  British  registered  shipping 
amounted  to  only  3,486,000  tons,  in  1859  it 
amounted  to  4,663,000  tons  ;  in  1879  to  6,580,000 
tons,  and  in  1892  to  8,645,000  tons. 

All  these  measures  of  reform  were  opposed  by  pre- 
cisely the  same  arguments  and  in  almost  precisely 
the  words  which  are  in  daily  use  in  America  now. 
The  protected  interests  declared  that  not  only  they, 
but  also  the  whole  country,  would  be  ruined  by  free 
trade.  They  were  so  clamorous  and  so  sincere  that 
they  carried  with  them  vast  numbers  of  men  whose 
own  personal  interests  were  on  the  side  of  free  trade  ; 
and  thus  the  reign  of  protection  was  prolonged  for  70 
years  after  Adam  Smith  had  so  clearly  proved  its 
folly  as  to  convert  to  his  views  the  great  William  Pitt 
and  all  the  real  statesmen  of  his  time.  When  the  re- 
peal of  the  navigation  laws  was  seriously  proposed 
immense  processions  of  sailors  were  organized  by  the 
ship-owners  to  remonstrate  against  a  scheme  which, 
it  was  asserted,  would  destroy  their  means  of  living. 
So  long  as  the  manufacturers  generally  continued  to 
believe  in  protection,  it  was  a  common  expedient  with 
them  to  secretly  organize  mobs  to  overawe  Parlia- 
ment, and  to  assail  with  actual  violence  statesmen 
who  dared  to  resist  their  extortionate  demands.  It 
was  shortly  after  a  distinguished  friend  of  his  had 
been  thus  attacked  that  Adam  Smith  wrote  that  fa- 
mous passage  in  which  he  says :  "  The  member  of 
Parliament  who  supports  every  proposal  for  strength- 
ening monopoly  is  sure  to  acquire  not  only  the  reputa- 
tion of  understanding  trade,  but  great  popularity  and 
influence  with  an  order  of  men  whose  numbers  and 
wealth  render  them  of  great  importance.  If  he  op- 
poses them,  and,  still  more,  if  he  have  authority 
enough  to  be  able  to  thwart  them,  neither  the  most 
acknowledged  probity,  nor  the  highest  rank,  nor  the 
greatest  public  services  can  protect  him  from  the 

41 


most  infamous  abuse  and  detraction,  from  personal 
insults,  nor  sometimes  from  real  danger,  arising 
from  the  insolent  outrage  of  furious  and 
disappointed  monopolists,"  No  one  who 
knows  anything  of  the  history  of  the  Opposition. 
free  trade  agitation  in  America  can 
fail  to  recognize  the  correctness  of  this 
description  as  being  quite  as  applicable  here  as  in 
England.  This  was  precisely  the  experience  of  Albert 
Gallatin,  who,  after  rendering  to  his  country  the 
greatest  services  at  home  and  abroad,  was  made  the 
subject  of  the  grossest  insults  by  Henry  Clay  and 
by  the  whole  manufacturers'  party,  simply  because 
in  his  later  years  he  took  a  leading  part  in  over- 
throwing the  oppressive  tariff  of  1828.  In  our  own 
time  it  has  been  the  experience  of  many  advocates 
of  freedom  of  trade,  but  especially  or  David  A. 
Wells,  who  after  reducing  to  an  intelligible  system 
the  monstrous  and  ruinous  methods  of  internal  taxa- 
tion, fastened  upon  the  country  by  the  ignorant  and 
utterly  incompetent  Ways  and  Means  Committee 
of  1864,  and  thus  rescuing  the  manufacturers  of  the 
United  States  from  an  amount  of  oppression  for 
which  no  tariff  could  compensate,  was  made  the  sub- 
ject of  the  coarsest  attacks  by  Henry  C.  Carey,  Hor- 
ace Greeley,  and  William  D.  Kelley  the  moment  he 
dared  to  expose  the  failure  of  protection  to  protect. 
And  altho  James  A.  Garfield  came  gallantly  to  his  de- 
fence, and  declared,  with  perfect  truth,  that  no  other 
man  had  rendered  equal  service  to  the  nation  since 
the  close  of  the  war,  and  especially  to  the  manufac- 
turers, the  same  falsehoods  and  the  same  abuse  have 
followed  Mr.  Wells  from  the  hired  scribes  of  "infuri- 
ated monopolists"  down  to  this  day. 

The  triumph  of  Adam  Smith's  ideas  in  his  own  coun- 
try has  been  complete,  altho  he  thought  it  impossible. 
And  every  word  of  his  predictions  as  to  the  results 
which  would  follow  the  adoption  of  free  trade  has 
been  fulfilled.    So  far  from  being  ruined,  or  even  in- 
jured, the    prosperity  and  wealth  of    Great  Britain 
have  increased  at   a  rate    previously  inconceivable. 
This  prosperity  has  been  shared  by  the  great  mass  of 
the  community,  altho  not  as  equally  as  should  have 
been  the   case,  for  the  simple  reason  that  full  free 
trade  has  not  been  adopted ;    indirect 
taxation    continues    to    be    the    chief 
source  of  revenue,  and  the  poor  there-         Adam 
fore  still  bear  the  double  burdens   of        Smith 
rent   and    taxation.     Wages    have    ad- 
vanced largely ;  the  masses  have,  man 
for  man,  at  least  twice  as  much  food, 
three  times  as  much  meat  and  sugar,  twice  as  good 
clothing,  and  three  or  four  times  as  much  of  the  other 
comforts  of  life  as  they  had  under  the  protective  sys- 
tem, and  it  is  a  very  modest  estimate  to  say  that  the 
poorest  mechanics  and  artisans  in  England  are  100  per 
cent,   better  off  under  partial  free  trade  than  they 
ever  were  before.    But  the  improvement  among  the 
great  middle  class  is  far  greater,  and  cannot  be  reck- 
oned at  less  than  200  per  cent.    Unequal  as  is  the  dis- 
tribution of  wealth  in  Great  Britain,   it  has  become 
much  less  unequal  than  it  was  under  protection,  and 
there  is  a  slow  tendency  toward    greater   equality, 
while  in  America  there  is  a  rapid  tendency  toward 
greater  concentration  of  wealth. 

The  success  of  free  trade  in  England  is  not  seriously 
disputed  by  any  honest  and  intelligent  students  of  her 
history.  But  protectionists  meet  this  argument  in 
several  ways.  They  assert  that  free  trade  is  only  suc- 
cessful because  England  is  such  a  small  country,  that 
the  increase  of  English  trade  has  been  paralleled  by 
protective  countries,  and,  above  all,  that  "England 
built  up  her  industries  by  protection  until  they  were 
strong  enough  to  compete  under  free  trade."  We 
will  consider  these  arguments  briefly.  The  first  needs 
little  comment.  The  idea  that  free  trade  is  more  en- 
durable in  a  small  country  than  in  a  large  one  is  sim- 
ply a  perversion  of  the  truth  that  a  large  country  is 
generally  better  able  to  endure  the  burdens  of  so- 
called  protection  than  a  small  one.  It  usually  has 
more  wealth,  and  therefore  it  can  lose  more  without 
being  ruined  than  a  poorer  country  can.  The  fact  that 
other  countries  have  shared  in  the  prosperity  of  Great 
Britain,  altho  adhering  to  protection,  is  easily  ex- 
plained. It  is  impossible  for  any  country  to  increase 
its  exports  without  also  increasing  its  imports;  indeed, 
it  was  the  intention  in  adopting  free  trade  to  increase 
imports.  It  was  impossible  to  increase  British  imports 
without  increasing  to  precisely  the  same  extent  the 
collective  exports  of  other  countries,  or  to  increase 
British  exports  without  increasing  to  the  same  extent 
imports  or  other  countries.  That  is  self-evident.  Ac- 
cordingly, even  if  other  countries  had  no  other  source 
of  increased  prosperity,  a  certain  amount  would  be 


Free  Trade. 


642 


Free  Trade. 


forced  upon  them  by  British  trade.  'And  it  will  be 
readily  seen  upon  examination  of  the  trade  returns  of 
European  countries  adhering  to  the  protective  sys- 
tem, that  they  have  simply  followed  in  the  wake  of 
Great  Britain,  and  that  such  prosperity  as  they  have 
is  fully  accounted  for  by  the  degree  to  which  free 
trade  has  been  forced  upon  them,  in  spite  of  their  tar- 
iffs, partly  by  the  open  ports  of  England  and  partly 
by  their  own  railways,  constructed  under  the  influ- 
ence of  English  example.  It  is,  indeed,  one  of  the 
chief  glories  of  free  trade  that  it  necessarily  distrib- 
utes its  blessings  over  all  the  world,  and  that  while 
conferring  much  the  greater  part  of  its  benefits  upon 
the  nation  which  has  the  good  sense  to  adopt  it,  it  lias 
still  a  vast  amount  left  for  less  enlightened  countries. 
There  remains  the  assertion  that  England  built  up 
her  industries  by  protection  and  that  it  was  by  cen- 
turies of  protection  that  she  prepared  herself  for  free 
trade.  The  facts  which  could  be  adduced  in  refuta- 
tion of  this  statement  are  so  innumer- 
able that  no  attempt  can  be  made  here 
Opposing  Ar- to  mention  more  than  a  few.  It  is  quite 
e-iimpnVa  true  tnat  England  maintained  the  policy 
6  ^  •  of  commercial  restriction  for  centuries. 

It  is  also  true  that  during  all  those  cen- 
turies, except  the  last,  England  had  no 
decent  roads,  no  canals,  and  none  of  the  modern  facili- 
ties for  internal  communication.  Nevertheless,  she 
prospered,  after  a  fashion.  There  is  quite  as  much 
reason  for  attributing  her  prosperity  to  these  defects 
or  to  the  universal  lack  of  education  among  her  peo- 
ple, to  their  coarseness,  ignorance,  and  brutality,  to 
the  savage  criminal  laws,  to  the  cruel  laws  which  tied 
laborers  to  their  birthplace,  or  to  any  of  the  other 
barbarisms  of  merry  old  England,  as  to  the  protective 
statutes  which  formed  part  of  a  consistent  system, 
by  which  the  landowners  deliberately  sought  to  keep 
the  masses  in  abject  ignorance  and  slavish  depen- 
dence. All  these  laws  and  customs  obviously  hin- 
dered the  growth  of  English  industries,  and  that  the 
laws  restricting  foreign  commerce  were  the  greatest 
hindrance  of  all  was  proved  by  the  fact  that  after  almost 
all  other  wicked  statutes  were  repealed,  after  the  man- 
ners of  the  people  had  beea  greatly  improved  and 
their  morals  elevated,  and  after  England  had  been 
provided  with  the  best  roads  and  canals  of  any  coun- 
try in  the  world,  its  progress  continued  to  be  very 
slow.  Such  progress  as  was  made  in  manufactures 
and  commerce  was  made  in  spite  of  the  pretended 
"  protection"  of  ignorant  legislators.  Manufactures 
obstinately  refused  to  develop  on  the  lines  prescribed 
for  them  by  British  Solons.  So  anxious  were  they  to 
promote  the  manufacture  of  wool  that  they  at  first  ab- 
solutely prohibited  the  sale  of  cotton  goods,  and  when 
forced  to  allow  the  manufacture  of  cotton,  they  imposed 
a  heavy  internal  tax  upon  it,  in  order  to  make  it  cost 
nearly  as  much  as  woolens.  So  stupid,  too,  were  most 
of  the  cotton  manufacturers,  that  having  grown  up 
under  this  tax,  they  opposed  its  repeal,  which  was  se- 
cured, in  spite  of  them,  by  the  single-handed  energy 
of  Arkwright.  Yet  its  repeal,  of  course,  led  to  an  im- 
mediate and  enormous  development  of  the  manufac- 
ture, which,  as  everybody  knows,  soon  far  outstripped 
the  woolen  manufacture  and  became  the  most  im- 
portant industry  of  England.  When  it  had  thus  be- 
come firmly  established,  the  cotton  manufacture,  like 
all  other  big  infant  industries,  demanded  and  received 
"the  fostering  hand  of  protection,"  in  the  form  of  pro- 
hibitory taxes  upon  foreign  competitors,  who  were 
then  practically  non-existent.  This  is  the  most  prom- 
inent example  of  an  endless  series  of  blunders,  by 
which  the  legislation  demanded  by  selfish  manufac- 
turers really  "protected"  English  manufactures  from 
attaining  their  natural  growth.  By  1840  nearly  all 
the  paternal  legislation  of  England,  with 
regard  to  domestic  industry,  had  been 
Blunders,  repealed,  with  the  exception  of  protec- 
tion against  foreign  competition.  Great 
results  were  expected,  but  they  did  not 
come.  The  masses  of  the  people  were  not  half  fed  or  a 
quarter  clothed  compared  with  what  they  needed  to 
make  life  endurable.  Their  desperate  poverty  re- 
acted upon  the  whole  producing  class,  which  could  not 
find  customers  either  at  home  or  abroad.  The  entire 
manufacturing  community  found  themselves  upon  the 
verge  of  ruin.  They  were  being  protected  to  death. 
At  last  their  eyes  were  opened,  and  with  substantial 
unanimity  they  implored  Parliament  to  repeal  all  the 
laws  which  their  own  class  had  so  fiercely  insisted 
upon  in  the  days  of  Adam  Smith,  to  open  British  ports, 
and  to  allow  unlimited  foreign  competition.  Unfor- 
tunately the  arguments  of  their  predecessors  had  per- 
suaded the  landlords,  who  ruled  the  country,  that 
protection  was  a  good  thing  all  around.  So  foreign 


food  had  been  prohibited,  in  order  to  raise  farm  rents, 
and  now  the  landlords  insisted  upon  maintaining  their 
share  of  protection,  whatever  the  manufacturers  might 
choose  to  do  as  to  theirs.  As  to  the  starvation  and 
misery  of  the  people  at  large,  that  was  no  .concern  of 
the  landlords.  The  people  always  had  been  miser- 
able, and  it  was  clear  that  God  intended  them  to  be  so. 
Pious  country  gentlemen  and  sleek  bishops  regarded 
with  horror  the  impiety  of  those  who  sought  to  extin- 
guish poverty,  exactly  as  the  corresponding  classes  in 
America  do  now.  "The  poor  ye  have  always  with 
you,"  was  a  prediction  which  it  would  be  blasphemy 
to  make  of  none  effect.  Poverty  and  the  people  were 
united  by  divine  decree  :  "  What  God  hath  joined,  let 
not  man  put  asunder."  The  masses  had  no  votes,  and 
it  cost  not  only  a  tremendous  political  struggle,  but 
also  the  sacrifice  of  thousands  of  lives  in  the  terrible 
famine  of  1846  to  secure  the  repeal  of  the  corn  laws, 
with  which  fell  the  whole  fabric  of  British  protec- 
tionism. 

VII.  THE  TRIUMPH  OF  FREE  TRADE. 

It  has  already  been  intimated  that  tariffs  are 
not  the  only  obstruction  to  trade,  and  that  it  is 
possible  for  trade  to  grow  more  free,  through 
the  removal  of  other  obstructions,  even  while 
tariff  barriers  are  raised  higher  than  ever.  It 
has  always  seemed  to  protectionists,  both  in  Eu- 
rope and  America,  a  triumphant  answer  to  all 
the  claims  of  free  traders,  on  account  of  the 
prosperity  of  England  under  free  trade,  to  say 
that  it  was  due  much  more  to  the  spread  of  rail- 
ways, steamships,  and  telegraphs  than  to  free 
trade.  But  railways,  steamships,  canals,  roads, 
telegraphs,  and  improvements  of  every  kind  in 
communication  are  all  steps  toward  free  trade. 
They  create  more  free  trade  than  all  tariffs  can 
destroy  ;  and  their  entire  value  and  benefit  con- 
sists in  the  degree  to  which  they  introduce  free- 
dom of  trade.  The  only  "protection"  which 
any  tariff  can  give  is  by  way  of  obstruction  to 
trade.  But  what  obstruction  does  a  tax  of  $10 
a  ton  create  compared  with  a  mountain  range 
or  a  distance  of  500  miles,  with  no  road  except 
a  mule  path  ?  While  the  pretentious  statesmen 
of  both  Europe  and  America  have  been  piling 
up  obstructions  to  commerce  in  the  form  of  hos- 
tile tariffs,  they  have  generally  been  equally 
anxious  to  pull  down  much  more  effectual  ob- 
structions which  had  been  raised  by  nature. 
We  have  already  pointed  out  that  the  whole 
value  of  the  American  scheme  of  protection  upon 
heavy  and  bulky  goods  has  been  destroyed,  so 
far  as  the  great  West  was  concerned,  by  the 
rapid  reduction  in  cost  of  transportation  caused 
by  railway  extensions.  But  the  same  thing  has 
been  true  of  Europe.  The  great  statesmen  of 
Germany  and  Italy  erected  barriers  against  each 
other  in  the  higher  tariffs  of  1879  and  later 
years  ;  and  yet  at  the  very  same  time  they  con- 
tributed millions  of  dollars  to  cut  the  St.  Goth- 
ard  tunnel  through  the  Alps,  destroying  a  natu- 
ral barrier  far  more  protective  to  native  indus- 
try than  any  tariff.  As  soon  as  the  tunnel  was 
fairly  open,  German  producers  discovered  that 
such  was  the  result,  and  forthwith  clamored  for 
more  tariff  as  a  remedy  for  the  injury  done  to 
them  by  the  freedom  of  trade  given  by  the  tun- 
nel. Railways  and  tunnels  now  run  in  every 
direction  between  all  countries  in  Central 
Europe  ;  and  the  freedom  of  trade  thus  given 
has  nullified  all  the  protection  given  by  their  ab- 
surd tariffs.  Thiers  was  indeed  the  only  con- 
sistent protectionist  of  note.  He  believed  in  the 
policy  of  restriction  so  sincerely  that,  so  long  as 
he  remained  prime-minister  under  Louis  Phi- 


Free  Trade. 


643 


Free  Trade. 


lippe,  he  would  not  permit  a'single  railway  to  be 
constructed  in  France.     And  while  Belgium,  as 
soon  as  she  adopted  the  policy  of  comparative 
freedom  of  trade,  promoted  the  greatest  possi- 
ble extension   of  railways  at  the 
cheapest  rates,  France  put  all  rail- 
Europe,      ways  into  the  hands  of  a  few  mo- 
nopolists, with  the  result  of  retard- 
ing her  progress  far  behind  that  of 
her  little  neighbor.     Great  Britain  was  the  first 
country  to  introduce  railways  ;  and  by  1845  she 
began  to  do  so  upon  an  enormous  scale.     The 
extension  of  cheap  transportation  and  the  aboli- 
tion of  protective  tariffs  went  hand  in  hand. 
The  one,  quite  as  much  as  the  other,  was  a  step 
toward  freedom  of  trade.     Unfortunately,  the 
British  Parliament,  being  composed  exclusively 
of  landlords,  allowed  landlords  in  general  to  ex- 
tort enormous  amounts  of  blackmail  from  the 
railway  companies,  thus  imposing    a  burden 
upon  them,  which  has  made  transportation  un- 
justly expensive  down  to  the  present  time,  and 
so  lessened  the  freedom  of  trade  which  railways 
ought  to  bring. 

In  the  United  States,  the  lesson  is  even  more 
clear.  The  opening  of  the  Erie  Canal  is  uni- 
versally recognized  as  the  great  cause  of  the 
prosperity  of  the  State  of  New  York,  and  as  the 
decisive  cause  of  the  triumph  of  New  York  City 
over  all  its  rivals — a  triumph  which  has  been 
perpetuated  by  the  subsequent  opening  of  the 
best  lines  of  railway  communication  with  the 
West.  The  immense  extension  of  our  railways 
has  nullified  all  the  devices  of  our  protectionists, 
altho  they  have  been  able  in  part  to  nullify  the 
benefits  of  our  railways.  Like  the  British  land- 
lords, they  have  made  our  railways  too  costly, 
and  have  loaded  them  with  a  burden  which 
many  of  them  can  ill  sustain.  Our  legislators 
did  their  best  to  deprive  us  of  the  vast  advan- 
tage of  cheap  steel,  and  succeeded  in  adding 
about  one  half  to  the  entire  cost  of  construction 
for  a  quarter  of  a  century  ;  but  they  were  utter- 
ly unable  to  deprive  us  of  the  blessing  of  that 
large  share  of  free  trade  which  resulted  from 
the  growth  of  the  railway  system.  All  the  addi- 
tional cost  of  our  railways,  which  the  protective 
tariff  imposed  upon  us,  is  now  plainly  seen  to 
be  dead  loss.  It  is  represented  in  the  shrunken 
market  prices  of  stocks  and  bonds,  in  the  ruin 
of  the  great  Pacific  lines,  in  the  obliteration  of 
values  upon  all  lines  constructed  under  the  tariff 
tax  of  $28  per  ton  on  rails.  It  is  some  consola- 
tion to  know  that  nearly  nine  tenths  of  this  loss 
has  fallen  upon  men  who  were  the  most  eager 
advocates  of  that  tax,  which  they  have  now  paid 
out  of  their  own  pockets.  This,  however,  is  a 
digression,  tho  not  an  unprofitable  one.  The 
great  fact  to  be  observed  is  that  freedom  of  trade 
has  progressed  here  in  the  United  States,  in  spite 
of  all  Morrill  or  McKinley  tariffs,  by  the  removal 
of  natural  barriers,  which  were  vastly  more  effi- 
cient than  any  tariffs  could  be. 
This  accounts  for  our  national  pros- 
The  perity  ;  while  it  proves  that,  if  no 
United  tariffs  had  interfered,  our  prosper- 
States.  ity  would  now  be  immensely  great- 
er than  it  is.  But  it  will  be  said  : 
"This,  after  all,  only  proves  that 
greater  freedom  of  interior  trade  is  beneficial — 
which  we  do  not  deny.  It  does  not  prove  that 


greater  freedom  has  been  given  to  foreign 
trade."  Yes,  it  does.  Alike  in  Europe  and  in 
America,  this  increased  facility  of  domestic  trade 
necessarily  carried  with  it  an  equal  addition  to 
facilities  of  foreign  trade  minus  only  such  new 
obstructions  as  were  created  by  new  tariffs. 
On  some  articles,  especially  those  of  small  bulk, 
in  proportion  to  value  the  advance  in  duties  ex- 
ceeds the  reduction  in  cost  of  transportation. 
Such  articles  have  been  kept  out.  But  this  only 
directed  foreign  trade  to  other  articles  of  a  dif- 
ferent character  ;  and  those  articles  have  come 
in,  often  in  increasing  quantities.  We  admit 
that  the  new  tariffs  have  largely  neutralized  the 
benefit  of  our  internal  improvements  ;  but  this 
is  all  that  they  have  been  able  to  do.  To  a  con- 
siderable extent  the  same  nullification  of  tariffs 
has  been  going  on  in  ocean  navigation.  When 
the  Morrill  tariffs  of  1861  and  1864  were  adopt- 
ed, freight  from  Europe  was  brought  almost  ex- 
clusively in  slow-sailing  vessels.  The  time  of 
passage  averaged  40  days  at  least.  Goods  were 
slowly  .loaded  by  expensive  hand  labor,  and 
were  placed  on  board  several  days,  sometimes 
weeks,  before  the  ship  sailed.  Unloading  was 
also  a  slow  process.  On  the  average,  interest 
had  to  be  allowed  on  goods  for  60  days  from  the 
date  of  purchase.  Insurance  rates  were  high  ; 
and  insurance  was  refused  altogether  upon  the 
most  frequent  cases  of  damage  just  because 
they  were  so  frequent.  All  these  items  had  to 
be  allowed  for  in  the  estimate  of  cost.  Now, 
the  same  goods  arrive,  without  fail,  in  10  days 
after  they  are  purchased,  and  are  turned  out 
upon  the  dock  so  quickly  that  the  importer  has 
hardly  time  to  send  for  them.  Insurance  is 
cheap,  and  the  old  risks  of  damage  are  almost 
eliminated.  In  addition  to  all  this,  the  great 
West  keeps  on  growing  ;  the  rates  of  transporta- 
tion westward  are  decreasing  on  foreign  goods 
just  as  much  as  on  any  others  ;  the  Eastern 
States  are  doubtless  given  an  opportunity  to 
fleece  the  West  to  some  extent,  but  they  cannot 
supply  the  entire  demand  ;  and,  upon  the  whole, 
no  tariff  can  do  more  than  somewhat  to  retard 
the  progress  of  an  ever-advancing  freedom  of 
trade.  It  is,  indeed,  the  consciousness  of  this 
fact — not  always  distinct,  but  always  felt — that 
makes  the  protected  classes  so  greedy  for  more 
and  more  "protection."  They  find,  that  the 
competition  which  they  believed  they  had  shut 
out  comes  creeping  in  again  ;  and  hence  their 
eternal  demand  for  more,  and  more,  and  still 
more  restriction  upon  foreign  trade,  as  exempli- 
fied in  the  old  days  of  1816, 1820,  1824,  and  1828, 
and  in  the  later  days  of  1861,  1863,  1864,  1866, 
1867,  1868,  1870,  1872,  1875,  1882, 1883,  1890,  and 
1894,  in  every  one  of  which  years  they  demand- 
ed and  obtained  some  increase  of  their  imposi- 
tions, while  in  every  other  year  they  demanded 
some  other  increase  which  they  did  not  obtain. 
In  the  nature  of  things  they  can  never  stop,  be- 
cause nature  and  art  are  working  continually 
against  them  ;  and  the  progress  of  free  trade, 
altho  slow,  is  irresistible. 

THOMAS  G.  SHEARMAN. 

References  :  Bastiat's  Sophisms  of  the  Protectionists 
(translation,  1870) ;  W.  G.  Summer's  Protectionism 
(1885) ;  D.  A.  Wells's  Recent  Economic  Changes  (1889) ; 
Henry  George's  Protection  or  Free  Trade  (1886).  See 
also  the  publications  of  the  Reform  Club  of  New  York 
on  United  States  Tariff  History,  etc. 


Fremantie. 


644 


French  Revolution. 


FREMANTLE,  The  Hon.  and  Rev. 
WILLIAM  HENRY,  was  born  in  1831,  the 
second  son  of  the  first  Baron  Cottosloe.  Edu- 
cated at  Eton  and  Balliol  College,  Oxford,  he 
held  a  fellowship  of  All  Souls,  1855-63  ;  ordained 
in  1858,  he  became  curate  at  Middle  Claydon, 
vicar  of  Lewknor,  rector  of  St.  Mary's,  Bry- 
anston  Square,  London,  1865,  and  canon  resi- 
dentiary of  Canterbury  Cathedral  in  1882.  In 
1895  he  was  appointed  Dean  of  Ripon.  He  has 
been  a  frequent  writer,  and  in  1882  he  gave 
the  Bampton  Lectures  at  Oxford  on  The  World 
as  the  Subject  of  Redemption,  in  which  he  advo- 
cates the  broadest  application  of  Christianity  to 
social  and  political  life.  (See  CHRISTIANITY  AND 
SOCIAL  REFORM.) 

FRENCH  REVOLUTION,  THE,  played 
an  important  tho  a  frequently  misunderstood 
part  in  social  reform. 

France  was  groaning  under  despotism,  royal  extrav- 
agance and  financial  ruin.    In  1774  Louis  XV.  ended 
his  profligate  reign,  brilliant  only  because  of  its  literary 
men.    Louis    XVI.,   married  in   1770  to 
Marie  Antoinette  of  Austria,  was  pure, 
The  Causes,  stubborn  and  weak.    Turgot  (ff.v.),  en- 
trusted with  the  finances,  tried  to  levy 
taxes   equally.      The  nobility  resisted, 
and  in  1776  he  was  deposed.     Necker  followed,  vainly 
trying  to  stave  off  national  bankruptcy.    France,  aid- 
ing  America   against  England,  for  five  years  fought 
England,  and  grew  still  poorer.    The  nobility  and  the 
higher  clergy  dodged  the  taxation  ;  gaiety  ruled  in  the 
court;  the  people  hated  the  foreign  queen.    Finally  in 

1789,  after  various  efforts  with  Parliament,  the  king 
was    compelled    to  summon  the    states-general    (see 
ESTATES)  to  vote  taxes.    Meanwhile,  the  writings  of 
Rousseau  and  others  wera  filling  the  people  with  ideals 
of  equality.    The  First  Estate,  the  clergy,  returned  to 
the  assembly  291  members,  48  bishops  and  208  parish 
priests,  the  poorer  priests  largely  on  the  side  of  the 
people.    The  Second  Estate,  the  nobility,  returned  208 
members.    The  Third  Estate  had  557  members,  nearly 
half  of  them  barristers.    They  met  at  Versailles.    The 
king  was  stubborn,  but  they  would  not  vote  as  he 
willed.    June  17,  1789,  they  formed  themselves  into  a 
national  assembly,  and  June  20,  on  the  neighboring 
tennis  court,  took  an  oath  not  to  separate  till  "the  con- 
stitution of  the  kingdom  had  been  established  and  con- 
firmed on  solid  foundations."    The  king  attempted  to 
compromise,  but  finally  threw  himself  into  the  hands 
of  his  courtiers,  and  called  out  the  army.    Paris  rose, 
and  blood  was  shed  July  12.    July  14,  the  Bastile  was 
taken.     Uprisings  occurred  in  the  provinces.     August 
4  the  old  feudal  rights  were  abrogated,  and  the  famous 
Declaration  of  the  Rights  of  War  declared.    June  19, 

1790,  nobility  was  abolished.     The  nobles  fled.    The 
royal  family  finally  attempted  to  do  so,  but  were  cap- 
tured (June,  1791).    The  assembly  was  in 
control,   and  completed  a  constitution. 

Republican-  Robespierre  and  other  Republican  lead- 
•  ers  were,   however,   agitating  in  Paris 

for  the  deposition  of  the  king.  Vio- 
lence broke  out,  and  Lafayette  put  down 
the  Republicans  with  bloodshed.  September  14,  the 
assembly  completed  its  constitution  and  the  king  swore 
to  obey  it,  and  chose  a  Girondist  cabinet.  A  Legislative 
Assembly  elected  under  the  constitution  met  October 
i,  1791.  Meanwhile,  the  nobility  in  foreign  lands  were 
gaining  friends,  and  the  king  was  declared  to  be  con- 
spiring with  them.  War  was  declared  with  Austria. 
The  Girondist  ministry  was  ejected,  and  they  sided 
with  the  Jacobins  against  Lafayette  as  leader  of  the 
conservatives.  June,  1792,  the  populace  of  Paris  rose 
against  the  assembly,  and  marched  to  Versailles  and 
forced  the  king  to  don  the  red  cap.  Meanwhile,  Prussia 
declared  war  on  France.  The  Jacobins  organized  a 
new  insurrection  August  10,  sang" the  Marseillaise,  and 
set  up  in  Paris  an  insurrectionary  commune.  The 
people,  under  Robespierre  and  Danton,  were  victorious. 
Guillotining  increased.  The  march  of  the  Germans  in- 
creased the  terror,  and  September  21,'  1792,  the  republic 
was  declared.  In  the  new  national  convention  the 
Girondists  on  the  right  were  in  the  majority  ;  the 
Jacobins  were  high  on  the  left,  and  called  the  "Mount- 
ain ;"  below  sat  the  moderates.  In  November  the 
king  was  accused,  January  17,  1793,  condemned,  and 


January  21  guillotined.  Roland  and  the  Girondists 
had  tried  to  prevent  it.  It  roused  the  hostility  of  all 
Europe.  Demouriez,  however,  in  command  of  the 
French  armies,  was  successful,  and  entered  Belgium. 
England  now  declared  war  (February  i,  1793),  but  the 
•war  spirit  in  France  grew.  Demouriez,  however,  was 
accused  in  Paris,  and  after  a  defeat  he  conspired  with 
the  Austrians  and  marched  against  France  to  over- 
throw the  Jacobins.  They  created  the  terrible  Com- 
mittee of  Public  Safety.  Disturbances  broke  out  in  the 
provinces,  and  La  Vendee  arose  in  a  bloody  insur- 
rection. The  Girondists  in  the  south  threatened 
Paris.  The  allies  were  slowly  uniting. 
It  was  a  crisis.  Some  think  that  Danton,  . 

who,  altho  rough,  was  a  sincere  patriot,  Tne  Keign 
felt  that  a  little  bloodshed  now  would  of  Terror. 
save  bloodshed  in  the  end.  He  led  in  a 
sanguinary  policy.  Marat,  at  the  head 
of  the  Sans  Culottes,  overthrew  the  Girondists  June  2, 
but  was  himself  assassinated  by  Charlotte  Corday. 
Danton  made  the  convention  proclaim  martial  law  and 
a  new  constitution.  A  new  calendar  was  proclaimed 
and  statues  erected  and  fetes  celebrated  to  Nature 
and  Reason.  The  republic  was  successful  on  the  field, 
insurrection  put  down,  and  the  invaders  repulsed. 
The  queen,  the  leading  Girondists  and  aristocrats, 
the  cidivants  were  guillotined.  Hebert  now  led  the 
terrorists  and  Danton  the  moderates.  Robespierre,  who 
seems  to  have  been  an  ambitious  fop,  sided  with  neither. 
Robespierre  became  dictator.  The  French  armies 
were  victorious,  Napoleon  being  in  charge  of  the 
artillery  in  Italy.  Robespierre  undertook  to  bring  in 
"the  fete  of  the  Supreme  Being."  He  trusted  in  his 
ideas,  but  was  laughed  at ;  he  allowed  the  reign  of 
terror  to  go  on,  and  created  personal  hostilities.  His 
arrest  was  voted,  and  he  was  guillotined.  Paris  was 
weary  of  revolution  ;  the  armies  on  the  frontier  were 
victorious,  but,  tho  republicans,  they  by  no  means  sym- 
pathized with  affairs  at  home.  January,  1795,  the  con- 
vention closed  the  Jacobin  clubs,  which  had  worked 
such  evil.  Famine  broke  out  in  Paris  and  insurrec- 
tions broke  out.  They  were  easily  put  down  and  the 
power  left  with  the  bourgeois.  A  Girondist  consti- 
tution was  now  declared.  The  death  penalty  was 
abolished,  five  dictators  were  to  have  power.  The 
royalists  made  one  last  effort.  Barras  now  called 
Napoleon  to  Paris,  and  his  artillery  cleared  the  streets 
and  left  Paris  in  the  hands  of  the  Directory.  Baboeuf 
plotted  his  communistic  conspiracy,  but 
was  put  down.  Napoleon  was  put  at  the 
head  of  the  army  in  Italy,  and  com-  The  End. 
menced  his  brilliant  succession  of  vic- 
tories. The  Directory,  however,  at  Paris 
was  threatened,  and  was  only  sustained  by  recalling 
part  of  the  army.  In  1797  Napoleon  entered  Paris  in 
triumph.  He  was,  however,  sent  to  Egypt,  but  victori- 
ous there,  returned  once  more  to  Paris  to  find  political 
weakness  and  division.  A  new  constitution  was  pro- 
claimed, with  consuls  :  one  supreme,  Napoleon.  He 
established  himself  in  the  Tuileries,  conducted  brilliant 
war  and  a  despotic  policy,  and  May  18,  1804,  had  him- 
self proclaimed  Emperor.  So  ended  the  Revolution. 
(See  FRANCE.) 

It  was  in  the  beginning  a  parliamentary  con- 
test with  the  king  over  taxes.  Revolutionists 
with  ideas  of  the  rights  of  man  took  the  oppor- 
tunity to  rouse  the  suffering  canaille  of  Paris 
to  insurrection.  Successful  in  the  field  against 
foreigners,  they  could  not  agree  at  home,  and 
having  unchained  the  spirit  of  terror,  could  not 
chain  it  till  a  strong  hand  came,  and  the  people, 
weary  of  bloodshed,  submitted  to  an  empire. 
It  established  nothing  ;  it  simply  ended  the  old 
regime.  When  the  people  grew  strong  again 
they  overthrew  the  empire.  It  was  thus  led  by 
bourgeois  men,  yet  participated  in  by  all  classes. 
Its  cries  of  "  Liberty,  equality,  fraternity"  were 
individualistic,  not  in  the  modern  sense  social- 
istic. Economically  and  politically  it  did  with 
terror  and  confusion  what  was  done  legally  in 
England  and  Germany  by  overthrowing  despot- 
ism. It  succeeded  negatively  ;  positively  it 
failed  because  it  lacked  unity. 

References  :  Carlyle's  French  Revolution  :  Gron- 
lund's  Danton  ;  the  histories  of  Lanfrey,  Thiers,  etc. 


Friendly  Societies. 


645 


Froebel. 


FRIENDLY  SOCIETIES  is  the  name 
used  m  Great  Britain  for  voluntary  benefit  so- 
cieties of  any  kind.  They  probably  originated 
in  the  old  burial  clubs,  which  existed  even  in 
Greece  and  Rome.  (See  GUILDS.)  During  the 
Middle  Ages  they  were  mixed  with  the  guilds. 
A  revival  of  them  seems  to  have  occurred  among 
the  Protestant  refugees  of  Spitalfields.  An  act 
of  1 793  recognized  and  encouraged  them.  They 
were  organized  in  great  numbers,  but  with  lit- 
tle stability.  Trade-unions  had  long  to  hide 
beneath  their  name.  (See  COMBINATION  LAWS.) 
After  various  laws  a  Royal  Commission  investi- 


gated them  (1870^-74),  and  the  act  of  1875  regu- 
lated them  (modified  in  1887  and  1895).  They 
are  composed  of  orders  like  the  Odd  Fellows, 
Foresters,  Rechabites,  etc.,  general  societies, 
county  and  town  societies,  trade  societies,  divid- 
ing societies,  deposit  societies,  collecting  socie- 
ties, annuity  societies,  female  societies,  insur- 
ance societies,  etc.,  registered  and  unregistered. 
In  England  i  out  of  every  3  inhabitants  is  a 
member  of  a  friendly  society. 

The  latest  returns  made   to  the   Registrars 
of   Friendly  Societies  in  the  United  Kingdom 


Number. 

Members. 

Funds. 

Friendly  Societies  not  collecting  

28,384 
47 
I,  in 
1,810 
2,694 
59° 
712 
ii 

4,203,601 
3,875,215 
241,446 
1,136,907 
587,856 
986,817 
34,576 
22,899 

.£22,695,039 
2,7I3,2I4 
594,808 
18,915,793 
42,683,271 

1,515  3Il> 
258,714 
1,788,012 

Collecting  Societies  

Other  Societies  

Industrial  and  Provident  . 

Building  Societies  

Trade  Unions  .... 

Loan  Societies  

Railway  Savings  Banks  

Total.                  .                               ....         

35.559 

11,089,317 

j£}i,  162,470 

In  Germany,  the  friendly  societies  are  usually 
either  trade-union,  socialistic  or  otherwise,  re- 
ligious societies,  Roman  Catholic  or  Protestant, 
agricultural  or  industrial  cooperative  societies, 
or  insurance  societies  working  under  the  com- 
pulsory insurance  laws.  (See  GERMAN.) 

In  France,  friendly  societies  (soctitts  des  se- 
cours  mutuels),  without  including  trade-unions 
and  cooperative  societies,  numbered,  in  1892, 
9662,  with  1,503,397  members.  According  to 
the  reports  of  the  (English)  Royal  Commission 
on  Labor,  there  are  in  Italy  some  5000  benefit 
societies  ;  in  Holland,  some  433,  with  branches 
all  over  the  kingdom  ;  in  Switzerland,  1254. 
(For  the  United  States,  see  FRATERNAL  SOCIE- 
TIES ;  INSURANCE  ;  TRADE-UNIONS.) 

FROEBEL,  FRIEDRICH  WILHELM 
AUGUST,  philosopher,  educational  reformer, 
and  philanthropist,  was  born  at  Oberweissbach , 
in  the  Thuringian  forest,  Germany,  in  1782. 
His  father  was  pastor  of  the  village  church. 
His  mother  died  when  he  was  in  his  infancy, 
and  he  was  neglected  in  consequence.  At  the 
village  school  he  was  considered  stupid,  and  he 
was  apprenticed  to  a  forester.  The  forest  then, 
became  his  college.  Every  natural  object — 
stone,  insect,  plant,  or  tree — suggested  to  him 
some  general  truth  ;  and  he  perceived  some 
underlying  connection  between  all  objects,  how- 
ever apparently  remote  from  each  other.  His 
inborn  tendency  to  mysticism  was  strengthened 
by  his  lonely  meditations  in  the  forest,  but  after 
overcoming  many  obstacles  he  at  last  obtained 
permission  to  attend  the  university  at  Jena. 
He  went  from  professor  to  professor  seeking  for 
a  connection  between  the  sciences.  His  career 
at  Jena  ended  ignominiously  by  his  imprison- 
ment for  nine  weeks  through  incurring  a  debt 
of  $7  or  $8.  He  returned  home,  was  sent  on  a 
farm,  and  then,  on  the  death  of  his  father,  was 
set  free  to  shift  for  himself.  He  wandered  about 


as  land  surveyor,  accountant,  secretary,  and  at 
last  became  a  very  successful  teacher  in  a  model 
school  at  Frankfort.  After  a  short  time  at  a 
university,  he  was  patriotic  enough  to  enlist  as 
a  soldier  for  the  campaign  of  1813.  It  was  while 
in  the  army  that  he  gained  his  two  most  devot- 
ed followers,  Langethal  and  Middendorff.  On 
the  termination  of  the  war,  he  returned  to  Ber- 
lin, and  obtained  a  position  under  Professor 
Weiss.  But  his  own  ideal  soon  forced  him  to 
give  up  his  position  and  to  unfold  his  system  of 
education.  He  set  out  on  foot  for  Griesheim,  a 
small  village  where  a  sister-in-law  lived.  Here 
he  founded  a  school,  composed  at  first  only  of 
his  little  nieces  and  nephews.  Removing  his 
school  to  Keilhau,  he  sent  for  his  two  friends 
Langethal  and  Middendorff,  and  soon  their 
pupils  began  to  rapidly  increase.  Financially 
it  was  not  profitable,  and  for  many  years  the 
teachers  suffered  the  hardships  of  poverty. 
Froebel  opened  another  school  in  Switzerland, 
and  the  Swiss  Government  was  wise  enough  to 
send  young  teachers  to  him  for  instruction. 
He  discovered  that  one  of  the  greatest  obstacles 
in  the  way  of  a  perfect  education,  or  '  self-com- 
pletion," was  the  general  neglect  of  children  in 
their  earlier  years.  His  great  work  on  77m 
Education  of  Man  (1826)  deals  chiefly  with  the 
child  up  to  the  age  of  seven.  Returning  from 
Switzerland,  he  founded  at  Keilhau  the  first 
kindergarten  in  1837.  He  sought  to  base  a 
course  of  educational  exercises  on  the  games  in 
which  children  were  most  interested.  His  first 
kindergarten  failed  for  lack  of  funds  ;  but  by 
pen  and  lecture  he  spread  the  principles  of  his 
system  ;  and  until  his  death  he  continued  to 
train  male  and  female  teachers  in  the  imparta- 
tion  of  his  ideas. 

In  1851  his  nephew  published  a  book  which  the 
Government  accused  of  teaching  socialism  and 
irreligion,  and  unfortunately  confounding  his 
views  with  Froebel's,  an  edict  was  issued  for* 


Froebel. 


Gambling  and  Speculation. 


bidding  the  establishment  of  schools  based  on 
Froebel's  principles.  He  took  this  greatly  to 
heart,  and  in  May,  1852,  died,  and  was  buried 
at  Schweina. 

The  starting  point  of  his  researches  was  his 
belief  in  the  unity  of  creation.  Education  meant 
with  him  unity  of  development,  perfect  evolu- 
tion in  accordance  with  the  laws  of  his  being. 
From  this  belief  naturally  followed  his  doctrine  : 
"  All  education  not  founded  on  religion  is  un- 
productive. ' ' 

He  agreed  with  Pestalozzi  in  this  belief  :  That 
the  true  educator  creates  nothing  in  the  chil- 
dren, but  guides  the  growth  of  inborn  faculties. 
Children  grow  as  plants  grow.  But  he  went 
beyond  Pestalozzi  in  holding  that  the  function 
of  education  was  to  develop  the  faculties  by 
arousing  voluntary  activity,  (See  KINDER- 
GARTEN.) 

FRY,  ELIZABETH  (nfr  GURNEY),  was 
born  at  Earlham,  Norfolk,  England,  in  1780. 
She  was  brought  up  a  Friend,  and  in  1800  mar- 
ried to  Joseph  Fry.  She  visited  and  worked  in 
behalf  of  the  poor  and  sick,  seamen,  prisoners, 
and  outcasts  in  all  parts  of  Great  Britain  and 
on  the  Continent.  In  1809  she  became  an  occa- 
sional preacher,  tho  never  neglecting  the  care 
of  her  large  family.  She  is  best  known  for  her 
work  in  prison  reform.  (See  PENOLOGY.) 

FUGITIVE  SLAVE  LAW.— A  United 
States  fugitive  act,  passed  in  1793,  declared  that 


whenever  a  person  held  to  service,  etc.,  shall 
escape  into  another  State  or  Territory,  the  per- 
son to  whom  such  service  may  be  due,  his  agent 
or  attorney,  may  seize  or  arrest  such  fugitive 
and  take  him  before  any  judge  of  a  court  of  the 
United  States,  or  any  magistrate  of  a  county, 
city,  or  town,  and  upon  proof  to  the  satisfaction 
of  the  judge  or  magistrate,  whether  by  oral  tes- 
timony or  sworn  affidavit,  that  service  is  owed 
as  claimed,  the  judge  or  magistrate  shall  give  a 
certificate  thereof  to  the  claimant,  which  shall 
be  sufficient  warrant  to  remove  the  fugitive. 

This  act,  long  obsolete,  was  later  more  and 
more  made  use  of  by  the  slaveholders  of  the 
South.  That  Northern  States  should  be  com- 
pelled to  help  Southern  slaveholders  catch  their 
slaves  created  great  indignation  at  the  North. 
The  constitutionality  of  the  law  was  tested,  but 
it  was  decided  constitutional,  two  judges  dis- 
senting. This  led  to  the  passage  of  a  still  more 
rigorous  bill  in  1850.  United  States  commis- 
sioners were  to  perform  the  judicial  acts,  and 
United  States  marshals  execute  warrants  and 
processes,  Owners  could  themselves  pursue 
and  demand  the  help  of  the  commissioners  and 
marshals.  The  sworn  statement  of  the  claim- 
ant was  to  be  sufficient  proof.  Any  aid  ren- 
dered to  fugitive  slaves  was  made  a  penal 
offense,  and  all  citizens  were  required  to  aid  in 
the  capture  of  the  runaway,  if  required.  This 
law  almost  more  than  any  other  roused  the 
North.  It  was  openly  violated  and  resisted, 
tho  often  obeyed.  After  the  war  the  fugitive 
slave  laws  were  repealed. 


G. 


GALL,  HEINRICH  LUDWIG  LAM- 
PE  RT,  whom  Stegmann  and  Hugo's  Handbuch 
des  Socialismus  calls  "  the  first  German  social- 
ist," was  born  in  Aldenhoven  bei  Jiilich,  De- 
cember 28,  1790.  He  held  various  clerkships  in 
Government  offices  in  Cleve,  Dusseldorf ,  Lux- 
emburg, and  especially  at  Treves.  The  suffer- 
ings of  the  people  after  the  War  of  1815  moved 
him  deeply  ;  and  even  at  this  time  he  clearly 
analyzed  the  industrial  situation  and  the  social 
evolution  which  put  all  power  into  the  hands 
of  capitalists,  and  left  the  workers  poor.  Do- 
ing what  he  could  to  spread  his  ideas,  he  met 
with  no  encouragement,  and  in  1819  left  his 
government  situation  to  devote  all  his  time  and 
his  considerable  means  to  the  service  of  social 
reform.  He  conducted  to  America  an  ill  fated, 
ill  planned  company  of  the  offscourings  of  Ger- 
man cities  (thieves,  convicts,  and  harlots),  and 
organized  a  colony  near  Harrisburg,  Pa.  He 
believed  he  could  make  of  them  successful 
colonists  ;  naturally  he  failed,  exhausting  his 
means,  and  receiving  only  criticism  and  oppo- 
sition. Returning  he  entered  the  Government 
service  once  again,  and  made  numerous  inven- 
tions in  distilling  apparatus,  etc. ,  all  to  get  the 
means  to  carry  on  his  propaganda.  He  trav- 
eled in  England  and  France,  meeting  Owen, 


Fourier,  and  the  Saint  Simonians,  and  tried  to 
form  an  international  movement.  He  traveled 
all  through  Germany,  even  to  East  Prussia,  op- 
pressed with  the  condition  of  the  masses.  In 
1828  he  published  a  paper,  Menschenfreund- 
liche  Blatter  (Humanitarian  Leaflets),  but  was 
compelled  to  discontinue  it  for  lack  of  support. 
He  wrote  many  books,  especially  Mein  Wol- 
len  und  Mein  Wirken  (1835),  in  which  he  out- 
lines the  principles  of  modern  socialism,  the 
helplessness  of  the  individual  worker,  the  need 
of  industrial  organization  by  the  workers.  Con- 
demned to  imprisonment  in  one  of  his  travels, 
he  fled  to  Treves,  where  he  died  January  31, 
1863.  See  Stegmann  and  Hugo's  Handbuch 
des  Socialismus  for  a  full  account  of  him. 

GAMBLING  AND  SPECULATION.— A 

fundamental  principle  of  all  good  government 
is  violated  by  gambling  in  any  form,  to  wit : 

"  The  presumption  of  law  is  that  every  man 
has  acquired  his  property  honestly  ;  and  it  is 
the  policy  of  every  well-regulated  government 
that  he  shall  not  be  deprived  of  it  without  a  fair 
equivalent.  This  is  particularly  the  case  in  re- 
publics, where  all  should  be  independent  in  the 
means  of  subsistence"  (State  vs.  Smith  &  Lane, 
2  Yet  [Tenn.],  Reports). 


Gambling  and  Speculation. 


647 


Gambling  and  Speculation. 


Says  Judge  Catron,  formerly  of  the  Supreme 
Court  of  the  United  States  : 

"Gaming  is  a  general  evil,  leads  to  vicious 
inclinations,  destruction  of  morals,  abandon- 
ment of  industry  and  honest  employments,  a 
loss  of  self  control  and  respect. ' ' 

The  English  courts  for  centuries  have  held 
that  : 

"  A  common  gambling-house,  kept  for  lucre 
or  gain,  is  a  common  nuisance,  as  it  tends  to 
draw  together  idle  and  evil-disposed  persons,  to 
corrupt  their  morals  and  ruin  their  fortunes." 

In  New  York  State  common  law  prevailed 
until  1815,  when  the  Legislature  enacted  a  stat- 
xite  forbidding  -the  act  of  betting  or  wagers 
upon  future  events.  The  New  York  Court  of 
Appeals,  in  1848,  said  : 

"The  evident  intention  of  the  Legislature 
was  to  discourage  and  repress  gambling  in  all 
its  forms,  including  bets  and  wagers  and  every 
species  of  wager  contracts  of  hazard,  as  a  great 
public  mischief  calling  for  effective  measures 
of  prevention  and  remedy"  (Ruchman  vs, 
Pitcher,  i  N.  Y.,  450). 

Since  then  bills  against  gambling,  pool-sell- 
ing, etc. ,  have  been  frequent  in  this  and  other 
States,  tho  pool-selling  on  inclosed  grounds 
has  been  frequently  legalized  and  then  again 
forbidden.  The  following  account  of  various 
forms  of  gambling  is  abridged  from  an  article 
by  Mr.  H.  C.  Vrooman,  in  the  Arena  for  Feb- 
ruary, 1895  : 

"  The  forms  of  gambling  and  speculation  are  almost 
endless.  The  older  forms  are  with  lotteries,  faro, 
thimbles,  dice,  cards,  and  the  like.  Not  to  mention 
billiards  and  pool-playing  for  drinks,  the  raffles  and 
chances  at  fairs — where  under  sometimes  sacred  aus- 
pices is  fed  the  passion  for  gaining  something  for  noth- 
ing—there is  every  grade  of  respectability  and  unre- 
spectability.  There  is  a  very  popular  device  coming 
much  into  use  of  late  called 'a  nickel  in  the  slot.'  It 
consists  of  a  contrivance  into  which  a  nickel  is  drop- 
ped, and  in  case  the  nickel  touches  a  certain  spring  it 
throws  out  a  little  shelf  containing  a  handful  of  nick- 
-els.  The  shelves  containing  the  prize  handfuls  are  in 
sight  under  a  glass  cover,  to  encourage  the  player. 
Some  of  the  machines  are  large  and  gorgeous,  with 
the  money  shelves  arranged  in  a  circle  which  revolves 
like  a  wheel  of  fortune.  This  contrivance  is  within 
reach  of  the  boys,  and  initiates  them  into  a  taste  for 
'trying  their  luck.'  It  requires  but  five  cents,  and 
there  is  a  chance  of  winning  over  a  dollar.  These 
machines  are  most  common  in  saloons,  but  are  not 
infrequently  found  in  candy-stores  near  schools,  where 
the  boys  crowd  at  noontime  to  take  their  initial  lesson 
in  gambling. 

"  Another  interesting  device  that  requires  but  a  small 
sum  to  invest  in  is  called  '  shooting  craps.'  It  is  played 
on  a  semicircular  table  with  dice.  The  point  of  the 
game  is  in  certain  relations  of  the  dice  points  to  num- 
bers on  the  board.  It  seems  very  trite  to  describe  it, 
but  when  money  is  staked  on  it  it  develops  into  an  ex- 
citing game.  It  is  a  favorite  with  those  with  very 
short  purses,  especially  the  negroes.  It  is  a  most  strik- 
ing spectacle  to  see  hundreds  of  negroes  gathered  in  a 
city  den  awaiting  their  turn  to  lose  their  money. 

"Horse-racing  furnishes  a  very  popular  method  of 
gambling  on  a  larger  scale.    For  those  who  cannot  go 
to  the  tracks  and  do  their  betting  there,  there  are  pop- 
ular resorts,  known  as  '  pool-rooms,'  where  '  the  odds' 
are  posted  and  bets  taken  just  as  at  the  track.     The 
popular  name  'pool'  is  a  survival  from  the  old  French 
mutual  pool  system,  still  in  vogue  in  some  places  in  the 
South.    It  is  very  similar  to  a  '  blind  pool.'    That  is, 
each  player  put  in  a  certain  sum  against  some  other 
player,  and  the  book-maker  or  manager 
acted  merely  as  a   commission  agent. 
Fool-Rooms.  The  old  process  was  too  slow  for  the 
ambitious  American,  and  the  method 
now  in    vogue    gives   the   book-maker 
.-one  side  in  every  play,  and  is  usually  so  arranged  as 
to  give  60  per  cent,  odds  in  his  favor.     The   '  book- 


maker' is  the  manager  of  the  pool-room.  He  makes  a 
schedule  of  the  horses  running  and  an  estimate  of  the 
proportion  of  chances  in  favor  of  each,  based  on  the 
horse's  record,  the  weather,  the  jockey,  etc.  This 
schedule,  '  the  book'—  most  commonly  called  '  the  odds' 
—  is  posted  in  the  '  pool-room'  20  minutes  before  the 
race  occurs,  and  betting  continues  until  the  telegraph 
announces,  '  They're  off.'  The  race  may  occur  in 
New  Orleans  and  the  playing  in  Chicago.  The  tele- 
graph enables  the  playing  to  proceed  the  same  as  at 
the  race-track. 

"  The  betting  by  the  individuals  is  called  playing 
the  races.'  The  book-maker  plays  against  the  public. 
Of  course  he  must  be  a  shrewd,  experienced  horse  man. 
He  arranges  the  odds  on  the  basis  of  the  patrons  play- 
ing on  a  variety  of  the  horses  and  balances  his  risks  by 
their  variety.  The  following  is  an  illustration  of  'the 
odds  :  '  Gallop,  7-5  ;  Theodore,  3-2  ;  Baby  Bill,  8.  This 
means  that  the  book-maker  will  stake  $7  against  $5  on 
Gallop,  $3  against  $2  on  Theodore,  and  $8  against  $i 
on  Baby  Bill.  The  option  is  open  for  the  player  to 
take  any  horse  he  wishes.  The  book-maker  must 
either  know  public  sentiment  in  regard  to  what  bets 
will  probably  be  taken,  or  he  must  start  rumors  afloat 
to  create  a  sentiment  that  will  turn  bets  to  his  advan- 
tage. If  races  were  run  honestly,  a  good  judge  of  horses 
could  often  win  ;  but  often,  at  least,  they  are  not.  A 
book-maker  'stands  in'  with  some  jockey  to  prevent 
a  fast  horse  winning,  perhaps  by  tying  a  small  silken 
thread  around  the  hind  ankle,  which  pulls  the  cords 
and  cramps  the  leg.  An  electric  battery  has  been  car- 
ried by  jockeys  with  wires  connected  with  the  spurs 
to  partly  paralyze  a  horse.  A  horse  may  be  filled 
with  water  just  before  a  race,  having  been  previously 
liberally  fed  with  salt.  Sometimes  a  fast  horse  is  en- 
tered under  another  name,  etc. 

"  Next  to  the  horse-  racing  ranks  the  '  clock'  or  '  tape 
game,'  the  'bucket  shop,'  the  'open  board,'  and  the 
regular  'board  of  trade'  —  thence  on  to  the  subtleties 
and  refinements  of  general  speculative 
business,  such  as  booming  cities  to  sell 
real  estate,  watering  stock,  manipulat-  Bucket  Shop. 
ing  railroads  to  buy  cheap  and  sell 
dear,  etc.  The  'clock  game'  and  the 
'  bucket  shop'  are  based  on  the  board  of  trade  methods, 
only  they  are  gambling  pure  and  simple,  never  deal- 
ing in  real  commodities  at  all.  The  'clock  game'  is 
especially  barren  of  any  semblance  to  real  business  in 
that  the  prices  quoted  do  not  follow  the  market,  but 
are  arbitrarily  arranged  by  the  management.  There 
is  a  central  office,  where  a  scale  of  prices  is  made  up 
every  day  on  fictitious  mining  stocks  and  sent  out, 
with  the  legitimate  prices  of  wheat  and  corn  and  the 
regular  board  of  trade  articles,  to  the  various  gam- 
bling-rooms, where  the  little  tickers  record  on  the  tape 
the  rise  and  fall  in  price.  These  figures  are  placed  as 
fast  as  they  come  in  on  a  vast  blackboard  on  one  side 
of  the  room,  and  the  crowd  buy  and  sell  the  artificial 
margins  in  regular  '  'Change'  style.  Some  of  them  do 
not  even  go  through  the  form  of  pretending  to  receive 
by  telegraph  the  regular  market  prices.  The  manager 
makes  up  a  schedule  of  prices  purely  from  his  imagi- 
nation, adapted  to  trap  the  gambling-  public.  This  is 
made  on  a  roll  of  tape,  is  unwound  right  before  the 
crowd,  and  the  prices  of  stocks  are  recorded  on  the 
blackboard.  The  buying  or  selling  of  margins  goes 
on,  based  on  the  last  recorded  figure  on  the  board, 
looking  for  gain  to  the  chance  of  a  higher  or  lower  fig- 
ure on  the  tape. 

"  The  '  bucket  shop'  is  similar  to  the  above,  except 
that  the  schedule  or  prices  on  which  the  gambling  is 
based  is  supposed  to  follow  the  actual  market  as  quot- 
ed in  the  board  of  trade.  The  'open  board,'  as  seen 
in  Chicago,  is  a  duplicate  of  the  regular  board  of  trade 
in  form,  but  is  an  immense  bucket  shop  in  character. 
The  marked  difference  between  the  board  of  trade  and 
the  bucket  shop  is  that  the  speculations  on  the  board 
of  trade  have  to  do  with  the  actual  market,  and  heavy 
buying  or  selling  there  is  supposed  to  influence  the 
price  of  the  commodities,  while  speculation  in  the 
bucket  shop  is  gambling  pure  and  simple  on  how  the 
market  is  going  to  turn.  ' 


From  the  "  bucket  shop"  to  speculation  in  the 
regular  stock  exchanges  is  but  a  single  step. 
Says  Mr.  John  Bigelow  (Harper's  Monthly, 
February,  1895)  : 

"  Between  the  years  i87g  and  1882  the  cash  sales  of 
wheat  at  the  New  York  Produce  Exchange  amounted 
to  $244,737,000,  while  the  option  sales,  embracing  what 
are  known  on  'Change  as  'puts'  and  'calls,'  'long'  and 


Gambling  and  Speculation. 


648 


Garrison,  William  Lloyd. 


•short,'  '  futures'  and  '  straddles,'  amounted  to  $1,154,- 
267,000.    This  last  enormous  sum  represents  exclusively 
the  stakes  of  gamblers  at  the  Produce  Exchange  alone, 
in  a  single  city,  and  on  a  single  agricul- 
tural product,  during  a  period  of  only 
Stock  6am-  three  years.    It  was  also  in  proof  that 
hlins-         tn's  ^?rm  °^  gambling  was  carried  on  in 
J  o'        oats,  in  barley,  and  in  other  cereals,  and 
to  a  very  large  extent  in  pork  and  lard, 
and  in  pretty  much  all  staple  products. 
It  was  also  shown  that  the  amount  thus  staked  upon 
the  course  of  the  market  in  Milwaukee  was  fully  as 
much  as,  and  in  Chicago  was  probably  double,  the 
amount  staked  in  New   York.     \Vhen  to  this  we  add 
the  sums  staked  upon  the  fluctuations  of  the  market  at 
the  Stock,  Cotton,  Mining,  and  other  exchanges,  we 
find  that  the  amount  bought  and  sold  on  an  average 
every  three  years  will  fall  but  a  little,  if  at  all,  short  of 
the  assessed  value  of  the  entire  property  of  the  nation. 
.  .  .  Fifty-two  million  bales  of  cotton  were  dealt  in  on 
the  New  York  L/xchange  during  the  cotton  season  of 
1892,  and  16,000,000  bales  on  the  New  Orleans  Exchange — 
68,000,000  in  all ;  while  only  7,750,000  bales  were  grown  in 
the  entire  country,  and  of  these  only  419,000  bales  were 
shipped  to  New  York." 

It  is  not  difficult  to  see  that  this  is  gambling. 
One  may,  however,  go  farther.  It  is  not  easy 
to  draw  the  line  between  such  stock  gambling 
and  speculation  in  real  estate,  or  even  in  ordi- 
nary business.  Says  a  tract  on  Success  in  Specu- 
lation, published  by  a  Chicago  "  stock  ex- 
change" : 

"A  speculator  has  been  defined  as  '  one  who  buys 
securities  or  commodities  for  other  than  investment 

Eurposes.'  That  is  to  say,  a  person  who  has  reason  to 
elieve  that  a  particular  stock  is  worth  more  money 
than  its  current  price  in  the  open  market,  and  who 
buys  the  same  not  to  hold  for  the  income  it  may  bring, 
in  the  shape  of  dividends,  etc.,  but  to  sell  out  at  the 
first  opportunity  which  presents  a  satisfactory  profit. 
The  authority  quoted  adds  that  the  definition  applies 
the  same,  whether  the  stock  is  bought  outright  or  on 
a  margin.  It  is  not  easy  to  see  why  a  dealer  in  real 
estate,  who  is  not  an  investor,  is  not  a  speculator,  un- 
der the  same  rule  ;  or  the  shipper  of  potatoes,  who 
gets  his  draft,  made  against  his  consignment  on  the 
Chicago  market  commission  house,  discounted  at  the 
local  bank  in  Iowa  ;  or  the  jobber  in  Fall  River  prints, 
who  buys  by  the  car  load  to  anticipate  an  advance  of 
one  sixteenth  of  a  cent  in  the  market.  But  the  country 
has  said  that  the  dealer  in  stocks  and  grain  and  pro- 
visions, no  matter  how  sharp  and  conservative  a  trader 
he  may  be,  is  a  speculator." 

In  the  article  quoted  above,  Mr.  Bigelow  con- 
cludes that  gambling  is  a  moral  rather  than  a 
political  disorder,  tho  government  can  do  some- 
thing. He  says  : 

"It  should  lay  its  heavy  hand  upon  all  who  make  it 
their  business  or  calling  to  provide  houses,  tables, 
dens,  or  any  facilities  for  gaming  from  which  they  are 
to  derive  a  revenue.  In  the  exercise  of  such  a  power 
the  legislature  would  be  little  likely  to  interfere  with 
the  proper  liberty  of  the  individual,  and  pretty  certain 
to  discourage  to  a  very  considerable  extent  the  vice 
that  now  goes  by  the  name  of  gambling,  by  rendering 
its  instruments  criminal  and  infamous.  Such  a  law 
might  in  some  degree,  substantially  perhaps,  reen- 
force  those  reformers  who  are  endeavoring  to  avail 
themselves  of  loftier  agencies  to  extinguish  the  incli- 
nation to  gamble.  The  proper  and  only  radical  cure 
is  to  educate  people  to  be  ashamed  to  prey  upon  each 
other  in  this  way  ;  but  a  law-making  criminal  all  who 
live  by  facilitating  and  encouraging  others  in  the  vice 
may  prove  an  important  ally  of  the  pulpit  and  the 
press  in  resisting  the  spread  of  the  most  demoralizing 
of  all  demoralizing  propensities.1'  (See  LOTTERIES.) 

References  •  Article  by  John  Bigelow,  Harper's 
Monthly,  February,  1895  <  a  symposium  on  gambling 
and  speculation  in  The  Arena  for  February,  1895,  with 
a  bibliography. 

GARNIER,  JOSEPH,  was  born  at  Beuil, 
France,  in  1813  Studying  at  the  Ecole  supe- 
rteure  du  commerce,  he  became  protessor  and 


then  director  of  the  school,  and  in  1846  Profes- 
sor of  Political  Economy  in  the  Ecole  des  ponts 
et  chausse'es.  Of  the  school  of  laissez  fatre, 
he  was  one  of  the  founders,  in  1842,  of  the  So~ 
ci^te1  d' economic  politique  ;  and  in  1846  of  the 
Association  pour  la  liber  te"  des  echanges.  He 
helped  establish  and  long  edited  'Cue  Journal 
des  Economistes,  and  also  the  Annuaire  de 
l'e"conomie  politique.  His  Traitd  de  I'e'con- 
omie  politique  passed  through  many  editions, 
as  also  his  work  on  finance.  He  died  in  1881. 

GARRISON,    WILLIAM    LLOYD,   was 

born  in  Newburyport,  Mass.,  December  10, 1805. 
His  father  was  a  sea  captain  of  some  ability, 
but  falling  into  irregular  habits,  he  deserted  his 
wife,  and  Garrison,  when  only  nine  years  old, 
was  apprenticed  to  a  shoemaker,  and  afterward 
to  a  cabinet-maker.  At  13  years  of  age  he  was 
apprenticed  to  the  printer  of  the  Newburyport 
Herald.  At  the  age  of  16  he  began  to  write 
unsigned  articles  for  the  papers,  and  soon  be- 
came editor  of  the  Herald.  Remoying  to  Bos- 
ton, he  worked  for  a  time  as  a  journeyman 
printer,  and  became  editor,  in  1828,  of  the  Na- 
tional Philanthropist,  the  first  American  jour- 
nal established  to  promote  total  abstinence. 
This  he  conducted  for  six  months,  and  then,  in 
the  fall  of  1828,  went  to  Bennington,  Vt.,  to  es- 
tablish the  Joiirnal  of  the  Times. 

While  in  Boston  he  met  with  Benjamin  Lun- 
dy,  a  Quaker  philanthropist,  who  was  editor  of 
a  small  magazine  named  the  Genius  of  Uni- 
versal Emancipation,  published  in  Baltimore. 
He  resolved  to  ask  Garrison  to  aid  him,  and  for 
that  purpose  walked  from  Baltimore  to  Ben- 
nington.  He  succeeded  ;  and  Garrison  deter- 
mined to  devote  his  life  to  this  work.  From 
1829  the  paper  was  published  weekly  by  Lundy 
and  Garrison — Lundy  favoring  gradual  and 
Garrison  immediate  emancipation.  Baltimore 
was  one  of  the  chief  markets  of  the  domestic 
slave  trade,  and  Garrison  thundered  prophetic 
denunciations  at  the  traffic.  The  owner  of  a 
Newburyport  vessel  had  allowed  his  vessel  to 
carry  a  cargo  of  slaves  from  Baltimore  to  New 
Orleans  ;  and  for  denouncing  this  act  Garrison 
was  arrested  and  fined  $50  and  costs.  In  de- 
fault of  payment  he  was  committed  to  jail.  His 
imprisonment  created  much  indignant  com- 
ment. Arthur  Tappan,  a  New  York  merchant, 
paid  his  fine,  and  lie  was  set  free.  In  order  to 
speak  more  freely,  he  dissolved  partnership  with 
Lundy,  and  started  a  paper  of  his  own  in  Bos- 
ton. Before  commencing  its  publication  he  pri- 
vately interviewed  some  of  the  leading  citizens, 
merchants,  politicians,  and  ministers  ;  but  they 
all  excused  themselves.  He  and  his  brave  part- 
ner, Isaac  Knapp,  issued  the  first  number  of 
The  Liberator  on  January  i.  1831.  It  began 
without  capital  and  without  subscribers,  its  edi- 
tors publishing  their  resolve  to  print  it  "as 
long  as  they  could  subsist  on  bread  and  water." 
Its  motto  was,  "  Our  country  is  the  world  ;  our 
countrymen  are  mankind  ;"  and  Garrison,  in 
his  address  to  the  public,  uttered  the  historic  , 
words  which  embody  the  whole  spirit  and  pur-  7 
pose  of  his  life  :  "  I  am  in  earnest ;  I  will  not  t 
equivocate  ;  I  will  not  excuse  ;  I  will  not  retreat  \ 
a  single  inch;  and  I  will  be  heard."  Such  a  » 
spirit  could  not  but  bring  triumph  in  the  end,  j 


Garrison,  William  Lloyd. 


649 


Gas. 


and  the  paper  lived  long  enough  to  publish  the 
proclamation  of  emancipation  and  the  extinc- 
tion of  slavery.  But  Garrison  and  his  partner 
met  every  opposition.  Their  office  was  a  gar- 
ret, their  bed  its  floor,  and  their  only  helper  was 
a  negro  boy.  The  mail  frequently  brought  let- 
ters to  Garrison  threatening  his  assassination  if 
he  did  not  discontinue  his  journal  ;  while  the 
Legislature  of  Georgia  offered  $5000  to  any  one 
who  should  arrest,  bring  to  trial,  and  prosecute 
him.  The  first  society  organized  to  support  his 
principles  was  the  New  England  Anti-Slavery 
Society,  formed  January,  1832.  In  the  spring 
of  the  same  year  Garrison  published  Thoughts 
on  African  Colonization,  proving  by  official 
documents  that  the  American  Colonization  So- 
ciety was  organized  in  the  interests  of  slavery. 
Garrison  was  soon  after  deputed  to  visit  Eng- 
land and  expose  the  true  character  of  this  colo- 
nization society,  as  its  agents  had  been  success- 
ful in  deceiving  some  of  the  English  abolition- 
ists. He  spent  the  summer  of  1833  in  Eng- 
land, and  was  warmly  received,  becoming  ac- 
quainted with  Wilberforce,  Clarkson,  Brougham, 
O'Connell,  Thompson,  and  others. 

The  success  of  his  mission  brought  fresh  out- 
bursts of  rage  and  hate  from  the  American 
slavery  defenders.  Thompson  'came  over  to 
America  to  address  meetings.  Wherever  he 
appeared  it  was  the  signal  for  riots  and  vio- 
lence. In  Boston  ' '  a  mob  of  gentlemen  of  prop- 
erty and  standing,"  when  they  heard  that 
Thompson  was  about  to  address  the  Women's 
Anti-Slavery  Society  of  that  city,  turned  the 
streets  into  a  bedlam.  Garrison  fell  into  their 
hands  ;  and,  throwing  a  rope  around  his  body, 
they  dragged  him  through  the  streets.  In  all 
probability  he  would  have  been  hung  by  the 
mob  had  he  not  been  rescued  and  consigned  to 
the  jail  for  safety.  These  attempts  to  suppress 
the  abolitionists  by  violence  continued  several 
years,  but  Garrison  was  never  daunted.  There 
was  no  schism  in  the  body  of  abolitionists  until 
1839,  when  some  of  the  adherents  began  to  ac- 
cuse Garrison  of  religious  heterodoxy  and  to 
blame  him  for  his  severity  on  the  churches  for 
their  moral  stagnancy  and  complicity  with  sla- 
very. Garrison  was  a  non-resistant,  and  be- 
lieved in  the  use  of  moral  rather  than  political 
means.  Those  who  differed  from  him  formed 
a  new  National  Anti-Slavery  Society  in  1840, 
and  gave  rise  to  the  Liberty  Party  in  politics. 
Garrison's  mind  was  never  narrowed  by  its  in- 
tensity, however  ;  and  he  always  esteemed  and 
honored  every  earnest  opponent  of  slavery,  even 
tho  their  special  modes  of  working  differed. 
He  was  intolerant  only  of  treachery.  After 
long  and  painful  consideration  he  realized  that 
the  pro-slavery  clauses  of  the  United  States 
Constitution  were  immoral,  and  that  it  was 
wrong  to  take  an  oath  for  its  support.  "  No 
union  with  slave-holders"  was  his  motto  ;  and 
he  prophetically  denounced  the  Constitution  as 
"  a  covenant  with  death  and  an  agreement  with 
hell."  Arguments  and  exposures  buttressed 
his  denunciations.  The  blind  and  idolatrous 
reverence  of  the  Constitution,  which  had  been 
the  political  mainstay  of  the  slave-holders, 
began  to  abate.  The  Fugitive  Slave  Law  re- 
vealed to  all  the  practical  workings  of  the  pro- 
slavery  clauses.  On  the  outbreak  of  the  war, 


Garrison  at  once  ceased  advocating  disunion,  as 
he  foresaw  that  in  the  struggle  slavery  would 
be  abolished.  During  the  war  Lincoln  recog- 
nized and  honored  his  services  ;  and  the  whole 
nation  knew  that  if  emancipation  were  secured, 
it  would  be  due  to  his  uncompromising  spirit 
and  heroic  perseverance.  In  1865,  when  lib- 
erty had  been  proclaimed,  he  declared  that  his 
career  as  an  abolitionist  was  necessarily  ended, 
discontinued  the  Liberator,  and  counseled  the 
dissolution  of  the  Anti-Slavery  Society.  Garri- 
son had  revisited  England  in  1840  and  1846.  In 
1867  he  again  crossed  the  Atlantic,  and  was  re- 
ceived with  great  honor  in  London,  Edinburgh, 
and  other  cities.  He  made  a  fifth  and  final 
visit  in  1877.  On  May  24,  1879,  he  died  in  New 
York,  and  was  buried  in  Boston  after  a  most 
impressive  funeral  service.  In  1852  selections 
from  his  writings  and  speeches  were  published, 
and  since  his  death  his  life  has  been  published 
by  his  sons  in  four  large  octavo  volumes.  Gar- 
rison never  sought  emancipation  by  means  of 
war.  He  believed  that  under  sufficient  moral 
pressure  the  South  would  voluntarily  release 
her  bondmen.  If  his  counsel  had  been  heeded, 
no  retributive  war  would  have  followed  ;  but 
the  people  of  his  time  were  not  wise  unto  salva- 
tion. The  mercantile  spirit  was  too  strong  to- 
bear  the  thought  of  financial  sacrifice,  and  the" 
war  brought  what  Garrison  saw  come  as  ' '  the 
child  of  force  and  blood. ' ' 

GAS,  MUNICIPAL,  IN  THE  UNITED 
STATES. — The  following  American  cities  own 
their  gas-works  : 


CITIES. 

Date  of 
Beginning 
Owner- 
ship. 

Population  hi 
1890. 

Philadelphia,  Pa  

1841 

1060 

1852 

81,388 

Alexandria,  Va  

1853 

Henderson,  Ky  

1867 

8,8^ 

Wheeling,  W.  Va  

1870 

Bellefontaine,  O  

1873 

Danville,  Va.  .  .  .  ,  

1876 

4,230 

Charlottesville,  Va  

1876 

1890 

Fredericksburg,  Va    

i8gi 

4,528 

1894 

Wakefield,  Mass  

1894 

6,982 

No  data  are  at  hand  regarding  the  last  two 
towns.  Altho  flattering  offers  have  been  made 
by  private  companies  that  desired  to  buy  out 
these  public-owned  works,  only  one  city  has 
ever  yielded — Frankfort,  Ky. — many  years  ago. 
Even  in  that  city  the  sale  was  not  very  popular, 
and  a  considerable  party  is  now  rising  there 
favorable  to  a  resumption  of  city  ownership. 

There  are  many  indications  that  a  popular 
vote  would  endorse  city  management  of  gas 
works  in  scores  of  cities,  but  legislative  bodies, 
city  charters,  and  even  in  some  cases,  perhaps 
State  constitutions,  prevent  any  expression  of 
the  will  of  the  people.  In  Massachusetts  many 
prominent  citizens  have  expressed  themselves, 
as  ready  to  vote  for  city  ownership  as  soon  as 
the  law  is  so  changed  as  to  enable  cities  to  buy 


Gas, 


650 


Gas. 


out  existing  plants  at  their  actual  cost  less  de- 
preciation, A  step  was  taken  in  that  direction 
in  1893,  when  the  law  was  so  changed  that  the 
adjudicators  that  are  appointed  by  the  Supreme 
Court  of  the  State  in  every  such 
case  were  freed  from  the  previous 

Legality,  necessity  of  allowing  for  "  the  earn- 
ing capacity  of  such  plant  based 
upon  the  actual  earnings  being  de- 
rived from  such  use  at  the  time  of  the  final  vote 
of  such  city  or  town  to  establish  a  plant." 
Neither  is  the  court,  even  according  to  the  act 
of  1891,  to  consider  the  "enhancement  of  future 
earning  capacity  or  good  will  or  of  exclusive 
privileges  derived  from  rights  in  the  public 
streets  ;"  but  until  it  is  expressly  forbidden, 
the  court  or  its  agent  may  value  the  plant 
higher  than  its  cost  less  all  forms  of  deprecia- 
tion. 

The  law-makers  of  Massachusetts  have  tied 
up  matters  in  a  way  to  make  the  beginning  of 
city  ownership  unusually  difficult.  The  people 
are  not  allowed  to  vote  on  the  question  at  all 
until  each  branch  of  the  city  council — and  two 
branches  are  common  in  Massachusetts — has 
approved  of  city  ownership  by  a  two-thirds  vote 
in  each  of  two  consecutive  years.  The  mayor 
must  then  ratify.  If  he  refuses,  another  two- 
thirds  majority  in  the  same  city  council  must  be 
secured.  Then  a  majority  of  the  people  voting 
thereon  at  an  annual  election  must  approve.  If 
they  vote  "  no,"  then  no  similar  vote  can  be 
taken  by  the  people  for  three  years. 

Another  reason  for  the  slow  growth  of  munic- 
ipal gas,  as  contrasted  with  the  rapid  growth 
of  municipal  electric  light,  tho  the  former  is 
more  profitable,  is  that  the  latter  has  largely 
driven  out  gas  for  street  lighting,  and  the  Amer- 
ican people  have  not  yet  seen,  as  have  the  Ger- 
mans, that  as  long  as  the  gas  business  is  a  mo- 
nopoly and  of  vital  importance  to  the  private 
consumer,  the  city  as  a  corporate  body  has  as 
much  interest  in  the  business  as  in  the  lighting 
of  its  streets  and  parks.  Then,  again,  the  com- 
petition between  electric  light  construction  com- 
panies is  keener  than  between  the  makers  of  gas 
apparatus.  The  former,  therefore,  in  order  to 
get  business,  have  sometimes  encouraged  city 
ownership,  while  the  latter  companies  have 
found  it  to  their  interest  to  discourage  the 
same. 

In  1894,  the  last  year  for  which  full  returns 
are  at  hand,  the  only  Virginia  cities  selling  gas 
as  low  as  $i  were  Charlottesville,  Danville,  and 
Richmond,  which  own  their  works.  Henderson 
was  the  only  city  in  Kentucky  with  $i  gas  ;  and 
the  lowest  price  in  West  Virginia  was  75  cents, 
at  Wheeling.  Two  of  the  nine  Ohio  cities  fur- 
nishing gas  at  $i  or  less  were  Hamilton  and 
Belief  on  taine,  the  two  having  city  ownership. 
Most  of  the  other  seven  were  very  much  larger 
places,  such  as  Cincinnati,  Cleveland,  Colum- 
bus, ani  Toledo. 

The  Philadelphia  gas-works,  erected  by  a  pri- 
vate company  in  1835,  and  purchased  by  the  city 
in  1841,  had  been  entirely  paid  for  from  net 
profits  by  1890,  barring  a  net  debt  of  $1,300,- 
ooo.  The  net  earnings  since  then,  to  say  noth- 
ing of  the  value  of  the  gas  used  in  the  street 
lamps  and  public  buildings,  have  far  more  than 
-equaled  this  balance  of  debt.  For  many  years 


prior  to  1887  the  gas-works  were  corruptly  and 
wastefully  managed  by  a  body  of  trustees  that, 
through  an  unfortunate  provision 
of  law,  could  not  be  investigated 
and  controlled  by  the  city  council  Philadelphia 
that  appointed  them.     Yet,  despite  Gas- Works. 
all  this,  there  was  but  one  year 
(1886)  of  this   56  years  when  the 
price  of  gas  was  not  materially  lower  in  Phila- 
delphia than  in  New  York  City,  where,  at  the 
end  of  the  time,  the  city  could  not  boast,  as 
could  Philadelphia,  of  free  public  gas  and  of  a 
property  almost  free  of  debt,  for  which  $20,000,- 
ooo  was  offered  in  1896.     The  scandals  of  pri- 
vate-owned gas-works  in  New  York  City  and  of 
private-owned  street  railways  in  both  Philadel- 
phia and  New  York  have  equalled  or  exceeded 
any  connected  with  the  Philadelphia  Gas  Trust 
prior  to  1887.     Since  April,  1887,  the  people  of 
Philadelphia  have  enjoyed  a  new  city  charter, 
placing  power  in  gas  matters  in  a  single  and  re- 
sponsible head.     Civil  service  reform  has  made 
considerable  progress,  and    the  worst  abuses 
have  disappeared. 

The  great  trouble  now  is  the  unwillingness  of 
the  city  council  to  appropriate  sufficient  money 
to  enable  the  gas  department  to  improve  its  dis- 
tributing system,  and  thus  reduce  by  one  half 
its  leakage,  amounting  in  1895  to  22  per  cent. 
The  council  also  refuses  to  appropriate  money 
for  improving  the  manufacturing  department. 
The  city  is  thereby  forced  to  buy  about  40  per 
cent,  or  its  gas  at  37  cents  per  1000  ft.  in  the 
holder  from  a  private  water  gas  company,  and 
to  make  the  rest,  which  is  coal  gas,  at  somewhat 
higher  cost  than  would  be  necessary  with  a  bet- 
ter plant.  A  leading  gas  journal,  devoted  to 
private  ownership,  editorially  intimates  that  this 
hesitation  of  the  council  to  improve  the  city 
plant  is  due  to  its  conviction  that  more  is  to  be 
made  by  its  members  through  wrecking  the  city 
plant  and  then  selling  it  to  the  private  company 
that  supplies  the  water  gas,  than  by  improving 
the  city  gas.  The  Philadelphia  experience  gives 
a  warning  against  a  mixed  public  and  private 
ownership.  Because  of  the  admission  of  this 
private  manufacturing  plant  in  1887,  with  all 
the  temptations  incident  thereto,  at  a  time 
\yhen  the  city  was  prevented  by  constitutional 
limitations  from  incurring  a  debt  to  enlarge  its 
plant,  Philadelphia  is  hardly  a  fair  sample  of 
city  ownership. 

Notwithstanding  all  these  drawbacks,  the 
city,  during  the  six  years  1888-93  inclusive,  not 
only  added  $2,497,059.04  of  extensions  to  a  plant 
whose  cost,  less  all  depreciation,  was  under 
$6,200,000  in  1888,  but  it  secured  a  net  cash  re- 
turn of  $872,005.52  a  year.  It  would  have  been 
about  $272,000  a  year  if  the  gas  had  been  sold 
during  those  years  at  the  New  York  price  of 
$1.25  instead  of  at  $1.50.  In  addition  to  this,  the 
city  secured  free  an  average  yearly  amount  for 
public  use  of  573,895,400  ft.  This,  at  $i  per 
looo  ft.,  which  was  as  low  as  the  price  charged 
New  York  City,  amounted  to  $573, 895. 40  a  year. 
Thus,  the  city,  even  on  the  basis  of  $1.25  to  pri- 
vate consumers  and  $i  to  itself,  earned  during 
1888-93  $845,895.403  year,  besides  $416,176.50  a 
year  for  extensions.  In  1894,  when  the  price 
of  gas  to  private  consumers  was  reduced  from 
$1.50  to  $i,  Philadelphia,  after  allowing  for  ex- 


Gas. 


651 


Gas. 


tensions  and  the  value  at  $i  of  the  public  used 
gas,  had  a  surplus  of  somewhat  over  $400,000. 
In  1895  it  was  $808,936.62,  or  fully  10  per  cent, 
on  the  cost  of  the  plant,  less  depreciation.  If 
the  city  council  would  make  the  moderate  im- 
provements necessary  to  reduce  the  leakage 
from  19.78  per  cent,  of  the  4,422,752,000  ft. 
made  in  the  holder  to  10  per  cent.,  the  saving 
in  gas  would  soon  pay  for  the  cost. 

Richmond,  Va.,  like  Philadelphia  and  many 
of  the  best  private  plants,  has  a  combined  coal 
and  water  gas  plant,  but,  unlike 
Philadelphia,  Richmond  owns  the 
Other  Cities,  entire  system.  With  a  leakage  in 
1895  of  12.5  per  cent.,  it  distributed 
at  the  burner  182,817,003  cub.  ft.  of 
gas  at  a  net  cost,  as  in  1894,  of  about  70  cents, 
or,  including  extensions,  about  78  cents.  The 
plant  being  paid  for,  the  city  sells  at  $i,  and  se- 
cures a  net  return  of  about  22  cents.  Coal  is  $3 
a  ton,  and  the  oil  used  is  4  cents  a  gallon.  In  1895 
an  investigation  disclosed  some  shortage  in  the 
accounts  and  a  few  suspicious  contracts,  but 
more  rigid  accounting  is  now  in  vogue.  The 
labor  force  seems  a  little  too  large  ;  and  it  is 
not  clear  that  the  works  have  secured  the  best 
apparatus  as  in  Philadelphia  :  but  on  the  whole 
the  people  of  Richmond  believe  that  they  have 
fared  much  better  than  they  would  have  done 
from  a  private  company. 

Alexandria,  Va.,  is  selling  gas  for  $1.33,  and 
has  devoted  most  of  the  net  revenue  the  last 
three  years  to  improving  the  plant.  No  scan- 
dals seem  to  have  been  connected  with  this  or 
the  other  public  Virginia  gas-works  considered 
below.  Altho  progressiveness  is  not  characteris- 
tic of  Alexandria,  with  its  grass-grown  streets,  or 
of  some  of  the  other  gas-owning  cities,  more  pro- 
gressiveness attaches  to  their  gas-works  than  to 
many  other  departments  of  their  administration. 
Henderson,  Ky. ,  has  had  success  with  her  gas- 
works, and  has  sold  gas  since  early  in  1894  for 
$i.  As  she  remodeled  her  works  in  1895-96, 
late  returns  are  unavailable. 

Wheeling,  W.  Va.,  during  1895-96  has  some- 
what improved  her  plant.  With  about  100,000,- 
ooo  ft.  yearly  used  in  the  burner,  and  with  coal 
about  $1.50  a  ton,  but  coke  only  3  cents  a 
bushel,  Wheeling  for  several  years  has  expend- 
ed from  50  to  70  cents  per  1000  ft.  yearly,  ac- 
cording to  the  amount  spent  on  extensions.  The 
original  cost  of  this,  as  of  all  the  other  old 
plants,  has  been  paid  for  out  of  net  earn- 
ings. 

The  next  city  to  undertake  the  municipal 
ownership,  Bellefontaine,  O.,  has  had  a  success- 
ful history,  free  from  any  grave  abuses.  The 
oil  gas-plant,  tho  only  three  or  four  years  old,  is 
not  proving  economical,  but  permits  of  delivery 
to  the  consumer  at  a  cost  of  60  to  80  cents,  ac- 
cording to  the  amount  spent  on  extensions. 
The  price  is  now  a  little  under  $i.  In  all  state- 
ments of  cost  in  this  article  interest  is  not  in- 
cluded, because  most  of  the  plants  have  no  debt, 
and  so  need  not  earn  interest.  Neither  is  al- 
lowance made  for  depreciation,  since  in  most 
cases  the  extensions,  which  are  here  included 
in  general  expenses,  usually  equal  or  exceed 
the  depreciation.  The  average  taxes  of  the 
private  gas  companies  in  Massachusetts  in  1895 
were  6  cents  per  1000  ft.  sold. 


Danville,  Va.,  has  one  of  the  best-managed 
coal-gas  plants  of  its  size  one  can  easily  find. 
Since  March,  1894,  the  price  of  gas  has  been  $i. 
In  1895,  the  cost  of  gas  delivered  in  the  burner, 
with  coal  over  $4.25  a  ton,  was  68.6  cents,  or, 
including  extensions  and  improvements,  85.7 
cents. 

Charlottes ville,  Va. ,  has  another  equally  well- 
managed  plant,  where  the  cost  in  1895,  when 
there  were  no  extensions,  was  59.4  cents.  Coal 
costs  $3.75  a  ton. 

Hamilton,  O. ,  has  an  excellent  coal-gas  plant, 
to  which  it  added  in  1893  an  oil-gas  plant.  In 
view  of  the  rise  in  the  price  of  oil  and  the  char- 
acter of  this  particular  oil-gas  plant,  its  intro- 
duction has  proven  somewhat  of  a  mistake.  A 
water-gas  plant  would  have  been  better  as  a 
supplement  to  the  coal-gas  plant.  The  works 
appear  to  be  well  managed,  and  in  1895,  with 
coal  at  $2.85,  oil  at  2.4  cents  a  gallon,  and  coke 
at  6  cents  a  bushel,  put  gas  in  the  burner  for 
61.5  cents,  aside  from  10.3  cents  for  extensions. 
Altho  the  price  will  apparently  have  to  be  $i,  if 
it  is  proposed  to  cover  interest  on  the  large  part 
of  the  plant  still  unpaid  for,  the  price  was  re- 
duced to  80  cents  in  November,  1895.  The  peo- 
ple were  paying  $2  to  a  private  company  prior 
to  the  construction  of  the  city's  plant  in  1890. 
As  the  old  company  refused  to  sell,  the  city 
erected  its  own  plant,  after  a  fierce  opposition 
in  the  courts,  and  now  enjoys  the  larger  portion 
of  the  people's  patronage. 

In  Fredericksburg,  Va. ,  the  people  were  pay- 
ing $3  Per  IOO°  ft-  in  J89i  to  a  private  company. 
In  1895  the  price  of  the  public-made  coal  gas 
was  $1.50,  and  the  cost  70  cents,  besides  60 
cents  for  extensions  and  improvements. 

Repeated  visits  to  these  10  gas-owning  cities 
lead  to  several  conclusions — viz.  : 

1.  The  satisfaction  of  the  people  with  city 
ownership,  despite  certain  weaknesses  which 
are  being  gradually  removed. 

2.  The  low  price  of  public-made  as  compared 
with  private-made  gas  of  similar  quality  in  cities 
of  the  State  or  vicinity  similarly  situated  as  re- 
spects cost  of  materials,  population,  etc. 

3.  The  cost   of   constructing   first-class  gas- 
works to-day  varies  from  $3  to  $6  per  1000  ft.  of 
yearly  output,  according  to  the  magnitude  and 
density  of  the  population,  the  difficulty  of  lay- 
ing mains,  etc.     The  capitalization  of  private 
gas  companies,  however,  on  which   good  divi- 
dends and  interest  are  paid,  is  frequently  from 
$6  to  $12  per   looo  ft.,  and  is  often  largest  in 
the  largest  cities,  where  it  should  be  lowest. 

4.  When  cities  own  their  gas-works  a  larger 
proportion  of  the  population  use  gas  than  when 
the  works  are  owned  by  private  companies.     In 
1890,  when  we  have  exact  figures  of  population, 
the  average  percentage  of  gas  consumers  of  the 
total  population  in  the  nine  cities  then  owning 
their  gas-works  was  7.1,  while  in  the  10  Massa- 
chusetts cities  where  the  net  price  was  under 
$1.60,  the  percentage  was  only  5.64.     Yet  the 
average  price  in  these  Massachusetts  cities,  be- 
cause of  their  larger  size  and  other  conditions, 
was  about  the  same  as  in  the  public- owned 
cities.     This  same  greater  popularity  of  public 
ownership  among  consumers  has  been  conclu- 
sively proven  in  the  case  of  water. 

5.  Another  conclusion  is,  that  while  Philadel- 


Gas. 


652 


George,  Henry. 


phia,  Wheeling,  Alexandria,  and  possibly  one 
or  two  others  of  the  12  gas -owning  cities,  are 
not    as    progressive  or  free  from 
political  abuses  as  they  should  be, 
Development,  yet  the  gas-works  even  here  are  as 
well  managed  as  the  streets  or  other 
public    works,    and    more    advan- 
tageous to  the  people  in  the  matter  of  price  or 
net  revenue,  and  usually  both,  than  the  private- 
owned  street  railways  in  those  cities  or  the  gas 
works  in   neighboring  cities.     A  still  greater 
superiority  of  public  ownership  is  likely  when 
tried  in  such  States  as  Massachusetts,  where 
efficient  city  government  in  all  directions  is  more 
common. 

In  the  history  of  even  the  cities  now  owning 
their  gas  works,  few  changes  of  superintendents 
are  recorded.  These  cities  have  realized  far 
more  than  generally  supposed  that  it  would  not 
do  to  change  skilled  engineers  every  time  poli- 
tics change.  Superintendent  William  Cannings 
held  his  office  at  Henderson,  Ky.,  from  the  be- 
ginning of  direct  city  operation  in  1882  until  his 
death  in  1894.  In  1891,  the  Superintendent  of 
the  Alexandria,  Va.,  gas-works  died  after  30 
years  of  service.  Superintendent  W.  C.  Adams, 
of  Richmond,  Va.,  held  his  office  from  1886 
until  his  death  in  1895,  ;  ->.d  for  16  years  before 
that  had  been  assistant  superintendent.  At 
Wheeling,  Mr.  S.  M.  Darrah  had  charge  from 
1884  to  1896,  except  from  1886  to  1888,  when 
the  former  superintendent  was  temporarily 
restored.  Captain  C.  A.  Ballon  has  been  city 
engineer  and  chief  of  the  Danville,  Va.,  gas- 
works for  21  years  ;  and  in  Charlottesville,  Va. , 
Superintendent  J.  T.  Williams  has  had  charge 
since  the  city  bought  the  works  in  1876.  The 
chief  engineer  and  real  head  of  the  Philadel- 
phia gas  department  has  held  his  place  about 
30  years,  altho  formerly  much  more  handi- 
capped in  the  choice  of  efficient  non-partisan 
subordinates  than  at  present. 

EDWARD  W.  BEMIS. 

For  European  conditions,  see  BERLIN;  BIRMING- 
HAM ;  GLASGOW  ;  LONDON  ;  PARIS.  See  also 
MUNICIPALISM. 

References :  Municipal  Ownership  of  Gas  in  the 
United  States,  by  Edward  W.  Bemis,  in  publications  of 
American  Economic  Association,  vol.  vi.,  Nos.  4  and 
5  (Macmillan  &  Co.)  j  Review  of  Reviews,  February, 
1893,  article  by  Bemis,  Recent  Results  of  Municipal 
Gas  Making  in  the  United  States  ;  Annual  printed  Re- 
ports of  the  Philadelphia,  Richmond,  and  Danville 
plants  ;  Light,  Heat,  and  Power,  July,  1894  (Phila- 
delphia) ;  article  by  W.  W.  Goodwin,  Some  Reasons 
Why  Philadelphia  Should  Retain  Its  Gas-  Works. 

GEORGE,  HENRY,  was  born  in  Philadel- 
phia in  1839.  He  began  business  life  as  an 
office  boy,  but  later  went  to  sea  and  visited 
every  part  of  the  globe.  Returning  to  Phila- 
delphia as  a  printer,  he  soon  went  to  sea  again, 
but  finally  went  to  California  and  became  com- 
positor, reporter,  then  a  successful  journalist. 
In  1871  he  joined  with  two  others  in  founding 
the  San  Francisco  Post ;  but  his  mind  was  now 
occupied  with  the  social  problem  of  the  distri- 
bution of  wealth.  His  first  economic  publica- 
tion was  Our  Land  and  Land  Policy  (1871). 
Four  years  later  he  retired  from  editorial  work, 
but  he  continued  to  write  for  the  newspapers. 
His  principal  work,  Progress  and  Poverty 


(commenced  in  1877  and  finished  in  1879),  at- 
tracted attention  immediately  upon  its  publica- 
tion, and  still  more  when  republished  in  Eu- 
rope. It  has  been  translated  into  several  lan- 
guages, and  has  been  discussed  by  political 
economists  and  social  philosophers  of  all  schools, 
Its  main  doctrine  is  that  "  nothing  short  of 
making  land  common  property  can  permanent- 
ly relieve  poverty  and  check  the  tendency  of 
wages  to  the  starvation  point,"  and  that  the 
best,  easiest,  and  quickest  way  to  make  land 
common  is  not  to  do  it  technically,  but  leaving 
all  land  titles  in  individual  ownership,  to  tax 
the  land  ultimately  to  its  full  annual  rent- 
al value  ;  thus  without  revolutionary  methods, 
gradually  appropriating  to  society  for  the  good 
of  all  the  full  rental  value  of  the  soil.  This, 
Mr.  George  believes,  could  be  and  should  be  a 
single  tax  {q.v.}. 

In  1 880  the  agitation  of  the  land  question  in 
Ireland  led  him  to  publish  a  book  on  The  Irish 
Land  Question,  embodying  his  views,  and  in 
1 88 1  Mr.  George  went  to  Ireland  as  a  newspa- 
per correspondent  to  examine  the  actual  condi- 
tion of  the  peasantry,  and  was  imprisoned  for  a 
time  as  a  suspect,  but  afterward  released  with 
ample  apologies.  The  Irish  Nationalists,  how- 
ever, as  a  class  did  not  embrace  his  ideas,  and 
in  1883  Mr.  George  visited  England  and  lec- 
tured in  the  principal  cities,  advocating  the  the- 
ory advanced  in  his  book  and  eliciting  universal 
attention. 

Returning  to  this  country,  Mr.  George  found 
his  influence  very  much  increased  and  his  ideas 
widely  spreading,  particularly  in  New  York 
City.  In  1886  he  was  nominated  Mayor  of  New 
York  City  by  the  United  Labor  Party,  and  after 
a  campaign  of  intense  popular  excitement  he 
received  the  phenomenal  vote  of  68, no  ballots, 
being  only  defeated  by  the  Democratic  candi- 
date. In  this  municipal  campaign  Mr.  George 
had  been  enthusiastically  supported  by  the  New 
York  socialists  ;  but  when,  in  the  State  Con- 
vention at  Albany'  of  the  United  Labor  Party, 
which  nominated  him  for  governor  in  1887,  Mr. 
George  saw  fit  to  declare  distinctly  against  so- 
cialism and  for  a  single  tax,  based  largely  on 
individualistic  ideas,  the  socialists  opposed  him, 
and  have  ever  since  denounced  him.  Mean- 
while, the  educational  movement  had  been  go- 
ing on  ;  but  in  the  State  election  Mr.  George 
polled  but  a  small  vote.  At  the  beginning  of 
the  year  he  had  started  a  weekly  organ,  the 
Standard,  which  attained  a  large  circulation  ; 
and  the  coming  out  for  his  ideas  of  Father  Mc- 
Glynn  (g.v.),  a  popular  Roman  Catholic  priest  of 
a  large  New  York  City  parish,  in  spite  of  the  op- 
position of  the  archbishop,  created  great  excite- 
ment, and  a  religious  society  was  organized  to 
develop  the  religious  side  of  the  question,  called 
the  Anti- Poverty  Society  (q.v.).  Meanwhile, 
Mr.  George  lectured  to  immense  audiences  all 
over  this  country  and  in  Canada,  England,. 
Scotland,  and  Australia,  while  his  ideas  pene- 
trated Germany  and  France.  Mr.  George,  how- 
ever, came  to  feel  more  and  more  that  to  put 
his  ideas  into  practical  execution,  the  first  thing 
necessary  was  to  clear  the  ground  by  repealing 
other  taxes,  and,  first  of  all,  what  he  regarded 
as  the  great  imposition  of  the  tariff.  He  wrote, 
therefore,  his  book  on  Free  Trade,  one  of  his. 


George,  Henry. 


653 


Germany  and  Social  Reform. 


ablest  efforts,  and  worked  henceforth  with  the 
Democratic  Party,  in  the  hope  of  inducing  them 
eventually,  if  not  at  first,  to  stand  for  absolute 
free  trade.  Many  have  felt  that  his  ideas  should 
be  realized  in  connection  with  socialistic  and 
nationalistic  ideas  rather  than  individualis- 
tic, and  while  not  renouncing  his  ideas,  he 
should  have  gone  over  to  the  growing  People's 
Party  and  nationalistic  movement  in  this 
country.  The  Standard  was  given  up  by  Mr. 
George  in  1890.  Since  then  he  has  lived  in 
comparative  retirement,  writing  articles,  notably 
Ttie  Condition  of  Labor,  a  letter  to  the  Pope  on 
the  occasion  of  the  papal  encyclical,  and  making 
occasional  addresses. 

GERMANY  AND  SOCIAL  REFORM. 
I.  STATISTICS. 

The  German  Empire,  according  to  its  Consti- 
tution of  April  16,  1871,  is  a  confederation  of 
German  States  (see  FEDERATION)  under  an  Em- 
peror who  has  the  direction  of  political  and  mil- 
itary affairs,  and  can  declare  defensive  war. 
The  legislative  power  is  vested  in  the  Bundes- 
rath  of  58  delegates,  appointed  by  the  States, 
Prussia  having  17  ;  Bavaria,  6  ;  Wiirtemberg 
and  Saxony,  4  each,  and  the  Reichstag.  This 
latter  body  has  397  members  elected  for  five 
years  by  universal  suffrage  (see  FRANCHISE, 
ELECTORAL)  ;  236  represent  Prussia,  48  Bavaria, 
23  Saxony.  The  Emperor  has  no  vote.  The 
population  and  area  of  Germany  in  1895  was 
51,758,364  in  208,670  square  miles. 


STATES. 

Sq. 

Miles. 

Popula- 
tion. 

Popula- 
tion per 
Sq. 
Mile. 

The  Empire  

Bavaria  

Wiirtemberg  

7.^28 

5,821 

289  8 

Saxony  

5,787 

In  1882  the  division  by  occupations  was  as  follows  : 

Agriculture 18,840,818 

Industry  16,058,080 

Commerce 4,531,080 

Professions  2,222,982 

Domestic  and  other  service 938,294 

Forestry,  fishing,  etc 384,637 

With  no  occupation 2,246,222 

The  births  steadily  exceed  the  deaths,  and  the  popu- 
lation grows  in  spite  of  a  large  emigration.  The  cities 
have  grown  with  great  rapidity.  (See  CITIES.) 

Military  service  drives  many  young  men  from  the 
empire,  while  the  support  of  the  army  is  a  crushing 
load.  (See  ARMY.)  The  peace  footing  of  the  army  is 
22,618  officers  and  562,116  men  ;  the  war  footing,  includ- 
ing the  landsturm  and  one-year  volunteers,  is  about 
3,500,000.  The  budget  for  1896  "is  : 

REVENUE. 

Customs  and  excise $156,750,850 

Stamps 13,657,250 

Post  and  telegraph 7,444,720 

Printing-office 368,550 

Railways...   5,793,25° 

Imperial  bank ...  1,795,525 

Department  receipts 2,987,625 

Interest  of  invalid  fund 6,598,425 

"         "  imperial  fund 2,500 

Various 200,000 

Extraordinary 11,594,650 

Federal  contributions 99,000,025 

$306,193,375 


EXPENDITURES. 

Imperial  army $118,053,100 

navy 13.815,375 

treasury 94,727,500 

Debt 18,491,825 

Pension  fund 13,758,700 

Reichstag 162,750 

Chancellery 38,450 

Foreign  office 2,639,125 

Home  office 7,431,400 

Justice 521,350 

Railways 86,725 

Auditing 183,875 

Invalid  fund 6,598,425 

Reform  of  Civil  Service 12,475 

Extraordinary sSiZQJiSS0 


II.  SOCIAL  REFORM. 


$309,812,625 


Social  reform  in  Germany,  as  elsewhere,  is 
affected  by  the  past.  Germany  was  too  full  of 
the  spirit  of  local  freedom  to  develop  a  central- 
ized government,  as  in  France  or  England.  It 
developed  separate  kingdoms  and  States,  only 
loosely  federated  into  an  empire,  coming  down 
from  Charlemagne.  Its  great  free  cities  devel- 
oped art  and  education.  Germany  led  in  the 
battles  of  the  emperors  against  the  Pope  and 
in  the  Protestant  Reformation.  She  became 
the  home  of  theology,  philosophy,  science,  and 
letters.  Her  peasantry  developed  the  Peasants' 
War  (y.v.),  and  also  the  mystic  communism 
(q.v.}  which  has  given  America  her  many  Ger- 
man communities.  The  old  Germanic  empire 
extended  from  800-1806,  when  it  was  destroyed 
by  Napoleon.  Its  place  was  taken  by  the  Con- 
federation of  the  Rhine,  and  in  1866  by  the 
North  German  Federation. 

Modern  German  social  reform  began  with 
Hegel's  socialistic  philosophy  and  Fichte's  so- 
cialistic turning  of  an  individualistic  philoso- 
phy. (See  FICHTE  and  HEGEL.) 

This,  too,~  was  in  accord  with  the  German 
medieval  conception  of  the  Christian  paternal 
state.  (See  BISMARCK.) 

Nevertheless,  in  the  early  part  of  the  nine- 
teenth century,  German  statesmen  and  econo- 
mists drew  their  ideas  mainly  from  England 
and  the   orthodox   economy  of    Adam    Smith. 
Particularly  was  this  true  of  the  Stein-Harden- 
berg    legislation  of    Prussia.     Germany  more 
than  most  countries  of  Europe,  per- 
haps because  of  the  lack  of  a  strong 
centralized    power    to    break    the        Indi- 
power  of  the  old   guilds  and  free   vidualism. 
cities,  was  in  the  control  of  innu- 
merable  special  privileges,  rights, 
and  monopolies,  granted  to  the  old  guilds  and 
cities.     This  mass    of    special    privileges    and 
imposts    had  to  be   done   away   with.     There 
were,  however,  some  early  voices  for  socialism. 
(See  GALL  ;  RODBERTUS,  etc.) 

Such  was  the  condition  of  things  when  the 
revolutions  of  1 848  awoke  Europe. 

In  Prussia,  the  demand  in  1848  was  for  con- 
stitutional government,  freedom  of  religion  and 
of  the  press,  the  right  of  coalition,  etc.,  with  de- 
mands here  and  there  by  the  proletariat  for  the 
organization  of  labor,  State  employment  of  the 
unemployed,  etc.  In  Berlin,  blood  was  shed. 
The  king,  Frederick  William  IV.,  promised  re- 
forms and  the  reorganization  of  Germany.  The 
National  Assembly  was  called  at  Frankfort, 
where  Bismarck  won  his  first  laurels  in  gaining 
the  leadership  for  Prussia. 


Germany  and  Social  Reform. 


654 


Germany  and  Social  Reform. 


The  only  industrial  organizations  effected  im- 
mediately after  the  revolution  were  various 
clubs,  mainly  under  the  patronage  of  the  Lib- 
eral Party,  and  the  cooperative  land  banks  and 
societies,  organized  by  Schulze-Delitzsch.  In 
Berlin,  however,  Lassalle's  utterances  were 
growing  more  radical  ;  and  on  April  12,  1862 — 
sometimes  called  the  birthday  of  German  so- 
cialism—being invited  to  lecture  before  a  work- 
ing man's  club,  he  argued  that  the  Revolution 
of  1848  had  politically  freed  the  fourth  estate, 
even  as  the  French  Revolution  freed  the  third 
estate,  and  that  henceforth  working  men  must 
organize  for  industrial  freedom.  He  was  ar- 
rested and  sentenced  to  imprisonment,  which 
was  later  commuted  to  a  fine.  A  central  com- 
mittee of  working  men's  clubs  in  Leipsic  now 
wrote  Lassalle  calling  on  him  to  outline  a  pol- 
icy ;  and  he  did  so  in  an  open  letter,  which  has 
been  called  the  charter  of  German  socialism. 

Encouraged  by  these  successes,  Lassalle  now 
organized  at  Leipsic,  on  May  23,  1863,  the  Uni- 
versal German  Working  Man's  Association, 
which  was  destined  to  grow  into 
the  Social  Democratic  Party.  Las- 
Socialism,  salle's  program  was  one  of  indus- 
trial organization  for  production 
with  State  help.  Into  this  move- 
ment Lassalle  now  put  all  his  energy.  The 
apathy  of  the  working  men  was  his  chief  obsta- 
cle. He  made  speech  after  speech,  wrote  tract 
after  tract,  held  meeting  after  meeting.  All 
the  time  he  was  fighting  the  courts  in  trial  after 
trial,  defending  himself,  and  usually  winning. 
Berlin,  Leipsic,  Frankfort,  and  the  industrial 
centers  on  the  Rhine  were  the  chief  scenes  of 
his  activity.  His  greatest  success  was  on  the 
Rhine,  where,  in  the  summers  of  1863  and  1864, 
his  travels  as  missionary  of  the  new  gospel  re- 
sembled a  triumphal  procession.  He  claimed 
that  he  had  converted  the  king,  Bismarck,  and 
the  Bishop  of  Mayence. 

But  Lassalle  had  now  reached  the  height  of 
his  career.  He  went  to  Switzerland  for  rest, 
and  there  made  the  love  acquaintance  which, 
through  a  duel,  resulted  in  his  death,  August 
31,  1864.  But  his  death  worked  for  socialism. 
The  people  called  him  the  ' '  father  of  social 
democracy." 

Meanwhile,  in  London,  at  the  end  of  Septem- 
ber, 1864,  the  famous  International  Working 
Men's  Association  was  established  and  Marx 
was  made  its  president.  With  the  principles  of 
this  organization  Liebknecht,  who  had  already 
joined  Lassalle's  association,  and  who  in  time 
won  August  Bebel  over  to  his  side,  was  in  com- 
plete sympathy  ;  and  though  he  continued  to 
profess  allegiance  to  the  more  moderate  pro- 
posals of  the  German  association,  he  was  known 
to  be  promoting  the  influence  of  the  Interna- 
tional. 

Bebel,  originally  a  follower  of  Schulze-De- 
litzsch, and  president  of  a  working  men's  asso- 
ciation at  Leipsic,  became,  in  the  autumn  of 
1867,  president  of  the  Union  of  Working  Men's 
Associations  ;  and  the  following  year,  at  the 
annual  congress,  was  instrumental  with  Lieb- 
knecht in  inducing  a  large  majority  of  the  as- 
sociations to  accept  the  program  of  the  Interna- 
tional. 

In  1869  the  Social  Democratic  Working  Men's 


Party  was  formed  at  Eisenach,  out  of  the  "  in- 
ternationalized" Union  of  Working  Men's  As- 
sociations and  the  seceded  members  of  the  Uni- 
versal. In  1870  Liebknecht  and  Bebel  and 
Hepner  were  arrested  for  the  publication  of  trea- 
sonable writings. 

In  1874,  however,  10  members  of  the  Social 
Democratic  Party  were  returned  to  the  Reich- 
stag by  450,000  votes.  Bebel  and  Liebknecht 
were  still  in  prison,  but  they  were  nevertheless 
elected.  Socialism  was  now  becoming  such  a 
power  in  the  State  that  the  Government  deter- 
mined to  be  more  stringent.  House  searches 
were  made  in  great  number,  and  the  Working 
Men's  Association  was  declared  by  the  police  to 
be  dissolved  in  Prussia.  The  Social  Democratic 
Working  Men's  Party  shared  the  same  fate. 
Misfortune  brought  the  two  rival  parties  to- 
gether, and  a  congress  held  at  Gotha  in  May, 
1875,  completed  the  union.  The  program  then 
adopted  became  the  basis  of  the  great  agitation 
which  followed  in  all  parts  of  Germany. 

On  May  n,  1878,  the  emperor  was  shot  at  in 
Berlin  by  a  young  man  called  Hodel,  an  igno- 
rant man  of  low  character.     He  was  declared 
to    be  a  socialist    because    photo- 
graphs of  socialists  were  found  in 
his  pocket.     Immediately  an  anti-  Repression. 
socialist  bill  was   introduced  into 
the    Reichstag,   which  that   body, 
however,   refused  to  pass.      Another   attempt 
was    made  upon   the    life    of    the    aged    sov- 
ereign.    This  time  the  would-be  assassin  was  a 
Dr.  Karl  Nobiling,  who,  on  June  2,  1878,  fired 
at  the  emperor  from  an  upper  window  in  the 
Linden  and  severely  wounded  him.     The  cry 
for  repressive  measures  against  the    socialists 
now  became  general. 

Another  law  was  now  proposed — the  "  Law 
against  the  publicly  dangerous  endeavors  of  so- 
cial democracy."  The  bill  as  approved  gave  to 
the  executive  and  the  police  very  extensive 
powers.  It  became  law  October  19 — after  Lieb- 
knecht had  declared  that  it  could  "  neither  be 
made  better  nor  worse,"  and  the  Progressist 
leader,  Richter,  had  said,  "  I  fear  social  democ- 
racy more  under  this  law  than  without  it. ' '  The 
division  showed  221  members  to  be  in  favor  of 
the  measure  and  149  against  it. 

The  law  prohibited  the  formation  or  existence 
of  organizations  which  seek  by  social  demo- 
cratic, socialistic,  or  communistic  movements  to 
subvert  the  present  State  and  society. 

Henceforth  the  socialistic  propaganda  was 
carried  on  in  secret,  but  more  successfully  than 
ever  ;  and  in  the  Reichstag  the  socialists  were 
free.  Here,  at  any  rate,  the  pursued  socialist 
knew  that  he  could  claim  the  right  of  sanctuary. 
The  publication  of  parliamentary  reports  being 
privileged,  journals  with  socialistic  tendencies 
were  able  to  reproduce  in  full  the  speeches  in 
which  Bebel,  Liebknecht,  and  their  fellows 
preached  the  principles  of  a  movement  which 
the  Government  had  just  been  given  a  commis- 
sion to  suppress. 

There  was  only  one  way  of  meeting  this  new 
danger,  and  it  was  by  voting  to  suppress  the 
publicity  of  proceedings.  This  Bismarck  at- 
temptedl  twice,  but  each  time  was  defeated. 

On  the  other  hand,  an  event  occurred  in  1881 
which  roused  the  authorities  to  increased  vigi- 


Germany  and  Social  Reform. 


655 


Germany  and  Social  Reform. 


lance.  This  was  the  Niederwald  plot  against 
the  imperial  family,  the  existence  ot  which  was 
discovered  in  September.  Various  arrests  were 
made,  and  the  trial,  took  place  at  Leipsic,  two 
men,  avowedly  anarchists,  being  in  December, 
1884,  sentenced  to  death.  In  the  early  part  of 
this  latter  year  the  socialist  law  was  prolonged 
for  two  years. 

In  1884  another  general  election  took  place, 
and  it  afforded  the  Socialist  Party  an  o'ppor- 
tunity  of  demonstrating  its  strength.  In  Berlin 
two  out  of  the  six  places  fell  to  socialists,  and 
in  Hamburg  and  Breslau  two  out  of  three. 
The  number  of  votes  polled  was  549,990. 

Repression  was  made  more  vigorous  than 
ever.  The  year  1889  was  marked  by  the  largest 
strike  Germany  had  ever  known,  which  took 
place  in  the  coal  mines  of  Westphalia  and  the 
Rhenish  provinces,  and  threatened  to  spread, 
and  did  spread,  more  or  less  through  the  em- 
pire, the  emperor  himself  taking  an  interest  in 
hearing  the  complaints  of  the  miners  and  order- 
ing an  investigation.  The  strike  ended  in  the 
substantial  victory  of  the  men,  altho  to  some 
extent  they  compromised. 

On  March  20,  1890,  the  emperor  accepted  the 
resignation  of  Bismarck  as  chancellor,  largely 
upon  Bismarck's  insistence  that  the  Anti-Social- 
ist Law  must  be  renewed,  a  step 
which  the  young  emperor  did  not 
Socialistic    favor  ;  and  on  its  expiration  (Sep- 
Gains.       tember  30, 1 890)  it  was  not  renewed. 
The  socialists  came  back  in  great 
numbers  amid   general  rejoicing. 
Herr   Liebknecht   assumed  the  editorshop  of 
the    Volksblatt,   and    activity  went  on    more 
rapidly  than  ever,  especially  in  Berlin,  Ham- 
burg, and  the  great  industrial  centers,  and  not 
least  in  the  army,  where  young  men,  restless 
under  conscription,  are  gathered  from  all  Ger- 
many, and  ready,  therefore,  under  the  galling 
yoke  of  the  army  service,   which  is  so  hated 
by  the  working  class,   to  listen  to  socialism. 
The    conflict    of  the  year  1893  over  the  Stand- 
ing Army   Bill    is  well    known,   with   its   re- 
sult of  the  stupendous  socialistic  gains.     The 
following  table  shows  the  growth  of  the  Social 
Democratic    Party  since  the  founding  of    the 
German    Empire,    as    shown  in  the    imperial 
election  returns,  taken  from  Braun's  Die  Par- 
teten  des   Deutschen   Retchstages,  Stuttgart, 
1893: 


ELECTION  IN 

Total 
Number 
of  Social 
Demo- 
cratic 
Votes. 

Percen- 
tage of 
Votes  of 
Social 
Demo- 
cratic 
Party. 

Mem- 
bers 
Elected. 

Votes 
Cast  for 
Each 
Member. 

1871  

1874  

6  8 

1877  

493,288 

1878  

7    6 

1881  

6  i 

1884  

1887  

763,128 

f-     '^ 

1890  

M* 

1893  

1,876,738 

*  In  the  bye-election  in  a  district  of  Saxony,  held 
in  1892,  the  thirty-sixth  member  was  elected. " 


The  party  is  strongly  organized,  and  carries 
on  a  most  active  propaganda,  publishing  31 
daily  newspapers,  41  weeklies  and  semi-week- 
lies, one  scientific  review,  one  family  magazine, 
two  humorous  publications,  55  trade  journals. 

At  present  it  is  making  strong  efforts  to  ex- 
tend itself  in  the  agricultural  districts.  It  has 
organized  night  schools  for  the  education  and 
training  of  socialist  speakers.  It  has  many  ad- 
herents among  the  university  students. 

Such  is  the  account  of  German  democratic  so- 
cialism ;  but  there  have  been  in  Germany  four 
other  separate  movements,  all  using  the  name 
socialism.     The  earliest  of  these  is 
the  Roman  Catholic  German  Chris- 
tian   Socialist    movement,   mainly    Christian 
led  by  Bishop  von  Ketteler  in  May-    Socialism, 
ejice  about  1850,  and  still  a  politi- 
cal and  social  force  in  the  empire. 
It  often  allies  itself  politically  with  the  Social 
Democrats,  but  proceeds  on  wholly   different 
lines.     German  social  democracy  is  avowedly 
atheistic  and  materialistic,  and  will  have  naught 
to  do  with  the  Church.     The  Roman  Catholic 
movement  favors  a  paternal    State   socialism 
under  churchly  guidance.     This  is  even  more 
true  of  the  German  Protestant  Christian  social- 
ism which  sprang  up  under  Stocker,  the  court 
preacher  in  Berlin  about  1877.     It  organized 
two  societies,  one  to  reach  the  wealthy  and  one 
the  working  men,    and  was  almost  explicitly 
the  Church  wing  of  the  Government's  pater- 
nal State  socialism.     (See  CHRISTIAN  SOCIALISM.) 

The  third  movement  in  Germany  using  the 
name  socialism  is  that  of  the  so-  called  Socialists 
of  the  Chair  {Katheder-Sozialtsteri),  a  move- 
ment commencing  with  a  gathering  at  Eisenach 
in  1872  under  the  lead  of  such  men  as  Schnol- 
ler,  Wagner,  and  others.  A  Vereinfur  Sozial- 
Polttik  was  formed  to  represent  its  ideas,  which 
may  be  said  to  be  the  modification  but  not  abo- 
lition of  individualism  by  a  paternal  State  so- 
cialism. 

The  fourth  movement  which  uses  the  name 
of  socialism  in  Germany  is  the  State  socialism 
of  the  Government  itself. 

As  early  as  1847  Bismarck  had  spoken  in  favor 
of  State  railroads  ;  but  he  did  not  definitely,  or 
at  least  publicly,  adopt  the  principles  of  State 
socialism  till  1878,  after  the  policy  of  repression 
of  the  democratic  socialists  had  begun.     He 
then  endeavored  with  the  one  hand  to  repress 
and  with   the  other    to    take  the 
ground  from  under  them.    His  first 
step,   however,   was  simply  to  re-       State 
verse  the  economic  policy  of  the    Socialism. 
State  on  the  subject  of  taxation  and 
establish  protection.    His  next  step 
was  to  try  and  introduce  various  State  monopo- 
lies, such  as  a  tobacco  monopoly.  He  did  not  suc- 
ceed in  getting  these  efforts  supported  by  the 
Reichstag  ;  but  most  German  railroads  are  to- 
day State  roads.     (See  RAILROADS.) 

But  thus  far  the  high-water  tide  of  imperial 
State  socialism  has  been  reached  in  the  various 
State  insurance  laws.  In  1881  came  the  first 
decided  word  from  the  emperor  and  his  govern- 
ment upon  the  subject.  The  Sickness  Insur- 
ance Law  was  passed  in  1883,  the  Accident  In- 
surance Law  in  1884,  and- the  Old  Age  Law  in 
1889.  (See  INSURANCE.) 


Germany  and  Social  Reform. 


656 


Gerrymandering. 


Such  are  the  main  present  developments  of 
the  imperial  State  socialism  ;  but  a  word  should 
be  said  of  German  municipalism,  which  belongs 
to  the  same  paternal  and  therefore  unsocialistic 
school. 

Says  Dr.  Albert  Shaw  (Century,  July,  1894) : 
' '  The  German  city  holds  itself  responsible  for 
the  education  of  all  ;  for  the  provision  of  amuse- 
ment, and  the  means  of  recreation  ;  for  the 
adaptation  of  the  training  of  the  young  to  the 
necessities  of  gaining  a  livelihood  ;  for  the  health 
of  families  ;  for  the  moral  interests  of  all  ;  for 
the  civilizing  of  the  people  ;  for  the  promotion 
of  individual  thrift ;  for  protection  from  various 
misfortunes  ;  for  the  development  of  advantages 
and  opportunities  in  order  to  promote  the  indus- 
trial and  commercial  well-being  ;  and  inciden- 
tally for  the  supply  of  common  services  and  the 
introduction  of  conveniences.  The  methods  it 
employs  to  gain  its  ends  are  sometimes  those 
advocated  by  the  socialists,  and  sometimes  they 
are  diametrically  opposite. ' ' 

According  to  Dr.  Shaw,  about  two  thirds  of 
the  larger  German  cities  own  and  operate  their 
own  gas-works,  and  are  going  in  to  provide 
municipal  electric  light  and  power.  All  Ger- 
man cities  care  for  their  own  cleaning  and  sani- 
tation to  an  extent  far  beyond  that  of  most  other 
countries.  Their  systems  for  providing  good 
housing  are  growing  rapidly  more  perfect.  The 
cities  provide  pawnbrokerage  and  savings  banks. 
Especially  admirable  is  the  extent  to  which  they 
plan  far  ahead  for,  and  steadily  carry  out,  mu- 
nicipal improvements. 

The  German  police  strictly  control  all  life. 
In  some  German  cities  there  are  police  regula- 
tions as  to  how  one  shall  carry  his  umbrella  so 
as  not  to  hit  passers  in  the  street.  Germany 
seems  at  times  under  military  control. 

It  should  be  stated  that  the  Social  Democrats 
repudiate  this  State  socialism,  and  vote,  for  in- 
stance, against  compulsory  insurance. 

Bebel  (Die  frait  und  Sozialismus,  pp.  312- 
14)  argues  that  under  socialism,  ministers,  par- 
liaments, armies,  police,  courts,  attorneys,  tax- 
ation, will  all  disappear,  their  place  being  taken 
by  administrative  colleges  or  boards. 

Side  by  side  with  this  socialist  development 
has  gone  an  individualist  agitation  for  voluntary 
guilds  of  employers  and  employees  together, 
and  for  cooperative  and  religious  societies.  The 
old  medieval  guilds  were  divested  of  their  ex- 
clusive character  under  Frederick  William  I., 
and  since  then  the  tendency,  as  far  as  the  Gov- 
ernment is  concerned,  has  been  toward  indus- 
trial freedom.  Various  laws,  however,  have 
been  passed  to  aid  these  voluntary  guilds. 
About  1845  various  congresses  of  employees 
voted  for  the  establishment  of  compulsory 
guilds  limiting  employers,  and  especially  em- 
ployees. A  commission  to  investigate  the  sub- 
ject was  appointed,  and  district  councils  of  in- 
dustry were  established  but  did  not  succeed. 
Still,  10,223  guilds  have  been  formed  in  the  em- 
pire under  Government  supervision,  and  are 
occasionally  given  power  to  enforce  arbitration. 
Trade-unions,  apart  from  the  socialist  move- 
ment, have  also  been  somewhat  developed. 
The  German  tobacco  workers  organized  in  1865, 
and  the  printers  in  1866.  In  1893  there  were 
1341  unions  with  61,034  members,  the  engineers 


and  metal-workers  having  403  unions  ;  factory 
workers  and  manual  laborers,  229  ;  cabinet- 
makers, 113  ;  shoemakers,  108.  These  unions 
are  largely  the  result  of  the  activity  of  Dr. 
Hirsch,  editor  of  the  Trade-  Union,  who  stands 
midway  between  the  Government's  State  social- 
ism and  the  Social  Democrats.  The  printers' 
union  of  Germany  is  not  connected  with  this 
movement.  It  can  be  traced  back  to  the 
seventh-century  guilds,  and  has  followe'd  much 
more  closely  than  any  other  union  in  Germany 
the  English  trade-unions.  In  1891-92  there  was 
a  prolonged  strike  for  a  nine-hour  day,  attended 
with  some  success.  In  1890  it  had  a  capital  of 
$426,769. 

Most  of  the  trade-unions,  however,  are  con- 
nected   with    socialism.     They    numbered,    in 
1892,  244,934.     Of  these,  44,000  were   miners, 
26,000  metal-workers,   18,000  cabi- 
net-makers, 16,000  printers,   11,000 
tobacco-workers.      Besides      these       Trade- 
different  classes  of  unions,  the  Ro-      Unions. 
man  Catholic  unions   have    about 
75,000  members  and  the  Protestant 
unions  76,000,  mainly  educational.     Cooperation 
in    Germany  commences   with    the   efforts   of 
Huber  and  his  paper,  Janus,  in  1836,  and,  above 
all,  the  work  of  Schulze  Delitzsch,  dating  from 
1844,  has  had  considerable  success  in  Germany, 
especially  on  the  line  of  credit  banks.     (See 
COOPERATION  ;     COOPERATIVE    BANKS.)     Strikes 
have  not  been  large  in  Germany,  the  largest 
being  among  the  miners.    Arbitration,  perhaps, 
as  a  result,  has  not  had  much  development. 
(See  ARBITRATION.)    On  the  other  hand,  Gov- 
ernment has  done  a  good  deal  by  its  insurance 
schemes,  and  less  by  its  factory  legislation. 

On  March  15,  1890,  a  labor  conference  of  rep- 
resentatives of  the  various  powers  met  in  Berlin 
by  the  invitation  of  the  young  emperor,  and  sat 
two  weeks.    The  invitation  was  lib- 
erally responded  to  ;  but  the  scope 
of  the  deliberations  was  practically        Other 
narrowed  down  to  the  question  of  Movements. 
Sunday,  female,  and  juvenile  work. 
In    1891  a  bill  was  passed  in  the 
Reichstag  to  go  into  force  April  i,  1892,  embody- 
ing the  main  results  of  the  conference  :  24  hours' 
rest  on  Sunday,  except  in  specified  industries, 
like  hotels,  etc.  ;  48  hours'  rest  on  church  festi- 
vals, such  as  Christmas,  Easter,  and  Whitsun- 
day ;  women  not  to  work  over  n  hours,  nor  to 
do  any  night  work,  nor  for  so  many  weeks  after 
childbirth  ;    children   under  13  not  to  be  em- 
ployed, and  not  after  that  unless  they  have  had 
the  legal  time  in  school. 

Poor  law  administration  in  Germany  has  been 
developed  on  large  lines  and  in  characteristic 
ways.  (See  ELBERFELD  SYSTEM  ;  LABOR  COLO- 
NIES.) 

References  :  The  Report  on  Germany  of  the  (English) 
Royal  Commission  on  Labor  ;  W.  H.  Dawson's  Ger- 
man Socialism  and  Ferdinand  Lassalle  (1888),  and 
Bismarck  and  State  Socialism  (1890). 

GERRYMANDERING.— In  United  States 
politics,  an  arrangement  of  the  political  divi- 
sions of  a  State  in  disregard  of  natural  bounda- 
ries, as  indicated  by  geography  or  position,  so 
as  to  give  one  party  an  unfair  political  advan- 
tage. This  is  done  sometimes  by  throwing  the 


Gerrymandering. 


657 


Glasgow. 


greatest  possible  number  of  hostile  voters  into  a 
district  which  is  certain  to  be  hostile,  sometimes 
by  adding  to  a  district  where  parties  are  equally 
divided  some  place  in  which  the  majority  of 
friendly  voters  is  sufficient  to  turn  the  scale. 

The  aim  of  gerrymandering  is  so  to  lay  out 
the  districts  as  to  secure  in  the  greatest  pos- 
sible number  of  them  a  majority  for  the  party 
which  conducts  the  operation. 

The  word  is  derived  from  Elbridge  Gerry,  a 
leading  Democratic  politician  in  Massachusetts 
(a  member  of  the  Constitutional  Convention  of 
1787,  and  in  1812  elected  Vice-President  of  the 
United  States),  who,  when  Massachusetts  was 
being  re-districted,  contrived  a  scheme  which 
gave  one  of  the  districts  a  shape  like  that  of  a 
lizard.  A  noted  artist  entering  the  room  of  an 
editor  who  had  a  map  of  the  new  districts  hang- 
ing on  the  wall  over  his  desk  observed,  "  Why, 
this  district  looks  like  a  salamander,"  and  put 
in  the  claws  and  eyes  of  the  creature  with  his 
pencil.  "  Say  rather  a  Gerrymander,"  replied 
the  editor  ;  and  the  name  remained. 

GIDDINGS,  FRANKLIN  HENRY,  was 
born  at  Sherman,  Conn.,  in  1855.  After  pre- 
paratory studies  at  Great  Harrington  he  entered 
Union  College  in  1873,  and  received  the  degrees 
of  A.B.  and  A.M.  Entering  journalism,  he  was 
connected  with  the  Daily  Union  and  Republi- 
can of  Springfield,  Mass.  In  1885  he  made  an 
investigation  of  cooperation  and  profit-sharing 
for  the  Massachusetts  Bureau  of  Labor,  the  re- 
sults being  published  in  its  seventh  annual  re- 
port. In  1888  he  was  appointed  Resident  Lec- 
turer and  in  1891  Associate  Professor  of  Politi- 
cal Science  at  Bryn  Mawr  College.  In  1891, 
without  leaving  Bryn  Mawr,  he  was  appointed 
Lecturer  on  Sociology  in  the  School  of  Political 
Sciences  at  Columbia  University,  and  in  1894 
Professor  of  Sociology  in  that  University,  leav- 
ing Bryn  Mawr.  Professor  Giddings  has  been 
Chairman  of  the  Publication  Committee  of  the 
American  Economic  Association,  and  Vice- 
President  of  ths  American  Academy  of  Political 
and  Social  Science.  His  contributions  to  eco- 
nomic journals  have  been  almost  constant,  and 
since  1891  mainly  concerned  with  the  province 
and  contents  of  sociology,  in  which  department 
Professor  Giddings  has  come  to  be  an  acknowl- 
edged leader,  his  studies  culminating  thus  far 
in  his  The  Theory  of  Sociology  ( 1 896),  at  pres- 
ent the  latest  and  most  complete  treatise  on  the 
subject. 

GIDE,  CHARLES,  was  born  in  1847  at 
Uzes,  France.  From  1874-80  Professor  of  Juris- 
prudence at  Bordeaux,  he  has  been  since  1880 
Professor  of  Political  Economy  at  Montpellier. 
His  chief  work  is  his  Principes  cF Economic 
Politique  (1883),  which  has  been  translated  into 
English.  He  is  even  better  known  by  his  valu- 
able reviews  and  magazine  articles  as  one  of  the 
leaders  in  the  revolt'  against  the  classic  French 
economists,  and  also  for  his  active  interest  in 
the  French  Protestant  movement  toward  Chris- 
tian Socialism  (q.v.). 

GIFFIN,  ROBERT,  was  born  at  Strathaven, 
Lancashire,  in  1837,  and  educated  in  its  parish 
school.  He  was  a  solicitor's  clerk  at  Strathaven 

4* 


and  Glasgow,  and  from  1856-58  attended  Glas- 
gow College.  He  then  entered  a  commercial 
house  in  Glasgow,  but  in  1860  entered  journal- 
ism, being  connected  with  the  Stirling'  Jour- 
nal, the  Globe,  and  for  a  short  time  the  Fort- 
nightly Review.  From  1868-76  he  was  assist- 
ant editor  of  the  Economist,  and  from  1870-76 
edited  the  trade  and  finance  articles  of  the  Daily 
News,  In  1876  he  was  appointed  chief  of  the 
Statistical  Department  of  the  Board  of  Trade. 
He  has  written  numerous  reports  and  magazine 
articles. 

OILMAN,  NICHOLAS  PAINE,  whose 
name  is  so  prominently  identified  with  the  sub- 
ject of  profit-sharing,  was  born  December  2  1  ,i  849, 
in  Quincy,  111.  His  early  education  was  obtained 
in  the  public  schools  and  academies  of  Maine 
and  New  Hampshire,  and  at  the  Harvard  Di- 
vinity School,  from  which  he  was  graduated  in 
1871.  From  1872-84,  with  the  exception  of  1878- 
81,  when  he  was  professor  in  Antioch  College, 
he  was  pastor  of  Unitarian  churches  in  Scituate, 
Bolton,  and  Wayland,  Mass.  Mr.  Gilman  was 
associate  editor  of  the  Unitarian  Review  of 
Boston,  1885-90,  and  has  been  editor  of  the  Lit- 
erary World  of  Boston  from  1888-96.  When 
the  New  World  was  established  in  Boston, 
March,  1892,  Mr.  Gilman  became  its  editor,  and, 
at  the  founding  of  the  Association  for  the  Pro- 
motion of  Profit-Sharing,  he  was  chosen  secre- 
tary and  made  editor  of  the  Employer  and  Em- 
ployed, the  organ  of  the  association.  In  1896 
he  became  Professor  of  Sociology  in  Meadville 
Theological  Seminary,  at  Meadville,  Pa.  Be- 
sides articles  on  religious,  theological,  and  so- 
cial subjects  published  since  1877,  he  has  writ- 
ten Profit-Sharing  between  Employer  and 
Employed  (1889),  The  Law  of  Daily'  Conduct 
(1891),  Socialism  and  the  American  Spirit 


GIOTA,  MELCHIORRE,  was  born  in  Pia- 
cenza,  Italy,  in  1767.  Receiving  priest's  orders, 
he  welcomed  the  entry  of  the  French  into  Italy, 
and  argued  for  the  establishment  of  an  Italian 
republic.  Made  State  historian,  he  lost  this 
position  by  a  work  he  wrote  on  divorce  (1803), 
and  placed  in  charge  of  the  Italian  statistics, 
he  lost  this  by  his  criticism  of  State  officials. 
He  was  in  prison  for  eight  months  in  1820  on 
a  charge  of  conspiring  with  'the  Carbonari.  In 
spite  of  this  eventful  life,  he  was,  till  his  death 
in  1829,  among  the  foremost  Italian  economists 
of  his  day,  a  leader  in  statistical  science,  and  a 
critical  student  of  all  economical  schools.  He 
largely  favored  State  interference.  Among  his 
works  are  Nuove  prospetto  delle  scienze  econo- 
miche(£>  vols.,  1815-19)  and  Filosofia  della  sta- 
tistic a  (2  vols.,  1826). 

GLASGOW  is  considered  by  Mr.  Albert 
Shaw,  in  his  Municipal  Government  in  Great 
Britain  (p.  169),  to  be  the  leader  in  Great  Brit- 
ain of  that  new  regime  of  municipal  socialism 
which  is  so  marked  a  characteristic  of  the  pres- 
ent day.  It  is  to  his  study  of  Glasgow  contained 
in  the  above-named  book  that  we  are  mainly  in- 
debted for  the  following  facts  : 

Glasgow  claims  for  itself  the  second  place  in 
the  British  Empire.  It  has  grown  in  population 


Glasgow. 


658 


Goblet,  Rend  Marie. 


with  great  rapidity  from  about  75,000  in  1800 
to  some  800,000  in  1895,  in  a  compact  space  of 
15,000  acres.  This  dense  population,  together 
with  the  nature  of  the  inhabitants — a  working 
class  living  in  crowded  tenements — has  made 
its  municipal  problems  of  the  utmost  gravity. 
London  in  1881  had  a  population  of  51  to  the 
acre  ;  Glasgow  in  1891  had  92  to  the  acre,  and 
in  five  districts  300  to  the  acre. 

At  first  a  bishop's  seat,  Glasgow  became  wholly 
self-governing  only  in  1690.  In  1833  the  Scotch 
Reform  Act  made  her  municipal  franchise  the 
same  as  the  parliamentary,  and  the  act  of  1868, 
enfranchised  many  more.  Her  municipal  vot- 
ing roll  in  1891  included  94,186  names  (15,448 
women).  The  franchise  depending  on  rate-pay- 
ing, the  poorer  classes  and  the  floating  popu- 
lation dodge  the  rates  and  lose  their  vote. 

The  municipal  government  consists  of  a  coun- 
cil of  78  members,  three  members  being  elected 
from  each  of  the  25  wards,  one  retiring  each 
year,  and  the  remaining  members 
being  the  Lord  Provost,  or  Mayor, 
Constitution,  and  two  other  ex-officto  members. 
The  provost  is  elected  by  the  coun- 
cil from  its  own  number.     He  pre- 
sides and  personifies  the  dignity  of  the  city,  but 
has  little  or  no  executive  power.     He  is  elected 
for  three  years,  like  the  bailies,  and,  like  them, 
is  a  magistrate.     The  bailies  sit  as  citizen  magis- 
trates in  certain  districts.     The  whole  executive 
power  is  in  the  hands  of  the  council,  which 
works  through  committees  and  makes  all  ap- 
pointments.    The  town  clerk  and  chamberlain 
preserve  the  records,  statistics,  etc.,  and  are  men 
of  high  authority  and  learning.     No  salaries 
are  attached  to  the  offices  of  councilors. 

The  municipalism  of  Glasgow,  is  developed  on 
many  lines.  Its  sanitary  department  is  most 
efficient.  Magnificent  hospitals  have  been  erect- 
ed. Food,  milk,  and,  above  all,  lodging-houses 
and  tenements,  are  carefully  inspected  and  con- 
trolled. (For  the  fine  bathhouse  and  wash- 
house  system  of  Glasgow,  see  BATH-HOUSES.) 
The  streets  and  also  the  tenement  courts  are 
cleaned  every  day.  Manure  and  refuse  collect- 
ed by  the  city  is  sold  (in  1893,  276,000  tons,  from 
25  to  50  cents  a  ton).  Refuse  is  also  used  on 
two  successful  municipal  farms. 
The  city  lights  not  only  the  streets 
Sanitation,  but  the  courts  and  common  stair- 
cases, spending  more  for  these  than 
she  does  for  the  streets.  The  worst 
slums  have  been  torn  down  and  streets  widened 
and  improved,  a  part  laid  out  by  the  council 
acting  as  an  "  improvement  trust"  (commencing 
in  1866).  The  city  has  bought  large  tracts  of 
land,  and  is  gradually  tearing  down  the  tene- 
ments upon  this  land  and  building  improved 
dwellings,  which  it  rents  at  $100,000  a  year, 
largely  paying  the  interest  charge  on  the  whole 
property,  which  it  is  holding  for  sale.  Glasgow 
having  had  particularly  bad  lodging-houses,  the 
city,  by  1879,  built  and  still  maintains  seven 
municipal  lodging-houses,  with  2000  beds,  which 
are  an  unqualified  success.  They  have  wiped 
out  the  worst  private  houses,  and  yield  a  revenue 
to  the  city.  As  a  result  of  these  and  other  im- 
provements, the  condition  of  the  tenement 
population  is  improved.  In  1871,  30  4  per  cent. 
of  Glasgow's  population  lived  in  tenements  of 


one  room  ;  in  1881,  24.7  per  cent.  ;  in  1891,  only 
1 8  per  cent.  Those  living  in  two  rooms,  how- 
ever, have  increased,  In  1891,  47.5  per  cent, 
lived  in  two  rooms  ;  only  8  per  cent,  in  houses 
of  five  or  more  rooms.  Until  1860  Glasgow  had 
its  water  supplied  by  a  private  corporation  at  a 
rate  of  14  pence  in  the  pound.  To-day,  under 
municipal  management,  water  is 
brought  in  abundant  quantities 
from  lochs  in  the  Highlands  at  "jd.,  Natural 
and  still  gets  a  net  revenue  of  $200,-  Monopolies, 
ooo.  Up  to  1895  the  city  had  spent 
$14,000,000  on  its  water  supply,  and 
expects  to  spend  $t,ooo,ooo  without  increasing 
charges  or  taxes  by  a  penny.  In  1869  the  city 
bought  its  gas-works  from  a  private  company  ; 
it  has  reduced  the  price  from  the  $1.14  charged 
by  the  company  to  60  cents,  tho  the  price  of 
making  coal  gas  has  risen.  The  original  cost 
was  $2,600,000,  and  improvements  created  a 
debt  in  1875  of  $5,300,000.  To  day  it  is  $2,400,- 
ooo,  much  more  than  covered  by  the  value  of 
the  plant.  The  city  sells  gas  at  very  cheap 
rates  for  fuel  in  the  tenements,  and  in  1892  had 
rented  8000  gas  stoves,  besides  selling  many 
thousands — a  great  convenience  in  the  crowded 
tenements.  In  1892  the  city  bought  out  the 
company  conducting  electric  light,  and  has 
made  a  success  of  this.  In  1894  Glasgow  bought 
out  the  private  horse  railway  system.  She  al- 
lowed an  elaborate  system  of  omnibuses  to  com- 
pete with  her.  Yet  after  raising  the  wages  of 
the  employees,  limiting  their  hours,  establishing 
a  sick  and  death  insurance,  adding  clean  and 
good  cars,  increasing  the  service,  refusing  street- 
car advertisements,  the  city  has  lowered  the 
fares,  a  large  proportion  of  which  has  been  one- 
cent  fares,  and  yet  made,  in  1895,  a  gross  profit 
of  $121,025. 

Glasgow's  greatest  municipal   activity,  how- 
ever, has  been  her  improvement  of  the  Clyde, 
which  has  made  Glasgow  what  she  is.     In  1750 
the  Clyde  was    fordable.     To  day 
the  greatest  ship-yards  of  the  world 
line  the  river.     The  city  supplies     Eesults. 
ships  with  water,  owns    and   pro- 
vides docks,  ferries,  harbor  steam- 
ers, and  thus  receives  a  revenue  of  from  $1,750,- 
ooo  to  $2,000,000  per  year,  an  interest  on  im- 
provementk  only  recently  approximating  $100,- 
000,000,  so  that  when  that  sum  has  been  reached 
the  direct  revenue  will  be  a  larger  percentage  on 
the  expenditure,  to  say  nothing  of  the  indirect 
revenue  from  the  creation  of  the  city.     Besides 
these  activities  are  municipal  buildings,  mar- 
kets, slaughter-houses,  sewerage  systems,  pub- 
lic schools,  parks,  art  galleries,  libraries,  play- 
grounds.    Its  debt  is  not  large,  and  potentially 
covered  by  the  growing  sinking  funds  of  pros- 
perous and  productive  departments. 

Reference  :  Albert  Shaw's  Municipal  Government  in 
Great  Britain. 

GOBLET,  REN6  MARIE,  was  born  at 
Aire  in  1828.  He  entered  the  legal  profession, 
then  journalism,  and,  later,  politics.  In  1870  he 
was  Procureur-General  at  Amiens  ;  in  1871  rep- 
resentative for  La  Somme.  being  a  Republican 
of  the  Left,  and  though  at  first  a  supporter  of 
the  Government,  he  gradually  became  more  and 
more  independent.  From  January  to  August. 


Goblet,  Ren6  Marie. 


6  59 


Godwin,  William. 


1882,  he  held  the  portfolio  of  the  Interior  in  the 
Freycinet  Cabinet  ;  from  April,  1885,  to  Decem- 
ber, 1886,  the  portfolio  of  Public  Instruction  and 
of  the  Arts,  under  Brisson.  From  1886-87  he 
was  President  of  the  Council  ;  and  from  April, 
1888,  to  April,  1889,  Minister  of  Foreign  Affairs. 
In  the  last  general  election  he  declared  out  and 
out  for  socialism,  and  is  considered  a  leading 
socialist  in  French  Government  circles. 

GODIN,  JEAN  BAPTISTE  ANDRE, 
AND  THE  FAMILISTERE  AT  GUISE  ; 

was  born,  in  1817,  at  Esqueheries,  of  a  family 
of  artisans.  Early  engaging  in  industry,  he,  in 
1847,  moved  his  works  to  Guise,  and  became  in- 
terested in  cooperation  as  a  disciple  of  Fourier. 
In  1859  he  commenced  his  famous  Familistere, 
or  communal  home,  and  rapidly  developed  it. 
In  1870  he  was  elected  Mayor  of  Guise,  and  in 
1871  representative  for  Aisne.  In  1871  he  also 
published  his  Solutions  Societies,  or  account  of 
his  Familistere.  He  fully  established  profit- 
sharing  in  1876,  and  in  1886  he  made  the  Fami- 
listere de  Guise  a  cooperative  society,  associat- 
ing in  his  firm  32  clerks  or  workmen.  From 
1876-88  the  average  sales  were  3,935,600  frs., 
with  a  gross  profit  of  735,000  frs.,  which  were 
distributed  among  the  workmen,  capital,  the 
common  fund,  education,  and  the  sinking  fund. 
The  Familistere  is  organized  like  a  great  fam- 
ily. It  has  its  buildings  for  habitation,  baking- 
house,  steward's  office,  nursery,  schools,  pen- 
sion bank,  and  insurance  office.  The  Familis- 
tere in  1888  had  13  associe's,  67  societaires,  52 
Participants,  out  of  1237  employees.  The  in- 
dustry carried  on  is  the  making  of  stoves,  ovens, 
and  smaller  hardware.  There  are  three  big 
buildings  with  1800  inhabitants,  each  family  hav- 
ing two  or  three  rooms.  Knch  building  encloses 
an  interior  court,  covered  with  a  glass  roof  and 
paved  with  cement.  The  building  is  four  stories 
high.  The  central  parallelogram,  or  rectangle, 
is  211  ft.  front  and  130  ft.  deep.  The  stores  of 
the  association  on  the  lowest  story  of  the  central 
portion  of  the  building  contain  whatever  is  nec- 
essary for  ordinary  need  and  comfort,  without 
reference  to  luxuries.  In  the  social  palace 
1500  persons  can  see  each  other  go  to  their 
daily  domestic  occupations,  reunite  in  public 
places,  go  to  market  or  shopping,  under  cov- 
ered galleries,  without  traversing  more  than  200 
yards.  Much  attention  is  given  to  education. 
Babies  can  be  left  by  their  mothers  in  a  creche 
from  7  A.M  to  7  P.M.  There  is  considerable  so- 
cial life.  Godin  died  in  1888.  The  firm  is  now 
Dequenne  et  Compagnie,  M.  Dequenne  being 
managing  director  for  life. 

GODWIN,  MARY  WOLLSTONE- 
CRAFT,  was  born  at  Hoxton,  England,  in 
1759.  Forced  early  to  earn  her  own  living,  she 
became  governess  in  the  family  of  Lord  Kings- 
borough,  in  Ireland.  She  soon  resolved  to  de- 
vote herself  altogether  to  literary  work,  and 
began  to  translate  from  the  French.  In  1792 
appeared  her  best-known  work,  A  Vindication 
of  the  Rights  of  Woman.  Her  book  was  main- 
ly a  plea  for  equality  of  education,  for  State 
education,  and  for  the  joint  education  of  the 
sexes.  It  was  a  strong  protest  against  the  as- 
sumption that  woman  was  only  the  plaything  of 


man  ;  and  she  asserted  that  intellectual  com- 
panionship was  the  chief  and  lasting  happiness 
of  marriage.  She  daringly  dealt  with  danger- 
ous questions,  incidentally  upheld  greater  free- 
dom of  divorce,  and  denied  the  eternity  of  the 
torments  of  hell.  Having  great  sympathy  with 
the  ideas  back  of  the  French  Revolution,  she 
went  to  Paris,  and  remained  there  during  the 
Reign  of  Terror.  In  1797  she  was  married  to 
William  Godwin,  and  died  in  giving  birth  to  a 
daughter,  who  became  the  wife  of  the  poet  Shel- 
ley. 

GODWIN,  WILLIAM,  was  born  in  1756, 
at  Wisbeach,  in  Cambridgeshire,  at  which  place 
his  father  was  a  Nonconformist  minister.  Edu- 
cated for  his  father's  profession,  he  was  at  first 
more  Calvinistic  than  his  teachers,  becoming  a 
Sandemanian,  of  which  sect  he  says  that  they 
were  the  followers  of  "  a  celebrated  north-coun- 
try apostle,  who,  after  Calvin  had  damned 
ninety-nine  in  a  hundred  of  mankind,  has  con- 
trived a  scheme  for  damning  ninety-nine  in  a 
hundred  of  the  followers  of  Calvin." 

He  officiated  as  a  minister  at  Ware,  Stowmar- 
ket,  and  Beaconsfield.  At  the  second  of  these 
places  the  teachings  of  French  Reformers  were 
brought  before  him  by  a  friend,  and  these,  while 
they  intensified  his  political,  undermined  his  re- 
ligious opinions.  This  finally  led  him  to  resign 
his  charge.  His  only  resource  was  to  remove 
to  the  metropolis  and  engage  in  literature.  His 
first  work,  a  series  of  Historical  Sketches,  in 
the  form  of  sermons,  was  unsuccessful,  and  he 
was  reduced  to  penury  and  despair  ;  but  they 
made  him  acquainted  with  Fox,  Sheridan,  and 
other  Whig  leaders,  and  he  turned  his  attention 
to  politics.  The  American  Revolution,  closely 
followed  by  that  of  France,  excited  the  public 
mind,  and  Godwin  wrote  his  Inquiry  Concern- 
ing Political  Justice  (i  793).  This  was  followed 
by  The  Adventures  af  Caleb  Williams,  a  re- 
markable novel,  intended  to  illustrate  the  politi- 
cal views  advanced  in  the  Political  Justice. 

In  1796,  the  intervening  years  having  been 
spent  in  strenuous  literary  labor,  Godwin  mar- 
ried Mary  Wollstonecraft.  Since  both  held  the 
same  views  regarding  the  slavery  of  marriage, 
and  since  they  only  married  at  all  for  the  sake 
of  possible  offspring,  the  marriage  was  concealed 
for  some  time,  and  the  happiness  of  the  avowed 
married  life  was  very  brief.  Mrs.  Godwin  died 
in  giving  birth  to  a  daughter,  afterward  the 
second  wife  of  Percy  Bysshe  Shelley.  The  cares 
of  a  family  led  him  to  contract  a  second  mar- 
riage with  Mrs.  Clairmont  in  1800. 

To  secure  a  more  certain  support,  Godwin 
and  his  wife  opened  a  circulating  library,  but  he 
also  worked  indefatigably  with  his  pen  to  the 
end  of  his  life.  He  wrote  many  school  books  ; 
an  admirable  Life  of  Chaucer  (1801)  ;  Fleet- 
wood,  a  novel  (3  vols. ,  1805) ;  Mandeville  (1817) ; 
a  Treatise  on  Population,  a  refutation  of  Mal- 
thus  (1820)  ;  a  History  of  the  Republic  of  Eng- 
land (4  vols.,  1824-28)  ;  Cloudesley  (1830)  ; 
Thoughts  on  Man  (1833).  As  he  grew  old,  he 
modified  his  opinions  on  politics  and  society, 
and  especially  on  marriage,  which  he  warmly 
commends  in  some  of  his  later  works.  He  was 
appointed  to  a  place  under  Government  ;  but 
he  knew  not  how  to  be  idle,  and  wrote  Delo- 


Godwin,  William. 


660 


Gold  and  Silver. 


mine,  a  novel,  and  the  Lives  of  the  Necro- 
mancers. Many  of  his  works  were  translated 
into  foreign  languages.  He  died  in  London, 
April  7,  1836. 

In  his  own  time,  by  his  writings  and  by  his 
conversation,  Godwin  had  a  great  power  of  in- 
fluencing men,  and  especially  young  men.  He 
was  an  intense  individualist,  holding  that  all 
control  of  man  by  man  was  wrong,  and  that 
Government  must  disappear. 

But  all  was  to  be  done  by  discussion,  and  ma- 
tured change  resulting  from  discussion.  His 
Political  Justice  almost  created  the  English 
radicalism"  of  the  early  part  of  the  century,  and 
led  to  the  milder  liberalism  of  to-day.  In  it  he 
maintained  that  natural  relationship  had  no 
claim  on  man,  nor  was  gratitude  to  parents  or 
benefactors  any  part  of  justice  or  virtue.  Prop- 
erty was  to  belong  to  him  who  most  wants  it  ; 
accumulated  property  was  a  monstrous  injus- 
tice. Hence  marriage.which  is  law,  is  the  worst 
of  all  laws,  and  property  the  worst  of  all  prop- 
erties. His  life  was  published  in  1876  in  two 
volumes,  under  the  title  William  Godwin,  his 
Friends  and  Contemporaries,  by  C.  Kegan 
Paul.  A  part  of  his  Political  Justice  has  been 
recently  brought  out  in  the  (English)  Social 
Science  Series. 

GOLD    AND    SILVER,    PRODUCTION 

OF. — We  give  in  this  article  the  facts  as  to  the 
production  of  gold  and  of  silver  in  the  world 
and  in  the  United  States,  and  their  relative  com- 
mercial value.  (For  the  explanation  of  the  facts 
by  the  believers  in  the  single  gold  standard,  see 
MONOMETALLISM  ;  for  the  explanation  by  believ- 
ers in  the  double  standard,  see  SILVER  ;  for  the 
coinage  of  gold  and  silver,  see  CURRENCY.) 

I.  GOLD. 

The  color,  luster,  and  power  of  resisting  oxida- 
tion possessed  by  gold  have  caused  it  to  be  con- 
sidered a  precious  metal  from  the  earliest  times. 
Allusions  to  gold  are  frequent  in  the  Jewish 
Scriptures  and  in  classical  writings.  Jewelry 
and  vessels  found  in  Egyptian,  Greek,  and 
Trojan  tombs  show  the  perfection  attained  in 
working  gold,  while  the  value  attached  to  it  is 
shown  by  its  being  used  in  religious  worship 
and  in  its  being  chosen  by  the  poets  to  describe 
the  glory  of  the  gods. 

The  ancient  supply  of  gold  seems  to  have 
come  from  Eastern  Africa,  and  around  the 
sources  of  the  Indus.  In  the  times  of  the  Ro- 
mans, gold  does  not  seem  to  have  been  so  abun- 
dant, tho  gold  was  -worked  near  Apulia  and  in 
Spain.  After  the  discoverv  of  America  it  was 
brought  in  large  quantities  from  Mexico,  Brazil, 
and  other  South  American  countries.  Between 
1829  and  1838  it  was  found  in  Siberia  and  large- 
ly exported.  The  great  gold  fields  of  California 
were  discovered  in  1848,  by  accident  by  a  Mr. 
Marshall,  who  found  particles  of  gold  dust  in  a 
mill  race  on  the  estate  of  a  Captain  Sutter. 
Jit  led  to  intense  excitement. 

In  February,  1851,  the  gold  fields  of  Australia 
were  discovered  near  Bathurst  by  a  Mr.  Har- 
graves,  and  this  led  to  a  series  of  discoveries. 
From  1851-94  the  gold  produced  in  Victoria  is 
estimated  at  59,446,235  oz.,  valued  at  .£237,784,- 


940.  The  gold  fields  of  Queensland,  discovered 
in  1858,  are  estimated  to  have  yielded,  to  the 
end  of  1894,  9,926,923  oz.,  valued  at  ^£37, 744,230. 
The  gold  fields  of  New  South  Wales  has  pro- 
duced, since  1851,  11,061,379  oz.,  valued  at  £41,- 
010,669. 

The  most  famous  gold  mines  of  Europe  are 
those  of  Hungary  and  Transylvania,  tho  it  has 
been  found  in  Piedmont,  Spain,  and  the  British 
Islands. 

The  greater  part  of  the  gold  of  the  world  is 
obtained  by  washing  from  detrital  deposits 
along  the  beds  of  rivers  ;  a  smaller  quantity  is 
obtained  by  crushing  and  washing  quartz. 

II.  SILVER. 

Silver,  like  gold,  has  been  known  and  prized 
from  the  earliest  ages.  Phidon,  King  of  ^Egina, 
is  said  to  have  struck  coins  in  silver  B.C.  869. 
Silver  currency  was  adopted  by  the  Romans  in 
269.  It  was  largely  used  by  Greek  and  Roman 
artists.  The  silver  mines  of  Mexico  were,  until 
quite  recently,  by  far  the  richest  known  to  exist. 
Until  the  remarkable  discoveries  of  silver  ore  in 
Nevada  and  adjoining  States  in  1859  and  1860, 
Chile  and  Peru  had  long  stood  next  to  Mexico 
in  their  yield.  Bolivia  is  also  rich  in  silver. 

Of  European  countries,  Spain  is  the  most  pro- 
ductive. Next  to  Spain,  Austria,  Saxony,  and 
the  Harz  district,  in  Northern  Germany,  yield 
the  largest  supplies.  The  silver  mines  of  Konigs- 
berg,  in  Norway,  are  likewise  valuable,  and 
have  been  long  famous. 

The  great  silver-mining  industry  of  the  United 
States  had  no  existence  before  1860.  The  pros- 
pectors and  pioneers  who  traversed  Arizona, 
Idaho,  Nevada,  Colorado,  and  other  Territories 
in  the  Far  West,  seeking  for  gold,  in  the  years  be- 
tween 1850  and  1860,  fell  upon  silver  unexpected- 
ly. The  greatest  silver  mine  ever  known  was 
discovered  in  this  way  in  1858-59,  in  the  Washoe 
Country,  on  the  eastern  foothills  of  the  Sierra 
Nevada.  This  was  the  celebrated  "  Comstock" 
mine,  which  was  found  by  James  Shinney 
and  Henry  Comstock,  both  of  whom  parted  with 
their  interest  for  a  trifle,  not  discerning  the 
value  of  the  discovery.  A  portion  of  the  mine 
was- worked  in  1860-61,  and  by  1865  it  had  yield- 
ed the  value  of  $30,000,000  ;  and  a  city  of  20,000 
inhabitants  was  planted  on  its  site.  From  1859- 
66  the  total  product  of  the  mines  on  the  Com- 
stock lode  was  about  $70,000,000.  This  discov- 
ery encouraged  further  prospecting.  Idaho 
and  Montana  became  silver  bearing  territory  ; 
and  the  Wasatch  range,  looking  down  into  the 
Salt  Lake  valley,  was  found  to  be  rich  in  silver- 
bearing  lodes.  Up  to  December,  1878,  the  value 
of  the  silver  yield  of  Colorado  was  about  $16,- 
000,000.  Two  years  later  the  mines  of  Leadville, 
alone,  not  discovered  till  1877,  yielded  as  much. 

III.  STATISTICS. 

The  following  table  shows  the  world's  pro- 
duction of  gold  and  silver  for  400  years,  and 
compares  their  ratio  of  production  with  the  ratio 
of  their  relative  commercial  value  for  the  entire 
period.  The  figures  giving  production  from 
1493-1885  are  from  tables  by  Dr.  Adolph  Soet- 
beer,  as  given  in  the  Report  of  the  Director  of 
the  Mint  for  1894,  pages  304-305.  The  produc- 


Gold  and  Silver. 


66 1 


Gold  and  Silver. 


tion  for  the  years  from  1885-94  is  given  upon 
estimates  of  the  Bureau  of  the  Mint  in  the  re- 
ports for  1893  and  1894.  Recently  published 
estimates  of  the  production  of  gold  and  silver 
for  1894  have  been  added. 

The  two  columns  showing  the  amount  of  sil- 
ver produced  to  one  unit  of  gold  in  dollars  and 
in  ounces  were  prepared  by  Mr.  George  B.  Wal- 
dron,  from  the  world's  production  for  each 
period  as  given  in  the  preceding  columns  of  the 
table. 


For  purposes  of  comparison  he  has  added 
Dr.  Soetbeer's  estimates  of  \\\Q  commercial  ratio 
of  gold  to  silver  down  to  1832,  the  estimates  of 
Pixley  and  Abell  from  1833-78,  and  those  of  the 
Director  of  the  Mint  from  1879-94.  (See  Report 
of  the  Director  of  the  Mint  for  1895.)  Varia- 
tions between  the  highest  and  lowest  ratios  of 
each  period  are  given  in  the  next  column  from 
1687-1894,  based  on  daily  London  quotations 
beginning  with  1833. 


WORLD'S    PRODUCTION     OF    GOLD    AND    SILVER    FOR    400    YEARS— COMPARISON    BETWEEN 
RELATIVE  AND  COMMERCIAL  VALUES  OF  THE  TWO  METALS. 


COMMER- 

SILVER 

CIAL  VAL- 

WORLD'S PRODUCTION 

WORLD'S     PRODUCTION 

PRODUCED 

UE  OF  SIL- 

OF GOLD. 

OF  SILVER. 

TO  ONE  OF 

VER  TO 

GOLD. 

ONE  OF 

GOLD. 

CALEN- 
DAR 

B  .' 
11  f 

Significant   Historical 

YEARS. 

• 

_o 

|3 

Events. 

«5 

t/i 

cS 

a>T3-2 

0 

0 

M 

•^  C  ^ 

c 

C 

C      3^ 

3 

O 

l» 

3 

O 

4> 

i/i 
t- 

4> 

M 

• 

'B  1J  t« 

c 

1 

O 

c 

3 

"5 

3 

O 

3 

B 
5 

"C  be 

£ 

> 

£ 

Q 

0 

< 

>3 

1493-1520. 

5,221,160 

$107,931,000 

42,309,400 

$54,703,000 

$0.507 

8.10 

11.30 

1492.  Discovery  of  Ameri- 

ca. 

1521-1540. 

5,524,656 

114,205,000 

69,598,320 

89,986,000 

.788 

12.60 

ii.  20 

1521.  Cortez  completes  the 

conquest  of  Mexico. 

1541-1560. 

4,377,544 

90,492,000 

160,287,040 

207,240,000 

2.290 

36.62 

11.50 

1561-1580. 

4,398,120 

90,917,000 

192,578,500 

248,990,000 

2.739 

43-79 

11.50 

1581-1600. 

4,745,340 

98,095,000 

269,352,700 

348,254,000 

3-550 

56-76 

11.90 

1601-1620. 

5,478,36o 

113,248,000 

271,924,700 

351,579,000 

3-ios 

49-64 

13.00 

1621-1640. 

5,336,000 

110,324,000 

253,084,800 

327,221,000 

2.966 

47-44 

13.40 

1641-1660. 

5,639,110 

116,571,000 

235,530,900 

304,525,000 

2.601 

41-77 

13.  8c 

1661-1680. 

5,954,180 

123,084,000 

216,691,000 

280,166,000 

2.276 

36.39 

14.70 

.... 

1681-1700. 

6,921,895 

143,088,000 

219,841,700 

284,240,000 

1.986 

3I-76 

14.97 

•93 

1701-1720. 

8,243,260 

170,403,000 

228,650,800 

295,629,000 

1-735 

27-74 

15.21 

.48 

1721-1740. 

12,268,440 

253,611,000 

277,261,600 

358,480,000 

1.414 

22.60 

15.09 

.60 

1741  1760. 

15,824,230 

327,116,000 

342,812,235 

443,232,000 

1-355 

21.66 

14-75 

I.  12 

1761-1780. 

13,313,315 

275,211,000 

419,711,820 

542,658,000 

1.972 

31-53 

14-73 

•73 

1781-1800. 

n,438,970 

236,464,000 

565,235,580 

730,810,000 

3.091 

49.41 

15.09 

1.32 

1792.  United    States    Mint 

established.  Ratio  15  to  i 

1801-1810. 

5,715,627 

118,152,000 

287,469,225 

371,677,000 

3.146 

50.30 

15.61 

.82 

1811-1820. 

3,679,568 

76,063,000 

173,857,555 

224,786,000 

2-955 

47-25 

15.49 

1.14 

1816.  England       demone- 

1821-1830. 

4,570,444 

94,479,000 

148,070,040 

191,444,000 

2.026 

32.40 

,5.80 

•25 

tizes  silver. 

1831-1840. 

6,522,913 

134,841,000 

191,758,675 

247,930,000 

1.839 

29-40 

15.76 

•53 

1834.  United    States    Mint 

ratio  changed  to  16  to  i. 

1841-1848. 

14,084,091 

291,144,000 

200,732,500 

250,520,000 

.891 

14-25 

15-85 

.40 

1847.  Gold    discovered    in 

1849  

1,789,875 

37,000,000 

30,164,000 

39,000,000 

1.054 

16.85 

15-78 

.20 

California.    Panic. 

1850  

2,150,269 

44,450,000 

30,164,000 

39,000,  ooc 

.877 

14-03 

15-70 

•55 

1851  

3,270,150 

67,600,000 

30,937,500 

40,000,000 

•592 

9.46 

15.46 

.42 

1851.  Gold   discovered    in 

1852  

6,421,781 

132,750,000 

31,402,000 

40,600,000 

•  306 

4.89 

15-59 

.51 

Australia. 

1853  

7,519,894 

155,450,000 

31,402,000 

40,600,000 

.261 

4.18 

15-33 

.42 

1854  

6,165,378 

127,450,000 

31,402,000 

40,600,000 

•  3!9 

5-09 

15-33 

.24 

1855  

6,534,253 

135,075,000 

31,402,000 

40,600,000 

.301 

4.81 

15-38 

•45 

i8<;8.  Gold     discovered    in 

1856  

7,140,150 

147,600,000 

31,440,800 

40,650,000 

•  275 

4.40 

15-38 

•44 

Queensland. 

'857  

6,447,177 

133,275,000 

31,440,800 

40,650,000 

•3°5 

4.88 

15-27 

•34 

1858  

6,029,944 

124,650,000 

31,440,800 

40,650,000 

.326 

5.21 

I5-38 

.28 

1859  

6,039,619 

124,850,000 

31,517,600 

40,750,000 

.326 

5-22 

15-19 

.24 

1859.  Discovery  of   silver 

1860  

5,758,719 

119,250,000 

31,556,250 

40,800,000 

•342 

5-48 

15-29 

.28 

in  Nevada. 

1861  

5,505,075 

113,800,000 

34,572,700 

44,700,000 

•393 

6.28 

15-50 

.41 

1861.  Opening  of  American 

Civil  War. 

1862  

5,212,406 

07,750,000 

34,959,400 

45,200,000 

.419 

6.7I 

15-35 

.28 

1862.  Gold  and  silver  at  a 

1863  

5,i73>7o6 

06,950,000 

38,053,000 

49,200,000 

.460 

15-37 

.19 

Eremium  in  the  United 

1864  

5,466,375 

13,000,000 

39,986,700 

51,700,000 

•458 

7-31 

15-37 

.46 

tates. 

1865  

5,814,675 

20,200,000 

40,180,000 

51,950,000 

•432 

6.91 

15-44 

•35 

1865.  End     of     American 

1866  

5,858,213 

21,100,000 

39,252,000 

50,750,000 

.419 

6.70 

15-43 

•53 

Civil  War. 

1867  

5,043,094 

04,025,000 

41,939,600 

54,225,000 

•521 

8.32 

15-57 

•23 

1868  

5>307,947 

09,725,000 

38,845,900 

50,225,600 

.458 

7.32 

15-59 

•25 

1868.  Valuable      silver 

mines    opened    in    Col- 

1869   

5,138,634 

106,225,000 

36,738,200 

47,500,000 

•447 

7-15 

15.60 

.26 

orado. 

1870  

5,168,869 

106,850,000 

39,890,000 

51,575,000 

•483 

7.72 

15-57 

•44 

1870-71.     Franco-Prussian 
War. 

1871  

5,176,125 

107,000,000 

47,183,600 

61,050,000 

•571 

9.12 

15-59 

.21 

1871-73.  Germany  demon- 

1 

etizes  silver. 

Gold  and  Silver. 


662 


Gold  and  Silver. 


WORLD'S  PRODUCTION  OF  GOLD  AND  SILVER  FOR  400  YEARS  (Continued). 


COMMER- 

SILVER 

CIAL  VAL- 

WORLD'S PRODUCTION 

WORLD'S      PRODUCTION 

PRODUCED 

UE  OF  SIL- 

OF GOLD. 

OF  SILVER. 

TO  ONE  OF 

VER  TO 

GOLD. 

ONE  OF 

GOLD. 

CALEN- 

DAR 

££ 

Significant  Historical 

YEARS. 

o 

jjj  . 

Events. 

efl 

0> 

•jj 

^•073 

g 

0 

C4 

•°  £  cS 

p 

a 

(H    ^  04 

O 

» 

3 
0 

J 

4 

• 
0) 

bo 
3 

O  •*-*., 

g 

"3 

D 

d 

"3 

"o 

D 

3 

E 

'E  be 

gJ-~ 

E 

r 

E 

> 

P 

O 

< 

1872  

4,818,150 

$99,600,000 

50,466,800 

$65,250,000 

$0-665 

10.47 

15-63 

•49 

1872.  Scandinavian  Union 
formed  on  a  gold  basis. 

1873  

4,653,675 

96,200,000 

63,267,000 

81,800,000 

.850 

13    "Q 

I  5  02 

~6 

1873.  Silver    demonetized 

' 

in    the    United    States. 

Panic. 

1874  

4,390,031 

90,750,000 

55,300,000 

71,500,000 

.788 

12.  60 

16.17 

.62 

1874.  Silver    demonetized 
by  the  Latin  Union. 

1875  

4,726,563 

97,500,000 

62,262,000 

80,500,000 

.826 

I3-I7 

16.59 

.63 

1875.  Holland  suspends  the 

coinage  of  silver. 

1876.. 

5,016  488 

___    700  OOO 

6"T  TCQ  OOO 

o       /^jo  OOO 

O  .  - 

__   __ 

17.88 

.          _ 

1876.  Russia  suspends  the 

' 

1 

• 

coinage  of  silver. 

1877  

5,514,750 

114,000,000 

62,648,000 

81,000,000 

.711 

11.36 

17.22 

1-52 

1877.  Finland    adopts   the 

gold  standard. 

1878  

5.757.625 

119,000,000 

73,476,000 

95,000,000 

.798 

12.76 

17.94 

1.98 

1878.  United     States     re- 

turns to  limited  remon- 

etization  of  silver. 

1879.  .    . 
1880.  .    . 

5,272,875 
5,141,938 

109,000,000 
106,500,000 

74,250,000 
74,791,000 

96,000,000 
96,700,000 

.881 
.908 

14.08 
14-55 

18.40 
18.05 

1.76 
.41 

1879.  Resumption  of  specie 
payments  in  the  United 

1881.   .     . 

4,982,625 

103,000,000 

78,890,000 

02,000,000 

.990 

I5-83 

18.16 

.69 

States. 

1882.   .     . 

4,933.250 

102,000,000 

86,470,000 

11,800,000 

.096 

17-53 

18.20 

.86 

1882.  War  with  Egypt. 

1883     .     . 

4.614.975 

95,400,000 

89,I77,OOO 

15,300,000 

.209 

I9-32 

18.64 

.42 

1884.   .     . 

4.9Io,738 

101,700,000 

8l,597,000 

05,500,000 

•037 

16.59 

18.57 

.70 

1885. 

5,243,850 

108,400,000 

91,652,000 

18,500,000 

.094 

17.48 

19.41 

1.26 

1885.  Single  gold  standard 

1886.   .     . 

5,127,750 

106,000,000 

93,276,000 

20,600,000 

.138 

18.19 

20.78 

2-39 

introduced  in  Egypt. 

1887.   .     . 

5,116,866 

105,775,000 

9O,I24,OOO 

24,281,000 

•'75 

18.79 

21.13 

1-79 

1888.   .     . 

5,330,780 

110,197,000 

108,827,000 

40,706,000 

.277 

20.41 

21.99 

i  5' 

1889.   .     . 
1890.   .     . 
1891.   .     . 

5,973,780 
5,749,272 
6,320,194 

118,848,700 
130,650,000 

120,213,600 
I26,O95,OOO 
137,170,000 

55,427,700 
63,032,000 
77.352,300 

•259 
•372 
•357 

20.  1  2 

21-93 
21.70 

22.  IO 
19.76 
20.92 

1.27 
4-39 
2-33 

1890.  Silver  purchasing  act 
in  the  United  States. 

1892.    .     . 

7,071,146 

146,297,600 

152,940,100 

97.740,700 

•352 

21.63 

23.72 

3-34 

1892.  Gold     standard    re- 

places   silver    standard 

in  Austria-Hungary. 

1893  

7,605,909 

157,228,100 

l6l,776,IOO 

209,165,000 

1.330 

21.27 

26.49 

6.58 

1893.  Suspension  of  silver 

coinage  in  India  and  re- 

peal      of        purchasing 

clause  of  act  of  1890  in 

the  United  States. 

1894  

8,780,551 

181,510,100 

165,887,700 

214,481,100 

1.182 

18.89 

32  59 

5-22 

1493-1600. 

24,266,820 

$501,640,000 

734,125,960 

$949,173,000 

$1.892 

30.25 

11.48 

•70 

1601-1700. 

29,330,445 

606,315,000 

I,I97,O73,IOO 

i,547,73I,ooo 

2-554 

40.81 

13-97 

2.20 

1701-1800. 

61,088,215 

1,262,805,000 

1,833,672,035 

2,370,809,000 

1.885 

30.02 

14.97 

I.  60 

_- 

1801-1848. 

34,572,643 

$714,679,000 

1,001,887,995 

$1,295,357,000 

$1.812 

28.98 

15.69 

I.I4 

1849-1873. 

133,603,284 

2,761,825,000 

919,628,850 

1,189,015,000 

•431 

6.88 

15.48 

1.26 

1874-1894. 

117,596,989 

2,430,945,500 

2,o6o,58l,4OO 

2,664,185,800 

1.096 

17-52 

20.22 

18.97 

1806-1894. 

285,772,915 

$5,907,449,500 

3,982,098,245 

$5,I48,557,8oo 

$.872 

13-94 

16.65 

19.88 

1493-1894. 

400,458,396 

$8,278,209,500 

7,746,969,340 

$10,016,270,800 

$1.210 

19-34 

13-95 

23.72 

The  table  is  most  important  in  its  bearing  on 
the  silver  question.  The  uniformity  of  the  ratio 
down  to  1873  is  very  marked.  The  lowest  point 
in  that  period  was  touched  in  1760,  when  it  stood 
at  14. 14  to  i  of  gold,  and  the  highest  point  in 
1813,  during  the  war  with  England,  when  it 
stood  at  16.25.  Since  1873  the  ratio  has  rapidly 
risen  until  in  March,  1894,  it  stood  at  nearly  35 
to  i. 

The  commercial  ratio  of  gold  to  silver,  from 
the  time  of  Herodotus  (born  484  B.C.)  down  to 
the  year  1717,  is  shown  in  the  following  from  the 
letter  of  Lord  Liverpool  to  the  King  of  England 
(see  Coinage  Laws  of  the  United  States,  1894, 
P-  435)  : 


In  Persia,  according  to  Herodotus i  to  1 1§ 

In  Greece  at  same  period i  to  13 

In  Greece  in  the  time  of  Plato  i  to  12 

In  Greece  it  is  stated  by  Xenophon  at i  to  10 

After  the  plunder  of  gold  from  the  Temple  of 

Apollo,  according  to  Menander,  it  was i  to  10 

In  the  reign  of  Alexander  the  Great  it  was i  to  10 

In  Rome,  according  to  Pliny  the  Elder i  to  iojf 

In  Rome,  after    the    tribute    from   the    Eto- 

lians    i  to  10 

The  plunder  of  gold  from  the  Gauls  by  Julius 

Csesar  reduced    the    proportions  to i  to  7$ 

In  the  reign  of  Claudius,  Tacitus  states  it  at .  i  to  12$ 
Until  the  reign  of  Alexander  Servius  it  con- 
tained     I  tO  12$ 

In  the  reign  of  Constantino  the  Great i  to  01 J 

The  disorders  in  the  Roman  Empire  under 

Arcadus  and  Honorius  raised  it  to i  to  14) 

From  which  it  appears  that  gold,  unless 

when    depressed    by  sudden    and    unusual 


Gold  and  Silver. 


663 


Gold  and  Silver. 


occurrences,  or  enhanced  by  a  dread  of 

Eublic  insecurity,  may  be  stated  to  have 
een  for  upward  of  900  years  in  the  pro- 
portion of i  to  10  or  12 

In  England,  in  the  reign  of  Henry  III.,  1216 

to  1272 —  i  to  gi 

In  England,  in  the  reign  of  Edward  III., 

I33p  tO     1377 I  tO   I2j 

In  England,  in  the  reign  of  Henry  IV., 
1400  to  1412 i  to  ioj 

In  England,  in  the  reign  of  Edward  IV., 
1461  to  1477 i  to  uj 

In  England,  in  the  reign  of  Henry  VIII., 
1510  to  1547 i  to  ii.  10 

In  England,  in  the  reign  of  Queen  Eliza- 
beth, 1560 i  to  ii 

In  England,  in  the  reign  of  King  James  I., 
1604 i  to  12! 

In  England,  in  the  reign  of  King  James  I., 
1611. i  to  13} 

In  England,  in  the  reign  of  Charles  II.,  1665.  i  to  144 

In  England,  in  the  reign  of  George  I.,  1717..  i  to  15$ 


Relative  proportions  in  China,  according 
to  Humboldt i  to  12} 

Relative  proportions  in  Japan,  according 
to  Humboldt i  to  8J 

Relative  proportions  in  Bengal,  according 
to  bullion  report i  to  14.86 

Relative  proportions  in  Madras,  according 
to  bullion  report i  to  13 J 

Relative  proportions  in  Bombay,  according 
to  bullion  report i  to  15 

In  the  China  Diaries  it  is  stated  at  16  taels 
of  silver  to  i  tael  of  gold  of  100  touch  of 
pure  gold.  If  it  is  meant  to  be  of  pure 
silver  also,  the  proportion  would  be  i  to 
16  ;  but  it  is  believed  to  be  the  average 
fineness  of  silver  in  dollars,  which  would 
be i  to  14.296 

The  following  is  the  London  price  of  silver 
per  ounce  sterling  from  1833-95  (Statistical  Ab- 
stract of  the  United  States,  1895,  p.  42) : 


CALENDAR 
YEAR. 

Lowest 
Quota- 
tion. 

High- 
est 
Quota- 
tion. 

Aver- 
age 
Quota- 
tion. 

Value 
of  a 
Fine 
Ounce 
at  Ave- 
rage 
Quota- 
tion. 

Com- 
mer- 
cial 
Ratio. 

Calendar 
Year. 

Lowest 
Quota- 
tion. 

High- 
est 
Quota- 
tion. 

Aver- 
age 
Quota- 
tion. 

Value 
of  a 
Fine 
Ounce 
at  Ave- 
rage 
Quota- 
tion. 

Com- 
mer- 
cial 
Ratio. 

183-!  

Pence. 
58^ 

Pence. 

Pence. 

Dollars. 

1865 

Pence. 
/^i 

Pence. 

f,ilC. 

Pence. 
f,t  \- 

Dollars. 

iSu  

6oJ< 

mi 

1866 

ftn*/Z 

1835  

60 

coil 

.708 

15.80 

1867...  . 

fir>3£ 

fti^ 

finJL 

1836  

59& 

60% 

1868 

fii  \i 

1837  

60% 

is  8a 

1869 

6b 

1.320 

1838  

59  1/» 

60  X 

15-85 

fioV 

frAf 

finJ 

15.00 

1839  

60 

6oX 

60^ 

fioJ 

61 

6oi 

1840  

60% 

60  Yt, 

60% 

fit  W 

'3 

1841  

59  & 

(K>% 

6oVW 

•3»3 

«K 

-nit 

°°T« 

22 

1842  

59* 

60 

15.87 

S7* 

enl/i 

1841  

*a» 

y.y 

5°IB 

,*  ' 

1844  

59  \ 

enLi 

is  8? 

1876           «- 

& 

5°% 

I.24O 

184=  

58  % 

59% 

59^ 

.298 

C-)li 

52H 

I.I5 

1846  

6o*i 

^9-A. 

1878 

tc\l 

54ig 

I.2OI 

i847  

58  Ti 

6o# 

5911 

.3^8 

15.80 

A9.1/Z 

52IB 

1848  

SW* 

60 

59/4 

.304 

15.85 

1880 

~,$£ 

V* 

'* 

1849  

59V4 

60 

15.78 

1881 

,0V 

18  16 

1850  

5954 

6ilA 

6iJL 

.316 

1882 

~~\£ 

S'lB 

1851  

60 

6if£ 

61 

•337 

15.46 

1883 

5  * 

5HJ 

'    ^ 

18  64 

18152  

59% 

6i# 

6oK 

1884 

fo* 

CIrZ 

5°H 

* 

T«     CT 

1853  

6c^ 

61% 

6ilA 

•348 

15.33 

1885         .... 

46X 

5°X 

1854  

6o# 

6i# 

6ilA 

•348 

15.33 

1886 

48A 

1855  

60 

6iX 

6lTB 

•344 

15.38 

1887 

«K 

«K 

45$ 

1856  

6otf 

62* 

6ih 

•344 

15.38 

1888 

±\y* 

44« 

1857  

61 

62^ 

6tff 

•353 

1889 

44  1! 

42% 

1858  

6oJi 

6i7/t 

6ifg 

•  S44 

15.38 

«K 

r.SS 

4'H 

'       , 

1859  

6iK 

62  y4 

6218 

•36 

15-19 

3* 

A?,**: 

47i 

:86o  

faS 

62% 

6iU 

.352 

15.29 

.,«/ 

45A 

' 

1861  

60^ 

61% 

6ois 

•  333 

15.50 

o83/ 

39% 

1862  

61 

62  y. 

6iiTe 

.346 

15.35 

-,,l7 

35A 

!863  

61 

6iK 

61^ 

•345 

15.37 

27A 

7I?i 

28fi 

1864  

6o& 

fo% 

61% 

29tf 

3  • 

The  following  is  the  currency  price  of  gold  in  the  New  York  market  (American  Almanac, 
1879,  p.  249) : 


MONTHS. 


January. 

Feb 

March... 

April 

May 

June 

July.... 
August.. 
Sept  .... 
October. 

Nov 

Dec 

Average 
for  year.. 


1862. 

1863. 

1864. 

1865. 

1866. 

1867. 

1868. 

1869. 

1870. 

1871. 

1872. 

I873- 

1874. 

1875- 

1876. 

1877. 

1878. 

02.5 

I45-I 

155-5 

2t6.2 

140.1 

134.6 

138.5 

135-6 

121.3 

110.7 

09.1 

II2-7 

1.4 

12.5 

12.8 

106.2 

102.  1 

03-5 

160.5 

158-6 

205.5 

138.4 

'37-4 

141.4 

'34-4 

"9-5 

111.5 

10.3 

II4.I 

2-3 

14-5 

13-4 

105.2 

IO2. 

01.8 

154-5 

162.9 

173-8 

'SQ-S 

JSS- 

139-5 

I3I-3 

112.  6 

in. 

10.  1 

"5-5 

2.1 

15-5 

!4-3 

104.8 

IOI.4 

01.5 

I5I-5 

172.7 

H8.5 

127.3 

135-6 

138-7 

132.9 

113.1 

1  10.  6 

ii.  i 

117.8 

3-4 

14.8 

13.2 

106.2 

IOO-7 

03-3 

148.9 

176-3 

I35.6 

131.8 

J37- 

139.6 

139.2 

114.7 

111.5 

13-7 

117.7 

2-4 

15-8 

f2.7 

106.5 

100.8 

06.5 

H4-5 

210.7 

I4O.I 

148.7 

137-5 

140.1 

138.1 

112.9 

112.4 

13-9 

116.5 

i-3 

17- 

II.Q 

ioS-5 

100.8 

iS-5 

130.6 

258.1 

I42.I 

151.6 

139-4 

142.7 

136.1 

116.8 

112.4 

14.3 

"5-7 

o. 

14.8 

ii.  8 

105.6 

100.6 

M-5 

125.8 

254.1 

M3-5 

148.7 

140.8 

J45-5 

134-2 

117.9 

112.4 

14.4 

"5-4 

09.7 

13-5 

10.8 

104.6 

100.6 

18.5 

134-2 

222.5 

'43-9 

145-5 

143.4 

143.6 

136.8 

114.8 

114-5 

'3-5 

112.7 

09.7 

15.8 

09.7 

103.5 

100.3 

28.5 

147-7 

207.2 

HS-5 

148.3 

143-5 

137.1 

130.2 

II2.8 

113.2 

13.2 

108.9 

o. 

16.5 

10.7 

102.9 

100.3 

31-1 

148. 

233-5 

147. 

143.8 

139.6 

I34-4 

126.2 

111.4 

III.  2 

12.9 

108.6 

0.9 

15.2 

09.1 

102.9 

100.3 

32-3 

151.1 

227.5 

146.2 

i36-7 

134.8 

135-2 

121.5 

110.7 

109.3 

12.2 

no. 

'•7 

13-9 

08. 

102.7 

100.3 

113.3 

145.2 

203.3 

157-3 

140.9 

138.2 

!39-7 

!33- 

114.9 

in.  7 

II2.4 

113.8 

1  1  1.  a 

115.1 

111.5 

104.7 

100.9 

Gold  and  Silver. 


664 


Gold  and  Silver. 


The  following  is  the  product  of  gold  and  silver  from  mines  in  the  United  States  from  1845-94 
{Statistical  Abstract,  1895,  p.  40)  : 

PRODUCT  OF  GOLD  AND  SILVER  FROM  MINES  IN  THE  UNITED  STATES,  FROM  1845  TO  1894. 


CALENDAR  YEAR. 


1845 48,778 

1846 55,116 

'847 43,009 

I848    483,750 

I849 1,935,000 

1850 2,418,750 

1851 2,660,625 

1852 2,902,500 

lR53 3i '441375 

'854 2,902,500 

1855 2,660,625 

1856 2,660,625 

1857 2,660,625 

'858 2,419,000 

1859 2,419,000 

'860 2,225,250 

1861   2,080,125 

1862 1,896,300 

'863 1,935,000 

1864 2,230,100 

J86| 2,574,759 

1866 2,588,062 

1867 2,502,197 

1868 2,322,000 

l869 2,370,375 

1870 2,418,750 

1871 2,104,300 

1872    1,741,500 

'873 1,741,500 

1874 1,620,563 

J875 1,615,725 

1876 1,930,162 

1877 2,268,788 

1878 2,476,800 

1879 1,881,787 

1880 1,741,500 

1881 1,678,612 

1882 1,572,187 

1883 1,451,250 

1884... 1,489,950 

1885 1,538,325 

1886 1,693,125 

1887 1,596,375 

1888.. 1,604,841 

1889 1,587,000 

1890 1,588,880 

1891 1,604,840 

1892 i,596,375 

1893 i,739,323 

1894 1,910,813 


GOLD 


Fine  Ounces. 


Value. 


$1,008,327 
J,i39,357 
889,085 
10,000,000 
40,000,000 
50,000,000 
55,000,000 
60,000,000 
65,000,000 
60,000,000 
55,000,000 

55,000,000 
55,000,000 
50,000,000 
50,000,000 
46,000,000 
43,000,000 
39,200,000 
40,000,000 
46,100,000 
53,225,000 
53,500,000 
51,725,000 
48,000,000 
49,500,000 
50,000,000 
43,500,000 
36,000,000 
36,000,000 
33,500,000 
33,400,000 
39,900,000 
46,900,000 
51,200,000 
38,900,000 
36,000,000 
34,700,000 
32,500,000 
30,000,000 
30,800,000 
31,800,000 
35,000,000 
33,000,000 
33,175,000 
32,800,000 
32,845,000 
33,175,000 
33,000,000 
35,955,000 
39,500,000 


SILVER. 


Fine  Ounces. 


38,672 
38,672 
38,672 
38,672 
38,672 
38,672 
38,672 
38,672 
38,672 
38,672 
38,672 
38,672 
38,672 
386,720 

77,344 

110,010 

1,547,000 

3,480,000 

6,574,220 

8,510,000 

8,701,200 

7,734,400 

10,441,000 

9,281,250 

9,281,250 

13,000,000 

17,789,000 

22,244,100 

27,650,000 

28,849,000 

24,518,000 

30,009,000 

30,783,000 

34,960,000 

31,550,000 

30,320,000 

33,260,000 

36,200,000 

35,730,000 

37,800,000 

39,910,000 

39,440,000 

41,200,000 

45,780,000 

50,000,000 

54,500,000 

58,330,000 

63,500,000 

60,000,000 

49,500,000 


Commercial 
Value. 


$50,196 

50,274 

50,583 

50,428 

50,622 

50,892 

51,704 

51,279 

52,13° 

52,130 

5^985 

51,985 

52,333 

519,752 

105,188 

156,832 

2,062,151 

4,683,880 

8,842,326 

",445,950 

11,642,206 

10,356,362 

13,865,648 

12,306,938 

12,297,656 

17,264,000 

23,588,214 

29,406,700 

35,75o,ooo 

36,869,000 

30,549,000 

34,690,000 

36,970,000 

40,270,000 

35,430,000 

34,720,000 

37,850,000 

41,120,000 

39,660,000 

42,070,000 

42,500,000 

39,230,000 

40,410,000 

43,020,000 

46,750,000 

57,225,000 

57,630,000 

55,563,000 

46,800,000 

31,422,000 


Coining 
Value. 


$50,000 
50,000 
50,000 
50,000 
50,000 
50,000 
50,000 
50,000 
50,000 
50,000 
50,000 
50,000 
50,000 
500,000 
100,000 
150,000 

2,000,000 

4,500,000 
8,500,000 

11,000,000 

11,250,000 
10,000,000 
13,500,000 
12,000,000 
12,000,000 
16,000,000 
23,000,000 
28,750,000 

35,750,000 

37,300,000 
31,700,000 
38,800,000 
39,800,000 
45,200,000 
40,800,000 
39,200,000 
43,000,000 
46,800,000 
46,200,000 
48,800,000 
51,600,000 
5  r, 000,000 
53,350,000 
59,195,000 
64,646,000 
70,465,000 
75,417,000 
82,101,000 
77,576,000 
64,000,000 


R.  W.  Raymond,  United  States  Commissioner 
of  Mining  Statistics,  estimates  the  gold  mined 
from  1792  to  July  31,  1834,  at  $14,000,000,  and 
from  that  date  to  1845  at  $7,500,000.  Silver  he 


estimates  for  the  first  period  as  insignificant, 
and  for  the  second  period  at  $250,000. 

The  following  table  shows  the  production  of 
gold  and  silver  by  States  and  by  counties  : 

SOURCES  OF  THE  SILVER  PRODUCT  OF  THE  UNITED  STATES  IN  1893. 


STATE  OR  TERRITORY. 


Arizona 

California 

Colorado  ..   . 

Idaho 

Montana 

Nevada 

New  Mexico. 

Utah 

All  others 


Total . 


FINE  OUNCES  SILVER  IN- 


Quartz  and  Mill- 
ing Ores. 


1,852,200 

420,200 

11,627,400 

1,035,000 

9,016,900 

1,436,300 

153,100 

1,800,000 

300,000 

27,641,100 


Lead  Ores. 


812,900 

49,900 

12,660,900 


2,427,200 
125,000 
306,300 

5,146,300 
300,000 

24,713,100 


Copper  Ores. 


270,000 
'-550,30° 


350,000 
74,000 

7,645,800 


Total. 


2,935,700 

470,100 

25,838,600 

3,919,600 

16,945,000 

1,561,300 

459,400 

7,196,300 

674,000 

60,000,000 


Gold  and  Silver. 


665 


Gold  and  Silver. 


From  an  examination  of  the  above  table  it  will  be 
seen  that  of  the  60,000,000  ounces  of  silver  produced  in 
the  United  States  during  the  calendar  year  1893,  about 
27,600,000  ounces  were  extracted  from  milling  ores — 
that  is,  silver  ores  proper — while  24, 700,000  ounces  came 
from  lead  ores,  and  7,600,000  ounces  from  copper  ores. 

It  would  appear,  therefore,  that  less  than  one  half  of 


the  silver  product  of  the  United  States  is  derived  from 
mines  producing  silver  ores  proper,  and  that  consider- 
ably more  than  one  half  of  the  entire  silver  output  of 
the  United  States  is  an  incidental  product  from  the 
smelting  of  lead  and  copper  ores,  altho  this  incidental 
product  is  frequently  more  valuable  than  the  other 
metals  contained. 


STATEMENT    OF    DEPOSITS    AT    MINTS  AND    ASSAY    OFFICES    OF    THE    GOLD    AND    SILVER 
PRODUCED   IN  THE  SEVERAL  STATES  FROM   1793   TO  DECEMBER  31,   1894. 


LOCALITY. 


Gold. 


Silver. 


Total. 


Alabama 

Alaska    

Arizona 

California 

Colorado.., 

Georgia 

Idaho 

Maine 

Maryland 

Michigan 

Missouri 

Montana 

Nebraska 

Nevada 

New  Hampshire.. 
New  Mexico. .  .. 
North  Carolina.  . 

Oregon 

South  Carolina.  .. 

South  Dakota 

Tennessee 

Texas 

Utah  

Vermont 

Virginia , 

Washington 

Wisconsin 

Wyoming 

Other  sources .... 

Total  unrefined. 
Refined  bullion. . . 

Grand  total . . . 


$246,356.98 
1.483,536.88 

^.gs'.yga-1? 

767,568,763.99 

68,246,222.38 

9,210,074.50 

35,201,629.69 

6,311.06 

17,578.38 

418,294.12 

96.71 

73,490,543.57 

1,921.79 

33,678,267.56 

481.34 
6,080,775.90 

",773,222.35 
21,999,696.50 


50,923,627.71 

107,177.22 

7,910.56 

1,477,262.74 

78,647.87 

1,760,135.87 

927,925.42 

„  32S'73 
848,335.02 

41,943,089.28 


1,136,769,441.04 
450,641,481.96 


$253-75 

15,529.64 

14,085,175.88 

4,241,156.90 

24,800,914.45 

6,851.56 

1,960,383.64 

22.90 

40.91 

4,063.354-04 
359-" 

21,982,919  05 

273,226.13 

104,191,259.88 

-75 

7,059,250.52 

66,441.54 

94,499.95 

3,969.82 

1,051,824.45 

I4-15 

3,447-01 

19,920,438.78 

84-65 

438.02 

12,959.31 

7.02 

13,060.55 
42,908,216.05 


'i  587,410,923.00 


$246,756,101.41 
526,943,607.40 

$773,699,708.8! 


$246,610.73 

1,499,066.52 

21,036,969.07 

771,809,920.89 

93,047,136.83 

9,216,926.06 

37,162,013.33 

6,333-96 

17,619.29 

4,481,648.16 

455.82 

95,473,462.62 

275,147-92 

i37,86<>  527.44 

483.09 

13,140,026.42 

11,839,663.89 

22,094,196.45 

2,323,406.55 

51>975,452.i6 

107,191.37 

",357-57 

21,397,701.52 

78,732.52 

1,760,573.89 

940,884.73 

f    332-75 

861,395.57 

84,851,303.33 


$1,383,525,542.45 
977,585,089.36 


$2,361,110,631  .81 


The  following  table  shows  the  relative  varia- 
tions in  wages  and  prices  as  measured  in  cur- 
rency gold  and  silver  from  1840-92.  It  is  taken 
from  George  B.  Waldron's  Handbook  on  Cur- 
rency and  Wealth,  pp.  82,  83.  Mr.  Waldron 
says  : 

"The  figures  are  compiled  from  the  results  of  the 
special  Senate  committee  investigation,  transmitted  to 
the  Senate  March  3,  1893.  The  investigation  was  made 
by  a  sub-committee  on  tariff,  with  Nelson  W.  Aldrich 
as  chairman. 

"  The  comparative  percentages  on  prices  are  based 
on  quotations  of  wholesale  prices  of  223  articles,  cover- 
ing the  period  from  1860  to  1892,  and  of  85  articles  cov- 
ering the  whole  period  from  1840.  In  most  cases  these 
were  actual  prices  paid  during  the  month  of  January, 
and  not  average  prices  for  the  year.  In  a  few  in- 
stances, when  the  January  price  is  not  the  typical 
price  for  the  year,  the  quotations  for  another  month 
are  taken  ;  potatoes,  for  example,  being  quoted  for 
October.  All  these  quotations  of  the  223  articles  were 
reduced  to  relative  percentages  with  1860  as  TOO. 

"  It  would  be  manifestly  unfair  to  give  equal  weight 
to  all  the  quotations  and  strike  a  general  average  for 
each  year,  so  the  attempt  was  made  to  give  each  quo- 
tation the  weight  it  would  have  in  the  expenditures  of 
the  average  family.  The  basis  taken  was  the  investi- 
gations of  the  Commissioner  of  Labor,  reported  in  the 
seventh  annual  report  (1891),  in  which  the  average  ex- 
penditures of  2561  normal  families  are  found  to  be  as 
follows : 

"Rent,  15.06  per  cent.;  food,  41.03;  fuel,  5.00;  cloth- 
ing, 15.31  ;  light,  0.90;  all  other  purposes,  22.70;  total, 
100.00  per  cent. 

"  Of  the  84.94  per  cent,  (excluding  rent)  of  the  expen- 
ditures of  the  average  family,  it  was  found  that  the 


quotations  of  prices  covered  68.60  per  cent.  Giving 
to  each  article  the  exact  weight  that  it  would  have  in 
the  expenditures  of  the  average  normal  family,  the 
committee  obtained  the  results  given  in  the  first  col- 
umn of  prices  in  the  table. 

"The  method  pursued  is  probably  as  accurate  as 
any  that  could  be  followed.  Certain  assumptions, 
however,  should  be  noted.  It  is  assumed  that  family 
expenses  follow  the  same  proportions  in  1840  and  1860 
that  obtained  in  1891.  This  assumption  was  necessary 
from  the  fact  that  no  earlier  investigations  of  family 
expenditures  were  made.  Quotations  of  prices  are 
given  always  at  wholesale,  and  the  assumption  is  that 
retail  prices  have  varied  in  the  same  ratio.  In  general 
this  is  probably  true,  but  in  particular  articles  and  for 
particular  periods  this  would  not  be  true.  But  in  spite 
of  these  assumptions,  the  investigation  is  probably  the 
most  reliable  ever  made. 

"  These  prices  and  percentages  are  all  on  a  cur- 
rency basis.  This  would  be  the  same  as  the  gold  ba- 
sis, except  for  the  years  from  1862  to  1878.  The  second 
column  of  prices  shows  what  the  variations  were 
on  a  gold  basis  at  the  average  price  of  currency  for 
January  of  each  of  these  years  as  given  on  pages  69 
and  70. 

"For  purposes  of  further  comparison  we  have  added 
the  relative  prices  in  silver  from  quotations  of  the 
January  price  of  silver  in  London  (which  is  always  the 
governing  price),  furnished  us  from  the  Treasury  De- 
partment at  Washington.  Prices  measured  in  silver 
were  at  94.9  in  1860,  as  shown  by  the  table,  and  did  not 
rise  to  par  until  after  1873,  since  which  time  they  have 
been  steadily  rising. 

"  A  similar  plan  was  followed  by  the  committee  in 
securing  the  relative  wages  for  the  period.  Quotations 
of  day  wages  were  obtained,  of  which  61  series  begin 
as  early  as  1840,  and  543  cover  the  period  from  1860. 
These  quotations,  as  in  the  investigation  on  prices, 
were  reduced  to  percentages  with  1860  as  100,  and  the 


Gold  and  Silver. 


666 


Gold  and  Silver. 


RELATIVE   PRICES  AND  WAGES   IN   CURREN- 
CY, GOLD,  AND  SILVER-i84o  TO  1892. 

(All  figures  are  in  percentages,  with  the  year  1860  as 

IOO.) 


YEAR— JANUARY. 


1840. 


1842.. 
1843.. 
1844. 

1845-- 
1846.. 
1847.. 
1848.. 
1849-- 

1850.. 
1851  . 
1852.. 
1853  •• 
1854.. 

1855  • 
1856.. 
1857  . 
1858.. 
1859.. 

1860.. 
1861.. 
1862 . . 
1863.. 
1864.. 

1865.. 
1866.. 
1867.. 
1868  . 
1869.. 

1870.. 
1871.. 
1872.. 
1873-- 
1874.. 

1875.. 
1876.. 
1877.. 
1878.. 
1879.. 


1890. 


1891,  October 

1892,  October 


1840-49. 
1850-59. 
1860-69. 
1870-79. 
1880-89. 
1890-92. 


RELATIVE 
PRICES  IN— 


Cur- 


cy. 


Gold. 


90.1 

84-3 
85.0 


95-2 
95-2 
88.3 

83-5 


98.6 

97-9 
05.0 
05.0 

09  2 
12.3 

14.0 


187.7 
165.8 

'73-9 


136. 


128.9 

122.6 
113.6 
104.6 


101.6 


123.2 
125.6 


114.6 
108.7 


95-o 

104.9 
108.4 
109.1 
106.6 
102.6 

93-3 
93-4 
94-5 
96.2 
98.5 

93-7 
94.4 
92.8 
91.7 

90  6 

104.7 

151.4  |    no.o 

123.7  |    112.3 

100.8 

93.2 


Sil- 
ver. 


95-4 
95.8 
89.1 
83-7 
84-5 

87.8 
94-8 
93.2 
88.0 
82.5 


94.4 
93-7 
100.9 
100.5 

104.6 
108.5 
108.0 
108.6 
98-4 

94-9 

9°-5 
90.8 
87.1 
105.0 

02.9 
28.4 
19.4 

22.2 
09.0 

15.8 
19.7 
I7.6 
II. O 
17 

17.4 

'5-5 
09.6 

13-4 
11.4 

17.9 
24.7 
23.8 
25.0 
19.0 

10.8 
17.9 
19.0 
27.9 
36-6 

24.2 
16.1 

22. 

38.9 

89-5 

00.6 
05.0 
14.9 
22.3 
25-5 


RELATIVE 
WAGES  IN— 


Cur- 
ren- 
cy. 


Gold. 


82.5 
79  9 
84.1 

83.0 

83-2 

85-7 
80.  i 

9i-3 
91.6 

9°-5 

90.9 
91.1 
91.8 
93.2 
95-8 

97-5 
98.0 
99.2 
97-9 
99-7 

IOO.O 

100.7 

IOI.2 
II8.8 
134.0 


148.6 
155-6 
164.0 
164.9 
167.4 

167.1 
166.4 
167.1 
166.1 
162.5 

158.0 
151-4! 
143.8 


81.9 

86.2 


68.7 
in.  i 

121.8 


136.9 


139-4 

143.0 
150-7 
152-9 
159.2 
155-1 

155-9 
155.8 
1566 
157-9 

162.9 


168.6 
168.4 

166.0 


95-5 

135.8      ioi., 
156.3  |    142.: 

'55° 
1678 


Sil- 


80.6 
78.6 
83.2 
82.5 
82.7 

85-3 
88.7 
89.4 
91.3 
89.4 

89.8 
87.2 
87.9 
89.6 
91.7 

93-4 
94-7 
94.0 
93-9 
95-Q 

94.9 
96.9 
97-4 
78.3 
81.8 

65-8 
106.4 
•118.0 

"5-9 
119.9 

133-2 

146.4 
148.4 
142.9 
146.5 

143-9 
142.6 
138-7 
152-5 


160.7 
!73.3 
173-5 
186.8 
179.8 

185.0 
196.6 
197.2 
209  9 
225.8 

222.9 
207.4 
215.9 
251.4 

85.2 
91.7 
97-5 
M5-9 
188.9 
224.4 


ployed  in  each  industry  by  periods  of  10  years.  Giving 
to  each  industry  the  weight  indicated  by  the  relative 
number  of  persons  employed  in  that  industry,  the 
committee  secured  the  relative  wages  for  each  year 
of  the  whole  period,  as  given  in  the  first  column  of 
relative  wages.  The  columns  of  wages  in  gold  and 
in  silver  were  obtained  as  in  the  similar  columns  of 
prices. 

"  One  caution  should  be  given  in  passing.  The  rela- 
tive wages  given  are  of  persons  actually  employed, 
and  necessarily  make  no  account  of  the  varying  num- 
ber of  the  unemployed  or  of  those  partially  employed 
during  the  vear." 

See  WAGES. 

"  Gold  and  silver"  are  considered  in  the  same 
connection  by  Richard  P.  Rothwell  in  the  vol- 
ume on  Mineral  Industries  of  the  census  of 
1890,  beginning  with  page  33.  According  to 
this  article,  "the  number  of  gold  and  sil- 
ver '  claims,'  or  '  locations,'  commonly  called 
'  mines,'  in  the  United  States  is  practically  be- 
yond computation.  The  names  of  nearly  100,- 
ooo  of  such  claims  or  mines  were  received  by 
the  Census  Office."  But  of  these  only  6004 
were  finally  tabulated  as  being  of  sufficient  im- 
portance to  be  classed  as  mines.  The  relative 
importance  of  these  is  shown  by  the  following 
table  : 

GOLD  AND  SILVER  MINES— CENSUS  OF  1890. 
{Mineral  Industries,  p.  35.) 


MINES. 

Number. 

Per  Cent,  of 
Producing 
Mines. 

Producing   over    $500,000    bul- 
lion   

28 

Producing    from     $250,000    to 

i  18 

ucing     from     $100,000    to 

2.87 

Producing  from  $50,000  to  $100,- 

95 

Producing  from  $10,000  to  $50,- 

Producing  from  $1,000  to  $10,- 

1,408 

Producing  less  than  $1,000  

1,610 

43-'7 

Total  producing  mines  
Mines  reported    working,    but 

3i729 

100.00 

Mines  reported  idle  

1,266 

Total   number    of    mines 
reported  

yearly  percentages  averaged  for  each  of  the  17  general 
industries  represented.  The  different  census  reports 
from  1840  to  1880  showed  the  number  of  persons  em- 


Speaking  of  the  influences  which  affect  the 
production  and  relative  values  of  gold  and  sil- 
ver, the  report  says  (p.  118) : 

"  The  production  of  gold  and  silver  in  the  United 
States  is  coming  more  and  more  from  the  treatment  of 
the  gold-bearing  ores  of  other  metals,  and  less  from 
strictly  gold  and  silver  ores.  The  industry  is  becom- 
ing year  by  year  more  of  a  regular  non-speculative 
manufacturing  business,  in  which  '  finds '  and  bonan- 
zas have  less  and  less  influence,  and  it  is,  therefore, 
certain  to  increase  with  a  steady  and  healthy  growth. 
Investments  in  precious  metal  mines  still  continue  to 
be  made  as 'gambles,' and  consequently  are  still,  on 
the  whole,  unprofitable  ;  but  every  year  diminishes 
this  unhealthy  characteristic  of  mining,  and  brings  the 
industry  more  into  the  category  of  legitimate  indus- 
trial enterprises,  where  investments  are  made  with 
the  same  precautions  as  in  other  classes  of  business, 
and  moderate  profits  are  sought  as  the  reward  of 
steady  industry,  while  the  class  of  'millionaires  of  a 
day'  is  disappearing.  At  the  present  time  about  134,- 
000  tons,  or  72  per  cent,  of  the  entire  output  of  lead,  is 
silver-bearing  or  silver-and-gold  bearing,  and  is  'de- 
silverized '  before  marketing,  while  nearly  all  the  cop- 
per produced  in  Montana,  amounting  in  1889  to  about 


Gold  and  Silver. 


667 


Cold  and  Silver. 


100,000,000  Ibs.,  and  nearly  all  that  mined  in  Cali- 
fornia, Colorado,  Nevada,  Utah,  and  other  Western 
States,  except  in  some  of  the  Arizona  copper  mines, 
carries  silver  and  gold.  .  .  . 

"  The  progress  in  metallurgy  is,  however,  adding  still 
more  rapidly  to  the  production  of  silver  than  that  of 
gold,  so  that  while  the  output  of  gold  will  probably  in- 
crease in  the  future,  that  of  silver,  a  much  more  abun- 
dant metal  in  nature,  will  undoubtedly  increase  still 
more  rapidly." 

Of  the  capital  and  expenditures  of  these  mines 
the  report  says  {Mineral  Industries,  p.  34) : 

VALUE  OF  MINING  PLANT. 

Buildings $7,565,018 

Railroads  on  surface 1,475,674 

Machinery 14,985,215 

Underground  improvements 95,806,648 

Mine  supplies..... 3,919,480 

Cash 4,112,810 

Value  of  Mines* 338,094,821 

Total $465,960,566 

MILLS  AND  REDUCING  WORKS. 

Buildings $5,685,562 

Machinery 13,456,938 

Supplies 1,220,272 

Total $20,362,772 

Mines  and  works $486,323,338 

EXPENDITURES. 

Total  wages  paid $40,412,022 

Paid  to  contractors  1,421,301 

Paid  to  office  force ii347>373 

Total $43,180,696 

Value  of  supplies 13)817,739 

Other  expenditures 6,452,701 

Grand  total $63,451,136 

PRODUCTION  OF  BULLION. 

Gold $32,886,744 

Silvert 66,396,988 

Total $99,283,744 

Net  production  over  expenditures $35,832,608      Th 

Of  the  employees,  wages,  days  employed,  etc. , 
it  says  (Mineral  Industries,  p.  34) : 


EMPLOYEES. 

Number 
Employed. 

& 

£&Q 

>  a 

^ 

i  ^ 

P*. 
s&fcj 

$&* 

H 

®  2 

w°v 

ss§ 

>S£ 
<t 

Grand  total  

57.3°7 

$72Q 

Above  ground,  total..  . 

22,025 

$2-77 

192 

$531 

Foremen     or     over- 
seers   

1,585 

16 

$87? 

•3      ft? 

Rnc 

Laborers  

17,085 

Boys  under  16  years 
of  age  

82 

i  16 

Below  ground,  total... 
Foremen  

34.409 

$3.08 
$4.16 

237 

2^8 

$73° 

Miners  

Laborers  

•3.870 

i 

600 

Boys  under  16  years 
of  age  

208 

Office  force  

87-3 

Males  

848 

— 



Females  

As  to  the  cost  of  producing  gold  and  silver, 
the  report  says  (p.  119)  : 

"  When  the  enormous  amounts  of  money  actually 
invested  in  unprofitable  mines  and  mills  are  con- 
sidered, some  of  which  are  strictly  legitimate  and 
honest,  while  some  have  been  '  salted '  or  sold  on  false 
representations,  it  is  easy  to  recognize  the  heavy  off- 
set to  the  great  profits  of  the  few  large  producers  and 
to  believe  that  the  average  cost  of  all  the  gold  pro- 
duced is  more  than  $20.67  per  ounce  troy,  and  that  of 
silver  is  more  than  say  $i  per  troy  ounce." 

Some  idea  of  the  immense  profits  from  favor- 
able mines  may  be  obtained  from  the  workings  of 
the  famous  Comstock  Lode,  in  Storey  Co.,  Nev. 

"  In  a  paper  by  Alfred  Doten,  of  Virginia  City,  Nev., 
in  the  report  of  the  Director  of  the  Mint  for  1892,  be- 
ginning with  p.  150,  it  is  shown  that  from  the  dis- 
covery of  the  Comstock  Lode,  in  February,  1859,  down 
to  1892,  the  total  production  of  gold  was  $141,986,344, 
and  of  silver  $198,877,548,  making  an  aggregate  of 
$340,863,892,  of  which  41.65  per  cent,  was  gold  and  58.35 
per  cent,  silver.  To  this  should  be  added  $13,173,947, 
extracted  from  the  tailings  or  residue  of  the  ore  re- 
duced in  the  mills,  making  a  total  of  $354,037,839  pro- 
duced from  these  mines  in  34  years.  The  yield  of  tail- 
ings is  about  66%  per  cent,  or  silver  to  33)$  per  cent,  of 
gold. 

"Fora  number  of  years  the  companies  have  been 
obliged  to  give  sworn  quarterly  statements  to  the  tax 
collectors,  giving  the  gross  yield  of  metal  less  the  .cost 


*  Exclusive  of  the  other  items,    t  Coinage  value. 


of  extraction,  reduction,  etc.  Mr.  Doten  gives  figures 
from  these  tax  returns,  showing  that  for  the  10  years, 
from  1871  to  1880,  there  was  produced  $192,174,307  in 
gold  and  silver,  or  56.4  per  cent,  of  the  total  product  of 
these  mines  down  to  1892.  The  total  cost  of  mining  and 
reducing  this  was  $99,579,955,  leaving  a  profit  of  $92,- 
594.352,  or  48$  cents  for  every  $i  produced. 

"The  best  six  years  were  from  1873  to  1878,  when  the 
mines  produced  "$157,555,878,  with  a  profit  of  $83,895,885, 
or  53^  cents  on  every  $i  produced.  The  largest  yield 
for  any  one  year  was  $36,301,537  in  1877,  on  which  the 
profits  were  $21,872,866,  or  6oJ4  cents  on  every  $i  pro- 
duced. 

"Since  1880  the  yield  has  averaged  $3,326,100  per 
year,  and  the  average  profits  have  been  f>\  cents  per 
dollar  produced. 

"  On  all  the  mines  of  the  lode,  from  the  beginning  of 
work  down  to  January  i,  1893, the  total  dividends  de- 
clared have  been  $134,066,780.  Against  this  are  $52,- 

8,235  in  assessments,  leaving  a  net  gain  of  $81,588,545. 

he  great  bonanza  represented  by  the  Consolidated 
Virginia,  the  California  and  the  Consolidated  Califor- 
nia and  Virginia  has  declared  $85,170,000  in  dividends, 
against  $2,667,900  in  assessments. 

"  On  the  other  hand,  the  Sierra  Nevada  mine  shows 
assessments  of  $6,476,920,  against  $102,500  in  dividends. 
The  stockholders  of  the  Bullion  Mine  have  paid  $2,- 
957,000  in  assessments,  upon  which  the  mine  has  been 
worked  for  30  years  without  producing  an  ounce  of 
bullion  or  a  pound  of  pay  ore. 

We  close  this  article  with  some  statistics  bear- 
ing on  the  amount  of  gold  and  silver  in  the 
world.  According  to  the  report  of  the  Director 
of  the  Mint  for  1894,  the  amount  of  gold  in  the 
world  used  as  money  was  $3,901,900,000  ;  the 
amount  of  silver,  $3,931,100,000.  Of  the  latter 
amount,  $854,000,000  was  in  countries  using 
silver  only.  Professor  Taussig  (The  Silver 
Situation  in  the  United  States)  shows  that 
the  geologists  think  the  amount  of  silver  pro- 
duction cannot  increase  much  more  ;  the  facts 
show  that  it  is  steadily  increasing.  (See  table 
above.)  President  Andrews  ("  The  Future  of 
Stiver  Production,"  in  An  Honest  Dollar,  ed. 
of  1894)  argues  that  the  production  has  reached 
its  height.  He  says  :  "  The  topographical  con- 
ditions of  mining  are  becoming  more  adverse." 
A  resume"  of  the  critical  views  of  metallurgists 
in  United  States  Consular  Report  No.  87,  Dec- 
ember, 1887,  strongly  supports  this  view,  as 
does  Suer's  Die  Zukunft  des  Go  Ides  and  The 
Future  of  Silver. 


Gold  and  Silver. 


668 


Good  Templars. 


PRECIOUS  METALS  CONSUMED  IN  THE  ARTS. 
(Average  annual  consumption,  estimated  by  the  Director  of  the  Mint,  1895.) 


COUNTRIES. 

Year. 

Authority 

SILVER. 

GOLD. 

Weight, 
Kilo- 
grams. 

Value. 

Weight, 
Kilo- 
grams. 

Value. 

United  States  

894 
894 
894 
894 
894 
894 
893 

893 
890 
890 
885 

885 

Official 

Haupt 
Soetbeer 

232,480 
131,250 
2,500 
5,600 

55,ooo 
40,000 
75,000 
23,000 
80,000 
100,000 
17,400 
40,000 

$9,661,871 
5,454,750 
103,900 

232,736 
2,285,800 
1,662,400 
3,117,000 
955,880 
3,324,800 
4,156,000 
723>i44 
1,662,400 

12.750 
14,400 
272 

336 

7,000 

5,33i 
1,960 
17,000 
15,000 
2,070 
2,400 

$8,473,658 

9,570,24° 
180,771 
•223,306 
4,652,200 

3,542,983 
1,302,616 
11,298,200 
9,969,000 
1,376,722 
1,595,040 

Belgium    

Other  countries  

Total  

80 

$33,340,68' 

78,519 

$52,183,736 

' 

GOMPERS,  SAMUEL,  was  born  in  Lon- 
don. Apprenticed  to  a  shoemaker  at  the  age 
of  10,  his  education  was  obtained  after  working 
hours.  Later  he  became  a  cigar-maker  and 
came  to  the  United  States  in  his  fourteenth  year, 
and  has  since  resided  in  New  York.  Joining 
the  Cigar-makers'  Union  immediately  after  his 
arrival,  he  became  prominent  in  its  councils, 
and  served  as  President  of  Union  No.  144  for 
six  years.  He  has  been  a  delegate  to  every 
convention  of  the  Cigar-makers'  International 
Union  since  1877,  and  its  constitution  is  largely 
the  result  of  his  earnest  efforts  toward  the  up- 
building of  that  powerful  organization.  He  has 
represented  his  international  union  at  every 
convention  of  the  American  Federation  of 
Labor,  was  its  first  president,  and  held  that 
position  till  1895,  when  he  was  defeated  on  ac- 
count of  his  opposition  to  the  endeavors  of  the 
Socialist  Labor  Party  to  capture  the  federation. 
In  1895,  however,  he  was  reelected  president. 

Mr.  Gompers  has  repeatedly  declined  ejection 
to  prominent  and  lucrative  political  positions, 
and  during  the  first  six  years  of  his  official  duty 
he  received  no  salary  nor  any  other  emolument. 
In  the  great  eight-hour  struggle  of  1886  he  paid 
his  entire  expenses  and  worked  night  and  day 
for  many  weeks. 


GOVERNMENT     CLUBS.—  The 

establishment  of  "good  government  clubs," 
whose  object  is  explained  by  their  name,  began 
with  the  formation  of  the  City  Club,  of  New 
York  City,  April  13,  1892. 

The  failure  of  the  Municipal  League  to  elect 
its  candidate  to  the  mayoralty  in  1891  occasioned 
profound  discouragement  among  those  desirous 
of  obtaining  good  city  government.  It  seemed 
to  indicate  that  mere  popular  indignation  or  en- 
thusiasm could  not  be  counted  upon  when  pitted 
against  an  organized  political  machine.  It  be- 
came clear,  therefore,  that  if  the  work  of  improv- 
ing city  government  was  to  be  undertaken  at 
all,  it  must  be  undertaken  upon  a  permanent 
plan  —  a  fact  which  suggested  the  organization 
of  a  social  club  which  would  serve  to  bring  to- 
gether and  to  keep  together  all  those  interested 


in  the  organization  of  a  municipal  party  built 
upon  the  principle  that  city  government  should 
be  separated  from  national  politics. 

The  City  Club  was  therefore  established, 
largely  owing  to  the  efforts  of  Mr.  Edward 
Kelly.  One  of  its  chief  activities  was  to  estab- 
lish other  local  clubs,  which  were  called  good 
government  clubs,  and  have  been  very  success- 
ful, Their  cardinal  principle  is  the  separation 
of  municipal  government  from  national  politics  ; 
and,  with  a  view  of  securing  this,  it  is  proposed 
to  direct  their  energies  to  securing  (i)  honest 
and  unbiased  primaries  ;  (2)  ballot  reform  ;  (3) 
separate  elections  ;  (4)  home  rule. 

Wherever  a  nucleus  or  group  of  citizens  can 
be  found  to  adopt  the  views,  a  club  can  be  or- 
ganized, with  headquarters  or  club  house  as  cir- 
cumstances appear  to  require.  The  first  was  or- 
ganized in  February,  1893,  and  some  23  others 
in  New  York  City  within  two  years.  In  March, 
1 894,  they  were  confederated  and  a  council  es- 
tablished. Similar  clubs  have  been  started  in 
other  cities  as  far  as  California.  The  clubs  have 
committees  on  municipal  government,  various 
municipal  undertakings  (like  street  cleaning), 
cooperation  with  other  clubs,  etc. 

GOOD  TEMPLARS.— The  Independent 
Order  of  Good  Templars  is  a  beneficial  order, 
based  on  total  abstinence,  founded  in  Central 
New  York  in  1851,  and  now  organized  in  nearly 
every  State  of  the  Union,  England,  Ireland, 
Scotland,  Wales,  Germany,  Denmark,  Sweden 
and  Norway,  Canada,  West  Indies,  East,  West, 
and  South  Africa,  Australia,  New  Zealand,  Brit- 
ish India,  Iceland,  and  other  countries.  All 
persons  becoming  members  of  the  order  are  re- 
quired to  subscribe  to  the  following  pledge  : 
"  That  they  will  never  make,  buy,  sell,  use,  fur- 
nish, nor  cause  to  be  furnished  to  others,  as  a 
beverage,  any  spirituous  or  malt  liquors,  wine, 
or  cider,  and  will  discountenance  the  manufac- 
ture and  sale  thereof  in  all  proper  ways. ' ' 

The  last  report  of  the  Right  Worshipful  Sec- 
retary puts  the  number  of  grand  lodges  in  the 
world  at  100,  the  membership  at  403,849.  with 
169,804  in  juvenile  branches. 


Cough,  John  Bartholomew. 


669 


Government. 


GOUGH,  JOHN  BARTHOLOMEW,  was 

"born  at  Sandgate,  Kent,  England,  in  1817  ;  his 
father  a  pensioner  of  the  Peninsular  War  ;  and 
his  mother  a  village  schoolmistress.  At  the 
age  of  12  he  went  to  America  as  an  apprentice, 
and  worked  on  a  farm  in  Oneida  County,  N.  Y. 
In  1831  he  went  to  New  York  City,  where  he 
found  employment  in  the  binding  department 
of  the  Methodist  Dook  establishment  ;  but  habits 
of  dissipation  lost  him  this  employment,  and  re- 
duced him  to  that  of  giving  recitations  and  sing- 
ing comic  songs  at  low  grog  shops.  He  was 
married>  in  1839  ;  but  his  drunken  habits  re- 
•duced  him  to  poverty,  and  probably  caused  the 
death  of  his  wife  and  child.  A  benevolent 
Quaker  induced  him  to  take  the  pledge  ;  and  he 
attended  temperance  meetings  and  related  his 
experience  with  such  effect  as  to  influence  many 
others. 

He  then  became  a  prominent  advocate  of  the 
temperance  cause  ;  but  in  1842  some  of  his  for- 
mer companions  led  him  to  violate  his  pledge. 
He  subsequently  confessed  his  fault  and  endeav- 
ored to  make  amends.  After  10  years  of  great 
success  as  a  temperance  lecturer  he  went  to  Eng- 
"land  in  1853  and  carried  on  a  remarkable  work 
there.  He  returned  to  the  United  States  in  Au- 
.gust,  1860,  and  soon  began  to  lecture  on  Street 
Life  in  London,  Other  subjects  were  added  to 
his  list,  and  in  all  he  retained  his  great  popular- 
ity. In  1873  he  announced  that  he  would  retire 
from  the  lecture  field,  but  he  was  afterward 
prevailed  upon  to  appear  on  special  occasions. 
In  1878  he  again  visited  England.  He  died  at 
Philadelphia,  February  18,  1886.  In  1869  he 
issued  his  Autobiography  and  Personal  Recol- 
Jections,  and  in  1880  Suns/tine  and  Shadow, 
being  chiefly  passages  from  his  lectures. 

GOULD,  DR.  ELGIN  R.  L.,  was  born 
August  15,  1860,  at  Oshawa,  Ontario,  Canada, 
and  received  his  early  education  at  home.  He 
attended  the  Victoria  University,  Coburg  (now 
at  Toronto),  where,  in  1881,  he  received  the  de- 
gree of  A.B.  He  then  entered  at  Johns  Hop- 
kins University  for  graduate  study,  where,  in 
1886,  he  secured  the  degree  of  Ph.D.,  his  studies 
having  been  interrupted  for  a  time  by  a  serious 
illness.  During  the  years  1884-87  Dr.  Gould 
was  instructor  in  charge  of  the  Department  of 
History  and  Political  Economy  in  the  Washing- 
ton (D.  C.  )  High  School.  In  1885  he  conduct- 
ed an  official  inquiry  in  Belgium  and  Germany 
for  the  Department  of  Labor,  and  in  1887  be- 
came permanently  connected  with  the  depart- 
ment as  a  statistical  expert.  He  has  been  espe- 
cially identified  with  the  work  of  the  department 
abroad,  having  spent  four  years  there  in  prose- 
cuting various  inquiries.  In  1887-88  Dr.  Gould 
was  Reader  in  Social  Statistics  at  the  Johns 
Hopkins  University,  and  in  1892  Resident  Lec- 
turer on  Social  Economics  and  Statistics.  He 
has  represented  the  United  States  Government 
at  various  international  congresses,  and  is  a 
member  of  economic  and  statistical  societies  at 
home  and  abroad.  In  1894116  became  Professor 
of  Statistics  in  the  University  of  Chicago.  Pro- 
fessor Gould  believes  thoroughly  in  the  applica- 
tion of  the  historical  method  and  of  statistics  to 
economics,  but  does  not  accept  the  opportunism 
of  some  of  the  historical  school.  He  believes  in 


the  gradual  reduction  of  the  tariff  and  in  inter- 
national bimetallism  ;  he  does  not  believe  in  the 
nationalization  of  natural  monopolies,  but  thinks 
the  municipalization  of  some  of  them  might  be 
carefully  tried.  Among  the  most  important  of 
his  many  publications  are  The  Social  Conditions 
of  Labor,  The  Gothenburg  System  of  Liquor 
Traffic,  and  The  Housing  of  Working  People 
— the  last  two  being  reports  to  the  Department 
of  Labor. 

GOURNAY,  JEAN  CLAUDE  MARIE 
VINCENT,  SEIGNEUR  DE,  was  born  at 
Saint  Malo  in  1712.  Traveling  as  a  merchant 
in  Spain,  Holland,  and  England,  he  published 
in  France  on  his  return  a  report  on  the  economic 
and  financial  condition  of  these  countries.  Ap- 
pointed Intendant  du  Commerce  in  1851,  his 
observation  convinced  him  that  the  lack  of  de- 
velopment in  French  manufacturing  was  due  to 
the  various  governmental  restrictions,  and  he 
came  thus  to  largely  tho  not  wholly  embrace  the 
views  of  the  Physiocrats  (q.v.},  and  became  the 
author  of  the  famous  phrase,  "  Laissez  faire, 
laissez passer."  He  died  in  1759. 

GOVERNMENT  (from  Latin  gubernare, 
to  steer,  direct,  govern)  is  the  power  in  the 
State  by  which  the  affairs  of  State  are  conduct- 
ed. Government  may  be  of  any  form — monar- 
chical, despotic,  autocratic,  aristocratic,  pluto- 
cratic, democratic  ;  it  may  be  local,  municipal, 
State,  or  national.  (For  the  principles  involved 
and  the  various  forms  of  government,  see  STATE  ; 
FEDERATIONS  ;  REPUBLICAN  PARTY  ;  DEMOCRATIC 
PARTY;  ANARCHISM;  INDIVIDUALISM;  SOCIAL- 
ISM ;  VOLUNTARYISM,  etc.) 

"  Government  means  power  to  enforce  a  de- 
cision— this  is  its  essential  nature.  In  an  ideal 
order  of  things,  social  action  might  be  possible 
without  government ;  in  the  present  order  of 
things  social  action  and  government  are  practi- 
cally interconvertible  terms." 

Says  Hamilton  (Federalist,  No.  15),  "  Why 
has  government  been  instituted  at  all  ?  Because 
the  passions  of  men  will  not  conform  to  the  dic- 
tates of  reason  and  justice  without  constraint." 
(For  a  discussion  of  this,  see  ANARCHISM  ;  SO- 
CIALISM ;  STATE.) 

Of  the  cost  of  government,  Mr.  Edward  Atkin- 
son (Harper's  Weekly,  July,  1895)  writes  con- 
cerning the  United  States  and  other  countries  : 

"  The  true  annual  cost  of  supporting  this  Govern- 
ment, including  civil  and  military  service,  naval  ser- 
vice, the  construction  of  public  works  and  improve- 
ments, miscellaneous  expenditures,  interest,  pensions, 
sugar  bounties,  and  other  charges,  has  been,  from  1880 
to  1894  inclusive,  on  the  average,  a  fraction  over  $282,- 
000,000;  the  average  revenue  during  the  same  period, 
a  fraction  over  $365,000,000.  The  surplus,  mainly  ap- 
plied to  the  reduction  of  deb  .,  has  averaged  $83,000,000 
a  year.  The  nearest  approach  to  a  billion-dollar  ex- 
penditure in  any  two  years  occurred  in  1893  and  1894, 
when  the  amount,  aside  from  the  postal  service,  not 
including  the  postal  deficiency,  came  to  less  than 
$750,000,000  or  three  quarters  of  a  billion.  Of  course 
annual  expenditures  increase  somewhat  with  the 
growth  of  population.  During  the  last  administration 
expenditures  were  increased  both  in  amount  and  in 
proportion  to  numbers.  They  are  now  being  dimin- 
ished in  the  aggregate  and  yet  more  in  the  ratio  per 
head  of  population.  The  following  table  gives  the 
facts,  omitting  the  postal  service,  also  omitting  pre- 
mium on  bonds  purchased  and  other  non-recurrent 
items.  If  these  latter  items  were  included,  the  average 
per  capita  expenditure  would  show  19  cents  per  head 
more  : 


Government. 


670 


Grangers. 


YEAR. 

Revenue. 

Per 

Head. 

Expendi- 
tures. 

Per 

Head. 

1880  

$6.825 

$5.298 

!88i  

1882  

7.864 

4.837 

,883  

398,287,^81 

7.587 

!884  

j885        

s.8o<; 

!886  

1887 

1888  

6.463 

1889  

4.587 

1890  

291,028,440 

4.749 

1891  

1892    .... 

tl.EIAS 

1893  

385,819,629 

5.899 

370,132,606 

5.659 

1894  

Total  
Average  .. 

$5,476,664,102 
$365,110,940 

$4,235,486,082 
$282,365,738 

Difference  in  totals,  $4,241,178,020;  in  averages,  $82,- 
745,200. 

"  Even  this  table  does  not  show  all  the  facts  as  to  the 
actual  cost  of  government.  During  the  years  1891  to 
1894  inclusive  the  direct-tax  charge  assessed  during  the 
war  was  returned  to  the  amount  of  $15,218,665.  Sugar 
bounties  which  had  been  declared  unlawful  by  the 
district  court  of  the  District  of  Columbia  were  paid  to 
sugar-planters  to  the  amount  of  $29,797,398.13." 

"From  1882  to  1888,"  continues  Mr.  Atkinson,  "the 
cost  of  our  Government  was  only  $4.58  per  head,  while 
the  revenue  was  $6.59  a  head.  Since  1890  excessive  ex- 
penditure and  diminished  revenue  have  brought  about 
a  temporary  deficit,  but  if  the  future  Congresses  are 
reasonably  economical,  '  there  can  be  little  doubt  that 
the  revenue  at  $5  per  head  will  develop  the  surplus  of 
$1,200,000,000  in  the  next  15  years,  which  may  be  applied 
to  the  final  payment  of  the  debt  of  the  United  States.' 
In  that  event  '  the  cost  of  the  Government,  interest, 
and  diminishing  pensions  will  be  $4  per  head.'  " 

Turning  next  to  the  cost  of  government  in 
other  countries,  Mr.  Atkinson  finds  that  our 
burden  is  very  light  indeed  in  comparison  with 
that  of  other  nations.  He  writes  : 

"  Even  at  $5  per  head  our  rate  of  national  taxation 
is  but  a  fraction  over  one  half  as  much  as  that  imposed 
in  Great  Britain  for  the  same  national  expenditures. 
It  is,  as  far  as  I  can  ascertain,  less  than  one  half  the 
taxation  of  Germany  for  imperial  purposes ;  but  that 
comparison  is  rendered  uncertain  by  the  large  ele- 
ment of  expenditures  of  the  kingdoms  forming  the 
empire,  which  are  included  in  our  national  bill  of  cost. 
At  $5  per  head  our  national  taxation  will  be  about  one 
third  that  of  France.  But  here  again  the  true  burden 
upon  France  is  rendered  obscure  by  the  constant  de- 
ficit and  the  obligations  of  the  Government  on  the  part 
of  railway  service.  It  is  also  about  one  third  the 
burden  upon  poor  Italy.  If  we  take  out  the  $i  per 
head  which  is  to  be  applied  to  the  final  payment  of  the 
debt,  and  deal  only  with  the  ratio  of  the  cost  of  our 
Government  to  that  of  their  governments,  our  position 
is  correspondingly  improved.  But  even  this  compari- 
son does  not  show  the  true  relative  burden  of  national 
taxation. 

"If  our  cost  of  government  shall  be  but  $4  for  the 
next  15  years,  it  will  come  to  less  than  2  per  cent,  of 
our  average  product.  The  imperial  taxation  upon 
Great  Britain  on  a  much  less  product  per  capita  must 
be  at  least  treble  our  own  in  ratio  to  product,  while 
that  of  France  bears  a  yet  greater  proportion  to  produc- 
tion. That  of  Germany  takes  put  from  the  product  of 
a  poor  soil  so  much  that  there  is  barely  enough  to  sup- 
port a  large  proportion  of  the  population,  while  it  is 
alleged  that  the  imperial  taxation  of  Italy  absorbs  at 
least  30  per  cent,  of  the  product  of  the  whole  country. 

The  other  side  to  this  somewhat  roseate  view 
is  to  ask  what  governments  do  for  their  citizens. 
There  are  those  who  believe  that,  so  measured, 
the  United  States  Government  is  not  so  cheap. 
Other  countries  protect  their  citizens  every- 
where. Germany,  with  her  insurance  laws  : 
Belgium,  with  her  cheap  nationalized  railroads, 


all  continental  European  countries,  with  their 
cheap  national  telegraph  systems  ;  England  and 
most  European  countries  with  their  postal  sav- 
ings-banks, afford  elements  of  a  view  very  dif- 
ferent from  Mr.  Atkinson's.  Some  even  urge 
that  there  is  more  liberty  and  freedom  of  action 
in  Europe  than  in  America.  The  curse  of  Eu- 
ropean governments  is  their  standing  armies. 
(See  STATE.) 

GRANGERS. — An  association  of  American 
agriculturists,  commonly  known  by  this  name, 
tho  formerly  called  Patrons  of  Husbandry. 

Soon  after  the  close  of  the  Civil  War  Presi- 
dent Johnson  sent  O.  H.  Kelly,  an  employee  of 
the  Department  of  Agriculture,  as  an  agent  in- 
to the  Southern  States  to  investigate  the  condi- 
tion of  the  farmers  in  that  section  of  the  country 
and  to  report  the  result  of  his  observations.  He 
was  so  seriously  impressed  with  what  he  saw 
that  he  proposed  a  national  association  of  farm- 
ers, with  branches  in  all  sections  of  the  country. 
On  his  return  to  Washington  he  held  a  con- 
sultation with  J.  R.  Thompson  and  W.  M.  Ire- 
land, also  of  the  Department  of  Agriculture, 
who  indorsed  the  views  of  Mr.  Kelly.  William 
Saunders,  Rev.  John  Trimble,  Rev.  N.  B. 
Grush,  all  in  the  employ  of  the  Government, 
and  F.  M.  McDowell,  of  Wayne,  N.  Y.,  were 
consulted,  and  these  seven  men  met  at  the  of- 
fice of  Mr.  Saunders  on  December  4,  1867,  and 
organized  the  National  Grange,  with  Saunders 
as  Master,  Thompson  as  Lecturer,  Ireland  as- 
Treasurer,  and  Kelly  as  Secretary.  The  object 
was  to  organize  the  farmers  not  only  of  the 
South,  but  of  all  parts  of  the  country. 

Under  the  scheme  of  the  order  it  was  to  be  di- 
vided into  national,  State,  and  subordinate  as- 
semblies, or  "granges."  Women  were  to  be 
admitted  to  membership  on  equal  standing  with 
men.  The  ritual  embraced  four  degrees  for 
men,  under  the  titles  of  "laborer,"  "cultivator," 
"harvester,"  and  "husbandman,"  and  four 
for  women,  entitled  "maid,"  "shepherdess," 
"gleaner,"  and  "matron."  The  purposes  of 
the  order  were  two — the  industrial  benefit  and 
the  social  improvement  of  its  members.  The 
discussion  of  any  political  question  was  strictly 
forbidden. 

Tho  the  order  is  thus  fundamentally  non-po- 
litical, it  has  been  extremely  difficult  to  keep  it 
free  from  political  influences.  Its  extent  is  a 
standing  temptation  to  politicians  ;  and  its  aim 
to  cheapen  transportation  has  a  constant  ten- 
dency to  carry  it  into  a  quasi-political  warfare 
against  railroad  corporations.  Its  leaders  have, 
however,  been  successful  in  the  main  in  keeping 
it  out  of  politics,  and  it  is  different  in  this  re- 
spect from  the  other  farmers'  organizations. 
(See  FARMERS'  ALLIANCE.) 

Up  to  the  close  of  1871  there  were  but  about 
200  granges  organized,  while  the  national 
grange  contained  only  its  seven  original  mem- 
bers. From  this  time  forward  its  progress  was 
rapid.  The  farming  population  began  to  per- 
ceive the  advantages  of  the  association,  and 
grew  as  enthusiastic  as  they  had  been  lethargic. 
In  1872  there  were  organized  1160  granges  ,  in 
1873,  8669  ;  and  in  1874  and  1875  about  11,000  in 
each  year.  At  the  close  of  1875  there  were  about 
30,000  granges  in  existence,  said  to  average 


Grangers. 


671 


Greek  Social  Polity, 


about  40  members  each,  the  order  being  strong- 
est in  the  West  and  Northwest  and  well  repre- 
sented in  the  South.  The  reason  for  this  ex- 
traordinary growth  is  found  largely  in  the  dis- 
contents arising  from  the  causes  which  resulted 
in  the  financial  crisis  of  1873,  and  from  the  in- 
dustrial depression  following.  The  inflation  of 
the  currency  and  the  increase  hi  credit  through 
each  venture  were  instruments  in  building  up 
gigantic  speculative  operations,  which  finally 
resulted  in  a  crash.  During  the  apparent  pros- 
perity of  trade  men  were  attracted  from  agricul- 
ture to  trade.  Farm  land  declined,  while  city 
real  estate  rose.  Speculation  and  ' '  corners' '  in 
staple  farm  products  caused  great  fluctuations 
in  prices,  while  the  prices  of  farmers'  necessa- 
ries rose.  By  this  time  its  climax  of  prosperity 
had  been  reached.  In  the  succeeding  years 
jealousy  arose  between  the  subordinate  and  the 
national  granges,  and  parties  with  no  interest 
in  agriculture  beyond  that  of  fleecing  the  farm- 
ers made  their  way  into  the  order.  So  far  was 
this  carried  that  one  grange  was  organized  on 
Broadway,  New  York  City,  with  45  members,  rep- 
resenting a  capital  of  perhaps  as  many  millions, 
and  composed  of  bank  presidents,  wholesale 
dealers,  sewing-machine  manufacturers,  and 
speculators.  Other  instances  of  a  similar  char- 
acter might  be  named.  The  result  of  all  this 
was  a  great  depression  of  the  order.  Neverthe- 
less, the  order  has  endured,  and  has  had  no  lit- 
tle influence.  At  its  twenty-fifth  anniversary 
in  1891  it  claimed  to  have  prevented  the  renewal 
of  patents  on  sewing-machines,  thus  saving  to 
the  people  millions  annually  ;  to  have  taught 
transportation  companies  that  the  creator  is 
greater  than  the  creature  ;  to  have  passed  and 
enforced  oleomargarine  laws,  laws  restricting 
alien  landlords  and  corporations,  the  interstate 
commerce  law,  ballot  reform  laws,  the  making 
the  Secretary  of  Agriculture  a  Cabinet  officer. 
It  claimed  to  have  led  in  establishing  agricul- 
tural colleges  and  stations,  arbor  days,  public 
schools,  numerous  local  institutions. 

Cooperation  has  been  much  favored  by  the 
Grange,  and  numerous  experiments  have  been 
tried,  but  without  great  success.  (See  COOPERA- 
TION.) 

The  method  of  cooperative  buying  most  prevalent 
in  New  England  is  that  by  trade  discounts  or  trade 
lists.  The  State  granges  make  arrangements  with 
certain  large  manufacturers  and  wholesale  firms  for 
discounts  on  cash  payments.  Each  subordinate  grange 
chooses  a  purchasing  agent,  who  receives  the  lists  and 
makes  the  purchases.  The  agents  and  members  re- 
ceiving the  discount  are  bound  to  keep  the  discounts 
secret.  Another  analogous  method  is  to  furnish  mem- 
bers with  "trade  cards,"  on  presentation  of  which  to 
the  firms  under  contract  with  the  State  grange  dis- 
counts are  allowed.  This  method  is  employed  largely 
in  Vermont,  Rhode  Island,  and  Connecticut,  while 
Massachusetts  has  mere  purchasing  agents  and  Maine 
has  its  grange  store. 

The  strongest  cooperative  enterprises  of  the  grange 
in  New  England  are  the  fire  insurance  companies. 
Connecticut,  New  Hampshire,  and  Massachusetts  each 
have  one.  The  Connecticut  Patrons'  Mutual  Fire  In- 
surance Company  was  organized  in  1888.  In  1892  there 
were  about  1000  policies  out,  representing  a  risk  of 
about  $1,600,000.  In  1891  alone,  policies  to  the  amount 
of  $552,926  were  taken  out.  The  first  assessments  were 
made  in  1892,  and  this  owing  to  the  unusually  heavy 
losses  from  lightning.  The  Massachusetts  Fire  In- 
surance Company  began  business  in  1887.  In  1890  it 
reports  1050  policies  in  force,  covering  $1,187,586  worth 
of  property.  The  New  Hampshire  company  is  the 
strongest.  In  1892  it  had  1600  policies,  covering  insur- 
ance to  the  amount  of  $2,200,000,  as  against  1399  policies 


in  1891,  covering  risks  amounting  to  $1,872,677.17.  No 
assessments  have  been  necessary. 

At  the  St.  Louis  session  of  the  national  grange,  in 
1874,  the  following  "  Declaration  of  Purposes"  was 
issued : 

"We  shall  endeavor  to  advance  our  cause  by  labor- 
ing to  accomplish  the  following  objects  : 

"To  develop  a  better  and  higher  manhood  and 
womanhood  among  ourselves  ;  to  enhance  the  com- 
forts and  attractions  of  our  homes  and  strengthen  our 
attachments  to  our  pursuits ;  to  foster  mutual  under- 
standing and  cooperation  ;  to  maintain  inviolate  our 
laws  and  to  emulate  each  other  in  labor  to  hasten  the 
good  time  coming  ;  to  reduce  our  expenses,  both  indi- 
vidual and  corporate  ;  to  buy  less  and  produce  more, 
in  order  to  make  our  farms  self-sustaining  ;  to  diver- 
sify our  crops  and  crop  no  more  than  we  can  cultivate  ; 
to  condense  the  weight  of  our  exports,  selling  less  in 
the  bushel  and  more  on  hoof  and  in  fleece,  less  in  lint 
and  more  in  warp  and  woof  ;  to  systematize  our  work 
and  calculate  intelligently  on  probabilities  ;  to  dis- 
countenance the  credit  system,  the  mortgage  system, 
the  fashion  system,  and  every  other  system  tending  to 
profligacy  and  bankruptcy. 

"We  propose  meeting  together,  talking  together, 
working  together,  buying  together,  selling  together, 
and,  in  general,  acting  together  for  our  mutual  pro- 
tection and  advancement,  as  occasion  may  require. 
We  shall  avoid  litigation  as  much  as  possible  by  arbi- 
tration in  the  grange.  We  shall  constantly  strive  to- 
secure  entire  harmony,  good-will,  vital  brotherhood 
among  ourselves,  and  to  make  our  order  perpetual." 

The  war  in  the  West  against  unjust  discrimination 
in  railroad  freights,  which  produced  restrictive  laws  in 
Illinois  and  Wisconsin  in  1873,  has  been  charged  upon 
the  granges,  but  falsely,  as  they  declare.  It  was  or- 
ganized and  sustained"  by  agricultural  clubs  outside 
the  order,  whose  constitution  did  not  permit  a  partici- 
pation in  it,  tho  the  members  were  undoubtedly  in 
strong  sympathy  with  its  objects.  They  succeeded  in 
1873  and  1874  in  carrying  the  legislatures  of  Illinois  and 
Wisconsin  ;  these  legislatures  passed  stringent  laws 
directed  against  "extortion  and  unjust  discrimination 
in  the  rates  charged  for  the  transportation  of  passen- 
gers and  freights."  These  acts  were  subsequently  re- 
Eealed,  but  while  they  were  in  force  had  a  very  un- 
ivorable  effect  on  the  railroads.  In  Congress  their 
efforts  led  to  considerable  discussion  regarding  the 
regulation  of  interstate  commerce,  since  consummated 
by  the  act  of  February  4,  1887.  Other  questions  which 
the  grange  has  taken  in  hand  are  such  as  the  rapid  in- 
crease of  insects  through  undue  destruction  of  insectiv- 
orous birds,  the  exposure  of  attempted  swindles,  to 
which  the  isolation  of  the  farmer  renders  him  partic- 
ularly liable,  and  of  combinations  to  extort  money 
for  the  use  of  articles  falsely  claimed  to  be  patented, 
such  as  the  swing  gate,  the  driven  well,  etc.,  and  par- 
ticularly the  sale  of  oleomargarine  passed  off  for  butter. 
Some  of  the  public  questions  which  the  organization 
at  present  is  interested  in  agitating  are  : 

Passage  of  measures  to  prevent  adulteration  of  food. 
Passage  of  the  Washburn-Hatch  bill.  Free  delivery 
of  mail  to  rural  population.  Non-irrigation  of  the  arid 
lands  of  the  West  by  the  Government,  on  the  ground 
that  the  lands  are  not  yet  needed.  The  securing  of 
laws  to  remedy  unequal  taxation.  Promotion  of  inter- 
est in  agricultural  colleges.  Action  for  better  roads, 
etc. 

Of  late  the  Grange  has  been  wholly  eclipsed 
in  large  sections  of  the  country  by  the  Farmers' 
Alliance.  Yet  it  still  exists,  and  is  particularly 
strong  in  the  East,  where  the  Farmers'  Alliance 
movement  has  taken  small  hold.  In  1892  the 
membership  was  about  50,000. 

Reference  :  An  article  by  Florence  T.  Foster  in  the 
Annals  of  the  American  Academy  of  Political  and  So- 
cial Science,  vol.  iv.,  p.  798. 

GREEK  SOCIAL  POLITY.— This  was.  in 
a  word,  the  exaltation  of  the  State,  ordinarily  a 
democratic  city,  based  upon  slave  labor,  over 
all  departments  of  life.  (See  the  articles  ATHENS  ; 
ARISTOTLE  ;  PLATO.)  We  give  here  simply  the 
synopsis  of  the  Greek  economic  and  social  idea, 
as  given  in  Professor  Ingram's  History  of  Po- 
litical Economy  : 


Greek  Social  Polity. 


672 


Greenback  Party. 


"  i.  The  individual  is  conceived  as  subordinated  to 
the  State,  through  which  alone  his  nature  can  be  devel- 
oped and  completed,  and  to  the  maintenance  and  ser- 
vice of  which  all  his  efforts  must  be  directed.  The 
great  aim  of  all  political  thought  is  the  formation  of 
good  citizens;  every  social  question  is  studied  pri- 
marily from  the  ethical  and  educational  point  of  view. 
The  citizen  is  not  regarded  as  a  producer,  but  only  as 
a  possessor  of  material  wealth  ;  and  this  wealth  is  not 
esteemed  for  its  own  sake  or  for  the  enjoyments  it 
procures,  but  for  the  higher  moral  and  public  aims  to 
which  it  may  be  made  subservient. 

"2.  The  State,  therefore,  claims  and  exercises  a  con- 
trolling and  regulating  authority  over  every  sphere  of 
social  life,  including  the  economic,  in  order  to  bring 
individual  action  into  harmony  with  the  good  of  the 
whole. 

"3.  With  these  fundamental  notions  is  combined  a 
tendency  to  attribute  to  institutions  and  to  legislation 
an  unlimited  efficacy,  as  if  society  had  no  spontaneous 
tendencies,  but  would  obey  any  external  impulse,  if 
impressed  upon  it  with  sufficient  force  and  continuity." 

GREELEY,  HORACE,  was  born  in  Am- 
herst,  N.  H.,  February  3,  1811.  Before  he  was 
10  years  old  his  father  became  bankrupt.  The 
family  then  moved  to  Vermont,  where  they  made 
a  scanty  living  as  day  laborers.  When  14  years 
of  age  Greeley  was  apprenticed  in  the  office  of 
the  Northern  Spectator,  East  Poultney,  Vt. 
His  wages  were  but  $40  a  year  ;  but  by  living 
on  almost  nothing  he  was  able  to  send  money 
home.  He  remained  here  six  years,  when  the 
paper  was  suspended.  For  a  time  he  worked 
with  his  father  on  a  rough  farm  in  Pennsylva- 
nia, and  then  began  to  tramp  the  country  in 
search  of  employment.  Traveling  mostly  on 
foot,  in  1831  he  entered  New  York  with  $10  in 
his  pocket,  and  for  a  while  had  to  accept  the 
hardest  work  and  poorest  pay.  In  1833  he 
formed  a  partnership  with  a  fellow- workman, 
Francis  V.  Story.  Combining  their  capital, 
which  amounted  to  $150,  they  commenced  by 
printing  the  Morning  Post,  which  failed  in 
three  weeks.  But  Greeley  went  on  writing  as 
well  as  printing.  He  was  invited  by  James 
Gordon  Bennett  to  go  into  a  partnership  with 
him  in  the  Herald,  but  he  declined,  and  issued 
instead  the  New  Yorker,  a  literary  journal 
which  lived  seven  years.  Later  he  published 
the  Log  Cabin,  a  weekly  campaign  paper,  which 
was  a  great  success.  On  April  10, 1841,  Greeley 
commenced  the  New  York  Tribune,  which  was 
to  be  his  life-work. 

He  was  now  entirely  without  money.  From 
a  personal  friend,  Mr.  James  Coggeshall,  he 
borrowed  $1000,  on  which  capital  and  the  edi- 
tor's reputation  the  Tribune  was  founded.  It 
began  with  600  subscribers.  The  first  week's 
expenses  were  $525  and  the  receipts  $92.  By 
the  end  of  the  fourth  week  it  had  run  up  a  cir- 
culation of  6000,  and  by  the  seventh  reached 
11,000,  which  was  then  the  full  capacity  of  its 
press. 

Mr.  Greeley  opened  its  columns  to  well-nigh 
every  reform.  He  made  it  the  leading  abolition 
newspaper.  He  advocated  in'  it  dress  reform, 
vegetarianism,  and  Fourierism. 
-5  From  1850  until  the  end  of  the  Civil  War  the 
Tribune  did  much  to  create  and  awaken  the 
anti-slavery  sentiment  of  the  North.  Altho  be- 
fore the  war  he  declared  himself  willing  that 
the  slave  States  should  secede,  if  they  honestly 
desired  to  leave  the  Union,  yet  when  the  rebel- 
lion had  begun  he  threw  himself  heartily  on  the 
side  of  the  Government.  He  urged  in  his  paper 


the  vigorous  prosecution  of  the  war,  but  at  its 
close  immediately  advocated  universal  amnesty 
and  suffrage.  He  exhibited  his  impartiality  and 
moral  courage  by  protesting  against  the  pro- 
longed imprisonment  of  Jefferson  Davis,  and. 
in  spite  of  Northern  sentiment,  was  one  of  the 
signers  of  Davis's  bail  bond.  He  held  that  to 
make  a  martyr  of  a  Southerner  by  unwarranted 
imprisonment  was  an  unnecessary  hindrance  to 
a  peaceful  reconstruction,  an  infraction  of  the 
Constitution,  and  a  stain  upon  the  character  of 
the  republic. 

From  1848-49  he  was  a  Whig  representative 
in  Congress,  but  gained  hostility  even  in  his 
own  party  by  advocating  mileage  reform.  He 
was  one  of  the  founders  of  the  Republican  Party, 
and  by  opposing  Seward  did  much  to  give  the 
nomination  to  Abraham  Lincoln.  In  1861  he 
was  candidate  for  United  States  Senator,  but 
was  defeated  by  Ira  Harris. 

In  1867  he  was  appointed  delegate  to  the  con- 
vention for  the  revision  of  the  Constitution. 
He  antagonized  General  Grant's  administration, 
and  was  one  of  the  chief  promoters  of  the  Lib- 
eral Republican  Party,  which  held  its  national 
convention  at  Cincinnati  in  1872,  and  nominated 
him  for  President.  His  lifelong  opponents,  the 
Democrats,  nominated  him  also  at  their  national 
convention — a  move  which  greatly  lessened  his 
chances  of  success  by  repelling  many  of  his 
Republican  supporters.  During  the  canvass 
feeling  ran  high,  and  he  took  the  field  in  person 
and  made  one  of  the  most  brilliant,  able,  and 
sustained  series  of  campaign  speeches  on  record. 
In  the  election  he  received  2,834,079  votes  as 
against  3,597,070  for  Grant.  Greeley  carried 
Georgia,  Kentucky,  Maryland,  Missouri,  Ten- 
nessee, and  Texas. 

He  at  once  resumed  the  editorship  of  the 
Tribune,  but  it  was  soon  evident  that  he  had 
overtaxed  his  strength  in  the  campaign.  No 
sooner  was  it  ended  than  he  was  called  to  the 
bedside  of  his  dying  wife,  from  which  he  went 
only  to  be  himself  prostrated  by  a  nervous  dis- 
order of  the  brain.  His  illness  was  short  and 
severe,  and  on  November  29,  1872,  he  died. 
His  decease  made  a  profound  impression  upon 
the  country,  and  showed  how  deeply  and  truly 
he  was  esteemed  by  men  of  all  sects  and  par- 
ties. His  published  volumes  are  as  follows  : 
Hints  Toward  Reforms  (1850)  ;  Glances  at 
Europe  (1851);  History  of  the  Struggle  for 
Slavery  Extension  (1856)  ;  Overland  Journey 
to  San  Francisco  (1860)  ;  The  American  Con- 
_/?/£•/ (2  vols. ,  1864-66)  ;  Recollections  of  a  Busy 
Life  (1868)  ;  Essays  Designed  to  Elucidate  the 
Science  of  Political  Economy (1870)  ;  and  What 
I  Know  of  Farming  (1871).  His  life  was  writ- 
ten by  James  Parton  in  1855,  and  a  new  edition 
appeared  in  1868. 

GREENBACK  PARTY,  THE,  original 
ed  in  1873-74  m  the  opposition  felt  by  many  to 
the  asserted  manipulation  of  the  currency  in 
favor  of  the  banking  and  bond-holding  class. 
(See  CURRENCY.)  It  was  claimed  that  the  bank- 
ers of  the  country  had  conspired  (i)  to  make  the 
issue  of  the  war  greenbacks  a  failure  by  induc- 
ing Congress  to  prevent  their  being  legal  ten- 
ders for  customs  and  for  payment  of  the  national 
debt,  and  so  depreciating  their  value  ;  (2)  to 


Greenback  Party. 


673 


Greenback  Party. 


buy  up  these  greenbacks  at  their  depreciated 
value,  and  with  them  purchase  bonds,  paying 
for  the  bonds  with  greenbacks  at  their  face 
value  ;  (3)  to  induce  Congress  to  vote  that  these 
bonds  bought  with  greenbacks  at  30  cents  on 
the  dollar  should  be  redeemed  by  Congress 
under  the  pretence  of  national  faith  and  of  "an 
honest  dollar"  in  gold,  in  interest  as  well  as 
capital,  while  the  soldiers  and  sailors  of  the  war 
who  had  risked  their  lives  and  got  no  ' '  inter- 
est" had  been  paid  in  greenbacks.  Intense  ex- 
citement was  aroused,  which  the  period  of  con- 
traction of  the  currency  greatly  increased.  As 
early  as  1868  the  demand  was  broached  called 
"  the  Ohio  idea,"  that  all  bonds  which  did  not 
distinctly  call  for  payment  in  coin  should  be  re- 
deemed in  greenbacks.  This  "  idea"  seemed 
to  have  dominated  the  Democratic  convention 
of  1868,  but  was  distinctly  disavowed  by  Mr. 
Tilden  and  other  leading  Democrats.  Many 
local  and  State  conventions  in  the  West,  how- 
ever— chiefly  Democratic — endorsed  the  idea. 
Its  advocates  still  hoped  to  bring  the  entire 
party  to  their  way  of  thinking. 

Finally  the  financial  crisis  of  1873  caused  the 
masses  of  the  people  to  seek  legislative  relief 
for  the  evils  from  which  they  were  suffering, 
and  produced  a  certain  disintegration  of  the  es- 
tablished political  parties.  The  pressing  ques- 
tions of  the  time  appeared  to  require  and  justify 
new  political  organizations.  A  greenback  con- 
vention was  held  at  Indianapolis  in  1874,  and 
demanded  :  (i)  The  withdrawal  of  the  national 
bank-note  currency  ;  (2)  that  the  only  currency 
should  be  of  paper,  and  that  such  currency 
should  be  made  exchangeable  for  bonds  bearing 
interest  at  3.65  per  cent.  ;  and  (3)  that  coin  might 
be  used  for  the  payment  of  the  interest  and  prin- 
cipal of  such  bonds,  and  such  only,  as  expressly 
called  for  coin  payments.  In  1876  a  national 
greenback  convention  was  held  at  Indianapolis, 
which  nominated  Peterv  Cooper,  of  New  York, 
and  Samuel  F.  Gary,  of  Ohio,  for  President  and 
Vice-President  of  the  United  States.  In  the 
election  which  followed  they  received  81,737 
popular  votes. 

To  these  attempts  to  found  a  new  party,  based 
on  financial  issues,  a  turn  in  another  direction 
was  given  by  the  labor  troubles  which  had  cul- 
minated in  the  great  railroad  strikes  of  1877. 
In  1878  a  "  national  or  greenback-labor  conven- 
tion" was  held  at  Toledo,  O.,  as  the  result  of  a 
coalition  between  the  labor  reformers  and  the 
advocates  of  a  greenback  currency.  In  the  fol- 
lowing election  the  Greenback-Labor  tickets 
polled  over  1,000,000  votes,  and  14  representa- 
tives of  the  party  were  sent  to  Congress.  But 
the  party  was  made  up  of  different  elements  ; 
and  altho  the  distress  which  gave  it  such  a 
sudden  increase  of  strength  was  real,  none  of 
the  party  leaders  seem  to  have  had  definite  ideas 
as  to  what  was  to  be  done  to  effect  a  cure.  In 
1880  the  Greenback- Labor  convention,  at  Chi- 
cago, nominated  for  the  offices  of  President  and 
Vice-President  James  B.  Weaver,  of  Iowa,  and 
B.  J.  Chambers,  of  Texas.  In  that  year  the 
popular  Greenback-Labor  vote  was  300,867,  and 
eight  of  their  representatives  were  elected  to 
Congress.  The  ticket  in  1884  was  headed  by 
General  B.  F.  Butler,  who  was  also  the  Anti- 
Monopoly  candidate,  and  received  175,380  votes. 
43 


In  that  year  the  Greenback  ticket  in  Iowa,  Michi- 
gan, and  Nebraska  was  fused  with  that  of  the 
Democrats,  and  in  Missouri  and  West  Virginia 
with  the  Republican  ticket. 

The  Greenback  Party  proper  has  always  had 
its  strongest  support  in  the  Western  States.  In 
Maine,  New  York,  Vermont,  and  Massachusetts 
the  Greenback  element  has  been  made  up  of 
labor  reformers,  and  its  tickets  have  generally 
been  supported  principally  by  laboring  men. 
But  on  several  occasions  the  Green  backers  have 
received  much  encouragement  and  support  from 
either  one  or  the  other  of  the  two  great  parties 
of  the  country,  who  have  hoped  to  create  a  di- 
version in  their  own  favor  by  running  a  third 
ticket,  so  made  up  as  to  draw  votes  from  the 
opposing  party. 

The  following  is  the  platform  of  the  Greenback 
Labor  Party,  adopted  at  the  National  Conven- 
tion, held  in  Chicago,  June  9  and  10,  1880  : 

"  Civil  Government  should  guarantee  the  divine 
right  of  every  laborer  to  the  results  of  his  toil,  thus 
enabling  the  producers  of  wealth  to  provide  them- 
selves with  the  means  for  physical  comfort  and  the 
facilities  for  mental,  social,  and  moral  culture  ;  and  we 
condemn  as  unworthy  of  our  civilization  the  barbarism 
which  imposes  upon  the  wealth  producers  a  state  of 
perpetual  drudgery  as  the  price  of  bare  animal  exist- 
ence. 

"  Notwithstanding  the  enormous  increase  of  produc- 
tive power,  the  universal  introduction  of  labor-saving 
machinery,  and  the  discovery  of  new  agents  for  the 
increase  of  wealth,  the  task  of  the  laborer  is  scarcely 
lightened,  the  hours  of  toil  are  but  little  shortened,  and 
few  producers  are  lifted  from  poverty  into  comfort 
and  pecuniary  independence. 

"  The  associated  monopolies,  the  international  syn- 
dicates, and  other  income  classes  demand  dear  money 
and  cheap  labor,  a  '  strong  Government,'  and  hence  a 
weak  people. 

"  Corporate  control  of  the  volume  of  money  has  been 
the  means  of  dividing  society  into  hostile  classes  ;  of 
the  unjust  distribution  of  the  products  of  labor,  and  of 
building  up  monopolies  of  associated  capital,  endowed 
with  power  to  confiscate  private  property.  It  has  kept 
money  scarce,  and  scarcity  of  money  enforces  debt- 
trade,  and  public  and  corporate  loans — debt  engenders 
usury,  and  usu;ry  ends  in  the  bankruptcy  of  the  bor- 
rower. 

"Other  results  are  deranged  markets,  uncertainty 
of  manufacturing  enterprise  and  agriculture,  precari- 
ous and  intermittent  employment  for  the  laborer,  in- 
dustrial war,  increasing  pauperism  and  crime,  and  the 
consequent  intimidation  and  disfranchisement  of  the 
producer,  and  a  rapid  declension  into  corporate  feu- 
dalism. 

"  Therefore  we  declare  : 

"  i.  That  the  right  to  make  and  issue  money  is  a 
sovereign  power  to  be  maintained  by  the  people  for 
the  common  benefit.  The  delegation  of  this  right  to 
corporations  is  a  surrender  of  the  central  attribute  of 
sovereignty,  void  of  constitutional  sanction,  conferring 
upon  a  subordinate  irresponsible  power,  and  absolute 
dominion  over  industry  and  commerce.  All  money, 
whether  metallic  or  paper,  should  be  issued  and  its 
volume  controlled  by  the  Government,  and  not  by 
or  through  banking  corporations,  and  when  so  issued 
should  be  a  full  legal  tender  for  all  debts,  public  and 
private. 

"2.  That  the  bonds  of  the  United  States  should  not 
be  refunded,  but  paid  as  rapidly  as  it  is  practicable, 
according  to  contract.  To  enable  the  Government  to 
meet  these  obligations,  legal  tender  currency  should 
be  substituted  for  the  notes  of  the  national  banks,  the 
national  banking  system  abolished,  and  the  unlimited 
coinage  of  silver,  as  well  as  gold,  established  by  law. 

"  3.  That  labor  should  be  so  protected  by  national 
and  State  authority  as  to  equalize  its  burdens  and  in- 
sure a  just  distribution  of  its  results  ;  the  eight-hour 
law  of  Congress  should  be  enforced  ;  the  sanitary  con- 
dition of  industrial  establishments  placed  under  rigid 
control  ;  the  competition  of  contract  convict  labor  abol- 
ished ;  a  bureau  of  labor  statistics  established  ;  facto- 
ries, mines,  and  workshops  inspected  ;  the  employment 
of  children  under  14  years  of  age  forbidden,  and  wages 
paid  in  cash. 


Greenback  Party. 


674 


Guesde,  Jules. 


"4.  Slavery  being  simply  cheap  labor,  and  cheap 
labor  being  simply  slavery,  the  importation  and  pres- 
ence of  Chinese  serfs  necessarily  tends  to  brutalize  and 
degrade  American  labor ;  therefore,  immediate  steps 
should  be  taken  to  abrogate  the  Burlingame  treaty. 

"  5.  Railroad  land  grants  forfeited  by  reason  of  non- 
fulfillment of  contract  should  be  immediately  reclaim- 
ed by  the  Government ;  and  henceforth  the  public  do- 
main reserved  exclusively  as  homes  for  actual  settlers. 

"  6.  It  is  the  duty  of  Congress  to  regulate  interstate 
commerce.  All  lines  of  communication  and  transpor- 
tation should  be  brought  under  such  legislative  con- 
trol as  shall  secure  moderate,  fair,  and  uniform  rates 
for  passenger  and  freight  traffic. 

"7.  We  denounce,  as  destructive  to  prosperity  and 
dangerous  to  liberty,  the  action  of  the  old  parties  in 
fostering  and  sustaining  gigantic  land,  railroad,  and 
money  corporations  and  monopolies,  invested  with 
and  exercising  powers  belonging  to  the  Government, 
and  yet  not  responsible  to  it  for  the  manner  of  their 
use. 

"8.  That  the  Constitution,  in  giving  Congress  the 
power  to  borrow  money,  to  declare  war,  to  raise  and 
support  armies,  to  provide  and  maintain  a  navy,  never 
intended  that  the  men  who  loaned  their  money  for  an 
interest  consideration  should  be  preferred  to  the  soldier 
and  sailor  who  periled  their  lives  and  shed  their  blood 
on  land  and  sea  in  defense  of  their  country,  and  we 
condemn  the  cruel  class  legislation  of  the  Republican 
Party,  which,  while  professing  great  gratitude  to  the 
soldier,  has  most  unjustly  discriminated  against  him, 
and  in  favor  of  the  bondholder. 

"9.  All  property  should  bear  its  just  proportion  of 
taxation,  and  we  demand  a  graduated  income  tax. 

"  10.  We  denounce  as  most  dangerous  the  efforts 
everywhere  manifest  to  restrict  the  right  of  suffrage. 

"n.  We  are  opposed  to  an  increase  of  the  standing 
army  in  time  of  peace,  and  the  insidious  scheme  to 
establish  an  enormous  military  power  under  the  guise 
of  militia  laws. 

"  12.  We  demand  absolute  democratic  rules  for  the 
government  of  Congress,  placing  all  representatives 
of  the  people  upon  an  equal  footing,  and  taking  away 
from  committees  a  veto  power  greater  than  that  of  the 
President. 

"  13.  We  demand  a  government  of  the  people,  by  the 
people,  and  for  the  people,  instead  of  a  government  of 
the  bondholder,  by  the  bondholder,  and  for  the  bond- 
holder ;  and  we  denounce  every  attempt  to  stir  up 
sectional  strife  as  an  effort  to  conceal  monstrous  crimes 
against  the  people. 

"  14.  In  the  furtherance  of  these  ends  we  ask  the  co- 
operation of  all  fair-minded  people.  We  have  no 
quarrel  with  individuals,  we  wage  no  war  upon 
classes,  but  only  against  vicious  institutions.  We 
are  not  content  to  endure  further  discipline  from  our 
present  actual  rulers,  who,  having  dominion  over 
money,  over  transportation,  over  land  and  labor,  over 
the  machinery  of  Government,  and  largely  over  the 
press,  wield  unwarrantable  power  over  our  institu- 
tions, and  over  life  and  property." 

For  a  discussion  of  these  principles,  see  PAPER 
MONEY  ;  MONEY  ;  SILVER. 

The  literature  of  the  movement  is  large,  but 
much  of  it  was  in  only  transient  form.  Among 
the  best  books  is  B.  S.  Heath's  Labor  atid 
Finance  Revolution.  The  papers  of  Henry  C. 
Baird  and  The  Currency  Question,  a,  pamphlet 
by  G.  M.  Steele,  contain  more  moderate  state- 
ments of  the  views  of  the  Greenback  Party. 

GRONLUND,  LAWRENCE,  was  born  in 
Denmark  in  1848.  As  a  boy  he  was  in  the  war 
between  Denmark  and  Germany.  He  later 
graduated  at  the  university  and  commenced  the 
study  of  law,  but  came  to  the  United  States  in 
1867,  and  taught  German  in  a  public  school  in 
Milwaukee.  In  1869  he  was  admitted  to  the 
bar,  and  practised  in  Chicago.  He  then  became 
interested  in  socialism  by  reading  Pascal's  Pen- 
sdes,  which,  he  says,  made  him  "  a  socialist  be- 
fore he  knew  it. "  In  1880  he  published  a  dia- 
logue on  The  Coming  Revolution,  and  in  1884 
his  Cooperative  Commonwealth,  which  was  the 
first  full  statement  of  modern  socialism  published 
in  this  country,  and  that  has  had  a  wide  sale  and 


influence.  Mr.  Gronlund  has  since  given  all  his 
time  to  the  propaganda  of  socialism.  He  has 
written  and  lectured  wherever  he  could  get  a 
hearing — in  Chicago,  New  York,  Boston,  and 
more  recently  on  the  Pacific  coast,  where  he  has 
organized  several  Fabian  clubs.  He  held  for  a 
while  an  office  in  the  United  States  Labor  De- 
partment, but  relinquished  it  for  the  lecture  field. 
In  1887  he  published  Danton,  a  study  of  the 
French  Revolution,  from  the  standpoint  of  an 
admirer  of  Danton,  who  believes  him  to  have 
been  greatly  misjudged.  In  1890  he  published 
Our  Destiny,  a  work  religious  as  well  as  social- 
istic, which  has  had  a  large  sale,  especially  in 
England,  where  1000  copies  were  sold  in  the 
first  month.  It  has  also  had  a  favorable  recep- 
tion in  France,  where  it  was  called  by  the  Revue 
d'  Economic  Politique  "  the  most  elevated  and 
attractive  conception  of  socialism  yet  published.." 
Its  central  thotight  is  that  socialism  is  not  a 
"  bread  and  butter  question,"  nor  one  of  either 
personal  or  even  altruistic  idealism,  but  a  move- 
ment toward  the  organic  unity  of  national  so- 
ciety, without  which  true  morality  is  impossible. 

GROTIUS,  HUGO,  or  DE    GROOT,  was 

born  at  Delft  in  1583  ;  his  father  was  the  burgo- 
master. He  entered  the  University  of  Leyden 
in  1594  and  took  his  degree  in  1598.  Traveling 
in  France,  he  returned  to  practise  as  a  lawyer, 
and  in  1607  was  fiscal  general,  and  in  1 6 10  coun- 
cil-pensionary at  Rotterdam.  For  supporting 
the  Remonstrants  he  was  condemned,  in  1619, 
to  imprisonment  for  life,  but  escaped  by  the  aid 
of  his  wife,  who  took  his  place  in  the  castle,  tho 
for  her  bravery  she  was  set  free.  He  wandered 
through  the  Netherlands  and  France,  and  for  a 
while  enjoyed  a  pension  at  the  court  of  Louis 
XIII.  He  was  allowed  to  return  to  Holland, 
but  again  exiled  for  life.  A  wanderer  again, 
he  entered  the  service  of  Sweden,  and  from 
1635-45  was  Swedish  ambassador  at  Paris.  Re- 
turning to  Sweden,  he  passed  through  Amster- 
dam, and  was  honored  there  as  well  as  in  Swe- 
den. He  received  a  pension,  but  while  journey- 
ing fell  ill  and  died  at  Rostock  in  1845.  He  was 
a  profound  scholar,  an  eminent  theologian,  an 
erudite  historian,  a  Latin  poet,  an  eminent  ju- 
rist. His  Dejure  Belle  et  Pads  (1625)  has  been 
translated  into  all  the  languages  of  Europe,  and 
may  be  called  the  basis  of  international  law. 
(See  POLITICAL  SCIENCE.) 

GRUN,  KARL,  was  born  at  Liidenscheid, 
in  Westphalia,  in  1817.  A  Hegelian,  he  became 
editor  of  a  Mannheim  journal  in  1842,  and  ad- 
vocated socialistic  views  till  expelled  from  the 
duchy.  After  1868  he  lived  in  Vienna,  writing 
various  literary  and  philosophical  works  till  his 
death  in  1887. 

GUESDE,  JULES,  was  born  at  Paris  in 
1845.  Entering  political  journalism  at  Paris, 
Toulouse,  and  Montpellier,  at  the  latter  place 
he  published  the  Droits  de  /' '  homme •,  and  was 
imprisoned  six  months  for  a  revolutionary  arti- 
cle against  the  empire.  At  the  time  of  the  Com- 
mune he  attempted  to  stir  up  a  revolution  in 
Montpellier,  and  was  condemned  to  five  years' 
imprisonment  ;  he  fled  to  Geneva  and  joined  the 
Internationalists.  Driven  to  Italy,  he  returned 


Cuesde,  Jules. 


675 


Guilds. 


to  Paris  in  1876  and  edited  the  Citoyen,  the  Cri 
du  Peuple,  and  then  founded  the  Egalite,  the 
first  paper  of  modern  Marxist  socialism  in 
France.  In  1879,  with  Marx,  Engels,  and  La 
Fargue,  he  drafted  the  program  of  the  Marxist 
Parti  ouvrier  fran$ais,  of  which  he  has  ever 
been  a  foremost  leader.  (See  FRANCE.)  He 
was  imprisoned  for  six  months  in  1878,  and 
again  in  1883  for  his  socialist  activities.  In  1893 
he  was  elected  deputy  from  Roubaix,  and  has 
become  perhaps  the  foremost  leader  of  French 
Marxist  socialism.  Among  his  numerous  tho 
brief  writings  are  Collectivisme  et  Revolution 
(1879)  ;  Socialisme  et  services  publics  (1884)  ; 
Le  Collectivisme  au  College  de  France  (1884). 

GUILDS. — In  separate  articles  we  consider 
trade-unions,  friendly  societies,  etc.  In  this 
article  we  consider  simply  the  ancient  labor 
unions  and  the  medieval  guilds. 

I.  ANCIENT  LABOR  UNIONS. 

That  labor  unions  have  existed  all  through 
history  has  long  been  known,  but  only  recently 
have  they  been  carefully  studied.  Particularly 
in  America  has  Mr.  C.  Osborne  Ward  investi- 
gated the  subject  in  his  The  Ancient  Lowly, 
reaching  conclusions  by  no  means  always  ac- 
cepted by  all  scholars,  yet  at  least  collecting 
valuable  information.  According  to  Mr.  Ward, 
in  the  beginnings  of  society  the  family  consisted 
of  some  strong  man  or  bully  and  a  few  women, 
attracted  to  him  by  hope  of  protection,  by  lust, 
or  perhaps  captured,  and  beyond  these  their 
children  and  perhaps  a  few  slaves.  There  be- 
ing no  law,  the  strong  man,  or  paterfamilias, 
was  a  despot.  When  he  died  the  oldest  son 
usually  took  his  place  ;  but  the  shades  of  the 
father  and  of  his  fathers  were  still  regarded  as 
present  and  worshiped.  (See  FAMILY.)  But 
some  of  the  younger  sons  would  rebel.  These 
were  not  slaves,  but  of  the  same  blood  as  the 
head  of  the  family.  Out  of  this  division,  ac- 
cording to  Mr.  Ward,  came  classes — the  aristo- 
crats, or  heads  of  families,  and  the  dispossessed 
freemen  who  were  not  slaves.  These  developed 
the  artisan  classes,  and  when  they  united,  the 
first  labor  unions.  These  unions  were  connect- 
ed with  a  religious  culte.  As  the  aristocrats 
worshiped  the  shades  of  their  ancestors,  and 
made  that  worship  the  center  of  the  family,  so 
the  labor  unions  found  their  patron  gods. 

The  date  of  the  earliest  labor  organization 

cannot  be  fixed  ;  but  it  must  have  been  very 

early.     As    early  as    1180    B.C.,   according    to 

Plutarch's     Theseus,   one    Menes- 

theus  rose  against  the  aristocrats  at 

History.  Athens  to  demand  for  the  people 
the  right  to  be  initiated  into  the 
Eleusinian  mysteries.  There  must 
have  been  at  least  some  understanding  between 
working  men  at  this  time,  and  one  of  their  first 
grievances  was  that  they  were  excluded  from 
the  aristocratic  religious  rites,  the  aristocrats 
teaching  that  working  men  had  no  souls.  A 
fragment  from  the  age  of  Solon  stiows  that  in 
his  time  (about  600  B.C.)  trade-unions  were  com- 
mon (Granier's  Histoire  des  classes  ouvrier es, 
pp.  283-287).  The  celebrated  Roman  Law  of 
the  Twelve  Tables  specified  the  manner  of  or- 
ganization of  working  men,  and  is  declared  by 


some  (Gaius'  Digest ;  Plutarch's  Numa}  to  be 
a  translation  from  the  Greek  law  of  Solon  ,  and 
the  law  of  Solon  is  said  to  be  a  paraphrase  of  the 
still  more  ancient  law  of  Amasis,  King  of  Egypt. 
References  are  found  by  some  to  trade-unions 
in  the  Bible,  in  the  time  of  Joshua  (1537-1427), 
and  certainly  in  the  time  of  Solomon.  Hiram 
of  Tyre,  who  is  said  to  have  been  the  architect 
of  the  Temple  at  Jerusalem,  brought  with  him 
from  Tyre  3200  foremen  and  40,000  free  artifi- 
cers— not  a  large  number,  when  it  took  the 
immortal  Phideas,  Callicrates,  the  chief  archi- 
tect Ictinus,  and  probably  50,000  unionist  crafts- 
men 10  years  to  design  and  complete  the  Par- 
thenon— the  perfection  of  architectural  art. 

By  the  time  of  Numa  Pompilius  we  find 
unions  fully  developed  and  recognized  by  law. 
(See  Plutarch's  Numa.')  Mommsen  (De  Coll. 
and  Sodal  Rom.,  p.  78)  says  :  "  The  relics  of 
innumerable  communal  associations  of  ancient 
times  are  seen  scattered  all  through  Italy,  as 
found  among  the  inscriptions  of  the  Italian 
towns."  Down  to  B.C.  58  of  the  times  of  the 
emperors,  the  right  of  working  men  in  Rome  to 
organize  was  unabridged.  Numa  divided  the 
unions  into  eight  great  classes,  a  clear  witness 
to  their  number. 

Later,  the  unions  became  innumerable.  Ward 
describes  a  great  number  both  Greek  and  Ro- 
man. The  source  of  our  knowledge  of  these  is 
mainly  from  inscriptions,  tablets,  columns,  and 
mutilated  manuscripts.  Most  of  the  historians 
were  too  aristocratic  to  notice  labor  organiza- 
tions, and,  according  to  Ward,  the  references 
they  did  make  to  uprisings  of  slaves  and  labor- 
ers were  mutilated  by  aristocrats. 

The  early  Greek  unions  were  called  thiasotai  (or 
disciples  of  mutual  love),  sussitoi  (or  those  who  eat  at 
a  common  table),  omotaphoi  (or  burial  societies).  Ac- 
cording to  Ward,  the  hetaroi  and  hetarai  were  male 
and  female  associates  of  labor  societies,  and  only  later 
was  the  word  used  for  prostitutes,  because  laborers 
were  despised.  Ward  mentions  especially  the  Greek 
thiasoi  and  eranoi  as  general  names  for  Greek  guilds. 
Of  the  Roman  organizations  we  have  fuller  informa- 
tion. The  Fabri  uavilium,  or  ship  car- 
penters and  boat- makers  of  the  Tiber  ; 
the  collegium  vasculariorum  (metal  ves-  Names. 
sel  makers) ;  the  collegium  pistorum 
(millers) ;  the  collegium  incendarium 
(firemen) ;  the  collegium  vinariorum  (wine  dealers)  ; 
even  the  collegium  lupanariorum  (brothel  keepers) ; 
the  collegium  oisellariorum  (makers  of  chairs  for  the 
gods) ;  the  collegium  centonariorum  (rag-pickers  or 
junkmen);  the  collegium  saliarium  baxiarum  (shoe- 
makers) ;  th&fullonum  sodalicum  (fullers) ;  the  corpus 
nemesiacorum  (fortune-tellers) ;  the  collegium  arma- 
riorum  (gladiators);  the  communionis  minirum  (actors); 
the  collegium  castrensialiorum  (sutlers) ;  the  collegium 
vinatorum  (planters) ;  the  collegium  farnariorum 
(mowers)  ;  the  collegium  urinatorum  (devils),  and  a 
long  list  of  others  too  numerous  to  mention. 

These  collegia  seem  to  have  been  scattered 
all  over  the  Roman  Empire,  in  Asia  Minor,  the 
Greek  islands,  Spain  and  Gaul,  as  well  as  in 
Greece  and  Rome.  Mr.  Ward  says  they  were 
established  in  England  by  the  Romans,  and 
gave  rise  to  the  medieval  guilds  (q.v.),  espe- 
cially in  Kent,  whence  "  the  men  of  Kent"  have 
brought  the  labor  movement  to  America. 

All  these  unions  were  more  or  less  combi- 
nations of  religious  societies,  burial  societies, 
convivial  societies,  and  friendly  societies,  with 
dues  and  benefits.  Each  organization  took  some 
patron  god  and  celebrated  his  worship.  They 
had  banners  and  processions  and  days  of  wor- 


Guilds. 


676 


Guilds. 


ship.  This  was  partly  to  cover  their  meeting 
for  other  purposes.  They  had  occasional  or 
regular  convivial  meetings,  and  suppers  in  com- 
mon, and  their  dues  were  sometimes  simply  to 
meet  the  expense  of  these.  Almost  invariably 
they  were  burial  societies  with  dues  to  meet  the 
expense  of  the  burial,  of  which  the  ancients  made 
so  much.  Sometimes  they  were  trade-unions 
and  friendly  societies  in  the  modern  sense. 
They  had  fixed  prayers  and  a  ritual  for  the  con- 
duct of  their  meetings.  Their  officers  were 
usually  presiding  officers  (of  both  sexes),  a 
"  president  of  finance,"  a  stewardess  or  house- 
wife, a  manager  or  trustee,  a  recording  secre- 
tary or  scribe,  lawyers  to  defend  the  members, 
priests  to  conduct  the  religious  rites. 

Some  of  the  inscriptions  give  the  best  picture 
of  their  organization,     A  Greek  one,  in  plain 
Attic  Greek  (translated  in  the  Revue  Archto- 
logique}  reads  :  "  Because  of  rulable  and  just 
administration  of  the  common  fund  of  money 
of   the  community   of   eranistai,  and   having 
ever  conducted  himself  with  kindness  and  with 
honesty  ;  and  because  he  has  righteously  hus- 
banded the  funds  successively  paid  by  the  eran- 
istai themselves,  as  well  as  the  annual  subscrip- 
tion, according  to  the  law  of  the  eranas,  and  in 
view  of  the  fact  that  in  everything 
else  he  still  continues  to  show  in- 
Organi-      tegrity  to  the  oath  which  he  swore 
zation.       to  the  eranistai,  therefore  hail  Alc- 
meon.      The     community    of    the 
eranistairQ^oicQ  to  praise  Alcmeon, 
son  of  Thon,  a  stranger  who  has  been  natural- 
ized— their  president  of  finance,  and  do  crown 
him  with  a  chaplet  of  foliage  because  of  his 
faithfulness  and  good  will  to  them.     They  are, 
moreover,  rejoiced,  and  praise  the  trustees,  and 
also  the  priests  (chaplains)  of  Jupiter  the  Sa- 
vior, and  of  Hercules,  and  of  the  Savior  of  the 
Gods.     And  they  crown  each   of    them   with 
the  wreath  of  honor  because  of  their  virtue,  and 
their  lively  interest  in  the  community  of  the  era- 
nistai. ' ' 

The  stone  is  broken  and  the  date  is  gone,  but 
it  seems  to  be  of  the  Aristotelian  period. 

That  these  unions  were  very  much  like  mod- 
ern trade-unions,  and  even  in  advance  of  many 
present  unions,  is  seen  by  the  following  inscrip- 
tion, discovered  at  Pompeii,  showing  that  they 
endeavored  to  influence  politics,  and  that  they 
honored  women  (Ward's  translation). 

1.  "  The  members  of  the  Fishermen's  Union 
nominate  Popedius  Rufus    for  member  of  the 
Board  of  Public  Works." 

2.  "  The  International  Gold  Workers'  Asso- 
ciation of  the  City  of  Pompeii  demand  for  Mem- 
ber of  the  Board  of  Public  Works  Cuspis  Pansa. ' ' 

3.  "  Verna,  the  home  born,  with  her  pupils  in 
all  right,  put  Mrs.  Capella  to  the  front  for  a  seat 
on  the  Board  of  Magistrates." 

To  these  unions  Ward  ascribes  great  influence 
in  ancient  times.  Socrates,  he  says,  was  a  mem- 
ber of  them  ;  and  his  last  words  as  he  lay  dying 
was  to  remind  his  disciples  that  they  (the  thiaso- 
tai  or  brethren)  owed  their  cook  for  a  chicken 
on  which  they  had  banqueted.  Southern  Italy 
was  most  full  of  these  unions,  where  Plato  found 
a  system  of  communisms  supposed  to  have  been 
founded  by  Pythagoras.  Jesus  Christ,  Ward 
believes  to  have  belonged  to  such  a  union,  and 
to  simply  have  proclaimed  successfully  to  the 


world  the  brotherhood  and  equality  which  the 
unions  had  long  preached  and  striven  for  in  pri- 
vate. The  early  Christian  churches,  he  says, 
were  first  developed  where  these  unions  were 
strong,  as  at  Pergamus,  Laodicea,  Ephesus,  and 
Hierapolis  ("the  seven  churches"),  Antipch, 
Rhodes,  and  elsewhere.  Many  of  these  unions 
doubtless  became  corrupt  ;  their  feasts  became 
feasts  of  revelry  and  dissipation  ;  but  originally, 
according  to  Ward,  the  Bacchic  festivities,  the 
Bacchanalia  and  Saturnalia,  were  not  licentious. 
Ancient  authors  despised  these  workmen,  even 
Aristotle,  and  especially  Plato  (f.v.),  and  there- 
fore have  given  the  names  of  their  organiza- 
tions a  bad  repute,  which  they  do  not  deserve. 

These  unions  were  almost  exclusively  of  free 
working  men,  tho  occasionally  slaves  were  ad- 
mitted.    But  the  condition  of  the  slaves  was  ter- 
rible in  the  extreme.     At   Sparta 
Lycurgus  instituted  a  communism, 
but  it  rested    on    slavery   of    the      Slaves. 
helots.    There  were  common  tables, 
but  they  were  waited  upon  by  near- 
ly naked  slaves.     The  slaves  were  State  slaves, 
and  were    flogged    once  a  day.     The    young 
ephori  were  taught  to  hunt  for  the  helots  and 
kill  them  as  they  toiled  in  the  fields,  in  order  to 
keep  the  helot  class  in  subjection.     Two  thou- 
sand helots  are  known  to  have  been  killed  in 
the  fields  at  one  time.     At  Athens  slaves  worked 
the  State  mines  at  Laurium  and  elsewhere,  both 
sexes  working  naked  in  the  mines  under  the 
lash,  and  loaded  with  chains.     In  Rome   they 
were  made  to  fight  each  other  and  wild  beasts 
in  the  arena.     In  Sicily  they  were  housed  in 
dungeons,  compelled  to  work  naked  in  the  fields, 
beaten,  tortured,  crucified. 

Hence  arose  great  slave  strikes.  The  earliest 
in  Greece  was  probably  a  rising  of  the  Spartan 
helots,  which  was  put  down  in  cold  blood  in  the 
time  of  Agis  I.  (about  1055  B.C.). 
During  the  Peloponnesian  wars 
there  was  a  great  strike  of  the  Slave 
20,000  Athenian  slaves  at  Sunium,  Kevolts. 
who  went  over  in  a  body  to  the  ene- 
my, Sparta  (413  B.C.).  Another  strike 
seems  to  have  occurred  at  the  same  place,  B.C. 
133,  when  looo  slave  miners  killed  their  over- 
seers and  rushed  into  the  town  and  temple  for 
security,  but  were  finally  overpowered.  Ac- 
cording to  Livy  (Annales,  lib.  IV.,  45),  the 
slaves  rose  in  Rome  407  B.C.,  and  tried  to  fire 
the  city,  but  were  betrayed  and  the  ringleaders 
crucified.  B.C.  194,  the  slaves  rose  in  Latium 
and  gained  the  city,  but  were  again  betrayed 
to  forces  marching  from  Rome,  and  some  2000 
were  slaughtered  (Livy,  XXXII.,  Epitomy). 
B.C.  196,  another  great  strike  seems  to  have 
taken  place  in  Etruria,  and  another  in  Apulia, 
B.C.  185-184  (Livy,  XXXIX.).  In  the  island  of 
Chios  the  slaves  rose  at  an  uncertain  date,  and, 
under  Drimakos,  a  soothsayer,  escaped  to  the 
mountains  and  maintained  independence  there 
under  their  slave  king.  But  finally,  according 
to  the  story,  the  Chiots,  offering  a  great  reward 
for  Drimakos'  head,  the  old  man  called  a  boy 
friend  to  him  and  had  him  cut  off  his  head  to 
get  the  reward,  which  the  youth  did,  a  temple 
afterward  being  built  to  Drimakos.  In  Sicily, 
under  Eunus,  143-133  B.C.,  the  slaves  rose  and 
conquered  their  masters  and  chose  Eunus  king, 
and  finally  had  a  force  of  200,000  men,  defeat- 


Guilds. 


677 


Guilds. 


ing  army  after  army  sent  against  them  from 
Rome  during  a  period  of  six  years.  In  Perga- 
mus,  in  Asia  Minor  (B.C.  130),  King  Attains 
willed  his  empire  to  Rome  ;  but  Aristonicus,  a 
natural  brother,  roused  the  slaves,  and  offered 
them  their  freedom  if  they  would  support  him. 
He,  with  his  eranoi,  defied  Rome  and  defeated 
her  consular  armies,  till  finally  overthrown  by 
M.  Paperna  (B.C.  104).  Another  great  slave  ris- 
ing took  place  in  Sicily  under  Athenion,  who 
united  with  the  free  workmen  and  defeated 
Rome  in  six  great  battles.  The  rising  of  the 
gladiators  under  Spartacus  is  better  known. 
Spartacus  at  Capua  plotted  his  escape  with  200 
gladiators,  74  B.C.  Gaining  weapons,  they  at- 
tracted slaves  and  working  men  to  them  till 
they  had  ultimately  an  army  of  300,000  men. 
He  defeated  army  after  army  of  the  Romans  by 
shrewd  tactics  and  desperate  valor,  but  finally 
was  conquered  by  Crassus,  Spartacus  himself 
perishing  in  the  battle  ;  60,000  workmen  fell  in 
the  battle,  and  6000  were  crucified  by  the  Ro- 
mans along  the  road  from  Capua  to  Rome. 

II.  MEDIEVAL  GUILDS. 

The  medieval  guild  in  one  sense  doubtless 
sprang  from  the  ancient  labor  unions,  but  in 
an  important  sense   it  did  not.     Medieval  life 
sprang  from    Germanic    life,  adapted   to  and 
molded  by  the  Roman  civilization  it  overran. 
Wherever  the    Germanic  tribes  went,  in  Ger- 
many, England,  France,  Italy,  or  Spain,  they 
found  labor  unions,  and,  as  it  were,  inherited 
them.     Yet  is  the    medieval   guild  essentially 
German  and  not  Roman.     The  Roman  guilds 
were  mainly  of  slaves  or  of  the  despised.     The 
medieval  guilds  were  composed  essentially  of 
freemen.     They  were  not  simply  trade-unions. 
Some  have  argued  that  the  medieval  guilds 
sprang  from  the  early  common  banquets  of  the 
Gothic  tribes.    They  more  probably  sprang  from 
a  variety  of  causes.     The  name  guild  is  proba- 
bly derived  from  the  Anglo-Saxon 
gylden  or  gildan,  "  to  pay,"  since 
Origin.       a  distinctive  feature  of  all  the  guilds 
was  the    common   contribution  or 
assessment.      The    word     at    first 
seems  to  have  been  used  for  any  association  for 
any  purpose  that  had  contributions  to  a  common 
fund.    ' '  The  early  guilds, ' '  says  Professor  Selig- 
man,  "  had  no  connection  with  trade  or  indus- 
try."    They  were  largely  social,  often  protec- 
tive, sometimes  political,  almost  always  with  a 
religious  spirit.     Says  Gierke  (Dcutsches   Ge- 
nos sense hafts-Recht,  p.  227):    "The  old  Ger- 
manic guild  embraced  the  whole  man  and  was 
intended  to  satisfy  all  hdman  purposes  ;  it  was 
a  union  such  as  exists  to-day  only  in  our  towns  or 
States  ;  it  answered  at  the  same  time  religious, 
moral, social, economical, and  political  purposes." 
An  important  variety  of  these  guilds  were  the 
frith,  or  peace  guilds,  sworn  communities  for 
the  protection  of  right  and  the  preservation  of 
liberty.     Many  guilds  were  formed 
by    and    often    composed    of    the 
Beligious    clergy.     A  still  larger  class  were 
Guilds.      purely  social  and  charitable.    There 
were  said  to  have  been  as  many  as 
909  guilds  in  the  county  of  Norfolk 
alone.     Contributions  to  the  common  treasury, 
masses  for  the  living,  and  funeral  rites  for  the 
deceased  brethren,  observance  of  a  mutual  char- 


ity, and  the  bathing,  feeding,  and  clothing  of 
loo  poor  men,  are  among  the  obligations  of  most 
of  the  guilds  whose  members  promised  to  con- 
duct themselves  as  righteously  as  possible,  and 
be  of  "  one  heart  and  of  one  soul." 

These  guilds,  of  one  kind  or  another,  extend- 
ed all  over  Germanic  Europe  and  endured  in 
most  countries  till  the  time  of  the  Reformation. 
In  England,  Henry  VIII.  sequestered  the  prop- 
erty of  the  religious  guilds.  In  Denmark  and 
North  Germany  their  property  was  devoted  to 
the  public  service. 

The  most  important,  however,  of  all  medieval 
guilds  were  the  guilds-merchant  and  the  craft 
guilds.  The  former  came  first  and  grew  to 
great  power,  becoming  often  the  real  municipal 
corporation  of  the  towns.  Gradually,  however, 
the  craft  guilds  gained  upon  them,  and  finally 
replaced  them. 

III.  GUILDS-MERCHANT. 

The  guilds-merchant  in  all  European  coun- 
tries seem  to  have  been  developed  about  the 
same  time.     In  England,  they  are  mentioned 
first  in  Doomsday  Book,  both  knighton-guild 
and  guild-merchant    existing   at  Nottingham. 
Lincoln  is  said  to  have  had  one  during  the  Dan- 
ish supremacy,  and  soon  after  Doomsday  they 
are  frequently  mentioned  in  town 
charters.  The  drapers'  company  of 
Hamburg  dates  from  1153,  and  that     Develop- 
of  the  shoemakers  of  Magdeburg       ment. 
from  1157.    Similar  associations  ex- 
isted in  Milan  about  the  same  time. 
They  were  common  in  France  in  the  reign  of 
Louis  IX.     By  the  close  of  the  twelfth  century 
they  were  general    throughout    Europe.     The 
Hanseatic    League,  which    was    practically    a- 
league  of  North  German  guilds-merchant,  and 
which  came  to  have  such  power,  dates  from  the 
thirteenth  century.     Their  charters  were  essen- 
tially monopoly  licenses  to  sell.    With  the  license 
also  went  certain  privileges  and   exemptions. 
Says  Professor    Seligman,   from    whose     Two 
Chapters  on  the  Medieval  Guilds  of  England 
we  derive  much  information  : 

"~It  was  essential  for  the  merchant  traveling  from 
town  to  town,  or  even  trading  within  the  burgh,  to  be 
freed  from  these  burdens,  and  we  find  accordingly 
immunities  of  this  kind  in  almost  every  case.  .  .  . 

"Another  privilege  that  is  often  mentioned  is  the 
hansa.  What  this  was  is  not  very  clear.  The  magnifi- 
cence of  the  Hanseatic  League  and  its  branches  in 
medieval  England  are  well  known,  and  the  Steelyard 
of  the  hanse-merchants  or  Easterlings,  who  were  al- 
ready protected  by  jEthelstan,  became  a  renowned  in- 
stitution of  London.  .  .  .  But  the  term  is  much  older, 
and  occurs  frequently  in  the  English  charters,  probably 
at  first  having  reference  to  the  privileges  of  merchants 
when  away  from  home.  For  the  English  had  their 
guilds  in  foreign  ports  also.  Its  meaning,  however, 
soon  became  equivalent  to  guild,  or  the  rights  of  a 
guild,  and  in  this  generic  signification  it  is  used*  all 
through  the  later  documents.  The  '  hanse  of  the  guild ' 
thus  became  a  collective  name,  which  included  all  the 
usual  attributes  of  a  trading  corporation." 

The  constitution  of  the  guilds  shows  their  character. 
Seligman  tells  us  that  "  at  the  head  stood  the  alderman 
or  master,  who  probably  paid  something  for  his  posi- 
tion, and  at  his  side  were  the  wardens   or   stewards, 
and    occasionally    other   officers,    such   as  seneschals, 
ushers,  clerks,  deans,  and  chaplains.    Membership  was 
obtained  by  heredity,  purchase,  or  gift,  and  frequent 
mention  is  made  of  the  seats  of  the  asso- 
ciates, which  probably  referred  to  their 
position  at  the  feasts  or  the  arrangement  Constitution. 
of  the  booths  in  fair-time.    The  aliena- 
tion of  the   seats,   whether  by  sale  or 
gift,  was  forbidden,  and  while  the  sons  and  sometimes 
the  nephews  and  daughters  of  members  were  admitted 


Guilds. 


678 


Guilds. 


free  of  all  charges,  others  were  obliged  to  pay  an  en- 
trance fee  and  produce  two  sureties.  In  the  oath  that 
was  administered  on  initiation,  the  new  member 
pledged  himself  to  conform  to  the  ordinances,  to  be 
subject  to  the  same  burdens  as  his  fellows,  to  inform 
the  officials  and  inhabitants  if  he  discovered  any  mer- 
chant in  town  who  was  not  a  member,  and  to  obey  the 
command  of  the  mayor  as  well  as  to  maintain  the  good 
usages  of  the  city.  Peace  and  good- will  between  the 
members  were  enjoined  ;  provisions  of  a  charitable 
character,  such  as  alms  to  the  impoverished  and  visits 
to  the  imprisoned,  are  occasionally  found  ;  the  morning 
speeches  and  periodical  banqxiets  were  not  omitted, 
and  the  members  were  admonished  not  to  forget  to 
drink  their  guild-merchant,  on  which  festive  occasions 
the  officers  availed  themselves  of  the  opportunity  to 
collect  the  taxes." 

The  guild  merchant  was  then  at  the  outset  a 
mere  company  of  traders  ;  but  the  term  mer- 
chant, which  by  no  means  conveyed  the  same 
ideas  as  at  present,  included  not  only  those  that 
carried  on  foreign  commerce,  but  petty  traders 
of  all  kinds,  even  artisans.  The  guild,  how- 
ever, in  course  of  time  lost  its  character  as  a 
purely  private  society,  and  became  closely  con- 
nected with  the  municipal  organization,  altho 
never  identical  with  it.  When  the  towns  and 
boroughs  obtained  charters,  they  took  care  to 
have  it  included  that  the  men  of  the  place  should 
also  have  their  guild- merchant.  "  Guild  law" 
often  became  the  law  of  the  town.  But  in  Eng- 
land and  the  north  of  Europe  the  guilds-mer- 
chant, having  grown  rich  and  tyrannical,  ex- 
cluded the  landless  men  of  the  handicrafts  ; 
these  then  uniting  among  themselves,  there  arose 
everywhere  by  the  side  of  the  guilds-merchant 
the  craft  guilds,  which  gained  the  upper  hand 
on  the  continent  in  the  struggle  for  liberty  in 
the  thirteenth  and  fourteenth  centuries.  In 
England  these  companies  usually  existed  side 
by  side  with  the  old  town  or  merchant-guild  ; 
until  at  length  their  increasing  importance 
caused  the  decay  of  the  old  guilds,  and  the 
adoption  of  these  crafts  as  part  of  the  constitu- 
tion of  the  towns  (thirteenth  to  fifteenth  cen- 
tury). 

In  the  great  cities  like  London  and  Florence 
the  guilds-merchant,  if  organized,  never  seem 
to  have  taken  deep  hold.  The  craft  guilds 
seem  to  have  been  early  organized. 

IV.  CRAFT  GUILDS. 

The  origin  of  these  craft  guilds  is  more  dis- 
puted than  that  of  the  guilds-merchant.     There 
are  three  main  views.     Brentano,  in  his  Guilds 
and  Trade-  Unions,  argues  that  they  were  asso- 
ciations of  craftsmen  to  protect  themselves  from 
"  the  alrase  of  power  on  the  part  of  the  lords  of 
the  town,  who  tried  to  reduce  the  free  to  the 
dependence  of  the  unfree. ' '    There  seems,  how- 
ever, little  to  support  this  view.     Dr.  Cunning- 
ham (History  of  Industry  and  Commerce,  vol. 
i.,  p.  310)  says  they  were  "  called  into  being  not 
out  of  antagonism  to  existing  au- 
thorities, but  as  new  institutions, 
Origin,      to  which  special  parts  of  their  own 
duties  were  delegated  by  the  burgh 
officers  or  the  local  guild-merchant. 
Professor   Ashley  (Introduction    to   Economic 
History  and  Theory}  takes  the  middle  ground 
that  they  were  self-governing  bodies  of  crafts- 
men, more   or  less   under   municipal    control. 
They  are,  however,  in  no  case  to  be  identified 
with  modern   trade-unions,  and  tho   Brentano 


and  Mr.  George  Howell  following  him  have 
held  that  modern  trade-unions  are  descended 
from  them,  there  seems  to  be  no  proof  of  this. 
The  prototype  of  the  modern  trade -union  is  to 
be  sought  rather  in  the  journeymen  associations 
that  sprang  up  later,  as  the  craft  guilds  grow 
aristocratic  and  wealthy.  The  craft  guilds  were 
rather  guilds  of  employers.  As  the  guilds-mer- 
chant were  monopolies  in  traffic,  so  the  craft 
guilds  were  monopolies  in  production. 

The  early  charters,  says  Professor  Seligman, 
all  contain  as  a  cardinal  point  the  provision  that 
no  one  should  venture  to  carry  on  the  trade 
either  in  the  city  or  suburbs  unless  a  member. 

The  crafts  could  thus  not  be  initiated  with- 
out permission.  The  towns  often  assumed  the 
right  of  recognizing  the  formation  of  guilds, 
which  was  regarded  as  a  perfectly  legitimate 
exercise  of  municipal  powers.  The  regulations 
of  the  craft  were  subject  to  the  periodical  ap- 
proval of  the  municipal  officers,  and  the  guilds 
were  formed  and  recognized  as  welcome  aux- 
iliaries to  the  means  for  the  enforcement  of  the 
market  laws.  Care,  indeed,  must  be  taken  not 
to  exaggerate  the  involuntary  character  of  the 
unions,  for  the  early  rights  of  the  craft  guilds 
were  probably,  in  part  at  least,  the  growth  of 
self-assertion.  But,  above  all,  the  ordinances 
were  the  outgrowth  of  a  general  medieval  policy. 

Their    constitution    resembled     that    of    the 
guilds-merchant.     The    unions   known  by  the 
names  of  mystery,  faculty,  trade,  fellowship, 
or  (from  the  fact  of  possessing  par- 
ticular costumes)  livery  company, 
were  divided  into  two  or  three  cate-  Constitution, 
gories.    At  the  side  of  the  alderman 
or  master,  the  chief  officer,  stood 
four  or  six  wardens  or  searchers  who  possessed 
the  general  authority  to  inspect  work  and  rec- 
tify abuses.     As  in  all  guilds,  the  social  gather- 
ings, processions,  and  annual  feasts  played  a 
great  role,  and  we  find  here  and  there  provi- 
sions for  the  common  welfare,  assistance  to  the 
needy,  and  the  maintenance  of  a  chaplain.     But 
these  few  ordinances  of  a  charitable  character 
played  an  exceedingly  insignificant  part  in  the 
constitution  of  the  craft  guilds.     The  true  sig- 
nificance of  the  crafts  was  economic,  not  social. 

Membership  in  the  guild  in  the  period  of 
their  prosperity  depended  on  full  citizenship. 
Non-citizens,  whether  aliens  or  simple  strangers, 
enjoyed  but  a  precarious  position  in  medieval 
England.  The  qualification  of  freeman  was 
necessarily  relaxed  in  the  case  of  women,  who 
were  also  admitted  as  members,  for  certain  oc- 
cupations were  almost  exclusively  conducted  by 
them. 

But  participation  in  the  franchise  was  not 
enough.  A  perfect  acquaintance  with  the  de- 
tails of  the  trade  and  the  ability  to  produce  good 
work  were  in  all  cases  preliminary  requisites. 
Jn  fact,  the  main  provisions  of  the  craft,  the 
very  soul  of  its  constitution,  were  the  regula- 
tions intended  to  ensure  the  excellence  of  the 
products  and  the  capacity  of  the  workman.  The 
ordinances  almost  invariably  commence  with  a 
recital  of  the  various  subterfuges  employed  by 
knavish  artificers  to  deceive  the  public. 

The  whole  character  of  the  craft  guild  is  seen 
by  these  regulations  to  be  due  to  the  compul- 
sion of  the  city  authorities  rather  than  to  any 


Guilds. 


679 


Guilds. 


philanthropic  anxiety  on  the  part  of  the  trades. 
Carefully  ascertained  rules  as  to  the  exact  pro- 
portion and  quality  of  the  raw  materials  were 
prescribed  with  great  minuteness  ;  the  mixing 
of  good  and  bad  wares  was  strictly  prohibited, 
and  the  greatest  care  was  exercised  in  the  selec- 
tion of  proper  tools. 

Similar  considerations  led  to  the  prohibition 
of  night  work  or  sales  by  candle-light.  Said  an 
edict :  "  The  spurriers  shall  not  work  after  cur- 
few, '  by  reason  that  no  man  can  work  so  neat- 
ly by  night  as  by  day,'  and  especially  because 
many  persons  '  compass  how  to  practise  decep- 
tion in  their  work,'  and  introduce  false  and 
cracked  iron  for  tin  and  put  gilt  on  false  cop- 
per." 

It  was  imperative  on  the  craftsman  to  furnish 
an  adequate  guarantee  of  his  fitness  to  join  the 
guild  and  produce  good  work.  This  guarantee 
consisted  in  the  fact  of  a  previous  apprentice- 
ship and  the  evidence  of  a  good  moral  charac- 
ter. The  apprenticeship  continued  as  a  rule  for 
seven  years,  but  was,  in  itself,  an  insufficient 
security.  Defective  workmanship  indeed  was 
generally  the  effect  of  fraud,  not  of  inability, 
and  the  longest  apprenticeship  could  give  no 
security  against  fraud. 

These  regulations  were  but  a  part  of  the  whole 
medieval  system.     The    Middle  Ages  were  a 
period  of  customary,  not  of  competitive  prices, 
and  the  idea  of  permitting  agree- 
ments to  be  decided  by  the  indi- 
Trade       vidual  preferences  of  vendor  or  pur- 
System,      chaser  was  absolutely  foreign  to  the 
jurisprudence    of  the  times.     The 
"higgling  of  the  market"  was  an 
impossibility,  simply  because    the  laws  of  the 
market  were  not  left  to  the  free  arbitrament  of 
the  contracting  parties. 

The  remaining  features  of  the  guild  manifest 
the  same  dependence  on  the  laws  of  the  realm. 
The  severance  of  occupations  was  imposed  upon 
the  trades,  not  spontaneously  adopted  by  them, 
and  the  medieval  statutes  teem  with  provisions 
of  this  nature,  as,  for  instance,  that  shoemakers 
shall  not  be  tanners,  brewers  not  be  coopers, 
cordwainers  not  be  curriers,  butchers  not  be 
cooks,  drapers  not  be  "litsters,"  while  a  statute 
of  1363  admonishes  all  artificers  and  handicraft 
people  to  use  only  one  mystery  or  occupation. 

But  the  subordination  of  the  guilds  to  the 
general  laws  of  the  realm  constitutes  only  one 
half  of  the  explanation.  The  other  half  must 
be  sought  in  the  commanding  influence  of  the 
towns  in  economic  life.  All  powers  of  market 
and  social  police  were  from  the  first  massed  in 
the  hands  of  the  urban  authorities.  The  guilds 
developed  and  were  developed  by  this  life.  They 
aided,  too,  in  art  (g.v.)  and  religion. 

All  medieval  guilds,  as  has  been  said,  were 
largely  religious  ;  and  Gierke  says  in  his 
Deutsches  Genossenschafts-Recht  (p.  227)  : 
"As  a  religious  community,  as  a  union  for 
worship,  which  probably  the  name  signifies, 
every  guild  had  a  patron  saint,  whose  name  it 
bore,  and  by  whom  its  members  swore,  and  an 
altar  of  its  own,  which  it  maintained.  The 
erection  of  benevolent  institutions,  perpetual 
masses,  and  similar  gifts  to  the  church,  the  giv- 
ing of  alms  and  the  assistance  of  pilgrims,  the 
maintenance  of  altar  lights,  and  other  pious  acts 


were  matters  of  the  union  and  among  its  pur- 
poses. ' ' 

Without  the  guilds  the  cathedrals  would  not 
have  been  built.  As  Lowell  says  in  his  Cathe- 
dral : 

"  I  gaze  round  on  the  windows,  pride  of  France, 
Each  the  bright  gift  of  some  mechanic  guild 
Who  loved  their  city  and  thought  gold  well  spent 
To  make  her  beautiful  with  piety. 

Says  Mr.  J.  Bleecker  Miller  :  ' '  That  was  a 
time  when  the  Cathedral  system  was  the  re- 
ligious organization  of  a  great  city,  with  its 
centralized  government  under  one  head,  its 
chapter  of  priests  who  attended  to  the  religious 
wants  of  the  city  as  a  whole,  and  with  the  citi- 
zens divided  according  to  their  trades  and  pro- 
fessions into  smaller  religious  and  political  com- 
munities, called  guilds." 

The  guilds  did  much  for  charity.  A  brother 
of  the  craft  would  give  house  and  lands  to  bet- 
ter the  annual  feast,  which  the  craft  always 
held  ;  or  he  might  found  a  school,  a  hospital,  or 
an  almshouse,  and  after  defining  the  amount  of 
his  benefaction,  would  leave  the  surplus,  if  any, 
to  the  discretion  of  the  guild.  Or  he  would 
make  the  guild  the  trustees  of  the  fund,  from 
which  the  mass  priest  should  receive  his  stipend 
for  spiritual  offices,  the  residue  being  left  to 
the  guild  as  remuneration  for  management. 
Occasionally  the  corporations  bargained  for  the 
amount  of  the  spiritual  service,  and  refused  to 
agree  to  a  proposal  which  might  be  too  costly 
for  the  fund  to  bear.  They  exacted  fees  for  ap- 
prenticeship, for  taking  up  freedom  by  inheri- 
tance or  servitude,  and  more  lately  for  admission 
into  the  guild  by  purchase.  Like  prudent  men, 
who  might  be  liable  to  occasional  charges,  they 
saved  and  invested  these  funds,  as  also  gifts 
for  lending  without  usury  to  poorer  citizens,  for 
apprenticing  poor  boys  or  girls,  or  for  marriage 
portions,  or  for  widows'  pensions,  or  for  the  re- 
lief of  the  destitute  members  of  the  craft,  the 
first  and  the  most  enduring  duty  of  the  guild. 
The  guild  estates,  the  chest  of  the  company,  its 
revenues  and  rents,  were,  like  the  endowments 
of  an  academical  college,  at  once  the  support  of 
the  fraternity  and  the  means  by  which  the  dis- 
cipline of  the  order  or  craft  was  maintained. 

Of  their  life  Seligman  says  : 

"  But  there  was  no  monopoly  or  exaggerated  exclu- 
siveness.  Any  one  could  become  apprentice,  and  the 
number  was  limited  only  by  the  ability  of  the  master 
to  support  them  or  by  considerations  of  a  police  na- 
ture. The  apprentice  formed  a  member  of  the  mas- 
ter's family.  For  the  principles  of  the  law  of  parent 
and  child  were  made  applicable  to  a  certain  extent, 
and  all  responsibility  for  purchases  of  the  apprentices 
as  well  as  for  their  behavior  were  imposed  on  the  mas- 
ters by  city  ordinance.  From  one  of  the  indentures 
that  have  been  preserved  we  can  obtain  a  clear  view 
of  his  position.  The  apprentice  is  to  keep  his  master's 
secrets,  do  him  no  injury,  nor  commit  excessive  waste 
on  his  goods.  He  is  not  to  frequent  taverns,  commit 
fornication  or  adultery  with  the  housemaids  or  in 
town,  nor  betroth  himself  without  his  master's  per- 
mission. He  is  not  to  wear  certain  garments,  play  at 
dice,  checkers,  or  any  other  unlawful  game,  but  is  to 
conduct  himself  soberly  and  piously  as  a  good  and 
faithful  servant,  or  in  default  to  serve  double  time. 
The  master,  on  the  other  hand,  agrees  to  find  him  in 
all  necessaries,  food,  clothing,  bed,  and  so  on,  for  four 
years.  In  the  fifth  year  he  finds  himself,  but  receives 
2os.  and  the  tools  of 'the  trade  ;  and  in  the  sixth  year  he 
gets  4os.,  but  finds  his  own  tools.  The  master  agrees 
on  his  side  to  teach  him  the  craft  without  any  conceal- 
ment. .  .  . 


Guilds. 


680 


Guilds. 


"  The  condition  of  the  workmen  proper  was  essen- 
tially similar.  They  were  known  by  the  various 
names  of  varlet,  sergeant,  yeoman,  garson,  bachelor, 
allowe,  and  journeyman,  and  were  taken  for  any  stip- 
ulated period,  altho  probably  at  first  engaged  by 
the  day,  as  the  last  term  implies.  Restrictions  were 
rarely  placed  on  their  number  ;  but  the  necessities  of 
a  small  household  would  in  general  preclude  the  mas- 
ter from  employing  more  than  a  limited  number.  .  .  . 

"  All  possible  disputes  were  settled  primarily  by  the 
wardens,  some  of  whom  were  in  certain  crafts  chosen 
from  the  ranks  of  the  journeymen  themselves.  If  the 
master  refused  to  give  the  stipulated  wages,  the  war- 
dens forbade  him  to  work  until  the  obligation  should 
be  fulfilled.  The  journeyman  was  likewise  protected 
against  other  exactions  on  the  part  of  unscrupulous 
masters,  such  as  attempts  to  compel  him  to  serve  be- 
yond his  time  or  against  his  will,  while  a  stimulus  was 
given  to  loyal  fidelit)'  by  prescribing  assistance  out  of 
the  guild  funds  in  case  of  illness  or  misfortune.  .  .  . 

"  But  a  conflict  of  interests  was  in  general  unknown. 
The  journeyman  always  looked  forward  to  the  period 
when  he  would  be  admitted  to  the  freedom  of  the 
trade.  This  was  a  rule  not  difficult  for  an  expert 
workman  to  attain.  No  insuperable  obstacle  was 
thrown  into  his  path.  In  fact,  there  was  no  supera- 
bundance of  skilled  labor  at  this  time.  It  was  a  period 
of  supremacy  of  labor  over  capital,  and  the  master 
worked  beside." 

Naturally,  however,  there  were  sporadic  cases 
of  disaffection  on  the  part  of  individual  work- 
men against  imagined  or  pernaps  real  maltreat- 
ment by  the  master.  These  cases  no  doubt  ex- 
isted from  the  earliest  period.  Out  of  them 
came  the  journeymen's  associations.  Thus  in 
1303,  in  one  of  the  earliest  craft  ordinances  that 
we  possess,  the  journeymen  cordwainers  of  Lon- 
don are  forbidden  to  assemble  or  make  any  pro- 
visions prejudicial  to  their  masters  or  to  the  pub- 
lic. (See  COMBINATION  LAWS.) 

But  altho  this,  as  well  as  the  similar  case  of 
the  journeymen  weavers  in  1362,  resembles  to  a 
certain  degree  our  modern  strike  and  boycott, 
it  is  not  indicative  of  any  general  banding  to- 
gether of  the  yeomen  against  the  employers. 

At  first  these  associations  were  simple  frater- 
nities of  a  social  character.  As  on  the  Conti- 
nent, they  were  considered  quite  harmless  and 
in  most  cases  freely  permitted.  Sometimes, 
however,  they  were  prohibited,  as  tending  to 
weaken  the  paternal  authority  of  the  craftsmen. 
The  "  congregations"  of  the  journeymen  cord- 
wainers above  mentioned  were  doubtless  of  this 
class  and  continued,  for  over  three  quarters  of  a 
century  later  they  are  again  charged  with  mak- 
ing an  illegal  fraternity,  for  which  they  sought 
a  confirmation  from  the  Pope.  The  general 
proclamation  of  1383  was,  however,  not  directed 
especially  against  such  associations,  as  has  been 
represented.  For  this  forbade  conspiracies  and 
combinations  of  all  kinds,  and  did  not  mention 
the  workmen  at  all.  Probably  the  regulation 
was  designed  to  prevent  the  recurrence  of  such 
riots  as  had  taken  place  during  Wat  Tyler's  up- 
rising, in  1381.  The  character  of  the  early  jour- 
neymen's guilds  is  shown  by  their  fraternities 
in  Coventry,  where  the  journeymen  or  young 
people  of  various  trades,  "  observing  what  mer- 
ry meetings  and  feasts  their  masters  had,  them- 
selves wanted  the  like  pleasure,  and  did  there- 
fore of  their  own  accord  assemble  together,  and 
for  their  better  conjunction  make  choice  of  a 
master  with  clerks  and  officers."  But  as  this 
was  found  to  be  to  "  the  prejudice  of  the  other 
guilds  and  disturbance  of  the  city,"  the  mayor 
and  citizens  petitioned  the  king,  in  1425,  to 
abolish  them. 


The  journeymen's  associations  which  seem  to 
have  been  quite  common  (for  the  statute  of  1402 
speaks  of  "  fraternities  or  guilds  of  servants"  in 
general)  were  thus  mere  social  brotherhoods, 
formed  by  the  young  '  desirous  of  merry  meet- 
ings and  feasts. "  It  is  not  permissible  to  cite 
them  as  proving  any  conflict  between  labor  and 
capital  at  this  period.  The  unions  were  every- 
where eonfined  to  the  youths,  who  in  turn  gradu- 
ally became  masters  and  were  enrolled  as  full 
members  of  the  craft-guild  proper.  But  gradu- 
ally this  changed.  The  guilds  became  too  rich 
and  strong,  and  were  hated. 

Says  Professor  James,  in  a  chapter  written 
for  McNeill's  Labor  Movement  : 

"  The  complaints  about  the  heartless  policy  of  the 
guilds  began  as  early  as  the  fifteenth  century,  and  did 
not  die  out  until  the  guilds  themselves  died.    During 
the  fifteenth  century  the  abolition  of  the  guilds  was  de- 
manded on  this  ground.     When  Henry  III.,  of  France, 
in  1581,  extended  the  provisions  of  the  guilds  to  all 
branches    of    mechanical     industry    in 
France,  the  parliament  refused  at  first 
to  register  the  edict.     In  1614,  the  third    Downfall. 
estate  in  France  moved  the  abolition  of 
the  guilds ;  in   1624,  a  party   in  the  city 
council  of  Bremen  ;  in  1669,  the  Elector  of  Brandenburg, 
in  the  German  Parliament,  made  the  same  motion.    In 
Prussia,  beginning  with  1688,  a  series  of  laws  vyas  adopt- 
ed looking  toward  the  reformation  of  the  guilds  in  the 
direction  of  greater  freedom,  and  in  the  interest  of  a 
growing  industry.     But  the  chief  attack  upon  the  old 

fuild  system  came  on  its  theoretical  side  from  Adam 
mith  and  the  French  Physiocrats. 
"  God,  said  the  physiocratic  school  of  economists, 
made  the  right  to  labor  the  property  of  every  person 
by  giving  tc  every  one  wants  and  referring  him  to 
labor  as  a  means  of  satisfying  them.  This  property 
is  the  first  in  order  of  time,  the  most  holy  and  the 
most  inalienable.  Owing  to  the  restrictions  on  labor 
maintained  by  the  guilds,  the  poor  are  condemned 
to  protract  a  precarious  existence  under  the  control 
of  the  masters,  to  linger  in  poverty  or  to  betake 
themselves  and  their  industry  to  foreign  lands.  Just 
as  the  whole  existing  system  of  law  had  proceeded 
from  the  selfish  efforts  of  privileged  classes,  who  re- 
sisted every  reform,  so  in  making  the  regulations  in 
regard  to  organization  of  the  system  of  apprentices 
and  journeymen  the  councilors  of  the  government  had 
always  been  the  employers.  They  served  merely  to 
secure  to  the  masters  the  labor  of  the  apprentice  for  a 
long  time  at  a  very  Tow  rate  of  wages  or  for  no  wages 
at  all ;  to  keep  down  the  wages  of  the  journeyman  and 
to  diminish  competition  by  limiting  the  number  of 
masters.  It  is  one  of  the  first  duties  of  justice  to  free 
those  whose  only  property  consists  in  the  skill  and 
strength  of  their  hands  from  the  limitations  placed 
upon  them  by  the  guilds." 

Justice  and  economic  expediency  thus  united 
in  demanding  the  freedom  of  labor.  The  same 
demand  for  freedom  of  industry  and  of  con- 
tract was  made  by  those  interested  in  the  large 
industry  which  was  now  beginning  to  rise  in 
England.  The  guild  system  was  in  the  in- 
terest of  the  small  employer,  but  opposed  to 
the  interest  of  the  large  employer.  The  mere 
requirement  that  a  man  should  have  passed 
through  an  apprenticeship,  and,  on  the  conti- 
nent, a  journey manship  also,  stood  in  the  way 
of  those  who  wished  to  utilize  their  capital. 

Thus  theory  and  pecuniary  interest  united  in 
demanding  the  abolition  of  the  old  system.  In 
France,  the  old  system  was  abolished  in  the 
memorable  night  of  August  4,  1789.  (See 
FRANCE.)  In  Germany,  Prussia,  in  1810,  was  the 
first  to  do  away  with  the  old  system  complete- 
ly. England,  under  the  control  of  the  large 
capitalists,  abolished  the  apprentice  law  of  1562. 
in  1814. 

The  prohibitions  of  coalitions  of  laborers  were, 


Guilds. 


681 


Hamilton,  Alexander. 


however,  left  on  the  statute  books.  The  pro- 
hibitions in  England  were  abolished  by  the 
law  of  1824.  In  France  they  were  not  abolished 
until  1864  ;  for  all  Germany  not  until  1871  ;  for 
Austria  in  1870.  Nevertheless,  many  traces  of 
the  medieval  guilds  still  remain,  especially  in 
England.  (See  LONDON.) 

•  In  Scotland,  the  companies  of  merchant  free- 
men still  exercise  great  power,  and  the  magis- 
trate next  in  rank  to  the  mayor  (provost)  is  the 
dean  of  the  guild.  But  all  these  modern  city 
guilds  are  mainly  mere  inherited  monopolies. 

References  :  C.  Osborn  Ward's  The  Ancient  Lowly 
(1886);  L.  Brentano,  On  the  History  and  Development  of 
Guilds  (1870) ;  G.  R.  A.  Seligmann,  Ten  Chapters  on  the 
Mediteval  Guilds  of  England  (1887). 

GUISE.     See  GODIN. 

GUNTON,  GEORGE,  was  born  in  England, 
but  when  quite  young  came  to  this  country, 
and  worked  in  the  factories  of  Fall  River,  Mass. 


Interested  in  social  studies,  he  worked  his  way 
up  till  he  became  a  leading  writer  on  economic 
questions  from  the  eight-hour  standpoint.  His 
Wealth  and  Progress  appeared  in  1887,  and 
is  the  fullest  statement  of  the  eight-hour  philos- 
ophy, tho  not  endorsed  by  most  of  the  eight- 
hour  trade-unionists,  on  account  of  Mr.  Gunton's 
opposition  to  other  trade-union  demands,  and 
by  some  of  them  on  account  of  his  advocacy  of 
protection.  (See  SHORT-HOUR  MOVEMENT.)  His 
Principles  of  Social  Economics  was  issued  in 
1891.  He  is  best  known  to-day  for  the  Eco- 
nomic School,  situated  at  34  Union  Square, 
New  York  City,  and  as  the  editor  of  Gunton's 
Magazine  (formerly  The  Social  Economist}, 
in  which  he  opposes  most  propositions  looking 
toward  State  ownership,  or  even  control  of  in- 
dustries. Advocating  a  gold  monometallism, 
he  argues  that  the  best  way  to  aid  the  cause  of 
labor  is  through  the  reduction  of  the  hours  of 
labor.  (See  SHORT-HOUR  MOVEMENT.) 


H. 


HABEAS  CORPUS  is  a  writ  issued  by  a 
court  of  law  or  equity  to  produce  before  it  the 
body  of  a  prisoner,  that  the  court  may  inquire 
into  the  cause  of  imprisonment  or  detention, 
with  a  view  to  protect  the  right  of  personal  lib- 
erty. Properly  speaking,  this  writ  is  known  in 
law  as  habeas  corpus  ad  subjiciendum.  The 
term  habeas  corpus  is  used  for  it,  as  its  for- 
mal commencement,  as  it  is  for  several  other  sim- 
ilar legal  writs  known  to  English  and  American 
law.  It  rests  upon  the  right  wrested  from 
King  John  in  the  Magna  Charta,  that  no  one 
may  be  imprisoned  save  by  due  process  of  legal 
trial  and  sentence.  It  is  inserted  in  Sec.  9  of 
Art.  I.  of  the  United  States  Constitution,  that 
this  right  shall  not  be  suspended  ' '  unless  when 
in  cases  of  rebellion  or  invasion  the  public  safety 
may  require  it." 

HADLEY,    ARTHUR    TWINING,    was 

born  in  New  Haven,  Conn.,  son  of  Professor 
Tames  Hadley,  in  1856.  He  was  graduated  at 
Yale  in  1876.  Studying  at  the  University  of 
Berlin  in  1879,  he  became  tutor  in  1883,  and  in 
1886  Professor  of  Political  Economy  at  Yale. 
In  1885  he  was  appointed  Commissioner  of  Labor 
Statistics  for  Connecticut,  and  published  the  re- 
ports of  1885  and  1886.  He  has  published  Rail- 
road Transportation,  its  History  and  its  Laws 
(1885),  and  Economics  (1896),  besides  many 
articles  and  papers. 

HALE,  EDWARD  EVERETT,  was  born 
in  Boston,  April  3,  1822,  son  of  Nathan  Hale, 
LL.D.,  and  Sarah  P.  (Everett)  Hale.  Studying 
in  the  Boston  Latin  School,  he  was  graduated 
at  Harvard  College  in  1839.  He  studied  theol- 
ogy with  Revs.  S.  K.  Lothrop  and  John  G.  Pal- 
frey, and  was  licensed  to  preach  in  1 842 .  Preach 
ing  in  various  churches,  he  was  settled  in  1846 
as  pastor  of  the  Church  of  the  Unity,  in  Wor- 
cester. In  1856  he  became  pastor  of  the  South 
Congregational  (Unitarian)  Church,  in  Boston, 
where  he  still  remains.  He  is  even  better  known 


as  a  leader  and  often  the  starter  of  a  marvelous 
number  of  philanthropic  movements.  His  Ten 
Times  One  is  Ten  led  to  the  establishment  of 
clubs  devoted  to  doing  good  scattered  through- 
out the  world,  with  a  membership  of  over  50,000. 
They  are  called  "  Harry  Wadsworth  clubs." 
They  have  for  their  motto,  "  Look  up  and  not 
down  ;  look  forward  and  not  back  ;  look  out 
and  not  in  ;  and  lend  a  hand."  He  has  also 
taken  great  interest  in  the  Chautauqua  and 
other  literary,  educational,  and  reform  move- 
ments. When  the  Nationalist  and  Christian  So- 
cialist movements  were  commenced,  Dr.  Hale 
interested  himself  in  them.  In  1869  he  founded, 
in  connection  with  the  American  Unitarian  As- 
sociation, the  magazine  Old  and  New,  which  in 
1875  was  merged  into  Scribner'  s  Monthly.  In 
1 886  he  started  Lend  a  Hand.  His  short  stories 
are  among  his  best  works,  notably  My  Double 
and  how  he  Undid  me  (1859),  The  Man  with- 
out a  Country  (1863),  and  How  they  Lived  in 
Hampton — a  nationalistic  tale  written  before 
the  days  of  Nationalism. 

HAMILTON,  ALEXANDER,  was  born  on 
the  island  of  Nevis.  West  Indies,  in  1757,  the 
son  of  a  Scotch  merchant.  Entering  a  counting 
house  at  the  age  of  12,  his  abilities  induced  his 
friends  to  secure  for  him  a  college  education, 
and  he  was  graduated  at  Columbia  College, 
New  York.  At  the  age  of  1 8  he  wrote  a  series 
of  papers  on  the  relation  of  the  colonies  to  Eng- 
land, which  were  at  first  taken  for  the  produc- 
tion of  the  statesman  Jay.  On  the  outbreak  of 
the  war  he  became  a  captain  of  artillery,  but 
soon  gained  the  confidence  of  Washington  and 
became  his  aide-de-camp  and  confidant  in  1777. 
In  1780  he  married  a  daughter  of  General  Schuy- 
ler,  and  became  one  of  New  York's  leading 
lawyers. 

He  was  a  member  of  the  Continental  Con- 
gress from  1782-83,  and  of  the  Convention  of 
1787.  His  perspicacity  and  power  of  thought 


Hamilton,  Alexander. 


682 


Harmonists. 


\vere  remarkable.  One  of  the  most  abused  as 
well  as  one  of  the  most  lauded  of  men,  he 
played  a  leading  part  in  the  early  history  of  this 
country. 

In  conjunction  with  Madison,  he  had  the  most 
important  share  in  drafting  the  Constitution. 
He  was  a  strong  supporter  of  the  federal  policy 
of  developing  a  strong  national  government, 
and,  along  with  Jay  and  Madison,  defended  the 
Constitution  against  all  attacks  by  a  series  of 
letters  in  the  Daily  Advertiser  of  New  York, 
afterward  collected  and  published  under  the 
title  of  The  Federalist  (q  v.\  On  the  estab- 
lishment of  the  new  Government  in  1789,  with 
Washington  as  President,  Hamilton  was  ap- 
pointed Secretary  of  the  Treasury.  The  disor- 
der of  the  public  credit  and  the  deficiency  of 
official  accounts  of  the  State  treasury  rendered 
this  office  one  of  peculiar  difficulty.  In  order  to 
reestablish  public  credit,  he  carried,  in  spite  of 
much  opposition,  a  measure  for  the  funding  of 
the  domestic  debt,  founded  a  national  bank,  and 
rearranged  the  system  of  duties.  In  1795  he  re- 
signed his  office  and  resumed  the  practice  of 
law  in  New  York.  When  the  war  with  France 
broke  out  in  1798,  he  was,  according  to  the  wish 
of  Washington,  made  Major-General  of  the 
United  States  Army  ;  and,  on  the  death  of 
Washington,  he  succeeded  to  the  chief  com- 
mand. When  peace  was  restored,  he  returned 
to  his  civil  duties,  but  became  involved  in  a  po- 
litical quarrel  with  Aaron  Burr.  This  difference 
unhappily  culminated  in  a  duel,  in  which  Ham- 
ilton received  a  wound,  of  which  he  died  the 
following  day  (July  12,  1804).  (See  FEDERAL 
PARTY  ;  CONSTITUTION.) 

HARDIE,  JAMES  KEIR,  M.P.,  was  born 

in  Glasgow  in  1856.  Before  he  was  eight  years 
old  he  went  to  work  in  the  coal-pits,  and  worked 
at  the  pick  till  he  was  24,  never  having  a  day's 
schooling.  As  a  boy  he  descended  the  pit  at 
5.45  A.M.,  and  did  not  ascend  again  until  six 
o'clock  at  night.  He  taught  himself  to  write  by 
holding  a  white  stone  over  the  smoke  of  a  lamp 
and  tracing  characters  upon  the  smoke-stained 
surface  with  a  pin.  He  eventually  became  sec- 
retary of  the  Miners'  Union  in  Lanarkshire.  It 
was  at  this  time  that  Mr.  Hardie  was  first  dis- 
covered to  be  a  "  monster  in  human  form,"  for 
on  the  very  day  that  his  election  became  known 
a  benevolent  mine-owner  dismissed  him  and  his 
two  young  brothers  from  his  employ.  Six 
months  after  Keir  Hardie 's  dismissal  he  had 
organized  the  Lanarkshire  men,  and  23,000 
miners  were  paying  their  levy  into  the  union 
war-chest. 

In  1882  a  new  sphere  of  work  was  opened 
out.  Mr.  Hardie  took  to  journalism,  and  be- 
came sub-editor  of  the  Cumnock  News.  At  the 
end  of  four  years  the  circulation  of  that  journal 
was  quadrupled.  During  this  four  years,  how- 
ever, the  miners'  wages  had  again  fallen  for 
want  of  efficient  organization,  and  Mr.  Hardie 
was  once  more  asked  to  come  over  and  help. 
He  did  so,  and  in  a  very  short  time  those  wages 
were  doubled. 

In  1888  he  received  an  invitation  to  stand  as 
parliamentary  candidate  for  Mid-Lanark,  but 
was  defeated,  gaining  experience,  however, 
which  led  him  to  found  the  Scottish  Labor  Party. 


His  next  move  was  to  favor  the  eight-hour  move- 
ment ;  but  the  Westham  Radical  Association 
approached  Mr.  Hardie  soon  afterward  with  an 
invitation  to  fight  the  next  election  in  their  dis- 
trict. For  two  years  and  a  half  Mr.  Hardie 
spoke  at  street  corners  and  everywhere  he 
could  ;  and  when  the  figures  of  the  poll  were 
published  in  1892  he  was  elected,  a  crowd  of 
50,000  people  in  Stratford  Highway  watching 
the  returns.  The  new  member  was  carried 
shoulder-high  to  Canning  Town — over  two 
miles.  In  1893  he  was  the  main  leader  in 
founding  the  Independent  Labor  Party  (y.v.). 

Mr.  Hardie  is  a  man  of  transparent  honesty, 
with  a  sincere  hatred  of  all  shams  and  petty, 
unnecessary  formulas.  He  is  one  of  the  most 
lovable  of  men,  and,  in  spite  of  his  cloth  cap, 
can  give  points  to  many  of  the  British  peerage 
in  the  matter  of  good  manners.  He  is  editor  of 
the  Labor  Leader,  and  a  frequent  contributor 
to  the  monthly  periodicals. 

In  the  last  election  Mr.  Hardie  was  defeated, 
but  still  holds  his  ground  as  a  leader  of  his 
party.  In  the  autumn  of  1895  he  paid  a  brief 
visit  to  the  United  States,  speaking  in  the  prin- 
cipal cities. 

HARMONISTS,  THE.— The  name  of  a  re- 
ligious celibate  German  sect  now  established  at 
the  communistic  village  of  Economy,  Pa.  The 
sect  was  founded  at  Wiirtemberg  by  George 
and  Frederick  Rapp  about  1787,  and  its  adhe- 
rents are  therefore  sometimes  called  Rappists. 
According  to  their  creed,  Adam  was  created  a 
dual  being,  as  is  the  Creator.  If  Adam  had 
been  satisfied,  he  could  have  increased  and 
brought  forth  without  the  aid  of  woman  ;  but 
he  became  discontented,  and  then  the  Creator 
separated  his  twofold  nature,  of  the  female  ele- 
ment making  woman,  and  therein  consisted 
the  fall  of  man.  They  believe  that  the  condi- 
tion of  celibacy  is  thus  most  pleasing  to  God ; 
that  in  the  renewed  world  man  will  be  restored 
to  his  dual  condition  ;  that  the  coming  of  Christ 
and  the  renovation  of  the  world  are  near  at 
hand  ;  that  Jesus  was  of  a  dual  nature  ;  that 
Christ  taught  a  community  of  goods  ;  that  ulti- 
mately all  mankind  will  find  salvation  ;  but  that 
only  those  who  are  celibates,  and  otherwise  con- 
form to  what  they  believe  to  be  the  command- 
ments of  Jesus,  will  be  at  once  received  into  the 
company  of  Christ  and  His  companions,  and 
that  offendeis  must  undergo  a  probation  for 
purification.  The  early  members  were  so  much 
harassed  by  petty  persecutions  that  in  1803  they 
determined  to  emigrate,  and  came  to  Pennsyl- 
vania and  Maryland.  In  1805  they  were  firmly 
and  prosperously  established  at  Harmony,  But- 
ler County,  Pa.,  where  they  remained  10  years. 
Then  they  migrated  to  New  Harmony,  Ind., 
remaining  there  until  1824,  when  they  sold  their 
land  to  Robert  Owen,  the  socialist,  and  re- 
turned to  Pennsylvania,  establishing  themselves 
at  Economy,  near  Pittsburg.  Here  they  have 
grown  in  wealth  and  decreased  in  numbers,  for 
they  have  of  late  years  sought  few  accessions. 
There  are  probably  not  more  than  50  in  the 
neat  little  village  that  are  members  of  the  com- 
munity, tho  there  are  besides  several  hundreds 
of  employees.  The  German  language  is  still 
used.  They  have  much  property  in  real  estate. 


Harmonists. 


683 


Headlam,  Stewart  Duckworth. 


in  coal  mines,  and  they  control  at  Beaver  Falls 
what  is  said  to  be  the  largest  cutlery  manufac- 
tory in  the  country. 

There  are  in  the  society  a  few  more  women 
than  men,  but  no  families.  Its  employees  have 
wives  and  children,  and  live  in  neat  houses  with 
well-kept  gardens  about  them.  The  members 
of  the  society  live  with  and  among  their  em- 
ployees. They  have  no  separate  home  life 
apart  from  those  who  labor  for  them. 

The  amount  of  capital  invested  by  the  society 
has  been  estimated  from  $5,000,000  to  $25,000,- 
ooo.  There  is  no  means  of  finding  out  the  act- 
ual sum,  for  it  is  one  of  their  tenets  to  keep  no 
accounts  for  inspection.  Everything  is  in  com- 
mon, and  is  controlled  by  trustees,  John  S.  Duss 
being  now  the  central  power,  since  the  recent 
death  of  Father  Henrici,  for  long  years  the  head 
of  the  community.  The  original  holding  of  the 
community  consisted  of  noo  acres,  upon  which 
the  town  of  Economy  is  built ;  but  these  have 
been  expanded  into  several  thousand,  and  the 
well-tilled  fields  bear  splendid  crops.  There 
are  also  steel-works,  a  bank,  iron-woiks,  saw- 
mills, grist-mills,  shoe-shops,  a  great  wine  cel- 
lar, a  dairy,  harness-shop,  and  looms.  The 
form  of  government  of  the  industries  and  of  the 
society  is  patriarchal,  and  is  administered  by 
the  two  trustees  and  seven  elders. 

They  have  a  fine  choral  society.  In  the  gar- 
den back  of  the  central  house  they  have  music 
every  evening  during  the  summer.  In  the 
winter  they  have  glees,  and  dancing  in  a  great 
music  hall.  On  Sunday,  in  the  great  meeting- 
house, the  services  are  more  than  half  musical. 

The  employees  are  accorded  the  same  privi- 
leges, except  that  of  sharing  in  the  bank  ac- 
count and  accumulations,  as  members  of  the 
society.  Every  one  draws  from  the  general 
warehouse  whatever  is  needed  for  comfort.  In 
other  words,  the  employees  have  all  the  re- 
quirements and  many  of  the  luxuries  of  life,  be- 
sides receiving  $8  a  month. 

The  future  of   the  community  is,  however, 

auite  uncertain.     Decreasing  slowly  but  stead- 
y   in    numbers,   yet  with  enormous  wealth, 
made  principally  by  investments,  it  has  practi- 
cally lost  its  cooperative  character,  and  may  be- 
come an  ordinary  corporation. 

HARRINGTON,  JAMES.  —  Born  1611  ; 
died  1677.  The  author  of  Oceana  was  edu- 
cated at  Oxford  University.  In  1646  he  was  a 
personal  attendant  to  Charles  I.  when  he  was 
imprisoned,  and  attended  him  at  his  execution. 
In  1656  he  published  the  work  he  is  best  known 
by — a  political  allegory,  somewhat  in  imitation 
of  Plato — in  which  he  depicted  an  ideal  repub- 
lic named  Oceana.  He  was  arrested  in  1661  on 
a  charge  of  treason,  but  was  confined  without  a 
trial  until  he  finally  became  insane,  and  died  in 
1677.  The  probable  reason  of  his  imprisonment 
was  in  his  avowed  republican  opinions. 

HARRIS,  THOMAS  LAKE,  was  born  at 
Fenny  Stratford,  England,  May  15,  1823.  At 
the  age  of  four  he  was  brought  to  America  by 
his  father,  who  settled  at  Utica,  N.  Y.  He  was 
soon  compelled  to  earn  his  own  living,  and  at 
17  began  to  write  for  newspapers.  Having  re- 
nounced the  Calvinistic  faith,  in  which  he  was 


early  trained,  he  became  a  Universalist  preach- 
er at  Minden,  N.  Y.,  in  1844.  His  health  fail- 
ing, he  went  to  Charleston,  S.  C.,  but  from 
1845-47  was  pastor  of  a  church  in  New  York 
City.  In  1848,  having  adopted  Sweden borgian 
views,  he  organized  an  Independent  Christian 
Society  in  New  York,  but  in  1850  joined  a  com- 
munity at  Mountain  Cove,  Va.  He  afterward 
lectured  in  many  parts  of  the  Union,  endeavor- 
ing to  turn  the  public  interest  in  spiritualism  to 
what  he  considered  a  higher  plane  of  religious 
thought  and  life.  In  1855  he  established  the 
Herald  of  Light  to  advance  his  views,  and  in 
1858  visited  England  and  Scotland,  where  he 
gained  converts.  Returning  in  1861,  he  settled 
in  Amenia,  N.  Y.,  where  several  friends  gath- 
ered around  him  and  formed  the  "  Brotherhood 
of  the  New  Life. ' '  The  settlement  was  after- 
ward removed  to  Brocton,  N.  Y.,  where  Lady 
Oliphant  and  several  Japanese  of  distinction 
joined  the  society,  and  remained  many  years. 
The  property  was  not  held  in  common.  Mr. 
Harris  appears  to  exert  a  marvelous  influence 
upon  men,  but  he  seems  to  hold  all  power  in  his 
own  hands,  with  the  natural  results  of  creating 
great  hostility,  deserved  or  undeserved.  Scan- 
dalous stories  are  told  of  the  community  ;  but 
as  all  is  secret,  reliable  information  is  not  avail- 
able. Members,  scattered  over  the  world,  are 
said  to  belong  to  this  unique  society.  About 
1876  Mr.  Harris  removed  to  the  neighborhood 
of  Los  Angeles,  Cal.,  where  he  lives  a  retired 
life.  His  principal  works  are  Wisdom  of  An- 
gels (1856)  ;  Arcana  of  Christianity  (1857, 
1866)  ;  Modern  Spiritualism  (1869)  ;  Millen- 
nial Age  (1860).  He  has  also  published  several 
volumes  of  hymns  and  poems. 

HARRISON,  FREDERIC,  was  born  in 
London  in  1831,  and  educated  at  King's  College, 
London,  and  at  Oxford,  where,  in  1853,  he  was 
elected  fellow  and  tutor.  He  was  admitted  to 
the  bar  in  1858,  and  in  1877  was  appointed  Pro- 
fessor of  Jurisprudence  and  International  Law 
by  the  Council  of  Legal  Education.  He  has 
deeply  interested  himself  in  the  English  labor 
movement,  in  1861  writing  important  letters  to 
the  press  defending  trade-unionism  ;  later  get- 
ting trade-unions  legalized  as  friendly  societies  ; 
writing  for  the  Beehive  from  1861-77,  the  prin- 
cipal labor  paper  of  London,  etc.  He  is  the 
chief  exponent  of  the  Positivist  school,  a  critic 
of  authority,  and  a  master  of  English  prose. 
Among  his  works  are  :  The  Meaning  of  His- 
tory, Social  Statics,  Order  and  Progress,  and 
Oliver  Cromwell, 

HEADLAM,  STEWART  DUCK- 
WORTH, was  born  at  Wavertree,  near  Liver- 
pool, in  1847,  and  educated  at  Walhurst,  Eton, 
and  Trinity  College,  Cambridge.  He  was  cu- 
rate of  St.  John's,  Drury  Lane,  from  1870-73  ; 
St.  Matthew's,  Bethnal  Green,  1873-78  ;  St. 
Thomas',  Charterhouse,  1880-81  ;  St.  Michael's, 
Shoreditch,  1881-84.  Mr.  Headlam  early  inter- 
ested himself  in  social  problems  as  a  priest  of 
the  Church  of  England ,  and  his  parochial  duties 
bringing  him  in  contact  with  girls  and  actors 
on  the  stage,  he  defended  them  from  what  he 
believed  unwarranted  condemnation,  and  came 
to  believe  in  and  study  stage  dancing  as  an  art 


Headlam,  Stewart  Duckworth. 


684 


Heredity. 


A  lecture  on  this  subject  gave  serious  offense  to 
the  late  Bishop  of  London,  and  he  refused  him  a 
license  in  his  diocese,  so  that  Mr.  Headlam  has 
worked  under  great  difficulties.  Nevertheless, 
few  clergymen  in  London  exert  a  stronger  influ- 
ence for  Christianity  and  the  Church.  He  has 
been  the  leading  spirit  and  the  real  founder  of 
the  Church  and  Stage  Guild,  and  also  of 
the  Guild  of  St.  .Matthew  (q.v.),  a  Christian 
socialist  society — the  first  society  still  exist- 
ing in  England  to  declare  for  socialism.  He 
was,  till  its  suspension  in  1895,  the  editor  of  The 
Church  Reformer,  the  organ  of  the  guild.  Mr. 
Headlam  is  the  author  of  several  small  but  re- 
markable volumes  of  sermons  and  lectures  : 
Priestcraft  and Progress (1882) ;  Lessons  from 
the  Cross  (1887);  The  Laws  of  Eternal  Life 
1888}  ;  Salvation  through  Christ ;  Christian 
Socialism  (iSSS).  He  has  also  edited  part  of 
Carlo  Blesis's  work  on  dancing,  under  the  title 
The  Theory  of  Theatrical  Dancing.  He  has 
written  essays  on  The  Function  of  the  Stage, 
The  Ballet,  etc.  He  thus  unites  the  most  radi- 
cal views  with  a  high  Anglican  Catholicism. 
He  is  most  popular  with  the  London  working 
men,  and  has  been  elected  on  the  London 
School  Board  for  Hackney,  and  most  actively 
works  as  a  Fabian  socialist  for  board  schools, 
etc. 

HEGEL,  GEORG  WILHELM  FRIED- 
RICH,  was  born  at  Stuttgart  in  1770.  He  studied 
at  Tubingen  with  Schelling,  and  became  profes- 
sor at  Jena,  Heidelberg,  and  Berlin.  His  princi- 
pal works  are  :  Die  Phenomenologie  des  Geis- 
/*?.$•  (1807)  ;  the  Logik  (1812-16) ;  an  Encyklope- 
die  der  Philosoph.  Wissenschaften  (1817)  ; 
Philosophic  dcs  Rechts  (1821).  He  early  in  life 
turned  his  attention  to  social  questions,  writing 
(1797)  a  commentary  on  Stewart's  Inquiry  into 
the.Principles  of  Political  Economy.  Later  he 
published  various  small  works  on  the  political 
constitutions  of  Wiirtemberg  and  Germany, 
criticising  them  and  admiring  Napoleon,  "  that 
universal  genius. ' '  Living  in  the  stirring  times 
of  the  French  Revolution,  rejecting  the  idea 
of  the  Absolute,  and  conceiving  of  every- 
thing, even  of  God,  as  an  eternal  process,  he 
thinks  of  society  as  developing  through  the  in- 
dividual, the  family,  the  town,  the  State,  the 
world,  higher  and  higher  unities,  each  unity, 
however,  realizing  and  not  destroying  the  lower 
unity.  It  is  easy  to  see  how  he  came  to  be  the 
intellectual  father  of  Marx  and  of  most  early 
German  socialists. 

HELD,  ADOLF,  was  born  in  Wurzburg  in 
1844.  He  studied  in  Wurzburg  and  Munich. 
In  1867  he  became  teacher,  and  in  1872  full  Pro- 
fessor of  Political  Economy  at  Bonn.  In  1880 
he  was  called  to  the  university  at  Berlin,  but 
was  drowned  on  August  25  of  the  same  year. 
He  was  prominent  as  one  of  the  socialist?  of 
The  Chair  (q.v.}.  Among  his  best -known  works 
are:  Die  Einkommensteuer(\<&7'2) ;  Die  deutsche 
Arbeiterpresse  der  Gegenwartli^i^) ;  Grund 
riss  fiir  Vorlesungen  iiber  Nationalokonomie 
(1876)  ;  Sozialismus  Sozialdemokratie  und  So- 
zialpolitik  (1878). 

HELPERS,  ASSOCIATION  OF.— An  as- 
sociation of  men  and  women  organized  by  W.  T. 


Stead,  the  London  journalist,  who,  irrespective 
of  differences  of  party,  creed,  or  social  condi- 
tion, have  agreed  to  work  together  for  the  at- 
tainment of  certain  broadly  defined  ideals,  so- 
cial, political,  and  religious.  It  was  founded  in 
January,  1890,  immediately  after  the  appearance 
of  the  Review  of  Reviews,  with  its  Address  to 
all  English-speaking  Folk.  In  February, 
1892,  there  were  between  500  and  600  Helpers 
on  the  list.  (See  Civic  CHURCH  ) 

HERBERT,  AUBERON  EDWARD 
WILLIAM  MOLYNEUX,  son  of  the  third 
earl  of  Carnarvon,  was  born  in  1838.  He  left 
Oxford  for  the  army,  serving  18  months  in 
India,  but  returned  and  took  his  degree,  and 
for  a  year  taught  at  Oxford.  He  then  visited 
Denmark  during  the  Prussian-Danish  War,  and 
the  United  States  during  the  War  of  the  Re- 
bellion, becoming  acquainted  in  camp  with 
Generals  Grant  and  Meade.  His  next  few 
years  were  spent  in  London  aiding  working 
men  in  clubs.  From  1870  to  1874  he  was  in  Par" 
liament  for  Nottingham.  He  went  to  France 
during  the  Franco- Prussian  War.  He  left  Par- 
liament, coming  to  believe,  with  Spencer,  that 
the  people  needed  to  reconstruct  their  own  con- 
ditions in  life  and  not  to  depend  on  politicians. 
He  has  thus  become  an  intense  individualist, 
the  editor  of  Free  Life,  the  organ  of  Voluntary- 
ism (q.v.),  advocating  the  voluntary  state  and 
voluntary  taxation.  He  published  The  Right 
and  Wrong  of  Compulsion  by  the  State  in  1885. 

HEREDITY.— The  influence  of  heredity 
upon  character  has  been  very  widely  discussed. 
For  the  position  of  heredity  in  the  philosophy  of 
evolution,  and  especially  for  the  view  held  by 
Weismann  and  the  majority  of  modern  evolu- 
tionists that  acquired  characteristics  are  not 
transmitted  to  posterity,  see  EVOLUTION.  Says. 
Professor  R.  T.  Ely,  writing  in  The  Outlook, 
September  16,  1893  : 

"  Many  facts  have  been  brought  forward  in  substan- 
tiation of  this  doctrine.  The  experience  in  the  breed- 
ing of  lower  animals  was  one  which  most  naturally 
occurred  to  those  thinking  earnestly  upon  heredity. 
Various  social  studies  which  have  been  made  tend,  at 
first  blush,  at  any  rate,  to  emphasize  heredity.  All 
those  who  have  given  attention  to  crime  and  pauper- 
ism in  the  United  States  are  familiar  with  the  story  of 
the  Jukes,  so  well  told  by  Richard  Dugdale.  To  Mar- 
garet, '  the  Mother  of  Criminals,'  can  be  traced  numer- 
ous pauper  and  criminal  descendants  who  have,  all 
told,  cost  the  State  of  New  York  millions  of  dollars. 
The  'Tribe  of  Ishmael'  is  the  name  given  in  Indiana 
to  the  many  descendants  of  two  or  three  persons  weak 
in  body,  mind,  and  character.  These  descendants  fill 
the  hospitals  and  jails  in  the  neighborhood  of  Indian- 
apolis. A  city  missionary  in  Berlin  has  traced  to  two- 
sisters,  who  lived  not  long  ago,  paupers,  prostitutes, 
thieves,  murderers.  The  descendants  of  these  two 
sisters  have  served  hundreds  of  years  in  prison.  A 
most  remarkable  social  experiment  was  conducted  in 
Oneida,  N.  Y.,  which,  on  account  of  the  delicacy  of  the 
subject,  has  never  received  the  scientific  attention 
which  it  deserves.  At  this  place  there  was  a  commu- 
nistic settlement,  composed  very  largely  of  able  and 
highly  educated  men,  who  attempted  to  apply  strictly 
scientific  principles  in  the  breeding  of  men.  Dr.  Ely 
van  de  Walker,  of  New  York  City,  has  given  some  at- 
tention to  the  subject,  and  he  pronounces  the  result 
quite  remarkable.  It  is  claimed  that  the  children  born 
are  far  above  the  average,  in  their  physical  qualities 
at  least. 

"Further  thought  appears  to  bring  a  reaction  in 
favor  of  environment.  The  facts  of  social  parasitism 
could  not  be  long  observed  before  it  became  apparent 
that  heredity  brings  circumstances  with  it.  Are  the 
resulting  crime  and  pauperism  due  to  heredity  or  to- 


Heredity. 


685 


Heredity. 


the  circumstances  which  unfortunate  heredity  brings 
in  its  train,  or  to  both?  Experimentation  on  a  consid- 
erable scale  has  given  a  partial  answer.  The  Chil- 
dren's Aid  Society  of  New  York  and  other  similar  agen- 
cies have  changed  the  circumstances  of  those  whose 
heredity  was  unfortunate,  and  the  outcome  has  been 
changed  character  in  the  vast  majority  of  cases  ;  prob- 
ably it  is  safe  to  say  in  nine  out  of  ten  cases.  Thou- 
sands of  children  born  of  the  worst  parents  have  been 
taken  from  surroundings  in  the  slums  of  cities  which 
would  have  made  of  them  paupers,  prostitutes,  and 
criminals,  and  they  have  become  useful  and  honorable 
citizens.  With  some  degree  of  certainty  it  can  be  pre- 
dicted that  the  circumstances  of  the  worst  slums  mean 
to  the  child  brought  up  in  themruin,  and  perhaps  with 
quite  as  great  a  degree  of  certainty  it  can  be  predicted 
that  a  change  to  an  altogether  favorable  environment 
will  mean  social  salvation.  If  heredity  is,  in  such 
cases,  as  it  may  be  admitted,  an  adverse  force  which 
must  be  overcome,  yet  favorable  circumstances  are 
sufficient  to  overcome  it,  and  circumstances  have  by 
far  the  greater  weight. 

"  Recent  studies  of  heredity  appear  also  to  give  less 
importance  to  it,  on  the  whole,  than  earlier  ones.  It  is 
now  frequently  asserted  by  scientists  that  acquired 
qualities  cannot  be  transmitted.  An  English  econo- 
mist says  of  Weismann,  whose  essays  upon  heredity 
are  well  known,  that  he  has  reopened  the  case  for  So- 
cialism. What  he  means  is  this  :  Socialism  lays  em- 
phasis almost  entirely  upon  circumstances,  and  Weis- 
mann's  investigations  have  so  emphasized  the  impor- 
tance of  circumstances  as  opposed  to  heredity  that 
once  more  the  case  for  Socialism  requires  discussion 
before  the  bar  of  public  opinion." 

Dr.  H.  D.  Chapin,  in  the  Forum  (March, 
1894),  gives  the  results  of  his  studies  : 

Dr.  Chapin  is  a  physician  to  the  New  York  Post- 
Graduate  Hospital,  and  has  made  a  record  of  600  cases 
that  came  under  his  care.  His  object  was  to  determine 
how  far  the  diseases  of  very  little  children  were  occa- 
sioned by  heredity  and  how  far  by  the  conditions  in 
which  they  lived.  Most  of  the  children  were  under 
two  years  of  age,  and  nearly  half  under  one  year.  At 
the  time  of  birth,  508  of  them  were  reported  to  have 
been  in  good  condition,  and  only  20  were  reported  to 
have  been  in  bad  condition.  In  12  cases  the  report  was 
"only  fair,"  and  in  the  remaining  cases  there  was  no 
report.  The  children  as  a  whole,  therefore,  seem  to 
have  started  life  well.  What,  then,  had  been  their  en- 
vironment ?  It  was  found  that  in  106  cases  the  mothers 
were  the  sole  bread-earners,  and  that  in  88  cases  the 
fathers  were  out  of  work  when  the  children  came  to 
the  hospital.  Besides  these  there  were  176  cases  in 
which  the  mothers  as  well  as  the  fathers  were  obliged 
to  work.  The  results  of  this  were  very  striking. 
"Two  hundred  and  fifty-seven  of  the  cases,"  says  Dr. 
Chapin,  "  were  deprived  of  maternal  nourishment  be- 
fore the  proper  time,  and  101  of  the  babies  never  re- 
ceived it  at  all.  The  usual  reason  was  that  the  moth- 
ers were  obliged  to  go  out  to  work  and  remain  away 
for  too  long  intervals  to  care  properly  for  their  infants. 
As  a  direct  result,  a  large  number  develop  rickets, 
which  is  usually  accompanied  by  a  softening  of  the 
bones,  together  with  great  irritation  of  the  nervous 
system.  Almost  all  these  diseases  could  have  been 

Erevented  by  proper  diet  and  care,  and  yet  when 
rought  to  the  hospital  they  were  frequently  so  far 
advanced  as  to  result  either  in  death  or  in  a  more  or 
less  permanent  crippling  of  a  healthy  life."  The 
family  incomes  in  nearly  half  the  cases  could  not  be 
obtained  with  any  defimteness,  but  in  150  cases  they 
were  reported  to  be  between  $5  and  $10  a  week,  and 
in  117  cases  to  be  less  than  $5.  In  only  85  cases  were 
they  reported  to  exceed  $10  a  week.  The  large  pro- 
portion of  the  families  having  less  than  $5  a  week  re- 
veals a  stratum  of  society  which  factory  returns  show 
nothing  of.  With  such  incomes,  insufficient  nourish- 
ment and  unhealthy,  overcrowded  rooms  are  inevita- 
ble. When  families  are  reduced  to  these  conditions, 
physical  degeneration  is  likely  to  destroy  the  power 
to  rise.  "It  is  evidently  time  to  consider,"  says  Dr. 
Chapin  in  conclusion,  "  whether  some  reasonable  form 
of  cooperation  cannot  be  substituted  for  the  bitter 
competition  so  wasteful  of  human  life." 

In  a  recent  letter  Mr.  C.  Loring  Brace,  Secre- 
tary of  the  Children's  Aid  Society  of  New  York, 
said  : 

"So  far  as  we  can  judge,  inheritance  does  not  figure 
in  the  problem.  ,  .  .  This  society  has  placed  84,000 


children  in  homes  since  it  began  this  work  40  years 
ago,  and  it  is  our  experience  that  no  matter  what  the 
parents  may  be,  if  the  child  is  taken  away  at  an  age 
so  early  that  it  has  not  yet  understood  the  wickedness 
about,  if  placed  in  a  country  home  with  kind  and  judi- 
cious adopted  parents,  it  is  almost  certain  to  do  well. 
.  .  .  But  if  the  child  is  not  transplanted  early  enough, 
then  there  are  the  bad  examples,  bad  habits,  and 
knowledge  of  evil  ways  to  contend  against. 

"  The  last  word  of  the  scientists  is  in  accord  with  the 
words  of  these  practical  scientists.  The  theory  of 
heredity  now  held  by  Wallace,  who  shares  with  Dar- 
win the  credit  of  the  hypothesis  of  natural  selection, 
and  by  Weismann  and  the  most  eminent  authorities,  is 
that  acquired  characteristics  of  the  parent  do  not  pass 
to  the  child  by  inheritance." 

Professor  A.  G.  Warner  says  (American 
Charities,  pp.  119-21)  : 

"The  question  of  heredity  is  at  bottom  a  biological 
question  ;  and  it  is  decidedly  annoying  that,  just  when 
we  most  desire  certainty,  biologists  should  be  able  to 
supply  us  with  little  but  controverted  speculations. 
After  many  books  have  been  written  to  explain  how 
acquired  characteristics  are  transmitted  from  parent 
to  offspring,  Professor  Weismann  steps  out  of  his  labor- 
atory to  deny  that  we  have  any  proof  that  they  are  so 
transmitted.  He  defends  his  denial  so  shrewdly  that 
the  authors  of  some  of  the  books  referred  to  accept  his 
view  of  the  matter.  This  doubt  pulverizes  the  foun- 
dations of  nearly  all  that  has  been  written  of  late  on 
heredity,  and  of  an  especially  large  proportion  of  what 
has  been  written  on  heredity  in  its  bearing  on  social 
life  and  development. 

"If  acquired  characteristics  be  inherited,  then  we 
have  a  chance  permanently  to  improve  the  race  inde- 
pendently of  selection,  by  seeing  to  it  that  individuals 
acquire  characteristics  that  it  is  desirable  for  them  to 
transmit.  But  Weismann  prevents  our  assuming 
that,  by  improving  the  environment  and  training  the 
individuals,  we  can  thereby  permanently  improve  the 
stock.  Change  of  environment  and  special  training 
affect  only  the  individual ;  the  progeny  are  uninflu- 
enced by  the  life  history  of  the  parent.  We  are  thus 
more  in  the  dark  than  was  for  a  time  supposed  as  to 
the  causes  of  variation.  According  to  the  new  theory, 
those  causes  are  beyond  our  reach  and  beyond  our 
knowledge  ;  all  that  we  can  do  for  the  improvement 
of  the  race  is  to  make  the  most  possible  of  each  indi- 
vidual, and,  by  some  system  of  rational  selection,  see 
to  it  that  the  essentially  unfit  have  every  facility  for 
becoming  extinct.  Wallace,  who  is  inclined  to  think 
that  Weismann's  point  is  proved,  suggests  that  if  we 
were  to  take  two  herds  of  wild  horses,  and  attempt  to 
develop  runners  from  one  by  selection  without  train- 
ing, and  from  the  other  by  training  without  selection, 
there  can  be  no  doubt  that  the  former  method  would 
be  the  surest  and  most  expeditious.  Some  have  felt 
that  if  acquired  characteristics  be  not  inherited,  the 
outlook  for  the  improvement  of  the  human  race  is 
very  hopeless,  since  it  would  seem  to  be  nature's  pol- 
icy to  induce  variations  blindly,  and  then  to  weed  out 
those  individuals  and  strains"  that  prove  unsatisfac- 
tory. A  continuous  tho  fortuitous  supply  of  the  un- 
fit would  constantly  be  brought  to  birth  only  to  be  ex- 
terminated. Suspend  the  selective  processes,  and, 
according  to  Weismann,  the  race  would  not  only  cease 
to  improve,  but  would  certainly  and  at  once  begin  to 
degenerate.  Our  only  hope  for  the  permanent  im- 
provement of  the  human  stock  would  then  seem  to  be 
through  exercising  an  influence  upon  the  selective 
processes.* 

"  With  the  tendency  which  now  seems  to  be  mani- 
fest to  think  that  Weismann  has  not  finally  made  his 
point,  at  least  in  so  far  as  it  applies  to  heredity  among 
the  higher  animals,  we  can  return  to  the  earlier,  and 
perhaps  more  encouraging  view,  if  we  will :  but, 
at  the  same  time,  the  illustration  suggested  by  Wal- 
lace must  convince  us  that  selection  is  a  far  more  im- 
portant factor  in  race  improvement  than  the  training 
which  can  be  given  by  the  most  carefully  adjusted  en- 
vironment. At  the  present  time  perhaps  the  best 
working  hypothesis  is  to  assume  that  Weismann  is 
right,  but  remember  that  whatever  environment  can- 
not do  for  the  race,  it  is  conceded  that  it  is  unquestion- 
ably in  the  highest  degree  important  for  the  individual. 
Weismann  himself  shows  that  many  of  the  resem- 

*  Kidd's  Social  Evolution  is  based  on  the  hypoth- 
esis that  Weismann's  opinions  on  this  point  are  cor- 
rect ;  all  of  Spencer's  social  philosophy  is  based  on  the 
opposite  assumption. 


Heredity. 


686 


High  License. 


blances  of  children  to  parents,  which  we  have  attrib- 
uted to  heredity,  are  merely  the  result  of  early  envi- 
ronment on  offspring.  .  .  .  To  assume  Weismann  to 
be  right— acquired  characteristics  to  be  not  transmitted 
— is  possibly  the  safest  working  hypothesis,  because,,on 
the  one  hand,  it  does  not  limit  our  efforts  to  improve 
environment,  while,  on  the  other  hand,  it  gives  us  a 
sharp  realization  of  the  importance  of  selection,  a  factor 
which  we  are  prone  to  forget  or  to  undervalue."  (See 
EVOLUTION.) 

HERRON,  REV.  GEORGE,  was  born  at 
Montezuma,  Ind.,  in  1862.  Of  feeble  health  as 
a  child,  he  grew  up  in  the  closest  communion 
with  a  father  and  mother  of  humble  life,  but  of 
unusual  Christian  character  and  devotion  in  the 
evangelical  faith.  The  "  kingdom  of  God  was 
to  him  from  his  earliest  years  a  tremendous 
reality."  He  is  to  a  large  extent  a  self-edu- 
cated man.  Entering  the  Congregational  min- 
istry, he  early  developed  deep  interest  in  social 
matters.  In  1891  he  read  a  paper  called  The 
Message  of  Jesus  to  Men  of  Wealth.  It  was 
published  in  the  Christian  Union,  and  later  as 
a  booklet,  and  immediately  arrested  very  wide 
attention.  In  1891  he  was  called  to  the  pasto- 
rate of  the  Congregational  Church  at  Burlington, 
la. ,  and  aroused  the  deepest  interest  in  social 
problems  among  men  and  women  of  all  classes. 
He  conducted  a  retreat  at  Grinnell  in  1892,  and 
in  1893  he  was  chosen  to  the  professorship  in  the 
Rand  chair  of  Applied  Christianity,  established 
at  that  time  in  Iowa  College,  at  Grinnell.  Since 
then  he  has  preached  and  lectured  on  social 
Christianity  to  audiences,  classes,  and  summer 
gatherings  from  Massachusetts  to  California, 
everywhere  creating  a  profound  impression. 
He  is  first  of  all  a  preacher  of  righteousness,  a 
profound  believer  in  the  Gospel  of  the  kingdom 
as  the  Gospel  of  the  present  day,  which  he  be- 
lieves to  be  a  crisis  in  the  history  of  Christianity, 
as  well  as  of  the  country,  and  to  the  preaching 
of  which  Dr.  Herron  devotes  himself  with  the 
conviction,  the  fearlessness,  and  the  consecration 
of  an  apostle.  He  has  written  numerous  small 
books  ;  among  them  are  :  The  Larger  Christ 
(1891) ;  The  Call  of  the  Cross  (1892)  ;  A  Plea 
for  the  Gospel  (iSgz)  ;  The  New  Redemption 
(1893) ;  The  Christian  Society  (1894) ;  The 
Christian  State  (1895)  ;  Social  Meanings  of 
Religious  Experiences  (1896). 

HERTZEN,  ALEXANDER,  was  born  in 
Moscow,  Russia,  in  1812.  Shortly  after  com- 
pleting his  education  he  was  imprisoned  for  his 
outspoken  views  and  banished  to  Viatka  and 
Vladimir.  On  his  return  he  devoted  himself  to 
literature,  and  in  1842  his  Dilettantism  v. 
Naukie  attracted  attention.  In  the  same  year, 
for  criticising  the  police,  he  was  ordered  to  live 
in  Novgorod.  In  1847  he  obtained  permission 
to  travel,  and  in  1851  set  up  in  London  a  Free 
Russian  Press  to  attack  the  Government  and 
issue  works  forbidden  in  Russia,  notably  Kolo- 
kol  ( The  Be '//),  started  in  1857.  Thousands  of 
copies  were  smuggled  into  Russia  and  read  by 
all,  from  the  emperor  to  the  peasants.  After 
sympathizing  with  the  Poles  in  their  insurrec- 
tion of  1863,  he  transferred  the  Kdlokol  to 
Geneva,  where  it  had  an  obscure  existence  till 
about  a  year  before  Hertzen's  death  in  Paris  in 
1870.  He  was  romantic  and  skeptical,  eloquent 
and  satirical.  He  wrote  various  books  and 


stories,  his  complete  works  being  published  in 
Basle  in  1875. 

HERTZKA,  THEODORE,  was  born  in 
Buda  Pesth  in  1845,  and  studied  in  Vienna.  In 
1872  he  was  editor  of  the  Neue  Freien  Presse  ; 
in  1880  superintendent  of  the  Wiener  Allge- 
meinen  Zeitung.  The  same  year  he  brought  out 
his  Die  Gesetze  der  Handelspolitik  (Laws  of 
Trade},  from  the  standpoint  of  the  orthodox 
economy,  which,  however,  he  wholly  gave  up 
six  years  later  in  his  Die  Gesetze  der  Sozia- 
len  Entwickehing  (Laws  of  Social  Evolu- 
tion). A  still  further  advance  is  made  in  his 
Utopia  of  Freiland  (1890),  in  which  he  pictures 
a  colony  in  equatorial  Africa  on  the  principles 
of  communism.  At  the  end  of  this  volume  he 
called  for  the  creation  of  such  a  colony,  and  met 
with  a  large  response.  By  1891  the  book  had 
been  translated  into  many  languages,  and  some 
1000  local  unions  had  been  formed  to  provide 
the  means  and  start  the  colony.  A  central  com- 
mittee was  organized,  and  in  1893  a  start  actu- 
ally made.  At  the  last,  however,  the  difficulties 
were  too  great,  and  the  plan  failed.  Most  so- 
cialists believe  that  socialism  must  come  in 
through  evolution,  not  through  colonies. 

HIGGINSON,  THOMAS  WENT- 
WORTH,  was  born  in  Cambridge  in  1823, 
and  was  graduated  from  Harvard  in  1841.  Set- 
tled as  pastor  of  the  First  Church  in  New- 
buryport,  but  dismissed  in  1847  because  of  his 
anti-slavery  preaching,  he  organized  the  Free 
Church  in  Worcester,  where  he  remained  near- 
ly six  years,  an  enthusiastic  worker  against  sla- 
very and  the  intimate  friend  of  Garrison  and  Phil- 
lips. He  enlisted  in  the  war  in  1862,  and  served 
till  seriously  wounded  in  1863.  He  was  appoint- 
ed colonel  of  the  first  regiment  of  colored  troops 
enlisted  in  South  Carolina.  His  great  work, 
however,  has  been  as  essayist,  author,  poet,  lec- 
turer, and  novelist.  Some  of  his  best  writings 
have  been  his  short  essays  contributed  to  Har- 
per's  Bazar.  His  lecture,  The  Aristocracy  of 
the  Dollar,  gave  him  a  national  reputation. 
His  devotion  to  the  cause  of  humanity  led  him 
to  especially  espouse  the  cause  of  the  slave,  and 
since  then  of  woman  emancipation  from  intel- 
lectual and  political  subjection.  He  was  one  of 
the  first  interested  in  Nationalism,  tho  not  fully 
indorsing  its  views.  Living  in  Cambridge, 
Mass. ,  he  is  prominent  in  public  affairs  and  re- 
form movements. 

HIGH  LICENSE  may  be  defined  as  a  li- 
cense to  sell  liquors  granted  at  what  is  regard- 
ed as  high  rates,  and  intended  thereby  to  re- 
duce the  number  and  improve  the  character  of 
the  places  licensed.  Many  advocates  of  the  high- 
license  program  claim  that  the  term  has  a  wider 
meaning,  and  also  covers  accessory  restrictions 
of  all  kinds — that  it  is  merely  a  convenient  gen- 
eric name  for  all  "improved"  license  acts. 
High  license  provisions  are  invariably  accom- 
panied by  certain  restrictions  or  prohibitions 
governing  the  manner  of  sales  ;  but  such  re- 
strictions and  prohibitions  are  incidental  to  all 
license  laws,  and  the  high-license  idea  derives 
its  special  significance  not  from  the  restrictive 
principle  proper — i.e.,  the  principle  of  absolute- 


High  License. 


687 


High  License. 


ly  prohibiting  sales  to  certain  persons  during 
certain  hours  and  in  certain  places — but  from 
the  tax  or  revenue  principle — i.e. ,  the  principle 
of  taxing  the  traffic  as  for  the  present  at  least  a 
"necessary  evil" — taxing  it  to  the  maximum 
attainable  point,  and  drawing  from  it  for  the 
public  funds  the  maximum  amount  of  revenue. 
The  high-license  plan  was  not  urged  with  any 
activity  in  the  early  years  of  the  temperance 
agitation  in  the  United  States. 

The  high-license  movement,  as  a  feature  of 
the  temperance  agitation,  came  into  existence 
at  about  the  same  time  that  the  constitutional 
prohibition  idea  attained  promi- 
nence. Preparation  for  it  had  been 

History,  made  by  a  gradual  raising  of  the 
license  rates  in  many  States.  Up 
to  1880,  however,  a  rate  of  $200  per 
year  was  considered  high.  The  high-license 
crusade  dates  from  the  enactment  of  the  Nebras- 
ka "  Slocumb"  law  in  February,  1881.  It  fixed 
minimum  annual  fees  of  $500  for  saloons  in  all 
towns  having  less  than  10,000  population,  and 
$1000  in  those  containing  more  than  10,000  in- 
habitants, and  established  numerous  restrictions 
of  a  very  rigid  nature.  The  enactment  of  the 
Downing  law  of  Missouri  followed  in  March, 
1883,  fixing  the  yearly  license  charges  at  $50  to 
$200  for  State  purposes,  and  $500  to  $800  for 
county  purposes — a  minimum  of  $550  and  a 
maximum  of  $1000.  In  the  same  year  (in  June) 
the  Illinois  Legislature  passed  the  Harper  law, 
under  which  minimum  rates  of  $500  for  the  sale 
of  all  kinds  of  liquors  and  $150  for  the  sale  of 
malt  liquors  only  were  fixed.  Since  then  many 
of  the  other  license  States  have  required  the 
saloon-keepers  to  pay  relatively  large  sums— 
notably  Massachusetts,  where  the  minimum  li- 
cense rate  for  the  ordinary  saloon  selling  all 
kinds  of  liquors  for  consumption  on  and  off  the 
premises  is  now  $1300  per  year  ;  Minnesota, 
where  the  minimum  rates  are  $500  for  towns 
and  $1000  for  cities  ;  Pennsylvania,  where  the 
uniform  rate  for  each  city  is  $500  ;  the  new 
State  of  Montana,  where  $500  is  charged  in 
towns  having  3500  inhabitants  or  more  ;  the 
Territory  of  Utah,  where  the  minimum  charge 
is  $600  and  the  maximum  $1200,  and  several 
Southern  States,  like  Arkansas,  Texas,  and  West 
Virginia,  where  the  aggregate  fees  exacted 
range  from  $500  upward. 

The  first  high  license  legislation  undeniably 
originated  with  thoroughly  radical  temperance 
men,  believers  in  the  principle  of  Prohibition, 
who  honestly  thought  they  were  making  a  seri- 
ous attack  upon  the  traffic.  The  framers  of  the 
Nebraska  act  were  John  B.  Finch,  H.  W.  Hardy, 
and  other  temperance  leaders  equally  earnest. 
The  Missouri  law  was  passed  as  a  compromise 
measure,  to  defeat  the  prohibitory  bill  pressed 
by  John  A.  Brooks  and  his  aggressive  follow- 
ers ;  but  it  was  looked  upon  by  many  as  an  im- 
portant step  in  the  direction  of  prohibition.  It 
was  several  years  before  the  high  license  pro- 
gram was  regarded  with  decided  suspicion  by 
the  prohibitionists  ;  but  by  1886  a  general  dis- 
trust was  felt,  and  ever  since  then  active  hostil- 
ity has  been  manifested.  Opposition  to  high 
license  is  now  as  much  a  part  of  the  prohibition 
creed  as  opposition  to  the  saloon  itself. 

The  arguments  in  favor  of  high  license  are 


various.     Its  supporters  claim,  first,  that  in  the 
present  state  of  society,  especially  in  the  larger 
cities,  it  reduces  drinking  and  the 
number  of  saloons  far  more  than     .  , 

prohibition  or  any  other  system  g_um< 
now  possible,  the  drinking  of  wine  n^h 
and  intoxicants  being,  as  most  ad-  T  jcp 
herents  of  high  license  hold,  not  a 
sin  per  se,  like  prostitution,  but  only 
an  evil  when  carried  to  excess  ;  or  if  an  evil  in 
its  beginnings  simply  so  because  it  leads  the 
drinker  or  other  drinkers  to  go  on  to  drinking 
in  excess  ;  it  is  argued  that  it  is  not  immoral  to 
license  drinking,  if  this  be  the  best  way  to  pro- 
mote temperance.  This  the  adherents  of  high 
license  claim.  They  say  that  in  the  present 
state  of  the  community,  especially  in  our  large 
cities,  with  our  numerous  foreign  inhabitants, 
who  are  accustomed  to  the  use  of  wine  and  beer, 
and  who  consider  them  innocent  as  water,  it  is  not 
possible  to  sustain  a  prohibitory  law,  and  there- 
fore that  in  practice  prohibition  here  means  ap- 
proximately free  rum.  They  point  out  that  in 
places  the  liquor  interest  has  worked  with  pro- 
hibitionists to  enact  a  prohibitory  law,  knowing 
that  such  a  law  could  not  be  enforced.  They 
point  out  that  Massachusetts,  Rhode  Island, 
and  Connecticut  have  all  tried  prohibition  and 
given  it  up,  it  being  claimed  that  prohibition 
increased  the  number  of  saloons  and  amount  of 
drinking. 

Dr.  Ernest  H.  Crosby  says  : 

"  The  Metropolitan  Excise  Law,  which  was  passed 
by  the  Legislature  of  New  York  on  April  14,  1866,  af- 
fords an  excellent  example  of  increased  revenue  pro- 
duced by  increased  fees.  At  this  time  there  were  9720 
saloons  in  New  York  and  Brooklyn,  less  than  one 
fourth  of  them  being  in  the  latter  city.  .  .  .  Under  the 
new  law  the  Metropolitan  Board  of  Health  fixed  the 
licenses  at  $250  and  $100.  At  the  expiration  of  n 
months  there  were  only  6779  licensed  places  in  the 
metropolitan  district,  of  which  5203  were  in  New  York 
and  1476  in  Brooklyn.  In  New  York  the  sum  of  $993,- 
379  was  collected  in  license  fees,  and  in  Brooklyn  $257,- 
725.  ...  In  31  months  New  York  contributed  over 
$3,000,000.  This  law  was  repealed  during  the  suprem- 
acy of  the  Tweed  ring"  (North  American  Review^  vol. 
144,  p.  501). 

Dr.  Crosby,  also  in  the  same  article,  gives  the 
following  facts  : 

The  Illinois  high  license  law  went  into  effect  in 
1883.  It  closed  several  hundred  saloons  in  Illinois,  and 
raised  the  revenue  from  $700,000  to  $4,500,000.  Michi- 
gan, in  1875,  under  prohibition  had  6444  saloons ;  in 
1876,  under  regulation,  1577  were  blotted  out,  and  by 
1882  there  were  only  3461.  In  Missouri,  Governor  Mar- 
maduke  said  in  his  message  to  the  Legislature,  Janu- 
ary, 1887  :  "  Prior  to  the  enactment  and  enforcement  of 
the  law  providing  for  what  is  known  as  high  license 
for  dram-shops,  there  were  in  this  State  3601  dram- 
shops and  other  places  where  ardent  spirits  were  sold 
to  be  used  as  a  beverage,  yielding  a  revenue  of  $547,- 
320.  There  were,  on  July  4  last,  2880  such  dram- 
shops, yielding  a  revenue  of  $1,842,208."  Of  Ohio, 
Governor  Foraker  says  :  "  The  most  reliable  data  ob- 
tainable indicate  that  the  tax  law  has  suppressed  a 
large  percentage  of  the  saloons." 

A  second  argument  in  favor  of  high  license  is 
that  by  lessening  the  saloons  it  becomes  possi- 
ble to  inspect  and  control  the  traffic,  closing 
saloons  as  may  be  voted  on  Sundays  and  at  cer- 
tain hours,  and  forbidding  the  sale  to  minors, 
etc.  This  is  not  possible,  they  urge,  under  pro- 
hibitory laws,  which,  not  being  enforced,  both 
allow  the  grossest  evils  and  accustom  the  com- 
munity to  non-obedience  to  law.  There  is  no 


High  License. 


688 


Hill  Banking  System. 


use,  they  urge,  in  legislating  far  beyond  the 
average  moral  sense  of  a  community. 

The  third  argument  is  that  high  license  does 
bring  in  large  revenues,  and  so  enables  govern- 
ments to  meet  the  frightful  expenses  entailed 
by  the  traffic  in  caring  for  the  poor  or  punishing 
the  criminal,  thus  making  the  traffic  pay  for 
its  own  evils.  Prohibition,  they  argue,  creates 
more  drinking  and  less  ability  to  meet  the  evil. 
Other  claims  made  for  high  license  are  that  it 
will  operate  to  exterminate  the  most  objection- 
able  saloons  ;  that  it  will  confine  the  traffic  to 
men  of  responsibility,  and  therefore,  presum- 
ably, to  men  of  better  character  ;  that  by  dimin- 
ishing the  aggregate  number  of  liquor  dealers, 
it  will  diminish  the  temptations  to  the  drinker, 
and  consequently  reduce  the  consumption  of 
drink  ;  that  it  will  remove  from  political  warfare 
the  organized  power  of  the  more  dangerous, 
demonstrative,  ignorant,  and  offensive  rum  ele- 
ment that  is  seen  in  active  and  constant  opera- 
tion so  long  as  the  laws  bestow  upon  it  the  right 
to  exist  ;  that  by  entrusting  a  comparatively 
few  responsible  men,  under  rigid  conditions, 
with  the  privilege  of  selling  liquor — that  privi- 
lege to  be  purchased  at  a  high  money  price  and 
to  be  cancelled  in  case  of  violations  of  the  law 
— the  cooperation  of  these  privileged  licensees 
will  be  commanded  by  the  authorities  in  their 
efforts  to  enforce  wholesome  restrictions  and  to 
suppress  unlicensed  establishments  ;  that  the 
first  restriction  of  the  liquor  traffic  by  high  li- 
cense will  make  it  comparatively  easy  to  bring 
about  a  second  and  greater  restriction,  to  be  fol- 
lowed in  time  by  more  radical  restrictions,  until 
the  whole  traffic  is  "  taxed  to  death"  and  thus 
extinguished  by  progressive  action  instead  of 
by  a  sudden  (and  not  necessarily  permanent) 
sentimental  decree  ;  that,  meanwhile,  the  liquor 
traffic  will  be  under  the  severest  stigma  attach- 
ing to  any  trade,  and  be  pronounced  by  law  to 
be  so  dangerous  to  the  community  as  to  require 
restriction  at  all  points  and  the  payment  of  enor- 
mous sums  to  the  Government. 

The  opponents  of  high  license  deny  that  it 
does  lessen  drinking,  even  tho  it  may  lessen 
saloons.     They  say  that  it  makes  drinking  re- 
spectable and  legal,  and  so  encour- 
ages it.     Poor  people,  they  argue, 
Objections,    feel  the  injustice  of  making  license 
a  matter  of  money,  and  so  keep  up 
kitchen  bars,  etc.     The  fact  that 
high  license  does  bring  in  revenue  its  opponents 
consider  almost  its  worst  feature,  since  it  inter- 
ests the  community  in  maintaining   the  evil 
traffic,  and  so,  instead  of  high  license  leading 
to  prohibition,  it  is  considered  by  prohibitionists 
as  among  their  worst  foes.     The  (prohibition) 
Encyclopedia  of  Temperance  tabulates  the  sta- 
tistics 0/41  high  license  and  38  low  license  cities, 
and  draws  the  following  conclusions  : 

1.  The  license  fee  is  five  times  as  great  in  the 
41  high  license  cities  as  in  the  38  low  license 
cities,  and  the  number  of  saloons  is  only  about 
one  third  as  great. 

2.  Yet  there  is  but  very  little  difference  in  the 
number  of  arrests  in  ratio  to  population  in  the 
high  license  and  the  low  license  cities. 

3.  The  ratio  of  arrests  for  drunkenness  and 
disorder  to  the  total  arrests  is  noticeably  greater 
in  the  high  license  than  in  the  low  license  cities. 


Of  Chicago  it  gives  the  following  figures  : 


YEAR. 

Saloon 
License 
Fee. 

Total 
Arrests. 

Arrests 
for 
Drunk- 
enness 
and   Dis- 
orderly 
Conduct. 

Arrests 
of 
Minors. 

880  

28,480 

881  

882  .... 

883  

37,187 

18,045 

6,675 

884  

6,718 

885  

886  

6,841 

887  

888  

500 

8,923 

The  main  argument  of  the  prohibitionists 
against  high  license,  however,  is  that  it  commits 
the  State  to  a  license  of  the  drink  evil,  and  gives 
it  an  interest  in  the  ruin  of  its  citizens,  and  thus 
demoralizes  both  the  Government  and  the  com- 
munity and  puts  back  the  advance  of  temperance. 

References  :  Articles  in  the  North  American  Review, 
vols.  cxliv.,  p.  498;  cxlv.,  p.  201;  cxlvii.,  p.  638;  The 
Forum,  vol.  v.,  p.  281 ;  Andover  Review,  vol.  xi.,  pp.  240, 
6n.  (See  also  INTEMPERANCE  ;  NATIONALIZATION  OF 
THE  LIQUOR  TRAFFIC  ;  NORWEGIAN  SYSTEM  ;  PRO- 
HIBITION ;  SOUTH  CAROLINA  DISPENSARY  SYSTEM.) 

HILDEBRAND,  BRUNO,  was  born  at 
Naumburg,  Prussia,  in  1812.  Studying  phi- 
losophy, he  was  implicated  in  the  affair  of  the 
Burschenschaften  (corporations  of  students 
suspected  of  liberalism)  ;  he  succeeded,  how- 
ever, in  being  appointed  Professor  Extraordi- 
nary in  the  University  of  Breslau,  then  Titular 
Professor  of  Political  Science  at  Marburg  (1841), 
where  he  published  some  years  later  (1848)  the 
first  volume  of  Die  Nationalokonomie  der  Ge- 
genwart  und  Zukunft.  He  was  the  same  year 
chosen  deputy  from  Marburg  to  the  National 
Assembly  at  Frankfort,  and  his  attitude  was  so 
hostile  to  the  Government  that  he  was  exiled  to 
Switzerland.  At  Zurich  he  was  appointed  Pro- 
fessor of  Political  Economy.  He  had  already 
created  at  Marburg  a  bank  for  widows  ( Witt- 
wen  casse)  ;  and  he  founded  at  Berne  the  sav- 
ings and  loan  bank.  After  he  left  Zurich  (1861) 
he  occupied  the  chair  at  Jena  (1862),  and  in 
1862  founded  the  Jahrbiicher  fur  National 
(Economic  und  Statistik.  After  1873  he  edited 
this  journal  in  connection  with  Conrad,  his  son- 
in-law.  He  died  at  Jena  January  29,  1878,  a 
leader  in  the  historical  school  (g.v.).  (For  his 
economic  position,  see  POLITICAL  ECONOMY  ; 
GERMANY.) 

HILL    BANKING   SYSTEM,  THE,  was 

originated  by  Mr.  Thomas  E.  Hill,  a  Chicago 
capitalist. 

It  demands  absolute  ownership  and  control  of 
all  banks  by  the  Government,  and  consequent 
prevention  of  bank  failures.  The  money  with 
which  to  do  banking  is  to  be  obtained  from  the 
people.  To-  induce  people  to  bring  into  circula- 
tion the  hundreds  of  millions  now  hoarded  in 
safety  deposit  vaults  and  other  hiding-places, 
3  per  cent,  interest  is  to  be  paid  on  long-time 
deposits. 

*  $150  for  beer  and  $500  for  strong  liquors. 


Hill  Banking  System, 


689 


Historical  School. 


Three  thousand  bank  depositories  are  to  be 
established  throughout  the  United  States,  from 
which  money  is  to  be  loaned  at  4  per  cent. 

Every  post-office  is  to  be  made  a  receiving 
bank  where  money  can  be  deposited,  thus  giv- 
ing over  65,000  banks  of  deposit. 

The  $1,500,000,000  in  sight,  and  the  hundreds 
of  millions,  now  hidden,  which  will  come  into 
the  banks  will  increase  the  Government's  bank- 
ing capital  to  $2,000,000,000. 

Appropriating  $20,000  per  year  for  the  man- 
agement of  each  bank  will  make  the  cost  for  the 
distribution  of  money  $60,000,000.  Allowing 

3  per  cent,  interest  on  $2,000,000,000  will  be 
$60,000.000  ;  hence  the  total  annual  expense  to 
the  Government  for  the  distribution  of  its  funds 
and  interest  will  be  but  $120,000,000. 

As  all  money  loaned  comes  immediately  back 
to  the  absolutely  safe  bank,  it  can  be  loaned 
over  and  over.  If  loaned  up  to  $5,000,000,000  at 

4  per  cent. ,  the  annual  income  will  be  $200,000,- 
ooo,  a  profit  to  the  Government  of  $80,000,000 
per  year.     If  loaned  oyer    four  times,  up  to 
$8,000,000,000,  charging  only  2  per  cent,  interest 
to  borrowers,  the  annual  profit  to  the  Govern- 
ment would  be  $40,000,000. 

The  Hill  banking  system  makes  the  people 
the  owners  of  all  banks,  and  uses  the  people's 
money  for  banking. 

How,  some  will  ask,  can  the  Government  pay 
3  per  cent,  and  loan  at  3  per  cent.  ?  The  sys- 
tem here  outlined  proposes  to  pay  interest  to 
long-time  depositors  only.  To  business  men 
and  all  those  who  have  open  accounts  no  inter- 
est is  paid.  Thus,  when  one  person  deposits 
money  not  to  be  removed  for  a  long  time,  more 
than  one  hundred  times  this  amount  will  be  de- 
posited by  business  men,  who  frequently  bor- 
row, paying  interest  on  their  loans,  while  they 
receive  no  interest  on  their  deposits.  The  sys- 
tem starts  on  a  sound  conservative  basis,  bor- 
rows at  3  per  cent. ,  loans  at  4  per  cent. ,  divides 
the  profits  with  the  people,  and  through  a  sys- 
tem of  active  accounts  and  many  loans  will  re- 
duce the  rates  to  an  almost  incredibly  low  per 
cent. 

One  of  the  chief  advantages  of  the  Hill  plan 
is  that  it  fits  immediately  into  the  present  meth- 
ods of  doing  business,  creating  no  great  change 
in  existing  financial  arrangements  except  a 
general  lowering  of  interest  and  a  vastly  wider 
distribution  of  money  which  will  start  many  en- 
terprises into  activity,  enabling  money-loaners 
to  employ  their  means  to  as  good  advantage  for 
themselves  as  the  lending  of  money. 

HILL,  OCTAVIA,  is  widely  known  in  so- 
cial reform  movements  for  her  successful  work 
in  rent  collecting  in  London,  making  this  work 
an  opportunity  for  aiding  those  from  whom  the 
rent  is  collected  in  cleansing  and  improving 
their  tenements.  Commenced  as  an  experi- 
ment, it  has  grown  till  Miss  Hilt  and  her  assist- 
ants are  said  to  care  tor  some  5000  dwellings. 
(See  article  TENEMENTS,  Sec.  3.) 

HILL,  SIR  ROWLAND,  was  born  at  Kid- 
derminster m  1795.  After  his  own  education 
he  taught  in  his  father's  school  till  1833.  He 
then  joined  the  association  for  establishing  the 
colony  of  South  Australia  on  Mr.  Wakefield's 
scheme  of  colonization  (see  AUSTRALIA),  and  be- 

44 


came  secretary  to  the  royal  commission  on  the  col- 
ony. In  1837  he  published  his  famous  pamphlet 
advocating  cheap  and  uniform  postage.  In  1840 
a  uniform  rate  of  a,d.  per  letter  was  adopted, 
soon  after  reduced  to  \d.  Mr.  Hill  was  placed 
in  the  treasury  to  work  out  his  plan,  but  was 
soon  dismissed  by  a  Tory  government  which 
came  into  power.  In  1846,  however,  the  Whigs 
returned  to  power,  and  Mr.  Hill  was  made  secre- 
tary to  the  postmaster,  and  in  1854  secretary  to 
the  post  office,  an  appointment  he  held  till  fail- 
ing health  compelled  him  to  resign  in  1864. 

HINTON,  RICHARD  J.,  was  born  in  Lon- 
don, England,  in  1830,  and  educated  mainly  at 
a  mechanics'  institute.  He  came  to  the  United 
States  in  1851,  and  became  a  printer  and  re- 
porter. He  became  an  ardent  abolitionist,  and 
went  to  Kansas  as  a  newspaper  correspondent 
in  the  times  of  the  John  Brown  agitation.  He 
studied  and  was  graduated  as  a  topographical 
engineer  in  New  York  City  in  1855.  During  the 
war  he  served  nearly  four  years  in  the  Union 
armies.  After  the  war  he  was  a  correspondent 
at  Washington  and  in  Europe,  writing  on  social 
reform  topics.  From  1867  he  was  representa- 
tive for  the  United  States  in  the  International 
Working  Men's  Association.  He  has  since  made 
investigations  and  written  reports  on  various  in- 
dustrial and  economic  subjects  for  the  Govern- 
ment, including  extensive  reports  on  Western 
irrigation.  Identified  with  various  reforms,  he 
has  written  various  biographies  of  abolitionists, 
two  military  histories,  etc. 

HISTORICAL  SCHOOL.— A  school  of  po- 
litical economists  which  arose  in  Germany,  in 
reaction  from  the  theorizing  of  the  English 
school  of  laissez  faire  as  developed  in  Ricardo 
and  his  followers.  Most  economists  rightly  ob- 
ject to  being  classed  in  this  or  any  other 
"school,"  preferring  to  be  catholic  in  their 
views  and  unfettered  by  designation  of  belong- 
ing to  any  school.  Yet  this  school  has  many 
sympathizers.  The  school  is  in  the  main  induc- 
tive, where  the  Ricardian  economy  is  deductive. 
It  owes  its  rise  very  largely  to  the  influence  of 
Comte  and  the  Positivists. 

Roscher,  Bruno,  Hildebrand,  and  Karl  Knies 
may  be  said  to  be  its  four  German  founders. 
(See  their  names.)  The  school  has  always  had 
a  marked  leaning  toward  State  socialism  in  re- 
action from  individualism.  Says  Professor  In- 
gram {History  of  Political  Economy,  p.  207) : 

"The  historical  method  has  exhibited  its  essential 
features  more  fully  in  the  hands  of  the  younger  gen- 
eration of  scientific  economists  in  Germany,  among 
whom  may  be  reckoned  Lujo  Brentano,  Adolf  Held, 
Erwin  Nasse,  Gustav  Schmoller,  H.  Rosier,  Albert 
Schaffle,  Hans  von  Scheel,  Gustav  Schonberg,  and 
Adolf  Wagner.  Besides  the  general  principle  of  an  his- 
torical treatment  of  the  science,  the  leading  ideas 
which  have  been  most  strongly  insisted  on  by  this 
school  are  the  following :  I.  The  necessity  of  accen- 
tuating the  moral  element  in  economic  study.  This 
consideration  has  been  urged  with  special  emphasis  by 
Schmoller  in  his  Grundfragen  (1875)  and  by  Schaffle 
in  his  Das  gesellscliaftliche  System  der  menschliclien 
Wirllischaft  (3d  ed.,  1873)." 

Two  other  ideas  which  Professor  Ingram  con- 
siders prominent  in  the  historical  school  are  a 
close  relation  between  economics  and  jurispru- 
dence as  brought  out  particularly  by  Wagner, 
L.  von  Stein,  and  H.  Rosier,  and  the  concep- 


Historical  School. 


690 


Holland  and  Social  Reform. 


tion  of  the  State  as  the  organ  of  the  nation  for 
any  end  that  may  seem  desirable. 

This  latter  position  accounts  for  the  friendli- 
ness between  the  historical  school  and  the  so- 
called  academic  socialists  or  the  socialists  of  the 
chair  (y.v.).  This  friendliness,  however,  must 
not  be  pressed  too  far,  and  it  must  be  remem- 
bered that  not  even  do  the  socialists  of  the  chair 
support  the  whole  socialist  program,  and  still 
less  the  whole  socialist  philosophy.  They  sim- 
ply hold  that  the  function  of  the  State  may  well 
be  and  should  be  enlarged  to  control  and  care 
for  the  interests  of  the  working  class  and  the 
less  fortunate  members  of  the  State,  on  points 
where  they  seem  not  able  to  protect  their  own 
interests.  The  historical  school  does  not  even 
dogmatically  stand  for  all  this.  It  represents 
simply  a  tendency  in  this  direction.  Its  real  posi- 
tion that  one  should  not  dogmatize,  but  simply 
by  a  study  of  the  past  and  the  present  see  what 
experience  teaches  that  the  State  may  wisely 
and  safely  do.  The  historical  school  stands, 
then,  not  so  much  for  socialism  as  for  a  protest 
against  the  dogmatism  alike  of  individualism 
and  of  socialism.  Its  characteristic  develop- 
ment has  been  in  Germany,  but  it  has  influ- 
enced all  modern  economic  thought,  and,  out- 
side of  Germany,  particularly  England,  and  to 
a  less  extent  the  United  States.  In  England, 
those  economists  who  have  perhaps  most  felt  its 
influence  are  Cliffe-Leslie,  Jevons,  Ingram, 
Rogers,  Toynbee,  Foxwell,  Cunningham, 
Symes,  and  to  a  less  extent  Marshall  and  Sidg- 
wick.  In  the  United  States,  Professors  Ely, 
James,  H.  C.  Adams,  Jenks,  Andrews,  Ashley, 
and  Bemis  are  prominently  of  this  school,  tho 
differing  very  materially  in  their  conclusions. 
In  Belgium,  De  Laveleye  is  the  great  name  of 
this  school  ;  in  Austria.  Schaffle  ;  in  France, 
Sismondi,  and  more  recently  Gide  ;  in  Italy, 
Loria. 

In  all  countries,  however,  the  school  is  rather 
a  tendency  than  a  distinct  school,  and  has  in- 
fluenced all  thought  rather  than  created  parti- 
sans. Recently  a  so-called  Austrian  school  of 
thought  has  arisen,  to  some  extent  critical  of  the 
historical  school,  and  has  deeply  influenced  eco- 
nomic development,  particularly  in  Austria, 
Italy,  and  the  United  States.  (See  POLITICAL 
ECONOMY.)  The  result  has  been  that  as  the  his- 
torical school  freed  economic  thought  from  the 
dogmatism  of  the  laissez-faire  school,  so  the 
Austrian  school  has  shown  the  limitations  of  the 
historical  study,  and  that  facts  must  be  viewed 
in  the  light  of  psychologic  ideas  as  truly  as 
ideas  must  be  tested  by  the  scrutiny  of  hard 
facts.  Social  mind  and  individual  will  enter 
into  and  influence  every  economic  act. 

HOBBES,  THOMAS,  was  born  at  Malmes- 
bury,  April  5, 1588.  He  was  the  son  of  a  clergy- 
man, and  went  to  Oxford  at  the  age  of  15.  Six 
years  after,  having  taken  his  degree,  he  became 
tutor  to  the  eldest  son  of  Lord  Hardwick,  after- 
ward Earl  of  Devonshire.  In  1610  he  went 
abroad  with  his  pupil,  making  the  tour  of  France 
and  Italy  ;  and  after  his  return  became  ac- 
quainted with  Bacon,  Raleigh,  Ben  Jonson,  and 
other  distinguished  men.  But  it  was  not  till  he 
had  reached  the  age  of  40  that  he  published,  in 
1628,  his  first  work,  a  translation  of  Thitcydides. 


He  was  deeply  afflicted  by  the  death  of  the 
Earl  of  Devonshire  in  1626,  and  by  that  of  his 
pupil  in  1628.  He  afterward  went  abroad  with 
the  son  of  Sir  Gervase  Clifton,  remaining  for 
some  time  in  France  ;  but  in  1631  resumed  his 
connection  with  the  Devonshire  family  by  be- 
coming tutor  to  the  young  earl,  the  son  of  his 
former  pupil,  a  boy  of  13. 

In  1634  he  went  to  Paris,  and  returned  to 
England  in  1637,  having  applied  himself  during 
that  time  to  the  composition  of  his  first  original 
work,  entitled  Element  a  Philosophic  a  de  Cive 
(1642).  He  soon  after  published  two  small  trea- 
tises, entitled  Hitman  Nature  and  De  Corpore 
Politico.  In  1651  he  published  the  Leviathan, 
the  fullest  and  perhaps  the  best-known  exposi- 
tion of  his  views  on  mind,  politics,  morals,  and 
religion. 

After  the  meeting  of  the  Long  Parliament  in 
1640,  dreading  the  civil  troubles,  he  returned  to 
Paris.  In  1647  he  was  appointed  mathematical 
tutor  to  the  Prince  of  Wales,  afterward  Charles 
II. ,  by  whom  he  was  highly  esteemed  ;  but  his 
writings  were  so  obnoxious  to  the  royalist  clergy 
and  to  all  other  sects  that  Charles  was  induced 
to  part  with  him,  and  he  fled  in  alarm  to  Eng- 
land. There  he  found  himself  safe,  the  Prot- 
estant Government  according  to  him  the  most 
ample  toleration.  After  the  Restoration,  how- 
ever, altho  Charles  granted  him  a  pension  of 
.£100  a  year,  his  views  were  condemned  by  Par- 
liament in  1666,  and  he  was  in  danger  of  still 
severer  measures.  His  last  works  were  a  trans- 
lation of  Homer  and  a  history  of  the  civil  wars. 
He  died  December  4, 1679,  in  his  ninety-second 
year.  (For  a  review  of  his  theories  and  views, 
see  POLITICAL  SCIENCE.) 

HOLLAND  AND  SOCIAL  REFORM. 
I.  STATISTICS. 

The  constitution  of  the  Netherlands  after  its 
reconstruction  as  a  kingdom  dates  from  1815, 
revised  in  1848  and  1887.     It  established  a  con- 
stitutional   and    hereditary    mon- 
archy.-   The    executive    power    is 
given  to  the  sovereign  ;  the  legis-  Constitution, 
lative  power  rests  with  him  and  the 
States- General,  consisting  of  two 
chambers.     The  Upper  Chamber  has  50  mem- 
bers, elected  by  the  provincial  States  from  the 
privileged  classes  ;  the  Second  Chamber  has  100 
deputies,  elected  by  all  male  citizens  who  have 
paid  10  guilders  in  ground  tax  or  a  certain  cor- 
responding amount   as  direct  tax.     The  total 
number  of  electors  is  about  295,000,  or  i  in  15 
persons.     There  is  a  ministerial  council  of  eight 
department  heads  and  a  deliberative  State  coun- 
cil of  14  members  appointed  by  the  sovereign, 
and  over  which  the  sovereign  pre- 
sides.    The    kingdom    is    divided 
into   ii   provinces  and   1123  com-  Population. 
munes,  with  considerable  local  au- 
tonomy.    The  total  population  in 
1889  was  4,511,415  on  an  area  of  12,648  English 
square  miles,  or  374  to  the  square  mile.     The 
surplus  of  births  over  deaths  is  large.     The 
population  is  largely  Protestant.    In  1889,  2, 194,- 
649  belonged  to  the  Dutch  Reformed  Church 
and  1,596,482  to  the  Roman  Catholic  Church. 
Education  is  general,  but  not  compulsory  nor 


Holland  and  Social  Reform. 


691     Homestead  and  Exemption  Laws. 


necessarily  free.  There  are  four  universities, 
very  numerous  special  schools,  middle-class 
schools,  and  elementary  schools.  (See  EDU- 
CATION.) 

The  revenue  in  1894  was  132,940,890  guilders, 
and  the  expenditure,  131,491,882  guilders.     The 
principal  sources  of  revenue  are  excise  duties, 
direct  taxes  (land  and  personal),  in- 
direct taxes,  and  to  a  small  extent 
„.  imports — Holland    having    only   a 

jrma  '  fiscal  and  not  a  protectionist  tariff. 
The  national  debt  is  1,110,747,643 
guilders.  The  imports  in  1 894  were 
1,461,000,000  guilders,  and  the  exports,  1,115,- 
000,000  guilders.  Agriculture  flourishes  in  Fries- 
land,  where  the  finest  cattle  are  raised.  The 
most  important  manufactures  are  cheese,  gin, 
cocoa,  chocolate,  potteries,  linens.  The  fisheries 
have  declined,  but  still  bring  in  large  revenues. 
Commerce  is  large.  In  1892,  1365  sailing  ves- 
sels, of  which  491  were  Dutch,  and  7364  steam- 
ers, of  which  2045  were  Dutch,  entered  the 
Dutch  ports. 

II.  SOCIAL  REFORM. 

In  Holland  wealth  is  very  unequally  divided. 
Wages  are  very  low,  and  taxation,  being  indi- 
rect, falls  mainly  on  the  producer  ;  but  the  peo- 
ple are  very  frugal  and  industrious,  and  on  small 
means  maintain  an  unusual  appearance  of  com- 
fort and  decency.  The  labor  movement  has  a 
firm  hold  in  Holland.  Trade-unions  are  numer- 
ous, but  not  like  the  English  unions,  many  of 
them  being  survivals  of  ancient  guilds. 

Socialism  entered  Holland  in  1869  with  the 
International  (e.v.),  but  did  not  endure.  In 
1878  Domela  Niewenhuis,  a  retired  Protestant 
minister,  a  man  of  great  capacity  and  zeal,  re- 
opened the  socialist  movement,  starting  the 
Recht  Voor  Allen,  and  founding  the  Social 
Democratic  Union.  In  1887  he  was  imprisoned 
for  political  reasons,  but  in  1888  elected  to  the 
Legislature. 

In  1889  a  Social  Democratic  League  was 
founded.  Cooperation  was  attempted  in  con- 
nection with  the  socialist  movement,  as  in  Bel- 
gium, but  did  not  largely  succeed,  tho  some  co- 
operative stores  at  the  Hague  are  still  carried 
on.  Latterly  Mr.  Niewenhuis  (g.v.~)  has  turned 
away  from  political  socialism  and  developed  an- 
archist communist  views.  Most  of  the  Dutch 
socialists,  however,  follow  the  program  of  Ger- 
man socialism  and  have  several  journals. 

Wages  of  skilled  artisans  and  factory  hands 
vary  from  18  cents  to  22  cents.  Agricultural 
wages  are  greatly  depressed.  (For  an  account 
of  the  Dutch  labor  colonies,  see  LABOR  COL- 
ONIES.) 

Reference  :  The  Report  on  Holland  of  the  (English) 
Royal  Commission  on  Labor. 

HOLLAND,  HENRY  SCOTT,  was  born 
in  Ledbury,  Herfordshire,  England,  in  1847, 
and  was  educated  at  Eton  and  at  Balliol  Col- 
lege, Oxford.  After  some  years  of  residence  at 
Oxford  as  student  of  Christ  Church  he  became 
canon  of  Truro(i882),  and  of  St.  Paul's,  London 
(1884).  He  is  one  of  the  leaders  in  the  Anglican 
Church.  Besides  his  notable  share  in  Lux 
Mundi,  he  has  written  many  books,  such  as  In 
Behalf  of  Belief  and  The  City  of  God.  He 
was  principal  founder  of  the  Christian  Social 


Union  (q.v.)  in  1889,  and  is  chairman  of  the 
energetic  London  branch  of  the  Union,  for 
which  he  edited  A  Lent  in  London  (1895),  a 
course  of  sermons  on  social  subjects.  He  is  in 
politics  and  reform  an  outspoken  leader  in 
Anglican  Christian  Socialism. 

HOLYOKE,  GEORGE  JACOB,  was  born 
in  Birmingham,  England,  in  1817.  The  son  of 
an  iron-worker,  he  was  educated  in  the  me- 
chanics' institute  and  taught  mathematics.  In 
1837  he  heard  Robert  Owen,  and  became  one  of 
his  ' '  social  missionaries' '  stationed  at  Sheffield. 
In  1841.  in  lecturing  at  Cheltenham,  he  gave  a 
novel  turn  to  a  Bible  passage,  and  was  impris- 
oned six  months  for  blasphemy.  He  is  some- 
times called  the  father  of  secularism,  being 
neither  theistic  nor  atheistic.  For  several  years 
he  edited  The  New  Moral  World,  and  then 
for  15  years  The  Reasoner.  To  abolish  "  the 
taxes  on  knowledge"  he  printed  an  unstamped 
newspaper  till  his  fines  amounted  to  ^600,000. 
Becoming  interested  in  cooperation,  he  identi- 
fied himself  with  the  cause,  and  published  The 
History  of  Cooperation  in  Rochdale,  which  is 
said  to  have  led  to  the  formation  of  250  coopera- 
tive societies.  His  History  of  Cooperation  in 
England  (2  vols.)  appeared  in  1875-78  ;  The 
Rochdale  Pioneers  in  1882.  Besides  these  he 
has  written  numerous  tracts  and  papers  and  in- 
numerable  newspaper  articles  on  cooperation 
and  on  secularism.  His  life  is  told  in  Sixty 
Years  of  an  Agitator's  Life  (1892). 

HOMESTEAD  AND  EXEMPTION 
LAWS. — The  homestead  may  be  defined  as 
the  house  and  the  land  connected  therewith, 
which  forms  the  immediate  residence  of  a  fam- 
ily. The  provisions  of  law  by  which  home- 
steads are  secured  beyond  reach  of  creditors  or 
liabilities  on  the  part  of  their  owners  are  of 
modern  growth.  The  Homestead  Law  of  the 
United  States,  tho  long  agitated  and  several 
times  passed  by  the  House  of  Representatives, 
and  tho  antedated  by  the  like  laws  of  several 
States,  was  not  enacted  by  Congress  till  May 
20,  1862.  Altho  often  abused  (see  PUBLIC  DO- 
MAIN), it  has  proved  one  of  the  most  beneficent 
as  well  as  successful  laws  ever  passed.  It  has 
opened  up  to  immediate  settlements  millions  of 
acres  of  public  lands,  and  has  attracted  to  this 
country  millions  of  our  best  citizens.  By  its 
provisions  any  citizen  or  applicant  for  citizen- 
ship over  21  years  of  age  may  enter  upon  160 
acres  of  any  unappropriated  public  lands,  grad- 
ed at  $1.25  per  acre,  or  80  acres  of  such  lands, 
valued  at  $2. 50  per  acre,  by  the  Government  on 
payment  of  the  nominal  fee  of  $5  to  f  10.  After 
five  years'  actual  residence  on  the  land,  a  patent 
thereof  is  issued  to  the  settler  by  the  general 
land  officer  at  Washington.  This  patent  is  a 
valid  title  from  the  United  States.  If  the  pur- 
chaser wishes  to  complete  his  title  in  less  than 
five  years,  he  can  only  do  so  by  purchase.  No 
individual  is  permitted  to  acquire  more  than  160 
acres,  tho  there  is  no  limit  to  the  amount  he  can 
purchase.  There  is  a  proviso  that  no  lands  ac- 
quired under  the  homestead  act  can  be  liable 
for  any  debts  of  the  settler  contracted  before 
the  issuing  of  the  patent  for  his  homestead.  The 
exemption  laws  of  various  States  vary  all  the 


Homestead  and  Exemption  Laws.      692 


Homicide. 


way  from  values  of  $500  in  Maine,  to  $5000  in 
California. 

HOMESTEAD,  STRIKE  AT.— In  July, 
1892,  a  serious  difficulty  arose  in  the  iron  and 
steel  works  of  Messrs.  Carnegie  &  Co.,  Home- 
stead, Pa.,  employing  several  thousand  men. 
Wages  had  been  for  many  years  fixed  in  these 
works  by  a  sliding  scale  based  upon  the  selling 
price  of  steel  billets.  (See  AMALGAMATED  ASSO- 
CIATION OF  IRON  AND  STEEL  WORKERS.)  The 
wages  were  high  for  many  of  the  men,  but  a 
considerable  degree  of  skill  is  required  for  the 
work,  which  also,  in  some  cases,  makes  great 
demands  upon  the  health  and  strength  of  the 
workers,  owing  to  the  high  temperature  of  the 
workshops  in  which  the  molten  iron  has  to  be 
worked.  The  scale  agreed  upon  in  1889  was  to 
expire  on  June  30,  1892  ;  and  when  that  date 
approached,  the  owners  gave  notice  of  a  desire 
to  reduce  the  basis  from  $26. 50  a  ton  to  $23, 
and  to  make  the  scale  terminable  at  the  begin- 
ning of  January  instead  of  at  the  beginning  of 
July.  To  this  the  employees  objected,  because 
in  the  middle  of  winter  they  could  not  afford  a 
cessation  of  work,  and  would  not  be  in  a  posi- 
tion to  resist  any  unwelcome  demands  made  by 
the  employers.  The  number  of  men  actually 
affected  by  the  cut-down  was  not  large,  but  the 
delegates  of  the  Amalgamated  Association  of 
Iron  and  Steel  Workers,  in  the  name  of  the  em- 
ployees, rejected  the  proposed  scale.  The  em- 
ployers retaliated  by  formally  discharging  all 
who  refused  their  terms  and  announcing  that 
they  would  hold  no  further  negotiation  with  the 
association  as  such.  A  virtual  lockout  followed, 
for  tho  the  company  had  nominally  severed  all 
connection  with  the  discharged  employees,  they 
subsequently  issued  a  notice  that  "  all  the  old 
hands  who  did  not  return  by  a  certain  date 
would  lose  their  positions."  Further  Messrs. 
Carnegie  &  Co.  had  provided  against  the  con- 
tingency of  a  strike  or  lock-out  during  the 
previous  six  weeks  by  building  a  fence  round 
the  works  three  miles  long  and  12  ft.  high  upon 
a  parapet  3  ft.  in  height,  and  covered  with 
barbed  wire,  so  that  the  operatives  called  the 
works  Fort  Frick.  Having  prepared  the  works 
to  stand  a  siege,  they  proceeded  to  obtain  a 
force  of  Pinkerton  special  constables  to  enable 
them  to  introduce  non-union  labor  to  take  the 
place  of  the  strikers.  Negotiations  for  the  sup- 
ply of  this  force  had  been  begun  even  before 
the  lock-out  was  declared,  tho  the  men  were  not 
introduced  until  after  application  had  been 
made  to  the  sheriff  for  a  guard  to  protect  the 
property  of  the  company.  The  officials  of  the 
Amalgamated  Association,  on  their  side,  offered 
to  provide  such  a  guard  ;  but  their  offer  was 
refused  by  the  sheriff  on  the  ground  that  tho 
they  might  prevent  destruction  of  property, 
they  would  not  facilitate  the  introduction  of 
non-union  labor.  Three  hundred  Pinkerton 
constables  were  brought  by  water  to  the  works. 
They  were  introduced  into  the  State  unarmed, 
but  brought  arms  and  ammunition  with  them 
packed  in  boxes.  On  their  way  up  the  river 
these  boxes  were  unpacked,  so  that  when  the 
force  arrived  at  Homestead  in  the  early  morn- 
ing they  were  fully  armed.  News  of  their  com- 
ing had  preceded  them,  and  a  large  crowd  of 


strikers  were  in  waiting  to  prevent  their  land- 
ing, having  gone  in  behind  the  wall  of  steel 
rails.  The  testimony  is  conflicting  as  to  which 
party  fired  first,  but  a  skirmish  ensued  with  a 
heavy  volley  of  shots  from  the  strikers,  in  which 
seven  of  the  Pinkertons  and  strikers  were  killed 
and  many  others  wounded.  The  struggle  con- 
tinued two  days.  On  the  opposite  bank  a  brass 
ten-pound  cannon  was  obtained  and  fired  on 
the  barges.  The  crowd  also  attempted  to  set 
fire  to  the  barges  by  pouring  burning  oil  upon 
the  river,  and  finally  the  Pinkertons  surren- 
dered to  the  leaders  of  the  Amalgamated  Asso- 
ciation, and  were  imprisoned  in  a  rink  until 
evening,  when  they  were  got  away  from  the 
town  by  rail.  On  their  way  to  the  rink  and  to 
the  station  they  were  beaten  and  maltreated  in 
spite  of  the  efforts  of  the  strike  leaders  to  con- 
trol the  crowd,  which  was  largely  composed  of 
Slavs,  Hungarians,  and  women.  Troops  were 
sent  to  Homestead  by  the  Governor  of  Pennsyl- 
vania and  stationed  there  many  weeks,  the  town 
being  put  under  martial  law.  Great  severity 
was  displayed.  Eleven  workmen  and  specta- 
tors were  killed  in  the  fights.  Some  of  the  lead- 
ers were  arrested  and  order  was  restored  ;  for 
tho  the  manager,  Mr.  Frick,  was  afterward 
shot  at  by  a  Russian  named  Berkmann,  this 
act  seems  to  have  been  quite  independent  of 
the  men  on  strike.  For  an  unguarded  expres- 
sion of  sympathy  with  Berkmann,  a  private 
(James)  was  strung  up  by  his  thumbs  and  flog- 
ged. After  about  six  weeks  a  large  number 
of  the  strikers  returned  to  work,  but  a  number 
of  new  men  were  subsequently  engaged  by  the 
company,  and  many  of  the  strikers  did  not 
return.  A  committee  of  Congress,  appoint- 
ed to  investigate  the  employment  of  Pinker- 
ton  detectives,  held  an  inquiry  at  Pittsburg 
into  the  circumstances  of  the  strike.  The 
evidence  given  before  them  showed  that  a 
conviction  prevailed  among  the  men,  that  since 
the  introduction  of  the  McKinley  tariff  the 
profits  of  the  company  had  increased,  and  that 
there  was,  therefore,  no  occasion  for  any  such 
reduction  of  wages  as  they  proposed.  Further, 
the  strength  of  the  feeling  against  the  employ- 
ment of  Pinkerton  special  constables  found  gen- 
eral expression.  Great  excitement  over  the  strike 
was  roused  through  all  the  country.  Subscrip- 
tions were  raised  by  working  men  to  support  the 
strike.  Lawyers  were  sent  on  to  defend  the  strik- 
ers against  persecution  for  using  arms  to  defend 
their  homes  against  "foreign  invasion."  The 
feeling  against  the  Pinkertons  ran  very  high. 
In  Massachusetts  an  act  prohibiting  the  employ- 
ment of  Pinkerton  constables  was  passed  in 
1892,  and  a  similar  act  was  passed  in  New  Jer- 
sey during  the  same  year. 

HOMICIDE.— The  following  summary  is 
presented  by  Mr.  Frederick  H.  Wines,  special 
agent  on  pauperism  and  crime  for  the  Eleventh 
Census  in  his  Bulletin  report  : 

"  Of  82,329  prisoners  in  the  United  States  June  i, 
1890,  the  number  charged  with  homicide  •was  7386,  or 
897  per  cent. 

Omitting  35  who  were  charged  with  double  crimes, 
6958  of  them  (or  94.65  per  cent.)  were  men,  and  393  (or 
5.35  per  cent.)  were  women. 

''As  to  color,  4425  were  white,  2739  negroes,  94  Chi- 
nese, i  Japanese,  and  92  Indians. 


Homicide. 


693 


Homicide. 


"  As  to  the  nativity  of  the  4425  whites,  3137  were 
born  in  the  United  States,  1213  were  foreign  born,  and 
the  birthplace  of  55  is  unknown. 

"  A  careful  and  accurate  inquiry  into  the  parentage 
of  those  born  in  the  United  States  results  in  the  mathe- 
matical conclusion  that  56.14  per  cent,  of  homicide 
committed  by  white  men  and  women  is  chargeable  to 
the  native  white  element  of  the  population,  and  43.86 
per  cent,  to  the  foreign  element.  On  the  same  scale 
of  4614  to  3605,  the  negro  contribution  to  homicide  is 
represented  by  5478. 

"More  than  one  half  of  the  foreign-born  whites  are 
unnaturalized,  and  nearly  one  fifth  are  unable  to 
speak  the  English  language. 

"In  respect  to  age,  prisoners  charged  with  homicide 
range  from  n  to  86  years.  One  sixth  of  them  are 
under  24  years,  and  more  than  one  half  under  33  years 
of  age.  Their  average  age  is  34  years  and  193  days. 
The  lowest  averages  are  among  the  Indians,  30  years 
and  1 80  days,  and  the  negroes,  30  years  and  279  days. 
The  highest  are  among  the  Chinese,  37  years  and  246 
days,  and  the  foreign-born  whites,  4  years  and  159  days. 
The  average  age  of  women  charged  with  homicide  is 
32  years  and  216  days.  The  ages  at  which  homicide 
was  committed  are  estimated  to  be  at  least  5  years 
below  the  averages  here  stated. 

"  Nearly  one  half  of  this  group  of  prisoners  were 
found  to  be  unmarried.  The  number  of  unmarried 
was  3615  ;  married,  2715  ;  widowed,  703 ;  divorced,  144. 

"The  percentage  of  those  who  can  both  read  and 
write  is  61.73;  °f  those  who  can  read  only,  4.84;  of 
those  who  can  do  neither,  33.43.  Of  the  negroes,  more 
than  one  half  can  neither  read  nor  write  ;  of  the 
Indians,  nearly  two  thirds.  The  percentage  of  illiter- 
acy among  the  foreign  born  is  nearly  or  quite  three 
times  as  great  as  that  among  the  native  whites. 

"  The  number  who  have  received  a  higher  educa- 
tion is  253,  or  3.44  per  cent. 

"  More  than  four  fifths  have  no  trade.  The  foreign 
born  and  their  children  have  much  more  generally 
acquired  a  trade  than  the  native  whites,  and  the  na- 
tive whites  than  the  negroes. 

"  The  occupations  of  6546  prior  to  incarceration  have 
been  ascertained,  and  are  grouped  as  follows :  pro- 
fessional, 102  ;  official,  38  ;  agricultural,  1893  i  lumber, 
29  ;  mining,  212;  fisheries,  19;  trade  and  commerce, 
173  ;  transportation,  380  ;  manufactures  and  mechani- 
cal industrieSj  1086 ;  personal  service,  690 ;  unskilled 
labor,  2253;  miscellaneous,  21. 

"The  number  employed  at  the  time  of  their  arrest 
was 15659  ;  unemployed,  1225  ;  unknown,  467. 

"The  habits  of  973,  in  respect  of  use  of  intoxicating 
liquors,  are  not  stated.  The  remaining  6378  are 
classed  as  follows :  total  abstainers,  1282  ;  occasional 
or  moderate  drinkers,  3829  ;  drunkards,  1267. 

"  The  number  arrested  and  imprisoned  in  the  State 
of  their  residence  was  6268  ;  out  of  the  State,  861. 

"463  had  served  as  soldiers  in  the  civil  war. 

"534  were  known  to  have  served  a  previous  term  of 
imprisonment. 

"  224  were  federal  prisoners. 

"  As  to  their  physical  condition,  6149  were  in  good 
health,  600  ill,  283  insane,  24  blind,  14  deaf  and  dumb, 
18  idiots,  and  263  crippled. 

"  Of  prisoners  charged  with  homicide,  more  than 
one  eighth  are  awaiting  trial. 

"  Of  those  convicted,  158  are  awaiting  execution, 
2406  sentenced  to  imprisonment  for  life,  845  for  20 
years  and  over,  1438  for  from  10  to  19  years,  and  1395 
for  less  than  10  years.  The  tendency  to  greater  sever- 
ity increases  slightly  from  east  to  west,  and  from 
north  to  south.  The  average  sentence  less  than  life  is 
13  years  and  292  days.  It  is  greater  for  men  than  for 
women,  and  for  negroes  than  for  whites.  The  highest 
average  sentence  is  pronounced  upon  Chinamen. 

"  The  number  of  cases  classed  as  murder  is  5548,  of 
which  nearly  one  half  received  a  life  sentence.  The 
number  classed  as  manslaughter  is  1704,  of  which 
nearly  one  half  received  a  sentence  of  over  10  years. 

"Or  the  158  prisoners  awaiting  execution,  49  were 
found  in  the  Kansas  penitentiary,  no  date  having 
been  fixed  for  their  execution  by  any  governor  since 
1872.  The  death  penalty  is  thus  practically  abolished 
in  Kansas,  tho  not  by  statute.  The  only  States  in 
which  it  has  been  abolished  by  law  are  Rhode  Island, 
Michigan,  and  Wisconsin.  The  figures  here  pub- 
lished do  not  indicate  any  increase  in  the  number  of 
homicides  as  the  result  of  such  abolition. 

"  In  the  Tenth  Census  there  were  reported  4608  pris- 
oners charged  with  homicide.  In  the  Eleventh  Census 
the  number  is  7351.  This  is  an  increase  of  59.53  per 
cent.,  while  the  increase  in  the  total  population  has 
been  only  24.86  per  cent.  But  it  is  largely  explained 
by  the  great  length  of  sentences  for  homicide,  in  con- 


sequence of  which  the  majority  of  those  reported  in 
1880  are  again  reported  in  1890,  together  with  those 
since  convicted  of  the  same  offense. 

"  The  county  sheriffs  have  reported  156  executions 
during  the  calendar  year  1889,  of  which  g^  were  in  the 
South  Atlantic  and  South  Central  divisions.  They 
have  also  reported  117  lynchings,  of  which  94  (the 
same  number)  were  in  the  same  divisions.  These  re- 

Eorts  are  not  believed  to  be  complete,  but  are  given 
ar  what  they  are  worth." 

Mr.  Wines  has  also  presented  in  a  succinct 
but  clear  way  the  leading  features  of  the  law  of 
homicide  in  the  United  States,  showing  its  legal 
varieties  and  its  varying  definitions  in  the  sev- 
eral States  and  Territories,  together  with  the 
varying  sentences  authorized  by  law.  He  ob- 
serves that  the  variations  of  the  codes,  in  the 
adjustment  of  penalty  to  the  guilt  of  homicide, 
are  on  their  face  absurd  and  indefensible,  and 
that  the  claim  that  there  is  a  natural  standard 
of  justice  in  the  human  mind,  which  will  enable 
legislators  to  arrive  at  an  approximately  accu- 
rate judgment  of  the  desert  of  crime,  is  contra- 
dicted by  the  record  which  legislative  bodies 
have  made  for  themselves.  He  suggests  possi- 
ble remedies  for  what  he  terms  "  the  confused 
state  of  the  criminal  law." 

Says  Mr.  Wines  : 

"  Two  impressions  have  been  received  in  the  course 
of  this  investigation,  by  the  mathematical  demonstra- 
tion which  it  furnishes  of  the  erroneous  nature  of  cer- 
tain prevalent  beliefs. 

"First.  As  to  the  effect  of  severity  of  punishment 
upon  the  volume  of  crime. 

"It  is  popularly  supposed  that  the  prevalence  of 
crime  is  chiefly  due  to  inadequate  punishment,  and 
that  the  remedy  for  it  is  to  be  found  in  harsher  laws 
and  a  more  rigorous  administration  of  them  by  the 
courts. 

"  If  this  were  so,  then  there  should  be  less  homicide, 
relatively  to  the  population,  in  the  South  Central 
division  than  in  any  other.  The  percentage  of  sen- 
tences for  20  years  and  over  is  there  greater  than  in 
any  other  division,  and  the  average  sentence  pro- 
nounced by  the  courts  is  longer.  In  these  respects, 
the  Western  division  stands  almost  side  by  side  with 
the  South  Central.  Yet  the  ratio  of  prisoners  charged 
with  homicide  to  the  total  population  of  these  divi- 
sions is  much  higher  than  elsewhere ;  it  is  more  than 
double  the  ratio  for  the  other  three  divisions  taken  to- 
gether. 

"  The  lowest  average  sentence  is  in  the  North  At- 
lantic division,  where  there  are  also  the  fewest  death 
sentences,  except  in  the  South  Central,  and  yet  the 
ratio  of  prisoners  charged  with  homicide  in  the  North 
Atlantic  division  is  less  than  in  any  other. 

"The  ratio  of  prisoners  charged  with  homicide  in 
Rhode  Island,  where  the  death  penalty  has  been  abol- 
ished, is  lower  than  in  any  other  State  in  the  North 
Atlantic  division,  except  in  Massachusetts. 

"The  number  of  executions  in  1889,  as  reported  by 
the  sheriffs,  was  relatively  largest  in  the  Western 
division,  where  it  was  i  in  178,095  of  the  population. 
Yet  it  was  in  this  very  division  that  the  ratio  of  pris- 
oners charged  with  homicide  was  also  greatest. 

"  The  next  largest  ratios  of  executions  to  the  popu- 
lation were  in  the  South  Atlantic  (i  in  205,998)  and 
South  Central  (i  in  215,155)  divisions.  Yet  these  are 
the  divisions  in  which  are  also  found  the  next  largest 
ratios  of  prisoners  charged  with  homicide. 

"It  is  frequently  said  that  lynching  takes  place 
where  the  law  is  not  executed,  and  that  it  is  designed 
as  a  protest  against  the  inefficiency  of  the  courts. 
But  the  sections  in  which  there  are  the  most  execu- 
tions are  those  in  which  there  are  also  the  most  lynch- 
ings. The  number  of  executions  and  of  lynchings  re- 
ported by  the  sheriffs  in  the  Southern  States  is  identi- 
cally the  same.  It  is  further  to  be  noted  that  the 
largest  number  both  of  executions  and  of  lynchings 
is  in  the  South  Central  division,  where  the  average 
sentence  for  homicide  is  the  longest,  and  where  the 
percentage  of  long  sentences  imposed  by  the  courts  is 
the  highest. 

"  Second.  As  to  the  causes  of  crime. 

"  A  careful  study  of  the  figures  here  given  will 
serve  to  correct  the  exaggerated  impressions  current 
as  to  the  causation  of  crime. 


Homicide. 


694 


Hopedale. 


"Ignorance  is  a  cause  of  crime.  Nevertheless,  66.57 
per  cent,  of  all  prisoners  charged  with  homicide  have 
received  the  rudiments  of  an  education,  in  English  or 
in  their  own  tongue,  and  3.44  per  cent,  have  received  a 
higher  education. 

"  Ignorance  of  a  trade  is  a  cause  of  crime.  But  19.35 
per  cent,  are  returned  as  mechanics  or  apprentices, 
and  a  much  larger  number  have  the  necessary  skill  to 
follow  mechanical  pursuits. 

"Idleness  is  a  cause  of  crime.  But  82.21  per  cent, 
were  employed  at  the  time  of  their  arrest. 

"  Intemperance  is  a  cause  of  crime,  tho  a  less  active 
and  immediate  cause  than  is  popularly  supposed. 
But  20.10  per  cent,  were  total  abstainers,  and  only 
19.87  per  cent,  are  returned  as  drunkards. 

"All  of  these  causes,  and  others  which  might  be 
namedj  are  in  fact  only  contributory  causes,  whose 
operation  is  secondary  and  indirect.  External  cir- 
cumstances facilitate  or  hinder  the  commission  of 
crime.  They  operate  as  a  stimulant  to  the  criminal 
impulse  or  as  a  check  upon  it.  But  the  root  of  crime 
is  not  in  circumstance,  but  in  character.  The  say- 
ing of  the  Great  Teacher  will  forever  remain  true : 
'  Out  of  the  heart  proceed  evil  thoughts,  murders.' 
Science  confirms  the  moral  teaching  of  religion." 

The  homicides  in  the  United  States,  accord- 
ing to  the  record  kept  by  the  Chicago  Tribune, 
were  as  follows  from  1886-95  : 


YEARS. 

Murders 
and  Homi- 
cides. 

Legal 
Execu- 
tions. 

Lynch- 
mgs. 

886         

8^ 

887  

888         

2,184 

87 

880     . 

08 

890  

891  

802  .  .  . 

893  

6,6l5 

26 

894*  

165 

Sgst  

160 

The  figures  in  the  first  column  represent  man- 
slaughter of  all  kinds  when  perpetrated  by  an 
individual,  whether  by  premeditation  or  pas- 
sion, or  by  an  insane  person,  or  in  self-defense, 
rioting,  duels,  and  resisting  arrest  by  officers  of 
the  law.  The  number  of  homicides  in  the  par- 
tially reported  year  1894  is  swollen  by  the  deaths 
of  rioters  and  others  in  the  strike  disturbances 
of  July.  The  percentage  of  executions  to  kill- 
ings in  the  nine  years  included  in  the  table  is 
2. 20.  The  percentage  of  killings  to  total  deaths 
from  all  causes,  same  period  (estimated),  is  0.52, 
or  about  52  per  10,000. 

Italy  takes  the  lead  of  European  nations,  with 
an  average  annual  crop  of  murders  of  2470,  a  ratio 
per  10,000  deaths  of  29.4  ;  Spain  follows,  with  a 
ratio  of  23.8,  and  1200  murders  ;  Austria,  ratio 
of  8.8,  and  600  murders  ;  France,  ratio  of  8.0, 
and  662  murders;  England,  ratio  of  7.1,  and 
377  murders.  The  figures,  however,  represent 
actual  murders,  not  homicides  from  all  causes, 
as  do  those  in  the  United  States  table. 

In  England,  in  the  reign  of  Henry  VIII., 
there  were  71,400  persons  hanged  or  beheaded  ; 
in  one  year  300  beggars  were  executed  for  so- 
liciting alms.  In  1820  no  less  than  46  persons 
were  hanged  in  England  for  forging  Bank  of 
England  notes,  some  of  which  were  afterward 
asserted  to  be  good.  Capital  punishment  was 


*  To  October  17, 1894. 
t  To  November  18, 1895. 


abolished  in  Italy  in  1875,  and  murders  increased 
42  per  cent. 

HOPEDALE  was  an  attempt  at  religious 
communism  about  the  same  time  as  the  more 
famous  attempt  at  Brook  Farm.  As  the  latter 
was  the  outcome  of  Unitarianism,  so  Hopedale 
was  the  outcome  of  Universalism.  Its  founder 
was  Rev.  Acton  Ballou  (g.v.).  Milford  was  the 
site  of  the  community.  Its  first  compact  dates 
from  January,  1841,  before  Brook  Farm  ;  but  the 
community  did  not  actually  commence  opera- 
tions till  April,  1842.  Hopedale  lasted  much 
longer  than  Brook  Farm,  continuing  till  1856  or 
1857.  In  1854  it  was  at  its  highest  point  of  suc- 
cess and  hopefulness.  The  community  was 
originally  called  Fraternal  Community  No.  i, 
and  numbered  about  30  individuals. 

By  1851  the  community  came  to  own  about 
500  acres,  consisting  of  about  30  new  dwelling- 
houses,  three  mechanic  shops,  with  water  pow- 
er, carpentering  and  other  machinery,  and  a 
small  chapel  used  for  educational  and  religious 
purposes.  At  the  same  date  it  had  about  36 
families,  besides  single  persons — some  175  per- 
sons in  all.  According  to  a  tract  written  by 
Mr.  Ballou  himself  in  1851,  the  leading  charac- 
teristics of  Hopedale  were  as  follows  : 

"  i.  It  is  a  church  of  Christ  (so  far  as  any  hu- 
man organization  of  professed  Christians,  within 
a  particular  locality,  have  the  right  to  claim  that 
title)  based  on  a  simple  declaration  of  faith  in 
the  religion  of  Jesus  Christ,  as  He  taught  and 
exemplified  it,  according  to  the  Scriptures  of 
the  New  Testament,  and  of  acknowledged  sub- 
jection to  all  the  moral  obligations  of  that  re- 
ligion. No  person  can  be  a  member  who  does 
not  cordially  assent  to  this  comprehensive  dec- 
laration. Having  given  sufficient  evidence  of 
truthfulness  in  making  such  a  profession,  each 
individual  is  left  to  judge  for  him  or  herself, 
with  entire  freedom,  what  abstract  doctrines  are 
taught,  and  also  what  external  religious  rites  are 
enjoined  in  the  religion  of  Christ.  No  precise 
theological  dogmas,  ordinances,  or  ceremonies 
are  prescribed  or  prohibited.  In  such  matters 
all  the  members  are  free,  with  mutual  love  and 
toleration,  to  follow  their  own  highest  convic- 
tions of  truth  and  religious  duty,  answerable 
only  to  the  great  Head  of  the  true  Church  Uni- 
versal. But  in  practical  Christianity  this  church 
is  precise  and  strict.  There  its  essentials  are 
specific.  It  insists  on  supreme  love  to  God  and 
man — that  love  which  '  worketh  no  ill '  to  friend 
or  foe.  It  enjoins  total  abstinence  from  all  God- 
contemning  words  and  deeds  ;  all  unchastity  ; 
all  intoxicating  beverages  ;  all  oath-taking  ;  all 
slaveholding  and  pro-slavery  compromises  ;  all 
war  and  preparations  for  war  ;  all  capital  and 
other  vindictive  punishments  ;  all  insurrection- 
ary, seditious,  mobocratic,  and  personal  violence 
against  any  government,  society,  family,  or  in- 
dividual ;  all  voluntary  participation  in  any  anti- 
Christian  government,  under  promise  of  un- 
qualified support — whether  by  doing  military 
service,  commencing  actions  at  law,  holding 
office, 'voting,  petitioning  for  penal  laws,  aiding 
a  legal  posse  by  injurious  force,  or  asking  pub- 
lic interference  for  protection  which  can  be 
given  only  by  such  force  ;  all  resistance  of  evil 
with  evil ;  in  fine,  from  all  things  known  to  be 


Hopedale. 


695    Household  Economic  Association. 


sinful  against  God  or  human  nature.     This  is 
its  acknowledged  obligatory  righteousness.     It 
does  not  expect  immediate  and  ex- 
act perfection  of  its  members,  but 
Its  Leading  holds  up   this  practical   Christian 
Characteris-  standard,  that  all  may  do  their  ut- 
tics.        most  to  reach  it,  and  at  least  be 
made   sensible  of  their  shortcom- 
ings.    Such  are  the  peculiarities  of 
the  Hopedale  Community  as  a  church. 

"2.  It  is  a  civil  State,  a  miniature  Christian 
republic,  existing  within,  peaceably  subject  to 
and  tolerated  by  the  governments  of  Massa- 
chusetts and  the  United  States,  but  otherwise  a 
commonwealth  complete  within  itself.  Those 
governments  tax  and  control  its  property  ac- 
cording to  their  own  laws,  returning  less  to  it 
than  they  exact  from  it.  It  makes  them  no 
criminals  to  punish,  no  disorders  to  repress,  no 
paupers  to  support,  no  burdens  to  bear.  It 
asks  of  them  no  corporate  powers,  no  military 
or  penal  protection.  It  has  its  own  constitu- 
tion, laws,  regulations,  and  municipal  police  ; 
its  own  legislative,  judiciary,  and  executive  au- 
thorities ;  its  own  educational  system  of  opera- 
tions ;  its  own  methods  of  aid  and  relief  ;  its 
own  moral  and  religious  safeguards  ;  its  own 
fire  insurance  and  savings  institutions  ;  its  own 
internal  arrangements  for  the  holding  of  prop- 
erty, the  management  of  industry,  and  the  rais- 
ing of  revenue  ;  in  fact,  all  the  elements  and 
organic  constituents  of  a  Christian  republic  on 
a  miniature  scale.  There  is  no  red  republican- 
ism in  it,  because  it  eschews  blood  ;  yet  it  is  the 
seedling  of  the  true  democratic  and  social  re- 
public, wherein  neither  caste,  color,  sex,  nor 
age  stands  proscribed,  but  every  human  being 
shares  justly  in  '  liberty,  equality,  and  frater- 
nity. '  Such  is  the  Hopedale  Community  as  a 
civil  State. 

"3.  It  is  a  universal  religious,  moral,  philan- 
thropic, and  social  reform  association.  It  is  a 
missionary  society,  for  the  promulgation  of  New 
Testament  Christianity,  the  reformation  of  the 
nominal  church,  and  the  conversion  of  the  world. 
It  is  a  moral  suasion  temperance  society  on  the 
teetotal  basis.  It  is  a  moral  power  anti-slavery 
society,  radical  and  without  compromise.  It  is 
a  peace  society  on  the  only  impregnable  founda- 
tion of  Christian  non-resistance.  It  is  a  sound 
theoretical  and  practical  woman's  rights  asso- 
ciation. It  is  a  charitable  society  for  the  relief 
of  suffering  humanity,  to  the  extent  of  its  hum- 
ble ability.  It  is  an  educational  society,  prepar- 
ing to  act  an  important  part  in  the  training  of 
the  young.  It  is  a  socialistic  community,  suc- 
cessfully actualizing,  as  well  as  promulgating, 
practical  Christian  socialism — the  only  kind  of 
socialism  likely  to  establish  a  true  social  state 
on  earth.  The  members  of  this  community  are 
not  under  the  necessity  of  importing  from  abroad 
any  of  these  valuable  reforms,  or  of  keeping  up 
a  distinct  organization  for  each  of  them,  or  of 
transporting  themselves  to  other  places  in  search 
of  sympathizers.  Their  own  Newcastle  can  fur- 
nish coal  for  home  consumption,  and  some  to 
supply  the  wants  of  its  neighbors.  Such  is  the 
Hopedale  Community  as  a  universal  reform  as- 
sociation on  Christian  principles." 

These  high  hopes  were  for  a  time  realized. 
Acton  Ballou  worked  faithfully  to  carry  them 


into  effect.  That  they  finally  failed  was  no 
fault  of  Mr.  Ballou.  At  first  Mr.  Ballou  was  the 
head  of  the  community,  but  ultimately  he  was 
superseded  by  a  Mr.  G.  D.  Draper,  a  sharp,  en- 
terprising business  man.  He  soon  became  the 
business  spirit  of  the  whole  community.  He 
had  a  brother  in  business  with  him  who  had  no 
sympathy  with  the  community.  Mr.  Draper 
became  more  and  more  interested  in  lucrative 
outside  concerns.  Meanwhile,  he  had  bought 
up  three  fourths  of  the  joint  stock.  Finally,  be- 
coming dissatisfied  with  the  community,  he  paid 
the  debts  and  compelled  its  suspension. 

HOUSEHOLD  ECONOMIC  ASSOCIA- 
TION, THE  NATIONAL.— This  association 
was  incorporated  March  16,  1893,  under  the 
name  of  the  National  Columbian  Household 
Economic  Association,  out  at  its  meeting  in 
April,  1894,  the  word  Columbian  was  dropped 
from  its  name.  The  object  of  the  association, 
as  declared  in  its  constitution,  is  : 

"  i.  To  awaken  the  public  mind  to  the  importance  of 
establishing  bureaus  of  information  where  there  can 
be  an  exchange  of  wants  and  needs  between  em- 
ployer and  employed,  in  every  department  of  home 
and  social  life.  2.  To  promote  among  members  of  the 
association  a  more  scientific  knowledge  of  the  econom- 
ic value  of  various  foods  and  fuels ;  a  more  intelli- 
gent understanding  of  correct  plumbing  and  drainage 
in  our  homes,  as  well  as  need  for  pure  water  and  good 
light  in  a  sanitarily  built  house.  3.  To  secure  skilled 
labor  in  every  department  in  our  homes,  and  to  organ- 
ize schools  of  household  science  and  service." 

The  management  is  vested  in  a  board  of  16 
directors,  with  headquarters  in  Chicago,  but 
composed  of  members  from  all  States.  The 
association  holds  annual  meetings,  and  has  the 
following  standing  committees  : 

1.  Committee  on   Sanitary  Condition  of  the  Home 
Correct  Plumbing  and  Ventilation,  Light,  Heat,  etc. 
The  duties  of  this  committee   shall   be  to  establish 
home  science  clubs  and  to  make  a  study  of  sanitary 
science. 

2.  Committee  on  Cooking  Schools,  Industrial  Schools, 
Housekeepers'  Emergency  Bureau,  Cooperative  Laun- 
dries, Cooperative  Bakeries,  Training  School  for  Ser- 
vants, Kitchen  Gardens   and   Public    Kindergartens, 
Diet    Kitchens,    Mothers'    and    Nurse    Girls'   classes, 
and  Training  School  for  Nurses.    The  duties  of  this 
committee  shall  be  to  keep  itself  informed  of  the  work 
of  each  school  and  institution,  and  to  direct  all  who 
wish  to  know  where  and  at  what  hour  one  may  visit 
these  schools. 

3.  Committee  on  Food   Supply.    The  duties  of  this 
committee  shall  be  to  prepare   a  descriptive  list  of 
wholesale  and  retail  foods,  such  as  meat,  vegetables, 
butter,  eggs,  etc.;  to  compare  New  York  and  Chicago 
with  other  markets,  and  furnish  statements  of  what 
articles  of  food  are  most  desirable  to  buy,   either  in 
large  or  small  quantities,  with  household  recipes  for 
cooking  and  all  other  matters  relating  to  household 
economics. 

4.  Committee  on  Housekeepers'  Clubs.    The  duties 
of  this  committee  shall  be  to  formulate  plans  to  sim- 
plify housework  in  village  communities,  to  suggest 
plans  for  cooperation  in  laundries,  bakeries,  and  kitch- 
ens, to  discuss  plans  for  profitable  market  gardening, 
poultry  and  egg-raising  on  a  small  scale,  and  to  fur- 
nish information  on  all  topics  connected  with  house- 
work. 

5.  Committee  on  Sewing.      The  duties  of  this  com- 
mittee shall  be  to  keep  itself  informed  of  the  work 
done  in  various  schools  where  sewing  is  taught,  and 
give  outlines  of  the  methods  used. 

6.  Press   Committee.      It  shall   be  the  duty  of  this 
committee  to  secure  the  publication  of  notes  concern- 
ing the  National  Household  Economic  Association  in 
some  journal  or  periodical  in  the  North,  South,  East, 
West,  and  Middle  sections  of  the  country,   in  order  to 
keep  alive  public  interest  in  the  science  of  household 


Household  Economic  Association.    696    Household  Economic  Association. 


economics  ;    each  member  of  the   committee   taking 
charge  of  the  matter  in  her  own  section. 

All  women  may  become  members  of  this  associa- 
tion by  the  payment  of  an  annual  fee  of  $i. 

The  association  works  mainly  not  by  estab- 
lishing new  clubs,  but  by  inducing  existing 
woman's  clubs  to  establish  departments  of  house- 
hold economics,  for  the  study  of  how  better  to 
manage  the  home,  educate  better  servants,  have 
more  healthy  food,  etc.  The  Honorary  Presi- 
dent of  the  association  is  Mrs.  Potter  Palmer  ; 
the  Corresponding  Secretary,  Mrs  Alice  J-  Whit- 
ne7>  453  Belden  Avenue,  Chicago,  111.  Mrs. 
Helen  Campbell  (g.v.)  has  been  appointed  Na- 
tional lecturer  for  the  association,  and  since  the 
syllabus  of  her  lectures  have  been  adopted  as  a 
part  of  the  program  of  the  association,  we  print 
this  in  full,  as  giving  something  of  the  scope 
of  this  important  subject : 

I.— THE  STATICS  AND  DYNAMICS  OF  HOUSEHOLD  ECON- 
OMY. 

The  relation  of  household  economics  to  life.  Struc- 
tural and  functional  organization  of  the  household  ;  the'* 
essentials  of  each  and  their  interdependence.  Arts, 
crafts,  and  sciences  involved.  The  low  popular  opinion 
of  household  economics,  its  cause  and  effect.  Person-, 
ality  and  generalization.  Savage  and  child  to  scien- 
tist. Evolution  of  household  economics.  Division  of 
labor  on  sex  lines  and  the  biological  reason  for  this 
division.  Ascent  of  man  economically. 

References :  The  Place  of  Woman  in  Primitive  Cul- 
ture, by  O.  T.  Mason  ;  Man  and  Woman,  by  Havelock 
Ellis ;  Primitive  Culture,  by  Edward  Tylor ;  Das 
Weib,  by  Dr.  Herman  Ploss ;  Dynamic  Sociology,  by 
Lester  F.  Ward,  pp.  552-61  and  656-67 ;  The  Evolution 
of  Marriage,  by  Charles  Letourneau  ;  The  Evolution  of 
Sex,  by  Geddes  and  Thompson ;  Prehistoric  Man,  by 
Daniel  Wilson  ;  Origin  of  Civilization,  by  Sir  John 
Lubbock  ;  Buckle's  History  of  Civilization  ;  The  Story 
of  My  House,  by  G.  H.  Ellwanger ;  The  City  Resi- 
dence, by  W.  B.  Tuthill ;  Das  Deutsche  Zimmer  der 
Gothik  and  Renaissaens  Des  Barock — Rococo  und 
Zopfstits,  by  Dr.  Georg  Hirth  (Mtinchen  and  Leipzig) ; 
Convenient  Houses,  with  Fifty  Plans  for  the  House- 
keeper, by  Louis  H.  Gibson  ;  Homes  in  City  and  Coun- 
try, by  Russell  Sturgis,  et  al. 

II.— THE  HOUSE. 

What  is  a  house?  Relation  of  house  to  human 
Efe.  Value  of  human  production  in  proportion  to 
durability  and  usability.  Organic  structure  of  the 
house  with  its  evolution.  The  kitchen  and  derivatives. 
Bedroom  and  derivatives.  Parlor  and  derivatives. 
Relation  of  differentiation  and  specialization  in  build- 
ing to  the  same  processes  in  social  evolution  :  hut  to 
hotel  j  tent  to  tenement.  The  typical  farmhouse.  In- 
dustries represented.  The  rudimentary  shop.  Effect 
of  habitat.  Soil,  location,  foundation,  elevation.  Topo- 

graphical  maps.    From  isolation  to  aggregation.    The 
ity  Beautiful. 

References  :  The  House  that  Jill  Built,  by  E.  C. 
Gardner  ;  Homes  and  How  to  Make  Them,  by  E.  C. 
Gardner  ;  Villages  and  Village  Life,  by  Nathanael  C. 
Eggleston  ;  Hygeia,  a  Model  City  of  Health,  by  Dr. 
Benjamin  W.  Richardson  ;  The  City  Without  a  Church, 
by  Henry  Drummond ;  The  Ancient  City,  by  Cou- 
langes  ;  The  Easiest  Way,  by  Helen  Campbell,  chap,  i.; 
An  Ideal  Kitchen,  by  Maria  Parloa  ;  Health  and  Com- 
fort in  Houses,  by  J.  P.  Hayward,  Popular  Science 
Monthly,  vol.  iv.,  p.  69. 

III.— THE  BUILDING  OF  THE  HOUSE. 

The  place  of  architecture  in  household  economics. 
Relation  to  other  arts.  Primitive  architecture  and  its 
development— domestic,  civic,  and  ecclesiastic.  The 
city  and  the  king.  Ancient  architecture,  public  and 
private.  Herculaneum  and  Pompeii.  Character  of 
Oriental  home.  Effect  of  house  on  its  occupants.  The 
house  and  the  family.  Confusion  of  domestic  with  in- 
dustrial architecture.  Rooms  and  their  relation.  Ex- 
isting conditions  of  domestic  architecture  in  Europe 
and  America.  Built  to  live  in  and  built  to  sell.  Lim- 
itation of  the  private  home.  Gridiron  topography. 
Need  of  combination  and  juxtaposition.  Essentiality 
of  the  separate  home.  Our  present  trend. 


References :  Tuthill's  History  of  Architecture, 
chap,  xiv.;  Ferguson's  History  of  Architecture  ;  Haus 
und  Halle,  by  I)r.  Conrad  Lange,  p.  12  ;  Leben  der 
Griechen  und  Romer,  by  Ernst  Kuhl  und  Koner,  1893  ; 
Das  Haus,  p.  558 ;  Pericles,  by  Evelyn  Abbott ;  Greek 
Home  Life,  chap,  xvii.;  Landscape  Gardening,  by  S.  W. 
Parsons ;  Discourses  on  Architecture,  by  Viollet  Le 
Due;  The  Habitations  of  Man,  by  Viollet  Le  Due: 
Our  Colonial  Homes,  by  Samuel  Adams  Drake  ;  Rural 
Homes,  by  Gervase  Wheeler  ;  Some  Account  of  Do- 
mestic Architecture  in  England  from  the  Conquest  to 
the  End  of  the  Thirteenth  Century,  by  T.  Hudson 
Trower ;  House  Building,  by  Helen  Churchill,  chap, 
xiv.,  in  the  Woman's  Booji. 

IV.— ORGANISM    OF  THE  HOUSE. 

Structural  necessities.  Vital  processes  of  the  house, 
Air,  light,  heat,  water,  ventilation.  Troglodytes, 
ancient  and  modern.  Proportion  of  air  to  occupancy. 
Air  and  women.  Air  and  boys.  "Night  Air."  Venti- 
lation, public  and  private.  Our  schools.  Light :  its  in- 
fluence on  the  body  and  spirit.  Sun-baths.  The  arti- 
ficial light  habit.  Heat,  natural  and  artificial.  Meth- 
ods of  application.  Plumbing.  Water,  clean  anc 
unclean.  Drainage,  private  and  public  ;  its  evolution 
history,  present  methods  and  pendencies. 

References  :  Sanitary  House  Inspection,  by  W.  P.  Ger- 
hard ;  Drainage  and  Sewerage  of  Dwellings,  by  W.  P 
Gerhard  ;  The  Drainage  of  Habitable  Dwellings,  by  W 
L.  Brandmore  ;  How  to  Drain  a  House,  by  George  E 
Waring  ;The  Sanitary  Drainage  of  Houses  and  Towns 
by  George  E.  Waring  ;  The  Separate  System  of  Sewer 
age,  by  Staley  and  Pierson;  Ventilation  and  Heating,  b} 
Qr.  John  S.  Bellamy;  Women,  Plumbers  and  Doctors 
by  Mrs.  H.  M.  Plunkett ;  Hygiene  and  Public  Health 
by  Louis  C.  Parkes,  M.D.;  Hygiene  and  Public  Health 
edited  by  A.  H.  Buck,  M.D.;  Practical  Hygiene,  by  E 
A.  Parker,  M.D.;  Hand-book  of  Hygiene' and  Sanitary 
Science,  by  George  Wilson  ;  Hygiene,  by  A.  News 
holme,  M.D.;  The  American  Health  Primers,  edited  b} 
W.  W.  Keene,  M.D.;  Our  Homes,  by  Dr.  Henry  Harts 
home;  Healthy  Houses,  by  Fleeming  Tenkin  ;  Petten 
kofer  on  Air  in  Relation  to  Clothing,  Soil,  and  Dwell 
ings;  Dulce  Domum  ;  or,  The  Plumber  and  Sanitarj 
Houses,  by  S.  S.  Hellyer  ;  Sanitary  Arrangements  foi 
Dwellings,  by  W.  Eassie  ;  Annual  Reports  of  the  Massa 
chusetts  Board  of  Health  ;  The  Sanitarian,  a  monthly 
magazine  of  health  ;  The  Plumber  and  Sanitary  En 
gineer,  a  bi-weekly  journal ;  The  Sanitary  Recorc 
(London);  Defects  in  Plumbing  and  Drainage  Work 
by  Francis  Vacher ;  The  Easiest  Way,  by  Helei 
Campbell,  chaps,  ii.  and  iii.;  Leeds  on  Ventilation 
Hygiene  in  the  Home,  by  I.  West  Roosevelt,  M.D. 
vol.  i.,  chap.  vii.  of  the  Woman's  Book  ;  Hygien< 
and  Public  Health,  edited  by  Albert  Buck,  M.D.;  Pub- 
lic Health  Problems,  by  John  E.  I.  Sykes  ;  The  Lav 
of  Public  Health  and  Safety,  by  Leroy  Parkes  anc 
Robert  Worthington ;  Plumbing  Problems,  from  th« 
Sanitary  Engineer,  published  by  Engineering  Record 
1892 ;  House  Lighting  by  Electricity,  by  Angelc 
Fahie  ;  American  Plumbing,  by  Alfred  Revill  ;  Sani- 
tary  Appliances  for  Buildings,  by  F.  Colyer ;  Th« 
Water  Meter,  by  W.  G.  Kent  ;  Ventilation  and  Heat- 
ing, by  Billings  ;  A  Practical  Treatise  on  Foundations 
by  w.  M.  Patton ;  Sewage  Disposal,  by  Waring 
Kitchen  Boiler  Connections,  published  by  D.  Williams 
Notes  on  the  Ventilation  and  Warming  of  Houses, 
Churches,  Schools,  and  Other  Buildings,  by  Ernest  H, 
Jacob  (Manual  of  Health  Series). 

V.— DECORATION. 

Use  and  value  of  decoration  in  nature  and  art  : 
its  laws  and  principles.  Relation  to  pictorial  art. 
Evolution  and  history.  Special  development  in  races. 
Associate  conditions  in  cause  and  effect.  Racial  influ- 
ences. Periods.  Our  present  level— the  highest,  the 
lowest,  the  average.  Masculine  and  feminine  decora- 
tion. "  How  to  make  home  beautiful.  "  The  sens»  of 
beauty  in  women.  "Traces  of  a  woman's  hand," 
Survivals  of  savagery.  "Home-made,"  '•  ready- 
made,"  "born  and  not  made."  The  power  of  the 
homemaker.  Educational  and  moral  value  of  truth 
in  art.  Artistic  sins  and  their  moral  counterparts. 
Homes,  schools,  and  prisons.  Practical  possibilities. 
"Often  in  a  wooden  house  a  golden  room  you  find." 
National  importance  of  elevation  in  art. 

References-  Hints  on  Household  Taste,  by  Sir 
Charles  Eastlake  ;  The  House  Beautiful,  by  Clarence 
Cook ;  The  House  Comfortable,  by  Agnes  Ormsbee : 
House  Decoration,  by  Mary  Gav  Humphreys,  chap, 
xv.,  in  the  Woman's  Book :  House  Decoration,  by 
Rhoda  and  Agnes  Garrett :  Art  and  the  Formation  of 


Household  Economic  Association.    697    Household  Economic  Association. 


Taste,  by  Lucy  Crane  :  Lectures  on  Art,  by  William 
Morris  ;  Hopes  and  Fears  for  Art,  by  William  Morris  ; 
Woman's  Handiwork  in  Modern  Homes,  by  Constance 
Cary  Harrison  ;  Outlines  of  theHistory  of  Art,  by  Dr. 
Wilhelm  Lubke,  edited  by  Clarence  Cook  ;  The  His- 
tory of  Ancient  Art,  from  the  German  of  John  Winckle- 
mann  ;  The  Two  Paths  :  Lectures  on  Art  and  its  Appli- 
cation to  Decoration  and  Manufactures,  by  John  Rus- 
kin  ;  Handbook  of  Greek  Archaeology,  by  A.  S.  Murray 
— Mural  Decoration,  pp.  348-444  ;  Handbook  of  Pottery 
and  Porcelain,  by  Hodder  Westropp  :  History  of  An- 
cient Pottery,  by  Samuel  Birch  ;  A  Short  History  of 
Tapestry,  byEugene  Muntz,  translated  by  Miss  Louisa 
A.  Davis ;  ./Esthetics,  by  Eugene  Veron  ;  The  Pottery 
and  Porcelain  of  the  United  States,  by  Edwin  Atlee 
Barber :  Domestic  Decoration,  by  A.  F.  Oakey,  Har- 
per's Magazine,  vol.  Ixviii.,  p.  579  ;  American  Decorative 
Art,  by  M.  G.  Humphreys,  Art  Journal,  vol.  xxxvi.,  p. 
325 ;  Decoration  and  'Furnishing,  by  C.  F.  Armytage, 
American  Architect,  vol.  xviii.,  p.  116;  Decorative  Deco- 
rations, by  G.  H.  Ellwanger  ;  A  History  of  Furniture, 
by  Albert  Jacquemart,  translated  from  the  French,  and 
edited  by  Mrs.  Bury  Palliser  ;  The  Claims  of  Decora- 
tive Art,  by  Walter  Crane  ;  Polychromatic  Decoration, 
as  Applied  to  Buildings  in  the  Mediaeval  Styles,  by  W. 
and  G.  Audsley  j  HousehoJd  Art,  edited  by  Candace 
Wheeler ;  Practical  Designing— Carpets,  Alex.  Mil- 
lar ;  Woven  Fabrics,  Ar.  Silver ;  Pottery,  Wilton  P. 
Rix  ;  Tiles,  Owen  Carter  ;  Metal  Work,  R.  LI.  B.  Rath- 
bone  ;  Home  Handicrafts,  edited  by  Charles  Peters  ; 
Decoration  and  Furniture  of  Town  Houses,  by  Robert 
W.  Edis  ;  Art  in  the  House,  by  Jacob  Von  Falke  (trans- 
lated by  Charles  C.  Perkins) ;  Album  of  Decorative 
Figures",  by  J.  Moyr  Smith  ;  Handbook  of  Ornament, 
by  Franz  Sales  Meyer  ;  Decorator  and  Furnisher  (New 
York)  ;  Modern  Home  Decoration,  Illustrated  Monthly, 
Int.  News  Co.  (New  York)  ;  House  Beautiful,  by  W.  C. 
Gannett ;  ^Esthetic  Principles,  by  H.  Marshall,  1890 ; 
American  Architecture,  by  Montgomery  Schuyler; 
Evolution  of  Decorative  Art,  by  H.  Balfour  ;  Birth  and 
Development  of  Ornament,  by  Hulme ;  Renaissance 
Architecture  and  Ornament  in  Spain,  by  A.  N.  Pren- 
tice. 

VI.— FURNISHING. 

Organic  relation  of  furniture  to  humanity.  Man 
manufactures  extensions  of  his  body  while  the  animals 
grow  them.  Laws  of  construction.  Use  and  beauty. 
Practical  conditions.  Destructibility.  Relative  value 
of  materials,  mineral,  vegetable,  and  animal.  Limita- 
tions of  applied  beauty.  Essential  principles,  use, 
ease,  and  economy.  Evolution  of  house  furniture  ; 
the  seat,  the  couch,  the  table,  the  cupboard,  the  ves- 
sel. Vessel,  utensil,  tool.  History,  distribution,  pres- 
ent status.  Relation  to  class ;  industry,  wealth,  sex, 
age.  Children's  furniture.  Carpets,  rugs,  and  cush- 
ions. Upholstery.  Specialization  and  personality 
in  furniture.  Mobility  as  a  factor  in  evolution. 
Ideals. 

References  :  Illustrated  History  of  Furniture,  by 
Frederick  Litchfield  ;  Colonial  Furniture  of  New  Eng- 
land, by  Irving  Whitall  Lyon  ;  Furnishing  and  Deco- 
ration, by  G.  F.  Armytage,  American  Architect,  vol. 
xviii.,  p.  116;  Domestic  Furniture,  by  G.  T.  Robinson, 
Art  Journal,  vol.  xxxvi.,  p.  373  ;  House  Furnishing,  by 
Mary  Gay  Humphreys,  the  Woman's  Book,  chap,  xv.: 
The  Home  Life  of  the  Greeks  and  Romans,  by  Kuhl 
and  Koner,  chapter  on  furniture  ;  Furniture,  by  Clar- 
ence Cook,  Scribner's  Magazine,  vol.  x.,  p.  161 ;  vol.xi., 
pp.  342,  8og ;  vol.  xii.,  pp.  168,  796  ;  Furniture,  by  Philip 
Gilbert  Hamerton,  Macmillan's  Magazine,  vol.  yiii., 
p.  138  ;  The  Art  of  Furnishing,  Cornhill,  vol.  xxxi.,  p. 
535  ;  Good  and  Bad  Furniture,  All  the  Year  Round,  vol. 
xxviii.,  p.  42;  Arts  and  Crafts  Essays,  1803;  Wood 
Carvings  and  Furniture  in  the  Style  Louis  XV.,  by  A. 
Hoffmann ;  Furniture,  by  F.  S.  Meyer ;  Practical 
Decorative  Upholstery,  by  F.  A.  Moreland. 

VII.— HOUSEHOLD  INDUSTRIES. 

Structure  and  function.  Functional  development 
of  society  and  domestic  industries.  Order  of  appear- 
ance of  domestic  industries  and  progress  toward 
higher  specialization.  Relation  of  work  to  worker. 
Effect  of  special  industries  on  body  and  mind.  Exer- 
cise more  important  than  environment ;  action  than 
reaction.  The  division  of  labor.  Sex  in  industry. 
Distinction  one  of  degree,  not  of  kind.  Jane-of-all- 
trades.  Arrested  development  and  suppressed  special- 
ization. Effect  of  racial  growth.  Present  condition 
of  domestic  industries  in  relation  to  social  economy 
and  personal  development.  The  two  remaining  func- 
tions, nutritive  and  excretory. 


J 
S 


References  :  The  Place  of  Woman  in  Primitive  Cul- 
ture, by  O.  E.  Mason  ;  Woman,  Church,  and  State,  by 
Matilda  Joslyn  Gage,  p.  456  ;  Women  Wage  Earners, 
by  Helen  Campbell,  chap.  xii. 

VIII.—  NUTRITION. 

Nutritive  function  of  the  household  in  relation  to  the 
individual  ;  in  relation  to  society.  Processes  of  nutri- 
tion in  organ  ;  organism  and  organization.  Impor- 
tance of  nutrition  to  life  and  of  its  secondary  processes 
to  development.  The  struggle  for  existence.  Man's 
victory.  No  longer  a  struggle  but  a  growth.  House- 
hold nutrition  merely  a  stage  in  the  process.  The 
kitchen,  the  stomach  of  the  house.  Primitive  nutrition 
simple  and  private.  Increase  of  complexity  and  co- 
ordination. From  bone  to  banquet.  Physiological 
needs.  Waste  and  supply.  Age  and  occupation. 
Racial  dietetics.  Theories  and  facts.  Some  of  our 
errors.  Control  of  nutrition  and  its  consequences. 

References  :  Influence  of  Foods  on  Civilization,  by 
R.  A.  Proctor,  North  American  Review,  vol.  cxxxv..  p. 
547;  Science  Applied  to  the  Production  and  Consump- 
tion of  Food,  by  Edward  Atkinson,  Science,  vol.  vi.,  p. 
234;  The  Easiest  Way,  by  Helen  Campbell,  chaps,  vii. 
to  ix.;  The  Physiology  of  Common  Life,  by  George 
Henry  Lewes  ;  The  Chemistry  of  Common  Life,  by 

ames  F.  W.  Johnston  ;  The  Handbook  of  Household 

cience,  by  Edward  Youmans  ;  Food  and  Feeding,  by 
Sir  Henry  Thompson  ;  The  Philosophy  of  Eating,  by 
A.  J.  Bellows  ;  A  Course  of  Practical  Elementary  Biol- 
ogy, by  John  Bidgood  ;  Food,  by  A.  H.  Church  ;  The 
Chemistry  of  Cookery,  by  W.  Mattieu  Williams  ;  The 
Perfect  Way  in  Diet,  by  Dr.  Anna  Kingsford  ;  Foods, 
by  Edward  Smith  ;  Food  and  Dietetics,  by  Dr.  Cham- 
bers ;  Food  and  Dietetics.by  Dr.  Pavy  ;  Food  and  Di- 
gestion, by  Dr.  Brinton  ;  Food,  by  Dr.  Letheby  ;  Text- 
Book  of  Physiology,  by  M.  Foster,  M.D.;  How  Plants 
Grow,  by  Asa  Gray  ;  The  Vegetable  Kingdom,  by  E. 
A.  Rand  ;  What  to  Eat  and  How  to  Eat  It,  by  R.  F. 
Beardsley  ;  Food  in  Health  and  Disease,  by  B.  Burney 
Yeo,  M.D.;  Outlines  for  the  Management  of  Diet,  by 
Dr.  Edward  Tunis  Bruen  ;  Foods  for  the  Fat,  edited 
by  Dr.  C.  W.  Greene  ;  Food  for  the  Invalid,  the  Con- 
valescent, the  Dyspeptic,  and  the  Gouty,  by  Dr.  J.  Mil- 
ner  Fothergill  ;  The  Science  of  Nutrition,  by  Edward 
Atkinson  ;  Principles  of  Chemical  Philosophy,  by 
Josiah  Cooke  ;  Inorganic  Chemistry,  by  Dr.  Remsen  ; 
Human  Physiology,  by  Landis  and  Sterling. 

IX.  —  FOOD  AND  ITS  PREPARATION. 

Chemical  properties  of  foods.  Animal  and  vegetable 
foods  ;  mineral  constituents.  Nutritive  values.  Our 
food  supply  "from  the  ground  up."  Preparatory 
processes,  general  and  special.  Diets.  Vegetarianism. 
The  cooking  animal.  Cooking  as  an  art,  a  science,  a 
handicraft,  a  profession.  Apparatus  and  methods  — 
primitive  ;  ancient  ;  modern  ;  local.  Our  advance  iff 
this  art  as  compared  with  others.  Dietaries  for  in- 
fancy, childhood,  youth,  maturity,  age,  and  for  the 
sick.  Markets  and  marketing.  Adulteration.  Super- 
vision of  foods.  Civilized  living. 

References  :  Chemistry  of  Foods,  by  Dr.  Beal  ; 
Chemistry  of  Foods,  by  Dr.  Allen,  Armour  Institute  ; 
Food  Materials  and  their  Adulteration,  by  E.  H. 
Richards  ;  Chemistry  of  Cooking  and  Cleaning,  by 
Ellen  H.  Richards  ;  Food  Adulteration,  by  Jesse  P. 
Battershall  ;  Food  and  its  Adulterations,  by  Arthur  Hill 
Hassall  ;  Meat  Inspection,  by  Thomas  Whalley  ;  In- 
fectiousness  of  Milk,  by  the  Massachusetts  Society  for 
the  Promotion  of  Agriculture  ;  Potable  Water,  by 
Floyd  Davis  ;  Physiology  of  Bodily  Exercise,  by  Ferdi- 
nand Lagrange  ;  Mrs.  Lincoln's  Boston  Cook  Book  : 
What  to  Do  and  What  Not  to  Do  in  Cooking  ;  Just 
How,  by  Mrs.  A.  D.  T.  Whitney  ;  Mrs.  Rorer's  Phila- 
delphia Cook  Book;  Practical  Cooking  and  Dinner-Giv- 
ing, by  Mrs.  Henderson  ;  In  the  Kitchen,  by  Mrs.  E.  S. 
Miller  ;  Good  Living,  a  Practical  Cook  Book  for  Town 
and  Country,  by  Sara  Van  Buren  Brugiere  ;  French 
Dishes  for  American  Tables,  by  Pierre  Caron  ;  Cuisine 
Classique,  by  Urbain  Dubois  ;  Careme,  Gouffe,  and 
Soyer  ;  Diet  for  the  Sick,  by  Mrs.  Mary  A.  Henderson  ; 
Diet  for  the  Sick,  by  Mary  Boland  ;  Catherine  Owen's 
Books  :  Choice  Cookery,  Ten  Dollars  Enough,  etc.; 
Canoe  and  Camp  Cookery,  by  "  Seneca,"  Forest  and 
Stream  Pub.  Co.  (New  York)  ;  Miss  Parloa's  Camp 
Cookery  ;  Delicate  Feasting,  by  Theodore  Child  ; 
Practical  Sanitary  and  Economical  Cooking,  by  Mrs. 
Mary  Hinman  Abel,  The  Lomb  Prize  Essay  ;  The  Easi- 
est Way,  by  Helen  Campbell,  chap,  xii.;  Student 
Dietaries,  by  Mrs.  Ellen  H.  Richards,  New  England 
Kitchen  Magazine,  1895  ;  How  to  Feed  the  Baby,  by 
Dr.  Charles  Page. 


Household  Economic  Association.    698 


Howells,  William  Dean. 


X.— CLEANING  AND  ITS  PROCESSES. 

Cleaning  the  essential  and  permanent  household  in- 
dustry. The  excretory  system  of  the  household  organ- 
ism. Friction,  exposure,  and  decay.  Essential  and 
necessary  waste.  The  grave  and  the  garret.  Fuel  and 
flies.  The  dirt  we  make.  Cleaning,  mechanical  and 
chemical.  Primitive  household  without  excretory 
system.  Semiannual  attacks  on  dirt.  Elements  of 
cleaning  processes,  sweeping,  dusting,  and  washing. 
Development  and  excesses.  The  New  England  house- 
wife and  her  Dutch  prototype.  Fluff.  Dust  and  its 
dangers.  Bacteria  and  microbes.  Antiseptic  clean- 
ing. Light  and  cleanliness,  physical,  mental,  and 
moral.  What  it  is  to  be  clean,  and  the  results. 

References :  Bacteria  and  their  Products,  by  Ger- 
main'Sims  Woodhead  ;  Dust  and  its  Dangers,  by  T. 
Mitchell  Prudden  ;  Chemistry  of  Cooking  and  Clean- 
ing, by  Mrs.  Ellen  H.  Richards;  The  Chemistry  of 
Cleaning,  by  Professor  Vivian  Lewis,  Armour  Insti- 
tute ;  Thoughts  About  Dust,  by  M.  A.  Mplineux,  M.D., 
New  England  Kitchen  Magazine,  April,  1895 ;  Dan- 
gerous Properties  of  Dust,  by  F.  A.  Abel,  Nature,  vol. 
xxvi.,  p.  19. 

XL— SERVICE. 

The  servant  question.  Total  inadequacy  of  existing 
treatment.  Failure  to  grasp  essential  distinction  ;be- 
tween  service  and  labor.  Service  a  condition  peculiar 
to  humanity.  Philosophy  of  service.  Division  of 
labor  and  coordination.  Primitive  coordination  com- 
pulsory. The  army  of  Xerxes  as  illustration  of  its 
inferiority.  Evolution  of  service.  Effect  of  service  on 
character.  Status  of  domestic  service  in  social  econ- 
omy. Present  condition.  Some  secondary  conditions 
of  domestic  service.  The  stranger  within  our  gates. 
Reports  of  Bureaus  of  Labor.  Philadelphia  special  in- 
quiry in  this  connection.  The  training  school  and  its 
results.  Matters  of  life  and  death.  Diploma  and 
license.  Servant,  employee,  artist,  and  professor. 

References  :  The  Servant  Question,  by  Harriet  Pres- 
cott  Spofford  ;  Domestic  Service,  by  Professor  Lucy 
Salmon,  New  England  Magazine.  1893  i  Domestic  Ser- 
vice, by  Mrs.  C.  L.  Stone  ;  The  Biddy  Club,  by  Griffith 
A.  Nicholas  ;  Domestic  Service,  by  E.  P.  Whipple,  The 
Forum,  vol.  i.,  p.  M  :  25  ;  Prisoners  of  Poverty,  by 
Helen  Campbell,  Chapters  on  Domestic  Service. 

XII.— ORGANIZED  LIVING. 

Law  of  organization  in  individual  and  species.  Or- 
ganic evolution,  racial,  national,  civic,  domestic. 
Primitive  conditions  of  household  economy.  The 
woman's  world  and  the  man's.  How  to  "keep  the 
boys  at  home."  Survivals  and  rudiments.  Effects  on 
the  brain.  Strain  of  contending  eras.  Relation  to 
progress.  Home  influence.  The  matrix  of  civiliza- 
tion. How  we  really  live.  Flat,  club,  hotel,  and  board- 
ing-house. Reaction  and  compromise.  Lines  of  de- 
velopment. Scientific  prophecy.  Asa  Gray  and  his 
unknown  butterfly.  Our  possibilities.  The  higher 
education  and  the  higher  life. 

References  :  Man  and  Woman,  by  Havelock  Ellis  ; 
The  Evolution  of  Marriage,  by  C.  H.  Letourneau  :  Co- 
operation, by  Mrs.  C.  L.  Pierce  ;  England's  Ideal  and 
other  Papers  on  Social  subjects,  by  Edward  Carpen- 
ter ;  Essay  on  "  Simplification  of  Living  ;"  Civilization, 
its  Cause  and  Cure,  by  Edward  Carpenter  (chapter  on 
"  Custom  "). 

HOWARD,  JOHN,  was  born  at  Enfield, 
England,  in  1726.  His  father,  a  wealthy  Lon- 
don merchant,  apprenticed  him  to  a  grocer,  but 
in  1742  he  bought  up  his  indenture.  Until  1773 
he  lived  a  comparatively  secluded  life,  distin- 
guishing himself  only  in  charity.  He  was  made 
the  high  sheriff  of  Bedford  in  1773,  and  the 
characteristic  work  of  his  life  then  began. 
Visiting  the  jails,  he  found  them  wretchedly 
defective  ;  but  what  chiefly  shocked  him  was 
that  neither  the  jailer  nor  his  subordinates  were 
salaried  officers,  but  were  dependent  for  their 
livelihood  on  fees  which  they  rigorously  exacted 
from  the  prisoners  themselves.  Some  whom 
the  juries  had  declared  not  guilty,  others  in 
whom  the  grand  jury  had  not  found  even  such 
appearance  of  guilt  as  would  warrant  a  trial, 


others  whose  prosecutors  had  failed  to  appear, 
were  frequently  detained  in  prison  for  months 
after  they  had  ceased  to  be  in  the  position  of 
accused  parties,  until  they  should  have  paid  the 
fees  of  jail  delivery.  His  prompt  application  to 
the  justices  of  the  county  for  a  salary  to  the 
jailer  in  lieu  of  his  fees  was  met  by  a  demand 
for  a  precedent  for  charging  the  county  with 
such  an  expense  ;  and  he  went  accordingly  from 
county  to  county  until  his  journey  had  extend- 
ed to  every  town  in  England  which  contained 
a  prison,  but  the  object  of  his  search  eluded  in- 
quiry. But  he  did  find  so  many  abuses  in  prison 
management  that  he  determined  to  devote  him- 
self to  the  reform  of  those  abuses.  The  task 
cost  him  a  fortune  and  the  best  remaining  years 
of  his  life. 

He  reported  his  discoveries  to  the  House  of 
Commons,  and  at  once  an  act  was  passed  which 
provided  for  the  liberation,  free  of  all  charges, 
of  every  prisoner  against  whom  the  grand  jury 
failed  to  find  a  true  bill,  giving  the  jailer  a 
sum  from  the  county  rate  in  lieu  of  the  abolished 
fees.  This  was  followed  in  June  by  another 
requiring  justices  of  the  peace  to  see  that  the 
walls  and  ceilings  of  all  prisons  within  their 
jurisdiction  were  scraped  and  whitewashed  once 
a  year  at  least ;  that  the  rooms  were  regularly 
cleaned  and  ventilated  ;  that  infirmaries  were 
provided  for  the  sick,  and  proper  care  taken  to 
get  them  medical  advice  ;  that  the  naked  should 
be  clothed  ;  that  underground  dungeons  should 
be  used  as  little  as  could  be  ;  and  generally  that 
such  courses  should  be  taken  as  would  tend  to 
restore  and  preserve  the  health  of  the  prisoners. 

He  then  devoted  himself  for  eight  or  nine 
years  to  an  investigation  of  the  prisons  of  Eu- 
rope, overcoming  many  difficulties  and  braving 
many  dangers.  The  publication  of  his  large 
accumulation  of  facts  had  a  direct  and  immedi- 
ate influence  upon  prison  legislation.  The  last 
five  years  of  his  life  were  chiefly  devoted  to  re- 
searches as  to  the  means  which  ought  to  be  used 
in  the  prevention  of  the  plague  and  all  con- 
tagious diseases.  In  pursuit  of  knowledge  on 
this  subject  he  again  traveled  through  Europe 
and  Asia  Minor,  visiting  hospitals,  lazarettos 
and  pest-houses  of  all  kinds,  and  published  the 
results  of  his  researches  in  1789.  Attempting 
to  make  yet  another  European  tour,  he  took  a 
fever  from  a  patient  he  was  attending  and  died 
at  Cherson  in  1790.  He  was  of  a  deeply  relig- 
ious temperament,  and  the  greater  part  of  his 
life  shows  that  his  enthusiasm  of  humanity  was 
the  unusual  yet  normal  outcome  of  the  sincerest 
piety.  ' '  He  died  a  martyr  after  living  an  apos- 
tle." (See  PENALOGY.) 

HOWELLS,  WILLIAM  DEAN,  was  born 
at  Martinsville,  O.,  in  1837.  His  father  was  a 
printer,  and  of  him  he  learned  the  printer's 
trade.  He  afterward  became  editor  of  the 
Cincinnati  Gazette  and  the  Ohio  State  Jour- 
nal. He  was  United  States  Consul  at  Venice 
1861-65,  and  in  1871  became  editor  of  the  At- 
lantic Monthly,  retaining  this  position  till  1880. 
Since  then  he  has  produced  a  long  list  of  writ- 
ings, all  of  his  works  circulating  largely  in  Eng- 
land, making  his  name  almost  as  familiar  there 
as  in  the  United  States.  He  conducted  for  sev- 
eral years  "The  Editor's  Study"  in  Harper's 


Howells,  William  Dean. 


699 


Hughes,  Thomas. 


Magazine.  He  has  interested  himself  of  re- 
cent years  very  largely  in  social  reform  in  vari- 
ous novels,  and  especially  in  his  A  Traveller 
from  Altruria. 

HUBER,   VICTOR    AIME,  who  may  be 

called  the  founder  of  German  Christian  social- 
ism, was  born  in  Stuttgart  in  1800  He  took  a 
degree  in  medicine  in  1820  at  the  University  of 
Gottingen,  but  obtained,  through  the  influence 
of  his  mother,  a  State  stipendium.  Throwing 
himself  into  the  social  and  political  movement 
of  the  times,  he  visited  Paris,  Lisbon,  Hamburg, 
Edinburgh,  Italy,  and  at  last  settled  down  in 
Bremen  as  one  of  the  masters  at  the  Merchants' 
School  of  that  town.  He  became  more  than 
ever  interested  in  social  problems,  but  now  from 
a  religious  standpoint. 

In  1832  he  procured  a  post  at  the  University 
of  Rostock,  and  a  call  to  Marburg  six  years  later. 
In  1839  he  was  elected  as  the  representative  of 
this  collegiate  body  in  the  Hessian  House  of 
Representatives  as  an  ultra-Conservative  states- 
man. Friedrich  Wilhelm  IV.,  of  Prussia,  now 
induced  him  to  come  to  Berlin  and  to  found  a 
Conservative  periodical  under  royal  patronage? 
As  editor  of  this  periodical,  the  Janus,  Huber 
made  it  the  vehicle  for  pressing  his  pet  scheme 
of  cooperation. 

After  the  March  revolution  in  1848  this  pub- 
lication, which  in  many  respects  resembled  the 
Christian  Socialist  of  England  and  Z,' Avenir 
of  France,  was  discontinued,  and  another  meth- 
od for  rallying  the  friends  of  social  reform  on 
Conservative  principles  was  made  by  Huber  in 
forming  his  Association  of  Christian  Order  and 
Liberty.  But  this,  too,  proved  unsuccessful. 
Huber  found  more  favor,  in  truth,  among  the 
Social  Radicals  than  in  his  own  reactionary 
circles.  His  assistance  was  sought  by  some 
Liberals  and  Democrats  who  had  lately  estab- 
lished a  ' '  building  society  for  the  common 
good,"  which  had  for  its  object  the  improve- 
ment of  the  dwellings  of  the  poor.  Huber  read- 
ily subscribed  $7000  to  its  funds  and  drew  up 
its  constitution.  He  also  interested  himself  in 
the  Gesellenvater  Kolping  and  Bishop  Ketteler 
(g.v.).  But  failing  to  interest  the  aristocratic 
classes  of  Berlin,  he  found  a  new  home  in  the  lit- 
tle town  jf  Wenigerode,  among  the  Hartz  Moun- 
tains, and  left  only  to  pay  visits  to  France,  Bel- 
gium, and  England,  and  thus  became  a  living 
organ,  so  to  speak,  for  international  communi- 
cation on  the  subject  of  cooperative  association. 
He  lived  in  daily  companionship  with  laborers 
and  artisans  in  order  to  raise  them  by  personal 
contact  to  a  higher  level.  In  this  he  spared  no 
sacrifice  of  time  or  money.  He  founded  a  loan 
society,  an  institution  for  smaller  tradespeople, 
and  a  technical  school  for  the  instruction  of 
young  apprentices  after  leaving  the  ordinary 
schools,  where  he  taught  himself.  He  also 
called  into  existence  a  Christian  Association  of 
Journeymen.  During  the  summer  of  1869  he 
was  prostrated  by  illness,  and  died  July  19  of 
that  year. 

HUET,  FRAN9OIS,  was  born  at  Villeau, 
in  Beauce,  in  1814.  M.  de  Lavelye,  his  distin- 
guished pupil,  says  of  him  (Socialism  of  To- 
day, p.  253)  : 


"  At  the  age  of  22  he  was  appointed  Professor  of 
Philosophy  at  the  University  of  Ghent,  a  post  which 
he  retained  up  to  1850.  He  was  the  disciple  of  a  spirit- 
ualist philosopher,  a  man  of  very  vigorous  intellect, 
Bordas-Demoulin,  and,  through  him,  of  Descartes  and 
Plato.  Protesting  to  the  last  against  Ultramontanism 
and  its  new  dogmas,  they  were  the  last  Gallicans  of 
the  school  of  Pascal  and  Bossuet.  About  the  year  1846 
his  philosophical  studies  led  Huet  to  approach  social 
questions,  as  has  been  the  case  with  most  of  the  phil- 
osophers of  our  times At  Ghent,  Huet  collected 

around  him  a  group  of  pupils,  among  whom  was  the 
author  of  this  book,  and  from  before  1848  we  thoroughly 
studied,  each  with  his  own  preferences,  the  various  sys- 
tems of  social  reform.  .  .  .  Huet  also  published,  in  1864, 
La  Science  de  I' Esprit.  He  presided  over  the  educa- 
tion of  Prince  Milan,  now  King  of  Servia,  and  even 
followed  him  to  Belgrade.  Having  returned  to  Paris 
to  undergo  treatment  for  a  severe  disease,  he  died 
from  the  effects  of  a  surgical  operation  (1869).  .  .  . 

"  For  the  basis  of  his  system  he  takes  the  principles 
of  1789,  and  endeavors  to  realize  in  everything  the 
motto,  '  Liberty.  Equality,  Fraternity.'  His  ideas  on 
this  point  were,  without  his  knowing  it,  similar  to 
those  of  Fichte.  .  .  .  The  following  is  a  summary  of 
them  :  Men  are  by  right  equal.  They  have  the  right  to 
an  opportunity  to  develop  themselves.  This  means  a 
right  to  property,  which  should  be  realized  in  the 
'right  to  patrimony,'  by  virtue  of  which  every  person 
in  a  position  to  labor  would  obtain  a  share  in  the 
general  wealth.  '  Every  year  a  division  should  be 
made  of  the  patrimonial  property  left  ownerless 
through  deaths.  All  the  young  people  of  either  sex, 
who  during  this  year  reach  the  age  of  either  14  or  25 
years,  should  obtain  a  share,  the  share  of  each  person 
of  full  age  being  double  the  share  of  each  minor.' 
The  right  of  hereditary  succession  is  abolished,  but 
gifts  by  will  or  inter  vivos  are  authorized.  Each  per- 
son, however,  can  dispose  only  of  property  acquired 
by  his  own  labor,  and  not  of  that  received  by  way  of 
gift  or  legacy.  This  goes  to  increase  the  common  pat- 
rimony. '  Continuously  fed  from  an  inexhaustible 
source,  the  general  patrimony  would  be  composed,  at 
any  given  time,  of  all  the  ancient  patrimonial  property 
and  of  all  the  subsequent  accumulations  of  capital  ; 
for  as  these  accumulations  could  only  once  change 
hands  by  way  of  gift,  at  the  deaths  of  the  donees  they 
would  go  to  swell  the  mass  of  the  original  patrimony. 

"  Leveling  socialist  as  Huet  is  when  he  claims  for 
all  an  equal  right  of  accession  to  property,  he  is  a 
thorough  individualist  on  the  question  of  the  organiza- 
tion of  labor.  He  rejects  all  State  intervention  ;  he 
does  not  like  even  corporations  holding  industrial 
capital.  The  individual,  put  in  possession  of  'his  pat- 
rimony,' may  work  by  himself,  or  in  partnership  with 
others,  provided  he  do  so  freely,  without  any  privileges 
or  close  corporations." 

M.  Huet  also  published  a  charming  book  en- 
titled Le  Regne  Social  du  Christianisme,  con- 
taining a  complete  social  theory  based  on  Chris- 
tianity, which  Lavelye  says  has  not  met  the  at- 
tention it  deserves  only  because  it  is  too  full  of 
Christianity  for  the  socialists  and  too  full  of  so- 
cialism for  Christians. 

HUGHES,  THOMAS,  was  born  near  New- 
bury,  Berkshire,  England,  in  1823.  He  was 
educated  at  Rugby  under  Dr.  Arnold,  and  at 
Oriel  College,  Oxford,  where  he  was  graduated 
in  1845.  He  was  called  to  the  bar  at  Lincoln's 
Inn  in  1848.  He  was  prominent  in  the  Chris- 
tian socialist  movement  of  Maurice  and  Kings- 
ley  in  1849-50.  (See  CHRISTIAN  SOCIALISM.)  He 
published  his  immortal  Tom  Brown's  School- 
days (1857)  ;  Tom  Brown  at  Oxford  (1861)  ; 
The  Manliness  of  Christ  (1879),  besides  many 
lesser  writings.  From  1865-74  he  sat  in  Parlia- 
ment. In  1869  he  became  Queen's  Counsel, 
and  in  1882  a  county  court  judge.  In  1870  he 
visited  the  United  States.  Becoming  interested 
in  this  country,  the  "  New  Rugby"  colony  was 
conceived.  Fifty  thousand  acres  were  bought 
and  300  men  were  actually  on  the  grounds, 
mainly  sons  of  English  farmers.  Judge  Hughes 


Hughes,  Thomas. 


700 


Hull  House  (Chicago). 


was  its  active  superintendent.  Roads,  cricket 
grounds,  a  hotel,  and  brick  kiln  were  started. 
Cooperation  and  profit-sharing  were  attempted, 
but  Judge  Hughes  was  no  financier,  and  it  hon- 
orably failed.  He  died  March  22,  1896. 

HUGO,  VICTOR  MARIE,  Vicomte,  was 
born  in  1802  at  Besangon,  where  his  father  was 
commandant  of  the  garrison.  His  youth  was 
spent  partly  with  his  mother  in  Paris,  partly  in 
Italy  and  Spain,  where  his  father  held  high  ap- 
pointments. He  early  acquired  distinction  by 
his  poetry,  and  before  he  was  30  years  of  age 
his  published  works  were  numerous  and  famous. 
He  led  in  a  literary  revolution  whose  followers 
— la  jeune  France — called  themselves  the  Ro- 
manticists, and  their  opponents  the  Classicists. 
The  literary  war  lasted  several  years.  In  1832 
the  ministry  suspended  one  of  his  dramas — Le 
Rot  s' amuse — but  his  popularity  continued  to 
increase,  and  in  1837  Louis  Philippe  made  him 
an  officer  of  the  Legion  of  Honor,  and  in  1845  a 
peer  of  France.  After  the  Revolution  of  1848 
he  was  elected  to  represent  Paris,  both  in  the 
constituent  and  in  the  legislative  assembly,  in 
which  he  manifested  democratic  principles,  and 
was  one  of  the  members  of  the  Extreme  Left 
who  were  banished  from  France  for  life  by 
Louis  Napoleon.  He  went  to  reside  in  the 
island  of  Jersey.  In  1852  he  assailed  the  ruler 
of  France  in  a  political  pamphlet,  Napoleon  le 
Petit ;  and  next  year,  in  Les  Chdtiments,  a 
series  of  poems  written  with  great  verve,  in  the 
same  spirit.  He  refused  to  avail  himself  of  the 
amnesty  of  1859  ;  but  on  the  fall  of  the  empire 
joined  in  the  republican  movement,  and  was 
re  turned  to  the  National  Assembly  at  Bordeaux, 
which,  however,  he  soon  quitted  in  disgust. 
He  then  went  to  Brussels,  but  the  Belgian  Gov- 
ernment expelled  him  from  the  country,  and  he 
had  to  seek  refuge  in  Vianden,  a  village  of  Lux- 
emburg, where  L'Anne'e  Terrible  was  com- 
posed. Returning  to  Paris  in  July,  1871,  he 
pleaded  earnestly  but  without  effect  for  the  lives 
of  the  communists.  Hugo  has  given  an  account 
of  his  life  in  Actes  et  Paroles  (1870-72).  In  1862 
appeared  Les  Mistrables  ;  in  1869  L  Homme  qui 
Rit ;  Quatrevingt-treize  (1874)  ;  his  Speeches 
(1875)  ;  the  Ldgende  des  Siecles  (1877)  ;  L  His- 
toire  d'un  Crime  (1878) ;  and  Le  Pape,  a  poem 
(1878).  His  main  work  for  social  reform  has 
been  in  these  novels,  the  influence  of  which  has 
been  marked  in  the  development  of  social  de- 
mocracy in  France.  He  says  in  his  William 
Shakespeare  :  "  True  socialism  has  for  its  end 
the  elevation  of  the  masses  to  the  civic  dignity, 
and  that,  therefore,  its  principal  care  is  for 
moral  and  intellectual  cultivation. ' ' 

HULL  HOUSE  (CHICAGO).— The  two 
original  residents  of  Hull  House,  Miss  Jane 
Adams  (q.v.}  and  Miss  Ellen  G.  Starr,  went  to 
commence  a  work  at  335  South  Halstead,  Chi- 
cago, in  a  poor  neighborhood  of  the  city,  in  Sep- 
tember, 1889.  Their  one  thought  was  that  per- 
sonal social  intercourse  could  best  realize  their 
growing  sense  of  the  economic  unity  of  society, 
and  all  the  developments  of  their  work  have 
grown  up  from  this  as  there  seemed  to  be  need. 
Their  earliest  activities  were  the  ordinary  ones 
of  children's  clubs,  kindergartens,  afternoon 


teas,  etc.,  as  a  means  of  securing  natural  ac- 
quaintance in  the  neighborhood. 

The  Working  People's  Social  Science  Club  was  the 
first    body    including    men  to   be   organized  at  Hull 
House.    This  club  was  formed  through  the  activity  of 
an  English  working   man,    during    the 
first  year  of  Hull  House,  for  the  discus- 
sion of  social  problems,    and   has  con-         Clubs, 
tinued  to  meet  weekly  ever  since.     The 
discussion    is    always    animated,    and 
every  conceivable  shade  of  social  and  economic  opin- 
ion is  represented.     In  1893  was  formed  also  a  Hull 
House  Men's  Club.    It  holds  a  reception  once  a  month 
and  an  occasional  banquet.     Composed  of  150  men  ot 
the  vicinity,  the  constitution    co'mmits    them,  among 
other  things,  to  the  "cultivation  of  sobriety  and  good 
fellowship."    At  present  30  or  more  clubs  meet  regu- 
larly at  Hull   House,  and   every  quarter   there   is  a 
congress  of  the  different  clubs. 

The  Hull  House  Women's  Club,  which  now  numbers 
60  of  the  most  able  women  in  the  ward,  developed  from 
a  social  meeting  of  a  few  for  purposes  of  tea-drinking 
and  friendly  chat.  Several  members  of  this  club  have 
done  good  work  in  street  and  alley  inspecting  in  con- 
nection with  the  Municipal  Order  League,  and  have 
taken  an  active  part  in  a  cooperative  coal  scheme  re- 
cently inaugurated  at  Hull  House. 

From  a  like  informal  origin  grew  the  College  Ex- 
tension courses.  These  classes  were  established  at 
Hull  House  before  the  University  Extension  move- 
ment began  in  Chicago,  and  are  not  connected  with  it. 
Several  University  Extension  courses  have  been  given 
at  Hull  House.  The  first  class  met  as  a  social  club, 
guests  of  the  residents.  As  the  classes  grew  larger  and 
more  numerous,  and  the  object  of  newcomers  more 
definitely  that  of  acquisition  of  some  special  knowledge, 
the  informality  of  the  social  relation  is  necessarily 
less.  But  the  prevailing  attitude  toward  the  House  of 
the  250  students  now  enrolled  is  that  of  guests  as  well 
as  students. 

The  most  popular  and  continuous  courses  have  been 
in  literature,  languages,  music,  art,  history,  mathemat- 
ics, drawing  and  painting.  A  helpful  supplement  of 
the  College  Extension  courses  has  been  the  Summer 
School,  held  for  five  years  in  the  building  of  Rockford 
College,  at  Rockford,  111.  The  sum  of  $3  a  week  paid 
by  each  student  for  board  covers  the  entire  expenses 
of  the  school ;  the  use  of  the  buildings,  including  gym- 
nasium and  laboratories,  are  given  free  of  rent. 

Under  the  educational  aspect  of  the   House  may  be 
considered  the  occasional  exhibitions  of  pictures.   Ow- 
ing partly  to  the  limited  space  available  for  the  pur- 
pose, these  exhibits  have  been    small. 
The  first  residents  held  strongly  to  the 
belief  that  compromise  in  the  matter  of          Art. 
excellence  in  art  was  a  mistake.     They 
hung  their  own  walls  only  with  such  pic- 
tures as  they  felt  were  helpful  to  the  life  of  mind  and 
soul.  One  of  the  residents  has  been  able  to  put  a  number 
of  good  pictures  into  the   school   nearest  Hull  House, 
and  into  departments  of  several  other  public  schools. 

The  same  principles  the  House  is  striving  to  carry 
into  effect  with  regard  to  the  music  it  provides.  Every 
Sunday  afternoon  a  free  concert  is  given  in  the  gymna- 
sium. There  is  also  musical  instruction  given  through 
the  week,  with  a  children' s  chorus,  etc. 

The  connection  of  the   House  with  the  labor  move- 
ment may  be  fairly  said  to  have  begun  on  the  same 
social  basis  as  its  other  relations.     Of  its  standing  with 
labor  unions,  which  is  now  "  good  and 
regular,"  it  owes  the  foundation  to  per- 
sqnal  relations  with  the  organizer  of  the         Trade 
Bindery  Girls'   Union    and   of    various        Unions. 
women's   unions,   who   lived    for  some 
months  in  the  house  as  a  guest.     It  is 
now  generally  understood  that  Hull  House  "is  on  the 
side  of  unions."    Several  of  the  women's  unions  have 
held  their  regular  meetings  at  the  House,  two  have 
been  organized  there,  and  in  four  instances,  men  and 
women    on    strike  against   reductions  in  wages  have 
met  there  while  the  strike  lasted.     In  one  case  a  strike 
was  successfully  arbitrated  by  the  head  of  the  House, 
the  abuses  complained  of  by  the  employees  being  re- 
moved. 

The  initiative  toward  the  factory  inspection  measure 
of  Illinois  was  taken  by  a  resident  of  Hull  House. 
The  same  'resident  conducted  in  Chicago  the  so-called 
'•slum  investigation"  for  the  Department  of  Labor  at 
Washington,  and  after  the  passage  of  the  law  was 
appointed  inspector  of  factories  for  the  State  of  Illinois. 

A  resident  has  tabulated  the  information  collected 
in  the  "slum  investigation"  in  the  form  of  two  sets  of 


Hull  House  (Chicago). 


701 


Huxley,  Thomas  Henry. 


maps,  one  set  on  the  plan  of  Charles  Booth's  wage 
maps  of  London,  and  one  set  showing  the  national- 
ities of  the  district.  The  latter  shows  19  different 
nationalities  within  the  third  of  a  square  mile  lying 
east  and  south  of  Hull  House.  (See  reference  at  end 
of  article.) 

After  the  passage  of  the  factory  and  work-shop  bill, 
which  includes  a  clause  limiting  women's  labor  to  eight 
hours  a  day,  the  young  women  employees  of  a  large 
factory  in  the  near  neighborhood  of  Hull  House 
formed  an  "  Eight-hours  Club"  for  the  purpose  of 
encouraging  women  in  factories  and  workshops  to 
obey  the  eight-hour  law.  This  club,  which  holds  its 
meetings  at  Hull  House,  has  maintained  its  own  posi- 
tion, and  has  done  good  missionary  work  for  the  cause. 
When  the  hours  were  shortened,  and  work  stopped  on 
Saturday,  several  members  of  the  club  devoted  their 
Saturdays  to  seeking  work  in  candy  and  tobacco  facto- 
ries for  the  purpose  of  making  the  acquaintance  and 
cultivating  the  friendship  of  workers  in  these  shops, 
and  urging  them  to  obey  the  law  ;  and  a  number  of 
the  latter  were  brought  into  the  club. 

The  Jane  Club,  a  cooperative  boarding  club  for 
young  working  women,  had  the  advice  and  assistance 
of  Hull  House  in  its  establishment.  The  original 
members  of  the  club,  seven  in  number, 
were  a  group  of  girls  accustomed  to  co- 
Jane  Club,  operative  action.  The  club  has  been, 
from  the  beginning,  self-governing,  the 
officers  being  elected  by  the  members 
from  their  own  number,  and  serving  six  months  gra- 
tuitously. The  two  offices  of  treasurer  and  steward 
have  required  a  generous  sacrifice  of  their  limited 
leisure  time,  as  well  as  a  good  deal  of  ability  from 
those  holding  them.  The  weekly  dues  of  three  dol- 
lars, with  an  occasional  small  assessment,  have  met 
all  current  expenses  of  rent,  service,  food,  heat  and 
light,  after  the  furnishing  and  first  month's  rent  was 
supplied  by  Hull  House.  The  club  now  numbers  50 
members.  The  one  flat  is  increased  to  five.  The  mem- 
bers do  such  share  of  the  work  of  the  House  a$  does 
not  interfere  with  their  daily  work  at  their  trades. 
There  are  various  circles  within  the  club  for  social  and 
intellectual  purposes.  The  atmosphere  of  the  house  is 
one  of  comradeship  rather  than  of  thrift. 

One  of  the  residents  of  Hull  House  has  been  ap- 
pointed a  member  of  the  State  Board  of  Charities. 
The  House  has  been  active  in  the  movement  to  organ- 
ize the  charities  of  Chicago,  and  has  recently  united 
its  relief  office  with  the  ward  office  established  by  the 
new  organization. 

The  House  has  always  had  a  free  kindergarten,  and 
for  five  years  a  day  nursery,  where  mothers  who  are 
obliged  to  go  out  to  work  leave  their  children  for  the 
day,  paying  five  cents  for  each  child.  The  creche 
averages  in  summer  50  children,  and  in  winter  be- 
tween 30  and  40. 

There  is  also  a  children's  dining-room  in  a  neigh- 
boring cottage.  Dinners  are  served  to  school  children 
upon  presentation  of  tickets  which  have  been  sold  to 
their  mothers  for  five  cents  each.  Those  children  are 
first  selected  whose  mothers  are  necessarily  at  work 
during  the  middle  of  the  day,  and  the  dinner  started 
with  children  formerly  in  the  Hull  House  creche. 
While  it  is  desired  to  give  the  children  nutritious  food, 
the  little  diners  care  much  more  for  the  toys  and 
books  and  the  general  good  time  than  they  do  for  the 
dinners.  Besides  these  activities  there  are  various 
children's  clubs,  cooking  classes,  a  nature  class,  sew- 
ing school,  art  classes,  a  public  bath-house,  a  coop- 
erative association,  a  gymnasium,  playground,  coffee- 
house, New  England  kitchen  with  a  noon  factory  de- 
livery, a  temporary  lodging-house,  a  labor  bureau, 
etc.  A  resident  physician  conducts  a  public  dispen- 
sary. 

No  university  nor  college  qualification  has  ever  been 

made  in  regard  to  residents,  altho  the  majority  have 

always  been  college  people.    The  organization  of  the 

settlement  has  been  extremely  informal, 

the  number  of  residents  being  now  about 

Residents.  20.  Residents  are  received  for  six 
weeks,  during  which  time  they  have  all 
privileges,  save  a  vote  at  residents' 
meeting.  At  the  end  of  that  period,  if  they  have 
proved  valuable  to  the  work  of  the  House,  they  are  in- 
vited to  remain,  if  it  is  probable  that  they  can  be  in 
residence  for  six  months.  The  expenses  of  the  resi- 
dents are  defrayed  by  themselves  on  the  plan  of  a  co- 
operative club,  under  the  direction  of  a  house  commit- 
tee. A  limited  number  of  fellowships  has  been  estab- 
lished. All  the  residents  of  Hull  House  for  the  first 
three  years  were  women,  tho  much  valuable  work  has 
always  been  done  by  non-resident  men.  Since  men 
have  come  into  residence  in  a  cottage  on  Polk  Street, 


dining  at  Hull  House,  and  giving  such  part  of  their 
time  to  the  work  of  the  settlement  as  is  consistent 
with  their  professional  or  business  life.  Only  one 
man  has  been  able  to  devote  his  entire  time  to  settle- 
ment work. 

It  is  estimated  that  2000  people  come  to  Hull  House 
each  week,  either  as  members  of  clubs  or  organiza- 
tions, or  as  parts  of  an  audience.  One  hundred  of 
these  come  as  teachers,  lecturers,  or  directors  of  clubs. 
The  House  has  always  had  much  valuable  assistance 
from  the  citizens  of  Chicago.  This  voluntary  re- 
sponse to  its  needs,  perhaps,  accounts  for  the  fact  that 
it  has  never  found  it  necessary  to  form  an  association 
with  chapters  in  colleges,  as  other  settlements  have 
done.  It  is  incorporated  with  a  board  of  trustees. 

No  rent  is  paid  for  the  use  of  Hull  House,  nor  for 
the  adjacent  lots.  Three  buildings  have  been  built 
upon  these  by  friends  of  the  House.  The  superinten- 
dence and  teaching  of  the  settlement  are  volunteered 
by  residents  and  others,  and  are  unpaid.  The  running 
expenses  of  the  settlement  proper  are  therefore  re- 
duced to  a  minimum.  No  public  appeal  for  funds  has 
ever  been  made. 

Reference  :  Hull  House  Maps  and  Papers,  by  resi- 
dents of  Hull  House  (1895). 

ELLEN  G.  STARR. 

HUMANITARIAN  LEAGUE,  THE,  was 

started  in  England  in  February,  1891,  its  object 
being  to  advocate  humane  principles  from  ra- 
tional and  consistent  principles. 

The  main  principle  laid  down  in  its  manifesto 
is  that  "  it  is  iniquitous  to  inflict  suffering  on  any 
sentient  being  except  when  self-defense  or  ab- 
solute necessity  can  be  justly  pleaded."  It 
urges  the  application  of  this  principle  to  inter- 
national warfare,  the  criminal  code,  social  ques- 
tions, and  all  wanton  ill  treatment  of  the  lower 
animals,  whether  for  the  purposes  of  fashion, 
sport,  and  science,  or  "  those  dens  of  torture 
known  as  private  slaughter-houses." 

Its  members  direct  public  attention  to  the 
League's  purposes,  and  it  has  brought  out  a 
series  of  uniform  pamphlets  at  a  low  price  ; 
among  others  are :  Humanitarianism :  Its  Gen- 
eral Principles  and  Progress,  by  Mr.  H.  S. 
Salt,  the  leading  member  01  the  society  ;  Royal 
Sport ;  Rabbit  Coursing:  An  Appeal  to  Work- 
ing Men  ;  The  Horrors  of  Sport ;  Behind  the 
Scenes  in  Slaughter-houses  ;  Vivisection  and 
Women's  Wages. 

HUNTINGTON,     FREDERICK     DAN, 

was  born  at  Hadley,  Mass  ,  in  1819.  He  was 
graduated  at  Amherst  College  in  1839,  and  at 
Cambridge  Divinity  School  in  1842.  Entering 
the  Unitarian  ministry,  he  held  a  pastorate  in 
Boston,  and  from  1855-60  was  Professor  of 
Christian  Morals  and  preacher  at  Harvard  Uni- 
versity. In  1860  he  entered  the  Episcopal 
Church  and  became  rector  of  Emmanuel  Church, 
Boston,  and  in  1869  was  consecrated  Bishop  of 
Central  New  York.  Besides  many  religious 
books,  he  has  written  numerous  magazine  arti- 
cles on  religious  and  social  problems  with  kin- 
dred subjects.  He  is  president  of  the  Church 
Association  for  the  Advancement  of  the  Inter- 
ests of  Labor  (q.v.~),  and  of  the  Church  Social 
Union  (q. v.). 

HUXLEY,  THOMAS  HENRY,  we  consid- 
er here  simply  for  his  contributions  to  social  sci- 
ence. Born  at  Baling,  Middlesex,  England,  in 
1825,  he  studied  at  Charing  Cross  Hospital  and 
at  the  University  of  London.  As  assistant  sur- 
geon in  the  royal  navy  he  sailed  round  the  world 
and  made  many  observations  in  natural  science. 


Huxley,  Thomas  Henry. 


702 


Icaria. 


In  1854  he  became  Professor  of  Natural  History 
in  the  School  of  Mines,  and  Professor  of  Physi- 
ology. From  1863-69  he  was  professor  in  the 
Royal  College  of  Surgeons.  He  was  president 
of  various  scientific  societies,  from  1870-72  on 
the  London  School  Board,  and  in  1893  privy 
councillor.  He  has  been  a  careful  student  of 
biology,  yet  few  men  have  done  more  to  popu- 
larize science  by  his  lectures  and  his  numerous 
writings.  Mr.  William  M.  Salter  thus  describes 
his  social  positions  (we  abridge  his  account)  : 

"Huxley  held  to  what  might  be  called  a  reasonable 
individualism — i.e.,  the  view  that  it  is  better  to  leave 
men  as  free  as  possible,  so  long  as  their  action  is  not 
incompatible  with  social  welfare.  But  what  he  termed 
'fanatical  individualism,'  which  questions  whether 
society  may  constrain  one  of  its  number  to  contribute 
his  share  toward  maintaining  it,  or  even  whether  it 
may  prevent  him  from  doing  his  best  to  destroy  it, 
found  in  him  a  keen  opponent ;  he  called  it '  reasoned 
savagery.' 

"  Society,  he  held,  came  into  being  when  mutual  war 
gave  way  to  mutual  peace — and  it  '  most  nearly  ap- 
proaches perfection  as  the  war  of  individual  against 
individual  is  most  strictly  limited.'  The  '  eternal  com- 
„  petition  of  man  with  man  and  of  nation  with  nation' 
did  not  please  him.  He  put  his  hand  on  the  weak  spot 
in  the  laborer's  situation  when  he  said  that  it  is  the 
competition  of  laborers  with  one  another  that  makes 
the  capitalist's  strength. 

"  As  to  what  is  called  the  social  problem'  he  felt 
deeply.  He  thought  there  were  some  to  whom  society 
assured  quite  too  much  and  others  to  whom  it  assured 
too  little.  He  had  something  rather  sharp  to  say  of 
those  artificial  arrangements  by  which  fools  and  knaves 
are  sometimes  kept  at  the  top  of  society,  instead  of 
sinking  to  their  natural  place  at  the  bottom. 

"  He  thought  society  might  act  in  various  ways  for 
the  good  or  its  members — e.  g.,  by  providing  proper 
drainage  in  crowded  cities,  by  establishing  libraries, 
schools,  and  gymnasia,  by  factory  legislation,  by  reg- 
ulating not  only  the  production,  but  the  distribution  of 
wealth — as  it  already  does  in  a  measure  by  its  laws  of 
inheritance,  tho  it  might  do  much  better  in  this  partic- 
ular. 

"  Huxley  was  no  optimist,  and  yet  he  saw  no  limit 
to  the  extent  to  which  'intelligence  and  will,  guarded 
by  sound  principles  of  investigation,  and  organized  in 
common  effort,  may  modify  the  conditions  of  exist- 
ence for  a  period  longer  than  that  covered  by  history.' 
With  due  regulation  of  its  numbers  and  due  ordering 
of  its  industrial  life,  Huxley  thought  that  a  society 
might  even  now  eliminate  poverty  and  want  (save 
such  as  arose  from  moral  delinquencies  or  unavoid- 
able calamities).  Whether  any  society  would  actually 
rise  to  this  height  remained,  of  course,  to  be  seen. 
Huxley  was  only  sure  that  if  some  advance  was  not 


made  in  this  direction,  it  was  an  open  question  whether 
the  life  of  the  race  was  worth  preserving.  If  there 
was  no  hope  of  a  large  improvement  of  the  condition 
of  the  greater  part  of  the  human  family,  he  declared  he 
should  welcome  the  advent  of  some  kindly  comet  that 
would  sweep  the  whole  affair  away." 

HYNDMAN,  HENRY  MAYERS,  was  born 
in  1842,  and  was  educated  at  Trinity  College, 
Cambridge.  Taking  his  degree  in  1864  he  entered, 
the  Inner  Temple  in  1865,  but  as  special  corre- 
spondent for  the  Pall  Mall  Gazette,  went 
through  the  Italian  campaign  of  1866.  From 
1868-70  he  traveled  through  the  United  States 
and  Australia.  In  1877  he  published  books  on 
The  Indian  Famine  and  the  Crisis  in  India, 
which  brought  prominently  into  public  notice 
the  appalling  condition  of  Indian  affairs.  At 
the  general  election  of  1880  he  was  an  unsuccess- 
ful Independent  candidate  for  the  parliamentary 
seat  of  Marylebone,  London.  In  the  same  year, 
with  several  others,  he  raised  an  agitation  in 
England  against  Mr.  Gladstone's  "coercion 
policy"  in  Ireland,  and  several  times  he  had 
narrow  escapes  from  being  mobbed  by  the  Lib- 
erals for  his  outspoken  denunciations.  In  Janu- 
ary, 1881,  was  founded,  mainly  through  his 
efforts,  the  Democratic  Federation,  which  soon 
became  a  distinctly  socialist  organization,  and 
grew  into  the  Social  Democratic  Federation. 
From  that  time  forward  he  has  been  closely 
identified  with  this  organization,  speaking  and 
writing  unceasingly.  In  1886  he  was  tried,  with 
Messrs.  Burns,  Champion,  and  Williams,  for 
"  uttering  sedition  and  inciting  to  violence"  in 
a  speech  made  at  a  meeting  of  the  unemployed 
in  Trafalgar  Square.  After  a  trial  lasting  three 
days  they  were  all  acquitted.  His  first  socialist 
publication  was  England  for  All  (1881),  fol- 
lowed by  The  Historic  Basis  of  Socialism  in- 
England  (1883)  ;  The  Social  Reconstruction 
of  England,  a  Summary  of  the  Principles 
of  Socialism  (1884).  He  is  still  the  leading 
member  of  the  Social  Democratic  Federation, 
and  constantly  contributes  to  Justice,  its  organ. 
A  man  of  some  means,  no  one  has  more  abso- 
lutely devoted  his  whole  life  to  the  cause  of  so- 
cialism. 


I. 


IBSEN,  HENRIK,  was  born  at  Skien,  Nor- 
way, March  20,  1828.  Apprenticed  to  a  drug- 
gist, he  early  left  the  pharmacy  for  literature. 
In  1854  he  was  appointed  director  of  the  theater 
at  Bergen  ;  in  1857  at  Christiania.  In  1866  he 
received  a  pension  and  resided  abroad  at  Dres- 
den, Munich,  and  Rome  till  1891,  when  here- 
turned  to  reside  at  Christiania.  His  first  drama, 
Catilina  (1850),  was  not  considered  a  success, 
tho  with  marks  of  genius.  He  then  turned  to 
Norwegian  historical  subjects  and  found  great 
success,  and  followed  these  by  some  satirical 
dramas,  which  have  had  still  more  popularity  in 
Norway,  and  have  been  translated  into  most 
European  languages.  With  The  Pillars  of 
Society  (1877)  Ibsen  began  a  series  of  realistic 
pictures  satirizing  every-day  life  that  have  made 


him  famous  the  world  over.  This  was  followed 
by  A  DolTs  House  (1878)  ;  Ghosts  (1881)  ;  An 
Enemy  of  the  People  (1882)  ;  Hedda  Gabler 
(1890) ;  The  Master  Builder  (1892),  and  other 
dramas  less  known.  These  productions  have 
been  attacked  as  immoral,  and  have  been  laud- 
ed as  of  the  highest  genius.  They  have  done 
good  service  for  social  reform  by  showing  some 
of  the  shams  and  weak  spots  of  respectable  so- 
ciety, as  in  part  due  to  present  economic  condi- 
tions. See  G.  B.  Shaw's  Quintessence  of  Ib- 
senism  (1891). 

ICARIA,  a  communistic  settlement  begun  in 
1847,  to  embody  the  social  ideals  described  in 
Cabet's  romance  Voyage  en  Icarie.  Cabet 
(y.v.)  wrote  his  romance  in  1839,  an(i  then, 


Icaria. 


7°3 


Illegitimacy. 


pressed  by  his  friends,  sought  for  an  opportu- 
nity to  carry  out  his  ideas.  He  finally  succeed- 
ed in  making  arrangements  for  an  experiment 
on  American  soil.  In  his  journal,  Le  Popu- 
laire,  he  announced  the  purchase  of  a  consid- 
erable tract  of  land  on  the  Red  River,  Tex., 
and  a  treaty  by  which  Cabet  was  made  the  di- 
rector of  an  intended  colony,  and  the  depositary 
of  all  the  funds,  community  of  property  being 
the  distinctive  principle  of  the  society.  Accord- 
ingly, in  1848,  an  expedition  of  69  persons  sailed 
to  America  as  an  advance  guard,  leaving  Cabet 
himself  and  another  company  to  follow  soon 
after.  But  difficulties  arose.  They  were  at- 
tacked by  the  yellow-fever,  and,  unable  to  en- 
dure the  Texan  climate,  the  survivors  were 
obliged  to  abandon  their  claims  and  return  to 
New  Orleans.  Here  Cabet  met  them,  with 
400  additional  members.  News,  however,  had 
been  received  in  New  (Orleans  of  the  proclama- 
tion of  the  republic  in  France,  and  many  felt 
tempted  to  return.  Cabet  was  denounced,  but 
induced  several  hundred  to  keep  on.  Learning 
that  the  Mormons  had  abandoned  their  settle- 
ment in  Nauvoo,  111. ,  he  set  out  for  that  place 
with  his  followers.  The  Icarians  in  Nauvoo 
numbered  at  one  time  600.  They  met  with 
some  success  in  cultivating  their  land,  estab- 
lished shops,  pursued  trades,  and  set  up  a  print- 
ing-office ;  but  instead  of  rejoicing  in  his  pros- 
perity, and  laboring  to  increase  it,  Cabet  was 
dreaming  what  he  might  do  if  he  had  half  a 
million,  as  is  evinced  by  his  publication  IVenn 
ich  $300,000  hdtte. 

It  is  said  that  Cabet  developed  a  dictatorial 
spirit ;  but  this  is  doubtful.  He  was  in  a  diffi- 
cult place,  and  had  many  rivals  and  enemies. 
He  was  even  summoned  back  to  Paris  on  a 
trumped-up  charge  of  fraud,  but  was  able  to 
successfully  defend  himself  before  the  tribunal. 
Returning  to  Nauvoo,  he  found  it  prospering  ; 
but  dissension  again  arose,  and  Cabet  was  ex- 
pelled. He  went  with  some  of  his  followers  to 
St.  Louis,  where  he  died  (1856).  His  followers 
founded  a  colony  at  Cheltenham,  which,  how- 
ever, did  not  endure.  Meantime,  the  faction 
which  had  remained  at  Nauvoo,  after  many 
years  of  struggle,  decided  to  remove,  and  4000 
acres  were  bought  by  the  Nodaway  River,  in 
Adams  County,  la.,  in  the  town  of  Corning, 
and  the  colony  moved  there.  Dissensions  were, 
however,  not  over,  and  in  1880  two  factions — 
the  Young  Party  and  the  Old  Party— having 
failed  to  live  together,  separated.  The  prop- 
erty was  equitably  divided  by  arbitrators  ;  but 
through  a  technicality  the  old  charter  was  lost, 
the  Young  Party  obtaining  a  new  one  and  the 
right  to  the  name,  with  the  original  settlement  ; 
the  Old  Party  found  themselves  obliged  to 
found  a  New  Icaria  a  mile  farther  east.  The 
Young  Party  soon  dissolved.  The  Old  Party 
continued,  but  finally  disbanded  in  1895. 

The  essential  principles  of  Cabet's  communism 
were  the  equality  of  all  and  the  brotherhood  of 
man.  Executive  officers  were  elected  every 
year,  who  were,  however,  only  empowered  to 
execute  the  orders  of  their  fellow-citizens,  and 
could  not  so  much  as  buy  a  bushel  of  corn  with- 
out being  authorized  to  do  so  by  the  society. 
The  directors  bought  the  goods  needed  by  the 
Icarians  twice  a  year  at  wholesale.  Each  one 


made  known  his  wants  previously  to  the  semi- 
annual purchases.  ' '  To  each  according  to  his 
needs  ;  from  each  according  to  his  ability"  was 
the  economic  doctrine  of  the  community.  Mar- 
riage was  essential  according  to  Cabet's  scheme, 
and  wives  highly  honored.  Not  only  was  the 
strictest  fidelity  enjoined  upon  the  husbands, 
but  they  were  required  to  render  special  acts  of 
homage  to  their  wives. 

The  government  was  purely  democratic.  Con- 
cerning religion,  the  constitution  of  the  commu- 
nity said  :  ' '  The  Icarian  Community  adopts  as 
its  religion  the  religion  of  Christianity  in  its 
primitive  purity,  and  its  fundamental  principle 
of  fraternity  of  men  and  of  peoples. ' '  Sunday 
was  set  apart  as  a  day  of  rest  and  recreation. 
Walking,  riding,  visiting,  fishing,  and  dancing, 
with  occasional  amateur  theatricals,  were  the 
amusements.  In  addition  to  the  national  holi- 
days they  celebrated  two  of  their  own,  February 
3,  or  the  anniversary  of  the  founding  of  the 
community,  and  the  "  Fete  de  Mais,"  or  corn 
festival. 

They  lived  in  little  houses  in  plots  of  ground 
bright  with  flowers  around  a  central  house, 
where  they  had  their  meals  in  common.  They 
at  one  time  published  a  little  paper,  the  Revue 
Icarienne. 

ILLEGITIMACY.— In  studying  the  subject 
of  illegitimacy  at  least  three  things  must  be  re- 
membered. First,  that  the  proportion  of  illegiti- 
mate to  legitimate  births  in  any  country  is  by  no 
means  an  index  of  the  morality  of  the  country.  A 
country  may  have  a  high  rate  of  illegitimacy  not 
because  morals  are  low,  but  because  of  the  law. 
There  is  probably  a  lower  rate  of  illegitimacy  in 
Turkey  than  in  England  ;  but  few  would  argue 
that  Turkey  is  the  more  moral  country  of  the 
two.  The  simple  reason  is  that  in  Turkey  polyg- 
amy and  frequent  change  of  wives  are  allowed 
by  the  law.  Bavaria  in  former  times  had  laws 
forbidding  marriage  except  to  those  possessed 
of  property  or  who  were  members  of  a  guild. 
The  natural  result  was  an  enormously  high 
rate  of  illegitimacy.  When  the  laws  were 
changed,  about  1868,  the  proportion  sank  in  a 
few  years  nearly  50  per  cent.  Lord  Kames 
states  that  in  1707,  Iceland  having  become  al- 
most depopulated  by  an  epidemic,  the  King  of 
Denmark  issued  a  proclamation  legitimizing  all 
children  to  the  extent  that  no  unmarried  moth- 
er was  to  be  deemed  to  have  lost  her  reputation 
until  her  progeny  exceeded  six.  Again,  a  low 
rate  of  illegitimacy  may  obviously  prevail  in  a 
country  because  there  is  a  high  rate  of  ante- 
natal destruction  of  life,  or  a  frequent  practice 
of  neo-Malthusianism.  (See  MARRIAGE  ;  MAL- 
THUSIANISM.)  This  may  be  the  reason  why  ille- 
gitimacy in  some  countries  like  England  seems 
more  prevalent  in  rural  than  in  urban  districts. 
This  may  be  the  reason,  too,  why  certain  sec- 
tions of  Scotland  have  a  higher  rate  of  illegiti- 
macy than  France. 

The  second  point  that  must  be  remembered 
is  that  even  where  a  high  rate  of  illegitimacy  is 
caused  by  laxity  in  morals,  it  does  not  always 
imply  low  morals  in  all  directions.  Miss  Mulock, 
in  thoughts  about  Women,  says  : 

"  Women  who  thus  fall  are  by  no  means  the  worst 
of  their  station.  1  have  heard  it  affirmed  by  more 


Illegitimacy. 


704 


Illegitimacy. 


than  one  lady,  and  by  one  in  particular  whose  experi- 
ence is  as  large  as  her  benevolence,  that  many  of  them 
are  of  the  very  best— refined,  intelligent,  truthful,  and 
affectionate. 

"  '  I  don't  know  how  it  is,'  she  would  say,  '  whether 
their  very  superiority  makes  them  dissatisfied  with 
their  own  rank,  so  that  they  fall  easier  victims  to  the 
rank  above  them,  or  whether  other  virtues  can  exist 
and  flourish  entirely  distinct  from  and  after  the 
loss  of  what  we  are  accustomed  to  believe  the  indis- 
pensable virtue  of  our  sex — Chastity.'  " 

Froude  says  {History  of  the  English  in  the 
West  Indies,  p.  344)  : 

"  Immorality  (in  Hayti)  is  so  universal  that  it  almost 
ceases  to  be  a  fault,  for  a  fault  implies  an  exception,  and 
in  Hayti  it  is  the  rule.  Young  people  make  experi- 
ment of  one  another  before  they  will  enter  into  any 
closer  connection.  So  far  they  are  no  worse  than  in 
our  own  English  Islands,  where  the  custom  is  equally 
general." 

The  third  point  applies  to  all  statistics,  but  es- 
pecially to  statistics  of  morals,  and  among  sta- 
tistics of  morals,  particularly  to  statistics  con- 
cerning chastity,  that  a  high  rate  of  evil  may 
simply  indicate  a  careful  registry  and  a  high 
social  standard,  so  that  low  morality  and  good 
appearances  not  seldom  go  together.  Remem- 
bering these  precautions,  the  following  statis- 
tics, taken,  unless  otherwise  indicated,  from 
Dr.  Albert  Lemngwell's  Illegitimacy,  are  of 
great  value. 


ILLEGITIMACY    IN   EUROPE. 

Of  each  1000  births  (still-births  excluded)  the 


following  were  illegitimate  in  the  different  coun- 
tries in  the  years  mentioned  : 


1869. 

1870. 

1885. 

1886. 

1887. 

1888. 

1889.. 

Ireland..  .. 

29 

27 

28 

27 

28 

29 

28 

Russia. 

28 

28 

28 

27 

28 

27 

27 

Holland  

36 

35 

31 

S2 

32 

33 

Switzerland 

*  .. 

5° 

49 

48 

48 

47 

England 

and  Wales 

58 

56 

48 

47 

48 

46 

46 

Spain  

56 

ec 

Italy  

60 

64 

76 

75 

75 

74 

73 

France  

75 

75 

80 

82 

82 

85 

Belgium  ..  . 

72 

87 

87 

88 

88 

Prussia*     .  . 

78 

79 

82 

82 

82 

80 

80 

Hungary..  . 

7° 

68 

84 

83 

84 

84 

85 

Scotland  

98 

96 

85 

82 

83 

81 

79 

Norway  

85 

79 

79 

77 

76 

74 

Denmark  .  . 

114 

in 

IOO 

97 

97 

93 

93 

Sweden  

102 

104 

104 

102 

105 

IO2 

IOI 

Saxony  
Bavaria*.... 

179 

137 
164 

130 
139 

129 
139 

128 

138 

125 
I40 

125 
141 

Austria...   . 

138 

'31 

'47 

147 

I46 

'47 

According  to  the  Bulletin  de  /' Inst. ,  etc. ,  vol. 
vii.,  illegitimacy  is  increasing  in  Italy,  France, 
Austria,  Hungary,  Belgium,  Roumania,  Servia, 
and  Massachusetts,  and  decreasing  in  England, 
Scotland,  Holland,  Norway,  and  Denmark. 

The  rate  of  illegitimacy  seems  to  differ  stead- 
ily and  unaccountably  in  different  portions  of 
the  same  country. 

Dr.  Leffingwell  gives  the  following  table  of 
the  number  of  illegitimate  births  per  1000  in  two 
sections  of  Scotland  : 


1857- 

1858. 

1867. 

1868. 

1877. 

1878. 

Ten  Years, 
1876-85. 

Northeastern  Counties  

145 

153 

139 

139 

141 

61 

61 

61 

65 

59 

64 

He  asks : 

"  Why  do  these  two  sections  differ,  and  differ  so 
enormously  ?  Why  does  one  locality  persistently  and 
regularly  pay  twice  the  tribute  of  bastardy  of  its 
neighbor,  year  after  year?" 

He  says  it  is  not  because  of  differences  in  edu- 
cation, since  in  1878  94  per  cent,  of  the  mar- 
ried women  in  the  northeastern  division  were 
able  to  write,  while  in  the  other  only  38  per  cent, 
of  the  whole  number  who  married  could  sign 
their  names.  It  was  not  due  to  poverty,  be- 
c*ause  in  no  portion  of  Scotland  do  so  small  a 
proportion  of  the  population  live  in  cottages  of 


a  single  room.  It  cannot  be  due  to  religion,  be- 
cause both  sections  cherish  the  stern  faith  of 
Calvin  and  Knox.  Dr.  Leffingwell  says  : 

"  It  seems  to  me  that  the  most  plausible  explanation 
of  this  remarkable  local  proclivity  toward  immorality 
is  that  it  is  primarily  due  to  ancestral  tendencies, 
coming,  it  may  be,  from  prehistoric  times.  Probably 
the  immediate  and  active  cause  to-day  is  the  conta- 
gion of  loose  example,  the  near  inheritance  of  unwise 
proclivity." 

In  English  counties  the  rates  also  strangely 
vary.  Here  is  a  table  of  certain  English  coun- 
ties : 


DIVISIONS  AND 
COUNTIES. 

1879. 

1880. 

1881. 

1882. 

1883. 

1884. 

1885. 

1886. 

1887. 

1888. 

10  Years 
Average. 

76 

80 

82 

84 

85 

82 

81 

80 

82 

81 

79 

76 

78 

76 

Hereford  

68 

75 

78 

79 

67 

80 

74 

85 

76 

Norfolk  

79 

75 

78 

73 

7° 

7° 

72 

73 

74 

74 

73 

84 

67 

62 

69 

64 

69 

7° 

North  Wales  

67 

63 

68 

67 

68 

69 

75 

73 

73 

69 

All  England                 .... 

48 

48 

48 

48 

48 

46 

48 

48 

45 

47 

46 

48 

46 

48 

46 

48 

46 

47 

Somerset  

46 

44 

47 

44 

43 

42 

42 

41 

41 

43 

Hampshire  

45 

44 

46 

42 

43 

42 

43 

4i 

41 

43 

43 

Kent     

44 

45 

43 

43 

43 

43 

44 

43 

Surrey  

38 

42 

38 

39 

41 

44 

41 

40 

43 

4° 

*  Including  still-births  for  1885-89. 


Illegitimacy. 


7°5 


Illegitimacy. 


Says  Dr.  Leffingwell : 


tion  of  the  country  pays  twice  the  tribute  of  another 
part ;  and  yet  both  sections  are  equally  under  English 
laws,  English  customs,  English  civilization.  What, 


one  may  well  ask,  are  the  influences,  the  circumstances, 
the  conditions,  which  produce  such  surprising  con- 
trasts between  the  social  morality  of  Devon  and  Nor- 
folk, or  Surrey  and  Shropshire  ?" 

In  Prussia,  Pomerania  and  Silesia  have  a  very 
high  rate  of  illegitimacy,  altho  one  is  agricul- 
tural and  the  other  mining  and  manufacturing. 
Saxony  and  the  Rhine  provinces  have  rates  of 
illegitimacy  of  9.36  and  3.76  per  cent,  of  the 
total  number  of  births,  altho  both  are  indus- 
trial regions  (R.  Mayo-Smith's  Statistics  and 
Sociology,  Book  I.,  chap.  v.). 

According  to  some,  illegitimacy  is  larger  in 
cities  than  in  the  country.  According  to  others, 
the  contrary  is  the  case.  For  France,  Levas- 
seur  (La  Pop.  franfaise,  II.,  p.  34)  states  the 
percentage  of  illegitimate  births  for  1879-83  in 
the  Department  of  the  Seine  as  24.1,  and 
among  the  urban  population  generally  10.1, 
while  in  all  France  it  was  7.4  and  in  the  rural 
population  4.2.  In  Germany,  in  1890,  the  ille- 
gitimate births  in  the  cities  numbered  13.2  per 
cent.,  and  in  the  country  only  9.1  (Jahrbuch 
der  deutschen  Stddte,  1892). 

In  England,  illegitimacy,  according  to  Dr. 
Leffingwell,  prevails  in  the  country  more  than 
in  the  cities.  He  says  (p.  31) : 

"  The  great  cities  of  England  nearly  all  show  a  pro- 
portion of  illegitimate  births  below  the  rate  prevalent 
in  certain  agricultural  and  rural  districts  inhabited 


by  an  honest,  sober,  industrious,  and  estimable  popu- 
lation. Contrast,  for  instance,  the  number  of  illegiti- 
mate in  every  1000  births,  as  they  occur  In  the  three 
principal  cities  of  England,  with  the  rate  which  ob- 
tains in  some  of  the  most  beautiful  of  rural  resorts." 


i885. 

1886. 

1887. 

1888. 

1889. 

^8 

38 

^s 

Liverpool  

fir 

6? 

if. 

58 

North  Wales  

69 

Westmoreland  

62 

69 

*i 

£> 

78 

82 

81 

80 

Illegitimacy,  according  to  Dr.  Leffingwell,  is 
not  due  primarily  to  poverty.  He  says  (pp. 
26-31) : 

"There  can  be  no  doubt  that  wealth,  or  at  least  a 
competence,  does  secure  to  its  possessors  certain  safe- 
guards against  temptations  which  assail  not  only  the 
hungry  and  homeless,  but  those  who  are  struggling  for 
daily  bread.  .  .  . 

"  And  yet  it  is  perfectly  evident  that  poverty  of  itself 
does  not  predispose  to  vice  or  to  looseness  of  morals. 
We  hardly  need  statistics  in  proof  of  this,  and  yet  they 
confirm  the  general  belief.  If  we  look  at  those  sec- 
tions of  the  United  Kingdom  where  poverty  is  most 
hopeless  and  pressure  for  the  barest  necessities  of  life 
the  strongest,  it  is  there  in  very  many  instances  that 
we  find  the  least  tendency  to  illicit  relations,  so  far 
as  these  are  measurable  by  their  most  natural  result. 

"  In  Ireland,  for  example,  we  find  the  rate  of  bas- 
tardy less  than  that  in  England  or  Scotland.  Yet  no 
one  can  question  the  misery  in  which  the  Irish  peas- 
antry has  been  steeped  for  centuries.  But  some  parts 
of  Ireland  are  exceptionally  poverty-stricken,  and 


No.  of  Illegitimate  Births  each  Year. 


1879. 

1880. 

1881. 

1882. 

1883. 

1884. 

1885. 

1886. 

1887. 

1888. 

Total. 

Mayo  

28 

36 

27 

722 

Down  

287 

•128 

284 

331 

292 

3,084 

some  sections,  measured  by  an  Irish  standard,  excep- 
tionally prosperous.  Two  counties,  Mayo  and  Down — 
one  on  the  bleak  and  barren  coast  of  the  Atlantic,  the 
other  in  prosperous  Ulster — each  containing  by  the  cen- 
sus of  1881  about  the  same  number  of  inhabitants,  pre- 
sent a  contrast  which  is  worth  a  moment's  special 
study.  .  .  . 

"  I  have  carried  out  these  figures  for  so  long  a  pe- 
riod that  the  reader  may  see  that  the  phenomenal  pre- 
ponderance of  bastardy  in  Down  was  persistent  year 
after  year.  Compare  now  the  proportion  of  these 
births  to  the  total  number  born  : 


COUNTY. 

Total  Births 
10  Years, 
1879-88. 

Total  Num- 
ber of  Ille- 
gitimate 
Births. 

To  1,000  To- 
tal Births, 
how  many 
Illegitimate? 

Mayo        (Con- 
naught)  ...   . 
Down  (Ulster). 

57,Mi 
60,346 

322 
3,084 

5.6 
Si-i 

"What  do  these  figures  reveal?  On  the  one  hand 
we  have  a  section  of  prosperous  and  happy  Ulster, 
wherein  the  average  rate  of  illegitimacy  for  10  years 
was  51  per  1000  births,  greater  than  that  in  Eng- 
land and  Wales ;  while  the  wretched  land  of  barren- 
ness and  bog  shows  a  ratio  less  than  any  county  in 
England,  Scotland,  or  Ireland,  and  possibly  less  than 
elsewhere  in  Europe.  If  we  look  at  the  relation  be- 
tween illegitimate  births  and  the  unmarried  and  nu- 
bile womanhood  between  ages  of  15  and  45,  we  shall 
see  a  somewhat  modified  result,  yet  practically  tha 
same." 

45 


No.  of  Un- 
married Women 
Living  between 
Ages  of  15-45. 

To  10,000  Un- 
married Women 
15-45,  how  many 
Illegitimate 
Births  Annually 
During  10  Years, 
1879-88  ? 

Mayo  (Connaught).. 
Down  (Ulster)  
All  Ireland  

29,069 
34,33° 

ii 

90 

It  is  not  due  to  religious  differences.  Says 
Dr.  Leffingwell  (pp.  41-42)  : 

"  Does  the  reader  believe  that  the  highest  apprecia- 
tion of  chastity  depends  upon  the  spiritual  acceptance 
of  Calvinistic  theology  ;  in  reverence  for  the  sanctity 
of  the  Sabbath,  and  abhorrence  of  the  Papacy  ?  Let 
him  ponder  over  the  statistics  of  Scotland,  and  explain 
why  this  land  of  strictest  Sabbath  keeping  and  purest 
Calvinism  exhibits  double  the  illegitimacy  of  England 
every  year.  Does  he  hold  that  the  pre-eminent  ex- 
cellence of  the  theology  of  Martin  Luther  is  evidenced 
by  the  morality  of  its  believers  ?  Let  him  study  the 
records  of  Norway,  Sweden,  and  Denmark,  where 
Lutheranism  for  centuries  has  held  undivided  sway. 
Does  he  claim  that  the  infallible  creed  of  the  Roman 
Catholic  Church  insures  its  adherents  superiority  in 
morals?  Then  upon  this  hypothesis  he  must  explain 
why  Austria  and  Bavaria  are  so  low  down  on  this 
scale.  Is  it,  then,  to  believers  in  the  39  articles  of  the 
Established  Church  of  England  that  we  are  driven  to 


Illegitimacy. 


706 


Illiteracy. 


look  for  freedom  from  frailty  ?  But  where  in  England 
is  the  rate  -of  illegitimacy  so  low  as  in  Russia  or  in 
Greece — not  to  speak  of  Ireland  at  her  side  ?" 

In  Prussia,  in  1875-81  the  number  of  illegiti- 
mate children  among  evangelical  mothers  was 
8.85  per  cent.  ;  among  Catholic  mothers,  5.64  ; 
among  Jewish  mothers,  2.73  per  cent.  (Zeit- 
schrijt  aes  Preuss.  Bureau,  1882,  p.  232). 

It  is  not  due  to  lack  of  education.  Dr.  Leffing- 
well  says  (pp.  36-38)  : 

"  Many  countries  where  popular  education  is  widely 
diffused  among  all  classes,  such  as  Denmark,  Norway 
and  Sweden,  Prussia,  Saxony,  and  Scotland,  show  a 
high  rate  of  illegitimacy,  while  in  some  others,  such  as 
Russia  and  Ireland,  the  rate  is  very  low.  .  .  . 

"  Of  the  number  of  women  married  in  Kirkcud- 
bright, a  county  in  Southern  Scotland,  99  per  cent,  are 
able  to  write  their  names  in  the  marriage  register  ; 
showing  a  larger  proportion  of  women  thus  far  edu- 
cated than  in  any  country  of  Europe  or  any  county  of 
England  or  Wales.  Yet  the  rate  of  bastardy  which 
there  annually  prevails  is,  year  by  year,  greater  than 
in  any  one  of  the  89  departments  of  France,  Paris  only 
excepted  !  .  .  . 

"  In  Prance,  putting  Paris  aside,  those  departments 
where  ignorance  of  the  alphabet  is  most  general  are 
in  many  cases  the  very  ones  which  hold  the  virtue  of 
chastity  in  highest  esteem.  Finisterre,  for  example, 
of  the  89  departments  of  France,  stands  first  for  the  ig- 
norance of  the  male  population  and  first  for  the  illiter- 
acy of  its  women ;  yet  its  rate  of  illegitimacy  during 
the  period  observed  was  but  34  per  1000  births ;  less 
than  that  which  prevailed  during  the  same  time  in  any 
one  of  the  counties  of  England,  Wales,  or  Scotland." 

Dr.  Leffingwell  concludes  that  a  high  rate  of 
illegitimacy  is  mainly  due  to  law  and  to  hered- 
ity. He  says  (pp.  47,  50-52) : 

"I  think  it  perfectly  evident  that  if  throughout  Eu- 
rope all  obstacles  to  marriage  were  abolished;  if  pa- 
rental prudence  were  given  no  power  to  oppose  ;  if  all 
that  is  necessary  were  simply  the  registration  of  inten- 
tion before  a  public  official  qualified  to  take  acknowl- 
edgments, an  act  of  recognition  obtainable  at  all 
times,  publicly  or  privately,  by  rich  or  poor,  without 
fee  or  cost  of  any  kind,  it  would  undoubtedly  add  to  the 
greater  frequency  of  the  legal  tie  among  the  poorer 
class,  and  decrease  in  very  great  proportion  the  preva- 
lence of  illegitimate  births.  .  .  . 

"  But  of  all  causes  of  human  conduct,  one  of  the 
most  potent  is  probably  the  predisposition  that  lies 
•wrapped  in  organization,  and  which  is  passed  onward 
by  inheritance.  .  .  . 

"  It  will  be  noted  that,  with  few  exceptions,  the 
northern  nations  of  Europe  of  Scandinavian  or  Teuton- 
ic origin  apparently  show  the  strongest  proclivity  to 
those  ante-marital  irregularities  of  which  illegitimacy 
is  a  sort  of  gauge.  Why  should  it  be  so  prevalent  in 
Norway,  Scotland,  Iceland,  Sweden,  Finland,  Den- 
mark, Prussia,  Saxony,  Austria,  and  Bavaria?  Chiefly 
upon  hereditary  predisposition  or  organization  per- 
sistent through  successive  generations  of  families.  ' 

Contrary  to  the  above  views  is  the  position 
held  by  many  in  the  United  States  that  easy 
marriage,  while  it  may  lower  illegitimacy,  in- 
creases divorce.  Very  many  biologists,  too,  ques- 
tion the  influence  of  heredity.  (See  DIVORCE  ; 
HEREDITY.)  It  has  been  argued  that  the  high 
rate  of  illegitimacy  prevailing  in  most  Teutonic 
or  Scandinavian  countries  indicates  not  a  low 
morality  so  much  as  the  absence  of  the  custom 
of  neo-Malthusianism.  Undoubtedly,  in  any 
case,  the  rate  of  illegitimacy  depends  upon  the 
social  customs  of  a  people  far  more  than  on  eco- 
nomic grounds.  In  Scotland  and  in  Eastern 
Prussia  a  birth  before  marriage  is  lightly  es- 
teemed if  the  child  be  legitimized  by  a  subse- 
quent marriage. 

In  Denmark,  with  regard  to  the  peasant  population 
of  the  rural  districts  ...  it  was  found  that  of  100 
first-born  children  no  less  than  39  were  born  under 
seven  months  after  marriage,  to  which  must  be  added 


9  per  cent,  born  between  seven  and  nine  months 
after  marriage .  A  great  number  of  the  brides  who 
were  not  pregnant  at  marriage  had  already  had  ille- 
gitimate children  with  the  bridegroom  or  others  ;  so 
that  it  may  probably  be  assumed  that  in  two  thirds  of 
the  marriages  (childless  marriages  excepted)  the  bride 
had  had  children  while  unmarried,  or  was  pregnant  at 
the  marriage.  (Westergaard  on  Marriage  Statistics 
of  Denmark,  Copenhagen.  Translation  furnished  to 
Seventh  International  Congress  of  Hygiene  and  De- 
mography.) 

In  regard  to  the  lessening  of  illegitimacy, 
most  individualists  would  lessen  it  by  raising 
the  moral  sense  of  the  individual.  Socialists 
would  add  to  this  economic  changes,  making  it 
economically  possible  for  men  and  women  to 
marry  early,  but  above  all  making  it  economical- 
ly easier  for  every  married  couple  to  bring  up  its 
family  in  good,  healthy  homes.  Dr.  Mayo- 
Smith  (see  above,  p.  84)  states  that  there  is  very 
little  illegitimacy  among  young  women  living 
with  their  parents. 

Reference :  Illegitimacy  and  the  Influence  of  Sea- 
sons upon  Conduct,  by  Albert  Leffingwell,  M.D.  (1892). 
(See  also  PROSTITUTION  ;  MARRIAGE  ;  DIVORCE.) 

ILLITERACY.  (See  EDUCATION.)  We  give 
here  some  of  the  reported  facts  as  to  illiteracy. 
All  comparative  tables  of  illiteracy  are  exposed 
to  the  greatest  difficulties,  owing  to  the  varying 
degree  of  accuracy  and  the  different  basis  of  the 
statistics  of  illiteracy  in  different  countries.  Our 
facts  for  Europe  are  based  upon  Dr.  R.  Mayo- 
Smith's  Statistics  and  Sociology,  p.  196,  and  are 
taken  for  the  sake  of  uniformity  for  the  years 
1880-82,  and  refer  to  illiteracy  among  recruits, 
except  for  England,  Scotland,  and  Ireland, 
where  bridegrooms  are  taken,  and  the  United 
States,  where  males  from  15-21  are  taken  as  the 
class  nearest  the  recruits. 

The  most  illiterate  countries  in  Europe  are 
the  Slavonic  countries.  Russia  has  a  percent- 
age of  illiteracy  of  78.8.  The  colored  popula- 
tion of  the  United  States  has  a  percentage 
of  62.1.  Hungary's  is  58.  Next  in  illiteracy 
come  the  Roman  Catholic  countries  of  Italy, 
Austria,  and  Ireland.  The  percentage  of  illit- 
erates in  the  latter  is  27.6.  Considerably  high- 
er stand  Belgium  (15.9),  France  (14-9).  and  Eng- 
land (13.2).  The  white  population  of  the  United 
States  have  a  percentage  of  7.7.  The  following 
countries  have  less  illiteracy  than  the  United 
States:  Scotland  (6.8),  Switzerland  (2.5),  Ger- 
many (1.6).  Sweden  and  Denmark  have  only  .04 
of  their  population  illiterate.  According  to  Mul- 
hall  (1889),  the  ratio  of  those  unable  to  write  to 
the  total  population  was  :  England,  9  ;  Scotland, 
6  ;  Switzerland,  5  ;  Germany,  4  ;  Scandinavia,  3. 

Professor  Mayo-Smith  considers  such  statis- 
tics, tho  perhaps  the  best  which  can  be  had — 
since  few  countries  take  a  census  of  illiterates — 
nevertheless  more  or  less  misleading,  because 
recruits  and  those  able  to  marry  are  a  select 
class,  and  the  statistics  do  not  show  the  great 
illiteracy  of  the  very  poor— paupers,  criminals, 
and  defectives.  Again,  in  many  countries  the 
young  who  marry  and  all  the  recruits  are  much 
more  literate  than  the  old.  In  Belgium,  the 
lowest  number  of  illiterates  is  among  persons  of 
15  to  25  years  of  age,  while  of  those  over  60,  50 
per  cent,  are  illiterate. 

The  statistics  of  illiteracy  for  the  United 
States,  according  to  the  -census  of  1890,  were  as 
follows  : 


Illiteracy. 


707 


Immigration. 


STATISTICS  OF  ILLITERACY  IN  THE  UNITED  STATES. 
CENSUS  OF  1890. 


STATES     AND     TERRI- 
TORIES. 

POPULATION,    10   YEARS 
OF  AGE  AND  OVER. 

WHITE  POPU- 
LATION, 10 
YEARS  OF  AGE 
AND  OVER. 

NATIVE 
WHITE  POPU- 
LATION, 10 
YEARS  OF  AGE 
AND  OVER. 

FOREIGN 
WHITE  POPU- 
LATION, 10 
YEARS  OF  AGE 
AND  OVER. 

COLORED 
POPULATION,* 
10  YEARS  OF 
AGE  AND 
OVER. 

Total. 

ILLITERATES. 

ILLITERATES. 

ILLITERATES. 

ILLITERATES. 

ILLITERATES. 

Number. 

Per 
Cent. 

Number. 

Per 
Cent. 

Number. 

Per 

Cent. 

Number. 

Per 
Cent. 

Number. 

Per 
3entv 

Alabama  

1,069,545 
46,076 

787,113 
989,896 
327,896 
609,830 
131,967 
188,567 
283,250 
1,302,208 
62,721 
2,907,671 
1,674,028 
1,441,308 

',055,215 
1,360,031 
794,683 
541,662 
798,605 
1,839,607 
1,619,035 
962,350 
902,028 
i,995,638 
107,811 

77^659 
38,225 

315,497 
1,143,123 
112,541 
4,822,392 
1,147,446 
129,452 
2,858,659 
44,701 
244,374 
4,063,134 
281,959 
802,406 
236,208 
1,276,631 
1,564,755 
147,227 

271,173 
1,211,934 
275,639 
549,538 
1,258,390 
47,755 

438,535 
10,785 
209,745 
75,902 
17,180 
32,194 
18,878 
24,884 
78,720 
518,706 
3,225 
152,634 
105,829 
52,061 
42,079 
294,381 
364,184 
29,587 
125,376 
114,468 
95,914 
58,057 
360,613 
181,368 
5,884 
24,021 
4,897 
21,476 

74,321 
50,070 
266,911 
409,703 
7,743 
149,843 
2,400 
10,103 
275,353 
27,525 
360,705 

9,974 
340,140 
308,873 
8,232 
18,154 
365,736 
11,778 
79,180 

84,745 
1,630 

41.0 

23-4 
26.6 

7-7 

5-2 
5-3 
14-3 
13.2 
27.8 
39-8 
5-i 
5-2 

6'1 

3-6 

4.0 

21.6 

45-8 
5-5 
15-7 

6.2 

5-9 
6.0 
40.0 
9.1 
5-5 
3-1 

12.8 

6.8 
6.5 
44-5 
5-5 
35-7 
6.0 

5-2 

5-4 

6.*8 
9.8 
45-o 

4-2 

26.6 
19.7 
5-6 
6-7 
30.2 

4-3 
14.4 
6.7 
3-4 

107,335 
8,956 
93,090 
40,233 
15,474 
30,536 
8,186 

3,495 
18,516 
114,691 
2,119 
140,219 
94,334 
49,828 
49,719 
183,851 
80,939 
29,108 

44,653 
111,442 
91,076 
56,966 
45,755 
133,806 
4,232 
21,575 
i,356 
21,340 
63,163 
43,265 
255,498 
173,722 
7,528 
132,244 
1,503 
6,946 
254,663 
26,355 
59,443 
9,564 
172,169 
132,389 
7,407 
17,986 
105,058 
8,261 
68,188 
82,984 
1,408 

18.2 

21.  I 
l6.3 

4-5 

4.8 

5-1 
7-4 
2-7 
ii  3 
16.3 
3-5 
4.9 
5-8 
3-5 
2.9 
15-8 
20.  i 
5-4 

J.-° 
6.1 

5-7 
5-9 

II.Q 

7-1 
4.1 

2.8 

4.2 
6.8 

4?3 

5-4 
23.0 
5-8 
4-7 
3-5 
3-o 
6.4 
9.6 
17.9 
4.1 
17.8 
10.8 

5-1 
6.7 

13-9 
3-1 
13.0 
6.6 
3-0 

106,235 
2,056 
92,052 
10,113 
9,235 
4,300 
6,068 
1,803 
16,685 
U3,945 
867 
64,380 
78,638 
20,649 
17,157 
178,159 
72,013 

",443 
32,105 
9,727 
27,016 
7,112 
44,987 
112,938 

1,020 
7,412 
173 
3,679 
21,35! 

40,065 
57,362 
173,545 
929 
82,673 
1,342 

3,3°2 
"0,737 
4,087 
59,063 
1,811 
170,318 
89,829 
2,219 
7,211 
103,265 
2,467 
65,420 
15>6i3 
427 

18.4 

7-9 
16.6 

i-7 

3-8 

I.O 

6.2 

»-7 

"•3 
16.5 

1.9 
3-T 

5-3 
1.8 

2.0 

16.1 
20.3 
2.5 
5-9 
0.8 

2-5 
1.4 
11.9 
6.8 
1.6 

I-3 
0.8 

i-5 
2.7 
42.8 
1.8 
23.1 
1.8 
3-5 
3-4 
1.8 
3-5 
2.3 
18.1 

1.2 

18.0 
8-3 

2-3 

3-2 

14.0 

i-3 
12.9 

2.1 

**3 

I,IOO 

6,900 

1,038 

30,120 

6,239 
26,236 

2,"8 

1,692 

1,831 
746 
1,252 

75,839 
15,696 
29,179 

12,562 
5,692 
8,926 
17,665 
12,548 
101,715 
64,060 
49,854 
768 

20,868 

3,212 
I4,l63 
I,l83 
I7,66l 
4I,8l2 
3,200 

198,136 
177 

6,599 
49,57i 
161 

3,644 
143,926 
22,268 
380 
7,753 
1,851 
42,560 
5,188 
10,775 
i,793 
5,794 
2,768 
67,371 
981 

7-9 
42.2 
7-5 
10.5 
7-8 
14.9 
16.8 

9-3 
10.8 
6.4 
8-3 
9-4 

II.  O 

9-3 
8.8 
9.8 
18.7 
24.1 
13-8 
16.2 
12.4 
n.  i 

10.  1 

9.1 

8.2 

7.3 

10.  0 

26.3 

13-3 

30-5 

I3-1 
S-o 
8.7 
ii.  i 

6.1 
7-9 
17.8 

22.1 

6-3 
9.0 

9-5 
29.6 
10.3 
25.8 

IO.I 

7.0 
iS-i 
13-4 

7-i 

331,200 
1,829 
116,655 
35,669 
1,706 
1,658 
10,692 
21,389 
60,204 
404,015 
1,106 
12,415 
",495 
2,233 
12,360 
110,530 
283,245 
479 
80,723 
3,026 
4,838 
1,091 
314,858 
47,562 
1,652 
2,446 
3>54i 
136 
11,158 
6,805 
",4i3 
235,981 
215 
17,599 
897 
3,J57 
20,690 
1,170 
301,262 
410 
167,971 
176,484 
825 
168 
260,678 

3'5i7 
10,992 
1,761 

222 

69.1 
50-9 
53-6 
39-3 
25.0 
15-8 
49-S 
35-0 
50.0 

67-3 
48.6 
27.0 
32.2 
26.4 
32-5 
55-9 
72.1 
31.8 
50.1 
!5-4 
29.2 

23-3 
60.0 

41.7 

36.3 
25-7 
59-7 
23-3 
28.4 
80.6 
18.4 
60.  i 
47-4 
25-4 
39-2 
27  6 
23.2 
18.5 
64.1 
33-4 
54-2 
52-5 
46.1 

21.3 

57-2 
44.6 
44-4 
36.7 
16.8 

Arkansas,  »  

District  of  Columbia.  .  . 
Florida  

Illinois  

Missouri  

New  Hampshire  

New  Jersey  

New  York  

North  Carolina  

North  Dakota  

Ohio  

Oklahoma.  

Pennsylvania  

Rhode  Island  

South  Carolina  

South  Dakota... 

Texas  

Utah  

Vermont  

Virginia..        

Washington  

West  Virginia  

Wisconsin  

Wyoming  

Totals  

47,413,559 

6,324,702 

13-3 

3,212,574 

7-7 

2,065,003 

6.2 

i,i47,57i 

I3-I 

3,112,128 

56.& 

*  Persons  of  negro  descent,  Chinese,  Japanese,  and  civilized  Indians. 


Many  countries  considered  illiterate  are  mak- 
ing wonderful  advances.  According  to  Dr.  R. 
Mayo-Smith's  Statistics  and  Sociology,  in  1841, 
53  per  cent,  of  the  population  of  Ireland  over 
five  years  of  age  could  not  read  and  write  ;  in 
1891  this  was  only  18  per  cent. 

IMMIGRATION.— The  dictionary  definition 
of  immigration  makes  it  to  consist  in  moving 
from  one  country  to  another  for  the  purpose  of 
permanent  residence.  But  this,  tho  perhaps 
correct  as  a  definition,  is  not  correct  as  regards 


the  practical  social  problem  that  confronts  us 
when  we  speak  of  the  evils  or  advantages  of  im- 
migration. Especially  in  the  United  States 
the  trouble  is  largely  not  from  those  who  come 
expecting  to  remain  permanently  and  to  become 
citizens,  but  from  those  who  come  without  the 
slightest  thought  of  permanent  residence.  Om 
the  Pacific  and  Atlantic  coasts  the  main  prob- 
lem has  arisen  from  such  as  the  Chinese,  or  the 
Italians,  who  come  to  us,  perhaps  for  10  years, 
willing  to  live  on  the  lowest  level  which  can  sus- 
tain life  if  they  can  save  money  (and  it  need. 


Immigration. 


708 


Immigration. 


not  be  a  large  sum)  which  will  enable  them  to 
return  to  their  native  land  and  live  there  in  com- 
parative affluence. 

The  problem  of  immigration  is  not,  however, 
peculiarly  an  American  one.  It  is  a  universal 
concomitant  of  the  increasing  restlessness  of 
the  labor  world  coupled  with  increasing  ease 
and  cheapness  of  travel.  The  immigration  into 
London  from  Germany  and  from  Russia  is  to- 
day of  a  size  almost  beyond  belief  for  those  who 
have  not  studied  the  question.  Every  English 
colony,  every  new  country,  and  almost  every 
old  country  has  its  immigration  problem.  Most 
English  colonies  have  passed  anti- Chinese  im- 
migration acts,  or  have  attempted  to  check  or 
control  immigration.  According  to  Professor 
R.  Mayo-Smith  {Statistics  and  Sociology, 
chap,  xiv.),  the  immigration  to  Australia  is 
from  200,000  to  250,000  per  annum,  mainly 
British. 

Yet  certainly  no  country  has  such  an  immi- 
gration problem  as  the  United  States,  and  it  is 


of  this  problem  alone  which  we  in  this  article 
treat,  as  its  principal  features  apply  everywhere. 
It  is  not  a  new  problem,  altho  only  within  the 
last  20  years  has  it  assumed  serious  proportions, 
and  only  within  the  last  10  years  has  it  been 
very  seriously  mooted  to  rigidly  restrict  general 
immigration.  From  1820-91  inclusive,  the  total 
immigration  into  the  United  States  was  16,821,- 
477.  From  1789-1820  there  are  no  statistics, 
but  it  is  estimated  to  be  250,000.  The  following 
table,  by  decades,  will  show  how  rapidly  the 
immigration  has  increased  : 

821-30 M3.439 

i-4°   599.  "5 

841-50 1,713,251 

851-60 2,579,580 

861-70 2,282,787 

871-80 2,812,191 

881-90 5,236,722 

891-95 2,219,793 

The  following  table  gives  the  immigration  by 
years : 


YEAR. 

Total  Alien 
Passengers. 

YEAR. 

Total  Alien 
Passengers. 

YEAR. 

Total 
Immigrants. 

YEAR. 

Total 
Immigrants. 

8,385 

1840.  .  .  . 

84,066 

1860...  . 
1861  .. 

150,237 

1879  
1880  

177,826 

•1821  .  . 

1841 

80,289 

1822  

1842  .  .  . 

T862  

1881  

1823  
1824  
1821;.  . 

6,354 

1843.... 
i844.... 

1845..  .. 

52,496 
78,615 

1863  
1864  
1865  

I74t524 
I93»I95 

1882  
1883  
1884  

788,992 
603,322 

1826 

1846.. 

T«7*Tifi 

1866 

!88s  

1827 

18,875 

234O68 

Fiscal  Year  ending  June  30. 

X886  

1828 

isls 

1887  

0* 

1868.. 

..   282,189 

1888 

546,889 

1830 

M 

1850 

1869  . 

1889  

1831  . 

1851..  .. 

1870    .  .  . 

1890  

1852 

1871    .  .  . 

1891 

58,640 

1853.-.. 
1854.... 
1855..  . 
1856.... 
1857..-. 
1858  — 
1859.... 

368,645 
427,833 
200,877 
195,857 
246,945 
U9,50I 

1872  

1873  
1874 

404,806 
459,803 

1892  
1893  

1  80  A 

623,084 
502,917 

1834  
1835  
1836  
1837  
1838  
1839  

65,365 

45,374 
76,242 
79,340 
38,914 
68,069 

1875  
1876  

1877  
1878  

227,498 
169,986 
141,857 
138,469 

1895  

From  1789-18 

2I9,OO6 

20,  esti- 

Of  the  whole  number  of  immigrants  in  the  fiscal  year 
ending  June  30,  1894,  335,752  came  through  the  customs 
district  of  New  York  ;  14,311  through  Baltimore  ;  20,245 
through  Boston  ;  21,744  through  Philadelphia,  and  9392 
through  San  Francisco. 

Mulhall  estimates  the  number  of  individuals  who 
emigrated  from  Europe  in  73  years,  1816-88,  at  27, 205,000. 
Of  these,  15,000,000  came  to  the  United  States. 

The  reported  occupations  of  immigrants  who  ar- 
rived during  the  year  ending  June  30, 1894,  were  as  fol- 
lows :  Laborers,  59,575 ;  farmers,  16,452 ;  servants, 
28,763 ;  carpenters,  2934 ;  miners,  2505  ;  clerks,  2222  ; 
tailors,  3184 ;  shoemakers,  2284 ;  blacksmiths,  1554. 
The  total  number  of  professional  immigrants  was 
1738 ;  of  skilled  laborers,  33,926 ;  of  miscellaneous, 
116,187. 

In  immigration,  however,  one  must  consider 
quality  as  well  as  quantity.  There  has  been  of 
late  years  a  great  change  in  the  quality  of  our 
immigration.  The  principal  European  coun- 
tries reduced  their  exodus  to  America  very 
greatly  about  1883.  The  two  exceptions  are 
Italy  and  Hungary,  and  in  the  following  year 
Hungary  and  Russia.  Since  1883  the  Russian 
immigration,  especially  of  Russian  Jews,  shows 
a  constant  increase. 

Says     President    F.    A.    Walker    (Atlantic 
Monthly,  June,  1896) : 
•     "  Fifty,  even  30  years  ago,  there  was  a  right- 


ful presumption  regarding  the  average  immi- 
grant, that  he  was  among  the  most  enterpris- 
ing, thrifty,  alert,  adventurous,  and  courageous 
of  the  community  from  which  he  came.  It  re- 
quired no  small  energy,  prudence,  forethought, 
and  pains  to  conduct  the  inquiries  relating  to 
his  migration,  to  accumulate  the  necessary 
means  and  to  find  his  way  across  the  Atlan- 
tic. 

"To-day  the  presumption  is  completely  re- 
versed. So  thoroughly  has  the  continent  of 
Europe  been  crossed  by  railways,  so  effectively 
has  the  business  of  emigration  there  been  ex- 
ploited, so  much  have  the  rates  of  railroad  fares 
and  ocean  passage  been  reduced,  that  it  is  now 
among  the  least  thrifty  and  prosperous  mem- 
bers of  any  European  community  that  the  emi- 
g-ation  agent  finds  his  best  recruiting  ground, 
ard  times  here  may  momentarily  check  the 
flow,  but  it  will  not  be  permanently  stopped  so 
long  as  any  difference  of  economic  level  exists 
between  our  population  and  that  of  the  most 
degraded  communities  abroad," 

The  following  table  (compiled  by  the  Superin- 
tendent of  the  Census)  tells  the  story  down  to 
1890  : 


Immigration. 


709 


Immigration. 


COUNTRIES. 

1841-50. 

1851-60. 

1861-70. 

1871-80. 

1881-90. 

England  ....          

251,288 

Ireland.  

655,381 

Scotland  

•38.3^1 

44,681 

88,925 

Wales          

Great  Britain,  not  specified  

7,908 

Total  United  Kingdom.  ... 

ft 

Austria.  .        

69,558 

Belgium  

4.708 

7,278 

Denmark  .         ...                  

17*885 

88,108 

France  

539 

76,358 

Germany  

757,698 

448 

127,678 

Italy    

60,830 

Netherlands  

8,251 

Norway  and  Sweden  

II7,7Q8 

226,488 

560,483 

Russia  and  Poland  

656 

5,047 

54,606 

Spain  and  Portugal  

10,353 

9,047 

9,767 

5,564 

Switzerland    

23,839 

81,987 

All  other  countries  in  Europe  

116 

234 

1,265 

22,770 

Total  Europe  

4,725,814 

China  .               .... 

68.o«;o 

Total  Asia  

82 

4i  458 

68,444 

Africa  

Canada  .. 

Mexico  

3.078 

2,386 

Central  America  

368 

South  America  

1,646 

West  Indies  

i  7.^28 

0.608 

+^26,487 

Total  America  

422,848 

All  other  countries  

, 

Aggregate  

« 

„ 

5.238.728 

As  the  reports  for  British  North  American  provinces 
and  for  Mexico  have  been  discontinued  since  1885  by 
the  Treasury  Department,  the  figures  here  represent- 
ed only  cover  five  years  of  the  decade.  An  estimate 
based  upon  the  immigration  of  the  years  from  1881-85, 
inclusive,  would  give  785,604  to  British  North  America 
for  the  decade  from  1881-90,  and  3826  to  Mexico,  mak- 
ing the  aggregate  for  America  817,563,  instead  of 
422,848. 

This  table  becomes  the  more  alarming  when 
one  realizes  the  percentage  of  the  illiteracy  of 
Immigrants  from  various  countries.  Of  the  im- 
migrants in  1891  : 

England  sent  10  per  cent,  of  her  immigrants  illiterate. 

Ireland  8  '  ' 

Wales  6 

Scotland     "      1.5 

France  2 

Germany    "      2 

Denmark  ) 

Norway    J-  less  than  i  per  cent. 

Sweden     ) 

Hungary          sent  28  per  ct.of  her  immigrants  illiterate. 

Russia  proper    "    20 

Poland  "    56       "      "    "  " 

Armenia  "    44       "      "    "  "  " 

Italy  "    63       "      "    "  "  " 

This,  of  course,  does  not  mean  that  Italy  has 
more  illiteracy  than  Armenian-Turkey,  but  that 
of  the  Italians  who  come  to  this  country  a  larger 
percentage  are  illiterate  than  of  the  Armenians 
who  come. 

Since  1885  the  Irish  immigration,  once  so  far 

*  Not  given  in  1890. 

t  Reports  discontinued  after  1885. 

t  Includes  Central  and  South  America  for  1889. 


in  the  lead,  has  relatively  decreased.  England 
alone  (not  even  including  Wales)  has  since  1885 
sent  a  larger  number  of  immigrants  than  Ire- 
land. 

For  Chinese  immigration,  see  special  article 
CHINESE  IMMIGRATION. 

Says  President  Walker,  as  above  : 

"  For  nearly  two  generations,  great  numbers  of  per- 
sons utterly  unable  to  earn  their  own  living,  by  reason 
of  one  or  another  form  of  physical  or  mental  disabil- 
ity, and  others  who  were,  from  widely  different  causes, 
unfit  to  be  members  of  any  decent  community,  were 
admitted  to  our  ports  without  challenge  or  question. 
It  is  a  matter  of  official  record  that  in  many  cases  these 
persons  had  been  directly  shipped  to  us  by  States  or 
municipalities  desiring  to  rid  themselves  of  a  burden 
and  a  nuisance  ;  while  it  could  reasonably  be  believed 
that  the  proportion  of  such  instances  was  far  greater 
than  could  be  officially  ascertained." 

•  Another  important  element  of  the  situation 
is  that  the  mass  of  the  illiterate  immigration 
does  not  distribute  itself  through  the  country, 
but  settles  in  great  cities,  mainly  on  the  Atlan- 
tic coast.  The  Immigration  Restriction  League 
of  Boston  recently  investigated  this  subject,  Its 
published  account  says  in  part : 

"The  following  tables  are  presented  as  a  partial  re- 
sult of  a  recent  visit  to  the  Immigrant  Station  on  Ellis, 
Island,  N.  Y.,  made  by  members  of  the  Executive  Com- 
mittee of  the  League.  .  .  . 

"  On  December  13,  14,  and  15,  1895,  about  1000  immi- 
grants over  16  years  of  age  were  examined,  chiefly 
Russians  and  Austro-Hungarians.  together  with  some 
Syrians,  arriving  on  six  steamers  from  Bremen,  Am- 
sterdam, Antwerp,  Southampton,  and  Liverpool.  Too 
few  Italians  came  for  tabulation. 

"  It  is  believed  that  the  results  obtained  are  charac- 
teristic of  such  immigration  throughout  the  year. 


Immigration. 


710 


Immigration. 


DESTINATION  OP  ILLITERATES. 


BY  NUMBERS. 

BY 

PERCENTAGES. 

Penn- 
sylvania. 

New 
York. 

Other 
Atlantic. 

Middle. 

Central 
and 
Western. 

Atlantic. 

Non- 
Atlantic. 

Atlantic. 

Non- 
Atlantic. 

ii 
76 
25 

20 

28 

20 
12 

8 

21 

ii 

34 
26 

2 

4 
4 

ii 

4 

i 

5 
4 
4 

5° 
130 

63 
28 

23 

5 
4 
16 
8 
4 

per  cent. 
91 

97 
80 
78 
85 

per  cent. 
9 
3 

20 
22 

IS 

Syrians  

Totals       

I32 

89 

73 

23 

H 

294 

37 

89 

ii 

"  While  little  emphasis  should  be  laid  on  the  amount 
of  money  brought  by  an  immigrant— as  money  is  no 
test  of  an  immigrant's  real  worth,  light  may  be  perhaps' 
thrown  on  the  question  why  the  Russians,  Galicians, 
Croats,  and  Syrians  do  not  or  cannot  go  West,  by  the 
statement  that  of  the  331  illiterates  examined  at  Ellis 
Island,  32,  or  10  percent.,  brought  in  no  money  ;  101,  or 
30  per  cent.,  $i  to  $5  each  ;  92,  or  28  per  cent.,  $6  to  $10, 
and  106,  or  32  per  cent.,  over  $10  ;  that  is,  40  per  cent, 
of  these  immigrants  had  $5  or  less,  and  68  per  cent., 
$10  or  less. 

"  The  total  amount  of  money  known  to  have  been 
brought  in  during  the  fiscal  year  ending  June  30,  1895, 
by  160,103  immigrants  over  20  years  of  age  was  $4,126,- 
793,  an  average  of  $25.97  per  capita  over  20  years  of 
age,  but  an  average  of  only  $16.34  for  each  of  the  total 
number  of  immigrants  for  that  year. 

"  Note,  however,  that  of  the  above  160,103  immigrants 
78  per  cent.,  or  125,328,  brought  in  less  than  $30,  and  34,- 
775,  or  22  per  cent.,  brought  in  more. 

"The  figures  as  to  average  amount  per  immigrant, 
$25.97,  as  given  above,  were  therefore 
extremely  misleading,  because  it  is  evi- 

Statistics.  de.nt  tnat  a  very  large  percentage  of  im- 
migrants may  have  brought  in  less  than 
$10  ;  but  this  would  be  counteracted  by 
a  small  number  of  immigrants  bringing  several  hun- 
dreds of  dollars,  as  those  who  intend  to  settle  on  farms 
do. 

"This  is  clearly  shown  by  the  report  of  the  Superin- 
tendent of  Immigration  for  1892,  page  26,  where  he 
says  that,  of  the  9639  immigrants  from  Russia  arriv- 
ing at  the  ports  of  New  York,  '  333  brought  more  than 
$1000  each,  several  of  these  bringing  considerable 
sums  of  money;  one  bringing  $25,000,'  while  the  '9306 
Russians  who  brought  less  than  $100  were  nearly  all 
destitute.' 

"  With  the  above  caution  note  that  the  report  of 
the  Superintendent  of  Immigration  for  the  fiscal  year 
1892  shows  that  the  152,360  immigrants  over  20  years 
of  age  arriving  at  the  port  of  New  York  brought  $3,- 
060,908,  an  average  of  $20.09  Per  capita.  Immigrants 
from 

France  brought $55.67  per  capita. 

Germany 35.42 

England 26.43  ' 

Sweden 21.69  ' 

Russia 22.10  ' 

Armenia 19.68  ' 

Austria 14.95  ' 

Poland 12.31 

Italy 11.77 

Hungary 11.42  ' 

COUNTRIES  WHICH  SEND  US  SKILLED  LABOR. 

(From  Report  Superintendent  of  Immigration  for  1893.) 

"  Of  the  immigrants  sent  to  us  in  1893  ^>y  the  various 
countries  of  Europe,  but  a  small  proportion  were  skill- 
ed workmen.  Thus  among  immigrants  from  Scotland 
there  was  i  skilled  in  4  ;  from  England  and  Wales,  i 
in  5 ;  Belgium,  i  in  7 ;  France,  i  in  9  ;  Germany  and 
Norway,  i  in  10  ;  Italy,  i  in  14  ;  Russia,  i  in  18  ;  Ireland, 
i  in  19  ;  Poland,  i  in  23  ;  Austria-Hungary,  i  in  29." 

A  few  other  points  as  to  immigrants  may  be 
briefly  noted.  Professor  R.  Mayo-Smith  says 
{Statistics  and  Sociology,  chap,  xiv.) : 


"  It  would  probably  be  safe  to  say  that  at  least  four 
fifths  of  the  immigrants  belong  to  the  unskilled  occu- 
pations." 

He  estimates  that  between  1881  and  1890 
some  21.4  per  cent,  were  under  15  years  of  age, 
and  68.1  between  15  and  40.  Germany,  Rus- 
sia, and  Poland  send  the  most  children  and 
families,  Ireland  the  most  single  young  people, 
Italy  and  Hungary  the  most  adult  laborers. 
The  males  form  about  60  per  cent,  of  the  whole. 

Professor  Mayo-Smith,  by  subtracting  the 
total  number  of  passengers  departing  from  the 
United  States  between  1881  and  1890  from  the 
total  number  arriving,  calculates  the  net  immi- 
gration, and  estimates  that  15.86  per  cent,  of 
the  immigrants  sooner  or  later  return.  By  com- 
paring, too,  the  total  number  in  the  United 
States  of  each  nationality  reported  by  the  cen- 
sus of  1890,  with  the  number  reported  in  1880, 
and  allowing  20  per  1000  as  a  death-rate,  he  sub- 
tracts the  difference  from  the  reported  immi- 
gration, and  so  finds  how  many  of  each  nation- 
ality have  returned.  In  the  case  of  Russian 
Poles,  Danes,  and  Scandinavians,  he  finds  that 
few  return.  Of  Germans,  he  estimates  that 
12,500  per  annum  return.  Of  Italians  and  Hun- 
garians more,  while  of  the  Irish  still  more  seem 
to  return,  tho  he  questions  the  correctness  of  this. 

Perhaps  one  of  the  greatest  evils  has  been 
contract  immigration.  Says  Governor  Altgeld 
(in  the  Forum  for  February,  1890)  : 

"  The  condition  of  the  laborer  has  been  made  deplo- 
rable by  the  importation  of  shiploads  of  men  under  con- 
tract. These  do  not  come  with  the  motives  or  with  the 
ambition  of  the  class  we  have  been  considering  ;  they 
have  no  thought  of  becoming  citizens,  but  are  practi- 
cally slaves,  who  will  work  for  wages  upon  which  the 
American  laborer  cannot  exist.  Agents  for  large  cor- 
'  porations  are  constantly  importing  them.  Steamship 
companies,  to  get  the  passage  money  paid  by  Ameri- 
can employers,  bring  them  over  by  the  thousands,  so 
that  many  great  centers  of  industry  in  the  East  have 
been  filled  with  them,  and  the  American  laborer  is 
being  crowded  out.  Both  the  native-born  and  the 
naturalized  laborer  have  been  almost  driven  out  of 
the  great  State  of  Pennsylvania  by  these  importations. 
True,  there  is  a  law  against  such  contracts,  but  it  is  a 
dead  letter  ;  so  that  we  have  in  this  country  the  strange 
spectacle  of  the  Government  keeping  up  the  price  of  a 
great  many  articles  by  shutting  put  foreign  compe- 
tition, and  at  the  same  time  permitting  the  manufac- 
turers of  these  articles  to  import  the  pauper  laborers 
of  Europe  to  produce  them." 

The  law  has  been  recently  more  strictly  en- 
forced ;  but  this  immigration  is  still  an  evil. 

Concerning  the  magnitude  and  the  causes  of 
the  immigration  into  the  United  States,  Dr. 


Immigration. 


711 


Immigration. 


Josiah  Strong  says  (Our  Country,  revised  ed., 
pp.  45,  46)  : 

"  America,  as  the  land  of  promise  to  all  the  world,  is 
the  destination  of  the  most  remarkable  migration  of 
which  we  have  any  record.  During  the  last  10  years 
we  have  suffered  a  peaceful  invasion  by  an  army  more 
than  four  times  as  vast  as  the  estimated  number  of 
Goths  and  Vandals  that  swept  over  Southern  Europe 
and  overwhelmed  Rome.  During  the  past  too  years 
15,000,000  foreigners  have  made  their  homes  in  the 
United  States,  and  three  quarters  of  them  have  come 
since  1850,  while  5,248,000  have  arrived  since  1880.  A 
study  of  the  causes  of  this  great  world  movement  in- 
dicates that  perhaps  as  yet  we  have  seen  only  begin- 
nings. These  controlling  causes  are  threefold  :  i.  The 
attracting  influences  of  the  United  States  ;  2.  The  ex- 
pellent  influences  of  the  Old  World  ;  3.  Facilities  for 
travel. 

"  i.  The  attracting  influences  of  the  United  States. 
We  have  already  seen  that  for  every  one  inhabitant  in 
i£8o  the  land  is  capable  of  sustaining  20.    This  large- 
ness of  room  and  opportunity  constitutes  an  urgent 
invitation    to  the    crowded    peoples  of 
Europe.     The  prospect   of    proprietor- 
Causes  of     ship  m  the  soil  is  a  powerful  attraction 
T™,«;~,.        v,  to  the  European  peasant.    In  England 
Immigration.  only  one  p£son  fn  20  is  an  owner  of 
land  ;  in  Scotland,  one  in  25  ;  in  Ireland, 
one  in  79,  and  the  great  majority  of  land- 
holders in  Great  Britain  own  less  than  one  acre  each. 
More  than  three  fifths  of  the  United  Kingdom  is  in  the 
hands  of  the  landlords,  who  own,  each  one,  1000  acres 
or  more.  .  .  .  What  must  free  land  mean  to  such  a 
people? 

"  This,  moreover,  is  the  land  of  plenty.  The  follow- 
ing table,  giving  the  average  amountor  food  annually 
consumed  per  inhabitant,  shows  how  much  better  the 
people  of  the  United  States  are  fed  than  any  people  of 
Europe.  All  kinds  of  grain  are  included,  as  what  is 
fed  to  cattle  serves  ultimately  to  produce  food  for  the 
population.  Potatoes  are  estimated  as  grain,  at  the 
rate  of  four  bushels  to  one  of  wheat. 


"• 

Grain, 
Bush. 

Meat, 
Lbs. 

81.88 

84.51 

22.84 

57.10 

54.05 

17.68 

25.04 

56.03 

Sweden  and  Norway  

51.10 

Italy       .  .        .  .  .  •        

17.66 

57.50 

"United  States  

40.66 

I2O.OO 

"  John  Rae  says  that  in  Prussia  nearly  one  half  of  the 
population  have  to  live  on  an  annual  income  of  $105 
to  a  family.  Is  it  strange  that  they  look  longingly 
toward  the  United  States?  .  .  . 

"  Every  foreigner  who  comes  to  us  and  wins  success, 
as  most  of  them  do  under  more  favorable  conditions, 
becomes  an  advertiser  of  our  land  ;  he  strongly  at- 
tracts his  relatives  and  friends,  and  very  likely  sends 
them  money  for  their  passage.  Our  consul  at  Frank- 
fort writes :  '  Not  less  than  one  half  of  the  German 
emigrants  to  the  United  States  emigrate  by  the  advice 
and  assistance  of  friends  residing  there.'  Says  Pro- 
fessor R.  M.  Smith:  'The  Inman  Steamship  Company 
has  3500  agents  in  Europe,  and  an  equal  number  in 
this  country,  selling  prepaid  tickets  to  be  _sent  to 
friends  and  relatives  of  persons  already  here,  in  order 
to  provide  them  with  passage.'  Of  course  other  com- 
panies pursue  a  like  policy." 

Perhaps  a  stronger  cause  of  immigration  is 
Europe's  expellent  influences.  We  have  already 
referred  to  the  lack  of  land  and  of  food  in  the 
old  countries.  Taxation  to  maintain  standing 
armies  and  requisition  for  military  service,  es- 
pecially in  Germany  and  Austria,  drives  thou- 
sands to  this  country.  In  the  last  12  years  near- 


ly three  quarters  of  a  million  of  people  have 
come  from  Germany  alone.  v 

"  During  1872  and  1873,  which  were  good 
years  for  the  working  classes  of  Germany ,  there 
were  not  less  than  10,000  processes  annually  for 
evasion  of  military  duty  by  emigration"  (Pro- 
fessor Smith's  Emigration  and  Immigration, 
p.  27). 

A  few  years  ago  a  member  of  the  Reichstag 
exclaimed  :  ' '  The  German  people  have  now  but 
one  want — money  enough  to  get  to  America," 

Says  Dr.  Strong,  in  Our  Country  : 

"  In  Continental  Europe  generally  the  best  years 
of  all  able-bodied  men  are  demanded  for  military 
duty.  Germans  must  be  7  years  in  the  army,  and 
give  3  of  them  to  active  service ;  the  French,  9  years 
in  the  army  and  5  years  in  active  service ;  Aus- 
trians,  10  years  in  the  army  and  3  in  active  service  ; 
Russians,  15  years  in  the  army  and  6  in  active  service. 
When  not  in  active  service  they  are  under  certain  re- 
strictions. In  addition  to  all  this,  when  no  longer 
members  of  the  army,  they  are  liable  to  be  called  on 
to  do  military  duty  for  a  period  varying  from  two  to 
five  years.  This  robbery  of  a  man's  life,  together 
with  the  common  expectation  that  war  must  come 
sooner  or  later,  will  continue  to  be  a  powerful  stimulus 
to  emigration  ;  and  the  '  blood  tax'  which  is  required 
to  support  these  millions  of  men  during  unproductive 
years  is  steadily  increasing.  While  aggregate  taxation 
decreased  in  the  United  States  from  1870  to  1880,  9.15 
per  cent.,  it  increased  in  Europe  28.01  per  cent.  The 
increase  in  Great  Britain  was  20.17  per  cent.  ;  in 
France,  36.13  per  cent.  ;  in  Russia,  37.83  per  cent.  ;  in 
Sweden  and  Norway,  50.10  per  cent.;  in  Germany, 
57.81  per  cent.  And  while  the  burden  of  taxation  is  so 
heavy  and  so  rapidly  increasing,  the  public  debts  of 
Continental  Europe  are  making  frightful  growth. 
They  increased  71.75  per  cent,  from  1870  to  1880,  since 
which  time  they  have  been  enlarged  by  nearly  $3,000,- 
000,000,  and  now  reach  a  total  of  $20,580,000,000,  entailing 
an  annual  burden  of  $1,000,000,000  for  interest. 

"The  Italians  are  worse  fed  than  any  other  people 
in  Europe,  save  the  Portuguese.  The  tax-collector 
takes  31  per  cent,  of  the  people's  earnings!  Many 
thousands  of  small  proprietors  have  been  evicted  from 
the  crown  lands  because  unable  to  pay  the  taxes.  The 
burden  of  taxation  has  become  intolerable.  Notwith- 
standing the  industrial  advance  made  by  Italy  from 
1870  to  1880,  the  national  debt  increased  so  much  more 
rapidly  that  the  nation  was  $200,000,000  poorer  in  1880 
than  10  years  before.  For  the  financial  year  ending  in 
1888  there  was  a  deficit  in  the  national  treasury  of  57,- 
000,000  lire ;  and  for  the  two  years  ending  in  1890  the 
budget  estimates  showed  a  deficit  of  248,000,000  lire. 
Growing  population  and  increasing  taxation  are  result- 
ing in  increased  emigration.  The  total  number  of 
emigrants,  which  in  1884  was  147,000,  had  increased  in 
1888  to  290,000. 

"  Facilities  of  travel  are  increasing.  From  1870  to 
1880,  39,857  miles  of  railway  were  built  in  Europe,  only 
2000  less  than  in  the  United  States  during  the  same 
period ;  and  from  1880  to  1888  there  were  26,478  miles 
built.  Thus,  interior  populations  are  enabled  more 
easily  to  reach  the  seaboard.  Instead  of  a  long  and 
tedious  passage  by  sailing  vessel,  the  steamer  lands  the 
immigrant  in  a  week  or  10  days.  We  find  that  steam- 
ships, in  a  single  year,  make  741  trips  from  nine  Euro- 
pean ports  to  New  York,  and  144.  from  other  ports  of 
Europe.  And  some  of  these  ships  carry  upward  of 
1000  steerage  passengers.  Improvements  in  steam  nav- 
igation are  making  the  ocean  passage  easier,  quicker, 
and  cheaper.  In  1825  the  cheapest  passage  from  Europe 
to  America  was  about  $100.  Now  the  rates  from  con- 
tinental ports  to  New  York  are  from  $23  to  $26.  Steer- 
age passage  from  Hamburg  to  New  York  has  been  as 
low  as  $7. 

"  Furthermore,  labor-saving  machinery  has  entered 
upon  a  campaign  of  world-wide  conquest.  This  fact 
will  render  still  more  operative  each  of  the  three 
classes  of  influences  enumerated  above.  Wherever 
man  labors  labor-saving  machinery  is  destined  ulti- 
mately to  go  ;  and  the  people  of  the  United  States  are 
to  make  most  of  it  for  the  world.  We  have  mountains 
of  iron  and  inexhaustible  measures  of  coal,  together 
with  a  genius  for  invention." 


With  such  potent  causes  of  immigration  the 
problem  in  the  United  States  has  grown  most 


Immigration. 


712 


Immigration. 


serious,  resulting  in  a  strong  movement  for  re- 
stricting immigration.  There  are  strong  argu- 
ments both  for  and  against  this.  We  notice 
first  the  reasons  for  restricting  immigration. 

1.  The  Moral  Reason. — Immigration  is  mor- 
ally dangerous.    Many  immigrants  to  this  coun- 
try are  of  the  best  of  Europe,  friends  of  liberty, 
law,  order,  and  religion.     But  many  are  not. 
Too  frequently  the  immigrant  is  a  European 
peasant  whose  horizon  has  been  narrow,  whose 
moral  and  religious  training  has  been  meager 
or  false,  and  whose  ideas  of  life  are  low.     Not 
a  few  belong  to  the  pauper  and  criminal  classes. 
Some  countries    of    Europe  deliberately,   and 
other  countries  almost  equally,  send  their  dis- 
charged convicts  to  America,  while  fugitives 
from  justice  continually  seek  our  shores.     The 
census  of  1890  shows  that  20  per  cent,  of  the 
population  of  this  country  is  practically  foreign, 
and  this  one  fifth  furnishes  more  than  half  the 
inmates  of  our  reformatories,  over  one  third  of 
our  convicts,  and  very  nearly  three  fifths  of  all 
the  paupers  supported  in  almshouses.     (But  see 
CRIME.) 

Even  of  those  immigrants  who  are  not  of  the 
criminal  class,  a  large  number,  escaping  from 
the  restraints  of  family,  of  acquaintance,  of 
priest  rule,  of  State  rule,  in  the  old  countries, 
mistake  license  for  liberty  in  this  country,  and 
morally  deteriorate. 

There  are  also  two  sides  to  the  fact  which 
must  be  admitted,  that  the  Roman  Church  is 
losing  her  power  over  the  children  of  Roman 
Catholic  immigrants.  Are  the  restraints  of  mo- 
rality not  also  losing  their  power  ? 

Foreigners  fill  the  slums  in  our  cities  and  con- 
gregate even  in  the  country.  Already  the  Ter- 
ritories have  a  foreign  population  greater  than 
the  States  east  of  the  Mississippi. 

Says  Dr.  Strong  : 

"In  1845,  New  Glarus,  in  Southern  Wisconsin,  was 
settled  by  a  colony  of  108  persons  from  one  of  the  can- 
tons of  Switzerland.  In  1880  they  numbered  1060  souls  ; 
and  in  1885  it  was  said,  'no  Yankee  lives  within  a  ring 
of  six  miles  round  the  first  built  dug-out.'  This  Helve- 
tian settlement,  founded  three  years  before  Wisconsin 
became  a  State,  has  preserved  its  race,  its  language, 
its  worship,  and  its  customs  in  their  integrity.  Similar 
colonies  are  now  being  planted  in  the  West.  In  some 
cases  100,000  or  200,000  acres  in  one  block  have  been 
purchased  by  foreigners  of  one  nationality  and  re- 
ligion, thus  building  up  States  within  a  State,  having 
different  languages,  different  antecedents,  different 
religions,  different  ideas  and  habits,  preparing  mutual 
jealousies  and  perpetuating  race  antipathies.  In  New 
England  conventions  are  held  to  which  only  French 
Canadian  Catholics  are  admitted.  At  such  a  conven- 
tion in  Nashua  in  1888,  attended  by  80  priests,  the  follow- 
ing mottoes  were  displayed  :  '  Our  tongue,  our  nation- 
ality, and  our  religion.'  'Before  everything  else  let 
us  remain  French.  If  our  noble  domain  were  tenfold 
larger  than  it  is,  it  would  still  be  too  small  to  embrace 
with  safety  to  our  national  future  little  Germanics 
here,  little  Scandinavias  there,  and  little  Irelands 
yonder." 

2.  The  Political  Danger. — The  corruption 
of  American  politics,  especially  the  corruption 
of  our   municipal  politics,  is   notorious.     The 
corruptors   may  be   the   political  "boss,"  the 
saloon  politician,  the   heeler  ;    back  of   these, 
using  these,  seemingly  almost  compelled  to  use 
these,  may  be  the  great  corporations  and  mo- 
nopolies pouring  out  their  thousands  and  their 
millions  to  elect  their  tools  or  to  purchase  men 
already  elected  (see  CORRUPTION)  ;  yet  tho  these 


be  the  corruptors,  it  takes  people  to  be  cor- 
rupted, and  this  immigration  supplies. 

The  result  of  a  national  election  may  depend 
on  a  single  State  ;  the  vote  of  that  State  may 
depend  on  a  single  city  ;  the  vote  of  that  city 
may  depend  on  a  "  boss,"  or  a  capitalist,  or  a 
corporation  ;  or  the  election  may  be  decided 
and  the  policy  of  the  Government  may  be  re- 
versed by  the  liquor  or  the  immigrant  vote. 

Can  we  afford  to  welcome  to  our  country,  with 
its  democratic  institutions,  the  illiteracy  now 
pouring  into  our  cities  ?  Said  a  pregnant  writer 
recently  :  ' '  America  may  be  the  asylum  of  the 
oppressed,  but  it  does  not  follow  that  she  must 
be  at  once  an  insane  asylum,  a  hospital,  and  a 
prison." 

In  contradiction  to  both  the  above  arguments, 
Governor  Altgeld  of  Illinois  {Forum,  February, 
1890)  shows  what  immigrants  have  done.  He 
says  : 

"  But  for  the  assistance  of  the  immigrant  the  election 
of  Abraham  Lincoln  as  President  of  the  United  States 
would  have  been  an  impossibility,  and  had  the  cry, 
'America  for  the  Americans,' prevailed  at  an  earlier 
period  of  our  history,  the  nineteenth  century  would 
never  have  seen  the  great  free  republic  we  see,  and  the 
shadow  of  millions  of  slaves  would  to-day  darken  and 
curse  the  continent.  .  .  . 

"  The  facts  are  that  in  every  State  carried  by  Lincoln 
there  was  a  large  foreign  population,  which  was 
mostly,  and  in  some  States  entirely  Republican,  and 
which'  continued  to  be  Republican  down  to  a  very  re- 
cent date  ;  and  if  the  vote  of  this  class  had  been  omitted 
in  1860,  it  would  have  reduced  Lincoln's  vote  to  such 
an  extent  as  to  defeat  him  in  most  of  the  States  that  he 
carried.  I  am  speaking  only  of  the  foreign-born 
voters ;  but,  as  already  shown,  to  these  should  be 
added  a  large  percentage  of  the  people  who,  altho 
native-born,  are  of  foreign-born  parentage,  and  must 
be  considered  with  them  in  viewing  the  general  polit- 
ical course  of  immigrants.  There  is  not  a  swamp  or 
field  or  dark  ravine  where  treason  made  a  stand  but  is 
covered  with  the  graves  of  Germans  and  of  Scandina- 
vians who  died  for  the  principle  of  equal  rights.  Tho 
the  Irish  more  generally  voted  the  Democratic  ticket, 
yet  their  patriotism  was  prompt  to  respond  to  the  call 
of  their  adopted  country,  and  there  is  not  a  battle-field 
where  blood  was  shed  for  the  Union  that  has  not  the 
bones  of  Irishmen  rotting  upon  it." 

3.  The  Industrial  Danger.  —This  is  perhaps 
the  greatest  danger.  Under  competitive  trade 
producers  must  produce  cheaply.  To  do  this 
they  must  pay  the  lowest  wages  for  which  they 
can  get  the  requisite  grade  of  work.  To  a  cer- 
tain extent  high  labor  is  cheap  labor,  because 
well-paid  men  can  turn  out  more  and  better 
work.  But  there  is  a  limit  to  this,  and  more 
and  more  are  machinery  and  invention  enabling 
unskilled  and  cheap  labor  to  produce  that  which 
undersells,  in  amount  at  least,  skilled  work. 
As  a  matter  of  fact,  every  factory  town  sees  the 
survival  of  the  unfit.  Irishmen  drive  out  Amer- 
icans ;  French  Canadians,  Irishmen  ;  Poles  and 
Hungarians,  French  Canadians  ;  and  so  on  to 
the  lowest.  This  is  particularly  true  in  certain 
lines  of  industry.  Of  the  clothing  trade,  it  was 
recently  written  : 

"  Has  it  come  to  this,  that  the  guests  of  the  nation 
shall  make  tramps  of  the  original  proprietors?  That 
American  women,  who  have  been  brought  up  to  the 
trade,  and  worked  many  years  at  the  business  (and  we 
have  such  in  our  shop),  should  be  denied  the  right  to 
an  honorable  living?  And  shall  our  clothing  be  made 
exclusively  by  those  who  are  content  to  wallow  as  a 
hog  in  a  sty  ? 

While  we  have  no  prejudices  against  class  or 
nationality,  but  give  all  suitable  persons  an  equal 
footing  in  our  shop,  yet  we  must  insist  that  the  early 


Immigration. 


Immigration. 


should  have  and  maintain  equal  rights  with  the  later 
comers." 

In  contract  labor  (g.v.}  lies  a  great  evil.  Ac- 
cording to  an  investigation  made  by  the  United 
States  Commission  of  Immigration,  Italian  pa- 
droni undertake  to  supply  contractors  of  munic- 
ipal or  corporation  work  with  laborers.  They 
go  to  the  Italian  immigrants  on  arrival  and 
offer  them  work  at  rates  that  seem  to  them, 
fresh  from  Italy  (g.  v.),  large.  The  padroni  seem 
their  best  friends  ;  they  contract  to  live  in  the 
houses  of  the  padroni  and  to  buy  at  their  stores. 

According  to  statements  of  the  commission  printed 
in  the  Congressional  Record,  1896,  p.  5983,  a  typical 
case  is  where  a  padrone  kept  $i  a  head  for  finding  215 
men  work,  paid  their  fare  to  the  place  of  work  in  ad- 
vance ($7  each) ;  there  he  lodged  the  215  men  in  9  huts 
of  3  rooms  each,  charging  them  $i  a  month  each,  tho 
he  only  paid  $25  a  month  for  the  9  huts  and  a  store, 
clearing  thus  $190  a  month.  All  supplies  had  to  be 
bought  at  his  store,  on  a  penalty  of  a  fine  of  $5  for  dis- 
obedience. He  charged  10  cents  for  each  s-cent  loaf  of 
bread,  10  or  12  cents  a  pound  for  meat  that  could  be 
bought  at  wholesale  for  4^  cents,  and  so  on.  Pur- 
chases averaged  $8  a  month  for  each  man,  out  of 
which  a  25  per  cent,  profit  (and  it  was  much  more) 
would  be  $860  with  the  board,  giving  the  padrone  over 
$1000  per  month.  Yet  this  labor  is  displacing  Ameri- 
can-born labor. 

Perhaps  still  worse  is  the  labor  formerly  in- 
troduced by  corporations  into  the  anthracite  re- 
gions of  Pennsylvania  to  drive  out  the  Ameri- 
can miners.  Here  Italians  and  Slavs  will  labor 
for  8p  or  90  cents  a  day  (to  them  good  pay),  liv- 
ing in  hovels,  contracting  scurvy  by  a  steady 
diet  of  cheapest  salt  pork,  with  sore  eyes  and 
bodies  from  owning  no  towel  or  wash-tub,  hav- 
ing fever  from  lack  of  any  of  the  most  primitive 
sanitary  arrangements.  To  a  less  extent  the 
same  thing  happens  wherever  the  corporations 
or  municipalities  introduce  contract  labor.  Said 
an  employer:  "I  paid  $i  a  head  to  get  such 
men  here.  I  would  pay  $20  per  head  to  get 
them  out." 

We  next  consider  the  reasons  for  not  restrict- 
ing immigration. 

i.  There  is  no  need.  This  country,  we  are 
told  on  good  authority,  can  support  2,000,000,000 
of  people,  while  to-day  we  have  only  65,000,000. 
There  is  room  for  millions  more.  What  we 
need  is  more  men  to  till  our  prairies  and  to  de- 
velop our  unequaled  natural  op- 
portunities. America  need  not 
Arguments  stop  the  coming  of  men.  Even  if 

against      many  of  them  be  densely  ignorant 

Restriction,  and  incompetent,  American  schools 

can  educate  at  least  their  children, 

and  American  life  can  lead  them 

into    valuable    citizenship.     The    assimilating 

power  of  American    civilization    has    not  yet 

failed  ;  why  should  we  fear  for  it  now  ? 

But  to  this  it  must  be  said  that  while  America 
doubtless  can  support  a  much  larger  population, 
the  immigrants  that  come  do  not  and  at  present 
cannot  be  made  to  scatter  over  all  the  land,  but 
gather  in  our  cities,  breeding  in  disease,  igno- 
rance, and  filth.  Again,  while  our  life  may  be 
able  to  assimilate  millions  more,  it  is  quite  an- 
other thing  to  say  that  we  can  assimilate  so 
many  at  one  time  as  have  recently  come  to  us. 

A  second  argument  for  not  restricting  immi- 
gration is  the  good  that  immigration  has  done 
this  country  and  our  dependence  upon  it.  Com- 
missioner Knapp,  formerly  Commissioner  of  Emi- 


gration at  New  York,  by  a  computation  based 
partly  on  the  price  of  slaves  and  partly  on  Ger- 
man estimates  as  to  the  cost  of  rearing  German 
laborers,  once  fixed  the  value  of  the  average 
immigrant  to  this  country  at  $1125.  The  indi- 
rect beneficial  effects,  however,  of  the  immigra 
tion,  which  alone  has  rendered  the  rapid  devel- 
opment of  the  United  States  possible,  are  still 
further  beyond  estimate.  Every  kind  of  skilled 
and  unskilled  labor  has  been  introduced  to  add 
to  the  productive  power  of  the  country.  The 
records  of  the  Bureau  of  Statistics  show  that  in 
the  years  from  1873-83  the  principal  occupations 
of  the  immigrants  were  : 

Professional  occupations 25,343 

Skilled  occupations 455i949 

Miscellaneous  occupations 1,588,246 

Occupations  not  stated 81,223 

Without  occupations 1,997,019 


Total  immigration 4,147,780 

The  laborers  of  every  class  are  scattered 
throughout  the  land.  The  Lake  States  of  the 
Northwest  have  no  population  more  industrious 
and  more  efficient  in  agricultural  pursuits  than 
the  Scandinavians,  who  form  a  large  proportion 
of  the  community.  Much  of  the  railroad  build- 
ing, which  has  been  a  chief  instrument  in  de- 
veloping the  country,  would  have  been  impos- 
sible but  for  the  labor  of  immigrants,  who  en- 
dure drudgery  that  the  natives  of  this  country 
are  unable  or  unwilling  to  undergo.  The  quick 
invention  and  adaptability  of  the  Irish,  the 
economy  and  industry  01  the  Germans,  the 
sturdy  qualities  of  the  Scandinavian  character, 
and  the  varied  excellencies  of  the  other  com- 
ponent parts  of  our  vast  foreign-born  population 
have  been  of  incalculable  advantage.  Without 
the  added  population  and  wealth  which  immi- 
gration has  brought  the  growth  of  the  country 
would  have  been  slow  indeed.  All  of  which  is 
made  an  argument  by  some  for  not  restricting 
the  immigration.  But  it  is  really  only  an  ar- 
gument for  not  absolutely  preventing  immigra- 
tion, which  no  one  proposes  to  do.  It  is  quality 
we  want,  not  quantity. 

A  third  argument,  sometimes  raised,  for  not 
restricting  immigration  is  that  our  danger  is 
not  from  the  poor,  but  from  the  wealthy.  Said. 
Wendell  Phillips  :  "  In  combining,  perpetual, 
legalized  private  wealth  lies  our  danger  to-day  ;" 
many  believe  that  the  rich  men  of  this  land 
are  "  our  dangerous  class  ;"  that  Newport  and 
Saratoga,  Lenox  and  Wall  Street  are  the  cen- 
ters of  our  social  and  national  corruption.  Nor 
is  it  only  labor  leaders  who  say  this.  Says 
Professor  R.  T.  Ely  : 

"  It  is  unscrupulous  wealth  which  rules  and  cor- 
rupts our  cities.  What  influence,  comparatively  speak- 
ing, have  working  men  in  our  politics?  Was  Jacob 
Sharp  a  wage-earner  ?  Were  the  manipulators  of  the 
West  End  scandal  in  the  Massachusetts  Legislature 
dwellers  in  the  slums  of  Boston?  Does  any  sane  man 
in  Baltimore  who  wishes  to  work  a  measure  through 
our  City  Council  rely  upon  the  assistance  of  leaders 
of  working  men  ?  I  have  some  idea  of  what  I  would  do 
in  Baltimore.  I  know  the  men  whom  I  would  ap- 

E roach,  but  they  are  not  wage-earners.  President 
eth  Low  has  said  that  his  study  and  actual  experi- 
ence as  Mayor  of  Brooklyn  have  convinced  him  that 
universal  suffrage  is  not  the  cause  of  bad  city  gov- 
ernments. He  says  he  did  not  find  wealth  always 
ready  to  cooperate,  and  he  believes  that  our  cities 
could  not  have  made  so  rapid  progress  as  they  have 
without  universal  suffrage. 


Immigration. 


Income  Tax. 


Some  radical  reformers,  therefore,  argue  that 
we  need  socialistic  legislation,  and  that  immigra- 
tion will  help  the  socialist  vote.  But  to  this  it 
may  be  said  that  even  granting  the  premises, 
the  conclusion  does  not  follow.  Tho  wealth  be 
to  blame,  it  does  not  follow  that  all  immigrants 
will  quietly  vote  for  reform.  On  the  other  hand, 
there  is  only  too  much  evidence  to  believe  that, 
in  their  ignorance,  it  is  these  very  people  who, 
being  corrupted  by  the  wealthy,  enable  dishon- 
est politicians  and  corrupt  legislators  to  sell  leg- 
islation to  the  interest  of  monopoly  and  of  greed. 
Finally,  it  is  urged  that  the  general  principle  of 
the  brotherhood  of  man  and  the  traditions  of 
this  country,  as  an  asylum  for  the  oppressed, 
should  prevent  any  restriction  upon  immigra- 
tion. To  this  it  is  answered  that  as  we  do  not 
invite  all  the  world  to  our  family  tables,  we  are 
not  compelled  to  ruin  our  national  life  by  invit- 
ing all  the  world  to  occupy  our  lands.  The 
question  is  whether  by  maintaining  our  own 
high  level  we  do  not  best  play  our  part  in  the 

freat  brotherhood  of  nations.  Said  the  late 
ishop  of  Massachusetts  :  "  The  trusteeship  of 
our  land  for  all  humanity — we  can  never  go 
back  upon  that  ;  but  it  may  be  in  order  for  us 
to  stand  guard  over  the  quantity,  in  order  that 
we  make  more  sure  of  the  quality  of  those 
whom  we  welcome  to  our  world." 

OUR   PRESENT   LAWS. 

The  main  law,  which  is  now  in  force,  was  ap- 
proved March  3,  1891.  The  first  and  chief  sec- 
tion of  this  law  debars  from  landing  "  all  idiots, 
insane  persons,  paupers,  or  persons  likely  to  be- 
come a  public  charge,  persons  suffering  from  a 
loathsome  or  a  dangerous  contagious  disease, 
persons  who  have  been  convicted  of  a  felony  or 
other  infamous  crime  or  misdemeanor  involving 
moral  turpitude,  polygamists,  and  also  any  per- 
sons whose  ticket  or  passage  is  paid  for  with  the 
money  of  another,  or  who  is  assisted  by  others 
to  come,  unless  it  is  affirmatively  and  satisfac- 
torily shown  on  special  inquiry  that  such  person 
does  not  belong  to  one  of  the  foregoing  exclud- 
ed classes,  or  to  the  class  of  contract  labor- 
ers. ..."  This  section  does  not  exclude  per- 
sons living  in  the  United  States  from  sending 
for  a  relative  or  friend  who  is  not  of  the  exclud- 
ed classes.  In  addition  to  these  classes  of  per- 
sons, contract  laborers  are  debarred  under  the 
Contract  Labor  Law  of  February  26,  1885. 
The  new  law  of  March  3,  1893,  names  no  addi- 
tional classes  of  persons  to  be  excluded,  altho 
the  general  impression  is  to  the  contrary.  It 
simply  provides  for  the  making  out  of  manifests 
at  the  port  of  embarkation,  containing  answers 
to  a  number  of  questions  to  be  put  to  each  in- 
tending emigrant,  as  to  name,  age,  sex,  occupa- 
tion, etc.  These  manifests  are  to  be  signed  or 
sworn  to  by  the  masters  or  officers  of  the  steam- 
ers bringing  the  immigrants,  the  officers  having 
to  swear  that,  so  far  as  they  know,  none  of  their 
passengers  are  of  the  excluded  classes.  These 
oaths  are  taken  before  the  American  consul  at 
the  port  of  departure,  the  object  of  the  law  being 
to  prevent  the  embarkation  of  any  persons  who 
ought  to  be  debarred  here. 

There  was,  however,  in  the  winter  of  1895-96, 
a  strong  agitation  to  place  an  educational 


restriction  on  immigration.  The  immigration 
checked  by  the  hard  times  of  1893-94  had  in- 
creased, especially  as  to  Italian  immigration. 
From  January  i  to  May  i,  1896,  2700  Italians 
are  said  to  have  landed  in  New  York  City.  As 
a  result,  on  May  20,  1896,  the  House  passed  the 
so-called  McCall  Bill,  principally  prepared  by  the 
Immigration  Restriction  League  of  Boston. 
The  principal  items  of  the  bill  are  (i)  that  "  all 
male  persons  between  16  and  60  years  of  age 
who  cannot  both  read  and  write  the  English 
language  or  some  other  language"  shall  be  re- 
fused admission,  provided  that  no  parent  of  a 
person  now  living  in  this  country  or  admitted  to 
this  country  shall  be  excluded  because  of  inabil- 
ity to  read  and  write  ;  and  (2)  that  no  person 
shall  be  admitted  to  engage  in  mechanical  or 
manual  labor  who  resides  or  retains  his  home 
in  a  foreign  land,  except  that  the  Secretary  of 
the  Treasury  may  allow  aliens  to  come  and 
teach  new  arts  and  industries  ;  (3)  that  no  per- 
sons, company,  or  corporation  shall  employ  such 
aliens  except  in  the  case  of  employees  of  vessels 
of  the  United  States  or  railroad  companies  whose 
lines  enter  foreign  countries.  The  bill  was 
carried  by  195  to  26. 

References  :  Emigration  and  Immigration,  by  R. 
Mayo-Smith  (1890).  See  also  Reports  of  the  U.  S.  Com- 
mission of  Immigration. 

IMPORTS.     See  EXPORTS. 

INCIDENCES    OF     TAXATION.       See 

TAXATION. 

INCOME  TAX.— An  income  tax  is  a  direct 
tax  levied  upon  income,  and  usually  progressive- 
ly graded  according  to  the  size  of  the  income. 
(See  TAXATION.)  It  seems  at  first  sight  unques- 
tionably the  most  equitable  of  taxes,  conform- 
ing as  it  does  to  almost  all  the  canons  of  taxa- 
tion (q.v.).  There  is,  however,  one  great  draw- 
back. It  seems  almost  impossible  to  equitably 
collect  the  tax.  Honest  people  will  report  their 
whole  income  and  pay  the  proper  tax.  Dishon- 
est people  (and  the  number  of  persons  who  will 
honestly  report  their  incomes  seems  lamentably 
small)  falsify  their  incomes  and  escape  taxation. 
Some  people,  therefore,  call  it  a  tax  upon  hon- 
esty, and  consider  it  in  practical  working  the 
most  unjust  of  taxes.  John  Stuart  Mill  says 
{Political  Economy,  Book  V.,  chap,  iii.,  §  5)  : 

"The  tax,  therefore,  on  whatever  principles  of 
equality  it  may  be  imposed,  is  in  practice  unequal  in 
one  of  the  worst  ways,  falling  heaviest  on  the  most 
conscientious.  The  unscrupulous  succeed  in  evading 
a  great  proportion  of  what  they  should  pay  ;  even 
persons  of  integrity  in  their  ordinary  transactions  are 
tempted  to  palter  with  their  consciences,  at  least  to 
the  extent  of  deciding  in  their  own  favor  all  points  on 
which  the  smallest  doubt  or  discussion  could  arise  ; 
•while  the  strictly  veracious  may  be  made  to  pay  more 
than  the  State  intended,  by  the  powers  of  arbitrary 
assessment  necessarily  intrusted  to  the  commissioners 
as  the  last  defense  against  the  taxpayer's  power  of 
concealment. 

"It  is  to  be  feared,  therefore,  that  the  fairness  which 
belongs  to  the  principle  of  an  income  tax  cannot  be 
made  to  attach  to  it  in  practice  ;  and  that  this  tax, 
while  apparently  the  most  just  of  all  modes  of  raising 
a  revenue,  is  in  effect  more  unjust  than  many  others 
which  are  primd  facie  more  objectionable.  This  con- 
sideration would  lead  us  to  concur  in  the  opinion 
which,  until  of  late,  has  usually  prevailed — that  direct 
taxes  on  income  should  be  reserved  as  an  extraordi- 
nary resource  for  great  national  emergencies,  in 


Income  Tax. 


Income  Tax. 


which  the  necessity  of   a  large  additional    revenue 
overrules  all  objections." 

Professor  E.  R.  A.  Seligman,  on  the  other 
hand,  speaking  of  this  objection  in  practice, 
says  (Political  Science  Quarter •//,  vol.  ix.,  pp. 
636-638)  : 

"  It  is  usually  forgotten  that  in  dealing  with  prob- 
lems  of  this  character  the  real  inquiry  is  not  what  is 
absolutely  good,  but  what  is  relatively  best.  So  far 
as  the  objection  is  true,  it  will  be  found  to  be  due  in 
great  part  to  certain  provisions  of  the  law  which,  as 
we  shall  see,  might  have  been  avoided.  But  the  ob- 
jection itself  has  been  made  too  much  of.  It  is  un- 
doubtedly true  that  the  income  taxes  in  the  common- 
wealths are  almost  entirely  farcical.  But  that  is 
owing  solely  to  the  fact  that  no  earnest  effort  is  made 
to  execute  the  law.  Where,  however,  there  is  a  seri- 
ous administration,  as  was  the  case  with  the  federal 
income  taxes  during  the  Civil  War,  the  result  is  very 
different.  It  is  commonly  assumed  that  the  Civil 
War  income  tax  was  in  many  respects  a  failure  and 
was  provocative  of  great  frauds.  But  after  some 
comparison  of  the  federal  income  tax  with  the  local 
property  taxes,  I  venture  to  say  that  the  federal  in- 
come tax,  notwithstanding  all  its  imperfections,  crudi- 
ties, and  ensuing  frauds,  was  nevertheless  more  suc- 
cessful than  the  general  property  tax.  Let  us  test 
this  by  taking  its  fortunes  in  a  typical  State,  utilizing 
the  returns  of  the  State  comptroller  and  the  federal 
officials.  .  .  . 

"  In  short,  the  history  of  the  income  tax  clearly 
shows  that  it  was  more  lucrative  than  a  corresponding 
property  tax,  and  that  it  succeeded  in  many  cases 
where  the  personal  property  tax  failed.  The  income  tax 
was  indeed  productive  of  great  frauds,  but  the  person- 
al property  tax  created  far  more.  It  was  precisely  be- 
cause the  income  tax  reached  so  many  of  the  mercan- 
tile and  capitalistic  classes  who  have  both  previously 
and  since  escaped  taxation,  that  it  became  unpopular 
and  was  abolished." 

Such  are  typical  opinions.  In  Europe  it  is  a 
common  form  of  taxation,  and  seems  to  have 
worked  better  the  longer  it  has  been  tried. 

Of  the  history  of  the  income  tax  Professor 
Seligman  says  (in  the  above  article)  : 

"  England  led  the  way  in  the  introduction  of  the 
new  system.  When  Pitt  had  come  almost  to  the  end 
of  his  fiscal  expedients  during  the  desperate  struggle 
with  France,  he  introduced  in  1798  the  famous  'triple 
assessment.'  The  so-called  'assessed  taxes'  at  that 
time  included  taxes  on  carriages,  servants,  horses, 
dwellings,  dogs,  powder,  and  watches.  Pitt  took  the 
taxpayers  who  were  assessed  to  these  taxes,  and  mul- 
tiplied their  assessment  by  a  figure  ranging  from 
three  to  five  times  the  original  amount.  Altho  refer- 
ence was  made  to  income  in  several  places,  the  tax 
was  really  on  expenditure,  or  on  the  presumed  in- 
come as  calculated  by  expenditure.  Partly  for  this 
reason  and  partly  because  it  was  levied  only  on  those 
who  had  previously  paid  the  'assessed  taxes,'  it  was  a 
failure.  Accordingly  in  1799  the  new  'property  and 
income  tax  '  was  levied  directly  on  income,  not  on  ex- 
penditure, and  all  persons  were  required  to  make  a 
return  of  their  total  income.  In  1803  an  important 
change  took  place,  in  that  the  tax  was  no  longer  as- 
sessed on  the  total  income,  but  on  each  source  of  in- 
come by  itself,  in  five  schedules.  With  some  minor 
changes  the  tax  continued  until  the  close  of  the  Napo- 
leonic wars,  when  it  was  dropped,  not  to  reappear 
until  1842. 

"  At  that  time  the  contemplated  abolition  of  the 
Corn  Laws  and  the  abandonment  of  the  protective 
system  made  it  necessary  to  seek  some  compensation 
in  other  directions.  It  was,  therefore, 
chiefly  as  a  revenue  measure  that  re- 
Hi  sto  course  was  had  to  the  old  income  tax, 
story,  now  reenacted  on  about  the  same  lines 
as  those  of  1803.  But  what  was  imposed 
as  a  mere  temporary  makeshift  has 
grown  to  be  a  permanent  part  of  the  English  tax  sys- 
tem, which  no  one  now  thinks  of  abandoning,  and 
which  yields  an  annual  revenue  of  about  $70,000,000, 
capable  of  increase  or  diminution  according  to  a 
change  in  the  annual  rate. 

"  As  in  England,  so  in  Italy  the  revenue  feature  was 
the  chief  consideration  in  the  origin  of  the  present  in- 
come tax.  It  was  adopted  by  Cavour,  the  great  ad- 
mirer and  student  of  England,  as  a  means  of  support 


for  the  newly  born  kingdom  of  Italy.  Initiated  by 
the  law  of  1864  and  greatly  altered  by  the  law  of  1877, 
the  Italian  income  tax  now  yields  about  $50,000,000  a 
year. 

"  In  France,  again,  the  immense  burdens  of  the  war 
of  1870  led  the  financiers  to  cast  about  for  means  of 
relief.  The  sad  memories  of  the  abuses  connected 
with  personal  taxation  before  the  Revolution  were 
still  strong  in  the  minds  of  the  public.  Altho  a  gen- 
eral income  tax  was  proposed,  the  law  enacted  in  1871, 
which  is  still  in  force  to-day,  provided  for  a  tax  only 
on  income  from  corporations  and  associations.  This 
partial  income  tax  yields  about  75,000,000  francs  a 
year. 

•'In  the  United  S.tates  the  federal  income  tax  was 
also  due  to  fiscal  considerations.  During  the  War  of 
1812  Secretary  Dallas  had  put  forth  a  scheme  of  a 
general  income  tax,  and  if  peace  had  not  been  con- 
cluded a  few  weeks  later,  there  is  little  doubt  that  the 
proposition  would  have  been  adopted.  When  the  Civ- 
il War  broke  out,  the  fiscal  exigencies  were  such  that 
no  opposition  to  the  scheme  was  made.  The  income 
tax  sections  of  the  Direct  Property  Tax  Act  of  1861, 
however,  were  never  put  in  force,  and  it  was  not  until 
1862  that  an  '  income  duty'  was  levied  on  all  an- 
nual 'gains,  profits,  or  income.'  The  tax,  of  which  we 
are  told  in  the  Government  reports  that  '  the  people 
have  accepted  it  with  cheerfulness,'  grew  increasingly- 
unpopular  as  the  great  need  of  revenue  diminished, 
until  the  system  came  to  an  end  in  1872. 

"While  in  England,  Italy,  France,  and  the  United 
States,  the  income  tax  was  due  primarily  to  the 
temporary  needs  of  the  Government,  in  other  places' 
like  Germany,  Switzerland,  Australia,  and  some  of 
the  American  commonwealths,  it  was  adopted  as  a 
means  of  improving  the  general  tax  system.  In  the 
German  States  the  real-estate  tax  had  become  by  the 
beginning  of  the  century  a  tax  on  the  produce  of  land 
and  houses.  To  this  some  of  the  States  gradually 
added  taxes  on  the  product  from  other  sources,  like 
capital,  business,  and  individual  exertions.  Other 
States  sought  to  make  the  system  more  equitable  by 
regarding  the  personal  situation  of  the  profits-re- 
ceiver rather  than  the  amount  produced.  Thus,  there 
grew  up,  on  the  one  hand,  a  general  income  tax,  as  in 
Prussia,  Saxony,  and  Baden,  and  on  the  other  hand  a 
system  of  partial  income  taxes  supplementing  the 
original  taxes  on  product,  as  in  Bavaria,  Wurtemberg, 
and  some  of  the  smaller  States.  But  everywhere  the 
idea  was  to  attain  a  greater  uniformity  and  equality 
of  taxation.  So  also  in  Holland,  the  two  laws  of  last 
year  have  finally  realized  the  much-mooted  scheme  of 
reform,  introducing  a  general  plan  of  income  taxa- 
tion, through  a  tax  on  income  from  property  and  a 
separate  tax  on  income  from  all  other  sources. 

"  In  the  cantons  of  Switzerland  the  system  of  taxa- 
tion was  for  a  long  time  exactly  the  same  as  in  the 
American  States.  But  the  inadequacy  of  the  general 
property  tax  finally  led  them  to  supplement  it  by  a 
taxation  of  incomes.  In  some  cantons  we  find  a  gen- 
eral property  tax  and  a  general  income  tax  ;  in  others, 
we  have  a  property  tax  on  certain  elements  and  an 
income  tax  on  other  elements.  But  in  the  majority  of 
cases  we  find  a  property  tax  together  with  a  supple- 
mentary income  tax,  in  order  to  avoid  double  taxa- 
tion. In  democratic  Switzerland,  as  in  monarchic 
Germany,  the  income  tax  has  become  so  firmly  in- 
trenched that  any  proposition  to  abolish  it  would  be 
regarded  as  a  retrograde  step. 

"Some  of  the  American  commonwealths  also  have 
endeavored  to  remedy  the  defects  of  the  general  prop- 
erty tax  by  the  imposition  of  an  income  tax.  This  is 
a  chapter  in  the  history  of  finance  which  has  been 
almost  entirely  overlooked,  and  which  can  only  be 
alluded  to  in  this  place.  The  still  existing  income  tax 
in  North  Carolina  was  begun  in  1849,  because,  as  the 
preamble  of  the  act  recites,  'there  are  many  wealthy 
citizens  who  derive  very  considerable  revenues  from 
.  .  .  interest,  dividends,  and  profits,  and  who  do  not 
contribute  a  due  proportion  to  the  public  exigencies.' 
So  also  the  income  taxes  of  Alabama  and  Virginia, 
which  were  introduced  in  1843  and  1849,  arose  out  of 
dissatisfaction  with  the  existing  property  taxes. 
These  examples  are  all  the  more  significant  when  it  is 
borne  in  mind  that  the  defects  of  the  general  property 
tax  were  by  no  means  so  glaring  50  years  ago  as  they 
are  to-day.  It  is  true  that  most  of  these  income  taxes 
were  failures  for  much  the  same  reason  that  the  tax 
on  personal  property  has  become  a  farce.  In  Alabama 
the  income  tax  was  abolished  in  1884 ;  only  in  Massa- 
chusetts, Virginia,  and  North  Carolina  is  any  attempt 
made  to-day  to  levy  an  income  tax,  and  in  these  States 
the  attemp't  for  many  reasons  meets  with  a  very 
slight  degree  of  success.  But  the  point  to  be  empha- 


Income  Tax. 


716 


Independent  Labor  Party, 


sized  here  is  that  the  income  tax,  whenever  introduced 
into  any  American  commonwealth,  was  enacted  with 
the  avowed  purpose  of  removing  inequalities  in  the 
tax  system. 

"  In  Australasia,  also,  there  has  been  of  recent  years 
a  very  decided  movement  toward  income  taxes  for 
the  purpose  of  rendering  the  revenue  systems  more 
equitable.  An  income  tax  has  existed  in  South  Aus- 
tralia since  1885,  in  addition  to  the  land  tax.  In  Tas- 
mania an  income  tax-bill  has  recently  been  intro- 
duced. In  New  South  Wales  a  similar  bill  was  passed 
by  the  Assembly  a  year  or  two  ago,  after  much  dis- 
cussion. It  was  indeed  rejected  by  the  Legislative 
Council,  but  it  is  bound  to  reappear  in  the  near  future. 
In  New  Zealand  the  dissatisfaction  with  the  general 
property  tax  finally  reached  such  a  point  that  it  was 
replaced  in  1891  by  a  land  tax,  together  with  a  tax  on 
all  incomes  other  than  those  from  land.  The  income 
tax  was  collected  for  the  first  time  in  1893." 

As  to  the  United  States  war  income  tax,  the 
following  are  the  more  important  details  : 

It  was  during  the  extra  session  of  Congress  in  1861 
that  Thaddeus  Stevens,  Chairman  of  the  Committee  of 
Ways  and  Means,  reported  the  first  Income  Tax  bill. 
As  amended  and  passed,  it  taxed  all  incomes  over 
$800  3  per  cent.,  unless  derived  from  United  States 
bonds,  which  were  taxed  ij^  per  cent.  Incomes  of 
citizens  of  the  United  States  residing  abroad  were 
taxed  7!/£  per  cent.  Owing  to  the  late  time  of  its  tak- 
ing effect,  the  income  tax  brought  into  the  treasury 
but  a  small  sum  prior  to  the  year  1864,  when  there  was 
collected  under  the  head  of  income  tax  a  little  over 

E  15,000,000.  By  the  act  of  March  3,  1865,  the  Income  Tax 
iw  was  amended  so  as  to  increase  the  3  per  cent,  tax  to 
5  per  cent.,  and  the  5  percent,  tax  on  incomes  over  $10,- 
ooo  was  changed  to  a  10  per  cent,  tax  upon  the  excess 
over  $5000  income.  The  most  of  the  tax  for  the  year 
1865,  however,  was  collected  under  the  original  law, 
and  brought  into  the  treasury  the  sum  of  $21,000,000 
for  the  fiscal  year  1864-65.  The  following  year,  1865- 
66,  the  war  having  ceased  and  the  country  being  in  a 
high  state  of  development  in  all  its  resources,  the  in- 
come tax  rose  to  a  point  the  highest  ever  reached  in 
the  history  of  the  tax.  The  returns  for  the  fiscal  year 
ending  June  30,  1866,  showed  a  total  revenue  from  the 
income  tax  of  $60,547,832.43.  This  was  but  little  dimin- 
ished in  the  following  year,  1866-67,  when  the  net 
revenue  from  the  income  tax  footed  up  $57,040,640.67. 

The  income  tax  was  further  amended  March  2,  1867, 
so  as  to  increase  the  exemption  then  standing  at  $600 
(it  having  in  the  mean  time  been  modified  from  $800)  up 
to  $1000.  At  the  same  time  all  discrimination  as  to 
taxing  large  incomes  a  higher  rate  was  abolished,  and 
the  tax  fixed  at  5  per  cent,  on  all  incomes  in  excess  of 
$1000. 

Under  the  modified  tax  there  was  collected  in  the 
year  1868  the  large  sum  of  $32,027,640.73  ;  in  1869,  $25,- 
025,068.86,  and  in  the  fiscal  year  ended  June  30, 1870,  $27,- 
115,046.11.  On  that  day  the  income  tax  ceased  in  the 
United  States. 

The  entire,  amount  realized  from  it  in  10  years  was 
nearly  $365,000,000.  It  reached  about  250,000  persons 
out  of  a  population  of  40,000,000. 

In  recent  years  there  has  been  considerable 
agitation  for  an  income  tax,  culminating  in  the 
passage  of  a  bill  establishing  such  a  tax,  tho 
it  was  declared  unconstitutional  by  the  Supreme 
Court.  Professor  Seligman  says  (in  the  above- 
quoted  article)  : 

"  For  some  years  a  progressive  income  tax  has  been 
one  of  the  chief  planks  in  the  platforms  not  only  of  the 
Populists  and  the  anti-monopolists,  but  of  the  farmers' 
conventions  throughout  the  length  and  breadth  of  the 
land. 

"  When,  therefore,  the  opportunity  presented  itself, 
the  Western  and  Southern  representatives  in  Congress 
were  not  slow  to  seize  it.  The  self-imposed  mission  of 
the  Democratic  Party  was  to  reduce  and  equalize  tax- 
ation. Altho  the  Democrats  at  first  proposed  sim- 
ply to  lower  the  tariff  to  a  revenue  basis,  it  was  soon 
recognized  that  the  reductions  would  be  more  radical. 
Looked  at  merely  from  the  standpoint  of  convenience 
and  ease  of  collection,  the  simple  method  of  making 
good  a  deficit  in  the  tariff  revenue  would  have  been  to 
modify  the  system  of  internal  revenue.  This  plan, 
indeed,  was  advanced  by  Mr.  David  A.  Wells,  and  at  one 
time  it  seemed  to  enjoy  a  reasonable  prospect  of  meet- 
ing with  legislative  approval.  .  .  . 


"But  while  the  anticipated  deficit  gave  the  Western 
and  Southern  representatives  their  opportunity,  it  was 
not  so  much  the  idea  of  increasing  the  revenue  as  that 
of  correcting  inequalities  in  the  tax  system  that  was 
really  in  their  mind.  .  .  .  Opposition  to  the  tax  came, 
as  was  natural,  from  the  great  cities  of  the  East.  .  ! 
The  large  dailies  were  filled  with  indignant  protests. 
In  the  West  there  was  by  no  means  the  same  op- 
position even  among  Republicans.  An  Income  Tax  bill 
was  introduced  into  the  House  January  24,  1894,  but  was 
subsequently  incorporated  in  the  Wilson  tariff  bill. 
It  was  bitterly  opposed,  notably  by  David  Hill,  of  New 
York,  but  it  finally  passed  with  the  Tariff  bill  by  a  vote 
of  182  to  106.  It  became  a  law  without  the  President's 
signature.  Its  constitutionality,  however,  was  ques- 
tioned, and  several  test  cases  were  pushed  through  to 
the  Supreme  Court,  which  rendered  a  decision  April  8, 
1895,  declaring  some  of  its  clauses  unco  nstitutional,  but 
on  some  other  points,  Justice  Jackson  being  sick,  the 
court  was  evenly  divided.  May  20,  however,  a  final 
decision  was  rendered  by  a  vote  of  five  to  four,  declar- 
ing the  whole  bill  unconstitutional,  in  that  it  was  a  di- 
rect tax,  and  made  no  provision  for  an  apportionment 
among  the  States  according  to  the  population,  the 
Constitution  declaring  that  all  direct  taxes  must  be  so 
apportioned.  Justices  Brown,  Jackson,  Harlan,  and 
White  entered  a  vigorous  dissenting  opinion,  but  one 
of  those  who  had  previously  thought  the  tax  constitu- 
tional had  changed  his  mind,  and  the  tax  was  declared 
illegal.  But  the  Democratic  Party  has  put  an  income 
tax  plank  into  its  platform  of  1896,  and  the  end  is  not 
yet.* 

References :  See  TAXATION. 

INDEPENDENT  LABOR  PARTY,  THE 
(ENGLISH),  popularly  called  the  I.  L.  P.,  is 
mainly  the  outgrowth  of  the  agitation  of  Mr. 
Keir  Hardie  (g.v.),  for  an  independent  political 
party  to  voice  the  demands  of  labor.  In  1888 
he  established  a  Scotch  Labor  Party.  (See  SCOT- 
LAND.) In  January,  1893,  a  conference  of  115 
persons  was  held  at  Bradford,  England,  and  the 
Independent  Labor  Party  organized.  Tho  not 
using  the  term  socialist  in  its  name,  it  is  now 
distinctly  socialistic,  its  constitution,  as  amend- 
ed in  1894,  declaring  its  object  to  be  "  the  col- 
lective ownership  and  control  of  the  means  of 
production,  distribution,  and  exchange." 

Its  methods  are  the  capture  of  the  House  of 
Commons  by  independent  labor  representa- 
tives. Its  present  social  and  industrial  program 
includes  an  eight-hour  day,  abolition  of  over- 
time, provision  for  the  aged  and  disabled,  uni- 
versal free  education,  work  for  the  unemployed, 
taxation  of  unearned  incomes,  arbitration,  and 
disarmament. 

At  the  second  conference,  held  in  Manchester 
in  1894,  115  delegates  were  present,  represent- 
ing branches.  An  I.  L.  P.  of  Wales  and  Mon- 
mouthshire was  formed  in  1894.  At  the  third 
annual  conference  (1895),  held  in  Newcastle-on- 
Tyne,  the  political  program  of  the  party  was 
much  extended  and  classified  under  27  items. 
Of  the  part  played  by  the  I.  L.  P.  in  the  gen- 
eral election  in  1895  Mr.  Tom  Mann,  the  secre- 
tary of  the  I.  L.  P.,  writes  in  the  Labor  Annual 
for  1895  : 

"  The  defeat  of  the  Liberal  administration  in  the 
month  of  June,  necessitating  the  general  election  in 
July,  involved  the  summoning  of  a  special  I.L.P.  con- 
ference to  decide  what  should  be  the  policy  of  fhe  I.L.P. 
in  constituencies  where  no  socialist  candidate  could  be 
run.  Accordingly,  a  special  conference  was  held  on 
July  4,  in  Essex  Hall.  It  was  agreed  that  none  but 
socialists  should  be  supported  by  the  I.L.P.  members, 
and  only  those  to  be  counted  worthy  of  support  who 
were  either  members  of  the  I.L.P.  or  the  S.D.F.  In 
order  to  test  the  feeling  of  the  delegates  as  to  their  at- 
titude toward  the  orthodox  parties  in  other  constitu- 
encies, a  vote  was  taken,  with  the  following  result  : 
One  delegate  thought  the  I.L.P.  as  a  body  should 


Independent  Labor  Party. 


717 


Individualism. 


vote  Liberal ;  2  others,  that  they  should  vote  Con- 
servative ;  7  thought  it  best  to  vote  against  the  sit- 
ting member ;  and  105  that  the  party  should  entirely 
abstain  from  voting  for  either  Liberal  or  Conservative. 
This  decisive  vote  was  sent  all  over  the  country  as  an 
instruction  from  the  conference.  .  .  .  The  loyalty  of 
the  rank  and  file  to  the  special  conference  decision 
•was  in  every  way  commendable.  Althq  not  one 
member  of  the  party  was  returned  to  Parliament,  to 
have  run  28  candidates,  to  have  secured  an  average  of 
1583  votes,  and  a  total  of  44,321  for  a  first  trial,  was, 
without  a  doubt,  an  achievement  of  much  hopeful- 
ness." 

The  prominent  organs  of  the  I.  L.  P.  are  Keir 
Hardie's  Labor  Leader  and  Robert  Blatch- 
ford's  Clarion. 

INDIA  AND    SOCIAL    REFORM.-(For 

the  conquest  of  India  by  the  British,  see  EAST 
INDIA  COMPANY  ;  for  the  agricultural  conditions, 
see  AGRICULTURE.) 

The  present  form  of  government  in  India  dates  from 
1858,  when  all  the  territories  in  India  governed  by  the 
East  India  Company  were  vested  in  the  crown,  the  exec- 
utive authority  being  a  governor-general,  styled  vice- 
roy, appointed  by  the  crown  and  acting 
under  the  orders  of  the  secretary  of  the 

Statistics      State   for  India,  who  is  assisted  by  a 

8iauBU.cs.  councii?  the  major  part  of  whom  must 
have  served  or  resided  10  years  in 
India.  There  is  also  a  council  of  the 
governor-general  of  6  members,  appointed  by  the 
crown,  and  a  legislative  council  of  22,  nominated  by  the 
viceroy.  There  are  12  provinces,  each  with  a  governor. 
The  governors  of  Madras  and  Bombay  have  also  legis- 
lative and  executive  councils. 

The  total  area  of  the  12  provinces  of  British  India, 
not  including  the  tributary  native  states,  was  in  1891, 
964,993  square  miles,  with  a  population  of  287,223,431 ; 
85,670,000  speak  Hindu,  41,340,000  speak  Bengali,  238,499 
speak  English.  The  English-born  population  was  100,- 
551  in  1891 ;  171,735,000  are  supposed  to  be  dependent  on 
agriculture,  25,468,000  on  general  labor,  3600  on  the  State 
and  local  administration. 

Two  hundred  and  seven  millions  in  1891  were  of  the 
Hindu  religion,  57,000,000  Mohammedans,  7,000,000 
Buddhists,  9,000,000  Animistic,  2,285,380  Christians  (of 
which  1,315,263  were  Roman  Catholics),  246,546,176  were 
illiterate  and!  not  under  instruction,  3,195,220  were 
under  instruction.  The  revenue  of  India  in  1894  was 
90,505,214  rix.  The  expenditures  in  1894  were  over 
92,112,212  rix. 

The  main  source  of  revenue  was  a  land  tax,  and  the 
main  expenditure  for  the  army.  The  imports  in  1894- 
95  were  83,110,200  rupees,  and  the  exports,  117,139,831.  In 
1894  there  •were  18,855  miles  of  railway  open,  of  which  5377 
were  worked  by  the  State.  The  working  expenses 
are  less  than  50  per  cent,  of  the  gross  earnings.  India 
has  to  spend  about  .£16,000,000  in  England  in  gold,  while 
its  revenues  are  raised  in  silver.  June  26,  1893,  its  mints 
were  closed  to  the  unrestricted  coinage  of  silver. 

The  problems  of  social  reform  in  India  are 
those  incidental  to  a  great  empire  of  one  degree 
of  civilization  being  ruled  from  a  far-distant 
land  of  a  very  different  civilization.  On  the 
one  hand,  Great  Britain  is  accused,  not  without 
a  very  large  basis  in  fact,  of  governing  India, 
not  for  the  good  of  India,  but  of  Great  Britain. 
The  monetary  policy,  the  trade  restrictions, 
adopted  by  the  Anglo-Indian  Government  is 
dictated  undoubtedly  by  the  interest  of  English 
gold  rather  than  Hindu  needs.  Nevertheless,  it 
can  equally  be  shown  that  Great  Britain's  rule 
of  India,  however  selfish,  has  been  more  for 
India's  good  than  the  centuries  when  India 
undertook  to  govern  herself.  If  there  have 
been  famines  and  plagues  under  the  rule  of 
Great  Britain  in  India,  they  have  doubtless 
been  lighter  than  they  were  formerly.  Great 
Britain  has  scrupulously,  for  the  most  part,  re- 
spected the  religious  views  and  rites  of  her  hea- 
then subjects,  and  only  comparatively  recently 


has  she  even  ventured  to  forbid  the  inhuman 
sacrifices  and  self-immolations  taught  by  the 
Hindu  faiths.  She  has  introduced  railroads 
and  developed  commerce.  The  problems  of 
India  to-day  are  how  far  to  allow  local  govern- 
ment in  communities  not  fitted  for  it,  and  how 
far  to  force  Western  ideas  of  democracy  on  civ- 
ilizations molded  on  caste.  Too  often,  how- 
ever, a  necessary  paternalism  has  been  made 
the  excuse  for  the  selfish  tyranny  of  the  parent 
government. 

INDIRECT  TAXATION.    See  TAXATION. 

INDIVIDUALISM.— The  term  individual- 
ism, as  used  in  social  science,  has  been  defined 
as  ' '  the  theory  of  government  which  favors  the 
non-interference  of  the  State  in  the  affairs  of 
individuals"  (Century  Dictionary).  It  is,  how- 
ever, more  commonly,  and  much  more  correctly 
used  for  the  tendency  to  oppose  State  interfer- 
ence in  the  affairs  of  the  individual  rather  than 
for  any  cut-and-dried  theory  of  the  function  or 
lack  of  function  of  the  State.  When  a  man  says 
he  is  an  individualist,  he  usually  means  not 
that  he  holds  any  exact  a  priori  theory  as  to 
what  the  State  should  or  should  not 
do,  but  that  he  inclines  to  oppose 
State  interference,  unless  it  be  very  Definition. 
clearly  proven  that  it  is  necessary. 
The  presumption  with  him  is 
against  interference.  He  inclines  to  resist  so- 
cialistic legislation,  even  in  small  matters,  lest 
they  lead  to  a  general  State  socialism.  He  be- 
lieves that  we  must  finally  decide  from  experi- 
ence and  history  what  in  each  particular  case  is 
wise.  Individualism  must  not  be  confounded 
with  anarchism  (g.v.),  nor  with  the  positive  pro- 
gram laid  down  by  particular  individualists, 
however  prominent.  (See  SINGLE  TAX  ;  SPEN- 
CER ;  VOLUNTARYISM.) 

We  find  individualism  somewhat  developed 
among  the  Greek  Sophists  and  in  all  Greek 
thought.  Greek  political  philosophy  conceived, 
it  is  true,  of  the  individual  as  living  for  the  State 
rather  than  for  himself  ;  but  with  this  went  a 
high  conception  of  the  complete  man,  the  sound 
mind  in  a  sound  body,  and  this  developed  a 
practical,  ethical,  if  not  a  political  individual- 
ism. Aristotle,  with  his  tendency  to  exalt  the 
concrete  over  Platonic  abstractions,  maybe  said 
to  be  the  first  great  thinker  of  individualism,  tho 
even  he  held  the  high  Greek  conception  of  the 
State.  The  Cyrenaic  and  the  Epicurean  schools 
both  developed  a  type  of  ethical  individualism. 
Still  more  did  Stoicism  lend  itself  consistently 
to  individualism.  Some  of  the  profoundest 
thoughts  of  ethical  individualism  have  come 
down  from  the  Greek  Stoics,  while  some  of  its 
noblest  and  most  classic  utterances  must  be 
sought  in  the  pages  of  the  Roman  Stoics. 

The  Roman  Empire,  it  is  true,  developed  into 
a  strong  imperialism  ;  nevertheless,  in  Roman 
thought,  and  above  all  in  Roman  jurisprudence, 
the  individual  is  in  a  large  sense  supreme  over 
the  State,  since  we  have  here  the  first  clear  de- 
velopment of  the  theory  of  contract  between 
free  individuals.  Meanwhile,  the  life  and  teach- 
ings of  Christ  were  developing,  many  hold,  an 
individualism  flowering  into  fraternal  charity 
rather  than  the  primitive  Christian  communism, 


Individualism. 


718 


Individualism. 


of  which  so  much  is  said  to-day.  (For  a  discus- 
sion of  this,  see  CHRIST  AND  SOCIAL  REFORM  ; 
CHRISTIANITY  AND  SOCIAL  REFORM.)  Be  this  as 
it  may,  the  Middle  Ages,  inheriting  the  tradi- 
tions of  Roman  power,  together  with  the  relig- 
ious teachings  of  Christ,  developed  an  ecclesias- 
tical paternalism  removed  alike  from  a  primi- 
tive communism  or  an  ethical  individualism. 
Nevertheless,  in  some  of  the  school 
men  we  trace  an  individualist 
Modern  In-  thought  based  in  part  upon  the 
dividualism.  teachings  of  Aristotle,  while  some 
of  the  ascetics  practised  what  may 
be  called  a  selfish  individualistic 
spirituality.  The  characteristic  ages  of  indi- 
vidualism, however,  are  those  between  the  fif- 
teenth and  the  nineteenth  centuries.  Revolt- 
ing alike  from  the  despotism  of  the  Church  and 
the  tyranny  of  the  warrior,  we  find  the  individ- 
ual asserting  himself  everywhere,  in  religion 
and  in  philosophy,  in  political  science  and  in 
practice.  In  religion,  Luther,  by  the  doctrine 
of  salvation  by  faith,  lifts  the  individual  into  the 
right  of  private  judgment  ;  while  Calvin,  with 
his  doctrine  of  the  divine  decrees,  by  making 
man  obedient  to  God  alone,  lifts  him  above 
obedience  to  any  human  power.  From  the  posi- 
tion of  Luther  or  Calvin  it  was  but  a  step  toward 
the  practical  realization  of  their  theories  by  an 
assertion  of  the  right  of  private  judgment  in 
morals  and  of  civil  liberty  in  matters  where 
unity  of  action  was  not  a  social  necessity.  Kant, 
Bentham,  John  Stuart  Mill,  all  helped  people  to 
take  this  step  more  and  more  fearlessly.  The 
line  of  thought  advanced  by  these  men  finds  its 
legitimate  development  in  the  writings  of  John 
Morley  and  its  exaggeration  in  those  of  W.  K. 
Clifford. 

Says  Mr.  Morley  (On  Compromise,  pp.  278- 
281): 

"  We  may  best  estimate  the  worth  and  the  signifi- 
cance of  the  doctrine  of  Liberty  by  considering  the 
line  of  thought  and  observation  which  led  to  it.  To 
begin  with,  it  is  in  Mr.  Mill's  hands  something  quite 
different  from  the  same  doctrine  as  preached  by  the 
French  revolutionary  school ;  indeed,  one  might  even 
call  it  reactionary,  in  respect  of  the  French  theory  of 
a  hundred  years  back.  It  reposes  on  no  principle  of 
abstract  right,  but,  like  the  rest  of  its  author's  opin- 
ions, on  principles  of  utility  and  experience.  .  .  .  Mr. 
Carlyle  and  one  or  two  rhetorical  imitators  poured 
malediction  on  the  many-headed  populace,  and  with 
rather  a  pitiful  impatience  insisted  that  the  only  hope 
for  men  lay  in  their  finding  and  obeying  a  strong  man— 
a  king,  a  hero,  a  dictator.  How  he  was  to  be  found, 
neither  the  master  nor  his  still  angrier  and  more  im- 
patient mimics  could  ever  tell  us. 

"  Now  Mr.  Mill's  doctrine  laid  down  the  main 
condition  of  finding  your  hero— viz.,  that  all  ways 
should  be  left  open  to  him,  because  no  man,  nor  ma- 
jority of  men,  could  possibly  tell  by  which  of  these 
ways  their  deliverers  were  from  time  to  time  destined 
to  present  themselves.  Wits  have  caricatured  all  this 
by  asking  us  whether  by  encouraging  the  tares  to 
grow,  you  give  the  wheat  a  better  chance.  This  is  as 
misleading  as  such  metaphors  usually  are.  The  doc- 
trine of  liberty  rests  on  a  faith  drawn  from  the  obser- 
vation of  human  progress,  that  tho  we  know  wheat 
to  be  serviceable  and  tares  to  be  worthless,  yet  there 
are  in  the  great  seed-plot  of  human  nature  a  thousand 
rudimentary  germs,  not  wheat  and  not  tares,  of  whose 
properties  we  have  not  had  a  fair  opportunity  of  as- 
suring ourselves.  If  you  are  too  eager  to  pluck  up  the 
tares,  you  are  very  likely  to  pluck  up  with  them  these 
untried  possibilities  of  human  excellence,  and  you  are, 
moreover,  very  likely  to  injure  the  growing  wheat  as 
well.  The  demonstration  of  this  lies  in  the  recorded 
experience  of  mankind." 

Professor  Hadley  thus  sums  up  this  philoso- 
phy of  individualism  (Economics,  p.  14) : 


"  Constitutional  liberty  in  politics,  rational  altruism 
in  morals,  and  modern  business  methods  in  production 
and  distribution  of  wealth  have  been  the  outcome  of 
the  great  individualistic  movement  of  the  nineteenth 
century.  The  individualist  has  taught  people  not  to 
confound  public  morality  with  a  state  church,  public 
security  with  police  activity,  or  public  •wealth  with 
government  property.  He  has  taught  men  that,  as 
society  develops,  the  interests  of  its  members  become 
more  and  more  harmonious ;  in  other  words,  that  ra- 
tional egoism  and  rational  altruism  tend  to  coincide." 

But  the  characteristic  modern  development  of 
individualism  is  economic.  With  many  fore- 
runners, and  perhaps  particularly  Hume,  Adam 
Smith  is  here  the  great  name,  the  father  of 
the  school  of  natural  liberty,  which 
we  do  not  dwell  upon  here  only  be- 
cause it  is  treated  in  full  elsewhere.  Causes. 
(See  POLITICAL  ECONOMY.)  Yet  per- 
haps even  here  the  school  of  natural 
liberty  and  Adam  Smith  are  a  result  rather  than 
a  cause.  It  was  necessary  to  break  the  old  eco- 
nomic restraints.  New  discoveries,  new  in- 
ventions, new  processes  refused  to  be  fettered 
by  old  laws.  In  France,  the  Revolution  ;  in 
England,  Adam  Smith  ;  in  Germany,  the  Stein 
Hardenberg  legislation  ;  in  America,  the  bills 
of  rights  incorporated  into  the  national  and 
State  constitutions,  all  witness  to  and  develop 
the  same  tendency  to  free  and  to  protect  the  in- 
dividual from  restraint.  In  every  country  it 
has  produced  reaction — in  France,  the  empire  ; 
in  Germany,  State  and  democratic  socialism  ;  in 
England,  factory  laws,  and  more  recently  mu- 
nicipalism  ;  in  the  United  States,  federalism,  re- 
publicanism, and  protection.  Through  all  the 
first  half  of  the  nineteenth  century,  however, 
individualism  was  in  all  directions  dominant. 
Its  results  are  well  known.  The  individual, 
free  from  legislative  restraint,  seeks  gain.  The 
producer  who  can  produce  the  most,  the  best, 
or  the  cheapest  gains  the  market. 
Out  of  competition  to  do  this  has 
sprung  the  modern  mastery  of  the  Results. 
methods  of  production,  division  of 
labor,  improved  machinery,  gigan- 
tic plants,  the  factory  system,  industry  on  the 
large  scale  ;  if  it  has  produced  the  capitalist  and 
the  millionaire,  it  has  also  both  lowered  prices 
and  raised  wages  for  the  million.  In  its  search 
for  new  markets  and  commercial  gain  it  has 
girded  the  world  with  the  telegraph,  continents 
with  railroads,  and  whitened  the  sea  with  sails. 
It  has  developed  more  progress  in  100  years  than 
all  the  other  centuries  put  together.  If  its  char- 
acteristic results  have  been  material,  it  has  made 
education  common.  It  is  true  that  large  pro- 
ducers and  the  development  of  colossal  trans- 
portation corporations  have  created  difficulties 
for  the  small  producer,  made  the  workman 
largely  dependent  upon  the  capitalist,  and  de- 
veloped the  means  of  production  beyond  the 
present  ability  to  consume,  causing  the  phe- 
nomena of  the  unemployed  and  the  tramp.  But 
it  must  be  remembered,  in  the  first  place,  that 
these  evils  are  due  to  the  very  success  of  indi- 
vidualism, so  that  we  should  think  twice  before 
we  attempt  to  cure  them  by  destroying  the  sys- 
tem which  has  created  this  success  ;  second- 
ly, it  is  to  be  doubted  if  there  are  more  unem- 
ployed than  before,  while  certainly  real  wages, 
measured  by  prices,  are  materially  advanced  ; 
thirdly,  individualists  believe  that  the  cure  lies 


Individualism. 


719 


Individualism. 


not  in  forsaking  the  principle  which  has  been 
the  very  life  of  modern  progress,  but  in  lifting 
up  every  individual  to  a  level  of  more  effective 
competition  till  every  man  receive  the  means  of 
life  because  every  man  be  able  to  contribute 
something  to  the  social  need.  What  is  needed, 
according  to  this  view,  is  not  less,  but  more 
individualism. 

Modern  practical  individualism  does  not  urge 
that  at  present  we  should  do  away  with  all  in- 
dustrial legislation  or  all  interference  of  the 
State  with  the  affairs  of  individuals  ;  it  believes 
that  till  men  grow  wiser  they  need  some  legisla- 
tive checks,  but  it  holds  that  in  general  it  is 
wiser  to  let  the  individual  act  as  he  will  and 
seek  to  overcome  the  ills  resulting  from  his  mis- 
takes by  educating  wiser  and  better  individ- 
uals. 

THE   ARGUMENT   FOR   INDIVIDUALISM. 

The  arguments  for  individualism  may  be  con- 
veniently divided  into  four  heads  :  (i)  The  ethi- 
cal argument  ;  (2)  the  biological  ;  (3)  the  induc- 
tive positive  argument ;  (4)  the  inductive  nega- 
tive argument  from  the  follies  and  evils  of  State 
interference.  The  ethical  argument  probably 
affects  the  common  consciousness  far  more  than 
any  other.  Professor  S.  N.  Patten,  in  the  In- 
troduction to  his  Theory  of  Social  Forces,  con- 
siders individualism  to  rest  largely  on  eight- 
eenth century  philosophy,  and  says  : 

"I  question  whether  the  hold  which  this  social  phi- 
losophy has  on  the  popular  mind  can  be  shaken  by  an 
appeal  to  inductive  evidence.  This  hold  depends  upon 
certain  concepts  and  ideals  which  have  received  clas- 
sical statements  at  the  hands  of  our  ablest  thinkers,  and 
which  cannot  be  displaced  by  unorganized  facts." 

The  basis  of  popular  individualism  undoubt- 
edly lies  deep  down  in  the  fundamental  facts  of 
the  universe,  in  the  power,  the  worth,  the  con- 
sciousness of  responsibility  in  the 
individual  soul.    It  takes    ordina- 
The         rily    a    form    either    religious    or 
Ethical      one    of    so-called    natural    ethics. 
Argument.   One  of  the  fundamental  principles 
of  Christianity  is  the  worth  of  the  in- 
dividual soul.     Protestantism,  with 
its  right  of  private  judgment,  its  doctrine  of  sal- 
vation by  faith,  is  particularly  in  accord  with 
the  individualistic  tendency. 

Dr.  Lyman  Abbott,  in  his  Evolution  of 
Christianity,  says  : 

"  It  has  been  said  that  Jesus  Christ  was  the  first  so- 
cialist. This  is  certainly  an  inexact,  if  not  an  abso- 
lutely erroneous  statement.  It  would  be  more  nearly 
correct  to  say  that  He  was  the  first  individualist.  The 
socialist  assumes  that  the  prolific  cause  of  misery  in 
the  world  is  bad  social  organization.  Christ  assumed 
that  the  prolific  cause  of  misery  in  the  world  is  in- 
dividual wrong-doing." 

Says  Mr.  N.  P.  Oilman  (Socialism  and  the 
American  Spirit,  pp.  324-327)  : 

"  A  higher  individualism  is  possible,  and  has  long 
been  actual,  with  at  least  a  few  of  each  generation  of 
mankind.  It  respects  every  person  as  having  some- 
thing of  infinite  worth  in  him,  and  would  begin  to  im- 
prove the  world  by  elevating  the  single  spirit,  count- 
ing no  advance  permanent  that  is  not  based  on  re- 
formed and  cultivated  individuals.  This  method  fully 
deserves  the  epithet,  'Christian,'  derived  from  'the 
only  soul  in  history  who  has  appreciated  the  worth  of 
a  man.'  The  teaching  of  Jesus  was  profoundly  indi- 
vidualistic in  its  imperative  address  to  the  private 
conscience.  Such  a  spiritual  doctrine  does  not  find  its 


natural  alliance  with  a  mechanical  socialism.  This, 
with  most  of  its  expounders,  is  materialistic  to  the 
core.  The  Christian  spirit  is  in  full  harmony  with  a 
rationalized  individualism  in  social  life.  So  inspired, 
individualism  includes  voluntary  cooperation,  the 
method  of  modern  civilization  ;  and  the  ideal  to  which 
it  tends  is  fraternalism,  not  paternalism.  The  inquiry 
is  extremely  pertinent :  '  Have  we  yet  even  discovered 
the  resources  of  an  individualism  which  is  not  synon- 
ymous with  selfishness,  but  welcomes  and  fosters  pub- 
lic spirit  ?'  Few  wise  persons  will  answer  this  in  the 
affirmative." 

This  higher  individualism,  perhaps,  quite  as 
often  to-day  takes  the  form  of  so-called  ' '  natur- 
al ethics. ' ' 

Mr.  M.  D.  O'Brien,  in  the  Introduction  to  his 
Socialism  Tested  by  Facts,  says  : 

"  Weak  and  little,  low  and  corrupt  as  he  is,  yet  Na- 
ture has  endowed  man  with  such  a  spirit  that  he  can 
never  permanently  become  the  slave  of  men.  This 
spirit  is  individualism,  the  deepest  and  mightiest  fact 
in  existence, which  brings  man  closest  to  Nature  herself, 
to  his  central  silent  home,  and  plants  the  root  of  his 
life  in  a  substance  that  cannot  perish.  Through  this 
spirit  works  the  infinite,  and  while  the  heavens  bend 
above,  it  can  never  break  or  fail.  .  .  .  This  spirit  of 
individualism,  of  nonconformity,  of  social,  political, 
and  religious  heresy  is  the  sword  which  Nature  forges 
while  despots  sleep;  and  just  when  they  dream  them- 
selves insured  in  an  eternity  of  comfortable  stagnation 
it  suddenly  flashes  before  them,  scattering  their  plans, 
circumventing  their  cunning,  and  breaking  all  their 
pet  idols  in  pieces.  This  spirit  opens  the  enslaving 
shell  of  custom,  throws  it  aside,  and  allows  the  inner 
life  to  grow.  Low  slavish  natures  hate  and  fear  it 
above  everything,  and  no  means  are  too  bad  for  them 
to  use  against  it ;  but  it  has  alwavs  managed  in  the 
long  run  to  undo  them,  and  it  will  yet  live  and  flourish 
when  they  and  all  their  works  are  lost  in  the  slavery 
of  the  past." 

"  Individualism,"  says  Draper  (Conflict  be- 
tween Religion  and  Science,  chap.  ii. ,  p  295), 
' '  rests  on  the  principle  that  a  man  shall  be  his 
own  master." 

It  is  in  such  thoughts,  of  the  worth  of  the  in- 
dividual, either  because  of  its  individual  union 
with  God,  if  the  theory  take  a  religious  form,  or 
because  of  the  conviction  that  simple  character, 
self-rule,  self-reliance,  self-poise,  is  the  one  thing 
of  worth  in  the  universe,  that  most  men  base 
their  argument  for  individualism.  They  argue 
that  for  the  State  to  interfere  with  the  action  of 
the  individual  weakens  character.  It  is  far  bet- 
ter, says  the  individualist,  for  men  to  carve  their 
own  way,  to  live  their  own  lives,  to  learn  by  ex- 
perience their  own  lessons,  even  if  they  make 
continual  blunders,  than  for  the  State  to  be  in- 
terfering, even  if,  so  far  as  the  immediate  step 
be  concerned,  it  interfere  wisely,  because  the 
latter  course  will  weaken  the  individual  will  and 
lessen  individual  ability.  Few  individualists 
think  that  any  government  is  wise  enough  to 
interfere  wisely,  but  even  if  it  were,  individual- 
ists would  still  oppose  it  because  of  its  under- 
mining influences  upon  character.  A  wise  gov- 
ernment, they  would  argue,  may  be  even  worse 
than  a  foolish  government.  A  foolish  govern- 
ment would  probably  call  out  resistance  and 
activity.  A  wise  paternalism  might  lull  to  eter- 
nal sleep  the  power  of  self -choice  and  self-will. 

The  second  argument  for  individualism  is  a 
biological  one.  (For  a  completer  statement  of 
it,  see  BIOLOGY  ;  EVOLUTION.)  We  shall  also 
notice  it  again  in  considering  the  objection  to 
socialism.  It  may  be  said,  in  a  word,  to  be  that 
there  can  be  no  progress  save  by  competition,  no 
progress  save  by  natural  selection  and  the  sur- 
vival of  the  fittest,  so  that  the  struggle  for  life 


Individualism. 


720 


Individualism. 


between  individuals  is  of  the  very  essence  of 
progressive  life,  while  just  so  far  as  the  State  in- 
terferes with  this  struggle  between 
individuals,   and   either  forces  or 
The         leads  all  men  into  cooperation,  it 
Biological    must  induce  a  low  and  lowering 
Argument,  social  level  and  the  gradual  degen- 
eration of  the  individual.     This  is 
one  of  the  arguments  for  individu- 
alism most  prevalent  to-day.     We  do  not  dwell 
upon   it  here  simply  because  it  is  considered 
elsewhere.     (See  BIOLOGY  ;  EVOLUTION.) 

The  third  argument,  or  the  induction  from 
positive  experiences  of  individualism,  may  be 
deemed  but  a  form  of  the  biological  argument. 
It  is,  however,  such  an  important  form  as  to 
make  it  worthy  of  treatment  by  itself.    It  argues 
that  the  highest  civilization,  materially  and  in 
character,  has  as  a  matter  of  fact  been  devel- 
oped when  there  has  been  the  most  individual- 
ism.    We  have  seen  something  of  this  in  consid- 
ering the  history  of  individualism. 
Beginning      largely    with    Adam 
The  Argu-   Smith  and  the  so-called  school  of  na- 
ment  from  tional  liberty  (see  POLITICAL  ECON- 
Experience.  OMY),  we  have  had  less  interference 
of  the  State   with  the   individual 
than  ever  before  in  the  history  of 
civilized    man.     What    has    been    the    result  ? 
There  have  been  evils  ;  no  man  claims  perfec- 
tion for  the  nineteenth  century  ;  but  there  has 
been  more  progress  in  most  directions  than  in 
all  the  other  centuries  of  civilization  put  to- 
gether.    In  science,  in  the  means  of  livelihood, 
in  popular  education,  in  the  art  of  preserving 
life,  in  acquainting  men  with  the  facts  of  the 
universe,  in  the  means  of  communication,  man 
has  advanced  as  never  before  in  all  his  history. 
Generally  speaking,  perhaps,  the  country  where 
individualism  has  been  carried  to  the  farthest 
degree  is  the  United  States,  with  Great  Britain 
next.     With  what  result  ?    These  two  countries 
are  to-day  the   wealthiest,  the   strongest,  the 
most  vital  countries  of  the  world.     The  lan- 
guage and  the  commerce  of  these  two  nations 
are  dominating  the  world.     Particularly  has  the 
United  States  stood  for  individualism. 

Says  Mr.  N.  P.  Gilman  (Socialism  and  the 
American  Spirit,  p.  90)  : 

"  In  more  senses  than  one  America  may  be  called  the 
paradise  of  the  individual.  No  other  country  has  held 
out  such  great  prizes  to  private  talent  for  the  last  cen- 
tury, or  offered  it  a  freer  field  to  work  in.  A  manly, 
capable,  and  self-reliant  people,  Americans  have  had 
an  opportunity  the  like  of  which  is  unknown  to  his- 
tory. Least  of  all  peoples  have  they  had  reason  to 
put  their  faith  in  governmental  machinery,  even  that 
of  their  own  devising,  in  preference  to  individual  initi- 
ative and  voluntary  cooperation.  Especially  in  the 
building  up  of  great  manufacturing  industries  and 
the  development  of  immense  transportation  systems 
has  the  practical  genius  of  the  people  asserted  itself, 
with  the  results  in  the  gigantic  operations  and  colos- 
sal fortunes  which  we  see  to-day  in  all  directions.  The 
American  is  always  ready  to  receive  help  from  the 
State  in  starting  a  railway  or  a  steamship  line  (the  old 
flag  and  an  appropriation),  but  he  is  not  at  all  inclined 
to  consider  the  Government  a  proper  agent  for  the 
management  or  ownership  of  either." 

Mr.  Gilman  quotes  Alfred  Fouillee  as  saying 
(Education from  a  National  Standpoint,  Am. 
ed. ,  p.  6)  ;  "  Scarcely  an  American  can  be  found 
who  has  not  in  his  mind,  in  a  more  or  less  nebu- 
lous form,  this  idea  of  illimitable  individualism 
and  indefinite  expansion." 


Progress 
riTider  Indi- 
Vldualism. 


Now,  what  has  been  the  result  ?  America's 
material  wealth,  her  popular  education,  and  her 
progress  in  almost  all  ways,  are  the  marvel  of  the 
world.  Nowhere  do  the  common  people  begin 
to  be  so  well  off.  In  wages,  in  home  comforts, 
in  liberty,  in  popular  education,  the  working 
people  native  to  the  United  States  are  far  ahead 
of  any  working  classes  of  the  world,  unless  it  be 
in  New  Zealand  and  in  Australia.  Particularly 
has  business  in  America  been  free  from  govern- 
mental restrictions,  with  the  result  that  nowhere 
else  does  business  begin  to  be  carried  on  in  so 
effective  or  colossal  a  way,  and  nowhere  else 
are  the  masses  of  the  people  so  well  off.  This 
last  thought  leads  to  the  reflection  that  the  very 
fact  of  the  prosperity  of  the  people  is  the  cause 
of  the  present  social  unrest. 

Says  Herbert  Spencer,  in  the  Introduction  to 
A  Plea  for  Liberty  : 

"  Of  the  many  ways  in  which  common-sense  infer- 
ences about  social  affairs  are  flatly  contradicted  by 
events,  .  .  .  one  of  the  most  curious  is  the  way  in 
•which  the  more  things  improve,  the  louder  become  the 
exclamations  about  their  badness.  In  the  days  when 
the  people  were  without  any  political  power,  their 
subjection  was  rarely  complained  of  ;  but  after  free 
institutions  had  so  far  advanced  in  England  that  our 
political  arrangements  were  envied  by  continental 
peoples,  the  denunciations  of  aristo- 
cratic rule  grew  gradually  stronger, 
until  there  came  a  great  widening  of  the 
franchise,  soon  followed  by  complaints 
that  things  were  going  wrong  for  want 
of  still.further  widening.  .  .  .  A  century 
ago,  when  scarcely  a  man  could  be  found 
who  was  not  occasionally  intoxicated, 
and  when  inability  to  take  one  or  two  bottles  of  wine 
brought  contempt,  no  agitation  arose  against  the  vice 
of  drunkenness  ;  but  now  that,  in  the  course  of  50  years. 
the  voluntary  efforts  of  temperance  societies,  joined 
with  more  general  causes,  have  produced  comparative 
sobriety,  there  are  vociferous  demands  for  laws  to 
prevent  the  ruinous  effects  of  the  liquor  traffic.  .  .  . 
And  so  it  is  too  with  the  general  state  of  the  popula- 
tion in  respect  of  food,  clothing,  shelter,  and  the  appli- 
ances of  life.  Leaving  out  of  the  comparison  early 
barbaric  states,  there  has  been  a  conspicuous  progress 
from  the  time  when  most  rustics  lived  on  barley  bread, 
rye  bread,  and  oatmeal,  down  to  our  own  time  when 
the  consumption  of  white  wheaten  bread  is  universal  ; 
from  the  days  when  coarse  jackets,  reaching  to  the 
knees,  left  the  legs  bare,  down  to  the  present  day, 
when  laboring  people,  like  their  employers,  have  the 
whole  body  covered  by  two  or  more  layers  of  cloth- 
ing ;  from  the  old  era  of  single-roomed  huts  without 
chimneys,  or  from  the  fifteenth  century,  when  even  an 
ordinary  gentleman's  house  was  commonly  without 
wainscot  or  plaster  on  its  walls,  down  to  the  present 
century,  •when  every  cottage  has  more  rooms  than  one, 
and  the  houses  of  artisans  usually  have  several,  while 
all  have  fireplaces,  chimneys  and  glazed  windows. 
accompanied  mostly  by  paper  hangings  and  painted 
doors,  there  has  been,  I  say,  a  conspicuous  progress  in 
the  condition  of  the  people.  And  this  progress  has 
been  still  more  marked  within  our  own  time.  Any  one 
who  can  look  back  60  years,  when  the  amount  of  pau- 
perism was  far  greater  than  now,  and  beggars  abun- 
dant, is  struck  by  the  comparative  size  and  finish  of 
the  new  houses  of  operatives  ;  by  the  better  dress  of 
workmen,  who  wear  broadcloth  on  Sundays,  and  that 
of  servant  girls,  who  vie  with  their  mistresses  ;  by  the 
higher  standard  of  living,  which  leads  to  a  great  de- 
mand for  the  best  qualities  of  food  by  working  peo- 
ple. .  .  .  Not  that  the  evils  to  be  remedied  are  small. 
Let  no  one  suppose  that,  by  emphasizing  the  above 
paradox,  I  wish  to  make.  light  of  the  sufferings  which 
most  men  have  to  bear.  .'The  fates  of  the  great  major- 
ity have  ever  been,  and  doubtless  still  are,  so  sad  that 
it  is  painful  to  think  of  them.  Unquestionably  the  ex- 
isting type  of  social  organization  is  one  which  none 
who  care  for  their  kind  catn  contemplate  with  satisfac- 
tion, and  unquestionably  men's  activities  accompany- 
ing this  type  are  far  from  being  admirable.  .  .  .  But  it 
is  not  a  question  of  absolute  evils  ;  it  is  a  question  of 
relative  evils—  whether  the  evils  at  present  suffered 
are  or  are  not  less  than  the  evils  which  would  be  suf- 
fered under  another  system  ,  whether  efforts  for  miti- 


Individualism. 


721 


Individualism. 


gation  along  the  lines  thus  followed  are  not  more 
likely  to  succeed  than  efforts  along  different  lines.  .  .  . 
The  present  social  state  is  transitional,  as  past  social 
states  have  been  transitional.  There  will,  I  hope  and 
believe,  come  a  future  social  state,  differing  as  much 
from  the  present  as  the  present  differs  from  the  past, 
with  its  mailed  barons  and  defenseless  serfs.  .  .  .  My 
opposition  to  socialism  results  from  the  belief  that  it 
would  stop  the  progress  to  such  a  higher  state,  and 
bring  back  a  lower  state.  Nothing  but  the  slow  modi- 
fication of  human  nature  by  the  discipline  of  social 
life  can  produce  permanently  advantageous  changes." 

An  even  stronger  argument  for  individualism 

is  drawn  from  the  follies  and  miscarriages  of 

the  wisest  and  best-intentioned  State  legislation 

and    control.     As   is  well  known, 

Herbert  Spencer   calls  the  notion 

The  Fol-     that  evils  can  be  readily  righted  by 

lies  of       legislation  the  great  modern  politi- 

Legislation.  cal   superstition.     He  says:  "The 

great  political  superstition  of  the 

past  was  the  divine  right  of  kings. 

The  great  political  superstition  of  the  present 

is  the  divine  right  of  parliaments"  (Essay  on 

the  Great  Political  Superstition),     He  is  never 

weary  of  illustrating  the  sins  of  legislators.     He 

argues  that  legislators  never  know  where  the 

effect  of  their  legislation  will  end.     He  says 

(The  Coming  Slavery)  : 

"  The  legislator  contemplates  intently  the  things  his 
act  will  achieve,  but  thinks  little  of  the  remoter  issues 
of  the  movement  his  act  sets  up,  and  still  less  its  col- 
lateral issues.  When,  in  war-time,  '  food  for  powder  ' 
was  to  be  provided  by  encouraging  population — when 
Mr.  Pitt  said,  '  Let  us  make  relief  in  cases  where  there 
are  a  number  of  children  a  matter  of  right  and  honor, 
instead  of  a  ground  for  opprobrium  and  contempt, 
it  was  not  expected  that  the  poor-rates  would  be  quad- 
rupled in  50  years,  that  women  with  many  bastards 
would  be  preferred  as  wives  to  modest  women,  be- 
cause of  their  incomes  from  the  parish,  and  that  hosts 
of  ratepayers  would  be  pulled  down  into  the  ranks  of 
pauperism.  .  .  .  Even  less,  as  I  say,  does  the  politician 
who  plumes  himself  on  the  practicalness  of  his  aims 
conceive  the  indirect  results  which  will  follow  the  di- 
rect results  of  his  measures.  Thus,  to  take  a  case  con- 
nected with  one  named  above,  it  was  not  intended, 
through  the  system  of  '  payment  by  results,'  to  do  any- 
thing more  than  give  teachers  an  efficient  stimulus  :  it 
was  not  supposed  that  in  numerous  cases  their  health 
would  give  way  under  the  stimulus;  it  was  not  ex- 
pected that  they  would  be  led  to  adopt  a  cramming 
system  and  to  put  undue  pressure  on  dull  and  weak 
children,  often  to  their  great  injury  :  it  was  not  fore- 
seen that  in  many  cases  a  bodily  enfeeblement  would 
be  caused  which  no  amount  of  grammar  and  geogra- 
phy can  compensate  for.  The  licensing  of  public- 
houses  was  simply  for  maintaining  public  order  :  those 
who  devised  it  never  imagined  that  there  would  result 
an  organized  interest  powerfully  influencing  elections 
in  an  unwholesome  way.  Nor  did  it  occur  to  the  'prac- 
tical '  politicians  who  provided  a  compulsory  load-line 
for  merchant  vessels,  that  the  pressure  of  ship-owners' 
interests  would  habitually  cause  the  putting  of  the 
load-line  at  the  very  highest  limit,  and  that  from  pre- 
cedent to  precedent,  tending  ever  in  the  same  direc- 
tion, the  load-line  would  gradually  rise  in  the  better 
class  of  ships,  as  from  good  authority  I  learn  that  it 
has  already  done.  Legislators  who,  some  40  years  ago, 
by  act  of  Parliament  compelled  railway  companies  to 
supply  cheap  locomotion,  would  have  ridiculed  the 
belief,  had  it  been  expressed,  that  eventually  their  act 
would  punish  the  companies  which  improved  the  sup- 
ply ;  and  yet  this  was  the  result  to  companies  which 
began  to  carry  third-class  passengers  by  fast  trains ; 
since  a  penalty  to  the  amount  of  the  passenger  duty 
was  inflicted  on  them  for  every  third-class  passen- 
ger so  carried.  .  .  .  'We  must  educate  our  masters,' 
is  the  well-known  saying  of  a  Liberal  who  opposed 
the  last  extension  of  the  franchise.  Yes,  if  the  educa- 
tion were  worthy  to  be  so  called,  and  were  relevant 
to  the  political  enlightenment  needed,  much  might 
be  hoped  from  it.  But  knowing  rules  of  syntax, 
being  able  to  add  up  correctly,  having  geographical 
information,  and  a  memory  stocked  with  the  dates  of 
kings'  accessions  and  generals'  victories,  no  more  im- 
plies fitness  to  form  political  conclusions  than  acquire- 

46 


ment  of  skill  in  drawing  implies  expertness  in  tele- 
graphing, or  than  ability  to  play  cricket  implies 
proficiency  on  the  violin.  'Surely,' rejoins  some  one, 
'  facility  in  reading  opens  the  way  to  political  knowl- 
edge.' Doubtless;  but  will  the  way  be  followed? 
Table-talk  proves  that  nine  out  of  ten  people  read 
what  amuses  them  or  interests  them  rather  than  what 
instructs  them  ;  and  that  the  last  thing  they  read  is 
something  which  tells  them  disagreeable  truths  or 
dispels  groundless  hopes.  That  popular  education  re- 
sults in  an  extensive  reading  of  publications  which 
foster  pleasant  illusions  rather  than  of  those  which 
insist  on  hard  realities  is  beyond  question." 

In  other  writings,  Mr.  Spencer  gives  still  more 
detailed  instances  of  the  ways  in  which  State 
legislation  works  unexpected  ills.  He  says  (S0- 
cial  Statics,  ed.  of  1851,  p.  384)  : 

"  An  architect  and  surveyor  describes  it  [the  Build- 
ing Act]  as  having  worked  after  the  following  manner. 
In  those  districts  of  London  consisting  of  inferior 
houses  built  in  that  unsubstantial  fashion  which  the 
New  Building  Act  was  to  mend,  there  obtains  an  aver- 
age rent,  sufficiently  remunerative  to  landlords  whose 
houses  were  run  up  economically  before  the  New 
Building  Act  passed.  This  existing  average  rent  fixes 
the  rent  that  must  be  charged  in  these  districts  for 
new  houses  ot  the  same  accommodation — that  is  the 
same  number  of  rooms,  for  the  people  they  are  built 
for  do  not  appreciate  the  extra  safety  of  living  within 
walls  strengthened  with  hoop-iron  bond.  Now  it  turns 
out  upon  trial,  that  houses  built  in  accordance  with 
the  present  regulations,  and  let  at  this  established 
rate,  bring  in  nothing  like  a  reasonable  return.  Build- 
ers have  consequently  confined  themselves  to  erecting 
nouses  in  better  districts  (where  the  possibility  of  a 
profitable  competition  with  preexisting  houses  shows 
that  those  preexisting  houses  •were  tolerably  substan- 
tial), and  have  ceased  to  erect  dwellings  for  the  masses, 
except  in  the  suburbs  where  no  pressing  sanitary  evils 
exist.  Meanwhile,  in  the  inferior  districts  above  de- 
scribed, has  resulted  an  increase  of  overcrowding — 
half-a-dozen  families  in  a  house,  a  score  of  lodgers  to  a 
room.  Nay,  more  than  this  has  resulted.  That  state 
of  miserable  dilapidation  into  which  these  abodes  of 
the  poor  are  allowed  to  fall  is  due  to  the  absence  of 
competition  from  new  houses.  Landlords  do  not  find 
their  tenants  tempted  away  by  the  offer  of  better 
accommodation.  Repairs,  being  unnecessary  for  secur- 
ing the  largest  amount  of  profit,  are  not  made.  ...  In 
fact,  for  a  large  percentage  of  the  very  horrors  which 
our  sanitary  agitators  are  trying  to  cure  by  law,  we 
have  to  thank  previous  agitators  of  the  same  school !" 

Later,  in  The  Sins  of  Legislators,  Mr.  Spen- 
cer says  of  the  building  laws  : 

"  See  then  what  legislation  has  done.  By  ill-imposed 
taxes,  raising  the  prices  of  bricks  and  timber,  it  added 
to  the  costs  of  houses  and  prompted,  for  economy's 
sake,  the  use  of  bad  materials  in  scanty  quantities. 
To  check  the  consequent  production  of  wretched 
dwellings,  it  established  regulations  which,  in  med- 
ieval fashion,  dictated  the  quality  of  the  commodity 
produced  ;  there  being  no  perception  that  by  insisting 
on  a  higher  quality  and  therefore  higher  price,  it  would 
limit  the  demand  and  eventually  diminish  the  supply. 
By  additional  local  burdens,  legislation  has  of  late  still 
further  hindered  the  building  of  small  houses.  Finally, 
having,  by  successive  measures,  produced  first  bad 
houses  and  then  a  deficiency  of  better  ones,  it  has  at 
length  provided  for  the  artificially  increased  overflow 
of  poor  people  by  diminishing  the  house  capacity 
which  already  could  not  contain  them  ! 

"  Where  then  lies  the  blame  for  the  miseries  of  the 
East  End  ?  Against  whom  should  be  raised  '  the  bitter 
cry  of  outcast  London  '?.... 

"  So,  too,  with  State  supervision.  Guaranteeing  of 
quality  by  inspection  has  been  shown,  in  the  hall-mark- 
ing of  silver,  to  be  superfluous,  while  the  silver  trade 
has  been  decreased  by  it ;  and  in  other  cases  It  has 
lowered  the  quality  by  establishing  a  standard  which 
it  is  useless  to  exceed  :  instance  the  case  of  the  Cork 
butter-market,  where  the  higher  kinds  are  disadvan- 
taged  in  not  adequately  profiting  by  their  better  re- 
pute ;  or  instance  the  case  of  herring-branding  (now 
optional),  the  effect  of  which  is  to  put  the  many  inferior 
curers,  who  just  reach  the  level  of  official  approval,  on 
a  par  with  the  few  better  ones  who  rise  above  it,  and 
so  to  discourage  these.  But  such  lessons  pass  un- 
learned. Even  where  the  failure  of  inspection  is  most 


Individualism. 


722 


Individualism. 


glaring,  no  notice  is  taken  of  it ;  as  instance  the  terri- 
ble catastrophe  by  which  a  train  full  of  people  was 
destroyed  along  with  the  Tay  bridge.  Countless  de- 
nunciations, loud  and  unsparing,  were  vented  against 
engineer  and  contractor  ;  but  little,  if  anything,  was 
said  about  the  Government  officer  from  whom  the 
bridge  received  State  approval.  So,  too,  with  pre- 
vention of  disease.  It  matters  not  that  under  the 
management  or  dictation  of  State  agents  some  of  the 
worst  evils  occur  ;  as  when  the  lives  of  87  wives  and 
children  of  soldiers  are  sacrificed  in  the  ship  '  Accring- 
ton ;'  or  as  when  typhoid  fever  and  diphtheria  are 
diffused  by  a  State-ordered  drainage  system,  as  in 
Edinburgh ;  or  as  when  officially  enforced  sanitary 
appliances,  ever  getting  out  of  order,  increase  the 
evils  they  were  to  decrease." 

These  instances  of  the  failure  of  legislature, 
quoted  by  Spencer,  are  now  somewhat  classical 
and  out  of  date,  but  they  can  be  easily  replaced 
by  modern  ones.  Mr.  Charles  Fairfield,  in 
his  chapter  on  "  State  Socialism  in  the  An- 
tipodes" contained  in  A  Plea  for  Liberty,  in- 
stances many  failures  of  legislation  in  Australia, 
supposed  to  be  in  the  vanguard  of  socialistic 
progress.  He  shows  how  the  early-closing  law 
in  Melbourne  in  1885,  whereby  shops  could  not 
keep  open  after  seven  P.M.,  proved  utterly  im- 
practicable, robbing  all  the  small  suburban 
stores,  which  did  their  main  business  in  the 
evening,  of  all  chance  of  success  and  creating 
such  an  opposition  that  the  law  was  repealed  in 
a  few  days.  He  argues  that  the  conduct  of  the 
Australian  State  railroads  has  been  at  a  heavy 
loss,  only  concealed  by  government  xbook-keep- 
ing.  In  England  herself  instances  of  the  fail- 
ure of  State  operations  can  be  multiplied  almost 
indefinitely. 

Says  Mr.  L.  J.  Jennings,  M.P.  {Fortnightly 
Review,  August,  1888,  p.  185)  : 

"  Look,  for  instance,  at  the  Admiralty  and  the  War 
Office.  These  two  departments  alone  cost  the  country 
.£563.324  a  year.  The  waste  9f  labor  that  goes  on  daily 
is  incredible.  At  the  Admiralty  the  officials,  sitting 
under  the  same  roof,  write  long  letters  to  one  another 
on  the  most  trivial  subjects,  just  as  if  they  were  500 
miles  apart.  An  immense  heap  of  correspondence  may 
be  accumulated  about  a  stick  of  sealing-wax  or  a 
bit  of  string.  The  Accountant-General's  Department, 
crammed  with  extravagantly  paid  officials,  involves 
charges  for  the  working  staff  of  .£63,557  a  year,  and 
a  pension  list  of  £32,324.  .  .  .  The  Secretary  of  the  Ad- 


re  pi 

expense  of  the  Accountant-General's  Office  would  be 
brought  down  to  £35,000  or  £40,000  a  year.  Why  is  it 
not  placed  on  a  commercial  basis?  It  cannot  be  be- 
cause the  authorities  have  not  had  a  free  hand  in  the 
'game  of  reorganization.'  There  haye  been  at  least 
five  heroic  operations  of  this  kind  since  1869,  at  tre- 
mendous cost  to  the  country.  .  .  .  What  sort  of  com- 
mentary is  it  on  the  great  reorganization  of  1878-80. 
which  cost  the  country  £20,000  a  year  in  pensions  and 
£52,199  in  bonuses,  that  the  Department  is  now  found 
to  be  filled,  as  the  heads  of  it  allege,  with  extrava- 

§intly  paid  or  incompetent  officials.  .  .  .  The  War 
ffice  clerk  goes  leisurely  to  his  duties  at  10  or  n, 
and  remains  till  four  or  five,  his  prescribed  hours 
being  six  each  day.  And  what  is  the  nature  of  his 
work?  A  good  deal  of  it  is  utterly  thrown  away. 
Accounts  are  audited  and  reaudited  in  a  purely  arbi- 
trary and  farcical  manner.  .  .  .  Correspondence  rolls 
on  in  huge  volumes  about  trifles  light  as  air  ;  a  charge 
for  the  use  of  a  cab,  a  bill  of  28.  6d.  for  candles,  a  rent 
in  a  soldier's  jacket,  the  loss  of  a  nosebag  (actual  in- 
stances of  these  cases  will  be  found  in  the  evidence 
taken  before  the  Army  Estimates  Committee,  1887  and 
1888)  may  form  the  theme  of  an  almost  interminal 
number  of  letters.  The  cut  in  the  soldier's  jacket  was 
'  inquired  into'  by  colonels,  lieutenant-colonels,  deputy 
adjutant-general,  assistant  deputies,  and  all  sorts  of 
high  officials.  The  documents  were  entered  into  books, 
signed,  stamped,  and  passed  on  from  one  to  the  other 
for  nearly  four  weeks. 

In  the  United  States  illustrations  of  the  cost- 


liness and  inefficiency  of  State  operations  are 
notorious.     All  municipal  operations  are  full  of 
jobs.     The  building  of  the  County 
Court  House  in  New  York  City  is 
only  an  extreme  instance  of  what         The 
goes  on  in  all  government  under-       United 
takings.     When  designed  in   1868       States, 
its  cost  was  estimated  at  $250,000. 
Before  the  end  of  1871  it  had  cost  a 
sum  variously  estimated  at  from  $8,000,000  to 
$13,000,000,  and  it  was  still  far  from  finished 
Among  the  items  of  the  cost  for  fitting  it  up  were 
$404,347  for  safes  and  $7500  for  thermometers. 
It  is  from  such  facts  as  these  of  the  repeated 
failures  of  government  activities  to-day  that  in- 
dividualists   drew    their    negative     argument 
against  socialism.     From  such  instances  they 
very  naturally  draw  the  inference  that  if  gov- 
ernment cannot  efficiently  conduct  the  compara- 
tively small  activities  it  now  attempts,  it  must 
still  further  fail  in  the  almost  infinitely  more 
difficult  functions    that  would  be   given   to  it 
under  a  complete  socialistic  rtgrne.     They  fur- 
ther argue  that  even  if  government,  surrounded 
and  supported  by  individualistic  methods,  and 
with  wealth  created  by  individualism  for  it  to  tax, 
can,  perhaps,  altho  clumsily  and  expensively, 
carry  on  the  few  activities  of  which  socialists 
make    so  much  to-day,   were   the 
government  to  attempt  all,  it  would 
be  quite  another  thing.     Yet  if  the  The  Impos- 
State  cannot  do  all,  the  accustom-    sibility  of 
ing  of  people  to  depend  upon  the    Socialism. 
State  weakens  the  power  of  individ- 
uals and  teaches  them  to  lean  on  a 
reed  that  finally  will  break.    To  argue  that  gov- 
ernment ever  can  conduct  the  complete  indus- 
trial life  of  the  people  is  to  almost  all  economists 
and  to  absolutely  all  individualists  the  height  of 
absurdity. 

Mr.  E.  S.  Robertson,  in  his  essay  on  "  The 
Impracticability  of  Socialism"  (chap.  i.  in  A 
Plea  for  Liberty],  argues  that,  passing  by  the 
facts  that  socialists  very  rarely  go  into  practical 
details  ;  that  it  is  scarcely  possible  to  see  how 
socialism  could  provide  the  clothing  for  a  com- 
munity except  by  putting  it  into  a  strict  uniform 
as  in  an  army,  since,  if  fashion  were  allowed, 
no  national  committee  could  foretell  what  would 
be  needed — passing  by  the  enormous  problem  of 
how  to  manage  domestic  labor  under  socialism, 
except  by  destroying  the  home,  saying  nothing 
of  the  still  greater  difficulties  of  just  distribution 
between  labor  of  different  degrees  of  value  and 
laborers  of  different  degrees  of  ability' — passing 
by  all  these  and  a  hundred  other  similar  diffi- 
culties, socialism  utterly  breaks  down  before  the 
population  question.  He  says  :  "  The  situation 
may  be  summed  up  in  a  sentence  :  Socialism 
with  mt  restraint  5  on  the  increase  of  population 
would  be  utterly  inefficient.  With  such  re- 
straints it  would  be  slavery.  In  a  word,  social- 
ism -  the  scheme  of  collective  capital  and  collec- 
tive production  and  distribution — breaks  down 
the  moment  it  is  subjected  to  any  practical  test. ' ' 
How  would  the  community  decide,  he  asks,  of 
the  children  born  in  any  year — how  many  boys 
should  be  tailors  and  how  many  girls  dress- 
makers ?  "Socialism,  disguise  it  as  we  may,  is 
the  negation  of  freedom. "  Similarly  argue  all 
individualists. 


Individualism. 


723 


Individualism. 


But  probably  the  chief  arguments  raised  to- 
day to  show  the  impracticability  of  socialism 
and  the  necessity  of  individualism,  are,  as  above 
stated,  biologic.  Mr.  Kidd  argues  in  his  Social 
Evolution,  p.  209,  that  socialism  has  not  and 
probably  cannot  make  any  serious  attempt  to 
deal  with  even  the  initial  difficulties  of  the  con- 
tinued success  of  a  society  where  the  struggle 
for  existence  is  eliminated.  He  says  :  "Under- 
neath all  socialist  ideals  yawns  the  problem  of 
population." 

Mr.  Herbert  Spencer,  in  his  latest  work,  says  : 
"  People  who  in  their  corporate  capacity  abolish 
the  natural  relation  between  merits  and  benefits 
will  presently  be  abolished  themselves.     Either 
they  will  have  to  go  through  the  miseries  of 
slow  decay  consequent  on  the  increase  of  those 
unfit  for  the  business  of  life,  or  they  will  be 
overrun  by  some  people  who  have  not  pursued 
the  foolish  policy  of  fostering  the  worst  at  the 
expense  of  the  better."     Mr.  Lecky  says  (De- 
mocracy and  Liberty,  chap,  viii.)  :  "The  so- 
cialist remedies  would,  only  bring  evils  far  great- 
er than  any  they  could  possibly  prevent.     The 
desire  of  each  man  to  improve  his  circumstances, 
to  reap  the  full  reward  of  superior  talent,  or 
energy,  or  thrift,  is  the  very  mainspring  of  the 
production  of  the  world.     Take  these  motives 
away  ;  persuade  men  that  by  supe- 
rior work  they  will  obtain  no  supe- 
Degeneration  rior  reward  ;  cut  off  all  the  hopes 
under       that  stimulate  among  ordinary  men 
Socialism,    ambition,  enterprise, invention,  and 
self-sacrifice,  and  the  whole  level 
of  production  will  rapidly  and  inev- 
itably sink.  .  .  .  the  essential  difference  of  men 
in  aptitudes,  capacities  and  character,  are  things 
that  can  never  be  changed,  and  all  schemes  and 
policies  that  ignore  them  are  doomed  to  ultimate 
failure."     Says  Mr.  Kidd  (Social  Evolution) : 

"It  will  not  help  us,  even  If  there  are  to  be  no  com- 
peting societies,  and  if  in  the  contemplated  era  of  so- 
cialism the  whole  human  family,  without  distinction 
of  race  or  color,  is  to  be  included  in  a  federation  with- 
in which  the  competitive  forces  are  to  be  suspended. 
We  may  draw  such  a  draft  on  our  imagination,  but 
our  common  sense,  which  has  to  deal  with  materials 
as  they  exist,  refuses  to  honor  it.  We  are  concerned 
not  with  an  imaginary  being,  but  with  man  as  he 
exists,  a  creature  standing  with  countless  eons  of  this 
competition  behind  him,  every  quality  of  his  mind 
and  body  .  .  .  the  product  of  this  rivalry,  with  its 
meaning  and  allotted  place  therein,  and  capable  of 
finding  its  fullest  and  fittest  employment  only  in  its 
natural  conditions." 

Individualism,  then,  bases  its  argument  on 
the  fact  that  government  can  scarcely  efficiently 
conduct  even  now  the  comparatively  limited 
functions  that  it  does  attempt,  and  would  ut- 
terly break  down  before  the  attempt  to  control 
the  complete  complex  interests  of  all  social  life  ; 
that  individualism,  on  the  other  hand,  so  far  as 
tried  during  this  century,  while  not  by  any 
means  doing  away  with  all  evils,  has  produced 
more  material  and  educational  progress  than  in 
all  the  other  centuries  put  together,  and  espe- 
cially in  those  countries  and  in  that  country 
where  individualism  has  been  tried  the  most ; 
that  even  if  socialism  were  practicable,  it  would 
inevitably  lead  to  the  biological  degeneration  of 
the  individual  and  of  the  race  and  finally  that 
even  the  beginnings  of  socialism  tend  to  under- 
mine that  self-reliance,  self-rule,  free  self  sacri- 


fice, which,  tho  men  consider  it  born  of  indi- 
vidual communion  with  God  or  of  natural  ethics 
alone,  all  men  are  agreed  to  be  the  noblest  and 
the  only  enduring  and  eternal  quality  of  man. 
Individualism  may  not  produce  all  progress  in 
a  day  ;  individualists  are  not  blind  to  the  evils 
of  the  present,  but  they  do  know  that  an  in- 
finite progress  has  been  made  ;  that  that  prog- 
ress is  now  going  on  ;  that  it  has  been  and  is 
now  almost  solely  due  to  individual  struggle 
and  competition  in  life,  and  that  therefore  it  is 
but  simple  duty  to  resist  even  the  beginnings  of 
a  socialism  which  for  an  impossible  mirage 
threatens  to  attack  all  progress  and  to  under- 
mine man's  noblest  possession,  individual  char- 
acter and  individual  aspiration.  It  is  better  to 
let  a  man  struggle  and  work  his  own  way  even 
slowly  toward  character  than  to  lift  him,  were 
it  possible,  into  an  Utopia  of  physical  comfort, 
at  the  cost  of  weakened  will  and  increased  ten- 
dency to  rely  on  a  paternal  or  even  a  fraternal 
organization. 

THE  INDIVIDUALIST  PROGRAM. 

As  asserted  above,  individualists  are  neither 
doctrinaires  nor  visionaries.  Says  Mr.  Words- 
worth Donisthorpe  in  "The  Limits  of  Liberty," 
a  chapter  in  A  Plea  for  Liberty  : 

"  It  is  not  fair  to  assert  or  even  to  insinuate  that  in- 
dividualism as  a  practical  working  doctrine  in  this 
country  [England]  and  in  the  United  States  is  based 
on  reasoning  from  abstractions.  .  .  .  No  one  with  the 
smallest  claim  to  attention  has  been  known  to  affirm 
that  this  or  any  other  nation  is  yet  rife  f<5r  the  aboli- 
tion of  the  State.  ...  I  suppose  no  one  acquainted 
with  his  political  writings  will  accuse  Victor  Yarros  of 
backwardness  or  even  of  opportunism.  Yet  says  he, 
'  The  abolition  of  the  external  State  must  be  preceded 
by  the  decay  of  the  nations  which  breathe  life  and  vigor 
into  that  clumsy  monster  ;  in  other  words,  it  is  only 
when  the  people  learn  to  value  liberty  and  to  under- 
stand the  truths  of  the  anarchistic  philosophy  that  the 
question  of  practically  abolishing  the  State  looms  up 
and  acquires  significance.' " 

Mr.  N.  P.  Oilman  says  of  American  individu- 
alists (Socialism  and  the  American  Spirit) : 

"  The  practica\  effort  of  those  who  here  accept  the 
name  of  individualist  is  to  maintain  the  actual  status 
against  the  strong  tendency  tov^ard  socialism  which 
characterizes  the  time.  If  this  can  be  successfully  re- 
sisted, they  trust  to  gradual  enlightenment  to  weaken 
gradually  the  power  of  the  State.  The  anarchist  ideal, 
into  which  extreme  individualism  blends,  is  not  to  be 
reached  by  crying  and  striving.  The  individualist 
trusts  in  natural  and  in  the  uni  >rced  evolution  of  so- 
ciety ;  he  exerts  himself  with  more  or  less  energy  sim- 
ply to  resist  efforts  contrary  !•>  *his  law  which  tend  to 
produce  an  artificial  development.  .  .  .  The  present 
tendency  toward  socialioKi  he  would  explain  as  a  re- 
action toward  primitive  ideas  which  hr.ve  long  since, 
for  the  wiser  minority,  been  fully  exploded  by  ex- 
perience. He  stands  stubbornly  on  the  defensive 
against  this  tendency,  feeling  sure  that,  unchecked, 
it  can  only  result  in  great  evil." 

Contrasting  individualism  with  Schaffle's  defi- 
nition of  socialism  (q.v.),  Mr.  Gilman  says  con- 
cerning individualism  in  its  practical  applica- 
tion : 

''Economic  individualism  would  then  be  the  system 
of  production  by  means  of  private  capital  (held  by 
single  persons,  firms,  corporations,  or  cooperative  as- 
sociations) ;  this  method  of  production  demands  a  free 
labor  contract,  open  competition,  and  distribution  to 
individuals.  The  alpha  and  omega  of  individualism 
is,  accordingly,  private  and  competing  capitals,  with  a 
large  measure  of  individual  freedom  from  State  con- 
trol (p.  it).  ...  If  we  attend  chiefly  to  the  facts  of  the 
existing  situation  in  the  United  States,  we  should  then 


Individualism. 


724 


Industrial  Education. 


consider  individualism  and  socialism  as  two  opposite 
tendencies,  moved  by  either  of  which  an  American 
citizen  may  advocate  or  attack  a  definite  and  particu- 
lar measure  of  legislation.  The  Utopia  of  the  individ- 
ualist, if  Mr  Herbert  Spencer  may  speak  for  him,  is 
an  approach  to  anarchy  ;  the  Utopia  of  the  socialist 
melts  into  communism  ,  but  neither  scheme  is  proposed 
for  immediate  adoption  here  by  sensible  advocates.  .  .  . 
The  individualist  ...  in  all  his  degrees  tends  to  un- 
favorable criticism,  not  to  high  admiration,  of  the 
manner  and  the  results  of  governmental  activity  at 
present.  He  concedes  that  a  nation  may  well  tolerate 
a  certain  degree  of  inefficiency  on  the  part  of  its  officials 
in  executing  their  present  tasks,  this  being,  on  the 
whole,  more  endurable  than  the  evils  which  would  re- 
sult from  putting  the  same  duties  upon  private  per- 
sons. He  opposes,  however,  any  considerable  further 
extension  of  the  sphere  of  the  State,  and  looks  to  edu- 
cation of  the  individual  mind  and  conscience  and  to 
general  progress  for  relief  from  existing  evils.  The 
extreme  individualist  would  not  only  resist  the  ten- 
dency to  socialism,  but  would  also  retrace  some  steps 
already  taken  in  that  direction,  as  he  would  say,  such 
as  universal  free  education.  There  are  very  few,  to 
be  sure,  in  America  who  hold  the  creed  with  such 
vigor." 

So  conceiving  of  practical  individualism,  it  is 
evident  that  there  can  be  no  fixed  universal  in- 
dividualist program.  It  must  be  different  in 
different  countries  ;  it  is  differently  conceived 
by  different  individuals.  On  all  important 
points  the  general  individualist  propositions  will 
be  found  in  this  cyclopedia  under  each  respec- 
tive subject.  (See  LAND  ;  INTEREST  ;  WAGES  ; 
COMPETITION  ;  EDUCATION  ;  RAILROADS  ;  POST- 
OFFICE  ;  BANKING  ;  MUTUAL  BANKING,  etc.) 

We  give  here  one  illustration  of  how  indivi- 
dualists would  work  put  social  problems.  Of 
perhaps  the  most  serious  problem  in  modern 
life  Mr.  N.  P.  Oilman  says  (Socialism  and  the 
American  Spirit) : 

"  No  evil  in  our  cities  appeals  more  forcibly  to  the 
kind-hearted  than  the  crowded  tenement  houses.  .  .  . 
Every  one  who  has  a  particle  of  philanthropy  in  him 
cries  out  that  these  evils  should  be  made  to  cease  from 
off  the  earth.  The  end  is  clear,  but  what  means  shall 
we  use?  The  socialist  will  dilate  upon  what  Glasgow 
and  Liverpool  have  done,  and  urge  that  Boston  and 
New  York  at  once  purchase  whole  squares,  pull  down 
the  noisome  houses  of  to-day,  and  erect,  instead,  clean 
and  convenient  tenements,  to  be  let  at  low  rates. 
This,  however,  would  be  too  much  like  journeying 
from  Chicago  to  Minneapolis,  via  Paris,  the  Suez 
Canal,  and  Japan.  The  Chicagoan  would  thus  reach 
Minneapolis  in  time,  indeed,  if  money  and  patience 
held  out.  But  a  more  direct  way  would  be  first  to 
discover  what  persons  are  responsible  as  owners  or 
lessors  of  these  foul  habitations,  and  then  to  bring 
home  to  them  as  individuals  the  distress  and  the'  crime 
which  they  occasion,  while  drawing  profit  from  such 
inhuman  conditions.  Many  of  these  persons  sin  as 
much  through  ignorance  as  through  hardness  of  heart. 
.  .  .  But  if  this  should  be  of  no'  effect,  the  men  and 
women  who  are  taught  by  the  higher  individualism 
that  we  are  our  brothers'  keepers  to  a  great  degree 
can  then  follow  the  example  of  Mrs.  Lincoln  in  Bos- 
ton. Let  them  singly  or  in  small  associations  buy  or 
lease  one  or  more  city  houses  in  the  poorer  districts 
and  care  for  them  in  person  or  through  kindly  and 
capable  agents.  A  large  part  of  the  tenement-house 
problem  is  manageable  under  this  simple  plan.  .  .  . 
Where  this  plan  is  not  expedient,  the  Peabody  trustees 
in  London,  the  improved  Dwelling-House  Associa- 
tions in  Boston  and  New  York,  and  such  individuals 
as  Mr.  A.  T.  White  in  Brooklyn  have  demonstrated 
the  eminent  success  of  a  more  difficult  method.  Mr. 
J.  A.  Riis,  a  good  authority,  believes  thoroughly  in  the 
compatibility  of  'philanthropy  and  5  per  cent.' — the 
one  as  beginning,  the  other  as  t'he  result.  .  .  .  The  tene- 
ment-house problem  in  our  American  cities  is  thus 
fully  within  the  control  of  a  comparatively  few  per- 
sons. .  .  .  Very  few  of  the  rich  or  the  moderately 
rich  in  the  United  States  would  need  to  be  converted 
to  a  higher  individualism  than  they  now  practise  to 
make  the  tenement-house  problem  a  thing  of  the  past 
so  far  as  money  can  do  it." 

Such  is,  we  believe,  a  fair  example  of  the  in- 


dividualist program.  For  the  far  more  radical 
proposals  of  such  extreme  individualists  as  the 
philosophical  anarchists — the  Spencerians,  the 
single-tax  men,  the  voluntarians — we  refer  the 
reader  to  the  respective  articles  which  treat  of 
them.  Most  individualists  like  Professor  Hux- 
ley condemn  alike  the  dogmatism  of  Herbert 
Spencer  and  the  theories  of  the  socialists.  They 
hold,  with  Professor  Jevons.  that  in  social  re- 
form "the  first  step  is  to  throw  aside  all  sup- 
posed absolute  rights  or  inflexible  principles  ;" 
they  would  not,  at  present  at  least,  destroy  the 
State  ;  what  is  shown  by  experience  that  the 
State  can  do  better  than  the  individual,  that 
they  would  have  the  State  do  ;  but  they  hold 
that,  fundamentally  and  eternally,  all  experience 
teaches  that  primary  reliance  must  be  put  on 
industrial  action  ;  that  what  limits  individual 
initiation  limits  freedom  ;  that  what  weakens 
individual  responsibility  weakens  character, 
and  that  therefore,  in  the  words  of  President 
E,  B.  Andrews,  of  Brown  University  :  "In  all 
economic  activity  the  presumption  is  in  favor  of 
individual  liberty  and  free  competition." 

References :  A  Plea  for  Liberty  (P.  Mackay,  Ed., 
1891) ;  Wordsworth  Donisthorpe's  Individualism  :  A 
System  of  Politics  (1890)  ;  The  Man  versus  the  State  (a 
collection  of  articles  by  Herbert  Spencer,  and  pub- 
lished under  that  name,  1884)  ;  N.  P.  Oilman's  Social- 
ism and  the  American  Spirit  (1893) ;  W.  G.  Sumner's 
What  Social  Classes  Owe  to  Each  Other  (1883) ;  W.  H. 
Mallock's  Classes  and  Masses ;  or,  Wealth*  Wages, 
and  Welfare  in  the  United  Kingdom  (1896)  ;  Edward 
Atkinson's  various  articles ;  John  Morley  on  Com- 
promise ;  A.  T.  Hadley's  Economics,  an  Account  of  the 
Relation  Between  Private  Property  and  Public  Wel- 
fare. See  also  ANARCHISM  ;  SPENCER  ;  SINGLE  TAX  ; 
FREE  TRADE  ;  VOLUNTARYISM.  For  opposite  views 
to  those  in  this  article  and  for  objections  to  Individu- 
alism, see  SOCIALISM. 

Revised  by  A.  T.  HADLEY. 

INDUSTRIAL  EDUCATION.— We  in- 
clude under  this  general  heading  three  subjects 
which  are  distinct,  altho  continually  confounded 
in  the  public  mind — trade  education,  technical 
education,  and  manual  training.  We  consider 
them  under  one  head,  in  order  that, 
by  placing  the  subjects  side  by  side, 
the  important  differences  between  Definitions, 
them  may  be  clearly  brought  out. 
We  commence  with  definitions. 
Trade  education  is  the  preparing  of  craftsmen 
for  practical  work  in  a  particular  trade.  Tech- 
nical education  is  the  teaching  of  the  sciences 
in  their  practical  application  to  the  material  in- 
terests of  man.  A  good  trade  school  may  be  a 
very  poor  technical  school,  while  a  good  techni- 
cal school  is  not  of  necessity  a  good  trade  school. 
Manual  training  is  different  from  either  ;  it  is 
instruction  in  the  use  of  tools  as  a  part  of  a  com- 
plete educational  discipline.  Trade  schools  seek 
to  turn  out  craftsmen  ;  technical  schools  seek  to 
turn  out  scientific  specialists  and  professional 
men,  such  as  civil  engineers,  architects,  etc.  ; 
manual  training  seeks  to  develop  complete  man- 
hood and  womanhood  by  developing  dexterity 
of  hand  as  well  as  head.  We  must  consider  the 
three  in  their  modern  chronological  develop- 
ment. 

I.  TECHNICAL  SCHOOLS. 

Science  is  modern  ;  scientific  schools  are  there- 
fore modern.     When  Count  Rumford,  in  1799, 


Industrial  Education. 


725 


Industrial  Education 


Europe. 


founded  the  Royal  Institution  in  London,  he 
aimed  at  making  it  a  technical  school.  It  orig- 
inally contained  a  workshop  for 
blacksmiths  and  models  of  machin- 
ery of  all  kinds  ;  but  it  was  fortu- 
nately diverted  into  a  laboratory 
of  research,  developed  by  Davy, 
Thomas  Young,  Faraday,  Tyndall,  Rayleign. 
The  first  really  technical  school  seems  to  have 
been  the  famous  school  of  mines  at  Freiburg, 
created  by  the  demands  of  the  region.  The 
Ecole  Polytechnique  was  established  in  France 
in  1794,  primarily  to  train  men  for  the  engineer 
and  artillery  corps  of  the  French  Army.  The 
Imperial  Technical  School  at  Moscow  and  the 
Institute  of  Technology  at  St.  Petersburg  early 
took  high  rank.  England,  always  holding  a 
prominent  place  in  science,  was  backward  in 
developing  technical  schools. 

Germany  and  Switzerland  have  led  in  techni- 
cal schools.  Scientific  high  schools  sprang  up 
for  the  training  of  men  who  might  compete  with 
English  engineers  trained  in  the  workshop. 
The  universities  of  50  years  ago  did  not  meet 
the  case,  and  consequently  each  State  did  its 
best  to  create  technical  institutions  that  would 
do  so.  Magnificent  polytechnics  arose  like  the 
Federal  Polytechnic  School  at  Zurich,  the  Poly- 
technic Schools  at  Munich,  Vienna,  Stuttgart, 
Dresden,  Hanover,  Aachen,  the  Technical  High 
School  of  Berlin,  now  the  Charlottenburg  Poly- 
technic, the  Polytechnic  Schools  of  Delft  and  at 
Moscow. 

These  schools  cost  $15,000,000  for  building 
and  fittings,  and  their  maintenance  costs  $1,000,- 
ooo  annually. 

The  Zurich  Polytechnic  was  established  by 
the  Swiss  Confederation  in  1854.  It  is  one  of 
the  finest  in  the  world,  and  comprises  seven 
special  schools  :  i.  Architecture,  with  a  three 
years'  course.  2.  Civil  engineering,  three  and 
a  half  years'  course.  3.  Mechanical  engineer- 
ing, three  years'  course.  4.  Chemical  technol- 
ogy, including  pharmacy,  three  years'  course. 
5.  Agriculture  and  forestry,  two  and  a  half 
years'  course.  6.  Normal  school  for  training 
special  science  teachers.  7.  Philosophical  and 
political  science. 

Further,  a  preliminary  course  is  provided  in 
mathematics  for  those  not  yet  prepared  to  enter 
one  of  these  schools.  There  are  200  courses  of 
lectures,  45  professors,  and  13  assistant  profes- 
sors, besides  tutors,  curators,  etc.  The  institu- 
tion spends  over  $100,000  a  year  A  few  years 
ago  the  Federal  Council  voted  to  it  $250,000  for 
the  extension  of  the  chemical  laboratories.  The 
cost  to  a  student  is  $20  the  half  year  and  $10  for 
laboratory  practice,  or  about  $60  per  annum  in 
the  chemical  department  for  the  full  use  of 
these  great  opportunities. 

In  the  United  States,  the  Rensselaer  Poly- 
technic  Institute   at  Troy,  N.  Y.,  was  estab- 
lished in  1824  to  teach  civil  engineers,  who  till 
then  had  to  go  to  France  to  study. 
The  growth  of  science  led  to  the 
establishment  of  the  Sheffield  Sci- 
entific School  of    Yale   University 
in    1847,  the   Lawrence    Scientific 
School  of   Harvard  in    1848,   and 
the  Chandler  Scientific   School  of  Dartmouth 
in  1852.     In  1862  Congress  voted  land  grants  to 


The 
United 

States. 


the  several  States  to  enable  them  to  build  insti- 
tutions for  teaching  agriculture  and  mechanics. 
Most  of  the  State  universities  established  scien- 
tific schools.  Cornell  became  prominent  for  its 
scientific  teaching.  Washington  University,  at 
St.  Louis,  organized  its  School  of  Engineering, 
and  Columbia  College  its  School  of  Mines.  The 
Massachusetts  Institute  of  Technology  was  char- 
tered in  1861  and  opened  in  1865.  The  Worces- 
ter (Mass.)  Polytechnic  Institute  was  opened  in 
1867  ;  the  Stevens  Institute  followed  in  1871  ; 
the  Rose  Polytechnic  Institute,  in  Terre  Haute, 
Ind. ,  in  1883  ;  the  Case  School  of  Applied 
Science,  at  Cleveland,  in  1891.  In  most  of  these 
schools  there  is  a  four-years'  course.  Modern 
languages  are  usually  required  for  admission  in 
place  of  Greek  and  Latin.  Language,  history, 
political  economy  are  usually  taught,  besides 
the  higher  mathematics  and  the  various  sci- 
ences. 

II.  TRADE  SCHOOLS 

came  after  technical  schools.  They  are  modern 
attempts  to  develop  craftsmen  in  place  of  the 
apprentice  system,  now  all  but  gone.  (See  AP- 
PRENTICESHIP.) Here  again  Germany  and  Switz- 
erland lead. 

There  are  schools  of  a  lower  type  called 
"real"  and  "trade"  schools.  The  course  in 
some  is  nine  years,  and  these  are  called  "  upper 
real  schools  ;"  in  others  six  or  seven  years,  and 
these  are  called  "  burgher"  schools. 

Prussia  has  building  schools  in  Berlin,  Nien- 
burg,  Eikernforde,  Breslau,  Hoxtar,  and  Idstein. 
There  is  a  school  for  machine  construction  at 
Eimbeck  ;  four  weaving  schools  at  Crefeld, 
Mulheim,  and  Eimbeck  ,•  a  trade  school  for 
pottery  at  Hohr  ;  trade  metal  schools  at  Iserlohn 
and  Remsheid.  There  are  trade  continuation 
schools  for  apprentices  and  artisans  under  18, 
who  can  be  compelled  to  attend,  as  their  mas- 
ters are  to  grant  them  time  to  do  so.  In  that 
case  the  State  pays  half  the  cost.  Agricultural 
schools,  etc.,  are  also  in  operation. 

Apprenticeship    schools     in    Germany    train 
workmen  in  pure  and  applied  art  and  in  practi- 
cal work  in  the  shop.     They  have  spread  over 
Southern    Germany     and   Austria 
and    all    parts    of    Prussia.      The 
manufacturers     demanded     better         The 
workers.    Three  years  is  the  course,    Continent, 
in  which  the  pupils  are  trained  as 
designers,  modelers,  wood-carvers, 
molders,  founders,  turners  and  pressers,  chasers, 
engravers,  gilders,  and  etchers.     The  number 
of  artisans  attending  the  schools  is  increasing. 

Chemnitz,  Saxony,  has  a  technical  school  for 
chemists,  a  foremen's  school,  a  building  school, 
a  drawing  school,  and  a  weaving  school.  A 
technical  knowledge  of  dyeing  is  required  for 
the  exquisite  work  here  produced. 

The  metallurgical  school  of  Bochum,  West- 
phalia, is  open  only  to  workmen  employed  four 
years  in  iron  or  engineering. 

The  Crefeld  weaving  school  teaches  drawing 
and  the  loom  ;  painting  from  models,  natural 
plants,  and  flowers  for  printing  and  other 
branches  ;  machine  drawing  ;  fabrics  decom- 
posed ;  original  design  ;  unmounting  and  re- 
building power-looms,  and  forge  work.  It  has 
a  museum  of  textile  fabrics,  and  the  Krauth 


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726 


Industrial  Education. 


collection  of  historical  patterns.  The  dyeing 
and  finishing  departments  of  the  school  are 
complete. 

The  industrial  art  schools  of  Germany  apply 
art  to  manufactures  more  than  those  of  France. 
The  Dresden  school  has  revived  old  and  estab- 
lished new  industries.  It  has  departments  of 
designing,  architecture,  decorative  painting, 
ornament,  figure  drawing,  art  modeling,  deco- 
rative painting  from  the  figure.  It  has  16,000 
mounted  patterns,  1 1,000  examples  of  embroi- 
dery and  lace,  and  a  school  museum  containing 
140,000  patterns  of  textile  fabrics  of  all  kinds 
and  ages. 

The  industrial  art  school  of  Vienna  practises 
carving,  metal-chasing,  and  working  in  brass 
and  bronze. 

The  Royal  School  of  Art  Embroidery,  Vienna, 
is  wholly  technical.  Girls  from  the  primary 
schools  are  carried  forward  to  every  kind  of 
fancy  needlework  and  designing.  There  are 
no  fees  save  for  foreigners. 

Switzerland,  for  the  size  of  the  country,  out- 
does Germany  and  leads  the  world  in  trade 
schools.  She  has  the  Technikum,  at  Winter- 
thur  ;  the  general  industrial  school  at  Basel,  7 
schools'  for  industrial  arts  and  drawing,  31  in- 
dustrial drawing  schools,  57  schools  for  profes- 
sional improvement  and  working  men's  schools, 
2  weaving  schools,  7  watch-making  schools,  8 
workshops  for  apprentices,  2  wood-carving 
schools,  5  female  industrial  schools,  13  industrial 
museums,  collections,  etc. 

Cheese  and  butter-making  are  taught  at  a 
dairy  station  at  Perolles  (Fribourg),  the  dairy 
school  de  la  Rutti  (Berne),  and  at  a  dairy  school 
at  Sornthal  (St.  Gall). 

France  has  many  trade  schools. 

The  Polytechnic  Association  was  founded  in 
1830  by  the  graduates  of  the  Polytechnic  School 
for  the  purpose  of  conducting  preparatory 
courses  of  industrial  and  technical  training  for 
both  sexes.  Training  is  given  in  the  cutting 
and  fitting  of  garments,  decorative  painting, 
making  of  artificial  flowers,  and  commercial 
courses  to  young  girls.  The  municipality  of 
Paris  has  been  to  the  forefront  in  supplying 
technical  education  for  girls.  It  has  undertaken 
to  fit  every  girl  for  domestic  or  business  life  who 
applies  at  its  schools,  and  without  cost  to  the 
pupil.  Its  Scales  professionelles  mdnagbres 
number  six,  besides  its  "  commercial  school." 
On  these  schools  alone  ^30,000  is  spent  annually. 
Other  special  schools  in  France  are  :  the  School 
of  Telegraphy,  for  Government  employees ; 
schools  of  manual  apprenticeship  ;  higher  schools 
of  commercial  studies  ;  the  National  School  of 
the  Industrial  Arts  at  Roubaix,  for  practical  and 
theoretical  study  of  the  manufacture  of  cloth  ; 
the  Ecole  des  Beaux- Arts  at  Paris  ;  the  Acade- 
mic de  France  at  Rome  ;  the  Ecole  des  Beaux- 
Arts  at  Lyons  ;  the  Ecole  Nationale  des  Arts 
Decoratifs  at  Paris  ;  the  National  Professional 
School  at  Vierzon  ;  the  Ecole  Professionelle 
Municipale  of  Rheims,  to  instruct  youth  in 
manufactures  and  commerce  ;  the  Polytechnic 
School  at  Paris  ;  the  High  School  of  Mines  at 
Paris  ;  the  National  School  of  Design  for  Young 
Women  at  Paris  ;  the  Limoges  School  of  Deco- 
rative Art  ;  schools  attached  to  the  national  fac- 
tories of  Gobelins,  Sevres,  and  Beauvais  ;  a 


school  of  fine  arts  at  Toulouse  ;  a  school  of  master 
workmen  of  mines  at  Calais  ;  a  school  of  horti- 
culture at  Versailles  ;  the  Central  School  of 
Arts  and  Manufactures  in  Paris. 

There  are  also  schools  of  arts  and  manufac- 
tures at  Aix,  Angers,  and  Chalons  ;  two  schools 
of  watch  and  clock-making  ;  weaving  schools 
at  Nimes,  Amiens,  and  St.  Etienne  ;  several 
lace-making  schools  ;  a  free  school  of  political 
science,  with  a  remarkable  and  exhaustive  pro- 
gram of  constitutional,  legal,  financial,  and  dip- 
lomatic studies  ;  farm  schools,  agricultural  col- 
leges, and  the  Institut  National  Agronomique 
at  Paris.  Voluntary  agricultural  schools  are 
active,  and  there  are  12  State  schools — z//>., 
agriculture,  3  ;  horticulture,  i  ;  dairying,  i  ; 
veterinary,  3  ;  forestry,  2  ;  and  shepherds' 
schools  and  bergeries,  2. 

Belgium  is  prominent  in  trade  instruction. 
Her  schools  include  : 

1.  Apprenticeship  schools  and  ouvrotrs,  or 
workshop  and  school  combined.     These  were 
established  as  charities,  and  are  diminishing  in 
number  and  importance. 

2.  Agricultural  and  horticultural  schools,  and 
schools  for  training  dairymaids. 

3.  Girls'  housekeeping  schools,  rapidly  devel- 
oping, over  250  having  already  been  established. 

4.  Trade  schools  for  girls,  of  which  all  the 
principal  cities  now  boast  one  or  more. 

5.  Parochial  trade  schools,  those  of  St.  Luke 
being  the  highest  type. 

6.  Trade  schools    supported  by  guilds  and 
trade-unions,  such  as  the  brewers'  and  tailors' 
schools. 

7.  Trade  schools  haying  day  classes  and  shop- 
work.     Their  design  is  to  fit  for  a  trade  and  to 
do  away  with  the  often  misdirected  drudgery  of 
apprenticeship. 

8.  Large  industrial  schools,  sometimes  com- 
bined with  drawing  schools,  sometimes  separate, 
where  classes  are  held  in  the  evenings  and  on 
Sundays  and  where  the  course  is  widely  eclec- 
tic. 

9.  Drawing  schools,  existing  in  every  town  of 
any  size  in  the  kingdom. 

10.  Commercial  schools,  the  most  important 
of  which  is  at  Antwerp,  with  the  object  to  pre- 
pare accountants,  merchants,  consular  and  com- 
mercial agents  for  home  and  consular  service. 

11.  Schools  of  industry  and  mines,  highly  sci- 
entific in  character. 

In  England,  distinctive  trade  schools  are  not 
many.     She  is  working  out  industrial  education 
in  other  ways.     Slow  in  establishing  technical 
schools,  technical  education  is  being 
developed  to-day  in  connection  with 
numerous  institutions.     In  1836  a        Great 
sum  of  .£1500  ($7299.75)  was  voted     Britain. 
by  Parliament  for  the  encourage- 
ment of  art,  with  which  trade  and 
navigation  became  associated.     The  first  school 
of  design  was  opened  at  Somerset  House  with 
12    pupils    in    1837.     Subsequently  a  sum    of 
;£io,ooo  ($48,665)  was  voted  in  aid  of  14  schools, 
and  by  this  means  art  education  was  provided 
for  about  2250  pupils.     In   1845  the  Royal  Col- 
lege of  Chemistry  was  established  in   Oxford 
Street,  London  ;  and  in  1851  the  Jermyn  Street 
Royal  School  of  Mines  was  started.     These  in- 
stitutions are  now  united  under  the  title  of  the 


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727 


Industrial  Education. 


Normal  School  of  Science  and  Royal  School  of 
Mines,  at  South  Kensington. 

Commencing  about  the  year  7882,  what  has 
been  termed  a  technical  education  scare  swept 
over  England,  owing  to  the  fear  that  Germany 
was  competing  with  increasing  success  for  the 
foreign  trade  of  the  world.  This  advantage  was 
believed  to  be  due  to  her  system  of  technical 
instruction.  As  a  result  of  this  apprehension 
concerning  trade  a  great  deal  of  attention  was 
given  to  the  subject  during  succeeding  years. 
A  royal  commission  was  appointed  by  Parlia- 
ment to  inquire  into  the  various  technical  and 
trade  schools  on  the  Continent,  with  a  special 
view  of  reporting  upon  the  effect  the  instruc- 
tion given  in  these  schools  had  upon  the  indus- 
tries of  the  various  countries  in  which  they  were 
situated. 

In  London,  Finsbury  College  was  then  the 
only  center,  apart  from  the  Polytechnic  Young 
Men's  Christian  Institute,  that  gave  evening 
manual  instruction  ;  and  even  at  Finsbury  the 
number  of  real  artisans  in  attendance  was  very 
small. 

By  1889  the  art  schools  and  classes,  national 
scholarships,  etc.,  in  local  schools,  received 
^38,500  ($187,360.25). 

The  total  expenses  incident  to  the  conduct  of 
schools  of  science  and  of  art  in  all  parts  of  the 
kingdom  reached  in  1889  the  sum  approximate- 
ly of  £154,000  ($749,441). 

Some  of  the  schools  established  by  institutions 
of  learning  as  part  of  their  educational  system, 
or  by  individuals  or  industrial  associations  to 
advance  particular  interests,  are  as  follows : 
Technical  School,  Newcastle-upon-Tyne  ;  Dur- 
ham College  of  Science,  Newcastle-upon-Tyne  ; 
Owens  College,  Manchester  ;  Yorkshire  College, 
Leeds  ;  Mason  Science  College,  Birmingham  ; 
University  College,  Bristol ;  University  College, 
Nottingham  ;  University  College,  Liverpool  ; 
University  College,  Dundee  ;  Glasgow  and  West 
of  Scotland  Technical  College  ;  University  Col- 
lege, Cardiff  ;  Sheffield  Technical  College. 

Among  schools  established  to  advance  local 
industries  may  be  included  the  Manchester 
Technical  School,  Huddersfield  Technical 
School,  and  Leicester  Technical  School.  There 
are  a  large  number  of  technical  schools  with 
social  features,  the  Regent  Street  Polytechnic 
of  London  being  the  most  notable  example. 
There  are  several  which  are  still  incomplete, 
but  which  are  doing  excellent  work.  Among 
these  latter  are  the  Finsbury  Polytechnic  Insti- 
tute, the  South  Lambeth  Institute,  the  Albert 
Youth's  Institute,  and  the  Woolwich  Polytech- 
nic. 

In  technical  education,  various  bodies  have 
been  active,  such  as  the  cooperative  societies. 
Some  municipal  technical  schools  have  been 
started,  as  at  Rochdale  and  Manchester.  Pri- 
vate firms  have  established  technical  schools  in 
connection  with  their  trades,  as  at  Elswick, 
Crewe,  Manchester,  Accrington,  Oldham.  The 
technical  colleges  of  Bradford  and  Leeds  and 
the  Yorkshire  college  compare  with  the  weaving 
schools  of  Germany. 

There  is  an  intermediate  technical  college  at 
Finsbury  (London)  for  systematic  teaching  of 
boys  from  14  to  18.  ,The  evening  classes  here 
in  1891  had  over  1000  students.  Its  school  of 


electrical  engineering  is  of  wide  renown.  Uni- 
versity College  and  King  College  have  numer- 
ous technical  and  scientific  classes.  The  Leather 
Trades  in  Bethnal  Green  teach  hand  and  ma- 
chine work.  Polytechnic  institutes  are  spring- 
ing up  in  all  parts  of  London. 

The  People's  Palace  schools  are  kept  tip  by 
the  Drapers'  Company,  and  besides  art  and  sci- 
ence, the  technology  of  building,  bricklaying, 
carpentry,  plumbing,  steam  boiler  design,  ma- 
chine construction,  surveying,  tailors'  cutting, 
typography,  etc.,  has  been  taught  to  hundreds 
of  students.  Besides  these  there  are  the  Batter- 
sea  Institute,  the  Borough  Road  Institute,  the 
Chelsea  Institute,  the  Northwest  London  Insti- 
tute, the  North  London  Institute,  the  City  Poly- 
technic, and  the  Goldsmiths'  Institute. 

There  were,  in  1892,  no  fewer  than  200  sci- 
ence schools  in  London,  including  day  and 
evening  schools  and  schools  of  science  attached 
to  elementary  day  schools.  There  are  some 
5000  students  in  the  district  schools  of  art  in 
London.  -  Through  the  country  the  newly  es- 
tablished county  councils  are  moving  in  the 
way  of  technical  educaiton. 

In  the  United    States,    trade    schools    com- 
menced   with    the    New    York    trade   schools, 
founded  by  Robert  T.  Auchmuty  in  1881.    They 
commenced  as  simply  night  schools 
with  33  pupils,  and  in  1893  had  536. 
Schools  of  a  like  nature  have  been         The 
established    by    the     Philadelphia       United 
Master  Builders'  Exchange  and  by       States. 
the   Pratt    Institute    in    Brooklyn. 
At  Waltham,  Mass.,  there  is  a  horo- 
logical  school.     Philadelphia  has  a  textile  school. 
In  1888  an  artist  artisan  school  was  founded  in 
New  York.     Michigan    has   a   mining    school. 
Through  the  country  there  are  various  mechanic 
institutes,  art  schools,  music  schools  and  acade- 
mies, etc.     The  agricultural  college  and  cook- 
ing schools  are  considered  in  separate  articles. 

In  1876  Professor  J.  D.  Runkle,  of  the  Massa- 
chusetts Institute  of  Technology,  saw  M.  Delia 
Vos's  exhibition  of  the  Russian  system  at  the 
Philadelphia  Exhibition,  and  on  August  17, 
1876,  the  department  of  the  institute  since 
known  as  the  School  of  Mechanic  Arts  was  es- 
tablished. The  same  step  was  taken  a  little 
later  (June  6,  1879)  by  Washington  University 
in  St.  Louis,  at  the  suggestion  of  Professor 
C.  M.  Woodward,  of  the  engineering  depart- 
ment in  that  institution.  These  two  examples 
were  soon  followed  by  other  scientific  and  tech- 
nological schools  in  different  parts  of  the 
country. 

Pardue  University  (Indiana)  has  schools  in 
agriculture,  horticulture,  veterinary  science, 
mechanical  engineering,  civil  engineering,  sci- 
ence, industrial  art,  and  pharmacy. 

There  are  12  business  colleges  in  Illinois,  16 
in  Iowa,  16  in  Massachusetts,  28  in  New  Jersey, 
16  in  Ohio,  19  in  Pennsylvania.  The  business 
college  teaches  how  business  is  transacted  in 
large  cities  in  banking,  real  estate,  insurance, 
and  commercial  houses.  The  students  have  to 
keep  and  work  a  bank  in  all  details.  So  with 
other  callings  prepared  for. 

In  the  South,  trade  schools  have  been  espe- 
cially developed  for  the  negroes.  The  John  F. 
Slater  Fund  distributes  $45,000  annually  among 


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728 


Industrial  Education. 


negro  schools  in  the  South  expressly  to  foster 
hand  training.  Forty-four  institutions  received 
this  aid  in  1888,  two  of  them  for  medical  stu- 
dents. The  Tuskegee  Normal  School  enrolls 
294  students,  and  requires  all  to  work.  The 
school  farm  is  of  600  acres,  475  acres  in  woods. 
Its  brickyard  turned  out  150,000  bricks  in  one 
year.  There  is  a  carpenter's  shop  and  printing 
office.  All  the  buildings  on  the  school  grounds 
have  been  erected  by  students'  labor. 

III.  MANUAL  TRAINING. 

The  thought  of  manual  training  as  a  part  of 
education  is  not  a  new  one.     It  has  been  a 
theme  with   educational  writers  from   Luther 
and  Comenius  down  to  the  present 
time.     Rousseau  would  have  Emile 
Origin.      learn  a  trade,  that  his  pupil  might 
acquire  a  more  valid  title  of  nobil- 
ity than  any  he  might  inherit  from 
ancestors.     Pestalozzi  resorted  to  manual  train- 
ing with  the  vagabond  children  he  collected  in 
his  schools,  believing  it  to  be  one  important 
means  of  educating  the  poorer  classes.     Locke, 
in  writing  of  the  education  of  gentlemen's  sons, 
pointed  out   some  practical  advantages  to  be 
gained  from   manual  work    by  boys    passing 
through  the  usual  course  of  book  instruction  ; 
the  chief  of  which  were  the  promotion  of  bodily 
health   by  physical   exercise    and    the  mental 
relaxation  brought  about  by  change  of  employ- 
ment.    But  Froebel  (g.v.)  took  the  first  steps. 

The  realization  of  Froebel's  ideas  in  the  kin- 
dergarten has  made  his  name  well  known. 
What  is  not  so  well  known  is  that  to  the  influ- 
ence of  his  writings  is  due  the  introduction  of 
handcraft  in  the  elementary  schools  of  Finland 
and  Sweden,  where  it  is  known  as  slojd  (sloyd), 
and  whence  it  has  spread  to  Denmark,  Bel- 
gium, Germany,  Austria,  Switzerland,  England, 
and  the  United  States. 

Had  Froebel  been  permitted  to  finish  his 
great  work,  The  Education  of  Man,  it  is  prob- 
able that  the  education  of  boyhood  and  of  youth 
would  have  been  worked  out  by  him  with  the 
same  attention  to  details  and  the  same  practical 
wisdom,  but  it  was  not  until  1860  that  a  man  of 
sufficient  courage  and  force  appeared  in  Finland 
and  undertook  to  reconstruct  the  educational 
system  of  his  native  land  in  accordance  with  the 
principles  of  Pestalozzi  and  Froebel.  This  was 
Uno  Cygnaeus,  of  the  Helsingfors  Teachers' 
Seminary,  who,  after  long  and  diligent  study 
of  Swiss  and  German  educational  authorities, 
devised  an  advanced  system  of  manual  exer- 
cises adapted  to  pupils  beyond  the  kindergarten 
age.  This  is  sometimes  called  the  Russian  sys- 
tem of  tool  instruction,  tho  the  term  Russian 
system  is  now  generally  used  to  designate  that 
plan  of  applying  to  the  mechanic  arts  the  labora- 
tory (workshop)  method  of  instruction — a  meth- 
od which  has  revolutionized  instruction  in  chem- 
istry, physics,  and  other  sciences  within  the  last 
40  years. 

It  was  in  the  Imperial  Technical  School  at 
Moscow,  Russia,  in  1868,  under  its  director, 
Victor  della  Vos,  that  this  laboratory  method  of 
instruction  was  first  successfully  applied  to  the 
mechanic  arts. 

Manual    training    combined    with    ordinary 


school  work  was  first  completely  worked  out  in 
Sweden,  commencing  about  1876.  There  are 
over  700  schools  in  Sweden  in  which  slojd*  is 
taught.  The  normal  school  for  this  instruction 
is  at  Naas,  where  a  considerable  number  of 
teachers  of  the  system  are  trained.  The  prin- 
ciples laid  down  are  :  (i)  Voluntary  attendance 
at  slojd  ;  (2)  slojd  work  must  be  useful  ;  (3)  not 
fatiguing  in  tool  exercises  ;  (4)  varied  ;  (5)  such 
as  can  be  done  by  pupils  themselves  ;  (6)  real 
work,  not  play  ;  (7)  not  articles  of  luxury  ;  (8) 
the  work  becomes  the  property  of  the  pupil  ;  (9) 
the  pupil  must  be  able  to  do  it  ;  (10)  done  with 
exactness  ;  (11)  neat  and  clean  ;  (12)  thoughtful, 
not  merely  mechanical  ;  (13)  strengthening  to 
the  body  ;  (14)  develop  sense  of  form  ;  (15)  rich 
in  manipulative  detail.  Again,  the  teacher  of 
it  should  be  the  ordinary  teacher,  and  he  should 
superintend  the  work,  but  not  handle  it.  It  should 
begin  at  the  eleventh  year.  Slojd  includes  car- 
pentry, turning,  and  wood-carving.  Slojd  car- 
pentry and  trade  carpentry  differ.  The  former 
is  small  work  ;  tools  are  different,  and  there  is 
no  division  of  labor. 

From  Sweden   manual  training   ideas  have 

tone  to  all  countries.     Belgium  was  one  of  the 
rst  to  receive  the  ideas,  and  in  different  schools 
commenced  teaching    needlework, 
cooking,  and  woodwork.     Germa- 
ny is  not    remarkable  for  manual      Europe. 
training,  but  perhaps  only  because 
she  has  so  many  technical  and  trade 
schools.     Yet  in  1888  a  German  report  on  man- 
ual training  states  that  of  independent  school 
workshops  there  were  67  in  62  places  ;  in  teach- 
ers' seminaries,  12  in  12  places  ;  in  private  and 
common  schools,  12  in   12  places  ;  in  orphans' 
homes,  15  in  14  places  ;  in  boys'  homes,  44  in  21 
places  ;  in   reformatories,   10  in    10   places  ;  in 
asylums  for  feeble-minded,  2  in  2  places  ;  in 
blind  asylums,  5  in  5  places  ;  in  deaf  and  dumb 
asylums,  7  in  7  places  ;   in  school   workshops 
with  industrial  object,  12  in  12  places — a  total 
of   186   school   workshops   in    120  places.     The 
training   was  in   pasteboard- work,    wood-carv- 
ing, joinery,  metal-work,  and  modeling.     Nee- 
dlework is  now  taught  in  many  schools. 

Switzerland,  like  Germany,  is  not  so  promi- 
nent in  manual  training  as  in  trade  and  techni- 
cal schools,  yet  a  good  beginning  has  been 
made.  Manual  training  classes  for  boys  exist- 
ed in  1891  in  the  cantons  Grisons,  Saint  Gall, 
Appenzell,  Thurgau,  Schaffhausen,  Zurich, 
Aargau,  Basel,  Soleure,  Berne,  Neufchatel, 
Freyburg,  Vaud,  Glarus,  and  Geneva,  over  one 
half  of  the  cantons. 

Manual  training  for  girls,  such  as  needlework, 
knitting,  darning,  mending,  etc. ,  has  existed  in 
Switzerland  for  many  years,  and  in  most  can- 
tons it  is  considered  as  one  of  the  most  impor- 
tant branches  of  study  for  girls.  In  nearly  all 
cantons  this  instruction  is  compulsory. 

In  France  public  education  has  been  entirely 
remodeled  since  1880.  The  law  of  1881  made 
primary  education  absolutely  free.  The  law  of 
1882  rendered  attendance  at  school  compulsory 
for  children  between  the  ages  of  6  and  13  years, 


*  Slojd  has  the  same  meaning  as  "  sleight"  in  Eng- 
land, viz.,  dexterous  feat  or  practice,  only  it  is  used  of 
workmanship. 


Industrial  Education. 


729 


Industrial  Education. 


and  gave  to  instruction  a  purely  secular  char- 
acter. The  law  of  1886  organized  primary  edu- 
cation in  its  various  grades  of  infant  schools 
(known  popularly  as  kindergartens)  elementary 
primary  schools,  advanced  primary  schools,  and 
schools  of  manual  apprenticeship,  as  denned  by 
the  law  of  1880. 

In  the  infant  schools  kindergarten  work  is  the 
rule.  The  elementary  primary  schools  teach 
hygiene  and  cleanliness,  ethical  training,  gym- 
nastic and  military  exercises,  reading,  penman- 
ship, French  language,  history,  geography, 
civic  instruction,  arithmetic,  geometry,  elements 
of  physical  and  natural  science,  agriculture  and 
horticulture,  and  singing. 

In  Paris  instruction  in  sewing  has  been  given 
to  girls  since  1867.  In  the  advanced  primary 
schools  in  Paris,  every  school  has  a  workshop 
for  manual  work  in  wood  and  iron,  and  the 
movement  is  spreading  through  the  country. 

Of  the  higher  trade  schools  we  have  spoken 
above. 

In  England  the  movement  has  a  growing 
hold.  Among  the  most  active  agencies  in  fur- 
thering the  cause  is  the  National  Association  for 
the  Promotion  of  Technical  Education. 

In  1887  the  Drapers'  Company  placed  £1000 
($4866. 50)  at  the  disposal  of  the  City  and  Guilds 
of  London  Institute  for  the  promotion  of  manual 
training.  Through  the  efforts  of  the  guilds  the 
school  board  established  woodwork  training  in 
six  centers  in  various  parts  of  London  for  select- 
ed children  from  the  board  schools.  The  train- 
ing began  in  January,  1888.  The  pupils  attend- 
ed once  a  week  for  a  whole  morning  or  after- 
noon, thus  giving  up  one  school  attendance  per 
week  for  the  manual  training.  The  six  cen- 
ters thus  provided  for  the  instruction  of  584  chil- 
dren. 

The  experiment  of  the  work  has  proved  so 
successful  that  since  1890  the  Government  has 
carried  on  the  work  in  board  and  lower  grade 
schools  in  London  and  the  provinces. 

Kindergarten  work  in  infant  schools  is  now 
general.  In  the  primary  schools  cooking  and 
laundry  are  now  recognized.  Many  cities  em- 
ploy special  technical  teachers  who  go  from 
school  to  school  giving  science  teaching  in  such 
subjects  as  magnetism  and  electricity,  physiol- 
ogy, mathematics,  hygiene,  machine  construc- 
tion, or  chemistry.  Models,  apparatus,  and  ex- 
periments are  freely  employed,  and  the  interest 
of  the  scholars  is  kept  at  the  highest  point. 
Each  school  for  older  scholars  receives  a  weekly 
or  fortnightly  lesson. 

In  the  United  States,  manual  training  is  in 
full  swing.  The  Redfield  (Maine)  Wesleyan 
School  seems  to  have  united  literary  and  manual 
training  early  in  the  century. 

In  1867  Massachusetts  citizens  petitioned  the 

Legislature  to  introduce  schools  for  drawing 

free  to  all  men,  women,  and  children.     In  1872 

the  State  authorized  by  act  of  its 

Legislature  the  teaching  of  agricul- 

The  United  ture  in  all  public  schools,  the  es- 

States.       tablishment  of  industrial  schools, 

and    the   teaching  of   navigation. 

New  Jersey  moved  in  1881.     New 

York  State  passed  in  1888  an  act  authorizing  the 

industrial  manual  arts  in  the  public  and  normal 

schools.     Pennsylvania  followed  in  1883. 


In  1879  St.  Louis  established  the  first  manual 
training  school,  tho  experiments  in  classes  had 
previously  been  made  in  Massachusetts  and 
elsewhere.  It  was  not  a  trade  school,  but  aimed 
at  complete  education  and  arrested  general  at- 
tention, and  similar  schools  were  organized  in 
Chicago  (now  a  part  of  Chicago  University),  Bal- 
timore, Toledo,  Philadelphia,  Cleveland,  Cincin- 
nati, Cambridge,  Providence,  Denver,  and  else- 
where. 

The  Pratt  Institute,  founded  in  Brooklyn  in 
1887,  endowed  by  Mr.  Charles  Pratt,  is  one  of 
the  most  complete  in  the  country.  It  combines 
trade,  technical,  and  manual  training  schools,^ 
and  in  1894  had  over  4000  students.  There  are* 
departments  of  commerce,  agriculture,  trades 
of  all  kinds,  library  classes,  and  a  department 
of  domestic  art  and  science,  one  of  the  most 
complete.  It  deserves  special  notice,  including, 
as  it  does,  courses  of  instruction  unique  in  the 
combination  of  constant  practical  work  with  the 
most  thorough  study  of  artistic  and  scientific 
principles  in  their  relations  not  only  to  good 
housekeeping,  but  to  homemaking,  to  the  prep- 
aration of  clothing,  of  economical  and  whole- 
some food,  and  to  such  knowledge  of  sanitary 
and  hygienic  laws  as  will  tend  to  secure  com- 
fortable and  healthy  homes  at  the  least  expense. 
The  property  of  the  Pratt  Institute  is  now  valued 
at  over  $4,000,000. 

The  Drexel  Institute  of  Art,  Science,  and  In- 
dustry, at  Philadelphia,  is  a  new  school  of  com- 
plex character.  Opened  in  September,  1892,  its 
work  comprehends  mechanic  arts,  business 
stenography,  typewriting,  cookery,  dress-mak- 
ing, millinery,  drawing,  science,  physical  cul- 
ture, science  of  all  departments,  art  of  all  kinds, 
electrical  engineering,  mechanics,  etc.  The 
whole  is  the  gift  of  Mr.  Drexel,  of  Philadelphia. 
The  Armour  Institute,  in  Chicago,  founded  in 
1893,  is  on  the  same  lines. 

In  all  the  schools  the  course  of  instruction  for 
the  boys  is  substantially  the  same — viz.,  join- 
ery, wood-turning,  wood-carving,  pattern-mak- 
ing, molding,  casting,  forging,  chipping,  filing 
and  machine-shop  practice,  together  with  draw- 
ing and  the  book  work  of  the  ordinary  high- 
school  course.  From  these  schools  manual 
training  has  gone  into  the  elementary  schools. 
Here  Massachusetts,  Connecticut,  New  York, 
and  New  Jersey  have  led. 

Wood-working  has  been  adopted  more  or  less 
extensively  in  the  grammar  schools  of  Washing- 
ton, D.  C.;  New  Haven,  Conn.  ;  St.  Paul, 
Minn.  ;  Montclair,  N.  J .  ;  New  York  City  ; 
Jamestown,  N.  Y.  ;  and  of  Boston,  Brookline, 
Springfield,  Northampton,  Waltham,  and  Salem 
in  Massachusetts.  It  is  also  to  be  noted  that 
the  lively  demand  for  good  slojd  teachers  indi- 
cates a  widespread  interest  in  the  subject. 

There  are  several  State  normal  schools  which, 
like  that  at  New  Britain,  Conn.,  have  adopted 
wood-working,  not  only  that  their  pupils  may 
understand  the  principles  of  manual  training 
as  a  method  in  education,  but  also  acquire  the 
skill  to  construct  the  simple  apparatus  they  may 
afterward  need  in  their  teaching.  The  kinder- 
garten had  entered  the  schools  long  before  (see 
KINDERGARTEN)  for  girls. 

The  first  b^nch  of  industrial  education  which 
found  a  place  in  the  schools  of  Boston  was  sew- 


Industrial  Education. 


73° 


Ingram,  John  Kells. 


ing  for  girls.  As  early  as  1835  the  girls  of  the 
second  and  third  classes  of  the  grammar  schools 
were  instructed  in  sewing  and  knitting  by  their 
regular  teachers  one  hour  a  day.  In  1854  a 
petition  was  presented  to  the  school  committee 
by  a  large  number  of  Boston  women,  which 
resulted  in  the  establishment  of  sewing  for  all 
fourth-class  grammar-school  girls,  two  hours  a 
week,  under  the  instruction  of  a  special  teacher 
for  each  school. 

In  Winchester,  in  1873,  a  teacher  was  ap- 
pointed for  every  class,  teaching  the  highest 
classes  to  cut  and  fit  their  own  dresses.  In 
1876,  instruction  in  sewing,  two  hours  a  week, 
to  the  three  lower  classes  in  the  grammar  school, 
was  established  by  the  school  committee.  Since 
that  year  it  has  increased  steadily  in  efficiency 
in  all  the  schools.  Classes  in  sewing  for  boys 
have  been  started.  Cooking  was  first  taught 
in  the  public  schools  in  1880.  (See  COOKING 
SCHOOLS.)  Vacation  industrial  schools  are  or- 
ganized in  several  places. 

IV.  ECONOMIC  BEARING. 

Industrial  education  to-day  everybody  believes 
in.  The  development  of  the  body  is  recog- 
nized as  a  vital  part  of  education  (q.v. ).  Social- 
ists, individualists,  radicals,  and  conservatives, 
all  are  agreed  to-day  that  industrial  education 
should  be  carried  to  a  far  degree. 

But  there  is  a  difference  of  opinion  as  to  what 
form  this  industrial  education  should  take. 
Working  men  and  many  not  working  men  favor 
technical  schools  and  general  manual  training, 
but  oppose  trade  schools.  Speaking  of  manual 
training,  in  an  address  before  the  Social  Science 
Association,  in  1884,  General  Walker  says  :  "  It  is 
not  so  much  the  creation  and  endowment  of  sepa- 
rate  schools  of  this  character  which  is  in  view,  as 
the  gradual  conversion  of  all  the  existing 
schools  of  the  land  to  this  use  through  the  graft- 
ing of  certain  studies  and  exercises  upon  the 
traditional  curriculum." 

This  is  what  working  men  desire. 
Says  Mr.  George  E.  McNeill  (Report  of  Mas- 
sachusetts Commission  on  Manual  Training, 
Part  III.) : 

"  The  manual  training  school  is  a  necessary  substi- 
tute for  part  of  that  which  has  been  lost  to  the  children 
of  to-day.  .  .  . 

"The  '  Puritan,'  sneered  at  by  the  dilettante  liberal- 
ists  of  to-day,  was  a  hard  man— hard  to  contend  with, 
whether  in  the  field  of  productive  labor  or  destructive 
war,  in  religious  argument  or  political  debate.  He 
was  the  best  equipped  man  of  his  time.  As  popula- 
tions increased  and  industries  became  more  diversi- 
fied, his  adaptability  was  extended. 

"  Every  home  had  its  Bible,  its  library,  musket,  and 
tool  chest.  .  .  . 

"  A  boy  of  12  years  of  age  who  could  not  use  the  tools 
required  for  the  manual  training  school  of  to-day  was 
held  to  be  below  par.  .  .  . 

"  In  the  crisis  of  the  Union,  men  were  found  m  the 
ranks  of  the  New  England  volunteers  who  could  do 
any  kind  and  all  kinds  of  work,  and  do  it  well.  .  .  . 

"The  wage- worker  of  to-day,  whether  a  hand  tool 
or  a  steam  or  electric  tool  worker,  is  less  and  less  re- 
quired to  depend  upon  himself  in  his  work  ;  his  oppor- 
tunities of  development  in  his  work  are  limited,  as 
compared  to  those  of  former  times.  .  .  . 

"  Handicraft,  as  a  means  by  which  the  masses  of 
mankind  can  earn  a  living,  is  being  replaced  by 
machine-craft.  .  .  . 

"  Learning  a  trade  is  like  learning  a  dead  language, 
•useful  as  an  accomplishment,  but  useless  as  an  invest- 
ment, save  as  it  interprets  a  past  mystery  and  disci- 
plines the  learner.  .  .  . 


"The  plain  men,  labor  reformers,  who  studied  the 
industrial  conditions  and  the  evolutionary  processes 
of  development,  foresaw  that  adaptability  and  avail- 
ability were  worth  more  than  skilled  ability.  They 
were  among  the  first  to  advocate  and  demand  the 
kindergarten  and  the  school  of  technology.  They 
wrote,  lectured,  and  petitioned  that  the  school  should 
be  the  place  of  resistance  to  the  demoralizing  influ- 
ences of  the  rapidly  decaying  industrial  and  social 
system,  and  a  source  of  persistence  in  the  direction  of 
the  moralizing  influences  of  enlightened  civilization. 

"That  some  working  men  should  oppose  the  exten- 
sion of  school  work  to  primary  preparation  for  manual 
pursuits  was  to  be  expected.  Men  whose  occupations 
are  their  life  must  needs  be  jealous  of  everything  that 
tends  to  increase  competition.  They  know  by  instinct, 
if  not  by  experience,  that  wages,  under  the  pressure  of 
competition  with  other  laborers  in  the  same  craft, 
will,  like  water,  seek  its  lowest  outlet ;  and  they  feel 
that  resistance  to  lower  wages,  like  resistance  to 
tyranny,  is  obedience  to  God.  .  .  . 

"  Our  public  schools  are  for  the  training  of  citizens, 
not  mechanics,  merchants,  lawyers,  or  the  other  pro- 
fessions ;  and  the  youth  is  not  correctly  trained  who 
enters  upon  the  duties  of  citizenship  with  contempt 
for  manual  pursuits." 

This  quotation  perhaps  indicates  the  position 
occupied  by  the  more  intelligent  working  men 
of  the  world.  They  honor  labor,  and  believe 
that  all  men  should  labor.  They  would  have 
manual  training  taught  to  everybody,  but  they 
fear  trade  schools.  Trade  schools  which,  in 
their  opinion,  turn  out  dilettante  workmen,  feel- 
ing themselves  superior  to  "  ordinary"  work- 
men, and  refusing  to  develop  the  necessary 
trade-unions  (see  TRADE-UNIONS),  they  fear  and 
oppose.  They  do  not  oppose  good  workmen, 
but  they  do  not  believe  that  trade  schools  are 
the  place  to  produce  real  effective  craftsmen. 
They  argue  that  American  and  English  me- 
chanics who  lead  the  world  were  not  taught  in 
trade  schools,  but  in  the  workshop. 

They  would  have  in  place  of  trade  schools 
schools  of  technology,  for  the  study  and  teach- 
ing of  science  and  manual  training  for  every- 
body, giving  boys  and  girls  that  general  adap- 
tability to  fit  them  to  enter  any  trade  workshop 
and  become  skilled  craftsmen.  On  the  other 
hand,  many  people  regret  the  rule  of  machinery, 
and  believe  we  need,  besides  the  teaching  of 
the  workshop,  where  money  alone  rules,  the 
teaching  of  trade  schools,  as  in  Europe,  to  teach 
hand-carving,  artistic  weaving,  pottery -making, 
and  good  work  of  every  kind.  (For  the  ques- 
tion whether  industrial  education  should  be  in 
the  hands  of  the  State  or  private  individuals, 
see  EDUCATION  ;  SOCIALISM  ;  INDIVIDUALISM.) 

References:  Report  on  Industrial  Education  of  the 
United  States  Commission  of  Labor  (1892)  ;  Report  of 
Massachusetts  Commission  on  Manual  Tratmng  and 
Industrial  Education  ;  Technical  Education  at  Home 
and  Abroad,  a  paper  by  J.  Hirst  Hollowell  in  the  Co- 
operative Annual. 

INEBRIATE  ASYLUMS..  See  TEMPER- 
ANCE. 

INGRAM,  JOHN  KELLS,  was  born  iu 
Donegal,  Ireland,  in  1823.  He  was  educated  at 
Newry  School,  and  at  Trinity  College,  Dublin, 
where  he  was  successively  scholar,  Fellow,  Pro- 
fessor of  Oratory  and  English  Literature,  Re- 
gius Prof  essor  of  Greek,  and  Librarian.  In  1878 
he  became  president  of  the  Statistical  Society  of 
the  British  Association,  when  his  address  in  that 
capacity  on  The  Present  Position  and  Pros- 
pects of  Political  Economy  attracted  much  at- 
tention. He  is  the  author  of  the  article  on 


Ingram,  John  Kells. 


Inheritance  Tax. 


Political  Economy  in  the  Encyclopedia  Bri- 
tannica  (gth  ed.),  and  also  contributed  the 
article  on  Slavery,  as  well  as  biographical 
notes  on  many  of  the  political  economists.  Both 
of  these  articles  have  since  been  published  with 
slight  enlargement  in  book  form  as  A  History 
of  Political  Economy  (1888)  and  A  History 
of  Slavery  and  Serfdom  (1895). 

INHERITANCE    TAX.— A  tax   on  those 

acquiring  property  by  inheritance  or  will  ;  some- 
times levied  only  on  collateral  relatives  or  stran- 
gers, and  then  commonly  called  a  collateral  in- 
heritance tax.  It  is  a  tax  that  has  been  widely 
tried. 

Says  Mr.  Max  West,  in  the  Review  of  Re- 
views for  February,  1893  : 

"  From  the  standpoint  of  political  economy,  as  well 
as  of  law,  the  inheritance  tax  may  be  regarded  either 
as  a  tax  or  as  a  limitation  of  inheritance.  For  at  least 
a  century,  economists  and  statesmen  have  been  point- 
ing out  glaring  anachronisms  in  the  existing  law  of 
inheritance.  Jeremy  Bentham  proposed  to  abolish 
interstate  inheritance  except  in  the  case  of  immediate 
relatives,  and  to  limit  tho  power  of  bequest  of  child- 
less testators.  John  Stuart  Mill  went  further,  and 
proposed  to  limit  absolutely  the  amount  which  any 
one  should  be  allowed  to  take  either  by  inheritance  or 
bequest.  The  existing  laws  make  it  easy  to  forget 
that  inheritance  and  bequest  are  not  natural  rights, 
nor  even  necessary  consequences  of  the  right  of  pri- 
vate property ;  and  to  many  these  proposals  of  Ben- 
tham and  Mill  seem  almost  communistic  utterances. 
Yet  no  one  has  ever  been  able  to  give  a  good  reason  for 
the  operation  of  intestate  inheritance  in  modern  times 
between  distant  relatives — relatives  so  distant  that 
they  know  and  care  nothing  of  one  another.  As  for 
Mill's  proposal  to  set  a  limit  to  the  amount  of  inher- 
itances and  bequests,  it  has  within  a  few  years  been  re- 
vived in  so  conservative  a  body  as  the  Illinois  Bar  As- 
sociation, and  a  bill  for  the  purpose  was  introduced  in 
the  Illinois  Legislature  in  1887. 

"  The  limitation  of  inheritance  by  means  of  a  pro- 
gressive inheritance  tax  is  advocated  alike  in  the  writ- 
ings of  one  of  America's  most  talked-of  millionaires 
on  the  one  hand  and  in  the  platform  of  the  Knights  of 
Labor  and  the  organ  of  the  nationalists  on  the  other. 
Andrew  Carnegie  and  Edward  Bellamy  agree  per- 
fectly in  this  matter ;  both  would  like  to  see  an  in- 
heritance tax  rising  as  high  as  50  per  cent,  in  the  case 
of  multimillionaires.  Four  years  ago  Mr.  Carnegie 
wrote  as  follows :  '  Of  all  forms  of  taxation  this  seems 
the  wisest.  Men  who  continue  hoarding  great  sums 
all  their  lives,  the  proper  use  of  which  for  public  ends 
would  work  good  to  the  community,  should  be  made 
to  feel  that  the  community,  in  the  form  of  the  State, 
cannot  be  deprived  of  its  just  share.  By  taxing  es- 
tates heavily  at  death  the  State  marks  its  condemna- 
tion of  the  s'elfish  millionaire's  unworthy  life.' 

"  Collateral  inheritances  alone  are  now  taxed  in 
Pennsylvania,  Maryland,  Delaware,  West  Virginia, 
Connecticut,  Massachusetts,  and  New  Jersey,  and 
they  have  at  various  times  been  taxable  in  several 
other  States.  The  tax  has  existed  in  Pennsylvania 
since  1826,  in  Maryland  since  1844,  ?n<^  *n  Delaware 
since  1869.  In  the  other  States  it  is  of  more  recent 
date  ;  Massachusetts  adopted  it  in  1891  and  New  Jer- 
sey only  last  spring.  The  rate  is  in  most  cases  5  per 
cent.,  but  in  Maryland  and  West  Virginia  it  is  2%  per 
cent.,  and  in  Delaware  it  varies  from  i  per  cent,  for 
brothers  and  sisters  to  5  per  cent,  for  distant  relatives. 
Bequests  for  charitable  and  educational  purposes  are 
generally  exempt,  as  well  as  small  amounts  in  other 
cases.  .  .  . 

"The  'duties  on  estates  of  deceased  persons'  form 
one  of  the  chief  sources  of  revenue  in  Australasia. 
The  rates  are  progressive  in  most  of  the  colonies ;  in 
Victoria  the  maximum  is  10  per  cent.,  applying  to  es- 
tates of  more  than  ,£100,000.  The  widow  and  children 
pay  one  half  the  schedule  rates.  In  New  South  Wales 
the  maximum  is  5  per  cent.,  and  no  favor  is  shown  the 
direct  heirs.  In  South  Australia,  on  the  other  hand, 
the  succession  duty  is  graduated  from  i  to  10  per  cent., 
according  to  relationship  alone  ;  and  there  is  a  probate 
duty  in  addition.  Until  recently  the  highest  rate  in 
Australasia  has  been  the  13  per  cent,  maximum  of 
New  Zealand;  but  by  an  act  of  last  October  Queens- 
land now  takes  20  per  cent,  of  large  amounts  be- 


queathed to  persons  not  related  to  the  testator.  Tas- 
mania has  a  slightly  progressive  tax,  levied  on  per- 
sonalty alone. 

"  At  the  Cape  of  Good  Hope  the  inheritance  tax  was 
introduced  nearly  30  years  ago.  The  rates  are  from 
i  to  5  per  cent.,  according  to  relationship. 

"  The  United  Kingdom  has  a  complicated  system  of 
'  death  duties,'  as  Mr.  Gladstone  has  named  them, 
known  separately  as  the  probate,  account,  legacy,  suc- 
cession, and  other  duties.  The  probate  duty,  which 
must  be  paid  before  the  estate  can  be  settled,  and  the 
account  duty  on  gifts,  which,  strictly  speaking,  is  not 
a  death  duty  at  all,  apply  to  personalty  alone,  and  the 
rates  approximate  3  per  cent.  The  legacy  duty  on 
personal  property  and  the  succession  duty  on  realty 
and  settled  personalty  are  graduated  according  to 
relationship.  The  estate  duty  is  an  additional  i  per 
cent,  tax  on  property  amounting  to  .£10,000  or  more  ;  so 
that  its  effect  is  to  make  the  death  duties  slightly 
progressive.  There  is  an  annual  tax  in  lieu  of  death 
duties  or  corporations.  A  municipal  death  duty  for 
London  is  a  possibility  of  the  future. 

"  The  heaviest  inheritance  taxes  on  the  continent 
are  levied  in  Switzerland.  In  Geneva  distant  rela- 
tives pay  15  per  cent.  In  six  cantons  the  rates  are 
progressive.  When  there  is  no  will,  the  little  canton 
of  Uri  taxes  distant  relatives  20  per  cent.,  and  even 
more  on  the  excess  above  10,000  francs. 

"In  Germany  the  Erbschaftssteuer  nowhere  applies 
to  direct  heirs  except  in  Alsace-Lorraine.  Herr  Miquel 
tried  to  extend  the  Prussian  tax  to  direct  heirs  in  1890, 
but  failed.  The  rates  in  Prussia  are  from  i  to  8  per 
cent.,  according  to  relationship. 

"  The  French  law  taxes  the  gross  value  of  the  prop- 
erty, without  allowing  deduction  for  debts — an  un- 
usual feature,  which  has  caused  much  dissatisfaction. 
The  maximum  rate  is  nj£  per  cent. 

"  Austria,  Italy,  Spain,  Belgium,  Holland,  Denmark, 
Norway,  Russia,  Poland,  Roumania,  Monaco,  all  have 
inheritance  taxes.  .  .  . 

"  The  tax  has  been  found  to  be  quite  satisfactory  in 
its  practical  operation  and  productive  of  very  consid- 
erable revenues.     It  has  not  driven  away  capital,  be- 
cause men  would  rather  pay  their  taxes  after  death 
than  at  any  other  time.     It  is  difficult  to  evade,  and 
the  cost  of  collection  is  not  heavy.    In  New  York  es- 
pecially it  has  become  one  of  the  prin- 
cipal modes  of  taxation.     For  the  three 
years  before  the  New  York  tax  was  ex-  In  Practice. 
tended  to  direct  inheritances,  the  aver- 
age yield  was  more  than  $1,000,000 — far 
more  than  the   State  tax  on  personal  property   and 
nearly  as  much  as  the  corporation  tax  ;  and  in  the  fis- 
cal year  1892,  with  the  new  law  partly  in  operation, 
the  payments  amounted  to  nearly  $2,000,000.    In  Penn- 
sylvania the  collateral  inheritance  tax  yields  about 
$1,000,000  annually." 

Of  the  objections  to  the  tax,  Mr.  "West  says 
(Political  Science  Quarterly,  vol.  viii.,  p.  441) : 

"The  classical  objection  to  the  inheritance  tax, 
urged  by  Adam  Smith  and  Ricardo,  is  that  it  is  a  tax 
on  capital.  This  objection  has  also  been  applied  to 
the  property  tax  ;  but  the  inheritance  tax  is  perhaps 
more  likely  to  be  paid  out  of  capital  than  an  annual 
property  tax.  It  has  been  pointed  out,  however,  by 
Mill,  and  more  recently  by  Leroy-Beaulieu,  that  wheth- 
er a  tax  will  be  paid  out  of  capital  or  out  of  income 
depends  not  so  much  upon  the  mode  of  taxation  as 
upon  the  amount  of  the  tax  and  the  time  allowed  for 
payment.  And  even  if  the  tax  is  paid  out  of  capital 
in  a  given  case,  it  does  not  follow  that  there  will  be 
any  diminution  of  the  national  capital.  Over  against 
the  objection  that  the  tax  will  be  paid  out  of  capital 
there  are  two  counter  arguments:  first,  that  being 
levied  only  when  the  taxpayer  has  just  received  a 
mass  of  property,  it  is  easily  and  conveniently  paid ; 
and  second,  that  by  diminishing  large  fortunes  it  tends 
to  bring  about  a  more  equitable  distribution  of  wealth. 
This  second  argument  will  of  course  apply  only  when 
the  tax  is  progressive,  or  when  small  amounts  are  ex- 
empt. 

"Adam  Smith  also  charged  the  inheritance  tax  with 
violating  his  canon  of  equality.  '  the  frequency  of 
transference  not  being  always  equal  in  property  of 
equal  value.'  It  has  been  suggested  that  this  cause  of 
inequality  will  operate  in  the  long  run  between  fami- 
lies, because  of  hereditary  differences  in  longevity. 
This  objection  can  be  sustained  only  by  regarding  the 
inheritance  tax  as  a  property  tax  paid  once  in  a  life- 
time. If  the  tax  is  considered  as  a  limitation  of  in- 
heritance, or  as  a  fee,  or  as  a  tax  resting  upon  the 


Inheritance  Tax. 


732 


Injunctions. 


increased  taxpaying  ability  of  the  heir,  there  is  no 
inequality  in  exacting  it  as  often  as  the  devolution 
occurs.  .  .  . 

"  The  courts  have  frequently  attempted  to  define  the 
nature  of  inheritance  taxes,  but  their  deliverances  on 
the  subject  do  not  agree.  The  United  States  Supreme 
Court  decided  that  a  tax  which  Louisiana  formerly 
levied  on  foreign  heirs  was  an  exercise  of  the  State's 

Eower  of  regulating  inheritance  and  bequest.  .  .  . 
nheritance  tax  laws  have  been  declared  unconstitu- 
tional for  particular  reasons  in  Minnesota  and  Wis- 
consin, and  in  New  Hampshire  this  mode  of  taxation 
was  declared  to  be  unequal  and  unjust.  New  Hamp- 
shire is  the  only  State  in  which  it  has  been  held  to  be 
unconstitutional  for  reasons  which  apply  to  inheritance 
taxes  in  general  :  and  it  has  often  been  declared  not 
to  conflict  with  the  requirements  of  equality  and  uni- 
formity." 
References  :  See  TAXATION. 

INITIATIVE.     See  REFERENDUM. 

INJUNCTIONS.— An  injunction  may  be 
denned  in  law  as  an  order  by  a  court  possessing 
equitable  powers,  commanding  a  designated 
person  or  designated  persons  to  desist  from  some 
action  commenced  or  proposed,  to  restore  to 
its  former  condition  something  which  has  been 
interfered  with  or  violated,  or  to  perform  certain 
acts.  Only  recently,  however,  in  English  and 
American  jurisprudence  have  injunctions  been 
mandatory.  Until  now  they  have  been  simply 
used  in  restraint  of  action.  In  Roman  law, 
however,  whence  they  have  come  into  modern 
jurisprudence  direct,  they  were  mandatory,  and 
were  extensively  used,  but  called  interdicts. 
They  were  issued  by  the  pretor  and  other  mag- 
istrates, and  afforded  large  powers  of  compel- 
ling or  preventing  action,  giving  Roman  law 
great  practical  and  all  but  imperial  efficacy. 

Recently  they  have  been  used  in  America  in 
ways  and  to  a  degree  which  some  consider  revo- 
lutionary, as  giving  to  courts  of  equity  powers 
all  but  or  quite  imperial  and  destroying  the  im- 
memorial Anglo-Saxon  rights  of  trial  by  jury. 
This  is,  however,  both  strongly  asserted  and 
denied.  (For  a  review  of  the  facts  concerning 
the  recent  use  of  injunctions,  see  COMBINATION 
LAWS.)  We  give  here  two  careful  views,  one 
supporting,  the  other  condemning  the  recent 
extension  of  the  injunction.  In  the  Forum  for 
May,  1893,  Mr.  A.  F.  Waiker  says  : 

"  Four    extremely  interesting  opinions  concerning 
the   rights  and  obligations  of  working  men  have  re- 
cently been  rendered  by  Judges  Taft,  Ricks,  Speer 
and  Billings,  sitting  in  various  divisions 
of    the     United    States    Circuit    Court. 
Conservative  Newspaper    comment    upon  these  deci- 
View.         sions  has  been  quite  misleading,  being 
often  apparently  based  upon  conjecture 
rather  than  actual  knowledge  concern- 
ing the  points  decided.    Their  scope  and  extent  may 
be  briefly  summarized  as  follows:  Judge  Ricks  holds 
that    a    mandatory  injunction    may   issue    requiring 
employees  fully  to  perform  their  duties  connected  with 
interstate  commerce,  so  long  as  they  remain  in  service. 
Judge  Taft  rules  that  acts  tending  to  induce  a  boycott 
which   would    interrupt  the  movement  of  interstate 
commerce   may  be  prevented  and  corrected  by  like 
process.     Judge    Billings   affirms  the  propriety  of  an 
injunction  against  a  combination  of  laborers  acting  in 
restraint  of  trade  or  commerce.    Judge  Speer  approves 
a  receiver's  contract  for  labor,  but  makes  it  subject 
to  conditions  which  eliminate  the  boycott. 

"  Bach  of  these  decisions  rests  upon  the  federal 
control  of  interstate  commerce,  as  expressed  in  the 
Interstate  Commerce  law  and  the  Anti-Trust  law. 
The  novelty  in  each  is  in  the  remedy  employed.  Ille- 
gal acts  of  the  nature  in  question  have  heretofore  been 
approached  judicially  in  actions  at  law  or  by  indict- 
ment. In  the  fourth  section  of  the  Anti  Trust  law 
jurisdiction  by  injunction  is  specifically  conferred. 
The  Interstate  Commerce  act  contains  no  such  affirm- 


ative provision.  Judge  Ricks  recognizes  the  fact  that 
his  use  of  the  process  is  aew,  and  says  : 

"  '  Every  just  order  or  rule  known  to  equity  courts 
was  born  of  some  emergency  to  meet  some  new  con- 
dition, and  was  therefore  in  its  time  without  a  pre- 
cedent.' 

"He  refers  to  two  mandatory  injunctions  recently 
issued,  one  compelling  the  Union  Pacific  Railway  Com- 
pany to  permit  certain  other  companies  to  use  the 
Omaha  bridge,  under  a  continuing  contract  previ- 
ously made  between  them  to  that  end  ;  and  the  other 
compelling  the  Wabash  Railroad  Company  to  permit 
another  company  to  use  certain  tracks  and  facilities  at 
St.  Louis  under  a  similar  contract.  In  the  latter  case 
it  was  said  by  the  Supreme  Court  of  the  United  States 
(Justice  Blatchford)  as  follows  : 

"  '  It  is  one  of  the  most  useful  functions  of  a  court  of 
equity  that  its  methods  of  procedure  are  capable  of 
being  made  such  as  to  accommodate  themselves  to  the 
development  of  the  interests  of  the  public,  in  theprog- 
gress  of  trade  and  traffic,  by  new  methods  of  inter- 
course and  transportation.'  .  .  . 

"  The  original  office  of  the  injunction  was  negative 
rather  than  affirmative  j  to  restrain,  not  to  command. 
The  text-books  abound  in  authorities  to  the  effect  that 
equity  will  not  enforce  the  specific  performance  of  a 
contract ;  will  not  interfere  to  prevent  a  crime ;  will 
not  enjoin  acts  for  which  a  remedy  at  law  exists. 

"  While  practitioners  of  the  old  school  are  somewhat 
aghast  at  the  enlargement  of  equity  jurisdiction  upon 
which  the  Federal  courts  have  of  late  so  distinctly 
entered,  there  is  much  to  be  said  in  support  of  its  pro- 
priety. Other  remedies  are  exceedingly  inadequate, 
often  involving  innumerable  suits  at  law ;  contracts 
not  performed  are  practically  valueless  ;  damages  are 
often  difficult  to  assess,  and  impossible  to  collect ;  in- 
solvency has  always  been  considered  as  presenting  an 
exceptional  case  ;  crimes  which  invade  private  rights 
have  at  times  been  prevented  by  injunction;  the 
power  in  question  rests  upon  the  thought  expressed 
by  Judge  Brewer  in  the  Nebraska  case  above  referred 
to,  where  he  said  : 

" '  I  believe  most  thoroughly  that  the  powers  of  a 
court  of  equity  are  as  vast  and  its  processes  and  pro- 
cedure as  elastic  as  all  the  changing  emergencies  of 
increasingly  complex  business  relations  and  the  pro- 
tection of  rights  can  demand.'  .  .  . 

"This  use  of  the  writ  of  injunction  will  afford  a 
speedy  and  effective  solvent  for  many  evils  which 
hitherto  have  been  permitted  to  run  their  course.  It 
may  at  times  operate  in  favor  of  the  laboring  classes 
as  well  as  against  them,  for  the  lockout  must  be  sub- 
ject to  like  rules  with  the  strike.  It  will  often  prevent 
the  necessity  of  military  intervention  to  repress  ex- 
cesses and  disorders.  The  law  forbids  the  boards  of 
directors  of  a  railroad  company  from  wantonly  inter- 
fering with  the  rights  of  connecting  lines  ;  this  prin- 
ciple is  now  extended  to  employees  and  their  organi- 
zations ;  a  corporation  can  act  only  through  agents,  and 
none  of  the  agents  or  employees  are  above  the  law. 
Our  people  are  occasionally  surprised  at  the  sudden 
development  of  a  new  situation  in  the  law  or  in  its  ad- 
ministration, but  they  immediately  adapt  themselves 
to  the  changed  conditions,  and  the  wheels  of  trade  and 
commerce  revolve  with  less  friction  than  before. 

"  Contests  over  wages  and  terms  of  service  will 
always  exist,  until  human  nature  is  revolutionized,  or 
the  Government  is  sufficiently  paternalized  to  take 
charge  of  the  subject  of  wages  generally.  But  the 
public  is  entitled  to  minimize  these  evils  so  far  as  prac- 
ticable, and  to  confine  the  contest  to  the  actual  parties, 
to  prevent  interference  with  the  rights  of  others,  and 
to  restrict  the  contestants  to  the  exercise  of  their  own 
lawful  rights,  restraining  all  illegitimate  excesses. 

"To  this  end  the  process  of  injunction  is  peculiarly 
adapted,  and  when  it  is  exercised  with  the  care  and 
self-restraint  exhibited  by  the  judges  whose  decisions 
have  been  analyzed  there  can  be  no  danger  in  its  use. 

"The  questions  of  legal  right  covered  by  the  cases 
present  nothing  new.  Their  application  to  interstate 
commerce  gives  jurisdiction  to  the  Federal  Courts. 
This  opportunity  is  of  recent  origin,  being  consequent 
upon  recent  statutes  enacted  under  the  constitutional 
power  of  Congress  'to  regulate  commerce  among  the 
several  States.'  It  has  always  been  the  legal  obliga- 
tion of  employees  to  perform  fully  their  contract  of 
service,  whether  by  the  year,  month  or  day,  and  of 
employers  to  pay  compensation  for  the  term  agreed 
upon  ;  employees  are  legally  responsible  to  employers 
for  the  results  of  their  negligent  acts  and  wilful 
omissions,  and  employers  are  in  turn  responsible  to 
them  for  the  furnishing  of  safe  and  sufficient  machinery 
and  working  room  ;  both  are  subject  to  the  rule  that 
one's  own  property  (or  rights)  must  be  so  used  that 


Injunctions. 


733 


Injunctions. 


others  be  not  unnecessarily  injured  ;  and  both  are 
within  the  law  which  condemns  conspiracies  and  com- 
binations to  oppress. 

"The  only  extension  or  enlargement  perceptible  in 
the  recent  cases  is  in  the  use  of  the  mandatory  injunc- 
tion for  the  enforcement  of  well-known  rights  and  ob- 
ligations ;  this  is  supported  by  precedents  in  other 
directions  and  can  be  employed  without  objection,  be- 
ing wholly  in  the  direction  of  the  preservation  of  per- 
sonal rights  and  the  protection  of  public  interests." 

On  the  other  hand,  Mr.  F.  J.  Stimson,  in  an 
address  delivered  before  the  Young  Men's  Dem- 
ocratic Club  of  Massachusetts,  and  published 
in  the  Political  Science  Quarterly  for  June, 
1895,  says  : 

"  What  are  the  facts  ?  Briefly  these  : 
"  We  have  seen,  in  private  lawsuits  between  ;indi- 
viduals  or  corporations,  courts  of  equity— civil,  not 
criminal  courts— invoked  to  restrain,  not  alone  parties 
to  the  suits,  but  anybody,  the  whole  world,  with  or 
without  actual  notice  of  a  court  order  or  injunction, 
not  merely  from  interfering  with  property  which  is  the 
subject  of  the  suits,  but  also  from  committing  or  con- 
spiring to  commit,  or  aiding  or  advising  others  to 
commit,  acts  which  are  criminal ;  and  sometimes  only 
on  the  ground  that  they  are  criminal  acts— criminal  at 
common  law,  or  made  so  by  the  recent  statutes  known 
as  the  Anti-Trust  Law  and  the  Interstate  Commerce 
Law.  We  have  seen  more :  we  have  seen  persons 
committing,  or  about  to  commit,  or  said  to  be  about 
to  commit,  such  acts,  arrested  by  these  civil  courts, 
deprived  of  their  liberty  and  punished  by  imprison- 
ment ;  and  this,  as  in  the  Debs  case  and  otherSj  after 
the  emergenc3r  which  furnished  the  excuse  for  invok- 
ing the  protective  jurisdiction  of  the  equity  court  has 
long  gone  by.  And  we  have  seen  persons  so  punished 
without  the  usual  safeguards  of  liberty  afforded  by 
the  criminal  law— without  indictment,  without  right 
to  counsel,  without  being  confronted  "with  •witnesses, 
without  trial  by  jury— and  sentenced  without  uniform 
statute,  at  the  discretion  of  the  judge. 

"  We  have  seen  more  :  we  have  seen  courts,  not  con- 
tent with  ordering  all  the  world  what  not  to  do,  order 
at  a  word  the  10,000  or  20,000  employees  of  a  railroad 
system  to  carry  out  each  and  every  the  definite  or  in- 
definite duties  of  their  employment  as  directed  by  any 
of  their  superior  officers,  or  by  receivers  of  the  courts 
themselves,  so  that  for  any  failure  or  omission  or 
merely  negative  act  on  the  part  of  one  of  these  em- 
ployees, he  may  be  summarily  brought  into  court  and 
punished,  either  at  that  time  or  later,  as  the  court  may 
find  leisure  to  "sentence  or  its  attorneys  to  file  com- 
plaints. Take  one  example  of  many.  Judge  Ross,  in 
the  case  of  the  Southern  California  Railroad  vs.  Ruth- 
erford, where  the  bill  alleged  that  the  defendants  con- 
tinued in  the  employment  of  the  complainant  com- 
pany, and  yet  refused  to  perform  their  regular  and 
accustomed  duties  as  such  employees,  said  : 

"  '  It  is  manifest  that  for  this  state  of  affairs  the  law — 
neither  civil  nor  criminal— affords  an  adequate  reme- 
dy. But  the  proud  boast  of  equity  is:  Ubi  jus,  ibi 
remedium.  It  is  the  maxim  which  forms  the  root  of 
all  equitable  decisions.  Why  should  not  men  who  re- 
main in  the  employment  of  another  perform  the  duties 
they  contract  and  engage  to  perform  ?  It  is  certainly 
just  and  right  that  they  should  do  so,  or  else  quit  the 
employment.  LAnc^  'n  conclusi°n>]  I  shall  award  an 
injunction  requiring  the  defendants  to  perform  all  of 
their  regular  and  accustomed  duties  so  long  as  they 
remain  in  the  employment  of  the  complainant  com- 
pany, which  injunction,  it  may  be  as  well  to  state,  will 
be  strictly  and  rigidly  enforced.' 

"We  have  seen  yet  more.  By  the  act  of  1890,  com- 
monly known  as  the  Anti-Trust  Law,  it  is  declared 
that  'every  contract,  combination  in  the  form  of 
trust  or  otherwise,  or  conspiracy  in  restraint  of  trade 
or  commerce  among  the  several  States,"  is  illegal  ;  and 
by  the  fourth  section,  the  attorney-general,  or  any 
district  attorney,  upon  the  information  of  any  in- 
dividual, is  authorized  to  institute  proceedings  in 
equity,  in  the  name  of  the  United  States,  to  pre- 
vent and  restrain  violations  of  the  act. 
Futhermore,  by  the  Interstate  Com- 
merce Act  of  1887  it  is  made  a  criminal 
offense  for  railroads,  their  officers  or 
employees,  to  refuse  to  perform  their 
duties  as  common  carriers,  and  to  re- 
fuse to  receive  the  cars  and  passengers 
of  other  railroads  or  companies  ;  as  a  result  of  this  a 
strike  of  such  employees  becomes  in  effect  also  a  con- 
spiracy against  interstate  commerce. 


Radical 
Views. 


"  The  first  attempt  to  enforce  the  Anti-Trust  Law 
was  made  in  a  case  here  in  Boston,  before  Judge  Put- 
nam of  the  federal  court.  Judge  Putnam  wisely  re- 
fused to  extend  the  meaning  of  this  act  beyond  its  ex- 
pressed words,  and  said  :  'It  is  not  to  be  presumed 
that  Congress  intended  to  extend  the  jurisdiction  of 
the  courts  of  the  United  States  to  repressing  strikes 
and  boycotts,  without  very  clear  language.'  If  the 
courts  had  stopped  there,  there  would  be  little  need 
for  this  address.  But  since  then  what  changes  have 
happened ! 

"The  Attorney-General  of  the  United  States,  or  his 
district  attorneys,  acting  for  the  United  States  in  the 
exercise  of  its  sovereignty  as  a  nation,  has  sued  out 
injunctions  in  nearly  every  large  city  west  of  the 
Allegheny  Mountains.  Injunction  writs  have  covered 
the  sides  of  cars  :  deputy  marshals  and  federal  sol- 
diers have  patrolled  railway  yards ;  chancery  process 
has  been  executed  by  bullets  and  bayonets.  Equity 
jurisdiction  has  passed  from  the  theory  of  public 
rights  to  the  domain  of  political  prerogative.  In  1888 
the  basis  of  jurisdiction  was  the  protection  of  the  pri- 
vate right  of  civil  property  ;  in  1893,  it  was  the  preser- 
vation of  public  rights  ;  in  1894,  it  has  become  the  en- 
forcement of  political  powers. 

From  being  applied  to  parties  to  a  suit,  the  process 
of  contempt  has  come  to  be  applied  to  large  bodies  of 
men  who  may  never  have  heard  of  the  suit  which  gave 
it  rise.  For  instance,  the  Chicago  '  omnibus  bill'  of 
last  summer  was  filed  to  prevent  interference  with  23 
great  railroad  systems,  and  the  injunction  issued  not 
only  against  several  members  of  the  American  Rail- 
way Union  by  name,  but  against  as  many  thousands 
unnamed ;  and,  to  prevent  a  possible  confusion  of 
identity  in  the  defendants,  it  was  further  directed  to 
'all  other  persons  whomsoever.' 

"The  history  of  jurisprudence  surely  furnishes  no 
precedent  in  which  the  chancery  has  called  out  the 
military  in  aid  of  an  injunction  writ.  .  .  .  The  public 
anxiety  has  some  legal  ground.  Briefly,  the  objec- 
tions are  three  : 

"  i.  This  course  of  things  does  away  with  the  crimi- 
nal law  and  its  safeguards  of  indictment,  proof  by 
witnesses,  jury  trial,  and  a  fixed  and  uniform  punish- 
ment. Most  of  these  offenses  might  well  have  been 
the  subject  of  criminal  prosecution  ;  and  the  bill  of 
rights  of  our  constitution  says  that  in  all  criminal 
prosecutions  the  accused  shall  enjoy  the  right  to  a 
speedy  and  public  trial  by  an  impartial  jury  of  the 
State  and  district  wherein  the  crime  shall  have  been 
committed ;  to  be  informed  of  the  nature  and  cause  of 
the  accusation  ;  to  be  confronted  with  the  witnesses 
against  him ;  to  have  compulsory  process  for  obtain- 
ing witnesses  in  his  favor,  and  to  have  the  assistance 
of  counsel  for  his  defense. 

"2.  It  makes  the  courts  no  longer  judicial,  but  a 
part  (and  it  bids  fair  to  be  a  most  important  part)  of 
the  executive  branch  of  Government.  More  briefly 
and  picturesquely  :  the  federal  courts  may  thus  grow 
into  mere  star-chambers  and  run  the  country— as  they 
already  run  nearly  half  the  railroads. 

"3.  It  tends  to  make  our  judiciary  either  tyrannical 
or  contemptible.  If  we  do  not  fall  under  a  tyranny, 
such  as  might  have  existed  in  the  England  of  Charles 
I.  or  such  as  does  exist  in  the  South  America  of  to- 
day, we  shall  fall  into  the  almost  worse  plight  of  find-i 
ing  an  injunction  of  our  highest  courts  a  mere  brntum 
fiumen—  an  empty  threat,  a  jest  and  a  byword  ;  so  that 
through  their  own  contempt  process  the  courts  them- 
selves will  be  brought  into  contempt.  .  .  . 

"There  is  nothing  new  under  the  sun.  ...  In  1382 
the  commons  complained  to  the  king  of  grievous 
oppressions  caused  by  the  power  of  great  barons, 
who  rendered  the  remedies  of  the  common-law  courts 
of  no  avail.  Accordingly  the  judges  of  these  courts 
themselves  were  placed  under  the  special  supervision 
of  the  chancellor,  and  the  chancellor  began  to  exer- 
cise his  authority  in  repressing  disorderly  obstruc- 
tions to  the  course  of  law,  and  in  affording  civil  reme- 
dy in  casej  of  outrage  which  for  any  reason  whatever 
could  not  be  effectually  redressed  through  the  ordi- 
nary tribunals.  Thereupon,  however,  the  commons 
took  great  umbrage  at  the  exercise  of  such  authority 
on  the  part  of  the  chancellor,  claiming  that  his  juris- 
diction was  an  interference  with  the  common  law  ; 
but  the  king  persevered,  stating  that  he  would  pre- 
serve his  prerogative  ;  and  a  resort  to  the  chancellor 
under  his  ordinary  jurisdiction  was  thus  secured  for 
the  poor,  the  weak  and  the  friendless,  to  protect  them 
from  the  injuries  to  which  they  were  exposed.  .  .  . 
Even  the  court  of  Star  Chamber  had  originally  a  sim- 
ilar jurisdiction,  and  it  was  first  used  to  prevent  cases 
of  oppression  and  other  exorbitant  offenses  of  great 
men,  where,  as  Lord  Coke  says,  inferior  judges  would, 


Injunctions. 


734 


Institutional  Churches. 


in  respect  to  the  greatness  of  the  offenders,  be  afraid 
to  take  jurisdiction.  .  .  . 

"  The  court  of  Star  Chamber,  as  Spence  explains, 
was  perverted  from  its  original  purposes;  and  having 
become  odious  by  the  tyrannical  exercise  of  its  pow- 
ers, it  was  abolished  by  statute  in  the  time  of  Charles 
I.,  just  before  the  Commonwealth  was  established.  .  .  . 

"  So  far,  history.  And  I  think  you  will  say  it  has  but 
repeated  itself.  Are  we  to  go  back?  Have  liberty 
and  property  again  grown  so  insecure  under  the  com- 
mon law  that  the  extraordinary  power  of  the  sovereign 
acting  through  his  chancellor — that  is,  of  the  United 
States  Government  acting  through  its  equity  courts — 
is  again  to  be  invoked?  And  will  the  federal  govern- 
ment, stretching  to  the  last  point  of  prerogative  the 
phrase  of  the  Constitution  giving  it  power  to  regulate 
commerce  among  the  several  States— for  the  meaning 
of  those  simple  words  has  grown,  from  the  mere  pro- 
hibition of  imposts  and  interstate  duties  or  taxes  upon 
the  carrier,  to  the  control  of  the  reward  of  the  carrier  ; 
and  from  that  (as  the  United  States  Labor  Com- 
missioner demands),  to  the  wages  of  the  carrier's  ser- 
vants ;  and  from  that,  to  criminal  juris- 
diction over  all  persons  concerned  in 

Remedies  transportation ;  and  from  that,  now,  to 
•  an  executive  ordering  of  the  whole  busi- 
ness by  the  federal  courts— will  the 
federal  Government,  through  its  courts 
or  the  statutes  of  Congress,  reply  to  popular  criticism 
as  did  King  Richard  II.  in  1382  to  the  Commons :  The 
sovereign  will  preserve  his  prerogative  ? 

"  Before  suggesting  remedies,  I  want  to  call  to  mind 
again  the  fact  that  the  revival  of  these  9ld  equity 
powers  has  been  caused  chiefly  by  one  particular  law, 
passed  by  tha  Congress  of  the  United  States  four 
years  since  supposedly  in  the  interest  of  the  people 
and  of  the  laborer,  and  known  as  the  Anti-Trust  Law. 
A  striking  example  this  of  the  danger  of  extraordi- 
nary legislation,  whether  demanded  by  the  masses  or 
by  the  classes !  I  agree  with  Mr.  Wright  that,  if  this 
goes  on,  the  nation  will  have  to  own  and  run  the  rail- 
roads in  theory  as  well  as  in  fact ;  and  Democrats  at 
least  should  not  believe  that  this  is  any  part  of  the 
duties  of  our  national  government.  Nor  do  I  think  the 
machinery  of  any  true  democratic  government  is 
arbitrary  and  tyrannical  enough  to  stand  such  a 
strain. 

"  Leaving  out  the  question  of  this  Anti-Trust  Law 
and  its  provisions,  and  the  Interstate  Commerce  Law, 
which,  on  one  short  clause  in  the  Constitution  of  the 
United  States  that  'Congress  shall  have  power  to 
regulate  commerce  among  the  several  States,'  hang 
all  this  extraordinary  jurisdiction  and  law-making- 
leaving  aside  these  two  radical  and  extraordinary 
statutes,  it  seems  as  if  the  question  we  have  asked 
might  be  thus  solved  : 

"i.  Let  the  courts  of  equity  go  back  to  their  proper 
jurisdiction  as  civil  courts.  .  .  . 

"2.  Let  no  person  be  punished  in  an  equity  action  for 
contempt  not  committed  in  presence  of  the  court,  un- 
less he  is  a  party  to  the  suit,  or  the  servant  or  agent 
of  a  party,  or  has  been  personally  served  with  a  copy 
of  the  injunction  order.  .  .  . 

"3.  In  any  case  where  both  a  crime  and  an  infringe- 
ment of  a  property  right  are  involved,  the  injunction 
will  have  to  issue  as  to  the  property  right,  and  be 
valid  as  a  concurrent  remedy  with  the  criminal  proc- 
ess; but  let  not  ex  post  facto  punishment  be  inflicted 
where  there  is  a  criminal  penalty.  ...  It  would  be 
easy  to  provide  that  the  finding  of  a  judge  in  the  con- 
tempt process  should  take  effect  as  the  presentment 
of  a  grand  jury.  Then  Debs,  or  any  other  person 
complained  of,  could  be  at  once  handed  over  to  an 
ordinary  officer  of  the  criminal  courts,  to  be  locked 
up  or  bailed  until  the  time  of  trial,  then  to  be  tried  by 
a  jury  of  12  men,  and,  if  found  guilty,  to  be  sentenced 
as  a  criminal,  according  to  the  law  of  the  land  and  the 
Constitution  of  the  United  States." 

INNER  MISSION.— The  so-called  Inner 
Mission  of  Germany  originated  in  a  Memorial 
to  the  German  Nation,  written  in  1848  by  Pas- 
tor Wichern.  This  was  a  passionate  appeal  to 
turn  the  energy  of  the  Church  toward  every  so- 
cial need.  It  argued  that  the  causes  of  all  suf- 
fering are  moral  ;  that  the  Gospel  is  the  only 
cure,  but  that  the  Gospel  must  be  applied  to  all 
life.  As  a  result,  a  very  great  movement  has 
resulted,  the  Protestant  Christian  Socialism 
(q.v.}  of  Germany  mainly  developing  on  this 


line.  Houses  of  Brothers  (16)  and  of  Sisters  (63) 
have  been  established  to  train  workers.  In 

1890  they  had  an  income  of  nearly  $2,000,000. 
Agencies  for  reform  of  all  kinds  have  been  es- 
tablished— 444  lodging-houses  (herberge)  have 
been  opened,  5900  schools  for  Sunday  (tho  not 
called  Sunday-schools),  2209  schools  for  the  care 
of  children,  25  asylums  for  fallen  women,  42 
day  nurseries,  588  houses  for  the  sick,  426  homes 
for  travelers.     Labor  bureaus  and  boys'  clubs 
have  been  planted  in  almost  every  German  city. 
The  bureaus  in  1890 found  15,000  situations.    In 

1891  poor  children  from  121  places  in  Germany 
were  sent  to  seashore  or  country.     The  move- 
ment is  spreading  to  other  lands. 

Reference  :  A  series  of  articles  in  The  American 
Journal  of  Sociology  for  1896. 

INSANITY.— It  is  generally  supposed  that 
insanity  is  on  the  increase  in  civilized  countries, 
owing  to  the  increasing  complexity  and  intensity 
of  life,  and  the  statistics  seem  to  bear  this  out  ; 
but  many  hold  that  such  is  not  the  case,  and 
that  the  apparent  increase  is  due  to  more  care- 
ful registration,  and,  above  all,  to  the  growing 
custom  of  placing  the  insane  in  asylums.  Ac- 
cording to  Professor  R.  Mayo-Smith's  Statis- 
tics and  Sociology  (p.  221)  the  number  of  in- 
sane persons  treated  in  public  and  private  asy- 
lums in  the  United  States  was  56,205  in  1881 
and  97,535  in  1889,  an  increase  of  73  per  cent.  ; 
but  the  number  of  insane  per  1,000,000  of  popu- 
lation was  1833  in  1880  and  only  1697  in  1890. 
The  census  of  1891  in  England  showed  an  in- 
crease of  the  total  number  of  lunatics  since 
1871,  but  calculated  that  this  was  due  to  the 
better  care  given  to  them  and  the  consequent 
prolongation  of  life.  In  1889  there  were  85,345 
insane  persons  (including  idiots)  in  England,  or 
2907  per  1,000,000.  In  Ireland,  the  proportion 
of  lunatics  to  1,000,000  of  the  population  was 
775  in  1851,  and  in  1891,  3174.  The  proportion 
of  idiots  was  in  1851,  750  per  1,000,000,  and  in 
1891,  1326.  Since  1881,  however,  there  has 
been  a  decrease.  In  Scotland,  lunatics  in- 
creased from  2250  per  1,000,000  in  iSSi  to  2596 
in  1891,  while  idiots  decreased  from  1603  per 
1,000,000  to  1246.  There  are  more  women  in- 
sane than  men  in  Sweden,  England,  Scotland, 
and  Ireland.  In  Austria  and  Hungary  men 
lead.  In  Ireland,  79.6  per  cent,  of  the  mentally 
deranged  were  unmarried.  In  1891,  in  Ireland, 
41  per  cent,  could  read  and  write.  In  Massa- 
chusetts, in  1885,  there  were  2344  insane  men 
and  987  idiots  ;  there  were  2919  insane  women 
and  651  idiots. 

There  has  been  great  progress  in  modern 
times  in  the  care  of  the  insane.  Pinel,  in  1792, 
took  a  great  step  forward  in  liberating  53  pa- 
tients at  Bicetre  who  had  been  in  chains. 
Franklin,  in  1750,  succeeded  in  establishing  a 
department  for  the  insane  in  the  Pennsylvania 
Hospital.  To-day  there  are  135  public  and  117 
private  insane  asylums  in  the  United  Kingdom. 
In  the  United  States,  they  exist  in  every  State 
except  Delaware,  Florida,  and  Nevada. 

INSTITUTIONAL     CHURCHES.— The 

phrase  "institutional  church,"  first  used,  it  is 
believed,  by  President  Tucker  of  Dartmouth 
College,  applied  to  Berkeley  Temple,  Boston, 


Institutional  Churches. 


735 


Insurance. 


Mass. ,  has  recently  come  into  use  describing  a 
church  that  works  on  all  lines  of  human  im- 
provement. The  Rev.  C.  A.  Dickinson,  pastor 
of  Berkeley  Temple,  'Boston,  says  of  the  institu- 
tional church  : 

"If  I  were  to  define  it,  I  should  say  that  it  is  an  or- 
ganization which  aims  to  reach  all  of  the  man,  and  al'. 
men,  by  all  means.  In  other  words,  it  aims  to  represent 
Christ  on  earth,  in  the  sense  of  representing  Him 
physically,  morally,  and  spiritually  to  the  senses  of 
the  men  and  women  who  live  in  the  present  age.  The 
Institutional  Church  aims  to  provide  a  material  en- 
vironment wherein  the  spiritual  Christ  can  express 
Himself,  and  be  felt  among  men  as  when  He  was  here 
in  the  flesh,  and  it  begins  by  planting  itself  just  where 
Christ  stood  and  worked  when  He  was  on  the  earth — in 
the  midst  of  publicans  and  sinners." 

Different  institutional  churches  work  in  some- 
what different  ways.  St.  George's,  New  York 
City,  one  of  the  first  churches  to  work  on  this 
line,  with  its  magnificent  parish  house,  natu- 
rally puts  much  of  its  strength  into  educational 
and  industrial  work,  and  its  admirable  equip- 
ment helps  it  to  obtain  a  peculiarly  strong  grip 
upon  young  men.  The  Fourth  Church  of  Hart- 
ford, Conn.,  emphasizes  evangelism,  and  has 
been  remarkably  successful  in  reclaiming  the 
fallen.  At  the  Jersey  City  Tabernacle  the 
amusemental  features  are  kept  to  the  front,  and 
the  church  aims  especially  to  fill  the  leisure 
hours  of  the  working  young  men  and  women 
who  flock  to  it  full  with  wholesome  pleasure. 
At  Berkeley  Temple,  Boston,  while  other  lines 
are  not  neglected,  an  exceptional  amount  of 
energy  is  put  forth  through  the  Church  office  in 
attending  to  the  wants  of  all  sorts  and  condi- 
tions of  men  and  women  who  are  in  need  of 
sympathy,  advice,  and  succor. 

But  while  all  these  churches  have  their  dis- 
tinctive differences,  they  are  alike  in  certain 
fundamental  characteristics.  They  either  make 
their  free  pews  absolutely  free  or  else  adopt  a 
system  which  practically  secures  free  pews. 
1  hey  all  believe  in  a  church  open  all  the  week 
and  made  a  center  of  social  life.  They  all  de- 
velop church  workers,  and  make  their  services 
attractive  with  popular  music,  etc.  They  exist 
in  all  denominations,  but  have  been  particularly 
developed  in  the  Protestant  Episcopal  Church 
and  in  the  Congregational.  St.  Paul's  Church, 
in  New  York  City,  is  an  example  of  a  most  suc- 
cessful Roman  Catholic  institutional  church. 
They  exist,  too,  all  through  the  country,  as  in 
the  Plymouth  Church  in  Milwaukee,  and  the 
Tabernacle  in  Denver.  Many  churches,  too,  in 
the  smaller  towns  are  working  on  the  same  lines, 
and  everywhere  they  are  successful,  as  is  shown 
by  the  congregations  they  draw,  the  number 
who  are  added  to  the  Church,  the  spiritual  life, 
and  the  practical  benefits  they  conduct.  The 
institutional  church  ' '  begins  with  the  people  just 
where  they  are,  meets  the  needs  of  which  they 
are  conscious,  and  so  generally  leads  them  to 
be  conscious  of  needs  higher  and  nobler." 

INSURANCE.— Insurance  may  be  defined 
as  a  contract  of  a  company  or  person  to  pay  a 
sum  or  sums  of  money  to  indemnify  the  in- 
sured, or  a  designated  beneficiary,  in  case  of 
loss  through  the  happening  of  certain  events 
which  constitute  the  risk  insured  against. 

HISTORY   AND   STATISTICS. 

Insurance  is  mainly  a  modern  development, 


tho  it  originated  in  the  remote  past.  It  was 
known  to  the  ancients,  but  was  chiefly  devel- 
oped by  more  recent  mercantile  adventures.  It 
began  by  men  agreeing  to  divide  among  them- 
selves the  burden  of  the  loss  of  ships  or  cargoes 
in  the  days  when  commerce  was  the  fitting  out 
of  ships  for  single,  long  expeditions.  This 
custom  arose  in  England  in  the  Elizabethan 
era.  It  had  appeared  in  Southern  Europe  ear- 
lier than  that. 

Insurance  depends  on  the  law  of  probabili- 
ties. It  is  said  that  the  doctrine  of  probabilities 
was  developed  about  the  year  1650,  when  the 
Chevalier  de  Mere,  a  Flemish  nobleman,  who 
was  both  a  respectable  mathematician  and  a 
gamester,  attempted  to  solve  the  problem  of  di- 
viding equitably  the  stakes  when  a  game  of 
chance  was  interrupted.  The  problem  being 
too  difficult  for  him,  he  sought  the  aid  of  the 
famous  Abbe  Blaise  Pascal,  one  of  the  most  ac- 
complished mathematicians  of  any  age.  Pascal 
solved  the  problem,  and  in  doing  so  enunciated 
the  "  doctrine  of  probabilities,"  or  laws  govern- 
ing so-called  chances. 

This  doctrine  or  theory  Pascal  illustrated  by 
the  throwing  of  dice.  When  a  single  die  is 
thrown,  the  chance  of  turning  up  an  ace  is  pre- 
cisely one  out  of  six,  or  one  out  of  the  total 
number  of  sides  or  faces.  But  if  a  large  num- 
ber of  throws  are  made,  it  will  be  found  that 
each  face  will  be  turned  up  an  equal  number  of 
times.  From  this  Pascal  laid  down  the  proposi- 
tion that  results  which  have  happened  in  any 
given  number  of  observed  cases  will  again  hap- 
pen under  similar  circumstances,  provided  the 
numbers  be  sufficient  for  the  proper  working  of 
the  law  of  average.  Thus  the  duration  of  the 
life  of  a  single  individual  is  one  of  the  greatest 
uncertainties  ;  but  the  duration,  or  rate  of  mor- 
tality, of  a  large  number  of  individuals  may  be 
predicted  with  great  accuracy  by  comparison 
with  the  observed  results  among  a  sufficiently 
large  number  of  persons  of  similar  ages,  occu- 
pations, and  climatic  influences. 

From  this  principle  insurance  has  developed 
on  a  scientific    basis.     It  is  of    many    kinds. 
Fire,  marine,  and  life  insurance    are  the  best 
known  ;     but     accident,     liability, 
plate  glass,  steam  boiler,  elevator, 
burglary,  sickness,  guarantee,  mort.-     History, 
gage  and  title,  hail  and  live-stock 
insurance  have  each  reached  large 
proportions.     All  of  these  branches  of  insurance 
are  in  successful  operation  in  the  United  States 
and  Europe.    Many  other  branches  of  insurance 
have  been  suggested,  and  in   some  cases  at- 
tempted, among  which  are  :  Insurance  against 
loss  of  occupation  ;  insurance  of  premiums  paid 
for  stocks  or  bonds,  which  are  subject  to  re- 
demption ;  insurance  against  issue  and  surviv- 
orship ;    insurance    of    marriage    portions    for 
daughters  ;  insurance  against  divorces  ;  insur- 
ance against  celibacy.     A  queer  sort  of  insur- 
ance has  been  issued  in    Switzerland  against 
death  or  injury  by  "  tiles  that  may  drop  on  the 
passer's  head." 

The  earliest  form  of  insurance  was  by  means 
of  individual  underwriters,  each  one  assuming 
a  fixed  proportion  of  the  aggregate  amount  fixed. 
In  London,  the  venturesome  who  took  part  in 
this  underwriting  used  to  meet  at  Lloyd's  Cof- 


Insurance. 


736 


Insurance. 


fee-house,  from  which  fact  the  name  of  Lloyd's 
was  given  to  this  form  of  insurance.  Within 
the  last  10  years  this  form  of  insurance  has  been 
revived  in  the  United  States,  and  especially  in 
New  York  ;  but,  as  a  general  thing,  insurance 
is  carried  on  by  corporate  companies  which  are 
either  mutual  or  stock,  and  which  are  subject 
more  or  less  to  Government  supervision. 

Sheppard  Homans,  an  eminent  actuary,  says 
of  this  in  the  North  American  Review  : 

"The  system  of  government  supervision  or  control 
varies  in  different  countries.  In  Great  Britain  and  con- 
tinental countries  in  Europe  companies  are  required 
to  report  general  facts  only  regarding  income,  dis- 
bursements, assets,  insurances  in  force,  and  liabilities 
estimated  by  themselves.  In  the  United  States,  where 
every  State  is  a  sovereign,  there  are  44  different  insur- 
ance departments.  Each  State  may  impose  such  con- 
ditions, restrictions,  and  taxes  upon  corporations  of  all 
other  States  having  to  transact  business  within  its 
sacred  territory  as  its  legislators  may  deem  proper. 
As  a  result,  the  laws,  taxes,  and  requirements  vary 
greatly,  and  impose  serious  burdens  and  expenses 
upon  companies,  which,  of  course,  are  borne  by  their 
policy-holders.  On  the  other  hand,  each  company  is 
obliged  to  answer  in  minute  detail  questions  regarding 
its  business,  so  that  its  condition  may  be  made  clear  to 
the  general  public,  as  well  as  to  persons  directly  inter- 
ested. 

"The  American  system,  then,  is  one  of  paternalism, 
while  the  British  system  is  one  based  upon  freedom  and 
publicity.  Paternal  supervision  involves,  logically, 
paternal  responsibility.  State  control  means  State 
guarantee.  Persons  who  insure  in  reliance  upon  gov- 
ernmental certificate  of  solvency  would,  in  justice, 
have  a  claim  for  compensation  should  that  certificate 
be  misplaced.  But  such  claim  could  scarcely  be  en- 
forced in  the  United  States. 

"  On  the  other  hand,  the  British  system  of  freedom 
and  publicity  enables  unsound  or  swindling  companies 
to  prey  upon  the  general  public,  which  has  no  means 
of  acquiring  exact  information  regarding  the  condition 
of  an  institution  other  than  the  reports  and  statements 
of  its  officials. 

"  Probably  the  best  system  would  be  a  happy  mean 
between  the  two,  where  the  supervision  of  the  State 
would  combine  the  maximum  of  freedom  and  publicity 
with  the  minimum  of  interference  necessary  to  the 
ascertainment  of  solvency  and  honesty  of  manage- 
ment." 

Fire  insurance  seems  to  have  been  the  first  to 
develop  its  modern  form.  A  regular  office  for 
insuring  against  fire  was  opened  in  London  in 
1681.  The  great  fire  of  1666  was  the  exciting 
cause.  According  to  the  Encyclopaedia  Britan- 
nica,  the  older  fire  insurance  companies  were 
organized,  as  follows  :  The  Hand  in.  Hand, 
1696  ;  the  Sun,  1710  ;  Union,  1714  ;  Westmin- 
ster, 1717  ;  London,  1720  ;  Royal  Exchange, 
1720  ;  the  Salop,  1780  ;  Phoenix,  1782  ;  Norwich 
Union,  1797.  The  first  fire  office  in  Scotland 
was  established  in  1720,  the  first  in  Germany  in 
1750,  and  the  first  proprietary  company  in  that 
country  in  1779  ;  the  first  office  in  the  United 
States  was  established  at  Philadelphia  in  1752, 
one  of  its  early  directors  having  been  Benjamin 
Franklin  ;  the  first  in  France  dates  from  1816, 
and  the  first  in  Russia  from  1827. 

According  to  the  same  authority,  the  essen- 
tial principle  of  fire  insurance  is  the  distribution 
of  loss.  It  does  not  aim,  directly  at  least,  at  the 
prevention  and  only  in  a  secondary  way  even 
at  the  minimizing  of  loss. 

The  extinguishment  of  fire  is  commonly  un- 
dertaken by  municipalities,  tho  fire  insurance 
companies  often  sustain  patrols  to  care  for  prop  • 
erty.  (See  FIRE  DEPARTMENTS.)  In  the  United 
States,  fire  insurance  has  been  greatly  devel- 
oped. 


Life  insurance,  tho  starting  later,  has  reach- 
ed a  higher  state  of  development  than  fire 
insurance.  It  began  at  near  the  first  of  the 
eighteenth  century. 

The  Grand  Pensioner  DeWitt,  of  Holland, 
was  the  first  to  reduce  these  theories  to  practice, 
which  he  did  in  1693,  by  calculating  the  true 
values  of  annuities,  based  upon  observed  rates 
of  mortality.  Dr.  Halley,  Astronomer  Royal  of 
Great  Britain,  was  the  first  to  discover  and  ar- 
range what  are  called  life  tables  from  which  all 
monetary  values  depending  upon  the  chances 
of  living  and  dying,  combined  with  the  im- 
provement of  money  by  interest,  may  be  com- 
puted. He  has  been  called  the  father  of  the  mod- 
ern system  of  life  insurance.  These  tables  have 
now  only  a  historical  interest.  Various  other 
tables  have  been  used,  such  as  the  Northamp- 
ton, Carlisle,  Equitable  Assurance,  English 
Life,  Seventeen  Offices,  American  Experience, 
Thirty  American  Offices,  and  many  others. 

About  the  close  of  the  seventeenth  century 
there  were  also  several  annuity  schemes  launch- 
ed, such  as  the  Mercies  Company,  of  London, 
for  the  benefit  of  widows  and  orphans  of  the 
Church  of  England.  The  first  life  insurance 
company  was  the  Amicable  Society,  chartered 
in  1706.  In  1762  the  Equitable  was  chartered, 
and  began  issuing  policies  payable  at  death, 
upon  the  lives  of  persons  of  any  age,  charging 
premiums  according  to  age.  The  Royal  Ex- 
change and  London  Assurance,  however,  had 
both  been  doing  this  business  without  charters 
for  40  years.  In  the  United  States,  the  Pres- 
byterian Ministers'  Fund,  of  Philadelphia,  was 
chartered  in  17 59  by  Thomas  Penn, 
for  the  insurance  of  Presbyterian 
clergymen.  In  1769  a  similar  in-  Recent 
stitution  was  chartered  for  clergy-  History, 
men  of  the  Church  of  England. 
The  former  has  survived,  but  not 
the  latter.  In  1812  a  company  called  the  Penn- 
sylvania was  chartered  ;  in  1830  the  New  York 
Life  Insurance  and  Trust  Company,  which  is 
still  in  existence,  but  does  no  life  insurance 
business.  The  Mutual  of  New  York,  the  first 
of  the  mutual  companies,  was  organized  in  1842, 
and  from  1845-60  many  new  companies  were  or- 
ganized. In  1858  the  State  of  Massachusetts 
originated  a  system  of  State  supervision,  and  it 
was  immediately  followed  by  the  State  of  New 
York.  The  Massachusetts  department  adopted 
the  Seventeen  Offices,  commonly  known  as  the 
Actuaries'  Table,  as  its  standard  ;  and  the  New 
York  department,  the  American  Experience 
Table,  which  was  a  modification  of  the  Seven- 
teen Offices  Table,  in  the  light  of  experience  of 
the  Mutual  Life  Insurance  Company. 

Life  insurance  companies  nowadays  issue  a 
variety  of  immediate  and  deferred  annuities, 
temporary  and  whole  life  insurance,  the  latter 
often  paid  for  by  a  limited  number  of  payments  ; 
and  a  large  variety  of  endowment,  tontine,  and 
other  investment  policies.  The  companies  are 
mutual,  proprietary,  or  mixed,  according  as  all 
the  savings  and  profits  belong  to  the  insured  or 
all  belong  to  the  stockholders,  or  stockholders 
receive  a  part  and  the  policy-holders  the  remain- 
der. Mutual  companies  alone  have  no  capital 
stock.  While  nominally  the  members  control 
mutual  companies,  the  practical  operation  of 


Insurance. 


737 


Insurance. 


the  proxy  system  of  voting  makes  the  managers 
all-powerful. 

Originally  the  companies  did  not  give  cash  or 
other  surrender  values  for  their  policies.  It 
was  made  compulsory  for  Massachusetts  com- 
panies to  do  so  by  a  State  law  early  in  the  six- 
ties, and  not  long  after  it  was  also  made  com- 
pulsory for  New  York  companies  to  give  paid- 
up  insurance  upon  surrender  ;  notwithstanding 
which,  by  waiving  the  law,  several  companies 
set  out  on  a  career  of  tontine  policies,  which 
were  originally  wholly  forfeitable,  but  which 
held  out  to  a  persistent  policy-holder  hopes  of 
very  large  profits  if  he  survived  and  sustained 
his  policy.  These  hopes  were  not  realized,  and 
to-day  but  one  company  in  the  United  States  is 
writing  a  policy  the  name  of  which  contains  the 
word  "  tontine,"  altho  several  are  issuing  poli- 
cies which,  while  allowing  liberal  surrender 
values,  give  all  the  profits  to  the  persistent  sur- 
vivors. 

One  result  of  the  reaction  from  cash  surrender 
legislation  which  took  the  form  of  tontine  in- 
surance was  the  organization  of  a  large  number 
of  mutual  assessment  life  insurance  associations. 
More  than  one  half  of  all  the  life  insurance  now 
in  force  in  the  United  States  is  in  these  organi- 
zations, and  many  more  than  one  half  the  num- 
ber of  persons  carrying  insurance.  They  have 
furnished  insurance  on  three  different  plans — 
•viz.,  first,  by  assessing  the  same  amount  on 
members  without  regard  to  age,  whenever  there 
were  losses  ;  second,  by  assessing  according  to 

certain  ratios  fixed  at  age  of  entry  ; 

third,  by  assessing  according  to  cer- 

Mutual      tain  ratios  according  to  the  actual 

Assessment  age  attained  at  time  of  assessment. 

Companies.   Associations  using  the  first  of  these 

systems  have  nearly  all  gone  out  of 

existence.  Associations  using  the 
second,  which  came  later  into  use,  are  now  hav- 
ing an  unpleasant  experience,  and  are  likely  to 
be  driven  out  of  existence  unless  they  reform 
their  plan.  There  is  no  scientific  reason  why 
associations  using  the  third  system  should  not 
continue  indefinitely.  Most  of  them,  however, 
seek  to  create  a  level  price  in  spite  of  the  in- 
creasing cost  by  charging  more  than  the  insur- 
ance costs  during  the  earlier  years,  with  a  view 
to  offsetting  the  increased  cost  during  the  latter 
years.  The  success  of  such  associations  will  de- 


pend upon  the  adequacy  of  this  provision.  The 
management  of  the  associations  is  commonly 
much  more  democratic  and  truly  mutual  than 
that  of  the  regular  companies,  altho  some  of 
them  are  managed  in  quite  as  autocratic  a  man- 
ner. Those  which  operate  on  the  lodge  system 
are,  however,  all  managed  on  the  representa- 
tive plan,  the  members  electing  delegates  to 
State  and  national  conventions  who  legislate 
for  the  association  and  elect  its  managers.  (For 
further  information  concerning  these  orders,  see 
FRATERNAL  SOCIETIES.) 

Marine  insurance  began  in  England  very 
early.  In  the  United  States,  the  first  record  of 
it  is  in  1757  in  New  York  City.  In  1794  the  In- 
surance Company  of  North  America  was  organ- 
ized to  do  a  marine  and  fire  business.  Sickness 
insurance  was  attempted  from  1845  until  1850, 
but  failed  of  success,  there  not  being  sufficient 
data  to  work  upon.  It  is  now  being  again  under- 
taken with  better  prospects.  The  first  accident 
insurance  company  was  the  Travelers,  of  Hart- 
ford, organized  in  1863,  which  has  been  success- 
ful from  the  start.  Live-stock  insurance  began 
in  Connecticut  in  1866.  In  the  same  year  the 
Hartford  Steam  Boiler  Insurance  Company  was 
organized.  In  1872  the  Guarantee  Company  of 
North  America  began  the  business  of  surety 
insurance,  with  headquarters  at  Montreal.  In 
1876  the  Real  Estate  Title  Insurance  and  Trust 
Company,  of  Philadelphia,  was  organized.  Lia- 
bility insurance  did  not  become  popular  until 
about  1890,  and  burglary  insurance  only  within 
the  last  two  or  three  years.  Credit  insurance 
has  been  widely  patronized  during  the  last  10 
years. 

In  some  places  in  Germany  a  system  of  em- 
ployment insurance  is  said  to  be  in  full  working 
order.     The  recent  history  of  insurance  in  Eu- 
rope lies  in    the    development   of 
State  and  of  compulsory  insurance  ; 
this  we  study  in  a  section  by  itself  The  Future. 
(see  p.  740).     Insurance  some  con- 
sider the  most  socialistic  form  of 
modern  business,  since  its  essence  is  security  for 
the  individual  by  dividing  losses  over  the  commu- 
nity.  Undoubtedly  the  future  of  insurance  is  in- 
volved with  that  of  socialism.    The  agitation  for 
old  age  pensions  (q.v.)  clearly  indicates  this. 

The  following  are  the  most  recent  insurance 
statistics  : 


FIRE  INSURANCE,   JANUARY   i,   1895. 


NUMBER  OF  COM- 
PANIES IN  THE 
UNITED  STATES. 

Capital. 

Assets  Exclusive 
of  Premium 
Notes. 

Net  Surplus. 

Cash  Premiums 
Received  during 
Year. 

Total  Cash  In- 
come during 
Year. 

293  Stock  I 

235  Mutual  ( 

$71,446,660 

$351,072,971 

$161,557,830 

$161,557,830 

NUMBER  OF  COM- 
PANIES. 

Paid  for  Losses 
during  Year. 

Paid  for  Divi- 
dends during 
Year. 

Expenses  other 
than  Losses  and 
Dividends  dur- 
ing Year. 

Total  Disburse- 
ments during 
Year. 

Risks  Written 
during  Year. 

235  Mutual  ) 

$94,646,618 

$12,592,356 

$52,843,860 

$160,251,738 

*  Approximation.  With  the  exception  of  the  estimate  of  risks  written  during  the  year,  compiled  from  "  The 
Insurance  Year-Book."  They  do  not  include  a  few  stock  companies  and  some  600  mutuals,  whose  transactions 
are  purely  local  and  of  small  volume. 

47 


Insurance. 


738 


Insurance. 


LEADING  FIRE  INSURANCE  COMPANIES. 


COMPANIES. 

Assets. 

Capital. 

Net  Surplus. 

jEtna,  Connecticut  

$10,847,816 
9,562,600 
9,159.837 
8,645,736 
8,498,268 
7,609,259 
6,754,909 
6,240,099 
5,588,058 
5,545,629 
5,191,055 

$4,000,000 
3,000,000 
3,000,000 
1,250,000 

*2OO,OOO 
*200,000 

1,000,000 
1,000,000 

2,000,000 

1,000,000 

500,000 

$3,197,847 

2,244,269 
1,070,428 
2,422,890 

2,871,189 

1,967,805 
1,811,269 

1.856,375 

737,218 

406,360 
620,302 

Insurance  Company  of  North  America  

Home,  New  York  

Hartford  Fire,  Connecticut  

Liverpool,  London  and  Globe  

Royal,  England  

Continental,  New  York  

German-American,  New  York  

Phoenix,  Connecticut  

Phenix,  New  Yotk  

Fire  Association,  Pennsylvania  

York  law  requires  a  deposit  of  $200,000  from  foreign  companies  with  the  insurance  department. 
1  by  the  department  as  rt  deposit  capital,"  and  the  surplus  stated  in  the  next  column  is  "  surplus 

it   fflmtfll"   QnH    r»tVidT-    lia Vviliti^c 


*  The  New ._,.   .„ 

This  is  treated  by  the  depa „„  „„     ^w^o 

beyond  deposit  capital"  and  other  liabilities 


LIFE  INSURANCE*  FOR  THE  YEAR  ENDING  JANUARY  i,   1895. 


'-f. 

Payments 

NEW  POLICIES  ISSUED. 

POLICIES  IN  FORCE. 

o 

(t, 

0 

Assets. 

Premiums 
Received. 

Total  In- 
come. 

to  Policy- 
holders 
(Losses, 

Total  Ex- 
pendi- 

Dividends, 

tures. 

•2; 

Surren- 

No. 

Amount. 

No. 

Amount. 

ders,  etc.). 

56 

$1,073,156,679 

$209,641,725 

$261,959,111 

$118,423,246 

$182,290,595 

5,135,109 

$1,588,248,222 

8,702,393 

$5,566,166,664 

CONDITION  AND  BUSINESS  OF  ASSESSMENT  COMPANIES  AND  ORDERS.t 


No.  OF  Cos. 

Assets. 

Assess- 
ments 
Collected. 

Total  In- 
come. 

Payments 
to  Policy- 
holders. 

Total  Ex- 
pendi- 
tures. 

MEMBERSHIP. 

INSURANCE  IN  FORCE. 

Admitted  during-  the 
Year. 

No.  of 
Mem- 
bers. 

Amount. 

35° 

$54,9°7,024 

$81,019,709 

$87,760,498 

$63,123,185 

$86,722,085 

734.688 

3.638,815 

$7,482,286,000 

*  Including  industrial  policies. 

t  According  to  the  report  made  at  the  annual  meeting  of  Mutual  Benefit  Life  Associations,  at  Atlanta,  Ga. 
October,  1895.     It  includes  the  returns  of  the  fraternal  orders. 
The  returns  of  life  insurance  in  the  first  and  third  tables  are  from  "  The  Insurance  Year-Book." 


INCOME  AND  DISBURSEMENTS  FOR  FIVE  YEARS. 

The  following  table  shows  the  receipts  and  disbursements  of  the  "  old-line"  life  insurance  companies  reporting 
to  the  New  York  Insurance  Department  for  five  years. 


YEAR  END- 
ING DECEM- 
BER 3i. 

«i 

a> 
o'S 
6l 

*£ 
o 
O 

Total  In- 
come. 

Total  Pay- 
ments for 
Losses,  En- 
dowments, 
and  Annui- 
ties. 

Total  Pay- 
ments for 
Lapsed,  Sur- 
rendered, 
and  Pur- 
chased 
Policies. 

Total  Divi- 
dends to 
Policy- 
holders. 

Total  Pay- 
ments to 
Policy- 
holders. 

Taxes,  Com- 
missions, 
and  other 
Expenses. 

Total  Dis- 
burse- 
ments. 

3° 
29 

31 
32 
33 

$187,424,959 
201,931,425 
223,024,998 
236,683,206 
256,624,478 

$58,606,615 
62,731,497 
72,576,866 
75,903,820 
78,313,162 

$13,827,225 
16,230,891 
15,658,759 
19,839,418 
23,164,108 

$14,271,501 
13,991,226 
14,386,195 
14,823,176 
14,577,455 

$86,707,341 
92,953,614 
102,621,820 
110,566,414 
116,054,725 

$39,616,782 
42,350,372 
49,665,730 
55,205,336 
61,073,545 

$126,653,530 
135,792,048 
152,890,333 
166,512,254 
177,863,333 

1891  

1892  

1893... 

1894  

Total  assets  of  the  33  companies  last  reported,  $1,056,331,683  ;  surplus  as  to  policy-holders,  $139,740,545. 


Insurance. 


739 


Insurance. 


ASSETS   OF  AND  AMOUNT  INSURED  BY  THE  PRINCIPAL    AMERICAN    COMPANIES  JANUARY 

i,  1895. 


COMPANIES. 

Insurance  in 
Force. 

Gross  Assets. 

Equitable,  New  York  

6 

Mutual,  New  York  

8                 fi 

New  York,  New  York  

81       n     ifin 

l6?'oTT 

Metropolitan,  New  York  .                        .... 

6 

1      f:  6 

Northwestern   Mutual,  Wisconsin  

n'fin     ffL 

',- 

Mutual  Reserve  Fund,  New  York*  

Prudential,  New  Jersey  

Mutual  Benefit,  New  Jersey  

Connecticut  Mutual,  Connecticut  

156,686,87! 

Northwestern  Masonic  Aid,  Illinois*  

Pennsylvania  Mutual,  Pennsylvania  

Massachusetts  Benefit,  Massachusetts*  

Provident  Life  and  Trust,  Pennsylvania  ....        ....                      . 

John  Hancock  Mutual,  Massachusetts  

6,689,182 

LIFE  INSURANCE  IN  VARIOUS  COUNTRIES. 


COUNTRIES. 

Insurance  in  Force. 

Year's  Premiums. 

Year's  Losses. 

United  Stalest  

Great  Britain  

Germany  ..       . 

France  .... 

Austria  ,  . 

2,828,842 

Scandinavia  

Russia        

Switzerland  

38,908,928 

*  Assessment  companies. 

t  Including  assessment  business  ($7,482,286,000  insurance  in  force),  on  which  no  part  of  the  future  premium  is 
collected  in  advance. 


INSURANCE   REFORM. 

Richard  A.  McCurdy,  president  of  the  Mutual 
Life  Insurance  Company,  of  New  York,  says  in 
the  North  American  Review : 

^  "  Any  form  of  insurance,  whether  it  be  purely  mu- 
tual, proprietary,  or  fraternal,  if  not  conducted  on  a 
paying  basis,  must  necessarily  fail.  The  purely  mu- 
tual company  will  drop  asunder  ;  stockholders  in  a 
proprietary  company  will  wind  up  the  concern  or  it 
will  go  into  the  hands  of  a  receiver  by  process  of  law  ; 
enthusiasts  who  sustain  clergy  mutual  leagues  and 
employees'  benefit  associations  will  grow  weary  in 
well-doing  and  try  to  reinsure  their  risks  or  leave  them 
to  their  fate.  Assessment  societies  come  to  grief  when 
the  assessments  are  levied  too  often,  and  the  shores  of 
the  ocean  of  indemnity  are  strewn  with  innumerable 
wrecks  of  craft,  fantastically  named  and  equipped, 
which  have  met  the  common  fate  of  all  non-paying  en- 
terprises in  a  commercial  age.  .  .  . 

"  Wise  management  freed  from  antiquated  prece- 
dent and  dead  tradition  ;  accumulation  superimposed 
upon  indemnity  ;  legitimate  methods  of  increasing  ac- 
cumulation systematically  employed ;  adoption  of 
long-deferred  periods  of  repayment  or  distribution  ; 
recognition  of  the  fact  that  insurance  must  be  con- 
ducted on  a  paying  basis,  just  like  any  other  business 
that  succeeds ;  in  fine,  a  continuously  productive 
union  of  the  capital  of  the  intelligent  policy-holder 
and  the  skilled  labor  of  the  experienced  and  success- 
ful life  underwriter,  supported  by  highly  instructed 
and  organized  agency  forces — these  to-day  are  demon- 
strating the  possibilities  of  insurance  in  ways  till  re- 
cently not  fully  understood,  and  it  is  to  these  that  we 
must  look  for  even  greater  developments  in  the  fu- 
ture." 

This  is  a  business  view  of  insurance  promul- 
gated by  a  business  man.  Against  it  may  be 
offset  what  David  Parks  Fackler,  an  eminent 
actuary,  said  at  the  annual  meeting  of  State  In- 
surance Commissioners  in  1892  : 


"  Our  life  companies  are  becoming  vast  financial 
corporations,  and  may  become  a  source  of  danger  to 
the  commonwealth  by  reason  of  the  vast  money  powers 
lodged  in  the  hands  of  a  few  men — possibly  only  one 
man  in  each  company.  The  assets  of  great  railroad 
and  manufacturing  companies  are  practically  all 
planted,  while  those  of  life  companies  are  in  market- 
able securities  which  can  be  converted  into  cash  in 
$10,000,000  lots  and  be  used  to  influence  legislation  or 
to  affect  the  money  market.  It  is  easy  to  imagine  very 
startling  possibilities  when  our  life  companies  shall 
have  obtained  their  probable  future  size. 

Thus  far,  however,  this  has  developed  no  se- 
rious evils.  Insurance  companies  have  been  the 
corporations  least  criticised  and  perhaps  the 
least  open  to  criticism.  They  have,  however, 
weakly  permitted  themselves  to  be  blackmailed 
by  unscrupulous  legislatures  and  politicians, 
and  in  New  York  especially  are  understood  to 
be  very  heavy  contributors  to  the  corruption 
funds  of  the  political  machine. 

The  principal  criticism  is  that  all  kinds  of  in- 
surance could  be  furnished  at  considerably  low- 
er rates  than  at  present  prevail.  It  is  thought 
that  the  proportion  of  the  rates  disbursed  for 
expenses  is  entirely  too  large.  In  all  branches 
of  insurance,  and  especially  in  life  insurance,  it 
is  conceded  that  the  commissions  paid  agents 
have  in  recent  years  exceeded  all  reason.  This 
indictment  is  most  severe  against  the  regular 
life  insurance  companies,  tho  some  of  the  as- 
sessment associations  are  almost  equally  ex- 
travagant. The  extreme  is  reached  among  the 
industrial  companies,  as  might  be  expected, 
since  weekly  collections  involve  a  very  great 
amount  of  work,  when  the  amounts  collected 
are  rarely  more  than  15  cents,  and  frequently  as 


Insurance. 


740 


Insurance. 


low  as  five.     Of  course  the  largest  part  of  this 
expense  could  be  avoided  if  people  would  seek 
insurance  instead  of  letting  it  seek  them  ;  but 
even  at  the  extravagant  rates  of  expense  under 
which  the  business  is  now  conducted,  the  bene- 
fits are  so  great  that  hundreds  of  millions  of  dol- 
lars of  industrial  insurance  are  taken  every  year. 
The  insurance  problem,  then,  of  this  day  is  to 
secure  good,  reliable  insurance  for  the  poor  at  a 
low  price.  No  one  needs  insurance  as  do  the  poor. 
They    seldom    save,  and    often    cannot    save. 
When  sickness  or  death  enters  the 
family,  it  costs  untold  financial  anx- 
The  Real     iety  and  suffering,  from  which  in- 
Problem,     surance  shoul  d  protect  them .    Prob  - 
ably  the  industrial  companies  are 
doing  as  well  as  could  be  expected 
under  the  circumstances.     It  cannot  be   said 
that  their  collectors  as  a  rule  are  making  more 
than  living  wages.     The  managers  of  the  com-' 
panics  have  also  exhibited  tinusual  liberality  in 
paying,  during  the  recent  hard  times,  a  multi- 
tude of  claims  which  could  have  been  defeated 
according  to  the  terms  of  their  policies      They 
have  also  voluntarily,  of  their  own  motion,  ad- 
mitted industrial  policy-holders  to  the  benefits 
of  paid-up  insurance,  to  which  also  they  were 
not  entitled  by  the  terms  of  their  policies. 

In  the  United  States,  outside  of  endowment 
and  tontine  insurance,  which  are  patronized  al- 
most exclusively  by  the  well-to-do,  there  are  no 
means  of  providing  for  old  age  through  the 
means  of  insurance.  In  this  respect  we  are  far 
behind  almost  all  the  countries  of  Europe. 

STATE   AND   COMPULSORY   INSURANCE. 

In  several  countries,  notably  Switzerland  and 
Norway,  there  are  State  fire  insurance  compa- 
nies competing  with  the  stock  companies  for 
business.  In  England  there  is  a  system  of  gov- 
ernment annuities.  In  New  Zealand  there  is 
an  exceedingly  successful  governmental  life  in- 
surance department'  which  does  about  half  the 
business  of  that  colony,  and  which  now  has  ag- 
gregate assets  of  more  than  $10,000,000.  This 
company  also  has  operated  in  competition  with 
proprietary  and  mutual  corporations.  The  State 
insurance  companies,  with  the  exception  of  the 
English  annuities,  have  been  almost  uniformly 
successful  ;  but  it  cannot  be  said  that  in  the  ma- 
jority of  cases  they  have  furnished  materially 
cheaper  or  more  reliable  insurance  than  have 
private  corporations. 

It  is  believed  that  this  phenomenon  is  ex- 
plained by  the  fact  that  they  are  competitive 
and  not  monopolistic  institutions.  As  a  result 
of  their  competitive  nature,  they  are  compelled 
to  incur  practically  all  the  expenses  that  are  in- 
curred by  stock  corporations.  Wherever  insur- 
ance has  been  made  a  State  monopoly,  as  is  the 
case  in  the  compulsory  insurance  of  Germany, 
it  has  been  found  that  it  can  be  conducted  with 
great  economy.  Even  in  Germany  working 
men  are  permitted  to  exercise  the  option  of  in- 
suring in  private  companies,  but  the  fact  of 
compulsion  operates  there  to  make  the  State  in- 
surance practically  monopolistic.  The  chief  tho 
not  the  only  objection  to  the  State  insurance 
system  of  Germany — a  full  description  of  which 
•will  be  found  in  a  publication  by  the  Depart- 


ment of  Labor,  Washington,  D.  C. — is  that  its 
management  is  autocratic  and  paternal  instead 
of  democratic  and  fraternal.  At  the  same  time 
there  is  no  question  whatever  that  the  idea  of 
introducing  this  form  of  insurance  was  obtained 
by  Bismarck  from  the  socialists.  Concerning 
this,  the  publication  of  the  labor  department  re- 
ferred to  says  : 

"  After  the  Franco-Prussian  war  a  growth  of  social- 
ism, between  1871  and  1877,  nearly  fourfold,  startled 
the  government  so  seriously  that  active  measures 
were  considered  for  meeting  the  danger.  The  famous 
'exception  law'  was  passed  against  the  socialists.  The 
severity  of  the  law  was  extreme.  Not  only  were 
meetings,  clubs,  and  hundreds  of  publications  at  once 
forbidden,  but  the  measures  against  them  were  piti- 
lessly enforced.  Leaders  were  driven  out  of  the 
country,  and  apparently  the  very  sources  of  the  party 
quenched.  It  was  the  drastic  character  of  this  legis- 
lation that  made  it  imperative  that  something  should 
be  done  against  this  peril,  of  a  wholly  different  na- 
ture. .  .  . 

"  No  bolder  or  more  aggressive  attitude  was  ever 
taken  than  that  which  the  chancellor  [Bismarck]  as- 
sumed at  this  time.  He  admitted  frankly  his  admira- 
tion for  Lassalle  and  his  sympathy  with  many  of  his 
aims.  He  saw,  however,  in  the  new  socialism  a  fact  of 
absolutely  different  character  from  that  for  which 
Lassalle  stood.  Of  more  importance,  however,  is  the 
daring  form  in  which  he  proposes  to  take  wind  from 
the  sails  of  his  enemies.  '  The  State, '  it  was  said,  '  shall 
be  put  fearlessly  at  the  disposal  of  the  laboring  classes.' 
Bismarck  taunted  the  socialists  with  being  negative, 
'  but  my  program,'  said  he,  '  shall  be  positive.' 

"The  positive  remedy  that  he  brings  is  the  elabo- 
rate scheme  of  compulsory  insurance  of  the  working 
classes.  .  .  . 

"  It  has  been  said,  '  Two  shots  at  the  emperor  upon 
Unter  den  Linden  are  responsible  for  the  insurance 
laws.'  " 

The  idea  of  Bismarck  was  to  prevent  the  ad- 
vance of  socialism, but  in  this  he  did  not  recognize 
that  a  thing  of  this  sort  is  tyranny  or  benefi- 
cence, according  as  it  is  put  on  the  necks  of  the 
people  by  others  or  by  themselves.  Professor 
E.  R.  L.  Gould,  of  Johns  Hopkins  University, 
thus  describes  the  measures  of  the  German  Gov- 
ernment : 

"The  first  of  these  measures  was  passed  June  15, 
1883.  It  was  modified  in  April,  1892,  in  order  to  bring 
it  into  harmony  with  the  other  insurance  laws  which 
had  in  the  mean  time  been  passed.  Sick  insurance  is 
about  to  be  extended  to  agricultural  laborers  and  to 
servants.  At  present  nearly  eight  millions  of  persons 
are  insured,  and  expenditures  for  sick  relief  amount  to 
more  than  $23,800,0x20  annually.  The  purpose  of  sick 
insurance  is  to  ensure  a  certain  and  sufficient  relief  in 
case  of  illness  during  at  least  13  weeks.  The  employee 
pays  two  thirds  of  the  sick  insurance  and  the  employer 
one  third. 

"  Accident  insurance  is  likewise  compulsory  and 
universal.  The  first  law  was  passed  July  6,  1884,  and 
dealt  chiefly  with  industrial  enterprises.  The  law  of 
May  28,  1885,  extended  accident  insurance  to  transpor- 
tation agencies.  A  subsequent  enactment,  bearing 
the  date  of  March  15, 1886,  regulates  accident  insurance 
for  State  officials,  military  officers  and  soldiers.  A 
few  months  later  there  was  a  further  extension  to 
agriculture  and  forestry,  and  it  is  on  the  eve  of  exten- 
sion to  home  industry  and  commerce.  Accident  in- 
surance is  at  the  cost  of  employers. 

"  Invalidity  and  old  age  insurance  law  was  enacted 
June  22,  i88g,  and  subjects  to  compulsory  insurance 
after  16  years  of  age  all  persons  working  for  wages  in 
every  branch  of  trade,  apprentices  and  servants  in- 
cluded, managing  officials  and  commercial  assistants 
with  regular  salaries  up  to  $476.  The  old  age  and  in- 
validity insurance  fund  is  formed  by  equal  contribu- 
tions from  employers  and  employed,  and  an  imperial 
subsidy  amounting  to  $11.90  per  annum  is  granted  to 
every  annuity." 

The  writer  says  of  the  operations  of  the  sys- 
tem : 

"  Public  opinion  now  very  generally  favors  sickness 
insurance,  regards  accident  insurance  with  compla- 


Insurance. 


Insurance. 


cency,  but  is  apparently  discontented  with  the  old  age 
and  invalidity  measure.  The  law  seems  to  be  defec- 
tive, since,  according  to  a  reliable  private  calculation, 
nearly  40  per  cent,  have  failed  to  meet  their  legal  ob- 
ligations to  contribute .  The  official  statement  reduces 
this  toi6  or  17  per  cent.  In  four  years' time  60,000  claims 
have  had  to  be  refused,  and  this  furnishes  ground  for 
criticism  and  disappointment.  Playing  sick  under  the 
insurance  laws,  which  was  originally  conceived  to  be 
a  formidable  obstacle  to  contend  with,  is  now  less  con- 
sidered, possibly  because  less  resorted  to,  possibly 


also  because  better  means  are  found  for  preventing  it- 
It  is  very  natural  that  the  unworthy  classes  should 
hasten  to  exploit  so  tempting  an  opportunity,  and  thus 
create  an  alarming  showing  during  the  first  few  years. 
There  is  reason  to  believe,  however,  that  this  was  but 
temporary,  and  that  the  phenomena  will  not  occur 
again." 

The  summary  of  this  insurance  in  1892  was  as 
follows  : 


PERSONS  INSURED,  RECEIPTS,  EXPENSES,  ETC. 

INSURANCE  AGAINST 

Sickness. 

Accidents. 

Old  Age  and  In- 
validity. 

Persons  insured  

7,273,000 
2,752,000 

$7,378,000.00 

18,000,000 
210,000 

$12,852,000.00 

11,200,000 
187,800 

$11,275,250.00 
11,275,250.00 
25,751,600.00 

5,331,200.00 
1,066,240.00 
25,751,600.00 
38,758,300.00 
28.56 
2.142 

RECEIPTS  : 
Contributions  of  employers  ....        

Contributions  of  employed  

Total  

31,416,000.00 

22,610,000.00 
1,475,600.00 
29,512,000.00 
26,180,000.00 
8-33 
3-332 

16,184,000.00 

7,735,000.00 
1,761,200.00 
12,852,000.00 
24,038,000.00 

44-°3 
.714 

EXPENDITURES: 
Benefits  

Administration  

Total  

Accumulated  funds  

Benefits  per  case  

Charges  per  person  insured  

The  report  of  the  Department  of  Labor  re- 
ferred to  says  of  the  system  : 

"  Certain  confident  claims  that  were  made  by  the 
early  leaders  in  this  legislation  are  not  only  not  ful- 
filled, but  there  is  scarcely  a  sign  that  they  will  be. 

"  i.  In  the  sense  in  which  Bismarck  used  the  word, 
there  is  little  likelihood  that  the  laborers  will  be  made 
contented  by  the  laws. 

"2.  The  hope  that  certain  classes  of  the  insured 
would  the  more  readily  go  into  the  country  from  the 
city,  or  stay  away  from  the  city  (as  their  money  would 
go  farther  in  the  country),  shows  no  hints  of  being 
fulfilled. 

"  3.  That  the  social  democracy  has  been  in  the  least 
harmed  or  checked  in  its  propaganda  very  few  would 
claim. 

"  4.  Whatever  may  be  true  in  the  future  as  a  result 
of  these  laws,  the  charity  burden  has  not  been  lighten- 
ed in  any  way  corresponding  to  the  belief  of  many 
advocates  of  the  insurance. 

"  5.  As  to  the  belief  entertained  by  many  that  the 
laborer  would  be  led  through  the  influence  of  these 
forced  contributions  to  learn  the  habit  of  saving,  it  is 
quite  certain  that  no  such  results  could  as  yet  be 
brought  forward. 

"6.  That  a  better  feeling  has  in  consequence  been 
brought  about  between  employer  and  employed  is, 
upon  the  whole,  questionable,  altho  this  (under  many 
circumstances  where  the  groups  are  not  too  large) 
is  affirmed  to  be  true. 

"It  is  fair  to  reply  that  most  of  these  disappoint- 
ments are  of  little  consequence  even  if  true,  and  also 
that  time  will  work  very  great  and  hopeful  changes. 

"There  are  many  reasons  to  believe  that  much  of 
this  faith  is  justified,  not  as  yet  on  strictly  economic 
grounds,  but  upon  grounds  that  are  more  important. 

"  There  are  indications  of  extreme  significance  that 
results  of  the  widest  social  advantage  are  to  follow 
this  very  brave  attempt  to  use  all  powers,  whether 
of  state  or  individual,  to  lessen  evils  which  none 
deny.  .  .  . 

"  The  chief  moral  effect  will  be  in  the  increasing 
sense  of  solidarity  which  the  very  attempt  to  make 
the  laws  succeed  will  intensify  and  increase. 

"  If  the  laws  had  eventually  to  be  abandoned,  this 
result  would  remain.  This  quicker  sense  of  'social 
oneness  '  is  apparent  in  the  press,  in  public  speeches, 
in  university  lectures,  in  countless  volumes  upon  every 
phase  of  the  so-called  social  question,  as  well  as  in  the 
philosophical  and  ethical  treatises.  (See  for  an  exam- 
ple Paulsen's  Ethik,  pp.  787,802,  etc.) 

"  Here  is  a  force  far  too  considerable  to  be  measured 
by  any  merely  economic  estimate. 

"  In  expressing  this  belief  in  ultimate  results  that  are 
essentially  extra-economic,  it  is  not  forgotten  that  the 


principle  of  self-help  is  put  by  these  laws  to  much  risk. 
It  is  bad  that  the  free,  friendly  associations  should  be 
made  to  suffer  as  they  unquestionably  are  by  this  form 
of  State  competition,  but  the  evidence  is  overwhelming 
that  society  is  unwilling  to  wait  for  the  self-help  in- 
stitutions to  deal  with  social  ills." 

The  disposition  is  strong  to  introduce  com- 
pulsory insurance  in  other  countries,  especially 
in  France,  where  M.  Bourgeois,  the  recent  Pre- 
mier, was  the  author  of  a  measure  for  compul- 
sory insurance  in  that  country.  In  1888  Aus- 
tralia adopted  a  system  similar  to  that  of  Ger- 
many and  Hungary  in  1891. 

What  might  be  accomplished  in  the  way  of 
furnishing  cheap  insurance  through  the  means 
of  compulsion  in  a  democratic  State  might  be 
imagined  by  the  following  statement  from  the 
Insiirance  World: 

"Mr.  Leslie  (Assistant  Actuary  Government  Insur- 
ance Department  of  New  Zealand)  recently  published 
a  study  of  The  Rates  of  Mortality  in  New  Zealand, 
covering  the  mortality  according  to  the  census,  which 
compilation  is  the  best  and  most  practical  thing  of  the 
sort  that  has  come  to  our  attention.  It  also  shows  that 
a  mortality  table  constructed  with  great  care  from  the 
data  which  the  census-takers  collected  is  not  merely 
more  favorable  than  the  tables  constructed  from  the 
census  of  any  other  country,  but  also  more  favorable 
than  the  experience  on  insxired  lives  in  any  compila- 
tion, except  in  that  of  the  Australian  Mutual  Provident 
Society.  Indeed,  so  low  is  this  experience  that  it  shows 
that  all  the  male  citizens  of  New  Zealand  could  be  in- 
sured from  age  20  at  a  net  rate  of  but  $10.96  per  $1000 
if  compulsory  insurance  existed,  all  being  taken  with- 
out regard  to  state  of  health.  Such  a  favorable  oppor- 
tunity to  test  the  virtues  of  compulsory  insurance  by 
the  State  will  probably  not  be  long  neglected,  espe- 
cially as  the  machinery  of  State  insurance  is  ready  for 
it.  The  rate  for  women  would  be  slightly  lower  than, 
even  these  figures. " 

The  cost  of  administration  could  not  be  great, 
and  it  is  probable  that  this  insurance  could  be 
furnished  at  a  total  cost  of  not  exceeding  $12 
per  $1000  without  taking  into  account  the  fact 
that  higher  rates  of  interest  than  4  per  cent. , 
upon  which  the  rate  is  based,  would  be  for  a. 
long  time  obtained.  It  must  be  taken  into  ac- 
count also  that  this  compulsory  system  would 
furnish  to  a  very  large  part  of  the  population 


Insurance. 


742 


Intemperance. 


whose  health  condition  now  prevent  their  ob- 
taining insurance  the  protection  of  which  their 
families  stand  in  need.  This  beneficent  thing 
would  be  accomplished  not  at  an  increased  cost 
to  the  healthy  and  robust,  but  instead  at  a  di- 
minished cost. 

But  this  is  not  all.  With  the  introduction  of 
compulsion  all  necessity  for  a  reserve  disap- 
pears. The  reserve  in  life  insurance  is  for  the 
purpose  of  supplying  future  premiums  when  the 
same  become  less  than  the  cost  of  insurance.  If 
a  compulsory  system  were  adopted,  this  equali- 
zation would  be  brought  about  by  collecting 
from  each  productive  member  of  the  commu- 
nity, without  regard  to  age  or  health  conditions, 
his  quota  of  the  aggregate  losses.  Actuaries 
agree  that  this  would  be  entirely  practicable  on 
the  basis  of  compulsory  insurance,  altho  entire- 
ly impracticable  when  the  young  and  healthy 
are  free  to  enter  or  not,  as  they  choose.  The 
effect  of  this  would  be  that  probably  all  persons 
in  New  Zealand,  for  instance,  could  be  perma- 
nently supplied  insurance  at  a  cost  not  much,  if 
any,  exceeding  $12  or  $13  per  $1000.  As  the 
New  Zealand  insurance  department  already 
supplies  conveniences  for  monthly  and  for  four 
weekly  payments  without  adding  any  consider- 
able sum  for  the  additional  expense,  there  seems 
to  be  no  reason  why  this  experiment  should  not 
be  tried  by  this  colony,  which  is  already  so  far 
ahead  of  the  rest  of  the  world  in  socialistic  en- 
terprise. 

In  England  nothing  has  been  done  up 
to  the  present  time,  and  there  is  little  likelihood 
that  anything  will  be  done  in  the  immediate  fu- 
ture, tho  men  of  the  ability  and  standing  of 
Secretary  Chamberlain,  Sir  John  Gorst,  Canon 
Blackley,  Charles  Booth,  and  others,  have  urged 
action.  MILES  M.  DAWSON. 

INTEMPERANCE.— For  a  discussion  of 
the  various  ways  of  dealing  with  the  social 


problem  of  intemperance,  see  HIGH  LICENSE  ; 
LOCAL  OPTION  ;  MULCT  LAW  ;  NATIONALIZATION 
OF  THE  LIQUOR  TRAFFIC  ;  NORWEGIAN  SYSTEM  ; 
PROHIBITION  ;  SOUTH  CAROLINA  DISPENSARY  SYS- 
TEM. For  the  history  of  the  temperance  move- 
ment and  the  condition  in  England,  see  TEM- 
PERANCE. For  the  extent  and  political  power  of 
the  traffic,  see  LIQUOR  TRAFFIC.  For  a  discus, 
sion  of  how  far  intemperance  is  the  cause  of 
poverty  and  crime,  see  POVERTY  ;  CRIME. 

We  consider  here  the  statistics  of  the  growth, 
prevalence,  and  cost  to  the  community  or  intem- 
perance, with  opinions  as  to  its  evil,  our  state- 
ment being  abridged  from  Mr.  George  B.  Wal- 
dron's  Prohibition  Handbook,  1896. 

I.  CONSUMPTION  OF  LIQUOR. 

The  Statistical  Abstract  of  the  United 
States  for  1895  (p.  294)  gives  the  consumption 
of  liquors  of  all  kinds  in  the  United  States  for  a 
series  of  years.  The  table  here  given  contains 
the  figures  for  the  past  20  years.  For  pur- 
poses of  comparison  the  figures  are  given  by 
decades,  from  1876-85  and  from  1886-95. 

There  was  little  change  from  the  first  decade 
to  the  second  in  the  per  capita  consumption  of 
spirits  and  wine  ;  but  the  increase  in  the  use  of 
beer  has  been  very  marked,  jumping  from  8| 
galls,  per  capita  on  the  average  in  the  first  dec- 
ade to  14  galls,  in  the  second,  which  is  a  gain 
of  over  60  per  cent.  In  the  past  four  or  five 
years  the  per  capita  consumption  of  beer  has 
been  more  than  twice  as  great  as  during  the 
first  years  of  the  period. 

It  may  be  an  aid  in  comprehending,  in  a 
measure,  the  immense  quantity  represented  in 
15,000,000,000  galls,  to  know  that  it  would  fill 
a  canal  20  ft.  wide,  10  ft.  deep,  and  1938  miles 
long,  or  of  sufficient  length  to  reach  from  New 
York  to  Denver. 


ANNUAL  CONSUMPTION  OF  INTOXICANTS.  IN  THE  UNITED  STATES  FOR  THE  PAST  20  YEARS. 


YEAR  ENDING  JUNE  30. 

AMOUNT  OF  LIQUOR  CONSUMED. 

PER  CAPITA  CONSUMPTION. 

Spirits. 

Wine. 

Beer. 

Spirits. 

Wine. 

Beer. 

Total. 

1876.. 

Gallons. 
59,983,890 
59,420,118 
51,931,941 
54,278,475 
63,526,694 
70,607,081 
73.556,976 
78,452,487 
81,128,581 
70,600,092 

72,261,614 
71,064,733 
75,845,352 
80,613,158 
87,829,562 
91,157,565 
98,328,118 
101,197,753 
90,541,209 
77,828,561 

Gallons. 
20,161,808 
21,876,330 
22,263,919 

24,377,130 
28,320,541 
24,162,925 
25,502,927 
25,778,180 
20,508,345 
21,900,457 

251567,220 
32,325,061 
36,335,068 
34,144,477 
28,956,981 

29,033,792 
28,467,860 
31,987,819 
21,293,124 
19,644,049 

Gallons. 

308,336,387 
304,927,677 
3I7,96g,352 
344,605,485 
414,220,165 
444,112,169 
526,379,980 
S5I,497,340 
590,616,517 
596,131,866 

642,967,720 
717,748,854 
767,587,056 
779>897,426 
855,792,335 
977,479,761 
987,496,223 
1,074,546,336 
1,036,319,222 
1,043,292,106 

Gallons. 

•11 
.09 
.11 
•27 
•38 
.40 
.46 
.48 
.26 

.26 

.21 
.26 
•32 
.40 
.42 
•  5<> 
•51 

•33 

.12 

GaHons. 

•45 

•47 

•47 

.50 
•56 
•47 
•49 
.48 
•37 
•39 

•45 

•55 
.61 

•5« 
.46 

•45 

•44 
.48 

3 

Gallons. 
6.83 
6.58 
6.68 
7-°5 
8.26 
8.65 
0.03 
0.27 
0-74 
0.62 

1.  20 
1.23 
2.80 
2.72 

3-67 
5-28 
5.10 
6.08 
5-i8 
4-95 

Gallons. 
8.61 
8-33 
8.24 
8.66 
0.09 
0.50 
1.92 

2.21 
2.6o 
2.26 

2.90 

3-99 
4.67 
4.60 

5-53 
7.16 
7.04 
8.04 
6.82 
6-35 

1877  

1878  

1879  

1880  

j88i  

1882  

!883  

1884.  

188"?.. 

1886  

1887  

1888  

1889  

1890....       . 

1801.. 

1892  

1893  

1804.. 

i8oK... 

1876-85  

663,486,535 
846,667,625 

234,852,562 
287,755,451 

4,398,196,928 
8,883,127,039 

•31 

•33 

.48 
.46 

8.68 
14.01 

0.45 
5-79 

1886-95  .... 

Total  

1,510,154,160 

522,608,013 

13,281,323,967 

1-32 

.46 

11.64 

I3-42 

Intemperance^ 


743 


Intemperance. 


Distilled  liquors  are  measured  by  the  Govern- 
ment in  proof  gallons,  which  indicates  that 
they  are  50  per  cent,  in  volume  of  alcohol. 
Wines  average,  say,  12  per  cent.,  and  beer  5 
per  cent.  On  this  basis  the  people  of  the  United 
States  consumed  93,446,171  galls,  of  alcohol  in 
1895,  which  is  1.34  galls,  per  capita.  In  1894 
the  consumption  of  alcohol  was  99, 641, 740  galls. , 
or  1.46  per  capita,  and  in  1893, 108,164,732  galls., 
or  1.62  galls,  of  alcohol  per  capita. 

There  are  no  reliable  data  for  the  amount  of 
wine  and  beer  used  as  a  medicine  and  in  the 
arts  and  manufactures.  The  census  of  1890 
makes  an  estimate  of  the  amount  of  distilled 
liquors  so  used  during  the  calendar  year  1889 
(see  Censtis  Bulletin  No.  22),  as  follows  :  Alco- 
hol, 6,745,152  proof  galls.  ;  Cologne  spirits, 
1,453,048  galls.  ;  high  wines,  75, 992  galls.  ;  whis- 
ky, 2,023,000;  brandy,  266,874;  rum,  189,581  ; 


gin,  222,295  :  total,  10,976,842  galls.  This  is 
12.5  per  cent,  of  the  87,829,562  galls,  of  spirits 
consumed  during  the  fiscal  year  ending  June 
30,  1890. 

BEER   PRODUCT  OF  THE   WORLD   IN    1894. 

The  tables  which  follow,  showing  the  world's 
production  of  beer  for  1894,  are  prepared  from 
statistics  gathered  and  published  by  Gam- 
brtnus,  a  beer  organ  of  Vienna,  Austria.  What 
it  means,  that  nearly  5^  thousand  million  galls, 
of  beer  were  demanded  during  the  year  for  the 
world's  consumption,  is  beyond  the  power  of  the 
mind  to  conceive.  At  the  average  retail  rate 
of  not  less  than  50  cents  a  gall. ,  to  quench  its 
beer  thirst  the  world  expended  2739  millions  of 
dollars  in  a  single  year,  a  rate  of  expenditure 
sufficient  in  less  than  18  months  to  purchase 
every  ounce  of  the  world's  great  stock  of  gold. 


COUNTRIES. 

MALT  LIQUORS  PRODUCED. 

REVENUES  COLLECTED. 

Quantities. 

Per 
Capita. 

Total. 

Per 
Capita. 

Gallons. 

1,466,129,420 

1>394>I39>3I7 
1,323,563,026 
484,938,903 
252,856,814 
223,056,827 
122,080,090 
52,273,035 
41,850,234 
39f527.44° 
34,795i838 
42,651,277 

Gallons. 
39-86 
36.02 
19.28 
15-58 
38.60 
5-82 
1.48 
24.04 
11.68 

7-93 
6.76 

$16,317,638 
46,094,192 
33,497,663 
14,160,953 
2,868,207 
3,676,430 
3,298,054 
2,081,283 

$o  44 
I  07 
o  49 
0  48 
o  44 
o  09 
o  06 
o  99 

o  13 

Great  Britain  and  Ireland  

North  and  South  America  

Austria-  Hungary  

Denmark  

The  Netherlands    

443.65° 

Other  countries  

2,399,626 

Total  .  .  . 

THE  WORLD  S   WINE  PRODUCT. 

The  following  figures  are  prepared  from  the 
Bulletin  de  Statistique  et  Legislative  Com- 


paree,  of  France,  quantities  being  converted  at 
26,417  galls,  to  the  hectoliter.  They  give  the 
average  yield  for  1893  and  1894  : 


COUNTRIES. 

Population. 

PRODUCTION  OF  WINE. 

Total 
Gallons. 

PerCapita, 
Gallons. 

France  

38,300,000 
30,500,000 
17,500,000 
49,400,000 
4,200,000 
24,900,000 
124,000,000 
39,400,000 
2,200,000 
2,900,000 
4,700,000 
18,300,000 
3,300,000 
2,200,000 
4,250,000 
5,800,000 
68,400,000 
3,300,000 
14,600,000 
1,500,000 
4,700,000 
900,000 
1,600,000 
9,000,000 

1,177,168,000 
748,446,000 
648,537,000 
137,368,000 
100,120,000 
92,460,000 
92,460,000 
47,551,000 
47,551,000 
47,551,000 
44.909,000 
40,101,000 
39,626,000 
34,342,000 
31,700,000 
29,059,000 
25,096,000 

23,775,°°° 
10,567,000 
4,227,000 
3,170,000 
3,170,000 
243,000 
766,000 

3°-74 
24-54 
37.06 
2.78 
23.84 
3-72 
•75 

1.  21 

21.  6l 

16.40 
9-55 
2.19 

12.01 

15.61 
7.46 
5.01 

•37 
7.20 
.72 
2.82 
•67 
3-52 
1.52 
-85 

Italy  -.. 

Germany  

Algeria  

Russia       .         .... 

Turkey  and  Cyprus  

Servia  

Switzerland     

Portugal  

Hungary  

Bulgaria  

Greece  

Argentine  Republic  

Roumania  

United  States  

Chile  

Brazil  ... 

Tunis  

Australia.         

Azores,  Madeira,  Canary  

Cape  of  Good  Hope  .        

Persia  

Total  

475,850,000 

3,432,150,000 

7.21 

Intemperance. 


744 


Intemperance. 


II.  THE  COST  OF  INTEMPERANCE. 

The  retail  cost  of  the  drink  traffic  was  made 
the  subject  of  a  very  careful  investigation  by 
Mr.  F.  N.  Barrett,  editor  of  The  American 
Grocer,  of  New  York  City,  for  the  Treasury 
Department,  in  1887.  Mr.  Barrett's  methods 
were  given  so  fully  that  we  have  followed  them 


substantially  in  the  estimate  for  1895  in  the  table 
which  follows.  Mr.  Barrett's  figures  for  1887 
were  practically  the  same  as  those  of  Mr.  Ed- 
ward Atkinson,  the  Boston  statistician,  for  the 
same  year.  The  figures  for  the  consumption  of 
liquors,  which  form  the  basis  of  the  estimate, 
are  taken  from  The  Statistical  Abstract  for 
1895  (page  294)  : 


ESTIMATED  RETAIL  COST  OF  THE  TRAFFIC— YEAR  ENDING  JUNE  30,  1895. 


KINDS  OF  LIQUOR. 

Gallons 
Consumed. 

ESTIMATED  RETAIL  COST. 

Internal  Rev- 
enue and  Cus- 
toms. 

Per 

Gallon. 

Total. 

Per 
Capita. 

Distilled,  domestic        

+76)3311701 
1,496,860 
1,040,259,039 
3r°33>867 
16,589,657 
3,054,392 

$5.00 
8  oo 
*.So 

*I.OO 
*2.00 

*4-oo 

$381,658,505 
11,974,880 
520,129,520 
3,033,067 
33)i79,3M 
12,217,568 

$5-47 
•17 
7.46 
.04 
.48 
•17 

$79,862,627 
2,594,366 
31,640,618 
637*512 

Fermented,  domestic  ,  

Fermented,  imported  

Wines,  domestic    

3,697,826 

Total  

1,140,764,716 

$962,192,854 

$13.79 

$118,432,949 

*  Estimates  of  Mr.  F.  N.  Barrett,  editor  of  The  American  Grocer. 

t  We  estimate  that  12^  per  cent,  of  this  is  used  in  the  arts,  manufactures,  and  sciences,  but  this  is  fully 
compensated  for  in  the  water  added  when  sold  at  retail. 


DIRECT      AND      INDIRECT    LOSS    FROM    THE 
DRINK  TRAFFIC. 


The  nation's  liquor  bill  for  1890.. 

Government  revenues  from  liquor  : 

Internal  revenues $107,695,910 

Customs ..      8,518,081 

State  and  local  revenues 24,786,496 

Total  Government  receipts   $141,000,487 
Expenses  of  collecting  (2. 65  per 

cent.) 3)736,513 

Net  Government  revenues  from 
liquor —    

Net  direct  cost  of  liquor  traffic.. 
Indirect  cost  of  liquor  traffic  : 

Loss  of  work  by  3,750,000  hard 
drinkers $132,750,000 

Loss  of  work  by  non-drinkers.    66,275,000 

Loss  from  deaths  of  45,000 
drunkards 116,289,000 

Cost  to  Government  of  pov- 
erty and  crime 68,881,110 

Private  cost  of  poverty  and 
crime 68,881,110 


$902,645,867 


1371263,974 

$765,381,893 


Total  indirect  cost  of  traffic.. 
Total  cost  of  liquor  traffic. . . 


453,076,220 


$1,218,458,113 


How  much  loss  is  occasioned  by  the  poverty 
and  crime  due  to  drink?  $91,841,480  is  spent 
by  the  State  and  local  governments  for  the 
courts,  police,  jails,  poor-houses,  and,  other 
methods  of  caring  for  the  criminals  and  pau- 
pers. Of  this  it  is  safe  to  estimate  that  at  least 
75  per  cent,  is  due  to  drink,  making  a  loss  from 
this  source  of  $68,881,110.  But  this  is  only  the 
cost  to  the  State  or  local  governments  and  does 
not  include  the  private  losses  due  to  these 
causes.  These  we  estimate  at  as  much  more — 
another  $68,881,110,  making  $137,762,220  for 
poverty  and  crime. 

A  reference  to  the  table  shows  that  the  total 
indirect  cost  of  the  traffic  from  these  sources  is 
$453,076,220,  which,  added  to  the  $765,381,893 
of  direct  cost,  makes  an  aggregate  of  $1,218,- 
458,113  of  direct  and  indirect  cost  of  the  traffic. 


III.  EVIL  EFFECTS  OF  INTEMPERANCE. 
(a)  POVERTY. 

The  twenty-third  annual  report  (1893)  of  the 
Massachusetts  Bureau  of  Statistics  of  Labor 
contains  a  special  investigation  into  the  condi- 
tion of  the  tenement  population  of  Boston.  One 
of  the  inquiries  made  was  as  to  why  the  tenants 
of  the  poorer  houses  remain  in  undesirable  con- 
ditions. The  investigation  covered  475  families 
and  2140  persons  residing  in  tenements,  or 
neighborhoods  classed  as  poor  or  bad.  The 
principal  cause  was  in  each  case  selected,  al- 
though in  some  cases  more  than  one  cause  was 
found.  The  following  table  shows,  as  the  re- 
sults of  the  inquiry,  that  more  than  42  per  cent, 
of  these  people  live  in  bad  tenements  primarily 
because  of  intemperance  : 

CAUSES     FOR    REMAINING    IN    POOR    TENE- 
MENTS. 


CAUSES. 

Num- 
ber of 
Fami- 
lies. 

Popu- 
lation. 

PERCENTAGE. 

Fami- 
lies. 

Popu- 
lation. 

Intemperance  

205 

74 

22 

53 
117 

4 

912 
290 
103 
240 
572 
23 

43.16 
15-58 
463 

II.  IO 

24.63 
0.84 

42.62 
13-55 
4.81 

11.22 
26.73 
1.07 

Low  rent  

Poverty  

Choice  

Necessity  

Nearness  to  work  
Total  

475 

2,140 

IOO.OO 

IOO.OO 

(b)    CRIME. 

A  careful  investigation  into  the  relation  of 
drink  to  crime  was  made  by  Carroll  D.  Wright, 
now  United  States  Commissioner  of  Labor, 
when  he  was  in  charge  of  the  Massachusetts  Bu- 


Intemperance. 


745 


Intemperance. 


reau  of  Labor.  He  analyzed  the  crimes  com- 
mitted in  Suffolk  County,  which  contains  the 
city  of  Boston,  for  the  year  ending  September 
i,  1880.  The  total  number  of  sentences  passed 
during  the  year  was  16,897,  of  which  12,289,  or 
72  per  cent.,  were  for  offenses  clearly  due  to 
drink,  12,221  being  for  drunkenness  and  68  for 
illegal  sales  of  liquor.  Of  the  remaining  4608 
persons  convicted  of  various  crimes,  Mr.  Wright 
found  that  2097  had  committed  them  while  under 
the  influence  of  liquor,  and  that  the  intent  to 
commit  the  crime  was  formed  by  1918  while 
under  the  influence  of  liquor.  It  was  found  in 
1804  cases  that  the  crime  was  committed  under 
conditions  induced  by  the  drinking  habits  of 
criminals,  while  in  821  cases  the  drinking  habits 
of  others  induced  the  crime  condition. 

If  the  2097,  who  were  shown  to  have  com- 
mitted their  offenses  while  under  the  influence 
of  drink,  be  added  to  the  12,289  convicted  of 
"  distinctively  rum  offenses,"  this  makes  14,386 
out  of  the  total  16,897  commitments,  or  84  per 
cent. ,  due  to  drink  particularly. 

Professor  J.  J.  McCook,  of  Trinity  College, 
Hartford,  Conn.,  in  a  paper  read  before  the 
Twentieth  Century  Club,  of  that  city,  in  1895, 
speaks  of  the  relation  of  drink  to  crime  in  these 
words  : 

"  For  12  years  the  police  arrests  for  drunkenness 
alone  averaged  in  Hartford  62.8  per  cent,  of  the  whole 
number,  while  drunkenness  and  its  allied  offenses 
numbered  80.67  per  cent.  This  proportion  is  perhaps 
somewhat  larger  than  in  most  places,  but  it  may  gen- 
erally be  expected  to  be  at  least  as  high  as  three  fifths. 

"95  to  97  out  of  every  hundred  incarcerated  in  our 
jail  are  self-confessed  drinkers,  altho  they  pleasantly 
add  'moderate'  to  the  title  ;  and  from  43.6  to  56.1  per 
cent,  of  them  are  there  specifically  for  drunkenness, 
and  fully  66  per  cent,  or  two  thirds  of  them,  are  there 
for  that  and-its  resulting  crimes.  There  were  1393  of 
them  there  last  year  out  of  a  total  of  2111. 

"  Of  the  381  captives  in  our  State  prison  last  year, 
46.8,  or  almost  half,  thought  drink  had  done  it. 

"  Take  special  phases  of  crime,  for  example  : 

"  Abuse,  neglect,  or  abandonment  of  children. 
Those  most  familiar  with  the  subject  in  this  neighbor- 
hood have  put  the  proportion  of  cases  attributable  to 
drink  at  or  beyond  two  thirds.  From  the  Pennsyl- 
vania Society  to  Protect  Children  from  Cruelty,  with 
headquarters  in  Philadelphia,  a  former  vice-president, 
in  talking  with  me,  fixed  the  proportion  roughly  at 
four  fifths  to  nine  tenths.  But  the  secretary  gives  me 
definite  statistics  for  1891-92,  showing  309  cases  of 
drink  out  of  a  total  of  864  in  1801,  and  359  out  of  987  in 
1892,  i.e.,  from  35.8  per  cent,  to  36.4  per  cent.  In  some 
previous  years  the  percentage  had  been  as  high  as  5°. 

"  Take  murder  and  homicide.  During  the  months 
of  January,  February,  and  March  of  last  year  I 
clipped  from  three  daily  papers  here  every  case  of 
murder  and  homicide  and  classified  them  according  to 
assigned  causes.  In  a  very  large  proportion  no  cause 
was  given.  All  such  were  reckoned  as  not  due  to 
drink— which  is,  of  course,  conceding  far  too  much — 
and  drink  was  charged  only  when  definitely  assigned. 
In  January  there  were  31  cases,  of  which  o  were 
due  to  drink ;  in  February  there  were  67,  of  which  10 
to  drink ;  in  March,  41,  of  which  10  to  drink.  The 
total  was  no,  with  29  cases,  or  20.9  per  cent.,  specifi- 
cally attributed  to  drink." 

The  railroads  of  the  country  recognize  the 
importance  of  having  sober  men.  The  Voice 
has  recently  collected  information  from  leading 
officials  of  45  railroads,  having  some  200,000 
employees,  or  about  one  fourth  of  the  total  num- 
ber employed  in  the  country.  Without  excep- 
tion all  agree  that,  from  their  business  experi- 
ence, "  habitual  drinking  makes  employees  less 
efficient  in  their  work."  In  reply  to  the  ques- 
tion, "  Does  your  company  forbid  the  use  of  in- 
toxicants to  employees  while  on  duty?"  all, 


without  a  single  exception,  reply  that  they  do. 
The  class  of  service  upon  which  this  requirement 
is  usually  made  is  the  train  service,  but  many 
require  this  of  all  employees. 

OTHER   OPINIONS. 

"  For  myself,  21  years  of  study  and  observation 
have  convinced  me  that  poverty  is  a  prime  cause  of 
intemperance,  and  that  misery  is  the  mother  and 
hereditary  appetite  the  father  of  the  drink  hallucina- 
tion. 

"To  the  labor  reformers  I  have  to  say,  you  have 
united  for  home  protection ;  so  have  we.  You  will 
bring  it  about  by  standing  together  at  the  ballot-box  ; 
so  shall  we.  In  the  slums  they  drink  to  forget ;  we 
would  make  life  something  they  would  gladly  remem- 
ber. We  once  said  intemperance  was  the  cause  of 
poverty  ;  now  we  have  completed  the  circle  of  truth 
by  saying  poverty  causes  intemperance,  and  that  the 
underpaid,  underfed,  undersheltered  wage-earning 
teetotaler  deserves  a  thousand  times  more  credit  than 
the  teetotaler  who  is  well  paid,  well  fed,  and  well 
cared  for.  Our  objects  are  the  same.  Let  us  clasp 
hands  in  the  unity  of  the  spirit  and  the  bond  of  peace. 

"  Ten  years  ago  I  could  not  have  said  it  honestly,  five 

nars  ago  I  could  not  have  said  it  helpfully,  but  now 
earlessly  declare  that  I  believe  it  to  be  the  right  and 
duty  of  white  ribbon  women  to  help  abolish  poverty 
in  the  largest  sense  of  that  great  phrase  ;  but  I  must  in 
the  same  breath  ask  our  friends  of  the  labor  move- 
ment to  recognize  that  our  special  work  for  the  aboli- 
tion of  poverty  consists  in  the  abolition  of  the  public- 
house  and  the  saloon."— Frances  E.  Willard,  in  her 
presidential  address  before  the  World's  W.  C.  T.  17. , 
in  London,  June,  1895. 

"  Of  drink  in  all  its  combinations,  adding  to  every 
trouble,  undermining  every  effort  after  good,  de- 
stroying the  home  and  cursing  the  young  lives  of  the 
children,  the  stories  tell  enough.  It  does  not  stand  as 
apparent  chief  cause  in  as  many  cases  (of  pauperism) 
as  sickness  or  old  age,  but  if  it  were  not  for  drink, 
sickness  and  old  age  could  be  better  met.  Drink  must 
therefore  be  accounted  the  most  prolific  of  all  the 
causes,  and  it  is  the  least  necessary."— Charles  Booth, 
in  his  book  on  Pauperism  and  the  Endowment  of  Old 
Age  (pp.  I4°i  M1-) 

'"The  destruction  of  the  poor  is  their  poverty,'  and 
the  present  licensing  system  is  a  chief  cause 'of  the 
present  time  poverty,  debasement,  and  weakness  of 
the  -poor."— John  Burns,  M.P.,  and  139  other  British 
labor  leaders,  in  an  address  supporting  the  Veto  bill  in 
1893. 

"  If  I  could  I  would  inaugurate  a  strike  that  would 
drive  the  liquor  traffic  from  the  face  of  the  earth." — 
P.  M.  Arthur,  Chief  of  the  Brotherhood  of  Locomotive 
Engineers,  in  a  speech  at  Cleveland,  O.,  March  28,  1886. 

"  The  liquor  traffic  is  responsible  for  nine  tenths  of 
the  misery  among  the  working  classes,  and  the  aboli- 
tion of  that  traffic  would  be  the  greatest  blessing 
which  could  come  to  them."—  T.  V.  Powderly,  ex-Gen- 
eral Master  Workman  of  the  Knights  of  Labor. 

"  I  am  perfectly  well  aware  that  here  and  there  in  any 
country  there  can  be  found  dens  and  hovels  in  which, 
men  and  families  devoted  to  industrial  pursuits  find 
what  they  call  their  homes.  I  have  seen  such.  I  can 
find  them  in  my  own  State,  and  probably  in  every 
State  in  the  Union.  I  can  find  them  in  England,  and 
in  every  continental  country,  but  they  are  the  excep- 
tions. In  Manchester,  England,  60  years  ago,  60,000 
factory  operatives  were  living  underground  in  cellar-  • 
ages.  To-day  you  cannot  find  one  family  belonging 
to  the  industrial  classes  living  in  such  a  hole.  I  have 
looked  into  a  thousand  homes  of  the  working  people 
of  Europe  ;  I  do  not  know  how  many  in  this  country. 
I  have  tried  to  find  the  best  and  the  worst ;  and  while, 
as  I  say,  I  am  aware  that  the  •worst  exists,  and  as  bad 
as  under  any  system  or  as  bad  as  in  any  age,  I  have 
never  had  to  look  beyond  the  inmates  to  find  the  cause  ; 
and  in  every  case,  so  far  as  my  own  observation  goes, 
drunkenness  was  at  the  bottom  of  the  misery,  and  not 
the  industrial  system  or  the  industrial  conditions  sur- 
rounding the  men  and  their  families."—  United  States 
Commissioner  Carroll  D.  Wright,  in  an  address  on 
The  Relation  of  the  Modern  System  of  Industry  to  In- 
tellectual Development  (1895). 

"  If  I  could  have  my  -way  I  would  wipe  out  every 
saloon.  The  saloon  is  the  prolific  source  of  nine 
tenths  of  the  misery,  wretchedness,  and  crime,  and  is, 
more  than  we  know,  responsible  for  the  social  evil."— 
Rev.  Charles  H.  Parkhurst,  D.D.,  in  an  interview  in 
The  Voice  of  January  16,  1896. 


Intemperance. 


746 


Interest. 


"  After  all,  if  we  hunt  vice  and  crime  back  to  their 
lairs  we  will  be  pretty  sure  to  find  them  in  the  gin- 
mill.  Drunkenness  is  the  prolific  mother  of  most  of 
the  evil-doing.  .  .  .  Drunkenness  is  the  prime  cause 
of  all  the  trouble."—  Thomas  Byrnes,  while  Superin- 
tendent of  the  New  York  Police  Department. 

For  views  and  statistics  contrary  to  this  opin- 
ion that  intemperance  is  the  main  cause  of  pov- 
erty, see  POVERTY. 

(C)   PHYSICAL   EFFECTS. 

In  the  annual  report  of  the  Registrar-General 
for  England  and  Wales  for  the  year  1893,  it  is 
stated  that  "  the  deaths  directly  ascribed  to  in- 
temperance numbered  2174,  or  73  per  1,000,000, 
which  is  the  highest  rate  on  record  ;  the  rates 
in  the  three  preceding  years  had  been  70,  71, 
and  67  per  i  ,000,000. ' '  The  deaths  reported  due 
to  intemperance  have  reference  only  to  those 
acute  forms  of  alcoholism  in  which  the  death 
could  be  immediately  traced  to  intemperance. 
Since  1869  the  death-rate  from  this  cause  has 
more  than  doubled,  being  34  per  1,000,000  in 
1869,  29  in  1870,  and  32  in  1871. 

In  the  Proceedings  of  the  Royal  Society  of 
Victoria,  published  in  Melbourne,  January, 
1894,  is  a  paper  on  The  Damage  Done  to  Mem- 
bers of  the  Medical  Profession  by  the  Abuse 
of  A  Icohol.  The  writer  has  traced  the  careers 
of  the  members  of  three  classes  graduating  at 
Melbourne  University.  Of  56  Bachelors  of 
Medicine  in  the  Class  of  1881-82,  12,  or  21  per 
cent.,  are  known  to  have  become  victims  to  an 
"  excessive  use  of  alcohol."  Of  86  in  the  Class 
of  1883-84,  10,  or  12  per  cent.,  have  become  vic- 
tims. Of  106  in  the  Class  of  1885-86,  12,  or  n 
per  cent. ,  have  become  victims. 

The  French  Academy  of  Medicine,  one  of  the 
most  illustrious  scientific  bodies  in  the  world, 
near  the  close  of  1895  adopted  the  following  reso- 
lutions proposed  by  MM.  Bergeron  and  La- 
bordi  : 

"  The  French  Academy  of  Medicine,  believing— 

"That  the  rapid  increase  in  the  amount  of  intoxica- 
tion due  to  the  manufactured  alcohols  and  the  essences 
and  liquors  which  they  help  to  compose, 

"And  that  the  artificial  'bouquets,'  oils  of  wine, 
aldehydes,  and  all  compositions  intended  for  the  arti- 
ficial manufacture  of  wines  and  liquors, 

"  Cause  a  permanent  danger  to  public  health,  and 
create,  both  directly  and  by  way  of  heredity,  im- 
pulsive and  criminal'insanity,  and  physical  and  mental 
degeneration  of  the  individual  and  of  the  race  ; 

"  That  they  constantly  attack  the  very  life  and  force 
of  the  country,  and  greatly  contribute  to  its  depopu- 
lation and  decadence ; 

"  Believing,  therefore, 

"That  it  is  urgently  necessary  in  the  interest  of 
human  and  national  honor  to  avert  as  far  as  possible 
this  danger,  and  the  evil,  already  rooted,  which  it  pro- 
duces : 

"  Believing,  on  the  other  hand,  that  science  has 
demonstrated,  both  by  experimental  study  and  by 
chemical  observation,  that  the  most  impure  and  poi- 
sonous alcohols,  whatever  may  be  their  composition 
and  source,  can  be  converted  into  the  purest  and  least 

Eoisonous  alcohol,  which  is  none  the  less  always  and 
undamentally  a  poison  ; 
"  Therefore,  be  it  resolved, 

"  That  the  absolute  rectification  of  all  alcohol  should 
be  assured  by  law  ;  .  .  .  and  that  all  products  and  com- 
positions intended  in  behalf  of  the  manufacture  of  ar- 
tificial wines  and  liquors  .  .  .  should  be  the  objects  of 
absolutely  prohibitive  legislation  ;  and  that  these  fun- 
damental measures  should  be  aided  by  others,  such  as 
the  lessening  of  the  opportunity  and  temptation,  by 
limiting  the  number  of  licenses.  .  .  ." 

Beer-drinking  Germany,  too,  is  beginning  to 
see  that  her  favorite  beverage  is  not  so  harmless 


as  certain  American  advocates  are  fond  of  de- 
claring. The  Deutsche  Versicherung-Zeitung, 
of  Berlin,  an  insurance  journal,  published  a 
lecture  delivered  March  28,  1894,  by  Dr.  Bren- 
del  before  the  Anthropological  Society  of  Mu- 
nich, in  which  he  said  : 

"  Alcohol,  which  apparently  brings  so  much  pleas- 
ure to  its  partaker,  acts  as  poison,  if  even  consumed 
in  small  doses  daily,  by  means  of  its  cumulative  ac- 
tion, as  strikingly  shown  here  in  Munich,  the  center  of 
beer  consumption,  by  the  frequent  sudden  cases  of 
death  of  apparently  healthy  men.  Fatty,  enfeebled 
hearts,  shriveled  kidneys,  fatty  or  hardened  livers, 
changes  in  the  texture  of  blood-vessels,  which  cause 
paralytic  strokes  and  softenings  of  the  brain,  by 
bursting  in  the  brain,  chronic  catarrhs  of  the  stomach 
and  bronchial  tubes,  etc.,  trembling  of  the  limbs,  ab- 
errations and  diseases  of  the  mental  faculties,  de- 
lirium tremens,  etc.— these  are  some  of  the  conse- 
quences of  an  immoderate  drinking  of  alcoholic 
stimulants.  Professor  Dr.  Bellinger  of  this  city  (Mu- 
nich) has  in  the  same  manner  proved  the  prevalence  of 
various  diseases  of  a  definite  nature  of  the  internal 
organs  caused  by  the  universal  drinking  of  beer.  A 
normal  heart  or  kidney  is  the  exception  only  here  in 
Munich.  This  state  of  affairs  also  injures  the  progeny 
in  a  most  serious  manner.  Dr.  Demme  found  that  of 
the  children  of  non-drinkers,  82  per  cent,  were  sound, 
while  of  those  of  drinkers  only  17  per  cent,  were 
sound.  Germany  spends  at  present  2,500,000,000  marks 
annually  for  alcoholic  beverages !  [About  $600,000,- 
ooo  ;  population  about  50,000,000. — Editor. ~\  Altho  large 
quantities  of  beverages  were  drunk  formerly,  still 
only  in  the  last  century,  and  more  especially  only  in 
the  last  decades,  in  which  the  brewer  s  art  was  per- 
fected, drinking  has  become  universal.  It  has  spread 
everywhere  and  increased  to  a  frightful,  most  alarm- 
ing extent.  It  has  been  introduced  even  into  country 
communities,  and  the  only  inevitable  consequence 
will  be  the  thorough  degeneration  of  the  human  race,  if 
the  evil  is  not  checked  before  it  is  too  late.  Altho  it  is 
contended  that  beer  contains  less  alcohol  than  either 
wine  or  whiskey,  it  is  nevertheless  as  injurious  as 
either  of  them,  while  its  vaunted  nutritive  value 
stands  in  no  proportion  to  its  price.  When  a  man  is 
required  to  perform  the  greatest  feats  of  corporeal  ex- 
ertions, in  battle,  sport,  explorations,  etc.,'  the  baleful 
effect  of  alcohol  is  most  strikingly  shown.  English 
life  insurance  companies  divide  their  risks  into  two 
classes,  the  non-drinkers  and  the  drinkers,  and  the 
average  of  expected  mortality  has  for  several  years 
been  only  71  per  cent,  for  the  former,  therefore  29  per 
cent,  less  than  that  of  the  latter.  Taking  the  rate  of 
mortality  at  10,000.  of  this  unit  die  :  Farmers,  630  ;  brew- 
ers, 1361  ;  saloon-keepers,  1521  ;  waiters  (of  both  sexes)  in 
barrooms  and  saloons,  2205.  In  spite  of  the  marvelous 
advantages  of  our  present  age,  a  great  retrogression, 
in  an  ethical  sense,  is  undeniable,  the  chief  cause  of 
which  is  principally  due  to  the  increase  of  drunken- 
ness, because  the  beer  saloon  has  become  the  center 
and  focus  of  social  life." 

Reference  :  See  TEMPERANCE. 

INTEREST,  as  the  word  is  popularly  used, 
may  be  denned  as  the  price  paid  for  the  use  of 
money.  In  exacter  thought  it  is  the  price  paid 
for  the  use  of  capital  (money  or  any  other  form 
of  capital).  It  is  identical  with  the  original  mean- 
ing of  the  word  usury,  which,  according  to  all 
lexicographers,  originally  meant  not,  as  now, 
exorbitant  interest,  but  any  interest  at  all, 
usury  being  what  was  paid  for  using  money. 
When  the  Old  Testament  forbids  usury,  it  is  in- 
terest that  is  forbidden — taking  any  pay  for  the 
use  of  money.  But  this  raises  a  question  we 
shall  not  here  discuss.  (For  a  discussion  of  the 
rightfulness  or  wrongfulness  of  taking  interest 
and  for  a  history  of  that  question  in  ethics,  see 
USURY.)  We  here  ask  simply  what  part  does 
interest  play  in  modern  economic  relations  ; 
what  are  the  laws  which  govern  it,  and  how 
may  they  be  used  for  the  social  good  ? 

Here  we  must,  however,  sharply  notice  several 
important  distinctions.  The  capitalist  who  in- 


Interest. 


747 


Interest. 


vests  money  to-day  usually  gets  more  than  mere 
payment  for  the  use  of  his  money.  Why  this  is 
so  it  is  easy  to  see  by  considering  the  case  first 
not  of  a  lender  of  money,  but  of  a  corpora- 
tion or  company  in  business  to  make  money. 
To  do  this  at  the  start,  it  often,  perhaps  usu- 
ally, has  to  borrow  money.  It  does  this,  hop- 
ing out  of  its  business  to  pay  not  only  for 
the  use  of  the  money  borrowed,  but  also  to 
clear  some  profits  for  itself.  If  it  were  not 
for  this  hope  it  would  not  borrow  the  money 
or  go  into  business.  It  can  thus  be  seen  that 
interest  or  what  it  pays  for  the  use  of  borrowed 
money  and  profits  for  itself  are  two  distinct 
things.  Interest  may  be  and  often  is  at  6  per 
cent.,  when  profits  are  at  12  or  more.  It  is,  of 
course,  often  true  that  in  a  business  there  may 
not  be  for  a  long  time,  and  possibly  may  never 
be,  any  profits.  The  business  may  be  run  sim- 
ply paying  rent,  wages,  and  interest ;  but  this 
is  only  done  for  a  while,  because  it  is  hoped 
that  eventually  profits  will  accrue.  Thus  hav- 
ing seen  the  distinction  between  profits  and  in- 
terest in  the  case  of  a  business  corporation,  we 
can  now  see  that  they  are  still  distinct  even 
when  paid  to  the  same  person.  A  corporation 
or  individual  may  have  money  enough  to  fur- 
nish their  own  capital  without  borrowing. 
They,  in  this  case,  may  be  said  to  borrow  of 
themselves.  They  expect,  therefore,  not  only 
profits,  but  interest  on  the  money  they  put  in. 
They  expect  this  because  capital,  under  compe- 
tition, can  always  command  some  interest 
(whatever  the  market  rate  is),  and  they  go  into 
business  only  because  they  expect  to  get  some- 
thing more  than  the  mere  rate  paid  for  the  use 
of  money  ;  they  expect  to  get  some  profit  out  of 
their  especial  venture  or  undertaking.  Interest 
and  profits  (?.v.)  are  thus  distinct. 

We  must  now  see  another  distinction.  Some 
trades  are  more  risky  and  uncertain  and  per- 
haps more  dangerous  than  others.  Those  who 
invest  money  in  such  pursuits,  therefore,  de- 
mand and  can  get  extra  pay  for  running  an  un- 
usual risk.  They  can  get  this,  for  otherwise 
they  would  prefer  to  put  their  money  in  safer 
ventures.  Hence  besides  ordinary  interest  or 
payment  for  the  use  of  money,  they  get  extraor- 
dinary interest  or  payment  for  their  risk.  Hence 
such  interest  is  really  made  up  of  two  elements  : 
(i)  payment  for  the  use  of  money — interest 
proper  ;  and  (2)  indemnity  for  risk.  Thus,  a 
corporation  or  individual  has  to  pay,  besides 
wages,  and  rent,  and  interest  proper  on  its  capi- 
tal, an  indemnity  for  its  risks  and  profits  or 
dividends  (if  it  has  stockholders)  on  its  business. 
In  economic  thought  the  general  word  interest 
is  generally  used  to  cover  the  indemnity  for 
extra  risks,  and  the  expression  interest  proper 
is  used  for  interest  in  its  narrower  sense  of  the 
ordinary  payment  for  the  use  of  money.  We 
shall  so  use  the  terms  in  this  article. 

We  come  now  to  ask  what  are  the  laws  which 
govern  interest  ?  Interest,  under  competition, 
is  governed,  in  the  first  place,  by  the  law  of 
supply  and  demand.  When  there  is  much  loan- 
able capital,  interest  falls  ;  where  there  is  much 
demand  for  capital,  interest  rises. 

Says  Professor  Marshall  (Economics  of  Indus- 
try}: 

"Combining   the  laws  of  supply  and  demand  we 


get  the  law  of  the  normal  rate  of  interest,  which  is  : 
When  the  economic  conditions  of  a  country  have  been 
nearly  uniform  for  along  period  of  time, 
the  supply  of  capital  is  such  that  the 
rate  of  interest  which  can  be  obtained       Laws  of 
for  it  is  that  which  has  been  required  to      Interest. 
cause  this  supply  to  be   forthcoming  ; 
and  the  rate  thus  determined  is  the  nor- 
mal rate.    The  rate  is  in  equilibrium  when  it  is  just 
that  at  which  the  whole  supply  of  capital  can  find 
employment." 

From  this  general  statement  many  minor 
truths  follow.  First,  interest  (including  in  it 
payment  for  risk)  varies  with  the  risk  of  losing 
the  capital  invested.  Where  this  risk  is  at  all 
serious,  interest  grows  very  high.  Unstable 
governments  like  Turkey  or  Egypt,  or  "  shaky 
concerns"  or  doubtful  parties  pay  sometimes 
enormous  rates  of  interest.  The  poor  always 
have  to  pay  higher  risks  than  the  rich.  Four 
or  5  per  cent,  a  month  (48  and  60  per  cent,  a 
year)  are  not  uncommon  rates  in  pawnbrokers' 
shops.  Forty  dollars  are  not  unfrequently  paid 
by  the  poor  in  a  few  months  for  a  first  loan  of 
$20  or  less.  Second,  interest  varies  with  the 
length  of  time  for  which  the  capital  is  borrowed. 
People  want  proportionate  compensation  for 
the  trouble  of  frequent  transference  of  capital 
and  their  risk  of  being  unable  to  replace  at 
once.  Money  on  short-time  loans  will  be  often 
three  times  long-time  rates.  Here  again  the 
poor,  who  borrow  to  meet  immediate  necessi- 
ties, are  often  at  great  disadvantage.  Third, 
interest  tends  to  an  equality  in  different  trades. 

Says  Professor  Jevons,  in  his  Primer  of  Po- 
litical Economy  : 

"The  most  important  fact  about  interest  is  that  it  is 
the  same  in  one  business  as  in  another.  The  rates  of 
profit  differ  very  much,  it  is  true,  but  this  is  because 
the  labor  of  superintendence  is  different,  or  because 
there  is  greater  risk  in  one  trade  than  another.  But 
the  true  interest  is  the  same,  because  capital,  being 
lent  in  the  form  of  money,  can  be  lent  to  one  trade 
just  as  easily  as  to  another.  There  is  nothing  in  circu- 
lating capital  which  fits  it  for  one  trade  more  than 
another  ;  accordingly  it  will  be  lent  to  that  trade  which 
offers  ever  so  little  more  interest  than  other  trades. 
Thus  there  is  a  constant  tendency  to  the  equality  of 
interest  in  all  branches  of  industry." 

Fourth,  interest  tends  to  obey  the  so-called 
law  of  diminishing  returns  (q.v.).  As  civiliza- 
tion advances,  the  price  for  the  use  of  money 
falls,  for  various  reasons  :  (a)  Because  stability 
and  confidence,  as  a  rule,  increase,  and  less  and 
less  of  the  element  of  payment  for  risk  enters 
into  the  payment  for  money  ;  (b)  because  as 
society  grows  wealthy  the  supply  of  capital  in- 
creases in  proportion  to  the  demand — how  this 
is  modified  we  shall  see  later  ;  (c)  because  capi- 
tal applied  to  land  already  well  cultivated  causes 
in  general  a  less  than  proportionate  increase  in 
the  return,  or,  as  we  may  say,  it  will  obtain  a 
diminishing  return.  This  last  element  is  called 
by  some  economists  exclusively  the  law  of  di- 
minishing return  (q.v.).  How  all  these  laws 
are  modified  by  the  advance  of  civilization  in 
opening  up  new  channels  for  the  employment 
of  capital  we  shall  in  a  moment  see.  But  it  is 
necessary  to  note  this  law,  for  it  is  made  much 
of  by  writers  like  Edward  Atkinson,  who  assert 
that  capital  is  always  getting  a  less  and  less 
portion  in  distribution,  and  labor  always  more 
and  more. 

It  is  true  of  interest  as  the  price  paid  for  the 
use  of  capital ;  it  is  only  partially  true  of  the 


Interest. 


748 


Interest. 


whole  share  of  capital.  The  latter,  as  we  have 
seen,  includes  interest  proper  and  profit  or  divi- 
dends. Now,  interest  proper  may  decrease  and 
yet  dividends  increase.  A  fall  in  the  current 
rate  of  interest,  says  G.  Bernard  Shaw,  indicates 
rather  ' '  a  tendency  of  the  real  interest  or  share 
of  capital  to  increase.  Current  rates  of  interest 
we  all  know  tend  to  fall  with  increase  of  popula- 
tion ;  yet  at  the  same  time  the  market  value  of 
established  stock  rises  with  increasing  popula- 
tion, rises,  therefore,  as  the  current  rates  fall. 
The  current  rate,"  he  says,  "  must,  under  pres- 
ent conditions,  eventually  fall  to  zero,  and  even 
become  '  negative. '  By  that  time  shares  which 
now  bring  in  a  dividend  of  100  per  cent,  may 
very  possibly  bring  in  200  or  more." 

Capital,  by  being  invested  in  established 
stocks,  may  thus  be  getting  larger  dividends, 
altho  the  popular  rate  of  interest  be  falling. 
Again,  tho  the  rate  of  both  dividends  and  popu- 
lar interest  be  falling,  the  return  to  the  wealth 
of  a  few  individuals  may  be  steadily  gaining, 
because  the  amount  of  the  principal  on  which 
they  draw  grows  rapidly.  Two  per  cent,  on 
$1,000,000  is  better  than  10  per  cent,  on  $1000. 
While  millionaires  are,  as  at  present,  yearly  add- 
ing millions  to  their  principal,  it  is  small  comfort 
to  the  poor  to  be  shown  by  Mr.  Atkinson  that 
the  rate  of  interest  or  even  of  dividends  may 
be  slightly  falling. 

Coming  now  to  ask  what  are  the  present  rates 
of  interest,  Professor  Jevons,  writing  in  1878, 
says  (Primer  of  Political  Economy) : 

"  The  rates  of  interest  actually  paid  in  business  vary 
very  much,  from  i  or  2  per  cent,  up  to  50  per  cent,  or 
more.  When  the  rate  is  above  5  or  6  per  cent.,  it  will 
be  to  some  extent  not  true  interest,  but  compensation 
for  the  risk  of  losing  the  capital  altogether.  To  learn 
the  true  average  rate  of  interest,  we  must  inquire  what 
is  paid  for  money  lent  to  those  who  are  sure  to  pay  it 
back,  and  who  give  property  in  pledge,  so  that  there 
may  be  no  doubt  about  the  matter.  It  seems  probable 
that  the  true  average  rate  of  interest  in  England  is  at 
present  about  4  per  cent.,  but  it  varies  in  different 
countries,  being  lower  in  England  and  Holland  than 
anywhere  else." 

Says  Professor  Marshall  more  recently  {Eco- 
nomics of  Industry)  : 

"  The  normal  rate  of  interest  in  England  does  not 
seem  likely  to  deviate  much  from  4  per  cent,  for  some 
time  to  come  ;  but  it  may  be  slo\yly  altered  by  changes 
in  the  field  of  employment,  while  the  market  rate  of 
interest  is  oscillating  rapidly  up  and  down  on  either 
side  of  the  normal  rate  as  a  center.  ...  A  rate  of  8 
per  cent,  on  sound  investments  has  spread  like  a  wave 
steadily  over  the  greater  part  of  the  North  American 
continent ;  and  this  is  being  followed  by  waves  of  7  and 
of  6  and  even  5  per  cent,  interest  that  have  already 
started  on  their  way  westward  and  southward  from  the 
Northern  Atlantic  States." 

Concerning  the  future,  he  says  : 

"  It  is  difficult  to  forecast  the  distant  future  of  the 
rate  of  interest.  Hitherto  the  progress  of  civilization 
has  increased  the  willingness  to  save  at  a  low  rate.  In 
old  countries,  in  which  men  are  accustomed  to  work 
patiently  for  small  gains  and  to  value  highly  the 
possession  of  a  secure  income,  a  low  rate  of  interest 
seems  to  have  little  effect  n  checking  the  accumula- 
tion of  capital.  In  England,  for  instance,  in  spite  of 
the  low  rate  of  interest,  the  capital  of  the  country  is 
increasing  at  the  average  rate  of  about  .£200,000,000  an- 
.nually  ;  that  is,  by  a  little  more  than  a  thirtieth  of  its 
total  amount.  If  this  rate  of  increase  were  sustained 
for  400  years,  the  capital  owned  by  Englishmen  would 
be  multiplied  a  millionfold,  and  in  800  years  a  billion- 
fold.  But  however  high  the  hopes  we  may  have  of  the 
future  progress  of  the  arts  of  production,  we  cannot 
suppose  that  there  will  ever  be  a  field  for  the  profitable 
employment  of  as  much  capital  as  this.  Sooner  or 


later  the  rapid  growth  of  capital  must  increase  the 
competition  of  capital  for  the  aid  of  labor,  and  dimin- 
ish the  competition  of  labor  for  the  aid  of  capital." 

Professor  Marshall  therefore  concludes  that 
the  share  that  capital  may  draw  from  produc- 
tion will  probably  tend  to  be  less,  and  so  inter- 
est falls.  He  thinks,  however,  that  it  will  not 
fall  rapidly  to  a  minimum,  but  fall  slowly,  and 
the  rate  of  fall  become  slower  and  slower  as  it 
approaches  the  minimum.  A  recent  illustration 
in  the  United  States  of  the  lowering  of  interest 
is  the  refunding  in  February,  1897,  of  some 
forty  odd  millions  of  maturing  7  per  cent,  bonds 
of  the  Lake  Shore  Railway  in  a  3^  per  cent, 
loo-year  gold  issue  limited  to  $50,000,000. 

But  it  must  not  be  thought  that  the  problem  of 
interest  will  be  removed  from  the  world  while 
wealth  goes  on  amassing,  as  it  has  in  England 
and  New  York  City  for  examples,  with  the 
consequent  increasing  returns  to  the  fortunate 
few  in  spite  of  falling  interest. 

Indeed,  the  fall  of  interest  accompanied  by 
the  amassing  of  wealth  rather  intensifies  many 
of  the  problems  involved  in  interest,  because 
when  the  rate  of  interest  is  low,  it  takes  a  very 
large  capital  to  produce  the  income  demanded 
by  many  modern  families.  Hence  there  results 
an  increasing  dissatisfaction  with  small  capital 
and  a  more  feverish  and  intenser  struggle  to 
earn,  and  perhaps  quite  as  likely  to  inherit  or 
by  fortunate  speculation  to  acquire  large  for- 
tunes. This  very  dissatisfaction  tends  to  induce 
a  willingness  on  the  one  hand  to  run  large  risks 
and  deal  in  speculative  interests,  which  makes 
interest  a  little  higher,  and  also  tends  to  create 
a  demand  for  socialistic  and  other  reforms, 
which  again  tends  to  raise  interest  by  making 
investments  insecure  and  profits  uncertain. 
Only  very  large  capitals  and  strong  houses 
and  corporations  can  stand  hard  times  and 
low  rates  of  interest.  Thus  in  the  question  of 
the  future  of  interest  is  involved  the  whole 
social  movement. 

All  we  can  do  is  to  note  the  laws  which  at 
present  govern  the  rate  of  interest.     Besides 
those  above  noted,  or,  rather,  as  special  appli- 
cations of  those  laws,  we  may  see 
that  every  invention  or  discovery 
tends,  for  a  while  at  least,  to  raise       Other 
interest  because  it  creates  a  new     Factors, 
demand  for  capital  to  put  the  in- 
vention in  operation.  ^It  may,  how- 
ever, eventually  lower  interest  because  it  may 
enable  men  to  produce  with  much  less  expen- 
sive plant.    The  general  tendency  of  invention, 
however,  has  been  to  cheapen   production  by 
increasing  the  cost  and  extent  of  plant  to  enable 
the  producer  to  very  much  increase  the  volume 
of  his  product,  and  so  make  greater  profits  by 
selling  at  lower  rates.     The  invention  of  steam 
transportation  has  cheapened  products,  but  has 
enormously  increased  the  demand  for  capital. 
Density  of  population,  too,  tends  to  increase  the 
opportunity  to  use  capital.     So,  too,  does  the 
raising  of  the  standard    of    living.     Marshall 
points  out  that  when  a  community  begins  to 
outgrow  its  primitive   cheap  buildings  and  de- 
mands  expensive   buildings,  the    demand    for 
capital  rises,  and  with  it  the  rate  of  interest.  One 
other  factor  and  a  general  conclusion  Marshall 
states  in  these  words  : 


Interest. 


749 


Interest. 


"  There  is  also  the  demand  for  the  loan  of  wealth  by 
persons  or  States  who  do  not  intend  to  use  it  produc- 
tively, but  who  mortgage  their  future  incomes  to  en- 
able them  to  increase  their  expenditure  in  the  present. 
This  part  also  of  the  demand  for  capital  will  be  the 
greater  the  lower  the  rate  of  interest  at  which  loans 
can  be  obtained. 

•  "  We  see  then  that  the  demand  for  capital  depends 
on  the  numbers  of  the  population,  the  natural  re- 
sources of  the  country,  the  scope  that  the  arts  of  pro- 
duction afford  for  the  employment  of  auxiliary  capi- 
tal, and  the  needs  of  unproductive  consumers." 

PROPOSED    REFORMS. 

Such  being  the  main  laws  which  govern  inter- 
est, we  come  now  to  ask  how  they  may  be  used 
for  the  social  'good.  The  advantage  of  low  in- 
terest to  a  community  is  apparent.  It  may  in- 
deed be  abused  by  persons  borrowing  when  they 
would  do  better  not  to  borrow  ;  but  this  is  a 
matter  of  education,  and  is  overbalanced  by  the 
stimulus  which  low  interest  gives  to  production, 
the  employment  of  labor,  and  the  development 
of  natural  resources,  with  all  the  accompanying 
advantages.  Therefore  many  schemes  have 
been  proposed  looking  to  the  lowering  of  inter- 
est. The  oldest  and  seemingly  the  simplest  of 
these  is  for  government  to  enact  laws  forbidding 
interest  above  a  fixed  rate.  This  was  in  the 
Middle  Ages,  and  until  recent  times  the  univer- 
sal custom,  due  in  part  to  the  medieval  belief 
that  interest  was  wrong  (see  USURY)  ;  and  in 
part  to  a  paternal  theory  of  government,  accord- 
ing to  which  the  State  should  aid  the  poor.  To- 
day few  believe  in  this  method.  It  is  seen  that 
practically  its  only  effect  is  to  raise  and  not 
lower  the  price.  We  quote  on  this  point  a  classi- 
cal passage  from  J.  S.  Mill  (Political  Economy, 
Book  V. ,  chap.  x. ,  §  2) : 

"  It  is,  however,  a  misapprehension  of  the  causes 
which  influence  commercial  transactions  to  suppose 
that  the  rate  of  interest  is  really  made  lower  by  law 
than  it  would  be  made  by  the  spontaneous  play  of 
supply  and  demand.  If  the  competition  of  borrowers 
left  unrestrained  would  raise  the  rate  of  interest  to  6 
per  cent.,  this  proves  that  at  5  there  would  be  a  greater 
demand  for  loans  than  there  is  capital  in  the  market 
to  supply.  If  the  law  in  these  circumstances  permits 
no  interest  beyond  5  per  cent.,  there  will  be  some 
lenders  who,  not  choosing  to  disobey  the  law,  and  not 
being  in  a  condition  to  employ  their  capital  otherwise, 
will  content  themselves  with  the  legal  rate  ;  but  oth- 
ers, finding  that  in  a  season  of  pressing  demand  more 
may  be  made  of  their  capital  by  other  means  than 
they  are  permitted  to  make  by  lending  it,  will  not  lend 
it  at  all ;  and  the  loanable  capital,  already  too  small 
for  the  demand,  will  be  still  further  diminished.  Of 
the  disappointed  candidates  there  will  be  many  at 
such  periods  who  must  have  their  necessities  supplied 
at  any  price,  and  these  will  readily  find  a  third  section 
of  lenders,  who  will  not  be  averse  to  join  in  a  viola- 
tion of  the  law,  either  by  circuitous  transactions  par- 
taking of  the  nature  of  fraud,  or  by  relying  on  the 
honor  of  the  borrower.  The  extra  expense  of  the 
roundabout  mode  of  proceeding,  and  an  equivalent 
for  the  risk  of  non-payment  and  of  legal  penalties, 
must  be  paid  by  the  borrower,  over  and  above  the 
extra  interest  which  would  have  been  required  of  him 
by  the  general  state  of  the  market  The  laws  which 
were  intended  to  lower  the  price  paid  by  him  for  pe- 
cuniary accommodation  end  thus  in  greatly  increas- 
ing it.  These  laws  have  also  a  directly  demoralizing 
tendency. 

"  Such  restriction,  altho  approved  by  Adam  Smith, 
has  been  condemned  by  all  enlightened  persons  since 
the  triumphant  onslaught  made  upon  it  by  Bentham 
in  his  Letters  on  Usury,  which  may  still  be  referred 
to  as  the  best  extant  writing  on  the  subject." 

Another  popular  method  for  lowering  the  rate 
of  interest,  agitated  in  the  United  States  since 
the  war,  has  been  the  issue  of  paper  currency 
by  the  Government  or  by  some  means  the  in- 


creasing of  the  currency  of  the  country,  thus 
aiming  to  increase  the  amount  of  capital  to  be 
loaned,  and  thus  to  lower  interest.  But  the 
wisdom  or  unwisdom  of  this  depends  wholly  on 
how  it  is  done,  and  so  we  consider  it  under  EX- 
PANSION AND  CONTRACTION  OF  CURRENCY.  It 
should  be  noted  here  simply  that  if  the  rate  of 
interest  depend  on  confidence,  as  we  have 
stated  above,  no  amount  of  increase  of  currency 
will  lower  interest,  if  the  currency  be  depreciat- 
e.d  or  break  public  confidence.  This  is  the  dan- 
ger of  that  plan.  If  this  could  be  avoided,  and 
it  seemed  advisable  for  other  reasons,  it  would 
doubtless  lower  interest. 

A  third  popular  method  for  lowering  interest, 
and  one  recently  much  agitated,  is  for  the  Gov- 
ernment to  make  loans  to  people  directly  on  se- 
curity of  any  form  of  property.  It  is  said  that 
if  the  Government  makes  loans  to  the  bankers 
to  furnish  the  banking  system  of  this  country, 
and  out  of  this  the  bankers  make  large  profit  by 
reloaning  the  money  sometimes  at  high  interest, 
there  is  no  reason  why  the  Government  should 
not  do  the  same  by  all  classes,  instead  of  com- 
pelling all  others  to  go  to  this  one  favored  class 
of  money  brokers  whenever  they  need  to  bor- 
row. There  have  been  various  plans  proposed 
for  governmental  loans,  usually  at  2  per  cent. 
The  agricultural  class  has  been  especially  active 
in  urging  such  plans,  and  especially  the  so- 
called  sub-treasury  plan  (y.v.),  by  which  Gov- 
ernment should  lend  at  2  per  cent,  on  agricul- 
tural produce  brought  to  appointed  Government 
elevators  or  storehouses.  This  is  by  no  means 
a  merely  popular  and  unscientific  scheme.  At 
the  meeting  of  the  American  Economic  Asso- 
ciation, August  23-26,  1892,  Professor  Commons 
said  (Report  of  Proceedings,  p.  70) : 

"That  seems  to  me  the  most  scientific  plan  put  for- 
ward by  any  writer  or  thinker.  .  .  .  The  sub-treasury 
will  give  an  elastic  currency.  I  do  not  want  to  favor 
a  scheme  like  this  on  my  own  responsibility  ;  but  the 
fact  is  that  this  very  scheme  is  in  operation,  and  has 
been  for  about  six  years  in  Russia.  It  is  not  a  new 
thing  even  in  this  country.  In  colonial  times  Mary- 
land and  Virginia  had  a  sub-treasury  plan.  They  had 
warehouses  where  tobacco  could  be  stored,  and  the  — 
farmer  was  given  a  certificate,  which  was  legal  tender 
throughout  the  colonies.  It  circulated  as  money,  but 
it  did  not  represent  the  faith  of  the  Government ;  it 
represented  goods  which  were  stored— just  what  the 
farmer  wants  to-day." 

Perhaps  the  only  obstacle  to  the  plan  is  one  of 
administration,  and  the  question  why  the  same 
plan  should  not  be  applied  to  all  commodities  as 
well  as  agricultural,  and  therefore,  when  it  comes 
to  that,  if  there  cannot  be  a  different  scheme  of 
governmental  socialism,  whereby  interest  shall 
not  be  reduced,  but  practically  abolished. 

Fearing  that  this  scheme  thus  directly  leads 
to  socialism,  most  individualists  and  all  con- 
servatives oppose  it,  and  would  trust  simply  to 
the  competition  of  capitalists  to  lower  interest,  < 
a  competition  which  they  say  has  already  low- 
ered interest,  so  that  stable  governments  can 
now  loan  money  at  3  per  cent. ,  and  which  they 
say  will  gradually  still  lower  all  interest,  if  con- 
fidence is  not  upset  by  sub-treasury  paper  money 
and  socialistic  schemes. 

To  this  it  is  answered  that  competition  of  capi- 
tal cannot  be  trusted,  because  we  are  having  to- 
day the  combination  of  capital.  Wherefore 
some  socialists  would  practically  abolish  interest 


Interest. 


75° 


Internal  Revenue. 


case.  Extensive  reductions  were  made  after 
the  war  had  ceased,  by  various  acts  in  1866, 
1867,  and  1868.  Further  reductions  were  made 
in  1872,  when,  among  others,  stamp  taxes,  ex- 
cept that  of  two  cents  on  checks,  drafts,  and  or- 
ders were  abolished.  Various  acts  since  1872 
have  reduced  the  subjects  of  internal  revenue 
taxation  to  their  present  numbers,  tobacco, 
spirits,  fermented  liquors,  bank  circulation,  and, 
by  act  of  August  2,  1886,  oleomargarine.  The 
following  is  a  table  of  receipts  from  internal 
revenue  taxes  from  1792-1865,  up  to  1820  by  cal- 
endar years,  and  after  that  by  fiscal  years  end- 
ing June  30. 

INTERNAL  REVENUE. 


by  having  all  capital  owned  by  the  nation  or 
community  and  individual  wealth  be  obtained 
only  by  a  system  of  labor  checks.  (See  SOCIAL- 
ISM.) A  large  number  of  socialists,  however, 
with  other  social  reformers  would  not  favor  di- 
rect attempts  to  either  reduce  or  abolish  inter- 
est, but  simply  by  steadily  expanding  the  sphere 
of  the  democratic  State  in  and  over  industry 
gradually  reduce  the  sphere  of  and  demand  for 
private  capital,  and  hence  steadily  reduce  inter- 
est till  it  finally  fell  to  nil.  The  mere  nation- 
alization of  railroads,  it  is  claimed,  would  cut 
off  such  a  large  opportunity  for  the  investment 
of  money  as  to  leave  no  adequate  field  for  the 
enormous  fortunes  of  to-day,  and  so  compel  the 
rapid  decline  of  interest.  Still  another  class  of 
thinkers  (see  SINGLE  TAXERS)  believe  that  inter- 
est may  be  lowered  by  freeing  land  values,  and 
so  making  the  producer  less  dependent  upon 
the  capitalist.  (See  CAPITAL  ;  USURY,  etc.) 

INTERNAL  REVENUE.— That  part  of 
the  revenue  or  income  of  a  country  which  is 
derived  from  duties  on  articles  manufactured 
or  grown  at  home.  In  the  United  States,  the 
principal  receipts  are  now  from  spirits,  tobacco, 
and  fermented  liquors.  (For  early  internal 
revenue  laws  and  for  English  laws,  see  EXCISE.) 

The  Civil  War  forced  a  renewal  of  the  inter- 
nal revenue  system,  and  in  1861  a  direct  tax  of 
$20,000,000  was  apportioned  among  the  States, 
tho  it  was  not  collected  till  a  year  later.  On 
July  i,  1862,  an  exhaustive  internal  revenue  act 
was  passed,  levying  taxes  on  all  sorts  and  kinds 
of  articles  too  numerous  to  mention,  on  trades, 
incomes,  sales,  manufactures, legacies, etc., and 
the  people  submitted  to  the  necessities  of  the 

SUMMARY  OP  INTERNAL  REVENUE  RECEIPTS  FROM  1865  TO  1895,  INCLUSIVE. 


YEAR. 

Amount. 

1798  .        .  .               

l8oO.                              .       *... 

1801         

1802  

621,898.89 

1803     

1814              

1,662,984  82 

1815  

1816  

1817....         

1818  

1819  

1820.  .          .    .              .  .            ...           

Z863  

1864  

!86s       

FISCAL  YEARS. 

Spirits. 

Tobacco. 

Fermented 
Liquors. 

Banks  and 
Bankers. 

Penalties, 
Oleomarga- 
rine, etc. 

Adhesive 
Stamps. 

Collections 
Under  Re- 
pealed Laws. 

1865  

08  i 

$160,638,180 

1866  

1867  

•"*_      »    7 

*     '        ft 

1868  

1     c      Rfin 

1,866  746 

1,256,882 

1869  

1870.  .. 

1°99» 

1871  

46,281  848 

1872  

1873  

1874  .  .  . 

764,880 

1875  

281,108 

1876  

6,518,488 

1877  

238,261 

1878  

1879  

3,198,884 

1880  

1881  

1882  

69  873  408 

1883  

16         616 

71,852 

1884  

265,068 

1885  

1886        

1887     

4,288 

29,283 

1888     

9,548 

1889... 

0,179 

83,893 

1890  

81,682,970 

69 

135,555 

iSgi  

256,214 

l892  

239,532 

I&tt... 

31,843,556 

l66,9I5 

1894  

28,617,899 

31,414,788 

2 

1,876,509 

J895      

1,960,794 

Total  31  Years  ... 

$1,884,755,870 

$986,681,730 

$481,253,954 

$67)7I9i947 

$16,944,660 

$197,838,124 

$1,207,070,330 

Aggregate  receipts,  1865-95  inclusive,  including  commissions  allowed  on  sales  of  adhesive  stamps,  $4,842,348,766. 
Aggregate  receipts  from  all  sources  in  the  fiscal  year  ended  June  30,  1895,  $1431246,078. 


International  Arbitration. 


International  Arbitration. 


INTERNATIONAL    ARBITRATION.- 

The  following  article  except  for  its  concluding 
paragraph  is  contributed  to  this  encyclopedia  by 
Eleanor  L.  Lord,  abridged  from  her  monograph 
on  the  subject  published  by  the  American  Acad- 
emy of  Political  and  Social  Science. 

As  it  is  understood  to-day,  international  ar- 
bitration is  limited  in  meaning,  implying  :  (i) 
the  participation  of  sovereign  States  of  acknowl- 
edged independence  and  autonomy  ;  (2)  a  for- 
mal agreement  on  the  part  of  the  litigants  to 
submit  their  difficulties  to  the  decision  of  an  ar- 
bitrating body  or  individual  ;  (3)  the  consent  of 
the  latter  to  undertake  such  decision  and  to  ren- 
der an  award  after  a  thorough  and  impartial 
examination  of  the  facts  of  the  case  ;  (4)  an 
agreement  on  the  part  of  the  contracting  parties 
to  accept  the  decision  as  final  and  conclusive.* 

Before  passing  to  the  application  of  pacific 
principles  to  international  relations  in  the  pres- 
ent century,  it  may  be  well  to  review  briefly  the 
changes  which  the  last  1900  years  have  wit- 
nessed in  the  attitude  of  civilized  nations  tow- 
ard war. 

The  Christian  religion,  as  taught  and  prac- 
tised by  its  founder  and  His  disciples,  placed 
especial  emphasis  on  the  principles  of  brotherly 
love,  forbearance,  forgiveness  of 
enemies,  and  peace  and  good-will 

History,  toward  all  men — theories  of  life  and 
of  human  intercourse  quite  strange 
to  the  civilizations  of  the  pre-Chris- 
tian era.  All  the  records  of  the  early  Church 
which  have  come  down  to  us  of  the  first  two 
centuries  of  its  existence  would  seem  to  show 
that  the  inconsistency  of  warfare  with  the 
tenets  of  the  new  religion  had  made  a  strong 
impression  upon  the  sect. 

It  was  the  Church  as  an  organization  that, 
throughout  the  Middle  Ages,  uttered  the  sole 
remonstrance  against  the  practice  of  private 
war.  When,  in  France,  the  atrocities  of  feudal 
warfare  became  so  great  as  to  threaten  the  very 
foundations  of  society,  it  was  the  Church  that 
came  to  the  rescue  with  the  "  peace  of  God  ;" 
and  five  years  later,  the  "truce  of  God,"  by 
which  fighting  was  forbidden  from  Thursday 
morning  to  Monday  morning  of  every  week,  on 
all  feast  days  and  in  Lent,  leaving,  practically, 
about  80  days  in  the  year  when  war  was  allow- 
able. 

During  the  eleventh  and  twelfth  centuries 
numerous  associations  were  formed  which  were 
the  prototypes,  on  a  small  scale,  of  modern  peace 
societies.  There  was  not  as  yet,  however,  any 
conception  of  international  peace — the  word  in- 
ternational could  hardly  have  had  any  meaning. 
By  the  time  that  the  spirit  of  nationality  had 
begun  to  assert  itself — i.  e. ,  when  there  had  be- 
gun to  be  a  distinct  differentiation  of  the  several 
small  nations  of  Europe  in  respect  to  language, 
institutions  and  political  interests,  schemes  of 
universal  peace  and  of  a  united  Christian  State 
had  become  dreams  of  the  past. 

Medieval  methods  of  grappling  with  the  war 
problem  ended,  then,  in  practical  failure  ;  and 
the  cause  of  universal  peace  was  forgotten  in 


*  It  is  this  last  feature  that  distinguishes  arbitration 
from  mediation,  in  which  adherence  to  the  decision  is 
optional. 


the  horrors  of  the  Inquisition  and  the  blood- 
thirsty wars  of  the  Reformation.  The  concep- 
tion of  Henry  IV.  of  France  of  a  grand  Chris- 
tian republic  of  15  States,  and  his  scheme  of  in- 
ternational arbitration  were  too  far  in  advance 
of  his  time  not  to  have  been  regarded  either  as 
the  dreams  of  a  visionary  fanatic  or  as  a  subtle 
attempt  at  the  aggrandizement  of  France. 
More  valuable  and  far  more  important  was  the 
work  of  Hugo  Grotius,  who,  while  a  guest  at 
Henry's  court,  received  the  inspiration  to  his 
great  work,  De  Jure  Belli  ac  Pacts,  in  which 
he  laid  the  foundation  of  a  system  of  interna- 
tional law. 

Here  it  will  be  observed  that  the  character  of 
the  peace  movement  has  changed.  It  is  no 
longer  religious,  but  political  in  its  aims.  Efforts 
toward  reconciliation  no  longer  originate  with 
the  Church,  but  with  monarchs  and  statesmen  ; 
they  take  the  form,  in  general,  of  alliances  of 
the  great  powers  of  Europe  for  the  purpose  of 
preserving  peace  among  themselves,  and  thus, 
by  the  latent  strength  of  unity  and  numbers, 
preventing  the  possibility  of  attack  by  ambitious 
and  grasping  rivals.  Experience  shows  the  de- 
lusiveness of  such  a  theory. 

The  opening  of  the  nineteenth  century 
brought  with  it  a  return  to  the  religious  point 
of  view,  and  to  the  primitive  notion  that  Chris- 
tianity is  the  basis  ot  all  international  law.  Eu- 
rope entered  upon  the  century  worn  out  with 
conflict  and  in  desperate  need  of  peace.  Rus- 
sia, Austria,  and  Prussia  accordingly,  in  1815, 
formed  what  is  known  as  the  Holy  Alliance, 
agreeing  by  a  sacred  compact  to  respect  the 
great  principles  of  right  and  justice,  and  to  re- 
press violence — promises  which  fell  far  short  of 
fulfillment. 

In  1818,  at  the  Conference  held  at  Aix-la- 
Chapelle,  the  four  nations  that  had  conquered 
Napoleon,  joined  later  by  France,  formed  them- 
selves into  the  Great  Pentarchy,  in  the  interests 
of  permanent  peace.  The  dangerous  principle 
of  intervention  was  unanimously  recognized, 
and  the  outcome  was  the  congresses  of  Trop- 
pau,  Laybach,  and  Verona. 

The  Holy  Alliance  forms  a  link  between  the 
peace  policy  of  the  past  and  that  of  the  present. 
The  unsatisfactory  results  of  the 
Grand  Alliance  dealt  the  death- 


blow to  the  theory  of  the  balance 


Nineteenth 


of  power  as  an  efficient  and  prac-     Century- 
ticable     system.      Henceforth    all 
efforts  toward  amicable  adjustment  of  interna- 
tional affairs  are  to  be  based  upon  other  princi- 
ples. 

The  work  of  the  nineteenth  century  in  view 
of  this  end  takes  on  three  forms  : 

1.  The  organization  and  work  of  peace  con- 
ferences and  associations  for  the  promotion  of 
arbitration. 

2.  Legislation  favoring  arbitration. 

3.  The  practical  application  of  the  principle. 
Peace  societies  began  to  be  established  early 

in  the  century,  the  first  haying  been  organized 
in  New  York  in  1815.  Six  months  later  the 
London  Peace  Society  was  formed.  Similar  or- 
ganizations sprang  up  all  over  Europe.  Their 
object  was  to  unite  all  the  advocates  of  peace 
for  concerted  action. 
Conferences  have  been  held  from  time  to  time 


International  Arbitration. 


752 


International  Arbitration. 


at  London,  Brussels,  Geneva,  Paris,  and  else- 
where, for  the  interchange  of  sympathy-and  the 
discussion  of  plans. 

About  1873,  efforts  were  made  to  bring  the 
subject  of  arbitration  before  the  legislative 
bodies  of  the  different  countries.  A  motion  of 
the  late  Mr.  Henry  Richard  passed  the  House 
of  Commons,  in  1873,  proposing  that  England 
should  communicate  with  foreign  powers  with 
a  view  to  the  improvement  of  international  law 
and  the  establishment  of  a  permanent  system 
of  arbitration. 

Signor  Mancini  presented  a  similar  resolution 
to  the  Italian  Parliament  in  the  same  year. 
From  time  to  time  petitions  and  memorials  have 
been  presented  to  the  various  governments  of 
Europe  and  the  Americas.  Work  of  this  char- 
acter is  necessarily  slow  and  cautious,  working 
like  leaven,  silently,  but  effectively. 

More  attractive  to  the  practical  observer  is  the 
record  of  actual  cases  of  settlement  by  arbitra- 
tion during  the  present  century.  Their  number 
is  surprising.  I  have  carefully  examined  the 
records  of  77  cases,  and  there  are  a  half  dozen 
more  of  which  I  have  hitherto  been  unable  to 
find  more  than  a  statement  of  the  dates  and 
participants. 

The  questions  which  have  proved  susceptible 
of  arbitration  fall  under  five  main  heads  : 

1.  Boundary  disputes. 

2.  Unlawful  seizure  of  vessels  or  other  prop- 
erty. 

3.  Claims  for  damage  by  the  destruction  of 
life  or  property. 

4.  Disputed  possession  of  territory. 

5.  The  interpretation  of  treaties. 

More  than  one  third  of  the  cases  have  related 
to  claims  for  damages  presented,  usually,  by 
one  government  in  behalf  of  certain  of  its  citi- 
zens resident  in  the  country  of  the  offending 
government.  Such  questions,  altho  occasion- 
ally of  such  a  character  as  to  lead  to  heated  con- 
troversy and  menacing  dispatches,  have  been, 
for  the  most  part,  amicably  settled  to  the  satis- 
faction of  all  parties. 

This  list  does  not  include  the  Danubian  Com- 
mission established  in  1856,  the  Berlin  Congress 
of  1878  (to  settle  claims  of  States  in  the  Balkan 
peninsula),  nor  the  Joint  Commission  on  the 
Fisheries  Question  that  met  at  Washington  in 
1888  and  recommended  the  submission  of  future 
disputes  on  that  question  to  a  mixed  commis- 
sion and  an  umpire. 

The  most  serious  obstacle  to  the  introduction 
of  international  arbitration  as  a  permanent  in- 
stitution has  been  the  indecision  of  its  advocates 
as  to  the  method  of  conducting  cases.  Hith- 
erto, three  methods  of  arbitration  have  been 
employed  :  First,  reference  to  some  trustworthy 
and  disinterested  individual.  This 
is  the  least  advisable  plan  of  all,  for 

Practical  it  is  usually  difficult  to  find  a  per- 
Application,  son  who  will  be  satisfactory  to  the 
litigants  and  who  will  be  willing  to 
undertake  so  delicate  a  task.  More- 
over, in  the  case  of  disputed  boundary  lines  or 
claims  for  indemnity,  the  labor  of  investigating 
records  would  usually  be  quite  beyond  the 
strength  of  one  man. 

The  second  method,  adopted  in  certain  cases, 
is  that  of  settlement  by  a  conference  of  diplo- 


mats representing  the  governments  concerned. 
Such  a  body  is  unwieldy,  and  necessitates  a 
large  expenditure  of  time  and  money  for  pre- 
liminary negotiations. 

The  most  popular  and  successful  plan  has 
been  the  appointment  of  a  mixed  commission, 
small  enough  to  be  easily  managed,  large 
enough  to  work  rapidly  and  systematically,  un- 
hampered by  diplomatic  "red  tape."  Still, 
such  a  commission  is  temporary — unsuited  to  a 
scheme  of  permanent  arbitration.  The  Halifax 
Fisheries  Commission  of  1871  illustrates  another 
objection.  The  question  at  issue  was  to  be  de- 
cided by  a  commission  of  arbitration.  The 
clause  in  the  Treaty  of  Washington  admitting 
the  possibility  that  the  choice  of  umpire  of  the 
commission  be  left  to  the  Austrian  Minister  at 
London  was  very  annoying  to  the  United 
States.  The  suspicion  of  unfairness  and  par- 
tiality, whether  well  founded  or  not,  was  the 
cause  of  considerable  irritation.  The  final 
award  of  the  commission  was  a  surprise  to  the 
world.  By  Americans  it  was  considered  exces- 
sive and  exorbitant,  and  many  doubted  if  it 
were  lawfully  and  honorably  due.  The  United 
States  promptly  paid  the  money  ;  but  as  a  case 
of  arbitration  this  was,  perhaps,  the  most  un- 
successful on  record,  and  greatly  shook  the  pub- 
lic confidence  in  the  efficacy  of  that  method  of 
adjusting  differences. 

A  permanent  mixed  tribunal  would  insure  im- 
partiality. Such  a  scheme  would  imply  the 
abolition  of  standing  armies  or  a  uniform  reduc- 
tion in  their  numbers.  The  question  has  been 
raised  by  doubters,  How  will  such  a  tribunal 
be  able  to  enforce  its  decisions  if  the  army  is 
banished  ?  Some  have  suggested  that  each  na- 
tion furnish  its  quota  of  soldiers  to  form  a  kind 
of  international  police.  Such  an  institution, 
however,  would  seem  an  inconsistency,  if  a 
tribunal  aiming  to  substitute  reason  and  justice 
for  the  sword  and  bayonet  be  obliged  to  use 
force  in  the  execution  of  its  decrees. 

There  is,  apparently,  some  confusion  in  the 
public  mind  between  an  international  court  and 
a  permanent  commission  of  arbitration.  The 
former  should  mean  a  court  of  international 
law,  and,  to  be  effective,  should  be  composed  of 
the  most  eminent  jurists  and  statesmen  of  whom 
the  world  can  boast,  men  who  know  the  laws  ot 
nations  as  they  now  exist,  and  who  are  capable 
of  interpreting  and  codifying  those  laws.  There 
is  urgent  need  of  a  complete  and  precise  code  of 
international  law.  Much  dispute  and  misunder- 
standing is  the  consequence  of  the  imperfection 
of  the  present  code.  "  The  great  end  of  law  is 
not  to  decide,  but  to  prevent  disputes." 

A  court  of  international  law  would  find  its 
authority  in  the  majesty  of  the  law,  and  the 
moral  support  of  the  nations  ought  to  be  a  suffi- 
cient guarantee  for  the  acceptance  of  its  de- 
crees. Any  government  which  refused  to  abide 
by  the  decisions  of  so  august  a  body  would  suf- 
fer eternal  disgrace  in  the  eyes  of  the  world,  to 
say  nothing  of  the  material  loss  of  commercial 
good  will.  The  expense  of  such  a  court,  shared 
by  the  participating  nations,  would  be  compara- 
tively light. 

When  a  dispute  arose  the  plaintiff  would  at 
once  carry  the  case  to  this  great  Court  of  Ap- 
peals, which  would  investigate  the  said  case  on 


International  Arbitration. 


753 


International,  The. 


a  purely  legal  basis.  This  would  take  the  place 
of  special  arbitration,  but  should  any  question 
not  susceptible  of  legal  interpretation  arise,  a 
commission  of  arbitration  could  easily  be  formed 
from  the  panel  of  the  international  jury. 

Recent  events  have  occasioned  a  marked 
spread  of  interest  in  international  arbitration. 
In  the  winter  of  1895-96,  France,  by  the  nearly 
unanimous  action  of  its  legislative  chambers, 
proposed  a  permanent  treaty  of  arbitration  be- 
tween that  country  and  the  United  States  ; 
negotiations  are  now  pending  between  England 
and  the  United  States  for  a  permanent  tribunal 
for  the  settlement  of  issues  arising  between 
those  two  nations  ;  and  the  International  Par- 
liamentary Conference,  in  which  were  mem 
bers  from  14  different  European  parliaments, 
not  only  proposed  to  its  respective  governments 
the  organization  of  a  permanent  tribunal,  but 
formulated  a  plan  for  its  organization. 

INTERNATIONAL,  THE.— The  Inter- 
national was  a  society  attempting  to  unite  the 
working  classes  of  all  nations  in  one  socialistic 
organization.  As  early  as  1840  endeavors  were 
made  in  this  direction,  when  some  German 
refugees  in  London  formed  a  Deutscher- Arbeiter 
Bildungsverein,  later  called  the  Society  of  the 
Fraternal  Democrats,  and  aiming  to  unite  all 
nationalities.  The  manifesto  (q?.v.),  published 
by  Marx  and  Engels,  1847-48,  aided  the  move- 
ment. The  coming  of  some  French  workmen 
to  the  London  Exhibition  of  1862  led  to  further 
exchange  of  ideas,  and  on  September  28,  1863, 
in  St.  Martin's  Hall,  London,  a  meeting  was 
held  under  the  presidency  of  Professor  Beesly 
(?.v.)  and  the  International  organized. 

Englishmen  were  chosen  as  president,  secre- 
tary, and  treasurer  of  the  general  council  ;  cor- 
responding secretaries  were  appointed  for  the 
affiliated  countries,  and  Marx  natu- 
rally received  the  office  for  Ger- 
Beginnings.  many.  At  first  the  policy  of  the 
International  was  little  defined,  and 
thus,  in  endeavoring  to  unite  the 
workers  of  all  countries,  it  came  to  stand  for  vari- 
ous things  in  the  various  countries.  Even  Maz- 
zini  for  a  while  joined  it,  but  drew  out  when  it 
developed  the  materialistic  socialism  he  opposed. 
(See  MAZZINI.)  In  England,  it  meant  little  more 
than  international  trade-unionism,  and  when 
English  workmen  found  that  on  the  Continent 
it  meant  more  they  virtually  left  it  In  Ger- 
many, it  became  socialistic.  (See  GERMANY.) 
In  France  and  most  Latin  countries  it  devel- 
oped anarchist-communism.  In  the  United 
States  it  had  little  more  than  a  nominal  exist- 
ence. These  divergences  naturally  proved  its 
weakness,  but  for  a  while  it  alarmed  all  Euro- 
pean governments.  Marx  became  its  real  lead- 
er. He  wrote  an  address  in  which  he  dwelt 
upon 

"  the  want  prevailing  among  the  working  classes, 
want  which  had  continued  undiminished  since  1848, 
tho  the  propertied  classes  had  become  more  prosper- 
ous. He  held  it  to  be  incontrovertibly  proved  that  the 
perfection  of  machinery,  the  utilization  of  science  in 
industry  and  agriculture,  the  extension  of  markets, 
artificial  measures  like  colonization  and  emigration,  as 
well  as  free  trade,  were  all  unable  to  relieve  the  con- 
dition of  the  laboring  population.  Asking  for  a 
remedy,  he  found  it  in  cooperative  labor  developed  to 
national  dimensions  and  promoted  by  State  resources. 

48 


But  as  the  land -owning  and  capitalist  classes  would  be 
sure  to  use  their  political  privileges  for  the  defense  of 
their  economic  monopolies,  the  working  classes  must 
first  acquire  political  power.  They  possessed  one 
element  of  strength,  that  of  numbers,  but  numbers 
without  union  were  of  no  avail,  and  thus  it  was  a  par- 


lount    duty  to    combine    for    mutual   defense   and 
ense.     'Proletariat  of  all  countries,'  ended  the  ad- 


am 

offense.      

dress,  '  unite  !' 


The  European  governments  began  to  take 
alarm.  The  first  congress  was  to  have  been 
held  in  Brussels,  but  was  not  allowed,  and  an- 
other conference  was  held  instead  in  London. 
The  first  real  congress  was  held  at  Geneva  in 
1866,  60  delegates  being  present,  and  the  second 
at  Lausanne,  Switzerland,  in  1867.  The  spirit 
at  this  congress  was  more  radical,  as  in  the 
words  with  which  the  president  closed  the  con- 
gress :  "We  want  no  more  governments,  for 
governments  oppress  us  by  taxes  ;  we  want  no 
armies,  for  armies  massacre  and  murder  us  ;  we 
want  no  religion,  for  religion  chokes  the  under- 
standing." 

Bakounin,  the  Russian  apostle  of  nihilism, 
joined  the  International  and  fought  with  Marx 
for  the  leadership.  Marx  and  his  friends  de- 
sired a  revolution  to  be  conducted  by  the  order- 
ly political  capture  of  the  State  and  the  use  of 
the  State  to  develop  communism.  Bakounin 
desired  to  plant  communism  on  the  ruins  of  the 
State.  For  a  while  his  fiery  leadership  carried 
the  mass  of  the  members  with  him,  particularly 
in  Italy,  France,  French  Switzerland,  and  Bel- 
gium. Germany  favored  the  Marxist  policy, 
and  in  1869  the  Social  Democratic  Party  was 
formed  on  its  lines.  In  1870  the  congress  was 
to  have  been  held  in  Paris,  but  this  was  pre- 
vented by  the  Franco-German  War,  a  war 
which  the  International  strenuously  denounced. 
The  revolutionary  spirit  gave  birth  to  the  upris- 
ing of  the  Paris  Commune  (q.v.),  tho  the  Inter- 
national was  not  directly  connected  with  it. 
Marx  found  that  this  anarchist  element  must  be 
suppressed,  and  the  General  Council  arranged 
to  have  the  congress  of  1872  held  at  The  Hague, 
where  Bakounin  could  not  easily 
come,  as  he  was  in  Switzerland  and 
would  have  been  arrested  in  pass-  The  End. 
ing  through  either  Germany  or 
France.  As  a  result,  the  Marxist 
party  triumphed  at  The  Hague,  and  removed 
the  seat  of  the  General  Council  to  New  York 
City  to  avoid  the  machinations  of  Bakounin. 
The  Bakouninists,  however,  repudiated  The 
Hague  congress  and  held  another  at  Geneva, 
claiming  to  represent  the  true  International. 
The  movement  thus  divided  soon  came  to  an  end 
both  in  Europe  and  America.  For  a  while  the 
"  autonomists,"  as  the  Bakounin  faction  styled 
themselves,  kept  up  a  fiery  agitation,  created 
several  uprisings  in  Southern  Europe,  and  in 
the  Latin  countries  had  the  majority  of  the  or- 
ganization with  them.  But  suppressed  by  the 
police,  and  unable  to  effect  solid  organization, 
especially  after  the  death  of  Bakounin  in  1876, 
the  party  died  as  an  organization,  its  members, 
however,  becoming  the  modern  anarchist-com- 
munists of  Europe.  (See  ANARCHISM.) 

The  Marxist  movement  has  passed  into  the 
Social  Democratic  parties,  formed  first  in  Ger- 
many and  later  in  even  the  Latin  countries  on 
Marxist  lines,  the  socialist  congresses  being  the 


International,  The. 


754 


Interstate  Commerce  Act. 


real  representatives  of  the  International  to-day 
(See  SOCIALISM.) 

In  the  United  States,  the  International  was 
at  first,  as  in  England,  considered  a  mere  union 
of  organized  labor  in  all  countries,  and  many 
American  trade-unionists  joined  it, 
and  delegates  were  sent  to  some  of 
United       its  European  congresses  as  in  1867 
States.       at  Basle.    Numerous  branches  were 
formed  in  America,  but  never  took 
root.     After   the    removal    of    the 
General  Council  to  New  York  in  1872,  the  strug- 
gle between  the  anarchists  and  the  socialists  re- 
appeared on  the  new  shores.    In  1877  the  social- 
ists took  the  name  of  the  Socialist  Labor  Party, 
and  left    the    International  practically  to  the 
anarchist  communists,  the  trade-union  element 
having  abandoned  it  long  before.     The  social- 
ists, however,  did  not  wholly  leave  it  till  after 
the  arrival  in  this  country  of  John  Most  in  1882 
and  the  final  separation  in  1885.     Among  the 
anarchist-communists  two  separate  societies  de- 
veloped, the  I.  W.  P.  A.  (International  Working 
People's  Association)  and  the  I.  W.  A.  (Inter- 
national   Workman's    Association),   the    latter 
being  less  violent  and  emphasizing  education. 
(See  ANARCHISM.)     Both  organizations  have  dis- 
appeared (see  ANARCHISM),  but  their  spirit  has 
produced  monuments  in  this  country  like  the 
so-called  anarchist  movement  in  Chicago  and 
the  various  gatherings  and  deeds  of  anarchists. 

References  :  Villetard's  Histoire  de  V Internationale 
(1871) ;  Rae's  History  of  Socialism.  See  also  SOCIAL- 
ISM ;  ANARCHISM. 

INTERNATIONAL  STATISTICAL  IN- 
STITUTE, THE.— The  International  Statis- 
tical Institute  was  founded  in  1887,  and  is  com- 
posed of  150  members  interested  in  statistical 
work  in  various  countries  of  the  world.  Its  meet- 
ings are  held  biennially.  The  President  is  Sir 
Rawson  W.  Rawson,  of  England,  and  its  Sec- 
retary is  Signor  Luigi  Bodio,  Director-General 
of  the  Royal  Statistical  Service  of  Italy,  Rome. 
It  publishes  at  Rome,  Italy,  a  Bulletin,  which 
contains  valuable  papers  in  Italian,  French, 
German,  or  English.  Six  volumes  have  already 
been  issued. 

INTERNATIONAL  TYPOGRAPHICAL 
UNION,  THE. — Local  unions  of  printers  were 
formed  in  the  United  States  at  least  as  early  as 
1831  and  1834,  and  probably  earlier.  A  Na- 
tional Convention  of  Journeymen  Printers  met 
in  New  York  December  2, 1850,  and  effected  per- 
manent organization.  At  the  convention  the 
next  year,  in  Baltimore,  the  name  National 
Typographical  Union  was  chosen.  Yearly  con- 
ventions were  held  after  that,  but  in  1869  the 
organization  took  the  present  name,  the  Inter- 
national Typographical  Union,  to  admit  Cana- 
dian unions.  This  convention  chartered  Wom- 
an's Typographical  Union  No.  i,  located  in 
New  York  City.  Since  then  the  organization 
has  prospered  till  it  is  to-day  the  oldest  and  one 
of  the  strongest  national  unions  in  America. 
Enrolling  to-day  some  40,000  members,  it  claims 
to  have  raised  wages  40  per  cent. ,  and  by  its 
dues  and  benefits  to  have  aided  its  members 
still  more.  According  to  the  report  of  the  Min- 
nesota Bureau  of  Labor  (1891-92),  the  Interna- 


tional Typographical  Union  received  in  1892, 
$113,134.49,  and  spent  $98,384.78,  Of  this,  in 
round  numbers,  $50,000  was  for  strike  and  lock- 
out benefits,  $30,000  for  the  Childs-Drexel  Print- 
ers' Home,  $11,000  for  burial  benefits.  The 
Childs-Drexel  Printers'  Home  is  located  in  Colo- 
rado Springs,  the  nucleus  for  its  establishment 
being  $5000  given  by  Messrs.  Childs  and  Drexel. 
Besides  maintaining  this,  the  union  has  recent- 
ly established  a  fund  for  death  benefits.  (See 
TRADE-UNIONS.) 

INTERSTATE  COMMERCE  ACT  AND 
COMMISSION,  THE.— The  growing  senti- 
ment against  railroad  combinations  and  railroad 
discriminations  (see  RAILROADS)  led,  in  1887,  to 
the  passage  of  an  act,  and  the  creation  of  a  com- 
mission by  Congress  called  the  Interstate  Com- 
merce Act  and  Commission.  The  act  was  passed 
by  the  Senate  January  14,  1887,  by  a  vote  of  45  to 
15,  by  the  House  January  21,  1887,  by  a  vote  of 
178  to  41,  and  was  approved  by  President  Cleve- 
land February  4,  1887.  The  act  provides  for 
the  appointment  of  an  Interstate  Commerce 
Commission,  consisting  of  five  members  ap- 
pointed by  the  President  and  confirmed  by  the 
Senate.  The  act  applies  to  common  carriers 
conveying  merchandise  or  passengers  between 
one  State,  Territory,  or  the  District  of  Colum- 
bia, to  another  one  of  those  divisions. 

"Unjust  and  unreasonable  charges  and  unjust  dis- 
crimination are  prohibited  ;  the  latter  is  defined  to  be 
the  demanding  from  one  person  of  greater  compensa- 
tion than  is  asked  from  another  for  a  like  service.  It 
is  made  unlawful  to  give  undue  advantage  to  one  per- 
son, locality  or  kind  of  traffic  over  another,  or  to  dis- 
criminate between  connecting  lines.  The  '  long  and 
short  haul  clause '  provides  that  the  rate  for  a  short 
haul  shall  not  equal  nor  exceed  the  rate  for  a  long 
haul  under  like  conditions,  except  as  the  commission 
may  provide  or  may  relieve  from  the  operations  of  this 
section.  Freights  cannot  be  pooled  with  connecting 
lines  ;  schedules  of  rates,  which  must  be  conformed  to, 
are  to  be  made  public,  and  10  days'  notice  of  any  ad- 
vance must  be  given.  Combinations  to  prevent  con- 
tinuous carriage  are  prohibited.  Persons  suffering  by 
reason  of  violations  of  the  act  may  secure  damages  in 
the  United  States  courts,  or  they  may  complain  to  the 
commission,  who  have  power  to  compel  the  attendance 
of  persons  and  the  production  of  papers,  and  who  shall 
investigate  and  order  reparation  or  the  ceasing  of  the 
violation  of  the  act,  and  the  circuit  courts  of  the  United 
States  are  given  power  to  enforce  these  orders,  subject 
to  an  appeal  to  the  Supreme  Court  in  certain  instances. 
Each  wilful  violation  of  the  act  is  a  misdemeanor 
punishable  by  a  fine  not  exceeding  $5000." 

It  is  almost  universally  admitted  to-day  that 
the  act  is  a  failure.  Says  H.  T.  Newcomb, 
writing  in  the  Political  Science  Quarterly  for 
June,  1896  : 

"  A  careful  analysis  of  the  act  shows  that  Congress 
attempted  to  provide  three  remedies,  each  of  which 
separately  and  independently  had  been  advocated  as 
a  satisfactory  solution  of  the  problem  of  railway  rates 
by  persons  holding  the  most  divergent  views.  These 
remedies  were  :  (a)  a  summary  process  for  hearing 
and  adjudicating  complaints  against  railways  and  for 
enforcing  without  delay  the  measures  of  relief  found 
necessary  ;  (b)  the  perpetuation  of  competition  ;  and 
(c)  publicity  for  the  details  of  railway  management, 
operation  and  finances. 

"The  failure  of  the  first  remedy  was  immediate  and 
'complete.  The  United  States  courts,  to  which  appeal 
must  be  made  for  decrees  enforcing  the  orders  of  the 
Interstate  Commerce  Commission,  promptly  declared 
that  the  law  gave  no  finality  to  the  acts  or  conclusions 
of  that  body  ;  and  in  proceedings  upon  applications  by 
the  commission  for  the  enforcement  of  its  orders,  de- 
fendant railways  were  permitted  to  introduce  entirely 
new  evidence  and  to  adopt  new  lines  of  defense.  Ob- 
viously this  construction  of  the  statute  deprives  pro- 


Interstate  Commerce  Act. 


755 


Ireland  and  Social  Reform. 


cedure  before  the  commission  of  any  efficacy  in  sim- 
plifying or  expediting  measures  for  relief  from  rail- 
way oppression,  except  in  those  cases  in  which  the  rail- 
ways see  fit  to  comply  voluntarily  with  its  orders." 

The  second  aim,  Mr.  Newcomb  thinks,  has 
been  realized  with  practical  uniformity,  but 
argues  that  it  has  done  no  good,  and  that  expe- 
rience has  shown  that  it  is  idle  to  attempt  to 
force  railroads  to  compete.  (See  RAILROADS.) 
He  says  : 

"The  insertion  of  this  provision  is  now  generally 
considered  to  have  been  a  serious  mistake,  and  its 
operation  an  almost  insurmountable  obstacle  to  the 
satisfactory  enforcement  of  the  fundamental  principles 
of  the  law.' 

Of  the  third  aim  he  says  : 

"  In  the  third  remedy  Congress  evidently  intended 
to  provide  for  the  broadest  and  most  comprehensive 
exercrise  of  the  visitorial  function  of  government.  It 
authorized  and  required  the  Interstate  Commerce 
Commission  to  inquire,  generally,  into  the  business  of 
the  carriers  subject  to  its  jurisdiction,  and  to  keep  it- 
self continually  informed  as  to  the  manner  and  methods 
of  conducting  their  business,  and  it  provided  for  full 
investigations  and  reports  concerning  all  complaints 
against  such  carriers." 

With  what  result  ?  Mr.  Newcomb  conserva- 
tively analyzes  the  railroad,  situation  in  the 
United  States,  and  says  : 

"  The  conditions  described  are  fairly  typical  of 
those  existing  all  over  the  United  States.  The  Inter- 
state Commerce  Law  has  mitigated  but  slightly,  if  at 
all,  the  evil  of  unjust  discriminations  between  individ- 
uals ;  has  in  but  few  instances  moderated  to  any  im- 
portant extent  the  relative  injustice  in  the  charges  ex- 
acted for  moving  competing  commodities  ;  and  has 
almost  utterly  failed  to  remedy  the  far  more  serious 
iniquities  in  rate-making  which  operate  to  the  disad- 
vantage of  towns,  cities  or  districts.  The  practical 
acquiescence  of  the  Interstate  Commerce  Commission 
in  this  conclusion  may  reasonably  be  inferred  from 
the  following  extract  from  its  latest  annual  report : 

"  '  It  is  believed,  as  was  further  indicated  in  our  last 
report,  that  the  discussion  of  the  principles  and  aims 
of  the  statute  may  well  give  place,  temporarily,  to  a 
consideration  of  the  means  necessary  to  make  effective 
and  give  force  to  the  law  in  accordance  with  the  pur- 
pose of  its  enactment.  The  experience  and  observa- 
tions of  the  past  year,  in  which  the  progress  of  regu- 
lation has  not  been  entirely  satisfactory,  warrant  the 
conclusion  that  with  the  official  proceedings  and  trans- 
actions of  the  year  relating  to  the  operations  of  the 
law  we  should  report  as  a  matter  of  first  importance 
and  recommend  the  additional  legislation  deemed  in- 
dispensable to  give  effect  to  the  act  in  accordance  with 
its  purpose,  as  declared  in  the  first  three  sections 
thereof.  .  .  .  The  importance  of  amending  the  present 
law  cannot  be  stated  with  too  much  emphasis.  ...  It 
certainly  cannot  be  believed  that  Congress,  having 
once  assumed  to  exercise  a  measure  of  control  over 
railway  carriers,  will  allow  that  control  to  become  in- 
effectual by  withholding  the  legislation  found  nec- 
essary to  secure  the  results  expected"  (.Ninth  An- 
nual Report,  pp.  5-11). 

Mr.  H.  L.  Lloyd,  in  his  Wealth  vs.  Common- 
wealth, is  more  severe  on  the  commission.  He 
says  (p.  19) : 

"The  independent  miners  of  Pennsylvania  appealed 
to  it.  Two  years  and  a  half  were  consumed  in  the 
proceedings.  The  commission  decided  that  the  rates 
the  railroad  charged  were  unjust  and  unreasonable, 
and  ordered  them  reduced.  But  the  decision  has  re- 
mained unenforced,  and  cannot  be  enforced.  .  .  .  The 
Interstate  Commerce  Law  provides  for  the  imprison- 
ment in  the  penitentiary  of  those  guilty  of  the  crimes 
it  covers.  But  the  only  conviction  had  under  it  has 
been  of  a  shipper  for  discriminating  against  a  rail- 
road." 

Nor  is  it  true  in  the  broad  sense  that  the  In- 
terstate Commerce  Act  has  prevented  combina- 
tion. It  may  have  prevented  pooling  under  one 


form,  but  the  consolidation  of  railroads  and 
combination  of  interests  has  notoriously  gone 
on.  The  main  efficacy  of  the  law  has  been  its 
use  by  the  courts  as  a  basis  for  injunctions 
against  strikes  and  combinations  of  employees. 
(See  INJUNCTION  ;  RAILROADS.) 

IRELAND  AND  SOCIAL  REFORM. 
I.  STATISTICAL. 

Ireland,  with  an  area  of  32,337  square  miles, 
has  had  great  variations  in  population  within 
modern  times.  In  1750  it  had  2,372,634  ;  in 
1841,  8,175,124  ;  then  it  lost  by  the  potato  fam- 
ine and  emigration,  till  in  1851  it  had  only 
6,552,385,  and  in  1871,  4,704,750.  From  1851-61, 
114,912  emigrated  annually  ;  from  1861-71, 
76,886  ;  from  1871-81,  54,271  ;  from  1881-91, 
71,667  ;  in  1892,  52,292.  In  1891,  75.4  per  cent, 
were  Roman  Catholics,  .94  per  cent,  of  the 
Church  of  Ireland  (Protestant  Episcopal).  In 
1869  this  Church  was  disestablished.  (See  ENG- 
LAND.) 

In  1891  there  were  572,640  holdings,  of  which 
only  89,019  were  over  50  acres.  Acts  passed 
since  1870  give  the  Irish  cultivators  more  favor- 
able laws  than  the  Scotch  or  English  as  to  fair 
rents,  fixity  of  tenure,  and  free  sale.  Cattle- 
raising  is  the  most  important  industry.  (For 
other  statistics,  see  ENGLAND.) 

II.  SOCIAL  REFORM. 

Social  reform  in  Ireland  is  inextricably  bound 
up  with  the  past.  Divided  from  early  times 
between  warring  kings  and  numerous  clans, 
Ireland  was  easily  conquered  by  the  English 
under  Henry  II.  in  the  twelfth  century,  altho 
the  subjection  was  long  only  nominal.  When 
Henry  VIII.  attempted  to  introduce  Protes- 
tantism into  the  island  there  were  repeated  re- 
volts, ending  in  suppression  and  the  bestowal 
of  the  lands  of  the  rebellious  chiefs  among 
Scotch  and  English  Protestants.  In 
1641  the  Irish  rose  in  revolt  and 
massacred  the  Protestants ,  but  were  History. 
severely  punished  by  Cromwell  in 
1649,  and  Protestants  were  estab- 
lished in  the  confiscated  lands  of  Ulster.  At 
the  revolution,  the  Irish  Catholics  siding  with 
James  II. ,  and  the  Protestants  with  William  and 
Mary,  the  struggle  ended  in  1692,  when  the  tri- 
umph of  the  Orange  Party  again  was  accom- 
panied by  excessive  punishment.  Secret  revo- 
lutionary societies  existed  still,  and  a  serious  re- 
volt occurred  in  1798.  In  1801,  however,  the 
Irish  Parliament  voted  the  final  Union  with 
Great  Britain.  Emmet's  insurrection  was  easily 
suppressed  in  1803,  but  the  emancipation  of  the 
Roman  Catholic  Church  had  to  be  granted  in 
1829,  and  the  "  tithe  war"  compromised  in  1838. 
O'Connell's  agitation  for  repeal  collapsed  in 
1843,  and  the  revolution  of  1848  was  put  down, 
but  the  Fenian  Brotherhood  arose  in  1858,  with, 
it  was  claimed,  80,000  adherents  in  the  United 
States.  Riots  could  be  suppressed,  but  in  1869 
the  Irish  (Anglican)  Church  was  disestablished, 
and  in  1870  the  land  question  developed.  In 
1873  the  Home  Rule  Party  was  developed,  and 
led  first  by  Butt  and  then  by  Parnell,  who 


Ireland  and  Social  Reform. 


756 


Iron  and  Steel  Industries. 


formed  the  Irish  National  Land  League  in  1879. 
By  skillful  parliamentary  tactics  Mr.   Parnell, 
defeating  Mr.  Gladstone  in  1885,  in 
1886  forced    him  to  advocate  the 
Home  Rule,  cause  of   home  rule    for  Ireland. 
His  bill  proposed  the  formation  of 
a  legislative  body  sitting  at  Dublin, 
with  power  on  all  subjects  except  those  specially 
reserved  for   the   imperial  Parliament.     After 
the  defeat  of  the  bill,  land  agitation  was  re- 
newed, leading  to  a  coercion  act  of  the  Con- 
servative Party,  rigorously  enforced  by  Mr.  Bal- 
four.     By  1890  the  agitation  had  subsided,  and 
the  Government  brought  in  and  passed  its  Land 
Purchase  Bill.     Mr.  Parnell,  however,  having 
been  corespondent  in  a  divorce  suit,  Mr.  Glad- 
stone declined  to  stand  longer  by  his  ally,  and 
the  Irish  party  was  divided.     The  priests,  how- 
ever, opposed  Mr.  Parnell,  and  the  party  led  by 
Justin  McCarthy  came  into  power.     Mr.  Glad- 
stone again  supported  home  rule,  and  in  the 
elections  of  1892  came  into  power  and  carried  a 
bill  through  the  Commons  to  be  rejected  in  the 
House  of  Lords. 

This  review  of  the  Irish  question  will  show 
that  the  political  agitation  has  been  so  constant 
in  Ireland  as  to  leave  little  opportunity  for  the 
development  of  social  reform  on  other  lines. 
Michael  Davitt  (q.v.)  alone  of  the  prominent 
Irish  leaders  is  an  out-and-out  land  natipnal- 
izer.  Trade-unionism  in  Ireland  in  1 890  claimed 
40,000  members  of  all  kinds,  mainly  in  Cork  and 
Dublin.  Cooperation  (q.v.)  has  little  popular 
hold. 

IRON    AND    STEEL    INDUSTRIES.— 

The  part  played  by  iron  and  steel  in  modern 
industry  has  led  to  the  present  century's  being 
sometimes  called  "  the  age  of  steel,"  tho  some 
believe  that  we  are  now  on  the  threshold  of  an 
electrical  age.  Nevertheless,  iron  and  steel 
play  still  most  important  parts.  Iron  was 
known  and  manufactured  in  rude  ways  in  an- 
cient times,  but  the  process  of  puddling  and  roll- 
ing, invented  by  Henry  Colt  in  1784,  the  employ- 
ment of  the  hot  blast  by  Neilson,  of  Glasgow, 
in  1830,  and,  above  all,  the  introduction  of  the 
Bessemer  process  of  making  steel  (patented  in 
1856)  have  revolutionized  the  iron  industry. 

In  the  United  States,  a  foundry  blast  furnace 
was  established  at  Lynn,  Mass.,  in  1643.  Iron 
had  been  manufactured  in  Virginia  before  this. 
Connecticut  made  steel  in  1656.  By  1750,  how- 
ever, Pennsylvania  led,  exporting  2358  tons  of 
iron  in  1772.  The  first  iron  foundry  at  Pitts- 
burg  was  established  in  1803.  In  1840,  the  in- 
troduction of  bituminous  and  anthracite  coal  in 
the  blast  furnace  wholly  changed  the  industry. 
The  manufacture  of  charcoal  iron  has  since  de- 
clined in  Pennsylvania.  In  1860  there  were  652 
establishments  engaged  in  this  industry.  Bes- 
semer steel  was  first  manufactured  in  any  quan- 
tity in  the  United  States  in  1867.  The  Siemens- 
Martin  or  open-hearth  process  appeared  in  1869. 
The  capital  invested  in  the  iron  in- 
._  dustry  in  this  country  in  1890  was 

Develop-     $4I4)044)844>  and  the  product,  $478,- 
ment<        687,519.      In      1870     the    average 
product    per    establishment     was 
$256,446  ;    in  1890,    $665,768.     The  product  in 
1890  was    5,049,693   gross   tons,   outdistancing 


i 


Great  Britain  by  1,370,650  tons.  The  industry 
is  concentrating  in  large  establishments.  Be- 
tween 1880  and  1890  the  employees  in  iron  and 
steel  works  of  all  kinds,  except  architectural  and 
ornamental  work,  increased  from  157,595  to  193,- 
557.  Yet  the  establishments  decreased  from 
1299  to  984. 

In  1890,  in  mining  iron  ore,  38,227  were  em- 
ployed. A  census  bulletin  gives  the  following 
as  to  the  wages  in  mining  iron  : 

"The  mechanic's  wages  varied  from  50  cents  per  day 
in  Texas,  where  convict  labor  was  largely  employed, 
to  $3.86  per  day  in  Colorado,  the  average  for  the  entire 
country  being  $1.90,  and  the  average  number  of  days 
worked  during  the  year  274.  The  total  calculated 
wages  which  were  received  by  mechanics  during  the 

ear  1889  was  $1,080,406.    The  average  wages  received 

y  the  14,531  laborers  employed  above  ground  was 
$1.29,  ranging  from  53  cents  in  Texas  to  $3.50  in  New 
Mexico  and  Utah.  These  laborers  worked  -on  an  aver- 
age 228  days  during  the  year  and  received  a  total 
compensation  of  $4,277,199.  The  709  boys  under  16 
years  of  age  received  a  total  compensation  of  $97,279, 
and  worked  221  days  during  the  year.  They  there- 
fore received  an  average  of  62  cents  per  day,  the 
wages  varying  from  49  cents  in  Missouri  to  $2  in  Col- 
orado. 

"The  number  of  foremen  or  overseers  working  un- 
der ground  was  686,  altho  at  a  number  of  mines  fore- 
men had  charge  both  above  and  below  ground,  one- 
half  time  being  charged  to  each.  They  received  in 
wages  a  total  of  $476,233,  working  on  an  average  282 
days  per  year,  and  earned  $2.46  per  day.  The  highest 
average  wages  were  paid  in  Colorado — viz.,  $3.99  per 
day,  and  the  lowest  in  Pennsylvania,  $1.67  per  day. 
The  12,432  miners  received  $6,189,308  for  their  labor 
during  the  year,  an  average  per  man  of  $1.91  per  day 
during  the  days  worked — viz.,  261.  The  wages  ranged 
from  $3.50  in  New  Mexico  and  Utah  to  $1.13  in  Vir- 
ginia and  West  Virginia.  The  highest  wages  paid 
laborers  under  ground  was  in  Colorado,  $2.68  per  day, 
and  the  lowest  in  Georgia  and  North  Carolina,  68 
cents  per  day.  In  Georgia,  however,  some  convict 
labor  was  employed,  reducing  the  general  average  for 
the  State.  The  6479  laborers  under  ground  received 
as  wages  $2,716,424,  working  on  an  average  261  days 
per  year,  and  earned  an  average  of  $1.60  per  day. 
The  in  boys  under  ground  received  $19,617,  working 
on  an  average  216  days  and  earning  82  cents  per  day." 

The  average  wages  paid  in  iron  establish- 
ments in  1890  was,  in  the  New  England  States, 
$433  per  year  for  skilled  and  $353  for  unskilled  ; 
in  the  Southern  States  it  was  $582 
for  skilled  and  $320  for  unskilled. 
Carroll  D.  Wright  (Industrial  Evo-       Labor. 
lution   in   the    United   States,  p. 
221)  puts  the  average  wage  in  the 
manufacture  of  iron  and  steel  at  between   $i 
and  $2,  altho  the  rates  range  from  41  cents  to 
$19.40  per  day. 

The  iron  industry  has  seen  many  contests  be- 
tween employers  and  employees.  (See  STRIKES  ; 
HOMESTEAD  STRIKE.)  Labor  organization  in 
this  industry  commenced  with  the  Sons  of  Vul- 
can, organized  in  1858  ;  but  the  great  organiza- 
tion has  been  the  Amalgamated  Association  of 
Iron  and  Steel  Workers  (f.v.),  dating  from  Au- 
gust 4,  1874. 

In   England,  the    Friendly  Society  of    Iron 
Founders  (or  Iron  Molders)  is  the  oldest  large 
trade-union  in   England  still   existent,  having 
been  organized  in  1809.     It  had,  in 
1890, 14,821  members,  and  is  a  lead- 
ing union  of  the  older  friendly  so-     England. 
ciety  type.    The  Associated  Society 
of  Iron  and  Steel  Workers,  estab- 
lished in  1862,  had,  in  1890,  7800  members,  and 
is  best  known  for  its  steady  advocacy  of  the 
sliding  scale  (g.v.~).     The  more  progressive  Brit- 
ish Steel  Smelters'  Association,  established  in 


iron  and  Steel  Industries. 


757 


Irrigation., 


1886,  originally  a  Scotch  union,  is  extending  all 
over  the  kingdom.  The  Associated  Iron  Hold- 
ers of  Scotland,  established  in  1831,  had  in  1890, 
6198  members.  The  United  Society  of  Boiler 
Makers  and  Iron  Shipbuilders,  established  the 
next  year,  had,  in  1890,  32,926  members.  Such 


are  some,  tho  not  all,  of  the  unions  connected 
with  the  iron  industry  in  Great  Britain,  show- 
ing the  relative  importance  of  the  iron  industry 
in  various  countries.  The  following  are  the 
most  recent  statistics  of  the  iron  and  steel  pro- 
duction of  the  world  : 


COUNTRIES. 

IRON  ORE. 

PIG  IRON. 

STEEL. 

Years. 

Tons. 

Years. 

Tons. 

Years. 

Tons. 

United  States                        .  .                   

SQQ    .. 

1893..  . 

80^.  .  . 

4,019,995 
3,049,663 
2,171,138 
803,063 
273,058 
559,734 
3651484 
160,471 

78,413 
56,543 
24,887 
6,000 

SQQ  

1893  

6,976,990 
4,986,003 
2,032,567 
760,296 
916,505 

893  

801 

Germany  and  Luxembourg  

893  

8qi      ... 

11,457,491 

1893  
1893  

801.  .  . 

892   

209,943 

1893  

893  

892  

1892  

892  

892  

1892  

892  

892   

1892  

485,664  ; 
260,450  t 
12,729  i 

892'  

893  

5,497,54° 
214,487 

1893  

891  

Italy  

892  ... 

1892  

892  

893 

99,412 
1,800,000 

1893  

1803.  . 

44,601 
70,000 

889  

893  

893  

Total 

50,569,862 

24,684,559 

11,568,449 

22.91 

28.86 

34-74 

English  tons  of  2240  Ibs.  are  used  for  the  United  States,  Great  Britain,  and  Canada,  and  metric  tons  of  2204 
Ibs.  are  used  for  all  the  continental  countries  of  Europe. 


IRON  LAW  OF  WAGES.— This  is  the 
name  given  by  Lassalle  to  the  asserted  princi- 
ple based  on  Ricardo's  theory  of  wages  (see 
RICARDO),  and  developed  by  the  German  social- 
ists, that  wages  under  competition  must  always 
in  the  long  run  be  what  will  just  support  and 
renew  the  laborer's  life.  (For  a  discussion  of 
this  view,  see  WAGES.) 

IRRIGATION.— The  arid  region  of  the 
United  States,  as  defined  by  the  irrigation  in- 
quiry (Department  of  Agriculture),  embraces  all 
west  of  the  g8th  meridian  of  longitude  west. 
The  geological  survey  limited  it  to  the  looth 
meridian,  the  line  of  15  in.  of  precipitation. 
The  census  of  1889-90  adopted  the  line  of  97° 
longitude  for  the  eastern  limit,  including  there- 
by a  subhumid  section.  This  makes  an  area 
of  about  1,100,000,000  acres.  The  subhumid 
section  is  nearly  2°  of  longitude  wide  on  the 
great  plains  through  North  and  South  Da- 
kota, Nebraska,  Kansas,  Oklahoma,  and  Texas  ; 
a  portion  also  of  Northern  Idaho  (the  Pan  Han- 
dle) and  of  Eastern  Washington,  as  well  as 
about  one  sixth  of  the  northern  and  coast  sec- 
tions of  California,  must  be  classified  in  the  same 
way.  The  semi-arid  section  embraces  the  great 
plains  from  99°  to  103°  of  longitude  ;  also  mod- 
erate portions  of  Oregon,  Washington,  and  the 
central  and  foothills  sections  of  California.  For 
the  subhumid  section  irrigation  stands  in  the 
nature  of  a  crop  insurance,  water  being  needed 
chiefly  to  provide  against  the  summer  drought. 
In  the  semi-arid  section  a  moderate  application 
of  water  is  required,  while  in  the  arid  division 
irrigation  is  absolutely  required. 

The  amount  of  water  "in  sight"  or  readily 
available  is  the  economic  point  of  difference 
among  those  who  have  studied  the  problems. 
John  W.  Powell  holds  the  more  limited  view 
of  possibilities,  claiming  that  only  40,000,000 


acres  may  be  irrigated.  Major  George  M. 
Wheeler  maintains  the  larger  limits.  The  pres- 
ent writer,  who  has  conducted  for  several  years 
the  United  States  irrigation  inquiry  and  the  in- 
vestigation of  underflow  and  artesian  waters  in 
the  great  plains  division,  holds  a  middle  posi- 
tion. 

The  writer's  estimate  is  that  of  a  probable 
reclamation  of  127,000,000  acres  to  be  increased 
to  170,000,000  acres  through  the  natural  influ- 
ences which  will  follow  irrigation. 
Two  of  these   influences  may  be 
briefly  indicated  :  i.  The  capillary      Value. 
attraction   of  roots  will   draw  the 
subwater  plane  which   lies   under 
the  most  arid  soil  surfaces  up  to  moderate  dis- 
tances from   the   surfaces,  thereby  increasing 
utilization.     2.  Plant   life  and  cultivation  will 
affect  the  surface  temperature.    Plant  transpira- 
tion tends  to  rapid  cooling.     Atmospheric  con- 
densation must  follow.    Local  rains  will  be  more 
largely  retained  and  distributed. 

The  areas  capable  of  irrigation  by  water  "in. 
sight"  or  readily  utilizable  within  it  may  be  es- 
timated as  follows  : 

Arid,  800,000,000,  one-tenth 80,000,000  acres. 

Semi-arid,  150,000,000,  one-fifth..  30,000,000 
Subhumid,  50,000,000,  one-third.  17,000,000      " 

Total  irrigable 127,000,000  acres. 

Allowing  one  third  more  service  or  "  duty"  of 
water  after  from  three  to  five  years  of  irrigation 
supply,  we  may  calculate  on  a  cultivated  area 
by  "the  known  water  supplies  of  170,000,000 
acres.  With  the  certainty  of  increased  econ- 
omy of  rainfall,  as  caused  by  cultivation  and  its, 
effects  on  the  temperature  of  earth  and  atmos- 
phere, we  may  under  constant  irrigation  fully 
expect  to  reclaim  and  maintain  under  cultiva- 
tion at  least  200,000,000  acres  of  land  now  almost 
wholly  valueless  for  farm  purposes.  In  this  es- 


Irrigation. 


758 


Irrigation. 


timate  there  has  been  no  inclusion  of  possible 
small  bodies  of  land  within  our  great  pastoral 
areas  that  may  be  brought  to  cultivation  for 
grass,  roots,  and  hardier  grains,  and  which  may 
reach  several  million  acres.  It  will  not  be  ex- 
travagant, then,  to  estimate  that  under  a  wise, 
comprehensive,  and  beneficial  policy,  supervised 
by  nation  and  States,  for  the  preservation  of 
forest,  the  conservation  and  management  of 
water,  and  the  proper  utilization  of  pastoral 
lands,  there  will  be  within  a  comparatively 
brief  period  225,000,000  acres  of  desert  and 
semi-desert  lands  added  to  the  food-producing 
area  of  the  United  States.  It  is  estimated  that 
each  irrigated  acre  will  produce  at  least  four 
times  as  much  as  any  acre,  within  similar  areas, 
under  ordinary  cultivation. 

The  cost  of  such  reclamation  in  the  British  Indies, 
where  the  work  is  accomplished  on  a  large  scale  and 
with  a  solidity  and  expense  that  we  shall  not  need  to 
equal,  makes  the  average  for  works— ditches,  dams, 
headgates,  etc. — about  $9  per  acre.  Adding  cost  or 
preparing  land,  etc.,  the  average  rate,  first  ccst,  of  ir- 
rigation and  cultivation,  it  need  not  exceed  $20  per 
acre,  or  a  total  on  one-tenth  of  the  arid  region  of  /our 
billion  dollars.  Such  lands,  applying  present  rates,  will 
be  then  worth  $50  per  acre  ;  the  acre  water  rights  will  be 
valued  at  not  less  than  $30  each,  a  total  of  $80  per  acre, 
or  in  all  sixteen  billions.  This  leaves  on  total  first  cost 
and  plant  a  profit  of  three-fourths— twelve  billions. 
The  annual  outlay  per  acre  thereafter,  maintenance 
and  repairs,  farm  work  and  interest,  should  not  exceed 
$7  per  acre.  Net  crop  returns  will  average  $16  per 
acre,  leaving  a  profit  of  $n,  or  a  total  return  on  the  tull 
acreage  estimated  of  $2,200,000,000.  Besides  this  vast 
return  there  must  be  taken  into  account  the  economic 
values  of  town,  mines,  transportation,  mercantile, 
manufacturing  and  commercial  life,  which  such  farm 
labor  and  returns  will  readily  create.  This  will  an- 
.nually  return  at  least  as  much  more,  while  the  fixed 
wealth,  property,  interest  and  plant  will  be  worth 
enough  more  to  make  the  total  valuation  at  least  forty 
biilion  dollars. 

As  to  population  :  France  supports  three  persons  to 
the  acre  ;  Japan,  u  ;  the  United  States  one  to  each  three 
acres. 

From  a  United  States  census  bulletin  (1894,  F.  H. 
Newell  special  agent)  the  following  irrigation  statistics 
for  the  census  year  (May  30,  1889,  to  June  i,  1890)  are 
collated. 

•  In  the  first  division  the  statistics  given  are  : 

Total  number  of  farms  enumerated  in  arid  region, 
123,143  ;  total  number  of  irrigators  in  1889,  52,584  ;  area 
irrigated,  acres  of,  3,564,416 ;  average  size  of  such 
farms  in  acres,  68  ;  average  value  of  product  per  acre, 
$14.89  ;  total  acreage  of  farm  holdings  containing  such 
areas,  17,199,925;  per  cent,  of  irrigated  lands  therein, 
20.72;  average  percentage  of  irrigated  acres  to  entire 
land  surface,  0.50 ;  per  cent,  of  crops  to  total  acreage, 
forage  and  miscellaneous,  65.31 ;  per  cent,  in  cereals, 
ditto,  34.69. 

Of  irrigated  lands,  average  value  per  acre  is  $83. 28; 
products,  value  $14.79  ;  cost  of  water  rights,  $8.15  ;  an- 
nual (rental)  value  of  water,  $1.07  ;  cost 
of  preparing  and  leveling  land,  $12.12. 
Statistics.     Average  cost  per  acre  of  land  (estimate 
on  Government  rate),  $1.25  ;  total  cost  of 
land,    water,    rental    and    preparation, 
$21.32.    Average  value  (1890)  of  water  rights  per  acre, 
$26. 

The  total  costs,  as  estimated  on  foregoing  aver- 
ages, upon  3,561,416  acres,  are  :  Land,  $890,354  ;  water, 
$29,049,982  ;  annual  water  rentals,  $3,824,005  ;  land  prep- 
aration, $43,200,709  ;  total  according  to  census  figures 
(1890),  $78,965,050. 

The  statistics  for  the  second  or  subhumid 
division  are  quite  meager.  The  census  bulletin 
gives  them  as  follows  : 

Number  of  irrigators  (1889),  1552  ;  acres  irrigated, 
66,965  ;  average  size  of  such  farms  in  acres,  43  ;  total 
acres  in  farm  areas,  1,545,993  ;  per  cent,  irrigated,  6.40. 

Values  in  subhumid  division  for  1890  are  given  as 
follows  :  Average  first  cost  of  water,  $4.07  per  acre ; 


annual  rental  per  acre,  $1.21 ;  land  preparation.  $4.62 
(original  cost  of  land  not  given) ;  the  total  stated  is 
$9.90  per  acre. 

The  census  bulletin  shows  further  the  number  of 
artesian  wells  within  whole  region  under  review.  The 
totals  given  (omitting  New  Mexico  and  Arizona)  are  : 
Wells  on  farms,  8097;  average  depth,  210.14;  average 
cost,  $245.58 ;  average  discharge  per  minute,  51.43  gal- 
lons ;  used  in  irrigation,  3930 ;  acres  irrigated  thereby 
(estimated),  51,896.  The  area  served  by  each  is  aver- 
aged at  13.21  acres.  No  statement  is  given  to  show 
whether  this  acreage  is  included  in  the  total  irrigated 
area,  but  it  probably  is  not. 

The  table  annexed  gives  figures  taken  from 
returns  and  estimates  gathered  by  the  writer 
during  the  earlier  months  of  1894.  They  are 
careful  and  conservative,  and  the  increase  of 
cultivated  acreage  since  then  will  make  a  total 
of  at  least  8,750,000  acres. 


Estimated 
Area  now 
Culti- 
vated. 

Estimated 
Mean  An- 
nual Pre- 
cipitation. 

Arizona  

*I0.28 

Colorado  

Idaho  

New  Mexico  - 

Utah  

Washington  

Great  Plains  sectionstt  

Total  

13.76 

The  value  of  irrigation,  then,  as  a  maker  of 
homes  and  new  wealth  cannot  be  questioned. 
Whether  its  development  shall  be  accompanied 
by  normal,  social,  and  industrial  progress  or  be 
left  to  breed  the  reverse,  is  a  matter  of  impor- 
tance. This  depends  upon  a  proper  understand- 
ing of  the  legal  as  well  as  the  political  economic 
conditions  that  should  govern  water  conserva- 
tion, its  management  and  distribution.  '  The 
United  States,  in  this  as  in  many  other  ways, 
has  begun  wrong.  In  arid  countries,  where 
water  for  irrigation  is  a  necessity  of  successful. 
cultivation,  the  land  is  of  little  value  until  it  has 
been  fructified  by  such  water.  There  is  the 
possibility,  then,  of  serious  economic  disor- 
der and  extended  litigation.  The  region  has 
been  brought  under  our  rule  from  sources  differ- 


*  Highest,  14.48  ;  lowest,  3.12. 

t  The  State  average  is  25.45,  but  that  of  the  20  coun- 
ties in  which  irrigation  is  largely  followed  is  given  in 
the  table.  For  the  balance  of  State  it  is  34.45. 

J  Foothills  and  east  of,  the  mean  is  13.53  ;  in  the 
mountains  and  west,  it  is  14.02. 

§  The  actual  irrigation  for  crops  did  not  exceed 
76,000  acres  ;  balance  of  148,000  acres  was  pastoral  irri- 
gation, water  applied  to  natural  grass. 

I!  The  same  error  was  made  by  the  census  field  agents 
in  Oregon  of  returning  grass  or  pastoral  irrigation  as 
that  of  food  crops.  This  is  shown  by  the  wide  differ- 
ence between  the  irrigation  and  the  regular  crop  bul- 
letins in  certain  counties,  where  more  for  land  is  given 
as  irrigated  than  is  shown  to  have  been  cultivated  for 
crops.  This  estimate  is  for  eastern  Oregon  also. 

f  Estimated  for  the  western  State  section. 

**  Of  this  great  area,  reported  at  229,668  acres,  there 
was  probably  not  more  than  60,000  actually  under  food 
crop.  The  balance  was  pastoral  irrigation. 

tt  This  embraces  the  two  Dakotas,  Oklahoma,  and 
the  western  halves  of  Nebraska,  Kansas,  and  Texas. 


Irrigation. 


759 


Irrigation. 


ing  widely.  In  the  Southwest — New  Mexico, 
Arizona,  California,  Utah,  and  portions  of  Colo- 
rado-the  original  irrigators  were  the  Pueblo 
people,  the  village  and  mission  Indians.  They 
held  and  still  hold  water,  salt  springs  and  licks, 
with  land  as  community  or  common  property. 
There  is  no  general  law,  seldom  a  written  one, 
but  custom  makes  a  rigid  code  operative  within 
limited  borders.  The  Roman  or  civil  law,  how- 
ever, allows  no  recognition  whatever  of  proper- 
ty rights  in  this  use.  Water  is  treated  by  it  as 
a  natural  element,  necessary  for  life  as  is  the  air 
itself.  The  civil  code  controls  in  legal  principles 
the  whole  region  taken  over  from  France, 
Spain,  and  Mexico.  Treaty  obligations  guar- 
antee this.  By  it  water  is  a  "  trust,  "and  not  the 
property  of  the  State  any  more  than  it  is  that  of 
the  individual.  The  Anglo-Saxon  idea  of  legal 
property  has  since  come  in.  The 
common  law,  built  up  by  the  cus- 
Legal  toms,  equities,  and  habits  of  a  peo- 
Status.  pie  using  humid  land,  has  establish- 
ed the  doctrine  that  water  is  seized 
to  the  land  through  which  it  flows, 
and  the  restraint  to  the  community  exists  only 
as  to  its  use,  so  that  injury  shall  not  be  worked 
to  others.  One  riparian  owner  may  not  divert 
a  stream  without  recovery  to  the  channel  or 
pollute  the  waters,  to  the  injury  or  non-use  by 
other  owners,  without  being  liable  at  law  there- 
for. 

This  common  law  doctrine,  however,  is  pass- 
ing rapidly  into  disuse.  The  conditions  which 
shaped  pioneer  life  and  the  usual  American  dis- 
regard of  the  lessons  from  yesterday,  with  the 
indifference  always  shown  in  national  legisla- 
tion until  an  issue  is  forced,  left  the  States  to 
work  out  their  own  processes.  Three  distinct 
concepts  have  resulted : 

1 .  The  doctrine  of  "  prior  appropriation ' ' — first 
come  first  served.    This  is  the  law  of  placer  min- 
ing.    It  was  afterward  made  part  of  the  federal 
mining  and  land  laws,  and  has  been  adopted 
into  the  constitutions  and  statutes  (one  or  both) 
of  the  1 7  irrigation  States  and  Territories. 

2.  Colorado,  when  admitted  as  a  State,  adopt- 
ed a  constitutional  proviso  to  the  effect  that  the 
"  natural  waters"   within    the    State    are   the 
"  property"  of  the  people  thereof,  subject  under 
law  and  regulation  to  beneficial  appropriation 
and  use.     Her  court  decisions,  however,   are 
all  tending  to  the  broad  interpretation  of  such 
property  as  a  "  trust,"  not  an  ownership. 

Wyoming,  Montana,  Idaho,  North  Dakota, 
and  Utah  have  adopted  the  same  or  similar  lan- 
guage. By  the  admission  of  these  States  into 
the  Union  it  is  assumed  that  the  Federal  Gov- 
ernment has  abandoned  all  control  over  waters 
within  their  borders.  The  States  of  Kansas, 
Nebraska,  South  Dakota,  Washington,  Oregon, 
California,  and  Nevada  have  no  such  distinct 
constitutional  provision.  They  have  all  em- 
bodied the  prior  appropriation  doctrine  in  their 
statutes. 

3.  Growing  out  of  the  confusion  of  Indian  and 
other  customs,  California  has  evolved  a  new  ad- 
ministrative plan.    This  consists  in  applying  mu- 
nicipal control  by  permitting  any  body  of  citizens 
having  common  interests  in  the  agricultural  use 
of  locally  available  water  to  form  an  irrigation 
district,  to  make  plans  for  new  works,  and  to 


build  the  same,  or  to  provide  for  the  purchase 
and  condemnation  when  necessary  of  exist- 
ing ones  ;  to  issue  bonds  with  which  to  meet 
the  costs  and  expenses,  to  levy  taxes  for  pay- 
ment of  interest  and  principal,  and  to  maintain 
works  with  power  to  make  regulation  for  use, 
etc.  There  are  now  38  districts  formed  under 
these  laws,  with  several  million  acres  of  land 
within  their  control.  The  special  municipalities 
thus  created  become  not  the'  owners 
of  water,  but  its  administrative 
users  and  distributors.  But  the  Civil 
State  may  yet  make  its  supervision  Control. 
active.  Indeed,  the  development 
of  water  supply  will  compel  such 
action.  California  is  favorable  for  such  devel- 
opment, inasmuch  as  its  interstate  sources  of 
supply  are  quite  limited.  The  "  Wright  Irriga- 
tion District  System,"  so  named  from  its  au- 
thor, Counsellor  C-  C.  Wright,  of  Modesto,  Cal., 
embodies  as  fundamental  ideas  the  practical  re- 
covery of  common  law  idea  of  "  prior  appro- 
priation," and  the  Anglo-Saxon  principle  of 
municipal  or  local  control  and  administration. 
Amendments  are  needed  to  a  realization  of  its 
full  benefits,  but  the  underlying  ideas  need  no 
change.  Oregon,  Washington,  and  Kansas 
have  adopted  the  same  general  plan.  Nebras- 
ka, Montana,  and  Idaho  are  considering  it  favor- 
ably, and  it  now  seems  probable  that  it  will  yet 
be  the  law  of  the  arid  region.  South  Dakota 
has  applied  it  in  part  to  her  artesian  supply  by 
permitting  township  bonding  and  ownership  of 
wells  up  to  a  certain  number.  The  speculative 
promoter  or  negotiator  does  not  like  it ;  the  in- 
vestor accepts  it,  when  once  understood.  Colo- 
rado has  developed  the  legal  control  or  division 
of  the  water  supply  at  considerable  cost  of  liti- 
gation, and  Wyoming  has,  following  on  the 
same  general  ideas,  framed  the  best  plan  of  ad- 
ministrative control  or  administration.  South 
Dakota,  Colorado,  and  Wyoming  provide  for 
well-equipped  State  engineer  offices.  Nebraska 
and  Kansas  will  follow  suit.  The  general  tre'nd 
of  court  decisions  is  to  regard  water  once  applied 
to  the  land  as  escheated  thereto  ;  to  regulate 
prior  appropriations  according  to  needs  under 
the  supply,  and  to  regard  ditch  and  other  irri- 
gation-water companies  in  the  light  of  common 
carriers.  There  is  a  tendency  in  State  legisla- 
tion to  regulate  royalties  and  rentals.  In  Colo- 
rado and  Idaho  notably  an  agitation  is  growing 
for  State  ownership  of  irrigation  works.  All 
through  the  arid  region  the  idea  of  public  stor- 
age is  becoming  fixed  in  the  popular  mind. 
The  passage  by  Congress  (1894)  of  the  Carey 
law,  granting  each  State  1,000,000  acres  of  pub- 
lic lands  to  be  held  in  trust  for  reclamation,  is 
likely  rapidly  to  accelerate  this  trend  to  public 
control.  Utah  stands  in  an  exceptional  posi- 
tion, as  its  development  under  Mormon  di- 
rection has  given  a  freedom,  economy,  and 
security  to  irrigation  therein  that  no  incor- 
porated control  will  ever  secure. 

The  vital  water  supply  issue  concerns,  how- 
ever, the  nation  at  large.  The  eastern  line  of 
the  arid  region — 97°  of  west  longitude— is  bound- 
ed and  crossed  by  the  Missouri  River  for  more 
than  one  third  of  its  1300  miles.  This  great 
river  and  all  of  its  upper  basin  rises  in  and  is 
supplied  from  the  precipitation  of  our  north- 


Irrigation. 


760 


Italy  and  Social  Reform. 


west  area.     The  Missouri  is  the  principal  afflu- 
ent of  the  Mississippi.     The  two  great  basins 
and  their  branches  drain  and  sup- 
ply 15  great  States.    Yet  the  head- 
National     waters,    with  the  exception  of  the 
Interests.    Upper  Mississippi,  all  rise  within 
the  borders  of  three  arid  land  States. 
Practically,    too,   all  of    the  chief 
affluents  so  rise. 

Each  of  the  three  States  of  Colorado,  Wyo- 
ming, and  Montana  has  adopted  the  constitu- 
tional provision  that  natural  waters  within  their 
borders  are  the  property  of  the  State  or  of  the 
public  thereof.  They  each  assume  that  this 
gives  them  possession  and  control  of  all  such 
supply,  to  the  permanent  exclusion,  of  course,  of 
all  other  communities  below  them,  provided  only 
that  they  can  conserve,  take  out,  and  use  for 
"beneficial"  purposes  all  such  natural  waters 
as  find  their  sources  within  their  borders.  Such 
a  position  will  breed  difficulties.  Engineers  are 
quite  generally  leaning  to  the  view  that  storage 
on  an  extensive  scale  will  finally  be  the  means 
adopted  for  the  regulation  and  control  of  the 
lower  Mississippi  floods.  If  the  General  Gov- 
ernment has  no  control  over  interstate  waters 
under  the  State  claims  already  assumed,  how 
can  the  Government  do  this  ?  The  question 
may  be  met  by  stretching  the  theory  of  control 
over  navigable  waters  into  jurisdiction  over  all 
branches  and  affluents  of  such  hydrographic 
basins  and  channels.  But  that  will  not  reach 
such  use  as  irrigation  requires.  The  three  States 
named  embrace  the  sources  not  only  of  all  lead- 
ing western  affluents  of  the  Missouri  and  Missis- 
sippi, but  they  hold  also  the  sources  of  the  Rio 
Grande,  the  Rio  Colorado,  and  Snake  rivers. 

Ninety  per  cent,  of  the  natural  water  flow  or 
stream  to  be  found  within  the  arid  region  rises 
within  the  borders  of  Colorado,  Wyoming,  and 
Montana.  It  needs  no  more  than  such  a  state- 
ment to  show  the  importance  of  issues  embraced 
in  the  interstate  supply  question.  The  policy 
of  forest  and  water  storage  reservations  on  an 
extended  scale,  already  inaugurated,  should  be 
extended  until  it  covers  the  source  of  every  in- 
terstate water  supply. 

The  census  placed  the  first  cost  of  irrigation 
works,  etc  ,  at  $77,490,000  :  the  value  thereof  in 
June,  1890,  at  $296,850,000.  The  cost  of  irrigation 
works  now  constructed  is  not  less  than  $150,- 
000,000  ;  their  value  will  be  fully  $500,000,000. 
The  water  rights  for  8,500,000  acres,  at  the  cen- 
sus valuation  of  $26  per  acre,  will  be  worth 
$221,000,000.  The  value  of  the  land,  as  placed 
at  $83.28  per  acre  (census),  will  be  $707,880,000. 
At  the  census  rate  of  $15  per  acre  of  crop  re- 
turns, we  have  a  net  annual  result  of  $227,- 
500,000  Adding  water  and  land .  values,  we 
have  a  total  of  $928,880,000,  and  an  annual  re- 
turn, deducting  a  water  rental  of  $1.50  per  acre 
($12,750,000),  of  $214,750,000,  or  a  profit  of  over 
•  24  per  cent.,  besides  the  water  rental,  interest 
on  deferred  payments,  royalty,  and  increase  of 
land  values.  If  we  add  the  value  of  land  and 
water  rights  on  irrigation  areas,  served  but  not 
yet  cultivated,  we  shall  find  an  estimated  value 
of  another  $1,000,000,000  to  oar  arid  domain. 
The  estimated  industrial  value  to  water  for 
this  use  of  $300  per  cub.  ft.,  which  is  much  less 
than  the  actual  possibility  (counting  at  i  acre-ft. 


for  each  130,000,000  acres),  gives  us  a  value  of 
$6,000,000,000  more. 

These  figures  illustrate  the  immensely  possi- 
ble if  still  tentative  values  involved  in  the 
recognition  of  personal,  corporate,  or  commu- 
nity property  in  water. 

RICHARD  J.  HINTON. 

ITALY  AND  SOCIAL  REFORM. 

I.  STATISTICS. 

ITALY  is  to-day  a  kingdom  by  its  present  constitu- 
tion, which  is  an  expansion  of  the  Statute  fondamen- 
tale  del  Regno,  granted  on  March  4,  1848,  by  King 
Charles  Albert  to  his  Sardinian  subjects.  By  this  con- 
stitution the  executive  power  belongs  solely  to  the 
sovereign.  The  legislative  authority  belongs  con- 
jointly to  him  and  to  a  parliament  consisting  of  a 
Senato  and  a  Camera  de  Deputati.  The  Senate  is 
composed  of  princes  of  the  royal  house  and  an  in- 
definite number  of  prominent  persons  nominated  by 
the  king  for  life.  In  May,  1895,  there  were  397  sena- 
tors. The  deputies  to  the  lower  house 
are  elected  by  ballot  by  all  citizens  over 
21  who  can  read  and  write  and  pay  a  Constitution, 
direct  tax  of  19.80  lire,  or,  in  the  case  of 
certain  peasant  farmers,  80  centesimi. 
The  deputies  number  508.  In  1895  the  number  of  en- 
rolled electors  was  2,121,125,  and  those  who  voted  May, 
1895,  numbered  1,256,244.  No  priest  nor  one  receiving 
State  pay  can  be  elected.  Local  government  is  in  the 
hands  of  communal  and  provincial  councils.  The 
population  in  1881  was  28,460,0x30,  an  area  of  114,410 
sq.m.  The  births  steadily  exceed  the  deaths.  Emi- 
gration is  large,  but  not  larger  than  the  excess  of 
births  over  deaths.  Of  the  total  population,  62,000 
were  Protestants  and  38,000  Jews.  Under  the  papal 
authority  there  were,  in  1881,  6  cardinal  bishoprics  near 
Rome,  49  archbishoprics,  221  bishoprics,  76,560  paro- 
chial clergy,  20,465  parishes.  In  1865  there  were  2382 
religious  houses  in  Italy,  with  14,807  men  and  14,184 
women.  All  religious  houses  were  suppressed  in  1866, 
tho  a  small  pension  was  given  to  all  who  had  taken 
regular  religious  vows  before  January  18,  1864,  and  a 
few  monasteries  were  temporarily  set  aside  for  such 
as  wished  to  continue  conventual  life.  All  other 
property  was  appropriated  by  the  State.  The  con- 
stitution enacts  that  the  Catholic,  Apostolic,  and  Ro- 
man religion  is  the  sole  religion  of  the  State.  By  the 
royal  decree  of  October  9,  1870,  Rome  and  the  Roman 
provinces  were  declared  an  integral  part  of  the  king- 
dom of  Italy ;  the  Pope  was  acknowl- 
edged supreme  head  of  the  Church, 
ranking  as  a  sovereign  prince.  By  the  The  Church, 
law  of  May  13,  1871,  there  was  guaran-  o*  •Romp 
teed  to  him  and  his  successors  forever  *»»»»• 

the  Vatican  and   Lateran   palaces  and 
the  Castle  Gandolfo,  with  3,225,000  lire 
annually,  which  allowance  still  remains  unclaimed  and 
unpaid.    The   State  regulates  public  instruction,  and 
•  no  person  can  keep  a  school  without  State  authoriza- 
tion.   Education  is  compulsory  in  children  from  six  to 
nine  years  of   age.    (See  EDUCATION.)    The    budget 
for  1895-96  (June  30)  was  :  Revenue,  1,699,088,025  lire,  and 
the  expenditure,  1,689,342,764.     The  larger  sources  of 
revenue  were,  in  millions  of  lire  :  Income  tax,   288 ; 
customs,  235  ;  tobacco  monopoly,    192 ;  land  tax,   106  ; 
house  tax,  87  ;  salt  monopoly,  71  ;  stamps,  70;  lottery, 
65.    The  larger  expenses  were,  for  consolidated  debt, 
463,000,000  lire,  with  124  for  floating  debt ;  70,  redeem- 
able debt ;  223  for  the  Ministry  of  War,  and  94  for  the 
Ministry  of  Marine ;  62   for  public  works.    The  total 
debt  July  i,  1894,  was  12,307,857,604  lire, 
or   some    $75    per    head.      Exports    in 
1894  were  1,094,649,101   lire,  and  the  im-    Financial. 
ports,  1,026,506,700.    The    main    imports 
were  raw  cotton,  coal,  wheat,    and  un- 
bleached,   raw,   or    twisted    silk.    The   main  exports 
were  silk,  olive  oil,   fruit,   and  wine.    The  main  im- 
ports   came    from   Great   Britain,    France,   Germany, 
Russia,  and  Austria.    The  main  exports  are  to  Swit- 
zerland,  France,   Great  Britain,   Germany,  and   Aus- 
tria.   The  agricultural  population  numbers  10,000,000. 

II.  SOCIAL  REFORM. 

Social  reform  in  Italy  through  the  first  part 
of  the  century  was  almost  wholly  confined  to 


Italy  and  Social  Reform. 


761 


Jacobins. 


the  noble  efforts  made  in  various  ways  by  pa- 
triots like  Mazzini  and  Garibaldi,  by  societies  of 
various  kinds  like  the  Carbonari,  to  secure 
democratic  liberty  and  Italian  unity..  (See  MAZ- 
ZINI ;  CARBONARI.)  Mazzini  opposed  socialism 
as  it  was  presented  in  his  day  as  being  mate- 
rialistic and  anti-nationalistic,  and  standing  for 
an  almost  individualistic  battle  for  personal 
rights  rather  than  for  cooperation  and  duty  ; 
but  his  position  on  almost  all  subjects  was  that 
of  modern  ethical  socialism,  and  his  followers 
in  Italy  have  done  much  to  develop  reform  of 
this  kind.  In  1861  a  Fratellanza  Artigiana  (Arti- 
san Brotherhood)  was  started  in  Florence  con- 
nected with  Mazzim's  name  to  develop  coopera- 
tion in  various  ways.  It  was  intended  to  spread 
through  Italy.  This  hope  has  not  been  realized, 
owing  to  political  jealousies  ;  but  it  still  survives 
at  Florence,  and  has  several  thousand  members. 
(See  COOPERATION.)  In  1871  a  pact  of  working 
men's  societies,  Patto  di  Fratellanza,  was  formed 
at  Rome,  also  drawn  up  under  the  auspices  of 
Mazzini,  and  still  endures.  It  held  its  eighteenth 
general  congress  at  Palermo  in  1892,  and  stands 
for  cooperation  and  liberty.  Previously  to  this, 
however,  the  International  (g.v.)  had  entered 
Italy.  Bakunin  (f.v.)  founded  a  section  at  Na- 
ples in  1867,  and  established  a  paper,  Equity. 
Other  sections  were  formed  in  Genoa,  Milan, 
and  Italy.  This  movement  opposed  the  Maz- 
zini societies  and  developed  strength  enough  to 
frighten  the  Government  into  suppressing  the 
sections  in  1871.  It  sprang  up  again,  however, 
till  finally  again  suppressed  in  1875.  It  repre- 
sented anarchist  communism  rather  than  social- 
ism. 

In  1882  the  Italian  franchise  was  widened, 
and  in  1885  an  Italian  Labor  Party  was  formed 
at  Milan,  partly  socialistic,  partly  anarchistic. 
It  won  strength  enough  to  cause  it  to  be  dis- 


solved by  the  Government  in  1886.  A  new 
laborers'  party  (Partito  dei  Lavoratori),  how- 
ever, was  formed  at  congresses  in  Milan  and 
Genoa  in  1891  and  1892. 

In  September,  1893,  the  party  held  a  second 
congress  at  Reggio  (Emilia),  when  it  assumed  a 
distinctly  socialist  attitude,  and  adopted  the 
name  of  Italian  Laborers'  Socialist  Party 
(Partito  Socialista  dei  Lavoratori  Italiani).  The 
reports  of  the  central  committee  to  'this  congress 
and  to  the  International  Congress  at  Zurich 
(1893)  give  some  further  interesting  details  con- 
cerning the  development  and  present  position  of 
the  party,  which  may  be  added  to  the  above  ac- 
count. Owing  to  the  remissness  of  the  affiliated 
societies  in  furnishing  the  committee  with  re- 
turns, it  has  not  been  found  possible  to  publish 
perfectly  satisfactory  statistics,  but  it  is  prob- 
able that  the  party  includes  at  the  present  time 
not  less  than  200,000  active  members,  and  al- 
most 300  affiliated  societies,  among  them  the 
agricultural  federations  of  Mantua,  with  about 
11,000  peasant  members. 

The  party  works  on  the  lines  of  German  so- 
cialism, but  has  not  German  organization, 
standing  at  present  principally  for  agitation. 
More  immediately  practical  is  the  establishment 
of  labor  chambers  in  Italy.  (See  LABOR  EX- 
CHANGE.) Cooperation  has  had  considerable  de- 
velopment in  Italy,  particularly  interesting 
being  the  cooperative  societies  of  the  laboreis 
and  builders,  who  take  contracts  directly  from 
the  municipalities.  (For  an  account  of  this, 
however,  see  COOPERATION.)  Anarchism  has 
still  considerable  hold,  particularly  in  the  in- 
flammable South,  where,  however,  conditions 
seem  almost  to  drive  the  peasants  into  it. 

Reference :  The  best  book  in  English  on  social  re- 
form in  Italy  is  the  Report  on  Italy  of  the  (English) 
Royal  Commission  on  Labor. 


J. 


JACKSON,  ANDREW,  seventh  President 
of  the  United  States,  was  born  in  the  Waxhaw 
Settlement,  Union  County,  N.  C.,  March  15, 
1767.  He  was  of  Scotch-Irish  parentage,  his 
father  a  farm  laborer.  Both  parents  died  early, 
leaving  their  children  destitute.  With  little 
schooling  young  Jackson  worked  his  way  in  a 
saddler's  shop  and  by  teaching  school,and  in  1786 
was  admitted  to  the  bar.  In  1790  he  was  ap- 
pointed by  Washington  United  States  Attorney 
for  the  newly  constituted  Territory  of  Tennessee, 
and  became  most  active  and  prominent.  In  1796 
he  was  Tennessee's  first  representative  in  Con- 
gress, and  in  1797  United  States  Senator.  In 
1798  he  resigned,  and  became  a  Judge  of  the  Su- 
preme Court  of  Tennessee  till  1804.  In  1803  he 
was  an  unsuccessful  candidate  for  appointment 
as  governor  of  the  new  Territory  of  Louisiana. 
In  1804  he  retired  from  politics,  but  in  1813  led 
the  forces  of  Tennessee  to  New  Orleans  in  the 
War  of  1812,  and  in  1814  was  made  Major-Gen- 
eral.  The  famous  victory  of  January  8,  1815, 
made  him  a  popular  hero.  In  1821  he  was  ap- 
pointed Governor  of  Florida.  In  1824  Jackson, 


nominated  by  the  Tennessee  Legislature,  re- 
ceived the  largest  popular  vote  for  the  Presi- 
dency, but  John  Quincy  Adams  was  elected  by 
the  House  of  Representatives.  In  1828  Jackson 
was  elected,  and  this  election  is  considered 
the  beginning  of  the  modern  Democratic  Party 
(y.v.).  Inaugurated  March  4,  1829,  he  at  once 
removed  all  incumbents  belonging  to  the  op- 
posite party.  He  also  commenced  war  on  the 
national  banks,  (See  BANKS  AND  BANKING.) 
In  1832  he  received  219  out  of  288  electoral 
votes.  In  1833  he  removed  the  Government 
deposits  from  the  United  States  Bank.  The 
national  debt  was  extinguished,  but  in  1837 
came  the  first  great  panic.  In  1836  Jackson  suc- 
ceeded in  obtaining  the  election  of  his  friend 
Van  Buren,  and,  retiring  from  politics,  died 
June  8,  1845.  Of  violent  and  impulsive  temper, 
perhaps  no  American  statesman  has  been  more 
loved,  hated,  opposed,  and  admired. 

JACOBINS.— Jacobin  was  the  name  chosen 
by  a  French  political  club  founded  in  1789  by 
some  deputies  from  Brittany  during  the  session 


Jacobins. 


762 


Japan  and  Social  Reform. 


of  the  States-General  at  Versailles.  ( See  FRENCH 
REVOLUTION.)  The  club  was  first  called  the 
Breton  Club,  then  the  Societe  des  Amis  de  la 
Constitution.  After  the  Assembly  went  to  Paris 
the  club  occupied  an  old  Dominican  monastery 
in  the  Rue  Saint  Honore.  These  Dominicans 
had  been  called  Jacobins  from  a  fact  that  the 
Church  of  St.  James  (Jacobus)  had  been  given 
to  them,  and  the  political  club  now  took  their 
name.  Lafayette  and  Mirabeau,  among  others, 
at  first  belonged  to  it,  but  as  its  principles  domi- 
na.ted  the  commune  it  became  more  and  more 
radical.  Its,  Journal  des  Amis  de  la  Constitu- 
tion spread  its  principles  through  France. 
Robespierre  became  the  ruling  member,  and 
after  his  downfall  in  1794  the  club  was  also 
overthrown,  and  in  November  was  suspended. 
Persons  of  extreme  revolutionary  principles  are 
still  sometimes  called  Jacobins. 

JACQUERIE.— In  May,  1358,  rebelling 
against  the  tyranny  of  Charles  the  Bad  of  Na  - 
varre  and  of  the  nobility,  the  French  peasants 
rose  in  revolt  during  the  imprisonment  of  John 
II. ,  the  Good,  in  England.  The  revolt  commenced 
near  Paris,  but  spread  to  the  Marne  and  the  Oise, 
and  for  three  weeks  carried  all  before  it  ;  but  in 
June  it  was  put  down  with  great  slaughter  at 
Meaux.  The  name  comes  from  the  Jacques  or 
clowns,  used  for  peasants,  from  the  Christian 
name  Jacques,  supposed  to  be  peculiarly  a 
peasant  name. 

JAMES,  EDMUND  JANES,  was  born  in 
1855,  at  Jacksonville,  111.  He  was  prepared  for 
college  in  the  Illinois  State  Normal  School,  and 
entered  the  Northwestern  University  at  Evans- 
ton,  111.,  in  1873.  Having  been  appointed  Re- 
corder on  the  United  States  Lake  Survey,  he 
joined  (May  i ,  1874)  the  party  of  Engineer  Terry, 
engaged  on  the  upper  St.  Lawrence  and  the 
lower  part  of  Lake  Ontario.  At  the  end  of  the 
season  he  entered  Harvard  College. 

In  July,  1875,  he  went  to  Europe  to  study  po- 
litical economy,  and  attending  lectures  also  at 
Berlin  and  Leipsic,  was  graduated  from  Halle 
in  1877,  taking  the  degrees  of  M.A.  and  Ph.D. 

On  his  return  home  he  was  principal  of  the 
high  school  in  Evanston,  111.,  and  of  the  high 
school  department  of  the  Illinois  State  Normal 
School.  He  resigned  this  position  in  1882  in 
order  to  continue  his  studies  in  Europe,  which 
he  pursued  at  various  German  universities. 

In  1883  he  was  elected  Professor  of  Public 
Finance  and  Administration  in  the  Wharton 
School  of  Finance  and  Economy,  University  of 
Pennsylvania,  and  since  1886  has  had  prac- 
tical charge  of  this  department.  In  1891  he  was 
elected  President  of  the  American  Society  for 
the  Extension  of  University  Teaching,  and  held 
this  position  until  1895,  during  which  time  the 
work  of  the  society  was  greatly  extended  and 
strengthened. 

In  1896  he  went  to  the  University  of  Chicago 
as  Professor  of  Public  Administration  in  the  De- 
partment of  Political  Science,  and  Director  of 
the  University  Extension  Department. 

Professor  James  has  been  and  is  an  active 
member  of  many  educational  and  economic  as- 
sociations. He  was  one  of  the  founders  of  the 
American  Economic  Association,  and  for  some 


time  its  Vice-President  He  was  one  of  the 
founders  of  the  American  Academy  of  Political 
and  Social  Science,  and  at  the  first  meeting  for 
formal  organization,  December  14,  1889,  was 
elected  President,  an  office  to  which  he  has 
since  been  annually  reelected.  He  was  also,  till 
his  removal  to  Chicago,  editor,  and  is  still  asso- 
ciate editor,  of  the  Annals  of  the  academy. 

With  Dr.  Charles  De  Garmo,  President  of 
Swarthmore  College,  he  founded  the  Illinois 
School  Journal,  now  the  Public  School  Jour- 
nal, one  of  the  most  influential  educational 
periodicals  in  the  West. 

He  was  one  of  the  first  to  take  part  in  the  re- 
cent movement  for  the  improvement  of  city 
politics  in  the  United  States  ;  was  one  of  the 
organizers  of  the  Municipal  League  of  Philadel- 
phia (out  of  which  the  National  Association  of 
Municipal  Leagues  has  grown),  and  served  as  its 
first  president  from  December  i,  1891. 

Professor  James'  contributions  to  the  litera- 
ture of  the  subjects  in  which  he  has  been  inter- 
ested have  been  very  numerous,  tho  they  have 
taken  the  form  of  papers,  magazine  and  cyclo- 
pedia articles,  addresses,  etc.,  rather  than  the 
form  of  books.  Among  them  are  The  Relation 
of  the  Modern  Municipality  to  the  Gas  Sup- 
ply (1886)  ;  The  Canal  and  the  Railway  (1890). 

JANNET,  CLAUDIO,  was  born  at  Paris 
in  1844.  He  became  a  lawyer  at  Aix  and  later 
Professor  of  Political  Economy  at  the  Catholic 
University  of  Paris.  Some  of  his  principal 
works  are  :  De  I'  etat  present  et  de  I'  avenir 
des  associations  cooperatives  (1867);  I' Inter- 
nationale et  la  question  sociale  (1871);  les 
Institutions  sociales  et  le  droit  civil  a  Sparte 
(1874)  ;  les  £tats  Unis  contemporains  (1875)  ; 
les  Fails  economiques  et  le  mouvement  social 
en  Italic  (1889)  ;  le  Socialisme  d' £tat  et  la 
reforme  sociale  (1889)  ;  le  Capital,  la  specula- 
tion et  la  finance  au  XIX*  siecle  (1892).  Jan- 
net  belongs  to  the  school  of  Le  Play, 

JAPAN  AND   SOCIAL   REFORM.— We 

consider  Japan  under  two  general  heads  :  I. 
Statistics  ;  II.  Social  Reform. 

I.  STATISTICS  (IN  GENERAL). 

The  Japanese  claim  that  their  empire  was  founded 
by  the  first  emperor,  Jimmu,  660  B.C.,  and  that  the 
present  emperor  is  descended  from  him,  having  over- 
thrown in  1868  the  power  of  the  Shogun,  who  had  ruled 
since  the  twelfth  century.  In  1871  the  feudal  system 
was  suppressed.  In  1889  a  constitution  was  proclaimed, 
and  Japan  is  now  a  constitutional  empire.  The  em- 
peror, with  advice  of  a  Cabinet  and  Privy  Council,  has 
the  executive  power,  even  to  declaring  war  and  mak- 
ing peace.  Laws  must  receive  the  con- 
sent of  the  Imperial  Diet,  consisting  of  a 
House  of  Peers  and  of  representatives, , 
each  with  about  300  members.  The  rep- 
resentatives are  elected  by  male  sub- 
jects of  25  years  of  age  resident  one 
year  in  the  Fu  or  Ken,  and  who  pay  15  yen  or  more  as  a 
national  tax.  Voting  is  by  secret  ballot.  Local  self- 
government  is  on  the  increase. 

The  population  December  31,  1893,  was  41,388,313  in 
an  area  of  147,655  sq.  miles,  not  including  Formosa. 
There  is  absolute  religious  freedom,  tho  the  principal 
Shinto  temples  are  maintained  by  State  or  local  au- 
thorities.    There  were    in   1893,   193,430 
Shinto    temples,    and    71,839    Buddhist. 
Education    is    compulsory,  with   23,960        Social 
elementary  schools,  1410  special,  and  427        oui/iai. 
others.  Justice  is  modelled  on  European 
lines. 

The  revenue,  1894-95,  was  88,045,234  yen,  and  the  ex- 
penditure, 80,140,500.  The  main  source  of  revenue 


Japan  and  Social  Reform. 


763 


Jenks,  Jeremiah  W. 


(nearly  50  per  cent.)  is  a  land  tax  ;  the  main  expenses 
are  interest  on  the  public  debt,  and  for  the  army  and 
defenses.  The  peace  footing  of  the  army  in  1893  was 
3615  officers,  65,098  men,  2181  students.  The  reserve  has 
94,676,  and  the  landwe/ir,  105,053.  The  total  war  strength 
is  now  said  to  be  328,000.  The  Japanese  navy  has  9 
armored  ships,  32  unarmored,  28  gunboats,  n  lesser 
vessels,  and  75  torpedo  boats. 

The  land  is  cultivated  by  peasant  proprietors,  ten- 
ancy being  rare.  Rice  is  much  the  largest  crop.  The 
exports  in  1894  were  121,677,263  yen,  and  the  imports, 
113,308,997.  The  chief  exports  are  silk,  tea,  and  rice ; 
the  main  imports,  raw  cotton,  sugar,  and  machinery. 
The  largest  exports  are  to  the  United  States,  France, 
and  Hongkong  ;  the  largest  imports  from  Great  Britr 
ain,  China,  and  the  United  States. 

II.  SOCIAL  REFORM. 

The  following  is  from  the  United  States  Con- 
sular Reports  of  May,  1896  : 

"  The  development  of  both  internal  and  foreign 
trade  is  the  all-absorbing  problem  with  every  class  of 
the  people  of  Japan.  The  system  of  education  em- 
ployed in  the  scnools  is  admirably  adapted  to  the 
turning  out  of  well-equipped  business  men,  so  far  as 
a  practical  commercial  education  can  accomplish  such 
an  end. 

"  Merchants,  manufacturers,  and,  in  fact,  all  en- 
gaged in  trade  actively  or  by  investment  of  capital 
are  making  and  will  continue  to  make  the  very  best 
use  of  the  time  intervening  between  the  present  and 
the  coming  into  operation  of  the  lately  revised 
treaties,  in  borrowing,  ad  libitum,  the  products  (in  the 
shape  of  labor-saving  appliances)  of  the  inventive 
genius  of  the  people  of  the  United  States,  and  of  every 
other  nation,  for  use  in  the  workshops  of  the  Empire, 
and  will  return  the  results  in  merchantable  goods  to 
the  people  of  the  nations  from  whom  they  are  now 
borrowing  at  prices  which  will  make  competition  an 
exceedingly  difficult  problem  to  solve. 

"  The  Japanese  excel  in  productions  of  silk,  jute,  cot- 
ton, clay,  iron,  and  straw  in  the  shape  of  piece  goods, 
wearing  apparel,  floor  coverings,  porcelain  wares, 
curios  of  every  description,  mechani- 
cal and  other  toys,  paper,  and  other 

Manufac-     goods  in  which  they  are  the  principal 

tures          commodities  used,   and  in  retail  prod- 

ucts,  among  which  may  be  mentioned 

surgical  instruments,  which,  for  delicacy 

of  design   and  quality  of  temper,  can 

scarcely  be  surpassed. 

"The  raw  material  necessary  for  the  production, 
not  only  of  the  merchandise  named,  but  of  nearly  all 
other  goods  produced  by  the  most  favored  of  the  pro- 
ducing nations,  are  found  in  the  territory  of  the  em- 
pire, the  material  wealth  and  producing  power  of 
which  have  been  enhanced  in  no  small  measure  by  the 
annexation  of  Formosa.  The  mines  are  rich  in  coal, 
iron,  and  other  minerals  ;  the  soil  is  fertile,  and,  judg- 
ing from  the  extraordinary  progress  being  made  in 
agricultural  pursuits,  every  available  foot  of  it  will, 
in  the  near  future,  be  put  into  a  high  state  of  cultiva- 
tion. In  many  of  the  subdivisions  of  Japan,  two  crops 
are  produced  annually. 

"  The  daily  wage  paid  for  mining  and  unskilled 
labor  necessary  for  the  production  of  what  may  be 
termed  raw  materials  will  average  about  10  cents 
(United  States  currency),  and  that  paid  for  skilled 
labor,  at  present,  will  average  about  18  cents.  .  .  . 

"  With  her  natural  advantages,  the  method  of  educa- 
tion employed  in  the  schools  and  the  universality  of 
effort  in  the  direction  of  increasing  trade  internally 
and  directly  with  the  people  of  other  nations,  it  would 
seem  that  the  Empire  of  Japan  is  destined  to  become 
the  great  producing  nation  of  the  Orient.  But  before 
such  a  conclusion  can  be  accepted,  consideration 
should  be  given  to  certain  drawbacks,  among  which 
may  be  mentioned  the  inability  to  produce  quality 
and  quantity  in  accordance  with  contract  stipulations. 
This  defect  is  subjecting  her  tradespeople  to  very 
serious  criticisms  on  the  part  of  those  with  whom  they 
trade ;  and  by  many  it  is  alleged  to  be  due  to  a  lack 
of  commercial  probity.  I  am  not  of  that  opinion,  but 
rather  ascribe  it  to  a  lack  of  training  in  the  art  of  pro- 
ducing stated  quantities  in  stipulated  periods.  In 
sho~t,  they  can  produce,  under  present  conditions, 
qua.litv,  but  not  quantity.  .  .  . 

"  Up  to  the  date  of  the  recent  war  with  China,  it 
seemed  impossible  to  persuade  Western  people  to  take 
the  new  Japan  seriously.  It  needed  the  crushing  de- 
feat of  the  Chinese  Empire  to  open  people's  eyes.  To 


be  sure,  the  events  which  electrified  the  rest   of  the 
world  excited  no  surprise  whatever  in  Japan,   where 
the  issue  was    foreseen   with   absolute 
clearness  before  a  shot  was  fired.    .     .    . 

"  Since  the  conclusion  of  the  war,  re-      Progress 
newed  activity  is  noticeable   in  every 
branch  of  industry.    The   huge  cotton 
mills  that  have  sprung  up  in  Osaka  and 
other  towns  are  among  the  most  noteworthy  of  new  en- 
terprises set  on  foot  from  day  to   day.    Every  town 
and  city,  and  the   country   generally,   has  an  air  of 
prosperity.    Gas  and  electric  light  are  more  and  more 
used,  and,  in  the  larger  centers  of  population,  are  all 
but  universal.      In  several  towns,    the   electric-light 
apparatus  is  worked  by  water    power— a   source   of 
energy   practically  unlimited,  and  hitherto    scarcely 
utilized. 

"The  railway  system  is  extensive  and  admirably 
managed,  and  every  corner  of  the  empire  is  now  pro- 
vided with  good  macadamized  roads,  an  inestimable 
boon.  .  .  . 

"  It  is  impossible  for  me  to  conclude  these  brief  notes 
without  some  mention  of  the  numberless  schools,  pub- 
lic and  private,  in  Japan.  The  Government  is 
thoroughly  alive  to  the  national  importance  of  educa- 
tion." 

JEFFERSON,  THOMAS,  third  President 
of  the  United  States,  was  born  in  Albemarle 
County,  Va.,  April  13,  1743,  the  son  of  a  citizen 
of  some  importance.  Attending  William  and 
Mary  College,  and  studying  law  at  Williams- 
burg,  he  was  admitted  to  the  bar  in  1767,  and 
soon  acquired  standing  and  wealth,  and  in  1772 
married  an  heiress.  From  1769  to  the  Revo- 
lution he  served  in  the  Virginia  House  of  Bur- 
gesses. Tho  no  orator,  he  soon  became  a  lead- 
er of  the  opposition  to  the  king,  and  June  21, 
1775,  took  his  seat  in  the  Continental  Congress. 
He  drafted  the  Declaration  of  Independence,, 
In  1776  he  resumed  his  seat  in  the  Virginia 
Legislature,  and  secured  the  first  law  estab- 
lishing perfect  religious  freedom.  From  1779 
for  two  years  he  was  Governor  of  Virginia.  In 
1782  his  wife  died,  and,  distracted  with  grief, 
he  accepted  an  appointment  as  Minister  to 
France.  In  1789  he  was  appointed  by  Wash- 
ington Secretary  of  State,  and  served  till  1794, 
when  he  resigned.  During  this  period  the 
Democratic  Party  (or  Republican-Democratic 
Party  as  it  was  first  called)  developed  with  Jef- 
ferson as  leader,  opposed  to  the  federalism  of 
Hamilton,  Jefferson's  colleague  in  the  Cabinet. 
In  1796  Jefferson  was  elected  Vice -President, 
and  in  1800  President.  During  his  administra- 
tion the  public  debt  was  reduced,  Louisiana  was 
purchased  for  $15,000,000,  the  Algerian  pirates 
conquered,  and  the  system  of  precedence  was 
abolished  for  a  reasonable  etiquette.  Jefferson 
was  elected  in  1804  almost  without  opposition. 
His  embargo  policy,  retaliating  upon  France 
and  England  prohibiting  United  States  vessels 
from  leaving  port,  struck  a  blow  at  the  navy, 
and  opposition  to  him  increased.  In  1808  he 
declined  to  be  nominated  for  a  third  term,  and 
retired  to  Monticello,  where  he  interested  him- 
self in  founding  the  University  of  Virginia. 
He  died  July  4, 1826.  (See  DEMOCRATIC  PARTY.) 

JENKS,  JEREMIAH  W.,  was  born  in  1856 
at  St.  Clair,  Mich.  He  graduated  from  the  Uni- 
versity of  Michigan  in  1878,  receiving  the  de- 
gree of  A.M  in  1879  and  the  degree  of  Ph.D. 
in  1885  from  the  University  of  Halle,  Ger- 
many. He  has  taught  at  Mt.  Moms  College, 
111.  ;  Peoria  High  School,  111.  ;  Knox  College, 
Galesburg,  111.,  Indiana  State  University, 
Bloomington,  Ind.,  and  at  Cornell  University, 


Jenks,  Jeremiah  W. 


764 


Jones,  Richard. 


where,  since  1891,  he  has  been  Professor  of  Po- 
litical, Municipal,  and  Social  Institutions.  He 
is  Secretary  of  the  American  Economic  Associa- 
tion, and  of  the  Finance  Department  of  the 
American  Social  Science  Association.  His  writ- 
ings have  been  numerous,  but  have  taken  the 
form  of  monographs,  magazine  and  cyclopedia 
articles,  addresses,  etc.,  rather  than  of  books. 
He  has  written  particularly  on  elections,  ballot 
reform,  and  similar  political  subjects. 

JEVONS,    WILLIAM    STANLEY,    was 

born  in  Liverpool  in  1835.  He  went  in  early 
life  to  Australia,  and  held  the  post  of  assayer  in 
the  Sydney  Mint  from  1854-59  ;  he  then  re- 
turned to  England  in  order  to  pursue  his  studies 
in  philosophy  and  ethics.  He  was  Professor  of 
Logic  from  1866-76  at  Owens  College,  Manches- 
ter, and  of  Economics  at  University  College, 
London,  from  1876-81.  He  met  his  death  by 
drowning  at  Bexhill  in  1882. 

Cossa  says  of  him  in  his  Introduction  to  Po- 
litical Economy  : 

"In  him  logical  powers  of  the  highest  order  were 
happily  associated  with  the  trained  acuteness  of  a 
mathematical  expert  and  the  rare  gifts  of  a  born 
economist,  and  to  all  these  was  added  a  unique  apti- 
tude for  statistical  observation.  He  was  equally  at 
home  when  presenting  the  results  of  his  investiga- 
tions in  such  a  popular  form  as  that  of  his  Primer  of 
Political  Economy  (1878),  his  Money  the  Mechanism 
of  Exchange  (1879),  and  when  employing  the  more 
abstruse  language  of  science,  as  in  his  Principles  of 
Science  (1874,  2  vols.).  Something  fantastic,  however, 
will  at  times  lie  in  wait  for  his  readers  even  in  the 
midst  of  such  a  vigorous  concatenation  of  reasoning 
as  that  in  his  account  of  commercial  crises." 

Professor  Ingram  says  of  him  : 

"  The  reputation  of  Jevons  as  an  acute  and  vigor- 
ous thinker,  inspired  with  noble  popular  sympathies, 
is  sufficiently  established.  But  the  attempt  to  repre- 
sent him,  in  spite  of  himself,  as  a  follower  and  con- 
tinuator  of  Ricardo,  and  as  one  of  the  principal  au- 
thors of  the  development  of  economic  theory  (mean- 
ing by  '  theory '  the  old  a  friori  doctrine)  can  only 
lower  him  in  estimation  by  placing  his  services  on 
grounds  which  will  not  bear  criticism.  His  name  will 
survive  in  connection,  not  with  new  theoretical  con- 
structions, but  with  his  treatment  of  practical  prob- 
lems, his  fresh  anr"  lively  expositions,  and,  as  we  have 
shown,  his  energetic  tendency  to  a  renovation  of 
economic  method." 

In  the  field  of  applied  economics  Jevons  often 
discussed  monometallism  and  bimetallism,  de- 
claring himself,  tho  in  very  temperate  and 
guarded  terms,  a  monometallism  He  favored 
cooperation  and  profit-sharing,  and  also  be- 
lieved in  State  legislation  on  social  questions. 
(See  his  The  State  in  Relation  to  Labor,  1882.) 

In  economic  theory  he  is  best  known  for  his 
conception  of  total  utility  (y.v.).  Besides  the 
above-mentioned  books  there  should  be  noticed 
his  Theory  of  Political  Economy  (1879)  ;  Meth- 
ods of  Social  Reform  (1883),  and  Investiga- 
tions in  Currency  and  Finance  (1884). 

JOBS,  as  used  in  political  science,  are  defined 
by  the  Century  Dictionary  to  be  undertakings 
"  so  managed  as  to  secure  unearned  profit  or 
undue  advantage,  especially  a  public  duty  or 
trust  performed  or  conducted  with  a  view  to 
improper  personal  gain. "  Mr.  Ferdinand  See- 
ger,  writing  in  the  North  American  Review 
(vol.  cxliii,,  p.  87),  says  : 

"Nearly  all  the  very  large  corporate  undertakings 
in  the  United  States  during~the  past  20  years  have  had 


in  them  more  or  less  of  the  corrupt  political  and  finan- 
cial elements  which  the  public  have  come  to  sum  up  in 
the  -w oid  job." 

The  writer  gives  many  instances  of  jobs,  as 
".the  Broadway  Steal"  (q.v.),  "  the  Cable  Road 
Grab."  Of  the  New  York  new  aqueduct  he 
says  : 

"The  'biggest  job,"  as  well  as  the  largest  project, 
now  under  way  in  any  city  of  the  United  States,  is 
probably  that  of  the  new  aqueduct,  which  is  to  be 
the  main  source  of  our  New  York  City  water  supply. 

"The  new  aqueduct  is  to  be  31  miles  long.  Through 
10  miles  of  this  area  nature  has  furnished  a  solid  rock 
bottom,  perfectly  water- tight,  and  much  better  than 
any  artificial  bottom  that  could  possibly  be  con- 
structed. Yet  the  Board  of  Aqueduct  Commissioners 
has  voted  to  line  the  entire  aqueduct  with  brick, 
bottom  and  all,  including  the  10  miles  already  lined  with 
the  best  of  natural  stone.  Controller  Loew  opposed 
this  worse  than  useless  expenditure,  intended  wholly 
for  the  benefit  of  political  corruptionists,  but  the  job 
has  been  sustained  by  the  majority  of  the  board. 
When  the  matter  came  up,  the  controller  offered  a 
resolution  that  the  work  be  done  as  any  sensible  busi- 
ness man  would  do  it  for  himself— that  is,  that  the 
aqueduct  be  lined  only  where  necessary.  The  reso- 
lution was  voted  down,  Mayor  Grace  alone  sustaining 
the  controller.  Judge  Spencer,  the  Tammany  mem- 
ber of  the  Aqueduct  Commission,  then  offered  a 
resolution  that  the  whole  structure  receive  the  brick 
lining.  The  resolution  was  passed,  the  mayor  and  the 
controller  voting  against  it.  In  the  passage  of  this 
little  resolution,  the  people  of  New  York  City  were 
put  to  an  unnecessary  expense  of  a  million  and  a  half 
of  dollars,  in  order  that  the  contractors  and,  indirect- 
ly, a  political  ring,  might  profit  by  it. 

"In  order,  however,  that  the  ring  might  not  be 
troubled  with  such  'factious  opposition'  to  future 
jobs  of  the  kind,  the  ring  decided  to  legislate  the  in- 
convenient mayor  and  controller  out  of  the  Board  of 
Aqueduct  Commissioners,  altho  they  were  the  chief 
representatives  and  the  only  safeguards  to  the  city, 
for  whom  the  aqueduct  is  being  constructed.  The 
bill  was  therefore  introduced  in  the  Legislature  and 
swiftly  passed— '  kissed  through,' as  it  is  termed  by 
Hon.  Timothy  J.  Campbell,  which  is  the  technical 
name  for  a  corrupt  bargain  between  political  man- 
agers for  both  parties,  and  was  signed  by  Governor 
Hill.  .  .  . 

"  Among  the  most  prominent  and  influential  of  these 
contractors  are  Messrs.  Clark  and  O'Brien,Mr.  O'Brien 
being  chairman  of  the  Democratic  State  Committee 
and  also  the  political  special  manager  and  henchman 
of  Governor  Hill.  The  opinion  now  and  then  escapes 
the  intimate  friends  of  these  gentlemen  that  the 
'aqueduct  job,' if  'handled  for  all  it  is  worth,'  will 
furnish  the  financial  sinews  (or  what  they  briefly  term 
'the  party  boodle  ')  to  make  Mr.  Hill  the  next  Presi- 
dent of  the  United  States. 

"  The  work  on  the  aqueduct  is  supposed  to  be 
given  out  to  the  lowest  bidder.  One  precarious  sec- 
tion of  it,  under  the  Harlem  River,  was  allotted  some 
time  ago  to  Messrs.  Clark  and  O'Brien,  at  an  allow- 
ance of  $50,000  more  then  the  lowest  bid,  for  fear  that 
the  lowest  bidder  might  not  do  the  work  well.  But  it 
was  immediately  sublet  to  this  lowest  bidder,  and  the 
difference  pocketed." 

(See  also  CORRUPTION  ;  CITY  MUNICIPALISM.) 

JONES,  RICHARD,  was  born  at  Tun- 
bridge  Wells,  England,  in  1790.  He  graduated 
from  Cambridge  in  1816,  was  ordained  to  the 
ministry,  and  took  a  curacy  in  Sussex.  In  1833 
he  became  Professor  of  Political  Economy  at 
King's  College,  London.  In  1835  he  succeeded 
Malthus  in  the  chair  of  Political  Economy  and 
History  at  the  East  India  College,  Haileybury. 
From  1836  to  1851,  he  occupied  the  position  of 
commissioner  under  the  Tithe  Commutation 
Act.  He  died  at  Haileybury,  January  26,  1855. 
His  chief  works  are  :  An  Essay  on  the  Distri- 
bution of  Wealth  and  on  the  Sources  of  Taxa- 
tion, Part  /.,  Rent  (London,  1831) ;  An  In- 
troductory Lecture  on  Political  Economy,  de- 
livered at  King' s  College,  with  a  Syllabus  of 


Jones,  Richard. 


765 


Judaism,  Social  Polity  of. 


a  Course  of  Lectures  on  the  Wages  of  Labor 
(London,  1833)  ;  Text-Book  of  Lectures  on  the 
Political  Economy  of  Nations  (Hertford,  1852). 
As  an  economist,  Jones  stands  between  the 
school  of  Adam  Smith  and  the  modern  histori- 
cal economists.  He  recognizes  strongly  the 
necessity  of  the  inductive  method,  and  opposes 
the  deductive  method  of  Ricardo. 

JUDAISM,  SOCIAL  POLITY  OF.— All 
views  and  interpretations  of  the  sacred  books 
of  the  Hebrew  race  find  in  them  the  institutes 
of  a  peculiar  -social  polity.  Viewed  as  the  prod- 
uct of  infallible  inspiration  or  in  the  light  of  the 
latest  and  highest  criticism,  the  Old  Testament 
records  a  social  polity,  whether  given  of  God  in 
immediate  revelation  or  developed  through  long 
ages  of  national  evolution,  of  deepest  interest 
and  most  practical  significance.  The  heart  of 
the  whole  is  in  the  national  law.  Says  Canon 
Fremantle  (The  World  the  Subject  of  Re- 
demption) : 

"  The  Law  was  the  center  of  the  religion  and  theol- 
ogy of  Israel.  ...  It  was  not  'the  law  of  command- 
ments contained  in  ordinances,'  but  the  law  of  right- 
eousness, which  underlays  the  ordinances.  .  .  .  The 
mere  ceremonialism,  apart  from  moral  good,  finds  no 
encouragement  in  the  Old  Testament.  Against  that 
all  the  prophets  from  Hosea  onward  protest.  .  .  . 
The  law  of  moral  and  political  relations  is  the  center 
of  the  theology  of  the  Old  Testament.  .  .  .  The  theme 
which  is  more  than  any  other  upon  their  poets'  lips  is 
the  law  of  Jehovah.  .  .  . 

"  In  the  Psalms  there  are  a  few  faint  allusions  to  cere- 
monial customs,  such  as  the  laws  of  drink  offerings 
of  blood,  or  of  forbidden  food,  or  the  purging  with 
hyssop  ;  a  few  words  about  the  new  moon  and  solemn 
feast  days  ;  not  a  word  about  circumcision,  not  a  word 
about  the  passover,  not  a  word  about  the  Sabbaths, 
not  a  word  about  ceremonial  uncleanness.  There  is 
probably  in  modern  hymns,  18  centuries  after  Christ, 
more  of  artificial  religion  than  in  the  Psalms,  written 
in  the  bosom  of  Judaism.  But,  on  the  other  hand,  al- 
most every  Psalm  appeals  to  the  law  of  plain  justice, 
public  and  private.  ...  It  is  the  moral  and  political 
law,  not  the  ceremonial,  which  is  enshrined  in  the 
hearts  of  the  people." 

The  basis  of  the  whole  law  is  the  recognition 
of  Jehovah  as  the  'God  of  the  nation,  the  Crea- 
tor and  Ruler  and  Owner  of  the  earth.     Land 
belongs  to  Him  ;  His  are  the  firstfruits  ;  He  is 
the  God  of  Abraham,  of  Isaac,  and  of  Jacob  ; 
His  law  is  to  be  obeyed.     This  law 
is  given  to  the  organized  nation, 
National     not  to  individuals.     The  first  duty 
Basis.       of  parents  to  the  male  child  or  of  a 
Gentile  convert  was  circumcision, 
the  symbol  of  initiation  into  the 
national  life.    The  Law  was  not  given  to  any 
person  in  view  of  a  personal  relation  to  God, 
but  only  to  the  circumcised,  or  their  wives  and 
daughters,  those  who  belonged  to  the  organic 
national  life.     It  was,  thus,  primarily  a  law  of 
institutions.     With  the  organized  national  life 
went  the  family.     The  first  duty  of  the  circum- 
cised child  was  to  obey  and  honor  his  parents 
(Ex.  xx.  12).     "Thou  shalt  rise  up  before  the 
hoary  head,  and  honor  the  face  of  the  old  man" 
(Lev.  xix.  32).     Purity  and  chastity  were  strict- 
ly inculcated.     The    law    allowed  polygamy ; 
but  he  who  follows  the  development  of  the  He- 
brew people  from  the  obscenity  and  impurity, 
into  which  they  are  recorded  as  falling,  through 
idolatrous  practices,  in  the  early  years  of  their 
history,  into  the  comparative  purity  and  monog- 
amy which  prevailed  among  the  Jews  in  the 


time  of  Christ,  will  realize  how  practically  the 
Law  aided  and  developed  pure  family  life. 

As  in  all  patriarchal  civilizations,  the  servant 
or  slave  was  made  a  member  of  the  household. 
Slavery  was  allowed,  but  it  was  nothing  like 
chattel  slavery ;  it  was  scarcely  slavery.  In 
Judea  alone  of  all  countries,  ancient  and  mod- 
ern, the  slave  had  rights  and  was 
not  under  the  caprice  of  his  master. 
Every  Hebrew  slave  could  go  free  Treatment 
at  the  end  of  the  sixth  year  (Ex.  of  the  Poor, 
xxi.  2).  He  was  to  be  furnished 
liberally  out  of  the  flock,  and  out 
of  the  flour,  and  out  of  the  winepress  (Deut. 
xv.  14).  The  wages  of  servants  were  to  be 
paid  every  night :  ' '  The  wages  of  him  that  is 
hired  shall  not  abide  all  night  until  the  morn- 
ing" (Lev.  xix.  13).  Charity  in  all  relations  was 
inculcated:  "Thou  shalt  love  thy  neighbor," 
said  the  law  (Lev.  xix.  18)  ;  "  Thou  shalt  hate 
thine  enemy"  was  an  unauthorized  addition. 
Justice  in  trade  was  a  sacred  duty  (Lev.  xix. 
36)  ;  but  the  needy  were  particularly  to  be  aid- 
ed. "  If  there  be  among  you  a  poor  man,  of 
one  of  the  brethren,  within  any  of  the  gates  in 
the  land  which  the  Lord  thy  God  giveth  thee, 
thou  shalt  not  harden  thy  heart,  nor  shut  thine 
hand  from  thy  poor  brother,  but  thou  shalt  open 
thine  hand  wide  unto  him  and  shalt  surely  lend 
him  sufficient  for  his  need"  (Deut.  xv.  7,  8). 
The  loan  was  to  be  without  interest.  "  If  thou 
lend  money  to  any  of  My  people  that  is  poor  by 
thee,  thou  shalt  not  be  to  him  as  a  usurer  ; 
neither  shalt  thou  lay  upon  him  usury"  (Ex. 
xxii.  25).  Usury  meant  interest  ;  the  word  is 
sometimes  translated  increase.  "  Thou  shalt 
not  lend  upon  usury  to  thy  brother,  usury  of 
money,  usury  of  victuals,  usury  of  anything  that 
is  lent  upon  usury,"  said  the  Deuteronomic  law. 
This  was  not  a  moral  law  of  universal  validity. 
The  Hebrew  was  allowed  to  take  interest  from 
a  Gentile.  ' '  Unto  a  stranger  thou  mayest  lend 
upon  usury"  (Deut.  xxiii.  20).  It  was  a  socialist 
law,  and  one  had  to  belong  to  the  instituted 
nation  to  gain  its  benefits.  Those  who  walked 
through  cornfields  or  vineyards  were  to  be  al- 
lowed to  pluck  of  the  corn  or  the  vine  (Deut. 
xxiii.  25).  The  widow  and  the  orphan  were 
particularly  to  be  cared  for  (Deut.  x.  18). 

All  these  enactments  were  made  possible  by 
the  Hebrew  land  law.     Under  private  property 
and  a  competitive  civilization  it  is  impossible  to 
lend  without  interest  to  every  one 
that  asks,  or  to  allow  trespassing  on 
a  planted  field  or  vineyard.     Under   Land  Law. 
the   Hebrew  law  it  was   possible, 
because  everybody  was  protected 
in  the   use   (not   ownership)   of  a  little  land, 
and  therefore  those  who  needed  to  borrow  or 
receive  aid  were  comparatively  few.     God  was 
considered  the  owner  of  all  the  land,  and  it  was 
meted  out  not    for    ownership,    but    for    use. 
"  The  land  shall  not  be  sold  forever,  for  the 
land  is  mine,"  God  is  represented  as  saying  in 
Lev.    xxv.    23.      The  land   was    supposed    to 
have  been  measured  out  by  Joshua  by  the  line 
and  the  lot,  and  a  portion  assigned  to  each  fam- 
ily according  to  its  size.     And  this  ownership 
for  use  was  inalienable.     If  any  family  became 
embarrassed  and  gave  the  land  in  debt,  it  re- 
turned on  the  fiftieth  year — the  year  of  jubilee 


Judaism,  Social  Polity  of. 


766 


Judiciary. 


— to  its  former  owner.     This  was  the  wording 
of  the  law  as  given  in  Lev.  xxv.  24-31  : 

"  And  in  all  the  land  of  your  possession  ye  shall 
grant  a  redemption  for  the  land. 

"If  thy  brother  be  waxen  poor,  and  hath  sold  away 
some  of  his  possession,  and  if  any  of  his  kin  come  to  re- 
deem it,  then  shall  he  redeem  that  which  his  brother 
sold. 

"  And  if  the  man  have  none  to  redeem  it,  and  him- 
self be  able  to  redeem  it ; 

"Then  let  him  count  the  years  of  the  sale  thereof, 
and  restore  the  overplus  unto  the  man  to  whom  he 
sold  it,  that  he  may  return  unto  his  possession. 

"  But  if  he  be  not  able  to  restore  it  to  him,  then  that 
which  is  sold  shall  remain  in  the  hand  of  him  that  hath 
bought  it  until  the  year  of  jubilee  ;  and  in  the  jubilee 
it  shall  go  out,  and  he  shall  return  unto  his  posses- 
sion." 

There  was  a  difference,  however,  with  walled 
cities. 

"  And  if  a  man  sell  a  dwelling-house  in  a  walled 
city,  then  he  may  redeem  it  within  a  whole  year  after 
it  is  sold  ;  within  a  full  year  may  he  redeem  it. 

"  And  if  it  be  not  redeemed  within  the  space  of  a  full 
year,  then  the  house  that  is  in  the  walled  city  shall  be 
established  forever  to  him  that  bought  it,  throughout 
his  generations  :  it  shall  not  go  out  in  the  jubilee. 

"But  the  houses  of  the  villages,  which  have  no  walls 
round  about  them,  shall  be  counted  as  the  fields  of  the 
country :  they  may  be  redeemed,  and  they  shall  go 
out  in  the  jubilee." 

The  object  of  this  distinction  seems  to  have 
been  to  make  agricultural  life  and  property 
more  secure  than  city  life  and  property,  in  order 
to  encourage  agricultural  life.  But  it  was  not 
only  the  land  that  the  law  protected  for  the 
use  of  all.  It  was  a  socialist  law  in  that  it  pro- 
tected the  worker  in  the  ownership  of  his  tools. 
If  he  gave  them  in  pledge  they  could  not  be 
kept  from  him  overnight.  Says  Deut.  xxiv. 
10-14  : 

"  When  thou  dost  lend  thy  brother  anything,  thou 
shalt  not  go  into  his  house  to  fetch  his  pledge. 

"  Thou  shalt  stand  abroad,  and  the  man  to  whom  thou 
dost  lend  shall  bring  out  the  pledge  abroad  unto  thee. 

"  And  if  the  man  be  poor,  thou  shalt  not  sleep  with 
his  pledge : 

"  In  any  case  thou  shalt  deliver  him  the  pledge  again 
when  the  sun  goeth  down,  that  he  may  sleep  in  his 
own  raiment,  and  bless  thee  :  and  it  shall  be  righteous- 
ness unto  thee  before  the  Lord  thy  God." 

Verse  6  in  the  same  chapter  says  :  "  No  man 
shall  take  the  nether  or  upper    millstone   to 
pledge,  for  he  taketh  a  man's  life  to  pledge." 
Protected  thus,  both  in  the  access  to  land  and 
the  use  of  tools,  no  Hebrew,  as  long  as  the  law 
was  obeyed,  need  be  poor.     Taxation  was  a 
single  tax  of  one  tenth  of  all  produce  of  the  soil 
or  the  flock.     This    prevented  all  extortion  of 
financiers.     The  whole  system  of  laws  was  con- 
nected with  a  ritual  to  connect  the  political  Law 
with  the  thought  of  God.     Great 
religious  festivals  were  organized 
Religious    in  connection  with  the  national  his- 
Sanctions.    tory  and  with  the  seasons.     The 
Levites  administered    the  law  in 
connection  with  the  temple  or  re- 
ligious gatherings.     The  people,  in  solemn  as- 
semblies, repeated  the  curses  and  blessings  of 
the  Law.     The  whole  law  of  the  land  was  con- 
nected with  the  religious  Sabbatical  feasts.    One 
day  in  seven  the  laborer  found  complete  rest. 
One  year  in  seven  the  land  was  to  go  untilled  ; 
the  slave  was  to  go  free  ;  one  year  in  seven 
times   seven   was  the    year  of    jubilee,   when 
land  reverted  to  the  owner  and  every  mortgage 
was  wiped  off.     Religion  was  thus  associated 
with  relief  from  labor  and  release  from  debt. 


There  was  no  king  ;  those  ruled  who  showed 
themselves  inspired  of  God  ;  the  nation  was 
organized  by  tribes,  families,  and  other  divi- 
sions. Such  was,  in  brief,  the  Hebrew  social 
polity.  In  practice  it  was  overthrown.  The 
Hebrew  people  eventually  chose  a  king,  and 
found  slavery  and  captivity.  Some  think  the 
Law  was  never  fulfilled  ;  that  the  Law  we  have 
summarized  was  only  very  gradually  devel- 
oped. With  the  history  we  are  not  here  con- 
cerned. Christian  socialists  believe  that  it  need- 
ed the  Spirit  of  Christ  to  fulfil  the  law.  (See 
CHRISTIAN  SOCIALISM.)  Socialists  argue  that  the 
world  was  not  yet  ready  for  socialism.  Indi- 
vidualists claim  that  it  was  an  impossible  and 
impractical  legalism. 

JUDICIARY.— We  consider  in  this  article 
the  judiciary  system  of  the  United  States  alone 
(i)  because,  on  account  of  the  size  of  the  country 
and  the  involved  relation  of  federal  and  State 
courts,  the  system  is  very  much  more  compli- 
cated and  involved  in  this  country  than  in  any 
other,  and  gives  example  of  almost  all  judiciary 
problems  ;  and  (2)  because  in  no  other  country 
does  the  judiciary  play  the  important  political 
part  that  it  does  in  the  United  States  ;  for  in 
no  country  except  the  United  States  is  the  Su- 
preme Court  of  justice  also  the  Supreme  Court 
of  legislative  judgment. 

We  shall  treat  in  this  article  of — I.  The  Federal 
Courts  ;  II.  The  Relation  of  the  Supreme  Court 
to  the  Constitution  ;  III.  The  State  Courts  ;  IV. 
The  Miscarriage  and  Reform  of  Justice. 

I.  THE  FEDERAL  COURTS. 

The  Constitution  gives  to  the  federal  courts 
jurisdiction  in 

"  i.  All  cases  in  law  and  equity  arising  under  the 
Constitution,  the  laws  of  the  United  States,  and  treaties 
made,  or  which  shall  be  made,  under  their  authority. 

"  2.  All  cases  affecting  ambassadors,  other  public 
ministers,  and  consuls. 

"3.  All  cases  of  admiralty  and  maritime  jurisdic- 
tion. 

"  4.  Controversies  to  which  the  United  States  shall 
be  a  party. 

"  5.  Controversies  between  two  or  more  States,  be- 
tween a  State  and  the  citizens  of  another  State,  be- 
tween citizens  of  different  States,  between  citizens  of 
the  same  State  claiming  lands  under  grants  of  differ- 
ent States,  and  between  a  State,  or  the  citizens  thereof, 
and  foreign  States,  ffitizens,  or  subjects. 

"  The  judicial  power  of  the  United  States  is  here  ex- 
tended to  controversies  between  a  State  and  citizens 
of  another  State.  This  clause  gave  much  discussion 
at  the  time  the  Constitution  was  adopted,  and  the 
States  were  unwilling  to  be  subjected  to  lawsuits 
brought  by  citizens  of  other  States.  Accordingly,  an 
amendment  to  the  Constitution  was  proposed,  and  on 
January  8,  1798,  the  President  announced  to  the  Con- 
gress that  the  amendment  had  been  adopted  by  three 
fourths  of  the  States,  and  was,  therefore,  a  part  of 
the  Constitution.  This  constitutes  the  eleventh  of  the 
amendmentSj  and  is  as  follows  •. 

"'  The  judicial  power  of 'the  United  States  shall  not 
be  construed  to  extend  to  any  suit  in  /aw,  commenced 
or  prosecuted  against  one  of  the  United  States  by  citi- 
zens of  another  State,  or  by  citizens  or  subjects  of  any 
foreign  State?  " 

The  federal  courts  are  of  three   kinds — the 
Supreme  Court  at  Washington,  circuit,  and  dis- 
trict courts.     The   Supreme  Court 
has   nine   judges— a  chief    justice  T    .  •,• +• 
(salary.  $10,500)  and  eight  associate  Juristlictlon- 
judges  (salaries^  $10,000),    They  are 
nominated  for  life  by  the  President  and  con- 
firmed by  the  Senate,  and  are  removable  only  by 


Judiciary. 


767 


Judiciary. 


impeachment.  Only  once  has  a  judge  of  the 
Supreme  Court  been  impeached— Samuel  Chase, 
of  Maryland,  in  1804-5,  and  then  unsuccess- 
fully. The  Supreme  Court  sits  from  October 
to  July  of  each  year.  Six  judges  must  be  pres- 
ent to  pronounce  a  decision,  and  every  case  is 
discussed  by  the  whole  body  twice  over. 

The  circuit  courts  number  nine,  each  with  two 
judges  (salaries,  $6000),  and  to  each  is  allotted 
a  judge  of  the  Supreme  Court.  A  Circuit  Court 
of  Appeals  was  established  in  1891,  to  attempt 
to  relieve  the  overtaxed  Supreme  Court.  Dis- 
trict courts  number  45  ;  and  there  has  been  es- 
tablished at  Washington  a  special  Court  of 
Claims.  All  Federal  judges  are  appointed  for 
life  (subject  to  impeachment),  as  the  Supreme 
judges,  tho  the  Constitution  does  not  state  that 
this  should  be  so.  The  jurisdiction  of  the  Su- 
preme Court  in  cases  affecting  ambassadors, 
and  where  a  State  is  a  party,  is  original ;  in  all 
other  cases  it  is  appellate. 

The  criminal  jurisdiction  of  the  federal  courts, 
which  extends  to  all  offenses  against  federal 
law,  is  purely  statutory.  "  The  United  States 
as  such  can  have  no  common  law.  It  derives 
its  powers  from  the  grant  of  the  people  made 
by  the  Constitution,  and  they  are  all  to  be  found 
in  the  written  law,  and  not  elsewhere"  (Cooley's 
Principles,  p.  131). 

Each  federal  court  has  attached  to  it  a  United 
States  marshal,  to  carry  out  its  decisions,  and 
he  can  call  on  good  citizens  for  help,  and,  if 
necessary,  apply  to  Washington  to  obtain  the 
aid  of  the  federal  troops. 

On  the  somewhat  complicated  point  as  to  the 
relation  of  federal  and  State  law,  Mr.  Bryce 
says  (The  American  Commonwealth,  first  ed,, 
pp.  247,  248) : 

"The  United  States  is  a  federation  of  common- 
wealths, each  of  which  has  its  own  constitution  and 
laws.  The  Federal  Constitution  not  only  gives  certain 
powers  to  Congress,  as  the  national  legislature,  but 
recognizes  certain  powers  in  the  States,  in  virtue 
whereof  their  respective  peoples  have  enacted  funda- 
mental State  laws  (the  State  constitutions)  and  have 
enabled  their  respective  legislatures  to  pass  State 
statutes.  However,  as  the  nation  takes  precedence  of 
the  States,  the  Federal  Constitution,  which  is  the  su- 
preme law  of  the  land  everywhere,  and  the  statutes 
duly  made  by  Congress  under  it,  are  preferred  to  all 
State  constitutions  and  statutes ;  and  if  any  conflict 
arise  between  them,  the  latter  must  give  way.  The 
same  phenomenon  therefore  occurs  as  in  the  case  of 
an  inconsistency  between  the  Constitution  and  a  con- 
gressional statute.  Where  it  is  shown  that  a  State  con- 
stitution or  statute  infringes  either  the  Federal  Consti- 
tution or  a  Federal  (i.e.,  congressional)  statute,  the 
State  constitution  or  statute  must  be  held  and  de- 
clared invalid.  And  this  declaration  must,  of  course, 
proceed  from  the  courts,  nor  solely  from  the  Federal 
courts  ;  because  when  a  State  court  decides  against  its 
own  statutes  or  constitution  in  favor  of  a  Federal  law, 
its  decision  is  final. 

•  "It  will  be  observed  that  in  all  this  there  is  no  con- 
flict between  the  law  courts  and  any  legislative  body. 
The  conflict  is  between  different  kinds  of  laws.  The 
duty  of  the  judges  is  as  strictly  confined  to  the  inter- 
pretation of  the  laws  cited  to  them  as  it  is  in  England 
or  France  ;  and  the  only  difference  is  that  in  America 
there  are  laws  of  four  different  degrees  of  authority, 
whereas  in  England  all  laws  (excluding  mere  by-laws, 
Privy  Council  ordinances,  etc.)  are  equal  because  all 
proceed  from  Parliament.  These  four  kinds  of  Amer- 
ican laws  are : 

"  i.  The  Federal  Constitution.  2.  Federal  statutes. 
3.  State  constitutions.  4.  State  statutes. 

"The  American  law  court  therefore  does  not  itself 
enter  on  any  conflict  with  the  legislature.  It  merely 
secures  to  each  kind  of  law  its  due  authority.  It  does 
not  even  preside  over  a  conflict  and  decide  it,  for  the 
relative  strength  of  each  kind  of  law  has  been  settled 


already.  All  the  court  does  is  to  point  out  that  a  con- 
flict exists  between  two  laws  of  different  degrees 
of  authority.  Then  the  question  is  at  an  end,  for  the 
weaker  law  is  extinct." 

This  leads  us  to  the  important  point  of 

II.  THE  SUPREME  COURT  AND  THE  CONSTITU- 
TION. 

The  Constitution  of  the  United  States  is  above 
the  power  of  Congress  to  change.  It  was  rati- 
fied and  made  binding  not  by  Congress,  but  by 
the  people,  and  can,  therefore,  be  amended 
only  by  the  people  (see  AMENDMENTS  TO  THE 
CONSTITUTION)  in  appointed  ways — a  most  diffi- 
cult and  slow  process.  Congress  can,  therefore, 
legislate  only  subject  to  the  limits  the  Constitu- 
tion sets.  The  Tenth  Amendment  to  the 
Constitution,  adopted  in  1791,  distinctly  says  : 
"  The  powers  not  delegated  to  the  United 
States  by  the  Constitution  nor  prohibited  by  it 
to  the  States  are  reserved  to  the  States  respec- 
tively or  to  the  people." 

Now,  according  to  the  Constitution,  the  body 
that  finally  decides  what  is  constitutional  is  the 
Supreme  Court.     Any  law  that  the  Supreme 
Court  decides  unconstitutional  is  illegal.     This 
gives  the    Supreme    Court    enormous    power. 
After  long  debate  Congress  recently  passed  an 
income  tax  (y.v.),  and  there  is  no  question  that 
such  a  tax  was  desired  by  a  large  majority  of 
the  people  ;  but  the  Supreme  Court  decided  by 
one  vote  that  the  bill  was  uncon- 
stitutional, and  the  bill  did  not  be- 
come law.     In  such  a  case  a  single   Dangerous 
corrupt  judge  could  subvert  the  will      Power. 
of  the  whole  people  save  as  by  slow 
process  the  Constitution  is  amend- 
ed.     This  to    an  extent   makes  the  judiciary 
supreme  over  Congress  and  the  Executive,  and 
(except  by  the  slow  process  of   constitutional 
amendment)  to  a  degree  supreme  over  the  peo- 
ple.    It  is  true  that  the  Supreme  Court  does  not 
formally  act  on  legislative  bills — its  power  is 
only  one  of  interpretation.     It  simply  decides 
the  individual  case  brought  before  it  according 
to  the  law,  and  where  laws  conflict,  according 
to  the  highest  law,  that  is  the  Constitution  ;  but 
this  practically  enables  it  to  pass  upon  any  bill 
enacted   by    Congress.      And  this 
power    of     interpretation     is    the 
greater  for  two  reasons  :    i.  That      Danger. 
a  wrong  decision  is  not  easily  re- 
versed.    In  England,  if  the  courts 
find  that  a  law  means  what  the  people  do  not 
desire,  the  law  can  easily  be  amended.     In  the 
United  States,  a  wrong  interpretation  of  the 
Constitution  is  most  difficult  to  reverse.     2.  The 
Constitution,  being  of  necessity  brief,  the  op- 
portunity   for    interpretation    is    very    broad. 
Hence  in  practice  the  Supreme  Court  has  enor- 
mous power.     It  is  true  that  this  power  has  not 
been  frequently  corruptly  used.     The  Supreme 
Court  has  not  by  many  been  considered  venal 
or  even  unfair  ;  but  the  trouble  is  that  the  peo- 
ple often  have  more  to  fear  from  just  decisions 
than  unjust.     A  decision  flagrantly  unjust  or 
venal  could  be  more  easily  reversed  ;  but  a  just 
decision  that  the  Constitution  does  not  allow  of 
a  certain  measure  is  difficult  to  reverse,  even 
tho  the  whole  people  desire  it.    Yet  to  Demo- 
crats at  least,  what  the  large  majority  desire 


Judiciary. 


768 


Judiciary. 


ought  to  be  legal.     Legislation  ought  to  belong 
in  usufruct  to  the  living.     A  free  people  ought 
not  to  be  fettered  by  a  Constitution 
enacted  a  century  ago  under  con- 
TJndemo-    ditions  utterly   different   from  the 
cratic       present.     Yet  if  the  Supreme  Court 
System,      decides  a  bill  unconstitutional,  it 
cannot  hold,   no  matter  what  the 
people  will,  save  by  slow  process  of 
amendment  ;  and  the  more  honest  the  judges 
are  the  more  difficult  to  change  the  decision. 
In  cases  where  a  United  States  official,  like  the 
President,  deems  that  the  Supreme  Court  has 
made  a  mistake  in  the  interpretation  of  the 
Constitution,  it  has  been  claimed  that  he  must 
follow  the  best  judgment  he  has  and  disobey  the 
Supreme  Court,  since,  in  his  judgment,  to  obey 
the  Court  would  violate  the  Constitution  he  is 
first  of  all  bound  to  obey.     President  Jackson 
attacked  the  United  States  Bank  as  illegal,  tho 
the  Supreme  Court  had  decided  it  legal.    Jeffer- 
son denounced  a  judgment  of  Chief  Justice  Mar- 
shall.    Majorities  in  Congress  have  claimed  the 
same  right ;  but  recently  both  executive  and 
legislative    have    receded    from   claiming  this 
right,  and  certainly  in  case  of  a  just  decision  it 
would  be  impossible  to  disobey  it  on  this  ground. 
The  Constitution  does  not  limit  the  number 
of  Supreme  judges,  and  some  claim  that  the  will 
of  the  people  could  be  realized  by  appointing 
judges  who  would  decide  that  the  will  of  the 
people  was  constitutional  ;  but  such  a  proced- 
ure would  be  looked  upon  as  revolutionary  by 
many,  if  not  by  most.     The  seriousness  of  this 
feature  of  the  Constitution  cannot,  therefore,  be 
easily  exaggerated.     It  is  true  that  thus  far  no 
great  evils  have  seemed  to  arise,     John  Fiske 
says  of  the  Supreme  Court  (Civil  Government 
in  the  United  States,  p.  252)  : 

"  It  is  peculiarly  American,  and  for  its  exalted  char- 
acter and  priceless  services  it  is  an  institution  of  which 
Americans  may  well  be  proud." 

Mr.  Bryce  says  (The  American  Common- 
wealth^ first  ed.,  pp.  406,  407) : 

"  The  rigid  Constitution  of  the  United  States  has  ren- 
dered and  renders  inestimable  service.  It  opposes  ob- 
stacles to  rash  and  hasty  change.  It  secures  time  for 
deliberation.  ...  It  forms  the  mind  and  temper  of 
the  people.  It  trains  them  to  habits  of  legality.  .  .  . 
It  familiarizes  them  with,  it  attaches  them  by  ties  of 
pride  and  reverence  to  those  fundamental  truths  on 
which  the  Constitution  is  based." 

And  again  (p.  271)  : 

"  The  credit  and  dignity  of  the  Supreme  Court  stand 
very  high.  No  one  of  its  members  has  ever  been  sus- 
pected of  corruption,  and  comparatively  few  have  al- 
lowed their  political  sympathies  to  disturb  their  official 
judgment." 

But  in  spite  of  this  favorable  view  two  things 
must  be  remembered  :  (i)  that  the  longer  the 
country  moves  from  the  conditions  when  the 
Constitution  was  framed,  the  more  must  its  re- 
quirements fetter  and  be  unsuited  to  the  needs 
and  wishes  of  the  people  ;  (2)  the  more  political 
questions  turn  upon  industrial  and  financial 
questions,  the  more  likely  is  the  Supreme  Court 
to  be  out  of  touch  with  the  masses  of  the  coun- 
try. Almost  of  necessity  the  Supreme  judges 
must  come  from  the  class  of  the  most  educated, 
the  most  successful,  the  most  wealthy  ;  this 
must  be  so  almost  inevitably  from  the  nature  of 
the  case  ;  almost  inevitably,  therefore,  with  the 


best  of  will,  they  must  judge  from  their  environ- 
ment, their  education,  their  experience.    Wheth- 
er they  will  understand  the  common  people  is, 
therefore,  especially    in   industrial 
matters,     at     least     questionable. 
Without,  then,  the  slightest  reflec-  Unnecessary. 
tion  on  the  purity  of  the  Supreme 
Court,  its  power  under  the  Consti- 
tution is  open  to  the  gravest  question.     It  is  not 
necessary.     In  England  it  is  not  so.     In  Eng- 
land, Magna  Charta,  the  Bill  of  Rights,  the  Act 
of  Settlement,  the  Acts  of  Union  with  Scotland 
and  Ireland  are  merely  ordinary   laws  which 
can  be  repealed  by  Parliament  at  any  moment. 
There  is  no  Constitution  superior  to  the  Legis- 
lature     All  laws  are  made  by  the  Legislature 
and  all  can  be  repealed  by  it ;  nor  is  the  insti- 
tution necessary  even  to  a  republic. 

Says  Mr.  Bryce  (The  American  Common- 
•wealth,  pp.  259,  260)  : 

"The  case  of  Switzerland  shows  that  the  American 
plan  is  not  the  only  one  possible  to  a  federation.  The 
Swiss  Federal  Court,  while  instituted  in  imitation  of 
the  American,  is  not  the  only  authority  competent  to 
determine  whether  a  cantonal  law  is  void  because  in- 
consistent with  the  Federal  Constitution,  for  in  some 
cases  recourse  must  be  had  not  to  the  court  but  to  the 
Federal  Council,  which  is  a  sort  of  executive  cabinet 
of  the  confederation.  And  the  Federal  Court  is  bound 
to  enforce  every  law  passed  by  the  Federal  legislature, 
even  if  it  violate  the  Constitution.  In  other  words,  the 
Swiss  Constitution  has  reserved  some  points  of  can- 
tonal law  for  an  authority  not  judicial,  but  political, 
and  has  made  the  Federal  legislature  the  sole  judge  of 
its  own  powers,  the  authorized  interpreter  of  the  Con- 
stitution, and  an  interpreter  not  likely  to  proceed  on 
purely  legal  grounds. 

Some  radicals  believe  that  the  cure  for  Amer- 
ica lies  in  one  constitutional  amendment  giving 
to  Congress  the  power  of  action,  within  certain 
limits,  without  reference  to  the  Constitution. 
A  large  number  find  the  cure  in  the  adoption  of 
the  referendum  (q.v.}. 

III.  STATE  JUDICIARY. 

The  judiciary  in  every  State  includes  three 
sets  of  courts  :  A  supreme  court  or  court  of  ap- 
peal ;  superior  courts  of  record  ;  local  courts  ; 
but  the  particular  names  and  relations  of  these 
several  tribunals  and  the  arrangements  for 
criminal  business  vary  greatly  from  State  to 
State.  We  hear  of  courts  of  common  pleas, 
probate  courts,  surrogate  courts,  prerogative 
courts,  courts  of  oyer  and  terminer,  orphans' 
courts,  court  of  general  sessions  of  the  peace 
and  jail  delivery,  quarter  sessions,  hustings' 
courts,  county  courts,  etc. 

The  jurisdiction  of  State  courts  is  complete. 
There  is  no  appeal  to  federal  courts  except  on 
matters  pertaining  to  federal  law.  Each  State 
recognizes  the  judgments  of  the  courts  of  a  sis- 
ter State,  gives  credit  to  its  public  acts  and  rec- 
ords, and  delivers  up  to  its  justice  any  fugitive 
from  its  jurisdiction  charged  with  a  crime.  Of 
course  the  courts  of  one  State  are  not  bound 
either  by  law  or  usage  to  follow  the  reported 
decisions  of  those  of  another  State.  They  use 
such  decisions  merely  for  their  own  enlighten- 
ment, and  as  some  evidence  of  the  common 
law,  just  as  they  use  the  English  law  reports. 
Each  State  makes  its  own  law,  and  these  laws 
vary  enormously  not  only  between  States,  but 
also  from  time  to  time.  Judges  in  1894  were 


Judiciary. 


769 


Judiciary. 


elected  by  the  people  in  31  States,  by  the  legis- 
latures in  5,  and  appointed  by  the  Governor, 
with  the  consent  of  a  legislature  or  council,  in 
8  States,  namely,  in  New  England  and  the 
older  States.  In  New  York  and  Pennsylvania 
they  are  elected.  In  4  States  they  are  elected 
for  life  ;  in  others  for  terms  varying  from  2 
years,  in  Vermont,  to  21  years,  in  Pennsylvania 
— 8  to  10  years  is  the  average.  Salaries  for 
the  higher  courts  vary  from  $10,000,  in  New 
York,  to  $2000,  in  Oregon. 

Concerning  the  purity  of  the  State  judiciary, 
Mr.  Bryce  says  (The  American  Common- 
wealth^ p.  507) : 

"  Any  one  of  the  three  phenomena  I  have  described — 
popular  elections,  short  terms,  and  small  salaries — 
would  be  sufficient  to  lower  the  character  of  the  judi- 
ciary. Popular  elections  throw  the  choice  into  the 
hands  of  political  parties — that  is  to  say,  of  knots  of 
wirepullers,  inclined  to  use  every  office  as  a  means  of 
rewarding  political  services,  and  garrisoning  with 
grateful  partisans  posts  which  may  conceivably  become 
of  political  importance.  Short  terms  .  .  .  oblige  the 
judge  to  remember  and  keep  on  good  terms  with 
those  who  have  made  him  what  he  is,  and  in  whose 
hands  his  fortunes  lie.  .  .  .  Small  salaries  prevent  able 
men  from  offering  themselves  for  places,  whose  in- 
comes are  perhaps  only  one  tenth  of  what  a  leading 
barrister  can  make  by  private  practice.  .  .  .  The 
mischief  is  serious,  but  I  must  own  that  it  is  smaller 
than  a  European  observer  is  prepared  to  expect." 

The  reasons  given  for  this  lack  of  the  worst 
results  Mr.  Bryce  considers  the  presence  in 
every  State  of  federal  tribunals,  the  power  of 
public  opinion,  and  lastly  the  power  of  the  pro- 
fessional influence  of  the  bar.  Mr.  Bryce  said 
in  the  first  edition  of  his  book,  vol.  ii.,  p.  501  : 

"  In  a  few  States,  perhaps  six  or  seven  in  all,  suspi- 
cions have  at  one  time  or  another  within  the  last  20 
years  attached  to  one  or  more  of  the  superior  judges. 
Sometimes  these  suspicions  may  have  been  ill-found- 
ed. .  .  . 

"In  one  State,  viz.,  New  York,  in  1869-71,  there  were 
flagrant  scandals  which  led  to  the  disappearance  of 
three  justices  of  the  superior  courts  who  had  unques- 
tionably both  sold  and  denied  justice.  The  Tweed 
Ring,  when  masters  of  New  York  City  and  engaged  in 
plundering  its  treasury,  found  it  convenient  to  have 
in  the  seat  of  justice  accomplices  who  might  check  in- 
quiry into  their  misdeeds.  This  the  system  of  popu- 
lar elections  for  very  short  terms  enables  them  to  do  ; 
and  men  were  accordingly  placed  on  the  Bench  whom 
one  might  rather  have  expected  to  see  in  the  dock — 
bar-room  loafers,  broken-down  Tombs  attorneys, 
needy  adventurers  whose  want  of  character  made 
them  absolutely  dependent  on'their  patrons." 

(For  further  facts,  however,  as  to  corrupt 
courts,  see  PLUTOCRACY  ;  STANDARD  OIL  MONOP- 
OLY.) 

Lawyers  in  the  United  States,  differently  from 
those  in  Europe,  are  allowed  to  plead  in  any 
court  they  will.     Almost    absolute    liberty    is 
given .    The  result  is  an  intense  competition ,  and 
not  unfrequently  a  low  tone  for  the  profession. 
This  freedom  allows  of  great  injustice  to  the 
poor.  Judgments  are  often  pronounced,  not  upon 
absolute  equity,  but  upon  whether 
the  accused  has   been    proven  in 
The  Bar.     court  to  have  violated  a  law.     Es- 
pecially where  the  laws  are  as  in- 
volved as  in  the  United  States,  a 
shrewd  lawyer,  unless  opposed  by  one  equally 
shrewd,  can  find  some  loophole  in  the  law  for 
almost  any  client,  at  least  in  civil  practice.     A 
wealthy  corporation  can  afford  to  employ  the 
shrewdest  counsel.     The  poor  usually  cannot. 
Therefore  the  poor  are  usually  in  such  cases 
helpless.     Of  the  injustice  of  this  to  the  poor 

49 


we  speak  in  the  next  section.  Of  its  effect 
upon  the  lawyers  we  speak  now.  It  means  that 
in  most  cases  success  for  the  law- 
yer lies  in  shrewdly  defending  or 
serving  the  interests  of  the  great  Corporation 
corporations,  as  the  railroads,  etc.  Lawyers. 
To  do  this  requires  of  necessity  no 
actual  dishonesty,  but  simply  the 
development  of  ability  to  see  shrewd  ways  of 
avoiding  or  using  the  requirements  of  law.  The 
average  successful  lawyer  is  the  corporation 
lawyer.  He  becomes  unconsciously  accustomed 
to  viewing  things  not  from  the  standpoint  of 
equity,  but  of  shrewd  interpretation  in  favor  of 
his  corporation.  This  is  what  he  is  paid  to  do. 
Involving  at  first  at  least  no  absolute  dishon- 
esty, it  leads  too  often  to  a  blunting  of  the  moral 
sense.  Even  where  this  does  not  result,  by  his 
interests,  his  ambitions,  his  associations,  his 
professional  instinct,  above  all,  his  social  en- 
vironment, he  becomes  honestly  the  partisan  of 
the  corporation.  He  goes  into  the  Legislature 
and  finds  there  abundant  opportunity  to  serve 
his  former  clients,  and  by  his  training  is  led 
even  unconsciously  to  do  so.  The  financial 
prizes  in  this  line  are  very  large.  Corporation 
lawyers,  in  what  is  considered  perfectly  legiti- 
mate practice,  can  make  as  much  as  $100,000  a 
year,  while  $50,000  is  not  infrequent.  With 
89,000  lawyers  in  the  United  States  in  1890  com- 
peting for  these  prizes,  many  of  them  poor,  the 
temptation  to  rise  by  serving  the  interests  of 
wealth  becomes  well-nigh  irresistible.  A  very 
few  succeed  by  championing  the  cause  of  labor, 
but  usually  they  lose  professional  and  social 
caste,  so  that  many  who  for  political  reasons 
might  choose  the  side  of  the  poor  are  deterred 
by  family  and  social  claims.  Under  these  cir- 
cumstances, without  the  necessity  of  implying 
any  unusual  corruption  on  the  part  of  the  law- 
yers, the  people  are,  not  without  reason,  grow- 
ing suspicious  of  corporation  attorneys,  and  par- 
ticularly of  their  presence  in  legislatures,  where, 
however,  they  form  the  large  majority,  in  the 
House  of  Representatives,  for  example,  being 
about  70  per  cent,  of  the  whole  number.  (See 
DIRECT  LEGISLATION.)  We  come,  then,  to  con- 
sider 

IV.  THE  MISCARRIAGE  OF  JUSTICE  AND  ITS 
REFORM. 

The  miscarriage  of  justice  in  modern  courts  is 
not  mainly  due  to  unjust  judges  or  corrupt  law- 
yers, but  to  the  present  judicial  system.  Pro- 
fessor Ely  writes  in  the  Christian  Advocate  : 

"Perhaps  no  current  phrase  is  more  frequently 
heard  than  that  all  men  are  equal  before  the  law.  It 
belongs  to  a  class  of  phrases  which  cover  facts  and 
prevent  thought.  Nothing  could  be  further  from  the 
truth,  for  it  is  possible  to  mention  at  least  six  respects 
in  which  legal  inequality  exists  to-day  in  the  United 
States. 

"i.  All  men  are  supposed  to  be  familiar  with  the 
law,  and  ignorance  of  the  law  excuses  no  one.  How, 
then,  can  we  talk  about  the  equality  of  the  law,  when 
the  law  is  so  complicated,  and  only  few  can  know  it  ? 
In  addition  to  the  comparatively  few  who  can  know  it, 
there  are  a  few  wealthy  individuals  and  corporations 
who  can  employ  well-trained  experts  in  the  law  to  in- 
form them  of  the  law  in  so  far  as  it  is  important  for 
them  to  know  it.  Compare  the  situation  in  this  re- 
spect of  a  great  railway  corporation  and  a  labor  organi- 
zation with  which  it  may  be  engaged  in  conflict.  It  is 
not  at  all  unlikely  that  some  of  the  officers  of  the  cor- 
poration may  themselves  be  trained  lawyers,  receiv- 


Judiciary. 


770 


Judiciary. 


ing  salaries  of  from  $ 5000  to  $25,000,  and  in  addition  to 
this  the  corporation  is  certain  to  have  in  its  constant 
employment   attorneys  receiving  high    salaries,  and 
who  give  advice  upon  every  step  taken.    The  coun- 
selors of  the  corporation  are  familiar  with  every  twist 
and  turn  of  the  law;,  and  know  the  purport  of  conflict- 
ing judicial  decisions,  so  hard  fcr  the 
ordinary  man  to  understand.    The  high- 
Expense  of  est  salary  ever  received  by  an  officer  of 
Litigation    a  'a.'30r  organization  was  $5000,  and  it  is 
'    believed  that  at  the  present  time  no  one 
receives  over  $3000.     No  labor  organiza- 
tion can  keep  in  its  constant  employ  able 
attorneys,  for,  on  the  one  hand,   it  cannot  pay  suffi- 
ciently high  salaries  to  secure  the  best  talent,  and,  on 
the  other,  the  position  of  attorney  for  working  men  is 
not  calculated  to  lead  to  further  advancement.  .  .  . 

"2.  The  law  affords  very  unequal  protection  to  the 
rich  and  to  the  poor.  The  avenues  of  justice  are  in 
one  way  and  another  closed  to  the  poor  and  ignorant. 
If  ignorance  itself  of  the  proper  method  of  securing 
redress  is  not  a  sufficient  barrier,  fees  of  one  kind  and 
another  and  heavy  court  charges  deter  the  poorer 
members  of  the  community  from  seeking  justice  at 
law.  When  poor  people  have  a  case  in  the  courts  to 
protect  them  against  their  employers,  or  others  with 
larger  economic  resources,  the  case  may  be  delayed 
from  time  to  time,  may  be  appealed  from  one  court  to 
another,  and  it  may  be  transferred  from  one  jurisdic- 
tion to  another.  Railway  corporations  engaged  in 
inter-state  commerce  like  to  transfer  cases  to  the 
United  States  courts,  and  thus  they  can  put  their 
antagonists  to  the  expense  of  long  journeys.  These 
are  some  of  the  ways  by  means  of  which  the  resources 
of  the  poorer  party  can  be  exhausted  and  justice  de- 
feated. Often  the  poor  man  does  not  know  how  to 
take  the  first  step  to  secure  justice,  and  when  he  takes 
the  first  step  it  often  happens  that  he  is  exhausted  be- 
fore he  can  take  the  last  one. 

"  The  secretary  of  the  Chicago  Bureau  of  Justice,  to 
which  reference  has  already  been  made,  in  his  sec- 
ond annual  report  speaks  about  the  inaccessibility  of 
the  means  of  legal  redress  for  wage-earners,  and 
generally  for  the  poorer  members  of  the  community. 
He  says  that  it  is  necessary  that  the  fee  system  should 
be  abolished,  both  in  so  far  as  it  relates  to  justices  of 
the  peace  and  to  constables.  .  .  . 

"3.  We  must  consider  the  inequality  of  the  law  itself. 
The  law  in  the  United  States  is  not  so  framed  ex- 
pressly that  an  offense  committed  by  an  employer  or 
a  rich  man  receives  one  kind  of  punishment,  and  the 
offense  committed  by  an  employee  or  a  poor  man  re- 
ceives a  different  kind  of  punishment,  but  the  penal- 
ties are  so  framed  that  they  bear  with  unequal  sever- 
ity upon  the  various  social  classes,  and  thus  offenses 
apt  to  be  committed  by  the  rich  are  not  likely  to  be 
visited  by  such  heavy  penalties  as  those  to  which  the 
poorer  people  are  specially  liable. 

''  I  am  glad  to  be  able  to  quote  so  good  an  authority, 
a  man  so  highly  esteemed,  as  the  late  Josiah  Quincy, 
who  in  his  Figures  of  the  Past  thus  describes  one  kind 
of  legal  inequality  :  '  It  is  no  disrespect  to  the  majesty 
of  the  law  to  maintain  that  it  has  not  yet  sloughed  off 
all  its  barbarisms.  So  long  as  a  punishment  of  a 
money  fine  is  accepted  from  the  rich,  and  the  alterna- 
tive imprisonment  is  exacted  from  the  poor,  the 
equality  of  all  men  before  the  law  is  but  a  sounding 
phrase.' 

"  4.  We  have  under  the  next  heading  to  notice  the 
unequal  administration  of  even  equal  law.    The  de- 
vices which  are  open  to  those  who  can  employ  the  best 
legal  counsel  for  escaping  the  penalties  of  the  law  on 
the  one  hand,  and  for  bringing  them  to  bear  heavily 
on  opponents  on  the  other  hand,  are  well  known  to  all. 
Again,  I  am  glad  to  be  able  to  make  a 
quotation  in  order  to  have  additional 
Unequal      confirmation   of   my   position,    altho  I 
A/lminiofva     think  no  honest  and  well-informed  man 
aomuuraw  win  attempt  to  <jispute  it.    It  excited  no 
tion.          surprise    a    few    years    ago  when    Mr. 
Walling,  ex-Superintendent  of  Police  of 
New  York  City,  said  :  '  Altho,  of  course, 
all  things  are  possible,  yet  I  would  not  count  as  among 
probable  contingencies  under  the  present  system  of 
government  in  New  York  the  hanging  of  any  one  of 
its  millionaires,  no  matter  how  unprovoked  or  pre- 
meditated the  murder  he  might  have  committed.' 

"  Many  examples  of  unequal  administration  of  the 
law  can  be  given— in  fact,  so  many  that  it  seems 
almost  absurd  to  mention  any  concrete  cases.  Never- 
theless, I  will  give  one  or  two  illustrations  in  order  to 
direct  the  thought  of  my  readers,  and  to  lead  to  fur- 
ther observation  on  their  part.  Railways  are  again 
instructive.  A  few  years  ago  a  terrible  accident  oc- 


curred in  Massachusetts.  The  railway  directors  had 
disregarded  the  express  recommendations  of  the 
railway  commissioners  of  Massachusetts  to  test  the 
safety  of  the  bridge  properly.  There  were  no  auto- 
matic brakes,  and  there  were  not  so  many  brakemen 
as  the  law  requires.  A  prominent  paper  of  New  York 
of  high  standing  said  that  the  case  was  clearly  one  of 
a  preventable  accident,  and  that  it  was  deemed  in  law 
criminal  negligence.  The  writer  of  the  editorial 
stated  that  the  parties  responsible  could  be  indicted 
and  punished,  and  suggested  that  an  example  of  pun- 
ishment would  teach  railway  managers  a  useful  les- 
son. Is  it  necessary  to  tell  my  readers  that  no  attempt 
was  made  to  enforce  the  law?  Every  reader  knows  it 
before  I  state  it,  and  he  knows,  furthermore,  that  the 
law  in  such  cases  is  not  likely  to  be  enforced.  Sup- 

Eose,  on  the  other  hand,  that  the  leaders  of  a  great 
ibor  organization,  in  their  desire  to  raise  wages,  or 
for  any  pecuniary  reasons,  should  take  a  course  re- 
sulting in  loss  of  life,  is  there  one  of  my  readers  who 
does  not  know  that  the  law  would  lay  a  very  heavy 
hand  on  these  labor  leaders?  It  happened  not  long 
ago  that  certain  directors  of  a  great  corporation  were 
indicted  for  an  accident  which  resulted  in  a  horrible 
death  of  passengers.  How  tenderly  and  considerately 
they  were  treated  when  they  were  brought  before  the 
court  was  described  by  the  daily  press,  and  the  bail 
was  fixed  at  $5000,  a  mere  nothing  for  men  of  vast 
wealth.  About  the  same  time  a  labor  leader  was  in- 
dicted in  New  York  for  conspiracy  and  extortion. 
This  leader  was  at  the  time  in  Pennsylvania,  and  bail 
was  at  first  altogether  refused,  and  finally  was  fixed  at 
$20,000,  an  enormous  sum  for  such  a  person,  probably 
more  than  he  and  a  half  dozen  of  his  best  friends  to- 
gether were  worth. 

"  Taxation  reveals  another  kind  of  unequal  admin- 
istration. The  property  of  the  rich  is  rarely  assessed 
at  so  high  a  relative  rate  as  the  property  of  the 
poor 

"5.  A  fifth  kind  of  legal  inequality  is  seen  in  the 
failure  to  provide  laws  needed  by  the  masses  when 
contrasted  with  the  readiness  to  provide  laws  needed 
by  the  few  rich,  especially  powerful  corporations.  .  .  . 

"6.  The  last  kind  of  legal  inequality  relates  to  the 
use  of  more  or  less  corrupt  means  for  defeating  the 
ends  of  justice.  These  means,  which  of  course  should 
not  exist  at  all,  are  accessible  only  to  the  few.  Jury 
bribing  is  one,  but  that  is  coarse  and  clumsy.  There 
are  many  more  refined  processes.  A  friend  of  mine 
was  employed  in  a  large  law  office  which  was  con- 
cerned especially  with  railway  cases.  He  tells  me 
that  the  lawyers  in  this  office  secure  a  list  of  all  names 
on  the  jury  list  in  all  places  along  the  line  of  the 
railway  for  which  they  are  attorneys.  They  found 
out  before  cases  were  tried  the  personal  opinions  in 
regard  to  railways  of  every  single  man  who  could  be 
drawn  for  jury  service,  and  they  challenged  the  names 
of  those  who  were  regarded  as  unfriendly  to  rail- 
ways. He  said  that  it  thus  becomes  impossible  for 
any  one  to  recover  damages.  I  will  mention  only  two 
other  devices  under  this  head.  One  is  through  influ- 
ence with  the  appointing  power  to  secure  the  appoint- 
ment of  judges  friendly  to  railway  interests  where 
judges  are  appointed,  and  through  influence  with 
politicians  to  secure  the  nomination  of  judges  by  both 
parties  favorable  to  these  same  interests." 

Concerning  the  reforms  of  the  judiciary,  vari- 
ous proposals  have  been  made.     Extreme  indi- 
vidualists and  anarchists  would  abolish  all  courts 
of  government  authority.     Accord- 
ing to  Mr.  Bryce,  there  are  parts  of 
the  United  States  even  now  where     Reforms 
the  people  have  deliberately  con-    Proposed. 
eluded  that  it  is  cheaper  and  simpler 
to  take  the  law  into  their  own  hands 
on  those  rare  occasions  when  a  police  is  needed 
than  to  be  at  the  trouble  of  organizing  and  pay- 
ing a  force  for  which  there  is  usually  no  em- 
ployment.    Their  method  is  a  volunteer  jury, 
and,  in  a  clear  case,  a  simple  seizure  and  execu- 
tion of  the  criminal. 

Mr.  W.  M.  Salter  (Anarchy  or  Government, 
p.  22)  gives  the  following  interesting  instance  : 

"  A  few  years  ago  there  died  in  a  little  town  in  Iowa 
a  remarkable  man  named  Thomas  Chilson.  He  was  a 
blacksmith,  but  was  crippled  by  an  accident,  and  in 
time  such  qualities  were  discovered  in  him  that  his 


Judiciary. 


771 


Jury,  Trial  by* 


fellow-townsmen  and  the  farmers  around  used  to 
come  to  him  to  have  him  settle  their  disputes.  For 
years  previous  to  his  death  it  was  not  uncommon  to 
see  in  front  of  his  modest  dwelling  the  motley  collec- 
tion of  vehicles  which  is  a  familiar  spectacle  in  the 
vicinity  of  a  rural  court-house.  Inside,  gathered 
about  the  cripple's  chair,  were  the  litigants,  their  re- 
spective witnesses,  and  as  many  curious  spectators  as 
were  able  to  get  within  hearing  distance.  His  judg- 
ments, it  is  said,  were  almost  invariably  respected. 
The  people  in  the  neighborhood  became  thus  accustom- 
ed, instead  of  'going  to  law,'  to  'going  to  Chilson,' 
the  process  being  a  great  deal  cheaper,  costing  noth- 
ing in  fact,  and  the  results  being  much  more  satisfac- 
tory. 

"  Such  an  instance  raises  the  query  whether  it  would 
not  be  well  to  have  it  always  possible  for  private 
enterprise  to  compete  with  government?  The  idea 
may  be  impracticable  (Chilson,  I  believe,  dealt  only 
with  civil  cases),  and  yet  it  has  something  to  recom- 
mend it." 

Socialists,  on  the  other  hand,  believe  that 
with  human  nature  as  it  is,  and  in  the  involved 
conditions  of  civilized  existence,  such  voluntary 
courts  are  utterly  impracticable.  The  ultimate 
appeal  must  be  to  Lynch  law  ;  and  they  cannot 
believe  that,  when  appearances  and  true  facts 
are  often  so  utterly  different,  it  is  safe  to  trust 
judgment  to  the  hasty  feelings  of  the  commu- 
nity. (See  LYNCH  LAW.)  They  would  have  all 
justice  in  the  hands  of  the  community  organized 
as  a  State,  but  make  justice  absolutely  free.  If 
it  be  argued  that  this  would  enormously  increase 
litigation,  they  reply  that,  if  justice  were  free, 
any  one  could  get  justice,  and  trespassers  would 
be  afraid  to  commit  wrong.  To-day,  they 
argue,  the  wrongdoer,  especially  the  rich  cor- 
poration, can  commit  wrong  almost  with  im- 
punity. Under  free  justice,  with  judges  and 
lawyers  paid  by  the  State,  wrongdoing,  social- 
ists claim,  would  be  reduced  to  a  minimum. 
Less  radical  propositions  are  to  procure  cheap 
justice  by  the  organization  of  popular  courts  of 
conciliation  (q.v.),  as  in  Denmark. 

JUKES,  THE,  is  the  name  of  a  poor  family 
whose  genealogy  was  investigated  by  Mr.  R.  L. 
Dugdale  as  a  study  in  heredity,  etc.,  and  the 
results  of  which  investigation  he  recorded  in  his 
book  The  Jukes. 

Mr.  Dugdale  traces  the  family  back  to  a  man 
whom  he  calls  Max,  a  descendant  of  the  early 
Dutch  settlers,  and  born  between  the  years  1720 
and  1 740.  He  is  described  as  a  hunter  and  fish- 
er, a  hard  drinker,  jolly  and  companionable, 
averse  to  steady  work,  tho  working  hard  by 
spurts,  and  becoming  blind  in  old  age  and  en- 
tailing this  blindness  upon  his  children  and 
grandchildren.  Two  of  his  sons  married  Juke 
sisters,  of  whom  there  were  six  in  all.  The 
progeny  of  five  of  these  sisters  is  traced  with 
more  or  less  exactness  through  five  generations. 
The  total  lineage  Mr.  Dugdale  calculates  reaches 
over  1 200  persons,  but  he  traces  only  709,  of 
whom  540  were  related  by  blood  to  the  Jukes 
and  169  were  connected  with  them  by  marriage 
or  cohabitation.  The  latter  class  Mr.  Dugdale 
classes  under  the  head  of  X.  The  descendants 
of  one  of  the  women,  Ada  Juke,  proved  so  un- 
worthy that  she  is  often  referred  to  as  Mar- 
garet, the  mother  of  criminals.  According  to 
Mr.  Dugdale 's  table  (p.  69),  of  the  540  of  Juke 
blood,  305  reached  marriageable  age.  Of  these 
82  were  illegitimate  ;  73  were  prostitutes,  58  un- 
ascertained ;  12  kept  brothels,  51  had  syphilis  ; 
15  acquired  property  and  5  lost  it ;  95  received 


outdoor  pauper  relief,  53  almshouse  relief  ;  49 
were  criminals.  Of  the  X  blood  (169  of  mar- 
riageable age),  9  were  illegitimate,  55  prostitutes,. 
23  unascertained,  6  kept  brothels,  16  had  syphi- 
lis, 7  acquired  property  and  3  lost  it  ;  47  received 
outdoor  relief  and  n  almshouse  relief  ;  27  were 
criminals.  This  shows  that  of  the  adult  Juke 
women ,  5  2. 40  per  cent .  were  harlots ,  tho  some  lines  • 
of  the  family  were  more  criminal  than  others. 
Their  environment  was  in  rural  New  York  at  a 
time  when  to  others  equally  circumstanced  suc- 
cess was  entirely  possible.  At  the  same  time  it 
cannot  be  said  that  all  this  is  due  to  heredity, 
because  the  "  tendency  of  heredity  is  to  pro- 
duce an  environment  which  perpetuates  that 
heredity. ' '  A  child  born  on  the  roadside  or  in 
a  pauper  asylum  is  likely  to  be  brought  up  as  a 
pauper.  Mr.  Dugdale  estimates  that  the  fam- 
ily cost  the  community  in  75  years  over  $1,250,- 
ooo,  without  reckoning  the  cash  paid  for  whisky 
and  the  crime,  disease,  and  pauperism  left  to 
ensuing  generations.  Mr.  Dugdale  says  :  "  For- 
nication, either  consanguineous  or  not,  is  the 
backbone  of  their  habits,  flanked  on  the  one 
side  by  pauperism,  on  the  other  by  crime." 
Such  is  the  evil  record,  tho  its  evil  has  been  ex- 
aggerated by  many  who  have  referred  to  it. 

JURY,  TRIAL  BY,  often  called  the  "  palla- 
dium of  our  civil  and  political  liberties,"  is  con- 
sidered by  many  to-day  to  have  been  changed 
from  its  original  form  as  to  have  become  a  hin- 
drance rather  than  a  help  to  justice,  and  to  be  in 
need  of  radical  reform.  A  jury  to-day  may  be  de- 
fined as  a  body  of  men  selected  according  to 
law  and  sworn  to  inquire  into  or  to  determine? 
facts  concerning  a  cause  or  an  accusation  sub- 
mitted to  them,  and  to  declare  the  truth  accord- 
ing to  the  evidence  adduced.  A  "  grand  jury" 
is  a  jury  of  not  less  than  12  or  over  23  men,  of 
whom  12  must  agree,  to  decide  whether  there  is 
sufficient  ground  of  suspicion  to  justify  trial  be- 
fore a  jury,  which,  as  compared  with  the  grand 
jury,  is  called  a  "  petty"  or  "petit  jury."  A. 
"  coroner's  jury"  is  a  jury  summoned  by  a  coro- 
ner to  investigate  the  cause  of  a  death. 

The  origin  of  the  jury  is  in  the  remote  past. 
Says  Canon  Stubbs  : 

"Many  writers  of  authority  have  maintained  that 
the  entire  jury  system  is  indigenous  in  England,  some 
deriving  it  from  Celtic  tradition  based  on  the  prin- 
ciples of  Roman  law,  and  adopted  by  the  Anglo-Sax- 
ons and  Normans  from  the  people  they  had  conquered. 
Others  have  regarded  it  as  a  product  of  that  legal 
genius  of  the  Anglo-Saxons  of  which  Alfred  is  the 
mythic  impersonation,  or  as  derived  by  that  nation 
from  the  customs  of  primitive  Germany  or  from  their 
intercourse  with  the  Danes.  Nor  even  when  it  is  ad- 
mitted that  the  system  of  recognition  was  introduced 
from  Normandy  have  legal  writers  agreed  as  to  the 
source  from  which  the  Normans  themselves  derived  it. 
One  scholar  maintains  that  it  was  brought  by  the 
Norsemen  from  Scandinavia  ;  another  that  it  was  de- 
rived from  the  processes  of  the  canon  law  ;  another  that 
it  was  developed  on  Gallic  soil  from  Roman  principles  ;. 
another  that  it  came  from  Asia  through  the  crusades. 
The  true  answer  seems  to  be  that  forms  of  trial  re- 
sembling the  jury  system  are  to  be  found  in  the  prim- 
itive institutions  of  all  nations." 

The  jury,  however,  in  modern  forms  was 
mainly  developed  in  England.  Some  have 
claimed  that  originally  it  was  not  what  it  is  to- 
day. Mr.  Lysander  Spooner,  in  his  Trial  by 
Jury,  published  in  1852,  argued  that  the  present 
jury  trials  are  illegal  and  unconstitutional,  and. 


Jury,  Trial  by. 


772 


Juvenile  Reformatories. 


that  the  establishment  of  the  true  original  sys- 
tem would  not  only  at  once  cause  the  total 
disappearance    of    the    evils  com- 
plained of,  but  would  also  certainly 
History,     result  in  a  general  purification  and 
elevation  of  the  art  of  politics  and 
the  business  of  government. 
According  to  Mr.  Spooner,  "  the  trial  by  jury 
is  a  trial  by  the  country,  by  the  people,  as  dis- 
tinguished from  a  trial  by  the  Government." 
Anciently  it  was  called  trial  per  pats — that  is, 
trial  by  the  country.    And  even  to-day,  in  every 
criminal  court  the  jury  are  told  that  the  accused 
"  has,  for  trial,  put  himself  upon  the  country, 
which  country  you  (the  jury)  are."     The  object 
of  this  trial,  by  the  country,  in  preference  to  a 
trial  by  the  Government,  is  to  guard  against 
oppression  by  the  Government,     He  says  : 

"  Since  Magna  Charta,  in  1215,  there  has  been  no 
clearer  principle  of  English  or  American  constitutional 
law  than  that  in  criminal  cases  it  is  not  only  the  right 
and  duty  of  juries  to  judge  what  are  the  facts,  what 
is  the  law,  and  what  was  the  moral  intent  of  the 
accused,  but  that  it  is  also  their  right  and  their  pri- 
mary duty  to  judge  of  the  justice  of  tlie  law,  and  to  hold 
all  laws  invalid  that  are  in  their  opinion  unjust  or 
oppressive,  and  all  persons  guiltless  in  violating  or  re- 
sisting the  execution  of  such  laws." 

According  to  Mr.  Spooner,  "  if,  after  hearing 
both  sides,  the  jury  declare  that  the  Government 
is  right,  the  accused  become  criminals  and  are 
liable  to  punishment.  If  they  declare  the  Gov- 
ernment wrong,  the  accused  walk  out  free  and 
honorable  men,  and  the  law  in  question  becomes 
null  and  void. 

But  this  "  trial  by  the  country"  would  be  a 
sham,  a  delusion,  and  a  snare  if  the  Government 
could  say  either  who  may  and  who  may  not  be 
jurors,  or  could  dictate  to  the  jury  anything  what- 
ever either  of  law  or  evidence.  In  short,  to  use 
Mr.  Spooner 's  words  : 

"The  jury  must  judge  of  and  try  the  whole  case, 
and  every  part  and  parcel  of  the  case,  free  of  any 
dictation  or  authority  on  the  part  of  the  Government. 
They  must  judge  of  the  existence  of  the  law ;  of  the 
true  exposition  of  the  law  ;  of  the  justice  of  the  law  ; 
and  of  the  admissibility  and  weight  of  all  the  evidence 
offered.  Otherwise,  the  Government  will  have  every- 
thing its  own  way,  the  jury  will  be  mere  puppets  in 
its  hands,  and  the  trial  will  be  in  reality  a  trial  by  the 
Government." 

That  the  trial  by  jury  was  originally  this,  Mr. 
Spooner  claims  to  be  proved  by  the  history  and 
the  language  of  Magna  Charta. 

At  the  time  of  Magna  Charta  the  king  was 
constitutionally  almost  the  entire  government, 
the  sole  legislative,  judicial,  and  executive  pow- 
er. The  officers  were  merely  his  servants,  ap- 
pointed by  him  and  removable  at  his  pleasure. 
The  only  legal  limitation  upon  his  power  was 
the  "law  of  the  land,"  or  the  common  law, 
which  he  was  bound  by  oath  to  maintain.  But 
the  oppressions  and  usurpations  of  King  John 
were  so  intolerable  that  the  whole  nation  finally 
made  war  upon  the  king  and  compelled  him  to 
pledge  himself  that  he  would  punish  no  man  for 
the  violation  of  any  law  except  with  the  con- 
sent of  the  equals  of  the  accused.  Thus  the 
Great  Charter  of  English  Liberties  was  granted. 
This  charter  took  the  liberties  of  the  people  out 
of  the  hands  of  the  king  and  placed  them  in  the 
keeping  of  the  people  themselves. 

Whether  Mr.  Spooner 's  view  of  the  past  be  cor- 


rect or  not,  there  is  no  question  that  the  custom 
is  different  to-day.  To-day  the  province  of  the 
jury  is  to  judge  of  facts  ;  they  have  nothing  to 
do  with  the  law — which  they  must  take  from  the 
presiding  judge  at  the  trial.  The  old  decanta- 
tum  assigns  to  each  his  own  independent  func- 
tion :  "Ad  quaestionem  legis  judices  respon- 
dent, ad  qusestionem  facti  juratores. " 

From  the  beginning  parties  have  been  allowed 
to  challenge  the  jury.  In  civil  and  criminal 
cases  a  challenge  for  cause  is  allowed  ;  in  crim- 
inal cases  only,  a  peremptory  challenge  is  also 
allowed.  A  challenge  to  the  array  is  either  on 
the  ground  that  the  sheriff  is  a  party  to  the 
cause  or  related  to  one  of  the  parties,  on  the 
ground  of  circumstances  implying  "at  least  a 
probability  of  bias  or  favor  in  the  sheriff. ' '  A 
challenge  to  the  polls  is  an  exception  to  one 
or  more  jurymen  on  either  of  the  following 
grounds :  (i)  propter  honoris  respectum,  as 
when  a  lord  of  Parliament  is  summoned  ;  (2) 
propter  defectum,  for  want  of  qualification  ;  (3) 
propter  off ec turn,  on  suspicion  of  bias  or  par- 
tiality ;  and  (4)  propter  delictum,  when  the 
juror  has  been  convicted  of  an  infamous  offense. 

Unanimity  in  the  jury  is  essential  to  convic- 
tion. 

Such  is  the  English  procedure,  and  it  is  sub- 
stantially the  same  in  the  United  States. 

In  France,  there  is  no  grand  jury,  and  unanim- 
ity is  not  necessary. 

To-day,  however,  dissatisfaction  with  the  sys- 
tem is  widespread.  It  is  argued  that  the  law 
to-day  allows  only  fools  who  have  no  opinions 
to  be  jurors,  and  does  not  allow  conviction  if  a 
sharp  lawyer  can  bulldoze  or  a  culprit  can  bribe 
one  of  the  jury  not  to  vote  guilty. 

Men  are  but  too  anxious  to  escape  jury  duty, 
and  the  excuse  of  "  prejudice"  is  so  simple  that 
they  seize  upon  it  with  the  greatest  avidity. 
Thus  the  men  who  would  make  excellent  jurors 
escape  by  pleading  bias,  while  those  who  are 
actuated  by  unworthy  motives  and  who  are  anx- 
ious to  enter  the  jury  box  glibly  assert  their  per- 
fect freedom  from  all  bias,  and  virtually  beg  the 
court  to  accept  them. 

Many  propositions  for  reform  have  been 
made,  among  them  the  abolition  of  the  require- 
ment of  unanimity  in  jury  verdicts  and  the  sub- 
stitution of  a  majority  verdict  ;  the  doing  away 
with  the  examinations  of  talesmen  as  to  their 
"opinions"  about  the  case  ;  the  abatement  of 
the  exemption  abuse,  and  the  improvement  of 
the  methods  of  selecting  and  drawing  names  for 
the  first  jury  list.  (For  more  radical  proposi- 
tions, see  JUDICIARY,  last  section.) 

JUVENILE  REFORMATORIES.— Ac- 
cording to  the  census  for  1890,  the  following 
are  the  statistics  of  juvenile  reformatories  : 

Total  number  of  inmates  in  reformatories  in 

1890 14,846 

Total  number  of  inmates  in  reformatories  in 

1880 11,468 

Increase  in  the  decade 31378 

Number  of  males,  white 9i998 

Number  of  males,  colored 1,537 

Number  of  females,  white 21905 

Number  of  females,  colored 406 

Number  of  native  born,  white 11,078 

Number  of  foreign  born,  white 1*405 

Number  with  nativity  unknown 420 


Juvenile  Reformatories. 


773 


Kaweah. 


Number  of  native-born  white  with  parents  na- 
tive    3,245 

Number  of  native-born  white  with  parents  for- 
eign   3,965 

Number  of  native  born  white  with  one  parent 

foreign  963 

Number  of  native-born  white,  nativity  of  par- 
ents unknown  2,905 

The  increase  from  1880-90  was  29. 46  per  cent. 
The  increase  in  the  total  population  was  24. 86 
per  cent.  In  1880  the  ratio  of  juvenile  delin- 
quents confined  in  reformatories  to  the  popula- 
tion was  229  in  each  million  ;  in  1890  it  was  237  ; 
the  increase,  therefore,  has  been  only  8  to  the 
million.  The  largest  increase  has  been  in  the 
North  Central  division,  where  it  was  61  to  the 
million.  In  the  South  Atlantic  and  Western  di- 
visions it  was  24  to  the  million,  but  in  the 
North  Atlantic  and  South  Central  divisions  there 
has  been  a  relative  decrease,  in  the  former  of 
44  and  in  the  latter  of  10  to  the  million.  In  the 


South  Central  division  there  has  been  an  abso- 
lute decrease  of  28  in  the  number  of  inmates  of 
this  class  of  institutions.  It  is  evident  from 
these  figures  that  the  juvenile  reformatory  sys- 
tem is  not  growing  rapidly. 

The  following  table  shows  the  nature  of  their 
offenses  : 


OFFENSES  AGAINST- 

Miscel- 
lane- 
ous. 

The 

Gov- 
ern- 
ment. 

Soci- 
ety. 

The 

Person. 

Prop- 
erty. 

18 

5,222 
1,708 

291 
17 

"S3. 

1.835 
1,240 

Girls.... 

K. 


KAUFMANN,  MORITZ.— Born  in  Ger- 
many, he  early  went  to  Ireland,  and  gradu- 
ated at  Trinity,  Dublin.  Taking  orders  in  the 
Church  of  England,  he  became  rector  of  Ing- 
worth  and  vicar  of  Calthorpe.  He  has  been  a 
lifelong  student  of  socialism,  and  has  written 
numberless  magazine  articles  and  accounts  of 
socialism,  with  several  books,  such  as  Social- 
ism :  its  Nature,  its  Dangers,  and  its  Reme- 
dies Considered  (1874)  ;  Utopias  from  Sir 
Thomas  More  to  Karl  Marx(i%*]Q}  ;  Christian 
Socialism  (1888) ;  Charles  Kings  ley,  Christian 
Socialist  and  Social  Reformer  (1892). 

KAUTSKY,  KARL,  a  leading  German  so- 
cialist, was  born  in  1854.  He  is  now  editor 
of  Die  Neue  Zeitung  of  Stuttgart,  the  leading 
German  socialist  review,  and  also,  with  E. 
Bernstein,  of  Die  Geschichte  der  Sozialismus, 
now  appearing  in  parts.  He  has  been  a  volu- 
minous writer.  Among  his  books  are  t  Thomas 
More  iind  seine  Utopie  ;  Der  Arbeiterschutz, 
be  senders  der  Internationale  Arbeiterschutz  ; 
Gesetzgebung  und  der  Achtstimdentag  ;  Die 
Klassengesetze  -von  1780  ;  Karl  Marx,  Oekon- 
omische  Lehren,  Das  Erfurter  Progra.mm  in 
seinem  grundsdtzlichen  Theil ;  Der  Parla- 
mentarismus,  die  Volksgesetzgebung  und  die 
Sozialdemokratie. 

KAWEAH  was  a  cooperative  colony  located 
in  Tulare  County,  Cal.  In  1884  a  number  of 
Californians  decided  to  form  a  cooperative  col- 
ony or  community,  and  after  examining  differ- 
ent sites,  in  October,  1885,  filed  their  claims,  45 
in  number,  to  some  Government  land  near  the 
Kaweah  River,  under  the  Timber  Act  of  June 
3,  1878.  The  Act  provides  for  a  probationary 
period  of  60  days  "  for  the  sole  purpose  of  per- 
mitting adverse  claims,  if  any,  to  be  filed." 
Before  the  end  of  this  period  Land  Commis- 
sioner Sparks  ordered  a  suspension  of  their 
claims,  on  the  ground  that  he  doubted  if  they 
were  bona  fide  settlers,  land  at  that  time  being 
continually  obtained  by  monopolies  by  setting 
up  claims  for  dummy  settlers. 


The  colonists,  however,  conscious  that  they 
were  bona  fide  settlers  and  had  acted  legally 
every  way,  believed  that  in  due  time  their  claim 
must  be  acknowledged,  and  refused  to  spend 
any  money  in  Washington  to  push  it.  They 
went  ahead  rather,  opening  up  the  land  and 
building  a  road  18  miles  long  through  land  the 
timber  companies  had  considered  inaccessible, 
and  by  1890  were  prepared  to  haul  lumber  for 
the  market.  Their  claims,  meanwhile,  dragged 
along  uncompleted.  The  colony  was  organized 
on  a  cooperative  plan  in  August,  1886.  Shares 
were  $500,  one  fifth  of  which  had  to  be  paid  be- 
fore residence  was  allowed.  A  socialistic  paper 
was  published.  All  went  reasonably  well  till 
1890.  Then  at  least,  as  the  colonists  believe, 
the  timber  companies  of  California,  fearing  their 
competition,  plotted  their  overthrow.  A  bill 
was  hurried  through  Congress  on  the  last  day  of 
its  session,  October  i,  1890,  reserving  land  for 
Yosemite  National  Park,  and  including  in  it  the 
land  the  colonists  had  taken  up  and  had  im- 
proved for  five  years.  Stories  were  circulated 
that  the  colonists  were  cutting  down  the  big 
trees  of  the  Yosemite,  which,  tho  near  the  col- 
ony, the  colonists  had  not  touched,  and  offered 
to  guarantee  not  to  touch.  The  colonists  claimed 
that  they  had  legally  entered  their  claims,  that 
judgment  on  them  had  been  suspended  only  to 
be  sure  that  they  were  bona  fide  settlers,  and 
that  since  this  was  the  case,  they  could  not  be 
dispossessed  except  by  eminent  domain,  with 
compensation.  They  were,  however,  dispos- 
sessed. The  trustees  were  accused  of  illegally 
cutting  down  five  trees  which  the  colonists 
argued  they  had  done  legally.  The  papers 
where  the  trial  took  place  \yere  filled  with  edi- 
torials against  the  socialistic  leaders,  and  they 
were  condemned  to  pay  $300  each  for  cutting 
down  five  trees.  Appeal  was  taken. 

On  February  25,  1891,  Lewis  A.  Groff,  Land 
Commissioner  at  Washington,  submitted  to  Sec- 
retary of  the  Interior  Noble  a  full  and  elaborate 
report  concerning  the  title  of  the  colonists  to 
their  lands,  in  which  the  commissioner  main- 
tains that  the  colonists  had  faithfully  complied 


Kaweah. 


774 


Kindergarten. 


with  every  requirement  of  the  land  laws,  and 
shows  that  the  General  Land  Office  was  pos- 
sessed of  no  legal  reason  why  their  patents 
should  not  be  at  once  issued. 

But,  in  spite  of  this  report,  Secretary  Noble 
rendered  a  decision  in  which  he  ordered  the 
colonists'  entries  to  be  canceled,  on  the  ground 
that  as  their  titles  were  not  perfected  they  had 
no  rights  against  the  United  States  Government, 
and  for  the  reason  that  "  Congress,  in  the  exer- 
cise of  its  authority,  has  made  •  other  and  final 
disposition  of  the  lands. ' ' 

He  said  :  "  Since  the  very  inception  of  certain 
of  these  claims  to  the  lands  in  question  in  Octo- 
ber, 1885,  it  has  been  asserted  that  the  same 
were  fraudulent,  and  it  must  be  assumed  that 
Congress  acted  with  a  full  knowledge  of  all  the 
facts  in  the  case  ;  at  all  events,  its  action  in  dis- 
posing of  the  lands  is  final." 

The  colony,  already  financially  hurt,  was 
"broken  up  by  this  decision. 

KETTELER,  WILHELM  EMANUEL 
FREIHERR,  von,  was  born  at  Minister  in 
1811  ;  he  was  educated  there,  and  under  the 
Jesuits  at  Brug,  and  at  the  universities  of  Got- 
tingen,  Heidelberg,  and  Miinchen.  He  entered 
the  public  service  as  "  Referendar"  from  1834- 
38,  but  siding  with  the  Church  against  the  State, 
lie  studied  under  Dollinger,  and  was  ordained 
priest  in  1844.  Located  at  Mayence,  he  was 
very  popular  and  untiring  in  his  work  in  his 
parish,  especially  during  an  epidemic,  and  was 
elected  to  the  Germanic  Parliament  at  Prank- 
fort.  In  1848  he  preached  at  Mainz  on  social 
subjects  to  five  or  six  thousand  people,  and  in 
1850  was  made  Bishop  of  Mainz.  He  was  un- 
tiring in  his  devotion  to  his  people.  He  starte4 
various  church  associations  for  working  men, 
and  is  considered  the  founder  of  the  Catholic 
socialism  of  Germany,  a  movement  which,  tho 
of  some  size  and  political  influence,  is,  however, 
quite  different  from  English  Christian  Socialism. 

Acquainted  with  and  perhaps  influenced  by 
Lassalle,  von  Ketteler's  ideas  were  in  many 
points  radically  socialistic,  tho  always  from  a 
church  standpoint,  and  conceiving  of  all  social 
reforms  as  to  be  carried  out  under  the  patronage 
of  the  church.  Bishop  von  Ketteler's  main 
published  work  is  Die  Arbeiterfrage  und  das 
Christentum.  He  died  in  1875.  (See  CHRIS- 
TIAN SOCIALISM.) 

KIDD,  BENJAMIN,  was  born  in  England 
in  1858.  He  left  school  at  the  age  of  17  and  read 
under  private  tutors,  first  for  the  Indian  civil 
service  and  later  for  the  Chinese  consular  ser- 
vice, obtaining,  in  the  mean  time  (1877),  an  ap- 
pointment in  the  home  civil  service,  London. 
In  the  course  of  his  reading  he  became  deeply 
interested  in  biology  and  made  this  a  specialty, 
having  colonies  of  ants  and  bees  in  his  study, 
and  following  closely  all  work  in  the  leading  de- 
partments of  biology.  As  a  result,  tho  keep- 
ing his  civil  service  appointment,  he  did  not 
go  abroad,  but  devoted  his  time  out  of  office 
hours  to  biology.  He  has  followed  closely  the 
Weismann  controversy,  and  has  believed  from 
the  first  that  it  bore  directly  on  sociological  sub- 
jects. ,  He  has  been  a  frequent  contributor  to 
the  magazines,  tho  not  always  over  his  name, 


his  articles  appearing  in  The  Nineteenth  Cen- 
tury, Review  of  Reviews,  The  English  Illus- 
trated, Cornhul,  Longman" s  and  other  maga- 
zines. His  book,  Social  Evolution  (1894),  aroused 
remarkable  interest.  It  argues  that  progress 
inevitably  depends  on  natural  selection  and  the 
struggle  for  existence,  and  that  socialism,  aris- 
ing from  the  short-sighted  working-class  opposi- 
tion to  this  struggle,  cannot  endure,  but  will 
end  in  increased  State  activity,  not  in  owning 
or  conducting  industry,  but  in  insuring  competi- 
tion by  preventing  all  monopolies.  Religion, 
he  believes,  has  played  a  large  part  in  civiliza- 
tion, by  its  superrational  sanctions  teaching  an 
altruism  the  effect  of  which  has  been  to  lift  up 
the  weaker  portion  of  the  community  to  a  place 
where  they  can  more  effectually  compete  with 
the  stronger.  (See  BIOLOGY  ;  EVOLUTION.) 

KINDERGARTEN  is  the  German  name 
(meaning  "  garden  of  children")  given  by  Fried- 
rich  Froebel  (g.v.)  to  the  "  play  school"  invent- 
ed by  him  for  furthering  the  physical,  moral, 
and  intellectual  growth  of  children.  Froebel's 
observation  of  nature  and  his  fondness  for 
analogies  drawn  from  trees  and  plants  made 
him  attach  especial  importance  to  the  early  years 
of  childhood. 

Pestalozzi,  Comenius,  and  others,  who  at- 
tached much  importance  to  the  first  years  of  life, 
looked  to  the  mother  as  the  sole  educator.  But, 
as  in  the  case  of  the  poor,  the  mother  might  not 
have  time  to  attend  to  her  children.  Pestalozzi 
planned  and  Oberlin  formed  day  asylums  for 
young  children.  Schools  of  this  kind  took  in 
the  Netherlands  the  name  of  "  play  school,"  and 
in  England  of  "  infant  schools."  Froebel's  con- 
ceptions differed,  however,  materially  from  those 
of  the  infant  schools.  He  held  that  children 
should  be  educated  physically,  morally,  and  in- 
tellectually at  once  ;  that  the  essence  of  all  edu- 
cation was  to  be  found  in  rightly  directed  but 
spontaneous  action,  that  at  their  age  the  most 
suitable  and  natural  employment  was  play, 
especially  games  in  which  to  imitate  the  parts 
they  themselves  will  have  to  fill  in  after  years. 
Froebel  agreed  with  Montaigne  that  the  games 
of  children  were  "  their  most  serious  occupa- 
tions. ' ' 

Froebel  embodied  his  ideas  of  the  means  to 
be  used  in  early  child  culture  in  the  remarkable 
book,  The  Mother  Play  and  Nursery  Songs. 
This  book  he  made  the  foundation 
of    his    lectures    to    kindergarten 
teachers.     To  the  average    reader   Principles. 
the  book  may  appear  at  first  sight 
trivial    and    absurd,   but   whoever 
will  study  it  with  the  key  to  its  meaning  will 
find  in  it  a  very  profound  philosophy.     As  to  its 
meaning,  the  Baroness  Marenholtz  says  :  "  The 
key  note  of  the  book  is  the  analogy  between  the 
development  of  humanity  from   its  earliest  in- 
fancy and  the  development  of  the  individual." 

Froebel  wrote:  "The  development  of  the 
child  requires  the  same  series  ot  steps  in  the 
child  as  the  development  of  the  human  race — 
that  is,  it  must  be  done  as  God  Himself  has  con- 
ducted the  education  of  the  human  race."  But 
he  adds  :  "  We  can  spare  our  children  the  de- 
tails of  experiments  which  mankind  has  passed 
through  if  we  educate  them  aright.  They  must, 


Kindergarten. 


775 


Kneis,  Carl  G.  A. 


indeed,  become  wise  through  their  own  experi- 
ence, but  they  need  less  rough  experience." 
He  saw  that  the  primitive  man  had  been  edu- 
cated chiefly  through  symbols,  "  had  needed 
and  dwelt  in  symbols,"  and,  therefore,  Froebel 
held  that  the  deepest  need  of  childhood  is  to 
make  the  intellectual  its  own  through  symbols 
or  sensuous  forms. 

To  guide  in  the  use  of  these  means  Froebel 
announces  an  educational  law,  and  declares  that 
his  method  stands  or  falls  upon  the  recognition 
or  the  non  recognition  of  it.  This  law  is  the  law 
of  unity. 

In  Froebel's  writings,  and  in  those  of  the 
Baroness  Marenholtz,  the  law  we  are  consider- 
ing is  sometimes  spoken  of  ,as  the  law  of  the 
connection  of  opposites,  sometimes  as  the  law 
of  contrasts  ana  their  connections  ;  it  is  also 
called  the  law  of  harmony,  the  law  of  equilib- 
rium. 

Such  are  the  ideas  at  the  base  of  Froebel's 
system,  and  which  have  been  applied  in  modern 
kindergartens. 

The  first  kindergarten  was  opened  at  Blank- 
enburg,  near  Rudolstadt,  in  1840,  but  after  a 
needy  existence  of  eight  years  was  closed  for 
want  of  funds.  In  1851  the  Prus- 
sian Government  declared  that 

History.  "  schools  founded  on  Froebel's 
principles  or  principles  like  them 
could  not  be  allowed."  But  the 
idea  had  far  too  much  vitality  to  be  starved  or 
frowned  down.  As  early  as  1854  it  was  intro- 
duced into  England  by  the  then  famous  Ronges. 

The  great  propagandist  of  Froebelism,  the 
Baroness  Marenholtz-Biilow,  drew  the  attention 
of  the  French  to  the  kindergarten  from  the  year 
1855,  and  Michelet  declared  that  Froebel  had 
"  solved  the  problem  of  human  education." 

After  1872  the  system  spread  rapidly,  and  is 
now  more  or  less  adopted  in  all  European  pub- 
lic school  systems,  especially  on  the  Continent. 
It  has  been  most  developed,  however,  in  the 
United  States.  In  1854  Mr.  Henry  Barnard,  of 
Connecticut,  declared  it  "by  far  the  most  orig- 
inal, attractive,  and  philosophical  form  of  infant 
development  the  world  has  yet  seen, ' '  and  wrote 
about  it  in  \h&  Journal  of  Education  in  1856. 
Soon  after,  Miss  Elizabeth  Peabody,  of  Boston, 
established  the  first  kindergarten  in  this  coun- 
try. In  1871  an  American  Froebel  Union  was 
established  in  Boston,  merged  later  into  the 
Froebel  Institute  of  North  America,  established 
by  Mr.  W.  N.  Hailmann  in  1882,  and  to-day 
kindergartens  exist  in  all  portions  of  the  coun- 
try. (See  EDUCATION.) 

KINGSLEY,  CHARLES,  was  born  at 
Holne  Vicarage,  Dartmoor,  Devonshire,  in 
i8ig  Educated  first  at  private  schools  and  at 
King's  College,  London,  his  father  becoming 
rector  of  Chelsea,  he  entered  Magdalen  College, 
Cambridge,  and  graduated  in  1842.  He  was 
the  same  year  ordained  curate  of  Eversley,  in 
Hampshire,  and  this  was  his  home  through  all 
his  life  In  1848  he  published  his  first  work,  a 
drama  The  Saint's  Tragedy,  and  soon  after 
Twenty-five  Village  Sermons,  In  1849,  stirred 
by  the"  Chartist  movement  and  by  the  suffer- 
ings which  he  saw,  particularly  among  the  agri- 
cultural laborers  and  the  sweated  tailors  of  Lon- 


don, he  threw  himself  into  the  Christian  Social- 
ist movement  with  the  little  company  of  clergy- 
men and  laymen  that  gathered  around  Fred- 
erick D.  Maurice  (g.v.)  as  leader.  He  declared 
himself  in  one  passionate  address,  "a  Church 
of  England  parson  and  a  Chartist." 

In  Politics  for  the  People  and  the  Christian 
Socialist  (see  CHRISTIAN  SOCIALISM),  he  wrote 
Letters  to  the  Chartist,  signed  "  Parson  Lot." 
In  his  Cheap  Clothes  and  Nasty  he  made  a 
burning  plea  for  the  sweated  tailors.  Perhaps, 
however,  he  did  his  best  work  for  social  reform 
in  his  novels,  Yeast  (1848)  and  Alton  Locke 
(1850).  With  Maurice,  he  advocated  and  sought 
to  establish  cooperative  shops.  In  politics  he 
was  a  Tory.  He  wrote  :  "I  expect  nothing 
from  the  advocates  of  laissez-faire,  the  pedants 
whose  glory  is  in  the  shame  of  society,  who  ar- 
rogantly talk  of  economics  as  of  a  science,  so 
completely  perfected,  so  universal  and  all -im- 
portant, that  common  humanity  and  morality, 
reason  and  religion  must  be  pooh-poohed 
down."  The  Bible  he  considered  the  poor 
man's  comforter  and  the  rich  man's  warning. 
His  program,  however,  was  not  radical.  If  he 
wrote  :  "  My  only  quarrel  with  the  Charter  is 
that  it  does  not  go  far  enough  in  reform,"  he 
only  meant,  he  explains  further  on,  that  the 
Chartists  erred  in  "  fancying  that  legislative 
reform  is  social  reform,  or  that  man's  heart  can 
be  changed  by  act  of  Parliament." 

"  We  must  touch  the  workman  at  all  his  points 
of  interest,"  he  wrote  to  Mr.  Ludlow,  "  first 
and  foremost  at  association,  but  also  at  political 
rights,  as  grounded  both  on  the  Christian  ideal 
of  the  Church  and  on  the  historic  facts  of  the 
Anglo-Saxon  race.  Then  national  education, 
sanitary  and  dwelling-house  reform,  the  free 
sale  of  land  and  corresponding  reform  of  the 
land  laws,  moral  improvement  of  the  family  re- 
lation, public  places  of  recreation — on  which 
point  I  am  very  earnest. ' ' 

In  later  life,  altho  not  giving  up  his  views,  he 
greatly  modified  his  expressions,  and  is  said  to 
have  regretted  his  earlier  intensity.  He  devot- 
ed himself  to  ecclesiastical  and  parochial  and 
sanitary  reforms.  "  Politics  and  political  econ- 
omy," he  said  in  1857,  "  may  go  their  way  for 
me.  If  I  can  help  to  save  the  lives  of  a  few 
thousand  working  people  and  their  children,  I 
may  earn  the  blessing  of  God." 

He  wrote  Hypatia  (1853),  Westward  Ho 
(1855),  besides  numerous  other  stories,  volumes 
of  sermons,  etc.  In  1860  he  was  made  Profes- 
sor of  History  at  Cambridge,  resigning  in  1869. 
He  became  Canon  of  Chester,  and,  in  1873, 
of  Westminster.  He  paid  a  lecture  visit  to 
America.  He  died  at  Eversley,  in  1875. 

KNEIS,  CARL  G.  A.,  was  Professor  of  Na- 
tional Economics  at  Heidelberg,  and  one  of  the 
German  socialists  of  the  chair  (q.v.\  His  Die 
Politische  Oekonomie  vom  Standpunkte  der 
Geschichtlichen  Methode  (1853,  2d  ed.,  1883) 
formulates  and  completes  with  great  precision 
the  canons  of  the  historical  school  (y.v.)of  Hilde- 
brand  and  Roscher  (g.v.).  He  challenges  abso- 
lutism in  economics,  and  teaches  that  political 
economy  should  vary  in  different  times  and 
countries.  His  Geld  und  Kr edit  (1873-79)  has 
become  a  classic. 


Knights  of  Labor. 


776 


Knights  of  Labor. 


KNIGHTS  OF  LABOR,  THE.— The  order 
of  the  Knights  of  Labor  was  first  organized  as 
a  local  secret  society  in  Philadelphia,  December 
23,  1869,  by  10  garment  cutters.  They  had  pre- 
viously been  organized  as  a  trade-union,  but 
dissolved  this  union  and  organized  the  new  so- 
ciety mainly  under  the  lead  of  Uriah  S.  Ste- 
phens, one  of  their  number.  The  names  of  the 
others  were  Tames  L.  Wright,  Robert  C.  Macau- 
ley,  Joseph  S.  Kennedy,  William  Cook,  Robert 
W.  Keen.  James  M.  Hilsee,  David  Westcott,  W. 
H.  Phillips,  Washington  Shields.  On  Decem- 
ber 30  the  new  society  declared  itself  Local  As- 
sembly No.  i  of  the  Knights  of  Labor.  Mr. 
Stephens  was  elected  Master  Workman.  They 
decided  to  admit  to  their  number  working  men, 
no  matter  of  what  occupation.  They  grew  slow- 
ly ;  but  a  second  assembly  was  not  organized 
till  1872.  During  that  year,  however,  27  assem- 
blies were  organized  in  Philadelphia.  The  first 
assembly  organized  outside  of  Philadelphia  was 
an  assembly  of  gold-beaters  in  New  York  City. 
Christmas  Day,  1873,  the  first  district  assembly 
was  formed.  A  general  assembly  was  not 
formed  till  January  i,  1878,  at  Reading,  Pa., 
when  Mr.  Stephens  was  chosen  Grand  Master 
Workman.  Up  to  this  time  the  order  had  elicit- 
ed little  general  notice  ;  it  was  strictly  secret, 
with  ritual  and  educational  work  in  the  princi- 
ples of  the  labor  movement.  The  following 
declaration  of  principles  was  adopted  at  this 
assembly,  having  been  written  in  substance  by 
Mr.  G.  E.  McNeill  (g.v.}  for  a  labor  congress  at 
Rochester  in  1874.  It  became  from  this  time 
the  principles  of  the  order. 

The  alarming  development  and  aggressiveness  of 
the  power  of  money  and  corporations  under  the  pres- 
ent industrial  and  political  systems  will  inevitably 
lead  to  the  hopeless  degradation  of  the  people.  It  is 
imperative,  if  we  desire  to  enjoy  the  full  blessings  of 
life,  that  unjust  accumulation  and  this  power  for  evil 
of  aggregated  wealth  shall  be  prevented.  This  much- 
desired  object  can  be  accomplished  only  by  the  united 
efforts  of  those  who  obey  the  divine  injunction:  "In 
the  sweat  of  thy  face  shalt  thou  eat  bread."  There- 
fore we  have  formed  the  Order  of  the  Knights  of  La- 
bor for  the  purpose  of  organizing,  educating,  and  di- 
recting the  power  of  the  industrial  masses. 

It  is  not  a  political  party,  it  is  more — for  in  it  are 
crystallized  sentiments  and  measures  for  the  benefit  of 
the  whole  people  ;  but  it  should  be  borne  in  mind,  when 
exercising  the  right  of  suffrage,  that  most  of  the  ob- 
jects herein  set  forth  can  only  be  obtained  through 
legislation,  and  that  it  is  the  duty,  regardless  of  party, 
of  all  to  assist  in  nominating  and  supporting  with  their 
votes  such  candidates  as  will  support  these  measures. 
No  one  shall,  however,  be  compelled  to  vote  with  the 
majority. 

Calling  upon  all  who  believe  in  securing  "  the  great- 
est good  to  the  greatest  number"  to  join  and  assist  us, 
we  declare  to  the  world  that  our  aims  are  : 

1.  To  make  industrial  and  moral  worth,  not  wealth, 
the  true  standard  of  individual  and  national  great- 
ness. 

2.  To    secure   to    the   workers   the    full  enjoyment 
of  the  wealth  they  create  ;  sufficient  leisure  in  which 
to  develop  their  intellectual,  moral,  and  social  facul- 
ties ;  all  of   the    benefits,   recreations,  and  pleasures 
of  association  ;  in  a  word,  to  enable  them  to  share  in 
the  gains  and  honor  of  advancing  civilization. 

In  order  to  secure  these  results,  we  demand  at  the 
hands  of  the  law-making  power  of  Municipality,  State, 
and  Nation  : 

3.  The  establishment  of  the  Referendum  in  the  mak- 
ing of  all  laws. 

4.  The  establishment  of  Bureaus  of  Labor  Statistics, 
that  we  may  arrive  at  a  correct  knowledge  of  the  ed- 
ucational, moral,  and  financial  condition  of  the  labor- 
ing masses  and  the  establishment  of  free  State  Labor 
Bureaus. 

5.  The  land,   including  all    the    natural  sources  of 
wealth,  is  the  heritage  of  all  the  people,  and  should 


not  be  subject  to  speculative  traffic.  Occupancy  and 
use  should  be  the  only  title  to  the  possession  of  land. 
Taxes  upon  land  should  be  levied  upon  its  full  value 
for  use,  exclusive  of  improvements,  and  should  be  suffi- 
cient to  take  for  the  community  all  unearned  incre- 
ment. 

6.  The  abrogation  of  all  laws  that  do  not  bear  equally 
upon  capitalists  and  laborers,  and  the  removal  of  un- 
just technicalities,  delays,  and  discriminations  in  the 
administration  of  justice. 

7.  The  adoption  of  measures  providing  for  the  health 
and  safety  of  those  engaged  in  mining,  manufacturing, 
and  building  industries,   and  for  indemnification  to 
those  engaged  therein  for  injuries  received  through 
lack  of  necessary  safeguards. 

8.  The  recognition,  by  incorporation,  of  orders  and 
other  associations  organized  by  the  workers  to  improve 
their  condition  and  to  protect,  their  rights. 

g.  The  enactment  of  laws  to  compel  corporations  to 
pay  their  employees  weekly,  in  lawful  money,  for  the 
labor  of  the  preceding  week,  and  giving  mechanics 
and  laborers  a  first  lien  upon  the  product  of  their 
labor  to  the  extent  of  their  full  wages. 

10.  The  abolition  of  the  contract  system  on  National, 
State,  and  Municipal  works. 

11.  The  enactment  of  laws  providing  for  arbitration 
between  employers  and  employed,  and  to  enforce  the 
decision  of  the  arbitrators. 

12.  The  prohibition,  by  law,  of  the  employment  of 
children  under  15  years  of  age  ;  the  compulsory  at- 
tendance at  school  for  at  least  10  months  in  the  year  of 
all  children  between  the  ages  of  7  and  15  years  ;  and 
the  furnishing  at  the  expense  of  the  State  of  free  text- 
books. 

13.  That  a  graduated   tax  on   incomes  and  inheri- 
tances be  levied. 

14.  To  prohibit  the  hiring  out  of  convict  labor. 

15.  The  establishment  of  a  national  monetary  sys- 
tem,  in    which  a    circulating   medium    in    necessary 
quantity  shall  issue  directly  to  the  people,  without  the 
intervention  of  banks  ;  that  all  the  national  issue  shall 
be  full  legal  tender  in  payment  of  all  debts,  public 
and  private  ;  and  that  the  Government  shall  not  guar- 
antee or  recognize  any  private  banks  or  create  any 
banking  corporations. 

16.  That  interest-bearing  bonds,   bills  of  credit  or 
notes  shall  never  be  issued  by  the  Government,  but 
that,  when  need  arises,  the  emergency  shall  be  met  by 
issue  of  legal-tender,  non-interest-bearing  money. 

17.  That  the  importation  of  foreign  labor  under  con- 
tract be  prohibited. 

18.  That  in  connection  with  the  post-office  the  Gov- 
ernment shall  provide  facilities  for  deposits  of  savings 
of  thepeople  in  small  sums. 

19.  That  the  Government  shall  obtain  possession,  un- 
der the  right  of  eminent  domain,  of  all  telegraphs,  tel- 
ephones, and  railroads  ;  and  that  hereafter  no  charter 
or  license  be  issued  to  any  corporation  for  construc- 
tion or  operation  of  any  means  of  transporting  intelli- 
gence, passengers,  or  freight. 

And  while  making  the  foregoing  demands  upon  the 
State  and  National  Governments,  we  will  endeavor  to 
associate  our  own  labors  : 

20.  To    establish    cooperative    institutions,   such    as 
will  tend  to  supersede  the  wage  system,  by  the  intro- 
duction of  a  cooperative  industrial  system. 

21.  To  secure  for  both  sexes  equal  rights. 

22.  To  gain  some  of  the  benefits  of  labor-saving  ma- 
chinery by  a  gradual  reduction  of  the  hours  of  labor 
to  eight  per  day. 

23.  To  persuade  employers  to  agree  to  arbitrate  all 
differences  which  may  arise  between  them  and  their 
employees,  in  order  that  the  bonds  of  sympathy  be- 
tween them  may  be  strengthened  and  that  strikes  may 
be  rendered  unnecessary. 

At  the  third  annual  General  Assembly,  Mr. 
T.  V.  Powderly  (y.v.)  was  elected  Grand  Master 
Workman,  and  annually  reelected  till  1893.  The 
order  now  began  rapid  growth  and  excited  gen- 
eral attention.  There  were  at  one  time  700  local 
assemblies  with  some  500,000  members.  Each 
year  saw  new  growth.  In  the  winter  of  1885-86 
there  seemed  to  be  a  rush  into  organization.  The 
railroad  strikes  in  the  Southwest  (see  STRIKES) 
and  the  excitement  over  the  so-called  Chicago 
anarchists  (g.v.)  turned  the  attention  of  working 
men  everywhere  to  labor  organization.  At  the 
General  Assembly  of  1886  delegates  were  pres- 
ent representing  800,000,  and  it  was  claimed 


Knights  of  Labor. 


777     Krupp  Foundries,  Social  Work  at. 


that  the  total  membership  was  over  1,000,000. 
The  growth  was  too  fast.  Men,  without  under- 
standing the  principles  of  the  order,  voted  rash 
strikes.  The  general  executive  committee  under- 
took too  centralized  an  authority.  Massing  men 
of  various  callings  into  the  same  assembly,  and 
failing  sufficiently  to  respect  the  autonomy  of 
the  different  trades,  an  opposition  to  this  policy 
sprang  up,  eventuating  ultimately  in  a  split 
which  culminated  at  the  General  Assembly  of 
1886,  and  resulted  in  the  formation  of  the  Amer- 
ican Federation  of  Labor  (g.v.),  which  does 
recognize  the  autonomy  of  each  craft,  and  only 
federates  the  organizations  of  the  various  crafts 
into  one  general  federation  for  general  pur- 
poses. Since  then  the  Knights  of  Labor  have 
gone  down  and  the  Federation  has  grown.  The 
order,  however,  was  still  for  many  years  very 
powerful.  In  1887  extensive  headquarters  were 
purchased  in  Philadelphia.  A  footing,  too,  was 
gained  for  the  order  in  England  and  Belgium. 
Cooperative  experiments  were  made,  but  proved 
unsuccessful.  The  order  entered  into  political 
alliances  with  the  Farmers'  Alliance  (q.v),  but 
little  resulted  from  it  save  education. 

In  1890  a  journal  was  commenced  called  The 
Journal  of  United  Labor,  and  later  made  a 
weekly  and  called  the  Journal  of  the  Knights 
of  Labor.  The  order  continually  losing  ground, 
in  1893  dissensions  led  to  the  defeat  of  Mr.  Pow- 
derly  for  reelection  as  General  Master  Work- 
man, and  Mr.  J.  R.  Sovereign  (q.v.)  was  elected 
in  his  place.  Dissensions  and  desertions  from 
the  order  have  continued,  till  at  present  the  or- 
der numbers  only  a  very  few  thousand  men. 
(See  TRADE-UNIONS.) 

KNIGHTS  OF  ST.  CRISPIN.— The  order 
of  the  Knights  of  St.  Crispin  was  an  organiza- 
tion in  the  shoe  trade,  first  conceived  by  Newell 
Daniels,  of  Milford,  Mass.,  in  1864.  He  moved 
West,  and  the  first  lodge  of  the  order  was  or- 
ganized in  Milwaukee,  Wis. ,  in  1867.  It  grad- 
ually spread  East,  and  by  1868  a  grand  lodge 
meeting  was  held  in  Rochester,  representing  60 
chapters.  Martin  Gavin  was  chosen  the  first 
presiding  officer.  The  aim  of  the  order  was  to 
unite  all  shoe-workers,  to  obtain  the  control  of 
the  trade.  During  the  next  few  years  the  order 
grew  very  rapidly,  claiming  400  lodges  and 
40,000  members  at  one  time,  making  it  among 
the  largest  trade-unions  of  the  world.  It  estab- 
lished a  journal,  attempted  cooperation,  entered 
politics  ;  it  conducted  strikes  and  won  many, 
but  the  reaction  came,  and  divisions  sprang  up 
and  led  to  desertions,  till  in  1874  it  had  almost 
disappeared.  In  1875  it  was  revived  in  Massa- 
chusetts and  defeated  an  attempt  of  the  Lynn 
manufacturers  to  make  their  employees  prom- 
ise to  belong  to  no  organization.  The  revival, 
however,  was  temporary,  and  by  1878  the  order 
was  practically  extinct,  it  had  aimed  at  too 
much,  and  failed  save  in  educating  its  members 
for  wiser  efforts. 

KNOW-NOTHINGS  was  the  name  applied 
to  a  secret  political  society  in  the  United  States, 
organized  in  1853  to  oppose  foreign  citizenship. 
The  members  were  called  Know -Nothings  be- 
cause if  asked  about  the  society  they  said  that 
they  knew  nothing.  Its  real  name  is  said  to 


have  been  the  Sons  of  '76,  or  the  Order  of  the 
Star-Spangled  Banner.  Its  one  principle  was 
America  for  Americans.  It  played  quite  a  part 
in  the  elections  of  1854,  and  in  1856  held  a  con- 
vention, organized  an  "  American  Party,"  and 
nominated  Millard  Fillmore  for  President.  After 
that  it  disappeared  in  the  growing  anti- slavery 
excitement.  (See  AMERICAN  PARTY.) 

KROPOTKINE,  PETER  ALEXEI- 
VITCH,  was  born  in  Moscow  in  1842  of  a  Rus- 
sian noble  family.  He  studied  at  St.  Petersburg, 
and  in  1862  joined  a  regiment  of  Cossacks  as 
lieutenant,  but  resigned  and  traveled  for  five 
years  in  Eastern  Siberia,  collecting  geological 
and  geographical  information.  In  1867  he  re- 
turned to  St.  Petersburg,  studying  science,  and 
acting  as  Secretary  to  the  Geographical  Society. 
In  1872  he  paid  a  visit  to  Belgium,  and  became 
interested  in  the  International,  along  with  Baku- 
nin  (q.v.).  Returning  to  Russia,  he  joined  the 
revolutionary  circles,  under  the  name  of  Boro- 
din, and  gave  many  secret  lectures.  Arrested 
in  1874  he  was  confined  in  the  prison  of  St.  Peter 
and  St.  Paul,  but  at  the  request  of  leading  sci- 
entists he  was  allowed  to  continue  his  writings 
on  the  Glacial  Period.  His  health  failing,  he 
was  transferred  to  the  Military  Hospital,  whence 
in  1876  he  escaped  to  England.  In  1877  he 
went  to  Switzerland,  and  in  1879  founded  the 

Eaper  La  Revolte"  at  Geneva  (in  1885  trans- 
jrred  to  Paris).  Expelled  at  last  from  here,  he 
was  arrested,  in  1883,  in  France,  condemned  to 
five  years'  imprisonment,  but  was  liberated  by 
the  President  of  the  French  Republic.  In  1886 
he  helped  to  found  the  English  anarchist-com- 
munist paper  Freedom.  He  has  since  resided 
at  Harrow-on-the-Hill,  near  London.  He  takes 
high  rank  as  a  geographer  and  geologist,  and  is 
the  leader  of  the  anarchist  movement  in  Eng- 
land. His  title  of  Prince  he  repudiates.  He 
has  written  many  articles  and  tracts  :  Paroles 
d'un  J?i?v<>/t</ (1885)  ;  Coming  Anarchy  (1887)  ; 
Scientific  Basis  of  Anarchy  (1887)  ;  Appeal  to 
the  Young  (1890),  etc. 

KRUPP  FOUNDRIES,  SOCIAL  WORK 

AT. — About  the  year  1861  the  number  of  per- 
sons in  the  employ  of  the  Krupp  Steel  Works  at 
Essen  had  increased  till  the  dwelling  capacity 
of  Essen  was  overtaxed.  The  firm  began  to 
think  of  methods  to  improve  the  situation.  The 
first  start  in  this  direction  was  made  in  1861-62. 
Two  rows  of  houses,  one  with  six  dwellings  and 
the  other  with  four,  were  built  for  the  foremen 
of  the  factory. 

In  the  summer  months  of  1863  the  first  colony 
of  workmen's  dwellings,  known  as  A  It-  West  end, 
was  built,  and  the  houses  rented  to  the  em- 
ployees. The  buildings  were  simple,  and,  in 
the  words  of  Mr.  Alfred  Krupp,  intended  for 
poor  families  who  must  save,  but  desire  a  health- 
ful dwelling. 

A  second  colony,  called  Neu-  Westend,  was 
completed  in  the  winter  of  1871-72. 

In  July,  1891,  there  were  3659  dwellings  (not 
including  43  dwellings  given  to  widows  rent 
free).  There  has  been  a  net  income  of  2.5  on 
the  capital  invested,  and  this  has  been  spent  on 
other  local  improvements. 

In  1868  there  existed  in  Essen  a  small  co- 


Krupp  Foundries,  Social  Work  at.    77^ 


Labor. 


operative  society,  the  majority  of  whose  mem- 
bers were  connected  with  the  Krupp  works.  At 
the  request  of  the  officers  of  this  society  the  firm 
undertook  its  management,  and  changed  its 
character  to  that  of  a  Consum-Anstatt,  or  a 
complete  store  on  a  large  scale,  whose  object 
should  be  to  furnish  all  varieties  of  first -class 
goods  needed  by  the  workmen  at  lowest  possi- 
ble prices.  For  many  years  the  firm  ran  this 
Consum-Anstalt  on  its  own  account  and  at  its 
own  risk,  grading  prices  so  that  the  cost  of  ad- 
ministration would  be  covered  without  attempt 
at  profit.  In  order,  however,  to  do  away  with 
all  possibility  of  doubt  in  this  direction,  a  plan 
of  real  cooperation  has  been  adopted  in  recent 
years.  All  sales  are  made  solely  on  a  cash  basis. 

At  the  end  of  each  business  year  the  total 
profits  are  divided  among  the  purchasers  in  pro- 
portion to  the  value  of  purchases. 

The  boarding  establishment  is  known  as  the 
"  Menage."  It  was  started  as  far  back  as  1856 
with  200  unmarried  men  ;  through  the  sixties  it 
had  an  average  of  500  men,  and  by  1873  the 
number  had  reached  1775,  but  sank  again  to 
less  than  500  persons  in  1875.  At  present  it 
averages  about  800  men.  The  fall  in  numbers 
was  largely  due  to  the  desire  on  the  part  of  the 
men  for  greater  freedom  than  the  supervision  of 
the  "  Menage"  allowed.  Other  improvements 
have  been  made. 

A  board  of  physicians  was  formed  whose  sole 
duty  is  to  look  after  the  health  of  the  employees 
and  their  families. 

A  large  bathing  establishment  has  been  ar- 


ranged, where  steam  baths  can  also  be  given 
when  prescribed. 

Insurance  associations  have  been  established 
— three  in  number — one  for  insurance  against 
accident,  one  for  life  insurance,  and  one  for  in- 
surance against  sickness.  The  total  sum  paid 
by  the  Krupps  for  pension  purposes  is  $60,000  a 
year,  of  which  $2500  is  paid  under  the  provi- 
sions of  the  Imperial  Insurance  Law. 

Two  other  funds,  partially  of  a  pension  char- 
acter, were  established  by  Mr  F.  A.  Krupp 
upon  the  death  of  his  father  in  1887,  and  are  de- 
serving of  mention.  One  was  a  gift  of  $250,000, 
the  interest  of  which  is  to  be  administered  and 
used  by  the  directors  of  the  other  pension  funds 
for  the  benefit  of  those  who  may  need  pensions, 
but  through  some  technicalities  may  not  be  en- 
titled to  them  through  the  regular  channels,  and 
secondly,  for  those  whose  regular  pensions  may 
not  be  sufficient  to  prevent  want  and  suffering. 
The  other  was  a  gift  of  $125,000  to  the  city  of 
Essen,  to  be  managed  by  a  board  of  nine  ap- 
pointed by  the  mayor  of  the  city,  but  to  include 
four  persons  named  by  the  owner  of  the  Krupp 
Works.  The  interest  of  this  fund  is  intended 
to  be  used  for  material  and  moral  improvement, 
and  at  present  is  devoted  to  building  working 
men's  dwellings,  that  being  considered  the  most 
pressing  necessity.  A  building  association  also 
exists. 

Scientific  and  manual  training  schools  of  all 
kinds  have  been  introduced.  Hours  of  labor 
have  been  reduced  from  n^  to  10  hours.  Such 
are  the  main  social  features. 


L. 


LABOR,  as  used  in  economic  science,  may 
be  defined  as  work  done  by  mind  or  body  in 
producing  wealth.  (For  a  discussion  of  what 
production  is,  see  PRODUCTION.  For  a  discussion 
of  what  wealth  is,  see  WEALTH.)  The  word  is 
sometimes  used  to  mean  the  class  of  manual 
laborers,  as  against  capital,  meaning  thereby 
capitalists,  because  in  the  conflict  between  those 
who  live  by  labor  and  those  who  live  by  invest- 
ments, it  is  manual  laborers  that  are  usually 
considered.  Nevertheless,  even  those  who 
maintain,  as  did  Adam  Smith,  and  as  most 
German  socialists  and  American  trade-unionists 
still  do,  that  labor  is  the  sole  source  of  value, 
never  claim  that  manual  labor  is  the  only  kind 
of  productive  labor.  Every  one  recognizes  the 
need  and  value  of  the  labor  of  management, 
the  labor  of  the  mind,  in  various  ways.  Man- 
ual labor  is  principally  referred,  to  in  such 
phrases  as  "  the  labor  movement,"  not  because 
it  is  regarded  as  the  only  kind,  but  because  it 
is  that  kind  of  labor  which  those  who  engage  in 
the  movement  believe  to  have  been  most 
wronged  in  the  past  and  most  to  need  having 
wrongs  righted  in  the  present.  All  socialists,  all 
trade-unionists,  all  working  men  recognize  at 
least  some  kinds  of  mental  labor  as  necessary 
factors  in  production.  (For  the  kinds  of  labor 
that  some  consider  unproductive,  see  PRODUC- 
TION.) Some  have  limited  the  word  labor  to 


painful  labor.  Jevons  says  (Political  Economy, 
v.)  :  "  Labor,  I  should  say,  is  any  painful  exer- 
tion of  mind  or  body  undergone  partly  or  wholly 
with  a  view  to  future  good. ' '  But  this  is  un- 
doubtedly misleading,  if  the  word  painful  be 
understood  in  its  ordinary  sense,  and  partakes 
too  much  of  views  now  generally  condemned 
which  largely  put  a  despite  on  manual  labor.  The 
labor  of  an  artist,  of  an  inventor,  of  a  teacher,  of 
a  carpenter,  of  a  farmer,  need  by  no  manner  of 
means  be  always  painful.  Better  is  Ruskin's 
definition(  Unto  this  Last,  Essay  IV.)  :  "  Labor 
is  the  contest  of  the  life  of  man  with  an  oppo- 
site ;  the  term  life  including  his  intellect,  soul, 
and  physical  power,  contending  with  question, 
difficulty,  trial,  or  material  force." 

Of  the  importance  of  the  part  played  by  labor 
in  production  there  is  no  question  and  need  be 
no  statement.  To  the  problems  connected  with 
labor  this  encyclopedia  is  devoted.  (Concern- 
ing the  reward  of  labor,  see  WAGES.  Concern- 
ing the  statistics  of  laborers,  see  OCCUPATIONS. 
Concerning  the  condition  of  laborers,  see 
WAGES  ;  WEALTH.  Concerning  the  history  of 
labor  in  the  past,  see  SLAVERY  ;  MIDDLE  AGES  ; 
GUILDS.  Concerning  the  history  of  the  labor 
movement  in  modern  times,  see  the  different 
countries  ;  and  for  the  United  States,  TRADE- 
UNIONISM  ;  SHORT-HOUR  MOVEMENT  ;  SOCIALISM  ; 
ANARCHISM,  etc. 


Labor  Bureaus. 


779 


Labor  Bureaus. 


LABOR  BUREAUS.  (See  LABOR  EX- 
CHANGES.)— Labor  bureaus,  in  the  modern  sense, 
are  a  recent  development.  In  the  French  Revo- 
lution of  1848  a  department  of  labor  was  estab- 
lished (see  ATELIERS  NATIONAUX),  and  employ- 
ment bureaus  have  existed  from  early  times  ; 
but  the  first  modern  bureau  of  labor  was  the 
Massachusetts  Bureau  of  Statistics  of  Labor, 
established  June  23,  1869,  as  the  result  of  a 
strong  agitation  conducted  by  the  Boston  Eight- 
Hour  League  (see  SHORT- HOUR  MOVEMENT), 
mainly  led  by  Mr.  George  E.  McNeill  (g.v  ), 
with  the  aid  of  Wendell  Phillips  and  others. 
The  first  chief  of  the  bureau  was  General  H.  K. 
Oliver,  and  with  Mr.  George  E.  McNeill  as 
deputy.  Pennsylvania  was  the  next  State  to 
follow,  establishing  a  bureau  in  1872,  other 
States  falling  into  line  later,  till  at  the  beginning 
of  November,  1892,  there  were  in  the  United 
States,  including  the  Federal  Government,  28 
offices  popularly  known  as  bureaus  or  depart- 
ments of  labor.  These  offices  have  various 
titles,  but  their  duties  are  similar,  and  consist 
almost  solely  in  gathering  statistics  of  various 
kinds  that  bear  in  one  way  upon  the  condition 
or  the  interests  of  labor.  The  work  they  do  is 
of  varying  value,  according  to  the  character  of 
the  men  in  charge,  and  according  to  the  amount 
of  money  placed  by  the  State  at  their  disposal 
for  the  collecting  of  statistics.  The  statistics 
collected  by  some  of  them  will  scarcely  bear 
any  scientific  analysis,  while  those  of  even 
the  best  of  them — a  place  often  accorded  to 
the  Massachusetts  Bureau— are  often  open  to 
sharp  criticism.  (For  an  illustration  of  this, 
as  to  the  Massachusetts  Bureau,  see  PROFITS, 
NET.)  Nevertheless,  the  good  they  have  done 
in  collecting  information  can  scarcely  be  ex- 
aggerated, and  most  of  them  will  compare  fa- 
vorably with  similar  bureaus  in  any  other 
country. 

The  National  Bureau  of  Labor  at  Washington, 
D.  C. ,  was  created  as  an  office  in  the  Depart- 
ment of  the  Interior  by  act  of  Congress,  ap- 
proved June  27,  1884,  and  organized  January 
22,  1885,  by  the  appointment  of  Carroll  D. 
Wright,  of  Massachusetts,  as  commissioner. 
The  functions  of  this  bureau  ceased  June  13, 
1888,  at  which  date  the  act  of  Congress  creating 
its  successor,  the  Department  of  Labor,  was  ap- 
proved. This  act  was  the  result  of  a  demand 
on  the  part  of  the  Knights  of  Labor  and  other 
labor  organizations.  The  Department  of  Labor 
is  independent  of  the  Department  of  the  Inte- 
rior and  of  all  other  departments,  and  hence 
deals  directly  with  Congress  and  the  President. 
The  term  of  office  of  the  commissioner  is  four 
years  ;  at  the  expiration  of  this  period  a  reap- 
pointment  or  a  new  appointment  is  made.  The 
term  of  other  employees  is  not  so  limited.  The 
regular  appropriations  made  by  Congress  have 
risen  from  $25,000  in  1884-85  to  over  $175,000 
in  1891-92.  Congress  occasionally  directs  spe- 
cial investigations  to  be  made,  and  appropriates 
money  for  the  purpose,  as  in  the  case  of  an  in- 
quiry into  the  statistics  of  marriage  and  divorce 
and  into  the  industrial  and  technical  school 
systems.  It  also  provides  by  special  acts  for  the 
printing  and  binding  of  the  annual  reports. 
These  are  usually  sent  free  of  cost  to  all  persons 
in  the  United  States  who  apply  for  them  if  the 


supply  admits.  They  are  also  sent  in  exchange 
to  all  Government  officials  or  other  persons  in 
foreign  countries  who  have  rendered  the  de- 
partment a  service  by  forwarding  to  it  their  own 
publications.  If  the  supply  is  not  exhausted,  they 
are  sent  to  other  distinguished  foreigners  who 
express  a  wish  for  them.  The  reports  hitherto 
issued  deal  with  industrial  depressions,  convict 
labor,  strikes  and  lockouts,  working  women  in 
large  cities,  railroad  labor,  the  cost  of  produc- 
tion in  the  case  of  iron,  steel,  coal,  with  industrial 
education,  building  and  loan  associations, 
strikes,  lockouts,  compulsory  insurance,  mar- 
riage and  divorce,  the  Gothenburg  system  of 
liquor  traffic,  slums,  the  housing  of  the  working 
people,  labor  law,  etc.  The  object  of  the  de- 
partment, as  expressed  in  the  act  which  consti- 
tuted it,  is  the  "  acquiring  and  diffusing  among 
the  people  of  the  United  States  useful  informa- 
tion on  subjects  connected  with  labor  in  the 
most  general  and  comprehensive  sense  of  the 
word,  and  especially  upon  its  relation  to  capi- 
tal, the  hours  of  labor,  the  earnings  of  laboring 
men  and  women,  and  the  means  of  promoting 
their  material,  social,  intellectual,  and  moral 
prosperity. ' ' 

November,  1895,  the  department  commenced 
issuing  a  Bulletin  of  about  100  pages  every 
other  month. 

In  Germany,  a  commission  for  labor  statistics 
was  appointed  in  1892,  and  consists  of  13  mem- 
bers. The  chief  and  one  other  member  are  ap- 
pointed by  the  Chancellor  ;  the  Reichstag  ap- 
points six  members,  and  the  Bundesrath,  five. 
It  meets,  however,  only  when  called  by  the 
Chancellor — an  arrangement  which,  with  its 
constitution,  gives  great  dissatisfaction  to  Ger- 
man working  men. 

England  has  a  Board  of  Trade  with  a  labor 
department  which,  in  1893,  commenced  publish- 
ing a  labor  gazette. 

In  France  there  is  an  Office  du  Travail,  or 
Labor  Bureau,  established  by  a  decree  of  Au- 
gust 19,  1891.  Its  purpose  is  the  collection  of 
statistics,  and  the  prosecution  of  any  investiga- 
tion that  may  be  assigned  to  it.  It  is  a  distinct 
department,  under  the  authority  of  the  Minister 
of  Commerce,  Industry,  and  Colonies,  having  a 
director  with  a  salary  of  $3000,  and  17  assistants. 
The  Director  is  appointed  by  the  President  on 
the  nomination  of  the  Minister.  (See  LABOR 
EXCHANGES.) 

In  Switzerland,  the  work  of  a  labor  bureau  is 
performed  by  a  Secretary  of  Laborers,  and 
working  in  connection  with  the  Confederation 
of  Laborers,  and  yet  a  member  of  the  Central 
Government.  (See  SWITZERLAND.)  The  office 
was  created  in  1887. 

A  Bureau  of  Industries  was  established  by  the 
New  Zealand  Government  in  June,  1891,  under 
the  direction  of  the  Hon.  W.  R.  Reeves,  Minis- 
ter of  Education  and  Justice.  The  objects  de- 
sired by  the  Government  were  the  compilation 
of  statistics  concerning  the  condition  of  labor 
generally  ;  the  establishment  of  agencies  for  re- 
porting the  scarcity  or  overplus  of  workers  in 
particular  districts  ;  the  transfer  of  such  work- 
ers from  overcrowded  localities  to  places  need- 
ing labor  ;  and,  generally,  the  control  of  all  in- 
dustries for  the  physical  and  moral  benefit  of 
those  engaged  therein.  (For  the  activities  of 


Labor  Bureaus. 


780 


Labor  Church. 


the  Bureau  in  aiding  the  employment  of  the 
unemployed,  see  UNEMPLOYMENT.) 

References :  For  the  statistical  publications  of  the 
various  countries  on  the  subject  of  labor,  see  Appen- 
dix. 

LABOR  CHECKS.— Many  socialists,  tho 
not  all,  believe  that  under  a  socialistic  regime 
so-called  labor  checks  will  be  used  in  place  of 
money.  Every  one,  according  to  this  idea,  will 
work  for  the  common  good,  and  will  be  paid 
checks  stating  that  he  has  labored  so  many 
hours,  these  checks  to  be  good  for  purchases  at 
the  various  stores  of  the  commonwealth.  Says 
Lawrence  Gronlund,  in  describing  their  use 
(The  Cooperative  Commonwealth,  revised  ed., 
chap.  vi. ) : 

"  As  the  products  were  received,  or  as  services  were 
rendered,  labor  checks  will  have  been  issued  (or  per- 
haps such  money  as  we  use  now,  which  then,  however, 
will  have  no  other  function  than  the  checks— that  of 
being  tickets,  tokens),  each  check  will  represent  so 
many  normal  days  of  common  labor,  and  there  will, 
during  each  fiscal  year,  have  been  exactly  as  many 
checks  issued  as  will  correspond  to  the  days  of  labor, 
productive  or  unproductive,  actually  performed. 

"  The  outgoings  will  be  distributed  at  the  various 
depots  or  bazaars  of  the  commonwealth  to  the  holders 
of  these  checks  ;  '  sold  '  there,  in  other  words.  These 
check-holders  may  be  those  to  whom  they  were  orig- 
inally issued,  or  strangers  visiting  the  country,  or 
citizens  who  have  parted  with  something  valuable  for 
them.  These  bazaars  will  be  one-price  establish- 
ments. The  wares  will  have  their  value— real,  '  natur- 
al' value,  as  Ricardo  termed  it,  which  is,  as  we  saw  in 
Chapter  I.,  the  amount  of  human  labor  embodied  in 
them;  that  determines  their  value  now,  has  always 
done  it,  and  will  determine  it  under  the  new  order. 
The  wares  will  be  sold  for  a  price  equal  to  that  value, 
with  possibly  a  percentage  added. 

"  For  it  will  be  noted  that  the  checks  issued  repre- 
sent and  call  for  more  days'  labor  than  are  contained 
in  the  products  destined  for  distribution.  There  are, 
first,  the  checks  issued  to  those  citizens  who  have  per- 
formed unproductive  labor — physicians,  judges,  teach- 
ers, clerks,  domestic  helpers,  etc.  ;  and  next,  checks 
for  the  labor  contained  in  what  is  set  aside  as  capital. 
There  are  thus  a  good  many  legitimate  claims  which 
must  be  extraordinarily  provided  for." 

By  no  means,  however,  do  all  socialists  agree 
with  this  idea.  Most  English  Fabian  socialists 
reject  and  laugh  at  the  whole  idea.  A  still 
larger  number  neither  reject  nor  accept  the 
idea,  believing  that  socialism,  as  distinctly  evo- 
lutionary, will  work  its  way  step  by  step,  and 
leave  such  details  as  labor  checks  to  be  devolv- 
ed when  the  time  comes,  if  it  then  seem  wise. 
(See  SOCIALISM.) 

LABOR  CHURCH,  THE.— The  Labor 
Church  originated  in  the  conviction  in  the  mind 
of  the  writer  of  this  article  that  the  labor  move- 
ment, far  from  being  the  mischievous  and  god- 
less thing  it  was  commonly  supposed  to  be,  was 
really  the  most  advanced  point  at  which  the 
Diyine  energy  was  operating  in  the  higher  evo- 
lution of  man.  Behind  this  conviction  lay  an- 
other, which  preceded  it  and  made  it  possible — 
namely,  that  God  was  not  to  be  found  in  the 
traditions  of  the  historic  churches,  but  in  the  in- 
dividual soul  and  in  the  progressive  develop- 
ment of  life  in  our  own  time.  And  the  relation 
of  the  historic  churches  to  the  Labor  Church,  as 
I  understand  it,  is  this  :  that  the  former  indicates 
where  God  has  been  in  past  ages,  while  the  lat- 
ter attempts  to  indicate  where  God  is  to  be  found 
to-day  ;  and  that,  therefore,  the  former  seeks  to 
bring  the  labor  movement  round  to  their  relig- 


Origin. 


ion  (so  far  as  they  have  any  real  interest  in  it), 
while  the  latter  attempts  to  develop  into  self- 
consciousness  the  religion  already  present  in  the 
labor  movement  itself.  The  historic  churches 
say,  when  sympathetic,  "  Add  Christianity  to 
your  labor  movement  ;"  the  Labor  Church 
says:  "Go  on  with  your  work  in  the  labor 
movement,  and  find  God's  service  and  God's 
presence  where  you  are. ' ' 

The  first  Labor  Church  service  was  held  in 
the  Charlton  Town  Hall,  Manchester,  on  Sun- 
day, October  4,  1891.  My  idea  was  to  speak 
myself  every  alternate  Sunday,  and 
on  other  Sundays  to  invite  the 
most  prominent  socialists  or  labor 
leaders  to  give  the  address.  On 
the  first  Sunday,  therefore,  I  spoke 
on  The  Program  of  the  Labor  Church ;  on 
the  second  Sunday,  Robert  Blatchford,  editor 
of  The  Clarion,  gave  an  address  on  Sunshine 
and  Shadow  ;  on  the  third  Sunday  I  spoke  on 
Go d  in  the  Labor  Movement  ;  on  the  fourth 
Sunday,  Ben  Tillett  took  for  his  subject  The 
Ethics  of  Government.  The  service  consisted 
of  hymns,  solos,  reading,  and  prayer,  as  at  any 
popular  service,  but  with  this  difference — that 
the  hymns  were  distinctly  socialistic  as  well  as 
religious.  Readings  have  been  taken  from 
Lowell,  Whittier,  Gerald  Massey,  Ruskin,  Car- 
lyle,  Whitman,  William  Morris,  and  other  mod- 
ern writers  ;  and  the  prayers  were  short  and 
unconventional,  and  entirely  free  from  the  tra- 
ditional phraseology. 

On  the  second  Sunday,  such  large  numbers 
were  unable  to  gain  admission  to  hear  Robert 
Blatchford  that  we  had  to  leave  the  Charlton 
Town  Hall  and  take  the  People's  Concert  Hall, 
an  old  music  hall  with  seats  for  1600  people. 
From  the  first  the  movement  has  been  a  marked 
success  ;  indeed,  the  real  danger  to  it  consists 
of  the  fact  that  it  has  spread  almost  too  rapidly. 
Before  starting,  I  imagined  myself  preaching 
for  years  to  a  few  people  who  would  gradually 
come  to  understand  my  message  and  then 
spread  it  among  their  fellows.  After  three 
years  the  problem  is  how  to  deepen  the  relig- 
ious sense  in  the  midst  of  a  movement  which  in 
so  short  a  time  has  covered  so  wide  an  area. 

By  the  end  of  the  first  month  many  of  the  peo- 
ple who  came  to  our  Sunday  services  wanted  to 
organize  themselves  into  a  Labor 
Church.     A    week-night    meeting 
was  therefore  called  for  the  pur- 
pose of  organizing  a  church,  and 
the  following  principles  were  pre- 
sented and  accepted  as  our  basis  after  they  had 
been  discussed  freely  : 

1.  That  the  labor  movement  is  a  religious  movement. 

2.  That  the  religion  of  the  labor  movement  is  not  a 
class  religion,   but  unites  members   of  all   classes  in 
working  for  the  abolition  of  commercial  slavery. 

3.  That  the  religion  of  the  labor  movement  is  not 
sectarian  or  dogmatic,  but  free  religion,  leaving  each 
man  free  to  develop  his  own  relations  with  the  power 
that  brought  him  into  being. 

4.  That  the  emancipation  of  labor  can  only  be  real- 
ized so  far  as  men  learn  both  the  economic  and  moral 
laws  of  God,  and  heartily  endeavor  to  obey  them. 

5.  That  the  development  of  personal  character  and 
the  improvement  of  social  conditions  are  both  essen- 
tial to    man's    emancipation    from  moral  and  social 
bondage. 

In   January,   1892,  the  Labor  Prophet  was 
started  as  the  organ  of  the  movement,  being 


Organi- 
zation. 


Labor  Church. 


781 


Labor  Church. 


published  monthly  at  a  penny.  A  Labor  Church 
hymn-book  followed,  and  more  recently  a  tune- 
book  has  been  issued.  Labor  Church  tracts 
have  also  been  published  for  propagandist  pur- 
poses, and  many  thousands  of  handbills  explain- 
ing our  aims  and  principles. 

In  July,  1892,  a  Labor  Church  was  opened  in 
Bradford.  The  immediate  cause  of  the  forma- 
tion of  a  Labor  Church  in  that  town  was  the 
public  opposition  of  the  Nonconformist  minis- 
ters  to  the  parliamentary  candidate  of  the  Labor 
Party,  Mr.  Ben  Tillett,  the  celebrated  dockers' 
secretary.  In  the  interests  of  disestablishment 
they  supported  an  employer  of  labor  who  had 
made  himself  especially  obnoxious  to  the  work- 
ing classes,  and  who,  singularly  enough,  has 
since  severed  himself  from  the  Liberal  Party 
because  of  its  having  partly  adopted  an  eight- 
hour  policy. 

During  the  winter  of  1892-93  several  more 
churches  were  formed,  in  each  case  the  demand 
being  entirely  local  and  spontaneous.  No  at- 
tempt has  been  made  to  organize  the  spread  of 
the  movement  from  headquarters.  It  has  been 
left  entirely  to  its  own  natural  development. 

In  July,  1893,  a  conference  of  Labor  Church 
delegates  was  called  for  the  purpose  of  forming 
a  Labor  Church  Union.  This  step  was  ren- 
dered necessary  through  the  break- 
down of  my  health,  and  the  devel- 
Labor  opment  of  difficulties  which  could 
Church  only  be  satisfactorily  dealt  with  by 
Union.  a  properly  constituted  authority. 
At  this  conference  10  churches  were 
represented.  A  constitution  was 
formulated,  to  be  confirmed  by  a  succeeding 
conference  ;  and  a  council  was  appointed  to 
carry  on  the  work  of  the  Union.  Mr.  Fred 
Brocklehurst,  B.A.,  was  appointed  general  sec- 
retary, having  already  acted  for  some  time  prac- 
tically in  the  same  capacity. 

At  the  time  of  writing  (November  i ,  1894)  there 
are  nominally  some  24  labor  churches  in  exist- 
ence, reaching  from  Dundee,  in  Scotland,  to 
Plymouth,  on  the  south  coast ;  and  we  hear  of 
several  places  in  which  Labor  Church  services 
are  about  to  be  commenced.  Only  in  a  dozen 
towns  is  the  Labor  Church  fully  organized,  with 
an  enrolled  membership  and  properly  appointed 
officers.  In  other  cases  the  Labor  Church  is 
little  more  than  the  Sunday  meeting  of  the  local 
branch  of  the  Labor  Party,  conducted  on  Labor 
Church  lines,  often  with  the  prayer  omitted. 
This  is  chiefly  the  case  in  the  smaller  towns, 
where  there  are  neither  the  men  nor  the  means 
at  present  to  run  two  organizations  successfully. 

The  real  need  of  the  movement  now  is  a  body 
of  eloquent  speakers  to  deliver  the  distinctly  re- 
ligious message  conveyed  in  our  principles,  and 
to  evolve  what  is  there  formally  presented  into 
the  energy  and  inspiration  of  a  new  religious 
faith.  At  present  the  speakers  of  the  Labor 
Church  are  almost  exclusively  the  speakers  of 
the  Labor  Party  over  again,  and  they  usually 
confine  themselves  to  politics  and  socialism. 

The  difficulty  of  the  Labor  Church  is  the  diffi- 
culty that  lies  in  the  way  o"f  all  progress — that 
men  and  movements  can  seldom  work  out  two 
ideas  at  the  same  time.  And  yet  to  secure  real 
progress  this  is  what  is  always  demanded. 

On  the  one  hand,  the  historic  churches  have 


been  preaching  that  the  salvation  of  the  indi- 
vidual is  the  road  to  the  salvation  of  society  ;  on 
the  other  hand,  the  socialists  have  been  preach- 
ing that  the  reform  of  society  is  the  road  to  the 
reform  of  the  individual.  The  Labor  Church 
was  founded  to  run  these  two  conceptions  side 
by  side,  as  each  equally  important. 

Carrying  this  idea  further,  the  Labor  Church 
was  founded  to  stand  both  for  social  reform  and 
for  religious  reform,  and  to  make  of  social  re- 
form the  practical  work  of  the  re- 
ligious life.     But  social  reform  is 
so  absorbing  a  matter  in  England       Aims. 
to-day    that  those  upon   whom  it 
seizes  seldom  seem  to  think  of  any 
other  reform  being  needed  ;  while  many  aban- 
don all  sense  of  the  need  of  any  religion  at  all. 
This  is  far  nobler   than   the   other worldlin ess 
from  which  it  is  a  reaction  ;  but  still  it  is  a  re- 
action, and  has  in  it  all  the  needless  limitations 
of  a  reaction,  and  does  not  bind  together  the 
two  strands  of  the  outward  and  the  inward  life. 

And  carrying  this  idea  further  still,  the  Labor 
Church  was  founded  to  stand  both  for  the  king- 
dom of  God  in  the  world  and  the  kingdom  of 
God  in  the  heart — to  emphasize  the  Divine 
operation  in  the  continual  development  of  life, 
and  man's  call  to  cooperate  with  God  in  this 
work  ;  and  equally  to  emphasize  the  Divine 
operation  in  the  individual  soul,  and  to  establish 
a  living  temple  of  God  in  the  human  heart. 

It  is  needless  to  say  that  the  labor  churches 
do  not  to-day  signify  all  this  ;  and  it  would  be 
foolish  to  complain  because  they  do  not.     We 
are  transplanting  religion  to  a  rich- 
er and  more  fruitful  soil  ;    but  it 
withers  somewhat  in  the  process  ;     Results, 
and  if  the  labor  churches    say  lit- 
tle about  the  service  of  God,  I  am 
sure  they  are  heartily  engaged  in  it.     Consider- 
ing how  long  religion  has  been  enslaved  by  tra- 
dition, how  terribly  the  religious  persecutions 
and  conflicts  have  burned  into  sensitive  con- 
sciences, how  the  natural  religious  instincts  of 
the  human  heart  have  been  for  centuries  dis- 
trusted and  the  natural  virtues  of  human  nature 
persistently    discredited,  it    is    rather  a   won- 
der   that    socialists,   and    especially    working 
men  socialists,  should  respond  to  any  plea  in 
the  name  of  religion  at  all,  or  be  willing  to  asso- 
ciate themselves  together  in  any  organization 
calling  itself  a  church. 

As  a  matter  of  fact,  I  know  that  all  through 
the  labor  movement  there  is  a  vast  demand  for 
a  new  religious  message  such  as  the  Labor 
Church  was  intended  to  deliver.  Human  hearts 
everywhere  are  waiting  for  the  appearance  of 
men  and  women  of  the  new  knowledge  and 
the  new  ideals,  but  also  of  the  old  prophetic 
type — men  who  have  lived  resolutely,  and  in 
their  living  have  somewhere  met  with  God. 
Such  men  are  of  the  very  rarest,  and  yet  such 
are  the  men  for  which  the  labor  churches 
everywhere  wait. 

Meanwhile,  the  labor  churches  are  quite  jus- 
tifying their  existence.  At  the  very  lowest  es- 
timate they  are  the  labor  movement  at  its  best  ; 
and  1  know  that  throughout  them  there  lives  an 
earnest  tho  mostly  dumb  desire  to  reach  to  some- 
thing higher.  This  shows  itself  in  practical 
ways.  An  effort,  for  instance,  is  being  made  to 


Labor  Church. 


782 


Labor  Colonies. 


establish  Sunday-schools  in  connection  with  the 
churches,  and  already  in  several  of  them  the 
poorest  children  in  their  neighbor- 
hood have  been  systematically  en- 
Work,       tertained  and  fed  in  the  winter  and 
taken  into  the  country  in  the  sum- 
mer.    Adult  classes  are  held,  and 
social    gatherings    are    successfully    organized 
through  the  winter  months.     The  hearty  sing- 
ing at  the  services  of  our  Labor  Church  hymns 
is  also  an  element  of  help  and  strength.     More- 
over, the  churches,  tho  poor  enough,  are  all  self- 
supporting,  and  ready  for  any  amount  of  ener- 
getic work.    If  their  religion  is  somewhat  dumb, 
it  does  a  deal  of  work,  and  I  am  sure  that  God 
underlies. 

In  conclusion,  the  Labor  Church  must  not  be 
confounded  with  the  attempts  which  are  every- 
where being  made  to  induce  the  working  classes 
to  come  to  church.  It  means  the  setting  up  of 
a  church  right  in  the  heart  of  the  greatest  move- 
ment in  modern  times.  Neither  must  it  be  re- 
garded as  the  church  of  a  class.  It  is  the  church 
of  all  those,  whatever  their  class,  who  desire  to 
serve  God  through  the  advance  of  the  labor 
movement  ;  and  to  serve  Him,  not  in  the  bond- 
age of  the  old  tradition,  but  in  the  spirit  of  the 
new  life. 

This  article  would  be  incomplete  without  a 
reference  to  the  Labor  Church  in  America. 

In  the  early  part  of  this  year  (1894)  Herbert 
N.  Casson  commenced  Labor  Church  services 
in  Lynn,  Mass.     Mr.  Casson  is  working  out  the 
original  conception  in  his  own  way, 
and  brings  a  large  store  of  energy, 
United       ability,   and  insight  to  the  great 
States.       task  he  has  undertaken.     He  has 
recently  been  joined  by  his  brother, 
Charles  W.  Casson,  who  is  working 
with  a  Labor  Church  which  was    started  in 
Providence,   R.  I.     Both  have  come  from  the 
Methodist  ministry,  and  bring  to  their  new  un- 
dertaking all  the  religious  enthusiasm  of  that 
great  section  of  the  Christian  Church.     They 
are  of  those  who  know  how  to  cast  off  the  tradi- 
tional form  of  religion  without  losing  hold  on 
the  realities  of  religious  service  and  life. 

The  difficulties  of  the  work  will  be  very  dif- 
ferent in  America  from  what  they  are  here,  and 
in  some  respects  much  more  serious.  Here  the 
socialist  movement  is  very  much  of  the  nature 
of  a  fair-weather  demonstration,  tho  it  can 
hardly  be  supposed  that  this  will  be  allowed  to 
last.  On  half  holidays  and  Sundays  young 
men  ride  out  on  their  bicycles,  and  find  in  mak- 
ing converts  to  their  doctrines  most  easy  and 
delightful  sport.  In  America  the  work  will  be 
far  sterner  than  this,  as  it  probably  will  be  with 
us  before  long.  JOHN  TREVOR. 

LABOR  COLONIES  for  the  provision  of 
work  for  the  unemployed  have  assumed  consid- 
erable dimensions  in  Germany,  Holland,  Bel- 
gium, and  France.  They  have  been  established 
with  the  view  of  organizing  the  labor  of  the 
able-bodied  unemployed,  either  temporarily,  as 
in  Germany,  or  permanently,  as  in  Holland. 


The  Dutch  colonies  are    the  oldest.     They 
have  not  been  elaborated  out  of  speculation, 


but  forged  into  their  present  organic  form  under 
the  fire  of  criticism. 

General  van  den  Bosch,  very  soon  after  the 
devastating  war  which  was  terminated  by  the 
battle  of  Waterloo,  saw  in  Holland  thousands 
of  families  reduced  to  helplessness  and  poverty. 

Through  his  influence  there  was  organized, 
in  1818,  the  Society  of  Beneficence  (Maat- 
schappy  van  Veldadigheid},  and  the  society 
purchased  a  large  tract  of  barren,  uncultivated 
heath,  which,  with  additions,  now  contains  5100 
acres.  It  is  situated  near  the  center  of  the  king- 
dom, northeast  of  the  Zuyder  Zee,  about  five 
miles  from  the  town  of  Steenwyk. 

With  the  motto,  "  Help  the  people  and  im- 
prove the  land,"  enthusiasm  was  aroused,  and 
in  a  short  time  there  was  enrolled  a  membership 
paying  annually  into  the  treasury  of  the  society 
$22,000.  The  organization  was  in  such  a  pros- 
perous condition,  and  it  was  able  to  do  so  much 
for  its  beneficiaries,  that  it  attracted  the  atten- 
tion of  the  State.  The  proposition  was  soon 
made  that  the  society  take  charge  of  the  wards 
of  the  Government— that  is,  the  beggars,  found- 
lings, and  orphans.  The  conditions  offered 
were  so  favorable  that  the  society  accepted 
them. 

It  seemed  unwise  to  put  those  declared  in- 
capable of  self-support  by  the  side  of  others  able 
to  become  independent.  Consequently  the  or- 
ganization secured  land  and  established  two 
separate  beggar  colonies.  These  were  consid- 
ered by  some  to  encourage  begging,  and  were 
confused  with  the  other  colony,  till  all  three  fell 
into  disrepute,  and  the  society  found  itself  in 
debt. 

A  complete  reorganization  followed.  The 
"beggar"  colonies  became  government  prop- 
erty, and  a  complete  disunion  of  the  beggar  and 
the  free  colonies  took  place. 

The  organization  as  at  present  constituted 
dates  from  September  15,  1859. 

The  underlying  principle  of  the  free  colony  in 
the  revised  scheme  seems  plainly  to  be  to  assist 
the  destitute  in  meeting  his  wants,  and  the 
wants  of  all  who  depend  upon  him,  without  sug- 

festing  a  feeling  of  dependence   and  without 
isturbing  the  family  relations.     The  colony  is 
conducted  on  the  following  plan  : 

When  a  new  family  arrives  a  house  is  provided  and1 
the  immediate  wants  of  the  household  attended  to — 
not  in  the  shape  of  gifts,  but  adyances,  which  must  be 
paid  for  in  instalments  according  to  conditions  pre- 
viously made  known  to  the  newcomer.  He  is  also 
supplied  with  a  sheep  (ewe),  which  can  be  pastured  on 
the  society's  farm  for  a  small  sum.  On  this  he  makes 
weekly  payments.  The  purchaser  is  advised  to  in- 
sure this  animal  in  the  general  funds  of  the  society, 
so  that  in  case  of  death  it  can  be  replaced  with- 
out loss  to  the  owner.  At  the  very  beginning  a  man 
is  invested  with  the  feeling  of  ownership,  and  a  way 
is  provided  by  which,  with  due  economy,  he  may 
meet  his  obligations. 

All  the  wage-earning  members  of  this  newly  ar- 
rived family  are  at  once  put  to  work  on  one  of  the 
society's  farms  or  in  some  of  the  shops  or  factories 
operated  by  it.  Idleness  is  not  tolerated.  The  chil- 
dren must  either  be  learning  a  trade  or  be  at  school. 

Wages,  such  as  are  current  in  the  vicinity  of  the 
colony,  are  paid  weekly,  after  having  deducted  the 
instalment  on  the  debt  incurred  upon  arrival  ;  house 
rent,  not  exceeding  20  cents  ;  i  cent  infirmary  fee  for 
each  person ;  4  cents  for  the  clothing  fund  ;  and  a  re- 
serve for  the  family  emergency  fund,  equivalent  to  i» 
per  cent,  of  the  gross  earnings. 

After  two  years  of  probation,  if  the  head  of  the 
family  has  given  evidence  of  industrious  habits  and  a 
commendable  desire  to  pay  his  debts,  he  is  promoted 


Labor  Colonies. 


783 


Labor  Colonies. 


to  citizenship,  and  is  called  a  "  vrijboer,"  or  "  free 
farmer."  If  there  is  a  place  available  he  is  put  on  it — 
a  farm  of  7.7  acres — apparently  a  small  one,  but  it 
is  so  fertile  that  it  will  readily  support  an  ordinary 
family.  Rents  vary  with  the  condition  of  the  house 
and  the  fertility  of  the  land,  but  the  average  annual 
rent  is  $20.  The  payment  on  his  indebtedness  is  only 
$4  a  year.  In  addition  to  this,  he  must  each  year  put 
on  the  land  $14  worth  of  manure,  but  this  item  is  re- 
mitted in  case  he  owns  a  cow  and  is  duly  saving  of  all 
manure. 

A  man  ordinarily  cannot  remain  in  the  colony  as  a 
laborer  more  than  two  years.  If  he  fails  in  this  time 
to  give  evidence  of  the  possession  of  those  qualities 
demanded  of  a  farmer  he  must  leave.  But  once  ad- 
mitted to  the  farmer  class  he  may  remain  so  during 
good  behavior. 

One  of  the  Government  agricultural  experiment 
stations  is  located  in  the  colony. 

In  addition,  schools  of  agriculture,  of  horticulture, 
and  of  forestry  have  been  erected.  The  society  is  ab- 
solutely free  from  religious  bias.  It  has  within  the 
colony  a  Protestant  and  a  Catholic  church,  and  pro- 
vides for  the  maintenance  of  both. 

In  July,  1895,  there  were  1826  people  in  the  colony. 
They  were  grouped  as  follows  :  Farmers,  199  fami- 
lies ;  laborers  on  probation,  85  families ;  individual 
laborers,  not  belonging  to  the  foregoing,  165  persons. 

The  last  balance  sheet  (1893)  shows  that  the  receipts 
and  expenses  were  as  follows  : 

RECEIPTS. 

From  members $5,418.40 

From  special  gifts  3,931.20 

From  rent  of  land  and  farm  products 3,128.52 

From  forest 615.02 

Profit  on  laborers' and  apprentices' work 733-44 

Total $13,826.58 

EXPENSES. 

Deficit  for  the  preceding  year $745 . 94 

Interest  on  debt 1,381.91 

General  expenses  of  administration 4,790.32 

Religious  services  and  special  instruction.. ..  1,097.32 
Ditching,  road-making,  unproductive  work, 

and  losses  in  the  various  factories 8,092.00 

Advances  to  colonists  over  and  above  re- 
turns   : 538.29 

Total $16,645.78 

That  is  a  deficit  for  the  year  of  $2819.20,  or  $1.54  for 
each  inhabitant,  but  the  estimated  value  of  the  prop- 
erty is  $533,274,  and  the  indebtedness,  $43,380. 

The  "  beggar"  colonies  are  conducted  on  a 
somewhat  different  system,  with  little  perma- 
nency of  inmates. 

There  are  about  2700  persons  in  three  dis- 
tricts. They  are  employed  in  forestry,  agricul- 
ture, and  gardening,  and  have  an  allowance  for 
wages  besides  support. 

BELGIUM. 

The  Belgian  labor  colonies  were  originally 
founded  in  1810.  When  the  independent  king- 
dom of  Belgium  was  constituted  there  existed 
six  provincial  Depots  de  mendicite",  besides  two 
colonies  which  had  been  established  by  the  So- 
cidte'  de  Bienfaisance. 

The  colonies  were  suppressed  in  1841  on  the 
expiry  of  the  contract  between  the  Government 
of  the  Netherlands  and  the  Socidte"  de  Bienfai- 
sance, in  1823,  and  of  the  depots  three  were 
suppressed,  two  were  changed  into  homes  for 
poor  boys  and  for  girls  and  women  ;  one  was 
left  unchanged. 

In  1870,  and  further  in  1881,  the  Belgian 
Government  acquired  the  former  Dutch  Colo- 
nies de  Bienfaisance  of  Merxplas  and  Wortel 
and  reunited  them  under  the  denomination  of 
the  Colonies  agricoles  de  Bienfaisance. 


At  present  these  colonies  occupy  about  2964 
acres. 

The  colony  of  Merxplas  is  by  far  the  largest 
and  most  important  colony  of  the  kind.  It  is 
exclusively  intended  as  a  penal  colony  for  beg- 
gars and  vagrants.  The  men  work  in  gangs  in 
the  fields  under  the  supervision  of  an  officer, 
who  is  accompanied  by  a  soldier  with  loaded 
musket.  The  following  is  a  list  of  the  employ- 
ments of  2853  colonists  : 

Agricultural  laborers 2,000 

Farmyard  workers i37 

Gardeners . .  6r 

Masons,  bricklayers,  etc 189 

Forgemen 121 

Carpenters 139 

Tailors 88 

Painters 24 

Rope-makers 17 

Bakers 2i 

Gas- workers 6 

Other  industries 38 

Kitchen ..  12 

In  addition  to  this  large  body  of  men  who 
work  for  the  colony  under  the  superintendence 
of  the  officials,  about  700  colonists  are  employed 
by  a  private  company  under  contract  with  the 
Government.  These  men  work  under  precisely 
the  same  conditions  as  the  others. 

The  wages  paid  by  this  contracting  company 
are  12,  18,  and  21  centimes  per  day.  Wages  are 
at  present  paid  almost  wholly  by  time,  but  piece- 
work is  being  introduced. 

At  Wortel  there  are  some  1800  persons,  includ- 
ing 38  voluntary  colonists,  who  are  engaged  in 
forestry  and  agriculture  under  less  stringent 
conditions  than  those  under  which  the  forced 
labor  of  Merxplas  is  carried  on. 

It  is  very  questionable  whether  or  not  such 
an  institution  can  be  regarded  as  reformatory 
in  any  real  sense.  The  Belgian  institution 
seems  to  be  simply  punitive. 

GERMANY. 

The  first  German  labor  colony  was  that  of 
Wilhelmsdorf,  near  Bielefeld,  in  Westphalia. 
This  colony  was  founded  by  the  enthusiasm  of 
Pastor  von  Bodelschwingh,  who  has  during  the 
past  15  or  16  years  made  Bielefeld  famous  as  a 
place  for  the  treatment  of  epileptic  and  anemic 
patients,  and  als.o  as  the  scene  of  a  considerable 
experiment  in  the  provision  of  workmen's 
houses.  The  Wilhelmsdorf  colony  was  estab- 
lished in  March,  1882,  and  in  the  succeeding 
year  was  followed  by  Kastorf ,  Rickling,  Fried- 
richswille,  Dornahof,  and  Seyda.  In  1884  five 
colonies  were  founded  ;  in  1885,  two  ;  in  1886, 
four  ;  in  1888,  four  ;  in  1889,  one  ;  in  1891,  two, 
and  in  1892,  two.  The  total  number  of  colonies 
in  1893  was  26,  three  of  these  being  Roman 
Catholic  and  the  remainder  Protestant. 

The  system  is  under  the  control  of  the  Ger- 
man Labor  Colony  Central  Board  (Centralvors- 
tand  deut setter  Arbeiter-Kolonieri),  founded 
in  October,  1883.  The  policy  of  the  board  is- 
thus  described  : 

1.  The  colonies  are  institutions  of  Christian  charity, 
in  which  any  one  who  has  suffered  inward  or  outward 
shipwreck,   or  who  stands  in  danger  of  so  suffering, 
may  be  received  and  raised  again.     Colonists  have  na 
legal  claim  to  the  benefits  of  the  institution. 

2.  All  able-bodied  men  who  are  willing  to  work  are 
admitted  without  distinction  of  character  or   religion 
so  long  as  there  is  room. 


Labor  Colonies. 


784 


Labor  Colonies. 


3.  Dipsomaniacs  are  not  admitted,  or,  if  admitted, 
may  be  expelled. 

4.  The  special  aim  of  the  colonies  is  to  secure  the 
permanent  moral  elevation  of  the  colonists. 

5.  The  house  regulations  of  the  colonies  are  the  same 
throughout. 

6.  Board  and  lodging  must  not  be  in  excess  of  the 
strictest  requirements. 

7.  The  scale  of  pay  (board,  lodging,  and  payment  in 
cash  or  clothes,  etc.)  must  be  lower  than  the  daily 
wage  prevailing  in  the  locality. 

8.  Dismissal  is  the  only  form  of  punishment. 

q.  Colonists  dismissed  for  ill-behavior  shall  not  be 
admitted  into  another  colony  without  the  consent  of 
the  colony  which  discharged  them. 

The  funds  for  the  support  of  the  colonies  are 
obtained  (a)  from  grants  by  the  provincial  gov- 
ernments ;  (b)  from  grants  by  the  municipali- 
ties ;  (c)  from  donations  and  subscriptions  by 
members  of  the  provincial  societies  ;  (d)  from 
collections  in  the  churches  ;  (e)  from  house-to- 
house  collections. 

The  system  is  made  up  of  several  separate  or- 
ganizations working  hand  in  hand.  There  are 
the  Verpflegungs-Stationen,  or  relief  stations  ; 
the  Herbergen  zur  Heimat,  or  workmen's 
lodging-houses  ;  Ar better  Kolomen,  or  labor 
colonies  ;  and  the  Arbeitsnachwets-Anstalten, 
or  labor  bureaus.  There  are,  besides,  the  branch 
colonies,  and  a  further  development  of  labor 
colonies  for  permanent  residence,  and  still  fur- 
ther a  system  of  training  the  superintendents. 

The  total  number  of  persons  who  have  en- 
tered the  colonies  from  the  foundation  of  the 
first  until  June  30,  1893,  was  63,394,  and  the 
total  number  discharged  was  61,334.  The  num- 
ber of  places  in  the  colonies  at  that  time  was 

3044- 

From  the  foundation  of  the  first  colony  until 
March,  1891,  there  were  44,807  intrants  ;  57.7 
per  cent,  of  the  colonists  were  in  the  prime 
of  life — viz. ,  of  25  and  under  45  years  of  age  ; 
while  16.1  per  cent,  were  under  25  years  of  age, 
and  not  more  than  3.2  per  cent,  fairly  entitled 
to  be  regarded  as  aged. 

A  general  regulation  exists  among  the  colo- 
nies to  the  effect  that  prolonged  residence  should 
be  discouraged,  and  in  no  case  should  a  colonist 
be  allowed  to  remain  longer  than  two  years. 
The  object  of  this  regulation  is  to  prevent  the 
colonist  from  acquiring  under  the  German  law 
of  settlement  a  domicile  in  the  colon)',  which 
would  render  the  commune  in  which  the  colony 
is  situated  liable  for  his  maintenance  as  a  pau- 
per, should  he  ultimately  come  upon  the  poor 
roll.  Altho  this  regulation  is  necessarily  ob- 
served in  the  letter,  some  of  the  colonists  are 
nevertheless  practically  permanent  residents. 

Of  2623  who  obtained  situations,  814  returned 
to  the  colonies  ;  and"  of  8564  who  left  at  their 
own  desire,  3117  came  back  within  two  years  of 
their  discharge. 

This  shows  that  the  colonies  have  largely  be- 
come the  resort  of  the  homeless,  62  per  cent,  of 
those  admitted  being  so  described.  Since,  how- 
ever, 76  per  cent,  of  the  colonists  have  been  in 
prison,  there  can  be  little  doubt  that  the  imme- 
diate cause  of  resort  to  the  colonies  of  three 
fourths  of  those  who  go  there  is  inability  to  ob- 
tain employment  owing  to  their  having  been  in 
prison. 

In  1880,  before  the  colonies  were  founded,  the 
number  of  individuals  prosecuted  for  vagabond- 
age in  Germany  was  23,093.  In  1890,  when  the 


colonies  had  been  in  existence  for  eight  years, 
this  number  had  fallen  to  13,583.  This  may  be 
regarded  as  suggesting  that  the  colonies  and 
the  subsidiary  institutions  connected  with  them 
are  dealing  effectively  with  the  problem  of  va- 
grancy and  begging,  but  it  would  be  unsafe  to 
attribute  the  diminution  wholly  to  the  influence 
of  the  colonies. 

Taking  the  figures  for  the  22  colonies  in  1889- 
91,  it  is  found  that  53. 7  per  cent,  of  the  total 
number  had  been  in  the  colonies  only  once,  and 
46.3  per  cent,  more  than  once. 

The  repeated   admissions  into  the   German 
colonies  as  disclosed  by  the  statistics,  together 
with  such  knowledge  as  one  can  obtain  of  the 
types  of  men  that  make  up  the  ranks 
of  the  8000  who  pass  through  colo- 
nies annually,  show  that  the  colo-      Nature. 
nies  are  dealing  with  a  body  of  at 
least  4000  men,  who  are  for  various 
reasons  unable  to  regulate  their  own  lives  on  an 
independent  basis,  or  who  are  unable  to  get  or 
to  keep  employment  under  customary  condi- 
tions.    Altho  the  colonists  are  set  free  to  go 
from  or  to  stay  in  the  colonies,  when  they  elect 
to  stay  they  must  conform  to  the  discipline  im- 
posed upon  them.     There  thus  appears  to  be  a 
certain  class,  amounting  to  one  half  of  the  cases 
dealt  with,  who  are  willing,  or  who  feel  them- 
selves forced,  to  exchange  the  freedom  of  ordi- 
nary industry  without  guarantee  of  subsistence, 
for  the  practical,  tho  mild,  slavery  of  the  colo- 
nies with  guaranty  of  subsistence. 

The  percentage  of  "  discharges  to  situations," 
never  great  since  the  development  of  the  colony 
system  really  began,  has  been  steadily  decreas- 
ing. 

The  question  of  the  influence  of  the  opera- 
tions of  the  labor  colonies  on  the  rate  of  wages 
is  one  to  which  a  positive  answer  is  difficult  to 
give. 

Two  kinds  of  influence  might  be  alleged  :  (i) 
That  they  reduce  the  rate  of  wages  by  the  com- 
petition of  their  products  in  the  outside  market, 
and  by  the  low  minimum  wage  fixed  in  the  colo- 
nies ;  or  (2)  that  they  raise  it  by  drawing  off 
from  the  labor  market  a  number  of  workers 
whose  standard  of  subsistence  is  extremely  low. 

Those  best  qualified  to  judge  of  the  economic 
effects  of  the  German  colonies  are  unanimously 
of  opinion  that  they  have  had  no  influence  upon 
the  rates  of  wages. 

It  is  to  be  observed,  however,  that  the  colo- 
nies do  not  interfere  with  the  labor  market,  be- 
cause they  do  not  deal  with  the  problem  of  the 
want  of  employment  of  the  respectable  work- 
man. It  is  because  the  colonist  is  non-efficient 
that  he  does  not  compete  in  the  labor  market. 

In  nearly  all  of  the  agricultural  colonies  in 
Germany  the  labor  of  the  colonists  is  devoted 
to  the  reclamation  of  land. 

For  the  first  14  days  after  his  arrival  the  colo- 
nist receives  his  maintenance,  but  is  credited 
with  no  wages  in  addition.  Should  he  be  in 
need  of  clothes,  as  he  generally  is,  he  is  supplied 
with  these  on  credit.  After  the  first  fortnight 
the  colonist  is  credited  with  wages  at  the  rate 
of  from  20  pf.  to  30  pf.  (z\d.  to  3i</.)  per  day  in 
addition  to  his  board  and  lodging. 

The  rate  of  wages  is  not  uniform.  Two  of 
the  cattlemen  who  have  been  for  a  considerable 


Labor  Colonies. 


785 


Labor  Colonies. 


time  in  the  colony  have  50  pf.  (6d.)  per  day  ; 
two  others  have  40  pf.  each,  a  few  have  30  pf. 
per  day  ;  the  bulk  have  25  pf.,  a  few  old  colonists 
have  20  pf.,  and  a  very  few  10  pf.  (about  i±d.) 
per  day.  The  rate  is  wholly  at  the  discretion 
of  the  director  of  the  colony.  The  bulk  of  the 
colonists  have  25  pf.  per  day  ;  but  this  applies 
only  to  the  nine  months  during  which  it  is  pos- 
sible to  work  out  of  doors  for  a  full  day. 

The  amount  due  to  the  colonist  as  wages  is  not 
paid  in  cash  until  he  leaves  the  colony,  and  then 
he  receives  an  order  upon  the  Bielefeld  institu- 
tion for  the  money.  But  in  many  cases  the 
colonist  leaves  the  colony  in  debt.  The  cost  of 
his  clothes  and  his  tobacco  has  more  than  swal- 
lowed up  his  surplus  earnings. 

Of  the  104  persons  who  entered  Wilhelmsdorf 
during  the  three  months  ending  March  31, 1893, 
91  had  left  the  colony  on  August  6. 


Marks. 

Pfen- 
nig. 

Of  these  91,  35  left  in  debt 
gate  amount  being  

,  the  aggre- 

(An  average  of   6  marks 
per  head)           

37  pfennig 

Of  these  35,  eight  repaid 
amounting  to  

their  debts, 

On  account  of  these  results  it  was  proposed 
that  those  who  have  been  imprisoned  twice  or 
more  be  placed  in  improvement  colonies  and 
compelled  to  remain  at  least  three  months, 
while  those  willing  to  improve,  but  needing  per- 
manent organization  for  their  labor,  should  be 
sent  to  home  colonies  on  the  Dutch  model.  (See 
above.)  A  home  colony  was  opened  at  Fried- 
richwilhelmsdort  in  1886,  and  has  an  average  of 
about  35  colonists  ;  12  families  have  cottages. 


The  city  of  Paris  established  a  labor  agricul- 
tural colony  at  La  Chalmelle  in  1892,  leased  by 
the  city  to  I' Assistance  Publique,  the  branch 
of  municipal  administration  having  charge  of 
executive  details  of  this  kind,  the  city  paying 
to  I' Assistance  Publique  interest  at  the  rate  of 
3  per  cent,  per  annum  upon  the  capital  em- 
ployed. The  area  of  the  farm  is  316  acres. 

The  total  cost  of  the  colony  for  the  year 
1892-93  was  32,000  frs.,  the  receipts  from  the 
sale  of  produce  were  17,000  frs.,  and  the  net 
cost  of  the  colony  for  the  year  was  15,000  frs. 

Wages  are  paid  at  the  rate  of  50  c.  per  day. 

Clothes  are  supplied  free  on  entrance,  but  sub- 
sequent requirements  are  debited  to  the  colo- 
nists. 

Admission  into  the  colony  is  reserved  for  those 
who  are  recommended  by  the  directors  of  the 
night  refuges  in  Paris.  In  this  respect  the  sys- 
tem resembles  that  adopted  by  the  Salvation 
Army  in  London. 

The  type  of  men  in  this  colony  is  on  the  whole 
superior  to  that  of  the  German  colonies.  Here 
there  are  no  ex-convicts.  The  causes  of  resort 
to  the  colony,  unless  the  authorities  take  too 
lenient  a  view,  are  quite  different  from  those 
which  send  the  German  colonist  to  his  colonies. 
"  Family  misfortune,"  "disgust  with  the  life  of 

5° 


Paris,"  and  similar  causes  are  given.  The  men 
are,  however,  picked,  and  both  in  Paris  and  in 
the  colony  are  the  objects  of  individual  care. 
Theoretically,  at  all  Events,  much  attention  is 
paid  to  individual  needs  and  peculiarities. 

ENGLAND. 

In  England,  the  experiment  of  the  Home 
Colonization  Society,  in  Westmoreland,  is  the 
most  direct  attempt  to  establish  in  England  a 
labor  colony  by  voluntary  effort  on  similar  lines 
to  those  adopted  in  Holland. 

The  object  of  the  society  is  to  provide  work  in 
English  ' '  industrial  villages' '  for  the  able-bodied 
poor. 

The  proposal  was  to  plant  a  body  pf  able- 
bodied  unemployed  men  and  women  in  some 
rural  district  and  hand  over  to  them  some  300 
or  400  acres  to  enable  them  to  supply  their  own 
wants  by  their  own  work.  They  were  to  make 
one  another's  bread,  weave  one  another's 
clothes,  consume  one  another's  produce,  and 
thus  avoid  buying  in  an  outside  market.  A 
home,  food,  education,  and  medicine  were  to  be 
offered  in  return  for  obedient  service.  Part  of 
the  land  was  to  be  put  aside  and  its  produce 
sold  in  the  ordinary  markets  to  defray  the  ex- 
penses of  management.  The  sales  of  surplus 
produce  and  purchases  in  the  open  market  were 
to  be  confined  to  articles  now  imported  into 
England  from  abroad. 

With  these  aims  in  view  four  acres  of  land 
were  purchased  in  April,  1892,  another  acre  in 
the  following  July,  and  126  acres  in  November. 
Operations  were  begun  with  two  colonists,  and 
there  have  been  as  many  as  30.  The  average 
number  has  been  15  persons  who  are  stated  to 
have  been  maintained  at  a  total  cost,  from  the 
commencement  to  May  15,  1893,  of  .£385  gs. 
6</.,  or  about  los.  per  week  each,  exclusive  of 
cases  where  shelter  and  food  have  been  given 
to  tramps  for  work  done.  The  labor  of  the  colo- 
nists has  been  supplemented  by  the  services  of 
one  or  two  skilled  agriculturists. 

The  society  aims  at  the  permanent  settlement 
of  the  colonists  on  the  land  and  not  at  drafting 
them  off  to  ordinary  farms,  but  it  must  neces- 
sarily take  time  for  the  casual  colonist  to  be  re- 
placed by  those  caring  to  stay  permanently. 
Up  to  September,  1893,  52  persons  passed 
through  the  colony,  of  whom  22  are  now  resi- 
dent. 

The  progress  of  the  colony  has  been  seriously 
impeded  by  internal  dissensions  turning  chiefly 
on  the  mode  of  government  of  the  village. 
Some  of  the  first  colonists  appear  not  to  have 
belonged  to  the  ordinary  unemployed  class,  but 
to  have  been  attracted  to  the  colony  by  the  ex- 
pectation of  taking  part  in  a  communal  experi- 
ment. As  a  consequence  of  these  difficulties 
and  misunderstandings,  14  members  were  ex- 
pelled from  the  colony.  (For  an  account  of  the 
farm  colonies  of  the  Salvation  Army,  see  SALVA- 
TION ARMY.  For  various  cooperative  agricul- 
tural experiments,  see  COOPERATION.) 

OTHER   COUNTRIES. 

Switzerland  possesses  one  institution,  the 
Tannenhof  Arbeiterheim,  with  aims  similar  to 
those  of  the  German  labor  colonies.  This  es- 


Labor  Colonies. 


786 


Labor  Exchanges. 


tablishment  or  "workman's  home,"  founded 
April  i,  1889,  covers  about  107  acres,  and  is 
carried  on  by  a  society  registered  as  a  limited 
liability  company,  the  by-laws  of  which  describe 
its  aims  as  follows  : 

"  By  farming  an  estate  to  provide  a  tempo- 
rary home  for  those  in  search  of  work,  as  well 
as  for  unemployed  persons  discharged  from  the 
prisons  of  Berne  ;  board,  lodging,  and  wages 
being  provided  in  return  for  agricultural  labor 
until  permanent  work  be  secured  elsewhere. ' ' 

New  Zealand  has  commenced  experiments  on 
this  line,  the  Government  undertaking  to  pro- 
vide government  farms  of  about  1000  acres  fit 
for  agriculture,  and  on  them  to  organize  coop- 
erative communities.  The  system,  however, 
has  been  too  recently  organized  to  show  re- 
sults. (See  NEW  ZEALAND.)  In  the  United 
States,  no  labor  colonies  of  this  sort  exist.  Those 
that  come  nearest  to  it  are  the  experiments  of 
the  so-called  Detroit  Plan  (g.v. ).  (See  COOPERA- 
TIVE COLONIES.  For  a  discussion  of  labor  colo- 
nies and  for  references,  see  UNEMPLOYMENT.) 

LABOR  DAY  is  a  holiday  in  the  United 
States  for  working  men  on  the  first  Monday  of 
September,  usually  celebrated  by  parades  of 
labor  organizations,  addresses,  picnics,  etc.  It 
was  first  held  in  a  few  States  in  1887,  and  is 
now  a  legal  holiday  in  about  half  the  States. 
In  Europe,  May  i  is  usually  celebrated  as  a 
labor  festival,  and  has  been  taken  advantage  of 
by  socialists  for  gigantic  demonstrations.  In 
some  countries  disturbances  on  this  day  have 
caused  the  governments  to  forbid  its  celebra- 
tion. 

LABOR  EXCHANGE,  THE.  (See  LABOR 
EXCHANGES.) — In  March,  1890,  there  was  organ- 
ized a  labor  exchange,  with  headquarters  at 
Independence,  Mo.  It  is  planned  on  a  system 
invented  by  G.  B.  DeBernardi,  and  described 
in  his  book,  Trials  and  Triumphs  of  Labor. 

The  Exchange  has  an  organ  devoted  to  its 
interests,  published  at  Olathe,  Kan.,  and  known 
as  Progressive  Thought  and  Dawn  of  Equity. 
It  is  edited  by  E.  Z.  Ernst,  who  is  also  general 
organizer  of  the  Exchange.  In  the  beginning 
of  1896  about  80  local  branches  were  claimed, 
mainly  in  the  South  and  West. 

The  essential  features  of  the  scheme  are  these  : 
A  local  exchange  having  been  established  by 
15  or  more  members,  who  pay  $i  each  for  a  life 
membership  and  $2.50  for  a  branch  charter,  a 
warehouse  is  secured  and  placed  in  charge  of 
one  of  the  members.  Unused  products  of  the 
labor  of  the  members  are  then  deposited  in  the 
warehouse  and  certificates  issued  in  exchange 
at  the  wholesale  value  of  the  goods  deposited. 
These  certificates  circulate  among  the  members 
of  the  local  exchange,  and  are  presented  at 
the  warehouse  in  exchange  for  any  needed 
goods  found  therein.  All  goods  that  are  sold 
are  sold  at  the  regular  retail  market  price.  The 
profit  between  wholesale  and  retail  price,  less 
cost  of  handling,  goes  to  the  first  depositor  of 
the  goods. 

If,  instead  of  depositing  goods,  a  member 
wishes  to  give  a  chattel  mortgage  on  market- 
able property  to  remain  in  his  possession,  the 
exchange  will  issue  to  him  certificates  upon 


which  he  will  be  required  to  pay  at  the  rate  of 
2  per  cent,  per  annum,  with  no  foreclosure  so 
long  as  he  keeps  up  the  interest. 

The  circulation  of  certificates  is  insured 
among  the  members  by  the  agreement  they 
make  on  entering  the  exchange.  Being  ex- 
changeable for  products  of  commercial  value  at 
the  regular  prices  current  in  the  community 
and  representing  actual  goods,  they  will  be  ac- 
cepted, it  is  reasoned,  in  the  same  way  that  or- 
dinary business  checks  pass  current.  The  cer- 
tificate has  the  indorsement  of  the  person  to 
whom  it  is  first  issued,  making  him  personally 
responsible. 

It  is  not  believed  that  the  certificates  will  be 
counterfeited,  since  the  penalty  is  the  same  as 
for  counterfeiting  any  business  paper,  and  since 
no  two  will  be  alike  in  name  or  amount.  A  fur- 
ther protection  is  in  the  fact  that  they  have  only 
a  local  circulation.  The  back  of  the  certificate 
reads  as  follows  : 

' '  This  certificate  of  deposit  is  not  redeemable 
in  legal  tender,  but  receivable  by  the  Labor  Ex- 
change Association  in  payment  for  merchandise, 
for  all  services,  and  for  all  debts  and  dues  to 
the  same,  and  it  is  based  upon  and  secured  by 
the  real  and  personal  property  in  the  keeping 
of  the  Association. 

"  The  property  held  for  the  redemption  of 
this  certificate  cannot,  as  per  charter,  be  mort- 
gaged nor  pledged  for  debts,  nor  can  it  be  with- 
drawn, but  may  be  exchanged  by  the  Associa- 
tion for  other  property  of  equal  value." 

LABOR  EXCHANGES.  (See  LABOR  EX- 
CHANGE, THE.) — Labor  exchanges  are  being  es- 
tablished by  the  governments  (municipal  or 
State)  of  some  countries,  and  particularly  of 
France  and  Italy.  The  demand  in  France  for 
a  labor  exchange  (Bourse  de  Travail},  hinted 
at  by  M.  de  Malmain  in  1846  and  developed  in 
the  Revolution  of  1848,  led  under  the  Third 
Empire  to  the  opening  of  a  general  registry  for 
workmen.  This,  however,  they  did  not  patron- 
ize, and  it  came  to  nothing.  In  1887,  however,  the 
Paris  Bourse  de  Travail  was  founded  and 
was  given  an  annual  subsidy  of  150,000  francs, 
and  an  old  building  in  the  Rue  Jean  Jacques 
Rousseau.  In  1892  a  fine  new  building  was 
provided  in  the  Rue  Chateau  d'Eau,  at  a  cost  of 
3,000,000  francs.  Lit  by  electricity,  heated  and 
commodious,  it  became  the  headquarters  of  over 
200  unions,  but  was  finally  closed  by  the  Gov- 
ernment in  1894,  owing  to  its  having  become  a 
headquarters  for  socialism.  In  different  parts 
of  France  these  labor  exchanges  are  reported  to 
have  been  established.  (See  UNEMPLOYMENT.) 

Italy  has  done  as  much. 

"The  agitation,"  writes  Sir  Dominic  Colnaghi  in  his 
report  upon  Italy  for  1893,  "  which  began  nearly  four 
years  ago,  in  favor  of  the  establishment  of  labor 
chambers  or  exchanges  in  Italy,  has  been  so  far  suc- 
cessful that  chambers  have  been  provided  at  Milan, 
Turin,  Piacenza,  Micerata,  Venice,  and  Bologna ; 
while  at  Rome,  Genoa,  Florence,  Verona,  Brescia, 
Pavia.  Spezia,  and  Como  active  steps  are  being  taken 
toward  their  organization,  with,  however,  varying 
success.  In  other  centers,  also,  preparatory  commit- 
tees are  stated  to  have  been  formed  to  study  and  pro- 
mote the  same  object"  The  report  of  the  Central 
Committee  of  the  Partita  dei  Lavoratori  to  the  Zurich 
International  Congress  mentions  further  that  labor 
chambers  have  been  started  at  Parma,  Cremona,  and 
Padua,  while  efforts  are  being  made  to  found  others 
at  Naples  and  at  Bergamo. 


Labor  Exchanges. 


787 


Lamennais,  Abbe  de. 


The  chambers  aim  at— 

1.  The  organization  of  the  working  classes  in  sec- 
tions according  to  their  different  trades, 

2.  The  promotion  of  the  technical  and  general  edu- 
cation of  the  operatives. 

3.  The  formation  of  committees  of  arbitration  for 
the  settlement  of  disputes  between  employers  and  em- 
ployed. 

They  also  act  as  labor  registries,  and  procure  work 
for  the  unemployed.  At  present  they  confine  them- 
selves to  industrial  functions,  and  do  not  concern 
themselves  with  political  questions.  "  But  if,  with  the 
advance  of  the  labor  movement,  greater  power  should 
be  thrown  into  their  hands,  it  may  become  doubtful 
how  long  this  position  of  political  neutrality  will,  or 
perhaps  can,  be  maintained."  Indeed,  the  program 
of  the  Partita  dei  Lavoratori  shows  that  they  are  al- 
ready beginning  to  desire  political  power. 

The  labor  chamber  of  Milan  is  by  far  the  most  im- 
portant of  those  already  established.  In  March  and 
April,  1890,  the  various  working  men's  associations  of 
Milan  discussed  and  approved  the  statutes  of  a  pro- 
posed labor  exchange,  to  be  composed  of  all  the 
Milanese  societies  that  gave  in  their  adhesion,  formed 
in  separate  sections  of  crafts  and  trades.  The  matter 
was  referred  to  a  committee,  and,  among  other  points, 
the  question  was  discussed  whether  it  would  be  ad- 
visable for  the  Municipal  Council  of  Milan  to  encour- 
age the  foundation  of  a  labor  exchange  in  the  city. 
The  committee  viewed  the  establishment  of  the  ex- 
change with  favor.  On  their  proposal  the  municipal- 
ity granted  a  subsidy  of  15,000  lire,  to  be  voted  an- 
nually, and  placed  at  the  disposal  of  the  exchange  a 
wing  of  the  castle,  containing  about  80  rooms  and  a 
large  hall. 

The  proposed  labor  chamber  was  actually  started 
at  Milan  toward  the  end  of  September,  1891. 

LABOR  LEGISLATION.-(For  a  discus- 
sion of  the  principles  involved,  and  for  an  out- 
line of  English  labor  legislation,  see  FACTORY 
LAWS,  as  such  legislation  is  usually  termed  in 
England  ;  for  special  departments  of  labor  leg- 
islation, see  CONSPIRACY  LAWS  ;  SHORT-HOUR 
MOVEMENT  ;  STRIKES,  etc.)  We  consider  here 
in  brief  labor  legislation  in  the  United  States. 
It  seems  to  have  begun  in  Massachusetts,  when, 
in  1836,  a  bill  was  passed  regulating  the  educa- 
tion of  youths  in  factories.  Agitation  for  short- 
hour  legislation  had  preceded,  but  no  general 
legislation  was  enacted  in  Massachusetts  till 
1874  (see  SHORT-HOUR  MOVEMENT),  tho  in  1842, 
due  to  the  efforts  of  Horace  Mann  (q.v.\  the 
hours  of  children  under  12  were  limited  to  10. 
In  1866  commenced  the  agitation  in  Massachu- 
setts for  a  Labor  Bureau  (q.v}.  Other  States 
have  slowly  followed.  Mr.  Carroll  D.  Wright 
(Industrial  Evolution  of  the  United  States, 
pp.  291,  292)  says  : 

"  Looking  broadly  now  to  the  labor  legislation  as  it 
has  occurred  in  this  country,  it  may  be  well  to  sum  up 
its  general  features.  Such  legislation  has  fixed  the 
hours  of  labor  for  women  and  certain  minors  in  manu- 
facturing establishments  ;  it  has  adj  usted  the  contracts 
of  labor  ;  it  has  protected  employees  by  insisting  that 
all  dangerous  machinery,  hoist  ways,  etc.,  shall  be 
guarded  ;  it  has  prescribed  that  fire-escapes  in  facto- 
ries and  tenement-houses  shall  be  erected  ;  it  has  pro- 
hibited unsafe  elevators  ;  it  has  created  boards  of  fac- 
tory inspectors,  whose  powers  and  duties  have  added 
much  to  the  health  and  safety  of  operatives ;  it  has  in 
many  instances  provided  for  weekly  payments,  not  onl  y 
by  municipalities,  but  by  corporations  ;  it  has  guard- 
ed the  health  of  women  employed  in  manufacturing, 
mechanical,  and  mercantile  establishments  by  requir- 
ing seats  for  their  use  ;  it  has  regulated  the  employ- 
ment of  prisoners  ;  protected  the  employment  of  chil- 
dren ;  exempted  the  wages  of  wife  and  minor  children 
from  attachment ;  established  bureaus  of  statistics 
of  labor ;  provided  for  the  ventilation  of  factories 
and  workshops ;  established  industrial  schools  and 
evening  schools ;  provided  special  transportation  by 
railroads  for  working  men  ;  modified  the  common-law 
rules  relative  to  the  liability  of  employers  for  injuries 
to  their  employees ;  fixed  the  compensation  of  rail- 


road corporations  for  negligently  causing  the  death 
of  employees,  and  has  provided  for  their  protection 
against  accident  and  death.  Under  it  factory  doors 
cannot  be  locked  during  working  hours  ;  it  has  estab- 
lished boards  of  arbitration  :  it  has  regulated,  with 
more  or  less  success,  the  pernicious  custom  of  truck 
stores,  and  it  has  prohibited  the  employment  of  women 
and  minors  in  manufacturing  establishments  between 
the  hours  of  ten  o'clock  at  night  and  six  o'clock  in  the 
morning.  All  these  provisions  are  not  found  in  the 
statutes  of  all  the  States,  but  they  are  so  general  as  to 
entitle  them  to  be  considered  in  the  body  of  labor  legis- 
lation." 

References  :  See  Appendix. 

LAFARGUE,  PAUL,  was  born  at  Santiago, 
Cuba,  in  1842.  Studying  medicine  in  Paris,  he 
took  part  in  the  Commune  of  1871,  and  then  fled 
to'  Spain  and  England,  where  he  married  a 
daughter  of  Karl  Marx.  In  1880,  with  Guesde 
(^.z/.),  he  organized  Marxist  socialism  in  France, 
since  which  date  Socialism  of  this  type  has 
steadily  grown  in  France.  (See  FRANCE  AND 
SOCIAL  REFORM.)  Lafargue  was  imprisoned  in 
1883  and  again  in  1891,  but  was  liberated  on 
being  elected  to  the  Assembly  from  Lille,  tho 
in  the  next  election  defeated.  He  has  written 
Le  materialisms  tconomique  de  Karl  Marx 
(1884)  ;  Le  Droit  a  la  Paresse  (1887)  ;  The 
Evolution  of  Property  (1891)  ;  Le  Socialisme 
utopique  (1892). 

LAMENNAIS,^  HUGUES  FELICITE 
ROBERT,  ABBE  DE,  was  born  in  1782  at 
St.  Malo,  France,  the  son  of  a  ship-builder.  At 
first  skeptical,  the  materialism  of  France  drove 
him  to  the  Church,  and  he  received  the  tonsure 
in  1 8 1 1  and  the  priesthood  in  1 8 1 7.  He  became  a 
teacher  at  St.  Malo.  Supporting  monarchy,  he 
attacked  Napoleon,  and  was  compelled  to  flee  to 
England.  Returning  to  France,  he  published 
his  Essai sur  I' Indifference  en  Matiere  defieh- 
rzb«,4vols.,  1817-20,  and  other  works.  In  1830 he 
founded  the  journal  L' Aventr,  with  the  motto, 
4 '  God  and  liberty,  the  Pope  and  the  people. ' ' 
He  had  many  disciples,  among  them  Lacordaire 
and  Montalembert.  Denounced  at  Rome,  in 
1831  he  went  to  Rome  and  waited  seven  months 
in  vain  for  an  audience  with  the  Pope.  His 
faith  shaken  by  what  he  saw,  he  hovered  be- 
tween Romanism  and  democracy.  On  August 
15,  1832,  a  papal  encyclical  indirectly  condemned 
L'Avenir,  and  drove  Lamennais  from  the 
Church.  After  living  for  a  while  in  silence,  he 
startled  the  world  in  1834  by  his  burning  Les 
paroles  d'un  croyant  (The  Words  of  a  Believer). 
In  this  he  declares  Christianity  to  be  love  and 
service,  and  the  French  Church  to  be  opposed  to 
this.  The  Pope  condemned  this,  and  Lamen- 
nais answered  in  his  Affairs  de  Rome  (1836). 
In  his  Le  Livre  du  Peuple  (1837)  ;  Esquisse 
d'une  Philosophie  (3  vols  ,  1841-43)  ;  De  la  Re- 
ligion (1841)  ;  Du  Passe"  et  de  /' ' Avenir  du 
Peuple  (1842),  he  appeared  as  "  the  prophet  of 
democracy,"  and  of  the  alliance  of  Christianity 
and  socialism.  In  1839  he  published  a  pamph- 
let, for  which  he  was  imprisoned  12  months.  In 
1848  he  was  elected  to  the  Constituent  Assem- 
bly, but  after  the  coup  d'etat  he  withdrew  from 
public  life  and  died  in  1854,  rejecting  to  the  last 
all  overtures  of  the  Church,  and  was  buried,  in 
accordance  with  his  will,  in  a  nameless  grave  at 
Pere  la  Chaise.  His  passionate  belief  was  that 
religion  is  the  root  of  all  true  progress  in  all  as- 


Lamennais,  Abbe  de. 


788 


Land. 


pects  of  life — in  manners,  politics,  art,  science, 
philosophy.  He,  like  Mazzini,  laid  emphasis 
upon  duties  rather  than  rights.  He  asks  why 
it  is  that  the  people  have  not  conquered  their 
rights  and  held  them  fast,  seeing  that  the  privi- 
leged classes  are  so  inferior  in  numbers  ;  and 
the  reason  he  assigns  is  that  while  the  people 
have  in  their  hands  that  which  overthrows,  they 
have  not  had  in  their  hearts  that  which  builds 
up.  He  believes  in  violence  no  more  than  Tol- 
stoi. "  Do  good,"  he  writes,  "  by  good  means. 
Do  not  confound  the  strength  wielded  by  jus- 
tice and  charity  with  the  brute  force  of  ferocity 
and  violence.  When  fraternity  shall  be  in  the 
hearts  of  the  people,  it  will  not  be  long  before  it 
finds  its  way  into  their  laws." 

LAND. — We  consider  in  this  article  the  land 
problem  as  it  presents  itself  to-day  in  civilized 
countries,  considering  (i)  the  development  of 
moder  forms  of  land  tenure  out  of  the  past ; 
(2)  the  actual  facts  of  the  ownership  of  the  soil 
to-day  ;  (3)  the  results  of  these  conditions  on 
social  life,  industrial,  political,  and  moral  ;  (4) 
the  question  of  how  far  land  reform  can  be  con- 
ducted without  radical  change  in  existing  sys- 
tems of  land  ownership  ;  (5)  the  various  propo- 
sitions for  radical  change.  (For  fuller  consid- 
eration of  subsidiary  points  in  the  history  of  the 
past  and  the  facts  of  the  present,  see  PRIMITIVE 
PROPERTY  ;  MARK  ;  MANOR  ;  MIR  ;  COMMUNISM  ; 
FEUDALISM  ;  MIDDLE  AGES  ;  METAYER  ;  AGRICUL- 
TURE ;  FARMERS'  MOVEMENT  ;  SLUMS  ;  TENE- 
MENTS ;  MORTGAGES  ;  WEALTH.  For  a  discus- 
sion of  the  economic  principles  entering  into  the 
land  question,  see  RENT  ;  WAGES.  For  fuller 
development  of  the  various  proposals  for  reform 
on  the  land  questions,  see  ANARCHISM  ;  COM- 
MUNISM ;  COOPERATIVE  FARMING  ;  LABOR  COL- 
ONIES ;  SINGLE  TAX  ;  SOCIALISM.) 

I.  THE  DEVELOPMENT  OF   MODERN  CONDITIONS. 

Land  at  the  beginning  of  human  history  was 
wholly  unappropriated.     It  was  owned  neither 
individually  nor  communally  ;  it  was  not  owned 
at  all.     Men  roamed  over  its  surface  obtaining 
a  precarious  living  from  berries,  nuts  and  roots, 
hunting  and  fishing.     Each  man  helped  himself 
to  what  he  would  and  what  he  could.     The 
world  was  a  No  Man's  Land.    But  the  preserva- 
tion of  life  compelled  the  weak  to  seek  protec- 
tion by  placing  themselves  under  some  strong 
leader.     Leaders  were  glad  to  protect  those  who 
would  slave  for  them  ;  the  rearing  of  the  young 
compelled  some  sort  of  a  more  or  less  perma- 
nent habitation  and  defense  from  attack  of  man 
and  of  beast.     Consciousness  of  kin  and  of  kind 
drew  men  together  ;  struggle  to  live  led  men  to 
hunt  in  bands,  and  later  to  till  the  soil  ;  gradu- 
ally property  arose.     Then  land  became  appro- 
priated, but  under  what  forms  is  a  matter  of  de- 
bate.    One  school  of  thought— led 
notably    by   Laveleye    (g.v.*)— has 
Primitive    found  in  the  forms  of  modern  savage 
Property,    life,  in  the  remnants  and  traditions 
of  the  Russian  mir,  the  Javan  dessa, 
the  Indian  communal  village,  the 
Slavic  communal  families,  the  German  mark, 
the   Swiss   allmend,  the   English   manor,  the 
Greek  and  Roman  public  feasts,  the  family  com- 


munities of  various  out  of  the-way  sections  of 
Western  Europe,  evidence  of  a  primitive  com- 
munal holding  of  land,  where  little  groups  of 
men  and  women,  perhaps  patriarchal  families, 
appropriated  land  collectively  and  tilled  it  for 
the  common  good.  This  view  has  been  sharply 
criticised,  notably  by  Fuste  de  Coulanges  (g.v.). 
It  is  argued  that  the  evidence  does  not  prove  a 
primitive  communism,  but  rather  a  primitive 
slavery,  land  being  held,  perhaps  by  tribes,  but 
not  by  communal  tribes  ;  rather  by  despots, 
tyrants,  bullies,  who,  with  the  aid  of  their  min- 
ions, would  seize  and  defend  and  till  certain  por- 
tions of  the  soil.  Perhaps  the  true  view  is  mid- 
way between  these  two  extremes.  The  horde  or 
the  patriarchal  family  (g.v.)  was  undoubtedly 
the  first  unit  that  owned  land  ;  but  this  was 
probably  anything  but  a  democratic  unit  or  a 
communal  colony.  Slave  labor,  the  wife  or 
wives  perhaps  being  the  first  slaves,  undoubt- 
edly first  tilled  the  soil  in  large  and  permanent 
ways.  Babylon,  Egypt,  Persia,  rested  on  slave 
labor,  toiling  for  lords  of  the  soil,  who  in  turn 
followed  despotic  kings  defended  by  slave 
armies.  Out  of  this  condition  in  Japan,  China, 
and  through  Asia  generally,  a  serfdom  gradu- 
ally developed,  following  in  a  rude  way  the  feu- 
dal forms  we  best  study  in  Europe.  Japan 
(g.v.)  has  only  very  recently  thrown  off  feudal- 
ism. Outside  of  civilized  countries  the  land  is 
yet  held  to-day  by  savage  tribes,  by  feudal  lords 
or  by  men  under  despots,  as  in  Mohammedan 
countries,  despised  and  tyrannized  cultivators 
of  the  soil. 

It  is  in  Greece  and  Rome  that  we  find  the  real 
beginnings  of  individual  ownership  of  land.  In 
Greece,  the  city-State  was  supreme.  It  con- 
quered the  land  and  parceled  out  the  territory 
among  the  free  citizens,  the  assignments  being 
tilled  by  slaves.  Mines  and  some  lands  were 
held  by  the  State,  however,  and  worked  for  the 
State  by  slaves.  Rome  began  in  the  same  way. 
Two  jug-era  di  acres)  were  originally  assigned 
to  each  "household.  Households  were  combined 
in  gentes  and  the  gentes  in  the  State.  The 
State,  however,  held  some  land,  and  perhaps 
rented  some  of  it. 

Cicero  (De  Rep.,  ii.,  XIV.)  says  that  Numa 
was  the  first  who  divided  the  conquered  lands 
into  private  shares,  but  it  is  certain  that  the  ex- 
ample was  only  partially  followed.  But  by  the 
time  of  Servius  Tullius  the  original  private  por- 
tion of  many  households  must  have  been  great- 
ly but  unequally  enlarged,  for  his  new  military 
organization  was  based  on  the  obligation  of  ser- 
vice imposed  on  the  freeholders  (assidui}  as  dis- 
tinguished from  the  mere  laborers  and  breeders 
of  children  (proletarti). 

Class  distinctions  based  on  land  ownership 
thus  early  began.  The  wealthy  had  their  lands 
tilled  by  slaves.  The  poor  land-owners,  unable 
to  sustain  themselves,  hired  themselves  as  labor- 
ers or  sold  themselves  or  their  children  into 
slavery.  The  taxes  were  farmed  -out,  and  the 
system  admitted  of  great  extortion.  Finally 
the  poorer  citizens  rebelled  ;  they  assembled  on 
the  Mons  Sacer  and  threatened  Rome.  It  was 
the  commencement  of  the  long  struggle  over 
agrarian  laws. 

The  object  of  these  laws  is  well  illustrated 
in  the  Lieinian  law  (387  A.U.C.).  It  enacted  that 


Land. 


789 


Land, 


no  citizen  should  hold  more  than  500  jug  era  of 
the  public  lands  ;  that  no  one  should  graze  more 
than  100  oxen  and  500  sheep  on  the  common 
lands  ;  and  that  every  land-owner  should  be 
obliged  to  employ  a  number  of  free  laborers  pro- 
portioned to  that  of  his  slaves. 

Such  laws  pacified  the  people  for  the  time, 
but  had  little  permanent  effect. 

Successful  wars  gave  a  temporary  outlet  to 
labor  in  the  formation  of  agricultural  colonies, 
but  at  the  same  time  immensely  increased  the 
number  of  slaves,  who  were  treated  as  mere 
beasts  of  toil,  to  be  worked  out  or  sold  off  when 
no  longer  profitable. 

Great  estates  tilled  by  slaves  grew.  The  Grac- 
chi demanded  a  distribution  of  the  State  lands 
among  the  people,  but  the  demand  was  stifled  in 
blood.  Later,  Julius  Ca5sar  to  an  extent  yielded  ; 
but  it  was  too  late.  Great  estates 
created  an  aristocracy.  The  aris- 
Rome.  tocracy  culminated  in  imperialism. 
The  Roman  Empire  grew  corrupt 
with  a  few  great  owners  of  the  soil 
in  power  and  luxury,  and  the  mass  of  the  peo- 
ple enslaved  and  poor.  Pliny's  famous  utter- 
ance sums  it  up  :  "  Latifundia  perdtdere  It  a- 
liam  "  (Natural History,  18.  6.  7.  §  35.  "  Great 
estates  overthrew  Italy").  Then  the  Goth  came. 
The  exact  connection  between  the  Roman 
system  and  feudalism  is  not  fully  clear.  The 
origins  of  feudalism  itself  are  disputed  (see  FEU- 
DALISM) ;  but  the  great  Roman  villas,  tilled  by 
poor  freedmen  dependent  on  their  lords,  as  well 
as  by  slaves,  undoubtedly  contributed  at  least 
somewhat  to  feudalism.  Gradually  under  feu- 
dalism, and  partly  due  to  the  Christian  Church, 
(see  CHRISTIANITY  AND  SOCIAL  REFORM)  chattel 
slavery  disappeared  in  Europe,  but  the  slaves 
and  poor  freedmen  became  serfs  of  the  soil, 
entitled  to  some  rights,  but  tied  to  the  villa  or 
manor,  and  compelled  to  render  service  to  the 
lord  of  the  soil.  The  mark(q.v.)ha,d.  been  pre- 
viously the  typical  organization  in  German  land 
tenure.  It  is  disputed  just  how  it  was  organ- 
ized, but  it  was  probably  in  general  a  tribal  or- 
ganization under  its  most  democratic  form. 
Cicero  says  (De  Bell.  Gall.,  vi.,)  of  the  Ger- 
mans of  his  time  : 

"  They  are  not  much  given  to  agriculture,  but  live 
chiefly  on  milk,  cheese,  and  flesh.  No  one  has  a  fixed 
quantity  of  land  or  boundaries  of  his  property,  but  the 
magistrates  and  chiefs  every  year  assign  to  the  com- 
munities and  families  who  live  together  as  much  land 
and  in  such  spots  as  they  think  suitable,  and  require 
them  in  the  following  year  to  remove  to  another  allot- 
ment. Many  reasons  for  this  custom  are  suggested  : 
one  is  that  they  should  not  be  led  by  permanence  of 
residence  to  renounce  the  pursuits  of  war  for  agricul- 
ture, another  that  the  desire  of  extensive  possession 
should  not  induce  the  more  powerful  to  seize  the  land 
of  the  weaker,  another  that  they  should  not  construct 
their  houses  with  greater  care  to  keep  out  heat  and 
cold,  another  that  the  love  of  money  should  not  create 
parties  and  disputes,  and  lastly  that  the  mass  of  the 
people  might  remain  contented  with  the  justice  of  an 
arrangement  under  which  every  one  saw  his  position 
as  comfortable  as  that  of  the  most  powerful.  As  to 
the  tribes  themselves,  their  chief  glory  is  to  have  their 
territory  surrounded  with  as  wide  a  belt  as  possible  of 
desolated  waste.  They,  deem  it  not  only  a  special  mark 
of  valor  that  every  neighboring  tribe  should  be 
driven  to  a  distance,  and  no  stranger  should  dare  to 
reside  in  their  vicinity,  but  at  the  same  time  they  view 
it  as  a  measure  of  precaution  against  the  risk  of  sudden 
attacks." 

Tacitus  describes  it  later  in  the  same  general 
way.    Perhaps  out  of  this  organization,  blending 


with  the  Roman  system,  came  feudalism.  As 
the  Carlovingian  Empire  arose  and  then  dis- 
solved, the  various  kings  would  assign  different 
portions  of  their  kingdom  to  the  great  barons  to 
rule  over  and  defend.  They  would  similarly 
subdivide  their  territories,  and  this  would  pro- 
duce feudalism.  The  system  seems  to  have 
first  arisen  in  Germany  ;  but  in  England  it  is 
best  studied,  particularly  in  tracing  its  develop- 
ment into  modern  conditions,  because  in  Ger- 
many various  systems,  as  we  shall  see,  existed 
side  by  side,  while  in  England  the  develop- 
ment is  clearer. 

Alfred  Russel  Wallace  (Land  Nationaliza- 
tion, pp.  22-25)  nas  summed  up  in  a  few  lines 
the  essence  ot  feudalism  as  far  as  land  tenure  is 
concerned,  and  its  development  into  modern 
English  landlordism.  He  says  : 

"The  actual  system  of  land  tenure  and  all  existing 
rights  of  property  in  land  of  this  country  may  be  said 
to  have  originated  at  the  Norman  Conquest,  when  the 
whole  land  of  the  kingdom  became  vest- 
ed in  the  crown.    All  the  great  landed 
estates  were  then   granted   as   fiefs   by    Feudalism. 
the  sovereign,  and   their  holders  were 
obliged  to  render  military  and  other  ser- 
vice proportionate  to  the  extent  and  population  of  their 
lands.     These    estates  were  also  subject  to  various 
fines,  on  marriage  or  on  transmission  to  an  heir  ;  they 
were  not  allowed  to  be  sold  or  alienated  without  the 
permission  of  the  sovereign ;  and  on  the  death  of  the 
owner  without  heirs  the  whole  reverted  to  the  crown. 
Any  breach  of  fealty  or  the  commission  of  any  act  of 
felony  also  entailed  the  loss  of  the  estate.    The  great 
vassals  were  usually  endowed  with  civil  and  criminal 
jurisdiction  over  the  inhabitants  of  their  estates,  and 
were  altogether  more  in  the  position  of  subordinate 
rulers  than  mere  landlords  in  the  modern  sense  of  the 
term. 

"These  immediate  vassals  of  the  crown  again 
granted  lands  in  fief,  on  various  payments  or  services, 
and  in  process  of  time  these  fiefs  were  allowed  to  be 
divided  or  sold,  and  the  payment  or  service  to  be  com- 
muted for  fixed  sums  of  money.  .  .  . 

•  "The  '  lords  of  the  soil'  were  the  chiefs  and  protect- 
ors of  the  community  •which  lived  on  their  estates, 
while  every  individual,  down  to  the  villein  and  serf, 
possessed  definite  rights  and  privileges  in  connection 
with  the  land,  which,  tho  they  might  be  infringed  by 
force  or  rapine,  were  fully  recognized  by  custom  and 
law. 

"  But  as  time  rolled  on  this  system  became  modified 
in  a  variety  of  ways,  tho  always  for  the  benefit  of  the 
lord  and  to  the  injury  of  the  inferior  landholder.  As 
the  king  obtained  more  power  and  the  attractions  of 
court  life  became  greater,  the  nobles  and  great  land- 
owners came  to  look  upon  their  estates  chiefly  as 
sources  of  revenue  to  be  spent  in  the  capital  or  in 
foreign  lands.  The  employment  of  foreign  merce- 
naries and  the  rise  of  standing  armies  enabled  the  king 
to  dispense  with  the  military  service  of  his  vassals,  and 
by  self-made  laws  this  and  other  burdens  on  the  land 
were  gradually  thrown  off,  and  were  replaced  to  a 
great  extent  by  taxes  on  the  mercantile  and  landless- 
classes.  The  ingenuity  of  lawyers  and  direct  land- 
lord legislation  steadily  increased  the  powers  of  great 
landowners  and  encroached  upon  the  rights  of  the 
people,  till  at  length  the  monstrous  doctrine  arose  that 
a  landless  Englishman  has  no  right  whatever  to  the 
enjoyment  even  of  the  unenclosed  commonsand  heaths 
and  the  mountain  and  forest  wastes  of  his  native 
country,  but  is  everywhere,  in  the  eye  of  the  law,  a 
trespasser  whenever  he  ventures  off  a  public  road  or 
pathwav.  The  lord  of  the  manor  is  said  to  be  the 
'  owner  Bf  the  soil,'  and  the  surrounding  freeholders 
and  copyholders  have  certain  rights  of  pasture,  fern 
or  turf  cutting  ;  but  the  dwellers  in  the  adjacent  towns 
and  villages,  and  all  who  are  mere  Englishmen,  have 
no  rights  whatever,  so  that  if  the  two  former  classes 
agree,  the  common  can  be  (as  hundreds  of  commons 
have  been)  enclosed,  and  divided  among  them.  It  has 
thus  come  to  pass  that  at  the  present  day  the  owners 
of  land,  whether  acquired  by  inheritance  or  purchase, 
treat  it  solely  as  so  much  property  to  be  made  the  most 
of,  quite  irrespective  of  any  rights  in  the  people 
who  live  upon  it.  They  now  claim  a  power  which 
no  government,  however  despotic,  has  ever  openly 
claimed— that  of  treating  the  land  exclusively  as  a 


Land. 


790 


Land. 


source  of  personal  wealth,  to  which  they  have  an  in- 
defeasible right,  even  at  the  sacrifice  of  all  that  the 
people  who  live  upon  the  land  hold  most  dear." 

This,  however,  is  too  general  to  show  all  the 
injustice  of  the  process. 

Mr.  S.  W.  Thackeray,  in  his  The  Land  and 
the  Community,  brings  this  out  more  clearly  by 
tracing  the  legal  development.  He  says  : 

"Let  us  suppose  ourselves,  then,  living  in  the  time  of 
one  of  our  Norman  kings,  when  the  feudal  system  has 
been  established  and  the  land  has  been  parceled  out 
in  great  estates  to  tenants  in  capite  holding  their  fiefs 
directly  from  the  king.  The  first  thing  which  such  a 
tenant  does  on  taking  possession  of  his  fee,  is  to  divide 
or  cut  up  his  estate  into  portions,  each  one  embracing 
a  considerable  area,  and  including,  perhaps,  many 
separate  villages  and  townships,  and  these  he  sub- 
infeudates,  as  it  was  called,  to  his  followers  on  similar 
conditions  of  tenure  and  service  to  those  he  is  himself 
under  obligation  to  the  king.  Such  a  portion  of  an 
estate  became  known  as  a  '  manor,'  and  the  owner  was 
styled  'lord  of  the  manor.'  ....  What  kind  of  sys- 
tem, we  may  ask,  then,  did  the  lord  of  the  manor  find 
in  vogue  among  the  people  who  became  his  depen- 
dents, and  who  formed  one  of  these  village  communi- 
ties ?  It  has  been  thus  described  : 

"The  'mark'  or  territory  occupied  by  the  commu- 
nity was  divided  into  the  following  parts : 

"  i.  The  township,  where  were  the  houses  held  by 
heads  of  families  in  severally. 

"  2.  The  arable  land  divided  into  several  plots,  but 
subject  to  regulations  as  to  common  cultivation — the 
most  usual  of  which  is  the  three-field  system  ;  the  land 
was  to  lie  fallow  every  third  year,  and  the  whole  com- 
munity had  rights  of  pasturage  on  the  fallow  portion, 
and  on  the  stubble  of  the  fields  under  crop  at  certain 
portions  of  the  year  between  harvest  and  the  follow- 
ing seed-time. 

"3.  The  meadow-land,  which  in  like  manner  was 
common  for  a  period  after  the  hay  harvest,  and  was 
afterward  fenced  off  in  separate  allotments  for  the 
new  crop. 

"  4.  The  common  or  waste  land  not  appropriated  for 
•cultivation,  and  over  which  every  member  of  the  com- 
munity had  rights  of  pasturage,  wood-cutting,  etc. 

"On  some  such  system  as  thus  described  the  lord  of 
the  manor  engrafted  his  new  arrangements.  Out  of 
the  lands  which  had  been  granted  to  him,  the  lord 
would  grant  certain  portions  to  free  tenants  on  con- 
dition of  certain  rents  and  services,  and  these  are  call- 
ed ^^freeholders  of  the  manor.  The  lord's  own  por- 
tion would  be  cultivated  by  villeins  or  serfs  attached 
to  the  soil,  and  these  ultimately  developed  into  the  im- 
portant class  of  copyholders.  There  would  remain  in 
addition  the  uncultivated  and  unappropriated  land, 
over  which  the  freeholders  had  certain  rights  of  com- 
mon, supposed  to  be  incident  to  their  original  grant. 
....  The  most  important  right  of  common  is  com- 
mon of  pasture.  Some  lands  were  subject  to  this  com- 
mon of  pasture  during  certain  portions  of  the  year 
only — e.g.,  in  the  case  of  Lammas-lands  from  the  ist 
of  August  for  eight  months,  after  which  they  are  held 
in  severalty.  Such  lands  are  said  to  be  commonable. 
Then  there  is  common  of  piscary  or  the  right  of  fishing 
in  a  particular  stream  ;  common  of  estovers  is  the  right 
of  cutting  wood  on  another's  estate  ;  common  of  turbary 
is  the  right  of  cutting  turf.  In  some  manors  there  was 
also  a  right  of  digging  and  taking  coals,  minerals,  etc. 

"These  rights  of  common  needed  for  purposes  of 
law  to  be  further  defined.  They  were  appendant 
when  inseparably  annexed  to  the  land ;  appurtenant 
when  they  belonged  to  it,  but  not  of  necessity.  It  was 
common  in  gross  when  the  right  was  annexed  to  the 
person  of  an  individual  and  not  attached  to  the  land  ; 
and  it  was  common  of  vicinage  when  it  existed  between 
the  inhabitants  of  two  adjacent  townships.  Subject  to 
all  these  rights  of  common,  everything  belonged  to 
the  lord  of  the  manor. 

"  This  unaccustomed  view  as  to  the  origin  and  ex- 
tent of  their  common  rights,  as  it  was  officially  and 
judicially  expounded  to  them  by  the  lord  of  the  manor 
in  his  court  baron,  could  scarcely  have  been  altogether 
acceptable  to  the  common  people.  But 
the  Statute  of  Merton  passed  in  1235  gave 
Feudal  full  legal  sanction  to  what  had  pre- 
Timpq  viously  been  regarded  as  an  encroach- 
iiuiBB.  ment  on  the  rights  of  the  common- 
ers. .  .  .  The  thirteenth  century  was 
marked  by  very  much  important  legis- 
lation in  reference  to  land.  During  the  first  three 
.quarters  of  it  the  crown  was  held  by  the  feeble  hands 


of  John  and  his  son,  Henry  III.,  and  the  course  of  leg- 
islation showed  a  marked  tendency  in  favor  of  the 
landowners  gaining  the  upper  hand.  But  on  the  ac- 
cession of  Edward  I.,  in  1272,  a  great  reaction  took 
place.  There  was  a  very  visible  retightening  of  the 
grasp  of  the  feudal  system  over  the  nobles,  in  striking 
contrast  to  the  relaxing  hold  of  the  crown  as  exhibited 
in  the  hands  of  his  two  predecessors. 

"In  1215  Magna  Charta  decreed  that  no  freeman 
should  be  deprived  of  his  life,  liberty,  or  property,  ex- 
cept by  the  law  of  the  land  and  the  judgment  of  his 
peers.  In  1225  it  was  enacted  that  no  land  shall  be 
aliened  so  that  the  lord  shall  thereby  lose  any  service 
due  him.  In  1235  the  Statute  of  Merton  opened  the  door 
to  the  encroachments  of  the  landowners  on  the  com- 
mon wastes,  and  in  1285  it  was  opened  still  wider  by 
the  Statute  of  Westminster  the  Second. 

"  But  in  the  last  quarter  of  the  century  the  new  era 
of  reactionary  legislation  was  entered. 

"  Besides  several  acts  of  less  importance,  there  was  in 
1279  the  second  Statute  of  Mortmain,  which  prohibited 
the  conveyance  of  land  to  religious  houses.  Then  in 
1285  the  famous  Statute  '  De  Donis  conditionalibus'  (13 
Edw.  I.,  c.  i.)  originated  estates  tail,  compelling  the 
donee  to  carry  out  the  will  of  the  donor,  and  forbid- 
ding him  to  alien  the  estate  after  an  heir  had  been  born 
to  him,  and  it  also  secured  the  ultimate  reversion  of 
the  estate  to  the  donor  on  the  failure  of  issue  to  the 
donee.  Entails  made  under  this  Statute  '  De  Donis ' 
created  a  perpetual  series  of  life  estates,  and  initiated 
a  policy  which  was  afterward  seen  to  produce  very 
bad  effects.  In  1290,  five  years  later,  in  pursuance  of 
the  same  general  policy  as  in  De  Donis,  another  fa- 
mous statute, '  Quia  Emptores,'  was  passed  to  check  the 
growing  practice  of  sub-infeudation.  This  was  in  the 
nature  somewhat  of  a  compromise.  For  whereas  pre- 
viously the  alienation  of  lands  without  the  lord's  con- 
sent had  been  only  connived  at,  it  was  now  legally 
permitted  for  feudal  tenants  to  alien  their  lands  with- 
out their  lord's  consent ;  but  it  required  the  assignees 
to  hold  immediately  from  the  lord  and  not  mediately 
through  the  tenant,  and  so  the  lord's  rights  were  saved 
from  being  prej  udiced.  In  1326  the  same  right  of  aliena- 
tion was  extended  to  tenants  in  capite  on  payment  of 
a  'fine.' 

"The  fourteenth  and  fifteenth  centuries  were  too 
much  disturbed  by  foreign  wars  and  by  the  civil 
wars  of  the  Roses  to  have  left  much  opportunity  for 
attention  to  legislative  matters.  .  .  .  Previous  to  the 
time  of  Henry  VIII.,  a  simple  gift  of 
land  to  a  person  and  his  heirs,  accom- 
panied by  livery  of  seisin,  gave  to  that  Evasions, 
person  an  estate  in  fee  simple.  As  early 
as  the  time  of  Henry  III.,  Statutes  of 
Mortmain  were  enacted,  prohibiting  land  from  being 
given  to  the  religious  houses.  In  order  to  avoid  the 
effect  of  this  statute,  a  feoffment  was  made  to  one  per- 
son to  hold  the  land  to  the  use  of  another.  The  Courts 
of  Chancery  held  that  the  feoffee  was,  in  such  a  case, 
bound  in  conscience  to  hold  the  land  simply  for  the 
benefit  of  the  third  person.  This  estate  to  use  was  not 
recognized  in  law,  but  only  in  equity.  The  original 
feoffee  was,  in  the  eyes  or  the  law,  the  real  owner. 
There  were  thus  two  estates,  a  legal  and  an  equitable, 
in  the  same  property  cognizable  in  two  different  courts. 
By  this  device,  many  of  the  rules  of  property  were  de- 
feated. In  law,  only  the  legal  owner  could  be  reached. 
Clergy  could  hold  land  in  spite  of  the  Statutes  of  Mort- 
main. A  refractory  lord,  holding  his  property  only  as 
equitable  owner,  could  commit  treason  with  impunity 
and  without  the  forfeiture  of  his  estate,  and  persons 
could  also  dispose  of  their  land  by  will.  The  land 
itself  could  not  be  devised,  but  the  use  of  it  was,  and 
the  legal  owner  was  bound  in  equity  to  observe  such 
use.  Down  to  the  time  of  Henry  VIII.  this  practice 
had  so  increased  that  by  its  means  a  considerable  part 
of  the  kingdom  had  contrived  to  get  rid  of  some  of 
the  worst  inconveniences  of  feudal  tenure. 

"  In  order  to  remedy  this  state  of  things,  Henry 
VIII.  caused  the  Statute  of  Uses  to  be  enacted  in  1535. 
It  decreed  that  any  person  for  whom  a  use  was  held 
should  be  deemed  the  legal  owner  of  the  estate  to  the 
extent  of  that  use.  The  equitable  was  thus  converted 
into  a  legal  estate,  and  was  made  subject  to  all  the  in- 
cidents of  legal  ownership.  Thus  once  again  appar- 
ently had  the  crown  succeeded  in  reestablishing  its 
feudal  fetters  upon  the  land.  Its  triumph  was  des- 
tined, however,  to  be  of  short  duration.  The  feudal 
system  was  no  longer  suited  to  the  changed  character 
of  the  times,  and  the  growing  spirit  of  freedom  could 
no  longer  be  curbed  by  its  restraints.  And  therefore 
again  the  ingenuity  of  landowners  and  churchmen 
was  stimulated,  and,  aided  by  the  lawyers,  they  suc- 
ceeded in  finding  means  for  another  fraudulent  eva- 


Land. 


791 


Land. 


sion  of  the  law.  And  the  Court  of  Equity  was  again 
successfully  invoked  to  their  aid  in  giving  validity  to 
their  legal  fictions. 

"  So,  strange  to  say,  by  narrow  construction  of  the 
words  of  the  Statute  of  Uses  the  purpose  of  the  enact- 
ment was  completely  foiled.  An  estate  was  now  lim- 
ited to  A  and  his  heirs,  to  the  use  of  B  and  his  heirs,  to 
the  use  of  C  and  his  heirs.  The  court  held  that  the 
first  use  was  executed  by  the  statute  and  B  was  the 
legal  owner,  but  then  at  this  point  the  power  of  the 
statute  was  exhausted.  Thus  C  remained  the  equi- 
table owner,  as  B  would  have  been  before  the  statute 
was  passed.  Such  an  unexecuted  use  is  now  termed  a 
trust.  One  very  important  effect,  however,  the  Stat- 
ute of  Uses  had  which  renders  it  noteworthy.  The 
machinery  that  had  been  employed  in  the  creation  of 
the  use,  thus  legalized,  was  adopted  for  the  transfer  of 
land  by  deed  without  publicity  or  registration  ;  and 
this  remarkable  result  has  continued  even  down  to  the 
present  day. 

"  The  last  great  blow,  which  may  be  said  to  have 
been  almost  the  finishing  stroke,  to  the  feudal  system 
was  the  passing  of  the  Statute  of  Wills.  This  was  en- 
acted in  1540,  only  five  years  after  the  Statute  of  Uses. 
This  act  is  commonly  said  to  have  given,  but  it  in 
truth  only  restored  the  power  to  devise  lands  by  will. 
This  had  existed  before  the  Norman  rule,  and  had 
been  extinguished  only  by  the  practice  of  primogen- 
itary  descent,  with  which  it  was  of  course  incompati- 
ble. 

"  The  feudal  system  was  swept  away  by  an  act  of  the 
Long  Parliament  passed  in  1656,  and  solemnly  reen- 
acted  after  the  restoration  in  1660.  The  famous  statute 
(12  Chas.  II.,  c.  xxiv.)  operating  retrospectively  turn- 
ed all  military  tenures  into  'free  and  common  socage" 
from  February  14,  1645.  Thenceforth  freehold  tenancy 
has  been  virtually  equivalent  to  ownership,  and  the 
only  restrictions  to  which  it  is  subject  are  those  which 
may  be  created  by  will  or  deed.  .  .  .. 

"  Now,  however,  feudal  tenures  being  finally  abol- 
ished, we  see  the  class  of  great  landowners  proceeding 
to  introduce  a  new  mode  of  settling  estates,  which  de- 
pends not  on  any  single  statute  or  law,  but  on  custom 
mainly,  which  takes  advantage  of  legal  forms  already 
existing,  and  ingeniously  proceeds  to  twist  them  about 
to  serve  other  and  quite  different  purposes  than  those 
for  which  they  were  originally  intended.  .  .  .  There 
was,  unobserved  and  but  little  noticed  by  the  many,  a 
marked  change  which  took  place  in  the  policy  of  the 
great  landowners,  at  this  period,  and  the  fact  that  this 
qhange  was  not  shared  in,  to  any  considerable  extent, 
by  the  owners  of  the  smaller  estates  in  land,  the  class 
of  small  freeholders  and  copyholders,  is  very  sugges- 
tive, and  full  of  a  grim  significance. 

"  For,  notwithstanding  this  change,  there  was  not 
lacking  a  very  clear  and  distinct  connection  between 
the  new  and  the  old  policies.  There  was  an  unmistak- 
able unity  of  aim  and  purpose,  which  was  not  at  once 
revealed,  we  may  readily  believe,  even  to  the  land- 
owners themselves,  but  which  gradually  took  shape  as 
events  favored  its  development.  It  would  be  unfair, 
perhaps,  to  suggest  that  the  landowners  having  now 
entirely  freed  themselves  from  the  thraldom  of  the 
feudal  system,  and  emancipated  themselves  from  the 
power  and  control  of  the  sovereign,  perceived  that 
they  had  at  the  same  time  given  a  death-blow  also  to 
the  rights  of  the  community  in  the  land,  which  had 
already  gradually  ceased  to  be  represented,  except  in 
theory  only,  in  the  person  of  the  king,  as  the  represen- 
tative of  the  State.  And  thus  having  now  acquired 
the  absolute  and  exclusive  right  of  ownership  over 
whatever  lands  they  possessed,  while,  on  the  one  hand, 
they  took  careful  measures  to  prevent  the"ir  own  estates 
from  dispersion  or  encroachment,  they  were  now 
ready  on  the  other  hand  to  use  their  newly  enfran- 
chised power  and  undistracted  opportunities  to  search 
for  means  whereby  they  might  gratify  a  spirit  of  in- 
satiable greed  by  swallowing  up  whatever  other  lands 
of  smaller  estates  or  of  common  lands  not  yet  enclosed 
which  the  wheel  of  fortune  might  at  any  time  bring 
within  their  grasp.  It  would  not  be  fair,  we  say,  to 
suggest  that  this  was  their  deliberate  aim,  but  if  such 
a  theory  were  put  forward,  it  would  not  be  difficult  to 
find  many  facts  in  subsequent  history  which  would 
tinge  it  with  some  color  of  truth. 

"  It  is  not,  perhaps,  necessary  to  enter  into  the  details 
of  the  system  of  family  settlements.  By  it  the  prop- 
erty in  land  was  divided  out  to  several  persons  with 
'estates  for  life'  and  'in  remainder,'  so  as  to  prevent 
the  possibility  of  alienation  until  not  only  the  whole  of 
the  lives  existing  at  the  time  of  making  the  settlement 
or  will  had  ended,  but  until  the  unborn  child  of  one 
who  was  then  an  infant  had  attained  21  years  of  age  ; 
so  in  fact  as  to  extend  entail  ordinarily  for  50,  but  pos- 


sibly for  80  or  90  years.  In  common  parlance,  estates 
in  land  may  be  settled  upon  any  number  of  lives  in 
being,  and  21  years  afterward. 

"  In  this  way  each  son  when  he  succeeds  finds  him- 
self merely  a  tenant  for  life,  and  as  such  possessed  of 
no  power  to  prevent  his  own  son  from  becoming 
owner  in  fee  simple,  with  full  power  to  deal  with  the 
estate  when  he  in  turn  shall  succeed.  But  a  father  so 
situated  is  little  inclined  to  leave  to  his  son  powers  of 
which  he  himself  is  deprived,  while  his  son  is  generally 
willing  to  barter  his  future  liberty  for  a  present  lib- 
eral allowance.  Thus  father  and  son  strike  a  bargain  ; 
the  father  buys  the  son's  surrender  of  his  future  right, 
and  the  son,  for  a  price,  agrees  to  submit  himself  to  the 
restraints  of  being  merely  tenant  for  life  instead  of  in 
fee  simple  when  his  father  shall  die.  The  process  re- 
peated from  generation  to  generation  has  reestablish- 
ed in  practice  the  system  of  entails  which  the  courts 
had  formally  abrogated  as  contrary  to  public  policy, 
and  which  every  writer  has  denounced  as  hurtful  to 
the  nation. 

."While  these  successful  means  were  being  contin- 
uously taken  for  the  perservation  of  the  large  estates 
in  a  few  families,  let  us  now  see  what 
was  going  on  in  those  smaller  estates 
which  had  thus  far  escaped  absorption,       Entail. 
and  in  those  common  lands  which  form- 
ed the  remainder  of  the  estate  that  was 
left  to  the  community  at  large. 

"  The  system  of  entails,  or  of  creation  of  estates  for 
life  only,  which  has  now  prevailed  for  six  centuries  in 
England,  is  sufficient  to  account  for  the  fact  that 
the  large  estates  have  contimially  augmented  in  size 
and  number,  by  corresponding  absorption  of  the  small 
properties  of  yeomen.  The  small  properties  are  sel- 
dom subjected  to  strict  settlement.  The  owners  oc- 
casionally fall  into  difficulties,  and  then  their  land  is 
sold  to  pay  their  debts.  They  are  frequently  moved 
by  natural  affection  either  to  divide  their  estates 
among  all  their  children  or  to  subject  them  to  charges 
for  children  other  than  the  heir,  and  this  also  tends  to 
bring  them  into  the  market  for  sale.  The  large  prop- 
erties therefore  continue  undiminished ;  and  when  a 
small  adjoining  freehold  comes  into  the  market,  it  is 
seldom  that  the  owner  of  the  larger  estate  cannot  find 
the  money  to  effect  its  purchase.  Once  obtained  it  is 
included  in  the  next  settlement  of  the  larger  estate, 
and  thus  permanently  withdrawn  from  the  operation 
of  natural  processes  of  disintegration. 

"  On  the  whole,  it  follows  that  large  estates  tend  to 
grow,  and  in  precisely  the  same  proportion  small  ones 
tend  to  disappear.  The  peers,  in  number  about  600, 
hold  rather  more  than  one  fifth  of  all  the  land  in  the 
kingdom.  One  half  of  the  whole  territory  is  in  the 
hands  of  only  7400  individuals ;  the  other  half  is  di- 
vided among  312,500  individuals.  Barely  one  person  in 
ioo  owns  more  than  an  acre  of  soil." 

But  even  the  legal  aspect  does  not  bring  out 
the  whole  situation.  When  the  custom  grew  up 
of  the  baron's  making  a  money  payment  to  the 
king  in  place  of  service,  it  involved  more  than 
first  appears.  The  king  welcomed  the  arrange- 
ment because  it  enabled  him-  to  hire  a  standing 
army  rather  than  depend  upon  turbulent 
barons.  The  barons  preferred  it  because  they 
in  turn  could  get  money  in  place  of  service  from 
their  dependents,  and  so  could  go  live  where 
they  would,  escaping  duties,  tho  maintaining 
income.  But  this  was  not  all.  The  king,  want- 
ing more  money,  some  one  suggested  that  he 
get  money  not  only  from  the  barons,  but  from 
their  dependents.  It  was  overlooked  or  ignored 
that  the  dependents  were  already  paying  the 
king  through  the  barons,  and  that  the  barons 
were  only  entitled  to  payment  from  their  de- 
pendents as  representatives  of  the  king.  The 
dependents  thus  found  themselves  now  called 
upon  to  pay  both  the  king  and  the  barons.  Even 
this  was  not  all.  When  the  barons  found  their 
dependents  paying  the  king,  they  said,  "This 
money  is  the  king's  5  what  money  comes  to  us 
is  ours. ' '  The  king's  payment  they  called  tax  ; 
their  payment  they  called  rent — in  other  words, 
they  set  up  the  claim  to  own  as  properties,  from 


Land. 


792 


Land. 


which  they  could  collect  rent,  the  lands  they  had 
been  given  simply  to  rule  over  for  the  king.  In 
this  process,  disguised,  often  unconscious  to  the 
barons  themselves,  lies  the  genesis  of  the  land 
ownership  of  modern  England.  Nor  is  even 
this  all.  Wars  in  the  Middle  Ages  were  fought 
by  the  nobility.  But  gradually  the  barons  grew 
impoverished  and  needed  money.  The  devel- 
opment of  the  Flemish  wool  market  gave  them 
an  opportunity.  Claiming  to  own  the  land,  they 
began  to  enclose  the  commons,  to  evict  the 
peasantry,  and  turn  the  land  into  sheep  walks. 

Eden,  in  his  History  of  the  Poor,  gives  a 
quotation  from  A  Compendious  or  Brief e  Ex- 
amination of  Certayne  Complaints,  published 
in  1581,  which  would  be  humorous  were  it  not 
pathetic.  "  Yea,"  it  says,  "  these  sheep  is  the 
cause  of  all  these  mischiefs,  for  they  have  driven 
husbandry  out  of  the  country,  by  the  which  was 
increased  before  all  kinds  of  victuals,  and  now 
altogether  sheep,  sheep,  sheep." 

The  landless  class  was  also  swollen  by  the 
evicted  monks  and  nuns  from  the  monasteries 
suppressed  by  Henry  VIII.  How  many  of 
these  there  were  can  be  seen  when  it  is  remem- 
bered that  good  authority  estimates  one  third 
of  the  whole  of  England  at  this  time  to  have 
been  church  land. 

Nor  is  the  enclosure  of  commons  by  any  means 
a  practice  of  the  past  alone.  It  ended  in  that 
form,  but  later  took  the  form  of  reclaiming 
waste  land.  Under  the  Georges,  enclosure  be- 
came a  settled  policy.  Some  2000  enclosure  bills 
were  passed  before  the  General  Enclosure  Act 
of  1 80 1,  and  about  2000  more  before  the  act  of 
1845.  Lawrence's  New  System  of  Agriculture, 
published  in  1726,  states  that  "  it  is  believed  that 
one  half  part  of  the  kingdom  are  commons,  and 
a  third  of  all  of  the  kingdom  is  what  we  call 
common  fields."  In  1879  only  264,000  acres 
were  common  out  of  32,597,398  acres. 

Says  Mr.  Thackeray  (idem,  p.  47) :  ' 

"The  annual  report  of  the  Enclosure  Commissioners 
for  1867  shows  that  during  the  150  years  previous  no 
less  than  7,660,413  acres  were  added  to  the  cultivated 
area  ;  that  is,  about  one  third  of  the  total  of  25,451,626 
acres  in  cultivation  in  that  year.  The  commissioners 
remark  that  such  enclosures,  being  often  made  with- 
out any  compensation  to  the  smaller  commoners,  have 
deprived  agricultural  laborers  of  ancient  rights  over 
the  waste,  and  disabled  the  occupants  of  new  cot- 
tages from  acquiring  new  rights. 

"  Nor  must  it  be  supposed  that  the  number  of  land- 
ed proprietors  was  in  any  way  increased  by  .this  proc- 
ess or  enclosure.  The  area  enclosed  was  divided 
among  those,  and  those  only,  who  already  possessed 
common  rights  by  virtue  of  their  holding  freeholds  or 
copyholds,  and  the  very  idea  of  recognizing  in  law 
any  public  interest  in  open  wastes  or  forests  is  entirely 
modern.  The  lion's  share  was  always  reserved  for 
the  lord  of  the  manor,  and  immense  accessions  of  ter- 
ritory were  thus  secured  by  powerful  landowners  in 
days  when  the  landed  interest  was  paramount  in  the 
Legislature  no  less  than  in  local  administration.  The 
chief  sufferers  at  the  time  were  poor  laborers,  holding 
cottages  at  will  of  their  landlords,  who  lost  the  privi- 
lege of  turning  out  pigs,  geese,  and  fowls  on  the  com- 
mon, and  for  whom,  of  course,  no  compensation  was 
provided,  or  even  thought  of." 

Such  is  the  way  that  English  land  property 
has  been  developed  by  encroachments  on  the 
rights  of  the  people.  Not  even  yet  does  the  law 
recognize  full  private  property  in  English  land, 
but  in  practice  it  is  only  too  real. 

Sir  Frederick  Pollock  says  in  English  Land 
Laws  : 


"It  is  commonly  supposed  that  land  belongs  to  its 
owner  in  the  same  sense  as  money  or  a  watch  ;  this  is 
not  the  theory  of  English  law  since  the  Norman  Con- 
quest, nor  has  it  been  so  in  its  full  significance  at  any 
time.  No  absolute  ownership  of  land  is  recognized  by 
our  law  books,  except  in  the  crown.  All  lands  are 
supposed  to  be  held  immediately  or  mediately  of  the 
crown,  tho  no  rent  or  services  may  be  payable  and  no 
grant  from  the  crown  on  record." 

Williams  says  (Real  Property}  : 

"  The  first  thing  the  student  has  to  do  is  to  get  rid  of 
the  idea  of  absolute  ownership  [of  land].  Such  an 
idea  is  quite  unknown  to  the  English  law.  No  man  is 
in  law  the  absolute  owner  of  lands  (p.  16). 

"All  landowners  are  merely  tenants  in  the  eye  of 
the  law"  (p.  55). 

Public  sentiment,  however,  is  alive  on  this 
question. 

Says  Mr.  Thackeray  : 

"The  first  sign  of  an  awakening  of  the  public  mind 
to  a  consciousness  of  the  true  meaning  of  what  was 
going  on  was  in  1836,  when  in  an  enclosure  act  of 
that  year  it  was  stipulated  that  no  enclosures  should 
be  made  within  10  miles  of  London  or  within  corre- 
sponding distances  of  smaller  towns.  Next,  in  1845, 
when  the  General  Enclosure  Act  was  passed,  which 
applied  to  all  '  common  lands,'  it  was  enacted  that 
manorial  wastes  must  not  be  enclosed  without  the 
previous  sanction  of  Parliament.  In  1852,  a  later  act 
made  the  consent  of  Parliament  necessary  in  all  cases 
under  the  Enclosure  Act. 

"Under  these  various  acts,  however,  in  spite  of 
these  restrictions,  the  enclosures  which  were  still 
permissible  proceeded  apace,  and  the  commissioners 
have  been  not  undeservedly  accused  of  unduly  favor- 
ing enclosure  and  neglecting  the  powers  with  which 
they  were  entrusted  for  the  protection  of  the  public. 
There  seems  to  have  been  very  good  ground  for  this 
charge.  For  the  Home  Secretary  in  1876  stated  that 
out  of  414,000  acres  which  had  been  enclosed  under  the 
act  of  1845,  less  than  4000  had  been  dedicated  to  pur- 
poses of  recreation  and  exercise ;  and  he  admitted 
that  whereas  enclosures  had  formerly  been  treated  as 
a  private  estate,  improvement  to  which  the  owner 
was  entitled,  a  great  change  of  opinion  had  taken 
place  as  to  the  rights  of  the  public." 

This  brings  us  to  the  present.  The  develop- 
ment of  land  property  in  other  countries,  so  far 
as  it  differs  from  the  English  development,  we 
consider  in  speaking  of  each  country.  The  Eng- 
lish theory  has  been  copied  in  the  main  in  the 
United  States  and  Australasia.  Wherever  Eng- 
lishmen have  discovered  land  they  have  claimed 
it  for  the  Crown,  and  the  Crown  has  assigned  it 
for  the  most  part  in  fee  simple  to  companies  or 
to  individual  proprietors.  Titles  in  the  older 
States  of  the  United  States  originated  in  this 
way.  William  Penn  purchased  land  from  the 
Indians,  but  it  was  assigned  to  proprietors  by 
the  Crown,  and  Pennsylvania  became  a  pro- 
prietary colony.  In  most  of  the  colonies  char- 
ters were  given  to  companies,  and  these  compa- 
nies gave  land  to  individuals.  Since  the  Revo- 
lution, the  Federal  Government  has  been  the 
owner  of  all  land  not  already  owned  by  indi- 
viduals, but  has  sold  it  to  settlers,  under  the 
Homestead  Act,  for  a  song,  or  has  given  it  to 
towns,  States,  or  railroads.  In  English  colonies 
all  land  is  held  from  the  Crown.  We  come  now 
to  consider 


II.  THE  PRESENT  CONDITION  OF  LAND  OWNER- 
SHIP. 

In  Great  Britain  to-day  ten  elevenths  of  the 
area  of  the  United  Kingdom  is  owned  by  one 
two  hundredths  part  of  the  population  (Mul- 
hall's  Dictionary  of  Statistics,  p.  266).  Accord- 
ing to  \h.Q  Encyclopedia  Britannic  a  :  "  By  the 


Land. 


793 


Land. 


Doomsday  Book  of  1875  it  appeared  that  one 
fourth  of  the  total  acreage  (excluding  plots 
under  one  acre)  is  held  by  1200  owners,  at  an 
average  for  each  of  16,200  acres  ;  another  fourth 
by  6200  persons,  at  an  average  of  3150  acres  ; 
another  fourth  is  held  by  50,770  persons,  aver- 
aging 380  acres  each  ;  and  the  remaining  fourth 
by  261,830  persons,  averaging  70  acres  each 
(Caird).  Peers,  in  number  about  600,  hold 
rather  more  than  one  fifth  of  all  the  land  in  the 
kingdom.  Thus  one  half  of  the  whole  territory 
is  in  the  hands  of  only  7400  individuals  ;  the 
other  half  is  divided  among  312, 500  individuals. ' ' 
This  means  that  not  one  man  in  a  hundred  in 
Great  Britain  owns  an  acre  of  land  ;  and  let  us 
see  what  this  means.  We  quote  from  Land  Na- 
tionalization, by  the  celebrated  scientist,  Alfred 
Russel  Wallace,  whose  authority  and  fairness 
none  can  question.  He  says  (chap,  v.)  : 

"  In  England  pure  landlordism  is  seen  at  its  best. 
Its  characteristics  have  been  determined  by  the  great 
and  popular  class  of  country  squires  and  by  numer- 
ous wealthy  peers  owning  large  ancestral  estates, 
who  have  usually  lived  among  their  tenants,  have 
been  accustomed  to  treat  them  liberally,  and  have 
had  sympathy  with  their  pursuits  and  a  desire  for 
their  prosperity.  The 'tenant- farmers,  too,  are  usually 
men  of  some  capital,  of  good  education,  and  of  inde- 
pendent spirit,  who  are  able  to  understand  their  posi- 
tion and  maintain  their  rights,  and  whose  occupancy 
of  the  land  is  the  result  of  a  more  or  less  free  con- 
tract with  the  owner.  It  is  impossible  to  imagine 
more  favorable  conditions  for  the  trial  of  our  actual 
land  *ystem  ;  and  we  may  safely  assume  that  what- 
ever evils  we  find  to  result  from  it  here  ought  not  to 
be  imputed  to  the  misconduct  of  individuals,  but  to 
the  essential  features  of  the  system  itself.  There  are, 
no  doubt,  certain  remediable  evils  due  to  the  laws  of 
inheritance  and  the  power  of  entail.  These  will  prob- 
ably soon  be  cured  ;  but  their  removal  will  have  little 
influence  on  those  wider  and  more  deeply  seated  ef- 
fects of  the  system  to  which  I  shall  here  call  attention. 

"Despotic  Power  of  Landlords.—  The  Hon.  George 
C.  Brodrick,  in  his  valuable  and  impartial  work,  Eng- 
lish. Land  and  English  Landlords,  speaks  of  the  large 
resident  landowner  of  a  parish  or  district  as  being 
'invested  with  an  authority  over  its  inhabitants  which 
neither  the  Saxon  chief  nor  the  Norman  lord,  in  the 
fulness  of  his  power,  ever  had  the  right  of  exercising.' 
The  clergyman  is  usually  his  nominee,  and  often  his 
kinsman.  The  farmers,  who  are  almost  the  only  em- 
ployers of  labor  besides  himself,  are  his  tenants-at- 
will,  and,  possibly,  his  debtors.  The  tradespeople  of 
the  village  rent  under  him,  and,  even  if  they  dp  not, 
could  be  ruined  by  his  disfavor.  The  laborers  live  in 
his  cottages,  and  are  absolutely  at  his  mercy  for  the 
privilege  of  hiring  allotments,  generally  of  inad- 
equate size,  and  at  an  exorbitant  rent  as  compared 
with  the  same  land  occupied  by  farmers,  and  they  are 
also  dependent  upon  him  for  work  in  winter.  He  is 
usually  a  magistrate,  and  thus  has  the  power  of  the 
law  in  his  hands  to  carry  out  his  orders  and  enhance 
his  authority.  Except  by  his  permission,  merely  to 
live  upon  his  estate  is  impossible  ;  while  most  of  the 
inhabitants  may  have  their  lives  rendered  miserable 
or  may  be  actually  ruined  by  his  displeasure.  .  .  . 

"  A  great  landowner  exercises  despotic  power  over 
individuals,  such  as  we  are  accustomed  to  look  upon 
with  horror  when  occurring  in  the  Turkish  or  Russian 
Empires.  One  or  two  illustrative  examples  only  can  be 
here  given,  but  a  little  research  through  the  columns 
of  the  daily  press  would  enable  any  one  to  fill  a  vol- 
ume with  similar  cases.  Let  us  first  choose  an  exam- 
ple of  interference  with  religious  freedom— a  matter 
on  which  we  more  especially  pride  ourselves.  In 
April,  1879,  there  appeared  in  the  Daily  News  a  cor- 
respondence between  Samuel  McAulay,  a  Wesleyan 
minister,  and  Langhorne  Burton,  a  Lincolnshire  land- 
owner. The  former  asked  that  religious  services 
which  had  been  conducted  for  30  years  in  the  village 
of  Bag-Enderby,  and  which  the  said  landlord  had  in- 
terdicted, might  be  resumed,  the  writer  urging  his 
case  forcibly,  but  in  very  respectful  terms.  The  an- 
swer was  [in  part]  as  follows : 

"  '  The  result  of  such  a  step  on  your  part  would 
probably  be  the  removal  from  Bag-Enderby  of  all  the 
members  of  your  body,  who  are  of  little  value  to  me  as 


tenants.    I  wish  to  have  as  tenants  none  (these  italics 
are  his  own)  but  thorough  church  people,   and  con- 
sider myself  quite  at  liberty  to  choose 
such  as  I  like,  without  being  dictated  to 
by  anybody.    Reasons  apart  from  this 
for  my   interdict   of  your   meetings  in 
Bag-Enderby  I  do  not  feel  called  upon 
to  enter  into  with  you.    I  also  forbear 
to  remark  upon  your  seeming  disposition  to  dictate  to 
me  my  duty  as  a  landlord.' 

"Eviction  of  the  Inhabitants  of  an  Entire  Village.— 
In  the  following  case,  given  on  the  authority  of  Mr. 
Froude,  no  offense  whatever  appears  to  have  been 
alleged  against  the  unfortunate  tenants.  He  says : 
'  Not  a  mile  from  the  place  where  I  am  now  writing, 
an  estate  on  the  coast  of  Devonshire  came  into  the 
hands  of  an  English  duke.  There  was  a  primitive  vil- 
lage upon  it,  occupied  by  sailors,  pilots,  and  fishermen, 
which  is  described  in  Domesday  Book,  and  was  inhab- 
ited at  the  Conquest  by  the  actual  forefathers  of  the 
late  tenants,  whose  names  may  be  read  there.  The 
houses  were  out  of  repair.  The  duke's  predecessors 
had  laid  out  nothing  upon  them  for  a  century,  and  had 
been  contented  with  exacting  the  rents.  When  the 
present  owner  entered  into  possession  it  was  repre- 
sented to  him  that  if  the  village  was  to  continue  it 
must  be  rebuilt,  but  that  to  rebuild  it  would  be  a 
needless  expense,  for  the  people,  living  as  they  did  on 
their  wages  as  fishermen  and  seamen,  would  not  culti- 
vate his  land,  and  were  useless  to  him.  The  houses 
were  therefore  simply  torn  down,  and  nearly  half  the 
population  was  driven  out  into  the  world  to  find  new 
homes.' 

"  Another  mode  in  which  private  property  in  land 
operates  to  the  serious  injury  of  the  public  at  large  is 
the  power  which  landlords  possess,  and  very  often 
use,  of  demanding  enormous  sums  for  the  land  re- 
quired for  public  improvements.  Whether  it  is  the 
formation  of  new  streets  in  the  metropolis,  or  the  con- 
struction of  railways  or  docks,  or  the  securing  of  land 
for  public  recreation,  the  claims  of  landlords  invari- 
ably stand  in  the  way.  sometimes  preventing  the  de- 
sired improvements  from  being  carried  into  effect, 
sometimes  burdening  them  with  a  heavy  load  of  debt, 
and  so  diminishing  their  usefulness.  Instances  of  this 
will  occur  to  every  one  who  takes  note  of  passing 
events.  I  •will  only  here  quote  the  following  state- 
ment of  Mr.  Brodrick : 

"  '  The  landed  interest  of  England  is  estimated  to 
have  received  a  sum  exceeding  the  national  revenue 
from  railway  companies  alone  over  and  above  the 
market  price  of  the  land  thus  sold.'1  The  italics  are 
mine,  to  call  attention  to  the  fact  that  this  sum  of  70,- 
000,000  or  80,000,000  paid  to  the  landlords  is  a  perma- 
nent injury  to  the  community,  by  increasing  to  that 
extent  the  unproductive  capital  expenditure  of  the 
railway  companies  of  the  kingdom  ;  while  no  class  has 
received  so  much  benefit  from  railways  as  the  land- 
lords, in  the  enormous  increase  given  thereby  to  the 
value  of  their  estates,  so  that  if  they  had  freely  given 
the  land  required  to  construct  the  lines,  they  would 
still  have  been  gainers.  As  another  example:  'One 
nobleman  is  known  to  have  received  three  quarters 
of  a  million  sterling  for  the  mere  sites  of  docks  con- 
structed by  the  enterprise  of  others.'  Here  again  no 
doubt  his  other  land  in  the  neighborhood  would  be 
greatly  increased  in  value  by  these  very  docks,  and, 
equitably,  all  this  increase  of  value  should  go  to  those 
whose  expenditure  caused  it,  or  at  least  to  the  com- 
munity at  large.  But  the  public  and  the  Government 
are  alike  powerless,  and  must  submit  to  pay  what- 
ever landlords  choose  to  demand  for  permission  to 
make  public  improvements." 

If  any  one  fancies  that  the  day  of  such  things 
has  passed,  let  him  still  consult  almost  any  Eng- 
lish daily.  He  will  find  to-day  men  evicted 
for  their  political  and  other  views.  For  an  in- 
teresting case,  see  the  English  Labor  Annual 
for  1896. 

Landlordism  in  Ireland  has  not  been  worse, 
tho  its  worst  developments  have  been  till  re- 
cently more  common.  To-day  in  Ireland  (q.v.} 
the  tenant  is  better  defended  than  in  England, 
Scotland,  or  the  United  States.  Of  the  past 
Mr.  Wallace  says  (chap,  xiii.)  : 

"  Mr.  T.  P.  O.  Connor  tells  us  that  in  the  four  years 
1849-52  there  were  221,845  evictions  ;  whole  townlands 
being  depopulated,  and  their  human  inhabitants  driven 


Land. 


794 


Land. 


out  to  make  room  for  cattle  and  sheep,  as  being  more 
profitable  to  the  landlords  These  poor  people  were 
often  forced  away  from  their  homes,  even  tho  all  rent 
due  had  been  fully  paid.  The  houses,  which  had  been 
built  by  their  own  labor  (or  purchased  from  those  who 
had  built  them),  were  pulled  down  ;  and  when  the 
houseless  families,  having  nowhere  to  go,  lighted  fires 
in  the  ditches  to  cook  some  food,  the  fires  were  ex- 
tinguished in  order  to  drive  them  off  the  land.  A  re- 
port to  the  Poor  Law  Commissioners  states  that  many 
occupiers  were  forced  out  of  their  homes  at  night  in 
winter,  even  sick  women  and  children  not  being 
allowed  to  stay  in  the  houses  till  morning ! 

"  And  the  power  to  do  all  this,  be  it  remembered,  is 
a  necessary  consequence  of  unrestricted  private  prop- 
erty in  land.  The  following  account  of  an  eye-witness 
is  taken  from  a  published  Pastoral  Letter  of  the  Roman 
Catholic  Bishop  of  Meath  : 

"  'The  horrid  scenes  that  I  then  witnessed  I  must  re- 
rember  all  my  life  long.  The  wailing  of  women ;  the 
screams,  the  terror,  the  consternation  of  children  ;  the 
speechless  agony  of  honest,  industrious 
men,  wrung  tears  of  grief  from  all  who 
Ireland,  saw  them.  I  saw  the  officers  and  men  of 
a  large  police  force,  who  were  obliged 
to  attend  on  the  occasion,  cry  like  chil- 
dren at  beholding  the  cruel  sufferings  of  the  very 
people  whom  they  would  be  obliged  to  butcher,  had 
they  offered  the  least  resistance.  The  heavy  rains 
that  usually  attend  the  autumnal  equinoxes  descended 
in  cold,  copious  torrents  throughout  the  night,  and  at 
once  revealed  to  those  houseless  sufferers  the  awful 
realities  of  their  condition.  I  visited  them  next  morn- 
ing, and  rode  from  place  to  place  administering  to 
them  all  the  comfort  and  consolation  I  could.  The 
appearance  of  men,  women,  and  children,  as  they 
emerged  from  the  ruins  of  their  former  homes — sat- 
urated with  rain,  blackened  and  besmeared  with  soot, 
shivering  in  every  member  from  cold  and  misery — 
presented  positively  the  most  appalling  spectacle  I 
ever  looked  at.  The  landed  proprietors  in  a  circle  all 
round — and  for  many  miles  in  every  direction — warned 
their  tenantry,  with  threats  of  direct  vengeance, 
against  the  humanity  of  extending  to  any  of  them  the 
hospitality  of  a  single  night's  shelter.  Many  of  these 
poor  people  were  unable  to  emigrate  with  their  fam- 
ilies ;  while  at  home  the  hand  of  every  man  was  thus 
raised  against  them.  They  were  driven  from  the  land 
on  which  Providence  had  placed  them ;  and,  in  the 
state  of  society  surrounding  them,  every  other  walk  of 
life  was  rigidly  closed  against  them.  What  was  the 
result?  After  battling  in  vain  with  privation  and  pes- 
tilence, they  at  last  graduated  from  the  workhouse  to 
the  tomb,  and  in  little  more  than  three  years  nearly  a 
fourth  of  them  lay  quietly  in  their  graves?  " 

Perhaps  the  worst  landlordism  has  been  in 
Scotland.  Says  Mr.  Wallace  (chap,  iv.) : 

"  Under  the  old  system  the  Highland  chief  was  a 
petty  sovereign,  who  retained  civil  and  criminal 
jurisdiction  over  his  clansmen  and  the  power  of  mak- 
ing war  on  other  chiefs  and  clans.  But  these  clansmen 
were  never  either  serfs  or  vassals,  but  free  men  ;  and 
the  clan  was  really  a  great  family,  all  the  members  of 
which  were  supposed  to  be,  and  often  actually  were, 
of  one  blood.  It  was  a  true  patriarchal  system,  totally 
distinct  from  the  feudal  system  of  Europe ;  and  tho 
every  clansman  owed  fealty  and  military  service,  as 
well  as  certain  dues  or  payments  to  his  chief,  these 
were  given  through  love  and  duty  rather  than  through 
fear,  and  every  petty  clansman  held  his  land  and  his 
rights  to  pasture  and  wood  and  turf,  and  to  hunt  and 
fish  over  the  mountains  and  lakes,  by  the  same  title  as 
the  chieftain  held  his  more  extensive  lands  and  priv- 
ileges. As  well  expressed  by  an  able  writer  in  the 
Westminster  Review— •'  No  error  could  be  grosser  than 
that  of  viewing  the  chiefs  as  unlimited  proprietors,  not 
only  of  the  arable  land,  but  of  the  whole  territory  of 
the  mountain,  lake,  river,  and  seashore,  held  and  won 
during  hundreds  of  years  by  the  broadswords  of  the 
clansmen.  Could  any  MacLean  admit,  even  in  a 
dream,  that  his  chief  could  clear  Mull  of  all  the  Mac- 
Leans  and  replace  them  with  Campbells  ;  or  the  Mac- 
intosh people  his  lands  with  MacDonalds,  and  drive 
away  his  own  race,  any  more  than  Louis  Napoleon 
could  evict  all  the  population  of  France  and  supply 
their  place  with  English  and  German  colonists?'  Yet 
this  very  power  and  right  the  English  Government,  in 
its  aristocratic  selfishness,  bestowed  upon  the  chiefs, 
when,  after  the  great  rebellion  of  1745,  it  took  away 
their  privileges  of  war  and  criminal  jurisdiction,  and 
endeavored  to  assimilate  them  to  the  nobles  and  great 
landowners  of  England.  The  rights  of  the  clansmen 


were  entirely  left  out  of  consideration.    .  .  .    The  full 
rights  of  possession  given  by  the  English   law  were 
now   insisted  on.     The  pasture   of  the 
hilltops,  the  game   on    the    moors,  the 
wood  and  the  peat  of  the  forests,  the     Scotland. 
salmon  in  the  rivers,  and  even  the  very 
shellfish  and  seaweed  on  the  wild  sea- 
shore, were  declared  the  sole  and  exclu- 
sive property  of  the  landlords.     Then  began  the  clear- 
ances and  evictions  dignified  by  the  name  of  'improve- 
ments.'   By  hundreds  and   thousands  at  a  time  the 
occupiers  of  the  soil  were  driven  from  their  homes,  and 
were  many  of  them  forced  to  leave  the  country  which 
they  had  so  bravely  defended  on  many  a  hard-won 
battle-field.  .  .  . 

"As  to  the  nature  and  extent  of  this  extermination 
Dr.  Macdonald  writes  in  the  strongest  manner.  He 
says  : 

"'The  extermination  of  the  Highlanders  has  been 
carried  on  for  many  years  as  systematically  and  relent- 
lessly as  of  the  North  American  Indians.  .  .  .  Who 
can  withhold  sympathy  as  whole  families  have  turned 
to  take  a  last  look  at  the  heavens  red  with  their  burn- 
ing houses?  The  poor  people  shed  no  tears,  for  there 
was  in  their  hearts  that  which  stifled  such  signs  of 
emotion  ;  they  were  absorbed  in  despair.  They  were 
forced  away  from  that  which  was  near  and  dear  to 
their  hearts,  and  their  patriotism  was  treated  with 
contemptuous  mockery.' 

"  Again  :  '  I  know  a  glen,  now  inhabited  by  two 
shepherds  and  two  gamekeepers,  which  at  one  time 
sent  out  its  thousand  fighting  men.  And  this  is  but 
one  out  of  many  that  might  be  cited  to  show  how  the 
Highlands  have  been  depopulated.  Loyal,  peaceable, 
and  high-spirited  peasantry  have  been  driven  from 
their  native  land — as  the  Jews  were  expelled  from 
Spain,  or  the  Huguenots  from  France— to  make  room 
for  grouse,  sheep,  and  deer.  .  .  . 

"  '  Let  us  turn  from  this  picture  of  what  unrestricted 
landlordism  has  effected  in  the  Highlands  to  that  part 
of  the  country  which  is  its  pride  and  glory— the  Low- 
lands. For  here  are  the  highest  agricultural  rents  and 
the  best  farming  in  Great  Britain.  Here  the  landlords 
are  wealthy  and  the  farmers  are  thriving.  Here  every- 
thing is  neat,  thrifty,  and  elegant ;  the  rude  husbandry 
of  the  Highlands  has  been  left  more  than  a  thousand 
years  behind  ;  the  furrows  are  straight  as  an  arrow, 
the  fences  closely  dressed,  the  farmhouses  commodi- 
ous, and  the  gentlemen's  seats  bear  all  the  evidences 
of  taste,  luxury,  and  refinement.  Such  being  the  case, 
we  should  naturally  expect  that  some  portion  of  this 
prosperity  would  have  descended  to  the  laborers,  and 
we  should  look  for  neat  and  roomy  cottages,  with 
ample  gardens,  so  essential  to  the  well-being  of  the 
poor.'  " 

Instead,  Mr.  Wallace  reports  that,  in  spite  of 
some  recent  improvements, 

"pauperism,  tho  not  so  prevalent  as  in  the  depopulat- 
ed Highlands,  still  abounds  even  in  the  fertile  and 
highly  farmed  Lowlands,  where  about  i  in  40  of  the 
population  are  returned  as  paupers  or  dependents.  .  .  . 
It  appears,  then,  that  both  in  the  barren  Highlands 
and  the  fertile  Lowlands,  among  the  peaceable  and 
contented  Celts,  as  well  as  among  the  more  restless  and 
energetic  Saxons,  we  find  the  same  increase  in  the 
wealth  and  luxury  of  the  landlord  and  the  capitalist, 
accompanied  by  the  misery,  discontent,  and  chronic 
pauperism  of  the  laboring  classes.  In  both  districts 
landlordism  has  had  its  own  way,  and  has  flourished  : 
in  both  it  carries  in  its  train  the  physical,  social,  and 
moral  degradation  of  those  by  whom  its  wealth  is 
created.  It  is  not  that  landlords  are  worse  than  other 
men  ;  perhaps  it  may  justly  be  said  that  they  are 
somewhat  better  than  the  average  ;  but  no  amount  of 
good  intentions  or  good  administration  will  suffice 
when  the  system  which  is  administered  is  fundament- 
ally wrong.  No  system  ever  had  a  fairer  trial  than 
pure  landlordism  has  had  in  Scotland  during  the  pres- 
ent century.  It  has  had  the  freest  liberty  of  action 
under  various  conditions,  a  peaceful,  honest,  and  con- 
tented body  of  laborers,  a  constantly  increasing 
growth  of  wealth,  and  all  the  means  and  appliances  of 
modern  science  at  its  command.  Yet  here,  as  always 
and  everywhere,  it  has  lamentably  failed  to  produce 
either  prosperity  or  contentment. 

Such  is  a  brief  review  from  unimpeachable 
sources  of  landlordism  in  Great  Britain,  where 
nineteen  twentieths  of  the  people  have  scarcely 
any  land,  and  one  twentieth  have  houses  and 
lands  valued  at  $1,150,000,000  (see  below).  To 


Land. 


795 


Land. 


be  more  exact,  in  England  only  i  person  in  20 
is  an  owner  of  land  ;  in  Scotland,  i  in  25  ;  in 
Ireland,  i  in  79  ;  and  the  great  majority  of  land- 
holders in  Great  Britain  own  less  than  one  acre 
each.  One  man  rides  in  a  straight  line  100 
miles  on  his  own  estate.  Another  owns  a  county 
extending  across  Scotland.  A  gentleman  in 
Scotland  a  few  years  since  appropriated  300 
square  miles  of  land,  extending  from  sea  to  sea, 
to  form  a  deer  forest,  evicting  many  families  to 
make  room  for  the  deer. 

FRANCE. 

In  France,  land  is  very  much  more  subdivid- 
ed than  in  England. 

According  to  La  Grande  Encyclopedie,  vol. 
xvii.,  p.  1006,  the  number  of  land  holdings  in 
1891  was  about  14,000,000,  owned  by  about 
8,000,000  persons,  of  which  about  5,000,000  own 
agricultural  holdings. 

According  to  Mulhall  (Dictionary  of  Statis- 
tics), the  official  summary  of  1885  gave  50,500,- 
ooo  acres  as  tilled  by  owners  ;  22,800,000  acres 
as  tilled  by  tenants  ;  11,100,100  acres  as  tilled 
by  metayers. 

The  small  holdings  are  mainly  in  the  de- 
partments of  the  Seine,  the  Rhone,  Bel- 
fort,  the  North,  Puy-de-D6me,  Haute-Garonne, 
Gard. 

For  a  discussion,  however,  of  how  far  small 
peasant  holdings  under  modern  conditions  of 
taxation,  etc.,  are  advantageous,  see  below, 
Sec.  4. 

The  wretched  condition  of  the  French  poor  as 
late  as  the  eighteenth  century,  their  inhuman 
treatment  by  absentee  landlords,  who  had 
ceased  to  give  feudal  protection,  but  extorted 
more  than  feudal  service,  is  graphically  de- 
scribed in  M.  Taine's  Ancien  Regime.  These 
oppressions,  however,  had  not  been  suffered 
tamely.  The  terrible  insurrection  of  the  Jac- 
querie in  1358  was  an  uprising  of  the  peasants. 
Their  fierceness  gave  the  powerful  an  excuse 
for  keeping  them  deprived  of  rights,  and  brought 
them  to  look  on  their  dependents  as  little  more 
than  beasts  of  burden,  valuable  only  for  the 
profit  that  might  be  made  of  them.  The  feel- 
ing engendered  on  the  other  side  broke  out  in 
the  Revolution.  The  country  estates,  from 
which  the  emigres  had  fled,  were  sold  in  por- 
tions, and  in  many  cases  bought  in  fee  simple 
for  a  trifle  by  the  former  tenants  of  the  farms. 
The  law  of  equal  division  among  children  con- 
tinued the  process  of  subdivision.  It  proceeds 
in  an  augmenting  ratio,  and  few  large  proper- 
ties still  subsist.  The  land,  however,  held  in 
small  properties,  is  not  universally  cultivated 
by  the  owner.  There  is  a  large  proportion  of 
tenants,  holding  generally  under  leases  not  ex- 
ceeding nine  years  ;  and  there  is  no  doubt  that 
the  shortness  of  the  term  impairs  production. 
Another  evil  is  the  mercellement  caused  by  the 
law  of  compulsory  division  on  inheritance,  ob- 
jected to  in  France  chiefly  on  the  ground  that 
through  successive  family  divisions  each  man's 
total  property  consists  of  a  number  of  small 
plots  scattered  up  and  down.  Nor  must  it  be 
forgotten  that  this  peasant  proprietorship  still 
leaves  millions  in  cities,  towns,  and  villages 
without  any  land. 


GERMANY. 

In  different  parts  of  Germany  very  different 
forms  of  tenure  exist.  Altho  feudalism  was 
fully  developed,  here  too,  as  a  legal  system  and 
as  the  foundation  of  the  aristocracy,  it  did  not 
succeed  in  extirpating  entirely  the  ancient  rights 
of  the  people.  A  large  portion  of  the  land  was 
held  always  as  peasant  properties,  entirely  free 
from  any  dues  of  service.  Among  these,  in  cer- 
tain districts,  there  survived  an  organization 
essentially  identical  with  that  described  by  Taci- 
tus. The  village  had  its  domain  or  mark  (g.v.)t 
subdivided  into  the  arable,  the  pasture,  and  the 
forest.  In  some  cases  the  first  of  these  was  par- 
titioned into  individual  and  permanent  proper- 
ties, but  in  all  the  pasture  and  forest  remained 
the  joint  property  of  the  village.  Instances, 
however,  were  not  wanting  where  the  arable 
portion  was  subject  to  annual  or  less  frequent 
repartition,  and  to  apportionment  by  lot  to  each 
cultivator  for  the  time  which  custom  ordained. 

But  more  common  was  feudalism.  None  who 
were  not  noble  could  as  a  rule  purchase  land. 
On  the  lands  of  the  nobles  the  tenants  were 
bound  to  give  to  their  lord  a  portion  of  their 
time  in  gratuitous  labor.  They  held,  however, 
their  farms  under  conditions  of  permanency, 
subject  to  this  tax  of  labor,  and  to  a  variety  of 
small  and  irregular  exactions  of  the  nature  of 
rent. 

These  conditions  endured  to  the  beginning 
of  this  century.  Stein's  edict  of  1807  abolished 
serfdom  and  obliterated  the  legal  distinction  of 
classes  by  establishing  freedom  of  exchange  in 
land  and  free  choice  of  occupation.  In  1810, 
Hardenberg,  with  a  precipitancy  which  Stein 
would  scarcely  have  approved,  continued  the 
reform  in  the  condition  of  the  peasants  by  mak- 
ing them  absolute  owners  of  part  of  their  hold- 
ings, the  landlords  obtaining  the  rest  as  an  in- 
demnity for  their  lost  dues. 

These  reforms  have  converted  large  parts  of 
Germany  into  the  property  of  small  owners  re- 
siding on  and  tilling  their  own  land,  free  from 
obligation  to  any  other  person.  (For  details  of 
German  tenure,  as  applied  in  agriculture,  see 
AGRICULTURE.) 

According  to  the  returns  for  1887,  2,953,000 
acres  were  tilled  by  their  owners  ;  829,000  acres 
were  tilled  by  tenants  ;  1,494,000  acres  were 
tilled  under  mixed  forms  of  partial  ownership. 

OTHER  EUROPEAN  COUNTRIES. 

Switzerland  is,  in  the  main,  a  country  of  small 
holdings.  By  far  the  larger  proportion  of  the 
land  is  held  in  small  farms  of  from  two  to  five 
hectares.  In  a  few  of  the  cantons  considerable 
land,  tho  mainly  on  the  mountains,  is  still  held 
in  common  as  allmends.  (See  SWITZERLAND.) 
In  Italy,  the  metayer  system  prevails.  (See 
METAYER  ;  AGRICULTURE,  section  "  Italy.")  In 
Austria,  small  holdings  prevail  in  most  of  the 
empire  ;  but  in  Bohemia,  large  manorial  landed 
estates  are  still  found.  All  through  the  empire, 
however,  the  peasant  proprietaries  seem  to  be 
disappearing.  (See  AGRICULTURE,  section  "  Aus- 
tria. ' ' )  Belgium  is  preeminently  a  land  of  small 
holdings.  With  an  area  less  than  one  fifth  that 
of  England  and  Wales,  she  has  over  1,000,000 
owners  of  land. 


Land. 


796 


Land. 


The  cultivated  land  of  Belgium  amounts  to 
2,663,753  hectares,  or  6,582,123  acres,  of  which 
1,339,795  hectares  are  in  the  hands  of  the,  pro- 

Erietors,  and  1,323,958  are  let  to  tenants.  The 
ind  is  divided  into  nearly  600,000  patches.  Of 
these,  43  per  cent,  do  not  exceed  50  acres  ;  there 
are  12  per  cent,  not  exceeding  i  hectare,  or  z\ 
acres  ;  29  per  cent,  not  exceeding  5  hectares  ; 
7^  per  cent,  not  exceeding  10  hectares  ;  and  less 
than  8  per  cent,  of  greater  extent. 

Holland,  Denmark,  Norway,  and  Sweden  all 
have  small  holdings.  Russia,  by  the  abolition 
of  serfdom,  nominally  gave  land  to  all  her  peo- 
ple, but  gave  the  peasants  each  so  little  that  it 
was  impossible  to  live,  and  they  have  been  com- 
pelled to  sell  them  to  the  nobility,  and  often 
to  flee  to  the  cities  to  compete  for  trade,  produc- 
ing the  greatest  want,  suffering,  and  misery. 
(See  RUSSIA.) 

AUSTRALASIA. 

For  Australasia  we  give  the  most  recent  con- 
ditions. Says  the  English  Labor  Annual  for 
1896  : 

"  The  population  of  the  Australasian  colonies  is  not 
yet  5,000,000 ;  nevertheless,  one  finds  to-day  in  Aus- 
tralasia—a land  capable  of  supporting  in  ease  and 
comfort  at  least  100,000,000  of  people— the  same  indus- 
trial depression,  the  same  unemployed  problem,  and 
the  same  poverty  among  the  masses  that  are  in  the 
Old  World  attributed  to  over-population.  The  cause 
of  this,  however,  is  not  far  to  seek.  In  New  South 
Wales,  for  instance,  the  official  returns  show  that 
some  600  individuals  '  own '  more  than  half  of  the 
land  alienated  from  the  crown  ;  in  South  Australia  it 
is  estimated  that  703  persons  '  own '  half  the  land 
values  of  the  colony  ;  in  New  Zealand,  out  of  the  19,- 
000,000  acres  alienated  from  the  crown,  upward  of 
17,000,000  acres  are  controlled  by  1600  persons  only, 
four  of  whom  '  own '  600,000  acres  between  them, 
while  17,000  families,  numbering  about  80,000  souls, 
have  to  grub  along  as  best  they  may  on  a  paltry  300,000 
acres.  In  the  other  colonies  the  position  is  much  the 
same.  With  a  view  to  improving  this  state  of  affairs, 
Sir  George  Grey  introduced  in  New  Zealand,  in  1878, 
a  tax  on  land  values  of  %d.  in  the  pound.  At  the  en- 
suing election,  however,  Major  Atkinson  became 
Premier,  and  the  tax  was  abolished.  But  the  prin- 
ciple has  since  made  great  strides.  In  South  Aus- 
tralia a  tax  of  y^d.  in  the  pound  has  for  some  nine 
years  past  been  imposed  on  land  values,  and  in  1893  a 
bill  passed  both  houses  of  the  Legislature  empower- 
ing local  bodies  to  rate  the  unimproved  value  of  the 
land ;  but  a  bill  passed  in  1894  by  the  Lower  House, 
increasing  the  tax  on  land  values,  and  graduating  it 
heavily  against  absentees,  was  rejected  by  the  Upper 
House.  In  New  Zealand  a  tax  of  id.  in  the  pound, 
steeply  graduated  against  large  estates,  was  imposed 
in  1892  ;  but  a  bill  to  empower  local  bodies  to  rate 
land  values  was  passed  by  the  Lower  House  in  1893, 
only  to  be  rejected  by  the  'Lords.'  The  bill  was 
again  passed  by  the  Lower  House  last  year,  but  was 
thrown  out  by  the  Non-Representative  Chamber  by  14 
votes  to  12.*  The  Tasmanian  House  of  Representa- 
tives also  passed  in  1893  a  bill  taxing  land  values  up  to 
£503  at  %d.  in  the  pound,  and  over  that  amount  at  id. 
in  the  pound,  but  the  '  Lords'  threw  it  out.  A  simi- 
lar bill  was  again  introduced  in  the  Tasmanian  House 
of  Representatives  on  August  16  last,  but  it  was 
again  rejected  by  the  'Lords.'  In  Victoria,  again, 
the  Lower  House  passed,  in  1894,  a  land  tax  bill  on  the 
New  Zealand  model,  but  the  Upper  House  rejected  it. 
In  Queensland,  in  1893,  a  bill  was  passed  by  both 
Houses  adopting  the  land-value  system  of  taxation 
for  municipalities,  and  fixing  the  amount  of  the  tax  at 
zd.  in  the  pound.  This  has  been  found  ample  for  all 
local  requirements;  there  is  now  no  local  taxation  on 
improvements  in  Queensland,  and  in  the  country  dis- 
tricts the  tax  has  been  found  to  considerably  lighten  the 
burdens  of  the  users  of  land.  In  May  last  the  New 
South  Wales  House  of  Representatives  passed  a  Land 

*  The  bill  was  once  more  passed  (on  October  3,  1895) 
by  the  Lower  House  by  41  votes  to  7.  The  "  Lords" 
will  hardly  dare  again  to  throw  it  out. 


and  Income  Tax  Bill  on  the  New  Zealand  model  by  a 
two-to-one  majority,  but  the  Upper  House  rejected  it. 
The  Premier  at  once  appealed  to  the  country,  and  his 
policy  being  vindicated  at  the  polls,  the  bill  was  again 
passed  by  the  Lower  House  on  September  17  by  54 
votes  to  24." 

Of  some  Australian  farms  or  stations  a  news- 
paper correspondent  writes  : 

"One  James  Tyson  has  about  2,000,000  acres,  or  a 
territory  nearly  as  large  as  three  States  like  Rhode 
Island,  one  and  one  half  Delawares,  or  even  one  third 
the  size  of  Vermont,  or  one  seventeenth  the  size  of 
Iowa.  He  has  nearly  1,000,000  sheep  or  the  equivalent 
in  cattle.  One  Mr.  McCaughey  has  one  station  of 
1,214,877  acres,  with  some  500,000  sheep.  James  Wilson 
has  640,000  acres,  or  just  1000  square  miles,  in  one  sta- 
tion, and  over  400,000  sheep.  I  have  a  friend  in  the 
interior,  whom  I  visited  recently,  who  has  500,000  acres 
and  300,000  sheep.  One  can  drive  100  miles  on  a 
straight  line  on  his  estate.  Of  this  500,000  acres,  70,000 
are  freehold,  and  the  rest  is  leased  from  the  Govern- 
ment of  New  South  Wales  on  long  time,  for  a  definite 
annual  rental.  I  have  another  friend,  a  member  of 
the  New  South  Wales  Parliament,  who  holds  240,000 
acres  in  Queensland  on  long  lease,  at  an  annual  rental 
of  one  farthing,  or  one  half  cent  per  acre." 

THE   UNITED    STATES. 

The  United  States  would  seem  to  be  the  last 
country  in  the  world  to  look  for  land  monopoli- 
zation. A  country  comparatively  new,  with  a 
domain  stretching  across  a  continent,  capable 
of  sustaining  a  population  vastly  larger  than  it 
does  (see  FOOD  SUPPLY),  with  laws  carefully 
framed  to  aid  the  settler  in  gaining  a  home  (see 
HOMESTEAD  LAW),  one  would  not  look  for  land 
monopoly  in  such  a  country.  What  are  the 
facts?  According  to  the  Census  of  1890,  only 
65.92  per  cent,  of  the  families  occupying  farms 
owned  their  farms,  and  of  these  28.22  per  cent, 
owned  their  farms  subject  to  a  mortgage,  leav- 
ing only  47  per  cent,  of  the  farm  families  of  the 
United  States  owning  their  farms  without  in- 
cumbrauce.  In  the  cities  a  greater  monopoly 
of  land  exists.  From  1880-90  the  value  of  farms 
increased  only  a  little  over  $2,000,000,  or  about 
20  per  cent.  ;  but  the  value  of  residence  and 
business  real  estate  increased  over  $14,000,000,- 
ooo,  or  more  than  100  per  cent.  Yet  this  enor- 
mous value  is  in  few  hands.  In  Boston,  57  per 
cent,  of  the  population  do  not  own  the  houses 
they  live  in  ;  in  New  York  City,  80  per  cent, 
live  in  tenements.  Taking  all  the  country 
through,  in  town  and  city,  on  farm  and  in  vil- 
lage, only  35  per  cent,  of  the  families  of  the  land 
own  an  unincumbered  home.  Not  every  mort- 
gage, it  is  true,  indicates  financial  distress. 
People  often  mortgage  lands  and  houses  in  or- 
der to  make  future  gain  ;  but  if  every  single 
mortgage  was  paid  off,  still  only  48  per  cent,  of 
the  families  of  the  United  States  would  own 
their  homes,  while  it  is  notorious  that  hundreds 
of  thousands  of  mortgages  are  foreclosed.  Farm 
after  farm  in  the  West  is  passing  into  the  hands 
of  Eastern  investors  or  land  syndicates.  Million- 
aires are  buying  extensive  country  seats  and 
stretches  of  territory  in  all  the  most  beautiful 
sections  of  the  country.  Railroads  own  an  ever- 
increasing  proportion  of  our  mines  and  other 
natural  opportunities.  Many  new  small  farms 
were  opened  up  between  1880  and  1890,  yet 
farms  of  between  50  and  100  acres  increased 
only  8.58  per  cent.,  while  farms  of  from  500  to 
looo  acres  increased  11.09  per  cent.,  and  farms 
over  looo  acres  increased  10.39  per  cent.  The 


Land. 


797 


Land. 


land  of  the  country  is  steadily  passing  from  the 
ownership  of  the  people.  For  further  informa- 
tion on  this  see  the  next  section. 

III.  THE  RESULTS  OF  LAND  OWNERSHIP. 

We  have  seen  that  in  Great  Britain  only  one 
man  in  a  hundred  owns  more  than  an  acre  ; 
that  in  the  United  States  scarcely  one  family  in 
three  owns  a  home  ;  that  if  in  Russia,  and  to  a 
less  extent  elsewhere  in  Continental  Europe, 
peasant  proprietorship  largely  prevails,  the  peas- 
ants each  own  so  little  land  as  scarcely  to  be 
able  to  live  on  it,  while  millions  crowd  into  the 
great  cities.  What  does  this  mean  ?  To  realize 
the  meaning,  one  must  first  remember  what  land 
means  to  man. 

Man  is  "  a  land  animal."  He  cannot  pro- 
duce ;  he  cannot  propagate  his  kind  ;  he  cannot 
live  without  land.  This  is,  of  course,  patent  to 
all.  Yet  it  is  frequently  forgotten  in  economic 
discussions.  Men  interest  themselves  in  this 
and  that  so-called  "practical  question,"  and 
overlook  the  fundamental  fact  and  necessity  of 
human  life.  Yet  no  man  ever  denied  or  can 
deny  the  absolute  necessity  of  land  to  human 
life.  John  Stuart  Mill  begins  his  Principles 
of  Political  Economy  with  the  words  :  "  The 
requisites  of  production  are  two,  labor  and  ap- 
propriate natural  objects" — i.e. ,  land.  Says  Car- 
dinal Manning  : 

"The  land  question  means  hunger,  thirst,  naked- 
ness, notice  to  quit,  labor  spent  in  vain,  the  toil  of 
years  seized  upon,  the  breaking  up  of  homes,  the  mis- 
ery, sicknesses,  death  of  parents,  children,  wives,  the 
despair  and  wildness  which  spring  up  in  the  hearts  of 
the  poor  when  legal  force,  like  a  sharp  harrow,  goes 
over  the  most  sensitive  and  vital  right  of  mankind. 
All  this  is  contained  in  the  land  question." 

The  only  possible  misunderstanding  on  this 
point  can  come  from  a  failure  to  realize  what  is 
meant  in  economic  discussion  by  the  word  land. 
It  means  not  only  the  earth  surface 
of  the  world  ;  it  means  the  surface 
Definition,  of  the  whole  world,  earth  and 
water,  all  that  is  in  the  earth  and 
in  the  water  except  man  and  the 
labor  of  man.  Says  Jevons  (Political  Economy 
Primer,  p.  26)  :  "  When  we  speak  of  land  we 
really  mean  any  source  of  materials,  any  natu- 
ral agent. ' '  Economists  thus  use  the  word  land 
because  among  all  natural  agents  land  is  so  far 
the  most  important  that  it  can  be  used  to  repre- 
sent all  the  rest.  Air  is  equally  necessary  to 
life,  but  under  ordinary  circumstances  air  can- 
not be  appropriated,  and  hence  has  no  exchange 
or  commercial  value.  Under  those  few  circum- 
stances, as  in  a  crowded  city,  where  air  cannot 
be  freely  obtained,  it  has  a  commercial  value, 
but  it  for  the  most  part  goes  with  the  land,  and 
may  be  economically  considered  as  a  part  of 
land.  Remembering,  then,  what  is  meant  by 
land,  there  can  be  no  question  of  the  funda- 
mental importance  of  land  to  human  life,  and 
what  results  must  be  involved  in  its  monopoliza- 
tion. But  before  we  analyze  this,  notice  one 
other  point.  We  stand  to-day  on  the  land  ques- 
tion at  a  crisis  in  the  world's  history.  For  the 
first  time  in  the  history  of  the  world  all  the  land 
in  the  northern  temperate,  and,  indeed,  almost 
allin  the  lower  temperate  zone,  has  been  appro- 
priated. Now  the  northern  temperate  zone  has 
been  thus  far  the  only  zone  which  has  produced 


the  great  controlling  civilizations  of  the  world. 
Down  to  the  present  time  any  persons  or  com- 
panies of  persons  desiring  more  land  could 
move  somewhere  in  the  north  temperate  zone 
and  find  good  land  wholly  or  very  nearly  wholly 
unappropriated.  From  the  fields  and  vales  of 
Asia,  early  in  the  history  of  the  world,  gigantic 
nomadic  tribes  and  hordes  poured  westward,  to 
find  new  grazing  fields  in  Eastern  Europe  ; 
later  they  overran  Europe,  founding  the  Greek 
and  Roman  civilizations,  the  early  Celtic  races. 
Still  later,  in  the  migration  of  the  Goths  were 
planted  the  civilizations  we  know  to-day.  When 
this  migration  was  substantially  completed, 
Columbus  discovered  a  new  world,  and  Europe 
overflowed  to  the  Atlantic  coast  of  the  Ameri- 
can continent.  Since  then  civilization  has 
spread  across  the  continent,  till  at  last,  in  our 
day,  population  has  reached  the  Pacific  coast, 
filled  all  spaces,  and  completed  the  belt  of  the 
world.  By  irrigation  and  other  processes  some 
land  now  worthless  may  be  reclaimed  ;  here  and 
there  small  tracts  of  land  may  yet  be  had  almost 
for  the  asking  ;  population  in  many  sections  is 
scarce  ;  but,  roughly  speaking,  all  the  land  is 
appropriated  ;  the  United  States  public  domain 
nearly  all  sold  ;  the  best  land  all  occupied. 
What  is  left  is  either  inferior  soil  or  to  be  made 
useful  only  at  unusual  cost.  The  significance 
of  this  condition  in  the  world's  history  cannot 
be  overestimated. 

Let  us,  then,  now  examine  some  of  the  chief 
results  of  land  monopolization.  Among  the  first 
results  must  be  the  dependence  in  all  civilized 
countries  of  those  who  have  not  land  upon  those 
who  have.  If,  as  we  have  seen,  land  is  neces- 
sary to  production  and  to  life,  the  masses  in  all 
countries  must  be  dependent  on  those  who  own 
the  soil.  Alike  under  the  Czar  and  in  "free" 
America,  plutocracy  reigns  and  must  reign, 
while  the  people  are  dependent  on  the  few  for 
the  first  necessities  of  existence.  Says  an  old 
Saxon  proverb  :  "  The  landless  man  is  an  un- 
free  man."  Mr.  George  has  abundantly  shown 
this.  He  says  (Social  Problems,  chap,  xv.)  : 

"That  a  people  can  be  enslaved  just  as  effectually 
by  making    property   of    their   lands    as   by  making 
property  of  their  bodies  is  a  truth  that  conquerors  in 
all  ages  have  recognized,  and  that  as  society  devel- 
oped the  strong  and  unscrupulous  who  desired  to  live 
off  the  labor  of  others  have  been  prompt  to  see.    The 
coarser  form  of  slavery,  in  which  each 
particular   slave   is  the   property   of   a 
particular    owner,   is   only  fitted   for  a       Slavery. 
rude  state  of  society,  and   with   social 
development    entails    more    and    more 
care,  trouble,  and  expense   upon  the  owner.     But  by 
making  property  of  the  land  instead   of  the  person, 
much  care,  supervision,    and   expense  are  saved  the 
proprietors  ;  and  tho  no  particular  slave  is  owned  by 
a  particular  master,  yet  the  one  class  still  appropriates 
the  labor  of  the  other  class  as  before.  .  .  . 

"  We  have  abolished  negro  slavery  in  the  United 
States.  But  how  small  is  the  real  benefit  to  the  slave  ! 
George  M.  Jackson  writes  me  from  St.  Louis  under 
date  of  August  15,  1883  : 

"'During  the  war  I  served  in  a  Kentucky  regiment 
in  the  Federal  army.  When  the  war  broke  out  my 
father  owned  60  slaves.  I  had  not  been  back  to  my 
old  Kentucky  home  for  years  until  a  short  time  ago, 
when  I  was  met  by  one  of  my  father's  old  negroes, 
who  said  to  me  :  "  Mas'  George,  you  say  you  sot  us 
free  •  but  'fore  God,  I'm  wus  off  than  when  I  belonged 
to  your  father."  The  planters,  on  the  other  hand,  are 
contented  with  the  change.  They  say:  "How  foolish 
it  was  in  us  to  go  to  war  for  slavery  !  We  get  labor 
cheaper  now  than  when  we  owned  the  slaves."  How 
do  they  get  it  cheaper?  Why,  in  the  shape  of  rents 
they  take  more  of  the  labor  of  the  negro  than  they 


Land. 


798 


Land. 


could  under  slavery,  for  then  they  were  compelled  to 
return  him  sufficient  food,  clothing,  and  medical  at- 
tendance to  keep  him  well,  and  were  compelled  by 
conscience  and  public  opinion,  as  well  as  by  law,  to 
keep  him  when  he  could  no  longer  work.  Now  their 
interest  and  responsibility  cease  when  they  have  got 
all  the  work  out  of  him  they  can.'  " 

But  what  comes  of  this  land  slavery  ?  First 
the  horrors  of  the  overcrowded  city.  Unable  to 
obtain  land  in  the  country  on  which  they  can 
get  a  living,  the  landless,  or  the  peasants,  as  in 
Russia,  from  allotments  too  small  to  support 
life,  <5rowd  into  the  great  cities  and  produce  the 
slums.  What  that  means  is  well  known.  (See 
SLUMS.)  But  it  has  its  effects  on  the  country 
also.  Says  Mr.  George  (idem,  chap,  xxi.)  : 

"  As  the  cities  grow,  unwholespmely  crowding  peo- 

Ele  together  till  they  are  packed  in  tiers,  family  above 
imily,  so  are  they  unwholesomely  separated  in  the 
country.  The  tendency,  everywhere  that  this  process 
of  urban  concentration  is  going  on,  is  to  make  the  life 
of  the  country  poor  and  hard,  and  to  rob  it  of  the 
social  stimulus  and  social  gratifications  that  are  so 
necessary  to  human  beings.  The  old 
healthy  social  life  of  village  and  town- 
Poverty,  land  is  everywhere  disappearing.  In 
England,  Scotland,  and  Ireland,  the 
thinning  out  of  population  in  the  agri- 
cultural districts  is  as  marked  as  is  its  concentration 
in  cities  and  large  towns.  In  Ireland,  as  you  ride 
along  the  roads,  your  car-driver,  if  he  be  an  old  man, 
will  point  out  to  you  spot  after  spot  which,  when  he 
was  a  boy,  were  the  sites  of  populous  hamlets,  echo- 
ing in  the  summer  evenings  with  the  laughter  of  chil- 
dren and  the  joyous  sports  of  young  people  ;  but  now 
utterly  desolate,  showing,  as  the  only  evidences  of 
human  occupation,  the  isolated  cabins  of  miserable 
herds.  In  Scotland,  where  in  such  cities  as  Glasgow 
human  beings  are  so  crowded  together  that  two 
thirds  of  the  families  live  in  a  single  room,  where  if 
you  go  through  the  streets  of  a  Saturday  night  you 
will  think,  if  you  have  ever  seen  the  Terra  del 
Puegans,  that  these  poor  creatures  might  envy  them  ; 
there  are  wide  tracts  once  populous  now  given  up  to 
cattle,  to  grouse,  and  to  deer — glens  that  once  sent  out 
their  thousand  fighting  men  now  tenanted  by  a  couple 
of  gamekeepers.  So  across  the  Tweed,  while  Lon- 
don, Liverpool,  Leeds,  Manchester,  and  Nottingham 
have  grown,  the  village  life  of  '  merrie  England '  is  all 
but  extinct.  .  .  . 

"  So  in  the  agricultural  districts  of  our  older  States 
the  same  tendency  may  be  beheld  ;  but  it  is  in  the 
newer  States  that  its  fullest  expression  is  to  be  found 
— in  ranches  measured  by  square  miles,  where  half 
savage  cowboys,  whose  social  life  is  confined  to  the 
excitement  of  the  '  round  up  '  or  a  periodical  '  drunk  ' 
in  a  railroad  town  are  the  only  diversions ;  and  in 
bonanza  farms,  where  in  the  spring  the  eye  wearies  of 
seas  of  waving  grain  before  resting  on  a  single  home 
— farms  where  the  cultivators  are  lodged  in  barracks, 
and  only  the  superintendent  enjoys  the  luxury  of  a 
wife." 

But  out  of  this  condition  spring  not  only  the 
horrors  of  the  slums,  but  low  wages  for  all  wage 
workers.  The  wage  of  the  man  at  work  is 
lowered  by  the  competition  of  the  man  out  of 
work.  If  the  worker  complain  of  low  wages, 
there  are  two  men  waiting  f orchis  job.  The 
boy  comes  up  from  the  mortgaged  farm  to  try 
and  earn  money  in  the  city  to  stave  off  fore- 
closure for  his  parents  ;  his  competition — for  he 
is  desperate,  and  will  work  "cheap" — drives 
some  city  workman  out  of  work  and  so  out  of  a 
home.  Skilled  workmen  have  some  security  of 
occupation,  but  invention  and  machinery  often 
enable  the  unskilled  from  the  country  to  take 
even  their  places.  Trade-unions  force  up  and 
keep  up  wages  for  a  few  ;  but  a  crisis  comes, 
and  in  the  majority  of  trades  the  workman,  hav- 
ing no  land  to  live  on  to  tide  himself  over  a  hard 
day,  is  unable  to  keep  up  his  dues,  and  the 
trade-union  is  broken  up.  In  the  majority  of 


trades,  organization  is  all  but  impossible  be- 
cause of  the  unemployed,  who  will  and  must 
compete  at  any  price.  In  the  United  States 
organized  labor  includes  only  7  per  cent,  of  the 
persons  in  the  United  States  engaged  in  gainful 
occupations.  The  main  occasion  of  competition 
is  the  lack  of  opportunity  upon  the  soil. 

But  the  monopolization  of  land  produces  not 
only  the  extremely  poor  but  the  extremely  rich. 
Men  acquire  a  little  money  by  work  ;  but  the 
great  fortunes  are  made  by  invest- 
ment,  and    often  by  speculation. 
The  great  sphere  for  investment         The 
and  speculation  is  land.     Men  in-    Unearned 
vest    in     Western    mortgages,   in   Increment. 
mines,  above  all  in  city  and  sub- 
urban real  estate.     They  do  noth- 
ing, but  their  money  grows.     The  result  is  un- 
earned increment.     Land  in  cities  is  valuable 
simply  because  it  is  in  the  midst  of  population. 
A  store  in  New  York  City  is  worth  more  than  a 
store  in  the  country,  because  it  has  more  pur- 
chasers ;  more  people  pass  its  windows.    As  the 
city  grows  in  size  the  land  rises  in  value.     The 
owner  of  the  land  does  nothing.     He  may  sleep, 
live  in  luxury,  gamble,  idle,  be  an  angel  or  a 
voluptuary  ;  it  matters  not  what  he  is  or  what 
he  does  ;  so  long  as  he  is  a  land-owner  his  land 
may  rise  in  value.    Such  rise  in  rent  is  unearned 
increment.     It  is  produced,  not  by  him,  but  by 
the  community  which  gives  the  land  its  value. 
Land  to-day  in  portions  of  New  York  City  has 
been  sold  at  $331  per  square  foot.     (See  Real 
Estate  Record  and  Guide  for  September  14, 
1895.)    In  1890,  the  whole  real  estate  of  the  city 
of  New  York  was  valued  at  $2,627,000,000.     In 
1624  the  Dutch  purchased  Manhattan  Island  for 
$24.    On  the  present  site  of  Chicago  in  1816  there 
was  not  a  white  person,  and  the  land  was  practi- 
cally valueless  ;  the  Census  of  1890  estimates  the 
real  estate  value  of  the  city  at  $1,330,000,000. 

"  The  Illinois  Labor  Bureau  in  1895  (Eighth  Annual 
Report,  pp.  104-253)  made  a  careful  investigation  of 
land  values  in  the  city  of  Chicago.  The  most  valu- 
able section  is  known  as  the  'South  Side,'  and  its 
boundaries  are  the  Chicago  River  on  the  north  and 
west,  Twelfth  Street  on  the  south,  and  Lake  Michigan 
on  the  east.  Exclusive  of  streets  it  contains  351.42 
acres.  All  the  great  stores,  wholesale  and  retail,  the 
high  office  buildings,  and  the  great  banking  institu- 
tions are  found  within  this  area.  Deducting  30  acres 
of  public  land  owned  by  the  nation,  State,  county, 
and  cities,  and  55.13  acres  owned  and  used  by  the  rail- 
roads, there  remain  266.29  acres  belonging  to  individ- 
uals and  private  corporations.  This  the  bureau  esti- 
mates to  be  worth  $319,000,000  for  the  land  alone, 
without  reckoning  the  improvements,  worth  as  much 
more.  Of  this  the  largest  holder,  Marshall  Field, 
owns  $11,000,000,  and  the  next  largest  holder,  Levi  Z. 
Leiter,  $10,500,000.  There  are  in  all  1198  owners  of  this 
319,000,000,  of  whom  18,  or  iK  per  cent.,  own  65,000,000, 
or  over  20  per  cent,  of  the  total.  Eighty-eight  persons 
own  136,000,000,  which  is  nearly  one  half  of  the  busi- 
ness center  of  the  city  of  Chicago  (Report,  p.  247). 

"  According  to  this  same  report  (p.  370),  one  quarter 
acre  in  Chicago  in  1830  was  worth  $20  ;  in  1840,  $1500 ; 
in  1850,  $17,500;  in  1860,  $28,000  ;  in  1870,  $120,000;  in  1880, 
$130,000;  in  1890,  $900,000;  in  1894,  $1,250,000." 

It  is  by  such  leaps  that  those  who  bought  land 
50,  30,  20,  even  10  years  ago,  have  made  for- 
tunes without  doing  themselves  any  economi- 
cally productive  work.  Nor  does  this  process 
go  on  only  in  the  great  cities.  Said  Mr.  Mul- 
hall,  in  the  North  American  Review  for  June, 
1895  : 

"  If  we  would  classify  the  whole  wealth  of  the  Union 


Land. 


799 


Land. 


under  two  heads,  urban  and  rural,  the  result  at  differ- 
ent dates  would  be  as  follows  : 


URBAN   AND 


RURAL   WEALTH   OP  THE 
NATION. 


YEARS. 

MILLIONS  OF  DOLLARS. 

PERCENTAGE 
OF  TOTAL. 

Urban. 

Rural. 

Total. 

Urban. 

44.4 
50.6 
63.0 
72.2 

75-4 

Rural. 

3>l69 
8,180 

IS^SS 

31,538 
49,055 

3,967 
7,980 
8,  goo 
12,104 
15,982 

7,  '36 
16,  160 

24,055 
43,642 
65,037 

55-6 
49-4 
37-o 
27.8 
24.6 

1860  

1870  

1880  

i8go  

"In  the  above  table  rural  wealth  is  the  aggregate  of 
the  value  of  lands,  cattle,  and  implements  at  each  cen- 
sus ;  the  rest  is  urban.  We  find  that  rural  or  agricul- 
tural wealth  has  only  quadrupled  in  40  years,  while 
urban  has  multiplied  sixteenfold." 

In  London  (g.v.)  the  ground  rent  is  $75,000,- 
ooo,  and  is  increasing  at  the  rate  of  over  $1,500,- 
ooo  annually.  The  "  gross  annual  value"  of 
real  estate  of  all  kinds  in  the  United  Kingdom, 
ten  elevenths  of  it  being  owned  by  one  two  hun- 
dredths  part  of  the  people,  is  $1,150,000,000.  (For 
authorities  for  these  statements,  see  WEALTH.) 
Land  is  the  basis  of  the  plutocracy  of  the  world. 
Present  conditions  as  to  land,  too,  are  the  po- 
tent cause  of  innumerable  moral  ills.  People 
are  shocked  to-day  at  the  growing  tide  of  pros- 
titution, social  immorality,  licen- 
tiousness among  the  wealthy,  lax- 
Moral  Evils,  ity  among  the  poor.  When  the 
poor  cannot  get  work,  when  they 
are  crowded  into  rotting  tenements, 
where  privacy  is  impossible,  where  modesty  can 
scarcely  be,  where  children  are  compelled  to 
grow  up  amid  ribaldry  and  drunkenness,  pros- 
titution, the  sale  of  girls  for  money,  is  all  but 
inevitable.  It  becomes  still  more  inevitable 
when  thousands  of  idle  young  men  from  the 
luxurious  classes  set  the  example  of  profligacy 
to  still  more  thousands  of  young  men  of  the 
lower  and  middle  classes.  Take  thousands  of 
underpaid,  underfed  young  women,  and  throw 
them  in  stores,  on  the  street,  and  in  type-writ- 
ing offices,  with  thousands  of  overpaid,  overfed 
young  men,  and  there  can  be  only  one  result. 
Let  the  Christian  Church  be  identified,  too,  in 
the  public  mind  with  the  luxurious  classes  ;  let 
there  be  a  divorce  between  the  teachings  of 
Christ  and  the  lives  of  prominent  church  people, 
and  the  masses  of  intelligent  young  men  and 
women  will  grow  skeptical  of  moral  living,  which 
is  a  thousand  times  worse  than  skepticism  of 
God  :  gross  immorality  must  result.  Temper- 
ance workers  speak  of  the  evil  of  the  saloon  ; 
but  facts  are  proving  (see  POVERTY)  that  at  least 
a  large  part  of  intemperance  is  due  to  the  vo- 
luptuous idleness  of  the  rich  and  the  terrible  en- 
vironment of  the  poor.  The  relation  of  the  land 
problem  to  intemperance  can  scarcely  be  con- 
ceived too  close.  Other  moral  evils  arise.  The 
opportunities  to  make  wealth  by  land  invest- 
ment develop  the  love  of  speculation,  and  in 
unexpected  circles,  even  among  women.  Hon- 
est labor  becomes  despised.  Life  in  the  great 
cities  becomes  among  the  poor  a  desperate 
scramble  for  existence  ;  among  the  wealthy  a 


debasing  struggle  to  grow  more  wealthy  with- 
out work. 

From  these  moral  evils  result  political  evils. 
When  the  many  are  poor  and  the  few  are  rich  ; 
when  the  corporations  need  votes  and  the  pro- 
fessional politicians  need  money,  political  purity 
becomes  scarce.  The  greatest  steals,  too,  from 
the  national  Government  have  been  land  steals 
on  the  part  of  railroads  through  land  grants  on 
conditions  never  fulfilled  ;  land  steals  on  the 
part  of  great  syndicates  under  the  cover  of 
Homestead  Laws.  Great  estates  and  great  for- 
tunes are  slaying  democracy  in  America.  (See 
PLUTOCRACY.)  Such  are  some  of  the  results  of 
the  present  conditions  of  land  monopoly  among 
all  civilized  peoples. 

IV.  How  FAR  REFORM  CAN  BE  REACHED  WITH- 
OUT RADICAL  CHANGES  IN  LAND  TENURE. 

Among  those  who  look  for  reform  in  the  land 
question  without  radical  changes  in  the  forms 
of  land  ownership,  there  are  two  main  views. 
One  view  would  seek  reform  by  in- 
creasing   the    number    who    own 
small  land  holdings.     The  classic       Small 
argument  for    this  view    is    John    Holdings. 
Stuart  Mill's.     In   his   Principles 
of  Political  Economy  he  devotes 
many  pages  to  collecting  testimony  to  show  the 
advantages  of  peasant  proprietorship.     Among 
many  other  workers,  he  quotes  Sismondi  as  say- 
ing (Studies  in  Political  Economy,  Essay  III.) : 

"  Wherever  we  find  peasant  proprietors,  we  also  find 
the  comfort,  security,  confidence  in  the  future,  and  in- 
dependence, which  assure  at  once  happiness  and  vir- 
tue. The  peasant  who  with  his  children  does  all  the 
work  of  his  little  inheritance,  who  pays  no  rent  to  any 
one  above  him,  nor  wages  to  any  one  below,  who  reg- 
ulates his  production  by  his  consumption,  who  eats  his 
own  corn,  drinks  his  own  wine,  is  clothed  in  his  own 
hemp  and  wool,  cares  little  for  the  prices  of  the  mar- 
ket ;  for  he  has  little  to  sell  and  little  to  buy,  and  is 
never  ruined  by  revulsions  of  trade.  .  .  .  The  peas- 
ant proprietor  is  of  all  cultivators  the  one  who  gets 
most  from  the  soil,  for  he  is  the  one  who  thinks  most 
of  the  future,  and  who  has  been  most  instructed  by  ex- 
perience. He  is  also  the  one  who  employs  the  human 
powers  to  most  advantage,  because  dividing  his  occu- 
pations among  all  the  members  of  his  family,  he  re- 
serves some  for  every  day  of  the  year,  so  that  nobody 
is  ever  out  of  work.  Of  all  cultivators  he  is  the  hap- 
piest, and  at  the  same  time  the  land  nowhere  occupies, 
and  feeds  amply  without  becoming  exhausted,  so 
many  inhabitants  as  where  they  are  proprietors. 
Finally,  of  all  cultivators  the  peasant  proprietor  is  the 
one  who  gives  most  encouragement  to  commerce  and 
manufactures,  because  he  is  the  richest." 

Arthur  Young  is  quoted  as  saying  (Travels 
in  France,  1787-89,  vol.  i.,  p.  88,  and  vol.  ii., 

p.  51)  : 

" '  M.  le  Brun  has  an  improvement  on  the  Dunes,  which 
he  very  obligingly  showed  me.  Between  the  town  and 
that  place  is  a  great  number  of  neat  little  houses,  built 
each  with  its  garden,  and  one  or  two  fields  enclosed, 
of  most  wretched  blowing  dune  sand,  naturally  as 
white  as  snow,  but  improved  by  industry.  The  magic 
of  property  turns  sand  to  gold.'  And  again  :  'Going 
out  of  Grange,  I  was  surprised  to  find  by  far  the  great- 
est exertion  in  irrigation  which  I  had  yet  seen  in 
France ;  and  then  passed  by  some  steep  mountains, 
highly  cultivated  in  terraces.  Much  watering  at  St. 
Lawrence.  The  scenery  very  interesting  to  a  farmer. 
From  Grange  to  the  mountain  of  rough  ground  which 
I  crossed  the  ride  has  been  the  most  interesting  which 
I  have  taken  in  France ;  the  efforts  of  industry  the 
most  vigorous  ;  the  animation  the  most  lively.  An 
activity  has  been  here  that  has  swept  away  all  diffi- 
culties before  it,  and  has  clothed  the  very  rocks  with 
verdure.  It  would  be  a  disgrace  to  common  sense  to 


Land. 


800 


Land. 


ask  the  cause  :  the  enjoyment  of  property  must  have 
done  it.  Give  a  man  the  secure  possession  of  a  bleak 
rock,  and  he  will  turn  it  into  a  garden  ;  give  him  a 
nine  years'  lease  of  a  garden,  and  he  will  convert  it 
into  a  desert.'" 

Considerations  such  as  these  have  induced 
many  European  economists,  except  perhaps  in 
England,  to  believe  that  in  peasant  proprietor- 
ship or  the  owning  of  the  land  in  small  holdings 
lies  the  solution  of  the  land  question. 

Professor  Marshall,  whom  some  consider  the 
leading  living  English-speaking  economist  of 
the  world,  says  (Economics  of  Industry,  Book 
I.,  chap,  ix.)  : 

''  The  desire  for  the  ownership  of  land  as  an  end  in 
itself  is  still  strong  everywhere,  and  is  gaining  a  new 
force  among  the  English  working  classes.  It  is  to  be 
hoped  that  erelong  there  may  be  a  great  increase  in 
the  number  of  those  who  own  small  plots  which  they 
may  cultivate  with  their  spade,  or  on  which  they 
may  feed  a  cow  or  a  horse.  A  movement  is  being 
made  with  the  purpose  of  grouping  together  a  num- 
ber of  small  holdings,  so  that  they  may  share  the  use 
of  expensive  machinery.  ...  It  is  to  be  hoped  that  a 
speedy  reform  of  the  law,  aided  by  a  good  land  regis- 
ter, will  promote  the  formation  of  small  properties. 
In  a  few  cases  it  may  perhaps  lead  to  their  extinction, 
but  it  will  probably  largely  increase  their  number 
where  they  are  most  wanted." 

Those  who  would  meet  the  land  problem  in 
this  way  look  for  reform  to  the  abolition  of  all 
laws  or  customs,  as  in  England,  of  entail,  or 
any  expedient  for  keeping  large  estates  in  one 
family.  They  seek  laws  facilitating  land  trans- 
fer (g.v.)  ;  they  hope  for  cooperative  agricul- 
ture (g.v.).  In  the  cities  and  industrial  commu- 
nities their  main  reliance  is  building  associations 
(y.v.),  enabling  the  workman  to  buy  a  home. 

The  objections  to  this  view  are  very  great. 
No  one  who  knows  the  present  condition  of  the 
peasant  proprietors  in  continental  Europe  be- 
lieves them  much  if  any  more  prosperous  than 
the  agricultural  classes  of  England  under  a  sys- 
tem of  landlordism.  In  Russia,  the  peasant 
proprietors  cannot  live.  So  much  is  this  the 
case  that  the  majority  of  English  economists 
have  preferred  the  system  of  the  ownership  of 
the  soil  in  large  properties  and  the  renting  of 
it  to  tenants,  protected,  however,  by  laws  of  ten- 
ant-right, etc.  The  small  owner  cannot  apply 
capital  to  land.  Small  farming  is  uneconomic 
farming.  If  this  was  so  in  the  past,  it  is  particu- 
larly so  to-day.  Even  Marshall  says  (Economics 
of  Industry,  Book  I.,  chap,  ix.)  : 

"  Recent  events  (1885)  have  again  increased  the  diffi- 
culties against  which  peasant  proprietors  have  had  to 
contend.  Great  importations  of  grain  and  meat  from 
new  countries  have  lowered  prices,  but  the  burden  of 
the  fall  has  been  borne  in  England  chiefly  by  the  land- 
lords and  farmers.  The  laborers  have  on  the  average 
at  least  as  much  of  the  necessaries,  comforts  and 
luxuries  of  life  as  at  any  previous  time  ;  and  this  in 
spite  of  the  fact  that  many  of  the  ablest  and  strongest 
of  them  have  migrated  to  the  towns  or  to  new  coun- 
tries. But  the  peasant  proprietors,  particularly  of 
arable  land,  have  nothing  to  shield  them  from  the  full 
effects  of  the  fall  in  prices.  Many  of  them  have  lost 
nearly  all  their  little  margin  of  sayings,  and  not  a  few 
are  in  debt.  Even  those  who  are  in  outward  appear- 
ance prosperous  frequently  work  harder  and  live 
more  sparely  than  the  English  laborers." 

Mr.  D.  A.  Wells  says  (Recent  Economic  Changes,  p. 
461)  "that  the  only  possible  future  for  agriculture, 
prosecuted  for  the  sake  of  producing  the  great  staples 
of  food,  is  to  be  found  in  large  farms,  worked  with 
ample  capital,  especially  in  the  form  of  machinery, 
and  with  labor  organized  somewhat  after  the  factory 
system,  is  coming  to  be  the  opinion  of  many  of  the 
best  authorities,  both  in  the  United  States  and  Eu- 
rooe." 


Mr.  Wells  adds  in  a  note  : 

"  An  American  practical  farmer,  the  owner  and 

manager  of  7000  acres  (Mr.  H.  H ,  of  Nebraska),  to 

whom  the  writer  is  indebted  for  many  items  of  infor- 
mation, communicates  the  following  additional  review 
of  this  subject  from  the  American  (Western)  stand- 
point: 'The  average  Western  farm  is  now  recklessly 
managed,  but  capital  will  come  in  greater  volume  and 
set  up  processes  which  will  displace  these  wasteful 
methods.  The  revolution  is  certain,  even  if  the  exact 
steps  cannot  now  be  precisely  indicated.'  " 

The  day  of  the  small  farmer  under  the  pres- 
ent industrial  system  seems  over.     He  cannot 
compete  with  bonanza  farms  tilled  and  worked 
with    expensive    machinery,    well 
stocked,  etc.     Under  the    present 
system  of  land  ownership  the  fu-       Large 
ture  means  large  farms  owned  by    Holdings, 
capitalists,  with   the  mass  of  the 
people  as   their  tenants.     This  is 
the  ideal  of  the  second  class  of  those  who  look 
for  reform  without  radical  change.     They  say, 
let  tiie  world  copy  England.     Let  there  be  large 
estates  owned  by  rich  capitalists,  perhaps  by 
syndicates  ;    let  them  be  worked  by  tenants, 
protected  by  the  law,  well  paid,  and  prosper- 
ous. 

But  this  view  will  not  endure.  For  better  or 
for  worse,  democracy  has  the  future.  Even  in 
England  to-day,  where  this  system  has  been  car- 
ried farthest,  where  the  landed  aristocracy  fur- 
nishes undoubtedly  the  best  landlords  of  the 
world — even  in  England,  step  by  step,  democ- 
racy is  replacing  the  landlord's  power.  Above 
all,  as  we  shall  in  a  moment  see,  is  the  sense  of 
justice  demanding  to-day  that  the  land  be  for 
all,  and  not  be  monopolized  by  the  few.  We 
come,  therefore,  to  consider 

V.  RADICAL  PROPOSALS  FOR  LAND  REFORM. 

These  proposals  are  of  several  kinds.  Un- 
doubtedly most  distinctively  land  reformers  ad- 
vocate the  plan  of  the  single  tax,  first  promi- 
nently advocated  in  Mr.  Henry  George's  Prog- 
ress and  Poverty.  For  a  full  con- 
sideration of  this  proposition,  see 
SINGLE  TAX  ;  we  simply  outline  it  The  Single 
here.  It  proposes  that  an  annual  Tax. 
tax  should  be  put  on  all  land  equal 
to  the  full  rental  value  of  the  land 
apart  from  improvements.  This  would  leave 
in  the  landowner's  hand,  untaxed,  all  the  im- 
provements or  labor  he  has  put  on  the  land, 
but  tax  away  from  him  into  the  hands  of  the 
State  for  the  equitable  good  of  the  community 
all  natural  land  value.  No  titles  need  be 
changed  in  this  way  ;  no  labor  would  be  dis- 
couraged ;  the  results  of  no  labor  would  be 
taken,  but  the  value  of  the  land  itself,  which  no 
individual  has  created,  and  which  equity  de- 
mands should  belong  to  all,  would  be  taken  for 
all.  Especially  in  cities,  where  enormous  values 
have  been  created  by  the  presence  of  the  com- 
munity, would  the  value  of  the  land  be  taken 
for  the  community  which  created  it.  The  re- 
sults of  this  plan  would  be  to  kill  landlordism 
without  discouraging  honest  labor.  This  would, 
be  the  case  because  land,  being  taxed  its  full 
rental  value,  only  those  would  hold  land  who 
got  something  out  of  it  more  than  its  rental 
value,  and  this  could  only  be  done  by  putting 
value  into  it.  The  landlord  would  be  taxed  out 
of  existence  ;  those  who  by  useful  labor  put 


Land. 


801 


Land. 


value  into  the  land  could  alone  be  its  owners 
And  this  would  practically  include  all  who  de- 
sired land,  because  it  has  been  proven  over  and 
over  again  that  were  it  not  for  the  large  estates 
of  landlords,  there  is  plenty  of  land  for  all.  In 
crowded  England,  for  example,  there  are,  ac- 
cording to  Hoyle's  Sources  of  Wealth,  50,000,- 
ooo  acres  of  good  land,  and  her  population  in 
1891  was  27,483,490 — equal  to  some  7,000,000 
families.  This  could  give  every  single  family 
seven  acres  if  they  wished.  But  millions  of 
families  would  not  use  seven  acres.  They 
would  prefer  to  pay,  perhaps,  for  net  more  than 
one  half  an  acre,  and  make  their  living,  not  by 
tilling  the  soil,  but  by  art,  manufacturing,  com- 
merce, etc.  There  would  thus  be  abundant 
land  for  all  who  wanted,  if  no  one  could  afford 
to  hold  more  land  than  he  actually  used.  The 
tax  would  kill  the  rent  value  of  land. 

Nor  would  it  need  a  sudden  revolution  to 
bring  in  the  system.  It  is  one  of  the  best  fea- 
tures of  the  system,  that  it  could  be  brought  in 
gradually  by  simply  raising  the  rate  of  land 
taxes  every  few  years,  till  finally  they  equal  the 
whole  rental  value.  This  process  is  now  actu- 
ally going  on  in  Australasia. 

Nor  would  the  system  bring  hardship  on 
small  farmers  and  the  holders  of  small  lots,  be- 
cause it  would  bring  so  much  money  into  the 
State  that  there  would  need  to  be  no  other  tax  ; 
it  would  be  a  single  tax.  It  would  abolish  all 
the  direct  and  indirect  taxes  which  to-day  press 
upon  the  consumers  of  the  land.  In  free-trade 
countries  it  would  make  unnecessary  all  other 
direct  taxes,  and  in  protective  countries  it  would 
do  away  with  all  those  protective  tariffs  which 
raise  the  price  of  all  the  commodities  the  poor 
have  to  buy.  (For  a  full  discussion  of  this,  see 
SINGLE  TAX.) 

Nor  would  it,  too,  necessitate  the  socialistic 
expansion  of  the  State.  Placing  one  tax,  and 
that  the  easiest  to  collect,  in  place  of  all,  and 
opening  up  land  so  that  every  man  could  have 
opportunity  to  work,  it  could  largely  reduce  the 
machinery  of  the  State,  giving  democratic  free- 
dom and  opportunity  to  all. 

The  supreme  argument,  however,  for  the 
proposition  is  that  it  would  conform  to  the  strict- 
est justice  by  placing  all  on  an  exact  natural 
equality  in  all  but  their  own  abilities.  Those 
who  held  the  best  land  would  have  to  pay  for  it 
the  exact  amount  of  its  superiority  to  other  land, 
because  all  would  pay  the  whole  rental  value. 
Each  man  would  then  get  exactly  according  to 
his  ability.  Such  is  the  argument. 

We  come  next  to  consider  a  proposition  akin 
to  this  and  yet  very  different — that  of  the 
anarchists,  or  extreme  individualists,  who  would 
do  away  with  all  government  and  all  taxation, 
establishing  a  so-called  system  of  "  free  land," 
or  land  to  belong  to  those  who  can  use  it  and  de- 
fend it,  either  by  personal  defense  or  by  cooper- 
ating to  defend  each  other's  land.  (For  a  dis- 
cussion of  this,  see  ANARCHISM.) 

At  the  opposite  extremes  from  this  lie  the 
various  proposals  of  communists,  nationalists, 
socialists,  laud  nationalizers,  who  would  vest  all 
title  in  the  community  and  have  the  land  owned 
and  operated  by  cooperative  commonwealths. 
This  would  mean,  of  course,  socialism,  with  all 
that  that  entails.  It  is  utterly  different  from 


the  proposition  of  the  single  tax.     The  single 
tax  would  diminish  the  sphere  of  the  State ; 
socialism    would  exalt    the   State. 
(For  a  discussion  of  this,  however, 
see  SOCIALISM.)     We  here  only  state       Other 
the  various    propositions,    leaving  Propositions. 
them  to  be  discussed  under  their 
various  heads. 

We  now  notice  the  arguments  raised  against 
these  various  radical  reforms  on  behalf  of  the 
private  ownership  of  the  soil. 

The  argument  for  private  ownership  of  the 
land  may  be  divided  into  two  :  the  argument 
from  expediency  and  the  argument  from  jus- 
tice.   Most  economists  to-day  argue 
from  expediency.     They  maintain 
that  the  argument  from  justice  is  Arguments 
so    uncertain    and    the    theory  of  for  Private 
natural  rights  so  open  to  debate  Ownership. 
that  it    can    settle  nothing.     One 
man  declares  this  to  be  just,  an- 
other that ;    the    argument    from   expediency 
they    consider    the    only  one    we   can   appeal 
to  »  and  this  the   opponents  of  land  nationali- 
zation,  or  of  the    single    tax,   declare    to   be 
strongly  in  favor  of  the  private  ownership  of 
land.     John  Stuart  Mill,  tho  later  converted  to 
a  theory  of  land  nationalization  coupled  with  a 
scheme  for  compensating  landlords,   and  still 
later  (see  MILL)  converted  to  the  belief  that  the 
single  tax  was  the  best  way  in  which  to  realize 
the  equal  right  in  the  value  of  his  soil,  in  his 
earlier  works  made  a  strong  plea  from  expedi- 
ency for  individual  ownership  of  the  soil.     He 
showed  (see  above)  what  peasant  proprietorship 
and  small  holdings  of  the  soil  had  done.    Of  the 
question   whether   the    results    justify   private 
ownership,  he  says  (Dissertations  and  Discus- 
sions, vol.  v.) : 

"The  general  verdict  of  civilized  nations  has  hither- 
to been  that  this  justification  does  exist.  The  private 
appropriation  of  land  has  been  deemed  to  be  beneficial 
to  those  who  do  not,  as  well  as  to  those  who  do,  obtain 
a  share.  And  in  what  manner  beneficial  ?  Let  us 
take  particular  note  of  this  beneficial,  because  the 
strongest  interest  which  the  community  and  the  hu- 
man race  have  in  the  land  is  that  it  should  yield  the 
largest  amount  of  food,  and  other  necessary  or  useful 
things,  required  by  the  community.  Now,  tho  the 
land  itself  is  not  the  work  of  human  beings,  its  prod- 
uce is  ;  and  to  obtain  enough  of  that  produce,  some- 
body must  exert  much  labor ;  and  in  order  that  this 
labor  may  be  supported,  must  expend  a  considerable 
amount  of  the  savings  of  previous  labor.  Now  we 
have  been  taught  by  experience  that  the  great  majori- 
ty of  mankind  will  work  much  harder  and  make 
much  greater  pecuniary  sacrifices  for  themselves  and 
their  immediate  descendants  than  for  the  public.  In 
order,  therefore,  to  give  the  greatest  encouragement 
to  production,  it  has  been  thought  right  that  individ- 
uals should  have  an  exclusive  property  in  land,  so 
that  they  may  have  the  most  possible  to  gain  by  mak- 
ing the  land  as  productive  as  they  can,  and  may  be  in 
no  danger  of  being  hindered  from  doing  so  by  the 
interference  of  any  one  else.  This  is  the  reason  usual- 
ly assigned  for  allowing  the  land  to  be  private  proper- 
ty, and  it  is  the  best  reason  that  can  be  given." 

Later  economists,  arguing  from  expediency, 
dwell  on  the  claim  that  any  radical  change  in 
land  tenures  could  not  safely,  if  it  could  justly, 
be  enacted  without  compensation,  and  that  with 
compensation  the  change  would  be  of  doubtful 
worth  to  the  community. 

Professor  Hadley  (Economics,  1896,  p.  472) 
may  be  perhaps  quoted  as  the  latest  representa- 
tive of  this  view.  He  says  : 

"The  principle  that  private  property  must  not  be 


Land. 


802 


Land. 


taken  without  compensation  Is  no  mere  accidental 
phrase  let  fall  by  courts  or  constitution  makers.  It  is 
an  axiom  ot  political  science.  If  the  progress  of  so- 
ciety renders  the  abolition  of  an  institution  necessary, 
compensation  follows  as  a  matter  of  course.  .  .  . 
This  is  the  critical  weakness  in  land  nationalization 
plans,  like  that  with  which  John  Stuart  Mill's  name 
was  identified.  The  advocates  of  this  plan  proposed 
that  England  should  buy  out  the  landowners  and  ap- 
propriate the  future  gain  in  value.  No  fault  could  be 
found  with  the  equity  of  this  proposal.  But  as  a  fiscal 
measure  it  was  radically  defective.  Leaving  out  of 
account  the  inevitable  losses  due  to  a  scheme  of  quasi- 
compulsory  purchase,  the  scheme  must  have  ended  in 
disaster,  because  the  lands  \yhich  it  was  proposed  to 
buy  have  fallen  in  value  instead  of  rising.  .  .  . 
These  arguments  do  not  militate  against  reforms  in 
taxation,  which  shall  carry  us  in  the  general  direc- 
tion indicated  by  the  single  tax  theory.  Wagner, 
after  an  investigation  of  the  subject  whose  thorough- 
ness is  worthy  of  the  highest  praise  whether  we  can 
accept  his  conclusions  or  not,  is  inclined  to  look  with 
favor  on  public  appropriation  of  future  increments  in 
the  value  of  city  real  estate  as  distinct  from  agricul- 
tural land.  Without  going  so  far  as  Wagner,  most 
economists  would  be  willing  to  agree  that  more  taxes 
should  be  assessed  upon  economic  rent  and  less  upon 
improvements." 

Professor  Sidgwick,  writing  from  the  stand- 
point of  "  utilitarian  individualism,"  puts  sub- 
stantially the  same  view  in  other  words  when 
he  says  {Elements  of  Politics,  chap,  v.)  : 

"  If  it  is  granted,  as  I  should  grant,  that  the  landless 
members  of  the  community  have  a  legitimate  claim  to 
the  compensation  for  the  opportunities  of  applying 
labor  to  land  from  which  they  are  excluded  by  its  ap- 
propriation, then  the  question  as  to  the  manner  in 
which  this  compensation  is  to  be  taken  can  only  be  de- 
cided, I  conceive,  bjr  a  careful  balance  of  expediencies. 
On  the  one  hand,  it  is  for  the  general  good  that  the  in- 
dividual cultivator's  energy  and  enterprise  should  be 
encouraged  as  much  as  possible,  and  complete  owner- 
ship is  the  most  simple  and  effective  way  of  encourag- 
ing it ;  on  the  other  hand,  it  seems  probable  that  the 
prospective  increase  of  value,  accruing  independently 
of  the  owner's  energy  and  enterprise,  will  not  be  ade- 
quately represented  in  the  sum  received  for  the  land, 
so  that  the  compensation  thus  directly  secured  to 
future  generations  for  the  opportunities  from  which 
they  are  excluded  is  not  likely  to  be  adequate.  In 
practically  deciding  the  question  we  have  to  take  into 
account  considerations  that  do  not  fall  within  the 
scope  of  the  present  discussion,  since  we  cannot  but 
be  partly  influenced  by  the  moral  and  intellectual 
qualities  likely  to  be  possessed  by  the  government 
that,  if  the  system  of  leases  be  adopted,  would  have 
the  delicate  task  of  artificially  providing  for  the  lessee 
that  encouragement  of  industry  and  thrift  which  the 
system  of  private  ownership  gives  him  naturally." 

This  is  the  view  probably  held  by  most  pro- 
fessorial economists  to-day.  The  more  popular 
argument  from  expediency  claims  that  the  whole 
history  of  the  world  shows  that  civilization, 
prosperity,  and  progress  have  gone  with  pri- 
vate property  in  land,  and  that  to  subvert  this 
institution  would  be  to  revert  to  barbarism  and 
discourage  thrift  and  industry.  This  argument 
is  undoubtedly  the  main  popular  argument  on 
this  side.  It  is  repeated  by  its  supporters  over 
and  over  again,  and  in  a  thousand  forms.  Mr. 
J.  C.  Spence,  in  a  tract  on  Property  in  Land, 
published  by  the  Liberty  and  Property  Defense 
League,  says  : 

"The  whole  history  of  agriculture  might  be  claimed 
as  evidence  that  land  held  in  common  by  a  tribe  or  a 
people  can  never  be  put  to  its  best  uses  ;  that  fixity  of 
tenure  is  essential  to  improvement,  and  that  no  tenure 
is  so  perfect  as  absolute  ownership.  The  fact  that 
manufactures  and  commerce  prosper  best  where  least 
hampered  by  State  interference  indicates  that  the 
proper  treatment  of  the  land  question  is  the  abolition 
of  all  artificial  restrictions  on  its  absolute  ownership." 

But  the  supporters  of  private  property  in  land 
do  not  only  argue  from  expediency,  they  also 


argue  from  justice.  Mr.  Herbert  Spencer,  who, 
in  his  Social  Statics,  written  in  1851,  declared 
that  equity  "  does  not  permit  property  in  land," 
in  his  Justice  (1891)  says  that  tho  this  be  true, 
nevertheless  the  State,  having  long  allowed  the 
claims  of  the  land-owners,  to  tax  away  or  to 
legislate  away  the  value  of  their  lands  would  be 
unjust,  while  to  compensate  them  would  cost 
more  than  it  is  worth  ;  and  that  even  if  titles 
to  land  do  ultimately  rest  on  robbery  and  injus- 
tice in  the  original  ownership,  the  landless  to- 
day cannot  be  shown  to  represent  those  from 
whom  the  land  was  originally  taken.  Another 
form  of  the  argument  that  land  nationalization 
or  even  the  system  of  the  single  tax  would  be 
unjust  is  the  claim  that  the  value  of  land  to- 
day, even  in  the  cities,  does  not  come  from  the 
mere  natural  sources  or  even  from  the  mere 
growth  of  the  community,  but  to  a  very  large 
extent  at  least  from  the  labor,  the  industry,  the 
wit  and  invention  of  land-owners,  and  that  hence 
to  legislate  or  tax  away  land  values  would  rob 
the  land-owners  of  the  results  of  their  labors 
and  their  fathers',  and  hence  both  be  unjust  and 
inexpedient  in  discouraging  industry  and  prog- 
ress. In  the  Political  Science  Quarterly  (vol.  vi., 
pp.  625-634)  Mr.  C.  B.  Spahr  argues  that  land  in 
New  York  City  is  worth  fier  family  $4000  ;  in 
Ohio,  $2000  ;  and  in  Mississippi,  $400  ;  and  that 
therefore  the  value  of  the  land  cannot  be  meas- 
ured merely  by  the  number  of  people  on  it,  but 
does  depend  very  largely  on  the  improvement 
of  the  land.  The  pouring  of  Hungarians  and 
Italians  into  certain  portions  of  New  York  City 
does  not  raise,  but  lowers  the  value  of  land  in 
that  vicinity.  Therefore  land  values  come  not 
merely  from  population  or  economic  rent,  but 
from  the  use  made  of  the  soil,  from  the  activi- 
ties of  the  city  ;  to  tax  land  values  to  the  full 
would  therefore  tax  and  discourage  those  whose 
energy  and  improvements  have  largely,  tho  it 
is  admitted  not  wholly,  made  land  valuable  to- 
day. Mr.  Edward  Atkinson  follows  the  same 
line  of  argument  (Single  Tax  discussion  before 
the  American  Social  Association,  September  5, 
1890)  when  he  says  : 

"  Put  two  men  of  different  capacity  on  land  of  the 
same  quality,  and  on  the  same  crop  one  \vill  get  a  large 
rent,  the  other  will  barely  get  a  subsistence.  Deal 
with  two  lots  of  land  in  the  same  city  ;  put  a  good 
building  on  one  and  a  poor  building  on  the  other  ;  one 
will  yield  a  large  rent,  the  other  no  rent  at  all.  It  is 
neither  the  quality  of  the  land  nor  the  possession  of  the 
land  which  governs  the  income  ;  it  is  the  labor  and 
capital  applied  to  the  land,  and,  more  than  all,  the 
mental  capacity  (i.e.,  the  mental  faculty),  which  is  the 
prime  factor  in  all  production.  Land  itself  possesses 
no  value.  The  price  paid  for  it  is  paid  for  the  choice 
of  lots. 

"  Economic  rent  is  a  mere  hypothesis,  based  on  the 
supposed  action  of  an  economic  man,  like  whom  no- 
man  ever  existed.  It  is  not  a  working  theory,  and 
may  be  safely  disregarded  in  the  consideration  of  the 
subject  with  which  we  are  now  attempting  to  deal." 

This  argument  thus  claims  that  the  value  of 
the  land  of  old  countries  like  England,  great 
centers  like  New  York  City,  rich  farming  com- 
munities like  Ohio,  depends  not  primarily  on 
growth  of  population  or  fertility  of  soil,  but  on 
what  the  owners  of  the  soil  have  done  and  are 
doing,  so  that  to  take  the  vakie  would  be  unjust 
and  unwise.  Such  are  the  main  arguments 
against  all  forms  of  land  nationalization  or  a 
single  tax. 


Land. 


803 


Land. 


To  this  it  must  be  answered,  first,  that  few 
if  any  radical  land  reformers  propose  to-day  to 
compensate    taxed   land-owners.     They  argue 
that  if  it  be  true  that  equity  does 
not  permit  property  in  land,  injus- 
Arguments  tice  does  not  become    justice    by 
against      lapse  of  time,  and  that  therefore 
Private      the  land-owners  have  no  equity  in 
Ownership,  the  land.    They  ask  with  Mr.  Spen- 
cer himself,  against  his  own  later 
views  :    ' '  How  long  does  it  take 
for  what  was  originally  a  wrong  to  grow  into  a 
right  ?"     Land  reformers,  however,  do  not  pro- 
pose suddenly  to  tax  or  legislate  away  landed 
property.     They  propose  to  do  it  gradually  and 
with  full  warning  by  gradually  raising  the  tax 
slightly  every  few  years,  so  giving  present  pro- 
prietors full  warning  to  prepare  for  the  new 
conditions.     This  does  away   with  the  whole 
argument  that  land  nationalization  with  com- 
pensation would  not  pay.     Even  the  economists 
quoted  above  favor  increased  taxation  of  land 
values. 

As  for  the  argument  from  expediency,  land 
reformers  quote  all  the  evils  we  have  shown 
above  to  prove  the  inexpediency  of  private  prop- 
erty in  land.  A  single  tax  would  preserve  all 
the  good  points  in  the  present  system  and  do 
away  only  with  its  wrongs.  The  real  user  of 
the  soil,  so  long  as  he  used  it  productively, 
would,  under  the  single  tax — and  the  socialists 
claim  under  socialism — have  security  of  tenure. 
It  would  give  all  the  spur  to  honest  labor  now 
given  by  private  capital.  It  is  rent  only  that 
would  be  destroyed. 

The  main  argument  against  private  land 
ownership  is  its  absolute  injustice,  as  declared 
by  Mr.  Spencer  himself,  and  by  an  overwhelm- 
ing consensus  of  the  deepest  thinkers  of  all 
ages.  Granted  that  the  owners  of  the  soil  have 
contributed  to  human  advance,  they  have  had 
vastly  more  opportunity  to  do  so.  Put  the  chil- 
dren of  the  slums,  from  t/ieir  birth,  under  the 
conditions  of  the  land  aristocracy  of  England, 
and  who  will  say  whether  they  might  not  have 
done  at  least  as  much.  (See  HEREDITY  ;  E.\- 
VIRONMENT.)  As  it  is,  the  poor,  the  landless, 
have  at  least  equaled  the  land  class  in  making 
the  inventions  and  progress  of  the  world,  All 
that  justice  asks  is  equal  opportunity  for  all, 
and  it  is  absolutely  certain  that  this  cannot  pos- 
sibly be  where  millions  are  deferred  from  access 
to  the  land.  We  close  this  article  by  quoting 
the  opinions  of  some  thinkers  whose  weight  and 
honesty  of  utterance  are  beyond  question  : 

Herbert  Spencer  :  "  Equity  does  not  permit  property 
in  land.  For  if  one  portion  of  the  earth's  surface  may 
justly  become  the  possession  of  an  individual,  held  for 
his  sole  use  and  benefit,  as  a  thing  to  which  he  has  an 
exclusive  right,  then  other  portions  of  its  surface  may 
be  so  held,  and  our  planet  must  then  lapse  into  private 
hands.  It  follows  that  if  the  landowners  have  a  valid 
right  to  its  surface,  all  who  are  not  landowners  have 
no  right  at  all  to  its  surface"  (Social  Statics). 

"  Briefly  reviewing  the  argument,  we  see  that  the 
right  of  each  man  to  the  use  of  the  earth,  limited  only 
by  the  like  rights  of  his  fellow-men,  is  immediately 
deducible  from  the  law  of  equal  freedom.  We  see 
that  the  maintenance  of  this  right  necessarily  forbids 
private  property  in  land.  On  examination,  all  exist- 
ing titles  to  such  property  turn  out  to  be  invalid  ;  those 
founded  on  reclamation  inclusive.  It  appears  that 
not  even  an  equal  apportionment  of  the  earth  among 
its  present  inhabitants  could  generate  a  legitimate 
proprietorship.  We  find  that  it  pushed  to  its  ultimate 
consequences  a  claim  to  exclusive  possession  of  the 


soil  involves  a  land-owning  despotism.  We  further 
find  that  such  a  claim  is  constantly  denied  by  the 
enactments  of  our  legislature.  And^  we  find,  lastly,, 
that  the  theory  of  the  coheirship  of  all  men  to  the  soil 
is  consistent  with  the  highest  civilization  ;  and  that, 
however  difficult  it  may  be  to  embody  that  theory  in 
fact,  equity  sternly  commands  it  to  be  done"  (Social 
Statics). 

"  There  is  reason  to  suspect  that  the  inhabited  area,, 
which  cannot  be  produced  by  labor,  will  eventually  be 
distinguished  as  something  which  may  not  be  privately 
possessed"  (Letter  to  the  Times,  November  7.  1889). 

Emile  de  Lavelaye  (Primitive  Property)  :  "  The  gen- 
eral principles  of  j  urists  commend  the  universal  custom 
of  primitive  nations,  which  reserved  to  the  tribe  the 
collective  ownership  of  the  soil." 

Bishop  Nulty  :  "The  land  of  every  country  is  the 
common  property  of  the  people  of  that  country." 

Richard  Cobden  :  "  I  warn  ministers,  and  I  warn 
landowners  and  the  aristocracy  of  this  country,  against 
forcing  upon  the  attention  of  the  middle  and  industrial 
classes  the  subject  of  taxation.  For  great  as  I  believe 
the  grievance  of  the  protective  system,  mighty  as  I 
consider  the  fraud  and  injustice  of  the  corn  laws,  I 
verily  believe,  if  you  were  to  bring  forward  the  history 
of  taxation  in  this  country  for  the  last  150  years,  you 
will  find  as  black  a  record  against  the  landowners  as 
even  in  the  corn  law  itself.  I  warn  them  against  rip- 
ping up  the  subject  of  taxation.  If  they  want  another 
league  at  the  death  of  this  one,  if  they  want  another 
organization  and  a  motive,  then  let  them  force  the 
middle  and  industrial  classes  to  understand  how  they 
have  been  cheated^  robbed,  and  bamboozled.'1 

Grant    Allen    (Contemporary    Review,    May,    188g) : 
"  Not  one  solitary  square  inch  of  English  soil  remains 
unclaimed  on  which  the  landless  citizen  can  legally  lay 
his  head,  without  paying  tax  and  toll  to 
somebody  ;  in  other  words,  without  giv- 
ing a  part  of  his  own  labor,  or  the  prod-     Opinions. 
uct  of  his  labor,  to  one  of  the  squatting 
and  tabooing  class  (the  landlords),  in  ex- 
change for  their  permission  (which  they  can  withhold 
if    they  choose)  merely  to  go  on  existing  upon  the 
ground  which  was  originally  common  to  all  alike,  and 
has  been  unjustly  seized  upon  (through  what  partic- 
ular process  matters  little)  by  the  ancestors  or  pred- 
ecessors of  the  present  monopolists." 

Mr.  Gladstone  (Speech  at  West  Calder,  November 
27,  1879) :  "  Those  persons  who  possess  large  portions 
of  the  earth's  space  are  not  altogether  m  the  same 
position  as  the  possessors  of  mere  personalty.  Person- 
alty does  not  impose  limitations  on  the  action  and  in- 
dustry of  man  and  the  well-being  of  the  community 
as  possession  of  land  does,  and  therefore  I  freely  own 
that  compulsory  expropriation  is  a  thing  which  is  ad- 
missible, and  even  sound  in  principle." 

(Speech  at  Hawarden,  October,  1889) :  ''  I  fully  admit 
this— I  stated  it  long  ago  in  Midlothian,  and  I  say  it 
now  without  the  slightest  doubt— that  if  the  time  came 
when  the  British  nation  found  that  the  land  should  be 
nationalized,  and  it  would  be  wise  to  do  it,  they  have 
a  perfect  right  to  do  it." 

Thomas  Carlyle:  "  The  notion  of  selling  for  certain 
bits  of  metal  the  Iliad  of  Homer,  how  much  more  the 
land  of  the  world  Creator,  is  a  ridiculous  impossi- 
bility." 

J.  A.  Froude  •.  "  Under  the  feudal  system  the  proprie- 
tor was  the  crown,  as  representing  the  nation  ,•  while 
the  subordinate  tenures  were  held  with  duties  attached 
to  them,  and  were  liable,  on  non-fulfilment,  to  for- 
feiture" 

"  Land  never  was  private  property  in  that  personal 
sense  in  which  we  speak  of  a  thing  as  our  own,  with 
which  we  may  do  as  we  please." 

"  Land,  properly  speaking,  cannot  be  owned  by  any 
man  ;  it  belongs  to  all  the  human  race." 

Frederic  Harrison  (Lecture  to  the  Edinburgh  Philo- 
sophic Institution,  January,  1884)  :  "They  must  be 
ready  to  act  on  the  ancient  principle  of  the  English  law, 
that  the  nation  was  the  ultimate  owner  of  the  soil." 

Rousseau  (Discours  sur  I'Orig-ine  de  f  Inegalite  par- 
mi  les  Hommes,  1753):  "The  first  man  who,  having  en- 
closed a  plot  of  ground,  took  upon  himself  to  say,  "This 
is  mine,  and  found  people  silly  enough  to  believe 
him,  was  the  real  founder  of  civil  society.  How  many 
crimes,  how  many  wars,  how  many  murders,  how- 
much  misery  and  horror,  would  have  been  spared  the 
human  race  if  some  one,  tearing  up  the  fence  and  fill- 
ing in  the  ditch,  had  cried  out  to  his  fellows  :  'Give  no- 
heed  to  this  impostor ;  you  are  lost  if  you  forget  that 
the  produce  belongs  to  all,  the  land  to  none.'" 

Professor  F.  W.  Newman  :  "The  history  of  the  grad- 
ual, stealthy,  but  really  nefarious  revolution,  in  which 
landlords,  by  their  own  legislative  power  and  their 


Land. 


804 


Land  Restoration,  the  English. 


influence  over  lawyers,  changed  themselves  into  land- 
owners  needs  to  be  popularized." 

Sir  Henry  Maine  {Village Communities) :  "The terri- 
ble problem  of  pauperism  began  to  press  on  English 
statesmen  as  soon  as  the  old  English  cultivating  groups 
(in  which  land  was  collectively,  and  not  privately, 
owned)  began  distinctly  to  fall  to  pieces." 

John  Ruskin  (Time  and  Tide):  "Bodies  of  men, 
land,  water,  and  air  are  the  principle  of  those  things 
which  are  not,  and  which  it  is  criminal  to  consider  as, 
personal  or  exchangeable  property." 

The  Right  Honorable  John  Morley  (Interview  at 
Newcastle,  November,  1889) :  "  I  have  always  thought 
our  forefathers  made  a  great  mistake  when  they  did 
not  reserve  the  minerals  to  the  nation." 

(Speech  in  the  House  of  Commons,  May  6,  1890)  :  "  The 
question  of  the  unearned  increment  will  have  to  be 
faced.  It  is  unendurable  that  great  increments  which 
have  been  formed  by  the  industry  of  others  should  be 
absorbed  by  people  who  have  contributed  nothing  to 
that  increase. 

Sir  William  Blackst.one  (Commentaries):  "Accurate- 
ly and  strictly  speaking,  there  is  no  foundation  in  na- 
ture or  in  natural  law  why  a  set  of  words  on  parch- 
ment should  convey  the  dominion  of  land." 

Ralph  Waldo  Emerson  :  "  While  another  man  has  no 
land,  my  title  to  mine,  your  title  to  yours,  is  at  once 
vitiated." 

Judge  Hughes  (Speech  at  Church  Congress,  1888) : 
''  The  first  thing  which  the  democracy  will  write  upon 
the  slate  will  be  the  nationalization  or  the  land." 

Alfred  Russel  Wallace  (Malay  Archipelago,  1868) : 
"  We  permit  absolute  possession  of  the  soil  of  our 
country  with  no  legal  rights  of  existence  on  the  soil  to 
the  vast  majority  who  do  not  possess  it.  A  great  land- 
holder may  legally  convert  his  whole  property  into  a 
forest  or  hunting  ground,  and  expel  every  human  be- 
ing who  has  hitherto  lived  upon  it.  In  a  thickly  popu- 
lated country  like  England,  where  almost  every  acre 
has  its  owner  and  occupier,  this  is  a  power  of  legally 
destroying  his  fellow-creatures  ;  and  that  such  a  power 
should  exist,  and  be  exercised  by  individuals,  in  how- 
ever small  a  degree,  indicates  that  as  regards  true 
social  science  we  are  still  in  a  state  of  barbarism." 

Adam  Smith  (Wealth  of  Nations):  "The  rent  of 
land,  therefore,  considered  as  the  price  paid  for  the 
use  of  the  land,  is  naturally  a  monopoly  price.  It  is 
not  at  all  proportional  to  what  the  landlord  may  have 
laid  out  upon  the  improvement  of  the  land,  or  to  what 
lie  can  afford  to  take  ;  but  to  what  the  farmer  can 
afford  to  give." 

John  Stuart  Mill  (Principles  of  Political  Economy)  : 
"  The  essential  principle  of  property  being  to  assure  to 
persons  what  they  have  produced  by  their  labor  and 
accumulated  by  their  abstinence,  this  principle  cannot 
apply  to  what  is  not  the  produce  of  labor,  the  raw 
material  of  the  earth."  "  No  man  made  the  land  ;  it  is 
the  original  inheritance  of  the  whole  species."  "  The 
land  of  every  country  belongs  to  the  people  of  that 
country.' 

General  Francis  Walker  (First  Lessons  in  Political 
Economy) .  "  It  certainly  is  true  that  any  increase  in 
the  rental  value  or  selling  value  of  land  is  due  not  to 
the  exertions  and  sacrifices  of  the  owners  of  the  land, 
but  to  the  exertions  and  sacrifices  of  the  community. 
It  is  certainly  true  that  economic  rent  tends  to  increase 
with  the  growth  of  wealth  and  population,  and  that 
thus  a  larger  and  larger  share  of  the  product  of  in- 
dustry tends  to  pass  into  the  hands  of  the  owners  of 
land,  not  because  they  have  done  more  for  society,  but 
because  society  has  greater  need  of  that  which  they 
control." 

Professor  Alfred  Marshall  (Principles oj  Economics)  : 
"  All  writers  on  economics  are  compelled  to  make  a 
distinction  between  land  and  other  things." 

References  •  For  the  history  of  land  tenures,  see  De 
Laveleye's  Primitive  Property  ;  Maine's  Early  History 
of  Institutions  .  Fustil  de  Coulange's  Origin  of  Prop- 
erty in  Land  (tr  ) ,  S  W.  Thackeray's  The  Land  and 
the  Community  :  J  S.  Mill's  Political  Economy  (chaps. 
on  land)  For  the  various  views  to-day  as  to  land,  see 
F  A.  Walker's  Property  in  Land;  Henry  George's 
Progress  and  Poverty  and  other  writings :  A.  R. 
Wallace's  Land  Nationalization 

LAND  BANKS.  See  COOPERATIVE  BANKS  ; 
BANKS  AND  BANKING. 

LAND  NATIONALIZATION  SOCI- 
ETY, THE.— The  English  Land  Nationaliza- 
tion Society  was  established  in  March,  1881.  It 
was  the  result  of  an  article  written  by  Dr.  Alfred 


Russel  Wallace  in  the  Contemporary  Review 
for  November,  1880,  under  the  title  of  How  to 
Nationalize  the  Land.  A  Radical  Solution 
of  the  Irish  Land  Question.  Among  the  first 
members  of  the  society  were  Miss  Helen  Tay- 
lor, stepdaughter  of  John  Stuart  Mill  ;  Dr.  Eliza- 
beth Blackwell  ;  Alfred  Russel  Wallace  ;  A.  C. 
Swinton,  who  suggested  the  formation  of  the 
society  ;  Emeritus  Professor  Francis  Newman, 
the  brother  of  Cardinal  Newman  ;  E.  T.  Craig, 
the  founder  of  the  Ralahine  Colony  ;  and  Her- 
bert Burrows.  The  society  has  been  continu- 
ously active  in  its  propaganda,  and  especially 
so  during  the  last  six  years.  Its  income  has 
also  increased  now  that  its  principles  have  be- 
come better  known.  In  1888  one  of  its  Scottish 
members  gave  a  donation  of  ^500  which  enabled 
the  society  to  organize  an  extensive  series  of 
meetings  in  the  winter  of  1888  and  1889.  In 
November,  1889,  it  founded  its  monthly  news- 
paper, called  Land  and  Labor.  In  the  fol- 
lowing summer  the  society  pioneered  the  open- 
air  agrarian  mission  work  which  has  since  be- 
come so  well  known  in  connection  with  the 
yellow  vans  of  the  society  and  the  red  vans  of 
the  English  Land  Restoration  League  (q.v.}. 
This  work  was  suggested  by  a  successful  ex- 
periment with  the  Land  and  Labor  cart  which 
worked  in  charge  of  Joseph  Hyder,  the  secre- 
tary of  the  society,  in  1890.  The  following  year 
saw  the  advent  of  the  yellow  and  red  vans. 
The  van  lecturers  are  best  known  in  the  north 
of  the  country  and  in  Scotland,  they  having 
given  especial  attention  to  the  mining  villages 
and  towns.  While  favoring  the  taxation  of 
land  values,  the  society  lays  most  stress  upon 
the  actual  compulsory  acquisition  of  the  land  by 
public  authorities.  It  proposes  to  gradually 
"take  the  land,"  as  distinguished  from  Henry 
George's  proposal  to  gradually  "  tax  the  rent." 

LAND  RESTORATION  LEAGUE,  THE 
ENGLISH.— In  1883,  a  few  friends  who  had 
been  meeting  at  each  other's  houses  for  the 
study  of  Henry  George's  Progress  and  Po-v^ 
erty,  decided  to  form  a  society  ' '  to  advance  the 
principles  laid  down  by  Henry  George  for  the 
restitution  of  the  land  to  the  people. "  Among 
the  earliest  members  of  the  "  Land  Reform 
Union"  thus  established  were  Miss  Helen  Tay- 
lor, the  Rev.  Stewart  Headlam,  William  Saun- 
ders,  J.  L.  Joynes  (late  one  of  the  masters  in 
Eton  College),  Professor  Symes  (Nottingham), 
Minor-Canon  Shuttleworth,  G.  B.  Shaw,  S.  Oli- 
vier, Rev.  P.  H.  Wicksteed,  etc,  From  the  first 
the  new  society  entered  on  its  campaign  with 
marked  vigor  and  success.  A  number  of  leaf- 
lets were  issued,  including  a  summary  of  the 
argument  of  Herbert  Spencer's  famous  ninth 
chapter  of  Social  Statics,  the  accuracy  of  which, 
after  more  than  10  years  of  uninterrupted  pub- 
lication, has  lately  been  violently  impugned  by 
Mr.  Spencer  and  vigorously  and  successfully 
defended  by  the  League  in  the  public  press. 
A  monthly  paper,  The  Christian  Socialist,  was 
founded  by  members  of  the  committee  of  the 
new  society,  and  a  guarantee  fund  raised  for 
an  extended  "  Henry  George  campaign."  Mr. 
George  visited  England  and  addressed  large 
meetings  in  London  and  the  principal  provin- 
cial towns.  At  the  first  annual  meeting  (May, 


Land  Restoration,  the  English. 


805 


Lassalle,  Ferdinand. 


1884)  the  name  of  the  society  was  changed  to 
"  English  Land  Restoration  League."  A  mani- 
festo drafted  by  Henry  George  was  issued,  and 
the  League  settled  down,  to  its  long  siege  of  the 
citadel  of  landlordism.  The  history  of  the  next 
few  years  is  an  unbroken  record  of  great  activ- 
ity— lectures  without  number  in  the  London 
clubs,  meetings  in  town  halls,  open-air  meet- 
ings in  the  parks  and  open  spaces,  conferences 
on  the  land  question,  newspaper  correspond- 
ence, a  voluminous  output  of  leaflets  and  pam- 
phlets, an  occasional  "  Henry  George  cam- 
paign." The  only  demonstration  ever  held  on 
the  open  space  in  front  of  the  Royal  Exchange, 
in  the  very  heart  of  the  city  of  London,  when 
Mr.  George  pointed  the  moral  of  the  inscription 
over  the  portals  of  that  building  ("  The  earth  is 
the  Lord's,"  etc.),  was  organized  by  the  League 
in  January,  1885.  Shortly  afterward,  at  the 
general  election,  two  members  (J.  C.  Durant 
and  W.  Saunders)  were  returned  to  the  short 
lived  Home  Rule  Parliament.  In  March,  1886, 
Mr.  Saunders  moved  the  resolution  in  the  House 
of  Commons  which  referred  to  the  Town  Hold- 
ings Committee  the  question  of  the  taxation  of 
ground  values.  The  League  has  taken  an  ac- 
tive part  in  all  the  recent  parliamentary  and 
municipal  elections.  Just  before  the  general 
election  of  1892  about  40,000  circulars,  with  a 
printed  paper  of  questions  for  candidates,  were 
posted  to  the  members  and  friends  of  the 
League,  and  a  fairly  complete  record  was  ob- 
tained of  the  pledges  of  candidates — in  spite  of 
the  protest  of  one  Liberal  candidate  against  this 
method  of  securing  written  promises  "which 
might  be  used  against  the  candidate  if  he  should 
be  elected!"  Every  proposal  for  "land  pur- 
chase" has  been  strenuously  resisted  by  the 
League,  which  has  protested  from  the  first 
against  "  every  proposal  for  buying  out  Irish  or 
other  landlords  at  the  expense  or  under  the 
guarantee  of  the  taxpayers,  or  for  creating  a 
new  class  of  landlords  under  the  name  of  '  peas- 
ant proprietors.'  "  It  was  owing  to  the  per- 
sistency of  its  treasurer  in  Parliament  that  the 
alternative  of  compulsory  hiring  was  inserted  in 
the  compulsory  purchase  (land)  clauses  of  the 
Parish  Councils  Bill.  Till  the  end  of  1890  the 
active  work  of  the  League  was  almost  entirely 
confined  to  the  towns.  In  1891  a  special  fund 
was  raised  for  village  propaganda.  A  "red 
van"  was  fitted  out,  and  a  successful  campaign 
was  carried  on  from  April  17  to  October  22  in 
the  villages  of  Suffolk.  The  objects  which 
the  red  van  were  intended  to  serve  were  (i)  the 
propagation  of  land  restoration  principles  ;  (2) 
the  organization  of  the  agricultural  laborers  ; 
(3)  the  collection  of  full  and  accurate  informa- 
tion as  to  the  social  condition  of  the  villages. 
In  1892  five  red  vans  were  sent  out.  During 
1894,  531  red  van  meetings  were  held.  In  every 
case  the  red  van  meetings  are  held  in  coopera- 
tion with  a  local,  self-governing,  and  indepen- 
dent laborers'  union,  registered  under  the 
Trade-Union  Acts. 

This  article  is  abridged  from  an  article  in  the 
English  Labor  Annual  for  1895  by  Frederick 
Verinder. 

LAND  TRANSFER  REFORM.— Under 
the  ordinary  forms  of  proving  title  to  land  great 


expense  is  always  involved,  especially  if  the 
land  has  been  transferred  a  number  of  times. 
Indeed,  this  expense  of  securing  an  abstract  in 
such  cases  and  having  the  title  properly  exam- 
ined by  a  competent  lawyer  reduces  by  a  heavy 
percentage  the  amount  received  by  the  seller. 
-  Again,  there  is  frequently  great  difficulty  in 
securing  any  clear  title  to  land.  An  abstract 
cannot  show  a  clear  title  ;  even  the  careful  opin- 
ion of  a  well-trained  real  estate  lawyer  is  only  a 
ground  for  a  presumptive  opinion.  If  the  land 
has  been  sold  and  bought  several  times,  espe- 
cially if  some  years  have  elapsed  since  such 
transfer,  no  one  can  be  sure  of  his  title.  Court 
records  show  many  an  instance  of  innocent  pur- 
chasers losing  land  fairly  paid  for  through  the 
defects  of  the  present  system  of  proving  titles. 

The  Torrens  system  of  laild  transfer,  originat- 
ing in  Australia  and  applied  in  Manitoba,  Brit- 
ish Columbia,  and  Ontario,  where  the  system 
has  been  in  use  for  many  years  and  with  uni- 
versal success,  has  been  invented  to  meet  this 
evil. 

The  system  provides  that  any  land-owner 
may  take  his  evidence  of  title  to  the  land  trans- 
fer office  provided  by  law,  and  upon  proving  his 
title  to  the  satisfaction  of  the  registrar,  who 
acts  in  behalf  of  the  State,  may  have  his  land 
registered  to  him  as  owner,  and  may  receive 
from  the  office  a  certificate  to  this  effect  This 
registration  gives  him  an  indefeasible  title  ;  and 
if  he  wishes  to  sell,  it  is  not  necessary  for  him 
to  trace  his  title  beyond  the  one  registration  in 
the  land  transfer  office.  The  Government  guar- 
antees that  title.  In  case  of  sale,  he  fills  out  a 
simple  memorandum  of  the  transfer  ;  this,  with 
his  certificate,  is  taken  to  the  registrar.  The 
transfer  is  then  entered  upon  the  registrar's 
book  and  upon  the  certificate,  and  the  transfer 
is  accomplished.  The  purchaser  has  now  the 
indefeasible  title  with  the  Government  guar- 
antee. It  is  the  registration  that  transfers  the 
title — not  the  filling  out  of  the  memorandum  of 
transfer,  nor  signing  any  certificate. 

LASSALLE,  FERDINAND,  was  born  in 
1825  at  Breslau,  Germany,  of  wealthy  Jewish 
parentage.  He  studied  at  the  universities  of 
Breslau  and  Berlin,  devoting  himself  to  philoso- 
phy. Humboldt  called  him  "  Das  Wunder- 
kind."  Savigny  called  his  Das  System  der 
erivorbenen  Reekie  (1861)  "  the  ablest  legal  book 
since  the  sixteenth  century. ' '  At  Berlin ,  Las- 
salle, becoming  a  great  favorite,  in  1845  met  the 
Countess  Hatzf eldt,  and  for  some  eight  years  de- 
fended her  cause  before  36  tribunals  on  a  ques- 
tion of  property.  In  the  Revolution  of  1848  he 
was  an  ardent  republican,  was  indicted  for 
conspiracy  and  treason  at  Diisseldorf,  and  im- 
prisoned six  months.  On  coming  out  of  prison. 
Lassalle  devoted  himself  to  literary  and  philo- 
sophical work,  living,  however,  completely  as  a. 
man  of  the  world.  In  1854  the  Hatzfeldt  affair 
was  settled,  and  Lassalle  gave  himself  to  the 
completion  of  his  Die  PhilosopMe  Herakleitos 
des  Dunkeln  von  Ephesus,  which  he  published 
in  1858.  He  was  now  to  enter  on  his  socialist, 
career.  Having  lectured  on  constitutional 
themes,  Lassalle  was  invited  to  lecture,  on 
April  12,  1862,  before  an  Artisans'  Association 
in  Berlin.  It  has  been  called  the  birthday  of 


Lassalle,  Ferdinand. 


806 


Lassalle,  Ferdinand. 


German  socialism.  In  a  philosophical  and  his- 
torical way  he  traced  the  development  of  the 
State  and  of  society,  and  argued  that  as  the 
French  Revolution  freed  the  third  estate,  so  the 
Revolution  of  '48  meant  the  freedom  of  the 
fourth  estate.  When  the  lecture  was  printed, 
the  whole  edition  of  3000  copies  was  seized,  and 
Lassalle  prosecuted  for  incendiary  utterances. 
He  defended  himself,  appealing  to  science  as 
the  excuse  for  his  words,  but  was  condemned  to 
pay  a  fine.  Lassalle  threw  himself  into  social 
agitation  of  every  kind.  He  corresponded  with 
Rodbertus  (q.v.),  but  could  not  draw  that  phi- 
losopher from  his  books.  In  1863  the  Leipsic 
Working  Man's  Association  was  undecided 
whether  to  follow  the  cooperative  movement  of 
Schulze-Delitzsch  (see  COOPERATIVE  BANKS)  or  a 
more  radical  social  policy.  It  now  wrote  Las- 
salle, calling  on  him  to  outline  a  policy  ;  and  he 
did  so  in  an  Open  Letter,  which  has  been  called 
the  charter  of  German  socialism.  Lassalle  ad- 
vocated in  it  the  formation  of  cooperative  socie- 
ties with  State  aid.  He  was  next  invited  to  ap- 
pear, together  with  Schulze-Delitzsch,  before  the 
Leipsic  workmen,  to  advocate  their  respective 
plans.  Schulze-Delitzsch  did  not 
appear,  but  Lassalle  did  ;  1300  dele- 
Socialistic  gates  were  present.  Lassalle  de- 
Activity,  livered  two  addresses,  and  after  40 
delegates  had  left  the  hall  cheering 
for  Schulze-Delitzsch,  the  rest  vot- 
ed for  Lassalle,  400  to  i.  This  led  to  the  or- 
ganization May  23,  1863,  in  Leipsic,  of  the  All- 
gememer  Deutscher  A  rl>etterveretn(Umversal 
German  Working  Man's  Association),  which  was 
destined  to  grow  into  the  Social  Democratic  Party 
of  Germany.  Into  this  movement  Lassalle  now 
put  all  his  energy.  The  apathy  of  the  working 
men  was  his  chief  obstacle,  but  he  succeeded  in 
rousing  them.  He  made  speech  after  speech, 
wrote  tract  after  tract,  held  meeting  after  meet- 
ing. All  the  time  he  was  fighting  in  the  courts 
prosecution  after  prosecution,  defending  him- 
self, and  usually  winning.  Berlin,  Leipsic, 
Frankfort,  and  the  industrial  centers  on  the 
Rhine  were  the  chief  scenes  of  his  activity. 
His  greatest  success  was  on  the  Rhine,  where, 
in  the  summer  of  1863  and  1864,  his  travels  as 
missionary  of  the  new  gospel  resembled  a  tri- 
umphal procession.  He  claimed  that  he  had 
converted  the  king,  Bismarck,  and  Bishop  Von 
Ketteler,  of  Mayence  (q.v.).  Bismarck  cer- 
tainly received  this  remarkable  man  into  his 
friendship,  a  friendship  which  may  be  regarded 
as  historic  because  of  its  political  results.  (See 
BISMARCK  ;  GERMANY.) 

The  task  of  winning  Berlin  over  seemed  an 
impossible  one  ;  but  Lassalle  loved  difficulties. 
"  Berlin  must  be  mine, ".he  wrote,  "  before  six 
months  are  passed.  I  will  invest  it.  Let  me 
only  have  200  working  men  and  I  shall  have 
2000,  and  soon  the  whole  of  them."  Already 
he  had  prepared  the  way  for  operations  by  the 
circulation  of  16,000  copies  of  an  Address  to  the 
Working  Men  of  Berlin,  in  which  he  endeav- 
ored to  show  that  the  Progressists  were  unman- 
ning the  artisan,  and  also  sought  support  for  his 
Productive  Associations.  Two  principal  fac- 
tors played  against  Lassalle's  prospects  of  suc- 
cess in  Berlin.  The  one  was  the  predominance 
of  the  Progressist  Party,  which  controlled  the 


press,  and  the  other  was  the  hostility  of  the  po- 
lice. It  is  not  a  little  singular  that  Lassalle  was 
perpetually  being  denounced  as  a  tool  of  the 
reaction,  while  at  the  same  time  the  emissaries 
of  the  law  were  ever  dogging  his  steps  and 
serving  him  with  indictments  for  high  treason. 

At  the  end  of  June  Lassalle  was  compelled  to 
recruit  his  strength  in  Switzerland,  and  he  re- 
mained absent  from  the  scene  of  agitation  until 
September. 

The  Association  did  not  make  the  progress 
which  Lassalle  had  expected.  In  August,  when 
it  had  existed  a  quarter  of  a  year,  the  members 
only  numbered  between  900  and  1000,  Ham- 
burg and  Harburg  having  together  230  ;  Elber- 
feld,  223  ;  and  Leipsic  150,  while  Berlin  had 
only  20.  Lassalle  had  already  shown  that  he 
was  discouraged,  but  he  urged  his  followers  to 
fresh  energy.  During  the  winter  of  1863-64 
Lassalle's  time  was  divided  between  the  work 
of  his  association  and  an  extensive  series  of  dis- 
putes with  law  courts  and  official  bodies.  In 
January,  1864,  he  produced  a  volume  of  nearly 
300  pages  against  Schulze-Delitzsch,  in  tone  un- 
dignified, sometimes  coarse,  yet  always  strong. 
But  Lassalle's  main  work  was  for  the  Associa- 
tion. In  August.  1864,  however,  he  went  for  a 
vacation  to  Switzerland,  and  found  there  a 
Fraulein  von  Donnegis,  whom  he  had  met  pre- 
viously ;  they  became  betrothed.  As  she  was 
induced  by  her  parents  to  reject  him,  he  fought 
a  duel  over  her  and  was  wounded,  and  died  the 
night  of  August  30-31.  He  was  buried,  amid 
the  universal  lamentations  of  the  working  men, 
in  the  Jewish  cemetery  at  Breslau.  The  Count- 
ess Hatzf eldt  was  at  his  side  when  he  died ,  and 
continued  to  aid  the  Association  after  his  death. 
There  was  some  division,  but  the  Association 
grew  till  it  joined  the  movement  organized  by 
Marx,  and  with  it  formed  the  Social  Democratic 
Party  of  modern  Germany. 

But  his  death  in  itself  worked  for  socialism. 
It  created  the  greatest  interest.  Heine  called 
him  the  Messiah  of  the  nineteenth  century. 
The  people  called  him  the  Father  of  Social 
Democracy.  Until  Lassalle  entered  public  life 
the  working  classes  had  been  without  organiza- 
tion, and  had  wandered  about  like  sheep  with- 
out a  shepherd.  Thus  the  more  advanced 
organizations  which  followed  the  Universal 
Association  owe  their  existence  and  success 
largely  to  his  almost  unaided  exertions. 

Lassalle  did  not  lay  claim  to  any  special  orig- 
inality as  a  socialistic  thinker,  nor  did  he  pub- 
lish  any   systematic  statement   of    his  views. 
His  aim  was  not  scientific  or  theo- 
retic completeness,  but  the  practi- 
cal one  of  organizing  and  emanci-   His  Views. 
pating  the  working    classes  ;  and 
his  plans  were  promulgated  in  oc- 
casional speeches  and  pamphlets,  as  the  crises 
of  his  agitation  seemed  to  demand.     Yet  his 
leading  ideas  are  sufficiently  clear  and  simple. 
Like  a  true  Hegelian,  he  saw  three  stages  in  the 
development  of  labor  :  the  ancient  and  feudal 
period,  which,  through    the    subjection  of   the 
laborer,  sought  solidarity  without  freedom  ;  the 
reign  of  capital  and  the  middle  classes,  estab- 
lished in  1789,  which  sought  freedom  by  destroy- 
ing solidarity  ;  and  the  new  era,  beginning  in 
1848,  which  would  reconcile  solidarity  with  free- 


Lassalle,  Ferdinand. 


807 


Lavatories. 


dom  by  introducing  the  principle  of  associa- 
tion. 

His  chief  insistence  was  on  what  he  called 
and  has  since  been  called  (g.v.)  "the  iron  law 
of  wages,"  a  simple  development  of  Ricardo's 
teaching.  He  argues  : 

"The  simple  working  man  who  has  only  his  two 
hands  possesses  nothing  unless  he  is  able  to  sell 
his  labor  to  others.  He  may  sell  it  cheap  or  dear, 
but  the  price,  more  or  less  high,  does  not  depend  on 
himself  alone  ;  it  is  the  result  of  the  bargain  he  makes 
with  his  employer.  This  latter  pays  as  little  as  he 
possibly  can,  and  since  he  can  choose  from  among  a 
vast  number  of  laborers,  he  prefers  the  one  who  will 
work  at  the  lowest  rate.  The  laborers  are  thus 
obliged  to  lower  their  prices  in  competition  with  one 
another.  In  every  kind  of  labor  it  must  therefore  re- 
sult—and such  is  actually  the  case— that  the  wages  of 
the  laborer  are  limited  to  the  exact  amount  necessary 
to  keep  him  alive." 

He  was  not  a  force  revolutionist,  and  hence 
his  immunity  in  the  courts. 

Reference  :  W.  H.  Dawson's  German  Socialism  and 
Ferdinand  Lassalle  (1888). 

LATIN  UNION.    See  BIMETALLISM. 

LAUGHLIN,  TAMES  LAURENCE,  was 
born  at  Deerfieid,  O.,  in  1850.  He  was  edu- 
cated at  Harvard  University,  and  appointed  in- 
structor in  Poetical  Economy  in  that  University 
in  1878,  becoming  assistant  professor  in  1883. 
From  1888-90  he  was  President  of  the  Philadel- 
phia Manufacturers'  Mutual  Fire  Insurance 
Company.  In  1890  he  became  Professor  of 
Political  Economy  and  Finance  at  Cornell,  and 
in  1892  head  professor  of  Political  Economy  at 
the  University  of  Chicago.  He  has  published 
Saxon  Legal  Procedure  (1871),  The  Study  of 
Political  Economy  (1885),  The  History  of 
Bimetallism  in  the  United  States  (1885),  The 
Elements  of  Political  Economy  (1887).  He  is 
known  as  an  advocate  of  gold  monometallism, 
and  as  a  leader  among  the  more  conservative 
economists  of  the  United  States. 

LAVATORIES.— The  following  article  is 
abridged  from  the  Report  of  the  Sub-Commit- 
tee on  Baths  and  Lavatories  of  the  New  York 
Committee  of  Seventy. 

A  lavatory  is  the  euphemism  for  the  conven- 
ience of  water-closets  and  urinals,  altho,  strictly 
speaking,  the  lavatory  is  that  part  of  the  con- 
venience provided  with  set  bowls,  soap,  and 
towels.  In  some  cases  a  small  fee  is  charged 
for  the  use  of  these  conveniences,  while  in 
others  they  are  free  ;  frequently  those  charging 
the  fee  are  self-supporting.  Paris  and  other 
continental  cities  provide  urinals  on  the  side- 
walk or  in  small  buildings.  In  the  congested 
part  of  London,  these  accommodations  must  be 
underground. 

It  is  surprising  to  find  the  almost  universal 
lack  of  these  provisions  for  public  convenience 
'  in  our  American  cities,  and  it  is  startling  that 
a  community  so  intelligent  as  that  of  New  York 
should  be  so  far  behind  Europe  in  those  mat- 
ters so  essential  to  the  health  of  the  city.  Es- 
pecially is  this  to  be  noticed  in  our  railroad  sta- 
tions, ferry-houses,  docks,  and  public  buildings. 
At  the  beginning  of  1895  Boston  had  21  public 
urinals  ;  Brooklyn,  none  except  in  parks  ;  Chi- 
cago, none  ;  New  York,  none  except  in  parks  ; 
Philadelphia,  7  ;  St.  Louis,  none  except  in 


parks  ;  Birmingham,  England,  had  96  ;  Liver- 
pool, 222.  The  system  is,  however,  just  begin- 
ning in  England,  and  many  English  cities  have 
none. 

Many  of  the  conveniences  in  London  are  un- 
derground because  the  surface  of  the  ground  is 
already  occupied.  An  ornamental  iron  railing, 
an  inscription  tablet  and  a  lamp  are  the  indica- 
tions of  the  convenience.  That  in  Piccadilly 
Circus,  in  front  of  the  "  Criterion,"  is  one  of  the 
largest.  The  estimated  number  of  people  using 
this  convenience  in  one  year  was  5,000,000  ; 
$9692  were  taken  at  the  convenience.  The  ini- 
tial cost  was  about  $17,500.  The  fee  is  gener- 
ally a  penny. 

To  avoid  any  hesitancy  in  visiting  a  public 
convenience,  designs  have  been  recently  sub- 
mitted in  London  for  what  are  called  ladies' 
chalets.  These  are  to  be  built  in  open  sites  in 
the  parks  or  at  the  junctions  of  streets.  It  is 
also  a  part  of  the  scheme  that  they  shall  be  self- 
supporting. 

This  kind  of  a  convenience  is  divided  into 
two  parts — a  shop  for  the  sale  of  millinery  or 
small  notions  and  the  lavatory,  the  entrance  to 
which  is  through  the  shop.  It  was  found  that  the 
accommodations  for  men  were  much  more  ample 
than  for  the  women,  hence  it  was  hoped  that 
the  chalets  would  obviate  that  difficulty.  The 
estimated  expense  of  these  conveniences  is 
about  $2000,  and  it  is  calculated  that  each  will 
yield  a  rental  of  $60,  which  amount  would  de- 
fray the  interest  on  the  cost,  while  the  income 
from  the  lavatory  will  meet  the  operating  ex- 
penses with  a  possible  margin  of  profit,  depen- 
dent on  the  location.  A  parcel  room  is  an  addi- 
tional adjunct  of  this  system. 

In  New  York  City,  the  saloons  supply  what 
the  city  fails  to  provide.  This  is  done  to  attract 
customers.  The  lavatory  accommodations  are 
as  ample  and  as  clean  as  it  is  possible  for  them 
to  be  built,  and  many  of  them  will  compare  very 
favorably  with  those  in  the  finest-appointed 
hotels.  A  writer  speaks  from  personal  experi- 
ence of  a  first  glass  of  liquor  drank  for  no  other 
reason  but  as  a  means  of  compensating  the  sa- 
loon-keeper for  the  use  of  his  closet,  but  which 
was  the  direct  cause  of  subsequent  humiliation 
and  misery. 

Lavatories  are  specially  needed  in  the  tene- 
ment district.  In  very  few  tenements  are  there 
water-closets  on  each  floor.  The  usual  accom- 
modations are  a  row  of  water-closets  in  the 
court-yard  and  a  urinal  in  one  corner.  The 
conditions  are  again  complicated  by  the  fact 
that  the  court-yard  is  also  the  passage-way  for 
the  occupants  of  a  rear  tenement.  Under  the 
very  best  conditions  such  arrangements  are  un- 
sanitary, especially  when  used  by  ignorant  or 
careless  people.  But  apart  from  any  considera- 
tions like  these,  such  accommodations  are  a  con- 
stant obstacle  to  modesty  and  refinement.  All 
through  the  tenement-house  district  are  shoals 
of  children  ;  hence  the  more  reason  why  the 
community  should  interest  itself  in  insisting 
that  every  precaution  conducive  to  morality  and 
purity  should  be  taken  in  behalf  of  its  growing 
citizenship.  As  a  result  of  this  report,  steps  in 
this  direction  are  already  being  taken  in  New 
York  City,  and  are  being  proposed  elsewhere. 
(See  BATHS.) 


Laveleye. 


808 


Leclaire,  III. 


LAVELEYE,  EMILE  LOUIS  VICTOR 

DE,  was  born  in  Bruges  in  1822.  He  studied 
at  Bruges,  the  College  Stanislas  in  Paris,  and 
the  University  of  Ghent.  In  1865  he  became 
Professor  of  Political  Economy  at  Liege  Uni- 
versity. In  politics  he  was  a  Liberal.,  in  religion 
a  liberal  Roman  Catholic.  He  was  a  constant 
contributor  to  the  Revue  de  deux  mondes,  and  a 
voluminous  writer.  Among  his  best-known 
books  are  his  works  on  agricultural  economics 
and  on  bimetallism — e.g.,  La  Question  d'or 
(1860) ;  De  la  propriety  et  de  ses  formes  primi- 
tives (1874),  translated  into  English  by  G.  S. 
Mar  ;  Socialisme  contemporaine  (1881,  new  ed. 
1893).  He  died  January  3,  1892.  Laveleye  was 
often  considered  a  liberal  academic  socialist. 

LAW,  JOHN.    See  MISSISSIPPI  SCHEME. 

LAW  AND  ORDER  LEAGUES  are 
leagues  organized  for  the  enforcement  of  law. 
The  Law  and  Order  League  of  Massachusetts 
was  organized  May  31,  1882,  especially  for  the 
enforcement  of  the  restrictive  features  of  exist- 
ing legislation  regulating  the  liquor  traffic.  The 
idea  grew,  and  on  February  22, 1883,  represent- 
atives of  27  Law  and  Order  Leagues,  located  in 
eight  States,  met  in  Tremont  Temple,  Boston, 
and  formed  the  "  Citizens'  Law  and  Order 
League  of  the  United  States,"  to  be  a  "bond 
of  union  and  a  means  of  communication  be- 
tween the  several  leagues  throughout  the  coun- 
try. ' '  The  organization  holds  annual  meetings. 
At  Toronto,  Canada,  in  1889,  the  name  was 
changed  to  ' '  The  International  Law  and  Order 
League." 

The  following  is  from  the  constitution  : 

ARTICLE  II.— OBJECT. 

"The  object  of  this  League  shall  be  to  maintain 
the  principle  that  the  enforcement  of  law  is  essential 
to  the  perpetuity  of  good  government,  and  by  promot- 
ing the  formation  of  State  and  local  leagues  having 
the  same  object  in  view,  between  which  it  shall  be  a 
bond  of  union  and  means  of  communication,  to  secure 
in  all  proper  ways  the  enforcement  of  existing  laws 
relating  to  the  liquor  traffic,  and  all  offenses  against 
morals  and  the  peace  and  good  order  of  society,  and 
to  encourage  and  assist  the  authorities  in  maintaining 
and  enforcing  the  same. 

ARTICLE  III.— MEMBERSHIP. 

"Those  persons  shall  be  members  of  the  League 
who  are  approved  by  the  executive  committee,  and, 
being  in  sympathy  with  its  object,  contribute  the  sum 
of  $5  annually  for  support." 

Law  and  order  leagues  work  usually  by  dis- 
seminating literature,  holding  public  meetings, 
prosecuting  offenders  against  the  law,  investi- 
gating evils,  etc.  The  organ  of  the  League  is 
Lend  a  Hand  (Boston). 


LAWSON,  SIR  WILFRID,  of  Aspatria, 
Cumberland,  was  born  September  4,  1829,  and 
succeeded  to  the  title  and  estates  of  his  father, 
who  died  in  1867.  A  lifelong  advocate  and  sup- 
porter of  the  temperance  movement,  he  became 
its  chief  representative  in  Parliament,  being 
elected  for  Carlisle  in  1859.  In  March,  1864,  he 
first  moved  for  leave  to  introduce  the  measure 
known  as  the  Permissive  Bill,  the  main  princi- 
ple of  which  is  the  giving  to  two  thirds  of  the 
inhabitants  of  any  parish  or  township  an  abso- 
lute veto  upon  all  licenses  for  the  sale  of  intoxi- 


cating liquors  granted  within  their  districts. 
The  bill  was  supported  by  40  members.  Mr. 
Lawson  was  displaced  at  the  general  election  of 
1865  ;  but  in  that  of  1868,  on  appealing  to  the 
enlarged  constituency  as  a  supporter  of  Mr. 
Gladstone,  he  was  again  returned  to  Parliament. 
He  succeeded,  on  June  18,  1880,  in  carrying  his 
"  Local  Option"  resolution  by  a  majority  of  26. 
In  1885  he  stood  for  the  new  Cockermouth  divi- 
sion of  Cumberland,  but  was  defeated  by  a  Con- 
servative majority  of  10.  In  1886,  as  a  Glad- 
stonian  Liberal,  he  gained  the  seat  by  a  large 
majority.  Sir  Wilfrid  is  in  favor  of  the  dises- 
tablishment of  the  Church  and  the  abolition  of 
the  House  of  Lords,  and  standing  armies. 

LECLAIRE,  EDM£  JEAN,  was  born  in 
1801,  and  at  the  age  of  17  he  arrived  penniless 
in  Paris.  He  became  a  journeyman  house 
painter.  In  1827  he  set  up  on  his  own  account, 
and  was  successful.  By  1834  he  was  chosen  to 
paint  the  Bank  of  France  and  other  large  build- 
ings. He  worked,  however,  not  only  for  himself. 
By  a  series  of  experiments  he  learned  how  to 
avoid  the  use  of  poisonous  white  lead.  On  Feb- 
ruary 15,  1842,  Leclaire  announced  his  intention 
of  introducing  a  system  of  profit  sharing  among 
his  men.  He  was  laughed  at  and  suspected  by 
his  men  ;  but  when  he  divided  11,866  frs.  among 
them — $50  on  an  average  to  a  man — they  ceased 
to  laugh.  From  1842-47  an  average  of  $3750 
was  divided  among  about  80  men.  In  1838  he 
established  a  mutual  aid  society  among  his  men. 
In  1853  he  organized  a  complete  system  of  profit 
sharing,  and  in  1860  established  a  system  of  old 
age  pensions.  In  1864  the  society  became  in- 
corporated as  the  Mutual  Aid  Society.  In  1865 
Leclaire  retired  and  became  maire  of  Herblay, 
where  he  died  July  10, 1872.  The  month  before 
his  death  the  Maison  Leclaire  divided  $10,000 
between  about  600  men.  The  society  still  lives. 
(See  PROFIT  SHARING.) 

As  was  the  case  with  many  of  those  who  have 
applied  genius  to  philanthropy,  the  fountain  of 
Leclaire 's  enthusiasm  was  essentially  religious, 
tho  of  a  kind  unconnected  with  the  special  dog- 
mas of  any  particular  Christian  body.  How  in- 
tensely he  held  the  "great  commandment"  of 
Christian  morality  appears  from  the  following 
words  written  in  sight  of  death,  when  he  felt 
"  sincerity"  to  be  "  more  than  ever  a  duty"  : 

"  I  believe  in  the  God  who  has  written  in  our  hearts 
the  law  of  duty,  the  law  of  progress,  the  law  of  the 
sacrifice  of  one's  self  for  others.  I  submit  myself  to 
His  will,  I  bow  before  the  mysteries  of  Hispo-wer  and 
of  our  destiny.  I  am  the  humble  disciple  of  Him  who 
has  told  us  to  do  to  others  what  we  would  have  others 
do  to  us,  and  to  love  our  neighbor  as  ourselves  ;  it  is 
in  this  sense  that  I  desire  to  remain  a  Christian  until 
my  last  breath." 

LECLAIRE,  ILL.,  is  the  home  of  the  N.  O. 
Nelson  Manufacturing  Co. 's  works,  where  Mr. 
N.  O.  Nelson  (the  founder  of  the  firm)  is  devel- 
oping a  cooperative  manufactory  and  village. 
The  company,  which  is  engaged  in  manufactur- 
ing plumbers'  supplies,  and  has  its  office  in  St. 
Louis,  Mo.,  commenced  in  1886  a  profit-sharing 
system,  and  still  continues  it. 

After  paying  regular  wages  and  6  per  cent, 
interest  on  capital,  it  sets  aside  10  per  cent,  of 
the  profits  for  a  reserve  fund  to  meet  losses,  5 


Leclaire,  HI. 


809 


Leslie,  Thomas  Edward  Cliffe. 


per  cent,  of  the  profits  for  a  provident  fund  to 
care  for  the  sick  and  the  families  of  deceased 
employees,  and  then  divides  the  remainder  at 
the  rate  of  2  per  cent,  on  wages  to  i  per  cent. 
on  capital.  The  dividends  on  wages  have  in 
seven  years  amounted  to  54  per  cent.  The 
provident  fund  is  managed  by  a  committee  of 
employees  elected  by  themselves.  The  working 
day  has  been  reduced  to  nine  hours  a  day  at 
regular  10  hours'  pay,  without  any  apparent 
diminution  in  product.  Later,  the  company  ac- 
quired its  present  tract  of  125  acres  of  land  18 
miles  from  St.  Louis,  with  the  purpose  of  erect- 
ing factories  and  building  homes  for  its  men. 
The  village  was  called  Leclaire  in  honor  of  the 
founder  of  profit  sharing.  It  now  contains  a 
half  dozen  brick  factory  buildings,  heated  by 
steam  and  lighted  by  electricity,  water-works, 
a  cooperative  store  owned  and  conducted  by  the 
men,  a  bowling-alley  and  billiard- room,  a  lec- 
ture hall  and  library.  A  kindergarten  and 
school,  a  band,  and  a  literary  society  have  been 
organized.  The  streets  are  not  run  at  right 
angles,  but,  in  the  manner  of  park  roads,  are 
paved  with  cinders,  and  skirted  by  four-feet 
sidewalks  and  lines  of  trees.  Cottages  of  good 
architectural  design  are  built  for  employees  on 
plans  adopted  by  themselves,  and  are  paid  for 
in  monthly  instalments  slightly  in  excess  of  the 
city  rents.  These  houses  are  built  on  lots  of  about 
one  third  of  an  acre,  with  a  building-line  of  not 
less  than  40  feet,  are  supplied  with  water  and 
electric  light,  water  being  free  and  the  lights  25 
cents  a  month.  The  streets  are  sprinkled  and 
lighted  by  electricity  free  of  charge.  By  com- 
mon consent  no  vegetable  gardens  are  made 
about  the  premises,  the  grounds  being  devoted 
to  grass,  shrubbery,  fruit  trees,  and  small  fruits. 
A  neighboring  coal  mine  supplies  coal  slack  for 
the  factories  at  $i  a  carload  and  lump  coal  at 
70  cents  a  ton,  which  the  cooperative  store  buys 
and  retails  to  its  members  at  the  local  retail 
rate.  Once  in  two  weeks  a  lecture  is  given  by 
university  professors  from  St.  Louis,  by  profes- 
sional men,  and  by  other  capable  lecturers. 
The  lectures  are  always  given  to  large  and  at- 
tentive audiences.  Every  other  week  the  liter- 
ary society  has  an  essay  or  a  discussion,  singing 
and  reading.  The  kindergarten  has  more  than 
anything  else  enlisted  the  enthusiasm  of  the 
residents  in  Leclaire,  and  has  drawn  a  number 
of  children  from  the  adjoining  town  of  Ed- 
wardsville.  The  educational  plan  contemplates 
successive  steps  through  the  kindergarten, 
manual  training  in  connection  with  the  shops 
for  boys,  and  domestic  training  for  girls,  so  that 
at  the  age  of  1 8  or  20  a  good  school  education 
shall  be  accompanied  by  skill  and  experience  in 
work,  and  with  a  regular  occupation  awaiting 
each  graduate.  It  is  hoped  to  develop  the  co- 
operative features  till  the  factory  and  the  whole 
village  can  be  made  completely  cooperative. 

LE  PLAY,  PIERRE  GUILLAUME 
FREDERIC,  was  born  at  La  Raviere,  Saint 
Sauveur,  in  1806.  Deeply  impressed  with  the 
sorrows  of  the  poor  around  his  Dearly  home,  he 
came  to  Paris  to  study  in  the  Ecole  Polytech- 
nique.  Graduating  with  honors,  he  started,  in 
1829,  with  Reynaud,  and  traveled  for  many 
years  through  all  Europe  studying  social  facts. 


In  1840  he  was  appointed  to  the  Chair  of  Metal- 
lurgy in  the  School  of  Mines,  and  later  was  In- 
spector-General of  Mines.  Coming  under  the 
notice  of  the  emperor,  he  was  repeatedly  ap- 
pointed at  the  head  of  various  scientific  expedi- 
tions, particularly  that  of  1867.  In  1855  he  pub- 
lished his  Les  ouvriers  europdens.  In  1856  he 
founded  La  socidtt  Internationale  des  etudes 
pratiques  d'dconomze  sociale.  In  1864  he  pub- 
lished La  re'forme  sociale  en  France  deduite  de 
r observation  compare" e  des peuples  europeens  ; 
in  1870,  L organisation  du  travail.  In  1872 
he  founded  Les  unions  de  la  paix  sociale, 
which,  in  1890,  had  3000  members.  In  1881  was 
commenced  La  r/forme  sociale,  the  organ  of 
these  unions.  In  its  first  number  it  declared 
that  France,  in  the  present  century,  had  had  n 
revolutions  and  19  successive  constitutions,  as 
the  result  of  utter  chaos  in  social  ideas.  Hence 
it  argued  the  need  for  conclusions  drawn  from 
the  patient  study  of  facts.  Le  Play  is  often 
called  a  Liberal  Christian  Socialist  ;  yet,  tho  a 
Roman  Catholic,  he  does  not  emphasize  relig- 
ion, and  is  as  opposed  to  socialism  as  to  laissez 
faire.  He  simply  desired  truth  drawn  from 
facts,  and  set  himself  and  his  followers  to  col- 
lecting these.  His  remedy  for  social  ills  is  a, 
rehabilitation  of  the  powers  once  vested  in  the 
father  of  a  family  and  in  the  conductor  of  a 
workshop.  The  family  organization  is  not  to 
be  patriarchal,  but  what  he  calls  the  famille 
souche,  with  a  restoration  of  the  now  limited 
freedom  of  bequest.  H.  Higgs  has  written  the 
best  English  account  of  Le  Play  in  the  Quar- 
terly Journal  of  Economics,  Boston,  July,  1890. 

LEROY-BEAULIEU,    PIERRE    PAUL, 

was  born  December  9,  1843,  at  Saumur  ;  studying 
in  Paris,  Bonn,  and  Berlin,  he  traveled  extensive- 
ly in  England  and  on  the  Continent,  and  held 
editorial  positions  upon  the  staff  of  several  prom- 
inent journals  and  magazines  ;  he  was  Professor 
of  Finance  in  the  School  of  Political  Science. 
In  1880  he  succeeded  Michel  Chevalier  at  the 
College  de  France.  Leroy-Beaulieu  is  an  ad- 
herent of  the  old  liberal  school.  His  chief 
work  is  his  Traite"  des  sciences  des  finances 
(4th  ed.,  1888),  the  best  French  work  on  the 
subject,  and  full  of  learning  and  research.  He 
is  also  well  known  for  his  Le  Collectivism? 
(1885)  ;  La  repartition  des  richesses  (1888)  ;: 
Lttat  moderne  et  ses  fonctions  (1890). 

LESLIE,  THOMAS  EDWARD  CLIFFE, 

was  born  in  Ireland  in  1837.  He  was  called  to 
the  English  bar,  but  turned  his  attention  to  lit- 
erature, and  contributed  to  the  quarterly  maga- 
zines. He  was  Professor  of  Jurisprudence  and 
Political  Economy  in  Queen's  College,  Belfast, 
for  25  years.  He  died  in  1882.  Cossa  says  of 
him  in  his  Introduction  to  Political  Economy  : 


"  His  learned  and  eminently  readable  tracts  on  ap- 
plied economics  all  take  up  questions  of  reform,  and 
he  is  especially  pointed  in  his  arguments  against  indi- 
rect taxation,  and  in  favor  of  emancipating  land  ten- 
ure from  the  last  remnants  of  feudal  bondage.  His. 
schooling  was  partly  under  Sir  Henry  Maine  and 
partly  acquired  by  his  own  frequent  and  extended 
travels.  By  this  means  he  acquired  convictions  re- 
garding the  historical  development  of  economics 
which  led  him  to  take  a  position  unique  in  Great  Brit- 
ain, where  he  was  for  a  long  time  the  solitary  and 
always  the  most  enthusiastic  adherent  of  views  which 


Leslie,  Thomas  Edward  Cliffe. 


810 


Liberalism  and  Social  Reform. 


Roscher  and  Knies  defended  in  Germany.  The  manu- 
script of  his  most  extensive  work  was  lost  in  1872,  so 
that  all  that  we  now  have  to  represent  him  is  scat- 
tered through  various  reviews  in  the  shape  of  essays. 
.  .  .  He  rejects  in  so  many  words  the  fundamental 
principle  of  the  classical  schools — their  conception  of 
the  desire  for  wealth  upon  which  all  their  deductions 
depend— because  it  is  at  one  and  the  same  time  too 
vague  and  too  one-sided." 

LEXOW  COMMITTEE.— This  was  a  com- 
mittee appointed  January  30, 1894,  by  the  Senate 
of  New  York  State,  to  investigate  the  Police 
Department  of  New  York  City.  The  appoint- 
ment of  the  committee  was  the  result  of  the 
charges  of  the  Rev.  Charles  H.  Parkhurst  (£•.?/.), 
President  of  the  Society  for  the  Prevention  of 
Crime.  Dr.  Parkhurst  had  made  careful  and 
even  personal  investigations  of  disreputable 
resorts,  and  accumulated  much  evidence  of  vio- 
lations of  the  law  and  of  complicity  of  the  po- 
lice. His  charges  stirred  up  great  excitement, 
and  he  was  vehemently  opposed  by  the  city 
officials  The  agents  of  his  society  were  perse- 
cuted, and  one  of  them  was  charged  with  crime 
and  convicted,  tho,  as  the  society  claimed,  in- 
nocent. The  existence  of  corruption  in  the 
Police  Department  had,  however,  now  become 
so  evident  that  the  New  York  newspapers  took 
the  matter  up  and  supported  Dr.  Parkhurst. 
Their  demands  doubtless  secured  the  appoint- 
ment of  the  Senate  Committee.  The  sessions 
of  the  committee  lasted  from  February  till  the 
end  of  the  year,  a  recess  being  taken  during  the 
summer.  John  W.  Goff  was  the  counsel.  The 
committee  could  only  expose,  but  not  convict. 
The  result  of  the  investigation  was  that  67  men 
in  the  Police  Department  were  shown  to  be 
guilty  of  crime,  among  whom  were  4  commis- 
sioners or  ex-commissioners,  4  inspectors  or  ex- 
inspectors,  and  22  captains  or  ex-captains. 
Most  of  these  men  were  afterward  regularly 
indicted  as  a  consequence  of  the  testimony 
against  them  before  the  committee.  Dr.  Park- 
hurst's  course  was  thus  completely  vindicated, 
and  he  received  many  tokens  of  popular  ap- 
proval. An  anti-Tammany  reform  ticket  was 
triumphantly  elected  in  the  fall  of  1894. 

It  is,  however,  true  that  the  final  results  of 
the  Lexow  Committee's  work  have  not  been 
satisfactory  to  the  public.  It  is  stated  that  the 
results  obtained  in  1894  and  1895  cost  the  State 
of  New  York  $76,534.  Yet  on  January  i,  1896, 
not  a  single  person  who  was  exposed  by  the 
Lexow  Committee  had  begun  to  serve  a  term  of 
imprisonment.  There  were  40  indictments  dis- 
missed, 35  indictments,  at  the  above  date,  not 
yet  tried,  appeals,  disagreements  of  jury,  and  re- 
versal of  conviction,  in  one  case,  by  the  Su- 
preme Court. 

LIBERALISM  AND  SOCIAL  REFORM. 

— Historically,  English  liberalism  has  been  a 
middle-class  movement,  having  its  origin  among 
the  Puritans.  The  decay  of  feudalism,  the 
growth  of  the  towns,  the  expansion  of  trade, 
had  all  combined  to  render  the  English  middle 
class  the  strongest  power  in  the  State  by  the 
middle  of  the  seventeenth  century.  That  power 
was  tested  by  the  overthrow  of  monarchy  and 
the  rise  of  a  middle-class  House  of  Commons  to 
supremacy.  The  attempted  reaction  by  the  later 
Stuarts  failed,  and  the  so-called  ' '  Glorious  Revo- 


lution" of  1688  was  made  by  the  junction  of  the 
middle  class  with  the  Whig  aristocracy.  The 
financial  and  commercial  policy  adopted,  in- 
cluding the  founding  of  the  Bank  of  England 
and  the  national  debt  and  the  high  tariff,  was 
conceived  in  the  interests  of  the  commercial 
class.  The  policy  thus  founded  by  a  commer- 
cial Puritanism  was  reinforced  by  a  body  of 
ethical  and  economic  philosophy  contained  in 
the  writings  of  Locke,  Adam  Smith,  Priestley, 
Franklin,  and  others.  These  writings  furnished 
the  English  middle  classes  with  a  rational  body 
of  doctrine,  which  may,  perhaps,  be  summed  up 
in  the  word  "  liberty."  It  was  necessary  to  re- 
move the  old  feudal  restraints,  the  old  political 
restraints,  and  the  old  restraints  imposed  on 
liberty  of  speech,  publication,  and  worship. 
Above  all,  according  to  the  doctrine  of  liberty 
and  enlightened  self-interest,  it  was  essential  to 
remove  restrictions  on  the  power  of  accumula- 
tion, for  the  liberty  to  accumulate,  and  so  en- 
large trade  and  employ  labor,  was  assumed  to 
be  the  foundation  of  material  prosperity.  To 
this  doctrine  of  liberty  there  were,  however, 
two  exceptions,  both  dictated  by  class  interest. 
Commerce  and  manufactures-  were  "protect- 
ed" by  a  high  tariff  through  the  whole  of  the 
eighteenth  century,  and  the  first  quarter  of  the 
present  century  in  order  to  secure  an  English 
monopoly.  That  tariff  was  only  abolished  when 
it  was  no  longer  needed  by  capitalist  interests. 
The  second  exception  lay  in  the  denial  of  the 
right  of  combination  to  workmen,  who  in  its  ab- 
sence were  unable  to  meet  the  capitalist  on 
equal  terms.  This  right  was  not  conceded 
until  1824.  Thus  far  the  liberal  movement  in 
England  (which,  by  the  way,  did  not  receive 
that  name  until  after  the  French  Revolution  of 
1830)  appears  as  a  purely  laissez-faire  move- 
ment, and  such  it  fundamentally  was.  But 
there  also  existed  with  it,  side  by  side,  a  genu- 
inely democratic  movement,  which  at  times 
flamed  out  into  activity.  The  "  Levelers"  and 
the  "  Fifth  Monarchy"  men  represented  this 
movement  in  the  time  of  the  Commonwealth  ; 
Thomas  Paine  was  its  most  conspicuous  figure 
at  the  end  of  the  last  century,  while  the  tradi- 
tion became  deposited  in  the  first  half  of  this 
century  in  the  Chartist  Party.  The  Radicals 
(heirs  of  the  ' '  root  and  branch ' '  men  of  the 
Commonwealth),  as  they  came  to  be  called,  kept 
up  their  own  organization  and  agitation,  but 
they  united  with  the  more  progressive  section 
.  of  the  Whigs  in  a  resistance  to  the  reactionary 
policy  of  Pitt's  cabinet,  and  afterward  to  the 
similar  policy  of  Aldington,  Percival,  Lord 
Liverpool,  and  Wellington.  This  progressive 
section  of  the  Whigs,  led  by  Charles  James  Fox, 
separated  itself  from  the  moderate  body,  inspired 
by  Burke,  on  the  subject  of  the  French  Revolu- 
tion. The  ethico-philosophic  tradition  derived 
from  Locke  was  continued  in  our  century  by 
the  so-called  "  Philosophic  Radicals,"  of  whom 
James  Mill  and  George  Grote  were  the  chiefs  ; 
who,  while  acting  largely  with  the  Liberals,  yet 
held  on  their  own  way,  content  to  permeate 
the  party  as  a  whole  with  their  spirit  and 
ideas. 

Having  thus  traced  the  genesis  and  growth 
of  liberalism,  we  are  able  to  see,  on  the  one 
hand,  its  leading  aim — liberty — and  on  the 


Liberalism  and  Social  Reform. 


811 


Liberalism  and  Social  Reform. 


other  its  somewhat  complex  construction,  aris- 
ing from  the  varied  elements  which  entered  into 
its  composition.  For  it  not  only  had  its  right  and 
left  wings,  but  different  economic  interests 
played  upon  it.  In  the  main  the  Tory  Party 
was  the  party  of  the  old  landlord  interests,  the 
Liberal  that  of  industrial  interests,  altho  during 
the  reaction  of  Pitt  capitalist  as  well  as  landlord 
supported  the  Government  of  the  day.  It  is  not 
until  the  scare  produced  by  the  French  Revolu- 
tion has  died  away  that  we  are  able  to  see  with 
any  clearness  the  inherent  tenden- 
cies of  the  parties.  The  great  re- 
Tendencies  volt  against  toryism  which  resulted 
of  the  in  the  reform  ministry  of  1830  and 
Parties  in  the  Reform  Bill  of  1832  was  brought 
England,  about  by  a  combination  of  the  mid- 
dle-class Liberals  with  the  working 
class  Radicals.  The  former  held 
the  economic  doctrines  which  we  associate  with 
the  names  of  Ricardo,  Senior,  and  Bastiat,  and 
which  were,  in  the  main,  derived  from  the 
Wealth  of  Nations.  These  doctrines  assumed 
"  freedom  of  contract  not  only  as  a  sound 
theory,  but  as  an  actual  fact,  from  which  was 
to  be  deduced  the  dogma  of  laisses  faire.  The 
Radicals,  perhaps,  held  to  the  same  doctrines, 
which  were  dear  to  the  older  school  of  trade- 
unionists,  to  whom  the  State  meant  the  old 
tyrannical  class  state  of  pre-reform  days.  What 
the  Radicals  hoped  was  that  equality  of  politi- 
cal rights  would  favor  a  really  free  competition, 
with  the  result  of  economic  advantage  for  all. 
What  happened  after  reform  was  that  the  mid- 
dle-class Liberals  passed  middle-class  legislation 
and  alienated  their  Radical  allies,  who,  finding 
that  reform  had  not  produced  the  benefits  which 
were  expected,  revolted  against  liberalism  and 
initiated  the  Chartist  movement.  The  six 
"points"  of  the  Charter,  though  entirely  po- 
litical, were,  nevertheless,  intended  to  bring 
about  social  and  economic  results  by  constitu- 
tional means,  the  political  movement  being  aid- 
ed by  an  economic  revolt  against  machinery  as 
the  cause  of  industrial  dislocation  and  by  the 
new  movement  of  socialism,  led  by  Robert 
Owen,  and  which  found  many  friends  among 
the  Chartist  leaders.  The  application  of  a  rigid 
laissez-faire  policy  to  industry  had  resulted  in 
frightful  horrors,  which  intensified  the  misery 
arising  out  of  lack  of  employment,  as  machines 
took  the  place  of  men.  The  troubles  of  the  time 
are  best  pictured  in  Carlyle's  Past  and  Pres- 
ent, tho  the  whole  literature  of  the  period  is 
penetrated  with  the  sense  of  social  wrong  and 
insecurity.  What  was  to  be  the  attitude  of  lib- 
eralism to  this  state  of  things  ?  The  leadership 
of  the  party  had  drifted  completely  into  the 
hands  of  the  Whig  aristocracy,  but  they  were 
without  a  policy.  The  success  of  Chartism  or 
the  backward  movement  toward  Tory  reaction 
would  have  been  certain  had  it  not  been  for  the 
rise  of  the  free  trade  movement.  This  move- 
ment diverted  the  great  stream  of  liberalism 
into  one  narrow  channel,  and  kept  it  within  these 
confines  for  over  a  generation.  The  free  trade 
leaders  were  the  bitter  opponents  of  all  the  fac- 
tory and  mining  legislation,  due  to  the  energy  of 
Owen,  Sadler,  Shaftesbury,  and  others,  but  they 
had  the  advantage  of  knowing  their  economics 
and  of  having  a  direct  simple  program  of  re- 


form which  was  merely  a  development  of  the 
doctrine  of  liberty  already  implicitly  contained 
in  liberalism.  Their  object  was  to  remove  the 
last  vestiges  of  aristocratic  rule  and  to  render 
the  middle  class  absolutely  supreme  in  name 
and  fact,  with  abundance  of  free  raw  material 
and  cheap  labor,  and  with  the  ownership  of  the 
land,  which,  it  was  assumed,  could  be  gradually 
acquired  by  the  middle  class  through  the  aboli- 
tion of  entail,  primogeniture,  and  settlements. 
The  aim  is  stated  in  a  letter  addressed  by  Cob- 
den  to  Bright,  October  i,  1849:  "The  citadel 
of  privilege  in  this  country  (i.e.,  landlord  privi- 
lege) is  so  terribly  strong,  owing  to  the  concen- 
trated masses  of  property  in  the  hands  of  the 
comparatively  few,  that  we  cannot  hope  to  assail 
it  with  success  unless  with  the  help  of  the  prop- 
ertied classes  in  the  jniddie  ranks  of  society,  and 
by  raising  up  a  portion  of  the  working  class  to 
become  members  of  a  propertied  order. ' '  The 
free-trade  movement,  while  destroying  the  old 
tariff,  had  no  effect  on  the  land  system  of  Eng- 
land, so  that  it  produced  no  fundamental  eco- 
nomic change,  and  for  a  considerable  time  there 
can  be  no  doubt  that,  apart  from  a  little  tinkering 
at  factory  legislation,  liberal  politicians  believed 
economic  finality  had  been  attained  and  that 
"  natural  forces"  would,  in  time,  solve  those  prob- 
lems of  pauperism  which  still  stared  them  in  the 
face.  English  commercial  supremacy  was  un- 
challenged, and  English  trade  was,  on  the  whole, 
brisk  and  sound.  This  condition  of  things, 
roughly  speaking,  obtained  from  the  abolition 
of  the  Corn  Laws  till  the  end  of  Mr.  Gladstone's 
first  premiership. 

Then  came  a  change.  The  consolidation  of 
Germany  had  led  to  a  great  industrial  expan- 
sion in  that  country,  while  the  wave  of  protec- 
tionism which  has  engulfed  the  whole  world 
brought  about  high  tariff  legislation,  thus  cut- 
ting off  many  former  English  markets.  A  series 
of  bad  seasons,  aided  by  the  growing  importa- 
tions of  American  wheat,  brought  about  the  de- 
cline of  agriculture.  The  formidable  signs  of 
the  grave  discontent  which  had  arisen  made 
themselves  felt  first  in  Ireland  in  the  famous 
movement  of  the  Land  League.  On  the  other 
hand,  a  great  change  had  taken  place  in  the 
structure  of  society.  Commercial  magnates, 
enriched  by  free  trade,  had  become  conserva- 
tive, and  had  in  many  cases  allied  themselves 
by  marriage  to  the  aristocracy,  while  some  sec- 
tions of  the  working  classes,  disappointed  at  the 
results  of  liberalism,  had  become  Conservative 
also,  tho  the  great  body  remained  Radical,  but 
without  any  serious  reason  beyond  a  vague  dis- 
like of  privilege,  costly  royal  grants  and  pen- 
sions, etc.  Thus  parties  stood  at  the  beginning 
of  Mr.  Gladstone's  second  premiership,  neither 
standing  on  any  genuine  platform  of  principle 
in  the  economic  sphere.  It  was  reserved  for  the 
Irish  to  begin  the  new  movement.  Tho  as 
a  party  the  Irish  Nationalists  had  no  genuine 
economic  doctrine,  and  were  divided  among 
themselves  into  advocates  of  land  nationaliza- 
tion and  individual  peasant  ownership,  yet  the 
movement  which  they  initiated,  aided  by  the 
powerful  effect  produced  by  Mr.  Henry  George's 
Progress  and  Poverty,  dealt  a  tremendous  and 
probably  fatal  blow  at  the  old  theory  of  land 
ownership  as  held  by  the  old  Liberal  -Party. 


Liberalism  and  Social  Reform. 


812 


Liberty. 


The  legislation  which  the  Irish  compelled  was 
of  course  a  compromise,  but  it  put  an  end  to  the 
dogma  of  "freedom  of  contract," 
and  asserted  the  paramount  rights 
The  New  of  humanity  over  mere  vested  in- 
Socialist  terests.  At  this  time,  however,  a 
Movement,  new  and  more  powerful  force  than 
that  of  the  Irish  began  to  affect 
England — the  new  socialist  move- 
ment. We  have  seen  that  socialism  in  England 
began  with  Robert  Owen,  but  the  times  were 
not  then  ripe,  the  capitalist  system  of  industry 
not  having  developed  its  own  inherent  contra- 
dictions. Consequently  the  social  movement 
slept  for  over  a  generation,  during  which  time, 
however,  the  adoption  of  a  national  system  of 
education  (in  1870)  had  stimulated  both  intelli- 
gence and  discontent.  The  appearance  of  mod- 
ern socialism  in  England  dates  from  1881,  but 
the  movement  did  not  become  formally  and 
consciously  socialist  until  1883.  At  first  it  was 
of  the  crude  revolutionary  character,  but  it  has 
since  become  more  practical  and  parliamentary 
in  its  methods  and  aims.  The  internal  quarrels 
within  the  ranks  of  socialism  prevented  it  from 
exerting  much  influence  as  an  electoral  factor 
until  the  formation  of  the  Independent  Labor 
Party  in  January,  1893.  But  tho  it  was  not 
securing  votes,  the  new  socialist  influence  was 
being  felt,  especially  by  the  Liberal  Party,  which 
had  exhausted  its  old  program  of  ' '  liberty. ' ' 
People  had  all  the  "  liberty"  they  needed,  and 
many  had  more  than  they  knew  what  to  do 
with  ;  it  was  social  opportunity  that  was  now 
demanded.  The  Liberal  rather  than  the  Con- 
servative Party  was  affected  because  it  had  been 
the  party  of  the  intelligent  working  classes  and 
the  reformers  of  greater  moral  earnestness.  For 
some  time,  however,  no  response  was  made. 
The  Liberal  leaders  were  absorbed  in  Irish 
Home  Rule  to  the  exclusion  of  almost  every 
other  question.  The  program  adopted  by 
the  National  Liberal  Federation  at  Nottingham 
in  1887  was  so  barren  as  to  call  forth  loud  re- 
monstrances from  those  eager  for  the  alliance 
of  liberalism  and  labor.  The  agitation  which 
arose  led  ultimately  to  the  adoption  in  1891  of 
the  so-called  "  Newcastle  Program,"  drawn  up 
and  accepted  by  the  delegates  of  the  National 
Liberal  Federation  at  the  Newcastle  meeting  of 
that  year.  That  program  is  a  political  pot- 
pourri, containing  sops  to  the  various  sections 
of  the  Liberal  Party  and  its  Irish  allies,  such  as 
disestablishment  for  the  Welsh,  "local  option" 
for  the  temperance  vote,  village  councils  for  the 
agricultural  laborer,  together  with  a  socialistic 
and  democratic  infusion,  including  the  taxation 
of  land  values  and  incomes,  advanced  factory 
legislation,  payment  of  members  of  Parliament, 
and  the  second  ballot.  It  was  on  this  program 
that  the  Liberals  and  Irish  won  the  general 
election  of  1892.  The  chief  measures  passed  by 
the  party  during  the  period  which  has  elapsed 
are  the  Local  Government  Act,  by  which  it  is 
expected  that  villagers  will  be  able  to  gradually 
wrest  both  rural  administration  and  the  owner- 
ship of  land  from  class  domination  ;  and  the 
Budget  of  1894,  by  which  the  principle  of  pro- 
gressive taxation  of  income  and  heavy  death 
duties  on  real  and  personal  property  was  defin- 
itively established.  Thus  it  is  claimed  for  the 


Liberal  Party  that  it  is  now  almost  abreast  of 
the  new  socialistic  thought  of  the  period  :  the 
newer  tendencies  of  the  party  being 
generally  described  as  the  "  new 
radicalism."     The  chief    cause  of    The  New 
friction,  however,  inside  the  party  Radicalism. 
centers  about    the    legislation   for 
regulating  by  law  adult  labor.    The 
issue  has  been  the  Miners'    Eight- Hours  Bill, 
which  is  strenuously  opposed  by  a  minority  of 
the  party,  including  so  prominent  a  man  as  Mr. 
John  Morley.    It  may  be  expected  that  the  clos- 
ing years  of  the  century  will  witness  an  attempt 
at  the  completion  of  the  evolution  of  modern 
liberalism  by  shedding  altogether  the  "  moder- 
ate" or  individualist  wing,  which  is  visibly  de- 
clining and  must  tend  to  disappear.     The  new 
party  of  progress  in  England  can  scarcely  avoid 
being  largely  collectivist,  since  it  will  probably 
be  the  outcome  of  a  union  of  radicalism  with 
the  labor  movement,  nearly  all  the  rich  and  so- 
cially influential  classes  gravitating  steadily  to 
the  Conservative  Party.     But  before  this  con- 
summation is  reached  liberalism   is  likely  to 
undergo  defeat. 

The  evolution  of  liberalism  from  the  last  cen- 
tury has  thus  been  traced  from  a  movement  of 
"liberty"  to  one  of  "opportunity."  It  is  a 
characteristic  of  England  that  her  life  does  not 
admit  of  the  development  of  extreme  forms 
either  of  progress  or  reaction.  In  Germany  and 
France  we  see  extreme  reactionary  views  con- 
fronted with  extreme  revolutionary  ideas  ;  we 
see  absolute  collectivism  face  to  face  with  rigid 
laissez  faire.  Had  the  Liberal  Party  been 
converted  to  extreme  laissez-faire  theories  like 
the  German  Liberals  or  the  French  moderate 
Republicans,  England  would  have  been  the 
scene  of  a  great  separate  socialist  party,  like 
France  and  Germany.  The  extreme  Manches- 
ter school  would  have  probably  brought  about 
this  result  had  not  the  timely  enfranchisement 
of  the  working  classes  modified  this  tendency 
and  brought  liberalism  from  the  narrow  channel 
of  mere  free  trade  into  the  wider  stream  of  mod- 
ern social  thought.  Perhaps  the  newer  tendency 
of  liberalism  (if  we  are  still  to  use  this  word  for  a 
great  progressive  movement)  may  be  best  de- 
scribed in  the  words  of  Mr.  John  Morley,  taken 
from  a  passage  in  his  Voltaire,  p.  78  :  "  Politi- 
cal liberty,  however,  has  not  only  a  meaning  of 
abstention,  but  a  meaning  of  participation.  If 
in  one  sense  it  is  a  sheer  negative  and  a  doc- 
trine of  rights,  in  another  sense  it  is  thoroughly 
positive  and  a  gospel  of  duties."  The  success 
or  failure  of  liberalism  in  the  transition  period 
in  which  we  are  living  will  mainly  depend  on 
whether  its  adherents  can  carry  out  the  idea 
thus  expressed.  (See  also  ENGLAND  AND  SOCIAL 
REFORM.)  WILLIAM  CLARKE. 

LIBERTY.— Few  words  in  the  English  lan- 
guage are  more  used  in  the  literature  of  social 
reform  than  the  word  liberty,  yet  few  words 
have  been  less  carefully  defined.  What  defini- 
tions have  been  given  have  been  often  contra- 
dictory and  often  utterly  unphilosophical.  Cic- 
ero says  :  "  The  essence  of  liberty  is  to  live 
just  as  you  choose"  (potestas  vivendi  ut  velis) 
(De  Officiis,  Book  I.,  chap.  xx.).  This  is  per- 
haps to-day  both  the  popular  and  the  abstract 


Liberty. 


Liberty  and  Property  Defense. 


conception  of  liberty  ;  but  all  science,  philoso- 
phy, and  experience  agree  to-day  in  declaring 
that  no  such  liberty  is  possible  to  a  finite  being. 
The  following  quotations  will  show  to  what  an 
extent  modern  science  denies  that  there  is  any 
freedom  of  the  will  : 

"I  know  of  no  writer  not  a  theologian  pure  and 
simple  that  goes  the  length  of  claiming  this  for  the 
will  (George  Lacy,  in  Liberty  and  Law,  p.  53).  "The 
terms  have  no  application  to  the  subject"  (Bain's  Emo- 
tion and  Will,  chap.  xi.).  "  Man's  volitions  are  not 
self-caused,  but  determined  by  spiritual  antecedents, 
in  such  sorts  that  when  the  antecedents  are  the  same, 
the  volitions  will  always  be  the  same"  (Mill  on  Hamil- 
ton, pp.  492-3).  "  There  is  nothing  existing  in  the  world 
which  is  absolutely  alone — entirely  free  from  insepa- 
rable relationship  to  some  other  thing  or  things. 
Freedom,  therefore,  is  only  intelligible  as  meaning  the 
being  free  from  some  kind  of  restraint"  (Argyle, 
Reign  of  Lava ',  chap.  vi.).  "The  will  of  the  animal,  as 
well  as  that  of  man,  is  never  free"  (E.  Haeckel.  His- 
tory of  Creation,  vol.  i.,  p.  237).  "The  feelings  in  my 
consciousness  in  the  moment  of  voluntary  choice  have 
been  preceded  by  facts  out  of  my  consciousness,  which 
are  related  to  them  in  a  uniform  manner,  so  that  if  the 
previous  facts  had  been  accurately  known,  the  vol- 
untary choice  might  have  been  predicted"  (W.  K. 
Clifford,  Right  and  Wrong,  p.  162).  *  Psychical  changes 
either  conform  to  law  or  they  do  not.  If  they  do  not 
conform  to  law,  no  science  of  psychology  is  possible. 
If  they  do  conform  to  law,  there  cannot  be  any  such 
thing  as  free  will"  (H.  Spencer.  Principles  of  Psychol- 
ogy, Part  IV.,  §  20). 

Many  theologians  and  some  philosophers  as- 
sert the  freedom  of  the  will,  but  even  they  usu- 
ally maintain  that  the  will  is  only  free  within 
the  limits  of  its  own  moral  nature. 

Says  T.  D.  Woolsey  : 

"  For  a  finite  being,  moral  excellence,  united  with 
the  greatest  perfection  of  intellect  pertaining  to  hu- 
man nature,  will  make  the  best  course  of  action  cer- 
tain within  his  sphere  of  existence  (Johnson's  Cyclo- 
pedia, art.  'Liberty')." 

It  follows  that  moral  deficiencies  and  lower 
grades  of  intellect  make  lower  causes  of  action 
equally  necessary.  As  for  experience,  from  the 
child  who  cries  tor  the  moon  to  the  absolute 
monarch  or  the  beggar,  who  both  have  their 
wills  continually  crossed,  all  life  shows  that  no 
man  can  do  whatever  he  will.  Scientifically, 
philosophically,  experimentally,  absolute  free- 
dom for  finite  beings  is  an  impossibility. 

Says  F.  J.  Stephens  (Liberty,  Equality,  and 
Fraternity,  p.  13) : 

"  Freedom  is  only  intelligible  as  meaning  the  being 
free  from  some  particular  kind  of  restraint ;  therefore, 
in  political  science,  when  one  speaks  of  political, 
economic,  or  other  liberty,  one  should  explain  from 
what  kind  of  restraints  freedom  is  meant." 

"  From  excessive  liberty  tyranny  springs  as 
certainly  as  a  tree  from  its  roots"  (Plato's  Re- 
public). 

Economic  freedom  may  not  mean  liberty,  be- 
cause one  may  still  be  the  slave  of  social  laws. 
Hence,  in  considerations  of  liberty,  freedom 
must  be  balanced  with  freedom,  and  the  great- 
est amount  of  freedom  chosen.  Thus,  moved  by 
various  considerations  and  influenced  by  vari- 
ous social,  political  and  industrial  environments, 
liberty  has  been  very  variously  conceived,  as  the 
following  definitions  will  show  : 

"  Liberty  consists  in  the  safe  and  sacred  possession 
of  a  man's  property"  (Fox,  quoted  by  W.  Roscher,  vol. 
i.,  p.  236).  "Political  liberty  consists  in  security,  or,  at 
all  events,  in  the  opinion  that  we  enjoy  security" 
(Montesquieu,  Spirit  of  the  Laws,  book  12,  chap.  h.). 
"Liberty  is  the  freedom  to  do  what  the  law  permits'' 
(Montesquieu,  Spirit  of  the  Laws,  book  2,  chap,  iii.) 


Benthatn  makes  liberty  to  consist  in  the  freedom  to 
follow  14  specific  sources  of  pleasure,  which  he  names 
(Principles  of  Morals,  vol.  i.,  chap.  v.).  Mill  says  that 
liberty  "  is  the  principle  that  the  sole  end  for  which 
mankind  are  warranted  individually  or  collectively  in 
interfering  with  the  liberty  of  action  of  any  of  their 
number  is  self-protection"  (on  Liberty,  p.  6,  People's 
Edition).  According  to  Sheldon  Amos,  "  Liberty  on 
its  positive  side  denotes  the  fulness  of  individual  exist- 
ence. On  its  negative  side  it  denotes  the  necessary 
restraint  on  all  which  is  needed  to  promote  the  greatest 
possible  amount  of  liberty  for  each"  (Science  of  Law, 
p.  90). 

For  other  conceptions  of  liberty  and  a  discus- 
sion of  the  ways  by  which  it  is  proposed  to  se- 
cure to-day  the  highest  amount  of  liberty,  see 
ANARCHISM  ;  INDIVIDUALISM  ;  SINGLE  TAX  ;  SO- 
CIALISM ;  SPENCER. 


LIBERTY  AND-PROPERTY  DEFENSE 
LEAGUE,  THE.— Founded  for  the  purpose 
of  maintaining  freedom  of  contract,  upholding 
proprietary  rights,  and  resisting  socialistic  leg- 
islation, the  Liberty  and  Property  Defense 
League  has  from  its  inception,  in  1882,  occupied 
a  unique  position  in  English  politics.  Asso- 
ciated with  neither  of  the  two  great  political 
parties  in  the  State,  it  has  consistently  opposed 
the  tendency  toward  socialism  which  during 
each  succeeding  year  of  the  last  quarter  of  a 
century  has  become  more  and  more  marked  in 
the  legislation  of  the  British  Parliament.  The 
League  opposes  all  attempts  to  introduce  the 
State  as  competitor  or  regulator  into  the  various 
departments  of  social  activity  and  industry, 
which  would  otherwise  be  spontaneously  and 
adequately  conducted  by  private  enterprise. 
Questions  of  the  structure  or  constitution  of  the 
State  and  those  of  foreign  policy  do  not  come 
within  the  scope  of  the  League.  It  is  exclusive- 
ly concerned  with  the  internal  functions  or 
duties  of  the  State.  During  the  last  15  years 
all  industries  in  the  country  have  successively 
suffered  at  the  hands  of  the  State  an  increasing 
loss  of  their  self-government.  These  apparent- 
ly disconnected  invasions  of  individual  freedom 
of  action  by  the  central  authority  are  in  reality 
so  many  instances  of  a  general  movement  tow- 
ard State  socialism,  the  deadening  effect  of 
which  on  all  branches  of  industry  and  original- 
ity the  working  classes  will  be  the  first  to  feel. 
Each  industry  conducting  its  self-defense  with- 
out any  reference  to  the  others  has  on  every  oc- 
casion hitherto  failed  to  oppose  successfully  the 
full  force  of  this  movement  concentrated  in  turn 
against  itself  by  the  permanent  officials  and  the 
government  in  power  for  the  time  being.  The 
League  resists  every  particular  case  of  this  com- 
mon evil  by  securing  the  cooperation  of  all  per- 
sons individually  opposed  to  the  principle  of 
State  socialism  in  all  or  any  one  of  its  instances  ; 
and  by  concentrating  into  a  system  of  mutual 
defense  the  forces  of  the  "  defense  associations" 
of  the  various  industries  of  the  country,  and  of 
independent  companies  and  corporate  societies. 

Federated  with  the  League  are  160  defense 
and  protection  societies,  representing  railways, 
shipping,  tramways,  water  companies,  manufac- 
tures, land  and  house  property,  liquor,  mining, 
and  the  other  industries,  and  the  representa- 
tives of  these  bodies  form  a  powerful  commit- 
tee for  the  purpose  of  watching  the  progress  of 
bills  through  Parliament,  and  taking  steps  to 


Liberty  and  Property  Defense.  814 


Libraries,  Public. 


oppose  or  amend  such  bills.  Strictly  speaking, 
the  League  is  a  parliamentary  agency  for  these 
industries  ;  but  while  in  the  main  its  efforts 
are  directed  to  opposing  or  amending  socialistic 
legislation,  the  League  does  not  neglect  the 
important  work  of  propagating  its  views.  In 
the  press  and  on  the  platform,  and  by  the  dis- 
tribution of  pamphlets  and  leaflets,  the  officials 
of  the  League  carry  on  a  vigorous  propaganda 
in  defense  of  individual  liberty  and  proprietary 
rights,  and  through  the  medium  of  such  jour- 
nals as  the  Liberty  Review  everything  is  done 
that  can  be  done  to  spread  and  popularize  the 
principles  which  the  League  has  been  estab- 
lished to  defend.  Among  the  books  and  pam- 
phlets which  the  League  publishes  and  circu- 
lates are  works  by  Lord  Bramwell,  Herbert 
Spencer,  Earl  Wemyss,  Leon  Say,  Earl  Fortes- 
cue,  Auberon  Herbert,  Goldwin  Smith,  Dudley 
Field,  Wordsworth  Donisthorpe,  and  other 
well-known  writers.  As  a  collection  of  indi- 
vidualist and  anti-socialist  literature  the  list 
published  by  the  League  may  be  said  to  be  the 
most  complete  in  existence.  At  the  Universal 
Exhibition,  Paris,  1889,  the  League  was  award- 
ed the  grand  prize  for  its  publications. 

That  the  Liberty  and  Property  Defense 
League  will  find  plenty  of  work  to  do  in  the 
future  goes  without  saying.  Every  succeeding 
year  witnesses  an  increase  in  the  number  of  so- 
cialistic measures  introduced  into  the  British 
Parliament.  From  the  last  annual  report  of  the 
League  it  appears  that  in  the  list  of  bills  which 
the  League  and  its  federated  societies  opposed 
in  Parliament  during  the  session  of  1893  there 
were  no  less  than  a  score  relating  to  property  in 
houses  and  land  ;  8  relating  to  mines,  railways, 
and  shipping  ;  9  relating  to  textile  and  other 
trades  and  manufactures  ;  and  16  relating  to 
trade  in  alcohol.  According  to  the  League, 
every  one  of  these  measures  was  of  a  more 
or  less  socialistic  character,  and  contained  pro- 
posals of  an  oppressive  and  predatory  kind. 
In  the  majority  of  cases  the  League's  oppo- 
sition to  these  measures  was  successful  ;  and 
there  can  be  no  doubt  that,  looked  at '  from 
the  capitalist's  standpoint,  the  League  has  done 
a  large  amount  of  useful  work  in  resisting  legis- 
lation which  aims  at  restricting  individual  free- 
dom and  hampering  private  enterprise. 

The  central  offices  of  the  Liberty  and  Prop- 
erty Defense  League  are  at  Westminster  Cham- 
bers, 7  Victoria  Street,  London.  Branches  of 
the  League  are  in  existence  in  all  the  large  in- 
dustrial centers  in  Great  Britain,  and  in  France, 
Germany,  Italy,  Australia,  and  New  Zealand. 

W.  C.  CROFTS. 

LIBERTY  PARTY.— The  abolitionists 
{q.i>-}  at  Warsaw,  N.Y.,  having  informally  nom- 
inated, in  1839,  James  G.  Birney  for  President 
and  Francis  J.  Lemoyne  for  Vice-President,  the 
nominations  were  confirmed  by  a  convention, 
ostensibly  national,  that  met  at  Albany,  April 
i,  1840,  and  adopted  the  name  '  Liberty  Party." 
Its  platform  was  the  abolition  of  slavery.  The 
candidates  received  7059  votes  in  spite  of  their 
having  declined  the  nominations.  On  August 
30,  1844,  the  national  convention  of  the  party 
met.  The  topic  of  greatest  interest  at  that  time 
was  the  annexation  of  Texas,  and  the  con- 


sequent increase  in  slave  territory.  Biiney 
and  Thomas  Morris,  of  Ohio,  were  nominated. 
The  total  vote  for  Birney  was  62,263.  Had  the 
electoral  vote  of  New  York  gone  to  Clay,  it 
would  have  elected  him.  In  that  State  the 
popular  vote  stood  :  Polk  ;  237,588  ;  Clay,  232,- 
482  ;  Birney,  15,812.  Had  Birney  not  been 
nominated,  it  is  probable  that  enough  of  his 
vote  to  elect  Clay  would  have  been  so  cast — 
certainly  none  of  it  would  have  gone  to  Polk. 
This  lesson  was  not  forgotten,  and  the  party 
did  not  again  name  its  own  candidates.  In  1848 
and  1852  it  supported  the  Free  Soil  Party,  and 
thereafter  the  Republican  Party  (q.v.~). 

LIBRARIES,  PUBLIC.— The  oldest  libra- 
ries known  are  the  Babylonish  tablets,  found  in 
the  mounds  of  Mesopotamia,  and  supposed  to 
have  been  prepared  for  public  instruction  about 
650  B.C.  Pisistratus  is  said  to  have  founded  a 
library  at  Athens  537  B.C.,  but  this 
is  not  clear.  Strabo  says  that  Aris- 
totle was  the  first  collector  of  a  li-  History, 
brary,  and  that  his  library  descend- 
ed to  the  Romans.  The  story  of 
the  great  Alexandrian  library  founded  by  Ptol- 
emy Soter,  with  from  100,000  to  700,000  manu- 
scripts (according  to  different  authors),  and 
burned  by  the  Caliph  Omar,  is  now  considered 
to  be  a  myth,  at  least  as  to  its  size.  Many  Ro- 
mans collected  libraries.  Plutarch  says  the  li- 
brary of  Lucullus  was  open  to  all.  Pliny  says 
the  library  of  Pollio  was  the  first  public  library 
in  Rome.  St.  Jerome  says  that  St.  Pamphilus, 
of  Cesarea,  in  309,  collected  30,000  volumes, 
chiefly  religious,  to  be  lent  ;  if  this  be  true,  it 
was  probably  the  first  lending  library.  The  li- 
braries of  the  Middle  Ages  were  small.  The 
still  existing  library  of  the  Swiss  abbey  of  St. 
Gall  was  one  of  the  first,  and  claims  an  antiquity 
of  1000  years.  The  first  library  in  England  is 
said  to  have  consisted  of  nine  manuscripts 
brought  by  Augustine  in  596.  As  late  as  Henry 
VIII.  the  royal  library  had  only  329  volumes. 
Matthias  Corvinus,  King  of  Hungary,  had,  in 
1490,  50,000  volumes,  destroyed  by  the  Turks  in 
1530.  Lorenzo  de'  Medici,  in  Florence,  estab- 
lished the  great  Laurentian  Library.  In  1556 
the  Royal  Library  ot  France,  then  containing 
2000  volumes,  received  by  royal  ordinance  the 
privilege  of  obtaining  a  copy  of  every  book 
printed  in  France.  By  1789  it  had  200,000  vol- 
umes, and  is  to-day  the  largest  library  in  the 
world.  Germany  has  the  greatest  number  of 
important  libraries  of  any  country.  The  library 
of  the  British  Museum  was  founded  in  1753. 
The  first  library  in  the  United  States  was  that 
of  Harvard  College,  begun  in  1638. 

Benjamin  Franklin,  after  considerable  effort, 
founded,  in  1732,  the  Philadelphia  Library  Com- 
pany, the  "  mother,"  as  he  himself  calls  it,  "  of 
all  the  subscription  libraries  in  North  America." 

In  Scotland,  in  1816,  Samuel  Brown,  of  Had- 
dington,  following  in  part  the  methods  of  Lon- 
don booksellers,  established  a  system  of  free 
itinerating  libraries,  loaning  without  cost  selec- 
tions of  50  books  in  each  package  to  villages 
and  neighborhoods. 

This  system  was  copied  in  this  country  in  the 
school  district  libraries  which  were  started  in 
the  State  of  New  York  in  1835,  and  a  few  years 


Libraries,  Public. 


8*5 


Libraries,  Public. 


afterward  were  in  successful  operation  in  Massa- 
chusetts and  other  New  England  States,  and  in 
Michigan  and  Ohio  at  least,  among  States  fur- 
ther West. 

MUNICIPAL   LIBRARIES. 

The  first  free  town  library  in  America,  or  the 
world,  supported  by  municipal  taxation,  was  es- 
tablished by  the  efforts  of  Abiel  Abbot,  D.D.,  in 
Peterboro,  N.  H.,  in  1833. 

Massachusetts  in  1847  granted  to  Boston  the 
right  to  establish  the  first  large  municipal  free 
library.  There  are  in  Massachusetts  now  over 
300  free  libraries  (according  to  the  returns  of 
the  Public  Library  Commission  for  1894),  or 
1233  volumes  for  every  1000  of  population  ;  in 
New  Hampshire  something  over  100  (in  1894), 
or  464  volumes  per  1000  of  inhabitants.* 

Professor  H.  H.  Barber  says  (American 
Magazine  of  Civics,  May,  1895)  : 

"Massachusetts,  in  1890,  appropriated  $100  to  any 
town  that  would  raise  by  taxation,  or  appropriate 
from  the  dog  tax,  or  otherwise  raise,  at  least  $50  (or  if 
its  valuation  was  less  than  $1,000,000  it  should  raise 
$25,  or  if  less  than  $250,000  it  should  raise  at  least  $15), 
and  should  agree  to  take  care  of  the  books,  and  fur- 
nish the  agency  of  distribution.  The  sums  granted  by 
the  State  are  in  the  hands  of  a  b.  oard  of  commissioners 
appointed  by  the  governor  (with  the  advice  and  con- 
sent of  the  council) ;  and  so  far  these  commissioners- 
librarians  and  others— have  been  eminent  citizens, 
serving  without  salaries,  and  having  only  $500  in  their 
hands  annually  for  clerk  hire  and  traveling  expenses. 
The  commission  is  also  required  to  give  advice  and 
information  to  librarians  and  others  concerning  selec- 
tion of  books,  cataloging,  and  administration;  and  to 
select  and  forward  the  books  granted  by  the  State. 

"  Now  for  results.  The  commission  has  thus  aided 
in  establishing,  in  four  years,  more  than  60  free  public 
libraries  in  small  towns  (out  of  104  not  thus  supplied), 
and  its  action  has  shamed  a  few  larger  towns  into  es- 
tablishing them  ;  so  that  now  only  two  and  three 
fourths  per  cent,  of  the  population  of  the  State,  in  44 
small  towns,  were  in  January,  1894,  without  their  ad- 
vantages. And  this  has  been  accomplished  with  an 
entire  expense  to  the  commonwealth  of  less  than  gio,- 
ooo.  Per  contra,  more  than  $500,000  were  given  by  in- 
dividuals in  a  single  year  for  similar  purposes  with- 
in the  State.  .  .  . 

"In  1892,  a  law  was  passed  authorizing  the  Regents 
of  the  University  of  New  York  to  lend  for  a  lim- 
ited time— usually  six  months— selections  of  books.  .  .  . 
At  the  end  of  20  months  125  of  these  free  loan  libra- 
ries had  been  sent  out  by  the  New  York  Board  of  Re- 


Volumes. 

Pans  National  Library  2,600,000 

London  British  Museum 1,650,000 

St.  Petersburg  Imperial 1,078,000 

Munich  Royal  (including  pamphlets).. ..    940,000 

Berlin  Royal.   .....    850,000 

Strasburg  University 700,000 

Washington  Congressional 6=10,843 

B9Ston  Public 597,000 

Vienna  Imperial  Public \\.    570,000 

Oxford  University 530,000 

Hamburg  City 505,000 

Leipzig  University 504,000 

Cambridge  (Eng.)  University 500,000 

Copenhagen  Royal        500,000 

Stuttgart  Royal  Public 500,000 

Of  the  value  of  public  libraries,  Professor 
Barber  says  (see  above)  : 

"  It  would  hardly  seem  necessary  to  dwell  upon  the 
arguments  in  behalf  of  the  free  public  library.  '  There 
is  probably  no  mode  of  expending  public  money,' 


sion  centers  (18),  and  to  academy  libraries  open  to  the 
public  (22).  Eleven  thousand  nine  hundred  volumes 
were  thus  made  accessible  to  the  public,  with  a  total 
circulation  of  not  far  from  25,000  volumes  and  9000 
readers.  This  system,  which  seems  even  more  eco- 
nomical than  the  Massachusetts  one,  has  greatly  pro- 
moted interest  in  good  reading,  and  led  to  the  estab- 
lishment of  several  local  public  libraries." 

In  1892  the  public  libraries  in  the  United 
States  of  looo  volumes  or  upward  numbered 
3804  collections,  aggregating  about  27,000,000. 
The  free  library  movement  is  spreading  also  in 
Great  Britain,  Germany,  and  Australasia.  The 
following  are  the  larger  libraries  of  the  world  : 

*  Fletcher's  Public  Libraries  in  America  gives  the 
following  list  of  free  libraries  in  the  other  States  :  Illi- 
nois, 42  ;  Michigan,  38  ;  Rhode  Island,  26 ;  New  York 
24  ;  Indiana,  23  ;  Connecticut,  23  ;  California,  21  ;  Ohio' 
2i  ;  Iowa,  15  ;  Vermont,  15 ;  Maine,  14  ;  Wisconsin,  9  ; 
Kansas,  q  ;  New  Jersey,  9  ;  Minnesota,  8  ;  Pennsylva- 
nia, 7  ;  Missouri,  4  ;  Colorado,  3.  It  should  be  remem- 
bered that  these  are  minimum  figures,  the  returns  from 
some  States  being  very  imperfect.  On  the  other  hand 
some  of  those  returned  in  all  the  States,  and  all  of  those 
in  some  States— as  in  Pennsylvania— are  supported  oth- 
erwise than  by  public  taxation. 


voted  by  Congress  might  be  abundantly  sufficient  to 
insure  the  organization  on  the  Massachusetts  plan  of  a 
free  library  in  every  village  and  county  town  of  the 


,         „ — »,     „...,    „ v,  j,     Vj     fc_*/--i*/'**o«-    j^uc/  u-t.  t*f  c    diJU.    a, 

benefactor  of  the  Boston  Public  Library,  wrote  to  Ed- 
ward Everett :  '  I  would  establish  a  library  which  dif- 
fers from  all  free  libraries  yet  attempted  ;'  I  mean  one 
in  which  any  popular  books  tending  to  moral  and  in- 
tellectual improvement  shall  be  furnished  in  such 
numbers  that  many  persons  can  be  reading  the  same 
book  at  the  same  time  ;  in  short,  that  not  only  the  best 
books  of  all  sorts,  but  the  pleasant  literature  of  the 
day,  shall  be  made  accessible  to  the  whole  people  when 
they  most  care  for  it— that  is,  wlien  it  is  fresh  and 
new.  .  .  .  Mr.  Herbert  Spencer  and  the  individualists 
oppose  to  the  public  library,  supported  by  taxation, 
their  well-worn  declamation  about  the  injustice  of 
making  one  man  pay  for  another  man's  culture  and 
amusement ;  and  urge  the  dictum  of  laissez  faire  in 
civilization  and  government.  But  as  the  post-office 
and  the  public  school  have  survived  their  onslaughts 
we  may  not  feel  compelled  to  surrender  the  advan- 
tages of  the  free  library.  For,  as  with  the  school,  it  is 
easy  to  show  that  mental  health  and  light  are  as  pri- 
mary interests  of  the  community  as  material ;  and 
that  it  is  precisely  because  those  most  deficient  are 
least  sensible  of  their  defect  that  society  must  seek  to 
remedy  it.  Mr.  Spencer's  analogy  be- 
tween hunger  for  food  and  hunger  for 
knowledge  is  utterly  fallacious.  The  Objections. 
physical  appetite  may  be  trusted  to 
seek  vigorously  its  own  supply  ;  the  in- 
tellectual appetite  has  most  to  be  aroused  where  in- 
tellectual starvation  is  most  imminent  ;  and  it  grows 
only  by  what  it  feeds  on.  Men  usually  value  most, 
indeed,  what  they  work  or  pay  for  ;  but  it  is  precisely 
those  who  do  not  value  good  books  at  all  who  need  to 
be  tempted  and  trained  to  their  appreciation.  And  it 
is  just  the  children  of  those  whose  parents  will  not,  or 
cannot,  provide  them  wholesome  reading,  that  society 
cannot  afford  to  let  go  wholly  unprovided. 

"  The  smallest  fee  here  proves  an  effective  bar,  as 
the  experience  of  all  subscription  libraries  proves. 
When  the  Springfield  (Mass.)  library  was  made  free, 
its  circulation  was  trebled  the  first  year,  tho  the 
fee  had  been  only  $i.  .  .  .  It  is  sometimes  objected 
that  the  records  of  all  public  libraries  show  that  the 
lightest  literature  is  most  read  ;  that  fiction  consti- 
tutes one  half  or  three  fourths  of  the  books  circulated. 
But  besides  the  obvious  consideration  that  only  whole- 
some fiction  finds  place  in  all  well-appointed  public 
libraries,  Horace  Greeley's  view  has  much  to  com- 
mend it— viz.,  that  all  pure  reading,  however  light, 
tends  to  develop  a  taste  for  more  vigorous  and  in- 
structive literature.  Besides,  it  may  well  be  urged  that 
fiction  is  not  only  the  current  form  of  literary  art,  but 
also  the  effective  vehicle  of  current  social  theories,  phil- 
anthropies, and  reforms  ;  and  that  much  of  the  most 
earnest  thinking  and  serious  moral  purpose  of  this 
age  is  embodied  in  it.  Under  such  intelligent  and 
careful  selection  as  the  public  opinion  of  the  com- 
munity may  provide  for,  the  public  library  will  fur- 
nish a  healthful  substitute  and  corrective  tor  the  un- 
appointed  and  vagrant  reading  of  that  large  section  of 
young  people  most  in  need  of  guidance." 


License. 


816 


Liquor  Traffic. 


LICENSE. 

TITUTION. 


See  HIGH  LICENSE,  also  PROS- 


LIEBKNECHT,  WILHELM,  was  born  in 
1826,  at  Leipzig,  of  poor  parentage  ;  he  studied  at 
Giessen,  Berlin,  and  Marburg.  In  the  Revolu- 
tion of  1848  he  took  part  in  Baden,  and  was  im- 
prisoned from  September  to  May.  He  fled  to 
Switzerland  and  then  to  England,  where  he  re- 
mained till  1862.  He  was  much  with  Marx,  and 
earnestly  espoused  his  views.  In  August,  1862, 
he  returned  to  Germany,  and  edited  the  North 
German  Gazette  till  it  became  a  Bismarckian 
organ,  when  Liebknecht  joined  Lassalle's  agi- 
tation. He  became  the  leader  of  the  Interna- 
tional Party  in  Germany,  won  Bebel  to  social- 
ism, and  with  him  worked  for  the  amalgamation 
of  the  movements  started  by  Lassalle  and  Marx, 
thus  forming  the  Social  Democratic  Party,  of 
which  he  and  Bebel  are  still  the  main  leaders. 
In  1865  he  was  ordered  to  quit  Prussia.  He 
went  to  Leipzig  and  edited  a  democratic  jour- 
nal till  it  was  suppressed  in  1866.  Return- 
ing to  Berlin,  he  was  imprisoned  three  months. 
In  1867  he  was  returned  to  the  North  German 
Diet  by  a  Saxon  constituency,  and  has  been  in 


the  Legislature  ever  since.  He  was  imprisoned 
in  1870,  and  for  two  years  beginning  in  1872. 
In  1 88 1  he  was  expelled  from  Leipzig  under  the 
socialist  law.  He  is  not  an  original  thinker,  but 
of  high  intellectual  attainments  and  a  good 
writer  ;  his  Zur  Grand  und  Bodenfrage  (1874), 
a  work  on  the  land  question,  being  among  his 
best  publications. 

LIFE-SAVING  SERVICE,  THE,  of  the 

United  States  commenced  in  1849  with  an  ap- 
propriation of  $20,000  by  Congress.  Previous 
to  this  the  only  organized  attempts  in  this  direc- 
tion were  of  humane  societies  like  that  of  Massa- 
chusetts, established  in  1789.  To-day  the  ocean 
and  lake  coasts  of  the  United  States  are  picket- 
ed with  the  stations  of  the  life-saving  service 
attached  to  the  United  States  Treasury  Depart- 
ment. 

At  the  close  of  the  last  fiscal  year  the  life-sav- 
ing establishment  embraced  251  stations,  184 
being  on  the  Atlantic  coast,  53  on  the  lakes,  13 
on  the  Pacific  coast,  and  i  at  the  falls  of  the 
Ohio,  Louisville,  Ky. 

The  following  table  gives  the  results  : 


Year  ending 
June  30,  1895. 

Since  Introduc- 
tion of  Life-Sav- 
ing System  in 
1871,  to  June  30, 
1895. 

48^ 

Value  of  property  involved  

67,258 

Number  of  persons  lost  

Number  of  shipwrecked  persons  succored  at  stations  

803 

Number  of  vessels  totally  lost  on  the  United  States  coasts  

LIGHT  RAILWAYS.— In  Great  Britain 
there  has  been  some  effort  to  get  light  railways, 
or  railways  of  comparatively  cheap  production, 
and  working  such  as  exist  in  some  parts  of  the 
Continent,  and  benefit,  it  is  contended,  poor 
districts  and  agricultural.  The  Board  of  Trade 
has  had  power  to  construct  such  roads  since 
1868,  but  has  not  yet  relaxed  its  conditions  suffi- 
ciently to  allow  them. 

LIQUOR  TRAFFIC.  (See  INTEMPERANCE  ; 
TEMPERANCE.) — We  simply  give  here  statistics 
of  the  liquor  traffic. 

The  returns  of  the  Internal  Revenue  Depart- 
ment furnish  a  means  of  very  accurately  meas- 
uring the  liquor  traffic  from  year  to  year.  Dur- 


ing the  last  fiscal  year,  which  closed  June  30, 
1895,  there  were  registered  1949  distilleries  of 
grain,  12  of  molasses,  and  920  of  fruit.  There 
were  in  actual  operation  during  the  year  1621, 
n,  and  797  respectively.  The  number  of  gal- 
lons of  spirits  placed  in  warehouse  during  the 
¥jar  is  substantially  the  production  of  the  year, 
he  revenue  is  paid  on  spirits  when  withdrawn 
for  consumption.  Beer  does  not  go  into  bond- 
ed warehouses,  but  the  tax  is  paid  at  the  brew- 
ery on  the  amount  produced.  The  distillery 
operations  are  shown  by  the  following  statistics 
of  distilled  spirits  for  the  years  ending  June  30, 
1894  and  1895,  compiled  from  the  Internal  Rev- 
enue Report  for  1895  : 


In  warehouse  at  beginning  of  year  

Gallons, 

Gallons. 

Put  in  warehouse  during  the  year,  

2      ooo  186 

Withdrawn  from  warehouse  for  export    

Withdrawn  for  consumption  

87,346,834 

Withdrawn  for  transfer,  leakage,  etc  

Total  withdrawn        

o 

Liquor  Traffic. 


8i7 


Liquor  Traffic. 


LIQUOR-DEALERS   IN  THE  UNITED  STATES,   1895. 
(Report  of  the  Commissioners  of  Internal  Revenue.) 


STATES  AND  TERRITORIES. 

DEALERS  IN  DISTILLED 
LIQUORS. 

DEALERS  IN  FERMENT- 
ED LIQUORS. 

Total  Dealers. 

O    . 

•H  (-. 

i 

8« 

3  v 

^ 
3g 

Is 

K 

• 

O   . 

oJS 

•^ 

«n 
uQ 

o 
> 

tt 

|« 

4^ 

|i 

Retail. 

&d 

£fe 

£ 

Whole- 
sale. 

Retail. 

3 

37 

7 

45 
383 
47 
57 
6 

22 
12 
41 

8 
320 
78 

894 

73 
635 
633 
12,752 
2,419 
3,296 
397 

I,2IO 

445 
1.454 
619 

17,833 
7,375 
7 
4.631 
2,235 

3,97° 
4,216 
990 
4,164 
4,5o6 
6,864 
3,890 
307 
7,639 
1,704 
2,041 
581 
1,579 
8,459 
469 
41,176 
1,251 
S°9 
15,817 
495 
1,382 

I4,"3 
1,746 
800 
1,107 
1,923 
3,937 
392 
580 
2,552 
1,283 
1,277 
8,886 
385 

4 
7 

4 

122 

21 
4 

5 

5 

20 
IOO 

49 

4is 

2 
25 

7 

33 
37 
99 

102 

50 

17 

24 

II 
7 
47 
4 
289 

I 
127 
I 
29 
251 
5 

2 

6 
5 
14 
8 

i 
26 
8 
i74 

21 

is 

21 

145 
63 
154 

8 

21 

J9 
30 
18 
333 
254 

3i8 
59 
79 
45 
13 
74 
248 
190 
242 

13 
262 

42 
217 

13 

71 
246 

27 
676 

22 
8 
382 

38 
13 
5°5 

43 
7 
4t 
25 
3°4 

12 
25 

3° 
19 

21 
2OO 
20 

i35 

4 
8 

39 
206 
144 
iqp 

12 
48 
25 
138 
15 
1,138 
464 

£ 

270 
214 

77 
136 
149 
igi 
328 
320 
48 
268 
39 
67 
4 
15° 
270 

15 
1,587 
44 
189 
301 
44 
31 
494 
3° 
ii 
81 
64 
1,574 
19 
176 
61 
33 
58 
476 
9 

1,094 

84 
672 
738 
13,620 
2,673 
,  3,655 
432 

i,3°4 
501 
1,678 
680 
19,871 
8,741 

20 
5,213 

2,57° 
4,586 
4,481 
1,148 
4,578 
5,261 

7,544 
4,660 

377 
8,497 
1,889 
2,392 
615 
1,816 
9,142 
529 
45.057 
1,362 
707 
17,094 
585 
1,509 
16,023 
,    1,878 
830 
1,244 
2,080 
5,906 
446 
781 
2,695 

1,383 
!,373 
9,912 
419 

1,465 

97 
i,695 
99 
190 
221 
4IO 
217 
910 
1,155 
172 
209 
260 
9,900 
384 
604 
426 
262 

579 
230 
489 
3°4 
339 
3,554 
342 
108 
586 
75 
214 
175 
3!9 
r43 
1,233 
4°3 
225 
241 
243 
357 
200 
1,433 
383 
891 
407 
542 
426 
634 
39° 
596 
190 
203 

215 

200 
2O 

35 

£ 

71 
133 
29 

« 

85 
126 

74 
26 

101 

47 

£ 

57 
140 
64 
24 
84 
18 
49 
37 

3°. 
206 

Si 
50 

52 
63 
28 
85 

J 

72 

7i 
108 

63 
125 
37 
40 

Arizona  

Arkansas*  

California  

13 
18 
8 

Florida*  

10 

Idaho  

Illinois  

147 

21 

Indian  Territory  t  

10 

I 

61 

25 

76 
13 

237 

III 
9 

94 
20  1 

57 
79 
9 

2IO 

37 
39 
6 
9 

85 

12 

975 
3° 

Mainet.        

64 
78 
6 
27 

Michigan  

Mississippi*  

Missouri  

68 

Montana  

Nebraska  

4 

Nevada  

New  Hampshire  

35 

2 

354 
15 

New  Mexico  

New  York  

North  Carolina*  .  

North  Dakotat  

Ohio  

108 

359 
7 
40 
437 
45 
10 
9 
44 
60 

12 

Oklahoma  .... 

Oregon         

'4 
223 
9 

Pennsylvania..  .     

Rhode  Island  

South  Carolina  

South  Dakotat  

Tennessee*  ....         

19 
17 
3 

Texas..             

Utah  

Vermontt  

Virginia..        

17 

I 

3 
51 

34 

21 

6 
"5 

5 

Washington  

West  Virginia  

Wisconsin  

Wyoming  

Totals  

1,440 

4.555 

208,388 

1,771 

5,655 

10,486 

232,295 

295 

52 

*  States  largely  under  Prohibition  by  Local  Option. 

According  to  the  Internal  Revenue  Report 
for  1895,  pp.  53,  54,  there  was  consumed  in  the 
production  of  spirits,  17,499,711  bush,  of  grain 
and  5,802,811  gals,  of  molasses.  This  grain 
produced  79,949,594  gals,  of  spirits,  which  is 
4.32  gals,  of  spirits  to  each  bushel  of  grain,  and 
eight  tenths  of  a  gallon  of  spirits  for  each  gallon 
of  molasses. 

In  addition,  there  was  produced  33,561,411 
bbls.  of  beer,  which,  according  to  Professor 
Francis  Wyatt,  director  of  the  National  Brew- 
ers' Academy  of  New  York  City,  requires  2 
bush,  of  malt  per  barrel  to  manufacture.  This, 
at  eighty-four  hundredths  of  a  bushel  of  barley 
to  one  bushel  of  malt,  required  56,383,171  bush. 
52 


t  Prohibition  States  and  territories. 

of  barley.  The  total  weight  of  grain  used  in 
producing  spirits  was  948,000,000  Ibs.  ;  the  bar- 
ley used  for  beer  weighed  2,706,000,000  Ibs., 
making  in  all  3,654,000,000  Ibs.  If  this  grain 
were  ground  into  flour  and  then  made  into 
bread,  the  waste  of  grinding  would  be  com- 
pensated for  in  the  added  water  for  the  bread, 
and  a  pound  of  grain  would  make  a  pound  of 
bread.  This  3,654,000,000  Ibs.  of  grain  would, 
therefore,  make  an  equal  number  of  pounds  of 
bread,  or  a  pound  loaf  every  day  in  the  year  to 
10,000,000  people,  one  seventh  of  the  total  pop- 
ulation of  the  country.  All  the  statistics  in  this  ar- 
ticle are  compiled  from  official  and  authoritative 
facts,  most  of  them  from  Government  reports. 


Liquor  Traffic.  8l8  Liquor  Traffic. 

SALES  OF  BEER  IN  TWENTY-TWO  LEADING  CITIES. 


CITIES. 

1885.* 

1890.* 

i8g2.t 

i893.t 

l8Q4.t 

i8g5.t 

Albany    N  Y  

Barrels. 

Barrels. 

Barrels. 

Barrels. 
313,499 

Barrels. 

Barrels. 

Baltimore,  Md  

559,401 

567,711 

532,865 

535,574 

784,408 

833,278 

1,038,728 

Brooklyn,  N.  Y  

976,878 

1,788,285 

1,827,222 

1,825,935 

1,814,553 

Buffalo,  N.  Y  

318,081 

602,310 

662,667 

642,294 

627,987 

Chicago,  111  

1,673,685 

2,634,860 

2,761,714 

2,700,322 

2,648,335 

867,715 

1,222,905 

1,310,782 

1,217,704 

1,224,372 

Cleveland,  O  

263,658 

356,284 

443,985 

521,810 

440,504 

443,042 

326,813 

385,423 

352,090 

359,027 

214,233 

360,130 

219,017 

222,070 

Milwaukee,  Wis  
Newark,  N.  J  
New  Orleans,  La 

1,090,448 
654,380 

1,527,032 
1,003,524 

2.066,592 
1,103,840 
257,418 

2,153,096 
1,161,049 
286,909 

2,142,625 
1,144,500 
262,864 

2,037,024 
1,126,319 
249,564 

New  York  Citv  

4,257,978 

4,573,019 

4,838,960 

4,626,262 

4,691,464 

Philadelphia,  Pa  
Pittsburgh,  Pa    .... 

1,247,819 

1,458,846 
338,387 

1,658,529 
429,452 

1,759,922 
583,499 

1,749,005 
432,458 

1,819,113 

441,750 

Rochester,  N.  Y  
San  Francisco,  Cal... 

284,348 
358,647 

427,533 
479,217 
1,613,215 

563,071 
569,976 
1,849,282 

sgi^sS 

5  ",937 
2,042,300 

605,394 
485,141 
1,994,541 

559,835 
494,148 
1,912,869 

231,011 

248,089 

245,693 

255,461 

Toledo,  O  

207,125 

246,488 

273,349 

290,261 

254,068     • 

253,6i5 

Troy  NY  

194,447 

183,033 

187,770 

195,157 

218,261 

*  For  1885  and  1890,  year  ending  April  30. 


t  For  1892,  1893,  1894  and  1895,  year  ending  June  30. 


The  following  table  contains  comparisons  for  a  number  of  the  leading  industries  based  on  the 
census  of  1890  : 

RELATION  OF  CAPITAL  TO  EMPLOYEES   AND  WAGES  IN  LIQUOR  AND  OTHER  INDUSTRIES. 


MECHANICAL  AND  MANUFACTURING 
INDUSTRIES. 

Capital. 

Number  of 
Employees. 

Total  Wages. 

FOR  $10,000  CAPITAL. 

Average 
Number 
of  Em- 
ployees. 

Yearly 
Wages 
Paid. 

$31,006,176 
232,471,290 

5,343 
34,800 

$2,814,889 
28,382,544 

1.72 
1.50 

$980 

1,221 

Liquors,  malt  

Liquors,  total  

$263,477,466 

4°,'43 

$31,197,433 

J-53 

$1,184 

$95,282,311 
45,758,489 
182,552,938 
35-1,020,843 
208,473,500 
373,478,oi8 
120,271,440 
195,232,535 

139,333 
52,762 

243,857 
221,585 
63,481 
152,535 
86,888 
164,935 

$66,375,076 
28,789,047 
111,389,672 
60,489,272 

27,035,742 
84,665,506 
48,970,080 
104,924,475 

14.62 
"•53 
13-36 
6.26 
3-04 
4.08 
7.22 
8.45 

6,966 
6,292 
6,117 
1,963 
1,297 
2,267 
4,072 

5,374 

Bread  and  other  bakery  products  

Lumber,  planing-mill  products  

HOW   WE   SPEND    OUR   MONEY. 

Foreign  missions , $5,000,000 

Potatoes 110,000,000 

Churches 125,000,000 

Public  education 165,000,000 

Furniture 175,000,000 

Sugar  and  molasses 225,000,000 

Woolen  goods 250,000,000 

Boots  and  shoes 335,000.000 

Flour 345,000,000 

Printing  and  publishing 370,000,000 

Cotton  goods 380,000,000 

Tobacco 515,000,000 

Iron  and  steel 560,000,000 

Meat 870,000,000 

Liquors  1,080,000,000 

GOVERNMENT  TAXES   ON   LIQUORS. 

The  United  States  laid  an  internal  revenue 
tax  on  liquors  for  the  first  time  in  1791.  A  tax 
of  1 1  cents  was  laid  on  spirits  distilled  from  for- 
eign imported  materials,  and  of  9  cents  on 
spirits  distilled  from  domestic  products.  Alex- 


ander Hamilton  estimated  the  annual  produc- 
tion of  the  country  at  that  time  to  be  6,500,000 
proof  gals. ,  of  which  3,500,000  gals,  were  from 
foreign  materials.  This  tax  was  the  occasion 
of  the  famous  Whisky  Rebellion  of  1 794.  The 
act  was  repealed  in  1802. 

Liquor  was  again  taxed  in  1813  to  meet  the 
necessities  of  the  War  of  1812  with  England. 
This  time  a  tax  was  laid  on  distilleries.  This 
tax  was  repealed  in  1818  and  no  further  tax  im- 
posed until  1862. 

The  act  of  July  i,  1862,  created  the  Bureau  of 
Internal  Revenue.  The  law,  which  went  into 
effect  September  i,  1862,  imposed  a  tax  of  20 
cents  a  gallon  on  spirits.  This  was  raised  to  60 
cents  by  the  act  of  March  7,  1864.  By  the  act 
of  June  30,  1864,  a  tax  of  $1.50  a  gallon  was 
levied  on '  all  spirits,  except  those  made  from 
grapes,  which  were  taxed  at  25  cents  a  gallon. 
By  the  provisions  of  the  act  the  tax  was  in- 


Liquor  Traffic. 


819 


Liquor  Traffic. 


creased  to  $2  after  February  i,  1865.  There 
was  some  shifting  of  rates  after  this  time,  until 
by  the  act  of  March  3,  1875,  the  rate  was  fixed 
at  90  cents,  at  which  it  remained  for  20  years. 

The  tax  on  beer  has  been  $i  per  barrel  of  31 
gals,  since  September  i,  1862,  except  for  the 
period  from  March  3.  1863,  to  March  31,  1864, 
when  it  was  60  cents. 

PRESENT   TAXES. 

The  present  Government  taxes  on  liquors  are 
$1.10  per  gallon  on  spirits  and  $i  per  barrel  on 
fermented  liquors.  The  Treasury  collects  each 
year  from  each  dealer  in  spirits  at  retail,  $25  ; 
at  wholesale,  $100  ;  from  each  dealer  in  fer- 


mented liquors  at  retail,  $20  ;  at  wholesale, 
$50  ;  from  rectifiers  and  from  brewers  of  less  than 
500  bbls.  per  year,  $50  ;  of  500  bbls.  or  more, 
$100  ;  from  manufacturers  of  stills,  $50  ;  from 
each  still  manufactured,  $20. 

Previously  to  August  28,  1894,  the  tax  on 
spirits  was  90  cents  a  gallon.  The  period  dur- 
ing which  liquors  could  be  stored  in  Govern- 
ment bonded  warehouses  without  payment  of 
tax  until  liquors  are  withdrawn  was  extended 
from  three  years  to  eight  years,  in  the  interests 
of  the  distillers. 

STATE   RECEIPTS. 

The  following  table  is  compiled  from  the  cen- 


EXPENDITURES  OF  STATE  AND  LOCAL  GOVERNMENTS,  LARGELY  DUE  TO  DRINK,  AND  THE 

RECEIPTS  FOR  LIQUOR  LICENSES,   1890. 


STATES  AND  TERRI- 
TORIES. 

EXPENDITURES  STATE  AND  LOCAL  LARGELY  DUE  TO  THE  DRINK 
TRAFFIC. 

Receipts 
from  Liquor 
Licenses, 
State  and 
Local. 

Judicial.* 

Penal   and 
Reforma- 
tory, t 

Police. 

Charitable. 

Total. 

Alabama..          

$330,858 

240,435 
484,986 
520,602 
414,766 
3*5,265 
30.437 
18,796 
263,077 
141,212 
42,298 
775.690 
723.675 
804,860 
429,885 
982,432 
550,667 
194,206 
273,076 
695.432 
330,229 
403,191 
116,058 
886,879 

134.93° 
202,698 
53,0'S 
105,789 
582,398 
28,288 
1,240,886 
196,651 
126,682 
1,152,376 
177,916 
1,302,271 
"3.877 
227,208 
61,792 
772,351 
768,936 
06,813 
104,082 
365.367 
343.696 
138,247 
407,183 
49,919 

$132,649 
13.522 
61,965 
510,420 
63.343 
334.657 
660 

74.979 
42,119 
323.975 
41.333 
445.643 
212,290 
209,260 
191,614 
231,711 
42,166 
122,042 
121,764 
821,092 
4I7.4I6 
'89,315 
102,944 
147,863 
67,203 
80,758 
50,069 
42,386 
365,374 

f,  ;,'.'.  2 
982,375 
57,48l 
48,444 
335,478 
53.390 
888,330 
158,471 

7  -\,'i'-', 
67,068 
$22,923 
386,987 
52,180 
28,562 
51,685 
127,202 
138,522 
241,434 
32,736 

$149,835 

4,7" 
66.632 
660,640 
37,400 
275,261 
44,498 
460,969 
42,110 
332,797 

1,722,118 
188,899 

*79,237 
123,627 
280,163 
172,650 
100,621 
700,088 
2,356,045 
531,846  • 
439,816 
26,858 
931,562 
39,640 
117,077 

94,059 
899,616 

7,200,617 
38,944 
",352 
1,289,249 
61,882 
2,545,"4 
363,833 
84,161 
4,020 

147,763 
241,035 

78,369 
8,697 

254,019 
170,543 
31,103 

339,200 
2,800 

$233,419 
8,194 
223,801 
2,223,533 
312,664 
660,398 
35,649 
248,583 
130,450 
637.234 
53.653 
2,138,552 
1,455,68s 
1,250,946 
569,926 
938,427 
210,850 

358,552 
553,423 
3,917,276 
1,113,811 
863,557 
247,733 
1,006,023 
»93>4'4 
299,267 
«4'495 
520,185 
1,055,955 
15,527 
7,503,631 
372,785 
252,140 
3>3'2,657 
134,804 
2,666,431 
128,453 
282,995 
131,937 
437,8io 
657,694 
87,400 
152,190 
607,319 
261,936 
261,378 
1,062,988 
43,056 

$846,761 
266,862 
837,384 
3>9'5,'95 
828,173 
1,585,581 
111,244 
803,327 
477,756 
1,435,218 
137,284 
5,082,003 
2,580,549 
2,444,303 
»>3I5,o52 
2,432,733 
976,333 
775,421 
1,738,351 
7,790,745 
2,393,332 
1,895,879 

493.593 
2,962,327 
435.187 
699,800 
227,579 
762,419 
2,903,343 
106,877 
16,927,509 
665,861 
438,618 
6,089,760 
430,092 
7,402,146 
764,634 
669,353 
264,817 
1,334,901 
2,054,652 
314,762 

293,  S31 
1,278,390 

903,377 
569,250 
2,050,805 
128,511 

$424,189 
103,025 
223,896 
774,687 
565,249 
478,101 
28 
95,470 
48,659 
343,482 
2i,334 
2,893,378 
359.815 
3' 
39,669 
145.190 
3i,o39 

249.925 
2,502,226 
^SSS.i" 

839,980 
237,275 
1,794,223 
425.532 
339,500 
51,953 

872,873 

20,024 

2,566,627 

76,887 

27,652 
2,209,742 
77,382 
',703,373 
444,849 

68,341 

37,109 

345,474 
169,681 
213,104 
977 
323,306 
219,848 
110,585 
640,619 
27,075 

Arizona  

California  

Colorado    

District  of  Columbia.. 
Florida               

Georgia  

Idaho  

Indiana  .. 

Iowa  

Kentucky  

Louisiana  

Maryland  

Massachusetts  

Michigan  ..               .... 

Minnesota  

Mississippi  

Missouri  

Montana  

Nebraska  

Nevada  

New  Hampshire  
New  Jersey  

New  Mexico  
New  York  .... 

North  Carolina  

North  Dakota.  . 

Ohio  

Oregon  

Pennsylvania  

Rhode  Island  

South  Carolina  

South  Dakota  

Tennessee  

Texas  

Utah  

Vermont        

Virginia.        

Washington  

West  Virginia  
Wisconsin    

Wyoming  

$18,721,383 

$9,226,005 

$23,934,376 

$39,958,816 

$91,841,480 

$24,786,406 

*  Including  county  courts,  inquiries  and  inquests. 

t  Less  receipts  from  the  same. 

%  Tennessee  makes  $22,923  profit  on  its  penal  and  reformatory  institutions. 


Liquor  Traffic. 


820 


Liquor  Traffic. 


sus  of  1890,  and  shows  the  receipts  of  State  and 
local  governments  for  liquor  licenses  during 
1890  and  the  amounts  expended  to  sustain  the 
courts,  jails,  police,  and  almshouses,  the  neces- 
sity for  whose  existence  is  largely  due  to  the 
traffic  which  the  licenses  legalize.  The  State 
and  local  governments  received  $24,786,496 
from  the  liquor  traffic,  but  paid  out  $91,841,480, 
or  $100  for  every  $27  received,  in  caring  for 
crime  and  poverty,  a  large  part  of  which  came 
from  the  saloon.  It  is  well  within  limits  to 
say  that  very  much  of  this  expense  might 
have  been  saved  were  the  saloons  wiped  out. 
That  high  license  cannot  be  made  to  pay  the 
bill  is  shown  by  the  results  in  Illinois,  Massa- 
chusetts, and  Pennsylvania,  where  saloons  are 
taxed  the  highest,  but  the  expenses  due  to  the 
presence  of  the  saloon  are  out  of  all  proportion 
to  the  receipts. 

In  a  recent  article,  Joseph  Cook  put  the  case 
thus:  "It  has  been  proven  that  altho  we  re- 
ceived $100,000,000  a  year  from  the  liquor  traffic, 
nevertheless  $15  a  head  is  added  to  our  burdens 
and  $1.60  received.  So  that  the  loss  to  the  na- 
tion is  fifteen  to  twenty  times  the  income." 

THE   SALOON   IN   POLITICS. 

The  national  liquor  power  is  organized  upon 
broad  and  at  the  same  time  compact  lines.  It 
has  several  national  organizations,  a  State  or- 
ganization in  nearly  every  license  State,  local 
organizations  in  all  the  principal  cities  of  these 
States,  with  branches  in  the  various  districts, 
all  working  together  in  harmony  whenever  in- 
terests of  "  the  trade"  are  affected.  Among  the 
national  liquor  organizations  are  the  follow- 
ing : 

The  United  States  Brewers'  Association  is 
one  of  the  oldest  and  most  powerful  of  the 
liquor  organizations,  having  been  formed  in 
1862  for  the  purpose  of  influencing  congressional 
legislation  in  the  interests  of  the  brewers.  It 
keeps  close  watch  through  its  Vigilance  Com- 
mittee of  the  liquor  interests  in  the  various 
States,  especially  those  affecting  the  brewers. 
At  its  thirty-third  annual  convention,  held  in 
Chicago,  June  7,  1893,  its  board  of  trustees  re- 
ported that  the  United  States  Association  was 
sending  its  powerful  aid  to  defeat  the  Dispen- 
sary Law  in  South  Carolina,  and  to  prevent  the 
passage  of  restrictive  liquor  laws  in  the  District 
of  Columbia.  Associated  with  the  United 
States  Brewers'  Association  are^  powerful  and 
compact  State  brewers'  associations  in  most  of 
the  Northern  and  Western  States. 

The  National  Protective  Association  is  a  pow- 
erful national  organization,  embracing  the  prin- 
cipal distillers  and  wholesale  liquor-dealers  of 
the  United  States.  It  has  branches  in  several 
States,  with  local  organizations  in  the  several 
cities  and  districts.  This  association  has  been 
largely  instrumental  in  defeating  prohibition  in 
several  State  amendment  campaigns,  collecting 
enormous  funds  from  the  liquor-dealers  and 
affiliated  trades,  which  it  used  in  subsidizing  the 
press  and  in  securing  the  local  political  machin- 
ery of  the  Republican  and  Democratic  parties. 

The  National  Retail  Liquor-Dealers'  Associa- 
tion was  formed  some  three  years  ago,  and  now 
has  State  associations  in  nearly  all  the  States. 
The  headquarters  are  in  Chicago. 


Affiliated  with  these  three  powerful  national 
organizations  and  their  State  and  local  branches 
are  the  numberless  German  societies  of  the  so- 
called  "  Personal  Rights  Leagues,"  and  the 
"  Turn  Vereins"  having  national  headquarters 
at  Chicago.  The  personal  rights  degree. has 
affiliations  in  the  principal  cities  of  nearly  all 
States. 

The  Whisky  Trust  is  another  factor  in  the  or- 
ganization of  the  liquor  power.  On  May  10, 
1887,  the  leading  whisky  producers  of  the  coun- 
try met  at  Chicago  and  formed  what  was  known 
as  the  Distillers'  and  Cattle-Feeders'  Trust, 
which  within  a  single  year's  time  became  pow- 
erful enough  to  control  85  to  90  per  cent,  of  the 
spirits  produced  in  the  country.  Its  headquar- 
ters are  at  Peoria,  111. 

The  tendency  of  the  liquor  interests  to  still 
further  consolidation  is  shown  by  the  formation 
of  the  English  brewery  syndicate  in  1889.  The 
Brewers'  Journal  of  May  i,  1894,  published  a 
table  showing  that  the  syndicate  had  purchased 
79  breweries,  which  have  been  reorganized  into 
24  new  companies,  with  a  capital  stock  of  $91,- 
202,830,  or  about  two  fifths  the  total  capital  in- 
vested in  the  brewing  business  in  1890. 

It  is  a  conservative  statement  to  say  that  these 
widespread  but  compact  liquor  organizations, 
with  their  State  and  local  branches,  can  com- 
mand at  a  moment's  notice  1,000,000  votes  in 
the  United  States  for  the  friends  and  against 
the  enemies  of  the  saloon. 

One  of  the  first  demands  made  by  the  United 
States  Brewers'  Association  after  its  organization 
in  1862  was  the  abolition  of  the  United  States  tax 
on  beer,  and  a  committee  was  sent  to  Washing- 
ton to  obtain  the  desired  law.  So  successful 
was  this  first  effort  of  the  organized  liquor  pow- 
er, that  at  the  third  brewers'  convention  held  at 
Cincinnati,  October  ,28,  1863,  F.  Lauer,  of  the 
Agitation  Committee,  reported  "  satisfactory 
interviews  with  the  Congressional  Committee 
on  Ways  and  Means,"  and  the  "  reduction  of 
the  tax  on  beer  from  $i  to  60  cents  per  barrel." 

During  the  Presidential  campaign  in  1892 
Grover  Cleveland  was  visited  by  Washington 
Hesing,  editor  of  the  Staats  Zeitung',  of  Chi- 
cago, who  informed  him  that  he  must,  on  pain 
of  defeat,  insert  a  declaration  "  against  sumptu- 
ary laws"  in  his  letter  of  acceptance.  This 
Cleveland  did,  and  after  his  election  rewarded 
this  liquor-dealers'  agent  for  his  power  in  throw- 
ing the  rum  vote  to  the  Democracy  by  his  ap- 
pointment as  postmaster  at  Chicago,  with  the 
power  to  distribute  Federal  patronage  in  that 
city. 

The  Wine  and  Spirit  Gazette  says  in  its  is- 
sue of  January  29,  1894  : 

"  The  liquor  vote  of  this  State,  a  good  deal  more 
than  120,000  strong,  can,  if  it  will,  control  all  legisla- 
tion at  Albany.  It  is  the  balance  of  power  between 
the  two  parties.  It  can  make  or  unmake  majorities. 
Properly  led,  it  can  elect  any  set  of  men  it  pleases.  It 
is,  therefore,  in  a  position  to  exercise  far  greater  pow- 
er and  influence  than  does  the  Prohibition  Party." 

In  its  issue  of  February  10,  1894,  it  says  : 

"There  are  nearly  200,000  voters  in  this  State  who 
live  by  the  saloon.  There  are  but  30,000  Prohibition 
voters,  all  told,  in  the  State.  Must  the  six  surrender 
to  the  one  ?  But  let  the  one  cease  its  clamor,  and  the 
six  will  consent  to  take  their  chances  with  all  citizens? 
making  no  effort  for  special  self -protection." 


Liquor  Traffic. 


821 


Liquor  Traffic. 


Terence  V.  Powder ly,  while  General  Master- 
Workman  of  the  Knights  of  Labor,  said  : 

"  If  the  power  lies  in  you,  down  in  thunder  tones 
the  liquor  power  that  debauches  the  voters.  One 
hogshead  of  whisky  in  the  city  of  New  York  judi- 
ciously placed  may  make  or  unmake  a  President. 
Give  out  enough  glasses  of  gin  in  this  city  and  State, 
and  you  place  the  dispenser  in  the  chair  of  Washing- 
ton. Where  is  Tammany's  power?  Is  it  not  in  the 
gin-mills?" 

The  New  York  Wine  and  Spirit  Gazette,  in 
its  issue  of  October  12,  1894,  thus  boasts  of  the 
saloon  power  in  electing  a  Governor  and  a  Presi- 
dent : 

"  The  liquor-dealers  of  the  State  helped  to  elect  Hill 
governor  in  1885.  They  strained  every  nerve  in  1888  in 
his  favor,  and  succeeded  in  reelecting  him  Governor 
and  defeating  Grover  Cleveland.  The  attitude  of  the 
liquor-dealers  in  the  memorable  campaign  of  1888  has 
become  a  matter  of  political  history.  In  most  of  the 
principal  cities  of  the  State,  Harrison  and  Hill  clubs 
had  been  formed  which  counted  among  their  most 
active  members  liquor-dealers.  A  large  sum  of  mon- 
ey was  collected  by  the  liquor  trade  in  this  State,  and 
further  contributions  were  obtained  from  the  whole- 
sale trade  in  Pennsylvania,  Ohio,  and  Illinois,  for 
the  express  purpose  of  defeating  Warner  Miller  and 
reelecting  David  B.  Hill.  The  money  thus  collected 
was,  by  Governor  Hill's  direct  orders,  turned  over  to 
Colonel  Judson,  \yho  was  then  Hill's  military  secre- 
tary, with  the  distinct  stipulation  that  it  be  used  ex- 
clusively in  Mr.  Hill's  behalf  and  not  for  the  benefit 
of  Grover  Cleveland.  Governor  Hill  was  reelected 
and  Cleveland  was  defeated." 

The  power  of  the  saloon  upon  the  voter  is 
forcibly  shown  by  an  investigation  made  by 
Professor  J.  J.  McCook,  published  in  The  Forum 
for  September,  1892,  in  which,  from  secret  lists 
furnished  him  by  politicians,  he  constructs 
tables  for  20  towns  and  one  city  in  Connecticut, 
showing  the  number  of  votes  that  are  known  to 
politicians  to  be  purchasable.  He  finds  that 
15.9  per  cent,  of  the  whole  number  of  votes  is 
venal.  The  table  which  follows  shows  the  re- 
lation of  drink  to  the  voters  who  can  be  pur- 
chased in  two  rural  towns  and  in  two  city 
wards.  It  is  a  very  significant  fact  that  in 
three  of  these  districts,  as  shown  by  the  sum- 
mary, out  of  the  total  voting  population  who 
are  intemperate  or  drunken,  there  are  79  per 
cent,  that  can  be  bought. 


INTEMPERATE  VOTERS   CAN   BE  BOUGHT. 


DISTRICT. 

VOTERS  WHO  ARE  VENAL. 

Per 

Cent,  of 
Total 
Voters. 

Per 

Cent, 
of  Intem- 
perate or 
Drunken 
Voters. 

Per 

Cent,  of 
Tem- 
perate 
Voters. 

Rural  town,  I  

9.8 

2O.  O 

9-3 

85.4 
63-9 
52-9 
90.4 

2-5 
12.  0 

4-2 

9.9 

City  ward,  I  

City  ward,  II  

Total  of  first  three  dists 

"•3 

79.0 

4-9 

THE   SALOON   POWER   IN   NEW   YORK   CITY. 

The  power  of  the  brewers  over  the  retailers  is 
shown  by  the  large  number  of  mortgages  which 
the  brewers  hold  on  fixtures  in  saloons.  An  in- 
vestigation made  by  Robert  Graham,  of  the 
Church  Temperance  Society,  into  the  condi- 
tions of  New  York  City,  shows  that  during  the 
year  ending  in  October,  1888,  there  were  4710 
chattel  mortgages  granted  on  saloon  fixtures, 
with  a  total  value  of  $4,959,578  ;  of  these  1908, 
with  a  value  of  $1,702,136,  were  held  by  20  of 
the  leading  brewers.  No  report  was  made  of 
the  number  held  by  other  brewers.  There  were 
7808  saloons  in  New  York  City  in  1888,  so  that 
considerably  more  than  one  half  were  under 
chattel  mortgage,  "an  overwhelming  propor- 
tion of  which  was  held  by  brewers." 

The  control  of  these  powerful  liquor  associa- 
tions in  politics  is  shown  by  another  investiga- 
tion made  in  New  York  City  by  the  Church 
Temperance  Society.  During  the  year  before 
the  November  election  of  1884  there  were  held 
1002  political  meetings  in  the  24  assembly  dis- 
tricts into  which  the  city  was  then  divided.  The 
connection  of  these  meetings  with  the  saloons 
is  shown  by  the  following  table,  from  which  it 
appears  that  out  of  the  1002  primary  and  other 
political  meetings  held,  there  were  719,  or  near- 
ly 72  per  cent. ,  held  in  or  next  door  to  saloons  : 


POLITICAL  MEETINGS  HELD  IN  OR  NEAR  SALOONS  IN  NEW  YORK  CITY. 


POLITICAL  PARTIES. 

In  Liquor 
Saloons. 

Next  Door 
to  Saloons. 

Neither. 

Total. 

PER  CENT.  IN  OR  NEAR  SALOONS. 

In  Saloons. 

Next 
Door. 

Total. 

Tammanv  Hall  

56 
63 
487 
27 

IO 

67 
9 

25 

7 

215 
36 

81 
80 
769 
72 

69.1 
78.8 
62.0 

37-5 

63-2 

12.5 
8.7 
12.5 

69.1 
91-3 
70.7 
50.0 

Irving  Hall  

County  Democracy  

Republican  

Total  

633 

86 

283 

1,002 

8.6 

71.8 

The  New  York  City  Reform  Club,  an  inde- 
pendent non-partisan  body  of  voters  organized 
to  watch  legislative  interests  of  that  city,  pub- 
lishes each  year  a  record  of  the  assemblymen 
and  senators  of  the  city  of  New  York.  In  the 
Record  for  1889  is  described  the  corrupting 
power  of  the  saloon  in  New  York  City  politics 
in  these  words  ; 


"  There  is  about  one  saloon  for  every  35  voters.  Each 
of  these  places  represents  a  certain  number  of  votes, 
the  votes  of  hangers  on  who,  for  the  privilege  of  fre- 
quenting the  saloon  and  an  occasional  free  drink,  are 
at  the  command  of  the  proprietor  ;  and  as  each  saloon 
serves  as  a  center  of  political  activity  as  well  on  elec- 
tion day  as  for  weeks  preceding  it,  the  number  of 
votes  thus  influenced  is  so  increased  as  to  be  practi- 
cally all-powerful.  The  result  appears  in  the  charac- 
ter of  the  men  who  are  sent  to  the  Legislature.  They 


Liquor  Traffic. 


822 


Livermore,  Mary  Ashton. 


are  naturally  the  tools  of  the  saloons  because  they  are 
chosen  by  the  saloon.  .  .  . 

"  The  further  fact  that  there  are  35,000  saloon-keep- 
ers in  this  State  avowedly  organized  for  the  purpose 
of  securing  legislation  favorable  to  themselves,  and 
of  preventing  legislation  which  they  deern  to  be  un- 
favorable to  their  business  interests,  is  too  significant 
to  be  overlooked  or  misunderstood,  and  when  it  is  re- 
membered that  each  of  these  saloon-keepers  probably 
controls  10  votes  at  the  very  lowest  possible  estimate, 
it  is  not  difficult  to  perceive  the  danger  which  threat- 
ens the  State." 

In  its  Record  for  1891  the  club  sounded  this 
warning  : 

"  The  City  Reform  Club  is  not  interested  for  or 
against  the  liquor  traffic  as  such.  It  is  not  concerned 
with  the  effect  of  the  traffic  upon  the  individual,  but 
only  with  the  influence  of  the  liquor-dealer  upon  the 
politics  and  the  government  of  this  city  directly  and 
through  his  influence  in  State  politics.  The  club  ob- 
serves that  that  influence  is  constantly  exerted  against 
the  interests  of  the  people  and  on  the  side  of  corrup- 
tion, and  it  now  sees  in  the  liquor-dealers'  bill  of  this 
year  the  amazing  spectacle  or  an  organized  business 
seeking  to  subvert  for  private  gain  the  fundamental 
principles  of  our  law.  The  club  sees,  further,  that 
this  business  has  acquired  by  constant  vigilance,  un- 
remitting efforts  and  large  expenditures,  enormous 
power  in  the  politics  of  this  State.  In  their  efforts  the 
liquor-dealers  are  united  without  regard  to  party. 
They  care  nothing  for  political  principles.  Their 
united  strength  is  used  only  for  private  gain." 

M     HOW   THE   FIFTY-THIRD   CONGRESS   DIED. 

The  Washington  correspondent  of  the  New 
York  Herald  of  March  10,  1895,  thus  describes 
the  closing  scenes  of  the  Fifty-third  Congress  : 

"  Those  curious  students  of  their  kind  who  have  at- 
tended a  New  York  French  ball  will  be  able  to  grasp 
the  situation  and  will  understand  the  picture  thrown 
'  upon  the  curtain  Sunday  night  at  the  Capitol.  Women 
there  were  galore — lively  women,  white  and  black  ; 
women  who  would  have  looked  better,  perhaps,  in  pink 
tights  and  impenetrable  masks.  Among  them,  going 
and  coming,  were  the  wives  and  daughters  of  Senators, 
and  the  wives  and  daughters  of  American  nobility 
from  the  various  States  of  the  Union. 

"  I  saw  an  aged  Senator  pass  into  the  private  dining- 
room  with  two  hilarious  '  peaches '  on  his  arms,  where 
a  bottle  of  champagne  finished  the  business  possibly 
begun  in  a  committee-room.  At  the  same  moment 
four  colored  damsels  sat  in  the  public  portion  of  the 
restaurant,  having  a  good  time  on  their  own  account. 
A  boy  of  not  more  than  15  lay  sprawling  on  the  small 
of  his  back,  too  drunk  to  rise,  unheeded  of  the  throng 
bent  on  their  own  amusement  or  refreshment.  Four 
or  five  attaches  of  the  Senate  were  at  the  next  table, 
drinking  hard  liquor  and  talking  loudly  of  their  extra 
pay.  Two  old  men  in  an  advanced  stage  of  inebriety 
were  plying  a  young  girl  with  liquor — a  bright  young 
girl  of  not  more  than  16,  who  kept  them  laughing  with 
her  wit  and  humor.  Two  women  whose  calling  was 
plainly  indicated  in  their  faces  were  sipping  beer  in 
the  corner  and  soliciting  trade  on  the  sly. 

"  One  member  was  borne  away  struggling  with  his 
captor  friends— fighting  drunk.  A  private  secretary 
playfully  pulled  a  distinguished  member's  beard  and 
poured  beer  down  his  neck — on  the  outside.  Some 
members  were  in  a  state  that  emboldened  the  proprie- 
tor to  refuse  them  any  more  liquor. 

"  'It  is  disgraceful!'  exclaimed  Mr.  Murrey  to  me, 
'and  it  makes  me  sick.  But  you  see  I  can't  help  my- 
self. It  is  their  place — and,  confound  them,  I'm  their 
barkeeper  for  12  hours  yet.' 

"Hearing  songs  and  laughter  issuing  from  an  adja- 
cent committee-room,  I  peeped  in  as  I  went  by.  A 
woman  with  her  daintily-booted  foot  elevated  on  a 
committee  table  and  a  glass  of  champagne  elevated 
in  her  hand  was  singing  a  merry  song,  while  a  dozen 
members  and  their  friends  sat  around  smoking  and 
enjoying  the  society  of  this  lady." 

GEORGE  B.  WALDRON. 

For  statistics  of  the  world's  liquor  traffic,  see 
INTEMPERANCE. 

Reference  :  see  TEMPERANCE. 

LIST,  FRIEDRICH,  was  born  at  Reutlin- 


gen,  Wiirtemberg,  in  1789.  Professor  of  Politi- 
cal Economy  at  Tubingen  in  1817.  he  resigned 
in  1819  to  devote  himself  to  the  development  of 
German  industry.  Elected  to  the  Diet  of  Wiir- 
temberg, he  exposed  the  vices  of  the  adminis- 
tration, and  was  condemned  in  1822  to  10 
months'  imprisonment.  He  fled  to  Switzerland, 
but  returning  in  1824,  he  was  imprisoned  at  As- 
perg,  but  later  was  pardoned  and  allowed  to 
emigrate  to  the  United  States.  He  settled  in 
Pennsylvania  and  published  here  his  Outlines 
of  a  New  System  of  Political  Economy  (1827), 
in  which  he  attacked  the  ideas  of  Adam  Smith, 
and  outlined  an  economy  on  a  national  basis. 
Having  discovered  a  deposit  of  anthracite  on 
his  grounds,  he  was  able  to  return  to  Europe  in 
1833  with  an  independent  fortune.  At  first 
United  States  Consul  at  Hamburg  and  at  Leip- 
zig, he  settled  at  Augsburg  and  devoted  himself 
to  an  agitation  for  a  suitable  system  of  railway 
lines  and  to  economic  writing.  In  a  fit  of  de- 
spondency he  shot  himself,  November  30,  1846. 
Ingram  says  of  him  : 

"  Another  element  of  opposition  [to  the  laissez  faire 
school  in  Germany]  was  represented  by  Friedrich 
List  (1798-1846),  a  man  of  great  intellectual  vigor  as 
well  as  practical  energy,  and  notable  as  having  pow- 
erfully contributed  by  his  writings  to  the  formation  of 
the  German  Zollverein.  His  principal  work  is  entitled 
Das  Nationale  System  der  Politischen  Oekonomie  (1841  ; 
6th  ed.,  1877 ;  Eng.  trans.,  1885).  ...  It  was  particu- 
larly against  the  cosmopolitan  principle  in  the  modern 
economical  system  that  he  protested,  and  against  the 
absolute  doctrine  of  free  trade,  which  was  in  harmony 
with  that  principle.  He  gave  prominence  to  the  Na- 
tional idea;  and  insisted  on  the  special  requirements 
of  each  nation  according  to  its  circumstances  and  es- 
pecially to  the  degree  of  its  development.  .  .  .  The 
nation  having  a  continuous  life,  its  true  wealth  con- 
sists—and this  is  List's  fundamental  doctrine— not  in 
the  quantity  of  exchange-values  which  it  possesses, 
but  in  the  full  and  many-sided  development  of  its  pro- 
ductive powers." 

LIVERMORE,  MARY  ASHTON  (tide 
RICE),  was  born  in  Boston  in  1821.  She  was 
a  pupil  and  for  some  time  a  teacher  in  the  fe- 
male seminary  in  Charlestown.  Mass.  She  left 
here  to  teach  a  family  school  in  Virginia,  and 
remained  there  three  years,  to  return  North  a 
radical  abolitionist.  While  teaching  at  Dux- 
bury,  Mass.,  she  met  Daniel  P.  Livermore,  a 
Universalist  clergyman,  whom  she  married, 
devoting  herself  to  aiding  him  in  his  work  and 
writing  various  stories  and  articles  on  reform 
lines,  especially  on  temperance.  In  1857  Mr. 
Livermore  became  editor  and  publisher  of  the 
New  Covenant,  at  Chicago,  and  for  12  years 
Mrs.  Livermore  assisted  him  in  his  editorial 
labors,  besides  doing  outside  writing.  In  1862 
she  was  appointed  one  of  the  agents  of  the 
northwestern  branch  of  the  United  States  Sani- 
tary Commission,  and  during  that  year  she  trav- 
eled throughout  the  Northwest,  everywhere  or- 
ganizing sanitary  aid  societies.  In  the  spring 
of  1863  she  was  appointed  to  make  a  tour  of  the 
hospitals  and  military  posts  on  the  Mississippi. 
At  this  time  sanitary  supplies  were  low,  and  the 
most  serious  results  were  feared  at  Vicksburg 
camps  ;  but  by  personal  appeals,  by  circulars, 
and  by  untiring  perseverance  and  enthusiasm, 
she  secured  immediate  relief. 

Since  the  war  she  has  labored  earnestly  in 
the  woman's  suffrage  and  temperance  move- 
ments. In  1869  she  established  the  Agitator, 
a  woman's  suffrage  paper,  but  in  1870  became 


Livermore,  Mary  Ashton. 


823 


Lobby. 


editor  of  the  Woman' s  Journal  of  Boston.  In 
1872  she  resigned  to  devote  herself  to  the  plat- 
form, and  for  years  spoke  five  nights  in  the 
week  for  five  months  in  the  year. 

She  has  also  written  continually  for  various 
magazines.  Mrs,  Livermore  is  much  interested 
in  politics,  and  was  twice  sent  by  the  Republi- 
cans of  her  own  town  as  delegate  to  the  Massa- 
chusetts State  Republican  Convention,  charged 
with  the  presentation  of  woman  suffrage  reso- 
lutions, which  were  accepted  and  incorporated 
into  the  party  platform.  She  is  identified  with 
the  Woman's  Christian  Temperance  Union,  and 
for  10  years  was  president  of  the  Massachusetts 
Woman's  Christian  Temperance  Union.  She 
was  president  of  the  Woman's  Congress  during 
the  first  two  years  of  its  organization,  has  served 
as  president  of  the  American  Woman  Suffrage 
Association,  and  has  been  prominent  in  various 
other  movements. 

In  religion  she  is  a  Unitarian,  but  cares  more 
for  life  and  character  than  for  sect  or  creed. 
She  is  a  believer  in  nationalism,  and  regards 
socialism,  as  expounded  in  America,  as  "ap- 
plied Christianity. ' '  Notwithstanding  her  many 
years  of  hard  service,  she  still  does  more  public 
work  than  most  younger  women.  Happy  in 
her  home  at  Melrose.  Mass.,  and  in  the  society 
of  her  husband,  children,  and  grandchildren, 
she  keeps  steadily  at  work  with  voice  and  pen 
and  influence. 

LLOYD,  HENRY  p.,  was  born  May  i, 
1847,  in  New  York  City,  in  or  near  which  city 
his  mother's  ancestors  had  lived  for  ten  genera- 
tions. His  father  was  a  minister  in  the  Dutch 
Reformed  Church  and  a  descendant  of  Goffe, 
the  regicide.  He  was  brought  up  in  the  strict- 
est orthodoxy,  and  was  graduated  at  Columbia 
College,  'where  he  also  studied  law,  and  was 
admitted  to  the  New  York  bar  in  1869  ;  but  he 
went,  in  1872,  to  Chicago  and  secured  a  posi- 
tion on  the  Chicago  Tribune,  filling  almost  all 
positions  up  to  the  editorial  staff  till  1885, 
when  he  retired,  partly  on  account  of  ill  health 
and  partly  on  account  of  his  radical  views. 
He  married  a  daughter  of  Governor  Bross, 
and  lives  in  a  beautiful  home  near  Chicago, 
where,  with  his  devoted  wife,  he  has  welcomed 
many  a  worker  in  social  reform  who  has  been 
in  need  of  a  little  rest  and  sympathetic  friends. 
Both  he  and  his  wife  live  for  the  cause  of 
the  sorrowing  and  the  oppressed.  He  publish- 
ed in  1890  A  Strike  of  Millionaires  against 
Miners,  a  book  in  which  he  describes  with 
thrilling  power  the  plot  of  wealthy  mine- 
owners  against  the  starving  miners  of  Spring 
Valley  In  1894  appeared  his  still  better  known 
Wealth  vs.  Commonwealth,  a  startling  ex- 
posure of  the  methods  of  the  trusts,  especially 
the  Standard  Oil  monopoly  (q,v.).  He  has 
written  besides  numerous  essays  and  articles, 
such  as  The  New  Conscience  and  The  Lords  of 
Indies  try.  His  views  are,  perhaps,  nearer  to 
those  of  Mazzini  (f.v.)  than  any  other  reformer, 
tho  he  holds  rather  to  the  religious  /spirit  than 
the  formal  religious  belief  of  that  great  leader. 
His  thought  is  intensely  moral,  but  he  can  battle 
with  the  sternest  in  the  cause  of  man,  his  range 
of  acquaintance  in  journalistic  and  literary  lines, 
as  well  as  among  public  men,  giving  him  wide 


influence  with  those  of  wealth  as  well  as  with 
those  oppressed. 

LOBBY,— "The  lobby"  is  the  name  given 
to  persons,  not  members  of  a  legislature, 
who  undertake  to  influence  its  members,  and 
thereby  to  secure  the  passing  of  bills.  The 
term  includes  both  those  who,  since  they  hang 
about  the  chamber,  and  make  a  regular  profes- 
sion of  working  upon  members,  are  called  "  lob- 
byists' '  and  those  persons  who  on  any  particu- 
lar occasion  may  come  up  to  advocate,  by  argu- 
ment or  solicitation,  any  particular  measure  in 
which  they  happen  to  be  interested.  The  name, 
therefore,  does  not  necessarily  impute  any  im- 
proper motive  or  conduct,  tho  it  is  common- 
ly used  in  an  unfavorable  sense. 

Says  Mr,  A.  R.  Spofford,  Librarian  of  Con- 
gress, in  the  American  Cyclopedia  of  Political 
Science,  article  "  Lobby"  : 

4i  What  is  known  as  lobbying  by  no  means  implies 
in  all  cases  the  use  of  money  to  affect  legislation.  This 
corruption  is  frequently  wholly  absent  in  cases  where 
the  lobby  is  most  industrious,  numerous,  persistent, 
and  successful.  A  measure  which  it  is  desired  to  pass 
into  law,  for  the  benefit  of  certain  interests  represented, 
may  be  urged  upon  members  of  the  legislative  body 
in  every  form  of  influence  except  the  pecuniary  one. 
By  casual  interviews,  by  informal  conversation,  by 
formal  presentation  of  facts  and  arguments,  by  printed 
appeals  in  pamphlet  form,  by  newspaper  communica- 
tions and  leading  articles,  by  personal  introductions 
from  or  through  men  of  supposed  influence,  by  din- 
ners, receptions,  and  other  entertainments,  by  the  arts 
of  social  life  and  the  charms  of  feminine  attraction,  the 
public  man  is  beset  to  look  favorably  upon  the  meas- 
ure which  interested  parties  seek  to  have  enacted.  It 
continually  happens  that  new  measures  or  modifica- 
tions of  old  ones  are  agitated  in  which  vast  pecuniary 
interests  are  involved.  The  power  of  the  law,  which 
when  faithfully  administered  is  supreme,  may  make 
or  unmake  the  fortunes  of  innumerable  corporations, 
business  firms,  or  individuals.  Changes  in  the  tariff 
duties,  in  the  internal  revenue  taxes,  in  the  banking 
system,  in  the  mining  statutes,  in  the  land  laws,  in  the 
extension  of  patents,  in  the  increase  of  pensions,  in  the 
regulation  or  mail  contracts,  in  the  currency  of  the 
country,  or  proposed  appropriations  for  steamship 
subsidies,  for  railway  legislation,  for  war  damages, 
and  for  experiments  in  multitudes  of  other  fields  or 
legislation  equally  or  more  important,  come  before 
Congress.  It  is  inevitable  that  each  class  of  interests 
liable  to  be  affected  should  seek  its  own  advantage  in 
the  result.  When  this  is  done  legitimately,  by  pres- 
entation and  proof  of  facts,  by  testimony,  by  argu- 
ments, by  printed  or  personal  appeals  to  the  reason 
and  sense  of  justice  of  members,  there  can  be  no  ob- 
jection to  it." 

Unfortunately,  however,  the  lobby  usually 
degenerates  till  it  is  mainly  a  lobby  in  the  bad 
sense.  This  results  almost  inevitably  from  the 
present  industrial  system  coupled  with  present 
methods  of  legislation  in  the  United  States.  In 
the  United  States  legislatures  all  business  goes 
before  committees — not  only  private  bills,  but 
public  bills — often  involving  great  pecuniary 
interests.  To  give  a  bill  a  fair  chance  of  pass- 
ing, the  committee  must  be  induced  to  report  in 
favor  of  it.  The  committees  have  no  quasi- 
judicial  rules  of  procedure,  but  inquire  into  the 
subject,  and  usually  by  giving  hearings  on  the 
subject  to  interested  parties.  If  the  committee 
can  be  gained,  the  bill  usually  passes.  The  fate  of 
a  bill,  therefore,  often  really  lies  in  the  hands  of 
a  few  men,  tho  the  responsibility  can  be  thrown 
on  the  whole  legislature.  This  gives  enormous 
opportunity  for  corruption.  Great  corporations 
are  sometimes  interested  to  the  extent  of  mill- 
ions on  the  wording  of  a  bill.  Under  our  pres- 


Lobby. 


824 


Local  Option. 


ent  system  (see  PROPORTIONAL  REPRESENTATION  ; 
ELECTIONS,  etc.)  politicians  of  the  lowest  type 
are  often  elected.  They  can  get  large  bribes 
from  corrupt  corporations.  This  all  but  com- 
pels corporations  that  desire  to  be  pure  to  bribe 
likewise.  If  the  corporation  that  would  be  pure 
does  not  bribe,  the  corrupt  corporation  will  gain 
the  legislation  and  the  pure  corporation  be 
handicapped.  As  a  result,  the  average  corpora- 
tion that  seeks  a  bill  goes  to  the  legislature  with 
money  in  its  hand,  and  still  of  tener  it  goes  with 
money  to  buy  off  legislation  that  would  injure, 
legislation  often  simply  introduced  to  make  the 
corporation  pay  for  preventing  its  passage,  or  leg- 
islative blackmail.  The  corporation  often  has 
to  spend  money  to  gain  a  perfectly  just  and 
right  bill.  It  is  on  this  all  but  inevitable  result  of 
present  industrial  and  commercial  methods  that 
the  lobby  fattens.  Nor  does  the  money  al- 
ways need  to  be  corruptly  spent.  A  sharp  lob- 
byist, who  knows  the  ins  and  outs  of  legislative 
practice,  who  knows  many  of  the  legislators, 
who  knows  who  is  corruptible  and  who  not,  who 
knows  how  to  bring  political  influence  to  bear 
in  this  way  or  that,  can  often  obtain  or  defeat 
legislation  without  the  use  of  money.  He  may 
sell  his  influence,  and  the  corporation  money  go 
into  his  pocket  without  his  buying  the  legisla- 
tors. It  is  in  such  ways  that  around  almost  all 
American  legislatures  has  grownup  "a  third 
house,"  which  is  sometimes  more  influential 
than  the  other  two. 

Mr.  Spofford  says  there  are  at  Washington 

"  Pension  lobbyists,  tariff  lobbyists,  steamship  sub- 
sidy lobbyists,  railway  lobbyists,  Indian  ring  lobbyists, 
patent  lobbyists,  river  and  harbor  lobbyists,  mining 
lobbyists,  bank  lobbyists,  mail-contract  lobbyists,  war 
damages  lobbyists,  back-pay  and  bounty  lobbyists, 
Isthmus  Canal  lobbyists,  public  building  lobbyists. 
State  claims  lobbyists,  cotton-tax  lobbyists,  and 
French  spoliations  lobbyists.  Of  the  office-seeking 
lobbyists  at  Washington  it  may  be  said  that  their 
name  is  legion.  There  are  even  artist  lobbyists,  bent 
upon  wheedling  Congress  into  buying  bad  paintings 
and  worse  sculptures;  and  too  frequently  with  suc- 
cess. At  times  in  our  history  there  has  been  a  British 
lobby,  with  the  most  genteel  accompaniments,  de- 
voted to  watching  legislation  affecting  the  great  im- 
porting and  shipping  interests." 

Says  Mr.  Bryce  (Appendix  to  American  Com- 
monwealth, vol.  i.,  chap,  xvi.)  : 

"  A  committee  whose  action  can  affect  the  tariff  is  of 
course  an  important  one,  and  employs  a  large  lobby. 
I  remember  to  have  heard  an  anecdote  of  a  quinine 
manufacturer,  who  had  kept  a  lawyer  as  his  agent  to 
'  look  after'  a  committee  during  a  whole  session,  and 
prevent  them  from  touching  the  duty  on  that  drug. 
On  the  last  day  of  sitting  the  agent  went  home,  think- 
ing the  danger  past.  As  soon  as  he  had  gone,  the  com- 
mittee suddenly  recommended  an  alteration  of  the 
duty,  on  the  impulse  of  some  one  who  had  been  watch- 
ing all  the  time  for  his  opportunity.  Women  are  said 
to  be  among  the  most  active  and  successful  lobbyists 
at  Washington." 

Another  dangerous  class  of  lobbyists  are  law- 
yers and  ex-members. 

Efforts  have  been  made  to  check  the  practice 
of  lobbying,  both  in  Congress  and  in  State  leg- 
islatures. Statutes  have  been  passed  severely 
punishing  any  person  who  offers  any  money  or 
value  to  any  member  with  a  view  to  influence 
his  vote.  It  has  been  repeatedly  held  by  the 
courts  that  ' '  contracts  which  have  for  their  ob- 
ject to  influence  legislation  in  any  other  manner 
than  by  such  open  and  public  presentation  of 
facts,  arguments,  and  appeals  to  reason  as  are 


recognized  as  proper  and  legitimate  with   all 
public  bodies  must  be  held  void. 

It  has  been  attempted  to  lessen  lobbying  by 
restricting  the  legislatures.  Massachusetts  has 
enacted  a  law  compelling  all  lobbyists  to  be  reg- 
istered, that  it  may  be  known  who  they  are  and 
whom  they  represent,  and  exacting  an  account 
of  all  money  spent  in  lobbying.  (See  CORRUP-' 
TION  ;  PLUTOCRACY;  DIRECT  LEGISLATION.) 

Revised  by  H.  D.  LLOYD. 

LOCAL  OPTION  is  that  legislative  mode 
of  dealing  with  the  liquor  traffic  which  permits 
citizens  to  determine  by  vote  whether  the  sale 
or  furnishing  of  liquors  shall  be  allowed  in  a 
given  locality  during  a  specified  period.  Local 
option  is  of  two  kinds  :  (i)  A  general  statute  may 
be  enacted  by  a  legislature,  with  limitations, 
penalties,  etc.,  made  applicable  to  counties, 
townships,  municipalities,  or  other  small  dis- 
tricts, which  territories  may  avail  themselves, 
by  popular  vote,  of  the  provisions  of  this  general 
law  ;  or  (2)  a  special  act  may  be  passed  for  a 
given  locality  with  restrictions,  penalties,  etc., 
applicable  to  that  territory  only. 

Local  option  laws  differ  widely  as  to  scope  of 
restriction  and  also  as  to  extent  of  territory. 
Some  prohibit  the  vending  of  all  liquors,  spir- 
ituous, malt,  or  cider  ;  others  prohibit  only  dis- 
tilled liquors.  Some  provide  for  the  sale  of  cer- 
tain liquors  for  medicinal  or  mechanical  pur- 
poses ;  others  make  no  such  exceptions.  Some 
prescribe  penalties  for  their  violation  for  the 
special  territory  concerned  ;  others  leave  the 
whole  matter  of  penalty  under  a  general  law, 
as  in  the  case  of  other  criminal  offenses. 

As  early  as  1833  the  Georgia  Legislature  ex- 
tended to  the  inferior  courts  of  two  counties — 
Liberty  and  Camden— the  right  to  grant  or  to 
withhold  retail  licenses.  As  these 
courts  were  elected  by  the  people, 
the  law  in  effect  became  optional  in  History. 
its  application.  Prior  to  1833,  in 
many  parts  of  the  Union  the  con- 
stitutionality of  the  license  system,  or,  at  least, 
the  right  of  the  State  to  grant  license,  began  to 
be  questioned.  Between  1835  and  1840  local 
control,  in  some  form,  of  the  license- dispensing 
policy  had  been  acquired  in  several  States. 
Six  counties  in  Massachusetts,  through  the 
action  of  the  county  commissioners,  elected  by 
popular  vote,  refused  license.  In  1838  Rhode 
Island  and  New  Hampshire  left  license  optional 
with  the  towns.  Connecticut  followed  in  1839. 
Illinois  granted  to  towns  and  counties  power  to 
suppress  the  traffic  upon  the  petition  of  a  major- 
ity of  the  adult  male  inhabitants.  The  rise  of 
the  Washingtonians  in  1840,  and  the  general 
acceptance  of  their  moral  suasion  policy,  practi- 
cally put  an  end,  for  several  years,  to  prohib- 
itory effort.  After  this  wildfire  had  passed,  the 
movement  for  prohibition  revived,  but  this 
time  was  directed  generally  in  favor  of  State 
prohibition,  since  the  local  acts  were  usually  re- 
pealed after  one  or  two  years,  and  the  people 
began  to  grow  disgusted  with  such  instability. 
In  Wisconsin,  Iowa,  Indiana,  Connecticut,  and 
Michigan,  a  large  number  of  towns  had  been 
carried  for  prohibition  ;  in  Iowa,  all  the  coun- 
ties except  Keokuk.  Soon  Ohio  and  Michigan 
made  the  granting  of  license  unconstitutional. 


Local  Option. 


825 


Locke,  John. 


Most  of  the  local  option  of  this  period  fell  still- 
born or  died  in  early  infancy.  After  State  pro- 
hibition had  begun  to  be  agitated,  little  more 
effort  in  behalf  of  local  option  in  the  ante-bellum 
period  was  made.  Toward  the  close  of  the  war 
Rhode  Island  engrafted  local  option  upon  her 
license  law.  Pennsylvania  had  a  local  option 
law  from  1872-75  ;  Massachusetts  followed  in 
1881.  New  Jersey's  law  was  repealed  almost 
without  a  trial.  All  the  Southern  States  now 
have  local  option  in  some  form. 
The  advocates  of  local  option  claim  for  it : 

1.  That  it  secures  and  has  secured  prohibitory 
laws  over  much  territory  where  general  prohibi- 
tion, through  State  enactment,  was  impossible. 
Witness  the  large  number  of  counties,  town- 
ships, districts,  and  municipalities  all  over  the 
land  where  such  local  prohibition  is  in  effect  to- 
day. 

2.  That  it  does  not  force  prohibitory  laws 
upon  local  communities  not  ready  for  them,  and 
where,  if  forced  upon  the  community  they  would 
not  be  obeyed,  and  so  would  act  as  a  demoraliz- 
ing element  and  aid  to  free  liquor. 

3.  That  by  the  retention  of  this  live  issue, 
popular  attention  cannot  be  diverted  from  the 
saloon's  enormities  ;  the  public  cannot  grow  in- 
different to  the  ever-present  question,  but  must 
be  constantly  on  the  alert,  for  safety  can  be  the 
reward  only  of  eternal  vigilance.     So  the  local 
option  condition  may  become  an  important  fac- 
tor in  educating  a  people  to  the  horrors  of  the 
traffic  and  the  necessity  for  its  suppression. 

4.  That  the  system,  by  steadily  eliminating 
the  traffic,  tends  gradually  toward  general  pro- 
hibition, to  which  it  is,  therefore,  a  kind  of  step- 
ping-stone. 

5.  That  the  option  principle  accords  best  with 
•  popular  ideas  of  local  independence — sentiments 

everywhere  prevalent  in  our  democratic  polity. 
The  opponents  of  local  option  claim  : 

1.  That  the  system  ignores  the  moral  element 
in  law.     With  majority  rule  set  up  as  the  origin 
of  right,  and  so  weakening  the  stronghold  of 

Erohibition,  the  system  is  necessarily  of  a  legis- 
itive  and  political  character.  The  very  enact- 
ment of  such  a  law  means  that  the  crime  side  of 
the  liquor  traffic  is  denied,  or,  at  least,  not  uni- 
versally accepted — communities,  if  they  choose, 
being  allowed  by  the  State  to  license  the  traffic. 

2.  That  the  system  may  be  made  so  non-par- 
tisan that  neither  of  the  chief  and  law-making 
parties  will  dare  endorse  the  measure,  so  that 
the  battle  against  intemperance  is  left  out  of 
the  political  contests  of  the  day. 

3.  That  local  option,  like  license,  makes  reve- 
nues local,  but  expenses  general,  interesting  the 
local  community  in  gaining  the  revenue  of  li- 
cense, thus  engendering  local  selfishness. 

4.  Local  option,  operating  in  this  local,  selfish 
manner,  scattering  and  disintegrating  the  tem- 
perance forces  and  preventing  unity  of  purpose 
and  of  effort,  effectually  militates  against  State 
and  national  prohibition. 

5.  Local  option  impregnably  fortifies  the  traffic 
from  without,  while  it  can  be  assailed  only  from 
within.    Forty-four  States  are  powerless  against 
a  single  hamlet  or  county.     A  treaty  of  non- 
interference   stands  with    the    world    outside. 
Five  hundred  saloonists  may  concentrate  in  a 
town  or  county,  bid  defiance  to  the  nation,  and 


sell  their  liquors  to  debauch  the  whole  country. 
Only  at  their  own  sovereign  will  can  liquors  be 
removed,  while  they,  on  the  other  hand,  may 
have  the  land  for  a  prey. 

6.  Local  option  often  leads  to  a  seesaw  be- 
tween license  and  no  license  in  alternate  years, 
and  so  brings  both  systems  into  disrespect. 

7.  As  a  consequence,  the  enthusiasm  of  first 
temperance  efforts  dies  out,  and  it  is  next  to  im- 
possible to  preserve  or  to  rearouse  it  for  re- 
peated elections.     An  abnormal  tension — even 
in  religion — cannot  be  maintained,  for  enthusi- 
asm is  not  man's  normal  state. 

8.  Local  option  has  to  prohibitionists  the  char- 
acter of  a  "suspect"  from  its  correlation  and 
companionship  with  license.    The  latter  appears 
always  as  the  alternate  or  supplement  to  the 
former.     Both  are  -local  in  operation  ;  both  in- 
volve permission  to  the  traffic  ;  the  theory  of 
each  contemplates  the  continued  existence  of 
the  traffic  ;  neither  proposes  to  touch  the  manu- 
facture or  importation  of  liquors  ;  neither  attacks 
the  internal  revenue  system — the  money  power 
of  the  traffic  ;  neither  deals  with  the  State  as  a 
whole. 

9.  The  system  stands  always  as  a  compromise 
measure.     Its  basis  is  temporizing,  temporary 
expediency.     It  is  the  commercial  method  of 
dealing  with  the  traffic.     It  is  made  to  stand 
aside  in  the  interests  of  parties,  cliques,  politi- 
cians, and  schemers.     (For  other  methods  of 
dealing  with  intemperance,  see  NORWEGIAN  SYS- 
TEM ;    SOUTH    CAROLINA    DISPENSARY    SYSTEM. 
See  also  TEMPERANCE  for  the  movement  in  Eng- 
land.) 

LOCKE,  JOHN,  was  born  at  Wrington, 
Somersetshire,  Eng. ,  in  1632.  His  father,  a 
small  landowner  and  attorney  at  Pensford, 
was  a  strict  but  genial  Puritan.  "  From  the 
time  that  I  knew  anything,"  Locke  wrote  in 
1660,  "  I  found  myself  in  a  storm  which  has 
continued  to  this  time."  He  entered  West- 
minster School,  and  in  1652  went  to  Oxford. 
He  took  his  degree  of  A.B.  in  1656,  and  that  of 
A.M.  in  1658  ;  was  made  tutor  of  Christ  Church 
in  1660,  and  lectured  in  Greek,  rhetoric,  and 
philosophy  the  following  year.  Locke  was  par- 
ticularly attracted  to  the  works  of  Descartes, 
which  first  gave  him  a  taste  for  philosophical 
subjects. 

In  1666  Lord  Ashley,  afterward  first  Earl  of 
Shaftesbury,  came  to  Oxford  for  his  health. 
Locke  met  him,  and  in  1667  became  his  secretary, 
and  in  1673  became  Secretary  of  the  Board  of 
Trade.  He  now  made  the  acquaintance  of  many 
public  men,  and  his  powers  ripened  rapidly. 

Among  the  writings  of  Locke  during  this 
period  is  an  essay  on  the  Roman  Common- 
wealth. But  the  most  significant  of  all  is  an 
Essay  Concerning  Toleration  (1666). 

The  fall  of  Shaftesbury  in  1675  enabled  Locke 
to  spend  four  years  of  quiet  in  France,  at  which 
time  at  intervals  his  Essay  on  the  Human  Un- 
derstanding was  in  process  of  construction, 
and  here  he  enjoyed  the  society  of  distinguished 
men  of  letters  and  science.  He  returned  to 
London  in  1679.  Shaftesbury  was  for  a  time  re- 
stored to  power,  and  Locke's  old  confidential 
relations  with  him  were  resumed  ;  but  after 
Shaftesbury 's  downfall  Locke  retired  to  Hoi- 


Locke,  John. 


826 


London. 


land  in  voluntary  exile.  The  Essay  was  fin- 
ished in  1687.  He  returned  to  England  in  1689, 
and  it  was  after  that  time  that  his  fame  as  an 
author  was  established  throughout  Europe.  He 
declined  the  embassy  to  Brandenburg,  and  ac- 
cepted instead  the  modest  office  of  commissioner 
of  appeals.  While  in  London  (1689-90)  he  pub- 
lished his  chief  works  on  social  polity,  the 
Epistola  de  Tolerantia,  addressed  to  Lim- 
borch,  and  the  Two  Treatises  on  Government, 
in  defense  of  the  sovereignty  of  the.  people  ;  his 
Essay  on  fhe  Human  Understanding  appeared 
in  1690.  Locke  died  October  28, 1704,  at  Gates, 
in  Essex,  where  Sir  Francis  Masham  had  given 
him  a  home  for  many  years.  He  passed  away, 
as  he  declared,  "  in  perfect  charity  with  all 
men,  and  in  sincere  communion  with  the  whole 
Church  of  Christ,  by  whatever  names  Christ's 
followers  call  themselves." 

Locke  is  of  importance  in  social  reform  be- 
cause he  is  the  intellectual  father  of  the  eight- 
eenth century  philosophy,  which,  in  France  par- 
ticularly, produced  revolutionary  ideas.  Says 
Cousin  : 

"  Placed  between  the  seventeenth  and  eighteenth 
centuries  he  forms  the  transition  from  one  to  the 
other.  In  fact,  run  over  all  the  sensualistic  philoso- 
phers of  the  eighteenth  century,  there  is  not  one  who 
does  not  invoke  the  authority  of  Locke,  and  I  do  not 
speak  merely  of  metaphysicians,  but  of  moralists, 
publicists,  and  critics." 

The  essence  of  Locke's  philosophy  is  that 
there  are  no  "  innate  ideas."  He  says  : 

"  Let  us  suppose  the  mind  to  be,  as  we  say,  white 
paper,  void  of  all  characters,  without  any  ideas :  how 
comes  it  to  be  furnished  ?  Whence  has  it  all  the 
materials  of  reason  and  knowledge  ?  To  this  I  an- 
swer, in  one  word,  from  experience  ;  in  that  all  knowl- 
edge is  founded,  and  from  that  it  ultimately  derives 
itself"  (Essay  on  the  Human  Understanding,  Book  II.). 

From  his  standpoint  materialistic  and  un- 
Christian  philosophers  argued,  as  Locke  did  not, 
an  individualistic  revolt  against  the  authority 
both  of  State  and  Church.  As  Locke  in  his 
Civil  Government  argued  against  arbitrary 
rule,  they  argued  against  all  rule.  (See  POLITI- 
CAL SCIENCE  ;  NATIONAL  LIBERTY.) 

LODGING-HOUSES.— In  every  great  city 
the  cheap  lodging-house,  where  the  homeless 
poor  can  pass  a  night  if  they  are  not  yet  absolute- 
ly destitute  or  dependent  upon  charity,  are 
among  the  most  wretched  spots  to  be  found,  and 
often  centers  of  vice,  if  not  of  crime.  In  Ger- 
many, and  to  a  less  extent  in  the  United  States 
and  other  countries,  clean  and  cheap  lodging- 
houses  are  frequently  being  opened  by  pri- 
vate charity.  In  England,  and  to  a  less  extent 
elsewhere,  municipal  lodging-houses  are  being 
tried. 

As  long  ago  as  1853  Huddersfield  established 
a  municipal  common  lodging-house,  and  20 
years  later  Glasgow  tried  the  same  experiment 
on  a  larger  scale.  Since  1879  the  corporation 
has  maintained  six  lodging-houses  for  men  and 
one  for  women,  in  which  beds  are  let  at  from 
•$d.  to  t&d.  per  night.  Merely  as  a  commercial 
experiment  this  proved  a  success,  and  the 
.£87,000  invested  has  yielded  a  net  return  vary- 
ing from  4£  to  5^  per  cent,  in  the  years  1881-88. 
The  result  upon  the  character  of  the  inmates  is, 
however,  far  more  important  than  any  pecu- 


niary result.  These  municipal  lodging-houses 
are  admirably  managed  ;  there  is  a  comfortable 
recreation  room,  in  which  lectures  are  delivered, 
and  musjc  produced  by  an  official  "  harmonium - 
ist,"  while  all  possible  facilities  are  provided 
for  washing  clothes,  cooking,  etc.  London 
(g.v.)  has  opened  at  least  one  lodging-house, 
and  they  are  being  discussed  everywhere. 

Reference  :  Shaw's  Municipal  Government  in  Great 
Britain. 

LOMBROSO,  CESAR,  was  born  in  Venice 
in  1836.  He  studied  medicine  at  Turin,  and  en- 
tering the  army  in  the  campaign  of  1859,  was 
soon  made  surgeon.  In  1862  he  took  a  profes- 
sorship in  diseases  of  the  mind  at  Pavia,  and 
later  became  director  of  an  establishment  for 
the  insane  at  Pisaro.  From  here  he  went  to 
Turin  as  Professor  of  Medical  Law  and  of  Psy- 
chiatry. He  has  written  many  works,  particu- 
larly on  criminology  (q.v.}  and  criminal  an- 
thropology (y.v.),  on  which  he  is  a  leading 
authority. 

LONDON. — London  is  of  special  interest  in 
social  reform  because  of  its  size,  giving  to  its 
social  problems  an  extent  which  compels  atten- 
tion, and  because  of  its  importance,  as  in  a 
sense  the  commercial  metropolis  of  the  world. 
"  A  province  covered  with  houses,"  it  exceeds 
all  Ireland  in  population  ;  if  it  were  emptied, 
the  whole  of  the  inhabitants  of  Scotland  and 
Wales  together  could  do  no  more  than  refill  it  ; 
the  three  next  largest  cities  in  the  world  could 
be  combined  without  outnumbering  its  millions. 

Originating,   it    is   supposed,   in    the    Celtic 
Llyndin  (Lake  Fort),  Latinized  into  Londinum, 
Tacitus  mentions  it  in  61  A.D.  as  a  trading  cen- 
ter.   In  809  it  was  the  capital  of  the 
East  Saxons,  and  was    made    by 
William  the  Conqueror  (1066)  the     Growth, 
capital  of   England    and  given  a 
special  charter.     Since  then  it  has 
steadily  grown,  and  latterly  by  absorbing  whole 
towns  and  villages,  as  will  be  seen  by  the  fol- 
lowing table  : 


YEAR. 

Population, 

Percen- 
tage of 
England. 

•j  6r> 

1801  

864  055 

1851  

13  18 

1881  

1891  

The  "administrative  county"  of  London, 
with  its  58  parliamentary  constituencies,  meas- 
ures i6£  miles  in  extreme  length  (east  and  west), 
and  i  if  miles  in  extreme  breadth  (north  and 
south).  This  area  comprises  75,490  acres.  Of 
its  population,  less  than  two  thirds  are  native 
born.  In  1891,  66,463  were  natives  of  Ireland, 
53,390  of  Scotland,  26,920  of  Germany,  10,360  of 
France,  26,742  of  Russia  and  Poland — mainly 
Jewish,  the  whole  Jewish  population  being  esti- 
mated from  60,000  to  70,000  ;  4903  were  natives 


London. 


827 


London. 


of  the  United  States.     The  death-rate  in  1892 
was  20. 6. 

According  to  statistics  (1893-94)  printed  by  the 
London  County  Council  (g.v.) : 

"The  net  emigration— the  excess  of  departures  over 
arrivals — in  1881-90,  shown  by  comparing  the  actual  in- 
crease of  population  with  the  excess  of  births  over 
deaths,  was  117,789,  and  it  is  estimated  that  this  was 
the  result  of  a  gross  immigration  for  settlement  of 
183,015  country-born  and  37,830  foreign-born  persons, 
and  a  gross  emigration  for  settlement  of  338,634  Lon- 
don-born persons.  These  figures  are  highly  conjec- 
tural, but  probably  not  far  wrong.  Many  of  the  emi- 
grants, of  course,  settled  close  outside  the  county 
boundary  in  the  suburbs,  into  which  the  net  immigra- 
tion was  about  277,000.  In  corroboration  of  the  conjec- 
ture that  the  large  majority  of  the  emigrants  found  their 
homes  in  outer  London,  it  might  have  been  mentioned 
that  the  number  of  London-born  persons  in  Middle- 
sex, Surrey,  Kent,  and  Essex  rose  from  299,288  in  1881 
to  479,747  in  1891.  The  area  ruled  by  the  Council  be- 
gins to  show  the  symptoms  of  repletion,  and  if  the 
general  growth  of  population  goes  on  as  at  present, 
the  county  will  soon  become  nothing  but  an  enlarged 
copy  of  the  '  old  city.' 

"The  demands  of  the  army  and  navy  are  mentioned 
as  '  the  chief  cause '  of  the  fact  that  the  number  of 
women  between  20  and  25  is  abnormally  large  in  pro- 
portion to  men  of  that  age.  But  successive  registrar- 
generals  imagine  themselves  to  have  proved  in  census 
reports  that  the  number  of  women  returned  as  be- 
tween 20  and  25  is  largely  swelled  by  falsehood,  and 
this  is  probably  the  chief  cause.  Another  cause  in 
London  may  be  the  .large  number  of  country-born 
domestic  servants.  The  proportion  of  women  among 
the  immigrants  into  London  is  much  larger  (1176  wom- 
en to_  1000  men)  than  among  natives  of  London  resi- 
dent in  England  (1106  men  to  1000  women),  and  prob- 
ably a  considerable  portion  of  the  excess  would  be 
found  at  the  age  of  20  to  25  if  we  had  ages  and  birth- 
places tabulated  in  conjunction.  A  reduction  of  the 
school-board  rate  in  years  to  come  is,  perhaps,  fore- 
shadowed by  the  fact  that  the  number  of  children  of 
the  elementary  school  class,  between  the  ages  of  three 
and  five,  enumerated  by  the  visitors,  fell  from  174,741 
at  Lady  Day,  1892,  to  168,437  at  Lady  Day,  1893.  The 
number  of  births  in  London  has  been  stationary  for 
so  many  years." 

London  is  governed  in  the  city  proper  (only 
671  acres,  with  a  population  of  37,705)  by  a  cor- 
poration consisting  of  a  lord  mayor,  26  alder- 
men, and  206  common  councilors. 
The  lord  mayor  is  the  chief  magis- 
Government.  trate,  with  a  salary  of  ,£10,000,  an 
official  residence  (Mansion  House), 
and  is  elected  annually  by  the  bury 
men  or  free  citizens  of  the  various  city  com- 
panies, survivals  of  the  old  guilds.    (See  below.) 
The  26  aldermen  are  elected  in  the  26  wards  by 
those  who  have    the    parliamentary  suffrage. 
(See  ELECTIONS.)    The  rest  of  London  is  gov- 
erned by  the   London  County  Council  (q.v.), 
created  in  1888,  and  by  the  vestries  or  district 
councils  as  organized  in  1894. 

The  greater  part  of  the  municipal  administra- 
tion, if  we  measure  it  by  the  annual  expendi- 
ture, is  carried  on  by  these  43  "  district  coun- 
cils," known  as  vestries  or  district  boards  of 
works.-  Every  year  the  County  Council  spends 
nearly  £2,000,000.  But  the  43  vestries  and  dis- 
trict boards  spend  annually  over  £2,500,000. 

Until  recently  it  was  almost  impossible  for 
the  ordinary  citizen,  especially  the  ordinary 
workman,  to  take  any  real  part  in  or  to  exer- 
cise any  effective  control  over  London's  local 
administration.  Its  members  practically  elect- 
ed themselves  in  so-called  parish  meetings. 
But  the  Local  Government  Act  of  1894  (the  Par- 
ish Councils  Act)  has  altered  the  whole  posi- 
tion. 


A  London  vestry  has  now  nothing  to  do  with 
the  Church.  It  is  merely  the  name  given  to 
the  council  elected  by  the  inhabitants  of  a  Lon- 
don parish  to  manage  their  local  affairs.  Most 
of  the  public  work  that  would  in  a  borough  like 
Croydon  or  West  Ham  be  done  by  the  Town 
Council  and  in  a  populous  suburb  like  Totten- 
ham or  Baling  by  the  Local  Board  (now  called 
an  Urban  District  Council),  is  carried  out  in 
London  by  the  Vestry. 

These  "  district  councils"  are  the  local  sani- 
tary authorities.  This  means  that  the  whole 
business  of  keeping  London  healthy  falls  pri- 
marily on  them.  They  have  to  manage  the 
paving,  cleaning,  lighting,  and  watering  of  the 
streets.  They  arrange  for  the  emptying  of 
dust-bins,  the  removal  of  all  refuse,  and  the 
prevention  of  nuisances.  They  must  provide 
and  maintain  the  local  drains.  They  are  re- 
sponsible for  seeing  that  no  man  or  woman  lives 
in  a  house  that  is  overcrowded  or  so  unhealthy 
as  to  be  unfit  for  habitation.  They  have  power 
to  insist  that  all  workshops  shall  be  healthy, 
properly  ventilated,  not  overcrowded,  and  pro- 
vided with  sufficient  water-closets,  separate  for 
each  sex.  They  are  bound  to  take  care  that  all 
bake-houses  are  kept  in  a  proper  sanitary  state. 
They  must  see  that  no  food  or  drink  exposed  for 
sale  within  the  parish  is  so  adulterated  as  to  de- 
fraud the  purchaser,  or  so  as  to  be  injurious  to 
health.  They  can  acquire  and  maintain  gar- 
dens, playgrounds,  and  open  spaces.  It  is 
through  them  that  the  parish  can  get  public 
baths  and  wash-houses,  a  free  public  library  (by 
poll  of  the  parish),  a  public  mortuary  and  disin- 
fecting station,  and  a  cemetery  where  the 
dead  can  be  buried  with  the  least  possible  ex- 
pense. 

In  many  parishes,  moreover,  the  Vestry  per- 
forms the  duties  of  the  overseers,  and  becomes 
thus  responsible  for  the  valuation  of  all  the  land 
and  houses  within  the  parish,  and  for  making 
up  the  register  of  parliamentary  and  county 
council  elections, 

The  Local  Government  Act  of  1894  also  makes 
important  changes  in  London,  as  elsewhere,  in 
connection  with  the  boards  of  Poor  Law  Guard- 
ians. The  qualification  for  electors  and  candi- 
dates will,  henceforth,  be  the  same  as  for  the 
London  Vestries,  except  that  registration  or  resi- 
dence anywhere  within  a  "  union"  will  qualify 
a  candidate  to  be  elected  for  any  ward  of  any 
parish  in  that  union.  The  30  poor  law  unions 
do  not  always  correspond  with  the  Vestry  or 
District  Board  districts,  but  (with  one  exception) 
the  ward,  or  actual  electoral  area,  is  the  same 
for  both  elections. 

For  parliamentary  representation  London  has 
27  boroughs  represented  by  59  members  (some  of 
the  boroughs  being  divided — London  University 
has  one  member).  In  1893  there  were  466,504 
persons  in  London  who  would,  under  the  pres- 
ent law,  be  entitled  to  vote  in  parliamentary, 
County  Council,  and  Vestry  elections  ;  20,302 
with  the  parliamentary,  but  not  the  County 
Council  or  Vestry  vote  ;  75,641  with  the  parlia- 
mentary and  Vestry,  but  not  the  County  Coun- 
cil vote  ;  and  82,922  with  the  County  Coun- 
cil and  Vestry,  but  not  the  parliamentary 
vote. 

In  1892  the  value  of  the  imports  into  and  ex- 


London. 


828 


London. 


ports    from    London    was    ^"226,749,916.     The 
amount  of  money  passing  through  the  London 
clearing  house  in  1893  was  ^6,478,- 
013,000.     There  were  published  in 
Statistics.    London  5706  separate  works  ;  700 
newspapers  are  published.     There 
are   170  breweries.     Hotel-keepers 
and  publicans  number  6688.     There  are  15,613 
bakers  and  14,365  butchers.     The  building  and 
furnishing  of  houses,  employ  600,000  people  ; 
machinery,    20,665  ;     millinery    and    clothing- 
making,  120,000  women.     The  cheap  clothing 
trade  is  enormous.     In  1891  the  value  of  "  ap- 
parel" exported  from  London  was  ,£3,096,152. 
There  are  250,000  women  servants. 

The  following  statements  as  to  London  eco- 
nomic and  social  conditions  are  abridged  from 
a  paper  by  Sydney  Webb  on  The  Reform  of 
London,  published  by  the  "  Eighty  Club"  (1894) 
or  in  a  few  instances  from  more  recent  tracts  of 
the  English  Fabian  Society  : 

"  What  London  most  needs  is  efficient  organs  of  col- 
lective life,  and,  first,  an  untrammeled  county  council. 
"The  118  elected  councilors,  with  19  coopted  alder- 
men, form,  indeed,  the  nucleus  of  an  admirable  cor- 
porate body,  but  their  powers  are,  at  present,  rudi- 
mentary, and  their  functions  absurdly  limited.  In 
any  other  city  of  Great  Britain  local  functions  are  ful- 
filled by  the  Vestries  and  District  Boards  of  Works  ; 
others  by  the  national  Government ;  others,  again,  are 
left  to  the  tender  mercy  of  private  speculators. 
Above  all,  there  is  the  division,  overlapping,  and  waste 
caused  by  the  continued  separate  existence  of  the 
unreformed  city  corporation  in  the  midst  of  municipal 
London. 

"As  a  consequence  of  this  neglect  the  London  of  to- 
day is  plundered  and  despoiled  on  every  side.    Its 
water  supply  is  in  the  hands  of  eight  monopolist  com- 
panies, who  charge  .£1,000,000  a  year  more  tor  the  ab- 
solute necessity  of  life  than  its  distribution  costs,  the 
balance  going  to  pay  an  average  of  7  per  cent,  on  the 
swollen  nominal  capital  of  the  shareholders.    By  the 
quinquennial  revaluation  of  1891  the  ratable  value  of 
the  metropolis  jumped  by  at  least  a  million  sterling, 
implying  a  corresponding  increase  of  the  water  rates, 
averaging  4  per  cent,  of  nearly  a  million  sterling  and 
in  the  assumed  salable  value  of   the  companies'  in- 
come.   This  addition  is  due  not  to  new  buildings,  but 
exclusively  to  the  unearned  increase  of 
land  values  during  the  quinquennial  pe- 
..        riod.    In  1896  a  similar  rise  will  almost 
Monopolies,  certainly  be  registered,  involving  a  fur- 
ther free  gift  to  the  water  companies. 

"  Seven  of  the  eight  companies  draw 
their  water  mainly  from  the  Thames  and 
the  Lea,  and  the  growing  population  of  these  river 
valleys  constantly  increases  its  impurity.  And  altho 
an  expert  Royal  Commission  reported  in  1893  that  Lon- 
doners might  rely  without  actual  danger  on  the  water 
of  the  Thames  and  the  Lea  for  another  40  years,  it  is 
doubtful  whether  Londoners  will  be  content  so  long  to 
drink  the  diluted  sewage  of  the  half  a  million  inhab- 
itants of  the  upper  valleys. 

"Three  colossal  gas  companies,  with  a  capital  of  15,- 
000,000,  extort  a  tribute  of  over  1,000,000  average  net 
profit  from  the  metropolis,  which  they  pay  as  a  7  per 
cent,  average  dividend  to  their  shareholders.  This 
dividend  is  regulated  by  a  sliding  scale  under  the 
well-known  act  of  1876,  which  prescribes  a  maximum 
dividend,  varying  according  to  the  price  charged  per 
looo  feet.  When,  therefore,  the  companies  find  their 
margin  of  profit  reduced,  they  are  able  to  make  their 
customers  recoup  them  by  raising  the  price  of  gas,  as 
the  Gaslight  and  Coke  Company  showed  us  by  its  24 
per  cent,  rise  in  1890-91. 

"  The  present  market  price  of  the  London  gas  capi- 
tal is  about  25,000,000  sterling,  on  which  1,000,000  is  paid 
annually  in  dividend.  The  County  Council  could  pur- 
chase this,  even  at  the  market  price,  by  issuing  stock- 
bearing  interest  to  the  amount  of  ^750,000  only,  and  so 
obtain  a  clear  around  profit  of  a  quarter  of  a  million. 

"  Of  all  the  monopolies,  however,  which  oppress  the 
Londoner,  none  is  more  scandalous  in  its  origin  and 
disastrous  in  its  operation  than  that  of  the  markets. 
The  City  Corporation  provides  and  controls  eight 
markets,  through  which  passes  practically  the  whole 


meat  and  poultry  supply,  and  nearly  all  the  fish.  The 
'Trustees  of  the  Borough  Market,' appointed  by  the 
Vestry  of  St.  Saviour,  Southwark,  obtain  a  large  in- 
come from  London's  main  potato  market.  The  Bar- 
oness Burdett-Coutts  and  Mr.  Plimsoll  have  attempted 
to  provide  markets  at  Bethnal  Green  and  Wai  worth 
respectively.  But  the  Duke  of  Bedford  is  still  al- 
lowed to  take  the  tolls  of  London's  chief  vegetable, 
fruit,  and  flower  market  at  Covent  Garden,  which  was 
established  in  1661,  •while  Sir  Julian  Goldsmid,  M.P., 
and  the  Scott  family  are  the  proprietors  of  Spital- 
fields  Market,  established  in  1682.  These  proprietors 
enjoy  legal  power  to  prevent  any  other  market  being 
established  within  seven  miles  if  it  diminishes  their 
profits  ;  and  they  derive  their  '  rights  '  from  charters  of 
King  Charles  II. 

"These  monopoly  rights  are  derived  not  from  any 
express  charter  or  enactment,  but  by  an  old  inference 
of  the  common  law.  What  Charles  II.  gave  to  the 
Duke  of  Bedford's  ancestor  and  Sir  Julian  Goldsmid's 
predecessor  was  merely  the  permission  to  hold  a  mar- 
ket ;  it  is  the  lawyers  •who  invented  the  doctrine  that 
such  a  permission  implies  the  prohibition  of  compet- 
ing markets  within  about  six  miles  and  two  thirds. 
(See  the  case,  Great  Eastern  Railway  vs.  Homer,  in 
which  the  proposed  Shoreditch  Market  was  stopped 
by  the  owners  and  lessee  of  Spitalfields  Market.) 

"Out  of  the  total,  moreover,  the  Duke  of  Bedford 
draws  at  least  ,£15,000  a  year  from  Covent  Garden 
flower  market,  with  the  adjacent  streets  fouled  for  his 
profit  and  cleansed  at  the  cost  of  the  rate-payers  ;  Sir 
Julian  Goldsmid,  M.P.,  gains  a  clear  £5000  a  year  net 
rental  from  his  monopoly  of  the  right  to  hold  a  mar- 
ket by  Spital  Church. 

"In  1890  the  House  of  Lords  refused  the  County 
Council  the  power  even  to  inquire  into  the  market 
scandal. 

"  The  docks  are  in  private  hands.  Four  great  dock 
companies  have  expended  a  capital  of  over  20,000,000 
sterling  in  providing  dock  accommodation  for  our 
greatest  port,  but  they  have  so  wasted  their  re- 
sources in  reckless  competition  with  each  other  that  less, 
than  half  of  this  capital  can  be  considered  as  earn- 
ing a  dividend,  and  four  years  ago  the  East  and  West 
India  Company,  owning  over  5,500,000  of  capital,  had 
to  suspend  payment  even  on  their  debenture  interest. 
Asaresult,  a  joint  committee  was  formed,  constituting 
more  than  half  the  dock  capital,  and  this  joint  com- 
mittee made  a  working  agreement  with  the  two  small- 
er but  more  successful  companies.  As  in  the  cases  of 
gas  and  water,  London  gave  up  all  safeguards  in  order 
to  get  competition,  and  has  now  failed  even  to  secure 
competition  ;  one  small  irresponsible  committee  settles 
dock  charges,  and  two  small  committees  determine 
dock  wages  for  the  whole  of  London. 

"  Official  census  statistics  give  little  information 
on  this  point ;  but  Mr.  Charles  Booth,  with  the  aid  of  a 
staff  of  assistants,  has,  during  the  last  years,  been 
making  exhaustive  inquiries  into  the  subject,  chiefly 
by  minute  investigations  into  the  books  of  the  66 
School  Board  Visitors.  His  results  are  presented  in 
detail  in  his  book,  Life  and  Labor  in  East  London. 

"  In  his  paper  read  before  the  Royal  Statistical  So- 
ciety (see Journal,  June,  1888),  Mr.  Booth  extended  his. 
statistics  hypothetically,  so  as  to  include  all  London. 
He  says  : 

"'Taking  the  estimated  percentages  of  poverty  as 
given  in  the  tables,  and  the  population  of  1881,  we  get 
a  total  of  963,943  poor  in  London  ;  or,  -with  the  popula- 
tion of  to-day  as  our  basis,  rather  more  than  1,000,000. 
This  number  does  not  include  indoor 
paupers  or  other  inmates  of  institiitions.' 

"  One  out  of  four  of  the  whole  popula- 
tion is  computed  to  be  earning — and  that  Poverty. 
irregularly— not  more  than  a  guinea  a 
week  per  family ;  and  over  a  third  of 
these  are  receiving  much  less,  and, 
says  Mr.  Booth,  live  in  a  state  of  chronic  want.' 

"  In  London  one  person  in  every  five  will  die  in  the 
workhouse,  hospital,  or  lunatic  asylum.  In  1887,  out 
of  82,545  deaths  in  London,  43,507  being  over  20,  9399- 
were  in  workhouses,  7201  in  hospitals,  and  400  in  luna- 
tic asylums,  or  altogether  17,000  in  public  institutions 
(Registrar-General's  Report,  1888,  C. — 5,  138,  pp.  2,  73). 
Considering  that  comparatively  few  of  these  are  chil- 
dren, it  is  probable  that  one  "in  every  three  London 
adults  will  be  driven  into  these  refuges  to  die,  and  the 
proportion  in  the  case  of  the  manual  labor  class  must, 
of  course,  be  much  greater. 

"  At  least  1,000,000  of  London's  citizens,  belonging 
to  at  least  200,000  families,  are  paying  from  ^s.tojs. 
per  week  for  filthy  slum  tenements,  a  large  proportion 
of  •which  would  be  condemned  as  'unfit  for  habita- 
tion '  by  any  energetic  sanitary  inspector,  if  only 


London. 


829 


London. 


other  habitations  were  available.  The  census  shows 
that  over  375,000  persons  are  existing  in  the  soul-de- 
stroying purgatory  of  one-room  homes,  while  a  total 
of  492,000  are  crowded  together  at  the  rate  of  three  per- 
sons or  more  to  each  room. 

"  At  least  30,000  of  London's  citizens  have  no  better 
resting  place  than  a  common  lodging-house  or  the 
casual  ward. 

"  A  small  beginning  of  municipal  housing,  however, 
has  been  made,  even  in  London.  No  vestry  ever  ex- 
ercised the  powers  for  40  years  vested  in  it  by  act  of 
Parliament,  but  the  City  Corporation  has  erected 
blocks  of  dwellings  in  Farringdon  Road  and  Middle- 
sex Street,  and  the  County  Council  has  followed  in  the 
steps  of  the  City  Corporation  by  building  cottages  at 
Limehouse  and  Deptford,  rehousing  a  whole  district 
at  Bethnal  Green,  and  starting  to  cover  10  acres  at 
Millbank  with  workmen's  dwellings. 

"The  London  County  Council  has  built  one  lodging- 
house."  (For  private  philanthropies  in  this  line,  see 
TENEMENTS;  WEALTH;  TAXATION.) 

"  The  annual  rental  of  the  metropolis  at  the  valua- 
tion made  in  1891  was  nearly  £40,000,000,  which,  at  15 
years'  purchase,  represents  a  salable  value  of  £600,- 
000,000.  In  1870  the  rental  was  only  £22,000,000,  equal 
to  a  salable  value  of  £330,000,000.  The  difference  be- 
tween these  sums,  £270,000,000,  is  the  increase  in  the 
value  of  London  in  21  years.  Part  is  due  to  new 
buildings  or  improvements,  and  fortunately  the  an- 
nual revision  of  the  valuation  list  enables  us  to  sepa- 
rate this  item  in  four  out  of  every  five  years,  and  to 
estimate  it  for  the  fifth.  During  21  years  the  average 
yearly  increase  due  to  this  cause  was  £501,817,  and 
deducting  this  amount  for  21  years  from  the  actual 
increment  of  value  for  that  period,  we  find  that  the 
unearned  increment,  due  solely  to  causes  beyond  the 
control  of  occupiers  or  property  owners,  amounts  to 
an  average  rental  of  £340,706,  or  a  capital  value  of  at 
least  £4,000,000  sterling  added  every  year  to  the  land  of 
London.  This  enormous  yearly  grant  to  the  landlords 
of  London  is  largely  free  from  taxation. 
The  whole  charge  for  municipal  govern- 
ment, maintenance  of  the  poor,  and  for 
Rents.  -  local  improvements — even  those  which, 
like  the  Thames  embankment,  enor- 
mously increase  the  value  of  adjacent 
property— falls  at  present  upon  the 
rates,  which  (except  in  case  of  house  property  of  low 
value)  are  almost  always  collected  from  the  occupier. 
"This  system  of  rating  has  been  condemned  by 
committees  of  the  House  of  Commons  in  1866  and  1870, 
and  by  the  House  itself  in  1886.  The  objection  to  it  is 
that,  on  the  one  hand,  the  owner  of  property,  who  pays 
nothing  directly,  believes  that  the  burden  falls  wholly 
upon  him,  while,  on  the  other  hand,  every  occupier, 
when  he  pays  the  collector,  and  knows  that  an  increase 
of  rates  does  not  produce  a  corresponding  reduction  of 
rent,  is  firmly  persuaded  that  the  entire  burden  falls 
upon  himself.  For  these  two  sufferings  the  public 
exchequer  gets  but  one  tax.  The  truth  seems  to  lie 
between  the  two.  Theoretically  the  annual  value  of  a 
given  house  is  determined  by  the  competition  of  other 
houses  of  more  or  less  equivalent  desirableness,  and 
the  tenant  pays  this  value,  one  part  in  rent,  and  the 
other  in  rates.  If  the  rates  be  more,  the  rent  must  be 
correspondingly  less,  and  vice  versa.  But  this  theory 
is  true  only  in  a  purely  imaginative  state  of  society, 
where  landlords  and  tenants  are  equally  and  perfectly 
wise,  where  there  are  no  leases,  and  where  no  expense 
or  loss  is  incurred  in  moving  from  one  house  to  an- 
other. 

"The  difference  between  the  ideal  and  the  real  is 
what  the  economists  call  'economic  friction  ;'  and  the 
practical  man  knows  its  importance  when  he  takes  a 
long  lease  and  the  rates  go  up  in  an  unexpected  man- 
ner  because  the  Education  Act  proves  costly,  or  sani- 
tary reform  grows  urgent.  In  the  opinion  of  such 
eminent  authorities  as  Lord  Farrer  and  Mr.  Goschen, 
a  large  share  of  the  rates  actually  does  fall  on  the 
occupier,  and  his  personal  objection  to  an  increase  in 
them  is  so  far  justified. 

"  To  meet  the  difficulty  it  has  sometimes  been  pro- 
posed to  enact  that  the  occupier  shall  deduct  from  his 
rent  one  half  of  the  rate  he  has  paid,  thus  charging  it 
directly  to  the  landlord.  An  analogous  plan  has  long 
been  in  operation  in  Scotland,  and  was  strongly  rec- 
ommended by  Select  Committees  of  the  House  of 
Commons  in  1866  and  1870.  But  the  complicated  cir- 
cumstances of  London  tenure  make  this  plan  inappli- 
cable to  the  metropolis.  Without  overriding  existing 
contracts  it  would  bring  small  relief.  A  landlord's 
rate  of  2.?.  dd.  in  the  pound,  enacted  to  fall  on  the  land- 
lord, any  agreement  to  the  contrary  notwithstanding, 
would  absorb  merely  the  average  annual  increase  of 


the  value  of  his  estate  for  the  future,  and  leave  him 
with  every  penny  that  he  at  present  possesses.  Mean- 
while the  rates  are  rising. 

"  Over  £10,000,000  sterling  are  annually  collected  and 
spent  by  London's  public  authorities.  From  1874  to 
1884  the  rates  rose  60  per  cent.  Says  a  tract  of  the 
Fabian  Society  : 

"  '  If  London,  like  the  great  provincial  cities,  itself 
owned  her  public  services  (after  paying  the  share- 
holders the  full  cost  of  the  undertakings),  it  might  save 
at  least  £1,500,000  every  year — enough  to  cover  half  the 
expenditure  on  the  relief  of  London's  poor. 

"'The  mere  annual  "unearned  increment"  of  Lon- 
don would,  if  appropriated  to  public  purposes,  enable 
the  whole  of  London's  million  poor  to  be  decently 
housed,  with  only  the  delay  necessary  for  the  build- 
ing operations ;  and  the  net  annual  income  from  only 
"  fair  rents"  on  this  public  property  would  more  than 
suffice  to  educate  all  London's  children  free  of  charge.' 

"  In  any  reform  of  London's  government,  the  equal- 
ization of  the  rates  must  be  borne  in  mind.  At  pres- 
ent the  expenses  of  Ideal  administration  vary  from 
less  than  is.  in  the  pound  in  the  richer  parishes,  such 
as  St.  James's,  Piccadilly,  up  to  4^.  in  the  pound  in 
such  poorer  districts  as  Bromley-by-Bow.  This  dif- 
ference is  not  due  to  local  extravagance,  but  to  the 
difference  in  local  resources.  The  City  of  London  (650 
acres)  and  the  district  of  Bermondsey  (627  acres)  have 
presumably  the  same  area  of  streets  to  keep  clean, 
paved,  and  lighted  ;  but  in  the  city  the  cost  is  spread 
over  property  producing  over  £4,000,000  a  year,  while  it 
has  to  be  borne  in  Bermondsey  by  property  worth  only 
one  tenth  of  that  sum.  Kensington  and  Poplar  each 
has  to  watch  over  the  sanitation  of  about  20,000  houses, 
and  each  employs  five  sanitary  inspectors  for  the 
work  ;  but  the  cost  of  this  municipal  function  is  borne, 
in  Kensington,  by  property  worth  £2,000,000  a  year, 
and  in  Poplar  by  property  worth  only  a  third  of  this 
amount.  This  comparison  does  not  bring  out  the  full 
inequality  of  the  burden,  because  the  poorer  sections 
need  much  more  municipal  attention  than  the  rich. 

"The  city  guilds  are  another  unjust  institution. 
These  73  companies  are  almost  the  sole  survivors  of 
the  network  of  guilds  which  covered  medieval  Eng- 
land. Their  property,  worth  about  £20,000.000  sterling, 
is  absolutely  controlled  by  the  1500  members  of  the 
self-elected  Courts  of  Assistants.  The  8000  liverymen 
are  entitled  only  to  a  few  dinners  and  the  anomalous 
right  to  elect  the  Lord  Mayor  and  Parliamentary  rep- 
resentatives for  the  city.  This  latter  right  is  the  most 
dangerous  possession  of  the  companies  ;  for  no  radi- 
cal government  can  long  tolerate  so  monstrous  a 
Erivilege,  and  when  once  the  hand  of  the  reformer  has 
egun  to  touch  the  rotten  fabric,  it  cannot  easily  be 
stayed.  In  1884,  a  Royal  Commission,  which  included 
the  Duke  of  Bedford,  the  Earl  of  Derby,  and  Lord 
Sherbrooke,  reported  that  the  income  of  the  com- 
panies was  public  property,  and  recommended  that 
Parliament  should  intervene  to  prevent  the  alienation 
of  the  property  of  the  companies,  to  divert  the  cor- 
porate income  to  useful  purposes,  to  modernize  the 
trusts,  to  abolish  the  livery  franchise,  and  generally 
to  reorganize  the  companies.  But  nothing  has  been 
done,  and  tho  some  of  the  larger  companies  have 
greatly  increased  the  proportion  of  their  income  de- 
voted to  educational  purposes,  secret  and  irresponsi- 
ble management  of  essentially  public  funds  still  con- 
tinues. 

"  In  1879-80,  the  latest  vear  for  which  figures  are  ob- 
tainable, their  property  was  returned  as  follows  : 


Corpo- 
rate In- 
come. 

Trust 
Income. 

Total. 

73  companies  
Value      of      halls,      etc., 

£480,837 

£188,148 

£668,985 

Probable  increase  in  in- 

Probable  total  in  1894. 

£680,837 

£238,148 

£918,985 

"The  trust  funds  are  those  which  are  admittedly 
subject  to  special  trusts,  and  it  is  mainly  out  of  these 
that  the  companies  maintain  their  schools  and  alms- 
houses,  their  pensions  and  doles,  about  which  we  hear 
so  much  from  city  defenders.  But  of  these  funds 
over  £100,000  was,  in  1879-80,  spent  in  dinners  ;  £150,000 
was  being  squandered  in  management  expenses,  and 


London. 


830 


London  County  Council. 


over  .£40,000  was  paid  away  in  fees  to  the  members 
themselves.  This  enormous  income  is  drawn  from 
vast  estates  in  London  and  the  country,  and  from  in- 
vestments. The  12  great  companies  share  among 
them  the  administration  of  the  Ulster  estates  of  the 
'Irish  Society,' and  nearly  all  of  them  possess  valu- 
able halls  in  the  city,  and  magnificent  plate.  Of  this 
wealth  no  accounts  are  published,  and  the  public  ser- 
vices rendered  for  it  are  ludicrously  insignificant." 

REFORMS. 

If  London  social  problems  are  large,  her 
charities  are  also  large,  and  her  reform  progress 
is  now  rapid.  The  annual  revenue  of  the  pri- 
vate charities  of  London  is  reckoned  at  ^5,000,- 
ooo.  (For  notices  of  some  of  these,  see  CHARITY 
ORGANIZATIONS  ;  POOR  LAWS  ;  SALVATION  ARMY  ; 
TENEMENTS;  UNEMPLOYMENT.)  Quite  as  marked 
is  London '  s  progress  i  n  municipal  reforms.  Her 
administrational  reforms  have  been  already  no- 
ticed. (See  LONDON  COUNTY  COUNCIL.)  In  1893, 
21  of  her  parishes  had  public  libraries  and  21 
public  baths.  Many  of  her  vestries  are  dealing 
energetically  with  sanitary  reforms,  and  com- 
mencing to  directly  employ  workmen  without 
contractors  and  under  trade-union  conditions. 
(For  other  points  bearing  on  London,  see  CITY  ; 
FIRE  DEPARTMENT  ;  POLICE  ;  PROSTITUTION.) 

The  tramway  monopoly  has  already  been 
broken,  and  the  people  of  London  are  in  a  fair 
way  to  become  possessors  of  four  miles  of  their 
own  tramway  lines.  Up  to  the  present  the  126 
miles  of  London  tramways  have  been  owned 
and  worked  by  n  companies,  which  earned  in 
1889-90  a  profit  of  nearly  a  quarter  of  a  million  on 
a  capital  of  about  3,500,000,  and  paid  therefore 
an  average  dividend  of  more  than  6£  per  cent. 
The  concessions  of  the  companies  last  only  for 
21  years,  upon  the  expiration  of  which  the 
County  Council  has  power  to  purchase  at  the 
actual  value  of  the  stock  and  plant.  The  reso- 
lution to  make  this  purchase  as  regards  the  first 
concession  has  been  already  adopted,  and  it 
may  be  hoped  that  London  will  now  insist  that 
the  whole  of  the  lines  shall  be  in  this  manner 
gradually  taken  over.  In  1892  the  concession 
for  19  miles  of  the  North  Metropolitan  Com- 
pany's system  expired,  and  the  Council  has  de- 
cided to  purchase  the  line  as  soon  as  the 
courts  of  law  can  decide  what  Parliament  meant 
by  the  Act  of  1871.  The  tramway  companies 
have  shown  themselves  unwilling  to  administer 
their  trust  in  a  manner  consistent  with  the  com- 
mon weal.  Their  5000  drivers,  conductors,  and 
horse-keepers  are  among  the  most  cruelly  treat- 
ed and  worst  paid  of  London  wage  slaves.  Six- 
teen hours'  work  for  45.  pay  is  no  uncommon 
record,  and  all  efforts  of  philanthropists  and  the 
press  have  proved  fruitless  in  effecting  any  im- 
provement. Trade-unionism  has  also  failed  in 
occupations  requiring  little  skill. 

LONDON  COUNTY  COUNCIL,  THE, 

was  constituted  under  the  Local  Government 
Act  of  1888  (England  and  Wales).  It  inherited 
the  powers,  duties,  and  liabilities  of  the  Metro- 
politan Board  of  Work's  and  the  county  justices. 
The  Council  consists  of  118  elected  councilors, 
who  hold  office  for  three  years  ;  and  of  19  alder- 
men chosen  by  the  council,  who  hold  office  for 
six  years,  one  half  retiring  every  three  years. 
Of  the  councilors,  four  are  elected  by  the  city 
of  London,  while  the  remaining  57  electoral  di- 


visions of  the  metropolis  elect  two  members 
each.  County  electors  consist  of  the  house- 
holders, men  or  women,  whose  names  are  on 
the  printed  register.  Lodgers,  service  occupi- 
ers, and  freeholders  cannot  vote  at  a  county 
council  election. 

The  Council  elects  its  own  chairman,  vice- 
chairman,  and  deputy-chairman.  The  last  re- 
ceives a  salary  of  ^1500,  and  is  the  official  head 
of  the  clerical  establishment. 

The  detailed  work  of  the  Council  devolves  on 
21  committees,  five  special  committees,  and  the 
Technical  Education  Board.  The  committees- 
vary  in  size  from  5  to  50  members. 

The  Council  has  nothing  to  do  with  paving, 
cleansing,  or  lighting  the  streets  ;  does  not  con- 
trol the  water-works,  gas-works,  markets,  and 
police  ;  is  almost  powerless  in  valuation  and 
assessment ;  does  not  collect  its  own  rates  ;  is 
neither  the  sanitary  nor  the  burial  authority  ; 
is  inadequately  represented  on  the  Thames  and 
Lea  Conservancy  Boards  ;  and  cannot  even  pre- 
pare or  supervise  the  registration  of  the  voters 
who  elect  it. 

ITS  WORK 

Notwithstanding  this  degradation  of  the  chief 
municipality  of  the  kingdom  below  the  meanest 
provincial  borough  incorporated  under  the  Mu- 
nicipal Corporations  Act  of  1835,  the  powers  and 
duties  of  the  London  County  Council  are  ex- 
tremely multifarious.  Its  Public  Health  and 
Housing  Committee  is  not  the  sanitary  author- 
ity for  the  whole  of  London,  but  it  supervises 
the  administration  of  the  Public  Health  Act 
(London),  1891,  by  the  local  authorities,  with  a 
view  to  secure  an  adequate  sanitary  staff  in 
each  district,  and  as  far  as  possible  the  enforce- 
ment of  the  law.  This  committee  also  admin- 
isters the  Artisans'  and  Laborers'  Dwellings 
Improvements  Act,  1875,  and  the  Housing  of  the 
Working  Classes  Act,  1890,  under  which  insani- 
tary areas  and  houses  all  over  London  are  in- 
vestigated, clearances  are  made,  and  new  build- 
ings erected  in  the  place  of  slum  dwellings. 

The  Council  has,  from  the  first,  built  either 
separate  cottages,  or,  where  this  has  been  im- 
possible, dwellings  on  the  self-contained  tene- 
ment system,  which  provides  for  separate  sink 
and  lavatory  accommodation,  and  secures  for 
the  working-class  tenant  a  distinct  and  complete 
little  home  of  his  own.  The  internal  fittings 
and  arrangements  are  made  as  neat  and  con- 
venient as  possible,  an  adequate  system  of  ven- 
tilation, and  a  certain  cubical  capacity  for  every 
room,  sleeping  and  living  alike,  are  insisted 
upon  ;  and,  notwithstanding  the  better  accom- 
modation provided,  the  rents  charged  are  based 
on  those  prevailing  in  the  immediate  neighbor- 
hood. 

Through  the  Building  Act  Committee  the 
Council  has  organized  a  definite  attack  on  the 
jerry-builder  and  house-farmer,  and  has  begun 
to  repair  the  neglect  of  past  years  in  the  clear- 
ing away  of  London's  slums  and  rookeries,  with 
all  their  evil  outcome  of  intemperance,  disease, 
and  crime. 

During  the  first  six  years  of  the  Council's  ex- 
istence', one  new  open  space  was  secured  for 
London,  on  an  average,  every  two  months. 
Every  week  it  adds  on  an  average  between  three 


London  County  Council. 


83' 


London  County  Council. 


and  four  acres  to  London's  breathing  grounds 
and  playing  fields.  In  1888  there  were  43  sepa- 
rate open  spaces,  with  an  area  of  2578  acres, 
under  the  Council's  control  and  management  ; 
in  December,  1894,  their  number  had  increased 
to  75,  covering  3647  acres.  But  the  Council's 
work  is  not  confined  to  increasing  the  number 
and  area  of  these  open  spaces.  It  organizes 
them  in  such  a  way  as  to  make  the  most  liberal 
provision  of  cricket  pitches,  football  grounds, 
tennis  courts,  and  gymnasia  for  both  sexes.  It 
supplies  lavatories  and  free  public  conveniences. 
It  regulates  the  refreshment  tariffs.  And ,  final- 
ly, it  makes  provision  for  a  plentiful  supply  of 
music  during  the  summer  months  by  its  own 
uniformed  bands. 

The  main  sewers  of  London  (but  not  the  local 
drains)  are  under  the  management  of  the  Coun- 
cil, in  whose  sludge  vessels  2,102,000  tons  of 
sludge  were,  during  1894,  sent  to  sea.  The 
whole  body  of  sewage  used  to  flow  into  a  vast 
underground  reservoir,  in  which  it  was  penned 
by  the  rising  tide,  and  allowed  to  flow  away 
with  the  falling  water.  The  Thames  used  there- 
fore to  receive  every  day  some  200,000,000  gals, 
of  unpurified  sewage.  Under  the  improved 
methods  which  have  been  put  into  operation  by 
the  Council,  the  sewage  is  subjected  to  scientific 
processes,  and  is  passed  into  the  river  as  an  in- 
odorous, innocuous  liquid.  Inconsequence,  the 
water  in  the  Thames  has  been  so  purified  as  to 
make  it  possible  for  shrimps,  whitebait,  dace, 
and  other  fish  to  live  where  they  could  not  be- 
fore (even  as  high  up  as  Woolwich),  and  the 
black  mud  banks  have  disappeared,  and  given 
place  to  clean  shores  of  gravel,  clay,  or  river 
sand. 

THE  PUBLIC. 

The  Council's  work  touches  on  education  at 
two  points.  It  has  the  management  of  the  in- 
dustrial and  reformatory  schools  at  Feltham  and 
Mayford  in  its  hands.  These  schools  contain 
boys.  In  connection  with  the  technical  educa- 
tion grants,  the  Council  has  organized  a  Tech- 
nical Education  Board  for  London.  (See  INDUS- 
TRIAL EDUCATION.) 

The  County  Council  took  over  from  the  county 
justices  the  licensing  of  London's  theaters, 
music  halls,  and  dancing  saloons  ;  and,  what- 
ever mistakes  they  may  have  made  in  the  opin- 
ion of  some  people,  no  one  who  knows  the  facts 
can  deny  that  their  work  has  increased  the 
safety  alike  of  the  playgoer  and  the  performer, 
and  has  raised  the  tone  of  the  performances. 
Its  action  has  wiped  out  some  places  which, 
under  the  guise  of  providing  public  amusement, 
were  hotbeds  of  debauchery  and  vice. 

The  Council  has  used  all  its  powers  to  make 
it  possible  for  people  to  live  a  little  way  out  of 
London  by  improving  the  means  of  communica- 
tion. Its  policy  of  establishing  free  ferries,  of 
buying  up  the  tramways,  and  exerting  all  its  in- 
fluence on  the  railway  companies,  the  Board  of 
Trade,  and  on  Parliament  to  increase  the  num- 
ber of  workmen's  trains  and  to  reduce  the  fares, 
both  in  the  case  of  existing  as  well  as  of  all 
newly  projected  railways,  has  already  resulted 
in  very  appreciable  advantages  to  the  commu- 
nity, and  will  be  still  more  fruitful  in  the  near 
future. 


It  is  now  the  settled  policy  of  the  Council  to 
pay  its  employees  in  each  trade  the  recognized 
trade-union  rate  of  wages,  and  in  no  case  less 
than  bd.  an  hour,  or  245.  a  week,  to  men  ;  or 
i8s.  a  week  to  women.     Seeing  that  Mr.  Charles 
Booth  places  the  actual  "  poverty  line"  in  Lon- 
don at  regular  earnings  of  2is.  a  week,  it  can- 
not be  said  that  the  Council's  "  moral  minimum" 
errs  on  the  side  of  luxury  or  extravagance.    But, 
unlike  the  Council's  wage  for  skilled  workmen, 
it  is  more  than  is  actually  paid  by  many  employ- 
ers ;  and  it  is  undoubtedly  above 
the  rate  at  which  the  Council  could 
obtain  similar  labor  if  it  chose  to  Its  Employ- 
disregard  all  other  considerations.         ees. 
It  is    noteworthy  that  this  policy 
has  not  led  to  any  ruinous  increase 
in  the  labor  bill.     In  1889  the  average  pay  of 
the  wage-staff  taken  over  from  the  Metropolitan 
Board  of  Works  was  ^75  per  annum.     In   1894, 
after  five  years,  this  average  has  risen  to  £78, 
or  exactly  4  per  cent. 

Wherever  possible  the  Council  dispenses  with 
the  contractor,  and  executes  its  work  by  engag- 
ing a  staff  of  workmen  under  the  supervision  of 
its  own  salaried  officers.  The  first  trial  of  this 
experiment  was  that  of  watering  and  cleaning 
the  bridges  over  the  Thames.  The  new  sys- 
tem has  now  been  tried  for  three  years,  with 
the  result  that  whereas  the  contractor  charged 
4-T.  7\d.  to  4-y.  \o\d.  per  square  yard,  the  work 
is  now  done  at  an  average  cost  of  3^.  zd.  a 
square  yard,  everything  included.  This,  how- 
ever, was  a  mere  matter  of  hiring  labor,  no  con- 
structive work  being  involved.  The  first  piece 
of  actual  building  executed  by  the  Council  was 
the  schoolhouse  at  Crossness.  The  architect's 
estimate  was  for  ^1800.  The  lowest  tender  was 
for  ^2300.  The  work  was  completed  by  the 
Main  Drainage  Committee,  under  its  own  offi- 
cers, at  a  cost  of  ^1764,  or  ^536  under  the  low- 
est tender,  and  ^36  under  the  architect's  esti- 
mate. But  the  case  that  finally  convinced  the 
Council  was  the  York  Road  Sewer.  The  en- 
gineer's estimate  was  for  £7000.  Two  tenders 
only  were  sent  in,  for  ^11,588  ,  and  ,£11,608. 
The  work  was  done  by  the  Council  itself,  with 
the  result  that  a  net  saving  of  ^4477  was  made 
by  having  the  work  done  without  a  contractor. 

The  outcome  was  the  establishment  in  the 
spring  of  1893  of  a  Works  Committee  to  execute 
works  required  by  the  other  committees.  The 
Works  Committee  has  an  entirely  distinct  staff, 
and  keeps  its  own  separate  accounts.  Up  to 
the  present  it  has  completed  and  rendered  ac- 
counts for  29  separate  jobs,  varying  from  ^100 
to  ^"18,785.  Sometimes  the  expenditure  works 
out  below  the  estimate,  sometimes  above,  but, 
in  the  aggregate,  the  total  cost  of  these  29  works 
— undertaken  at  the  very  outset  of  a  new  busi- 
ness, with  insufficient  plant  and  under  manifold 
disadvantages — comes  to  ^63,061,  against  the 
architect's  and  engineer's  detailed  and  inde- 
pendent prior  estimates  amounting  to  ^66,061 
is.  zd.  (See  CONTRACT  LABOR.) 

The  Council  decided  in  1891  that  contracts  for 
the  supply  of  stores  should  be  entered  into  for 
one  year  only,  and  in  June,  1893,  a  special  com- 
mittee was  appointed.  The  stores  are  supplied 
by  99  firms,  and  comprise  1817  items,  which 
are  classified  under  24  headings,  the  most  im- 


London  County  Council. 


832 


Lotteries. 


portant    of    which   are    boots,  brass    fittings, 
brushes,  baskets  and  matting,  clothing,  disin- 
fectants,  engineers'    goods,   firewood,   fodder, 
glass,  hats  and  caps,  india-rubber  and  water- 
proof   goods,   ironmongery,   leather,    oilman's 
sundries,  oils,  paints  and  varnishes, 
rope  and  canvas,  tools,  and  wrought 
Its  Finances,  and  cast  iron.     The  "fair  wages" 
clause  is  inserted  in  all  the  clothing 
and  boots  contracts,  and  the  work 
must  be  done  in  the  contractors'  own  factories. 
The   question  of  establishing  a  factory  of  its 
own,  for  making  boots  and  clothing,  is  now  un- 
der the  consideration  of  the  committee. 

The  ratable  value  of  London  is  .£33,913,707, 
and  the  amount  raised  in  1893-94  was  ^1,782, - 
509,  which  is  equivalent  to  8^.  $\d.  per  head  of 
the  population.  Each  penny  in  the  rate  repre- 
sents i%d.  per  head. 

London's  finance  is  complicated  by  the  fact 
that  the  Council  is  not  only  a  borrower,  but  also 
a  lender.  It  lends  money  to  local  authorities, 
and  receives  interest  from  them.  It  receives 
contributions  from  various  local  authorities,  and 
from  the  Government,  and  thus  its  receipts  are 
swelled.  In  1893-94  the  gross  debts  were  over 
^£33,000,000,  and  the  net  debts  under  £19,000,000, 
having  increased  by  .£1,200,000  since  the  Coun- 
cil came  into  existence. 

The  Council's  precept  for  1894-95  has  been 
for  \\d.  in  the  pound,  while  the  last  precept  of 
the  Metropolitan  Board  of  Works  in  1888-89  was 
only  for  lo^d.  But  these  figures  can  no  more  be 
fairly  placed  in  comparison  than  the  budget  of 
a  lone  widow  with  that  of  the  mother  of  a  large 
and  growing  family.  The  Council's  precept 
includes  not  only  the  old  charges  of  the  Metro- 
politan Board  of  Works,  but  also  several  other 
rates  which  used  to  be  formerly  levied  in  other 
ways.  The  result  is,  that  as  regards  the  major- 
ity of  parishes,  the  net  demand  of  the  central 
municipal  authority  has  positively  decreased 
during  the  six  years  of  the  Council' s  existence. 
Apart  from  these  financial  complications, 
which  affect  rather  the  distribution  of  the  bur- 
den than  its  total  amount,  the  Council's  net  de- 
mand on  the  London  rate-payer  has,  in  the  six 
years,  risen  by  \\d.  in  the  pound,  everything  in- 
cluded. A  half  penny  each  for  the  Parks  Com- 
mittee and  the  Technical  Education  Board,  a 
farthing  for  the  Fire  Brigade,  and  another  far- 
thing for  the  growing  activities  of  the  Public 
Health,  Asylums,  Main  Drainage,  and  other 
committees — this  is  the  price  which  London  as 
a  whole  is  asked  to  pay  for  the  abolition  of  its 
old  corrupt  government,  and  the  substitution  of 
a  body  which  has  carried  out  a  beneficent  revo- 
lution in  every  department  of  its  municipal  life. 
The  net  increase  of  charge  upon  each  Londoner, 
after  six  years  of  the  Council's  rule,  is  less  than 
id.  per  month,  everything  included. 

Reference:  The  London  County  Council:  What  it 
is  and  what  it  Does,  a  Fabian  tract  (1895). 

LORIA,  ACHILLE,  was  born  at  Mantua, 
Italy,  in  1857.  He  held  a  professorship  first  at 
Sienna,  and  since  then  has  been  at  Padua.  Cossa 
places  him  among  the  ablest  of  Italian  econo- 
mists, and  says  of  his  views  :  "In  criticising 
the  established  order  of  things  economic  he 
goes  with  the  socialists,  lavishing  upon  them 


expressions  of  attachment  with  a  profusion 
which  is  quite  out  of  place,  and  yet  he  will  none 
of  their  schemes  and  remedies,  and  abides  stead- 
fastly in  the  expectation  that  the  course  of  na- 
ture will  heal  social  wounds  by  a  simple  process 
which  is  already  at  work  and  consists  in  the 
'  diffusion  '  of  property  and  the  '  elision  '  of 
rent."  Among  his  writings  are  :  La  rendita 
fondiaria  e  la  sua  elisione  natitrale  (1880) ; 
La  legge  di  popolazione  ed  il  sistema  sociale 
(1882)  ;  Carlo  Darwin  e  /'  economia  politica 
(1884)  ;  Analisi  della  proprieta  capitalista 
(1889,  2  vols.). 

LOTTERIES  are  schemes  for  the  distribu- 
tion of  prizes  by  lot  or  chance,  usually  in  return 
for  a  consideration. 

Lotteries  are  of  Italian  origin,  the  first  one 
being  in  Florence  in  1530.  France  legalized 
them  in  1539.  The  first  lottery  for  money  was 
in  1630.  The  revolutionary  governments  of 
France  passed  laws  against  them  in  1793  and 
1830  ;  but  they  were  restored  by  the  Bourbons, 
and  in  1879  12,000,000  national  lottery  tickets  of 
i  fr.  each  were  sold  in  Paris  to  pay  for  the  Ex- 
position of  1878.  Lottery  bonds  were  allowed 
to  be  issued  in  the  Panama  scandal.  In  Eng- 
land, the  first  lottery  was  one  of  40,000  "  lots," 
at  los.  each,  in  1569,  which  was  drawn  at  the 
west  door  of  St.  Paul's  Cathedral,  the  profits  of 
which  went  for  the  repairing  of  the  harbor.  In 
i6n-i2,in  the  third  charter  of  Virginia  by  King 
James,  was  a  grant  to  "The  Treasurer  and 
Company  of  Adventurers  and  Planters  of  the 
City  of  London,  for  the  first  Colony  of  Vir- 
ginia," of  one  or  more  lotteries  to  run  for  one 
year.  In  England,  lotteries  were  annually  li- 
censed from  1709-1823,  when  they  were  sur- 
pressed. 

Sentiment    in   Europe  is,   however,    against 
them.  J.  B.  Say  declared  that  the  legislators  who 
sanction  them  "  vote  a  certain  number  of  thefts 
and    suicides    every    year."     Yet 
Prussia,  in  1894,  realized  10,000,000 
thalers    from    lotteries  ;    Austria,     History. 
40,800,000  crowns  ;  Italy,  75,300,000 
lire  ;      Spain,    75,000,000    pesetas. 
In  the  United  States,  lotteries  were  once  fre- 
quent, and  used  for  raising  money,  for  improv- 
ing  trade,  building   public   edifices,  enlarging 
libraries  and  colleges  (Harvard,  Yale,  Colum- 
bia).    They  were  attacked,  however,  by  Boston 
clergymen  in    1699.     They  were   abolished  in 
Massachusetts  and  Pennsylvania  in   1833   and 
then  in  other  States.     The  Outlook  for  March, 
l895,  gives  the  following  account  of  the  great 
Louisiana  Lottery  and  its  recent  defeat  : 

"  It  was  in  1868  that  the  company  obtained  its  char- 
ter from  one  of  the  corrupt  carpet-bag  legislatures  in 
Louisiana.  In  1876,  when  the  white  people  regained 
control  of  the  State,  they  framed  a  constitution  pro- 
hibiting lotteries,  but  United  States  District  Judge 
Billings  promptly  ruled  that  the  charter  of  the  lottery 
company  was  an  inviolable  contract,  and  gave  the 
company  the  opportunity  to  negotiate  for  peace  before 
the  Supreme  Court  had  overthrown  his  infamous  de- 
cision by  declaring  that  the  public  morality  could  not 
be  bartered  away  by  a  legislature.  At  the  time  of 
these  negotiations  the  lottery  company  agreed  to  re- 
tire from  the  business  if  allowed  to  complete  the  25- 
year  term  fixed  by  its  original  charter,  and  this  agree- 
ment was  accepted.  Long  before  this  period  expired, 
hovyever,  the  lottery  had  become  a  great  financial  Insti- 
tution. It  had  retained  Major-Generals  Beauregard 
and  Early  to  inspect  its  drawings,  and  become  incom- 


Lotteries. 


833 


Luxury. 


parably  the  most  corrupting  lottery  the  country  had 
ever  known,  because  it  was  the  least  corrupt.  Every- 
body in  the  nation  had  confidence  that  it  conducted  its 
gambling-  business  as  it  professed  to,  and  the  business 
grew  upon  a  most  stupendous  scale.  Each  month  it 
came  to  issue  28,00x3,000  tickets  at  the  price  of  $i  each,  and 
all  that  it  professed  to  do  was  to  return  to  the  investors 
$14,300,000  of  the  $28,000,000  they  sent  it.  ...  It  not 
only  contributed  generously  to  campaign  funds  of  par- 
ties and  individuals,  but  became  incomparably  the 
most  philanthropic  of  all  the  corporations  in  Louis- 
iana. When  in  1890  it  announced  to  the 
public  its  repudiation  of  its  agreement 

Louisiana  to  abandon  the  business  •with  the  expi- 
Lotterv  ration  of  its  charter,  its  philanthropy 
'•  suddenly  increased.  At  first  it  offered 
to  raise  its  contributions  to  Louisiana 
taxes  from  $40,000  a  year  to  $500,000,  and 
-when  the  opposition  of  Governor  Nichols  made  a  two- 
thirds  vote  necessary,  the  lottery  raised  its  offer  to 
$1,250,000  a  year,  or  $31,000,000  for  a  new  25-year  char- 
ter. This  bribe  was  equivalent  to  $125  for  every  voter 
in  the  State,  yet,  as  our  readers  will  remember,  the 
patriotism  and  conscience  of  Louisiana  were  so  great 
that  the  State  rejected  the  offer. 

"  When,  at  the  end  of  1893,  the  lottery  removed  its 
headquarters  from  New  Orleans  to  Port  Tampa,  Fla., 
and  Honduras,  Central  America,  it  became  apparent 
to  all  thinking  people  that  the  anti-lottery  law  must 
be  amended.  .  .  . 

"  Senator  Hoar  reported  from  the  Judiciary  Com- 
mittee a  new  bill  for  the  repression  of  the  lottery  traf- 
fic. The  importation  of  lottery  matter  within  the 
United  States,  and  its  transportation  from  State  to 
State  by  any  means  whatever,  was  prohibited  by 
carefully  drawn  provisions.  Meanwhile,  .  .  .  the  ex- 
pulsion of  the  company  from  Louisiana  had  little 
effect.  Paul  Conrad,  the  old  president  of  the  Louis- 
iana Lottery  Company,  and  also  of  the  Gulf  Coast 
Ice  Company,  promptly  removed  his  business  from 
New  Orleans  to  Honduras,  and  continued  to  advertise 
to  the  people  of  Maine  and  Manitoba  that  ice  and 
1  other  supplies '  could  be  furnished  them  from  the 
regions  of  the  equator.  When  death  removed  him 
from  his  activities  in  the  ice  business,  another  offi- 
cial was  promptly  secured  to  take  his  place,  and  the 
programs  of  so  prominent  and  reputable  an  institu- 
tion as  the  Madison  Square  Garden,  in  New  York 
City,  were  prominently  advertising  his  address  and 
instructing  readers  to  send  their  orders  to  him  '  by 

express  '  in  care  of  Co.,  Port  Tampa,  Fla.  There 

was  no  legal  way  in  which  the  business  could  be 
checked.  .  .  .  Mainly  through  the  efforts  of  Professor 
S.  H.  Woodbridge,  of  the  Boston  Institute  of  Tech- 
nology, Congress  was  bombarded  with  petitions  and 
letters  and,  finally,  telegrams,  until  the  bill  which 
Senator  Hoar  had  safely  conducted  through  the  Senate 
nearly  a  year  ago  was,  through  the  vigorous  work  of 
Mr.  Broderick,  of  Kansas,  accepted  by  the  House  of 
Representatives,  two  days  before  adjournment.  On 
the  day  following  it  was  returned  to  the  Senate  for 
concurrence  in  certain  trivial  amendments,  and  nar- 
rowly escaped  being  throttled  by  the  lottery  forces, 
despite  the  overwhelming  majority  professedly  in 
favor  of  it.  ... 

"  Messrs.  Brice  and  Gorman  were  almost  the  only 
men  in  the  Senate  who  could  be  brought  to  the  infamy 
of  publicly  supporting  it.  But  so  shrewdly  was  this 
trickery  planned  and  so  dexterously  was  it  executed 
that  it  failed  of  success  only  by  a  hair's-breadth." 

LOVEJOY,  ELIJAH  PARISH,  was  born 
at  Albion,  Me.,  in  1802.  After  studying  theol- 
ogy at  Princeton,  he  was  ordained  a  Presbyte- 
rian minister  in  1833,  and  became  editor  of  the 
St.  Louis  Observer,  a  religious  paper.  While 
disclaiming  any  connection  with  the  abolition- 
ists, he  nevertheless  wrote  sympathetically  of 
the  anti-slavery  agitation,  which  was  then  be- 
ginning. This  greatly  offended  many  of  the 
citizens,  and  the  feeling  against  him  increased 
in  bitterness,  until  finally  the  office  of  the  Ob- 
server was  destroyed  by  a  mob.  He  then  re- 
solved to  remove  his  paper  to  Alton,  111.,  but  as 
soon  as  his  press  was  brought  there  a  mob 
broke  it  into  fragments  The  town  reimbursed 
him  for  his  loss,  and  another  press  was  procured, 
only  to  be  destroyed  by  the  mob.  He  bought 

53 


a  third  press,  but  it  met  the  same  fate.  By 
this  time  the  question  had  become  serious.  A 
convention  comprising  many  of  the  noblest  men 
in  Illinois  was  held  at  Upper  Alton.  It  sup- 
ported him  and  bought  another  press,  which  ar- 
rived November  7,  1837.  At  midnight  a  mob 
of  30  or  40  men  came  from  the  neighboring 
drink-shops  and  commenced  to  throw  stones  at 
the  warehouse,  to  fire  shots,  and  at  last  attempt- 
ed to  burn  it.  The  roof  being  set  on  fire,  Mr. 
Lovejoy  and  several  others  stepped  out  and  were 
fired  upon  by  the  rioters.  One  of  the  bullets 
struck  Mr.  Lovejoy,  who  only  lived  long  enough 
to  return  to  the  warehouse. 

LOYAL  WOMEN  OF  AMERICAN  LIB- 
ERTY.—The  National  Association  of  Loyal 
Women  of  American  Liberty  is  an  organization 
of  Christian  women  having  for  their  special 
work  the  exercise  of  their  influence,  by  lectures 
and  otherwise,  as  opportunity  offers,  toward 
urging  legislation  to  a  limitation  of  immigra- 
tion, the  absolute  separation  of  Church  and 
State  in  all  matters  pertaining  to  taxation  and 
education,  compulsory  education,  and  retention 
of  the  Bible  in  public  schools.  The  motto  of 
the  order  is  "  For  God  and  American  Liberty." 
Any  woman  who  will  promise  to  work  for  the 
increase  of  God's  kingdom  and  for  the  further- 
ance of  American  liberties  may  become  a  mem- 
ber. 

LUDLOW,  JOHN    MALCOLM,   was   an 

English  lawyer  associated  with  Maurice  and 
Kingsley  in  their  Christian  Socialism,  and  to  a 
degree  the  originator  of  the  movement.  A  let- 
ter of  his  to  Maurice,  written  from  Paris  in  1848, 
and  describing  the  French  socialist  movement 
of  that  period,  seems  first  to  have  directly  turned 
Maurice's  thoughts  in  the  direction  of  Christian 
Socialism.  Ludlow  was  associated  with  Maurice 
and  Kingsley  in  the  weekly  paper,  Politics  for 
the  People,  and  in  1850  he  became  editor  of  the 
Christian  Socialist,  which  became  in  1851  the 
Journal  of  Association.  He  also  wrote  for  the 
series  Tracts  by  Christian  Socialists.  Among 
those  who  .started  in  1850  the  first  association  of 
cooperative  working  tailors  Ludlow  was  promi- 
nent, and  he  was  one  of  the  convening  commit- 
tee of  the  first  cooperative  congress  in  London, 
in  1860,  together  with  Kingsley,  Hughes,  and 
Neale.  He  has  since  that  date  taken  little 
prominent  part  in  social  reform,  but  has  writ- 
ten able  articles  on  the  early  Christian  Social- 
ists in  the  Economic  Review  (October,  1893) 
and  the  Atlantic  Monthly  (January,  1896). 

LUXURY,  says  Professor  Emile  de  Laveleye, 
"  consists  in  the  consumption  of  what  has  cost 
great  labor  to  produce,  for  the  satisfaction  of 
spurious  needs."  So  defining  it,  he  condemns 
it,  and  says  :  "  Luxury  is  pernicious  to  the  in- 
dividual and  fatal  to  society.  Primitive  Chris- 
tianity reproved  it  in  the  name  of  charity  and 
humility  ;  political  economy  condemns  it  in  the 
name  of  utility,  and  justice  condemns  it  in  the 
name  of  equity." 

Professor  R.  T.  Ely  writes  in  a  symposium 
on  Luxury  in  the  Kingdom  (June  5,  1896)  : 

"  A  newspaper  writer,  speaking  of  certain  extrava- 
gant social  events  which  occurred  a  few  years  since, 
used  these  words  :  '  Murmurs  against  luxury  may  be 


Luxury. 


834     Machiavelli,  Niccolo  di  Bernardo. 


heard  among  people  in  straitened  circumstances  when 
the  lavish  expenditures  and  sumptuous  pleasures  of 
great  society  entertainments  are  discussed.  But  such 
persons  are  prone  to  forget  that  these  expenditures  that 
seem  so  prodigal  go  in  large  part  to  benefit  the  work- 
ing people.'  We  cannot  consider  now  all  the  econom- 
ic fallacies  involved  in  arguments  of  this  kind.  They 
have  been  exposed  over  and  over  again  by  able  men. 
It  may,  however,  simply  be  pointed  out  that  the 
same  expenditure  made  in  behalf  of  others  would 
give  equal  employment  to  labor.  Let  us  take  the  case 
of  a  man  who  contributes  $1,000,000  for  a  public  build- 
ing, and  contrast  it  with  the  case  of  a  man  who  spends 
$1,000,000  on  his  own  private  house.  Labor  has  equal 
employment  in  both  cases,  but  the  benefit  of  the  toil 
accrues  to  the  public  in  the  one  case  and  in  the  other 
to  the  selfish  enjoyment  of  an  individual.  Another 
comparison  :  Contrast  the  expenditure  of  $10,000  for 
an  evening's  entertainment  with  an  expenditure  of 
$10,000  for  books  for  a  public  library.  Labor  is  alike 
employed  in  both  cases,  but  in  the  second  case  the  en- 
joyment is  more  widely  diffused  and  is  of  a  far  more 
enduring  character.  This  attempted  justification  is 
precisely  on  a  line  with  that  which  people  advance  for 
the  maintenance  of  gambling  dens  and  the  support  of 
the  traffic  in  intoxicating  beverages." 


LYNCHING.— The  word  is  derived  from 
the  phrase  Lynch's  law,  Charles  Lynch  (1736-96) 
being  aVirginia  planter  and  originally  a  Quaker, 
who  in  the  early  days  of  the  American  Revolu- 
tion undertook  to  protect  society  and  support 
the  revolutionary  government  by  punishing 
with  stripes  or  banishment  (not  death)  accused 
enemies  of  the  public.  The  word  is  used  to- 
day of  summary  punishment,  and  especially  of 
death,  without  legal  authority.  According  to  a 
table  kept  by  the  Chicago  Tribune,  there  were 
in  the  United  States  from  1886  to  November, 
1895,  1030  legal  executions  and  1655  lynchings, 
mainly  in  the  South.  In  South  Carolina,  in 
case  of  lynching  to  death,  the  county  has  re- 
cently been  made  liable  for  $2000,  with  a  rem- 
edy over  against  the  parties  concerned  and 
the  dismissal  of  faulty  officers.  (See  HOMI- 
CIDES.) 


M. 


MABLY,  GABRIEL  BONNOT  DE,  was 

born  at  Grenoble  in  1709.  After  having  pur- 
sued his  studies  with  the  Jesuits  of  Lyons,  he 
entered  the  seminary  of  St.  Sulpice,  but  later 
became  secretary  to  his  relative,  the  cardinal  of 
Teucin,  minister  of  foreign  affairs.  The  true 
minister  was  Mably.  At  last,  however,  a  mis- 
understanding arose  between  the  minister  and 
his  secretary,  and  Mably  withdrew  to  devote 
himself  to  political  science.  Already  in  1742 
his  Parallels  des  Romains  et  des  Frangais  par 
rapport  au  gouvernement  had  established  his 
fame.  In  1748  appeared  the  Droit  public  de 
V  Europe  fondS  sur  les  traitds  ;  afterward  the 
Entretiens  de  Phocion  sur  le  rapport  de  la 
morale  avec  la  politique  (1763);  Doutes  pro- 
pose's  auxphilosoph.es  e'conomistes  sur  I'ordre 
nature  I  des  societes  (1768)  ;  De  la  legislation, 
ou  Principe s  des  lots  (1770)  ;  'Observations  sur 
le  gouvernement  et  les  lots  des  Etats-  Unis 
d'  A me"rique  (1784) — a  curious  work,  in  which  he 
predicts  the  approaching  downfall  of  the  new 
republic  ' '  unless  it  turn  away  from  the  line  of 
commercialism  in  which  it  is  involved."  In- 
vited by  the  Polish  Diet  to  prepare  a  code  of 
laws  for  Poland,  his  Gouvernement  de  Pologne 
appeared  in  1781. 

Mably  died  in  1785,  not  without  foreseeing 
the  Revolution  which  would  be  accomplished. 
Besides  the  works  already  mentioned,  he  was 
the  author  of  numerous  historical  and  philo- 
sophical books  ;  several  posthumous  works  were 
also  published,  among  them  Les  Droits  et  les 
Devoirs  du  Citoyen. 

The  economic  ideas  of  Mably  are  scattered 
through  all  his  works  ;  they  form  a  complete 
system  and  make  him  one  of  the  first  thinkers 
of  his  age.  In  early  life  he  professed  views 
which  he  later  outgrew.  In  his  Parallels  des 
Romains  et  des  Frangais  (which  he  afterward 
repented  having  written)  he  stoutly  defended 
an  absolute  monarchy ;  he  extolled  luxury,  and 
considered  the  arts,  industry,  and  commerce  as 
actual  benefits  to  men, 


MACHIAVELLI,  NICCOLO  DI  BER- 
NARDO, was  born  in  Florence  in  1469,  of 
middle-class  parentage.  A  man  of  affairs  rather 
than  a  student,  he  grew  up  in  the  brilliant  court 
of  Lorenzo  the  Magnificent,  and  after  the  rees- 
tablishment  of  the  republic  in  1498  he  was,  till 
the  return  of  the  Medici  in  1512,  chancellor  or 
secretary  of  the  second  chancery  in  Florence, 
thrown  intimately  with  public  men,  and  sent  on 
repeated  embassies  to  Cesare  Borgia,  Pope 
Julius  II.,  the  Emperor  Maximilian,  Louis  XII. 
of  France,  and  the  various  Italian  States.  The 
return  of  the  Medici  ended  his  public  career, 
tho  he  sought  favor  with  them,  and  in  1521  was 
commissioned  by  them  to  write  a  history  of 
Florence  ;  but  in  1527  the  Medici  were  again 
driven  from  Florence,  and  Machiavelli  died  in 
disappointment  the  same  year.  His  fame  rests 
upon  his  writings.  He  wrote  a  few  comedies 
and  some  verse,  all  poor  except  La  Mandra- 
gola,  an  immoral  play,  but  by  some  considered 
a  masterpiece.  His  prose,  however,  was  as 
good  as  his  verse  was  bad.  Some  consider  him 
the  greatest  writer  of  Italian  prose.  He  throws 
aside  the  traditions  of  style  and  thoughts  both 
of  the  classic  age  and  the  Middle  Ages  which 
he  despised,  and  writes  as  a  man  of  the  world. 

His  political  writings  have  made  his  reputa- 
tion. Dell  r arte  della  guerra  (i  520)  advocates 
the  present  system  of  standing  armies  instead 
of  the  Middle  Age  use  of  mercenaries.  His 
Lettere  familiari and  Isto rie  Florentine  (1525) 
give  unrivaled  insight  into  his  times.  His  Dis- 
corsi  sopra  la  prima  deca  di  Tito  Livio  gives 
his  ideas  of  republican  government  ;  but  his 
great  work  is  //  Principe,  in  which  he  consid- 
ers absolute  monarchy,  and  has  made  the  word 
machiavellism  a  synonym  for  evil  There  has 
been  interminable  discussion  whether  Machia- 
velli wrote  this  book  satirically,  cynically,  im- 
morally, or  honestly.  It  is  a  remorseless  and 
scientific  examination  of  the  principles  and 
methods  an  absolute  monarch  as  a  matter  of 
fact  follows  and  seemingly  must  follow  in  order 


Machiavelli,  Niccolo  di  Bernardo.       835 


Machinery, 


to  succeed.  All  factors  of  rights  and  morals  are 
eliminated.  Every  point  is  proved  and  illus- 
trated from  contemporary  history.  Some  of  his 
principles  need  a  Cesare  Borgia  to  execute. 
Like  the  Discorsi,  it  was  published  after  his 
death  in  1532.  (See  POLITICAL  SCIENCE.)  Ma- 
chiavelli was  undoubtedly  a  man  of  the  world, 
but  he  always  seems  to  have  been  true  to  Flor- 
ence, and  to  have  had  a  true,  devoted  wife  in 
Marietta  Corsini. 

MACHINERY.— The  importance  of  machin- 
ery in  production  can  scarcely  be  overestimated. 
The  part  that  it  has  played  in  the  development 
of  the  modern  labor  problem  can  scarcely  be  put 
too  strong.  We  shall  consider,  I.  The  Facts  of 
Machine  Production  ;  II.  Social  Results  ;  III. 
The  Right  Use  of  Machinery. 

I.  THE  FACTS  OF  MACHINE  PRODUCTION. 

Tools  and  machinery  are  not  identical  ;  a  tool 
is  an  instrument,  usually  simple,  tho,  as  in  the 
case  of  the  lathe  and  potter's  wheel,  sometimes 
complex,  which  is  guided  and  directed  by  the 
skill  of  the  craftsman.  When  the  tool  grows 
complex,  and  is  not  guided  by  the  individual 
skill  of  the  craftsman,  but  by  a  mechanism 
which  governs  its  action,  it  is  called  a  machine. 
Machinery  usually  includes  motor  mechanism 
transmitting  mechanism  and  working  or  tool 
mechanism. 

Machinery  increases  man's  productivity  in 
two  ways.  It  enables  him,  as  with  the  steam 
hammer,  to  concentrate  enormous  power  upon  a 
fixed  point,  and  to  make  motion  regular  and 
continuous.  Says  Mr.  J.  A.  Hobson  (The  Evo- 
lution of  Modern  Capitalism,  pp.  51,  52)  : 

"  Machinery  can  increase  the  scope  of  man's  pro- 
ductive ability  in  two  ways :  The  difficulty  of  con- 
centrating a  large  mass  of  human  force  upon  a  given 
point  at  the  same  time  provides  certain  quantitative 
limits  to  the  productive  efficiency  of  the  human  body. 
The  steam-hammer  can  perform  certain  work  which 
is  quantitatively  outside  the  limit  of  the  physical 
power  of  any  number  of  men  working  with  simple 
tools  and  drawing  their  motor  power 
from  their  own  bodies.  The  other  limit 
Use.  to  the  productive  power  of  man  arises 
from  the  imperfect  continuity  of  human 
effort  and  the  imperfect  command  of 
its  direction.  .  .  .  Machinery  can  also  do  work  which 
is  too  fine  or  delicate  for  human  fingers,  or  which 
would  require  abnormal  skill  if  executed  by  hand.  .  .  . 

"  The  continuity  and  regularity  of  machine  work 
are  also  reflected  in  certain  economies  of  measure- 
ment. The  faculty  of  self-registering,  which  belongs 
potentially  to  all  machinery,  and  which  is  more  util- 
ized every  day,  performs  several  services  which  may 
be  summed  up  by  saying  that  they  enable  us  to  know 
exactly  what  is  going  on.  When  to  self-registration 
is  applied  the  faculty  of  self-regulation,  within  cer- 
tain limits  a  new  economy  of  force  and  knowledge  is 
added.  But  machinery  can  also  register  and  regulate 
the  expenditure  of  human  power.  Babbage  well 
says :  '  One  of  the  most  singular  advantages  we  de- 
rive from  machinery  is  in  the  check  which  it  affords 
against  the  inattention,  the  idleness,  or  the  knavery 
of  human  agents.'  .  .  . 

"These  are  the  sources  of  all  the  improvements  of 
economies  imputed  to  machine  production.  All  im- 
provements in  machinery,  as  applied  to  industrial 
arts,  take  therefore  one  or  the  following  forms  : 

"(i)  Rearrangement  or  improvement  of  machinery 
so  as  to  utilize  more  fully  the  productive  power  of 
nature  or  man.  Improvements  enabling  one  man  to 
tend  more  spindles,  or  enabling  the  same  engine  at 
the  same  boiler  pressure  to  turn  more  wheels,  belong 
to  this  order  of  improvement. 

"(2)  Economies  in  the  source  of  power.  These  will 
fall  under  four  heads:  i.  Substitution  of  cheaper  for 
dearer  kinds  of  human  power.  Displacement  of  men's 


labor  by  women's  or  children's.  2.  Substitution  of 
mechanical  power  for  human  power.  Most  great  im- 
provements in  the  '  labor-saving  '  character  of  ma- 
chinery properly  come  under  this  head.  3.  Economies 
in  fuel  or  in  steam.  The  most  momentous  illustration 
is  the  adoption  of  the  hot  blast  and  the  substitution  of 
raw  coal  for  coke  in  the  iron  trade.  4.  The  substitu- 
tion of  a  new  mechanical  motor  for  an  old  one  de- 
rived from  the  same  or  from  different  stores  of  energy 
— e.f.,  steam  for  water  power,  natural  gas  for  steam. 

"  (3)  Extended  application  of  machinery.  New  in- 
dustrial arts  owing  their  origin  to  scientific  inventions 
and  their  practice  to  machinery  arise  for  utilizing 
waste  products.  Under  '  waste  products  '  we  may  in- 
clude (a)  natural  materials,  the  services  of  which  were 
not  recognized  or  could  not  be  utilized  without  ma- 
chinery— e.f".,  nitrates  and  other  '  waste '  products  of 
the  soil  ;  (6)  the  refuse  of  manufacturing  processes 
which  figured  as '  waste  '  until  some  unsuspected  use 
was  found  for  it."  * 

The  development  of  machinery  may  be  divid- 
ed into  four  periods  : 

1 .  The  period  of  the  earlier  mechanical  inven- 
tions, marking  the  displacement  of  domestic  by 
factory  industry  (1764-85). 

2.  The  period  of  application  of  steam  to  manu- 
facturing (1785-1814). 

3.  The  period  of  steam  locomotion,  with  its 
bearing  on  industry  (1814-56). 

4.  The  period  of  the  construction  of  machin- 
ery by  machinery  (1856-66). 

Important  dates  in  the  development  of  ma- 
chinery are  the  invention  of  Hargreave's  spinning 
jenny  (1764),  Arkwright's  mill  (1771),  Crompton's 
mule  (1779),  Cartwright's  power  loom  and  Watt's 
engine  for  cotton  mills  (1785),  Whitney's  cotton 
gin  (1792),  Stephenson's  locomotive  (1814),  the 
opening  of  the  first  railway  (1822),  the  hot  blast 
(1829),  ring  spinning  (1841).  The  revolution  in 
the  industrial  world  created  by  machinery  has 
been  often  dwelt  upon.  The  following  facts  are 
taken  from  the  first  annual  report  of  the  United 
States  Commissioner  of  Labor  Statistics  in 
Washington  for  1886  : 

The  commissioner,  inquiring  into  the  industrial 
crisis,  finds  that  it  is  mainly  due  to  the  immense  de- 
velopment of  machine  industry  under  the  joint-stock 
system  ;  and  ne  takes  up  various  trades  one  after  an- 
other to  show  how  labor  has  been  displaced  by  ma- 
chinery. In  the  timber  business,  he  says,  12  laborers 
with  a  Bucker  machine  will  dress  12,000  staves.  The 
same  number  of  men  by  hand  labor  would  have 
dressed  in  the  same  time  only  2500.  In  the  manufac- 
ture of  paper  a  machine  now  used  for  drying  and  cut- 
ting, run  by  four  men  and  six  girls,  will  do  the  work 
formerly  done  by  too  persons,  and  do  it  much  better. 
In  the  manufacture  of  wall-paper  the  best  evidence 
puts  the  displacement  in  the  proportion  of  100  to  i. 
In  a  phosphate  mine  in  South  Carolina  10  men  accom- 
plish with  machinery  what  100  men  handle  without  it 
in  the  same  time.  There  has  been  a  displacement  of 
50  per  cent,  in  the  manufacture  of  rubber  boots  and 
shoes.  In  South  Carolina  pottery  the  product  is  ten 
times  greater  by  machine  processes  than  by  muscular 
labor.  In  the  manufacture  of  saws,  experienced  men 
consider  that  there  has  been  a  displacement  of  three 
men  out  of  five.  In  the  weaving  of  silk  the  displace- 
ment has  been  95  per  cent.,  and  in  the  winding  of  silk 
90  per  cent.  A  large  soap  manufacturing  concern 
carefully  estimates  the  displacement  of  labor  in  its 
works  at  50  per  cent.  In  making  wine  in  California  a 
crushing  machine  has  been  introduced  with  which  one 
man  can  crush  and  stem  80  tons  of  grapes  in  a  day, 
representing  an  amount  of  work  formerly  requiring 
eight  men.  In  woollen  goods  modern  machinery  has 
reduced  muscular  labor  33  per  cent,  in  the  carding  de- 
partment, 50  per  cent,  in  the  spinning,  and  25  per  cent, 
in  the  weaving.  In  some  kinds  of  spinning  100  to  i 
represents  the  displacement.  In  the  whole  United 
States  in  1886  the  machinery  was  equal  to  3,500,000 
horse-power.  If  men  only  had  been  employed,  it 
would  have  required  21,000,000  to  turn  out  the  actual 
total  product  ;  the  real  number  was  4,000,000.  To  do 
the  work  accomplished  in  1886  in  the  United  States  by 


Machinery. 


836 


Machinery. 


power  machinery  and  on  the  railways  would  have 
required  men  representing  a  population  of  172,500,000. 
The  actual  population  of  the  United  States  in  1886  was 
something  under  60,000,000,  or  a  little  more  than  one 
third. 

"  Commenting  on  these  very  remarkable  statistics, 
the  Labor  Commissioner  says :  '  The  apparent  evils 
resulting  from  the  introduction  of  machinery  and  the 
consequent  subdivision  of  labor  have  to  a  large  ex- 
tent, of  course,  been  offset  by  advantages  gained  ;  but 
it  must  stand  as  a  positive  statement,  which  cannot  be 
successfully  controverted,  that  this  wonderful  intro- 
duction and  extension  of  power  machinery  is  one  of 
the  prime  causes,  if  not  the  prime  cause  of  the  novel 
industrial  condition  in  which  the  manufacturing  na- 
tions find  themselves." 

Machinery,  too,  has  revolutionized  agricul- 
ture. Mr.  D.  A.  Wells  considers  it  to  have 
made  greater  changes  here  than  in  any  other  oc- 
cupation. He  says  (Recent  Economic  Changes]  : 

"  In  respect  to  no  other  one  article  has  change 
in  the  conditions  of  production  and  distribution  been 
productive  of  such  momentous  consequences  as  in 
the  case  of  wheat.  On  the  great  wheat  fields  of  the 
State  of  Dakota,  where  machinery  is  applied  to  agri- 
culture to  such  an  extent  that  the  requirement  for 
manual  labor  has  been  reduced  to  a  minimum,  the 
annual  product  of  one  man's  labor,  working  to  the 
best  advantage,  is  understood  to  be  now  equivalent  to 
the  production  of  5500  bush,  of  wheat.  In  the  great 
mills  of  Minnesota,  the  labor  of  another  one  man  for  a 
year,  under  similar  conditions  as  regards  machinery, 
is  in  like  manner  equivalent  to  the  conversion  of  this 
unit  of  5500  bush,  of  wheat  into  1000  bbls.  of  flour, 
leaving  500  bush,  for  seed  purposes ; 
and  altho  the  conditions  for  analysis 
Agriculture,  °f  the  next  step  in  the  way  of  results 
are  more  difficult,  it  is  reasonably  cer- 
tain thatithe  year's  labor  of  one  and  a 
half  men  more — or,  at  the  most,  two  men — employed 
in  railroad  transportation,  is  equivalent  to  putting  this 
looo  barrels  of  flour  on  a  dock  in  New  York  ready  for 
exportation,  where  the  addition  of  a  fraction  of  a  cent 
a  pound  to  the  price  will  further  transport  and  deliver 
it  at  almost  any  port  of  Europe. 

"  Here,  then,  we  have  the  labor  of  three  men  for  one 
year,  working  with  machinery,  resulting  in  the  pro- 
ducing all  the  flour  that  1000  other  men  ordinarily  eat 
in  a  year,  allowing  one  barrel  of  flour  for  the  average 
consumption  of  each  adult.  Before  such  a  result  the 
question  of  wages  paid  in  the  different  branches  of 
flour  production  and  transportation  becomes  an  insig- 
nificant factor  in  determining  a  market ;  and,  accord- 
ingly, American  flour  grown  in  Dakota  and  ground 
in  Minneapolis,  from  1000  to  1500  miles  from  the  nearest 
seaboard,  and  under  the  auspices  of  men  paid  from 
$1.50  to  $2.50  per  day  for  their  labor,  is  sold  in  European 
markets  at  rates  which  are  determinative  of  the  prices 
which  Russian  peasants,  Egyptian  '  fellahs,'  and  Indian 
'  ryots'  can  obtain  in  the  same  markets  for  similar 
grain."  (See  AGRICULTURE.) 

Mr.  Hobson  says  (as  above) : 

"  It  must  not  be  forgotten  that  by  far  the  most  im- 
portant factor  in  the  decline  of  English  agricultural 
employment  is  the  transport  machinery  which  has 
brought  the  produce  of  distant  countries  into  direct 
competition  with  English  agricultural  produce." 

Of  England,  Mr.  William  Clarke,  in  the  Fa- 
bian Essays,  says  : 

"A  cotton-mill  in  one  of  the  dismal  'hell-holes  '  call- 
ed towns  in  Lancashire  is  a  wonderful  place,  full  of 
bewildering  machines.  Here  is  a  machine  called  an 
•  opener,'  by  which  15,000  Ibs.  of  cotton  can  be  opened 
in  56  hours.  There  is  a  throstle,  the  spindles  of  which 
make  from  6000  to  7000  revolutions  per  minute.  Here 
is  a  man  who,  with  the  aid  of  two  piecers  to  take  up 
and  join  the  broken  ends,  can  work  2000  spindles. 
Among  the  distinct  separate  machines  used  are  opener, 
scutcher,  and  lap  machine,  drawing  frame,  slubbing 
frame,  intermediate  frame,  roving  frame,  throstle,  self- 
acting  mule  and  hand  mule,  doubling  frame,  and  mule 
doublers  or  twiners.  By  means  of  these  appliances 
the  following  results  have  been  attained.  Within  eight 
years,  from  1792  to  1800,  the  quantity  of  cotton  export- 
ed from  the  United  States  to  Lancashire  had  increased 
from  138,000  Ibs.  to  18,000,000  Ibs.  In  1801  Lancashire 


took  84,000  bales  of  cotton  from  the  United  States  ;  in 
1876  she  took  2,075,000  bales  ;  and  whereas  in  the  former 
year  only  14,000  bales  came  from  India,  in  1876  from 
that  country  came  775,000  bales,  besides 
a  great  increase  in  Brazilian  cotton,  and 
a  new  import  of  332,000  bales  from  England. 
Egypt.  In  1805,  1,000,000  pieces  of  calico 
were  sold  in  the  Blackburn  market  dur- 
ing the  whole  year;  and  that  was  considered  a  very 
large  sale.  In  1884,  according  to  Ellison's  Annual  Re- 
view of  the  Cotton  Trade,  there  were  exported  4,417,- 
000,000  yards  of  piece  goods,  besides  the  vast  quantity 
produced  for  home  consumption.  In  1875,  in  place  of 
the  little  cottages  with  their  hand-looms  of  a  century 
before,  Lancashire  contained  2655  cotton  factories  with 
SJiS'Si??2  spinning  spindles  and  463,118  power  looms; 
and  she  produced  yarn  and  piece  goods  to  the  weight 
of  1,088,890,000  Ibs.,  and  of  the  value  of  .£95,447,000.  See 
too  how  through  the  use  of  machinery  the  cost  of  pro- 
duction had  been  lowered.  In  1790  the  price  of  spinning 
the  yarn  known  technically  as  No.  100  was  ^s.  per  lb.: 
in  1826  it  had  been  reduced  to  6%d.  The  sale  price  of 
yarn  No.  100  in  1786  was  385-.;  in  1793  it  was  reduced  to 
15.?.  \d.;  in  1803  to  8s.  4^.;  in  1876  to  zs.  6d.  The  decreas- 
ed cost  in  each  case  followed  on  economy  in  produc- 
tion, itself  dependent  on  increased  differentiation  in 
machinery  ;  that  in  turn  involving  larger  and  larger 
capital ;  and  that  again  necessitating  aggregation  and 
the  crushing  out  of  small  concerns  which  could  not 
command  machinery  or  sell  at  a  profit  in  competition 
with  it." 

And  this  process  is  by  no  means  an  ended 
one.  Mr.  Carroll  D.  Wright,  in  his  Industrial 
Evolution  of  the  United  States,  chap,  xxvii., 
gives  some  instances  of  very  recent  improve- 
ments in  machinery.  He  says  (abridged)  : 

"  One  of  the  latest  sextuple  stereotype  perfecting 
presses  manufactured  by  R.  Hoe  &  Co.,  of  New  York, 
has  an  aggregate  running  capacity  of  72,000  eight-page 
papers  per  hour  ;  that  is  to  say,  one  of  these  perfected 
presses,  run  by  one  pressman  and  four  skilled  labor- 
ers, will  print,  cut  at  the  top,  fold,  paste,  and  count 
(with  supplement  inserted  if  desired)  72,000  eight-page 
papers  in  one  hour.  To  do  the  press- work  alone  for 
this  number  of  papers  would  take,  on  the  old  plan,  a 
man  and  a  boy,  working  10  hours  per  day,  100  days. 
By  the  use  of  Goodyear's  sewing-machine  for  turned 
shoes  one  man  will  sew  250  pairs  in  one  day.  It  would 
require  eight  men,  working  by  hand,  to  sew  the  same 
number  in  the  same  time.  By  the  use  of  a  heel-shaver 
or  trimmer  one  man  will  trim  300  pairs  of  shoes  a  day, 
while  formerly  three  men  would  have  been  required 
to  do  the  same  work ;  and  with  the  McKay  machine 
one  operator  will  handle  300  pairs  of  shoes  in  one  day, 
while  without  the  machine  he  could  handle  but  five 
pairs  in  the  same  time.  So,  in  nailing  on  heels,  one 
man,  with  the  aid  of  machinery,  can  heel  300  pairs  of 
shoes  per  day.  In  the  days  of  the  single-spindle  hand- 
wheel,  one  spinner,  working  56  hours  continuously, 
could  spin  five  hanks  of  No.  32  twist.  At  the  pres- 
ent time,  with  one  pair  of  self-acting  mule-spinning 
machines,  having  2124  spindles,  one  spinner,  with  the 
assistance  of  two  small  boys,  can  produce  55,098 
hanks  of  No.  32  twist  in  the  same  time.  .  .  .  Even  in 
power  machinery,  a  weaver  formerly  tended  but  one 
loom.  Now  one  weaver  minds  all  the  way  from  2 
to  to  looms,  according  to  the  grade  of  goods.  In  a 
large  establishment  in  New  Hampshire,  improved 
machinery,  even  within  10  years,  has  reduced  mus- 
cular labor  50  per  cent  in  the  production  of  the  same 
quality  of  goods.  In  weaving  in  the  olden  time,  in 
this  country,  a  fair  adult  hand-loom  weaver  wove 
from  42  to  48  yards  of  common  shirting  per  week. 
Now  a  weaver,  tending  six  power-looms  in  a  cotton 
factory,  will  produce  1500  yards  and  over  in  a  single 
week  ;  and  now  a  recent  invention  will  enable  a  wea- 
ver to  double  this  product." 

In  many  lines  of  manufactures  new  machin- 
ery has  to  be  put  in  every  few  years  to  keep  up 
with  the  competition.  Steamers  10  years  old 
are  usually  worthless  for  fast  voyages. 

In  his  Recent  Economic  Changes,  chap.  ii. , 
Mr.  D.  A.  Wells  says  : 

"The  power  capable  of  being  exerted  by  the  steam- 
engines  of  the  world  in  existence  and  working  in  the 
year  1887  has  been  estimated  by  the  Bureau  of  Sta- 
tistics at  Berlin  as  equivalent  to  that  of  200,000,000 


Machinery. 


837 


Machinery. 


horses,  representing  approximately  1,000,000,000  men  ; 
or  at  least  three  times  the  working  population  of  the 
earth,  whose  total  number  of  inhabitants  is  probably 
about  1,460,000,00x3.  The  application  and  use  of  steam 
alone  up  to  date  (1889)  has  accordingly  more  than 
trebled  man's  working  power,  and  by  enabling  him 
to  economize  his  physical  strength  has  given  him 
greater  leisure,  comfort,  and  abundance,  and  also 
greater  opportunity  for  that  mental  training  which  is 
essential  to  a  higher  development.  And  yet  it  is 
certain  that  four  fifths  of  the  steam-engines  now  work- 
ing in  the  world  have  been  constructed  during  the 
last  quarter  of  a  century,  or  since  1865." 

But  the  present  steam-engine  will  probably 
be  discarded.  Says  Mr.  Wells  : 

"  Notwithstanding  the  immense  service  which  the 
steam-engine  has  rendered  to  humanity,  and  its  pres- 
ent continuing  necessity  as  a  prime  factor  in  all  civili- 
zation, it  is  at  the  same  time  certain  that  as  a  machine 
it  is  most  imperfect,  inasmuch  as  the  very  best  steam- 
engines  only  utilize  about  one  sixth  of  the  power  (work) 
which  resides  in  the  fuel  which  is  consumed  in  the 
generation  of  steam.  The  entire  displacement  of  the 
steam  engine  as  it  now  exists  is,  therefore,  not  only 
essential  to  further  great  material  progress,  but  is 
confidently  expected  to  happen  at  no  very  distant 
period  by  those  eminently  qualified  to  express  an  opin- 
ion on  this  subject.  Thus,  at  the  meeting  of  the 
British  Association  for  the  Advancement  of  Science  in 
1888,  the  president,  Sir  Frederick  Bramwell,  after  ex- 

Eressing  his  belief  that  the  days  of  the  steam-engine 
ar    small    powers  were  already  numbered,   further 
predicted  that  those  who  should  attend  the  centenary 
of  the  Association  in  1931  '  would  see  the  present  steam- 
engines  in  museums,  treated  as  things  to  be  respected 
and  of  antiquarian  interest,  by  the  engineers  or  those 
days,  such  as  are  the  open-topped  steam 
cylinders  of  Newcomen  and  of  Smeaton 
to  ourselves,  and  that  the  heat-engine 
The  Future,  of  the  future  will  probably  be  one  inde- 
pendent of  the   vapor  of  water.'      In- 
deed,   'the    working    of    heat-engines, 
without  the  intervention  of  the  vapor  of 
water  by  the  combustion  of  the  gases  arising  from 
coal,  or  from  coal  and  from  water,'  he  continued,  'is 
now  not  merely  an  established  fact,  but  a  recognized 
and  undoubted  commercially  economical  means  of  ob- 
taining motive  power.    Such  engines,  developing  from 
i  to  40  horse-power,  and  worked  by  ordinary  gas  sup- 
plied by  gas-mains,  are  in  most  extensive  use  in  print- 
ing works,  hotels,  clubs,  theaters,  and  even  in  large  pri- 
vate  houses,  for  the  working  of  dynamos  to  supply 
electric   light.     But  looking  at  the  wonderful  petro- 
leum industry,  and  at  the  multifarious  products  which 
are  obtained  from  the  crude  material,  is  it  too  much  to 
say  that  there  is  a  future  for  motor-engines  worked  by 
the  vapor  of  some  of  the  more  highly  volatile  of  these 

Eroducts— true  vapor— not  a  gas,  but  a  condensable 
ody  capable  of  being  worked  over  and  over  again  ? 
Numbers  of  such  engines,  some  of  as  much  as  four 
horse-power,  are  now  running,  and  are  apparently 
giving  good  results — certainly  excellent  results  as  re- 
gards the  compactness  and  lightness  of  the  machin- 
ery.'" 

Many  believe  that  the  use  of  electricity  as  a 
motor  power  will  still  more  revolutionize  indus- 
try. (See  ELECTRICITY.  For  further  illustra- 
tions of  the  productive  power  of  machinery,  see 
PRODUCTIVITY.) 

II.  SOCIAL  RESULTS. 

In  his  Political  Economy,  Book  IV. ,  chap,  vi., 
John  Stuart  Mill  wrote  his  oft-quoted  words  : 
"  Hitherto  it  is  questionable  if  all  the  mechani- 
cal inventions  yet  made  have  lengthened  the 
day's  toil  of  any  human  being."  This  is  con- 
sidered by  many  an  exaggeration.  If  hours  of 
labor  were  at  first  lengthened  by  the  introduc- 
tion of  machinery,  they  are  to-day  steadily  being 
lessened.  (See  SHORT-HOUR  MOVEMENT.)  If 
machinery  has  developed  the  factory  system, 
that  to-day  is  by  no  means  what  it  was.  (See 
i  FACTORY  SYSTEM.)  Thejmost  evil  results  of  rna- 
•ychinery  are  thus  temporary  .itsTgood  results  per- 


manent. Realizing  what  machinery  means  in 
the  way  of  cheapened  production  and  how  it 
makes  it  possible  that  wage-owners  should  own 
a  hundred  commodities  that  the  wealthy  could 
not  have  a  hundred  years  ago,  most  economists 
believe  that  machinery  has  been  to  the  vast 
benefit  of  working  men  as  of  all  classes.  There 
are,  however,  two  sides  to  this.  The  most  seri- 
ous discussion  has  been  on  the  question  of  how 
far  machinery  has  permanently  displaced  labor. 
Writers  like  Mr.  Carroll  D.  Wright  claim  that 
if  machinery  has  displaced  labor  in  one  direc- 
tion it  has  created  more  employment  for  them 
in  others.  Mr.  Wright  shows,  e.g.,  in  his  In- 
dustrial Evolution  of  the  United  States,  chap, 
xxviii. ,  that  the  per  •  capita  of  cotton  consump- 
tion of  cotton  in  this  country  was  5.9  Ibs.  in 
1830,  13.91  Ibs.  in  1880,  and  19  Ibs.  in  1890,  which 
figures  he  says  ' '  clearly  and  positively  indicate 
that  the  labor  necessary  for  such  consumption 
has  been  kept  up  to  the  standard,  if  not  beyond 
the  standard,  of  the  olden  time — that  is,  as  to 
the  number  of  people  employed."  In  iron  he 
says  the  increase  has  been  as  great  proportion- 
ally :  105.64  Ibs.  in  1870,  204.90  Ibs.  in  1880,  and 
283.38  Ibs.  in  1890.  In  steel  it  was  46  Ibs.  in 
1880  and  144  in  1890.  Many  occupations  have 
been  created.  He  says  (we  abridge  his  words) : 

"  If  we  could  examine  scientifically  the  number  of 
created  occupations,  the  claim  that  inventions  have 
displaced  labor  on  the  whole  would  be  conclusively 
and  emphatically  refuted.  In  telegraphy  thousands 
and  thousands  of  people  are  employed  where  no  one 
has  ever  been  displaced.  Electroplating,  a  modern 
device,  has  not  only  added  wonderfully  to  the  em- 
ployed list  by  its  direct  influence,  but  indirectly  by  the 
introduction  of  a  class  of  goods  which  can  be  secured 
by  all  persons. 

"The  railroads  offer  another  grand  illustration  of 
the  expansion  of  labor.    It  now  requires  more  than 
three  quarters  of  a  million  of  people  to 
operate  our  railroads,  and  this  means  a        _ 
population  of  nearly  four  millions,  or        Creates 
one  sixteenth  of  the  whole  population  of         Work. 
the  country.    The  displacement  of  the 
stage-coach  and    the  stage-driver  was 
nothing  compared  to  the  expansion  of  labor  which  the 
railroad  systems  of  the  country  have  created.    As  a 
means  of  expansion  of  labor  the  sewing  machine  is  a 
striking  illustration.     It  has  displaced  no  one  ;  it  has 
increased  demand,  and  it  has  been  the  means  of  estab- 
lishing great  workshops  to  supply  the  thousands  of 
machines  that  are  sold  throughout  the  world. 

"The  expansion  of  values  as  the  result  of  the  in- 
fluence of  machinery  has  been  quite  as  marvelous 
as  in  any  other  direction,  for  educated  labor,  sup- 
plemented by  machinery,  has  developed  small  quan- 
tities of  inexpensive  material  into  products  of  great 
value.  This  truth  is  illustrated  by  taking  cotton 
and  iron  ore  as  the  starting-point.  A  pound  of  cot- 
ton, costing  at  the  time  this  calculation  was  made 
but  13  cents,  has  been  developed  into  muslin  which 
sold  in  the  market  for  80  cents,  and  into  chintz  which 
sold  for  $4.  Seventy-five  cents'  worth  of  common  iron 
ore  has  been  developed  into  $5  worth  of  bar  iron,  or 
into  $10  worth  of  horseshoes,  or  into  $180  worth  of 
table  knives,  or  into  $6800  worth  of  fine  needles,  or 
into  $29,480  worth  of  shirt-buttons,  or  $200,000  worth  of 
watch-springs,  or  $400,000  worth  of  hair-springs,  and 
the  same  quantity  of  common  iron  ore  can  be  made 
into  $2,500,000  worth  of  pallet  arbors. 

"  The  illustrations  given,  both  of  the  expansion  of 
labor  and  the  expansion  of  values,  are  sufficiently 
suggestive  of  a  line  of  study  which,  carried  in  any 
direction,  will  show  that  machinery  is  the  friend  and 
not  the  enemy  of  man,  especially  when  man  is  con- 
sidered as  a  part  of  society  and  not  as  an  individual." 

Mr.  Hobson,  however,  who  has  made  a  more 
minute  analysis,  comes  to  less  pronounced  re- 
sults. He  says  (as  above,  pp.  234,  235)  : 

"  Facts  and  figures  seem  to  support  the  following 
conclusions : 


Machinery. 


838 


Machinery. 


"  i.  That  along  with  the  increased  application  of 
machinery  to  the  textile  and  other  staple  manufactures 
there  has  been  in  these  industries  a  decrease  of  employ- 
ment relative  to  the  growth  of  the  working  population. 

"  2.  That  in  the  transport  industries  the  increase  of 
employment  is  in  inverse  proportion  to  the  introduc- 
tion of  machinery  into  the  several  branches  as  a  domi- 
nating factor. 

"3.  That  the  considerable  diminution  of  agricultural 
employment  is  not  compensated  by  any  proportion- 
ate increase  of  manufacturing  employment,  but  that 
the  displaced  agricultural  labor  finds  employment  in 
such  branches  of  the  transport  and  distributive  trade 
as  are  less  subject  to  machinery.  .  .  . 

"  So  far,  therefore,  as  the  statistics  of  employments 

present  a  just  register  of  the  influence  of  machinery 

upon   demand   for  labor,  we  are  driven  to  conclude 

that  the  net  influence  of  machinery  is  to 

_  diminish    employment  so  far  as  those 

Ettect  On  industries  are  concerned  into  which 
Employment. machinery  directly  enters,  and  to  in- 
crease the  demand  in  those  industries 
which  machinery  affects  but  slightly  or 
indirectly.  If  this  is  true  of  England,  which,  having 
the  start  in  the  development  of  the  factory  system,  has 
to  a  larger  extent  than  any  other  country  specialized 
in  the  arts  of  manufacture,  it  is  probable  that  the 
net  effect  of  machinery  upon  the  demand  for  labor 
throughout  the  industrial  world  has  been  to  throw  a 
larger  proportion  of  the  population  into  industries 
where  machinery  does  not  directly  enter." 

Machinery  has,  too,  Mr.  Hobson  argues,  a 
greater  effect  in  increasing  the  irregularity  of 
employment.  He  says  : 

"  While  it  is  the  interest  of  each  producer  of  machine- 
made  goods  to  give  regular  employment,  some  wider 
industrial  force  compels  him  to  irregularity.  What  is 
this  force?  It  is  uncontrolled  machinery.  In  the 
several  units  of  machine  production,  the  individual 
factories  or  mills,  we  have  admirable  order  and  accu- 
rate adjustment  of  parts  ;  in  the  aggregate  of  machine 
production  we  have  no  organization,  but  a  chaos  of 
haphazard  speculation.  '  Industry  has  not  yet  adapted 
itself  to  the  changes  in  the  environment  produced  by 
machinery."  That  is  all.  .  .  . 

"  When  production  was  slower,  markets  narrower, 
credit  less  developed,  there  was  less  danger  of  this  big 
miscalculation,  and  the  corrective  forces  of  industry 
were  more  speedily  effective.  But  modern  machinery 
has  enormously  expanded  the  size  of  markets,  the 
scale  of  competition,  the  complexity  of  demand,  and 
production  is  no  longer  for  a  small,  local,  present 
demand,  but  for  a  large,  world,  future  demand.  Hence 
machinery  is  the  direct  material  cause  of  these  great 
fluctuations  which  bring,  as  their  most  evil  con- 
sequence, irregularity  of  wages  and  employment. 

"  How  far  does  this  tend  to  right  itself  ?  Professor 
Nicholson  believes  that  time  will  compel  a  better  ad- 
justment between  machinery  and  its  environment. 

"  '  The  enormous  development  of  steam  communica- 
tion and  the  spread  of  the  telegraph  over  the  whole 
globe  have  caused  modern  industry  to  develop  from  a 
gigantic  star-fish,  any  of  whose  members  might  be  de- 
stroyed without  affecting  the  rest,  into  a  /u.cya  £<aoi> 
which  is  convulsed  in  agony  by  a  slight  injury  in  one 
part.  A  depression  of  trade  is  now  felt  as  keenly  in 
America  and  even  in  our  colonies  as  it  is  here.  Still, 
in  the  process  of  time,  with  the  increase  of  organization 
and  decrease  of  unsound  speculation,  this  extension  of 
the  market  must  lead  to  greater  stability  of  prices ; 
but  at  present  the  disturbing  forces  often  outweigh 
altogether  the  supposed  principal  elements.' 

"  The  organization  of  capital  under  the  pressure  of 
these  forces  is  doubtless  proceeding,  and  such  organi- 
zation, when  it  has  proceeded  far  enough,  will  indis- 
putably lead  to  a  decrease  of  unsound  speculation. 
But  these  steps  in  organization  have  been  taken  pre- 
cisely in  those  industries  which  employ  large  quanti- 
ties of  fixed  capital,  and  the  admitted  fact  that  severe 
fluctuations  still  take  place  in  these  industries  is  proof 
that  the  steadying  influences  of  such  organization  have 
not  yet  had  time  to  assert  themselves  to  much  purpose. 
The  competition  of  larger  and  larger  masses  of  organ- 
ized capital  seems  to  induce  heavier  speculation  and 
larger  fluctuations.  Not  until  a  whole  species  of  cap- 
ital is  organized  into  some  form  or  degree  of  'combi- 
nation' is  the  steadying  influence  of  organization  able 
to  predominate. 

"But  there  is  also  another  force  which,  in  England, 
at  any  rate,  under  the  increased  application  of  machin- 
ery, makes  for  an  increase  rather  than  a  diminution  of 


speculative  production.  It  has  been  seen  that  the  pro- 
portion of  workers  engaged  in  producing  comforts  and 
luxuries  is  growing,  while  the  proportion  of  those  pro- 
ducing the  prime  necessaries  of  life  is  declining.  How 
far  the  operation  of  the  law  of  diminishing  returns  will 
allow  this  tendency  to  proceed  we  cannot  here  discuss. 
But  statistics  show  that  this  is  the  present  tendency 
both  in  England  and  in  the  United  States.  .  .  . 

"  So  long,  then,  as  a  community  grows  in  numbers, 
so  long  as  individuals  desire  to  satisfy  more  fully  their 
present  wants  and  continue  to  develop  new  wants, 
forming  a  higher  or  more  intricate  standard  of  con- 
sumption, there  is  no  evidence  to  justify  the  conclusion 
that  machinery  has  the  effect  of  causing  a  net  diminu- 
tion in  demand  for  labor,  tho  it  tends  to  diminish  the 
proportion  of  employment  in  the 'manufacturing' in- 
dustries ;  but  there  is  strong  reason  to  believe  that  it 
tends  to  make  employment  more  unstable,  more  pre- 
carious of  tenure,  and  more  fluctuating  in  market 
value." 

See  also  OCCUPATIONS  ;  UNEMPLOYMENT. 

Less  discussed  but  perhaps  more  important  is 
the  effect  of  machinery  upon  the  quality  of 
labor.  Some  believe  that  machinery  improves 
labor,  taking  it  out  of  tenements  and  rude  huts 
into  factories,  which  are  now  usually  compara- 
tively hygienic  (for  proof  see  article,  SWEAT- 
ING, where  it  is  shown  how  terrible  are  the  con- 
ditions in  trades  not  using  machinery).  Others 
argue,  too,  that  machinery  replaces  muscular 
labor  by  higher  forms  of  labor.  Professor  Mar- 
shall inclines  to  this  view  {Principles  of  Eco- 
nomics, ad  ed.,  pp.  314,  322).  Others  dwell 
upon  the  educative  effect  of  machinery,  teaching 
inventiveness,  love  of  order,  cooperation,  etc. 
But  there  is  another  side  to  the  question.  Says 
Mr.  Hobson  (as  above,  chap,  ix.)  : 

"  As  regards  those  workers  who  pass  from  ordinary 
manual  work  to  the  tending  of  machinery,  there  is  a 
good  deal  of  evidence  to  show  that,  in  the  typical  ma- 
chine industries,  their  new  work  taxes  their  physical 
vigor  quite  as  severely  as  the  old  work.  Professor 
Shield  Nicholson  quotes  the  following  striking  state- 
ment from  the  Cotton  Factory  Times  :  '  It  is  quite  a 
common  occurrence  to  hear  young  men  who  are  on 
the  best  side  of  30  years  of  age  declare  they  are  so 
worked  up  with  the  long  mules,  coarse  counts,  quick 
speeds,  and  inferior  material,  that  they  are  fit  for 
nothing  at  night,  only  going  to  bed  and  taking  as 
much  rest  as  circumstances  will  allow.  There  are  few 
people  who  will  credit  such  statements;  nevertheless 
they  are  true,  and  can  be  verified  any  day  in  the  great 
majority  of  the  mills  in  the  spinning  districts.' 

"  Schulze-Gaevernitz  shows  that  the  tendency  in  mod- 
ern cotton-spinning  and  weaving,  especially  in  Eng- 
land, has  been  both  to  increase  the  number  of  spindles 
and  looms  which  an  operative  is  called  upon  to  tend, 
and  to  increase  the  speed  of  spinning.  '  A  worker 
tends  to-day  more  than  twice  or  nearly  three  times  as 
much  machinery  as  his  father  did  ;  the  number  of  ma- 
chines in  use  has  increased  more  than  fivefold  since 
that  time,  while  the  workers  have  not  quite  doubled 
their  numbers.'  With  regard  to  speed,  'since  the 
beginning  of  the  seventies  the  speed  of  the  spinning 
machines  alone  has  increased  about  15  per  cent." 
(Der  Grossbetrieb,  pp.  120-157)  ....  'There  is  a 
temptation,'  as  Mr.  Cunningham  says,  'to  treat  the 
machine  as  the  main  element  in  production,  and  to 
make  it  the  measure  of  what  a  man  ought  to  do,  in- 
stead of  regarding  the  man  as  the  first  consideration, 
and  the  machine  as  the  instrument  which  helps  him  ; 
the  machine  may  be  made  the  primary  consideration, 
and  the  man  may  be  treated  as  a  mere  slave  who 
tends  it '  (Uses  and  Abuses  of  Money,  p.  in).  .  .  . 

"The  factory  is  organized  with  military  precision, 
the  individual's  work  is  definitely  fixed  for  him  ;  he  has 
nothing  to  say  as  to  the  plan  of  his  work  or  its  final 
completion  or  its  ultimate  use.  '  The  constant  em- 
ployment on  one  sixty-fourth  part  of  a  shoe  not  only 
offers  no  encouragement  to  mental  activity,  but  dulls 
by  its  monotony  the  brains  of  the  employee  to  such  an 
extent  that  the  power  to  think  and  reason  is  almost 
lost '  (Contemporary  Review,  1889,  p.  392). 

"  Dr.  Arlidge  expresses  a  decided  opinion  :  '  General- 
ly speaking,  it  may  be  asserted  of  machinery  that  it 
calls  for  little  or  no  brain  exertion  on  the  part  of  those 
connected  with  its  operations ;  it  arouses  no  interest, 


Machinery. 


839 


Machinery. 


and  has  nothing  in  it  to  quicken  or  brighten  the  intel- 
ligence, tho  it  may  sharpen  the  sight  and  stimulate 
muscular  activity  in  some  one  limited  direction ' 
(Diseases  of  Occupations,  pp.  25,  26). 

"A  locomotive  superintendent  of  a  railway  was  re- 
cently questioned  as  to  the  quality  of  engine-driving. 
'  After  20  years'  experience  he  declared  emphatically 
that  the  very  best  engine-drivers  were 
those  who  were  most  mechanical  and 
Effect  on      unintelligent  in  their  work,  who  cared 
Character,     least  about  the  internal  mechanism  of 
the  engine.'     Yet  engine-driving  is  far 
less  mechanical  and    monotonous  than 
ordinary  tending  of  machinery." 

Mr.  Hobson  concludes  : 

"  The  net  influence  of  machinery  upon  the  quality 
of  labor,  then,  is  found  to  differ  widely  according  to 
the  relation  which  subsists  between  the  worker  and 
the  machine.  Its  educative  influence,  intellectual  and 
moral,  upon  those  concerned  with  the  invention,  man- 
agement, and  direction  of  machine  industry,  and  upon 
all  whose  work  is  about  machinery,  but  who  are  not 
detailed  machine-tenders,  is  of  a  distinctly  elevating 
character.  Its  effect,  however,  upon  machine-tenders 
in  cases  where,  by  the  duration  of  the  working  day  or 
the  intensity  of  the  physical  effort,  it  exhausts  the 
productive  energy  of  the  worker,  is  to  depress  vitality 
and  lower  him  in  the  scale  of  humanity  by  an  exces- 
sive habit  of  conformity  to  the  automatic  movements 
of  a  non-human  motor.  This  human  injury  is  not  ade- 
quately compensated  by  the  education  in  routine  and 
regularity  which  it  confers,  or  by  the  slight  under- 
standing of  the  large  co-operative  purposes  and  meth- 
ods of  machine  industry  which  his  position  enables 
him  to  acquire." 

Machinery  is,  too,  the  creator  of  the  factory 
system  and  the  factory  town.  (See  FACTORY 
SYSTEM.)  It  is  this,  perhaps,  which  makes  it 
most  unpopular  with  the  worker.  Says  Mr. 
Robert  Blatchford  (Merrt'e  England,  chap, 
iii.)  : 

"  My  reasons  for  attacking  the  factory  system  are  : 

"  i.  Because  it  is  ugly,  disagreeable,  and  mechanical. 

"  2.  Because  it  is  injurious  to  public  health. 

"  3.  Because  it  is  unnecessary. 

"  4.  Because  it  is  a  danger  to  the  national  existence. 

"  The  Manchester  school  will  tell  you  that  the  destiny 
of  this  country  is  to  become  'the  workshop  of  the 
world.' 

"  I  say  that  is  not  true  ;  and  that  it  would  be  a  thing 
to  deplore  if  it  were  true.  The  idea  that  this  country 
is  to  be  the  '  work-shop  of  the  world '  is  a  wilder 
dream  than  any  that  the  wildest  socialist  ever  cherish- 
ed. But  if  this  country  did  become  the  '  work-shop  of 
the  world,'  it  would  at  the  same  time  become  the  most 
horrible  and  the  most  miserable  country  the  world 
has  ever  known. 

"  Let  us  be  practical,  and  look  at  the  facts. 

"  First,  as  to  the  question  of  beauty  and  pleasantness. 
You  know  the  factory  districts  of  Lancashire.  I  ask 
you  is  it  not  true  that  they  are  ugly,  and  dirty,  and 
smoky,  and  disagreeable  ?  Compare  the  busy  towns 
of  Lancashire,  of  Staffordshire,  of  Durham,  and  of 
South  Wales,  with  the  country  towns  of  Surrey,  Suf- 
folk, and  Hants.  .  .  . 

"I  know  that  the  Manchester  school  will  tell  you  that 
this  is  mere  'sentiment.'  But  compare  their  actions 
with  their  words:  .  .  . 

"To  make  wealth  for  themselves  they  destroy  the 
beauty  and  the  health  of  your  dwelling-places  ;  and 
then  they  sit  in  their  suburban  villas,  or  on  the  hills 
and  terraces  of  the  lovely  southern  countries,  and 
sneer  at  the  '  sentimentality '  of  the  men  who  ask  you 
to  cherish  beauty  and  to  prize  health. 

"  Or  they  point  out  to  you  the  value  of  the  '  wages  ' 
which  the  factory  system  brings  you,  reminding  you 
that  you  have  carpets  on  your  floors,  and  pianos  in 
your  parlors,  and  a  week's  holiday  at  Blackpool  once 
a  year. 

But  how  much  health  or  pleasure  can  you  get  out  of 
a  cheap  and  vulgar  carpet?  And  what  is  the  use  of 
a  piano  if  you  have  neither  leisure  nor  means  to  learn 
to  play  it?  And  why  should  you  prize  that  one  week 
in  the  crowded,  noisy  watering-place,  if  health  and 
fresh  air  and  the  great  salt  sea  are  mere  sentimental 
follies?" 

III.  THE  RIGHT  USE  OF  MACHINERY. 
Some  writers,   like  John   Ruskin,  imply,   if 
they  do  not  state,  that  there  is  no  right  use  of 


machinery.  They  say  that  it  must  destroy  art 
and  life  and  beauty.  (See  ART.)  Ruskin  says 
in  Fors  Clavigera  : 

"  A  man  and  a  woman,  with  their  children,  properly 
trained,  are  able  easily  to  cultivate  as  much  ground  as 
will  feed  them ;  to  build  as  much  wall  and  roof  as  will 
lodge  them,  and  to  spin  and  weave  as  much  cloth  as 
will  clothe  them.  They  can  all  be  perfectly  happy 
and  healthy  in  doing  this.  Supposing  that  they  invent 
machinery  which  will  build,  plow,  thresh,  cook,  and 
weave,  and  that  they  have  none  of  these  things  any 
more  to  do,  but  may  read,  or  cricket,  all  day  long,  I 
believe  myself  that  they  will  neither  be  so  good  nor  so 
happy  as  without  the  machines.  .  .  .  No  machines  will 
increase  the  possibilities  of  life.  They  only  increase 
the  possibilities  of  idleness.  .  .  .  There  was  a  rocky 
valley  between  Buxton  and  Bakewell,  once  upon  a 
time,  divine  as  the  Vale  of  Tempe  ;  you  might  have 
seen  the  gods  there  morning  and  evening— Apollo  and 
all  the  sweet  muses  of  the  Light—  walking  in  fair  pro- 
cession on  the  lawns  of  it,  and  to  and  fro  among  the 
pinnacles  of  its  crags.  You  cared  neither  for  gods  nor 
grass,  but  for  cash  (which  you  did  not  know  the  way 
to  get) ;  you  thought  you  could  get  it  by  what  the 
Times  calls  'Railroad  Enterprise.'  You  enterprised 
a  railroad  through  the  valley— you  blasted  its  rocks 
away,  heaped  thousands  of  tons  of  shale  into  its  love- 
ly stream.  The  valley  is  gone,  and  the  gods  with  it ; 
and  now,  every  fool  in  Buxton  can  be  at  Bakewell  in 
half  an  hour,  and  every  fool  in  Bakewell  at  Buxton  ; 
which  you  think  a  lucrative  process  of  exchange." 

Wiser,  however,  seems  the  position  of  those 
who  believe  that  machinery  should  be  largely 
used,  but  used  to  increase  the  simplicity  of  life, 
not  its  complexity.  Mr.  Blatchford,  whom  we 
have  quoted  above  as  opposed  to  the  factory 
system,  would  make  English  life  more  agricul- 
tural and  less  manufacturing,  but  he  would 
have  machines  do  even  more  than  they  do  to- 
day, only  as  the  servant  of  the  whole  commu- 
nity, not  as  the  property  of  capitalists  for  whom 
wage-workers  slave.  He  says  : 

"  I  propose  to  make  our  material  lives  simple  ;  to 
spend  as  little  time  and  labor  as  possible  upon  the 
production  of  food,  clothing,  houses',  and  fuel,  in  order 
that  we  may  have  more  leisure.  And  I  propose  to 
employ  that  leisure  in  the  enjoyment  of  life  and  the 
acquirement  of  knowledge.  .  .  .  Let  us  go  back  to 
our  Manchester  street  of  too  working  class  families. 
Suppose,  instead  of  keeping  up  the  wasteful  system  I 
described,  we  abolish  all  those  miserable  and  imper- 
fect drying-grounds,  wringing-machines,  wash-kitch- 
ens, and  kitchen-ranges,  and  arrange  the  street  on 
communal  lines. 

"  We  set  up  one  laundry,  with  all  the  best  machin- 
ery ;  we  set  up  one  big  drying-field  ;  we  set  up  one 
great  kitchen,  one  general  dining-hall,  and  one  pleas- 
ant tea-garden.  Then  we  buy  all  the  provisions  and 
other  things  in  large  quantities,  and  we  appoint  cer- 
tain wives  as  cooks  and  laundresses,  or,  as  is  the  case 
with  many  military  duties,  we  let  the  wives  take  the 
duties  in  turn.  .  .  . 

"So  with  the  housework  when  we  had  simple  houses 
and  furniture.  Imagine  the  difference  between  the 
cleaning  of  all  the  knives  by  a  rapid  knife  machine 
turned  by  an  engine,  and  the  drudgery  of  100  wives 
scrubbing  at  too  clumsy  knife-boards." 

Says  another  socialistic  writer  : 

"  At  present  machinery  competes  against  man.  Un- 
der proper  conditions  machinery  will  serve  man. 
There  is  no  doubt  at  all  that  this  is  the  future  of  ma- 
chinery ;  and  just  as  trees  grow  while  the  country 
gentleman  is  asleep,  so  while  humanity  will  be  amus- 
ing itself,  or  enjoying  cultivated  leisure— which,  and 
not  labor,  is  the  aim  of  man— or  making  beautiful 
things,  or  reading  beautiful  things,  or  simply  con- 
templating the  world  with  admiration  and  delight, 
machinery  will  be  doing  all  the  necessary  and  un- 
pleasant work.  The  fact  is  that  civilization  requires 
slaves.  The  Greeks  were  quite  right  there.  Unless 
there  are  slaves  to  do  the  ugly,  horrible,  uninteresting 
work,  culture  and  contemplation  become  almost  im- 
possible. Human  slavery  is  wrong,  insecure,  and  de- 
moralizing. On  mechanical  slavery,  on  the  slavery 
of  the  machine,  the  future  of  the  world  depends.  .  .  . 
A  great  deal  of  nonsense  is  being  written  and  talked 


Machinery. 


840 


Malthus,  Thomas  Robert. 


nowadays  about  the  dignity  of  manual  labor.  There 
is  nothing  necessarily  dignified  about  manual  labor  at 
all,  and  most  of  it  is  absolutely  degrading.  It  is  men- 
tally and  morally  injurious  to  man  to  do  anything  in 
which  he  does  not  find  pleasure,  and  many  forms  of 
labor  are  quite  pleasureless  activities,  and  should  be 
regarded  as  such.  To  sweep  a  slushy  crossing  for 
eight  hours  on  a  day  when  the  east  wind  is  blowing  is 
a  disgusting  occupation.  To  sweep  it  with  mental, 
moral,  or  physical  dignity  seems  to  me  to  be  impossi- 
ble. To  sweep  it  with  joy  would  be  appalling.  Man 
is  made  for  something  better  than  disturbing  dirt. 
All  work  of  that  kind  should  be  done  by  a  machine. 

"  And  I  have  no  doubt  that  it  will  be  so.  Up  to  the 
present,  man  has  been,  to  a  certain  extent,  the  slave 
of  machinery,  and  there  is  something  tragic  in  the 
fact  that  as  soon  as  man  had  invented  a  machine  to  do 
his  work  he  began  to  starve.  This,  however,  is,  of 
course,  the  result  of  our  property  system  and  our  sys- 
tem of  competition.  One  man  owns  a  machine  which 
does  the  work  of  500  men.  Five  hundred  men  are,  in 
consequence,  thrown  out  of  employment,  and,  having 
no  work  to  do,  become  hungry  and  take  to  thieving. 
The  one  man  secures  the  produce  of  the  machine  and 
keeps  it,  and  has  500  times  as  much  as  he  should  have, 
and  probably,  which  is  of  much  more  importance,  a 
great  deal  more  than  he  really  wants.  Were  that 
machine  the  property  of  all,  every  one  would  benefit 
by  it.  It  would  be  an  immense  advantage  to  the  com- 
munity. All  unintellectual  labor ;  all  monotonous, 
dull  labor ;  all  labor  that  deals  with  dreadful  things, 
and  involves  unpleasant  conditions,  must  be  done  by 
machinery.  Machinery  must  work  for  us  in  coal 
mines,  and  do  all  sanitary  services,  and  be  the  stoker 
of  steamers,  and  clean  the  streets,  and  run  messages 
on  wet  days,  and  do  anything  that  is  tedious  or  dis- 
tressing." 

References  :  J.  A.  Hobscn's  The  Evolution  of  Mod- 
ern Capitalism  ;  J.  S.  Nicholson's  Effect  of  Machinery 
on  Wages;  Cooke  Taylor's  The  Modern  Factory  Sys- 
tem. 

MAGNA  CHARTA  ("  great  charter")  was 
an  instrument  signed  at  Runnymede,  June  15, 
1215,  by  King  John  of  England.,  forced  thereto 
by  the  barons  of  the  kingdom,  led  by  Stephen 
Langton,  Archbishop  of  Canterbury.  Besides 
restraining  certain  royal  prerogatives  that  had 
been  abused,  and  introducing  various  improve- 
ments into  the  law,  it  provided  for  the  protec- 
tion of  every  freeman  from  loss  of  life,  liberty, 
or  property,  except  by  the  judgment  of  his  peers 
or  the  law  of  the  land,  while  the  king  was  com- 
pelled to  say,  "  We  will  sell  to  no  man  ;  we  will 
not  deny  or  delay  to  any  man  right  or  justice." 
Magna  Charta  was  the  foundation  of  English 
liberties,  and  its  chief  protective  provisions 
have  been  incorporated  in  the  Constitution  of 
this  country  and  the  separate  States.  (See  JURY  ) 

MAINE,  SIR  HENRY  JAMES  SUM- 
NER,  LL.D.,  was  born  in  England  in  1822, 
and  educated  at  Pembroke  College,  Cambridge, 
and  was  afterward  a  tutor  in  Trinity  College. 
In  1847  he  was  appointed  Regius  Professor  of 
Civil  Law  in  the  university,  but  resigned  in 
1854  to  become  reader  on  jurisprudence  at  the 
Middle  Temple.  From  1862-69  he  resided  in 
India  as  law  member  of  the  supreme  govern- 
ment. On  his  return  to  England  he  was  elected 
Professor  of  Jurisprudence  at  Oxford,  and  the 
next  year  was  made  a  member  of  the  council  of 
the  Secretary  of  State  for  India,  and  was  knight- 
ed. In  1875  he  published  as  a  pamphlet  a  lec- 
ture delivered  at  Cambridge  on  The  Effects  of 
Observation  of  India  on  Modern  European 
Thought.  In  1877  he  was  elected  master  of 
Trinity  Hall,  Cambridge,  and  in  1887  Professor 
of  International  Law.  He  died  at  Cannes  in 
1888.  Among  his  numerous  works  are  Roman 


Law  and  Legal  Edtication  (1856)  ;  Ancient 
Z,#w(i86i)  ;  Village  Communities  (1871)  ;  Lec- 
tures on  the  Early  History  of  Institutions 
(1875)  ;  Early  Law  and  Custom  (1883)  ;  Popu- 
lar Government  (1885)  ;  International  Law 
(1888). 

MAINE  LAW,  THE.— Maine  was  the  first 
of  the  United  States  to  pass  a  vigorous  prohib- 
itory act.  It  was  first  outlined  by  General 
James  Appleton,  but  perhaps  owes  most  to 
Neal  Dow  (q.v.).  A  crude  prohibitory  law  was 
passed  in  1846,  but  in  June,  1851,  the  law  that 
has  since  been  known  as  the  Maine  Law  was 
enacted.  (See  PROHIBITION.) 

MALpN,  BENOIT,  was  born  at  St.  Etienne, 
France,  in  1841.  He  was  the  son  of  a  peasant 
and  received  only  elementary  instruction.  Go- 
ing to  Paris,  he  worked  at  various  trades.  In 
the  last  years  of  the  empire  he  had  charge  of  a 
grocery  established  at  Puteaux  by  a  cooperative 
society.  In  1868  he  became  a  member  of  the 
International  (y.v.),  and  for  this  suffered  three 
months'  imprisonment.  He  became  one  of  the 
organizers  of  the  federation  of  societes  ouvrieres. 
He  was  at  the  Congress  of  Basle  in  1869.  Soon 
after  he  became  one  of  the  editors  of  the  Mar- 
seillaise. He  was  again  put  in  prison  in  1870  as 
a  member  of  the  International,  but  the  downfall 
of  the  empire  set  him  free.  He  opposed  the 
government  of  the  national  defense  in  its  con- 
duct of  affairs.  In  February,  1871,  he  was 
elected  a  member  of  the  National  Assembly, 
but  soon  after  resigned,  at  the  same  time  as 
Rochefort.  He  was  chosen  a  member  of  the 
Commune,  but  belonged  to  its  moderate  minor- 
ity. He  ceased  from  the  first  days  of  May  to 
attend  the  sessions  of  the  Commune.  After  the 
taking  of  Paris  by  the  Versailles  Government, 
Malon  succeeded  in  escaping  to  Switzerland, 
and  soon  after  founded  at  Geneva  the  news- 
paper La  Revanche.  This  was  suppressed 
later  on  by  the  Swiss  Government.  He  joined 
Bakunin's  Alliance  in  Switzerland,  but  soon 
after  went  to  Italy  and  settled  at  Lugano,  where 
he  published  for  a  short  time  a  weekly,  Le  so- 
cialisme progressif.  On  being  granted  am- 
nesty in  1880,  he  returned  to  France.  He  pub- 
lished the  Emancipation  at  Lyons,  and  allied 
himself  for  a  time  with  Brousse.  In  the  latter 
years  of  his  life  he  devoted  himself  chiefly  to 
literature,  and  published  the  Revue  Socialiste, 
which  he  conducted  up  to  the  time  of  his  death, 
in  1893.  Some  of  his  works  are  :  L Interna- 
tionale, son  histoire  et  ses  principes  (1872)  ; 
Le  parti  ouvrier  en  France  (1882)  ;  Histoire 
du  socialisme  et  des  proletaires  (1881-84,  5 
vols.) ;  Le  socialisme  reformiste  (1885)  ;  Le  so- 
cialisme integral  (1890-91). 

MALTHUS,  THOMAS  ROBERT  (see 
MALTHUSIANISM),  was  born  in  Albury,  Surrey, 
Eng. ,  in  1 766.  He  was  graduated  with  honors  at 
Jesus  College,  Cambridge,  in  1788,  and  in  1797 
became  a  fellow  of  the  college.  He  entered 
holy  orders  and  divided  his  time  between  the 
university  and  a  small  parish  in  Surrey.  In 
1798  he  published  the  first  edition  of  his  great 
work  under  the  title  An  Essay  on  the  Princi- 
ple of  Population  as  it  Affects  the  Future  Im- 


Malthus,  Thomas  Robert. 


841 


Malthusianism. 


provement  of  Society,  with  Remarks  on  the 
Speculations  of  Mr.  Godwin,  M.  Condorcet, 
and  other  Writers.  The  book  grew  out  of 
some  discussions  which  Malthus  had  with  his 
father  respecting  the  perfectibility  of  society. 
Malthus  had  argued  that  society  must  always  be 
hindered  by  the  miseries  consequent  on  the 
tendency  of  population  to  increase  faster  than 
the  means  of  subsistence.  His  father,  struck  by 
the  weight  and  originality  of  his  views,  asked 
him  to  put  them  in  writing,  and  then  recom- 
mended publication.  The  book  aroused  very 
general  interest  and  discussion,  and  Mr.  Mal- 
thus went  abroad  and  traveled  in  Sweden,  Nor- 
way, France,  and  portions  of  Russia,  collecting 
material  for  a  new  edition,  which  appeared  in 
1803,  and  was,  in  his  own  words,  "  a  new  book." 
He  had  found,  upon  investigating  the  subject, 
that  "much  more  had  been  done"  upon  it 
"  than  he  had  been  aware  of."  It  had  "  been 
treated  in  such  a  manner  by  some  of  the  French 
economists,  occasionally  by  Montesquieu,  and, 
among  our  own  writers,  by  Dr.  Franklin,  Sir 
Tames  Steuart,  Mr.  Arthur  Young,  and  Mr. 
Townsend,  as  to  create  a  natural  surprise  that 
it  had  not  excited  more  of  the  public  attention." 
"  Much,  however,"  he  thought,  "  remained  yet 
to  be  done.  The  comparison  between  the  in- 
crease of  population  and  food  had  not,  perhaps, 
been  stated  with  sufficient  force  and  precision," 
and  ' '  few  inquiries  had  been  made  into  the 
various  modes  by  which  the  level"  between 
population  and  the  means  of  subsistence  "  is 
effected."  The  first  desideratum  here  men- 
tioned— the  want,  namely,  of  an  accurate  state- 
ment of  the  relation  between  the  increase  of 
population  and  food — Malthus  supposed  he  sup- 
plied by  the  celebrated  proposition  that  "  popu- 
lation increases  in  a  geometrical,  food  in  an 
arithmetical  ratio." 

This  exact  mathematical  proposition,  how- 
ever, he  introduced  but  incidentally,  and 
omitted  in  later  editions,  contenting  himself 
with  the  general  proposition  that  population, 
unless  checked  by  war,  poverty,  etc. ,  tended  to 
increase  faster  than  sustenance.  His  book  ran 
through  various  editions,  the  last  of  which  dur- 
ing his  lifetime  appeared  in  1826  and  bore  the 
modified  title,  An  Essay  on  the  Principles  of 
Population,  or  a  View  of  its  Past  and  Pres- 
ent Effects  on  Human  Happiness,  with  an  In- 
quiry into  the  Future  Removal  or  Mitigation 
of  the  Evils  which  it  Occasions. 

In  1805  Malthus  married  happily,  and  was 
appointed  Professor  of  Modern  History  and  Po- 
litical Economy  in  the  East  India  Company's 
College  at  Haileybury.  This  situation  he  re- 
tained till  his  death  in  1834. 

Besides  his  great  work,  Malthus  wrote  Obser- 
vations on  the  Effect  of  the  Corn  Laws  (1815)  ; 
An  Inquiry  into  the  Nature  and  Progress  of 
./?£«/ (1815) ;  Principles  of  Political  Economy 
(1820)  ;  and  Definitions  in  Political  Economy 
(1827).  His  views  on  rent  were  of  especial  im- 
portance, and  are  believed  by  some  to  be  the 
origin  of  the  famous  Ricardian  law  of  rent. 
(See  RICARUO  ;  POLITICAL  ECONOMY.)  The  En- 
cyclopedia Britannica  says  of  Malthus  : 

"  Malthus  was  one  of  the  most  amiable,  candid,  and 
cultured  of  men.  In  all  his  private  relations  he  was 
not  only  without  reoroach,  but  distinguished  for  the 


beauty  of  his  character.  He  bore  the  popular  abuse 
and  misrepresentation  without  the  slightest  murmur  or 
sourness  of  temper.  The  aim  of  his  inquiries  was  to 
promote  the  happiness  of  mankind,  which  could  be 
better  accomplished  by  pointing  out  the  real  possi- 
bilities of  progress  than  by  indulging  in  vague  dreams 
of  perfectibility  apart  from  the  actual  facts  which  con- 
dition human  life. 

The  only  checks  on  population  advocated  by 
Malthus  are  the  moral  checks  of  abstinence  from 
marriage  and  sexual  intercourse.  Other  checks 
like  war  come  in  as  merely  natural  checks. 

MALTHUSIANISM  (see  MALTHUS)  may 
be  defined  in  brief  as  the  theory  first  popu- 
larized tho  not  first  taught  by  Malthus,  that 
population  has  a  tendency  to  multiply  faster 
than  subsistence,  and  that  some  people  must 
necessarily,  therefore,  fail  to  have  food  unless  the 
race  as  a  whole  adopts  some  measures  to  pre- 
vent the  natural  increase  of  its  numbers.  This 
is  undoubtedly  one  of  the  most  contested  and  yet 
most  important  questions  in  social  science. 
Upon  the  answer  to  this  question  depends  the 
right  attitude  in  all  problems  affecting  society's 
treatment  of  the  poor. 

Mr.  Benjamin  Kidd  says  (Social  Evolution, 
chap,  viii.),  "  Underneath  all  socialist  ideals 
there  yawns  the  problem  of  population."  In- 
dividualism (g.v.)  rests  one  of  its  main  argu- 
ments upon  Malthusianism. 

There  are  two  strongly  contested  views  or  sets 
of  views  upon  the  subject,  but  before  we  can 
notice  these  we  must  see  a  little  more  exactly 
what  is  meant  to-day  by  Malthusianism.  The 
doctrine  as  now  held  by  its  advocates  is  not  ex- 
actly the  view  advocated  by  Malthus.  Malthus 
himself,  in  the  first  place,  somewhat  modified 
his  views  in  the  successive  editions  of  his  book. 
(See  MALTHUS.)  He  omitted  from  the  later  edi- 
tions any  exact  mathematical  statement  of  the 
relation  between  population  and  sustenance. 
Secondly,  Malthus  and  the  earlier  Malthusians 
based  their  theory  on  an  asserted  general  tend- 
ency in  all  animate  creation  to  increase  beyond 
the  nourishment  prepared  for  it,  as  evidenced 
in  the  vegetable  and  animal  worlds,  in  the  sav- 
age and  semi-savage  civilizations,  and  even  in 
civilized  communities. 

Modern  Malthusianism,  as  illustrated,  for  ex- 
ample, in  Professor  A.  T.  Hadley's  Economics 
(1896,  pp.  41-51),  takes  a  more  scientific  form. 
It  carefully  analyzes  the  difference 
between  the  birth-rate  and  death- 
rate  of  various  countries  ;  it  finds   Statement, 
in  agriculture  a  law  of  diminishing 
returns  (q.v.) ;  it  argues  that   the 
pressure  of  population  and  consequent  family 
responsibility  has  largely  produced  the  present 
surplus  of  food  in  civilized  countries,  so  that  the 
removal  of  this  pressure  would  diminish  the 
supply  ;  above  all   it  connects  itself  with  the 
evolutionary  principle  of  the  necessity  of  natural 
selection  to  progress  (see  EVOLUTION),  and  that 
therefore  a  removal  of  the  pressure  of  population 
would  mean  biological  degeneration. 

The  correctness  of  this  view  is  both  asserted 
and  denied.  Most  individualists  and  some  so- 
cialists accept  the  theory  at  least  far  enough  to 
admit  that  there  is  a  tendency  for  population  to 
outstrip  sustenance.  The  individualists  usually 
assert  it  to  be  a  necessary  principle,  and  that  it 


Malthusianism. 


842 


Malthusianism. 


cannot  be  prevented  without  interfering  with 
social    progress.     Says    Professor    Hadley   (as 
above,  p.   41) :    "If  poverty  is  inevitable  and 
simply  represents  a  sacrifice  of  individuals  for 
the  sake  of  the  progress  of  the  race,  we  may 
and  must  view  with  resignation  a  number  of 
evils  which  can  only  be  made  worse  by  attempt- 
ing to  eradicate  them. "     Socialist  Malthusians, 
however,  while  admitting  that  population  does 
tend  to  outstrip  population,  argue 
that  competition    is  not  the  only 
Results,     path  to  progress,  and  that  there 
may  and  should  be  found  some  way 
of  limiting  population  to  the  means 
of  sustenance.     They  urge  that  not  enough  at- 
tention has  been  given  to  the  biological  princi- 
ple of  progress  by  functional  adaptation  and  by 
cooperation   of  organisms.    John  Stuart  Mill, 
accepting  the  Malthusian  doctrine,  argues  that 
socialism  is  the  state  of  society  most  favorable 
to  limiting  population  to  means  of  sustenance. 
He  says  {Political  Economy,  Book  II.,  chap  i.) : 

"  Another  of  the  objections  to  communism  is  similar 
to  that  so  often  urged  against  poor  laws  :  that  if  every 
member  of  the  community  were  assured  of  subsistence 
for  himself  and  any  number  of  children,  on  the  sole 
condition  of  willingness  to  work,  prudential  restraint 
on  the  multiplication  of  mankind  would  be  at  an  end, 
and  population  would  start  forward  at  a  rate  which 
would  reduce  the  community  through  successive 
stages  of  increasing  discomfort  to  actual  starvation. 
There  would  certainly  be  much  ground  for  this  ap- 
prehension if  communism  provided  no  motives  to  re- 
straint, equivalent  to  those  which  it  would  take  away. 
But  communism  is  precisely  the  state  of  things  in 
which  opinion  might  be  expected  to  declare  itself  with 
greatest  intensity  against  this  kind  of  selfish  intem- 
perance. Any  augmentation  of  numbers  which  di- 
minished the  comfort  or  increased  the  toil  of  the  mass 
would  then  cause  (which  now  it  does  not)  immediate 
and  unmistakable  inconvenience  to  every  individual 
in  the  association  ;  inconvenience  which  could  not  then 
be  imputed  to  the  avarice  of  employers  or  the  unjust 
privileges  of  the  rich.  In  such  altered  circumstances 
opinion  could  not  fail  to  reprobate,  and  if  reprobation 
did  not  suffice,  to  repress  by  penalties  of  some  descrip- 
tion this  or  any  other  culpable  self-indulgence  at  the 
«xpense  of  the  community.  The  communistic  scheme, 
instead  of  being  peculiarly  open  to  the  objection  drawn 
from  danger  of  over-population,  has  the  recommenda- 
tion of  tending  in  an  especial  degree  to  the  prevention 
of  that  evil." 

Many,  however,  deny  the  correctness  of  the 
Malthusian  theory.  Professor  Marshall  (Eco- 
nomics of  Industry,  p.  3 1)  says  : 

"  Malthus'  statements  with  regard  to  the  misery  that 
has  existed  in  past  ages  have  been  confirmed  by  more 
recent  historians  ;  but  the  practical  conclusions  that 
he  deduced  from  them  are  more  liable  to  be  disputed. 
For  he  could  not  foresee  the  inventions  and  discoveries 
which  were  just  about  to  be  made  when  he  wrote.  He 
could  not  foresee  how  the  growth  of  steam  traffic 
would  enable  England,  on  the  one  hand,  to  import  food 
from  countries  where  there  was  a  scanty  population  ; 
and,  on  the  other,  to  send  out  her  surplus  population 
to  cultivate  new  soils,  and  to  spread  the  energy  and 
genius  of  the  English  people  over  the  earth." 

Professor  Symes  says  (Political  Economy,  pp. 
10,  n)  : 

"  There  seems  no  sufficient  ground  for  the  assertion 

that  population  tends  to  increase  more  rapidly  than 

production.     In  England  it  is  certain  that  production 

has  increased    far    more    rapidly  than 

population  during  the  past  century,  and 

Objection,     it  may  fairly  be  questioned  whether  the 

density  of  the  population  has  not  been 

one  or  the  causes  of  the  high  average 

productiveness  of  English  laborers.     These  not  only 

support  themselves,  but  produce  enough  to  support  a 

large  class  in  idle  luxury,  a  large  class  in  pauperism,  a 

large  class  who  live  by  crime,  and  many  classes  who 


labor  with  more  or  less  advantage  to  the  community, 
but  not  at  work  which  is  directly  productive  of  ma- 
terial wealth.  The  idle  rich  and  the  idle  poor,  clergy- 
men, schoolmasters,  actors,  musicians,  thieves,  do- 
mestic servants,  and  others,  have  to  live  on  what  the 
directly  productive  classes  produce  ;  and  tho  in  all 
communities  there  must  be  a  certain  proportion  of 
non-producers,  it  is  doubtful  whether  a  thinly  popu- 
lated country  could  possibly  support  so  large  a  pro- 
portion as  England  does  at  the  present  day. 

"On  the  whole,  then,  we  conclude  that  every  in- 
crease of  population  opens  up  opportunities  for  fresh 
and  superior  ways  of  applying  labor,  and  that  if  the 
community  avails  itself  of  these,  the  produce  of  its 
labor  will,  in  most  cases,  be  more  than  proportionately 
increased." 

Many  seem  to  forget,  too,  the  enormously  in- 
creased power  of  providing  food  made  potent 
by  modern  science.  Says  Mr.  D.  A.  Wells  (Re- 
cent Economic  Changes)  : 

"  Forty  years  ago  a  deficient  harvest  in  any  one  of 
the  countries  of  Europe  entailed  a  vast  amount  of  suf- 
fering and  starvation  on  their  population.  To-day  the 
deficiency  of  any  local  crop  of  wheat  is  comparatively 
of  little  consequence,  for  the  prices  of  cereals  in  every 
country  readily  accessible  by  railroad  and  steamships 
are  now  regulated  not  by  any  local  conditions,  but 
by  the  combined  production  and  consumption  of  the 
world  ;  and  the  day  of  famines  for  the  people  of  all 
such  countries  has  passed  forever.  The  extent  to 
which  all  local  advantages  in  respect  to  the  supply 
and  prices  of  food  have  been  equalized  in  recent  years 
through  the  railway  service  of  the  United  States  is 
demonstrated  by  the  fact  that  a  full  year's  require- 
ment of  meat  and  bread  for  an  adult  person  can  now 
be  moved  from  the  points  of  their  most  abundant  and 
cheapest  production,  1000  miles,  for  a  cost  not  in  excess 
of  the  single  day's  wages  of  an  average  American  me- 
chanic or  artisan. 

"Great  improvements  have  been  made  during  the 
last  10  or  20  years  in  the  breeding  of  live  stock  and  its 
economical  management,  whereby  a  greatly  increased 
product  of  animal  food  can  be  obtained  from  a  given 
number  with  comparatively  little  increased  labor  or 
expense.  In  the  matter  of  dairy  produce,  recognized 
authorities  in  England  estimate  that  the  average  in- 
crease in  the  yield  of  milk  per  cow  in  that  country  has 
been  at  least  40  gals,  per  annum  since  1878  ;  and  this 
for  the  3,500,000  cows  in  milk,  owned  by  British  farm- 
ers, 'means  140,000,000  extra  gallons  of  milk  over  and 
above  what  the  same  animals  yielded  in  1878  ;  and  at 
6d.  per  gal.  would  amount  to  an  extra  return  of  no 
less  than  .£3,500,000  for  the  United  Kingdom,  or  £\  per 
cow.'.  .  .  . 

"  Furthermore,  not  only  has  the  supply  of  food  in- 
creased, but  the  variety  of  food  available  to  the  masses 
has  become  greater.  Nearly  all  tropical  fruits  that 
will  bear  transportation  have  become  as  cheap  in 
non-tropical  countries  as  the  domestic  fruits  of  the 
latter,  and  even  cheaper.  .  .  .  Thirty  or  forty  years 
ago  fish  in  its  most  acceptable  form — viz.,  fresh — was 
only  available  to  consumers  living  in  close  proximity 
to  the  ocean  ;  but  now  fish  caught  on 
the  waters  of  the  North  Pacific,  and 
transported  more  than  2000  miles,  are  Marvelous 
daily  supplied  to  the  markets  of  the  T,,,,,.OOC,O  nf 
Atlantic  slope  of  the  United  States  ;  and  *nc,r!, 
sea  products  of  the  coast  of  the  latter,  *OOQ  Supply. 
transported  2000  miles,  are  regularly  fur- 
nished in  a  fresh  condition  to  British 
markets.  To  this  it  should  be  added  that  on  the  very 
possibility  of  propagation  which  Malthus  says  applied 
to  the  animal  and  vegetable  world,  the  supply  of  veg- 
etable and  animal  (including  fish)  food  can  be,  under 
proper  care,  almost  indefinitely  multiplied.  What  can 
be  done  is  shown  in  part  in  Japan.  Recent  investiga- 
tions by  Professor  Rein,  of  the  University  of  Bonn, 
Germany,  show  '  that  with  an  area  about  the  same  as 
the  State  of  California  (157,000  square  miles),  and  with 
only  one  tenth  of  such  area  practically  available  for 
cultivation,  Japan  supports  a  population  of  36,000,000 
almost  entirely  from  her  own  product.  Making  due 
allowance  for  what  may  be  eked  out  of  the  nine  tenths 
taken  up  by  forest,  desert,  and  mountain,  it  appears 
that  the  incredible  number  of  2560  inhabitants  are  sup- 
ported from  each  square  mile  of  cultivated  land,  or 
four  to  the  acre.  It  is  well  known  that  this  can  be 
done  on  a  small  scale,  but  its  application  to  a  nation 
is  marvelous.'  Nothing  is  wasted  in  Japan  ;  every- 
thing is  utilized,  and  all  arable  land  has  been  brought 
to  the  highest  state  of  cultivation." 


Malthusianism. 


843 


Malthusianism. 


There  is  thus,  however,  to  say  the  least,  no 
very  pressing  fear  of  the  world's  being  unable 
to  sustain  its  population  from  lack  of  food.  In 
the  United  States,  to  ignore  all  the  rest  of  the 
world,  if  our  population  were  as  dense  as  that 
of  France,  we  should  have,  this  side  of  Alaska, 
555,000,000  ;  if  as  dense  as  that  of  Germany, 
658,000,000  ;  if  as  dense  as  that  of  England  and 
Wales,  1,452,000,000  ;  if  as  dense  as  that  of  Bel- 
gium, 1,574,000,000,  or  more  than  the  present 
estimated  population  of  the  globe.  (See  FOOD 
SUPPLY.) 

Many  opponents  of  Malthusianism  also  argue 
that  with  increasing  civilization  and  popular 
education  fecundity  will,  on  biological  princi- 
ples, decrease. 

The  American  Gary  argued  the  physiological 
theory  that  the  total  sum  of  nutriment  received 
by  an  organized  body  directs  itself,  in  largest 
proportion,  to  the  parts  of  the  system  which  are 
most  used,  and  that  this  meant  a  diminution  in 
the  fecundity  of  human  beings,  in  spite  of 
more  abundant  feeding,  through  the  greater 
use  of  their  brains  incident  to  an  advanced  civil- 
ization. 

Nevertheless,  there  is  strong  evidence  claim- 
ed for  Malthusianism.  The  possible  natural 
productivity  of  the  human  race  is  undoubtedly 
very  large.  It  has  been  calculated  by  some  that 
population  may  double  itself  in  13  years.  Mal- 
thus  considered  it  safer  to  argue  that  it  could  at 
least  double  itself  in  25  years.  Mill  says  on  this 
point  (Political  Economy,  Book  L,  chap,  x., 
sec.  2)  : 

"  The  power  of  multiplication  inherent  in  all  organic 
life   may   be  regarded  as  infinite.     There  is  no  one 
species  of  vegetable  or  animal  which,  if  the  earth  were 
entirely  abandoned  to    it    and    to    the 
things  on  which  it  feeds,  would  not  in  a 
Evidence  for  small  number  of  years  overspread  every 
Malthusian    re£ion  of  tne  globe  of  which  the  climate 
was  compatible  with  its  existence.  .  .  . 
ism.  it  is  but  a  moderate  case  of  fecundity 

in  animals  to  be  capable  of  quadrupling 
their  numbers  in  a  single  year  ;  if  they 
only  do  as  much  in  J|alf  a  century,  10,000  will  have 
swelled  within  two  centuries  to  upward  of  2,500,000. 
The  capacity  of  increase  is  necessarily  in  a  geometri- 
cal progression  :  the  numerical  ratio  alone  is  different. 
"To  this  property  of  organized  beings  the  human 
species  forms  no  exception.  Its  power  of  increase  is 
indefinite,  and  the  actual  multiplication  would  be  ex- 
traordinarily rapid  if  the  power  were  exercised  to  the 
utmost.  It  never  is  exercised  to  the  utmost,  and  yet 
in  the  most  favorable  circumstances  known  to  exist, 
which  are  those  of  a  fertile  region  colonized  from  an 
industrious  and  civilized  community,  population  has 
continued  for  several. generations,  independently  of 
fresh  immigration,  to  double  itself  in  not  much  more 
than  20  years.  That  the  capacity  of  multiplication  in 
the  human  species  exceeds  even  this  is  evident  if  we 
consider  how  great  is  the  ordinary  number  of  children 
to  a  family  where  the  climate  is  good  and  early  mar- 
riages usual,  and  how  small  a  proportion  of  them  die 
before  the  age  of  maturity  in  the  present  state  of  hy- 
gienic knowledge  where  the  locality  is  healthy  arid 
the  family  adequately  provided  with  the  means  of 
living.  It  is  a  very  low  estimate  of  the  capacity  of  in- 
crease, if  we  only  assume  that  in  a  good  sanitarv  con- 
dition of  the  people  each  generation  may  be  double 
the  number  of  the  generation  which  preceded  it." 

Professor  A.  T.  Hadley  (as  above,  p.  42)  says  : 

"  The  physiological  possibilities  of  the  birth-rate  in 
the  human  race,  when  not  restrained  by  intellectual, 
social,  or  moral  conditions,  are  thought  to  be  as  high  as 
60  per  looo,  tho  no  statistics  show  a  birth-rate  as  large  as 
this  over  any  considerable  extent  of  space  or  time.  .  .  . 
The  difference  between  the  birth-rate  and  the  death- 
rate  in  any  one  year  represents  the  rate  of  increase 


of  population  for  that  year.  If  the  birth-rate  is  45 
per  looo  and  the  death-rate  25  per  1000,  the  increase  of 
population  is  20  per  1000,  or  2  per  cent."  (For  the  facts 
as  to  birth-rates  and  death-rates,  see  BIRTH  AND 
DEATH-RATE.) 

As  to  the  fact  that  modern  civilizations  have 
an  oversupply  of  food,  Professor  Hadley  argues 
(idem,  pp.  47-51)  that  this  is  due  to  competitive 
and  individualistic  family  responsibility,  and 
under  socialistic  conditions  would  disappear. 
In  uncivilized  countries  he  says  there  is  no  sur- 
plus of  food.  The  history  of  the  English  poor 
law,  he  argues,  snows  that  natural  selection  has 
not  done  its  work.  Criminals  and  paupers 
habitually  defy  the  principle  that  every  man 
should  earn  a  living  for  himself  and  his  family. 
As  to  the  assertion  that  fecundity  necessarily 
tends  to  decrease  with  civilization,  Professor 
Hadley  denies  that  we  have  any  reason  for  be- 
lieving this.  He  says  (p.  48)  : 

"  It  is  true  that  as  society  exists  at  present  high  com- 
fort and  low  birth-rate  are  commonly  associated,  be- 
cause comfort  is  made  to  depend  upon  prudence.  Let 
the  comfort  be  made  independent  of  prudence,  as  in 
the  case  of  the  pauper  or  criminal,  and  the  birth-rate 
tends  to  increase  rather  than  diminish.  It  may  not  be 
exactly  true,  as  some  Malthusians  would  have  us  be- 
lieve, that  the  low  birth-rate  is  the  cause  of  the  com- 
fort ;  but  it  is  much  farther  from  the  truth  to  assert 
that  the  comfort  is  the  cause  of  the  low  birth-rate. 
Both  are  the  results  of  a  common  cause,  the  exercise 
of  prudence,  which  gives  high  comfort  and  low  birth- 
rate to  those  who  are  capable  of  practising  it." 

Finally,  as  to  the  future,  Professor  Hadley 
argues  (p.  43)  that  tho  improvements  in  the  arts 
of  producing  and  utilizing  food  may  increase 
the  power  of  the  world's  sustenance,  "  it  is  a 
fact  thoroughly  established  by  observation  that 
in  any  given  stage  of  the  arts  there  is  a  certain 
point  beyond  which  increased  application  of 
labor  and  capital  does  not  obtain  correspond- 
ingly increased  supplies  of  food  from  a  given 
area." 

The  views  thus  quoted  present,  perhaps,  a 
fair  statement  of  the  present  condition  of  the 
problem.    We  have  quoted  Professor  Hadley  on 
the  Malthusian  side  rather  than  any 
biologist,  because  Professor   Had- 
ley is  among  the  latest  economists  Controversy. 
to  treat  the  subject,  and   because 
the  question   is  practically  to-day 
economic  or  psychologic  rather  than  biologic. 
All  authorities  are  agreed  that  as  a  matter  of 
fact  in  civilized  countries  to-day  there  is  abun- 
dance of  food  if  it  were  rightly  distributed,  and 
that  science  can  at  least  increase  this  supply  for 
a  considerable  time  under  modern  social  con- 
ditions. 

The  only  question  is,  what  has  produced  this 
condition  in  modern  countries  ?  Professor  Had- 
ley, e.g. ,  says  that  ' '  no  amount  of  facts  such 
as  are  accumulated  by  writers  like  Nitti  will 
prove  anything  against  the  Malthusian  theory. 
Statistics  show  that  high  comfort  and  low  birth- 
rate go  hand  in  hand.  They  are  absolutely  in- 
capable of  showing  which  is  cause  and  which  is 
effect."  Individualists  say  it  is  individual  re- 
sponsibility 3nd  pressure  of  existence  that 
causes  a  low  birth  rate,  so  that  under  socialist 
conditions,  removing  pressure,  you  would  not 
have  the  present  supply  of  food.  Socialists  claim 
that  under  socialism  you  would  increase  supply 
and  not  increase  the  rate  of  human  fecundi- 


Malthusianism. 


844 


Manifestoes. 


ty  ;  and  this  is  mainly  a  psychologic  problem. 
(See  INDIVIDUALISM  ;  SOCIALISM.)  As  for  the 
problem  which  is  purely  biologic,  how  far  prog- 
ress depends  on  the  struggle  for  existence  and 
natural  selection,  see  EVOLUTION  ;  INDIVIDUAL- 
ISM ;  SOCIALISM  ;  SOCIOLOGY. 

One  other  view,  however,  must  be  here  noticed. 
Many  writers  and  workers  for  social  reform  ac- 
cept the  Malthusian  theory  as  to  the  tendency 
to  overpopulation,  and  argue  that  it 
is  moral  and  necessary  and  humane 
Neo-Mal-  to  check  population,  especially 
thusianism.  among  the  poor,  by  physical  means. 
This  view  is  sometimes  called  Neo- 
Malthustamsm,  and  is  earnestly 
defended  on  moral  and  humanitarian  grounds. 
Richard  Carlisle,  Dr.  Charles  Knowlton,  R.  D. 
Owen,  James  Watson,  and  later  Austin  Hol- 
yoake,  Charles  Bradlaugh,  and  Mrs.  Annie  Be- 
sant  (who  has  since,  we  believe,  given  up  belief 
in  Malthusianism)  were  the  most  active  in  popu- 
larizing this  theory  among  the  poor,  and  in 
spite  of  misrepresentation,  abuse,  persecution, 
and  prosecution  in  the  courts,  continued  the 
propaganda,  supported  by  such  men  as  John 
Stuart  Mill,  George  J.  Holyoake,  Robert  Dale 
Owen,  and  a  long  list  of  physicians.  Knowing 
well  and  horrified  by  the  conditions  of  life  in  the 
slums,  seeing  the  suffering  involved  in  large 
families,  feeling  that  under  conditions  where 
modesty  and  privacy  were  all  but  impossible 
(see  SLUMS),  and  hope  equally  faint,  late  mar- 
riages inevitably  mean  early  prostitution,  they 
argued  that  Neo-Malthusianism  was  the  most 
moral  course.  Women,  they  said,  in  the  slums 
were  but  slaves,  sometimes  of  drunken  husbands, 
at  best  of  foul  surroundings.  Neo-Malthusian- 
ism, they  said,  was  the  only  practical  escape 
from  overpopulation  and  wretched  demoraliza- 
tion. Boldly,  therefore,  they  preached  as  right 
what  they  said  the  wealthy  denounced  but  prac- 
tised. 

References  :  For  further  consideration  of  this  ques- 
tion, and  for  the  modern  literature  of  the  question,  see 
BIRTH  AND  DEATH-RATE  ;  also  SOCIOLOGY. 


MANIFESTOES.— We  reprint  here  two  so- 
cialist manifestoes.  In  January,  1848,  Karl  Marx 
and  Frederick  Engels  prepared  a  ' '  manifesto' ' 
for  the  communist,  or,  as  it  is  now  called,  the 
socialist  movement.  It  has  to  some  extent  been 
supplanted  by  more  recent  statements  ;  but  as 
the  first  official  statement  of  this  movement  we 
give  it  in  full,  as  recently  edited  by  Mr.  Engels. 

As  a  recent  statement  of  socialism,  we  reprint  a 
manifesto  agreed  upon  in  1893  by  representa- 
tives of  all  the  leading  socialist  societies  of  Eng- 
land. 

MANIFESTO  OF  THE  COMMUNIST  PARTY.    BY  KARL 
MARX  AND  FREDERICK  ENGELS  (1848). 

A  spectre  is  haunting  Europe — the  spectre  of  com- 
munism. All  the  powers  of  old  Europe  have  entered 
into  a  holy  alliance  to  exorcise  this  spectre — Pope  and 
Czar,  Metternich  and  Guizot,  French  Radicals  and 
German  police  spies. 

Where  is  the  party  in  opposition  that  has  not  been 
decried  as  communistic  by  its  opponents  in  power  ? 
Where  the  opposition  that  has  not  hurled  back  the 
branding  reproach  of  communism  against  the  more 
advanced  opposition  parties,  as  well  as  against  its  re- 
actionary adversaries  ? 

Two  things  result  from  this  fact : 


1.  Communism  is  already  acknowledged  by  all  Eu- 
ropean powers  to  be  itself  a  power. 

2.  It  is  high  time  that  communists  should  openly,  in 
the  face  of  the  whole  world,  publish  their  views,  their 
aims,  their  tendencies,  and  meet  this  nursery  tale  of 
the  spectre  of  communism  with  a  manifesto  of  the 
party  itself. 

To  this  end,  communists  of  various  nationalities- 
have  assembled  in  London  and  sketched  the  following 
manifesto,  to  be  published  in  the  English.  French, 
German,  Italian,  Flemish,  and  Danish  languages. 

I.   BOURGEOIS  AND   PROLETARIANS. 

The  history  of  all  hitherto  existing  society  is  the 
history  of  class  struggles. 

Freeman  and  slave,  patrician  and  plebeian,  lord  and 
serf,  guild-master  and  journeyman,  in  a  word,  op- 
pressor and  oppressed,  stood  in  constant  opposition  to 
one  another,  carried  on  an  uninterrupted,  now  hidden, 
now  open  fight,  a  fight  that  each  time  ended  either  in 
a  revolutionary  reconstitution  of  society  at  large  or 
in  the  common  ruin  of  the  contending  classes. 

In  the  earlier  epochs  of  history  we  find  almost 
everywhere  a  complicated  arrangement  of  society 
into  various  orders,  a  manifold  gradation  of  social 
rank.  In  ancient  Rome  we  have  patricians,  knights, 
plebeians,  slaves  ;  in  the  middle  ages,  feudal  lords,  vas- 
sals, guild-masters,  journeymen,  apprentices,  serfs  ; 
in  almost  all  of  these  classes,  again,  subordinate  gra- 
dations. 

The  modern  bourgeois  society  that  has  sprouted 
from  the  ruins  of  feudal  society  has  not  done  away 
with  class  antagonisms.  It  has  but  established  new 
classes,  new  conditions  of  oppression,  new  forms  of 
struggle  in  place  of  the  old  ones. 

Our  epoch,  the  epoch  of  the  bourgeoisie,  possesses, 
however,  this  distinctive  feature:  it  has  simplified 
the  class  antagonisms.  Society  as  a  whole  is  more 
and  more  splitting  up  into  two  great  hostile  camps, 
into  two  great  classes  directly  facing  each  other : 
bourgeoisie  and  proletariat. 

From  the  serfs  of  the  Middle  Ages  sprang  the  char- 
tered burghers  of  the  earliest  towns.  From  these 
burgesses  the  first  elements  of  the  bourgeoisie  were 
developed. 

The  discovery    of    America,    the    rounding  of    the 
Cape,   opened  up   fresh  ground  for  the  rising  bour- 
geoisie.   The  East  Indjan  and  Chinese  markets,  the 
colonization    of    America,   trade    with    the    colonies, 
the  increase  in  the  means  of  exchange 
and  in  commodities  generally,  gave  to 
commerce,  to   navigation,  to"  industry      History. 
an   impulse  never  before   known,   and 
thereby  to  the  revolutionary   element 
in  the  tottering  feudal  society  a  rapid  development. 

The  feudal  system  of  industry,  under  which  indus- 
trial production  was  monopolized  by  close  guilds,  now 
no  longer  sufficed  for  the  growing"  wants  of  the  new 
markets.  The  manufacturing  system  took  its  place. 
The  guild-masters  were  pushed  on  one  side  by  the 
manufacturing  middle  class;  division  of  labor  be- 
tween the  different  corporate  guilds  vanished  in  the 
face  of  division  of  labor  in  each  single  workshop. 

Meantime,  the  markets  kept  ever  growing,  the  de- 
mand ever  rising.  Even  manufacture  no  longer  suf- 
ficed. Thereupon,  steam  and  machinery  revolution- 
ized industrial  production.  The  place  of  manufacture 
was  taken  by  the  giant,  modern  industry,  the  place  of 
the  industrial  middle  class  by  industrious  millionaires, 
the  leaders  of  whole  industrial  armies,  the  modern 
bourgeois. 

Modern  industry  has  established  the  world  market, 
for  which  the  discovery  of  America  paved  the  way. 
This  market  has  given  an  immense  development  to 
commerce,  to  navigation,  to  communication  by  land. 
This  development  has,  in  its  turn,  reacted  on  the  ex- 
tension of  industry  ;  and  in  proportion  as  industry, 
commerce,  navigation,  railways  extended,  in  the  same 
proportion  the  bourgeoisie  developed,  increased  its 
capital,  and  pushed  into  the  background  every  class 
handed  down  from  the  Middle  Ages. 

We  see,  therefore,  how  the  modern  bourgeoisie  is  it- 
self the  product  of  a  long  course  of  development,  of  a 
series  of  revolutions  in  the  modes  of  production  and 
of  exchange. 

Each  step  in  the  development  of  the  bourgeoisie 
was  accompanied  by  a  corresponding  political  ad- 
vance of  that  class.  An  oppressed  class  under  the 
sway  of  the  feudal  nobility,  an  armed  and  self-gov- 
erning association  in  the  medieval  commune,  here 
independent  urban  republic  (as  in  Italy  and  Ger- 
many), there  taxable  "third  estate"  of  the  monarchy 
(as  in  France),  afterward,  in  the  period  of  manufac- 


Manifestoes. 


845 


Manifestoes. 


ture  proper,  serving  either  the  semi-feudal  or  the 
absolute  monarchy  as  a  counterpoise  against  the  no- 
bility, and,  in  fact,  corner-stone  of  the  great  mon- 
archies in  general,  the  bourgeoisie  has  at  last,  since 
the  establishment  of  modern  industry  and  of  the 
world  market,  conquered  for  itself,  in  the  modern 
representative  State,  exclusive  political  sway.  The 
executive  of  the  modern  State  is  but  a  committee  for 
managing  the  common  affairs  of  the  whole  bour- 
geoisie. 

The  bourgeoisie,  historically,  has  played  a  most 
revolutionary  part. 

The  bourgeoisie,  wherever  it  has  got  the  upper  hand, 
has  put  an  end  to  all  feudal,  patriarchal,  idyllic  rela- 
tions. It  has  pitilessly  torn  asunder  the  motley  feudal 
ties  that  bound  man  to  his  "natural  superiors,"  and 
has  left  remaining  no  other  nexus  between  man  and 
man  than  naked  self-interest,  than  callous  "cash  pay- 
ment." It  has  drowned  the  most  heavenly  ecstasies 
of  religious  fervor,  of  chivalrous  enthusiasm,  of  Phil- 
istine sentimentalism  in  the  icy  water  of  egotistical 
calculation.  It  has  resolved  personal  worth  into  ex- 
change value,  and  in  place  of  the  numberless  indefeasi- 
ble chartered  freedoms  has  set  up  that  single,  uncon- 
scionable freedom— free  trade.  In  one  word,  for  ex- 
ploitation, veiled  by  religious  and  political  illusions, 
it  has  substituted  naked,  shameless,  direct,  brutal 
exploitation. 

The  bourgeoisie  has  stripped  of  its  halo  every  occu- 
pation hitherto  honored  and  looked  up  to  with  reverent 
awe.  It  has  converted  the  physician,  the  lawyer,  the 
priest,  the  poet,  the  man  of  science  into  its  paid  wage- 
laborers. 

The  bourgeoisie  has  torn  away  from  the  family  its 
sentimental  veil,  and  has  reduced  the  family  relation 
to  a  mere  money  relation. 

The  bourgeoisie  has  disclosed  how  it  came  to  pass 
that  the  brutal  display  of  vigor  in  the  Middle  Ages, 
which  reactionists  so  much  admire,  found  its  fitting 
complement  in  the  most  slothful  indolence.  It  has 
been  the  first  to  show  what  man's  activity  can  bring 
about.  It  has  accomplished  wonders  far  surpassing 
Egyptian  pyramids,  Roman  aqueducts,  and  Gothic 
cathedrals ;  it  has  conducted  expeditions  that  put  in 
the  shade  all  former  exoduses  of  nations  and  crusades. 

The  bourgeoisie  cannot  exist  without  constantly 
revolutionizing  the  instruments  of  production,  and 
thereby  the  relations  of  production,  and  with  them 
the  whole  relations  of  society.  Conservation  of  the 
old  modes  of  production  in  unaltered  form  was,  on 
the  contrary,  the  first  condition  of  existence  for  all 
earlier  industrial  classes.  Constant  revolutionizing  of 
production,  uninterrupted  disturbance  of  all  social 
conditions,  everlasting  uncertainty  and  agitation  dis- 
tinguish the  bourgeois  epoch  from  all  earlier  ones. 
All  fixed,  fast- frozen  relations,  with  their  train  of 
ancient  and  venerable  prejudices  and  opinions,  are 
swept  away,  all  new-formed  ones  become  antiquated 
before  they  can  ossify.  All  that  is  solid  melts  into  air, 
all  that  is  holy  is  profaned,  and  man  is  at  last  com- 
pelled to  face  with  sober  senses  his  real  conditions  of 
life  and  his  relations  with  his  kind. 

The  need  of  a  constantly  expanding  market  for  its 
products  chases  the  bourgeoisie  over  the  whole  sur- 
face of  the  globe.  It  must  nestle  everywhere,  settle 
everywhere,  establish  connections  everywhere. 

The  bourgeoisie  has  through  its  exploitation  of  the 
world  market  given  a  cosmopolitan  character  to  pro- 
duction and  consumption  in  every  country.  To  the 
great  chagrin  of  reactionists,  it  has  drawn  from  under 
the  feet  of  industry  the  national  ground 
on  which  it  stood.  All  old-established 
Bourgeoisie,  national  industries  have  been  destroyed 
or  are  daily  being  destroyed.  They  are 
dislodged  by  new  industries  whose  in- 
troduction becomes  a  life  and  death  question  for  all 
civilized  nations,  by  industries  that  no  longer  work  up 
indigenous  raw  material,  but  raw  material  drawn 
from  the  remotest  zones;  industries  whose  products 
are  consumed  not  only  at  home,  but  in  every  quarter 
of  the  globe.  In  place  of  the  old  wants,  satisfied  by 
the  productions  of  the  country,  we  find  new  wants, 
requiring  for  their  satisfaction  the  products  of  distant 
lands  and  climes.  In  place  of  the  old  local  and  na- 
tional seclusion  and  self-sufficiency,  we  have  inter- 
course in  every  direction,  universal  interdependence 
of  nations.  And  as  in  material  so  also  in  intellectual 
production.  The  intellectual  creations  of  individual 
nations  become  common  property.  National  one- 
sidedness  and  narrow-mindedness  become  more  and 
more  impossible,  and  from  the  numerous  national  and 
local  literatures  there  arises  a  world  literature. 

The  bourgeoisie,  by  the  rapid  improvement  of  all 
instruments  of  production,  by  the  immensely  facili- 


tated means  of  communication,  draws  all,  even  the 
most  barbarian  nations  into  civilization.  The  cheap 
prices  of  its  commodities  are  the  heavy  artillery  with 
which  it  batters  down  all  Chinese  walls,  with  which  it 
forces  the  barbarians'  intensely  obstinate  hatred  of 
foreigners  to  capitulate.  It  compels  all  nations,  on 
pain  of  extinction,  to  adopt  the  bourgeois  mode  of 
production  ;  it  compels  them  to  introduce  what  it  calls 
civilization  into  their  midst — i.e.,  to  become  bourgeois 
themselves.  In  one  word,  it  creates  a  world  after  its 
own  image. 

The  bourgeoisie  has  subjected  the  country  to  the 
rule  of  the  towns.  It  has  created  enormous  cities,  has 
greatly  increased  the  urban  population  as  compared 
with  the  rural,  and  has  thus  rescued  a  considerable 
part  of  the  population  from  the  idiocy  of  rural  life. 
Just  as  it  has  made  the  country  dependent  on  the 
towns,  so  it  has  made  barbarian  and  semi-barbarian 
countries  dependent  on  the  civilized  ones,  nations  of 
peasants  on  nations  of  bourgeois,  the  East  on  the 
West. 

The  bourgeoisie  keeps  more  and  more  doing  away 
with  the  scattered  state  of  the  population,  of  the  means 
of  production  and  of  property.  It  has  agglomerated 
population,  centralized  means  of  production,  and  has 
concentrated  property  in  a  few  hands.  The  necessary 
consequence  of  this  was  political  centralization.  Inde- 
pendent or  but  loosely  connected  provinces,  with 
separate  interests,  laws,  governments,  and  systems  of 
taxation,  became  lumped  together  into  one  nation, 
with  one  government,  one  code  of  laws,  one  national 
class  interest,  one  frontier,  and  one  customs  tariff. 

The  bourgeoisie,  during  its  rule  of  scarce  100  years, 
has  created  more  massive  and  more  colossal  produc- 
tive forces  than  have  all  preceding  generations  to- 
gether. Subjection  of  nature's  forces  to  man,  ma- 
chinery, application  of  chemistry  to  industry  and 
agriculture,  steam  navigation,  railways,  electric  tele- 
graphs, clearing  of  whole  continents  for  cultivation, 
canalization  of  rivers,  whole  populations  conjured  out 
of  the  ground— what  earlier  century  had  even  a  pre- 
sentiment that  such  productive  forces  slumbered  in 
the  lap  of  social  labor  ? 

We  see,  then,  the  means  of  production  and  of  ex- 
change, on  whose  foundation  the  bourgeoisie  built  it- 
self up,  were  generated  in  feudal  society.  At  a  cer- 
tain stage  in  the  development  of  these  means  of  pro- 
duction and  of  exchange,  the  conditions  under  which 
feudal  society  produced  and  exchanged,  the  feudal 
organization  of  agriculture  and  manufacturing  indus- 
try, in  one  word,  the  feudal  relations  of  property  be- 
came no  longer  compatible  with  the  already  develop- 
ed productive  forces  ;  they  became  so  many  fetters. 
They  had  to  be  burst  asunder  ;  they  were  burst  asun- 
der. 

Into  their  place  stepped  free  competition,  accom- 
panied by  a  social  and  political  constitution  adapted 
to  it,  and  by  the  economical  and  political  sway  of  the 
bourgeois  class. 

A  similar  movement  is  going  on  before  our  own 
eyes.  Modern  bourgeois  society,  with  its  relations  of 
production,  of  exchange,  and  of  property,  a  society 
that  has  conjured  up  such  gigantic  means  of  produc- 
tion and  of  exchange,  is  like  the  sorcerer  who  is  no 
longer  able  to  control  the  powers  of  the  nether  world 
whom  he  has  called  up  by  his  spells.  For  many  a  dec- 
ade past  the  history  of  industry  and  commerce  is  but 
the  history  of  the  revolt  of  modern  productive  forces 
against  modern  conditions  of  production,  against  the 
property  relations  that  are  the  conditions  for  the  ex- 
istence of  the  bourgeoisie  and  of  its  rule.  It  is  enough 
to  mention  the  commercial  crises  that  by  their  periodi- 
cal return  put  on  its  trial,  each  time  more  threatening- 
ly, the  existence  of  the  entire  bourgeois  society.  In 
these  crises  a  great  part  not  only  of  the  existing  prod- 
ucts, but  also  of  the  previously  created  productive 
forces,  are  periodically  destroyed.  In  these  crises 
there  breaks  out  an  epidemic  that,  in  all  earlier 
epochs,  would  have  seemed  an  absurdity— the  epidem- 
ic of  over-production.  Society  suddenly  finds  itself 
put  back  into  a  state  of  momentary  barbarism  ;  it  ap- 

gears  as  if  a  famine,  a  universal  war  of  devastation, 
ad  cut  off  the  supply  of  every  means  of  subsistence; 
industry  and  commerce  seem  to  be  destroyed  ;  and 
why?  Because  there  is  too  much  civilization,  too 
much  means  of  subsistence,  too  much  industry,  too 
much  commerce.  The  productive  forces  at  the  dis- 
posal of  society  no  longer  tend  to  further  the  develop- 
ment of  the  conditions  of  bourgeois  property  ;  on  the 
contrary,  they  have  become  too  powerful  for  these 
conditions,  by  which  they  are  fettered,  and  so  soon  as 
they  overcome  these  fetters  they  bring  disorder  into 
the  whole  of  bourgeois  society,  endanger  the  existence 
of  bourgeois  property.  The  conditions  of  bourgeois 


Manifestoes. 


846 


Manifestoes. 


society  are  too  narrow  to  comprise  the  wealth  created 
by  them.  And  how  does  the  bourgeoisie  get  over 
these  crises  ?  On  the  one  hand,  by  enforced  destruction 
of  a  mass  of  productive  forces ;  on  the  other,  by  the 
conquest  of  new  markets,  and  by  the  more  thorough 
exploitation  of  the  old  ones.  That  is  to  say,  by  pav- 
ing the  way  for  more  extensive  and  more  destructive 
crises,  and  by  diminishing  the  means  whereby  crises 
are  prevented. 

The  weapons  with  which  the  bourgeoisie  felled 
feudalism  to  the  ground  are  now  turned  against  the 
bourgeoisie  itself. 

But  not  only  has  the  bourgeoisie  forged  the  weapons 
that  bring  death  to  itself  ;  it  has  also  called  into  exist- 
ence the  men  who  are  to  wield  those  weapons— the 
modern  working  class— the  proletarians. 

In  proportion  as  the  bourgeoisie,  i.e.,  capital,  is  de- 
veloped, in  the  same  proportion  is  the  proletariat,  the 
modern  working  class,  developed,  a  class  of  laborers 
who  live  only  so  long  as  they  find  work,  and  who  find 
work  only  so  long  as  their  labor  increases  capital. 
These  laborers,  who  must  sell  themselves  piecemeal, 
are  a  commodity,  like  every  other  article  of  commerce, 
and  are  consequently  exposed  to  all  the  vicissitudes 
of  competition,  to  all  the  fluctuations  of  the  market. 

Owing  to  the  extensive  use  of  machinery  and  to  di- 
vision of  labor,  the  work  of  the  proletarians  has  lost 
all  individual  character,  and,  consequently,  all  charm 
for  the  workman.  He  becomes  an  ap- 
pendage of  the  machine,  and  it  is  only 

Proletariat,  the  most  simple,  most  monotonous,  and 
most  easily  acquired  knack  that  is  re- 
quired of  him.  Hence,  the  cost  of  pro- 
duction of  a  workman  is  restricted  almost  entirely  to 
the  means  of  subsistence  that  he  requires  for  his  main- 
tenance and  for  the  propagation  of  his  race.  But  the 
price  of  a  commodity,  and  therefore  also  of  labor,  is 
equal  to  its  cost  of  production.  In  proportion,  there- 
fore, as  the  repulsiveness  of  the  work  increases,  the 
wage  decreases.  Nay  more,  in  proportion  as  the  use 
of  machinery  and  division  of  labor  increase,  in  the 
same  proportion  the  burden  of  toil  also  increases, 
whether  by  prolongation  of  the  working  hours,  by 
increase  of  the  work  exacted  in  a  given  time,  or  by 
increased  speed  of  the  machinery,  etc. 

Modern  industry  has  converted  the  little  workshop 
of  the  patriarchal  master  into  the  great  factory  of  the 
industrial  capitalist.  Masses  of  laborers,  crowded 
into  the  factory,  are  organized  like  soldiers.  As  pri- 
vates of  the  industrial  army,  they  are  placed  under 
the  command  of  a  perfect  hierarchy  of  officers  and 
sergeants.  Not  only  are  they  slaves  of  the  bourgeois 
class  and  of  the  bourgeois  State,  they  are  daily  and 
hourly  enslaved  by  the  machine,  by  the  overlooker, 
and,  above  all,  by  the  individual  bourgeois  manufac- 
turer himself.  The  more  openly  this  despotism  pro- 
claims gain  to  be  its  end  and  aim,  the  more  petty,  the 
more  hateful,  and  the  more  embittering  it  is. 

The  less  the  skill  and  exertion  of  strength  implied 
in  manual  labor,  in  other  words,  the  more  modern  in- 
dustry becomes  developed,  the  more  is  the  labor  of 
men  superseded  by  that  of  women.  Differences  of 
age  and  sex  have  no  longer  any  distinctive  social 
validity  for  the  working  class.  All  are  instruments  of 
labor,  more  or  less  expensive  to  use,  according  to  their 
age  and  sex. 

No  sooner  is  the  exploitation  of  the  laborer  by  the 
manufacturer,  so  far  at  an  end,  that  he  receives  his 
wages  in  cash,  than  he  is  set  upon  by  the  other  por- 
tions of  the  bourgeoisie— the  landlord,  the  shopkeeper, 
the  pawnbroker,  etc. 

The  lower  strata  of  the  middle  class — the  small 
tradespeople,  shopkeepers,  and  retired  tradesmen 
generally,  the  handicraftsmen  and  peasants— all  these 
sink  gradually  into  the  proletariat,  partly  because 
their  diminutive  capital  does  not  suffice  for  the  scale 
on  which  modern  industry  is  carried  on,  and  is  swamp- 
ed in  the  competition  with  the  large  capitalists,  partly 
because  their  specialized  skill  is  rendered  worthless 
by  new  methods  of  production.  Thus  the  proletariat 
is  recruited  from  all  classes  of  the  population. 

The  proletariat  goes  through  various  stages  of  de- 
velopment. With  its  birth  begins  its  struggle  with 
the  bourgeoisie.  At  first  the  contest  is  carried  on  by 
individual  laborers,  then  by  the  work-people  of  a  fac- 
tory, then  by  the  operatives  of  one  trade,  in  one  locali- 
ty, against  the  individual  bourgeois  who  directly  ex- 
ploits them.  They  direct  their  attacks  not  against  the 
bourgeois  conditions  of  production,  but  against  the 
instruments  of  production  themselves;  they  destroy 
imported  wares  that  compete  with  their  labor,  they 
smash  to  pieces  machinery,  they  set  factories  ablaze, 
they  seek  to  restore  by  force  the  vanished  status  of 
the  workman  of  the  middle  ages. 


At  this  stage  the  laborers  still  form  an  incoherent 
mass  scattered  over  the  whole  country,  and  broken  up 
by  their  mutual  competition.  If  anywhere  they  unite 
to  form  more  compact  bodies,  this  is  not  yet  the  con- 
sequence of  their  own  active  union,  but  of  the  union 
of  the  bourgeoisie,  which  class,  in  order  to  attain  its 
own  political  ends,  is  compelled  to  set  the  whole  pro- 
letariat in  motion,  and  is,  moreover,  yet,  for  a  time, 
able  to  do  so.  At  this  stage,  therefore,  the  proletarians 
do  not  fight  their  enemies,  but  the  enemies  of  their 
enemies,  the  remnants  of  absolute  monarchy,  the 
landowners,  the  non-industrial  bourgeois,  the  petty 
bourgeoisie.  Thus  the  whole  historical  movement  is 
concentrated  in  the  hands  of  the  bourgeoisie  ;  every 
victory  so  obtained  is  a  victory  for  the  bourgeoisie. 

But  with  the  development  of  industry  the  proletariat 
not  only  increases  in  number ;  it  becomes  concen- 
trated in  greater  masses,  its  strength  grows,  and  it 
feels  that  strength  more.  The  various  interests  and 
conditions  of  life  within  the  ranks  of  the  proletariat 
are  more  and  more  equalized,  in  proportion  as  ma- 
chinery obliterates  all  distinctions  of  labor,  and  nearly 
everywhere  reduces  wages  to  the  same  low  level. 
The  growing  competition  among  the  bourgeois,  and 
the  resulting  commercial  crises,  make  the  wages  of 
the  workers  ever  more  fluctuating.  The  unceasing 
improvement  of  machinery,  ever  more  rapidly  de- 
veloping, makes  their  livelihood  more  and  more  pre- 
carious ;  the  collisions  between  individual  workmen 
and  individual  bourgeois  take  more  and  more  the 
character  of  collisions  between  two  classes.  There- 
upon the  workers  begin  to  form  combinations  (trades 
unions)  against  the  bourgeois ;  they  club  together  in 
order  to  keep  up  the  rate  of  wages  ;  they  found  per- 
manent associations  in  order  to  make  provision  be- 
forehand for  these  occasional  revolts.  Here  and  there 
the  contest  breaks  out  into  riots. 

Now  and  then  the  workers  are  victorious,  but  only 
for  a  time.  The  real  fruit  of  their  battles  lies  not  in 
the  immediate  result,  but  in  the  ever-expanding  union 
of  the  workers.  This  union  is  helped  on  by  the  im- 
proved means  of  communication  that  are  created  by 
modern  industry,  and  that  place  the  workers  of  differ- 
ent localities  in  contact  with  one  another.  It  •was  just 
this  contact  that  was  needed  to  centralize  the  numer- 
ous local  struggles,  all  of  the  same  character,  into  one 
national  struggle  between  classes.  But  every  class 
struggle  is  a  political  struggle.  And  that  union,  to 
attain  which  the  burghers  of  the  Middle  Ages,  with 
their  miserable  highways,  required  centuries,  the 
modern  proletarians,  thanks  to  railways,  achieve  in  a 
few  years. 

This  organization  of  the  proletarians  into  a  class, 
and  consequently  into  a  political  party,  is  continually 
being  upset  again  by  the  competition  between  the 
workers  themselves.  But  it  ever  rises  up  again, 
stronger,  firmer,  mightier.  It  compels  legislative 
recognition  of  particular  interests  of  the  workers  by 
taking  advantage, of  the  divisions  among  the  bour- 
geoisie itself.  Thus  the  Ten  Hours'  Bill  in  England 
was  carried. 

Altogether  collisions  between  the  classes  of  the  old 
society  further,  in  many  ways,  the  course  of  develop- 
ment of  the  proletariat.  The  bourgeoisie  finds  itself 
involved  in  a  constant  battle— at  first  with  the  aris- 
tocracy j  later  on,  with  those  portions  of  the  bour- 
geoisie itself  whose  interests  have  become  antagonis- 
tic to  the  progress  of  industry  ;  at  all  times,  with  the 
bourgeoisie  of  foreign  countries.  In  all  these  battles 
it  sees  itself  compelled  to  appeal  to  the  proletariat,  to 
ask  for  its  help,  and  thus  to  drag  it  into  the  political 
arena.  The  bourgeoisie  itself,  therefore,  supplies  the 
proletariat  with  its  own  elements  of  political  and 
general  education  ;  in  other  words,  it  furnishes  the 
proletariat  with  weapons  for  fighting  the  bourgeoisie. 

Further,  as  we  have  already  seen,  entire  sections  of 
the  ruling  classes  are,  by  the  advance  of  industry, 
precipitated  into  the  proletariat,  or  are  at  least  threat- 
ened in  their  conditions  of  existence.  These  also  sup- 
ply the  proletariat  with  fresh  elements  of  enlighten- 
ment and  progress. 

Finally,  in  times  when  the  class  struggle  nears  the 
decisive  hour,  the  process  of  dissolution  going  on 
within  the  ruling  class,  in  fact,  within  the  whole  range 
of  old  society,  assumes  such  a  violent,  glaring  charac- 
ter, that  a  small  section  of  the  ruling  class  cuts  itself 
adrift,  and  joins  the  revolutionary  class— the  class  that 
holds  the  future  in  its  hands.  Just  as,  therefore,  at  an 
earlier  period  a  section  of  the  nobility  went  over  to 
the  bourgeoisie,  so  now  a  portion  of  the  bourgeoisie 
goes  over  to  the  proletariat,  and  in  particular  a  por- 
tion of  the  bourgeois  idealogists,  who  have  raised 
themselves  to  the  level  of  comprehending  theoretical- 
ly the  historical  movement  as  a  whole. 


Manifestoes. 


847 


Manifestoes. 


Of  all  the  classes  that  stand  face  to  face  with  the 
bourgeoisie  to-day,  the  proletariat  alone  is  a  really 
revolutionary  class.  The  other  classes  decay  and 
finally  disappear  in  the  face  of  modern  industry  ;  the 
proletariat  is  its  special  and  essential  product. 

The  lower  middle  class,  the  small  manufacturer,  the 
shopkeeper,  the  artizan,  the  peasant,  all  these  fight 
against  the  bourgeoisie,  to  save  from  extinction  their 
existence  as  fractions  of  the  middle  class.  They  are 
therefore  not  revolutionary,  but  conservative.  Nay 
more,  they  are  reactionary,  for  they  try  to  roll  back 
the  wheel  of  history.  If  by  chance  they  are  revolu- 
tionary, they  are  so  only  in  view  of  their  impending 
transfer  into  the  proletariat ;  they  thus  defend  not  their 
present,  but  their  future  interests  ;  they  desert  their 
own  standpoint  to  place  themselves  at  that  of  the  pro- 
letariat. 

The  "dangerous  class,"  the  social  scum,  that  pas- 
sively rotting  mass  thrown  off  by  the  lowest  layers  of 
old  society,  may,  here  and  there,  be  swept  into  the 
movement  by  a  proletarian  revolution  ;  its  conditions 
of  life,  however,  prepare  it'far  more  for  the  part  of  a 
bribed  tool  of  reactionary  intrigue. 

In  the  conditions  of  the  proletariat,  those  of  old  so- 
ciety at  large  are  already  virtually  swamped.  The 
proletarian  is  without  property ;  his  relation  to  his 
wife  and  children  has  no  longer  anything  in  common 
with  the  bourgeois  family  relations  ;  modern  industrial 
labor,  modern  subjection  to  capital,  the  same  in  Eng- 
land as  in  France,  in  America  as  in  Germany,  has 
stripped  him  of  every  trace  of  national  character. 
Law,  morality,  religion,  are  to  him  so  many  bourgeois 

grejudices,  behind  which  lurk  in  ambush  just  as  many 
ourgeois  interests. 

All  the  preceding  classes  that  got  the  upper  hand 
sought  to  fortify  their  already  acquired  status  by  sub- 
jecting society  at  large  to  their  conditions  of  appro- 
priation. The  proletarians  cannot  become  masters  of 
the  productive  forces  of  society  except  by  abolishing 
their  own  previous  mode  of  appropriation,  and  there- 
by also  every  other  previous  mode  of  appropriation. 
They  have  nothing  of  their  own  to  secure  and  to  for- 
tify ;  their  mission  is  to  destroy  all  previous  securities 
for  and  insurances  of  individual  property. 

All  previous  historical  movements  were  movements 
of  minorities  or  in  the  interest  of  minorities.  The 
proletarian  movement  is  the  self-con- 
scious, independent  movement  of  the 
The  immense  majority  in  the  interest  of  the 

Str  «T!A  immense  majority.  The  proletariat, 
lruS5le>  the  lowest  stratum  of  our  present  so- 
ciety, cannot  stir,  cannot  raise  itself  up 
without  the  whole  superincumbent 
strata  of  official  society  being  sprung  into  the  air. 

Tho  not  in  substance,  yet  in  form,  the  struggle 
of  the  proletariat  with  the  bourgeoisie  is  at  first  a 
national  struggle.  The  proletariat  of  each  country 
must,  of  course,  first  of  all  settle  matters  with  its  own 
bourgeoisie. 

In  depicting  the  most  general  phases  of  the  develop- 
ment of  the  proletariat,  we  traced  the  more  or  less 
veiled  civil  war,  raging  within  existing  society,  up  to 
the  point  where  that  war  breaks  out  into  open  revolu- 
tion, and  where  the  violent  overthrow  of  the  bour- 
geoisie lays  the  foundation  for  the  sway  of  the  pro- 
letariat. 

Hitherto,  every  form  of  society  has  been  based,  as 
we  have  already  seen,  on  the  antagonism  of  oppress- 
ing and  oppressed  classes.  But  in  order  to  oppress  a 
class,  certain  conditions  must  be  assured  to  it  under 
which  it  can,  at  least,  continue  its  slavish  existence. 
The  serf,  in  the  period  of  serfdom,  raised  himself  to 
membership  in  the  commune,  just  as  the  petty  bour- 
geois, under  the  yoke  of  feudal  absolutism,  managed 
to  develop  into  a  bourgeois.  The  modern  laborer,  on 
the  contrary,  instead  of  rising  with  the  progress  of  in- 
dustry, sinks  deeper  and  deeper  below  the  conditions  of 
existence  of  his  own  class.  He  becomes  a  pauper,  and 
pauperism  develops  more  rapidly  than  population  and 
wealth.  And  here  it  becomes  evident  that  the  bour- 
geoisie is  unfit  any  longer  to  be  the  ruling  class  in  so- 
ciety, and  to  impose  its  conditions  of  existence  upon 
society  as  an  overriding  law.  It  is  unfit  to  rule  be- 
cause it  is  incompetent  to  assure  an  existence  to  its 
slave  within  his  slavery,  because  it  cannot  help  letting 
him  sink  into  such  a  state,  that  it  has  to  feed  him,  in- 
stead of  being  fed  by  him.  Society  can  no  longer  live 
under  this  bourgeoisie  ;  in  other  words,  its  existence 
is  no  longer  compatible  with  society. 

The  essential  condition  for  the  existence  and  for  the 
sway  of  the  bourgeois  class  is  the  formation  and  aug- 
mentation of  capital ;  the  condition  for  capital  is  wage- 
labor.  Wage-labor  rests  exclusively  on  competition 
between  the  laborers.  The  advance  of  industry, 


whose  involuntary  promoter  is  the  bourgeoisie,  re 
places  the  isolation  of  the  laborers,  due  to  competition, 
by  their  revolutionary  combination,  due  to  associa- 
tion. The  development  of  modern  industry,  there- 
fore, cuts  from  under  its  feet  the  very  foundation  on 
which  the  bourgeoisie  produces  and  appropriates  prod- 
ucts. What  the  bourgeoisie  therefore  produces,  above 
all,  are  its  own  grave-diggers.  Its  fall  and  the  victory 
of  the  proletariat  are  equally  inevitable. 

II.    PROLETARIANS  AND  COMMUNISTS. 

In  what  relation  do  the  communists  stand  to  the 
proletarians  as  a  whole  ? 

The  communists  do  not  form  a  separate  party  op- 
posed to  other  -working-class  parties. 

They  have  no  interests  separate  and  apart  from  those 
of  the  proletariat  as  a  whole. 

They  do  not  set  up  any  sectarian  principles  of  their 
own,  by  which  to  shape  and  mold  the  proletarian 
movement. 

The  communists  are  distinguished  from  the  other 
working-class  parties  by  this  only  :  i.  In  the  national 
struggles  of  the  proletarians  of  the  different  countries, 
they  point  out  and  bring  to  the  front  the  common  in- 
terests of  the  entire  proletariat,  independently  of  all 
nationality.  2.  In  the  various  stages  of  development 
which  the  struggle  of  the  working  class  against  the 
bourgeoisie  has  to  pass  through,  they  always  and 
everywhere  represent  the  interests  of  the  movement 
as  a  whole. 

The  communists,  therefore,  are,  on  the  one  hand, 
practically,  the  most  advanced  and  resolute  section  of 
the  working-class  parties  of  every  country,  that  section 
which  pushes  forward  all  others  ;  on  the  other  hand, 
theoretically,  they  have  over  the  great  mass  of  the 
proletariat  the  advantage  of  clearly  understanding 
the  line  of  march,  the  conditions,  and  the  ultimate  gen- 
eral results  of  the  proletarian  movement. 

The  immediate  aim  of  the  communists  is  the  same 
as  that  of  all  the  other  proletarian  parties  :  formation 
of  the  proletariat  into  a  class,  overthrow  of  the  bour- 
geois supremacy,  conquest  of  political  power  by  the 
proletariat. 

The  theoretical  conclusions  of  the  communists  are  in 
no  way  based  on  ideas  or  principles  that  have  been  in- 
vented or  discovered  by  this  or  that  would-be  univer- 
sal reformer. 

They  merely  express,  in  general  terms,  actual  rela- 
tions springing  from  an  existing  class  struggle,  from  a 
historical  movement  going  on  under  our  very  eyes. 
The  abolition  of  existing  property  relations  is  not  at 
all  a  distinctive  feature  of  communism. 

All  property  relations  in  the  past  have  continually 
been  subject  to  historical  change  consequent  upon  the 
change  in  historical  conditions. 

The  French  Revolution,  for  example,  abolished 
feudal  property  in  favor  of  bourgeois  property. 

The  distinguishing  feature  of  communism  is  not  the 
abolition  of  property  generally,  but  the  abolition  of 
bourgeois  property.  But  modern  bourgeois  private 
property  is  the  final  and  most  complete  expression  of 
the  system  of  producing  and  appropriating  products 
that  is  based  on  class  antagonisms,  on  the  exploitation 
of  the  many  by  the  few. 

In  this  sense,  the  theory  of  the  communists  may  be 
summed  up  in  the  single  sentence  :  Abolition  of  private 
property. 

We  communists  have  been  reproached  with  the  de- 
sire of  abolishing  the  right  of  personally  acquiring 
property  as  the  fruit  of  a  man's  own  labor,  which  prop- 
erty is  alleged  to  be  the  groundwork  of  all  personal 
freedom,  activity,  and  independence. 

Hard-won,  self-acquired,  self-earned  property  !  Do 
you  mean  the  property  of  the  petty  artizan  and  of  the 
small  peasant,  a  form  of  property  that  preceded  the 
bourgeois  form  ?  There  is  no  need  to  abolish  that ; 
the  development  of  industry  has  to  a  great  extent 
already  destroyed  it,  and  is  still  destroying  it  daily. 

Or  do  you  mean  modern  bourgeois  private  property  i 

But  does  wage-labor  create  any  property  for  the 
laborer?  Not  a  bit.  It  creates  capital— i.e.,  that  kind 
of  property  which  exploits  wage-labor,  and  which  can- 
not increase  except  upon  condition  of  begetting  a  new 
supply  of  wage-labor  for  fresh  exploitation.  Property, 
in  its  present  form,  is  based  on  the  antagonism  of  cap- 
ital and  wage-labor.  Let  us  examine  both  sides  of 
this  antagonism. 

To  be  a  capitalist  is  to  have  not  only  a  purely  per- 
sonal, but  a  social  status  in  production.  Capital  is  a 
collective  product,  and  only  by  the  united  action  of 
many  members,  nay  in  the  last  resort,  only  by  the 
united  action  of  all  members  of  society,  can  it  be  set 
in  motion. 


Manifestoes. 


848 


Manifestoes. 


Capital  is  therefore  not  a  personal,  it  is  a  social 
power. 

When,  therefore,  capital  is  converted  into  common 
property,  into  the  property  of  all  members  of  society, 
personal  property  is  not  thereby  transformed  into 
social  property.  It  is  only  the  social  character  of  the 
property  that  is  changed.  It  loses  its  class  character. 

Let  us  now  take  •wage-labor. 

The  average  price  of  wage-labor  is  the  minimum 
wage — i.  £.,  that  quantum  of  the  means  of  subsistence 
which  is  absolutely  requisite  to  keep  the  laborer  in 
bare  existence  as  a  laborer.  What,  there- 
fore, the  wage-laborer  appropriates  by 
Capital  and  means  of  his  labor  merely  suffices  to 
T  ahnr  prolong  and  reproduce  a  bare  existence. 
ijaoor.  ^ye  kv  no  means  intend  to  abolish  this 
personal  appropriation  of  the  products 
of  labor,  an  appropriation  that  is  made 
for  the  maintenance  and  reproduction  of  human  life, 
and  that  leaves  no  surplus  wherewith  to  command  the 
labor  of  others.  All  that  we  want  to  do  away  with  is 
the  miserable  character  of  this  appropriation,  under 
which  the  laborer  lives  merely  to  increase  capital,  and 
is  allowed  to  live  only  in  so  far  as  the  interest  of  the 
ruling  class  requires  it. 

In  bourgeois  society,  living  labor  is  but  a  means  to 
increase  accumulated  labor.  In  communist  society, 
accumulated  labor  is  but  a  means  to  widen,  to  enrich, 
to  promote  the  existence  of  the  laborer. 

In  bourgeois  society,  therefore,  the  past  dominates 
the  present ;  in  communist  society,  the  present  domi- 
nates the  past.  In  bourgeois  society  capital  is  indepen- 
dent and  has  individuality,  while  the  living  person 
is  dependent  and  has  no  individuality. 

And  the  abolition  of  this  state  of  things  is  called  by 
the  bourgeois  abolition  of  individuality  and  freedom  ! 
And  rightly  so.  The  abolition  of  bourgeois  individ- 
uality, bourgeois  independence,  and  bourgeois  free- 
dom is  undoubtedly  aimed  at. 

By  freedom  is  meant,  under  the  present  bourgeois 
conditions  of  production,  free  trade,  free  selling  and 
buying. 

But  if  selling  and  buying  disappear,  free  selling  and 
buying  disappear  also.  This  talk  about  free  selling 
and  buying,  and  all  the  other  "  brave  words  "  of  our 
bourgeoisie  about  freedom  in  general,  have  a  meaning, 
if  any,  only  in  contrast  with  restricted  selling  and 
buying,  with  the  fettered  traders  of  the  Middle  Ages, 
but  have  no  meaning  when  opposed  to  the  commu- 
nistic abolition  of  buying  and  selling,  of  the  bourgeois 
conditions  of  production,  and  of  the  bourgeoisie  itself. 

You  are  horrified  at  our  intending  to  do  away  with 
private  property.  But  in  your  existing  society  private 
property  is  already  done  away  with  for  nine  tenths  of 
the  population  ;  its  existence  for  the  few  is  solely  due 
to  its  non-existence  in  the  hands  of  those  nine  tenths. 
You  reproach  us,  therefore,  with  intending  to  dp  away 
with  a  form  of  property,  the  necessary  condition  for 
whose  existence  is  the  non-existence  of  any  property 
for  the  immense  majority  of  society. 

In  one  word,  you  reproach  us  with  intending  to  do 
away  with  your  property.  Precisely  so;  that  is  just 
what  we  intend. 

From  the  moment  when  labor  can  no  longer  be  con- 
verted into  capital,  money  or  rent,  into  a  social  power 
capable  of  being  monopolized,  i.e.  from  the  moment 
when  individual  property  can  no  longer  be  transformed 
into  bourgeois  property,  into  capital,  from  that  mo- 
ment, you  say,  individuality  vanishes. 

You  must,  therefore,  confess  that  by]  "  individual  " 
you  mean  no  other  person  than  the  bourgeois,  than  the 
middle-class  owner  of  property.  This  person  must, 
indeed,  be  swept  out  of  the  way,  and  made  impossible. 

Communism  deprives  no  man  of  the  power  to  appro- 
priate the  products  of  society  :  all  that  it  does  is  to 
deprive  him  of  the  power  to  subjugate  the  labor  of 
others  by  means  of  such  appropriation. 

It  has  been  objected,  that  upon  the  abolition  of  pri- 
vate property  all  work  will  cease  and  universal  lazi- 
ness will  overtake  us. 

According  to  this,  bourgeois  society  ought  long  ago 
to  have  gone  to  the  dogs  through  sheer  idleness ;  for 
those  of  its  members  who  work  acquire  nothing,  and 
those  who  acquire  anything  do  not  work.  The  whole 
of  this  objection  is  but  another  expression  of  the  tautol- 
ogy :  that  there  can  no  longer  be  any  wage-labor 
when  there  is  no  longer  any  capital. 

All  objections  urged  against  the  communistic  mode 
of  producing  and  appropriating  material  products 
have,  in  the  same  way,  been  urged  against  the  com- 
munistic modes  of  producing  and  appropriating  intel- 
lectual products.  Just  as,  to  the  bourgeois,  the  disap- 
pearance of  class  property  is  the  disappearance  of  pro- 
duction itself,  so  the  disappearance  of  class  culture  is 


to  him  identical  with  the  disappearance  of  all  cul- 
ture. 

That  culture,  the  loss  of  which  he  laments,  is  for 
the  enormous  majority  a  mere  training  to  act  as  a 
machine. 

But  don't  wrangle  with  us  so  long  as  you  apply  to 
our  intended  abolition  of  bourgeois  property  the  stand- 
ard of  your  bourgeois  notions  of  freedom,  culture, 
law,  etc.  Your  very  ideas  are  but  the  outgrowth  of 
the  conditions  of  your  bourgeois  production  and  bour- 
geois property,  just  as  your  jurisprudence  is  but  the 
will  of  your  class  made  into  a  law  for  all,  a  will  whose 
essential  character  and  direction  are  determined  by 
the  economical  conditions  of  existence  of  your  class. 

The  selfish  misconception  that  induces  you  to  trans- 
form into  eternal  laws  of  nature  and  of  reason  the  so- 
cial forms  springing  from  your  present  mode  of  pro- 
duction and  form  orproperty— historical  relations  that 
rise  and  disappear  in  the  progress  of  production— this 
misconception  you  share  with  every  ruling  class  that 
has  preceded  you.  What  you  see  clearly  in  the  case 
of  ancient  property,  what  you  admit  in  the  case  of 
feudal  property,  you  are  of  course  forbidden  to  admit 
in  the  case  of  your  own  bourgeois  form  of  property. 

Abolition  of  the  family  !  Even  the  most  radical  flare 
up  at  this  infamous  proposal  of  the  communists. 

On  what  foundation  is  the  present  family,  the  bour- 
geois family,  based  ?  On  capital,  on  private  gain.  In 
its  completely  developed  form  this  family  exists  only 
among  the  bourgeoisie.  But  this  state  of  things  finds 
its  complement  in  the  practical  absence  of  the  family 
among  the  proletarians  and  in  public  prostitution. 

The  bourgeois  family  will  vanish  as  a  matter  of 
course  when  its  complement  vanishes,  and  both  will 
vanish  with  the  vanishing  of  capital. 

Do  you  charge  us  with  wanting  to  stop  the  exploita- 
tion of  children  by  their  parents?  To  this  crime  we 
plead  guilty. 

But.  you  will  say,  we  destroy  the  most  hallowed  of 
relations  when  we  replace  home  education  by  social. 

And  your  education  !    Is  not  that  also  social  and 
determined  by  the  social  conditions  under  which  you 
educate  by  the  intervention,  direct  or 
indirect,  of  society  by  means  of  schools, 
etc.  ?    The  communists  have  not  invent-  The  Family. 
ed  the  intervention  of  society  in  educa- 
tion ;  they  do  but  seek  to  alter  the  char- 
acter of  that  intervention,  and  to  rescue   education 
from  the  influence  of  the  ruling  class. 

The  bourgeois  clap-trap  about  the  family  and  educa- 
tion, about  the  hallowed  corelation  of  parent  and 
child,  becomes  all  the  more  disgusting,  the  more,  by 
the  action  of  modern  industry,  all  family  ties  among 
the  proletarians  are  torn  asunder,  and  their  children 
transformed  into  simple  articles  of  commerce  and 
instruments  of  labor. 

But  you  communists  would  introduce  community  of 
women,  screams  the  whole  bourgeoisie  in  chorus. 

The  bourgeois  sees  in  his  wife  a  mere  instrument  of 
production.  He  hears  that  the  instruments  of  pro- 
duction are  to  be  exploited  in  common,  and,  naturally, 
can  come  to  no  other  conclusion  than  that  the  lot  of 
being  common  to  all  will  likewise  fall  to  the  women. 

He  has  not  even  a  suspicion  that  the  real  point  aimed 
at  is  to  do  away  with  the  status  of  women  as  mere  in- 
struments of  production. 

For  the  rest,  nothing  is  more  ridiculous  than  the 
virtuous  indignation  of  our  bourgeois  at  the  com- 
munity of  women  which,  they  pretend,  is  to  be  openly 
and  officially  established  by  the  communists.  The 
communists  have  no  need  to  introduce  community  of 
women  ;  it  has  existed  almost  from  time  immemorial. 

Our  bourgeois,  not  content  with  having  the  wives 
and  daughters  of  their  proletarians  at  their  disposal, 
not  to  speak  of  common  prostitutes,  take  the  greatest 
pleasure  in  seducing  each  other's  wives. 

Bourgeois  marriage  is  in  reality  a  system  of  wives  in 
common,  and  thus,  at  the  most,  what  the  communists 
might  possibly  be  reproached  with  is  that  they  desire 
to  introduce,  m  substitution  for  a  hypocritically  con- 
cealed, an  openly  legalized  community  of  women. 
For  the  rest,  it  is  self-evident  that  the  abolition  of  the 
present  system  of  production  must  bring  with  it  the 
abolition  of  the  community  of  women  springing  from 
that  system — i.e.,  of  prostitution  both  public  and  pri- 
vate. 

The  communists  are  further  reproached  with  desir- 
ing to  abolish  countries  and  nationality. 

The  working  men  have  no  country.  We  cannot  take 
from  them  what  they  have  not  got.  Since  the  pro- 
letariat must  first  of  all  acquire  political  supremacy, 
must  rise  to  be  the  leading  class  of  the  nation,  must 
constitute  itself  the  nation,  it  is,  so  far,  itself  national, 
tho  not  in  the  bourgeois  sense  of  the  word. 


Manifestoes. 


Manifestoes. 


National  differences  and  antagonisms  between 
peoples  are  daily  more  and  more  vanishing,  owing  to 
the  development  of  the  bourgeoisie,  to  freedom  of  com- 
merce, to  the  world-market,  to  uniformity  in  the  mode 
of  production  and  in  the  conditions  of  life  correspond- 
ing thereto. 

The  supremacy  of  the  proletariat  will  cause  them  to 
vanish  still  faster.  United  action  of  the  leading  civil- 
ized countries  at  least  is  one  of  the  first  conditions  for 
the  emancipation  of  the  proletariat. 

In  proportion  as  the  exploitation  of  one  individual  by 
another  is  put  an  end  to,  the  exploitation  of  one  nation 
by  another  will  also  be  put  an  end  to.  In  proportion 
as  the  antagonism  between  classes  within  the  nation 
vanishes,  the  hostility  of  one  nation  to  another  will 
come  to  an  end. 

The  charges  against  communism  made  from  a  re- 
ligious, a  philosophical,  and,  generally,  from  an  ideo- 
logical standpoint,  are  not  deserving  of  serious  exam- 
ination. 

Does  it  require  deep  intuition  to  comprehend  that 
man's  ideas,  views,  and  conceptions — in  one  word, 
man's  consciousness,  changes  with  every  change  in  the 
conditions  of  his  material  existence,  in  his  social  re- 
lations, and  in  his  social  life? 

What  else  does  the  history  of  ideas  prove  than  that 
intellectual  production  changes  its  character  in  pro- 
portion as  material  production  is  changed  ?  The  rul- 
ing ideas  of  each  age  have  ever  been  the  ideas  of  its 
ruling  class. 

v  When  people  speak  of  ideas  that  revolutionize  so- 
ciety, they  do  but  express  the  fact  that  within  the  old 
society  the  elements  of  a  new  one  have' been  created, 
and  that  the  dissolution  of  the  old  ideas  keeps  even  pace 
with  the  dissolution  of  the  old  conditions  of  existence. 

When  the  ancient  world  was  in  its  last  throes  the 
ancient  religions  were  overcome  by  Christianity. 
When  Christian  ideas  succumbed  in  the  eighteenth 
century  to  rationalist  ideas,  feudal  society  fought  its 
death  battle  with  the  then  revolutionary  bourgeoisie. 
The  ideas  of  religious  liberty  and  freedom  of  con- 
science merely  gave  expression  to  the  sway  of  free 
competition  within  the  domain  of  knowledge. 

"  Undoubtedly,"  it  will  be  said,  "  religious,  moral, 
philosophical,  and  juridical  ideas  have  been  modified 
in  the  course  of  historical  development.  But  religion, 
morality,  philosophy,  political  science,  and  law  con- 
stantly survived  this  change." 

"•  There  are  besides  eternal  truths,  such  as  freedom, 
justice,  etc.,  that  are  common  to  all  states  of  society. 
But  communism  abolishes  eternal  truths,  it  abolishes 
all  religion  and  all  morality,  instead  of  constituting 
them  on  a  new  basis  ;  it  therefore  acts  in  contradiction 
to  all  past  historical  experience." 

What  does  this  accusation  reduce  itself  to?  The 
history  of  all  past  society  has  consisted  in  the  develop- 
ment of  class  antagonisms,  antagonisms  that  assumed 
different  forms  at  different  epochs. 

But  whatever  form  they  may  have  taken,  one  fact  is 
common  to  all  past  ages — viz.,  the  exploitation  of  one 
part  of  society  by  the  other.  No  wonder,  then,  that 
the  social  consciousness  of  past  ages,  despite  all  the 
multiplicity  and  variety  it  displays,  moves  within  cer- 
tain common  forms  or  general  ideas,  which  cannot 
completely  vanish  except  with  the  total  disappearance 
of  class  antagonisms. 

The  communist  revolution  is  the  most  radical  rup- 
ture with  traditional  property  relations;  no  wonder 
that  its  development  involves  the  most  radical  rupture 
with  traditional  ideas. 

But  let  us  have  done  with  the  bourgeois  objections 
to  communism. 

We  have  seen  above  that  the  first  step  in  the  revo- 
lution by  the  working  class  is  to  raise  the  proletariat 
to  the  position  of  ruling  class,  to  win  the  battle  of  de- 
mocracy. 

The  proletariat  will  use  its  political  supremacy  to 
wrest,  by  degrees,  all  capital  from  the  bourgeoisie,  to 
centralize  all  instruments  of  production  in  the  hands 
of  the  State— i.e.,  of  the  proletariat  organized  as  the 
ruling  class ;  and  to  increase  the  total  of  productive 
forces  as  rapidly  as  possibly. 

Of  course,  in  the  beginning  this  cannot  be  effected 
except  by  means  of  despotic  inroads  on  the  rights  of 
property  and  on  the  conditions  of  bour- 
geois production  ;  by  means  of  meas- 

Conimunism.  ures,  therefore,  which  appear  economi- 
cally   insufficient    and    untenable,   but 
which  in  the  course  of  the  movement 
outstrip  themselves,  necessitate  further  inroads  upon 
the  old  social  order,  and  are  unavoidable  as  a  means 
of  entirely  revolutionizing  the  mode  of  production. 

These  measures  will  of  course  be  different  in  differ- 
ent countries. 

54 


Nevertheless,  in  the  most  advanced  countries  the 
following  will  be  pretty  generally  applicable  : 

1.  Abolition  of  property  in  land  and  application  of 
all  rents  of  land  to  public  purposes. 

2.  A  heavy  progressive  or  graduated  income  tax. 

3.  Abolition  of  all  right  of  inheritance. 

4.  Confiscation  of  the  property  of  all  emigrants  and 
rebels. 

5.  Centralization  of  credit  in  the  hands  of  the  State, 
by  means  of  a  national  bank  with  State  capital  and  an 
exclusive  monopoly. 

6.  Centralization   of   the  means  of    communication 
and  transport  in  the  hands  of  the  State. 

7.  Extension  of  factories  and  instruments  of  produc- 
tion owned  by  the  State  :  the  bringing  into  cultivation 
of  waste  lands,  and  the  improvement  of  the  soil  gen- 
erally in  accordance  with  a  common  plan. 

8.  Equal  liability  of  all  to  labor.    Establishment  of 
industrial  armies,  especially  for  agriculture. 

9.  Combination  of  agriculture  with  manufacturing 
industries  ;  gradual    abolition  of    the  distinction  be- 
tween town  and  country,  by  a  more  equable  distribu- 
tion of  the  population  over  the  country. 

10.  Free  education  for  all  children  in  public  schools. 
Abolition  of  children's  factory  labor  in  its  present 
form.      Combination  of  education  with  industrial  pro- 
duction, etc. 

When,  in  the  course  of  development,  class  distinc- 
tions have  disappeared,  and  ail  production  has  been 
concentrated  in  the  hands  of  a  vast  association  of  the 
whole  nation,  the  public  power  will  lose  its  political 
character.  Political  power,  properly  so  called,  is 
merely  the  organized  power  of  one  class  for  oppressing 
another.  If  the  proletariat  during  its  contest  with  the 
bourgeoisie  is  compelled,  by  the  force  of  circumstances, 
to  organize  itself  as  a  class,  if,  by  means  of  a  revolu- 
tion, it  makes  itself  the  ruling  class,  and  as  such 
sweeps  away  by  force  the  old  conditions  of  produc- 
tion, then  it  will,  along  with  these  conditions,  have 
swept  away  the  conditions  for  the  existence  of  class 
antagonisms,  and  of  classes  generally,  and  will  there- 
by have  abolished  its  own  supremacy  as  a  class. 

In  place  of  the  old  bourgeois  society,  with  its  classes 
and  class  antagonisms,  we  shall  have  an  association  in 
which  the  free  development  of  each  is  the  condition  for 
the  free  development  of  all. 

III.     SOCIALIST  AND    COMMUNIST    LITERATURE. 

i.  Reactionary  Socialism. 
a.  Feudal  Socialism. 

Owing  to  their  historical  position,  it  became  the  vo- 
cation of  the  aristocracies  of  France  and  England  to 
write  pamphlets  against  modern  bourgeois  society. 
In  the  French  revolution  of  July,  1830,  and  in  the  Eng- 
lish reform  agitation,  these  aristocracies  again  suc- 
cumbed to  the  hateful  upstart.  Thenceforth,  a  serious 
political  contest  was  altogether  out  of  question.  A 
literary  battle  alone  remained  possible.  But  even  in 
the  domain  of  literature  the  old  cries  of  the  restora- 
tion period*  had  become  impossible. 

In  order  to  arouse  sympathy,  the  aristocracy  were 
obliged  to  lose  sight,  apparently,  of  their  own  inter- 
ests, and  to  formulate  their  indictment  against  the 
bourgeoisie  in  the  interest  of  the  exploited  working 
class  alone.  Thus  the  aristocracy  took  their  revenge 
by  singing  lampoons  on  their  new  master,  and  whis- 
pering in  his  ears  sinister  prophecies  of  coming  catas- 
trophe. 

In  this  way  arose  feudal  socialism  :  half  lamenta- 
tion, half  lampoon  ;  half  echo  of  the  past,  half  menace 
of  the  future  ;  at  times,  by  its  bitter,  witty,  and  inci- 
sive criticism,  striking  the  bourgeoisie  to  the  very 
heart's  core,  but  always  ludicrous  in  its  effect,  through 
total  incapacity  to  comprehend  the  march  of  modern 
history. 

The  aristocracy,  in  order  to  rally  the  people  to  them, 
waved  the  proletarian  alms-bag  in  front  for  a  banner. 
But  the  people,  so  often  as  it  joined  them,  saw  on  their 
hindquarters  the  old  feudal  coats-of-arms,  and  de- 
serted with  loud  and  irreverent  laughter. 

One  section  of  the  French  Legitimists  and  "  Young 
England"  exhibited  this  spectacle. 

In  pointing  out  that  their  mode  of  exploitation  was 
different  to  that  of  the  bourgeoisie,  the  feudalists  for- 
get that  they  exploited  under  circumstances  and  con- 
ditions that  were  quite  different,  and  that  are  now 
antiquated.  In  showing  that,  under  their  rule  the 

*  Not  the  English  Restoration,  1660-89,  but  the  French 
Restoration,  1814-30. 


Manifestoes, 


850 


Manifestoes, 


proletariat  never  existed,  they  forget  that  the  modern 
bourgeoisie  is  the  necessary  offspring  of  their  own 
form  of  society. 

For  the  rest,  so  little  do  they  conceal  the  reactionary 
character  of  their  criticism,  that  their  chief  acccusa- 
tion  against  the  bourgeoisie  amounts  to  this  :  that 
under  the  bourgeois  regime  a  class  is  being  developed 
which  is  destined  to  cut  up  root  and  branch  the  old 
order  of  society. 

What  they  upbraid  the  bourgeoisie  with  is  not  so 
much  that  it  creates  a  proletariat  as  that  it  creates  a 
revolutionary  proletariat. 

In  political  practice,  therefore,  they  join  in  all  co- 
ercive measures  against  the   working  class  ;  and  in 
ordinary  life,  despite  their  highfalutin  phrases,  they 
stoop    to    pick    up    the    golden    apples 
dropped  from  the  tree  of  industry,  and 

Feudalism,   to  barter  truth,  love,  and  honor  for  traf- 
fic in  wool,  beet-root  sugar,  and  potato 
•f  spirit.* 

As  the  parson  has  ever  gone  hand  in 
hand  with  the  landlord,  so  has  clerical  socialism  with 
feudal  socialism. 

Nothing  is  easier  than  to  give  Christian  asceticism  a 
socialist  tinge.  Has  not  Christianity  declaimed  against 
private  property,  against  marriage,  against  the  State? 
Has  it  not  preached  in  the  place  of  these  charity  and 
poverty,  celibacy  and  mortification  of  the  flesh,  mo- 
nastic life  and  mother  Church  ?  Christian  socialism  is 
but  the  holy  water  with  which  the  priest  consecrates 
the  heart-burnings  of  the  aristocrat. 

b.    Petty  Bourgeois  Socialism. 

The  feudal  aristocracy  was  not  the  only  class  that 
was  ruined  by  the  bourgeoisie,  not  the  only  class 
whose  conditions  of  existence  pined  and  perished  in 
the  atmosphere  of  modern  bourgeois  society.  The 
medieval  burgesses  and  the  small  peasant  proprietors 
were  the  precursors  of  the  modern  bourgeoisie.  In 
those  countries  which  are  but  little  developed  indus- 
trially and  commercially  these  two  classes  still  vege- 
tate side  by  side  with  the  rising  bourgeoisie. 

In  countries  where  modern  civilization  has  become 
fully  developed  a  new  class  of  petty  bourgeois  has 
been  formed,  fluctuating  between  proletariat  and 
bourgeoisie,  and  ever  renewing  itself  as  a  supplemen- 
tary part  of  bourgeois  society.  The  individual  mem- 
bers of  this  class,  however,  are  being  constantly  hurled 
down  into  the  proletariat  by  the  action  of  competition, 
and  as  modern  industry  develops  they  even  see  the 
moment  approaching  when  they  will  completely  dis- 
appear as  an  independent  section  of  modern  society, 
to  be  replaced  in  manufactures,  agriculture,  and  com- 
merce by  overlookers,  bailiffs,  and  shopmen. 

In  countries  like  France,  where  the  peasants  consti- 
tute far  more  than  half  of  the  population,  it  was  natu- 
ral that  writers  who  sided  with  the  proletariat  against 
the  bourgeoisie  should  use  in  their  criticism  of  the 
bourgeois  regime  the  standard  of  the  peasant  and 
petty  bourgeois,  and  from  the  standpoint  of  these  in- 
termediate classes  should  take  up  the  cudgels  for  the 
working  class.  Thus  arose  petty  bourgeois  socialism. 
Sismondi  was  the  head  of  this  school,  not  only  in 
France,  but  also  in  England 

This  school  of  socialism  dissected  with  great  acute  - 
ness  the  contradictions  in  the  conditions  of  modern  pro- 
duction It  laid  bare  the  hypocritical  apologies  of 
economists.  It  proved  incontroyertibly  the  disastrous 
effects  of  machinery  and  division  of  labor;  the  con- 
centration of  capital  and  land  in  a  few  hands  ;  over- 
production and  crises ;  it  pointed  out  the  inevitable 
ruin  of  the  petty  bourgeois  and  peasant,  the  misery  of 
the  proletariat,  the  anarchy  in  production,  the  crying 
inequalities  in  the  distribution  of  wealth,  the  indus- 
trial war  of  extermination  between  nations,  the  dis- 
solution of  old  moral  bonds,  of  the  old  family  rela- 
tions, of  the  old  nationalities. 

In  its  positive  aims,  however,  this  form  of  socialism 
aspires  either  to  restoring  the  old  means  of  production 
and  of  exchange,  and  with  them  the  old  property 
relations  and  the  old  society,  or  to  cramping  the  mod 
ern  means  of  production  and  of  exchange  within  the 

*  This  applies  chiefly  to  Germany  where  the  landed 
aristocracy  and  squirearchy  have  large  portions  of 
their  estates  cultivated  for  their  own  account  by 
stewards,  and  are,  moreover,,  extensive  beet  root 
sugar  manufacturers  and  distillers  of  potato  spirits. 
The  wealthier  British  aristocracy  are  as  yet  rather 
above  that  ;  but  they,  too,  know  how  to  make  up  for 
declining  rents  by  lending  their  names  to  floaters  of 
more  or  less  shady  joint- stock  companies. 


framework  of  the  old  property  relations  that  have 
been  and  were  bound  to  be  exploded  by  those  means. 
In  either  case  it  is  both  reactionary  and  Utopian. 

Its  last  words  are  :  corporate  guilds  for  manufac- 
ture ;  patriarchal  relations  in  agriculture. 

Ultimately,  when  stubborn  histo'rical  facts  had  dis- 

Eersed  all  intoxicating  effects  of   self-deception,  this 
arm  of  socialism  ended  in  a  miserable  fit  of  the  blues. 

German  or  "  True  "  Socialism. 

The  socialist  and  communist  literature  of  France,  a 
literature  that  originated  under  the  pressure  of  a 
bourgeoisie  in  power,  and  that  was  the  expression  of 
the  struggle  against  this  power,  was  introduced  into 
Germany  at  a  time  when  the  bourgeoisie  in  that 
country  had  just  begun  its  contest  with  feudal  abso- 
lutism. 

German  philosophers,  would-be  philosophers,  and 
beaux  espnts  eagerly  seized  on  this  literature,  only 
forgetting  that  when  these  writings  immigrated  from 
France  into  Germany  French  social  conditions  had 
not  immigrated  along  with  them.  In  contact  with 
German  social  conditions,  this  French  literature  lost 
all  its  immediate  practical  significance,  and  assumed  a 
purely  literary  aspect.  Thus,  to  the  German  philoso- 
phers of  the  eighteenth  century  the  demands  of  the 
first  French  Revolution  were  nothing  more  than  the 
demands  of  "practical  reason"  in  general,  and  the 
utterance  of  the  will  of  the  revolutionary  French 
bourgeoisie  signified  in  their  eyes  the  laws  of  pure 
will,  of  will  as  it  was  bound  to  be,  of  true  human  will 
generally. 

The  work  of  the  German  literati  consisted  solely  in 
bringing  the  new  French  ideas  into  harmony  with 
their  ancient  philosophical  conscience,  or  rather  in  an- 
nexing the  French  ideas  without  deserting  their  own 
philosophic  point  of  view. 

This  annexation  took  place  in  the  same  way  in  which 
a  foreign  language  is  appropriated— viz.,  by  trans- 
lation 

It  is  well  known  how  the  monks  wrote  silly  lives  of 
Catholic  saints  over  the  manuscripts  on  which  the 
classical  works  of  ancient  heathendom  had  been  writ- 
ten. The  German  literati  reversed  this  process  with 
the  profane  French  literature.  They  wrote  their 
philosophical  nonsense  beneath  the  French  original. 
For  instance,  beneath  the  French  criticism  of  the 
economic  functions  of  money  they  wrote  "Alienation 
of  Humanity,"  and  beneath  the  French  criticism  of 
the  bourgeois  State  they  wrote,  "  Dethronement  of  the 
Category  of  the  General,"  and  so  forth. 

The  introduction  of  these  philosophical  phrases  at 
the  back  of  the  French  historical  criticisms  they  dub- 
bed "Philosophy  of  Action,"  "True  Socialism,"  "Ger- 
man Science  of  Socialism,"  "  Philosophical  Foundation 
of  Socialism,"  and  so  on. 

The  French  socialist  and  communist  literature  was 
thus  completely  emasculated.  And  since  it  ceased  in 
the  hands  of  the  German  to  express  the  struggle  of 
one  class  with  the  other,  he  felt  conscious  of  having 
overcome  "French  one-sidedness"  and  of  represent- 
ing not  true  requirements,  but  the  requirements  of 
truth  ,  not  the  interests  of  the  proletariat,  but  the  in- 
terests of  human  nature,  of  man  in  general,  who  be- 
longs to  no  class,  has  no  reality,  who  exists  only  in  the 
misty  realm  of  philosophical  phantasy. 

This  German  socialism,  which  took  its  schoolboy 
task  so  seriously  and  solemnly,  and  extolled  its  poor 
stock-in-trade  in  such  mountebank  fashion,  mean- 
while gradually  lost  its  pedantic  innocence. 

The  fight  of  the  German  and,  especially?  of  the 
Prussian  bourgeoisie  against  feudal  aristocracy  and 
absolute  monarchy  in  other  words,  the  liberal  move- 
ment, became  more  earnest 

By  this  the  long  wished- for  opportunity  was  offered 
to  ''true  socialism"  of  confronting  the  political 
movement  with  the  socialist  demands,  of  hurling  the 
traditional  anathemas  against  liberalism,  against  rep- 
resentative government,  against  bourgeois  competi- 
tion, bourgeois  freedom  of  the  press,  bourgeois  legis- 
lation, bourgeois  liberty  and  equality,  and  of  preaching 
to  the  masses  that  they  had  nothing  to  gain  and 
everything  to  lose  by  this  bourgeois  movement.  Ger- 
man socialism  forgot  in  the  nick  of  time  that  the 
French  criticism,  whose  silly  echo  it  was,  presupposed 
the  existence  of  modern  bourgeois  society,  with  its 
corresponding  economic  conditions  of  existence,  and 
the  political  constitution  adapted  thereto,  the  very 
things  whose  attainment  was  the  object  of  the  pending 
struggle  in  Germany. 

To  the  absolute  governments,  with  their  following 
of  parsons,  professors,  country  squires,  and  officials,  it 


Manifestoes. 


g-x 


Manifestoes. 


SiVoVbVfe'o^laS,'1'''  t»!''  '«io»^  •»««»'' 

4»in%xsuR^r^iBr»<i« 

3.  Critical -Utopian  Socialism  and  Communism 


fnegVbeodur|eaoi"eeIC°meSCareCrow  a^^  the  threaten- 

s^csFgs&iS&S 

social  basis  of  the  existing  state  of  things  '  6  fea        ,-fc^'c  "rbl  °lrect  attempts  of  the 

"" 

i^i^iSFgi^l^W 
"^Sa^^l^^ass  ""*• 

SSlElSHiSEHS^ 


*S®2S&S!?*t^s;as!lT! 
^»JS5ia3gs3?Bl^J? 

•I 


ya/w  or  Bourgeois  Socialism. 

cieties  for  the  prevention  of  crueltv •  t^lSimaU  tPm" 
J^r^fSjSS1''  «^SJS'3Kr«r.  as 

s.ssisrLrs'i  Th?y  SsSiS 

formSof0  thisansoc?a°lFsmPr^CnlSff1>  ,bU5  leSS  systematic 
;»,  „ —  ,.    """•c«^ai  conuitions  of  pvietnn/^o 


fef 7ha°  f  r?K,H^  ,s h-x  £s3 

simohfy  the  administrattvp  ivnr-ij-  ^f  K 

DIK  or  oourgeois  govern- 


--  see,  indeed,  the  class 

Si3i&2^*E& 

4"^^^a^r^^BSis!!5'Isj 

^«^tsaS2fB2gSSlS 
SS^JSjEsSSaSSraS 

S^»a^pSssS 


Manifestoes. 


85* 


Manifestoes. 


The  significance  of  critical-Utopian  socialism  and 
communism  bears  an  inverse  relation  to  historical 
development.  In  proportion  as  the  modern  class 
struggle  develops  and  takes  definite  shape,  this  fan- 
tastic standing  apart  from  the  contest,  these  fantastic 
attacks  on  it  lose  all  practical  value  and  all  theoretical 
justification.  Therefore,  althothe  originators  of  these 
systems  were,  in  many  respects,  revolutionary,  their 
disciples  have,  in  every  case,  formed  mere  reactionary 
sects.  They  hold  fast  by  the  original  views  of  their 
masters,  in  opposition  to  the  progressive  historical  de- 
velopment of  the  proletariat.  They,  therefore,  en- 
deavor, and  that  consistently,  to  deaden  the  class 
struggle  and  to  reconcile  the  class  antagonisms.  They 
still  dream  of  experimental  realization  of  their  social 
Utopias,  of  founding  isolated  "  phalansteres,"  of  es- 
tablishing "home  colonies,"  of  setting  up  a  "little 
Icaria  "—duodecimo  editions  of  the  New  Jerusalem, 
and  to  realize  all  these  castles  in  the  air,  they  are  com- 
pelled to  appeal  to  the  feelings  and  purses  of  the 
bourgeois.  By  degrees  they  sink  into  the  category  of 
the  reactionary  conservative  socialists  depicted 
above,  differing  from  these  only  by  more  systematic 
pedantry,  and  by  their  fanatical  and  superstitious  be- 
lief in  the  miraculous  effects  of  their  social  science. 

They,  therefore,  violently  oppose  all  political  action 
on  the  part  of  the  working  class  ;  such  action,  accord- 
ing to  them,  can  only  result  from  blind  unbelief  in  the 
new  Gospel. 

The  Owenites  in  England  and  the  Fourierists  in 
France  respectively  oppose  the  Chartists  and  the 
"Reformistes." 

IV.     POSITION    OF  THE    COMMUNISTS    IN    RELATION    TO 
THE  VARIOUS  EXISTING  OPPOSITION    PARTIES. 

Section  II.  has  made  clear  the  relations  of  the  com- 
munists to  the  existing  working  class  parties,  such  as 
the  Chartists  in  England  and  the  agrarian  reformers 
in  America. 

The  communists  fight  for  the  attainment  of  the  im- 
mediate aims,  for  the  enforcement  of  the  momentary 
interests  of  the  working  class  ;  but  in  movement  of 
the  present,  they  also  represent  and  take  care  of  the 
future  of  that  movement.  In  France  the  communists 
ally  themselves  with  the  social-democrats,*  against 
the  conservative  and  radical  bourgeoisie,  reserving, 
however,  the  right  to  take  up  a  critical  position  in  re- 
gard to  phrases  and  illusions  traditionally  handed 
down  from  the  great  revolution. 

In  Switzerland  they  support  the  Radicals,  without 
losing  sight  of  the  fact  that  this  party  consists  of 
antagonistic  elements,  partly  of  democratic  socialists, 
in  the  French  sense,  partly  of  radical  bourgeois. 

In  Poland  they  support  the  party  that  insists  on  an 
agrarian  revolution,  as  the  prime  condition  for  nation- 
al emancipation,  that  party  which  fomented  the  in- 
surrection of  Cracow  in  1846. 

In  Germany  they  fight  with  the  bourgeoisie  when- 
ever it  acts  in  a  revolutionary  way,  against  the  abso- 
lute monarchy,  the  feudal  squirearchy,  and  the  petty 
bourgeoisie. 

But  they  never  cease,  for  a  single  instant,  to  Instil 
into  the  working  class  the  clearest  possible  recogni- 
tion of  the  hostile  antagonism  between  bourgeoisie 
and  proletariat,  in  order  that  the  German  workers 
may  straightway  use,  as  so  many  weapons  against  the 
bourgeoisie,  the  social  and  political  conditions  that 
the  bourgeoisie  must  necessarily  introduce  along  with 
its  supremacy,  and  in  order  that,  after  the  fall  of  the 
reactionary  classes  in  Germany,  the  fight  against  the 
bourgeoisie  itself  may  immediately  begin. 

The  communists  turn  their  attention  chiefly  to 
Germany,  because  that  country  is  on  the  eve  of  a 
bourgeois  revolution,  that  is  bound  to  be  carried  out 
under  more  advanced  conditions  of  European  civiliza- 
tion, and  with  a  much  more  developed  proletariat, 
than  that  of  England  was  in  the  seventeenth,  and  of 
France  in  the  eighteenth  century,  and  because  the 
bourgeois  revolution  in  Germany  will  be  but  the  prel- 
ude to  an  immediately  following  proletarian  revolu- 
tion. 

In  short,  the  communists  everywhere  support  every 
revolutionary  movement  against  the  existing  social 
and  political  order  of  things. 


*  The  party  then  represented  in  Parliament  by 
Ledru-Rollin,  in  literature  by  Louis  Blanc,  in  the 
daily  press  by  the  Reforme.  The  name  of  social  de- 
mocracy signified,  with  these  its  inventors,  a  section 
of  the  democratic  or  republican  party  more  or  less 
tinged  with  socialism. 


In  all  these  movements  they  bring  to  the  front,  as 
the  leading  question  in  each,  the  property  question,  no 
matter  what  its  degree  of  development  at  the  time. 

Finally,  they  labor  everywhere  for  the  union  and 
agreement  of  the  democratic  parties  of  all  countries. 

The  communists  disdain  to  conceal  their  views  and 
aims.  They  openly  declare  that  their  ends  can  be  at- 
tained only  by  the  forcible  overthrow  of  all  existing 
social  conditions.  Let  the  ruling  classes  tremble  at  a 
communistic  revolution.  The  proletarians  have  noth- 
ing to  lose  but  their  chains.  They  have  a  world  to 
win. 

Workingmen  of  all  countries,  unite  ! 

As  the  preceding  manifesto  is  the  classical  ex- 
position of  socialism  or  communism  as  it  was 
held  in  the  middle  of  the  century,  so  the  follow- 
ing manifesto  may  be  taken  as  an  authoritative 
representation  of  modern  socialism,  signed  as 
it  is  by  the  leaders  of  societies  representing  all 
the  phases  of  socialism  held  in  England  or  in- 
deed elsewhere,  with  the  exception  of  Christian 
Socialism,  for  which  see  that  article. 

MANIFESTO  OF  THE  JOINT  COMMITTEE  OF  SOCIALIST 
BODIES  (1893). 

There  is  a  growing  feeling  at  the  present  time  that, 
in  view  of  the  increasing  number  of  socialists  in  Great 
Britain,  an  effort  should  be  made  to  show  that,  what- 
ever differences  may  have  arisen  between  them  in  the 
past,  all  who  can  fairly  be  called  socialists  are  agreed 
in  their  main  principles  of  thought  and  action. 

This  is  the  more  hopeful  since,  tho  much  has  been 
made  of  those  differences  by  the  opponents  of  social- 
ism, it  is  safe  to  say  that  they  have  been  rather  of  less 
than  more  importance    than   similar  disputes  of  the 
early  days  of  great  movements  which  have  afterward 
become  solid    and   irresistible.      There 
has  indeed  been  constant    cooperation 
in  propagandist  work  between  the  indi-    The  Situa- 
vidual  members  of  different  organiza-          ... 
tions,  and    occasional    cooperation    be-          won. 
tween    the    organizations    in    political 
emergencies;  but  more  than  this  is  now 
needed  if  we  are   to  make  a  serious  advance  in  the 
work  of  gathering  together   and  directing  the  great 
body  of  thought  and  feeling  which  is  setting  toward 
socialism. 

Meanwhile,  the  necessity  for  the  development  of  a 
new  social  order  is  getting  more  obvipus  to  all  think- 
ing people,  and  without  the  growing  aspirations 
toward  socialism  the  outlook  of  modern  civilization 
would  be  hopeless. 

The  vigorous  propaganda  which  has  been  carried  on 
for  the  last  12  years,  and  the  complete  change  in  the 
attitude  of  the  working  classes  and  the  public  gener- 
ally toward  socialism,  could  not  but  attract  the  no- 
tice, and  perhaps  excite  the  anxiety,  of  the  politicians 
of  the  possessing  classes  ;  but  they  have  shown  hith- 
erto that  they  have  lacked  both  the  will  and  the  power 
to  do  anything  effective  toward  meeting  the  evils  en- 
gendered by  our  present  system.  In  spite  of  factory 
acts  and  factory  inspectors,  in  spite  of  sanitary  legis- 
lation and  royal  commissions,  the  condition  of  the 
working  people  is,  relatively  to  the  increased  wealth 
of  the  country,  worse  than  it  was  20  years  ago.  Chil- 
dren are  still  growing  up  among  such  surroundings  and 
so  insufficiently  nourished  that  health  and  strength  are 
for  them  an  impossibility  ;  dangerous  and  unwhole- 
some trades,  inflicting  hideous  diseases  on  those  who 
work  at  them,  are  still  carried  on  by  the  capitalists 
with  impunity  ;  overcrowding,  accompanied  by  in- 
creasing rents,  is  the  rule  rather  than  the  exception  in 
all  our  great  cities. 

At  the  same  time,  the  great  and  growing  depression 
in  the  most  vital  of  industries,  agriculture,  tends  to 
drive  the  people  more  and  more  from  the  country  into 
the  towns,  while  it  so  narrows  the  field  from  which 
healthy  and  vigorous  industrial  recruits  have  been 
drawn  in  the  past  that  the  physical  deterioration  of 
our  city  population  is  more  severely  felt  than  ever 
before. 

Moreover,  the  question  of  the  unemployed  is  more 
pressing  to-day  than  at  any  recent  period.  The  inca- 
pacity of  the  capitalist  class  to  handle  the  machinery 
of  production  without  injury  to  the  community  has 
been  demonstrated  afresh  by  the  crisis  of  1890,  itself 
following  upon  a  very  short  "period  o£  inflation  ,  since 
which  time  every  department  of  trade  and  industry 


Manifestoes. 


853 


Manifestoes. 


has  suffered  from  lack  of  initiative  and  want  of  confi- 
dence and  ability  among  these  "  organizers  of  labor." 
As  a  result  the  numbers  of  the  unemployed  have  in- 
creased rapidly  ;  the  prospect  of  any  improvement  is 
still  remote ;  and  the  stereotyped  official  assurance 
that  there  is  no  exceptional  distress  only  emphasizes 
the  fact  that  it  is  prosperity,  not  distress,  which  is  ex- 
ceptional. Indeed,  the  greatest  "prosperity"  possible 
under  the  present  system  could  only  lessen  the  mass 
of  those  without  occupation,  and  bring  them  down  to  a 
number  manageable  by  the  employers.  Meantime, 
small  improvements  made  in  deference  to  the  ill-for- 
mulated demands  of  the  workers,  tho  for  a  time  they 
seem  almost  a  social  revolution  to  men  ignorant  of 
their  own  resources  and  of  their  capacity  for  enjoy- 
ment, will  not  really  raise  the  condition  of  the  whole 
people. 

In  short,  the  capitalist  system,  by  which  we  mean 
the  established  plan  of  farming  out  our  national  in- 
dustries in  private  property  lots,  and 
trusting  to  the  greed  of  the  owners  and 
Capitalism,  the  competition  between  them  to  ensure 
their  productive  use,  is  the  only  arrange- 
ment possible  in  a  society  not  organized 
enough  to  administer  its  own  industry  as  a  national 
concern.    This  shiftless  method  has  indeed  kept  the 
shop  open,  so  to  speak,  but  at  a  frightful  cost  in  human 
degradation,  as  might  have  been  expected  from  its 
basis.     All  the  investigations  undertaken  with  a  view 
to  convicting  socialists  of  exaggeration  and  one-sided- 
ness  in  their  attacks  upon  it  have  shown  that  the  facts 
are  worse  than  any  socialist  dared  to  surmise,  and 
that  half  a    century    of    ameliorative  regulation  by 
means  of  factory  legislation  and  the  like  has  failed  to 
weaken  the  force  of  former  exposures  of  capitalism. 

Among  recent  anti-socialist  statisticians  Mr.  Robert 
Giffen  has  been  led  by  his  own  counterblast  to  social- 
ism into  the  exclamation,  "  That  no  one  can  contem- 
plate the  present  condition  of  the  masses  without  de- 
siring something  like  a  revolution  for  the  better." 
And  the  facts  as  to  London  poverty,  laid  bare  by  Mr. 
Charles  Booth,  dispose  of  the  possibility  of  leaving 
things  as  they  are  ;  altho  Mr.  Booth,  who  is  a  conserv- 
ative in  politics,  undertook  his  great  inquiry  expressly 
to  confute  what  he  then  thought  to  be  socialist  over- 
statements. The  horrible  revelations  concerning  Eng- 
lish home  life  made  by  the  Society  for  the  Prevention 
of  Cruelty  to  Children  have  effectually  dispelled  the 
illusion  that  the  cruelty  and  selfishness  of  the  factory 
and  mine  have  not  infected  the  household,  or  that  so- 
ciety can  safely  abandon  its  children  to  irresponsible 
private  ownership  any  more  than  its  land  and  capital. 
Under  these  circumstances  of  a  continued  degrada- 
tion of  the  really  useful  part  of  the  population — a  con- 
sequence as  inherent  in  the  present  system  of  owner- 
ship as  it  was  in  the  system  of  chattel  slavery— the 
need  for  a  new  social  order  is  obvious.  Some  con- 
structive social  theory  is  asked  for,  and  none  are  offer- 
ed except  the  feudal  or  Tory  theory,  which  is  incompat- 
ible with  democracy  ;  the  Manchester  or  Whig  theory, 
which  has  broken  down  in  practice,  and  the  socialist 
theory.  It  is,  therefore,  opportune  to  remind  the  pub- 
lic once  more  of  what  socialism  means  to  those  who 
are  working  for  the  transformation  of  our  present  un- 
socialist  state  into  a  collectiyist  republic,  and  who  are 
entirely  free  from  the  illusion  that  the  amelioration 
or  "  moralization"  of  the  conditions  of  capitalist  pri- 
vate property  can  do  away  with  the  necessity  for 
abolishing  it.  Even  those  readjustments  of  industry 
and  administration  which  are  socialist  in  form  will 
not  be  permanently  useful  unless  the  whole  state  is 
merged  into  an  organized  commonwealth.  Municipal- 
ization,  for  instance,  can  only  be  accepted  as  socialism 
on  the  condition  of  its  forming  a  part  of  national  and 
at  last  of  international  socialism,  in  which  the  workers 
of  all  nations,  while  adopting  within  the  borders  of 
their  own  countries  those  methods  which  are  rendered 
necessary  by  their  historic  development,  can  federate 
upon  a  common  basis  of  the  collective  ownership  of 
the  great  means  and  instruments  of  the  creation  and 
distribution  of  wealth,  and  thus  break  down  national 
animosities  by  the  solidarity  of  human  interests 
throughout  the  civilized  world. 

On  this  point  all  socialists  agree.  Our  aim,  one  and 
all,  is  to  obtain  for  the  whole  community  complete 
ownership  and  control  of  the  means  of  transport,  the 
means  of  manufacture,  the  mines,  and  the  land.  Thus 
we  look  to  put  an  end  forever  to  the  wage-system,  to 
sweep  away  all  distinctions  of  class,  and  eventually  to 
establish  national  and  international  communism  on  a 
sound  basis. 

To  this  end  it  is  imperative  on  all  members  of  the 
socialist  party  to  gather  together  their  forces  in  order 


to  formulate  a  definite  policy  and  force  on  its  general 
acceptance. 

But  here  we  must  repudiate  both  the  doctrines  and 
tactics  of  anarchism.  As  socialists  we  believe  that 
those  doctrines  and  the  tactics  necessarily  resulting 
from  them,  tho  advocated  as  revolutionary  by  men 
who  are  honest  and  single-minded,  are  really  reac- 
tionary both  in  theory  and  practice,  and  tend  to  check 
the  advance  of  our  cause.  Indeed,  so  far  from  ham- 
pering the  freedom  of  tho  individual,  as  anarchists 
hold  it  will,  socialism  will  foster  that  full  freedom 
which  anarchism  would  inevitably  destroy. 

As  to  the  means  for  the  attainment  of  our  end,  in  the 
first  place  we  socialists  look  for  our  success  to  the  in- 
creasing and  energetic  promulgation  of  our  views 
among  the  whole  people,  and  next  to  the  capture  and 
transformation  of  the  great  social  machinery.  In  any 
case  the  people  have  increasingly  at  hand  the  power 
of  dominating  and  controlling  the  whole  political,  and 
through  the  political,  the  social  forces  of  the  empire. 

The  first  step  toward  transformation  and  reorgani- 
zation must  necessarily  be  in  the  direction  of  the  limi- 
tation of  class  robbery,  and  the  consequent  raising  of 
the  standard  of  lite  for  the  individual. 
In  this  direction  certain  measures  have 
been  brought  within  the  scope  of  prac-     Program. 
tical  politics  ;  and    we    name   them  as 
having  been  urged  and  supported  origi- 
nally and  chiefly  by  socialists,  and  advocated  by  them 
still,  not,  as  above  said,  as  solutions  of  social  wrongs, 
but  as  tending  to  lessen  the  evils  of  the  existing  regime  ; 
so  that  individuals  of  the  useful  classes,  having  more 
leisure  and  less  anxiety,  may  be  able  to  turn  their  at- 
tention to  the  only  real  remedy  for  their  position  of 
inferiority— to  wit,  the    supplanting    of    the  present 
state  by  a  society  of  equality  of  condition.     When  this 
great  change  is  completely  carried  out  the  genuine 
liberty  of  all  will  be  secured  by  the  free  play  of  social 
forces  with  much  less  coercive  interference  than  the 
present  system  entails. 

The  following  are  some  of  the  measures  spoken  of 
above :  An  eight-hour  law ;  prohibition  of  child  labor 
for  wages ;  free  maintenance  of  all  necessitous  chil- 
dren ;  equal  payment  of  men  and  women  for  equal 
work  ;  an  adequate  minimum  wage  for  all  adults  em- 
ployed in  the  Government  and  Municipal  services,  or 
in  any  monopolies,  such  as  railways,  enjoying  State 
privileges  ;  suppression  of  all  sub-contracting  and 
sweating ;  universal  suffrage  for  all  adults,  men  and 
women  alike  ;  public  payment  for  all  public  service. 

The  inevitable  economic  development  points  to  the 
direct  absorption  by  the  State,  as  an  organized  de- 
mocracy, of  monopolies  which  have  been  granted  to 
or  constituted  by  companies,  and  their  immediate 
conversion  into  public  services.  But  the  railway  sys- 
tem is  of  all  the  monopolies  that  which  could  be"  most 
easily  and  conveniently  so  converted.  It  is  certain 
that  no  attempt  to  reorganize  industry  on  the  land  can 
be  successful  so  long  as  the  railways  are  in  private 
hands,  and  excessive  rates  of  carriage  are  charged. 
Recent  events  have  hastened  on  the  socialist  solution 
of  this  particular  question,  and  the  disinclination  of 
boards  of  directors  to  adopt  improvements  which 
would  cheapen  freight  prove  that  in  this,  as  in  other 
cases,  English  capitalists,  far  from  being  enlightened 
by  competition,  are  blinded  by  it  even  to  their  own  in- 
terests. 

In  other  directions  the  growth  of  combination,  as 
with  banks,  shipping  companies,  and  huge  limited 
liability  concerns,  organized  both  for  production  and 
distribution,  show  that  the  time  is  ripe  for  social- 
ist organization.  The  economic  development  in  this 
direction  is  already  so  far  advanced  that  the  socializa- 
tion of  production  and  distribution  on  the  economic 
side  of  things  can  easily  and  at  once  begin,  when  the 

Reople  have  made  up  their  minds  to  overthrow  privi- 
;ge  and  monopoly.  In  order  to  effect  the  change  from 
capitalism  to  cooperation,  from  unconscious  revolt  to 
conscious  reorganization,  it  is  necessary  that  we  so- 
cialists should  constitute  ourselves  into  a  distinct  po- 
litical party  with  definite  aims,  marching  steadily 
along  our  own  highway  without  reference  to  the  con- 
venience of  political  factions. 

We  have  thus  stated  the  main  principles  and  the 
broad  strategy  on  which,  as  we  believe,  all  socialists 
may  combine  to  act  with  vigor.  The  opportunity  for 
deliberate  and  determined  action  is  now  always  with 
us,  and  local  autonomy  in  all  local  matters  will  still 
leave  the  fullest  outlet  for  national  and  international 
socialism.  We  therefore  confidently  appeal  to  all  so- 
cialists to  sink  their  individual  crotchets  in  a  business- 
like endeavor  to  realize  in  our  own  day  that  complete 
communization  of  industry  for  which  the  economic 


Manifestoes. 


854 


Manor. 


The  Joint  Committee  of 
the  Social-Democratic 
Federation,  the  Fabi- 
an Society,  and  the 
Hammersmith  Social- 
ist Society. 


forms  are  ready  and  the  minds  of  the  people  are  almost 
prepared. 

ALFRED  BEASLEY, 
SAMUEL  BULLOCK,, 
J.  E.  DOBSON, 
w.  S.  DE  MATTOS, 
W.  H.  GRANT, 
H.  M.  HYNDMAN, 
WILLIAM  MORRIS, 
SYDNEY  OLIVIER, 
TOUZEAU  PARRIS, 
HARRY  QUELCH, 
H.  B.  ROGERS, 
GEO.  BERNARD  SHAW, 
WILLIAM  UTLEY, 
SIDNEY  WEBB, 
ERNEST  E.  WILLIAMS, 

Signed  on  behalf  of  the  undermentioned  bodies  : 
H.  W.  LEE,  Secretary  Social-Democratic  Federa- 
tion. 

EDWARD  R.  PEASE,  Secretary  Fabian  Society. 
EMERY  WALKER,  Secretary  Hammersmith  Social- 
ist Society. 

MANN,  HORACE,  was  born  in  1796  in 
Franklin.  Mass  His  father  was  a  farmer  in 
limited  circumstances,  and  the  son  was  early 
taught  self-reliance  and  independence  by  a  se- 
vere and  frugal  life.  He  graduated  at  Brown 
University  in  1819.  He  was  admitted  to  the 
bar  in  1823,  elected  to  the  Legislature  in  1827, 
and  in  that  body  was  active  in  the  interests  of 
education,  public  charities,  and  laws  for  the  sup- 
pression of  lotteries  and  intemperance.  In  the 
practice  of  his  profession  he  adopted  the  prin- 
ciple  never  to  take  the  unjust  side  of  any  case, 
and  he  is  said  to  have  gained  four  fifths  of  the 
cases  entrusted  to  him,  as  all  juries  felt  perfect 
confidence  in  the  honesty  of  his  purpose.  From 
1837-48  he  was  Secretary  of  the  Massachusetts 
Board  of  Education.  He  introduced  a  thorough 
reform  into  the  school  system  of  the  State,  estab 
lishing  normal  schools,  and  instituting  county 
educational  conventions.  He  opposed  corporal 
punishment  in  school  discipline.  He  visited 
Europe,  investigated  the  condition  of  the  schools, 
and  embodied  his  observations  in  a  published 
report.  By  his  lectures  and  writings  he  awak- 
ened an  interest  in  the  cause  of  education  that 
had  never  been  so  strongly  felt  before.  For  n 
years  he  labored  1 5  hours  a  day  in  the  interests 
of  a  completer  education.  In  1848  he  was  elect- 
ed to  Congress.  His  first  speech,  in  that  body 
was  in  advocacy  of  its  right  and  duty  to  exclude 
slavery  from  the  territories.  "I  consider  no 
evil  as  great  as  slavery,"  he  said.  Opposing 
Webster  on  this  question,  he  was  defeated  by 
one  vote  ;  but  on  appealing  to  the  people  as  an 
independent  anti-slavery  candidate,  he  was  re- 
elected  and  served  till  1853.  He  was  nominated 
for  Governor  of  Massachusetts  by  the  Free  Soil 
Party,  but  was  unsuccessful.  He  was  chosen 
President  of  Antioch  College,  Yellow  Springs, 
O.,  accepted  the  office,  and  continued  in  it  until 
his  death  in  1859. 

MANN,  TOM,  was  born  at  Foleshill,  War- 
wickshire, April  15,  1856,  the  son  of  a  colliery 
clerk.  At  the  early  age  of  nine  he  worked  in 
coal  mines,  dragging  on  his  hands  and  knees 
heavy  trollies  through  low,  dark  passages. 
Gradually,  however,  he  worked  his  way  up, 
coming  to  serve  an  apprenticeship  as  machinist 
in  Birmingham,  and  in  1877  going  to  London 
as  an  engineer.  He  also  had  a  short  experience 


of  work  in  the  United  States.  He  early  became 
interested  in  social  movements,  and  manifested 
a  religious  bent.  Brought  up  in  the  Church  of 
England,  he  left  it  for  a  while  to  try  other 
churches.  At  Birmingham  he  was  connected 
with  the  Quakers,  and  attended  one  of  their 
Bible  classes,  as  well  as  night  schools  of  science 
and  art.  When  he  came  to  London  he  took  a 
Sunday-school  class  at  St.  Stephen's,  Westmin- 
ster, but  left  it  for  Mr.  Voysey's  church,  and 
later  for  the  Swedenborgians  at  Argyle  Square, 
where  he  was  married  to  his  devoted  wife.  He 
became  an  ardent  teetotaler  at  Birmingham, 
and  started  "  A  Mutual  Improvement  Society." 
He  read  Spencer  and  Ruskin,  and  gave  lec- 
tures to  working  men  on  astronomy  ;  but  grad- 
ually became  more  and  more  especially  inter- 
ested in  the  labor  movement.  He  commenced 
as  a  Henry  George  man,  but  soon  became  a 
socialist,  and  in  1885  joined  the  Social  Demo- 
cratic Federation,  for  which  he  worked  as  a 
lecturer  and  organizer,  taking  also  a  prominent 
part  in  the  eight-hour  agitation.  While  an  en- 
gineer he  had  become  interested  in  the  Thames 
docks,  and  so  in  the  terrible  condition  of  the 
dockers,  who,  on  account  of  irregularity  of  work 
and  lowness  of  pay,  were  among  the  lowest 
class  of  London  laborers.  (See  DOCK  STRIKE.) 
Among  these  Mr.  Mann  especially  worked,  and 
a  trades-union  was  formed,  of  which  Mr.  Mann, 
tho  not  a  docker,  was  elected  President.  In  the 
great  London  Dock  Strikes  (g.v.},  which  almost 
marks  an  epoch  in  the  English  labor  movement, 
he  was  one  of  the  chief  leaders,  and  contributed 
largely  to  its  satisfactory  result.  He  also  be- 
came a  member  of  the  Amalgamated  Society  of 
Engineers  and  of  the  London  Trades  Council. 
In  1891  he  was  appointed  by  the  Conservative 
administration  a  member  of  the  Royal  Commis- 
sion of  Labor  and  signed  the  minority  report. 
He  was  later  chosen  first  secretary  of  the  Lon- 
don Reform  Union.  He  left  this  post,  however, 
in  a  year  to  become  the  active  and  popular  gen- 
eral secretary  of  the  Independent  Labor  Party 
(y.v.),  to  which  organization  the  efforts  of  his 
last  years  have  been  directed.  In  1894  he  was 
the  Independent  Labor  Party  candidate  for 
Colne  Valley,  and  again  in  1895.  In  both  cases 
he  was  defeated,  but  polled  a  large  vote. 

MANOR  (from  Latin  manere,  to  remain)  was 
the  name  given  in  medieval  England  to  a 
landed  estate.  The  exact  nature  of  the  English 
manor  is,  however,  in  dispute.  Mr.  E.  Nasse,  a 
German  scholar,  argues  in  a  work  on  Agricul- 
tural Communities  of  the  Middle  Ages  in 
England,  that  down  to  the  Norman  Conquest 
agricultural  England  was  tilled  by  communities 
of  free  peasant  proprietors,  similar  to  the  com- 
munal conception  of  the  German  mark  (g.v.)t 
and  similar  to  the  conception  of  the  holding 
of  primitive  property  advocated  by  De  Lave- 
leye  and  many  others.  Mr.  F.  Seebohm,  in  his 
The  English  Village  Communities  and  the 
English  Manor,  has  contested  this  opinion, 
and  argues  that  the  manor,  as  the  estate  of  a 
lord  or  thane  with  villeins  under  him,  was  the 
original  and  universal  system  in  England. 
Both  views  find  defenders.  (See  PRIMITIVE 
PROPERTY.)  Authorities,  however,  at  present 
seem  to  incline  to  the  views  of  Seebohm,  with, 


Manor. 


855 


Manufactures. 


however,  some  modifications.  The  marks,  even 
in  Germany  (see  MARK),  were  probably  not 
communities  of  absolute  equals.  There' seem 
to  have  been  from  the  earliest  times  ceorls  or 
eorls,  the  latter  being  nobler  blood,  and  from 
them  being  elected  the  ealdormen  or  rulers  in 
peace  and  leaders  in  war.  They  led  in  coun- 
cil, tho  the  final  decision  seems  to  have  been 
by  the  clash  of  arms  of  the  ceorls.  Gradually, 
however,  the  power  of  the  eorl  seems  to  have 
grown,  and  that  of  the  ceorls  to  have  lessened. 
As  England  under  Alfred  and  others  developed 
more  settled  unity,  the  power  of  the  king  was 
exalted,  and  the  eorl  becomes  his  thegn  or  rep- 
resentative, and  the  ceorl,  the  villein  or  feudal 
inferior  of  the  eorl,  the  ceorl  losing  his  vote 
and  becoming  a  serf  of  the  soil.  This  change 
seems  to  have  been  gradual ;  the  French  manor 
of  the  conquest  simply  recognized  changes  long 
developed.  Says  Seebohm  (English  Village 
Communities,  p.  76) : 

"  These  manors  were,  in  fact,  in  their  simplest  form, 
estates  of  manorial  lords,  each  with  its  village  com- 
munity in  villenage  upon  it.  The  land  of  the  lord's 
demesne— the  home  farm  belonging  to  the  manor- 
house — was  cultivated  chiefly  by  the  services  of  the 
villata— i.e.,  of  the  village  community  or  tenants  in 
villenage.  The  land  of  this  village  community— i.e., 
the  land  in  villenage— lay  round  the  village  in  open 
fields.  In  the  villages  were  the  messuages  or  home- 
steads of  the  tenants  ill  villenage,  and  their  holdings 
were  composed  of  bundles  of  scattered  strips  in  the 
open  fields,  with  rights  of  pasture  over  the  latter  for 
their  cattle  after  the  crops  were  gathered,  as  well  as 
on  the  green  commons  of  the  manor  or  township." 

These  strips  were  due,  according  to  Professor 
W.  L.  Birbeck  (Distribution  of  Land  in  Eng- 
land), not  to  requirements  of  tenure,  but  the 
requirements  of  drainage,  it  being  the  custom 
to  throw  the  land  by  means  of  the  rude  plows 
into  ridges  rising  from  the  side  to  the  middle. 
This  view  thus  finds  in  the  manor  no  trace  of 
communal  holding,  but  rather  of  a  feudalism 
by  no  means  light.  See  FEUDALISM. 

MANUAL    TRAINING.     See  INDUSTRIAL 

EDUCATION. 

MANUFACTURES.— We  give,  under  this 
heading,  some  general  statistics  of  the  growth 
and  present  development  of  manufacturing  in 
the  United  States.  (For  other  countries,  see 
those  countries.  For  details  as  to  important 
industries,  see  those  industries  ;  for  various  other 
points,  see  FACTORY  SYSTEM  ;  LABOR  LEGIS- 
LATION ;  MACHINERY  ;  PRODUCTION  ;  WAGES,  etc.) 
American  manufacturing  during  the  colonial 
period  was  checked  by  the  unwillingness  of 
England  to  allow  machines  to  be  introduced 
into  this  country  ;  but  after  the  Revolution  and 
the  establishment  of  the  Government,  manufac- 
turing developed  fast.  How  it  has  recently 
gained  on  other  industries  is  seen  by  the  fact 
that  in  1870  the  agricultural  product  of  the 
United  States  was  $333  ;  manufacturing,  $680, 
and  mining,  $717.  In  1890  the  figures  were 
$290,  $893  and  $740.  Mr.  Carroll  D.  Wright, 
in  his  Industrial  Evolution  of  the  United 
States,  gives  the  following  comparison  between 
1 8 10  and  1860  : 

"For  the  first  year  the  marshals  employed  in  taking 
the  census  reported  the  value  of  goods  manufactured 
by  the  loom,  of  cotton,  wool,  flax,  hemp,  and  silk,  with 
stockings,  as  stated,  at  $39,497,057  ;  other  goods  of  these 
five  materials,  spun,  $2,052,120 ;  instruments  and 


machinery  manufactured,   $186,650 ;   carding,   fulling, 
and    floor-cloth    stamping  by    machinery,    $5,957,816 ; 
hats  of  wool,  fur,  etc.,  and  of  mixtures 
of  them,  $4,323,744  ;  manufactures  of  iron, 
$14,364,526  ;    manufactures  of  gold,  sil-  Products  in 
ver,  set  work,  mixed  metals,  etc.,  $2,483,-         i«io 
912 ;    manufactures    of    lead,    $325,560 ;         *o*Vi 
soap,  tallow  candles,  wax,  and  sperma- 
ceti, spring  oil  and  whale  oil,  $1,766,292  ; 
manufactures  of  hides  and  skins,  $17,935,477  ;  manufac- 
tures from  seeds,   $858,509 ;  grain,  fruit,  and  case  liq- 
uors, distilled  and  fermented,  $16,528,207  ;  dry  manu- 
factures from  grain,   exclusively  of  flour,  meal,  etc., 
$75.766  ;  manufactures   of  wood,  $5,554,708  ;   manufac- 
tures of  essences  and  oils,  of  and  from  wood,  $179,150  ; 
refined  or  manufactured  sugars,  $1,415,724  ;  manufac- 
tures   of    paper,    pasteboard,    cards,    etc.,    $1,939,285 ; 
manufactures  of    marble,   stone,   and   slate,    $462,115 ; 
glass  manufactures,  $1,047,004  ;  earthen  manufactures, 
$259,720;  manufactures  of  tobacco,   $1,260,378;   drugs, 
dye-stuffs,   paints,   etc.,   and  dyeing,   $500,382 ;  cables 
and  cordage,  $4,243,168  ;  manufactures  of  hair,  $129,- 
731 ;  various  and  miscellaneous  manufactures,  $4,347,- 
601. 

"  Mr.  Tench  Coxe,  acting  under  the  directions  of  the 
Secretary  of  the  Treasury,  Mr.  Albert  Gallatin,  made 
a  valuable  analysis  of  the  manufacturing  products  of 
the  United  States,  and  the  foregoing 

Mures  are   taken   from  his  statement, 
s  report  was  completed  in  May,  1813,  i»..-j,,«4.a  :_ 
and  published  by  Congress.     The  total  rroauCtS  in 
value   of  all   the   manufactures  of  the         1813. 
country  in    1810,  as  given  by  Mr.  Coxe, 
was    $127,694,602.       By    estimating    the 
omitted  products,  Mr.  Coxe  extended  this  amount  to 
$172,762,676,  and  by  adding  some  doubtful  articles,  em- 
bracing such  manufactures  as  from  their  nature  were 
nearly  allied  to  agriculture,  as,  for  example,  cotton- 
pressing,  flour  and  meal,  productions  of  gram  and  saw- 
mills, the  manufacture  or  bricks,  tiles,  and  some  other 
articles,  he  concluded  that  the  aggregate  value  of  the 
manufactures  of  every  description  in  the  United  States 
in  1810  was  $198,613,474. 

"  The  distribution  of  this  vast  product  over  the  States 
shows  that  Pennsylvania  stood  at  the  head,  with  $33,- 
601,111,  New  York  coming  next  with  over  $25,000,000  ; 
then  Massachusetts,  with  nearly  $22,000,000;  Virginia, 
with  $15,250,000,  in  round  numbers  ;  Maryland,  with 
nearly  $11,500,000;  Connecticut,  with  over  $7,750,000; 
New  Jersey,  with  over  $7,000,000  ;  North  Carolina,  with 
over  $6,500,000;  Kentucky,  with  over  $6,000,000,  while 
Vermont,  New  Hampshire,  Rhode  Island,  South  Caro- 
lina, Georgia,  and  Maine  manufactured  products  vary- 
ing from  $3,500,000  to  $5,500,000,  in  round  numbers. 

"Ini86pthe  value  of  the  products  of  American  me- 
chanical industries  had  reached  $1,885,861,676,  but  the 
statement  by  industries  for  that  year  cannot  be  given 
in  detail.    The  values  may  be  given  for  some  of  the 
principal     industries,     however.       The 
total  value  of  all  kinds  of  cotton  goods 
was  $115,681,774.    The  value   of  woolen  Products  in 
goods  was  $61,895,217.     Clothing  had  by         lafin 
this  time  become  a  great  industry.     It         low. 
had  grown  up  within  a  few  years  of  the 
close  of  the  first  period,  and  in  all  the 
principal  cities  had  become  an  industry  of  magnitude 
and  importance,  the  value  of  the  product  being  $73,- 
219,765.    The  great  industry  of  boots  and  shoes,  which 
is  closely  allied  to  that  of  clothing,  and  which  was,  at 
the  period  being  considered,  beginning  to  feel  the  in- 
fluence of  the  factory  system  of  labor,  represented,  in 
1860,  a  product  worth  $91,891,498.  .  .  . 

"  The  distribution  of  the  manufactures  over  the  States 
and  Territories  in  1860  was,  of  course,  far  more  general 
than  in  1810,  not  only  through  the  increase  in  the  num- 
ber of  States  and  the  extension  of  manufactures  in 
consequence,  but  also  over  the  States  that  were  named 
for  1810.  New  York,  however,  led  all  the  States  in 
1860,  the  value  of  her  manufactures  for  the  year  being 
$379,000,000.  Pennsylvania  came  second,  with  over 
$290,000,000,  Massachusetts  being  third,  with  over  $255,- 
000,000.  These  three  States  are  the  only  ones  which 

gassed  the  $200,000,000  line  ;  and  there  was  only  one 
tate  coming  between  $100,000,000  and  $200,000,000,  Ohio, 
which  produced  $122,000,000  worth  of  goods,  while  in 
1810  her  productions  were  too  insignificant  for  men- 
tion. The  States  passing  the  $50,000,000  line  were  Con- 
necticut, with  nearly  $82,000,000  ;  New  Jersey,  with  over 
$76,000,000 ;  California,  with  over  $68,000,000  ;  Illinois, 
with  over  $57,500,000;  Virginia,  with  over  $50,500,000.  All 
the  other  States  came  below  the  $50,000,000  line." 

For  recent  years,  the  abstract  of  the  Eleventh 
Census  gives  the  following  statistics  ; 


Manufactures. 


856 


Manufactures. 


STATES  AND  TERRITORIES, 

Year. 

Number 
of  Estab- 
lishments 
Report- 
ing. 

AVERAGE  NUMBER  OF  EM- 
PLOYEES AND  TOTAL  WAGES. 

Cost  of  Mate- 
rials Used. 

Value  of  Prod- 
ucts, including 
Receipts  from 
Custom  Work 
and  Repairing. 

Employees. 

Wages. 

The  United  States  

890 
880 

890 
880 
890 
880 
890 
880 
890 
880 
890 
880 
890 
880 
890 
880 
890 
880 
890 
880 
890 
880 
890 
880 
890 
880 
890 
880 
890 
880 
890 
880 
890 
880 
890 
880 
890 
880 
890 
880 
890 
880 
890 
880 
890 
880 
890 
880 
890 
880 
890 
880 
890 
880 
890 
880 
890 
880 
890 
880 
890 
880 
890 
880 
890 
880 
890 
880 
890 
880 
890 
880 
890 

8qo 
880 
890 
890 
880 

355.4IS 
253.852 

4,712,622 

2,732,595 

$2,283,  216,529 
947,953,795 

$5,162,044,076 
3,396,823,549 

$9-372,437,283 
5,369,579,191 

2,977 
2,070 
10 

"76 
66 
2,073 
1,202 
7,923 
5,885 
1,518 
599 
6,822 
4,488 
88  1 
251 
1,003 
746 
2,295 
971 
805 
426 
4,285 

3,593 
140 
162 
20,482 
14,549 
12,354 
11,198 
20 

7,440 
6,921 

4,47i 
2,803 

7,745 
5,328 
2,613 

1.553 
5,010 
4,481 
7,485 
6,787 
26,923 
14,352 
12,127 
8,873 
7,5°5 
3,493 
1,698 
1.479 
14,052 

8,592 
289 
196 
3,014 
1,403 
95 
184 
3,229 
3,181 
9,225 
7,128 
127 
144 
65,840 
42,739 
3,667 
3.802 
382 
28,673 
20,699 
72 

1.523 
1,080 

33,821 
10,019 
86 

'528 
220 

15,972 
4,557 
83,642 

43>693 
17,067 

5)°74 
149,939 
112,915 
4,269 

21,906 
12,638 
23,404 
7,146 
13,927 
5,504 
56,383 
24,875 
774 
388 
312,198 
144,727 
124,349 
69,508 
175 

59,174 
28,372 
32,843 
12,062 
65,579 
37,391 
3r,9oi 
12,167 
75,78o 
52,954 
107,054 
74.945 
485,182 
352,255 
163,941 

77,591 
79,629 
21,247 
15,817 
5,827 
I43,J39 
63,995 
2,696 
578 
23,876 

4,793 
620 

577 
63,361 
48,831 
187,398 
126,038 
944 
557 
850,084 
53',  533 
36,214 
18,109 
1,847 
33L548 
183,609 

195 
18,798 

3,473 

$12,676,029 
2,500,504 
22,173 

$28,432,281 
8,545,520 
30,198 

$51,226,605 
13,565,504 
58,440 

Alaska*  

358,127 
111,180 
5,749,888 
925.358 
51,538,780 
21,065,905 
12,285,734 
2,314,427 
75,990,606 
43,5oi,5i8 
2,101,299 

339,375 
9,892,387 
4,267,349 
14,622,264 
3,924,612 
6,513,068 
1,270,875 
17,312,196 
5,266,152 
324,202 
136,326 
171,523,579 
57,429,085 
51,749,976 
21,960,888 
79,830 

353,8i4 
380,023 
12,397,261 
4,392,080 
120,243,683 
72,607,709 
20,848,516 
8,806,762 
123,183,080 
102,183,341 
6,611,001 
i,523»76i 
21,161,752 
12,828,461 
17,194,666 
5,365,400 
8,021,854 
3,040,119 
35,774,48o 
24,143,939 
638,673 
844,874 
529,019,089 
289,843,907 
130,119,106 
100,262,917 
127,864 

947,547 
618,365 
22,659,179 

6,756,159 
213,403,996 
116,218,973 
42,480,205 
14,260,159 
248,336,364 
185,697,211 
10,710,855 
2,373,970 
37,571,848 
20,514,438 
39,33',  437 
11,882,316 
18,222,890 
5,546,448 
68,917,020- 
36,440,948 
1,396,096 
1,271,317 
908,640,280- 
414,864,673 
226,825,082 
148,006,411 
248,932 

California  

Colorado  

Dakotat    

Delaware        

District  of  Columbia  

Florida  ....        

Illinois  ,  

Indian  Territory*  

25,878,997 
9,725,962 
16,328,485 
3,995,010 
27,761,746 
11,657,844 
i3»I59,564 
4.360,371 
26,526,217 
13,623,318 
41,526,832 
18,904,965 
239,670,509 
128,315,362 
66,347.798 
25,313,682 
38,189,239 
8,613,094 
4,913,863 
1,192,645 
76,417,364 
24,309,716 
1,948,213 
3l8,759 
12,984,571 
1,742,3" 
445,503 
461,807 
24,248,054 
14,814,793 
96,778,736 
46,083,045 
532,727 
218,731 
466,846,642 
198,634,029 
7,830,536 
2,740,768 
1,002,881 
158,768,883 
62,103,800 
71,918 
11,535,229 
1,667,046 

79,292,407 
48,704,311 
78,845,167 
21,453,141 
63,677.583 
47,461,890 
33,282,724 
M,442,5o6 
51,520,580 
51,120,708 
92,059,390 
66,937,846 

473,199,434 
386,972,655 
154,521,918 
92,900,269 
118,481,941 
55,660,681 
10,064,897 
4,667,183 
177,582,382 
110,798,392 

2.375,093 
1,006,442 
67,334,532 
8,208,478 
439,058 
1,049,794 
47,754,152 
43,552,462 
189,365,740 
165,285,779 
691,420 
871,352 
871,264,085 
679,612,545 
22,789,187 
13,090,937 
3,086,661 
341,016,464 
215,334,258 
56,518 
21,793,578 
6,954,436 

125,049,183 
71,045,926 
110,219,805 
30,843,777 
126,719,857 
75,483.377 
57,806,713 
24,205,183 
95,689,500 
79,829,793 
171,842.593 
106,780,563 
888,160,403 
631,135,284 
277,896,706 
150,715,025 
192,033,478 
76,065,198 
18,705,834 
7,518,302 
324,561,993 
165,386,205 

5,507,573 
1,835,867 

93,037,794 
12,627,336 
1,105,063 
2,179,626 
85,770.549 
73,978,028 
354,573,571 
254,380,236 
1,516,195 
1,284,846 

M",  577,671 
1,080,696,596 

40,375.45o 
20,095,037 
5,028,  107 
641,688,064 
348,298,390 
180,445 
41,432,174 
10,931,232 

Kentucky  »  

Louisiana  

Maine  

Maryland     

Minnesota  

Mississippi  

Montana  

Nebraska  

New  Hampshire  

New  York    

North  Carolina  

North  Dakota^  

Ohio        

Oklahoma  §    

Oregon    .  .        

Manufactures. 


857 


Mark. 


STATES  AND  TERRITORIES. 

Year. 

Number 
of  Estab- 
lishments 
Report- 
ing. 

AVERAGE  NUMBER  OF  EM- 
PLOYEES AND  TOTAL  WAGES. 

Cost  of  Mate- 
rials Used. 

Value  of  Prod- 
ucts, including 
Receipts  from 
Custom  Work 
and  Repairing. 

Employees. 

Wages. 

Pennsylvania  

1890 
1880 
1890 
1880 
1890 
1880 
1890 
1890 
1880 
1890 
1880 
1890 
1880 
1890 
1880 
1890 
1880 
1890 
1880 
1890 
1880 
1890 
1880 
1890 
1880 

39.339 
31,232 

3,377 
2,205 
2,382 
2,078 
499 
4,559 
4,326 
5,268 
2,996 

P 
040 

3,°3  * 
2,874 

5,915 
5,7io 
1,543 
261 
2,376 
2,375 
10,417 
7,674 
190 
57 

620,562 
387,072 
85,976 
62,878 
24,662 
15,828 
2,422 
42,759 

22,445 
39,475 
12,159 
4,980 

2,495 
24,894 
17,54° 
59,591 
40,184 
20,366. 

I>M7 
21,969 

I4,3IZ 
132,031 

57,109 
1,144 
391 

$305,591,003 
134,055,904 
37,927,921 
21,355,619 
6,590,983 
2,836,280 
1,098,418 
16,899,351 
5,254,775 
18,586,338 

3,343,o87 
2,715,805 
858,863 
10,096,549 
5,164,479 
19,644,850 
7,425,261 
12,658,614 
532,226 
8,330,997 
4,3r3,965 
51,843,708 
18,814,917 
878,646 
187,798 

$773,734,637 
465,020,563 
76,253,023 
58,103,443 
18,873,666 
0,885,538 
3,523,840 
40,463,782 
23,834,262 
36,152,308 
12,956,269 
4,252,030 
2,561,73? 
20,433,174 
18,330,677 
50,148,285 
32,883,933 

'9,917,057 
1,967,469 
23,729,089 
14,027,388 
i45,437,oi6 
85,796,178 
1,084,432 
601,214 

fiiSS1,  794,901 
744,818,445 
142,500,625 
104,163,621 
31,926,681 
16,738,008 
5,682,748 
72,355,286 
37,074,886 
70,433,551 
20,719,928 
8,911,047 
4,324,992 
38,340,066 
3I-354,366 
88,363,824 
51,780,992 
41,768,022  • 
3,250,134 
38,702,125 
22,867,126 
248,546,164 
128,255,480 
2,367,601 
898,494 

Rhode  Island  

South  Carolina  

South  Dakota^  

Tennessee  

Texas  

Utah    

Vermont..  .        

Virginia  ....        .... 

Washington  

West  Virginia  

Wisconsin  ....        .... 

Wyoming....                

*  No  report  received  in  1880. 

t  North  and  South  Dakota  combined  for  1890,  to  compare  with  Dakota  Territory  for  1880. 

t  See  Dakota. 

§  Part  of  Indian  Territory  in  1880. 


The  census  abstract  gives  the  following  im- 
portant cautions  in  drawing  comparisons  : 

"  First.  The  great  increase  shown  in  the  reports  for 
those  industries  coming  under  the  head  of  'hand 
trades'  is  largely  due  to  the  fact  that  no  previous  cen- 


supplies  and  fuel),'  '  Value  of  products  (including  job- 
bing and  repairing).'  The  corresponding  questions 
used  at  the  Eleventh  Census  required  separate  state- 


were  omitted  at  the  census  of  1880,  but  are  included 
in  the  totals  presented    for  1890  —  viz.,   bottling  ;    cars 


ming  and  finishing  ;  cotton,  cleaning  and  rehandling  ; 
cotton,  ginning;  cotton  waste;  drug  grinding;  drug- 
gists' preparations,  not  including  prescriptions;  gas, 
illuminating  and  heating;  hay  and  straw,  baling  ;  and 
millinery,  custom  work.  Petroleum,  refining,  formed 
part  of  a  separate  report  at  the  census  of  1880,  and  the 
statistics  were  not  included  in  the  report  on  manufac- 
tures. At  the  census  of  1880  '  mixed  textiles  '  appeared 
as  a  distinct  classification,  but  the  data  were  largely 
duplicated  tinder  other  heads  of  textile  manufacture. 

lfSecond.  The  questions  respecting  employees  and 
wages  used  at  the  Eleventh  Census  required  the  aver- 
age number  and  total  wages  of  males,  females,  and 
children,  respectively,  to  be  reported  by  classes  of 
officers  or  firm  members,  clerks,  operatives,  and  skill- 
ed, unskilled,  and  pieceworkers.  The  questions  used 
in  the  schedules  on  which  the  majority  of  the  indus- 
tries were  reported  at  the  Tenth  Census  called  only 
for  the  'greatest  number  of  hands  employed  at  any 
onetime  during  the  year,'  also  'the  average  number 
of  hands  employed,  males,  females,  and  children,  and 
the  total  wages,'  without  designating  the  different 
classes  of  employees.  It  is  believed  the  questions  used 
at  the  Eleventh  Census  have  more  fully  developed  the 
true  average  number  of  employees  and  total  wages. 
The  tendency  of  the  questions  used  at  1880  was  to  ob- 
tain a  number  in  excess  of  the  average  number  of  em- 
ployees, while  it  is  believed  the  questions  used  at  1890 
obtained  the  average  number.  The  questions  at  1890 
also  tended  to  increase  the  amount  of  wages  as  com- 
pared with  1880.  Therefore,  the  average  annual  wages 
per  employee  as  obtained  from  the  reports  for  the  two 
censuses  are  not  comparable,  nor  should  the  amounts 
be  used  to  ascertain  the  percentage  of  increase. 

"  Third.  With  the  exception  of  a  number  of  selected 
industries,  the  questions  respecting  the  cost  of  mate- 
rials and  value  of  products  used  at  the  Tenth  Census 
were  as  follows  :  '  Value  of  materials  (including  mill 


ucts,  including  amounts  received  from  custom  work 
and  repairing"  The  cost  of  materials  used  is  the  re- 
ported cost  at  the  place  of  consumption.  The  value  of 
products  is  the  reported  value  at  the  factory  of  the 
total  product  for  the  year,  not  including  any  allow- 
ance for  commissions  or  expenses  of  selling. 

"  The  difference  between  the  sum  of  the  wages  and 
cost  of  materials  and  the  value  of  manufactured  prod- 
uct cannot  be  taken  as  indicating  profit,  because  mis- 
cellaneous expenses  are  not  included  in  these  tables, 
and  many  items  of  expense  enter  into  the  mercantile 
portion  of  the  business,  which  branch  is  not  within 
the  scope  of  the  census  inquiry.  The  data  furnished  in 
the  reports  of  the  Eleventh  Census  relating  to  depre- 
ciation of  manufacturing  plants  are  not  sufficient  to 
form  a  basis  for  correct  computations,  and  therefore 
are  omitted  from  these  tables." 


MARGIN  OF  CULTIVATION. 

CARDO. 


See  Ri- 


MARK,  THE,  was,  in  the  Middle  Ages,  in 
Germany,  a  tract  of  land  belonging  in  common 
to  a  community  of  freemen  who  divided  the  cul- 
tivated portion  or  arable  mark  among  their  in- 
dividual members,  used  the  common  or  ordinary 
mark  together  for  pasturage  or  general  pur- 
poses, and  dwelt  in  the  village  mark  or  central 
portion.  (For  a  discussion  of  the  question 
whether  the  mark  system  ever  existed  in  Eng- 
land, see  MANOR.)  Whether  it  did  or  not,  the 
mark  seems  to  evidence  the  early  organization 
of  the  Germanic  tribes,  from  whence  the  Eng- 
lish came,  as  they  are  described  by  Tacitus. 
According  to  Green's  History  of  the  English 
People,  the  members  of  the  community  holding 
the  mark  were  freeholders,  or  ceorls,  tho  there 
were  among  them  ear  Is,  distinguished  by  nobler 
blood,  and  from  whom  the  ealdormen  were 


Mark. 


858 


Marriage. 


chosen  as  rulers  in  peace  or  leaders  in  war.  The 
choice,  however,  was  purely  voluntary,  and  the 
eorls  had  no  special  legal  privileges  ;  and  tho 
preliminary  discussions  rested  with  the  eorls, 
the  clash  of  arms  of  the  ceorls  was  the  final  de- 
cision. The  wit  en,  or  wise  men,  of  the  village 
met  and  settled  disputes,  and  later,  in  England, 
came  together  as  the  ivitenagemot,  the  origin 
of  Parliament.  (For  the  much-discussed  ques- 
tion whether  these  marks  indicate  an  original 
communal  holding  of  soil,  see  PRIMITIVE  PROP- 
ERTY.) The  probability  seems  to  be  that  the  or- 
ganization was  communal,  not  individualistic  ; 


but  the  communities  were  more  patriarchal  than 
those  of  equal  freemen. 

MARRIAGE. — (For  a  discussion  of  the  social 
problems  connected  with  marriage,  see  FAMILY  ; 
DIVORCE.)  We  give  here  statistics  as  to  mar- 
riage. (See  also  DIVORCE  ;  POPULATION.) 

I.  UNITED  STATES. 

The  population,  according  to  conjugal  condi- 
tion, is  given  by  the  Census  of  1890  as  fol- 
lows : 


Total. 

Single. 

Married- 

Widowed. 

Divorced. 

Unknown. 

Males  .               

52,538 

Females  .. 

17.18^.088 

71,895 

In  the  following  table  the  statistics  for  1870 
and  1880  are  from  the  Report  of  the  United 


States  Commissioner  of  Labor  on  marriage  and 
divorce  (1889)  and  for  1890  from  the  census  : 


STATES  AND  TERRITORIES. 

POPULATION. 

ESTIMATED  MARRIED 
COUPLES. 

FAMILIES. 

1870. 

1880. 

1890. 

1870. 

1880. 

1890. 

996,992 
9,658 
484,471 
560,247 
39,864 

537*454 
14,181 
125,015 
131,700 
187,748 
1,184,109 
14,999 
2,539,891 
1,680,637 
1,194,020 

364.399 
1,321,011 
726,915 
626,915 
780,894 
1,457,351 
1,184,059 
439,7o6 
827,922 
1,721,295 

20,595 
122,993 
42,491 
318,300 
906,096 
91,874 
4,382,759 
1,071,361 
2,665,260 
90,923 
3,521,951 

217,353 
705,606 
1,258,520 
818,579 
86,786 
330,55i 
1,225,163 
23,955 
442,014 
1,054,670 
9,118 

1,262,505 
40,440 
802,525 
864,694 

194,327 
622,700 

I35,r77 
146,608 
177,624 
269,493 
1,542,180 
32,610 
3,077,871 
1,978,301 
1,624,615 
996,096 
1,648,690 
939,946 
648,936 

934,943 
1,783,085 
1,636,937 
780,773 

1,131,597 
2,168,380 

39,159 
452,402 
62,266 
346,991 
1,131,116 
"9,565 
5,082,871 
1,399,750 
3,198,062 
174,768 
4,282,801 
276,531 
995,577 
1,542,359 
1,591,749 
143,963 
332,286 
1,512,565 
75,116 
618,457 
i,3I5>497 
20,789 

i,SI3i°i7 

59,620 
1,128,179 
1,208,130 
419,198 
746,258 
5",527 
168,493 
230,392 
391,422 
1,837,353 
84,385 
3,826,351 
,192,404 
,911,896 
,427,096 
,858,635 
,118,587 
661,086 
,042,390 
,238,943 
,093,889 
,301,826 
,289,600 
,679,184 
132,159 
1,058,910 
45,76i 
376,530 
1,444,933 
153,593 
5,997,853 
1,617,947 
3,672,316 
3'3,767 
5,258,014 
345,506 
i,i5J,i49 
1,767,518 
2,235,523 
207,905 
332,422 
1,655,980 
349,390 
762,794 
1,686,880 
60,705 

188,431 
1,690 

9I>565 
105,887 
6,976 
101,579 
2,482 
23,628 
24,891 
35>484 
223,797 
2,625 
480,039 
317,640 
225,670 
68,871 
249,671 
137,387 
118,487 
M7,589 
275,439 
223,787 
83,104 
156,477 
325,325 
3,604 
23,246 
7,436 
60,159 
171,252 
16,078 
828,341 
202,487 
503,734 
15,912 
665,649 
41,080 
I33,36o 
237,860 
154,7" 
15,188 
62,474 
231,556 
4,192 
83,541 
199,333 
1,596 

238,613 
7,077 
151,677 
163,427 
34,007 
117,690 
23,656 
27,709 
33,571 
50,934 
291,472 
5,707 
581,718 
373,899 
307,052 
188,262 
311,602 
177,650 
122,649 
176,704 
337,003 
309,381 
147,566 
213,872 
409,824 
6,853 
85,504 
10,897 
65,581 
213,781 
20,924 
960,663 

264,553 
604,434 
30,584 
809,466 
52,264 
188,164 
291,506 
300,841 
25,194 
62,802 
285,875 
13,  MS 
116,888 
248,629 
3,638 

287,292 

13,495 
213,620 
245,710 
84,276 
165,890 
34,578 
108,728 
43,967 
80,059 
352,059 
18,113 
778,015 
467,146 
388,517 
297,358 
354,463 
214,123 
150,355 
202,179 

479,79° 
455,004 
247,975 
241,148 
528,295 
27,501 
206,820 
10,  i  70 
87,348 
308,339 
35,504 
1,308,015 
306,952 
785,291 
63.791 
1,061,626 
75,oio 
222,941 
334,194 
411,251 
38,816 
75,869 
304,673 
70,977 
140,359 
335,456 
12,065 

Arizona  

Colorado  

Delaware  

Distr  ict  of  Columbia  

Illinois                         

Kansas  

Kentucky  

Maine  

Massachusetts  

Michigan  

New  York      

Ohio 

Rhode  Island  

Texas      

Utah  7  

Vermont  

Virginia     

Washington  

West  Virginia  ... 

Wyoming  

Total  

38,558,371 

50,155,783 

62,007,880 

7,281,310 

9,464,908 

12,690,152 

Marriage. 


859 


Marriage. 


This  does  not  show  the  number  of  marriages 
which  occur  in  the  United  States,  because  of 
the  large  number  of  married  immigrants.  As 
to  the  marriages  occurring  in  the  United  States, 
there  are  no  reliable  statistics.  The  Report  on 


Marriage  and  Divorce  quoted  above  gives 
Massachusetts,  Connecticut,  Rhode  Island,  and 
Ohio  as  the  only  States  in  which  the  number 
are  fully  reported.  In  these  States  the  number 
of  marriages  were  as  follows  : 


YEARS. 

Connecticut. 

Massachu- 
setts. 

Ohio. 

Rhode 
Island. 

Vermont. 

1867            ,                  

I.8l7 

T868              

13,856 

1869...         

14,826 

1870  

4,971 

4,882 

4,S4I 

26,678 

1875.                                                                             

4,385 

26,445 

2,485 

!876                               ..              .         

26,l83 

12,758 

!878      ..           

4,315 

25,796 

2,708 

!88o                  

15*538 

27,8O5 

!88i  

4,850 

16,768 

28,566 

!88a                          

17,684 

2,883 

Ig8-j                            

2,836 

!884  

28,72O 

2,528 

X885                                    

2,488 

!886            .                 

18,018 

28,634 

2,588 

!887  

^788 

19,533 

!888                                   

1889.                                

1890.         

6,284 

20,838 

1891  

6,486 

21,675 

i8o-j. 

5l830 

II.  EUROPE. 

According  to  the  Report  of  the  Registrar  of 
England,  quoted    in    Professor    Mayo-Smith's 
Statistics  and  Sociology  (p.  95),  the  number  of 
persons  annually  married  per  1000  of  the  popu- 
lation was  as  follows  : 

Age  of 
Bachel- 
ors Mar- 
rying. 

Age  of 
Spin- 
sters 
Marry- 
ing. 

Miners..        

24.06 
24-38 
24.92 
25-35 
25-56 
26-25 
26.67 
29.23 
31.22 

22.46 

23-43 
24.31 
23.70 
23.66 
24-43 
24.22 
26.91 
26.40 

Textile  hands..        .. 

Shoemakers,  tailors  

Artisans  

COUNTRY. 

Aver- 
age. 
1871-90. 

1891.    1892. 

1893. 

Laborers  

Commercial  clerks  

Shopkeepers,  etc  

Farmers  and  sons  

Professional  and  independent  class 

III.  VARIOUS  STATISTICS. 

Statistics  of  age  at  marriage  differ  very  much 
between  men  and  women  in  different  countries 
and  between  different  occupations.  Professor 
Mayo-Smith  (Statistics  and  Sociology,  p.  104) 
quotes  the  following  figures  for  England  for 
the  year  1884-85  : 


There  seems  to  be  a  general  tendency  in  Eng- 
land to  defer  marriage,  for  while  in  1891  the  aver- 
age age  of  bachelors  marrying  was  26.4  and  of 
spinsters  24.8,  in  1880  it  was  only  25.8  and  24.4. 
The  number  of  under-age  marriages  in  England 
has  steadily  declined  since  1874  from  8.4  per 
cent,  for  men  and  22.7  per  cent,  for  women 
down  to  5.9  per  cent,  for  men  and  19  per  cent, 
for  women.  In  Prussia,  in  1891,  only  1.26  per 
cent,  of  the  men  and  16.5  per  cent,  of  the  wom- 
en were  under  20  years  of  age.  In  Prussia,  the 
lowest  average  age  at  marriage  was  found 
among  miners,  printers,  factory  hands  and  day 
laborers  ;  the  highest  among  artists,  literary 
men,  inn-keepers,  clergymen,  and  soldiers. 

The  cause  for  this  is  undoubtedly  in  the  more 
expensive  style  of  family  living  demanded  by 
the  more  educated  classes.  Late  marriages  usu- 
ally imply  more  early  immorality,  reduced  popu- 
lation, etc.  (See  PROSTITUTION;  MALTHUSIANISM.) 

Concerning  the  fecundity  of  marriage,  Pro- 
fessor Mayo-Smith  quotes  the  following  table 
(P-  H3): 


Marriage. 


860 


Marx,  Karl. 


1876. 

1888. 

COUNTRIES. 

Births  to 
Marriages 
Six  Years. 

Births  to 
Marriages 
of  the 
Same 
Year. 

Italy  

Ireland               

4.8 

Prussia     

Sweden  

4    8i 

Holland  

A      83 

England  

4-°3 

Belgium      

4.48 

Spain  

Denmark  

Austria  

France  

Reference  :  see  FAMILY. 

MARSHALL,  ALFRED,  was  born  in  1842 
in  England  ;  was  educated  in  London,  and  at 
St.  John's  College,  Cambridge.  He  was  elected 
Fellow  of  his  college  in  1865,  and  Lecturer  on 
Moral  Science  in  1868,  which  post  he  held  till 
1877,  when  he  was  appointed  Principal  of  Uni- 
versity College,  Bristol.  In  1879  he  published 
his  Economics  of  Industry,  in  connection  with 
his  wife  (nde  Paley),  whom  he  married  in  1877. 
In  1881  ill  health  sent  him  abroad,  but  in  1883 
he  was  appointed  Lecturer  on  Political  Economy 
at  Baliol  College,  Oxford,  and  in  1884  he  was 
elected  to  the  Chair  of  Political  Economy  at 
Cambridge  University,  formerly  held  by  Pro- 
fessor Fawcett.  His  new  work,  The  Princi- 
ples of  Economics,  published  in  1890-91,  is  con- 
sidered by  many  economists  the  most  important 
recent  English  treatise  on  the  subject. 

MARSON,  CHARLES    LATIMER,  now 

Vicar  of  Hambridge,  Somersetshire,  Eng.,  has 
held  eight  curacies  and  lost  them  largely  for  his 
activities  in  Christian  Socialism.  He  was  one 
of  the  first  members  of  the  Fabian  Society,  and 
in  1884  editor  of  the  Christian  Socialist.  He 
went  to  Australia,  and  there  founded  the  Aus- 
tralian Fabian  Society.  He  is  on  the  council  of 
the  Guild  of  St.  Matthew,  and  trustee  of  the 
Busmen's  Union.  He  has  written  brilliantly 
on  the  socialism  of  the  Fathers,  also  The  Psalms 
at  Work  (1894),  and  Fairy  Stories,  besides 
contributing  to  Vox  Clamantium  (1894) ;  The 
New  Party  (1894)  ;  and  regularly  to  Goodwill 
and  The  Church  Reformer,  etc. 

MARX,  KARL,  was  born  in  Treves,  in  1818, 
of  Jewish  parentage.  Studying  at  Jena,  Bonn, 
and  Berlin,  he  attracted  early  attention  by  his 
attainments  in  philosophy,  and  became  a  devot- 
ed Hegelian.  He  married  a  sister  of  a  Prussian 
minister  of  state,  and  in  1842  edited  the  Rhein- 
ische  Zeitung,  of  Cologne,  till  it  was  suppressed 
a  year  later  for  its  radical  utterances.  He  then 
went  to  Paris  and  made  the  acquaintance  and 
friendship  of  Heine,  Bakounin,  Proudhon,  Ruge, 
above  all,  of  Engels.  The  two  formed  an  in- 
tellectual partnership,  and  until  Marx's  death  in 
1883  they  worked  together  in  communistic  agi- 
tation. 

In  Paris  Marx  undertook,  with  Arnold  Ruge, 
the  publication  of  an  edition  of  Hegel's  Philos- 
ophy of  Jurisprudence,  besides  other  literary 


labors ;  but  having  employed  a  paper,  Vorwarts, 
to  attack  Prussia,  the  Prussian   Government  in 
1846  asked  his  expulsion  from   France,  which 
was  granted,  and  he  went  to  Brussels.     Here 
Engels  joined  him,  and  the  two  formed  a  Ger- 
man Working  Men's  Association,  having  as  its 
organ  the  Deutsche  Briisseler  Zeitung.    Their 
activity  attracted  the  notice  of  a  German  com- 
munist league  of  Paris,  which  sent  in  1847  to 
Marx  in  Brussels,  and  to  Engels  in  Paris,  ask- 
ing them  to  enter  the  organization,  and  promis- 
ing that  a  congress  should  be  con- 
vened in  London.     The   congress 
was  held  in  the  summer  of  1847.         The 
As  a  result  of  this  congress,  and  of   Manifesto. 
another  held  at  the  end  of  the  year, 
the  theories  of  Marx  were  generally 
accepted,  and  he  was  asked  to  undertake  with 
Engels  the  drawing  up  of  a  communist  mani- 
festo, which  appeared   early  in  the  following 
year.     (See  MANIFESTO.)     The    manifesto    was 
later  adopted  as  the  creed  of  the  communists  or 
socialists. 

In  1848  the  February  Revolution  broke  out. 
The  Brussels  authorities  feared  disturbance,  and 
compelled  Marx  to  change  Belgian  for  French 
soil.  Marx  was  not  at  all  unwilling,  and  he 
proceeded  to  Paris.  A  manifesto  was  at  once 
drawn  up  for  circulation  in  Germany,  in  which 
17  demands  were  advanced  by  the  Communist 
Party.  These  demands  comprised  the  proclama- 
tion of  a  republic  ;  payment  of  members  of  Par- 
liament, so  that  working  men  might  be  eligible 
for  election  ;  the  conversion  of  ' '  princely  and 
other  feudal  estates,"  with  mines,  etc.,  into 
State  property  ;  the  appropriation  of  all  means 
of  transport,  as  railways,  canals,  steamships, 
roads,  and  posts,  by  the  State  ;  the  restriction 
of  the  law  of  succession  ;  the  introduction  of 
heavy  progressive  taxes  and  the  abolition  of  ex- 
cise duties  ;  the  establishment  of  national  work- 
shops ;  State  guarantee  to  all  work  people  of  an 
existence  and  provision  for  the  incapable  ;  and 
universal  and  free  education.  Shortly  afterward 
Marx  returned  to  Germany,  and  along  with 
Engels,  Wolff,  and  Freiligrath  founded  the 
Neue  Rheinische  Zeitung  at  Cologne,  the  first 
number  appearing  on  June  i,  1848.  For  his 
utterances  Marx  had  twice  to  appear  at  the  As- 
sizes, but  he  was  each  time  acquitted  In  May, 
1849,  there  were  risings  in  Dresden  and  the 
Rhine  Province,  and  Marx  was  not  slow  to  give 
them  his  editorial  benediction.  The  newspaper 
was  suppressed,  and  the  last  number  appeared, 
printed  in  red  ink,  on  June  19. 

Expelled  from  Prussia,  Marx  first  went  to 
Paris,  but  refused  residence  there  he  went  to 
England.  From  this  time  Marx  lived  continu- 
ously in  London,  with  casual  visits  paid  to  Ger- 
many and  other  countries  for  the  purpose  of 
agitation.  He  found  London  a  favorable  place 
for  the  further  study  of  political  economy,  and 
resolved  to  begin  his  work  again  from  the 
very  commencement ,  His  studies  were  frequent- 
ly broken,  for  it  was  necessary  to  earn  a  live- 
lihood, and  the  duties  of  correspondent  to  the 
New  York  Tribune,  which  Marx  fulfilled  for 
eight  years,  consumed  a  large  part  of  his  time. 
His  Zur  Kritik  der  Politischen  Oekonomie 
bears  the  date  January,  1859,  a  work  containing 
the  principles  which  were  afterward  to  be  de- 


Marx,  Karl. 


86 1 


Marx,  Karl. 


veloped  iu  Das  Kapital.  While  carrying  on 
his  studies  Marx  came  again  prominently  to  the 
front  in  1863  and  1864,  when  new  endeavors 
were  made  to  unite  the  working  classes  of  vari- 
ous countries.  The  result  of  the  agitation  was 
the  formation  on  May  28,  1864,  of  the  Interna- 
tional Working  Men's  Association.  (See  INTER- 
NATIONAL.) Three  years  later  Marx  published 
the  first  volume  of  his  great  economic  work, 
Das  Kapital.  Upon  this  work  rests  the  repu- 
tation of  Marx  as  a  political  economist. 

Marx's  later  public  life  was  identified  with 
the  International  (q.v.),  of  which  he  was  the 
first  president.     He  became  leader  of  the  wing 
which  favored  the  development  of 
communism  by  the  orderly  political 
The  Inter-    capture  of  the  State,  as  opposed  to 
national.     Bakounin,    the  leader  of   the  an- 
archist-communist wing,- which  pro- 
posed to  establish  communism  on 
the  violent  overturn  of  the  State.     (See  ANARCH- 
ISM.)   Out  of  Marx's  policy  has  grown  the  Ger- 
man and  now  world- wide  political  socialist  move- 
ment, which  accepting  the  economics  taught 
by  Marx,  looks  to  him  as  its  founder.     Some  be- 
lieve that  this  turning  of  the  communistic  move- 
ment into  political  channels  will  be  looked  upon 
as  Marx's  greatest  deed — a  deed  more  impor- 
tant than  his  economic  teachings,  which,  how- 
ever brilliantly  stated,  are  not  peculiar  to  him. 
The  English-reading  public,  however,  has  never 
done  justice  to  Marx's  economic  teachings,  be- 
cause it  has  derived  its  notion  of  those  teachings 
mainly  from  the  first  volume  of  Das  Kapital, 
which  was  long  alone  of  Marx's  writings  trans- 
lated into  English.     This  volume,  tho  brilliant, 
is  almost  purely  analytic  and  criti- 
cal of  the  capitalistic  movement  and 
"  Das          economics.      His    more    construc- 
Kapital."     tive  works  are  much  less  known. 
The  reason  for  the  first  volume  of 
Das  Kapital  being  the  one  alone 
translated  was  that  Marx  never  lived  himself 
to  edit  the  remaining  two  volumes,  tho  after 
his  death  they  were  published  by  Engels  from 
Karl  Marx's  notes  (the  second  volume  in  1885, 
the  third  in  1895).     Marx  died  in  London,  March 
i4th,  1883.     One  of  his  daughters  married  the 
French  socialist  La  Fargue  (y.v.),  and  the  other 
the  English  socialist  Edward  Aveling  (g.v.}. 

The  best  brief  account  of  Marx's  economic 
teachings  is  to  be  found  in  Professor  Laveleye's 
Socialism  of  To-day  (chap,  iv.),  from  which  we 
abridge  the  following  account,  referring  the 
reader  to  the  article  CAPITAL  for  a  critical  review 
by  Professor  BShm-Bawerk  : 

"  Marx  bases  his  system  on  principles  formulated  by 
Adam  Smith,  Ricardo,  Bastiat,  and  their  followers. 

"In  respect  of  value,  says  Marx,  commodities  in- 
tended for  exchange  are  crystallized  labor.  The  unit  of 
labor  is  an  average  day's  work,  which  varies  in  differ- 
ent countries  and  at  different  times,  but  which  may 
be  considered  a  fixed  quantity  in  a  given  community. 
An  article  possesses  economic  or  exchange  value  only 
because  it  represents  labor.  What  can  be  obtained 
without  labor,  like  air  and  water,  has  no  exchange 
value. 

"  How  is  the  quantity  of  values  of  an  article  to  be 
measured?  By  the  quantity  of  labor  that  it  contains. 
The  quantity  of  labor  is  itself  measured  by  the  dura- 
tion ot  the  labor,  by  days  and  hours.  Here  Marx 
makes  a  correction  in  the  theory  of  Smith  and  Ricardo, 
and  forestalls  an  objection.  It  might  be  said  that,  if 
it  is  the  duration  of  the  labor  that  creates  the  value  of 
the  products,  a  coat  which  took  a  tailor  twice  as  long 


to  make  as  was  necessary  would  therefore  be  twice  as 
valuable.  Not  so,  replies  Marx  ;  the  measure  of  the 
value  of  things  is  the  duration  of  the  labor  on  the  aver- 
age requisite,  performed  with  the  average  amount  of 
skill  and  diligence,  and  in  the  normal  industrial  con- 
ditions at  any  given  time. 

"  From  these   premises,   our   author  concludes  that 
labor  becomes  more  productive  and  creates  more  utili- 
ties to  no  purpose  ;  it  does  not  produce  more  value.    In 
fact,  if  labor  measured  by  time  is  the  sole  source  of 
value,  articles  manufactured  in  greater  quantity  in  the 
same  lapse  of  time,  all  put  together,  represent  no  more 
value,  because  each  individual  article  is  worth  less. 
By  the  strictly  logical   chain  of  these  abstractions  we 
arrive  at  this  singular  result,  that  all  the 
inventions  of  science,  all  the  improve- 
ments of   manufacture,    produce  more   Analysis  of 
utilities    without    increasing    the    sum         Value 
total  of  exchange    values.     How,  then, 
does  the  capitalist  make  money  ?    First 
of    all  he    buys    machines,    tools,    raw 
materials,  and  then,  in  order  to  work  up  the  materials, 
he  purchases  the    workman's    'labor  force,'   arbeits- 
krajt,  the  sole  source  of  all  value.     He  sets  the  laborer 
to  work  to  change,  by  means  of  the  tools  and  machines, 
the  raw  materials   into    manufactured    articles,    and 
sells  them  for  more  than  they  cost  him  to  make.     In 
this  way  he  obtains  a  greater  value,  'surplus  value' 
(mehrwertfi).     The   money,  temporarily   transformed 
into   wages    and    merchandise,    reappears   under    its 
original  form,  but  more  or  less  increased  in  amount  ; 
it  has  brought  forth  young — capital  is  born. 

"This  would  seem  to  conflict  with  the  principle  laid 
down  above,  that  exchange  does  not  create  new  value. 
The  manufacturer  has  only  made  exchanges,  and  yet 
he  finds  himself  in  possession  of  a  greater  value.  The 
explanation  of  the  mystery  is  as  follows  :  The  capital- 
ist pays  for  labor  its  exchange  value,  and  thus  obtains 
its  value  in  use.  Labor  force  has  the  unique  charac- 
teristic of  producing  more  than  it  costs  to  be  produced. 
He  who  buys  it  and  sets  it  to  work  for  his  gain  enjoys 
then  the  source  of  all  wealth.  The  capitalist  pays  for 
labor  its  value.  What  is  the  value  of  labor  ?  Like  all 
other  merchandise,  it  is  worth  what  it  costs  in  time 
and  trouble  to  be  produced  ;  that  is  to  say,  its  cost  of 

E reduction.  The  cost  of  production  of  labor  is  the 
jod  and  different  commodities  necessary  to  support 
the  laborer  and  the  children  destined  to  succeed  him. 
The  value  of  all  these  commodities  is  measured  in  its 
turn  by  the  time  that  it  takes  to  produce  them.  In 
short,  then,  according  to  Marx,  the  value  of  labor  is 
equivalent  to  the  sum  of  hours  required  to  create  what 
the  maintenance  of  the  laborer  demands.  But  to  pro- 
duce the  commodities  necessary  for  the  existence  of 
the  laborer  and  his  family  during  a  day,  a  whole  day's 
work  is  not  needed.  Marx  supposes  that  five  or  six 
hours  suffice.  If,  then,  the  laborer  worked  for  him- 
self, he  could  obtain  all  he  needed  in  a  half  day, 
and  the  rest  of  his  time  he  might  devote  to  leisure 
or  to  procuring  superfluities  ;  but  the  slave  of  antiquity, 
the  serf  of  the  Middle  Ages,  when  gaining  his  freedom 
in  the  existing  social  order,  did  not  at  the  same  time 
acquire  property.  He  is  therefore  obliged  to  place 
himself  in  the  service  of  those  who  possess  the  land 
and  the  instruments  of  production.  These  naturally 
require  him  to  work  for  them  the  whole 
day  of  12  hours  or  more.  In  six  hours 
the  laborer  produces  the  equivalent  of  The  Capital- 
his  subsistence  ;  this  is  what  Marx  terms  {_*  procesg 
'the  necessary  labor;'  during  the  re- 
maining six  hours  he  produces  the 
'surplus  value,'  the  mehnverth,  to  the 
profit  of  his  employers.  The  capitalist  pays  the  la- 
borer for  his  labor-power  at  its  value  ;  that  is  to  say,  by 
giving  him  the  amount  of  money  which,  representing 
six  hours'  labor,  permits  him  to  buy  the  necessaries  of 
life ;  but  as  he  thus  obtains  the  free  disposal  of  this 
productive  force  for  which  he  has  paid,  he  acquires 
everything  it  produces  during  the  entire  day.  He 
therefore  exchanges  the  produce  of  six  hours  against 
the  labor  of  12  hours,  and  puts  in  his  pocket,  as  net  profit, 
the  produce  of  the  six  hours  beyond  the  'necessary 
labor.'  From  this  surplus,  pocketed  by  the  employer, 
capital  comes  into  being. 

"The  capitalist  has  different  methods  of  increasing 
his  profits.  The  first  consists  in  multiplying  the  num- 
ber ot  his  workmen.  The  second  method  is  to  lengthen 
the  working  day.  The  longer  the  laborer  works  be- 
yond the  necessary  time  which  represents  his  wages, 
the  greater  the  profit  he  brings  to  his  master.  The 
third  method  consists  in  diminishing  the  duration  of 
the  'necessary  labor,'  the  hours  which  the  laborer 
must  work  to  produce  his  maintenance.  This  is  done 
by  rendering  the  labor  more  productive.  As  hours  of 


Marx,  Karl. 


862     Maurice,  John  Frederick  Denison. 


labor  obtain  the  same  price,  no  matter  what  they  pro- 
duce, if  twice  as  many  articles  can  be  made  in  the  hour, 
each  article  will  cost  one  halt  less  and  the  laborer  will 
have  one"  half  less  to  spend  on  living  ;  he  will  therefore 
be  able  to  sell  his  labor  force  for  a  remuneration  re- 
duced by  one  half.  All  these  deductions  appear  to  be 
irrefutable,  and  we  thus  arrive  at  this  singular  conclu- 
sion, that  the  more  the  employment  of  machines  and 
of  improved  methods  increases  the  productivity  of  la- 
bor, the  lower  wages  fall  and  the  greater  the  profits  of 
the  capitalist  become. 

"According  to  Marx,  the  capitalist  r.igime  is  of  re- 
cent origin.  It  dates  from  the  sixteenth  century,  when 
the  large  proprietors,  impoverished  by  the  wars  of  the 
Middle  Ages,  gradually  drove  their  retainers  from  the 
soil,  and  thus  formed  a  landless  proletariat  compelled 
to  compete  for  wages.  History  is  to  Marx  a  portion 
of  natural  history.  He  says  in  the  preface  to  the  first 
edition :  '  My  standpoint,  from  which  the  evolution  of 
the  economic  formation  of  society  is  received  as  a 
process  of  natural  history,  can  less  than  any  other 
make  the  individual  responsible  for  relations  whose 
creatures  he  socially  remains,  however  much  he  may 
subjectively  raise  himself  above  them.' 

"According  to  Marx,  the  capitalistic  era  is  a  necessary 
epoch,  which  must  in  time  give  place  to  communistic 
production.  Capitalistic  production,  by  compelling 
workmen  to  work  for  simply  what  is  necessary  to 
support  life,  cuts  off  its  own  market,  since  the  work- 
man has  no  money  left  to  buy  with  !  Hence  capi- 
tal is  compelled  to  turn  to  commerce  to  supply  it  with 
ever  new  fields  and  markets  for  it  to  exploit.  But 
this  ends.  There  are  no  more  new  worlds  for  it  to 
conquer,  and  so  it  is  working  its  own  ruin.  Marx 
says  ;  '  One  capitalist  ever  kills  many.  Hand  in  hand 
with  this  centralization,  or  the  expropriation  of  many 
capitalists  by  few,  are  developed  the  cooperative 
form  of  the  labor  process— and  that  on  a  constantly  in- 
creasing scale — the  intelligent  application  of  science  to 
technical  purposes,  the  systematic  exploitation  of  the 
soil,  the  transformation  of  the  means  of 
labor  into  means  of  labor  only  usable  in 
The  Present  common,  the  economizing  'of  all  means 

R..      f.  of  production  by  their  use  for  produc- 

aiiuauon.  ti  by  combined  social  labor,  the  en- 
twining of  all  nations  in  the  net  of  the 
world  market,  and  thus  the  international 
character  of  the  capitalist  rlgime.  With  the  steady  de- 
crease of  the  capital  magnates,  who  usurp  and  monop- 
olize all  the  advantages  of  this  process  of  transforma- 
tion, the  mass  of  want,  oppression,  servitude,  degrada- 
tion, and  spoliation  grows  ;  but  the  revolt  of  the 
laboring  class — swelling  ever  in  numbers,  and  disci- 
plined, united,  and  organized  by  the  mechanism  of  the 
capitalist  process  of  production  itself— spreads  at  the 
same  time.  The  capitalist  monopoly  becomes  a  fetter 
on  the  mode  of  production  with  and  under  which  it  has 
originated.  The  centralization  of  the  means  of  produc- 
tion and  the  socialization  of  labor  reach  a  point  at 
which  they  become  no  longer  compatible  with  their 
capitalist  integument,  and  this  is  burst  asunder.  The 
last  hour  of  capitalist  private  property  strikes.  The 
expropriators  are  expropriated.' 

"  In  the  first  case  there  is  the  expropriation  of  the 
mass  of  the  people  by  a  few  usurpers,  but  in  the  latter 
the  expropriation  of  a  few  usurpers  by  the  mass  of  the 
people. 

i  "  Marx  would  make  land  and  all  the  instruments  of 
production  collective  and  social  property.  He  would 
go  farther  ;  he  would  have  all  subjects  of  the  State 
share  equally  in  labor  and  the  produce  of  labor.  His 
future  State  is  a  Labor  State,  in  which  labor  will  be 
compulsory  on  all  who  are  capable.  In  Capital  we 
find  him  developing  the  idea  of  uniting  agriculture 
with  industry,  which  is  advanced  in  the  Communist 
Manifesto  written  in  1847.  He  would  have  great  vari- 
ety in  the  labor  of  the  individual,  so  that  he  may  be  as 
many-sided  as  possible." 

Such,  in  brief,  is  Karl  Marx's  socialism.  On 
account  of  its  intellectual  brilliancy  and  acumen, 
and  the  influence  it  has  had  on  Germans,  it  has 
been  called  distinctively  "  Scientific  Socialism  ;" 
yet  to-day  it  is  not  accepted  by  many  scientific 
socialists,  much  less  other  political  economists. 
In  its  merciless  logic  and  Hegelian  dialectic,  it 
is  indeed  scarcely  possible  to  pick  a  flaw  ;  but 
some  socialists  say  that  it  starts  from  a  wrong 
premise.  Marx's  error  is  not  his,  but  inherited 
from  Adam  Smith  and  Ricardo.  Labor  is  not 


the  only  source  of  value.  If  Adam  Smith  and 
Ricardo  are  right  in  saying  that  it  is,  then 
Marxian  socialism  follows.  It  takes  more  than 
labor  to  produce  value.  Labor  is  only  one  of  the 
elements.  Socialists  who  do  not  follow  Marx's 
economics  arrive  at  his  results,  but  through 
other  channels.  (See  SOCIALISM  ;  VALUE.)  The 
acumen  of  Marx's  analysis  of  the  orthodox 
economics  and  his  contribution  to  the  develop- 
ment of  political  socialism  are,  however,  beyond 
all  question.  The  best  account  of  Marx  is  in 
Dawson's  German  Socialism.  (1888). 

MAURICE,  JOHN  FREDERICK  DENI- 
SON, was  born  at  Normanston,  Suffolk,  Eng., 
in  1805,  the  son  of  a  Unitarian  minister.  Grad- 
uating at  Trinity,  Cambridge,  he  took  a  degree 
in  law,  but  early  devoted  himself  to  writing 
on  religious  and  social  questions,  particularly 
in  The  Athenczum.  In  1831  he  entered  the 
Church  of  England,  and  went  to  Oxford  and 
obtained  a  second  class  in  classics  in  1831.  His 
first  curacy  was  at  Bubbenhall,  Warwickshire, 
but  from  1836-46  he  was  chaplain  at  Guy's  Hos- 
pital, London.  His  writings  were  already  at- 
tracting attention.  In  1835  he  wrote  Subscrip- 
tion vs.  Bondage,  and  an  article  subsequently 
enlarged  into  his  Moral  and  Metaphysical 
Philosophy  (1850-57),  In  his  Kingdom  of 
Christ  (1838),  Lectures  on  Education  (1839), 
Reasons  for  not  Joining  a  Party  in  the  Church 
(1841),  he  laid  the  foundations  for  the  theological 
views  of  which  in  the  present  century  he  is  un- 
doubtedly the  great  master,  with  his  high  con- 
ception of  the  church  and  the  nation,  and  yet 
with  a  catholic  conception  of  Christianity  that 
found  room  in  it  for  what — tho  he  himself  re- 
pudiated the  name — has  been  later  called 
"  Broad  Church"  divinity.  From  1846-59  he 
was  chaplain  at  Lincoln's  Inn,  and  it  was  to 
this  period  that  his  Christian  Socialist  activities 
belong.  (For  a  full  account  of  this  movement, 
see  CHRISTIAN  SOCIALISM.)  His  attention  was 
first  prominently  called  to  socialism  and  its  moral 
significance  by  Ludlow,  but  Maurice  became 
the  "master"  of  the  little  school  of  thinkers 
and  workers  that  gathered  round,  and  he  pro- 
posed the  name  Christian  Socialism,  saying  that 
it  was  the  only  name  that  would  deliver  us  to 
the  conflict  we  must  sooner  or  later  wage  with 
unsocial  Christians  and  with  unchristian  social- 
ists. He  contributed  largely  to  the  literature 
of  the  movement,  and  entered  earnestly  into 
the  practical  details  of  establishing  cooperative 
tailors'  stores  ;  but  when  this  movement  had 
become  somewhat  established  (see  COOPERA- 
TION) he  withdrew  to  devote  himself  more  purely 
to  educational  and  intellectual  work.  He  was 
one  of  the  prime  movers  in  establishing  the 
Workingmen's  College  and  the  Queen's  Col- 
lege for  Women,  and  in  1854  became  principal 
of  the  former.  In  1840  he  had  been  made  Pro- 
fessor of  English  Literature  and  History  at 
King's  College,  and  in  1846  Professor  of  Divin- 
ity, but  in  1853  he  was  deprived  of  his  chair  be- 
cause of  his  theological  and  social  views.  From 
1860-69  he  was  incumbent  of  St.  Peter's,  De 
Vere  Street.  In  1866  he  was  chosen  Professor 
of  Moral  Philosophy  at  Cambridge,  from  whence 
he  published  his  Social  Morality  (1869).  He 
died  in  London  in  1872.  His  writings  were 


Maurice,  John  Frederick  Denison.     863 


Mazzini,  Giuseppe. 


numerous  and  varied.  Those  bearing  directly 
on  social  themes  we  have- mentioned.  His  Life, 
edited  by  his  son,  appeared  in  1884. 

MAYORALTY.— The  mayor  is  the  govern- 
or of  a  city.  The  word  is  said  to  have  been  first 
used  in  1189,  when  Richard  I.  substituted  a 
mayor  for  the  two  bailiffs  of  London.  In  Eu- 
rope, the  mayor  is  not  usually  elected  by  the 
voters,  but  by  the  City  Council.  In  England, 
he  is  usually  chosen  only  for  one  year.  In  Ger- 
many, he  may  be  elected  for  life,  and  may  be 
chosen  from  any  city  ;  so  that  the  mayor  of  a 
large  city  is  usually  one  who  has  shown  ability 
in  a  smaller  city.  In  Paris,  the  prefect  of  the 
Seine  corresponds  to  the  mayor,  tho  there  are 
maires  of  each  arrondissement  in  the  city.  (See 
PARIS.) 

In  America,  the  mayors  were  chosen  by  the 
Council  in  New  York  till  1834  ;  in  Philadelphia*, 
till  1839  ;  but  at  present  most  mayors  are  elect- 
ed by  the  people.  Their  terms  of  office  vary 
from  one  year  to  four  years.  Their  powers,  too, 
materially  vary.  They  usually  have  a  veto  pow- 
er in  the  Council,  the  power  of  appointment 
and  removal,  with  the  consent  of  the  City 
Council  ;  but  in  1882,  Brooklyn,  under  Mr.  Seth 
Low,  commenced  allowing  the  mayor  to  make 
his  own  appointments — thinking  thus  to  fix 
responsibility — and  for  a  while  there  was  a 
general  tendency  to  increase  the  power  of  the 
mayors.  This  is  a  kill  or  cure  system.  Under 
a  good  mayor  like  Mr.  Low,  it  worked  well. 
New  York  tried  the  same,  and  under  Mayor 
Hewitt  it  worked  well.  But  under  a  bad  mayor 
it  works  ill,  and  the  general  tendency  at  pres- 
ent is  to  put  more  power  in  the  Council  and  less 
power  with  the  mayor. 

MAZZINI,  GIUSEPPE,  was  born  in  Genoa, 
Italy,  June  22,  1808,  his  father  being  a  physi- 
cian of  no  little  note.  His  first  tutor  was  an 
old  priest  who  taught  him  Latin,  but  his  om- 
nivorous reading  was  not  directed  by  any  mas- 
ter. At  the  age  of  13  he  attended  classes  in  the 
faculty  of  arts  at  the  university,  and  later  stud- 
ied anatomy  to  follow  his  father's  profession, 
but  he  finally  (1826)  graduated  in  laws,  and  for 
some  time  was  occupied  in  the  Ufficio  dei  Po- 
•veri.  From  birth  sentiments  of  social  equality 
were  engendered  in  him  by  the  example  of  his 
parents  ;  and  very  early  the  degraded  political 
condition  of  his  country  began  to  prey  upon 
his  mind.  Patriotic  enthusiasm  gained  abso- 
lute sway  over  his  spirit,  and  led  him  to  re- 
nounce his  cherished  idea  of  a  life  of  literature 
for  the  political  arena.  In  1827  his  maiden  es- 
say in  literature,  DelT  Amor  Patrio  di  Dante, 
appeared  in  the  liberal  journal,  II  Subalpino  ; 
and  he  subsequently  contributed  to  the  Anto- 
logia  of  Florence  and  the  Indicators  Geno- 
•vese.  In  the  pages  of  this  latter  originally  ap- 
peared the  essay  subsequently  republished  un- 
der the  title  of  Scrittid'un  Italiano  Vivente. 
But  in  the  mean  time  the  "  republican  instincts" 
which  he  tells  us  he  had  inherited  from  his 
mother  had  been  developing.  His  articles  ac- 
cordingly became  more  and  more  suggestive  of 
advanced  liberalism  in  politics,  and  led  to  the 
suppression  by  government  of  the  Indicatore 
Genovese  and  the  Indicatore  Livornese  suc- 


cessively. Mazzini  joined  the  Carbonari,  and 
was  entrusted  with  a  secret  mission  in  Tus- 
cany, but  in  1830  was  betrayed.  He  was  im- 
prisoned in  the  fortress  of  Savona  on  the  west- 
ern Riviera  for  about  six  months,  when,  through 
deficiency  of  evidence,  he  was  released,  but  upon 
conditions  involving  so  many  restrictions  that 
he  preferred  to  leave  the  country.  He  went 
accordingly  to  France,  living  chiefly  in  Mar- 
seilles. Here,  in  presence  of  "  those  symbols 
of  the  infinite,  the  sky  and  the  sea,"  and  having 
access  to  no  books  but  "a  Tacitus,  a  Byron, 
and  a  Bible,"  he  conceived  the  great  mission 
or  "  apostolate"  (as  he  himself  called  it)  of  his 
life,  and  organized  a  society  destined  to  become 
famous  throughout  Europe,  La  Giovine  Italia, 
or  Young  Italy.  Its  avowed  aims  were  to  be 
the  liberation  of  Italy,  both  from  foreign  and 
domestic  tyranny,  and  its  unification  under  a 
republican  form  of  government  ;  the  means  to 
be  used  were  education,  and,  where  advisable, 
insurrection  by  guerrilla  bands  ;  the  motto  was 
"  God  and  the  people,"  and  the  banner  was  to 
bear  on  one  side  the  words  "  Unity"  and  "  In- 
dependence" and  on  the  other  "  Liberty," 
"Equality,"  and  "Humanity."  In  April, 
1831,  Charles  Albert  succeeded  to  the  Sardinian 
throne,  and  Mazzini,  as  he  afterward  confessed, 
"the  interpreter  of  a  hope  which  he  did  not 
share,"  wrote  the  new  king  a  letter,  urging  him 
to  take  the  lead  in  the  impending  struggle  for 
Italian  independence.  Its  bold  and  outspoken 
words  produced  a  great  sensation,  but  so  deep 
was  the  offence  it  gave  to  the  Sardinian  Gov- 
ernment, that  orders  were  issued  for  the  imme- 
diate arrest  and  imprisonment  of  the  author 
should  he  attempt  to  cross  the  frontier.  Tow- 
ard the  end  of  the  same  year  ap- 
peared the  important  Young  Italy 
manifesto.  "  Congregations"  were  Revolution, 
formed  at  Genoa,  Leghorn,  and 
elsewhere.  Banished  from  Mar- 
seilles in  consequence  of  the  extensive  opera- 
tions of  the  society,  Mazzini  resorted  to  conceal- 
ment for  several  months,  principally  in  Switzer- 
land. 

About  this  time  a  charge  was  brought  against 
him  of  advocating  assassination  as  a  legitimate 
weapon  in  the  warfare  of  liberalism  ;  but  the 
charge  was  proved  in  the  public  tribunals  of 
France  to  be  false,  and  in  the  British  Parlia- 
ment (1845)  Sir  James  Graham  made  an  apology 
to  Mazzini  for  having  re-echoed  the  calumny. 
The  firstt'ruits  of  La  Giovine  Italia  was  the 
revolutionary  expedition  of  Savoy,  organized 
by  Mazzini  at  Geneva,  but  defeated  by  the 
royal  troops.  Sentence  of  death,  par  con- 
tumace,  was  recorded  against  Mazzini  in  the 
Sardinian  courts  for  his  participation  in  the 
affair  ;  but  he  soon  recommenced  with  increased 
vigor  his  revolutionary  operations.  A  new  as- 
sociation, entitled  "New  Europe,"  and  based 
on  principles  of  European  rights  and  enfran- 
chisement, was  inaugurated  by  the  exertions  of 
Mazzini  in  Switzerland.  In  1837  Mazzini  quit- 
ted Switzerland  for  England,  and  finally  took  up 
his  abode  in  London,  where  for  many  months  he 
had  to  carry  on  a  hard  fight  with  poverty.  Ul- 
timately he  was  able  to  earn  a  livelihood  by 
writing  review  articles,  some  of  which  have 
been  reprinted,  and  are  of  the  highest  order  of 


Mazzini,  Giuseppe. 


864 


McCuIloch,  John  Ramsay. 


literary  merit  ;  they  include  papers  on  Italian 
Literature  since  1830 ,  Lamennais  ,  George 
Sand  ;  Byron  and  Goethe  ,  Lamartine  ;  Car- 
lyle,  and  The  Minor  Works  of  Dante.  In 
1839  he  entered  into  relations  with  the  revolu- 
tionary committees  sitting  in  Malta  and  Paris, 
and  in  1840  he  originated  a  working  men's  asso- 
ciation, and  the  weekly  journal  entitled  Apos- 
tolato  Popolare,  in  which  the  treatise  On  the 
Duties  of  Man  was  commenced.  Among  the 
labors  undertaken  by  Mazzini  was  a  free  even- 
ing school  conducted  by  himself  and  a  few 
others  for  some  years,  at  which  several  hun- 
dreds of  Italian  children  received  at  least  the 
rudiments  of  secular  and  religious  education. 
A  memorable  episode  arose  out  of  the  conduct 
of  Sir  James  Graham,  the  English  home  secre- 
tary, in  systematically  opening  Mazzini 's  letters 
as  they  passed  through  the  post-office,  and  com- 
municating their  contents  to  the  Neapolitan 
Government.  The  discussions  in  parliament, 
and  the  report  of  the  committee  appointed  to 
inquire  into  the  matter,  did  not  lead  to  any  re- 
sult, except  the  vindication  of  Mazzini 's  char- 
acter, which  had  been  recklessly  assailed  in  the 
course  of  debate.  Mazzini  did  not  share  the 
enthusiastic  hopes  raised  in  the  ranks  of  the 
Liberal  party  throughout  Europe  by  the  first 
acts  of  Pius  IX.,  in  1846,  but  at  the  same  time  he 
availed  himself  of  the  opportunity  to  publish  a 
letter  addressed  to  the  new  pope.  The  revolu- 
tionary leaders  had  long  been  in  correspondence 
with  Mazzini,  and  their  action,  along  with  the 
revolution  in  Paris,  brought  him  to  Italy,  where 
he  took  an  active  part  in  the  events  which 
dragged  Charles  Albert  into  an  unprofitable 
war  with  Austria  ;  he  actually  for  a  short  time 
bore  arms  under  Garibaldi  immediately  before 
the  reoccupation  of  Milan,  but  ultimately,  after 
vain  attempts  to  maintain  the  insurrection  in 
the  mountain  districts,  found  it  necessary  to 
retire  to  Lugano.  In  the  beginning  of  the  fol- 
lowing year  he  was  nominated  a  member  of  the 
short-lived  government  of  Tuscany  formed  after 
the  flight  of  the  grand  duke,  and  almost  simul- 
taneously, when  Rome  had,  in  consequence  of 
the  withdrawal  of  Pius  IX.,  been  proclaimed  a 
republic,  he  was  declared  a  member  of  the  con- 
stituent assembly  there.  A  month  afterward 
Mazzini  was  appointed  a  member  of  the  trium- 
virate, with  supreme  executive  power.  His 
tenure  of  supreme  authority  was  marked  by 
wisdom,  moderation,  and  success.  On  the  sur- 
render of  Rome,  by  Mazzini's  advice,  however, 
he  quitted  the  city,  and  subsequently  returned 
to  London.  At  his  instigation  risings  in  Milan 
(1853)  and  in  Piedmont  (1857)  were  attempted. 
The  Sicilian  expedition  of  1860  owed  as  much 
to  the  organization  of  Mazzini  as  to  the  com- 
mand of  Garibaldi.  In  1865  he  was  elected  by 
Messina  deputy  to  the  Italian  Parliament  ;  but 
the  election,  to  which  he  himself  as  a  republi- 
can would  have  declined  to  accede,  was  can- 
celed by  the  parliament,  In  1865,  after  the  ces- 
sion of  Venice  to  Italy,  his  sentence  of  death 
was  at  last  removed,  but  he  declined  to  accept 
such  an  ' '  offer  of  oblivion  and  pardon  for  hav- 
ing  loved  Italy  above  all  earthly  things."  In 
1870  he  set  out  for  Sicily,  but  was  arrested  at 
sea  and  carried  to  Gaeta,  where  he  was  impris- 
oned for  two  months.  Events  soon  made  it 


evident  that  there  was  little  danger  to  fear  from 
a  contemplated  rising,  and  the  occasion  of  the 
birth  of  a  prince  was  seized  for  restoring  him 
to  liberty.  The  remainder  of  his  life,  spent 
partly  in  London  and  partly  at  Lugano,  pre- 
sents no  noteworthy  incidents.  For  some  time 
his  health  had  been  far  from  satisfactory,  and 
he  died  at  Pisa,  March  10,  1872.  The  Italian 
Parliament  by  a  unanimous  vote  expressed  the 
national  sorrow  ;  an  eloquent  tribute  was  pro- 
nounced by  the  president,  and  a  public  funeral 
took  place  at  Pisa,  his  remains  being  later  con- 
veyed to  Genoa.  Mazzini  said  of  himself,  "  I 
am  but  a  voice  crying  action"  but  he  was  in 
very  deed  far  more.  In  his  Duties  of  Man, 
addressed  to  working  men,  he  gives 
perhaps  the  fullest  expression  to 
thoughts  which  make  many  con-  His  Views. 
sider  him  the  greatest  prophet  of 
the  nineteenth  century.  His  watch- 
words were  "  duties,"  and  not  "rights  ;  "  self- 
sacrifice,  and  not  self-seeking  ;  association,  and 
not  competition  ;  democracy,  and  not  govern- 
ment ;  humanity,  and  not  the  individual  ;  God, 
and  not  the  opinions  of  mankind.  Opposing 
both  socialism  and  Christianity  as  they  were 
presented  to  him,  he  said  : 

"  Working  men,  brothers !  When  Christ  came  and 
changed  the  face  of  the  world,  He  spoke  not  of  rights 
to  the  rich,  who  needed  not  to  achieve  them  ;  nor  to 
the  poor,  who  would  doubtless  have  abused  them,  in 
imitation  of  the  rich ;  He  spoke  not  of  utility,  nor  of 
interest,  to  a  people  whom  interest  and  utility  had 
corrupted  ;  He  spoke  of  duty,  He  spoke  of  love,  of  sac- 
rifice, and  of  faith  ;  and  He  said  that  they  should  be 
first  among  all  who  had  contributed  most  by  their  la- 
bor to  the  good  of  all.  And  the  word  of  Christ  breathed 
in  the  ear  of  a  society  in  which  all  true  life  was  extinct, 
recalled  it  to  existence,  conquered  the  millions,  con- 
quered the  world,  and  caused  the  education  of  the  hu- 
man race  to  ascend  one  degree  on  the  scale  of  progress." 

References :  a  translation  of  his  main  writings 
appeared  in  1891.  There  are  cheap  editions  of  his  Duties 
of  Man,  of  his  Thoughts  on  Democracy  in  Europe,  and 
his  literary  essays. 

McBRIDE,  JOHN,  was  born  in  Wayne 
County,  O.,  in  1854,  and  commenced  working 
in  the  mines  at  the  age  of  nine.  In  1870  he 
joined  the  Miners'  Union,  and  in  1883  was 
elected  its  president.  In  1881  he  was  nominated 
to  the  State  Legislature,  and  tho  defeated,  he 
was  renominated,  and  elected  in  1883  and  again 
in  1885.  In  1886  he  was  Democratic  candidate 
for  Secretary  of  State.  In  1894  he  was  elected 
president  of  the  American  Federation  of  Labor 
(g.v.),  but  defeated  in  1895. 

McCULLOCH,  JOHN  RAMSAY,  was  born 
at  Whithc  rn,  Scotland,  in  1789.  He  became 
editor  of  The  Scotsman,  a  Liberal  organ,  and 
one  of  the  editors  of  The  Edinburgh  Review. 
He  wrote  the  article  on  political  economy  in  the 
supplement  to  the  Encyclopedia  Britannica 
(1824),  and  expanded  it  in  1825  into  the  Prin- 
ciples of  Political  Economy,  with  a  Sketch  of 
the  Rise  and  Progress  of  the  Science.  From 
1828-32  he  was  professor  of  that  science  in  the 
University  of  London.  In  1838  he  was  comp- 
troller of  the  royal  stationary  office,  and  re- 
ceived a  pension  of  ^"200.  He  died  at  West- 
minster in  1864.  One  of  the  first  to  develop 
free  trade  views,  his  writings  were  constant. 
His  Dictionary,  Practical,  Theoretical  and 


McCulloch,  John  Ramsay. 


865 


McNeill,  George  E. 


Historical,  of  Commerce  and  Commercial 
Navigation  (1832)  and  a  Dictionary,  Geo- 
grapnical,  Statistical,  Historical,  of  the  Vari- 
oits  Countries,  Places,  and  Principal  Natural 
Objects  of  the  World  (1841,  revised  edition, 
1866-67),  were  long  standard  authorities. 

MacDONALD,  ALEXANDER,  was  born 
in  1821  in  Lanarkshire,  the  son  of  a  miner,  and 
worked  in  the  pit  at  the  age  of  eight  years. 
Having  an  ardent  desire  for  education,  he  pre- 
pared himself  for  Glasgow  University,  which  he 
entered  in  1846,  working  as  a  miner  in  the  sum- 
mer. He  became  a  leader  of  the  miners  all  over 
Scotland.  In  1850  he  became  a  school-teacher, 
but  in  1857  gave  this  up  to  give  all  his  time  to 
agitation  on  behalf  of  the  miners.  In  1863,  on 
the  formation  of  the  National  Union  of  Miners, 
he  was  elected  president.  Meanwhile,  by  some 
commercial  speculations  he  acquired  a  modest 
fortune,  which  enabled  him  to  devote  all  his 
time  to  advocating  a  parliamentary  program 
among  the  miners.  In  the  general  election  for 
1874  he  was  returned  to  Parliament  for  Stafford 
with  Mr.  Bright  (g.v.),  the  first  labor  mem- 
ber. He  was  appointed  on  the  Royal  Commis- 
sion on  Labor  Laws,  and  brought  in  a  minority 
report.  He  died  in  1881. 

McGLYNN,  EDWARD,  was  born  in  New 
York  City  in  1837.  He  was  educated  at  the  Col- 
lege of  the  Propaganda  in  Rome,  and,  entering 
the  Roman  Catholic  priesthood,  became  in  1866 
pastor  of  St.  Stephen's  Church,  in  New  York 
City,  where  he  rapidly  gained  influence  and 
popularity.  His  opposition  to  the  establishment 
of  parochial  schools  and  his  advocacy  of  the  land 
doctrines  of  Henry  George  (g.v.)  brought  him 
into  disfavor  with  the  Church,  and  he  was  sum- 
moned to  Rome,  and,  on  refusing  to  go,  excom- 
municated. In  1887  he  aided  in  founding  the 
Anti-Poverty  Society  (y.v.)  and  became  its  presi- 
dent, lecturing  on  its  principles  before  enthusi- 
astic audiences  in  New  York  City  and  elsewhere. 
In  1893  he  was  reconciled  to  the  Church,  tho 
without  renouncing  his  economic  views  ;  the 
ban  of  excommunication  was  removed,  and  he 
was  restored  to  his  rank  and  to  office  in  the 
Church. 

McGUIRE,  PETER  J.,  was  born  in  New 
York  City  in  1852,  of  Irish  parentage.  He  was 
educated  in  the  public  schools  and  in  evening 
classes  at  the  Cooper  Institute,  and  in  1867  ap- 
prenticed as  a  wood  joiner.  He  joined  the  union 
of  his  craft  in  1872,  and  interested  himself  in  the 
labor  movement.  In  1880  he  secured  the  pas- 
sage of  labor  bills  in  Missouri  and  organized  the 
labor  bureau  of  that  State.  He  became  a  Green- 
backer  in  1876  and  stumped  Missouri  in  1880. 
In  1 88 1  he  organized  the  Brotherhood  of  Carpen- 
ters and  Joiners  (g.v.).  He  was  arrested  that 
year  for  conspiracy,  but  was  acquitted.  In  1881 
he  was  delegate  to  the  International  Working 
Men's  Congress  in  Switzerland,  and  studied  in- 
dustrial conditions  in  Europe.  Since  1882  he 
has  been  general  secretary  of  the  Brotherhood 
of  Carpenters  ;  he  has  addressed  many  thou- 
sand meetings  in  all  portions  of  the  United 
States.  He  is  First  Vice- President  of  the  Amer- 
ican Federation  of  Labor,  and  for  four  years 
was  its  secretary. 

55 


McNEILL,  GEORGE  E.,  was  born  in 
Amesbury,  Mass.,  August  4,  1836,  his  father 
being  one  of  the  early  workers  in  the  anti- 
slavery  movement,  a  friend  of  John  G.  Whit- 
tier  and  others.  The  son  worked  as  a  boy  in 
the  woolen  mills  of  his  native  town,  and  took 
part  in  the  strike  of  1851.  Soon  after  he  learned 
the  shoemaker's  trade,  and  in  1856  settled  in 
Boston.  About  this  time  he  joined  the  Sons  of 
Temperance,  and  filled  high  office  many  times. 
He  was  an  active  member  of  the  great  Eight 
Hour  League,  and,  with  Ira  Steward  and  others, 
had  much  to  do  with  the  establishment  of  the 
ten-hour  law  of  Massachusetts.  He  founded 
the  Working  Men's  Institute,  and  received  the 
cooperation  of  Wendell  Phillips,  Governor 
Claflin,  and  others  in  the  movement  to  estab- 
lish the  Massachusetts  Bureau  of  Statistics  of 
Labor,  the  first  labor  bureau.  Upon  the  organ- 
ization of  the  bureau  he  was  made  deputy  chief. 
(See  LABOR  BUREAUS,  also  SAVINGS  BANKS.)  He 
was  president  of  the  famous  Boston  Eight-Hour 
League  for  eight  years.  (See  SHORT-HOUR 
MOVEMENT.) 

He  joined  the  Sovereigns  of  Industry,  and  be- 
came State  secretary.  Upon  the  formation  of 
the  International  Labor  Union  of  America  he 
was  made  president,  and  in  that  capacity  ad- 
dressed public  meetings  all  over  the  United 
States.  In  Chicago  he  addressed  an  immense 
gathering  of  over  13,000  people,  the  labor  soci- 
eties having  challenged  Joseph  Cook  to  meet 
him  in  debate.  He  was  connected  as  editor 
and  associate  editor  with  the  New  York  Labor 
Standard,  Fall  River  Labor  Standard,  Pater- 
son  (N.  J.)  Labor  Standard,  Paterson  Home 
Journal,  and  The  Voice  (Boston).  He  founded 
the  Labor  Leader  at  Boston.  He  was  an  active 
member  of  the  Labor  Congress  at  Rochester  in 
1874,  and  there  wrote  a  declaration  of  principles 
since  adopted  by  the  Knights  of  Labor  (q.v.). 

He  served  for  a  time  as  a  member  of  the 
school  committee  of  the  city  of  Cambridge, 
Mass. ,  and  succeeded  in  establishing  free  even- 
ing drawing  schools,  the  first  attempt  of  the 
kind.  He  joined  the  Knights  of  Labor  in  1883  ; 
became  prominent  in  District  30  of  that  order, 
when  District  30  was  the  largest  district  of  the 
largest  labor  organization  that  had  ever  existed 
up  to  that  time.  He  was  appointed  district 
treasurer  in  1884.  He  has  been  successful  as 
an  arbitrator  of  differences  between  employers 
and  employees  ;  notably  in  the  great  horse-car 
strike  in  Boston,  1885,  and  in  the  case  of  the  em- 
ployees of  the  Union  Pacific  Railroad.  In  1886 
he  was  the  working  men's  candidate  for  mayor 
of  Boston.  The  first  systematic  history  of  the 
labor  movement  in  America  was  undertaken 
by  McNeill,  resulting  in  the  publication  of 
The  Labor  Movement,  or  the  Problem  of 
To-day,  in  1886,  edited  and  the  larger  por- 
tion written  by  himself.  He  was  appointed 
by  the  Governor  of  Massachusetts  one  of 
the  Commissioners  of  Manual  Training  (1892). 
Driven  in  his  early  years,  by  what  he  con- 
sidered the  infidelity  of  the  Church,  into  un- 
belief, he  was  later  in  life  confirmed  in  the 
Protestant  Episcopal  Church,  and  became,  in 
1891,  senior  warden  of  the  Episcopal,  Christian 
Socialist  Church  of  the  Carpenter  in  Boston.  (See 
BLISS.)  Mr.  McNeill  is  intensely  democratic  in 


McNeill,  George  E. 


866 


Methodism  and  Social  Reform. 


his  views,  and  when  the  Knights  of  Labor  (g.v.) 
developed  too  centralized  a  policy,  and  refused 
to  recognize  the  autonomy  of  the  separate  crafts, 
he  strenuously  opposed  the  policy,  and  failing 
to  convince  the  leaders  of  that  organization  of 
their  mistake,  he  became  one  of  the  main  sup- 
porters of  the  American  Federation  of  Labor 
(a.v.).  His  economic  views  are  those  of  the 
short-hour  philosophy,  of  which  he  was  one  of 
the  prime  founders.  (See  SHORT-HOUR  MOVE- 
MENT.) 

MENNONITES  are  a  sect  of  Anabaptists 
(q.v.),  followers  of  Menno  Simons,  and  found  in 
Switzerland,  Germany,  France,  Russia,  and 
America.  First  appearing  in  Switzerland  in 
1 525,  in  1683  a  colony  was  established  at  German- 
town,  Pa.  In  1871  many  of  them  fled  from 
Russia  to  America.  In  1890  there  were  41 .541 
in  the  United  States.  At  first  they  refused  to 
swear  in  courts  or  bear  arms,  and  lived  a  quiet 
industrial  life.  They  have  now  abandoned  any 
unusual  social  views.  (See  ANABAPTISTS..) 

MERCANTILISTS.— Mercantilists  is  the 
name  given  to  the  school  of  political  economy, 
if  it  can  be  called  a  school,  which  advocated  the 
belief  generally  held  till  the  end  of  the  last  cen- 
tury that  wealth  consists  in  gold  and  silver,  and 
that  therefore  the  importation  of  gold  and  silver 
and  exportation  of  goods  to  obtain  gold  should 
be  encouraged  by  the  State,  and  the  exportation 
of  gold  and  silver  and  importation  of  goods 
should  be  discouraged  as  much  as  possible. 
How  this  leads  to  the  balance  of  trade  theory 
(f.v.)  is  at  once  apparent. 

The  mercantile  system,  also  called  Colbert- 
ism,  restrictive  system,  and  commercial  system, 
obtained  from  the  early  part  of  the  sixteenth 
century  until  late  in  the  eighteenth  century,  and 
its  influence  is  still  felt.  Most  prominent  among 
the  statesmen  who  were  mercantilists  may  be 
named  Colbert,  of  France  ;  Frederick  the  Great, 
of  Prussia  ;  and  Cromwell,  of  England.  Serra, 
an  Italian,  early  in  the  seventeentn  century  pre- 
sented a  moderate  and  systematic  statement 
of  their  views  in  a  work  entitled  A  Brief 
Treatise  on  Causes  which  make  Gold  and 
Silver  Abound  where  there  are  no  Mines. 
Thomas  Mun,  in  England,  a  generation  later, 
wrote  a  valuable  treatise  from  the  standpoint  of 
the  mercantilists,  called  England 's  Treasure 
by  Foreign  Trade  ;  or,  the  Balance  of  our 
Trade  the  Rule  of  our  Treasure,  while  Sir 
James  Steuart's  Inquiries  into  the  Principles 
of  Political  Economy,  published  in  1767,  may 
be  regarded  as  closing  the  development  of  the 
theory  of  mercantilism.  The  one  idea  common 
to  all  was  that  a  nation  ought  to  strive  to  export 
a  quantity  of  goods  of  greater  value  than  it  im- 
ports, in  order  that  the  difference  may  be  im- 
ported m  gold  and  silver  and  the  home  supply 
of  the  precious  metals  increased.  Everything 
else  was  subordinated  to  this  policy.  A  favor- 
able balance  of  trade  was  the  aim.  Tariffs  were 
laid  with  this  in  view,  and  protectionism  was 
encouraged  ;  yet  it  was  something  different  from 
modern  protectionism.  It  was  the  avowed  aim 
of  the  mercantilists  to  make  both  agricultural 
products  and  labor  cheap,  in  order  that  manu- 
factured articles  might  be  cheap  and  a  large 


sale  of  them  abroad  effected.  The  exportation 
of  raw  material  was  often  entirely  prohibited. 
To-day  no  one  holds  this  view  to  be  correct. 
(See  BALANCE  OF  TRADE  ;  FREE  TRADE  ;  PROTEC- 
TION.) 

MERCHANTS'  GUILDS.     See  GUILDS. 

METAYER,  THE  (from  Latin  medieta, 
half)  is  one  who  cultivates  a  farm  or  land  for 
the  owner  on  condition  of  retaining  a  portion, 
usually  one  half,  of  the  produce,  the  owner  gen- 
erally furnishing  the  stock  and  tools.  Metay- 
age, or  the  metayer  system,  prevails  in  Italy, 
Southern  France,  and  to  a  large  extent  in  the 
south  of  the  United  States.  J.  S.  Mill  says  (Po- 
litical Economy,  vol.  ii.,  chap,  viii.)  : 

"  The  metayer  system  has  met  with  no  mercy  from 
English  authorities.  'There  is  not  one  word  to  be 
said  in  favor  of  the  practice,'  says  Arthur  Young,  'and 
a  thousand  arguments  that  might  be  used  against  it. 
The  hard  plea  of  necessity  can  alone  be  urged  in  its 
favor;  the  poverty  of  the  farmers  being  so  great, 
that  the  landlord  must  stock  the  farm,  or  it  could  not 
be  stocked  at  all  :  this  is  a  most  cruel  burden  to  a  pro- 
prietor, who  is  thus  obliged  to  run  much  of  the  hazard 
of  farming  in  the  most  dangerous  of  all  methods,  that 
of  trusting  his  property  absolutely  in  the  hands  of  peo- 
ple who  are  generally  ignorant,  many  careless,  and 
some  undoubtedly  wicked.  ...  In  this  most  miser- 
able of  all  the  modes  of  letting  land,  the  defrauded 
landlord  receives  a  contemptible  rent ;  the  farmer  is 
in  the  lowest  state  of  poverty  ;  the  land  is  miserably 
cultivated  ;  and  the  nation  suffers  as  severely  as  the 
parties  themselves.  .  .  .  Wherever  this  system  pre- 
vails, it  may  be  taken  for  granted  that  a  useless  and 
miserable  population  is  found.  .  .  .  There  are  but  few 
districts  '  (in  Italy) '  where  lands  are  let  to  the  occupying 
tenant  at  a  money-rent ;  but  wherever  it  is  found,  their 
crops  are  greater — a  clear  proof  of  the  imbecility  of  the 
metay ing  system.'  '  Wherever  it' (the  metayer  system) 
'has  "been  adopted,'  says  Mr.  M'Culloch,  'it  has  put  a 
stop  to  all  improvement,  and  has  reduced  the  cultiva- 
tors to  the  most  abject  poverty.'  Mr.  Jones  shares  the 
common  opinion,  and  quotes  Turgot  and  Destutt-Tracy 
in  support  of  it.  The  impression,  however,  of  all  these 
writers  (notwithstanding  Arthur  Young's  occasional 
references  to  Italy)  seems  to  be  chiefly  derived  from 
France,  and  France  before  the  Revolution.  .  .  . 

"  We  shall  find  a  very  different  picture,  by  the  most 
accurate  authorities,  of  the  metayer  cultivation  of 
Italy.  In  the  first  place,  as  to  subdivision.  In  Lom- 
bardy,  according  to  Chateauvieux,  there  are  few 
farms  which  exceed  60  acres,  and  few  which  have  less 
than  10.  These  farms  are  all  occupied  by  metayers 
at  half  profit.  They  invariably  display  'an  extent 
and  a  richness  in  buildings  rarely  known  in  any  other 
country  in  Europe.'  Their  plan  'affords  the  greatest 
room  with  the  least  extent  or  building  ;  is  best  adapted 
to  arrange  and  secure  the  crop ;  and  is,  at  the  same 
time,  the  most  economical,  and  the  least  exposed  to 
accidents  by  fire.'  The  court-yard  '  exhibits  a  whole 
so  regular  and  commodious,  and  a  system  of  such  care 
and  good  order,  that  our  dirty  and  ill-arranged  farms 
can  convey  no  adequate  idea  of.'  The  same  descrip- 
tion applies  to  Piedmont." 

METHODISM  AND  SOCIAL  REFORM. 

— John  Wesley,  the  founder  of  Methodism,  was 
not  less  remarkable  as  a  social  reformer  than  as 
a  preacher  and  administrator.  His  conception 
of  the  Gospel  of  Christ  was  that  it  is  not  only 
the  indispensable  and  sufficient  evangel  for  the 
individual  soul,  but  also  the  only  and  efficient 
remedy  for  social  sins  and  sufferings.  He  early 
combined  an  active  philanthropy  with  his  zeal- 
ous evangelism.  He  saw  in  every  man  a  broth- 
er, and  the  wrongs  and  needs  of  man  every- 
where aroused  his  compassion  and  called  forth 
his  practical  sympathy.  He  regarded  the  phys- 
ical and  intellectual  as  well  as  the  spiritual 
necessities  of  his  fellows,  and  laboriously  and 
unsparingly,  in  the  spirit  of  Christ,  set  himself 


Methodism  and  Social  Reform. 


867 


Methodism  and  Social  Reform, 


to  minister  unto  them.  In  fact,  it  is  difficult  to 
find  any  religious  or  social  enterprise  of  the 
Christian  Church  which  was  not  anticipated  by 
Wesley. 

It  is  believed  that  the  first  free  dispensary  in 
the  world  was  founded  by  John  Wesley,  at  the 
old  Foundry  in  Moorfields,  London.  The  first 
tract  society  was  formed  by  Wesley  and  Dr. 
Thomas  Coke  in  1782,  17  years  before  the  or- 
ganization of  the  great  and  noble  Religious 
Tract  Society,  a  society  which  itself  owed  its  ori- 
gin chiefly  to  Rowland  Hill  and  other  (Calvin- 
istic)  Methodists.  The  Strangers'  Friend  So- 
ciety, visiting  50,000  of  the  sick  and  poor  of 
London  annually,  without  regard  to  creed,  was 
founded  by  Methodists  six  years  before  the 
death  of  Wesley.  Similar  benevolent  and 
strangers'  friend  societies  are  sustained  by 
Methodists  in  most  of  the  large  towns  and  cities 
of  England. 

It  was  Sophia 'Cooke,  a  Methodist,  afterward 
the  wife  of  the  eloquent  Samuel  Bradburn,  who 
first  suggested  to  Robert  Raikes  the  Sunday- 
school  idea,  "  and  actually  marched  with  him  at 
the  head  of  his  troop  of  ragged  urchins  the  first 
Sunday  they  were  taken  to  the  parish  church."  * 

Wesley  and  his  preachers  were  enthusiastic 
and  active  in  the  use  of  the  press  and  the  circu- 
lation of  improving  and  wholesome  literature. 
The  oldest  periodical  magazine  in  the  world  is 
the  Arminian  Magazine,  now  known  as  the 
Wesleyan,  Methodist  Magazine,  which  was 
first  issued  January  i,  1778,  and  is  now  in  the 
one  hundred  and  sixteenth  year  of  its  continu- 
ous existence. 

Wesley's  contributions  to  what  in  the  best 
sense  was  popular  literature  awaken  our  won- 
der and  admiration  for  his  literary  ability  and 
tireless  industry.  His  pen  and  tongue  were 
alike  constantly  employed  for  the  public  good. 
His  Christian  Library  in  50  volumes,  the  first 
volume  of  which  was  printed  in  1749,  was  an 
effort  to  bring  to  the  common  people  some  of 
the  treasures  of  literature,  otherwise  inaccessible 
to  them.  In  all  his  multifarious  and  incessant 
labors  Wesley  sought  no  personal  gain,  but 
worked,  as  he  lived,  for  his  fellow-men. 

Dr.  Abel  Stevens  writes  : 

"  Wesley  was  the  first  to  set  the  example  of  modern 
cheap  prices  sustained  by   large  sales      A  catalog  of 
his  publications,  printed  about  1756,  contains  no  less 
than    181    articles   in   prose  and   verse, 
English   and  Latin,  on  grammar,  logic, 
Wesley.       medicine,  music,  poetry,  theology,  and 
philosophy.     Two    thirds  of  these  pub- 
lications were  for  sale  at  less  than  one 
shilling  each,  and  more  than  one  fourth  at  a  penny. 
They  were  thus  brought  within  the  reach  of  the  poor- 
est of  his  people.     '  Simplify  religion  and  every  part 
of  learning,'  he  wrote  to  Benson,  who  was  the  earliest 
of  his  preachers   addicted  to  literary   labors.    To  all 
his  preachers  he  said  :  '  See  that  every  society  is  sup- 

glied  with  books,'  some  of  which  ought  to  be  in  every 
ouse." 

Methodism  in  both  hemispheres  is  still  active 
in  the  work  of  publishing  and  circulating  good 
literature.  While  accomplishing  this  end  the 
profits  are  not  applied  to  any  private  emolu- 
ment, but  distributed  among  the  aged  and  su- 
perannuated ministers  and  widows  of  ministers. 

The  Methodist  Book  Concern,  in  New  York, 
is  the  greatest  religious  publishing  agency  in 

*  Tyerman's  Life  of  Wesley,  vol.  i.,  p.  n. 


the  world.  Its  sales  of  books  in  1893  amounted 
to  $463, 91 3.  British  Methodism  has  a  vigorous 
and  successful  publishing  house,  which  is  the 
legal  and  lineal  heir  and  successor  of  John  Wes- 
ley in  this  beneficent  work.  Every  Methodist 
minister  has  always  been  everywhere  an  active 
agent  for  the  dissemination  of  the  best  litera- 
ture among  the  people.  No  less  than  3,624,350 
copies  of  magazines,  newspapers,  and  periodicals 
were  issued  by  the  Book  Committee  of  the 
Methodist  Episcopal  Church  in  1893.  The 
larger  part  of  these  issues  were  distinctly  edu- 
cational, for  use  in  Sunday-schools.  The  sales 
of  books  reached  nearly  $464.000  for  the  year. 

Methodism  has  largely  caught  the  spirit  and 
been  influenced  by  the  genius  and  example  of 
its  founder.  Its  territory  is  so  vast  and  its 
branches  are  so  numerous  that  it  is  impossible 
to  catalog  and  describe  all  its  activities  in  the 
direction  of  what  is  known  as  social  reform. 

The  missionary  work  of  the  Church  is  by  no 
means  wholly  foreign.  Forty-five  per  cent,  of 
the  income  of  the  Methodist  Episcopal  Church 
Missionary  Society  is  expended  in  the  United 
States — much  of  it  among  the  foreign-born  peo- 
ples. Thus,  in  1893,  while  $568,884  was  appro- 
priated to  foreign  missions,  $474,952  was  ex- 
pended at  home. 

Wesleyan  Methodism,  the  older  of  the  two 
great  wings  of  the  Methodist  Church  and  the 
parent  of  all,  expends  much  time  and  money  in 
distinctively  home  missionary  work.  Around 
all  these  domestic  centers  and  agents  cluster 
schools,  libraries,  charities,  classes  for  manual 
training,  savings  banks,  mothers'  meetings,  sick 
clubs,  etc.  Classes  for  "  sloyd"  (sewing)  and. 
the  teaching  of  useful  arts  and  knowledge  are 
held  in  connection  with  most  city  missions. 

The  foreign  missionary  work  of  Methodism 
involves  an  immense  expenditure  of  money  and 
most  self-sacrificing  labor  in  (so-called)  ' '  hu- 
manitarian" work  ;  improving  the  temporal, 
physical,  and  social  condition  of  the  people,  in- 
cluding the  care  of  the  sick  and  orphans,  with 
hospitals  and  skilled  medical  service.  A  vast 
amount  of  educational  work,  with  the  transla- 
tion, printing,  and  publication  of  literature,  is- 
also  done  by  missionaries. 

Temperance  is  practised  and  advocated  as  an 
integral  part  of  Christian  duty  and  character.. 
Wesleyan  Methodism  has  its  Conference  Tem- 
perance Committee,  with  a  minister  set  apart  to 
superintend  temperance  work  throughout  its 
jurisdiction.  So  also  have  the  United  Method- 
ist Free  Churches.  The  other  branches  of 
Methodism  in  Great  Britain  and  her  colonies 
have  special  organization  for  this  work.  In  the 
United  Kingdom  the  work  is  generally  prose- 
cuted by  means  of  Bands  of  Hope  for  the  chil- 
dren and  adult  societies  for  the  seniors.  In 
America  there  is  less  of  special  organization  ; 
but  periodical  temperance  lessons  are  given  in 
the  Sunday-schools,  and  temperance  work  is 
expressly  committed  to  one  department  in  all 
chapters  of  the  Epworth  League. 

The  Tract  Society  of  the  Methodist  Episcopal 
Church  issued  16.250,700  pages  in  1893.  Two 
hundred  and  fifty  thousand  tracts  were  printed 
in  the  German  language,  and  funds  furnished 
to  foreign  fields  for  printing  religious  literature. 
The  Board  of  Church  Extension  of  the  Meth- 


Methodism  and  Social  Reform 


868 


Michel,  Louise. 


odist  Episcopal  Church  has  disbursed  in  27 
years  nearly  $5,000,000,  aiding  the  building  of 
9083  churches  in  various  States  and  Territories. 
One  third  of  this  amount  has  been  supplied  as 
loans,  to  be  repaid,  thus  constituting  a  fund 
which  can  be  used  again  and  again  for  the  same 
purpose. 

In  1866  the  Freedmen's  Aid  Society  was  or- 
ganized, and  in  27  years  it  has  disbursed  $3,667,- 
162.  It  is  now  known  as  the  Freedmen's  Aid 
and  Southern  Education  Society, 
and  in  1893  expended  $363,763  in 
Activities,  schools  among  the  freedmen  and 
necessitous  whites  of  the  South. 
The  Board  of  Education  aided  1416 
students  in  the  year  ending  July,  1893.  All 
these  students  were  intended  for  the  ministry, 
missionary,  teaching,  or  similar  work.  Within 
the  last  nine  years  a  remarkable  movement  in 
social  effort  has  been  seen  in  the  rise  and  devel- 
opment of  the  deaconess  movement.  The  work 
began  informally  in  Chicago  in  1887,  where 
Mrs.  Lucy  Rider  Meyer  had  instituted  a  Mis- 
sionary Training  School.  In  1888  the  General 
Conference  gave  formal  recognition  and  authori- 
zation to  deaconesses.  Deaconesses  must  be 
trained  ;  work  entirely  voluntarily,  taking  no 
vows  ;  wear  a  simple  costume  ;  are  entirely  un- 
salaried  in  nearly  all  cases  ;  live  usually  in  com- 
munities called  "  homes  ;"  are  individually 
recognized  by  the  Church,  and  must  be  yearly 
approved  by  the  Annual  Conference  within 
Whose  bounds  they  labor. 

Eight  hospitals  have  been  established  in  con- 
nection with  the  deaconess  homes,  and  many 
deaconesses  are  trained  nurses. 

In  the  foreign  work  the  deaconess  movement 
has  been  found  most  helpful,  especially  in  India 
and  China.  In  Germany  there  is  a  large  dea- 
coness work,  having  headquarters  at  Hamburg, 
where  there  is  a  fine  large  home  and  hospital. 
The  Methodist  Episcopal  Church  has  about  500 
deaconesses.  In  England,  the  deaconess  move- 
ment has  also  become  a  permanent  institution, 
and  promises  to  aid  materially  in  solving  the 
problem  of  reaching  and  aiding  the  poor  and  in 
winning  their  confidence. 

The  Methodist  Church  has  always  taken  an 
interest  in  the  condition  of  poor,  orphan,  and 
neglected  children.  The  Children's  Home,  with 
headquarters  in  London  and  a  distributing  home 
at  Hamilton,  Can.,  cares  for  nearly  1000  boys 
and  girls.  St.  Christopher's  Home,  New  York, 
has  five  cottages  accommodating  125  children. 
The  Fred  Finch  Orphanage  (Oakland,  Cal.) 
provides  for  60  boys  and  girls.  New  York  has 
a  home  for  aged  and  infirm  persons,  accommo- 
dating 109  inmates.  Brooklyn  has  a  similar 
institution  with  52  inmates. 

At  the  Methodist  Hospital,  Brooklyn,  897  pa- 
tients occupied  beds  in  1893,  and  nearly  600 
out-patients  were  treated.  This  hospital  has 
an  estate  and  buildings  which  have  already 
cost  $750,000.  It  has  also  an  endowment  fund 
of  upward  of  $195,000.  During  the  past  six 
years  it  has  cared  for  about  10,000  people,  at  a 
cost  of  nearly  $195,000.  These  patients  have 
been  of  all  creeds  and  nationalities. 

The  Methodists  have  also  hospitals  at  Phila- 
delphia, with  70  beds  ;  Cincinnati,  where  233 
patients  were  treated  in  1893  ;  Chicago,  with  a 


training  school  for  nurses  ;  Kansas  City  ;  Oma- 
ha, accommodating  28  patients  ;  St.  Louis  ; 
Portland,  Ore.,  where  276  patients  were  treated 
last  year. 

At  East  Boston,  right  opposite  the  Cunard 
wharf,  is  the  Immigrants'  Home.  The  report 
of  a  year's  work  includes  :  Trains  and  steamers 
met,  74  ;  cared  for  in  the  home,  661  ;  aided  on 
piers  and  to  find  friends,  350  ;  helped  to  em- 
ployment, over  100  ;  lodgings  furnished,  2588  ; 
meals  supplied,  7764  ;  465  lodgings  and  1294 
meals  were  given  free. 

New  York  Methodism  has  also  a  work  among 
immigrants  landing  at  that  port. 

In  the  practical  activities  which  are  now  re- 
garded as  the  legitimate  sphere  and  the  posi- 
tive duty  of  the  Christian  Church,  Methodism  is 
everywhere  taking  its  full  share.  Especially  is 
this  evidenced  in  the  constitution  and  work  of 
the  Epworth  League,  in  which  thousands  of  the 
earnest  and  educated  young  people  are  enrolled. 
In  every  chapter  of  the  League  the  Department 
of  Mercy  and  Help  is  especially  charged  with 
the  consideration  and  direction  of  systematic 
effort  in  all  lines  of  social  reform. 

In  the  city  of  Boston  an  excellent  work  is 
being  carried  on  at  the  Epworth  Settlement. 
In  a  house  at  the  North  End  certain  university 
students  have  taken  up  residence,  and,  aided 
by  voluntary  workers,  devote  themselves  to  the 
service  of  the  people.  The  Italians  have  been 
helped  in  resisting  the  unprincipled  Italian 
bosses,  and  are  being  taught  to  be  loyal  citi- 
zens. Boys'  and  girls'  clubs,  classes  for  sew- 
ing, physical  culture,  night  schools  for  Italians, 
Jews,  Portuguese,  and  others  are  among  the 
many  activities  of  the  settlement.  Thirty-six 
college  students  are  pledged  to  this  good  work. 

The  attitude  and  testimony  of  the  Methodist 
Church  against  the  liquor  traffic,  gambling, 
polygamy,  the  evils  of  divorce,  the  opium  traffic, 
and  the  licensing  of  vice  are  too  well  known  to 
require  description. 

JAMES  YEAMES. 

MICHAELIS,  OTTO,  was  born  at  Lubeck, 
in  Westphalia,  in  1826.  He  studied  law  at  Bonn 
and  Berlin,  but  was  deprived  of  his  position  in 
consequence  of  the  excitements  of  1848.  He 
then  betook  himself  to  Berlin,  where  he  became 
assistant  editor  of  the  Abendzeitung,  and,  after 
its  suppression,  editor  of  the  National  zetiung. 
In  1 86 1  he  was  elected  to  the  Prussian  House  of 
Deputies,  and  in  1867  to  the  North  German 
Reichstag.  He  held  several  political  posts,  but 
as  his  free-trade  principles  brought  him  into 
conflict  with  the  financial  policy  of  the  Govern- 
ment, he  retired.  He  died  December  12,  1890. 

MICHEL,  LOUISE,  was  born  at  Veon- 
court,  Haute-Marne,  France,  in  1839.  Winning 
distinction  by  musical  and  poetical  talents,  she 
opened  a  school  at  Montmartre,  Paris,  in  1860, 
but  early  became  an  active  revolutionist.  Dur- 
ing the  Commune  she  worked  on  committees 
and  fought  at  barricades  in  man's  uniform.  She 
was  captured  and  condemned  to  death,  a  sen- 
tence changed  to  transportation.  She  went 
through  all  the  horrors  of  the  Versailles  prisons, 
and  was  transported  to  New  Caledonia.  After 
nine  years  the  amnesty  allowed  her  to  return, 


Michel,  Louise. 


869 


Middle  Ages. 


a  more  determined  anarchist  than  ever.  Sev- 
eral times  imprisoned,  she  escaped  to  London, 
and  started  an  international  school  in  Fitzroy 
Street.  Often  addressing  Hyde  Park  meetings, 
she  vents,  in  vehement  French,  her  hatred  of 
the  bourgeoisie,  who  shed  the  blood  of  her  com- 
rades. She  has  written  her  Memoirs  and  a 
novel,  The  Microbes  of  Society. 

MIDDLE  AGES.— The  Middle  Ages,  which 
are  usually  made  to  reach  from  about  the  fifth 
century  to  the  thirteenth,  form  a  period  of  great 
economic  and  sociologic  importance  and  interest. 
Under  a  separate  head  we  treat  of  FEUDALISM. 
(See  also  CHRISTIANITY  AND  SOCIAL  REFORM  ; 
CHURCH  AND  SOCIAL  REFORM  ;  GUILDS  ;  CITIES  ; 
CANON  LAW  ;  LAND  ;  MONASTICISM  ;  EDUCATION  ; 
FAMILY  ;  SERFDOM  ,  SLAVERY;  WOMAN,  etc.)  Dr. 
Ingram,  in  his  History  of  Political  Economy, 
says  of  the  Middle  Ages  : 

"They  represent  a  vast  transition,  in  which  the 
germs  of  a  new  world  were  deposited,  but  in  which 
little  was  fully  elaborated.  There  is  scarcely  any- 
thing in  the  later  movement  of  European  society 
which  we  do  not  find  there,  tho  as  yet,  for  the  most 
part,  crude  and  undeveloped.  The  medieval  period 
was  the  object  of  contemptuous  depreciation  on  the 
part  of  the  liberal  schools  of  the  last  century,  princi- 
pally because  it  contributed  so  little  to  literature.  But 
there  are  things  more  important  to  mankind  than  liter- 
ature ;  and  the  great  men  of  the  Middle  Ages  had 
enough  to  do  in  other  fields  to  occupy  their  utmost 
energies.  The  development  of  the  Catholic  institutions 
and  the  gradual  establishment  and  maintenance  of  a 
settled  order  after  the  dissolution  of  the  Western 
empire  absorbed  the  powers  of  the  thinkers  and  prac- 
tical men  of  several  centuries.  The  first  medieval 
phase,  from  the  commencement  of  the  fifth  century  to 
the  end  of  the  seventh,  was  occupied  with  the  painful 
and  stormy  struggle  toward  the  foundation  of  the  new 
ecclesiastical  and  civil  system ;  three  more  centuries 
were  filled  with  the  work  of  its  consolidation  and 
defense  against  the  assaults  of  nomad  populations ; 
only  in  the  final  phase,  during  the  eleventh,  twelfth, 
and  thirteenth  centuries,  when  the  unity  of  the  West 
was  founded  by  the  collective  action  against  impend- 
ing Moslem  invasion,  did  it  enjoy  a  sufficiently  secure 
and  stable  existence  to  exhibit  its  essential  character 
and  produce  its  noblest  personal  types.  The  elabora- 
tion of  feudalism  was,  indeed,  in  progress  during  the 
whole  period,  showing  itself  in  the  decomposition  of 
power  and  the  hierarchical  subordination  of  its  several 
grades,  the  movement  being  only  temporarily  sus- 
pended in  the  second  phase  by  the  salutary  dictator- 
ship of  Charlemagne.  But  not  before  the  first  century 
of  the  last  phase  was  the  feudal  system  fully  con- 
stituted. In  like  manner,  only  in  the  final  phase  could 
the  effort  of  Catholicism  after  a  universal  discipline  be 
carried  out  on  the  great  scale— an  effort  forever  ad- 
mirable, tho  on  the  whole  unsuccessful. 

"  No  large  or  varied  economic  activity  was  possible 
under  the  full  ascendency  of  feudalism.  That  organ- 
ization, as  has  been  abundantly  shown  by  philosophi- 
cal historians,  was  indispensable  for  the  preservation 
of  order  and  for  public  defense,  and  contributed 
important  elements  to  general  civilization.  But  while 
recognizing  it  as  opportune  and  relatively  beneficent, 
we  must  not  expect  from  it  advantages  inconsistent 
with  its  essential  nature  and  historical  office.  The 
class  which  predominated  in  it  was  not  sympathetic 
with  industry,  and  held  the  handicrafts  in  contempt, 
except  those  subservient  to  war  or  rural  sports.  The 
whole  practical  life  of  the  society  was  founded  on 
territorial  property  ;  the  wealth  of  the  lord  consisted 
in  the  produce  of  his  lands  and  the  dues  paid  to  him  in 
kind ;  this  wealth  was  spent  in  supporting  a  body  of 
retainers  whose  services  were  repaid  by 
their  maintenance.  There  could  be  lit- 

Economv      tle  room  for  manufactures,  and  less  for 
*•     commerce  ;  and  agriculture  was  carried 
on  with  a  view  to  the  wants  of  the  fam- 
ily, or  at  most  of  the  immediate  neigh- 
borhood, not  to  those  of  a  wider  market.     The  economy 
of  the  period  was  therefore  simple,  and,  in  the  absence 
of  special  motors  from  without,  unprogressive." 

Perhaps  the  first  great  fact  of  the  Middle 


Ages,  viewed  from  the  standpoint  of  social  de- 
velopment, was  its  lawlessness.  The  monas- 
teries afforded  to  an  extent  asylums  of  peace  ; 
benevolent  monarchs  and  prosperous  cities  cre- 
ated some  order  ;  religion,  as  in  the  establish- 
ment of  the  days  called  "  the  Peace  of  God" — 
days  when  war  and  strife  were  to  be  laid  aside 
— to  some  degree  restrained  violence  ;  but  these 
very  restraints  and  exceptions  show  to  what 
an  extent  lawlessness  was  ths  rule.  With  this 
reign  of  violence  went,  as  a  necessary  result, 
neglect  of  agriculture,  of  commerce,  and  to  a 
less  extent  of  industry.  In  the  latter  Middle 
Ages  city  industries  grew  rapidly  and  reached 
heights  of  artistic  development  and  of  honorable 
esteem  not  equaled  before  or  since.  But  agri- 
cultural labor  through  all  the  Middle  Ages  and 
city  labor  in  the  early  Middle  Ages  were  neg- 
lected because  unsafe. 

From  this  resulted  a  lack,  even  among  the 
well-to-do,  sometimes  even  of  food,  and  always 
of  the  comforts  of  life.  The  poor  to-day  can 
have  what  rich  men  could  not  in  the  Middle 
Ages.  Lack  of  communication  and  the  absence 
of  printing,  too,  must  be  noted  as  among  the 
great  distinguishing  marks  of  the  Middle  Ages. 
Immorality  was  all  but  universal,  limited  only 
by  the  saintly  lives  of  a  few  priests  and  monks 
and  nuns,  and  by  a  somewhat  fanciful  code  of 
knightly  honor  and  commercial  fairness.  Lecky 
says  (History  of  Morals,  vol.  ii.,  chap,  v.) : 
"  Ecclesiastical  immorality  in  the  eighth  and 
three  following  centuries  was  little  if  at  all  less 
outrageous  than  in  any  other  period,  while  the 
papacy  during  almost  the  whole  of  the  tenth 
century  was  held  by  men  of  infamous  lives. 
Simony  was  nearly  universal." 

Yet  there  is  a  favorable  side  to  medieval  life. 
The  very  rudeness  of  the  age  developed  ideal- 
ity. When  the  possibilities  of  knowledge  were 
limited  to  the  few  ;  when  material  interests 
and  distractions  were  not  many,  the  faculty  of 
the  imagination  had  large  scope.  This  led  un- 
doubtedly, as  above  stated,  to  gross  credulity 
and  superstition,  and  gave  great  power  to  the 
clergy,  but  it  also  led  to  chivalry  and  romance 
and  faith.  It  produced  the  cathedral  and  the 
cathedral  life.  Chivalry  with  its  largely  pure, 
tho  in  part  impure  and.  unworthy,  worship  of 
woman  is  characteristic  of  the  age.  Commer- 
cial vices  were  not  common.  Commercial  vir- 
tues were  much  praised.  Town  authorities 
ruled  the  market,  enforced  honest  work  and  fair 
prices.  It  was  the  honor  of  the  strong  to  pro- 
tect the  weak,  even  as  it  was  their  glory  to  at- 
tack and  defeat  other  strong  men.  Paternal- 
ism went  hand  in  hand  with  the  tyranny  of 
feudalism.  In  some  lords  the  one  was  most 
prominent  ;  in  others  the  other.  The  poor  had 
a  claim  upon  the  great.  Each  man  could  have 
a  home,  if  it  were  a  hovel,  and,  save  for  war, 
security  in  his  home.  The  recognition  of  classes 
involved  the  duties  of  classes.  "  Each  for  self" 
was  by  no  means  a  medieval  ideal. 

We  discover,  too,  a  movement  in  the  Middle 
Ages.    Modern  Europe  may  be  said 
to  have  been  born  of  the  Crusades. 
They  did   much   to  make  Europe     Crusades, 
one.      They    brought   the   martial 
Goth  into  connection  with  the  re- 
fined Byzantine  and  the  quick-witted  Greek. 


Middle  Ages. 


870 


Mill,  James. 


They  developed  great  cities  like  Venice  and 
Genoa.  They  taught  Europe  to  worship  an 
idea. 

The  age-long  battle,  too,  between  Emperor 
and  Pope  drew  Europe  into  international  com- 
munion. It  led  to  the  ideal  unity  of  the  Holy 
Roman  Empire,  which  if  it  was,  as  has  been 
said,  neither  holy  nor  Roman,  was  at  least  im- 
perial, and  therefore  stood  for  organic  union 
and  not  for  anarchistic  strife.  The  battle,  too, 
between  contending  claims  developed  political 
thought.  Almost  all  modern  political  and  social 
ideas  find  their  germs  in  the  contests  of  ideas 
in  the  Middle  Ages.  As  men  fought  for  pri- 
vate right  or  public  law,  for  local  government 
or  imperial  will,  for  power  of  king  or  right  of 
priest,  they  broke  up  a  dead  system  of  a  great 
Church  State,  and  prepared  the  way  for  the  doc- 
trines of  the  Reformation  and  the  rights  of  man. 

MIDDLE-MAN.— The  middle -man,  who 
buys  of  the  producer  and  sells  to  the  consumer, 
and  retains  his  profit  on  the  transaction,  is  usu- 
ally denounced  as  an  unnecessary  source  of  cost 
to  the  consumer.  Cooperation  (g.v.)  tries  in 
various  ways  to  eliminate  that  cost,  but  often 
his  work  is  of  absolute  value.  The  work  of  col- 
lecting and  ordering  products  for  consumers, 
and  especially  of  deciding  what  to  order  and 
what  to  sell,  is  often  of  the  very  greatest  impor- 
tance and  value.  If  not  performed  by  a  mid- 
dle-man who  takes  his  profit,  it  would  often 
have  to  be  performed  by  some  salaried  agent 
or  employee,  either  of  the  producers  or  consum- 
ers. (See  WAGES  OF  SUPERINTENDENCE.) 

MILITIA  (from  Latin  miles,  a  soldier)  is  that 
portion  of  the  military  strength  of  a  nation  en- 
rolled for  discipline  and  practice,  but  local  in 
organization,  and  only  called  into  actual  service 
when  necessary.  It  is  the  organized  national 
reserve,  and  includes  the  "voluntary"  organi- 
zations of  Great  Britain  and  the  United  States, 
the  National  Guard  of  France,  and  the  Land- 
wear  and  Landsturm  of  Germany.  The  British 
system  of  volunteers  originated  in  the  old 
Anglo-Saxon  fyrd,  and  the  warlike  features  of 
the  ancient  posse  comitatus  The  British  Gov- 
ernment appoints  lord-lieutenants  of  counties 
empowered  to  command  voluntary  organizations 
or  to  place  a  levy  by  ballot  upon  all  non-exempt- 
ed persons.  As  a  matter  of  fact,  the  volunteers 
are  usually  sufficient.  The  militia  of  the  United 
Kingdom  in  1893-94  comprised  140,308  men,  or, 
including  the  whole  national  reserve.  274,549. 

la  the  United  States  the  militia  is  under  the 
control  of  Congress  in  time  of  war,  and  in  time 
of  peace  under  the  States  subject,  however,  to 
the  consent  and  general  control  of  Congress. 
As  a  matter  of  fact  the  only  effective  militia 
are  the  uniformed  voluntary  organizations  main- 
tained in  many  of  the  States  as  National  or  State 
Guards. 

In  the  War  of  the  Revolution  there  were 
231,971  continentals  or  regulars  and  56,163  mili- 
tia. In  the  War  of  the  Rebellion  there  were  re- 
ceived into  service  2, 690, 401  men  ;  when  hostili- 
ties ceased  there  were  1,000,516  men  in  service, 
of  whom  978,000  were  volunteers,  and  the  na- 
tional enrollment  at  the  same  time  exhibited  an 
available  reserve  of  2,254,063  men.  January  i, 


1895,  the  militia  of  the  United  States  numbered 
114,146,  exclusive  of  naval  reserves — the  naval 
militia  numbering  2695.  Those  liable  to  mili- 
tary duty  numbered  10,180,043. 

MILK  SUPPLY  SERVICE,  MUNICI- 
PALIZATION  OF  THE.—  The  New  Na- 
tion, the  former  organ  of  the  Nationalists  (g.  v.) 
in  the  United  States,  argued  that  one  of  the  busi- 
nesses in  which  municipal  management  ought 
immediately  to  be  introduced,  in  place  of  private 
competition,  is  the  milk  supply.  It  considered 
this  even  more  important  than  the  municipaliza- 
tion  of  the  gas  supply.  It  says  : 

"  Not  only  would  the  management  of  the  milk  supply 
by  the  municipality  cheapen  the  cost  of  milk  both  by 
dispensing  with  profit  and  by  avoiding  the  great  waste 
by  duplication  of  routes  and  service,  which  marks  the 
present  competitive  system,  but  it  would  have  another 
advantageous  result  far  more  important  than  this, 
namely,  the  prevention  of  adulteration. 

"  It  is  notorious  than  there  is  scarcely  any  article  of 
food  which  is  so  commonly  adulterated  as  milk,  and 
this  common  repute  is  abundantly  justified  by  official 
and  statistical  records.  For  example,  a  late  report  of 
the  Massachusetts  inspector  of  milk  and  vinegar  states 
that  samples  of  the  milk  sold  at  the  lunch  counters 
and  restaurants  of  Boston  prove  in  many  cases  to  be  of 
the  poorest  grade.  They  are  largely  skimmed  milk 
and  often  diluted  at  that  with  40  per  cent  of  water.  It 
is  often  found,  moreover,  that  in  order  to  correct  the 
blue  tint  caused  by  pouring  too  much  water  into 
skimmed  milk,  a  chemical  called  annatto  is  added. 
Such  milk  is  sold  at  ^  cents  a  glass  or  20  cents  a  quart, 
when  8  cents  a  quart  is  all  that  good  milk  should  bring. 
The  worst  of  it  is  the  most  of  this  bad  milk  is  sold  to 
the  poorer  classes,  who  can  least  afford  to  be  cheated. 
On  the  other  hand,  however,  the  inspector  found  that 
quite  a  number  of  the  high-priced  and  fashionable 
restaurants  were  not  above  practising  the  same  vile 
sort  of  fraud. 

"  On  the  whole,  perhaps  the  worst  aspect  of  this  milk 
iniquity  is  the  fact  that  infants  and  children,  who  de- 
pend largely  and  often  wholly  upon  milk  for  subsist- 
ence, are  the  chief  sufferers  from  the  adulterations 
practised.  There  is  no  doctor  who  has  any  practice  in 
the  tenement-house  districts  who  will  not  say  that  the 
terrible  prevalence  of  cholera  infantum,  as  well  as 
children's  diseases  in  general  in  those  quarters,  is 
owing  largely  to  the  bad  milk  the  poor  have  to  use. 
When  it  is  a  question  of  milk  for  infants,  it  must  be 
remembered,  moreover,  that  in  order  not  to  be  injuri- 
ous and  even  fatal  to  a  feeble  child,  it  must  be,  not 
merely  free  from  actual  adulteration,  but  of  a  certain 
degree  of  freshness.  This  last  is  a  condition  absolutely 
unattainable  to  the  poor,  who  have  in  Boston,  as  a  rule, 
to  put  up  with  milk  not  less  than  72  hours  from  the  cow. 
By  tolerating  the  present  system  of  milk  distribution, 
the  State  becomes  an  accomplice  in  wholesale  child- 
murder. 

"  A  further  advantage  of  a  municipal  milk  supply 
would  be  the  prevention  of  the  sale  of  milk  from  in- 
fected cattle." 

MILL,  JAMES,  was  born  near  Montrose, 
Scotland,  in  1773,  and  educated  at  the  Univer- 
sity of  Edinburgh.  He  was  licensed  as  a 
preacher  in  the  Scottish  National  Church  in 
1798  ;  but,  changing  his  religious  views,  became 
a  tutor  in  the  family  of  Sir  John  Stuart,  and  ac- 
companied him  to  London  in  1802  to  begin  a  lit- 
erary life. 

His  first  venture  was  to  start  a  periodical  on  a 
new  plan,  entitled  The  Literary  Journal, 
which  began  in  January,  1803,  and  continued 
under  his  editorship  till  the  end  of  1806. 

In  1806  he  commenced  his  History  of  British 
India,  which  he  carried  on  along  with  other  lit- 
erary work,  and  published  in  the  winter  of 
1817-18.  The  impression  produced  by  this  his- 
tory was  such  that,  in  1819,  he  was  appointed  to 
the  post  of  assistant  examiner  of  Indian  corre- 


Mill,  James. 


87i 


Millionaires. 


spondence,  notwithstanding  the  unpopularity 
of  his  well-known  radical  opinions.  The  busi- 
ness assigned  to  his  care  was  the  revenue  de- 
partment, which  he  continued  to  superintend 
till  four  years  before  his  death,  when  he  was 
appointed  head  of  the  examiner's  office,  where 
he  had  the  control  of  all  the  departments  of  Ind- 
ian administration — political,  judicial,  and  finan- 
cial— managed  by  the  secret  committee  of  the 
court  of  directors.  Shortly  after  his  appoint- 
ment to  the  India  House  he  contributed  the  arti- 
cles on  government,  education,  jurisprudence, 
law  of  nations,  liberty  of  the  press,  colonies, 
and  prison  discipline  to  the  Encyclopedia 
Britannic  a.  In  1821-22  he  published  his  Ele- 
ments of  Political  Economy,  a  work  prepared 
primarily  with  a  view  to  the  education  of  his 
son,  John  Stuart  Mill. 

In  1808  he  became  acquainted  with  Jeremy 
Benthatn,  and  was  for  many  years  Bentham's 
chief  companion  and  ally.  He  was  not,  how- 
ever, a  mere  disciple  of  Bentham,  but  a  man  of 
profound  and  original  thought  and  learned  in 
all  the  departments  of  philosophy.  He  con- 
tributed largely  to  the  Westminster  Review, 
and  in  1829  published  An  Analysis  of  the  Phe- 
nomena of  the  Human  Mind,  and  gave  a  pow- 
erful intellectual  stimulus  to  a  number  of  young 
men.  Between  1806  and  1818  he  wrote  a  great 
many  articles  for  various  periodicals,  his  princi- 
pal topics  being  education,  reform,  freedom  of 
the  press,  prison  discipline.  In  1836  he  died  at 
Kensington. 

MILL,  JOHN  STUART,  was  born  in  Lon- 
don in  1806,  the  son  of  the  Benthamite  philoso- 
pher, James  Mill  (g.v.).  Educated  by  his  fa- 
ther, he  showed  phenomenal  precociousness, 
tho  subjected  to  the  strictest  mental  discipline. 
He  is  said  to  have  begun  Greek  at  the  age 
of  three,  and  by  the  age  of  12  to  have  read 
most  of  the  leading  Greek  and  Latin  authors. 
He  also  at  this  age  studied  calculus  and  the  sci- 
ences, and  at  the  age  of  14  he  took  a  complete 
course  in  political  economy.  He  then  had  a 
year's  travel  in  Europe,  mainly  in  Southern 
France,  and  returned  to  aid  his  father  in  liter- 
ary work,  imbibing  his  father's  liberalism  and 
skepticism.  He  studied  law  with  John  Austin, 
another  Benthamite.  In  1823  he  became  a  clerk 
in  the  India  House,  and  remained  in  this  house 
37  years,  rising  from  grade  to  grade.  The  in- 
fluential Westminster  Review  was  established 
in  1823  as  a  Benthamite  organ,  and  Mill  began 
contributing  to  it  at  once.  In  1843  he  published 
his  Logic  in  two  volumes  ;  in  1844,  his  essays 
on  Some  Unsettled  Questions  of  Political  Econ- 
omy ;  and  in  1848,  his  Principles  of  Political 
Economy,  with  some  of  their  Applications  to 
Social  Philosophy,  an  epoch-making  book.  In 
it  political  economy  is  no  longer  ' '  the  dismal 
science"  of  cold  theory,  but  the  practical  study 
how  to  cure  economic  evils  ;  tho  on  the  whole 
of  the  orthodox  school,  it  is,  nevertheless,  pro- 
gressive. In  1859  ne  published  his  Liberty,  and 
also  Thoughts  on  Parliamentary  Reform  ;  his 
Representative  Government  appeared  in  1861. 
and  Utilitarianism  in  1862.  His  Subjection 
of  Women  was  Mill's  next  work,  tho  not  pub- 
lished till  1869.  In  1865  appeared  his  Examina- 
tion of  Hamilton's  Philosophy.  The  same 


year  he  was  elected  to  Parliament  for  Westmin- 
ster, tho  he  refused  to  make  any  canvass  for  the 
office.  His  parliamentary  career,  however,  was 
short  and  not  marked.  His  subscription  to  the 
election  expenses  of  Mr.  Bradlaugh  and  other 
independent  acts  cost  him  his  seat  in  1868,  and 
he  retired  to  literary  life  at  Avignon.  Here  he 
wrote  many  articles  and  essays,  and  for  his  last 
public  work  was  engaged  in  the  starting  of  the 
Land  Tenure  Reform  Association.  In  1851  he 
married  Mrs.  John  Taylor,  whom  he  had  met  in 
1831,  and  with  whom  he  had  shared  his  literary 
work  in  the  closest  friendship.  She  died,  how- 
ever, in  1859,  and  after  her  death  her  daugh- 
ter, Miss  Taylor,  became  his  constant  compan- 
ion. His  Autobiography  appeared  in  1873,  and 
created  great  interest  ;  and  in  it  Mill  relates, 
step  by  step,  the  development  of  his  views.  Be- 
ginning as  a  Benthamite,  and  working  for 
the  utilitarian  greatest  good  of  the  greatest 
number,  in  the  autumn  of  1826,  he  tells  us, 
he  suddenly  asked  himself  the  following  ques- 
tion :  "  Suppose  that  all  your  objects  in  life 
were  realized  ;  that  all  the  changes  in  insti- 
tutions and  opinions  which  you  are  looking 
forward  to  could  be  completely  effected  at  this 
very  instant — would  this  be  a  great  joy  and 
happiness  to  you  ?  and  an  irrepressible  self- 
consciousness  distinctly  answered  No  !  At 
this  my  heart  sank  within  me.  The  whole 
foundation  on  which  my  life  was  constructed  fell 
down."  From  that  change  he  went  on,  he  tells 
us,  to  materially  change  his  views.  He  adopt- 
ed what  he  later  found  was  Carlyle's  anti-self- 
consciousness  theory,  of  happiness  not  as  an 
end,  but  to  be  attained  only  by  having  another 
aim,  the  happiness  of  others,  or  some  art,  etc. 
He  learned  to  add  the  susceptibilities  to  intel- 
lect culture.  He  came  also  finally  to  change  his 
social  views  to  a  position  where  he  could  say  of 
himself  and  his  wife  :  "  Our  ideal  of  ultimate 
improvement  went  far  beyond  democracy,  and 
would  class  us  decidedly  under  the  general 
name  of  socialists.  .  .  .  The  social  problem  of 
the  future  we  considered  to  be,  how  to  unite  the 
greatest  liberty  of  action  with  a  common  owner- 
ship in  the  raw  material  of  the  globe,  and  an 
equal  participation  of  all  the  benefits  of  com- 
bined labor"  {Autobiography,  1873).  He  died 
at  Avignon  in  1873.  After  his  death  his  essays 
on  socialism  were  published. 

MILLIONAIRES.— (For  a  discussion  of  the 

development  and  concentration  of  wealth  in  the 
United  States  and  elsewhere,  see  WEALTH.)  We 
give  here  a  summary  of  the  results  of  the  inves- 
tigation conducted  by  the  New  York  Tribune 
in  1892  as  to  the  number  of  millionaires  in  the 
United  States,  and  the  ways  in  which  their  for- 
tunes were  obtained  : 

IN  THE  UNITED  STATES. 

Manufacturing  mainly,  but  in    many  cases  with 
investments  in  real  estate,  Banking,  and   other 

non- protected  business 619 

Saw  mills  and  lumber,  sometimes  with  other  in- 
vestments   138 

Brewing  and  real  estate,  mainly 79 

Distilling,  mainly .  32 

Malting 2 

Coal,    iron,    zinc,    lead,    copper,    or    quicksilver 

mines   113 

Sugar  refining,  mainly 29 

Shipbuilding  and  repairing 3 


Millionaires. 


872 


Mines. 


Tanning  and  leather  business 46 

Coasting  and  lake  shipping,  mainly 31 

Flour  milling 16 

Marble  quarries,  but  with  other  investments a 

Seeds  and  nursery  business,  mainly 4 

Sugar  plantations  in  the  South 3 

Lithographing,    but    with  insurance  business  in 

addition i 

Tobacco  growing  in  the  South,  and  lands 3 

Wool  growing  in  Ohio,  and  lands i 

Making  special  patented  and  proprietary  articles.  93 

Cattle  raising  in  the  West,  and  lands,  mainly 47 

Merchandising  mainly,  with,  in  the  great  major- 
ity of  cases,  the  investment  of  profits  in  real  es- 
tate, banks,  and  securities  generally 986 

Real  estate,  advance  in  value  with  the  growth  of 

population  and  impro v  ement  of 468 

Loaning  money  and  real  estate 9 

Railroads,  development,  consolidation,  and  man- 
agement of 186 

Contracting  and  building,  railroads,  streets,  and 

public  and  pri  vate  works  generally 77 

Banking  and  the  investment  of  profits  in  real  es- 
tate and  securities,  mainly 294 

Brokerage  business  and  stocks  56 

Express  business 18 


Origin  of  the  fortune  entirely  unknown 21 

In  industries  not  in  the  least  protected 2,-'27 

Grand  total 41047 


Mercaatile  agency  business  and  investments 

Telegraph  and  telephone 


IN  NEW  YORK  CITY. 

Manufacturing,  mainly 95 

Brewing  and  real  estate iq 

Distilling,  mainly 2 

Coasting  vessels,  mainly 19 

Tanning  business  and  leather 19 

Sugar  refining,  mainly 13 

Protected  mines,  coal,  iron,  etc n 

Shipbuilding  and  investments i 

Cattle  raising  in  the  West,  mainly i 

Making  patented  and  proprietary  articles 18 

Merchandising,  with  investment  of  profits  in   real 

estate,  securities,  etc 356 

Banking  and  investments 113 

Brokerage  business  and  stocks 34 

Real  estate,  advance  in  value  and  improvement  of  134 

Railroads 69 

Silver  and  gold  mines 6 

Ocean  ships,  freighting,  and  foreign  trade 37 

Local  gas,  railroad,  ferry,  and  kindred  enterprises  10 

Hotel  and  restaurant  business  and  real  estate 8 

Insurance  business,  mainly 3 

e  development 12       Contracting  and  building,  mainly  — 16 

Silver  and  gold  mines 73      Oil  refining,  production,  and  transportation 17 

Local  enterprises,  gas  works,  water  works,  street               Law  practice  and  investments  28 

railroads,  ferries,  etc 7°      Storage,  warehousing,  etc 3 

Law  practice  and  investment  of  profits  in  real  es-              Publishing  news  and  story  papers 12 

tate  and  securities 65      Publishing  copyrighted  books 9 

Deep-sea  shipping,  ocean  freighting,  in  some  cases              West  India  and  South  American  plantations,  etc..  5 

combined  with  foreign  trade  on  the  owner's  ac-               Bakery  business i 

count 75      Medical  practice  and  fortunate  real  estate  invest- 

Whaling,  deep-sea  ships,  and  ocean  trade 4         ments i 

Packing  and  provisions 34      Mercantile  agency  business,  with  investment  of 

Ice  business,  mainly i          profits 2 

Oil  producing,  refining,  and  transportation 72       Tweed  Ring  i 

Hotel  and  restaurant  business,  with  real  estate               River  and  harbor  boats ,..  7 

investments.   24       Express  business 6 

Pine  lands  and  the  sale  of  logs  and  timber  there-              Telegraph  and  telephone  business 3 

from 19      Ice  business,  mainly i 

Dealing  in  timber  and  mineral  lands n      Live-stock  raising,  with  investment  of  profits i 

Publishing  news  and  story  papers 30      Pa wnbroking  and  real  estate 2 

Publishing  copyright  books,  with  general  printing              Inherited  from  relatives  . .   14 

added  in  some  cases 25      Origin  of  the  fortune  entirely  unknown 6 

Publishing  copyrighted  music 2 

Steamboating  on  the  rivers  and  in  the  harbors —      20      In  protected  industries,  mainly 179 

Plantations,  farming  and  land  15       In  cattle  raising i 

Cracker  and  bread  baking 4      Patented  and  proprietary  articles 18 

Nitrate  beds  in  Chile i      Inherited,  business  in  which  the  fortune  was  made 

Lcmisiana  lottery  business *         unknown 14 

Main  contracts  in  the  West,  with  other  business,               Origin  of  the  fortune  entirely  unknown ..  6 

ranches,  mines,  etc  i      In  industries  not  protected 885 

Smelting  and  refining  metals 6 

Insurance  business,  mainly 6  Total 1.103 

Royalties  on  patents 3  Tlif»    mtllinnflirp<  of   Rnrnnp    have    not    been 

Miscellaneous    investment,    mostly   in    non-pro-  ..   lnf   ™  U! °" air^  °*    *£ r°P e,  na, \?    "    .,  D ??  , 

tected  lines  of  business . 6     thus  tabulated.     Dr.  C.  B.  Spahr  (Distribution 

Show  and  circus  business,  with  investment   of  of  Wealth,  1896)  estimates   for   Great    Britain 

profits  in  real  estate,  securities,  etc 3      that  jess  than   2  per  cent,  of   the  families  hold 

Pension  aglncy abu™nesl, '  with  '  a  weekly  news!  about  three  quarters  of  the  wealth.     In  Prussia 

paper  in  connection  therewith i      he  finds  that  10  per  cent,  of  those  receiving  m- 

Contracts  for  railroad  building  and  equipment,  comes  hold  nearly  half  the  wealth.     In  Paris,  2^ 

Ptantadtw^^e^esf'todtoi'aid'SOTth'Aiw^  per  cent,  of  the  incomes  aggregate  more  than 

ica,  mainly 6      one  half  of  all  incomes.     (See  WEALTH.) 

Phosphate    land    in    Florida,    banking,   and  real  „_„____,..                           .        •->; 

estate i         MILLS,  HERBERT  V.,  was  born  in  1856 

Fine  stock  raising  and  fortunate  investments  in  jn  Accrington.      Apprenticed  as  an  engineer, 

GS^evator^ofage 'warehouses;  and'wharf  3      he  left  this  position   and  eventually  became  a 

business 17      Unitarian  minister,  with  a  chapel  at  Hamilton 

Medical  practice  and  investments  in  real  estate...  i      Road,  Liverpool,  and  more  recently  at  Market 

Kw^^^^^fe:::. ::::::::::•:::::;;;    I  ™*».  *****. .  He  founded  the  Home  coj»m- 

Refining  lard,  cotton  oil,  etc i  zation  Society  in   1887,  and  is  now  a  leading 

Cotton  raising  in  the  South  — 4  director  of  the  Starnwaite   Colony,  an  experi- 

^l^^^3££?^S:::-\\  \  fent    at    employing    the    unemployed       (See 

By  Inheritance  and  gift,   original  sources  of  the  LABOR  COLONIES.)    He  is  author  of  Poverty  and 

fortune  unknown 34  the  State,  and  other  books  and  essays. 

Origin  of  the  fortune  entirely  unknown 21 

RECAPITULATION  MINES.— (See  COAL  J    IRON  ;    GOLD  J    SlLVER. 

Tn  r         ***  ,-«*„«  For  other  countries  than  the  United  States,  see 

inffirr^  those    countries.     For    wages    of    miners    see 

In  making   special  patented  and  proprietary  ar-  WAGES.)      The  census  of  1890  gives  the    follOW- 

T  tides.    ...          ..... 93      'n™  statistics  of  the  total   mineral  products  of 

Inherited,  original  business  in  which  the  fortune  *    s  TT     ,     ,  0,            ,.         00 

was  made  unknown 34     the  United  States  for  1889  : 


Mines. 


873 


Minimum  Wage. 


TOTAL  VALUE  OF  THE  MINERAL  PRODUCTS  OF  THE  UNITED  STATES,  BY  STATES   AND 

TERRITORIES,  1889. 


Total ; $587,230,662 


Alabama  $9,828,369 

Alaska 926,568 

Arizona 7,248,717 

Arkansas 567,683 

California 19,699,354 

Colorado 41,126,610 

Connecticut 3,090,161 

Delaware 506,754 

District  of  Colum bia 40,000 

Florida 138,728 

Georgia 2,988,935 

Idaho 8,385,233 

Illinois 17,110,317 

Indiana 9,704,949 

Indian  Territory T, 333,807 

Iowa 10,267,068 

Kansas 5,935,981 

Kentucky 4,711,944 

Louisiana 480,000 

Maine 8,126,493 

Maryland 5,089,447 

Massachusetts ,  3,700,634 

Michigan 70,880,524 

Minnesota 11,542,138 

Mississippi  41,174 

Missouri 15,931,575 

Montana 33,737,775 


Nebraska 

Nevada 

New  Hampshire. 
New  Jersey 

New  Mexico 

New  York 

North  Carolina.. 
North  Dakota.... 
Ohio... 


Oregon 

Pennsylvania. . . 
Rhode  Island!  . 
South  Carolina. 
South  Dakota.. 

Tennessee 

Texas 

Utah. 


Vermont 

Virginia 

Washington 

West  Virginia 

Wisconsin 

Wyoming 

Mexican  lead  smelted  in  the  United  States.. 

Undistributed  copper 

Nickel  in  imported  Canadian  matte 

Copper  from  imported  pyrites 

Fuel  displaced  by  natural  gas  used  at  pipe 
lines  for  drilling  and  pumping  wells  and 
for  other  uses 


$257,019 

10,143,874 

920,164 

8,275.936 

4,611,764 

24,165,206 

4511625 

6I.431 

26,653,439 

1,238,114 

150,876,649 

987,055 

3,022,285 

3,685,862 

6,455.283 

1,985,679 

11,681,019 

5,674,022 

6,023,076 

2,998,355 

6,969,804 

10,183,861 

1,810,515 

2.343,474 

389.273 

21,000 

603,940 


1,600,000 


VALUE    OF    PRODUCTION,   SUM   OF    OPERATING    EXPENSES.   AND    AMOUNT    OF    CAPITAL 
INVESTED  IN  THE  PRINCIPAL  MINERAL  INDUSTRIES,  1889. 


PRODUCTS. 

Value  of 
Production. 

Operating 
Expenses. 

Capital 
Invested. 

METALLIC  : 

$33,351,978 
99,283,732 
26,907,809 
1,190,500 

t4o,ooo 

240,559 
94,346,809 

65,879,514 
26,963,340 
Ji  1,044,858 
171,537 
§53,035,620 
2,937,776 
764,118 
*      23,372 
105,565 
35-!55 
32,980 
1152,450 
i,  800 
^72,662 
231,708 
106,313 
177,472 
286,294 
45,835 
7,850 
202,119 
1,748,458 

$24,781,658 
63,451,136 
12,062,180 
681,401 
126,187 

123,958 
85,324,193 
61,212,087 
8,546,900 
14,920,886 

98,337 
40,772,803 
1,985,511 

433,347 
16,678 
57,105 
21,384 
23,804 
58,335 
3,225 
54,741 
163,438 
64,807 
86,247 
163,787 
22,246 
4,  no 
163,256 
1,168,751 

$109,766,199 
486,323,338 
62,623,228 
*i,333>"4 
279,000 

2,188,950 
180,722,319 
162,035,610 
ii4,i57,37<> 
59,682,154 
2,651,500 
90,212,433 
6,131,718 

2,473,175 
110,750 
73,400 
54,945 
57,5io 
691,550 
42,600 

259,475 
924,900 

35i,i50 
386,453 
462,164 
192,000 
320,750 
1,358,882 
5,994,683 

NONMETALLIC  : 

Infusorial  earth  ,  

Millstones           

Asbestos            

Graphite  

Soapstone               

Barytes  

Ochre       .                             .        

Metallic  paint..        ....              ....        ....        

Fluorspar  

Sulphur  ,  

Pyrites  ...                 ...               .   .   .. 

*  Estimated.  t  Matte  at  the  mines. 

$  Amount  received  by  producers.    Value  of  coal  and  wood  displaced  by  use,  $2  r, 097,009. 

§  Including  value  of  stone  used  for  lime,  $8,217,015  ;  for  iron  flux,  $1,569,312  ;  for  grindstones,  $439,587- 

I  Including  scraps,  $2450.  t  Value  of  the  crude  product. 


MINIMUM  WAGE.— In  1874  Mr.  Lloyd 
Jones,  a  London  journalist  in  active  touch  with 
trade-unionists  and  cooperators,  wrote,  in  The 
Beehive,  a  labor  paper,  for  July  18,  arguing 
against  the  principle  of  the  sliding  scale,  then 
accepted  by  many  working  men,  and  especially 
the  Northumberland  miners  (as  it  is  still  to-day 


by  some).  The  principle  accepted  the  doctrine 
that  wages  should  vary  with  prices.  Mr.  Jones 
declared  this  dangerous,  and  that  the  trade- 
unions  should  at  least  fix  a  minimum  wage, 
below  which  their  wages  should  not  go.  It 
should  be,  Mr.  Jones  wrote,  "  such  a  one  as  will 
secure  sufficiency  of  food  and  some  degree  of 


Minimum  Wage. 


874 


Monasticism. 


personal  home  comfort  to  the  worker,  not  a  mis- 
erable allowance  to  starve  on,  but  a  living 
wage. ' '  Professor  Beesley  wrote  soon  after,  in 
the  same  paper,  supporting  Mr.  Jones's  idea, 
and  saying,  ' '  All  workmen  should  keep  their 
eyes  fixed  on  this  ultimate  ideal."  The  idea 
may  not  have  been  original  with  Mr,  Jones,  but 
he  popularized  it  to  some  extent,  and  to-day  the 
minimum,  or  living  wage,  is  now  much  discussed 
in  England. 

MINORITY  REPRESENTATION.     See 

PROPORTIONAL  REPRESENTATION. 

MIR,  THE  (from  Russian  miru,  concord, 
peace),  is  the  name  of  the  Russian  communities 
of  peasants.  From  the  most  ancient  times  the 
rural  population  of  Russia  has  been  organized 
into  these  mirs.  The  land  of  the  mir  is  held  in 
common,  the  part  o£  it  devoted  to  cultivation 
being  allotted  by  general  vote  to  the  several 
families  on  varying  terms.  Redivisions  and 
equalizations  of  lots  are  made  periodically  ;  the 
portion  used  for  dwelling  portions  is  usually 
theoretically  held  in  common,  but  practically 
divided  for  long  periods  ;  the  land  tor  grazing 
is  usually  undivided.  Each  mir  governs  itself 
in  all  local  matters  through  its  elected  officers. 
Widows  or  women  temporarily  deprived  of  their 
husbands  may  vote.  The  land  is  divided  with 
attempt  at  equality  in  proportion  to  the  needs 
and  abilities  of  each  family.  Adjacent  mirs  are 
united  into  volasts  or  small  cantons.  The  sys- 
tem, however,  is  changing.  (See  RUSSIA.)  The 
freeing  of  the  serfs  and  division  of  the  soil  gave 
each  too  little  land  to  enable  him  to  live,  and 
the  lords  are  gradually  buying  or  getting  it 
back.  The  great  difference  between  the  mir  and 
the  mark  (y.v.)is  that  the  members  of  the  mir 
had  no  voice  in  the  general  government.  (See 
MARK  ;  MANOR  ;  PRIMITIVE  PROPERTY.) 

MISSISSIPPI  SCHEME,  a  scheme  start- 
ed in  Paris  in  1717  by  John  Law.  Its  object 
was  to  relieve  the  French  finances.  Law  estab- 
lished a  private  bank,  and  managed  it  so  suc- 
cessfully that  in  1718  it  became  a  royal  bank. 
Then  the  West  India  Company  was  formed.  To 
this  company  the  province  of  Louisiana  was 
granted.  It  was  intrusted  with  the  collection  of 
all  taxes  and  of  the  royal  revenue.  It  issued 
paper  money  freely,  but  accepted  the  paper  at 
a  premium  over  specie  in  payment  for  shares 
in  the  company.  A  frenzy  of  speculation  seized 
the  nation,  from  prince  to  peasant ;  2,700,000,000 
livres  of  paper  were  issued.  In  1719  the  com- 
pany shares  sold  for  thirty  times  their  original 
value.  Shrewd  speculators,  however,  began  to 
draw  gold  from  the  banks.  Legislation  tried  to 
limit  the  amount  of  gold  any  one  might  draw. 
In  1720  a  royal  bank  was  incorporated  with  the 
company,  and  May  21  an  edict  was  issued  re- 
ducing the  value  of  the  bank-notes  and  company 
shares  one  half.  This  burst  the  bubble,  and 
universal  bankruptcy  and  distress  ensued. 

MISSOURI  COMPROMISE.— The  name 
given  to  a  law  that  became  a  landmark  in  the 
Abolitionist  struggle.  In  the  session  of  Con- 
gress 1818-19  a  bill  was  introduced  to  admit 
Missouri  as  a  State,  but  prohibit  slavery  therein. 


There  was  a  long  and  brilliant  debate,  but 
finally  a  compromise  was  agreed  upon,  chiefly 
through  the  influence  of  Henry  Clay.  Missouri 
was  admitted  as  a  slave  State  February  28,  1821, 
but  at  the  same  time  an  ordinance  was  enacted 
by  which  slavery  should  be  forever  excluded 
from  all  territory  west  of  Missouri  and  north  of 
the  parallel  36°  30'  (the  southern  boundary  of 
Missouri).  This  agreement  held  till  1854,  when 
the  bills  establishing  the  territories  of  Kansas 
and  Nebraska  virtually  repealed  the  compro- 
mise, determined  the  formation  of  the  Republi- 
can Party  (q.v.},  and  led  to  the  Civil  War. 

MODEL  TENEMENTS.    See  TENEMENTS. 

MOLINARI,  GUSTAVE  DE,  was  born 
March  3,  1819,  at  Liege.  He  studied  medicine 
in  Brussels,  and  wrote  several  works  on  medi- 
cine. Afterward  he  settled  in  Paris,  where  he 
turned  his  attention  to  political  science  and  econ- 
omy. Returning  to  Brussels  in  1852.  he  be- 
came Professor  of  Political  Economy  at  the 
Musee  Royal  de  1' Industrie  Beige.  Since  1881 
he  has  again  lived  in  Paris  as  editor-in-chief  of 
the  Journal  des  £conomistes.  With  his  broth- 
er Eugen  he  founded  two  periodicals,  the 
Economist 4  beige  and  La  bourse  du  travail. 

MONARCHY  (from  Greek  fiwapxia,  the  rule 
of  one)  is  the  form  of  government  in  which  the 
supreme  power  is  actually  or  nominally  lodged 
in  the  hands  of  one  person,  a  king  or  queen. 
England  is  a  monarchy,  because  altho  the 
Queen  of  England  is  believed  by  many  to  have 
less  power  in  government  than  the  President  of 
the  United  States,  and  tho  the  governing  power 
is  in  the  hands  of  her  ministers,  who  are  subject 
to  Parliament,  all  government  and  legislation 
is  in  the  name  of  the  queen  or  the  ruling  mon- 
arch Monarchies  are  classed  as  limited  or  con- 
stitutional and  absolute  or  despotic,  according 
as  the  sovereign  is  or  is  not  limited  in  his  power 
and  functions  by  the  laws  or  constitutions  of  the 
realm.  More  or  less  limited  monarchies  have 
nearly  always  existed.  From  the  fifteenth  to 
the  close  of  the  eighteenth  century  monarchies 
became  almost  absolute.  To-day,  except  in 
Asia,  absolute  monarchy  has  all  but  disap- 
peared. Monarchies  are  usually  successive — 
i.e.,  their  monarchs  succeed  by  inheritance. 
There  have  been,  however,  elective  monarchies, 
where  the  monarchs  were  elected,  as  formerly 
in  Poland.  The  German  Roman  Empire  was 
nominally  elective,  but  for  many  centuries  at 
the  last  the  heir  of  the  monarch  was  invariably 
elected.  (For  the  principles  involved  in  mon- 
archies, see  STATE.) 

MONASTICISM  is  a  state  of  religious  re- 
tirement, more  or  less  complete,  and  supposed 
to  be  accompanied  by  contemplation  and  vari- 
ous devotional,  philanthropic,  or  ascetical  prac- 
tices. Monasticism  doubtless  began  in  the  East, 
and  has  entered  more  or  less  into  almost  all  re- 
ligious systems.  The  aim  of  the  Buddhist  monks 
was  to  mortify  all  human  passions,  to  separate 
and  isolate  the  sexes,  to  live  by  mendicancy, 
and  relinquish  all  personal  and  individual  rights. 
They  overthrew  many  hoary  Hindu  supersti- 
tions, and  raised  the  common  life  of  the  people. 


Monasticism. 


875 


Monetary  Conferences. 


For  an  account  of  Jewish  monasticism,  see  Es- 
SENES.  The  founder  of  Christian  monasticism 
is  generally  believed  to  be  St.  Anthony.  The 
anchorets  of  his  class  separated  themselves  al- 
most wholly  from  society,  receiving  the  visits  of 
admirers  and  of  the  sick  and  needy.  Occasion- 
ally they  appeared  as  stern  prophetic  spirits 
from  another  world  in  the  midst  of  any  unusual 
pomp  or  ceremony  in  the  towns.  This  solitary 
hermit  life  gradually  gave  way  to 
cloister  life,  or  monasticism  proper. 
Beginnings.  At  first  the  personal  seclusion  of 
individuals  was  combined  with  the 
existence  of  a  common  life  ;  but 
the  isolation  became  less  and  less.  Not  only 
did  the  members  take  upon  them  the  vows  of 
chastity  and  poverty,  but  elected  a  superior  and 
vowed  obedience  to  him.  By  degrees  the  monas- 
tery became  the  school  for  practical,  philan- 
thropic, and  social  Christian  life.  The  monks 
divided  their  time  between  manual  labor  and 
their  devotions,  giving  to  the  poor  the  surplus 
product  of  their  work.  Cloisters  for  females 
began  to  be  established.  In  the  eighth  century 
a  kind  of  middle  order  between  monks  and 
clergy  was  formed.  Most  of  these  had  a  com- 
mon house  and  table  ;  and  some  branches  re- 
nounced all  their  possessions  and  claimed  no 
private  property.  Some  orders  kept  schools, 
and  some  nursed  the  sick.  In  the  first  part  of 
the  thirteenth  century  the  two  mendicant  or- 
ders arose — the  Franciscans  and  Dominicans. 
These  orders  broadened  monasticism  still  far- 
ther, and  formed  the  working  classes  into  half 
monastic  societies,  which  did  not  necessitate 
celibacy  or  isolation.  It  was  by  these  two  or- 
ders that  monachism  was  raised  to  the  height  of 
its  power,  influence,  and  prosperity.  They 
wandered  over  all  Europe,  instructing  the  peo- 
ple and  attracting  general  admiration  for  their 
sanctity  and  self-denial.  Their  advice  was 
eagerly  sought  in  secular  and  political  affairs. 
They  became  elevated  to  college  professorships. 
At  last  their  great  influence  drew  upon  them 
the  hostility  of  the  clergy,  and  their  vast  riches 
and  prosperity  brought  about  the  envy  of  the 
nobility,  and  the  ultimate  degeneracy  and  down- 
fall of  the  monks  themselves.  Again  and  again 
reforms  were  inaugurated  only  to  be  over- 
whelmed by  the  growing  tide  of  self-indulgence. 
Laxity  was  followed  by  lust,  ownership  by 
avarice,  liberality  by  ungodliness,  and  honest 
industry  by  every  manner  of  corruption.  This 
continued  until  the  general  confiscation  of  their 
lands  and  abolition  of  their  privileges,  when  in 
a  few  years  no  less  than  3000  monasteries  were 
broken  up  in  Europe. 

But  before  wealth  and  influence  brought  cor- 
ruption and  enervation,  the  monasteries  were 
centers  of  learning,  of  sanctity,  and  of  benevo- 
lence. As  has  been  well  said,  "  they  were  for 
ten  centuries  the  schools,  the  archives,  the  libra- 
ries, the  hostelries,  the  studios,  the  penitentia- 
ries, and  the  hospitals  of  Christian  society." 
While  it  is  not  difficult  in  the  nineteenth  century 
to  arraign  monasticism  for  its  fanaticism,  its 
indifference  to  family  life,  its  unhealthy  asceti- 
cism, and  its  turning  of  the  channels  of  religion 
into  the  desert,  we  must,  in  all  justice,  remem- 
ber what  it  meant  to  have,  in  the  rough  and  vio- 
lent period  of  feudalism,  monasteries,  where 


bruised  and  world-weary  spirits  found  consola- 
tion ;  where  the  sick  found  medicine,  the  hungry 
found  bread,  and  the  benighted  and  storm- 
stayed  traveler  found  welcome  and  rest.  Feeble 
and  timorous  souls  fled  to  the  monasteries  from 
a  bloody  and  force-governed  world.  With  their 
communal  habits  of  life,  their  humble  industry, 
and  their  penitent  devotions,  the  monks  formed 
little  scattered  islands  of  peace  in  the  midst  of 
ail  ocean  of  war.  It  was  by  them  that  manu- 
scripts were  copied  and  preserved  and  the 
chronicles  of  their  times  recorded.  Monasteries 
were  not  mere  asylums  for  broken  hearts  and 
disappointed  ambitions  ;  the  young,  the  noble, 
and  the  brave  were  found  also  within  their 
walls,  drawn  by  their  severe  sanctity,  their 
spirit  of  universal  philanthropy,  and  their  con- 
tempt for  earthly  show. 

Altho  the  Reformation  rejected  monachism, 
several  types  of  it  have  been  and  are  still  found 
in  Protestantism.  In  Germany,  both  Lutherans 
and  Evangelicals  have  formed  houses  of  dea- 
cons and  deaconesses  for  the  purpose  of  teach- 
ing, healing  the  sick,  visiting  prisoners,  etc.  Ill 
the  Church  of  England  and  the  Protestant  Epis- 
copal Church  of  this  country,  various  brother- 
hoods and  sisterhoods  have  been  formed  at  va- 
rious times,  and  have  recently  been  somewhat 
multiplied,  imitating  to  some  extent  medieval 
monastic  associations  with  some  modern  fea- 
tures. In  connection  with  the  American  Roman 
Catholic  Church,  there  are  over  300  nunneries 
and  128  monasteries.  C. 

MONETARY  CONFERENCES.— The  im- 

portance  of  the  monetary  question  in  recent 
times  and  the  struggle  for  bimetallism  has  led 
to  the  holding  of  several  international  monetary 
conferences,  in  the  calling  of  which  the  United 
States  has  played  a  leading  part.  Without 
considering  some  earlier  less  formal  conferences, 
the  first  international  conference  met,  at  the 
call  of  the  United  States,  in  Paris,  August  14, 
1878,  the  Congress  of  the  United  States  having 
made  provision  for  calling  such  a  conference  ii 
possible.  All  the  prominent  European  Powers 
sent  delegates  except  Germany.  The  only  re- 
sult was  a  calling  attention  to  the  evils  seeming 
to  spring  from  the  demonetization  of  silver. 
Great  Britain,  Sweden,  Belgium,  and  Switzer- 
land declared  that  they  would  not  give  up  gold 
monometallism,  tho  the  British  delegates  strong- 
ly favored  the  full  use  of  silver  by  other  na^ 
tions. 

In  1 88 1  France  and  the  United  States  called 
a  conference  which  rnet  at  Paris,  April  19  of 
that  year.  Eighteen  countries  were  represent- 
ed, including  Germany.  England  and  Ger- 
many led  the  gold  monometallist  party,  tho 
both  were  willing  to  make  some  concessions. 
The  United  States,  Holland,  and  Italy  led  the 
bimetallists.  The  convention  adjourned  till  the 
next  year,  to  give  the  governments  opportunity 
for  reflection  and  negotiation  ;  but  it  never  re- 
convened. There  were  private  conferences,  es- 
pecially in  1889,  during  the  Exposition.  In  1887 
England  appointed  a  royal  commission  to  in- 
vestigate the  relations  of  gold  and  silver.  It 
reported  in  1888,  six  of  the  commission  favoring 
gold  monometallism  and  six  favoring  interna- 
tional bimetallism.  The  report  of  the  gold 


Monetary  Conferences. 


876 


Money. 


monometallists  was  remarkable  for  its  admis- 
sions, and  one  of  their  number,  L.  H.  Courtney, 
has  since  become  a  bimetallism 

In  1892,  there  seeming  to  be  a  general  scarcity 
of  gold,  the  United  States  called  a  third  confer- 
ence. All  the  European  Powers  responded,  and 
also  Mexico.  The  United  States  presented  the 
thesis  that  "it  is  desirable  that  some  measures 
should  be  found  for  increasing  the  use  of  silver 
in  the  currency  systems  of  the  nations. ' '  Ger- 
many, Austria  and  Russia  declared  that  they 
had  no  power  to  vote.  Great  Britain,  Spain, 
Denmark,  Mexico,  and  Holland  supported  the 
proposition.  Other  countries  were  equivocal. 

Mr.  Alfred  de  Rothschild  of  the  British  delegation 
proposed  that  the  different  European  powers  should 
combine  to  make  certain  purchases,  say  to  the  extent 
of  about  .£5,000,000  Annually,  such  purchases  to  be  con- 
tinued over  a  period  of  five  years,  at  a  price  not  ex- 
ceeding 43</.  per  ounce  standard  ;  but  if  silver  should 
rise  above  that  price,  purchases  for  the  time  being  to 
be  immediately  suspended. 

Mr.  Rothschild  accompanied  this  motion  with  a  pa- 
per in  which,  while  insisting  upon  gold  monometal- 
lism as  the  sole  possible  policy  for  England,  he  recog- 
nized "great  grievances  both  in  India  and  China  in 
connection  with  the  silver  question,"  such  that  "if 
anything  could  be  done  toward  diminishing  those 
grievances,  it  would  be  extremely  desirable."  He 
raised  the  question  whether  it  were  "  not  possible  to 
extend  the  use  of  silver  generally  and  thereby  stop 
a  further  fall,  the  disastrous  consequences  of  which  no 
one  can  foresee."  He  could  "  see  no  objection  to  sil- 
ver being  made  a  legal  tender  in  Great  Britain  up  to 
/5,  instead  of  £2,  as  it  is  at  present."  In  conclusion 
Mr.  Rothschild  declared  : 

"  If  this  conference  were  to  break  up  without  arriv- 
ing at  any  definite  result,  there  would  be  a  deprecia- 
tion in  the  value  of  silver  which  it  would  be  frightful 
to  contemplate,  and  out  of  which  a  monetary  panic 
would  ensue  the  far-spreading  effects  of  which  it 
would  be  impossible  to  foretell. 

Mr.  Rothschild's  proposition  was  much  dis- 
cussed, but  objected  to  as  compelling  the  United 
States  to  buy  more  silver  than  all  Europe  to- 
gether. Many  other  plans  were  proposed,  but 
nothing  was  agreed.  Great  Britain  plainly, 
and  Germany,  Austria,  and  France  among  the 
greater  Powers,  virtually  declared  that  they 
would  not  adopt  bimetallism,  tho  favoring  some 
compromise  if  possible.  The  conference  finally 
adjourned  to  reconvene  the  next  year,  if  the 
governments  approved,  but  it  never  reconvened. 

MONEY. — (See  CURRENCY  for  a  historical 
sketch  of  United  States  currency,  and  BANKS 
AND  BANKING  ;  BIMETALLISM  ;  CONTRACTION  AND 
1  EXPANSION  OF  CURRENCY  ;  CRISES  ;  DEBTS  ;  FI- 
NANCE ;  GREENBACK  PARTY  ;  GOLD  AND  SILVER  ; 
MONOMETALLISM  ;  PAPER  MONEY,  and  SILVER,  for 
especial  topics  )  In  this  article  we  treat  of  money 
in  general,  describing  the  economic  nature  and 
function  of  money,  with  a  sketch  of  the  history 
of  money. 

To  define  the  word  money  is  both  easy  and 

difficult.     It  is  not  difficult  to  define  it  in  almost 

any  one  of  two  or  three   meanings  ;  but  the 

trouble  is  that  the  word  is  used, 

and  even  by  writers  of  repute,  in 

Definition,    more   senses  than  one,  and  these 

various  senses  are  so  various  that 

no  definition  can  be  well  made  to 

cover  them  all.     It  will  be  necessary,  therefore, 

to  give  at  least  three  distinct  definitions. 

i.  Money  is  sometimes  used,  altho  with  the 
least  authority,  to  mean  gold  and  silver  or  other 
metal  currency,  in  contradistinction  from  paper 


currency.  This  use  is  uncommon,  and  almost 
never  found  in  economic  writings,  but  is  some- 
times met  with  in  popular  speech. 

2.  By  money  is  sometimes  meant  whatever 
the  law  declares  to  be  "  legal  tender"  in  ex- 
change or  in  payment  of  debt.     "  Legal  ten- 
der" is  that  which  the  law  compels  a  person  to 
receive  in  payment  of  debt.     This  is  money  in 
its  narrowest  sense.     It  has  the  "  fiat"  of  gov- 
ernment upon  it — i.e.,  government  declares  or 
"  makes  it"  to  be  money.     Any  man  can  offer 
such  money  to  his  creditor  and  compel  him  to 
take  it  at  its  face  value  ;  if  the  creditor  refuse, 
the  debtor  is  no  longer  legally  liable  for  the 
debt.     This  is  the  legal  sense,  and  a  frequent 
sense  of  the  word  in  political  economy  ;   but 
usually,  for  the  sake  of  clearness,  the  phrase 
"  legal  tender"  is  used  for  such  money. 

3.  Money  is  ordinarily  used  in  political  econ- 
omy to  mean  any  article  ordinarily  in  use  as  a 
medium  of  exchange.     It  has  been  said  that  in 
this  sense,  "  Money  is  that  money  does"  (Walk- 
er).    To  give  a  more  exact  definition,  we  may 
use  Mr.  Walker's,  which  has  been  widely  adopt- 
ed : 

"  Money  is  that  which  passes  freely  from  hand 
to  hand  throughout  the  community  in  final  dis- 
charge of  debts  and  full  payment  for  commodi- 
ties, being  accepted  equally  without  reference 
to  the  character  or  credit  of  the  person  who 
offers  it,  and  without  the  intention  of  the  person 
who  receives  it  to  consume  it  or  enjoy  it,  or  ap- 
ply it  to  any  other  use  than,  in  turn,  to  tender 
it  to  others  in  discharge  of  debts  or  full  pay- 
ment for  commodities"  (Money,  Trade  and  In- 
dustry, p.  4). 

FUNCTIONS  OF   MONEY. 

The  first  function  of  money  is  to  be  a  medium 
of  exchange.  When  our  earliest  ancestors  de- 
sired to  exchange  any  goods,  they  did  it  by  di- 
rect barter  or  exchange  of  goods. 

The  operation  is  also  called  truck  (French. 
troc,  barter).  Among  uncivilized  races  trade  is 
still  carried  on  in  this  way  ;  a  traveler  going 
into  the  interior  of  South  Africa  takes  a 
stock  of  beads,  knives,  pieces  of  iron,  looking- 
glasses,  etc. ,  in  order  that  he  may  always  have 
something  which  the  natives  will  like  to  receive 
in  exchange  for  food  or  services.  People  still 
occasionally  barter  things  in  England  or  the 
United  States,  but  this  is  seldom  done,  owing 
to  the  trouble  which  it  gives. 

These  difficulties  have  early  caused  all  races  at 
all  civilized  to  adopt  some  one  article  as  a  com- 
mon medium  of  exchange  or  money.  Thus, 
money  being  exchangeable  by  custom  or  by 
law,  if  it  be  legal  tender,  a  man  who  has  any 
article  to  sell  sells  \\.for  money  to  anybody  who 
will  buy  it,  not  having  to  seek  an  article  in  ex- 
change, because,  having  got  the  money,  he  can 
go  and  buy  whatever  article  he  himself  wants 
from  any  person  who  has  the  article  he  desires. 
Thus  money  fulfills  its  first  function  of  being 
a  medium  of  exchange. 

A  second  function  hardly  inferior  in  impor- 
tance to  the  one  just  mentioned  is  that  of  afford- 
ing a  ready  means  of  estimating  the  compara- 
tive value  of  different  commodities.  Indeed,  it 
may  be  reasonably  maintained  that  the  idea  of 


Money. 


877 


Money. 


general  value  could  not  be  formed  without  the 
existence  of  money.  The  adoption  of  some  one 
commodity  renders  the  comparison  of  values 
easy.  ' '  The  chosen  commodity  becomes  a  com- 
mon denominator  or  common  measure  of  value 
in  terms  of  which  we  estimate  the  values  of  all 
other  goods"  (Jevons). 

A  third  function  of  money  soon  develops  it- 
self. Commerce  cannot  advance  far  before  peo- 
ple begin  to  borrow  and  lend,  and  debts  of  vari- 
ous origin  are  contracted.  One  of  the  most  dis- 
tinctive features  of  advancing  civilization  is  the 
increasing  tendency  of  people  to  trust  each 
other.  Now  a  contract  implies  something  to  be 
done  in  the  future,  and  for  estimating  the  value 
of  that  future  act  a  standard  is  required  ;  and 
money,  which  already  acts  as  a  medium  of  ex- 
change and  as  a  measure  of  •value  at  a  given 
time,  performs  a  third  function  by  affording  an 
approximate  means  of  estimating  the  value  of 
the  future  act,  and  in  this  respect  may  be  re- 
garded as  a  standard  of  value,  or,  as  it  is  some  • 
times  said,  of  deferred  payments. 

As  we  shall  see  later,  this  is  one  of  the  most 
important  uses  of  money  ;  but  now  we  pass  on. 
Money  sometimes  also  serves  a. fourth  purpose 
— that  of  embodying  value  in  a  convenient  form 
for  conveyance  to  distant  places.  Something 
which  is  very  valuable,  altho  of  little  bulk  and 
weight,  and  which  will  be  recognized  as  very  val- 
uable in  every  part  of  the  world,  is  necessary  for 
this  purpose.  The  current  money  of  a  country 
is  perhaps  more  likely  to  fulfill  these  conditions 
than  anything  else,  altho  diamonds  and  other 
precious  stones  and  articles  of  exceptional 
beauty  and  rarity  might  be  employed. 

Such  are  the  main  economic  functions  that 
money  is  designed  to  fulfill. 

We  pass  on  to  consider  what  are  the  qualities 
that  should  characterize  the  commodity  we 
adopt  as  money.  The  first  quality  needed  is 
general  acceptability.  Money  can- 
not discharge  its  prime  function 
Qualities  of  unless  everybody,  or  almost  every- 
Good  Money,  body,  is  willing  to  accept  it.  This 
general  acceptability  can,  however, 
be  secured  to  a  great  extent  by 
means  of  a  law,  making  any  kind  of  commodity 
legal  tender — i.e.,  requiring  all  who  are  subject 
to  the  law  to  accept  it  as  a  full  and  final  dis- 
charge of  obligations.  If,  however,  the  Govern- 
ment chooses  an  unsuitable  commodity,  the  law 
will  be  evaded  and  barter  will  be  resorted  to. 

The  second  quality  which  it  is  desirable  that 
money  should  possess  is  durability,  and  that 
without  deterioration.  Cattle  and  wheat  are 
used  as  money  by  some  savage  tribes,  but  both 
of  these  lack  this  quality.  Gold  and  jewels 
possess  it  in  a  high  degree. 

The  third  of  the  desirable  qualities  is  portabil- 
ity. Cattle  are  good  in  this  respect,  as  they 
carry  themselves.  Wheat  is  bad,  as  its  value 
compared  to  its  bulk  is  low.  Gold  is  good  ;  but 
from  this  point  of  view  diamonds  would  be  still 
better. 

The  fourth  and  fifth  of  the  desirable  qualities 
are  divisibility  and  uniformity.  Under  the 
latter  we  may  include  that  the  quality  is  easily  de- 
fined. Hitherto  jewels  have  seemed  even  more 
suitable  than  gold,  but  they  do  not  fulfill  these 
requirements.  Their  value  is  not  easily  tested 


or  attested  ;  and  to  divide  them  is  difficult  and 
destructive  of  their  value.  Metals,  on  the  other 
hand,  are  easily  coined  in  any  degree  of  purity. 
The  stamp,  edges,  etc.,  serve  to  prevent  willful 
mutilation,  and  as  gold  and  silver  possess  also 
the  qualities  of  durability  and  portability  in  a 
high  degree,  they  have,  very  largely,  been 
adopted  as  money. 

There  is,  however,  a  sixth  quality  very  de- 
sirable in  money,  which  gold  and  silver  do  not 
possess  to  anything  like  the  extent  that  could 
be  wished.  This  quality  may  be  described  as 
steadiness  of  value.  We  have  seen  that  money 
is  generally  used  as  a  standard  of  deferred  pay- 
ments. Now,  if  the  delays  in  payment  were 
always  brief,  gold  and  silver  would  admirably 
fulfill  this  purpose.  A  hundredweight  of  gold 
will  exchange  to-day  for  about  the  same  quan- 
tity of  most  other  commodities  as  it  would 
have  done  six  months  ago.  But  if  the  interval 
is  a  long  one  the  fluctuations  in  the  exchange 
value  of  gold  are  very  serious. 

How  this  evil  can  be  best  remedied  is  to-day 
the  most-discussed  monetary  question.  (See 
CONTRACTION  AND  EXPANSION  OF  CURRENCY  ; 
BIMETALLISM  ;  MONOMETALLISM.)  We  pass  on. 
to  notice  one  more  desirable  quality  in  money 
which  is  what  Jevons  calls  cogniz ability.  He 
says  : 

"By  this  name  we  may  denote  the  capability  of  a 
substance  for  being  easily  recognized  and  distinguished 
from  all  other  substances.  As  a  medium  of  exchange, 
money  has  to  be  continually  handed  about,  and  it  will 
occasion  great  trouble  if  every  person  receiving  cur- 
rency has  to  scrutinize,  weigh,  and  test  it.  If  it  re- 
quires any  skill  to  discriminate  good  money  from  bad, 
poor  ignorant  people  are  sure  to  be  imposed  upon. 
Hence  the  medium  of  exchange  should  have  certain 
distinct  marks  which  nobody  can  mistake.  Precious 
stones,  even  if  in  other  respects  good  as  money,  could, 
not  be  so  used,  because  only  a  skilled  lapidary  can 
surely  distinguish  between  true  and  imitation  gems. 

"  Under  cognizability  we  may  properly  include  what 
has  been  aptly  called  impressibility,  namely,  the  capa- 
bility of  a  substance  to  receive  such  an  impression, 
seal,  or  design  as  shall  establish  its  character  as  cur- 
rent money  of  certain  vahte." 

We  may  now  consider  some  of  the  general 
principles  which  govern  the  use  of  money,  con- 
fining our  attention  to  those  which  apply  to  all 
money.  (For  a  discussion  of  fiat,  paper,  or  rep- 
resentative money,  see  PAPER  MONEY.) 

The  first  principle  is  that  the  supreme  quality 
in  money  is  that  it  should  express  a  standard  of 
value  which   will   not   vary.     But  value  (y.v.) 
merely  expresses  the  exchange  ratio 
between  commodities,  and  this  is  al- 
ways more  or  less  changing.     It  is    Standard 
impossible,  therefore,  to  get  a  stand-    of  Value, 
ard  which  will  never  change,  and 
the  best  that  can  be  done  is  to  ap- 
proximate this.     Which  money  does  this  best  is 
disputed  ;  some  think  it  is  gold  ;  others  gold 
and  silver  used  together  ;  others  paper  money 
issued  in  certain  quantities.     (For  these  various 
views,  see  MONOMETALLISM  ;  BIMETALLISM  ;  MUL- 
TIPLE STANDARD  ;  PAPER  MONEY.) 

Secondly,  we  must  recognize  the  force  of 
habit  in  using  particular  forms  of  money  and 
having  confidence  on  it.  Jevons  says  on  this 
point : 

"  No  one  can  possibly  understand  many  so- 
cial phenomena  unless  he  constantly  bears  in. 
mind  the  force  of  habit  and  social  convention. 


Money. 


878 


Money. 


This  is  strikingly  true  in  our  subject  of  money. 
Over  and  over  again  in  the  course  of  history 
powerful  rulers  have  endeavored  to  put  new 
coins  into  circulation  or  to  withdraw  old  ones  ; 
but  the  instincts  of  self-interest  or  habit  in  the 
people  have  been  too  strong  for  laws  and  penal- 
ties. Tho  in  particular  instances  it  may  be  diffi- 
cult to  explain  occurrences  which  happen  in  the 
circulation  of  coins,  yet  a  close  analysis  of  the 
character  of  those  who  handle  money,  and  their 
motives  for  holding  it  or  paying  it  away,  will 
throw  much  light  upon  the  subject." 

The  third  principle  that  we  most  notice  and 
one  of  the  most  important  is  the  so-called  Gresh- 
am's  Law  (from  Sir  Thomas  Gresham,  who 
lived  in  England  in  the  Elizabethan  period). 
This  law  asserts  that  when  two  or  more  kinds  of 
legal  money  contend  for  use  in  the  market,  the 
worst  kind  of  money  that  is  legal  will  drive  the 
better  kinds  out  of  circulation.  The  reason  is 
simple.  When  a  person  pays  out  any  money  he 
inclines  to  get  rid  of  the  worst  money  he  has 
with  which  he  can  legally  settle  the  account. 
He  keeps  the  best  money  himself.  Consequent- 
ly the  worst  money  circulates  the  most  and  the 
best  is  hoarded  or  driven  out  of  circulation. 
Hence  the  necessity  of  keeping  all  the  money 
in  circulation  at  par,  unless  a  nation  is  will- 
ing to  go  to  the  exclusive  use  of  the  worst 
money. 

A  fourth  principle,  and  perhaps  in  modern 
times  the  most  important  of  all,  is  that  the  quan- 
tity of  money  should  be  commensurate  with  the 
demand  for  a  medium  of  exchange,  because  if 
the  amount  of  money  in  a  country  is  not  in- 
creased in  proportion  to  the  demand  for  it,  it  will 
rise  in  value,  and  thus  become  a  variable  stand- 
ard. Hence  the  money  that  is  most  invariable 
in  value  will  be  that  which  varies  in  quantity 
most  exactly  in  conformity  with  the  demand  for 
it.  Hence  a  currency  inelastic  in  quantity  may 
be  the  most  dishonest  money,  and  a  currency 
elastic  in  quantity  may  be  made  the  most  hon- 
est. 

An  elastic  currency,  however,  may  also  be 
made  dishonest.  It  depends  wholly  on  how  it 
is  varied  in  quantity.  So  far  as  quantity  is  con- 
cerned it  should  vary  exactly  with  the  demand 
for  it,  thus,  so  far  as  quantity  is  concerned, 
being  perfectly  stable  in  value.  An  elastic  cur- 
rency, therefore,  at  least  permits  of  stability  of 
value  ;  an  inelastic  currency  cannot  be  honest 
unless  there  is  no  change  either  in  the  popula- 
tion of  a  country  or  in  the  use  that  population 
has  for  money.  It  is  not  enough  merely  for  a 
circulation  to  expand  with  population,  but  must 
expand  or  contract  with  the  use  the  population 
has  for  money.  If  a  civilization  grows  more 
intricate  and  involved,  there  are  ordinarily  more 
cash  transactions,  and  therefore  there  is  more 
demand  for  money.  The  grave  and  important 
questions  that  arise  out  of  variations  in  the 
amount  of  money  are  well  known.  A  currency 
increasing  in  volume  out  of  proportion  to  the 
demand  robs  creditors  ,  a  diminishing  currency 
robs  debtors.  We  here  are  simply  concerned 
with  the  principles.  (For  the  important  com- 
plications and  results  that  grow  out  of  this  prin- 
ciple, see  CONTRACTION  AND  EXPANSION  OF  CUR- 
RENCY ;  BIMETALLISM  ;  MONOMETALLISM  ;  PAPER 
MONEY  ;  SILVER.)  We  pass  now  to  the 


HISTORY   OF  MONEY. 

The  first  money  used  seems  to  have  been  fur 
and  skins,  because  the  first  societies  which  made 
exchanges  lived  by  hunting.  Some  tribes  still 
use  fur  and  skins.  The  next  stage  of  society 
was  pastoral,  and  the  corresponding  money  was 
cattle  or  some  domesticated  animal.  The  word 
pecunia  (Latin  for  money),  whence  our  word 
pecuniary  is  probably  derived  from  pecus, 
cattle,  fn  uncivilized  portions  of  the  world  cat- 
tle are  still  used  to  express  value.  A  wife,  a 
slave,  etc. ,  are  still  said  to  be  worth  so  many 
head  of  cattle.  More  advanced  communities 
used  articles  of  ornament,  such  as  shells,  like 
the  wampumpeag  of  the  North  American  Ind- 
ians, or  the  ring  money  of  many  countries. 
Agricultural  or  other  natural  products  were 
used.  Tobacco  was  commonly  used  for  money 
in  the  North  American  colonies  ;  codfish  were 
used  in  Newfoundland  ,  cubes  of  pressed  tea  in 
Tartary  ;  sugar  in  the  West  Indies.  The  next 
stage  was  the  use  of  various  manufactured  arti- 
cles, such  as  a  preparation  of  leather  by  the 
Carthaginians,  silk  by  the  Chinese,  nails  in 
Scotland,  bullets  and  wampum  in  Massachu- 
setts. 

Metals,  however,  have  been  mainly  used  ex- 
cept in  the  earliest  times.  Of  metals  almost 
every  kind  has  been  used — iron,  lead,  tin,  pla- 
tinum, nickel,  copper,  and,  above  all,  silver  and 
gold.  Iron  has  been  used  until  very  recently 
in  Japan  for  small  values.  In  the  Homeric  age 
it  is  said  to  have  been  more  valued  than  cop- 
per. It  rusts,  is  easily  counterfeited,  is  very 
heavy,  and  to-day  too  cheap  to  have  much  in- 
trinsic value,  while  it  is  not  suited  for  represen- 
tative money.  (See  PAPER  MONEY.)  Tin  was 
probably  early  used  ;  the  first  known  instance 
being  by  Dionysius  of  Syracuse.  It  is  thought 
to  have  formed  the  first  English  coinage.  It 
has  been  used  in  Mexico  and  in  Java.  Roman 
emperors  and  English  kings  struck  tin  coins. 
It  is,  however,  too  soft  and  breakable  for  much 
use,  and  to-day  too  cheap  for  intrinsic  money. 
Tin  farthings  were,  however,  issued  in  England 
as  late  as  1690.  Lead  is  still  more  soft,  but  has 
been  largely  employed.  Its  use  is  frequently 
mentioned  in  the  classic  poets.  It  was  used  in 
the  form  of  bullets  in  Massachusetts.  It  is  still 
employed,  or  was  very  recently,  in  Burmah. 
Platinum  has  been  used  in  Russia.  It  is  one  of 
the  rarer  metals,  but  very  difficult  and  costly  to 
melt.  Nickel  is  used  solely  as  convenient  in 
making  alloys.  Copper  was  one  of  the  first 
known  metals,  and  is  still  in  use  for  minor  coins 
everywhere.  The  earliest  Hebrew  coins  are 
thought  to  have  been  copper,  and  the  metallic 
currency  of  Rome  down  to  269  B.C.  was  an  im- 
pure copper  or  as.  It  formed  the  main  money 
of  Russia  and  Sweden  in  the  last  century.  It 
is,  however,  too  cheap  to  have  much  intrinsic 
value. 

Silver  has  been  the  mam  metal  for  coinage 
in  historical  times.  Abraham  (Gen.  23  :  16)  is 
said  to  have  paid  out  shekels  of  silver,  tho  this 
was  a  weight  of  silver,  not  coin.  Herodotus 
attributes  the  first  use  of  coined  gold  and  silver 
to  the  Lydians,  tho  he  also  says  that  the  first 
Greek  coinage  was  made  by  Pheidon  of  Argos 
at  ^Egina  (895  BC  c.).  Metal  first  passed  every- 


Money. 


879 


Money. 


where  by  weight,  a  system  said  to  have  been  of 
Assyrio-Babylonic  origin.  The  talent  was  orig- 
inally a  weight  of  silver  or  gold. 
Only  later  did  governments  stamp 
Early  Coins,  on  coins  an  indication  of  their 
weight,  fineness,  and  resultant 
value — the  hall  mark  as  Jevons 
calls  it.  The  shape  was  at  first  varied — square, 
hexagonal,  octagonal,  or  round  ;  only  later  did 
the  round  form,  and  still  later  the  milled  edge 
prevail  to  prevent  clipping  and  unconscious  loss. 
The  standard  coin  of  Athens  was  the  silver 
drachma,  worth  six  oboli ,  or  about  20  cents.  The 
old  Greek  talent  of  silver  weighed  about  82  Ibs. 
avoirdupois.  The  Attic  talent  weighed  57  Ibs. 
of  silver.  The  earliest  Roman  money  was  the 
copper  as.  Silver  was  introduced  269  B.C. — 
the  silver  denarius,  and  was  at  first  about  -fa  of 
a  Roman  pound,  but  was  later  debased.  A  gold 
coinage  seems  to  have  been  introduced  in  Rome, 
tho  little  used,  as  early  as  218  B.C.  Gold  was  to 
silver  in  proportion  just  about  as  silver  was  to 
copper,  or  about  i  to  10. 

After  the  fall  of  the  Roman  Empire  various 
silver  coins  were  used.  Charlemagne  under- 
took to  introduce  a  general  system  of  money 
based  on  the  silver  pound,  known  in  England 
as  the  Troy  pound  of  12  oz.,  but  the  breaking 
up  of  his  empire  prevented  this  general  use.  It 
passed,  however,  into  England,  and  the  pound 
was  divided  into  240  pence  (denarii},  12  of  which 
constituted  a  shilling  (solidus).  Twenty  shil- 
lings thus  represented  a  silver  pound.  Hence 
the  name  "  pound."  The  first  English  gold 
coin  seems  to  have  been  that  of  Henry  III.  in 
1257,  when  a  number  of  gold  pennies  were 
coined  at  a  value  to  silver  of  10  to  i.  The  first 
regular  series  of  gold  coinage  in  England,  how- 
ever, dates  from  1344,  under  Edward  III.  In 
France,  after  the  breaking  of  the  empire  of 
Charlemagne,  150  powers  are  said 
to  have  issued  money.  De  base- 
Debasements,  ment  of  money  became  the  rule  in 
France.  The  first  debasement  of 
coinage  established  in  history  is 
when  Solon  (599  B.C.)  debased  the  quantity  of 
silver  in  the  Athenian  coins  over  25  per  cent. 
Professor  Bastable,  in  an  article  in  the  En- 
cyclopcedia  Britannica,  thinks  it  to  have  been 
successful,  and  probably  necessary.  It  was 
probably  not  the  only  Greek  debasement,  and 
in  Roman  history  debasement  of  the  coinage 
was  frequent. 

The  first  debasement  in  English  history  was 
in  1300,  when  Edward  I.  slightly  debased  the 
silver  coinage.  The  practice,  however,  became 
common,  especially  from  1543-52,  under  Henry 
VIII.  and  Edward  VI.  It  wholly  ceased,  how- 
ever, after  the  sixteenth  century.  Scotch  coins 
were  much  more  debased  than  English.  In 
France,  debasements  did  not  stop  with  the  six- 
teenth century.  Professor  Bastable  says  in  the 
Encyclopedia  Britannica  : 

"The  final  result  was  that  in  1789  the  livre  had  come 
to  only  -f%  of  its  weight  in  the  time  of  Charlemagne. 
At  the  Revolution  it  was  converted  into  the  franc,  at 
the  rate  of  81  livres  to  80  frs.  It  is  not,  however,  to 
be  supposed  that  the  changes  in  the  French  currency 
were  always  toward  debasement.  The  terrible  evils 
arising  from  the  debased  coinage  led  to  a  general  out- 
cry, which  in  some  cases  was  so  strong  as  to  force  the 
king  of  the  time  to  reform  the  monetary  standard  ;  one 
striking  instance  occurred  in  the  reign  of  Philip  IV., 


whose  dealings  with  the  currency  led  to  his  receiving 
the  epithet  of  '  le  faux  monnoyeur.'  " 

These  depreciations  point  to  the  very  variable 
value  of  metallic  money.  Allison,  in  his  His- 
tory of  Eitrope,  says  : 

"  The  two  greatest  events  in  the  history  of  mankind 
have  been  brought  about  by  a  successive  contraction 
and  expansion  in  the  circulating  medium  of  society. 
The  fall  of  the  Roman  Empire,  so  long  ascribed  in  ig- 
norance to  slavery,  to  heathenism,  and  moral  corrup- 
tion, was  in  reality  brought  about  by  a  decline  in  the 
silver  and  gold  mines  of  Spain  and  Greece.  .  .  .  The 
annual  supply  of  the  precious  metals— of  money— for 
the  use  of  the  globe  was  tripled  ;  before  a  century  had 
elapsed  the  price  of  every  species  of  produce  was 
quadrupled.  The  weight  of  debt  and  taxation  insen- 
sibly wore  off  under  the  influence  of  that  prodigious 
increase ;  in  the  renovation  of  industry,  the  relations 
of  society  were  changed,  the  weight  of  feudalism  cast 
off,  the  rights  of  man  established." 

This  is,  however,  undoubtedly  an  extreme 
and  a  partial  view.  The  corruption  of  the  Ro- 
man Empire  and  the  incursion  of  hordes  of  un- 
co rrupted  Germanic  tribes  cannot  be  lightly 
shuffled  off  as  causes  of  the  fall  of  Rome,  nor 
can  the  new  life  of  the  sixteenth  century  be  so 
largely  attributed  to  the  influx  of  gold  and  sil- 
ver from  the  mines  and  treasures  of  Mexico  and 
Peru.  A  hundred  causes,  political,  intellectual, 
religious,  and  social,  led  to  the  new  activity  of 
the  modern  age.  Feudalism  in  England  at 
least  was  shuffled  off  before  the  gold  and  silver 
came.  The  rights  of  man  were  not  even  much 
preached  till  long  after  the  discovery  of  Amer- 
ica. Yet  undoubtedly  the  scarcity  of  money  in 
the  Middle  Ages  and  the  influx  of  gold  and  sil- 
ver from  the  New  World  were  potent  factors  in 
the  history  of  mankind. 

Through  the  Middle  Ages  the  supply  of  gold 
and  silver  was  limited.  The  report  of  the  re- 
cent United  States  Monetary  Commission  says  : 

"  At  the  Christian  era  the  metallic  money  of 
the  Roman  Empire  amounted  to  $1,800,000,000. 
By  the  end  of  the  fifteenth  century  it  had  shrunk 
to  less  than  $200,000,000." 

William  Jacob,  F.R.S.,  gives  the  following 
table  of  the  amount  of  metallic  money  : 

A.  D.  14 $1,790,000,000 

A.  D.  230 909,000,000 

A.  D.  410 537,000,000 

A.  D.  662 256,000,000 

A.  D.  806 168,000,000 

All  such  tables  are  more  or  less  conjectural, 
however  ;  the  only  fact  that  is  generally  accept- 
ed being  that  during  the  Dark  Ages  mines  were 
little  worked.  About  800  A.  D.  the  Moors  in 
Spain  began  to  rework  her  mines,  and  are  sup- 
posed from  that  date  to  have  counteracted  the 
loss  by  wear  and  exportation,  and  accordingly 
we  may  regard  the  metallic  supply  as  fixed  in 
amount  until  the  next  change  in  the  conditions 
of  production,  which  was  the  result  of  the  dis- 
covery of  America.  The  conquest  of  Mexico 
(I5I9)  gave  opportunities  of  working  the  silver 
mines  of  that  country,  while  the  first  mines  of 
Chili  and  Peru  were  almost  simultaneously  dis- 
covered, and  in  1545  those  of  Potosi  were  laid 
open.  From  this  latter  date  we  may  regard  the 
American  supply  as  an  influential  factor  in  the 
matter,  and  look  upon  the  stock  of  money  as  in- 
creasing. The  annual  addition  to  the  store  of 
money  has  been  estimated  as  ,£2,100,000  for  the 
period  from  1545-1600.  At  this  date  the  Brazil- 
ian supply  began. 


Money. 


880 


Money. 


At  the  commencement  of  this  century  the  an- 
nual production  of  gold  has  been  estimated  as 
being  from  .£2,500,000  to  .£3,000,000.  The  year 
1809  seems  to  mark  an  epoch  in  the  production 
of  these  metals,  since  the  outbreak  of  the  revolts 
of  the  various  Spanish  dependencies  in  South 
America  tended  to  check  the  usual  supply  from 
those  countries,  and  a  marked  increase  in  the 
value  of  money  was  the  consequence.  During 
the  period  1809-49  the  value  of  gold  and  silver 
rose  to  about  two  and  a  half  times  their  former 
level,  notwithstanding  fresh  discoveries  in  Asi- 
atic Russia.  The  annual  yield  in  1849  was  esti- 
mated at  £  8,000,000.  The  next  important  date 
for  our  present  purpose  is  the  year  1848,  when 
the  Californian  mines  were  opened,  while  in 
1851  the  Australian  discoveries  took  place.  By 
these  events  an  enormous  mass  of  gold  was  add- 
ed to  the  world's  supply.  The  most  careful  es- 
timates fix  the  addition  during  the  years  1851- 
71  at  .£500,000,000,  or  an  amount  nearly  equal 
to  the  former  stock  in  existence. 

It  is  from  these  variations  in  the  quantity, 
and  therefore  in  the  value  of  money,  that  the 
modern  history  of  money  takes  its  rise.  The 
various  coins  of  uncertain  value  in  the  Middle 
Ages,  many  of  them  depreciated  by  govern- 
ments, by  private  money-clippers,  or  by  use, 
gave  occasion  to  the  custom  in  Venice,  Genoa, 
and  perhaps  elsewhere,  of  placing  them  in  so- 
called  banks,  having  them  carefully  valued  by 
experts,  and  the  depositors  receiving  various  re- 
ceipts for  the  same,  which  receipts  circulated  as 
money,  often  with  a  premium  above  coin,  and 
often  enduring  even  long  after  the  coin  de- 
posited in  the  banks  had  been  seized  by  ruth- 
less kings  or  dishonest  speculators.  In  this  cus- 
tom probably  lies  the  beginning  of  paper  money, 
which  henceforth  plays  so  large  a  part  in  the 
history  of  money,  and  for  an  account  of  which 
see  articles  PAPER  MONEY  ;  BANKS  AND  BANK- 
ING ;  BANK  OF  VENICE,  etc. 


Again,  in  the  experience  of  England  with  de- 
preciations of  currency  and  in  the  fall  of  money 
values  occasioned  by  the  influx  of  gold  and  sil- 
ver when  the  New  World  was  discovered,  is  the 
occasion  for  the  comparatively  early  commit- 
ment of  England  to  the  doctrine  of  gold  mono- 
metallism (f.v.),  which  has  led  to  the  greatest 
monetary  changes  and  monetary  conflicts  of 
modern  times.  Up  to  the  year  1819  almost  all 
nations,  as  we  have  seen,  issued  coins  of  both 
gold  and  silver,  as  well  as  of  other  metals,  and 
tried  to  regulate  their  relative  values  by  royal 
or  governmental  proclamations.  Altho  supply 
and  demand  continually  tended  to  change  the 
relative  value  of  the  two  metals,  and  altho  from 
about  1760-1810  enormous  quantities  of  silver 
poured  into  the  world  from  mines  in  Mexico 
and  elsewhere  (so  that  in  1800  the  world's  an- 
nual silver  product  was  nearly  three  times  its 
product  in  1700),  the  actual  alteration  in  the 
relative  values  aforesaid  was  but  slight.  In  1803, 
therefore,  France  adopted  her  famous  law  mak- 
ing 15^  parts  of  silver  equal  to  one  part  of  gold 
in  all  transactions.  England,  however,  in 
1816,  under  the  second  Lord  Liverpool,  took  an 
opposite  course,  and  demonetized  silver  as  a 
standard. 

From  this  time  on  the  history  of  money  be- 
comes the  history  of  the  bimetallic  controversy, 
for  which  we  refer  our  readers  to  the  article 
BIMETALLISM  ;  see  also  PAPER  MONEY.  For  the 
history  of  money  in  the  United  States,  see  CUR- 
RENCY. 


References  :  W.  S.  Jevons's  Money  and  the  Mechan- 
(1879) ;  F.  A.  Walker's  Money  (187" 
fistory  of  American  Currency  (187 


ism  of  Exchange  (1879) ;  F.  A.  Walker's  Money  (1878)  ; 
W.  G.  Sumner's  History  of  American  Currency  (1878) ; 
E.  B.  Andrews'  An  Honest  Dollar  .-  A.  J.  Fonda's  Hon- 
est Money  (1895).  See  also  BIMETALLISM. 

The  following  table,  compiled  from  the  report 
of  the  Director  of  the  United  States  Mint,  gives 
the  present  approximate  amount  of  money  in 
the  world  : 


COUNTRIES. 

Ratio  be- 
tween 
Gold  and 
Full  Legal 
Tender 
Silver. 

Ratio  be- 
tween 
Gold  and 
Limited 
Tender 
Silver. 

Gold 
Stock. 

Silver 
Stock. 

Uncovered 
Notes. 

PER  CAPITA. 

Gold. 

Sil- 
ver. 

Pa- 
per. 

To- 
tal. 

United  States         

i  to  15.98 

to  14.95 
to  14.28 
to  14.38 
to  13.957 
to  14.38 
to  14.38 
to  14.38 
to  14.38 
to  14.38 
to  14.08 
to  13.69 
to  15 
i  to  14.88 

I  tO  15 
I  tO  I5« 

i  to  14.28 

I  tO  15.68 

$661,000,000 
540,000,000 
800,000,000 
618,000,000 
54,000,000 
96,000,000 
15,000,000 
500,000 
40,000,000 
40,000,000 
124,000,000 
19,000,000 
28,000,000 
422,000,000 
50,000,000 
105,000,000 
120,000,000 
5,000,000 

45,000,000 
80,700,000 

$624,000,000 
112,000,000 
500,000,000 
215,000,000 
54,900,000 
16,500,000 
15,000,000 
3,000,000 
155,000,000 
10,000,000 
85,000,000 
56,000,000 

12,000,000 
41,000,000 
44,000,000 

7,000,000 
15,000,000 
50,000,000 
8,000,000 
30,000,000 
81,300,000 
950,000,000 
725,000,000 

110,000,000 

5,000,000 
4,400,000 

$469,000,000 
127,000,000 
110,000,000 
84,000,000 
54,000,000 
179,000,000 
12,000,000 
23,400,000 
105,000,000 
49,000,000 
187,000,000 
37,000,000 
12,000,000 
550,100,000 

$9.81 
14.17 
20.89 
12.51 
8.8S 
3-16 
5-17 
.23 
2.28 
8.51 
3.00 
4-13 

$9.25 
2.94 
13-05 

4-35 
9.00 
•54 
5-17 
1-36 
8.86 
B.M 
2.06 
12.17 

$6.96 

3-33 
2.87 
1.70 
8.85 
5-89 
4.14 
10.63 
6.00 
10.42 
4-53 
8.04 

$26.02 
20.44 
36.81 
18.56 
26.70 
9-59 
14.48 

12.22 
17.14 
2  1.  06 

9-59 
24-34 

i  to  1554 

I  tO  I5# 

I  tO   15^ 

i  to  15^ 
i  to  iSH 
i  to  i5>4 

Italy       

i  to  i5X 

i  to  15^ 
i  to  15% 

3-40 

•33 

4-44 

8.17 
2-39 
26.05 
19.85 
S-oo 
3-78 
19.67 
4.00 
3-44 
1.80 
28.94 
10.00 

2,000,000 
4,000,000 
600,000,000 

24.42 
17-65 

•44 
•'5 

*'3' 

•99 

1.63 

2.  2O 

4-38 
2.42 
.87 
2.OI 

'!J8 

1.  21 
17.49 

i  to  i6# 
i  to  i5X 
i  to  i5# 
i  to  16  18 

Central  America  

i  to  15 

37,000,000 

3-31 
1.80 

•!3 

China 

The  Straits                  

29,000,000 

2.92 

26.94 
1.04 

6.04 

i  to  14.95 

14,000,000 
21,000,000 

Cuba,  Hayti,  etc.  
Total 

I  tO  ISJ£ 



$3,901,900,000 

$3,931,100,000 

$2,700,000,000 

Money. 


88 1 


Monometallism. 


The  following  table  gives  the  values  of  for- 
eign coins  in  United  States  money,  proclaimed 


by  the  Secretary  of  the  Treasury,  October  i, 
1895  : 


COUNTRY. 

Standard. 

Monetary  Unit. 

Value  in 
United 
States 
Gold 
Dollar. 

Coins. 

Argentine  Republic 

Austria-Hungary.  .  . 
Belgium  

Gold  and  Silver. 

Gold  

Gold  and  Sliver. 
Silver  

Peso 

$0.96,5 

.20,3 

•iQ,3 

.48,6 
•54,6 

1.  00 

.48,6 
.91,2 

.71,8 
.80,0 
.76,2 

•75>2 
.48,6 

.92,6 
.26,8 
.48,6 

4-94,3 

•19,3 
•19,3 

.23,8 

4-86,6* 

•19,3 

.96,5 
•  23,1 

•19,3 

•99,7 
•52,4 

I.OO 

.52,8 

.40,2 

1.01,4 

.26,8 
.48,6 
1.08 
•77,2 

•38,9 
'19,3 
.26,8 

•  iQ,3 

•43,8 
.04,4 
•19,3 

Gold  :   argentine  ($4.82,4)  and  ^  argen- 
tine.    Silver  :  peso  and  divisions, 
f  Gold  :  former  system—  4  florins  ($1.92,9), 
I     8  florins  ($3.85,8),  ducat  ($2.28,7)  and  4 
-{     ducats  ($9.15,8).    Silver  :  i  and  2  flor- 
1     ins.    Gold  :  present  system  20  crowns 
E     ($4.05,2)  and  10  crowns  ($2.02,6). 
jold  :  10  and  20  francs.    Silver  :  5  francs. 
Silver  :  boliviano  and  divisions. 
Gold  :  5,  10,  and  20  milreis.     Silver:  }^,  i, 
and  2  milreis. 

Silver  :  peso  and  divisions. 
Gold  :  escudo  ($1.82,4),  doubloon  ($4.56,1). 
and  condor  ($9.12,3).    Silver:  peso  and 
divisions). 

Gold  :  condor  ($9.64,7)  and  double-condor. 
Silver  :  peso. 
Gold  :  doubloon  ($5.01,7).    Silver  :  peso. 
Gold  :  10  and  20  crowns. 
Gold  :  condor  ($9.64,7)    and    double-con- 
dor.    Silver  :  sucre  and  divisions. 
Gold  :  pound  (100  piasters),  5,  10,  20,  and 
50  piasters.    Silver:  i,  2,  5,  10,  and  20 
piasters. 
Gold  :  20  marks  ($3.85,9),  10  marks  ($1.93). 
Gold  :  5,  10,  20,  50,  and  100  francs.    Silver: 
5  francs. 
Gold  :  5,  10,  and  20  marks. 
Gold  :  sovereign  (pound  sterling)  and  % 
sovereign. 
Gold  :    5,    10,   20,   50,  and    100   drachmas. 
Silver  :  5  drachmas. 
Silver  :  gourde. 
Gold:  mohur  ($7.10,5).   Silver:  rupee  and 
divisions. 
Gold  :  5,  10,  20,  50,  and  100  lire.    Silver  :  5 
lire. 
Gold  :  i,  2,  5,  10,  and  20  yen. 
Silver  :  yen. 

Gold  :  dollar  ($0.98,3),  2^,  5,  10,  and  20  dol- 
lars.    Silver  :  dollar  (or  peso)  and  divi- 
sions. 
Gold  :  10   florins.    Silver  :  %,   i,  and  2% 
florins. 
Gold  :  2  dollars  ($2.02,7). 
Gold  :  10  and  20  crowns. 
Silver  :  sol  and  divisions. 
Gold  :  i,  2,  5,  and  10  milreis. 
Gold  ;  imperial  ($7.71,8)  and  V4  imperialt 
($3.86). 
Silver  :  %,  %,  and  i  rouble. 
Gold  :  25  pesetas.    Silver  :  5  pesetas. 
Gold  :  10  and  20  crowns. 
Gold  :  5,  10,  20,  50,  and  100  francs.    Silver  : 
5  francs. 

Gold  :  25,  50,  TOO,  250,  and  500  piasters. 
Gold  :  5,  10,  20,  50,  and  100  bolivars.    Sil- 
ver :  5  bolivars. 

Crown  .  .  . 

Franc..  .  . 

Bolivia  

Boliviano 
Milreis... 

Dollar  
Peso  
Peso  

Brazil  

Canada  
Central  America.... 
Chile  

Gold  

Gold  
Silver  
Gold  and  Silver. 

Silver  

Silver  

Gold  and  Silver. 
Gold  
Silver  



China  

Colombia  
Cuba  

Tael    .... 

Peso  .... 
Peso         . 

f  Shanghai.  . 
.  I  Haikwan.. 
I  Tientsin... 
l.Cheefoo.  .. 

Denmark  

Crown  .  .  . 



Egypt  
Finland  

Gold  

Gold  

Gold  and  Silver. 

Gold... 
Gold  

Gold  and  Silver. 

Gold  and  Silver. 
Silver  

Gold  and  Silver. 

Gold  &  Silver*.. 

Gold  
Silver  

Pound  (100  piasters)  — 
Mark  

Germany  
Great  Britain  

Mark..   .. 
Pound  ste 

Drachma 

rling  .        .... 

Hayti 

India  
Italy  .... 

Rupee  .  .  . 

Japan  
Liberia  

Yen  

Dollar.... 
Dollar.  .  . 

(Gold... 
1  Silver.. 

Gold  and  Silver. 

Gold  
Gold  
Silver  

Newfoundland  
Norway  

Dollar...  . 

Sol 

Portugal  
Russia  

Gold  
Silver*  

Gold  and  Silver. 
Gold  
Gold  and  Silver. 

Silver  
Gold  
Gold  and  Silver. 

Milreis 

Rouble... 
Peseta 

(Gold... 
"  (Silver- 

Sweden  
Switzerland  

Tripoli  
Turkey  

Crown  
Franc  

Mahbub  of  20  piasters.  . 
Piaster  

*  Gold  the  nominal  standard  ;  silver  practically  the  standard, 
t  Coined  since  January  i,  1886;  old  half-imperial  =  $3.98,6. 

$  Silver  the  nominal  standard ;  paper  the  actual  currency,  the  depreciation  of  which  is  measured  by  the 
gold  standard. 


References,  see  before  table. 

MONOMETALLISM  is  the  theory,  or  the 
practice  of  the  theory,  that  only  one  metal 
should  be  used  as  a  standard  of  value  in  the 
coinage  of  a  country,  or,  as  it  is  sometimes  de- 
fined, it  is  the  use  of  only  one  metal  as  full  legal 
tender.  Any  metal,  so  far  as  the  definition 

56 


goes,  could  be  used  as  the  standard  ;  but  for 
reasons  of  convenience,  confidence,  and  stabil- 
ity of  value  (see  MONEY),  civilized  countries  con- 
fine themselves  to  the  metals  gold  or  silver  as 
the  standard,  and  at  present  almost  exclusively 
to  the  use  of  gold. 

This  being  the  case,  we  devote  this  article  to 
a  statement  of  and  the  arguments    for  gold 


Monometallism. 


882 


Monometallism. 


monometallism.  (For  a  history  of  the  money 
question  in  the  United  States,  see  CURRENCY. 
For  general  monetary  principles,  see  MONEY  ; 
CONTRACTION  AND  EXPANSION  OF  CURRENCY  ; 
PAPER  MONEY.  For  views  opposed  to  mono- 
metallism, see  BIMETALLISM  ,  PAPER  MONEY  ; 
SILVER.  For  statistics  as  to  gold  and  as  to  sil- 
ver, see  GOLD  and  SILVER.) 

GOLD    MONOMETALLISM. 

This  view  teaches  that,  at  least  in  the  present 
stage  of  civilization,  the  only  money  which 
should  be  used  as  primary  money,  and,  therefore, 
as  the  standard  of  value,  should  be  gold.  Other 
metals,  like  silver,  copper,  etc.,  may  be  advan- 
tageously used  for  subsidiary  coinage  (small 
change,  etc.)  ;  and  various  forms  of  credit  money 
(bank-notes,  letters  of  credit,  private  notes, 
Clearing  House  notes,  etc.)  may  be  used  in  the 
large  amount  of  transactions,  as  they  are  used 
to-day  ;  but  gold  should  be  the  only  standard. 

The  argument  for  this  view  rests  mainly  on  a 
deduction  from  long  experience,  which  we  shall 
outline  later  ;  but  it  will  serve  clearness  to  no- 
tice   first    the    general  argument. 
This  is,  in  a  word,  that  the  main 
Argument    qualities  of    a  standard    of  value 
for.          should  be  invariability  and  the  en- 
joyment of  general  confidence,  and 
that  gold  furnishes  these  qualities 
far  more  than  any  other  metal.     It  is  not  as- 
serted that  even  gold  never  varies  in  value, 
that  it  may  not  have  and  has  not  at  times  appre- 
ciated, but  it  is  asserted  that  gold  varies  less  in 
value  than  any  other  standard  which  can  be 
used.     The  fall  of  prices  of  which  bimetallists 
and  silver  advocates  make  so  much,  gold  mono- 
metallists  say,  is  not  primarily  due  to  the  ap- 
preciation of  gold,  but  to  improvements  in  pro- 
duction,   and    has,    however    occasioned,    not 
worked  the  harm  asserted  ;  because  if  it  has 
lowered  prices  it   has  raised  the  real  wages  of 
all  wage- workers  and  receivers  of  fixed  income  ; 
while  as  for  producers  not  wage- workers,  if  it 
has  lowered  income,  it  has  equally  lowered  ex- 
penses.    Even  debtors  have  been  able  to  bor- 
row at  lower  and  lower  rates  of  interest,  so  that, 
if  their  debts  have  appreciated,  they  have  been 
able  to  multiply  their  production  to  pay  off  their 


debts.  The  mortgage  indebtedness  of  the  coun- 
try, of  which  so  much  is  made,  is  really  not  an 
indication  of  depression,  but  of  prosperity  and  of 
a  demand  for  improvements.  (See  MORTGAGES.) 
Whatever  modicum  of  loss  has  come  from  an 
appreciating  gold  standard  is  far  more  than 
atoned  for  by  relief  from  the  uncertainties  of  a 
double  standard,  or  of  a  currency  in  which  the 
public  has  no  confidence.  The  two  things  most 
fatal  to  prosperity  are  uncertainty  and  lack  of 
confidence  as  to  the  value  of  money.  All  else 
can  be  endured  but  these.  The  absence  of  these 
qualities  takes  the  very  life  out  of  business,  and 
oppresses  particularly  the  working  and  poorer 
classes.  When  there  is  uncertainty  and  lack  of 
confidence,  people  are  afraid  to  invest,  new 
undertakings  are  not  started,  old  enterprises 
shut  down  or  are  curtailed,  workers  are  dis- 
charged, distribution  checked,  demand  lessened, 
and  general  stagnation  produced.  These  are 
exactly  the  conditions  we  have  to-day  in  the 
United  States,  and  the  cause,  say  the  gold  mono- 
metallists,  is  the  constant  fear  of  silver  legisla- 
tion and  the  consequent  lack  of  confidence 
which  we  have  had  in  the  United  States  more 
or  less  for  the  last  20  years.  It  is  not  true  that 
prices  depend'  on  the  quantity  of  legal-tender 
money,  but  on  the  quantity  of  all 
money,  and  on  the  quality  of  the 
legal  tender.  If  the  quality  of  the  Quality 
legal-tender  money  be  above  suspi-  Theory, 
cion — that  is,  enjoying  absolute  con- 
fidence— then  upon  that  firm  basis 
the  quantity  of  bank  notes,  subsidiary  coinage, 
and  other  forms  of  current  money  can  be  built 
which  business  demands.  England  has  long 
had  the  single  gold  standard,  unburdened  by 
silver  or  other  unsound  legislation.  Consequent- 
ly England  can  get  all  the  money  she  wants. 
The  United  States  could  have  all  the  money  she 
could  use  if  people  had  confidence  in  her  stand- 
ard. A  per  capita  circulation  based  on  legal 
tender  is  misleading.  The  real  question  is  the 
quality  of  the  legal  tender  and  the  per  capita 
circulation  of  what  is  used  for  money  resting 
on  a  firm  basis.  The  People' s  Money  (vol.  ii., 
No.  7,  of  Sound  Currency ,  p.  24)  gives  the  fol- 
lowing table  of  the  currency  of  the  world,  and 
the  per  capita  circulation  : 


COUNTRIES. 

Popula- 
tion. 

Stock  of 
Gold. 

Stock  of 
Silver. 

Uncovered 
Paper. 

PER  CAPITA. 

Gold. 

Sil- 
ver. 

Pa 
per. 

Bank 
Cred 
its. 

$80.50 

I2O.OO 
35.00 
25.00 
25.00 
iS.OO 
30.00 
I4.OO 
11.00 

19.00 
22.50 
15.00 
26  .  50 

58.00 

6.00 

Total. 

United  States  

68,900,000 
38,800,000 
38,300,000 
49,400,000 
6,200,000 
30,500,000 
2,900,000 
17,500,000 
4,700,000 
43,200,000 
4,700,000 
2,000,000 
4,800,000 

2,200,000 

124,000,000 

$626,600,000 
550,000,000 
825,000,000 
625,000,000 
55,000,000 
96,000,000 
15,000,000 
40,000,000 
38,900,000 
130,000,000 
27,600,000 
7,300,000 
6,500,000 
14,200,000 
455,000,000 

$625,300,000 
112,000,000 
492,200,000 
215,000,000 
54,900,000 
30,000,000 
15,000,000 
166,000,000 
24,800,000 
121,000,000 
56,500,000 
1,900,000 
4,800,000 
5,400,000 
48,000,000 

$475,700,000 
113,400,000 
88,000,000 
88,000,000 
51,200,000 
167,600,000 
16,600,000 
107,100,000 
55,500,000 
146,300,000 
35,900,000 
3,900,000 
16,500,000 
5,400,000 
530,000,000 

$9.09 
14.18 
zi-54 
12.65 
8  87 
3-'5 
5-'7 
2.29 
8  27 
3.00 
5-87 
3-65 
i-35 
6  46 
3.67 

$9.08 
2.88 
12.85 

4-35 
8.85 
0.98 
5-'7 
0.48 
5-28 
2.81 

I  2.  02 
0.95 
1.  00 

2  45 
0.38 

$6.90 
2.92 
2.31 
1.78 
8.26 
5-50 
5-72 

6.12 

ii.  81 

3f 
7.64 

1.95 
3-44 
2.45 
4-^7 

$105  57 
139.98 
71.70 
43-78 
50.98 
27-63 
46  06 
31.89 
36.36 
28.19 
48-03 
21.55 
32  29 
69.36 
M-32 

United  Kingdom  
France         .               

Germany  

Italy           

Switzerland  

Portugal  

Austria-Hungary    

Netherlands    

Denmark    

Russia  and  Finland  

This  table  is  made  up  from  data  given  in  the  report  of  the  director  of  the  mint,  1894,  and  Mulhall's  Diction- 
ary of  Statistics. 


Monometallism. 


883 


Monometallism. 


It  will  be  seen  that  England,  tho  she  has  a 
smaller  per  capita  circulation  of  gold,  silver,  or 

gaper  money  than  either  France  or  the  United 
tates,  has  a  much  larger  per  capita  of  circula- 
tion of  what  passes  for  money,  because  the  qual- 
ity of  her  standard  of  value  is  above  suspicion. 
Quality  infallibly  leads  to  quantity  ;  quantity 
without  quality  leads  to  shipwreck. 

Such  is  the  general  argument  for  gold  mono- 
metallism, but  it  is  based  on  a  long  deduction 
from  experience  which  we  can  here  only  abridge. 
Gold  monometallism,  say  its  supporters,  is  the 
natural  mature  product  of  advancing  civiliza- 
tion. The  gold  conspiracy  of  which  so  many 
silver  advocates  make  so  much  simply  does  not 
exist  and  never  has  been  proven,  however 
strongly  asserted,  because  it  never  has  existed. 
Each  nation  has  come  to  the  gold  standard  sim- 
ply because  it  found  it  for  its  interest  to  do  so. 
The  "  crime  of  "73,"  of  which  one  hears  so 
much,  never  took  place.  Silver  had  not  been 
coined  in  the  United  States  to  any  appreciable 
degree  for  40  years  before  1873.  It 
was  in  1873  worth  more  as  bullion 
Objections  than  as  money,  so  nobody  desired 
Answered,  it  coined.  The  act  of  1873  simply 
legally  recognized  demonetization, 
which  had  virtually  been  a  fact  for 
40  years.  Nor  was  it  done  surreptitiously  or 
without  knowledge.  The  measure  was  recom- 
mended by  the  Secretary  of  the  Treasury  in 
three  successive  messages  ;  the  bill  was  printed 
13  times,  considered  through  five  sessions  of 
Congress,  and  the  debates  concerning  it  occupy 
140  pages  of  the  Congressional  Record,  as  any 
one  may  see.  Most  of  the  present  prominent 
silver  men  who  were  in  Congress  at  that  time, 
like  Senator  Jones,  voted  for  it.  "  The  crime 
of  1873"  exists,  therefore,  only  in  the  heated 
imagination  of  the  perhaps  well-meaning  but 
mistaken  opponents  of  sound  currency.  So 
with  Germany's  demonetization  of  silver,  com- 
menced in  1871  and  completed  in  1873.  When 
the  new  German  Empire  was  established  she 
found  herself  confronted  with  several  different 
systems  of  legal-tender  silver  coins,  besides 
gold  and  paper.  The  paying  of  the  French  war 
indemnity  allowed  her  to  go  to  the  single  gold 
standard  ;  it  seemed  the  simplest  and  best  step, 
and  was  taken.  So  with  other  nations  ;  so  with 
England,  which  first  came  to  the  single  gold 
standard.  Hitherto  all  the  world  had  used 
both  gold  and  silver  or  other  commodities, 
but  they  had  worked  great  evil  because 
of  the  continual  changes  and  uncertainty  of 
value  between  silver  and  gold.  In  France,  there 
were  26  changes  of  ratio  of  silver  to  gold  be- 
tween 1602  and  1773.  England  had  had  a 
long  and  bitter  experience  of  currency  debase- 
ment (see  MONEY),  and  when  that  was  over 
had  found  her  silver  so  worn  that  it  was  not 
worth  its  face  value.  In  1774  she  had  been 
compelled  on  this  account  to  limit  the  legal- 
tender  value  of  silver  to  £25.  But  even  this 
was  not  enough.  New  good  silver  was  driven 
out  of  circulation  by  the  old  poor  silver  ;  so 
finally,  in  1816,  she  adopted  the  single  gold 
standard,  and  has  continued  it  successfully  ever 
since.  Other  countries  did  not  come  to  it  for 
nearly  50  years.  France,  said  by  bimetallists  to 
have  practised  bimetallism  successfully  from  1 803 


to  1873,  did  not  really  have  bimetallism.  The 
market  ratio  of  gold  and  silver  continually  varied 
during  that  period  from  15. 40  to  16.25,  a°d  the 
cheaper  metal  continually  drove  out  the  dearer, 
sometimes  gold,  sometimes  silver.  At  last  even 
France  had  to  come  to  gold.  All  the  great  na- 
tions of  the  earth  thus  have  been  compelled  by 
their  own  experiences  to  come  to  the  gold 
standard. 

It  is  not  denied  by  gold  monometallists  that 
theoretically  a  fiat  currency  could  be  sustained 
under  proper  limitations  (see  PAPER  MONEY; 
MULTIPLE  STANDARD),  and  some  of  them  admit 
that  this  may  be  the  money  to  which  civilization 
may  ultimately  come  ;  but  this,  they  say,  is 
very  far  in  the  future,  and  can  be  considered 
only  when  human  nature  and  public  confidence 
have  reached  a  far  greater  height  than  at  pres- 
ent. To-day,  experience  manifestly  teaches 
that  the  only  path  of  safety  is  to  keep  to  the 
gold  standard,  and  meanwhile  to  expand  pri- 
vate paper  money  just  so  far  as  confidence  is 
developed.  Says  The  People's  Money  (p.  17)  : 

"  Inconvertible  paper  money  issued  by  a  govern- 
ment may  be  maintained  at  a  parity  of  value  with 
metallic  money,  provided  the  following  conditions,  five 
in  number,  exist : 

"  i.  There  must  be  a  monetary  unit,  as  in  the  case  of 
convertible  paper  money. 

"  2.  There  must  be  a  considerable  volume  of  metallic 
money  in  the  country,  and  sufficient  foreign  trade,  or 
other  specific  use  for  coins  to  keep  them  in  general  cir- 
culation. 

"  3.  The  government  must  make  no  distinction  in 
its  dealings  with  the  people  between  the  two  kinds  of 
money  ;  both  or  either  must  be  received  and  paid  out 
with  at  least  ostensible  impartiality. 

"4.  Provision  must  be  made  by  taxation  or  by  vol- 
untary funding  for  the  prompt  absorption  of  any 
redundancy  apparent  in  the  volume  of  outstanding 
paper  money. 

"5.  The  people  using  the  paper  money  must  have 
confidence  in  the  purpose  and  the  ability  of  the  govern- 
ment to  maintain  indefinitely  the  four  preceding  con- 
ditions. 

"Both  convertible  and  inconvertible  paper  money 
become  depreciated  the  moment  public  confidence  is 
shaken  in  the  purpose  or  power  of  the  issuer  to  pre- 
serve the  conditions  under  which  alone  such  money 
can  circulate  in  interchangeable  effectiveness  with 
coins.  Under  Gresham's  law  the  primary  effect  of  the 
depreciation  is  to  cause  contraction  of  the  total  volume 
of  circulating  medjum,  by  expelling  from  it  all  money 
that  is  not  depreciated.  What  is  left  thus  becomes  a 
sort  of  leprous  currency,  with  which  association  and 
mingling  is  abhorrent  to  all  forms  of  sound  and  healthy 
money." 

Of  the  experience  of  the  world  in  depreciated 
currencies  it  is,  however,  not  necessary  to  speak 
here.  It  will  be  found  under  the  article  MONEY, 
subhead  "  Debasements."  It  should,  however, 
be  pointed  out  that  gold  monometallists  con- 
sider the  panic  of  1873  and  most  such  panics 
due  to  over-issue  of  depreciable  paper  and 
other  forms  of  money,  redeemable  or  irredeem- 
able, which  unnaturally  stimulated  industry,  and 
unavoidably  led  at  last  to  a  crisis.  This  will  be 
and  always  must  be,  they  assert,  the  result  of 
currency  inflation,  especially  with  debased 
money,  now  or  at  any  other  time.  In  proof  of 
the  assertion  that  prices  have  fallen,  not  because 
of  the  demonetization  of  silver,  but  because  of 
improvements  in  the  methods  of  production, 
transportation,  etc.,  the  gold  advocates  present 
an  almost  infinite  amount  of  evidence. 

Mr.  D.  A.  Wells,  writing  in  the  New  York 
Tribune  for  September  7,  1896,  says  : 

"  No  one  has  ever  been  able  to  name  a  single  com- 


Monometallism. 


Monometallism. 


modity  that  has  notably  declined  in  price  within  the 
last  30  years,  and  satisfactorily  proved,  or  even  at- 
tempted to  prove,  that  such  decline  was  due  to  the 
appreciation  of  gold.  And  the  reason  for  such  default 
is  that  it  cannot  be  done.  On  the  other  hand,  not  a 
single  commodity  that  has  notably  declined  in  price 
within  this  time  can  be  named,  in  respect  to  which 
clear,  abundant,  and  specific  evidence  cannot  be  ad- 
duced in  proof  that  this  decline  has  been  due  to 
decreased  cost  of  production  or  distribution,  or  to 
changes  in  supply  and  demand  occasioned  by  wholly 
fortuitous  circumstances.  .  .  . 

"  How  great  has  been  the  average  increase  or  saving 
in  the  world's  work  of  production  or  distribution  can- 
not perhaps  be  accurately  stated.  But  few  investiga- 
tors place  it  at  less  than  40  per  cent.,  and  in  some  great 
branches  of  industry  it  has  certainly  amounted  to  70  or 
80  per  cent.  Taking  a  majority  of  other  than  hand- 
made commodities  into  consideration,  the  saving  of 
labor  within  the  last  30  years  has  probably  been  equal 
to  at  least  40  per  cent,  in  producing  any  given  article. 
We  have  here,  therefore,  a  natural,  sufficient,  and  non- 
disputable  cause  of  the  remarkable  decline  in  prices 
tinder  consideration,  and  also  for  the  continuance  of 
such  decline  ;  for  prices  are  still  falling,  and  the  only 
assignable  and  probable  reason  why  the  decline  ex- 
perienced has  not  been  greater  is,  that  decreased  cost 
has  occasioned  increased  demand  and  consumption, 
which,  to  a  considerable  extent,  has  antagonized  the 
natural  tendency  to  decline. 

"  This  decline  in  prices  admits  of  many  examples  of 
complete  demonstration  and  illustration  in  respect  to 
cause — viz.,  increased  production  by  reason  of  im- 
proved methods  or  new  conditions,  which  have  re- 
sulted in  decreased  cost ;  a  supply  in  excess  of  current 
market  demand,  and  continuous  decline  in  market 
prices.  In  other  words,  the  price  of  any  commodity  is 
fixed  simply  and  solely  by  the  proportions  of  such 
articles  as  are  produced  and  consumed,  and  prices  can- 
not be  and  are  not  fixed  in  any  other  way. 

"  Take,  first,  the  market  decline  in  the  price  of  wheat, 

which  typifies  more  than  any  other  one  product  the 

grievance  of  the  American  farmer.    The  cause  of  this 

decline  is  the  indisputable  fact  that  more 

wheat  has   been  and   is  still!  produced, 

The  Real  not,  perhaps,  more  than  the  world  wants, 
Cause  of  Fall  but  more  than  it  is  willing  to  buy.  The 

in  Prices       average  annual  wheat  crop  of  the  United 

in.  .rribes.  states  in  the  four  years  1869-72  was 
244,187,000  bush.  Since  1890  the  aver- 
age crop  has  been  about  570,000,000  bush.  In  1873 
there  was  practically  no  wheat  exported  from  India. 
In  1892  India  exported  56,566,000  bush.  In  1889  the 
Argentine  States  of  South  America  were  not  named  as 
a  factor  to  the  smallest  extent  in  the  world's  wheat 
supply.  To-day  they  are  among  its  greatest  sources 
of  supply,  and  of  their  surplus  product,  exported  in 
1894,  60,000,000  bush.  A  few  years  ago  there  were 
but  few  reapers  and  harvesters  for  wheat  in  Russia, 
and  hardly  a  grain  elevator  in  connection  with  storage 
and  delivery  buildings.  To-day  Russia  is  rapidly  in- 
troducing improved  agricultural  machinery,  with  the 
result  that  its  annual  wheat  product  has  increased 
from  168,545,000  bush.,  in  1891,  to  300,000,000  in  1894. 
There  has  also  been  a  very  marked  increase  in  recent 
years  in  the  wheat  crops  of  Austro-Hungary  and  of 
Spain.  It  is  impossible,  therefore,  to  resist  the  con- 
clusion that  the  production  of  wheat  in  the  world  has 
been  increasing  much  faster  than  the  necessities  of 
the  world's  wheat-eaters,  and  that  the  increased  pro- 
duction has  been  in  the  countries  where  wheat  is  pro- 
duced at  the  least  cost.  In  addition  to  these  condi- 
tions, we  have  now  the  announcement  that  the  surplus 
of  agricultural  products  in  Australia  available  for  ex- 
port is  in  excess  of  the  demands  of  the  people  of  the 
United  Kingdom  for  consumption. 

"  The  increase  in  the  average  of  the  annual  cotton 
crop  in  the  United  States  in  the  years  from  1871-72  to 
1889-90  was  more  than  100  per  cent.,  while  the  increase 
in  the  population  of  the  country  during  the  same  period 
was  about  56  per  cent.  During  the  same  period  it  is 
certa;n  that  the  world's  consumption  of  cotton  did  not 
keep  up  with  its  production.  The  legitimate  sequel  of 
this  has  been  that  midland  cotton  that  sold  m  1880  for 
11.5  cents  per  pound  sells  now  (August,  1896)  for  7% 
cents. 

"  Similar  illustrations  of  what  has  happened  to  the 
world's  products  might  be  multiplied  to  almost  any 
extent ;  but  space  will  admit  of  but  few  additional 
citations.  In  1858  the  metal  aluminium  sold  for  $90  per 
pound.  Its  present  market  value  is  less  than  50  cents. 
Copper  kettles  which  sold  in  t86o  for  $2.50  can  now  be 
bought  for  75  cents,  and  this  homely  example  illustrates 
the  great  decline  which  has  taken  place  in  the  price  of 


copper  since  1880 — i.e.,  from  25  cents  to  10  and  u  cents 
in  1896,  which  has  been  mainly  due  to  the  extraordinary 
productiveness  of  American  mines  and  new  methods 
of  mining  and  smelting.  Pig  iron  sold  for  $50  per  ton 
in  1873.  The  same  grade  can  now  be  bought  for  $n. 
Between  1873  and  1892  the  increase  in  the  production  of 
pig  iron  in  the  United  States  was  342  per  cent.  Recog- 
nized authorities  state  that  since  1870  the  world's  wool 
clip  has  increased  155  per  cent.  Careful  analysis  has 
shown  that  the  decrease  in  price  in  recent  years  of  the 
four  great  raw  materials  of  the  world's  industries — 
iron,  wheat,  cotton,  and  wool— in  consequence  of  over- 
supply  of  each  of  them  in  excess  of  current  demand, 
has  materially  affected  the  market  price  of  products 
(in  the  way  of  decline),  whose  average  annual  value  is 
not  less  than  2,000,000,000  of  gold  dollars. 

"  Again,  the  price  of  money,  representing  capital, 
has  continually  declined  since  1871  in  all  gold-standard 
countries  in  almost  as  great  a  degree  as  agricultural 
or  manufactured  products,  and  to  the  great  detriment 
of  a  large  number  of  good  people  who  own  a  small 
capital  invested  in  securities,  besides  carrying  on  some 
business  or  profession,  and  on  the  combined  incomes 
from  which  they  depend  for  a  living. 

"In  1877  an  investment  of  $10,000  could  be  relied 
upon  for  an  annual  income  of  |6oo.  To-day  the  same 
amount  of  money,  invested  with  equal  security,  can- 
not be  made  to  yield  more  than  $400  per  annum.  And 
for  this  result,  which  may  be  fairly  regarded  in  the 
light  of  a  depreciation  of  all  property,  the  conceded  in- 
crease in  the  amount  of  the  world's  capital  seeking 
investment  is  clearly  accountable.  In  contravention 
of  this  conclusion,  it  is  asserted  that  'money  cannot 
command  as  big  interest  as  formerly,  as  borrowers 
are  too  poor  in  collateral  to  bid  for  it.'  But  the  fact  is 
that  the  rates  of  interest  are  lowest  in  those  countries — 
like  England  and  France— where  good  collaterals  are 
most  abundant. 

"  Land  unquestionably  in  recent  years  has  also  de- 
clined in  value,  due  in  a  certain  and  correct  sense  to 
over-production.  The  fixed  acreage  of  the  United 
States  has  not  increased  ;  but  the  tillable  acreage  has 
been  enormously  enlarged.  Every  railroad  that  has 
been  built  at  the  West  has  brought  millions  of  acres 
in  competition  with  the  lands  of  the  older  States  and 
of  other  countries.  It  is  the  competitive  supply  of  ce- 
reals and  animal  products  of  the  American  farmer 
that  has  lowered  the  price  of  land  and  nearly  starved 
the  English  agriculturist." 

Such  is  Mr.  Wells's  argument,  which  he  ex- 
panded seven  years  before  in  his  Recent  Eco- 
nomic Changes.  In  that  book  he  shows,  too, 
that  commodities  not  cheapened  in  production 
have  not  fallen  in  price.  He  says  : 

"  In  the  first  place,  all  that  large  class  of  products  or 
services,  which  are  exclusively  or  largely  the  result  of 
handicrafts  ;  which  are  not  capable  of  rapid  multiplica- 
tion, or  of  increased  economy  in  production,  and  which 
cannot  be  made  the  subject  of  international  competi- 
tion— have  exhibited  no  tendency  to  decline  in  price, 
but  rather  the  reverse.  A  given  amount  of  gold  does 
not  now  buy  more,  but  less,  of  domestic  service  and  of 
manual  and  professional  labor  generally  than  for- 
merly ;  does  not  buy  more  of  amusement ;  not  more 
of  hand-woven  lace,  of  cigars,  and  of  flax,  which  are 
mainly  the  products  of  hand  labor;  of  cut-glass,  of 
gloves,  of  pictures,  or  of  precious  stones.  It  buys  no 
more  of  horses,  and  other  domestic  animals  ;  of  pepper  ; 
of  cocoa,  the  cheap  production  of  which  is  limited  to  a 
few  countries,  and  requires  an  interval  of  five  years 
between  the  inception  and  maturing  of  a  crop  ;  of  malt 
liquors,  eggs,  currants,  and  potatoes ;  nor  also  of 
house  rents,  which  depend  largely  upon  the  price  of 
land,  and  which  in  turn  is  influenced  by  fashion,  popu- 
lation, trade,  facilities  for  access,  and  the  like.  Retail 
prices  generally  have  not  fallen  in  proportion  to  the 
decline  in  wholesale  prices  ;  and  one  explanation  that 
has  been  given  for  such  a  result  is,  that  retail  trade 
is  more  directly  and  largely  dependent  on  personal 
services. 

"  How  little  of  change  in  price  has  come  tp  the  com- 
modities of  countries  of  low  or  stagnant  civilization, 
that  have  remained  outside  of  the  current  of  recent 
progress,  is  strikingly  illustrated  in  the  case  of  a  not 
unimportant  article  of  commerce— namely,  the  root 
sarsaparilla,  which,  with  a  gradually  increasing  de- 
mand, continues  to  be  produced  (collected  and  pre- 
pared) m  Central  America,  by  the  most  primitive 
methods,  and  without  any  change  in  the  conditions  of 
supply,  save,  possibly,  some  greater  facilities  for 


Monometallism. 


885 


Monometallism. 


transportation  from  the  localities  of  production  to  the 
ports  of  exportation." 

A  second  argument  for  believing  that  the  fall 
in  prices  has  not  been  due  to  the  appreciation 
of  gold,  Mr.  Wells  finds  in  the  lessening  demand 
for  gold.  He  argues  (p.  207)  that  the  world's 
annual  product  of  gold — consequent  mainly 
upon  the  exhaustion  of  mines  in  California  and 
Australia — has  largely  diminished  in  recent 
years,  tho  opinions  as  to  the  extent  of  this  re- 
duction of  supply  vary  somewhat  ;  but  that  this 
is  not  to  say  that  the  amount  of  gold  in  the 
world  has  diminished  or  is  in  danger  of  di- 
minishing. He  says  : 

"  No  one  doubts  that  the  amount  of  gold  in  the  civil- 
ized countries  of  the  world  has  largely  increased  in 
recent  years.  According  to  Dr.  Soetbeer  (Soetbeer's 
Materialien,  second  edition,  i8S6,  p.  47),  the  mon- 
etary stock  of  gold  and  gold  reserve  in  the  treas- 
uries and  principal  banks  of  civilized  countries  has 
shown  an  increase  for  every  decade  since  1850,  and  at 
the  end  of  1885  was  nearly  four  times  what  it  was  in 
1850  ;  so  that,  instead  of  there  being  a  reduced  supply 
of  gold,  as  compared  with  35  years  ago,  there  is  a 
greatly  increased  supply. 

"  Professor  Laughlm  estimates  this  increase  to  have 
been  '  from  $477,000,000  in  1870^80  to  $836,000,000  in  1885.* 
In  1871-74  there  was,  according  to  the  same  author- 
ity,  '$i  in  gold  for  every  $3.60  of  the 
paper  circulation  of  the  banks  of  the 
Lessening    civilized  world  ;   in  1885  there  was  $i 
•nomand   &_  of  gold  for  every  $2.40 ;  the  total  note 
r*  ij  circulation  increasing  during  the  same 

Gold.  time  to  the  extent  of  $464,000,000,  or  29 
per  cent.'  In  1870-74  the  gold  reserves 
amounted  to  28  per  cent,  of  the  total 
note  circulation,  and  64  per  cent,  of  all  the  specie  re- 
serves ;  in  1885  '  the  gold  bore  a  larger  ratio  to  a  larger 
issue  of  paper,  or  41  per  cent,  of  the  total  note  circula- 
tion, and  71  per  cent,  of  the  specie  reserves.  This,' 
as  Professor  Laughlin  remarks,  '  is  a  very  significant 
showing.  What  it  means,  beyond  a  shadow  of  doubt, 
is  that  the  supply  of  gold  is  so  abundant  that  the 
character  and  safety  of  the  note  circulation  have  been 
improved  in  a  signal  manner.  .  .  . 

"  Now,  while  the  supply  of  the  precious  metals  for 
money  purposes  has  been  amply  sufficient  to  meet  all 
requirements,  there  is  abundant  evidence  in  proof  that 
the  use  of  metallic  money  for  the  purpose  of  effecting 
exchanges  has  been  greatly  supplemented  in  recent 
years  through  numerous  and  varied  agencies.  '  In 
America,  France,  and  Germany  there  are,  besides  gold 
coins,  immense  sums  of  silver  money,  paper  money, 
and  uncovered  bank-notes ;  and  these  media  of  circu- 
lation are  fully  equivalent  to  gold  in  value,  owing  to 
public  or  private  credit ;  and,  therefore,  in  the  figures 
of  prices  they  have  the  same  influence  in  commerce  as 
a  corresponding  amount  of  gold  money  would  have.' 

"  Never  before  in  the  history  of  the  world  have  there 
been  so  many  and  such  successful  devices  invented 
and  adopted  for  economizing  the  use  of  money.  Every 
increase  in  facilities  for  banking  and  for  the  granting 
and  extension  of  credits  largely  contributes  to  this  re- 
sult ;  the  countries  enjoying  the  maximum  of  such 
facilities  requiring  the  smallest  comparative  amount 
of  coin  for  their  commercial  transactions.  In  the 
United  States  the  number  of  national  banks  increased 
from  2052  in  December,  1879,  to  3151  in  December,  1888, 
or  in  the  ratio  of  over  53  per  cent.  .  .  . 

"  The  great  reduction  in  the  time  and  cost  of  distri- 
bution of  commodities,  and  the  facility  with  which  pur- 
chases can  be  made  and  credits  transmitted  by  tele- 
graph, have  also  resulted,  not  only  in  an  enormous 
saving  of  capital,  but  also  in  an  ability  to  transact  an 
increased  business  with  diminished  necessity  for  the 
absorption  and  use  of  actual  money.  A  most  striking 
illustration  in  proof  of  this,  given  by  Mr.  Fowler  {Ap- 
preciation of  Gold,  London,  1885),  is,  that  while  the 
total  British  export  and  import  trade,  aggregating 
,£6,000,000,000  from  1866  to  1875, was  accompanied  by  an 
aggregate  export  and  import  of  ,£530,000,000  of  bullion 
and  specie,  an  aggregate  value  from  1876  to  1885  of 
£6,700,000,000  was  moved  with  the  aid  of  only  £439,000,- 
ooo  of  bullion  and  specie.  The  same  authority  refers 
to  an  eminent  English  firm  d9ing  business  with  the 
East,  as  stating  that  '  their  business  could  now  be  con- 
ducted with  one  fifth  of  the  capital  formerly  employed,' 
which  would  seem  to  warrant  the  inference  that  the 


reduction  in  the  necessity  for  using  so  much  of  their 
capital  as  was  represented  by  money  had  also  been 
proportionate. 

"  For  the  settlement  of  international  balances— a 
large  function  of  gold— it  is  certain  that  every  ounce 
of  this  metal— through  the  great  reduction  in  the  time 
of  ocean  transits— is  at  the  present  time  capable  of  per- 
forming far  more  service  than  at  any  former  period  ; 
the  time  for  the  transmission  of  coin  and  bullion  hay- 
ing been  reduced  in  recent  years  between  Australia 
and  England  from  90  to  40  days,  and  from  New  York  to 
Liverpool  from  12  or  15  to  8  or  9  days.  Such  an  in- 
crease of  rapidity  in  doing  work  is  certainly  equiva- 
lent to  increase  in  quantity. 

"  The  very  great  change  which  has  taken  place  in  the 
United  States  in  this  respect  is  thus  noticed  in  the  re- 

Eort  of  the  United  States  Controller  of  the  Currency 
:>r  1888  : 

'• '  Of  late  years  the  gold  movement  across  the  Atlan- 
tic has  become  much  more  sluggish,  because  some- 
thing has  been  found  to  take  its  place,  and  to  some  ex- 
tent, at  least,  to  serve  the  purpose  of  regulating  ex- 
changes and  transferring  capital.  Certain  securities 
on  the  New  York  stock-list  have  come  to  be  largely 
and  constantly  dealt  in  at  the  European  monetary  cen- 
ters, and  as,  by  means  of  cable  communication  and 
through  the  close  competition  of  dealers,  their  values 
are  generally  at  a  level  in  all  markets,  they  supply  a 
cheaper  means  of  settlement  than  gold,  and  a  more 
convenient  basis  for  exchange  operations.'  These 
securities  '  have  become  the  stock  in  trade  of  dealers 
in  foreign  exchange  ;  they  are  shipped  back  and  forth 
according  as  exchange  quotations  fluctuate  ;  indeed, 
in  many  cases  they  are  not  even  shipped  ;  the  owner- 
ship is  transferred  by  a  cablegram,  and  this  transfer 
supplies  a  basis  for  bills  of  credit.'  " 

Mr.  Wells  then  goes  on  to  show  how  clearing- 
house certificates  and  postal  orders  and  notes 
are  also  taking  the  place  of  coin.  He  says  on 
this  point  : 

"  The  number  of  '  postal '  orders  issued  by  the  Brit- 
ish Post  Office  in  1887  was  35,198,754,  representing  £14,- 
228, 734  ($69, 1 5 1, oc») ;  while  money  orders,  domestic  and 
foreign,  were  issued  during  the  same  year  to  the 
amount  of  £27,320,000  ($132,776,000). 

"Domestic  money  orders  were  first  issued  in  the 
United  States  in  1864.  In  the  fiscal  year  1864-65  the  to- 
tal amount  issued  represented  $1,360,122 ;  but  for  the 
fiscal  year  ending  June  30,  1888,  the  amount  of  such 
orders  issued  had  grown  to  $119,649,064.  The  growth 
of  the  international  money-order  system  has  been 
even  more  marked.  Such  orders  were  first  authorized 
in  1869,  and  the  total  amount  issued  from  September  i, 
1869,  to  June  30,  1870,  was  only  $22,189.  From  1872,  how- 
ever, the  system  made  rapid  strides,  and  in  the  fiscal 
year  1887-88  the  total  amount  issued  had  grown  to 
$11,293,870. 

"  In  estimating  the  influence  of  any  diminished  pro- 
duction of  gold  m  recent  years,  it  is  important  to  bear 
in  mind  a  point  to  which  attention  has  been  often 
heretofore  called,  and  that  is,  that  gold  and  silver  are 
not  like  other  commodities,  of  which  the  greater  part 
of  the  annual  production  is  annually  consumed ;  but 
that  their  use  for  the  purpose  of  effecting  exchanges 
does  not  involve  consumption,  except  by  loss  and 
•wear.  .  .  .  The  aggregate  stock  of  gold  has  not  di- 
minished, but  has  continually  increased,  and  the  an- 
nual addition  to  the  world's  stock  is  greater  at  present 
(1896)  than  in  any  former  period.  Dr.  Soetbeer  esti- 
mates '  the  production  of  gold  since  the  end  of  the  fif- 
teenth century  to  have  been  .£1,553,415,000  ($7,549,596,- 
900).  An  annual  supply  of  .£20,000,000  ($97,000,000)  above 
the  present  average  product  would  consequently  be 
about  1}^  per  cent,  on  that  stock.' 

"The  evidence,  therefore,  seems  to  fully  warrant 
the  following  conclusions  :  That  the  tendency  of  the 
age  is  to  use  continually  less  and  less  of  coin  in  the 
transaction  of  business  ;  and  that  '  so  far  from  there 
being  any  scarcity  of  gold,  there  never  was  a  period 
in  the  world's  commercial  history  when  the  existing 
quantity  was  so  large  as  at  present,  in  proportion  to 
the  necessity  for  its  use  or  the  purposes  it  has  to 
serve.' 

"  As  civilization  has  increased,  and  as  new,  quicker, 
and  cheaper  methods  for  the  interchange  of  thought 
and  commodities  have  been  invented  and  adopted, 
the  function  of  gold  as  a  medium  of  exchange— the  one 
that  necessitates  a  large  and  continually  augmenting 
supply,  and  entails  the  greatest  wear  and  loss— is 
rapidly  diminishing  in  importance  by  the  supplemen- 


Monometallism. 


886 


Monometallism. 


tation  of  other  and  better  agencies.  On  the  other 
hand,  the  function  of  gold  as  a  measure  or  verifier  of 
values,  by  reason  of  its  exemption  from  value  fluctua- 
tions to  a  greater  extent  than  any  other  product  of 
labor,  is  becoming  of  greater  and  greater  importance 
with  the  continually  increasing  volume  of  the  world's 
production  and  distribution,  and  more  especially  since 
the  other  precious  metal — silver — has  become  uncer- 
tain and  fluctuating  in  value." 

One  further  quotation  we  will  make  from  Mr. 
Wells.  Showing  the  unfairness  of  some  of  the 
arguments  of  the  silver  advocates,  he  says  : 

"The  following  statements  were  made  in  a  memori- 
al signed  by  95  members  of  the  United  States  House  of 
Representatives  of  the  Forty-eighth  Congress,  and  pre- 
sented to  the  President  of  the  United  States  in  1885  : 

"  '  Eighteen  million  bales  of  cotton  were  the  equiva- 
lent in  value  of  the  entire  Interest -bearing  national 
debt  in  1865  ($2,221,000,000)  ;  but  it  will  take  35,000,000 
bales  at  the  price  of  cotton  now  (1885)  to  pay  the  re- 
mainder of  such  debt  ($1.196,000,000).  Twenty-five 
million  tons  of  bar  iron  would  have  paid  the  whole 
debt  ($2,674,000,000)  in  1865  ;  it  will  now  take  35,000,000 
tons  to  pay  what  remains  ($1,375,000,000)  after  all  that 
has  been  paid.' 

"  The  inference,  therefore,  intended  to  be  conveyed 
was,  that  the  burden  of  the  national  debt  of  the  United 
States  in  1885,  notwithstanding  the  large  payments 
on  the  same  during  the  previous  20  years,  had  really 
been  increased,  inasmuch  as  a  greater  effort  of  labor, 
or  an  increased  amount  of  the  products  of  labor,  was 
now  necessary  to  liquidate  it  than  when  the  purchas- 
ing power  of  gold  had  not  been  appreciated  through 
its  scarcity ;  and,  as  with  public  debts,  so  also  with 
private  debts,  especially  such  as  are  in  the  nature  of 
mortgages  on  land  or  on  other  productive  fixed  capi- 
tal. 

"  Now,  in  reply  to  this  it  is  to  be  said,  first,  that  the 
"basis  assumed  for  this  comparison  of  prices  was,  in  the 
case  of  cotton,  entirely  unfair  and  unnatural— the 
gold  price  of  this  commodity  in  the  year  1865,  owing  to 
a  scarcity  occasioned  by  war,  having  been  more 
than  250  per  cent,  higher  than  the  average  prices  in 
1860  before  the  war ;  while  the  price  of  iron  for  that 
same  year  in  the  American  markets  was  also  inflated 
on  even  a  gold  basis ;  and,  secondly,  that  no  considera- 
tion is  given  or  allowance  made  in  the  above  compari- 
sons for  the  results  of  labor  at  the  two  periods  or  1865 
and  1885 ;  not  more,  and  probably  much  less,  actual 
labor  in  1865-86  having  produced  6,550,000  bales  of  cot- 
ton in  the  United  States  than  was  re- 
quired in  1860  to  produce  3,800,000  bales  ; 
•n-vx.  nf  T_  while  in  the  case  of  bar  iron  the  propor- 
jjeois  noc  in-tion  of  aayS'  iabor  to  a  ton  of  product 

creased  by    has  been  diminished  more  than  one  half 

Demoneti-  since  1865 ;  and  the  same  is  true,  also,  of 
that  more  valuable  product  of  iron— 
viz.,  steel.  Furthermore,  no  impor- 
tant product  of  the  United  States  can 
be  named  in  which  the  labor  cost  of 
production  has  not  decreased  very  much  more  than 
has  the  g9ld  price  of  the  same  between  1865  and  1885. 
In  short,  if  the  debtor  has  got  more  to  pay  at  the  latter 
than  at  the  former  period,  it  is  not  the  fault  of  any 
change  in  the  relations  of  the  precious  metals  if  he  has 
not  at  the  same  time  got  correspondingly  more  to  pay 
with." 

We  have  quoted  mainly  from  Mr.  Wells  ;  but 
those  who  hold  substantially  the  same  position 
are  numerous. 

"  In  the  year  1886  the  British  Government  created 
a  '  commission  '  of  persons  of  eminent  qualifications  to 
'inquire  into  the  recent  changes  in  the  relative  values 
of  the  precious  metal,'  embracing  causes  and  results. 
This  commission,  after  devoting  nearly  two  years  to 
their  task,  calling  to  their  assistance  a  large  number 
of  persons  as  witnesses,  or  experts,  whom  they  re- 
garded as  qualified  to  express  opinions,  submitted  a 
'  final '  report  in  October,  1888,  embodying  the  facts  to 
which  their  attention  had  been  called  ;  a  summary  of 
the  arguments,  on  the  one  side  and  the  other,  touch- 
ing questions  in  controversy  ;  and  a  marked  diversity 
of  conclusions  on  the  part  of  the  several  members  of 
the  commission.  There  was,  however,  an  entire 
unanimity  of  opinion  on  some  points,  which  the  com- 
mission express  as  follows  •. 

'' '  We  are  of  opinion  that  the  true  explanation  of  the 
phenomena  which  we  are  directed  to  investigate  is  to 


be  found  in  a  combination  of  causes,  and  cannot  be 
attributed  to  any  one  cause  alone.  The  action  of  the 
Latin  Union  in  1873  broke  the  link  between  silver  and 
gold,  which  had  kept  the  price  ot  the  former,  as  meas- 
ured by  the  latter,  constant  at  about  the  legal  ratio ; 
and  when  this  link  was  broken,  the  silver  market  was 
open  to  the  influence  of  all  the  factors  which  go  to  af- 
fect the  price  of  a  commodity.  These  factors  happen 
since  1873  to  have  operated  in  the  direction  of  a  fall  in 
the  gold  price  of  that  metal.' " 

In  view  of  the  above  and  a  large  amount  of 
similar  evidence  which  might  be  quoted  (see  also 
FARMERS'  MOVEMENT  ;  PRODUCTION),  the  gold 
advocates  say  it  is  plain  that  the  one  sufficient 
cause  of  the  fall  of  price  is  improved  production 
and  means  of  transportation. 

As  to  the  silver  argument,  that,  whatever  be 
the  cause,  prices  have  fallen  ;  that  there  is  suf- 
fering, and  that  an  expansion  of  the  currency 
would  raise  prices  and  so  relieve  suffering,  the 
gold  advocates   affirm   that  were  silver  to  be 
coined,  and  suppose  prices  to  rise  (which  they  are 
not  sure  would  happen),  the  effect  would  be,  so 
far  as  the  farmers  are  concerned,  possibly  to 
enable  them  to  pay  their  debts  in  a  depreciated 
currency,  and  so  gain  a  little  tem- 
porary questionable  good,   but  at 
the  same  time  to  raise  the  prices  of       Panic, 
all  the  farmers  buy,  and  stimulate 
their  production,  which  would  again 
bring  down  the  price  of  their  produce,  leaving 
them  no  better  off  than  before,  and  perhaps 
worse.      As  for  wage-workers,  it  would  raise 
their  prices  and  not  raise  their  income.     For 
all  classes,  it  would  produce  an  appalling  panic. 
Professor  Laughlin  writes  in  the  American  Re- 
view of  Reviews  for  September,  1896  : 

"  The  reasons  why  a  panic  must  follow  a  change  of 
standard  are  clear.  Business  men  are  selling  goods  on 
time,  and  discount  their  bills  at  banks.  To  pay  wages 
in  his  factory  to-day  he  gets  the  present  worth  from 
the  banks  of  the  debts  due  him  for  goods  sold.  These 
sales  and  discounts  are  made  aV  prices  determined  by 
the  existing  gold  standard.  Suggest  a  lowering  of  47 
per  cent,  in  the  standard,  and  imagine  if  you  can  the 
ensuing  confusion.  How  can  any  kind  of  a  business 
contract  be  made  if  it  is  not  known  within  47  per 
cent,  what  the  value  of  the  payment  will  be  ?  No  bank 
will  loan  the  deposits  left  in  their  hands  or  renew  old 
loans  if  there  is  fear  that  the  repayment  may  vary  by 
47  per  cent.  And  even  before  the  change  of  standard 
could  be  enacted  men  would  all  wish  to  sell  their  se- 
curities and  property  for  gold  before  the  change  to 
silver  came  about.  If,  then,  every  one  is  selling,  and 
if  the  banks  refuse  to  loan  because  of  the  uncertainty, 
picture  but  faintly  the  consequent  distress  and  fail- 
ures. One  house,  unable  to  get  loans  to  meet  its 
maturing  notes,  fails  ;  that  brings  down  another  house; 
then  all  come  crashing  down  in  ruin.  The  horror 

E asses  all  description— the  hopes  of  a  lifetime  gone, 
omes  sold,  and  beggary  for  wife  and  children.  This 
would  be  the  first  effect  of  free  coinage  of  silver  ;  and 
already  the  faint  possibility  of  it  has  forced  down  the 
prices  of  securities,  in  many  cases  to  a  point  as  low  as 
in  the  panic  of  1893. 

"The  results  of  a  panic  will  be  reduced  production, 
lessened  demand,  rigorous  economy,  diminished 
transactions,  idle  capital,  idle  labor,  general  prostra- 
tion, and  the  heaping  up  in  banks  of  unemployed 
money.  Less  money  will  be  needed  for  the  lessened 
business.  The  demand  for  silver  will  be  less  than  the 
present  demand  for  gold,  as  a  first  result  of  free  coin- 
age." 

To  propose  the  monetization  of  silver  to  re- 
lieve the  depression  of  the  present  is  to  propose 
to  pour  out  gunpowder  in  order  to  check  a  slow 
fire.  The  real  evil  to-day  is  a  lack  of  confidence 
in  business,  which  would  be  relieved  the  mo- 
ment a  sound  gold  standard  were  accepted,  and 
investors,  capitalists,  and  producers  were  con- 


Monometallism. 


887 


Monometallism. 


vinced  that  they  could  get  the  worth  of  their 
money. 

The  possibility  of  the  working  of  the  bimetal- 
lic theory,  that  the  monetization  of  silver  can 
keep  it  on  a  par  with  gold,  the  gold  advocates 
question  under  any  circumstances,  and  utterly 
deny  under  the  form  of  its  monetization  by  the 
United  States  alone  at  a  ratio  of  16  to  i,  when 
the  market  price  is  nearer  32  to  i.  When 
France  tried  it,  the  relative  value  of  the  metals 
was  very  near  its  legalized  monetary  value,  and 
most  of  the  world  was  using  silver.  Even  then 
it  is  by  no  means  clear  that  the  attempt  was  a 
success.  (See  Giffen's  The  Case  against  Bi- 
metallism.) For  the  United  States  to  try  and 
keep  silver  at  par  with  gold  at  a  valuation  twice 
its  worth  as  bullion,  and  with  no  other  leading 
country  in  the  world  using  it  as  legal  tender, 
would  be  madness.  Says  Professor  Laughlin 
(as  above)  : 

"  The  only  possible  means  by  which  silver  can  be 
raised  to  par  must  then  be  the  demand  created  solely 
by  the  United  States.     And  this  demand  must  be  suf- 
ficient to  raise  the  value  of  all  silver  in  the  world  to 
par,  not  only  in  the  United  States,  but  in  India,  China, 
Russia,  or  France.     And  yet  one  ot  the  first  results  or 
free  coinage  of  silver  will  be  to  withdraw  the  support 
from  under  the  $625,000,000  of  silver    in  the  United 
States  now  kept  at  par  with  gold.    With  out  present 
gold  system,  from  1878-93  our  government  purchased 
silver  outright  and  withdrew  it  from  the  market,  but 
kept  it  at  par  with  gold.    Our  present 
legislation    requires    the    Executive  to 
Fall  of        maintain  this  silver  at  parity  with  gold, 
Silver         anc*  so  *ar  ttlis  ^as  t>een  done.    It  has 
been  a  great  help  to  the  silver  market 
that  $625,000,000  have  been  bought  and 
kept  at  a  value  far  beyond  its  bullion 
value.    Now  give  us  free  coinage  of  silver,  drive  out 
gold,  and  it  will  be  impossible  to  maintain  the  silver 
at  par.     Why?    Because  silver  cannot  be  exchanged 
for  gold  money  in  any  daily  dealings  ;  only  silver  will 
be  paid  in  for  duties  ;  the  treasury  will  pay  in  silver  ; 
and  all  government   money  and  obligations  will  be 
valued  by  the  kind  of  money  in  which  they  are  pay- 
able.   Our  money,  based  only  on  silver,  will  have  only 
the  value  of  silver.     This  $625,000,000  of  silver  will  fall 
to  its  market  value,  just  as  the  Mexican  dollars,  now 
used  m  commerce  all  over  the  world,  altho  containing 
more  pure  silver  than  our  own  dollars,  pass  for  about 
50  cents  in  gold     Free  coinage  of  silver,  therefore,  will 
deprive  $625,000,000  of   silver   of   its  supporting  gold 
prop,  and  it   must  henceforth  stand  on  its  own  legs. 
The  effect  of  this  will  be  to  depress  rather  than  raise 
the  value  of  silver. 

••  Under  the  acts  of  1878  and  1890  U  should  be  recalled 
that  the  United  States  was  a  direct  purchaser  of  silver. 
It  took  taxes  from  us  and  bought  silver  with  them. 
With  free  coinage  of  silver  the  government  would  not 
buy  a  dollar  of  silver.  Free  coinage  of  silver  means 
the  right  of  any  owner  of  bullion  to  have  it  coined 
into  dollars.  When  the  mint  merely  stamps  this  bul- 
lion into  coins  it  is  not  a  purchaser.  It  receives  the 
bullion,  and  returns  it  to  the  owner  in  form  of  coins. 
A  great  many  people  have  been  wrongly  led  to  believe 
that  the  government  would  create  a  demand  for  silver 
by  buying  it  at  the  mints  at  a  fixed  price." 

Thus,  even  the  United  States  would  not  cre- 
ate a  government  demand,  and  would  only  lead 
to  a  possible  and  precarious  popular  demand  for 
silver,  while  all  other  civilized  countries  would 
have  no  more  demand  for  it  than  now.  The 
slight  effect  if  any  on  the  price  of  silver  of  the 
coining  of  $400,000,000  under  the  Bland-Allison 
Act,  and  of  the  purchase  of  4,500,000  oz.  of  sil- 
ver per  month  under  the  Sherman  Act  of  1890, 
is  well  known.  It  scarcely  prevented  the  steady 
fall  of  silver  even  for  ;  while.  The  steady  fall 
in  the  price  of  silver  could  at  best  only  be  pre- 
vented by  international  agreement,  and  even 
then  by  no  means  surely.  The  far  better 


way  is  to  use  gold  as  the  sole  standard  of  value, 
a  standard  commanding  universal  confidence, 
and  on  that  firm  basis  to  use  as  much  private 
paper  as  business  needs  and  wise  banking  con- 
siders safe.  (See  BANKS  AND  BANKING.) 

England  in  1817,  Germany  in  1873,  Holland 
in  1875,  France,  Belgium,  Switzerland,  Greece 
(the  Latin  Union)  in  1878.  Austria  in  1879,  Italy 
in  1882,  India  in  1893,  Russia  (virtually)  in 
1896,  have  come  to  the  gold  standard.  The 
only  nations  using  silver  as  a  standard  are 
Japan ,  China,  Mexico,  and  South  America.  The 
United  States  virtually  declared  for  gold  in 
1853  ;  her  experiments  with  silver  since  1878 
have  done  her  no  good  and  have  created  only 
continual  depression,  even  as  the  greenbacks  of 
war  produced  the  crisis  of  1873. 

The  present  depression,  as  far  as  the  wage- 
workers  and  farmers  are  concerned,  is  exag- 
gerated. It  is  true  that  we  have  the  poor  and 
the  unemployed  to-day,  but  not  nearly  so  many 
in  proportion  to  the  population  as  formerly, 
while  what  we  have  are  not  nearly  so  poor  as 
in  the  very  periods  some  bimetallists  are  fond 
of  talking  about.  (For  the  facts,  see  WEALTH  ; 
WAGES.)  Prices  have  fallen  ;  but  this  means 
prosperity  for  those  of  small  means  not  suffer- 
ing, while,  were  there  confidence  to-day,  busi- 
ness would  leap  into  life  exactly  because  prices 
are  such  as  to  command  large  demand.  This 
is,  above  all,  a  question  of  the  producing  classes. 
Said  Secretary  Carlisle,  in  his  address  before 
the  working  men  of  Chicago,  April  15,  1896  : 

"  Whether  the  general  business  of  the  people  shall 
be  transacted  with  good  money  or  bad  money, 
whether  the  wages  of  labor  shall  be  paid  in  a  sound  and 
stable  currency,  with  full  purchasing  power  in  the 
markets  where  they  are  exchanged  for  the  necessaries 
of  life,  or  in  a  depreciated  and  fluctuating  currency, 
having  no  fixed  value  and  therefore  bearing  no  per- 
manent relation  to  the  current  prices  of  commodities, 
are  questions  which  affect  the  comfort  and  happiness 
of  every  home  and  the  peace  and  prosperity  of  every 
community.  While  all  are  deeply  interested  in  the 
settlement  of  these  questions,  it  is  unfortunately  the 
case  that  all  will  not  be  equally  affected  by  an  erro- 
neous decision  upon  them.  The  wealthy  man,  the 
man  who  has  accumulated  property  or  hoarded  mon- 
ey, is  always  exempt  from  many  of  the  most  serious 
consequences  of  a  financial  or  industrial  disturbance. 
He  has  both  means  and  credit,  and  while  he  may  be 
subjected  to  much  loss  and  inconvenience,  neither  he 
nor  his  family  will  be  pinched  by  hunger  or  com- 
pelled to  go  without  raiment  or  shelter. 

"  It  is  the  poor  man  and  the  man  of  moderate  means 
—the  man  who  has  not  been  fortunate  enough  to  ac- 
cumulate property  or  money,  but  who  depends  upon 
his  wages  or  upon  the  products  of  his  own  labor  for 
the  means  of  supporting  himself  and  his  family— that 
always  feels  the  first  and  most  disastrous  effects  of  a 
business  or  industrial  depression,  no  matter  whether 
it  results  from  a  depreciated  and  fluctuating  currency 
or  from  other  causes.  Such  a  man  has  nothing  to  dis- 
pose of  bu*  his  labor,  and  nothing  with  which  to  sup- 
port himself  or  his  family  but  his  wages  or  the  pro- 
ceeds of  his  own  labor,  and  any  policy  that  even 
temporarily  suspends  or  obstructs  the  industrial  prog- 
ress of  the  country  by  diminishing  the  demand  for 
the  products  of  labor,  or  by  impairing  the  capacity  or 
disposition  of  capital  to  employ  labor,  must  be  injuri- 
ous to  his  interests  and  inflict  more  or  less  suffering 
upon  all  who  are  dependent  upon  him.  .  .  , 

"  After  struggling  for  more  than  a  quarter  of  a  cen- 
tury, through  labor  organizations  and  otherwise,  to 
secure  a  rate  of  wages  which  would  make  the  pro- 
ceeds of  a  day's  work  equal  to  the  cost  of  a  day's  sub- 
sistence for  the  working  man  and  his  family,  you  are 
asked  by  the  advocates  of  free  coinage  to  join  them  in 
destroying  one  half  of  the  purchasing  power  of  the 
money  in  which  you  are  paid,  and  impose  upon  your- 
selves the  task  of  doubling  the  nominal  amount  of  your 
wages  hereafter  ;  that  is,  to  struggle  for  another  quar- 


Monometallism. 


Monopolies. 


ter  of  a  century,    or  perhaps   longer,  to  raise  your 
wages  in  a  depreciated  currency  to  a  point  which  will 
enable  you  to  purchase   with  them  as 
much  of  the  necessaries  of  life  as  you 
Effect  OH      can  purchase  now  ,  and  if,  after  years  of 
W      an        contention,  privation,  and  industrial  dis- 
wages.       or(ier,  you  should  at  last  succeed  in  so 
adjusting  wages  that  they  would   pro- 
cure at  the  higher  prices  of  commodities 
just  what  they  will  procure  now  at  the  existing  prices, 
what  would  you  have  gained  by  the  change  from  the 
old  to  the  new  C9nditions?  .  .  . 

"But  the  particular  proposition  now  under  consid- 
eration is  of  such  great  importance  in  the  discussion  of 
this  subject  that  you  must  permit  me  to  call  your  es- 
pecial attention  to  the  experience  of  the  laboring  peo- 
ple in  our  own  country  during  the  years  immediately 
following  the  introduction  of  a  depreciated  paper  cur- 
rency in  1862,  and  also  to  the  very  low  rates  of  wages 
which  now  prevail  in  countries  having  the  silver 
standard  of  value,  or  the  so-called  double  standard  of 
value  with  coinage  of  silver  at  a  legal  ratio  not  corre- 
sponding with  the  commercial  value  of  the  metal.  .  .  . 
"  Less  than  three  years  ago  you  saw  our  financial, 
commercial,  and  industrial  affairs  violently  disturbed 
by  the  fear  that  the  Government  would  not  be  able  to 
maintain  gold  payments  and  that  our  currency  would 
descend  to  a  silver  basis.  You  saw  the  operations  of 
industry  interrupted,  banks  failing,  great  commercial 
houses  unable  to  meet  their  obligations,  credit  seri- 
ously impaired,  mills  and  factories  closed  and  thou- 
sands of  laborers  thrown  out  of  employment,  and  a 
state  of  panic  and  business  disorder  prevailing  in 
every  part  of  the  country.  If  a  mere  doubt  as  to  the 
kind  of  money  we  intended  to  use  produced  these  dis- 
tressing results,  what  think  you  would  be  the  probable 
consequences  of  a  deliberate  determination  upon  the 
part  of  our  people  to  adopt  silver  monometallism  as 
a  permanent  system?  The  imagination  can  scarcely 
conceive  the  deplorable  state  of  society  that  would 
immediately  follow  the  announcement  of  such  a  pol- 
icy." 

References :  The  Case  against  Bimetallism,  by  Robert 
Giffln  (1892) ;  The  Silver  Situation  in  the  United  States, 
by  F.  W.  Taussig ;  History  of  Bimetallism  in  the 
United  States,  by  J.  L.  Laughlin  (1892}  ;  Recent  Econom- 
ic Changes,  by  D.  A.  Wells  (1889) ;  Sound  Currency,  a 
semi-monthly  published  by  the  Sound  Currency  Com- 
mittee of  the  Reform  Club  (New  York,  1894) ;  publica- 
tions of  the  Gold  Standard  Defense  Association  (Lon- 
don). 

Revised  by  DAVID  A.  WELLS. 

MONOPOLIES. — A  monopoly  in  industry 
may  be  defined  as  the  control  of  some  natural 
agent,  of  some  line  of  business,  or  of  some  ad- 
vantage over  existing  or  possible  competitors, 
by  which  greater  profits  can  be  secured  than 
other  competitors  can  make.  We  shall  treat  the 
subject  in  this  article  from  three  standpoints  : 
first,  from  the  standpoint  of  those  who  believe 
in  the  control  of  monopolies,  by  the  State  ;  sec- 
ondly, from  the  standpoint  of  those  who  believe 
in  the  ownership  and  conduct  of  monopolies  by 
the  State  ;  thirdly,  from  the  standpoint  of  those 
who  defend  monopolies,  or  who  believe  that  they 
are  but  the  result  of  the  present  legal  constitution 
of  society,  and  would,  therefore,  remove  any 
evils  that  may  result  from  them,  not  by  attack- 
ing monopolies  by  themselves,  but  by  attacking 
the  causes  which  produced  at  least  their  evil 
feature.  (For  the  facts  and  statistics  of  present 
monopolies,  see  TRUSTS.) 

For  the  first  point  we  present  an  article  pre- 
pared for  this  encyclopedia  by  Mr.  C.  W.  Baker, 
author  of  Monopolies  and  the  People  : 

I.  PUBLIC  CONTROL. 

"There  is  perhaps  no  point  in  which  the  modern 
science  of  economics  differs  more  widely  from  that 
science  as  taught  by  the  early  writers  on  political 
economy  than  in  its  treatment  of  the  subject  of  mo- 
nopolies. This  does  not  mean  that  the  teachers  of  the 
older  school  were  in  error,  or  that  the  newer  school 
has  departed  from  correct  principles  or  practice.  It 
simply  means  that  since  the  days  of  Adam  Smith  a 


whole  vast  revolution  has  been  wrought  in  the  world 
of  industry,  commerce,  and  finance.  The  new  politi- 
cal economy  recognizes  these  changed  conditions  and 
seeks  to  lay  down  the  principles  and  rules  which  gov- 
ern them.  Until  the  modern  era  the  only  monopolies 
were  those  which  were  established  by  royal  grants, 
relating  to  the  manufacture  or  sale  of  some  particular 
commodity.  In  early  English  history  the  sale  of  mo- 
nopolies furnished  a  principal  means  for  replenishing 
the  royal  exchequer.  Naturally  such  monopolies, 
operating  to  lay  a  grievous  and  well-realized  tax  upon 
the  people,  were  bitterly  opposed  ;  and  not  a  small 
part  of  the  popular  enmity  to  monopolies  which  still 
remains,  voiced  in  such  common  expressions  as  'com- 

Eetition  is  the  life  of  trade,'   dates  back  to  that  era, 
efore  the  modern  system  of  manufactures  and  trans- 
portation had  had  its  beginning. 

"The  monopolies  of  the  present  day  may  be  divided 
into  two  classes,,  designated   respectively  as  natural 
monopolies  and   artificial    monopolies.     Examples  of 
natural  monopolies  are  transportation  lines,  including 
not  only  steam  and  street  railways,  but  the  pipes  and 
wires  in  city  streets  along  which  water, 
gas,  steam,  or  electric  current  are  dis- 
tributed.   In  short,  natural  monopolies    Nature  of 
may  be  defined  as  those   industries  in 
which  the  number  of  competitors  which 
can  engage  in   the    business    on   equal 
terms  is  limited  to  a  very  few.    Arti- 
ficial monopolies  are  those  in  which  the  number  of 
possible  competitors  is  large  ;  but  the  advantages  and 
economics  arising  from  production  on  a  large  scale 
and  doing  away  with  competition  are  so  great  as  to 
induce  concentration  of  the  industry  into  one  organi- 
zation under  a  centralized  management. 

"  Both  these  classes  of  monopolies  are  outgrowths  of 
modern  conditions;  railways  and  other  modern  sys- 
tems of  transportation,  as  well  as  the  mechanism  for 
distributing  heat,  light,  power,  water,  etc  ,  from  cen- 
tral stations,  were  all  unknown  a  century  ago.  So 
also  the  modern  factory  system  and  a  thousand  other 
modern  conditions  •which  make  possible  such  monopo- 
lies as  the  cordage  trust  or  the  sugar  trust  did  not  ex- 
ist a  century  ago.  In  fact,  most  of  these  conditions 
have  arisen  during  the  past  twoscore  years.  It  is  not 
strange  at  all,  therefore,  that  the  theories  and  laws 
laid  down  by  the  old  school  of  political  economists 
need  to  be  supplemented  and  amended  ;  and  this  is  the 
work  which  the  new  school  of  political  economy  has 
done  and  is  doing. 

"  The  most  important  laws  of  modern  competition 
have  been  stated  as  follows  :* 

"  i.  In  any  given  industry  the  intensity  of  competi- 
tion tends  to  vary  inversely  as  the  number  of  com- 
peting units. 

"2.  In  any  given  industry  the  waste  due  to  competi- 
tion tends  to  vary  directly  as  the  intensity. 

"  3.  In  any  given  industry  the  ten- 
dency toward  the  death  of  competition 
(monopoly)  varies  directly  with  the 
waste  due  to  competition. 

"4.  In    any  given  industry   the  ten- 
dency toward  the  death  of  competition 
(monopoly)  varies  inversely  with  the  number  of  com- 
peting units. 

"  5.  The  intensity  of  competition  tends  to  vary 
directly  in  proportion  to  the  amount  of  capital  re- 
quired for  the  operation  of  each  competing  unit,  es- 

Eecially  when  the  interest  on  the  capital  invested 
>rms  a  large  proportion  of  the  cost  of  production. 

"  6.  In  any  given  industry  the  tendency  toward  the 
death  of  competition  (monopoly)  varies  directly  with 
the  amount  of  capital  required  for  each  competing 
unit. 

"  7.  In  any  given  industry  in  which  natural  agents 
are  necessary,  the  tendency  toward  the  inequality  of 
competition  (monopoly)  tends  to  vary  with  the  scarcity 
of  available  like  natural  agents. 

"  Study  of  these  laws  and  study  of  the  facts  on  which 
they  are  based  leads  to  the  inevitable  conclusion  that 
monopolies  of  every  sort  are  the  result  of  the  condi- 
tions of  modern  civilization. 

"  To  put  this  truth  in  another  form  :  The  tendency  of 
modern  industry  is  to  production  on  the  largest  scale  ; 
to  the  concentration  of  a  thousand  looms  in  a  single 
factory,  of  a  hundred  factories  under  a  single  man- 
agement, and  of  the  introduction  of  such  economical 
systems  of  production,  distribution,  and  sale  that  it  is 
hopeless  for  a  single  small  producer  to  undertake  a 
competition  with  it.  So  also  with  .reference  to  the 


*  Monopolies  and  the  People,  pp.     150-54,    Putnams 
(1889). 


Laws  of 
_,  , 

monopoly. 


Monopolies. 


889 


Monopolies. 


Present 
Solution. 


class  natural  monopolies  ;  there  are  vast  advantages 
in  distributing  light,  heat,  and  power  to  the  inhabit- 
ants of  cities  from  central  stations,  and  in  concen- 
trating the  flow  of  commerce  on  great  railway  lines. 

"  The  social  system  which  the  old  school  of  economists 
studied  was  a  great  aggregation  of  units  to  a  great 
degree  independent  of  each  other.  The  social  system 
of  the  present  day  is  a  vast  organism  in  which  each 
individual,  each  community,  each  State,  each  nation 
has  its  prosperities  and  destiny  indissplubly  inter- 
woven with  the  prosperities  and  destiny  of  every 
other  one.  It  is  true  now  in  a  larger  and  broader  sense 
than  ever  before  that  no  man  liveth  to  himself. 

"  Monopolies,  then,  are  a  necessary  condition  of  our 
modern  civilization.  We  can  no  more  go  back  to  the 
economic  simplicity  of  our  grandfathers  than  we  can 
dispense  with  the  railway,  the  telegraph,  the  ocean 
steamer,  the  power  loom,  and  the  reaper  in  our  indus- 
trial life.  But  while  the  existence  of  monopolies,  or, 
in  other  words,  the  absence  of  competition  is  inevi- 
table, it  by  no  means  follows  that  this  existence  need 
involve  injury  to  the  welfare  of  the  people.  In  fact, 
it  is  as  much  out  of  the  question  that  the  public  should 
permanently  submit  to  paying  such  prices  for  the 
necessaries  of  life  as  the  owners  of  monopolies  choose 
to  ask,  as  it  is  that  it  should  dispense  with  the  great  in- 
ventions which  have  conferred  such  enormous  benefits 
upon  the  world,  and  have  in  so  doing  altered  the  eco- 
nomic conditions  of  society. 

"  Let  us  see  first  how  the  problem  is  being  solved  in 
the  case  of  natural  monopolies.  Here  a  whole  revolu- 
tion has  been  wrought  in  public  opinion,  in  jurispru- 
dence, and  in  actual  practice  during  the  past  score  of 
years,  and  the  change  has  been  largely  effected  during 
the  past  decade.  Competing  railways, 
competing  gas  works  in  cities,  compet- 
ing telegraph  companies  have  swal- 
lowed up  a  vast  amount  of  wealth,  much 
of  which  is  now  a  total  waste.  The 
world  is  wiser  now.  Railway  rates 
have  been  declared  subject  to  regula- 
tion by  State  legislatures  and  by  State  and  interstate 
railway  commissions.  The  community  or  individual 
discriminated  against  by  the  railways  has  a  tribunal 
which  will  hear  his  grievance  and  protect  his  inter- 
ests. In  Maine  and  in  Massachusetts  new  railways 
cannot  be  built  merely  to  steal  traffic  from  an  estab- 
lished road.  Those  who  propose  the  construction  of  a 
new  railway  must  prove  before  the  State  railway 
commission  that  the  public  exigency  requires  the 
construction  of  the  new  line.  It  must  not  parallel  an 
existing  road  able  to  handle  the  traffic,  for  it  is  right- 
ly reasoned  that  it  is  better  for  the  public  that  the 
existing  road  should  do  the  whole  work  and  devote 
the  surplus  revenue  to  improved  service,  or  else  that 
it  should  lower  its  rates  to  such  a  point  as  will  pay  it 
only  a  reasonable  profit  on  its  capital  invested. 

"Again,  it  is  very  seldom  now  that  we  hear  of  city 
streets  being  torn  up  to  lay  gas  mains  of  competing 
companies ;  and  where  subways  are  being  laid  by 
cities  for  the  accommodation  of  electric  wires,  it  is  the 
practice  either  for  the  municipality  itself  to  carry  on 
the  work  or  to  grant  an  exclusive  franchise  to  a  com- 
pany to  perform  the  work,  requiring  it  to  grant  equal 
privileges  to  all  at  a  fixed  rate  of  rental. 

"Franchises  for  the  use  of  city  streets  for  street  rail- 
ways, electric  lighting  companies,  etc.,  are  now  very 
generally  limited  to  a  short  term  of  years,  a  percen- 
tage of  the  gross  receipts  is  paid  by  the  company  to 
the  city,  and  the  rates  to  be  charged  are  fixed  in  the 
contract.  The  ownership  of  water-supply  systems  by 
the  municipalities  which  they  serve  is  rapidly  increas- 
ing. The  few  instances  of  the  ownership  of  sewerage 
systems  by  private  companies  are  rapidly  decreasing. 
Municipal  ownership  of  gas-lighting  plants  shows  no 
increase  ;  but  the  newer  lighting  agent— electricity- 
has  grown  rapidly  in  favor  with  the  public,  and  mu- 
nicipal electric-lighting  plants  furnishing  lights  for 
streets  and  city  buildings  number  nearly  or  quite  100 
in  the  United  States.  That  furnishing  of  electric  light 
to  private  users  is  likely  to  follow  there  can  be  little 
doubt. 

"With  regard  to  all  these  movements,  it  is  to  be  dis- 
tinctly noted  that  it  is  not  so  much  municipal  owner- 
ship and  operation  that  is  being  sought  for  as  munici- 
pal control.      The   old    plan  of    giving 
away  city   streets  in  perpetuity  to  the 
Public  Con-   first  company  which  volunteered  to  lay 
f_oi  in  them  the  arteries  of  modern  munici- 

'  pal  life  finds  few  or  no  defenders  nowa- 

days.   On  the  other  hand,  most  city  gov- 
ernments are  ill  adapted   to  carry  on 
complicated    business   affairs.      For  example,   a  city 
has  great  ad  vantages  in  operating  directly  an  electric- 


lighting  plant,  in  that  it  can  borrow  capital  at  a  lower 
rate  of  interest  than  a  private  company,  can  always 
prevent  competition  from  being  established,  and  can 
secure  for  itself  the  profits  arising  from  the  use  of  its 
streets.  On  the  other  hand,  these  advantages  may  all 
be  neutralized  by  the  choice  of  incompetent  or  dis- 
honest managers. 

"  There  are  many  people  who  immediately  go  on  to 
generalize  from  this  fact,  and  to  lay  down  the  broad 
statement  that,  In  view  of  prevailing  corruption  in  city 
politics,  the  chances  of  either  incompetent  or  dishonest 
men  being  placed  in  charge  of  municipal  business  is 
so  great  that  municipalities  should  not  undertake 
such  work  as  public  lighting,  street  railway  service, 
or  even  public  water  supply.  It  is  doubtful,  however, 
whether  so  broad  a  statement  is  warranted.  The  fact 
is  almost  universally  overlooked  that  waste,  incom- 
petence, favoritism  and  dishonesty  of  various  degrees 
is  exceedingly  common  in  the  carrying  on  of  the  busi- 
ness of  private  corporations.  The  common  argument 
is  that  the  men  who  administer  the  affairs  of  cities  are 
put  in  their  places  by  the  accidents  of  politics,  and  that 
even  if  they  and  their  appointees  are  honest,  they  are 
likely  to  lack  either  the  experience  or  the  ability  nec- 
essary to  economically  administer  complicated  enter- 
prises. But  to  some  extent  the  same  thing  is  true 
of  modern  corporate  activity.  It  is  an  open  secret  that 
favor  and  not  merit  is  the  reason  for  the  bestowal  of 
lucrative  official  position  in  many  great  corporations. 
The  real  owners  of  great  corporations  are  in  many 
cases  a  host  of  scattered  individuals,  while  those  who 
actually  control  and  manage  them  do  so  to  further  the 
interests  of  themselves  and  their  friends.  Put  briefly, 
public  office  is  not  held  as  often  as  it  should  be  as  a 
public  trust,  but  corporate  offices  are  also  too  often 
considered  a  private  snap. 

"  To  sum  up,  then,  the  most  generally  approved  meth- 
ods of  dealing  with  natural  monopolies  at  the  present 
day  are  for  municipalities  to  either  own  and  operate 
them,  or  to  own  the  fixed  plant  and  lease  them  for  op- 
eration for  short  terms  of  years  to  the  most  favorable 
bidder,  under  such  restrictions  and  no  others  as  are 
necessary  to  secure  efficient  and  reliable  service.  In 
case  a  city  is  unsupplied  with  electric  light  or  with 
street  railway  service,  it  can  best  secure  the  construc- 
tion of  a  plant  by  granting  a  franchise  for  its  construc- 
tion on  specified  plans,  and  its  operation  for  a  limited 
term  of  years  to  a  private  company,  the  plant  to  be- 
come the  city's  property  at  the  expiration  of  such  term 
on  payment  of  its  actual  value,  exclusive  of  the  fran- 
chise or  good  will.  In  the  constriiction  of  waterworks, 
experience  generally  favors  the  city's  undertaking  the 
work  directly,  provided  its  finances  permit. 

"  In  general  railway  service,  control  of  rates  and 
service  by  special  public  commissions  is  now  firmly  es- 
tablished as  the  method  of  dealing  with  railway  cor- 
porations. The  progress  of  railway  consolidation 
during  the  past  few  years  has  entirely  established  the 
futility  of  relying  on  competition  in  this  industry  to 
secure  proper  facilities  and  protection  against  exorbi- 
tant rates  and  unjust  discriminations. 

"Turning  now  to  artificial  monopolies,  it  must  be 
said  that  no  such  progress  can  be  recorded  in  dealing 
with  the  problem  which  they  present  as  has  been  made 
in  dealing  with  natural  monopolies.    These  monopo- 
lies are  still  too  new  a  feature  of  our  in- 
dustrial  life  to  be  understood  and  ap- 
preciated in   their   full  significance  by      Artificial 
even  the  educated  and  intelligent.    Leg-  Monouolies 
islators  are  still  trying  to  legislate  them 
out  of    existence  ;  and    the    courts,   or 
many  of  them,  are  still  laying  down  the 
old  common-law  principle  that  contracts  to  restrain 
competition  are  against  public  policy,  and  hence  void 
and   unenforceable,   in    the    hope    of    preventing  the 
growth  of  this  class  of  monopolies.     Such  legislation 
and  such  decision  has  its  use  at  the  present  day,  un- 
deniably, in  checking  and  retarding  the  growth  of  such 
monopolies,  until  better  methods  of  dealing  with  them 
can  be  developed.     But  that  concentration  of  produc- 
tion and  concentration  of  distribution  is  destined  to 
go  on,  no  one  who  studies  in  the  broad  aspect  present 
and  prospective  conditions  in  industry  and  commerce 
can  doubt.    That  monopoly,  or  at  least  a  strong  ten- 
dency toward  the  limitation  and  control  of  competi- 
tion, is  an  inevitable  result  of  this  concentration,  fol- 
lows from  the  laws  of  competition  already  enunciated. 

"The  reform  which  is  taking  place  and  is  to  take 
place  with  reference  to  monopolies,  then,  is  by  no 
means  their  abolition.  The  reform  needed  is  to  up- 
root from  the  public  mind  the  persistent  idea  that 
monopolies  are  essentially  evil,  and  to  plant  in  Us 
stead  the  truth  that  they  are  the  inevitable  accom- 
paniment of  the  new  civilization  on  which  the  world 


Monopolies. 


890 


Monopolies. 


is  entering.  The  social  system  has  grown  out  of  chaos 
with  competition,  or,  as  the  student  of  natural  science 
expresses  it,  the  survival  of  the  fittest,  as  its  main- 
spring. In  a  large  and  true  sense  competition  is  des- 
tined to  remain  an  operative  factor  of  vast  importance 
in  the  activities  of  the  race.  But  in  many  industries- 
how  many  none  can  now  prophesy— It  seems  destined 
inevitably  to  disappear,  and  with  that  disappearance 
in  any  industry  the  public  welfare  demands  that  some- 
thing be  devised  to  take  its  place.  When  this  truth 
once  comes  to  be  realized  by  people  at  large,  the  pop- 
ular fear  of  and  prejudice  against  monopolies  will  dis- 
appear. The  remedy  for  monopoly  is  not  abolition, 
but  control,  is  the  truth  which  needs  to  be  taught,  and 
when  it  is  taught  and  comprehended  the  way  will  be 
opened  for  new  advancements  in  the  world's  industries 
and  activities,  which  have  never  been  possible  under 
the  cruder  civilization  ot  our  fathers." 

II.  PUBLIC  OWNERSHIP. 

Many  dissent  from  the  views  expressed  in  the 
above  article,  believing  that  the  public  control 
of  monopolies  is  impossible,  and  even  if  possi- 
ble, not  the  best  way  to  secure  the  desired  re- 
sults. Public  control,  they  believe,  may  serve 
for  a  while,  as  a  transition  state,  but  as  soon  as 
practical  at  least  they  believe  further  control 
should  give  way  to  public  ownership.  The  ex- 
perience of  the  Interstate  Commerce  Commis- 
sion (g.v.),  they  affirm,  shows  that  the  United 
States  cannot  control  the  railroads  unless  it  also 
owns  them.  Many  railroad  men  concur  in  this 
opinion.  (See  RAILROADS.)  This  indicates  a 
principle,  the  believers  in  public  ownership  as- 
sert, which,  tho  developed  first  in  railroads  on 
account  of  the  magnitude  and  concentration  of 
the  interests  involved,  must  sooner  or  later 
appear  in  all  monopoly.  Public  control,  they 
argue,  has  most  of  the  difficulties  without  many 
of  the  advantages  of  public  ownership.  We 
shall  develop  this  view  by  quotations  from  a 
tract  on  The  Public  Ownership  of  Monopolies, 
by  Professor  Frank  Parsons.  It  may  be  done 
briefly,  however,  because  the  subject  will  be 
found  developed  in  some  detail  as  applied  to  the 
various  concrete  subjects  of  RAILROADS,  GAS, 
ELECTRIC  LIGHTING,  STREET  RAILWAYS,  TELE- 
GRAPH, TELEPHONE,  etc.  (See  NATURAL  MONOP- 
OLIES.) Professor  Parsons  says  : 

"  The  war  upon  monopoly  is  in  defense  of  the  very 
principle  for  which  our  fathers  fought  and  bled  and 
conquered  in  the  Revolution,  for  a  monopoly  in  private 
control  means  taxation  without  representation,  and 
that  is  a  power  which  no  legislature  has  a  right  to 
grant  to  any  man  or  set  of  men— a  power  which  no  one 
should  be  permitted  to  exercise  in  a  free  country,  for 
'taxation  without  representation  is  tyranny.' 

"It    makes    no    difference    whether  the  people  are 
compelled  to  pay  the  tax  by  the  power  of  their  neces- 
sities or  by  the  power  of  the  sheriff.     When  the  coal 
combine  raised  the  price  of  coal  last  year 
_        . .  on  an  average  20  cents  a  ton,  it  levied  on 

laxauon     the    United   States  a   monopoly  tax  of 
Without  Rep-  $9,000,000  on   the  annual   output  of  45,- 
resentation.  °°°>°°°  tons,  because  the   combine  was 
already  receiving  heavy  prices  for  its 
coal,  and  the  cost  of  mining  it  is  not  in- 
creasing, but  diminishing  every  year.     Vice-President 
Holden,  one  of  the  leaders  of  the  combine,  testified  be- 
fore the  New  York  Senate  Investigating  Committee 
that  iu  '  advancing  the  price  of  coal  the  cost  of  produc- 
tion or  transportation   is  not  considered  at  all ;  '  the 
price  '  has  nothing  to  do  '  with  the  cost.    It  will  not  do 
to  say  that  people  need  not  buy  coal  if  they  think  the 

Erice  is  too  high— they  have  got  to  buy  coal,  it  is  only 
ecause  of  the  necessity  of  the  case  that  the  combine 
is  able  to  collect  its  exorbitant  rates.  Look  at  the 
Western  Union  paying  100  per  cent,  dividends  in  the 
darkest  days  of  the  war,  and  averaging,  from  its  or- 
ganization to  the  present  time,  300  per  cent,  per  annum 
on  its  original  stock.  No  wonder  the  owners  of  these 
monopolies  became  polymillionaires.  No  wonder  Jay 


Gould  remarked  that  he  had  rather  be  president  of  the 
Western  Union  than  of  the  United  States.  If  these 
magic  methods  of  accumulating  riches  were  equally 
diffused  it  would  not  be  so  bad,  but  the  farmers  can- 
not put  their  hands  into  Uncle  Sam's  pockets  and  take 
out  whatever  they  choose,  as  the  monopolist  can.  The 
farmer  and  the  mechanic  sell  at  competitive  prices 
and  buy  at  monopoly  prices.  The  telegraph  men  and 
the  coal  men  sell  at  monopoly  prices  and  buy  at  com- 
petitive prices.  No  wonder  the  former  grow  poor  and 
the  latter  unconscionably  rich.  Not  only  is  monopoly 
in  private  control  unjust,  as  enabling  its  owner  to 
compel  the  people  to  pay  more  than  a  labor  equivalent 
for  the  service  he  renders,  not  only  is  it  the  most 
powerful  influence  for  corruption  and  for  hastening 
the  concentration  of  wealth  in  the  hands  of  a  few  sel- 
fish schemers,  not  only  is  the  growth  of  private  monop- 
oly the  greatest  danger  of  the  Republic,  but,  upon  the 
plane  of  actually  existing  laws,  so  far  as  any  monopoly 
rests  upon  a  grant  from  the  government,  it  is  absolute- 
ly unconstitutional,  and  so  far  as  It  rests  upon  agree- 
ments among  men,  or  the  natural  limitation  of  prop- 
erty, it  calls  for  State  interference  according  to  undis- 
puted principles  of  the  common  law.  As  we  have 
seen,  and  as  the  American  public  knows  to  its  cost,  a 
monopoly  in  private  hands  gives  its  owner  the  power 
to  collect  from  consumers  more  than  the  value  of  what 
they  receive — he  could  charge  the  fair  value  ot  the 
service  he  renders  without  a  monopoly  ;  the  advantage 
of  monopoly — the  reason  men  struggle  so  hard  to  ob- 
tain it,  is  the  power  it  gives  to  charge  more  than  that 
value  ;  in  other  words,  a  private  monopoly  confers  the 
inestimable  privilege  of  demanding  something  for 
nothing,  and  involves  the  power  of  taxing  the  people 
for  private  purposes,  a  power  which  the  legislature 
cannot  lawfully  confer  upon  any  man  or  set  of  men, 
because  it  does  not  itself  possess  any  such  power.  It 
can  tax,  or  authorize  taxation,  for  public  purposes  only 
(United  States  Supreme  Court,  20  Wall  664  ;  106  U.  S. 
487  ;  58  Me.  590  ;  2  Dill.  353;  Coolev  on  Taxation,  p,  116. 
and  cases  cited),  and  taxation  for  the  benefit  of  au 
enterprise  in  private  control  is  not  for  a  public  but 
for  a  private  purpose,  and  is  beyond  the  sphere  of 
legislative  power  (Judge  Dillon  in  27  la.  51,  and  58 
Me.  590). 

"It  makes  no  difference  whether  the  Constitution 
limits  the  power  of  the  legislature  to  public  purposes 
or  not,  the  grant  of  a  monopoly  is,  according  to  the 
clearest  principles  of  jurisprudence,  entirely  beyond 
the  utmost  power  of  any  legislative  body  in  a  free 
country. 

"  The  provisions  of  the  Constitution  are  not  the  only 
limitations  on  legislative  power.  There  are  others 
that  inhere  in  the  very  substance  of  republican  insti- 
tutions—'  implied  reservations  of  individual  rights, 
which  grow  out  of  the  essential  nature  of  all  free 

§overnments'  (the  U.  S.  Supreme  Court  in  20  Wall. 
ee  also  Judge  Dillon  in  27  la.  51 ;  25  la.  540  ;  and  39  Pa. 
St.  73).  These  cases  and  many  others  declare  that 
legislative  power  is  limited  by  the  great  principles  of 
justice  for  the  enforcement  of  which  government  is  in- 
stituted, that  acts  in  violation  of  these  principles  will 
be  held  void  by  the  courts,  altho  no  provision  of  the 
Constitution  can  be  found  to  condemn  them,  and  that 
the  taking  of  A's  property  to  give  it  to  B,  or  the  iden- 
tical act  of  giving  to  B  a  power  whereby  he  may  help 
himself  to  A's  property  is  beyond  the  limits  of  legis- 
lative authority.  And  what  the  legislature  cannot 
lawfully  do  directly,  it  cannot  lawfully  accomplish  in- 
directly under  the  guise  of  a  franchise.  The  settled 
principles  of  the  law  logically  carried  out  would  ren- 
der utterly  void  every  franchise  in  existence.  Even 
the  sovereign  power  of  Queen  Elizabeth  was  held  in- 
competent to  create  monopolies  ^Case  of  the  Monopo- 
lies, ii  Coke,  84^),  because  they  were  detrimental  to 
the  interests  of  the  people.  And  if  the  '  divinely  com- 
missioned ruler'  of  the  people  may  not  inflict  this  in- 
jury upon  their  interests,  by  what  authority  can  it  be 
done  by  the  servants  of  the  people,  elected  to  conserve 
their  interests,  not  to  defeat  them?  An  agent  must  be 
loyal  to  his  principal's  interests,  and  the  moment  he 
ceases  to  be  so  his  authority  vanishes — that  is  bed 
rock  in  the  law  of  the  civilized  world. 

"  All  this  is  clear,  and  yet  our  judges  would  probably 
hesitate  to  declare  a  legislative  franchise  void  to-day 
even  if  the  argument  against  its  validity  were  fully 
and  strongly  urged.     And  they  would 
hesitate  because  of  the  long  line  of  such 
enactments  in  the  past   and  the  disturb-    Unconstltll- 
ance  that  would  be  caused  by  an  ad-      tionality. 
verse  decision  at  this  late  day.     And  yet 
it  is  perfectly  manifest  that  the  funda- 
mental principles  of   a  Republican   government  are 
broken  every  time  a  franchise  is  granted,  and  every 


Monopolies. 


891 


Monopolies. 


moment  a  monopoly  is  maintained  by  aid  of  the  law 
instead  of  being  swept  into  the  list  of  crimes,  as  it 
should  be.  The  people  are  bitter  in  their  denunciation 
of  trusts,  and  Congress  has  passed  severe  laws  against 
them  for  the  sole  reason  that  they  are  monopolies. 
Whereby  we  have  the  serio-comical  spectacle  of  a 
government  creating  monopolies  with  one  hand  and 
endeavoring  to  choke  them  with  the  other— declaring 
absolutely  void  all  monopolies  formed  by  agreement 
among  men,  because  monopoly  is  in  its  nature  contrary 
to  public  policy,  and  sustaining  exactly  similar,  in 
some  cases  identical  monopolies  established  by  the 
agents  of  the  people  without  an  atom  of  authority  to 
do  it,  but  through  a  flagrant  breach  of  their  trust  and 
in  violation  of  the  fundamental  principles  of  free  insti- 
tutions, which  even  the  direct  vote  of  a  majority  of 
the  people  would  have  no  right  to  overcome  or  alter. 

"The  remedy  does  not  lie  in  killing  the  trusts  and 
franchises — we  could  not  if  we  would,  for  monopolies 
are  formed  in  obedience  to  a  law  superior  to  any  that 
Congress  can  make— the  law  of  industrial  gravitation. 
Internally  monopoly  means  cooperation  instead  of 
conflict,  wise  management  instead  of  planless  labor, 
economy  instead  of  waste— it  is  not  monopoly  we  ob- 
ject to,  but  monopoly  in  private  control.  The  true 
remedy  is  public  ownership  of  monopolies.  That  will 
retain  the  economies  of  concentration  and  remove  the 
evils  of  overgrown  private  power — keep  all  that  is 
good,  kill  only  what  is  evil.  We  are  bound  to  have 
monopolies  ;  the  only  question  is  whether  they  shall 
own  the  public  or  the  public  own  them." 

Of  the  practical  working  and  perfect  feasibility 
of  the  public  ownership  and  operation  of  monopo- 
lies Professor  Parsons  gives  numerous  instances. 
Railroads,  telegraphs,  telephones  are  publicly 
owned  and  managed  in  most  of  the  civilized 
countries  of  the  world,  and  usually  with  com- 
plete satisfaction.  There  is  scacrely  an  instance 
where  an  industry  which  has  once  reached  the 
stage  of  public  ownership  and  management  has 
reverted  to  private  hands.  The 
tendency  is  all  the  other  way. 
Prac-  (For  instances,  see  RAILROADS  ; 
ticability.  TELEGRAPHS,  etc.)  Public  owner- 
ship is  almost  invariably  cheaper, 
as  far  as  accommodations  go  ;  it 
serves  the  public  convenience  and  not  the  in- 
terests of  stockholders.  In  a  few  instances,  as 
in  carrying  mail  or  express  parcels  between 
great  cities,  private  companies  do  it  cheaper 
than  State  monopolies  for  two  reasons  :  i.  Pri- 
vate companies  pay  lower  wages  to  their  em- 
ployees and  work  them  usually  longer  hours, 
hence  they  can  afford  to  do  work  cheaper.  2. 
Private  companies  only  carry  mails,  etc.,  where 
it  pays  ;  the  State  carries  mail,  etc.,  to  little 
villages  and  country  districts  where  it  does  not 
pay.  Both  these  considerations  are  arguments 
for  public  ownership.  As  for  the  statement  that 
public  operation,  in  the  United  States  especially, 
is  impracticable  because  of  the  corruption  of  gov- 
ernment, socialists  argue  that  it  is  the  private 
ownership  of  monopolies  which  is  the  main 
source  of  public  corruption.  (See  MUNICIPAL- 
ISM.)  A  tract  published  by  the  American  Fa- 
bian Society  (  What  Socialism  Is)  says  on  this 
point  in  brief  : 

"  We  have  been  schooled  in  America  to  despise  gov- 
ernment activities.  The  natural  result  is  that  our 
cities  are  ruled  by  the  worthless  and  base.  These 
sell  franchises  and  legislation  to  the  corporations. 
Under  the  present  system,  too,  a  corporation  can 
scarcely  help  being  corrupt,  because  it  must  get  char- 
ters, franchises,  or  legislation.  If  it  does  not  buy  these 
some  other  corporation  will.  The  present  system 
handicaps  honesty.  Pure  government,  as  business  to- 
day is  constituted,  is  almost  impossible.  We  must 
adopt  the  European  method  of  having  the  city  do  great 
things,  if  we  would  have  European  results.  Socialism 
is  the  practical  way  of  getting  good  city  government." 


It  is  sometimes  said  that  public  ownership  of 
natural  monopolies  (q.  v.)  is  practicable,  but 
not  of  other  monopolies.  To  this  believers  in 
the  public  ownership  of  all  monopolies  answer  : 
It  is  true  that  natural  monopolizers  lend  them- 
selves most  readily  to  public  ownership  exactly 
because  they  lend  themselves  most  readily  to 
monopoly  ;  but  any  line  of  business  can  in  time 
develop,  and  many  of  them  are  developing  mo- 
nopolies. When  any  line  of  business  reaches 
the  stage  of  monopoly,  then  it  should  be  first 
controlled  and  finally  taken  .over  by  the  public. 

Mr.  Sidney  Webb,  in  the  Fabian  Essays, 
gives  hundreds  of  instances  of  all  kinds  of  in- 
dustry successfully  conducted  by  government. 
He  says  (speaking  of  Great  Britain) : 

"  Besides  our  international  relations  and  the  army, 
navy,  police  and  the  courts  of  justice,  the  community 
now  carries  on  for  itself,  in  some  part  or  another  of 
these  islands,  the  post-office,  telegraphs,  carriage  of 
small  commodities,  coinage,  surveys,  the  regulation  of 
the  currency  and  note  issue,  the  provision  of  weights 
and  measures,  the  making,  sweeping,  lighting,  and  re- 
pairing of  streets,  roads,  and  bridges,  life  insurance, 
the  grant  of  annuities,  shipbuilding,  stockbroking, 
banking,  farming,  and  money-lending.  It  provides 
for  many  thousands  of  us  from  birth  to  burial— mid- 
wifery, nursery,  education,  board  and  lodging,  vacci- 
nation, medical  attendance,  medicine,  public  worship, 
amusements,  and  interment.  It  furnishes  and  main- 
tains its  own  museums,  parks,  art  galleries,  libraries, 
concert-halls,  roads,  streets,  bridges,  markets,  slaugh- 
ter-houses, fire-engines,  lighthouses,  pilots,  ferries, 
surf-boats,  steam-tugs,  life-boats,  cemeteries,  public 
baths,  wash-houses,  pounds,  harbors,  piers,  wharves, 
hospitals,  dispensaries,  gas-works,  water- works,  tram- 
ways, telegraph  cables,  allotments,  cow  meadows, 
artisans'  dwellings,  schools,  churches,  and  reading 
rooms.  It  carries  on  and  publishes  its  own  researches 
in  geology,  meteorology,  statistics, zoology,  geography, 
and  even  theology.  In  our  colonies  the  English  Gov- 
ernment further  allows  and  encourages  the  communi- 
ties to  provide  for  themselves  railways,  canals,  pawn- 
broking,  theaters,  forestry,  cinchona  farms,  irrigation, 
leper  villages,  casinos,  bathing  establishments,  and 
immigration,  and  to  deal  in  ballast,  guano,  quinine, 
opium,  salt,  and  what  not.  Every  one  of  these  func- 
tions, with  those  of  the  army,  navy,  police,  and  courts 
of  justice,  were  at  one  time  left  to  private  enterprise, 
and  were  a  source  of  legitimate  individual  investment 
of  capital.  Step  by  step  the  community  has  absorbed 
them,  wholly  or  partially,  and  the  area  of  private  ex- 
ploitation has  been  lessened." 

III.  CONTRARY  VIEWS. 

Some  to-day  defend  private  monopolies,  and 
others  argue  that  they  are  not  to  be  either  at- 
tacked themselves  or  assumed  by  the  public, 
but  to  be  broken  up  so  far  as  they  are  evil  by 
attacking  their  causes.  As  an  example  of  the 
first  of  these  views,  we  give  a  suppositions  state- 
ment of  the  defense  of  monopolies  printed  by 
Mr.  Baker  in  his  Monopolies  and  the  People 
(pp.  9-22).  Mr.  Baker  says  : 

"  It  is  safe  to  assume  that  the  reader  is  somewhat 
familiar  with  the  general  charges  which  have  been 
brought  against  the  trusts  ;  but  even  if  this  side  of  the 
story  has  not  been  heard,  it  is  not  unfair  to  look  at 
them  first  from  the  standpoint  of  the  men  who  make 
and  manage  them.  In  order  to  do  this,  suppose  we 
select  some  particular  trust  which  will  serve  as  a  type, 
and  imagine  that  some  frank,  candid  manufacturer, 
who  is  a  member  of  this  trust,  comes  before  us  to  give 
an  account  of  its  formation  and  operations.  This  man 
comes,  we  suppose,  not  as  an  unwilling  informant,  or 
as  one  on  trial.  He  is  frank,  honest,  and  plain-spoken. 
He  talks  as  man  to  man,  and  gives  us,  not  the  specious 
argument  of  an  eloquent  pleader  in  defense  of  trusts, 
but  just  that  view  of  his  trust  and  its  work  that  his 
own  conscience  impels  him  to  take.  Certainly,  then, 
he  deserves  an  impartial  hearing. 

"  '  A  number  of  years  ago  the  principal  manufactur- 


Monopolies. 


Monopolies. 


ers  of  linseed-oil  in  the  United  States  formed  an  asso- 
ciation. It  was  started  largely  for  social  ends,  and  was 
very  successful.  Business  men  are  generally  most  in- 
terested in  their  own  plans  and  operations;  and  those 
who  are  familiar  with  the  same  topics  and  have  simi- 
lar interests  and  purposes  are  apt  to  make  agreeable 
companions  for  each  other.  We  discussed  many  points 
connected  with  the  management  of  pur  business  at  the 
meetings,  and  by  interchanging  with  each  other  our 
views  and  experiences  with  different  devices,  methods 
of  management,  etc.,  we  were  able  to  get  much  valu- 
able information,  as  well  as  social  pleasure,  from  meet- 
ing one  another. 

"  '  Now  within  the  past  few  years  things  have  been 
going  from  bad  to  worse  with  the  manufacturers  of 
linseed-oil.  The  long  and  short  of  it  all  was  that  the 
margin  between  the  cost  of  the  raw  seed  and  running 
our  mills,  and  what  we  could  get  for  the  oil  cake  and 
the  linseed-oil  in  the  market,  has  grown  exceedingly 
narrow.  It's  hard  to  tell  just  what  has  caused  it.  They 
say  over-production ;  but  what  has  caused  the  over- 
production? One  thing  that  may  have  had  something 
to  do  with  it  is  the  new  mills  they  have  been  putting 
up  in  the  Northwest.  Many  of  the  Eastern  mills  used 
to  get  large  quantities  of  seed  from  Iowa ;  but  they 
are  building  cities  out  there  now,  as  well  as  raising 
flaxseed,  and  when  they  were  booming  some  of  those 
cities  they  would  raise  heavy  bonuses  in  aid  of  new 
enterprises.  Among  these  were  some  great  linseed- 
oil  mills,  which  have  loaded  up  the  market  pretty 
heavily  of  late  years  ;  so  that  not  only  has  the  price 
sagged  down,  but  we  have  all  had  to  work  to  get  rid 
of  our  stocks.  The  firms  which  had  the  best  mills  and 
machinery,  and  were  in  a  position  to  get  their  seed 
reasonably  and  put  their  goods  on  the  market  with 
least  expense  for  transportation,  etc.,  have  been  mak- 
ing a  small  profit  over  and  above  their  expenses.  But 
some  of  the  works  which  had  to  bring  their  seed  a  long 
way,  and  which  haven't  quite  as  good  machinery  as 
can  be  had  now,  were  in  a  bad  way.  There  were  some 
of  the  oldest  houses  in  the  trade  among  them,  too,  and 
with  fine  men  at  their  head.  It  was  too  bad  to  have 
them  go  under.  They  tried  to  cut  down  expenses, 
but  strikes  and  trouble  with  their  men  prevented 
their  saving  much  in  that  way.  Then  there  was  one 
item  of  expense  which  they  had  to  increase  instead  of 
cutting  down  :  that  was  the  cost  of  marketing.  Com- 
petition was  so  fierce,  that,  in  order  to  keep  up  their 
trade,  they  had  to  spend  more  on  salaries  of  expensive 
salesmen,  and  in  advertising  and  pushing  their  goods, 
than  they  would  dream  of  ordinarily. 

"  '  It  seemed  too  bad  to  cut  each  other's  throats  in  that 
way,  for  that  was  what  it  amounted  to,  and  when  the 
association  met— or  what  was  left  of  it,  for  the  busi- 
ness rivalries  had  grown  so  bitter  that  many  of  the 
former  personal  friendships  between  the  members  had 
become  strained  and  one  after  the  other  had  dropped 
out— the  situation  was  discussed  by  the  few  members 
who  met  together.  It  was  discussed  earnestly,  too,  by 
men  who  felt  an  interest  in  what  they  said,  because 
unless  some  remedy  could  be  devised,  they  had  got  to 
sit  still  and  watch  the  savings  of  a  lifetime  slip  through 
their  fingers.  One  thing  was  very  clear  to  all.  Tho 
competition  was  as  sharp  as  any  one  could  possibly 
wish,  the  public  was  not  getting  such  a  wonderful 
benefit  after  all.  Prices  were  not  so  very  much  lower 
for  oil,  nor  higher  for  seed.  It  was  the  selling  expense 
which  had  run  up  to  a  ruinous  figure  ;  and  on  one  point 
all  the  members  were  unanimous— that  if  all  the  firms 
in  the  trade  could  only  work  together  in  harmony  in 
marketing  their  goods,  they  could  save  enough  in  sales- 
men's salaries,  etc.,  to  make  a  great  difference  in  the 
profit-and-loss  account  without  affecting  the  selling 
prices  in  the  market  one  penny. 

"  '  Another  very  important  matter,  which  we  had  to 

handle  pretty  tenderly  in  our  discussions,  was  that  of 

adulteration.     I  must  confess  that  a  good  many  firms 

in  the  trade,  who  used  to  be  above  any 

thing  of  the  sort,  have  been  marketing 

Argument  some  goods  in  the  past  few  years  which 
f  were  not  exactly  the  "  pure  linseed-oil" 

..  which  they  were  labeled.  It's  a  mean 
Monopolies,  business— adulteration— but  not  many 
of  our  customers  ever  test  their  pur- 
chases. The  one  thing  they  are  apt  to 
look  at  is  price,  for  they  are  buying  to  sell  again ;  and 
when  rivals  are  selling  a  cheaper  oil  that  seems  just  as 
good  until  it  is  laid  on  as  the  pure  linseed  that  you  are 
obliged  to  ask  a  higher  price  for,  the  temptation  to 
meet  them  at  their  own  game,  rather  than  lose  your 
old  customers,  is  a  very  strong  one.  Certainly,  when 
competition  took  this  form,  it  hurt  the  public  even 
more  than  it  hurt  us.  When  people  wish  to  buy  pure 
linseed-oil  they  ought  to  have  some  prospect  of  getting 


it,  instead  of  getting  an  adulterated  mixture  of  vari- 
ous substances  ;  but  at  the  rate  competition  was  run- 
ning, there  seemed  to  be  small  prospect  that  there 
would  be  any  really  pure  linseed-oil  put  on  the  market 
in  a  short  time.  We  have  often  discussed  the  possibil- 
ity of  stopping  these  adulterations,  but  it  was  a  hard 
matter  to  cure  by  mere  mutual  agreement.  How  do  I 
know  what  my  competitor  in  a  city  100  miles  away 
does  with  the  vats  in  his  cellar  after  working  hours, 
even  if  he  has  solemnly  agreed  not  to  adulterate  his 
goods?  For  I  must  confess  that  there  are  a  few  men 
in  our  trade  who  are  as  tricky  as  horse  jockeys. 

"  'Quite  a  number  of  improvements  have  been  pat- 
ented in  linseed-oil  machinery  in  the  past  20  years. 
Nothing  wonderful,  but  things  that  effect  little  econo- 
mies in  the  manufacture.  We  could  have  done  with- 
out them ;  but  when  a  few  firms  took  them  up,  of 
course  the  rest  had  to  follow  suit,  or  fall  behind  in  the 
race  of  competition.  We  have  had  to  pay  a  heavy 
royalty  on  some  of  these  machines,  and  it  has  been 
rather  galling  to  count  out  our  hard-earned  dollars  to 
the  company  which  has  bought  up  most  of  the  pat- 
ents, and  is  making  100  per  cent,  a  year  on  what  it  paid 
for  them,  with  no  risk,  and  without  doing  a  stroke  of 
work.  Now  if  we  manufacturers  could  work  in  har- 
mony, we  could  make  this  company  come  down  from 
their  high  horse,  and  they  would  have  to  ask  a  rea- 
sonable price  for  their  machines.  But  we  could  do 
more  than  this.  It  stands  to  reason  that  a  good  many 
improvements  will  be  made  in  our  machinery  in  the 
future.  We  don't  object  to  paying  a  fair  price  to  any 
inventor  who  will  work  out  these  new  ideas  for  us ; 
but  it  does  seem  unjust  for  him  to  go  and  sell  them  to 
some  outside  company  for  a  song,  and  have  that  com- 
pany bleed  the  users  of  the  improvement  for  every 
ounce  they  will  stand.  Now,  by  working  together,  we 
can  refuse  to  pay  royalties  on  anything  new  which 
comes  up ;  but  require,  instead,  that  any  new  patent 
in  our  line  be  submitted  to  a  committee,  who  will  ex- 
amine and  test  it ;  and  if  they  find  it  to  be  of  value, 
will  purchase  it  for  the  use  of  all  members  of  the  asso- 
ciation. 

"  '  Some  of  the  members  thought  this  was  as  far  as  we 
oughttogo.  They  were  opposed  to  "trusts"  on  princi- 
ple. But  the  great  majority  saw  so  clearly  where  we 
could  continue  to  better  ourselves  that  they  became 
enthusiastic  over  it. 

"  '  Some  speculators,  in  years  of  short  crops,  have  oc- 
casionally tried  to  "  corner"  flaxseed  in  a  small  way. 
We  could  refuse  to  buy  except  directly  from  the  grow- 
ers, and  that  branch  of  speculation  would  be  a  thing 
of  the  past.  We  have  sent  out  some  pretty  sharp  men 
as  buyers,  and  sometimes  they  have  bought  flaxseed 
in  some  of  the  backwoods  districts  at  very  low  rates. 
At  other  times,  two  buyers  from  rival  firms  have  run 
counter  to  each  other,  and  paid  prices  larger  than  their 
employers  could  really  afford.  But  with  our  combi- 
nation, we  cannot  only  fix  uniform  prices  for  seed,  but 
we  can  send  out  only  enough  buyers  to  cover  the  ter- 
ritory ;  and  the  work  of  buying  is  reduced  to  simply 
inspecting  and  weighing  the  seed. 

"  '  Now  another  thing  :  Of  course,  not  every  manu- 
facturer in  the  business  owns  his  mills.  It  is  a  fact 
that  since  the  close  times  of  the  past  few  years  the 
majority  of  the  firms  are  carrying  mortgages  on  their 
mills ;  and  some  of  them  in  the  West  are  paying  as 
high  as  8  or  10  per  cent,  interest.  But  with  the  com- 
bined capital  of  all  the  firms  in  the  trade  at  our 
back,  we  can  change  all  that.  Either  by  a  guaranty, 
or  by  assuming  the  obligations,  we  can  bring  the  in- 
terest charges  on  every  mill  in  the  association  down 
to  4  or  5  per  cent,  at  most. 

" '  We  have  been  paying  enormous  rates  to  fire  in- 
surance companies.  They  are  not  as  familiar  with  our 
business  as  we  are  ourselves,  and  they  don't  know  just 
how  much  risk  there  really  is;  so  they  charge  us  a 
rate  which  they  make  sure  is  high  enough.  We  can 
combine  together  and  insure  ourselves  on  the  mutual 
plan  ;  and  by  stipulating  that  each  firm  shall  establish 
and  keep  up  such  precautions  against  fire  as  an  expert 
may  direct,  we  cannot  only  reduce  the  cost  of  our  in- 
surance to  that  of  our  actual  losses,  but  we  can  make 
these  a  very  small  amount. 

"  '  It  may  be  said  that  we  might  have  done  all  these 
things  without  forming  any  trust  to  control  prices. 
But  the  practical  fact  was  that  we  could  not.  There 
was  so  much  "  bad  blood"  between  some  of  the  differ- 
ent firms  in  the  business,  from  the  rivalry  and  the 
sharp  competition  for  trade,  that  as  long  as  that  was 
kept  up  it  was  impossible  to  get  them  to  have  any- 
thing to  do  with  each  other  in  a  business  way.  It  was 
no  small  task  to  get  these  old  feuds  patched  up  ;  but 
some  of  the  best  and  squarest  men  in  the  business 
went  right  into  the  work,  and  at  meetings  of  the  asso- 


Monopolies. 


893 


Monopolies. 


ciation,  and  privately,  exerted  all  their  influence  to 
forward  this  coming  together  for  mutual  aid  and  pro- 
tection. They  did  it  conscientiously,  too,  I  think,  be- 
lieving that  it  was  necessary  to  save  many  of  us  from 
financial  ruin  ;  and  that  we  were  not  bound,  under  any 
circumstances,  to  sacrifice  ourselves  for  the  sake  of  the 
public.  The  trust  has  been  formed,  as  every  one  knows, 
and  many  of  the  things  we  planned  to  do  have  been 
already  accomplished.  We  have  stopped  adultera- 
tions on  all  goods  made  by  members  of  the  trust ;  and 
the  improvement  in  the  quality  of  linseed-oil  which 
has  been  effected  is  an  important  benefit  to  the  public. 
We  are  managing  all  the  works  in  the  trust  as  if  it 
were  all  a  single  property,  controlled  by  different 
managers  ;  and  the  saving  in  expense,  over  the  old 
plan  of  cut-throat  competition,  when  everybody  was 
striving  to  save  himself  and  sink  his  rivals,  is  an 
enormous  one. 

'"One  thing  which  has  caused  much  hue  and  cry  is 
the  fact  that  we  have  closed  half  a  dozen  mills  or  so. 
But  the  matter  stood  in  this  way  :  these  mills  were  not 
favorably  situated  for  doing  business,  all  things  con- 
sidered ;  and  all  the  mills  in  the  country  cannot  run 
all  the  time,  because  there  are  more  mills  in  existence 
than  are  needed  to  supply  the  market.  These  mills 
must  have  been  closed  soon,  if  the  trust  had  not  com- 
menced operations,  because  they  could  not  be  run 
under  the  old  regime  and  pay  expenses.  We  knew  we 
could  make  the  oil  at  a  less  cost  in  our  other  mills,  so 
we  concluded  to  buy  out  the  owners  of  these  at  a  fair 
price,  aud  shut  up  the  works.  Prices  of  linseed-oil 
have  been  raised  somewhat,  we  confess  ;  but  we  claim 
that  they  had  been  forced  down  much  too  low,  by  the 
excessive  competition  which  has  prevailed  for  a  few 
years  past.  Of  course  some  of  the  most  hot-headed 
and  grasping  among  us  were  anxious  to  force  prices 
away  up,  when  they  once  realized  that  we  had  an  ab- 
solute monopoly  of  the  linseed-oil  trade  of  the  country  ; 
but  the  great  majority  were  practically  unanimous  "in 
a  demand  for  just  prices  only,  and  the  adoption  of  the 
policy  of 'live  and  let  live  ;  for  trust-makers  are  not 
entirely  selfish. 

"  '  We  claim,  moreover,  that  we  are  breaking  no  legal 
or  moral  law  by  this  action.  We  are,  for  the  most  part, 
private  parties  or  firms— but  few  corporations— hence 
the  attempt  to  abolish  trusts  on  the  ground  that  the 
corporations  composing  trusts  have  exceeded  the 
power  given  by  their  charters  will  fail  to  reach  our 
case.  We  have  certainly  done  this  :  we  have  killed 
competition  in  the  linseed-oil  trade  ;  but  we  submit 
that  with  so  many  other  interests  and  trades  organ- 
ized to  protect  themselves  from  outside  competition, 
and  control  the  prices  at  which  their  products  are  sold 
to  the  public,  we  were,  in  self-defense  and  for  our  own 
preservation,  obliged  to  take  this  step.'* 

"  If  we  omit  the  references  to  the  especial  trade,  the 
above  view  of  a  trust  from  the  trust-makers'  stand- 
point will  do  for  almost  any  of  the  many  combinations 
which  have  been  formed  by  different  manufacturers 
for  the  purpose  of  controlling  production  and  prices. 
One  thing  is  clearly  indicated  in  the  above,  and  will 
certainly  be  conceded  :  that  the  men  who  have  formed 
these  trusts  are  animated  by  the  same  motives  as 
those  that  govern  humanity  in  general.  They  have, 
in  some  cases  at  least,  known  what  it  was  to  be  crowd- 
ed close  to  the  wall  by  severe  competition.  They  all 
at  once  saw  a  way  opening  by  which  they  could  be 
freed  from  the  worries  and  losses  which  had  been 
making  their  business  one  of  small  and  uncertain 
profits,  and  would  be  set  squarely  on  their  feet  with  a 
sure  prospect  for  large  and  steady  gains.  It  is  using 
a  common  expression  to  say  that  they  would  have 
been  more  than  human  if  they  had  refused  to  improve 
this  opportunity.  Certainly,  then,  in  examining  further 
the  trusts,  we  shall  do  so  with  no  feeling  of  personal 
prejudice  toward  the  men  who  originated  them  and 
carry  them  on. 

"  As  we  have  given  a  hearing  to  the  case  from  the 
trust-makers'  standpoint,  it  is  only  fair  that  we  should 

*  It  should  be  explained  that  the  above  is  not  given 
as  a  bona-fide  statement  of  facts  concerning  this  es- 
pecial trust,  but  as  a  vivid  description  of  the  organiza- 
tion and  plans  of  a  typical  trust,  from  the  standpoint 
of  its  owners  and  managers. 

Probably,  too,  few  or  no  existing  trusts  have  tried 
to  benefit  themselves  in  so  many  different  ways  as  we 
have  supposed  this  imaginary  trust  to  have  done.  But 
to  shorten  our  investigation,  the  author  has  purposely 
extended  the  scope  of  this  trust's  action,  to  bring  out 
clearly  the  variety  and  importance  of  the  methods  by 
which  a  trust  reaps  profits,  aside  from  any  advance  in 
the  price  of  its  product. 


The  An- 
swer. 


hear  at  equal  length  from  the  public  who  oppose  the 
trusts  ;  but  to  abbreviate  the  investigation,  let  us  sup- 
pose that  we  are  already  familiar  with  the  various 
charges  which  are  brought  against  the  trust  monopo- 
lies, and  let  us  proceed  at  once  to  consider  the  actual 
effect  of  the  trusts  upon  the  public. 

"  Since  we  have  heard  so  much  in  defense  of  the  lin- 
seed-oil trust,  it  will  be  well  for  us  to  inquire  concern- 
ing the  results,  in  which  the  public  is  interested,  which 
have  followed  its  organization.  During  the  year  1887 
(the  trust  was  formed  in  January  of  that  year)  the  price 
per  gallon  of  linseed-oil  rose  from  38  cents  to  52  cents ; 
and  this  price  was  kept  up  or  exceeded  during  1888. 
That  is  to  say,  every  purchaser  of  linseed-oil,  or  every 
one  who  had  occasion  to  have  painting  done,  pays  to 
the  members  of  this  trust,  for  every  gallon  of  oil  that 
he  uses,  about  14  cents  over  and  above  the  sum  which 
he  would  pay  if  competition  were  allowed  to  do  its 
usual  work  in  keeping  down  prices. 

"  What  profits  are  the  members  of  this  trust  mak- 
ing? Let  us  suppose  that  they  were  just  able,  at  the 
old  price  of  38  cents  per  gallon,  to  pay  all  their  running 
expenses  and  4  per  cent,  on  the  capital 
invested,  making  nothing  for  profits 
beyond  a  fair  salary  to  the  managers  of 
the  business.  Then  the  gain  of  15  cents 
a  gallon  in  the  selling  price  is  clear  profit 
to  them.  Now  add  to  this  the  fact, 
which  was  plainly  brought  out  in  the 
foregoing  supposed  statement  by  a  member  of  the 
trust,  that  it  is  possible  by  means  of  the  trust  to  greatly 
reduce  expenses  in  many  directions  as  well  as  to  in- 
crease receipts,  and  we  begin  to  form  some  conception 
of  the  profits  which  this  trust  is  harvesting.  If  we 
wish  to  put  the  statement  in  figures,  suppose  we  take 
the  annual  consumption  of  linseed-oil  in  the  country 
at  30,000,000  gals.  Then  the  profits  of  the  trust  from 
the  increased  prices  alone  will  amount  to  $4,500,000  per 
annum. 

"  There  is  another  way  in  which  trusts  directly  affect 
the  public,  which  has  received  very  much  less  atten- 
tion than  it  deserves.  Besides  the  people  who  use  the 
linseed-oil  and  pay  the  trust  an  extra  14  cents  a  gallon 
for  the  privilege,  there  are  a  great  number  of  people 
who  would  have  used  oil  if  the  price  had  notadvanced, 
but  who  cannot  afford  to  do  so  at  the  advanced  price.  It 
is  a  well-known  fact  that  every  increase  in  the  price  of 
any  article  decreases  the  demand,  and  the  advance  in 
the  price  of  linseed-oil  has  undoubtedly  had  a  great 
effect  in  decreasing  the  consumption  of  oil.  So  while 
it  is  undoubtedly  true  that  at  the  trust's  prices  there 
are  more  linseed-oil  mills  in  the  country  than  are 
needed  to  supply  its  wants,  yet  if  the  prices  were  low- 
ered to  the  point  which  free  competition  would  fix, 
there  would  probably  be  demand  enough  to  keep  all 
the  mills  running.  To  the  trust,  then,  must  be  as- 
cribed the  final  responsibility  for  the  stoppage  of  the 
mills  and  the  loss  of  employment  by  the  workmen. 
Nor  does  the  effect  upon  the  labor  market  stop  there. 
From  the  fact  that  less  people  can  afford  to  paint  their 
houses,  because  of  the  higher  price  of  the  oil,  it  is  cer- 
tain that  there  will  be  less  employment  for  painters: 
and  as  less  paint  is  used,  all  those  interested  in  and 
employed  in  the  paint  trade  are  sufferers.  It  is  to  be 
remembered  that  we  are  speaking  of  the  linseed-oil 
trust  only  to  make  the  case  more  vivid.  The  principle 
is  general,  and  applies  equally  well  to  other  trusts,  as, 
for  instance,  to  the  loss  or  employment  by  thousands  of 
men  working  in  refineries  controlled  by  the  sugar 
trust,  in  the  fall  of  1888.  Still  another  effect  of  this 
trust's  action  is  to  be  especially  noted  :  the  fact  that 
the  diminished  production  of  oil  lessens  the  demand 
for  seed  ;  and  also  that  in  the  purchase  of  seed,  as  well 
as  in  the  sale  of  oil,  the  trust  has  killed  competition. 
The  trust  may,  if  it  chooses,  fix  uniform  prices  for  the 
seed  which  it  purchases ;  and  the  farmer  can  take  the 
prices  they  offer  or  keep  his  seed.  Fortunately  the 
farmer  can  raise  other  products  instead  of  flaxseed, 
and  will  do  so  if  the  price  is  lowered  by  any  large 
amount. 

"One  other  possible  mode  of  profit  for  the  trusts, 
which,  however,  thev  are  hardly  likely  to  engage  in— 
from  their  fear  of  public  opinion,  if  for  no  other  rea- 
son—lies in  the  power  which  they  possess  over  the 
labor  market.  It  will  probably  be  conceded  at  once 
that  the  rate  of  wages  in  any  occupation  depends, 
among  other  things,  upon  the  competition  of  the  vari- 
ous workmen  who  seek  employment  in  that  occupation, 
and  also  upon  the  competitition  among  those  who  wish 
to  hire  men  to  work  at  that  occupation.  It  is  plain  that 
when  the  competition  among  employers  to  secure  men 
is  active,  wages  will  rise;  and  when  this  competition 
falls  off,  wages  will  fall.  Now  the  trust  is  more  than  a 
combination  for  selling  purposes  only.  It  is  a  combi- 


Monopolies. 


894 


Montesquieu. 


nation  of  all  the  properties  concerned  under  oracti- 
cally  a  single  ownership.  Clearly,  then,  as  the  vari- 
ous mills  belonging  to  a  single  owner  will  not  compete 
with  each  other  in  the  employment  of  labor,  the  mills 
belonging  to  a  trust  will  be  "no  more  likely  to  do  so. 
Thus  if  it  were  not  for  the  fact  that  the  workmen  are 
able  to  take  up  some  other  employment  if  their  wages 
are  too  low,  they  would  be  absolutely  obliged  to  take 
what  wages,  great  or  small,  the  trust  chose  to  give, 
and  would  be  as  dependent  for  their  food  and  clothing 
upon  the  trust  as  was  the  slave  upon  his  master.  .  .  . 

"The  point  to  which  we  need  to  pay  especial  atten- 
tion is  the  fact  that  the  cost  of  production  is  con- 
tinually being  cheapened  as  it  is  carried  on  on  a  larger 
and  larger  scale.  And  because  the  cheaper  mode  of 
production  must  always  displace  the  mode  which  is 
more  expensive  :  as  Professor  Richard  Ely  expresses 
it,  '  Production  on  the  largest  possible  scale  will  be  the 
only  practical  mode  of  production  in  the  near  future.' 
We  need  not  stop  to  prove  the  statement  that  the  cost 
of  production  by  the  modern  factory  system  is  a  small 
fraction  of  that  by  the  old  workshop  system.  The 
fact  that  the  former  has  beaten  the  latter  in  the  race 
of  competition  would  prove  it,  if  it  were  not  evident  to 
the  most  careless  observer.  But  it  is  also  a  fact  that 
the  trust,  apart  from  its  character  as  a  monopoly,  is 
actually  a  means  of  cheapening  production  over  the 
system  by  independent  factories,  tor  it  carries  it  on  on 
a  larger  scale  than  it  has  ever  before  been  conducted. 
Our  review  of  the  trust  from  the  trust-makers'  stand- 
point showed  this  most  forcibly  ;  and  we  shall  see 
more  of  it  as'we  study  further  the  methods  by  which 
the  monopoly  gains  an  advantage  over  the  indepen- 
dent producer  in  dispensing  with  what  we  may  call 
the  waste  of  competition.  In  the  argument  presented 
by  the  Standard  Oil  Trust  before  the  House  Commit- 
tee on  Manufactures  in  the  summer  of  1888,  occurs  the 
following  statement  of  the  work  which  that  monopoly 
has  done  in  cheapening  production  : 

"  'The  Standard  Oil  Trust  offers  to  prove  by  various 
witnesses,  including  Messrs.  Flagler  and  Rockefeller, 
that  the  disastrous  condition  of  the  refining  business 
and  the  numerous  failures  of  refiners  prior  to  1875 
arose  from  imperfect  methods  of  refining,  want  of  co- 
operation among  refiners,  the  prevalence  of  specula- 
tive methods  in  the  purchase  and  sale  of  both  crude 
and  refined  petroleum,  sudden  and  great  reductions 
in  prices  of  crude,  and  excessive  rates  of  freight ;  that 
these  disasters  led  to  cooperation  and  association 
among  the  refiners,  and  that  such  association  and  co- 
operation, resulting  eventually  in  the  Standard  Oil 
Trust,  has  enabled  the  refiners  so  cooperating  to  re- 
duce the  price  of  petroleum  products  and  thus  benefit 
the  public  to  a  very  marked  degree,  and  that  this  has 
been  accomplished : 

"  '  i.  By  cheapening  transportation,  both  local  and  to 
the  seaboard,  through  perfecting  and  extending  the 
pipe-line  system,  by  constructing  and  supplying  cars 
with  which  oil  can  be  shipped  in  bulk  at  less  cost  than 
in  packages,  and  the  cost  of  packages  also  be  saved  ; 
by  building  tanks  for  the  storage  of  oil  in  bulk ;  by 
purchasing  and  perfecting  terminal  facilities  for  re- 
ceiving, handling,  and  reshipping  oils ;  by  purchasing 
or  building  steam  tugs  and  lighters  for  seaboard  or 
river  service,  and  by  building  wharves,  docks,  and 
warehouses  for  home  and  foreign  shipments. 

"'2.  That  by  uniting  the  knowledge,  experience, 
and  skill,  and  by  building  manufactories  on  a  more 
perfect  and  extensive  scale,  with  approved  machinery 
and  appliances,  they  have  been  enabled  to  and  do 
manufacture  a  better  quality  of  illuminating  oil  at  less 
cost,  the  actual  cost  of  manufacturing  having  been 
thereby  reduced  about  66  per  cent. 

"  '  ^.  That  by  the  same  methods,  the  cost  of  manufac- 
ture in  barrels,  tin  cans,  and  wooden  cases  has  been  re- 
duced from  50  to  60  per  cent. 

" '  4.  That  as  a  result  ot  these  savings  in  cost,  the 
price  of  refined  oils  has  been  reduced  since  coopera- 
tion began,  about  nine  cents  per  gallon,  after  making 
allowance  for  reduction  in  the  price  of  crude  oil, 
amounting  to  a  saving  to  the  public  of  about  $100,000,- 
ooo  per  annum.' 

"  Certainly  it  would  seem  that  this  is  a  strong  de- 
fense of  the  trust's  character  as  a  public  benefactor  ; 
but  it  is  well  to  note  that  while  it  has  been  making 
these  expenditures  and  reducing  the  price  of  oil  to  the 
consumer,  it  has  also  been  making  some  money  for 
itself.  The  profits  of  this  trust  in  1887,  according  to 
the  report  or  the  committee  appointed  to  investigate 
the  subject  of  trusts  by  the  New  York  Legislature, 
were  $20,000,000.  The  nominal  capital  of  the  trust  is 
but  $qo,ooo,ooo,  a  large  portion  of  which  is  confessedly 
water.  In  answer  to  the  statement  that  the  price  of 
oil  has  been  reduced  steadily  by  the  operations  of  the 


trust,  it  is  charged  that  no  thanks  is  due  to  the  trust 
for  this  benefit.  The  trust  has  always  wished  to  put  up 
the  price,  but  the  continual  increase  in  the  production 
of  the  oil  fields  has  obliged  the  trust  to  make  low  prices 
in  order  to  dispose  of  its  stock."  (See  STANDARD  OIL 
COMPANY.) 

To  the  above  views  must  be  added  the  views 
of  those  who  hold  that  monopolies  are  due  pri- 
marily to  the  great  parent  monopoly,  the  private 
ownership  of  land  (the  single-tax  view),  and  the 
view  that  monopolies  are  due  to  the  action  of 
government  (the  view  of  the  philosophical  anar- 
chists). 

The  single-tax  men  say  that  were  natural  op- 
portunities taxed  to  their  full  rental  value,  pri- 
vate monopolies  must  disappear,  because  then 
the  value  of  all  natural  opportunities,  like  build- 
ing sites,  mines,  oil  wells,  railroad  beds,  streets, 
franchises,  etc. ,  would  go  to  the  community  ; 
other  monopolies,  they  assert,  could  not  be  devel- 
oped, because  if  all  had  access  to  land,  even  the 
weakest  competitors  could  at  least  exist,  and  so 
prevent  the  stronger  competitors  from  gaining 
a  monopoly.  Till  the  great  parent  monopoly  of 
the  land  is  destroyed,  to  fight  lesser  monopolies, 
say  the  single  taxers,  is  hopeless. 

Anarchists  say  that  the  source  of  all  monopo- 
lies lies  in  a  grant  from  Government,  and  that 
were  this  given  up,  monopolies  could  not  con- 
tinue a  day  save  as  they  well  served  the  public. 

(But  for  all  these  views  and  for  their  answers, 
see  ANARCHISM  ;  COMPETITION  ;  INDIVIDUALISM  ; 
NATIONALISM  ;  NATURAL  MONOPOLIES  ;  SINGLE. 
TAX  ;  SOCIALISM.) 

References  :  Monopolies  and  the  People,  by  C.  W. 
Baker  (1889)  ;  Combinations,  their  Uses  and  Abuses,  by 
S.  C.  J.  Dodd  (1888).  (See  also  SOCIALISM  ;  NATURAL 
MONOPOLIES  ;  INDIVIDUALISM,  etc.) 

MONT  DE  PIETE"S  (from  It.  monte  di 
pieta,  fund  of  pity)  are  institutions  established 
by  public  authority  for  lending  money  at  mod- 
erate rates  on  the  security  of  goods.  They 
originated  in  Italy  in  the  fifteenth  century  to 
counteract  the  usurious  practices  of  the  Jewish 
money-lenders. 

MONTESQUIEU,  CHARLES  LOUIS 
DE  SECONDAT,  BARON  DE,  was  born 
near  Bordeaux,  France,  in  1689.  He  was  edu- 
cated at  the  oratorian  college  of  Juilly  and  the 
Academy  of  Bordeaux,  but  during  his  studies 
at  Bordeaux  he  entered  the  Council  of  Bor- 
deaux, and  in  1716  became  its  president.  Under 
the  influence  of  Newton  he  interested  himself 
in  natural  science.  In  1721  he  produced  the 
Lettres  Persanes,  a  satire  by  a  supposed  Per- 
sian traveler  in  France  on  French  society.  In 
1725  came  the  Temple  de  Gnide,  an  allegorical 
prose  poem.  He  was  now  elected  to  the  Acad- 
emy, but  did  not  take  his  seat  till  1728.  He 
traveled  in  Germany  and  Italy,  and  spent  two 
years  in  England  studying  social  institutions, 
and  wrote  several  minor  political  works  pre- 
paratory to  his  masterpiece,  L'  Esprit  des  Lois 
(1748).  Its  character  is  indicated  by  its  full  title  : 
"  On  the  Spirit  of  Laws  ;  or,  the  Necessary  Re- 
lations between  a  Country's  Laws  and  the  Na- 
ture of  its  Government,  its  Manners,  Climate, 
Religion,  Commerce,"  etc.  It  .was  received 
with  great  enthusiasm,  and  ran  through  22  edi- 
tions in  a  year  and  a  half.  To  the  objections  it 


Montesquieu. 


895 


Moral  Element  in  Social  Reform. 


called  forth  Montesquieu  replied  in  his  Defense 
de  I'  Esprit  des  Lots  (1750).  After  writing 
other  minor  works,  Montesquieu  died  in  1755. 
(For  his  main  teachings,  see  POLITICAL  SCIENCE.) 

MORAL  ELEMENT  IN  SOCIAL  RE- 
FORM, THE.— Perhaps  no  characteristic  of 
the  present  efforts  for  social  reform  are  more 
hopeful  and  more  important  than  the  deepen- 
ing emphasis  now  placed — however  far  we  may 
yet  be  from  placing  all  the  emphasis  we  ought 
—on  the  moral  element  in  social  reform.  A 
hundred  years  ago  the  key- word  in  social  reform 
was  "  natural  rights,"  and  in  economics  "  lais- 
sezfaire."  To-day  the  key- word  in  reform  is 
"  cooperation,"  and  in  economics  "  character." 
If  this  may  seem  to  some  too  optimistic  a  view, 
we  remind  them  that  individualist,  socialist, 
and  even  anarchist  reformers  all  seek  coopera- 
tion, while  in  economics  the  reason  why  indi- 
vidualist economists  fear  socialism  is  that  they 
believe  that  it  will  deteriorate  character,  and 
the  reason  why  socialist  economists  seek  social- 
ism is  their  belief  that  under  individualism  char- 
acter is  deteriorating.  Undoubtedly  there  are 
also  evil  signs  to-day.  Many  socialist  reformers 
come  perilously  near  to  an  unethical  material- 
ism, and  many  individualist  economists  ap- 
proach a  cynical  belief  that  the  only  thing  which 
can  be  counted  on  to  dominate  activity  is  a  ma- 
terial self-interest.  Doubtless,  too,  it  is  possible 
to  minimize  the  moral  element  which  existed 
loo  years  ago.  If  the  doctrine  of  "natural 
rights"  (g.v.)  produced  the  French  and  per- 
haps the  American  Revolution,  it  was  often 
striven  for  with  a  devotion  and  sacrifice  of  the 
most  ethical  kind.  Of  the  economics  of  Adam 
Smith,  Arnold  Toynbee,  who  criticises  them, 
says  (Industrial  Revolution) : 

"  Two  conceptions  are  woven  into  every  argument 
of  the  Wealth  of  Nations,  the  belief  in  the  supremacy 
of  individual  liberty  and  the  conviction  that  man  s 
self-love  is  God's  providence,  so  that  the  individual,  in 
pursuit  of  his  own  interest,  is  promoting  the  interest 
of  all." 

Nevertheless,  neither  ignoring  our  own  de- 
ficiencies nor  minimizing  the  moral  element  of 
the  past,  it  must  be  recognized  that  economics 
have  been  considerably  moralized  within  the 
century,  particularly  in  England,  and  that  the 
present  widespread  effort  for  social  reform  upon 
all  lines  indicates  in  itself  a  deepening  and  a 
widening  of  the  moral  impulse.     Under  the  old 
political  economy,  especially  with  the  successors 
of  Adam  Smith  rather  than  with  Adam  Smith 
himself,  men,  as  Bagehot(7.2/.)shows,  were  con- 
ceived as  simply  "economic  men,"  "money- 
making  animals."     To-day  political  economy, 
particularly  of  the  psychologic  school  and  to  a 
less  extent  of  the  historical  school, 
considers  man  in   his  full,  round 
Political     nature.     Again,  the  aim  of  the  old 
Economy,     political  economy  was  the  wealth 
of  nations  considered  mainly  from 
the  standpoint  of  material  produc- 
tion.    To  day  political  economy  gives  at  least 
a  considerably  increased  attention  to  the  prob- 
lems of   distribution,  and  to  the  good  of  the 
working  classes.     It  has  become  far  less  of  a  pure 
science  and  much  more  of  a  practical  art.    This 
change  is  largely  due  to  Mill,  or,  at  least,  be- 


comes first  prominent  in  his  work.  In  the  in- 
troduction to  his  Political  Economy  (1848).  he 
says  : 

"The  design  of  the  book  is  different  from  that  of 
any  treatise  on  political  economy  which  has  been  pro- 
duced in  England  since  the  work  of  Adam  Smith. 

"The  most  characteristic  quality  of  that  work,  and 
the  one  in  which  it  most  differs  from  some  others 
which  have  equaled  and  even  surpassed  it  as  mere 
expositions  of  the  general  principles  of  the  subject,  is 
that  it  invariably  associates  the  principles  with  their 
applications.  This  of  itself  implies  a  much  wider 
range  of  ideas  and  of  topics  than  are  included  In  po- 
litical economy,  considered  as  a  branch  of  abstract 
speculation.  For  practical  purposes,  political  econ- 
omy is  Inseparably  intertwined  with  many  other 
branches  of  social  philosophy.  Except  in  matters  of 
mere  detail,  there  are  perhaps  no  practical  questions, 
even  among  those  which  approach  nearest  to  the  char- 
acter of  purely  economical  questions,  which  admit  of 
being  decided  on  economical  premises  alone.  And  it 
is  because  Adam  Smith  never  loses  sight  of  this  truth  ; 
because,  in  his  applications  of  political  economy,  he 
perpetually  appeals  to  other  and  often  far  larger  con- 
siderations than  pure  political  economy  affords,  that 
he  gives  the  well-grounded  feeling  of  command  over 
the  principles  of  the  subject  for  purposes  of  practice, 
owing  to  which  the  Wealth  of  Nations,  alone  among 
treatises  on  political  economy,  has  not  only  been  popu- 
lar with  general  readers,  but  has  Impressed  itself 
strongly  on  the  minds  of  men  of  the  world  and  of 
legislators. 

It  appears  to  the  present  writer  that  a  work  similar 
in  its  object  and  general  conception  to  that  of  Adam 
Smith,  but  adapted  to  the  more  extended  knowledge 
and  improved  ideas  of  the  present  age,  is  the  kind  of 
contribution  which  political  economy  at  present  re- 
quires." 

Since  Mill,  political  economy  has  steadily 
grown  "moral."  Professor  Ely  divides  the 
evolution  of  political  economy  into  three  periods. 
He  says  (Introduction  to  Political  Economy \ 
pp.  105,  106)  : 

"  Economic  goods  are  first  made  the  primary  thing, 
and  they  are  treated  almost  as  if  their  production  was- 
an  independent  process  apart  from  the  will  of  man, 
one  extreme  writer  going  so  far  as  to  say  that  the  laws 
governing  the  production  of  wealth  would  be  just 
what  they  are  if  man  did  not  exist.  The  social  rela- 
tions involved  in  the  production  and  consumption  of 
economic  goods  are  then  considered  more  carefully, 
and  finally  the  original  process  is  reversed,  and  it  is 
distinctly  asserted  that  fthe  starting-point  as  well  as 
the  object-point  of  our  science  Is  man  (Roscher's  Po- 
litical Economy.,  vol.  i.  of  Lalor's  translation,  p.  52). 

"The  definition  of  political  economy  found  in  Mrs. 
Fawcett's  little  Political  Economy  may  be  taken  as  a 
fair  presentation  of  the  first  class  of  conceptions.  It 
is  as  follows  :  'Political  economy  is  the  science  which 
investigates  the  nature  of  wealth  and  the  laws  which 
govern  its  production,  exchange,  and  distribution.' 

"The  definition  of  political  economy  found  in  John 
Stuart  Mill's  treatise  may  be  taken  as  a  tolerably  accu- 
rate presentation  of  the  second  class  of  conceptions. 
'Writers  on  political  economy,"  says  Mill,  'profess  to 
teach  or  investigate  the  nature  of  wealth  and  the  laws 
of  its  production  and  distribution,  including  directly 
or  remotely  the  operation  of  all  the  causes  by  which 
the  condition  of  mankind  or  of  any  society  of  human 
beings  in  respect  to  this  universal  object  of  human 
desire  is  made  prosperous  or  the  reverse."  Social  re- 
lations are  dragged  in  through  a  back  door,  as  it  were." 
As  an  illustration  of  the  third  period,  Professor  Ely 
quotes  Professor  Henry  C.  Adams,  of  the  University 
of  Michigan,  as  saying  of  pqliticaleconomy,  in  his  Out- 
lines of  Lectures  upon  Political  Economy, that  it  "treats, 
of  industrial  society.  Its  purpose  as  an  analytic  science 
is  to  explain  the  industrial  actions  of  men.  Its  pur- 
pose as  a  constructive  science  is  to  discover  a  scien- 
tific and  rational  basis  for  the  formation  and  govern- 
ment of  industrial  society." 

The  present  moral  danger  of  modern  political 
economy  is  over  analysis.  Says  Dr.  Edward 
Caird  (The  Moral  Aspect  of  the  Economical 
Problem,  a  presidential  address  to  the  Ethical 
Society) ; 


Moral  Element  in  Social  Reform. 


Morality  and  Socialism. 


"  It  is  the  peculiar  temptation  of  students  of  science 
and  literature  to  cultivate  a  so-called  critical  spirit— a 
consciousness  of  scientific  law,  that  has  no  tolerance 
for  any  form  of  zeal  which  is  not  quite  according  to 
knowledge  or  a  literary  sense,  the  delicacy  and  quick- 
ness of  which  is  easily  turned  into  faultfinding  and  in- 
tolerance of  every  thought  and  feeling  which  does  not 
express  itself  in  conformity  with  its  own  standards. 
The  devil  of  these  modern  days  is  not,  as  Goethe  said, 
the  northern  phantom  with  horns  and  hoofs,  not  the 
spirit  which  inspires  a  rabid  witchlike  frenzy  for  evil, 
that  mocks  the  sacred  enthusiasm  for  good  ;  it  is  the 
spirit  which  always  denies,  which  sees  nothing  but  pre- 
tense in  virtue,  nothing  but  illusion  in  the  higher 
hopes  and  faiths  of  man.  This  chilling  doubt  is  the 
shadow  that  accompanies  our  advancing  knowledge, 
sometimes  taking  away  the  good  of  it,  and  making  us 
almost  wish  for  the  simpler  faiths  and  unhesitating  in- 
stincts of  an  earlier  time.  .  .  .  It  is  this  that  turns  science 
aside  into  the  way  of  a  false  realistic  analysis,  which 
'has  the  parts  in  its  hand,  but  has  lost  all  conscious- 
ness of  the  spiritual  bond  which  united  them."  It  is 
this  which  reduces  life  to  its  crude  elements,  and  then 
doubts  whether  it  is  worth  living  ;  it  is  this  finally 
that  so  fills  us  with  the  sense  of  the  difficulties  and  dis- 
advantages of  every  step  to  improve  the  condition  of 
man,  that  we  shrink  into  isolation  and  inaction.  .  .  . 

"  This  is  the  devil  which  is  most  dangerous  to  the  soul 
that  has  been  swept  and  garnished  by  culture,  and 
which  that  soul  must  repel  if  it  would  save  itself  from 
growing  weakness  and  moral  decay.  As  a  class,  men 
of  culture  are  not  much  in  danger  of  being  possessed 
by  a  frantic  love  of  evil  and  hatred  of  good,  but  some- 
times they  are  in  danger  of  losing  a  belief  in  the  great- 
ness of  the  issues  of  existence  which  are  hid  under  its 
littleness,  and  in  the  worth  of  every  human  life,  in 
spite  of  the  triviality  and  meanness  of  its  appearance." 

But  more  than  to  any  advance  in  academic 
political  economy  is  the  present  indebted  to  the 
great  moral  reformers,  like  Carlyle,  Ruskin, 
Maurice,  Mazzini,  and  Tolstoi.  For 
their  position  and  contributions  to 
Reformers,  social  reform,  see  their  respective 
names  ;  but  it  is  to  Ruskin,  more 
than  to  any  other  modern  reformer, 
we  owe  the  conceptions  that  wealth  is  well  liv- 
ing ;  that  the  life  is  more  than  meat  ;  that  man 
should  own  property  and  not  property  own 
man.  It  is  to  Carlyle  that  we  owe  an  exalta- 
tion of  the  possibility  of  man,  and  the  assertion 
of  manhood  over  social  and  economic  shams. 
It  is  to  Maurice  that  the  Church  of  to-day  main- 
ly owes  her  Christian  Socialism.  It  is  Mazzini 
who,  more  strongly  than  any,  has  emphasized 
duty  as  greater  than  rights,  and  God  as  above 
materialism.  Tolstoi,  more  than  any  other,  has 
taught  individualists  the  greatness  of  sacrifice. 
(For  a  consideration,  however,  of  the  moral  ele- 
ment in  social  reform,  so  far  as  it  has  taken  the 
form  of  Christian  thought  and  effort,  see  CHRIS- 
TIAN SOCIALISM  ;  CHURCH  AND  SOCIAL  REFORM.) 
Outside  of  the  Church  the  deepest  contribution 
to  the  moralization  of  reform,  except  from  indi- 
viduals like  the  above,  has  come  from  the  posi- 
tivist  school  and  from  the  modern  ethical  move- 
ment. 

Said  Frederic  Harrison  (q.v.)  (Address  on 
Moral  and  Religious  Socialism,  January  i, 
1891),  the  central  social  maxim  of  positivism  is 
41  to  make  political  interests  give  way  to  moral 
duties."  Its  aim  is  a  religion  of  humanity,  the 
service  of  man.  As  for  the  various  societies  of 
ethical  culture  in  America  and  Europe,  their 
avowed  object  is  "  the  elevation  of  the  moral 
life  of  its  members  and  that  of  the  community," 
and  everywhere  its  societies  are  calling  atten- 
tion to  the  moral  side  of  social  reforms. 

It  must  be  remembered  that  our  subject  is  the 
moral  element  in  social  reform.  It  is  questioned 


by  some  if  society  is  growing  moral .  (See  CRIME.) 
Says  J.  M.  Whiton  (The  Reaction  of  Ethics 
upon  Economics,  address  at  Yale  College,  June, 

1888) : 

"  We  are  now  threatened  with  moral  chaos  in  the 
world  ot  trade,  as  the  natural  result  of  that  Lucretian 
vortex  of  atoms,  out  ot  which  Smith  and  his  disciples 
imagined  an  economic  cosmos  would  come.  So  dis- 
passionate an  observer  as  Professor  H.  Sidgwick,  of 
Cambridge,  criticises  'the  anti-social  temper  and  atti- 
tude of  mind  produced  by  the  continual  struggle  of 
competition,'  and  inquires  '  whether  the  whole  individ- 
ualistic organization  of  industry,  whatever  its  mate- 
rial advantages  be,  is  not  open  to  condemnation  as  rad- 
ically demoralizing.'  The  question  is  answered  by 
Professor  Graham,  of  Belfast :  '  Our  practical  working 
ethics,  as  distinct  from  the  ethics  of  the  schools,  often 
grand  enough,  is  narrowed  to  the  lowest  egoism  and 
the  coarsest  moral  materialism.1  .  '.  . 

"These  old  qviestions,  newly  moved  by  authorities 
whom  it  is  folly  to  disparage,  we  see  seconded  on  every 
hand  by  spectacles  which  stir  the  common  mind  to 
thinking  on  the  problems  thus  proposed  ;  as  by  height- 
ening contrasts  between  the  neighbors  Opulence  and 
Indigence,  by  the  purchase  of  ground  for  a  ten-million- 
dollar  cathedral  in  honor  of  Christ,  while  the  slums, 
where  Christ's  little  ones  die  in  noisome  heat  by 
thousands,  remain  undisturbed,  and  even  lucrative  at 
35  per  cent.  .  .  . 

"Our  political  seers,  also,  have  heard  the  surf 
through  the  fog,  and  are  crying  from  their  look-out, 
'Breakers  ahead.'  'Nowhere  in  the  world,' says  our 
Professor  Sumner,  '  is  the  danger  of  a  plutocracy  as 
formidable  as  it  is  here.  .  .  Already  the  question  pre- 
sents itself  as  one  of  life  or  death  to  democracy.  .  .  . 
The  task  before  us  is  one  which  calls  for  fresh  reserves 
of  moral  force  and  political  virtue  from  the  very 
foundations  ot  the  social  body." 

Nevertheless,  the  very  recognition  of  these 
evils  and  the  effort  to  meet  them  indicate  an 
advance.  Even  our  wealthy  men,  who  sneer  at 
social  reform,  are  compelled,  as  never  before, 
to  practise  a  "gospel  of  wealth;"  and  it  is 
among  the  best  signs  of  the  times  that  never, 
as  now,  was  philanthropy  so  criticised  for  giving 
to  the  poor  only  what  it  has  first  taken  from  the 
poor,  bestowing  on  universities  and  charities 
that  which  it  gathered  by  avarice  and  perhaps 
by  fraud. 

We  are  developing,  as  Mr.  H.  D.  Lloyd  (q.v.} 
has  asserted,  "a  new  conscience."  Long  ago 
Mazzini  wrote  :  "  Every  political  question  is 
becoming  a  social  question,  and  every  social 
question  is  rapidly  becoming  a  religious  ques- 
tion." Matthew  Arnold  defines  civilization  as 
"the  humanizing,  the  bringing  into  one  har- 
monious and  truly  humane  life  of  the  whole 
body  of  society."  If  this  is  not  true  of  civiliza- 
tion to-day,  it  is  at  least  the  present  aim  and  en- 
deavor of  social  reform. 

References  :  the  above-quoted  essays  and  addresses  ; 
the  works  of  Ruskin,  Carlyle,  Mazzini,  Maurice. 
Tolstoi,  etc.  (q.v.)  ;  Social  Philosophy  and  Religion  of 
Auguste  Comte,  by  E.  Caird  (1885) ;  Prolegomena  to 
Ethics,  by  T.  H.  Green  (1890)  ;  An  Introduction  to  So- 
cial Philosophy,  by  J.  S.  Mackenzie  ;  History  of  Ethics, 
by  H.  Sidgwick  (1892) ;  Principles  of  Ethics,  by  H.  Spen- 
cer. (See  also  CHRISTIANITY  AND  SOCIAL  REFORM.) 

MORALITY  AND   SOCIALISM.— Many 

writers  believe  that  socialism  would  subvert 
morality.  In  Mr.  Lecky's  Democracy  and  Lib- 
erty he  argues  that  the  sense  of  right  and  wrong 
is  the  basis  of  the  respect  for  property  and  for 
the  obligation  of  contract,  and  that  it  is  being 
subverted  by  socialists.  He  quotes  (vol.  i., 
p.  310)  the  Sozial  Demokrat,  the  organ  of  the 
German  socialists,  as  saying  : 
"The  socialistic  State  will  never  be  realized  except 


Morality  and  Socialism. 


897 


More,  Sir  Thomas. 


by  a  violent  revolution,  and  it  is  our  duty  to  spread 
this  conviction  through  all  classes.  .  .  .  Christianity 
is  the  greatest  enemy  of  socialism.  When  God  is  ex- 
pelled from  human  brains,  what  is  called  the  Divine 
Grace  will  at  the  same  time  be  banished  ;  and  when  the 
heaven  above  appears  nothing  more  than  an  immense 
falsehood,  men  will  seek  to  create  for  themselves  a 
heaven  below."  Marx  himself  once  wrote  :  "Force  is 
the  midwife  of  every  old  society  pregnant  with  a  new 
one."  Gabriel  Deville,  a  French  socialist,  is  quoted  as 
saying  in  his  introduction  to  a  translation  of  Marx's  Cap- 
ital, that  socialists  when  in  power  must  "proceed  by 
law  to  the  economical  expropriation  of  those  whom  they 
will  have  already  dethroned  by  force.  ...  It  is  only 
necessary  to  destroy  the  title-deeds,  shares  or  obliga- 
tions, treating  those  dirty  documents  as  waste  paper." 
In  England  the  Fabian  Society  is  committed  in  its  de- 
clared principles  to  the  transfer  to  the  community  of 
land  and  industrial  capital  "without  compensation 
(thonot  without  such  relief  to  expropriated  individuals 
as  may  seem  fit  to  the  community)."  The  Social  Dem- 
ocrat Federation  has  as  a  plank  in  its  platform  "  the 
repudiation  of  the  national  debt."  In  the  United 
States  Mr.  George  (Social  Problems,  pp.  213-221)  argues 
it  as  "  a  preposterous  assumption  that  one  genera- 
tion should  be  bound  by  the  debts  of  its  predecessors." 

Again,  radical  reformers  are  accused  of  vio- 
lating family  morality.  In  Germany,  Bebel,  in 
his  Woman,  freely  argues  for  the  baldest  "  free 
love. ' '  Deville  (see  above)  says  : 

"  Marriage  is  a  regulation  of  property.  .  .  .  When 
property  is  transformed,  and  only  after  that  transfor- 
mation, marriage  will  lose  its  reason  for  existence, 
and  boys  and  girls  may  then  freely  and  without  fear 
of  censure  listen  to  the  wants  and  promptings  of  their 
nature.  .  .  .  The  support  of  the  children  will  no  longer 
•depend  on  the  chance  of  birth.  Like  their  instruction, 
it  will  become  a  charge  of  society.  There  will  be  no 
Toom  for  prostitution  or  for  marriage,  which  is  in  sum 
nothing  more  than  prostitution  before  the  mayor." 
In  England  Mr.  Hyndman  writes  (Historical  Basis  of 
Socialism,  p.  452) :  "  In  the  German  Christian  sense  of 
marriage  for  life,  and  responsibility  of  the  parents  for 
the  children  born  in  wedlock,  is  almost  at  an  end  even 
now,"  and  must  result  in  "  a  widely  extended  commu- 
nism." Mr.  Morris  and  Mr.  Bax,  in  their  Socialism,  in 
its  Growth  and  Outcome,  contend  that  "marriage 
should  be  a  voluntary  association,  dissoluble  by  either 
party  at  pleasure." 

It  is  true,  as  Mr.  Lecky  points  out,  that  by  no 
means  all  socialist  and  radical  reformers  hold 
these  views,  but  such  utterances  from  socialist 
leaders,  he  says,  will  help  the  reader  under- 
stand ' '  why  it  is  that  German  statesmen  regard 
the  socialists  not  as  a  normal  political  party, 
but  as  the  deadly  enemies  of  their  country  and 
of  civilized  society." 

The  opposite  side  to  this  view  is,  in  the  first 
place,  to  recognize  that,  as  Prof .  Schaffle,  the  best 
non-socialist  authority  on  socialism,  has  pointed 
out  in  his  Quintessence  of  Socialism,  socialism 
as  a  movement  is  by  no  means  committed  to 
either  confiscation  or  free  love.  Many  socialists 
believe  in  these,  but  so  do  many  not  socialists. 

As  to  radical  views  of  marriage,  not  to  speak 
of  continental  writers,  witness  the  tendency  in 
the  novels  of  Mai  lock,  Grant  Allen,  and  even 
Hardy  in  the  United  States.  No  one  school  of 
thought  is  to  be  condemned  for  having  among 
its  members  those  who  hold  such  views. 

"As  to  confiscation  through  taxation,"  Professor 
Hadley  says  (Economics,  p.  472),  "  most  would  be  willing 
to  agree  that  more  taxes  should  be  assessed  upon  eco- 
nomic rent  and  less  upon  improvements." 

Secondly,  socialists  say  it  is  the  present  which 
develops  immorality.  If  socialists  would  through 
legal  forms  confiscate  the  property  of  the  wealthy 
to  establish  justice,  the  present  confiscates  the 
property  of  the  poor  to  establish  injustice. 

57 


Which  is  the  worse  ?  At  present  the  poor  work 
for  the  rich  through  compulsion.  Their  agree- 
ments to  receive  low  wages  are  forced  agree- 
ments. ' '  They  are  like  the  bargain  that  a 
naked  and  shivering  swimmer  might  be  induced 
to  make  with  a  larger  man  in  possession  of  the 
swimmer's  clothes."  It  is  this  subversion  of 
the  moral  sense,  in  seeing  those  who  work  the 
hardest  get  the  least,  and  many  who  do  not 
work  at  all  living  in  luxury,  not  a  few  prosper- 
ing by  downright  gambling  or  industrial  rob- 
bery, that,  socialists  say,  is  the  danger  to-day. 
If  socialism  would  confiscate  through  taxation 
large  properties,  it  would  at  least  give  all  an 
equal  share  in  proportion  to  work  done.  If  it 
would  use  force,  it  would  only  use  force  when 
the  possessed  classes,  having  been  defeated  at 
the  polls,  try  by  force  to  prevent  a  victorious  so- 
cialist party  from  enacting  its  will.  Almost  all 
socialists  believe  that  more  or  less  force  will  be 
necessary  in  such  instance,  but  only  because  they 
believe  that  the  wealthy  will  first  draw  the 
sword.  As  for  free  love,  to-day  divorce  is  on 
the  increase  and  prostitution  frightfully  com- 
mon. Socialism  would  end  prostitution,  the 
sale  of  the  body  for  money,  and  allow  all  who 
will  to  live  in  permanent  monogamy.  It  would 
simply  not  force  continuance  in  unwilling  mar- 
riage. Such  are  the  two  views.  (See  PROSTI- 
TUTION :  DIVORCE  ;  FAMILY,  section  on  Free 
Love.) 

MORAVIANS.— The  Moravian  Church,  or 
Church  of  the  United  Brethren,  the  Unit  as 
Fratrum,  originated  in  the  reformation  of  John 
Huss  in  Bohemia  and  Moravia  in  the  fifteenth 
century.  Almost  crushed  out  by  persecution, 
it  was  revived  in  1722  at  Herrnhut  by  Count 
Zinzendorf,  and  the  policy  was  adopted  of 
propagating  its  faith  by  forming  missionary 
semi-communal  colonies,  which  by  a  quiet  fra- 
ternal life,  joined  to  a  pietistic  faith,  should  in- 
fluence the  world.  Since  1732  more  than  2200 
missionaries  have  gone  out.  These  communi- 
ties celebrated  love  feasts  (agapce,  <?.z>.),  and  in 
every  way  developed  the  fraternal  spirit.  Since 
1856  these  fraternal  customs  have,  however,  dis- 
appeared from  Moravian  settlements  in  the 
United  States,  where  the  Moravians  numbered 
19,497  in  1890— about  half  those  in  the  world. 

MORE,  SIR  THOMAS,  was  born  in  Lon- 
don in  1478,  the  son  of  a  judge  of  the  court  of 
King's  Bench.  He  became  at  the  age  of  15  a 
page  in  the  household  of  Cardinal  Morton, 
Archbishop  of  Canterbury,  and  Prime  Minister. 
In  1497  he  entered  Oxford  University,  and 
afterward  studied  law  at  Lincoln's  Inn,  Lon- 
don, and  resided  for  some  years  at  a  Gray  Friars 
monastery.  In  1502  he  became  a  judge  in  the 
sheriff's  court.  He  also  became  Member  of 
Parliament  for  Middlesex.  Sir  J  ames  Mackin- 
tosh says  of  him  that  "he  is  the  first  person  in 
our  [English]  history  distinguished  by  the  fac- 
ulty of  public  speaking,  and  is  remarkable  for 
the  successful  employment  of  it  in  Parliament 
against  a  lavish  grant  of  money  to  the  Crown." 
The  occasion  referred  to  was  when  he  persuad- 
ed the  House  of  Commons  not  to  grant  a  sup- 
ply to  Henry  VII.  on  the  marriage  of  his  daugh- 


More,  Sir  Thomas. 


898 


Mormonismr 


ter.  About  1514  he  wrote  his  famous  Utopia, 
which  was  printed  in  Louvain  (1516)  under  the 
editorship  of  his  friend  Erasmus,  and  was  soon 
translated  into  many  languages.  In  1521  More 
was  knighted  and  appointed  treasurer  of  the  ex- 
chequer, and  in  1523,  speaker  of  the  House  of 
Commons.  In  1529  he  was  appointed  lord-chan- 
cellor in  place  of  Cardinal  Wolsey.  Tho  op- 
posed to  Luther,  who  had  attacked  Erasmus  as 
well  as  Henry  VIII.,  he  nevertheless  in  1532 
resigned  the  great  seal  because  his  conscience  re- 
fused to  sanction  the  divorce  of  Queen  Catherine 
and  the  second  marriage  of  the  king.  Having 
declined  to  take  the  oath  by  which  he  was  re- 
quired to  recognize  the  validity  of  the  marriage 
of  Anne  Boleyn,  he  was  consigned  to  the  Tower 
of  London  in  1534.  After  he  had  been  in  prison 
for  a  year  he  was  charged  with  treason  in  that 
he  denied  the  king's  supremacy  as  head  of  the 
Church,  and  finally  was  condemned  and  behead- 
ed on  July  6,  1535.  All  the  accounts  we  have  of 
Sir  Thomas  More's  life  agree  in  describing  him 
as  of  unusual  greatness,  pure-minded,  just  and 
generous,  with  an  inexhaustible  flow  of  sprightly 
wit  ;  and  tho  as  a  statesman  bound  by  his  sur- 
roundings, yet  able  to  see  clearly  the  evils  of 
despotism  and  monarchy,  and  in  heart,  as  is 
shown  in  his  Utopia,  a  democratic  republican. 
In  this  book  More  first  introduces  his  readers 
to  a  traveler  and  philosopher  whom  he  meets  in 
Antwerp,  just  returned  from  journeyings  in 
strange  lands  ;  he  had  started  out  with  Ves- 
pucci on  his  last  voyage,  but  leaving  him  at 
the  farthest  point  had  pushed  on  to  other 
strange  lands,  and  finally  to  the  island  of 
Utopia,  whose  laws  and  customs  impressed 
him  greatly,  and  which  he  relates  at  length 
to  More.  The  descriptions  show  a  very  keen 
perception  of  the  causes  of  misgovernment, 
while  the  sentiments  put  into  the  mouth  of 
the  traveler  when  he  is  discussing  English  in- 
stitutions show  that  Sir  Thomas  More  was  at 
heart,  at  all  events,  a  pronounced  republican, 
and  one  who  loved  his  fellow-men  rather  than 
institutions.  In  Utopia  all  save  the  old  and  in- 
firm are  expected  to  labor  six  hours  a  day  ;  all 
goods  of  every  kind  are  owned  in  common  ;  and 
the  people  chose  their  houses  every  ten  years 
by  lot,  and  dine  together  in  large  halls.  They 
have  no  money  of  any  kind,  and  consider  gold 
and  silver  as  the  basest  of  metals,  fit  only  for 
ignoble  uses.  All  personal  adornment  they  con- 
sider as  childish  and  degrading.  Their  priests 
are  few  in  number,  but  are  universally  rever- 
enced for  their  sanctity  and  their  courage  in 
time  of  war.  There  are  two  religious  orders 
among  them,  very  similar  to  the  Order  of  St. 
Francis  of  Assisi  ;  their  endeavor  is  to  purify 
their  souls  by  engaging  in  the  lowliest  and  most 
unattractive  labors.  Religious  intolerance  is  a 
thing  unknown,  as  it  is  the  doctrine  of  the  Uto- 
pians that  belief  is  largely  a  matter  of  environ- 
ment and  birth.  There  are  24  cities  in  Utopia, 
equal  in  extent.  The  government  is  largely 
directed  by  a  council  composed  of  three  wise 
men  from  each  city,  who  are  elected  by  their 
fellow-citizens.  The  criminals  of  the  cities  are 
enslaved,  and  obliged  to  perform  the  more 
laborious  and  disagreeable  work. 

MORELLI  was  a    French    writer   of    the 


eighteenth  century,  of  whose  life  Larousse's 
Dictionnaire  says  that  absolutely  nothing  is 
known,  tho  according  to  some  accounts  he  was 
an  abbe  and  lived  at  Vitrey-le- Francois.  Sev- 
eral of  his  writings,  however,  are  known  and  are 
important,  especially  his  Essai  sur  I' esprit  hu- 
main  (1745)  ;  le  Prince,  les  delices  du  cceur  ou 
Traite  des  qualites  d'un  grand  roi  et  systeme 
d'un  sage  gou-u  eminent  (2  vols.,  1751)  ;  Nau- 
frage  aes  ties  flott  antes  a  la  Basiliade,  a  so- 
cial Utopia  ;  above  all,  his  Code  de  la  nature 
ou  le  veritable  esprit  de  ses  lois  de  tout  temps 
neglige  ou  mtconnue  (1755),  a  book  influential 
in  forming  the  social  theories  of  the  French 
Revolution,  and  said  to  be  the  inspirer  of 
Baboeuf  (q.v.). 

MORMONISM.— The  Mormon  Church  we 
consider  here  simply  in  its  relation  to  economic 
and  social  problems.  Born  in  1831  at  Fayette, 
N.  Y.,  of  the  preaching  of  Joseph  Smith,  Jr., 
based  on  the  revelation  he  claimed  to  have  re- 
ceived on  golden  plates  written,  long  hidden, 
and  finally  revealed  to  Smith  by  a  prophet  Mor- 
mon who  is  stated  to  have  lived  in  America 
some  time  after  Christ  Himself,  in  some  myste- 
rious way,  had  preached  Christianity  in  Amer- 
ica. Mormonism  claims  to  be  a  Christian  relig- 
ion, believing  in  Christ,  in  the  Trinity,  and  in 
the  Bible.  With  The  Book  of  Mormon  Smith's 
preaching  gained  many  followers,  and  in  1831 
a  prosperous  Mormon  settlement  was  made  at 
Kirkland,  O.,  and  a  temple  built.  Persecuted, 
however,  here,  Smith  led  his  followers  in  1837 
to  Far  West,  Mo.,  and  driven  from  there  to 
Nauvoo,  111.,  where  their  numbers  reached 
12,000,  and  they  were  prosperous  in  every  way. 
A  discontented  member,  however,  made  trouble, 
denounced  and  attacked  Smith.  Serious  dissen- 
sion arose  ;  the  civil  authorities  were  called 
upon,  and  Smith  was  shot  by  a  mob  from  the 
outlying  region  in  1844.  Brigham  Young,  who 
had  joined  the  sect  in  1832,  now  became  leader, 
and  led  the  community  to  Council  Bluffs  in  1845, 
and  in  1847,  after  an  amazing  march  across  the 
prairies  and  over  the  mountains,  founded  in  ter- 
ritory then  far  beyond  the  limits  of  the  United 
States  what  is  now  Salt  Lake  City,  in  Utah. 
When  the  United  States  acquired  this  territory, 
the  Mormons  desired  to  form  a  new  State  called 
Deseret,  or  the  Land  of  the  Honey  Bee,  but 
Congress  would  not  allow  this,  and  in  1850  the 
Territory  of  Utah  was  formed,  Brigham  Young 
being  the  first  governor.  In  1852  the  practice 
of  polygamy  was  first  openly  proclaimed,  and 
even  enjoined  upon  Mormons  as  a  means  of 
grace,  tho  it  is  said  to  have  been  promulgated 
within  the  church  in  1843,  and  is  said  by  some  to 
have  been  practised  by  the  leaders  from  the 
beginning  of  the  church.  This  step  created 
opposition  through  the  country,  and  as  early  as 
1862  Congress  took  some  steps  to  stamp  it  out. 
Little,  however,  was  accomplished.  The  Mor- 
mon priesthood  had  all  the  power  in  the  territory, 
and  little  could  be  done.  In  1882  stronger 
efforts  were  made.  The  Edmunds  law  made 
bigamy  and  polygamy  in  all  United  States  ter- 
ritories punishable  with  a  fine  of  not  over  $500 
and  imprisonment  up  to  five  years.  Any  one 
cohabiting  with  more  than  one  woman  could  be 
imprisoned  six  months  or  fined  $300,  or  both. 


Mormonism. 


899 


Mortgages. 


Any  juryman  who  believed  in  polygamy  could 
be  challenged.  All  elections  were  conducted 
by  a  special  federal  commission,  and  polygamists 
were  disenfranchised  ;  12,000  men  and  women 
—for  women  had  been  given  the  franchise  by 
the  Mormon  authorities  in  1870,  and  had  strong- 
ly supported  the  church — were  thus  disenfran- 
chised. Later,  in  1887,  all  women  were  disen- 
franchised. Adultery  and  fornication  were 
made  criminal  offenses.  Witnesses  were  com- 
pelled to  testify.  Marriages  must  be  fully  regis- 
tered, and  all  illegitimate  were  denied  right  of 
inheritance.  Special  oaths  were  required  from 
voters  declaring  that  they  were  not  polygamists. 
By  such  severe  measures  polygamy  was  broken 
up,  and  in  1890  Gentiles  for  the  first  time  ob- 
tained control  of  the  municipal  government  ; 
noo  persons  were  said  to  have  been  convicted 
of  polygamy,  and  over  $50,000  of  church  prop- 
erty was  confiscated.  Finally  in  1890  President 
Wilford  Woodruff  issued  a  pronunciamento 
against  polygamy.  Brigham  Young  had  died 
in  1877,  and  had  been  followed  by  John  Taylor, 
and  then  Woodruff.  Since  then  the  division 
between  Mormons  and  Gentiles  has  largely 
died  away.  Intermarriages  take  place.  Social 
and  business  intercourse  is  continual.  In  1894 
President  Cleveland  granted  amnesty  and  civil 
rights  to  all  convicted  of  polygamy.  In  1896 
Utah  was  admitted  as  a  State.  The  church 
authorities,  however,  are  still  accused  of  de- 
manding obedience  to  them  in  political  as  well 
as  religious  affairs.  There  were  in  1890, 
50,000  Gentiles  in  Utah  and  110,000  Mormons. 
There  are  perhaps  as  many  more  Mormons  in 
Idaho,  Arizona,  Montana,  Wyoming,  New  Mex- 
ico, Colorado,  and  Washington. 

The  industrial  and  economic  development  of 
the  Mormons,  or  the  Church  of  Jesus  Christ  or 
Latter  Day  Saints,  as  they  are  called,  is  more 
attractive.  The  system  seems  to  have  been 
purely  paternal  and  even  tyrannical,  but  under 
the  rule  of  the  heads  of  the  church  industry  was 
encouraged,  all  were  given  land,  none  were  al- 
lowed to  go  in  want,  some  fine  buildings  were 
erected.  Even  in  the  polygamous  period  only 
10  per  cent,  of  the  people  were  said  to  have  prac- 
tised polygamy.  Prominent  wives  and  children 
of  plural  marriages  declared  their  homes  hap- 
py. Prostitution  was  unknown.  Favoritism 
between  wives  was  forbidden.  On  the  other 
hand,  pathetic  stories  were  told  of  the  suffering 
of  the  women,  and  dark  massacres,  like  those  of 
Mountain  Meadows  in  1857,  and  other  deeds  of 
cruelty,  seem  to  have  been  traced  to  the  doors  of 
the  leading  authorities  of  the  church. 

MORRIS,  WILLIAM,  was  born  at  Wal- 
thamstow,  near  London,  in  1834.  He  was  edu- 
cated first  at  the  school  of  that  place,  at  Marl- 
borough,  and  at  Exeter  College,  Oxford.  In 
1856  he  was  articled  to  Mr.  Street,  the  architect. 
He  also  studied  painting,  but  in  1863  devoted 
himself  mainly  to  the  design  and  manufacture  of 
artistic  household  furniture,  wall  paper,  stained 
glass,  and  other  decorations.  He  also  later  on. 
started  an  ideal  factory  near  Merton  Abbey, 
and  founded  the  "  Kelmscott  Press,"  for  print- 
ing according  to  the  canons  of  the  truest  art. 
In  literature  he  early  commenced  contribut- 
ing to  the  papers,  mainly  the  Oxford  and 


Cambridge  Magazine.  In  1858  he  published 
The  Defense  of  Guenevere  and  other  Poems  ; 
in  1867,  The  Life  and  Death  of  Jason,  a  heroic 
poem  in  17  books.  From  1868-70  The  Earthly 
Paradise  came  out  in  installments.  In  1876  ap- 
peared  his  Virgil's  sEneid,  "  done  into  English 
verse  ;"  and  in  1877  The  Story  of  Sigurd,  the 
Volsung,  and  the  Fall  of  the  Niblungs,  by 
many  considered  his  masterpiece.  Up  to  this 
time  he  had  been,  as  he  called  himself,  "  the 
idle  singer  of  an  empty  day."  His  experience 
in  the  commercialism  and  consequent  degrada- 
tion of  modern  art  now  drove  him  to  socialism. 
In  1885  he  was  instrumental  in  forming  the  So- 
cialist League,  and  since  that  time  he  worked 
strenuously  for  socialism,  editing  and  writing 
for  The  Commonweal,  attending  meetings  and 
addressing  open-air  audiences  of  working  men. 
He  published  numerous  socialist  lectures,  tracts 
and  chants,  such  as  Art  and  Socialism  (1884) ; 
Signs  of  Change  (1888)  ;  Useful  Work  ver- 
sus Useless  Toil,  etc.  His  later  poems  are 
Homer's  Odyssey,  done  into  English  verse 
(1887)  ;  A  Tale  of  the  House  of  Wolfings 
(1889)  ;  The  Wood  Beyond  the  World  (1895). 
The  above,  however,  are  only  a  portion  of  his 
works.  In  1888  he  republished  from  The  Com- 
monweal, A  Dream  of  John  Ball,  a  most  beau- 
tiful  socialist  prose  poem  ;  in  1892  News  from 
Nowhere,  a  socialistic  and  artistic  Utopia  ;  and 
in  1894,  in  conjunction  with  Belfort  Bax,  Social- 
ism, its  Growth  and  Outcome.  Altho  he  re- 
tired from  the  editorship  of  The  Common- 
weal, which  has  passed  into  anarchist  hands, 
Mr.  Morris  worked  most  fruitfully  as  ' '  poet,, 
artist,  and  socialist,"  until  his  death,  which  oc- 
curred October  3,  1896. 

MORTGAGES.— We  consider  this  subject 
under  two  heads  :  first,  the  statistics  of  mort- 
gages ;  second,  their  significance. 

I.  STATISTICS. 

Extra  Bulletin  No.  98  of  the  United  States 
Census,  1890,  says  : 

"There  are  12,690,152  families  in  the  United  States, 
and  of  these  families  52.20  per  cent,  hire  their  farms  or 
homes  and  47.80  per  cent,  own  them,  while  27.97  per 
cent,  of  the  owning  families  own  subject  to  encum- 
brance and  72.03  per  cent,  own  free  of  encumbrance. 
Among  loo  families,  on  the  average,  52  hire  their  farms 
or  homes,  13  own  with  encumbrance,  and  35  without 
encumbrance.  On  the  owned  farms  and  homes  there 
are  liens  amounting  to  $2,132,949,563,  which  is  37.50  per 
cent,  of  the  value  of  the  encumbered  farms  and  homes, 
and  this  debt  bears  interest  at  the  average  rate  of 
6.65  per  cent.  Each  owned  and  encumbered  farm  or 
home,  on  the  average,  is  worth  $3352,  and  is  subject  to 
a  debt  of  $1257. 

"  In  regard  to  the  families  occupying  farms,  the  con- 
clusion is,  that  34.08  per  cent,  of  the  families  hire  and 
65.92  per  cent,  own  the  farms  cultivated  by  them  ;  that 
28.22  per  cent,  of  the  owning  families  own  subject  to 
encumbrance  and  71.78  per  cent,  own  free  of  encum- 
brance. Among  100  farm  families,  on  the  average,  34 
hire  their  farms,  19  own  with  encumbrance,  and  47 
without  encumbrance.  On  the  owned  farms  there  are 
liens  amounting  to  $1,085,995,960,  which  is  35.55  per 
cent,  of  the  value  of  the  encumbered  farms,  and  this 
debt  bears  interest  at  the  average  rate  of  7.07  per  cent. 
Each  owned  and  encumbered  farm,  on  the  average,  is 
worth  $3444,  and  is  subject  to  a  debt  of  $1224. 

"  The  corresponding  facts  for  the  families  occupy- 
ing homes  are,  that  63.10  per  cent,  hire  and  36.90  per 
cent,  own  their  homes;  that  of  the  home-owning  fam- 
ilies, 72.30  per  cent,  own  free  of  encumbrance  and  27.70 
per  cent,  with  encumbrance.  In  100  home  families, 
on  the  average,  63  hire  their  homes,  10  own  with 
encumbrance,  and  27  without  encumbrance.  The  debt 


Mortgages. 


900 


Mortgages. 


on  owned  homes  aggregates  $1,046,953,603,  or  39.77  per 

cent,   of  the  value  of    the    encumbered    homes,  and 

bears  interest  at  the  average  rate  of  6.23 

per  cent.     An  average  d^bt  of  $1293  en- 

Ownership  of  cumbers  each  home,  which  has  an  aver- 

•n-  anil     a£e  va'ue  °f   $3250. 

nomes  auu       ..  There  are  420  cities  and  towns  that 

Farms.       have  a  population  of  8000  to  100,000,  and 

in  these  cities  and  towns  64.04  per  cent. 

of    the   home    families  hire    and    35.96 

Eer  cent,  own  their  homes,  and  of  the  home-owning 
imilies  34.11  per  cent,  own  with  encumbrance  and 
65.89  per  cent,  own  free  of  encumbrance.  In  100 
home  families,  on  the  average,  are  found  64  that  hire 
their  homes,  12  that  own  with  encumbrance,  and  24  that 
own  without  encumbrance.  The  liens  on  the  owned 
homes  are  39.55  per  cent,  of  the  value  of  those  subject 
to  lien.  Several  averages  show  that  the  rate  of  inter- 
est is  6.29  per  cent.;  value  of  each  owned  and  encum- 
bered home,  $3447  ;  lien  on  the  same,  $1363. 


"  The  cities  that  have  a  population  of  100,000  and  over 
number  28,  and  in  these  cities  77.17  per  cent,  of  the 
home  families  hire  and  22.83  per  cent,  own  their  homes  ; 
37.80  per  cent,  of  the  home-owning  families  have  en- 
cumbrance on  their  homes,  and  62.20  per  cent,  own  and 
occupy  homes  free  of  encumbrance.  Among  loohome 
families,  on  the  average,  77  hire,  9  own  with  encum- 
brance, and  14  without  encumbrance.  Averages  for 
each  owned  and  encumbered  home :  Encumbrance, 
$2337  ;  value,  $5555 ;  rate  of  interest,  5.75  per  cent. 
Homes  are  encumbered  for  42.07  per  cent,  of  their 
value  ;  .  .  .  60.05  Per  cent,  of  the  families  occupying 
owned  and  encumbered  farms  and  homes  have  encum- 
brances of  less  than  $1000,  and  the  amount  of  the  en- 
cumbrance is  20.70  per  cent,  of  the  total  amount  on 
all  owned  and  encumbered  farms  and  homes;  and 
in  the  case  of  encumbrances  amounting  to  $5000  and 
over,  the  families  are  represented  by  3.69  per  cent,  of 
the  total,  and  the  amount  of  encumbrance  by  24.49  per 
cent." 


AGGREGATE  AND  PERCENTAGE  OF  FAMILIES    OCCUPYING  OWNED  AND   HIRED,   AND  FREE 
AND  ENCUMBERED  FARMS  AND   HOMES,   BY   STATES  AND  TERRITORIES,  1890. 


STATES  AND  TERRITORIES. 

Aggre- 
gate of 
Families 
Occupy- 
ing 
Farms. 

PERCENT- 
AGE OF 
FAMILIES 
OWNING 
AND  HIRING 
FARMS. 

PERCENT- 
AGE OF 
FAMILIES 
OWNING 
FREE  AND 
ENCUMBER- 
ED FARMS. 

Aggre- 
gate of 
Families 
Occupy- 
ing 
Homes. 

PERCENT- 
AGE OF 
FAMILIES 
OWNING 
AND  HIRING 
HOMES. 

PERCENT- 
AGE OF 
FAMILIES 
OWNING 
FREE  AND 
ENCUMBER- 
ED HOMES. 

Own- 
ing. 

Hir- 
ing. 

Free. 

En- 
cum- 
bered. 

Own- 
ing. 

Hir- 
ing. 

Free. 

En- 
cum- 
bered. 

The  United  States  

4.767.179 

65.92 

34-08 

47-32 

18.60 

7.922,973 

36-9° 

63.10 

26.68 

IO.22 

166,690 
2,299 
146,970 
55.534 
19,178 
26,439 
.9,381 
387 
36,625 
175,688 
7,997 
252,953 
205,331 
205,435 
i7i,M5 
188,560 

79,705 
62,122 
41,372 
34,576 
176,764 
117,893 
161,080 
250,832 
6,441 
115,928 
i.SH 
29.151 
3r,942 
9,5'8 
226,632 
182,791 
28,225 
256,264 
10,419 
27,639 
211,472 
5,5oo 
"7,405 
49,540 
183,726 
248,782 
11,884 

32,573 
132,790 
24,047 
76,157 
148,349 
3.534 

43-iS 
80.12 

53-94 
76.08 
80.39 
82.32 
50.58 
62.53 
65.16 
41.90 
88.57 
63.28 
70-75 
70.43 
68.97 
65.27 
44-49 
92-38 
62.77 
84.94 
82.99 
84-75 
37-73 
68.95 
86.60 
72-99 
83.88 
89.08 
67.89 
88.18 
77.06 
58.28 
90.  10 
72.75 
95-05 
81.42 
74-21 
75.00 

38-51 
83.81 
58.12 
50.77 
90.57 
82.38 
61.94 
81.59 
73-58 
86.90 
79-12 

56.85 
19.88 
46.06 
23.92 
19.61 
17.68 
49-42 

37-47 
34.84 
58.10 
ii  43 
36  72 
29.25 
29-57 
31.03 
34-73 
55-51 
7.62 
37-23 
15.06 
17.01 
15-25 
62.27 
3L05 
r3-4o 
27.01 
10.12 
10.92 
32.11 
11.82 
22.94 
41.72 
9.90 
27.25 
4-95 
18.58 
25.79 
25.00 
61.49 
16.19 
41.88 
49.23 

9-43 
17.62 
38.06 
18.41 
26.42 
13.10 
20.88 

41.27 
74.64 
51-68 
51-35 
59-90 
56-72 
35-7' 

59-95 
63.24 
40.48 
74-11 
40.05 

47-34 
32.90 

30.71 
62.62 
42.71 
71.97 
43-93 
59-07 
42-03 
45-44 
34-82 
43-83 
73-11 
35-04 
69.48 
69.67 
34-69 
85-54 
43.02 

55  43 
46.25 
51-72 
95-05 
62.40 
53-87 
60.71 

35-43 
39-91 
56-25 
47-87 
85-55 
45-85 
59-99 
59-75 
64.03 
49.66 
68.79 

1.88 
5-48 
2.26 

24-73 
20.49 
25.60 
14.87 
2.58 
i.  92 
1.42 
14.46 
23.23 
23-41 
37-53 
38.26 
2.65 
1.78 
20.41 
18.84 
25.87 
40.96 

39  -31 
2.91 
25.12 
J3-49 
37-95 
14.40 
19.41 
33-20 
2.64 
34-04 
2.85 
43-85 
21.03 

19.02 
20.34 
14.29 
3.08 
43-90 

!.87 

2.90 
5.02 

36.53 

i-95 
21.84 
9-55 
37-24 
10.33 

120,602 
11,196 
66,650 
190,176 
65,098 
i39,45i 
25,197 
43,58o 
43,434 
176,371 
10,  116 
525,062 
261,815 
183,082 
126,213 
165,903 
134,418 
88,233 
160,807 
445,214 
278,240 
130,082 
80,068 

277,463 
21,060 
90,892 
8,656 
58,197 
276,397 
25,986 
1,081,383 
124,161 
10,253 
529,027 
4,610 
36,152 
850,154 
69,510 
105,536 
20,710 
150,468 
162,469 
26,932 
43,296 
171,883 
46,930 
64,202 
187,107 
8,531 

22.88 

44.82 
32.85 

39-79 
40.30 
33-85 
33-29 
25.20 
37-46 

21.00 

58  47 
43.10 
47-15 
55-04 
50.15 
32.02 
20.72 
48.02 
31-87 
32.72 
50-49 
46.99 
22.27 
36.26 
43-7° 
43.91 
56.08 
39-27 
3r-93 
62.70 
29.28 
25.77 
45-30 
45-36 
68.46 
46.72 
35-94 
26.03 

17-93 
54-88 
28.98 
39.14 
60.65 
45.61 
27.86 
40.27 
36-34 
54-55 
38.46 

77.12 

55-i8 
67-15 
60.21 
59-70 
66.15 
66.71 
74-8o 

62.54 
79.00 

4i.53 
56  90 
52.85 
44.96 
49-85 
67.98 
79.28 
51.98 
68.13 
67.28 
49  -51 
S3-01 
77-73 
63-74 
56.30 
56.09 
43-92 
60.73 
68.07 
37-30 
70.72 
74-23 
54-70 
54-64 
31-54 
53-28 
64.06 
73-97 
82.07 
45-12 
71.02 
60.86 
39-35 
54-30 
72.14 

59-73 
63.66 

45-45 
61.54 

22.19 
42.84 

30-93 
30.76 

SK-'S 

18.26 

20.41 
19-15 

35-73 
20.41 
55-23 
30-25 
35-oi 
40.31 
30-51 
29-85 
19.92 
37-77 
23.70 
19.85 
34-21 
30.05 
21.31 
26.14 
38-31 
27-99 
53.87 
29-33 
17-54 
60.89 
17.80 
24-51 
32-77 
32.21 
68.46 
33-62 
24-93 

!  16.25 
|  16.78 

34-66 
27-39 
37-47 
55-49 
28.79 

26.73 
32.21 
29.46 
38.44 
33-24 

0.69 
I.qS 
1.92 
9-03 

9.  15 

15-59 

12.88 
6.05 
!-73 
0-59 
3-24 
12.85 
12.14 

I4.73 
19.64 
2.17 
0.80 
10.25 
8.17 
12.87 
16.28 
16.94 
0.96 

10.12 

5-39 

15.92 

2.21 

9-94 
14-39 
1.81 
11.48 
1.26 
12-53 
13-iS 

13.10 

II.  01 

9.78 
I-IS 
20.22 

i-59 
1.67 
5.'6 
16.82 

S.o6 
6.88 
i6.n 
5.22 

-Arkansas  

Connecticut  

District  of  Columbia  

Florida  

Idaho  

Illinois  

Indiana  

Kansas  

Louisiana  

Maryland  

Massachusetts  

Minnesota  

Mississippi  

Montana.        

New  Hampshire  

New  York  

North  Dakota  

Ohio  

Oklahoma  
Oregon    .        

Pennsylvania  

Rhode  Island  

South  Carolina  

South  Dakota  

Tennessee  

Texas.    .           

Utah  

Virginia  

Washington  

*West  Virginia  

Wisconsin  

Wyoming  

Mortgages. 


901 


Mortgages. 


Extra  Census  Bulletin  No.  71  gives  the  statis- 
tics of  mortgages  by  amounts,  length  of  mort- 
gage, rate  of  interest  for  the  United  States  from 
1880-89.  It  says  : 

"During  that  time  9,517,747  real  estate  mortgages 
stating  amount  of  debt  incurred  were  made  in  the 
United  States,  representing  an  incurred  indebtedness 
of  $12,094,877,793.  The  number  of  mortgages  made 
during  one  year  increased  from  643,143  in  1880  to  1,226,- 
323  in  1889,  or  90.68  per  cent.,  and  the  yearly  incurred 
indebtedness  increased  from  $710,888,504  in  1880  to 
$1,752,568,274  in  1889,  or  146.53  per  cent. 

"  With  regard  to  mortgages  on  acre  tracts,  the  num- 
ber made  during  the  10  years  was  4,747,078,  represent- 
ing an  incurred  indebtedness  of  $4,896,771,112.  The 
number  of  these  mortgages  made  in  1880  was  370,984  ;  in 
1889,  525,091,  an  increase  of  41.54  per  cent.;  while  the  in- 
curred indebtedness  increased  from  $342,566,477  in  1880 
to  $585,729,719  in  1889,  an  increase  of  70.98  percent. 

"The  increase  was  relatively  larger  in  the  case  of 
mortgages  on  lots.  They  numbered  4,770,669  during  the 
10  years,  and  the  indebtedness  incurred  under  them 
amounted  to  $7,198,106,681.  From  1880  to  1889  the  an- 
nual number  made  increased  from  272,159  to  701,229,  an 
increase  of  157.65  per  cent.  During  the  same  time  the 
amount  of  annual  indebtedness  incurred  increased  from 
$368, 322,027  to  $1,166,838,555,  an  increase  of  216.80  per  cent. 

"  During  the  decade  622,855,091  acres  were  covered 
by  4,758,268  mortgages  stating  and  not  stating  the 
amount  of  indebtedness  incurred  under 
them  ;  the  number  of  acres  covered  by 
mortgage  in  1880  was  42,743,013;  in  18 


Amounts. 


70,678,257,   an  increase  of  65.36  per  cent. 
In  " 


the  case  of  lots  covered  by  mortgage 
the  increase  from  1880  to  1889  was  198.25 
per  cent.,  the  number  covered  by  mort- 
gages stating  and  not  stating  amount  of  indebted- 
ness in  the  former  year  being  429,955 ;  in  the  latter 
year,  1,282,334. 

"  A.t  the  end  of  the  decade,  January  i,  1890,  the  real 
estate  mortgage  indebtedness  amounted  to  $6,019,679,- 
985,  represented  by  4,777.698  mortgages.  These  mort- 
gages are  divided  into  two  classes,  as  follows  :  mort- 
fages  on  acres,  2,303,061  ;  amount  of  indebtedness, 
2,209,148,431  ;  mortgages  on  lots,  2,474,637  ;  amount  of 
indebtedness,  $3,810,531,554.  Number  of  acres  covered 
by  existing  mortgages,  273,352,109;  number  of  lots, 
4,161,138. 

"  New  York  is  conspicuously  prominent  as  having  a 
real  estate  mortgage  indebtedness  of  $1,607,874,301, 
which  is  26.71  per  cent,  of  this  class  of  indebtedness  in 
the  United  States.  Nevada  has  the  smallest  amount 
of  indebtedness  of  this  sort —  viz.,  $2,194,995. 

"It  is  computed  that  the  average  life  of  a  mortgage 
in  the  United  States  is  4.660  years  ;*  of  a  mortgage  on 
acres,  4.540  years  ;  of  a  mortgage  on  lots,  4.749  years. 
The  longer  life  in  the  case  of  both  classes  of  mort- 
gages is  found  in  New  England,  New  York  and  New 
Jersey  ;  the  shorter  life  in  the  South  and  in  the  newly 
settled  regions  west  of  the  Mississippi  River. 

"Since  mortgages  in  force  were  made,  12. 68  per  cent, 
of  the  original  amount  of  indebtedness  incurred  under 
them  has  baen  extinguished  by  partial  payments  ;  in 
the  case  of  mortgages  on  acres,  11.67  per  cent.;  on  lots, 
13.25  per  cent.  The  percentage  of  partial  payments 
is  highest  in  the  South  and  lowest  in  the  more  newly 
settled  regions. 

"Subject  to  all  the  difficulties  that  beset  any  at- 
tempt to  determine  what  proportion  of  the  true  taxed 
real  estate  value  of  the  United  States  is  covered  by 
existing  real  estate  mortgage  indebtedness,  it  appears 
that  the  real  estate  mortgage  indebtedness  in  force  in 
the  United  States  is  16.67  per  cent,  of  the  true  value  of 
all  taxed  real  estate  and  untaxed  mines.  If  Mayor 
Gilroy's  estimate  of  $3,495,725,018  as  the  true  value  of 
real  estate  in  New  York  City  is  accepted,  the  foregoing 
percentage  is  reduced  to  16.15,  and  the  percentage  for 
New  York  State  is  reduced  from  30.62  to  25.06. 

"  In  30  States  the  debt  on  acres  is  12.67  percent,  of  the 
true  value  of  all  taxed  acres  and  untaxed  mines,  and 
in  these  States  the  mortgage  debt  on  lots  is  13.96  per 
cent,  of  the  true  value  of  all  taxed  lots,  mortgaged  and 
not  mortgaged. 

"  Upon  the  assumption  that  all  taxed  real  estate  can 
be  encumbered  for  two  thirds  of  its  true  value  without 

*  It  is  stated  elsewhere  that  by  the  average  life  of  a 
mortgage  the  census  means  the  average  age  of  the 
mortgages  it  found  existent  in  1890.  Mortgages  conse- 
quently live  as  much  longerasthey  ran  after  1890  with- 
out being  paid  off.— ED. 


increasing  the  rate  of  interest  to  cover  additional  risk, 
it  follows  that  25.00  per  cent,  of  the  real  estate  mort- 
gage debt  limit  has  been  reached  in  the  United  States. 
A  computation,  including  Mayor  Gilroy's  estimate 
above  mentioned,  reduces  the  foregoing  percentage  to- 
24.22,  and  the  percentage  for  New  York  State  from 
45.93  to  37-59-  ln  Kansas,  40.24  per  cent,  of  the  debt 
limit  has  been  reached  ;  in  New  Jersey,  39.27  per  cent. 
The  smaller  percentages  are  found  in  the  South  and  in 
the  Rocky  Mountain  region. 

"The  mortgage  debt  in  force  per  capita  in  the  United 
States  is  $96 ;  the  three  largest  State  averages  (omit- 
ting the  District  of  Columbia)  are  $268  in  New  York, 
$206  in  Colorado,  and  $200  in  California.  The  smaller 
ones  are  found  in  the  South  and  the  Rocky  Mountain 
region . 

"In  41  States  28.86  per  cent,  of  the  taxed  acres  are 
covered  by  mortgages  in  force.  The  largest  propor- 
tion of  mortgaged  acres  is  in  Kansas,  where  60.32  per 
cent,  of  the  total  number  of  taxed  acres  are  mort- 

§aged.      Nebraska  stands  next  with  54.73  per  cent.; 
outh  Dakota  third  with  51.76  per  cent. 

"  In  the  five  States,  Illinois,  Kansas,  Missouri,  Nebras- 
ka, and  South  Carolina,  23.99  per  cent,  of  the  taxed 
lots  are  covered  by  mortgages  in  force. 

"  The  average  amount  of  debt  in  force  against  acres 
to  each  mortgaged  acre  in  the  United  States  is  $8.08  ; 
of  debt  in  force  against  lots  to  each  mortgaged  lot, 
$916  ;  there  are  119  acres  covered  by  each  mortgage  in 
force  against  acres,  and  1.68  lots  by  each  mortgage  in 
force  against  lots. 

"The  average  rate  for  all  mortgages  in  the  United 
States  is  6.60  per  cent.;  for  mortgages  on  acres,  7.36  per 
cent.;  for  mortgages  on  lots,  6.16  per  cent.  These  rates 
make  the  anmial  interest  charge  on  the  existing  real 
estate  mortgage  debt  of  the  United  States  amount  to 
$397,442,792  ;  on  the  debt  in  force  against  acres,  $162,652,- 
944  ;  on  lots,  $234,789,848. 

"  On  each  mortgage  in  force  in  the  United  States  the 
average  annual  interest  charge  is  $83  ;  on  each  mort- 
gage in  force  against  acres,  $71  ;  on  each  mortgage  in 
force  against  lots,  $95. 

"  6.03  per  cent,  of  the  number  of  mortgages  were  for 
amounts  of  less  than  $100  each  ;  while  45.17  per  cent,  of 
the  entire  number  were  for  amounts  or  less  than  $500, 
68.54  Per  cent,  of  the  entire  number  for  amounts  of 
less  than  $1000,  27.41  per  cent,  of  the  entire  number  for 
amounts  of  $1000  and  under  $5000  each,  and  4.05  per 
cent,  of  the  entire  number  were  for  amounts  of  $5000 
and  over. 

"41.89  per  cent,  of  the  real  estate  mortgage  indebted- 
ness incurred  in  the  United  States  during  the  decade 
was  subject  to  a  6  per  cent,  rate  of  interest;  16.06  per 
cent,  of  the  debt  incurred   was  subject  to  rates  les& 
than  6  per  cent.;  42.05  per  cent,  of  the 
debt  incurred  was  subject  to  rates  great- 
er than  6  per  cent.;  and  14.41  per  cent,  of 
the  debt  incurred  was  subject  to  rates      Interest. 
greater  than  8  per  cent.  .  .  .    The  aver- 
age rate  of  interest  on  real -estate  mort- 
gages declined  from  7.14  percent,  in  1880 
to  6.75  per  cent,  in  1889,  with  some  interruptions  to  the 
continuity  of  the  decline  in  the  mean  time. 

"  The  average  rate  of  interest  on  mortgages  on  acres 
declined  from  7.62  per  cent,  in  1880  to  7.52  per  cent,  in 
1889,  subject  to  interruptions.  The  average  rate  of  in- 
terest on  the  mortgages  on  lots  declined  from  6.69  per 
cent,  in  1880  to  6.37  per  cent,  in  1889,  with  some  annual 
interruptions.  By  personal  inquiry  in  102  counties  in 
various  parts  of  the  Union,  it  was  discovered  that 
80.13  per  cent,  of  the  number  of  mortgages,  represent- 
ing 82.56  per  cent,  of  the  original  amount  of  mortgages 
in  force,  were  made  to  secure  purchase  money  and  to 
make  improvements  when  not  combined  with  other 
objects,  and  that  89.82  per  cent,  of  the  number  of  mort- 
gages, representing  04.37  per  cent,  of  the  original 
amount  or  existing  indebtedness,  were  made  to  secure 
purchase  money,  to  make  improvements,  to  invest  in 
business,  and  to  buy  the  more  durable  kinds  of  per- 
sonal property,  when  these  objects  were  not  combined 
with  other  objects. 

"  The  percentages  representing  encumbrance  for  the 
various  rates  of  interest  show  that  the  larger  encum- 
brances bear  the  lower  rates  of  interest,  as  a  general 
fact.  The  amount  of  encumbrance  bearing  interest  at 
less  than  6  per  cent,  is  22.20  per  cent,  of  the  total  en- 
cumbrance ;  the  amount  at  6  per  cent,  is  34.44  per 
cent.;  the  amount  at  8  per  cent,  is  14.50  per  cent.;  the 
amount  at  6  to  8  per  cent.,  inclusive,,  is  66.82  per  cent.; 
the  amount  at  rates  greater  than  6  per  cent,  is  43.36  per 
cent.;  the  amount  bearing  rates  greater  than  8  per 
cent,  is  10.98  per  cent.;  the  amount  bearing  rates  greater 
than  to  per  cent.,  1.33  per  cent.;  the  amount  bearing 
rates  greater  than  12  per  cent.,  0.27  of  i  per  cent." 


Mortgages. 


902 


Mortgages, 


ANNUAL  INTEREST  CHARGE  AND  AVERAGE  VALUE,  ENCUMBRANCE,  ANNUAL  INTEREST 
CHARGE,  AND  ANNUAL  RATE  OF  INTEREST  FOR  ENCUMBERED  FARMS  AND  HOMES 
OCCUPIED  BY  OWNERS,  BY  STATES  AND  TERRITORIES,  1890. 


STATES  AND  TERRI- 
TORIES. 

AVERAGE  VALUE  OF 
EACH  ENCUMBERED. 

AVERAGE  ENCUM- 
BRANCE ON  EACH. 

Annual 
Interest 
Charge. 

AVERAGE  AN- 
NUAL RATE  OF 
INTEREST. 

Total. 

Farm. 

Home. 

Total. 

Farm. 

Home. 

To- 
tal. 

For 
Farms 

For 
Homes 

t 

The  United  States  

$3-352 

$3-444 

$3.250 

$1,257 

$1,224 

$1,293 

$141,910,106 

6.65 

7.07 

6.23 

$i,755 
3,707 
i,554 
7,883 
4,483 
3-734 
3-994 
7-°47 
3,263 
1,852 
3-735 
3,928 
2,673 
3,452 
2,875 
2,659 
4.695 
1,  608 
3,056 
3-878 
2,400 
2-934 
I-I97 
2,635 
4,484 
3-327 
8,071 
2,140 
4.052 
3-397 
4,409 
!>633 
2,445 
3,o°5 

$1,392 
4,416 
1,382 
",233 
4,379 
3-  "5 
4-875 
5-278 
3-921 
1,627 
3-96o 
4,862 
3-209 
3.964 
3-I29 
2,665 
5,423 
1.449 
4,251 
3,158 
2,748 
2,574 
1,138 
2,643 
5.624 
3,346 
11,188 
1,940 
4,891 
4,346 
4,010 
1,584 
2,486 
3,829 

$3,132 
3.305 

1.999 
5-205 
4.552 
3.926 
3,616 
7.054 
2,647 
2,396 
2,946 
3-"4 
1,861 
1,987 

2,202 
2,651 

3-731 
1,830 
2-346 
3-990 
1,842 
3,692 
1-556 

2,616 
3,612 
3,268 
4,513 
2.336 
3,829 
2,891 
4,657 
',795 
2,049 
2,366 

$73° 
1,396 
678 
2,516 
1,517 
1-592 
1,788 
2,436 
1,117 
781 
1,129 
1,406 
836 
1,148 
1,042 
974 
1,990 
594 
1,197 
1,733 
792 
960 
639 
911 

i,5" 
1,076 
2,702 
8  10 
1,821 
1,194 
1,891 
755 
890 
1,069 

$609 

I-791 
6:3 
3,406 
1,418 
1,266 
2,147 
1.730 
1.224 
68  1 
1,190 
1,684 
972 
1,319 
1,126 
1,069 
2,392 
532 
1,636 

1,323 
890 
814 
619 

853 
1,782 
1,084 
3,7o6 
746 
2,428 
1,487 
1,749 
722 
902 
L3I3 

$1,190 
1,172 

845 

1,805 

1-583 
1,694 
1-633 

2,439 
1,017 

1,020 

9«5 

1,164 

628 
659 
820 
842 

1,457 
68  1 
937 
1,797 
636 
1,268 
762 
,041 

,3°3 
,052 

,555 
873 
,660 

.037 

,979 
864 
771 
879 

$250,099 
63,468 
293,836 
6,742,490 
1,328,662 
2,485,099 
470,249 
386,464 
171,178 
224,327 

178,559 
12,101,865 
4.595-769 
8,866,406 
7,722,864 
561,107 
397.693 
795,641 
1,458,323 
6,300,650 
6.643,213 
5,160,349 
339-088 
6,397,369 
332-305 
5.154,977 
108,020 
548,003 
5-175,034 
90,178 
20,858,128 
404,412 
1,158,744 
8,779.H3 

8.69 

i3-07 
9.44 
8.67 
8.86 
5-47 
5-67 
5  99 
10.53 
8.16 
10.66 
6.82 
6.89 
7.42 

8    21 

6.70 
8.02 
6.17 
5-82 
5-49 
7-i3 
7.86 
9-74 
7.71 
10.97 

8.20 

9.78 
5-92 
5-64 
10.48 

5-48 

7.91 
9.53 

6.66 

8.91 

12.  6l 

9-35 
8.78 
9.23 
5-57 
5-7° 
6.00 
10.72 
8-33 
10.55 
6.92 
6.89 
7.36 
8.15 
6.68 
8.06 
6.26 
5'79 
5-58 
7.10 
8.18 
9-79 
7-93 
10.97 

8.22 

9-63 
5-91 
5-69 

10.05 

5.66 

7-95 

9-54 
6.68 

8.25 
13.46 
9,60 
8.51 
8  64 
5-45 
5-65 
5-9Q 
10.32 
7-89 
11.15 
6.69 
6.89 
7-74 
8.42 
6-74 
7-94 
6.06 
5-85 
5-48 
7.18 
7.42 
9-45 
7.30 
10.97 
8.13 
10.19 

5-92 
5.62 
10.80 
5.38 
7.80 
9.42 
6.63 

Colorado  

Connecticut  

Delaware  

District  of  Columbia  

Florida  

Georgia  

Illinois  

Indiana  

Iowa  

Kansas  

Kentucky  

Louisiana  

Maryland     

Massachusetts  

Minnesota  

Mississippi  

Missouri  .... 

Montana  

Nebraska  

Nevada  

New  Hampshire  

New  Jersey  

New  Mexico  

New  York        

North  Carolina  

North  Dakota  

Ohio  

Oklahoma  

Oregon  

4,622 
3,669 
4-142 
i,978 
1,854 
1-739 
2,273 
3>699 
2,261 
2,456 
4-697 
1,965 
2,761 
3,364 

4-359 

4,222 

3.581 
1,851 
1,846 
1,663 
2,158 
3-670 
2,405 

2,747 
4,632 
2,060 
3-005 
3-6oo 

4-9H 
3,416 
4,207 
2,356 
1,894 
1.84*7 
2,580 

3.7" 

2,026 
2,067 
4,788 
1,809 
2,314 
3-'7i 

1-347 
1,550 
1,829 
974 
707 
732 
952 
994 
909 
1  ,200 
1,350 
651 
915 
1,289 

1,301 
1,716 
1,525 
93° 
712 
667 
899 
9'5 
,004 
,308 
.327 
664 

,001 

.247 

1,398 
1,473 
1,864 
1,104 
681 
824 
1,090 
1,028 
754 
1,056 
1,382 
631 
756 
1.324 

1,197,066 
11,616,799 
801,996 
397,960 

1-744,743 
264,277 
822,852 
194,086 
1,029,184 
335-528 
1,173,923 
475,631 
5,198,508 
112,941 

8.89 
5-49 
5.78 
8.46 
9^52 
6.  20 
8.70 
9.83 

5-90 
6.16 
9-63 
6.25 
6.66 
10.82 

9.06 

5-43 
5-82 
8.57 
9-52 

6.21 

8.38 
10.13 
5.88 
6.06 
9.87 
6.  19 
6.64 
10.92 

8.72 
5-52 
5-78 
8.X7 
9-49 
6.20 

9.42 
9.71 
5-94 
6.32 
9.3i 
6-34 
6.70 
10.73 

Pennsylvania  

Rhode  Island  

South  Carolina  

South  Dakota  

Tennessee  

Texas  

Utah  

Vermont  

Virginia  

Washington  

West  Virginia  

Wisconsin  

Wyoming  

PERCENTAGE  OF  NUMBER  AND  ORIGINAL  AMOUNT  OF  MORTGAGES   IN   FORCE  JANUARY  i, 
1890,  AS    DETERMINED  BY  PERSONAL  INQUIRY  :    TOTAL  FOR   102  SELECTED  COUNTIES. 


OBJECTS  OF  INDEBTEDNESS. 

For 
Number. 

For 

Amount. 

Purchase-money      

56.66 

20.81 

Purchase-money  and  improvements  (combined)  

5.09 

Business  ....        

8.92 

Farm  machines,  domestic  animals,  and  other  personal  property  

1.95 

0.70 

Purchase  -money,  improvements,  business,  and   personal  property  (combined)  
Purchase-money,  improvements,  business,  and  personal  property  (combined  with  ob- 

i-73 

2.19 

Purchase-money,  improvements,  business,    and  personal  property  (combined  with 

2.06 

1.32 

Farm  and  family  expenses        .        

5.40 

1.73 

2.27 

1.95 

Total  for  purchase-money,  improvements,  business,  and  personal  property  (not  com- 
bined with  other  objects)     ..               •• 

89.82 

94.37 

Mortgages. 


903 


Mortgages. 


II.  SIGNIFICANCE  OF  MORTGAGES. 

There  are  two  views  of  the  significance  of 
mortgages,  both  of  which  must  be  understood. 
The  view  that  America  is  becoming  a  nation  of 
tenants  is  well  known.  Says  Mr.  J.  P.  Dunn, 
Jr.,  writing  in  the  Political  Science  Quarterly 
lor  March,  1890,  after  describing  the  situation  : 

"  The  mortgage  indebtedness  of  the  Western  States 
is  a  matter  worthy  the  attention  of  economists  and 
statesmen,  as  well  as  of  the  people  of  those  States. 
Whatever  may  be  thought  of  its  effects,  it  is  a  fact- 
mountainous  and  immovable.  And  more,  the  proba- 
bilities that  loom  far  above  the  figures  here  presented 
make  it  very  questionable  whether  the  'alarmists' 
who  have  discussed  the  subject  have  in  fact  materially 
exaggerated  the  existing  conditions.  .  .  . 

"  If  the  people  of  any  Western  State  may  be  con- 
sidered thrifty  and  judicious,  the  people  of  Michigan 
may,  and  by  the  official  records  their  condition  appears 
to  be  as  bad  as  that  of  their  neighbors  in 

,  Indiana.  In  1887  an  attempt  was  made 

The  Burden  by  the  bureau  of  statistics  to  ascertain 
of  Debt.  the  mortgage  debt  of  the  State  through 
personal  declarations  of  the  owners  of 
land.  This  is  the  best  method  of  ascer- 
taining the  amount  of  existing  debt ;  the  only  flaw  in 
it  being  that  some  persons,  considering  that  the  public 
has  no  interest  in  their  affairs,  refuse  to  give  the  in- 
formation. In  consequence  the  returns  are  less  than 
the  reality  ;  but  in  the  desire  to  keep  within  the  truth, 
we  accept  them  as  accurate.  They  show  (report  of 
1888)  that  the  real-estate  mortgages  of  the  State  amount 
to  $129,229,553,  with  an  annual  interest  payment  of 
$9,451,851,  on  a  total  realty  valuation  of  $686,614,741.  Of 
this  amount  $64,392,580  is  on  farms,  and  the  annual  in- 
terest charge  is  $4,636,265.  The  farms  mortgaged  are 
47.4  per  cent  of  all  the  farms  in  the  State,  and  the 
mortgage  debt  is  46.8  per  cent  of  the  assessed  value  of 
the  farms  mortgaged.  The  number  of  foreclosures 
made  during  the  year  was  1667,  and  in  only  131  cases 
were  redemptions  made,  leaving  a  net  loss  of  1536 
pieces  of  property  by  foreclosure  in  one  year.  The 
situation  apparently  justifies  the  statement  of  Com- 
missioner Heath  that  '  a  very  large  proportion  of  the 
people  seem  to  be  in  a  financial  rut,  and  are  unable  to 
extricate  themselves.'  " 

Mr.  D.  R.  Goodloe,  in  the  Forum  for  No- 
vember, 1890,  says  : 

"  The  conclusion  from  this  melancholy  array  of  facts 
is  irresistible.  The  virgin  soil  of  the  West  is  rapidly 
ceasing  to  be  the  home  and  the  possession  of  the  sturdy 
American  freeman.  He  is  but  a  tenant  at  will,  or  a 
dependent  upon  the  tender  mercies  of  soulless  corpo- 
rations and  of  absentee  landlords.  We  have  abolished 
monarchy,  and  primogeniture,  and  church  establish- 
ments supported  by  the  State  ;  yet  the  universal  curse 
of  humanity,  the  monopoly  of  the  earth  by  the  wealthy 
few,  remains.  It  is  related  of  John  Randolph  of  Ro- 
anoke,  that  when  visiting  a  neighboring  planter  about 
70  years  ago,  he  found  his  hostess,  surrounded  by  her 
female  servants,  making  clothing  for  the  Greeks  who 
were  struggling  for  liberty  and  independence.  But 
while  taking  leave,  he  observed  a  troop  of  ragged 
slaves  approaching  the  house  ;  and  turning,  he  said  to 
the  lady,  'Madam,  the  Greeks  are  at  your  door.'  And 
now  to  America,  aglow  with  sympathy  for  the  Irish, 
may  be  said,  '  Madam,  Ireland  is  at  your  door."  " 

Other  writers,  however,  like  Mr.  Edward  At- 
kinson, argue  that  the  mortgage  is  an  indication 
of  prosperity.  He  says,  in  the  Forum  for  May, 
1895,  writing  (before  the  complete  mortgage 
returns  given  above  had  been  reported)  con- 
cerning the  census  returns  for  33  States  : 

"  The  first  startling  fact  developed  by  the  mortgage 
statistics  is  that  in  these  specific  33  States  and  Territo- 
ries nearly  7,000,000  mortgages  have  been  recorded  in 
ten  years  for  a  total  sum  of  nearly  $9,500,000,000.  The 
•final  statement,  covering  the  whole  country,  which 
has  not  yet  been  published,  discloses  the  fact  that 
VoI7t747  mortgages  were  executed  in  the  decade  1880- 
89,  to  the  amount  of  $12,094.877,793.  .  .  . 

"  On  the  first  of  January,  1890,  the  amount  of  these 
mortgages  remaining  unpaid  in  33  States  was  $4,935, - 
455,896  i  in  the  whole  United  States,  $6,019,679,985.  It 


therefore  appears  that  during  the  decade  one  half  the 
mortgage  debt  incurred  had  already  been  paid.  The 
amount  of  mortgages  outstanding  at  the  beginning  of 
this  decade  has  not  been  ascertained  ;  it  can  only  be 
inferred  by  deductions  from  the  growth  of  mortgages 
since  its  beginning.  The  least  estimate  of  the  sum  due 
on  acres  and  lots  at  the  beginning  of  this  period  would 
be  $1,500,000,000. 

"These  original  mortgages  executed  prior  to  1880 
must  have  been  wholly  liquidated,  mostly  by  payment. 
Evidence  obtained  from  solvent  farm-mortgage  com- 
panies proves  that,  as  fast  as  they  matured,  they  were 
either  finally  paid,  or  else  in  some  instances  new  mort- 
gages were  executed  at  much  lower  rates  of  interest 
than  were  customary  in  the  era  of  paper  money  in  the 
previous  decade.  On  this  basis  the  summary  would 
be  : 

Mortgages  in  force  January  i,  1880, 

estimated $1,500,000,060 

Executed  since 12,000,000,000 

Total $13,500,000,000 

In  force,  January  i,  1890 6,000,000,000 

Paid $7,500,000,000 

The  payments  therefore  amounted  to  55  per  cent.,  yet 
at  the  end  of  the  decade  the  mortgage  debt  on  acres 
and  lots  was  $6,000,000,000. 

"  A  loud  outcry  has  been  made  by  the  populists  and 
the  advocates  of  cheap  money,  in  support  of  the  free 
coinage  of  silver,  and  other  devices  in  fraud  of  both 
debtors  and  creditors  alike,  upon  the  ground  that  this 
is  an  unbearable  burden.  We  must  therefore  wrest 
from  these  statistics  their  true  meaning.  .  .  . 

"  In  order  to  bring  out  the  evidence  of  prosperity 
rather  than  adversity  developed  in  these  conditions, 
one  must  ask,  what  does  a  man,  in  fact,  borrow,  when 
he  executes  a  mortgage  upon  land?    He 
does  not  borrow  money  in  a  true  sense. 
In  a  vast  number  of  cases  only  a  title  to    Indication 
money  passes  in  the  form  of  a  check,  a  of  Prosperity. 
draft,  or  a  bill  of  exchange.     What  he 
in  fact  borrows  is  the  land  itself,  or  such 
part  of  it  as  the  encumbrance  represents.    If  we  re-» 
gard  foreclosure  as  a  sign  of   lack  of  benefit  to  the 
borrower,  the  figures  show  that  in  all  but  an  insignifi- 
cant proportion  of  these   negotiations  it  has  been  as 
much  or  more  to  the  advantage  of  the  borrower  to 
borrow  the  farm  or  home  as  it  has  been  to  the  benefit 
of  the  lender  in  securing  interest  on  the  loan.    The 
advantage  is  mutual,  but  distinctly  greater  on  the  part 
of  the  borrower,  who  has  been  enabled  to  become  the 
owner  of  a  homestead  and  the  improvements  thereon 
at  lessening  rates  of  interest  throughout  this  period. 

"In  proof  of  these  benefits  the  following  facts  are 
deduced  from  Bulletin  63  of  Farms  and  Homes.  Of 
the  money  borrowed  on  mortgage,  77.38  per  cent,  was 
borrowed  for  the  purchase  or  improvement  of  the 
land.  Add  the  sums  borrowed  for  durable  personal 
property  or  capital,  and  we  find  that  more  than  86  per 
cent,  of  the  money  borrowed  was  expended  in  the  pur- 
chase or  improvement  of  land  or  for  durable  capital 
used  thereon.  Of  the  money  borrowed  during  this  de- 
cade, 2.82  per  cent,  was  borrowed  to  meet  farm  or 
family  expenses. 

"Again,  one  of  the  most  startling  facts  disclosed 
by  these  statistics  is  that  the  total  debt  on  acres  and 
lots  combined,  which  was  outstanding  January  i,  1890, 
amounted  to  16.67  per  cent,  of  the  true  value  of  the  real 
estate  represented  in  these  tables,  encumbered  and  un- 
encumbered. It  being  assumed  that  a  mortgage  debt 
would  be  safe  up  to  two  thirds  the  value,  it  appears 
that  the  actual  encumbrance  might  have  been  safely 
increased  four  times.  At  only  one  third— a  more  con- 
servative estimate— it  could  have  been  doubled. 

"  It  has  been  stated  that  there  is  a  manifest  tendency 
to  an  increase  in  the  proportion  of  hired  farms  in  the 
older  grain -growing  States  of  the  Mississippi  Valley, 
which  calls  for  explanation.  The  question  arises,  does 
this  mean  the  growth  of  a  landlord  and  tenant  system, 
as  it  is  commonly  understood?  It  did  not  form  a  part 
of  the  duty  of  the  census  officials  to  investigate  this 
subject,  but  of  course  this  tendency  attracted  their 
attention,  and  while  they  may  not  rightly  give  any 
official  opinion,  I  am  assured  that  their  views  are  not 
inconsistent  with  the  evidence  that  I  have  obtained 
from  other  sources  upon  this  matter.  I  have  put 
questions  to  various  persons  in  the  grain-growing 
States,  who  are  in  a  position  to  know  the  facts— per- 
sons connected  with  successful  and  solvent  farm-mort- 
gage companies,  or  chiefs  of  bureaus  of  statistics  of 
labor,  or  collectors  of  statistical  data  relating  to  crops. 


Mortgages. 


904 


Multiple  Money  Standard. 


All  replies  are  of  the  same  general  tenor.  The  ques- 
tions put  to  them  were  substantially  as  follows : 

"  i.  Does  the  increase  in  the  number  of  hired  farms 
indicate  a  tendency  to  the  establishment  of  permanent 
relations  of  landlord  and  tenant  such  as  are  customary 
in  Great  Britain  ? 

"  2.  Does  it  indicate  the  concentration  of  land  in  fewer 
hands  ? 

"  3.  Does  it  indicate  better  methods  of  agriculture, 
or  the  reverse  ? 

"  The  summary  of  the  replies  to  these  questions  may 
be  given  in  the  following  terms  :  These  lands  have 
been  taken  up  and  settled  mainly  during  the  last  50 
years  by  men  of  whom  many  are  now 
._  _  living.  These  men  have,  as  a  rule,  pros- 

NOt  an  in-  pered.  The  larger  portion  of  them  or 

dication    Of  their  descendants  own  their  farms,  and 

TenanCV.  many  possess  other  property.  The  con- 
**  ditions  have  changed  from  those  which 
are  pictured  in  the  early  life  of  Abra- 
ham Lincoln  to  the  condition  which  farmers  now  enjoy. 
A  part  of  the  other  property  of  such  farmers  in  many 
instances  consists  of  money  lent  on  mortgage  on  lots 
or  farms  in  their  own  or  neighboring  States.  In  102  typ- 
ical counties  selected  from  all  portions  of  the  country 
for  the  purpose  of  a  special  investigation  by  the  census 
authorities,  it  was  disclosed  that  68.69  Per  cen^-  of  the 
mortgages  incurred  were  held  by  citizens  of  the  same 
State  in  which  the  mortgaged  real  estate  is.  Many  of 
those  prosperous  farmers  have  retired  to  towns  and 
cities  in  order  to  educate  their  children  and  to  enjoy  in 
their  latter  years  some  of  the  privileges  of  town  life— 
their  early  life  having  been  passed  in  isolated  places 
under  very  arduous  conditions.  In  many  cases  their 
farms  are  let  to  their  sons.  In  many  other  cases  men 
who  have  not  retired  have  leased  a  part  of  their  farms 
to  their  children.  In  many  others,  again,  those  who 
have  retired  have  let  their  farms  to  men  formerly  in 
their  employ.  A  very  small  proportion  are  hired  by 
farmers  who  have  been  unable  to  pay  mortgages  which 
have  been  foreclosed,  who  now  lease  the  farms  in  the 
hope  of  recovery.  There  are  great  numbers  of  men 
who  have  served  as  hired  men  on  farms,  who  have  laid 
up  their  earnings,  and  who  prefer  to  hire  land  in  the 
neighborhood  where  they  are  known,  and  where  they 
can  have  the  benefit  of  schools  and  good  surroundings, 
rather  than  to  move  away  to  take  up  new  land  on  the 
outskirts  of  civilization. 

"  The  evidence  is  conclusive  that  the  increase  of  hired 
farms  does  not  imply  the  permanent  establishment  of 
the  relations  of  landlord  and  tenant  after  the  English 
fashion.  It  does  not  imply  the  concentration  of  land 
in  fewer  hands,  but  rather  the  reverse.  It  does  imply 
better  and  more  intelligent  methods  of  agriculture, 
larger  and  more  varied  crops  produced  from  lessening 
areas  of  land  throughout  the  whole  great  grain-grow- 
ing section." 

Mr.  G.  H.  Holmes,  writing  in  the  Annals  of 
the  American  Academy  of  Political  and  Social 
Science  Quarterly,  gives  a  more  balanced 
view.  He  says  : 

"  While  mortgage  debtors  must  ad.mit  that  they  have 
done  better  to  obtain  real  estate  on  credit  than  not  to 
obtain  as  much  of  it  as  they  have  done,  or  not  to  obtain 
it  at  all,  they  are  nevertheless  in  a  situation  where  they 
feel  the  pinching  effects  of  a  reduction  or  loss  of  income 
more  than  real-estate  owners  do  who  are  not  debtors. 
This  is  owing  to  the  interest  that  is  wanted  by  the 
mortgagee." 

The  mortgage,  then,  indicates  a  hope  of  prog- 
ress, but  also  a  slavery  to  interest,  tinder  which 
many  sink. 

References  :  See  articles  quoted  in  this  article  ;  also 
•  United  States  Census  Reports,  which  give  mortgage 
statistics  in  detail. 

MOSES  (Hebrew  Moschek)  was  the  great 
leader  of  the  Hebrew  race,  who  led  them  out  of 
slavery  in  Egypt  and  founded  the  Hebrew 
theocracy  in  Palestine.  Modern  scholarship  has 
thrown  grave  doubts  on  the  Mosaic  authorship 
of  the  Pentateuch,  but  few  question  that  Moses 
was  a  historical  character  and  one  of  the  greatest 
leaders  and  social  reformers  of  the  human  race. 
There  are  traditions  of  him  (Egyptian)  in  Ma- 
netho  (Hebrew),  in  the  Midrash,  and  Josephus 
(Greek)  in  Philo,  tho  they  are  mainly  based  on 
the  Bible  narrative.  He  was  probably  born  at 


Heliopolis  in  the  eighteenth  dynasty  in  Egypt, 
or  1500  B.C.,  according  to  the  Bible  chronology. 
His  social  system  was  a  theocratic  socialism, 
based  on  the  fatherhood  of  God  and  the  unity  of 
the  people.  Land  was  considered  as  belonging 
to  God,  and  the  individual  only  allowed  and  pro- 
tected in  its  use.  The  poor  and  infirm  were  par- 
ticularly protected.  (See  JUDAISM  ;  also  the  Bible 
itself :  Genesis,  Exodus,  Leviticus,  Numbers, 
Deuteronom  y . ) 

MOST,  JOHANN  JOSEPH,  was  born  at 
Augsburg  in  1846,  but  moving  to  Berlin,  early 
became  known  as  a  leader  of  the  most  violent  and 
anarchistic  wing  of  German  socialism  in  con- 
nection with  the  International,  till  he  was  driven 
out  of  their  organization  by  the  socialists.  Ex- 
pelled from  Berlin  in  1878,  he  went  to  London, 
and  there,  in  1879,  founded  the  Freiheit,  an  or- 
gan of  anarchist  communism.  In  1881  he  was 
condemned  to  16  months'  hard  labor  for  his  in- 
cendiary utterances  concerning  the  assassina- 
tion of  the  Czar.  In  1882  he  emigrated  to  New 
York,  and  has  since  published  his  paper  from 
that  city.  He  has  been  imprisoned  more  than 
once,  but  still  remains  the  leading  anarchist- 
communist  in  the  United  States.  Among  his 
writings  are  :  Die  Losung  der  sociale  Frage 
(Berlin,  1876)  ;  Die  Anarchie (New  York,  1888)  ; 
Social  Monster  (1890). 

MULTIPLE  MONEY  STANDARD.    For 

the  general  principles  involved,  see  MONEY  ;  CON- 
TRACTION AND  EXPANSION  OF  CURRENCY  ;  GOLD  ; 
SILVER.  We  give  here  a  brief  state'ment  of  the 
monetary  idea  which  proposes  for  the  standard 
of  money  a  so-called  multiple  standard.  We 
give  it  only  in  its  simplest  elements,  appending 
references  for  the  various  forms  in  which  it  has 
been  advocated.  In  its  essence  the  idea  is  this  : 

That  no  one  commodity  should  be  used  as  a 
monetary  standard,  like  goM  or  silver,  but  that 
the  standard  should  consist  of  a  large  number 
of  commodities  combined  in  the  following  way. 
A  monetary  commission  appointed  by  Congress 
would  first  choose  a  long  list  of  standard  com- 
modities, and  determine  in  what  proportion  they 
enter  into  the  expenses  of  the  average  family, 
say,  of  a  working  man.  Then  it  should  ascer- 
tain the  average  market  price  of  each  commod- 
ity, and  average  these  in  proportion  to  the  ex- 
tent to  which  each  of  them  has  been  found  to  en- 
ter into  average  expenses.  This  final  average 
would  be  the  point  of  departure  for  the  multiple 
standard.  The  commission  would  then  watch 
the  variations  in  the  market,  and  when  average 
prices  went  above  the  average  it  had  fixed,  the 
commission  would  report  to  the  Government, 
and  the  Government  would  contract  the  cur- 
rency, and  thus  (see  CONTRACTION  AND  EXPAN- 
SION OF  CURRENCY)  lower  prices  If,  on  the 
other  hand,  prices  went  down,  it  would  report 
to  the  Government,  which  would  then  expand 
the  currency  and  raise  prices,  thus  keeping 
average  prices  always  on  a  level  by  a  contract- 
ing or  expanding  of  the  currency,  according  as 
the  monetary  commission  reported  prices  to 
have  risen  or  fallen. 

Such  is  the  essence  of  the  idea.  It  is  usually 
proposed  that  it  be  enacted  in  connection  with 
the  use  of  paper  money,  since  that  can  be  most 
easily  contracted  or  expanded,  and  since,  too, 
this  is  generally  conceded  to  be  the  best  money, 


Multiple  Money  Standard. 


905 


Municipalism. 


provided  that  its  quantity  of  issue  be  carefully 
controlled,  which  this  plan  would  accomplish. 
It  would  leave  the  decision  to  contract  or  ex- 
pand not  to  Congress,  nor  even  to  the  commis- 
sion, but  have  it  follow  a  fixed  law,  the  commis- 
sion simply  reporting  on  the  facts.  It  is  be- 
lieved that  this  would  take  out  of  politics  the 
vexed  question  of  monetary  contraction  or  ex- 
pansion, and  furnish  a  standard  of  money  well- 
nigh  invariable,  because  changing  exactly  oppo- 
site to  the  market,  and  hence  producing  stability. 
The  plan  has  been  gradually  worked  out  by 
many  writers.  Joseph  Lowe,  in 
1822,  whom  Jevons  calls  a  very  able 
Authorities,  writer,  and  Poulett  Scrope,  in  1833, 
proposed  the  plan  ot  tabular  stand- 
ard, tho  not  in  connection  with 
the  expanding  or  contracting  of  money.  The 
Swiss  Prof essor_  Walrus  worked  out  this  idea. 
Professor  Marshall  suggested  improvements  in 
the  original  plan  (Contemporary  Review,  vol. 
ii.,  p.  355).  President  Andrews  (An  Honest 
Dollar,  isted. ,  published  by  the  American  Eco- 
nomic Association,  1889)  strongly  urges  the 
plan.  Professor  J.  A.  Smith  devotes  a  long 
article  to  it  in  the  annals  of  the  American  Acad- 
emy of  Political  and  Social  Science  (vol.  vii., 
p.  173).  Mr.  Fonda,  Honest  Money',  proposes 
a  new  detailed  form  of  the  plan.  Of  the  tabu- 
lar standard,  Jevons  says  (Money  and  the  Mech- 
anism of  Exchange,  pp.  330-33) : 

"  Such  schemes  for  a  tabular  or  average  standard 
value  appear  to  be  perfectly  sound  and  highly  valua- 
ble in  a  theoretical  point  of  view,  and  the  practical 
difficulties  are  not  of  a  serious  character.  .  .  .  The 
difficulties  in  the  way  of  such  a  scheme  are  not  con- 
siderable. It  would,  no  doubt,  introduce  a  certain  com- 
plexity into  the  relations  of  debtors  and  creditors,  and 
disputes  might  sometimes  arise  as  to  the  date  of  the 
debt  whence  the  calculation  must  be  made.  Such  dif- 
ficulties would  not  exceed  those  arising  from  the  pay- 
ment of  interest,  which  likewise  depends  upon  the 
duration  of  the  debt.  The  work  of  the  commission, 
when  once  established  and  directed  by  act  of  Parlia- 
ment, would  be  little  more  than  that  of  accountants 
acting  according  to  fixed  rules.  Their  decisions  would 
be  of  a  perfectly  bona  fide  and  reliable  character,  be- 
cause, in  addition  to  their  average  results,  they  would 
be  required  to  publish  periodically  the  detailed  tables 
of  prices  upon  which  their  calculations  were  founded, 
and  thus  many  persons  could  sufficiently  verify  the 
data  and  the  calculations.  Fraud  would  be  out  of  the 
question." 

See  also  PAPER  MONEY. 

MUN,  ADRIEN  ALBERT  MARIE, 
COUNT  DE,  is  a  leading  French  Roman 
Catholic  Christian  Socialist.  A  captain  of 
French  cuirassiers,  and  of  social  position,  he 
was  instrumental  in  founding  L'GLuvre  des 
Civiles  Ouvriers.  (See  CHRISTIAN  SOCIALISM.) 
With  gift  of  eloquence  he  has  advocated  his 
views  by  pen  and  speech,  and  has  been  frequent- 
ly elected  deputy.  He  now  calls  himself,  how- 
ever, politically  not  a  Christian  Socialist,  but  a 
conservateur  rallie.  He  has  twice  conducted 
large  bodies  of  working  men  to  Rome  to  receive 
the  papal  blessing. 

MUN,  THOMAS,  was  born  in  London  in 
1571 .  Becoming  a  merchant  he  amassed  a  con- 
siderable fortune  by  commerce  with  the  East. 
In  1628  he  had  charge  of  a  petition  from  the 
merchants  of  Ostend  to  Parliament,  and  in  1630 
he  received  from  the  Grand  Duke  of  Tuscany 


a  license  to  trade  in  his  dominions.  He  died 
in  1641.  Mun  is  one  of  the  earliest  English 
mercantilists.  His  chief  work,  containing  ex- 
cellent reflections  upon  supply  and  demand, 
and  practical  conclusions  which  it  would  be 
well  for  England  to  apply,  is  still  extant.  It 
is  England's  Treasure  by  Foreign  Trade 
(probably  written  in  1630,  but  not  published  till 
1664,  long  after  his  death).  It  is  noteworthy 
that,  in  opposition  to  many  mercantilists,  he  ad- 
vocated the  exportation  of  gold  when  a  surplus 
of  that  metal  remained  in  the  country. 

MUNICIPALISM.— (For  the  history,  sta- 
tistics, present  needs,  and  conditions  of  cities, 
see  CITY.  For  the  municipal  reform  movement 
in  the  United  States  conducted  by  the  various 
municipal  leagues,  see  MUNICIPAL  REFORM.  For 
Europe,  see  BERLIN  ;  BIRMINGHAM  ;  GLASGOW  ; 
LONDON  ;  PARIS  ;  also  the  different  countries.) 
Municipalism  may  be  denned  as  the  theory,  or 
the  practice  of  the  theory,  that  it  is  wise  to  ex- 
tend the  functions  of  the  municipality. 

In  the  United  States,  the  general  tendency 
has  been  to  minimize  the  municipality's  func- 
tions. The  presumption  is  against  municipal 
activity  and  for  private  action.  Says  Judge 
Dillon,  in  his  authoritative  work  on  Municipal 
Corporations : 

"  It  is  a  general  and  undisputed  proposition  of  law, 
that  a  municipal  corporation  possesses  andean  exercise 
the  following  powers  and  no  others :  First,  those 
granted  in  express  words  :  second,  those  necessarily  or 
fairly  implied  in  or  incident  to  the  powers  expressly 
granted  ;  third,  those  essential  to  the  declared  objects 
and  purposes  of  the  corporation,  not  simply  convenient, 
but  indispensable.  Any  fair,  reasonable  doubt  con- 
cerning the  existence  of  power  is  resolved  by  the 
courts  against  the  corporation,  and  the  power  is  de- 
nied. Of  every  municipal  corporation  the  charter,  or 
statute  by  which  it  is  created,  is  its  organic  act. 
Neither  the  corporation  nor  its  officers  can  do  any  act, 
or  make  any  contract,  or  incur  any  liability,  not  au- 
thorized thereby.  All  acts  beyond  the  scope  of  the 
powers  granted  are  void.  .  .  .  These  principles  are 
of  transcendent  importance,  and  lie  at  the  foundation 
of  the  law  of  municipal  corporations."  — 

In  Europe,  the  opposite  is  the  case.  The  re- 
sult is  that  in  America  the  corporate  city,  being 
thought  little  of,  has  been  left,  generally  speak- 
ing, to  be  managed  by  a  low  class  of  politicians, 
and  thus  to  become  corrupt  and  weak  ;  while  in 
Europe,  the  function  of  the  city  being  highly 
conceived,  city  offices  have  attracted  to  them- 
selves some  of  the  best  and  ablest  citizens,  and 
thus  the  European  city  has  become,  as  com- 
pared with  American  cities,  efficient  and  pure. 
At  least  such  is  the  view  of  many  municipalists. 
The  only  way  to  purify  American  city  govern- 
ments, such  municipalists  argue,  is  to  exalt 
and  expand  the  city's  function.  This,  too,  they 
say,  is  cheaper  and  better  in  every  way  for  the 
citizens  than  to  allow  its  streets  to  be  given  over 
to  the  control  of  private  street  railway  compa- 
nies, its  gas,  electric  lighting,  and  other  natural 
monopolies  to  be  provided  by  favored  compa- 
nies, which  think  first  of  dividend  and  secondly 
of  the  public  convenience.  Such  is  the  theory  of 
municipalism  in  brief.  Many,  moreover,  who 
would  not  agree  to  any  such  general  proposi- 
tions as  the  above,  do  believe  in  much  of  the 
mumcipalist  program,  considering,  however, 
each  case  concretely  on  its  merits.  We  must, 
therefore,  refer  the  reader  tor  the  details  of  mu- 


Municipalism. 


906 


Municipalism. 


nicipalism  to  BATHS  ;  ELECTRIC  LIGHTING  ;  FIRE 
DEPARTMENT  ;  GAS  ;  LAVATORIES  ;  STREET  RAIL- 
WAYS ;  NATURAL  MONOPOLIES,  etc.  (For  exam- 
ples of  municipalism,  see  BERLIN  ;  BIRMING- 
HAM ;  GLASGOW  ;  LONDON  ;  PARIS.)  We  give 
here  a  few  representative  general  views. 

Says  Mr.  Francis  Bellamy,  in  an  address  on 
Municipal  Government,  delivered  in  New 
Haven,  November  n,  1890  : 

"Why  is  the  municipal  government  of  Berlin  or  Bir- 
mingham or  Glasgow  so  much  less  corrupt  and  more 
efficient  than  ours  ?  Certainly  not  because  their  citi- 
zens are  more  intelligent  or  more  moral  than  Ameri- 
cans. One  reason  certainly  is  that  the  machinery  is 
more  simple  and  direct.  But  the  deepest  reason  is  that 
the  functions  are  so  much  more  extensive  that  not 
only  are  the  most  capable  men  led  to  take  office,  but 
the  people  generally  are  attentive  to  the  problems 
which  the  many-sided  business  of  the  city  presents. 

"If  it  is  objected  that  monopolies  should  be  kept  out 
of  politics,  we  can  only  reply  that  monopolies  are  in 
politics.  They  depend  on  legislatures  and  city  coun- 
cils and  on  politicians  and  lobbyists  for  their  very 
existence.  Private  monopolies  have  debauched  our 
politics,  and  are  a  continual  menace  to  uncorrupted 
government.  Our  recent  West  End  Railway  scandal 
in  Boston  is  only  less  than  the  Broadway  surface  bri- 
bery of  New  York  aldermen  ;  but  both  go  to  show  how 
terrible  is  the  pressure  which  great  natural  monopolies 
can  bring  to  bear  to  extort  franchises.  The  interests  of 
such  immense  enterprises  as  elevated  railways,  surface 
railways,  gas-works,  electric  lighting  plants  and 
water-works  are  necessarily  antagonistic  to  the  inter- 
ests of  the  public.  They  serve  the  people,  but  their 
motive  is  dividends  and  not  the  comfort  of  the  people 
or  the  improvement  of  the  city.  They  absorb  the  best 
business  talent  and  the  best  legal  shrewdness  into 
their  service,  that  they  may  secure  privileges  at  public 
sacrifice.  They  employ  a  candidate  for  Governor  of 
Massachusetts  to  defeat  in  legislative  committee  the 
natural  petition  of  Danvers  town  people  that  they  may 
be  allowed  to  do  their  own  electric  lighting.  And  they 
employ  an  ex -Governor  of  Massachusetts  to  lobby  for 
the  passage  of  an  elevated  railroad  bill,  which  gives 
fullest  freedom  to  the  company,  without  the  public  re- 
ceiving a  dollar  of  compensation.  Monopolies  will  be 
in  politics  in  a  bad  sense  until  the  people  take  them 
into  politics  in  a  good  sense  by  undertaking  their 
operation  themselves.  In  this  way,  too,  municipal 
reform  is  more  apt  to  follow  extension  of  the  city's 
business  than  to  go  before  it." 

Says  Professor  R.  T.  Ely  (Christian  Union, 
now  The  Outlook,  October  9,  1890)  : 

"  We  are  reversing  the  order  of  nature  in  planning 
to  reform  city  government  first,  and  then  to  carry  out 
the  changes  I  have  mentioned,  and  to  make  improve- 
ments in  behalf  of  the  poorer  classes.  Let  any  one 
name  a  city  where  this  policy  has  been  successfully 
pursued.  I  know  of  none. 

"  When  the  Hon.  Joseph  Chamberlain  and  his 
friends  took  hold  of  the  corrupt  and  inefficient  city 
government  of  Birmingham,  they  at  once  '  devised 
large  measures,'  including  the  purchase  of  gas  and 
water- works  by  the  city.  A  public  library  followed  ; 
public  parks,  improved  dwellings  for  the  poor,  large 

gublic  undertakings,  broad  and  generous  measures 
ave  been  an  essential  part  of  municipal  reform  and 
improvement  in  cities  like  Berlin  and  Glasgow  ;  they 
have  not  followed  a  purification  of  politics,  but  have 
helped  to  elevate  political  life. 

"  Has  the  experience  of  this  country  been  different  ? 
Not  at  all.  When  the  city  government  of  Baltimore 
was  worse  than  it  is  to-day,  when  the  'Plug  Uglies' 
and  '  Blood  Tubs  '  were  a  terror,  the  government  was 
improved  by  adding  to  its  functions  a  paid  police 
and  a  paid  fire  department.  Extension  of  functions 
within  a  proper  sphere  improves  government. 

"  It  may  be  urged,  perhaps,  that  the  difference  of 
institutions  between  a  monarchical  country,  like  Ger- 
many or  England,  and  a  republican  country,  like  the 
United  States,  is  radical,  and  that  things  are  done 
for  the  people  in  those  countries.  This  is  fortu- 
nately not  the  case.  The  truth  is,  that  cities  and  towns 
have  in  both  of  these  countries— Germany  and  Eng- 
land— a  power  which  ours  are  far  from  possessing. 
They  have  more  local  self-government  than  we.  They 
are  not  obliged,  like  Massachusetts  towns,  vainly  to 
petition  a  legislature  for  authority  to  construct  gas 


Municipal 


works  and  to  establish  an  electric  lighting  plant.  Such 
powers  are  either  possessed,  as  a  matter  of  course,  or 
are  conferred  by  general  laws. 

"It  is  well  again  to  make  comparisons.  Fifty  or  sixty 
years  ago  city  government  in  England  was  a  disgrace 
to  the  country.  Has  improvement  come  by  means  in- 
compatible with  democratic  institutions?  On  the  con- 
trary, as  city  government  has  improved  it  has  become 
more  democratic.  Germany  has  also 
become  more  democratic,  while  the 
local  administration  has  been  improv- 
ing.  There  may  be  some  limitations 
upon  the  suffrage  in  English  local  poli- 
tics  still,  and  in  a  German  city  like  Ber- 
lin the  vote  of  a  rich  man  may  count  for 
more  than  the  vote  of  a  poor  man  ;  but  these  limitations 
do  not  account  for  their  superior  local  governments. 
These  are  among  the  differences  between  us  and  them 
which  are  growing  less.  And  with  us  it  is  unscrupu- 
lous wealth  which  rules  and  corrupts  our  cities.  What 
influence,  comparatively  speaking,  have  working  men 
in  our  politics  ?  Was  Jacob  Sharp  a  wage-earner  ? 
Were  the  manipulators  of  the  West  End  scandal  in  the 
Massachusetts  Legislature  dwellers  in  the  slums  of 
Boston?  Does  any  sane  man  in  Baltimore  who  wishes 
to  work  a  measure  through  our  City  Council  rely  upon 
the  assistance  of  leaders  of  working  men  ?  I  have 
some  idea  of  what  I  would  do  in  Baltimore.  I  know 
the  men  whom  I  would  approach,  but  they  are  not 
wage-earners.  President  Seth  Low  has  said  that  his 
study  and  actual  experience  as  Mayor  of  Brooklyn 
have  convinced  him  that  universal  suffrage  is  not  the 
cause  of  bad  city  governments.  He  says  he  did  not 
find  wealth  always  ready  to  cooperate,  and  he  believes 
that  our  cities  could  not  have  made  so  rapid  progress 
as  they  have  without  universal  suffrage." 

Those  who  object  to  this  view  generally  argue 
that  municipal  enterprises  are  expensive  and 
ineffective.     Liberty,  the   organ  of  the  philo- 
sophical anarchists  in  America  (see 
ANARCHISM),  quotes,  in  its  issue  of 
August  i,  1896,  a  writer  in  the  New-  Objections. 
castle  Chronicle,  who  affirms  of  the 
municipal  baths  and  wash-houses 
of  that  city  (Newcastle,  England)  that  the  num- 
ber of  persons  using  them  has  decreased  50,325 
from  1890-95,  while  the  expenditures  for  them 
has  risen  ^"500,  salaries  having  increased  from 
.£1677  to  £2039.     The  municipalization  of  horse 
cars  in  Huddersfield,  he  affirms,  has  necessi- 
tated the   imposition   of  a  rate  of   ^d.  on   the 
pound.    The  wrangling  of  the  Newcastle  Coun- 
cil over  tramways  has  made  it  forget  its  hy- 
gienic duties,  till  scarlet-fever  and   diphtheria 
were  rampant  in  certain  quarters  of  the  city. 

Municipalists,  however,  are    not  much   dis- 
turbed by  examples  of  municipal  mismanage- 
ment. They  believe,  in  the  first  place,  that  such 
examples  can  be  easily  matched  by  the  mis- 
management   of    the    countless    private    cor- 
porations, which  fail,  or  which  succeed  only  by 
inflicting  hot,  crowded,  filthy  cars,  or  impure 
water,  or  poor  gas  upon  a  long  suffering  public. 
Secondly,  they  assert  that  municipal  manage- 
ment cannot  at  first  be   expected    always  to 
excel    private  management   in   matters  where 
the  latter  has  had  long  experience  and  the  city 
but  little.    Yet  the  fact  is  that  tho  no  one  claims 
perfection  for  city  management,  what  it   has 
undertaken  to  do  a  growing  num- 
ber of  careful  students,  not  preju- 
diced by  any  theory,  believe  to  be     Answer. 
far  better  done  than  the  privately 
conducted    interests.     Work    done 
directly  by  the  city  (see  CONTRACT   LABOR)  is 
being  found,  where  tried,   to  be  surprisingly 
better  and  cheaper  than  private  work.     Munici- 
pal street  cars,  gas,  electric  lighting,   furnish 
strong  evidence  for  municipalization.    (See  those 


Municipalism. 


907 


Municipal  Reform. 


subjects.)  In  1867  a  private  company  was  or- 
ganized to  build  the  Brooklyn  Bridge.  The 
charter  placed  the  original  capital  stock  at  $5,- 
000,000.  Of  this  Brooklyn  gave  $3,000.000  ;  New 
York,  $1,500,000 ;  private  stockholders,  $500,- 
ooo.  Yet  tho  the  private  stockholders  gave  only 
one  tenth  of  the  amount,  they  had  all  the  power. 
Six  ex  officio  members  represented  the  cities  on 
the  board  of  21  directors,  but  they  had  no  vote  in 
electing  other  directors,  and  the  whole  power 
was  put  into  the  hands  of  the  executive  commit- 
tee. The  result  was  scandalous  jobbery  and 
mismanagement.  Contracts  for  portions  of  the 
work  were  let  to  favored  stockholders,  etc.  In 
order  to  save  the  bridge,  the  cities  had  to  buy  it 
of  the  private  stockholders,  after  which  its  build- 
ing was  a  success.  A  committee  of  the  cities, 
appointed  later,  with  such  men  as  Abram  S. 
Hewitt  upon  it,  reported  that  there  had  been 
practically  no  mismanagement  except  under 
the  private  management.  If  this  took  place 
under  corrupt  New  York  and  Brooklyn,  munici- 
pal ists  argue,  what  might  not  be  expected  of 
purified  municipalities  ? 

Municipalization,  too,  is  cheaper,  and  lowers 
taxes.  Berlin,  Paris,  etc. ,  receive  large  incomes 
from  their  municipal  undertakings.  Mayor 
Clark,  of  the  city  of  Marque tte,  in  Michigan, 
once  declared  that  the  revenue  from  the  elec- 
tric and  other  plants  owned  by  that  city  were 
almost  enough  then,  and  by  expansion  could  be 
made  actually  enough  to  meet  all  the  expenses 
of  the  city  without  taxation  of  any  kind.  As  the 
argument  for  municipalization,  however,  turns 
on  concrete  details,  it  must  be  studied  under  the 
head  of  the  various  natural  monopolies.  (See 
MONOPOLIES  ;  NATURAL  MONOPOLIES  ;  SOCIALISM  ; 
INDIVIDUALISM.) 

Reference  :  See  CITY. 

MUNICIPAL  REFORM.— (For  the  history, 

statistics,  evils,  and  needs  of  modern  cities,  see 
CITY.  For  the  reform  of  cities  on  lines  of  mu- 
nicipalism,  see  MUNICIPALISM.  For  conditions 
and  movements  in  Europe,  see  BERLIN  ;  BIR- 
MINGHAM ;  GLASGOW  ;  LONDON  ;  PARIS  ;  CITY.) 
We  consider  in  this  article  the  movements  and 
societies  for  municipal  reform  which  have 
sprung  up  recently  in  all  the  larger  American 
cities  on  somewhat  varying  lines,  but  in  general 
sympathy  both  as  to  aims  and  methods,  and  now 
federated  in  a  National  Municipal  League. 

The  occasion  for  this  movement  was  undoubt- 
edly the  unequaled  corruption  and  degradation 
of  American  municipal  political  life  and  admin- 
istration. Says  Mr.  Bryce  (The  American  Com- 
monwealth, revised  edition,  Part  II.,  chap,  ii.) : 
' '  There  is  no  denying  that  the  government  of 
cities  is  the  one  conspicuous  failure  of  the  United 
States. ' '  Consciousness  of  this  having  grown 
among  the  more  educated  classes  in  America 
(see  CITY),  the  movement  to  reform  the  evil 
has  sprung  up  gradually,  and  recently  to  an  ex- 
tent justifying  its  being  called  by  Dr.  Albert 
Shaw,  in  the  Review  of  Reviews  for  April, 
1895,  Our  Civic  Renaissance. 

Spasmodic  efforts  and  uprisings  of  indignant 
citizens  against  some  extreme  display  of  munici- 
pal corruption  or  mismanagement  have  long 
been  known  in  America,  but  have  accomplished 
little  permanent,  and  not  even  much  temporary 


good.  The  powers  of  evil, with  their  machine  or- 
ganizations, party  bosses  and  heelers,  entrench- 
ed in  the  saloons,  and  extorting  and  receiving 
contributions  from  corporations  in 
exchange  for  franchises,  etc.,  have 
proved  too  much  for  spasmodic  ef-  Needs. 
forts  at  reform.  It  was  a  fight  of 
unorganized  volunteers  against  or- 
ganized regulars.  Usually  the  result  was 
that  the  reformers,  after  a  passing  effort,  gave 
up  the  battle  as  hopeless,  or,  having  won  a  pass- 
ing victory,  retired  to  let  the  enemy  immediate- 
ly regain  all  that  had  been  won.  The  thought 
of  the  new  municipal  movement  has  been  that 
our  cities  can  only  be  rescued  from  evil  by  the 
permanent  organization  and  continued  watch- 
fulness of  the  forces  of  good.  This  thought  has 
been  helped  by  a  growing  ideal  on  the  part  of 
some  of  the  true  city  life.  The  general  tendency 
in  America  has  been  to  despise  government  and 
magnify  private  action.  The  natural  result  has 
been  that  government,  and  especially  our  mu- 
nicipal governments,  have  been  left,  generally 
speaking,  to  our  more  ignorant  citizens,  while 
the  abler  and  more  educated  classes  have  large- 
ly left  politics  alone.  The  evil  of  this  having 
been  seen,  there  has  been  a  growing  willing- 
ness of  able  men  to  devote  time  to  city  prob- 
lems, and  even  to  accept  office.  Examples  of 
this  are  the  election  of  Mr.  Seth  Low  as  Mayor 
of  Brooklyn,  the  mayoralty  of  Mr.  Hewitt  in 
New  York,  the  activity  of  such  men  as  Theo- 
dore Roosevelt  in  the  same  city.  But  this  was 
soon  seen  not  to  be  enough,  and  that  there  was 
a  necessity  for  organizing  against  corruption. 
The  socialist  critics  of  the  municipal  reform 
movement  said  that  it  did  not  go  far  enough  ; 
that  municipal  government  could  never  be  pure 
and  attract  strong  men  to  it  till  its  functions 
were  expanded,  and  the  city  had  large  things  to 
do.  As  long,  they  argued,  as  private  corpora- 
tions conducted  the  great  natural  monopolies 
(q.v.}  of  the  city  and  made  large  fortunes  they 
would  be,  and  must  be,  the  socialists  argued,  a 
corrupting  element  on  the  less  important  city 
administration.  Just  so  long  as  they  did  the 
main  things  they  could  employ  and  attract  the 
ablest  men  to  service  outside  or  inside  of  gov- 
ernment circles.  The  way  to  reform,  said  the 
socialists,  was,  first,  to  exalt  the  city  corpora- 
tion over  the  private  corporation,  as  it  is  in  Eu- 
rope, and  not  to  allow  the  private  corporation 
to  overshadow  the  city,  as  it  is  in  America. 
(For  this  argument,  however,  see  MUNICIPAL- 
ISM.)  The  municipal  reform  movement  we  are 
now  considering,  while  it  has  had  within  it  those 
who  have  ably  voiced  this  thought,  has  not  as 
a  whole  been  committed  to  this  idea.  We  point 
this  out  to  explain  the  fact  that  the  movement 
has  not  attracted  to  itself  the  more  radical  mu- 
nicipal reformers  nor  many  of  the  working 
classes.  It  has  been  chiefly  a  movement  of 
business  and  professional  men,  its  main  en- 
deavors being  to  organize  for  the  enforcement 
of  such  laws  as  we  now  have  and  the  simplifica- 
tion and  purification  of  administration.  More 
radical  reformers  have  declared  that  the  great 
corporations  in  some  of  our  larger  cities  have 
been  represented  in  this  municipal  reform 
movement  by  stockholders,  etc.,  so  that  it  has 
been  prevented  from  going  far  on  lines  of  mu- 


Municipal  Reform. 


Municipal  Reform. 


nicipalism,  while  in  New  York  City,  for  exam- 
ple, great  division  and  popular  hostility  have 
resulted  to  some  portions  and  persons  of  the 
reform  forces  on  the  questions  of  Sunday  clos- 
ing, the  wages  paid  to  some  city  employees, 
etc.  It  has  been  declared  that  it  was  simply  a 
business  man  s  movement  carrying  into  city 
politics  all  the  sharp  practices  and  cutting  of 
wages,  etc. ,  which  in  the  popular  mind  at  least 
characterize  modern  business.  Thus  in  every 
way  in  many  cities  a  cleavage  has  arisen  be 
tween  the  municipal  reformers,  who  seek  pri- 
marily to  reform  administration,  and  the  mu 
nicipahzers,  who  seek  municipalism  In  all 
cities,  however,  there  have  been  some  in  the 
municipal  reform  movement  who  have  advo- 
cated municipalism  ;  there  has  been  a  general 
tendency  to  favor  some  municipalizing  steps, 
such  as  opening  city  baths,  lavatories  (y.v.), 
enforcing  strict  control  over  tenements,  streets, 
etc.,  while  in  some  cities  the  reform  movement 
has  gone  much  farther  in  this  direction.  With 
this  general  presentation  of  the  aims  of  the 
movement  we  give  a  brief  notice  of  some  of  the 
more  important  city  leagues  and  of  the  more 
recently  formed  National  Municipal  League. 

One  of  the  first  cities  to  have  a  league  for 
the  purification  of  city  administration  was  Bal- 
timore, where,  in  1885,  a  Reform  League,  after 
an  unusually  corrupt  election,  was  formed  "  to 
secure  fair  elections,  promote  hon- 
est government,  and  to  expose  and 
Beginnings,  bring  to  punishment  official  miscon- 
duct in  the  State  of  Maryland,  and 
especially  in  the  city  of  Baltimore." 
Several  registers  and  election  judges  were  con- 
victed of  fraud  and  imprisoned.     Several  cities, 
however,  had  citizens'  associations  against  po- 
litical frauds  before  this.     Chicago  had  one  as 
early  as  1874.     The  preamble  of  this  associa- 
tion's constitution  states  : 

*'  In  order  to  insure  a  more  perfect  administration  in 
our  municipal  affairs ;  to  promote  the  general  •welfare 
and  prosperity  of  the  city  ;  to  protect  citizens,  so  far  as 
possible,  against  the  evils  of  careless  or  corrupt  legis- 
lation ;  to  effect  the  prompt  enforcement  and  execution 
of  the  law  ;  to  foster  and  encourage  all  enterprises 
necessary  and  calculated  to  develop  and  extend  our 
business  and  commercial  interests  ;  to  protect  and 
maintain  our  credit,  both  at  home  and  abroad  ;  to  se- 
cure such  legislation,  both  State  and  national,  as  the 
interests  of  the  city  may  from  time  to  time  require  ;  to 
arouse  a  more  widely  extended  interest  in  our  munici- 
pal legislation  and  administration  ;  to  correct  existing 
abuses,  and  to  prevent  their  future  recurrence  ;  and 
believing  that,  to  secure  these  ends,  organized  and 
united  action  is  necessary." 

Law  and  order  leagues  (g.v.)  sprang  up  about 
this  time,  and  a  National  Law  and  Order  League 
was  established  in  Boston  in  1883  A  Massa- 
chusetts Society  for  Promoting  Good  Citizenship 
was  organized  in  1887.  A  Citizens'  Municipal 
Association  was  organized  in  Philadelphia  in 
1886.  A  Citizens'  Association  in  Boston  was 
formed  in  1887. 

In  New  York  City,  a  Society  for  the  Preven- 
tion of  Crime  had  been  organized  October  22, 
1878.  Its  objects  were 

"to  promote  in  all  proper  and  suitable  ways  the  re- 
moval of  sources  and  causes  of  crime  ;  to  assist  the 
weak  and  helpless  in  obtaining  the  protection  of  the 
courts  and  of  the  laws  regulating  the  sale  of  intoxicat- 
ing drinks,  and  in  protecting;  themselves  against  the 
temptations  to  crime  ;  to  aid  in  the  enforcement  of  the 
laws  of  this  State  ;  to  disseminate  information,  and  to 


•»*„,. 
•new 


arouse  a  correct  public  opinion  in  support  of  all  laws, 
organizing  and  forming  meetings  and  associations  for 
instruction  and  discussion  upon  such  topics." 

Under  the  presidency  of  Dr.  Howard  Crosby, 
it  did  good  work  along  its  corporate  lines  ;  but 
in  its  work  the  collusion  between  criminals  and 
the  officers  of  the  law  became  evident,  and 
when,  upon  Dr.  Crosby's  death  in  1892,  Dr. 
C.  H.  Parkhurst  (g.v.)  became  its  president,  he- 
devoted  himself  to  exposing  this  connection. 
He  said  : 

'•  Experience  had  shown  that  very  little  can  be  ac- 
complished by  the  occasional  closing  of  an  isolated 
saloon  illegal!  y  run,  or  by  the  prosecution  of  any  single 

§  ambler  or  bawdy-house  keeper,  so  long  as  the  con- 
itions  exist  which  render  it  possible  for  illegal  prac- 
tices ot  the  sort  to  maintain  themselves  so  concertedly, 
so  confidently,  and  so  defiantly.  It  an  attempt  is  made 
to  suppress  a  gambling  -house,  for  instance,  the  prime 
difficulty  that  we  have  to  encounter  is  not  in  dealing 
with  the  proprietor  himself,  but  in  dealing  with  the 
support  which  he  receives  from  the  authorities,  whose 
sworn  duty  it  is  to  detect  and  arrest  him.  Till  the- 
alliance  is  broken  which  exists  between 
the  criminals  and  their  proper  prosecu- 
tions, it  is  bailing  out  water  with  a  sieve 
to  attempt  the  extinguishment  of  in- 
dividual  gambling-houses  or  bawdy- 
houses.  .  .  .  This  is  a  sufficient  reply 
to  the  question  sometimes  put,  why  it  is  that  we  do 
not  cooperate  with  the  Police  Department.  ...  If 
the  department  would  do  what  the  public  pays  them 
for  doing,  we  would  disband,  and  be  glad  to.  The 
very  existence  of  such  a  society  as  ours  is,  properly 
interpreted,  a  standing  indictment  of  police  incom- 
petency  or  criminality.  We  cannot  work  with  them 
then,  for  the  simple  reason  that  we  are  organized  to 
suppress  crime,  and  the  attitude  of  the  department  is 
one  of  the  greatest  obstacles  that  we  have  to  encounter 
in  doing  it." 

The  resulting  exposure  of  the  department  by 
Dr.  Parkhurst  and  his  fellow-workers,  the  Lexow 
Investigation,  are  well  known.  (See  PARKHURST  ; 
LEXOW  COMMITTEE.)  Asone  result,  a  City  Vigi- 
lance League  was  formed  in  1892.  Its  objects 
were 

"to  quicken  among  its  members  an  appreciation  of 
their  municipal  obligations  ;  to  acquaint  them  with  ex- 
isting conditions  ;  to  familiarize  them  with  the  machin- 
ery of  municipal  government  ;  to  make  conspicuous 
the  respect  in  which  such  government  is  languidly  or 
criminally  administered  ;  to  regard  with  jealous  con- 
cern the  point  at  which  private  interest  enters  into 
competition  with  the  general  good  ;  and  in  every  possi- 
ble way  to  repress  in  the  community  what  makes  for 
its  detriment,  and  to  foster  whatsoever  seems  fitted  to 
promote  its  advantage.  " 

Its  methods  were 

"  the  collection  and  dissemination  of  full  and  ac- 
curate data  concerning  our  municipal  conditions  ;  by 
legislation  ;  by  legal  proceedings  ;  by  the  hearty  sup- 
port of  officials  who  discharge  their  duties  faithfully, 
and  the  vigorous  prosecution  of  those  who  neglect 
them  ;  and  by  the  creation  of  a  public  sentiment  in 
futherance  of  the  objects  of  the  League." 

It  established  an  organ,  The  City  Vigilant* 
edited  by  W.  H.  Tolman,  Ph.D.  By  August, 
1893.  Dr.  Parkhurst  wrote  : 

'•  Between  400  and  500  men  are  already  actually 
at  work  in  the  field.  Operations  have  been  com- 
menced in  22  out  of  the  30  Assembly  districts.  What- 
ever concerns  the  interests  of  our  city  is  made  subject 
of  inquiry  and  conference." 

Meanwhile,  Mr.  Edmund  Kelly  had  organized, 
in  1892,  the  City  Club  of  New  York,  and  this 
club  organized  in  different  parts  of  the  city 
some  20  Good  Government  Clubs  (g.v.),  which, 
in  1894,  were  federated  under  a  Council  of  Con- 
federated Good  Government  Clubs.  It  was  the 
forces  in  the  Good  Government  Clubs  and  the 


Municipal  Reform. 


909 


Municipal  Reform. 


City  Vigilance  League,  with  representatives  of 
the  Chamber  of  Commerce,  which  held  a  con- 
ference September  6,  1894,  and  appointed  a 
Committee  of  Seventy  to  oppose  the  Tammany 
machine — somewhat  similar  to  a  Committee  of 
Fifty  created  by  a  mass  meeting  November  13, 

1893.  The  Committee  of  Fifty,  however,  had 
simply  engaged  in  prosecuting  election  frauds, 
etc.  ;  the  Committee  of  Seventy  went  farther. 
It  succeeded  in  defeating  Tammany  in  the  city 
elections  and  putting  civil  service  and  other  re- 
formers into  some  of  the  departments — as  Mr. 
Roosevelt  as  a  police  commissioner.     It  also  ap- 
pointed various    sub-committees,  as  on   street 
cleaning,   public   baths    and    lavatories,   small 
parks,  tenement-house  reform,  etc.     As  a  result, 
various  reforms  have  been  commenced  in  New 
York  City.     A  commission  was  appointed  by 
the  city  to  investigate  the  condition  of  the  tene- 
ments, and  its  report,  coupled  with  the  efforts 
of  various  society  and  settlements  (see  UNIVER- 
SITY SETTLEMENTS),  is  resulting  in  the  tearing 
down  of  some  of  the  worst  slums,  the  opening 
of  several  small  parks,  the  opening  of  public 
baths,    lavatories,   etc.     It  is  hoped  that  this 
work  of  this  committee  will  develop  a  perma- 
nent organization,  like  the  Civic  Federation  of 
Chicago. 

Through  other  cities  there  has  been  a  wave 
of  organization  on  this  line.  The  Civic  Federa- 
tion of  Chicago  owes  its  origin  to  the  visit  of 
Mr.  W.  T.  Stead  (g.v.),  his  revelations  of  the 
corruption  there,  and  his  effort  to  federate  the 
moral  forces  of  that  city  in  civic  and  social  work. 
The  Federation  was  incorporated  in  February, 

1894,  with  the  banker,  Mr.  Lyman  J.  Gage,  at 
its  head,  and  Mrs.  Palmer  as  its  first  vice-presi- 
dent.    Mr.  R.  M.  Easley  has  been  its  active  sec- 
retary.    It  has  a  central  council  of  134  mem- 
bers, 7  large  standing  committees,  and  34  ward 
councils.     Mr.  Gage  is  quoted  in  the  Review 
of  Reviews  as  saying  of  it  : 

"  The  idea  of  the  Civic  Federation  is  primarily  an 
educational  one.    Its  policy  is  to  focus  all  the  forces 
now  laboring  to  advance  the  municipal,  philanthropic, 
industrial,  and  moral  interests  of  Chicago.    It  believes 
in  the  theory  that  in  union  there  is  strength,  and  it  in- 
vites the  cooperation  of  all  societies  and  organiza- 
tions, regardless  of  party  or  sect,  in  its  efforts  to  raise 
the  standard  and  ethics  of  municipal  life  in  Chicago. 
The  Civic  Federation  does  its  work  through  six  differ- 
ent departments  and  under  the  auspices 
of    committees  selected    especially  for 
Other         their  fitness  for  the  different  lines  of 
Cities          work.    In  a  broad  sense  our  association 
aims  to  accomplish  the  development  of 
public  sentiment  toward  the  following 
results :  First,  in  the  political  field,  the 
selection  of  clean  and  honorable  men  for  aldermen  : 
state    and    municipal    legislation    in    the    interest  or 
Chicago.    In    the    municipal   field,   clean   streets  and 
alleys,  improved  urban  traffic   accommodations,  hon- 
orable police,   less   smoke,   more  water,   etc.     In  the 
industrial,  the  establishment  of  boards  of  conciliation, 
public  employment   bureau,  etc.     In  the  moral  work, 
the  people  are  pretty  well  acquainted  with  our  efforts 
to  suppress  gambling.  .  .  . 

"  But  all  this  is  incidental  to  the  main  object  of  the 
Federation— that  is  to  educate  the  people,  the  tax- 
payers of  Chicago,  to  a  sense  of  their  municipal  du- 
ties ;  to  arouse  them  to  the  necessity  of  action  and 
vigilant  effort,  that  corrupt  influences  and  elements 
may  be  driven  out  and  the  city  eventually  redeemed 
from  politics  and  politicians." 

As  a  result,  Chicago  in  1895  gained  a  substan- 
tial victory  for  civil  service  reform  ;  it  remains 
to  be  seen  with  what  enduring  results.  Accord- 
ing to  some  the  wealth  of  Chicago  is  so  entwined 


with  interests  aided  by  the  corrupt  gaining  of 
franchises,  etc. ,  that  it  is  questionable  whether 
reform  can  come  except  by  radical  changes. 

The  Municipal  Reform  League  of  Boston  is 
older.  It  had  its  origin  in  an  address  by  Mr. 
Samuel  B.  Capen  in  March,  1892,  in  which  the 
necessity  for  a  cooperation  of  the  best  civic  and 
moral  forces  of  metropolitan  Boston  was  stir- 
ringly set  forth.  There  resulted  an  organiza- 
tion under  Mr.  Capen's  leadership  out  of  which 
the  present  Municipal  League  has  come  by  a 
process  of  healthy  evolution.  The  League  at 
present  is  limited  to  a  membership  of  250.  It 
includes  representatives  of  a  great  number  of 
societies  and  organizations,  some  of  these  being 
trade  bodies  and  business  men's  associations, 
others  being  religious  and  philanthropic  socie- 
ties. Its  active  secretary  is  Mr.  Edwin  D. 
Mead,  editor  of  the  New  England  Magazine. 
The  League  has  agitated  for  a  three- years'  term 
for  the  mayor,  the  abolition  of  the  Common 
Council,  and  the  enlargement  of  the  Board  of 
Aldermen  to  25,  with  salaries  of  $3000  and  no 
allowances  for  expenses,  and  the  adoption  of 
proportional  representation  in  municipal  elec- 
tions. 

The  Municipal  League  of  Philadelphia  is 
among  the  largest  and  best  in  the  country.  It 
was  organized  in  1892.  Its  president  is  Mr. 
George  Burnham,  Jr.  Its  secretary,  Mr.  C.  R. 
Woodruff,  writes  in  the  Review  of  Reviews  : 

"The  Municipal  League  aims  to  combine  for  con- 
ference and  cooperation  all  citizens  who  desire  good 
city  government.  It  believes  in  the  practical  separa- 
tion of  municipal  from  State  and  national  politics: 
the  nomination  of  none  but  those  who  are  honest  ana 
capable;  the  application  of  civil  service  reform  prin- 
ciples to  all  appointments  ;  the  rigid  enforcement  of 
public  contracts,  and  no  grants  of  municipal  fran- 
chises except  for  limited  periods  and  upon  the  best 
obtainable  terms.  There  are  no  dues  and  the  league 
is  dependent  on  subscriptions  for  its  necessary  ex- 
penses. The  by-laws  provide  for  the  nomination  of 
candidates  whenever  it  may  seem  expedient,  but  no 
member  is  expected  to  support  a  nomination  which  he 
cannot  approve. 

"  The  above  is  a  succinct  statement  of  the  aims  and 
objects  of  the  Philadelphia  Municipal  League,  one  of 
the  largest,  most  active,  and  influential  organizations 
in  the  United  States  working  for  permanent  municipal 
reform.  With  upward  of  350x3  members,  it  has  active 
associations  in  over  one  third  of  the  wards  of  the  city, 
and  in  many  of  these  ward  associations  the  election 
divisions  (into  which  the  wards  are  divided)  are  or- 
ganized in  behalf  of  the  cause  of  better  city  govern- 
ment. The  importance  of  this  kind  of  organization  is 
appreciated  when  we  learn  that  the  dominant  Repub- 
lican Party  has  a  group  of  active  workers  in  every  ono 
of  the  930  election  divisions.  There  are  about  10,000 
office-holders,  and  these  are  so  distributed  as  to  aver- 
age 10  workers  to  a  division.  This  'regular'  army  of 
trained  politicians  is  always  to  be  depended  upon  to 
get  out  the  vote,  carry  primaries,  or  do  any  other 
needed  work,  such  as  the  collection  of  assessments, 
the  naturalization  of  foreigners,  or  the  securing  or 
signatures  to  petition  fora  pardon,  or  the  endorsement 
of  an  ambitious  candidate.  We  cannot  expect  to 
make  much  headway  or  accomplish  much  in  the  way 
of  permanent  results  until  the  advocates  of  good  city 
government  are  also  adequately  organized  into 
trained  and  efficient  bodies  of  workers." 

In  Philadelphia  the  women  have  been  par- 
ticularly active  in  municipal  reform.  They  or- 
ganized a  Civic  Club  January  i,  1894,  and  ac- 
tively carry  on  many  departments  of  study  and 
work. 

Such  are  some  of  the  representative  organiza- 
tions of  the  movement.  They  are  now  united  in 
a  National  Municipal  League,  organized  in  New 
York  City  in  April,  1894,  as  the  result  of  a  Na- 


Municipal  Reform. 


910 


Mutual  Banking. 


National 

Municipal 

League. 


tional  Conference  for  Good  City  Government, 
held  in  Philadelphia,  January,  1894. 

According  to  its  constitution,  the  League  has 
a  threefold  object : 

1.  To  multiply  the  numbers,  harmonize  the 
methods,  and  combine  the  forces  of  all  who 

realize  that  it  is  only  by  united 
action  and  organization  that  good 
citizens  can  secure  the  adoption  of 
good  laws  and  the  selection  of  men 
of  trained  ability  and  proved  in- 
tegrity for  all  municipal  positions, 
or  prevent  the  success  of  incompetent  or  cor- 
rupt candidates  for  public  office. 

2.  To  promote  the  thorough  investigation  and 
discussion  of  the  conditions  and  details  of  civic 
administration,  and  of  the  methods  for  selecting 
and  appointing  officials  in  American  cities,  and 
of  laws  and  ordinances  relating  to  such  subjects. 

3.  To  provide  for  such  meetings  and  confer- 
ences, and  for  the  preparation  and  circulation 
of  such  addresses  and  other  literature,  as  may 
seem  likely  to  advance  the  cause  of  good  city 
government. 

The  league  is  managed  by  a  board  of  dele- 
gates chosen  by  the  associations  composing  it. 
Each  association  is  entitled  to  appoint,  from 
time  to  time,  as  many  delegates  as  it  may  see 
fit,  and  each  delegate  shall  retain  his  position 
until  he  is  withdrawn,  or  his  successor  is  quali- 
fied, or  his  association  becomes  inactive. 

The  annual  fee  for  associate  members  is  $5. 
The  league  has  no  organ  of  its  own,  but  from 
time  to  time  issues  leaflets  on  some  topic  con- 
nected with  good  government. 

The  present  president  is  James  C.  Carter,  of 
New  York,  and  the  secretary  C.  R.  Woodruff, 
of  Philadelphia.  The  annual  conferences  of 
this  league  have  become  important  as  discuss- 
ing all  forms  of  municipal  reform.  At  the  Bal- 
timore convention  of  1896  the  secretary  report- 
ed leagues  in  all  the  larger  cities,  over  200.  In 
Baltimore  and  New  Orleans  especially  impor- 
tant victories  have  been  won. 

References:  See  CITY.  The  Review  of  Reviews  gives 
the  latest  news  of  the  reform  movement.  The  An- 
nals of  the  American  Academy  of  Political  and  Social 
Science  has  a  valuable  department  on  municipal  gov- 
ernment. 

MUNZER,  THOMAS,  was  born  at  Stolberg 
about  1490.  Studying  at  Leipzig,  he  became  a 
preacher,  and  at  first  worked  in  unison  with  the 
reformers,  but  later  turned  against  the  ' '  half- 
ness"  of  Luther  and  Melanchthon,  and,  led  by 
what  he  believed  "inner  light,"  demanded  a 
radical  reform  of  Church  and  State.  He  held 
usual  Anabaptist  ideas  about  baptism,  but  was 
not  otherwise  identified  with  the  Anabaptists 
(q.v.}.  He  believed  in  continuous  divine  reve- 
lation and  in  community  of  property.  He 
promulgated  these  ideas  in  popular  and  effec- 
tive tho  sometimes  coarse  speech.  Expelled 
from  Allstadt,  where  he  had  been  preacher,  he 
settled  at  last  in  Miilhausen,  and  succeeded 
here  in  overthrowing  the  council  and  gaining  a 
new  one  under  his  control.  When  the  Peasants' 
War  (g.v.)  broke  out  he  induced  the. whole  pop- 
ulation of  the  vicinity  to  rise.  The  peasants, 
however,  were  defeated  at  Frankenhausen,  May 
25,  1525.  Miinzer  was  captured,  tortured,  and 
beheaded  at  Miilhausen  a  few  days  later. 


MUTUAL  BANKING.-By  this  phrase  is 
usually  meant  a  monetary  system  first  formu- 
lated by  Colonel  William  B.  Greene,  of  Boston, 
about  1850.  It  has  been  somewhat  modified,  but 
is  to-day  advocated  by  most  extreme  individual- 
ists. A  mutual  bank  propaganda  was  started 
in  Chicago.  Its  secretary,  Mr.  Westrup,  de- 
scribes the  plan  in  his  The  Financial  Problem, 
as  follows  : 

"  To  state  that  interest  for  money  loaned  oil  good 
security  is  irrational,  and  that  its  abolition  is  not  depen- 
dent upon  philanthropic  motive,  but  upon  business 
principle,  and  therefore  unavoidable,  is  to  either 
startle  the  '  civilized  '  world  or  else  to  evoke  ridicule. 
To  state  that  savings  banks  are  economic  absurdities, 
and  that  history  gives  no  greater  evidence  of  man's 
folly  than  in  their  establishment,  is  to  become  not  only 
the  laughing-stock  of  superficial  thinkers,  but  to  be 
regarded  as  non  compos  mentis  by  '  learned  '  writers 
on  political  economy.  .  .  . 

"  The  proof  that  interest  upon  money  loaned  on  good 
security  is  irrational  is  the  tact  that  good  security  is 
wealth,  and  that  what  the  borrower  obtains  is  merely 
something  which  enables  him  to  avail  himself  of  the 
use  of  his  wealth  as  capital,  without  cutting  it  up  into 
small  pieces,  as  is  done  with  the  wealth  consisting  of 
the  metals  used  as  money,  but  which  in  his  case  is  im- 
possible. The  banker  lends  his  credit,  and  the  bor- 
rower pledges  his  wealth,  the  banker  being  far  more 
secure  than  the  holder  of  the  banker's  paper.  The 
banker  takes  pay  for  the  use  of  capital,  altho  he  fur- 
nishes none  ;  for  the  capital  (wealth)  is  furnished  by 
the  borrower.  The  banker,  therefore,  renders  no  more 
service  to  the  borrower  than  he  would  if,  both  using 
in  every  way  the  same  kind  of  spectacles,  the  bor- 
rower should  hand  his  to  the  banker,  while  he  bor- 
rowed the  banker's  for  his  own  use.  .  .  . 

"  The  present  essay  is  intended  to  show  that  present 
as  well  as  all  past  monetary  systems  areas  unscientific 
and  the  popular  views  of  money  as  incorrect  as  the 
notions  entertained  in  regard  to  astronomy  before  the 
days  of  Copernicus. 

''As  much  of  this  comes  of  a  misunderstanding  of 
the  definition  of  terms,  in  order  to  arrive  at  compre- 
hensive views  on  this  subject,  I  shall  commence  by 
giving  the  definitions  of  such  terms  as  I  shall  make 
use  of,  and  in  regard  to  the  meaning  of  which  there 
exists  a  confusion  of  ideas.  .  .  . 

"  Money  cannot  properly  be  called  wealth,  altho  it  is 
wealth  to  the  extent  of  the  market  value  of  the  mate- 
rial of  which  it  is  composed,  as  is  the  case  when  it  is 
made  of  gold,  silver,  etc.;  but  it  is  not  wealth  when  it 
is  made  of  paper,  for  the  wealth  contained  in  a  paper 
dollar  or  1000  paper  dollars  is  too  insignificant  to  be 
called  wealth,  or  rather  to  warrant  the  statement  that 
such  money  is  wealth.  Hence  to  call  money  wealth  is 
incorrect,  for  that  would  imply  that  all  money  is 
wealth,  whereas,  as  I  have  already  shown,  some  kinds 
of  money  is  not  wealth.  Therefore,  in  defining  money, 
I  say  money  is  a  representative  of  wealth  ;  or,  to  state 
it  more  fully,  money  is  the  circulating  medium  ;  its 
office  is  to  facilitate  the  exchange  of  the  products  of 
labor  ;  its  nature  is  a  representative  of  wealth. 

"I  do  not  expect  opposition  to  my  first  two  proposi- 
tions— viz.,  that  money  is  the  circulating  medium  or 
that  its  office  is  to  facilitate  the  exchange  of  the  prod- 
ucts of  labor  ;  but  to  my  third  proposition—  viz.,  that 
the  definition  of  money  which  relates  to  its  nature  i&iwt 
wealth,  but  a  representative  of  wealth,  I  anticipate  op- 
position from  a  certain  quarter.  For  instance  an  op- 
ponent might  argue  that  money  is  wealth,  and  attempt 
to  prove  it  by  the  fact  that  the  possessor  of  $i,ooo,oco, 
even  in  paper  money,  is  a  wealthy  individual.  I  do 
not  deny  this,  yet  it  does  not  conflict  with  my  defi- 
nition. He  is  a  wealthy  individual,  because  he  pos- 
sesses the  representative  of  $1,000,000  worth  of  wealth, 
and  can  exchange  it  for  wealth  at  any  time.  But  to 
say  that  that  individual  is  the  possessor  of  wealth 
would  not  be  correct,  for  he  is  the  possessor  of  wealth 
only  to  the  extent  of  the  market  value  of  the  paper 
stock  contained  in  the  said  paper  money.  We  cannot 
too  strongly  urge  the  importance  of  recognizing  this 
distinction";  for  by  so  doing  we  admit  the  fact  that 
we  do  not  increase  wealth  by  issuing  paper  money  ; 
yet  by  issuing  paper  money  amply  secured,  we  in- 
crease in  the  same  proportion  the  available  capital  for 
the  purpose  of  productive  enterprise,  and  at  the  same 
time,  as  will  be  seen  by  the  plan  for  mutual  banks, 
destroy  that  which  is  the  bane  of  all  modern  enter- 
prise, usury  ! 

"COST.— The  term  cost  is    meant    by  the  present 


Mutual  Banking. 


911 


Mutualism. 


writer  to  denote  the  net  expense  of  production,  exclu- 
sive of  any  profit. 

"  BARTER.— This  term  is  given  to  that  transaction 
which  is  an  exchange  of  wealth  for  wealth,  or  one  prod- 
uct of  labor  for  another  product  of  labor ;  such  as  a 
house  for  a  farm,  a  watch  for  a  horse,  a  pair  of  shoes 
for  a  hat,  or  all  these  for  specie.  Specie  is  a  species  of 
wealth ;  therefore,  to  purchase  with  specie  is  bar- 
ter. 

"  Having  given  definitions  of  the  terms  in  regard  to 
the  meaning  of  which  I  might  be  misunderstood,  I  will 
now  proceed  with  our  subject.  My  object  being  to 
prove  that  the  money  question  is  a  subject  of  science, 
and  that  there  are  principles  by  which  we  can  test  the 
correctness  of  a  money  system,  I  will  first  state  what 
those  principles  are  and  then  test  the  correctness  of 
prevailing  systems  by  their  application. 

"  i.  Money  being  a  representative  of  wealth,  a  money 
system  must  provide  a  sufficient  volume  and  facilities 
to  enable  all  wealth  to  be  represented  by  money. 

"  2.  As  interest  for  money  loaned  is  not  '  compensa- 
tion for  the  use  of  capital,'  the  borrower 
possessing  the  capital  (wealth),  and 
Principles,  needing  but  the  representative  (except 
in  cases  where  money  is  loaned  without 
security),  a  money  system  must  pro- 
vide for  the  loaning  of  this  representative  at  cost. 

"3.  As  the  holder  of  a  bank  bill  or  government  note 
is  not  thereby  the  possessor  of  wealth,  a  money  system 
must  provide  absolute  security  against  loss  to  the 
holder  of  paper  money. 

"The  three  foregoing  principles  constitute,  in  my 
judgment,  the  basis  of  a  correct  money  system,  and 
any  system  that  does  not  fulfill  their  requirements  is 
defective,  and  fails  to  supply  what  is  wanted  as  their 
application  to  the  following  systems  will  show." 

The  following  is  the  plan  for  a  mutual  bank  : 

"  i.  The  inhabitants  or  any  portion  of  the  inhabi- 
tants of  any  town  or  city  may  organize  themselves 
into  a  mutual  banking  company. 

"  2.  The  officers  of  a  mutual  bank  should  be  a  board 
of  directors,  an  appraiser,  a  manager,  a  cashier,  and  a 
secretary. 

"3.  Those  who  propose  to  become  members  should 
elect  the  appraiser  and  the  board  of  directors,  who 
should  hold  their  office  for  one  year. 

"4.  The  board  of  directors  should  first  elect  the 
manager,  cashier,  and  secretary  from  among  their 
number. 

"5.  The  manager,  cashier,  and  secretary  should  hold 
office  until  they  resign  or  are  removed 
by  the  board  of  directors,  who  should  re- 
quire each  to  give  bonds.     They  should 
be  subject  to  and  not  members  of  the 
board,  nor  participate  in  its  meetings, 
except  when  called  upon  to  do  so;  and  the 
same  rule  should  govern  the  appraiser.- 
"6.  The  appraiser  and  members  of  the  board  may 
be  removed  at  a  general   meeting  of  the  members  of 
the  bank,   and  others   elected  to  fill  their  places,  of 
which  due  notice  should  be  given. 

"  7.  Membership  ceases  when  a  member  pays  his 
notes  to  the  bank,  and  none  but  members  should  be 
directors. 

"8.  The  board  of  directors  should  employ  a  secre- 
tary of  its  own  and  a  legal  adviser,  and  fix  the  salary 
of  the  officers  and  employees. 

"9.  The  manager  should  manage  the  affairs  of  the 
bank,  the  cashier  the  usual  duties,  and  the  secretary 
should  have  charge  of  all  documents,  see  that  all 
mortgages  are  duly  recorded  before  notes  are  dis- 
counted by  the  bank,  and  keep  an  account  of  the  print- 
ing and  issue  of  bills. 

"  10.  Any  person  may  become  a  member  of  the  mu!- 
tual  banking  company,  of  any  particular  town  or  city, 
by  pledging  unencumbered  improved  real  estate,  never 
vacant  lands,  situated  in  that  town  or  city,  or  in  its 
immediate  neighborhood,  or  other  first-class  collateral 
to  the  bank. 

"n.  The  mutual  bank  should  print  (or  have  printed) 
paper  money,  with  which  to  discount  the  notes  of  its 
members,  and  should  always  furnish  new  bills  for  torn 
or  soiled  ones  when  requested,  free  of  charge. 

"  12.  Every  member,  at  the  time  his  note  is  dis- 
counted by  the  bank,  should  bind  himself,  and  be 
bound  in  due  legal  form,  to  receive  in  payment  of 
debts  at  par,  and  from  all  persons,  the  bills  issued  and 
to  be  issued  by  the  bank. 

"  13.  Notes  falling  due  may  be  renewed  by  the  bank, 
subject  to  the  modification  which  a  new  valuation  may 
require,  so  that  the  note  does  not  exceed  two  thirds. 
"14.  Any  person  may  borrow  the  paper  money  of  a 


Plan  of 
Bank. 


mutual  bank  on  his  own  note  not  extending  beyond  12 
months  (without  endorsement),  to  an  amount  not  to 
exceed  two  thirds  of  the  value  of  the  collateral  pledged 
by  him. 

"  15.  The  charge  which  the  mutual  bank  should 
make  for  the  loans  should  be  determined  by  and,  if 
possible,  not  exceed  the  expenses  of  the  institution, 
pro  rata. 

"  16.  No  money  should  be  loaned  by  the  bank  except 
on  the  above  conditions. 

"  17.  Any  member  may  have  his  property  released 
from  pledge  and  be  himself  released  from  all  obliga- 
tions to  the  mutual  bank,  and  to  the  holders  of  its  bills 
as  such,  by  paying  his  note  or  notes  to  the  said  bank. 

"  18.  The  mutual  bank  shall  receive  none  other  than 
its  own  money,  or  that  of  similar  institutions,  except 
such  coin  money  as  the  board  of  directors  may  des- 
ignate, and  this  should  be  discounted  one  half  of  one 
per  cent. 

"  iq.  All  mutual  banks  may  enter  into  such  arrange- 
ments with  each  other  as  shall  enable  them  to  receive 
each  other's  bills. 

"  20.  The  mutual  bank  should  publish  in  one  or  more 
daily  papers  each  day  a  statement  of  its  loans  the  day 
previous,  describing  the  property  pledged,  giving  the 
owner's  name  and  its  location,  with  the  appraiser's 
value  and  the  amount  loaned  on  it,  and  also  a  state- 
ment of  the  notes  paid  and  mortgages  cancelled  dur- 
ing the  same  period,  which  statement  should  be  signed 
by  the  manager,  cashier,  and  secretary. 

"21.  The  mutual  bank  should  exchange,  at  any  time, 
any  of  its  own  bills  that  are  torn  or  worn  for  new  ones 
without  charge." 

To  this  plan  socialists  say  that  the  main,  and 
in  one  sense  the  only  but  sufficient  objection  is 
that  unless  all  entered  into  this  mutual  system 
it  would  not  serve  the  complete  needs  of  society 
as  a  medium  of  exchange,  so  that  government 
or  some  other  organization  would  still  have  to 
provide  money  ;  and  that  when  all  did  enter 
into  it  it  would  be  a  monetary  cooperative  com- 
monwealth, such  as  democratic  socialism  is  more 
speedily  leading  us  to  realize.  Till  we  have 
this,  government  needs  to  control  the  issue  of 
money  in  order  to  prevent  the  ignorant  and  in- 
nocent from  being  deceived  by  the  speculator 
and  the  sharper.  (See  ANARCHISM  ;  SOCIALISM.) 

MUTUALISM  is  a  term  preferred  by  some, 
like  the  late  Bishop  Brooks,  in  place  of  social- 
ism. Professor  Frank  Parsons,  who  has  made 
the  term  known  in  his  books,  The  Philosophy 
of  Mutualism  and  Oitr  Country' s  Need,  con- 
tributes the  following  statement  of  it  : 

"  The  term  mutualism  is  used  to  denote  a  condition 
of  society  in  which  the  governing  principle  is  mutual 
help.  When  two  persons  work  together  in  partner- 
ship or  live  together  in  harmonious  family  life  we 
have  mutualism  in  miniature.  When  the  principle  of 
partnership  or  union  of  ownership,  effort  and  control  for 
the  common  benefit,  shall  be  extended  to  the  whole 
social  life  of  city,  State,  and  nation,  we  shall  have  a 
mutualism  complete  upon  the  plane  of  justice.  And 
when  love  and  brotherhood  become  the  animating 
principle  of  the  partnership,  and  each  member  of  so- 
ciety not  merely  cooperates  with  the  rest,  but  devotes 
himself  to  the  welfare  of  the  rest,  we  shall  have  a 
mutualism  of  the  loftiest  type.  The  earlier  outward 
steps  toward  mutualism  are  the  public  ownership  of 
monopolies  and  the  growth  of  cooperative  enterprises, 
•which  processes,  meeting  each  other  half  way,  will 
bring  about  a  common  ownership  of  the  means  of  pro- 
duction and  distribution,  industrial  self-government 
or  democracy,  economic  equality,  and  a  cooperative 
character.  Finally  men  will  come  to  know  that  the 
joys  of  intellectual  and  spiritual  activity  infinitely  ex- 
ceed the  pleasures  of  the  senses.  Then  they  will  wish 
for  wealth  merely  so  far  as  it  may  be  a  means  of  fitting 
them  for  the  noblest  intellectual  and  spiritual  life. 
They  will  also  learn  that  the  richest  and  most  enduring 
happiness  can  only  be  won  through  the  happiness  of 
others— learn  it  not  in  words  alone,  but  in  thoughts  and 
emotions  sufficiently  strong  to  sway  their  conduct. 
Then  the  golden  rule  and  brother  love  and  devotion 
will  become  the  real  governing  law  of  daily  life,  and 
mutualism  will  have  reached  its  goal." 


Nasse,  Erwin. 


912 


Nation  and  Nationality. 


1ST 


NASSE,  ERWIN,  was  born  at  Bonn,  De- 
cember 2,  1829 ;  studied  there  and  at  Gb't- 
tingen,  and  took  his  degree  of  Doctor  in  1851. 
After  study  in  Berlin  he  established  himself  as 
privat-docent  in  Bonn,  in  1854,  whence  he  was 
called,  in  the  Spring  of  1856,  as  professor,  to 
Basel,  and  in  the  Fall  of  the  same  year  to 
Rostock.  In  1860  he  came  to  his  native  city 
as  professor.  He  took  an  active  part  in  polit- 
ical affairs,  and  was  from  1869  to  1879  member 
of  the  Prussian  House  of  Deputies,  where  he 
rendered  important  services  on  the  budget 
commission.  He  was  one  of  the  founders  of 
the  Vereinfiir  Socialpolitik  (see  Socialists  of 
the  Chair)  and  the  president  oi  it  from  1874  to 
his  death,  January  4,  1890.  Professor  Nasse 
was  a  frequent  contributor  to  scientific  jour- 
nals, and  the  list  of  his  writings  is  made  up 
largely  of  the  titles  of  these  essays. 

NATION       AND         NATIONALITY.— 

Bliintschli,  in  his  The  Theory  of  the  State 
(tr.  from  the  German,  p.  90),  defines  a  nation  as 
"a  society  of  all  the  members  of  a  state  as 
united  and  organized  in  the  State."  He  thus 
makes  it  a  concept  dependent  upon  the  State. 
The  State  he  defines  (idem,  p.  23)  as  "the  politi- 
cally organized  national  person  of  a  definite 
country."  The  two  definitions  are  thus  made 
mutually  dependent,  and  the  same  dependence 
will  be  found  to  run  through  almost  all  defini- 
tions, because  the  ideas  are  themselves  mutu- 
ally dependent.  It  is  scarcely  possible  to  have 
a  nation  that  is  not  a  state,  nor  a  state  that  is 
not  a  nation.  Nevertheless  the  two  words,  tho 
often  used,  even  by  careful  writers,  somewhat 
synonymously,  and  though  continually  popu- 
larly confused,  are  not  absolutely  synonymous. 
A  state  is  a  nation  politically  organized.  A 
nation  is  the  organic  collectivity  of  all  the  peo- 
ple in  a  state,  implying  indeed  a  political  or- 
ganism, but  not  limiting  the  collectivity  to 
its  political  aspect.  The  concept  people,  on 
the  other  hand,  is  still  wider  than  the  concept 
a  nation.  The  word  people  implies  the  col- 
lectivity of  persons  living  in  a  state,  but  does 
not  conceive  it  as  an  organic  unity,  political 
or  of  any  sort.  It  conceives  of  them  as  a 
whole  and  perhaps  as  a  united  whole,  but  not 
as  an  organized  whole.  Such  are  the  differ- 
ences, or  shades  of  difference,  that  are  usu- 
ally made  by  English  writers  between  these 
three  words.  Nevertheless,  the  distinctions 
are  not  always  observed,  even  by  the  best 
writers.  In  other  languages  too  the  word  na- 
tion is  used  quite  differently.  The  Germans 
call  a  people  a  nation,  and  what  we  mean  by 
nation  they  call  a  volk.  The  old  Latin  natio 
meant  what  we  mean  by  people.  Indeed  the 
conception  nation  as  of  the  organic  unity  of  a 
people  may  be  considered  a  wholly  modern 
conception.  Despotism  knows  nothing  of  a 
nation.  It  only  recognizes  peoples  and  states. 


Analyzing  more  carefully  the  conception  nation, 
we  find  first  that  a  nation  implies  a  certain  terri- 
tory in  which  it  must  live.  Says  Woolsey  (Introduction 
to  inter.  Law,  §  52) :  "  A  nation  is  an 
organized  community  within  a  certain 
territory  ;  or  in  other  words  there  must  Content. 
be  a  place  where  its  sole  sovereignty  is 
exercised."  A  nation  may  be  con- 
ceived as  changing  its  country,  but  it  must  have  a 
country,  at  least  in  prospect.  It  is  scarcely  possible 
to-day  to  speak  of  the  Jewish  nation.  Secondly,  a  na- 
tion must  have  a  natural  unity ;  ordinarily,  tho  not 
always,  it  must  be  composed  of  persons  of  the  same 
ethnic  family  and  speaking  the  same  language,  or  at 
least  cognate  languages.  Even  when  this  does  not 
exist,  as  it  does  not  wholly  in  the  United  States,  nev- 
ertheless there  must  be  a  national  unity  besides  that 
of  place.  M.  W.  Ward  says  (Eng.  Dram.  Lit.,  Int.  p. 
xvi)  :  "  A  nation  may  be  defined  as  a  body  of  popu- 
lation which  its  proper  history  has  made  one  in  itself, 
and  as  such  distinct  from  all  others."  A  nation  thus 
is  a  growth.  We  see  this  in  the  derivation  of  the 
word  from  nasci,  to  be  born.  Unity  of  race,  of  lan- 
guage, of  religion,  of  civilization,  of  government, 
of  experience,  of  place,  all  contribute  in  varying 
degree  to  gradually  separate  one  nation  from  an- 
other. Thirdly,  a  nation  must  have  some  conscious 
and  expressed  unity.  It  must  have  somewhat  of  a 
common  will.  Bluntschli  calls  it  a  collective  person- 
ality. 

These  conceptions  and  definitions  may  be  illus- 
trated by  pointing  out  that  Italy  and  Germany  were 
nations  long  before  they  were  states ;  that  Rome  was 
never  a  nation  tho  a  state;  that  ancient  Greece  was 
one  people,  but  never  a  nation  or  a  state  ;  that  the 
United  States,  altho  composed  of  many  states  and 
with  many  varieties  of  race,  language,  religion,  and 
custom,  is  nevertheless  one  state,  one  nation,  and  one 
people.  To  take  other  examples  we  speak  of  the  Sec- 
retary of  State,  the  national  flag,  the  representatives 
of  the  people. 

Thus  conceiving  of  the  nation,  we  see  that  it  is  a 
modern  growth,  and  that  it  must  be,  because  it  takes 
time  and  implies  high  civilization  and  wide-spread 
liberty  to  develop  a  nation.  Antiquity  knew  no  nations. 
Egypt,  China,  Assyria,  did  not  develop 
nations.  They  consisted  of  a  people,  or 
various  peoples,  ruled  over  by  a  mon- 
arch. Greece  had  cities  or  states,  but  de- 
veloped no  nation.  There  was  liberty, 
but  no  wide-spread  union.  The  Roman 
Empire  was  not  a  nation  ;  it  had  unity, 
but  its  various  constituent  parts  did  not  have  liberty 
or  a  common  will.  The  Middle  Ages  saw  no  nations 
tho  nationality  was  growing.  England  may  be  said 
to  have  developed  as  a  nation  almost  before  the  close 
of  the  Middle  Ages,  and  France  and  Italy  and  Ger- 
many were  not  far  behind,  yet  Italy  and  Germany 
were  h  ndered  in  the  development  of  national  unity 
by  division  into  rival  states,  and  France  developed  so 
tyrannical  a  state  as,  until  the  revolution,  to  have  lit- 
tle of  the  liberty  necessary  to  a  true  nationality.  With 
freedom  and  self-government  has  come  that  love  of 
'country,  that  common  life,  which  produces  the  mod- 
ern nation. 

In  this  brief  historical  survey  attention  must  be 
called  to  the  various  conceptions  of  nationality  that 
have  prevailed.  The  Roman  people,  not  a  nation  in 
the  modern  sense  of  the  word,  had  the  word  natio,  but 
they  understood  by  it  what  we  mean  by  people.  It 
had  an  ethnographic  base.  A  people  were  those 
descended  from  a  common  stock.  The  law  which 
determined  nationality  with  the  Romans  was  the  jus 
sanguinis,  the  law  of  blood  relationship. 

The  Germanic  tribes,  gradually  setting  up  their 
feudal  governments  over  Western  Europe,  conceived 
of  the  nation  as  a  territorial  unit,  its  people  being 
bound  by  feudal  oaths  to  allegiance.  Commonly  the 
place  of  birth  settled  the  allegiance,  but  the  alle- 
giance was  even  more  than  the  birth.  Nationality  was 
thus  a.  jus  so/is,  or  law  of  the  land.  This  is  the  law  that 
lies  at  the  basis  of  the  English  common  law.  It  is  the 
personal  relation  of  the  individual  to  the  sovereign 
which  constitutes  nationality.  An  Englishman  is  not 


Historical 
Sketch. 


Nation  and  Nationality. 


National  Purity  League. 


subject  to  the  king  because  he  is  an  Englishman;  he 
is  an  Englishman  because  he  is  subject  to  the  king. 
The  king  being  in  England  hereditary,  or  perpetual, 
the  oath  of  allegiance  was  considered  perpetual ;  nev- 
ertheless it  came  to  be  recognized  in  common  law  that 
the  subject  could  freely  withdraw  his  person  and 
property  from  the  jurisdiction  of  the  crown,  unless 
expressly  prohibited  by  king  or  parliament.  Yet 
no  law  permitting  expatriation  was  passed  until  1870. 
When  the  United  States  became  independent  the 
relation  of  allegiance  was  considered  as  transferred 
both  to  the  States  and  to  the  national  federation.  Which 
allegiance  is  supreme  has  long  been  a  mooted  point 
(see  CENTRALIZATION),  but  it  may  be  considered  as 
settled,  at  least  as  far  as  law  goes,  that  the  supreme 
allegiance  is  to  the  federal  Government. 

From  this  historical  resume  and  from  the 
conception  of  nationality  itself,  it  is  not  hard 
to  see  that  the  nation  must  play  a  large  part  in 
social  reform.  Nevertheless,  political  scien- 
tists have  been  divided  between  those  who 
would  exalt  the  unity  of  race  and  those  who 
would  exalt  the  unity  of  the  nation.  Modern 
socialism  on  the  other  hand  has  been  somewhat 
inclined  to  ignore  both  social  and  national  uni- 
ties, and  to  develop  an  internationalism.  This 
is  generally  the  case  among  European  social- 
ists, but  English  and  American  socialists  have 
generally  and  more  wisely  held  that  the  nation 
is  a  natural  unit ;  that  if  socialism  is  to  be  evo- 
lutionary it  must  develop  around  the  national 
unities  of  the  town,  city,  state,  and  nation, 
and  that  only  when  these  are  somewhat  de- 
veloped can  we  gradually  grow  toward  a 
healthy  internationalism. 

For  further  consideration  of  the  subject  see 
POLITICAL  SCIENCE,  STATE,  SOVEREIGNTY,  etc. 
For  references  see  STATE. 


NATIONAL  CHRISTIAN  LEAGUE  FOR 
THE  PROMOTION  OF  SOCIAL  PURITY, 
THE,  was  organized  in  1886,  largely  through 
the  efforts  of  Mrs.  E.  B.  Grannis,  its  present 
president.  A  national  charter  was  obtained  in 
Washington  in  October,  1887.  Its  objects  are  : 
To  elevate  opinion  respecting  the  nature  and 
claims  of  morality,  with  its  equal  obligation 
upon  men  and  women  ;  to  secure  a  proper, 
practical  recognition  of  its  precepts  on  the 
part  of  the  individual,  the  family,  and  the 
nation,  and  to  enlist  and  organize  the  efforts 
of  Christians  in  protective,  educational,  re- 
formatory, and  legislative  work  in  the  interest 
of  social  purity.  It  aims  to  supply  employ- 
ment, funds,  and  advice  to  enable  needy  girls 
and  women  to  gain  an -honorable  living.  It 
forms  clubs  and  societies  of  the  young  for 
their  training  in  wholesome  and  honest  intelli- 
gence regarding  social  purity.  It  endeavors 
to  instil  the  principles  necessary  for  the  pre- 
vention of  immorality  into  the  minds  of 
young  children  and  youth.  It  seeks  to  protect 
young  girls  from  all  forms  of  temptation,  and 
to  prosecute  those  who  deceive  them.  Its 
constitution  says : 

PREAMBLE. 

We,  a  company  of  Christians,  being  led,  as  we 
believe,  by  the  Spirit  of  God,  do  form  ourselves  into 
an  association  for  the  purpose  of  engaging  in  lines  of 
work  in  the  interest  of  social  purity ;  and  for  our 

fuidance  we    adopt  the  following    constitution   and 
y-laws  for  the  purpose  of  the  promotion  of   social 

58 


purity  and  the  general  well-being  of  women  and  girls, 
required  by  the  Word  of  God. 

OBJECT. 

This  society  shall  strive  to  elevate  opinion  respect- 
ing the  nature  and  claims  of  morality,  with  its  equal 
obligation  upon  men  and  women,  and  to  secure  a 
practical  recognition  of  its  precepts  on  the  part  of  the 
individual,  the  family,  and  the  nation. 

We  will  enlist  and  organize  the  efforts  of  Christians 
in  preventive,  educational,  reformatory,  and  legisla- 

its  Standing 


tive  work  in  the  interest  of  social  purity.    The  lines  of 
work  of  the  association  are  indicated  by  it 


Committees. 


CONSTITUTION. 


Article  /.—The  name  cf  this  society  shall  be  The 
National  Christian  League  for  the  Promotion  of 
Social  Purity. 

Article  //.—Any  person  who  is  a  Christian  believer 
may  be  proposed  for  membership  at  any  meeting  of 
this  league,  and  may  be  elected  at  the  next  regular 
business  meeting.  Annual  membership  fee,  $i;  life 
members,  $50  ;  a  life  honorary  member,  without  voting 
privilege,  $10 ;  life  patron,  $100 ;  sustaining  member, 
$25. 

Article  VI.—  There  shall  be  seven,  or  more,  stand- 
ing committees,  as  follows : 

I.  A  Committee    on    Public,    Educational,    and 

Devotional  Meetings. 

II.  A  Committee  to  Secure  Cooperation  of  Physi- 
cians and  Medical  Colleges. 

III.  A  Committee  on  Securing  Helpful  Legislation. 

IV.  A  Committee  on  Schools  and  Colleges. 
V.  A  Committee  on  Reformatory  Work. 

VI.  A  Committee  on  Woman's  Work  and  Wages. 
VII.  A  Committee  on  Amusements. 
VIII.  A  Committee  on  Publication  and  Literature. 
IX.  A  Committee  for  Visiting  Strangers  and  those 

in  Need. 

X.  A  Committee  on  Ways  and  Means. 
Article  -X"///.— Auxiliary  leagues,  or  branches,  may 
be  established  in  any  city  or   town    by  those  inter- 
ested, who  may  obtain  all  necessary  information  for 
organization  from  the  corresponding  secretary. 

The  league  holds  two  regular  meetings  each 
month  at  its  headquarters,  33  East  Twenty- 
second  street,  New  York  City  :  one  a  prayer 
and  business  meeting,  the  last  Saturday  after- 
noon in  each  month,  for  women,  and  a  gen- 
eral meeting,  composed  of  both  men  and 
women,  the  last  Monday  night  in  each  month, 
for  the  discussion  of  the  various  questions  con- 
cerning the  object  and  aims  of  the  society, 
and  for  stimulating  thought  along  all  the 
lines  of  the  league's  labors,  in  order  to  prompt 
individuals  to  action. 

The  league  has  had  drafted  several  bills 
to  be  presented  before  the  legislature  :  bills  to 
prevent  the  gift  or  sale  of  tobacco  to  minors  in 
prisons  ;  to  amend  the  code  so  that  any  person 
convicted  of  breaking  the  Seventh  Command- 
ment should  be  imprisoned  for  not  less  than 
one  year,  and  fined  not  less  than  one  thousand 
dollars  ;  to  secure  long  sentences  for  habitual 
drunkards  and  abandoned  women,  that  they 
may  be  committed  to  an  industrial  home  until 
they  shall  become  self-supporting  ;  to  secure 
full  political  citizenship  for  women. 

The  league  has  formed  permanent  homes  in 
the  country  for  its  beneficiaries  ;  it  has  secured 
temporary  homes  for  a  very  great  variety  of 
exceptional  cases ;  it  has  given  out  work  for 
the  purpose  of  keeping  families  together  where 
it  was  best  that  they  should  not  be  separated.  It 
has  paid  rent  and  board,  furnished  food,  clothes, 
and  shelter  to  several  hundred  applicants. 

The  organ  of  the  league  is  The  Church 
Union,  a  paper  owned  and  edited  by  Mrs. 
Grannis,  the  league's  president. 


National  Citizens'  Alliance. 


914 


National  Council  of  Women. 


NATIONAL  CITIZENS'  INDUSTRIAL 
ALLIANCE,  THE.— This  is  an  organization 
that  aims  to  do  in  towns  and  cities  the  work 
of  the  Farmers'  Alliance  in  the  country.  The 
Farmers'  Alliance  admitting  to  its  membership 
only  persons  residing  in  the  country,  and  there 
being  many  persons  living  in  the  towns  and 
cities  who  were  in  sympathy  with  the  objects 
of  that  organization,  and  desiring  to  cooperate 
with  it,  organizations  began  tp  spring  up  in 
various  places.  At  Olathe,  Kan.,  at  the  sug- 
gestion of  Mr.  E.  Z.  Ernst,  a  call  was  made  to 
all  citizens  who  indorsed  the  St.  Louis  de- 
mands, and  on  the  gth  day  of  June,  1890,  the 
Citizens'  Alliance  of  Olathe,  Kan.,  was  per- 
fected, with  Wm.  Henry,  president,  and  D.  C. 
Zercher,  secretary. 

The  idea  spread,  and  in  a  few  weeks  over 
400  similar  alliances  had  been  formed,  and 
on  August  12  a  convention  met  at  Topeka 
and  effected  a  State  organization,  with  D.  C. 
Zercher,  president,  and  W.  F.  Rightmire,  sec- 
retary. 

By  the  end  of  the  year  there  were  1 100  alli- 
ances in  19  States,  and  on  January  13,  1891,  a 
convention  met  at  Toledo  to  form  a  national 
organization.  The  former  organization  had 
been  open  and  auxiliary  to  the  Farmers' 
Alliance,  but  now  an  independent  organiza- 
tion, with  secret  work,  to  be  known  as  the 
National  Assembly  of  the  National  Citizens' 
Industrial  Alliance,  was  instituted,  and  a  con- 
stitution, by-laws,  and  ritual,  etc.,  were 
adopted,  with  the  election  of  national  officers. 

Thomas  W.  Gilruth,  of  Kansas  City,  Mo., 
was  elected  president,  and  Wm.  F.  Right- 
mire,  of  Topeka,  Kan.,  secretary.  For  the 
further  history  of  the  movement,  see  FARM- 
ERS' ALLIANCE,  PEOPLE'S  PARTY,  NATIONAL  IN- 
DUSTRIAL LEGION. 

NATIONAL  CONFERENCE  OF  CHAR- 
ITIES AND  CORRECTIONS.— This  im- 
portant institution  arose  out  of  a  visit  of  the 
State  Commissioners  of  Public  Charities  of 
Illinois  to  Madison,  Wis.,  in  February,  1872. 
It  was  there  proposed  that  a  conference  of 
neighboring  boards  be  called;  and  May  14, 
1872,  five  delegates  from  Michigan,  four  from 
Illinois,  and  five  from  Wisconsin,  met  in  Chi- 
cago for  a  two  days'  conference.  Its  success 
was  largely  due  to  the  efforts  of  Fred.  H. 
Wines,  secretary  of  the  State  Board  of  Illi- 
nois, S.  D.  Hastings,  secretary  of  the  board  of 
Wisconsin,  and  H.  H.  Giles,  president  of  the 
board  of  Wisconsin.  Another  conference  was 
held  at  Milwaukee  in  1873.  In  1874  the  Social 
Science  Association  (see  AMERICAN  SOCIAL 
SCIENCE  ASSOCIATION)  invited  the  State  boards 
of  all  States  to  send  delegates  to  a  confer- 
ence to  be  held  in  New  York  City,  May 
19.  This  meeting  was  known  as  the  First 
National  Conference  of  Charities,  and  simi- 
lar annual  conferences  have  been  held  ever 
since.  Down  to  1878,  however,  the  con- 
ferences were  held  in  connection  with  the 
Social  Science  Association,  and  that  organiza- 
tion was  the  most  prominent.  Beginning  with 
1879,  the  conference  has  met  as  a  separate 
body.  The  chairman  of  the  First  National 
Conference  was  J.  V.  S.  Pruyn,  president  of 


the  New  York  board,  its  secretary,  F.  B.  San- 
born,  secretary  of  the  Massachusetts  board. 
According  to  its  present  constitution,  "the 
National  Conference  of  Charities  exists  to  dis- 
cuss the  problems  of  charities  and  corrections, 
to  discriminate  information  and  promote  re- 
forms. It  does  not  formulate  platforms." 
The  membership  includes  all  past  officers  of 
the  conference  who  have  served  more  than 
one  year ;  all  members  of  State  Boards  of 
Chanties,  or  similar  boards  ;  all  managers  and 
officers  of  public  or  private  charitable  and  cor- 
rectional institutions  ;  all  members  of  societies 
for  the  relief  or  improvement  of  the  poor,  un- 
fortunate, or  neglected.  The  fee  is  $2  per 
year,  entitling  the  member  to  a  copy  of  the 
proceedings  and  other  publications  of  the  con- 
ference. (The  proceedings  are  now  published 
in  an  annual  volume  of  some  400  pages.) 
Others  specially  interested  may  be  enrolled  as 
members  without  a  vote.  The  officers  are 
elected  annually.  The  standing  committees 
consist  of  executive  and  social  committees, 
and  a  committee  on  each  subject  which  it  is 
proposed  to  discuss  at  the  next  conference. 
In  1894  these  committees  were  on  Charity 
Organization,  the  Administration  of  Public 
and  Private  Relief,  Child-saving  Work,  Juven- 
ile Reformatories,  the  Insane,  State  Boards  of 
Charities,  the  Feeble-minded,  Immigration  and 
Interstate  Migration,  Sociology  in  Institu- 
tions of  Learning,  Training-schools  for  Nurses, 
Homes  for  Soldiers  and  Sailors,  Reports  from 
the  States.  The  subjects  do  not  materially  vary 
from  year  to  year,  tho  the  preface  to  the  pro- 
ceedings of  the  Twenty-first  Conference  held 
in  Nashville,  in  May,  1894,  says  :  "  It  is  per- 
haps indicative  of  the  spirit  of  the  time,  that 
while  there  is  no  chapter  devoted  to  pris- 
ons, large  space  is  given  to  Child-saving  and 
Reformatories.  ...  A  chapter  on  the  In- 
structions in  Sociology  in  Institutions  of  Learn- 
ing hints  at  a  new  department;  for  this  prom- 
ises to  be  a  subject  that  will  henceforth  receive 
much  more  attention  than  it  has  in  the  past. " 
Besides  the  National  Conference,  some  States 
or  groups  of  States,  like  New  England,  hold 
local  conferences.  The  reports  may  be  or- 
dered of  the  Treasurer,  John  M.  Glenn,  Glenn 
Building,  Baltimore,  Md. 

NATIONAL    COUNCIL    OF    WOMEN 
OF    THE     UNITED     STATES,     THE.— 

The  part  which  the  many  play  in  the  evolu- 
tion of  each  idea  is  well  illustrated  in  the  his- 
tory of  the  development  of  the  National  and 
International  Councils  of  Women.  Twelve 
years  ago,  Elizabeth  Cady  Stanton  (g.  i>.), 
visiting  France  and  England,  suggested  hold- 
ing in  Washington,  D.  C.,  an  international 
convention  of  women  interested  in  obtaining 
the  franchise  for  their  sex;  recommending  this 
as  a  peculiarly  appropriate  method  for  cele- 
brating the  then  approaching  fortieth  anni- 
versary of  the  first  Woman's  Rights  Conven- 
tion which  was  held  in  Seneca  Falls,  N.  Y. 
Received  into  Susan  B.  Anthony's  mind, 
the  idea  expanded  to  that  of  celebrating 
the  fortieth  anniversary  by  holding  an  inter- 
national meeting  of  all  kinds  of  associations 
of  women — educational,  religious,  and  philan- 


National  Council  of  Women. 


National  Council  of  Women. 


thropic,  as  well  as  political,  as  these  un- 
doubtedly owed  their  existence  to  the  work 
done  by  the  heroines  of  Seneca 
Falls  forty  years  before.  Passed 
Origin.  on  to  the  brain  of  May  Wright 
Sewall,  the  idea  added'  to  itself 
the  thought  of  permanence  and 
extension,  and,  when  the  time  came  for  the 
Washington  celebration,  Mrs.  Sewall  unfolded 
to  her  associates  a  plan  providing  for  triennial 
gatherings  in  council  of  delegates  from 
women's  organizations  in  the  United  States, 
and  for  a  quinquennial  council  to  be  composed 
of  delegates  from  national  associations  in 
every  part  of  the  world.  Meeting  with  a  favor- 
able reception  from  the  representatives  then 
convened  at  Washington,  the  enlarged  idea 
was  put  into  definite  shape  by  a  committee 
chosen  to  prepare  formal  constitutions  for 
these  permanent  bodies,  and,  before  the  dele- 
gates separated,  the  constitutions  were  ac- 
cepted, officers  chosen,  and  the  recommenda- 
tion adopted  that  the  general  officers  of  the 
National  Council  should  at  once  issue  an  ad- 
dress to  the  women  of  the  United  States  set- 
ting forth  the  object  of  the  new  organization. 
Three  years  later,  in  1891,  the  first  National 
Council  of  Women  of  the  United  States,  with 
seven  important  national  organizations  as  full 
members  of  the  body  and  thirty-one  other 
similar  associations  represented  by  fraternal 
delegates,  gathered  in  Washington,  holding  a 
three  days'  convention  of  two  sessions  each, 
which  were  attended  by  hundreds  of  visitors 
from  every  section  of  the  country. 

In  her  opening  address,  President  Frances 
E.  Willard  suggested  a  still  further  extension 
of  Mrs.  Sewall's  idea,  saying,  "I  believe  we 
should  organize  a  miniature  council  in  every 
town  and  city,  confederating  these  in  every 
State,  and  instructing  the  State  council  to 
send  delegates  to  the  national  council.  The 
plan  would  be  to  let  these  delegates  form  a 
lower  and  the  heads  of  the  national  societies 
an  upper  house,  whose  concurrent  vote  should 
be  essential  to  the  enunciation  of  any  prin- 
ciple or  the  adoption  of  any  plan.  .  .  .  Lo- 
cally a  woman's  council  should  seek  to  secure 
for  women  admission  to  all  school  committees, 
library  associations,  hospital  and  other  insti- 
tutional boards  intrusted  with  the  care  of  de- 
fective, dependent,  and  delinquent  classes; 
also  to  boards  of  trustees  in  scho'ols  and  col- 
leges and  all  professional  and  business  asso- 
ciations ;  also  to  all  college  and  professional 
schools  that  have  not  yet  set  before  us  an  open 
door ;  and  each  local  council  should  have  the 
power  to  call  in  the  united  influence  of  its  own 
State  council,  or,  in  special  instance,  of  the 
national  council,  if  its  own  influence  did  not 
suffice.  ..." 

President  Willard  further  advised  that  the 
Columbian  Exposition  should  witness  the  con- 
vening of  a  world's  council  of  women,  the 
invitations  to  which  should  naturally  be  given 
by  the  national  council  and  the  preparations 
for  which  should  begin  without  delay. 

Miss  Willard's  idea  was  acted  upon,  and  when 
later  the  World's  Congress  Auxiliary  to  the 
Columbian  Exposition  and  the  Woman's  Branch 
of  the  same  were  formed,  these  bodies  found  in 


the  National  Council  of  Women  of  the  United 
States  a  most  natural  and  efficient  helper  for 
the  management  of  the  World's  Congress  of 
Representative  Women.  This  meeting  con- 
vened for  seven  days  (May  15  to  May  22,  1893), 
there  being  600  speakers  at  108  sessions  in 
a  building  capable  of  accommodating  12,000 
people.  There  were  18  countries  represented 
by  delegates  from  95  organizations  of  na- 
tional value,'  and  it  is  generally  admitted  by 
all  interested  in  woman's  work  that  the  cause 
of  woman  was  advanced  by  this  great  union 
meeting  to  an  extent  not  to  be  compared  with 
the  effect  of  any  previous  assemblage  of 
women. 

The  National  Council  carries  forward  by 
means  of  committees  three  special  lines  of 
work.  It  having  been  decided,  at 
its  first  regular  public  meeting 
in  1891,  that  the  interests  of  all  Lines  of 
women  are  concerned  in  the  pro-  Work. 
posed  nationalizing  of  the  divorce 
laws  of  this  country,  a  committee 
was  appointed  to  act,  in  the  name  of  the  coun- 
cil, in  urging  the  appointment  of  women  to  posi- 
tions upon  the  board  of  the  National  Divorce 
Reform  League,  the  association  which  is  work- 
ing to  secure  Congressional  action  upon  divorce. 
A  Committee  on  Equal  Pay  for  Equal  Work  se- 
cured the  presentation  in  Congress  of  a  bill 
providing  for  this  justice  toward  all  women  in 
Government  employ,  and  the  council  intends 
to  push  this  bill  until  the  United  States  Gov- 
ernment sets  this  example  to  all  its  citizens. 
The  question  of  developing  a  business  dress 
for  women  which  shall  leave  them  freer  than 
the  conventional  dress,  has  been  taken  up  by 
the  council  and  led  to  the  appointment  of  its 
Dress  Committee.  Through  this  committee, 
which  now  consists  of  some  of  the  most  emi- 
nent advocates  of  improved  dress  for  women, 
the  council  is  seeking  to  concentrate  into  def- 
inite action  the  already  wide-spread  impatience 
of  women  with  their  present  trammeling  mode 
of  dress — a  dress  utterly  unsuited  to  the  de- 
mands of  the  nineteenth  century  upon  women 
in  all  walks  of  life. 

To  provide  a  legitimate  bond  between  indi- 
viduals and  an  organization  which  is,  of  ne- 
cessity, precluded  from  accepting  persons  into 
membership,  provision  was  made  for  "patrons 
of  the  council."  Any  person  whose  name  is 
acceptable  to  the  executive  committee  can,  by 
the  payment  of  $100  into  the  treasury,  become 
a  patron  for  life.  There  are  nearly  one  hun- 
dred patrons,  including  men  and  women 
prominent  in  all  lines  of  work. 

The  main  work  of  the  council  is  to  unify  the 
efforts  of  women  in  educational,  philanthropic, 
and  radical  work,  and  to  show  to  the  world 
what  women  are  doing  in  all  these  lines. 

Its  constitution  provides  that  its  regular  trien- 
nial meetings  shall  be  held  at  the  national  capi- 
tal, and  this  with  a  view  to  influencing  national 
legislation  upon  the  topics  most  closely  affect- 
ing the  lives  of  women.  Its  triennial  meeting 
in  1895  was  unique  in  the  history  of  women's 
assemblages,  taking  the  form  of  a  congress  last- 
ing several  weeks,  in  which  representatives  of 
the  national  associations  of  women  which  form 
the  council,  in  conjunction  with  the  represent- 


National  Divorce  Reform  League.    916    National  Divorce  Reform  League. 


atives  from  local  councils  of  women  (of 
which  a  large  number  have  already  been 
formed)  discussed  matters  of  special  interest 
to  women  and  formulated  judgments  upon 
them  which,  it  is  believed,  will  materially 
influence  public  opinion.  . 

The  members  of  the  Council  are  the  National  Amer- 
ican Woman  Suffrage  Association,  National  Woman's 
Christian  Temperance  Union,  National  Free  Baptists' 
Woman's  Missionary  Society,  Illinois  Industrial  School 
for  Girls  (National  Charter),  National  Woman's  Relief 
Society,  Wimodaughsis,  Young  Ladies'  National 
Mutual  Improvement  Association,  National  Christian 
League  for  the  Promotion  of  Social  Purity,  Universal 
Peace  Union,  International  Kindergarten  Union,  Wo- 
man's Republican  Association  of  the  United  States, 
National  Association  of  Loyal  Women  of  American 
Liberty,  Woman's  Foreign  Missionary  Union  of 
Friends,  Woman's  Relief  Corps,  National  Association 
of  Women  Stenographers,  National  Council  of  Jewish 
Women,  National  League  of  Colored  Women. 

RACHEL  FOSTER  AVERY. 

NATIONAL  DIVORCE  REFORM 
LEAGUE,  THE,  was  organized  early  in  1881 
as  the  New  England  Divorce  Reform  League, 
by  various  gentlemen,  Protestants  and  Catho- 
lics, with  Dr.  Theodore  D.  Woolsey  as  presi- 
dent. It  became  national  in  1885,  and  then  more 
definitely  stated  its  comprehensive  object  in 
the  revised  constitution  in  these  words:  "  To 
promote  an  improvement  in  public  sentiment 
and  legislation  in  the  institution  of  the  family, 
especially  as  affected  by  existing  evils  relating 
to  marriage  and  divorce. "  Its  secretary,  from 
the  formation  of  the  society  to  the  present 
time,  has  been  the  Rev.  Samuel  W.  Dike, 
LL.  D.,  Auburndale,  Mass.  Of  the  scope  of 
the  society  one  of  its  reports  says  : 

A  comprehensive  view  is  taken  of  the  special  prob- 
lem before  it.  Earlier  work  on  marriage,  divorce, 
etc.,  treated  these  subjects  largely  or  wholly  in  isola- 
tion from  one  another,  and  from  other  related  social 
problems.  The  league,  on  the  contrary,  has  held 
marriage,  polygamy,  divorce,  chastity,  children, 
woman,  etc.,  etc.,  to  be  subjects  whose  study  and 
practical  treatment  are  closely  related  parts  of  the  one 
inclusive  problem  of  the  family,  and  its  place  and 
work  in  the  entire  social  order.  It  has  thus,  in  a 
degree,  broken  away  from  earlier  methods  of  social 
reform,  and  been  an  acknowledged  leader  in  those 
of  recent  years,  which  demand  a  basis  of  care- 
fully ascertained  facts,  and  a  scientific  apprehension 
of  their  broad  social  relations  and  interdependence. 
Concentrated  effort,  nevertheless,  has  been  the  steady 
aim.  Work  and  money  have  not  been  spent  on  large 
public  meetings,  or  in  extensive  publication.  The 
league  has  rather  sought  to  encourage  study  and 
original  investigation;  to  lead  to  broad  and  thorough 
knowledge,  and  to  suggest  practical  work  to  those 
who  can  best  labor  in  their  own  respective  depart- 
ments, instead  of  attempting  to  make  of  itself  a  society 
for  doing  other  people's  work.  It  has  held  it  to  be 
better  to  get  universities  and  colleges  to  teach,  disin- 
terested statisticians  to  investigate,  and  churches  and 
citizens  to  propose  plans  of  action,  than  for  the 
league  to  do  these  things  in  their  place. 

i.  The  league  proposed  and  was  the  chief  agency 
in  securing  from  Congress  the  means  for  the  well- 
known  Report  on  Marriage  and  Divorce  in  the  United 
States  and  Europe,  and  its  secretary 
was  constantly  consulted  in  the  plan  of 

Wort  niifJ    the  investigation  and  during  its  execu- 

wuiii   am    tion      Thig  report  of  Hon    Carroll  D. 

KesultS.       Wright,  United  States  Commissioner  of 
Labor,  has  been  recognized  everywhere, 
in  this  and  foreign  countries,  as  giv- 
ing   the    authoritative    foundation     of    fact   for    all 
future  study  and  legislation.    It  has  revised  or  radi- 
cally changed  public  opinion  upon  several  important 
particulars,  besides    giving  a  sound  basis  for  action 
upon  others.    The    corresponding    secretary    of    the 
league,   by  request,   recently  presented   suggestions 


to  the  International  Statistical  Institute  for  the  further 
development  of  their  systems  of  official  statistics  of 
marriage  and  divorce  by  the  various  foreign  countries 
and  our  own  States.  With  the  cooperation  of  the  sta- 
tistical officers,  he  has  lately  collected  the  recent  sta- 
tistics of  marriage  and  divorce,  bringing  those  of  the 
report  of  Mr.  Wright  down  to  the  latest  returns. 

2.  State    legislation.       Since     the    work     of    the 
league  began,  there  has  been  almost  an  entire  cessa- 
tion of  the  loose  legislation  that  went  on  for  many 
years   in    regard   to     marriage    and    divorce.       The 
changes  of  law  in  recent  years  are  almost  invariably 
in  the  direction  of  reform.      Many  States  have  im- 
proved   their    marriage    or  divorce    laws,   or    both. 
Divorces  have  absolutely  decreased  in  three  or  four 
States,  and  in  others  the  rate  of  increase  is  less  than 
formerly,  while  in  several  marriages  are  better  regu- 
lated.   A  more  healthy  public  opinion  is  forming  and 
making  itself  felt. 

3.  Uniform  law  has  been  made  the  subject  of  care- 
ful study  and  effective  treatment.    The  favorite  popu- 
lar   demand    for    securing   uniformity    through    an 
amendment  of  the  Constitution  of  the  United  States 
was  neither  encouraged  nor  was  its  possible  future 
need  denied  by  the  league.     So  many,  so   complex, 
and  so  hidden  elements  enter  into  this  problem  that 
the  league  refused  to  join  in  the  popular  clamor    and 
devoted    its  efforts  to  pushing   on   the  collection   of 
statistics  that  would  shed  light  upon  it.    The  result 
fully  justified  the  course  adopted,  and  public  opinion 
has  been  radically  changed  regarding  the  best  course 
to  take  at  present. 

4.  Dr.  Woolsey  had  suggested  in  1881    cooperative 
legislation  by  the  States,  and  Governor  Robinson,  of 
Massachusetts,  officially  recommended  it  in  1884.    New 
York  created  the  first  State  Commission  on  Uniform- 
ity.    The  league  in  1890  brought  this  Commission  and 
the  Committee  of  the  American  Bar  Association  to- 
gether, and  the  work  of  the  establishment  of  a  suffi- 
cient  number   of    State   commissions   to    make    the 
experiment  has  been  carried  on  in  earnest,   as  the 
most  practicable  way  to  begin  the  solution  of  the  ques- 
tion.    Thirty  States  -already  have  established  these 
commissions.    In  the  report  of  their  first  conference' 
the  Commissioners  speak  of  the  project  as  "the  most 
important   juristic    work   undertaken  in  the  United 
States  since  the  adoption  of  the  Federal   Constitu- 
tion."    Their  subjects  include  marriage,  divorce,  the 
execution  of  wills  and    deeds,    notarial    certificates, 
bills  and  notes,  and  commercial  law  generally. 

5.  Church  work  has  received  special  attention,  in 
order  that  it  might  give  the  home  a  larger  place  in  its 
various  activities.    This  was  the  aim  of  the  series  of 
articles  which  the  secretary  published  on  the  Religious 
Problem  of  the  Country  Town  in  the  Andpver  Review, 
and  which    began    the    definite    discussion    of    that 
subject,  and  which  he  followed  with  other  papers  and 
work  upon  it.    He  also  devised  the  Home    Depart- 
ment of  the  Sunday-school  and  secured  its  adoption 
by  one  of  the  leading  Sunday-school  societies.    This 
soon  after  incorporated  with  it  Dr.  Duncan's  earlier 
system  of  home  classes,  and  has  now  spread  widely 
over  the  country,  doing  a  valuable  work  in  awakening 
the  home  to  its  own  possibilities,  as  well  as  extending 
the  study  of  the  Bible. 

Believing,  as  Germany  and  France  have  learned, 
that  the  sources  of  national  strength  and  the  best 
social  reform  must  be  fed  from  the  institutions  of  the 
higher  education,  constant  and  systematic  work  has 
been  done  for  a  dozen  years,  chiefly  through  the  lec- 
tures in  the  higher  educational  institutions,  the 
writings  and  correspondence  of  the  secretary,  de- 
signed to  awaken  an  interest  in  the  study  of  the 
family  and  its  various  problems,  and  in  sociology  as  a 
science.  The  rapid  development  of  this 
class  of  studies,  which  were  scarcely 
known  when  our  work  began,  and  the  p-nr,ao.aT1;ia 
demand  for  more  of  them  in  all  our  insti-  -rropaganaa. 
tutions  of  learning,  and  especially  of 
late  in  the  colleges  for  women,  is  a 
matter  of  great  satisfaction  to  us,  who  were  among 
the  first  to  enter  the  field.  These  aims,  methods,  and 
results  ;  the  inherent  importance  of  the  family  itself  ; 
the  peculiar  perils  of  it  amid  the  ferment  of  our  mod- 
ern civilization,  and  its  latent  resources  as  a  con- 
structive force  in  social  reform  and  progress,  have 
won  for  the  league  the  high  regard  of  the  best 
public  opinion.  Its  list  of  officers  and  contributors 
shows  this.  So  does  the  hearty  cooperation  of  Gov- 
ernment officials,  scientific  men,  and  libraries ;  of 
the  faculties  of  educational  institutions,  and  of  writers 
for  the  press.  Such  Englishmen  as  Mr.  Gladstone, 
Professor  Bryce,  Sir  Alfred  Stephen,  and  Mr.  Goldwin 
Smith  have  shown  their  hearty  sympathy,  and  spoken 


National  Industrial  Legion. 


917 


Nationalism. 


emphatically  of  its  importance.  Still  more  significant 
is  the  outspoken  or  mute  appeal  of  countless  sufferers 
from  the  evils  of  a  low  domestic  morality  and  the 
growing  correspondence  and  personal  conferences  of 
the  many  educated  young  men  and  women  whose 
interest  has  been  aroused,  and  who  are  eager  to  treat 
social  problems  intelligently  and  sanely. 

See  DIVORCE. 

NATIONAL    FARMERS'    ALLIANCE. 

See  FARMERS'  ALLIANCE. 

NATIONAL  GRANGE.    See  GRANGE. 

NATIONAL  INDUSTRIAL  LEGION, 
THE,  was  organized  at  Memphis,  Term., 
November  19,  1892,  by  the  National  Executive 
Committee  of  the  People's  Party  (a.  v.).  In 
connection  with  these,  100  leading  mem- 
bers of  the  Farmers'  Alliance  (g.  v.)  be- 
came its  charter  members.  Mr.  Paul  Van  der 
Voort,  its  zealous  advocate,  was  elected  com- 
mander in  chief.  It  is  a  national  organi- 
zation or  league,  aiming  to  establish  local, 
county,  and  State  legions,  which  may  serve  as 
People's  Party  clubs.  It  has  been  officially 
indorsed  five  times  by  the  national  executive 
committee  of  the  People's  Party  and  by  many 
State  committees,  as  the  only  league  officially 
recognized  by  the  People's  Party.  Its  declar- 
ation of  principles  is  the  planks  of  the  Omaha 
platform  (a.  v.)  of  the  People's  Party  as  to 
Finance,  Transportation,  a.n&  Land.  Its  mem- 
bers are  required  to  take  the  following  pledge : 
"  I  do  hereby  pledge  my  word  and  sacred 
honor  as  an  American  citizen,  that  I  will  sup- 
port and  defend  the  constitution  and  laws  of 
the  National  Industrial  Legion  of  the  United 
States  of  America,  and  at  all  times  cast  my 
influence  and  ballot  for  the  declaration  of 
principles  as  laid  down  in  the  constitution  ; 
and  that  I  will  always  endeavor  to  defend  the 
life,  interest,  reputation,  and  family  of  all  true 
members  of  this  organization." 

All  communications  should  be  addressed  to 
Mr.  Paul  Van  der  Voort,  Omaha,  Neb. 

NATIONAL  LEAGUE  FOR  THE  PRO- 
TECTION OF  AMERICAN  INSTITU- 
TIONS, THE,  was  incorporated  under  the 
laws  of  the  State  of  New  York,  December  24, 
1889.  The  general  secretary  has  prepared  the 
following  statement  of  the  objects  of  the 
organization  : 

"To  secure  constitutional  and  legislative  safe- 
guards for  the  protection  of  the  common-school  sys- 
tem and  other  American  institutions,  to  promote  pub- 
lic instruction  in  harmony  with  such  institutions,  and 
to  prevent  all  sectarian  or  denominational  appropria- 
tions of  public  funds." 

The  league  is  absolutely  unsectarian  and  non-parti- 
san in  character. 

As  a  means  of  securing  the  foregoing  objects,  the 
law  committee  of  the  league  has  prepared  the  follow- 
ing XVI.  Amendment  to  the  Constitution  of  the 
United  States  :  "  No  State  shall  pass  any  law  respect- 
ing an  establishment  of  religion,  or  prohibiting  the 
free  exercise  thereof,  or  use  its  property  or  credit,  or 
any  money  raised  by  taxation,  or  authorize  either  to 
be  used  for  the  purpose  of  founding,  maintaining, 
or  aiding,  by  appropriation,  payment  for  services, 
expenses,  or  ptherwisej  any  church,  religious  denomi- 
nation, or  religious  society,  or  any  institution,  society, 
or  undertaking  which  is  wholly,  or  in  part,  under 
sectarian  or  ecclesiastical  control." 

In  pursuance  of  its  work  on  the  above  lines  the 
league  has  vigorously  opposed,  both  in  the  Fifty-first 


and  Fifty-second  Congresses,  the  making  of  secta- 
rian appropriations  for  Indian  education,  and  has 
sought  to  extend  the  common-school  system  among 
the  wards  of  the  nation.  The  national  councils,  con- 
ferences, assemblies,  and  conventions  of  the  Baptist, 
Methodist  Episcopal,  Presbyterian,  Protestant  Episco* 
pal,  and  Congregational  Churches  have,  in  response  to 
the  league's  memorials,  declared  against  a  further  con- 
tinuance of  the  practice  of  receiving  subsidies  from 
the  National  Government  for  the  support  of  denomi- 
national work,  and  have  explicitly  indorsed  the  prin- 
ciples of  the  XVI.  Amendment.  The  principles  of  the 
XVI.  Amendment  have  been  adopted  by  two  national 
conventions,  representing  the  various  patriotic  Ameri- 
can orders,  many  of  which  are  doing  active  work  and 
securing  the  cooperation  of  more  than  1,500,000  voters. 
Local  secretaries  have  been  appointed  in  about  two' 
hundred  centers  of  population,  furnishing  a  medium 
for  extended  correspondence  and  organization.  Local 
leagues  have  been  formed  in  several  cities,  and  steps 
are  being  taken  to  organize  State  leagues.  Sub- 
scribers to  the  principles  and  purposes  set  forth  in  the 
above  statements,  who  desire  the  documents  of  the 
National  League,  may  send  their  name,  address,  and 
occupation  to  the  general  secretary,  James  M.  King, 
i  Madison  avenue,  New  York  City. 


NATIONAL     MUNICIPAL 

See  MUNICIPAL  REFORM. 


LEAGUE. 


NATIONALISM  is  the  name  in  America 
given  to  the  economic  ideal,  pictured  in  Ed- 
ward Bellamy's  novel,  Looking  Backward, 
and  also  to  the  reform  movement  that  has 
arisen  in  connection  with  this  book.  Its  aim  is 
not  indeed  to  copy  the  details  pictured  in 
Looking  Backward,  but  to  pass  toward  a 
civilization  patterned  in  general  after  the  plan 
outlined  in  that  book.  Says  Mr.  Bellamy  : 

"  This  plan  is  called  Nationalism  because  it  proceeds- 
by  the  nationalization  of  industries,  including,  as 
minor  applications  of  the  same  principle,  the  munici- 
palization  and  State  control  of  localized  businesses. 

"  Socialism  implies  the  socializing  of  industry.  This 
may  or  may  not  be  based  upon  the  national  organism, 
and  may  or  may  not  imply  economic  equality.  As 
compared  with  socialism,  Nationalism  is  a  definition 
not  in  the  sense  of  opposition  or  exclusion,  but  of  a 
precision  rendered  necessary  by  a  cloud  of  vague  and 
disputed  implications  historically  attached  to  the 
former  word." 

Nationalists  put  deep  emphasis  upon  the 
necessity  for  economic  equality.  Some  social- 
ists do  likewise,  but  some  do  not.  In  this 
respect,  and  in  its  starting  from  a  distinctly 
national  basis,  lies  its  difference  from  socialism. 

The   Nationalist  movement    in  the  United 
States  dates  from  December  i,  1888,  when  the 
first  Nationalist  club  was  organized  in  Boston. 
The  idea  of  the  movement,  as  well  as  the  name, 
sprang  from  a  suggestion  in  Edward  Bellamy's- 
novel,  Looking  Backward,   the    book  which 
describes  Boston    as  the    author 
believes  it  would  be  under  Nation- 
alism   in    the     year    2000.      (See        The 
Looking  Backward?)     A  club  of   First  Club. 
business  men   had  been    formed 
the      previous      autumn, — whose 
motto  was,    "Spread    the   Book";  but    find- 
ing    unexpected    success    and    interest,    the 
Nationalist  movement  was  conceived  and  the 
first  club  organized.     The  leaders  in  the  move- 
ment were   Cyrus  Willard,  Sylvester  Baxter, 
Charles  E.  Bowers,  A.  T.  Devereux,  Edward 
S.  Huntington,  Henry  W.  Austin,  Miss  Anna 
Page,    and    others.     Mr.    Edward     Bellamy, 
himself,   being    in  correspondence    with    the 
movers.     The  first  officers  of    the  first  club 


Nationalism. 


918 


Nationalism. 


were  Charles  E.  Bowers,  president ;  Edward 
Bellamy,  first  vice-president ;  C.  F.  Willard, 
secretary.  The  following  declaration  of  prin- 
ciples was  adopted: 

"The  principle  of  the  Brotherhood  of  Humanity  is 
one  of  the  eternal  truths  that  govern  the  world's  prog- 
ress on  lines  which  distinguish  human  nature  from 
brute  nature. 

"  The  principle  of  competition  is  simply  the  applica- 
tion of  the  brutal  law  of  the  survival  of  the  strongest 
and  most  cunning. 

"  Therefore,  so  long  as  competition  continues  to  be 
the  ruling  factor  in  our  industrial  system,  the  highest 
development  of  the  individual  cannot  be  reached,  the 
loftiest  aims  of  humanity  cannot  be  realized. 

"  No  truth  can  avail  unless  practically  applied.  There- 
fore, those  who  seek  the  welfare  of  man  must  endeavor 
to  suppress  the  system  founded  on  the  brute  principle 
of  competition  and  put  in  its  place  another  based  on 
the  nobler  principle  of  association. 

"But  in  striving  to  apply  this  nobler  and  wiser  prin- 
ciple to  the  complex  conditions  of  modern  life,  we  ad- 
vocate no  sudden  or  ill-considered  changes  ;  we  make 
no  war  upon  individuals ;  we  do  not  censure  those 
who  have  accumulated  immense  fortunes  simply  by- 
carrying  to  a  logical  end  the  false  principle  on  which 
business  is  now  based. 

"The  combinations,  trusts,  and  syndicates  of  which 
the  people  at  present  complain  demonstrate  the  prac- 
ticability of  our  basic  principle  of  association.  We 
merely  seek  to  push  this  principle  a  little  further  and 
have  all  industries  operated  in  the  interest  of  all  by 
the  nation— the  people  organized — the  organic  unity  of 
the  whole  people. 

"  The  present  industrial  system  proves  itself  wrong 
by  the  immense  wrongs  it  produces  ;  it  proves  itself 
absurd  by  the  immense  waste  of  energy  and  material 
which  is  admitted  to  be  its  concomitant.  Against  this 
system  we  raise  our  protest ;  for  the  abolition  of  the 
slavery  it  has  wrought  and  would  perpetuate,  we 
pledge  our  best  efforts." 

In  May,  1889,  the  magazine,  The  Nation- 
alist, was  started  and  continued  two  years. 
Great  interest  was  manifested,  and  clubs  were 
started  all  over  the  Union,  particularly  in 
California.  In  January,  1891,  Mr.  Edward 
Bellamy  started  The  New  Nation,  a  weekly 
published  in  the  interests  of  the  movement. 
This  continued  two  years.  In  January,  1891, 
the  secretary  reported  162  clubs. 

The  movement  in  certain  places  early  took 
a  political  channel.  In  one  electoral  district 
in  California  in  1890,  a  Nationalist  candidate 
polled  looo  votes.  Rhode  Island  put  out  a 
Nationalist  State  ticket.  Most  Nationalists  to- 
day, however,  are  working  in  connection  with 
the  People's  party  (q.  z/.).  Bills  like  the  one 
recently  passed  in  Massachusetts,  although 
with  bitter  opposition  from  the  gas  companies, 
allowing  cities  to  manufacture  their  own  gas, 
show  the  advance  of  Nationalistic  opinion, 
and  the  mayors  of  many  cities  have  recently 
advocated  many  similar  measures.  It  is  in 
these  ways  and  in  the  wide  spread  of  Nation- 
alistic ideas  that  the  real  growth  of  Nation- 
alism must  be  looked  for.  As  an  organized 
movement  Nationalism  has  not  been  so  suc- 
cessful, most  of  the  clubs  having  disappeared. 
A  national  committee  to  guide  the  movement, 
however,  exists,  largely  under  the  able  lead  of 
Mr.  Mason  A.  Green,  Mr.  Bellamy's  former 
assistant  in  The  New  Nation,  and  meets  an- 
nually to  give  a  general  shape  to  the  movement. 
Mr.  B.  Franklin  Hunter,  at  noo  Pine  Street, 
Philadelphia,  maintains  a  Bureau  of  National- 
istic Literature.  As  far  as  organization,  how- 
ever, is  concerned,  the  main  impetus  of  the 
Nationalist  movement  has  passed  into  the  Peo- 


ple's Party  (a.  v.),  which  is  largely  honey- 
combed with  Nationalist  ideas,  and  advocates 
no  small  share  of  the  Nationalist  program, 
Mr.  Bellamy's  novel  has  had,  in  this  country 
alone,  a  sale  of  some  half  a  million  copies,  and 
has  everywhere  scattered  the  seeds  of  Nation- 
alistic thought,  which  are  to-day  springing  up 
in  a  thousand  channels. 

Edward  Bellamy  has  described  the  aims  of 
Nationalism  as  follows : 


"  We  who  call  ourselves  Nationalists,  believe  that 
the  solution  of  the  industrial  and  social  question  is  to 
be  found,  and  is  only  to  be  found,  in  the 
logical  evolution  of  the  idea  on  which 
this  nation  is  based,  which  is  that  of  a    PrinciDles 
union  of  the  people  in  order  to  use  the    _         .£   , 
collective  strength  for  the  common  wel-    Described, 
fare.    We  consider  that   this  idea  has 
always  logically    involved,    when    the 
time  should  be  ripe,  the  nationalization  of  industry 
with  a  complete  provision  for  the  employment  and 
maintenance  of  the  people.     When    it    shall    in    this 
manner  have  completed  its  evolution  the  nation  will 
be,  according  to  the  hope  and  belief  of  the  Nationalists, 
a  great  partnership  for  the  general  business  of  sup- 
porting and  enjoying  life,  in  which  all  the  people  shall 
be  equal  partners.    It  will  be  a  universal  insurance 
company,  guaranteeing  all  its  members  against  injus- 
tice, oppression,  sickness,  age,  accident,  and  disability 
of  every  sort.   It  will  be  a  mighty  trust,  holding  the  to- 
tal assets  of  society — moral,  intellectual,  and  natural — 
not  only  for  the  benefit  of  the  present,  but  in  the  in- 
terests  of  future  generations   and  for   the  ultimate 
•weal  of  the  race,  and  looking  to  the  ends  of  the  world 
and  the  judgment  of  God.    The  membership  of  an  in- 
dividual in  this  great  partnership,  with  all  the  rights 
it  implies,  will  be  absolutely  fixed  by  the  fact  of  his 
birth;  the  part  he  plays  in  its  affairs  being  determined 
by  his  faculties  and  aptitudes. 

"  There  is  nothing  essentially  new  about  the  project 
of  a  society  based  upon  and  illustrating  brotherly  re- 
lations and  obligations  among  men.  The  eventual 
realization  of  such  a  state  of  affairs  has  been  the 
dream  of  humanity  in  all  ages.  Men  have  always  ac- 
knowledged, even  the  most  unjust,  that  if,  instead  of 
contending  with  one  another  for  the  means  of  liveli- 
hood, human  beings  could  only  be  induced  to  unite 
their  powers  to  secure  and  share  a  common  welfare, 
the  world  would  not  only  be  a  great  deal  better  and  a 
great  deal  happier,  but  likewise  a  great  deal  richer 
than  it  ever  has  been. 

"  Heretofore,  however,  in  the  history  of  mankind  the 
practical  obstacles  to  such  a  change  offered  by  exist- 
ing conditions  and  institutions  have  been  insuperable. 
It  is  the  claim  of  Nationalists  that  these  conditions 
have  so  changed  and  are  so  rapidly  changing  to-day  as 
to  render  not  only  possible,  but  in  the  near  future 
probable,  a  transformation  of  society  which  a  genera- 
tion ago  it  would  have  been  chimerical  to  expect 
within  any  calculable  period. 

"  In  view  of  the  present  extraordinary  business  situa- 
tion, the  unprecedented  and  portentous  tendency  of 
capital,  the  excusably  alarmed  and  exasperated  atti- 
tude of  the  masses  of  the  people,  we  hold  it  not  ab- 
surd to  say  that  men  now  in  middle  age  may  live  to 
see  the  present  system  give  place  to  that  grand  indus- 
trial partnership  of  all  for  all  which  is  the  destined 
and  sole  possible  solution  of  all  labor  problems  and  all 
social  questions. 

"The  greatest  industrial  revolution  in  history — 
greater  by  far  in  its  destined  consequences  than  the 
overthrow  of  the  slave  system  at  the  South— is  the  pres- 
ent tendency  to  the  monopolizing  of  the  field  of  in- 
dustry and  commerce  by  the  great  capitalist  organi- 
zations. The  innumerable  small  business  concerns 
which  used  to  divide  up  every  industry  and  trade  are 
enduring  a  war  of  extermination  at  the  hands  of  the 
great  combinations  of  capital.  The  business  of  the 
people,  which  used  to  be  in  the  hands  of  the  people,  is 
passing  out  of  their  hands  into  those  of  a  small  num- 
ber of  monopolists.  It  is  in  vain  that  we  cry  '  Halt !' 
to  this  tendency.  The  economic  necessities  underly- 
ing and  compelling  the  movement  toward  the  consoli- 
dation of  business  are  irresistible  and  beyond  the 
power  of  legislatures  to  dam  up  with  any  quantity  of 
statutes. 

"  Americans  who  think  are  already  beginning  to  see, 
and  all  Americans  soon  will  be  forced  to  see,  that  there 


Nationalism. 


919 


Nationalism. 


are  only  two  alternatives  before  the  nation — either  it 
must  consent  to  turn  over  its  industries,  its  entire  busi- 
ness— and  that  means  its  social  and  political  liberties 
as  well— to  a  few  hundred  billionaires,  or  it  must  as- 
sume control  of  them  itself ;  that  is  to  say,  it  must 
nationalize  them.  Plutocracy  or  Nationalism  is  the 
choice  which,  within  a  dozen  years,  at  the  rate  things 
now  are  going,  the  American  people  will  have  wholly 
committed  themselves  to.  Can  any  one  who  has 
faith  in  the  people  have  any  doubt  as  to  what  the 
choice  between  these  alternatives  will  be?" 

The  misconceptions  of  Nationalism  are  many 
and  obstinate,  and  numerous  objections  are 
based  upon  them,  as  well  as  upon  its  real  and 
acknowledged  features.  It  is  not  based  upon 
the  maxim,  "  From  each  according 
to  his  abilities,  to  each  according 
Objections  to  his  needs ;"  its  principle  is — 
Answered.  ' '  From  each  equally ;  to  each 
equally."  Nationalists  protest  that 
an  equal  provision  for  maintenance 
does  not  mean  a  uniform  mode  of  maintenance, 
or  a  similar  manner  of  life ;  and  that  Nationalism 
would  not  discourage  individuality  or  private 
exertion,  but  rather  promote  them  by  furnish- 
ing the  best  conditions  for  their  existence. 
They  assert  that  while  the  strong  should  sup- 
port the  weak,  the  industrious  should  not  sup- 
port the  idle.  Nationalism  does  not  propose 
a  paternal  government,  but  a  cooperative  ad- 
ministration for  the  benefit  of  equal  partners  ; 
neither  does  it  seek  to  realize  its  ideal  by 
abrupt  or  revolutionary  methods,  but  by  the 
progressive  nationalizing  and  muncipalizing 
of  existing  public  services  and  industries.  As 
it  is  an  essential  principle  of  Nationalism  that 
in  all  departments  of  public  business  only  the 
chiefs  and  heads  of  departments  are  to  be  sub- 
ject to  executive  appointment  or  removal,  it 
is  claimed  that  the  process  of  nationalizing  or 
muncipalizing  industries  would  not  bring  a 
body  of  voters  under  the  political  control  of 
Government. 

In  regard  to  the  Nationalist  program  for  in- 
troducing their  ideas,  Mr.  Bellamy  writes  in 
The  Forum  (March,  1894) : 

"  Revolutions,  however  peaceful  they  may  be,  do 
not  follow  prearranged  plans,  but  make  channels  for 
themselves  of  which  we  may    at  best 
predict  the  general  direction  and  out- 
The          come.    Meanwhile    Nationalists   would 
Nationalist    prepare  the  way  by  a  step-by-step  ex- 
Program,     tension  of  the  public  conduct  of  busi- 
ness, which  shall  go  as  fast  or  as  slow 
as  public  opinion  may  determine. 
"  In  making  any  industry  or  service  public  business, 
two  ends  should  be  kept  equally  in  view,  viz.  :    first, 
the  benefit  of  the  public  by  more  cheap,  efficient,  and 
honest  service  or  commodities  ;  and  second,  but  as  an 
end  in  every  way  equally  important,  the  immediate 
amelioration  of  the  condition  of  workers  taken  over 
from  private  into  public  service.    As  to  the  first  point, 
whenever  a  service  or  business  is  taken  over  to  be 
publicly  conducted,  it  should  be  managed  strictly  at 
cost ;  that  is  to  say,  the  service  or  product  should  be 
furnished  at  the  lowest  cost  that  will  pay  the  expense 
and  proper    charges   of    the    business.      Nationalism 
contemplates  making  all  production  for  use  and  not 
for  profit,  and  every    nationalized    business    should 
be  a  step  in  that  direction  by  eliminating  profit  so  far 
as  it  is  concerned. 

"  As  to  the  improvement  in  the  condition  of  the  work- 
ers, which  is  the  other  and  equal  end  to  be  sought  in 
all  cases  of  nationalizing  a  business,  it  is  enough  to 
say  that  the  State  should  show  itself  the  model  em- 
ployer. Moderate  hours  of  labor,  healthful  and  safe 
conditions,  with  provision  for  sickness,  accident,  and 
old  age,  and  a  system  for  the  admission,  promotion, 
and  discharge  of  employees  strictly  based  on  merit, 


and  absolutely  exclusive  of  all  capricious  personal  in- 
terference for  political  or  other  reasons,  should  char- 
acterize all  publicly  conducted  business  from  the 
start.  In  particular  cases,  such  as  the  clothing  manu- 
facture now  so  largely  carried  on  by  sweaters_  slaves, 
decent  wages  and  conditions  might  temporarily  raise 
the  price  of  ready-made  clothing.  If  it  did,  it  would 
only  show  how  necessary  it  had  been  to  make  the 
business  a  State  monopoly  ;  and  we  may  add  that  on 
grounds  of  humanity,  this  is  one  of  the  first  that  should 
be  brought  under  public  management. 

"  As  to  the  general  question  as  to  the  order  in  which 
different  branches  of  business  should  be  nationalized, 
or  (which  is  the  same  thing)  brought  under  municipal 
or  State  control,  ownership,  and  operation,   Nation- 
alists generally  agree  that  chartered^  businesses  of  all 
sortSj  which,  as  holding  public  franchises,  are  already 
quasi-public  services,  should  first  receive  attention. 
Under    this  head  come   telegraphs   and   telephones, 
railroads,  both  local  and  general,  municipal  lighting, 
water-works,   ferries,  and    the    like.     The   railroads 
alone  employ  some  800,000  men,  and  the  employees  in 
the  other  businesses  mentioned  may  raise  that  figure 
to  1,000,000,  representing,  perhaps,  a  total  population 
of  4,000,000;  certainly  a  rather  big  slice  of  the  nation 
to  begin  with.    These  businesses  would  carry   with 
them  others.      For  example,  the    rail- 
roads are  the  largest  consumers  of  iron 
and    steel,    and   national    operation  of       jjr    TJel- 
them  would  naturally  carry  with  it  the   .         ,' 
national  operation  of  the  larger  part  of  lamy  a  ArgU- 
the  iron  business.    There  are  about  500,-         ment. 
ooo  iron-workers  in  the  country,  imply- 
ing  a    population  of  perhaps    2,000,000 
dependent   on  the  industry,  and    making,   with  the 
railroad  and  other  employees  and  their  dependents, 
some  6,000,000  persons.      The  same  logic  would  apply 
to  the  mining  of  coal,  with  which,  as  carrier  and  chief 
consumer,  the  railroads  are  as  closely  identified. 

"  The  necessity  of  preserving  what  is  left  of  our  for- 
ests will  soon  force  all  the  States  to  go  into  the  for- 
estry business,  which  may  well  be  the  beginning  of 
public  operation  of  the  lumber  industry.  If  our  fast 
vanishing  fisheries  are  to  be  protected,  not  merely 
national  supervision,  but  national  operation,  will  soon 
be  necessary. 

"  In  the  field  of  general  business,  the  trusts  and  syn- 
dicates, which  have  so  largely  stimulated  the  popular 
demand  for  Nationalism,  have  also  greatly  simplified 
its  progress.  Whenever  the  managers  of  any  depart- 
ment of  industry  or  commerce  have,  in  defiance  of 
law  and  public  interest,  formed  a  monopoly,  what  is 
more  just  and  proper  than  that  the  people  themselves, 
through  their  agents,  should  take  up  and  conduct  the 
business  in  question  at  cost  ?  In  view  of  the  fact  that 
most  of  the  leading  branches  of  production  have  now 
been  "syndicated,"  it  will  be  seen  that  this  sugges- 
tion?  fully  carried  out,  would  go  far  toward  com- 
pleting the  plan  of  nationalization. 

"Meanwhile  the  same  process  would  be  going  on 
upon  other  lines.  Foreign  governments  which  have 
large  armies,  in  order  to  secure  quality  and  cheap- 
ness, usually  manufacture  their  soldiers'  clothing, 
rations,  and  various  supplies  in  government  fac- 
tories. The  British  Government,  which  is  most  like 
our  own,  was  forced,  by  the  swindling  of  contractors, 
to  go  into  making  clothing  for  the  soldiers  in  the 
Crimean  War,  and  has  since  kept  it  up  with  most 
admirable  results.  If  our  Government  had  manufac- 
tured the  soldiers'  supplies  in  the  Civil  War  it  would 
have  saved  a  vast  sum  of  money.  It  is  highly  desirable 
that  it  should  forthwith  begin  to  manufacture  cloth- 
ing and  other  necessaries  for  its  soldiers  and  sailors, 
and  for  any  other  of  its  employees  who  might  choose 
to  be  so  served,  as  it  is  safe  to  say  all  would ;  for 
goods  as  represented,  proof  against  adulteration,  and 
furnished  at  cost,  would  be  a  godsend  even  to  the 
millionaire  in  these  days  of  knavish  trade.  The  policy 
of  supplying  the  needs  of  government  employees  with 
the  product  of  publicly  conducted  industries  would 
bring  about  the  whole  productive  and  distributive 
plan  of  Nationalism  in  proportion  as  the  number  of 
employees  increased. 

"Among  special  lines  of  business,  which  ought  at 
once  to  be  brought  under  public  management,  are  the 
liquor  traffic  and  fire  and  life  insurance.  It  is  pro- 
posed that  every  State  should  immediately  monopo- 
lize the  liquor  traffic  within  its  borders,  and  open 
places  of  sale  in  such  localities  as  desire  them.  The 
liquors  should  be  sold  at  cost, — that  is  to  say,  at  rates 
to  pay  all  expenses  of  the  system, — by  State  agents, 
whose  compensation  should  be  fixed  without  relation, 
direct  or  indirect,  to  the  amount  of  sales.  This  plan 


Nationalism. 


920        Nationalizing  the  Liquor  Traffic. 


would  eliminate  desire  of  profit  as  a  motive  to  stim- 
ulate sales,  would  insure  a  strict  regard  to  all  con- 
ditions and  requirements  of  the  law,  and  would 
guarantee  pure  liquors.  Pending  the  nationalization 
of  the  manufacture  of  liquors,  the  General  Govern- 
ment need  be  called  on  only  for  a  transportation  law 
protecting  the  States  against  illegal  deliveries  within 
their  borders. 

"  As  to  State  life  and  fire  insurance,  this  undertaking 
would  need  no  plant  and  no  backing  save  the  State's 
credit  on  long-tested  calculations  of  risks.  It  would 
be  done  at  cost,  in  State  buildings,  by  low-salaried 
officials,  and  without  any  sort  of  competitive  or  adver- 
tising expenses.  This  would  mean  a  saving  to  fire 
insurers  of  at  least  25  per  cent,  in  premiums,  and  of  at 
least  50  per  cent,  to  life  insurers,  and  would,  above 
all,  give  insurance  that  was  not  itself  in  need  of  being 
reinsured. 

"  When  private  plants  are  taken  over  by  a  city, 
State,  or  nation,  they  should,  of  course,  be  paid  for  ; 
the  basis  of  valuation  being  the  present  cost  of  a 
plant  of  equal  utility.  Of  course  this  subject  of  com- 
pensation should  be  considered  in  view  of  the  fact 
that  the  ultimate  effect  of  Nationalism  will  be  the 
extinction  of  all  economic  superiorities,  however 
derived. 

"The  organization  of  the  unemployed  on  a  basis  of 
State  supervised  cooperation  is  an  urgent  under- 
taking, in  line  with  the  program  of  Nationalism. 
The  unemployed  represent  a  labor  force  which  only 
lacks  organization  to  be  abundantly  self-sustaining. 
It  is  the  duty  and  interest  of  the  State  to  so  organize 
the  unemployed,  according  to  their  several  trades  and 
aptitudes, — the  women  workers  as  well  as  the  men, — 
that  their  support  shall  be  provided  for  out  of  their 
own  product,  which  should  not  go  upon  the  market  for 
sale,  but  be  wholly  consumed  within  the  circle  of  the 
producers,  thus  in  no  way  deranging  outside  prices 
or  wages.  This  plan  contemplates  the  unemployed 
problem  as  being  a  permanent  one,  with  periods  of 
special  aggravation,  and  as  therefore  demanding  for 
solution  a  permanent  and  elastic  provision  for  a  circle 
of  production  and  consumption  complete  in  itself  and 
independent  of  the  commercial  system.  There  is  no 
other  method  for  dealing  with  the  unemployed  prob- 
lem which  does  not  mock  it. 

"  In  proportion  as  the  industries,  commerce,  and  gen- 
eral business  of  the  country  are  publicly  organized, 
the  sources  of  the  power  and  means  of  the  growth  of 
the  plutocracy,  which  depend  upon  the  control  and 
revenues  of  industry,  will  be  undermined  and  cut  off. 
In  the  same  measure,  obviously,  the  regulation  of  the 
employment  of  the  people  and  the  means  of  providing 
for  their  maintenance  will  pass  under  their  collective 
control.  To  complete  the  plan  of  Nationalism,  by 
carrying  out  its  guaranty  of  equal  maintenance  to 
all,  with  employment  according  to  fitness,  will  require 
only  a  process  of  systematization  and  equalizing  of 
conditions  under  an  already  unified  administration." 

REVISED  BY  EDWARD  BELLAMY. 

(For  the  objections  to  Nationalism  see  SO- 
CIALISM; section  Objections  to.) 

References:  Looking  Backward,  by  Edward  Bel- 
lamy, Houghton,  Miffltn  &  Co.,  1887  ;  The  Program  of 
the  Nationalists,  by  Edward  Bellamy,  reprinted  from 
The  Forum  for  March.  1894 ;  Principles  and  Purposes 
of  Nationalism, &n  address  by  Edward  Bellamy,  deliv- 
ered in  Tremont  Temple,  Boston,  December  19,  1889. 


NATIONALIZATION  OF  THE  LIQUOR 
TRAFFIC. — It  has  been  proposed  by  the 
Nationalists  in  America  (see  NATIONALISM)  to 
meet  the  admittedly  enormous  evils  of  the 
liquor  traffic  by  putting  the  whole  traffic  into 
the  hands  of  the  Government  and  having 
liquor  sold  under  strict  regulations,  by  govern- 
ment officials,  in  government  dispensaries,  and 
at  cost.  It  is  in  this  last  respect  that  the  Nation- 
alist plan  differs  radically  from  the  Dispensary 
system  (g.  v.),  from  the  Norwegian  system 
(q.  v.),  and  from  all  similar  plans.  All  these 
plans  provide  for  some  one's  making  a  profit 
from  the  sale  of  liquor.  Nationalists,  on  the 
other  hand,  maintain  that  so  long  as 
there  is  a  profit  in  the  liquor  traffic  some 


one  will  be  interested  in  the  extension  of 
the  traffic,  and  that,  conversely,  the  one 
way  to  kill  the  traffic  is  to  kill  the  profits 
in  it.  They  argue  that  this  applies  to  gov- 
ernment sales  as  well  as  to  private  sales. 
It  will  not  do,  they  affirm,  to  allow  even  the 
Government  to  make  any  profits  out  of  liquor, 
for  if  the  Government  has  "  an  interest "  in  the 
sales,  it  will  lead  to  corruption.  Officials  would 
then  be  interested  in  some  way  to  extend  the 
traffic,  so  that  either  strict  regulations  would 
not  be  passed,  or,  if  passed,  would  not  be  en- 
forced. If,  on  the  other  hand,  Government 
made  no  profit  out  of  the  sales,  it  would  be 
nobody's  interest  to  sell,  and  therefore  the 
strictest  regulations  concerning  its  sale  could 
be  both  enacted  and  enforced.  Sales  could 
then  be  restricted  to  very  limited  hours  ;  they 
could  be  made  only  to  registered  people  or 
hotel  guests,  so  that  men  could  neither  buy 
much  at  one  place  nor  go  from  place  to  place 
and  get  a  little.  They  could  be  absolutely 
prohibited  to  minors,  to  people  whom  physi- 
cians or  their  families  declared  unable  to  drink 
in  moderation,  etc.  Yet  the  plan  would  allow 
other  adults  to  drink  in  moderation  who  wish  to 
do  so.  This,  Nationalists  urge,  is  the  best  law 
that  can  to-day  be  enforced.  Prohibition  (g.  v.~) 
they  declare  to  be,  in  our  large  cities  and  even 
in  most  States,  at  present  impracticable.  The 
sale  of  liquor  by  government  dispensaries,  they 
claim,  in  South  Carolina,  Sweden,  etc.,  is  al- 
ready proving  practical,  and  the  best  way  to 
restrict  the  traffic,  and  abolish  its  grossest 
evils.  Only  the  Nationalists  would  go  one  step 
further  and  prevent  even  Government  from 
having  any  interest  in  the  concern.  To  sell 
liquor  at  cost,  the  Nationalists 
claim,  would  not  induce  people  to 
drink  more,  by  making  liquor  Objections 
cheaper ;  in  the  first  place,  because  Considered, 
it  is  by  no  means  clear  that  liquor 
would  be  cheaper.  The  cheaper 
forms  of  liquor  are  sold  in  such  vast  quan- 
tities to-day,  and  with  such  vile  adulter- 
ations, that  they  can  be  sold  very  cheap, 
and  at  such  a  low  margin  of  profit  (the  total 
sum  of  the  profits,  however,  being  enormous) 
that  it  is  very  doubtful  if  the  Government  could 
sell  its  limited  quantities,  which  would  be  free 
from  cheap  adulterations,  at  any  less  price 
than  to-day,  and  yet  cover  the  cost.  Cost 
price,  therefore,  would  not  necessarily  be  a 
lower  price.  Even  if  the  price  were  slightly 
lower,  the  Nationalists  urge  that  the  small  dif- 
ference would  scarcely  increase  temptation  at 
all,  because  few,  if  any,  except  those  wholly 
without  money,  are  deterred  from  drink  by  the 
price.  Again,  government  sales  of  liquors  to 
registered  persons  would  check  all  or  almost 
all  the  treating  that  js  to-day  one  of  the  great- 
est forms  of  the  evil.  The  great  argument  for 
this  system  is,  however,  that  it  would  at  once 
cut  off  the  enormous  money  interest  in  the 
liquor  traffic  which  to-day  buys  legislatures, 
corrupts  politics,  demoralizes  the  community, 
prevents  temperance  legislation,  or  mocks  its 
enforcement. 

Mr.  George  W.  Evans,  writing  in  The  Na- 
tionalist for  December,  1889,  describes  the 
Nationalist  plan  as  follows: 


Nationalizing  the  Liquor  Traffic.        921 


Naturalization. 


"National  prohibition  is  Utopian  ;  and  whenever  we 
are  in  a  position  to  secure  it,  the  nuisance  can  be  dis- 
posed of  with  less  effort ;  will,  in  fact,  have  already 
sunk  into  insignificance.  The  difficulty  that  underlies 
all  our  schemes  of  reform  is  that  both  parties  to  the 
sale  of  a  drink  of  liquor  are  co-conspirators.  The 
seller  wants  to  sell  because  he  makes  a  profit ;  the 
buyer  will  not  give  evidence  against  him  for  any  vio- 
lations of  law,  because  that  violation  contributes  to 
his  own  gratification.  The  desire  of  profit  stimulates 
adulteration  and  illicit  sales  ;  and  lack  of  evidence  has 
forced  the  law  and  order  leagues  of  Eastern  cities  to 
such  devices  that  their  witnesses  are  rebuked  from  the 
bench  in  open  court,  and  bid  fair  to  become  proverbial 
for  sneaking  and  treachery— questionable  means  that 
nothing  can  justify  if  not  their  end. 

"  These  two  things,  then,  and  these  only,  stand  in  the 
way  of  a  reasonable  restraint  of  the  liquor  traffic  :  the 
desire  of  profit  and  the  privacy  of  the  sale.  The  first 
of  these  difficulties  may  be  obviated  by  compelling  all 
liquor  to  be  sold  at  cost ;  the  second,  by  having  all 
sales  entered  upon  a  public  record.  This  may  be  ac- 
complished by  making-  the  manufacture  and  sale  of 
liquor  a  government  monopoly  like  the  postal  system. 
and  in  no  other  way. 

"  Let  the  Government,  then,  assume  the  duty  of  brew- 
ing, distilling,  and  importing  all  liquors,  and"  for  bid  all 
other  brewing,  distilling,  and  importing,  just  as  now  it 
forbids  the  private  carrying  of  mails ;  let  a  suitable 
number  of  dispensing  offices  be  established  in  each 
ward  or  other  convenient  district ;  at  these  offices  the 
registered  inhabitants  or  the  bonafide  guests  of  neigh- 
boring hotels  may  obtain  liquor  for  such  purposes  and 
in  such  quantities  as  may  be  legalized  ;  and  the  stranger 
within  the  gates  must  be  vouched  for,  by  th*e  inhabit- 
ant with  whom  he  is  quartered,  in  such  a  way  as  to 
prevent  any  person  from  obtaining  liquor  from  more 
than  one  office. 

"  There  would  be  nothing  immoral  about  a  public  bar 
where  the  dispenser  had  no  interest  except  that  of  effi- 
cient public  service  under  wise  regulation  ;  and  with  a 
moderate  and  impartial  supply  of  this  kind,  smuggling 
and  illicit  manufacture  would  be  out  of  the  question, 
because  they  could  not  compete  with  government 
prices,  and  the  evils  that  come  from  adulteration  of 
liquor  would  disappear.  After  this  system  is  estab- 
lished, any  reasonable  restraint  will  be  perfectly  effect- 
ive, and  absolute  prohibition  of  the  use  of  alcoholic 
beverages  can  be  more  effectively  carried  out  than  it 
ever  has  been  yet.  But  this  last  step  might  then  very 
fairly  be  considered  an  unreasonable  restraint. 

"Under  the  present  regime  the  liquor  dealers  are 
organized  for  the  protection  of  their  interests  against 
the  attacks  of  society,  but  there  is  no  organization 
among  them,  nor  can  there  be,  to  protect  society 
against  the  outrages  of  which  it  complains.  Even  if 
there  are  some  few  saloons  that  will  not  sell  drink 
after  drink  to  the  same  customer  till  he  is  completely 
intoxicated,  there  is  no  hindrance  to  the  very  ordi- 
nary and  usual  practice  of  going  from  shop  to  shop, 
'  seeing  the  town,'  and  getting  drunk  by  degrees.  The 
most  conscientious  barkeeper — and  there  may  be 
such — might  find  it  difficult  to  decide  whether  the 
applicant  before  him  could  stand  another  dose  of 
alcohol ;  and,  if  the  line  is  drawn  too  far  on  the  wrong 
side,  the  barkeeper  will  justify  himself  with  the 
motto  of  commercial  greed  :  'It's  business.'  Not  only 
is  the  moral  responsibility  divided  by  this  practice, 
but  the  legal  responsibility  also.  The  law  recognizes 
the  right  of  the  family  to  protest  against  the  sale  of 
liquor  to  any  of  its  members  whom  it  may  injure; 
and  if  the  relatives  of  a  drunkard  give  notice  in 
writing  to  any  particular  dealer,  there  is  provision 
for  legal  redress  if  he  sells  contrary  to  such  notice. 
It  is  impossible,  however,  to  give  written  notice  to  the 
hundred  saloons  within  easy  walking  distance,  or  to 
obtain  redress,  after  the  notice  is  served,  without  evi- 
dence of  the  specific  act  that  constitutes  the  offense. 

"Under  the  system  proposed  in  this  article  these 
evils  would  not  exist.  The  drinker  could  get  no 
liquor  except  where  he  was  known  and  registered  ; 
and,  if  his  case  was  severe  enough  to  demand  it,  his 
family  could  prevent  even  that." 

On  the  other  hand,  the  opponents   of  this 
system  argue  that,  even  if  sold  at  cost,  those 
who  manufactured  for  the   Gov- 
nwaot^r-  ,     ernment,   or  who   worked   under 
Objections.    the  Government(  if  the  Govern- 
ment made  its  own  liquor,  would 
have  an  interest  in  extending  this  business  ; 


that  they  would  be  tempted  to  adulterate,  and 
so  that  all  interest  in  the  traffic  would  not  be 
abolished  even  by  selling  at  cost,  while  Gov- 
ernment would  be  corrupted  and  drinking 
made  respectable  and  legal.  Says  a  writer  in 
The  Nationalist  for  February,  1890,  answering 
the  previous  writer : 

"  In  Massachusetts,  under  the  prohibition  statute  of 
1855  to  1868,  the  liquors  required  for  medicinal,  chem- 
ical, and  scientific  purposes  were  obtained  at  State 
agencies,  and  a  public  record  was  kept  of  the  sales ; 
all  other  sales  were  illegal.  If  the  law  had  been  hon- 
estly enforced  for  a  few  years,  and  the  agencies 
placed  in  honest  hands,  our  annual  struggle  under  local 
option  and  license  laws  would  have  been  avoided  ;  mil- 
lions of  money  expended  in  courts,  public  institutions, 
etc.,  would  have  been  saved,  and  taxation  by  this  time 
would  have  been  reduced,  as  I  firmly  believe,  fully  50 
per  cent.  The  Massachusetts  method  of  '55  was  far  in 
advance  of  the  beverage  plan  proposed  for  the  Gov- 
ernment to  adopt.  If  we  wish  to  rid  the  country  of 
the  curse  of  intemperance  and  the  evils  arising  from 
the  sale  of  alcoholic  beverages,  can  we  do  so  any  more 
effectually  by  catering  to  the  bad  habits  and  evil  pas- 
sions of  men.  through  public  government  dispensa- 
ries? We  have  learned  that  licensed  liquors  will 
ruin  a  family  as  quickly  as  unlicensed,  and  will  not 
pure  alcoholic  liquors,  if  branded  'U.  S.,'  go  to  the 
brain  as  surely  as  if  doctored  and  watered  by  a 
profits-seeking  retailer?  In  fact,  the  latter,  as  com- 
pared with  a  salaried  government  official,  has  an 
interest  in  weakening  the  drams  and  prolonging  the 
walking  condition  and  existence  of  his  customers,  and 
he  well  knows  how  to  '  extend  '  his  beverages  so  as  to 
compete  with  the  Government  if  it  should  sell  the  pure 
article  at  cost,  as  proposed.  Those  who  believe  that 
'there  would  be  nothing  immoral  about  a  public  bar 
where  the  dispenser  has  no  interest,'  etc.,  should  have 
the  experiment  tried  at  East  Boston,  South  Boston,  or 
the  North  End  before  recommending  its  adoption 
throughout  the  United  States." 

Nevertheless,  the  experience  of  govern- 
ment dispensaries  in  South  Carolina,  Sweden, 
and  elsewhere  is  winning  many  supporters  to 
the  dispensary  system,  and  even  many  pro- 
hibitionists are  coming  to  believe  that  such  a 
system  may  be  made  a  step  toward  national 
prohibition.  The  People's  Party  in  Massa- 
chusetts and  several  other  States  has  adopted 
the  Nationalist  plan,  usually  stating  it  in  the 
following  language,  which  was  inserted  as  a 
plank  in  the  Massachusetts  platform  of  that 
party,  August  24,  1891  : 

"  We  believe  that  the  solution  of  the  liquor  problem 
lies  in  abolishing  the  element  of  profit,  which  is  a 
source  of  constant  temptation  and  evil ;  and  we  there- 
fore demand  that  the  exclusive  importation,  manu- 
facture, and  sale  of  all  spirituous  liquors  shall  be  con- 
ducted by  the  .Government  or  State  at  cost,  through 
agencies  and  salaried  officials,  in  such  towns  and  cities 
as  shall  apply  for  such  agencies." 

This,  it  is  claimed,  has  the  advantage  of 
local  option,  in  that  any  town  or  city  that  votes 
no  license  need  not  apply  for  a  government 
agency,  while  any  town  that  desires  liquor 
sold  could  have  it;  but  only  under  strictest 
regulations.  (For  nationalization  in  other  coun- 
tries, see  SOUTH  CAROLINA  DISPENSARY  SYSTEM.) 

NATIONALIZATION  OF  RAILROADS, 
THE  TELEGRAPH,  etc.  See  RAILROADS, 
TELEGRAPHS,  etc. 

NATURALIZATION  is  an  act  by  which  a 
foreigner,  called  an  alien,  becomes  a  citizen  of 
any  country. 

The  following  are  the  Naturalization  Laws 
of  the  United  States,  as  prescribed  by  Sections 
2165-74  °f  the  Revised  Statutes  of  the  United 
States : 


Naturalization. 


922 


Natural  Monopolies. 


DECLARATION   OF  INTENTION. 

The  alien  must  declare  upon  oath  before  a  Circuit  or 
District  Court  of  the  United  States,  or  a  District  or 
Supreme  Court  of  the  Territories,  or  a  Court  of  Record 
of  any  of  the  States  having  common  law  jurisdiction, 
and  a  seal  and  clerk,  two  years  at  least  prior  to  his  ad- 
mission, that  it  is,  bona  fide,  his  intention  to  become  a 
citizen  of  the  United  States,  and  to  renounce  forever 
all  allegiance  and  fidelity  to  any  foreign  prince  or 
State,  and  particularly  to  the  one  of  which  he  may  be 
at  the  time  a  citizen  or  subject. 

OATH  ON  APPLICATION   FOR  ADMISSION. 

He  must,  at  the  time  of  his  application  to  be  admit- 
ted, declare  on  oath,  before  some  one  of  the  courts 
above  specified,  "that  he  will  support  the  Constitution 
of  the  United  States,  and  that  he  absolutely  and  en- 
tirely renounces  and  abjures  all  allegiance  and  fidelity 
to  every  foreign  prince,  potentate,  State,  or  sover- 
eignty, and  particularly,  by  name,  to  the  prince, 
potentate,  Stat«,  or  sovereignty  of  which  he  was  before 
a  citizen  or  subject,"  which  proceedings  must  be  re- 
corded by  the  clerk  of  the  court. 

CONDITIONS  FOR  CITIZENSHIP. 

If  it  shall  appear  to  the  satisfaction  of  the  court  to 
which  the  alien  has  applied  that  he  has  resided  contin- 
uously within  the  United  States  for  at  least  five  years, 
and  within  the  State  or  Territory  where  such  court  is 
at  the  time  held  one  year  at  least ;  and  that  during  that 
time  "he  has  behaved  as  a  man  of  good  moral  charac- 
ter, attached  to  the  principles  of  the  Constitution  of 
the  United  States,  and  well  disposed  to  the  good  order 
and  happiness  of  the  same,"  he  will  be  admitted  to 
citizenship. 

TITLES  OF  NOBILITY. 

If  the'applicant  has  borne  any  hereditary  title  or 
-order  of  nobility,  he  must  make  an  express  renuncia- 
tion of  the  same  at  the  time  of  his  application. 

SOLDIERS. 

Any  alien  of  the  age  of  twenty-one  years  and  up- 
ward who  has  been  in  the  armies  of  the  United  States, 
and  has  been  honorably  discharged  therefrom,  may 
become  a  citizen  on  his  petition,  without  any  previous 
declaration  of  intention,  provided  that  he  has  resided 
in  the  United  States  at  least  one  year  previous  to  his 
application,  and  is  of  good  moral  character.  (It  is 
judicially  decided  that  residence  of  one  year  in  a  par- 
ticular State  is  not  requisite.) 

MINORS. 

Any  alien  under  the  age  of  twenty-one  years  who 
lias  resided  in  the  United  States  three  years  next  pre- 
ceding his  arriving  at  that  age,  and  who  has  continued 
to  reside  therein  to  the  time  he  may  make  application 
to  be  admitted  a  citizen  thereof,  may,  after  he  arrives 
at  the  age  of  twenty-one  years;  and  after  he  has  re- 
sided five  years  within  the  United  States,  including 
the  three  years  of  his  minority,  be  admitted  a  citizen  ; 
but  he  must  make  a  declaration  on  oath  and  prove  to 
the  satisfaction  of  the  court  that  for  two  years  next 
preceding  it  has  been  his  bona  fide  intention  to  become 
a  citizen. 

CHILDREN   OF  NATURALIZED  CITIZENS. 

The  children  of  persons  who  have  been  duly  natu- 
ralized, being  under  the  age  of  twenty-one  years  at 
the  time  of  the  naturalization  of  their  parents,  shall, 
if  dwelling  in  the  .United  States,  be  considered  as 
citizens  thereof. 

CITIZENS'   CHILDREN   WHO  ARE  BORN   ABROAD. 

The  children  of  persons  who  now  are  or  have  been 
citizens  of  the  United  States  are,  tho  born  out  of 
the  limits  and  jurisdiction  of  the  United  States,  con- 
sidered as  citizens  thereof. 

CHINESE. 

The  naturalization  of  Chinamen  is  expressly  prohib- 
ited by  Section  14,  Chapter  126,  Laws  of  1882. 

PROTECTION  ABROAD  TO  NATURALIZED  CITIZENS. 

Section  2000  of  the  Revised  Statutes  of  the  United 
States  declares  that  "all  naturalized  citizens  of  the 
United  States  •while  in  foreign  countries  are  entitled 
to  and  shall  receive  from  this  Government  the  same 
protection  of  persons  and  property  which  is  accorded 
to  native  born  citizens." 

Great  frauds  have  often  been  committed  in 
large  cities  by  issuing  naturalization  papers  to 
large  numbers  of  foreigners  who,  it  has  been 


Character- 
ization. 


claimed,  have  not  resided  in  this  country  for 
the  requisite  term  of  five  years.  By  this  means 
it  has  been  urged  that  fraudulent  votes  have 
been  cast,  and  elections  largely  influenced. 

NATURAL     MONOPOLIES.— This  is  a 

phrase  that  has  come  into  general  use,  though 
particularly  in  the  United  States,  for  that  class 
of  monopolies  which  are  asserted  by  the  users 
of  the  phrase  to  have  become  monopolies  on 
account  of  some  inherent  property.  Professor 
R.  T.  Ely,  who  perhaps  has  done  more  than  any 
other  writer  to  give  currency  to  the  phrase,  says 
{Socialism  and  Social  Reform,  pp.  262-300)  : 

"  Monopolies  may  be  divided  into  two  main  classes, 
— natural  and  artificial ;  and  natural  monopolies  again 
may  be  divided  into  two  sub-classes,  namely,  First, 
those  businesses  which  are  monopolies  by  virtue  of 
the  qualities  inherent  in  the  business  itself ;  and  sec- 
ond, those  businesses  which  are  monopolies  by  reason 
of  the  fact  that  the  supply  of  the  raw  material  upon 
•which  they  are  based  is  so  limited  in  area  that  the  en- 
tire supply  can  be  acquired  by  a  single  combination  of 
men." 

"Natural  monopolies  of  the  first  class  are  the  natural 
monopolies  ordinarily  discussed,  and  they  include  the 
means  of  communication  and  transportation  ;  as  well 
as  the  lighting  service  by  gas  or  elec- 
tricity of  cities.    Railways,  water- ways, 
irrigation  works,telegraphs,  telephones, 
are    especially  important.    But  street- 
car lines,  whether  they  are  surface  lines, 
subways,  or  elevated  railways,  and  the 
means  of  lighting  cities,  are  scarcely 
less  so.    These  are  all  primary  businesses  in  modern 
society  ;  businesses  of  every  other  kind  are  dependent 
upon  them.  .  .   ." 

"Natural  monopolies  of  the  second  class  are  those 
which  become  monopolies  because  the  supply  of  raw 
materials,  consisting  of  natural  treasures,  is  so  limited 
that  it  can  all  be  acquired  by  a  single  combination  of 
men.  Anthracite  coal  has  been  cited  as  an  illustra- 
tion ;  other  similar  cases  could  be  instanced.  It  is  said 
that  it  has  been  possible  to  purchase  practically  the 
entire  supply  of  some  raw  materials  found  among 
barbarous  or  semi-barbarous  peoples ;  not  so  much, 
perhaps,  on  account  of  the  limitation  of  the  supply,  as 
on  account  of  the  fact  that  it  is  easy  to  cheat  them, 
and  to  buy  a  great  supply  at  far  less  than  its  actual 
value.  ..." 

"  Land  is  frequently  called  a  natural  monopoly,  but 
this  hardly  seems  correct.  Monopoly  implies  manage- 
ment or  ownership  by  one  person,  or  by  a  combination 
of  persons  who  can  act  as  a  unit.  Anything  of  the 
kind  does  not  exist  with  respect  either  to  landowner- 
ship,  or  to  the  use  of  the  land  for  agricultural  or  build- 
ing purposes.  A  genuine  monopoly  in-the  ownership 
or  exploitation  of  land  would  mean  the  virtual  slavery 
of  all  persons  not  interested  in  the  monopoly.  If  the 
farmers  of  the  world  could  act  together  as  a  unit,  they 
could  force  all  others  to  give  everything  they  might 
have  for  food,  as  the  alternative  would  be  starvation. 
'  What  will  not  a  man  give  for  his  life  ? '  But  such  a 
combination  is  an  impossibility,  and  every  attempt  to 
effect  a  combination,  even  on  a  comparatively  small 
scale,  with  respect  to  a  single  staple,  like  wheat  or 
cotton,  has  thus  far  proved  a  failure." 

Mr.  Farrer,  in  his  book  The  State  in  its  Re- 
lation to  Trade,  has  given  the  following  char- 
acteristics of  natural  monopolies  : 

"  i.  What  they  supply  is  a  necessary. 

"  2.  They  occupy  peculiarly  favored  spots  or  lines 
of  land. 

"3.  The  article  or  convenience  they  supply  is  used 
at  the  place  •where  and  in  connection  with  the  plant  or 
machinery  by  which  it  is  supplied. 

"  4.  This  article  or  convenience  can  in  general  be 
largely,  if  not  indefinitely,  increased  without  propor- 
tionate increase  in  plant  and  capital. 

"  5.  Certainty  and  harmonious  arrangement,  which 
can  only  be  maintained  by  unity,  are  paramount  con- 
siderations." 

The  following  consideration  of  the  subject 
we  mainly  take  from  various  statements  by 


Natural  Monopolies. 


923 


Natural  Monopolies. 


Professor  Ely.  Concerning  the  difference  be- 
tween "  natural  and  other  monopolies,"  he  says 
{idem,  p.  217)  : 

"  Socialists  assert  that  every  business  is  a  natural 
monopoly,  and  that  the  expression  itself,  "  natural 
monopoly,"  is  as  much  out  of  place  as  would  be  the 
expression  "natural  adults,"  with  reference  to  human 
beings.  Every  human  being  becomes  in  time  an 
adult,  and  so,  they  say,  every  business  becomes  in 
time  a  monopoly.  Proof  is  sought  in  a  long  list  of 
trusts  and  combinations  which  have  been  more  or  less 
successful.  When  we  look  into  this  list  of  trusts  in 
manufactures,  however,  we  quickly  ascertain  that 
few  of  them  have  achieved  anything  like  complete 
monopoly  ;  and  if  we  examine  the  list  of  unsuccessful 
attempts  to  form  trusts,  we  shall  discover  that  this 
is  longer  than  the  list  of  partially  successful  trusts. 
What  we  ascertain  in  reality  is  a  demonstration  of  the 
advantages  of  production  on  a  large  scale,  and  a  few 
attempts  to  secure  a  monopoly  which  have  been  par- 
tially successful,  and  a  far  larger  number  of  cases  of 
failure  to  establish  monopoly  in  manufacturing  indus- 
tries. So  far  as  any  historical  inductive  proof  is  con- 
cerned, we  must  say  that  it  is,  as  yet,  lacking.  The 
careful  thinker  will  at  least  demand  time  for  further 
observation.  He  will  tell  us  to  wait  and  see  what  tend- 
encies are  revealed  by  subsequent  industrial  de- 
velopment. If  we  turn  to  deductive  proof,  however, 
no  convincing  arguments  have  been  advanced  to  sup- 

Eort  the  hypothesis,  either  that  unification  of  manu- 
ictures,  is,  generally  speaking,  inevitable,  or  even 
possible.  We  must  not  overlook  the  immense  diffi- 
culty of  a  management  so  watchful,  so. alert,  so  full 
of  resources,  so  fruitful  in  initiative  and  enterprise, 
that  it  can  permanently  secure  better  results  than  a 
number  of  smaller  and  competing  manufacturers." 

As  a  proof  that  natural  monopolies  are  such, 
we  are  told  (idem,  pp.  263-266)  : 

"The  proof  that  these  pursuits  are  natural  monopo- 
lies is  twofold ;  namely,  deductive  and  inductive,  or 
historical.  The  deductive  proof  takes  account  of 
characteristics  of  businesses  of  the  kind  mentioned, 
and  discovers  that  businesses  •with  these  characteris- 
tics must  necessarily  become  monopolies.  Their 
main  characteristics  are  three  :  They  occupy  peculi- 
arly desirable  spots  or  lines  of  land  ;  second,  the  serv- 
ice or  commodity  •which  they  supply  is  furnished  in 
connection  with  the  plant  itself ;  and,  in  the  third 
place,  it  is  possible  to  increase  the  supply  of  the  serv- 
ice or  commodity  indefinitely,  without  proportionate 
increase  in  cost.  Any  business  which  has  these  quali- 
ties tends  to  become  a  monopoly  by  virtue  of  its  in- 
herent'qualities,  and  it  must  become  such  in  time.  .  .  . 
"  Inductive  or  historical  proof  calls  attention  to  actual 
experience.  It  is  found  that  sooner  or  later  attempted 
competition  always  gives  way  to  com- 
bination and  consolidation.  The  gas 
Proof  of  business  furnishes  an  excellent  illustra- 
Natural  tion,  because  the  experience  with  re- 
Monopolies,  spect  to  this  is  so  super-abundant,  and 
because,  furthermore,  as  the  geographi- 
cal area  within  which  the  business  is 
conducted  is  small,  the  movement  toward  monopoly 
has  always  been  comparatively  rapid.  Competition 
in  the  gas  business  has  been  attempted  in  countries 
with  all  kinds  of  political  government,  and  under 
every  circumstance  which  can  be  imagined.  It  has 
been  tried  repeatedly  with  the  most  solemn  promises 
on  the  part  of  those  starting  rival  companies,  that 
competition  would  be  genuine  and  permanent.  But 
the  nature  of  the  business  as  monopoly  has  been 
strong  enough  to  overcome  every  obstacle,  and  guar- 
anties have  not  been  worth  the  paper  on  -which  they 
have  been  printed.  It  is  probably  not  too  much  to 
say  that  competition  has  been  tried  a  thousand  times 
in  different  countries,  and  no  one  can  yet  point  to  one 
single  instance  of  permanently  successful  competi- 
tion. It  would  seem  that  a  thousand  experiments 
should  satisfy  any  one.  The  telegraph  business  also 
furnishes  good  illustration.  Competition  in  telegraph 
service  was  tried  many  times  in  England,  but  always 
resulted  in  monopoly  :  and  it  has  been  tried  perhaps  a 
hundred  times  in  the  United  States,  but  the  tendency 
to  monopoly  has  been  too  strong.  .  .  . 

"Competition  of  various  sorts  has  been  tried  with 
respect  to  railways.  .  .  .  America  will  be  held  to  offer 
the  greatest  difficulties  in  the  way  of  the  acceptance 
of  a  theory  of  monopoly  in  the  railway  business,  but 
the  difficulties  only  spring  from  the  fact  that  it  is  a 


vast  country  in  •which  the  railway  development  is  yet 
far  from  complete.  Combination  and  consolidation 
are  going  forward  every  day,  and  it  is  simply  a  ques- 
tion of  time  -when  monopoly  •will  be  secured  in  the 
United  States  as  well  as  elsewhere.  Even  now  it 
would  require  a  small  book  simply  to  print  the  names 
of  railway  companies  which  have  been  absorbed  by 
other  companies,  and  have  ceased  to  exist." 

So  conceiving  of  natural  monopolies,  those 
who  use  the  phrase  advocate  that  all  natural 
monopolies  should  be  at  least  owned  and  usu- 
ally (tho  not  always)  operated  by  the  commun- 
ity. Professor  Ely  writes  (An  Introduction 
to  Political  Economy,  pp.  252,  253). 

"  What  shall  be  our  policy  ?  Monopoly  is  inevitable. 
Private  monopoly  is  odious.  Public  monopoly  is  a 
blessing,  and  the  test  of  experience  approves  it. 
Again  and  again  it  has  been  tried  with 
fear  and  trembling,  but  the  results  have 
in  the  long  run  been  gratifying.  Pub- 
lie  ownership  and  management  of  rail- 
ways  have  in  Germany  succeeded  in 
many  respects  even  better  than  their 
advocates  anticipated,  and  the  opinion  of  experts  in 
Germany  favors  them  almost  if  not  quite  unanimously. 
The  •writer  happens  to  know  of  no  exception.  ...  It 
was  long  ago  said  by  a  shrewd  English  engineer  that 
where  combination  is  possible  competition  is  impossi- 
ble. Combination  is  always  possible  in  the  case  of  un- 
dertakings which  are  natural  monopolies.  It  is  inevi- 
table, for  it  is  not  only  cheaper  to  do  a  given  amount 
of  business  by  a  monopoly  than  by  two  or  more  con- 
cerns, but  very  much  cheaper.  If  two  gas  companies 
in  a  city,  having  each  a  capital  of  a  million  dollars, 
operating  separately  are  able  to  make  10  per  cent, 
profit,  when  combined  they  will  make  much  more 
than  10  per  cent.;  possibly  even  15  or  20  per  cent. 
There  is  a  force  continually  at  work  drawing  them 
together.  It  works  as  constantly  if  not  as  uniformly 
as  the  attraction  of  gravitation. 

This  does  not,  however,  according  to  this 
school  of  thought,  always  imply  public  opera- 
tion (Socialism  and  Social. Reform,  p.  293) : 

"  It  does  not  appear  evident  at  once  that  the  collect- 
ive management  of  the  property  collectively  owned 
is  essential.  If  the  anthracite  coal-mines  were  owned 
by  the  State  or  by  the  nation,  satisfactory  results 
might,  perhaps,  be  secured  by  leasing  the  land,  or  by 
allowing  individuals  or  companies  to  mine  coal  freely 
on  the  payment  of  a  royalty  which  would  absorb  any 
economic  surplus  above  the  normal  returns  to  labor 
and  capital." 

Concerning  the  advantages  of  the  public 
ownership  of  natural  monopolies,  we  are  told 
(we  quote  from  various  works  of  Professor 
Ely)  first,  that  the  socialization  of  natural 
monopolies  would  lead  to  the  better  utilization 
of  productive  forces  and  the  avoidance  of 
wastes  due  to  competition.  A  railroad  mana- 
ger is  quoted  as  saying  that  even  now  it 
would  involve  an  annual  saving  of  $200,000,000 
if  the  railways  of  the  United  States  were  man- 
aged as  a  unit.  Says  Professor  Ely  (An  In- 
troduction to  Political  Economy,  p.  254) : 

"The   construction  of  only   two  needless  parallel 
lines  of  railway  in  the  United  States,  the  West  Shore 
and  the  Nickel  Plate,  extending  together  from  New 
York  to  Chicago,  wasted  two  hundred  millions  of  dol- 
lars ;  a  sum  sufficient  to  build  two  hun- 
dred  thousand    homes    for    a    million 
people.    Probably  the  waste  in  railway    Advantages 
construction  and  operation  in  the  United    ' 
States  during  the  past  fifty  years  would 
be  amply  sufficient  to  build  comfortable 
homes  for  every  man,  woman,  and  child  now  in  the 
country. 

"  Every  city  shows  that  attempted  competition  eats 
up  a  large  part  of  what  might  be  profit.  Gas  can  well 
be  supplied  for  a  profit  in  great  cities,  if  the  business 
is  a  perfect  monopoly,  for  75  cents." 


Natural  Monopolies. 


924 


Natural  Rights. 


A  second  advantage  claimed  is  that  it  would 
tend  to  decrease  industrial  crises.  (See  CRISES.) 

A  third  advantage  is  that  it  would  purify 
politics.  (See  CITY  ;  MUNICIPALISM  ;  SOCIALISM.) 

Fourth,  it  would  tend  to  the  utilization  of  in- 
ventions. (See  COMPETITION.) 

Fifth,  it  would  aid  distribution.  (See 
WEALTH.)  These  advantages  we  consider  un 
der  their  proper  heads.  But  besides  these,  are 
indirect  advantages  perhaps  even  greater, 
the  breaking  up  of  the  great  monopolies  depen  • 
dent  upon  natural  monopolies  (see  COAL  ;  STAND- 
ARD OIL  MONOPOLY),  and  the  abolition  of  railroad 
favoritism  (see  RAILROADS). 

Concerning  the  purchase  of  private  monopo- 
lies, Professor  Ely  says  (idem,  p.  289) : 

"The  difficulties  of  payment  for  these  monopolistic 
undertakings  are  often  mentioned.  It  must  be  remem- 
bered that  public  ownership  increases  their  value, 
because  it  produces  unification  in  these  enterprises, 
and  shuts  off  the  waste  of  future  competition.  Fre- 
quently public  ownership  makes  it  a  possibility  to 
unite  advantageously  several  services  and  thus  effect 
a  saving.  Very  often  a  municipal  electric  lighting 
plant  is  connected  with  the  public  water-works,  and 
results  in  a  better  utilization  of  public  property,  and 
of  the  services  of  those  already  in  the  employment  of 
the  municipality.  The  railways,  which  include  the 
larger  part  of  the  property  of  the  kind  under  consid- 
eration, are  generally  brought  forward  as  affording 
the  chief  illustration  of  the  difficulties  of  acquisition 
by  the  government.  The  purchase  of  these  practically 
means  the  conversion  of  railway  stocks  and  bonds  into 
government  bonds,  and  while  it  would  add  enormous- 
ly to  the  public  debt,  it  would  add  to  a  still  greater  ex- 
tent to  the  public  resources.  Besides,  it  must  always 
be  remembered  that  the  change  could  not  be  made  in 
a  single  day. 

"  Reformers  are  often  inclined  to  urge  that  the  pay- 
ments for  railways,  telegraphs,  etc.,  should  only  be 
sufficient  to  duplicate  the  existing  plant,  and  this  gen- 
erally means  much  less  than  the  selling  value  of  the 
plant.  They  make  a  serious  mistake  in  taking  this 
position.  As  a  matter  of  policy,  this  course  is  not  to 
be  recommended,  because  it  needlessly  antagonizes 
such  a  large  proportion  of  the  population  of  the  coun- 
try. Those  who  are  asked  to  part  with  their  property 
at  a  price  less  than  the  market  value  will  feel  them- 
selves aggrieved,  and  will  oppose  the  reform  in  every 
way  in  their  power.  The  plan  proposed  is  also  objec- 
tionable on  the  score  of  justice.  The  value  which 
property  of  this  kind  has  in  excess  of  the  cost  of  dupli- 
cation of  the  plant  is  largely  due  to  a  public  policy 
which  has  been  approved  by  a  majority,  and  avast 
majority,  of  the  people  of  the  United  States.  A  large 
capitalization,  so  far  as  it  exceeds  the  actual  value  of 
the  plant,  very  frequently  represents  only  the  waste 
due  to  attempted  competition,  and  this  attempted  com- 
petition has  been  encouraged  in  every  way,  directly 
and  indirectly,  by  the  general  public.  Even  when 
such  is  not  the  case,  the  possibility  of  an  excessively 
large  income,  which  has  brought  about  the  large  capi- 
talization, has  been  due  to  a  considerable  extent  to 
failures  of  the  legislature  to  make  proper  laws,  and  of 
the  other  public  authorities  adequately  to  enforce  ex- 
isting laws.  Now,  if  the  property  is  appraised  simply 
at  the  cost  of  duplication  of  the  plant,  it  would  make  a 
portion  of  the  community  bear  the  entire  burden  of  a 
false  public  policy,  whereas,  as  the  whole  of  the  public 
is  to  blame,  the  burden  should  be  diffused  among  the 
people  as  a  whole.  If  it  is  necessary  to  raise  large 
sums  to  pay  off  the  debt  necessitated  by  the  acquisi- 
tion of  enterprises  of  this  kind,  it  could  be  done 
through  a  wisely  devised  system  of  inheritance  taxes. 

"  When  we  consider  the  difficulties  in  the  way  of  the 
socialization  of  natural  monopolies,  we  must  always 
remember  what  the  alternative  is.  These  difficulties 
are  real,  but  the  difficulties  of  the  present  system  are 
even  greater." 

For  the  ways  in  which  socialists  and  nation- 
alists would  obtain  the  ownership  of  private 
monopolies,  see  RAILROADS,  •  section  Nation- 
alization of.  We  are  here  considering  simply 


the  views  of  those  who  believe  in  the  social- 
ization of  "natural  monopolies"  alone.  For 
examples  of  the  practical  working  of  the  social- 
ization of  national  monopolies,  see  BERLIN  ; 
BIRMINGHAM  ;  GLASGOW;  LONDON  ;  ELECTRICITY; 
GAS  ;  POSTAL  SYSTEM  ;  RAILROADS  ;  STREET  RAIL- 
WAYS ;  TELEGRAPHS  ;  TELEPHONES  ;  POSTAL  SAV- 
INGS BANKS,  etc.,  etc.  Professor  Ely  says 
(idem)  : 

"The  test  of  experience  seems  to  be  decisive.  The 
same  objections  which  we  now  hear  against  the  nation- 
alization of  railways  in  the  United  States  were  heard 
fifteen  years  ago  in  Prussia,  and  the  opinion  of  the 
people  was  divided.  Now  one  who 
travels  in  Germany,  and  talks  with  the 
people,  finds  it  difficult  to  discover  any 
one  adverse  to  public  ownership  and 
management  of  the  railways.  There 
are  some  who  would  like  to  go  back  to 
the  old  system  ;  but  they  are  few  indeed,  and  they  are 
very  generally  those  who  would  be  apt  to  derive  some 
private  advantage  from  the  change.  Professor  Cohn  of 
the  University  of  Gottingen  voices  a  general  sentiment 
when  he  says  that,  in  Prussia,  the  question  of  state 
ownership  and  management  of  railways  has  been 
settled  by  the  test  of  experience.  The  people  of  the 
Australasian  colonies  are  equally  clear  in  regard  to 
the  advantage  of  public  ownership  and  operation  of 
railways.  There  is  considerable  enthusiasm  in  regard 
to  the  results  of  such  ownership  and  operation  in  New 
Zealand  ;  and  recently  the  editor  of  an  economic  peri- 
odical complained  because  he  could  not  find  any  one 
in  Australia  to  write  an  article  adverse  to  the  govern- 
ment ownership  and  management  of  railways." 

For  the  views  of  those  who  oppose  the  so- 
cialization of  national  monopolies,  see  INDI- 
VIDUALISM ;  MONOPOLIES. 

References :  Professor  R.  T.  Ely's  Socialism  and  So- 
cial Reform  (Crowell  &  Co.,  1894);  C.  W.  Baker's  Mo- 
nopolies and  the  People  (Putnam,  1889) ;  A.  Shaw's 
Municipal  Government  in  Great  Britain  (The  Century 
Co.,  1895) '  J°hn  R.  Commons'  Distribution  of  Wealth, 
(Macmillan,  1894).  (See  also  ELECTRICITY  ;  GAS  ; 
RAILROADS  ;  SOCIALISM,  etc.) 

NATURAL  RIGHTS  maybe,  in  general, 
defined  as  rights  or  asserted  rights  based  on 
what  are  declared  to  be  laws  of  nature,  as  dis- 
tinguished from  rights  grounded  on  conven- 
tional relations  or  positive  enactments.  The 
phrase,  however,  is  used  by  different  writers 
and  different  schools  of  thought  in  such  differ- 
ent meanings,  or  shades  of  meaning,  that  one 
must  ask  the  exact  sense  in  which  a  writer  uses" 
the  phrase  before  one  can  be  sure  that  he  un- 
derstands his  exact  thought.  The  use  of  the 
phrase,  and  the  value  of  the  ideas  embodied  in 
it,  will  be  best  seen  in  following  the  develop- 
ment of  the  theory  of  natural  rights  through  its 
several  phases.  Popularly  identified  with  the 
revolutionary  political  writers  of  the  eighteenth 
century,  and  particularly  with  Rousseau,  the 
theory  is  really  as  old  as  political  thinking  and 
by  no  means  dead  to-day. 

The  germs  of  the  theory  may  be  found  in  the  Greek 
sophists  and  particularly  in  Aristotle,   although,  as 
Professor  Ritckie  has  pointed  out  in  his  latest  book, 
Natural  Rights,  Aristotle  did  not  hold 
the  theory  usually  held  to-day  by  those 
who  use  the  phrase.    He  speaks  of  vd/uos        Classic 
16109  and  fd/iios  KOIVOS,  meaning  by  the         ... 
former  any  law  which  the  State  estab-         View. 
lishes  for  itself,  and  is  therefore  peculiar 
to  it,  and  by  the  latter,  the  law  which  is 
conformable  to  the  dictates  of  nature  and  appears  to  be 
recognized  among  all  men  {Ethics,  book  y.  chaps,  vi., 
vii. ;  Rhetoric,  booki.  chaps,  x.,  xiii.).    Aristotle's  dis- 
tinction is  not  between  laws  based  upon  nature  and 


Natural   Rights. 


925 


Natural  Rights. 


laws  based  upon  human  enactments.  To  Aristotle,  as 
to  all  the  Greeks,  the  State  was  a  natural  product.  He 
simply  distinguishes  between  laws  peculiar  to  one 
State  and  universal  laws  common  to  all. 

Some  of  the  Greek  Cynics,  however,  held  a  theory 
more  close  to  the  modern  doctrine.  Antisthenes 
says :  "  The  wise  man  will  live  not  according  to  the 
established  laws,  but  according  to  the  law  of 
virtue "  (quoted  by  Ritchie,  idem,  p.  33).  Diogenes 
was  more  extreme.  He  disowned  the  State  and  con- 
sidered himself  "  a  citizen  of  the  world."  He  opposed 
all  conventions,  and  preferred  his  tub  to  a  house. 
From  this  Cynic  school  came  the  more  balanced  Stoic, 
with  its  maxim,  "  Live  in  harmony  with  nature." 
Nature,  however,  is  not  the  whim  of  the  individual ; 
it  is  the  divine  element  in  the  universe,  and  human 
laws  may  themselves  be  a  manifestation  of  it.  In 
Rome,  Cicero  popularized  this  view.  "  Universal  con- 
sent is  the  voice  of  nature"  (Tusc.,  xv.  §35).  Hence, 
the  Latin  jus  gentium  and  the  jus  civile  are  to  be 
interpreted  as  almost  exact  translation  of  the  Greek 
Kou'bs  i/d/io?  and  ZSios  ><o/u.o«.  One  great  .jurist  Ulpian 
held  that  the  jus  naturale  applied  to  animals  as  well 
as  men :  "  It  is  that  which  nature  has  taught  to  all 
animals"  (embodied  in  Justinian's  In- 
stitutes, i.  tit.  2).  From  the  Roman 
•.»•  j.  i  law  the  distinction  passed  into  me- 
meaievai.  <jievai  thought.  Aquinas'  conception 
of  nature  was  derived  from  Aristotle, 
but  he  adds  Cicero's  conception  of  the 
lex  natures.  The  natural  law  becomes  a  fixed  law 
implanted  in  the  human  heart  and  in  the  universe,  as 
contrasted  with  both  the  laws  of  men  and  the  revealed 
law  of  God.  Aquinas  says,  "Natural  law  is  nothing 
else  than  the  participation  in  the  eternal  law  of  the 
mind  of  a  rational  creature  "  (Summa  ia,  2ae,  qu.  94, 
art.  2).  Medieval  thought  made  a  sharper  distinc- 
tion than  the  Roman  jurists  between  the  jus  civile 
and  the  jus  gentium.  When  Justinian  codified  the  civil 
law,  the  law  of  nations  was  more  sharply  distinguish- 
able from  it.  It  became  a  distinct  ideal  code.  To  it 
men  could  appeal.  First  the  authority  of  human  law 
was  questioned  by  the  appeal  to  the  Church.  When 
the  authority  of  the  Church  was  shaken,  the  way  was 
cleared,  says  Ritchie  (idem,  p.  42),  "  for  revolution  in 
the  name  of  nature." 

Through  Grotius  and  Puffendorf  the  medieval  dis- 
tinction   came    to    Locke,   and  with  him    played   an 
important  part.    It   lies   in   the  back- 

f round  of  all  his  theories.  He  says 
Treatise  on  Civil  Government,  ii.  §  95) : 
"  Men  being  by  nature  all  free,  equal, 
and  independent,  no  one  can  be  put  out 
of  xhis  estate  and  subjected  to  the 
political  power  of  another  without  his  own  consent." 
He  talks  of  a  "state  of  nature,"  "a  golden  age" 
which  has  "a  law  of  nature  to  govern  it  (Civil  Gov- 
ernment, ii.  §  6).  Civil  society  with  Locke  is  consti- 
tuted by  a  compact  of  the  original  members ;  a 
compact  renewed  from  generation  to  generation  in 
the  person  of  every  citizen  when  he  comes  to  an  age  of 
discretion  to  choose  his  allegiance.  The  sovereignty 
of  society  is  limited,  too,  to  the  ends  for  which  it 
was  conferred.  It  is  not  hard  to  see  outlined  here  all 
the  essentials  of  Rousseau's  social  compact.  Locke 
from  this  basis  justified  the  revolution  of  1688. 
Another  English  writer  from  the  same  principles 
deduced  a  condemnation  of  rebellion.  Hobbes,  like 
Locke,  starts  out  from  a  state  of  nature.  Men  are  by 
nature  equal  and  live  in  a  state  of  mutual  fear, 
enmity,  and  war.  This  is  intolerable.  Hence,  by 
a  law  of  reason  which  is  also  "a  law  of  nature,"  they 
mutually  agree  to  surrender  their  natural  rights  to 
some  sovereign  man  or  body  of  men  to  govern  over 
them.  Hence,  having  surrendered  their  natural 
rights,  they  no  longer  have  them,  but  must  obey  the 
sovereign  power.  From  these  English  theorists 
sprang  alike  Rousseau's  social  contract  and  the 
unalienable  rights"  spoken  of  in  the  American 
Declaration  of  Independence.  Professor  Ritchie  has 
shown  that  the  American  "  inalienable  rights  "  came 
not  from  France,  as  is  usually  thought,  but  from 
England.  A  bill  or  declaration  of  rights 
exactly  analogous  to  the  French  declara- 
.  •  tion  is  found  in  most  of  the  State  consti- 

America.      tutions  of  the  United  States  originated 
after  1776,  while  the  French  Declaration 
of    the    Rights    of    Man    was    promul- 
gated in  1701.    The  Bill  of  Rights  of  Virginia  (June 
12,  1776)  declares,  "  That  all  men  are  by  nature  equally 
free  and  independent  and  have  certain  inherent  rights, 
of  which,  when  they  enter  into  a  state  of  society,  they 
cannot  by  any  compact  deprive  or  divest  their  poster- 


Locke. 


ity ;  namely,  the  enjoyment  of  life  and  liberty,  with 
the  means  of  acquiring  and  possessing  property,  and 
pursuing  and  obtaining  happiness  and  safety.  That 
all  power  is  vested  in,  and  consequently  derived  from 
the  people,  that  magistrates  are  their  trustees  and 
servants  and  at  all  times  amenable  to  them."  The 
Declaration  of  Independence  of  the  United  States, 
signed  only  a  few  days  later,  almost  repeats  the 
words,  when  it  says  :  "  We  hold  these  truths  to  be  self- 
evident  :  that  all  men  are  created  equal ;  that  they  are 
endowed  by  their  Creator  with  certain  inalienable 
rights  ;  that  among  these  are  life,  liberty,  and  the 
pursuit  of  happiness ;  that,  to  secure  these  rights, 
governments  are  instituted  among  men,  deriving 
their  just  powers  from  the  consent  of  the  governed." 

This  theory  was  in  the  air— American  and  English 
air  as  truly  as  Gallic.  Virginia,  says  Bancroft,  "  moved 
from  charters  and  custom  to  primal  principles  ;  from 
a  narrow  altercation  about  facts  to  the  contemplation 
of  immutable  truths.  She  summoned  the  eternal 
laws  of  man's  being  to  protest  against  all  tyranny" 
(History  of  the  United  States,  5  ed.  viii.  p.  383). 
These  metaphysics  we  have  traced  historically 
through  Locke.  But  as  Professor  Ritchie  says  (idem 
p.  6),  "  the  theory  of  natural  rights  was  not  Locke's 
invention.  Neither  he  nor  Jean  Jacques  can  claim 
the  credit  of  having  'discovered  the  lost  title-deeds 
of  the  human  race.  The  theory  of  natural  rights 
is  simply  the  logical  outgrowth  of  the  Protestant 
revolt  against  the  authority  of  tradition,  the  logical 
outgrowth  of  the  Protestant  appeal  to  private  judg- 
ment." In  the  Middle  Ages  privileges  were  claimed 
because  of  some  real  or  fancied  authority  in  the  past. 
There  were  three  great  authorities,  the  Bible,  Aris- 
totle, and  Justinian.  Yet  in  each  of  these  could  be 
found  some  elements  of  the  law  of  nature.  The 
Levelers  appealed  to  the  law  of  nature.  Thomas 
Edwards  (in  his  Gangrcena,  pt.  iii.  p.  16)  says  these 
"  sectaries  "  held  that  "  by  natural  birth  all  men  are 
equally  and  alike  born  to  like  propriety  [property] 
liberty,  and  freedom  ;  and  as  we  are  delivered  of  God 
by  the  hand  of  nature  into  this  world,  every  one  with 
a  natural  innate  freedom  and  propriety,  even  so  we  are 
to  live  every  one  equally  and  alike,  to  enjoy  his  birth- 
right 'and  privilege."  Again  Edwards  says  of  them 
(idem,  p.  20),  "though  the  laws  and  customs  of  a  king- 
dom be  never  so  plain  and  clear  against  their  ways, 
yet  they  will  not  submit,  but  cry  out  for  natural  rights 
derived  from  Adam  and  right  reason."  This  doctrine 
Ritchie  traces  back  to  Wyclif  and  his 
poor  priests.  Wyclif  argued  (see  De 
Civili  Dominio,  edited  by  R.  L.  Poole,  Protestant- 
pref.  pp.  xxii-xxiv)  that  "  every  one  in 
a  state  of  grace  has  real  lordship  over  ism. 
the  whole  universe,"  and  deduces  from 
this  community  of  property.  He  held 
this  only  of  the  saints,  but  John  Ball  (q.  v.)  and 
others  popularized  this  when  they  sang : 

"When  Adam  dalf  and  Eve  span, 
Who  was  then  the  gentleman  ?" 

Says  Ritchie,  "In  the  Puritan  Revolution  of  the 
seventeenth  century,  the  appeal  to  historic  right  was 
replaced  by  an  appeal  to  natural  rights.  The  struggle 
for  parliamentary  liberties  led  some  men  to  go  behind 
parliaments  and  charters,  just  as  the  independent 
study  of  the  Bible  led  some  men  to  go  behind  the 
authority  of  the  Bible  and  to  rely  on  the  authority  of 
'the  inner  light'  alone.  This,"  Ritchie  continues,  "  is 
the  logical  outcome  of  Protestantism,  however  unac- 
ceptable to  the  majority  of  those  calling  themselves 
Protestants ;  however  unsatisfactory  and  dangerous 
in  the  eyes  of  those  who  were  more  influenced  by  the 
historic  spirit  and  who  realized,  in  more  or  less  intelli- 
gent fashion,  the  necessity  of  social  cohesion  and  con- 
tinuity." Ireton  (Clarke  Papers,  L  p.  307)  complains 
to  Protestant  extremists,  "If  you  do,  paramount  to 
all  constitutions,  hold  up  this  law  of  nature,  I  would 
fain  have  any  man  show  me  where  you  will  end." 
Puritan  England  thus  produced  the  theory,  but  it  was 
developed  mainly  in  the  American  Bills  of  Rights  and 
the  French  Revolution.  The  convention  at  New 
York,  October,  1765,  while  protesting  loyalty  to  King 
George,  declared  "that  trial  by  jury  is  the  inherent 
right  and  invaluable  right  of  every  British  subject 
in  these  colonies,"  entirely  in  the  spirit  of  the  English 
Bill  of  Rights  of  1689.  In  the  Declaration  of  Rights  of 
the  Philadelphia  congress  of  1774,  appeal  is  made  not 
only  to  "the  principles  of  the  English  constitution  and 
the  several  charters  or  compacts,"  but  to  "the  im- 
mutable laws  of  nature,"  including  the  right  "to  life, 
liberty,  and  property."  In  the  declaration  of  July  4, 


Natural   Rights. 


926 


Natural   Rights. 


1776,  no  more  is  said  of  the  rights  of  British  subjects, 
but  we  have  "  unalienable  rights,"  which  come  from 
God.     We  now  understand  the  development  of  the 
theory  in  France  better.    It  did  not  take,  even  here,  an 
invariably  atheistic  form.    The  French  declarations  of 
i7Qi  and    1793  are  proclaimed  "  in  the 
presence  of  the  Supreme  Being."    Nor 
•p,         fi        is  the  theory  in  France  by  any  means 
xraui/e.       peculiar  to  Rousseau.    It  is  common  to 
almost  all  the  eighteenth-century  wri- 
ters and  largely  traceable    to  English 
philosophy,  appearing  through  Diderot  and  the  Encyc- 
lopedists.   All  the  tendencies  of  the  time — religious, 
scientific,    philosophical,   and    political— favored    the 
theory.      It  was   developed  on   its  religious  side  not 
only  by  the    individualism   of   the    Reformation,   in 
the  doctrines  of  the    right  of  private  judgment  and 
Luther's  salvation  by  faith,  but  quite  as  much  by  Cal- 
vin's sovereignty  of  God,  since,  by  making  man  the 
predestined  subject  of  God's  omnipotent  rule,  the  indi- 
vidual is  placed  above  all  the  laws  of  State  or  Govern- 
ment.    The    same  exaltation  of    the  individual  was 
developed  by  the  growing  spirit  of  science,  discovery, 
and  invention.    Men  were  breaking  away  from  all  cov- 
enants, theories,  and  institutions  of  the  past.    This 
was  peculiarly  true  in  politics.    Instituted  law  was 
identified  with  despotism.     It  was  popular  to  place 
above  such  law  the  "natural  rights  of  man." 

The  view  was  particularly  favored  by  the  Physio- 
crats, tho  they  deduced  from  it  economic  rather  than 
political  conclusions.  Quesnay's  Le  Droit  Nature!  is 
a  classic  of  this  theory,  and  begins  by  laying  down  the 
proposition  that  natural  right  is  "  the  right  which  a  man 
has  to  do  the  things  which  are  fit  for  his  enjoyment." 
It  will  be  thus  seen  into  what  ready  soil  Rousseau 
dropped  his  brilliant  words.  So  far  from  his  being 
the  originator  of  the  theory,  it  is  not  even  clear  that 
he  held  it,  in  its  extreme  form,  in  his  more  careful 
writings.  Professor  Ritchie  argues  that  it  scarcely 
appears  in  his  little  read  Social  Contract  (1762),  but  has 
been  taken  mainly  from  his  more  popular,  tho  weaker, 
Discourse  on  the  Origin  of  Inequality  among  Men 
(published  1754).  This  discourse,  however,  belonged 
to  Rousseau's  most  brilliant  period,  and  tho  its  views 
seem  seriously  modified  in  the  later  Social  Contract, 
its  teachings,  and  not  the  more  careful  statements  of 
the  latter,  have  become  identified  with  Rousseau.  The 
theory,  however,  in  its  essence,  is  contained  in  both 
books.  We  present  Rousseau's  statement  as  Professor 
Huxley  has  summarized  it  (Nineteenth  Century, 
January,  1890),  that :  First,  All  men  are 
born  free,  and  politically  equal  and 
Rousseau.  £°°d,  an<i  m  tne  "state  of  nature" 
remain  so  ;  consequently,  it  is  their  nat- 
ural right  to  be  free,  equal,  and  (pre- 
sumably their  duty  to  be)  good,  Con- 
trat  Social,  v.  pp.  98-99,  Mussay  Pathay's  edition,  1826. 
Second,  All  men  being  equal  by  natural  right,  none 
can  have  any  right  to  encroach  on  another's  equal 
right.  Hence  no  man  can  appropriate  any  part  of  the 
common  means  of  subsistence— that  is  to  say,  the  land 
or  anything  which  the  land  produces— without  the 
•unanimous  consent  of  all  other  men.  Under  any  other 
circumstances,  property  is  usurpation  (Discours,  pp. 
257,  258,  276).  Third,  Political  rights,  therefore,  are 
based  upon  contract ;  the  so-called  right  of  conquest 
is  no  right,  and  property  which  has  been  acquired 
by  force  may  rightly  be  taken  away  by  force  (Dis- 
cours, pp.  276-280). 

The  relation  of  such  theories  to  the  French  Revolu- 
tion it  is  easy  to  see.    The  famous  French  Declaration 
of  the  Rights  of  Man  was  proclaimed  in  1791,  and  un- 
doubtedly embodied  the  principles  of  the  Revolution, 
altho  these  principles  can  by  no  means  be  considered 
to  have  caused  this  revolution.    The  French  Revolu- 
tion simply  accomplished  suddenly  and  in  bloodshed 
what  England  had  gained  quietly  and  with  legal  pro- 
cedure.   Nevertheless,  the  French  Revolution  called 
all    men's    attention    to    the  dangerous    aspects    of 
the    theory   of  natural   rights.      In   England,   where 
the  theory  had  been  largely  developed,  it  was  stren- 
uously attacked,  and  with  such    success  that  to-day 
most    English  and    American   publicists  consider    it 
exploded.      That   this  is  not  the  case  we  shall  later 
see  ;   but  it  is  true  that  the  overwhelm- 
ing  judgment  of  modern  English   and 
Criticism      American  scholars  is  against  the  theory. 
This    is    probably   mainly    due    to  trie 
development  of   the  modern  scientific 
and    historic    spirit,    which    asks    for 
induction    from    facts,  not  for  brilliant  generalities 
from  metaphysical    arguments  about  unproven  and 
improvable     ''natural     laws."       The    theory,    how- 


ever, was  first  attacked  by  statesmen  and  philoso- 
phers rather  than  by  scientists.  In  brilliant  rhet- 
oric Burke  argued  its  dangerous  and  baseless 
nature.  Paine,  in  his  even  more  brilliant  and  rhetor- 
ical Rights  of  Man,  answers  Burke;  but  thought  and, 
above  all,  science,  were  to  answer  Paine.  Bentham 
more  coldly  argued  its  uselessness,  and  then  science 
came  to  condemn  it  and  ask  what  facts  teach,  not 
what  different  people  assert  to  be  "natural."  The 
argument  against  it  to-day  is  mainly  based  on  the 
fact  that  nobody  can  prove  what  are  natural 
rights.  Modern  disbelievers  in  the  theory  assert  that 
what  are  called  "natural  rights"  are  simply  what 
various  men  believe  to  be  the  ideal  of  what  should  be 
man's  social  status.  Says  Professor  Ritchie  (idem,  p. 
80),  "  Natural  Rights,  when  alleged  by  the  would-be 
reformer,  mean  those  rights  which,  in  his  opinion, 
•would  be  recognized  by  the  public  opinion  of  such  a 
society  as  he  admires.  .  .  .  They  are  the  rights  which 
he  thinks  ought  to  be  recognized  ;  i.  e.,  they  are  the 
rights  sanctioned  by  his  ideal  society,  whatever  that 
may  be."  Further,  Professor  Ritchie  says  (idem,  p. 
82),  "  If  we  go  back  to  the  ordinary  unreflecting  opin- 
ions of  mankind  in  comparatively  primitive  condi- 
tions, we  shall  find  that  those  rights  which  people 
think  they  ought  to  have,  are  just  those  rights  which 
they  have  been  accustomed  to  have,  or  which  they 
have  a  tradition  (whether  true  or  false)  of  having  once 
possessed.  .  .  .  Thus  to  the  average  Greek,  slavery 
undoubtedly  seemed  a  '  natural  '  institution  ;  it  was 
familiar  to  him,  and  he  did  not  know  of  any  civilized 
society  without  it.  ...  A  Turk,  a  German,  an  Amer- 
ican, would  give  somewhat  different  accounts  of  this 
natural  status.  The  '  natural '  in  each  case  may,  per- 
haps, be  pitched  a  little  above  the  average  usage  of 
the  society  in  question  ;  it  represents  the  expectations 
of  the  society,  of  which  expectations  fulfilment  may 
indeed  fall  short."  Hence,  as  many  modern  thinkers 
have  shown,  the  theory  of  "natural  rights"  may  be 
made  to  support  any  theory.  It  is  usually  used  to  base 
an  argument  against  any  law  or  action  of  the  State 
that  the  individual  does  not  consider  wise  or  right. 
It  is  used  by  anarchists  to  condemn  existing  inequal- 
ities of  social  conditions,  and  by  conservatives  to 
check  attempts  on  the  part  of  government  to  remedy 
those  inequalities.  The  Liberty  and  Property  Defense 
League  plants  itself  on  the  same  natural  rights  as 
did  Tom  Paine.  In  the  name  of  natural  rights  Henry 
George  argues  that  every  man  has  a  right  to  what  he 
produces,  and  only  to  that,  while  Matthew  Arnold 
says  :  "  An  author  has  no  natural  right  to  a  property 
in  his  production.  But,  then,  neither  has  he  a  natural 
right  to  anything  whatever  which  he  may  produce 
or  acquire  "  (Fortnightly  Review,  vol.  xxvii.  p.  322). 
Such  contradictions  prove  to  the  critics  of  the  theory 
its  impracticality,  baselessness,  and  unreality. 

Says  Jevons  in  The  State  tn  Relation  to  Labor: 
"  The  first  step  must  be  to  rid  our  minds  of  the  idea 
that  there  are  any  such  things  in  social  matters  as 
abstract  ideas."  Mr.  Spencer  quotes  a  writer  "of 


preface  to  his  Discours,  says  :  "  It  is  more  difficult  than 
one  would  suppose  to  take  the  precautions  necessary 
to  basing  an  argument  upon  it  [the  doctrine  of 
natural  rights]."  Professor  Huxley  shows  that 
nature's  laws  "  contain  in  reality  nothing  but  a  state- 
ment of  that  which  a  given  being  tends  to  do  under 
the  circumstances  of  its  existence."  A  tiger  has 
a  natural  inclination  to  eat  men  ;  certain  cannibals 
are  said  to  have  the  same  inclination.  Have  they 
a  natural  right  to  eat  men  ?  As  used  against  govern- 
ments, the  advocates  of  "natural  rights"  and  "a 
state  of  nature,"  which  is  supposed  to  be  better  than 
the  organized  state,  forget  what  Aristotle  did  not 
forget,  that  the  State  itself  is  naturaf.  It  is  halting 
metaphysics  and  stranger  theology  to  assert  that  God 
made  the  country  and  man  made  the  city.  Is  the 
plowed  land  unnatural  ?  Is  the  city  street  contrary  to 
human  nature?  The  view  held  to-day  by  most  pub- 
licists, in  place  of  the  theory  of  natural  rights,  is  stated 
by  Professor  John  W.  Burgess,  as  follows : 

"  The  revolutionists  of  the  eighteenth  century  said 
that  individual  liberty  was  a   natural 
right ;  that  it  belonged  to  the  individual 
as  a  human  being,  without  regard  to  the    The  0DDOS. 
state  or  society  in  which,  or  the  govern-     .       ^."^ 
ment  under  which,  he  lived.     But  it  is    ln§f  View. 
easy  to    see  that  this  view  is  utterly 
impracticable  and  barren  ;  for  if  neither 
the  State,  nor  the    society,  nor   the  government  de- 
fines  the   sphere  of  individual   autonomy  and   con- 


Natural   Rights. 


927 


Negro. 


structs  its  boundaries,  then  the  individual  himself 
will  be  left  to  do  these  things,  and  that  is  anarchy 
pure  and  simple.  The  experience  of  the  French 
Revolution,  where  this  theory  of  natural  rights 
was  carried  into  practice,  showed  the  necessity 
of  this  result.  These  experiences  drove  the  more 
pious  minds  of  this  period  to  formulate  the  proposi- 
tion that  God  is  the  source  of  individual  liberty.  Dieu 
et  man  droit  was  the  medieval  motto  made  new  again. 
But  who  shall  interpret  the  will  of  God  in  regard  to 
individual  liberty  ?  If  the  individual  interprets  it  for 
himself,  then  the  same  anarchic  result  as  before  will 
follow.  If  the  State  or  the  Church  or  the  govern- 
ment interprets  it,  then  the  individual  practically 
gives  up  the  divine  source  of  his  liberty.  .  .  .  We  may 
express  the  most  modern  principle  as  follows:  The 
individual,  both  for  his  own  highest  development  and 
the  highest  welfare  of  the  society  and  State  in  which 
he  lives,  should  act  freely  within  a  certain  sphere : 
the  impulse  to  such  action  is  a  universal  quality  of 
human  nature  ;  but  the  State,  the  ultimate  sovereign, 
is  alone  able  to  define  the  elements  of  individual 
liberty,  limit  its  scope,  and  protect  its  enjoyment. 
The  individual  is  thus  defended  in  this  sphere  against 
the  Government  by  the  power  that  makes  and  main- 
tains and  can  destroy  the  Government,  and  by  the 
same  power  through  the  Government  against  en- 
croachments from  every  other  quarter.  Against  that 
power  itself,  however,  he  has  no  defense.  It  can  give 
and  it  can  take  away.  The  individual  may  ask  for 
liberties  which  it  has  not  granted,  and  even  prove  to 
the  satisfaction  of  the  general  consciousness  that  he 
ought  to  have  them  ;  but  until  it  grants  them,  he  cer- 
tainly has  them  not.  The  ultimate  sovereignty,  the 
State,  cannot  be  limited,  either  by  individual  liberty 
or  governmental  powers ;  and  this  it  would  be  if 
individual  liberty  had  its  source  outside  of  the  State. 
This  is  the  only  view  which  can  reconcile  liberty  with 
law,  and  preserve  both  in  proper  balance.  Every 
other  view  sacrifices  the  one  to  the  other  "  {Political 
Science  and  Constitutional  Law,  vol.  i.  bookii.  chap.  i.). 

Such  is  the  ordinary  view  held  at  present  by  the 
large  majority  of  thinkers  in  England  and  the  United 
States. 

Yet  there  are  a  few  and  some  of  the  most  brilliant 
minds  in  England  and  America,  and  a  whole  school 
of  thinkers  upon  the  continent  of  Europe,  who  do  hold 
still  to  the  doctrine  of  natural  rights.  Herbert 
Spencer  has  given  the  weight  of  his  name  to  the 
doctrine.  In  his  Social  Statics  he  holds  that  all  rights 
are  derived  from  a  single  first  principle,  which  he 
calls  "the  law  of  equal  freedom."  This  principle  is 
"  that  every  man  may  claim  the  fullest  liberty  to 
exercise  his  faculties  compatible  with  the  exercise  of 
like  liberty  by  every  other  man  "  (chap.  v.  §  3),  or,  as 
he  elsewhere  expresses  it,  "every  man  has  freedom 
to  do  all  that  he  wills,  provided  that  he  infringes  not 
the  equal  freedom  of  any  other  man  "  (chap.  vi.  §  i). 
Accordingly,  he  says:  "Rights  are  nothing  but  arti- 
ficial divisions  of  the  general  claim  to  exercise  the 
faculties — applications  of  that  general  claim  to  par- 
ticular cases  ;  and  each  of  them  is  proved  in  the  same 
way  by  showing  that  the  particular  exercise  of  the 
faculties  referred  to  is  possible  without  preventing  the 
like  exercise  of  faculties  by  other  persons."  His  devel- 
opment of  this  theory  is  well  known.  (See  SPENCER.) 

In  Germany,  the  idea  of  Naturrecht  is  the  root  idea 
of  German  jurisprudence.  Professor  Pollok  says  of 
this  school,  that  its  authors  "  throw  their  main 
strength  on  investigating  the  universal  moral  and 
social  conditions  of  government  and  laws,  or,  at  any 
rate,  civilised  government  and  laws,  and  expounding 
what  such  governments  and  laws  are,  or  ought  to  be, 
so  far  as  determined  by  conformity  to  these  condi- 
tions." English  writers,  he  says,  are  apt  to  despair  of 
systems  of  philosophy  built  up  on  somebody's  con- 
ception of  "things  as  they  ought  to  be,"  "necessary 
inferences  from  the  facts  of  nature,"  "natural  laws 
which,  nevertheless,  "  never  have  been  and  probably 
never  will  be  perfectly  discovered.  But,"  he  adds, 
"  allowance  must  be  made  for  difference  in  meaning. 
We  may  discover  this  mysterious  and  terrible  Natur- 
recht to  be  no  worse  than  a  theory  of  government  and 
legislation  ;  or,  to  preserve  better  the  wide  generality 

fiven  to  it  by  its  authors,  a  kind  of  teleology  of  the 
tate  and  its  institutions." 

In  England  Professor  Lorimer  in  his  Institutes  of 
Law.,  with  its  sub-title,  A  Treatise  of  the  Principles  of 
Jurisprudence  as  Determined  by  Nature,  most  nearly 
represents  the  German  school.  But  the  characteristic 
modern  English,  and  especially  the  American  use  of 
the  theory,  is  the  use  made  of  it  in  politics  by  Jefferso- 
nian  Democrats,  with  their  strict  limitation  of  the 


power  of  the  State,  and  in  economics  by  Henry  George 
and  his  followers,  when  they  hold  that  each  man  has  a 
natural  and  a  divine  right  to  what  he  produces,  and 
to  that  only,  so  that  land  values  should  be  held  in 
common,  since  no  individual  has  produced  them,  but 
that  each  individual  should  be  allowed  private  prop- 
erty in  other  things.  (See  SINGLE  TAX.)  Professor 
Ritchie,  in  his  volume  above  referred  to,  considers 
the  specific  natural  rights  most  commonly  claimed : 
the  right  of  life,  of  liberty,  of  toleration,  of  public 
meeting  and  association,  of  contract,  of  resistance 
to  oppression,  of  equality,  of  property,  of  pursuing 
and  obtaining  happiness.  He  shows,  however,  that 
nations  like  the  United  States,  most  imbued  with  the 
theory  of  natural  rights,  have  not  scrupled  to  go  con- 
trary to  them  when  it  was  popular.  Protestants,  who 
cannot  understand  why  Roman  Catholics  should  not 
allow  legal  divorce,  are  quite  ready  to  suppress  Mor- 
mon plural  marriages  by  law.  To  sum  up,  the  theory 
of  natural  rights  is  considered  by  its  critics  vague 
and  useless  ;  its  truth  to  lie  in  its  witness  to  the  belief 
in  a  divine  or  general  ideal  of  society  toward  which 
men  are  ever  pressing. 

(See  POLITICAL  SCIENCE  ;  STATE  ;  SOVEREIGN- 
TY ;  ROUSSEAU,  etc.) 

References :  Natural  Rights,  a  Criticism  of  Some 
Political  and  Ethical  Conceptions,  by  David  G.  "Ritchie, 
1895.  (See  also  PAINE  ;  ROUSSEAU.) 

NAVIGATION.    See  COMMERCE. 
NAVY.     See  ARMY  AND  NAVY. 

NEEBE.  See  CHICAGO  ANARCHISTS,  last 
section. 

NEGRO  AND  PRESENT  SOCIAL  RE- 
FORM, IN  AMERICA,  THE.  (See  also 
SLAVERY.)  During  the  dark  days  of  slavery 
little  or  no  progress  could  be  expected  from  the 
negro.  Bought  and  sold  like  the  cattle  of  the 
fields,  and  bearing  all  the  degrading  conse- 
quences of  an  inhuman  bondage,  it  is  evermore 
to  his  credit  that  he  has  escaped  at  all  from  the 
brutalizing  influences  of  260  years.  There  was 
a  large  number  of  free  negroes  settled  in  the 
South  before  the  war,  and  altho  they  were  al- 
lowed to  acquire  property,  and  secure  a  meas- 
ure of  education,  they  were  subject  to  many 
disabilities  and  restrictions.  .  They  were  de- 
nied intercourse  with  the  slaves;  and  were 
even  frequently  the  victims  of  murderous 
mobs  who  violated  the  seclusion  of  their 
homes.  They  were,  in  both  North  and  South, 
excluded  from  the  militia,  and  quite  generally 
denied  the  right  to  vote,  altho  impartially 
taxed.  •  Their  schools  were  separate,  few  in 
number,  and  poorly  conducted.  They  were 
excluded  from  clmrches,  confined  to  the  gal- 
leries of  theaters,  denied  lodging  and  board  at 
hotels,  and  were  not  permitted  to  travel  as 
first-class  passengers  upon  either  land  or 
water.  Nearly  every  State  constitution  con- 
tained'the  word  "white"  as  a  restriction  of 
civil  rights  ;  nearly  every  common-carrier  com- 
pany had  special  rules  to  apply  to  the  negro  ; 
and  nearly  every  community  contained  men 
and  women  who  were  always  ready  to  de- 
nounce and  abuse  the  harmless  and  submis- 
sive blacks.  If  the  noblest  class  of  Americans 
were  subjected  for  years  to  such  disadvan- 
tages as  these,  and  with  no  chance  of  revolu- 
tion or  redress,  it  is  very  probable  that  their 
social  and  moral  condition  would  not  finally  be 
very  high. 

The  great  bravery  shown  by  many  negro 
regiments  in  the  war  of  the  rebellion  did  much 


Negro. 


928 


Negro. 


to  elevate  them  in  esteem,  and  secure  a  little 
more  fairness  in  their  treatment  by  the  whites. 
Before  the  spring  of  1863  the  United  States 
Government  published  a  plan  by  which  negroes, 
free  and  bond,  were  to  be  employed  as  sol- 
diers. By  the  end  of  the  autumn  50,000  troops 
of  this  character  were  under  arms.  From  the 
beginning  to  the  close  of  the  war  there  were 
i?8>975  negro  troops  in  the  service  of  the  na- 
tion, who  participated  in  449  engagements  and 
sustained  a  loss  of  36,847.  At  Fort  Wagner, 
Port  Hudson,  Chapin's  Farm,  Nashville,  and 
upon  other  fields  they  won  the  confidence  and 
approval  of  the  military  and  civil  leaders  of 
the  cause  they  so  gallantly  served.  Doubted 
and  discriminated  against  in  respect  to  their 
pay,  bounty,  and  clothing,  they  were  subse- 
quently placed  upon  the  same  footing  with 
their  more  favored  white  comrades. 

On  January  i,  1863,  the  Proclamation  of 
Emancipation  was  issued;  every  negro  re- 
ceived his  freedom;  and  soon  after,  by  amend- 
ments to  the  Constitution,  was  made  a  voter 
and  a  citizen.  The  legislatures  of  the  South- 
ern States,  however,  passed  laws  that  practi- 
cally disfranchised  him  for  a  time;  and  the 
acts  regulating  negro  laborers  made  them  the 
merest  vassals  of  the  soil.  But  the  reorgani- 
zation of  these  States  brought  the  negro  into 
political  prominence. 

During  the  period  of  reconstruction  negroes 
were  in  the  majority  in  the  Senate  and  House 
of  Representatives  of  some  Southern  States, 
while  two  became  United  States  senators  and 
a  dozen  were  members  of  the  House  of  Rep- 
resentatives. Fourteen  held  positions  in  the 
diplomatic  and  consular  service  of  the  Govern- 
ment. The  United  States  marshal  for  the 
District  of  Columbia,  the  tax  collector,  the  re- 
corder of  deeds,  and  the  register  of  the  treas- 
ury were,  at  one  time,  negroes,  and  all  of 
them  ex-slaves  save  one.  There  were  about 
600  negroes  in  the  departments  at  Washing- 
ton, D.  C.,  and  several  thousand  of  them  in 
the  postal,  revenue,  and  customs  service  in 
various  sections  of  the  country. 

The  attitude  of  the  Southern  people  to  the 
negroes  since  the  war  has  been  almost  invari- 
ably aristocratic  and  repressive ;  they  have  too 
frequently  endeavored  to  keep 
The  South  them  servile  and  dependent,  in- 
stead of  aiding  them  to  reach  a 
higher  plane  of  intelligence  and 
citizenship.  Henry  M.  Boies  says, 
in  the  course  of  an  earnest  plea 
for  negro  education,  "The  whole  administra- 
tion of  the  South  proceeds  upon  the  false  and 
un-American  idea  of  a  servile  class,  to  be 
maintained  in  a  condition  of  suppression;  an 
idea  which  the  welfare  of  our  institutions,  so- 
ciety, and  government  cannot  tolerate,  and 
must  in  some  way  totally  eradicate,  abolish, 
and  destroy.  The  American  people  and  its 
free  government  are  irrevocably  pledged  and 
devoted  to  human  progress,  elevation,  and 
civilization,  without  regard  to  tribe  or  tongue, 
sex  or  color,  or  any  previous  condition  of  na- 
tivity, servitude,  or  intelligence." 

In  another  place  the  same  author  writes: 
"A  ruling  white  minority,  possessing  the 
wealth,  stands  over  a  black  majority  which  is 


and  the 
Negro. 


paid  for  their  labor  actually  less  than  the 
fairly  comfortable  subsistence  which  they  re- 
ceived when  slaves;  and  denies  to  them  every 
right  of  equality  except  the  simple  name  of 
citizen.  This  is  as  hostile  to  true  American- 
ism as  was  slavery.  It  has  become  so  palpa- 
ble, atrocious,  and  pregnant  a  national  peril 
as  to  require  national  intervention." 

Yet  it  must  be  admitted  that  to  this  as  to 
every    question   there    are    two    sides.      The 
Southern  whites  say,  in  answer  to  such  criti- 
cism, that  the  negroes  are  yet  too  ignorant   to 
vote ;   that  being  in  some  States 
in    the    majority,  they  would,   if 
allowed  actual  equality  with  the 
whites,  put  back  the  whole  civil- 
ization  of  the  South,  if  not  make 
civilization  impossible.   Says  Gov- 
ernor Evans  of  South  Carolina,  in  regard  to 
the  constitutional  convention  called  to  devise 
a  way  for  excluding  the  negro  from  political 
power  : 

"  There  are  only  two  flags,  the  white  and  the  black. 
Under  which  will  you  enlist?  The  one,  the  white,  is 
the  peaceful  flag  of  Anglo-Saxon  civilization  and 
progress.  The  other  is  the  black  flag  of  the  debased 
and  ignorant  African,  with  the  white  traitors  who  are 
seeking  to  marshal  the  negroes  in  order  to  gain  politi- 
cal power.  .  .  . 

"The  constitutional  convention  must  be  controlled 
by  white  men,  not  white  men  with  black  hearts,  not 
negroes.  The  world  must  be  shown  that  we  are 
capable  of  governing  ourselves,  and  that,  constitu- 
tion or  no  constitution,  law  or  no  law,  court  or  no 
court,  the  intelligent  white  men  of  South  Carolina 
intend  to  govern  her." 

The  South  (especially  the  progressive  so- 
called  New  South)  has  no  desire  to  reenact 
slavery,  if  it  could,  but  it  does  almost  as  one 
man  insist  that  civilization  shall  not  be  lowered 
to  the  level  of  the  negro — which,  it  says,  would 
be  the  result  of  giving  the  right  at  present  of 
political  and  social  equality  with  the  whites. 

Suddenly  transformed  from  slaves  to  citi- 
zens, without  test  or  preparation,  it  is  self-evi- 
dent that  the  whole  negro  race  is  the  ward 
of  the  American  nation,  and  must  be  so  con- 
sidered and  treated,  until  it  shall  rise  in  all 
respects  to  a  level  of  equality  with  its  white 
fellow-citizens,  and  have  a  fairer  show  in  the 
competitions  of  life. 

"  But  there  are  unfailing  signs  that  the  negro  is  ac- 
cumulating property,  and  rapidly  acquiring  knowl- 
edge, in  spite  of  the  many  peculiar  obstacles  that  have 
been  cast  in  his  way.  In  1888,  in  the  District  of  Colum- 
bia, where  the  Government  emancipated  the  slaves 
by  compensating  their  masters,  the  negro  citizens  paid 
taxes  upon  about  $8,000,000  of  real  property  ;  in  Geor- 
gia they  are  taxed  for  about  $11,000,000,  in  Louisiana 
for  about  $25,000,000  ;  and  in  other  States  in  an  almost 
proportional  amount." 

"  According  to  the  census  of  1890,  there  are  in  the 
United  States  7,470,040  persons  of  African  descent — 
an  increase  of  13.51  per  cent,   since   1880.    The  negro 
school  population  of  the  former  slave  States  is  about 
2,100,000;  and  the  enrolment  is  1,100,000.    They  have 
281  normal  schools  with  6207  students;  270  institutions 
for  secondary  instruction  with  9970  students  ;  238  uni- 
versities and  colleges  with  5119  students;   no  schools 
of  theology  with   1297  students ;   16  law  schools  with 
98  students ;  22  schools  of   medicine,    dentistry,    and 
pharmacy  with   208  students  ;  40  schools  for  the  deaf, 
dumb,  and  blind  with  139  students  ;  and, 
adding  the  661  schools  for  negroes  in 
the   Northern   States  to  the  18,794    for    Statistics. 
the   freedmen,  there    are   19,455    public 
schools  with  a  total  enrolment  for  the 
race,  as  far  as  reported,  of  1,127,839.     This  does  not 
include  the  negroes  and  mulattoes  in  the  schools  of  the 


Negro. 


929 


Newcomb,  Simon. 


North,  where  no  discrimination  is  made  as  to  color  or 
nationality.  There  are  more  signs  of  improvement  in 
the  negro  in  the  South  than  in  the  small  communities 
of  Northern  negroes,  who,  contented  with  their  con- 
dition, make  little  effort  to  improve  their  opportuni- 
ties. They  are  the  servant  class  as  a  rule,  altho  there 
are  worthy  exceptions,  and  make  little  or  no  progress. 
However,  in  the  larger  cities  of  the  Northern  States 
negroes  have  branched  out  into  lucrative  business  en- 
terprises, and  by  industry,  frugality,  and  ability  have 
attained  to  high  and  honorable  business  standing.  " 

In  general,  since  emancipation,  their  morals 
are  improved,  their  social  life  more  elevated, 
their  tastes  more  chaste,  their  education  ad- 
vanced, and  their  comfort  and  happiness  in- 
finitely increased.  The  friends  of  humanity 
everywhere  will  join  in  creating  a  public  sen- 
timent friendly  to  the  negro  as  a  citizen,  as  a 
laborer,  and  as  a  man,  until  the  African  race 
is  merged  at  length  into  a  composite  American 
nationality.  H.  N.  C. 

Concerning  some  other  statistics  in  regard 
to  the  negro  population  in  the  United  States, 
the  Rt.  Rev.  C.  Clifton  Penick,  D.  D.,  agent 
for  the  Commission  of  the  Protestant  Episco- 
pal Church  for  work  among  colored  people  in 
the  United  States  of  America,  says  in  a  tract 
on  the  struggles,  perils,  and  hopes  of  the 
negroes : 

"In  1865  probably  not  one  in  ten  thousand  of  the 
negroes  of  the  South  could  read.  To-day  not  less  than 
twenty-five  thousand  are  professors  or  teachers  in 
colleges  and  schools.  A  vast  number  of  well-read 
preachers,  lawyers,  doctors,  mail  agents,  and  clerks 
are  at  work,  while,  in  1890,  1,255,320  scholars  were  in 
public  schools— 18.55  Per  cent,  of  the  negro  population 
in  the  entire  country,  an  increase  of  public-school 
enrolment  of  61.58  per  cent,  in  ten  years.  The  enrol- 
ment of  white  children  the  country  over  is  but  21.68 
per  cent,  of  the  white  population.  When  we  remember 
that  altho  there  are  but  7,470,000  of  these  people,  they 
have  in  twenty-five  years  built  them  19,753  churches, 
•with  5,818,459  seats,  at  a  cost  of  $20,323,887  ;  that  they 
report  2,316,785  communicants  in  churches  entirely  of 
their  own  race,  the  figures  are  startling.  Rev.  H.  K. 
Carrol,  compiler  of  church  statistics  for  the  Eleventh 
Census,  puts  the  number  of  communicants  at  2,610,525. 
When  we  contrast,  however,  the  wonderful  strides  of 
the  race  in  education  and  religiousness  since  1865,  the 
revelations  of  its  criminal  record  are  both  surprising 
and  appaling,  as  the  following  facts,  gathered  from  the 
census  of  1890,  show  : 

"The  negro  population  is  a  little  more  than  one- 
ninth  of  the  entire  population  of  the  nation,  yet  it 
furnishes  37  per  cent,  of  its  homicides — i.  e.,  2730  out  of 
7386.  Of  the  82,329  adult  prisoners  in  the  United 
States,  the  negroes  furnish  27,277.  Of  the  387  female 
homicides  the  negroes  give  224 — z.  e.,  two-thirds.  The 
entire  country  has  one  adult  criminal  to  every  786  of 
its  population,  while  the  negroes  have  one  to  every 
284  of  their  population.  Our  45,912,663  native  born 
whites  have  one  homicide  to  every  14,539  of  them  ;  the 
foreign  whites  one  to  7633 ;  the  negroes  one  to  every 
2727.  If  we  compare  the  ages  of  the  homicides,  we 
find  that  from  50  to  60  years  of  age  the  negroes  furnish 
115  out  of  580,  about  one-fifth;  from  40  to  50,  they 
furnish  289  out  of  1148,  about  one-fourth;  from  30  to 
40,  714  out  of  2152,  or  about  one-third;  from  20  to 
30,  1,271  out  of  2639,  nearly  one-half;  and  under  20 
years  of  age,  two-thirds  of  the  homicides  of  the  entire 
nation  are  recorded  as  negroes.  Of  the  nine  murders 
committed  by  youths  of  14  years  old,  eight  were 
recorded  against  negroes." 

NEIGHBORHOOD  GILDS  is  the  name  of 
certain  social  reform  institutions  first  proposed 
by  Dr.  Stanton  Coit  (g.  v.),  as  the  result  of  his 
experience  in  the  social  settlements  started  by 
him  in  New  York  city  and  London.  He  em- 
bodied his  ideas  on  this  subject  in  a  book 
entitled,  Neighbourhood  Guilds,  published  in 
1891.  According  to  this  work  (p.  7),  "The 
very  name,  '  neighborhood  gild,'  suggests  the 

59 


fundamental  idea  which  this  new  institu- 
tion embodies :  namely,  that,  irrespective  of 
religious  belief  or  non-belief,  all  the  people, 
men,  women,  or  children,  in  any  one  street, 
or  any  small  number  of  streets  in  every  work- 
ing-class district  in  London,  shall  be  organized 
into  a  set  of  clubs,  which  are  by  themselves,  or 
in  alliance  with  those  of  other  neighborhoods, 
to  carry  out,  or  induce  others  to  carry  out,  all 
the  reforms,  domestic,  industrial,  educational, 
provident,  or  recreative,  which  the  social 
ideal  demands."  Dr.  Coit's  idea  is  that  the 
forming  of  separate  societies  or  clubs  for 
special  purposes  tends  to  magnify  out  of  all 
proportion  that  one  side  of  life  or  culture 
which  it  aims  to  develop.  It  tends  again  to 
break  up  the  family  unit.  It  sends  the  boys  to 
one  club,  the  girls  to  another,  the  father  to 
another,  the  mother  to  another.  Thirdly,  it 
breaks  up  neighborliness.  One  family  knows 
nothing  about  its  next-door  neighbor,  be- 
cause the  two  families  go  to  different 
churches,  to  different  clubs,  have  different 
interests.  The  Neighborhood  Gild  aims  at 
organizing  the  social  life  of  all  the  people 
in  one  small  district.  It  thus  brings  neigh- 
bors together,  families  together,  different 
interests  together.  In  the  Neighborhood 
Gilds  there  are  departments  for  boys,  for 
girls,  for  men,  for  women,  for  art,  for  educa- 
tion, for  recreation,  for  the  various  inter- 
ests of  life  ;  and  they  are  not  all  separate  ;  for 
certain  purposes,  and  at  certain  times,  all  come 
together.  According  to  Dr.  Coit,  no  Gild 
should  be  so  large  as  to  prevent  all  the  members 
forming  a  circle  of  acquaintance.  Personal 
work  is  its  essence.  To  develop  persons  in  all 
sides  of  character  is  its  aim.  It  would  not 
compete,  but  rather  cooperate  with  other  re- 
form agencies.  Neighborhood  Gilds  can  be 
started  quietly,  without  great  initial  expense, 
in  almost  any  place,  starting,  perhaps,  in  one 
family  house,  its  parlors  being  used  for  meet- 
ings until  a  room,  and  then  a  house,  can  be 
hired.  Dr.  Coit  started  the  first  Gild  in  New 
York  city,  about  1885,  and  it  has  now  grown 
into  a  University  Settlement  (q.  v,.).  In  1889, 
Dr.  Coit,  on  his  removal  to  London,  started 
one  there  in  Kentish  Town.  For  all  details, 
see  Dr.  Coit's  book,  Neighboitrhood  Guilds. 


NEO-MALTHUSIANISM. 

SIANISM,  last  section. 


See  MALTHU- 


NET  PROFITS.    See  PROFITS. 

NEW  AUSTRALIA.— July  16,  1893,  200 
emigrants  left  Australia  to  found  a  commu- 
nistic colony  in  Paraguay,  to  be  called  New 
Australia ;  the  leader  was  William  Lane. 
The  experiment  elicited  more  attention  than 
most  such  experiments,  but  the  colony  has 
met  with  great  difficulties.  Dissensions  early 
broke  out ;  the  colony  divided,  and  at  this 
writing  (1895)  it  is  impossible  to  ascertain  its 
true  condition. 

NEWCOMB,  SIMON,  was  born  in  Wal- 
lace, Nova  Scotia,  March  12,  1835.  In  1861  he 
became  professor  of  mathematics  in  the  United 


Newcomb,  Simon. 


93° 


New   Harmony. 


States  Naval  Observatory  at  Washington, 
D.  C.,  and  since  1884  has  also  held  a  professor- 
ship of  mathematics  in  Johns  Hopkins  Univer- 
sity. Among  his  most  popular  works  are 
Popular  Astronomy  (1877)  and  Principles  of 
Political  Economy  (1886).  In  economics  Pro- 
fessor Newcomb  is  known  as  an  adherent  of 
the  classical  school.  A  clear  and  forcible 
writer,  he  is  as  well  represented  in  numerous 
magazine  articles  as  in  his  books,  particularly 
in  his  articles  in  the  North  American  Re-view 
and  Princeton  Review. 

NEW  HARMONY,  though  later  identified 
with  Robert  Owen  (g.  v.).  was  founded  by  a 
small  German  sect,  the  followers  of  one  George 
Rapp,  a  weaver  by  trade,  but  noted  for  his 
biblical  knowledge  and  piety.  Rapp  gath- 
ered together  in  Wurtemberg  a  number  of 
people  who  shared  his  religious  views,  and, 
following  the  example  of  the  early  Christians 
in  Jerusalem,  they  held  all  their  property  in 
common. 

"Being  persecuted  for  their  views,  they  decided  to 
emigrate  to  the  United  States,  and  in  1803  the  Rap- 
pites formed  their  first  settlement  in  Butler  County, 
Pa.,  giving  to  their  village  the  name  of  Harmony. 
By  dint  of  hard  work  and  economy,  in  10  years  they 
were  in  a  state  of  comparative  comfort ;  but  wishing 
to  make  their  position  more  secure,  in  1813  they  moved 
westward  and  bought  about  30,000  acres  of  some  of 
the  richest  land  in  Posey  County,  Indiana,  and  there 
founded  the  world-famous  village  of  New  Harmony. 
The  Rappites  were  a  very  industrious  and  inoffensive 
folk ;  their  creed  enjoined  pure  life,  simple  diet,  and 
plain  dress;  the  ambitions  and  wishes  of  the  individual 
were  to  be  entirely  subject  to  the  general  good.  After 
a  time  they  took  vows  of  celibacy,  even  those  who 
were  already  married  dissolving  the  relationship  and 
taking  the  vows.  For  ten  years  they  labored  and 
prospered  exceedingly,  both  in  agriculture  and  man- 
ufacture ;  and  then,  selling  all  their  land  and  the  vil- 
lage buildings  to  Mr.  Robert  Owen,  of  New  Lanark, 
Scotland,  they  emigrated  east  again  to  Beaver 
County,  Pa.,  where  they  founded  the  village  of  Econ- 
omy." (See  ECONOMY.) 

The  purchaser  of   New   Harmony,   Robert 

Owen  (g.  v.),  was  a  Welshman,  born  in  1771. 

He  became  manager  and  then  proprietor  of 

extensive  cotton  mills  on  the  Clyde,  Scotland, 

and  devoted  much  energy  to  promoting  the 

interest  of  working  people.      He  desired  to 

abolish  all  class  distinctions,  and  endeavored 

to  show  that  the  interests  of  the 

Under       employer    and    employees    could 

Robert      be  made  identical.      His  mills  at 

Owen.       New  Lanark    were    ideal    object 

lessons  to  support  his  theory,  and 

it  was  to  put  into  practical  shape  his  theories 

for  the  advancement  of  working  people  that  he 

bought  the  New  Harmony  estate.     Associated 

with   him   in  the  scheme  was   a  Mr.  William 

Maclure,     a     Scotchman,    who    shared    Mr. 

Owen's  communist  theories. 

"Their  aim  was  to  establish  a  community  in  which 
property  was  to  be  held  in  common,  though  under  the 
restriction  of  a  constitution.  All  were  to  share  in  the 
common  labor,  and  all  should  receive  a  liberal  educa- 
tion, with  facilities  for  continued  study  and  pursuit  of 
knowledge.  The  religious  views  of  the  members 
were  entirely  of  their  own  choice,  the  only  qualifica- 
tions essential  for  membership  being  honesty  of  pur- 
pose, temperance,  industry,  cleanliness,  and  careful- 
ness. When  the  settlement  of  New  Harmony  came 
into  the  possession  of  Robert  Owen  the  village  was 
regularly  laid  out  as  a  town,  with  streets  running  at 
right  angles  to  each  other  ;  and  in  the  center  a  public 


square,  surrounded  by  the  large  brick  buildings  built 
by  the  Rappites  for  their  churches  and  schools.  The 
land  itself  was  well  prepared  ;  there  were  19  detached 
farms,  and  some  3000  acres  which  had  been  cultivated 
by  the  Rappite  society,  besides  a  vineyard,  several 
orchards,  and  other  improvements.  With  the  place 
so  prepared,  and  30,000  acres  to  fall  back  upon,  the 
experiment  of  a  secular  community,  based  on  honesty 
of  purpose  and  moral  integrity,  seemed  to  have  every 
material  advantage  that  could  be  offered.  In  a  very 
short  time  the  village  was  a  busy  place.  Within  two 
or  three  months  there  were  some  900  persons  gathered 
from  all  parts  of  the  United  States  and  Europe.  Many 
of  these  were  inspired  with  an  earnest  belief  in  the 
ideals  which  the  experiment  was  to  prove,  and  worked 
zealously  in  the  endeavor  to  put  them  into  practice  ; 
but  many,  also,  were  lazy  and  shiftless,  and  came 
seeking  an  easy  mode  of  living,  shirking  their  share  of 
the  toil,  while  others  came  with  a  view  to  making 
profit  out  of  the  benevolent  feeling  of  the  founder, 
and  with  no  sympathy  at  all  for  the  movement.  With 
such  material  it  was  quite  impossible  to  fulfil  the 
original  expectation,  and  in  less  than  two  years  it  had 
become  evident  that  it  was  hopeless  to  try  longer." 

On  April  27,  1825,  Mr.  Owen  called  all  the 
members  of  the  community  together,  and  in 
an  address  explained  the  impossibility  of  an 
immediate  total  change  in  all  their  manners  of 
life,  and  proposed  that  they  should  accept  a 
constitution  only  partially  communistic  for  a 
term  of  three  years,  that  they  might  be  better 
prepared  to  fully  carry  out  the 
ideal  community.  This  was  agreed 
to,  and  under  the  name  of  the  Constitution. 
' '  Preliminary  Society  of  New  Har- 
mony" the  venture  was  formally  constituted. 
Mr.  Owen  then  re  turned  to  Europe,  and  a  com- 
mittee managed  the  affairs  of  the  society.  In 
less  than  a  year  Mr.  Owen  returned  to  New 
Harmony,  and  soon  after  his  return  the  mem- 
bers of  the  Preliminary  Society  held  another 
convention,  deciding  to  at  once  commence  com- 
munism and  adopting  a  constitution  of  a  com- 
munity which  they  called  the  "  New  Harmony 
Community  of  Equality."  The  management 
was  to  be  in  the  hands  of  an  executive  council, 
who  were  to  be  subject  to  the  direction  of  the 
community.  Experience  demonstrated  that 
the  plan  of  the  executive  council  was  not 
practicable,  and  the  members  were  unanimous 
in  requesting  Mr.  Owen  to  take  the  sole  man- 
agement. This  was  the  inauguration  of  the 
most  prosperous  season  in  the  short  life  of  the 
community.  There  were  soon  no  idlers,  all 
being  busily  engaged ;  and  the  meetings,  instead 
of  being  the  scene  of  wrangles,  were  utilized 
for  the  benefit  of  all  the  members. 

This  was  too  good  to  last,  and  within  a  very 
few  months  there  were  disturbances,  and  at- 
tempts to  divide  the  town  into  several  societies. 
On  May  30,  1826,  in  consequence  of  the  contin- 
ual disagreements  which  had  arisen  about  the 
disposal  of  the  property,  a  meeting  of  the 
whole  of  the  population  was  held,  at  which  it 
was  decided  to  form  four  separate  societies, 
each  to  purchase  its  own  share  of  the  property, 
and  each  to  manage  its  own  affairs,  but  to 
trade  together  by  means  of  paper  currency. 
Other  changes  followed  fast,  but  each  change 
left  them  no  better  than  before.  The  trouble 
was  not  in  the  institutions  so  much  as  in  the 
unpreparedness  or  greed  of  many  of  the  mem- 
bers ;  and  though  there  were  many  choice, 
noble  spirits  in  the  undertaking,  they  were 
overweighted  by  the  others.  After  watching 
the  spirit  of  the  community  depart,  and  his 


New  Harmony. 


New  Unionism. 


fondest  hopes  gradually  crumble  away,  in  June, 
1827,  Mr.  Owen  bade  the  community  farewell. 
Leases  were  granted  to  such  as 
desired  to  continue  the   coopera- 
Failure.     ^ve  experiments,   and  tho  some 
smaller  communities  were  formed 
from  the  wreckage,  the  New  Harmony  Com- 
munity of  Equality  had  become  a  thing  of  the 
past. 

The  effect,  however,  was  not  to  die  away. 
The  scheme  of  communal  cooperative  life  took 
a  deep  hold  on  the  imaginations  of  the  people, 
and  many  smaller  communities  were  formed  ; 
and,  when  nearly  fifteen  years  later  Fourier's 
scheme  was  advocated,  many  were  prepared 
to  sink  their  all  in  the  new  communities  which 
sprang  up  in  all  directions — and,  alas  !  died 
away  as  rapidly  as  they  came  into  existence. 
But  with  all  the  failures,  there  is  still  some 
gain,  and  the  bitter  disappointments  of  those 
who  fondly  imagined  they  were  remodeling 
society  are  only  the  defeats  which  will  help  to 
insure  victory  later  on,  even  tho  it  should  not 
come  as  they  expected  it.  A.  H. 

NEW  UNIONISM,  or  the  NEW  TRADE- 
UNIONISM,  are  phrases  used  in  England 
and,  to  a  less  extent,  in  America,  to  denote  the 
tendencies  toward  socialism  recently  devel- 
oped in  labor  organizations.  The  new  tend- 
ency is,  however,  to  be  considered  simply  as  a 
natural  outgrowth  of  the  old  unionism,  due  to 
changed  conditions.  It  was  widely  claimed 
in  England,  ten  years  ago,  when  the  new 
unionism  movement  began,  that  the  old  unions 
had  become  largely  conservative.  Their  aim, 
it  was  said,  was  not  to  change  the  conditions 
of  working  people,  but  merely  to  strike  the 
best  bargain  possible  for  their  own  members, 
in  the  amount  of  wages  to  be  paid,  or  the 
hours  to  be  worked.  This  was  the  result,  said 
the  believers  in  the  new  unionism,  of  the  long 
battle  of  the  unions  for  existence.  From  1824, 
when,  to  a  very  limited  extent  and  for  very 
limited  purposes,  trade-unions  were  first  legal- 
ized in  England  (see  TRADE-UNIONS;  Section, 
England),  down  to  1875,  when,  alone,  they 
emerged,  to  use  the  words  of  Mr.  George 
Howell,  "from  the  last  vestige  of  the  crimi- 
nal laws  specially  appertaining  to  labor,"  the 
long  struggles  for  legal  existence  had  almost 
compelled  the  leaders  of  the  unions  to  renounce 
the  old  Utopian  socialism  of  the  Owenites  and 
Chartists  and  to  contend  for  the  right  of  com-, 
bination  on  the  somewhat  individualistic 
ground  that  the  individual  worker,  having  a 
right  to  dispose  of  his  labor  as  he  pleased,  had 
a  right  to  enter  into  combinations  to  dispose  of 
his  labor  if  he  so  chose.  The  taking  of  this 
position  seemed,  under  the  ideas  dominant 
in  England  during  the  period,  the  only  way  to 
obtain  for  the  unions  legal  recognition,  and  it 
undoubtedly  coincided  with  many  of  the  indi- 
vidualistic ideas  of  the  trade-union  leaders  of 
the  times.  (For  a  full  account  of  this  see 
Webb's  History  of  Trade- Unionism.}  Be  this 
as  it  may,  however,  the  taking  of  such  a  posi- 
tion naturally  gave  the  unions  something  of  an 
individualistic  bias,  and,  when  they  finally 
won  complete  legal  recognition,  and  grew 
somewhat  strong  and  respectable,  the  result 


was  that  they  became,  at  least  in  the  opinion 
of  many,  somewhat  reactionary  trade  benefit 
societies,  organized  not  to  fight  the  battles  of 
the  working  classes  generally,  but  simply  to 
give  benefits  and  gain  advantages  for  their 
members  only.  This  led  insensibly  to  the 
trade-unions  becoming  somewhat  of  an  "  aris- 
tocracy of  labor."  Benefit  societies  are  some- 
what slow  to  take  into  their  membership  the 
lower  classes  of  wage-earners,  who  are  likely 
at  any  moment  to  be  thrown  out  of  work  or 
placed  on  the  needy  list,  and  so,  to  an  extent, 
the  trade-unions  limited  their  membership  to 
the  better  paid  members  of  their  trades.  This, 
however,  hurt  the  trade-unions.  Keeping  the 
unskilled  workman  out  of  the  organizations 
did  not  at  all  keep  him  from  competing  in 
the  open  market;  and,  whenever  there  was 
a  labor  dispute,  it  was  always  handicapped 
against  the ~  men  by  the  large  number  of  the 
semi-skilled,  who  were  able,  and  almost  com- 
pelled by  their  helpless  condition,  to  take  the 
place  of  the  union  men  who  refused  to  work. 
With  such  a  prospect  it  is  not  surprising  that 
trade-unions  were  steadily  and  surely  becom- 
ing of  less  importance.  Such  was  the  condi- 
tion of  affairs  in  England  when  the  new 
unionism  was  developed. 

The  socialist  propaganda,  beginning  in  1880, 
had  rapidly  made  headway,  and,  within  a  few 
years,  made  a  great  impression  on  the  minds 
of  the  workers  in  all  the  industrial  centers. 
Confining  their  efforts  mainly  to  propaganda, 
the  socialists  worked  quite  on  separate  lines 
from  the  trade-unionists,  often  antagonizing 
them  for  their  conservative  tendencies.  In 
1888  a  number  of  socialists,  many  of  whom 
were  members  of  trade-unions,  undertook  the 
task  (hitherto  deemed  impossible)  of  organ- 
izing the  unskilled  workers  into  a  trade-union. 
The  revival  in  trade  helped  them,  and  one  of 
the  first  unions  organized,  "  The  Gasworkers' 
and  General  Laborers'  Union,"  within  a  year 
of  its  foundation  had  gained  for  its  members 
such  substantial  benefits  in  the  shape  of  an 
eight-hour  working  day,  and  an  increase  of 
pay,  that  the  example  was  like  a  new  life  in 
waking  from  apathy  those  who  before  were 
hopeless.  The  success  of  the  great  "  dock 
strike "  (see  DOCK  STRIKE),  which  followed 
within  a  few  months,  was  made  possible  by 
the  new  awakening,  and  was  itself  the  begin- 
ning of  a  period  of  general  activity  among  labor 
organizations.  It  was  a  new  ideal,  infusing 
new  life.  The  immediate  condition  of  the 
members  of  a  union  was  not  the  only  point 
that  was  considered.  Speaking  at  a  confer- 
ence on  the  organization  of  industry,  at 
Oxford,  in  1890,  Mr.  Tom  Mann  (see  TOM 
MANN),  who  was  one  of  the  first  of  these  social- 
ists to  undertake  trades  organization,  said  : 

"As  industry  is  conducted  to-day,  there  are  at  all 
times  a  large  number  of  persons  who  cannot  find 
work,  and,  in  consequence,  cannot  get  the  ordinary 
necessities  of  human  existence.  ...  I  know  that  in 
the  East  End  of  London  there  are  at  least  30,000  men 
who  have  been  unable  to  obtain  work  to-day ;  that 
there  will  be  quite  that  number  any  day  this  week, 
and  quite  that  number  any  and  every  day  next  week, 
and  so  on  all  through  the  winter.  .  .  .  That  is  a 
state  of  affairs  so  frightful  that  it  will  not  bear  calm 
contemplation  without  making  the  blood  boil  in  the 
veins  of  straightforward  men  and  women.  And 


New  Unionism. 


932 


New  Zealand. 


because  it  is  recognized  as  being  so  serious,  we  who 
have  been  identified  with  some  of  the  trade-union 
work  of  late  say  that  this  question  of  the  inability  of 
large  numbers  of  persons  to  get  the  wherewithal  to 
live  a  decent  life  must  be  met.  .  .  .  At  least  we  are 
bound  to  try  and  do  our  level  best  toward  that.  .  .  . 

"  There  is  no  quarrel  between  the  new  and  the  old 
[trade-unions]  ;  and  I  hope  that  will  be  allowed  to  be 
emphasized  here.  .  .  .  Some  of  the  v^unger  men  of 
to-day  say,  not  merely  must  trade-unions  look  after 
the  regulations  and  hours  of  labor  and  the  rate  of 
wages,  but  so  long  as  this  frightful  social  problem  is 
there,  it  must  receive  attention,  and  the  trade-union- 
ists, if  they  are  to  justify  their  existence  in  the  future, 
must  be  men  who  will  give  it  attention  with  a  view  to 
solving  it.  Therefore  has  cropped  up  what  appears  to 
be  a  difference.  The  new  and  old  unionists  are  now 
working  vigorously,  with  a  view  not  merely  to  regu- 
lating the  hours  of  labor  and  thevwages  to  be  received 
by  those  engaged  in  a  given  industry,  but  they  are 
looking  in  a  cosmopolitan  fashion  on  the  industrial 
problem  generally. 

Mr.  Mann's  statement  of  the  case  gives 
practically  the  feeling  which  animated  the 
leaders  of  the  new  departure,  and  with  new 
ideals  came  new  methods ;  the  sympathetic 
strike  (see  STRIKES),  political  action,  etc. 

The  leaders  of  the  new  unionism  to  a  large 
extent  also  argued  the  futility  of  "  strikes  "  as 
a  means  toward  curing  poverty  ;  the  evil  they 
have  to  contend  with  is  an  economic  one  ;  and 
tho  strikes  may  be  inevitable  accompaniments 
of  the  present  wage  system,  they  hold  that 
they  do  not  lead  the  way  out.  Political  means 
were  more  and  more  to  be  brought  to  the 
attention  of  the  workmen. 

It  is  this  that  has  largely  caused  the  growth 
among  the  English  unions  of  the  Independent 
Labor  party  (g.  v.)  and  of  the  capture  of  the 
Trade-Union  Congress  and  many  of  the  older 
unions  themselves  by  those  who  favor  a  dis- 
tinctly political  socialist  policy.  (See  ENGLAND 
AND  SOCIAL  REFORM.) 

The  new  unionism  has  largely  been  brought 
to  the  front  by  new  leaders.  These  have  by 
no  means  agreed,  and  often  have  bitterly  dif- 
fered, as  to  how  and  by  what  political  party 
the  new  political  program  could  be  best  ad- 
vanced ;  but  they  have  all  agreed  that  in  some 
way  the  labor  movement  must  find  its  solution 
to  a  large  extent  in  political  channels,  altho 
without  by  any  means  giving  up  trade-union 
organizations.  Their  course  has  'been  not  to 
destroy  trade-unions,  but  to  create  more  unions 
and  to  convert  all  to  socialism.  Prominent 
among  these  leaders  have  been  John  Burns, 
Tom  Mann,  and  Ben  Tillett  (a.  v.).  These 
men  first  organized  the  gasworkers  and  were 
the  leaders  in  the  Dock  strike  (g.  v.}.  To  John 
Burns  and  to  Tom  Mann  too  has  been  largely 
due  the  gaining  of  the  supremacy  for  the  new 
unionism  in  the  Trade-Union  congresses.  At 
the  Liverpool  congress  in  1890,  the  new  union- 
ism gained  a  large  majority,  so  much  so  that 
the  Northumberland  and  Durham  miners 
separated  from  the  Miners'  Federation,  and 
favoring  the  old  policy,  have  voted  not  to  send 
delegates  to  the  congress  this  year  (1895),  on 
the  ground  that  the  congress  has  become 
a  socialist  body  and  was  largely  responsible 
for  the  defeat  of  the  Liberals  this  year  (1895). 
This  year,  however,  the  vote  went  against 
socialism.  Burns  and  Mann  have  parted  com- 
pany ;  Mann  working  with  Keir  Hardie  in  the 
Independent  Labor  party,  and  Burns  being 
a  strong  advocate  of  the  "  progressive  "  policy, 


and  believing  that  socialism  can  be  best  ad- 
vanced at  present  through  the  Liberal  party. 
For  taking  this  position  he  is  bitterly  de- 
nounced, both  by  the  Social  Democratic 
Federation  and  the  I.  L.  P.,  and  these  and 
other  disagreements,  together  with  general 
trade  depression,  which  has  broken  up  some 
of  the  newly  formed  trade-unions  among  the 
lower  paid  workers,  is  at  present  giving  the 
new  unionism  something  of  a  set-back. 

In  the  United  States  the  new  unionism  has 
been  identified  with  the  policy  of  the  Socialist 
Labor  party  and  has  led  to  a  bitter  struggle  in 
the  labor  movement,  the  socialists  claiming  to 
have  at  least  one-half  if  not  the  majority  of 
American  trade-unionists  to-day.  (See  TRADE- 
UNIONS  ;  section,  The  United  States.  See  also 
SOCIALISM.) 

NEW  ZEALAND  AND  SOCIAL  RE- 
FORM.— New  Zealand  is  in  many  ways  in 
social  reforms  the  most  progressive  commu- 
nity in  the  world,  its  nearest  rival  being  Switz- 
erland (g.  v.). 

The  area  of  New  Zealand,  including  the  two  main 
islands  and  the  smaller  ones,  is  104,471  square  miles,  or 
nearly  that  of  Great  Britain  and  Ireland.    The  first 
authentic    discovery  of   New    Zealand    was    bv    the 
Dutch  navigator,  Tasman,  December  13,  1642.    No  one 
seems  to  have  visited  the  island  after  this  till  Captain 
Cook  did  so  in  1769.    Missionaries  came  to  the  island 
in  1814.     Colonization  was  first  attempted  in  1825,  but 
was  unsuccessful.    In  1838  the  New  Zealand  Company 
was  formed,  and  the  first  body  of  immigrants  arrived 
January  22,  1840,  and  founded  the  town  of  Wellington. 
The  colony  was  a  dependency  of  New  South  Wales  till 
1841,  when  it  was   made  a  separate  colony.      In   1852 
representative  government  was  estab- 
lished, with  a  governor  appointed  by 
the  Queen,  a  legislative  council  nomi-    Government 
nated  by  the  governor,  and  an  elective 
House  of  Representatives.   The  suffrage 
was  practically  household  suffrage.    In 
1893  complete  suffrage  was  given  to  women,  tho  they 
are  not  qualified  to  be  members  of  the  Legislature. 
The  seat  of  government  is  at  Wellington.    The  Legis- 
lative Council  consists  (1894)  of  46  members  ;  the  House 
of  74  members,  of  which  four  are  Maoris. 

Nearly  all  the  public  works  of  New  Zealand  are  in 
the  hands  of  the  Government  of  the  colony,  and  in  the 
early  days  they  simply  kept  pace  with  the  spread  of 
settlement.     In  1870,  however,   a  great  impetus  was 
given  to  the  progress  of  the  whole  country  by  the  in- 
auguration of  the   "Public  Works  and   Immigration 
Policy,"  which  provided   for  carrying  out  works  in 
advance  of  settlement.    Railways,  roads,  and  water- 
races  were  constructed,  and  immigration  was  con- 
ducted on  a  large  scale.    As  a  consequence,  the  popu- 
lation increased  from  267,000  in  1871  to  672,265  at  the 
close  of  the  year  1893,  exclusive  of  41,993 
Maoris.    In   1801,   77.25  per  cent,   could 
both  read  and  write  ;  67.62  were  unmar-    _,    , .  , . 
ried.    There    were  70,197  men  over  20,    statistics. 
and  67,000  women  over  15,  unmarried. 
Of  those  having  occupations  70,521  (11.25 
per  cent.)  were  engaged  in  manufacture  ;  68,607  (IO-94) 
in  agriculture ;  24,928  in  domestic  occupations ;  22,992 
in  trade  ;  16,927  in  mining  ;  15,821  in  professions  ;  15,413 
in  transportation  ;    369,178  were  dependent  on  natural 
guardians  (scholars,  etc.) ;  4717  were  in  some  way  de- 
pendent upon  public  or  private  support. 

The  birth  rate  for  1893  was  27.50  per  1000,  lower  than 
in  any  Australian  colony  ;  3.79  per  cent,  were  illegiti- 
mate; in  England  it  was  4.2  in  1891.  The  death  rate 
was  10.23. 

The  shipping  entered  inward  for  the  year  1893  in- 
cluded 617  vesels,  of  615,604  tonnage ;  635  vessels 
•were  cleared  outward,  of  a  tonnage  amounting  to 
642,466.  The  imports  in  1893  amounted  to  ^6,911,515  ; 
the  exports  to  ^8,985,364.  The  chief  exports  were 
wool,  frozen  meat,  gold,  and  agricultural  products. 

The  revenue  of  the  general  Government  is  of  two 
kinds — ordinary  and  territorial.  The  ordinary  rev- 
enue for  the  year  ended  March  31,  1894,  amounted  to 
.£4,055,479,  and  the  territorial  to  ^313,059,  giving  a  total 
revenue  of  ^4,368,538. 


New  Zealand. 


933 


New  Zealand, 


The    principal   heads    of  ordinary    revenue    were : 

customs,    £1,655,503 ;    stamps    (including    postal    and 

telegraph  cash  receipts),  .£674,647;  land 

tax,  .£285,327;  income  tax,  .£75,238;  prop- 

_  erty  tax,  £1412 ;  beer  duty,  .£61,808  ; 

.Revenue,  railways,  .£1,175,548  ;  registration  and 
other  fees,  .£49,290:  marine,  £20,183; 
and  miscellaneous,  .£56,523. 

The  territorial  revenue  comprised  receipts  from 
pastoral  runs,  rents,  and  miscellaneous  items,  £184,- 
389,  together  with  proceeds  of  land  sales,  .£128,670. 

The  total  revenue  (ordinary  and  territorial),  includ- 
ing the  proceeds  of  £284,500,  debentures  issued  under 
"The  Consolidated  Stock  Act,  1884,"  for  the  accretions 
of  sinking  fund  for  the  year,  amounted  to  £4,653,038. 

The  customs  duties  constitute  the  largest  item  of 
revenue,  nearly  all  classes  of  imports  being  subject  to 
taxation. 

The  ordinary  expenditure  under  permanent  and 
annual  appropriations  was  .£4,386,359,  the  chief  items 
being— charges  of  the  public  debt, 
£1,885,697;  working  railways,  £731,844; 
_  ,.  public  instruction,  ,£388,652;  postal  and 

Expenditure,  telegraph,  .£292,433  ;  defense  and  police, 
.£171,073  ;  subsidies  and  other  payments 
to  local  bodies,  .£149,810 ;  crown  lands, 
surveys,  and  inspection  of  stock,  ,£119,996;  justice, 
.£115,924  ;  hospitals,  lunatic  asylums,  and  charitable 
institutions,  .£115,858  ;  and  pensions,  compensations, 
and  other  expenditure  under  special  Acts  of  the  Legis- 
lature, £80,984. 

In  addition  to  (.£4,386,359)  the  ordinary  expenditure, 
.£250,000  was  transferred  to  the  public  works  fund  for 
the  construction  of  reproductive  works,  and  in  aid  of 
settlement  of  the  land  ;  and  an  additional  extraordi- 
nary charge  of  ,£10,220  in  connection  with  the  purchase 
of  the  Cheviot  estate  was  provided. 

The  total  ordinary  and  territorial  revenue,  together 
•\yith  the  proceeds  of  debentures  issued  for  the  accre- 
tions of  sinking  fund,  amounted  to  £4,653,038.  It  will, 
therefore,  be  seen  that  the  revenue  for  the  year  ex- 
ceeded the  expenditure  (including  the  sums  trans- 
ferred to  the  public  works  and  Cheviot  estate  pur- 
chase accounts)  by  £6459 ;  and  that,  by  adding  the 
credit  balance  brought  forward  at  the  beginning  of 
the  year  (.£283,779),  there  remains  a  net  surplus  on 
March  31,  1894,  of  ^290,238. 

Besides  expenditure  out  of  revenue,  there  was  also 
an  expenditure  out  of  the  public  works  fund  of  £409,- 
475,  of  which  .£176,254  was  for  construction  of  railways, 
£147,668  for  roads,  £4320  for  purchase  of  native  lands, 
.£44,032  for  public  buildings,  .£16,127  for  telegraph  ex- 
tension, £6588  for  lighthouses  and  harbor  defenses, 
etc.;  £78, 485  besides  the  above  was  expended  for  acquir- 
ing native  lands. 

The  Assessment  Act  of  1891  provides  for  an  ordinary 
land  tax  on  the  actual  value  of  land,  and  an  owner  is 
allowed  to  deduct  any  amount  owing  by 
him  secured  on  a  registered  mortgage. 
_  Under  the  original  Act  the  deduction 

Taxes.  for  improvements  might  not  exceed 
.£3000  ;  but,  by  Amendment  Act  of  1893, 
the  value  of  all  improvements  whatso- 
ever is  exempted  from  liability  to  land  tax.  Besides 
this,  an  exemption  of  .£500  is  allowed  when  the  bal- 
ance, after  making  deductions  as  above  stated,  does 
not  exceed  .£1500 ;  and  above  that  a  smaller  exemp- 
tion is  granted,  but  it  ceases  when  the  balance 
amounts  to  .£2500.  Mortages  are  subject  to  the  land 
tax.  The  revenue  from  the  land  tax  is,  in  round 
numbers,  .£285,000  per  annum.  The  rate  of  ordinary 
land  tax  for  1893-94  was  \d.  in  the  pound. 

In  addition  to  the  ordinary  land  tax  there  is  a  grad- 
uated land  tax,  which  commences  when  the  unim- 
proved value  is  .£5000.  For  the  graduated  land  tax, 
the  present  value  of  all  improvements  is  deducted  ; 
but  mortgages  are  not  deducted.  The  Act  for  1893, 
while  reducing  the  ordinary  taxation  on  land  by  ex- 
empting all  improvements,  increased  the  graduated 
tax,  and  the  revised  rates  are  now  one-eighth  of  a 
penny  in  the  pound  sterling  when  the  value  is  £5000 
and  is  less  than  £10,000,  from  which  the  rate  increases 
by  further  steps  of  an  eighth  of  a  penny  with  the 
value  of  the  property,  until  the  maximum  of  *d.  in  the 
pound  is  reached,  payable  when  the  value  is  £210,000, 
or  exceeds  that  sum. 

This  graduated  tax  yields,  in  round  numbers,  £83,- 
ooo  per  annum,  which  is  included  in  the  sum  of  £285,- 
ooo  given  above.  Twenty  per  cent,  additional  tax  is 
levied  in  case  of  persons  who  have  been  absent  from 
the  colony  for  three  years  or  more  prior  to  the  passing 
of  the  yearly  taxing  Act.  This  amounts  to  about 
£1000,  and  is  included  in  the  £83,000  shown  above. 


Income  tax  is  levied  on  all  incomes  above  £300,  and 
from  taxable  incomes  a  deduction  of  £300  is  made. 
The  rate  of  income  tax  for  1893-94  was  fid.  in  the  pound 
on  the  first  taxable  £1000,  and  is.  in  the  pound  on  tax- 
able incomes  over  £1000. 

The  amount  raised  by  taxation  in  1893  was  £3  us. 
zd.  per  head,  exclusive  of  Maoris. 

The  net  public  debt,  after  deducting  the  accrued 
sinking  fund  (£951,924),  was  on  March  31,  1894,  £38,874,- 
491,  an  increase  of  £730,421  during  the  year. 

The  following  may  be  stated  as  approximately  rep- 
resenting the  loan  expenditure  by  the  general  Govern- 
ment on  certain  public  works  to  March  31,  1894  : 

Telegraphs £679,793 

Water- works  on  gold-fields 572,441 

Immigration 2,146,552 

Roads  and  bridges 3.855,455 

Land  purchases 1,297,517 

Lighthouses,  harbors,  and  defense  works.      906,958 

Public  buildings,  including  schools 1,890,711 

Coal-mines  and  thermal  springs '    25,435 

Railways  (by  the  Provincial  and  General 

Governments) I5i759i3o8 

The  above  several  items  of  expenditure  give  a  total 
of  £27,134,170.  To  this  must  be  added  so  much  of  the 
loans  raised  by  the  various  local  bodies  as  have  been 
devoted  to  the  construction  of  harbors,  roads,  and 
other  public  works ;  together  with  the  amounts  ex- 
pended out  of  loan  by  the  Provincial  Government  on 
immigration  and  public  works  other  than  railways. 
The  expenditure  on  directly  reproductive  works — 
railways,  telegraphs,  and  water-works— has  been  £17,- 
011,542.  The  expenditure  on  land  is  also  partly  repro- 
ductive, and  that  on  immigration,  roads,  bridges,  and 
lighthouses  indirectly  so. 

The  private  wealth  is  estimated  in  the  official  year 
book  for  1894  at  about  £156,058,273,  or  £232  per  head. 

Mulhall's  Dictionary  of  Statistics  estimates  the 
wealth  of  the  United  Kingdom  at  £247  per  head,  France 
£224,  Holland  £216,  the  United  States  £210,  Germany 
£140,  Australia.  £310. 

Dealing  only  with  persons  returned  as  in  receipt  of 
wages  or  salary,  and  discarding  all  who  derive  their 
incomes    from     professional    or   trade 
profits,  it  is  roughly  estimated  that  the 
aggregate  of  the  wages  paid  in  the  col-       •WJUTPS 
ony  for  the  year  amounts  to  £12,998,546,        wages, 
of  which  sum  £11,983,521  is  earned  by 
males,  and   £1,015,025  by    females;  the 
average  yearly  earnings  being  £92   i2S.  for  the  one 
sex,  and  £33  i8.r.  for  the  other.    In  industry  it  was  £80 
and  £31.7,  and  in  agriculture  £77  7$.  and  £17  6s. 

An  estimate  has  been  made  of  the  cost  of  living  in 
New  Zealand,  which  shows  a  total  expenditure  of 
£23,349,623  on  food,  drink,  stimulants,  clothing,  fuel, 
light,  rent,  and  furniture,  with  allowance  for  such 
.  matters  as  attendance  (personal  and  medical),  and 
other  accessories  to  the  primary  needs  of  life.  The 
rate  arrived  at  per  head  of  population  is£35  6s.  id. 

The  length  of  government  railways  open  for  traffic 
on  theqist  of  March,  1894,  was  1948  miles,  the  total  cost 
thereof  having  been  £15,137,036,  and  the  average  cost 
per  mile  £7770.  The  cash  revenue  for  the  year  1893-94 
amounted  to  £1,172, 792  ITS.  2d.,  excluding  the  value  of 
postal  services  :  and  the  total  expenditure  to  £735,358 
15^.  id.  The  net  cash  revenue— £437,434— was  equal  to 
a  rate  of  £2  ITS.  <^d.  per  cent,  on  the  capital  cost ;  the 
percentage  of  expenditure  to  revenue  was  62.7. 

Altho  not  included  in  the  figures  for  the  revenue,  the 
real  gain  to  the  colony  is  greater  than  the  net  revenue 
shown  by  the  value  of  the  postal  services  performed 
by  the  railways  (carriage  of  mails,  etc.),  amounting 


to  £27,000  per  annum. 

In  addition  to  the  above  railways  there  were  164 
miles  of  private  lines  open  for  traffic  on  the  3ist  of 
March,  1894. 

The  passenger  fares  on  the  New  Zealand  railways 
are  generally  at  the  rate  of  z^d.  per  mile  first  class, 
and  i%d.  per  mile  second  class ;  the  return  fare  being 
calculated  at  one-third  increase  on  these  rates.  For 
suburban  and  local  traffic,  however,  the  rates  are 
much  lower  ;  in  some  cases  of  commutation  tickets  be- 
ing as  low  as  %d.  first  class,  and  ^d.  second  class,  per 
mile  ;  while  excursion  and  tourist  traffic  is  encouraged 
by  greatly  reduced  fares  during  the  season  for  such 
business. 

The  number  of  post-offices  open  for  the  transaction 
of  money-order  and  savings-bank  business  at  the  end 
of  1893  was  339. 

There  were  29,755  new  accounts  opened  in  the  year, 
and  19,599  accounts  were  closed.  The  total  number  or 


New  Zealand. 


934 


New  Zealand. 


open  accounts  at  the  end  of  1893  was  122,684,  of  which 
8g,26o  were  for  amounts  not  exceeding  £20. 

The  total  sum  standing  at  credit  of  all  accounts  on 
December  31,  1893,  was  ;£3,24i,998  js.  iod.,  which  gave 
an  average  of  £26  8s.  6d. 

There  are  seven  savings-banks  in  the  colony  not 
connected  with  the  post-office.  The  total  amount  de- 
posited in  them  in  1893  was  ^456,262  i^s.  loa'.,  of  which 
the  deposits  by  Maoris  comprised  £154  15.?.  loot. 

There  were  48  registered  building  societies  in  opera- 
tion in  the  colony  at  the  end  of  1892. 

The  results  of  the  last  census  show  that  in  April, 
1891,  there  were  in  New  Zealand  43,777  occupied  hold- 
ings of  over  i  acre  in  extent,  covering  an  area  of 
I9i397>529  acres,  of  which  12,410,242  acres  were  freehold 
of  the  occupiers,  and  6,987,287  acres  were  rented  from, 
(i)  Private  individuals,  (2)  natives,  (3)  public  bodies, 
and  (4)  the  Crown  (for  other  than  pastoral  purposes). 
The  following  table  shows  the  number  of  holdings  of 
various  sizes,  and  number  of  acres  held  in  fee-simple 
and  on  lease,  excluding  the  Crown  lands  rented  for 
pastoral  purposes  only  : 


M       v. 

ACREAGE. 

SIZES 

OF  HOLDINGS. 

Mb.  5 
SOQ 

Lease- 

^   o 

Freehold. 

hold, 

B 

etc.* 

I  tO 

10  acres, 

11,116 

28,124 

24,343 

IO    " 

5° 

8,899 

148,965 

105,751 

5°  " 

IOO 

5,613 

277,135 

158,128 

100  " 

200 

6,851 

654,729 

374,022 

200  " 

320 

3,916 

609,857 

403,462 

320  " 

640 

3,802 

1,057,676 

660,070 

640  " 

1,000 

1,321 

662,612 

395,849 

1,000  " 

5,000 

1,675 

2,144,627 

1,280,558 

5,000  " 

10,000 

247 

1,208,819 

559,98o 

10,000  " 

20,000 

189 

1,911,063 

788,341 

20,000  " 

50,000 

117 

2,507,848 

833,083 

50,000  " 

100,000 

24 

801,647 

723,000 

Upwards  of  100,000  acres, 

7 

397,140 

680,700 

Totals,  1891, 

43,777 

12,410,242 

6,987,287 

Totals,  1886, 

36,485 

11,728,236 

5,348,838 

Totals,  1881, 

30,832 

10,309,17° 

4,897,727 

The  extent  of  land  rented  from  the  Crown  for  pas- 
toral purposes,  including  the  small  grazing-runs, 
amounted  in  April,  1891,  to  12,469,976  acres. 

It  may  be  said,  without  fear  of  contradiction,  that 
there  is  no  part  of  the  British  dominions  where  agri- 
culture, in  its  widest  sense,  can  be  carried  on  with  s» 
much  certainty  and  with  such  good  results  as  in  New 
Zealand.  The  range  of  latitude,  extending  as  it  does 
from  34°  to  47°  south,  secures  for  the  colony  a  diversity 
of  climate  which  renders  it  suitable  for  all  the  products 
of  subtropical  and  temperate  zones,  while  the  insular 
position  protects  it  from  the  continuous  and  parching 
droughts  which  periodically  inflict  such  terrible  losses 
on  the  agriculturist  and  pastoralist  of  Australia  and 
South  America.  The  chief  crops  are  :  oats,  wheat, 
hay,  barley,  potatoes,  etc. 


OFFENSES. 

1886. 

1887. 

1888. 

1889. 

1890. 

1891. 

1892. 

Felony  and 
larceny  — 

594 

526 

563 

527 

5i6 

506 

455 

Misde- 

meanor.... 

90 

1  20 

97 

J31 

IOI 

1  20 

1(3 

Injury      to 

property  .  . 
Assault 

54 

62 

47 

53 

65 

5i 

61 

and  resist- 

ing       the 

police  

209 

178 

162 

170 

206 

179 

190 

Acts          of 

vagrancy  . 

205 

238 

251 

35i 

333 

225 

376 

Drunken- 

ness   

1077 

1038 

938 

802 

808 

694 

638 

Other      of- 

fenses   

545 

477 

473 

365 

368 

338 

?3* 

Totals.. 

2774 

2639 

2531 

2399 

2397 

2113 

2164 

The  preceding  shows  the  number  of  distinct  persons 
(exclusive  of  Maoris)  imprisoned  in  the  past  seven 
years  after  conviction,  only  one  cause 
being  given  when  the  person  was  im- 
prisoned at  different  times,   either  for 
the  same  or  for  some  other  offense  :  Crime,  etc, 

Thus  in  1886  these  convicted  prisoners 
averaged  47.82  in  every    10,000   of   the 
population  ;  in  1887,  44.25  ;  in  1888,  41.81  ; 
in  1889,39.00 ;  in   1890,  38.61 ;  in  1891,  33.55  ;  and  in  1892, 
33.69.    There  has  been  since   1886  a  decrease  at  the 
rate  of  23.83  per  cent,  in  the  number  of  distinct  con- 
victed prisoners,  and  a  reduction  of  14.13  in  the  pro- 
portion   to    population.      In    New    South  Wales   the 
proportion  for   1892  was  at  the  rate  of  75  per  10,000 
persons. 

It  must  be  understood  that  the  actual  number  of 
imprisonments  for  some  of  the  above  offenses  was 
much  in  excess  of  the  figures  given,  as  many  were 
several  times  imprisoned,  either  for  offenses  differing 
in  kind  or  for  repetitions  of  the  same  offense.  Thus, 
many  persons  returned  as  imprisoned  for  larceny 
underwent  other  imprisonments  for  drunkenness, 
etc.  Many  returned  as  convicted  of  drunkenness 
were  several  times  in  jail  during  the  year  for  the 
same  offense,  or  for  some  other,  such  as  assault, 
riotous  or  indecent  conduct,  etc.  Often  there  were 
several  charges  against  the  same  person  at  the  one 
time,  of  which  the  most  serious  followed  by  convic- 
tion has  been  selected. 

The  proportion  of  assaults  is  found  to  be  less  for 
1892  than  for  any  of  the  previous  four  years.  In  the 
year  1887  it  was  as  high  as  1.23  per  1000.  For  larceny 
the  proportion  was  highest  in  the  year  1889,  when  it 
stood  at  1.77  per  1000  persons.  The  figures  of  1892  (1.41) 
are  the  lowest  for  the  quinquennium.  Similarly,  for 
drunkenness,  the  record  for  1892  shows  a  lower  rate 
than  obtained  in  the  other  years.  The  range  for  seven 
years  is  from  10.28  per  1000  persons  in  i£86  to  7.87  in 
1892. 

To  judge  by  the  consumption  of  beer,  wine,  and 
spirits  in  1886  and  1892  respectively,  there  has  been 
a  falling  off  during  the  last  seven  years  in  the  use  of 
alcoholic  liquors  in  this  colony. 

CONSUMPTION  OF  BEER,  WINE,  AND  SPIRITS  PER 
HEAD  OF  POPULATION  (EXCLUDING  MAORIS). 


Beer. 
Gal. 

Wine. 
Gal. 

Spirits. 
Gal. 

1886  

7.861 

1802  

7.807 

The  petitions  in  bankruptcy  numbered  507  in  1892,  of 
•which  479  were  made  by  debtors  and  28  by  creditors. 
This  number  was  the  lowest  for  seven  years. 

The  proportion  of  petitions  and  decrees  for  dissolu- 
tion of  marriage  to  the  number  of  marriages  is  higher 
in  New  Zealand  than  in  England  and  Wales,  but  lower 
than  New  South  Wales  or  Victoria.  The  proportion 
in  every  1000  marriages  for  these  countries  is  as 
follows  : 


Petitions 

Decrees 

for 

for 

COUNTRY. 

Dissolution 

Dissolution 

of 

of 

Marriage. 

Marriage. 

England  and  Wales  

1.88 

New  South  Wales  (1892)  

8.85 

ii.  80 

*  Excluding  Crown  pastoral  leases. 


In  1889  an  act  was  passed  in  Victoria  to  allow  of 
divorces  being  granted  for  wilful  desertion,  habitual 
drunkenness  with  cruelty  or  neglect,  imprisonment 
under  certain  circumstances  of  either  party,  and 
adultery  on  the  part  of  the  husband.  These  additional 
causes  for  divorce  have  largely  increased  the  propor- 
tion of  decrees  in  that  colony. 

At  the  end  of  1892  there  were  1686  government  schools 
of  all  classes,  at  which  members  of  the  European  and 
Maori  races  were  being  educated.  The  public  primary 
schools  numbered  1302  in  1892. 

Education  at  the  public  schools  is  free  (except  that 


New  Zealand. 


935 


New  Zealand. 


at  such  as  are  also  district  high  schools  fees  are 
charged  for  the  teaching  of  the  higher  branches)  and 
purely  secular.  The  attendance  of  all  children  be- 
tween the  ages  of  7  and  13  is  compulsory,  except 
•when  special  exemptions  are  granted,  or  they  are 
being  otherwise  sufficiently  educated. 

There  were  274  private  schools  in  the  colony  at  the  end 
of  1892,  a  decrease  of  7  on  the  number  in  1891 ;  29  were 
for  boys,  47  for  girls,  and  198  for  children  of  both  sexes. 
The  number  of  pupils  attending  them  was  14,456 — 
namely,  6321  boys  and  8135  girls,  not  counting  Maoris 
—7  boys  and  4  girls.  The  number  of  European  pupils 
at  these  schools  was  greater  than  in  1891  by  314.  Of 
the  private  schools  105  were  Roman  Catholic,  with  an 
attendance  of  10,  m  pupils. 

Concerning  the  land  system  of  New  Zea- 
land of  which  so  much  has  been  written  and 
concerning  which  so  much  interest  is  taken 
because  of  its  bearing  upon  the  problems  of 
land  reform,  Mr.  S.  Percy  Smith,  F.  R.  G.  S., 
Secretary  for  Crown  Lands  and  Surveyor- 
general,  says  : 

"  The  Crown  lands  of  New  Zealand  are  ad- 
ministered under  '  The  Land  Act,  1892,'  and 
the  regulations  made  thereunder. 

"  The  distinguishing  features  of  the  present 
land  system  are  the  outcome  of  ideas  which 
have  been  gradually  coming  to  maturity  for 
some  years  past  in  this  colony.    These  features 
involve  the  principle  of  State  ownership  of  the 
soil,  with  a  perpetual  tenancy  in  the  occupier. 
This,  whatever  may  be  the  difference  in  detail, 
is  the  prevailing  characteristic  in  the  several 
systems    under    which    land    may    now    be 
selected.     In  New  Zealand,  this  tendency  to 
State  ownership  has  taken  a  more  pronounced 
form  than  in  any  other  of  the  Australasian 
colonies,  and  the  duration  of  the  leases  has 
become  so  extended  as  to  warrant  the  name, 
frequently  given  to  the  system,  of  '  everlasting 
leases.'      In  point  of  fact,  most  of 
the  Crown  lands  are  now  disposed 
Land        of  in  leases  which  have  a  currency 
Tenure,     of  999  years.     They  are  leased  at 
a  fixed,  rental  based  on  the  as- 
sessed value   of  the  land  at  the 
time    of  disposal,   without    recurring    valua- 
tions. .  .  One  of  the  most  striking  results  of 
this  system  is  the  advantage  it  gives  to  the 
poor  man,  who,  with  little  more  capital  than 
his  strong  right  arm,  is  enabled  to  make  a 
home   for  himself  ;    which,  under    the    free- 
hold   system,    he    is    frequently  not  able    to 
accomplish. 

Again,  underlying  the  whole  of  the  New  Zea- 
land land  system  is  a  further  application  of  , 
the  principle  of  "  the  land  for  the  people," 
that  of  the  restriction  as  to  area  which  any 
man  may  hold.  This  principle  has  been 
forced  upon  the  attention  of  the  legislature 
by  defects  in  former  systems,  under  which  one 
individual  with  means  at  his  command  could 
appropriate  large  areas,  to  the  exclusion  of  his 
poorer  fellow  settler. 

"  The  Land  Act  of  1892  provides  for  a 
special  class  of  settlement,  which  has  been 
taken  advantage  of  to  a  very  considerable  ex- 
tent during  the  last  two  years.  This  system 
is  known  as  the  '  small-farm  association ' 
system.  It  provides  that,  where  not  less  than 
twelve  individuals  have  associated  themselves 
together  for  mutual  help,  such  an  association 
can,  with  the  approval  of  the  minister  of, 
lands,  select  a  block  of  land  of  not  more  than 


11,000  acres,  but  there  must  be  a  selector  to 
each  200  acres  in  the  block.  The  extreme 
limit  that  one  person  can  hold  is  fixed  at  320 
acres.  Lands  under  this  system  are  held  on 
'  lease  in  perpetuity '  for  999  years,  in  the 
same  way  as  lands  under  the  same  tenure 
when  thrown  open  for  free  selection.  The 
conditions  of  residence  and  improvement  are 
the  same.  The  system  offers  many  advan- 
tages to  the  settler,  so  long  as  the  blocks  of 
land  are  judiciously  selected,  having  regard 
to  quality  of  land,  access,  markets,  and  the 
probability  of  employment  being  obtained 
in  the  neighborhood.  In  the  eagerness  to 
obtain  lands  on  such  easy  terms,  these  points 
have,  in  the  past,  not  been  sufficiently  at- 
tended to  by  some  of  the  associations,  and  in 
consequence  the  success  of  many  remains  to 
be  proved. 

' '  The  following  figures  show  the  extent  to 
which  settlers  have  availed  themselves  of  this 
class  of  settlement  during  the  two  years  end- 
ing March  31,  1894;  the  figures  represent  ap- 
proved applications  only;  1128  selectors  took 
up  266,233  acres,  in  35  blocks. 

"The  'village-settlement  system*  of  New 
Zealand  has  become  widely  known  in  the  Aus- 
tralian colonies,  and  has  excited  much  inquiry, 
with  a  view  to  its  adoption  in  other  parts.  It 
is  believed,  however,  that  this  and  the  '  small- 
farm  association  '  system,  referred  to  above, 
are  often  confounded  in  the  minds  of  the  pub- 
lic, for  of  recent  years  there  has  been  no  very 
great  extension  of  the  village-settlement  sys- 
tem in  this  colony.  The  system  was  initi- 
ated in  1886,  by  the  late  Hon.  John  Ballance, 
with  the  intention  of  assisting  the  poorer 
classes  to  settle  on  the  land.  It  became  im- 
mediately very  popular,  and  by  its  means  a 
considerable  number  of  people  were  settled 
on  the  land,  who  otherwise  would  possibly 
never  have  become  landholders.  The  fea- 
tures of  the  system  were,  originally,  the  pos- 
session of  a  small  farm,  not  exceeding  50 
acres  in  extent,  held  under  a  perpetual  lease 
for  terms  of  30  years,  with  recurring  valuations 
at  the  end  of  each  term.  The  rental  was  5 
per  cent,  on  a  capital  value  of  not  less  than  £i 
an  acre.  Residence  and  improvement  of  the 
soil  were  compulsory.  The  new  and  impor- 
tant feature  in  the  village-settlement  system, 
however,  was  the  advance  by  the  State  of  a 
sum  not  exceeding  £2  los.  per  acre,  up  to  20 
acres,  for  the  purpose  of  enabling  the  settler 
to  cultivate  the  land,  and  of  a  further  sum,  not 
exceeding  ;£  20,  to  build  a  house  with,  on  which 
he  paid  interest  at  the  rate  of  5  per  cent. 
Road  works  were  also  very  frequently  under- 
taken in  the  neighborhood  of  these  settle- 
ments, which  have  been  of  very  great  help  to 
the  settlers.  Under  this  system  a  number  of 
settlements  were  formed,  and,  where  the  sites 
were  chosen  judiciously,  a  large  measure  of 
success  has  resulted  therefrom. 

"  The  present  law  admits  of  similar  village 
settlements,  but  the  area  which  a  selector  may 
hold  has  been  increased  to  100  acres,  and  the 
tenure  changed  to  a  '  lease  in  perpetuity  '  for 
999  years,  on  a  4-per  cent,  rental.  Advances 
for  clearing  and  house-building  have,  how- 
ever, practically  ceased,  and,  indeed,  few  set- 


New  Zealand. 


93<> 


New  Zealand. 


tlements  have  lately  been  started  ;  one  of  the 
principal  reasons  being  the  dearth  of  suitable 
localities  in  which  to  plant  them.  This  is 
owing  to  the  limited  area  of  Crown  lands 
adapted  to  the  special  features  of  '  village 
settlements.' 

"  A  modification  of  the  system  has  been  in- 
troduced, however,  which,  so  far  as  can  be 
judged  at  present,  will  eventually  take  its 
place.  In  order  to  find  work  for  'the  unem- 
ployed, considerable  areas  of  forest-clad 
Crown  lands  have  been  set  aside,  and  small 
contracts  for  the  clearing,  burning,  and  sow- 
ing these  with  grass  have  been  let.  The  ulti- 
mate intention  is  to  subdivide  these  areas  into 
small  farms,  to  be  let  on  lease  '  in  perpetuity '  on 
a  rental  sufficient  to  cover  the  cost  of  clearing, 
etc. ,  together  with  a  fair  rental  of  the  land. 
Only  one  such  settlement  under  this  system 
has  at  present  been  allocated  to  settlers,  and, 
so  far,  is  successful." 

Concerning  the  New  Zealand  system  of  con- 
structing public  works,  H.  J.  H.  Blow,  Under 
Secretary  for  Public  Works,  says  :  "  The  great 
bulk  of  our  railway  and  road  works,  and  much 
of  our  building  work  in  New  Zealand,  is  now 
carried  out  under  what  is  known  as  the  coop- 
erative system,  an  arrangement  which  has 
only  been  brought  into  operation  within  the 
last  three  years  or  so. 

"The  contract  system  had  many  disadvan- 
tages. It  gave  rise  to  a  class  of  middlemen, 
in  the  shape  of  contractors,  who  often  made 
large  profits  out  of  their  undertakings,  and  at 
times  behaved  with  less  liberality  to  their 
workmen  than  might  have  been  expected  un- 
der the  circumstances.  Even  in  New  Zea- 
land, where  the  labor  problem  is  less  acute 
than  in  older  countries,  strikes  have  occurred 
in  connection  with  public  works  contracts, 
with  the  result  that  valuable  time  has  been 
lost  in  the  prosecution  of  the  works,  much 
capital  has  been  wasted  by  works  being  kept 
at  a  standstill  and  valuable  plant  lying  idle, 
and  large  numbers  of  men  being  for  some 
time  unemployed  ;  and  considerable  bitterness 
of  feeling  has  often  been  engendered.  The  con- 
tract system  also  gave  rise  to  subcontracting, 
which  is  worse  again  ;  for  not  only  is  it  sub- 
ject to  all  the  drawbacks  of  the  parent  system, 
but  by  relegating  the  conduct  of  the  works  to 
contractors  of  inferior  standing,  with  little  or 
no  capital,  the  evil  of  '  sweating '  was  admit- 
ted. Very  often,  too,  the  business  people  who 
supplied  stores  and  materials  were  unable  to 
obtain  payment  for  them,  and  not  seldom  the 
workmen  also  failed  to  receive  the  full  amount 
of  their  wages.  The  result  in 
such  cases  was  that  instead  of  the 
expenditure  proving  a  great  boom 
to  the  district  in  which  the  works 
were  situated,  as  would  have 
been  the  case  if  the  contract  had 
been  well  managed  and  properly  carried  out, 
such  contracts  frequently  brought  disaster  in 
their  train.  The  anomaly  of  the  principal 
contractor  making  a  large  profit,  his  subcon- 
tractor being  ruined,  and  his  workmen  left 
unpaid,  also  occasionally  presented  itself,  and 
thus  the  taxpayer  who  provided  the  money 
had  the  mortification  of  seeing  one  man  made 


Cooperative 
Public 
Works. 


rich  (who  would  perhaps  take  his  riches  to 
Europe  or  America  to  enjoy  them)  and  a  num- 
ber of  others  reduced  to  poverty,  or  in  some 
instances  cast  upon  public  charity.  .  .  . 

"The  cooperative  system  was  designed  to 
overcome  these  evils,  and  to  enable  the  work 
to  be  let  direct  to  the  workmen,  so  that  they 
should  be  able,  not  only  to  earn  a  fair  day's 
wage  for  a  fair  day's  work,  but  also  to  secure 
for  themselves  the  profits  which  a  contractor 
would  otherwise  have  made  on  the  under- 
taking. 

"  It  also  places  the  workman  on  a  much 
higher  plane,  and  enables  him  to  comprehend 
more  fully  the  dignity  of  labor.  Under  the 
cooperative  system  every  workman  is  a  con- 
tractor, and  has  a  personal  interest  in  the 
economical  and  successful  carrying  out  of  the 
work.  He  is  also  his  own  master. 

"  Not  only  does  the  system  offer  these  solid 
and  very  real  advantages  to  the  workmen,  but 
it  also  offers  substantial  advantages  to  the 
State.  Under  this  system  works  are  carried 
out  for  their  actual  value — no  more  and 
no  less. 

"  The  work  is  valued  by  the  engineer  ap- 
pointed to  have  charge  of  it,  before  it  is  com- 
menced, and  his  valuations  are  submitted  to- 
the  engineer-in-chief  of  the  colony  for  ap- 
proval. When  approved  they  constitute  the 
contract  price  for  the  work  ;  but  they  are  not 
absolutely  unchangeable  as  in  the  case  of  a 
binding,  strictly  legal  contract.  It  frequently 
happens  under  an  ordinary  contract  that  work 
turns  out  to  be  more  easy  of  execution  than 
was  anticipated,  and  the  State  has  to  see  its 
contractors  making  inordinate  profits.  Some- 
times, on  the  other  hand,  works  cost  more 
than  expected  ;  but  in  most  cases  of  this  kind 
the  contractor  either  becomes  bankrupt,  so 
that  the  State  has,  after  all,  to  pay  full  value 
for  the  work,  or,  if  the  contractor  happens  to- 
be  a  moneyed  man,  he  will  probably  find  some 
means  of  getting  relieved  of  his  contract,  or 
of  obtaining  special  consideration  for  his  losses. 
on  completion  of  his  work.  Under  the  coop- 
erative system,  if  it  is  found  that  the  workmen 
are  earning  unusually  high  rates,  their  con- 
tracts can  be  determined,  and  be  relet  at 
lower  rates,  either  to  the  same  party  of  men, 
or  to  others,  as  may  be  necessary.  Similarly, 
if  it  is  shown,  after  a  fair  trial  of  any  work, 
that  capable  workmen  are  not  able  to  earn 
reasonable  rates  upon  it,  the  prices  paid  can, 
with  the  approval  of  the  engineer-in-chief,  be 
increased,  so  long  as  the  department  is  satisfied 
that  the  work  is  not  costing  more  than  it 
would  have  cost  if  let  by  contract  at  ordinary 
fair  paying  prices.  .  .  . 

"Work  also  is  better  done  under  the  coop- 
erative than  under  the  contract  system.  Under 
the  former  method  the  Government  finds  its- 
own  materials,  which  are  carefully  selected  to 
insure  their  being  of  the  best  class  :  and  the 
workmen,  therefore,  have  no  interest  in  stint- 
ing the  use  of  material  to  try  to  effect  sav- 
ings, while  the  government  overseers,  of 
course,  see  that  there  is  no  waste.  No  at- 
tempts are  now  made  to  put  whiting  into 
the  paint  instead  of  white  lead,  or  to"  intro- 
duce inferior  brands  of  cement  or  iron  into 


New  Zealand. 


937 


New  Zealand. 


the  works,  and  no  walls  are  built  dry  in  the 
center,  or  filled  in  with  bats,  as  it  is  easier  for 
the  men  to  construct  the  work  of  sound  mate- 
rials than  with  rubbish.  All  stores  are  pur- 
chased by  the  Government's  own  officers,  and 
are  supplied  to  the  cooperative  contractors 
from  the  government  store,  so  that  the  depart- 
ment knows  exactly  what  class  of  materials  is 
used.  The  workmanship  put  in  is  also  of  a 
superior  kind.  The  men  are  the  contractors 
themselves  ;  they  take  a  pride  in  their  work, 
and  have  no  taskmaster  standing  over  them, 
finding  fault  with  them  for  being  too  particu- 
lar and  taking  too  much  pains.  All  the  work 
done  under  the  cooperative  system  will  bear 
comparison  with  any  similar  work  done  by 
contract,  and  will  generally  show  to  ad- 
vantage. 

"  The  system  was  first  tried  in  connection 
with  formation-works  on  roads  and  railways, 
including  small  bridges  and  culverts,  and 
other  similar  works,  but  it  has  now  been  ex- 
tended to  the  erection  of  iron  bridges  (the 
ironwork  being  supplied  and  delivered  at  the 
sites  of  the  bridges  by  the  department),  the 
supply  of  sleepers,  the  laying  of  the  perma- 
nent way,  the  construction  of  timber  bridges 
up  to  £2000  in  value,  and  of  masonry  abut- 
ments and  piers  for  bridges,  and  the  erection 
of  stations  and  other  public  buildings, 
etc.  .  .  . 

"  As  it  often  happens  that  men  are  working 
at  a  distance  from  where  their  families  live, 
the  government  paymaster  is  instructed  to 
offer  his  services  in  conveying  remittances  to 
the  nearest  money- order  office  for  transmission 
to  their  wives,  or  for  deposit  in  the  Post-office 
Savings  Bank  ;  and  any  men  not  remitting  to 
their  families,  but  allowing  them  to  become 
a  charge  upon  public  charity,  are  dismissed 
from  the  works. 

"  Should  any  of  the  men  desire  to  leave  the 
works,  no  impediment  is  placed  in  the  way  of 
their  doing  so.  ... 

"All  men  employed  on  government  co- 
operative works  are  selected  by  the  Govern- 
ment Labor  Bureau,  and  in  selecting  them  the 
following  rules  apply  : 

"i.  Applicants  not  previously  employed  on 
government  cooperative  works  have  priority 
of  claim  over  men  who  have  recently  been  so 
employed. 

"2.  Men  resident  in  the  neighborhood  of  the 
works  have  priority  over  non-residents. 

"  3.  Married  men  have  priority  over  single 
men. 

"4.  In  recording  the  applications  of  men 
who  have  previously  been  employed  on  govern- 
ment "cooperative  works,  the  dates  when  they 
left  such  works  are  noted,  and  those  longest 
off  such  works  are  considered  first. 

"  5.  All  applicants  for  work  must  have  been 
at  least  one  week  out  of  employment  before 
they  can  apply,  and  all  men  previously  em- 
ployed on  government  cooperative  works 
must  have  been  at  least  fourteen  days  off  such 
works  prior  to  re-registration  as  applicants  for 
further  work. 

"6.  If  there  are  more  applicants  for  work 
than  there  are  vacancies  to  fill,  a  ballot  is  taken 
to  determine  the  particular  men  to  be  em- 


ployed. Such  ballots  are  conducted  in  the 
presence  of  the  men  interested,  and  members 
of  local  bodies  in  the  district  may  also  be 
present  if  they  wish.  .  .  . 

"The  number  of  men  employed  under  the 
cooperative  system  from  time  to  time  varies 
greatly  ;  but  about  2000  may  be  taken  as  the 
average  number  for  the  last  year  or  so." 

Concerning  State  Insurance  in  New  Zealand, 
the  Year  Book  for  1894  says  (p.  266) :  "  It  is 
needless  to  dwell  upon  the  foundation  of  the 
institution  in  1869, — at  a  time  when  New  Zea- 
landers  had  poor  facilities  for  the  insurance  'of 
their  lives, — nor  is  it  necessary  to  speak  in 
detail  of  the  history  of  the  early  years  of  the 
office.     But  it  may  be  said  that  at  a  very  early 
stage  it  was  thought  advisable  to 
adopt  the  practice   of  employing 
paid  canvassers,  and  without  them     State  In- 
it  is  quite  certain  that  no  volun-     surance. 
tary    scheme    of    life    insurance, 
however  attractive,   can  become 
completely  successful.     Since   that    time  the 
principles  on  which  the  department  has  been 
managed  have  been  much  the  same  as  might 
guide  any  progressive  and  soundly  conducted 
private  life  insurance  office.    .    .    .  To-day  the 
inhabitants  of  New  Zealand  carry  more  life 
insurance  in  proportion  to  their  numbers  than 
the  people  of  any  other  nation  on  the  globe. 
.    .    .    For  this  result  the  State  office  is  re- 
sponsible to  the  extent  of  holding,  approxi- 
mately, one-half  of  the  total  insurance  of  the 
colony. 

"  The  major  part  of  the  business  is  composed 
of  ordinary  whole-life  and  endowment  assur- 
ance policies,  which  are  almost  equally  fancied 
by  the  insuring  public  of  New  Zealand  ;  in 
1893  there  were  issued  1447  new  policies- 
payable  at  death  for  .£389,000,  and  1757  en- 
dowment assurances  for  ,£348,000.  The  total 
amount  insured  by  the  policies  on  the  books 
of  the  department  has  now  reached  nine 
millions  sterling,  being  over  £12  for  every 
man,  woman,  and  child  within  the  area  of  its- 
operations." 

Concerning  the  unemployed,  we  learn  from 
the  report  of  the  (English)  Royal  Commission 
on  Labor  that,  in  June.  1801,  a  Government 
Bureau  of  Industries  was  established  in  New 
Zealand  with  the  object  of  collecting  statistics 
and  controlling  the  movements  of  labor  so  as 
to  secure  work  for  the  unemployed.     Between 
that  date  and  March,  1892,  2400  persons  were 
assisted  to  find  work.     Eight  hundred  of  these 
were  employed  in  constructing  roads  and  rail- 
ways, and  in  other  ptiblic  works,  on  the  gang 
or  contract  system,  according  to  which  one 
man  is  elected  "  ganger  "  or  trus- 
tee, and  deals  with   the  Govern- 
ment on  behalf  of  the  rest.    Small   The  Unem- 
farms,  to  be  cultivated  by  work-      ployed. 
ing  men  in  village  settlements,  are 
also  provided  by  Government.  Ac- 
cording to  the  report,  "  A  State  farm  is  to  com- 
prise about  1000  acres  of  land,  fit  for  agricultural 
purposes,  and  to  this  farm  will  be  drafted  the 
surplus  workmen  of  the  towns.     Many  of  the 
'  unemployed '  applying  at  the  Labor  Bureau 
are  clerks,  stewards,  firemen,  tailors,  printers, 
etc.,  who,  crowded  out  of  their  regular  em- 


New  Zealand. 


938 


Nieuwenhuis. 


ployments,  are  in  a  state  of  destitution  ;  these 
being  in  addition  to  a  large  number  of  general 
laborers,  who,  though  used  to  pick  or  shovel, 
have  no  knowledge  of  work  upon  farm  or 
station.  All  these  could  be  sent  with  advan- 
tage, to  some  farm  or  station,  where,  in  return 
for  some  small  wage,  they  could  assist  in  the 
general  work  of  the  farm  and  make  its  culti- 
vation pay  expenses,  while,  in  the  meantime, 
the  workmen  themselves  were  being  trained 
to  habits  and  duties  fitting  them  for  the 
general  labor  market.  It  is  desired  that 
buildings  should  be  erected  by  the  men 
themselves,  with  the  help  of  some  skilled 
assistance  ;  that  cottages  should  be  built  for 
married  men  with  families,  and  that  to  those 
who  show  themselves  most  interested  and 
capable,  cooperate  shares  in  the  profits  of  the 
farms  should  be  given. "  This  system  has  not 
given  perfect  satisfaction,  the  complaint  being 
made  that  the  Government  uses  these  colonies 
to  get  votes,  etc.,  etc.,  but,  nevertheless,  it  is 
undoubtedly  a  long  step  in  advance. 

Cooperation  and  profit-sharing  in  general 
have  had  little  success.  The  Mosgril  woolen 
factory,  at  Ashburton,  in  New  Zealand,  is 
conducted  successfully  upon  cooperative  prin- 
ciples, in  1891  paying  a  dividend  of  8  per  cent. 

References :  New  Zealand  Official  Year  Book, 
Samuel  Costall,  Government,  printer,  Wellington, 
N.  Z.  is. 

NICARAGUA  CANAL.— The  canal  route 
through  Nicaragua  has  been  advocated  at  vari- 
ous times  for  nearly  50  years.  Its  advan- 
tages are  said  to  be  that  in  Nicaragua  is  the 
greatest  depression  of  Central  America ;  that 
there  is  a  large  navigable  lake  situated  on  the 
route  ;  and  that  Nicaragua  is  more  in  the  path 
of  commerce  than  the  Isthmus  of  Panama. 
The  region,  moreover,  is  more  healthy,  and 
of  greater  natural  resources  than  that  of 
Panama. 

Several  important  surveys  were  made  pre- 
vious to  1879,  and  concessions  were  secured 
and  companies  formed,  both  by  Americans 
and  French.  But  in  1879  a  commission,  ap- 
pointed by  the  United  States  Government, 
examined  the  various  surveys  and  made  a  re- 
port, estimating  the  cost  of  the  canal  as  $100,- 
000,000.  Mr.  Mendeal,  a  civil  engineer  of  the 
United  States  Navy,  estimated  it,  however, 
at  only  $40,910,839. 

Owing  to  disputes  over  the  Mosquito  terri- 
tory, the  Clayton-Bulwer  treaty,  made  be- 
tween the  United  States  and  Great  Britain, 
April  19,  1850,  has  this  clause  :  "  The  Gov- 
ernments of  the  United  States  and  Great 
Britain,  declare  that  neither  one  nor  the  other 
will  obtain  or  maintain  for  itself  any  exclusive 
control  over  the  said  canal." 

On  February  20,  1889,  the  Maritime  Canal 
Company  of  Nicaragua  was  incorporated  by 
a  Congressional  Act.  A  liberal  concession  had 
previously  been  secured  from  Nicaragua. 
Work  was  begun  in  June,  1889;  and  in  Octo- 
ber, 1890,  $2,000,000  had  been  expended.  The 
work  is  under  the  charge  of  the  Nicaragua 
Canal  Construction  Company,  which  made  a 
contract  with  the  Maritime  Canal  Company  to 
construct  the  canal. 


The  length  of  the  canal  route  is  169^  miles, 
and  it  runs  from  Greytown  on  the  Atlantic  to 
Brito  on  the  Pacific.  Brito  is  only  an  open 
roadstead,  but  heavy  break-waters  are  pro- 
jected. At  Greytown  there  is  a  harbor,  whose 
entrance  has  been  choked  by  sand  within  a 
few  years.  A  channel  about  12  feet  deep 
has  been  dredged,  and  a  jetty  1000  feet  long 
built  out  from  the  shore  to  protect  the  channel. 
The  first  section  of  the  canal  runs  for  9^ 
miles  through  low  grounds.  The  dimensions 
here  are  120  feet  wide  at  bottom,  288  at  sur- 
face, 28  feet  deep.  There  are  several  locks. 
All  the  locks  in  the  canal  are  So  feet  wide  and 
650  feet  long,  and  some  of  them  are  to  have 
a  lift  of  45  feet.  Then  comes  a  cut  2.9  miles 
long,  average  depth  141  feet,  through  rocky 
material.  The  route  continues  through  the 
basin  of  the  San  Francisco  river,  which  is  a  trib- 
utary of  the  San  Juan.  By  damming,  an  arti- 
ficial lake,  12^  miles  long,  is  made,  which 
extends  to  the  San  Juan  river.  Here  will  be 
erected  a  dam  70  feet  high,  by  which  the  water 
of  the  river  above  and  of  Lake  Nicaragua  will 
be  raised  several  feet.  Further  embankments 
above  are  also  required. 

The  river  channel  near  the  lake,  and  the 
lake  itself  for  20  miles  from  its  shore,  will  re- 
quire to  be  dredged.  The  lake  depth  to  be 
secured  is  30  feet.  Lake  Nicaragua  is  56^ 
miles  wide.  The  distance  from  its  western 
shore  to  the  Pacific  is  17.04  miles,  and  there 
will  be  three  locks  with  lifts  of  42^  feet  each. 

Work  on  the  canal  was  suspended  in  1893  on 
account  of  lack  of  funds.  A  commission  of  civil 
engineers,  in  the  employ  of  the  construction 
company,  had  estimated  in  May,  1889,  the 
total  cost  at  $87,799,570. 

NIEUWENHUIS,  FERDINAND  DO- 
MELA. — The  most  prominent  communistic 
socialist  in  Holland.  Born  at  Amsterdam  in 
1846,  and  educated  for  the  ministry  at  Luther 
College,  he  became  a  clergyman  in  Harlingen, 
1870,  Beveruyk,  1871,  and  in  1875  at  The  Hague. 
Here  he  became  a  celebrated  preacher  ;  but  in 
1879  he  left  the  Church,  feeling  that  it  did  not 
fulfil  its  mission,  and  was  on  the  side  of  the 
rich  against  the  poor.  Henceforth  he  has  de- 
voted himself  to  the  socialist  propaganda, 
being  for  long  the  head  and  front  of  the  move- 
ment in  Holland.  In  1879  ne  founded  the 
Recht  voor  Allen,  the  main  Dutch  socialist 
weekly.  From  1888-91  he  was  a  member  of 
Parliament,  a  position  he  cared  very  little  for 
at  the  last,  believing  that  the  Government  was 
so  completely  in  the  hands  of  the  capitalists 
that  for  socialists  to  attempt  to  work  through 
it  was  worse  than  useless.  The  feeling  has 
grown  upon  him  till  to-day  he  utterly  opposes 
the  participation  of  socialists  in  politics  ;  and 
he  has  become,  therefore,  opposed  by  the  ma- 
jority of  the  Dutch  socialists,  who,  like  the  so- 
cialists of  all  countries,  do  believe  in  political 
action.  The  socialists  often  call  Nieuwenhuis 
an  anarchist,  though  he  calls  himself  a  com- 
munist. His  ability  and  radical  utterances  still 
make  him  popular  among  the  masses,  for 
whom  he  has  sacrificed  prospects,  money,  and 
reputation.  He  has  published  numerous  books 
and  pamphlets  in  Dutch  or  German,  among 


Nihilism. 


939 


Nihilism. 


which  are  My  Farewell  to  the  Church,  The 
Labor  Day,  Capital  and  Labor,  The  Book  of 
the  Kings,  The  Life  of  Jesus,  The  Bible,  Es- 
says on  the  French  Revolution. 

NIHILISM  (from  Latin  nihil,  nothing)  is 
used  in  philosophy  for  the  doctrine  of  uni- 
versal negation,  both  as  to  the  real  existence 
of  anything  and  therefore  as  to  man's  ability 
to  know  anything.  This  lies  at  the  basis  of  its 
use  as  applied  to  the  tenets  of  the  extreme 
section  of  Russian  revolutionists,  who  are 
popularly  (tho,  as  concerns  the  large  mass  of 
these  revolutionists,  erroneously)  supposed  to 
strive  for  universal  destruction  of  all  existing 
forms  of  society,  without  having  any  program 
of  what  should  be  constructed  in  the  place 
of  present  forms.  The  name  Nihilist  as  so 
used,  was  invented  by  the  great  Russian 
novelist  Ivan  Turgenev,  and  appears  for  the 
first  time  in  his  novel  Fathers  and  Children 
(1862),  as  the  nickname  of  the  hero  of  the 
story,  Bazaroff ,  who  represents  the  phase  of 
thought  which  has  since  been  called  Nihilism. 

The  Nihilist  movement,  however,  is  in  its 
preparatory  forms  far  older  than  1861. 

As  early  as  December  14,  1825,  there  was  a  so-called 
Decembrist  insurrection  which  for  a  moment  im- 
periled the  throne  of  Emperor  Nicholas,  and  seems  to 
nave  been  caused  by  the  spread  of  political  revolu- 
tionary ideas  in  the  Russian  army,  occasioned  by  their 
contact  with  the  French  army  and  western  civiliza- 
tion, then  fresh  from  the  influence  of 
the  Revolution.  Its  aim  was  the  eman- 
Oricrin  cipation  of  the  serfs  and  the  establish- 
ungin.  ment  of  a  free  constitution.  Ruthlessly 
put  down,  six  of  its  leaders  perishing  on 
the  scaffold  and  125  being  banished  to 
Siberia,  it  nevertheless  sowed  through  all  Russia  the 
seeds  of  revolution.  These  seeds  were  quickened,  in 
the  next  generation,  by  the  genius  of  Alexander  Her- 
zen  (q.  v.)  who,  having  voluntarily  expatriated  himself 
from  Russia  in  order  better  to  serve  his  country,  pub- 
lished from  London  the  Kolokol  (The  Bell}.  Herzen's 
views  were  those  of  a  philosophical  and  individual- 
istic communism.  He  opposed  centralization  and 
advocated  State  federation.  He  relied,  however,  on 
a  purely  political  and  educational  program,  opposing 
plots  and  assassinations.  The  Kolokol  had  a  large 
sale  in  Russia.  One  hundred  thousand  were  confis- 
cated at  a  single  fair  at  Nijni  Novgorod.  Herzen- 
ism  was  the  rage.  It  coincided  with  the  individualistic 
and  revolutionary  philosophy  of  the  times.  Stepniak 
says  in  Johnson's  Encyclopedia :  "  Primitive  and 
genuine  Nihilism  was  a  school  of  philosophical  in- 
dividualism, which  flourished  in  Russia  between  1855 
and  1865,  and  is  now  entirely  extinct.  ...  It  pro- 
claimed man's  absolute  independence  of  all  claims 
which  the  family,  society,  the  State,  had  upon  him. 
.  .  .  Those  early  Nihilists  did  not  deny  everything, 
for  they  believed  firmly,  fanatically,  in  science  and  the 
power  of  the  individual  mind.  But  they  refused  to 
bow  before  any  authority,  and  deprecated  all  that  was 
based  upon  emotions,  fancy,  supposed  revelations. 
.  .  .  The  years  1860-64  mark  the  fullest  dominion 
of  this  school,  which  found  its  prophet  in  Dmitry 
Pisarev,"  a  writer  in  the  Russkoi  Slovo  (Russian 
Word.) 

But  already  a  new  current  of  thought  was 
arising,  favoring  social  as  opposed  to  individ- 
ualistic revolution,  though  not  yet  taking  the 
form  of  modern  socialism.  Nicholas  Tcher- 
nyshevsky,  journalist,  economist,  and  novelist, 
is  to  be  credited  with  first  sowing  the  seeds 
of  this  movement.  He  brilliantly  taught  the 
doctrine  of  self-immolation  and  self-abnega- 
tion for  the  people's  cause.  Called  "the  La- 
salle  of  Russia,"  his  romance  What  can  be 
done?  brought  modern  Nihilism  to  the  birth. 
Meanwhile,  the  disastrous  shortcomings  of  the 


Act  of  1861,  emancipating  the  serfs,  prepared 
the  soil  for  Nihilistic  deeds.  The  emancipation 
of  the  serfs  (see  RUSSIA  AND  SOCIAL  REFORMS) 
broke  up  the  old  forms,  but  gave  the  serfs  no 
adequate  industrial  status.  The  old  partly 
communal  and  partly  feudal  rights  were  taken 
away,  and  with  nominal  liberty 
the  peasants  were  left  more  help- 
less than  ever  before  the  greed  Economic 
of  the  landholding  class.  The  Causes, 
peasants  were  given  only  one-third 
of  the  land  and  lost  their  old  graz- 
ing rights.  Peasant  holdings  decreased  in  size, 
though  multiplied  in  numbers.  The  landed 
nobility  too,  gradually  worried  the  peasants  off 
more  lands.  According  to  Stepniak  (see  his 
Russian  Peasantry)*  one-third  of  the  peas- 
antry became  landless.  Those  that  held  land 
held  so  little  that  they  could  not  live  without 
attempting  other  trades.  Enormous  taxa- 
tion ;  the  support  of  an  expensive  army  and 
central  government ;  above  all,  misadministra- 
tion  and  corruption,  rendered  the  case  des- 
perate. Under  such  conditions,  liberty  was 
liberty  to  starve.  The  peasants  crowded  to 
the  cities,  and  many  sought  professional  life. 
M.  G.  de  Molinari,  writing  in  the  Journal  des 
F^conomistes,  in  1878,  said  that  20  years  before 
60  per  cent,  of  Russian  students  were  sons  of  the 
nobility,  but  that  then  only  22  per  cent,  were 
noble  born.  Women,  too,  sought  education. 
In  1872  there  were  500  female  students  attend- 
ing medical  classes  in  St.  Petersburg,  and  in 
1873  there  were  73  female  Russian  medical 
students  in  Zurich.  This  accounts,  in  fact, 
for  the  large  part  played  in  Nihilism  by 
women.  The  sons  of  the  clergy,  too,  now  for 
the  first  time  free  to  choose  their  career, 
swelled  the  crowd  of  students  and  increased 
the  competition  for  existence.  To  such  minds, 
awakening  to  new  life,  yet  without  the  means 
of  livelihood,  breaking  away  from  all  the 
restraints  of  the  past,  yet  surrounded  by  a 
debauched,  corrupt,  despotic  government, 
Nihilism  brought  a  gospel  of  heroism  and  self- 
sacrifice.  The  students  everywhere,  especially 
among  the  women,  responded  to  its  call.  Itti 
v  Narod  (to  the  people)  became  the  cry. 
They  were  willing  to  sacrifice  all  and  to  dare 
all  for  the  people. 

And  at  this  time  appeared  the  most  fanati- 
cal spirit  of  the  nineteenth  century.     Michael 
Bakounin  (q.  v.},  born  in  1814,  of  noble  family, 
with  an  experience  as  a  cavalry  officer,  dis- 
gusted with  the  despotism  of  the  army,  had 
gone  to  Moscow  and  then  to  Berlin  to  study 
Hegelianism.     Falling  in  with  Herzen,  Proud- 
hon,  Marx,  and  other  revolutionary  leaders  and 
thinkers,  he   had  been  arrested  at  Dresden, 
in  1849,  for  his  part  in  the  revolution  of  1848, 
and  handed  over  to  the  Russian 
authorities,  who  imprisoned  him 
eight  years  in  St.  Petersburg,  and    Bakounin. 
then  exiled  him  to  Siberia  in  1859. 
Hence,  maddened  by  his  experi- 
ences, he  escaped  through  Japan  and  America, 
and  appeared  in  1861  in  Italy  to  become  the 
father  of  revolutionary  Nihilism.    Taking  part 
in  revolutionary  movements  in  Italy,  France, 
and  elsewhere,  he  made  his  headquarters  in 
Geneva  and    here    became  the   head  of  the 


Nihilism. 


940 


Nihilism. 


anarchist  wing  of  the  International  (g.  v.). 
In  1869  he  founded  "The  Alliance  of  the 
Social  Democracy."  It  was  half  secret,  half 

fublic.  It  had  three  sections.  The  first,  "The 
nternational  Brothers,"  was  composed  of  100 
of  the  leaders  of  the  movement,  known  only 
to  each  other.  ' '  Their  only  country  was  the 
universal  revolution  ;  their  only  enemies,  the 
reaction."  The  second  section  was  "the 
Nationalist  Brothers,"  who  were  appointed  by 
the  "  International  Brothers"  to  guide  the  revo- 
lution in  their  respective  countries.  The  third 
section  was  composed  of  all  the  simple  ad- 
herents of  the  cause.  The  alliance  applied 
for  admission  to  the  International,  but  was 
refused  as  being  itself  international.  It  then 
dissolved  and  was  admitted  by  sections. 
Bakounin  had  long  before  this  begun  work 
in  Russia.  In  September,  1865,  Netchaieff, 
Bakounin's  lieutenant,  arrived  in  St.  Peters- 
burg and  formed  a  committee  called  "The 
Russian  Branch  of  the  International  Working 
Men's  Association."  "  The  organization  is 
founded  on  confidence  toward  the  individual. 
No  member  knows  in  what  degree  he  stands 
from  the  center.  Obedience  to  the  orders  of 
the  committee  must  be  absolute,  without  hesi- 
tation or  demur,"  so  runs  one  of  its  state- 
ments. It  was  ready  for  desperate  deeds. 
One  Ivanoff,  who  worked  for  a  while  with 
Netchaieff  and  had  done  much  to  collect 
money  for  poor  students,  after  a  while  with- 
drew, not  approving  the  policy  of  the  commit- 
tee. He  was  soon  after  quietly  assassinated. 
Yet  Netchaieff  exerted  a  wide  influence. 
Ogariff  dedicated  to  him  a  poem,  The  Stu- 
dent, which  was  widely  read  and  surrounded 
him  with  a  halo.  But  Bakounin's  utterances 
grew  more  radical.  He  wrote  : 

"  The  revolutionist  is  a  man  under  a  vow.  He 
ought  to  have  no  personal  interests,  no  business,  no 
feelings,  no  property.  He  ought  to  be  absorbed  in 
one  single  interest,  one  single  passion,  revolution. 
.  .  .  He  has  only  one  aim,  one  science — destruc- 
tion. For  this,  and  for  nothing  else,  he  studies 
mechanics,  physics,  chemistry,  and  sometimes  medi- 
cine. With  the  same  aim  he  observes  men,  characters, 
the  situation,  and  all  the  conditions  of  the  social 
order.  He  despises  and  detests  existing  morality. 
For  him  everything  is  moral  that  heTps  on  the 
triumph  of  the  revolution.  Everything  is  immoral 
and  criminal  that  hinders  it.  ...  He  must  penetrate 
everywhere,  among  the  higher  classes  as  well  as 
among  the  middle— into  the  merchant's  shop,  into  the 
Church,  into  the  government  offices,  into  the  army, 
into  the  literary  circle,  into  the  detective  force,  and 
even  into  the  imperial  palace.  .  .  .  He  must  prepare 
a  list  of  those  who  are  condemned  to  death  and 
despatch  them  in  the  order  of  their  relative  mis- 
doings. .  .  .  The  most  valuable  element  is  women 
who  are  completely  initiated  and  who  accept  our 
whole  program.  .  .  .  All  reasonings  about  the  future 
are  criminal,  because  they  hinder  destruction  pure  and 
simple,  and  fetter  the  progress  of  revolution. " 

He  wished  to  destroy  "all  States  and  all  churches, 
with  all  institutions  and  laws,  religious,  political,  juri- 
dical, financial,  magisterial,  academical, 
economical,    and    social."      He    talked 
of  "  Pan-destruction,"   "perfect  amor- 
phism,"  "holy   and  wholesome    ignor- 
ance."     To    attain    to    pan-destruction 
the  first  requisite  accordingly  was  "a 
series  of  outrages  and  of  audacious  and 
even  mad  enterprises,  striking  terror  into  the  power- 
ful and  arousing  the  people  till  they  believe  in  the 
triumph  of  the  revolution." 

Such  utterances  are  well  called  Nihilistic, 
and  yet  even  Bakounin,  at  least  in  his  earlier 
days,  had  a  social  ideal  which  he  believed 


Pan-de- 
struction, 


would  develop  itself,  could  present  forms  be 
destroyed.  He  aimed  at  free  autocratic  com- 
munes, without  law  or  government,  but 
federated  together  in  freedom  and  local  self- 
rule.  This  idea  was  particularly  acceptable  in 
Russia,  with  its  old  ideals  of  the  "  Mir  "  (q.  v.}. 
Czardom  was  declared  not  Russian,  but 
Tatar.  For  a  long  while  the  Nihilistic  move- 
ment was  divided  between  the  Slavophilism 
of  such  teachers  as  Khomiakov  and  the  inter- 
nationalism of  the  more  radical.  The  Slavo- 
phils desired  to  break  with  Western  ideas  and 
develop  these  communistic  national  tendencies 
of  "  Holy  Russia."  Even  Bakounin,  in  his 
early  days,  preached  a  strange  mixture  of 
Slavophilism  and  international  anarchy.  He 
took  part  in  a  "  Pan-slavic  "  congress.  Only 
gradually  did  he  separate  from  this  wing. 
But  such  writings  as  those  of  Bakounin,  and 
such  efforts  as  those  of  Netchaieff,  falling  upon 
inflamed  social  conditions  and  students  strug- 
gling with  poverty,  while  fired  with  a  spirit 
of  self-sacrifice,  could  but  result  in  terrible, 
fanatical,  although  heroic  deeds.  Thousands 
of  young  people  went  on  a  crusade  among  the 
people  ;  at  first  peacefully,  but  gradually  de- 
veloping "  the  gospel  of  the  deed."  As  early 
as  April,  1865,  Karakoff,  a  fanatic,  had  fired 
a  shot  at  the  Czar.  The  famous  "  third  sec- 
tion "  of  secret  police  was  then  developed,  with 
Peter  Shouveloff  as  its  chief,  and  the  struggle 
between  the  Government  and  the  Nihilists  was 
begun.  In  1873-74  some  1500  agitators  and 
their  friends  were  arrested.  After  some 
months'  detention  half  were  released,  the  rest 
being  kept  in  solitary  confinement  for  from 
two  to  four  years,  during  which  73  died  or  lost 
their  reason.  In  1877  193  of  them 
were  tried  and  exiled,  punished, 
or  banished  for  ten  years  to  Terrorism. 
Siberia.  The  wanton  cruelty  of 
the  Government  created  the  spirit 
of  revenge.  In  1878  Vera  Zassulitch  shot 
General  Trepoff,  who  had  ordered  the  flog- 
ging of  a  political  prisoner.  She  did  not 
deny  her  act,  but  for  some  reason  was  given 
a  civil  trial  before  a  jury,  and  was  acquitted 
and  escaped  to  Switzerland.  It  was  the  be- 
ginning of  the  program  of  terrorism.  A 
party  had  been  formed  whose  organ,  Zemlia 
e  Volia  (Land  and  Liberty),  gave  the  motto 
to  the  party.  This  paper  now  accepted  the 
terrorist  program.  Constant  plots  were  laid 
and  terrible  deeds  committed.  Women  were 
among  the  most  prominent.  Among  these 
was  Sophia  Perovskaya  (q.  v.},  of  high  birth 
and  connected  with  prominent  officials,  who, 
nevertheless,  after  suffering  many  wrongs, 
became  most  active  in  Nihilist  circles.  She 
displayed  the  signal  when  Alexander  II.  was 
assassinated  in  1881,  and  took  part  in  the  plot 
to  blow  up  the  railway  train  on  which  the  Czar 
was  to  travel.  This  plot  was  only  defeated 
by  the  Czar's  having  changed  trains.  After 
the  Czar's  assassination  she  calmly  gave  herself 
up  to  the  authorities  and  was  hanged.  Other 
women  were  Vera  Figner,  who  plotted  the 
assassination  of  General  Streenikoff  at  Odessa; 
Miss  Ivanova,  who  with  her  pistol  held  the 
police  at  bay  for  hours,  on  their  discovery  of 
the  secret  printing  office  ;  the  Soobotin  sisters, 


Nihilism. 


Norwegian  Company  System. 


who  masqueraded  as  spies  and  rendered  the 
cause  invaluable  service  till  they  were  them- 
selves discovered  by  real  spies.  These  were 
but  a  few  out  of  many.  Gradually,  however, 
the  movement  wore  itself  out  in  its  intensest 
form.  In  1880  the  most  energetic  and  numer- 
ous section  of  the  Russian  revolutionists  pro- 
claimed that  their  aim  was  the  attaining  of 
a  constitution  for  Russia.  This  was  the 
Narodnaia  Volia  party  with  the  "  executive 
committee  "  at  its  head  ;  which  may  be  con- 
sidered the  embodiment  of  Nihilism  as  under- 
stood abroad.  The  minority  founded  a  paper 
called  the  Tcherny  Perediel,  which  kept  to 
a  purely  industrial  policy,  repudiating  all 
interference  in  politics.  The  life  of  the  paper 
was,  however,  soon  cut  short  by  the  police. 
The  Narodnaia  Volia  party  thus  formulated 
its  program :  i.  A  permanent 
representative  assembly,  having 
Present  supreme  control  and  direction  in 
Aims.  all  general  State  affairs.  2.  Pro- 
vincial self-government,  secured 
by  the  election  of  all  public  func- 
tionaries. 3.  Independence  of  the  village 
commune  as  an  economic  and  administrative 
unit.  4.  Complete  liberation  of  conscience, 
speech,  press,  writings,  association,  and  elec- 
toral agitation.  5.  Manhood  suffrage.  6.  Sub- 
stitution of  the  standing  army  by  a  territorial 
militia.  7.  Nationalization  of  land.  8.  A  series 
of  measures  tending  to  transfer  the  possession 
of  factories  to  workmen.  The  minority  party, 
after  the  capture  of  its  paper  by  the  Govern- 
ment, started  in  Switzerland  a  paper,  The 
Social  Democrat,  indorsing  the  program  of 
the  German  socialists.  This  party  has  en- 
dured 'and  is  growing  among  the  Russian 
working  men.  To-day,  Nihilism  can  scarcely 
be  said  to  exist  in  Russia.  From  1862  to' 1880, 
17,000  men  and  women  are  said  to  have  been 
transported  to  Siberia  for  political  reasons. 
The  present  movement  is  purely  socialistic. 
Says  Stepniak  (New  Review,  vol.  x.  p.  218) : 
"Anarchy  died  in  Russia  in  1874,  and  was 
buried  in  1877."  A  few  Russians  in  exile  still 
hold  anarchistic  views  ;  but  both  out  of  as 
well  as  within  Russia  the  friends  of  the  move- 
ment are  almost  wholly  socialistic.  The 
Society  of  Friends  of  Russian  Freedom  in 
England  is  largely  composed  of  socialists. 
The  Russian  Free  Press  Fund  is  largely  under 
similar  auspices.  George  Kennan  says  in  his 
Siberia  (vol.  ii.  pp.  430-432)  that  he  "  made  the 
personal  acquaintance  of  more  than  500  of  the 
anti-government  party  in  Russia,  including  no 
less  than  300  so-called  Nihilists  living  in  exile 
in  the  convict  mines  or  penal  settlements,"  and 
came  to  the  conclusion  that  "  there  is  no  anti- 
government  party  to  which  the  term  Nihilistic 
can  be  properly  applied.  This  may  seem, 
perhaps,  a  very  strange  statement  in  view  of 
the  fact  that  we  have  never  heard  of  any 
other  anti-government  party  in  Russia,  but  it 
is  a  true  stateme/it,  nevertheless.  There  is  no 
party  in  the  empire  which  deliberately  chooses 
violence  and  bloodshed  as  the  best  conceivable 
means  of  attaining  its  ends.  There  is  no  party 
which  aims  simply  and  solely  at  the  overthrow 
of  existing  institutions,  and  there  is  no  party 
that  preaches  or  practises  a  philosophy  of 


mere  negation  or  destruction,  I  make  these 
assertions  confidently  because  my  acquaint- 
ance with  the  so-called  Nihilists  is  probably 
more  extensive  and  thorough  than  that  of  any 
other  foreigner,  and  I  have  discussed  the 
question  with  them  for  many  hundred  hours. 
Liberals,  Reformers,  socialist  theorists  of  the 
Bellamy  type,  political  economists  of  the 
Henry  George  type,  Republicans,  Constitu- 
tionalists, Revolutionists,  Terrorists,  I  met  in 
all  varieties,  both  in  European  Russia  and 
Siberia,  but  a  Nihilist  in  the  proper  or  even  in 
the  popular  significance  of  that  word — never." 

References :  S.  Stepniak's  Underground  Russia. 
London,  1883,  and  the  Russian  Storm  Cloud  (1887),  ana 
articles  in  the  New  Review,  vol.  x.;  an  article  by 
Peter  Krapotkine,  Fortnightly  Review,  June,  1882 ; 
Rae's  Contemporary  Socialism  ;  Laveleye's  Socialism 
of  To-day;  George  Kennan's  Siberia. 

(See  also  RUSSIA  AND  SOCIAL  REFORM.) 


NON-PARTIZAN   TARIFF  IDEA. 

TARIFF. 


See 


NORTHAMPTON      ASSOCIATION.— A 

non-religious  community,  organized  April  8, 
1842,  located  near  Northampton,  owning  some 
500  acres,  a  silk  factory,  sawmill,  six  dwelling 
houses,  etc.,  valued  in  all  at  $31,000.  Its  pro- 
jectors were  David  Mack,  S.  L.  Hill,  George 
W.  Benson,  and  William  Adam.  There  were  no 
"  articles  of  faith,"  and  very  little  to  hold  the 
community  together.  It  dissolved  November 
i,  1846.  The  cause  of  the  failure  seems  to 
have  been  mainly  a  debt  incurred  in  part  on 
the  original  capital,  which  finally  proved  too 
heavy  to  be  carried. 

NORWEGIAN  COMPANY  SYSTEM, 
THE.  —  The  Norwegian  company  system 
for  controlling  the  liquor  traffic,  like  every 
other  system,  is  a  growth.  Early  in  the  cen- 
tury Norway  and  Sweden  had  a  per  capita 
consumption  of  spirits  higher  than  any  other 
civilized  nation. 

Climate  and  domestic  and  social  habits  had 
led  the  Scandinavians  to  believe  that,  in  order 
to  secure  the  necessary  virility  to  resist  the 
raw,  elemental  forces  of  nature,  and  in  order 
to  enjoy  family  and  social  relations,  a  bounte- 
ous supply  of  distilled  alcoholic  liquor  was 
needful. 

In  Sweden  all  owners  of  the  soil — and  ten- 
ants even — had  the  right  to  distil  and  sell 
liquor,  with  practically  no  restraint  or  tax  to 
limit  the  production. 

In  Norway  the  situation  was  but  slightly — 
if  at  all— better.  From  1845  to  1855  laws  were 
passed  in  both  countries  forbidding  free  distil- 
lation and  putting  distilling  under  the  control 
of  the  Government.  This  benefited  some  of 
the  country  communities,  but  not  the  cities 
and  towns.  In  1864  the  editor  of  the  Gothen- 
burg Chronicle  proposed  to  the  municipal 
council  to  appoint  a  committee  to  examine 
into  the  extent  and  causes  of  pauperism.  This 
was  done. 

This  committee  reported  in  April,  1865,  at- 
tributed the  city's  pauperism  and  other  evils 
to  the  brandy  which  the  poor  consumed,  and 
suggested  that  the  municipal  authorities  take 
advantage  of  a  provision  of  the  law  of  1855, 


Norwegian  Company  System. 


942 


Norwegian  Company  System. 


hitherto  not  used,  and  hand  over  to   a  com- 
pany,    composed     of     20    highly     respected 
business  firms  and  private  individuals,    the 
licenses  for  the  bar  sale  of  brandy, — then  dis- 
posed of  at  auction  to  the  highest  bidder, — the 
company  engaging  in  the  business,  not  for  the 
sake  of  profit,  biit  solely  for  the  good  of  the 
working  classes,  and  the  share- 
holders   refusing    to    derive    the 
History,      slightest  profit  from  the  business 
beyond  the  ordinary  rate  of  inter- 
est on  the  capital  invested.   In  the 
italicized  words  may  be    found  the   unique, 
vital  principle  -which  differentiates  the  system 
from  all  other  license  systems. 

The  town  council  approved  the  recommen- 
dation and  proposition.  It  was  sanctioned  by 
the  magistrates.  In  August  the  royal  assent 
to  the  company's  statutes  was  received;  and 
on  October  i,  1865,  the  company  began  its 
operations,  controlling  36  licenses.  Later, 
1875,  the  company  secured  control  of  the 
entire  retail  trade  in  spirits.  In  1874-75, 
when  Gothenburg  had  a  population  of  59,986, 
the  bar  trade  in  brandy  amounted  to  680,539 
quarts  per  year,  and  the  total  consumption  of 
spirits  to  1,740,110  quarts.  In  1891-92,  with  a 
population  of  106,356,  the  bar  trade  in  spirits 
had  fallen  to  548,071  quarts,  and  the  total  con- 
sumption of  spirituous  liquors  to  1,523,251 
quarts.  Thus,  while  the  population  had  in- 
creased 46,370,  the  consumption  of  brandy  sold 
over  the  bar  decreased  132,486  quarts,  and  the 
total  consumption  decreased  216,859  quarts. 

Two  movements  followed  naturally  the  in- 
troduction of  the  new  system  in  Gothenburg. 

1.  Other  towns  and  cities  in  Sweden  imitated 
its  example;  and  ere  long  the  towns  and  cities 
of  Norway  followed  suit,   because,   to  quote 
the  words  of  Dr.  Sigfrid  Wieselgren : 

"  The  system  put  a  stop  to  the  illegal  practise  of  sell- 
ing brandy  on  credit ;  left  it  to  the  customer's  own 
option  to  use  the  public-house  as  an  eating-house  ; 
made  drinking  on  the  premises  more  difficult ;  limited 
the  hours  of  sale,  without  the  dealers  being  able  to 
elude  said  measure  or  raise  complaints  against  it. 
There  was  no  fear  of  drunkenness  being  encouraged  by 
too  many  or  too  few  licenses,  ....  as  the  board 
had  the  right  of  either  using  or  leaving  unused  as 
many  licenses  as  they  considered  desirable  ;  no  com- 
petition with  other  venders  would  oblige  the  company 
to  put  down  their  prices  ;  and,  as  they  disclaimed  all 
profits  from  the  traffic,  that  greed  of  gain  which  forms 
such  a  strong  motive  power  in  the  dealings  of  most 
tradesmen  could  offer  them  no  inducement  to  deviate 
from  the  principle  on  which  the  whole  system  was 
built —  i.  <?.,  not  for  individual  gain,  but  for  the  wel- 
fare of  the  working  classes." 

2.  The  distillers  began  to  plot  against  the 
law  and  the  "  company  system  ";  for  they  saw 
in  it  the  most   dangerous  assault  upon  their 
personal  interests  and  income  that  they  had 
ever  known  or  imagined,  since  it  threatened  to 
and  actually  did  decrease  the  demand  for  the 
product  of  their  distilleries,  and  severed  imme- 
diately that  alliance  between  distiller  and  re- 
tailer— with  the  former  as  dominant  partner — 
which,  in  England,  has  made  so  many  "  tied- 
houses  "  and  in  the  United  States  has  made 
most  of  the   saloon-keepers  simply  agents  or 
hirelings  of  the  distillers  or  brewers,  who  es- 
tablish and  own  a  majority  of  the  retail  estab- 
lishments. 

But  the  system  won.     In  1875  it  was  made 


Results. 


entirely  legal,  tho  not  compulsory.  It  to-day 
prevails  in  Sweden  in  78  towns  out  of  102. 
In  Norway  it  was  tried  first  in  Christiansand 
in  1871.  This  is  its  record  in  Norway  since 
that  date  :  Shops  for  the  sale  of  spirits,  re- 
duced from  501  to  227,  or  from  i  for  every  591 
inhabitants  to  i  for  every  1413  inhabitants. 
Or,  including  the  village  retail  shops  and  the 
licenses  held  by  men  who  have  a  life  interest, 
only  304  places  in  Norway  where  spirits  are 
sold  over  bars ;  i.  e. ,  about  one  place  for  every 
6600  inhabitants. 

Consumption  of  spirits  (50  per  cent,  alcohol) 
has  fallen  from  6. 8  quarts  per  inhabitant  in  1876 
to  3. 3  quarts  per  inhabitant  in  1892,  which  152.7 
quarts  less  than  the  consumption  in  the  United 
States,  and  entitles  Norway  to  be  ranked  as 
second  only  to  Italy  among  European  nations 
for  temperance. 

Mr.  Berner,  the  eminent  Norwegian  banker 
and  temperance  leader,  said  at  the  Hague 
Congress  in  1892: 

"  There  is  now  no  longer  anybody  in  these  three 
countries  [Sweden,  Norway,  and  Finland]  who  doubts 
that  the  entire  traffic  in  spirits  will  soon  be  intrusted  • 
to  the  authorized  companies,  and  the  yet  remaining 
specimens  of  the  old  tavern  vanish  entirely.  In  Nor- 
way, at  all  events,  the  question  in  the  future  will  not 
be  whether  the  municipal  authorities  in 
towns  shall  transfer  the  trade  in  spirits 
to  authorized  companies  or  to  ordinary 
shopkeepers,  but  whether  there  shall  be 
authorized  companies  for  the  sale  of 
spirits  or  the  sale  entirely  forbidden.  .  . 
In  the  future  they  [the  companies]  will  have  the  mo- 
nopoly of  the  spirit  trade,  or,  at  all  events,  have  the  liter 
limit  raised  to  250  liters,  as  in  Sweden,  or  to  400  liters, 
as  in  Finland.  Not  before  the  control  of  the  author- 
ized companies'  arrangements  shall  have  embraced 
the  whole  of  the  traffic  in  intoxicating  liquor,  at  least 
the  most  considerable  part  of  it,  will  the  beneficial 
effects  fully  appear,  and  Norway  occupy  a  still  more 
prominent  position  among  the  lands  of  sobriety  than 
she  already  does." 

Since  he  uttered  these  words  his  predictions 
have  been  realized.  The  Norwegian  law  of 
July  24,  1894,  raises  the  minimum  wholesale 
limit  from  40  to  250  liters  (42  to  264  quarts); 
and  permission  to  engage  in  the  wholesale 
trade,  formerly  open  to  all  distillers  and  all 
general  tradesmen,  is  now  restricted.  A 
direct  local  option  system  is  established,  and 
the  women  have  been  given  a  vote.  The 
voters  must  choose  between  the  company  sys- 
tem and  prohibition.  Higher  rates  of  duty 
have  been  imposed  on  the  high-grade  liquors 
made  abroad,  and  it  has  been  made  more  diffi- 
cult for  foreign  agents  to  sell  their  goods.  A 
royal  commission  has  reported  favoring  the  tax- 
ation of  beer  production  according  to  the  per- 
centage of  alcohol  contained,  and  at  the  last 
meeting  of  the  Norwegian  Total  Abstinence 
Society,  this  last  suggestion,  and  the  extension 
of  the  company  system  to  include  a  monopoly 
of  the  sales  of  beer  and  wine,  were  made 
planks  in  their  platform,  for  the  enactment  of 
which  they  will  make  their  next  assault  on  the 
Norwegian  legislature. 

But  this  is  not  all.  The  number  of  distillers  has 
been  greatly  reduced  (only  23  in  1893,  ivhile  in  1833 
there  were  9727);  the  tax  has  been  raised  from  3^ 
cents  in  1849  to  52.9  cents  per  liter  in  1894  ;  and  to-day, 
while  England  derives  about  one-fourth  of  her  rev- 
enue from  excise  duties,  and  the  United  States  about 
one-third  from  internal  revenue  duties  on  distilled 
and  fermented  liquors,  Norway's  revenue  from  the 


Norwegian  Company  System. 


943 


Norwegian  Company  System. 


same  sources  is  scarcely  one-tenth  of  her  national 
income. 

Says  an  advocate  of  the  system,  concerning 
another  point: 

"  Not  failing  to  note  that  the  shareholders  in  the 
Bergen  Company  in  1893  included  38  merchants,  7 
lawyers,  4  head-masters  of  schools,  2  school  superin- 
tendents, 8  consuls  representing  foreign  countries,  12 
physicians,  besides  manufacturers,  bankers,  brokers, 
army  officers,  and  government  officials;  let  some  of 
the  acts  of  what  may  fairly  be  described  as  a  typical 
Norwegian  company  be  noted,  and  contrasted  with 
what  we  know  of  the  liquor-dealers  operating  under 
our  present  license  system.  .  .  . 

"  After  receiving  5  per  cent,  interest  on  their  shares, 
and  accumulating  a  reserve  fund  equal  to  their  origi- 
nal capital,  and  paying  to  the  municipality  the  fees  for 
the  licenses  which  the  company  controls,  what  have 
the  profits  been,  and  where  have  they  gone  ?  From 
1878 — when  the  company  first  had  a  surplus  to  divide — 
to  1890  the  total  profits  of  the  Bergen  Company  were 
$348,655,  which  were  divided  and  distributed,  not  in 
ways  that  corrupt  politics  and  debauch  individuals, 
but  among  objects  of  public  utility  and  beneficence, 
as  shown  by  the  following  analysis  of  the  division  of 
the  profits  of  the  Norwegian  companies  in  1891 : 

1.  General  charity,  charitable  institutions, 

and  sanitary  improvements $74,703.80 

2.  Parks,  tree-planting,  and  highways  (for 

pleasure) 63,639.01 

3.  Industrial  and  professional  education —       58,590.81 

4.  Water-works,  sewers,  and  other  munici- 

pal objects 49,743.38 

5.  General    educational    purposes    (public 

school  buildings,  libraries,  etc.) 39,694.92 

6.  Theaters,  public  amusements,  and  artis- 

tic obj  ects 37,968.90 

7.  Organizations  not  of  a  specifically  char- 

itable nature 15,322.51 

8.  Religious  objects 9,506.22 

One  of  the  chief  results  is  the  control  of  the 
saloons.  Bars  are  open  on  week-days  from 
9  A.  M.  to  12  M.  ,  and  from  1.30  to  8  p.  M.  On 
Sundays  and  holidays  they  are  not  open,  and 
on  the  days  preceding  Sundays  and  holidays 
they  close  at  i  p.  M.  Liquor  may  only  be  sold 
in  the  company's  glasses  and  for  cash.  Liquor 
may  not  be  served  to  intoxicated  people  or  in 
quantities  to  intoxicate.  Lounging  and  stay- 
ing on  the  premises  are  forbidden.  Children 
and  apprentices  are  not  allowed  entrance. 

Professor  E.  R.  L.  Gould,  summing  up  the 
advantages  of  the  company  system  as  admin- 
istered in  Norway  and  Sweden,  gives  prom- 
inence to  the  fact  that  there  has  been  a 
marked  improvement  in  the  character  of  the 
saloons  ;  immoral  accessories  having  univer- 
sally disappeared.  The  police  authorities 
have  uniformly  availed  themselves  of  the 
right,  through  the  contracts  made  by  the 
companies  with  sublicensees,  to  impose  con- 
ditions which  put  an  effectual  stop  upon  gam- 
bling or  immoral  practises  in  places  where 
liquor  is  sold.  Professor  Gould  also  refers  to 
the  sublicenses  issued  to  hotels  and  similar 
places  where  such  vices  might  be  fostered. 
But  the  management  of  the  company  stores  is 
such  that,  by  reason  of  their  location,  pub- 
licity, strictly  enforced  rules  of  conduct,  and 
management  by  employees  who  have  no  per- 
sonal profits  to  make  from  the  sale  of  liquors 
to  gamblers  and  prostitutes,  the  connection 
becomes  improbable,  if  not  impossible. 

The  last  legislation  in  Norway,  July  24, 1894, 
gives  all  men  and  women  over  25  years  of  age 
the  right  to  vote  to  exclude  the  retail  bar 
traffic  in  spirits  from  the  community  in  which 
they  reside.  This  is  a  great  advance  over  all 


previous  legislation,  and  is  hailed  with  joy  by 
Norwegian  temperance  leaders  ;  and  this  was 
made  possible,  as  Mr.  Berner,  the  chairman 
of  the  Norwegian  Royal  Commission  which 
reported  this  new  law,  said,  by  the  fact  that 
because  of  the  "  company  system  "  the  liquor 
influence  was  out  of  politics. 

OBJECTIONS. 

The     Norwegian    company    system    is    ob- 
jected   to   by   various    thinkers,    on    various 
grounds.      It  is   objected  to  by  most   Prohi- 
bitionists on  the  ground  (i)  that  it  will  check 
the     growth    of     the    no-license     movement. 
In  prohibition  and  the  education 
gained  by  the  steady  contest  for 
it,  lies,  in  their  opinion,  society's   Delays  No- 
main    hope.      Let    the    company     License. 
system  once  be  established,  and 
this  movement  will  be  checked. 
It    has    so  worked,   they  claim,   in   Sweden. 
Local    prohibition,  they  assert,    had    gained 
considerable  ground  there   in  1855.      Says  a 
no-license  advocate  : 

"  Dr.  Wieselgren  says,  '  Before  1855  brandy  could 
be  bought  in  almost  every  cottage.  In  1856  one  might 
travel  through  whole  provinces  without  finding  a  sin- 
gle place  where  it  was  sold.'  Here  we  see  the  result 
of  no-license  or  local  prohibition.  But  the  cities  and 
towns  would  not  accept  local  option.  '  Here  the 
drink  evil  continued  its  ravages  unabated.' 

"And  now  mark  what  was  done.  Instead  of  pro- 
moting total  abstinence  and  adopting  local  prohibi- 
tion as  was  done  in  the  country  districts,  they  insti- 
tuted the  Gothenburg  system  ....  not  as  a  step 
toward  prohibition  or  no-license,  but  away  from 
it.  'The  working  classes'  were  becoming  pau- 

§ers,  and  the  rich  were  taxed  for  their  support, 
o  this  system  was  instituted,  not  to  interfere  with 
drinking  in  general,  but  to  promote  moderation 
among  the  working  classes  and  let  them  drink  for  the 
public  good  by  having  the  profits  go  to  reduce  taxa- 
tion. The  aim  was  not  even  ultimately  a  prohibitive 
one,  but  an  attempt  at  a  better  control  of  the  sale  of 
spirits.  In  Norway  its  origin,  purpose,  aim,  and  re- 
sults were  similar. 

"  What  have  been  the  results  as  to  prohibition  or 
local  option  ? 

"Of  the  102  towns  and  villages  in  Sweden  only  two 
enjoy  no-license. 

"  Nearly  every  town  in  Norway  has  a  liquor  com- 
pany. 

"No  single  community,  so  far  as  has  been  learned, 
which  has  ever  once  tried  the  system  has  after- 
ward abandoned  it.  ...  From  the  temperance 
view  of  the  case,  it  is  feared  that  the  upper 
classes  of  society  do  not  wish  to  go  further  than  the 
Gothenburg  system.  Some  of  them  would  not  like  to 
see  the  drinking  of  spirits  made  unrespectable.  Con- 
sequently a  practical  difficulty  may  be  raised  in  the 
future,  should  it  come  to  a  choice  between  the  com- 
pany system  and  prohibition.  Furthermore,  it  is 
feared  that  municipalities  will  not  willingly  surrender 
the  revenues  now  accruing  from  the  companies' 
profits.  Should  these  decline  largely,  it  is  also  held 
that  philanthropic  motives  may  be  put  in  the  back- 
ground "  {Gould's  Rep.,  p.  242). 

(2)  The  Prohibitionist  opponents  of  the 
Norwegian  system  deny  that  it  has  even 
decreased  drunkenness.  They  admit  a  de- 
crease in  drunkenness  over  former  times  be- 
fore the  temperance  movement,  but  this  they 
say  is  due  not  to  the  company  system,  but  to 
the  prohibition  movement,  and  within  recent 
years  they  say  drunkenness  has  not  de- 
creased, but  increased.  On  this  point  they 
quote  from  H.  E.  Berner  of  Christiania,  Nor- 
way, a  director  of  one  of  the  companies  and 
a  prominent  believer  in  the  system,  who  says 
(Report  of  Dr.  E.  R.  L.  Gould,  p.  218) : 


Norwegian  Company  System. 


944 


Norwegian  Company  System. 


"  It  had  been  noticed  at  the  session  of  the  last  alco- 
hol congress  that  previous  to  the  years  188,8  and  1889 
a  slight  increase  in  the  consumption  of  brandy  had 
taken  place.     But  as  yet  this  increase  was  compara- 
tively insignificant,   and,  furthermore,  people    must 
always  be  prepared   for  fluctuations  in  the  consump- 
tion of  alcohol.    Hence  the  increase  might  be  regarded 
as  of  no  importance,  and  we  might  hope  that  it  would 
be  supplanted  by  a  steadily  continued 
and  lasting  decrease  in  the  consumption 
Increase       of  intoxicating  drinks.     But  in  the  face 
of  Drunk-     9^  tne  more  accurate  'statistics,  includ- 
ing those  for  the  last  five  years,  which 
enness.       can  now  be  presented,  it  is  impossible 
to  rest  in  the  hope  that  conditions  will 
improve.      The  language  of  figures  is 
incontrovertible,  and  it  speaks  loudly  of  a  steady  and 
very    marked    increase  of    drunkenness    in  Norway 
during   these    last  years."      Then,   after  giving  the 
figures  of  brandy  consumption  for  1887  to  1891,  inclu- 
sive, he  says  : 

"  This  is  quite  an  even  and  alarming  increase  for  the 
five  years.  One  must  go  back  to  the  seventies  to  find 
such  a  consumption  of  brandy  as  that  for  1891." 
Then,  after  noticing  the  enormous  increase  in  the 
consumption  of  beer  during  the  same  period  he  con- 
tinues: "  This  large  increase  in  the  consumption  of 
intoxicating  drinks,  which  cannot  be  explained  by 
passing  or  outward  circumstances,  seems  not  yet  to 
have  reached  the  limit.  We  must  be  prepared  for 
a  further  decrease  in  sobriety." 

From  the  report  of  the  Massachusetts  Com- 
mission on  the  subject  they  quote  : 

In  all  Sweden  the  consumption  of  brandy  increased 
from  6.5  quarts  per  inhabitant  in  1889,  to  6.8  in  1892 
(H.  R.  77),  and  of  beer  from  17.2  in  1880  to  28.2  in  1890 
(B:  R.  80).  In  Norway,  brandy  from  2.8  in  1887  to  3.3 
in  1892  (B.  R.  135),  and  beer  from  18.7  in  1887  to  31.2  in 

1891  (B.  R.  140).    The  report  says,  "The  [beer]  figures 
for  1892  were  not  attainable,  and  will  most  likely  show 
a  continued  increase."     Taking  the  beer  and  brandy 
together,  the  report  shows  an  increase  of   13  quarts 
per  inhabitant  in  five  years.     In  Christiania,  Norway, 
the  total  average  consumption  of  distilled  liquor  per 
inhabitant  was,   according  to  the  report  (p.    126),  in 
1886,  2.22  quarts  ;  1887,  2.28  ;   1888,  2.56  ;  1889,  2.77  ;   1890, 
2.64  ;  1891,  2.63  ;  1892,  2.69. 

They  also  quote,  from  the  same  report,  increase  in 
arrests  for  drunkenness.  According  to  this,  in  Goth- 
enburg the  arrests  for  drunkenness  per  1000  inhabit- 
ants were  in  1885,  29  ;  1886,  31 ;  1887,  32  ;  1888,  31 ;  1889, 
34  ;  1890,  40  ;  1891,  44  ;  1892,  42  (p.  5^). 

In  Christiania,  Norway,  the  arrests  for  drunkenness 
were,  1886,  25.6  per  1000  inhabitants  ;  1887,  28.3  ;  1888, 
40.6  ;  1889,  41.2  ;  1890,  51.9.  The  percentages  for  1891  and 

1892  are  not    computed,  but  as  the  totals  are  much 
greater  than  for  1890,   the  percentages  are  no  doubt 
greater,  and  the  fact  that  they  are  not  computed  is  sig- 
nificant (B.  R.  p.  127). 

(3)  The  objectors  urge  that  by  no  means  all 
in  Norway  believe  in  the  system,  while  many 
who  have  investigated  the  system  have  re- 
jected it.  Says  one  objector  : 

"  Although  instituted    in  Gothenburg,  Sweden,  in 
1865,  and,  with    slight    modifications,  in  Norway    in 
1871,  this  system  has  not  been  adopted 
i'n  any  other  country  except  Finland. 
Ormosition     Why    is  this,    when  we  consider  that 
uppusitiuu,    on[y  a  narrow  sea    separates  Scandi- 
navia  from  Great    Britain,  a   country 
alive    with  temperance   sentiment,  the 
home    of  great  temperance  societies  eager  to  adopt 
wise  temperance  legislation  ? 

"  It  is  because  Scotland  and  England  have  investi- 
gated and  condemned  the  system.  .  .  . 

"  At  the  World's  Temperance  Congress  in  Chicago 
in  1893  the  system  was  condemned  by  eminent 
temperance  reformers  who  were  familiar  with  its 
workings  in  both  Norway  and  Sweden.  No  one  com- 
mendedit." 

The  Philanthropist,  the  organ  for  Norway's 
total  abstinence  society,  says  in  speaking  of 
Dr.  Gould's  report : 

"The  statistical  figures  are  about  right,  but  the 
•understanding  of  the  workings  of  the  system  rests 
on  a  misunderstanding  that  is  easy  to  forgive.  Dr. 
Gould  seems  to  give  the  company  system  all  honor 
for  the  increasing  sobriety,  and  says  that  the  system 
has  diminished  temptation  to  drunkenness  ;  that  per- 


sons under  eighteen  years  cannot  buy  liquor,  and  that 
the  foremost  temperance  men  think  the  system  will 
lead  to  absolute  prohibition.  For  us  Norwegians  this 
appears  to  sound  a  little  strange.  Most  of  us  here  [in 
Norway]  know  very  well  that  the  honor  for  the 
increased  sobriety  belongs  not  to  the  company's 
system,  but  to  the  temperance  workers,  dissenter 
churches,  and  the  better  education  of  the  people.  Dr. 
Gould  points  out  Christiania  and  Bergen.  It  is  irony 
when  the  report  says  that  the  system  has  lessened 
'  the  temptation  to  drunkenness.'  Those  familiar  with 
the  facts  know  that  the  company's  shops  (in  Chris- 
tiania and  Bergen)  must  tempt  to  drunkenness,  and  so 
also  in  other  places.  The  company's  shops  are  located 
about  the  open  places  or  at  the  corners  of  several 
streets.  The  company  in  Bergen  has  not  been 
ashamed  to  largelv  advertise  their  products.  That 
persons  under  eighteen  years  cannot  buy  liquor  is 
directly  wrong,  because  there  is  worse  beer  and  liquor 
sold  to  such  and  still  younger." 

(4)  The  supreme  objection  to  the  system  on 
the    part  of   many  who   are   not 
Prohibitionists,  as  well  as  on  the 

part    of  many  who    are,  is    the      Public 
profits  in  it  to  the  community  and      Profits. 
the  making  of  the  traffic  respecta- 
ble.    Says  Lewis  A.  Bailie  of  Edin- 
burgh, who  investigated  the  system  : 

"The  fact  that  the  traffic  had  been  transferred  from 
private  liquor-sellers  to  a  corporate  body  I  found  had 
tended  to  throw  around  it  an  air  of  respectability 
which  it  did  not  hitherto  possess.  When  it  is  pointed 
out  that  many  members  of  the  company  were  gentle- 
men of  the  highest  moral  and  Christian  character,  who 
disclaimed  all  profit  from  the  exceptional  business 
other  than  5  per  cent,  for  the  capital  invested,  it  will 
be  easily  understood  that  the  habit  of  drinking  under 
such  highly  respectable  conditions  by  young  men  and 
the  working  community  generally  was  divested  of 
much  of  its  doubtful  character." 

Of  the  profits  in  the  system,  Mr.  J.  G. 
Brooks  (a  believer  in  the  system)  says  in  his 
article  in  the  Forum  (December,  1892) : 

"  But  no  fair  judgment  of  this  whole  matter  can  be 
formed  without  dealing  unflinchingly  with  certain 
limitations,  dangers,  and  positive  weaknesses.  The 
master  stroke,  as  we  have  seen,  lies  in  depriving  the 
individual  of  profit ;  but  the  temptation  to  have  much 
liquor  sold  is  not  therefore  removed.  We  have  only 
substituted  a  group  selfishness  for  an  individual  one. 
It  is  still  for  the  direct  advantage  of  the  taxpayers  in 
the  community  to  have  the  proceeds  from  liquor  sales 
as  large  as  possible  in  order  that  taxes  may  be  lower. 
I  heard  a  rich  Swede  discourse  at  a  sumptuous  dinner 
over  his  bottle  of  champagne  upon  these  'proofs  of 
success.'  '  We  raise  pur  taxes  without  any  difficulty,' 
he  said.  It  needs  no  illustration  to  show  what  a  subtle 
and  all-pervading  force  of  temptation  is  here  brought 
to  bear  upon  the  average  citizen.  That  the  danger  is 
real,  not  in  theory  alone,  but  in  fact,  no  one  will  deny 
who  has  studied  the  situation.  Is  the  selfish  advan- 
tage of  a  collective  body  less  dangerous  than  that  of 
the  single  individuals  who  compose  the  body  ?  No 
calculations  other  than  speculation  are  here  possible. 
That  so  direct  an  interest  of  the  group  is  a  danger 
will  not  be  questioned." 

It  is  because  of  these  evils  that  many  radical 
temperance  reformers  prefer  the  nationaliza- 
tion plan,  which  would  do  away  with  all 
profits.  (See  NATIONALIZATION  OF  THE  LIQUOR 
TRAFFIC.) 

(5)  Many  objectors  to  the  system  deny  that 
it  will  divorce  the  liquor  interest  from  politics. 

Even  Dr.  Gould  says,  in  the  Atlantic 
Monthly  for  October,  1893  : 

"Here    is   the    great    difficulty.    The    standard    9f 
municipal  politics  in  this  country  is  not  what  it  is  in 
Scandinavia,   and  this,   in  the  light  of 
•what  has  been  said  of  the  intimate  rela- 
tion  existing    between  the    companies      LidUOr  in 
and  the  local  government,  apparently        pni;*;,,. 
offers  an»insuperable  objection.    Many        roiiucs. 
would  think  it  better  to  leave  undis- 
turbed the  present  unholy  alliance  than 
that  liquor  and  politics  should  be  more  closely  wed." 


Norwegian  Company  System. 


945 


Norwegian  Company  System. 


Again  he  says,  in  the  Fomm  for  March,  1894  : 

"  Will  the  Gothenburg  system  flourish,  or  can  it  even 
thrive  in  so  tainted  a  political  atmosphere  as  that  sur- 
rounding American  municipal  government?  This  is 
almost  the  first  expression  of  the  honest  doubter.  He 
thinks  that  the  bad  state  of  politics  precludes  success- 
ful operation  of  the  system  because  of  the  necessarily 
intimate  alliance  liquor  companies  must  sustain  to 
local  authorities.  Can  the  body  which  must  act  both 
as  licensing  authority  and  in  a  sense  as  a  board  of 
control  be  constituted  so  as  to  insure  fair  dealing 
and  a  safeguarding  of  the  public  interests  from  their 
moral  side  ?  Judges  in  courts  of  higher  instance,  who 
•would  certainly  be  the  most  competent  and  fair- 
minded  individuals,  are  disinclined  to  serve.  A  com- 
mission with  final  authority,  appointed  by  governor 
or  mayor,  or  even  specifically  elected  by  the  com- 
munity, might  not  be  safe  repositories  of  this  author- 
ity. How  is  the  difficulty  to  be  gotten  over  ?  .  .  ." 

OBJECTIONS   CONSIDERED. 

Many  of  the  objections  are  said  by  the  be- 
lievers in  the  system  to  be  not  inherent  in  the 
system,  but  due  to  defects  which  could  be 
remedied. 

Professor  Gould,  in  his  report  to  the  United  States 
Department  of  Labor,  when  he  came  to  sum  up 
the  advantages  and  disadvantages  of  the  system, 
held  that  the  disadvantages,  for  the  most  part, 
were  due  to  defects  in  existing  law  rather  than  any 
inherent  weakness  in  the  system  itself.  Proceeding 
to  describe  the  disadvantages,  he  naturally  referred 
first  to  the  fact  that,  "  in  order  to  achieve  the  maximum 
of  benefit,  fermented  drinks  must  be  included  as  well 
as  spirituous."  Both  Sweden  and  Norway  recognize 
this  now,  and  Norway  has  begun  to  legislate  in  this 
direction.  To  this  absence  of  control  over  the  sale  of 
fermented  liquors  and  the  permitting  of  sublicenses, 
the  best  authorities  in  Norway  attribute  much  of  the 
existing  drunkenness  there. 

"A  legal  defect  applicable  to  Norway  is  found  in 
the  limit  for  retail  sales,  which  is  not  fixed  high 
enough,"  says  Professor  Gould.  Norway,  since  Pro- 
fessor Gould  wrote  the  above,  has,  however,  recog- 
nized the  force  of  this  indictment  and  remedied  it  in 
the  law  of  July  24,  1894,  in  which  the  minimum  whole- 
sale limit  is  raised  from  42  to  264  quarts. 

"The  third  defect  in  Norway  is  that  at  present  the 
retail  sale  of  wine  and  beer  in  towns  and  country 
districts  is  conducted  with  general  business."  By  the 
law  of  July  24,  i8g4,  Norway  prohibits  the  granting  of 
licenses  for  bottle  trade  in  the  country  districts. 

To  the  charge  of  increased  arrests  for 
drunkenness,  a  defender  of  the  system  says  : 

"  If  it  be  recalled  (i)  that  increase  of  public  senti- 
ment in  favor  of  temperance  always  brings  with  it  an 
increase  of  official  vigilance  and  arrests,  as  witness 
the  increase  of  arrests  in  the  '  No-License  '  cities  of 
Massachusetts— an  increase,  proportional  to  the  popu- 
lation, over  the  number  of  arrests  during  the  license 
regime  much  greater  than  the  increase  in  the  Scandi- 
navian cities ;  and  (2),  that  the  cities  of  Scandinavia, 
like  those  of  Massachusetts,  as  they  are  being  sur- 
rounded by  an  ever-increasing  area  of  prohibition  in 
the  adjoining  rural  districts  to  which  they  are  being 
united  by  rapid  and  cheap  transit  facil- 
ities, have  to  bear  a  larger  and  larger 
Defects  not    Pr°P°rtipn  of  the  burden  of  arresting 
T  ,  ,       and  punishing  those  who  seek  the  cities 

iimeieni.      fpr     intoxicants— it     might    be     ques- 
tioned, without  any  further  investiga- 
tion, whether  an  increase  of  arrests  in 
any  such  Scandinavian  city  could  fairly  be  said  to  be 
due  to  a  failure  of  the 'company  system.'   .   .   . 

"  Moreover,  when  it  is  remembered  that  a  large  part 
of  whatever  recent  drunkenness  there  may  have  been 
in  Scandinavia  has  been  caused  by  the  use  of  fer- 
mented drinks,  which  has  increased  there,  as  it  has  to 
a  much  greater  degree  in  the  United  States  and  else- 
where in  the  world,  and  over  which  the  companies 
have  no  control,  it  becomes  clear  that  the  failure  of 
the  system  cannot  be  proved  by  these  allegations  of 
increased  arrests  or  increasing  drunkenness.  .  .  . 

"The  testimony  of  students  of  actual  conditions  in 
Scandinavia  is  that  the  increase  of  drunkenness  has 
been  due  to  the  increase  of  consumption  of  fermented 
liquors,  and  to  causes  over  which  the  companies  now 
have  no  control." 

60 


Mr.  Berner,  e.  g.,  whom  the  objectors  to  the 
system  quote  as  \o  the  increase  of  drunken- 
ness, is  a  strong  advocate  of  the  system  and 
believes  the  increase  to  be  due  to  a  too  limited 
control  of  the  company  system  over  brandy 
sales. 

Dr.  E.  R.  L.  Gould  says  on  this  point,  in 
the  Forum,  March,  1894: 

"  Will  this  new  system  of  liquor  traffic  reduce  inebri- 
ety ?  Its  opponents  have  not  hesitated  to  answer  in  the 
negative,  and  in  justification  point  to  the  statistics  of 
Sweden,  which  show  that  in  recent  years  there  has 
been  an  increase  in  the  number  of  convictions  for 
drunkenness.  This  is  true,  but  during  the  same  time 
there  has  been  an  immense  decrease  in  the  per  capita 
consumption  of  spirits.  Are  we,  therefore,  to  infer 
that  decreasing  consumption  means  additional  drunk- 
enness ?  Furthermore,  during  this  period,  prohibition 
has  been  introduced  into  almost  all  of  the  country  dis- 
tricts of  Sweden.  Singularly  enough,  the  ratio  of  in- 
crease in  drunkenness  in  the  country  has  been  greater 
than  in  the  cities  and  towns.  Does 
it,  therefore,  follow  that  a  prohibitory 
regime  is  favorable  to  the  increase  of  Per 

drunkenness  ?     The  truth  of  the  matter       Catiita 
is  that  no  reliable  inference  as  to  the      _ 
efficacy  of   a  system  of  control  can  be     Decrease. 
gathered  from  the  study  of  these  statis- 
tics.  The  number  of  persons  who  touch 
liquor  at  all  might  fall  one-half,  but  if  old  topers  con- 
tinue to  drink,  as  they  will,  there  will  still  be  practic- 
ally the  same  number  of  '  drunks  '  as  before.    Again, 
legal  regulations,  activity  of  the  police,  and  even  the 
employment  of  patrol  wagons,  are  important  factors, 
though  usually  quite  neglected.    The  true  explanation, 
as   regards    Norway    and    Sweden,    is  quite    simple. 
While  the  consumption  of  spirits  has  been  environed 
with  difficulties,  beer-drinking  has  been,   one  might 
almost  say,  encouraged.    Hence,  the  consumption  of 
malt  liquors  has  risen  to  colossal  figures,  in  comparing 
recent  with  previous  years.     Simultaneously  the  beer 
has  been  strengthened  and  cheapened.    The  compa- 
nies refuse  to  sell  further  portions  to  a  customer  giving 
evidence  of  intoxication,  but  the  vender  of  beer  will 
supply  as  much  as  his  client  wishes. 

"  The  folly  of  making  so  sharp  a  distinction  in  the 
control  of  spirituous  and  malt  beverages  is  evident. 
As  compared  with  the  period  before  the  Gothenburg 
system  went  into  effect  in  Scandinavia,  the  decrease 
in  drunkenness  is  enormous.  Progress  continued  in 
the  right  direction  until  beer  commenced  to  be  gener- 
ally sold.  The  Swedish  Government,  on  the  2oth  of 
last  June,  took  the  first  step  in  recognition  of  this  view 
by  limiting  the  free  sale  of  malt  beverages  to  a  mini- 
mum of  10  liters  at  one  time."  , 

As  for  the  objection  that  some  Prohibitionists 
in  Norway,  and  almost  all  elsewhere,  have 
condemned  the  system,  it  is  answered  that 
in  Norway  most  of  the  temperance  believers  do 
indorse  the  system,  while  in  other  cotintries 
the  system  is  rapidly  growing  in  favor,  even 
among  strong  Prohibitionists. 

As  for  the  fear  of  the  liquor  interest  in  poli- 
tics, Mr.  J.  G.  Thorp,  Jr.,  says  {The  Temper- 
ance Cause,  February,  1895): 

"  What  puts  liquor  into    politics  ?     Does   any  one 
question  that  it  is  the  enormous  profit  that  can  be 
made  of  it?    Or  can  any  one  success- 
fully dispute  the  proposition  that  in  so 
far  as  private  profits  can  be  taken  out        Politics 
of  the  business,  to  that  extent  at  least      Divorced 
liquor    will    be    taken  out  of  politics  ?  _          _ . 
Does  any  intelligent  man  question  that  -Tom  Liquor, 
the  saloon,  as  it  now  exists,  is  not  only 
a  source  of  moral  degradation  to  indi- 
viduals, but  a  center  of  political  corruption  also?    If 
the  saloon,  as  a  rendezvous  of  political  heelers  and  the 
worst  features  of  the  machine  in  politics,  can  be  done 
away  with,  can  any  one   doubt  that   much   of  liquor 
will  be  taken  out  of  politics  ?    That  all  this  can  be  done 
at  once  no  one  contends  ;  and  that  the  establishment 
of  this  system  will  bring  against  it  all  the  forces  of  the 
liquor  organizations  in  attempts  to  overthrow  it  and 
to  corrupt  and  control  those  called  upon  to  administer 
it  in  the  public  interest,  there  can  be  no  doubt.     Such 


Norwegian  Company  System. 


946 


Noyes,  John   Humphrey. 


is  the  teaching  of  its  history  in  Scandinavia,  a  history 
which  is  already  repeating  itself  here  in  the  attempt 
of  the  liquor  organizations  to  defeat  the  Norwegian 
bill ;  but  the  same  is  true  of  prohibition  and  of  all 
proposed  forms  of  legislative  control,  except  that  the 
liquor  attack  will  be  more  bitter  upon  the  company 
system  since  it  has  more  to  fear  from  it.  This  opposi- 
tion has  been  withstood  in  Scandinavia.  Shall  we 
admit  that  we  have  less  public  virtue  and  power  to 
overcome  these  forces  of  evil  ?  I  think  not." 

Of  the  danger  of  making  the  traffic  re- 
spectable and  of  the  communities  getting  profits 
from  it,  the  defenders  do  not  deny  the  danger, 
but  argue  that  the  system  of  private  profit  is 
incalculably  worse  :  that  to  sell  without  profits 
(the  Nationalization  plan,  q.  -v.}  would  be  to 
increase  intemperance  by  lowering  the  cost  of 
drink,  and  that  until  the  traffic  ca'n  be  pro- 
hibited, it  is  well  that  it  should  be  made  to  pay 
the  cost  of  enforcing  laws,  etc. 

To  the  objection  that  the  system  will  delay 
the  adoption  of  prohibition,  Dr.  Gould  says 
(The  Temperance  Cause,  February,  1895,  p.  4): 

"  Undeniably  strong  evidence  of  the  efficiency  of 
the  Scandinavian  method  of  controlling  the  liquor 
traffic  is  that  no  single,  community  which  has  ever 
tried  it  has  afterward  abandoned  it.  An  attempt  has 
been  made  by  unfriendly  critics  to  turn  this  argument 
into  an  admission  that  the  system,  once  introduced, 
cannot  be  gotten  rid  of  or  replaced  by  anything  better. 
This  is  a  gross  perversion  of  facts.  The  system  re- 
mains because  communities  have  found  it  such  a  vast 
improvement  on  the  old  individual  licensing  plan. 
Publicly  expressed  approval  of  leading  temperance  re- 
formers, indeed  of  all  intelligent  classes,  as  has  been 
already  shown,  amply  proves  our  contention.  It  is 
certainly  an  open  question  whether  local  prohibition 
under  a  local  option  system,  as  we  understand  it,  would 
do  better  in  any  of  the  larger  communities  of  Scandi- 
navia, given  existing  views  and  contemporary  social 
conditions ;  but  the  new  law  of  Norway — which  for 
the  first  time  in  Scandinavia  gives  adults  over  25  years 
of  age,  including  women,  the  right  to  vote  directly  on 
the  question  of  license— will  soon  answer  the  hypo- 
thetical objection  raised." 

On  this  point  Mrs.  Mary  A.  Livermore  writes 
to  J.  G.  Thorp,  Jr. : 

"  MELROSE,  March  25,  1894. 

"Jfy  Dear  Sir :  First,  last,  and  always,  I  am  a  Prohi- 
bitionist ;  and  I  favor  the  Norwegian  bill  because,  if 
righteously  administered,  its  tendency 
will  be  toward  prohibition.     If  our  good 
Mrs.          temperance     people     would     carefully 
Livermore's  stu"y  the  bill)  I  think  their  objectionsto 
TootirwAT,,,     jt  would  disappear.     For,  if  the  bill  is 
iesiiinuny.    carried,  we  shall  continue  to  have  '  local 
option '  in  Massachusetts,  and  the  same 
proportion  of  towns  and  cities  voting 
No-License  that  we  now  have. 

"  But  in  the  towns  and  cities  that  vote  for  license  the 
Norwegian  system  offers  a  chance  for  great  improve- 
ment. It  can  only  be  adopted  in  those  places  by  a 
majority  vote.  But,  then,  it  eliminates  the  element  of 
personal  profit  from  the  sale  9f  liquor,  which  now 
keeps  it  alive  and  makes  it  flourishing. 

"It  extinguishes  the  saloon  as  it  now  exists,  a  nox- 
ious agent  in  politics,  the  headquarters  of  a  most  dan- 
gerous class,  and  a  perpetual  menace  to  the  commun- 
ity. And  it  transfers  the  control  of  liquor-selling 
from  the  very  worst  elements  of  society  to  the  hands 


of  men  who  abominate  the  whole  business,  and  only 
consent  to  take  charge  of  it  that  they  may  minimize 
its  evils  and  ultimately  extinguish  them.  I  don't 
wonder  that  the  liquor-selling  fraternity  fight  the  bill. 
But  I  do  wonder  that  our  honest,  straightforward 
temperance  people  cannot  see  the  power  it  gives 
them." 

The  best  answer,  however,  to  the  objec- 
tions is  what  the  system  has  accomplished  in 
Norway  : 

(1)  It  has  reduced  the  number  of  places  licensed  to 
sell  spirits  in  the  cities  from  one  for  every  591  inhabit- 
ants to  one  for  every  1413.     In  the  country  districts 
only  25  license  places  remain,  or  bne  to  about  8000  in- 
habitants: 

(2)  It  has  been  the  main  factor  in  reducing  the  con- 
sumption of  spirits  one-half. 

(3)  It  has  driven  out  the  saloon  as  the  center  of  the 
ward  heeler  and  the  political  machine 

and  the  approach  to  every  form  of  vice. 

(4)  It  has  crushed  the  ruinous  credit      -RQ-.-UO 
system.  itesuits. 

(5)  It  has  reduced  the  hours  of  sale  to 
a  point  not  approached  elsewhere. 

(6)  It   has  surrounded  the  sale  by  the  best  restric- 
tions and  regulations  •which  good  men  can  devise. 

(7)  It  has  driven  the  retail  seller  of  spirits  for  private 
gain  out  of  Norway. 

Concurrently  with  all  this,  accomplished  in  the 
larger  centers  of  population  where  liquor  is  sold, 

(8)  Prohibition  has  prevailed  generally  in  the  coun- 
try districts,  and  a  temperance   sentiment  has  been 
developed  which,  unhindered  by  powerful  liquor  lob- 
bies using  private  profits  to  prevent  restrictive  legis- 
lation, could  secure  the  passage  last  July  of  a  law 
creating  a  local  option  system  as  complete  as  that 
possessed  by  us,  which  gives,  as  Massachusetts  does 
not,  to  every  man  and  woman  of  25  years  of  age  or 
over,  the  right  to  vote,  not  as  here  on  the  issue  of  No- 
License  or  license  for  private  gain,  but  on  the  issue  of 
No-License  or  license  under  the  company  system. 

(9)  No  country  in  the  world    can    show    more    ad- 
vanced temperance  thought,  such  extraordinary  prog- 
ress, or  so  remarkable  a  record  in  temperance  legisla- 
tion. 

References :  The  Gothenburg  System  of  Liquor 
Traffic,  report  of  Dr.  E.  R.  L.  Gould,  Fifth  Special  Re- 
port of  the  United  States  Department  of  Labor,  1893. 
Report  of  the  Massachusetts  Legislative  Commission 
to  investigate  the  Gothenburg  System,  January,  1804. 
Articles  by  Dr.  Gould  in  the  Forum,  March  and  No- 
vember, 1894,  and  Professor  J.  G.  Brooks  in  the  Forum, 
December,  1892.  For  the  opposing  view  see  the  Tem- 
perance Cause,  the  organ  of  the  Massachusetts  Total 
Abstinence  Society,  January,  1895. 

NOYES,  JOHN  HUMPHREY,  was  born 
at  Brattleboro,  Vt.,  in  1811.  Under  the  Fin- 
ney  revival  he  became  converted,  and  studied 
theology  at  Andover  and  at  New  Haven.  In 
1 834  he  became  a  Perfectionist,  and  began  to 
teach  and  preach  at  Putney,  the  residence  of 
his  father  and  family.  Gradually  a  school  of 
fellow-believers  gathered  around'  him.  During 
the  Fourierist  period,  1840-48,  Noyes  studied 
communism.  At  the  end  he  began  to  preach 
a  type  of  communism  at  Putney,  but  the  spirit 
of  the  place  was  too  orthodox,  and  it  resulted 
in  his  starting  the  Oneida  community,  with 
which  his  name  has  been  since  connected. 
(See  ONEIDA  COMMUNITY.) 


Oastler,  Richard. 


947 


Occupations, 


o 


pASTLER,  RICHARD,  was  born  in  York- 
shire, near  Huddersfield,  in  1789,  and  suc- 
ceeded his  father  as  steward  to  Mr.  Thornhill, 
living  at  Tirby  Hall.  He  early  became  inter- 
ested in  the  abolition  movement;  but  while  ad- 
vocating the  abolition  of  slavery  abroad,  he 
suddenly  became  aware  that  there  were  slaves 
in  England.  He  learned  that  there  were  chil- 
dren beaten  and  overworked  that  large  profits 
might  be  made  by  the  manufacturer,  and  he 
lost  no  time  in  entering  upon  a  warfare  against 
such  wrongs.  In  a  letter  to  the  Leeds  Mer- 
ciiry,  in  1830,  he  exposed  some  of  the  evils  exist- 
ing in  the  neighboring  mills.  Out  of  this  grew 
a  spirited  controversy  from  which  he  emerged 
triumphant,  his  statements  being  proved  by 
evidence  from  every  part  of  Yorkshire.  Agita- 
tion was  aroused  in  Lancashire,  also,  and  as  a 
result  a  bill  was  laid  before  Parliament  by  Lord 
Morpeth,  for  limiting  the  hours  of  work  and 
raising  the  limit  of  age  for  work  in  the  mills. 
But  the  opposition  of  manufacturers  was  very 
bitter,  and  they  succeeded  in  getting  the  bill 
amended  so  that  it  was  almost  useless.  Cal- 
umny was  heaped  upon  Oastler,  but  he  did  not 
swerve  from  his  course.  His  advice  to  the 
working  classes  was  ' '  Let  your  politics  be  '  ten 
hours  a  day  and  a  time  book.'  " 

Oastler  now  became  associated  with  T.  Hob- 
house  and  M.  T.  Sadler  (both  members  of  Par- 
liament) and  others;  and,  by  agreement,  in 
1831,  Sadler  introduced  a  ten  hours  bill  into 
the  House  of  Commons,  and  made  a  forcible 
speech  in  its  support.  The  bill,  however,  did 
not  pass,  and  in  the  election  of  1832  Sadler  lost 
his  seat  in  Parliament. 

Another  leader,  however,  appeared.  This 
was  Lord  Ashley,  afterward  Earl  of  Shaftes- 
bury,  who  took  up  the  ten  hours  bill.  The 
mass  of  testimony  which  Oastler  had  produced 
showed  that  it  was  the  custom  to  employ  chil- 
dren from  five  year  old  upward,  from  five  in  the 
morning  till  ten  at  night,  and  that  during  the 
whole  time  they  were  on  their  feet,  with  a  short 
interval  for  dinner.  These  children  were  very 
cruelly  treated,  and  were  beaten  for  mistakes. 
Several  cases  of  death  resulting  from  such 
beatings  were  proved.  Such  evidence  as  this 
induced  Lord  Ashley  to  take  up  the  cause.  He 
was  assisted  by  the  report  of  the  commisioners 
that  a  case  had  been  made  out  for  the  interfer- 
ence of  the  legislature,  and  he  broiight  in  a  ten 


hours  bill  for  women  and  children,  on  June  17, 
1833.  A  Government  bill  was,  however,  finally 
introduced,  and  accepted  by  Oastler  and  Lord 
Ashley,  as  the  best  that  could  be  procured  then. 
While  it  did  a  certain  amount  of  good,  it  per- 
mitted manufacturers  to  act  as  justices  and 
punish  offenses  committed  by  members  of 
their  own  body;  and,  naturally  enough,  pun- 
ishments were  few,  while  infractions  of  the  act 
were  many.  The  law  was  so  openly  disre- 
garded that  Richard  Oastler  began  his  cam- 
paign afresh.  Short-time  committees  were 
once  more  organized  in  the  Yorkshire  towns. 
Letters  were  sent  to  the  papers  by  Oastler  and 
his  friends,  and  great  enthusiasm  was  aroused 
among  the  working  classes  of  the  North.  The 
cry  went  forth,  "Yorkshire  slavery  still  ex- 
ists." As  a  result  of  the  agitation  the  Govern- 
ment was  finally  obliged  to  promise  to  do  its 
best  to  enforce  the  factory  acts. 

In  the  midst  of  his  great  work  Oastler  was 
suddenly  cast  into  prison  for  a  debt  which  had 
been  incurred  in  keeping  up  his  position  and 
pursuing  his  labors.  From  the  Fleet  prison  he 
each  week  issued  a  journal  called  The  Fleet 
Papers,  devoted  to  a  discussion  of  factory  and 
poor-law  questions.  After  five  years'  impris- 
onment his  friends  subscribed  enough  to  clear 
him  from  debt,  and  he  was  released.  His  en- 
try into  Huddersfield  was  made  a  great  pub- 
lic event,  and  crowds  of  people  thronged  to 
greet  their  liberated  champion,  with  music, 
banners,  and  processions. 

Oastler's  final  victory,  however,  was  gained 
in  1847  by  the  passage  of  the  Ten  Hours  Bill 
of  that  year.  The  old  song  had  come  true  : 

"  We  will  have  the  Ten  Hours  Bill ; 
That  we  will,  that  we  will !  " 

Oastler's  wife  died  soon  after  his  release 
from  prison,  and  his  remaining  years  were 
passed  in  seclusion  and  poverty.  He  died  in 
1861  at  the  age  of  seventy-two.  The  Old  Fac- 
tory King,  as  his  admirers  called  him,  is  an 
example  of  self-sacrifice  and  devotion  to  the 
cause  for  which  he  entered. 

OCCUPATIONS.— The  number  of  persons, 
both  male  and  female,  engaged  in  gainful  oc- 
cupations in  1890,  in  the  United  States,  accord- 
ing to  Bulletin  No.  99  of  the  Eleventh  Census, 
was  as  follows : 


STATES  AND  TERRITORIES. 

POPULATION  10  YEARS  OF 
AGE  AND  OVER. 

ALL  PERSONS  IN  GAINFUL 
OCCUPATIONS. 

Total. 

Males. 

Females. 

Total. 

Males. 

Females. 

The  United  States  

47,4i3>559 

24,352,659 

23,060,900 

22,735,661 

18,820,950 

3,914,711 

North  Atlantic  Division  

13,888,377 

6,415,921 

16,909,613 
7.799,487 
2,400,161 

6,904,566 
3,17,7689 
8,827,083 
3,977,614 
1,463,627 

6,983,811 
3,237,152 
8,801,530 
3,821,873 
936,534 

6,971,460 
3,118,056 
7,673,838 
3,635,814 
1,336,493 

5,543,03o 

2,43',  744 
6,661,082 
2,973,003 
1,212,061 

1,428,430 
686,282 
1,012,756 
662,811 
124,432 

South  Atlantic  Division  

North  Central  Division  

South  Central  Division  

Western  Division  

Occupations. 


948 


Occupations. 


The  following  statement  shows  the  distribu-      the  number  and  percentage  in  each  class  of 
tion  of  the  whole  number  of  males  and  females      occupations  : 
engaged  in  gainful  occupations  according  to 


CLASSES  OF  OCCUPATIONS. 

BOTH  SEXES. 

MALES. 

FEMALES. 

Number. 

Per  cent. 

Number. 

Per  cent. 

Number. 

Per  cent. 

22,735,661 

IOO.OO 

18,820,950 

IOO.OO 

3,914,711 

IOO.OO 

Agriculture,  fisheries,  and  mining  

9,013,201 

944-323 
4,360,506 
3,325,062 
5,091,669 

39-64 
4-iS 
19.18 
14.63 
22.40 

8,333.692 
632,641 
•2.692.820 
3,0971653 
4,064,144 

44.28 

3-36 

14.31 
16.46 

21.59 

679,  5°9 
311,682 
1,667,686 
228,309 
1,027,525 

17.36 
7.96 

42.60 

5.83 

26.25 

Manufacturing  and  mechanical  industries.  . 

The  following  statement  shows  the  per- 
centage of  males  and  females  of  the  whole 
number  of  persons  engaged  in  gainful  occupa- 
tions, and  in  each  class  of  occupations,  respec- 
tively : 


CLASSES  OF  OCCUPATIONS. 

. 
MALES. 

FEMALES. 

All  Occupations  

Per  cent. 
82.78 

Per  cent. 
17.22 

Agriculture,  fisheries,  and 

7-54 

Domestic  and  personal  service  . 
Trade  and  transportation  
Manufacturing  and  mechanical 

61.75 
93-  H 

79.82 

38.25 
6.86 

20.18 

The  numbers  in  the  separate  trades  and  oc- 
cupations were  as  follows  : 


OCCUPATION. 

3 

"o 

e 

Males. 

Females. 

22,735,661 

18,820,950 

3,914,711 

Agriculture,  fisheries,  and 

9,013,201 

8,333,692 

679,509 

Agricultural  laborers  (a). 

3,004,015 

1,800 
17,806 
5,281,557 
60,150 

72,601 

65,857 
208,549 

141,039 

37,658 

70,734 
33,697 

17,738 

2,556,93° 

i,755 
16,072 
5,055,130 

59,887 

70,186 

65,829 
208,330 

140,906 
37,628 

70,047 
33,665 

17,327 

147,085 

45 
I>734 
226,427 
263 

2,415 

28 
219 

133 
3° 

687 
32 

411 

Dairymen    and    dairy 

Farmers,  planters,    and 
overseers  (b)  

Fishermen    and   oyster- 

Gardeners,  florists,  nur- 
serymen,    and     vine 
growers 
Lumbermen    and  rafts- 

Miners    (not    otherwise 

Stock    raisers,    herders 

Other   agricultural  pur- 

OCCUPATION. 

Total. 

Males. 

Females. 

Professional  service  

944.323 

632,641 

311,682 

9,728 

5,779 

3,949 

22 

10,810 

2,725 
46 
1,235 

337 
306 

127 

888 

208 
34,5i9 

4,875 

4,555 

735 
245,230 

634 

2 

479 
1,667,686 

8,070 
22,486 

6,714 
4,510 

88,295 
17,498 

9,392 

43,242 

21,849 

89,630 

62,155 

2,926 
79,664 
104,802 

5,432 
341,811 

18,055 
6,494 

1,569 
4,360,506 

8,048 
11,676 

3,989 
4,464 

87,060 
17,161 

9,086 

43>TI5 
20,961 

89,422 
27,636 

2,926 
74,789 
100,248 

4,698 
96,581 

17,421 
6,492 

1,090 
2,692,820 

Artists  and  teachers  of  art 
Authors  and  literary  and 

Chemists,  assayers,  and 

Designers,  draughtsmen, 

Engineers  (civil,  mechan- 
ical,     electrical,     and 
mining)  and  surveyors. 

Musicians  and  teachers 
of  music  

Officers  of  United  States 
army  and  navy  
Officials  (government  (e). 
Physicians  and  surgeons. 

Professors    in     colleges 

Theatrical    managers, 

Veterinary  surgeons  
Other  professional   ser- 

Domestic  and  personal 

Barbers  and  hairdressers 
Bartenders  

84,976 
55,807 

44,349 

139,765 
44,140 

92,810 

2,552 
21,556 

W3,3i7 
248,443 

58,090 

19,  301 
71,412 

1,443,399 

82,151 
55,66o 

",756 

130,718 
38,825 

6,008 

2-531 
18,776 

1,858,504 
31,816 

6,683 
16,885 
69,137 
237,523 

2,825 
J47 

32,593 

47 
5,315 

86,802 

21 
2,780 

54,8l3 
2l6,627 

51,402 
2,4l6 
2,275 
1,205,876 

Boarding  and    lodging- 

Engineers   and   firemen 

Housekeepers  and  stew- 
ards (/)  

Hunters,       trappers, 
guides,  and  scouts  

Laborers  (not  specified) 
(a)          

Launderers    and    laun- 

Nurses  and  midwives.  .  .  . 
Restaurant  keepers  

Occupations. 


949 


Occupations. 


OCCUPATION. 

"3 
1 

H 

Males: 

Females. 

3° 

Soldiers,     sailors,    and 
marines  (United  States) 
(ff)  

Watchmen,     policemen, 

283 

Other  domestic  and  per- 

Trade  and  transportation.  . 

3,325,962 

3,097,653 

228,309 

Agents  (claim,  commis- 
sion, real  estate,  insu- 
rance, etc.)  and  collect- 

4,875 

Bankers  and  brokers 
(money  and  stocks)  
Boatmen  and  canalmen.  . 
Bookkeepers    and     ac- 

30,020 
16,719 

29,516 
16,683 

5°4 
36 

Brokers  (commercial)  
Clerks  and  copyists  (/).  .  . 
Commercial  travelers.  .  .  . 
Draymen,     hack  men, 
teamsters,  etc  

5,965 
556,900 
58,701 

5»Q-53 
492,852 
58,089 

368,265 

12 

64,948 

612 

Foremen  and  overseers.  . 
Hostlers  

36,100 

35)H7 

983 

Hucksters  and  peddlers. 
Livery  stable  keepers  
Locomotive      engineers 
and  firemen  (j)  

59,083 
26,767 

56,824 
26,719 

2,259 

48 

Merchants  and  dealers  in 
drugs   and    chemicals 
(retail)  

Merchants  and  dealers  in 
dry  goods  (retail)  

Merchants  and  dealers  in 
groceries  (retail)  
Merchants  and  dealers  in 
wines  and  liquors  (re- 
tail)   

115,085 

108,722 

6,363 

Merchants   and    dealers 
in    wines  and   liquors 

48 

Merchants  and  dealers, 
not  specified  (retail).  .  .  . 

Merchants   and    dealers 
(wholesale),  importers, 
and  shipping  merchants 
Messengers  and  errand 

446,230 
27,542 

430,303 

27,344 

48,446 

15*927 

198 

Newspaper  carriers  and 

5,288 

Officials  of  banks,  and  of 
insurance,  trade,  trans- 
portation,   trust,  and 
other  companies  (k)  
Packers  and  shippers.  .  .  . 

Pilots  

39,956 
24,93° 

4  266 

39,719 
18,426 

237 
6,504 

Porters  and  helpers  (in 
stores  and  warehouses). 
Sailors  (g)  

24,327 

24,002 

^.873 

325 

Salesmen    and    sales- 
women   

Steam-railroad  employ- 
ees     (not      otherwise 
specified)  (/)  

1,438 

Stenographers  and  type- 
writers   

12,185 

Street-railway  employees 
Telegraph    and  tele- 

37,435 

37,423 

12 
8  A'JA 

Telegraph  and    tele- 
phone    linemen     and 
electric-light  company 
employees  

669 

OCCUPATION. 

Total. 

Males. 

Females. 

9,900 

3,897 
3,882 

5,091,669 

9,817 
3,842 
3,080 

4,064,144 

83 
55 
802 

1,027,525 

Weighers,  gangers,  and 
measurers  

Other  persons  in  trade 
and  transportation  

Manufacturing    and    me- 
chanical industries  

Agricultural  implement- 
makers  (not  otherwise 
classified)  (tn)  

3,77i 
4,245 
1,031 

6,735 
853 

4,439 

422 
9,729 
1,927 

i>335 

2,322 

4,579 
4,628 
2,625 
2,036 

35,58o 

3,!3o 
60,181 

5,223 
205,315 

14,192 
1,792 
23,787 

2i3i447 
7,215 

19,239 
9,446 

17,268 

20,349 

60,201 

1,020 
10,117 

45>986 
105,442 
11,440 

2,589 

35,926 

3,449 
611,417 
22,290 

34,572 

8,699 
3,733 

25,303 
29,988 

3,717 
4,242 
1,004 
6,726 
851 

132 

421 

9,7i7 
1,926 
140 

2,3'4 
4,576 
4,476 
I>925 
2,032 

34,039 
603 

57.9o8 
4,5i7 
205,256 

12,495 
1.548 
12,289 

179,838 

6,659 

6,271 
8,098 

16,353 
20,277 

60,007 

893 
8,944 
45,976 
105,313 
10,941 

1,067 
35,891 

,  3,053 
611,220 

",545 

34,294 

8,684 
2,689 

20,543 
23,702 

54 
3 
27 
9 

2 

4,307 

I 
12 
I 
1,195 

'      8 

3 
520 
170 
4 

i,54i 
2,527 
2,273 
706 

59 

1,697 
244 
11,498 

33,609 
556 

12,968 
1,348 

915 
72 

194 

127 

i,i73 
10 
129 
499 

1,522 
35 

396 
191 
10,745 

278 
15 
1,044 

4,760 
6,286 

Apprentices   (black- 
smiths)   

Apprentices    (boot    and 

Apprentices  (carpenters 
and  j  oiner  s)  

Apprentices       (carriage 
and  wagon  makers)  

Apprentices    (dress- 
makers)   

Apprentices  (leathercur- 
riers,  etc.)  

Apprentices  (machinists) 
Apprentices  (masons).  .  .  . 
Apprentices  (milliners).  . 

Apprentices  (painters)... 
Apprentices  (plumbers).  . 
Apprentices  (printers)... 
Apprentices  (tailors)  
Apprentices  (tinsmiths).  . 

Apprentices  (not  other- 
wise specified)  

Artificial-flower  makers. 
Bakers  

Basket-makers  

Blacksmiths  

Bleachers,    dyers,    and 
scourers  

Bone  and  ivory  workers. 
Bookbinders  

Boot  and    shoe  makers 
and  repairers  

Bottlers,     and     mineral 
and  soda  water  makers. 

Box  makers  (paper)  

Box  makers  (wood)  

Brass  workers  (not  oth- 
erwise specified)  («).  .  .  . 
Brewsters  and  malsters 
(o)  

Brick    and   tile    makers 
and  terra  cotta  work- 
ers (o)  

Britannia  workers  

Broom  and  brush  makers. 
Builders  and  contractors. 
Butchers  

Butter  and  cheese  makers 
Button  makers  

Cabinet  makers  

Candle,  soap,  and  tallow 
makers  

Carpenters  and  joiners.. 
Carpet  makers  (/)  

Carriage      and     wagon 
makers  (not  otherwise 

Charcoal,  coke,  and  lime 

Chemical   works  em- 

Clock  and  watch  makers 

Compositors  (s)  

Occupations. 


95° 


Occupations. 


OCCUPATION. 

Total. 

Males. 

Females. 

23,168 

s,6o6 

47*435 

3,381 

8 

6,608 

792 

=;,8i6 

Cotton-mill  operatives  (t) 

Distillers  and  rectifiers(r) 
Door,    sash    and    blind 

I73,°S8 
3,349 

80,144 

3»340 

92,194 
9 
28 

288,983 

828 

288,155 

Electrotypers  and  stere- 

1,508 

8,719 

8,016 

Fertilizer  makers  (r)  
Fish  curers  and  packers 

(v)              

716 

705 

ii 
208 

Gas-  works  employees  (r). 
Glass-  workers  

5,246 
34,382 

5>20Q 

37 

Gold  and  silver  workers. 
Gunsmiths,    locksmiths, 
and  bell-hangers  

20,225 

16,890 

3,335 
89 

Hair  workers  

708 

558 

Harness    and     saddle 
makers  and  repairers.. 

43,468 

42,6l2 

856 

Hosiery  and  knitting 
mill  operatives  (p)  
Iron  and  steel  workers  (w  ) 
Lace    and     embroidery 
makers  

29,219 

I44>536 

8,706 
142,087 

915 

20,513 
2,449 

Lead  and  zinc  workers.  .  . 

Leather  curriers,  dress- 
ers, finishers,  and  tan- 
ners   

4,685 

4,452 

233 

Manufacturers  and  offi- 
cials of  manufacturing 

Marble  and  stone  cutters. 
Masons  (brick  and  stone)  . 

Meat  and  fruit  packers, 
canners,   and  preserv- 

61,069 
158,916 

61,006 
158,874 

63 

42 

I.MS 

Mechanics    (not    other- 

15,468 

Metal-workers  (not  oth- 

862 

Mill  and  factory  opera- 
tives (not  specified)  (y) 
Millers  (flour  and  grist).. 

93,4" 

52,844 

51,56! 
52,745 

^iSSQ 

99 
60,058 

Model     and     pattern 

66,288 

Musical-instrument  mak- 
ers (not  otherwise  spec- 
ified (z)  

Nail  and  tack  makers  (aa) 
Oil-well  employees  

4,638 

4»I3° 

508 

Oil-works  employees  
Painters,    glaziers,    and 
varnishers  

5,624 
219,868 

5,587 
218,622 

37 
1,246 

Paper-mill  operatives  
Photographers  

27,824 

18,869 

8,955 

Piano  and  organ  makers 

Plasterers  

Plumbers  and    gas  and 
steam  fitters  

Powder    and    cartridge 
makers  

978 

4l8 

OCCUPATION. 

Total. 

«5 
B 

"3 
M 

Females. 

Printers,  lithographers, 
and  pressmen  (cc)  
Print-works      operatives 
(dd)            

86,454 

80,889 

5,565 

Publishers   of    books, 
maps,  and  newspapers. 

6,426 

6,207 

219 

Rope  and  cordage  mak- 

Rubber-factory     opera- 

9,886 

Sail,   awning,   and    tent 

2,999 

245 

Salt-works  employees.  .  . 
Saw    and   planing   mill 

1,867 

1,758 
133,216 

109 
302 

Seamstresses  (ff)  

3,988 

145,716 

Sewing-machine  makers 
(not  otherwise  classi- 
fied) (gg)  

1,085 

888 

197 

Sewing-machine  operat- 

7,O28 

5,883 

Ship  and  boat  builders.  .  . 
Shirt,    collar,    and    cuff 

22,932 

22,929 

3 

15,949 

Silk-mill  operatives  (jj).  . 

34.8i4 

14,192 
586 

20,622 
194 

Steam   boiler-makers  
Stove,      furnace,      and 
grate  makers  {ad)  

21,278 

21,272 
9,397 

6 

23 

T.8o<; 

Sugar  makers  and  refin- 

4 

Tailors  and  tailoresses(z'z') 
Tinners  and  tinware 

185,197 

121,586 

63,611 

947 

Tobacco  and  cigar  fac- 
tory operatives  
Tool  and  cutlery  makers 
(not  otherwise    classi- 
fied) (kk)  

111,422 

83,601 

27,821 
651 

Trunk,    valise,    leather- 
case,  and  pocket-book 

833 

Umbrella    and    parasol 

1,480 

1,935 

1,807 

4,889 

4,888 

i 

12,853 

i 

9 

11,255 

i,O93 

Wood-workers  (not  oth- 
erwise specified)  
Woolen-mill  operatives 
(//)  

67,225 

84,071 

63.529 
47,636 

3,696 
36,435 

Other  persons  in  manu- 
facturing and  mechani- 

74,686 

59,807 

14,879 

a  In  agricultural  districts  "agricultural  laborers" 
are  often  reported  simply  as  "laborers." 

b  Farmers'  wives,  sons",  and  daughters,  working  in 
common  and  without  stated  remuneration,  especially 
in  the  Southern  States,  are  often  reported  as  "  farm- 
ers,"  and  so  tabulated. 

c  Frequently  returned  as  "sailors."  In  many  cases 
where  the  avocation  is  followed  for  only  a  portion  of 
the  year  they  are  reported  under  some  other  branch 
of  industry. 

d  Includes  "turpentine  farmers"    and  "laborers 
principally  found  in  a  few  of  the  Southern  States. 

e  Includes  national,  State,  county,  city,  and  town 
governments. 

/  Includes  paid  housekeepers  in  private  families, 
hotels,  etc.,  matrons  in  public  and  private  institutions, 
and  stewards  and  stewardesses. 

g  "Sailors"  at  sea  are  liable  to  be  omitted  unless 
they  are  actual  members  of  families  which  are  enu- 
merated. 


Occupations. 


Occupations. 


h  Includes  bookkeepers  and  accountants  of  all  kinds, 
irrespective  of  where  they  may  happen  to  be  em- 
ployed. 

i  Includes  clerks  and  copyists  of  all  kinds,  irrespect- 
ive of  where  they  may  happen  to  be  employed.  See 
"  Stenographers  and  typewriters." 

j  See  "  Steam  railroad  employees  (not  otherwise 
specified)." 


k  Includes  officials  of  mining  and  quarrying  com- 

ith offici 
companies. 


panies,  classified  in  1880  wit 


ials  of  manufacturing 


/  See  "Locomotive  engineers  and  firemen." 

m  Generally  reported  as  blacksmiths,  carpenters, 
iron  and  steel  workers,  machinists,  painters,  wood- 
workers, etc. 

n  See  "Holders"  and  "Metal-workers  (not  other- 
wise specified)." 

o  The  unskilled  workmen  are  often  reported  as  com- 
mon laborers. 

p  See  "Woolen-mill  operatives"  and  "Mill  and  fac- 
tory operatives  (not  specified)." 

q  Generally  reported  as  blacksmiths,  carpenters, 
iron  and  steel  workers,  machinists,  painters  and  var- 
nishers,  upholsterers  and  trimmers,  wheelwrights, 
wood-workers,  etc. 

r  The  unskilled  workmen  are  often  reported  as  com- 
mon laborers. 

s  See  "Printers,  lithographers,  and  pressmen.  " 

t  See  "Print-works  operatives"  and  "Mill  and  fac- 
tory operatives  (Hot  specified)." 

u  See  "Saw  and  planing  mill  employees." 

v  See  "  Meat  and  fruit  packers,  canners,  and  preserv- 
ers." 

w  Includes  employees  of  foundries,  furnaces,  and 
rolling  mills.  See  "Metal-workers  (not  otherwise 
specified),"  "Molders,"  "Nail  and  tack  makers," 
and  "Stove,  furnace,  and  grate  makers." 

x  See  "Fish  curers  and  packers." 

y  Includes  textile  mill  operatives  (not  otherwise 
specified),  and  also  mill  and  factory  hands  for  whom 
the  specific  branch  of  industry  was  not  reported. 

z  See  "Piano  and  organ  makers  and  tuners." 

aa  See  "Iron  and  steel  workers"  and  "Metal-work- 
ers (not  otherwise  specified)." 

bb  See  "Musical-instrument  makers  (not  otherwise 
specified)." 

cc  See  "Compositors"  and  "  Electrotypers  and 
stereotypers.  " 

dd  See  "Cotton-mill  operatives"  and  "Mill  and  fac- 
tory operatives  (not  specified)." 

ee  See  "Door,  sash,  and  blind  makers." 

ff  See  "  Sewing-machine  operators,"  "Shirt,  collar, 
and  cuff  makers,"  and  "Tailors  and  tailoresses." 

gg  Generally  reported  as  cabinet  makers,  iron  and 
steel  workers,  machinists,  wood-workers,  etc. 

hh  See  "Seamstresses,"  "Shirt,  collar,  and  cuff 
makers,"  and  "Tailors  and  tailoresses." 

ii  See  "  Seamstresses  "  and  "  Sewing-machine  opera- 
tors." 

ji  See  "Mill  and  factory  operatives  (not  specified)." 

kk  Generally  reported  as  blacksmiths,  machinists, 
etc. 

//  See  "Carpet  makers,"  "Hosiery  and  knitting  mill 
operatives,"  and  "Mill  and  factory  operatives  (not 
specified)." 

Says  the  Bulletin  : 

"  In  order  to  compare  the  results  for  1880  by  classes 
of  occupations  with  similar  results  for  1890,  certain 
changes  are  necessary  to  be  made  in  the  classification 
of  occupations  at  that  census  in  order  to  conform  to 
the  classification  used  in  the  census  of  1890.  These 
changes  are  summarized  as  follows  : 

"First,  by  the  transfer  to  'Agriculture,  fisheries, 
and  mining  '  of  fishermen  andoystermen,  lumbermen, 
and  raftsmen,  miners,  quarrymen,  and  wood  choppers, 
to  the  number  in  1880  of  334,131  in  all,  from  '  Manufac- 
turing and  mechanical  industries.' 

"  Second,  by  the  transfer  to  '  Domestic  and  personal 
service  '  of  saloon  keepers  and  bartenders,  stewards 
and  stewardesses,  and  employees  in  warehouses,  to  the 
number  in  1880  of  75,766  in  all,  from  'Trade  and  trans- 
portation,' and  of  engineers  and  firemen,  to  the  num- 
ber in  1880  of  79,628,  from  '  Manufacturing  and  mechan- 
ical industries.' 

"  Third,  by  the  transfer  to  '  Trade  and  transportation  ' 
of  collectors  and  claim  agents,  auctioneers,  livery 
stable  keepers,  clerks  and  copyists  not  otherwise  de- 
scribed, clerks  in  government  offices,  clerks  in  hotels 
and  restaurants,  hostlers  and  messengers,  to  the  num- 
ber in  1880  of  119,671  in  all,  from  'Domestic  and  per- 
sonal service,"  and  of  clerks  and  bookkeepers  in 
manufacturing  establishments  and  of  rag  pickers,  to 


the  number  in  1880  of  12, 320  in  all,  from  '  Manufacturing 
and  mechanical  industries.' 

"Fourth,  by  the  transfer  to  'Manufacturing  and 
mechanical  industries  '  of  whitewashers,  to  the  num- 
ber in  1880  of  3316,  from  '  Domestic  and  personal  ser- 
vice.' 

"The  differences,  therefore,  between  the  totals  used 
in  this  bulletin  and  those  given  in  the  printed  census 
report  for  each  class  of  occupations  in  1880  are  as  fol- 
lows :  An  increase  of  334,131  in  'Agriculture,  fisheries, 
and  mining,"  or  a  total  of  8,004,624  instead  of  7,670,493  ; 
a  net  increase  of  32,407  in  '  Domestic  and  personal  ser- 
vice," or  a  total  of  3,503,443  instead  of  3,471,036 
(exclusive  of  603^02  persons  engaged  in  professional 
pursuits)  ;  a  net  increase  of  56,225  in  '  Trade  and  trans- 
portation,' or  a  total  of  1,866,481  instead  of  1,810,256,  and 
a  net  decrease  of  422,763  in  '  Manufacturing  and  mechan- 
ical industries,'  or  a  total  of  3,414,349  instead  of  3,837,112. 

"  Corresponding  changes  have  been  made  in  the  totals 
given  in  the  printed  report  under  each  class  of  occu- 
pations in  1880  for  males  and  females,  respectively. 

"There  has  been  no  change  in  the  classification  of 
persons  engaged  in  professional  pursuits,  given  in 
1880  under  the  heading  of  '  Professional  and  personal 
service,'  but  they  have  been  classified  in  1890  vyider 
the  heading  of  '  Professional  service,' separate  from 
persons  engaged  in  'Domestic  and  personal  service,' 
as  designated  in  1890. 

"  The  following  table  shows  the  number  of  persons 
of  each  sex  engaged  in  gainful  occupations  and  in  each 
class  of  occupations  in  1890  compared  with  similar  fig- 
ures for  1880,  together  with  the  number  and  percent- 
age of  increase  during  the  decade  : 


SEX  AND  CLASSES 

OF 

OCCUPATIONS. 

1890. 

1880. 

INCREASE. 

Numb'r 

Per  ct. 

All  occupations.  .  . 
Males  '.  

22,735,661 

17,392,099 

5,343,562 

30.72 

18,820,950 
S.Q1^?11 

9,013,201 

14,744,942 
2.647,157 

8,004,624 

4,076,008 
1,267,554 

1,008,577 

27.64 
47-88 

12.60 

Females  

Agriculture,   fish- 
eries, and  min- 
inar.  .  . 

Males  

8,333,692 
679.509 

944.323 

7,409,970 
594,654 

603,202 

923,722 
84,855 

341,121 

12.47 
14.27 

56.55 

Females  

Professional    ser- 

Males  

632,641 
311,682 

4,360,506 

425,947 
177,255 

3,503,443 

206,694 
134,427 

857,063 

48.53 
75-84 

24.46 

Females  

Domestic  and  per- 
sonal service.  ... 

Males  

2,692,820 
1,667,686 

3,325,962 

2,321,937 
1,181,506 

1,866,481 

370,883 
486,180 

1,459,481 

15-97 
41-15 

78.19 

Trade  and  trans- 
portation   

Males  

3>097>653 
228,309 

5,091,669 

1,803,629 
62,852 

3,414,349 

1,294,024 
165,457 

1,677,320 

71-75 
263.25 

49;  13 

Females  

Manufacturing 
and  mechanical 
industries  

Males  

4,064,144 
1,027,525 

2,783,459 
630,890 

1,280,685 
396,635 

46.01 
62.87 

Females  

"As  shown  by  the  above  table,  there  has  been  an  in- 
crease since  1880  of  5,343,562  persons  engaged  in  gainful 
occupations,  or  30.72  per  cent.  There  has  been  an  in- 
crease of  4,076,008  males  engaged  in  gainful  occupa- 
tions, or  27.64  per  cent.,  and  of  1,267,554  females,  or 
47.88  per  cent.  Persons  engaged  in  agriculture,  fisher- 
ies, and  mining  have  increased  since  1880  to  the  num- 
ber of  1,008,577,  or  12.60  per  cent.,  the  percentage  of 
increase  for  females  exceeding  slightly  that  of  males. 
Persons  engaged  in  professional  service  have  in- 
creased 56.55  per  cent,  since  1880,  and  those  in  domestic 
and  personal  service  24.46  per  cent.  ;  in  both  of  these 
classes  the  percentage  of  increase  for  females  is  largely 


Occupations. 


952 


Old  Age  Pensions. 


in  excess  of  that  for  males.  Persons  engaged  in  trade 
and  transportation  have  increased  78.19  percent,  since 
1880,  the  percentage  of  increase  for  females  being  es- 
pecially large,  or  263.25  per  cent.,  principally  due  to  the 
large  increase  in  the  number  of  females  employed  as 
bookkeepers,  clerks,  stenographers,  typewriters,  and 
saleswomen.  Persons  engaged  in  manufacturing  and 
mechanical  industries  have  increased  49.13  per  cent, 
since  1880,  the  percentage  of  increase  for  males  being 
46.01  per  cent,  and  the  percentage  of  increase  for 
females  62.87  percent." 

Concerning  occupations  in  Great  Britain, 
Fabian  Tract,  No.  5  (Revised  edition,  1875), 
gives  the  following  summaries  compiled  from 
Reports  of  the  i8gT  census  for  England  and 
Wales,  C — 7058  ;  Scotland,  C — 7134  ;  and  Ire- 
land, C — 6780. 


Males. 

Females. 

Total. 

Industrial  

i  8 

Agricultural  

2,522  828 

Commercial  

Domestic  

188,365 

Professional  

Unoccupied,  under  20.  . 
Unoccupied,  over  20.... 

11,607,961 

6,163,219 
543.038 

5,214,204 

6,795,984 

*7»4°7>50Q 

16,822,165 

12,059,203 
7,950.547 

18,314,218 

19,417,697 

37,731,915 

*  Most  of  these  are  married  women  engaged  in  do- 
mestic work,  although  not  so  described. 

The  detailed  occupations,  according  to  the 
census  of  1891,  was  as  follows  : 


Agriculture 

Fishing , 

Mining 

Stone,  clay,  road-making 

Transport : 

(a)  Railways 

U>\  Roads 

(c)  Canals,  rivers,  seas 

(d)  Messages  and  porterage 

Houses,  furniture,  and  decorations 

Food  and  lodgings 

Iron  and  steel 

Other  metals 

Ships  and  boats 

Carriages  and  harness 

Machines  and  implements 

Textiles 

Dress 

Earthenware  and  glass 

Chemicals  and  compounds 

Books 

Animal  substances  (manufacture) 

Vegetable  substances  (paper,  etc.) 

General  mechanics  and  laborers 

Commercial  : 

(a)  Merchants  and  agents 

(£)  Dealers  in  money 

(c)  Insurance 

Engineers  and  surveyors 


1,311,720 

25,225 

561,637 

209,972 

,186,774 

366, 605 

208,443 

194,044 

820,582 

797,989 

380,193 

146,550 

170,517 

108,780 

342,231 

:, 128,589 

;,°99,833 

90,007 

56,047 

135,616 

76,566 


805, 105 

363,037 
21,891 
3M37 
15,44' 


OCEANA.    See  HARRINGTON. 

OCTROI  (from  French  octroyer,  to  grant) 
is  used  sometimes  in  economic  science  for 
a  commercial  concession  or  grant  conceded  by 
a  government  to  an  individual  person  or  a 
company  ;  it  is  used,  however,  more  commonly 
for  the  tax  or  duty  levied  at  the  gates  of  cities, 
particularly  in  France  and  Italy  and  some 
other  European  countries,  on  articles  brought 
into  the  city.  (For  a  discussion  of  the  princi- 
ples involved,  see  TAXATION  ;  MIDDLE  AGES  ; 
PROTECTION  ;  FREE  TRADE.) 


OLD  AGE  PENSIONS.— Old  age  has 
been  shown  by  recent  investigations  to  be,  if 
not  the  chief,  at  least  among  the  two  or  three 
chief  causes  of  pauperism.  It  is  therefore 
very  seriously  proposed  to-day  to  pension  all 
aged  persons,  and  the  proposal  of  various 
ways  in  which  this  may  be  done  has  led,  in 
England  at  least,  to  no  little  discussion  and 
literature  on  the  subject.  In  continental 
Europe  several  countries  have  even  already 
entered  upon  large  and  important  experiments 
in  this  direction,  so  that  there  already  exists 
considerable  information  upon  the  subject. 

While  in  England  the  credit  for  the  first 
serious  agitation  of  the  subject  belongs  to 
Canon  Blackley,  it  is  to  the  investigations  of 
Charles  Booth  that  we  owe  the  information  on 
which  the  need  for  pensions  is  based  and  per- 
haps the  most  careful  plea  for  the  establish- 
ment of  such  pensions.  Mr.  Booth,  in  his 
investigations  in  East  London,  came  to  the 
conclusion  that  old  age  was  the  chief  cause 
of  confirmed  pauperism,  and  subsequent  and 
more  extended  investigations  have  made  him 
declare,  in  his  most  recent  books,  that  the  pau- 
pers in  England  and  Wales  under  60  are  only 
4.6  per  cent,  of  the  population  under  60,  while 
those  over  65  are  26  per  cent,  of  the  population 
over  65,  so  that  the  increase  from  4.6  to  26  per 
cent,  is  the  measure  of  the  direct  or  indirect 
effect  of  old  age  upon  pauperism.  (See  Mr. 
Acland's  Introduction  to  J.  A.  Spender's  The 
State  and  Pensions  in  Ola  Age,  p.  xviii.)  In 
Mr.  Booth's  latest  book  he  states  that  the 
number  of  the  aged  who  receive  public  aid  in 
the  different  parishes  rarely  falls  under  one- 
third  and  rises  often  to  one-half.  Such  figures, 
to  be  looked  at  again  more  carefully,  will  show 
the  gravity  of  the  problem,  and  we  now  look 
at  the  experiments  and  proposals  that  have 
been  made  toward  its  solution.  In  this  the 
prime  place  belongs  undoubtedly  to  Germany. 
Here,  and  here  alone,  is  a  compulsory  system 
of  State  insurance  actually  at  work. 

Germany  has  long  held  to  the  policy  of  the  control 
of  industry  and  life  by  the  State  (see  GERMANY  AND 
SOCIAL  REFORM  ;  also  BISMARCK).  As  early  as  1854 
the  Prussian  legislature  made  membership  for  work- 
men in  sick  relief  societies  compulsory.  In  June, 
1883,  was  enacted  the  celebrated  present  German  Sick 
Insurance  Law.  In  1884  was  passed  the  Accident 
Insurance  Law ;  June  22,  1880,  the  Invalidity  and 
Old  Age  Insurance  Law.  "This,"  says  a  statement 
prepared  by  the  Imperial  Insurance  Department  in 
Berlin,  for  the  World's  Fair  at  Chicago  (1893),  "is 
intended  to  secure  to  persons  employed 
for  wages  or  salary  a  legal  provision  in 
cases  not  covered  by  the  Sickness  and 
Accident  Insurance  Laws.  The  In- 
validity and  Old  Age  Insurance  Law 
of  June  22,  1889,  subjects  to  compulsory 
insurance  (from  the  completed  sixteenth  year  of  age) 
(i)  all  persons  working  for  wages  in  every  branch  of 
trade,  apprentices  and  servants  included  ;  (2)  manag- 
ing officials  and  commercial  assistants  (clerks  and 
apprentices)  with  regular  year's  earnings  up  to  two 
thousand  marks.  The  obligation  to  insure  may  also 
be  extended  (by  order  of  the  Federal  Council)  (3)  to 
small  masters  (with  only  one  assistant  workman), 
and  (4)  to  so-called  home-industrials  (irrespective  of 
the  number  of  hands  employed) ;  otherwise  these 
small  employers  are  allowed  to  join  voluntarily  the 
insurance.  Such  persons,  however,  as  have  either 
given  up  or  for  a  time  laid  aside  an  occupation  in- 
volving compulsory  insurance,  possess  the  right  to 
continue  or  renew  the  insurance  by  paying  voluntary 
contributions. 

.  "  The  pension  for  old  age  will  be  granted,  without 
proof  of  disability,  to  all  who  have  completed  their 


Germany. 


Old  Age  Pensions. 


953 


Old  Age   Pensions. 


seventieth  year.  It  forms  an  addition  to  the  earnings 
of  old  but  not  incapacitated  working  people,  and 
makes  some  amends  for  the  diminished  vigor  of  age. 
The  waiting  time  here  comprises  thirty  contributory 
years,  so  that  for  30  X  47,  or  for  1410  weeks,  contribu- 
tions must  have  been  paid  before  the  insured  can 
enter  upon  the  enjoyment  of  the  pension. 

"Attested  periods  of  illness  and  military  service,  as 
well  as  other  interruptions  in  regular  employment 
(up  to  four  months),  will  be  reckoned  in  the  waiting 
time  for  both  annuities. 

"The  money  to  pay  the  invalidity  and  old  age  pen- 
sions is  furnished  Jointly  by  the  empire,  the  em- 
ployers, and  the  employed.  The  empire  contributes 
to  each  annuity  the  fixed  amount  of  fifty  marks  per 
annum  and  pays  the  contributions  of  the  workmen 
•while  serving  in  the  army  or  navy.  It  defrays  the 
expenses  also  of  the  imperial  insurance  department, 
and  effects  gratuitously,  as  in  the  case  of  the  accident 
insurance,  the  payment  of  pensions  through  the  post- 
offices.  All  other  expenses  are  borne  in  equal  shares 
by  the  insured  and  their  employers,  and  are  raised  by 
current  contributions.  As  a  rule,  the  payment  of  the 
contributions  is  to  be  made  by  the  employer,  who, 
after  purchasing  stamps  (resembling  postage  stamps) 
of  the  respective  local  insurance  office,  affixes  them 
(to  the  amount  of  the  contribution  due)  to  the  receipt 
card  of  the  insured.  These  stamps  may  be  had  at  all 
the  post-offices  and  at  numerous  private  shops.  The 
contributions  are  to  be  paid  for  each  calendar  week  in 
•  which  the  insured  finds  himself  in  an  employment  or 
service  subject  to  the  insurance  ('contributory  week,' 
'  weekly  contribution '). 

"The  carrying  out  of  the  invalidity  and  old  age 
insurance  is  intrusted,  under  State  guaranty,  to 
special  insurance  institutions,  whose  districts  coincide 
with  the  communal  or  State  divisions.  Every  in- 
surance institution  possesses  the  character  of  a  legal 
person,  and  is  managed  on  the  basis  of  a  statute 
drawn  up  by  the  managing  '  committee.'  This  com- 
mittee is  composed  of  at  least  five  representatives  of 
both  employers  and  insured  (chosen  by  the  directing 
boards  of  the  sick-relief  clubs  and  similarly  consti- 
tuted bodies). 

"  As  regards  the  results  of  the  invalidity  and  old  age 
insurance,  in  the  first  year  (1891)  no  less  than  132,917 
annuities  have  been  granted,  15,306,754.34  marks  (in- 
cluding 6,049,848.41  marks  State  subsidies)  have  been 
paid  out,  and  95,000,000  marks  have  been  received 
from  the  sale  of  receipt-card  stamps." 

This  system  is  not  intended  as  a  substitute  for  the 
Poor  Law.  It  has  been  loudly  complained  of  in  Ger- 
many as  inadequate.  "The  pension,"  says  Dr. 
Geffcken  {Nineteenth  Century,  September,  1891), 
"cannot  be  regarded  as  a  competence.  .  .  .  The 
majority  of  the  Berlin  poor  receive  144  to  180  marks 
a  year,  some  even  360."  An  average  pension  would  give 
150  marks.  The  pension  is  proportioned  to  the  con- 
tributions, which  bear  a  fixed  proportion  to  wages. 
Hence,  those  who  are  most  needy,  being  able  to  have 
saved  the  least,  get  the  least.  Nor  does  the  law  relieve 
those  who,  through  unemployment,  have  not  been 
able  to  pay  their  contributions,  payments  being  made 
through  the  employer.  It  is  hard  again  to  define  who 
is  a  working  man.  The  law  does  not  reach  married 
women.  It  is  very  complicated  in  action.  All  these 
are  serious  drawbacks.  The  law  is  reported  by  some 
to  be  unpopular  among  the  German  workmen.  Others 
declare  that  it  works  well  and  that  the  trouble  is  with 
a  few  details,  not  the  principle. 

France  has  done  less,  but  proposed  more  than  Ger- 
many. The  Caisse  de  Retraite's,  or  National  Pension 
Bureau,  was  one  of  the  many  projects 
proposed  after  the  Revolution  of  18 


France. 


and  which  has  continued  in  one  form 


or  another  to  the  present.  The  law  of 
1850  provided  that  the  capital  should 
consist  of  deposits,  which  were  to  be  of 
not  less  than  five  francs,  and  5  per  cent,  interest  was 
guaranteed.  This  was  taken  advantage  of  by  others 
than  workmen,  and  the  amount  •was  limited  that  could 
be  deposited  annually,  and  the  interest  decreased.  One 
hundred  and  fifty  dollars,  then  $200,  then  $300,  were  the 
limits  of  annuities,  and  the  caisse  gradually  became 
an  institution  of  the  middle  class,  not  the  poor.  In 
1871  the  interest  was  again  raised  to  5  per  cent.,  and 
by  1882  there  was  a  deficit  of  $8,400,000.  The  State 
settled  this  and  lessened  the  interest,  and  the  amount 
of  deposits  decreased  one-half.  To-day  less  than  one- 
tenth  of  the  depositors  are  of  the  working  class,  and 
the  average  amount  of  the  pensions  is  scarcely  $1.70 
a  month.  In  1891  M.  Constans,  Minister  of  the  Inte- 
rior, proposed  a  bill  whereby  every  working  man,  who. 


does  not  before  a  magistrate  declare  his  unwillingness 
to  do  so,  shall  pay  either  i  or  2  cents  a  day  for  seventy- 
five  days  in  the  year  from  his  twenty-fifth  to  his  fifty- 
fifth  year.  This  the  employer  must  double.  This,  if 
continued  thirty  years  with  compound  interest  at  4 
percent.,  means  $32  or  $120,  according  as  the  man  pays 
i  or  2  cents.  To  this  amount  the  State,  besides  con- 
ducting the  insurance  and  guaranteeing  the  interest, 
is  to  add  two-thirds,  making  the  annuities  $60  and 
$129.  The  pension  is  limited  to  French  men  and 
women  earning,  at  the  age  of  twenty-five,  less  than  $600 
per  year,  and  if,  at  the  age  of  fifty-six,  the  recipients 
have  an  amount  exceeding  $120  they  lose  the  State 
portion  of  the  annuity.  To  prevent  employers  avoid- 
ing the  law  by  employing  foreigners,  a  tax  is  laid  on 
all  foreign  workmen  employed.  The  workman,  if  he 
choose,  can  pay  more  and  receive  a  death  insurance. 
The  charges  to  the  State  the  first  year  are  estimated 
at  $750,000,  but  at  the  end  of  thirty  years  it  is  hoped 
they  will  be  only  nominal.  The  bill  has  been  severely 
criticized  and  will  probably  be  radically  changed,  but 
made  the  basis  of  some  action.  It  is  claimed  that  by 
depriving  those  who  have  saved  a  little  of  the  State 
portion  of  the  annuity  it  discourages  thrift ;  and  by 
allowing  the  workman  to  contract  himself  out  of  the 
plan  and  compelling  the  employer  to  pay  if  the 
workman  does  not,  it  is  feared  that  employers  will 
instruct  their  men  to  contract  themselves  out. 

Denmark,  in  1891,  laid  a  new  tax  on  lager  beer,  but 
the  radicals  got  a  vote  applying  a  portion  of  the  rev- 
nue  to  a  system   of  old  age  pensions, 
without  previous  payments.    All  per- 
sons over  60,  who  can  prove  that  for     Denmark 
10  years  previous  they  have  neither  re- 
ceived  relief  under  the  poor  law,  nor 
have    been    convicted  of  mendicancy, 
can  apply  to  the  communal  (town)  councils,  and  unless 
proven  to  have  been  disorderly  or  extravagant — in 
which  case  appeal  can  be  made  to  the  county  council — 
they  must  receive  relief;  the  amount  to  be  suited  to  the 
case.    The  State  pays  one-half  the  cost,  not  to  exceed 
$550,000.    It  is  thus,  in  effect,  an  honorary  poor-rate. 

Italy  has  long  aimed  at  establishing  an  old  age  pen- 
sion. "  It  was  a  favorite  plan  with  Cavour.  Nothing, 
however,  has  yet  been  done.  According  to  the  report 
of  the  (English)  Royal  Labor  Commission  on  Italy 
(p.  91)  : 

"A  bill   (Proposta  di  Legge~),  based  upon    abortive 
schemes  of    Signor  Berti  and  Signor  Grimaldi,  was 
laid  before  the  Chamber  of  Deputies  by  Signor  Vac- 
chelli  and  Signor  Ferraris  in  December, 
1887,  and  after  it  had  been  brought  in  a 
second  time  two  years  later  (December,          Italv 
1889),    a   committee  was   appointed  to  *? 

consider  it,  and  a  report  upon  it  was 
presented  to  the  Chamber  in  July,  1890. 
This  bill,  which  does  not  appear  to  have  become  law, 
proposes  to  establish  a  special  fund  in  connection  with 
the  banks  of  issue  and  deposit,  the  interest  on  which 
shall  be  devoted  to  providing  pensions  for  laborers, 
men  of  60  years  old  and  upward,  in  the  form  of  bonuses 
or  yearly  contributions.  The  payments  of  working 
men,  subscribers  to  the  fund,  were  to  be  made  annually 
and  not  to  exceed  500  lire.  The  fund  from  which  the 
pensions  are  paid  is  derived  partly  from  the  subscrip- 
tions of  members,  and  partly  from  certain  consign- 
ments of  shares  in  the  savings-banks  and  other  public 
sources." 

Coming  to  England,  we  have  a  variety  of  propositions, 
for  information  of  which  we  are  indebted  to  Mr.  J.  A. 
Spender's  77ie  State  and  Pensions  in  Old  Age.    As 
long  ago  as  1772  a  bill  for  such  annuities  was  passed 
by  the  House  of  Commons,  but  rejected  by  the  Lords. 
Thomas  Paine,  in  the  second  volume  of  his  Rights  of 
Man,  propounded  another  scheme,  but   nothing  was 
done.     Since  1865,  the  Post-office  has  granted  some  op- 
portunities for  purchasing  annuities,  but  only  19,379 
immediate    and    1723    deferred    annuities  have  been 
bought.      The  plan,   however,  has  not  worked,   Mr. 
Spender  thinks,  because  the  Government  has  not  really 
pushed  the  scheme.      A  somewhat  involved   passive 
scheme  will  not  succeed  against  the  efforts  of  pushing 
private  companies.     Within  ten  years,  however,  great 
interest    has    been    taken    in    old  age 
pensions  in  England.      Canon  Blackley 
first    zealously  promoted  a  scheme  of     England 
his  own  devising.      All  persons  of   all 
classes  were  to  be  compelled  to  pay  a 
national  friendly  or   provident  society 
between  the  ages  of  18  and  21  about  ^10,  which  was  to 
guarantee  the  wage-earning  class  8s.  a  week  sick  pay, 
and  4-r.  a  week  old  age  benefit  after  the  age  of  70. 
The  National   Provident  League  took   up   the    idea, 


Old  Age  Pensions. 


954 


Omaha  Platform. 


and  in  1885  a  select  committee  of  the  House  of  Lords 
was  appointed  to  report  on  the  idea.  It  reported,  in 
1887,  adversely,  or  at  least  recommending  waiting 
"the  further  development  of  public  opinion."  The 
committee  did  not  believe  that  the  working  men 
wanted  compulsory  insurance.  They  objected  to  all 
classes  being  taxed  to  benefit  one  class.  They  did  not 
believe  that  it  would  encourage  thrift.  They  thought 
the  scheme,  on  the  testimony  of  experts,  financially 
unsound.  The  claim  that  it  would  injure  the  friendly 
societies,  however,  they  did  not  accept.  They  thought 
the  sick  benefit  of  the  scheme  more  open  to  criticism 
than  the  old  age  benefits.  In  1890  Mr.  Thomas  Hurt, 
M.  P.,  moved  for  a  return  showing  the  number  of  per- 
sons over  60  receiving  relief,  on  a  given  day  in  the 
year.  This  appeared  in  December,  1890,  and  showed 
that  on  August  i,  41,180  persons  between  60  and  65, 
and  245,687  over  60,  were  receiving  relief.  From  this 
Mr.  Charles  Booth  has  figured  that  331,596  separate 
persons  over  65  had  recourse  to  the  poor  law  that 
year.  Meantime  discussion  has  gone  on.  Canon 
Blackley  has  proposed  to  meet  the  difficulty  of  getting 
the  unemployed  to  pay,  by  letting  them  work  instead 
of  pay.  The  National  Provident  League  has  put 
forth  a  plan  for  voluntary  State-aided  old  age  pen- 
sions on  the  principles  (i)  that  the  receivers  themselves 
contribute  ;  (2)  that  the  State  aid  be  granted  only 
through  some  "  financially  sound  organization  "  like 
a.  friendly  society  or  annuity  office.  Each  indi- 
vidual insured  is  to  receive  £14  a  year  payable  at  65, 
one-half  to  be  paid  out  of  his  own  payments,  one-half 
by  State  aid.  Each  recipient  is  also  to  be  entitled  to 
any  poor-law  out-door  relief  besides,  which  may  be 
necessary,  and  if  he  dies  before  receiving  his  pension, 
his  nominee  is  to  receive  a  sum  not  above  .£5.  Among 
the  ..objections  to  this  plan  it  has  been  claimed  that 
the  Government  would  have  to  supervise  all  societies, 
to  see  if  they  were  financially  sound,  and  would  never 
know  how  much  additional  poor-law  relief  might  be 
"necessary." 

Many  other  plans  have  been  proposed.  Mr.  W. 
Vallance  has  a  plan  similar  to  M.  Constans  in  France. 
Mr.  Chamberlain  (National  Review,  February,  1892), 
has  published  a  plan  embodying  the  conclusions  of  a 
voluntary  committee  of  the  House  of  Commons  in 
1891.  According  to  this  plan,  the  State  is  to  guarantee 
a  pension  of  5^.  a  week,  at  65,  and  certainpayments  to 
widows  and  children  in  case  of  death.  Each  insurer 
is  to  pay  £5  before  the  age  of  25.  Women  are  to  be 
insured  on  a  lower  scale.  It  is  objected  to  this  plan 
that  some  orders  of  Odd  Fellows  already  offer 
better  terms.  Finally,  it  is  proposed,  and  this  is  the 
plan  which  Mr.  Booth  indorses,  that  a  minimum  pension 
of  say.  5^.  a  week,  be  paid  to  every  person,  without 
distinction  of  class  or  wealth,  who  has  attained  the 
age  of  6s.  It  is  claimed  that  this  will  not  pauperize, 
since  all  may  receive  it ;  it  involves  for  it  many  ad- 
ministrative difficulties.  It  is  calculated  that  it  would 
cost  ;£i4,ooo,ooo  a  year. 

Mr.  Booth  (Pauperism  and  the  Endowment  of  Old 
Age,  pt   ii.   chap,    vi.)  considers  the  following  objec- 
tions to  the  plan  : 
First.  That  it  would  tax  the  rich,  and 

AV«>  *•«         chiefly  for  the  benefit  of  the  idle  and 

UDjectlOns.    worthless.      He  admits  that    it  would 

tax  the  rich  more  than  it  brought  in  to 

them,  but  they  are  taxed  now  for  the 

poor.     It  need  not  of  necessity  tax  the  thrifty   more 

than  they  receive. 

Second.  It  is  said  that  those  who  never  reach  65  would 
not  benefit  at  all.  But  this  is  true  of  all  deferred  an- 
nuities, and  is  really  no  injustice. 

Third.  It  is  urged  that  the  sum  of  $s.  a  week  is  in- 
adequate, and  therefore  cruel,  and  calculated  to  stim- 
ulate begging.  Mr.  Booth  says  it  is  not  intended  to 
be  adequate,  but  to  encourage  saving,  and  not  reliance 
upon  the  pensions.  Some  pensioners  might  beg,  but 
since  some  thrift  or  family  help  could,  with  the  pen- 
sion, make  begging  unnecessary,  it  would  tend  to 
»  decrease  begging. 

Fourth.  It  is  said  that  such  a  pension  would  be  pau- 
perism under  a  new  form,  only  that  this  would  pauper- 
ize the  whole  nation;  while,  fifth,  it  is  absurd  to  give 
to  those  who  do  not  need  it,  and,  sixth,  it  is  unjust  that 
the  undeserving  should  benefit  equally  with  the  de- 
serving. To  these  three  objections  Mr.  Booth  assumes 
that  exactly  because  the  benefit  is  given  to  all,  rich 
and  poor  alike,  it  does  not  pauperize.  Only  thus  is  it 
possible  to  make  the  benefit  really  dignified.  By 
giving  to  the  poor  alone  you  would  pauperize ;  by 
examining  into  the  worth  of  the  character,  you  open 
up  dangers  more  subtle  still. 

Seventh.    It  is  asserted  that  the  assumption  by  the 


Argument 
for. 


State  of  responsibility  for  the  maintenance  of  the  old 
would  be  dangerous.  But  the  State  at  present  prom- 
ises to  do  more  for  those  who  need  it,  by  keeping 
them  in  the  poorhouse. 

Eighth.  It  is  said  that  it  would  hurt  the  work  of 
thrift  agencies.  Mr.  Booth  thinks  that  it  would  aid 
them  and  push  them  forward  in  true  lines. 

Ninth.  It  is  urged  that  the  principles  of  independ- 
ence and  thrift  would  be  assailed  by  a  provision  which 
takes  away  the  stimulus  to  saving  given  by  the  pros- 
pect of  destitution  in  old  age.  Mr.  Booth  believes 
there  is  no  danger  on  this  point.  Those  who  are  not 
driven  to  work  and  save  for  immediate  needs,  would 
not  work  if  they  did  have  to  provide  wholly  for  old 
age.  Five  shillings  a  week,  after  65,  will  not  prevent 
any  saving  that  would  otherwise  be  made. 

Tenth.  It  is  said  that  it  is  the  duty  of  children  to 
support  their  parents.  This  argument,  if  good  at  all, 
is  good  against  all  saving  for  old  age. 

Eleventh.  Some  say  it  would  prevent  emigration, 
but  so  would  any  improvement  in  England. 

Twelfth.  It  is  urged  that  the  financial  resources  of 
the  country  would  be  overstrained.  Mr.  Booth  figures 
the  total  cost(for  England)  to  be  .£17,000,000.  He  would 
have  the  local  authorities  pay  half  the  existing  rates, 
which  would  be  .£4,000,000.  It  would  leave  .£13,000,000 
for  taxation,  with  .£3,000,000  for  Scotland  and  Ireland. 
One  halfpenny  a  pound  on  sugar  would  raise  £6  ,000,- 
ooo :  zd.  on  tea,  ,£2,000,000;  drink  could  supply  .£2,000,000; 
3^.  on  the  income  tax,  ;£6,ooo,ooo.  Private  charity  now 
has  to  meet  much  of  this  expenditure.  So  it  means 
no  great  increase  of  expenditure,  simply  a  transfer  to 
the  public  account.  Cost  could  be  charged  to  recip- 
ients. Lastly,  it  is  claimed  that  the  administration  of 
these  pensions  would  be  difficult.  Mr.  Booth  believes 
it  could  be  done  comparatively  easily. 

The  arguments  for  the  plan  Mr.  Booth  believes  to 
be  the  extent  of  pauperism,  the  great  evil  and  present 
expense  of  it  to  the  community.       If 
the  old  and  the    sick  were  aided,    the 
rest,   he  thinks,  might  be  made  inde- 
pendent.    It    would  tend  to  make  life 
more  secure,  and  lift  it  up  to  a  higher 
level. 

Such  is  Mr.  Booth's  argument  in  brief, 
and  such  are  the  objections  raised.     Other  sugges- 
tions, like  reaching  the  desired  end  by  providing  better 
houses,  will  be  discussed  under  tenement  reform. 

In  the  United  States,  the  old  age  problem  is  not  yet 
so  serious.  Professor  Warner  (in  his  American  Char- 
ities, p.  55)  points  out  that  with  us  the  leading  cause 
of  incipient  pauperism  is  not  so  much  the  weakness 
of  old  age  as  the  weakness  of  childhood.  And  yet 
old  age  pensions  are  proposed  in  the  United  States. 
Mr.  Alfred  Dolge  at  his  works  at  Dolgeville  (q.  v.) 
and  some  other  firms  have  private  old  age  benefits. 
Many  insurance  companies  (q.  v.)  provide  for  this. 
Government  old  age  benefits  have  been  advocated. 

References  :  Pauperism,  a  Picture,  and  the  Endow- 
ment of  Old  Age,  an  Arffiiment,  by  Charles  Booth, 
1892.  The  State  and  Pensions  in  Old  Age,  by  J.  A. 
Spender,  1894. 

OMAHA  PLATFORM.  — The  National 
People's  Party  platform,  adopted  at  Omaha, 
Neb.,  July  4,  1892,  is  as  follows  : 

Assembled  upon  the  n6th  anniversary  of  the  Declara- 
tion of  Independence,  the  People's  Party  of  America, 
in  their  first  national  convention,  invoking  upon  their 
action  the  blessing  of  Almighty  God,  put  forth  in  the 
same,  and  on  behalf  of  the  people  of  this  country,  the 
following  preamble  and  declaration  of  principles : 

PREAMBLE. 

The  conditions  which  surround  us  best  justify  our 
cooperation  ;  we  meet  in  the  midst  of  a  nation  brought 
to  the  verge  of  moral,  political,  and  material  ruin. 
Corruption  dominates  the  ballot-box,  the  legislatures, 
the  Congress,  and  touches  even  the  ermine  of  the 
bench.  The  people  are  demoralized ;  most  of  the 
States  have  been  compelled  to  isolate  the  voters  at  the 
polling  places  to  prevent  universal  intimidation  and 
bribery.  The  newspapers  are  largely  subsidized  or 
muzzled,  public  opinion  silenced,  business  prostrated, 
homes  covered  with  mortgages,  labor  impoverished, 
and  the  land  concentrating  in  the  hands  of  capital- 
ists. The  urban  workmen  are  denied  the  right  to  or- 
ganize for  self-protection,  imported  pauperized  labor 
beats  down  their  wages,  a  hireling  standing  army,  un- 
recognized by  our  laws,  is  established  to  shoot  them 
down,  and  they  are  rapidly  degenerating  into  Euro- 


Omaha  Platform. 


955 


Omaha  Platform. 


pean  conditions.  The  fruits  of  the  toil  of  millions  are 
boldly  stolen  to  build  up  colossal  fortunes  for  a  few, 
unprecedented  in  the  history  of  mankind  ;  and  the 
possessors  of  those,  in  turn,  despise  the  Republic  and 
endanger  liberty.  From  the  same  prolific  womb  of 
governmental  injustice  we  breed  the  two  great 
•classes — tramps  and  millionaires. 

The  national  power  to  create  money  is  appropriated 
to  enrich  bondholders ;  a  vast  public  debt  payable  in 
legal  tender  currency  has  been  funded  into  gold-bear- 
ing bonds,  thereby  adding  millions  to  the  burdens  of 
the  people. 

Silver,  which  has  been  accepted  as  coin  since  the 
dawn  of  history,  has  been  demonetized  to  add  to  the 
purchasing  power  of  gold  by  decreasing  the  value  of 
all  forms  of  property  as  well  as  human  labor,  and  the 
supply  of  currency  is  purposely  abridged  to  fatten 
usurers,  bankrupt  enterprise,  and  enslave  industry. 
A  vast  conspiracy  against  mankind  has  been  organized 
on  two  continents,  and  it  is  rapidly  taking  possession 
•of  the  world.  If  not  met  and  overthrown  at  once  it 
forebodes  terrible  social  convulsions,  the  destruction 
of  civilization,  or  the  establishment  of  an  absolute 
despotism. 

We  have  witnessed  for  more  than  a  quarter  of  a 
century  the  struggles  of  the  two  gjreat  political  parties 
for  power  and  plunder,  while  grievous  wrongs  have 
been  inflicted  upon  the  suffering  people.  We  charge 
that  the  controlling  influences  dominating  both  these 
parties  have  permitted  the  existing  dreadful  condi- 
tions to  develop  without  serious  effort  to  prevent  or 
restrain  them.  Neither  do  they  now  promise  us  any 
substantial  reform.  They  have  agreed  together  to 
ignore,  in  the  coming  campaign,  every  issue  but  one. 
They  propose  to  drown  the  outcries  of  a  plundered  peo- 
ple with  the  uproar  of  a  sham  battle  over  the  tariff,  so 
that  capitalists,  corporations,  national  banks,  rings, 
trusts,  watered  stock,  the  demonetization  of  silver, 
and  the  oppressions  of  the  usurers  may  all  be  lost  sight 
of.  They  propose  to  sacrifice  our  homes,  lives,  and 
children  on  the  altar  of  Mammon  ;  to  destroy  the  mul- 
titude in  order  to  secure  corruption  funds  from  the 
millionaires. 

Assembled  on  the  anniversary  of  the  birthday  of  the 
-nation,  and  filled  -with  the  spirit  of  the  grand  general 
and  chief  who  established  our  independence,  we  seek 
to  restore  the  government  of  the  Republic  to  the 
hands  of  "the  plain  people,"  with  which  class  it  orig- 
inated. We  assert  our  purposes  to  be  identical  with 
the  purposes  of  the  National  Constitution  j  to  form  a 
more  perfect  union  and  establish  justice,  insure 
domestic  tranquillity,  provide  for  the  common  defense, 
promote  the  general  welfare,  and  secure  the  blessings 
of  liberty  for  ourselves  and  our  posterity. 

We  declare  that  this  Republic  can  only  endure  as  a 
free  government  while  built  upon  the  love  of  the 
whole  people  for  each  other  and  for  the  nation  ;  that  it 
cannot  be  pinned  together  by  bayonets ;  that  the 
civil  war  is  over,  and  that  every  passion  and  resent- 
ment which  grew  out  of  it  must  die  with  it,  and  that 
we  must  be  in  fact,  as  we  are  in  name,  one  united 
brotherhood  of  free  men. 

Our  country  finds  itself  confronted  by  conditions  for 
which  there  is  no  precedent  in  the  history  of  the 
world ;  our  annual  agricultural  productions  amount 
to  billions  of  dollars  in  value,  which  must,  within  a 
few  weeks  or  months,  be  exchanged  for  billions  of 
dollars'  worth  of  commodities  consumed  in  their  pro- 
duction ;  the  existing  currency  supply  is  wholly  inade- 
quate to  make  this  exchange  ;  the  results  are  falling 
prices,  the  formation  of  combines  and  rings,  the  im- 
poverishment of  the  producing  class.  We  pledge  our- 
selves that  if  given  power  we  will  labor  to  correct 
these  evils  by  wise  and  reasonable  legislation,  in 
accordance  with  the  terms  of  our  platform. 

We  believe  that  the  power  of  government— in  other 
words,  of  the  people— should  be  expanded  (as  in  the 
case  of  the  postal  service)  as  rapidly  and  as  far  as  the 
good  sense  of  an  intelligent  people  and  the  teachings 
of  experience  shall  justify,  to  the  end  that  oppression, 
injustice,  and  poverty  shall  eventually  cease  in  the 
land. 

While  our  sympathies  as  a  party  of  reform  are  nat- 
urally upon  the  side  of  every  proposition  which  will 
tend  to  make  men  intelligent,  virtuous,  and  temperate, 
we  nevertheless  regard  these  questions,  important  as 
they  are,  as  secondary  to  the  great  issues  now  press- 
ing for  solution,  and  upon  which  not  only  our  individ- 
ual prosperity  but  the  very  existence  of  free  institu- 
tions depend  ;  and  we  ask  all  men  to  first  help  us  to 
determine  whether  we  are  to  have  a  republic  to  ad- 
minister before  we  differ  as  to  the  conditions  upon 
which  it  is  to  be  administered;  believing  that  the  forces 


of  reform  this  day  organized  will  never  cease  to  move 
forward  until  every  wrong  is  remedied  and  equal 
rights  and  equal  privileges  securely  established  for 
all  the  men  and  women  of  this  country. 

PLATFORM. 

We  declare,  therefore : 

First. — That  the  union  of  the  labor  forces  of  the 
United  States  this  day  consummated  shall  be  perma- 
nent and  perpetual.  May  its  spirit  enter  into  all  hearts 
for  the  salvation  of  the  republic  and  the  uplifting  of 
mankind  ! 

Second.—  Wealth  belongs  to  him  who  creates  it,  and 
every  dollar  taken  from  industry  without  an  equiv- 
alent is  robbery.  "  If  any  will  not  work,  neither  shall 
he  eat."  The  interests  of  rural  and  civic  labor  are  the 
same  ;  their  enemies  are  identical. 

Third. — We  believe  that  the  time  has  come  when  the 
railroad  corporations  will  either  own  the  people  or 
the  people  must  own  the  railroads;  and  should  the 
Government  enter  upon  the  work  of  owning  and  man- 
aging all  railroads,  we  should  favor  an  amendment  to 
the  Constitution  by  which  all  persons  engaged  in  the 
Government  service  shall  be  placed  under  a  civil-serv- 
ice regulation  of  the  most  rigid  character,  so  as  to  pre- 
vent the  increase  of  the  power  of  the  national  admin- 
istration by  the  use  of  such  additional  Government 
employees. 

FINANCE. — We  demand  a  national  currencfy,  safe, 
sound,  and  flexible,  issued  by  the  general  Government 
only,  a  full  legal  tender  for  all  debts,  public  and  pri- 
vate, and  that  without  the  use  of  banking  corpora- 
tions, a  just,  equitable,  and  efficient  means  of  distri- 
bution direct  to  the  people,  at  a  tax  not  to  exceed  2 
per  cent,  per  annum,  to  be  provided  as  set  forth  in  the 
sub-treasury  plan  of  the  Farmers'  Alliance,  or  a  bet- 
ter system  ;  also  by  payments  in  discharge  of  its  obli- 
gations for  public  improvements. 

1.  We  demand  free  and  unlimited  coinage  of  silver 
and  gold  at  the  present  legal  ratio  of  16  to  i. 

2.  We  demand  that  the  amount  of  circulating  medium 
be  speedily  increased  to  not  less  than  $50  per  capita. 

3.  We  demand  a  graduated  income  tax. 

4.  We  believe  that  the  money  of  the  country  should 
be  kept  as  much  as  possible  in"  the  hands  of  the  people, 
and  hence  we  demand  that  all  State  and  national  rev- 
enues shall  be  limited  to  the  necessary  expenses  of  the 
Government,  economically  and  honestly  administered. 

5.  We  demand  that  postal  savings  banks  be  estab- 
lished by  the  Government  for  the  safe  deposit  of  the 
earnings  of  the  people  and  to  facilitate  exchange. 

TRANSPORTATION. — Transportation  being  a  means 
of  exchange  and  a  public  necessity,  the  Government 
should  own  and  operate  the  railroads  in  the  interest  of 
the  people.  The  telegraph  and  telephone,  like  the 
post-office  system,  being  a  necessity  for  the  transmis- 
sion of  news,  should  be  owned  and  operated  by  the 
Government  in  the  interest  of  the  people. 

LAND.— The  land,  including  all  the  natural  sources 
of  wealth,  is  the  heritage  of  the  people,  and  should  not 
be  monopolized  for  speculative  purposes,  and  alien 
ownership  of  land  should  be  prohibited.  All  land  now 
held  by  railroads  and  other  corporations  in  excess  of 
their  actual  needs,  and  all  lands  now  owned  by  aliens, 
should  be  reclaimed  by  the  Government  and  held  for 
actual  settlers  only. 

EXPRESSION  OF   SENTIMENT. 

Your  committee  on  platform  and  resolutions  beg 
leave  unanimously  to  report  the  following : 

WHEREAS,  Other  questions  have  been  presented  for 
our  consideration,  we  hereby  submit  the  following, 
not  as  a  part  of  the  platform  of  the  People's  Party,  but 
as  resolutions  expressive  of  the  sentiment  of  this  con- 
vention : 

i.  Resolved,  That  we  demand  a  free  ballot  and  a  fair 
count  in  all  elections,  and  pledge  ourselves  to  secure 
it  to  every  legal  voter  without  federal  intervention, 
through  the  adoption  bv  the  States  of  the  unperverted 
Australian  or  secret  ballot  system. 

•A.  Resolved,  That  the  revenue  derived  from  a  grad- 
uated income  tax  should  be  applied  to  the  reduction  of 
the  burden  of  taxation  now  levied  upon  the  domestic 
industries  of  this  country. 

3.  Resolved,  That  we  pledge  our  support  to  fair  and 
liberal  pensions  to  ex-Union  soldiers  and  sailors. 

4.  Resolved,  That  we  condemn  the   fallacy  of  pro- 
tecting American  labor  under  the  present    system, 
which  opens  our  ports  to  the  pauper  and  criminal 
classes  of  the  world  and  crowds  out  pur  wage-earn- 
ers ;    and  we   denounce  the  present  ineffective  laws 
against  contract  labor,  and  demand  the  further  restric- 
tion of  undesirable  immigration. 


Oneida  Community. 


956 


Oneida  Community, 


j.  Resolved,  That  we  cordially  sympathize  with  the 
efforts  of  organized  working  men  to  shorten  the  hours 
of  labor,  and  demand  a  rigid  enforcement  of  the  exist- 
ing eight-hour  law  on  Government  •work,  and  ask  that 
a  penalty  clause  be  added  to  the  said  law. 

6.  Resolved,  That  we  regard  the  maintenance  of  a 
large  standing  army  of  mercenaries,  known  as  the 
Pinkerton  system,  as  a  menace  to  our  liberties,  and 
we  demand  its  abolition  ;  and  we  condemn  the  recent 
invasion  of  the  territory  of  Wyoming  by  the  hired 
assassins  of  plutocracy,  assisted  by  federal  officers. 

ONEIDA  COMMUNITY.— A  community 
of  communists  and  perfectionists  started  at 
Oneida  in  1847,  by  John  H.  Noyes.  For  the 
motives  and  circumstances  which  led  to  its 
establishment,  see  article  NOYES.  Noyes 
himself  says  that  the  community  issued  from 
a  conjunction  between  the  revivalism  of  ortho- 
doxy (perfectionism),  and  the  socialism  of 
Unitarianism.  (See  BROOK  FARM.)  At  any  rate 
Noyes'  "new  family"  of  _  perfectionists,  con- 
taining about  50  members,jpurchased  about  600 
acres  at  Oneida  Creek,  N.  Y.,  and  proceeded 
to  bring  it  into  cultivation.  Financially  they 
were  very  successful.  The  amount  of  property 
brought  in  up  to  January  i,  1857,  was  $107,- 
706.45.  The  amount  held  in  Oneida  at  that 
date  was  $41,740,  and  branch  communities 
at  Putney,  Wallingsford,  and  elsewhere  had 
$25,532.22  more,  so  that  the  total  assets  were 
then  $40,434.23  less  than  the  amount  brought 
in — a  discouraging  first  ten  years.  But  from 
that  time  the  community  financially  succeeded. 
In  1857  the  net  earnings  were  $5,470.11,  and  for 
the  next  ten  years  they  averaged  $18,058.02  a 
year  above  all  expenses.  In  1868  they  were 
$55,100.83.  The  community  had  wisely  left  its 
policy  of  pushing  branches,  and  concentrated 
all  its  strength  on  Oneida  and  Wallingsford. 
This  financial  success  has  been  due  to  good 
management,  but  in  no  small  degree  to  the 
inventive  faculty  of  one  of ' '  the  family,"  Sewell 
Newhouse,  an  old  Canadian  trapper,  who  in- 
vented a  trap — the  Oneida  trap — almost  uni- 
versally used  by  trappers.  By  1874  there  were 
at  Oneida  238  persons,  and  at  Wallingford,  45. 
They  had  no  formally  chosen  chief,  believing 
that  thus  the  fittest  will  lead,  and  as  the  result 
Mr.  Noyes  was  the  actual  leader,  and  usually 
wise  and  popular.  All  worked  hard  for  the  good 
of  the  community.  The  men  wore  no  especial 
garb,  but  the  women  wore  the  hair  cut  short,  did 
not  lace,  but  wore  a  tunic  falling  to  the  knees 
and  trousers  of  the  same  material,  a  vest  but- 
toned high  and  a  straw  hat.  In  this  costume, 
according  to  Mr.  Hepworth  Dixon,  "plain 
women  escaped  notice  and  pretty  girls  looked 
winsome."  They  drank  no  beer,  and  only  a 
weak,  home-made  wine.  They  practised  what 
their  critics  call  free  love,  but  this  they  deny  in 
the  sense  usually  attached  to  free  love.  All  the 
males  and  females  of  the  "family"  were 
united  by  a  "complex  marriage,"  but  their 
intercourse,  while  unfettered  by  law,  was  in 
practise  subject  to  a  great  deal  of  regulation. 
Says  Mr.  Noyes  : 

"  Marriage  is  permanent  union  ;  licentiousness  deals 
in  temporary  flirtations.  In  marriage,  communism 
of  property  goes  with  communism  of  persons.  In 
licentiousness  love  is  paid  for  as  hired  labor.  Mar- 
riage makes  a  man  responsible  for  the  consequences 
of  his  acts  of  love  to  a  woman.  In  licentiousness  a 
man  imposes  on  a  woman  the  heavy  burdens  of 
maternity,  ruining  both  her  reputation  and  her  health, 


and  then  goes  his  way  without  responsibility.  Mar- 
riage provides  for  the  maintenance  and  education  of 
children.  Licentiousness  ignores  chil- 
dren as  nuisances,  and  leaves  them  to 
chance.  Now  in  respect  to  every  one  of  Tvrnrrjncro 
these  points  of  difference  between  mar-  •nriH'rri«'Se. 
riage  and  licentiousness,  we  stand  with 
marriage.  Freedom  with  us  does  not 
mean  freedom  to  love  to-day  and  leave  to-morrow.  .  . 
Our  communities  are  families  as  distinctly  bounded 
and  separated  from  promiscuous  society  as  ordinary 
households.  The  tie  that  binds  us  together  is  as  per- 
manent, and  sacred,  to  say  the  least,  as  that  of  mar- 
riage, for  it  is  our  religion.  We  receive  no  members 
(except  by  deception  or  mistake)  who  do  not  give 
heart  and  hand  to  the  family  interest  for  life  and  for- 
ever. Community  of  property  extends  just  as  far  as 
freedom  of  love.  Every  man's  care  and  every  man's 
dollar  of  the  common  property  is  pledged  for  the 
maintenance  and  protection  of  the  women  and  the 
education  of  the  children  of  the  community.  .  .  .  Who- 
ever will  take  the  trouble  to  follow  our  track  from  the 
beginning  will  find  no  forsaken  women  or  children  by 
the  way.  In  this  respect  we  claim  to  be  in  advance  of 
marriage  and  common  civilization.  .  .  .  We  are  not 
'  free  lovers '  in  any  sense  that  makes  love  less  binding 
or  responsible  than  it  is  in  marriage  "  (^Noyes,  History 
of  American  Socialisms,  pp.  039-640).  The  Oneida  com- 
munity believed  that  the  human  heart  can  love  any 
number  of  times  and  any  number  of  persons,  and  that 
the  more  it  loves,  the  more  it  can  love.  It  believes 
this  to  be  the  law  of  nature  and  of  God.  Its  members 
believe  that  certain  physiological  rules  should  be  con- 
sidered as  to  who  should  marry.  To  the  old  they 
would  give  the  young;  to  opposites,  opposites  should 
be  given.  No  proposals  of  marriage  are  allowed  ex- 
cept through  third  persons  (in  order  that  connections 
may  be  made  with  discretion  and  not  merely  through 
passion).  In  many  ways  therefore  they  were  certainly 
free  from  a  part  of  the  evils  of  free  love,  and  their  way 
they  considered  vastly  more  free  from  sin,  and  the 
misfortune  of  marriage  for  life  of  unsuited  mates,  than 
ordinary  marriage. 

All  too  was  religious;  their  practises  resting 
on  intricate  spiritualistic  philosophy  that  can- 
not be  stated  sufficiently  briefly  for  this  article. 
Two  books  have  been  published  by  Mr.  Noyes, 
giving  their  religious  ideas  :  The  B  ere  an,  pub- 
lished in  Putney  (1847),  and /?/#/<?  Communism, 
published  at  Oneida  (1848).  Both  are  now  out 
of  print.  A  short  account  of  their  religious 
tenets  will  be  found  in  Noyes'  History  of 
American  Socialisms.  The  Oneida  com- 
munists were  perfectionists  and  spiritualists, 
(tho  not  in  the  sense  of  spirit-rapping 
spiritualists).  One  of  their  most  remarkable 
institutions  was  "  mutual  criticism,"  the  formal 
public  criticism  of  one  another;  which  was 
so  successful  that  they  considered  it  vital  to 
their  success. 

Public  opinion  was  strongly  against  them. 
Finally,  in  1879,  a  conference  of  clergymen  of 
various  churches,  from  the  principal  cities  of 
New  York  State,  met  at  Syracuse  and  laid 
plans  to  eradicate  the  evil.  Before  action  was 
taken,  however,  Mr.  Noyes  proposed  to  the 
managers  of  the  community  to  abandon  the 
free-love  practise  of  their  community,  in  def- 
erence to  public  sentiment,  tho  still  insisting 
that  it  was  not  immoral.  This  offer  was  ac- 
cepted, and  in  1881  the  society  became  an  or- 
dinary joint-stock  concern.  Mr.  Noyes  him- 
self had  to  retire  to  Canada,  where  he  died 
April  13,  1886.  The  community,  in  1879,  had 
property  valued  at  over  $600,000,  and  still  keeps 
up  its  credit  as  a  joint-stock  concern,  living 
peacefully,  quietly,  and  with  the  good  will  of 
its  immediate  neighborhood,  as  indeed  did  the 
community  in  its  communistic  days. 

OVERCROWDING.     See  CITY. 


Overproduction. 


957 


Overproduction. 


OVERPRODUCTION  is  defined  by  the 
majority  report  of  fne  English  Commission  on 
the  Depression  of  Trade  and  Industry,  as  "the 
production  of  commodities,  or  even  the  exist- 
ence of  a  capacity  for  production,  at  a  time 
when  the  demand  is  not  sufficiently  brisk  to 
maintain  a  remunerative  price  to  the  pro- 
ducer." The  report  affirms  that  "  such  an 
overproduction  has  been  one  of  the  prominent 
features  of  the  course  of  trade  during  recent 
years,  and  that  the  depression  under  which  we 
are  now  suffering  may  be  partially  explained 
by  this  fact."  The  minority  report  lays  still 
more  emphasis  upon  ' '  systematic  overproduc- 
tion," and  says  that  "  the  demand  for  com- 
modities does  not  increase  at  the  same  rate  as 
formerly,  and  that  our  capacity  for  production 
is  consequently  in  excess  of  our  home  and  ex- 
port demand,  and  could,  moreover,  be  consid- 
erably increased,  at  short  notice,  by  the  fuller 
employment  of  labor  and  appliances  now  par- 
tially idle."  Similarly  says  Mr.  Carroll  D. 
"Wright  in  his  Report  on  Industrial  Depres- 
sions (Washington,  1886,  p.  89):  "  So  far  as  the 
factories  and  the  operatives  of  the  countries 
concerned  are  to  be  taken  into  consideration 
(England,  the  United  States,  France,  Belgium, 
Germany),  there  does  exist  a  positive  and 
emphatic  overproduction,  and  the  overpro- 
duction could  not  exist  without  the  introduc- 
tion of  power  machinery  at  a  rate  greater 
than  the  consuming  power  of  the  nations  in- 
volved and  of  those  dependent  upon  them  de- 
mands; in  other  words,  the  overproduction  of 
power  machinery  logically  results  in  the  over- 
production of  goods  made  with  the  aid  of  such 
machinery,  and  this  represents  the  condition 
of  those  countries  dependent  largely  upon 
mechanical  industries  for  their  prosperity." 
Mr.  Edward  Atkinson,  in  numerous  essays, 
and  Mr.  David  A.  Wells,  in  his  Recent  Eco- 
nomic Changes,  argue  the  same  way. 

In  Europe  Lord  Playfair,  writing  in  1888, 
adduces  for  this  position  the  authority  of  Dr. 
A.  von  Studnitz,  Piermez,  Jules  Duckert^ 
Laveleye,  Trasenster,  Annecke  and  Engel. 
Mr.  Wells  finds  the  asserted  excess  of  produc- 
tion due  to  three  prime  causes:  First,  in- 
creased capacity  of  production;  second,  im- 
proved methods  of  distribution;  third,  the 
opening  up  of  new  abundant  supplies  of  raw 
material.  (For  details  on  these  points  see  ar- 
ticles MACHINERY  AND  COMMERCE.)  Mr.  Hob- 
son  (The  Evolution  of  Modern  Capitalism, 
p.  173)  shows  that  the  rise  of  productiveness 
in  machinery  in  England,  between  1850  and 
1885,  may  be  roughly  estimated  at  40  per  cent., 
while  Mr.  Wright,  in  the  above  mentioned  re- 
port, shows  that  in  the  United  States,  between 
1866  and  1886,  the  gain  of  machinery — taking 
the  aggregate,  as  measured  by  "  the  displace- 
ment of  muscular  labor,"  was  more  than 
one-third,  while  in  some  trades,  the  improve- 
ment of  mechanical  productiveness  for  labor 
was  from  50  to  300  per  cent.  Commerce  has 
made  even  greater  gains.  A  ton  of  wheat  can 
now  be  hauled  by  sea  at  less  than  a  farthing 
per  mile.  The  opening  of  the  Suez  canal  is 
said  to  have  destroyed  a  tonnage  of  two  mil- 
lions. Raw  material  can  be  delivered  in  bulk 
in  England  at  only  a  trifle  more  than  the  cost 


of  its  production  in  its  far-away  home.  All 
this  has  enormously  increased  the  capabilities 
of  production.  The  amount  of  overproduction 
must,  as  Mr.  Hobson  has  pointed  out  in  his 
Evolution  of  Modern  Capitalism,  by  no  means 
be  measured  by  the  amount  of  goods  actually 
produced  for  which  there  are  no  buyers;  this 
is  but  a  small  portion  of  the  evil.  A  far 
greater  evil  is  that  the  factories  are  often  able 
to  produce  in  a  short  while  far  more  than 
there  is  any  hope  of  selling,  and  so  they  stop 
work.  This  produces  not  only  a  glut  upon  the 
market,  but  shuts  down  factories,  workshops, 
mines,  railway  enterprises,  etc. 

The  circle  of  our  production  is  thus  stated  by  Hob- 
son  (idem,  p.  179):  "Improved  machinery  of  manu- 
facture and  transport  enables  larger  and  larger 
quantities  of  raw  material  to  pass  more  quickly  and 
more  cheaply  through  the  several  processes  of  pro- 
duction. Consumers  do  not,  in  fact,  increase  their 
consumption  as  quickly  and  to  an  equal  extent. 
Hence  the  outward  flow  of  productive  goods  is 
checked  in  one  or  more  of  the  manufacturing  stages, 
or  in  the  hands  of  the  merchant,  or  even  in  the  retail 
shops.  This  congestion  of  the  channels  of  production 
automatically  checks  production,  depriving  of  all  use 
a  large  quantity  of  the  machinery  and  a  large 
quantity  of  labor.  The  general  fall  of  money  income 
which  has  necessarily  followed  from  a  fall  of  prices, 
uncompensated  by  a  corresponding  expansion  of 
sales,  induces  a  shrinkage  of  consumption.  Under 
depressed  trade,  while  the  markets  continue  to  be 
glutted  with  unsold  goods,  only  so  much  current  pro- 
duction is  maintained  as  will  correspond  to  the  shrunk 
consumption  of  the  depressed  community.  Before  the 
turn  in  the  commercial  tide,  current  production  even 
falls  below  the  level  of  current  consumption  of  the 
glut  of  goods  which  had  congested  the  machine. 
After  the  congestion  which  had  kept  prices  low  is 
removed,  prices  begin  to  rise,  demand  is  more  active 
at  each  point  of  industry,  and  we  see  the  usual 
symptoms  of  reviving  trade." 

Thus  analyzing  the  cycle,  Mr.  Hobson  argues 
that  the  root  evil  is  winder-consumption  rather 
than  overproduction,  a  thought  which  we 
shall  revert  to  later.  Here  we  notice  that 
English  economists  have  largely  denied  the 
possibility  of  a  general  condition  of  overpro- 
duction. They  have  argued  that  every  one  who 
produces  creates  a  corresponding  power  to 
consume.  Producers  may  produce  the  wrong 
kinds  of  goods — goods  for  which  there  is  no 
market — so  that  in  certain  trades  or  lines  of 
goods  there  may  be  a  trade  overproduction, 
but  the  mere  fact  of  production  creates  with  it 
the  ability  to  consume,  so  that  the  total  pro- 
duction cannot  be  more  than  the  total  ability 
to  consume.  This  argument  Hobson  quotes 
from  Adam  Smith,  McCulloch,  and  J.  B.  Say, 
but  it  is  a  superficial  view.  Hobson  says: 
"  The  fallacy  involved  in  the  supposition  that 
oversupply  is  impossible,  consists  in  assuming 
that  the  power  to  consume  and  the  desire  to 
consume  necessarily  coexist  in  the  same  per- 
sons." He  instances  the  case  of  a  glut  of  cot- 
ton goods,  due  to  improved  cotton  machinery. 
The  spinners  and  manufacturers  have  the 
desire  to  consume;  that  is,  to  exchange  these 
goods  for  commodities;  but  the  ill-clad  of  Rus- 
sia, East  London,  and  even  Manchester,  who 
desire  the  cotton  goods,  have  no  money  nor 
anything  else  which  the  manufacturers  want, 
and  so  the  manufacturers  cannot  sell  to  them. 
But  the  manufacturers  can  sell,  it  is  said,  to 
those  who  perhaps  do  desire  the  labor  of  the 
ill-clad;  so  they  sell  the  cotton  goods  to  mer- 


Overproduction. 


953 


Overtime. 


chants  and  buy  what  they  want,  while  the  ill- 
clad  work  for  those  who  want  their  labor,  and 
with  their  wages  buy  the  cotton  goods.  Thus 
a  roundabout  exchange  of  goods  arises,  and 
Hobson  says  "this  answer  is  valid  on  the  as- 
sumption that  the  Lancashire  producers  desire 
to  consume  an  equivalent  of  the  goods  they 
produce."  But  let  us  suppose,  Hobson  argues, 
that  they  -do  not  desire  to  so  consume.  Sup- 
pose they  desire  not  to  consume  so  much,  but 
to  save  or  invest  in  more  means  of  production, 
more  mills,  more  means  of  transportation,  etc. 
Then  we  have  a  production  not  balanced  by  an 
equal  amount  of  consumption,  and  so  there 
may  be  an  overproduction.  It  is  true  that 
they  may  desire  to  produce  more  in  order  to 
consume  more  eventually,  or  to  have  their 
children  consume  more;  still,  temporarily,  they 
do  not  consume  as  much  as  they  produce,  and 
so  there  is  a  cycle  or  season  of  overproduction 
which  may  occur  in  enough  trades  to  be  gen- 
eral. Hence  Hobson  argues  that  there  may 
be  too  much  saving;  that  all  would  be  well 
if  men  would  consume  more — consume  as 
much  as  they  produce.  Hence  he  maintains 
that  the  real  trouble  is  not  overproduction, 
but  under-consumption;  that  a  too  sudden  de- 
velopment of  railroad-building,  factory-build- 
ing, etc.,  stimulates  the  market  for  a  while, 
but  leads  to  a  temporary  overproduction, 
which  should  have  been  avoided  by  more  im- 
mediate consumption  and  less  investment. 

Socialists,  however,  find  this  analysis  of 
Hobson's  buH;  partial.  Why  do  not  the  ill-clad 
in  Russia  and  London  buy  cotton  goods? 
Because  they  have  no  money?  Why  do  they 
network  and  earn  money?  Some  of  them 
can  find  no  work ;  others  of  them  are  too  shift- 
less or  too  undisciplined  to  be  willing  to  do 
work  which  is  in  demand.  But  why  are  they 
shiftless?  Why  have  they  so  little  energy? 
Very  largely,  socialists  say,  because  of  their  , 
environment,  and  still  more  largely  because 
of  their  early  environment.  (See  POVERTY, 
CAUSES  OF).  How  can  good  environment  be 
obtained  ?  By  self-effort,  say  some.  But  this 
is  making  the  end  develop  the  means.  The 
question  is,  how  to  produce  self-effort.  You 
must  have  somewhat  of  good  environment  to 
produce  self-effort.  By  wise  charity,  say 
others:  model  dwellings,  penny  savings  banks, 
etc.  But  charity,  even  Associated  Charity, 
(g.v.),  admits  by  its  leaders  to-day  that  it  can- 
not meet  the  whole  problem.  It  talc es  the  united 
action  of  society  to  reach  the  problem.  Cities, 
municipalities,  in  spite  of  theorists,  are  more 
and  more  being  driven  to  care  for  the  helpless 
and  the  shiftless.  But  the  cities  cannot  em- 
ploy the  unemployed,  it  is  said,  without 'such 
taxation  as  will  crush  the  activities  of  those 
who  are  energetic  and  have  self-help.  Then 
let  the  municipalities  themselves  produce; 
themselves  conduct  natural  monopolies;  them- 
selves become  producers,  in  a  word;  and  the 
municipality  can  consume  (that  is,  spend)  every 
dollar  it  produces,  by  employing  men  and 
women  in  productive  work;  that  is,  work  that 
shall  produce  commodities,  healthy  homes, 
parks,  art  galleries,  etc.  These  commodities, 
parks,  art  galleries,  will  not  be  themselves 
commercially  productive,  but  be  productive  of 


better  life.  Thus  the  shiftless  and  unem- 
ployed (for  whatever  reason  they  be  unem- 
ployed) may  be  given  opportunity  or  be  com- 
pelled to  work,  and  thus  be  able  to  consume 
more;  a  state  which  will  in  part,  at  least,  equal- 
ize consumption  with  production.  Therefore, 
even  under  the  wage  system,  socialists  main- 
tain that  more  social  production  can  aid  dis- 
tribution and  so  aid  consumption;  while,  if 
universal  cooperation  ever  replace  the  wage 
system,  and  the  functions  of  the  capitalist  and 
the  worker  be  not  divided  between  two  classes, 
but  be  united  in  the  same  class,  then  there 
will  be  little  if  any  overproduction,  and  cer- 
tainly no  general  overproduction,  since  when 
all  men  shall  receive  their  share  of  what  they 
produce,  and  one  class  shall  not  receive  large 
profits  and  another  scarcely  a  livelihood,  all 
will  have  approximately  equal  ability  to  con- 
sume, and  the  wants  of  humanity  can,  as  a 
whole,  be  not  limited.  It  may  even  then  be 
possible  to  produce  more  shoes  than  humanity 
can  wear,  but  not  for  long.  Hours  can  be 
limited  and  production  so  lessened;  and  at 
least  there  will  not  be  the  horrors  that  to-day 
accompany  what  is  called  overproduction, 
and  which  so  excite  the  wrath  of  socialists — 
an  "  overproduction  "  of  shoes,  when  millions 
are  going  shoeless;  an  overproduction  of 
"  corn,"  when  thousands  die  of  starvation  ; 
an  "overproduction"  of  commodities  which, 
sometimes,  even 'the  very  "  hands  "  that  have 
helped  make  them,  bitterly  long  for,  but  can- 
not buy.  Socialists  are  never  weary  of  pictur- 
ing the  piano-makers,  who  have  no  piano  in 
their  homes;  the  carpet- weavers,  who  return 
to  bare  floors;  the  garment-workers,  who  live 
in  all  but  nakedness.  It  is  little  wonder  the 
term  "overproduction"  seems  to  them  a 
mockery  and  a  lie.  Neither  overproduction, 
nor  ttnder-consumption,  is  to  them  the  root 
evil,  but  unequal  distribution. 

References:  Hobson's  Evolution  of  Modern  Capital- 
ism ;  Lalor's  Cyclopedia  of  Political  Sciences  ;  Article 
Overproduction,  by  A.  T.  Hadley ;  Carroll  D. 
Weight's  Report  on  Industrial  Depressions  (First 
Annual  Report  of  Commissioner  of  Labor,  1886);  D.  A. 
Wells'  Recent  Economic  Changes,  chap,  iii.;  J.  S.  Mill's 
Political  Economy,  book  iii.  chap.  xiv. 

OVERTIME  is  the  time  that  employees 
work  beyond  the  customary  or  legal  hours. 
The  practise  of  working  overtime  exists,  par- 
ticularly in  England,  in  almost  all  trades  to 
some  degree,  and  in  some  trades  is  almost 
universal  and  carried  to  a  large  extent.  When 
firms,  as  in  the  engineering,  printing,  or  dress- 
making trades,  have  orders  that  must  be  filled 
speedily,  they  often  seem  all  but  compelled  to 
work  their  employees  overtime.  And  often 
employees  are  glad  to  do  so — though  whether 
wisely  or  not  we  shall  in  a  moment  con- 
sider— first,  because  they  are  glad  to  work 
more  and  so  earn  more,  and,  secondly,  be- 
cause most  firms  (though  not  all)  pay  at 
higher  rates  for  overtime  than  for  work  in 
ordinary  hours.  The  law,  too,  usually  allows 
overtime  in  certain  trades  for  certain  reasons, 
provided  that  the  employees  are  paid  for 
it.  We  shall  see  that  even  this  paid  over- 
time is  a  questionable  advantage  and  a  ques- 
tionable necessity  ;  but  in  some  trades  over- 


Overtime. 


959 


Overtime. 


time  is  the  rule  and  not  paid  for.  In  some 
trades,  usually  those  paying  the  lowest  wages, 
and  usually  employing  girls,  children,  or  the 
less  intelligent  men  and  women,  employees 
are  continually  compelled  to  work  overtime 
without  extra  payment,  on  threat  of  being  dis- 
charged. Cases  are  by  no  means  rare  where 
girls  and  even  men  are  locked  in  and  com- 
pelled to  work,  sometimes  late  into  the  night 
with  no  extra  pay.  Usually  the  firm  goes 
through  the  form  of  getting  the  employees 
to  consent ;  the  employees  usually  consent, 
knowing  that  if  they  do  not  they  will  be 
soon  discharged.  Sometimes  the  firms  gain 
the  employees'  consent  by  offering  a  little 
lunch,  or,  occasionally,  a  drink.  In  the  clothes- 
making  trade  of  all  descriptions,  and  in  smaller 
shops  of  various  trades,  overtime  is  a  very 
great  evil.  (See  EIGHT-HOUR  MOVEMENT;  also 
SWEATING  SYSTEM.)  Even  where  firms  pay 
employees  for  overtime  and  pay  well,  the 
better  informed  employees  usually  do  not 
desire  it ;  and  sometimes  do  not  desire  it 
even  when,  in  order  to  stand  well 
with  the  boss,  they  consent.  The 
Evils  of  reason  why  it  is  an  evil,  even 
Overtime,  when  well  paid  for,  is,  first,  be- 
cause it  very  seriously  prevents 
the  reduction  of  the  actual  work- 
ing hours  and  thus  forfeits  all  the  very  great 
advantages  of  the  short-hour  movement.  (See 
EIGHT-HOUR  MOVEMENT.)  Often,  and  particu- 
larly in  England,  overtime  work  renders 
practically  nugatory  the  effect  of  short-hour 
legislation.  Second,  overtime,  even  when 
seemingly  paid  for,  is  not  really  paid  for,  and 
employees  get  no  more  pay  than  they  would 
if  they  did  not  work  overtime.  This  is  for  the 
reason  that  what  determines  the  rate  of  pay  is 
not  the  amount  done  or  the  hours  worked,  but 
the  standard  of  living  of  the  operatives  in  the 
given  trade.  Under  competition  no  firm  can 
long  afford  to  give  higher  pay  than  the  lowest 
for  which  operatives  of  the  requisite  ability  are 
willing  to  work.  What  this  is  depends  on 
what  it  costs  the  operatives  to  live.  In  the 
long  run  it  is  found  that  few  operatives  get 
more  than  what  their  standard  of  life  demands 
(though  this,  of  course,  varies  very  much 
between  skilled  and  unskilled  trades,  etc.). 
Therefore,  if  employees  by  working  overtime 
earn  more,  the  firm  can,  and  often  under  com- 
petition must,  lower  the  general  rate  of  wages ; 
and  the  employee  finds  himself  working  over- 
time and  yet  earning  no  more  than  before. 
(See  WAGES  ;  also  PIECE  WORK.) 

Nor    is    overtime    always    so  necessary  or 
advantageous  to  employers  as  they  imagine. 
Occasionally,  in  some  trades,  as  those  above 
mentioned,   it  does    seem  neces- 
sary ;  but  usually  even  where  it 
Not         seems  necessary,  if  it  were  abso- 
Necessary.    lutely  forbidden,  customers  would 
learn   to  think    ahead    and    give 
their  orders  in  time  to  have  them 
fulfilled  in  ordinary  hours  ;  the  firms  would  do 
just  as  much  work,  with  less  friction,  with  less 
payment    at    high    rates    for  overtime,   and, 
above  all,  with  less  demoralizing  effects  on 
their  employees.     Sometimes  employees  who 
work  overtime  will  slacken  work  in  ordinary 


times  in  order  to  get  the  higher  rate  of  pay 
for  overtime  work.  Mr.  Rae  (Eight  Hours 
for  Work,  p.  122)  says  : 


nis  men  used  to  loiter  over  tneir  \ 
hours  in  order  to  get  better  pay 
durine  overtime." 


Mr.  Rae  says  again  (idem,  p.  98)  : 

"The  manager  of  a  Massachusetts  carpet-mill  re- 
ports of  the  lengthening  the  ten-hours  day  by  running 
overtime  for  a  season,  that  the  production  increased 
for  the  first  month  after  the  overtime  began,  but  then 
the  men  grew  listless,  the  quantity  of  their  output  fell 
off,  the  quality  of  the  goods  deteriorated,  and  by  the 
third  month  the  books  showed  that  the  mill  was  doing 
no  more  in  the  day,  with  ten  hours  and  overtime  to 
boot,  than  it  did  before  in  the  ten  hours  alone.  The 
imposition  of  the  strain  takes  time  to  tell  to  the  full  j 
the  relaxation  of  the  strain  does  the  same." 

From  instances  Mr.  Rae  concludes  (idem, 
p.  65)  that  it  is 

"  certainly  very  doubtful  whether  the  world  has  ever 
gained  anything  by  systematic  overtime,  and  whether 
men  would  not  do  quite  the  same  amount  of  work 
from  year's  end  to  year's  end  if  it  were  abolished 
altogether.  Mr.  Bowling,  one  of  the  factory  in- 
spectors, remarks  that  he  was  struck  with  the  fre- 
quency with  which  employers  said  to  him  overtime 
was  utterly  unprofitable,  and  nobody  can  read  any  of 
the  reports  of  commissioners  on  labor  or  trade  ques- 
tions without  being  struck  with  the  same  circum- 
stance. Incidental  overtime  may  be  unavoidable  in 
the  engineering  trade,  but  the  persistent  overtime 
now  habitually  wrought  might  probably  be  abolished 
with  positive  benefit  to  production." 

And  yet  in  the  engineering,  printing,  dress- 
making, and  other  similar  trades,  overtime  is 
the  rule. 

Mr.  Redgrave,  an  English  factory  inspector, 
states  that  in  1872  all  the  nine-hour  trades 
wrought  systematic  overtime,  and  mentions, 
the  case  of  an  engineering  firm  that  had  re- 
cently adopted  the  nine-hours'  system,  but 
whose  men,  though  nominally  working  54 
hours  a  week,  were  actually  working  84  and 
being  paid  for  106. 

Says  an  English  writer  in  Goodwill  for  May, 
1894: 

"  The  overtime  special  exception  of  the  Factory  and 
Workshop  Act  provides  that  women  and  girls  may 
be  employed  14,  instead  of  12  hours,  on  48  days  in  the 
year,  in  such  trades  as  the  making  of  wearing  apparel, 
printing,  the  preparation  of  articles  of  food,  etc.,  pro- 
vided that  certain  conditions  are  fulfilled,  and  a  notice 
of  such  employment  posted  to  H.  M.  Inspector  of 
Factories  on  each  day  that  such  overtime  is  worked. 
Girls  working  in  dressmaking  and  millinery  establish- 
ments form  the  largest  section  of  the  community 
influenced  by  this  portion  of  the  Act,  and  there  are 
perhaps  few  trades — whether  we  regard  the  moral  or 
physical  well-being  of  the  girls — in  which  a  working 
day  of  14  hours,  from  8  A.  M.  to  10  P.  M.,  seems  less 
desirable. 

"  It  is  said  that  the  immediate  employers— we  are 
especially  considering  dressmaking  and  millinery 
establishments — would  lose  custom,  did  they  not 
oblige  their  customers  by  undertaking  unexpected 
orders,  executing,  for  instance,  a  large  mourning 
order  in  a  couple  of  days ;  but  is  there  no  other  way 
out  of  the  difficulty  thai}  to  retain  the  girls  and 
women,  who  have  already  worked  twelve  hours,  for 
another  two  hours? 

"(It  must  be  remembered  that  mourning  orders 
admittedly  take  precedence  of  any  other  work  in 
hand.)  Customers  reasonably  object  to  such  work 
being  sent  to  outworkers;  but  would  it  be  impossible 
for  employers  to  keep  a  register  of  capable  women, 
trained  day-workers,  who  would  be  glad  to  come  for 
a  day's  work  when  there  is  extra  pressure.  .  .  . 

"  So  long  ago  as  1872  Miss  Emily  Faithful  presented 
a  numerously  signed  memorial  praying  for  its  repeal 
[the  Special'Exception  Clause],  and  in  1875  the  Royal 


Overtime. 


960 


Owen,  Robert. 


Commission  appointed  to  inquire  into  the  working  of 
the  Factory  Act  thus  referred  to  the  subject:  'We 
trust  in  time  that  the  use  of  overtime  in  trades  of  this 
class  may  be  restricted  down  to  the  vanishing  point, 
and  we  believe  that  not  even  in  the  most  extreme  case 
set  before  us  is  it  absolutely  necessary  to  the  interests 
of  society  that  those  who  minister  to  its  wants  should 
be  overtasked  to  supply  them.' 

"It  is  noteworthy  that  a  large  number  of  firms 
entitled  to  work  overtime  do  not  do  so,  and  the  dislike 
entertained  for  the  system  by  some  of  the  largest 
establishments  was  represented  to  the  Commission. 
This  might  seem  sufficient  denial  of  the  necessity  of  it 
for  successful  trade. 

"Of  the  large  number  of  firms  entitled  to  work 
overtime  in  four  typical  counties  (the  metropolis  not 
included),  only  854  notices  were  sent  in,  during  12 
months,  by  71  firms;  a  considerable  majority  prosper- 
ing equally  well  without  it." 

References  :  (See  SHORT-HOUR  MOVEMENT;  WAGES  ; 
SWEATING  SYSTEM;  PIECE-WORK.) 


OUT  OF  WORK  BENEFITS. 

"UNIONS  ;  also  UNEMPLOYMENT. 


See  TRADE 


OWEN,  ROBERT,  sometimes  called  "  the 
father  of  modern  communism,"  was  born  at 
the  village  of  Newtown,  Montgomeryshire,  in 
North  Wales,  in  1771.  At  ten  years  of  age  he 
was  put  to  work  in  a  draper's  shop,  but  later 
he  removed  to  Manchester  where,  when  only 
nineteen  years  old,  he  was  made  manager  of 
a.  large  cotton  mill.  He  became  very  suc- 
cessful in  cotton  manufacturing.  In  the  year 
1800  he  purchased,  with  his  partners,  the  New 
Lanark  Mills  on  the  Clyde,  where  Arkwright 
had  in  1789  erected  one  of  the  earliest  cotton- 
spinning  establishments.  His  aim  was  to 
conduct  the  New  Lanark  Mills  on  higher 
principles  than  those  common  among  manu- 
facturers. 

He  tells  us,  in  his  autobiography,  with  what 
enormous  difficulties  he  had  to  cope  when  he 
purchased  the  property  in  1799.  The  position 
of  the  workers,  as  in  all  the  factories  of  the 
period,  was  most  pitiable.  Women  and  chil- 
dren of  the  most  tender  age  were  employed 
under  conditions  which  debased  both  mind 
and  morals  ;  drunkenness  and  ignorance,  "filth 
.and  immorality,  were  the  characteristics  of 
the  population.  Owen  believed,  however,  in 
the  omnipotent  effect  of  circumstance  in 
molding  character  ;  the  notion  that  individ- 
uals form  their  own  character  he  called 
"  the  enemy  of  humanity,  the  hydra  of  human 
calamity."  He  therefore  set  himself  to  work 
out  reform  on  this  principle. 

Drunkenness  was  discountenanced  by  the 
introduction  of  resorts  where  the  workmen 
could  find  both  pleasure  and  profit ;  im- 
morality was  checked  by  informal  lectures 
setting  forth  its  practical  evils,  as  well  as 
by  various  ingenious  contrivances  calculated 
to  appeal  to  the  honor  of  the  operatives  ;  the 
employment  of  young  children  was  discon- 
tinued ;  the  homes  of  the  people  were  mate- 
rially improved  ;  good,  honest  provisions  were 
supplied  at  cost  price  ;  children's  schools  were 
started,  and  insurance  funds  against  old  age 
and  illness  were  not  forgotten.  His  career  at 
New  Lanark  was  the  most  fruitful  and  benef- 
icent epoch  in  an  eventful  life,  and  for  many 
years  he  centered  his  attention  on  the  neces'- 
sary  and  the  possible. 

Owen's  first  book  was  A  New  View  of 
Society,  or  Essays  on  the  Principle  of  the 


Formation  of  the  Hitman  Character,  consist- 
ing of  four  essays,  the  first  of  which  was  pub- 
lished in  1813.  This  book  contains  Owen's 
creed,  that  man's  character  is  made  by  cir- 
cumstances, and  that  the  one  important  thing 
to  do,  therefore,  is  to  establish  a  right  physi- 
cal, moral,  and  social  environment. 

In  1815  Owen  began  an  agitation  for  a 
factory  law  curtailing  the  hours  of  work,  pro- 
hibiting infant  labor,  and  affording  health  and 
education  to  operatives. 

Notwithstanding  the  opposition  of  the  em- 
ployers and  the  doleful  predictions  of  the 
orthodox  economists,  who  foresaw  the  ruin  of 
English  industry  by  this  unheard  of  violation 
of  Taissez  faire,  the  bill  finally  became  a  law 
in  1819 — the  precursor  of  many  reforms  which 
have  totally  changed  the  condition  of  the 
English  workman.  "  For  this,"  says  Professor 
Seligman,  "  if  for  nothing  else,  Owen  is  de- 
serving of  the  highest  praise  and  gratitude." 

Owen's  first  public  step  in  the  path  of 
socialism  may  be  said  to  have  been  the 
famous  report  which,  in  1817,  he  communi- 
cated to  a  committee  of  the  House  of  Com- 
mons on  the  Poor  Laws.  In  this  report  he 
pointed  out  that  the  only  permanent  remedy 
for  distress  was  the  united  action  of  men  and 
the  subordination  of  machinery.  For  the 
treatment  of  pauperism  he  recommended 
communities. 

He  outlined  the  plan  of  a  cooperative  agri- 
cultural and  manufacturing  village.  "  This," 
says  Professor  Seligman,  "  was  a  most  impor- 
tant step,  the  turning-point  in  his  career  and 
the  virtual  beginning  of  English  socialism." 

Every  one  was  to  work  for  the  benefit  of 
all ;  the  meals  were  to  be  cooked  and  eaten  in 
common  ;  dormitories  in  the  shape  of  parallel- 
ograms were  to  be  erected,  and  the  details  of 
government  regulated  in  the  most  minute 
manner.  Owen  became  a  fanatic  in  the 
prosecution  of  his  new  ideal ;  considering  him- 
self the  most  popular  man  in  the  kingdom, 
and  influenced  by  the  lavish  attention  heaped 
on  him  from  all  quarters.  His  plans  were 
supported  by  many  prominent  men  in  Eng- 
land, including  his  special  patron,  the  Duke 
of  Kent,  the  father  of  Queen  Victoria.  But 
at  this  juncture  his  violent  attack  on  all 
religions  alienated  the  affections  of  many 
influential  adherents — and  it  must  be  said 
that  he  showed  a  narrow-mindedness  as  great 
as  that  which  he  ascribed  to  his  opponents. 
The  change  in  his  career  was,  however,  the 
result  not  so  much  of  his  religious  as  of  his 
socialistic  views.  Owen  was  now  a  world 
regenerator,  an  extremist,  a  socialistic  idealist, 
whose  confident  anticipation  of  a  millennium 
seemed  to  increase  in  inverse  ratio  to  the 
failure  of  his  practical  schemes. 

In  1825  he  purchased  New  Harmony  of  the 
Rappites,  who  returned  to  Pennsylvania.  New 
Harmony,  at  the  time  of  its  purchase,  con- 
tained some  30,000  acres,  3000  of  it  under 
cultivation,  with  19  detached  farms  and  a 
regular  village  with  streets,  squares,  churches, 
schools,  and  other  edifices.  (See  NE\V  HAR- 
MONY.) Here  Owen  soon  collected  over  900 
souls  of  "  all  classes  and  conditions  of  men," 
which  he  endeavored  to  constitute  into  a 


961 


Pacific  Railway  Debts. 


community  on  the  basis  of  exact  equality, 
and  in  practise  of  community  of  labor  and  of 
goods. 

To  enter  into  the  details  of  his  communities 
would  be  impossible.  The  short-lived  experi- 
ments of  Motherwell  and  Orbiston  in  Scotland, 
and  of  New  Harmony  in  Indiana,  are  well 
known.  But  Owen,  nothing  daunted,  made 
a  triumphal  visit  to  America  in  1829,  being 
greeted  with  universal  acclamation,  as  on  the 
Continent  ten  years  before.  He  had  almost 
completed  negotiations  with  the  Mexican  Gov- 
ernment for  the  grant  of  an  immense  tract  on 
which  to  attempt  his  experiment  on  a  large 
scale — the  President  had  signified  his  adhe- 
rence to  the  scheme — when  suddenly,  with  the 
fall  of  the  liberal  government,  all  the  bright 
prospects  again  vanished. 

After  this  inglorious  attempt,  Owen's  in- 
terest in  cooperation  gradually  vanished  ;  his 
energy  being  henceforth  centered  on  the 
propagation  of  his  all-embracing  socialistic 
schemes.  On  returning  from  America  he 
made  London  the  seat  of  his  activity.  Re- 
peated addresses  were  issued,  numerous  asso- 
ciations formed,  while  the  most  bizarre  ideas 
were  proposed,  such  as  the  floating  cooperative 
community  on  the  Thames.  In  1832  was  es- 
tablished the  "Labor  Exchange  System." 
In  1835  the  word  socialism  first  appears  in 
Owen's  propaganda.  After  an  unsuccessful 
attempt  to  win  over  the  trades-unions,  at 


whose  first  large  congress  he  presided,  Owen 
became  still  wilder.  Bentham  says  that :  "  He 
begins  in  vapor  and  ends  in  smoke."  In  1850 
he  called  the  world  a  great  lunatic  asylum, 
but  was  still  full  of  confidence  in  his  panacea  ; 
shortly  after,  he  absolutely  denied  the  right  of 
property,  and  became  an  ardent  spiritualist ; 
and  in  his  last  year  the  old  man  showed  the 
persistence  of  his  convictions  by  addressing 
an  open  letter  to  the  potentates  of  the  earth, 
and  by  writing  an  autobiography  full  of 
youthful  enthusiasm.  He  died  at  the  age  of 
87  in  his  native  town,  November  19,  1858. 

Owen  was  thus  a  visionary ,  like  St.  Simon  and 
Fourier  ;  but,  more  than  they,  he  had  a  most 
beneficent  effect  on  the  social  progress  of  his 
country.  His  economic  doctrines  were  crude 
and  often  absurd  ;  his  theory  of  marriage  was, 
to  say  the  least,  peculiar  ;  his  socialistic  views 
were  Utopian  ;  but  he  succeeded  in  proving  that 
a  factory  could  be  made  to  benefit  both  master 
and  workman  ;  he  initiated  the  reform  in  the 
condition  of  the  laboring  classes  ;  he  laid  the 
firm  foundation  on  which  the  cooperative 
movement  of  our  times  is  erecting  its  suc- 
cessful edifice. 

Besides  what  has  been  already  mentioned, 
Owen  wrote  :  Book  of  the  New  Moral  World 
(1826-44),  Revolution  in  the  Mind  and  Prac- 
tise of  the  Human  Race,  and  The  Life  of 
Robert  Owen,  written  by  Himself,  London, 
1857.  (See  also  ENGLAND  AND  SOCIAL  REFORM.) 


P 


PACIFIC  RAILWAY  DEBTS.— In  order 
to  aid  the  building  of  the  Pacific  Railway,  Con- 
gress (see  CREDIT  MOBILIER),  loaned  the  Cen- 
tral Pacific  Railway  Company,  originally,  $64,- 
623,512.  Bonds  were  issued  at  6  per  cent., 
maturing  in  1895,  '96,  '97.  '98,  and  '99.  These 
6  per  cent,  bonds  are  a  full  obligation  of  the 
United  States,  as  between  the  holders  and  the 
Government ;  there  is  nothing,  therefore,  for 
the  Treasury  to  do,  but  to  pay  them,  or  to  ex- 
tend them  on  acceptable  terms.  Since  they 
are  security  for  circulating  bank-notes,  the 
latter  course  can  easily  be  followed,  at  not 
more  than  3  nor  less  than  2  per  cent.,  at  the 
convenience  of  the  Treasury.  But  as  between 
the  Government  and  the  companies  who  first 
received  them  they  constitute  a  debt  nominally 
due  and  payable  by  the  latter,  or  their  succes- 
sors, together  with  arrearages  of  interest  also 
advanced,  and  only  in  part  reimbursed  by 
transportation  services,  or  provided  for  by  sink- 
ing-fund accumulations.  The  amount  of  this 
arrearage  may  now  (1.895)  be  approximated,  and 
it  is  evident  that,  dealing  with  all  the  debtor 
companies  together,  it  will  fall  not  far  short  of 
the  principal  sums,  or  about  $125,000,000111  all, 
of  which  fully  $70,000,000  will  be  for  the  Cen- 
tral Pacific,  and  $55,000,000  for  the  Union. 
The  exact  figures  at  any  given  date  cannot  be 
stated  with  precision  on  account  of  the  mass  of 
counter-credits  for  services  delayed,  disputed, 
or  otherwise  in  suspense.  Some  authorities 
put  it  at  $138,000,000. 

61 


By  the  Act  of  1862,  construed  literally,  these 
advances  were  secured  by  a  "  first  mortgage  " 
(subsequently,  in  1864,  waived)  upon  the  condi- 
tion that  "  said  company  shall  pay  said  bonds 
at  maturity,"  and  that  on  a  failure  or  refusal  to 
redeem  said  bonds  or  any  part  of  them,  when 
required  to  do  so,  the  United  States  might 
take  possession  of  the  aided  property  for  its 
own  use  and  benefit.  There  are  other  compli- 
cated provisions  for  partial  current  payments 
for  service  and  in  one-twentieth  of  the  "  net 
earnings."  It  is  evident  that  these  cautionary 
clauses  were  properly  introduced  to  secure 
something  beyond  and  more  important  than 
the  return  of  the  face  value  of  the  bonds  and 
interest  at  a  given  date,  viz.,  the  early  comple- 
tion of  the  road,  or,  that  failing,  the  control  of 
the  corpus,  and  if  need  be,  its  transfer  toother 
hands. 

Unfortunately  for  the  Government,  Con- 
gress was  in  1864  induced  to  make  its  claim  a 
second  mortage  on  the  roads  instead  of  a  first 
mortgage,  and,  still  more  unfortunately,  the 
original  contract  was  drawn  in  such  a  peculiar 
way  that  the  Supreme  Court  has  decided  that 
only  the  main  lines  of  the  roads  (and  not  their 
branches)  are  subject  to  the  Government's  lien. 
This  means  that  the  Government's  claim  of 
$138,000,000  is  secured  by  a  second  mortgage 
on  only  2500  miles  of  road.  In  other  words, 
the  Government's  second  mortgage  amounts 
to  $55,000  a  mile,  or  twice  as  much  as  the  total 
cost  per  mile  of  constructing  President  Hill's 


Pacific  Railway  Debts. 


962 


Pacific  Railway  Debts. 


t  .          , 
Of  Stock, 


new  road  (the  Great  Northern)  from  Minne- 
apolis to  Seattle.  Plainly,  therefore,  the  prop- 
erty is  not  normally  worth  more  than  half  as 
much  as  the  Government's  mortgage  upon  it. 
The  Government  has,  however,  in  the  case 
of  the  Central  Pacific,  one  further  resource. 
This  road  is  a  California  corporation,  and  its  in- 
corporators  were  by  law  liable  for  its  debts  up 
to  the  full  amount  of  its  stock.  The  Central 
Pacific  owes  the  Government  $77,000,000,  and 
the  four  estates  of  Messrs.  Hopkins,  Stanford, 
Crocker,  and  Huntington  are  liable  for  $64,- 
000,000  —  the  amount  of  the  stock  held  by  them 
at  the  time  of  the  incorporation. 

Concerning  the  transactions  of  the  Pacific 
company,  the  report  of  the  Pacific  Railway 
Commission  of  1887  says,  in  brief: 

"  Congress  enacted  that  the  companies  should  have 
their  stock  fully  paid  in  cash.  The  stock  actually  paid 
in  amounted  to  $1,707,000  ;  the  stock  paid  in  '  as  sworn 
to'  amounted  to  $(57,098,000.  The  2496  miles  of  aided 
roads  were  built  at  a  cost  of  $95,955,000.  Stocks  and 
bonds  were  issued  on  these  to  the  amount  of  $268,302,- 
ooo,  all  of  which  was  taken  by  the  men  who  built  and 
managed  the  roads.  In  the  accounts  of  the  Central 
Pacific  Company  the  division  of  earnings  for  improper 
purposes  amounted  to  many  millions,  through  con- 
tracts made  by  Messrs.  Stanford,  Huntington,  Hop- 
kins, and  Crocker  with  themselves.  They  constructed 
1171  miles  of  road  adjunct  lines,  at  a  cost  of  $27,217,000. 
On  account  of  that  construction,  in  addition  to  a  small 
cash  payment,  they  issued  bonds  to  themselves  to  the 
amount  of  $33,722,000,  and  stock  to  the  amount  of  $49,- 
005,000.  Then  as  directors  of  the  Central 
Pacific,  they  took  leases  of  their  own 
lines  for  the  Central  Pacific  for  $3,400,- 
ooo  per  annum;  which  was  at  the  rate  of 
nearly  13  per  cent.  Fifteen  months  ago 
[in  i886J  three  of  these  directors  [Stan- 
ford, Huntington,  and  Crocker]  con- 
tracted with  themselves  to  build  an  extension  of  103 
miles.  In  payment  they  issued  stock  to  the  amount  of 
$8,000,000,  and  bonds  to  the  amount  of  $4,500,000,  the 
market  value  of  the  stock  and  bonds  being  at  the  time 
$8,340,000.  The  actual  cost  of  construction  was  $3,505,- 
ooo,  so  that  they  personally  profited  by  their  own  votes 
by  that  single  transaction  to  the  extent  of  $4,834,000, 
etc.,  etc.  Had  the  Pacific  railroads  been  built  and 
managed  upon  honest  methods,  had  the  Government 
loan  been  properly  applied,  these  companies,  regarded 
as  a  whole,  could  have  declared  dividends  at  the  rate 
of  6  per  cent,  per  annum  for  eighteen  years,  from  the 
date  of  actual  completion  to  the  present  time,  upon  all 
the  moneys  that  they  would  have  been  required  to  pay 
in  to  complete  and  equip  the  roads  ;  they  would  have 
owned  2495  miles  of  roads  free  from  all  debt,  and  worth 
$124,700,000,  upon  an  original  outlay  of  less  than  $35,- 
490,381.44  ;  three  of  them,  the  Union  Pacific,  Central 
Pacific,  and  Central  Branch,  could  have  repaid  every 
cent  of  the  principal  and  interest  advanced  by  the 
Government  to  date,  and  could  have  reduced  their 
charges  to  shippers  to  the  extent  of  over  $140,000,000,  or 
nearly  $8,000,000  per  year.  But  they  chose  dishonest 
methods.  At  the  outset  they  divided  $172,347,113  of 
fictitious  capital,  they  dissipated  over  $107,000,000 
which  should  have  been  applied  to  the  payment  of  the 
principal  and  interest  of  the  Government  debt,  and 
they  taxed  shippers  to  the  extent  of  over  $140,000,000,  or 
nearly  $8,000,000  a  year,  to  pay  for  the  inflation  of  the 
capital  of  these  companies,  and  for  the  vicious  prac- 
tises that  crept  into  their  management." 

Concerning  what  the  Government  should 
now  do  in  the  premises  there  are  many  opin- 
ions, and  various  bills  on  the  matter  have  been 
introduced  into  Congress.  The  Pacific  Fund- 
ing Bill  of  the  last  Congress  proposed  to  ex- 
empt the  estates  of  the  incorporators,  and  to 
continue  the  Government's  loan  ($138,000,000) 
for  fifty  years  at  3  per  cent,  interest.  To  the 
Government  it  offered  the  concession  of  chang- 
ing the  Government's  lien  from  the  main  lines 
of  the  roads  to  all  the  lines. 

The  opponents   of  the  Funding   Bill   urged 


that  it  was  the  duty  of  the  Government  as  well 
as  its  right  to  prosecute  its  legal  claims  upon 
the  stockholders  of  the  companies  which  have 
defrauded  it,  and  to  dissolve  the  partnership 
with  them.  A  part  of  the  opponents  were  in 
favor  of  having  the  Government  sell  in  the 
open  market  its  property  in  the  roads,  and 
go  out  of  the  railroad  business;  the  remainder 
were  in  favor  of  having  the  Government  take 
up  the  first  mortgage  bonds,  and  either  lease 
or  operate  the  roads  as  Government  property. 
The  union  of  these  two  forces  resulted  in  the 
killing  of  the  bill  by  a  vote  of  177  to  106. 

The  opponents  of  the  Funding  Bill  agreed 
with  its  advocates  in  just  one  thing.  They  ad- 
mitted that  the  main  lines  of  the  Pacific  roads 
are  not  worth  half  as  much  as  the  Government 
has  advanced  upon  them.  They  insisted,  how- 
ever, that  the  financial  interests  of  the  Gov- 
ernment and  its  moral  interests  both  demand- 
that  the  claims  of  the  Government  against  the 
directors  of  the  Central  Pacific  be  prosecuted. 

Mr.  Richard  T.  Colburn,  to  whose  article  in 
the  Annals  of  the  American  Academy  for 
March,  1895,  we  are  mainly  indebted  for  the 
above  facts,  says  that  there  are  three  courses- 
which  the  Government  can  pursue: 

I.  It  can  relinquish  the  debt,  except  as  re- 
paid by  current  services. 

II.  Attempted  foreclosure    and   possession, 
followed  by  transfer  to  new  owners  or  lessees, 
or  operation  for  Government  account. 

III.  Extension  of  the  debt  at  such  rate  of 
interest  as  the  earnings  will  justify  after  pro- 
viding for  necessary  prior  fixed  charges. 

Of  these  courses,  he  says  in  brief  : 

"First. — Pleas  have  been  made  before  Congressional 
committees,  not  without  ingenuity,  to  have  these 
debts  waived  and  expunged,  or  rather  commuted  into 
a  perpetual  obligation  to  carry  mails,  troops,  and  sup- 
plies. Had  this  enterprise  failed  to  pay  its  way,  as  was 
expected,  or  had  its  promoters  paid  every  demand 
except  only  profits  to  the  shareholders,  there  are 
many  plausible  and  equitable  reasons  why  a  magnani- 
mous course  would  be  opportune.  Nobody,  however,, 
has  had  the  hardihood  to  formulate  such  a  bill  or  re- 
port. On  the  other  hand,  there  are  more  grave  rea- 
sons why  the  claim  should  be  treated  as  a  valid  debt, 
to  be  repaid  to  the  last  dollar.  It  will  never  do  to  set  up 
the  Treasury  as  a  target  to  be  aimed  at  on  the  prin- 
ciple of  condoning  failures.  The  Nicaragua  Canal 
Company  in  some  shape  will  be  the  next  applicant  for 
Treasury  assistance,  and  no  worse  precedent  (for  its 
success)  could  be  devised  than  to  condone  the  debt  to 
the  Pacific  Railroad  Companies.  It  would  be  prefer- 
able to  let  it  stand,  tho  it  were  indeed  a  hopelessly 
'bad  debt.' 

'•'•Second. — Nor  is  the  expediency  of  resort  to  foreclose 
any  more  hopeful.    As  already  stated,  the  right  of  the 
Government  to  take  possession   under 
this    statutory   mortgage  is  not  clear. 
Beyond  doubt  its  right  to  do  so  was  in 
full   force  until  the  completion  of  the 
road  was  a  fact  or  in  plain  sight.    With 
the  junction  of  the  rails  in  May,  1869, 
that  right  lapsed  forever,  except  in  the 
improbable  contingency  of  an  abandonment  or  neg- 
lect (and  then  only  to  supply  the  omission),  an  event 
not  likely  to  arrive  unless  by  the  complicity  of  the 
Government.    Of  course,   it  is  within  the  sovereign 
power  to  take  forcible   possession    of  this  railroad ; 
subject,  however,  to  the  obligation  to  compensation 
for  private  property    taken ;  but  that    is   a    general 
power  not  derivable  under  its  statutory  claim.  .  .  . 

"  The  practical  situation  is  rather  complicated  than 
cleared  by  the  assertion  of  this  right  of  foreclosure. 
To  begin  with,  the  prior  liens,  equal  in  amount  to  the 
face  of  the  subsidy,  must  be  assumed,  and  either  paid 
off  or  extended.  Suppose  they  were  to  make  common 
cause  with  the  stockholders  and  claim  the  road  itself, 
or  demand  their  money,  they  could,  with  the  same 
cash,  turn  round  and  parallel  every  essential  portion 


Pacific  Railway  Debts. 


963 


Pacific  Railway  Debts. 


of  aided  road,  and  ally  themselves  with  branches 
and  terminal  lines  on  which  the  United  States  has  no 
lien.  No  one  knows  this  advantage  better  than  the 
directors  of  these  companies.  Quite  recently  a  new 
Pacific  line  (the  Great  Northern,  the  fifth  on  United 
States  territory)  has  been  completed  to  Puget  Sound 
at  a  cost  of  one-third  that  of  the  original  Union-Cen- 
tral line.  Furthermore,  who  are  to  be  the  bidders  at  a 
sale  outside  of  the  first  mortgage  holders  and  the 
Government?  Much  as  the  managers  of  railways 
quarrel  among  themselves  for  a  division  of  freight 
money,  there  is  too  much  esprit  du  corps  among  them 
for  any  responsible  company  to  appear  as  a  competi- 
tive bidder.  It  would,  moreover,  be  in  danger  of 
speedy  and  condign  punishment  from  the  owners  of 
these  indispensable  branches,  feeders,  terminal  facili- 
ties, and  tributary  ocean  steam  lines.  No  one  can 
afford  to  own  the  piece  of  railroad  laid  across  these 
dry  deserts  and  high  mountains  and  -which  does  not 
also  have  its  own  entrance  to  either  Council  Bluffs, 
Kansas  City,  Denver,  or  San  Francisco.  The  nation 
is  bound  by  honor  and  contract  to  respect  the  claim  of 
outsiders  to  the  extent  of  $25,000  per  mile  for  the  East- 
ern portion  of  the  main  line,  and  about  $35,000  per  mile 
for  the  Western  portion. 

"  Foreclosure  is  not  only  no  legal  solution  ;  it  is  no 
practical  solution.  It  is  the  forerunner  of  mischief 
only.  In  his  volume,  giving  a  compact  hist9ry  of  the 
work  and  its  tribulations,  entitled  the  Union  Pacific 
Railway,  Mr.  John  P.  Davis,  though  accepting  the 
right  of  foreclosure  without  question,  in  a  concluding 
chapter  as  to  its  future,  sums  up  the  equities  of  the 
case  very  fairly  and  ably,  and  abundantly  disposes  of 
the  expediency  of  it  by  showing  the  multiplied  diffi- 
culties, perplexities,  and  expense  of  an  attempt  to 
operate  the  2494.  miles  of  road  on  which  its  claims 
rest.  .  .  . 

"One  may  have  much  sympathy  with  the  people  of 
California — a  hundred  thousand  of  whom  petition  to 
have  the  decision  take  this  course.  The  evils  they  so 
eloquently  portray,  however,  are  those  which  other 
parts  of  the  country  share  with  them,  to  a  greater  or 
less  extent.  They  see  other  communities  enj  oying  the 
benefits  of  a  sharp  competition  in  rail-carriage,  in 
through  freights  carried  at  bare  train  expenses,  while 
the  burden  of  fixed  charges  and  administration  is  left 
to  be  sustained  by  local  traffic;  that  is  to  say,  a  por- 
tion of  the  traffic  of  railroads  (like  the  business  of  the 
Post-office,  which  tolerates  no  competitor)  is  done  at 
less  than  the  service  costs;  it  is  deemed  better  to  have 
it,  and  keep  the  larger  force  of  men  and  rolling-stock 
employed,  than  to  lose  it.  The  people  of  California 
would  like  the  Government  to  provide  them  with  this 
cheap  carriage  for  their  interior  freights  on  the  same 
basis  as  the  overland  business,  which  they  now  enjoy 
to  the  full,  since  private  capital  is  unwilling  to  do  so. 
The  fares  and  freights  in  California  itself  are  not  high 
nor  unreasonable,  tried  by  any  standard.  This  is  the 
same  grievance,  cropping  up  in  a  hundred  other 
places,  which  the  Interstate  Commerce  Commission 
was  organized  to  grapple  with,  but  which  it  can  do  but 
little  to  alleviate. 

"The  suggestion  emanating  from  the  same  State, 
that  the  Attorney-General  should  bring  suit  against  the 
original  directors  of  the  railway  companies,  to  recover 
large  sums  wrongfully  obtained,  is  not  a  fortunate 
one.     As  a  means  of  reimbursing  these 
maturing  claims,  it  is  inadequate.   This 
Suit          course  was,  in  fact,  tried  years  ago,  as  a 
An-Qinaf  Tn     sequel  of  the  Credit  Mobilier  scandal, 
Against  AH-  be|ore  the  circuit  Court  at  Hartford, 
corporators,   when  the  Court  ruled  that  it  was  for  the 
Union  Pacific  stockholders,  not  the  Gov- 
ernment,  to    move,    as  they  were  the 
parties  wronged,  if  any.    In  like    manner    it    is   the 
stockholders  of  the  Central  Pacific  (now  for  the  most 
part  in  Europe)  who  are  at  liberty  to  bring  suit,  if 
anybody,  for  restitution  of  plunder,  under  this  excep- 
tional California  statute  made  to  curb  the  dishonesty 
of  mining  company  officials,  but  easily  evaded  as  to 
all.    Will  the  stockholders  do  so  ?    No  ;  for  the  reason 
that  it  would  be   throwing  away  good  money  after 
bad  ;  and,  besides,  they  have  to  fear  the  possible  hos- 
tility of  the  same  men,  or  their  successors,  intrenched 
in  power,  and  able  to  injure,  even  if  dislodged.     It  is 
easy  for  the  essayist,  the  lawyer,  or  the  legislator,  un- 
familiar with  the  mysteries  of  Wall  Street  and  railroad 
finance    and  management,  to  make    charges,    frame 
bills  and  indictments,  but  not  so  the  practical  work 
of  negotiation  and  redress. 

"  An  illustration  (one  of  many  drawn  from  the  check- 
ered history  of  the  Union  Pacific  Company)  may  serve 
to  show  how  difficult  is  the  situation  in  this  subdued 


railroad  warfare,  and  how  embarrassing  at  times  is 
the  choice  of  courses,  with  the  best  disposition  to  fol- 
low the  ethically  right.  While  the  Union  Pacific  road 
was  under  construction,  and  J.  Gould  and  J.  Fisk  were 
in  full  control  of  the  Erie,  the  latter  made  an  attempt 
to  '  break  into  '  the  Union  Pacific  Company,  the  asso- 
ciate supposed  to  be  in  the  background.  Some  years 
later,  after  they  had  been  ousted  from  the  Erie,  Gould 
had  acquired  the  Missouri  Pacific,  of  which  the  Kansas 
Pacific  (subsidized)  was  the  natural  prolongation  to- 
ward Denver  and  the  Pacific.  By  the  Act  of  Congress 
the  Union  Company  was  required  to  operate  the  main 
line  with  the  other  Eastern  branches  '  as  one  contin- 
uous line.'  It  claimed  that  to  charge  the  local  rate 
from  the  Cheyenne  Junction,  midway  of  its  length 
(which  rate  was,  in  many  cases,  higher  than  the  rate 
throughout  the  entire  Union  Pacific  line),  was  a  suffi- 
cient compliance  with  the  Act.  Suits  were  carried 
from  court  to  court,  but  in  the  meantime  the  Kansas 
road  was  being  starved,  its  development  cramped. 
Its  stock  went  down  to  near  zero  and  the  first  mort- 
gages to  50.  This  was  Gould's  opportunity,  which, 
with  characteristic  nimbleness  and  secrecy,  he  im- 
proved. He  acquired  enough  stock  of  the  Union  to 
become  a  director,  and  all  of  the  Kansas  he  could  buy, 
in  open  market  or  privately.  He  was  thus  on  both 
sides  of  the  trade  and  informed  of  the  counsels  and 
plans  of  both  parties.  When  it  became  imminent  that 
the  Supreme  Court  would  have  to  decide  in  favor  of 
the  Kansas  Company,  he  suggested  a  consolidation  of 
the  two.  The  other  directors  demurred — for  obvious 
reasons — whereupon  he  replied,  in  effect:  'Very 
well,  gentlemen  ;  as  you  like  ;  but  if  you  refuse  the 
Missouri  and  Kansas  companies  will  build  from  Den- 
ver to  Salt  Lake  and  the  Central  terminus  at  Ogden, 
and  then  where  will  you  be  ? '  This  alternative  would 
have  been  a  proper  and  feasible  thing  to  do.  His 
views  prevailed,  and  the  result  was  an  exchange  of 
share  for  share  of  stock,  the  assumption  of  the  bonded 
and  floating  debt  of  the  impoverished  partner  com- 
pany, payment  of  deferred  interest :  in  all  a  profit  to 
the  shrewd  speculator  and  his  friends  of  not  less  than 
ten  millions,  and  perhaps  nearer  twenty. 

"  There  would  indeed  be  poetic  justice,  and  also  jus- 
tice of  the  law  and  constitution,  if  some  of  these  ex- 
torted gains  could  somehow  be  recovered  for  the 
unfortunate  small  stockholders,  who  are  the  parties 
really  defrauded.  The  Government,  as  we  shall  pres- 
ently see,  may  recover  its  entire  claim  without  allow- 
ance for  equitable  set-off,  but  how  and  whence  are  the 
confiding  shareholders  to  get  back  their  money  when 
a  whole  century's  earnings  are  to  be  pledged  to  others 
in  advance  of  them  ?  True  the  Attorney-General  has 
moved  against  the  Stanford  estate,  ostensibly  on  be- 
half of  this  maturing  claim  of  the  Government,  but  it 
is  likely  that  this  was  intended  and  understood  by 
counsel  more  to  '  stay  waste  '  of  the  assets  than  in 
the  hope  of  securing  any  part  to  the  Treasury,  and  in 
this  way  the  prosecution  is  a  real  service  to  the 
Stanford  University,  rather  than  an  injury,  as  is  some- 
times alleged.  Had  all  the  great  fortunes  made  out 
of  this  Government  subsidy  experiment  been  disposed 
of  for  objects  as  worthy,  and  placed  in  as  enlightened 
and  competent  hands  as  this  one,  Congress  and  the 
public  might  indeed  overlook  or  condone  the  irregu- 
larity of  their  acquisition. 

"There  is  but  one  honorable  way  in  which  approxi- 
mate justice  may  be  done  to  all  parties  concerned  in 
this  Pacific  Railroad  venture,  but,  alas !  it  is  not  free 
from  difficulties.  If,  notwithstanding  the  objections 
to  government  ownership,  it  is  decided  to  take  these 
defaulting  companies'  property,  the  only  fair  way  is  to 
authorize  the  Secretary  of  the  Interior  to  purchase 
the  stock  of  both,  to  be  delivered  within  ninety  days, 
at  say  $50  per  share,  at  which  rate  it  would  secure 
nearly  all  the  $68,000,000  of  Central,  and  $60,000,000  of 
Union,  at  a  cost  under  $64,000,000.  This  would  double 
its  original  investment,  but  by  careful  nursing  it 
might  prove  a  judicious  purchase,  since  it  would 
carry  control  of  four  or  five  times  the  original  aided 
mileage.  The  policy  need  not  be  urged  on  behalf  of 
the  shareholders,  but  on  the  ground  of  fairness.  It  is 
one  of  the  curses  of  corporate  management  that  out  of 
it  the  managing  directors  can  enrich  themselves, 
while  their  confiding  fellow-shareholders  are  impov- 
erished. In  this  respect  the  Pacific  Company  officials 
have  been  conspicuous  offenders.  If  the  legislative 
favor  is  to  be  invoked  on  behalf  of  anybody  besides 
the  local  patrons  of  the  road,  it  may  with  equal  reason 
be  asked  on  behalf  of  defrauded  and  comparatively 
helpless  investors  in  the  stock,  many  of  them  women 
and  orphans  dependent  upon  the  expected  income, 
and  none  the  less  deserving  because,  living  abroad. 


Pacific  Railway  Debts. 


964 


Paine,  Thomas. 


they  trusted  to  the  honor  and  dignity  of  an  American 
enterprise  in  which  the  Government  itself  was  chief 
creditor. 

"  Third. — The  Government  would  seem  to  be  shut 
up  to  the  third  remedy.  Compulsory  or  pursuing  leg- 
islation is  at  best  futile  ;  the  sovereign  authority  can- 
not be  resorted  to  except  as  an  extraordinary  or  war 
power ;  assignment  of  the  stockholders'  rights  is 
hardly  practicable,  because  it  is  but  a  first  step  in  an 
untried  policy  looking  far  beyond  the  recovery  of  the 
xJebts.  There  remains  the  alternative 
of  mutual  accommodation.  Valuable 
nf  as  are  these  lines  of  railway  with  their 
affiliated  connections,  in  the  hands  of 
their  owners ;  the  cooperation  of  stock- 
holders is  necessary  to  meet  these  oner- 
ous claims.  The  margin  between  sol- 
vency and  insolvency  is  too  narrow  to  tolerate  clashing 
or  forcible  measures.  The  nation  being  a  large  cus- 
tomer of  the  roads,  is  enabled  to  get  some  current 
return  upon  its  outlay,  the  equivalent  of  a  low  rate  of 
interest.  By  simply  withholding  the  compensation 
for  transport,  it  gets,  taking  a  series  of  years  together, 
a  rate  of  i  %  per  cent,  on  the  new  debt  (or  3  per  cent,  on 
the  old) ;  or,  taking  the  corporations  separately,  about 
2  per  cent,  from  the  Eastern  and  i  per  cent,  trom  the 
Western;  the  disparity  being  caused  by  the  double 
volume  of  public  service  accruing  to  the  Union  Com- 
pany. An  insurrection,  or  foreign  war,  might  carry 
the  yield  much  higher.  In  view  of  the  equitable  con- 
siderations above  named,  and  the  fact  that  whatever 
the  amounts  demanded,  and  time  granted,  the  pay- 
ments must  be  a  tax  upon  the  local  traffic,  is  not  this 
enough  and  a  fair  basis  for  commutation  of  interest? 

"  How  about  the  repayment  of  the  principal  ?  Some 
inducement  should  be  provided  for  its  early  liquida- 
tion. The  maturity  of  a  fraction  of  the  subsidy  bonds 
does  not  alter  the  moral,  nor  seriously  the  legal,  status 
of  the  parties.  It  is  the  duty  of  the  nation  to  help  the 
credit  of  its  debtor  where  its  own  claims  are  not  prej- 
udiced thereby.  It  can  grant  an  extension  of  time — 
a  long  time — without  sacrifice,  and  as  it  can  do  nothing 
practicable  but  that,  that  should  be  done  willingly 
and  helpfully.  This  extension  need  not  be  as  great 
as  some  of  the  bills  before  Congress  provide,  viz.,  a 
fixed  period  of  fifty  or  a  hundred  years,  all  of  which 
is  to  be  consumed  in  the  process ;  but  ought  to  be  a 
maximum  period  of  a  hundred  years,  with  an  in- 
ducement to  shorten  the  time.  .  .  . 

"  The  Union  Pacific  has  for  years  been  estopped 
from  paying  dividends.  This  has  not  benefited  the 
United  States  a  particle  ;  it  w&s  a  restraint  applied  by 
Congress  years  too  late.  The  result  might  have  been 
foreseen ;  high  rentals,  including  guaranteed  divi- 
dends of  branch  and  tributary  lines,  wholesale  con- 
struction of  new  lines  with  guarantees  of  interest,  or 
'  constructive  mileage  '  allowances.  The  profits  have 
gone  to  insiders,  while  the  entrapped  investors  have  re- 
mained shorn  just  the  same.  The  Oregon  Short  Line, 
the  Northern  Utah  and  Montana,  the  Denver  and  Gulf 
are  specimens  of  the  absurd  competition  with  neigh- 
bor companies  for  territorial  control.  The  receiver- 
ship will  enable  the  insolvent  to  relieve  himself  of  the 
excessive  load  of  some  of  these  burdensome  leases, 
guarantees,  and  preferences ;  but  others  of  them  will 
have  to  be  retained  as  a  charge  upon  the  main  line  for 
many  years. 

"The  Reorganization  Committee  of  the  crippled 
Union  Pacific  bondholders,  in  which  the  Government 
is  amply  represented,  is  reported  to  favor  the  very 
customary  device  in  such  cases  of  a  '  blanket  mort- 
gage,' covering  main-line,  branches,  and  Treasury  as- 
sets, of  an  amount  large  enough  to  cover  all  outstand- 
ing bonded  debt,  estimated  at  $140,000,000,  of  which  it 
is  proposed  to  allot  nearly  one-half  to  ;he  United 
States  in  lieu  of  its  existing  claim.  The  rate  of  inter- 
est on  the  latter  is  to  be  2%  per  cent.,  and  on  the  other 
portions  of  the  issue  4  and  5,  according  to  the  priority 
and  merit  of  their  present  holdings.  If  the  stockhold- 
ers deliberately  choose  thus  to  advance  the  lien  of  the 
Government  to  that  of  coequality  with  the  other  bond- 
holders and  to  postpone  their  hopes  of  returns  for  a 
century,  it  is  an  act  of  uncalled-for  self-sacrifice.  No 
one  will  complain,  unless  the  first  mortgage  holders 
refuse  to  accept  the  security  thus  diluted.  To  carry 
out  such  a  plan  the  Government  must  step  in  as  guar- 
antor that  the  entire  loan  shall  be  taken.  Who  else  is 
to  advance  the  money  to  non-assenting  bondholders  ? 
As  a  dilatory  device  it  may  answer,  but  not  as  a  settle- 
ment. It  does  not  require  the  prophetic  gift  to  fore- 
see that  this  is  practically  an  irredeemable  issue." 

_Such  is  a  conservative,  tho  informed  and  fair, 
view  of  the  situation  at  the  time  when  it  was 


written.  In  January,  1897,  however,  when  the 
second  mortgage  bonds  came  to  maturity,  there 
was  a  violent  discussion  of  the  whole  subject  in 
Congress,  and  a  proposition  to  extend  the  debt 
made  by  the  railroads  affected  was  defeated  in 
the  House  January  1 1  by  a  vote  of  168  to  102. 
There  was  nothing  left  for  the  administration 
but  to  order  foreclosure  in  the  courts.  Since 
then  various  propositions  have  been  made.  It 
has  been  proposed  that  the  Government  keep 
the  ownership  of  the  roadbed  and  allow  various 
railroads  to  run  over  it.  It  is  more  probable 
that  a  syndicate  will  buy  the  road. 

PAINE,  THOMAS,  was  born  at  Thetford, 
Eng.,  in  1737,  the  son  of  a  Quaker  stay -maker. 
He  learned  his  father's  trade,  but  did  much  pri- 
vate studying.  In  1756  he  served  a  short  time 
on  a  privateer.  In  1759  he  married,  but  his  wife 
died  in  1760.  In  1762  he  obtained  a  post  in  the 
revenue  service.  In  1765  he  was  discharged  for 
irregular  conduct,  but  was  restored  the  next 
year.  Waiting  for  a  vacancy,  he  taught  school 
and  preached.  In  1771  he  married  the  daugh- 
ter of  a  deceased  tobacconist  at  Lewis,  and  con- 
tinued the  tobacconist's  trade.  He  published  in 
1772  The  Case  of  the  Officers  of  the  Excise, 
which  led  to  his  discharge  from  the  excise  ser- 
vice in  1774  He  also  this  year  separated  from 
his  wife.  Invited  by  Franklin,  he  now  went 
to  America,  and  soon  found  employment  in 
Philadelphia  as  editor  of  the  Pennsylvania 
Magazine.  He  wrote  against  slavery,  and 
January  10,  1776,  published  his  celebrated  Com- 
mon Sense,  of  which  120,000  copies  were  sold  in 
three  months.  December  19,  1776,  he  published 
in  the  Pennsylvania  Journal  the  first  number 
of  The  Crisis,  and  continued  the  numbers 
irregularly  through  the  war,  exerting  wide  in- 
fluence for  independence  and  republicanism. 
In  1777  he  was  chosen  secretary  of  the  Commit- 
tee of  Foreign  Affairs,  but  was  dismissed  and 
censured  by  Congress  in  1779  for  revealing  se- 
crets. He  was  soon  after  elected  clerk  of  the 
General  Assembly  of  Pennsylvania.  He  re- 
ceived in  1780  a  degree  from  the  University  of 
Pennsylvania,  and  in  1781  went  with  Colonel 
Laurens  to  France  and  negotiated  a  loan,  for 
which  Congress  gave  him  $3000,  and  New  York 
an  estate,  and  Pennsylvania  $2500.  In  1787  he 
went  again  to  France  and  then  to  England, 
where  in  1791-92  he  published  in  London  his 
Rights  of  Man,  a  reply  to  Burke,  and  defence 
of  the  French  Revolution.  France  made  him  a 
citizen,  and  in  1792  he  was  elected  deputy  from 
Calais.  He  acted  with  the  Girondists  and  op- 
posed the  execution  of  the  king.  He  was  im- 
prisoned by  Robespierre  from  1 793-94,  narrowly 
escaping  the  guillotine.  In  prison  he  complet- 
ed his  Age  of  Reason,  and  published  it  when 
released  in  1795.  He  again  took  his  seat  in  the 
Convention  and  resided  two  years  with  James 
Monroe,  United  States  Minister  to  France.  In 
1802  he  returned  to  the  United  States  in  a 
United  States  sloop  of  war  and  was  cordially 
received  at  Washington,  New  York,  and  Phila- 
delphia. He  was,  however,  opposed  by  the 
Federalists  and  branded  by  the  orthodox  as  an 
atheist,  tho  he  was  really  a  free- thinking  theist. 
He  lived  in  comparative  obscurity  in  New  York, 
and  died  on  his  estate  at  New  Rochelle  in  1809. 


Palgrave,  Robert  Harry  Inglis. 


965 


Paper  Money. 


PALGRAVE,  ROBERT  HARRY  IN- 
GLIS, was  born  in  London  in  1827 — the  son  of 
Sir  Francis  Palgrave,  the  well-known  historian 
and  author.  His  eldest  brother  is  Francis 
Turner  Palgrave,  professor  of  poetry  at  Oxford. 
R.  H.  Inglis  Palgrave  was  educated  at  Charter- 
house, but  early  went,  to  Great  Yarmouth 
and  entered  a  banking-house.  Interested  in 
economics,  he  won  a  prize,  awarded  in  1870  by 
the  Statistical  Society  of  London,  for  his  essay, 
Local  Taxation  of  Great  Britain  and  Ire- 
land. In  1877  he  became  associated  with 
Mr.  Bagehot  on  the  Economist,  and,  on  Mr. 
Bagehot's  death,  its  editor.  In  1882  he  was 
elected  Fellow  of  the  Royal  Society,  and,  in 
1885,  was  appointed  one  of  Her  Majesty's  Com- 
mission on  the  Depression  of  Trade  and  In- 
dustry. His  most  recent  work  is  to  edit  the 
Dictionary  of  Political  Economy,  now  being 
published  by  Macmillan  &  Co.,  London. 

PANAMA  CANAL.— From  the  time  of  the 
Spanish  conquest  of  America  a  navigable  con- 
nection between  the  Atlantic  and  Pacific  has 
been  desired.  Many  years  of  voyaging  were 
needed  before  men  gave  up  the  idea  of  a  natu- 
ral strait  between  the  two  oceans  somewhere 
in  or  near  the  Tropics.  When,  however,  it 
was  realized  that  a  continuous  continent  lay 
across  the  pathway,  attention  was  naturally 
turned  to  speculations  on  the  best  route  for 
an  interoceanic  canal.  The  Isthmus  of  Pan- 
ama furnishes  the  most  obvious  route,  as  is 
evident  from  the  map.  It  is  narrow  and  low, 
the  summit  level  of  the  railroad  which  now 
runs  across  it  being  only  287  feet  above  sea- 
level.  A  survey  of  the  Isthmus  was  made  by 
a  French  engineer  in  1843,  and  later  by  the 
chief  engineer  of  the  Panama  Railroad, 
George  M.  Totten.  This  latter  survey  was 
afterward  renewed  by  the  United  States  Gov- 
ernment, and  a  route  marked  out  from  the 
Bay  of  Aspinwall  to  Panama  on  the  Pacific 
coast.  On  May  15,  1879,  a  congress  of  dele- 
gates from  24  countries,  summoned  by  Count 
Ferdinand  de  Lesseps,  met  at  Paris  to  decide 
upon  a  plan  for  an  interoceanic  canal.  In  or- 
der to  have  a  canal  without  locks,  the  congress 
decided  on  the  Panama  route,  the  canal  to  run 
from  Limon  Bay  to  Panama.  The  Universal 
Interoceanic  Canal  Company  was  organized 
under  French  laws,  and  under  a  concession 
from  the  government  of  Columbia. 

Their  first  estimate  of  the  cost  of  the  canal, 
made  by  the  congress,  was  $120,000,000.  In 

1888,  however,  $200,000,000  had  been  expended, 
and    only   one-third    of    the    work    was    com- 
pleted.    But   much    of    the    money   had  been 
wasted  or  embezzled,   and  it  was  found   im- 
possible to  raise  more.     The  work  stopped  in 

1889.  An    official    commission   estimated  that 
the  completion  of  the  canal  would  cost  $342,- 
000,000,  and    in    1890  the  receiver,    who    had 
been  appointed  by  the    French    Government, 
estimated  the  remaining  cost  at  $600,000,000. 
All  this  was  largely  owing  to  corruption  and 
mismanagement  ;  and  an  investigation  led  the 
Government  to  prosecute  certain  directors  of 
the  Panama  Canal   Company,  including   Fer- 
dinand de  Lesseps  and    his   son   Charles,  on 
charges  of  swindling.     The  defendants  were 


convicted  ;  and  an  investigation  in  the  Cham- 
ber of  Deputies  resulted  in  charging  1 1  direct- 
ors, ex-ministers,  deputies,  and  senators  with 
bribery  and  corruption. 

PANTALEONI,  MAFFEO,  was  born  in 
Frascati  in  1857,  and  now,  at  the  head  of  the 
Bari  School  of  Commerce,  is  in  the  first  rank  of 
writers  on  taxation  and  other  financial  themes. 
Achille  Loria  (Annals  of  the  American  Acad- 
emy of  Political  and  Social  Science,. vol.  ii., 
p.  216)  says  that  his  La  Teoria  della  Trasla- 
zione  dei  Tributi  investigates  the  reactions  of 
taxes  "  with  a  marvelous  acuteness,  not  equaled 
in  the  pages  of  any  other  Italian  writer."  In 
1889  he  published  Principii  de  economia  pura. 
which  has  been  translated  into  English.  His 
theory  of  value  conforms  in  general  to  that  of 
Jevons,  but  he  has  criticised  alike  the  English 
and  the  Austrian  school. 

PAPER  MONEY.— Money  (q.v.\  defined 
as  the  medium  of  exchange,  may  or  may  not 
have  intrinsic  value.  When  a  piece  of  money 
itself  apart  from  its  stamp,  is,  of 
the  commercial  value  stamped  upon 
it,  it  is  said  to  be  intrinsic  money,  Definitions. 
having  value  in  itself.  When  it 
has  no  value  in  itself,  or  no  value 
which  makes  pretense  of  approximating  to  its 
stamped  value,  but  simply  icpresents  a  value 
which  the  government  undertakes  to  pay  out 
for  it  whenever  demanded,  it  is  called  represent- 
ative money  It  represents  value.  When, 
however,  its  value  is  not  equal  to  its  stamped 
value,  only  because  its  intrinsic  value  has  been 
depreciated  voluntarily  or  otherwise,  tho  origi- 
nally its  intrinsic  and  commercial  value  were  the 
same,  it  is  called,  not  representative  money,  but 
depreciated  money.  Its  value  has  depreciated. 
Finally,  when  money  is  issued  by  a  government 
stamped  as  legal  tender  for  a  certain  value,  but 
with  no  guarantee  by  the  government  that  it 
will  be  redeemed  for  intrinsic  money,  it  is  called 
irredeemable  or  fi at  money.  The  government 
makes  it  worth  so  much.  It  is  both  representa- 
tive and  fiat  money  that  we  consider  in  this 
article,  because  such  moneys  are  to-day  almost 
invariably  made  of  paper,  and  all  kinds  of  such 
money  can  be  considered  under  the  general 
title  of  "paper  money."  We  shall  consider, 
first,  its  history  and  then  the  principles  and 
problems  involved  in  its  use. 

HISTORY. 

Representative    money   has  a  long  history. 
The  Carthagenians  are  said  to  have  had  a  rep- 
resentative  leather    currency,    and    there   is   a 
tradition    that  there  was  such  money  used  in 
Rome -before   the   time   of  Numa. 
Jevons  thinks  that  the   Byzantine 
iron   money   was    probably    repre-  Early  Issues, 
sentative  money.     The  leather  cur- 
rency, long  in  use  in  Russia,  is  be- 
lieved undoubtedly   first  to    have   represented 
whole  skins,  and  finally  to  have  been  circulated 
without    any    reference    to    the    whole    skins. 
China,  however,  is  the  country  which  first  de- 
veloped the  use  of  representative  money. 

Representative  money  in  the  main,  however, 
has  been  used  only  in  times  of  special  financial 


Paper  Money. 


966 


Paper  Money. 


pressure,  as  in  times  of  war.  Dionysius  of 
Syracuse  compelled  the  use  of  a  tin  money  in 
place  of  silver  worth  four  times  as  much. 
Timotheus  of  Athens,  according  to  Aristotle, 
persuaded  the  soldiers  to  receive  copper  money 
in  place  of  silver,  promising  to  exchange  it  for 
silver  when  the  war  was  over.  Catherine  II.  of 
Russia  issued  paper  in  1768  to  replace  the  cop- 
per money.  The  State  of  Virginia  placed  to- 
bacco in  stores  and  used  the  receipts  for  money. 
Another  form  of  paper  money  which,  according 
to  some,  has  played  a  large  part  in  history,  is 
the  so-called  bank  money  of  the  early  Italian 
and  German  banks,  All  kinds  of  coins,  many 
of  them  clipped  and  depreciated,  being  in  use 
in  the  Middle  Ages,  the  custom  arose  in  the 
Italian  republics,  and  notably  at  Venice,  of  the 
merchants  depositing  these  coins 
in  the  banks,  where  their  value 
Bank  Money,  would  be  accurately  estimated 
and  a  credit  for  the  value  given 
to  the  depositor,  who  could  then 
check  against  this  credit,  and  the  credit  be  trans- 
ferred to  those  receiving  the  checks.  These 
checks  or  bank  money  were  usually  at  a  pre- 
mium above  gold.  It  is  claimed  by  some 
believers  in  paper  money  that  this  bank  money 
even  circulated  long  after  the  money  originally 
deposited  had  been  issued  as  a  forced  loan  to 
the  government.  The  question,  however,  is 
somewhat  involved  and  disputed.  (See  BANK 
OF  VENICE  ;  BANK  OF  AMSTERDAM.) 

A  somewhat  similar  system  arose  in  England, 
when  merchants,  in  order  to  gain  greater  se- 
curity for  their  moneys,  and,  in  part,  to  keep  it 
from  the  government,  deposited  their  moneys 
with  the  goldsmiths  and  used  the  receipts  as 
representative  money.  It  is  probable  that  out 
of  this  system  rose  the  modern  English  banks. 

The  best  known  instances  of  paper  money  in 
modern  times  are  the  French  assignats,  the 
issues  of  the  American  colonies,  of  the  Con- 
tinental Congress,  and  of  the  greenbacks  in  the 
War  of  the  Rebellion.  These  will,  however.be 
found  described  in  special  articles.  (See  AS- 
SIGNATS ;  CURRENCY;  GREENBACK  PARTY.)  Less 
known  is  the  issue  of  token  money,  by  mer- 
chants as  late  as  the  eighteenth  century  in  Eng- 
land, serving  as  promissory  notes  to  pay  money. 
Coming  now  to  a  consideration  of  the  prin- 
ciples and  problems  involved  in  the  use  of 
paper  money,  it  may  be  said,  first,  that  most 
orthodox  economists  believe  in  the  use  of  paper 
money  only  as  representative  of  intrinsic  money, 
such  as  the  gold  and  silver  certificates  of  the 
United  States  or  the  Bank  of  England,  which 
are  usually  "  as  good  as  gold,"  and  must  always 
be  paid  in  gold,  if  desired,  by  the  Bank  of  Eng- 
land, except  when  in  times  of  panic  the  govern- 
ment allows  the  bank  to  pay  in  paper.-  Pro- 
fessor Hadley  represents  this,  the  usual  con- 
servative view,  when  he  says  {Johnson 's  Cyclo- 
pedia, article  "  Money")  : 

"  When  bank  notes  or  Government  notes  become 
currency,  without  a  corresponding  basis  of  money, 
nothing  has  ever  been  able  to  prevent  their  fluctua- 
tion in  value  and  the  consequent  effect  upon  all  other 
values.  The  temptation  to  increase  these  issues  ac- 
cording to  the  fancied  interest  of  the  bank  or  Govern- 
ment is  always  likely  to  prove  irresistible,  in  conse- 
quence of  which  the  community  employing  them  finds 
itself  flooded  with  a  currency  upon  which  all  values 


float  with  an  unsteady  motion,  and  any  standard  of 
value  is  out  of  the  question." 

Provided,  however,  that  the  paper  money  al- 
ways does  really  represent  intrinsic  money, 
which  can  be  paid  for  it  at  any  time,  most 
economists  prefer  paper  money  to  metallic  be- 
cause it  is  easier  to  handle  and  to  convey. 

Many  economists,  too,  think  it  perfectly  safe 
to  use  paper  money  redeemable  in  gold  or  sil- 
ver (for  the  question  between  gold  and  silver, 
see  BIMETALLISM  ;   GOLD  ;   SILVER),  but  issued 
slightly  in  excess  of  the  amount  of  gold  and  sil- 
ver.    The  reason  for  this  is  that  they  consider 
it  all  but  impossible  that  all  the  paper  issued 
should  be  presented    for    redemption    at  one 
time,  and  that  therefore  if  any  paper  that  will 
be  presented  can  be  redeemed  on 
demand,  it  will  all  be  kept  at  par. 
Just  how  far  it  is  sate  to  issue  paper     Different 
beyond  money  to  redeem  it  is  de-     Systems, 
bated.    Jevons  says  concerning  the 
various    methods  of    the  issue  of 
paper  money  {Money  and  the  Mechanism  of 
Exchange,  chap,  xviii.) : 

"  This  question  is  perhaps  the  most  vexed  and  de- 
batable one  in  the  whole  sphere  of  political  economy  ; 
but,  by  careful  adhering  to  the  analysis  of  facts,  we 
may,  perhaps,  get  a  view  of  the  subject  free  from  the 
great  perplexities  in  which  it  is  commonly  involved. 
The  elementary  principles  of  the  subject  are  not  of  a 
complex  character  ;  and  if  we  hold  tenaciously  to  those 
principles,  we  may  perhaps  be  saved  from  that  dan- 
gerous kind  of  intellectual  vertigo  which  often  attacks 
writers  on  the  currency. 

"The  State  may  either  take  the  issue  of  representa- 
tive money  into  its  own  hands,  as  it  takes  the  coining 
of  money,  or  it  may  allow  private  individuals,  or  semi- 
public  companies  and  corporations  to  undertake  the 
work  under  more  or  less  strict  legislative  control. 
We  will  afterward  briefly  consider  the  relative  ad- 
vantages of  Government  and  private  issues,  but  in 
either  case  we  may  lay  down  the  following  series  of 
methods,  according  to  which  the  amount  of  issue  may 
be  regulated  and  the  performance  of  the  promises 
guaranteed. 

"  i.  The  Simple  Deposit  Method.  The  issuer  of  pro- 
missory notes  may  be  obliged  to  keep  a  stock  of  coin 
and  bullion  constantly  on  hand,  equal  in  amount  to 
the  aggregate  of  the  uncanceled  notes,  each  of  which, 
being  instantly  paid  on  presentation,  will  produce  a 
corresponding  decrease  of  the  reserve. 

"  2.  The  Partial  Deposit  Method.  Instead  of  being 
obliged  to  keep  the  whole  of  the  precious  metals  deposit- 
ed in  his  vaults,  the  issuer  may  be  allowed  to  invest  a 
fixed  amount  in  Government  funds,  or  other  safe  profit- 
able securities. 

"3.  The  Minimum  Reserve  Method.  The  issuer  may 
be  bound  to  have  on  hand  under  all  circumstances  a 
fixed  minimum  amount  of  coin  and  bullion. 

"4.  The  Proportional  Reserve  Method.  The  reserve 
may  be  made  to  vary  with  the  amount  of  outstanding 
notes,  being,  say,  at  least  one-third  or  one-fourth  of  the 
total. 

"5.  The  Maximum  Issue  Method.  Permission  may 
be  given  to  issue  notes  not  exceeding  in  the  aggregate 
a  fixed  amount,  prohibitory  penalties  being  imposed 
upon  any  breach  of  this  restriction. 

"6.  The  Elastic  Limit  Method.  A  limit  may  be  as- 
signed to  the  aggregate  amount  of  notes,  as  in  the  last 
method,  but  the  penalties  on  the  excessive  issuer  may 
be  intentionally  made  so  light  that  the  issuer  will  under 
some  circumstances  prefer  to  pay  the  penalty  rather 
than  restrict  his  issues. 

"7.  The  Documentary  Reserve  Method.  The  reserve 
of  property  which  the  issuer  is  required  to  keep  may 
consist,  not  of  gold  or  silver  coin  or  bullion,  but  of 
Government  funds,  bonds,  shares,  or  other  documen- 
tary securities. 

"8.  The  Real  Property  Reserve  Method.  Instead  of 
merely  documentary  property,  the  issuer  may  be  al- 
lowed to  treat  various  property,  such  as  land,  houses, 
ships,  railway  shares,  etc.,  as  his  reserve  of  wealth  to 
meet  engagements. 

"9.  The  Foreign  Exchanges  Method.  Some  impor- 
tant bank  may  be  allowed  to  issue  convertible  notes 


Paper  Money. 


967 


Paper  Money. 


on  the  understanding  that  it  will  not  increase  the 
amount  in  circulation  so  long  as  the  foreign  exchanges 
are  against  the  country,  and  render  the  export  of  spe- 
cie profitable. 

"  10.  The  Free  Issue  Method.  The  business  of  issu- 
ing promissory  notes  may  be  left  open  to  the  free  com- 
petition of  all  individuals,  free  from  any  restrictions 
or  conditions,  except  such  laws  as  apply  to  all  com- 
mercial contracts  and  promises. 

"  n.  The  Gold  Par  Method.  Paper  money  may  be 
issued,  bearing  the  appearance  of  promissory  notes, 
but  inconvertible  into  coin.  The  issue  being  restricted 
as  long  as  any  premium  on  gold  is  apparent,  the  paper 
money  may  be  thus  maintained  equal  in  value  to  the 
coin  which"  it  nominally  represents. 

"  12.  The  Revenue  Payments  Method.  Inconvertible 
paper  money  may  be  freely  issued,  but  an  attempt 
may  be  made  to  keep  up  its  value  by  receiving  it  in 
place  of  coin  in  the  payment  of  taxes. 

"  13.  The  Deferred  Convertibility  Method.  Notes 
may  be  issued  promising  to  pay  metallic  money  at 
some  future  day,  either  definitely  fixed  or  dependent 
upon  political  or  other  contingent  events. 

"  14.  The  Paper  Money  Method^  Lastly,  those  who 
coin  apparent  promissory  notes  may  be  entirely  ab- 
solved from  the  performance  of  their  promises,  so  that 
the  notes  circulate  by  force  of  habit,  by  the  command 
of  the  sovereign,  or  in  consequence  of  the  absence  of 
any  other  medium  of  exchange. 

Altho  I  have,  in  the  above  statement,  enumerated 
no  less  than  fourteen  distinct  methods  of  managing 
the  issue  of  paper  currency,  it  is  by  no  means  certain 
that  other  methods  have  not  been  employed  from  time 
to  time.  There  may  be,  in  fact,  an  almost  unlimited 
number  of  devices  for  securing  the  performance  of 
promises,  or  for  rendering  the  performance  unneces- 
sary. Moreover,  these  methods  may  be  combined  to- 
gether in  almost  unlimited  variety.  The  reserve  may 
be  required  to  be  partially  in  the  form  of  specie  and 
partially  in  documentary  securities,  or  real  property. 
A  banker  may  be  allowed  to  issue  a  certain  fixed 
amount  of  notes  without  any  condition  as  to  reserves, 
and  to  issue  further  notes  on  the  Deposit  Method. 

The  advantage  of  the  first  system  is  that  so 
long  as  it  is  honestly  conducted,  coin  can  always 
be  paid  for  the  paper,  and  so  confidence  can  be 
"kept  up,  while  the  inconvenience  and  abrasion 
of  the  metal  are  avoided.  But,  on  the  other 
hand,  a  vast  amount  of  metal  is  kept  uselessly 
locked  up,  and  the  very  fact  that  it  lies  there 
tempts  the  government  to  seize  it  for  some  use. 
This  has  been  the  result  of  most  of  the  early 
instances  of  this  method,  as  mentioned  above, 
in  Italy,  Germany,  and  England. 

The  second  plan  is  illustrated  by  the  Bank 
of  England  under  the  Bank  Act  of  1844  and  the 
recently  constituted  bank  system  of  Germany. 
It  is  safe  under  ordinary  circum- 
stances, but  its  critics  claim  that 

Systems     is  gives  an  undue  monopoly  to  a 

Discussed,  favored  few,  and  produces  at  times 
terrible  panics  because  the  value  of 
the  currency  changes  with  the  de- 
mand for  the  currency,  and  cannot  readily 
change  to  suit  the  demand  because  limited  by 
the  metal  at  its  basis. 

The  minimum  reserve  method  and  the  pro- 
portional reserve  method  are  adopted  in  the 
United  States  national  bank  system  ;  but  the 
reserve  cannot  be  touched  just  when  it  is  most 
needed,  and  the  terrible  panics  of  the  United 
States  show  that  it  does  not  prevent  great  evil. 

The  fifth  system,  the  maximum  issue  method, 
is  adopted  in  England  in  the  170  banks  allowed 
to  issue  notes.  Jevons  inclines  to  favor  this  ; 
but  the  believers  in  the  evils  of  an  unelastic  cur- 
rency argue  that  it  can  never  be  made  elas- 
tic enough  to  prevent  disastrous  panics  and 
changes  in  value.  The  sixth,  or  elastic  limit 
system,  is  now  in  use  in  Germany,  and  obviates 
the  defects  of  the  previous  system  in  part,  and 
Jevons  considers  it  an  improvement,  but  it 


leaves  parties  who  may  be  interested  in  forcing 
or  allowing  a  panic  to  do  so  if  they  will. 

The  seventh  method,  or  that  of  documentary 
reserve,  is  a  variation  of  the  others  ;  the  sale  of 
reserves  may  be  forced  just  when  to  do  so 
would  create  rather  than  allay  panic. 

Real  property  reserve  is  thought  by  many  to 
be  a  better  system.  It  lay  at  the  basis  of  the 
French  assignats,  and  is  involved  in  most  forms 
of  fiat  money  ;  but  land  cannot  always  be  sold 
on  short  notice,  and  may  vary  in  value.  The 
method  of  regulation  by  the  foreign  exchanges 
is  simply  a  system  of  serving  notice  when  the 
paper  has  been  issued  to  an  extent  that  makes 
it  less  valuable  than  metal. 

The  free  issue  system  is  advocated  by  some 
extreme  individualists  ;  but  while  with  honest 
parties  and  wise  parties  it  might  work  well,  un- 
wise or  dishonest  parties  might  take  advantage 
of  it  and  wrong  the  innocent  and  unsuspecting. 
The  gold  par  method  is  the  method  which  has 
prevailed  in  the  Bank  of  France  since  the 
Franco-Prussian  War,  and  Jevons  declares  it  to 
have  worked  well,  and  adds  that  it  might  work 
well  so  long  as  the  issue  of  paper  be  restricted 
so  soon  as  gold  rises  in  par  above  paper  ;  but 
he  considers  it  a  dangerous  system,  and  that 
such  a  power  has  rarely  been  wisely  used.  Yet 
he  says  that  the  French  notes  have  not  depre- 
ciated more  than  \  or  i  per  cent. 

The  twelfth  system  is  that  of  the  American 
greenbacks  of  the  War  of  the  Rebellion.  (See 
CURRENCY.) 

The  thirteenth  system  is  the  one  usually 
adopted  by  revolutionary  governments,  and  its 
value  naturally  depends  on  the  value  of  the 
government  that  issues  them. 

The  last  system  is  so  important  that  we  quote 
Jevons's  words.  He  says  : 

"  Finally  we  come  to  the  undisguised  paper  money 
issued  by  government  and  ordered  to  be  received  as 
legal  tender.     Such  inconvertible  paper  notes  have  in 
all  instances  been  put  in  circulation  for 
convertible  ones  or  in  the  place  of  such, 
and  they  are  always  expressed  in  terms  Inconverti- 


ble Paper 
Money. 


of  money.  The  French  mandats  of  100 
francs,  for  instance,  bear  the  ambigu- 
ous phrase,  Bon  pour  cent  francs.  The 
wretched  scraps  of  paper  which  are 
circulated  in  Buenos  Ayres  are  marked 
Un  Peso,  Moneda  Corriente,  reminding  one  of  the 
time  when  the  peso  was  a  heavy  standard  coin. 
After  the  promise  of  payment  in  com  is  found  to  be 
illusory  the  notes  still  circulate,  partly  from  habit, 
partly  because  the  people  must  have  some  currency 
and  have  no  coin  to  use  for  the  purpose,  or,  if  they 
have,  carefully  hoard  it  for  profit  or  future  use. 
There  is  plenty  of  evidence  to  prove  that  an  incon- 
vertible paper  money,  carefully  limited  in  quantity, 
can  retain  its  full  value.  Such  was  the  case  with  the 
Bank  of  England  notes  for  several  years  after  the 
suspension  of  specie  payments  in  1797,  and  such  is  the 
case  with  the  present  notes  of  the  Bank  of  France. 

"The  principal  objections  to  an  inconvertible  paper 
currency  are  two  in  number. 

"  i.  The  great  temptation  which  it  offers  to  over- 
Issue  and  consequent  depreciation. 

"2.  The  impossibility  of  varying  its  amounts  in 
accordance  with  the  requirements  of  trade. 

"  It  is  hardly  requisite  to  tell  again  the  well-worn 
tale  of  the  overissue  of  paper  money,  which  has 
almost  always  followed  the  removable  of  the  legal 
necessity  of  convertibility.  Hardly  any  civilized 
nation  exists,  excepting  some  ot  the  newer  British 
colonies,  which  has  not  suffered  from  the  scourge  ot 
paper  money  at  one  time  or  another.  Russia  has  had 
a  depreciated  paper  currency  for  more  than  a  hundred 
years,  and  the  history  of  it  may  be  read  in  M.  Wo- 
Ipwski's  work  on  the  finances  of  Russia.  Repeated 
limits  \vere  placed  to  Us  issue  by  imperial  edict,  but 
the  next  war  always  led  to  further  issues.  Italy, 


Paper  Money. 


968 


Paper  Money. 


Austria,  and  the  United  States,  countries  where  the 
highest  economical  intelligence  might  be  expected  to 
guide  the  governments,  endure  the  evils  of  an  incon- 
vertible paper  currency.  Time  after  time  in  the  ear- 
lier history  of  the  New  England  and  some  of  the  other 
States  now  forming  parts  of  the  American  Union, 
paper  money  had  been  issued  and  had  wrought  ruin. 
Full  particulars  will  be  found  in  Professor  Sumner's 
new  and  interesting  History  of  American  Currency. 
Some  of  the  greatest  statesmen  pointed  to  the  results : 
and  Webster's  opinion  should  never  be  forgotten.  Of 
paper  money  he  says  :  '  We  have  suffered  more  from 
this  cause  than  from  every  other  cause  or  calamity. 
It  has  killed  more  men,  pervaded  and  corrupted  the 
choicest  interests  of  our  country  more,  and  done 
more  injustice  than  even  the  arms  and  artifices  of  our 
enemy.' 

"The  issue  of  an  inconvertible  money,  as  Professor 
Sumner  remarks,  has  often  been  recommended  as 
a  convenient  means  of  making  a  forced  loan  from  the 
people,  when  the  finances  of  the  Government  are  in 
a  desperate  condition.  It  is  true  that  money  may  be 
thus  easily  abstracted  from  the  people,  and  the  gov- 
ernment debts  are  effectually  lessened.  At  the  same 
time,  however,  every  private  debtor  is  enabled  to 
take  a  forced  contribution  from  his  creditor.  A  g9v- 
ernment  should,  indeed,  be  in  a  desperate  position 
which  ventures  thus  to  break  all  social  contracts  and 
relations  which  it  was  created  to  preserve. 

"  A  further  objection  to  a  paper  money  inconverti- 
ble into  coin  is  that  it  cannot  be  varied  in  quantity  by 
the  natural  action  of  trade.  No  one  can  export  it  or 
import  it  like  coin,  and  no  one  but  the  Government,  or 
banks  authorized  by  Government,  can  issue  or  cancel 
it.  Hence,  if  trade  become  brisk,  nothing  but  a 
decree  of  the  Government  can  supply  the  requisite 
increase  of  circulating  medium,  and  if  this  be  put 
afloat  and  trade  relapse  into  dulness,  the  currency 
becomes  redundant  and  falls  in  value.  Now,  even 
the  best  informed  government  department  cannot  be 
trusted  to  judge  wisely  and  impartially  when  more 
money  is  wanted.  Currency  must  be  supplied  like  all 
other  commodities,  according  to  the  free  action  of  the 
laws  of  supply  and  demand. 

"  Some  persons  have  argued  that  is  well  to  have 
a  paper  money  to  form  a  home  currency,  which  can- 
not be  drained  away,  and  will  be  free  from  the  dis- 
turbing influences  of  foreign  trade.  But  we  cannot 
disconnect  home  and  foreign  trade  except  by  doing 
away  with  the  latter  altogether.  If  two  nations  are 
to  trade,  the  precious  metals  must  form  the  inter- 
national medium  of  exchange  by  which  a  balance  of 
indebtedness  is  paid  Hence,  each  merchant  in  order- 
ing, consigning,  or  selling  goods  must  pay  regard,  not 
to  the  paper  price  of  such  goods,  but  to  the  gold  or 
silver  price  with  which  he  really  pays  for  them.  Gold 
and  silver,  in  short,  continue  to  be  the  real  measure 
of  value,  and  the  variable  paper  currency  is  only 
an  additional  term  of  comparison  which  adds  con- 
fusion." 

So  far  Jevons.  It  will  be  seen  that  his  main 
objections  to  inconvertible  paper  money  are  not 
so  much  to  its  use  as  to  the  danger  of  its  misuse 
or  the  (asserted)  impossibility  of  its  wise  use. 
Most  orthodox  economists  argue  in  the  same 
way.  J.  S.  Mill  says  (Principles  of  Political 
Economy,  bk.  iii.  chap,  xiii.)  : 

"  After  experience  had  shown  that  pieces  of  paper, 
of  no  intrinsic  value,  by  merely  bearing  upon  them 
the  written  profession  of  being  equivalent  to  a  certain 
number   of  francs,   dollars,  or  pounds, 
could  be  made  to  circulate  as  such,  and 
Mill's         to  Pr°duce  all   the  benefit  to  the  issuers 
"~  which  could  have   been  produced    by 

Views.  the  coins  which  they  purported  to  rep- 
resent, governments  began  to  think 
that  it  would  be  a  happy  device  if  they 
could  appropriate  to  themselves  this  benefit,  free 
from  the  condition  to  which  individuals  issuing  such 
paper  substitutes  for  money  were  subject,  of  giving, 
when  required,  for  the  sign,  the  thing  signified. 
They  determined  to  trv  whether  they  could  not 
emancipate  themselves  from  this  unpleasant  obliga- 
tion, and  make  a  piece  of  paper  issued  by  them  pass 
for  a  pound,  by  merely  calling  it  a  pound  and  consent- 
ing to  receive  it  in  payment  of  the  taxes.  And  such 
is  the  influence  of  almost  all  established  governments 
that  they  have  generallv  succeeded  in  attaining  this 
object.  I  believe  I  might  say  they  have  always  suc- 
ceeded for  a  time,  and  the  power  has  only  been  lost 


to  them  after  they  had  compromised  it  by  the  most 
flagrant  abuse. 

"In  the  case  supposed  the  functions  of  money  are 
performed  by  a  thing  which  derives  its  power  of  per- 
forming them  solely  from  convention.  But  conven- 
tion is  quite  sufficient  to  confer  the  power,  since 
nothing  more  is  needful  to  make  a  person  accept  any- 
thing as  money,  and  even  at  any  arbitrary  value,  than 
the  persuasion  that  it  will  be  taken  from  him  on 
the  same  terms  by  others.  The  only  question  is,  what 
determines  the  value  of  such  a  currency,  since  it 
cannot  be  as  in  the  case  of  gold  or  silver  (or  paper 
exchangeable  for  them  at  pleasure)  the  cost  of  pro- 
duction,." 

Mill  then  goes  on  to  show  that  the  value  of 
such  a  currency  must  depend  on  its  quantity, 
that  it  can  be  safely  used,  if  kept  within  quan- 
tities that  would  keep  it  at  par  with  bullion  ; 
but  he  considers  its  advantages  too  slight  to 
balance  the  danger  of  overissue.  He  says  : 

"  But  a  still  stronger  consideration  is  the  impor- 
tance of  adhering  to  a  simple  principle,  intelligible  to 
the  most  untaught  capacity.  Everybody  understands 
convertibility;  every  one' sees  that  what  can  be  at 
any  moment  exchanged  for  five  pounds  is  worth  five 
pounds.  Regulation  by  the  price  of  bullion  is  a  more 
complex  idea,  and  does  not  recommend  itself  through 
the  same  familiar  associations.  There  would  be  noth- 
ing like  the  same  confidence,  by  the  public  generally, 
in  an  inconvertible  currency  so  regulated  as  in  a  con- 
vertible one  :  and  the  most  instructed  person  might 
reasonably  doubt  whether  such  a  rule  would  be  as 
likely  to  be  inflexibly  adhered  to.  The  grounds  of  the 
rule  not  being  so  well  understood  by  the  public, 
opinion  would  probably  not  enforce  it  with  as  much 
rigidity,  and,  in  any  circumstances  of  difficulty,  would 
be  likely  to  turn  against  it,  while  to  the  Government 
itself  a  suspension  of  convertibility  would  appear  a 
much  stronger  and  more  extreme  measure  than  a  re- 
laxation of  what  might  possibly  be  considered  a  some- 
what artificial  rule.  There  is,  therefore,  a  great  pre- 
ponderance of  reasons  in  favor  of  a  convertible  in 
preference  to  even  the  best  regulated  inconvertible 
currency.  The  temptation  to  overissue,  in  certain 
financial  emergencies,  is  so  strong  that  nothing  is  ad- 
missible which  can  tend,  in  however  slight  a  degree,  to 
weaken  the  barriers  that  restrain  it." 

Professor  F.  A.  Walker  sees  the  danger  of  in- 
convertible paper  money  ;  yet  of  its  possible 
wise  use  he  says  (Money,  Trade,  ana  Indtts- 
try,  p.  210) : 

"  After  looking  at  this  subject  from  every  side,  I  am 
at  a 'loss  to  conceive  of  a  single  argument  which  can 
be  advanced  to  support  the  assertion  of  the  econo- 
mists, that  paper  money  cannot  perform  this  function 
of  measuring  values,  so-called.  On  the  contrary,  it 
appears  to  me  clear,  beyond  a  doubt,  that  just  so  long 
and  just  so  far  as  paper  money  obtains  and  retains- 
currency  as  the  popular  medium  of  exchange,  so  far 
and  so  long  it  does  and  must  act  as  the  value  denomi- 
nator or  common  denominator  in  exchange.  And  I 
see  no  reason  to  believe  that,  in  this  single  respect, 
hard  money,  so-called,  possesses  any  advantage  over 
issues  of  any  other  form  or  substance  which  secure 
the  degree  of  general  acceptance  which  is  necessary 
to  constitute  them  money." 

He  says,  further,  on  p.  214  : 

"Such  money,  so  long  as  its  popular  acceptance  re- 
mains undiminished,  performs  the  office  of  a  standard 
of  deferred  payments  well  or  ill,  according  as  its. 
amount  is  regulated." 

Such  being  the  view  of  paper  money  held  by 
the  orthodox  economists,  many  writers,  and 
among  them  not  a  few  economists  of  repute 
and  not  radical  in  their  views  on  other  ques- 
tions, believe  that  it  is  possible  to  have  incon- 
vertible paper  money  that  will  not  be  abused. 
They  argue  that  paper  money  is  the  best  money, 
provided  that  the  amount  of  its  issue  can  be 
wisely  controlled.  Money,  all  writers  admit 
(see  CONTRACTION  AND  EXPANSION  OF  CURRENCY) 
is  affected  in  its  value  by  its  quantity,  in  pro- 
portion to  the  demand  for  it.  If  the  amount 


Paper  Money. 


969 


Paper  Money. 


of  money  expands  beyond  the  needs  or  consum- 
ing power  of  the  people,  its  value  depreciates. 
If  it  is  contracted,  its  value  appreciates.  Now, 
one  use  of  money  being  to  furnish  the  standard 
for  deferred  payments,  all  economists  are  agreed 
that  honest  money  should  be  invariable  in. 
-value,  so  that  he  who  loans  or  borrows  f>  100 
should,  when  he  comes  to  settle  the  loan,  neither 
receive  nor  pay  more  or  less  value  than  was 
loaned.  But  since  the  value  of  money  varies 
with  its  quantity  in  proportion  to  the  demand, 
a  money  to  remain  invariable  in  value  must 
vary  in  quantity  in  proportion  to  the  demand, 
expanding  in  exact  proportion  to  the  demand, 
or  contracting  as  the  demand  contracts.  If  this 
could  be  always  so,  money  would  be  (at  least  as 
far  as  this  question  is  concerned)  an  invariable 
currency.  The  problem,  therefore,  is  to  obtain 
an  elastic  currency  that  shall  be  invariable 
in  value  by  varying  exactly  with  the  demand 
for  it.  Disbelievers  in  paper  currency  believe 
it  to  be  impossible  ;  believers  in  paper  currency 
believe  that  paper  money  can  be  so  used  and  is 
the  only  money  that  can  be  so  used,  or,  at  the 
least,  the  easiest  currency  to  so  use.  For  such 
use  of  paper  money  various  plans  are  proposed. 
These  plans  are  usually  one  form  or  another  of 
adopting  what  is  termed  "  a  multiple  standard" 
(g.v.).  Even  Jevons  seems  to  favor  this  plan, 
although  pointing  out  its  dangers.  He  says 
(Money  and  the  Mechanism  of  Exchange, 
chap,  xxv.)  : 

"  The  so-called  double  standard  system  of  money 
spreads  the  fluctuations  of  supply  and  demand  of  gold 
and  silver  over  a  large  area,  and  maintains  both  met- 
als more  unchanged  in  value  than  they 
would  otherwise  be.    Can  we  not  con- 
A  Multiple    ceive   a    multiple   legal    tender  which 
T        i         would  be  still  less  liable  to  variation? 
ijegAi         \Ve  estimate  the  value  of  £100  by  the 
Tender.       quantities  of  corn,  beef,  potatoes,  coal, 
timber,  iron,  tea,  coffee,  beei,  and  other 
principal    commodities   which    it    will 
purchase  from  time  to  time.     Might  we  not  invent  a 
legal  tender  note  which  should  be  convertible,  not  into 
any  one  single  commodity,  but  into  an  aggregate  of 
small  quantities  of  various  commodities,  the  quantity 
and  quality  of  each  being  rigorously  defined  ?    Thus 
a  hundred-pound  note  would  give  the  owner  a  right 
to  demand  i  quarter  of  good  wheat,  i  ton  of  ordinary 
merchant  bar  iron,   10   pounds  weight   of    middling 
cotton,  20  pounds  of  sugar,  5  pounds  of  tea,  and  other 
articles  sufficient  to  make  up  the  value.     All  these 
commodities  will,  of  course,  fluctuate  in  their  relative 
values  ;  but  if  the  holder  of  the  note  loses  upon  some, 
he  will  in  all  probability  gain  upon  others,  so  that,  on 
the  average,  his  note  will  remain  steady  in  purchasing 
power.     Indeed,  as  the  articles  into  which  it  is  con- 
vertible are  those  needed  for  continual  consumption, 
the  purchasing  power  of  the  note  must  remain  steady 
compared  with  that  of  gold  or  silver,  which  metals 
are  employed  only  for  a  few  special  purposes. 

"In  practice,  such  a  legal  tender  currency  would 
obviously  be  most  convenient,  since  no  one  would 
wish  to  have  a  miscellaneous  assortment  of  goods 
forced  into  his  possession.  He  who  wanted  corn 
would  have  to  sell  to  other  parties  the  iron,  beef,  and 
other  things  received  along  with  it ;  gold,  or  other 
metallic  money,  would  doubtless  be  used  as  the  me- 
dium in  these  exchanges.  This  scheme  would,  there- 
fore, resolve  itself  practically  into  that  which  has 
been  long  since  brought  forward  under  the  title  of  the 
Tabular  Standard  of  value." 

Jevons  then  goes  on  to  describe  different 
forms  of  this  tabular  standard  involved  in  what 
is  now  called  the  multiple  standard,  and  the  es- 
sence of  which  is  that  no  one  commodity  should 
be  used  as  a  monetary  standard,  but  that  a 
value  should  be  averaged  from  a  multiple  of 
commodities.  He  then  says  : 


"  The  difficulties  in  the  way  of  such  a  scheme  are 
not  considerable.    It  would,  no  doubt,  introduce  a  cer- 
tain  complexity  into  the    relations    of    debtors   and 
creditors,    and    disputes    might    some- 
times arise  as  to  the  date  of  the  debt 
whence  the  circulation  must  be  made,  -ni-flfi/vnltioa  nf 
Such  difficulties  would  not  exceed  those  ^,~  ^  ," 
arising  from  the  payment  of  interest,    tne  ocnenie. 
which  likewise  .depends  upon  the  dura- 
tion of  the  debt.     The  work  of  the  com- 
mission, when  once  established  and  directed  by  Act  of 
Parliament,  would  be  little  more  than  that  of  account- 
ants acting  according  to  fixed  rules.    Their  decisions 
would  be  of  a  perfectly  bona  fide  and  reliable  char- 
acter, because,  in   addition  to  their  average  results, 
they  would  be  required  to  publish  periodically  the  de- 
tailed tables  of  prices  upon  which  their  calculations 
were  founded,  and  thus  many  persons  could  sufficient- 
ly verify  the  data  and  the  calculations.     Fraud  would 
be  out  of  the  question. 

"  The  only  real  difficulty  which  I  foresee  is  that  of 
deciding  upon  the  proper  method  of  deducing  the 
average.  .  .  .  Whatever  method  were  adopted,  how- 
ever, the  results  would  be  better  than  if  we  continued 
to  accept  a  single  metal  for  the  standard,  as  we  do  at 
present. 

"The  space  at  my  disposal  will  not  allow  me  to  de- 
scribe adequately  the  advantages  which  would  arise 
from  the  establishment  of  a  national  tabular  standard 
of  value.  Such  a  standard  would  add  a  wholly  new 
degree  of  stability  to  social  relations,  securing  the 
fixed  incomes  of  individuals  and  public  institutions 
from  the  depreciation  which  they  have  often  suffered. 
Speculation,  too,  based  upon  the  frequent  oscillations 
of  prices,  which  take  place  in  the  present  state  of  com- 
merce, would  be  to  a  certain  extent  discouraged.  The 
calculations  of  merchants  would  be  less  frequently 
frustrated  by  causes  beyond  their  own  control,  and 
many  bankruptcies  would  be  prevented.  Periodical 
collapses  of  credit  would  no  doubt  recur  from  time  to 
time,  but  the  intensity  of  the  crisis  would  be  miti- 
gated, because,  as  prices  fell,  the  liabilities  of  debtors, 
would  decrease  approximately  in  the  same  ratio." 

More  recently  Professor  E.  B.  Andrews,  in 
his  An  Honest  Dollar,  makes  a  strong  plea  for 
such  a  multiple  standard,  and  in  the  appendix 
to  his  book  gives  much  consideration  to  its  de- 
tails. Many  other  economists  favor  this  plan, 
at  least  when  the  community  is  educated  to 
adopt  it. 

It  is  under  such  form  that  most  of  the  advo- 
cates of  paper  money  are  now  advocating  the 
adoption  of  paper  or  fiat  money.     They  argue 
that  intrinsic  money  never  can  be 
elastic  enough  to  suit  the  changes 
in    the    demand    for    money,  and  Advantages. 
hence  that  only  fiat  money,  prop- 
erly limited  and  used  as  under  the 
multiple  standard  system,  can  be  honest  money. 
An  inelastic  currency,  they  say,  must  rob  either 
creditors  or  debtors.     In  times  of  panic  and 
financial  pressure  even  now,  they  say,  the  com- 
munity has  to  resort  to  paper  money.     In  panics 
a  special  act  of  Parliament  allows  the  Bank  of 
England  to  pay  in  paper.     In  times  of  panic 
the  New  York  banks  use  Clearing  House  certifi- 
cates.    In  times  of    depression  most  Western 
States  pay  salaries  in  receipts  which  are  made 
payable  for  taxes. 

Many  believe  that  this  system  could  be  adopt- 
ed in  the  conduct  of  public  work  on  the  so- 
called  Guernsey  plan,  of  which  Jevons  says- 
(Money  and  the  Mechanism  of  Exchange^ 
chap,  xvi.)  : 

"  Daniel  le  Broc,  the  governor  of  the  island,  deter- 
mined tc  build  a  market  in  St.  Peters,  but  not  having 
the  necessary  funds,  issued  under  the  seal  of  the  isl- 
and 4000  market  notes  for  one  pound  each,  with  \vhich 
he  paid  the  artificers.  When  the  market  was  finished 
and  the  rents  came  in,  the  notes  were  thereby  can- 
celed, and  not  an  ounce  of  gold  was  employed  in  the~ 
matter.  There  is,  however,  no  mystery  in  this  advan- 
tage of  paper  money. 


Paper  Money. 


970 


Paris. 


"  Daniel  le  Broc,  by  issuing  his  market  notes,  drove 
an  equivalent  amount  of  gold  out  of  circulation,  and 
thus  effected  a  kind  of  forced  loan  out  of  the  metallic 
currency  of  the  island,  without  paying  any  interest 
for  it.  A  similar  gain  of  interest  accrues  upon  all 
paper  notes  so  far  as  their  amount  exceeds  the  gold 
held  in  readiness  to  pay  them.  The  private  and  joint- 
stock  banks  of  issue  in  England  in  this  way  enjo}'  the 
interest  upon  a  sum  of  about  six  millions  and  a  half 
sterling,  the  Scotch  banks  upon  two  millions  and 
three-quarters,  and  the  Irish  banks  upon  more  than 
six  millions.  The  issue  of  paper  representative  money 
is  beneficial  to  all  parties,  provided  that  it  is  con- 
ducted upon  a  sound  method  of  regulation." 

Such  are  the  main  views  held  by  economists 
.as  to  the  practicability  of  a  paper  currency. 
{See  also  MULTIPLE  STANDARD.)  (For  the  views 
of  "  Greenbackers, "  see  GREENBACK  PARTY  ;  see 
also  FIAT  MONEY.  For  the  importance  of  the 
question  to-day,  see  CONTRACTION  AND  EXPAN- 
SION OF  CURRENCY.  For  the  historical  questions 
involved  as  to  the  United  States,  see  CUR- 
RENCY. For  the  proposition  of  the  socialist  as 
to  the  use  of  labor  checks  for  money,  see  LABOR 
CHECKS.) 

References :  Jevons's  Money  and  the  Mechanism,  of 
Exchange  (1883) ;  E.  B.  Andfews's  An  Honest  Dollar 
<i88g) ;  A.  J.  Fonda's  Honest  Money  (1895). 

PARIS. — Paris,  to  the  social  reformer,  sug- 
gests revolution  and  the  struggles  of  the  Com- 
mune, but  it  has  something  to  teach  in  its  pres- 
ent as  well  as  in  its  past.  (For  its  history  see 
FRANCE  AND  SOCIAL  REFORM  and  PARIS,  COM- 
MUNE OF.)  It  was  the  first  city  to  illustrate 
to  the  world  the  advantages  of  symmetry,  spa- 
ciousness, order,  and  convenience  in  the  plan- 
ning of  its  streets;  of  wholesomeness  and 
cleanliness  and  light  in  its  municipal  arrange- 
ments. It  is,  however,  in  spite  of  this,  the 
most  crowded  city  of  the  world.  On  its  19,200 
acres  live  2,269,023  persons,  making  a  density 
of  117  persons  to  the  acre,  while  Berlin,  the 
next  most  crowded,  has  only  85,  and  New 
York,  the  next,  has  60,  while  London  has  only  5 1 . 
Paris'  broad  streets  and  boulevards  have  been 
built  too  often  by  driving  the  poor  into  crowded, 
narrow  streets.  The  organization  of  the  munici- 
pality is  unique  even  in  France.  Alone 
among  French  cities  Paris  has  no  mayor,  this 
being  due  to  the  fear  the  Government  has  of 
the  revolutionary  tendencies  of  the  Paris  Com- 
mune. The  city  is  ruled,  as  a  whole,  by  the 
prefect  of  the  department  of  the  Seine,  and 
by  his  colleague,  the  prefect  of  the  police. 
There  is,  however,  a  municipal  council  with 
considerable  power,  and  20  wards  or  arrondisse- 
menfs,  over  each  of  which  presides  a  maire  in  a 
ward  building  called  the  mairie.  The  prefect 
of  the  police  has,  perhaps,  the  greatest  power. 
He  has  vast  sums  at  his  disposal,  of  which  he 
need  render  small  account,  and  governs  not 
only  the  ordinary  police  force,  but  the  police 
judiciaire,  the  detective  force,  and  the  politi- 
cal police,  the  Government's  secret  agents,  an 
inheritance  of  power  from  the  Napoleonic 
administration,  characteristically  preserved  by 
the  Bourgeois  Republic.  He  is  only  pre- 
vented from  being  despotic  by  the  perfect 
clock-work  organization  of  the  departments  of 
the  city. 

Paris  is  considered  by  Albert  Shaw,  to  whose  study 
in  The  Century  Magazine  for  July,  1891,  we  are  mainly 


indebted  for  the  information  in  this  article,  the  best 
lighted    city   in   the  world.     It  is  lighted  by  six   gas 
companies  (fused,  however,  together  as  one),  each  hav- 
ing a  section  of  the  city  to  itself,  and  all  being  under 
careful  municipal  direction  and  control.    The  compa- 
nies must  furnish  gas  to  individuals  at  a  price  not  ex- 
ceeding a  fixed  maximum  ;  they  must  furnish  it  for  pub- 
lic use  practically  at  cost ;  they  must  pay 
tax;  cannot  water  stock;    after  paying 
i3i  per  cent,  dividends  on  its  net  profit,     Miinim'Tvii 
they  must  divide  profits  with  the  city  ;  at    mumclPa^ 
the  expiration  of  the  charter  all  rights       Works. 
revert  to  the  city,  which  also  becomes 
owner  of  all  the  subways,  piping,  etc., 
that  pertain  to  the   plant.      The    city's  share  in  the 
profits   has   so    increased    that    it  brings  in  a  large 
revenue.    For  several  years  past  it  has  amounted  to 
some  20,000,000  frs.     Paris  thus  gets  her  public  light- 
ing   at     cost,    and     20,000,000    frs.    a   year    into   the 


iting  J 

been  laid  with  a  network  of  electric  lighting  cables^ 
and  traffic  on  the  sidewalks  and  in  the  streets  will 
have  suffered  a  minimum  of  obstruction,  while  no 
injury  whatsoever  will  have  been  done  to  the  pave- 
ments." There  are  no  obstructive  wires  in  Paris.  In 
crossing  streets  it  is  forbidden  to  touch  the  pave- 
ment, and  underground  connection  is  made  from  the 
manholes  of  the  sewers.  "In  our  field  of  electrical 
methods,"  said  a  prominent  American  electrician  to 
Mr.  Shaw,  "we  are  now  five  years  behind  the  Con- 
tinent." ''Paris,"  says  Mr.  Shaw,  "has  at  its  com- 
mand a  larger  and  more  brilliant  array  of  engineering 
and  architectural  talent  than  all  the  important  cities 
of  the  United  States  taken  together."  The  problem 
of  transit  in  Paris  has  not  been  much  worked  out,  on 
account  of  its  density,  and  most  workmen  live  in  high 
stories  over  their  shops.  Its  omnibuses  and  cars  are 
ponderous  and  slow,  but  it  is  characteristic  that  they 
are  operated  upon  the  most  methodical  system.  The 
Paris  water  supply  is  operated  and  its  plant  owned  by 
the  city.  The  city  sewers  have  been  long  famous.  At 
present  one-fifth  or  more  of  the  total  sewage  affluent 
is  carried  to  a  fertilizing  farm  at  Gennevilliers,  with 
the  best  possible  results,  and  in  due  time  the  whole 
sewage  will  be  thus  used. 

Paris  has  given  10  of  her  30  square  miles  to 
parks,  the  population  being  crowded  into  the  remain- 
ing 20.  The  city  is  a  "commune,"  and  they  have 
much  that  is  communal.  The  city  spends  from 
250,000,000  to  300,000,000  frs.  every  year, — $25  for  every 
man,  woman",  and  child,— twice  as  much  as  Berlin 
and  Vienna.  A  large  share  of  this  goes  for  municipal 
improvements  or  interest  on  investments  in  past  im- 
provements. The  city  has  a  vast  debt,  but  one  which  is 
rapidly  diminishing.  "  Assuming  125  francs  from  each 
citizen,"  says  Mr.  Shaw,  "  12  goes  to  the  police  depart- 
ment, 3  for  cleaning  and  sprinkling  streets,  3$  for 
public  lighting,  half  a  franc  for  protection  against  fire, 
10  for  education,  10  for  hospitals  and  poor  relief,  from 
8  to  10  for  maintaining  ways  of  communication,  5  for 
new  streets,  40  for  interest  on  debt,  the  remainder  for 
salaries  and  minor  expenses.  These  expenditures 
are  enormous,  compared  with  most  cities,  but  they 
get  enormous  good  from  them.  "  Probably  no  other 
city  in  the  world,"  says  Mr.  Shaw,  "secures 
equally  advantageous  results  from  the  outlay  upon 
schools.  Compulsory  education  makes  school  attend- 
ance all  but  universal.  It  has  a  marvelous  system  of 
industrial  and  trade  schools  for  both  sexes."  It  is  in 
these  schools  that  Parisian  dressmakers,  milliners, 
artificial-  flower  makers,  furniture  designers,  house 
decorators,  skilled  workers  in  metals,  and  handicraft- 
men  in  scores  of  lines  of  industry  are  educated  to  do 
the  things  that  keep  Paris  prosperous  and  rich." 
The  higher  schools  of  science,  classics,  engineering, 
and  art  are  proverbial. 

The  Mont  de  Piete,  or  municipal  pawnshop,  is  a  char- 
acteristic feature.  "It  has  saved,"  says  Mr.  Shaw, 
"millions  of  francs  for  the  poor  of  Paris."  The 
municipal  hospitals,  retreats,  and  savings  banks  are 
equally  effective.  The  city  owns  the  great  markets, 
and  carefully  supervises  and  inspects  all  depart- 
ments of  food  supply.  Private  slaughter-houses  are 
forbidden.  Says  Mr.  Shaw:  "If  Paris  spends  vast 
sums  in  her  municipal  housekeeping,  she  has  diverse 
magnificent  and  permanent  results  to  show,  and  her 
people  are,  as  I  believe,  enriched  rather  than  im- 
poverished by  their  common  investments  as  a  muni- 
cipality." 

Reference :  Mr.  Albert  Shaw's  Municipal  Govern- 
ment in  Continental  Europe. 


Paris,  Commune  of. 


971        Parkhurst,  Charles  Henry,  D.  D. 


PARIS,  COMMUNE  OF.  ~  The  com- 
mune in  France  is  a  territorial  division  under 
a  mayor,  or  a  municipal  government.  (See 
COMMUNE.)  The  commune  of  Paris  is  of  special 
importance,  because  several  times  the  people 
of  Paris  have  risen  in  rebellion  against  the 
General  Government,  and  have  tried  to  estab- 
lish a  communal  self-government,  to  be  fed- 
erated with  other  self-governed  communes. 
This  is  the  ideal  of  the  so-called  communards 
or  communalists  of  France,  or  those  socialists 
who  hold  that  the  commune  should  be  the 
political  unit.  (See  FRANCE  AND  SOCIAL  RE- 
FORM.) In  1556  Stephen  Marcel,  during  the 
English  invasion,  endeavored  to  form  a  con- 
federation of  sovereign  communes  with  Paris 
as  the  governing  head.  In  1588  the  commune 
of  Paris  did  succeed  in  obtaining  independent 
self-government  for  six  months.  May  21, 1791, 
the  Revolutionary  Committee  of  the  insurrec- 
tion of  July,  1789,  replaced  the  town  council, 
and  took  the  name  of  "  Commune  of  Paris." 
It  had  great  power  under  Robespierre,  but 
fell  with  him,  July  14,  1794,  and  was  replaced 
by  12  municipal  divisions.  Partly  as  a  result 
of  this,  Paris  to-day  has  no  mayor  of  the 
whole  city,  being  largely  ruled  by  the  Gen- 
eral Government.  (See  PARIS.)  Once  again, 
on  March  18,  1871,  Paris  rose  in  revolt  against 
the  then  newly  established  Republic,  and  de- 
clared the  Commune  March  28.  It  seemed  an 
opportune  time  to  the  leaders.  France  had 
been  defeated  by  Germany  ;  Paris,  after  a 
long  siege,  had  been  occupied  by  the  Germans, 
but  now  they  were  gone  ;  a  Republic  had  been 
established,  but  the  communards  believed  it 
to  be  a  weak,  sham,  corrupt  affair  of  the  bour- 
geoisie. The  communards  declared  that  the 
Republic  had  sold  Paris  to  the  Germans.  They 
therefore  rose  and  declared  the  Commune. 
Similar  risings,  instigated  in  part  by  Bakou- 
nin  and  the  anarchist  communists,  took  place  in 
Marseilles  and  other  French  cities,  but  were 
quickly  suppressed.  In  Paris  was  the  main 
success.  The  leaders  of  the  Commune  were 
Flourens,  Felix  Pyat,  Assi,  Delascluze,  Pas- 
chal, Grousset,  General  Cluseret,  Dombrow- 
ski,  Arnauld,  Valles,  Blanqui,  and  Rochefort. 
A  large  part  of  the  National  Guard  of  Paris 
declared  for  the  Commune,  with  headquar- 
ters at  Belleville  and  Montmartre.  March  26 
an  election  was  held  to  choose  the  mem- 
bers for  the  communal  government ;  180,000 
votes  were  cast.  The  republican  government 
at  Versailles  sent  an  army  to  suppress  the 
Commune.  Under  the  command  of  Marshal 
MacMahon  this  army  besieged  Paris.  April 
5  the  communards  arrested  Darboy,  Arch- 
bishop of  Paris,  and  other  prisoners,  and  held 
them  as  hostages.  The  Commune  declared  its 
principles  to  be  absolute  individual  liberty  by 
the  means  of  the  suppression  of  government, 
and  the  division  of  nationalities  into  com- 
munes more  or  less  federated.  The  present 
holders  of  capital  were  to  be  dispossessed, 
with  compensation,  and  the  land  and  capital 
were  to  be  divided  among  associations  of 
workmen.  An  English  socialist  who  was  in 
Paris  during  the  Commune  declares  that  Paris 
was  never  so  free  from  want,  crime,  or  vice. 
Enthusiasm  reigned  among  the  working- 


classes  and  many  of  all  classes  joined  the  popu- 
lar cause.  But  gradually  dissension  arose  and 
mistakes  were  made.  The  besieging  army  took 
many  forts,  and  finally  entered  Paris,  90,000 
strong,  on  May  22.  The  communards,  resisted 
for  five  days  in  the  streets.  The  republican 
army  having  put  many  prisoners  to  death,  the 
communards  retaliated  by  shooting  Archbishop 
Darboy  and  other  hostages.  Terrible  re- 
prisals were  made  on  both  sides.  The  com- 
munards being  finally  defeated,  and  losing 
power,  took  revenge  by  burning  the  Tuileries, 
the  Palais  de  Justice,  the  Palais  Royal,  the 
Hotel  de  Ville,  and  other  buildings  connected 
with  the  hated  Government.  This  act  and  the 
shooting  of  the  archbishop  and  other  captives 
have  been  laid  to  their  charge,  but  it  must  not 
be  forgotten  that  the  triumphant  republicans 
shot  the  communards  down  by  the  thousand 
in  cold  blood,  burying  them  in  prepared 
ditches.  Twenty-five  thousand  communards 
were  taken  prisoners  and  many  thousands  de- 
ported. The  leaders  were  mainly  executed. 

References  :  Sempronius'  Histoire  de  la  Commune  de 
Paris ;  Moriac's  Paris  sous  la  Commune  ;  Lissagaray, 
History  of  the  Commune  of  1871  (a  translation)  gives 
the  communards'  side. 

PARKHURST,  CHARLES   HENRY, 

D.  D.,  was  born  in  Framingham,  Mass.,  in  1842. 
He  had  the  usual  common-school  education, 
and  at  first  looked  forward  to  a  mercantile 
career,  entering  a  dry-goods  store  at  the  age 
of  16,  but  spending  his  leisure  in  continuing 
his  studies.  This  enabled  him,  after  two  years 
of  preparation  at  Lancaster  Academy,  Massa- 
chusetts, to  enter  Amherst  College. 

His  favorite  studies  were  metaphysics,  math- 
ematics, and  philosophy  ;  his  scholarship  of 
the  highest  grade.  After  graduation  he  took 
the  principalship  of  the  Amherst  High  School, 
then  the  chair  of  Latin  and  Greek  at  Williston 
Seminary,  East  Hampton.  Dr.  Parkhurst's 
married  life  began  at  this  period  with  a  wed- 
ding journey  to  Europe,  and  two  years'  study 
in  theology  at  Halle,  under  the  instruction  of 
Tholuck,  at  Leipsic  and  Bonn.  When  in  the 
Academy  at  Amherst  he  had  consulted  Pres- 
ident Seelye  as  to  his  next  step,  and  President 
Seelye  had  said,  "  Preach;  it  will  do  you  good, 
if  not  others."  This  advice  was  followed,  and 
in  1874  a  church  at  Lenox,  among  the  Berk- 
shires,  was  his  first  charge.  In  1879,  a  vacancy 
occurring  in  the  Madison  Avenue  Church,  a 
call  was  sent  to  Dr.  Parkhurst  and  accepted. 

From  the  first,  Dr.  Parkhurst  commanded 
attention  as  a  preacher  and  a  thinker,  but  he  is 
best  known  through  his  connection  with  the 
Society  for  the  Prevention  of  Crime.  This 
society  was  organized  in  1878,  for  the  object  of 
the  prevention  of  crime,  and,  as  far  as  practic- 
able, the  eradication  of  the  sources  of  crime 
and  vice,  by  all  suitable  and  legal  methods. 
Howard  Crosby  was  chosen  president,  and  be- 
came its  controlling  spirit.  On  the  reorgani- 
zation of  the  society  on  the  death  of  Dr. 
Crosby,  in  1892,  Dr.  Parkhurst  was  chosen  to 
the  presidency.  The  present  policy  of  the  so- 
ciety is  best  stated  in  his  words:  "Till  the 
alliance  is  broken  which  exists  between  the 
criminals  and  their  proper  prosecutors,  it  is 


Parkhurst,  Charles  Henry,  D.  D.        972 


Parks  and  Playgrounds. 


bailing  out  water  with  a  sieve  to  attempt  the 
extinguishment  of  individual  gambling  or  dis- 
orderly houses.  If  the  police  would  do  what 
the  public  pays  them  for  doing,  we  would  dis- 
band and  be  glad  to.  The  very  existence  of 
such  a  society  as  ours  is,  properly  interpreted, 
a  standing  indictment  of  police  incompetency 
or  criminality."  At  first  he  was  unwilling  to 
accept  the  position,  but  accepted,  with  the  fol- 
lowing conditions  :  "If  you  mean  to  pursue 
your  old  course  of  taking  individual  cases  of 
crime,  I  will  not  be  your  president,  but  if  you 
are  willing  to  fight  the  police  as  the  guardian 
angels  of  crime,  I  am  in  it  for  all  I  am  worth." 

In  February,  1892,  Dr.  Parkhurst  preached 
a  sermon  which  at  once  brought  him  into 
notoriety,  from  the  fearless  attack  on  the 
corruption  of  Tammany.  He  was  at  once 
challenged  to  prove  his  statements,  and  the 
enemies  of  good  government  supposed  that 
this  mere  demand  would  cause  him  to  retract 
his  statements.  The  doctor  was  obliged  to 
admit  that  his  statements  were  based  on 
hearsay,  but  he  reasoned  that  they  must  be 
pretty  well  founded  on  fact,  if  their  announce- 
ment created  such  an  outcry.  He  determined 
that  the  next  time  he  preached  on  misrule,  he 
would  be  in  possession  of  the  facts,  and  about 
a  month  later,  a  second  sermon  was  preached, 
based  on  facts  in  his  actual  knowledge.  He 
was  severely  criticized  for  entering  houses  of 
ill-repute,  in  order  to  secure  legal  testimony, 
but  he  did  not  falter.  He  now  had  legal  proof 
of  what  before  was  moral  proof.  His  state- 
ments caused  intense  excitement,  particularly 
his  denunciation  of  the  police  department. 
Universal  interest  was  aroused.  In  1894  the 
Lexow  investigating  committee  began  an  of- 
ficial inquiry  into  the  alleged  corruption  in  the 
police  department.  The  clews  gained  by  the 
Society  for  the  Prevention  of  Crime  were 
placed  at  its  disposal,  and  the  results  of  inves- 
tigation were  due  in  no  small  measure  to  the 
untiring  energy  and  persistence  of  Dr.  Park- 
hurst, because  he  knew  that  the  police  depart- 
ment as  then  constituted  was  corrupt. 

At  Dr.  Parkhurst's  request,  Mr.  John  W. 
Goff,  who  was  of  a  different  political  party 
from  himself,  was  made  chief  counsel  for  the 
prosecution,  and  did  able  work. 

As  a  result  gross  evils  were  proved,  not  only 
in  the  police  department,  but  in  the  judicial. 
Dr.  Parkhurst  proved  himself  thoroughly  able 
to  sustain  his  side  and  organize  the  battle. 
When  Superintendent  Byrnes  hinted  that  Dr. 
Parkhurst  had  "planned  to  compass  the  ruin 
of  the  police  department  "  in  revenge  for  the 
police  refusing  to  give  false  evidence  in  a 
certain  case,  Dr.  Parkhurst  argued  that  Mr. 
Byrnes  had,  by  his  own  evidence,  proved  him- 
self either  corrupt  or  too  incompetent  to  be 
worthy  of  his  place.  "  If  the  exigency  arises 
again  I  shall  put  a  detective  on  Mr.  Byrnes," 
said  Dr.  Parkhurst.  Such  a  man  could  not  be 
downed.  The  great  anti-Tammany  victory  of 
1894  was  largely  the  result  of  Dr.  Parkhurst's 
work. 

_  Dr.  Parkhurst  is  also  president  of  the  City  Vig- 
ilance League,  an  organization  of  young  men 
for  the  purpose  of  arousing  their  civic  knowl- 
edge and  interest.  It  contributes  largely  to 


Dr.  Parkhurst's  power.  He  was  induced  to 
effect  this  organization  from  his  interest  in 
young  men,  and  his  strong  desire  that  they 
should  realize  civic  rights  as  well  as  duties. 
The  League  makes  use  of  thirty -five  assembly 
districts.  At  the  head  of  each  is  an  assembly 
leader.  These  thirty-five  leaders  compose  the 
administrative  council  of  the  League,  and  de- 
termine its  general  policy.  Directly  under 
the  assembly  leaders  is  one  man  from  each  of 
the  1300  election  districts.  By  this  means,  a 
co-ordination  of  work  and  result  is  effected, 
and  an  organization  is  always  in  readiness  to 
make  effective  the  wishes  of  an  enlightened 
public.  Dr.  Parkhurst  continues  his  regular 
parish  work,  one  of  the  best  known,  most  re- 
spected men  in  New  York  city.  A  Republican 
in  politics,  he  places  reform  always  before 
party,  and  God  before  all.  His  book,  Our 
Fight  with  Tammany,  1895,  tells  the  story  of 
this  contest. 

PARKS     AND     PLAYGROUNDS.— The 

question  of  parks  and  playgrounds  in  cities  is 
of  modern  origin,  growing  out  of  the  rapid 
growth  and  overcrowding  of  our  cities.  It 
was  in  1851,  when  the  population  of  New  York 
City  was  just  above  the  500,000  mark,  that  the 
State  legislature  passed  an  act  for  the  creation 
of  a  park  in  the  city,  which  afterward  was 
developed  into  the  famous  Central  Park.  In 
1854  the  city  of  Paris  took  steps  to  supply  itself 
with  parks,  and  only  just  a  little  before  this 
there  were  three  small  park  undertakings 
in  England. 

As  late  as  1870  Central  Park  was  still  un- 
completed, although  the  city  had  then  in- 
creased to  over  900,000.  It  required  a  large 
degree  of  faith  even  then  to  see  any  decided 
advantage  in  sinking  $5,000,000  in  a  piece  of 
land  four  miles  away  from  the  center  of  popu- 
lation, to  reach  which  there  was  no  steam  tran- 
sit, and  from  which,  as  was  said  at  that  time, 
"For  practical,  everyday  purposes,  the  great 
mass  of  people  might  have  been  100  miles 
away."  It  was  not  many  years  after  the  suc- 
cessful establishment  of  Central  Park  before 
there  was  scarcely  a  city  of  the  world  making 
any  claims  to  prominence  and  progress  that 
was  not  providing  itself  with  these  valuable 
possessions.  The  newer  cities,  learning  wis- 
dom from  the  experiences  of  the  older,  made 
ample  provisions  for  parks  in  the  laying  out  of 
the  cities,  and  developed  their  park  systems 
with  the  development  of  the  cities. 

Zoological  and  botanical  gardens  are  also 
few  in  American  cities.  Central  Park  in  New 
York,  and  Fairmount  Park  in  Philadelphia, 
have  zoological  exhibits  or  menageries.  There 
are  beautiful  botanical  gardens  at  Washington 
and  St.  Louis.  The  new  zoological  park  at  the 
national  capital  will  be  one  of  the  finest  in  the 
world.  The  best  known  in  Europe  are  the 
famous  "Zoo"  at  Regent's  Park,  London, 
and  the  Jardin  des  Plantes  and  the  Jardin 
d'Acch'mafation  in  Paris.  At  present  a  com- 
pany has  a  charter  to  lay  out  a  botanical  gar- 
den in  the  city  of  New  York. 

What  has  been  already  accomplished  in  this 
country  and  in  the  leading  cities  of  Europe 
can  be  seen  in  the  following  table  : 


Parks  and  Playgrounds. 


973 


Parks  and  Playgrounds. 


CITIES. 

Population,  1894. 

Area  of  City. 

PUBLIC  PARKS. 

PARKS,  CITY  AREA,  AND 
POPULATION. 

DEATH 
RATE  PER 

looo,  1893. 

Number. 

cS 
fi 
E 

< 

Average  Area 
of  Parks. 

"S.S 

.  a! 

4-1    (U 

Gi 

S^rf 

&u 

£3(2 

Number  of 
Population  to 
Each  Park. 

2*3 

g£ 

O  o 

3«  . 
"3  *>•* 

PS 

&°^ 

Population  per 
Acre  of  City. 

All  Ages. 

Children  Under 
Five. 

American  Cities. 

110,000 

503,000 
446,507 
1,003,781 
300,000 
1,600,000 
325,000 
330,000 
150,000 
265,000 
120,000 
200,000 
265,000 
200,000 
200,000 
i,8qo,ooo 
160,000 
1,170,000 
260,000 
153,000 
150,000 
335,000 
500,000 
230,000 

150,000 
1,698,321 
487,897 
486,664 
341,000 
349.594 
270,588 
677,883 
595.000 
517.891 
4,349,166 
W  941,800 
2521937 

Miles. 
8.00 
3i-54 

26.46 
39-04 
186.50 
24.25 
e  27.27 
43.60 
29.00 
15.00 
14.30 
21.04 
55-6? 
17.77 
38.90 
24-75 
129.39 
38.20 
16.25 
18.36 
42.20 
6i-37 
9-55 

^3-54 
24.86 
19.85 
34-51 
8.69 
39.00 
9-63 
.  18.53 
23-39 

8.14 

108.71 

*27.87 

12.04 

2 

26 
a  8 
*i6 
C*, 
25 
6 
9 
8 

M 

9 

7 
f  47 

//  14 
2  49 
7 
40 

2 

/i6 
9 
24 

21 
£331 

2 
83 

m  13 
ii 

4 

0  2 

r*3 

s  30 

U  II 

V  20 

150 

JM8 
33 

Acres. 
300.00 
911.25 

2IOO.OO 

631.00 
rf  900.00 
2148.49 
390-25 
213.13 
510.00 
884.38 
116.00 
1079.18 
402.00 
1552.00 
80.00 
312.02 
540.00 
3175.00 
800.00 
484.19 
475.00 
1190.00 
2180.00 
4I3-52 

108.72 
1263.10 
264.00 
395-36 
82.37 
1900.00 
1280.00 
612.00 
249-57 
743-0° 
5000.00 
301.56 
468.67 

Acres. 

150.00 

35-05 
251.00 

45-69 
180.00 
85-92 
65.04 
23.68 
63-75 
46-55 
23-20 
119.91 
57-43 
33-02 
5-7i 
63.67 
77-'4 
79-38 
400.00 
30.26 
52-78 
49.58 
103.81 
1-25 

54-36 
15.22 
20.31 

35-94 
20.59 
950.00 
85.33 
20.40 
22.69 
37-15 
33-33 
!6.75 
14.20 

5-8 
4-5 

3-7 
3-6 
1.8 

2-5 
1.2 

1.8 
4.8 

1.2 

ii.  8 
3-o 
4-3 
0.8 
12.5 
3-4 
3-9 

a 

4.0 

4-4 
5-5 
6.8 

4.8 
7-9 

2.1 

1.8 

a 

20.8 

4.1 

i-7 
14-3 
7-2 
i-7 
6.1 

55,000 
19.354 
55,000 
62,736 
60,000 
64,000 
54.167 
36,667 
18,750 

13.947 
24,000 

22,222 
37.857 
4.255 
14,286 
38,571 
22,857 
29,250 
I3O,OOO 
9.563 
16,667 
13,958 
23,8lO 
695 

75,000 
20,462 

37.531 
44,242 
85,250 

174,797 
18,039 
22,596 
54,091 
25-895 
28,994 
52,322 
7,665 

367 

552 

212 

J591 
333 
745 
833 
J549 
294 
300 
1034 
185 
659 
129 
2500 
606 
296 
306 
325 
316 
316 
281 
229 
556 

1380 

1345 
1840 
1231 
4140 
184 

211 

1108 

1983 
697 
860 
3123 
540 

21 

25 

19.03 
20.99 

8.28 
7-92 

Boston,  Mass  
Brooklyn    N  Y  

59 

12 
14 
21 
19 

5 
14 
T3 

22 
2O 
6 

18 

76 

IO 

«4 

ii 

15 

'3 
12 

13 

38 

66 
107 
38 

22 
6l 

/i4 

44 
58 
39 
99 
63 
53 
33 

21.  2O 
19.03' 
16.93 
18.74 
18.15 
I3-87 
18.92 
16.56 
16.33 
I7.I5 

9-93 

24-53 
23.52 
8.60 

21.20 

22-35 
20.92 
l6.22 
18.36 
20.80 
22.64 

16.21 
21.56 

21.50 

20.50 

2O.OI 
26.90 
19.70 
22.90 
2O.OO 
27.30 
21.  OO 

25.50 

20.37 

8.80 
8-54 
7.72 
6.60 

7.85 

4-85 
5.06 
4-96 
8.87 
3-66 
10.32 
4-63- 
3-6o 
7-79 
9-65 
6.92 
4-63 
4.78 
6.82 
8.28 

7.01 

n 

7.50 

q 

'  t' 

11.82 
7.87 

10-35 

z 

Buffalo,  N.  Y  

Cleveland  O          

Detroit   Mich         

Indianapolis,  Ind  

Minneapolis,  Minn  

New  York   N   Y   

Philadelphia,  Pa  

Providence,  R.  I  

Rochester,  N.  Y  

St.  Louis,  Mo  

Washington,  D.  C  

European  Cities. 

Berlin,  Germany  

Birmingham,  England... 

Copenhagen,  Denmark.. 

Edinburgh,  Scotland  
Glasgow,  Scotland  

Hamburg,  Germany  
Liverpool,  England  

London,  England  

Moscow,  Russia  

Stockholm,  Sweden  

a.  Boston  is  establishing  a  circle  of  parks  and  promenades  or  drives,  so  that  it  really  has  many  more  than 
8  parks,  and  these  admirably  located.  (There  are  some  40  open  places  and  squares  in  the  city.)  b.  This  does  not 
include  the  Coney  Island  Concourse,  70  acres,  and  the  Parade  Ground,  40  acres,  recently  brought  within  the 
city  limits :  nor  the  Ocean  Parkway,  5^  miles  long,  and  the  Eastern  Parkway,  2%  miles  long,  each  road  being 
210" feet  wide.  The  area  of  the  city  given  is  the  old  area  before  the  annexation,  c.  "  Besides  a  number  of  places. 
d.  "  Including  park  approaches."  e.  "  Cleveland  has  recently  purchased  six  parcels  of  land  in  different  sections 
of  the  city  for  parks,  aggregating  about  700  acres."  f.  The  street-car  company  has  a  park  of  166  acres  near  the 
city.  Armstrong  Park,  156  acres,  lies  near  the  city.  g.  "  Several  of  these  are  very  small,  nothing  more  than 
small  triangles.  About  18  fair-sized  parks."  h.  ''Most  of  the  parks  of  the  city  are  very  small."  i.  Pelham  Park 
(1700  acres)  and  one-half  of  Bronx  Park  (653  acres)  lie  outside  the  city  limits.  Total  area  of  parks  belonging  to 
the  city,  5174  acres,  j.  "Thirteen  small,  three  large."  k.  "  Besides  these  there  are  Rock  Creek  Park,  1500  acres, 
and  the  Zoological  Park,  containing  16  acres.  Of  the  413.53  acres  in  the  city,  341.83  are  improved."  /.  "The  area 
of  Athens  is  too  large  for  its  population.  Besides  the  two  parks  there  are  several  squares."  m.  "  The  corpor- 
ation also  possesses  two  hills  called  Redual  and  Bilberry  Hills,  containing  82  acres,  and  situated  10  miles 
without  the  city."  n.  Death-rate  per  1000  children  under  five,  77.  o.  "  And  several  small  open  spaces. "  p.  "Two 
hundred  and  forty-five  thousand  of  the  population  reside  on  an  area  containing  64  persons  to  the  acre." 
q.  Death-rate  per  1000  children  under  five,  76.5.  r.  "Includes  Queen's  Park  and  Arboretum,  which  are  under 
Government  control  and  contain  about  614  and  58  acres  respectively."  j.  "  Includes  Botanic  Gardens,  21^  acres, 
and  adjoining  highlands  of  q%  acres,  also  7  disused  graveyards  open  to  the  public,  with  an  area  of  12  acres,  and 
ii  minor  open  spaces,  with  an  area  of  n  acres."  t.  Death-rate  per  1000  children  under  five,  64.  u.  "The  area 
of  the  lakes  within  the  parks  is  not  included  in  the  total  area  of  park  ground." — Dr.  Benkermann,  Chief  of 
Statistics  of  the  State  of  Hamburg,  v.  "Several  are  very  small,  being  disused  churchyards,  etc.,  laid  out  as 
ornamental  grounds.  Largest  public  park,  382  acres."  w.  "Nine  hundred  and  sixteen  thousand,  five  hundred 
in  the  city  and  the  rest  in  the  suburbs.  x.  "Of  which  1127.26  acres  contain  houses  and  1258.11  acres  are  water." 
y.  "  The  two  great  parks,  of  272  and  54  acres  respectively,  are  situated  outside  the  area  of  buildings.  Inside,  the 
six  largest  contain,  respectively,  29,  25,  22,  9^,  6%,  and  5^  acres."  z.  Death-rate  per  1000  children  under  one 
year,  170.16  ;  per  1000  children  from  one  to  five,  37.93. 


Philadelphia  has  the  largest  single  park  in  the 
United  States,  containing  2648  acres,  extending  for 
some  12  miles  on  either  side  of  the  Schuylkill  river, 
and  beautifully  laid  out  in  walks  and  drives.  Next  to 


the  famous  royal  Epping  Forest,  near  London,  it  is  the 
largest  in  the  world. 

The  following  shows  the  superficial  area  of  some  of 
the  principal  parks  of  the  world  : 


Parks  and  Playgrounds. 


974 


Parks  and  Playgrounds. 


Acres. 

Bois  de  Boulogne,  Paris 2158 

Pare  de  Chaumont,  Paris 62 

Regent's  Park,  London 472 

Hyde  Park,  London 388 

Kensington  Garden,  London 210 

Phoenix  Park,  Dublin qi 

St.  James's  Park,  London 1752 

Thiergarten,  Berlin 630 

Prater,  Vienna 2000 

Pelham  Bay  Park,  New  York 1700 

Central  Park,  New  York 840 

Jackson  Park,  Chicago 586 

Lincoln  Park,  Chicago 400 

Fair  mount  Park,  Philadelphia 2648 

Prospect  Park,  Brooklyn 516 

Forest  Park,  St.  Louis 1372 

Belle  Isle,  Detroit 7oo 

Eden  Park,  Cincinnati 209 

Franklin  Park,  Boston 467 

The  Common,  Boston 50 

Public  Garden,  Boston 24 

Concerning  the  need  of  small  parks  and 
playgrounds,  we  quote  from  various  sources  : 

The  city  of  London  has  now  some  5000  acres  in  parks, 
but  Octavia  Hill,  who  has  done  so  much  for  the  eleva- 
tion of  the  poor  of  that  city,  found  upon  investigation 
that  the  city  of  London  had  been  neglecting  those  who 
were  most  in  need  of  these  open  spaces.  Writing  in 
The  Nineteenth  Century  for  February,  1888,  she  de- 
scribes what  she  found  in  the  heart  of  London— in- 
cluded within  a  circle,  8  miles  in  diameter,  having  an 
area  of  about  50  square  miles  and  a  population  of 
2,828,585,  there  were  1701  acres  of  park  for  the  western 
half  and  but  223  acres  for  the  eastern  half.  In  the 
eastern  half  were  1,668,412  people,  crowded  at  a  rate  of 
101  to  the  acre,  and  having  one  acre  of  park  to  but  7481  of 
population  ;  while  in  the  western  half  is  a  population 
of  only  1,160,173,  or  72  to  the  acre,  and  with  one  acre  of 
park  to  every  682  of  population.  The  western  half 
was  thus  nearly  eleven  times  better  off  for  park  room, 
in  proportion  to  the  population,  than  the  eastern  half. 

Urging  upon  her  readers  the  necessity  of  providing 
more  park  room,  and  giving  her  reasons  why  she 
spoke  out  so  earnestly,  Miss  Hill  said  : 

"  It  is  one  thing  to  know  theoretically  and  scientific- 
ally that  they  are  needed,  and  it  is  another  to  live,  as 
it  were,  side  by  side  with  those  who  need  them  ;  to 
realize,  in  regard  to  this  man  and  that  woman,  how 
far  their  home  is  from  any  summer  outdoor  sitting- 
room,  from  any  refreshing  lane  or  field  for  Saturday 
afternoon  walk;  to  know  little  children  who  can  never, 
from  year's  end  to  year's  end,  be  taken  by  their 
mother  to  the  nearest  park  ;  to  see  the  little  pale  face 
and  shriveled  form  of  an  invalid  child  who  cannot  be 
laid  down  on  the  grass  in  the  sunlight  to  be  healed  and 
cheered,  but  must  sit  the  whole  summer  day  through 
in  the  hot  room  in  court  or  alley  ;  to  watch  the  big 
lads  who  get  into  mischief  because  they  have  no  scope 


for  their  energies,  no  space  for  game  at  hare  and 
hounds,  no  opportunity  for  leaping  ditches,  or  climb- 
ing hills,  or  skating,  or  taking  a  fresh  walk  ;  to  watch 
the  fresh  air  diminished  in  one  neighborhood  after 
another,  taller  houses  being  built  and  more  of  them, 
yard  and  garden  more  and  more  built  over  year  by 
year,  forecourts  covered  and  the  country  retreating,  as 
it  were,  further  and  further  from  withfn  walking  dis- 
tance of  one  and  another  of  my  working  friends.  This 
is  different  from  reason  and  science  ;  this  is  life  and 
this  is  pain.  This  urges  me  to  speak ;  making  it  iny 
duty  to  speak,  and  that  before  it  is  too  late." 

For  what  has  been  done,  see  LONDON  COUNTY 
COUNCIL.  Concerning  New  York  City,  The 
Voice  of  June  28,  1894,  says : 

"Of  the  50  parks  owned  by  the  city  and  containing 
about  5000  acres,  Pelham  Bay  Park,  with  its  1756  acres, 
lies  entirely  without  the  city  limits,  and  more  than  300 
acres  of  Bronx  Park  lies  on  the  east  side  of  the  Bronx 
River,  and  so  outside  the  city  limits. 

"The  most  noticeable  fact  is  the  great  disparity 
between  the  upper  and  lower  parts  of  the  city,  in  the 
number  and  extent  of  parks.  The  Harlem  River 
divides  the  city  into  two  nearly  equal  parts,  but  the 
part  of  the  city  above  the  Harlem  has  nearly  twice  as 
much  park  space,  with  less  than  one-twentieth  the 
population.  There  are  other  marked  differences  on 
Manhattan  Island  itself.  Fortieth  Street  divides  the 
island  into  two  sections,  of  which  the  lower  part  has 
less  than  one-half  the  area  of  the  upper,  but  above 
200,000  more  population.  There  are  six  more  parks  in 
number  in  the  section  below  Fortieth  Street,  but  the 
total  area  of  parks  below  Fortieth  Street  is  but  61 
acres,  while  the  upper  end  of  the  island  has  Central 
Park,  Riverside  Park,  and  a  number  of  other  large 
ones,  aggregating  1049  acres. 

"  Much  of  the  section  below  Fourteenth  Street  is  in 
a  far  worse  condition  than  between  Fourteenth  and 
Fortieth  streets.  The  annexed  table  shows  the  con- 
dition of  the  six  most  densely  populated  wards,  which 
form  a  compact  area  of  about  i%  square  miles  on  the 
east  side  of  the  city,  and,  with  the  exception  of  the  Four- 
teenth Ward,  on  the  east  side  of  the  Bowery.  In  this 
section  there  are,  all  told,  but  four  parks  and  open 
spaces,  three  of  which  are  mere  triangles,  the  largest 
measuring  less  than  a  half-acre.  The  Tenth  Ward,  with 
its  622  persons  to  the  acre,  the  most  densely  crowded 
spot  in  America,  and  probably  in  the  world,  has  not 
even  a  breathing-hole,  not  even  the  inner  spaces  of 
the  blocks  offering  any  relief  ;  for  within  the  48  blocks 
of  the  ward  there  are  158  rear  houses,  giving  shelter 
to  over  5800  people,  nearly  1000  of  whom  are  under 
five  years  of  age.  Other  wards  without  a  park  or 
breathing-hole  are  the  Thirteenth,  with  its  515  of 
population  to  the  acre  ;  the  Eleventh,  with  454  to  the 
acre  ;  the  Fourteenth,  with  342  to  the  acre  ;  the  Eighth, 
Fourth,  Third,  and  Second,  all  below  Fourteenth 
Street,  and  the  Sixteenth,  on  the  west  side,  just  above 
Fourteenth  Street. 


DISTRIBUTION  OF  PARKS  IN  NEW  YORK  CITY— Six  MOST  CROWDED  WARDS. 


NEW  YORK  CITY. 

Population, 
1893. 

Area  in  Acres. 

Density  of 
Population 
per  Acre. 

Number  of 
Parks. 

Area  of  Parks 
in  Acres. 

Population  to 
One  Park. 

Population  to 
One  Acre  of 
Park. 

Per  cent,  of 
Total  Area 
in  Parks. 

Below  Fourteenth  Street  

2,408 

38,125 

11,696 

2.3 

Fourteenth  to  Fortieth  Street  

6 

15.9 

54,173 

20,435 

I.O 

767,338 

8,514 

1048.8 

12.3 

Above  the  Harlem  

86,801 

9,645 

43 

16.2 

Total  for  City  

586 

12.5 

Manhattan  Island  

138.4 

4° 

II2O.2 

43,517 

732 

8.9 

MOST  CROWDED  WARDS. 
Tenth 

Thirteenth 

None. 

Seventeenth  

331 

347.6 

2 

10.7 

57)533 

10,718 

3-3    • 

06 

None. 

Seventh  

66,376 

198 

335-2 

2 

o-S 

33,i88 

122,691 

0.3 

Total  Six  Wards  

1.038 

II.  2 

106,732 

38,119 

i.i 

Parks  and  Playgrounds. 


975 


Parliament. 


"  Of  the  50  parks  belonging  to  the  city  there  are  4  of 
more  than  600  acres  each,  2  more  than  50  acres,  6  be- 
tween 50  and  20  acres,  and  9  between  20  and  5  acres, 
and  5  more  above  i  acre.  Twenty-four  of  the  50 
parks  and  spaces,  or  nearly  one-half,  are  less  than  i 
acre  each  in  area,  while  21  are  under  one-half  acre, 
and  9  less  than  one-tenth  of  an  acre." 

Concerning  the  creation  and  need  of  small 
parks  Mr.  Alfred  R.  Conkling  says  (City  Gov- 
ernment in  the  United  States,  pp.  55-59) : 

"  In  1884  an  act  was  passed  by  the  New  York  legis- 
lature to  create  new  public  parks.  It  was  argued  that 
this  was  the  time  to  acquire  land  for  park  purposes, 
lest  it  should  become  too  valuable  if  further  delay 
•were  made.  It  was  enacted  that  several  new  parks 
should  be  established,  but  the  nearest  proposed  site 
was  about  seven  miles  from  the  densely  populated 
district  of  Manhattan  Island.  Since  the  passage  of  the 
law  about  $10,000,000  have  been  expended  in  buying 
parks  at  the  upper  end  of  the  city  of  New  York. 

"In  1887,  at  the  suggestion  of  Mayor  Hewitt,  an  act 
creating  small  parks  in  the  city  of  New  York  was 
passed.  It  was  soon  decided  to  take  the  block  known 
as  Mulberry  Bend  for  park  purposes — a  block  about 
200  by  600  feet,  containing  a  little  less  than  three  acres. 
Proceedings  were  begun,  and  it  is  only  now  (July  i, 
1894)  that  the  title  to  the  Mulberry  Park  block  has 
been  vested  in  the  city.  In  other  words,  it  has  taken 
seven  years  to  select  and  acquire  title  to  a  site  for 
a  small  park  in  New  York,  not  to  speak  of  the  time 
required  for  razing  the  buildings  and  laying  out  the 
grounds. 

•'I  dwell  upon  the  experience  of  the  city  of  New 
York  as  a  forerunner  of  what  has  been  done  and  what 
will  be  done  in  American  cities  for  public  parks. 

"  The  plan  of  laying  out  small  parks  in  the  tenement- 
house  district  should  be  supplemented  by  small  public 
playgrounds  for  children.  It  has  been  suggested  that 
a  lot  about  50  by  100  feet  should  be  bought  adjoining 
all  public  schoolhouses.  This  lot  should  become  a 
sort  of  public-school  park,  with  an  entrance  from  the 
street.  It  could  be  used  by  the  school  children  during 
recess,  and  by  the  children  of  the  neighborhood  at  all 
other  times.  Light  athletic  games  should  be  en- 
couraged, such  as  tennis,  handball,  swings,  and  see- 
saws. A  gymnastic  apparatus  might  be  added,  and 
a  tent  could  be  erected  on  hot  days  in  summer. 

"  It  may  be  said  of  these  public  playgrounds  in  the 
densely  populated  districts  that  the  noise  and  shouting 
of  the  youngsters  would  become  a  nuisance.  But  that 
matter  would  soon  adjust  itself,  for  the  noise  would 
be  confined  only  to  the  daytime,  or  it  would  certainly 
cease  early  in  the  evening.  The  janitor  of  the  school- 
house  could  attend  to  the  public  park  without  addi- 
tional compensation. 

"  In  1892  it  was  suggested  to  establish  a  children's 
playground  in  the  southwest  corner  of  Central  Park. 
The. commissioners  reported  that  the  expense  would 
be  about  $100,000,  and,  after  thorough  discussion  in  the 
public  press,  they  decided  to  abandon  the  plan.  It 
should  be  said  that  a  portion  of  Central  Park  is  made 
a  public  common  on  Sundays  and  holidays — that  is, 
the  public  has  the  right  to  roam  over  the  grass  on 
those  days. 

"  An  American  in  Europe  notices  at  once  the  differ- 
ence between  the  management  of  the  public  parks  in 
the  New  and  the  Old  World.  In  the  United  States 
there  is  generally  a  park  police,  and  the  parks  are 
strictly  managed.  For  instance,  citizens  are  not  al- 
lowed to  fall  asleep  on  the  benches  in  the  parks.  The 
traveler  in  Paris  and  London  sees  that  much  more 
freedom  is  allowed  in  those  cities.  .  .  . 

"  The  experience  of  Paris  is  worthy  of  careful  study. 

The  Emperor  Napoleon  III.   improved  the    densely 

populated  districts,  and  where    miserable    and  vile 

dwellings  were  inhabited  by  the  most  destitute  class 

of  citizens,  he  ordered  these  dwellings  to  be  removed 

and  laid  out  beautiful  parks,   planted  with  flowers, 

shrubs,  and  trees.     He  created  many  breathing-places 

well  supplied  with  benches  for  the  accommodation  of 

the  public.      He  also  made  the  point  that,  where  a 

dense  and  excitable  population  was  demanding  work 

and  inclined  to  riots,  it  was  wise  to  give 

them  employment,  provided  the  work 

was  necessary  and  was  warranted  by 

In  Europe,  the  financial  condition  of  the  munici- 
pality. Napoleon  I.  erected  arches  in 
certain  squares. 

"  Paris  is  now  the  pleasure  city  of  the 
world,  and  foreigners  from  all  countries,  especially 
from  South  America,  make  their  home  there.  The 


permanent  leisure  population  of  foreign  birth  in  Paris" 
is  probably  larger  than  in  any  other  city.  This  fea- 
ture of  Paris  is  owing  to  the  policy  of  Napoleon 
III.,  and  largely  to  the  number  of  public  parks  and 
parkways. 

"  Skilful  architects  should  be  employed  to  lay  out 
public  parks,  and  their  management  should  not  be  in- 
trusted to  the  ordinary  ward  politician,  who  is  inclined 
to  enrich  himself,  or  to  propose  improvements  for  the 

gurpose  of  helping  some  contractor  who  belongs  to 
is  political  organization.  A  small  public  park  can 
often  be  established  at  slight  expense  by  using  a  V-- 
shaped lot,  formed  by  the  intersection  of  a  diagonal 
avenue  with  a  longitudinal  street.  There  are  a  few 
such  parks  in  the  city  of  New  York,  although  they 
were  closed  to  the  public  until  1887.  Eleven  such  parks 
had  been  locked,  when  Mayor  Hewitt  suggested  that 
they  be  opened.  Short  paths  were  laid  out  within 
these  parks ;  flowers  and  shrubs  were  planted,  and 
benches  placed  inside  them.  The  observer  may  see 
the  children  from  the  tenement-houses  now  using 
these  parks  with  great  advantage. 

"  In  American  cities  music  is  provided  at  public  ex- 
pense on  Saturdays,  and  in  some  cities  on  Sundays, 
In  Europe  the  bands  of  the  standing  army,  which  are, 
of  course,  paid  for  by  taxation,  perform  in  the  public 
parks  very  frequently." 

Professor  E.  R.  L.  Gould,  on  this  last  point 
says,  in  an  article  in  vol.  i.  of  the  publica- 
tion of  the  American  Statistical  Association. 
(1888) : 

"  Large  cities  should  follow  the  advice  of  Professor 
Jevons,  build  pavilions  for  winter  use  in  one  or  two  of 
the  principal  parks,  and  maintain  all  the  year  around 
orchestras  and  bands  of  music,  with  other  light  attrac- 
tions, to  provide  entertainments,  either  wholly  free  to 
the  public  or  at  a  merely  nominal  rate  of  admission. 
There  should  be  at  least  one  Crystal  Palace  in  every 
great  city.  During  the  summer  months,  concerts- 
should  be  given  as  often  as  every  other  week-day 
evening  in  every  one  of  the  large  and  moderately  sized 
spaces. 

PARLIAMENT  (from  old  French  parle- 
ment,  a  speaking),  a  name  given  to  delibera- 
tive assemblies,  especially  to  the  legislatures  of 
Great  Britain  and  her  self-governing  colonies. 
The  origin  of  Parliament  in  Great  Britain  is 
obscure,  save  that  there  is  no  doubt  that 
alike  in  Saxon  and  Norman  times  the  English 
people  had  some  share  in  making  the  laws 
whereby  they  were  governed.  The  Magna 
Chart  a  of  1215  recalled  some  of  those  forgot- 
ten rights,  but  the  first  Parliament  of  which 
any  record  is  preserved  was  called  in  1265  by 
a  writ  of  Henry  III.,  summoning  the  knights, 
citizens,  and  burgesses  to  meet  in  Parliament. 
Down  through  the  fifteenth  century  all  these 
classes  met  together  in  one  house.  To-day 
Parliament  consists  of  monarch,  lords,  and 
commons.  The  three  estates  of  the  realm  are 
lords  spiritual,  lords  temporal,  and  commons. 
In  1894  the  House  of  Lords  consisted  of  2 
archbishops,  24  bishops,  6  peers  of  the  blood 
royal,  22  dukes,  22  marquises,  120  earls,  26 
viscounts,  310  barons,  16  Scotch  and  28  Irish 
representative  peers.  The  last  consecrated 
of  the  25  English  diocesan  prelates, — pro- 
vided he  holds  an  inferior  see, — the  suffragan 
and  coadjutor  bishops  have  no  seat.  The 
number  of  the  higher  lords  is  growing  less, 
but  the  numbers  of  barons  is  increasing,  the 
creation  of  peerages  being  vested  in  the 
Crown.  All  peerages  are  hereditary.  The 
Scotch  and  Irish  representative  peers  are 
elected  by  the  Scotch  and  Irish  peerage. 

The  House  of  Commons  has  670  members, 
as  follows  : 


Parliament. 


976 


Patent  Laws. 


England. 
and  Wales. 

Scotland. 

Ireland. 

Members 

for    coun- 

39 

85 

Members 

for     bor- 

16 

Members 

for     Uni- 

2 

Minors,  outlaws,  lunatics,  aliens,  common- 
law  judges,  clergy  of  the  Church  of  England, 
Roman  Catholic  priests,  pensioners  for  a  term 
of  years,  contractors  with  government,  mem- 
bers of  the  India  council,  and  peers  are  dis- 
qualified. By  the  act  of  1858  property 
qualification  was  abolished.  A  member  can- 
not resign  his  seat.  The  House  of  Lords  has 
judicial  and  legislative  powers,  the  latter  with 
the  Crown  and  the  House  of  Commons. 

The  House  of  Commons  imposes  taxes  and 
raises  money.  At  present  members  are  elected 
for  seven  years.  Parliament  assembles  on 
the  summons  of  the  sovereign,  and  must  be 
assembled  at  least  once  in  three  years.  Prac- 
tically it  is  called  every  year.  It  commences 
•with  a  speech  from  the  throne.  No  member 
can  be  questioned  outside  of  Parliament  for 
what  he  has  said  within  it,  and  is  free  from 
arrest  in  civil  causes,  but  may  be  adjudged 
bankrupt,  and  his  goods  taken.  Every  bill 
must  be  read  three  times  before  each  house, 
and  also  be  reviewed  clause  by  clause  by  Se- 
lect Committee,  or  by  the  whole  House  as  a 
Committee. 

References :  Memoirs  of  the  House  of  Commons,  by 
"W.  C.  Townsend  (2  volsO  ;  How  We  Are  Governed, 
"by  A.  Fonblanque. 


PARSONS,   ALBERT   R. 

ANARCHISTS  ;  end  of  article. 


See    CHICAGO 


PATENT  LAWS.— A  patent  is  the  grant 
by  government  to  the  author  of  an  invention, 
or  to  his  heirs,  of  the  exclusive  right  to  use  or 
sell  the  invention  for  a  fixed  number  of  years. 
It  is  also  used — although  this  is  an  older 
meaning  and  is  passing  out  of  use — of  the 
instrument  or  letters  by  which  a  grant  of  land 
is  made  by  a  government  to  a  person  or  cor- 
poration. 

Art.  I.  sec.  viii.  clause  8,  of  the  Constitution  gives 
Congress  right 

"  To  promote  the  progress  of  science  and  useful  arts, 
by  securing  for  limited  times,  to  authors  and  inventors, 
the  exchisive  right  to  their  respective  writings  and 
discoveries.'" 

Provision  was  made  by  Congress,  in  1790,  for  giving  to 
inventors  the  exclusive  right  to  their  discoveries. 
From  that  time  to  the  present  patents  have  been  issued, 
the  number  increasing  each  year.  At  first,  applications 
for  patents  were  made  to  the  Secretary  of  State,  and 
the  decision  was  made  by  a  board,  consisting  of  the 
Secretary  of  State,  the  Secretary  of  War,  and  the 
Attorney-general.  In  1793  the  Secretary  of  State  alone 
was  authorized  to  issue  patents.  In  1836,  an  office,  or 
bureau,  was  created  in  the  Department  of  State  under 
the  name  of  the  Patent  Office,  the  chief  officer  being 
styled  the  Commissioner  of  Patents.  From  that  time 
patents  have  been  issued  by  the  Commissioner.  The 
Patent  Office  was  transferred  to  the  Department  of 
the  Interior  in  1849,  when  this  latter  department  was 
created.  Originally  patents  were  issued  by  the  Presi- 
dent of  the  United  States ;  then  by  the  Secretary  of 
State  and  the  Commissioner  of  Patents ;  now  by  the 
Secretary  of  the  Interior  and  the  Commissioner. 


History. 


The  term  for  which  a  patent  was  valid  was  fourteen 
years  originally,  but  in  1870  it  was  made  seventeen 
years.  It  is  competent  for  Congress  to  extend  the 
time  of  a  patent,  whether  application  be  made  before 
or  after  the  expiration  of  the  original  term.  In  1836 
the  power  to  extend  for  seven  years,  if  the  patentee 
had  failed  to  receive  a  suitable  return  for  his  time, 
ingenuity,  and  expense,  was  conferred  on  a  board, 
consisting  of  the  Secretary  of  State,  the  Commis- 
sioner of  Patents,  and  the  Solicitor  of  the  Treasury. 
But  such  extension  must  be  granted  before  the  expira- 
tion of  the  time  for  which  the  patent  was  originally 
issued.  Since  1848  the  power  to  extend  in  such  cases 
has  been  exercised  by  the  Commissioner. 

In  1836  the  Patent  Office  was  burned  and  many  of 
the  records  destroyed.  Congress  embraced  the  oppor- 
tunity to  thoroughly  revise  the  whole  system.  By  an 
act  passed  in  that  year  prior  acts  were  substantially 
repealed  and  the  present  system  substituted. 

As  at  present  organized,  the  Patent  Office  is  at- 
tached to  the  department  of  the  Secretary  of  the  Inte- 
^•ior.  It  consists  of  the  following  officers  :  One  com- 
missioner, one  assistant  commissioner,  and  three 
examiners-in-chief,  all  appointed  by  the  President,  by 
and  with  the  advice  and  consent  of  the  Senate.  All 
other  officers,  clerks,  and  employees  are  appointed  by 
the  Secretary  of  the  Interior  on  the  nomination  of  the 
Commissioner  of  Patents. 

Among  the  peculiarities  of  the  patent  laws  of  the 
United  States  it  may  be  mentioned  that  the  term  for 
which  they  are  granted,  seventeen  years,  is  longer 
than  in  any  other  country.  The  devel- 
opment of  the  patent  system  in  the 
United  States  far  exceeds  that  of  any 
other  nation.  For  several  years  the 
number  of  patents  issued  in  the  United 
States  has  been  nearly  equal  to  the 
number  issued  by  all  other  civilized  nations  together. 
A  pamphlet  containing  the  Patent  Laws  and  Laws 
relating  to  the  Registration  of  Trade-marks  and 
Labels,  and  one  containing  the  Rules  of  Practise  in  the 
United  States  Patent  Office,  are  published  by  the  office, 
and  can  be  obtained,  free  of  charge,  by  any  one  desir- 
ing them,  on  application  by  mail  to  the  Commissioner 
of  Patents.  It  t£,  however,  practically  impossible  for 
an  inventor  himself  to  prepare  the  papers,  drawings, 
etc.,  necessary  to  obtain  a  patent,  with  the  requisite 
degree  of  scientific  and  technical  skill.  "Patent  law- 
yers "  form  a  distinct  branch  of  the  profession,  and 
the  inventor  will  find  it  in  the  end  the  cheapest  as 
well  as  the  surest  course  to  intrust  his  case  to  an 
attorney  who  makes  the  practise  of  patent  law  a 
specialty. 

Patents  may  be  granted  for  designs  and  trade- 
marks, as  well  as  for  machines.  Designs  may  be 
patented  for  three  years  and  six  months,  for  seven 
years,  or  for  fourteen  years  ;  and  trade-marks  may  be 
patented  for  thirty  years. 

The  applicant  for  a  patent  must  make  oath  that  he 
believes  himself  to  be  the  original  inventor  of  that  for 
which  he  seeks  a  patent ;  he  must  file  a  full  descrip- 
tion of  the  same,  and,  in  all  cases  admitting  it,  must 
present  drawings  and  a  model.  A  prior  patent  in  a 
foreign  country  does  not  debar  him  from  receiving  a 
patent  here,  proyided  the  invention  shall  not  have 
been  introduced  into  public  use  in  the  United  States 
for  more  than  two  years  prior  to  the  application. 

If  one  has  made  a  discovery  or  invention,  but 
wishes  to  mature  it,  he  may  file  a  caveat,  setting  forth 
its  character,  and  praying  for  protection  of  his  right 
until  he  can  mature  the  invention.  Should  another 
apply  •within  a  year  for  a  patent  covering  the  same 
ground,  notice  is  given  to  the  first  applicant,  who 
must  file  his  description,  etc.,  within  three  months. 

Patents  are  issued  in  the  name  of  the  United  States, 
and  under  the  seal  of  the  Patent  Office,  to  any  person 
who  has  invented  or  discovered  any  new  and  useful 
art,  machine,  manufacture,  or  composition  of  matter, 
or  any  new  and  useful  improvement  thereof,  not 
known  or  used  by  others  in  this  country,  and  not 
patented  or  described  in  any  printed  publication  in 
this  or  any  foreign  country,  before  his  invention  or 
discovery  thereof,  and  not  in  public  use  or  on  sale 
for  more  than  two  years  prior  to  his  application, 
unless  the  same  is  proved  to  have  been  abandoned  ; 
and  by  any  person  who,  by  his  own  industry,  genius, 
efforts,  and  expense  has  invented  and  produced  any 
new  and  original  design  for  a  manufacture,  bust, 
statue,  alto-relievo,  or  bas-relief;  any  new  and  origi- 
nal design  for  the  printing  of  woolen,  silk,  cotton,  or 
other  fabrics  ;  any  new  and  original  impression,  orna- 
ment, patent,  print,  or  picture  to  be  printed,  painted, 
cast,  or  otherwise  placed  on  or  worked  into  any  article 


Patent  Laws. 


977 


Patent  Laws. 


Patent  Law. 


•of  manufacture ;  and  any  new,  useful,  and  original 
•shape  or  configuration  of  any  article  of  manufacture, 
the  same  not  having  been  known  nor  used  by  others 
before  his  invention  or  production  thereof,  nor  pat- 
ented nor  described  in  any  printed  publication,  upon 
payment  of  the  fees  required  by  law  and  other  due 
proceedings  had. 

Every  patent  contains  a  grant  to  the  patentee,  his 
heirs  or  assigns,  for  the  term  of  seventeen  years,  of 
the  exclusive  right  to  make,  use,  and  vend  the  inven- 
tion or  discovery  throughout  the  United  States  and 
the  Territories,  referring  to  the  specification  for  the 
particulars  thereof. 

If  it  appears  that  the  inventor,  at  the  time  of  making 
his  application,   believed  himself  to  be  the  first  in- 
ventor or  discoverer,  a  patent  will  not 
be  refused  on  account  of  the  invention 
or  discovery,  or  any  part  thereof,  hav- 
ing been  known  or  used  in  any  foreign 
country  before  his  invention  or  discov- 
ery thereof,   if  it  had  not  been  before 
patented  or  described  in  any  printed  publication. 

Joint  inventors  are  entitled  to  a  joint  patent ;  neither 
can  claim  one  separately.  Independent  inventors  of 
distinct  and  independent  improvements  in  the  same 
machine  cannot  obtain  a  joint  patent  for  their  sepa- 
rate inventions ;  nor  does  the  fact  that  one  furnishes 
the  capital  and  another  makes  the  invention  entitle 
them  to  make  application  as  joint  inventors;  but  in 
such  case  they  may  become  joint  patentees. 

The  receipt  of  letters  patent  from  a  foreign  gov- 
ernment will  not  prevent  the  inventor  from  obtaining 
'A  patent  in  the  United  States,  unless  the  invention 
shall  have  been  introduced  into  public  use  in  the 
United  States  more  than  two  years  prior  to  the  appli- 
cation. But  every  patent  granted  for  an  invention 
which  has  been  previously  patented  by  the  same 
inventor  in  a  foreign  country  will  be  so  limited  as  to 
expire  at  the  same  time  with  the  foreign  patent,  or,  if 
there  be  more  than  one,  at  the  same  time  with  the  one 
having  the  shortest  unexpired  term ;  but  in  no  case 
will  it  be  in  force  more  than  seventeen  years. 

Fees  must  be  paid  in  advance,  and  are  as  follows : 
On  filing  each  original  application  for  a  patent,  $15  ; 
on  issuing  each  original  patent,  $20.  In  design  cases : 
For  three  years  and  six  months,  $10 ;  for  seven  years, 
$115  ;  for  fourteen  years,  $30.  On  filing  each  caveat, 
$io.  On  every  application  for  the  reissue  of  a  patent. 
$30.  On  filing  each  disclaimer,  $ip.  For  certified 
copies  of  patents  and  other  papers  in  manuscript,  10 
cents  per  hundred  words;  for  certified  copies  of 
printed  patents,  85  cents.  For  recording  every  assign- 
ment, agreement,  power  of  attorney,  or  other  paper, 
of  three  hundred  words  or  under,  $i ;  of  over  three 
hundred  and  under  one  thousand  •words,  $2  ;  of  over 
•one  thousand  words,  $3.  For  copies  of  drawings,  the 
reasonable  cost  of  making  them. 

The  receipts  of  the  Patent  Office  during  the  fiscal 
year  1892-93  were  $1,288,809.13,  and  expenditures, 
.$1,139,713.35.  Receipts  over  expenditures,  $154,593. 

The  following  is  a  statement  of  the  business  of  the 
office  for  the  fiscal  year  ending  June  30,  1893  : 

Number  of  applications  for  patents 39,539 

Number  of  applications  for  design  patents 1,201 

Number  of  applications  for  reissue  patents m 

Number  of  applications  for  registration  of 

trade-marks 2,282 

Number  of  applications  for  registration  of 

labels 454 

Number  of  caveats  filed 2,349 

Total 45,936 

Number    of  patents   granted,   including  reis- 
sues and  designs 23,471 

Number  of  trade-marks  registered 1,884 

Number  of  labels  registered None 

Number  of  prints  registered i 

Total 25,356 

Number  of  patents  withheld  for  non-payment 

of  final  fees , 3,679 

Number  of  patents  expired 13,672 

The  total  number  of  applications  filed  at  the  Patent 
Office  in  fifty-seven  years,  1837-93,  was  872,995  ;  num- 
ber of  caveats  filed,  98,248 ;  number  of  patents  is- 
sued, 500,543.  Receipts,  $29,209,915.13;  expenditures, 
-$23,753,460.35  ;  net  surplus,  $5,456,454.78. 

In  England  the  patent  system  is  not  dissimilar,  but 
lias  been  much  debated.  The  Crown  seems  always  to 
have  enjoyed  the  prerogative  right  to  grant  monopo- 
lies, and  this  had  been  so  greatly  perverted  in  the  time 

62 


Abroad. 


of  Elizabeth  that  the  popular  clamor  led  to  a  statute 
in  the  following  reign  having  for  its  object  to  prevent 
the  Crown  in  future  making  any  grants  of  that  kind 
which  should  be  prejudicial  to  the  interests  of  trade. 
By  that  act  an  exception  was,  expressly  made  in  favor 
of  new  inventions.  At  first  the  jud  jes  construed 
grants  of  monopoly  to  inventors  very  strictly  ;  but 
afterward  it  was  seen  that  they  were  for  the  benefit 
of  trade,  and  were  dealt  with  more  liberally.  An 
important  modification  of  the  law  was  introduced  by  a 
statute  of  Queen  Anne,  which  required  every  inventor 
to  describe  in  detail  the  nature  of  the  invention  in  an 
instrument  called  a  specification.  Another  statute  of 
5  and  6  Will.  IV.,  c.  83,  further  altered  the  law  by 
allowing  parties  who  had  a  difficulty  in  separating 
what  was  new  from  what  was  old  in  their  invention  to 
enter  an  express  disclaimer  of  that  part  which  was 
not  new.  But  the  most  important  alteration  was  made 
by  the  statute  of  15  and  16  Vic.,  c.  82,  1852. 

In  1862  a  royal  commission  was  appointed  to  con- 
sider the  whole  subject  of  the  patent  laws,  and  to 
suggest  alterations  which  might  be  useful.  The  com- 
mission collected  evidence  in  that  and  the  two  follow- 
ing years,  and  made  its  report  in  1864.  Other  commis- 
sions and  committees  have  made  later  inquiries,  and 
offered  suggestions  founded  on  the  evidence  collected  ; 
but  the  opinions  expressed,  on  almost  every  point,  are 
most  conflicting.  The  divided  opinion  of  practical 
men  has  hitherto  discouraged  any  attempt  to  legislate 
on  their  recommendations  ;  and  the  act  of  1852  remains 
still  in  force. 

That  some  mode  of  rewarding  the  individual  whose 
perseverance  and  ingenuity  have  enabled  him  to  dis- 
cover anew  invention  should  be  estab- 
lished is  universally  admitted,  but 
whether  it  should  be  at  the  expense  of 
that  part  of  the  public  who  are  pur- 
chasers, and  therefore  benefited  by  his 
discovery,  or  by  the  public  at  large  in 
the  shape  of  a  pension,  is  a  matter  still  undecided. 
The  evils  of  the  present  law  are  that  there  is  a  great 
deal  of  uncertainty  in  the  mode  of  ascertaining  what 
is  a  new  invention.  Hence,  when  a  patent  has  been 
granted,  if  it  is  of  such  a  nature  as  to  lead  to  competi- 
tion, infringements  are  almost  matters  of  course,  and 
the  only  mode  of  discovering  and  checking  the  in- 
fringement is  so  tedious,  costly,  and  ineffective  that 
inventors  generally  pass  their  lives  in  constant  litiga- 
tion, fighting  in  detail  a  succession  of  imitators  who 
often  have  nothing  to  lose  by  defeat,  and  therefore 
entail  all  the  greater  burden  on  the  legitimate  manu- 
facturer. It  has  been  said  that  not  more  than  three 
patents  per  cent,  are  remunerative. 

France. — Grants  of  patents  (brevets  <T  invention)  are 
regulated  in  France  by  the  law  of  sth  July,  1844.  Pat- 
ents are  granted  to  inventors  or  their  assignees, 
whether  natives  or  foreigners,  and  the  French  patent 
expires  with  any  foreign  patent  of  earlier  date.  Appli- 
cations for  French  patents  must  be  made  prior  to  the 
filing  of  the  complete  specification  in  any  foreign 
country.  Patents  are  granted  for  a  term  of  fifteen 
years  upon  payment  of  an  annual  duty  of  $20. 

Germany. — By  a  law  dated  2sth  May,  1877,  patents 
are  granted  for  fifteen  years  to  natives  and  foreigners. 
The  invention  must  not  have  been  previously  de- 
scribed in  a  printed  publication  in  any  way.  The 
patentee  may  obtain  supplementary  patents  for  im- 

Srovements  expiring  with  the    original    patent.      A 
overnmeat  duty   of  $7.30,  is  paid  on  the  issue  of  the 
patent,  together  with  an  annuity.  . 

The  Governments  of  Belgium,  Brazil,  France,  Gua- 
temala, Holland,  Italy,  Portugal,  San  Salvador,  Servia, 
Spain,  Switzerland,  and  Great  Britain 
have  signed  an  international   conven- 
tion   relating    to    patents,    the    salient 


J&:  points  of  which  are  :  (i)  That  the  sub-  *"£*,*"" 
me  jects  of  each  of  the  above  States  shall,  Patents. 
in  all  the  other  States,  as  regards  pat- 
ents, enjoy  the  advantages  that  their 
respective  laws  grant  to  their  own  subjects  ;  (2)  that 
any  person  who  has  duly  registered  an  application  for 
a  patent  in  any  one  of  the  States  shall  enjoy  a  right  of 
priority  protecting  the  first  patentee  against  any  acts 
accomplished  in  the  interval  for  a  term  of  six  months — 
a  month  longer  being  allowed  for  countries  beyond 
the  sea  ;  (3)  that  the  introduction  by  the  patentee,  into 
the  country  where  the  patent  has  been  granted,  of 
objects  manufactured  in  any  of  the  other  States 
shall  not  entail  forfeiture,  but  the  patentee  remains 
bound  to  work  his  patent  in  conformity  with  the  laws 
of  the  country  into  which  he  introduces  the  patented 
objects;  (4)  that  the  States  agree  to  grant  tempo- 
rary protection  to  patentable  inventions  for  arti- 


Patent  Laws. 


978 


Patent  Laws. 


Discussion 

of  the 

System. 


cles.  appearing  at  officially  recognized  international 
exhibitions. 

Concerning  the  general  question  of  patent 
laws  much  is  to  be  said  on  both  sides.  Mr.  C. 
W.  Baker  says,  in  his  Monopolies  and  the 
People  (p.  89) : 

"If  we  judge  the  granting. of  patents  by  the  aims 
and  intentions  which  are  held  in  the  theory  of  the  law, 
we  must  conclude   that  it  is  a  highly 
wise,  just,  and  beneficial  act.    The  man 
who  invents  a  new  machine  or  device 
which  benefits  the  public,   by  making 
easier  or  cheaper  some  industrial  opera- 
tion, performs  a  valuable  service  to  the 
world.     But   he  can  receive  no  reward 
for  this  service,  if  any  one  is  at  liberty 
to  make  and  sell  the  new  machine  he  has  invented  ; 
and  unless  the  patent  laws    gave  him  the  power  to 
repay  himself  for  the  labor  and  expense  of  planning 
and  designing  his  new  device,  it  is  altogether  probable 
that  he  would  not  spend  his  time  in  inventing. 

"  The  wealth  which  a  valuable  patent  promises  has 
been  a  great  incentive  to  the  work  of  inventors,  and 
has  undoubtedly  been  a  chief  cause  of  the  great 
mechanical  advancement  of  the  last  half  century. 
But  the  state  of  mechanical  science  has  greatly 
changed  from  what  it  was  when  the  clause  of  the 
Constitution  was  penned  which  speaks  of  inventions 
as  'discoveries.'  The  trained  mechanical  designer 
now  perfects  a  machine  to  do  a  given  work,  with 
almost  the  same  certainty  that  it  will  be  successful  in 
its  operation  that  he  would  feel  if  the  machine  were  an 
old  and  familiar  one.  The  successful  inventor  is  no 
longer  an  alchemist  groping  in  the  dark.  His  task  is 
simply  to  accomplish  certain  results  with  certain 
known  means  at  his  disposal,  and  certain  well-under- 
stood scientific  principles  to  guide  him  in  his  work.  But 
this  statement,  too,  must  be  qualified.  There  are  still 
inventions  made  which  are  the  result  of  a  happy  inspi- 
ration as  well  as  of  direct  design.  Not  all  the  principles 
of  mechanical  science  and  the  modes  of  reaching 
desired  ends  are  yet  known  or  appreciated  by  even 
the  best  mechanical  engineers.  There  is  still  room  for 
inventors,  whose  rights  should  be  protected.  The 
interpreters  of  our  patent  laws  have  always  held  the 
theory  that  the  use  of  a  natural  agent  or  principle 
could  not  be  the  subject  of  a  patent.  This  is  undoubt- 
edly wise  and  just.  The  distinction  should  always  be 
sharply  drawn  between  those  existing  forces  of  na- 
ture which  are  as  truly  common  property  as  air  and 
sunlight,  and  the  tool  or  device  invented  to  aid  in 
their  use. 

"  Again,  it  is  a  notorious  fact  that  the  great  multi- 
plicity of  inventions  has  made  the  search  to  determine 
the  novelty  of  any  article  submitted'for  a  patent  for 
the  most  part  a  farce.  No  one  is  competent  nowa- 
days to  say  surely  of  any  ordinary  mechanical  device 
that  it  is  absolutely  new.  The  bulky  volumes  of 
Patent  Office  reports  are  for  the  most  part  a  hodge- 
podge of  crude  ideas,  repeated  over  and  over  again 
under  different  names,  with  just  enough  valuable  mat- 
ter, in  the  shape  of  the  inven^ns  of  practical 
mechanical  designers  and  educated  inventors,  to  save 
the  volume  from  being  an  entire  waste  of  paper  and 
ink.  Space,  however,  will  not  permit  us  to  discuss  at 
length  the  faults  of  our  patent  system.  The  important 
point  for  us  to  notice  is  that  the  patent  system  estab- 
lishes certain  monopolies,  and  that  these  monopolies 
are  not  always  harmless.  Patents  are  given  to  'pro- 
mote the  useful  arts,'  but  the  inventor  whom  they  are 
supposed  to  encourage  reaps  but  a  small  share  of  the 
profits  of  his  inventions.  Valuable  improvements 
soon  fall  into  the  hands  of  large  companies,  who  .are 
able  to  defend  them  in  the  courts  and  reap  all  possible 
profits  by  their  use. 

"Again,  patents  sometimes  aid  in  the  formation  of 
trusts  and  combinations.  Two  or  three  firms  may 
control  all  the  valuable  patents  in  connection  with 
some  important  industry.  If  they  agree  to  combine 
their  interests  and  work  in  harmony,  they  are  far 
stronger  than  an  ordinary  trust,  because  the  patents 
they  hold  prevent  outside  competition.  It  was 
pointed  out  in  the  opening  chapter  how  the  control  of 

Eatents  was  sometimes  a  feature  helping  to  induce  the 
srmation  of  trusts.  The  Standard  Oil  Trust  had  its 
origin  in  the  superiority  which  one  firm  gained  over 
its  competitors  through  the  control  of  an  important 
patent.  The  envelope  trust,  which,  at  this  date,  has 
raised  the  price  of  envelopes  about  20  per  cent., 
owes  its  chief  strength  to  its  control  of  patents  on  the 
machines  for  making  the  envelopes.  Instances  innu- 


merable could  be  given  where  a  few  manufacturers, 
who  by  their  ownership  of  patents  controlled  the 
•whole  field,  have  ended  a  fierce  competition  by  con- 
solidating or  agreeing  to  work  together  harmoniously 
in  the  matter  of  selling-prices.  Very  many  of  these 
are  monopolies  in  trade  or  monopolies  in  manufac- 
turing, and,  as  such,  have  already  been  considered  in 
the  preceding  chapters ;  but  it  is  proper  here  to  point 
out  the  part  which  our  patent  system  has  taken  in 
their  formation,  and  the  fact  that  it  is  to  their  con- 
trol of  patents  that  many  of  the  existing  combina- 
tions owe  their  security  against  outside  competition. 

"  Probably  the  public  was  never  so  forcibly  re- 
minded of  the  defects  of  our  patent  system  by  any 
other  means  as  it  has  been  by  the  operation  of  the 
Bell  Telephone  monopoly.  The  purpose  in  granting- 
patents  is  to  aid  in  the  establishment  of  new  lines  of 
industrial  activity,  secure  to  the  inventor  the  right  to 
reap  a  reward  for  his  work,  and  encourage  other 
inventors  to  persevere  in  their  search  for  new  improve- 
ments. All  these  things  are  effected  by  the  monopoly 
which  is  held  by  the  Bell  Telephone  Company  ;  but 
they  are  effected  at  a  cost  to  the  users  of  the  telephone 
under  which  they  have  grown  very  restive.  Passing 
by  the  statement  that  the  patents  which  the  Bell  com- 
pany holds  were  illegally  procured  in  the  first  place, 
through  the  inventor  having  had  access  to  the  secret 
records  in  the  Patent  Office  of  other  inventions  for 
which  a  patent  had  been  asked  at  about  the  same  time 
as  his  own,  it  is  an  undisputed  fact  that  the  Bell  com- 
pany holds  the  monopoly  of  communication  by  elec- 
tric telephone  in  this  country.  They  have  managed 
this  monopoly  with  great  skill.  While  the  instru- 
ment was  yet  in  its  introductory  stage,  and  when 
every  smart  town  felt  obliged  to  start  a  telephone 
exchange  or  fall  behind  the  times,  prices  were  kept 
low  ;  but  when  once  the  telephone  became  a  business- 
necessity,  and  its  benefits  were  well  known,  rates  of 
rental  were  advanced  to  the  point  where  the  greatest 
possible  profits  would  accrue  to  the  Bell  company's- 
stockholders.  This  was  excellent  generalship.  The 
same  principle  is  applied  in  many  other  lines  of  busi- 
ness ;  and  it  was  only  because  the  company  held  a 
monopoly  of  a  most  valuable  industry  that  it  proved 
so  immensely  profitable  here.  But  other  acts  of  the 
company,  it  is  alleged,  while  within  the  letter  of  the 
law,  are  yet  clearly  infringements  on  the  just  rights 
of  the  public.  It  is  charged  that  the  company  has 
purposely  refrained  from  putting  into  practical  use 
any  of  the  many  improvements  which  have  been 
made  in  the  telephone  during  the  past  few  years,  but 
at  the  same  time  has  quietly  secured  their  control. 
By  skilfully  managing  'interferences'  of  one  patent, 
against  another,  and  by  amending  and  altering  the 
various  specifications,  it  contrives  to  delay  as  long  as. 
possible  the  issue  of  the  patents  upon  these  inventions.'^ 

Socialists  and  extreme  individualists  have 
almost  invariably  opposed  patent  laws.  Indi- 
vidualists would  have  every  one  depend  in 
free  competition  upon  his  own  wits,  with  little 
or  no  defense  from  governments.  Socialists 
would  have  every  invention  used  for  the  good 
of  all,  inventors  being  rewarded  not  by  being 
given  a  monopoly  of  their  inventions  but  by 
material  or  other  honorary  reward.  Patents, 
they  argue,  to-day  do  not  usually  reward  the 
real  inventor,  but  some  rich  corporation  or  in- 
dividuals, who  can  afford  to  buy  up  the  patent 
and  push  it  for  their  advantage,  or  more 
likely  put  it  upon  the  shelf,  to  prevent  its  com- 
peting with  their  present  processes.  Patents 
therefore,  they  claim,  rarely  aid  the  real  invent- 
or and  usually  defraud  the  public  of  the  ad- 
vantage of  inventions.  The  only  inventors 
who  are  aided  are,  usually,  very  wealthy  ones 
who  need  it  least.  Poor  inventors  rarely  have 
the  capital  to  set  their  invention  in  use  and 
therefore  have  to  sell  it,  at  terms  which,  after 
paying  the  fees  and  going  through  the  tedious 
process  of  securing  a  patent,  leaye  them  usu- 
ally more  poorly  off  than  if  there  were  no  pat- 
ent laws. 

References :   Among  the  best  works  on  patents  ire 
this  country  is  that  of  George  Tlcknor  Curtis  ;  Phillips 


Patten,  Simon  Nelson. 


979 


Pauperism. 


and  Fessenden  are  also  standard  authors.  The  best 
English  work  is  that  of  Agnew.  (See  also  PATENT 
REPORTS,  etc.)  (See  also  article  COPYRIGHT.) 


PATRONS     OF 

GRANGE,  THE. 


HUSBANDRY.       See 


PATTEN,  SIMON  NELSON,  was  born  at 
Sandwich,  111.,  in  1852.  He  studied  at  Evans- 
ton,  111.,  and  Halle,  Germany,  and  received 
the  degree  of  Ph.  D.  at  Halle  in  1878.  He 
was  principal  of  public  schools  in  Illinois  and 
Iowa  for  several  years,  and  was  elected  Pro- 
fessor of  Political  Economy  in  the  Wharton 
School  of  Finance  and  Economy  of  the  Uni- 
versity of  Pennsylvania  in  1888. 

Professor  Patten  holds,  with  the  historical 
school  in  which  he  was  educated,  to  the 
importance  of  the  study  of  facts,  but  would 
make  a  large  use  of  deductive  reasoning.  He 
considers  progress  possible  only  when  the 
deductive  and  historical  methods  of  research 
are  properly  combined. 

He  believes  a  protective  policy  the  neces- 
sary outcome  of  the  industrial  conditions  of 
this  country,  and  that  these  conditions  will  not 
allow  of  any  radical  change  of  industrial 
policy  in  the  immediate  future. 

He  believes  that  a  gold  standard  is  not  only 
desirable,  but  is  also  at  the  present  time  an 
industrial  necessity.  The  use  of  silver,  he 
thinks,  should  be  restricted  as  carefully  as 
that  of  paper  money. 

He  considers  that  the  evils  due  to  natural 
monopolies  are  of  so  recent  an  origin  that  it  is 
not  yet  possible  to  determine  what  policy  is 
the  best  to  control  them,  and  has  therefore 
no  decided  opinions  on  this  subject. 

His  main  writings  are  :  Premises  of  Politi- 
cal Economy  (1885);  The  Stability  of  Prices 
(1888);  The  Consumption  of  Wealth  (1889); 
The  Principles  of  Taxation  (1889);  The 
Economic  Basis  of  Protection  (1890);  The 
Decay  of  State  and  Local  Governments 
(1890);  Another  View  of  the  Ethics  of  Land 
Tenure  (1890);  Educational  Value  of  Politi- 
cal Economy  (1890)  ;  The  Theory  of  Dynamic 
Economics  (1892);  The  Interpretation  of  Ri- 
cardo  (1893);  The  Scope  of  Political  Economy 
(i893). 

PAUPERISM  is  the  condition  of  the  desti- 
tute who  are  more  or  less  dependent  upon  the 
community  for  support. 

For  the  causes  of  pauperism,  see  POVERTY, 
CAUSES  OF  ;  for  the  relief  of  pauperism,  see 
ALMSHOUSES  ;  CHARITY  ORGANIZATIONS  ;  DE- 
PENDENT CHILDREN  ;  UNEMPLOYMENT  ;  POOR 
LAWS  ;  SOCIALISM,  etc. 

In  this  article  we  consider  simply  the 

STATISTICS   OF   PAUPERISM. 

In  the  United  States  there  are  no  official 
statistics  of  pauperism,  save  for  the  indoor 
paupers,  or  inmates  of  almshouses  (g.  v.),  but 
these  form  but  a  small  proportion  of  the  whole 
number.  Mr.  Charles  D.  Kellogg,  the  secre- 
tary of  the  New  York  Charity  Organization 
Society,  and  Professor  R.  T.  Ely,  both  esti- 
mate the  total  number  of  paupers  in  the 
United  States  in  1890  at  3,000,000.  Says  Pro- 


fessor Ely  {North  American  Review,  April, 
1891) : 

"  While  we  may  deplore  the  lack  of  careful  statis- 
tical information  concerning  pauperism  in  this  and 
other  countries,  there  are  certain  facts  which  we  do 
know.  First  or  all  is  this  fact :  there  exists  in  the 
United  States  an  immense  mass  of  pauperism.  No 
one  knows  either  how  great  this  mass  is,  or  whether 
it  is  relatively,  or  even  absolutely,  larger  than  in 
former  times.  Several  States  in  the  Union,  as  New 
York,  Massachusetts,  Pennsylvania,  and  Ohio,  publish 
statistics  concerning  the  defective,  delinquent,  and 
dependent  classes,  but  many  of  the  States  gather  no 
statistics  at  all,  or  very  inadequate  ones.  Such  statis- 
tics as  we  have  cannot  well  be  brought  together  and 
compared,  because  they  have  not  been  collected  in  the 
same  year  in  different  States,  nor  have  they  been 
collected  according  to  similar  methods.  The  word 

Eauper  in  one  State  means  one  thing,  and  in  another 
tate  something  else.     For  example,  dependent  chil- 
dren are  in  one  place  classed  among  the  paupers,  and 
in  another   place    they   are    put   in    a   category    by 
themselves. 

"  The  only  authority  competent  to  gather  the  facts 
which  we  ought  to  know  for  the  whole  country  is  the 
Federal  Government,  and  it  has  attempted  to  do 
something  in  the  various  censuses.  The  census  re- 
ports, however,  have  been  heretofore  incomplete 
and  unsatisfactory,  and  during  last  year  the  praise- 
worthy attempt  to  gather  most  important  social  in- 
formation has  been  at  least  partially  frustrated  by 
the  senseless  opposition  of  the  newspapers.  Mr. 
Frederick  H.  Wines,  a  high  authority,  was  the  special 
agent  of  the  Tenth  Census  appointed  to  gather  the 
statistics  concerning  the  submerged  tenth,  and  he 
reported  altogether  about  half  a  million.  This,  how- 
ever, is  an  underestimate.  Only  a  little  over  21,000 
outdoor  paupers  were  reported,  whereas  a  single  city 
undoubtedly  has  a  larger  number  receiving  public 
relief  outside  of  public  institutions.  It  is  admitted  in 
the  report  that  'the  attempt  to  secure  anything  like 
a  complete  or  Adequate  enumeration  of  them  in  the 
present  census  was  a  failure.'  'The  present  census' 
means  the  census  of  1880. 

"At  the  sixteenth  Conference  of  Charities  and  Cor- 
rection, in  Omaha,  in  1889,  the  committee  on  reports 
from  States  expressed  the  opinion  that  it  was  safe  to 
estimate  the  number  of  persons  in  the  United  States 
receiving  outdoor  relief  at  an  average  of  250,000  dur- 
ing the  year,  including  at  least  600,000  different  per- 
sons.   This  same  committee,  including  Messrs.  F.  B. 
Sanborn  and  H.  H.  Hart,  did  not  regard  1 10,000  persons 
as   an  overestimate  of  the  population  of  the  alms- 
houses  of  the  country.    Five  States  of  the  Union  alone 
report  nearly  half  that  number.    These  are  New  York, 
with  19,500  inmates  of  almshouses  ;  Pennsylvania,  with 
13,500;    Massachusetts,   with    gooo ;    Ohio,    with    8000; 
and  Illinois,  with  5000.     These  States, 
however,  do    not    include    much   over 
one-third    of    the    population    of    the    "WnmVipr  «f 
country.    Mr.  Charles  D.  Kellogg,  the    •""ml 
able  and  devoted  secretary  of  the  New      raupers. 
York     Charity    Organization    Society, 
has  estimated   that   three    millions   of 
people  in  the  United  States  were  wholly  or  partially 
supported  by  alms  during  a  recent  year,  and  that  the 
support  received  by  this  number  was  equal  to  the 
total    support  of  half  a  million  paupers  during  the 
entire  year.    This  estimate  is  based  upon  such  facts 
as  he  had  been  able  to  gather,  and  even  a  guess  from 
one  situated  as  he  is  has  some  weight. 

"  Reliable  statistics  make  this  estimate  of  3,000,000 
for  the  United  States  not  at  all  improbable.  Three 
millions  of  paupers  would  comprise  less  than  5  per 
cent,  of  the  population,  or  i  in  20,  whereas  in  Cologne, 
in 'Germany,  in  1781,  i  in  4  of  the  population  was  a 
pauper.  In  England,  in  1863,  s-fo  per  cent,  of  the 
population  consisted  of  paupers.  Turning  to  the 
United  States,  we  find  that  over  10  per  cent,  of  the 
people  of  Buffalo,  N.  Y.,  received  alms  in  1876.  The 
Buffalo  estimate  includes  merely  the  recipients  of  city 
alms,  and  there  must  have  been  a  large  additional 
number  of  recipients  of  private  alms.  There  are 
always  many  recipients  of  private  and  secret  alms  in 
every  community,  and  this  unknown  number  must  be 
added  to  the  number  of  known  paupers  if  we  are  to 
have  a  correct  view  of  pauperism  in  the  United  States. 
All  that  we  can  do  is  to  say  from  the  facts  which  come 
under  our  individual  observation  that  the  total  num- 
ber of  those  who  receive  private  and  secret  charitable 
aid  must  be  very  large.  Every  careful  observer  with 
an  extensive  acquaintance  knows  many  persons  in 


Pauperism. 


980 


Pauperism. 


every  social  class  either  •wholly  or  partially  supported 
by  private  charity.  They  are  persons  who  truly 
belong  to  the  dependent  classes,  unable  to  maintain 
themselves  in  the  world  of  competition,  but  who 
never  figure  in  reports  of  any  society  or  public  chari- 
table institution. 

"There  are  many  ways  of  arriving  at  this  estimate 
of  3,000,000  in  the  United  States.  We  may  first,  in  order 
to  be  careful  not  to  overestimate  the  pauperism  of  the 
United  States,  suppose  our  population  to  be  60,000,000, 
instead  of  sixty-two  and  a  quarter  millions,  as  it 
really  is.  We  may  next  divide  the  percentage  of 
pauper  population  of  Buffalo  by  one-half,  giving  us 
5  per  cent.  If  it  be  granted  that  this  is  a  conservative 
estimate,  we  will  have  still  3,000,000  of  paupers.  An 
experienced  worker  among  the  dependent  and  delin- 
quent classes  in  New  York  estimated  five  years  ago 
that  there  were  220,000  alms-receivers  in  that  city. 
Critics  who  question  the  reliability  of  .the  figures 
wish  to  cut  them  down  one-half,  but  even  that  would 
have  left  nearly  10  per  cent,  of  the  population,  giving 
New  York  twice  its  proper  share,  if  the  estimate  of 
3,000,000  for  the  country  be  correct.  The  State  Chari- 
ties Record,  the  organ  of  the  State  Charities  Aid  Asso- 
tion  of  New  York,  states  that  during  the  year  ending 
October,  1888,  nearly  half  a  million  people  in  the  State 
of  New  York  received  public  aid,  which  would  give 
us  at  the  same  ratio  for  the  entire  country  over 
5,000,000,  as  New  York  contains  less  than  one-tenth  of 
the  population.  This  New  York  estimate,  however, 
does  not  include  the  inmates  of  jails,  workhouses, 
etc.,  and  those  who  receive  charitable  aid  from  other 
sources.  It  is  stated  that,  if  these  were  added,  we 
should  have  at  least  three-quarters  of  a  million  in 
New  York  State  dependent  upon  charity,  showing 
that  for  the  State  of  New  York  General  Booth's  ex- 
pression, the  '  submerged  tenth,'  is  far  from  being  an 
exaggeration. 

"The  number  of  paupers  varies  greatly  from  year 
to  year,  according  to  the  general  prosperity  of  the 
country  and  other  causes,  and  even  within  the  same 
year,  according  to  the  season.  The  estimate  of  3,000,- 
ooo  cannot  be  regarded  as  an  extravagant  one  for  the 
United  States  during  hard  times.  We  have,  then, 
that  number  of  persons  who  at  some  time  or  another 
are  compelled  to  ask  support  which  they  will  not  or 
cannot  obtain  for  themselves.  If  we  should  cut  down 
this  number  to  half  a  million,  it  would  be  sufficient  to 
cause  distress  to  every  lover  of  his  kind,  and  to 
justify  inquiry  into  the  nature  of  pauperism,  its 
causes  and  its  cure. 

"  Numerous  estimates  have  been  made  of  the  direct 
and  indirect  cost  of  pauperism  to  this  country.  The 
direct  pauper  expenditures  of  the  United  States  may 
be  placed  at  twenty-five  millions  of  dollars  at  least ; 
indeed,  this  must  be  an  underestimate,  for  New  York 
State,  alone  expends  for  charitable  purposes  through 
its  various  institutions  over  thirteen  millions  of 


. 

be  regarded  as  a  conservative  estimate  of  the 
irect  and  indirect  pecuniary  loss  to  the  country 
" 


One  of  the  reasons  why  there  is  so  much  un- 
certainty and  often  such  discrepancies  as  to 
the  amount  of  paxiperism  is  that  the  word  is 
used  in  such  various  ways.  It  is  used  in  sev- 
eral different  senses,  with  the  result  of  greatly 
confusing  statistics. 

Concerning  the  indoor  paupers  or  inmates 
of  asylums,  the  Eleventh  Census  gives  the 
following  tables  : 

PAUPERS  IN  ALMSHOUSES  IN  THE  UNITED  STATES  IN 
1890,  CLASSED  BY  SEX  AND  BY  ELEMENTS  OF  THE 
POPULATION. 


ELEMENTS. 

Aggregate. 

<L> 

X 

Women. 

The  United  States  

White  

66,578 

Native  

36  656 

17  281 

Both  parents  native  
One  parent  foreign  

2I,5IQ 

11,123 

cog 

10,396 

Both  parents  foreign  
One   or  both   parents  un- 
known   

3.580 

IO.6o8 

2,176 

*  ^78 

1,404 

Foreign  born  

27,648 

16.0^8 

Birthplace  unknown  

Colored  

Negroes  

6  418 

f- 

Chinese  

Indians  

•36 

16 

NATIVITY. 


ELEMENTS  OF  THE  POPULATION. 

PAUPERS. 

PARENTS  OF 

NATIVITY  OF 
PARENTS. 

Total. 

8 

M 

Women. 

Total. 

0> 

% 

Women. 

Native. 

Foreign 
born. 

Unknown. 

Total  

66,578 

37,387 

29,191 

I33>156 

74,774 

22  246 
I  076 
4352 
II  076 
33876 
2  148 

58,382 

45,215 

63,587 

24,354 

Native,  both  parents  native  T 

21,519 
949 

3,58o 
10,608 
27,648 
2,274 

11,123 
538 
2,176 
5,538 
16,938 
1,074 

10,396 
411 
1,404 

10,710 
1,200 

43,038 
1,898 
7,160 
21,216 
55,296 
4,548 

20,792 
822 
2,808 
10,140 
21,420 
2,400 

43,038 
949 

1,228 

949 
7,160 
182 
55,296 

19,806 
4,548 

Native,  one  parent  foreign  

Native,  both  parents  foreign  

Native,  one  or  both  parents  unknown.  . 
Foreign  born  

Birthplace  unknown  

Taking  into  account  only  the  108,802  parents  whose  nativity  is  known,  41.56  per  cent,  of  the  white  inmates 
of  almshouses  in  the  United  States  (men  and  women)  is  of  the  native  white  element  and  58.44  per  cent,  is  of  the 
foreign  element. 

The  actual  nationalities  of  the  63,587  foreign  parents  of  American  paupers  and  the  number  of  each  nation- 
ality are  given  in  the  ensuing  table,  in  which  they  are  classed  according  to  the  elements  of  the  population  : 


Pauperism. 

BIRTHPLACE  OF  FOREIGN  PARENTS. 


BIRTHPLACE  OF 
PARENTS. 

PAUPERS  CLASSED  BY  ELEMENTS 
OF  THE  POPULATION. 

Total 
Parents. 

fg 
5?  ° 
1* 

Parents 
Foreign. 

One  Parent 
Foreign. 

One  or  Both 
Parents 
Unknown. 

Total  

63,587 

55.296 

7,160 

949 

182 

Africa  

Arabia  

4 
16 

4 
16 

Austria  

Azore  Islands.  .  .  . 
Bavaria  

7 

20 
80 

6 

18 
62 

2 

15 

i 

Belgium  

2 

i 

Bohemia  

348 

340 

8 

British  Guiana.  .  . 

Canada,  English. 
Canada,  French.  . 
Central  America. 
Chile  

2,OI2 
249 
2 
62 

1,630 
218 

2 
62 

262 
'5 

IOO 

8 

20 

8 

China  

4 

4 

Cuba  

12 
241 

4 
4,688 

IO 

228 

4 

3.9" 

2 

5 

Denmark  

8 

East  Indies  

England  

579 

i74 

23 

Europe  

Finland  

84 
973 
15.629 

4 

4 
309 
108 

3 
32.421 
8 
17 

2 
317 

4 
r°3 

82 
820 
I3.546 

2 

4 
276 
98 

2 
28,256 

8 

12 
2 

290 

4 
84 

2 

US 

1,895 

2 

France  

33 
156 

5 
32 

Germany  

Greece  

Haiti  

Holland  

27 

9 
3.758 

4 
345 

2 

I 

I 
62 

Hungary  

Iceland  

Ireland  

Isle  of  Malta  

Isle  of  Man  

5 

Isle  of  St.  Helena 
Italy  

23 

3 

I 

Lapland  

Mexico  

7 

ii 

I 

Moravia  

New  South  Wales 
Norway  

4 

797 
6 

476 
55 

4 

1 

438 
54 

57 

i 

I 

Peru  

Poland  

36 

i 
i 

I 

Portugal  

Prussia  

Roumania  

Russia  

136 
4 

128 
4 

6 

i 

I 

Sandwich  Islands 
Saxony  

Scotland  

!,392 
40 

MSQ 
38 

158 

2 

75 

9 

South  America  .  . 
South  Australia.  . 

Spain  

32 
1,368 
654 

28 
1,292 
618 

I 
65 
32 

2 

7 

4 

i 
4 

Sweden  

Switzerland  
Syria  

Turkey  

4 
59° 

2 
12 
6l 

4 
512 

2 

IO 

5° 

Wales  

68 

8 

2 

Western  Islands. 
West  Indies  
At  Sea  

i 
3 

3 

I 

5 

The  total  number  of  indoor  paupers  reported  in  1880 
was  66,203,  but  see   ASYLUMS  concerning  the   ques- 


**  Pauperism. 

tion  whether  pauperism  is  on  the  increase  in  the  United 
States  or  not,  and  concerning  the  cost  of  pauperism, 
Mr.  Frank  B.  Sanborn  writes  in  The  Kingdom  for 
August  23,  1895  : 

"Taking  the  country  through,  and  with  relation  to 
the  gain  in  population,  pauperism  is  not  increasing — 
that  is,  there  were  as  many  of  the  public  poor  50  years 
ago  in  the  States  then  free,  in  proportion  to  the  whgla 
number  of  free  inhabitants,  as  there  are  now.  In  the 
old  slave  States,  where  slavery  took  the  place  of  pau- 
perism, in  some  degree  there  has  been  an  increase  of 
paupers  since  emancipation,  but  not  enough  to  over- 
balance the  comparative  decline  of  pauperism  in  the 
North  and  West  since  1870. 

"  I  say  this  with  confidence,  because  such  is  the  re- 
sult of  my  observation  and  researches  for  the  past  30 
years,  during  which  time  I  have  studied  the  subject  by 
the  best  light  attainable,  and  for  more  than  20 years  of 
which  I  was  actively  engaged  as  a  State  official  in  the 
charities  of  Massachusetts.  It  is  not,  however,  by 
means  of  the  national  census,  with  all  its  cost  and 

Earade  of  tables,  that  this  or  any  other  safe  result  can 
e  reached.  A  whimsical  inconsistency,  a  perverse 
unreason,  has  attended  the  efforts  (often  considerable 
and  well  meant)  of  the  Census  Bureau  to  gather  the 
facts  of  American  pauperism.  Probably  the  earlier 
censuses  in  which  this  was  attempted  (from  1850 
onward)  were  comparatively  more  exact  than  the  later 
ones,  for  the  question  had  not  then  become  so  compli- 
cated as  it  has  been  since  1870.  The  multiplicity  of 
charitable  agencies,  and  the  gradual  separation  ot  the 
poor  into  various  subdivisions — the  insane,  the  sick, 
the  idiotic,  the  young  children,  the  aged  poor,  etc. — 
have  so  confused  the  Federal  enumerators  and  tabu- 
lators that  their  final  results  have  been  ludicrously 
inaccurate  of  late  years.  Even  the  larger  States,  after 
many  years'  experience  in  collecting  the  facts,  do  not 
always  come  very  near  the  full  aggregate  of  this  much- 
divided  pauper  class.  Add  to  this  that  the  laws  of  the 
44  States  make  different  distinctions  as  to  who  is  a 
pauper,  and  who  is  not,  and  it  will  be  seen  that  the 
task  of  collecting  exact  statistics  is  not  an  easy 
one. 

"  No  attempt  is  made  to  enumerate  the  poor  who  re- 
ceive what  is  called  '  outdoor  relief,'  the  census-takers 
giving  that  up  as  hopeless.     Indeed,  it  is  difficult,  but 
not  impossible,  at  least  by  careful  esti- 
mate,  which  would  be  better  than  the 
blundering  positiveness    of  the    table         pn_t  nf 
cited.     In  1889,  from  the  returns  made  _,   .  " 
by  many  States  to  the  National  Confer-  Maintenance. 
ence  of  Charities,    revised    by  official 
documents,  I  estimated  the  number  re- 
ceiving outdoor  relief  in  the  United  States  at  a  given 
date  as  250,000,  and  their  cost  at  $10,000,000.    This  would 
allow  a  little  less  than  80  cents  a  week  to  each.    The 
average  in  Massachusetts  was  84  cents  ;  in  New  Hamp- 
shire more  ;  in  other  States  it  varied,  but,  on  the  whole, 
could  not  have  been  much  less  than  80  cents.    At  the 
time  of  the  panic  of  1893-94,  the  sum  expended  rose 
above  $16,000,000 ;  it  has  fallen  again  to  perhaps  $15,- 
000,000.     But  for  our  lavish  pension  payments  the  out- 
door relief  would  very  likely  rise  to  $20,000,000  a  year, 
or  28  cents  per  capita  for  our  whole  population  of 
70,000,000. 

"  I  think  the  outdoor  aid  for  the  nation  exceeds  the 
sum  paid  for  full  support,  not  including  that  for  the 
insane  poor.  In  New  Hampshire  it  is  as  $200,000  to 
$150,000  ;  in  Massachusetts  as  $1,200,000  to  $1,300,000  ;  in 
some  States  it  is  no  more  than  a  third  of  the  full  sup- 
port ;  but  in  others  (the  majority  in  numbers  if  not  in 
population),  more  than  two-thirds  of  the  poor-law  out- 
lay is  for  outdoor-relief.  In  the  whole  country  proba- 
bly $25,000,000  is  now  paid  for  full  support  (indoor 
relief),  including  that  expended  for  children  in  public 
homes,  the  insane  poor  in  asylums,  idiots,  and  the  sick 
in  public  or  publicly  aided  hospitals.  These  estimates 
amount  to  $40,000,000  as  the  cost  of  pauperism  in  a 
year  ;  it  may  even  rise  to  $45,000,000." 

GREAT  BRITAIN. 

The  paupers  in  actual  receipt  of  public  relief  in 
Great  Britain  on  one  day  number  more  than  a 
million  : 

England  and  Wales,  ist  of  Jan- 
uary, 1893, 776,458  cost  .£  8,847,678 

Scotland,  i4th  of  January,  1893,  193,496     "  912,838 

Ireland,  8th  of  January,  1893,  102,865     "          I.°54.5I4 

1,072,819  .£10,815,030 

{Report  of  Local   Government   Board,  England    and 
Wales  ;    Report   of  Board  for  Supervision    of  Poor, 


Pauperism. 


Pawn-shops,  Municipal. 


Scotland  ;  Report  of  Local  Government  Board,  Ireland, 
and  Statistical  Abstract^^,  C — 7143.) 

But  the  relief  is  not  usually  given  permanently  ;  to 
obtain  the  number  of  different  individuals  who  receive 
relief  during  a  year,  we  must  multiply  the  daily  num- 
ber by  2.3.  (This  is  the  latest  computation  given  in 
Mr.  Charles  Booth's  paper  before  the  Statistical 
Society,  Deceinber,  1891.  See  also  his  Pauperism,  a 
Picture  ;  and  the  Endowment  of  Old  Age,  an  Argu- 
ment.) This  gives  a  pauper  class  during  any  one 
year  of  about  2,460,000  persons,  or  i  in  n  of  the  man- 
ual-labor class.  In  some  rural  districts  every  aged 
laborer  is  a  pauper. 

The  maintenance  of  these  paupers  cost/io.Sis^o  per 
annum.  But  in  addition  to  this  public  expenditure, 
the  various  charitable  societies  spend  .£10,040,000 
annually  (Mr.  Mulhall,  Dictionary  of  Statistics,  p. 
112),  and  the  charity  of  individuals  is  known  to  be 
enormous.  The  numbers  of  the  destitute  class  must 
therefore  be  largely  increased.  Mr.  R.  Giffen  talks  of 
the  class  of  5,000,000  "whose  existence  is  a  stain  on 
our -civilization  "  (Essays  in  Finance,  vol.  ii.  p.  350). 
It  is  the  lot  of  at  least  i  of  5  of  the  manual-labor 
class— of  16  in  every  100  of  the  whole  population — to 
belong  to  this  class. 

As  regards  the  4,000,000  of  persons  in  the 
metropolis,  Mr.  Charles  Booth  tells  us  that  37,610,  or 
O.Q  per  cent.,  are  in  the  lowest  class  (occasional  labor- 
ers, loafers,  and  semi-criminals) ;  316,834,  or  7.5  per 
cent.,  in  the  next  (casual  labor,  hand-to-mouth  exist- 
ence, chronic  want);  938,293,  or  22.3  per  cent.,  form 
"  the  poor  "  (including  alike  those  whose  earnings  are 
small,  because  of  irregularity  of  employment,  and 
those  whose  work,  though  regular,  is  ill-paid).  These 
classes,  on  or  below  the  "  poverty  line  "  of  earnings 
not  exceeding  a  guinea  a  week  per  family,  number  to- 
gether 1,292,737,  or  30.7  per  cent,  of  the  whole  popula- 
tion. To  these  must  be  added  99,830  inmates  of  work- 
houses, hospitals,  prisons,  industrial  schools,  etc., 
making  altogether  nearly  1,400,000  persons  in  this  one 
city  alone  whose  condition  even  the  most  optimistic 
social  student  can  hardly  deem  satisfactory  (Labor 
and  Life  of  the  People  of  London  (Macmillan,  1892,  1896,  7 
vols.),  edited  by  Charles  Booth,  1891.  Vol.  ii..  pp.  20-21). 

The  ultimate  fate  of  these  victims  it  is  not  easy  ade- 
quately to  realize.  In  London  alone,  in  1892,  no  less 
than  31  persons,  of  whom  13  were  50  years  old  and  up- 
ward, were  certified  by  the  verdicts  of  coroners' 
juries  to  have  died  of  starvation  (C — 476).  Actual  star- 
vation is,  however,  returned  as  the  cause  of  death  in 
but  a  few  cases  annually  ;  and  it  is  well-known  that 
many  thousands  of  deaths  are  directly  due  to  long- 
continued  under-feeding  and  exposure.  Young  chil- 
dren especially  suffer. 


The  following  statistics  for  different  countries  are 
gathered  from  The  Statesman's  New  Year  Book  (1895) : 


/cry    night 
wards." 

In  London  i  person  in  every  5  will  die  in  the  work- 
house, hospital,  or  lunatic  asylum.  In  1892,  out 
of  86,833  deaths,  48,061  being  20  years  of  age  and  up- 


7238,  pp.  2,  72,  and  96).  The  percentage  in  1887  was  20.7 
of  the  total  deaths  ;  in  1888  it  rose  to  22.2,  in  1891  to  24.2, 
and  in  1892  it  was  23.9. 

It  is  worth  notice  that  a  large  number  of  those  com- 
pelled in  their  old  age  to  resort  to  the  workhouse  have 
made  ineffectual  efforts  at  thrifty  provision  for  their 
declining  years.  In  1890-91,  out  of  175,852  inmates  of 
•workhouses  (one-third  being  children,  and  another 
third  women)  no  fewer  than  14,808  have  been  members 
of  benefit  societies.  In  4593  cases  the  society  had 
broken  up,  usually  from  insolvency  (House  of  Com- 
mons Return,  1891,  Nos.  366  and  130 — B).  Considering 
that  comparatively  few  of  the  inmates  are  children,  it 
is  probable  that  i  in  every  3  London  adults  will 
be  driven  into  these  refuges  to  die,  and  the  proportion 
in  the  case  of  the  "  manual-labor  class  "  must  of  course 
be  still  larger.  And  the  number  of  persons  who  die 
while  in  receipt  of  out-door  relief  is  not  included  in 
this  calculation.  As  in  1892-93  the  mean  number  of 
out-door  paupers  in  the  metropolis  was  47,472, (C — 7180, 
p.  266),  and  the  average  death-rate  in  London  in  1892 
was  20.3  per  1000,  it  may  be  assumed  that  at  least  950 
persons  died  while  in  receipt  of  out-door  relief — often 
from  its  being  insufficient. 

In  England  and  Wales  in  1892,  66,424  deaths  were  reg- 
istered as  having  taken  place  in  workhouses,  infirm- 
aries, hospitals,  and  asylums,  or  11.9  per  cent,  of  the 
total  deaths.  Of  these,  39,748  occurred  in  workhouses, 
30,440  in  hospitals,  and  6236  in  lunatic  asylums. 


Number  of 
Paupers. 

Expend- 
iture. 

England  and  Wales  (1894) 
Scotland  (1894)  

812,441 
95,068 

$46,085,570 

Ireland  (1894)  

^'106  i 

4>  3 

5>   9  >   :> 

land  

France  (1888)  

1*6     ' 

7  178  666 

Germanv  (1885)  
Italy  (1880)  

1,592,386 

Austria  (1891)  

Belgium  (1892)  

Exclusive  of  vagrants  and  casual  poor. 

References  :  For  the  United  States,  Census  Report  s> 
Reports  of  State  Boards  of  Charities,  Reports  of  the 
National  Conferences  of  Charities  and  Corrections, 
21  vols.  (Ellis,  Boston,  1874-95);  A.  G.  Warner's 
American  Charities  (Crowell,  1895);  H.  M.  Boies' 
Prisoners  and  Paupers  (Putnam's,  1893).  Europe, 
Charles  Booth's  Labor  and  Life  of  the  People  of  London 
(Macmillan,  1892,  1896,  7  vols.) ;  also,  Pauperism  and  the 
Endowment  of  Old  Age  (Macmillan,  1892) ;  Government 
Reports,  Census,  etc.  ;  A.  Emminghaus'  Poor  Relief  in 
Different  Countries  (translated  from  the  German ; 
Stanford,  London,  1873).  A  full  bibliography  is  given 
in  Warner's  American  Charities.  (See  also  POV- 
ERTY, etc.) 

PAWN-SHOPS,  MUNICIPAL.— The  need 

of  reliable  pawn-shops,  where,  at  low  rates,  the 
poor  can  borrow  money,  is,  under  present 
social  conditions,  admitted  by  almost  all.  In 
the  United  States  some  efforts  in  this  direction 
have  been  made  by  private  charitable  organi- 
zations. In  1894  Rev.  Dr.  Greer,  rector  of  St. 
Bartholomew's  Protestant  Episcopal  Church  in 
New  York  City,  started  an  admirable  pawn- 
shop in  connection  with  his  parish,  and  out 
of  this  has  grown  the  larger  movement  of  a 
Provident  Loan  Society.  The  work  of  the  Eu- 
ropean Mont-de-Ptdtd(q.  v.}  is  well  known.  In 
general,  however,  on  the  continent  of  Europe, 
pawn-shops  are  now  conducted  by  municipali- 
ties, and  the  proposal  to  establish  such  munici- 
pal pawn-shops  in  England  and  America  has 
many  advocates. 

Mr.  Robert  Donald,  editor  of  London,  gives  in  the  New 
Review  for  December,  1894,  a  cogent  plea  for  munici- 
pal pawn-shops.  He  says  :  "  The  following  shows  the 
different  treatment  extended  to  poor  borrowers  in  the 
leading  capitals  of  Europe.  A  loan  of  zs.  6d.  for  one 
week  pays  interest  per  annum  as  follows :  Paris,  o ; 
Madrid,  6 ;  Brussels,  7 ;  Berlin,  12  ;  London,  260." 

The  extent  to  which  the  poor  of  London  are  plun- 
dered by  the  pawn-shops  justifies  Mr.  Donald's  plea  for 
improvement.  This,  he  thinks,  can  best  be  clone  by 
putting  all  the  pawn-shops  under  the  municipality. 
He  says  :  "  There  are  many  reasons  why  pawn-shops 
would  be  more  economically  managed  under  munici- 
pal control  than  under  private  ownership.  There 
\vould  be  a  decided  advantage  in  having  branches  all 
over  the  city.  Valuable  articles  pledged  in  one  quarter 
would  pay  for  small  loans  in  poor  districts.  The 
smallest  pawns  do  not  pay  the  pawnbroker,  even  altho 
he  does  charge  his  100  per  cent.  Supervision  would 
not  be  less  expensive  under  the  County  Council  than 
at  present.  The  officers  would  require  to  be  well 
paid,  as  the  success  of  the  institution  would  mainly 
depend  on  their  loyalty  to  the  system  and  their  method 
of  valuation.  There  would  be  considerable  scope  for 
economy  in  the  matter  of  rent.  It  would  not  be  nec- 
essary to  have  anything  like  six  hundred  pawnshops." 

According  to  an  article  by  E.  F.  Baldwin  in  The 
Outlook  for  August  3,  1895,  the  English  Government 
has  been  seriously  considering  the  adoption  of  such  a 
system,  and  to  that  end  Lord  Kimberley  recently  ad- 
dressed a  circular  to  her  Majesty's  representatives 


Pawn-shops,  Municipal. 


983 


Peabody,  George,  D.  C."  L. 


abroad,  and  received  from  them  reports  on  the  system 
of  pawnbroking  which  obtains  in  the  countries  where 
they  reside. 

From  them  we  learn,  according  to  the  writer,  that 
in  Germany  pawnbroking  is  conducted  by  the  State, 
by  the  Gememde  (parish),  or  by  private  persons  under 
State  supervision.  The  JBerlin  Konigliches  Leihamt 
is  under  the  protection  of  the  German  Reichbank, 
which  advanced  the  necessary  funds.  The  pawn-shop 
usually  advances  on  two-thirds  of  the  estimated  value 
of  household  goods,  four-fifths  on  silver,  and  five-sixths 
on  gold.  During  the  year  1893,  the  sum  of  $1,200,000 
was  lent  on  about  220,000  pledges.  After  payment  of  all 
administrative  expenses  and  interest  on  capital,  there 
remained  a  net  surplus  of  over  $10,000,  which  was 
placed  to  the  account  of  the  reserve  fund,  and  of  which 
the  interest  is  devoted  to  a  charitable  institution.  Un- 
der the  State  system  the  interest  on  loans  is  12  per 
cent.,  while  under  private  management  it  is  either  12 
or  24  per  cent.,  according  to  the  amount  of  the  loan. 
Under  both  systems]  the  loan  is  contracted  for  six 
months  ;  under  the  first,  six  months'  grace  is  allowed, 
while  under  the  second  four  weeks  only.  The  State 
pawn-office  is  used  by  the  middle  rather  than  by  the 
very  poorest  classes.  Artisans  and  tradesmen  head 
the  list,  widows  and  unmarried  women  follow,  while 
day-laborers  and  factory  workmen  occupy  the  third 
place. 

In  Austro-Hungary  there  exists  a  system  of  Ver- 
satzamter,  usually  under  the  control  of  the  munici- 

§alities,  but  more  or  less  under  the  control  of  the 
tate  also.  The  prototype  of  them  all  is  the  so-called 
Imperial  Pawn-office  of  Vienna,  founded  like  any 
other  charitable  institution  and  intended  solely  as 
such.  The  Minister  of  the  Interior  nominates  the 
officials  and  sanctions  any  important  matter  connected 
with  the  management.  The  original  advances  have 
now  been  paid  off ;  the  Imperial  Pawn-office  is  entirely 
independent,  and  is  annually  adding  to  its  cash  capi- 
tal from  its  own  profits.  The  interest  charged  is  at 
the  uniform  rate  of  10  per  cent.  In  1893  the  Vienna 
office  received  over  860,000  articles,  for  which  it  ad- 
vanced $2,100,000. 

Italy  is  the  home  of  the  pawn-shop,  since  Savo- 
narola is  supposed  to  have  established  the  first  one. 
The  Italian  system  does  not  allow  loans  on  pledges 
to  be  granted  for  less  than  one  lira  (20  cents)  or  for 
more  than  1000  lire.  The  advances  on  gold,  silver, 
jewels,  and  other  articles  are  in  the  same  proportions 
as  in  Germany.  Interest  is  charged  at  the  annual  rate 
of  5  per  cent,  for  loans  of  from  five  to  ten  lire.  On 
loans  of  from  TO  to  20  lire  the  rate  is  6  per  cent.,  and  on 
those  above  that  figure  7  per  cent.  Besides  interest,  a 
charge  of  i  per  cent,  is  levied  on  the  pawn-ticket  when 
the  loan  is  granted,  but  loans  not  exceeding  10  lire  are 
exempt  from  this  charge.  Loans  are  granted  for  six 
months,  with  the  power  of  renewal  for  a  further  six 
months.  A  special  regulation  permits  renewals  from 
six  months  to  six  months  for  a  period  of  five  years. 

In  France  pawnbroking  is  now  a  municipal  mo- 
nopoly. In  most  instances  it  is  created  by  the  local 
authority  and  regulated  by  the  State. 
Private  pawnbroking  no  longer  legally 
exists,  tho  there  are  many  Marchands 
de  Reconnaissances  who  purchase 
pawn-tickets  and  resell  them  to  the  or- 
iginal holders  with  a  profit  of  one  franc 
a  month  for  every  ten  francs  in  advance  !  The  French 
Monts-de-Piete  are,  as  a  rule,  self-supporting ;  the 
profits  made  on  the  larger  transactions  paying  for  the 
loss  incurred  on  the  smaller.  It  is  said  that  advances 
from  60  cents  to  $4.50  may  be  classed  as  unprofitable 
operations.  Advances  from  $4.50  to  $17  are  profitabe 
or  not,  according  to  the  period  during  which  they  re- 
main in  pawn.  Beyond  this  sum  operations  are  always 
profitable.  The  pawn-shops  are  placed  under  the  con- 
trol of  the  local  authorities  ;  the  Mayor  of  the  town  be- 
ing ex-officio  the  President  of  the  administration.  Be- 
ing called  charitable  institutions,  they  are  as  such 
exempt  from  stamp  duties,  and,  further,  when  requir- 
ing funds  are  allowed  to  issue  bonds.  They  are  now 
empowered  to  make  advances  on  public  securities 
which  are  made  payable  to  bearer,  an  average  of  two- 
thirds  of  the  value  being  given.  The  rate  is  6  per  cent. 
This  feature  is  of  great  benefit  to  the  poorer  classes, 
with  whom  investments  in  these  securities  are  most 
popular.  When  necessary,  they  are  thus  enabled  to 
pawn  their  small  savings,  instead  of  to  part  with  them 
altogether.  The  newest  use  of  the  French  Mpnt-de- 
Piete  has  been  that  of  a  storage-room  for  bicycles. 
Many  riders  have  found  it  desirable  to  pawn  their 
machines  in  the  autumn,  and  to  take  them  out  again 
in  the  spring.  At  the  head  of  the  Paris  pawn-shop  is  a 
Director,  who  is  himself  under  the  control  of  a  Com- 


In  Europe. 


mittee  comprised  of  the  Prefect  of  the  Seine,  the  Pre- 
fect of  Police,  three  members  of  the  Municipal  Council, 
three  members  of  the  Assistance  Publique,  and  an  equal 
number  of  citizens.  The  funds  are  derived  from  money 
invested  by  the  public  in  Mont-de-Piitt  bonds,  from  the 
revenue  from  interest  charged  to  loans,  from  interest 
on  its  superfluous  funds,  and  from  pecuniary  guaran- 
tees required  by  statute  from  its  functionaries.  The 
minimum  advance  on  pledges  is  three  francs  (60  cents) ; 
for  the  maximum  there  is  virtually  no  limit.  The 
duration  of  the  loan  is  for  one  year,  but  after  the  ex- 
piration of  this  period  the  pawner  is  allowed  a  renewal. 
Interest  at  the  rate  of  3  percent,  is  charged  on  the  sum 
lent,  and  3  per  cent,  for  expenses  in  connection  with 
the  management,  insurance,  etc.  A  further  tax  of  i 
per  cent,  is  also  levied  on  the  full  value  of  all  pledges, 
thus  making  the  total  7  per  cent.  Pledges  which  have 
not  been  renewed  or  redeemed  within  the  course  of 
a  year  are  liable  to  be  sold  at  public  auction  in  the 
thirteenth  month.  In  1893,  1,300,000  articles  were 
pawned,  1,200,000  redeemed,  800,000  renewed,  and  200,- 
ooo  sold.  The  surplus  ($70,000)  was  handed  over  to 
the  hospitals  of  Paris.  Statistics  show  that  about  one- 
fourth  of  the  articles  pawned  undergo  renewal,  while 
only  one-eighth  come  to  be  sold. 

In  Spain  the  system  is  connected  with  that  of  a 
savings-bank.  The  pawn-shop  advances  money  at  6 
per  cent,  a  year,  and  depositors  in  the  savings-bank 
are  assured  an  annual  income  of  4  per  cent.,  which  is 
capitalized  at  the  end  of  each  year.  This  joint  institu- 
tion is  under  the  protection  of  the  Minister  of  the  In- 
terior. The  general  administration  is  under  the  su- 
pervision of  a  General  Council,  consisting  of  30  mem- 
bers (appointed  by  the  Government),  whose  services 
are  entirely  honorary  and  gratuitous.  At  the  pawn- 
shop in  1893,  tne  number  of  loans  effected  and  renewed 
was  about  175,000  j  the  amount  advanced  was  over 
$2,000,000.  The  object  is  to  advance  money  at  6  per 
cent,  a  year,  which  is  recovered,  together  with  the  capi- 
tal, at  fixed  periods — namely,  for  advances  on  jewels 
and  plate,  one  year;  clothing,  etc.,  six  months;  and  ad- 
vances made  on  the  guarantee  of  Government  securi- 
ties, four  months.  Deposits  in  the  savings-bank  are 
received  both  Sundays  and  week-days.  Sums  less  than 
one  peseta  (20  cents)  are  not  received  as  a  first  deposit. 
Every  depositor  may  draw  out  the  total  amount,  or  a 
portion  of  the  sum  deposited,  by  giving  notice  to  the 
administration.  The  money  is  usually  paid  within  a 
week,  but  payment  may  be  deferred  for  a  period  as 
long  as  five  weeks  if  deemed  advisable,  thus  avoiding 
the  danger  of  a  run  on  the  institution.  While  the  sav- 
ings-bank pays  interest  at  the  rate  of  4  per  cent.,  the 
pawn-shop  takes  charge  of  the  funds  of  the  savings- 
bank,  paying  the  bank  interest  at  the  rate  of  5  per 
cent. ;  it  then  makes  advances  of  the  said  funds  for  the 
security  of  articles  pledged,  charging  interest  at  the 
rate  of  6  per  cent.  Each  institution  thus  makes  a 
profit  of  i  per  cent.,  sufficient  to  pay  expenses  and  to 
increase  the  capital.  They  have  met  all  requirements 
and  increased  their  capital  without  any  assistance 
from  the  Commune,  the  Province,  or  the  State.  Hence 
the  savings  of  the  poorer  classes,  yielding  them  inter- 
est of  4  per  cent.,  form  the  means  of  assisting  the  still 
Eoorer  and  perhaps  more  improvident  classes,  who  can 
orrow  at  the  rate  of  6  per  cent,  a  year,  or  one-half  of 
i  per  cent,  a  month. 

The  reports  include  in  addition  those  from  Brus- 
sels, The  Hague,  Copenhagen,  Stockholm,  St.  Peters- 
burg, Berne,  Lisbon,  and  Washington.  The  last  of 
these  tells  us  nothing  new.  There  are  no  Federal 
laws  in  the  United  States  in  regard  to  pawnbroking, 
each  State  having  its  own  regulations.  The  States  in 
which  most  attention  has  been  given  to  this  question 
are  those  of  New  York  and  Massachusetts. 

PEABODY,    GEORGE,    D.    C.     L.,    was 

born  at  South  Danvers,  Mass.,  1795,  received 
little  education,  and  entered  a  store  as  clerk  at 
an  early  age.  In  1814  he  began  a  dry-goods 
business  in  Georgetown,  D.  C.,  as  partner  with 
Elisha  Riggs.  He  later  had  establishments  in 
Baltimore,  New  York,  and  Philadelphia.  In 
1829  Peabody  became  head  of  the  firm  ;  in 
1837  he  removed  to  England  ;  in  1843  he  with- 
drew from  the  old  firm  of  Peabody,  Riggs  & 
Co.,  and  established  a  banking-house.  He 
became  very  rich,  and  gave  away  large  sums 
of  money.  His  gifts,  in  all,  amounted  to  about 
$7,000,000.  He  declined  a  baronetcy  which  the 


Peabody,  George,  D.  C.  L. 


984 


Peasants'  War,  The'r 


Queen  offered  him.  The  freedom  of  the  City 
of  London  was  given  to  him,  and  his  statue 
placed  in  the  Royal  Exchange  in  1869.  He 
died  in  London,  November  4,  1869. 

One  of  the  chief  benefactions  of  George  Peabody 
was  the  gift  of  $2, 500,000 to  provide  dwellings  and  lodg- 
ing-houses for  the  poor  of  London.  Of  this  £350,000 
was  given  during  his  life,  and  £150,000  in  1873  by  be- 
quest. The  fund  was  in  the  form  of  a  trust,  and  is  in 
care  of  a  secretary  and  six  trustees,  one  of  whom  is  the 
United  States  Minister  to  England.  Their  annual  re- 
port for  1890  is  an  interesting  document  and  proves 
beyond  question  the  wisdom  of  Mr.  Peabody  and  the 
value  of  a  good  gift  wisely  bestowed.  The  fund  which 
in  1873  was  £500,000  has  grown  by  the  addition  of  rents 
and  interest  to  a  total  of  £1,023,446.  The  land  and 
buildings  under  the  care  of  the  trust  are  valued  at 
£1,233,845.  Up  to  the  end  of  the  year  there  had  been 
furnished  to  the  artisan  and  laboring  poor  of  London 
5071  dwellings,  75  having  four  rooms,  1789  three  rooms, 
2401  two  rooms,  and  806  one  room.  The  average  rent 
of  each  dwelling  was  4.?.  q%d.  per  week,  and  of  each 
room  2S.  \y±d.  ;  the  rent  in  all  cases  including  the  free 
use  of  water,  laundries,  sculleries,  and  bath-rooms. 
The  highest  rent  charged  is  js.  6d.  for  some  of  the  4- 
room  dwellings.  The  dwellings  are  not  in  a  group, 
but  are  scattered  over  the  city,  apparently  being 
placed  where  they  will  do  the  most  good.  That  the 
plan  of  cheap  dwellings  contributes  to  the  health  as 
well  as  to  the  comfort  of  the  poor  appears  from  a 
glance  at  the  vital  statistics.  The  death-rate  last  year 
was  21.15  per  1000,  or  .85  per  1000  above  the  average  for 
all  London,  but  this  was  exceptional,  the  cause  being 
an  epidemic  which  last  spring  visited  the  sections 
where  some  of  the  dwellings  are  located.  The  infant 
mortality  was  141.22  per  1000,  or  21.37  below  that  of  all 
London.  The  births  were  38.49  per  1000  ;  9.41  above  the 
London  record.  The  trustees'  report  also  gives  the 
employment  of  each  tenant,  and  the  list  covers  nearly 
zoo  trades  and  occupations  from  expert  artisans  to 
unskilled  laborers. 

PEACE  UNION.  See  INTERNATIONAL  AR- 
BITRATION. 

PEASANT  REVOLT  (1377-1381).  An  up- 
rising of  the  English  peasantry  under  the 
leadership  of  Wat  Tyler  (g.  v.),  Jack  Straw, 
and  the  priest,  John  Ball  (f.  v.).  The  imme- 
diate cause  of  the  revolt  was  the  imposition 
of  an  unjust  poll-tax,  which  was  to  be  ex- 
acted equally  from  the  poorest  as  well  as  the 
richest;  but  many  other  influences  had  pre- 
pared the  way  for  an  outbreak.  The  teach- 
ings of  John  Wyclif  and  his  "poor  priests" 
had  very  largely  emancipated  the  minds 
of  the  laboring  classes  from  the  unjust  au- 
thority of  Church  and  king.  John  Ball  (q.  v.), 
called  by  the  rich  "the  mad  priest,"  had  for 
years  been  circulating  his  leveling  doctrine  : 
"  When  Adam  delved,  and  Eve  span,  who  was 
then  the  gentleman?"  In  1348  the  Black 
Death  had  swept  over  England,  carrying  off 
more  than  half  its  population,  and  being  espe- 
cially severe  among  the  poorer  classes.  As 
a  result  there  was  great  scarcity  of  laborers, 
and  for  the  first  time  they  found  themselves 
masters  of  the  situation.  The  demand  for 
workers  was  twice  as  large  as  the  supply,  and 
they  soon  began  to  reap  the  benefits  of  this  con- 
dition of  things.  The  villeins  suddenly  became 
conscious  of  their  strength,  and  even  dared  to 
oppose  their  masters.  The  lords. and  land- 
owners, then  as  now,  at  once  called  for  the  aid 
of  the  law,  and  enacted  what  is  known  as  "  The 
Statute  of  Laborers."  This  provided  that  no 
laboring  man  or  woman, whether  bond  or  free, 
should  leave  the  parish  in  which  he  or  she 
lived,  and  should  receive  the  same  wages  as 
before  the  Black  Death.  All  the  lawyers  in 


the  country  were  set  to  work  undoing  the 
movement  of  emancipation  which  had  been  in 
progress  before  the  plague.  It  was  found  im- 
possible to  enforce  the  Statute  of  Laborers,  for 
men  were  at  this  time  too  scarce  and  valuable 
to  be  put  to  death  or  imprisoned,  and  too  poor 
to  pay  the  fines  levied  upon  them.  However, 
oppression  followed  oppression  until  the  poll- 
tax,  in  1377,  forced  the  exasperated  peasantry 
to  arms  (June,  1381).  The  revolt  spread  like 
wild-fire  over  the  country,  and  for  a  time  the 
peasants  carried  every  thing  before  them,  burn- 
ing the  records  of  their  serfdom,  and  killing 
every  lawyer  who  fell  into  their  hands.  The 
poorer  artisans  of  London  opened  to  them  the 
gates  of  that  city.  They  destroyed  the  palace 
of  John  of  Gaunt  and  the  houses  of  the 
wealthy;  they  burst  into  the  Tower  and  be- 
headed the  Bishop  of  Canterbury,  but  ab- 
stained from  plunder,  calling  themselves 
"seekers  of  truth  and  justice,  not  thieves  or 
robbers."  They  were  finally  met  by  the  boy- 
king,  Richard  II.,  who  promised  to  free  them 
and  their  lands  forever,  and  called  himself 
their  leader.  They  believed  his  promises  and 
gradually  dispersed,  the  assassination  of  their 
leader,  Tyler,  seeming  to  deprive  them  of  unity 
and  decision.  The  king  then  gathered  a  large 
army  and  marched  through  the  land,  ruthlessly 
executing  hundreds  of  the  working  people  and 
their  leaders,  and  declaring  his  promises  null 
and  void.  In  this  he  was  supported  by  the 
Parliament,  which  was  composed  of  landown- 
ers. The  peasants'  revolt  was,  nevertheless, 
not  a  failure.  It  created  a  healthy  respect  and 
fear  for  the  might  of  united  and  indignant 
serfs,  and  struck  feudalism  its  death-blow. 
During  the  century  and  a  half  after  the  revolt, 
villeinage  died  out  so  rapidly  that  it  soon  be- 
came a  rare  and  antiquated  thing.  Sixty  years 
after  a  working  man's  wages  commanded  twice 
the  amount  of  the  necessaries  of  life  which 
could  have  been  obtained  under  Edward  III.; 
while  one  hundred  years  after  came  what  is. 
usually  called  the  "  Golden  Age"  of  English 
labor. 

References :  Knight's  Popular  History  of  England^ 
vol.  ii.  chap,  i,;  Rogers'  Work  and  Wages,  chap,  ix.,  and 
Ashley's  English  Economic  History,  pt.  ii.  chap.  iv.f  for 
opposing  views. 

PEASANTS'  WAR,  THE,  is  the  name 
usually  given  to  the  revolutionary  uprising  of 
the  peasants  of  Southern  and  Central  Germany 
in  1525.  The  miserable  condition  of  the  Ger- 
man serfs,  the  appropriation  of  the  common 
pasture  lands  by  the  lords,  the  refusal  of  the 
lords  to  let  their  tenants  fish  in  the  streams  or 
hunt  in  the  woods,  the  increase  of  ground-rent, 
of  socage  service,  and  of  tithes,  had  led  to 
small  uprisings  in  Germany,  all  through  the 
later  Middle  Ages.  The  Bundschuh  (the 
shoe),  which  had  been  universally  adopted  as 
the  symbol  of  these  uprisings,  had  become 
known  through  all  Germany  ;  yet  the  revolts 
had  been  weak  and  easily  put  down.  When, 
however,  the  Reformation  gave  the  people  a 
new  impetus  and  a  new  hope,  the  peasants 
thought  that  now  was  their  opportunity.  They 
even  at  first  looked  to  Luther  to  lead  them. 
They  plead  the  communistic  practises  and 
principles  of  early  Christianity.  The  peasants 


Peasants'  War,  The. 


985 


Penology.. 


rose  with  religious  zeal.  The  12  principles 
they  formulated  show  this.  They  were  (i) 
the  right  of  the  peasantry  to  appoint  their  own 
preachers,  who  were  to  be  allowed  to  preach 
the  word  of  God  from  the  Bible.  (2)  That 
the  dues  paid  by  the  peasantry  were  to  be 
abolished,  with  the  exception  of  the  tithes 
ordained  by  God  for  the  maintenance  of  the 
clergy,  the  surplus  of  which  was  to  be  applied 
to  general  purposes,  and  to  the  maintenance 
of  the  poor.  (3)  The  abolition  of  vassalage  as 
iniquitous.  (4)  The  right  of  hunting,  fishing, 
and  fowling.  (5)  That  of  cutting  wood  in  the 
forests.  (6)  The  modification  of  socage  and 
average  service.  (7)  That  the  peasant  should 
be  guaranteed  protection  from  the  caprice  of 
his  lord  by  a  fixed  agreement.  (8)  The  modi- 
fication of  the  rent  upon  feudal  lands  by  which 
a  part  of  the  profit  should  be  secured  to  the 
occupant.  (9)  The  administration  of  justice 
according  to  the  ancient  laws,  not  according 
to  the  new  statutes  and  to  caprice.  (10)  The 
restoration  of  communal  property  illegally 
seized.  (n)  The  abolition  of  dues  on  the 
death  of  the  serf,  by  which  the  widows  and 
orphans  were  deprived  of  their  right.  (12) 
The  acceptance  of  the  aforesaid  articles,  or 
their  refutation  as  contrary  to  the  Scriptures. 
Karlstadt  and  some  of  the  Reformers  joined 
the  peasants.  Luther,  Melancthon,  and  others 
denounced  them.  Munzer  accused  Luther 
"  of  deserting  the  cause  of  liberty  and  of  ren- 
dering the  Reformation  a  fresh  advantage  for 
the  princes,  a  fresh  means  of  tyranny."  The 
uprising  began  in  Upper  Suabia  in  the  autumn 
of  1524,  and  gradually  spread.  When  the  con- 
vent of  Kempten  was  captured  by  the  peas- 
ants, January  i,  1525,  the  uprising  became 
general  from  the  Alps  to  the  Hartz,  and  from 
the  Rhine  to  Bohemia.  With  the  exception  of 
Thomas  Munzer  (g.  v.)  and  Gotz  von  Berlich- 
ingen,  a  notorious  robber  knight,  the  peasants 
had  no  leaders.  They  simply  gathered  in 
large  masses  of  from  8000  to  30,000  men.  They 
captured  and  plundered  castles  and  monas- 
teries, often  with  great  cruelty.  As  soon,  how- 
ever, as  they  met  disciplined  armies,  in  the 
south  under  Truchsess  von  Waldburg,  and  in 
the  north  under  Philip  of  Hesse,  they  were 
defeated.  The  peasants  captured  Waldburg, 
but  could  not  hold  it.  The  insurrection  of 
Munzer,  the  prophet  of  the  Anabaptists  (q.  v.) 
in  Thuringia,  broke  out  later  in  1525,  but  in  a 
few  months  all  was  over.  The  peasants  were 
put  down  and  punished  with  terrible  cruelty. 
The  whole  country  became  one  scene  of  devas- 
tation ;  even  young  children  were  cast  "as 
Lutheran  dogs  "  to  the  flames. 

References :  Cornelius'  Studien  zur  Geschichte  des 
Bauernkriegs  (1862) ;  Schreiber  Der  deutsclie  Baitern- 
krieg  (1864)  ;  Menzel's  History  of  Germany  (trans- 
lation, 1853). 

PEASE,  EDWARD  R.,  was  born  at  Bris- 
tol, England,  in  1857.  His  parents  were  Qua- 
kers, and  his  education  was  conducted  by  a  pri- 
vate tutor.  He  was  intended  by  his  parents 
for  a  commercial  occupation.  He  became  a 
stock-broker  in  London ;  but  led  by  the  study  of 
social  conditions  and  principles,  he  gave  up 
this  position  in  1886.  and  became  an  appren- 


tice to  the  cabinet-making  trade  in  a  coopera- 
tive company,  spending  his  spare  time  in 
studying  labor  questions,  economics,  and  so- 
cialism. In  1883  he  was  one  of  the  most  active 
in  organizing  the  Fabian  Society  (q.  v.),  the 
first  meetings  being  held  in  his  rooms,  and  in 
1886  he  became  for  a  time  its  secretary.  He 
traveled  later  in  the  United  States,  but  re- 
turned to  England,  and  became  a  member  of 
the  Alliance  Cabinet-makers' Trade  Union,  the 
secretary  of  the  National  Labor  Federation, 
and  a  most  active  worker  in  labor  organization 
and  reform.  In  1890  Mr.  Pease  became  paid 
secretary  of  the  Fabian  Society,  and  has  re- 
mained so  till  the  present.  The  work  of  the 
society  had  become  so  extensive  as  to  oblige 
him  to  devote  all  his  time  to  its  interests.  Be- 
sides his  arduous  work  of  secretaryship  he  is 
editor  of  the  Fabian  News.  Both  he  and  his 
clever  wife,  Marjory  Davidson,  are  active 
members  of  the  Society  of  the  Friends  of  Rus- 
sian Freedom,  Mr.  Pease  acting  for  a  time 
as  its  secretary.  He  was  the  delegate  of  the 
Fabian  Society  at  the  International  Socialist 
Congress  at  Brussels.  His  home  is  at  Limps- 
field,  Surrey. 

PEFFER,  WILLIAM  ALFRED,  of  To- 
peka,  Kans. ,  United  States  senator,  was  born 
on  a  farm  in  Cumberland  county,  Pennsyl- 
vania, in  1831.  At  the  age  of  15  he  began  to 
teach  school — taught  during  the  winter  and 
farmed  during  the  summer.  He  took  up  land  in 
Indiana  in  1853;  six  years  later  left  for  Missouri, 
and  in  1862  removed  to  Illinois  because  of  the 
war,  and  enlisted  as  a  private  in  the  Eighty- 
third  Illinois  Infantry;  was  promoted  in  1863 
to  second  lieutenant,  and  served  in  various  offi- 
cial positions.  Mr.  Peffer  studied  law  in  odd 
hours  during  the  war,  and  when  he  was  mus- 
tered out  of  service,  in  1865,  he  began  the  prac- 
tise of  law  at  Clarksville,  Tenn.  Five  years 
afterward  he  removed  to  Kansas,  practised 
law,  and  established  and  conducted  two  news- 
papers— the  Fredonia  Journal 'and  Coffeyville' 
Journal.  In  1874  he  was  elected  to  the  State 
senate;  and  served  as  chairman  of  the  joint  cen- 
tennial committee,  a  member  of  judiciary,  and 
chairman  of  the  committee  on  corporations.  He 
was  a  Republican  presidential  elector  in  1880. 
A  year  later  he  became  editor  of  The  Kansas 
Farmer,  and  began  to  give  special  attention 
to  the  condition  of  the  agriculturalists  of  that 
State.  As  a  result  of  his  inquiry  he  became 
one  of  the  leaders  of  the  Populist  movement; 
and  was  elected  to  the  United  States  Senate  as 
a  member  of  the  People's  Party  in  1891.  Mr. 
Peffer  has  continued  to  be  one  of  the  fore- 
most advocates  of  the  Populist  movement.  In 
1893  he  instituted  an  inquiry  as  to  whether  the 
banks  were  complying  with  the  requirements 
of  the  Government. 

PENAL  COLONIES.     See  PENOLOGY. 
PENITENTIARIES.    See  PRISONS. 

PENOLOGY  is  the  science  of  the  treat- 
ment of  criminals.  (See  CRIMINOLOGY.  For 
the  statistics  of  crime,  see  CRIME;  for  the  gen- 
eral subject  of  crime,  see  CRIMINOLOGY;  for 
statistics  as  to  prisons  and  prisoners,  see 


Penology. 


986 


Penology. 


PRISONS;  for  various  other  subjects,  see  CON- 
VICT LABOR,  ELMIRA  REFORMATORY,  JUVENILE 
REFORMATORIES.)  We  consider  in  this  article 
only  the  history  of  and  views  held  to-day  as  to 
the  treatment  of  prisoners;  the  article  being 
largely  abridged  from  the  historical  notes  in 
the  second  annual  report  of  the  United  States 
Commissioner  of  Labor  (1886). 

FORMER  TIMES. 

There  seems  to  have  come  down  to  us  less  positive 
information  concerning  the  prison  system  of  the  an- 
cients than  concerning  any  other  portion  of  their 
domestic  and  public  economy.  This  is  doubtless 
owing  in  large  measure  to  the  division  of  all  society, 
among  all  the  early  peoples,  into  two  classes — slave 
and  free;  the  former  the  larger,  numerically.  The  free 
men,  the  independent  classes,  were  few  in  number, 
and  arrogated  all  power  and  property.  There  was  no 
convict  class  in  the  modern  sense  of  the  words,  but 
euch  as  it  was  it  was  recruited  from  such  socially  and 
legally  degraded  multitudes  as  are  not  now  found  in 
European  and  American  civilization.  There  is  no 
proper  analogy,  therefore,  between  ancient  and  mod- 
ern penal  laws  or  ancient  and  modern  methods 
of  employing  criminals  at  work.  And  there  is  still 
less  foundation  for  a  rational  comparison  of  the 
respective  theories  or  principles  whence  those  laws 
or  systems  have  sprung.  In  the  ancient  world — in 
every  varied  civilization  which  preceded  the  fall  of 
the  Roman  world-empire  in  its  Italian  birthplace  in 
475  A.  D.  and  even  till  the  death  of  its  eastern  half 
at  Constantinople,  in  1453  A.  D. — vengeance  was  the 
root  of  all  punishment;  retaliation  was  the  basis  of 
all  legislation  regarding  it.  The  wrong-doer,  orig- 
inally the  enemy  of  the  man  wronged,  came,  in  the 
course  of  time,  to  be  considered  the  enemy  of  the 
tribe  or  nation  also,  that  is,  the  enemy  of  society. 
Therefore  he  was  tortured  or  killed,  or  made  to 
pay  a  compensating  fine.  If  he  could  not  do  the 
latter  he  would  probably  be  imprisoned  ;  but  more 
often  he  was  made  a  slave.  Prisons  were  scarce,  dun- 

feons  were  commoner,  but  neither  were  used  when 
eath,  scourging,  or  enslavement  was  feasible.  Such 
few  of  the  upper  classes— who  did  not  do  any  work 
apart  from  that  of  a  political  or  professional  nature, 
or  that  involved  in  court  attendance  or  the  manage- 
ment of  invested  property  —  as  were  unfortunate 
enough  to  have  to  incur  punishment,  frequently  suf- 
fered much  from  the  nature  of  their  imprisonment, 
but  were  not  forced  to  work.  Labor  was  for  slaves 
and  menials  alone,  whether  in  prison  or  out. 

The  following  account  of  forced  labor  in  mines,  from 
Wilkinson,  mainly  translated  from  Diodorus  Siculus, 
probably  gives  a  truthful  picture  of  what  existed  in 
other  ancient  countries  as  well  as  in  Egypt : 

The  historian  states  that  those  who  worked  in  the 
mines  were  principally  captives  taken  in  war,  and 
men  condemned  to  hard  labor  for  crimes,  or  in  conse- 
quence of  offenses  against  the  Government.  They 
were  bound  in  fetters  and  obliged  to  work  night  and 
day  ;  every  chance  of  escape  being  carefully  obviated 
by  the  watchfulness  of  the  guards,  who,  in  order  that 
persuasion  might  not  be  used  to  induce  them  to  relax 
in  their  duty,  or  feelings  of  compassion  be  excited  for 
the  sufferings  of  their  fellow-countrymen,  were  for- 
eign soldiers,  ignorant  of  the  Egyptian  language. 

The  Roman  empire  shows  us  somewhat  of  the  tran- 
sition to  the  modern  treatment  of  the  prisoner,  tho 
slavery  was  still  the  basis.    To  be  sold  into  slavery, 
and  therefore  to  labor  of  some  kind, 
was  the  main  punishment.     By  the  law 
Roman       °^   t'le    Twelve  Tables,    afterward  re- 
-,       .  pealed,  the  debtor  could  be  sold  to  the 

.kmpire.  ''foreigner  beyond  the  Tiber."  Under 
the  republic  and  later,  the  poor  plebeian 
cliens,  in  debt  to  his  patrician  patronus, 
became  practically  the  latter's  slave,  by  process  of 
law,  to  pay  his  debt.  The  paterfamilias,  as  before 
noted,  could  sell  his  children  into  slavery.  Under  the 
empire  slavery — always  carrying  civil  death — was  the 
punishment  of  the  citizen  who  refused  his  name  for 
the  lists  of  the  censor  or  sought  in  any  way  to  avoid 
military  service.  Augustus  once  revived  an  old  law 
of  the  republic  in  order  to  sell  into  slavery  a  Roman 
knight  who  had  rendered  his  two  boys  unfit  for  mili- 
tary service  by  cutting  their  thumbs.  Thus  slavery 
as  a  punishment  took  the  place  in  a  certain  way  of  the 
modern  system  of  punishment  at  labor. 
A  punishment  similar  to  that  of  the  reduction  to 


slavery,  and  in  more  common  use,  was  condemnation 
to  the  mines — in  metalhtm,  in  opus  metalli.  This  in- 
volved loss  of  citizenship  and  was  generally  for  life. 
\Vomen  so  sentenced  were  commonly  employed  to  as- 
sist in  the  lighter  parts  of  the  work — in  ministerium 
metallicorum.  Slaves  so  sentenced  no  longer  belonged 
to  the  master.  Convicts  of  this  class  were  always 
transported  to  a  foreign  province.  Spain  was  the  chief 
penal  colony,  and  the  famous  silver  mines  at  New 
Carthage  are  said  to  have  contained  40,000  of  these 
slaves  (including  the  criminal  class),  who  were  treated 
with  great  severity.  From  their  labor  the  Govern- 
ment derived  large  profit.  A  sentence  of  a  like  kind, 
also  involving  the  loss  of  civil  rights,  was  that  to  the 
public  works— in  opus  publicum  ,•  it  resembled  the 
bagnes  of  France  and  the  presidios  of  Spain,  and  was 
undoubtedly  their  prototype.  It  appears  to  have  em- 
braced all  kinds  of  labor  upon  fortification,  roads,  and 
harbors,  and  in  the  galleys.  It  was  not  visited  upon 
patricians  nor  upon  slaves,  but  only  upon  the  ordinary 
body  of  citizens — the  idle  and  vicious  Roman  mob. 

One  of  the  commonest  punishments,  next  to  tortures 
and  whippings,  was  confinement  in  the  ergastulum,  or 
pistrintim,  dark  and  gloomy  cells.  There  were  said 
to  have  been  public  ergastula  also,  which  were  prob- 
ably merely  dungeons.  Most  of  these  ergastula,  how- 
ever, were  loathsome  underground  dungeons  on  the 
country  estates,  where  refractory  slaves  were  confined 
at  night,  loaded  with  chains,  working  the  fields  in  the 
daytime,  also  in  chains. 

Of  prisons  properly  so  named,  aside  from  the  ergas- 
tula and  pistrina,—\.'h&  dungeons  and  cells  of  the  patri- 
cian household, — there  is  little  information.  At  Rome 
the  carceres,  called  Mamertine  and  Tullian,  were  one 
great  dungeon  in  two  tiers,  mostly  underground.  Its 
two  parts  were  built  at  different  eras.  It  was  without 
light  or  ventilation,  abounding  in  filth,  and  reeking 
with  horrible  odors.  But  no  work  was  or  could  be 
done  in  it.  There  were  other  similar  dungeons  at 
Rome  and  throughout  the  provinces.  The  Roman 
prisons,  like  the  prisons  of  all  their  predecessors  and 
contemporaries  in  history,  were  simply  places  of  brief 
detention  or  torture.  Their  principal  punishments 
for  offenses  not  deserving  death  or  slavery  were  also 
those  of  the  rest  of  the  ancient  world,  namely,  whip- 
pings, tortures,  multilations,  fines,  etc.  ;  and  as  the 
class  to  whom  these  penalties  were  meted  out  •was 
principally  the  unlucky  slaves,  the  individual  master, 
not  the  State,  adjudged  them  and  enforced  them. 

In  the  prison  systems  of  the  Middle  Ages  we  find 
the  Roman  system,    mingling    with   the    Germanic, 
slowly    modified    by    the    humanizing 
influences    of    Christianity,    and   then 
growing    into  a    system  of  torture  as          jjje 
Christianity    became    dehumanized    in        -M-'/j/n 
the  institution  of  the  Inquisition.  Middle 

In   the  time  of  Tacitus,  the   German         Ages. 
slaves  seem    to  have    been    composed 
chiefly  of  prisoners  of  war  or  persons 
condemned  to  slavery  as  a  punishment  for  crime. 

At  quite  an  early  period,  however,  the  payment  of  a 
composition,  afterward  called  the  wergeld,  became 
one  of  the  principal  methods  of  expiating  crime.  The 
amount  of  this  composition  depended  on  the  social 
importance  of  the  family  injured,  and  a  person  com- 
mitting a  murder  was  allowed  to  purge  himself  of  the 
crime  by  making  a  pecuniary  composition  satisfactory 
to  the  family  of  the  deceased.  Later  this  was  accom- 
panied by  another  fine,  called  fredutn,  which  was 
paid  to  the  State. 

The  settlement  by  composition  was  general,  since 
nearly  all  crimes  were  considered  as  private  injuries. 

Only  two  offenses  were  accounted  crimes  against 
society  in  the  time  of  Tacitus,  and  as  such  punished 
by  death  ;  the  one,  treason  and  desertion  to  the  enemy  ; 
the  other,  cowardice  and  a  secret  offense  against  de- 
cency which  modern  laws  leave  unpunished. 

However,  the  Christian  religion,  very  soon  after  its 
establishment  and  recognition,  began  to  exercise  great 
influence  on  the  criminal  codes  of  Europe. 

The  new  religion  instituted  three  ideas  regarding 
the  treatment  of  criminals,  which  were  new  to  all 
the  world  :  Firstly,  expiation  instead  of  vengeance : 
secondly,  a  gradation  or  penalties  or  penances  suited 
to  the  various  grades  of  crimes;  thirdly,  the  reforma- 
tion of  the  offender. 

Never  was  the  authority  of  the  Church  over  tem- 
poral society  greater  than  from  the  sixth  to  the  tenth 
century. 

Having  acquired  great  influence  in  the  legislative 
and  judicial  assemblies  by  means  of  intellectual  supe- 
riority, the  priesthood  always  inclined  the  balance  in 
favor  of  justice  for  all,  of  equality  before  the  law; 


Penology. 


987 


Penology. 


and,  if  it  was  at  all  partial,  it  would  be  toward  the 
poor,  the  weak,  and  the  defenseless. 

In  its  own  punishments  it  imposed  rigorous  pen- 
ances, it  is  true,  but  temporary  in  character,  even  for 
the  greatest  criminals.  In  the  establishment  and  ad- 
ministration of  these  penalties  it  occupied  itself  first 
with  the  reclamation  of  the  sinners  ;  the  protection  of 
society  and  the  maintenance  of  public  order  were,  for 
it,  interests  of  only  secondary  importance. 

In  the  following  period  a  reaction  is  manifested 
against  the  insufficiency  of  the  guarantees  which  sucn 
a  regime  gives  to  a  society  agitated  by  so  many 
troubles  and  disorders.  Feudalism,  which  about  the 
eleventh  and  twelfth  centuries  begins  to  dominate  all 
European  nations,  even  to  their  Oriental  colonies  in 
Palestine,  bases  itself,  on  the  contrary,  upon  the  prin- 
ciple of  material  force  and  intimidation. 

Throughout  the  period  of  the  existence  of  the  feu- 
dal system  in  its  strength  it  is,  perhaps,  vain  to  search 
for  evidences  of  the  employment  of  convict  labor  ;  for 
during  the  prevalence  of  this  system,  when  each  petty 
feudal  lord  held  his  own  little  court,  and  tried  his  vas- 
sal in  accordance  with  his  own  notions  of  justice,  it 
would  be  unreasonable  to  expect  that  stability  of  judi- 
cial institutions  which  alone  can  give  birth  to  jails, 
workhouses,  and  houses  of  correction. 

In  such  times  we  may  look  for  sentences  that  are 
capable  of  speedy  execution  ;  and  so  we  find  that  grad- 
ually, as  the  feudal  system  arose,  the  punishments  be- 
came more  generally  corporal  and  capital,  increasing 
in  severity  as  the  influences  of  the  Church  became  less 
general. 

The  idea  of  the  reformation  of  the  offender  was  lost 
along  with  the  temporal  supremacy  of  the  Church, 
and  lay  neglected  until  almost  the  dawn  of  the  pres- 
ent century. 

The  other  two  principles  of  punishment  which  we 
owe  to  Christianity — those  of  expiation  instead  of 
vengeance,  and  of  a  gradation  of  sentences  propor- 
tioned to  the  magnitude  of  the  crime — remained  in- 
deed ;  but  only  in  name,  for  the  punishments  during 
this  feudal  age  increased  so  much  in  severity  and 
cruelty  as  to  rival  those  of  savage  nations. 

The  Church,  which  had  formerly  been  such  a  power 
for  good,  became  injuriously  affected,  during  this 
period,  by  the  struggle  which  it  made  to  preserve  its 
autonomy  and  at  the  same  time  to  hold  ecclesiastical 
feudatories.  The  result  of  such  a  struggle  was  that 
it  lost  much  of  its  sacred  character,  and  the  ecclesias- 
tical powers  became  as  cruel  in  their  punishments  as 
the  temporal  lords  themselves. 

The  most  common  punishments  were  naturally 
those  most  easily  inflicted.  Offenders  paid  in  their 
persons  ;  they  were  put  to  death  with  every  variety  of 
the  capital  sentence  ;  were  branded,  mutilated,  or  sold 
as  slaves.  They  were  fined  also,  were  degraded,  or 
forfeited  civil  rights,  or  yet  again  were  simply  ban- 
ished from  their  homes.  Enforced  detention,  incar- 
ceration within  four  walls,  was  another  method  of 
coercion  which  grew  and  gained  favor  under  the 
feudal  system.  The  lord  temporal  or  spiritual  or  cor- 
porate body  could  thus  hold  the  vassal  safe  until  he 
yielded  fealty  or  submitted  to  extortion.  A  dungeon 
told  no  tales,  and  served  conveniently  to  bury  the 
victims  of  medieval  oppression. 

GREAT  BRITAIN. 

In  England  the  first  steps  were  taken  toward  modern 
methods.  Freedom  from  illegal  arrest  was  sought  in 
the  Great  Charter,  and,  altho  often  in  danger,  it 
was  confirmed  finally  and  beyond  all  question  by  the 
Habeas  Corpus  act  passed  in  the  reign  of  Charles  II. 
But  the  theory  was  better  than  the  practise  ;  numbers 
always  languished  in  jail,  the  victims  of  needlessly 
severe  or  misinterpreted  laws,  who  nowadays  would 
have  been  at  large.  Through  long  years  oif  trouble 
and  disquiet,  when  the  country  was  torn  with  religious 
and  political  dissensions,  the  prisons  were  always  full. 
Intolerance  appealed  to  the  strong  arm,  and  the  jail 
was  the  ante-chamber  of  the  scaffold  or  stake.  When 
party  warfare  ran  high,  when  kings  struggled  for 
larger  powers  or  their  ministers  and  myrmidons  ruled 
with  a  high  hand,  incarceration  was  the  easy  recom- 
pense for  all  on  the  losing  side.  The  commercial  laws 
of  a  nation  wedded  to  trade  kept  a  large  contingent 
always  in  jail.  The  debtor  was  at  the  mercy  of  his 
creditor,  who  could  command  the  best  efforts  of  the 
law  to  assist  him  in  recovering  his  own  again.  Irreg- 
ularity in  the  administration  of  justice  contributed 
largely  to  fill  the  prisons.  Jail  deliveries  were  fre- 
quently delayed  indefinitely  ;  while,  even  when  tardy 
trial  ended  in  an  acquittal,  release  was  not  always 
accorded,  and  innocent  men,  unable  to  meet  extor- 


_ . 
l/n.m.6. 


tionate  demands  in  fees,  were  carried  back  to  prison. 
This  was  one  reason  why  jails  were  full  ;  yet  another 
was  the  laxity  or  entire  absence  of  discipline  which 
suffered  the  families  of  accused  persons  to  share  their 
confinement.  Under  such  conditions,  more  or  less 
universal,  the  state  of  prisons,  not  in  England  alone, 
but  throughout  the  then  civilized  world,  was  deplora- 
ble in  the  extreme.  The  penalties  inflicted  were  purely 
personal,  and,  so  to  speak,  final  —  such  as  chastise- 
ment, degradation,  or  death.  England  had  no  galleys, 
no  scheme  of  enforced  labor  at  the  oar,  such  as  was 
known  to  the  nations  of  the  Mediterranean  seaboard, 
no  method  of  compelling  perpetual  toil  in  quarry  or 
mine.  The  germ  of  transportation,  no  doubt,  was  to 
be  found  in  the  practise  which  suffered  offenders  who 
had  taken  sanctuary  to  escape  punishment  by  volun- 
tary exile,  but  it  was  long  before  the  plan  of  deporting 
criminals  beyond  seas  became  the  rule.  In  Henry 
VIII.  's  time,  says  Froude,  "there  was  but  one  step  to  the 
gallows  from  the  lash  and  the  branding-iron."  Crimi- 
nals did  not  always  get  their  deserts,  however.  .  .  . 

As  a  matter  of  fact,  offenders  far  too  often  escaped 
scot-free  through  the  multiplication  of  sanctuaries, 
which    refuges,   like  that  of    St.    Martin's-le-Grand, 
existed  under  the  very  walls  of  Newgate,  the  negli- 
gence of  pursuers,  and  not  seldom  the  stout  opposition 
of  the  inculpated.       Benefit  of  clergy,   claimed  and 
conceded  on  the  most  shadowy  grounds,  •was  another 
easy  and  frequent  means  of  evading  the  law.     Some 
judges  certainly  had  held  that    the  tonsure  was   an 
indispensable  proof  ;  but  all  were  not  so  strict,  and 
"putting  on  the  book,"  in  other  words, 
the  simple  act  of  reading   aloud,  was 
deemed  sufficient.     So  flagrant  was  the 
evasion  of  the  law  that   jailers,  for  a 
certain  fee,  would  assist  accused  per- 
sons    to    obtain    a    smattering   of    let- 
ters, whereby  they  might  plead  their 
"clergy"  in  court.     It  may  be  added  that,  altho  the 
abuse  of  the  privilege  was  presently  greatly  checked, 
it  was  not  until  the  reign  of  William  and  Mary  that 
benefit  of  clergy  was  absolutely  denied  to  burglars, 
pickpockets,  and  other  heinous  offenders. 

The  following  extract  from  Eden's  State  of  the  Poor 
will  give  the  reader  some  idea  of  the  crime  and  law- 
lessness rampant  in  the  reigns  of  "  Good  Queen  Bess  " 
and  her  immediate  predecessors,  a  consideration  of 
which  may  serve,  in  some  measure,  to  excuse  the 
severity  of  the  legislators  of  that  day,  when  England, 
social,  industrial,  and  economic,  was  still  in  a  forma- 
tive stage,  and  those  in  authority  as  unskilled  in 
governing  as  the  masses  were  untaught  in  obedience  : 

"Of  the  regular  police  of  the  country,  during  the 
reigns  of  Henry  VIII.  and  Elizabeth,  it  does  not  appear 
that  history  has  furnished  us  with  many  proofs  ;  the 
nation  was  still  far  from  having  attained  what  could 
be  called  a  state  of  civilization  and  order  ;  and  the 
principal  difference  between  the  enormities  committed 
in  ancient  times  and  in  the  fifteenth  century  seems  to 
have  been  that,  in  the  former,  large  bodies  of  men, 
headed  by  a  desperate  chieftain,  carried  on  a  species 
of  civil  war  against  their  neighbors,  and,  in  the  latter, 
every  part  of  the  kingdpm  was  infested  with  vaga- 
bonds and  robbers.  Writers  who  contend  that  severity 
of  punishment  is  not  the  best  preventive  of  crime  are 
fully  justified  by  the  history  of  this  period  ;  never 
were  severe  laws  issued  in  greater  abundance,  nor 
executed  more  rigorously,  and  never  did  the  unrelent- 
ing vengeance  of  justice  prove  more  ineffectual.  The 
prisoners  for  debt  in  the  different  jails  in  the  king- 
dom, are  stated  by  Mr.  Hume,  on  the  authority  of  an 
act  of  Parliament  passed  in  1512,  to  have  exceeded  the 
number  of  60,000,  and  Harrison  assures  us  that  the 
king  executed  his  laws  with  such  severity  that  72,000 
'  great  and  petty  thieves  were  put  to  death  during 
his  reign.'  He  adds  that  even  in  Elizabeth's  reign 
'rogues  were  trussed  up  apace,'  and  that  there  was 
not  '  one  year,  commonly,  wherein  300  or  400  of  them 
were  not  devoured  and  eaten  up  by  the  gallows,  in  one 
place  and  another.'  This  account  of  the  disorderly 
state  of  the  kingdom  is  strongly  corroborated  by  a 
statement  preserved  by  Strype,  which  was  written  by 
an  eminent  justice  of  the  peace  in  Somersetshire,  in 
the  year  1596,  five  years  before  the  memorable  act  for 
the  relief  of  the  poor.  In  enumerating  the  disorders 
which  then  prevailed  in  that  county,  the  author  in- 
forms us  that  '40  persons  had  there  been  executed 
in  a  year  for  robberies,  thefts,  and  other  felonies  ; 
35  burnt  in  the  hand;  37  whipped  ;  183  discharged;  that 
those  who  were  discharged  were  most  wicked  and  des- 
perate persons,  who  never  could  come  to  any  good, 
because  they  would  not  work.'"  Soon,  however,  we 
have  the  beginnings  of  the  system  of  enforced  labor 


Penology. 


Penology. 


and  also  of  transportation.  In  i6ig,  by  order  of  the 
king,  too  dangerous  rogues  were  banished  to  Virginia. 

Under  Charles  I.,  in  1630,  the  following  order  of 
privy  council  was  issued  : 

"  That  the  correction  houses  in  all  counties  may  be 
made  adjoining  to  the  common  prisons,  and  the  gaoler 
to  be  made  governor  of  them  that  so  he  may  imploy  to 
worke  prisoners  committed  for  small  causes,  and  so 
they  may  learne  honestly  by  labour,  and  not  live  idly 
and  miserably  long  in  prison,  whereby  they  are  made 
worse  when  they  come  put  than  they  were  when  they 
went  in  ;  and  where  many  houses  of  correction  are  in 
one  county,  one  of  them  at  least  to  bee  neare  the 
gaole." 

Haydn,  in  his  Dictionary  of  Dates,  says  that  trans- 
portation was  first  authorized  by  the  i8th  Charles  II., 
chap.  3  (1666),  judges  being  given  power  to  sen- 
tence offenders  to  be  transported  "into  any  of  his 
majesty's  dominions  in  North  America."  Banish- 
ment, however,  established  by  the  act  of  1507,  did  not 
differ  materially  from  transportation  provided  later. 

Reference  may  here  be  made  to  the  system  of  par- 
doning criminals,  especially  from  prisons  and  jails,  if 
not  imprisoned  for  too  heinous  offenses,  as  offenses 
were  then  judged,  on  condition  of  accepting  military 
service.  This  system,  which  has  in  it  the  idea  of 
recompense  to  the  State  by  way  of  a  service  for  which 
there  is  much  demand  in  the  crude  and  formative 
times  of  nations,  was  undoubtedly  of  early  vogue  in 
Great  Britain.  A  single  extract  from  the  history  of 
Newgate  will  illustrate  this  : 

"Release  from  prison  was  still,  as  before,  and  for 
long  after,  frequently  accompanied  by  the  penalty  of 
military  service.  This  had  long  been  the  custom.  On 
declaration  of  war  in  the  earlier  reigns,  it  •was  usual  to 
issue  a  proclamation  offering  a  general  pardon  to 
those  guilty  of  homicides  and  felonies  on  condition  of 
seryice  for  a  year  and  a  day.  Even  without  this  obli- 
gation prisoners  in  durance  might  sue  out  a  pardon  by 
intercession  of  some  nobleman  serving  abroad  with 
the  king.  But  later  on,  the  release  was  distinctly 
conditional  on  personal  service." 

Hard  labor  was  first  introduced  into  English  prisons, 
to  any  large  extent,  in  1706.  During  the  sixteenth  and 
seventeenth  centuries  paupers  and  va- 
grants were  generally  considered  crim- 
Hard  inals,  but  under  the  workhouse  acts, 
JTT  which  from  1697  are  thickly  sown 

Labor.  through  the  statute-books  of  the  realm, 
the  unfortunate  poor  are  treated  as  a 
class  by  themselves,  demanding  sym- 
pathy and  support  rather  than  punishment.  Yet  this 
change  was  of  slow  growth.  For  two  centuries  the 
lines  of  separation  are  not  drawn  sharply  in  the  laws, 
and  probably  still  less  so  in  actual  practise.  The 
workhouse  was,  however,  in  its  conception  and  in 
fact,  like  the  American  poorhouse,  a  place  of  relief, 
and  only  incidentally,  and  for  certain  classes,  perhaps 
a  place  of  punishment  by  labor;  while  the  house  of  cor- 
rection •was  just  as  significantly  a  place  of  punish- 
ment generally,  both  by  labor  and  otherwise,  and  only 
casually  at  first,  tho  more  so  later  on,  as  the  harshness 
of  the  earlier  times  was  softened  into  the  tenderness 
and  sympathy  of  the  later,  a  house  of  relief  for 
wretchedness  and  misfortune. 

Employment  was  provided  with  a  view  to  profit,  and 
for  the  purpose  of  turning  pauper  labor  to  account, 
regardless  of  its  effect  upon  the  labor  market  and  the 
position  of  the  independent  laborer.  In  some  in- 
stances, however,  this  effect  seems  to  have  been  in 
some  measure  foreseen,  for  a  Worcester  act  provides 
"  that  no  cloth  or  stuff,  either  woolen  or  linen,  manu- 
factured in  the  workhouse  or  houses  of  correction, 
shall  be  sold  by  retail  within  the  city  of  Worcester  and 
the  liberties  thereof,  by  any  officer  or  agent  of  the  said 
•workhouse,  on  pain  of  forfeiting  double  the  value 
thereof  to  any  person  who  shall  sue  for  the  same.  " 
The  cloth  and  stuff  made  in  the  workhouse  must, 
therefore,  be  used  by  the  inmates  or  else  be  sent  to  a 
distance. 

We  now  come  to  the  times  of  John  Howard  (q.  v.). 
Howard  began  his  journeys  of  inspection  in  1773. 

The  prisons  of  the  kingdom  were  a  disgrace  to 
humanity  ;  they  were  for  the  most  part  poisonous, 
pestiferous  dens,  densely  overcrowded,  dark,  foully 
dirty,  not  only  ill-ventilated,  but  deprived  altogether 
of  fresh  air.  The  wretched  inmates  were  thrown  into 
subterranean  dungeons,  into  •wet  and  noisome  caverns 
and  hideous  holes  to  rot  and  fester,  a  prey  to  fell  dis- 
ease, bred  and  propagated  in  the  prison-house,  and 
deprived  of  the  commonest  necessaries  of  life.  For 
food  they  were  dependent  upon  the  caprice  of  their 
jailers  or  the  charity  of  the  benevolent;  water  was 


denied  them  except  in  the  scantiest  proportions  ;  they 
were  half  naked  or  in  rags ;  their  only  bedding  was. 
putrid  straw,  reeking  with  exhalations  and  accumu 
lated  filth.  Every  one  in  durance,  whether  tried  or 
untried,  was  heavily  ironed  ;  women  did  not  escape 
the  infliction.  All  alike  were  subject  to  the  rapacity  of 
their  jailers  and  the  extortions  of  their  fellows.  Jail 
fees  were  levied  ruthlessly  ;  "  garnish,"  also  the  tax  or 
contribution  paid  by  each  individual  to  a  common 
fund  to  be  spent  by  the  whole  body,  generally  in 
4rink.  Drunkenness  was  universal  and  quite  un- 
checked ;  gambling  of  all  kinds  was  practised  ;  vice 
and  obscenity  were  everywhere  in  the  ascendant. 
Idleness,  drunkenness,  vicious  intercourse,  sickness, 
starvation,  squalor,  cruelty,  chains,  awful  oppression, 
and  everywhere  culpable  neglect — in  these  words  may 
be  summed  up  the  state  of  the  jails  at  the  time  of 
Howard's  visitation. 

Says  Major  Griffiths,  writing  in  the  Encyclopedia 
Britannica  : 

"It  must  be  borne  in  mind  that  all  this  time  the 
prisons  were  primarily  places  of  detention,  not  of 
punishment.  The  bulk  of  those  committed  to  their 
safe  keeping  were  accused  persons  awaiting  trial  in 
due  process  of  law,  or  debtors  ;  and  of  these  again  by 
far  the  most  numerous  class  were  the  impecunious 
and  the  unfortunate,  whom  a  mistaken  system  locked 
up  and  deprived  of  all  means  of  paying  their  liabili- 
ties. Now  and  again  an  offender  was  sentenced  to  be 
imprisoned  in  default  of  payment  of  fine,  or  to  pass 
the  intervals  between  certain  periods  of  disgraceful 
exposure  in  the  pillory.  Imprisonment  had  as  yet  no 
regular  place  in  the  code  of  penalties,  and  the  jail  was 
only  the  temporary  lodging  of  culprits  duly  tried  and 
sentenced  according  to  law.  The  punishment  most 
in  favor  in  these  ruthless  times  was  death.  The  stat- 
ute-book bristled  with  capital  felonies,  and  the  gallows 
was  in  perpetual  requisition.  These  were  days  when 
the  pickpocket  was  hanged  ;  so  was  the  sheep-stealer, 
and  the  forger  of  one-pound  notes.  Well  might  Sir 
Samuel  Romilly,  to  whose  strenuous  exertions  the 
amelioration  of  the  penal  code  is  in  a  great  measure 
due,  declare  that  the  laws  of  England  were  written  in 
blood.  But  even  then  there  was  another  and  a  less 
sanguinary  penalty.  The  deportation  of  criminals 
beyond  seas  grew  naturally  out  of  the  laws  which 
prescribed  banishment  for  certain  offenses." 

Later,  when  the  system  of  transporting  convicts  to 
the  colonies  of  North  America  was  destroyed  by  the 
declaration    of    independence    of    the 
United  States,  the  suggestions  of  How- 
ard, Eden,   and    other   reformers    had  T/.Y.,,  -Un^ar-A 
weight,  and  led  to  the  passage  of  the  Jonn  iiowara. 
i6th  George  III.   (1776),    providing   for 
the  labor  known  as  the  hulks. 

The  hulks  were  old  vessels  lying  at  the  mouth  of  the 
Thames  and  in  other  harbors  in  which  prisoners  were 
now,  for  the  first  time,  confined  and  employed  in 
dredging  and  other  coarse  labor. 

But  the  great  result  of  the  agitation  of  Howard  and 
of  the  commission  appointed,  of  which  he  was  a  mem- 
ber, was  the  act  of  the  igth  George  III.,  chap.  74 
(i77p);  a  very  important  act,  since  it  embraced  in  its 
conception,  for  the  first  time,  the  whole  idea  of  the 
modern  reformatory  prison. 

It  provided  for  the  erection  of  penitentiary  houses 
(probably  the  first  use  of  the  term  in  English  law), 
with  storehouses,  workhouses,  lodging  rooms,  in- 
firmary, chapel,  burying  ground,  prison,  kitchen  gar- 
den, airing  grounds,  a  governor,  clerk,  chaplain,  sur- 
geon or  apothecary,  store-keepers,  taskmasters,  and  a 
matron,  •with  salaries  attached  to  be  paid  out  of  the 
profits  of  the  work  performed  by  the  prisoners.  Lit- 
tle was  done,  however.  The  system  of  the  hulks  was 
still  continued.  A  plan  of  transportation  was  tried 
through  the  medium  of  contractors.  "An  act  of  1788 
empowered  his  majesty,  under  his  royal  sign  manual, 
to  authorize  any  person  to  make  contracts  for  the 
transportation  of  offenders,  and  to  direct  to  whom 
security  should  be  given  for  the  due  performance  of 
the  contract." 

Attention  having  been  turned  to'the  virgin  land  of 
Australia,  in  May,  1787,  the  first  band  of  transports  left 
for  Botany  Bay,  and  in  the  succeeding  year  founded 
the  colony  of  New  South  Wales.  The  system  of  trans- 
porting felons  to  Australia  continued  in  such  force 
that,  in  fifty  years  from  the  date  of  its  introduction 
(1787-1836),  100,000  convicts,  including  13,000  women, 
had  been  shipped  to  the  Australian  penal  colonies. 

This  system  prevailed  through  all  the  first  half  of 
the  century.  The  penal  colonies  at  first  had  a  desper- 
ate battle  for  existence.  Later  a  few  free  families 
were  induced  to  settle  among  them,  but  they  were  lost 


Penology. 


989 


Penologyt 


Transpor- 
tation. 


Bentham. 


in  the  bulk  of  the  convicts.  The  convicts  were  em- 
ployed under  government  control  in  various  works. 
The  educated  among-  them  were  made 
clerks  and  even  given  places  of  trust. 
When  a  new  batch  of  convicts  arrived, 
the  best  were  assigned  to  government 
offices  or  were  let  out  to  employers. 
Others  were  worked  as  road  parties  in 
chain-gangs,  and  the  worst  sent  at  last 
to  penal  settlements,  which  became  cesspools  of  iniq- 
uity. Finally,  as  the  number  of  free  colonists  grew, 
the  opposition  to  the  convicts  became  very  strong,  and 
between  1835  and  1840,  a  party  arose  in  New  South 
Wales  pledged  to  procure  the  abandonment  of  trans- 
portation. The  convicts,  tho  educated,  were  said  to 
demoralize  the  colonies,  and  the  road  gangs  and  penal 
settlements  to  be  worse  yet.  In  1857  an  act  was  passed 
limiting  transportation  to  terms  of  fourteen  years, 
and  in  1867  it  was  abolished  altogether. 

The  penitentiary  scheme  had  not  been  abandoned 
on  the  adoption  of  transportation.  It  was  kept 
alive  by  Jeremy  Bentham,  who,  in  1791,  published  a 
w'ork  on  prison  discipline,  entitled  The 
Panopticon,  or  Inspection  House,  and 
followed  it  next  year  by  a  formal  pro- 
posal to  erect  a  prison  house  on  his  own 
,plan.  Bentham  s  main  idea  was  "  a  cir- 
cular building,  an  iron  cage  glazed,  a 
glass  lantern  as  large  as  Ranelagh,  with  the  cells  on 
the  outer  circumference."  Within,  in  the  center,  an 
inspection  station  was  so  fixed  that  every  cell  or  part 
of  a  cell  could  be  at  all  times  closely  observed,  the 
prisoners  being  themselves  at  liberty  to  communicate 
with  visitors  and  make  known  their  complaints  by 
means  of  tubes.  He  hoped  to  effect  much  in  the  way 
of  reformation  from  a  system  of  solitude  or  limited 
seclusion,  with  constant  employment  on  work,  in  the 
profits  of  which  the  prisoners  were  to  share.  His  proj- 
ect was  warmly  approved  by  Pitt ,  but  secret  influ- 
ences—the personal  hostility,  it  was  said,  of  George 
III.  to  Bentham  as  an  advanced  radical — hindered  its 
adoption  until  1704.  A  contract  was  then  made  be- 
tween the  treasury  and  Bentham,  by  which  the  latter 
•was  to  erect  a  prison  for  a  thousand  convicts,  with 
chapel  and  other  necessary  buildings,  for  .£19,000 
[$92,340].  A  portion  of  this  sum  was  advanced,  and 
Bentham  also  acquired  on  behalf  of  the  Government 
certain  lands,  but  the  undertaking  never  took  prac- 
tical shape.  Nearly  fifteen  years  later,  when  the  pen- 
itentiary question  was  again  revived,  Bentham's 
claims  were  referred  to  arbitration,  and  the  Govern- 
ment proceeded  to  erect  the  prison  on  its  own  account, 
•"  fully  recognizing  the  importance  of  attempting  ref- 
ormation by  the  seclusion,  employment,  and  religious 
instruction  of  prisoners."  This  had  been  tried  already 
on  a  small  scale  but  with  satisfactory  results,  first  at 
the  Gloucester  prison,  erected  in  1791.  It  was  now 
tried  on  a  large  scale  at  Millbank,  yet  generally  the 
condition  of  the  prisons  was  very  bad.  Even  in  Lon- 
don itself,  within  easy  reash  of  this  palatial  Millbank 
penitentiary,  the  chief  prison  of  the  city,  Newgate, 
was  in  a  disgraceful  condition.  This  had  been  ex- 
posed by  a  parliamentary  inquiry  as  far  back  as  1814, 
but  nothing  had  been  done  to  remedy  the  evils  laid 
bare.  All  the  shameful  conditions  of  neglect,  ill- 
treatment,  and  overcrowding  were  present  in  New- 
gate, and  to  the  same  extent  as  in  any  of  the  provin- 
cial prisons.  Griffiths  says  that : 

"In  1818,  out  of  518  prisons  in  the  United  Kingdom, 
to  which  a  total  of  upward  of  100,000  prisoners  had 
been  committed  in  a  year,  only  23  prisons  were  di- 
vided according  to  law  ;  59  had  no  division  whatever 
to  separate  males  from  females;  136  had  only  one  divi- 
sion for  the  purpose;  68  had  only  two  divisions;  and  so 
on.  In  445  prisons  no  work  of  any  description  had 
been  introduced  for  the  employment  of  prisoners  ;  in 
the  balance  some  work  was  done,  but  with  the  most 
meager  results.  .  .  .  All  prisoners  passed  their  time 
in  absolute  idleness,  or  killed  it  by  gambling  and  loose 
conversation.  The  debtors  were  crowded  almost  in- 
conceivably.'' 

In  many  of  the  prisons  toil  was  carried  on  for  toil's 
sake ;  at  the  treadwheel,  or  at  the  shot  drill,  carry- 
ing shot  from  one  side  of  the  prison  yard  to  the 
otner.  Says  Major  Griffiths  : 

"The  state  of  the  female  side  had  already  attracted 
the  attention  of  that  devoted  woman,  Mrs.  Fry,  whose 
ministrations  and  wonderful  success  no  doubt  encour- 
aged, if  they  did  not  bring  about,  the  formation  of  the 
prison  society.  Mrs.  Fry  went  first  to  Newgate  in 
1813,  but  only  as  a  casual  visitor.  It  was  not  till  1817 
that  she  entered  upon  the  great  and  noble  work  with 
which  her  name  will  ever  be  associated.  She  worked 


a  miracle  there  in  an  incredibly  short  space  of  time. 
The  ward  into  which  she  penetrated,  altho  strongly 
dissuaded  by  the  officials,  was  like  a  den  of  wild 
beasts  ;  it  was  filled  with  women  unsexed,  fighting, 
swearing,  dancing,  gaming,  yelling,  and  justly  de- 
served its  name  of  hell  above  ground.'  Within  a 
month  it  was  transformed,  and  presented,  says  an  eye- 
witness, 'a  scene  where  stillness  and  propriety 
reigned.'  The  wild  beasts  were  tamed.  It  was  not 
strange  that  such  marvelous  results  should  be  bruited 
abroad,  that  public  attention  should  be  attracted  to 
Mrs.  Fry's  labors,  and  that  others  should  seek  to  fol- 
low in  her  footsteps.  Movements  similar  to  that  which 
Mrs.  Fry  headed  were  soon  set  on  foot  both  in  Eng- 
land and  on  the  Continent,  and  public  attention  was 
generally  directed  to  the  urgent  necessity  for  prison 
reform.  ...  A  small  band  of  earnest  men,  philan- 
thropists and  members  of  the  Society  of  Friends, 
formed  themselves  into  an  association  for  the  im- 
provement of  prison  discipline,  and  devoted  them- 
selves with  rare  energy  and  singleness  of  purpose  to 
their  self-constituted  task.  They  perambulated  the 
country,  inspecting  all  the  prisons;  they  issued  lengthy 
interrogatories  to  prison  officials;  they  published  peri- 
odical reports  giving  the  result  of  their  inquiries, 
with  their  views  on  the  true  principles  of  prison  man- 
agement, and  much  sound  advice,  accompanied  by 
elaborate  plans,  on  the  subject  of  prison  construc- 
tion." 

This  and  ensuing  agitations  gradually  brought  in 
the  present  system.  Under  this  convicts  are  sen- 
tenced to  penal  servitude. 

A  sentence  to  penal  servitude  of  male  convicts  con- 
sists of  three  parts  :    First,  a  period  of  strict  confine- 
ment :  second,  a  period  on  public  works ;  and  third,  a 
period  on  license  if  a  remission  of  any 
portion  of  the  sentence  has  been  earned. 
The  first  period  of  the  sentence  in  all   present  Ene- 
cases   lasts    for   nine    months,    during    ..  ,    „ 
which  each  convict  works,  sleeps,  and    "sn  system, 
eats  in  his  own  cell.    The  men  are  em- 
ployed in  tailoring,  hammock  and  bag 
making,  shoemaking,   mat  making,  weaving,  oakum 
picking,  threading  fire-lighters,  and  basket  making. 
The  women  during  this  period  are  mostly  employed 
in  needle- work  and  knitting. 

At  first  a  considerable  quantity  of  the  products  thus 
made  was  sold  ;  but  opposition  to  this  on  the  part  of 
the  public  was  after  a  while  aroused.  The  Prison 
Labor  Reform  Association  requested  the  commission- 
ers who  were  appointed  in  1878  to  inquire  into  and  re- 
port on  the  working  of  the  penal  servitude  acts;  the 
nature,  extent,  and  value  of  the  labor  performed  in  the 
convict  prisons,  and  also  the  manner  in  which  manu- 
factured articles  were  sold  and  the  prices  obtained, 
and  this  was  done.  It  was  sought  to  lessen  opposi- 
tion to  the  system  by  employing  the  convicts,  as  far 
as  possible,  in  the  manufacture  of  articles  designed 
for  the  use  of  the  government  departments.  The  tai- 
lors, for  example, were  employed  in  making  garments 
for  the  convicts  ;  others,  in  making  bags  for  the  post- 
office,  coal  sacks,  and  hammocks  and  bags  for  seamen. 
Competition  with  outside  makers  was  thus  speedily 
reduced  to  small  dimensions. 

When  the  convicts  complete  their  first  and  shortest 
period  of  imprisonment  they  are  transferred  to  other 
prisons  and  are  then  employed  on  public  works.  This, 
the  second,  is  by  far  the  longest  period  of  convict  life, 
and  their  employment  during  it  is  of  much  the  great- 
est importance  from  several  points  of  view.  Of  these 
public  works  a  very  important  one  was  the  construc- 
tion of  the  breakwater  at  Portland  harbor,  recom- 
mended by  a  select  committee  on  harbors  of  refuge 
in  1843. 

In  addition  they  have  also  been  extensively  engaged 
in  building  prisons.  Since  1863  nearly  5000  cells  have 
been  erected  entirely  by  convict  labor,  in  addition  to 
other  buildings  for  the  officers.  The  actual  cost  to  the 
Government  for  these  buildings  between  1863  and 
1885  was  $358,700,  an  estimated  saving  of  $277,700,  when 
compared  with  their  cost  by  contract  labor. 

While  there  is  no  thought  in  Great  Britain  of  aban- 
doning the  system  of  employing  convicts  at  product- 
ive labor,  it  is  yet  an  embarrassing  and  anxiously 
mooted  question,  first,  where  work  can  be  found  for 
them  to  do  which  they  are  capable  of  performing 
without  competing  with  persons  outside  ;  and,  second, 
how  the  cost  of  doing  the  work,  especially  for  other 
departments  of  the  Government,  shall  be  calculated. 
With  regard  to  the  first  inquiry :  Various  public 
works  have  been  planned  quite  similar  to  those  already 
completed— the  building  of  harbors,  forts,  and  the 
like— enough  to  last  for  several  years.  Another  kind 


Penology. 


990 


Penology. 


of  work  has  been  that  of  reclaiming  land.  An  instance 
is  the  Dartmoor  region,  where  a  very  considerable 
tract  has  been  reclaimed  and  is  now  used  for  farming 
purposes.  Fifteen  hundred  prisoners  at  a  time  have 
been  employed  there  in  the  open  country,  without  any 
wall  to  secure  them  or  chains  to  fetter  them,  but  dur- 
ing a  long  period  of  employment  there  has  never  been 
any  difficulty  with  them  in  the  matter  of  control  or 
safe-keeping.  This  has  not  been  a  paying  undertak- 
ing, it  must  be  said,  however,  for  the  soil  was  of  the 
poorest,  the  climate  was  unfavorable,  and  much  pre- 
liminary labor  was  expended  in  drainage  and  removal 
of  rocks. 


In  Prance  one  of  the  first  developments  out  of 
medieval  times  was  condemnation  to  the  galleys  or 
gateres. 

In  the  most  ancient  times  to  row  in  the  galleys  was 
considered  honorable,  and  the  early  Greek  oarsmen 
were  generally  voluntary  recruits.  Gradually,  how- 
ever, the  social  standing  of  the  manning  crew  was 
lowered ;  first,  prisoners  of  war  were  placed  at  the 
oars,  then  slaves,  and  finally  the  convicted  criminals. 

In  France  the  punishment  of  being  sentenced  to  the 
galtres  is  of  comparatively  recent  origin.  Philip  IV., 
the  Fair  (1285-1314),  is  the  first  king  of  France  who 
had  rowing  galleys.  Charles  Coeur,  purser  of  Charles 
VII.  (1422-61),  possessed  four  galleys,  which,  after  the 
former's  trial  and  conviction,  were  sold  to  Bernard  de 
Vaux,  of  Montpelier,  who  was  then  created  "  general 
of  the  gaKres,  one  of  the  grand  officers  of  the  Crown, 
and  placed  in  command  of  that  part  of  the  French 
navy. 

A  convict  sent  to  \.\i&  gallres  was  branded  with  red- 
hot  irons,  leaving  an  indelible  mark.  First,  the  three 
letters  GAL  were  used  ;  later  on,  only  two,  either  T 
F  (Travaiix  forces)  or  T  P  (Travaux  a  perpetuite). 
In  the  time  of  Charles  VIII.  (1483-80),  the  galley  men 
were  subjected  to  other,  even  more  cruel,  mutilations, 
such  as  slitting  the  nose  and  the  tongue  and  clipping 
the  ears,  but  in  the  same  reign  these  were  abolished. 

The  crimes  and  offenses  punished  with  sentence  to 
the  galleys  were  sorcery,  blasphemy,  forgery,  murder, 
smuggling,  poaching,  fraudulent  bankruptcy,  etc. 

Closely  connected  with  the  establishment  of  the  gal- 
leys are  to  be  found  the  rudiments  of  the  penal  insti- 
tution called  bagne,  bagnio.  The  name  is  derived 
from  a  prison  which  existed  in  Constantinople ;  this 
was  a  long  one-story  building  with  very  high  walls. 
On  the  inside,  beds,  or  more  properly  bunks,  were 
ranged  closely  against  the  walls,  leaving 
but  a  central  alley  where  great  quan- 
T ho  Pa  11  own  tities  of  water  were  gathered  for  the 
luw  "a"eys-  baths  ;  from  this  fact  the  Italians  called 
the  prison  bagnio,  or  bath,  which  name 
was  subsequently  applied  to  all  institu- 
tions of  a  similar  character.  Tqurnefort  describes  it 
as  being  one  of  the  most  horrible  prisons  that  ever 
existed. 

The  French  bagnes  were  at  first  old  hulks,  but  when, 
under  Louis  XV.  (1715-74),  the  rowing  galleys  were 
abolished,  bagnes  were  built  at  Toulon,  Brest,  Roche- 
fort,  and  Lorient,  where  the  convicts  were  employed  in 
making  ropes,  sails,  etc.,  and  paid  a  few  cents  a  day, 
with  which  they  were  allowed  to  buy  tobacco,  etc. 

The  labor  in  the  bagnios  was  very  severe  ;  the  con- 
victs were  chained  and  heavily  ironed,  and  constantly 
under  strict  surveillance  and  discipline.  At  Brest  the 
precaution  was  taken  to  place  two  cannons,  loaded 
with  canister,  at  each  end  of  each  room.  These  can- 
nons were  pointed  at  the  bunks,  and  were  always 
ready  for  action  in  case  of  a  general  insurrection  or 


outbreak  on  the  part  of  the  convicts.  Lepelletier  says, 
in  connection  with  this  precaution,  that,  "  thanks  to  it, 
general  tranquillity  was  but  rarely  disturbed  in  a  seri- 
ous manner.'* 

In  1828  the  bagnio  of  Lorient  was  discontinued  ;  in 
1854  those  of  Brest  and  Rochefort,  and  now  the  entire 
system  is  abolished,  and  deportation  to  the  penal  colo- 
nies takes  its  place. 

Imprisonment  at  Toulon  was  for  ten  years  ;  that  at 
Brest  and  Rochefort  for  ten  years,  and  in  certain 
cases  for  life. 

The  total  expenses  at  the  bagnio  of  Toulon  for  the 
year  1870  were  615,633  frs.  (about  $123,126),  while  the 
income  from  the  labor  of  the  convicts  amounted  to 
only  230,548  frs.  (about  $47,908). 

Other  French  Prisons. — Careful  investigation  leads 
to  the  conclusion  that  imprisonment  in  the  other 
French  prisons  was  unaccompanied  by  labor  till  near- 
ly the  close  of  the  eighteenth  century.  Prison  life  in 
the  Bastile,  the  Conciergerie,  the  Grand  and  the  Petit 


Chatelet,  For-1'Eveque,  1'Abbaye,  Bicetre,  La  Force, 
Saint-Martin,  Saint  Eloi,  and  la  Salpetriere  was  either 
of  great  severity  or  of  great  laxity.  The  prisoners 
were  either  kept  in  dungeons,  cachots,  oubliettes,  caba- 
nons,  au  secret,  without  sufficient  air,  room,  food, 
clothing,  and  other  necessaries  of  life  ;  or  they  could 
congregate,  converse,  play  games,  eat  and  drink  what 
they  could  afford  to  pay  for,  and  live  in  rooms  which 
they  could  rent  at  prices  regulated  by  a  fixed  tariff  ; 
but  always  in  enforced  idleness  and  without  distinction 
of  age,  sex,  or  crime. 

By  a  declaration  of  King  Louis  XVI.,  1780,  it  was  di- 
rected that  airy  and  spacious  infirmaries  should  be 
constructed  for  the  sick,  that  separate  places  of  con- 
finement and  courts  should  beprovided  for  men  and 
women  and  for  prisoners  of  different  classes,  and  that 
all  underground  dungeons  should  be  abolished. 

In  consequence  of  this  royal  declaration  several  im- 
portant changes  took  place.  Little  attempt  was  made 
to  introduce  any  kind  of  regulated  labor  in  any  of  the 
prisons  of  Paris  or  of  the  provinces.  The  enforced 
idleness  of  the  prisoners,  taken  in  connection  with  the 
crowded  condition  of  nearly  all  the  prisons,  became 
rapidly  a  fertile  source  of  diseases  of  all  kinds,  pre- 
dominant among  them  scurvy  of  the  most  malignant 
type. 

Howard,  writing  about  1784,  says  :  "  The  French  are 
now  sensible  of  the  bad  policy  of  confining  persons  in 
idleness  ;  for  of  late  they  have  here  [Bicetre]  set  their 
prisoners  to  work." 

Gradually  reforms  came  in  ;  prisoners  of  different 
sexes  were  placed  in  separate  places  of  detention,  as 
were  also  juvenile  offenders,  for  whom  special  houses 
of  correction  were  established  from  1831  to  1836,  with 
an  experimental  agricultural  station  at  Mettray  in 
1839,  which  has  so  far  proved  to  be  beneficial  and  truly 
reformatory  to  the  young  offenders.  The  following 
is  the  modern  system  : 

All  penal  establishments,  excepting  those  for  mili- 
tary and  naval  convicts,  which  the  war 
and    navy     departments     respectively 
control,  are  placed  under  the  authority       Present 
of  a  central  direction  which  is  dependent       „ 
on  the  home  department.  oystem. 

French  law  inflicts  four  sorts  of  pen- 
alties besides  death : 

A.  Penal  servitude  either  for  life  or  for  a  term  of 
years.    Convicts  so  sentenced  are  transported  to  ultra- 
marine settlements,  where  by  law  they  are  employed 
at  the  hardest  labor  for  the  exclusive  benefit  of  the 
Government  and  without  being  entitled  to  the  slight- 
est remuneration.    As  will  be  stated  subsequently, 
the  rigor  of  these  legal  requirements  is  much  tempered 
in  their  application.    Women  sentenced  to  penal  servi- 
tude are  very  seldom  transported,  and  then  only  at 
their  request  and  in  particular  cases ;  for  instance, 
when  their  husbands  are  transported  and  they  are 
allowed,  by  special  favor,  to  join  them.    Usually  they 
pay  their  forfeits  in  one  of  the  penitentiary  houses,  of 
which  mention  is  made  hereafter.      The    places    of 
transportation  are  two  in  number — New  Caledonia  for 
European  convicts,  and  French  Guiana  for  convicts 
natives  of  the  African  and  Asiatic  colonies.    The  whole 
number  of  convicts  who  were  transported  during  the 
year  1884    was    2539 ;    1410  of    whom  were  Arabs   of 
Algeria. 

B.  Confinement  for  life,   inflicted  only  on    persons 
above  sixty  years  of  age  or  in  a  few  special  cases,  or 
for  a  term  of  years  not  under  five.    Convicts  so  sen- 
tenced are  confined    in  the  central  prisons  (maisons 
centrales  de  force},  where  they  do  certain  work  not 
necessarily  hard,  determined  in  accordance  with  their 
individual  aptitude,  and  the  product  of  which  may  be 
in  part  assigned  to  their  own  benefit  at  the  will  of  the 
Government.      The  central  prisons  are  five    in  num- 
ber—four for  male,  and  one  for  female  convicts.    The 
total  number  of  prisoners  in  them  was,  in  1884  (318!  of 
December),  3746  men,  and  220  women. 

C.  Imprisonment  for  a  term  of  not  more  than  five 
years,   inflicted  for  minor  offenses.    Convicts  of  this 
class  are  confined  in  the  central  houses  of  correction 
(maisons  centrales  de  correction),  or,  when  the  terms 
of  their  penalty  do  not  exceed  one  year,  in  the  common 
departmental  prisons.      They  are  also    required    to 
work,  but  enjoy  the  privilege  of  choosing  the  sort  of 
labor  they  like,  as  tar  as  the  special  regulations  of 
their  place  of  confinement  make  it  possible,  and  they 
have  a  legal  claim  on  a  share  of  the  products  of  their 
labor.    The  central  houses  of  correction  are  fourteen 
in  number — ten  for  male,  and  four  for  female  convicts. 
The  sum  total  of  the  convicts  confined  in  them  was,  in 
1884,  8873  men,  and  997  women. 

Besides,  there  are  in  Algeria  two  central  houses,  one 


Penology. 


991 


Penology. 


for  mate,  the  other  for  female  convicts,  and  one  agri- 
cultural penal  settlement  for  male  convicts.  In  1884 
the  sum  total  of  the  penitentiary  population  of  Algeria 
was  1962  men  and  23  women.  We  must  also  mention 
two  agricultural  penal  settlements  for  male  convicts — 
most  of  them  Arabs — -in  Corsica.  Their  inmates  are 
included  in  the  above  figures. 

The  departmental  prisons — which  are  the  property, 
not  of  the  State  as  the  other  penitentiary  buildings, 
but  of  the  departments  (although  under  the  manage- 
ment of  the  central  penitentiary  administration) — are 
982  in  number,  one  at  least  for  each  tribunal.  In  14 
of  them  the  cellular  system  exists.  The  average 
aggregate  population  of  these  institutions  is  about 
29,000  individuals  of  both  sexes,  including  the  priso- 
ners who  are  temporarily  placed  there  under  arrest 
before  trial. 

D.  Detention  for  a  term  of  years,  decreed  for  particu- 
lar offenses  of  high  treason  or  of  a  political  character. 
Convicts  of  this  kind  were  formerly  confined  in  fort- 
resses ;  now  they  pay  their  forfeit  in  private  cells  of 
certain  prisons.  They  are  not  constrained  to  labor, 
and  are  governed  by  special  and  comparatively  lenient 
regulations. 

Another  kind  of  penal  establishment  may  be  men- 
tioned, specially  designed  for  convicts,  under  age,  of 
both  sexes,  that  is,  boys  and  girls  under  sixteen  years 
of  age  sentenced  to  a  minor  punishment,  and  who 
are  judged  "to  have  acted  without  discernment." 
They  are  placed  in  special  establishments  of  a  reforma- 
tory character,  where  they  are  compelled  to  certain 
labors  and  are  taught  manual  trades.  These  estab- 
lishments are  six  in  number  for  boys — five  agricultural 
settlements,  where  mechanical  trades  also  are  prac- 
tised, and  one  maritime  settlement.  Their  total 
population  was,  in  1883  (3ist  of  December),  2170  boys. 
In  addition,  twenty-one  private  houses  are  allowed  to 
receive  boys  of  this  class  under  the  superintendence 
of  the  Government's  agents.  They  contained,  in  1884, 
2998  boys. 

Girls  of  this  class  are  usually  committed  to  private 
charitable  houses,  which  receive  from  the  Govern- 
ment pecuniary  help  and  are  controlled  by  the  peni- 
tentiary agents.  These  houses  contained,  m  1884,  1198 
girls. 

Two  systems  are  in  practise  for  the  employment  of 
convict  labor,  viz.  :  (A)  by  contract,  and  (B)  for  public 
account. 

A.  This  system  is  practised  in  fifteen  of  the  nineteen 
central  prisons  and  houses  of  correction,  according  to 
the  following  regulations : 

For  each  of  these  houses  the  Government  enters  into 
a  contract  with  a  private  citizen — the  lowest  bidder  at 
a  public  auction  held  for  this  purpose — who,  in  return 
for  a  certain  sum  per  day  per  head  for  a  term  of  years, 
provides  for  the  maintenance  of  the  convicts,  in  com- 
pliance with  specified  conditions. 

GERMANY. 

In  Germany,  systems  of  employing  the  prisoners 
early  sprung  up. 

The  various  States  have  pursued,  however,  different 
systems  in  the  utilization  of  such  labor,  and  some  have 
been  more  progressive  than  others  in  securing  a  good 
prison  system. 

The  division  of  power  between  the  empire  on  one 
side,  and  the  individual  States  on  the  other,  renders 
it  difficult  to  describe  the  present  German  systems. 
The  imperial  penal  code  defines  three  grades  of  pun- 
ishment, which  differ  from  each  other  principally  as 
to  length  of  sentence.  With  respect  to  labor,  it  pro- 
vides that  convicts  sentenced  to  confinement  in  peni- 
tentiaries shall  be  held  to  the  employments  introduced 
into  those  institutions.  They  can  also  be  employed 
outside  them,  particularly  on  public  works,  or  in  labor 
superintended  by  a  State  functionary,  but  when  so 
employed  the  prisoners  must  be  kept  separate  from 
free  laborers.  A  milder  punishment  is  that  for  State 
prisoners  whose  sentences  vary  in  length  from  one 
month  to  five  years.  They  may  be  employed  in  ways 
suitable  to  their  circumstances  and  capacities.  Em- 
ployment outside  of  the  institution  is  only  permissible 
with  their  (the  officials')  consent.  The  punishment  of 
simple  confinement  for  minor  offenses  carries  with  it 
no  obligation  to  labor,  altho  work  is  to  be  provided  the 
prisoner  at  his  request. 

These  are  the  general  regulations  for  the  empire  ; 
the  execution  of  the  sentence  is  left  entirely  to  the 
Governments  of  the  separate  States.  In  consequence, 
there  is  opportunity  for  the  widest  dissimilarity  in  the 
treatment  of  prisoners,  and  the  man  sentenced  in 
Prussia  may  fare  very  differently  from  the  prisoner 
who  serves  his  time  in  one  of  the  Thuringian  States. 


Convict 
"    * 


The  public-account  system  (see  CONVICT  LABOR) 
occurs  in  Baden,  Bremen,  and,  in  part,  in  Bavaria, 
Wurtemberg,  Oldenburg,  and  Mecklen- 
burg, whereas  the  contract  system  pre- 
vails in  the  remaining  States  of  the 
empire,  of  which  Prussia  and  Saxony 
form  the  greater  part.  Now  it  is  to  be 
noted  that  the  States  contained  in  the 
first  list  are  comparatively  small,  their 
total  population  being  about  one-fifth  of  that  of  the 
whole  empire,  and  that  they  are  geographically  and 
politically  separate  from  each  other,  while  their  pris- 
ons are  all  of  moderate  size,  none  of  them  exceeding 
500  inmates  in  capacity,  and  are  not  situated  in  indus- 
trial centers.  The  contract  system,  on  the  other  hand. 
is  practised  in  Prussia,  a  State  with  27,000,000  people, 
and  where  the  bare  figures  of  the  prison  statistics 
therefore  appear  very  formidable. 

But  the  whole  number  of  convicts,  in  comparison 
with  the  mass  of  free  laborers,  is  very  small.  If  reck- 
oned at  30,000  as  a  daily  average  in  Prussia,  it  would 
still  amount  to  less  than  i  per  cent,  of  the  whole  indus- 
trial population.  This  number,  if  employed  in  one 
industry  alone,  would  prove  very  disastrous  to  the 
free  workers  engaged  in  it  ;  but  when  the  pressure  is 
distributed  through  a  variety  of  trades,  it  becomes 
almost  imperceptible.  And  in  Germany  this  is  the 
case.  In  only  one  State,  Bavaria,  have  complaints- 
been  heard  that  the  prison  labor  embraced  but  few 
industries.  Prussia  has  had  sipce  1869  more  than  35, 
and  although  the  absolute  figures  of  convicts  employed 
are  sometimes  high,  as,  for  instance,  2000  cigar-makers, 
the  relative  number  to  free  laborers  is  by  no  means- 
so  unfavorable. 

In  1882  there  were  a  number  of  petitions  praying  for 
the  abolition  of  convict  labor.  This  was  interpreted 
to  mean  the  removal  of  competition  from  that  source, 
and  the  discussion  in  the  Landtag  was  conducted  upon 
this  basis.  No  new  suggestions,  however,  were  of- 
fered. The  result  of  the  discussion  was  purely  nega- 
tive, it  being  resolved  that  the  complaints  of  the  peti- 
tioners did  not  furnish  subjects  for  further  discussion, 
inasmuch  as  the  Government  sought  continually  to 
avoid  a  competition  dangerous  to  free  industry. 

Since  that  time  the  subject  has  remained  in  statu 
quo.  Evidently  the  feeling  that  the  present  system  is 
a  lasting  one  is  by  no  means  strong.  There  seem  to 
be  indications  that  the  future  will  bring  some  new  de- 
velopments. The  German  Prison  Society,  composed 
of  prison  officials,  adopted  in  1880  a  resolution  to  the 
effect  that  in  principle  the  public-account  system  is 
the  right  and  proper  one. 

ITALY. 

Italy  early  developed  the  system  of  galleys.  Of  the 
galleys  at  Venice,  which  is  perhaps  a  fair  example, 
Howard  writes  (1784)  : 

"  One  of  the  galleys  [at  Venice]  was  moored  two 
boats'  lengths  from  the  shore,  in  which  were  only  27- 
slaves  [convicts],  who  were  kept  here  in  order  to  be 
sent  on  board  the  other  galleys.  This  was  clean. 
Here,  and  in  the  other  galleys,  which  were  dirty  and 
crowded,  the  slaves  were  in  chains,  of  about  27  pounds1 
weight,"  etc. 

Few  countries  however  since  this  time  have  made 
more  progress  in,  and  given  more  attention  to  prison 
reform  than  Italy. 

Dr.  Wines  (1880),  gives  the  following  information,  re- 
garding the  modern  administration  of  prisons  in  Italy, 
with  special  reference  to  industrial  labor  therein  : 

"  The  prison  system  of  Italy  embraces  the  following 
classes  of  prisons  :  i.  Prisons  for  preliminary  deten- 
tion and  the  punishment  of  minor  offenses  —  number 
not  stated  ;  average  number  of  inmates,  45,082.  2. 
Penitentiaries,  with  several  subdivisions,  of  which  the 
total  number  is  20,  with  an  average  population  of 
10,738.  3.  The  bagnios,  or  galleys,  number  21,  with  a 
population  of  15,148.  4.  Correctional  prisons  for 
juvenile  convicts,  four,  with  573  inmates.  5.  Agricul- 
tural colonies,  five.  6.  One  prison  for  invalids. 

"  The  supreme  authority  in  the  penal  administration 
of  Italy  is  the  minister  of  the  interior.  Under  him 
....  is  the  director-general  of  prisons. 

"  The  end  aimed  at  in  the  administration  of  peniten- 
tiary discipline  in   Italy  is  to  so  direct  punishment 
that,  without  allowing  it  to  lose  its  nec- 
essary characteristic  of   deterrence,   it 
shall  also  possess  the  equally  essential 
requisite  of  reforming  the  delinquents. 
....    On   the   one  hand  it   is  instilled 
into  the  mind  of  the  prisoner  that  he  will 
be  enabled,  by  good  conduct,  to  ameliorate  his  con- 
dition ;  on  the  other,  it  is  sought  to  raise  his  sense  of 


Penology. 


992 


Penology. 


manly  dignity  that  he  may  not  become  a  hypocrite. 
In  the  penitentiaries  those  who  distinguish  themselves 
by  good  conduct  enjoy  special  advantages.  ...  In 
the  bagnios  there  has  been  established  a  system  of 
progressive  classification,  under  which  prisoners,  like 
the  mercury  in  a  thermometer,  ascend  and  descend 
:according  to  their  deserts.  .  .  .  Those  prisoners  who 
have  distinguished  themselves  by  good  conduct  in 
the  penitentiaries,  and  have  worked  out  at  least  one- 
half  their  time,  are  removed  to  the  agricultural  colo- 
nies of  Pianosa  and  Gorgona. 

"  In  the  penitentiary  system  of  Italy  there  is  no  labor 
bearing  an  exclusively  penal  character.  It  is  sought 
to  give  to  the  industrial  education  of  the  prisoners  the 
turn  which  seems  best  suited  to  them  and  to  impart 
the  trade  most  easily  mastered.  Labor  has  no  other 
aim  in  the  Italian  prisons  than  to  overcome  the  natural 
propensity  to  idleness  in  the  criminal,  to  accustom  him 
to  a  life  of  activity  and  hardship,  and  to  give  him  the 
means  of-obtaining  an  honorable  livelihood.  .  . 

"  The  colonies  constitute,  to  all  intents  and  purposes, 
the  intermediate  prison  of  the  Crofton  system  in  its 
best  form.  The  labor,  beyond  that  pertaining  to  the 
establishments,  is  wholly  agricultural,  being  devoted 
to  the  culture  of  the  vine,  the  olive,  and  the  cereal 
grains.  Agriculture  is  taught  to  the  prisoners  scien- 
tifically as  well  as  practically.  .  .  .  Thus  occupied, 
their  minds  are  turned  largely  from  evil  thoughts.  .  .  . 
They  are  brought,  day  by  day,  to  look  forward  to  a 
better  future,  and,  through  habit  and  the  stimulus  of 
gain  (for  thev  are  allowed  a  liberal  share  in  the  prod- 
uct of  their  toil),  they  naturally  acquire  a  love  of 
labor.  Physically  they  cannot  but  improve,  for  they 
have  constant  exercise  in  the  open  air."  The  Italian 
administration  lays  great  stress  upon  the  education  of 
her  criminals,  particularly  those  of  tender  years.  In 
•  each  penitentiary  there  is  a  school,  and  the  greatest 
possible  number  of  inmates  is  admitted  to  it,  the 
youngest  having  preference.  Each  prison  has  a  library 
.also.  In  the  houses  of  detention  and  reformatories  the 
course  of  instruction  embraces  a  wide  range  of  sub- 
jects, including  music,  agriculture,  and  a  foreign 
language.  A  school  for  the  professional  education  of 
prisonkeepers  has  been  established  at  Rome — a  sort  of 
normal  penitentiary  college— having  accommodations 
for  between  200  and  300  inmates. 

RUSSIA. 

The  history  of  Russia  begins  properly  with  the  year 
.862,  A.  D.,  in  which  Rurik  the  Great,  at  the  head  of  his 
Varangians,  founded  the  empire  in  Novgorod. 

For  the  first  century  and  a  half  the  empire  was 
without  a  written  code  of  laws,  and  it  was  not  until 
about  the  year  1018  that  Yaroslaf  framed  the  first  code, 
and  this  was  originally  prepared  for  Novgorod  alone. 

Under  the  code  of  Yaroslaf  "  perpetual  slavery,  ex- 
tending to  their  posterity,  was  the  lot  of  all  prisoners 
•of  war  and  of  all  persons  bought  from  foreigners ; 
slavery  for  a  limited  period  was  the  portion  of  those 
who  sold  themselves,  of  insolvent  debtors,  freemen 
-who,  without  conditions,  married  a  slave,  servants  out 
of  employment,  hired  servants  who  did  not  fulfil  their 
engagements,  in  a  word,  all  the  weak  who  made  them- 
selves the  slaves  of  the  strong  to  obtain  subsistence 
and  protection." 

This  bondage,  however,  whether  perpetual  or  tem- 
porary, was  not,  except  perhaps  incidentally,  the  pun- 
ishment of  crime,  but  rather  of  misfortune. 

The  code  of  Yaroslaf,  tho  amended  and  changed  by 
various  rulers,  notably  by  Vladimir  II.,  continued  in 
force  until  the  promulgation  of  that  of  Ivan  III.  (the 
Great),  who  reigned  from  1462  to  1505.  Of  this  new 
code,  Segur  says : 

"  Single  combat  decides  upon  the  majority  of  crimi- 
nal offenses  ;  in  cases  of  suspicion,  where  reputation  is 
not  spotless,  torture  is  called  in  to  enlighten  justice. 

"The  penalties  of  Ivan's  code  are  confiscation,  the 
knout,  slavery,  and  death." 

This  code  remained  in  force  until  about  1556,  during 
the  reign  of  Ivan  the  Terrible,  when  a  new  code  was 
established.  Under  this,  as  well  as  under  the  earlier 
code  of  Yaroslaf,  fines  were  the  punishment  allotted 
for  the  majority  of  crimes.  The  code  of  Ivan  the 
Terrible  remained  in  force  until  the  accession  of  Alexis, 
•who  reigned  from  1645  to  1676.  In  1650  he  framed  a  new 
code  which  became  known  as  the  Ulagenia. 

This  code  continued  the  law  until  the  reign  of  Peter 
the  Great,  who  prepared  new  laws  much  more  in  ac- 
cordance with  the  spirit  and  genius  of  European  legis- 
lation (1720). 

"  In  criminal  cases  he  still  employed  torture,  tho 
with  mitigation.  He.  punished  various  crimes  by 
sending  the  guilty  to  labor  on  the  public  works  or  the 


galleys.  Those  condemned  to  such  punishment  had 
their  nostrils  slit." 

It  is  stated  that  in  1598  Boris  Godunof  commuted  the 
sentences  of  all  capital  offenders  to  exile  to  Siberia, 
but  as  nothing  is  said  about  the  terms  of  their  banish- 
ment, it  cannot  be  determined  whether  they  were  made 
to  labor  in  the  mines  which  were  then  being  opened. 

This  was  the  beginning  of  the  Siberian  system.  Un- 
der Elizabeth  (1709-62)  great  numbers  were  sent  to 
Siberia  ;  under  Catharine  II.,  still  more  were  sent, 
tho  the  visit  of  John  Howard  to  Russia  induced  the 
empress  to  introduce  some  reforms.  In  1877  a  special 
commission  was  created  to  examine  the  draft  of  a 
new  scale  of  punishments  prepared  by  the  ministry. 
The  commission  reported  favorably  upon  the  pro- 
posed scale  of  penalties  in  which  "  the  death  penalty 
is  retained  only  in  the  case  of  crimes  against  the  safety 
of  the  State  and  the  person  of  the  emperor.  Properly 
speaking,  therefore,  banishment  to  Siberia,  coupled 
with  hard  labor  (Jravaux  fprcds\  occupies  the  first 
place  among  Russian  penalties.  By  the  existing  code 
this  penalty  is  for  life,  or  a  maximum  term  of  20  years  ; 
by  the  draft  (projet)  of  the  commission  it  is  for  life,  or 
a  maximum  term  of  15  years. 

"Moreover,  the  commission  is  in  favor  of  the  abso- 
lute abolishment  of  simple  banishment  to  Siberia,  that 
is,  without  the  addition  of  hard  labor  ;  it  would  have 
this  species  of  banishment  replaced  by  imprisonment 
in  some  form." 

"  Deportation  to  Siberia,  begun  in  1591,"  M.  de  Grot 
says,  "  was  principally  used  for  political  prisoners, 
insurgents,  religious  dissenters,  and  conspirators. 
Large  numbers  of  Poles  were  exiled  in  1758  ;  others 
again  in  1830  ;  and  now,  since  the  nihilist 
movement,  numbers  of  these  implacable 
foes  to  the  existing  regime  are  regularly  Rjvor,'Q 
dispatched  to  Siberia.  The  total  num-  Dioeria. 
ber  deported  varies  from  17,000  to  20,000 
per  annum,  but  this  includes  wives  and 
children  who  may  elect  to  accompany  the  exiles.  The 
sentences  are  of  two  kinds,  (i)  the  loss  of  all  rights  and 
(2)  the  loss  of  particular  rights.  The  first  "includes 
degradation,  the  rupture  of  the  marriage  tie,  inability 
to  sign  legal  documents,  to  hold  property,  or  to  give  a 
bond.  The  exile  must  wear  prison  dress  and  have  his 
head  half-shaved.  He  may  be  flogged,  and  if  murdered 
would  not  be  much  missed.  After  a  lengthened  period 
of  probation  in  prison  the  exile  becomes  a  colonist, 
and  may  work  on  his  own  account.  Those  sentenced 
to  the  loss  of  particular  rights  are  only  compelled  to 
live  in  Siberia,  where  they  may  get  their  living  as  they 
can.  Many,  however,  are  condemned  to  spend  a  por- 
tion of  their  time  in  confinement,  but  without  hard 
labor.  The  exiles  are  sent  from  all  parts  of  the  empire 
by  rail  or  river  to  Ekaterinburg,  and  thence  to  Tiumen, 
whence  they  are  distributed  through  Siberia.  Those 
deprived  of  partial  rights  are  generally  located  in 
western  Siberia.  Those  deprived  of  all  rights  go  on 
to  eastern  Siberia.  The  latter  go  by  river  generally 
to  Tomsk  ;  thence  they  walk  to  their  ultimate  resting 
place,  which  may  be  Irkutsk  or  Yakutsk  or  Tchita,  or 
the  island  of  Saghalien,  and  the  journey  may  occupy 
months.  Not  long  ago  a  party  of  convicts  was  dis- 
patched by  sea  to  the  last-named  destination,  embark- 
ing at  Odessa,  and  traveling  through  the  Suez  Canal 
and  by  the  Pacific  Ocean. 

"  There  are  several  hundred  prisons  in  Siberia. 
They  are  of  three  kinds  :  (i)  the  etape,  which  afford 
temporary  lodgings  for  prisoners  on  the  line  of  march  ; 
(2)  the  prislynie,  where  the  detention  is  often  for  sev- 
eral months  during  the  winter,  or  until  the  ice  is 
broken  up ;  and  (3)  the  ostrog,  the  generic  Russian 
name  for  a  prison,  which  is  the  place  of  durance  for 
all  exiles  not  on  their  own  resources.  Few  of  the  large 
prisons  in  Siberia  were  built  for  the  purpose.  They 
are  converted  buildings— old  factories,  distilleries, 
etc.  They  are  all  upon  the  associate  principle,  con- 
taining a  number  of  large  rooms  to  accommodate  any 
number  from  25  to  100.  The  great  central  prison 
near  Irkutsk,  called  the  Alexandreffsky,  one  of  the 
most  important  in  Siberia,  generally  holds  from  1600 
to  2000  prisoners,  all  under  sentence  of  hard  labor  and 
awaiting  transfer  to  the  mines.  Dr.  Lansdell,  who 
visited  this  prison  in  1870,  found  the  prisoners  very 
short  of  work.  Some  were  engaged  in  making 
cigarette  papers,  others  in  shoemaking  and  brick- 
making.  The  prison  is  a  huge  stone-built  building, 
very  different  from  the  ordinary  run  of  Siberian 
prisons,  which  are  usually  built  or  logs,  calked  with 
moss  to  keep  out  the  cold.  They  are  surrounded  by 
a  high  -wooden  palisade.  Each  prison  has  its  hospital, 
chapel,  generally  a  schoolroom,  and  a  few  work- 


Penology. 


993 


Penology. 


shops.  The  prisoners  themselves  are  not  unkindly 
treated. 

"  At  most  of  the  stations  there  are  local  committees 
to  watch  over  the  welfare  of  the  prisoners.  This  is  an 
extension  of  the  Imperial  Society  of  St.  Petersburg. 
....  The  committees  supply  books  and  visit  the 
prisoners.  They  clothe  and  educate  the  prisoners' 
children  and  help  their  wives  to  employment.  They 
also  augment  the  prisoners'  diet  from  funds  obtained 
by  subscription.  The  regulation  rations  of  Siberian 
•exiles  seem  very  liberal. 

"The  Russian  prisoner  has  nearly  twice  the  amount 
of  solid  food  that  an  English  prisoner  receives,  and  he 
is  at  liberty  to  add  to  his  diet  out  of  his  own  means, 
which  the  English  prisoner  is  not.  The  prisoners  are 
also  supplied  with  ample  clothing,  if  they  have  none 
of  their  own  ;  those  sentenced  to  deprivation  of  all 
rights  being  obliged  to  wear  convict  dress.  The  dis- 
cipline of  the  prisons  is  now  in  accordance  with 
European  ideas.  Prison  offenses  are  punished  by 
relegation  to  a  solitary  cell,  a  certain  number  of  which 
•exist  at  all  the  prisons.  Diminutions  of  diet  are  also 
inflicted,  and  an  obligation  to  wear  irons  if  they  are 
not  already  worn.  All  exiles  wear  leg-irons  for  a  cer- 
tain time.  These  are  riveted  on  to  the  ankles,  and 
caught  by  a  chain  which  is  carried  suspended  to  a  belt 
around  the  waist. 

"The  irons  are  worn  for  various  periods— from  18 
months  to  four  and  even  eight  years.  Very  heinous 
offenders,  or  those  who  have  escaped  frequently,  are 
chained  to  a  wheelbarrow,  which  they  are  obliged  to 
pull  about  with  them  wherever  they  go.  A  more 
severe  punishment,  when  confinement  and  irons  fail, 
is  birching  with  a  rod,  for  the  knout  is  now  abolished. 
The  rod  consists  of  switches  so  small  that  three  may 
be  passed  together  into  the  muzzle  of  a  musket.  The 
punishment  is  described  as  not  more  severe  than  that 
inflicted  at  English  public  schools.  There  is  another 
flagellator,  however,  called  the  plete,  a  whip  of  twisted 
hide,  which  is  still  retained  at  a  few  of  the  most  dis- 
tant Siberian  prisons  and  only  for  the  most  incorrigi- 
ble, on  whom  irons,  the  birch,  and  other  punishments 
have  had  no  effect.  The  costliness  of  deportation  is 
enormous  and  the  results  it  obtains  doubtful.  The  slow 
colonization  of  this  vast  territory  may  follow  even- 
tually, but  there  are  already  great  difficulties  in  find- 
ing employment  for  the  mass  of  labor  in  the  Govern- 
ment's hands.  The  mines  of  gold,  silver,  and  coal  are 
passing  into  private  hands,  and  there  are  no  other 
public  works.  Hence,  part  of  the  Russian  criminals 
who  would  have  gone  to  Siberia  are  detained  in  the 
large  prisons  in  Russia,  where  they  are  employed  in 
manufactories  or  in  the  labors  of  ordinary  mechanics, 
or  any  out-door  work,  such  as  making  brick,  mending 
roads,  and  manufacturing  salt.  Nevertheless,  recent 
visitors  to  Russian  prisons,  whether  in  Russia  proper 
or  in  the  heart  of  Siberia,  describe  the  prisoners  as 
generally  idle." 

THE   UNITED  STATES. 

Most  of  the  early  voluntary  settlers  in  America 
were  men  of  a  type  seldom  found  in  a  convict's  cell ; 
but  the  British  Government  bountifully  supplied  any 
lack  in  this  respect  by  sending  over  her  superfluous 
convicts,  and  thus  created  for  us  a  criminal  class. 

Beginning  in  1619  by  the  shipment  of  100  convicts  to 
Virginia,  England  continued  until  about  1776,  the 

Eractise  of  periodically  sending  the  offscourings  of 
er  jails  to  the  American  colonies,  despite  the  earnest 
and  vigorous  protests  of  our  forefathers.  These  con- 
victs were  transported  by  the  British  Government  for 
crimes  committed  in  the  mother  country,  and  were 
sold  to  planters  for  terms  of  seven  or  fourteen  years, 
after  the  expiration  of  which  time  they  might  become 
freemen  and  acquire  all  the  rights  of  citizenship. 

All  through  the  history  of  the  Colonies  down  to  the 
time  of  their  revolt  they  had  a  distinct  convict  class 
among  them,  undergoing  the  punishment  of  servile 
labor  under  sentence  of  the  courts  of  the  mother 
country. 

After  the  year  1718  the  business  of  transporting  con- 
victs was  systematically  conducted  by  the  British 
Government,  as  many  as  2000  convicts  being  annually 
sent  to  America  for  a  number  of  years.  The  intro- 
duction of  all  these  "  jail-birds,"  as  a  matter  of  course, 
increased  the  necessity  for  prisons  and  punishments 
in  the  Colonies,  and  we  find  that  many  of  the  early 
colonial  laws  were  framed  to  control  and  punish  these 
•"  servants  criminals,"  as  they  are  termed  in  one  of  the 
Maryland  statutes. 

On  November  3,  1643,  Samuel  Gorton  and  six  others 
who  held  peculiar  views  of  the  religious  and  civil 
•duties  of  individuals  were  convicted  of  blasphemy  at 

63 


Boston,  Mass.,  and  were  thereupon  sentenced  to  be 
confined  at  hard  labor  in  irons  in  as  many  different 
towns. 

In  October,  1656,  a  law  was  passed  in 
the  colony  of  Massachusetts  Bay  pro-         Earlv 
viding  that  Quakers  coming  into  the       _     . 
colony  be  "  forthwith  committed  to  the       Systems. 
house  of  correction,   and  at  their  en- 
trance to  be  severely  whipped,  and  by 
the  master  thereof  to  be  kept  constantly  at  work,  and 
none  suffered  to  converse  or  speak  with  them  during 
the  time  of  their  imprisonment." 

The  laws  agreed  upon  in  England  for  the  govern- 
ment of  the  colony  of  Pennsylvania  (having  been 
signed  by  the  Governor  and  Provincial  Council  of  the 
colony  May  5,  1682)  contained  the  following  provision  : 

"  Tenth.  That  all  prisons  shall  be  workhouses  for 
felons,  vagrants,  and:  loose  and  idle  persons  ;  whereof 
one  shall  be  in  every  county." 

This  law  clearly  indicates  the  intention  of  the 
founder  of  the  colony  of  Pennsylvania  to  establish 
labor  as  a  penalty  for  crime,  but  we  find  that,  although 
these  laws  remained  nominally  in  force,  they  were  not 
immediately  put' into  execution. 

In  Connecticut,  in  1773,  an  act  was  passed  establish- 
ing the  "  Newgate  "  as  a  permanent  prison.  This 
Newgate  prison  was,  in  reality,  an  old  copper  mine  in 
the  present  town  of  East  Granby,  Conn.,  and  was  for- 
merly known  as  the  Simsbury  copper  mines,  having 
been  first  worked  by  a  company  in  1709. 

This  prison  is  described  as  being  a  terrible  place  in 
the  early  days.  A  historian,  speaking  of  it,  says : 

"  The  only  entrance  to  it  was  by  means  of  a  ladder 
down  a  shaft  which  led  to  the  caverns  underground. 
There,  in  little  pens  of  wood,  from  30  to  too  culprits 
were  immured,  their  feet  made  fast  to  iron  bars  and 
their  necks  chained  to  beams  in  the  roof.  .  .  .  The 
Newgate  prison  was,  perhaps,  the  worst  in  the 
country,  yet  in  every  county  were  jails  such  as  would 
now  be  thought  unfit  places  of  habitation  for  the 
vilest  and  most  loathsome  of  beasts." 

In  1780  the  Newgate  was  used  for  the  confinement  of 
criminals,  who,  it  is  said,  were  chiefly  employed  in 
making  wrought  nails.  It  was  also  used  during  the 
Revolutionary  struggle  for  the  confinement  of  Tory 
prisoners.  It'was  not  until  1790  that  it  was  established 
as  a  State  prison. 

The  Newgate  continued  to  be  used  as  a  State  prison 
until  the  erection  of  the  new  prison  at  Wethersfield  in 
1827.  In  1802,  however,  new  prison  buildings  were 
erected  on  the  old  site,  and  these  included  workshops 
for  the  employment  of  the  convicts.  The  Wethers- 
field  prison,  which  took  the  place  of  the  Newgate,  had 
productive  labor  in  it  from  the  time  it  was  opened  for 
the  reception  of  convicts,  but  at  that  date  enormous 
strides  had  been  made  in  prison  discipline  in  all  the 
States,  and  the  modern  penitentiary  system  was  an 
accomplished  fact. 

In  Pennsylvania  one  of  the  earliest  measures  after 
the  close  of  the  Revolution  was  in  the  direction  of 
reforming  the  penal  code,  and  in  1786  an  act  was 
passed  providing  that  certain  crimes,  which  until 
then  had  been  capitally  punished,  should  thereafter 
be  punished  by  labor,  "  publicly  and  disgracefully 
imposed." 

Under  this  law  the  convicts  were  employed  in  clean- 
ing streets,  repairing  roads,  etc.,  their  heads  were 
shaved,  and  they  were  clothed  in  a  coarse  uniform. 

The  concurrent  testimony  of  all,  however,  is  to  the 
effect  that  the  result  of  this  movement  was  to  increase 
crime  and  to  degrade  the  criminal,  whose  shame  at 
this  public  exposure  soon  hardened  into  sullen  resent- 
ment and  impotent  rage.  The  legislature,  upon  wit- 
nessing the  disastrous  effects  of  this  system  upon  the 
criminal  and  upon  society,  attempted  its  reform  with 
great  vigor.  "The  acts  of  1789,  1790,  1791,  1794,  and 
1795  prove  the  anxiety  to  correct  mistakes  and  estab- 
lish a  system  of  punishments  which  should  combine 
severity  and  certainty  with  humanity,  and,  by  remov- 
ing public  disgrace  and  the  temptations  to  excess, 
leave  room  for  the  possible  entrance  of  reformation." 

By  the  acts  of  April  22,  1794.  and  April  18,  1795,  the 
system  of  solitary  confinement  at  hard  labor  was 
established,  which  still,  though  modified  by  modern 
legislation,  remains  the  basis  of  the  present  system. 
The  present  prisons  of  the  Union  may  be  classed  into 
d)  State  prisons,  (2)  district  prisons,  (3)  county  pris- 
ons. (4)  municipal  or  city  prisons.  Each  State,  as 
a  rule,  has  its  own  State  prison,  but  Pennsylvania  and 
Indiana  have  two  and  New  York  three.  The  cellular 
system,  or  the  rule  of  continuous  separation,  was  at 
first  followed  by  several  States,  but  gradually  aban- 
doned in  favor  of  the  so-called  silent  system,  or  that 


Penology. 


994 


Penology. 


Present 
Systems. 


of  labor  in  association  under  the  rule  of  silence,  with 
cellular  separation  at  night.  At  the  present  time 
there  is  but  one  prison,  the  Eastern  Penitentiary  of 
Philadelphia,  managed  on  the  purely  solitary  plan. 

Concerning  the  employment  of  the  convicts  there 
are  four  systems  in  vogue. 

The  contract  system  is  the  most  prevalent  in  the 
United  States  at  the  present  time.  Under  it  more 
convicts  are  employed  and  more  goods 
manufactured  than  under  any  other. 
In  its  practical  working  the  prison  offi- 
cers, under  legal  instruction,  usually 
advertise  for  bids  for  the  employment 
of  the  convicts  of  their  respective 
institutions,  the  highest  responsible 
bidder  securing  the  contract.  The  contractor  com- 
monly engages  to  employ  a  certain  number  of  con- 
victs at  a  certain  price  per  day,  the  institution  or  the 
State  furnishing  power,  and  sometimes  machinery, 
but  rarely  tools ;  the  convicts  to  be  employed,  as 
a  general  thing,  within  the  walls  of  the  prison. 

The  advantages  of  the  contract  system  are  great, 
when  pecuniary  results  are  the  chief  ends  sought. 
The  returns  or  income  constitute  65  per  cent,  of  the 
running  expenses,  taking  those  institutions  in  the 
country  that  are  run  under  this  system  purely.  The 
contract  system  secures  the  constant  employment 
of  convicts,  as  the  contractor  engages  to  keep  em- 
ployed the  number  of  prisoners  specified  in  his  con- 
tract. 

It  is  usually  claimed  by  those  who  believe  the  con- 
tract system  is  the  best  that  can  be  adopted  that  suffi- 
cient reformatory  efforts  can  be  put  forth  under  it. 
They  claim  that  the  contractor's  men,  instructors, 
and  foremen  are  as  thoroughly  responsible  to  the 
State  as  if  they  were  employees  of  the  State.  The 
chief  advantages,  in  brief,  however,  are  the  constant 
employment  of  the  convicts,  the  best  remunerative 
results,  and  the  avoidance  of  business  risk  on  the  part 
of  the  State. 

The  disadvantages  of  the  contract  system,  as 
claimed  by  those  who  oppose  it,  and  as  shown  to 
a  greater  or  less  extent  by  the  facts  brought  out,  are 
as  numerous  as  the  advantages,  and  more  specific.  In 
the  nature  of  things,  if  the  contract  system  results  in 
securing  a  greater  reward  to  the  State  than  any  other 
except  the  lease,  the  competition  must  be  greater  than 
under  others,  and  this  competition  does  exist  to  a 
large  extent. 

The  simple  fact  that  67.8  per  cent  of  the  provision 
cooperage  used  in  Chicago  is  manufactured  in  prisons, 
by  contractors  who  pay  no  rent,  no  insurance  on  build- 
ings, and  no  taxes  on  realty,  and  hire  men  at  from  45 
to  62}^  cents  a  day,  renders  every  other  fact  here 
shown  as  to  the  decline  of  the  business  in  Chicago,  the 
falling  off  in  the  market  price,  the  reduction  of  wages, 
and  the  consequent  reduction  of  skilled  coopers  to 
the  rank  of  day  laborers  inevitable  without  other 
demonstration. 

If  the  competition  is  severe  in  any  industry  and  in 
any  locality,  the  contract  system  is,  in  so  far,  con- 
demned. The  material  competition  is  aggravated  by 
the  moral  aspect  of  the  case.  Working  men  feel  ag- 
grieved that  contractors  should  be  able  to  employ 
labor  at  a  few  cents  per  day,  ranging  perhaps  from  20 
to  60  cents  for  long-term  men,  and  that  the  contractor, 
as  an  individual,  should  have  the  advantage,  under 
the  patronage  of  the  State,  of  securing  gains  to  him- 
self. They  feel  that  it  is  an  affront  to  them,  not  only 
as  wage-receivers,  but  as  contributors  to  the  general 
wealth  through  their  producing  capacity.  (See  CON- 
VICT LABOR.) 

The  piece-price  system  is  simply  a  modification  of 
the  contract  system,  the  contractor  having  nothing 
whatever  to  do  with  the  convicts.  Under  the  terms 
of  the  contract  he  agrees  to  furnish  the  prison  officers 
with  material  ready  for  manufacturing,  and  the 

Erison  officers  agree  to  return  the  completed  work, 
ar  which  the  Government  receives  a  certain  agreed 
price  per  piece.  The  advantages  of  this  system  are 
that  the  contractor's  men  have  no  position  in  the 
prison,  and  every  effort  for  reformation  is  left  un- 
trammeled  by  outside  influences.  This  system,  in 
a  large  degree,  satisfies  the  prison  reformer,  but  does 
not  satisfy  the  manufacturers  and  working  men  them- 
selves ;  for  while  no  aggravation  arises  on  account  of 
wages  per  day,  whatever  competition  grows  out  of  the 
contract  system,  so  far  as  sales  and  tne  price  of  goods 
in  the  market  are  concerned,  results  from  the  piece- 
price  plan.  Its  chief  advantage  is  that  it  removes  the 
objection  against  the  ordinary  contract  system  as 
regards  reformatory  efforts.  Its  disadvantages  other- 
wise are  quite  as  prominent  as  in  the  old  system. 


The  report  of  the  Labor  Bureau  calls  the  public- 
account  system  the  ideal  system  of  prison  reformers,, 
working  men,  manufacturers,  and  legis- 
lators,   as    a    rule.     The    advantages 
claimed  for  it  are,  that  whatever  profit    The  Public- 
is  made  in  labor  and  in  sales  goes  to  the 
State ;   that  no  individual  secures  any       account 
advantages  in  the  production  of  goods       System, 
not  accorded  to  all  manufacturers,  and 
that   the  convict  works  under  it  with 
better  spirit,  because  he  knows  his  labor  is  for  the 
State  which  he  has   offended,    and  not    for  the  pe- 
cuniary benefit  of  any  single  individual  or  concern. 
The  penologist  likes  it  because   prisons  are  placed 
under  State  control  entirely  and  all  the  foremen  and 
instructors  are  officers  of  the  State.    The  State  so- 
cialist   advocates   this   system    because  it   gives  an 
instance  of  the  State's  management  of  industries,  and 
adds,  if  successful,  an  argument  to  his  claim  that  all 
industries  and  business  enterprises  should  be    con- 
ducted   by    the  State.    The    system    offers  the    best 
opportunities  for  reformatory  efforts. 

To  be  successful,  or  partially  so,  financially,  the  pub- 
lic-account system  must  be  carried  on  with  power 
machinery  as  an  adjunct  of  the  labor  of  the  convicts, 
the  same  as  in  the  contract  system.  The  results  pecu- 
niarily, wherever  the  system  is  in  vogue,  are  quite 
satisfactory  to  its  adherents,  and,  as  has  been  shown, 
its  labor  income  meets  32  per  cent,  of  the  running 
expenses  of  those  institutions  carried  on  under  it. 
The  chief  advantage  of  the  system  is  that  the  price  of 
free  labor  is  not  affected. 

The  disadvantages  of  the  public-account  system, 
especially  when  power  machinery  is  employed,  are 
great.  It  is  claimed  by  those  who  oppose  the  system 
that  it  is  impossible  to  secure  men  efficient  as  wardens 
and  at  the  same  time  efficient  as  practical  manufac- 
turers, and  that,  as  the  industries  of  a  prison  con- 
ducfed  on  the  public-account  system  are  diversified, 
as  it  is  usually  claimed  that  they  should  be,  the 
difficulty  grows  greater  and  greater.  Perhaps  the- 
greatest  disadvantage  of  the  system,  however,  is  that 
it  competes  or  can  compete  with  honest  labor  more 
than  any  other  system.  The  State  can,  if  it  choose, 
sell  without  making  any  profit  whatever. 

Another  great  disadvantage  growing  out  of  the 
adoption  of  the  public-account  system  is  that  prisoners 
would  have  to  be  laid  off  in  dull  times,  or  else  "the 
prison  accumulate  its  goods.  If  the  constant  employ- 
ment of  convicts  is  essential  to  their  well-being,  this 
system  does  not  provide  it. 

The  scandals  which  have  arisen  in  some  States  in  the 
past  under  the  public-account  system,  through  the 
maladministration  of  wardens  in  a  business  way,  ought 
not,  however,  to  be  used  as  an  argument  against  the 
system,  because  the  State  Government  conducting  the 
prisons  should  be  responsible  for  the  employment  of 
men  of  integrity. 

The  old  lease  system  of  employing  convicts  consists- 
in  the  State  leasing  all  convicts  or  a  certain  number  to- 
a  lessee  or  contractor  for  a  round  sum  to  be  paid,  the 
lessee  meeting  all  expenses  of  manage- 
ment, care,  protection,  guarding,  etc., 
connected  with  the  employment  of  the    TVie  Tenon 
prisoners.     If  a  State  should  lease  all     A"e  . 
who  may  be  convicted  of  crime  to  a  con-       System. 
tractor  under  this  system  for  $20,000  per 
annum,  this  practically  ends  the  interest 
of  the  State,  and  it  secures  a  profit  of  $20,000,  less  per- 
haps the  salary  of  a  superintendent,  and  one  or  two 
other  officials,  it  being  at  no  expense  to  maintain  a 
prison  in  any  form,  the  contractor  employing  the  con- 
victs within  the  State  in  any  way  he  sees  fit,  so  long 
as  he  conforms  to  law  and  the  terms  of  his  contract. 
The  great  advantage  of  the  system,  therefore,  lies  in 
the  fact  that  the  State  has  no  care  beyond  the  receipt 
of  the  amount  stated  in  the  lease.    This  system,  there- 
fore, is  the  most  remunerative  of  any  in  vogue,  its  pro- 
ceeds constituting  372  per  cent.,  taking  all  States  to- 
gether that  work   under  the  system,  of  its  running- 
expenses.    Its  advocates  are    few.    They  claim  that 
the  system,  in  the  States  where  adopted,  is  the  best  for 
the  class  of  persons  as  a  rule  coming  under  it,  they 
being  mostly  men  used  to  outdoor  life,  and  as  this 
system  prevails  largely  in  the  warmer  portions  of  the 
country,  the  prisoners  can  be  kept  in  stockades  and 
open  prisons,  with  better  results  as  to  health  and  com- 
fort than  could  be  reached  for  the  same  class  within 
prison  walls,  as  is  the  rule  in  the  Northern   States. 
This  may  be  temporarily  true,  but  the  disadvantages 
of  the  system  are  so  great  that  the  advantages  are 
overshadowed.    The  contractor  or  lessee  becomes  the 
agent  of  the  most  active  competition.     He  may  secure 


Penology. 


995 


Penology. 


the  labor  of  a.  thousand  prisoners  for  a  year  for  the 
sum  of  $20,000,  this  expense  to  him  being  increased  by 
the  cost  of  maintenance,  etc.  ;  in  some  cases  the  ex- 
pense of  guarding  alone  becomes  enormous,  so  much 
so  that  perhaps  the  escape  of  a  prisoner  or  his  death 
is  cheaper  than  the  expense  of  guarding  him.  This, 
however,  is  the  exception.  Fortunately  for  free  labor, 
the  lease  system  is  employed  in  localities  where  but 
little  competition  arises ;  but  this  advantage  grows 
less  and  less  as  the  mechanical  industries  of  the  States 
where  it  prevails  become  more  fhoroughly  developed, 
as  the  recent  strikes  against  this  terrible  system  have 
shown. 

EVILS. 

Concerning  the  evils  of  the  present  penal  systems  of 
the  United  States,  Governor  Altgeld  says  in  his  Live 
Questions,  from  which  we  largely  quote  in  this  por- 
tion of  our  article  (p.  308)  : 

"  No  man  can  examine  the  great  penal  system  of  this 
country  without  being  astounded  at  its  magnitude,  its 
cost,  and  its  unsatisfactory  results.  There  are  in  the 
United  States  upward  of  2200  county  jails,  several 
hundred  lock-ups,  or  police  stations,  between  50  and 
60  penitentiaries,  with  workshops,  machinery,  etc. 
The  first  cost  of  the  erection  of  all  these  buildings  and 
shops  has  been  estimated  at  upward  of  $500,000,000, 
which  is  dead  capital— the  interest,  at  5  per  cent.,  upon 
which  sum  alone  would  annually  amount  to  $25,000,000. 
To  this  must  be  added  the  sums  annually  appropriated 
out  of  the  treasury  to  feed  the  prisoners,  pay  the  offi- 
cers, judicial  and  executive,  and  keep  up  and  maintain 
all  these  institutions,  which  sums  have  been  estimated 
at  upward  of  $50,000,000,  to  say  nothing  of  the  costs 
paid  by  the  accused ;  there  are,  in  addition  to  the 
many  thousands  of  policemen  and  detectives,  about 
70,000  constables  in  this  country,  and  about  as  many 
magistrates.  There  are  upward  of  2200  sheriffs,  and 
in  the  neighborhood  of  12,000  deputy-sheriffs.  Then 
come  the  grand  juries,  petit  juries,  judges,  and  law- 
yers; next  the  keepers  and  their  numerous  assistants 
for  all  these  prisons.  On  the  whole,  there  are  about 
a  million  of  men  partly  or  wholly  supporting  them- 
selves and  their  familie's  from  this  source." 

Among  the  charges  that  Governor  Altgeld  brings 
against  the  present  prison  system  are  :  First,  that 
many  are  imprisoned,  before  trial  and  after,  and  thus 
brought  into  contact  with  the  criminal  atmosphere, 
•who  ought  not  to  have  been  imprisoned  at  all,  and 
who,  had  they  been  differently  treated,  might  have 
made  good  citizens. 

He  says  (idem,  p.  268) : 

"Young  men  and  boys,  and  even  girls,  accused  of 
violating  some  city  ordinance  are  treated  by  the  police 
and  the  police  magistrates,  in  the  first  instance,  in  the 
same  manner  as  the  hardened  criminal.  They  are 
arrested,  not  infrequently  clubbed,  sometimes  hand- 
cuffed, marched  through  the  streets  in  charge  of  an 
officer  to  the  station,  which  in  many  cases  is  worse 
than  a  jail,  where  a  full  description  of  each  is  written 
down  opposite  their  respective  names,  and  then  they 
are  required  to  give  bail  for  their  appearance  at  some 
time  in  the  future  when  the  magistrate  can  hear  their 
case.  If  they  cannot  furnish  the  bond  instantly — and 
generally  they  cannot— they  are  shoved  into  a  cell,  and 
frequently  occupy  the  same  cell  for  a  night,  and  some- 
times for  a  week,  with  the  most  desperate  of  criminals. 
The  station-keeper  is  not  to  blame  for  this,  for  the  law 
has  made  no  other  provision  and  left  no  alternative 
but  to  lock  them  up. 

"Attend  a  session  of  the  police  court  in  any  of  our 
large  cities,  on  almost  any  morning,  and  you  will  see 
on  the  sawdust  in  the  prisoners'  pen  a  miscellaneous 
crowd  of  human  beings  of  both  sexes,  ranging  from 
middle  life  down  to  tender  years,  nearly  all  from  the 
less  fortunate  class  in  life — poor,  more  or  less  ragged, 
with  misery  stamped  deep  into  their  faces,  weak,  with 
little  or  no  training,  no  steady  habits,  without  homes 
worthy  of  the  name,  and  raised  in  an  atmosphere  des- 
titute of  good  and  pregnant  with  vicious  influences. 
As  their  cases  are  called,  you  learn  that  about  one 
out  of  twelve  is  charged  with  a  serious  offense,  about 
five-twelfths  are  charged  with  minor  offenses,  but 
there  is  something  about  the  appearance  of  the  accused 
which  tells  you  they  have  made  this  round  before. 
The  remaining  half  are  also  charged  with  minor 
offenses,  such  as  drunkenness,  disorderliness,  etc., 
but  you  soon  become  satisfied  that  they  are  not  yet 
thoroughly  depraved  ;  that  while  they  may  have  vio- 
lated some  ordinance,  they  yet  have  the  stuff  in  them 
to  make  good  citizens,  if  given  a  little  better  chance  ; 
and.  as  you  look  at  them,  the  conviction  settles  in  your 
mind  that  it  was  unnecessary,  and  therefore  wrong,  to 


drag  them  in  and  corral  them  like  so  many  cattle,  and 
that  neither  they  nor  anybody  else  will  be  benefited  by 
such  treatment.  If  you  ask  the  magistrate  why  they 
were  thus  treated,  before  they  had  even  been  tried  to 
see  if  they  were  guilty,  he  will  tell  you  that  the  law 
required  this  ;  that  under  the  law  no  other  course  was 
open. 

"  You  sit  down  while  their  cases  are  heard,  and  to 
your  surprise  find  that  about  one-third  are  discharged 
by  the  magistrate  because  the  evidence  fails  to  show 
that  they  were  guilty  of  any  offense  whatever.  (The 
police  reports  show  that  nearly  one-third  of  all  that 
are  arrested  are  discharged  by  the  magistrate.)  Turn- 
ing then  to  those  not  discharged,  you  find  that  a  few, 
being  shown  to  be  probably  guilty  of  the  graver 
offenses,  are  bound  over  for  the  action  of  the  grand 
jury,  while  the  great  majority  are  shown  to  have  vio- 
lated some  ordinance,  and  are  fined  ;  and  as  the  fines 
are  not  paid  at  once  in  many  cases,  you  see  men, 
women,  and  often  children,  crowded  into  an  omnibus 
with  iron  grating  at  windows  and  door,  and  driven  to 
the  workhouse  or  to  the  bridewell  (which  may  prop- 
erly be  called  a  short-term  penitentiary)  to  work  out 
the  fine,  or,  in  the  absence  of  a  workhouse,  they  are 
led  back  to  jail  to  serve  out  the  fine  at  so  much  a  day." 

In  Chicago  in  1881,  of  32,800  arrested,  10,743  were  dis- 
charged by  the  police  magistrates,  to  say  nothing  of 
those  that  were  bound  over  to  the  grand  jury  and  then 
discharged.  Thus,  during  one  year,  there  were  in  that 
one  city  upward  of  10,000  young  persons,  who,  without 
having  committed  any  crime,  were  yet  condemned  to 
undergo  a  regular  criminal  experience. 

Second.  The  charge  is  made  that  present  prison  sys- 
tems do  not  distinguish  between  convicts  who  are 
guilty,  but  bundle  together  the  hardened  and  those 
who  have  committed  their  first  offense. 

Every  case  has  to  go  through  the  same  steps,  no 
matter  how  much  the  circumstances  may  differ  ;  the 
proceedings  must  be  the  same,  no  matter  how  trifling 
the  charge ;  the  accused  must  be  arrested,  must  then 
either  give  bond  or  be  locked  up  until  he  can  be  tried 
and  the  fact  ascertained  whether  he  is  even  guilty  of 
the  trifling  offense  charged  or  not,  and,  if  found 
guilty,  then,  no  matter  what  the  condition  of  the 
accused  may  be,  whether  old  or  young,  vicious  or 
merely  weak,  male  or  female,  there  is  but  one  course 
open,  and  this  for  all  alike ;  that  is,  to 
impose  a  fine,  and,  if  this  is  not  paid,  to  <j 

send  the  accused  to  the  jail  or  to  the    r-nAianr-j-nt 
bridewell. 

In  the  Fifth  Biennial  Report  of  the    mate  Treat- 
Michigan    State  Board  of  Corrections         ment. 
and  Charities,   1879-80,  the    subject   of 
"Inequality     of     Sentences"    is    thus 
considered  : 

"  In  Michigan,  during  the  year  ending  September  30, 
1877,  there  were  eight  convicts  sent  to  the  State  prison 
for  assault  with  intent  to  commit  murder — one  for 
45  years,  one  for  25  years,  one  for  15  years,  one  for 
9  years,  one  for  6  years,  one  for  5  years,  one  for  2 
years,  and  one  for  i  year. 

"  It  is  supposable  that  these  eight  men,  so  sentenced 
for  the  same  technical  offense,  may  have  been  seen  in 
prison  working  in  the  same  department,  eating  at  the 
same  table,  listening  to  the  same  prayers  in  the  chapel, 
with  occasional  opportunities  for  surreptitious  ex- 
change of  notes  as  to  their  respective  allotments  of 
justice  and  their  progress  in  reformation.  .  .  . 

"  This  inequality  of  sentences  runs  through  all  the 
courts.  Cases  like  this  (an  actual  case)  occur  some- 
where in  the  United  States  every  month  in  the  year. 
At  the  same  term  of  the  court,  a  bank-teller,  for  a 
theft  of  $500  from  his  employers  or  from  a  customer, 
is  released  on  a  nominal  or  suspended  sentence,  while 
a  boy  of  ij  is  sentenced  to  prison  for  three  years  for 
stealing  a  second-hand  suit  of  clothes  worth  less 
than  $20." 

Mr.  H.  M.  Boies  says  (Prisoners  and  Paupers,  p.  6): 

"Our  jails  are  conducted  as  public  schools  of  crime 
and  nurseries  of  criminals.  Into  them  our  constabu- 
lary and  courts  hustle  ravishers,  sodomites,  cor- 
rupters  of  youth,  murderers,  burglars,  thieves,  drunk- 
ards, prostitutes,  and  all  the  foul  members  of  society 
they  can  lay  hands  upon,  with  children  convicted  of 
petty  larcenies  or  of  incorrigibility.  with  detained 
witnesses  and  people  accused  of  misdemeanors  or 
crimes  not  tried.  Inside  the  walls,  comfortably  housed, 
clothed,  and  fed,  supplied  with  tobacco  and  cards, 
with  promiscuous  intercourse  permitted  during  a 
part,  if  not  all  the  day,  the  professional  criminal  and 
the  hardened  sinner  recount  their  adventures  to  an 
interested  audience,  and  delight  to  initiate  the  more 
ignorant  into  all  the  mysteries  of  iniquity.  Incarcera- 


Penology. 


996 


Penology. 


tion  here  has  no  deterrent  dread  for  the  'rounder,' 
while  the  erring  one,  confined  for  a  first  assault,  soon 
becomes  assimilated  to  his  companions,  and  joins  the 
ranks  of  crime.  Except  for  the  brief  period  that  the 
victims  are  restrained  of  their  freedom  of  action, 
our  jails  are  a  menace  rather  than  protection  to 
society." 

Third.  It  is  said  that  the  pole-star  of  the  present 
system  is  punishment,  whereas  the  protection  of 
society  should  be  its  sole  object,  and  as  punishment 
never  made  a  sincere  convert,  and  as  the  multitude  of 
first  offenders  comes  from  the  weaker  class,  they 
should  be  treated  rather  as  wards,  whom  it  may  be 
necessary  to  confine,  but  whom  it  is  yet  necessary  to 
train  and  educate,  if  possible,  into  good  citizens. 

Governor  Altgeld  says  (Live  Questions,  p.  190)  : 

"In  October,  1870,  there  was  held  at  Cincinnati,  O., 
a  National  Prison  Reform  Convention.  The  conven- 
tion was  composed  of  several  hundred 
members  from  all  parts  of  the  Union, 

Failure  to  anc^  was  presided  over  by  the  Governor 
_  ,  of  Ohio.  Being  largely  made  up  of  per- 

Keiorm.  sons  familiar  with  the  practical  manage- 
ment of  prisons  and  deeply  interested 
in  the  subject  of  prison  reform,  its  pro- 
ceedings were  distinguished  for  marked  ability.  As 
a  result  of  its  deliberations,  it  formulated  and  adopted, 
•with  almost  entire  unanimity,  a  declaration  of  princi- 
ples, 37  in  number,  of  which  the  sixth  is  so  apposite  to 
the  point  now  under  consideration  that  I  give  a  part 
of  it  here  : 

"  '  //  is  essential  to  a  reformatory  prison  treatment 
that  the  self-respect  of  the  prisoner  should  be  cultivated 
to  the  utmost  extent,  and  that  every  effort  be  made  to 
give  back  to  him  his  manhood.  Hence,  all  disciplinary 
punishment  that  inflicts  unnecessary  pain  or  humil- 
iation should  be  abolished  as  of  evil  influence.  .  .  . 
There  is  no  greater  mistake  in  the  whole  compass  of 
penal  discipline  than  its  studied  imposition  of  degra- 
dation as  a  part  of  punishment.  Such  imposition  de- 
stroys every  better  impulse  and  aspiration  ;  it  crushes 
the  weak,  irritates  the  strong,  and  indisposes  all  to 
submission  and  reform.  It  is  trampling'  where  we 
ought  to  raise,  and  is  therefore  as  unchristian  in  prin- 
ciple as  it  is  unwise  in  policy.'  " 

Mr.  Wines,  in  his  work  on  prisons,  says  (p.  201)  con- 
cerning the  cruel  treatment  of  prisoners : 

"  Cruel  treatment  was  once  generally  esteemed  the 
most  sure,  just,  and  only  fitting  method  of  penal  dis- 
cipline. But  the  period  is  well  passed  when  the  in- 
terior of  a  prison  is  to  be  the  arena  for  the  exercise  of 
brutalizing  forces  upon  erring  and  wicked  men.  The 
thought  and  action  of  the  present  have  emerged  from 
the  dark  shadows  of  the  last  century.  Surely,  all 
means  of  penal  control  which  are  severally  restrictive 
of  the  mental,  moral,  and  physical  good  of  the  con- 
victed criminal,  and  manifestly  tyrannical,  simply 
because  an  opportunity  is  afforded  or  created,  do  not 
conserve  the  high  purpose  of  calm,  helpful  justice. 
The  government  which  works  out  the  best  results  for 
its  subject  secures  therefrom  something  more  than 
a  machine-like  obedience.  Submission  to  rules,  and 
the  concurrence  in  an  enforced  task,  which  are  not 
beyond  reason,  can  be  secured  in  the  vast  majority  of 
cases,  in  well-regulated. prisons,  by  means  which  are 
at  hand  and  which  are  far  removed  from  cruelty1.  In 
so  doing,  the  prisoner's  self-control  is  evoked,  and 
habits  of  industry  acquired,  which  can  never  be 
brought  about  by  the  crushing  process  so  much 
lauded  by  conceited  and  inexperienced  prison 
reformers." 

Florian  J.  Ries,  inspector  of  the  house  of  correction 
of  Milwaukee,  in  the  management  of  which  he 
achieved  a  signal  success,  says,  in  his  report  for  1880  : 

"The  subject  of  reforming  convicts  is  One  that 
ought  to  be  entitled  to  the  verv  first  consideration  in 
the  management  of  a  prison.  The  idea  that  a  prison 
is  solely  an  institution  for  the  punishment  of  violators 
of  the  law  is  fast  becoming  obsolete,  and  one  more 
humane,  and  in  keeping  with  our  advanced  civiliza- 
tion, is  taking  its  place.  Experience  has  taught,  and 
humanity  demands,  that  the  discipline  of  a  prison  be 
directed  more  toward  the  moral  improvement  of  its 
inmates  than  to  punishment  or  to  torture." 

Fourth.  The  charge  is  made  that  at  present  our 
prisons  do  not,  as  a  rule,  reform  the  prisoners,  but 
turn  them  loose,  at  the  expiration  of  sentence,  in 
a  condition  which  soon  returns  a  great  per  cent,  of 
them  to  prison. 

Says  Governor  Altgeld  (idem,  p.  170)  : 

"In  the  Milwaukee  House  of  Correction  there  were 
committed,  during  the  year  ending  December  31,  1881, 
1420  prisoners  ;  of  these  58.52  per  cent,  were  committed 


for  the  first  time,  while  41.48  per  cent.,  or  less  than 
half,  had  been  imprisoned  before. 

"During  the  year  1882  there  were  committed  in  the 
Chicago  House  of  Correction, ,or  bridewell,  7566  pris- 
oners ;  of  these,  3923,  or  a  little  over  half,  admitted 
that  they  had  been  imprisoned  before. 

"These  two  institutions  may  be  taken  as  showing 
the  average  of  recommittals  in  similar  institutions 
throughout  the  country,  which  may  be  set  down  as 
50  per  cent.;  that  is,  one-half  of  all  imprisoned  admit 
that  they  have  been  in  prison  before. 

"But  it  must  be  remembered  that  all  those  im- 
prisoned because  of  inability  to  pay  a  fine  imposed  by 
some  police  magistrate,  as  well  as  those  convicted  of 
the  smaller  offenses  only,  are  sent  to  these  institu- 
tions ;  hence,  the  average  of  recommitals  is  much 
higher  than  in  the  other  prisons. 

"For  example,  in  the  Illinois  penitentiary  at  Joliet 
there  were  committed,  during  the  year  ending  Sep- 
tember 30,  1882,  747  convicts.  Of  these,  121,  or  16.20 
per  cent,  admitted  that  they  had  been  imprisoned  in 
the  penitentiary  before.  In  some  years  the  average  is 
higher.  It  varies  a  little  in  all  the  penitentiaries,  but 
in  many  it  is  25  per  cent.;  and  if  we  include  the 
Southern  States,  where  negroes  are  frequently  recom- 
mitted for  rather  trivial  offenses,  it  will  average  30  per 
cent.  No  doubt  a  great  many  are  recommitted  with- 
out the  knowledge  of  the  prison  officers,  and  conse- 
quently the  number  of  recommittals  really  exceeds 
the  above  estimate." 

Arthur  McDonald  (Criminology,  p.  157)  states  the 
recedivists  (relapsed  criminals)  condemned  by  court, 
to  have  been  in  Italy,  in  1882,  22  per  cent.;  in  France, 
in  1879,  50  per  cent.;  in  Belgium,  in  1869-71,  70  per  cent.; 
in  Prussia,  from  1871  to  1877,  from  74  to  84  per  cent.  In 
France,  of  1000  recedivists,  67  were  under  16  years  of 
age  ;  204  were  between  16  and  21  ;  284,  between  21  and 
30 ;  215,  between  30  and  40 ;  206,  between  40  and  60 ;  24 
over  60. 

Fifth.  Governor  Altgeld  asserts  that  there  are 
special  evils  concerning  the  arrest  of  women.  He 
says  (idem): 

It  appears  from  the  report  of  the  Superintendent 
of  Police  of  Chicago  that,  in  1882,  6835  women  were 
arrested  and  taken  to  the  police  prisons 
in  Chicago,  and  that,  during  that  year, 
1800  women  were  incarcerated  in   the       Women 
Chicago  House   of  Correction,  mostly     ._  . 
for  non-payment   of  fines   which   had     Prisoners, 
been    imposed.      Of    the    latter    num- 
ber, 359  were  reported  prostitutes,  871 
•were  servants,  114  were  launderers,  and  all  were  poor. 
Now,  can    any    good    come  of  thus  treating  unfor- 
tunate   women  ?     What    are    they    to    do   when    re- 
leased ?   Can  anybody  tell  ?   The  359  whom  the  officers 
call  prostitutes,  and  think  that  a  sufficient  accusation 
to  excuse  any  kind  of  treatment,  were  not  the  pe  ted 
children  of  sin— not  those  that  live  in  gilded  palaces 
and  dress  in  silks  and  satins,  for  these  are  rarely  dis- 
turbed—they were  the  poor,  unfortunate,  and  forlorn 
creatures  •who,  without  friends,  without  sympathy, 
without  money,  often  hungry,  and  without  sufficient 
clothing  to  protect  them  from  the  cold  winds,  wander 
out  on  the  streets,  not  so  much  wantonly  as  from 
necessity,  literally  trying  to    sell  their    souls  for  a 
morsel  of  bread,  dealing  in  shame,  not  from  choice, 
but    because    every  Christian    door  is    shut  against 
them,  because  there  is  no  place  where  they  can  work 
and  find  shelter.    Now,  in  what  condition  are  they 
when  they  have  gone  through  the  above  experience? 
What  are  they  to  do  when  again  set  at  liberty  ?    Ex- 
perience has  answered  this  a  hundred  times.    They 
return  to  their  old  ways,  because  there  is  nothing  else 
that  they  can  do  ;  the  only  difference  being  that  they 
have  become  more  degraded,  more  brutalized  by  the 
treatment  which  they  have  received,  and  from  which 
no  good  ever  has  or  ever  can  come." 

Sixth.  Concerning  the  evil  effect  of  convict  labor 
upon  free  labor,  see  CONVICT  LABOR.  But  there  are 
evil  effects,  as  the  system  is  at  present  usually 
managed,  upon  the  convict  himself.  Says  Governor 
Altgeld  : 

"  A  convict  has  no  interest  •whatever  in  his  work. 
It  does  him  no  good  to  do  a  large  amount  of  work  in 
a  day,  for  it  will  benefit  neither  him  nor  anyone  dear 
to  him.  Men  are  generally  impelled  to  work  by  a 
desire  to  benefit  themselves  or  those  dependent  upon 
or  dear  to  them.  But  the  convict  has  none  of  these 
incentives.  The  convict's  work  is  to  him  a  treadmill 
from  which  he  is  to  get  no  benefit.  He  goes  to  his 
task  because  forced  to  go  ;  works  only  while  forced. 

"  The  effect  is,  therefore,  to  make  a  man  a  slow 
workman,  and,  in  many  cases,  an  indifferent  and 


Penology. 


997 


Penology* 


careless  one  ;  and  in  time  these  habits  will  become 
natural,  especially  where  they  are  long  continued. 
Therefore,  instead  of  becoming  an  expert  and  skilled 
workman,  he  is  more  apt  to  become  a  slow  botcher, 
and  is  therefore  not  well  equipped  to  make  an  honest 
living  when  he  goes  free.  Nobody  wants  him,  and  he 
soon  relapses  into  crime." 

In  1872  Mr.  Tallack,  at  the  request  pf  the  Howard 
Association  and  of  the  Central  Committee  of  the  In- 
ternational Prison  Congress,  collected  a  vast  amount 
of  information  on  the  subject  of  prison  management, 
prison  labor,  and  the  reformation  of  prisoners.  On 
this  point  he  says  :  "  Prisoners,  if  discharged  untaught 
and  untrained,  soon  relapse,  and  cost  the  public  .£159 
per  annum  (nearly  $800),  at  a  low  estimate,  by  their 
robberies." 

When  a  man  has  spent  years  in  prison,  on  again 
going  out  into  the  world  he  is  absolutely  dependent ; 
he  has  no  money  and  generally  no  friends  who  will 
help  him  ;  he  may  be  anxious  to  work  and  earn  an 
honest  living,  but  "often  cannot  get  work. 

Florien  I.  Ries,  in  his  report  of  the  Milwaukee 
House  of  Correction  for  1880,  in  speaking  of  this  sub- 
ject, says: 

"Many,  doubtless,  leave  the  prison  with  a  strong 
determination  to  lead  honorable  lives  in  the  future ; 
but  here  the  question  arises,  How  will  they  accom- 
plish this?  With  all  boasted  philanthropy  and  all 
pretended  kindly  feeling  toward  these  persons,  how 
does  society  meet  them  when  the  prison  door  has 
closed  behind  them  ?  As  long  as  people  demand  that 
prisons  must  be  self-sustaining,  these  persons  will 
receive  but  a  pittance  upon  their  discharge.  With 
this  they  venture  out  upon  the  world,  seeking  em- 
ployment ;  and,  if  they  are  frank,  and  admit  that  they 
have  just  been  discharged  from  prison,  who  will  em- 
ploy them  ?  Without  employment,  without  money, 
without  friends,  what  are  they  to  do?  Is  it  not  per- 
fectly natural,  under  these  circumstances,  that  they 
should  seek  and  find  their  former  associates  in 
crime  ? " 

REFORMS  PROPOSED. 

The  reforms  proposed  for  these  and  other  evils  are 
numerous. 

First.  It  is  proposed  that  for  light  offenses  adults, 
and  especially  the  young,  should  not  be  imprisoned  at 
all,  but  placed  on  probation  under  a  probation  officer. 
This  has  been  tried  in  Boston  some  15  years.    A  law 
providing  for  this  was  passed  in  1878.     Having  pro- 
vided for  the  appointment  of  probation  officers — one 
in  each  district — and  for  the  manner  in  which  notice 
shall  be  given  them  of  every  arrest,  the  law  says  : 
"  SECTION  75.    Such  probation  officer  shall  carefully 
inquire  into  the  character  and  offense 
of  every  person  arrested  for  crime  in 
.         his  city  or  town,  for  the  purpose  of  as- 
Probation    certaining   whether  the   accused   may 
Officers.       reasonably  be  expected  to  reform  with- 
out punishment,  and  shall  keep  a  full 
record  of  the  results  of  his  investiga- 
tions. 

"SECTION  76.  Such  probation  officer,  if  satisfied, 
upon  investigation,  that  the  best  interests  of  the 
public  and  of  the  accused  would  be  subserved  by 
placing  him  upon  probation,  shall  recommend  the 
same  to  the  court  trying  the  case,  and  the  court  may 
permit  the  accused  to  be  placed  upon  probation,  upon 
such  terms  as  it  may  deem  best,  having  regard  to  his 
reformation.  [When  probation  is  recommended  by 
the  officer,  the  prisoner  is  practically  released  on  his 
own  bond.] 

"  SECTION  78.  He  shall  attend  the  sessions  of  the 
courts  held  within  said  county  for  criminal  business, 
investigate  the  cases  of  persons  accused  or  convicted 
of  crimes  and  misdemeanors,  and  recommend  to  the 
courts  the  placing  on  probation  of  such  persons  as 
may  reasonably  be  expected  to  reform  without  pun- 
ishment. He  shall  have  a  place  in  the  office  of  the 
superintendent  of  police.  When  he  deems  it  advisa- 
ble for  any  person  placed  on  probation  to  be  sent  out 
of  the  State  at  the  expense  of  the  city,  the  city  council 
may  make  the  necessary  appropriation  for  the  pur- 
pose, to  be  expended  by  him,  under  the  direction  of 
the  superintendent  of  police,  and  he  shall  render  an 
account  of  such  expenditures,  with  the  items,  quar- 
terly^ to  said  superintendent.  He  shall  also,  as  far  as 
practicable,  visit  the  offenders  placed  on  probation  by 
the  court,  at  his  suggestion,  and  render  such  assist- 
ance and  encouragement  as  will  tend  to  prevent  their 
again  offending,  Any  person  placed  upon  probation, 
upon  his  recommendation,  may  be  rearrested  by  him, 
upon  approval  of  the  superintendent  of  police,  without 


further  warrant,  and  again  brought  before  the  court ; 
and  the  court  may  thereupon  proceed  to  sentence,  or 
may  make  any  other  lawful  disposition  of  the  case." 

A  summary  of  the  first  10  years'  experience  is  as 
follows  : 


o 
f~ 

1 

H 
& 

00 

06 

CO 

m 

CO 

*0 

$ 

e^ 
| 

1 

43° 

375 
55 

376 

335 
41 

549 

4SQ 
60 

852 

790 

62 

827 

784 
43 

1056 

992 
64 

Whole  number  tak- 
en on  probation  .  .  . 
Did  well   and  were 
discharged  

4l8 

377 
4i 

788 

718 
7° 

846 

757 
89 

797 

742 
55 

Proved  incorrigible 

Sen- 
tence." 


Had  there  been  no  probation,  all  those  that  were 
saved  must  have  been  sentenced  and  imprisoned,  and 
their  sentences  during  the  10  years,  when  put  to- 
gether, would  have  amounted  to  1715  years  and  10 
months,  or  an  average  of  171  years  and  7  months  of 
time  each  year,  all  this  having  been  saved  to  the 
accused  and  their  families,  as  well  as  to  society. 

Mr.  William  F.  Reed,  probation  officer  for  the  Rox- 
bury  district,  closes  his  report  for  the  year  1888  as  fol- 
lows :  "  Probation  has  savedt  many  of  both  sexes  from 
exposure,  shame^  and  loss  of  situation,  in  cases  where 
they  had  committed  their  first  offense,  and  not  only 
saved  them  for  the  time  being,  but  for  all  times." 

The  method  of  procedure  is  simply  to  continue  a 
case  for  three  months,  and  then  to  continue  it  again 
as  often  as  may  be  deemed  necessary.  If  the  accused 
does  well,  he  is  finally  discharged.  If  he  does  not  do 
well,  he  can  be  sentenced  at  any  time. 

It  is  a  most  remarkable  circumstance  that  so  few 
run  away.  Out  of  1056  placed  on  probation  in  one  dis- 
trict in  one  year,  only  12  ran  away,  and,  on  the  whole, 
the  average  of  runaways  is  scarcely  ij^  per  cent. 

Second.  It  is  proposed  that  when  men  are  impris- 
oned, they  be  imprisoned  on  the  "  indeterminate 
sentence. 

In  the  report  of  the  Committee  on  Prisons,  made  in 
1881,  to  the  Legislature  of  California,  with  some  reflec- 
tions on  prison  discipline  and  management,  the  ques- 
tion of  "  indeterminate  sentences  "  is  thus  discussed  : 

"  By  indeterminate  sentences  is  meant  that  all  per- 
sons in  a  State  who  are  convicted  of  crimes  or  offenses 
before    a     competent    court     shall    be 
deemed  wards  of  the  State,  and  shall  be 
committed  to  a  Board  of  Guardians,  un-  «  Tndafarmi 
til,   in  their  judgment,   they    may    be     ' 
returned  to  society  with  ordinary  safety 
and  in  accord   with  their  own  highest 
welfare.      If  this  principle  be  adopted, 
the  confinement  of  a  prisoner  will  de- 
pend upon  his  own  exertions  to  earn  promotion  and 
eventual   freedom.    The  duration  of  confinement  is 
placed  under  the  control,  and  is  determined  by  the 
conduct,  of  the  convict  himself.    The  advantages  of  an 
indeterminate  sentence  are  : 

"  i.  It  supplants  the  law  of  force  by  the  law  of  love. 

"2.  It  secures  certainty  of  restraint  and  continued 
treatment,  which  operate  to  prevent  crime,  as  severity 
does  not. 

"3.  It  makes  possible  the  arrest  and  right  training 
of  that  whole  brood  of  beginners,  before  great  de- 
pravity is  reached  and  character  is  irretrievably 
fixed. 

"  4.  It  utilizes  for  reformatory  ends  the  motive  that 
is  always  the  strongest — the  desire  to  be  released,  the 
love  of  liberty. 

"5.  It  removes  the  occasion,  and  so  mollifies  the 
feeling  of  animosity  usually  felt  toward  the  law  and 
its  officers,  puts  the  personal  interest  of  the  prisoner 
plainly  in  obedience  to  the  rules  of  discipline,  and  leads 
him  to  co-operate  with  those  laboring  for  his  welfare." 

The  classical  example  of  the  working  of  this  system 
is  the  Elmira  Reformatory  (q.  v.\  where  the  results  are 
so  astonishing  that  we  devote  to  it  a  special  article. 

The  Tenth  Annual  Report  of  the  Commissioners  of 
Prisons  of  Massachusetts,  January,  1881,  says  : 

"  Whatever  plan  may  be  adopted  to  afford  the  best 
opportunities  for  accomplishing  the  reformation  of 
criminals,  the  highest  results  can  never  be  attained 
while  the  present  system  of  imposing  definite  sentences 
for  crime  is  in  force.  This  was  long  ago  recognized  as 
true  in  the  treatment  of  young  offenders,  and  for  many 
years  children  have  been  sentenced  to  the  reform 
schools  for  their  minority,  no  time-sentences  being 
imposed  ;  the  power  to  release  them,  when  they  are 
deemed  to  be  reformed,  being  given  to  the  authorities 
in  charge  of  the  schools. 


Penology. 


998 


Penology. 


"There  are  many  reasons  for  applying  the  same 
principle  in  the  treatment  of  adult  criminals.  The 
present  system  holds  out  no  inducement  to  the  convict 
to  reform.  His  sentence  is  a  fixed  one,  and  expires  on 
a  day  certain,  regardless  of  his  conduct  or  of  his  char- 
acter. The  one  thing  he  keeps  more  constantly  in 
mind  than  any  other  is  the  day  of  his  release.  He 
knows  that  this  will  not  be  much  delayed  by  anything 
he  may  do,  and  cannot  be  materially  hastened  by  good 
behavior  or  by  any  change  of  character.  He  learns  to 
look  upon  his  punishment  as  wholly  retributive  ;  and, 
when  he  conies  out  of  the  prison,  he  feels  that  he  has 
'wiped  out '  the  record  against  him,  and  is  to  begin 
again.  During  his  trial,  his  main  effort,  and  that  of  his 
counsel,  is  to  secure  as  light  a  sentence  as  is  possible, 
and  often,  with  no  conception  of  the  gravity  of  his 
offense,  he  harbors  a  spite  against  the  Government 
for  punishing  him  too  severely. 

"It  may  be  necessary  to  continue  for  the  present 
this  system  for  most  offenders,  as  a  change  from  fixed 
sentences  to  indefinite  ones  involves  a  change  in  the 
whole  system  of  prison  management  and  discipline. 
But  for  an  institution  whose  first  aim  is  the  reforma- 
tion of  criminals,  indefinite  sentences  must  eventually 
prevail.  Under  such  a  system,  a  convict  would  be 
confined  until  he  was  deemed  to  be  reformed,  be  it  a 
short  or  long  time.  This  throws  around  the  prisoner 
every  possible  inducement  for  self-improvement.  He 
realizes  that  his  future  is  in  his  own  hands.  He  sees 
that  the  State  is  not  punishing  him  arbitrarily  for  his 
crimes,  but  is  interested  in  his  welfare  ;  that  he  is  de- 
prived of  his  liberty  not  so  much  on  account  of  his  acts 
as  on  account  of  his  character  ;  and  that  his  right  to 
freedom  is  dependent  upon  his  reformation,  which  in 
turn  depends  upon  his  own  use  of  his  opportunities." 

Third.  It  is  proposed  that  convicts  be  paid  for  their 
work.  Governor  Altgeld  says  of  this  plan  : 

"  There  should,   in   my  judgment,  be  given  every 
convict  in  prison  an  opportunity  to  earn   something 
over  and  above  the  cost  of  keeping  him. 
I  know  this   involves    difficulties,   but 
Bavins'       none  that  cannot    be    overcome.      He 
_     *  .  should   be  not  only  permitted  to  earn 

1/onviCtS.      something,  but  he  should  be  required  to 
earn  something  to  carry  to  his  credit 
before  he  is  again  set  at  liberty  ;  so  that, 
when  he  leaves  the  prison  doors,  he  will  have  some- 
thing to  sustain  him  for  a  while ;  and  this  should  not 
be  paid  him  at  once,  but  in  instalments,  so  that  he 
cannot  lose  it  at  once  ;  or,  if  he  has  a  family  to  support, 
he  not  only  should  be  permitted  to  work,  but  required 
to  earn  something,  while  in  prison,  for  the  support  of 
his  family.   .   .   . 

"  Under  the  present  system,  the  innocent  are  pun- 
ished with  the  guilty.  The  law  intends  that  its  penal- 
ties shall  fall  only  on  those  that  actually  violate  it ; 
but  at  present,  in  many  cases,  the  consequences  of  a 
conviction  fall  with  equal  severity  upon  the  innocent 
and  dependent,  for  it  in  effect  takes  away  their  bread." 

Upon  this  subject  W.  Searles,  chaplain  of  the  peni- 
tentiary at  Auburn,  N.  Y.,  in  his  report,  says  : 

"  The  letters  received  by  the  prisoners  from  their 
almost  broken-hearted  wives,  mothers,  sisters,  and 
friends,  enjoining  upon  them  repentance,  reforma- 
tion, and  obedience  to  the  prison  rules,  that  they  may 
the  sooner  be  reunited,  must  have  a  great  influence 
upon  them,  both  for  their  present  and  future  good. 
And,  sir,  it  is  the  perusal  of  these  letters  from  the  poor 
old  mother,  the  broken-hearted  wife,  the  suffering 
children,  the  grieving  brothers  and  sisters,  that  en- 
forces upon  my  mind  the  lesson  that  no  man  liveth  to 
himself  alone.  In  the  vast  majority  of  cases,  these 
mothers,  wives,  and  children  are  poor,  and  -were  de- 
pendent upon  the  son,  the  husband,  and  the  father  for 
the  actual  necessaries  of  life.  In  consequence  of  hjs 
imprisonment  they  must  suffer.  While  it  is  the  duty 
of  society  to  protect  itself  against  the  inroads  of  the 
criminals,  let  me  inquire,  is  it  not  equally  the  duty  of 
society  to  protect  from  want  and  suffering  the  inno- 
cent wife  and  child  ?  As  I  have  heretofore  suggested, 
permit  me  again  to  express  the  hope  that  the  incoming 
Legislature  will  make  some  provision  by  which  a  por- 
tion, however  small,  of  the  convict's  earnings  may  be 
set  apart  for  his  own  or  his  family's  benefit." 

This  system,  therefore,  works  a  great  injustice  to 
the  innocent,  and,  in  the  long  run,  entails  a  heavy 
burden  on  society  ;  for  where  the  family  of  a  convict 
is  left  without  support,  the  burden  of  providing  falls 
directly  on  society.  It  is  immaterial  whether  this 
burden  be  discharged  in  taxes  or  in  charity,  or  in  the 
loss  of  goods  stolen  :  it  still  comes  from  the  public. 

Further  than  this,  the  children  of  a  convict  thus  sit- 
uated, having  no  regular  source  to  look  to  for  bread, 


are  liable  to  grow  up  violators  of  the  law  from  the 
sheer  force  of  their  surroundings ;  for  squalor  and 
misery  are  hot-beds  of  crime. 
There  has  been  some  experience  in  this  line. 
In  Minnesota  the  convict  in  the  State  prison  is  al- 
lowed, for  good  conduct,  six  days  every  month,  for 
which  he  receives  the  same  rate  that  is  paid  by  the 
contractors  of  the  State.  The  money  thus  earned  may 
be  paid  by  the  prison  authorities  to  the  convict's 
family,  if  needy,  and  when  not  thus  paid,  it  is  given 
to  the  convict  on  being  discharged.  Many  convicts, 
on  leaving  the  prison,  have  had  upward  of  $150  to 
their  credit,  with  which  to  start  again  in  life.  Are 
these  not  more  likely  to  do  well  than  if  they  had  not 
a  cent  ? 

In  1876  Mr.  Richard  Vaux,  President  of  the  Board  of 
Directors  of  the  Eastern  Penitentiary  of  Pennsylvania 
— one  of  the  very  best  institutions  of  the  kind  in  this 
country — in  speaking  of  the  work  done  there,  said  : 

"  Manufacturing  material  is  bought  at  market 
prices,  and  the  goods  manufactured  are  sold  at  the 
same ;  so  that  there  is  no  unfair  competition  with 
manufacturers  who  employ  honest  men.  The  con- 
victs are  allowed  pay  for  overtime.  One  man  sup- 
ported a  wife  and  family  outside  of  prison  by  overwork 
done  in  prison.  The  prisoners  cost  about  34  cents 
a  day  per  capita.  Labor  is  not  farmed  out,  nor  let  out 
by  contract.  We  are  not  self-supporting,  and  I  trust 
we  never  shall  be.  When  a  prison  becomes  self-sup- 
porting, it  is  just  what  prisons  are  not  intended 
to  do." 

William  Kunz,  superintendent  of  the  St.  Louis 
workhouse,  says : 

"By  carefully  studying  the  habits  and  inclinations 
of  the  prisoners,  I  arrived  at  the  conclusion  that  a 
greater  amount  of  work  could  be  obtained  from  them 
by  offering  a  reward  to  the  industrious  prisoners  than 
by  exacting  work  from  them  under  the  threat  of  pun- 
ishment. With  the  consent  of  the  Board  of  Public 
Improvements,  and  the  approval  of  his  Honor  the 
Mayor,  I  established  task-work  for  all  such  labor  as 
the  possibilities  would  allow,  whereby  a  prisoner 
inclined  to  be  industrious  has  the  opportunity  af- 
forded him  of  materially  shortening  his  imprisonment 
by  making  overtime.  Of  this  a  great  many  prisoners 
have  availed  themselves." 

It  is  not  wholly  a  new  principle.  Wines,  in  his 
historical  studies  of  prisons,  says: 

"  Viscount  Vilain  XIV.  was  the  founder  of  the  Great 
Central  Convict   Prison  at  Ghent.   .   .   .   We  find    at 
Ghent,  already  applied,  nearly  all  the 
great   principles    which  the   world    is, 
even  to-day,  but  slowly  and  painfully    TVncrionno 
seeking  to  introduce  into  prison  man-    -experience, 
agement.    What  are  they?     Reforma- 
tion as  a  primary  end  to  be  kept  in 
view ;  hope  as  the  great  regenerative  force ;  indus- 
trial labor  as  another  of  the  vital  forces  to  the  same 
end ;   education,  religious   and    literary,   as   a  third 
essential  agency  ;  abbreviation  of  sentence  and  par- 
ticipation in  earnings  as  incentives  to  diligence,  obe- 
dience, and  self-improvement ;  the  enlistment  of  the 
will  of  the  criminal,"  etc.    Again  he  says:  "Among 
the  most  remarkable    of   the    early  experiments  in 
prison  discipline  was  that  of  Colonel  Montesino,  the 
prisoner  to  choose  the  trade  he  would  learn. 

"  He  seized  those  great  principles  which  the  Creator 
has  impressed  upon  the  human  soul,  and  molded  them 
to  his  purpose.  He  aimed  to  develop  manhood,  not 
to  crush  it ;  to  gain  the  will,  not  simply  to  coerce  the 
body.  He  employed  the  law  of  love,  and  found  it  the 
most  powerful  of  all  laws.  .  .  .  He  excited  the  pris- 
oners to  diligence  by  allowing  them  a  by  no  means  in- 
considerable portion  of  their  earnings.  He  enabled 
them  to  raise  their  position,  step  by  step,  by  their  own 
industry  and  good  conduct.  .  .  .  Mr.  Hoskins,  an 
intelligent  English  traveler,  after  giving  an  extended 
account  of  the  prison,  adds  this  conclusion  :  '  The  suc- 
cess attending  the  reformation  of  the  prisoners  in  this 
establishment  seems  really  a  miracle. 

Wines  also  records  one  other  remarkable  case,  and 
that  in  a  country  where  it  was  least  to  be  expected — 
Russia.  It  appears  that  Count  Sollohub  introduced 
a  system  into  the  house  of  correction  at  Moscow, 
similar  in  its  general  features  to  that  last  described. 
So  long  as  a  convict  remained  an  apprentice  he  got 
no  part  of  the  product  of  his  labor  ;  but  as  soon  as  he 
was  adjudged  to  be  a  master- workman,  he  received 
a  proportion  equal  to  two-thirds  of  his  entire  earnings, 
the  greater  part  of  which  was  reserved  for  him  as 
a  little  capital  to  begin  life  with  again  after  his  libera- 
tion. So  effectual  was  the  power  of  hope  thus  ap- 
plied, that  in  some  instances  the  convict  apprentices 


Penology. 


999 


Pensions  in  the  United  States. 


learned  their  trade  and  became  master-workmen  in 
-two  months.  Nine-tenths  of  all  learned  their  trade  so 
thoroughly  that,  on  their  release,  they  could  fill  the 
position  of  foreman  in  other  shops.  And  further, 
there  were  scarce  anjL  relapses ;  so  that  of  2128  persons 
released  during  the  first  six  years,  only  9  were  re- 
turned to  prison." 

Of  one  objection  to  this  plan,  Governor  Altgeld 
says: 

"  If  it  is  objected  that  there  would  then  be  too  much 
prison  labor  performed,  by  which  free  labor  would  be 
injured,  I  answer  that,  in  the  first  place,  there  would 
be  no  more  men  at  work  than  there  would  be,  or  at 
least  should  be  at  work,  if  there  were  no  prisons  ;  and, 
as  the  prison  labor  is  no  cheaper  than  the  free  labor, 
310  injustice  would  be  done  to  the  free  laborer.  In 
fact,  one  great  cause  of  complaint  that  now  exists — 
viz.,  the  cheapness  of  prison  labor — would  be  done 
away  with." 

Fourth.  It  is  even  proposed  that  convicts  be  em- 
ployed at  remunerative  labor  outside  of  prison  walls. 

It  is  said  that  while  the  vicious,  and  those  that  have 
long  terms  to  serve,  are  kept  within  the  walls,"  the 
remainder  could  more  generally  be  set  at  work  for 
which  they  were  adapted,  outside  of  the  prison.  In- 
stead of  being  confined  to  the  few  trades  that  can  be 
successfully  carried  on  inside  prison  walls,  prisoners 
•could  then  be  set  at  almost  every  kind  of  manual 
labor ;  and,  instead  of  employing  them  in  a  few 
branches  of  industry,  as  is  now  done,  they  could  be 
distributed  more  nearly  as  they  would  have  been  had 
each  selected  work  from  choice  as  a  free  man. 

Fifth.  Some  prison  reformers  fear  too  much  indul- 
gence and  "coddling"  of  prisoners.  Said  Captain 
E.  S.  Wright,  of  the  Western  State  Penitentiary, 
Alleghany,  Pa.,  at  the  meeting  of  the  National  Prison 
Association,  in  1892 : 

"  It  is  generally  understood  that  the  prisons  of  Great 
Britain  and  Ireland  are  steadily  diminishing  in  popu- 
lation, but  the  causes  for  this  remarkable  result  are 
not  clear  to  all.  The  credit  should  be  given  to  a  sys- 
tem adopted  about  15  years  ago,  placing  all  the  prisons 
under  a  centralized  control  for  each  country,  with 
exactly  the  same  rules  and  regulations  governing 
control,  labor,  food,  and  clothing.  Every  item  seems 
to  be  cared  for,  and  the  discipline  is  rigid  and  stern. 
It  is  the  general  belief  that  serious  crime  has  dimin-  . 
ished,  but  it  is  apparent  that  the  vast  number  of  petty 
offenders  and  habitual  criminals  has  created  much 
uneasiness,  and  severer  treatment  for  such  seems 
probable,  as  it  is  thought  to  be  the  only  satisfactory 
solution  of  the  matter.  There  is  a  feeling  of  distrust 
that  the  prevailing  system  of  leniency  in  Great  Britain, 
for  minor  crimes  especially,  has  been  a  great  mistake. 
Over  a  million  of  arrests  are  reported  for  1891 ;  of 
these  255,314  were  committed  to  prison,  but,  as  many 
were  repeated  crimes,  in  the  same  year  only  137,000 
persons  were  committed.  Of  these  12,380  are  reported 
as  felons  and  10, 100  as  habitual  petty  offenders.  This 
class,  it  is  claimed,  is  a  menace  to  society.  Earnest 
men  say,  '  Why  hesitate  to  seclude  a  class  defined  as 
a  constant  danger  to  civilized  life  ? ' 

"The  history  of  American  prisons  shows  constant 
progress  in  the  treatment,  and  clemency  has  marked 
the  course  of  justice;  yet  it  has  to  be  admitted  that 
crime  and  vice  have  increased  in  greater  ratio  than 
the  population  of  the  country.  We  are,  then,  brought 
to  this  conclusion,  that  prison  discipline  must  be 
placed  on  sterner  and  more  repressive  lines  to  be 
deterrent." 

Sixth.  Mr.  Henry  M.  Boies  advocates  a  measure 
quite  different  from  any  yet  mentioned.  He  says 
{Prisoners  and  Paupers,  p.  269) : 

"By  carefully  providing  for  its  degenerates   and 
abnormals  in  comfortable  prisons,  asylums,  and  alms- 
houses,    giving   them   the    advantages 
of  the  highest  knowledge  and  science 

Castration    of    livin£'   society  unwittingly    aggra- 

oasirauon.  vates  the  evil  it  seeks  to  alleviate.  It 
maintains  alive  those  who  would  perish 
without  its  aid.  It  permits  their  repro- 
duction and  multiplication.  It  fosters,  with  more 
attention  than  it  gives  its  better  types,  the  establish- 
ment and  increase  of  an  abnormal  and  defective  class. 
~It  not  only  perpetuates  by  care,  but  encourages,  by 
permitting  unrestricted  'breeding  in'  among  them, 
the  unnatural  spread  and  growth  of  a  social  gangrene 
of  fatal  tendencies.  It  is  assuming  oppressive  and 
alarming  proportions,  which  begin  to  be  felt  in  the 
whole  social  organization.  In  terror  our  advancing 
civilization  begins  to  inquire  if  there  be  no  way  of 
counteraction  consistent  with  its  highest  benevolence, 
fcy  which  this  abnormality  of  abnormalism  may  be 


avoided,  criminality  and  pauperism  restored  to  nat- 
ural proportions,  or  to  that  ratio  of  increase  which 
may  be  the  inevitable  result  of  ignorance  and  excess 
in  living. 

"We  believe  that  the  progress  of  medical  and 
surgical  science  has  opened  up  such  a  way  entirely 
practicable  ;  humanitarian  in  the  highest  sense,  unob- 
jectionable except  upon  grounds  of  an  absurd  and 
irrational  sentiment.  The  discoveries  in  the  use  of 
anesthetics  and  antiseptics  have  rendered  it  possible 
to  remove  or  sterilize  the  organs  of  reproduction  of 
both  sexes  without  pain  or  danger.  This  is  the 
simplest,  easiest,  and  most  effectual  solution  of  the 
whole  difficulty.  .  .  .  Such  a  removal  would  be  a 
positive  benefit  to  the  abnormal  rather  than  a  depri- 
vation ;  rather  a  kindness  than  an  injury.  This  opera- 
tion bestowed  upon  the  abnormal  inmates  of  our 
prisons,  reformatories,  jails,  asylums,  and  public  in- 
stitutions would  entirely  eradicate  those  unspeakable 
evil  practises  which  are  so  terribly  prevalent,  debas- 
ing, destructive,  and  uncontrollable  in  them.  It 
would  confer  upon  the  inmates  health  and  strength 
for  weakness  and  impotence,  satisfaction  and  comfort 
for  discontent  and  insatiable  desire.  .  .  . 

"  The  abnormal  does  not  want  children,  has  no  affec- 
tion for  them,  and  gets  rid  of  them  as  soon  as  possible 
if  they  come.  If  this  were  not  so,  their  offspring,  being 
abnormal,  weak,  sickly,  diseased,  deformed,  idiotic, 
insane,  or  criminal,  doomed  to  a  burdensome  and  suf- 
fering existence  or  an  early  death,  are  a  curse  rather 
than  a  comfort  to  their  parents ;  so  that  in  no  sense 
could  the  deprivation  of  these  organs  inflict  injury  or 
damage  to  criminal  or  pauper.  On  the  contrary,  they 
would  be  enabled  thereby  to  enjoy  many  comforts 
and  privileges,  and  be  relieved  from  many  restraints 
at  present  necessarily  imposed  upon  them.  The  range 
of  their  enjoyments  would,  in  fact,  be  greatly  enlarged, 
both  in  confinement  and  at  liberty.  Many  indeed 
might  be  allowed  freedom  who  are  now  closely 
confined.  .  .  . 

"  The  remedy  we  suggest  would  certainly  be  ef- 
fectual, an  immeasurable  benefit  to  the  human  race, 
the  exercise  of  an  inherent  right  which  really  injures 
none,  and,  moreover,  it  appears  to  have  become  an 
imperative  duty  which  society  owes  to  its  own 
preservation,  which  may  not  be  neglected  without 
actual  sin. 

"Society  arrests  and  confines  the  leper,  the  victim 
of  smallpox,  yellow-fever,  cholera,  or  typhoid,  and 
treats  them  according  to  its  own  will,  with  or  against 
their  consent.  It  does  not  hesitate  to  remove  a  gan- 
grened limb,  a  diseased  organ  from  the  person,  if  it  is 
necessary  ;  it  shuts  up  the  insane,  the  imbecile,  the 
criminal,  for  the  public  protection  ;  it  inflicts  punish- 
ments of  various  degrees ;  compels  men  to  labor 
without  pay,  for  its  good,  in  durance ;  even  deprives 
them  of  life  if  it  pleases ;  assumes  arbitrary  control 
of  the  life,  liberty,  and  happiness  of  an  individual,  if 
it  considers  it  necessary  for  the  public  welfare  ;  and 
no  reasonable  being  questions  its  right  or  duty  to  do 
these  things.  At  the  same  time  it  allows  its  deformed . 
and  diseased  in  mind,  body,  and  soul,  to  disseminate 
social  leprosy  and  cancer  with  impunity,  while  the 
skill  of  its  surgeons  could  prevent  the  infection  by  an 
operation  almost  as  simple  as  vaccination.  It  seems 
inexplicable  that  the  remedy  should  have  been  so 
long  delayed." 

References :  E.  C.  Wines'  State  of  Prisons  and  Child- 
saving  Institutions,  Wilson,  Cambridge,  Mass.,  1880; 
W.  D.  Morrison's  Crime  and  the  Prison  System,  Son- 
nenschein,  1890 ;  W.  Tallack's  Penological  and  Pre- 
ventative  Principles,  London,  Howard  Association, 
1889  ;  J.  P.  Altgeld's  Live  Questions,  Humboldt  Publish- 
ing Co.,  1892  ;  H.  M.  Boies*  Prisoners  and  Paupers,  Put- 
nam's, 1893 ;  R.  P.  Falkner's  Prisons  Statistics  of  the 
United  States,  University  of  Pennsylvania  ;  Report 
on  Convict  Labor,  Commission  of  Labor  at  Washing- 
ton, 1886;  Reports  of  the  National  Prison  Association, 
etc.  (See  also  CONVICT  LABOR,  CRIME,  CRIMINOLOGY, 
ELMIRA  REFORMATORY,  JUVENILE  REFORMATORIES.) 

PENSIONS  IN  THE  UNITED  STATES. 

— A  pension  is  a  regular  payment  of  money  to  a 
person  by  the  Government  in  consideration  of 
past  services  in  its  employ.  Pensions  were 
formerly  granted  in  the  United  States  only  to 
enlisted  men  of  the  army  or  navy  who  had 
suffered  during  our  various  wars,  except  in 
a  few  special  instances.  But  in  1869  an  act 


Pensions  in  the  United  States. 


IOOO 


Pensions  in  the  United  States. 


was  passed  providing  pensions  at  the  rate  of 
their  salary  to  United  States  judges  who  have 
served  ten  years  and  resigned  at  70  years  or 
upward.  Pensions  have  also  been  granted  to 
the  widows  of  former  presidents.  Employees 
in  the  life-saving  service,  in  the  quartermas- 
ter's and  paymaster's  departments,  and  nurses 
have  also  received  them.  Private  pension 
bills  are  often  passed,  but  by  far  the  largest 
number  of  pensioners  of  the  United  States  are 
such  under  general  laws. 

The  United  States  pension  system  may  be 
said  to  commence  with  the  resolution  of  Con- 
gress dated  August  26,  1776,  by  which  the  Con- 
tinental Congress  undertook  to  provide  for  dis- 
abled soldiers  of  the  Revolution.  From  June 
7,  1785,  to  September  29,  1789,  the  several 
States  assumed  the  payment  of  pensions  by  a 
recommendation  of  Congress  on  account  of  its 
inability  to  raise  money  by  taxation.  After 
the  Adoption  of  the  new  constitution,  Congress 
resumed  their  payment  by  annual  enactments, 
making  them  payable  during  the  life  of  the 
beneficiaries,  under  the  acts  of  March  23,1792, 
and  February  28,  1793. 

Pensions  were  not  provided  for  the  children 
of  Revolutionary  soldiers.  The  first  act  pro- 
viding pensions  for  disabled  officers  and  sol- 
diers of  the  regular  army,  was  passed  April  3, 
1790,  and  its  provisions  were  renewed  and 
amended  from  time  to  time  until  they  were 


embodied  in  the  act  of  March  16,  1802,  which 
is  now  the  fundamental  law  for  pensions  on 
account  of  disability  incurred  prior  to  March  4, 
1861. 

By  act  of  March  3,  1835,  the  office  of  Com- 
missioner  of   Pensions  was  created   for    two- 
years.     It  was  extended  from  time 
to  time,  and  made  permanent  in 
1849.     He  was  to  execute,  under     History, 
the  direction  of  the  Secretaries  of 
War  and  Navy,  such  duties  in  re- 
lation to  the  various  pension  laws  as  might  be 
prescribed  by  the  President. 

On  March  3,  1849,  the  pension  office  became 
a  bureau  of  the  newly  created  Department  of 
the  Interior.  As  at  present  organized  its  af- 
fairs are  administered  by  a  commissioner,  un- 
der whose  charge  come  all  matters  relating  to 
pensions,  and  who  is  appointed  by  the  Presi- 
dent, by  and  with  the  advice  and  consent  of 
the  Senate,  two  deputy  commissioners,  a  chief 
clerk,  an  assistant  chief  clerk,  a  law  or  appeal 
clerk,  a  board  of  legal  reviewers,  a  board  of 
medical  reviewers,  special  examiners,  exam- 
iners' clerks,  copyists,  messengers,  laborers, 
and  watchmen. 

The  pension  laws  since  the  War  of  Rebellion 
have  been  too  numerous  and  too  complicated 
to  be  given  here,  but  the  growth  of  our  pen- 
sion list  till  it  has  become  the  chief  expense  of 
the  Government,  is  seen  in  the  following  table  : 


FISCAL  YEAR 
ENDING  JUNE  30. 

ARMY  AND  NAVY. 

Total 
Number  of 
Applica- 
tions 
Filed. 

Total 
Number  of 
Claims. 
Allowed. 

NUMBER  OF  PENSIONERS 
ON  THE  ROLL. 

Disbursements, 

CLAIMS  ALLOWED. 

Invalids. 

Widows, 
etc. 

Invalids. 

Widows, 
etc. 

Total. 

T86i  

2,487 
49,332 
53,599 
72,684 
65,256 
36,753 
20,768 
26,066 
24,851 
43,969 
26,391 
18,303 
16,734 
18,704 
23,523 
22,715 
44,587 
57,"8 
141,466 
31,116 
40,939 
48,776 

41,785 
40,918 

49.895 
72,465 
75,726 
81,220 
105,044 
363,799 
i98>345 
119,361 
40,148 

462 

7,884 

39,487 
40,171 

50,177 
36,482 
28,921 
23,196 
18,221 
16,562 

34,333 
16,052 
10,462 
11,152 
9,977 
11,326 
11,962 
3!,346 
19,545 
27,394 
27,664 
38,162 
34,192 
35,767 
40,857 
55,194 
60,252 
5L92I 
66,637 
156,486 
224,047 
121,630 
39,o85 

4.337 
4,34i 
7,821 
23,479 
35,880 
55,652 
69,565 
75,957 
82,859 
87,521 
93,394 
"3,954 
119,500 
121,628 
122,989 
124,239  « 
128,723 
131,649 
138,615 
145,410 
164,110 
182,633 
206,042 
225,470 
247,146 
270,346 
306,298 
343,701 
373,699 
415,654 
536,821 
703,242 
759.706 
754,382 

4,299 
3,818 
6,970 
27,656 
50,  106 
71,070 
83,618 
93,686 
05,104 
1,165 
4,101 
8,275 
8,911 
4,613 
1,832 
07,898 
03,381 
92,349 
04,140 
05,392 
04,720 
03,064 
97,6l6 
97,286 
97,979 
95,437 
99,709 
108,856 
116,026 
122,290 
139,339 
172,826 
206,306 
215,162 

8,636 
8,159 
M,79i 
5i,i35 
85,986 
126,722 
153,183 
169,643 
187,993 
198,686 
207,495 
232,229 
238,411 
236,241 
234,821 

232,137 
232,104 
223,998 
242,755 
250,802 
268,830 
285,697 
303,658 
323,756 
345,T25 
365,783 
406,007 

452,557 
489.725 
537,944 
676,160 
876,068 
966,012 
969,544 

$1,072,461.55 
790,384.76 
1,025,139.91 
4,504,616.92 

8,525,I53-" 
13,459,996.43 
18,619,956.46 
24,010,981.99 
28,422,884.08 
27,780,811.81 

33,077,383-63 
30,169,341.00 
29,185,289.62 

30,593,749-  56 
29,683,116.63 
28,351,599.69 
28,580,157.04 
26,844,415.18 
33,780,526.19 
57,240,540.14 
50,626,538.51 
54,296,280.54 
60,431,972.85 
57,273,536-74 
65,693,706.72 
64,584,270.45 
74,815,486.85 
79,646,146.37 
89,131,968.44 
106,493,890.19 
118,548,959.71 
141,086,948.84 

158,155.  342-51 
140,772,  i63-7& 

1862  

413 
4,121 

17,041 
15,212 
22,883 
16,589 
9.460 

7,292 

5.721 

7.934 
6,468 
6.551 
5.937 
5.76o 
5,360 
7,282 
7.4M 
7,242 
10,176 
21,394 
22,946 
32,014 

27.4H 
27,580 

3L937 
35.283 

35.843 
36.830 

50,395 
41,381 
17,876 
10,232 
6,129 

49 
3,763 
22,446 

24,959 
27,294 
igs893 
19,461 

15,904 
12,500 

8,399 
7,244 
4,073 
3,152 
4,736 
4,376 
3,861 
3,550 
3,379 
4,455 
3.920 
3.999 
5.303 
6,366 

7.743 
8,610 
11,217 
10,816 
11,924 
14,612 
11,914 
7,287 
7,295 
4,225 

1863  

1864  

1865       

1866  

1867  

!868  

1869  

1870  

1871  

1872  

1873  

1874  

1875  

T876  

1877  

1878  

1879  

1880  

1881  

!882  

1883  

!884  

1885  

X886  

1887.  .. 

1888  

11889  

1890  .... 

1891  

1892  

1893  

1804.  .  . 

Total  

566,110 

308,725 

2,074,843 

1,397,006 

$1,717,275,718.20 

Pensions  in  the  United  States. 


1001 


People's  Party. 


This  steady  growth  of  the  pension  list  has 
led  to  much  discussion  as  to  the  necessity  of 
its  revision.  Representative  proposals  for  re- 
vision have  recently  been  made  by  many  and 
prominently  by  Hon.  R.  P.  C.  Wilson,  Chair- 
man of  the  House  Committee  on  Pensions 
(1895);  General  S.  S.  Burdett,  Past  Commander- 
in-Chief  of  the  Grand  Army  of  the  Repub- 
lic ;  and  Colonel  W.  C.  Church,  editor  of  the 
Army  and  Navy  Journal.  All  agree  that  our 
pension  list  needs  to  be  revised  in  such  a  way 
as  to  make  it  indeed  a  roll  of  honor. 

Representative  Wilson  says : 

"  All  oases  of  reported  fraud  should  be  promptly  in- 
vestigated by  the  department  through  the  medium  of 
the  force  of  special  examiners  in  the  field,  but  in  no 
instance  should  a  pensioner's  name  be  dropped  from 
the  roll  on  any  ground  until  he  has  been  allowed  the 
widest  latitude  to  show  his  right  to  a  continuance  of 
his  pension. 

"There  can  be  no  doubt  that  the  deserving  soldier 
who  went  unflinchingly  to  the  front  at  his  country's 
call,    and,   while    enduring   the    hardships    of  camp, 
march,  and  conflict  incurred  wounds  or  other  perma- 
nent disabilities,  regards  the  pension  list  as  a  roll  of 
honor,  and  earnestly  desires,  with  all  other  good  citi- 
zens, the  adoption  of  such  measures  by 
Congress,  or  by  those  charged  with  the 
Pension       administration    of    the    laws,    as   will 
_    .  purge  the  list  of  all  those  who  have 

Ketorm.  been  placed  thereon  through  fraud  or 
misrepresentation  ;  but  the  undeserv- 
ing class,  which,  unfortunately,  consti- 
tutes a  considerable  proportion  of  the  list,  will  never 
relinquish  the  benefits  wrongfully  acquired  without 
a  bitter  and  determined  struggle,  and  many  well- 
meaning  and  conscientious  men  in  public  life,  who 
acknowledge  and  earnestly  deplore  the  existence  of 
pension  abuses,  will  hesitate  to  align  themselves  on 
the  side  of  corrective  measures  for  fear  of  a  possible 
adverse  effect  upon  their  political  fortunes.  I  con- 
tend, therefore,  that  the  administration  of  the  pension 
laws  should,  if  possible,  be  completely  divorced  from 
politics,  and  while  I  have  not  yet  been  able  to  fully 
satisfy  my  mind  as  to  the  practicability  of  the  change, 
it  may  be  found,  upon  careful  consideration  and  in- 
vestigation, that  the  transfer  of  the  bureau  to  the  War 
Department,  proposed  in  a  recently  offered  (but  not 
adopted)  amendment  to  the  Pension  Appropriation 
Dili,  and  to  the  care  of  a  courageous,  able,  and  fair- 
minded  army  officer,  would  be  a  step  in  the  right 
direction." 

General  Burdett  points  out  that  the  outcry 
is  not  so  much  against  our  pension  laws  as 
against  the  methods  and  result  of  their  admin- 
istration. 

"It  is  insisted  in  many  quarters  that  the  rolls  are 
encumbered  by  names  not  lawfully  entitled  to  be 
there.  If  this  is  true,  it  is  indeed  an  outrage  which 
calls  for  prompt  correction.  But  the  very  vehemence, 
excess,  and  even  rudeness  of  some  of  the  assailants 
give  warning  that  their  charges  ought  not  to  be  ad- 
mitted in  any  measure  until  investigation  has  been 
had.  If  matters  are  as  bad  as  they  are  asserted  to  be, 
there  have  been  worse  than  mistake  and  mismanage- 
ment ;  there  have  been  fraud  and  conspiracy.  That 
all  the  probabilities  are  against  this  is  indicated  by 
the  dearth  of  facts  which  the  most  hostile  have  been 
able  to  produce.  Nevertheless,  iteration  and  reitera- 
tion have  had  their  effect  upon  the  popular  mind. 
There  ought  to  be  searching  inquiry  through  dispas- 
sionate (not  partisan)  agencies.  The  great  body  of 
veteran  survivors  will  welcome  this. 

"In  the  meantime  the  situation  might  as  well  be 
faced.  Relief  to  the  taxpayer  is  to  come  from  the 
scythe  of  the  great  reaper.  The  beneficiaries  are  old 
men  now.  If  not  by  the  actual  count  of  years,  they 
are  yet  old  because  of  the  exposures  and  decrepitudes 
which  come  from  their  service.  All  but  one  of  the 
great  leaders  in  battle  are  dead  ;  a  division  of  their 
followers  joins  them  every  year.  A  little  patience 
and  the  account  will  be  closed." 

Colonel  Church  says  : 

"  One  thing  seems  possible,  and  that  is  to  so  codify 
our  pension  laws  as  to  make  them  intelligible  and  con- 


sistent. Under  their  present  interpretation  there  are, 
or  were  at  the  date  of  the  last  detailed  report,  no  less- 
than  119  grades  of  pay  between  the  extremes  of  $i  a 
month  and  $72  a  month,  with  three  other  grades  of 
$100,  $166.66%,  and  $466.66%  a  month,  supplied  by 
special  acts  to  a  few  exceptional  cases.  The  advance 
from  the  lowest  to  the  highest  rate  is  by  fractions  of 
a  dollar,  the  average  advance  being  60  cents. 

"  Another  reform  that  has  been  suggested  is  to  per- 
mit the  employment  of  trained  actuaries  to  determine 
the  exact  extent  of  the  burden  upon  the  public  treas- 
ury. What  this  is  no  one  now  knows,  and  for  a  suc- 
cession of  years  the  Commissioner  of  Pensions  has 
been  obliged  to  guess  at  it,  as  nearly  as  he  could,  and 
to  ask  Congress,  later  on,  to  make  good  the  deficiency 
occasioned  by  his  insufficient  estimate. 

"  Finally,  and  most  important  of  all,  Congress- 
should  provide  for  printing  a  list  of  pensioners,  with 
a  statement  of  the  reason  for  granting  a  pension  in 
each  case.  To  this  should  be  added  a  list  of  those 
applying  for  pensions  whose  cases  are  pending,  in- 
cluding the  claimants  for  increase  of  pensions.  Such 
a  list  should  be  widely  distributed  instead  of  being' 
confined,  as  was  the  one  printed  some  years  ago,  to 
a  few  copies,  passing  at  once  into  the  hands  of  persons- 
interested  in  suppressing  the  facts.  Every  army 
officer  should  receive  copies,  and  every  organization 
representing  old  soldiers,  and  it  should  be  sent  to 
each  post-office  to  be  posted  there.  The  attempts- 
made  thus  far  to  revise  our  pension  rolls  have  not 
paid  their  cost.  The  two  or  three  hundred  special 
examiners  employed  last  year  succeeded  in  convicting 
only  122  fradulent  pensioners,  or  fourteen-one-hun- 
dred-thousandths  (.00014)  of  i  per  cent,  of  the  whole 
number  of  pensioners.  .  .  . 

"  While  endeavoring  to  set  forth  fairly  the  exact 
condition  of  the  pension  problem,  I  must  confess  that 
I  have  no  great  sympathy  with  the  present  disposition 
to  criticize  our  appropriations  for  pensions.  We  are 
reaping  what  we  have  sown,  and  in  the  end  we  may 
learn  that  the  money  expended  in  preventing  war,  or 
in  preparing  ourselves  to  conduct  it  with  efficiency,  is 
quite  as  wisely  bestowed  as  that  devoted  to  paying 
later  on  for  our  neglect,  and  we  may  find  comfort  for 
ourselves  in  the  fact  that  our  expenditures  for  pen- 
sions, at  the  worst  showing,  will  not,  after  the  arrears 
of  pensions  are  settled,  exceed  the  amount  con- 
tributed annually  to  the  public  treasury  by  the  tax 
upon  liquors  and  cigars.  We  may  be  content  with  the 
knowledge  that  it  is  the  vices  of  our  people  that  are 
providing  for  the  comfort  of  our  old  soldiers,  not  one 
of  whom  should  fail  to  receive  what  is  honestly  his  due 
in  the  way  of  public  support,  and  let  those  who  object 
to  contributing  to  this  refrain  from  smoking  and 
drinking.  Our  liberality  toward  veterans  is  in  the 
line  of  our  increase  of  national  expenditure  in  a  ratio- 
beyond  that  of  an  increase  of  population.  In  1821 
this  increase  was  $6,000,000  in  excess  of  this  ratio, 
and  in  1870  $164,400,000  in  excess.  Pensions  are  not 
peculiar  to  the  American  service  ;  for  example,  every 
British  soldier  receives  one  after  an  enlistment  of  21 
years,  and  a  temporary  or  permanent  pension  after 
12  years,  if  discharged  as  an  invalid  or  rendered  unfit 
for  service. 

"  We  give  pensions  for  a  service  of  60  days  and  even 
for  one  of  14  days ;  pur  pensions  are  much  more 
liberal  and  our  pensioners  much  more  numerous. 
That  is  all  the  difference.  We  overlook  the  distinction 
between  civilians  in  uniform  and  soldiers,  and  put 
upon  the  same  footing  the  'bounty-jumper'  and  the 
man  whose  loyal  devotion  to  duty  takes  no  thought 
of  personal  advantage." 

PEOPLE'S  PARTY.— In  1884  Benjamin  F. 
Butler  of  Massachusetts  was  nominated  for 
the  Presidency  by  the  Anti-Monopoly  Party  at 
Chicago,  and  by  the  Greenback  Labor  Party 
at  Indianapolis.  He  received  some  133,000 
votes.  This  common  ticket  of  the  two  par- 
ties was  known  as  the  People's  Party  ticket. 
The  People's  Party  of  the  present,  however, 
which  we  describe  in  this  article,  is  quite  an- 
other and  a  larger  party.  At  the  convention 
of  the  Farmers'  Alliance  at  Ocala,  Fla. ,  in 
1890  (see  FARMERS'  ALLIANCE),  there  was  a 
strong  disposition  to  form  a  new  party.  It 
was  decided,  however,  not  to  take  any  steps 
toward  such  an  end  as  an  Alliance,  but  to 


People's  Party. 


IOO2 


People's  Party. 


leave  members  free  to  act  as  they  pleased.  A 
few  remained,  and  issued  a  call  for  a  conven- 
tion, forming  a  National  Citizens'  Alliance, 
to  move  in  this  direction.  The  movement, 
however,  that  actually  resulted  in  the  forma- 
tion of  the  party  came  from  Kansas.  (See 
FARMERS'  MOVEMENT.)  In  April,  1890,  the 
Kansas  Alliance  officers  had  met  in  obedience 
to  the  pressure  o:  Alliance  opinion,  to  consult 
as  to  a  new  political  party,  but  seemed  un- 
decided, and  so  called  for  a  delegate  meet- 
ing in  June.  At  this  delegate  convention 
the  People's  Party  of  Kansas  was  organ- 
ized. The  delegate  representation  was  as  fol- 
lows :  Farmers'  Alliance,  41  ;  •  Knights  of 
Labor,  28  ;  F.  M.  B.  A.,  10 ;  Patrons  of  Hus- 
bandry, 7 ;  Single-Tax  Clubs,  4 ;  total,  90. 
The  Alliance  delegates  were  really  in  the 
minority. 

An  enthusiastic  State  campaign  was  con- 
ducted, resulting  in  carrying  the  State  to  the 
extent  of  controlling  the  House.  Alliance 
measures  passed  in  the  House  were  killed  in 
.  the  Senate  ;  but  in  the  union  of  House  and 
Senate,  the  Alliance  succeeded  in  defeating 
the  re-election  of  Senator  Ingalls,  and  sending 
to  Washington  the  Alliance  advocate,  Senator 
Peffer  (g.  v.),  in  his  place.  This  success 
largely  led  to  the  sending  out  of  a  call  to  all 
parties  willing  to  co-operate  in  holding  a  Na- 
tional Convention  in  Cincinnati,  May  19,  1891. 
This  met,  and  1418  delegates  were 
present.  Of  these  more  than  one 
History,  quarter  were  from  Kansas  alone, 
more  than  one-half  coming  from 
Kansas  and  Ohio,  and  more  than 
three-quarters  from  six  States,  Kansas,  Ohio, 
Indiana,  Illinois,  Missouri,  and  Nebraska. 
There  were  only  seven  from  Massachusetts, 
and  even  a  less  number  from  most  of  the 
Eastern  States.  The  organized  labor  of  the 
East  was  scarcely  represented.  Mr.  Powderly, 
General  Master  Workman  of  the  Knights  of 
Labor  was  present  and  in  sympathy  with  the 
movement,  but  not  a  delegate.  Nevertheless 
it  was  a  national  convention  more  truly  than 
these  facts  would  at  first  indicate.  It  was  a 
convention  largely  composed  of  farmers  and 
Greenbackers,  but  in  perfect  sympathy  with 
organized  labor  in  factory,  mine,  and  store  ; 
and  the  convention  voted  to  call  another  con- 
vention in  1892,  at  which  all  bodies  of  workers 
should  be  represented,  and  which  should  nom- 
inate national  candidates.  The  enthusiasm  of 
the  convention  went  beyond  all  bounds. 

The  one  heated  discussion  was  as  to  Pro- 
hibition, a  clause  proposing  which  was  hotly 
debated  but  finally  overwhelmingly  defeated, 
not  so  much  in  opposition  to  Prohibition,  as 
from  fear  lest  such  a  plank  might  produce 
division. 

The  convention  developed  an  almost  reli- 
gious earnestness,  as  has  indeed  been  charac- 
teristic of  the  whole  Alliance  movement. 
Senator  Peffer,  who  presided,  said  that  "the 
Alliance  with  ballot  and  prayer  was  in  a  great 
measure  taking  the  place  of  the  Church."  A 
National  Executive  Committee  was  formed, 
with  Robert  Schilling  as  its  secretary. 

In  accordance  with  the  decision  of  the  Cin- 
cinnati convention,  a  nominating  National 


Convention  was  held  at  Omaha,  Neb.,  July  4, 
1892,  concluding  its  labors  on  July  5.     By  its 
action  the  present  People's  Party 
was  launched  upon  the  sea  of  poli- 
tics.    The  greatest  of  excitement       Omaha 
and    enthusiasm    was    displayed,  Convention, 
sometimes  almost  verging  on  the 
edge  of  wildness. 

The  names  of  Gresham  and  Weaver  had 
been  prominently  before  the  convention,  but 
Weaver  won  on  the  first  ballot,  receiving  995 
votes.  General  Field  of  Virginia  was  nomi- 
nated for  Vice-president.  (For  text  of  the  plat- 
form, as  reported  and  adopted  at  Omaha,  see 
OMAHA  PLATFORM.) 

In  1892,  the  Presidential  votes  (popular  and 
electoral),  and  in  1894  the  State  votes  for  Gov- 
ernor or  Representatives  to  Congress  of  the 
People's  Party  were,  according  to  the  World 
Almanacs  for  1895  and  1896,  as  follows  : 


STATES. 

PRESIDENTIAL 
VOTE.  1892. 

STATE, 
1894. 

Popular. 

Electoral. 

Alabama  

83,283 
24.541 
51.304 
82,111* 
1.546 

4.469* 
96,888 

7,121 

59.793t 
29,388* 
34.907t 
118,329 
19,021* 
14-545* 
5-321 
1,056* 

9.037 
30,012 

87.931 
12,097* 
42,463!! 
15,240* 
97,8i5 
711 
832 
5,348* 
11,049 
148,3441 
9.354 
49'4954: 
26,033 
19,484 
223 
17,278 
26,568 
23,092 
159,224 
740 
8i,239T 
25,140* 
4,i66§ 
25,604 
2,176 

Arkansas  

11,831 

California  

53.584 
806 

4.843 

42,937 
10,520 

4 
3 

Connecticut  

Delaware  

Florida..  

Georgia...          

Idaho    

Illinois  •  

Indiana  

22,208 

20-595 
163,111 
23-50° 
13  281 

10 

Iowa  

Kansas  

Kentucky     

Louisiana  

Maine  

2  381 

Maryland  

7Q6 

Massachusetts  

Michigan  

iQ,8g2 

•9*3*3 

10,256 

Minnesota  
Mississippi  
Missouri  

Montana  

7-334 
83-134 
7,264 
292 
969 
16,429 

44,736 
17,700 

3 

i 

Nebraska  .  

New  Hampshire  

New  York  
North  Carolina       

North   Dakota  
Ohio  

Oregon  

26,965 
8,714 
228 

i 

Pennsylvania  

Rhode  Island    

South  Carolina.... 

South  Dakota  .     .        .... 

26,544 
23.477 
99,688 
43 

Tennessee  

Texas  

Vermont  

Virginia   

Washington  
West  Virginia  

19,165 
4,166 

Wisconsin  

9,909 
7,722 

Wyoming  

1,041,028 

22 

1,564,318 

*  For  Representatives  to  Congress. 

t  For  State  Treasurer. 

\  For  Secretary  of  State. 

||  For  Judge  of  Supreme  Court. 

£  No  candidate.    Estimated  at  Presidential  vote. 

1  1893- 


People's  Party. 


1003 


People's  Party. 


Of  the  Presidential  vote  in  1892  it  must  be  noted 
that  in  the  States  of  Colorado,  Idaho,  Kansas,  North 
Dakota,  and  Wyoming  the  Democrats  ran  noelectoral 
tickets,  and  voted  for  the  Populist  electoral  tickets  for 
the  purpose  of  taking:  those  States  from  the  Republi- 
cans. With  a  few  exceptions  they  also  voted  for  the 
Populist  electors  in  Nevada.  In  Louisiana  the  Repub- 
lican party  and  Populist  united  their  vote,  each  nomi- 
nating half  of  the  eight  candidates  for  electors,  and  in 
the  table  their  aggregate  popular  vote  is  divided. 

In  five  States  the  electoral  vote  was  divided  :  in 
California  and  Ohio  because  the  vote  for  the  Cleveland 
and  Harrison  electors  was  so  close ;  in  Michigan 
because,  by  act  of  Legislature,  each  Congressional 
District  voted  separately  for  an  elector  ;  in  Oregon 
because  one  of  the  four  candidates  for  electors  on  the 
Populist  ticket  was  also  on  the  Democrat  ticket,  the  re- 
sult being  three  Republicans  and  one  Populist  elected; 
in  North  Dakota  because  one  of  the  two  Populist  elec- 
tors who  were  elected  cast  his  vote  for  Cleveland,  this 
causing  the  electoral  vote  of  the  State  to  be  equally 
divided  between  Cleveland,  Harrison,  and  Weaver. 

Some  of  the  People's  party  organs  claim  that  in  many 
States,  especially  in  the  South,  the  votes  of  the  party 
are  not  counted  or  are  miscounted  to  such  an  extent 
that  the  real  Populist  vote  was  nearer  2,000,00x3  than 
1,500,000.  Even  at  the  smaller  figures,  the  party  lead- 
ers claim  that  a  party  polling  a  million  votes  at  its 
first  Presidential  election,  and  increasing  this  50  per 
cent,  in  two  years,  shows  unecjualed  vitality.  That 
the  Populist  vote  was  reduced  in  some  of  its  strong- 
holds they  lay  to  local  reasons,  and  assert  that  because 
of  the  fusing  of  parties  in  the  Presidential  election  in 
some  States,  the  apparent  losses  of  the  Populist  vote 
in  a  few  States  were  only  apparent,  and  that,  take  the 
country  through,  a  very  great  advance  was  made.  In 
Congress,  the  Populist  strength  in  the  Fifty-third 
Congress  (March  1893-95)  was  5  Senators  and  10  Rep- 
resentatives; in  the  Fifty-fourth  Congress  (March, 
1895-97)  5  or  6  Senators,  and  6  or  7  Representatives;  in  the 
Fifty-fifth  Congress  6  Senators  and  16  Representatives. 

In  1895,  in  an  off  year  and  with  a  light  vote,  the 
People's  Party  slightly  lessened  its  vote  in  Kansas, 
Nebraska,  Iowa,  Massachusetts,  and  New  York,  and 
somewhat  increased  it  in  Minnesota,  Mississippi,  Ohio, 
and  Texas. 

In  1896  the  Democratic  party  (g.v.),  having 
adopted  a  platform   favoring   free   silver  at  a 
ratio  of  16  to  i,  and  so  far  inclining  to  some 
other  Populist  demands  that  it  was 
continually  called  a  Populist  plat- 
Election     form,  the   People's  party   Conven- 
of  1896.     tion  at  St.   .Louis,  July  24,  voted, 
after  a  prolonged  and  heated  de 
bate,  to    support    the    Democratic 
nominee,  Mr.   William  J.  Bryan,  tho  nominat- 
ing a  Vice -Presidential  candidate  of  their  own, 
Thomas  E.  Watson,  of  Georgia.     A  heated  mi- 
nority claimed  that  this  result  was  gained  by 
political  intrigues  of  the   Democratic  leaders. 
For  the  platform  see  APPENDIX.     For  the  elec- 
tion see  PRESIDENCY      Since  the  election  some 
Populists  have  advocated  the  breaking  off  of  all 
alliance  with    the   Democratic    party ;    others, 
however,  incline  to  renew  the  battle  in  1900,  on 
the  same  grounds  as  in  1896. 

(For  a  discussion  of  the  silver  issue,  see  SIL- 
VER, FREE  SILVER,  BIMETALLISM,  CONTRACTION 
AND  EXPANSION  OF  THE  CURRENCY,  and  CUR- 
RENCY. For  the  farmers'  movement,  see 
FARMERS'  MOVEMENT.  For  the  tendency  of  the 
People's  party  to  Nationalism,  see  NATIONAL- 
ISM.) Concerning  The  Mission  of  the  Populist 
Party,  Senator  Peffer  writes  in  the  North 
American  Review  of  December,  1893  : 

"The  Populist  party  is  an  organized  demand  that 
the  functions  of  government  shall  be  exercised  only 
for  the  mutual  benefit  of  all  the  people.  It  asserts 
that  government  is  useful  only  to  the  extent  that  it 
serves  to  advance  the  common  weal.  Believing  that 
the  public  good  is  paramount  to  private  interests,  it 
protests  against  the  delegation  of  sovereign  powers 


to  private  agencies.  Its  motto  is:  'Equal  rights  to 
all ;  special  privileges  to  none.'  Its  creed  is  written 
in  a  single  line  of  the  Declaration  of  Independence— 
'All  men  are  created  equal.'  Devoted  to  the  objects 
for  which  the  Constitution  of  the  United  States  was 
adopted,  it  proposes  to  '  form  a  more  perfect  union ' 
by  cultivating  a  national  sentiment  among  the  people; 
to  '  insure  domestic  tranquillity  '  by  securing  to  every 
man  and  woman  what  they  earn;  to  '  establish  justice  ' 
by  procuring  an  equitable  distribution  of  the  products 
and  profits  of  labor;  to  'provide  for  the  common  de- 
fense '  by  interesting  every  citizen  in  the  ownership 
of  his  home;  to  'promote  the  general  welfare'  by 
abolishing  class  legislation  and  limiting  the  Govern- 
ment to  its  proper  functions;  and  to  '  secure  the  bless- 
ings of  liberty  to  ourselves  and  our  posterity '  by 
protecting  the  producing  masses  against  the  spolia- 
tion of  speculators  and  usurers. 

"The  Populist  claims  that  the  mission  of  his  party 
is  to  emancipate  labor.  He  believes  that  men  are  not 
only  created  equal,  but  that  they  are  equally  entitled 
to  the  use  of  natural  resources  in  procuring  means  of 
subsistence  and  comfort.  He  believes  that  an  equita- 
ble distribution  of  the  products  and  profits  of  labor  is 
essential  to  the  highest  form  of  civilization;  that 
taxation  should  only  be  for  public  purposes,  and  that 
all  moneys  raised  by  taxes  should  go  into  the  public 
treasury ;  that  public  needs  should  be  supplied  by 
public  agencies,  and  that  the  people  should  be  served 
equally  and  alike. 

"  The  party  believes  in  popular  government.  Its 
demands  may  be  summarized  fairly  to  be  : 

"i.  An   exclusively  national    currency    in    amount 
amply  sufficient  for  all  the  uses  for  which  money  is 
needed  by  the  people,  to  consist  of  gold 
and  silver  coined  on  equal  terms,  and 
government  paper,  each  and  all  legal 
tender  in  payment  of  debts  of  whatever 
nature  or  amount,  receivable  for  taxes 
and  all  public  dues. 

"a.  That  rates  of  interest  for  the  use  of  money  be 
reduced  to  the  level  of  average  net  profits  in  pro- 
ductive industries. 

"3.  That  the  means  of  public  transportation  be 
brought  under  public  control,  to  the  end  that  carriage 
shall  not  cost  more  than  it  is  reasonably  worth,  and 
that  charges  may  be  made  uniform. 

"  4.  That  large  private  land-holdings  be  discouraged 
by  law. 

"It  is  charged  against  Populists  that  they  favor 
paternalism  in  government.  This  is  an  error.  They 
only  demand  that  public  functions  shall  be  exercised 
by  public  agents,  and  that  sovereign  powers  shall  not 
be  delegated  to  private  persons  or  corporations  hav- 
ing only  private  interests  to  serve.  They  would 
popularize  government  to  the  end  that  it  may  accom- 
plish the  work  for  which  it  was  established — to  serve 
the  people  ;  all  the  people,  not  only  a  few. 

"  If  it  be  paternalism  to  require  the  Government  to 
look  after  any  of  the  private  interests  of  the  people, 
why  do  we  not  drive  from  our  grounds  as  a  tramp  the 
postman  who  delivers  our  mail?  If  it  be  paternalism 
to  bring  our  transportation  business  under  public 
control,  why  do  we  not  repeal  the  inter-State  com- 
merce law  and  restore  the  carrying  trade  to  private 
citizens  from  whose  rapacity  the  people  were  partially 
released  some  years  ago?  If  it  be  paternalism  to 
establish  government  agencies  to  supply  currency  to 
the  people,  what  means  the  national  bank  act  whose 
title  reads:  'An  act  to  provide  a  national  currency 
secured  by  a  pledge  of  United  States  bonds,  and-  to 
provide  for  the  circulation  and  redemption  thereof  ? 

"  All  there  is  in  the  charge  of  paternalism  lies  in  the 
fact  that  Populists  believe  that,  as  to  these  particular 
matters,  the  people  would  be  served  more  equitably, 
and  at  greatly  reduced  expense,  by  public  agents 
working  on  fixed  salaries,  than  by  private  persons 
who  use  their  business  for  private  ends. 

"It  will  be  observed  that  the  party  deals  with  live 
issues  only,  and  they  are  those  chiefly  which  relate  to 
the  use  of  natural  resources  of  subsistence  and  to  the 
distribution  of  property  and  property  values.  This  is 
the  only  party  that  clearly  expresses  a  well-defined 
position  on  the  'money  question.'  .It  states  the  kind 
of  money  the  party  wants— gold,  silver,  and  paper ; 
it  demands  that  the  metals  be  coined  freely,  in  un- 
limited quantities,  at  a  ratio  of  16  to  i  ;  that  the  cur- 
rency shall  be  issued  by  the  General  Government  only 
—not  by  banks— and  that  it  shall  be  a  full  legal 
tender.  .  .  . 

"The  Populist  party  is  the  only  party  that  honestly 
favors  good  money.  Democrats  and  Republicans 
alike  declare  their  purpose  to  make  all  dollars  equally 


People's  Party. 


1004 


Perovskaya,  Sophia. 


good  and  to  maintain  the  parity  between  them,  and 
the  recent  Act  of  Congress  repealing  the  purchasing 
clause  of  the  Sherman  law  contains  a  similar  declara- 
tion ;  but  when  an  amendment  was  proposed  to  the 
bill  in  the  Senate  to  make  good  the  platform  promises 
by  incorporating  them  in  the  law,  there 
were  not  enough  Senators  in  favor  of  it 
w     .    T       0  to  secure  a  yea  and  nay  vote  on  the 
money  issue.  amendment     We  have  seven  different 

kinds  of  money,  and  only  one  of  them 
is  good,  according  to  the  determination 
of  the  Treasury  officials.  Bank-notes  are  not  legal 
tender,  neither  are  silver  certificates  nor  gold  certifi- 
cates. Treasury  notes  are  not  legal  tender  in  cases 
where  another  kind  of  money  is  expressed  in  the  con- 
tract, and  United  States  notes  (greenbacks)  will  not 
pay  either  principal  or  interest  on  any  government 
bond.  None  of  our  paper  money  is  taxable.  Silver 
dollars  are  by  law  full  legal  tender  in  payment  of 
debts  to  any  amount  whatever,  but  the  Treasury  does 
not  pay  them  out  on  any  obligation  unless  they  are 
specially  requested.  In  practice,  we  have  but  one 
full  legal  tender  money— gold  coin  ;  and  Republicans 
and  Democrats  are  agreed  on  continuing  that  policy  ; 
•while  Populists  demand  gold,  silver,  and  paper  money, 
all  equally  full  legal  tender. 

"The  fact  that  we  have  now  out  about  $700,000,000 
in  paper  is  proof  that  our  stock  of  coin  is  utterly 
inadequate  to  perform  all  the  money  duty  required  in 
the  people's  business  transactions.  The  discontinu- 
ance of  silver  coinage  stops  the  supply  from  that 
source.  It  is  believed  by  men  best  informed  on  the 
subject  that  the  gold  used  in  the  arts  has  reached  an 
amount  about  equal  to  the  annual  output  of  the  mines. 
Then  the  world  s  stock  of  gold  coin  will  not  be  in- 
creased unless  the  arts  are  drawn  upon,  and  that  can 
be  done  successfully  only  at  a  price  above  the  money 
value  of  the  coin.  Russia,  Austria,  Italy,  and  the 
United  States  all  want  more  gold.  Where  is  it  to 
come  from?  And  what  will  it  cost  the  purchaser? 
Are  we  to  drop  back  to  Roman  methods  of  procuring 
treasure  ?  When  all  the  nations  set  out  on  gold-hunt- 
ing expeditions,  who  will  be  the  victor  and  what  will 
become  of  the  spoils  ? 

"It  is  evident  that  we  must  have  more  money,  and 
Congress  alone  is  authorized  to  prepare  it.  States 
are  prohibited  by  the  Constitution  of  the  United 
States  from  making  anything  but  gold  and  silver 
coin  a  legal  tender  in  payment  of  debts,  and  nothing 
is  money  that  is  not  a  legal  tender.  The  people  can 
rely  only  on  Congress  for  a  safe-circulating  medium. 

"  Populists  demand  not  only  a  sufficiency  of  money, 
but  a  reduction  of  interest  rates  at  least  as  low  as  the 
general  level  of  the  people's  savings.  They  aver  that 
with  interest  at  present  legal  and  actual  rates,  an 
increase  in  the  volume  of  money  in  the  country  would 
be  of  little  permanent  benefit,  for  bankers  and  brokers 
would  control  its  circulation,  just  as  they  do  now. 
But  with  interest  charges  reduced  to  3  or  2  per  cent, 
the  business  of  the  money-lender  would  be  no  more 
profitable  than  that  of  the  farmer — and  why  should 
ft  be?  .  .  . 

"  While  the  Populist  party  favors  government 
ownership  and  control  ot  railroads,  it  wisely  leaves 
for  future  consideration  the  means  by  which  such 
ownership  and  control  can  best  be  brought  about. 
The  conditions  which  seem  to  make  necessary  such 
a  change  in  our  transportation  system  preclude  all 
possibility  of  its  ever  being  practicable,  if  it  were 
desirable,  to  purchase  existing  railway  lines.  The 
total  capitalization  of  railways  in  the  United  States 
in  i8qo  was  put  at  §q,87i,378,38g — nearly  ten  thousand 
million  dollars.  It  would  be  putting  the  figures  high 
to  say  that  the  roads  are  worth  one-half  the  amount 
of  their  capital  stock.  This  leaves  a  fictitious  value 
of  $5,000,000,000  which  the  people  must  maintain  for 
the  roads  by  transportation  charges  twice  as  high  as 
they  would  be  if  the  capitalization  were  only  half  as 
much.  It  is  the  excessive  capitalization  which  the 
people  have  to  maintain  that  they  complain  about. 
It  would  be  an  unbusinesslike  proceeding  for  the 
people  to  purchase  roads  when  they  could  build 
better  ones  just  when  and  where  they  are  needed  for 
less  than  half  th£  money  that  would  be  required  to 
clear  these  companies'  books.  It  is  conceded  that 
none  of  the  highly  capitalized  railroad  corporations 
expect  to  pay  their  debts.  If  they  can  keep  even 
on  interest  account  they  do  well,  and  that  is  all  they 
are  trying  to  do.  While  charges  have  been  greatly 
reduced,  they  are  still  based  on  capitalization,  and 
courts  have  held  that  the  companies  are  entitled  to 
reasonable  profits  on  their  investment.  The  people 
have  but  one  safe  remedy — to  construct  their  own 


roads  as  needed,  and  then  they  will  '  own  and  con- 
trol '  them." 

(See  also  OMAHA  PLATFORM;  FARMERS'  MOVE- 
MENT ;  GREENBACK  MOVEMENT  ;  SILVER  ;  FREE 
SILVER;  BIMETALLISM;  CONTRACTION  AND  EX- 
PANSION OF  CURRENCY  ;  NATIONALISM.) 

PERIN,    HENRI    XAVIER   CHARLES, 

born  at  Mons  (Hainaut)  in  1815,  and  educated 
at  Lou  vain,  was  in  1844  chosen  to  the  chair  of 
Political  Economy  and  Law  in  the  Catholic  Uni- 
versity of  Louvain,  and  occupied  this  position 
37  years,  retiring  as  Emeritus  professor  in  1881. 
A  learned  professor  and  frequent  writer,  he  may 
be  considered  one  of  the  main  teachers  of  eco- 
nomics from  the  standpoint  of  Roman  Catholi- 
cism. His  work  on  the  Laws  of  Christian 
Society  is  prefaced  by  a  Pontifical  breve,  dated 
February  i,  1875,  full  of  unqualified  praise  from 
the  Pope. 

His  main  works  are  Les  Economistes,  les 
Socialist es  et  le  Chretianisme  (1849);  De  la 
Richesse  dans  les  Societes  Chretiennes  (1861); 
Le  Socialisme  Chretien  (1879),  with  an  ap- 
pended discourse  delivered  by  C.  Perm  at  the 
opening  of  the  Congress  of  the  Directors  of 
the  Roman  Catholic  Workmen's  Association, 
at  Chartres,  August  9,  1878;  and  his  last  work 
but  one,  Les  Doctrines  Econotniques  depuis  un 
Siecle,  published  in  1880,  which  contains  in  its 
closing  chapters  a  most  interesting  account  of 
the  various  Catholic  associations  for  the  good 
of  the  working  classes  in  France  and  Belgium. 
The  last  work,  of  mixed  essays,  contains  the 
author's  views  on  subjects  of  social  interest 
which  have  occupied  the  attention  of  the  world 
for  the  last  twenty  years. 

Perin  founds  social  order  on  Divine  author- 
ity, but  he  trusts  to  the  moral  influence  of  the 
Church  rather  than  mechanical  obedience  tc- 
her  laws,  as  pronounced  ex  cathedra. 

"  We  are  at  present  agreed  among  ourselves 
to  proclaim  the  rule  of  Christian  liberty  as  the 
law  of  economics,  a  liberty  equally  remote 
from  the  extremes  of  license  and  absolutism, 
from  the  laissez-faire  system,  which  is  the 
boast  of  Liberals,  and  State  control  over  life 
and  property,  which,  in  one  form  or  another, 
socialism  proclaims  to  be  just  and  necessary." 

Perin  allows  that,  in  exceptional  cases,  re- 
pressive measures  by  the  State  are  necessary  • 
but  under  ordinary  circumstances,  he  thinks, 
the  preventive  measures  proposed  by  Christian 
Socialism,  in  its  endeavors  to  revive  the  moral 
force  of  self-restraint  and  self-denial,  will  prove 
sufficient.  He  acknowledges  the  impossibility  of 
returning  to  medieval  forms  of  corporate  union, 
but  strongly  recommends  the  revival  of  that 
principle  of  Christian  love  which  inspired  them. 

PEROVSKAYA,  SOPHIA  (born  1854,  exe- 
cuted 1881),  was  one  of  the  ablest  leaders  of 
the  Russian  revolutionists.  By  birth  a  mem- 
ber of  the  highest  aristocracy  of  Russia,  the 
despotism  that  was  being  enacted  around  her 
early  roused  a  hatred  of  oppression  and  desire 
to  protect  the  oppressed. 

In  Russia,  during  the  decade  1860-70,  there 
was  fought  out  the  battle  of  woman's  right  to 
think  for  herself  and  to  study  what  she  would. 
Kept  in  ignorance  and  in  constant  subjection 


Perovskaya,  Sophia. 


1005 


Peru,  Socialism  in  Ancient. 


to  the  tyranny  of  the  master  of  the  house,  the 
position  of  women  was  a  hard  one.  When, 
however,  the  Nihilist  philosophy  (see  NIHIL- 
ISM) spread  over  the  land,  the  women  caught 
the  flame,  and  demanded  the  right  of  access 
to  the  study  of  science  and  philosophy  and 
freedom  to  think  for  themselves.  In  1869  So- 
phia Perovskaya,  when  refused  permission  by 
her  father,  ran  away  from  home,  determined  to 
study  and  know  for  herself.  When  at  last 
her  father  relented  and  provided  her  with  a 
passport,  she  was  free  to  pursue  her  studies. 
The  wider  horizon  thus  opened  to  her  led  to 
the  conviction  that  the  present  social  arrange- 
ments were  on  a  wrong  basis,  and  indicated 
socialism  as  the  remedy.  Meeting  with  others 
who  shared  similar  views,  they  joined  them- 
selves into  a  secret  society  or  "  circle"  for  the 
purpose  of  spreading  the  propaganda  among 
the  young,  and  later,  in  1871,  upon  her  sug- 
gestion, the  propaganda  was  turned  in  the  di- 
rection of  the  working  men.  All  this  work  had 
to  be  carried  on  by  secret  means,  and  with 
constant  danger  to  the  teacher,  for  the  Rus- 
sian Government  was  ruthlessly  suppressing 
all  such  endeavors.  Toward  the  end  of  1873 
Sophia  Perovskaya  was  arrested  while  carry- 
ing on  the  agitation  in  St.  Petersburg;  and 
after  being  imprisoned  for  a  year  was  released 
on  the  bail  of  her  father,  but  had  to  go  to  the 
Crimea;  where  for  three  years  she  was  still 
practically  a  prisoner  in  her  own  home.  In 
1877  she  was  brought  to  trial,  in  the  "  trial  of 
the  193,"  and  with  many  others  was  acquitted — 
but  instead  of  being  allowed  to  go  free,  she  was 
exiled  on  a  police  order,  to  one  of  the  northern 
provinces.  Escaping  very  soon  afterward, 
she  returned  to  St.  Petersburg,  and  again  took 
up  active  work  for  the  revolutionary  cause. 
By  this  time,  however,  the  methods  had 
changed,  and  "terror"  was  the  weapon  that 
had  to  be  used.  In  all  the  terrorist  enterprises, 
from  1878  till  her  death  in  1881,  she  took  an 
active  part;  often  being  the  director  and  con- 
troller of  the  most  desperate  of  them,  such  as 
the  Moscow  mine  which  was  to  blow  up  the 
Imperial  train,  and  the  attempt  which  suc- 
ceeded in  assassinating  the  Czar  on  March  13, 
1881.  A  week  later  she  was  arrested,  and  on 
April  15  was  hanged  with  Kibalcic,  Geliahpff, 
Timothy  Micailoff ,  and  Rissakoff .  Possessing 
a  combination  of  characteristics  seldom  or 
never  matched,  Sophia  Perovskaya  was  and 
is  the  heroine  whose  example  fires  the  hearts 
of  the  Russian  revolutionists  with  increased 
enthusiasm.  In  person  very  beautiful,  and 
only  26  when  she  died,  for  eleven  years  she 
had  devoted  her  whole  life  to  the  cause  of 
Russian  freedom.  Filled  with  enthusiasm,  and 
with  a  determination  as  unyielding  as  ada- 
mant, she  was  able  to  excel  in  everything  she 
undertook,  and,  with  it  all,  of  so  kindly  and 
loving  a  nature  that  all  those  with  whom  she 
worked,  at  once  entertained  the  warmest  regard 
for  her.  (See  NIHILISM.) 

PERRY,  ARTHUR  LATHAM,  was  born 
in  Lyme,  N.  H.,  in  1830.  He  was  graduated 
at  Williams  in  1852,  and  has  been  professor  of 
history  and  political  economy  there  since 
1853.  An  ardent  free-trader,  he  has  delivered 


many  lectures  and  addresses  on  this  subject, 
besides  writing  editorially  for  the  Springfield 
Republican,  and  the  New  York  Evening  Post. 
Union  College  gave  him  the  degree  of  LL.  D. 
His  works  on  economic  science  are  Political 
Economy  (1865)  and  Introduction  to  Political 
Economy  (1877).  His  works  have  been  much 
used  as  text-books,  and  the  2oth  edition  of  his 
Political  Economy  appeared  in  1890. 

PERSONAL  LIBERTY  LAWS  were 
laws  passed  by  several  of  the  Northern  States 
during  the  existence  in  the  United  States  of 
the  fugitive-slave  laws  (q.  v.),  for  the  purpose 
of  securing  to  alleged  fugitives  the  privilege 
of  the  writ  of  habeas  corpus,  and  of  trial  by 
jury,  which  the  fugitive-slave  laws  denied. 
The  first  was  passed  by  New  York  State  in 
1840. 

PERSONAL  LIBERTY  MOVEMENTS. 

— There  have  been  various  spasmodic  efforts 
at  different  times  to  organize  personal  liberty 
societies,  and  sometimes  even  a  personal  lib- 
erty party,  to  defend  and  agitate  for  the 
claimed  right  of  the  individual  to  govern  his 
own  acts  in  certain  lines  in  which  the  State  had 
interfered  or  it  was  proposed  that  the  State 
should  interfere.  None  of  these  movements, 
however,  have  taken  enduring  form.  They 
have  been  organized  simply  at  times  of  special 
excitement,  when  certain  classes  have  believed 
their  personal  liberties  threatened.  Germans  in 
New  York  City,  e.  g. ,' have  proposed  such 
organization  against  anti-saloon  or  Sunday- 
closing  legislation.  In  England,  the  Liberty 
and  Property  Defense- League  (q.  v.)  is  organ- 
ized against  general  socialistic  legislation. 

(For  the  principles  involved,  see  ANARCHISM, 
INDIVIDUALISM,  SPENCER.) 

PERSONAL    LIBERTY    PARTY.— The 

strict  enforcement  in  New  York  of  laws  di- 
rected against  the  sale  of  liquor  on  Sundays 
caused  tue  formation  there  of  an  organization 
favoring  the  abolition  of  such  restrictions  on 
the  sale  of  liquor  as  are  deemed  to  conflict 
with  the  liberty  of  the  individual,  that  is,  the 
total  prohibition  of  its  sale  on  Sunday.  This 
organization  took  the  name  of  Personal  Lib- 
erty Party,  and  in  New  York,  on  October  6, 
1887,  adopted  a  platform  declaring  that  laws 
of  the  above  description  have  notoriously  failed 
to  improve  morality,  while  they  interfere  with 
the  personal  liberty  of  the  individual;  and  cit- 
ing, as  people  whose  habits  of  life  are  thus 
interfered  with,  the  German  element  of  our 
population, who  are  "  assiduous,  temperate,  and 
law-abiding  people." 

It  has  had  small  influence.  Even  those  who 
believe  in  this  so-called  "personal  liberty" 
knew  that  it  was  simply  a  party  formed  by 
liquor  sellers  anxious  for  business. 

PERSONAL  PROPERTY.  See  PROP- 
ERTY. 

PERSONAL  WEALTH.     See  WEALTH. 

PERU,    SOCIALISM    IN    ANCIENT.— 

Peru  in  its  ancient  sense  included  a  vast  extent 
of  territory  on  the  Pacific  slope  of  South 


Peru,  Socialism  in  Ancient. 


1006 


Peru,  Socialism  in  Ancient. 


America.  It  was  inhabited  by  many  different 
tribes  and  nations,  all,  however,  under  the 
scepter  of  the  Incas.  The  Peruvians  were  in 
some  respects,  though  not  in  all,  the  most 
civilized  of  all  the  native  inhabitants  of  the 
New  World,  and  they  had  certainly  come  the 
nearest  of  any  to  the  formation  of  a  true  na- 
tionality. It  is  probable  that  four  tribes  of  the 
Andes  table-land,  the  Quichuas,  the  Incas, 
the  Canas,  and  the  Canchas,  formed  the  nucleus 
of  the  nation.  From  the  first  comes  the  name 
of  the  language  of  ancient  Peru,  Quichua. 
The  second  tribe,  Incas,  was  probably  the  con- 
quering tribe,  and  hence  became  the  rulers,  or 
ruling  caste.  The  career  of  conquest  of  this 
tribe  or  caste,  according  to  native  annals, 
began  with  the  first  Inca,  Manco  Capac,  about 
1280  A.  D.  ;  and  before  the  time  of  the  arrival 
of  the  Spaniards  the  petty  State  had  become  a 
great  empire.  It  then  extended  from  a  point 
north  of  the  equator  to  Chile,  a  distance  of 
2700  miles,  and  its  area  was  more  than  800,000 
square  miles. 

The  government  of  the  Incas  was  a  des- 
potism, a  theocracy,  and  a  unique  example  of 
paternal  and  State  socialism.  At  the  head  was 
the  Inca,  an  absolute  monarch,  but  more  than 
a  monarch — a  god-king,  a  living  incarnation  of 
the  sun.  Next  to  him  came  the  Inca  nobility, 
who  were  regarded  as  superior  beings,  and  by 
whose  aid  the  Inca  governed  the  people. 

The  empire  was  the  result  of  military  con- 
quest and  occupation.  As  peoples  were  sub- 
dued, the  laws  and  even  the  language  of  the 
Incas  were  imposed  on  them  The  security  of 
the  government  was  secured  by  an  elaborate 
system  of  military  roads  and  defenses.  There 
were  four  great  provinces,  to  each  of  which 
ran  a  great  road.  Each  province  had  a  vice- 
roy appointed  by  the  Inca.  The  highways 
were  solidly  built  of  stone,  and  carried  with 
great  skill  over  the  heights  of  the  Andes. 
They  radiated  from  Cuzco,  the  capital,  as  a 
center.  Cieza  de  Leon,  an  early  chronicler, 
says  of  the  great  highway  from  Cuzco  to 
Quito,  that  the  roads  made  by  the  Romans  in 
Spain  are  not  to  be  compared  with  it.  Along 
these  roads  at  certain  intervals  there  were 
storehouses.  An  elaborate  system  of  couriers 
also  made  communication  with  different  parts 
of  the  empire  easy.  But  this  military  system, 
natural  in  all  powerful  despotisms,  was  car- 
ried also  into  the  industrial  organization. 
Peru  was  remarkable  for  this.  A  highly  arti- 
ficial and  thoroughly  centralized  system  of  the 
regulation  of  industry  existed.  There  was  no 
private  property  ;  everything  belonged  to  the 
State,  and  everything  was  managed  by  the 
State.  It  was  a  communistic  despotism.  Of 
the  entire  produce  of  the  nation  two-thirds 
went  to  the  Inca,  the  nobles,  and  the  priest- 
hood as  taxes,  one-third  only  to  the  people, 
although  they  were  the  only  producing  class. 

In  regard  to  the  details  of  industrial  organ- 
ization Fiske  states  (Discovery  of  America, 
vol.  ii.  p.  353)  : 

"  Families  and  villages  were  organized  upon  a  deci- 
mal system,  like  companies  and  regiments.  The 
average  monogamous  family  of  five  persons  was  the 
unit.  Ten  such  families  made  a  chunca,  ten  chuncas 
made  one  pacliaca,  ten  pachacas  one  huaranca,  and 
ten  huarancas  one  hunu,  so  that  a  hnnu  was  a  district 


with  a  population  of  about  50,000  persons.  Each  of 
these  decimal  subdivisions  had  its  presiding  officer, 
who  was  responsible  directly  to  his  immediate  supe- 
rior, and  ultimately  to  the  Inca.  The  decurion  was 
obliged  to  perform  two  duties  in  relation  to  the  men 
composing  his  division.  One  was  to  act  as  their  ca- 
terer, to  assist  them  with  his  diligence  and  care  on 
all  occasions  when  they  required  help,  reporting  their 
necessities  to  the  governor  or  other  officer,  whose 
duty  it  was  to  supply  seeds  when  they  were  required 
for  sowing  ;  or  cloth  for  making  clothes  ;  or  to  help  to 
rebuild  a  house  if  it  fell  or  was  burned  down  ;  or 
whatever  other  need  they  had,  great  or  small.  The 
other  duty  was  to  act  as  crown  officer,  reporting  every 
offense,  how  slight  soever  it  might  be,  committed  by 
his  people,  to  his  superior,  who  either  pronounced  the 
punishment  or  referred  it  to  another  officer  of  still 
higher  rank"  (Garcillasso,  lib.  ii.  cap.  xii.). 

The  land  belonged  to  the  village  commu- 
nity (chunca).  It  was  redistributed  at  times  to- 
maintain,  equality. 

Land  was  divided  into  tupus,  one  tupu  for 
each  family,  with  additions  for  children.  All 
the  farming  operations  and  those  of  irrigation 
were  supervised  by  the  decurion.  If  a  village 
suffered  from  war,  or  pestilence,  or  earth- 
quake, other  villages  were  assessed  to  repair 
the  damage. 

It  is  remarkable  that  such  an  artificial  sys- 
tem, originally  intended  for  a  petty  State, 
could  have  been  adapted  to  a  large  empire 
made  up  of  many  different  peoples.  But  it 
must  be  remembered  that  these  peoples  had 
not  reached  a  high  grade  of  culture  ;  the  social 
organization  was  simple,  to  begin  with.  There 
was  little  division  of  labor,  and  little  exten- 
sion of  human  wants.  Exchange  was  limited, 
for  there  was  no  money  of  any  kind  and  trade 
was  by  barter.  Fiske  explains  the  existence 
of  the  peculiar  Inca  State  socialism  by  the 
theory  that  the  formation  of  nationality  and 
the  establishment  of  a  ruling  caste  took  place 
before  there  had  been  much  development  of 
the  idea  of  private  property  among  the  people, 
so  that  the  result  was  a  communistic  despot- 
ism. In  becoming  naturalized  the  State  stif- 
fened into  despotism. 

Notwithstanding  the  complete  repression  of 
individual  liberty  under  the  Inca  government 
there  are  great  excellencies  to  be  ascribed  to 
it.  Of  these,  the  chief  is  that  poverty  and. 
idleness  were  entirely  abolished.  Every  one 
worked,  and  every  one  was  taken  care  of  by 
the  State.  Prescott,  though  inclined  strongly 
to  individualism,  says  (Conquest  of  Peru,  vol. 
i.  p.  173) : 

"With  their  manifold  provisions  against  poverty 
the  reader  has  already  been  made  acquainted.  They 
were  so  perfect  that  in  their  wide  extent  of  territory — 
much  of  it  smitten  with  the  curse  of  barrenness — no 
man,  however  humble,  suffered  for  the  want  of  food 
and  clothing.  Famines,  so  common  a  scourge  in  every 
other  American  nation,  so  common  at  that  period 
in  every  country  of  civilized  Europe,  was  an  evil  un- 
known in  the  dominions  of  the  Incas." 

In  another  passage  he  says  (Conquest  of 
Peru,  vol.  i.  p.  63) : 

"  If  no  man  could  become  rich  in  Peru,  no  man  could 
become  poor.  No  spendthrift  could  waste  his  sub- 
stance in  riotous  luxury.  No  adventurous  schemer 
could  impoverish  his  family  by  the  spirit  of  specula- 
tion. The  law  was  constantly  directed  to  enforce  a 
steady  industry  and  a  sober  management  of  his  af- 
fairs. No  mendicant  was  tolerated  in  Peru.  When  a 
man  was  reduced  by  poverty  or  misfortune  (it  could 
hardly  be  by  fault)  the  arm  of  the  law  was  stretched 
out  to  minister  relief  ;  not  the  stinted  relief  of  private 
charity,  nor  that  which  is  doled  out,  drop  by  drop,  as 


Peru,  Socialism  in  Ancient. 


1007 


Physiocrats. 


it  were,  from  the  frozen  reservoirs  of  'the  parish,'  but 
in  generous  measure,  bringing  no  humiliation  to  the 
object  of  it,  and  placing  him  on  a  level  with  the  rest 
of  his  countrymen." 

The  system  of  the  Incas  had  produced  in 
many  respects  an  industrious  and  happy 
people.  Yet  it  fell  to  pieces  before  the  Spanish 
invaders,  with  wonderful  rapidity,  because 
there  had  been  nothing  in  it  to  nourish  the 
spirit  of  patriotism  and  of  independence  in  the 
people. 

Modern  socialism,  dealing  with  the  complex 
problems  of  a  highly  developed  civilization, 
can  learn  little  from  Peru,  where  the  state  of 
society  was  primitive  and  the  conditions  en- 
tirely different.  The  State  socialism  of  the 
Incas  was  unlike  anything  that  ever  existed 
elsewhere,  or  is  likely  ever  to  exist. 

PETTY,  SIR  WILLIAM,  was  born  at 
Romsey,  Hampshire,  England,  in  1623.  An 
English  publicist,  he  sided  with  Parliament  in 
the  Civil  War.  In  1651  he  was  professor  of 
anatomy  at  Brasenose,  Oxford,  and  of  music 
at  Gresham  College.  In  1652  he  was  appointed 
physician  to  the  army  in  Ireland,  and  about 
1654  executed  by  contract  a  fresh  survey  of  the 
forfeited  lands  granted  to  soldiers.  He  bought 
large  tracts  of  land  and  established  various 
industries.  He  was  knighted  after  the  Resto- 
ration. In  1663  he  invented  a  double-bot- 
tomed boat.  He  wrote  Quantulumcunque  ; 
or,  a  Tract  Concerning  Money  (1682)  ;  A 
Treatise  of  Taxes  and  Contributions  (1662-85) ; 
Essays  on  Political  Arithmetic  (1691) ;  Politi- 
cal Anatomy  of  Ireland  (1691).  He  died  in 
London  in  1687. 

Cossa  calls  Petty  "  one  of  the  most  illustri- 
ous fore-runners  of  the  science  of  statistical 
research,"  and  Ingram  considers  him  a  writer 
of  much  sagacity  and  good  sense.  He  belongs 
to  no  school,  opposing  many  of  the  errors  of 
the  mercantilists,  yet  sharing  some  of  their 
views.  On  several  he  anticipates  or  at  least 
gives  germs  of  the  conclusions  of  Ricardo  and 
Adam  Smith.  One  of  his  leading  thoughts 
was  that  "  labor  is  the  father  and  active  prin- 
ciple of  wealth  ;  lands  are  the  mother."  He 
divides  population  into  two  classes,  the  pro- 
ductive and  non-productive.  The  value  of  any 
commodity  depends,  with  him,  on  the  amount 
of  labor  necessary  for  its  production.  He 
chooses  as  his  unit  of  value  the  average  food 
of  the  cheapest  kind  required  for  a  man's  daily 
sustenance.  He  opposes  government  control 
of  interest,  and  industry  generally.  A  study 
of  Petty,  by  W.  L.  Bevan,  was  published  by  the 
American  Economic  Association,  August,  1894. 

PHILLIPS,  WENDELL  (1811-84),  aboli- 
tionist, orator,  and  reformer,  was  born  at 
Boston,  the  descendant  of  a  family  of  aristo- 
cratic position.  His  father  was  first  mayor  of 
Boston  in  1822.  He  was  educated  at  Harvard, 
and  called  to  the  Suffolk  bar  in  1834.  The  agi- 
tation on  the  slavery  question  was  at  its 
height.  It  was  in  1835  that  a  Boston  mob, 
moved  by  the  commercial  spirit,  dragged  Gar- 
rison through  the  streets  by  a  rope.  This 
event  made  a  profound  impression  on  Phillips, 
and  in  1837  he  identified  himself  with  the  anti- 
slavery  cause.  In  a  Faneuil  Hall  meeting, 


called  to  protest  against  the  murder  of  Love- 
joy,  he  made  an  eloquent  speech  as  champion 
of  anti-slavery  principles.  Believing,  like  Gar- 
rison, that  slavery  was  a  national  sin,  he  gave 
up  his  profession  because  it  required  the  ob- 
servance of  an  oath  of  fidelity  to  the  United 
States  constitution.  He  consecrated  his  life 
to  the  fight  against  slavery,  and  did  a  great 
work  for  years  in  the  North  by  his  wonderful 
eloquence.  His  speeches  on  behalf  of  aboli- 
tion were  full  of  force  and  inspiration,  notably 
that  uttered  over  the  grave  of  John  Brown  of 
the  Harper's  Ferry  raid.  He  also  spoke,  with 
perhaps  equal  power,  on  temperance,  the 
emancipation  of  women,  and  labor  reform. 

Phillips,  as  has  been  said,  advocated  the  doc- 
trines of  the  Garrisonian  abolitionists,  who  be- 
lieved the  constitution  of  the  United  States  to 
be  an  immoral  compact  between  freedom  and 
slavery,  and  who  therefore  refused  allegiance 
to  it,  abstained  from  voting,  and  labored  for 
the  dissolution  of  the  Union  as  the  best  means 
of  negro  emancipation.  When  the  war  came 
he  urged,  from  the  beginning,  the  duty  of 
emancipation,  and  he  even  opposed  the  re- 
election of  Lincoln,  because  he  did  not  go  far 
enough.  In  1865,  Garrison  proposed  that  the 
anti-slavery  society  should  be  disbanded.  He 
had  been  its  president  for  thirty  years.  But 
Phillips  wished  the  society  to  exist  for  the  pur- 
pose of  securing  for  the  negro  his  constitu- 
tional right  of  suffrage.  Hence  he  took  Gar- 
rison's place,  and  after  full  citizenship  was 
won  for  the  negro,  in  1870,  he  resigned  the 
office  of  president,  tho  he  continued  to  work 
for  the  removal  of  race  distinctions  in  public 
resorts,  etc. 

In  1870,  his  newspaper,  the  Anti-Slavery 
Standard  was  converted  into  a  monthly  mag- 
azine. 

Phillips  now  turned  his  attention  to  other 
social  reforms.  He  spoke  for  women's  rights, 
a  cause  in  favor  of  which  he  had  pronounced 
as  early  as  1840.  His  sympathies  were  also 
enlisted  in  behalf  of  the  Indians,  and  he  con- 
tinued to  be  the  champion  of  the  temperance 
cause. 

But  the  sufferings  of  the  working  classes  had 
made  a  deep  impression  upon  him,  and  he  be- 
came an  advocate  of  thorough  social  and  eco- 
nomic reform.  In  1870  he  was  the  candidate 
of  the  labor  reform  party  for  governor  of  Mas- 
sachusetts. He  entirely  favored  the  Greenback 
party  and  worked  with  it.  Harvard  College 
had  always  ignored  Phillips,  but  in  1881,  when 
he  was  70  years  old,  he  was  selected  to  de- 
liver there  the  address  on  the  occasion  of  the 
Centennial  anniversary  of  the  Phi  Beta  Kappa 
society. 

As  an  orator  Phillips  is  easily  in  the  very 
first  ranks  of  those  whom  America  has  pro- 
duced. As  a  social  reformer  he  was  devoted 
and  unselfish,  and  his  work  was  fruitful  in  the 
highest  degree.  He  died  at  Boston,  February 
2,  1884. 


PHILOSOPHICAL  ANARCHISTS. 

ANARCHISM. 


See 


PHYSIOCRATS  (from  Gr.    <j>vmq   nature, 
and  icparia,  rule),  a  name  given  to  a  school  of 


Physiocrats. 


1008 


Piece-Work. 


French  economists  and  philosophers  which 
arose  in  the  eighteenth  century,  largely  led  by 
Frangois  Quesnay  (g.  v.),  1694-1774.  The  dis- 
tinguishing doctrines  of  the  physiocrats  were 
that  a  so-called  natural  constitution  or  order 
exists  in  society,  the  violation  of  which  causes 
all  the  evils  suffered  by  man;  that  in  this  nat- 
ural order  man  has  a  fundamental  and  inalien- 
able right  to  freedom  of  person,  opinion,  prop- 
erty, contract,  or  exchange.  The  physiocrats 
held  that  all  wealth  is  derived  from  the  soil,  thus 
denyingthe  principle  of  the  mercantilists  (g.v.), 
who  virtually  held  that  wealth  consists  in  the 
precious  metals.  All  labor  expended  in  manu- 
facture or  in  commerce  the  physiocrats  held 
to  be  sterile,  tho  useful,  in  that,  while  it  trans- 
ferred or  transformed  wealth,  it  did  not  pro- 
duce it.  Thus,  conceiving  all  wealth  to  be 
produced  from  the  soil,  they  argued  that  all 
revenues  for  the  State  should  be  derived  by  a 
direct  tax  on  land,  and  thus  became  the  pred- 
ecessors of  the  believers  in  the  Single  Tax 
{g.  v.).  They  advocated  complete  freedom  of 
trade  and  laissez-faire.  Their  influence  on 
their  day  and  succeeding  thought  was  very 
deep,  altho  not  always  acknowledged.  Adam 
Smith  (g.  v.).  seems  to  have  imbibed  and  to 
have  been  influenced  by  very  many  of  their 
ideas.  For  the  details  of  their  school  and  its 
leaders  see  their  respective  names  (see,  also, 
POLITICAL  ECONOMY).  Dr.  Gustav  Cohn.inhis 
History  of  Political  Economy,  translated  by 
Dr.  J.  A.  Hill,  says  of  the  physiocrat  school 
as  a  whole  : 

"The  French  philosophical  school  of  the  eighteenth 
century,  which  deserves  the  lasting  honor  of  having 
founded  a  science  of  economics,  was  at  first  much  rid- 
iculed by  its  contemporaries  and  later — on  account  of 
its  growing  influence  and  questionable  conclusions — 
rmuch  abused.  .  .  .  It  is  none  the  less  true,  as  Knies 
declares  in  his  reply  to  Hildebrand,  that '  however  little 
credit  they  may  get  for  it  in  the  popular  tradition, 
much  of  their  thought — tho  presented  to  be  sure  in  the 
name  of  Adam  Smith — is  still  regarded  as  unshaken 
truth.'" 

The  enduring  importance  of  the  Economists  con- 
sists in  the  eminent  ability  with  which,  unlike  their 
predecessors,  they  comprehended  and  formulated  in  a 
philosophical  system  the  practical  characteristics  of 
their  own  age.  Realizing  that  the  working  man  was 
overburdened  with  taxes  and  feudal  dues,  they  were 
led  to  adopt  an  entirely  new  theory  of  productivity. 
The  realism  of  Adam  Smith  brought  this  theory  into 
closer  relations  with  practical  life ;  but  Smith,  far 
from  developing  the  doctrine  scientifically,  did  not 
even  understand  it ;  and  so  the  thread  of  the  argument 
•was  not  taken  up  again  until  Ricardo's  time.  Upon 
this  conception  of  productivity  the  physiocrats  built 
up  their  single-tax  theory,  which  furnished  a  scientific 
basis  for  the  principle,  the  assessment,  and  the  obliga- 
tion of  taxes  ;  they  established  a  philosophical  foun- 
dation for  their  aversion  to  the  regulations  which 
absolutism  had  adopted  from  the  corporations  of  the 
Middle  Ages  ;  the  corner-stone  of  this  foundation  was 
the  principle  of  self-interest,  the  workings  of  which, 
borrowing  from  the  mechanical  ethics  of  the  century, 
they  traced  to  natural  law :  all  this,  and  even  more, 
•was  the  peculiar  work  of  the  Physiocrats. 

They  demanded  the  reign  of  the  natural  order  (prdre 
naturel  des  choses)  and  hence  the  Greek  name  given 
them  by  one  of  their  followers  (Dupont  de  Nemours). 

In  emphasizing  the  productivity  of  agriculture,  or 
indeed  in  calling  it  the  only  productive  occupation, 
.  the  Physiocrats  are  not  to  be  understood  in  the  sense 
falsely  imputed  to  their  words  ;  for  they  did  not  mean 
that  the  heavily  burdened  peasant  was  the  only  pro- 
ductive man.  Indeed,  the  real  meaning  of  the  word 
productive,  as  applied  by  them  to  agriculture  solely, 
'has  a  much  wider  significance  than  any  philistine 
comparison  of  the  advantages  of  manufactures  on  the 
one  hand  with  those  of  agriculture  on  the  other.  As 
the  deliverance  of  the  starving  masses  from  the  tradi- 


tional pressure  of  taxation  and  feudal   burdens  was 
uppermost  in  the  thoughts  of    the  Physiocrats,  they 
deduced  from  the  theory  of  the  exclu- 
sive productivity  of  agriculture  (that  is, 
the  yielding  of  a  surplus  over  the  cost  Agriculture 
of  production)  their  argument  in  favor  anj 

of  a  single  tax.    This  tax  should  bear     _, 
heavily  upon  the  land-owners;  hence,      laxation. 
the    theory    could    assume   an    aspect 
friendly  to  agriculture  only  by  the  com- 
plete separation  of  land-owners    from    the    peasant 
classes,  being  favorable  in  such  a  case  to  the  masses, 
whose  misery  had  already  attracted  the  attention  of 
Sully  and  Colbert. 

Prom  a  practical  standpoint,  the  essential  thing  is 
not  so  much  the  prominence  given  to  agriculture  com- 
pared with  industries  and  manufactures,  as  the  inter- 
cession in  behalf  of  the  masses  of  laboring  people ; 
not  the  presentation  of  a  new  theory  of  taxation,  but 
the  demand  for  the  deliverance  of  the  masses  from  the 
burdens  of  traditional  imposts.  It  is  only  because  the 
masses  were  engaged  in  agriculture,  and  only  so  far 
as  agriculturalists  belonged  to  the  working  masses, 
that  the  demands  of  the  physiocrats  were  favorable 
to  agriculture. 

Their  theory  of  a  natural  tax,  the  impot  unique 
or  impot  direct,  is  admirable  for  its  scientific  con- 
sistency with  their  system;  how  thoroughly  socialistic 
it  is  in  its  opposition  to  the  landlords  has  for  the  most 
part  entirely  escaped  notice  in  the  usual  repetition  of 
their  "over-estimation  of  agriculture."  Indeed,  the 
physiocrats  declared  that  the  landlords  were  entirely 
superfluous,  as  they  performed  no  labor;  that  if  the 
State  should  absorb  the  entire  rent,  and  thereby  de- 

Erive  them  of  their  means  of  support,  society  would 
e  just  as  well  off  as  it  was  before;  and  that  the  land- 
lords, therefore,  should  be  quite  content  if  the  State,  to 
provide  for  its  wants,  took  a  part  only  of  the  rent  of 
their  land  as  a  just  compensation  for  the  protection  it 
afforded  their  property. 

Cohn  criticizes  the  physiocrats  for  the  am- 
biguity that  lay  in  their  conception  of  a  nat- 
ural law  of  social  life,  which  led  them  to  limit 
nature  to  agricultural  activities,  and  thus  to 
limit  the  surplus  which  should  be  taxed  to  the 
rent  of  land.  (See  SINGLE  TAX.) 

The  most  prominent  Phvsiocrats  were  Quesnay 
(a.  v.),  the  physician  of  t/ouis  XV.  (a.  v.);  Turgot 
(a.  v.),  intendant  and  minister  of  Louis  XVI.;  Marquis 
Mirabeau  (q.  v.);  Abbe  Baudeau,  and  Mercier  de  la 
Riviere.  Baudeau  produced  a  text-book  which  re- 
sembled the  later  text-books  of  political  economy. 
The  numerous  writings  of  the  school  were  collected 
and  published  in  1844  by  Eugene  Daire  under  the  title, 
(Euvres  des  Physiocrates  (2  vpls.)  and  CEuvres  de 
Turgot  (2  vols.).  Before  that  time,  in  1768-69,  a  col- 
lection of  these  writings  had  been  published  in  six 
volumes  by  Dupont  de  Nemours.  The  collection  was 
entitled  Pnysiocratie,  ou  constitution  naturelle  du 
goimernement  plus  advantageux  au  genre  humain. 

Despite  many  differences  in  details,  these  writers  all 
agree  in  the  essentially  fundamental  principles  and 
doctrines.  The  especially  noteworthy  works  are, 
Tableau  Economique,  by  Quesnay  (1758),  and  an  essay 
by  Turgot,  entitled  Reflexions  sur  la  formation  et 
la  distribution  des  richesses  (1766). 

PIECE-WORK  is  work  done  or  paid  for  by 
the  quantity  or  piece.  This  is  the  usual  sys- 
tem in  many  trades,  especially  in  tailoring  and 
shoemaking,  in  almost  all  trades  producing 
personal  wear,  in  printing,  etc.  Mr.  Mundella 
said,  in  1876,  that  90  per  cent,  of  produc- 
tion was  piece-work.  This  is  probably  not 
true  to-day.  Certain  trades,  where  many  men 
have  to  work  together  in  one  operation, 
scarcely  admit  of  piece-work.  Says  Professor 
Marshall  (Economics  of  Indiistry,  p.  393) : 

"  The  system  of  piece-work  is  seldom  found  in  the 
finest  and  best  of  industrial  relations.  The  most  care- 
ful and  artistic  work  can  seldom  be  measured  by  it ; 
and  in  many  trades,  especially  small  trades,  the  work 
varies  so  much  from  bench  to  bench,  and  from  day  to 
day,  that  no  regular  tariff  can  be  devised  ;  and  pie9e- 
work  degenerates  into  contract  work,  in  which  the  m« 


Piece-Work. 


1009 


Piece-Work. 


•dividual  workman  has  to  bargain  alone  with  his  em- 
ployer. 

"  But  in  the  majority  of  trades,  the  various  tasks  can 
"be  graded  accurately  ;  and  when  a  list  of  prices  for 
them  is  agreed  on,  the  employees  grade  themselves, 
.and  yet  present  an  unbroken  phalanx  in  bargaining 
with  their  employers.  Piece-work  adds  to  the  wages 
of  the  industrious  workers,  and  it  checks  those  habits 
of  half-hearted  work  which  flourish  in  every  rank  of 
life  where  the  soil  is  favorable." 

Workmen,  however,  have  learned  by  experi- 
ence not  to  take  so  favorable  a  view  of  piece- 
work. Professor  Marshall  says  (idem,  p.  394)  : 

•'  In  some  cases  this  is  caused  by  an  undue  eagerness 
of  certain  employers  to  reduce  piece-work  rates  when 
they  have  thought  their  men  were  taking  too  much 
money  home.  Some  workmen  oppose  it  because  they 
desire  to  take  things  easily,  and  have  perhaps  a  latent 
dislike  to  be  graded  according  to  their  merits.  And 
some  oppose  it  because  they  think  it  makes  work 
scarce,  by  inducing  men  to  get  through  more  of  it  than 
they  otherwise  would  ;  and  here  again  come  in  the 
combined  effects  of  a  little  trade-selfishness  and  the 
fallacy  of  the  fixed  Work-Fund.  Perhaps  these  imper- 
fections of  human  nature,  rather  than  unionism,  are 
further  to  be  held  responsible  for  whatever  ground 
there  may  be  for  the  complaint  that  some  unionists 
urge  their  fellows  not  to  exert  themselves  over-much, 
and  absorb  work  that  others  might  be  glad  to  dp. 
This  is  not  effected  by  general  regulations  :  but  in 
some  workshops,  unionist  and  non-unionist  alike, 
social  pressure  is  brought  to  bear  on  any  one  who 
works  so  hard  as  to  set  a  standard  of  work  higher  than 
the  others  like  ;  and  no  doubt  the  presence  of  a  union 
element  may  increase  this  pressure." 

Workmen,  however,  claim  that  this  effort,  not 
to  allow  any  one  to  work  too  hard,  is  due  not  to 
any  dislike  of  work,  but  to  the  necessity  under 
present  conditions  of  making  a  job  go  as  far  as 
it  can,  employ  as  many  men  as  possible,  and 
be  paid  for  as  highly  as  possible.  It  is  an  in- 
evitable result  of  the  present  system.  Says 
Mr.  George  Gunton  ( Wealth  and  Progress, 
p.  i 80)  : 

"  Workmen  agree  among  themselves  not  to  do  more 
than  a  certain  quantity  of  work,  because  repeated  ex- 
perience has  taught  them  that  if  they  do,  their  wages 
will  soon  be  proportionately  reduced.  That  is  why, 
in  some  trades,  the  unions  forbid  the  men  to  produce 
more  than  a  given  quantity  per  day,  which  is  so  bitterly 
denounced  as  one  of  the  injurious  features  of  trades- 
unions.  This  practise  is  adopted  the  most  when  new 
kinds  of  work  or  new  machinery  are  introduced,  in 
order  to  keep  the  price  '  per  piece  '  as  high  as  pos- 
sible." 

Why  rapid  work  reduces  wages  Mr.  Gunton 
explains.  He  shows  that  wages  depend  on 
what  it  costs  the  working  man  to  live  according 
to  the  standard  of  comfort  of  his  class.  He 
cannot  long  get  more  than  this,  because,  if  he 
does,  some  other  workmen  will  offer  to  work 
at  this  standard  of  comfort  price  and,  under 
competition,  the  employer  will  be  compelled  to 
employ  him,  since  the  competition  compels 
him,  in  order  to  sell  cheap,  to  hire  the  cheapest 
labor  which  can  produce  a  given  quantity 
and  quality  of  work.  Hence,  if,  either  by  day- 
work  or  by  piece-work,  workmen  are  seen  to  be 
earning  more  than  the  standard  of  comfort 
wages,  the  employer  not  only  usually  does  cut 
down  the  wages,  but  is  usually  compelled  to 
£ut  them  down.  Hence  competition  prevents 
working  men  from  long  earning  in  any  system 
wages  above  the  standard  of  comfort,  and 
rapid  work  lowers  their  wages.  Says  Mr.  Gun- 
ton  (idem,  p.  181)  : 

"  Although  this  law  has  never  been  understood,  it 
lias  always  been  implicitly  obeyed.  Consequently, 

64 


wherever  the  wages  system  prevails,  whether  the  price 
of  labor  is  fixed  by  royal  proclamation,  statute  law, 
or  competition,  wa  find  the  rate  of  wages  tends  to  con- 
form to  the  cost  of  living,  and  the  price  of  '  piece- 
work '  to  the  rate  of  wages  for  '  day-work.'  .  .  . 

"Accordingly,  in  the  various  statutes    regulating 
wages  in   England  from  the  fourteenth  to  the  eigh- 
teenth centuries,  we  find  the  price  fixed  for  'piece- 
work' always  sustained  a  uniform  relation  to  that^of 
'day-work.'      For  instance,  threshing    a  quarter    or 
mowing  an  acre  of  wheat  was  always  regarded  as  a 
day's  work.     Hence,  in  the  thirteenth 
century,  when  harvest  wages  were  -$d.  a. 
day,  the  price    of   mowing   an  acre  or       •triatnrv 
threshing  a  quarter  of  wheat  was  yi.       *U»WBy« 
also.      During  the  same  period,   when 
artisan   wages  were    3%a.   a    day,  the 
price  for  a  pair  of  sawyers  to  saw  100  planks — which 
was  always  reckoned  a  day's  work — was  7^.   .  .  . 

"  So  when  wages  rose  after  the  rise  in  prices  in  the 
sixteenth,  seventeenth,  and  eighteenth  centuries,  the 
price  of  'piece- work'  always  rose  correspondingly 
with  that  of  '  day-work.'  Thus,  in  1651,  when  the  Essex 
magistrates  fixed  the  wages  of  common  laborers  at  is. 
and  2</.  a  day,  the  price  of  sawing  100  planks  was  fixed 
at  2S.  and  (>tf.  or  is.  and  -$d.  for  each  sawyer.  And  if  we 
compare  the  price  paid  for  'piece-work'  in  the  same 
industries  in  different  countries  or  localities  where 
similar  methods  of  production  are  employed,  we  shall 
find  that  the  rate  paid  will  vary  according  to  the  dif- 
ference in  the  cost  of  living.  .  .  . 

"Again,  in  manufacturing  industries,  where  ma- 
chinery is  extensively  used  and  'piece-work'  is  the 
general  practice,  although  the  average  wages  keep 
pace  with  the  average  cost  of  living,  the  price  of 
'piece-work  '  always  varies  inversely  with  the  produc- 
tive capacity  of  the  machinery.  In  the  cotton  industry 
evidence  of  this  fact  is  constantly  in  view.  Through 
the  changes  in  machinery,  which  are  mostly  gradual, 
it  sometimes  happens  that  two  kinds  of  machinery 
(the  new  and  the  old)  are  in  use  in  the  same  factory, 
and  very  often  in  the  same  locality,  at  the  same  time, 
and  accordingly  we  frequently  find  two  different 
prices  paid  for  the  same  work  in  the  same  town,  and 
even  in  the  same  establishment — not  a  different  rate 
of  wages,  but  a  different  scale  of  prices,  in  order  to 
equalize  the  rate  of  wages.  And  sometimes,  in  order 
to  avoid  two  scales  of  prices  for  the  same  work,  one 
will  be  put  on  'day- work,'  the  rate  of  wages  being 
fixed  upon  the  average  earnings  of  the  other.  In  fact, 
this  is  the  general  practise  on  new  machinery,  until  its 
productive  capacity  is  correctly  -ascertained,  after 
which  the  scale  of  prices  is  fixed  accordingly. 

"  I  have,  myself,  seen  three  different  prices  paid  for 
weaving  the  same  cloth  in  the  same  .room,  all  because 
it  was  woven  in  different  kinds  of  looms.  For  ex- 
ample, a  so-inch  loom  will  not  run  as  fast  as  a  3o-inch 
loom — /.  e.,  the  shuttle  will  not,  cceteris paribus,  pass  as 
many  times  a  minute  across  a  so-inch  space  as  it  will 
across  a  3o-inch  space.  While  the  former  to-day  will 
run  at  the  rate  of  from  130  to  150  picks  a  minute,  the  lat- 
ter will  average  from  180  to  200  picks  a  minute.  It  will 
thus  be  seen  that  when  3o-inch  cloth  is  woven  in  40  or 
5o-inch  looms,  the  weavers  on  the  broad  looms  cannot 
weave  as  many  yards  per  day  as  those  on  the  narrow 
looms  ;  hence  a  higher  price  per  cut  is  always  paid  for 
weaving  narrow  cloth  in  broad  than  in  narrow 
looms. 

"If  we  examine  the  shoe-trade  we  find  the  same  un- 
varying law  obtains  ;  and  while  the  average  wages  of 
shoemakers  have  grown  in  a  direct  ratio  with  the  cost 
of  living,  the  price  per  pair  for  making  shoes  has  grown 
less  and  less  in  proportion  as  improved  machinery  has 
been  adopted.  The  same  is  strikingly 
true  in  the  watch  and  jewelry  business. 
The  price  of  piece-work  for  pivoting, 
burnishing,  gilding,  fitting,  casing,  etc., 
through  the  use  of  improved  tools  and 
machinery,  is  in  many  instances  from 
50  to  75  per  cent,  less  than  it  was  for- 
merly. Still,  the  real  wages  in  these  industries  are  not 
reduced,  the  price  of  'piece-work  '  being  lessened  only 
in  proportion  as  the  capacity  to  produce  is  increased. 
But  while  wages  never  rise  in  the  same  proportion  with 
the  increased  power  of  production,  the  price  of  com- 
modities always  falls  in  that  ratio ;  consequently, 
though  the  nominal  wages  of  watchmakers,  jewelers, 
shoemakers,  and  weavers  are  not  proportionately 
higher,  the  prices  of  watches,  jewelry,  cotton-cloth,  and 
shoes  are  .relatively  lower.  This  explains  the  fact  that 
the  direct  and  immediate  effect  of  improved  machinery 
is  always  more  strikingly  seen  in  lower  prices  than  in 
higher  wages,  all  of  which  is  in  strict  accord  with  the 


Present 
Facts. 


Piece-Work. 


Pingree,  Hazen  S. 


doctrine  that  the  price  of  labor  always  moves  in  direct 
ratio  with  the  cost  of  living,  and  that  of  commodities 
in  direct  ratio  with  the  cost  of  production. 

"  It  will  thus  be  observed  that  wherever  we  go  or  to 
whatever  industry  we  turn  our  attention,  we  find  that 
the  price  of  labor,  either  under  'piece-work  '  or  '  day- 
work,'  is  ultimately  governed  by  the  same  law.  Mani- 
festly, therefore, 

".'Whether  laborers  work  by  the  piece  or  work  by  the 

day, 
The  cost  of  their  living  determines  their  pay.'" 


The  above  principles  are  well  illustrated  by 
the  following  table  as  to  the  actual  prices  paid 
by  day-work  and  piece-work  in  Massachusetts 
and  Great  Britain.  The  table  is  taken  from  the 
Sixteenth  Annual  Report  of  the  Massachusetts 
Labor  Bureau  (1885,  p.  113).  It  will  be  seen 
that  in  these  industries  in  both  Massachusetts 
and  Great  Britain,  piece-workers  receive  less 
average  weekly  wages  than  day  laborers. 


GENERAL  AVERAGE  WEEKLY  WAGE  PAID  TO  DAY,  PIECE,  AND  DAY  AND  PIECE  EMPLOYEES. 


INDUSTRIES. 

MASSACHUSETTS. 

GREAT  BRITAIN. 

Day 
Hands. 

Piece 
Hands. 

Day  and 
Piece  Hands. 

Day 
Hands. 

Piece 
Hands. 

Day  and 
Piece  Hands. 

Agricultural  Implements  

$  9.94 
11.88 

M-53 
8.63 
14.99 
5.96 
12.80 
9.17 
6.61 
6.48 
10.08 
n.  16 
12.83 

0-73 
8.69 
12.86 
11.96 
ii.SS 
11.36 

8.68 
13-54 
i3-5i 
6.79 
7-39 

$14.27 
10.81 
11.42 

6.56 
14.90 
10.46 
6-31 
5-55 
6.65 
"•35 
9.62 
,"•75 
h  6.  48 

13-13 

10.74 
11.40 

7-63 
15-01 
8-55 
7.01 
7.21 

$10  43 

7  69 
9  oo 

943 

ii  92 

$  8.85 
h  6.94 
"  4-93 
4.16 

h  7.81 
4.11 
h  8  53 

^9-73 
//  7.28 
h  3.27 
h  3.74 
7.96 
h  10.95 

h  7.30 
7.22 
h  19.46 
h  7.40 
h  10.51 
//  9.48 

h  4.83 
h  10.  16 
5-67 
•  «  5-49 
2-55 

^$542 
h  9  49 

,578 

7/6oS 

8  66 

7^6 
h  6  91 
h  10  07 

h  4  97 

h  $4.  72 
2.78 

h  9.92 
5-87 

4-44 
//  8.62 
A  7.  14 

h  6.32 
7/4.27 

Boots  and  shoes  

Brick        '.  

Carpetings  

Clothing  

Cotton  goods  

Flax  and  jute  goods  

Furniture  

Glass  

Hats  :  fur,  wool,  and  silk  

Hosiery  

Liquors  :  malt  and  distilled  

Metals  and  metallic  goods  

Printing  and  publishing  

Printing,  dyeing,  bleaching,  and  finishing 
cotton  textiles  

Stone  

Wooden  goods  

Woolen  goods  

Worsted  goods  

h  indicates  that  of  wages  on  more  than  one  basis  the  highest  has  been  used. 


CLASSIFICATION. 

MASSACHUSETTS. 

GREAT  BRITAIN. 

Number  of 
Industries. 

General  Average 
Weekly  Wage. 

Number  of 
Industries. 

General  Average 
Weekly  Wage. 

Day  hands  

24 

21 

5 

$10.46 
9-85 
9.69 

24 
9 
9 

$7-43 
7.17 

Piece  hands  

Day  and  piece  hands  

There  can  be  no  questioning  these  facts. 
Hence  workmen  have  learned  that  by  working 
fast  they  do  not  permanently  increase  their 
pay,  but  soon  find  themselves  producing  more, 
working  faster,  and  employing  fewer  men, 
while  their  wages  are  not  higher.  They  do 
find,  however,  that  wages  rise  by  making 
labor  more  costly. 

The  best  and  most  intelligent  workmen 
therefore  do  not  favor  piece-work  ;  it  is  usually 
the  more  ignorant  though  quick  new  workers 
who  sometimes  favor  it,  because  for  a  while  it 
seems  to  enable  them  to  earn  more  ;  a  gain, 
however,  soon  to  be  lost  when  the  employer 
lowers  the  wage  to  bring  it  down  to  the  level 
of  earnings  necessitatea\>y  the  competition  of 
the  market. 


Piece-work  too  often  makes  the  worker  scant 
his  work  and  sacrifice  quality  to  quantity. 
Nevertheless,  in,  many  trades  it  prevails,  be- 
cause employers  usually  favor  it,  since  it  en- 
ables them  to  get  more  work  for  the  same  pay, 
and  because  in  many  trades,  where  quantity 
counts  for  more  than  quality,  it  is  a  convenient 
form  of  payment. 

References:  George  Gunton's  Wealth  and  Progress, 
chap,  viii.;  Marshall's  Economics  of  Industry,  pp, 
393-394- 

PINGREE,  HAZEN  S.,  the  well-known 
reform  mayor  of  Detroit,  was  born  on  a  farm 
in  Maine  in  1842.  In  1856  he  went  to  serve  his 
time  in  a  Massachusetts  shoe  factory,  but  when 
20  years  old  enlisted  and  served  through  the 


Pingree,  Hazen  S. 


ion 


Place,  Francis. 


whole  War  of  the  Rebellion,  spending  six 
months  "as  a  prisoner  of  war  at  Andersonville. 
At  the  close  of  the  war  he  went  to  Detroit  and 
found  work  in  a  shoe  factory,  but  after  a  time 
started  a  small  factory  of  his  own,  and,  with 
keen  business  instincts  and  sterling  honesty, 
worked  his  way  to  wealth,  owning  the  largest 
shoe  factory  west  of  New  York.  He  traveled 
and  showed  culture  and  refinement.  In  1889 
there  was  great  dissatisfaction  in  Detroit, 
owing  to  municipal  corruption  and  misman- 
agement. Mr.  Pingree  was  asked  to  stand 
for  the  mayoralty  and  finally  consented  to  do 
so,  tho  up  to  this  time  he  had  taken  little 
interest  in  politics.  He  threw  his  energy  into 
the  campaign  and  was  elected  by  a  majority 
of  2318.  Altho  a  Republican,  he  immediately 
subordinated  partizan  politics  to  the  public 
good,  and  with  indomitable  energy  began  to 
run  the  city  on  business  principles.  Finding 
himself  opposed  by  a  corrupt  council  and 
private  companies  who,  for  a  song,  could  buy 
whatever  franchises  they  wanted,  he  com- 
menced to  fight  them.  In  his  first  message 
he  announced  that  the  time  had  come  for  the 
city  to  control  its  own  public  lighting.  The 
companies  fought  him  in  the  courts  and  in 
every  way  ;  sometimes  retaining  all  the  able 
lawyers,  so  that  the  mayor  had  to  seek  else- 
where for  legal  advice.  The  council  was 
more  than  once  ready  to  pass  over  his  veto  an 
ordinance  giving  the  electric  lighting  and 
other  privileges  to  private  corporations.  Mr. 
Pingree  boldly  accused  them  of  venality  and 
was  ready  to  give  names,  and  at  last  terrified 
them  into  submission.  In  his  message  for 
1896  he  says : 

"Another  cause  for  congratulation  on  the  part  of 
the  city  lies  in  the  successful  completion  and  opera- 
tion of  the  public  lighting  plant,  by  which  the  cost  of 
public  lighting  has  been  reduced  from  $11.15  to  $7.20 
per  arc  lamp.  The  city  has  been  lighted  for  three 
months  by  this  plant,  and  during  that  brief  period 
has  saved  the  city  $18,961.60,  with  first-class  service. 

In  his  battle  with  the  railway  companies  he 
has  not  been  able  yet  to  gain  municipal  owner- 
ship, because  it  needs  a  change  of  charter,  and 
the  legislature  is  too  much  controlled  by  the 
companies  ;  but  after  a  prolonged  fight  he  has 
brought  a  new  corporation  to  Detroit  to  battle 
the  old  ones,  and  has  gained  for  a  portion  of 
the  city  3-cent  fares,  and  now  proposes  to 
accept  a  proposition  made  by  the  Detroit  Rail- 
way to  operate  all  the  tracks  of  the  city  at 
2>£  cent  fares,  with  universal  transfers,  the 
company  to  pay  interest  on  the  purchase  price 
of  the  tracks.  He  has  also  fought  the  gas 
companies  and  early  secured  a  reduction  of 
their  rates  from  $1.50  to  $i,  with  a  prospect  of 
still  further  reduction.  Very  widely  known  is 
his  potatoe-patch  scheme,  through  which,  in 
the  hard  times  of  1894,  he  was  successful  in 
relieving  the  unemployed.  (For  an  account 
of  this,  see  Detroit  Plan.)  He  has  also  fought 
for  free  water,  direct  legislation,  a  general  adop- 
tion of  the  eight-hour  day  and  other  reforms. 
He  has  written  a  popular  book,  Facts  and  Opin- 
ions ;  or,  Dangers  that  Beset  Us.  In  1896  he 
was  elected  Governor  of  Michigan  on  the  Re- 
publican ticket. 


P1NKERTONS,  THE.— In  1852  Allan  G. 
Pinkerton,  a  Scotchman,  who,  having  become 
involved  in  the  Chartist  outbreak  in  Birming- 
ham, had  emigrated  to  the  United  States,  and 
here  having  from  love  of  adventure  secured 
the  arrest  of  a  band  of  counterfeiters,  had 
been  appointed  deputy  sheriff,  established  in 
Chicago  a  detective  agency.  His  agency  was 
very  successful,  and  during  the  War  of  the  Re- 
bellion Mr.  Pinkerton  superintended  the  secret 
service  of  the  army.  Later,  in-  the  labor 
troubles  in  Pennsylvania,  his  agency  was  em- 
ployed against  the  Molly  Maguires.  Hence- 
forth, the  Pinkerton  agency  was  employed 
more  and  more  by  employers  to  defend  their 
works  from  threatened  violence  on  the  part  of 
mobs  rising  in  connection  with  strikes.  They 
became  bitterly  hated  by  working  men.  The 
working  men  claimed  the  Pinkertons  did  more 
than  protect  the  property  of  their  employers. 
They  claimed  that  the  agency  went  into  the 
slums  of  the  great  cities,  hired  desperadoes  and 
men  of  the  worst  character,  swore  them  in  as 
special  detectives,  and  then  sent  them  not  only 
to  protect  the  property  of  employers,  but  to 
incense  the  popul3ce  and  provoke  it  to  violence, 
then  firing  upon  the  populace  on  the  least 
provocation.  The  working  men  claimed  that 
the  Pinkertons  created  more  evil  than  they 
allayed.  Stories  were  circulated  of  the  Pink- 
ertons secretly  doing  violence  themselves,  lay- 
ing it  to  working  men,  and  then  firing  on  them. 
Finally,  when,  at  the  great  Homestead  strike 
(q.  v.),  Pinkertons  in  large  numbers  and  armed 
with  rifles  were  marched  to  Homestead,  the 
working  men  rose  and  repulsed  them  as  they 
would  an  invading  army.  Working  men  claim 
that  the  duty  of  protecting  property  should  be 
left  to  the  police;  that  if  these  are  not  suffi- 
cient, the  army  should  be  called  in,  but  that 
bodies  of  reckless  armed  private  mercenaries 
should  not  be  allowed  to  fire  on  citizens.  As  a 
result  of  this  popular  feeling,  Congress  ap- 
pointed a  committee  to  investigate  into  the 
employment  of  such  private  armed  bodies  of 
men,  and  some  States  passed  bills  forbidding 
such  employment.  (See  STRIKES.) 

PLACE,  FRANCIS.— A  master  tailor  who 
played  a  large  and  important  part  in  the  Eng- 
lish labor  movement  at  the  beginning  of  the 
century.  Before  setting  up  a  shop  of  his  own 
at  Charing  Cross,  London,  he  had  worked  as 
a  journeyman  breeches-maker,  and  had  been 
active  in  effecting  organizations  in  his  own  and 
other  trades.  When  he  set  up  for  himself  he 
was  still  more  active,  and  after  1818  left  the 
conduct  of  his  business  to  his  son,  and  devoted 
himself  wholly  to  the  labor  movement  :  first,  to 
the  repeal  of  the  combination  laws,  and  second, 
to  the  reform  movement.  He  was  a  pupil  of 
Bentham,  a  radical  individualist,  and  a  shrewd 
parliamentary  lobbyist.  As  early  as  1810  he 
testified  before  a  select  committee  of  the  House 
against  measures  proposed  by  the  employers, 
and  in  1814  set  himself  seriously  to  overthrow 
the  combination  laws  (see  CONSPIRACIES). 
Working  through  a  little  working-class  paper, 
the  Gorgon,  he  gained  the  support  of  Joseph 
Hume  and  J.  R.  McCulloch,  then  editor  of  the 
Scotsman.  Joseph  Hume,  in  the  House  of 


Place,  Francis. 


1012 


Plutocracy. 


Commons  in  1822,  gave  notice  of  his  intention 
to  bring  in  a  bill  repealing  all  combination 
laws,  but  Place  really  managed  the  case,  mar- 
shaled the  witnesses,  and  arranged  their  evi- 
dence. Scarcely  realizing  what  was  done,  Par- 
liament passed  the  bill.  The  employers  were 
now  thoroughly  roused,  and  the  next  year  suc- 
ceeded in  partly  modifying  the  bill,  though 
Hume  in  Parliament,  and  Place  outside,  ably 
fought  them  at  every  point.  After  this  Place 
took  less  active  part  in  the  movement,  but  has 
left  valuable  manuscripts,  letters,  books,  and 
an  unpublished  autobiography,  which  are 
being  worked  by  Mr.  Graham  Wallas  into  a 
critical  biography  of  this  important  man.  (See 
History  of  Trade- Unionism  by  Sidney  and 
Beatrice  Webb.) 

PLATO  (429-347  B.  c.)  was  born  in  Athens, 
the  year  of  the  death  of  Pericles.  At  the  age 
of  20,  coming  under  the  influence  of  Socrates, 
he  chose  philosophy  for  his  life  pursuit,  but 
was  driven  from  Athens  and  lived  in  Sicily, 
visiting  (probably)  Italy  and  Africa.  At  the 
age  of  40  he  was  able  to  return  to  Athens  and 
establish  a  school  of  philosophy,  the  Academy; 
a  beautiful  garden,  where  for  41  years  he 
taught,  his  greatest  pupil  being  Aristotle. 
His  greatest  economic  writings  are  The  Repub- 
lic and  The  Laws.  The  following  review  of 
his  economic  ^teachings  is  given  in  Professor 
Ingram's  History  of  Political  Economy.  He 
says  : 

"The  most  celebrated  of  Greek  ideal  systems  is  that 
of  Plato.  In  it  the  idea  of  the  subordination  of  the  in- 
dividual to  the  State  appears  in  its  most  extreme  form. 
Within  that  class  of  the  citizens  of  his  republic  who 
represent  the  highest  type  of  life,  community  of 
property  and  of  wives  is  established,  as  the  most 
effective  means  of  suppressing  the  sense  of  private 
interest,  and  consecrating  the  individual  entirely  to 
the  public  service.  It  cannot  perhaps  be  truly  said 
that  his  scheme  was  incapable  of  realization  in  an 
ancient  community  favorably  situated  for  the  purpose. 
But  it  would  soon  be  broken  to  pieces  by  the  forces 
•which  would  be  developed  in  an  industrial  society.  It 
has,  however,  been  the  fruitful  parent  of  modern 
Utopias  ;  specially  attractive  as  it  is  to  minds  in  which 
the  literary  instinct  is  stronger  than  the  scientific 
judgment,  in  consequence  of  the  freshness  and 
brilliancy  of  Plato's  exposition  and  the  unrivaled 
charm  of  his  style.  Mixed  with  what  we  should  call 
the  chimerical  ideas  in  his  work,  there  are  many 
striking  and  elevated  moral  conceptions,  and,  what  is 
more  to  our  present  purpose,  some  just  economic 
analysis.  In  particular,  he  gives  a  correct  account  of 
the  division  and  combination  of  employments,  as  they 
naturally  arise  in  society.  The  foundation  of  the 
social  organization  he  traces,  perhaps  too  exclusively, 
to  economic  grounds,  not  giving  sufficient  weight  to  the 
disinterested  social  impulses  in  men  which  tend  to 
draw  and  bind  them  together.  But  he  explains  clearly 
how  the  different  wants  and  capacities  of  individuals 
demand  and  give  rise  to  mutual  services,  and  how,  by 
the  restriction  of  each  to  the  sort  of  occupation  to 
which,  by  his  position,  abilities,  and  training,  he  is 
best  adapted,  everything  needful  for  the  whole  is  more 
easily  and  better  produced  or  effected.  In  the  spirit 
of  all  the  ancient  legislators  he  desires  a  self-sufficing 
State,  protected  from  unnecessary  contacts  with  for- 
eign populations  which  might  tend  to  break  down  its 
internal  organization  or  to  deteriorate  the  national 
character.  Hence  he  discountenances  foreign  trade, 
and  with  this  view  removes  his  ideal  city  to  some  dis- 
tance from  the  sea.  The  limits  of  its  territory  are 
rigidly  fixed,  and  the  population  is  restricted  by  the 
prohibition  of  early  marriages,  by  the  exposure  of 
infants,  and  by  the  maintenance  of  a  determinate 
number  of  individual  lots  of  land  in  the  hands  of  the 
citizens  who  cultivate  the  soil.  These  precautions  are 
inspired  more  by  political  and  moral  motives  than  by 
the  Malthusian  "fear  of  failure  of  subsistence.  Plato 


aims,  as  far  as  possible,  at  equality  of  property 
among  the  families  of  the  community  which  are 
engaged  in  the  immediate  prosecution  of  industry. 
This  last  class,  as  distinguished  from  the  governing 
and  military  classes,  he  holds,  according  to  the  spirit 
of  his  age,  in  but  little  esteem';  he  regards  their  habit- 
ual occupations  as  tending  to  the  degradation  of  the 
mind  and  the  enfeeblement  of  the  body,  and  render- 
ing those  who  follow  them  unfit  for  the  higher  duties 
of  men  and  citizens.  The  lowest  forms  of  labor  he 
would  commit  to  foreigners  and  slaves.  Again,  in  the 
spirit  of  ancient  theory,  he  wishes  (Leg.?.,  v.  12)  to- 
banish  the  precious  metals,  as  far  as  practicable,  from 
use  in  internal  commerce,  and  forbids  the  lending  of 
money  on  interest,  leaving  indeed  to  the  free  will  of 
the  debtor  even  the  repayment  of  the  capital  of  the 
loan.  All  economic  dealings  he  subjects  to  active 
control  on  the  part  of  the  Government,  not  merely  to 
prevent  violence  and  fraud,  but  to  check  the  growth 
of  luxurious  habits,  and  secure  to  the  population  of  the 
State  a  due  supply  of  the  necessaries  and  comforts  of 
life." 


PLUTOCRACY  (Gr.  TrAoi-rof,  wealth,  and 
Kparelv,  to  rule)  is  the  rule  of  wealth,  or  gov- 
ernment by  the  wealthy  class.  (For  the  prin- 
ciples involved,  see  STATE.)  We  consider  here 
the  facts  as  to  the  rule  of  wealth  in  the  United 
States.  Many  believe  this  to  be  the  danger 
to-day  most  threatening  the  public  weal.  We 
therefore  consider  it  at  no  little  length,  collect- 
ing the  testimony  only  of  responsible  men  and 
careful  students,  rigidly  excluding  all  common 
gossip  or  careless  exaggeration.  We  com- 
mence with  a  few  general  judgments  from 
leading  men. 

Bishop  H.  C.  Potter  of  New  York,  in  his 
address  on  the  anniversary  of  Washington's 
Inaugural,  April  30,  1889,  spoke  freely  of  the 
danger  to  our  political  institutions  from 
amassed  fortunes  and  alluded  to  "  the  growth 
of  wealth,  the  prevalence  of  luxury,  the  mass- 
ing of  large  material  forces,  which  by  their 
very  existence  are  a  standing  menace  to  the 
freedom  and  integrity  of  the  individual." 

Says  the  Rev.  Josiah  Strong,  D.  D.  (Our 
Country,  pp.  166-168): 

"It  is  useless  for  us  to  protest  that  we  are  demo- 
cratic, and  to  plead  the  leveling  character  of  our 
institutions.  There  is  among  us  an  aristocracy  of 
recognized  power,  and  that  aristocracy  is  one  of 
wealth.  No  heraldry  offends  our  republican  prej- 
udices. Our  ensigns  armorial  are  the  trade-mark. 
Our  laws  and  customs  recognize  no  noble  titles;  but 
men  can  forego  the  husk  of  a  title  who  possess  the  fat 
ears  of  power.  In  England  there  is  an  eager  ambition 
to  rise  in  rank,  an  ambition  as  rarely  gratified  as  it  is 
commonly  experienced.  With  us,  aspiration  meets 
with  no  such  iron  check  as  birth.  A  man  has  only  to 
build  higher  the  pedestal  of  his  wealth.  He  may  stand 
as  high  as  he  can  build.  His  wealth  cannot  secure  to 
him  genuine  respect,  to  be  sure  ;  but  for  that  matter, 
neither  can  birth.  It  will  secure  to  him  an  obsequious 
deference.  It  may  purchase  political  distinction.  It 
is  ;  power.  In  the  Old  World,  men  commonly  live  and 
die  in  the  condition  in  which  they  are  born.  The 
peasant  may  be  discontented,  may  covet  what  is 
beyond  his  reach  ;  but  his  desire  draws  no  strength 
from  expectation.  Heretofore,  in  this  country,  almost 
any  laborer,  by  industry  and  economy,  might  gain 
a  competence,  and  even  a  measure  of  wealth  ;  and, 
tho  now  we  are  beginning  to  approximate  the  condi- 
tions of  European  labor,  young  men,  generally,  when 
they  start  in  life,  still  expect  to  become  rich;  and, 
thinking  not  to  serve  their  god  for  naught,  they  com- 
monly become  faithful  votaries  of  Mammon.  Thus 
the  prizes  of  wealth  in  the  United  States,  being  at  the 
same  time  greater  and  more  easily  won,  and  the  lists 
being  open  to  all  comers,  the  rush  is  more  general, 
and  the  race  more  eager  than  elsewhere.  .  .  .  And, 
while  Mammonism  corrupts  morals,  it  blocks  re- 
forms. Men  who  have  favors  to  ask  of  the  public 
are  slow  to  follow  their  convictions  into  any  unpopu- 
lar reform  movement.  They  can  render  only  a  sur- 
reptitious service.  Their  discipleship  must  needs  be 


Plutocracy. 


1013 


Plutocracy. 


secret,  'for  fear  of  the'  customers  or  clients  or 
patients.  It  is  Mammonism  which  makes  most  men 
invertebrates.  When  important  Mormon  legislation 
was  pending,  certain  New  York  merchants  tele- 
graphed to  members  of  Congress :  '  New  York  sold 
$13,000,000  worth  of  goods  to  Utah  last  year.  Hands 
off!'" 

As  long  ago  as  1871  Charles  Francis  Adams, 
since  himself  president  of  a  great  railroad 
organization,  wrote  (Chapters  on  Erie) : 

"  The  system  of  corporate  life  and  corporate  power, 
as  applied  to  industrial  development,  is  yet  in  its 
infancy.  It  tends  always  to  development,  always  to 
consolidation  ;  it  is  ever  grasping  new  powers  or 
insidiously  exercising  covert  influences.  Even  now 
the  system  threatens  the  central  government.  .  .  . 
The  belief  is  common  in  America  that  the  day  is  at 
hand  when  corporations  far  greater  than  ever, — sway- 
ing power  such  as  has  never  in  the  world's  history 
been  trusted  in  the  hands  of  mere  private  citizens, 
controlled  by  single  men  like  Vanderbilt,  or  by  com- 
binations of  men,  like  Fiske,  Gould,  and  Sage,— after 
having  created  a  system  of  quiet  but  irrepressible 
corruption,  will  ultimately  succeed  in  directing  gov- 
ernment itself.  .  ,  .  It  is  a  new  power  for  which  our 
language  contains  no  name.  We  know  what  aristoc- 
racy, autocracy,  democracy  are,  but  we  have  no  word 
to  express  'government  by  moneyed  corporations."  " 

A  very  recent  utterance  is  the  address  of 
Justice  Henry  B.  Brown  of  the  United  States 
Supreme  Court,  before  the  law  school  of  Yale, 
in  June,  1895.  He  said  in  his  address  : 

"Tho  I  am  unwilling  to  believe  that  corporations 
are  solely  responsible  for  our  municipal  misgovern- 
ment,  the  fact  remains  that  bribery  and  corruption 
are  so  universal  as  to  threaten  the  very  structure  of 
society.  Universal  suffrage,  which  it  was  confidently 
supposed  would  inure  to  the  benefit  of  the  poor  man. 
is  so  skillfully  manipulated  as  to  rivet  his  chains  and 
secure  to  the  rich  man  a  predominance  in  politics  he 
has  never  enjoyed  under  a  restricted  system.  Proba- 
bly in  no  country  in  the  world  is  the  influence  of 
wealth  more  potent  than  in  this,  and  in  no  period  of 
our  history  has  it  been  more  powerful  than  now." 

Judge  William  J.  Gaynor  of  the  New  York 
Supreme  Court,  writing  to  the  St.  Louis  Mer- 
cantile Club  a  letter  for  Jefferson  Day,  1895, 
says: 

"The  untold  millions  of  sham,  dishonest,  and  op- 
pressive paper  stock  and  bonds  now  existing  in  this 
country,  issued  generally  upon  rights  and  privileges 
conferred  by  law  gratuitously,  and  to  pay  dividends 
and  interest  upon  which  it  is  proposed  to  sap  agricul- 
tural, mechanical,  manufacturing,  mercantile,  profes- 
sional, and  all  other  honest  industry,  may  well  be  the 
subject  of  grave  thought  by  those  who  meet  to  recur 
to  and  keep  alive  principles  which  are  wholly  antag- 
onistic to  such  a  condition,  and  which  cannot  be  said 
to  be  paramount  while  such  a  condition  exists." 

It  is  true  that  the  New  York  Evening  Post 
ridicules  Judge  Gaynor 's  alarm  as  an  hallu- 
cination, and  says  : 

"  The  fact  is  that  plutocrats  are  so  scarce  that  one 
may  travel  five  hundred  miles  without  seeing  or 
hearing  one.  ...  So  far,  too,  from  the  'oppressive 
paper '  sapping  the  honest  industry,  it  is  the  honest 
industry  which  saps  the  oppressive  paper.  Oppressive 
paper  rarely  pays  more  than  half  a  year,  while  it  is 
honest  industry  which  carries  the  country  along  and 
makes  the  world  go  round." 

The  World,  however,  answers  the  Evening 
Post,  and  says : 

"  What  influence  was  it  except  the  money  of  the 
Sugar  Trust  operating  in  the  Senate  which  thwarted 
the  purpose  of  the  great  majority  of  the  House  of 
Representatives  and  reestablished  an  odious  sugar 
tax  ?  Was  not  the  successful  hold-up  of  the  Wilson 
bill  in  the  Senate  an  example  of  the  domination  of 
a  republic  by  plutocrats?  Or,  take  the  beef  trust, 
the  coal  trust,  the  oil  trust,  as  they  rule  the  market 
and  rob  the  people  to-day — what  is  their  power  except 


the  towering  tyranny  of  combined  capital  ?  The 
power  arbitrarily  to  fix  the  prices  of  great  staples,  and 
successfully  to  defy  laws  enacted  to  restrain  such 
combinations,  comes  painfully  near  to  absolute  su- 
premacy. The  man  who  buys  a  piece  of  pork  or  a 
barrel  of  oil  or  a  ton  of  coal  does  not  find  plutocracy 
a  'hallucination.'  How  many  senators  of  the  United 
States  owe  their  seats  directly  to  the  use  of  money? 
Are  there  not  enough  such  to  hold  the  balance  of 
power  in  that  body  and  so  to  control  legislation  ?  " 

Says  Professor  R.  T.  Ely  (Problems  of  To- 
Day,  p.  aioy 

"  Our  Federal,  State,  and  local  governments  are  now 
controlled  by  men  who  hold  their  offices  in  trust  for 
powerful  private  parties,  and  they  view  public  meas- 
ures not  from  the  standpoint  of  the  general  public, 
but  from  the  standpoint  of  those  in  whose  employ  they 
are.  .  .  .  One  proof  of  this  is  the  way  in  which  legis- 
lative favors  are  exchanged.  .  .  .  The  lobbies  which 
exist  everywhere  are  further  proof.  These  are  main- 
tained to  instruct  legislators  in  regard  to  private  in- 
terests and  to  make  it  worth  while  for  them  to  help  for- 
ward some  schemes  for  plundering  the  people.  Again 
and  again  have  citizens  found  it  an  absolute  impossi- 
bility to  secure  any  attention  for  measures  designed 
simply  to  benefit  the  general  public.  Legislatures  and 
city  councils  will  not  even  take  time  to  give  them  super- 
ficial attention  "  (Problems  of  To-Day,  pp.  210-211). 

The  opinion  that  Democracy  is  a  failure  is 
growing  in  the  United  States.  Says  a  Michi- 
gan Supreme  Court  decision  : 

"  Indeed  it  is  doubtful  if  free  government  can  long 
exist  in  a  country  where  such  enormous  amounts  of 
money  are  allowed  to  be  accumulated  in  the  vaults  of 
corporations,  to  be  used  at  discretion  in  controlling 
the  property  and  business  of  the  country  against  the 
interest  of  the  public  "  (Michigan  State  Reports,  vol. 
Ixxvii.  p.  632). 

Not  all,  however,  admit  the  danger  from  plu- 
tocracy. Papers  like  the  New  York  Evening 
Post  deny  that  it  is  a  wide-spread  evil,  while 
some  writers  even  excuse  the  buying  of  legis- 
lation. They  argue  that  when  a 
rich  man  meets  a  highwayman  and 
is  compelled  to  surrender  his  purse,  Defense  of 
no  one  calls  it  a  corrupt  proceeding  Corporations, 
on  the  part  of  the  rich  man.  So, 
they  say,  corporations  go  to  the 
legislature  for  legitimate  legislation — legisla- 
tion for  the  good  of  the  whole  community — leg- 
islation without  which  commerce  could  not 
prosper,  yet  they  are  met  at  the  door  by  corrupt 
and  venal  political  highwaymen,  who  compel 
them  to  pay  or  not  get  their  legislation.  The 
fault,  such  writers  say,  is  not  with  the  corpora- 
tions, but  with  the  voters  who  elect  highway- 
men to  office.  Mr.  Hudson,  who  cannot  be 
accused  of  overpartiality  to  corporations,  re- 
minds us  in  his  Railways  and  the  Republic, 
that  if  any  corporations,  with  an  exceptional 
and  miraculous  scrupulousness,  should  abstain 
from  these  methods,  it  would  be  crowded  out 
of  existence  by  the  competition  of  its  less 
scrupulous  rivals.  Of  the  Senators  said  to  rep- 
resent railway  interests  he  says  : 

"It  is  not  fair  to  say  that  these  men  deliberately 
cTioose  to  serve  their  corporate  interests  rather  than 
the  nation  in  public  office.  Many  of  them  believe  that 
the  interests  of  the  railways  are  the  public  interests. 
Their  habits  of  life,  their  associations,  their  business 
training,  their  success  in  the  service  of  the  corpora- 
tions, and,  above  all,  their  interests  support  that 
belief." 

Defenders  of  the  present  system,  therefore, 
argue  that  what  is  the  real  evil  is  not  plutoc- 
racy, but  a  vitiated  public  service.  The  cure 
they  look  for  lies  in  the  extension  of  civil-ser- 


Plutocracy. 


1014 


Plutocracy. 


vice  reform,  municipal  purity,  the  enforcement 
of  educational  qualifications  for  the  suffrage, 
etc.,  etc. 

After  these  various  general  judgments,  we 
consider  some  detailed  facts  and  evidences  of 
plutocratic  perils : 

First,  we  note  the  constitution  of  our  national 
legislature  and  the  extent  to  which  the  corpo- 
rations, and  not  the  people,  are   represented 
therein.     This  applies  more  directly  of  course 
to  the  "  millionaire  Senate  "than  the  House, 
but  very  largely  to  both.     Of  the 
Cabinet  we  shall  speak  later.     In 
Composition  the  Senate  of  the  54th  Congress, 
of  Congress.  1895-97,  there  are  about  88  mem- 
bers (not  including  the  Senators 
from  Utah).     Of  these  57  are  law- 
yers, 2  are  termed  capitalists,  i  manufacturer, 
2  merchants,  2  railroad  presidents,  2  miners,  i 
brewer,  i  steamship  manager,  i  railroad  and 
coal  operator,  i  car  builder,  2  bankers.     The 
remaining  15  members  out  of  the  88  are  3  jour- 
nalists, 4  public  officials,  3  farmers,  i  literary 
man,    i  physician,  i  clergyman,    i  planter,   i 
stock  grower.     In  the  House,  out  of  356  mem- 
bers, 228  are  lawyers,  14  bankers,  15  manufac- 
turers, 12  merchants,  4  real  estate  dealers,  2 
contractors,  2  capitalists.     Of  the  remaining  79, 
27  are  farmers,  5  journalists,  5  public  officials, 
4  planters,  5  physicians,  8  editors,  and  the  rest 
scattering.    With  a  legislature  thus  constituted, 
and  realizing  whence  a  successful  lawyer  to- 
day must  usually  draw  his  large  fees,  it  is  only 
too  evident  what  must  be  the  character  of  our 
legislation.     Says  Mr.  J.  F.  Hudson  in  a  care- 
fully balanced  statement  : 

"  The  methods  by  which  corporate  interests  control 
political  action  may  be  classified  broadly  in  two  great 
divisions.    The  first  includes  the  election  or  appoint- 
ment   of  representatives  of   the  railways  to  public 
courts  in  which  they  can  serve  the  corporate  inter- 
ests.   The  second  covers  the  use  of  their  immense 
pecuniary  resources  in  downright  bribery  or  indi- 
rect   influence    of   those   holding    such    trusts.    The 
first  method    may  involve    no  direct   corruption    of 
the  elective  or  appointing  power.    The 
method  of  directly  attacking  the  integ- 
Forms  of     r'tv  °^  t*ie  rePresentatives  and  servants 
_   .,  of  the  people,  to  secure  their  adherence 

.Bribery,  to  corporate  interests,  is  hazardous  and 
expensive  when  applied  to  high  depart- 
ments of  government,  which  are  under 
the  constant  inspection  and  criticism  of  the  public. 
It  is,  therefore,  less  frequent,  as  I  am  glad  to  believe, 
in  efforts  to  influence  the  action  of  the  national  Gov- 
ernment than  the  former  plan.  But  as  we  go  down 
the  scale  of  political  power  and  prominence,  the  dan- 
gers of  exposure  decrease,  and  the  frequency  of  direct 
or  indirect  acts  of  corruption  increase  rapidly.  .  .  . 
Hence,  bribery  by  corporations,  direct  or  indirect,  is 
far  more  frequent  in  the  State  legislatures  than  in 
Congress,  while  the  same  practice  in  municipal  bodies 
may  be  said  to  be  general.  It  is  a  contribution  to  the 
maxims  of  corruption,  by  one  of  the  lights  of  the 
lobby  management  in  Pennsylvania,  that  it  is  cheaper 
to  buy  representatives  or  delegates  after  they  are 
elected  than  to  elect  the  men  wanted." 

Yet  how  much  money  is  spent  by  corpora- 
tions in  elections  is  well  known.  Mr.  James 
Bryce  (American  Commonwealth,  vol.  ii.,  third 
edition,  pp.  613-614)  refers  to  "  the  large  sub- 
scriptions and  promises  of  political  support  " 
made  by  the  wealthy  to  national  parties  to 
procure  or  prevent  legislation.  He  says  : 

"Plutocracy  used  to  be  considered  a  form  of  oli- 
garchy, and  opposed  to  democracy.  But  there  is 
a  strong  plutocratic  element  infused  into  American 


democracy ;  and  the  fact  that  constitutions  ignore 
differences  of  property,  treating  all  voters  alike, 
makes  it  neither  less  potent  nor  less  mischievous.  .  .  . 
In  the  United  States  the  money  power  acts  by  cor- 
rupting sometimes  the  voter,  sometime  the  juror, 
sometimes  the  legislator,  sometimes  a  whole  party." 
The  enormous  amounts  of  money  spent  in  great  city 
elections  like  those  of  New  York  City,  and  which 
sometimes  turn  national  elections,  is  well  known. 

Mr.  W.  M.  Ivins,  city  chamberlain  of  New 
York,  in  an  address  before  the  Commonwealth 
Club  of  that  city,  as  reported  in  The  Nation 
for  March  3,  1887,  showed  an  ordinary  city 
election  to  cost  the  enormous  sum  of  $1,283,000. 
He  showed  that  in  November,  1886,  the  city 
paid  $222,500  for  4872  officers  on  duty  at  the 
polls,  besides  $68,500  for   Federal  marshals. 
Besides  this    various  political  leaders  drew, 
nominally  as  salaries  but  really  to  keep  them- 
selves   in    power,    $330,000,    an    average    of 
$4750  apiece.      To  this  Mr.  Ivins 
adds  $750,000  paid  in  one  way  or 
another  for  hangers-on,   heelers,     Money  in 
etc.,  and   $291,000  for   the    legal    Elections, 
machinery    of    elections,   making 
it  give  a  grand  total  of  $1,283,000. 
To  meet  this,  he  says,  the  candidates  are  as- 
sessed as  follows : 

Mayor  (for  3  machines) $25,000-30,000 

Supreme  Judge  (for  2  or  3  machines) 10,000-20,000 

Superior  Judge  (for  2  or  3  machines) 10,000-15,000 

Common  Pleas  (for  2  or  3  machines) 10,000-15,000 

Register 15,000-40,000 

Comptroller 10,000 

Sheriff 10,000 

County  Clerk 10,000 

District  Attorney 5,000 

Congress , 5,000-10,000 

State  Senator 5,000-10,000 

Assembly 500-1,000 

Allowing  two  candidates  for  each  office,  this 
makes,  Mr.  Ivins  calculates,  $211,200  assessed  from 
candidates.  The  average  disbursements  by  all  organ- 
izations he  puts  at  $307,000.  The  balance  is  paid  by 
contributions  from  the  wealthy  and  from  other  inter- 
ested factors.  In  the  election  of  1886  he  calculates 
that  45,475  men  were  under  pay,  or  one-fifth  of  the 
total  vote.  (See  CORRUPTION.) 

Whence  comes  the  money  to  buy  these 
men?  In  part  from  the  assessments  upon 
candidates. 

Said  Charles  Francis  Adams  in  1871  : 

"The  existing  coalition  between  the  Erie  Railway 
and  the  Tammany  Ring  is  a  natural  one,  for  the 
former  needs  votes,  the  latter  money." 

We  come  now  to  consider  some  typical  illus- 
trations of  the  power  of  plutocracy.  Mr.  Hud- 
son says  (Railways  and  the  Republic): 

"The  most  conspicuous  of  all  is  the  complete  con- 
trol which  a  great  corporation  has  had  for  20  years  or 
more  over  the  State  of  Pennsylvania. 
The  old  joke  of  moving  to  adjourn  the 
legislature  of  that  State  '  if  the  Penn-      Pennsvl- 
sylvania  Railroad  has  no  more  business  .    -j   .. 

for  this  body  to  transact '  dates  from    vania  Kail- 
the  early  stages  of  corporate  develop-          road. 
ment ;    but    hardly    a    legislature    has 
convened  in  that  State  for  many  years 
in  which    it  would  have  been    felt  to  be  pointless. 
With  one  brief  spell  of  legislative  independence,  the 
laws  of  the  commonwealth,  as  far  as  that  corporation 
has  any  interest  or  claim,   have  been  made  by  its 
managers  and  registered  by  the  legislature.  .  .  .  "John 
D.   Lawson,   in  his  work,   Leading  Cases  Simplified, 
referring  to  the  decision  in  the  case  of  Thorogood  vs. 
Bryan,  says  :  '  The  American  courts  decline  to  follow 
it,    except    in    Pennsylvania.     Here,  perhaps,   is  the 
place  to  warn  the  student,  so  far  as  the  law  of  carriers 
is  concerned,  not  to  pay  much  heed  to  the  decisions  of 
the  Supreme  Court  of  Pennsylvania,  at  least  during 


Plutocracy. 


1015 


Plutocracy. 


the  past  10  or  15  years.  The  Pennsylvania  Railroad 
appears  to  run  that  tribunal  with  the  same  success 
that  it  does  its  own  trains.'  .  .  .  This 
corporate  supremacy  through  the  Re- 
<H-a-ndnrrl  fiil  publican  party  in  one  State  finds  a 
oianaara  uu  parallel  in  another  state  under  Demo- 
monopoly,  cratic  ascendency.  The  power  of  the 
Standard  Oil  Company  in  the  Demo- 
cratic Legislature  of  Ohio  has  been 
asserted  in  the  election  of  a  United  States  Senator 
and  in  the  defeat  of  the  bill  to  give  competing  refin- 
eries equality  in  pipe-line  transportation  with  that 
monopoly.  It  has  been  charged  that  wholesale 
bribery  was  used  to  secure  these  results.  Such 
charges  by  political  opponents  might  not  command 
belief,  altho  the  persistent  refusal  to  investigate  them 
is  suspicious.  But  the  Democratic  agent  of  the 
bribery  has  acknowledged  it.  During  the  last  session 
of  the  body  stigmatised  by  its  partizan  opponents  as 
'the  coal  and  oil  legislature,"  the  legislative  agent 
of  the  'ring'  which  is  credited  with  its  control  ap- 
peared on  the  floor  in  a  state  of  gross  intoxication. 
The  offense  •was  too  public  and  notorious  to  be  over- 
looked, and  a  committee  was  appointed  to  enforce 
discipline.  Before  the  committee  had  begun  its  work, 
the  offender  declared  that  the  House  dared  not  disci- 
pline him  ;  that  he  had  paid  too  many  members  for 
their  votes ;  that  he  had  a  list  of  those  that  had  been 
purchased ;  and  that,  if  he  were  punished  for  his 
behavior,  he  would  expose  a  majority  of  that  body 
as  having  accepted  bribes.  The  excitement  was 
great ;  the  challenge  was  accepted  ;  he  was  called 
before  the  committee  and  asked  for  the  list.  He  then 
retracted  his  charge  and  all  further  proceedings 
against  him  for  his  outrage  upon  the  rules  of  the 
House  was  quietly  dropped.  .  .  .  This  was  in  the 
State  legislature.  It  was,  however,  carried  to 
Congress." 

Mr.  H.  D.  Lloyd,  in  his  Wealth  vs.  Commonwealth, 
thus  states  .this  portion  of  the  narrative.  We  abridge 
his  account : 

Both    houses   of   the    Ohio    legislature    forwarded 
formal    charges    of    bribery    to    the    United    States 
Senate  and  appealed  for  an  investiga- 
tion.   It  was  not  granted,  tho  it  had 
Election  of  Deen    the    invariable    custom    of    the 
-_     _  Senate    to    grant    such    investigations, 

mr.  rayne.  ancj  Senator  Sherman,  the  other  Sena- 
tor from  Ohio,  had  declared  that  he 
agreed  with  every  word  of  the  appeal 
and  that  it  was  the  belief  of  a  very  large  major- 
ity of  the  people  of  Ohio  that  the  election  was 
bought.  Mr.  Payne,  the  Senator  whose  election  was 
•declared  to  have  been  bought,  did  not  deny  the 
facts.  He  simply  denied  that  he  had  spent  any  money 
for  his  election  and  offered  to  show  his  private  papers. 
But  that  was  not  the  accusation.  The  Committee  on 
Privileges  and  Elections  recommended  (Senators 
Pugh,  Saulsbury,  Vance,  and  Eustis  voting  against 
Senators  Hoar  and  Frye)  against  investigation.  In 
the  debate  on  the  adoption  of  the  majority  report 
Senator  Hoar  said:  "The  adoption  of  this  majority 
report  ....  will  be  the  most  unfortunate  fact  in  the 
history  of  the  Senate."  In  the  minority  report  he  had 
declared  that  refusing  to  investigate  would  show  that 
the  Senate  "  is  indifferent  to  the  question  whether  its 
seats  are  to  be  in  the  future  the  subject  of  bargain 
and  sale,  or  may  be  presented  by  a  few  millionaires  as 
a  compliment  to  a  friend."  When  the  majority  report 
was  adopted,  Senator  Edmunds  is  said  to  have  turned 
to  his  neighbor  in  the  Senate  and  to  have  said  :  "  This 
is  a  day  of  infamy  for  the  Senate  of  the  United 
States." 

But  the  Standard  Oil  Monopoly  and  its  friends 
could  be  represented  in  the  Cabinet  as  well  as  in 
the  Senate.  In  December,  1892,  the  Secretary  of  the 
Treasury  decided  that  the  oil  combination  should  be 
paid  a  drawback  for  the  duties  it  had  paid  on  im- 
ported steel  hoops.  "It  isn't  pleasant,"  said  the  New 
York  World  editorially,  February  23,  1891,  "to  have 
a  Secretary  of  the  Treasury  who  holds  intimate  rela- 
tions with  the  oil  trust."  Through  the 
Secretary  of  the  Navy,  too,  the  com- 
pany of  the  International  Line  of  At- 
lantic steamers,  whose  president  is 
also  president  of  the  pipe-line  branch 
of  the  oil  trust,  got  various  favors ; 
Congress  granting  them  the  monopoly 
of  carrying  the  mails  for  10  years  from  1895  and 
a  subsidy  of  $1,354,496  a  year  on  investment  of  not 
over  $10,000,000  on  the  part  of  the  company.  The 
Secretary  of  the  Navy  urged  the  bill  upon  the  naval 
committees  of  Congress.  It  was  to  help  American 


Further 
Influence. 


commerce,  but  the  company  by  especial  vote  was 
allowed  to  raise  the  American  flag  on  two  English- 
built  steamers,  and  the  Secretary  of  the  Treasury  later 
excused  the  company  from  obeying,  as  to  its  engi- 
neers, the  requirements  of  the  bill  that  its  officers  be 
Americans.  Patriotism  was  appealed  to  to  carry  the 
bill  through,  but  when  it  had  been  voted  patriotism 
was  dropped.  The  same  Secretary  of  the  Navy  got 
through  the  closing  hotirs  of  the  Congress  of  1889-90 
a  bill  appropriating  $1,000,000  for  nickel  ore  to  be 
purchased  by  the  Secretary  of  the  Navy  when  and 
where  he  would.  Duty  was  to  be  taken  off  the  ore, 
and  it  could  thus  be  bought  at  Sudbury,  Canada,  the 
only  nickel  mine  of  importance  in  Canada  and  a  mine 
alleged  to  be  owned  by  the  oil  combination.  The 
Postmaster-General,  who  stands  between  the  United 
States  and  the  subsidized  company  that  carries  its 
foreign  mails,  is  one  of  the  firm  of  counsel  that  de- 
fended some  of  the  owners  of  the  company  in  their 
trial  at  Buffalo  for  blowing  up  a  rival  oilworks.  (See 
STANDARD  OIL  MONOPOLY.)  It  is  little  wonder  that 
Senator  Hoar  during  the  debate  as  to  Mr.  Payne,  asked 
if  the  trust  was  represented  in  the  Cabinet  as  well  as 
in  the  Senate.  For  still  other  charges  against  the  trust, 
see  STANDARD  OIL  MONOPOLY. 

Nor  must  it  be  thought  that  these  notorious 
scandals  are  the  only  ones.  Says  Mr. 
Hudson : 

"  Such  practises  are  not  peculiar  to  railway  corpora- 
tions. They  occur  to  a  greater  or  less  degree  in  the 
political  relations  of  water  corporations,  electric  com- 
panies, gas  companies,  telegraph  companies,  and  even 
manufacturing  companies,  where  their  opportunities 
for  profit  can  be  affected  by  the  exercise  of  govern- 
mental power.  The  railways  are  the  greatest  and  most 
powerful  of  all  these  organizations,  be- 
cause their  interests  are  most  directly 
affected  by  legislation  and  by  public  Ordinarv 
administration.  But  the  nature  of  cor-  „ 
porate  influence  on  politics  is  always  Corporations. 
the  same.  The  sole  aim  is  pecuniary 
profit ;  the  impersonal  character  re- 
moves all  limitations  of  conscience.  ...  A  striking 
picture  of  the  methods  of  the  corporations  in  dealing 
with  legislation  in  that  State  [New  York]  was  furnished 
by  the  testimony  of  Mr.  Jay  Gould.  .  .  .  Mr.  Gould 
artlessly  says:  'We  were  Republicans  in  Republican 
districts,  and  Democrats  in  Democratic  districts,  but 
always  for  the  Erie  Railway.'  The  companion  picture 
furnished  by  the  Huntington  letters,  published  last 
year,  throws  new  light  on  corporate  lobbying  in 
Congress.  Here  in  the  confidence  of  private  cor- 
respondence, we  learn  from  the  railway  kings 
how  some  statesmen  serve  the  corporations  un- 
der the  pretense  of  opposing  them :  now  editorial 
opinions  in  leading  journals  are  a  good  investment  for 
the  corporation  fund  ;  how  unsuspected  lobby  agents 
are  set  to  work,  apparently  without  concert,  but  under 
secret  orders  from  one  head  ;  how,  in  short,  the  un- 
limited resources  of  great  corporations  employ  all  that 
is  unscrupulous,  wily,  disreputable,  and  dangerous  in 
politics  to  attack  members  in  their  weak  points,  to 
flatter,  bribe,  and  control  them  so  that  they  must  sup- 
port the  corporations.  .  .  ." 

Professor  E.  W.  Bemis,  at  that  time  of  the 
University  of  Chicago,  in  a  paper  before  the 
National  Convention  for  Good  City  Govern- 
ment held  in  Minneapolis,  December,  1894, 
tells  of  a  corporation  voting  $100,000  to  buy 
the  Chicago  city  council  as  calmly  as  it  would 
vote  to  buy  a  new  building,  and  says  that,  ac- 
cording to  a  reliable  attorney's  information, 
such  is  an  ordinary  proceeding. 

Another  most  serious  sign  of  the  growth  of 
plutocracy  is  the  extent  to  which  great  corpo- 
rations openly  and  flagrantly  violate  the  laws 
that  are  passed.  Says  Mr.  Hudson  {Railways 
and  the  Reptiblic,  pp.  324-325)  : 

"  It  is  a  humiliating  confession  to  make,  but  one  which 
shows  the  magnitude  of  the  power  with  which  legisla- 
tion must  measure  its  strength,  that  the  constitutional 
prohibitions  of  a  dozen  States,  traversed  by  great  rail- 
way lines,  against  discriminations,  rebates,  the  con- 
solidation of  competing  lines,  the  granting  of  free 
passes,  and  other  practises  are  practically  waste  paper. 


Plutocracy. 


1016 


Police. 


In  Pennsyl- 
vania. 


The  constitutions  of  California  and  Pennsylvania  are 

Striking  illustrations.    Their  language  is  clear,   and 

strong  enough,  if  enforced,  to  prevent. 

nine-tenths  of  the  abuses  which  unreg- 

virtiofinna     ulated  railways  practise.     Yet  in  Cali- 

Viomuons    fornia  the  rule  of  the  Central  Pacific 

Of  Law.       Railway  over   commerce  is  unlimited. 

The  commissioners  provided  for  in  the 

Constitution  are  expensive  figure-heads, 

and  the  Constitution  as  a  restraint  upon  that  great  cor- 

poration is  a  dead  letter.    In  Pennsylvania  a  similar  re- 

sult has  been  obtained  by  the  success  of  the  Pennsyl- 

vania Railroad  in  preventing  legislation  to  give  effect 

to  the  Constitution." 

Mr.  Lloyd  gives  us  some  of  the  details  of 
this.     He  says  (we  abridge  his  account)  : 

"Pennsylvania  in  1873  adopted  a  new  constitution. 
By  it  common  carriers  were  forbidden  to  mine  or 
manufacture  articles  for  transportation  over  their  lines 
or  to  buy  land  except  for  carrying  purposes.  The  Con- 
stitution has  been  defiantly  ignored  by  the  railroads. 
Says  the  report  of  Congress  of  1888,  'the  railroads  have 
defiantly  gone  on  acquiring  title  to  hun- 
dreds of  thousands  of  acres  of  coal  as 
well  as  of  neighboring  agricultural 
lands.'  They  have  been  'aggressively 
pursuing  the  joint  business  of  carrying 
and  mining  coal.'  So  far  from  quitting 
it  they  'have  increased  their  mining 
operations  by  extracting  bituminous  as  well  as  an- 
thracite '  (Report,  p.  13).  The  legislature  has  aided 
them,  and  has  passed  laws  to  nullify  the  Constitution 
by  preventing  forever  any  escheat  to  the  State  of 
the  immense  area  of  lands  held  unlawfully  by  the 
railroads." 

Mr.  Lloyd  adds  another  illustration   of  the 
way  corporations  evade  the  law  : 

"In  1887  Congress  passed  the  Interstate  Commerce 

Law,  and  established  the  Interstate  Commerce  Com- 

mission, to  enforce  justice  on  the  railroads.    The  inde- 

pendent miners  of  Pennsylvania  appealed  to  it  against 

the  railroads.    Two  years  and  a  half  were  consumed 

in  proceedings.      Then  the  commission  ordered  the 

roads  to  reduce  their  rates.    It  was  never  done.    In 

1893  Congress  found  their  rates  to  be  50  cents  a  ton 

higher  than  what  the  commission  required.    The  Inter- 

state Commerce  Law  provides  for  the  imprisonment 

in  the  penitentiary  of  those  guilty  of  the  crimes  it 

covers.     The  only  conviction  had  under  it  has  been 

of  a  shipper  for  discriminating  against  a  railroad  "  (H. 

D.    Lloyd's    Wealth    Against    Commonwealth,    p.   19). 

"  Railroads    like  the   Pennsylvania   Railroad  simply 

laugh  at  the  Interstate  Commerce  Commission.     Sep- 

tember 3,  1888,  all  the  trunk  railroads  advanced  their 

rates  on  barrels  of  oil,  and  claimed  that 

this  rise  was  forced  upon  them  by  the 

Interstate     commission.    The  commission  protested 

Commerce     that  that  •was  not  according  to  their  de- 

'     cision.     '  I  did  not  consider  it  in  that 

Act.  way,'  answered    one    railroad   official. 

'  That  was  their  (the  commission's)  view 

of  the  case,  but  it  was  not  shared  by  us.' 

'It  was  considered  best  to  continue  the  practise,   said 

the   president  of  the    Pennsylvania  Railroad  (Testi- 

mony Titusyille  and  Oil  City,  Independents'  cases,  p. 

462-542).     Said  Wendell  Phillips:    '  There  is  no  power 

in  one  State  to  resist  such  a  giant  as  the  Pennsylvania 

road.    We  have  38  one-horse  legislatures  in  this  coun- 

try, and  we  have  a  man  like  Tom  Scott  with  $350,000,- 

ooo  in  his  hands,  and  if  he  walks  through  the  States 

they  have  no  power.'  " 

The  president  of  the  sugar  trust,  before  a  special 
committee  of  the  United  States  Senate,  testified  that 
this  "politics  of  business"  was  the  cus- 
tom of  "  every  individual  and  corpora- 
tion  and  firm,  trust  or  whatever  you 


u^&  to  call  it  „  (Senate  Report  No.  ^ 
01  l/orrup-  Fifty-third  Congress,  second  session, 
tion.  June  21,  1894).  Asked  if  he  contributed 
to  State  campaign  fund,  said  :  "  We 
always  do  that.  ...  In  the  State  of 
New  York,  when  -the  Democrat  majority  is  between 
40,000  and  50,000,  we  throw  it  their  way.  In  the  State 
of  Massachusetts,  when  the  Republican  party  is 
doubtful,  they  probably  have  the  call.  Wherever 
there  is  a  dominant  party,  wherever  the  majority  is 
very  large,  that  is  the  party  that  gets  the  contribution, 
because  that  is  the  party  which  controls  local  mat- 
ters" (Supplemental  Report  of  Senator  W.  V.  Allen 


of  the  Senate  Special  Committee  (ordered  May  17, 
1894)  to  investigate  alleged  attempts  at  bribery  by  the 
sugar  trust). 

In  regard  to  the  relation  between  govern- 
ment and  the  monetary  and  banking  interests 
of  the  country,  it  is  to  be  said  that  the  power 
of  plutocracy  is  probably  more  marked  here 
than  in  any  other  quarter.  Yet  the  very  extent, 
to  which  the  monetary  legislation  and  policy 
of  the  United  States  has  been  dominated  by, 
and  certainly  on  occasion  actually  corrupted 
by,  the  great  monetary  interests,  has  led  to  so 
many  unreliable  current  reports  upon  the  point 
as  to  make  general  statement  appear  to  en- 
dorse some  detailed  statements,  that  cannot  be 
supported,  while  to  say  little  would  not  do 
justice  to  the  extent  of  this  gigantic  form  of 
plutocratic  power.  We  therefore  refer  the 
subject  to  the  article,  Silver  Question,  where 
it  will  be  carefully  treated  at  the  length  it 
demands.  We  simply  print  here  one  quotation 
from  a  report  of  a  United  States  Comptroller 
of  the  Currency,  which  shows  that  from  war 
times,  if  not  before,  the  money  power  has. 
played  a  large  and  most  criminal  part  in  our 
monetary  legislation. 

Mr.  Hugh  McCulloch,  when  Comptroller  of 
the  Currency,  said,  in  his  second  report : 

"  Hostility  to  the  Government  has  been  as  decidedly 
manifested  in  the  effort  that  has  been  made  in  the 
commercial  metropolis  of  the  nation  to  depreciate  the 
currency  as  it  has  been  by  the  enemy  in  the  field, 
and  unfortunately  the  effort  of  sympathizers  with  the 
rebellion  and  of  the  agents  of  the  rebellious  States  to 
prostrate  the  national  credit  has  been  strengthened 
and  sustained  by  thousands  in  the  loyal  States  whose 

Eolitical  fidelity  it  might  be  ungenerous  to  question, 
mmense  interests  have  been  at  work  all  over  and 
concentrated  in  New  York  to  raise  the  price  of  coin, 
and  splendid  fortunes  have  been  apparently  made  by 
their  success.  .  .  .  Gold  has  been  a  favorite  article 
to  gamble  in.  ...  The  effect  of  all  this  has  been, 
not  to  break  down  the  credit  of  the  Government,  but 
to  increase  enormously  the  cost  of  the  war  and  the 
expense  of  living  ;  for,  however  small  may  have  been 
the  connection  between  the  price  of  com  and  our 
domestic  products,  every  rise  of  gold,  no  matter  by 
what  means  effected,  has  been  used  as  a  pretext  by 
holders  and  speculators  for  an  advance  of  prices,  to 
the  great  injury  of  the  Government  and  the  sorrow 
of  a  large  portion  of  the  people.  .  .  ." 

(See  also  CORRUPTION  ;  STANDARD  OIL  MON- 
OPOLY ;  SILVER  ;  SYNDICATE  ;  WEALTH,  Section 
Concentration  of.) 

Revised  by  H.  D.  LLOYD. 

POLICE. — The  policeman  is  far  more  than 
a  guardian  of  the  public  peace.  Mr.  Thomas 
Byrnes  calls  him  "  the  real  court  of  first  in- 
stance." Says  Mr.  H.  M.  Boies  {Prisoners  and' 
Paupers,  p.  237) : 

"  Nowhere,  probably,  on  the  face  of  the  globe,  does 
what  is  commonly  known  as  the  police  force  occupy 
so  prominent,  important,  and  influential  a  position 
and  sphere  in  the  social  organization  as  it  does  in  the 
United  States ;  nowhere  does  it  sustain  so  potent  a 
relation  to  pauperism  and  crime  as  here.  ...  In  the 
United  States,  under  a  social  organization  for  self-gov- 
ernment, a  government  of  laws,  which  are  solely  the 
formulated  decrees  of  popular  judgment  and  will,  the 
police  and  constabulary  constitute  almost  the  only  in- 
corporate and  vital  evidence,  or  general  manifestation, 
of  the  authority  and  dignity  of  government ;  they  rep- 
resent the  concrete  absolutism  of  the  laws,  and  exer- 
cise the  majesty  and  power  of  the  people  in,  among, 
and  before  the  people  constantly.  They  become, 
therefore,  to  the  people  here,  not  only  the  agents  and 
representatives  of  self-government,  but  the  express 
force  and  soul  of  government,  the  general  and  popu- 


Police. 


1017 


Police. 


lar  conception  of  government  itself.  This  increases 
the  power,  dignity,  and  influence  of  the  police  officer 
in  this  country  immeasurably  above  what  exists  else- 
where. It  is  his  province  here  to  bring  the  popular 
power  into  direct  contact  with  and  control  over  the 
people.  .  .  .  The  police  are,  in  this  country,  the  eyes 
and  ears,  as  well  as  the  hands,  of  the  body  politic  ;  not 
only  the  means  of  governmental  apprehension,  but  of 
discovery  ;  the  agents  of  prevention  as  well  as  of  cure. 
It  devolves  upon  them  to  observe  the  very  beginnings 
of  error,  failure,  and  sin  in  society  ;  to  note  the  sources, 
the  inception,  and  conception  of  crime  and  poverty;  to 
watch  their  birth,  growth,  and  development;  to  become 
familiar  with  causes  and  occasions,  to  recognize  the 
necessary  remedies.  They  seldom  feel  called  upon  to 
interfere  ;  indeed,  the  principle  of  their  action  is  not 
to  interfere  before  the  overt  act,  when  correction  be- 
comes necessary  and  prevention  is  no  longer  practi- 
cable. The  intimacy  and  constancy  of  their  contact 
with  society  and  its  elements  should  enable  them  to 
stretch  out  the  helping  or  the  warning  hand  of  govern- 
ment when  it  could  be  efficient,  when  the  needed  slight 
change  of  direction  can  be  given  the  individual  faced 
the  wrong  way,  before  the  club,  the  handcuff,  or  the 
lock-up  have  become  necessary.  Indeed,  an  interfer- 
ence which  would  be  resented  from  a  private  person, 
however  gently  or  kindly  made,  would  be  received 
not  only  without  objection  ordinarily  from  the  police- 
man, but  it  would  carry  with  it  the  weight  and  influ- 
ence of  the  wisdom  and  will  of  society.  A  word  or  an 
act  which  would  make  no  impression  without  au- 
thority, with  it  might  be  effectual  in  saving  many  a 
youth  from  ruin.  If  the  police  then  could  be  enlisted 
as  conservators  of  morals  as  well  as  preservers  of  the 
peace,  they  would  become  a  power  in  the  community 
of  inestimable  utility,  and  the  necessities  of  their 
harsher  activities  would  be  greatly  decreased.  The 
task  of  training  the  twig  is  lighter  than  bending  the 
tree.  If  they  could  be  made  to  devote  their  chief  care 
to  the  children  and  youths  when  they  are  beyond  the 
parental  eye  or  control,  and  be  placed  in  a  position  rep- 
resenting with  authority  the  organized  parentage  and 
domesticity  of  the  community  outside  its  homes,  upon 
the  streets  and  in  public  places,  many  of  the  dangers 
of  city  life  would  be  alleviated.  Their  parental  func- 
tions might  be  extended  for  the  general  benefit  to  the 
relief  of  the  poor  from  suffering,  to  the  ministrations 
of  charity,  to  the  restrictions  of  intemperance,  the  ar- 
rest of  drunkenness,  the  correction  of  evil  tendencies, 
and  the  rescue  of  those  in  peril  of  moral  corruption 
and  ruin." 

On  the  other  hand,  what  the  police  can  do 
for  evil  is  shown  by  the  following  account  of 
the  political  situation  in  Philadelphia  under 
the  control  of  the  old  Gas  Ring.  It  is  from 
Mr.  Bryce's  The  American  Commonwealth, 
first  edition,  vol.  ii.  chap.  Ixxxviii. 

"  The  possession  of  the  great  city  offices  gave  the 
members  of  the  Ring  the  means  not  only  of  making 
their  own  fortunes,  but  of  amassing  a  large  reserve 


fund  to  be  used  for  '  campaign  purposes. '  Many  of  these 
offices  were  paid  by  fees,  and  not  by  salary.  Five  offi- 
cers were  at  one  time  in  the  receipt  of  an  aggregate  of 
$223,000  (,£44,600),  or  an  average  of  $44,600  each  (.£8900). 
One,  the  collector  of  delinquent  taxes,  received  nearly 
$200,000  a  year.  Many  others  had  the  opportunity,  by 
giving  out  contracts  for  public  works  on  which  they 
received  large  commissions,  of  enriching  themselves- 
almost  without  limit,  because  there  was  practically  no- 
investigation  of  their  accounts.  The  individual  official 
was  of  course  required  to  contribute  to  the  secret 
party  funds  in  proportion  to  his  income,  and  while  he 
paid  in  thousands  of  dollars  from  his  vast  private 
gains,  assessments  were  levied  on  the  minor  employees 
down  to  the  very  policemen.  On  one  occasion  each 
member  of  the  police  force  was  required  to  pay  $25, 
and  soon  afterward  a  further  tax  of  $10,  for  party  pur- 
poses. Any  one  who  refused,  and  much  more  of 
course  any  one  who  asserted  his  right  to  vote  as  he 
pleased,  was  promptly  dismissed.  The  fund  was  spent 
in  what  is  called  '  fixing  things  up,'  in  canvassing,  in 
petty  bribery,  in  keeping  bar-rooms  open  and  supply- 
ing drink  to  the  workers  who  resort  thither,  and,  at 
election  times,  in  bringing  in  armies  of  professional 
personators  and  repeaters  from  Washington,  Balti- 
more, and  other  neighboring  cities,  to  swell  the  vote 
for  the  Ring  nominees.  These  men,  some  of  them,  it 
is  said,  criminals,  others  servants  in  the  Government 
departments  in  the  national  capital,  could  of  course 
have  effected  little  if  the  election  officials  and  the 
police  had  looked  sharply  after  them.  But  those  who 

E resided  at  the  voting-places  were  mostly  in  the  plot, 
eing  Ring  men  and  largely  city  employees,  while  the 
police— and  herein  not  less  than  in  their  voting  power 
lies  the  value  of  a  partizan  police— had  instructions 
not  to  interfere  with  the  strangers,  but  allow  them  to 
vote  as  often  as  they  pleased,  while  hustling  away 
keen-eyed  opponents. 

"  A  policeman  is  by  law  forbidden  to  approach  within 
thirty  feet  of  the  voter.  Who  was  to  see  that  the  law 
was  observed  when  the  guardians  of  the  law  broke  it  ? 
According  to  the  proverb, '  If  water  chokes,  what  is 
one  to  drink  next?  " 

With  this  view  of  what  the  police  do  or  might 
do — and  no  one  can  know  anything  of  police 
courts  (q.  v.)  without  seeing  how  much  of  re- 
sponsibility actually  lies  upon  the  police,  and 
frequently  how  utterly  ignorantly  they  carry  it 
out — it  becomes  necessary  to  know  what  is  the 
organization  of  the  police  in  this  and  other 
countries.  Census  Bulletin  No.  100  gives 
much  information.  In  cities  of  over  100,000  in- 
habitants there  are  an  average  of  13.55  patrol- 
men to  each  square  mile,  who  make  an  average 
of  36  arrests  per  year.  In  cities  of  less  than 
100,000,  there  are  an  average  of  3. 75  patrolmen 
to  the  square  mile,  who  make  an  average  of  51 
arrests.  The  following  tables  give  details  : 


POLICE  STATISTICS  BY  GEOGRAPHICAL  DIVISIONS. 


FORCE. 

h 

£ 

<u  ci 

JD    (~L 

o 

i 

2A 

\ 

Ctf 

6 

<o   . 

*j  CL 

O 

4-1 

G 

'Jl    o' 

O  & 

a> 

0 

<W 
O 

•3* 

o.o 

*•*  *J 

Sft 

u 

GEOGRAPHICAL  DIVISIONS. 

'o 

"3 

i? 

£ 

0 

So 

C  «1 

83 

IM 

s--g 
«-•  ft 

CM    O 

o 

n 

a 

C 

ci  ^J 

""  ft 

0  ft 

h 

0) 

o 
ft 

| 

o  c 
beat 

So^ 

jj  g  C 

"0*0 

gj= 

jJ<W 

JO 

s 

"3 
s 

0 

| 

0 

o 
c 

0)  « 

>  a> 

2  s 

o  rt- 

^•o 

^|§ 

^  (U 

* 

EH 

EH 

OH 

<<K 

<ji 

<-*- 

U" 

^x  ' 

fV1 

Total                 

$17,329,160 

44 

$1.14 

4.87 

0.14 

10,386,331 

37 

1.33 

4.41 

0.15 

*7 

1,076,455 
4,817,428 

1,825 

1,529 

78,884 

i^QS.^S 
3,753,646 

52 
37 

0.78 

7-33 
3.60 

0.17 

O.  II 

South  Central  

18 

783,588 

895 

95,739 

835,571 

138 

1.07 

12.22 

0.  II 

Western  

20 

775-143 

889 

730 

50,386 

860,447 

69 

i.  ii 

6.50 

O.  II 

Police. 


1018 


Police. 


Statement  showing  the  police  statistics  for  each  of  fifty  of  the  largest  cities  in  the  United  States  that  have 
made  complete  returns,  including  the  number  of  each  force  divided  as  to  grade,  number  of  arrests  annually, 
number  of  station-house  lodgers,  value  of  lost  and  stolen  property  recovered,  average  annual  cost  of  force,  and 
.casualties,  with  per  centages  and  ratios. 


CITIES. 

Miles  of  streets. 

FORCE. 

Average  number  of 
arrests  annually. 

Average  number 
of  station-house 
lodgers  annually. 

-0  >, 
C  -H 

=«SS 

+j  0- 

ui  O 
0  %     . 
-ft-O 

°J 
III 

c4  4J  <U 
>  «  <•* 

Average  annual 
cost  of  force. 

Number  of  patrol- 
men to  each  square 
mile  of  territory. 

Per  cent,  of  arrests 
to  each  head  of 
population. 

Cost  of  force  to 
each  head  of  pop- 
ulation. 

Officers,  de- 
tectives, etc. 

Patrolmen. 

New  York,  N.  Y.... 
Chicago,  111  

575 
2,048 
1,151 
653 
1,061 

408 
780 
342 
486 
462 

372 
625 
400 

4IQ 

235 

186 
800 
508 
240 
970 

756 
400 
'95 
438 
140 

i°5 
251 
106 

79 

100 

TOO 
125 
I30 
136 
800 

82 

3° 
529 
34° 
56 

5° 
80 
224 
90 
140 

150 
200 
125 
3° 
1  20 

499 

167 

292 
257 
78 

237 
163 
70 
33 
67 

70 
93 
63 
24 

43 

33 
33 
15 

25 
45 

25 
22 
IO 
IS 
27 

IO 

II 
18 
14 

i 

U 
3 
3 
9 

5 

8 

IO 

15 

i 

3 

2 

3 
7 

12 

8 

2 

6 
3 
3 

2,922 
1,458 
1,425 
900 

535 

679 
619 
336 

400 
252 

272 
J73 

3°5 
172 
365 

181 
166 
80 
98 
125 

75 
79 
84 
70 
85 

66 
65 
77 
65 
42 

5° 
44 
5° 
43 
73 

35 
5° 
32 
14 
37 

27 
H 
31 
20 
ii 

17 
19 
"3 
13 
9 

74,594 
39,9" 
50,000 
28,364 
17,645 

32,867 
26,592 
23,4" 
14,000 

_  7>5°° 

11,152 
15,000 

7,°97 
3,58i 
17,779 

5,775 
4,672 

I,IOO 

4,000 
3,200 

5,000 
3,583 
3,275 
3,723 
5,553 

3>27i 

4>5°o 
2,286 
i,548 
2,500 

2,500 
1,660 
3,400 
2,000 
2,3°7 

1,975 
i,  800 
2,966 
136 
2,177 

1,000 
1,000 

2,  IOO 
1,465 

794 

950 
796 
1,850 
700 
3°5 

138,604 

30,136 
25,000 
21,569 
3,50° 

2,709 
19,361 

1,779 
10,000 
3,ooo 

3,8i4 
250 
4,092 
3,707 
4,000 

13,630 
1,200 
400 
1,161 
300 

300 

$987,031 

134,341 
100,000 

103,309 
175,650 

119,864 
107,252 
58,788 
30,000 
28,312 

19,143 

3,ooo 

14,351 
9,5I9 
48,762 

22,380 
10,000 
4,500 
5,823 
11,000 

10,000 

6,760 

4,062 
4,000 
17,495 

3,000 
1,500 
4,190 
3,268 

$4>39I>766 
979,894 
1,000,000 
859,184 
475,408 

963,355 
677,914 
545,5oo 
330,000 
250,000 

297,994 
170,000 
222,509 
122,488 
399,060 

170,000 

i5i,337 
65,000 

99,307 
98,708 

50,000 
56,079 
73,332 
73,000 
102,481 

70,552 
46,000 
70,407 
7i,756 
30,000 

55,ooo 
40,000 
55,000 
28,098 
28,800 

32-7J7 
42,000 
40,000 
12,000 
33,906 

20,000 
8,340 
40,000 
17,838 
11,958 

8,400 
18,863 
10,000 
10,000 
7,5oo 

72.65 
9.08 

II.  OI 

34.01 
8.72 

I9-25 

21.  8l 

21-73 
16.00 
10.13 

6.97 
4.66 
14.81 

IO.  12 

35-64 

10.19 
3-21 

3-27 
6.28 

2-43 

4-84 
7-85 
2.47 
3-55 
11.24 

5-92 
7.70 
7-03 
11.15 
9.68 

12.66 
4.14 
3-4i 
9-73 
2.64 

5-25 
34-oi 
4.17 

0-45 
14.74 

6.78 
'•39 
9.60 

4-49 
2-49 

2.50 
0.40 

!-59 
10.83 
1.41 

4.92 
3-63 
4.78 

3-52 
3-91 

7-33 

6.12 

7-83 
4.72 

2.87 

4-36 
6.  20 
3-45 
1-75 
8.76 

3-i8 
2.84 
0.78 
2.99 
2.40 

4.69 
3-4<> 
3-87 
4-57 
6.83 

4.21 
5,91 
3-°7 

2.21 
4-29 

4-35 
2.98 
6.39 
3-94 
4-58 

4.42 
4.12 
7-79 
0.36 
5.98 

2.81 
2.86 
6-34 
4-93 
2.95 

3-63 
3-!3 
7-37 
2.81 
1.29 

$2.90 
0.89 
0.96 
1.07 
1.05 

2-15 
1.56 
1.82 
i.  ii 
0.96 

1.17 
0.70 
1.08 
0.60 
1.97 

o-93 
0.92 
0.46 

0.74 
o-74 

o-47 
0-53 
0.87 
0.90 
1.26 

0.91 
0.60 

0.95 

1.02 
0.51 

0.96 
0.72 
1.03 
0.55 

0-57 

o-73 
0.96 
1.05 
0.32 
o-93 

0.56 
0.24 

I.  21 
0.60 
0-44 

0.32 
0.74 
0.40 
O.4O 
0.32 

Philadelphia,  Pa.... 
Brooklyn,  N.  Y  
St.  Louis,  Mo  

Boston,  Mass  

Baltimore,  Md  

.San  Francisco,  Cal. 
•Cincinnati,  O  

Cleveland,  O  

Buffalo,  N.  Y  

New  Orleans,  La  — 
Detroit,  Mich  

Milwaukee,  Wis  
Washington,  D.  C.. 

Newark,  N.  J  

Minneapolis,  Minn. 
Omaha,  Neb  

Rochester,  N.  Y.... 
St.  Paul,  Minn  

Denver,  Col  

Indianapolis,  Ind... 
Worcester,  Mass  — 
•Toledo,  O  

5,160 
2,468 
2,679 

2,786 
300 

1,449 
1,178 
2,500 

New  Haven,  Conn.. 
Lowell,  Mass  

Nashville,  Tenn  
Fall  River,  Mass  — 
Cambridge,  Mass.  .  . 
Camden,  N.  J  

Trenton,  N.  J  

Lynn,  Mass  

5,000 
2,300 
500 
6,398 

5,5i8 
1,000 

4,500 

Hartford,  Conn  
Evansville,  Ind  
Los  Angeles,  Cal.  .  . 

Lawrence,  Mass.... 
Hoboken,  N.  J  

25 
200 
200 

1,183 
3.600 

Dallas,  Texas  

Sioux  City,  la  

Portland,  Me  

652 

1,962 

Holyoke,  Mass  

Binghamton,  N.  Y.  . 
Duluth,  Minn  

63 
400 
300 
772 

1,000 
1,720 
700 

600 

85 

9,000 
5,000 
1,231 

500 
6,472 
1,000 

300 

500 

Elmira,  N.  Y  

Davenport,  la  

Canton,  O  

Taunton,  Mass  
Lacrosse,  Wis  

Newport,  Ky  
Rockford,  111  

The  methods  of  organizing  the  police    are 
different  in  American  cities.     Mr. 
Organiza-    A.  R.  Conkling,  in  his  City  Gov- 
tion  in      ernment,  tells  us  that  in  Chicago 
the  United    it  is  ruled  by  a  single  head.    Under 
States.      the  city  charter  of  1872  the  abso- 
lute control  of  the  police  depart- 
ment is  vested  in  the  mayor.     He  appoints  all 


officers  and  men.  An  incoming  mayor  may 
promote,  degrade,  or  discharge  any  member  of 
the  force.  As  a  general  rule,  however,  this 
official  transfers  most  of  the  responsibility  to 
the  superintendent  of  police.  Neither  the 
bureau  of  elections  nor  any  other  of  the  muni- 
cipal or  county  bureaus  is  in  any  way  con- 
nected with  the  local  police  department. 


Police. 


1019 


Police. 


In  Philadelphia  there  is  a  single-headed 
bureau  (which  is  a  branch  of  the  department 
of  public  safety)  under  a  director,  who  exercises 
all  powers,  and  is  appointed  by  the  mayor. 
There  are  no  police  commissioners,  and  there 
is  no  bureau  of  elections.  The  sheriff  issues  a 
proclamation  for  elections.  The  election  offi- 
cers in  each  precinct  are  chosen  by  the  people, 
and  the  ballots  are  furnished  by  the  county 
commissioners.  The  police  have  nothing  to 
do  with  elections  except  to  preserve  the  peace. 
They  must  pass  a  civil-service  examination. 

In  St.  Louis  the  police  department  is  gov- 
erned by  four  commissioners,  who  are  ap- 
pointed by  the  Governor  and  confirmed  by  the 
State  Senate.  The  mayor  of  St.  Louis  is,  ex- 
officio,  president  of  the  board.  There  is  no 
bureau  of  elections. 

In  Cincinnati  (population  296,000  in  1890") 
the  board  of  police  commissioners  is  composed 
of  four  electors  of  the  city,  who  are  appointed 
by  the  Governor.  Not  more  than  two  mem- 
bers belong  to  the  same  political  party.  Two 
of  the  commissioners,  of  different  political 
faith,  are  appointed  to  serve  two  years  ;  and 
the  other  two,  also  of  different  political  faith, 
are  designated  to  serve  four  years.  After  the 
expiration  of  the  term  of  the  commissioners 
designated  to  serve  two  years,  all  appoint- 
ments made  by  the  Governor  are  for  four  years. 
The  mayor  is  a  member  of  the  board,  and 
hence  no  tie  votes  are  possible.  The  board  of 
elections  is  composed  of  four  citizens,  who  are 
appointed  by  the  Governor  on  the  same  princi- 
ple as  the  board  of  police  commissioners. 

In  Minneapolis  the  executive  power  of  the 
police  department  is  exclusively  vested  in  the 
mayor.  The  bureau  of  elections  is  independ- 
ent of  the  police  department.  No  civil-service 
examination  is  required. 

In  New  Orleans  the  police  department  is 
tinder  the  management  of  the  board  of  six 
police  commissioners  created  by  the  act  of  the 
legislature  in  1888.  The  superintendent  is  the 
executive  head  of  the  force  and  is  subject  to 
the  orders  of  the  mayor  ;  but  the  board  has 
power  to  pass  resolutions  regarding  the  en- 
forcement of  any  law,  as  well  as  to  make  regu- 
lations for  the  general  government  of  the  force. 
The  police  do  not  supervise  elections.  All 
applicants  must  pass  a  civil-service  examina- 
tion. 

In  Detroit  there  is  a  bipartizan  board  of 
four  commissioners,  who  are  appointed  by  the 
mayor  for  the  term  of  four  years. 

In  Boston  there  are  three  commissioners, 
who  are  appointed  by  the  Governor. 

New  York  has  had  the  greatest  difficulty 
with  police  organization.     In  early  times  her 
police  force  became  a  political  machine.     In 
1857,  when  the  Republican  party  dominated 
the  State,  and  the  Democrats  the  city,  a  met- 
ropolitan police  district  was  organized  and  the 
police  power  vested  in  a  board  of  five  members 
appointed  by  the   Governor,   the 
mayors  of  New  York  and  Brooklyn 

New  York,   being    ex-officio    members.      The 
citizens  resisted  the   enforcement 
of  this  act,  but  finally  submitted. 
By  a  law  of  1864  the  commissioners  were  re- 
duced to  four  named  in  the  act.     In  1870  the 


above  act  was  repealed,  and  a  board  of  four 
commissioners  was  to  be  appointed  by  the 
mayor.  Of  this  act  Mayor  Hewitt,  in  a  message 
to  the  common  council  in  1888,  says  : 

"  The  only  obstacle  in  the  way  of  an  efficient  ad- 
ministration of  the  police  is  to  be  found  in  the  con- 
stitution of  the  board  of  commissioners,  which  con- 
sists of  four  members,  two  of  whom  belong  to  each 
of  the  great  political  parties.  It  was  organized  as  a 
non-partizan  board;  but  as  a  matter  of  fact,  from  its 
very  constitution,  it  is  nothing  more  or  less  than  a 
partizan  board.  The  patronage  of  the  department  is 
notoriously  divided  between  the  commissioners,  and 
a  large  part  of  their  business  has  been  in  the  past  to 
satisfy  the  claims  of  the  two  political  parties  whom 
they  represent.  It  is  fatal  to  the  police  that  politics 
should  enter  either  into  its  composition  or  its  adminis- 
tration. There  is  no  way,  so  far  as  I  can  see,  to  get  rid 
of  this  evil  but  to  place  the  management  of  the  police  in 
the  hands  of  a  single  commissioner,  to  be  appointed  by 
the  mayor,  and  to  hold  office  during  his  pleasure. 

"A  competent  and  honest  commissioner  would,  in 
all  human  probability,  have  a  permanent  tenure  of 
office.  There  has  been  no  mayor  in  my  day  who  would 
dare  to  confrontpublic  opinion  in  case  he  should  re- 
move such  an  officer  from  his  position.  On  the  other 
hand,  the  fact  that  the  acts  of  the  commissioner  would 
be  thus  subject  to  the  supervision  of  the  mayor  would 
insure  a  conscientious  discharge  of  duty." 

Seth  Low,  in  opposing  a  bipartizan  police 
board  for  New  York,  says  : 

"  Until  it  becomes  wise  to  place  an  army  under  the 
charge  of  four  generals  it  cannot  be  wise  to  place  a 
police  department  under  the  control  of  four  men.  .  .  . 
The  founders  of  this  republic  committed  all  the  great 
administrative  offices  of  the  general  Government  to  a 
single  head.  Our  cities  do  not  show  their  wisdom  in 
departing  from  this  practise.  They  rather  illustrate 
their  lack  of  wisdom,  which  is  the  more  evident  from 
the  fact  that  they  depart  from  instead  of  following  so 
great  an  example." 

Mr.  A.  R.  Conkling  says  : 

"  Of  all  the  methods  of  ruling  a  police  force  by  a 
board,  the  Cincinnati  plan  is,  I  think,  the  best ;  for 
there  the  mayor  (an  elective  officer)  may  prevent  a  tie 
vote,  and  the  electors  can  hold  him  responsible  for 
the  condition  of  the  department.  The  chief  objection 
to  a  bipartizan  board  is  that,  if  one  commissioner 
changes  his  politics,  there  is  no  way  of  removing  him, 
unless  there  be  in  the  statute  a  provision  that  any 
commissioner  who  joins  another  organization  forfeits 
his  office  by  that  act.  But  the  system  of  making  the 
police  force  a  department  of  the  municipality  is  wrong. 
The  American  people  should  learn  a  lesson  from  the 
governments  or  Europe  and  place  the  police  depart- 
ments under  the  supervision  of  the  State.  The  police 
power  belongs  to  the  commonwealth.  The  true 
remedy  for  the  existing  evils  of  the  police  boards  of 
cities  is  to  remove  the  department  from  politics  and 
make  it  a  branch  of  the  State  Government  under  the 
control  of  one  official.  No  police  commissioner  should 
stand  for  office,  and  it  is  forbidden  by  law  in  New  York. 
The  Governor  should  appoint  the  commissioners 
throughout  the  State,  as  is  now  the  custom  in  several 
of  the  large  cities." 

Recently,  New  York  has  had  a  complete 
overhauling  of  her  police  force  (see  LEXOW 
INVESTIGATION),  and  many  reforms  have  been 
proposed.  It  was  sworn  testimony  that  an 
applicant  must  pay,  either  by  political  assess- 
ment or  otherwise,  for  appointment,  and  an 
officer  must  contribute  an  enormous  sum, 
either  to  the  "ring"  or  to  the  commissioners, 
for  promotion ;  that  accordingly  many  mem- 
bers of  the  force,  of  all  grades,  extorted  money 
from  certain  classes  of  citizens  in  return  for  a 
license  to  violate  the  laws  and  ordinances  with 
impunity,  and  that  the  police  force  organized 
machine  votes  for  their  friends. 


Police. 


IO2O 


Police  Courts. 


In  Great  Britain  the  police  is  founded  on  a 
civil  plan.  In  London  the  commission  con- 
sists of  a  chief  and  his  assistants, 
appointed  for  life  by  the  Queen  on 
Europe,  the  recommendation  of  the  Home 
Secretary.  The  metropolitan  po- 
lice is  composed  of  15,099  officers 
and  men  and  334  horses,  for  which  the  annual 
appropriation  is  $6,437,550.  There  is  also  the 
city  police,  consisting  of  988  men,  whose  yearly 
compensation  is  about  $570,000. 

In  Paris  the  organization  of  the  police  is  dis- 
tinctly military,  under  a  prefect  of  police  who 
is  under  the  minister  of  the  interior.  The  pre- 
fect occupies  almost  a  cabinet  position  and  re- 
signs after  a  conspicuous  failure,  as  after  the 
students'  riot  in  1892,  and  the  assassination  of 
President  Carnot.  The  number  of  men  belong- 
ing to  the  municipal  police  of  Paris  is  8174,  and 
the  annual  appropriation  is  $4,370,926.  There 
are  also  "indicators"  or  spies,  usually  re- 
formed criminals. 

In  Berlin  there  are  many  kinds  of  police,  all 
in  military  organization  under  the  minister  of 
the  interior.  The  force  is  divided  into  two  de- 
partments, the  day  watch  and  the  night  watch. 
The  municipal  authorities  maintain  besides  a 
force  of  night  watchmen,  whose  duty  is  chiefly 
to  protect  the  property  of  the  citizens.  The 
Berlin  force  consists  of  4500  policemen. 

The  police  of  Vienna  is  composed  of  2800 
officers  and  men.  In  Glasgow  the  yearly  ex- 
penditure is  $858,350  for  a  force  of  1347  men. 
On  the  Continent  of  Europe,  the  police  are 
usually  armed  with  swords  and  revolvers,  and 
mounted  officers  are  much  more  numerous  than 
in  the  United  States.  In  some  cities,  as  in 
Paris,  the  police  commonly  carry  muskets  with 
fixed  bayonets  when  on  guard  duty. 

In  Russia  the  police  are  the  executive  ad- 
ministrators of  the  empire,  and  their  number 
is  unknown.  There  are  about  10,000  in  St. 
Petersburg.  Many  of  them  are  detectives  or 
the  famous  "Third  Section."  They  are  un- 
armed, but  carry  whistles. 

Concerning  the  evils  of  the  present  police 
system  in  American  cities,  see  LEXOW  INVESTI- 
GATION, also  POLICE  COURTS.  It  must  not  be 
forgotten  that  besides  the  political  and  admin- 
istrative corruption  of  the  police  of  which  we 
hear  so  much,  there  are  other  evils  of  which  we 
do  not  hear.  Their  task  is  often  arduous  and 
the  need  of  good  judgment  very  great.  Not 
too  much  must  be  expected.  Said  an  old  sol- 
dier in  mitigation  of  his  drunkenness,  "  You 
cannot  expect  all  the  civic  virtues  and  temper- 
ance included  for  $13  a  month."  The  same,  tho 
to  a  less  extent,  since  their  pay  is 
higher,  might  be  said  of  the  police. 
Need  of  Many  of  them  do  discharge  their 
Reform,  difficult  work  with  great  faithful- 
ness and  surprisingly  good  judg- 
ment. One  cannot  understand  the 
difficulties  they  meet  without  close  acquaint- 
ance, and  a  closer  acquaintance  often  shows 
that  many  of  them  are  far  wiser  than  the  pub- 
lic knows.  Yet  it  is  equally  true  that  many 
of  them  are  ignorant,  inefficient,  simply  bullies 
in  uniform,  They  are  often  brutal,  and  the 
terror  of  the  weak,  rather  than  a  terror  to  evil 
doers.  Mr.  H,  M.  Boies  (Prisoners  and  Pau- 


pers, chap,  xiv.)  considers  what  may  be  done 
for  the  improvement  of  the  police  system.  He 
argues  for  a  carefully  selected  personnel,  men 
of  good  health,  morals,  and  -judgment,  ap- 
pointed for  life  on  good  behavior.  The  force 
should  be  firmly  instructed,  carefully  drilled 
and  disciplined,  to  develop  unity  and  esprit 
du  corps.  Ordinarily,  one  policeman  to  1200 
men  he  thinks  enough,  with  a  thorough  system 
of  intercommunication,  all  under  the  control  of 
one  wise  chief,  and  well  supported  by  the 
public.  Says  Mr.  Boies  : 

"  Humanity,  philanthropy,  and  religion  must  follow 
the  policeman  on  his  mission  with  an  untiring  and 
increasing  care,  both  for  his  own  sake  and  the  success 
of  his  effort.  Counter-attractions  must  be  opposed 
against  the  special  allurements  to  which  he  is  exposed. 
Pleasant  resorts  must  be  provided  for  his  off-duty 
hours,  where  the  better  things  of  life  may  be  contrasted 
with  the  debasing  pleasures  with  which  his  duties 
make  him  familiar,  and  intellectual  and  moral  influ- 
ences may  be  brought  to  bear  upon  his  character.  Par- 
ticular effort  must  be  made  to  keep  up  his  connections 
with  all  the  higher  influences  of  social  life,  with  the 
educational  and  religious  enterprises  of  the  people." 

(See  also  POLICE  COURTS.) 

References :  H.  M.  Boies'  Prisoners  and  Paupers  ; 
J.  P.  Altgeld's  Live  Questions  ;  A.  R.  Conkling's  City 
Government  in  the  united  States. 

POLICE  COURTS  are  variously  organ- 
ized in  different  cities,  but  everywhere  have 
enormous  responsibilities.  Said  Mayor  Hewitt 
of  New  York  City  in  his  message  of  1888  : 

"  I  do  not  assert  too  much  when  I  declare  that  the 
position  of  a  police  justice  is  more  important  to  the 
community  than  that  of  a  judge  of  the  Court  of  Ap- 
peals. The  latter  finally  settles  the  law,  but  the  former 
applies  it  in  the  first  instance  in  nearly  all  cases  affect- 
ing the  life,  liberty,  and  property  of  the  citizens." 

In  New  York  City  there  are  15  police  magis- 
trates and  eight  courthouses,  in  various  parts 
of  the  city.  A  new  central  building  for  the 
criminal  courts  of  record  (called  the  General 
Sessions)  has  just  been  completed.  It  adjoins 
the  central  city  prison,  or  "  the  Tombs."  The 
poorer  portion  of  the  population  depend  upon 
these  minor  civil  and  criminal  courts  for  the 
enforcement  of  their  rights  and  liberties,  yet 
Mr.  Conkling  (City  Government  in  the  United 
States,  p.  8)  tells  us  that  three  out  of  the  15 
police-court  judges  have  been  indicted  for 
various  offenses,  and  another  has  but  just  es- 
caped. Yet  he  adds  that  at  least  100,000  per- 
sons appear  before  the  police  magistrates 
annually.  He  says  : 

"  Of  this  number  86,488  were  arrested  by  the  police  in 
1803.  The  remainder  are  those  who  appeal  for  war- 
rants or  for  protection  from  their  oppressors.  The 
police  magistrate  is  generally  an  absolute  autocrat  in 
the  cases  that  come  before  him.  He  has  discretionary 

Eower,  and  hence  it  is  difficult  to  impeach  a  magistrate 
sr  an  abuse  of  authority.     Moreover,  it  would  usually 
be  easy  to  obtain  a  squad  of  witnesses  to  commit  per- 
jury in  the  event  of  proceedings  for  impeachment  in 
the  court  of  Common  Pleas. 

"The  decisions  of  the  New  York  Police  Magistrates, 
especially  in  election  cases,  depend  largely  upon  the 
presence  of  some  anti-ring  lawyer.  If  a  man  of  stand- 
ing appears  in  behalf  of  the  accused,  a  majority  of 
the  magistrates  are  inclined  to  be  careful  in  their 
rulings. 

Brooklyn  has  six  judges,  Albany  two,  other 
New  York  cities  but  one,  elected  on  terms  of 
from  one  to  ten  years,  with  salaries  of  $600  or 
more.  In  New  York  city  they  have  a  salary  of 
about  $8000,  and  are  elected  for  ten  years. 


Police  Courts. 


IO2I 


Police  Matrons. 


In  Massachusetts  the-  magistrates  are  ap- 
pointed for  life  by  the  Governor  of  the  State. 
They  can  be  removed  only  by  "  the  Governor 
with  the  consent  of  the  council,  and  upon  the 
address  of  both  Houses  of  the 
Legislature."  In  Boston  the  police 
Organi-  magistrates  are  called  judges  of 
zation.  the  municipal  court.  There  are 
a  chief  justice,  with  a  salary  of 
$4300,  also  four  associate  justices 
receiving  $4000  each,  and  one  special  justice 
receiving  $4000.  Police  courts  have  a  limited 
civil  as  well  as  criminal  jurisdiction,  and  are 
free  from  political  influence  after  appointment. 
In  Illinois  police  judges  are  practically  ap- 
pointed by  the  Governor,  as  in  Massachusetts. 
There  are  in  Chicago  48  justices  of  the  peace, 
having  a  term  of  office  of  four  years.  A  justice 
must  be  recommended  to  the  Governor  of  the 
State  by  a  majority  of  the  judges  of  the  Cook 
County  Circuit  and  Superior  Courts.  If  ap- 
proved by  the  Governor  the  name  of  the  pro- 
posed justice  must  be  sent  to  the  State  Senate, 
which  accepts  or  rejects  him.  It  being  neces- 
sary for  these  three  tribunals  to  pass  upon  the 
names  of  the  justices,  a  good  class  of  men  fill 
the  places.  They  are  usually  lawyers,  and 
their  jurisdiction  is  limited  to  suits  where  the 
amount  involved  does  not  exceed  $200.  From 
these  justices  of  the  peace  the  mayor  of  Chicago 
selects  as  many  police  magistrates  as  may  be 
necessary,  and  the  city  pays  their  salaries. 
The  mayor  can  at  any  time  revoke  his  appoint- 
ments and  name  other  justices  to  act  as  police 
magistrates,  but  those  once  appointed  usually 
continue  to  hold  the  office. 

Concerning  the  need  of  reform  in  police 
courts,  and  the  police-court  system,  Governor 
Altgeld  of  Illinois  says  (Live  Questions,  p. 
268)  : 

"  Young  men  and  boys,  and  even  girls,  accused  of 
violating  some  city  ordinance  are  treated  by  the  police 
and  the  police  magistrates,  in  the  first  instance,  in  the 
same  manner  as  the  hardened  criminal.  They  are 
arrested,  not  infrequently  clubbed,  sometimes  hand- 
cuffed, marched  through  the  streets  in  charge  of  an 
officer  to  the  station,  which  in  many  cases  is  worse  than 
a  jail,  where  a  full  description  of  each  is  written  down 
opposite  their  respective  names,  and  then  they  are 
required  to  give  bail  for  their  appearance  at  some 
time  in  the  future  when  the  magistrate  can  hear  their 
case.  If  they  cannot  furnish  the  bond  instantly — and 
generally  they  cannot— they  are  shoved  into  a  cell, 
and  frequently  occupy  the  same  cell  for  a  night, 
and  sometimes  for  a  week,  with  the  most  desperate  of 
criminals.  The  station-keeper  is  not  to  blame  for  this, 
for  the  law  has  made  no  other  provision  and  left  no 
alternative  but  to  lock  them  up. 


crowd  of  human  beings  of  both  sexes,  ranging  from 
middle  life  down  to  tender  years,  nearly  all  from  the 
less  fortunate  class  in  life— poor,  more 
or    less  ragged,  with   misery    stamped 
Evils  of      deeP  '"to  tneir  faces,  weak,  with  little  or 
„  no  training,  no  steady  habits,   without 

System,  homes  worthy  of  the  name,  and  raised 
in  an  atmosphere  destitute  of  good  and 
pregnant  with  vicious  influences.  As 
their  cases  are  called,  you  learn  that  about  one  out  of 
12  is  charged  with  a  serious  offense,  about  five- 
twelfths  are  charged  with  minor  offenses,  but  there  is 
something  about  the  appearance  of  the  accused  which 
tells  you  thev  have  made  this  round  before.  The  re- 
maining half  are  also  charged  with  minor  offenses, 
such  as  drunkenness,  disorderliness,  etc.,  but  you  soon 
become  satisfied  that  they  are  not  yet  thoroughly  de- 
praved ;  that  while  they  may  have  violated  some  ordi- 
nance, they  yet  have  the  stuff  in  them  to  make  good 


citizens,  if  given  a  little  better  chance ;  and,  as  you 
look  at  them,  the  conviction  settles  in  your  mind  that 
it  was  unnecessary,  and  therefore  wrong,  to  drag  them 
in  and  corral  them  like  so  many  cattle,  and  that  neither 
they  nor  anybody  else  will  be  benefited  by  such  treat- 
ment. If  you  ask  the  magistrate  why  they  were  thus 
treated,  before  they  had  even  been  tried  to  see  if  they 
were  guilty,  he  will  tell  you  that  the  law  required  this; 
that  under  the  law  no  other  course  was  open. 

"  You  sit  down  while  their  cases  are  heard,  and  to 
your  surprise  find  that  about  one-third  are  discharged 
by  the  magistrate  because  the  evidence  fails  to  show 
that  they  were  guilty  of  any  offense  whatever.  (The 
police  reports  show  that  nearly  one-third  of  all  that  are 
arrested  are  discharged  by  the  magistrate.)  Turning 
then  to  those  not  discharged,  you  find  that  a  few,  being 
shown  to  be  probably  guilty  of  the  graver  offenses, 
are  bound  over  for  the  action  of  the  grand  jury,  while 
the  great  majority  are  shown  to  have  violated  some 
ordinance,  and  are  fined  ;  and  as  the  fines  are  not  paid 
at  once  in  many  cases,  you  see  men,  women,  and  often 
children,  crowded  into  an  pmibus  with  iron  grating  at 
windows  and  door,  and  driven  to  the  workhouse  or  to 
the  bridewell  (which  may  properly  be  called  a  short- 
term  penitentiary)  to  work  out  the  fine,  or,  in  the  ab- 
sence of  a  workhouse,  they  are  led  back  to  jail  to  serve 
out  the  fine  at  so  much  a  day. 

"In  Chicago  in  1881,  of  32, 800  arrested,  10,743  were  dis- 
charged by  the  police  magistrates,  to  say  nothing  of 
those  that  were  bound  over  to  the  grand  jury  and  then 
discharged.  Thus,  during  one  year,  there  were  in  that 
one  city  upward  of  10,000  young  persons,  who,  without 
having  committed  any  crime,  were  yet  condemned  to 
undergo  a  regular  criminal  experience.  .  .  . 

"  Every  case  has  to  go  through  the  same  steps,  no 
matter  how  much  the  circumstances  may  differ  ;  the 
proceedings  must  be  the  same,  no  matter  how  trifling 
the  charge  ;  the  accused  must  be  arrested,  must  then 
either  give  bond  or  be  locked  up  until  he  can  be  tried 
and  the  fact  ascertained  whether  he  is  even  guilty  of 
the  trifling  offense  charged  or  not,  and,  if  found  guilty, 
then,  no  matter  what  the  condition  of  the  accused  may 
be,  whether  old  or  young,  vicious  or  merely  weak,  male 
or  female,  there  is  but  one  course  open,  and  this  for  all 
alike  ;  that  is,  to  impose  a  fine,  and,  if  this  is  not  paid, 
to  send  the  accused  to  the  jail  or  to  the  bridewell.  ' 

Of  the  arrest  of  women  he  says  : 

"  It  appears  from  the  report  of  the  superintendent  of 
police  of  Chicago  that,  in  1882,  6835  women  were  ar- 
rested and  taken  to  the  police  prisons  in  Chicago,  and 
that,  during  that  year,  1800  women  were  incarcerated 
in  the  Chicago  house  of  correction,  mostly  for  non- 
payment of  fines  which  had  been  imposed.  Of  the  lat- 
ter number,  359  were  reported  prostitutes,  871  were 
servants,  114  were  laundry-women,  and  all  were  poor. 
Now,  can  any  good  come  of  thus  treating  unfortunate 
women  ?  What  are  they  to  do  when  released  ?  Can 
anybody  tell?  The  359  whom  the  offi- 
cers call  prostitutes,  and  think  that  a 


sufficient  accusation  to  excuse  any  kind 


Women 


of  treatment,  were  not  the  petted  chil- 
dren of  sin— not  those  that  live  in  gilded  Arrested. 
palaces  and  dress  in  silks  and  satins,  for 
these  are  rarely  disturbed— they  were 
the  poor,  unfortunate,  and  forlorn  creatures  who, 
without  friends,  without  sympathy,  without  money, 
often  hungry,  and  without  sufficient  clothing  to  pro- 
tect them  from  the  cold  winds,  wander  out  on  the 
streets,  not  so  much  wantonly  as  from  necessity,  lit- 
erally trying  to  sell  their  souls  for  a  morsel  of  bread, 
dealing  in  shame,  not  from  choice,  but  because  every 
Christian  door  is  shut  against  them,  because  there  is 
no  place  where  they  can  work  and  find  shelter.  Now, 
in  what  condition  are  they  when  they  have  gone 
through  the  above  experience  ?  What  are  they  to  do 
when  again  set  at  liberty  ?  Experience  has  answered 
this  a  hundred  times.  They  return  to  their  old  ways, 
because  there  is  nothing  else  that  they  can  do  ;  the 
only  difference  being  that  they  have  become  more 
degraded,  more  brutalized  by  the  treatment  which 
they  have  received,  and  from  which  no  good  ever 
has  or  ever  can  come." 

(For  proposals  for  the  reform  of  the  system, 
see  PENOLOGY,  last  part  of  article,  Reforms 
Proposed.  See  also  JUDICIARY.) 

POLICE  MATRONS.— These  are  women 
whose  duty  it  is  at  police  stations,  lock-ups,  jails, 
etc.,  to  look  after,  examine  and,  if  possible, 


Police  Matrons. 


IO22 


Political  Economy. 


aid  arrested  women  and  girls.  They  were  first 
regularly  employed  in  this  country  in  Chicago 
in  1886,  owing  to  the  efforts  of  the  Woman's 
Alliance  of  that  city.  In  Massachusetts  in  1887 
the  system  was  first  recognized  by  law.  To- 
day they  are  found  in  almost  all  the  larger 
cities.  Massachusetts  in  1892  had  22.  Boston 
also  has  made  a  step  in  advance  in  employ- 
ing a  woman  probation  officer,  to  whom  girls 
may  be  turned  over  on  their  first  offense,  on 
probation.  This  gives  the  probation  officer  a 
chance  to  watch  her  and  advise  and  help  her 
toward  reformation.  She  is  then  only  im- 
prisoned if  she  prove  incorrigible.  All  those 
who  know  the  sufferings  and  wrongs  and  in- 
dignities often  inflicted,  by  sometimes  even 
well-intentioned  policemen,  upon  girls  often 
more  ignorant  than  sinful,  agree  that  the 
good  that  one  trustworthy  matron  can  do  at  a 
police  station  can  scarcely  be  overestimated. 
See  Altgeld's  Living  Questions.  See  Lend  a 
Hand,  vol.  ix.  p.  180. 

POLITICAL  ECONOMY,  we  consider  un- 
der the  following  heads : 

I.  Name,  definition,  and  content. 
II.  Divisions  of  the  science. 

III.  Schools  of  Political  Economy. 

IV.  History  of  Political   Economy  in  Eng- 

land, France,  Germany,  Austria,  Italy, 
Holland,    Belgium,    other    European 
countries,  and  the  United  States. 
V.  Various  radical  views. 
For  the  consideration  of  the  separate  divi- 
sions of  the  subject,   as  land,   capital,   rent, 
wages,  etc.,  see  the  respective  articles. 

I.  NAME,  DEFINITION,  AND  CONTENT. 

The  name  political  economy  occurs  on  the 

title-page  of  a  book  on  the  science,  published 

by  Montchretien  de  Watteville  in 

1615,  and  was  employed  by  Steuart 

Name.      in    1767,    by  Verri    in    1731,    and 

by  Adam     Smith    in    1776,  since 

when    it    has  been  the   ordinary 

name.    Many  other  names,  however,  have  been 

used. 

The  Greeks  used  the  name  Economics  pure  and 
simple,  and  this  was  favored  by  Hutchison  in  1747,  and 
recently  by  Garnier,  Jevons,  H.  D.  Macleod,  and  Mar- 
shall. Cherbuliez  talks  of  economic  science,  or 
Economy.  But  this  word  economy  is  used  to-day  of 
purely  household  affairs,  and  therefore  needs  some 
distinguishing  characterization.  Genovesi  proposed 
Civil  Economics  :  Beccaria,  Pecchio,  and  Minghetti, 
Public  Economics:  others,  mostly  Germans,  prefer 
State  Economy.  Orthes  in  1774,  and  the  German  pro- 
tectionists of  this  century,  say  National  Economy.  But 
all  these  are  either  ambiguous  or  emphasize  one  theory 
of  this  science.  Scialoja,  De  Augustinis,  Reymond, 
Ciccone,  and  other  French  and  Italian  writers  like  the 
phrase  Social  Economics,  but  this  is  to  confuse  it  with 
sociology.  In  i8ig  Say  was  made,  in  Paris,  professor 
of  Industrial  Economics,  but  this  is  to  choose  the  name 
of  a  part  for  the  whole.  Still  others  have  taken,  from 
Aristotle's  Politics,  the  term  chrematistics  (Sismondi), 
or  have  coined  chrysology,  phitonomy  (Gujard),  plu- 
tology  and  ergonomv,  (Courcelle-Seneuil  and  Hearn), 
or  catallactics  (Whately).  But  all  these  are  too  nar- 
row, shutting  us  up  to  the  term  Political  Economy, 
which,  though  in  itself  vague,  is  the  common  term,  and 
at  least  as  good  as  any. 

Coming  to  definitions,  we  notice  that  the 
term  is  derived  from  three  Greek  words : 
7r<5A«f,  city  or  state  ;  okof,  household,  and  vopog, 
law,  custom,  or  regulation  ;  the  term  meaning 


then,  etymologically,  the  regulation  of  the 
household  or  housekeeping  of  the  state.  This 
corresponds  to  the  German  word  for  polit- 
ical economy,  volksivirthschaftslehre  (volkr 
nation  ;  wirthschaft,  housekeeping ;  lehref 
science). 

If  we  would  define  more  exactly,  we  notice 
a  development  or  evolution  of  the  meaning  of 
the  word,  corresponding  very  closely  to  the 
evolution  of  the  schools  of  political  economy. 

To  the  Greeks,  the  State  was  all  in  all.  Political 
economy  was  to  them  very  literally  the  science  of  the 
regulation  of  the  affairs  of  the  State.  To  the  Mercan- 
tilists and  the  Physiocrats,  it  was  little  more  than  a 
science  of  taxation,  or  how  to  raise  money  for  the 
State,  in  the  best  way  for  the  State  and  the  people.  To- 
Adam  Smith  and  his  school  it  was  mainly  the  science 
of  wealth.  Nassau  Senior  defines  it  simply  as  the 
science  of  wealth,  and  Jevons,  in  his  primer  of  Political 
Economy,  defines  it  as  the  science  of  the  wealth  of 
nations,  defining  wealth  as  "all  those  things,  and 
those  things  only,  which  are  transferable,  are  limited 
in  supply,  and  are  useful." 

The  definition  of  political  economy  found  in   Mrs. 
Fawcett's  Political    Economy  may    be 
taken  as  a  fair  presentation  of  this  class 
of  conceptions.    It  is  as  follows  :    "  Po- 
litical economy  is  the    science    which      Definitions. 
investigates  the  nature  of  wealth  and 
the  laws  which  govern  its  production, 
exchange,  and  distribution." 

But  this  did  not  give  enough  weight  to  the  human 
element  in  the  production  and  distribution  of  wealth, 
and  therefore  with  John  Stuart  Mill  commences  a  new 
conception,  where  the  producers  and  owners  of  wealth 
are  more  prominent. 

"  Writers  on  political  economy,"  says  Mill,  "  profess 
to  teach  or  investigate  the  nature  of  wealth  and  the 
laws  of  its  production  and  distribution,  including 
directly  or  remotely  the  operation  of  all  the  causes  by 
which  the  condition  of  mankind  or  of  any  society  of 
human  beings,  in  respect  to  this  universal  object  of 
human  desire,  is  made  prosperous  or  the  reverse." 
Says  Professor  Ely  of  this  definition  :  "  Social  relations 
are  dragged  in  through  a  back  door,  as  it  were.  It  is 
perceived  that  political  economy  must  concern  itself 
with  them,  but  they  are  not  at  once  placed  in  the  fore- 
ground as  the  main  thing  with  which  we  are  to  deal. 
Mill's  position  is  perhaps  brought  out  still  ,  more 
clearly  in  the  full  title  9f  his  work,  which  is,  Principles 
of  Political  Economy,  with  Some  of  their  Applications  to- 
Social  Philosophy.  Social  philosophy  is  evidently 
viewed  as  something  outside  of  political  economy 
rather  than  as  a  larger  whole,  of  which  political 
economy  is  only  a  part." 

We  next  find  man  put  frankly  first  when  Sismondi, 
the  Swiss  economist,  defines  political  economy  as 
"  the  science  of  human  happiness,"  and  Professor  von 
Scheel  more  scientifically  defines  it  as  (translated  and 
somewhat  modified  by  Professor  Ely)  "the  relations 
of  private  economies  to  one  another  and  their  union 
into  larger  economic  communities  (as  township,  city, 
State),  taking  into  account  their  origin,  their  growth, 
and  their  constitution,  and  prescribing  rules  for  that 
ordering  of  these  relations  best  calculated  to  meet  the 
demands  of  the  degree  of  culture  already  attained  and 
to  be  attained  in  the  future." 

Professor  Adams  puts  the  same  in  better  words  when 
he  says :  "  Political  economy  treats  of  industrial 
society.  Its  purpose  as  an  analytic  science  is  to  ex- 
plain the  industrial  actions  of  men.  Its  purpose  as  a 
constructive  science  is  to  discover  a  scientific  and  a 
rational  basis  for  the  formation  and  government  of 
industrial  society." 

This  may  be  taken  as  a  fair  example  of  the  meaning 
given  to  political  economy  by  the  so-called  historical 
school.  This  however  puts  too  much  relative  empha- 
sis upon  historical  analysis.  Cossa's  definition  is  better 
when  he  says  in  his  introduction  to  the  Study  of  Politi- 
cal Economy  (revised  edition) :  "  We  •will  define  it  by 
an  amplification  of  Romagnosi's  description  of  it,  as 
follows  :  political  economy  is  an  ordered  knowledge 
of  the  cause,  the  essence,  and  the  rationale  of  the  social 
system  of  wealth  ;  viz.,  man's  concern  with  wealth  as  a 
social  factor  to  be  grasped  in  its  essence  through  its 
causes,  its  rationale,  and  in  its  relation  to  prosperity  at 
large." 

It  will  be  noticed  that  all  these  definitions  practically 
make  political  economy  the  science  of  wealth,  differ- 


Political  Economy. 


1023 


Political  Economy. 


ing  mainly  in  their  conception  of  what  wealth  is  ;  a 
statement  which  is  true  of  Ruskin's  definition  of 
political  economy  as  "the  system  of  conduct  and 
legislature  which  should  multiply  human  life  at  its 
highest  standard,"  since,  to  Ruskin,  wealth  is  well 
being  or  "  life  at  its  highest  standard."  It  will  be  thus 
seen,  too,  how  political  economy  has  of  late  years 
wholly  changed  its  tone.  From  being  merely  a  study 
of  commodities,  it  has  become  a  study  of  civilizations  ; 
from  being  almost  anti-human,  it  to-day  centers  around 
man  ;  from  being  "  the  dismal  science,"  it  has  become 
a  science  of  human  progress. 

Coming  now  to  the  content  of  political 
economy,  we  quote  again  from  Cossa,  when  he 
says  : 

"  First,  it  studies  in  the  social  system  of 
wealth  what  is  typical,  essential,  and  perma- 
nent, whether  this  be  connected  with  coexist- 
ent or  with  successive  phenomena.  Political 
economy  seeks  the  causes  upon  which  these 
phenomena  depend,  measuring,  so  far  as  may 
be,  their  intensity  ;  finally,  it  reasons  out  the 
manner  in  which"  these  causes  act  ;  that  is  to 
say,  the  rationale  which  governs  them.  Sec- 
ond, political  economy  formulates  rules  or 
principles  by  which  the  economic  functions  of 
political  societies  can  be  directed  aright.  The 
final  goal  toward  which  political  economy 
strives,  by  the  performance  of  its  double  duty, 
is  happiness  at  large." 

This  conception  distinguishes  political  econ- 
omy from  other  sciences.  It  is  different  from 
sociology  or  social  science.  Sociology  (g.  v.) 
is  used  by  some  to-day  as  the  generic  of  which 
political  economy  and  other  social  sciences  are 
specifies.  According  to  others  sociology  con- 
cerns itself  with  all  social  relations,  political, 
economic,  religious,  etc.,  studying  the  basic 
laws  of  human  associations.  Again,  political 
economy  is  to  be  distinguished  from  statistics, 
political  science,  etc.  The  study  of  these  may 
be  necessary  to,  but  they  are  not  a  part  of, 
political  economy.  Nor  is  political  economy 
to  be  confused  with  private  economics  or  the 
science  of  right  management  of  a  household 
or  of  one  private  business.  Political  economy 
is  emphatically  a  social  science. 

II.  DIVISIONS  OF  POLITICAL  ECONOMY. 

The  first  general  division  of  this  subject 
may  be  into  what  has  been  called  Pure  or 
National  Economics,  which  undertakes  to  ex- 
plain the  facts  concerning  any  social  system 
of  wealth,  that  is  the  theory,  and  Applied 
Economics,  which  treats  of  the  art  of  the  wisest 
and  best  methods  of  producing,  distributing, 
and  exchanging  wealth.  Another  distinction, 
followed  by  many  Germans,  gives  us  (we 
quote  all  in  this  section  mainly  from  Cossa) 
(i)  Social  Economics,  also  described  as  civil 
or  national,  and  sometimes  called  simply 
economics,  and  (2)  Political  Economics,  in  its 
wider  sense.  Cherbuliez  calls  it  economic 
legislation,  and  it  is  also  denominated  State 
economics.  This  branch  deals  with  the  eco- 
nomical functions  of  the  State,  as  well  as  of 
any  other  subordinate  society,  and  it  coincides 
with  our  definition  of  applied  economics. 
Moreover,  since  these  functions  .cover  the 
whole  ground  of  State  interference  with 
private  wealth  and  with  all  wealth  possessed 
by  political  societies  regarded  as  individual 
units,  there  arises  a  partition  of  political 


economics  into:  (a)  Political  Economics,  most 
strictly  so  called,  or  Economic  Policy,  which 
supplies  the  State  with  guiding  principles  in 
all  interference  with  private  wealth;  (b)  Politi- 
cal Finance,  or  as  it  is  now  more  usually 
styled,  the  science  of  finance,  which  deals 
with  public  revenues  and  possessions,  furnish- 
ing guiding  principles  for  accumulating,  ad- 
ministering, and  applying  all  means,  especially 
belonging  to  the  State,  the  county,  or  the 
parish. 

The  ordinary  division  of  the  science,  how- 
ever, is  into  four  parts:  (i)  production;  (2)  dis- 
tribution; (3)  consumption;  (4)  ex- 
change.    This  division,  however, 
is  frequently  modified.     J.  B.  Say     Ordinary 
used  only  the   first  three  ;   these     Division. 
three  terms  occur  in  the  title  of 
his  chief  work  (1803).     A  glance 
at  works  like  Gioja's,  Kraus',  Jacob's,  Rau's, 
Riedel's,  Schiiz's,  and  MacCulloch's  will  show 
what  wide  acceptance  this  scheme  received, 
and  how  long  it  has  been  adhered  to. 

James  Mill,  Florez  Estrada,  Gamier,  Baudril- 
lart,  Messedaglia,  Nazzani,  Mangoldt,  Schon- 
berg,  Walker,  Andrews,  and  Ely,  however,  use 
all  four  divisions. 

Kudler  varies  slightly  from  this  order  of 
treatment,  and  so  do  certain  French  writers — 
Levasseur,  Jourdan,  Laveleye,  Leroy- Beau- 
lieu,  and  Beauregard.  These  put  the  chapter 
on  distribution  first,  and  then  deal  with 
circulation. 

Roscher  was  at  one  time  inclined  to  add  to 
the  four  headings  in  question  a  fifth  on  popu- 
lation. Bi^t  population ,  statistically,  economi- 
cally, and  legislatively  considered,  is  the 
subject-matter  of  demography. 

Turgot,  close  upon  the  end  of  the  last  cen- 
tury, Senior,  Stuart  Mill, — in  one  of  his  essays 
mentioned  above, — and  Rossi  exclude  from 
economics,  properly  so  called,  the  whole  dis- 
cussion of  the  consumption  or  use  of  wealth. 
They  would  assign  it  to  ethics,  to  domestic 
economics,  and  to  finance,  while  other  and 
more  recent  authors,  like  Jevons,  Walrus,  and 
Pierson,  put  a  theory  of  consumption  before 
everything  else,  and  argue  that  it  belongs  to 
the  discussion  of  the  uses  of  wealth,  upon 
which  hinges  the  whole  theory  of  value. 
Marshall  connects  consumption  with  his  simi- 
larly crucial  discussion  of  demand.  A  middle 
course  is  followed  by  those  writers  who  assign 
to  the  discussion  of  consumption  a  subsidiary 
place,  regarding  it  rather  as  a  necessary  pre- 
liminary to  economics  than  as  one  of  its  con- 
stituent parts. 

Finally,  there  is  a  school  which  holds  with 
Senior  and  Rossi  that  consumption  cannot 
legitimately  form  an  independent  department, 
but  makes  one  out  of  circulation — exchange  is 
the  English  word,  for  which  Held  substitutes 
traffic.  This  subject  last  named  Cherbuliez, 
Villey,  Sidgwick,  Carter  Adams,  and  Lau- 
rence Laughlin,  discuss  after  production,  while 
Mill  takes  it  up  after  distribution.  Perhaps 
the  common  division  into  four  parts  is  suffi- 
cient for  a  study  of  the  theory  ;  but  then 
there  should  be  added  :  political  economics,  or 
the  determination  of  the  true  economic  func- 
tion of  the  State,  and  social  economics,  or  the 


Political  Economy. 


1024 


Political  Economy. 


Early 
Schools. 


consideration  of ,  the   theories  as    applied   in 
society. 

III.  SCHOOLS  OF  POLITICAL  ECONOMY. 
Under  this  head  we  do  not  consider  the  his- 
tory of  political  economy,  but  outline  the  main 
schools  of  political  economy  that  one  may 
better  understand  the  history  which  we  con- 
sider in  our  next  section.  Political  economy, 
.as  we  shall  there  see,  although  a  subject  that 
has  been  treated  from  the  earliest  days  of 
thought,  as  a  science  is  modern.  Its  first 
school  may  be  said  to  be  that  of 
the  Mercantilists.  They  held  that 
wealth  is  measured  by  the  owner- 
ship of  gold  and  silver;  that  that 
nation  was  wealthiest  which  re- 
ceived most  gold  and  silver  in  ex- 
-change  for  commodities;  /'.  e.y  had  the  balance 
of  trade  in  its  favor.  This  idea,  now  given 
up  by  economists,  long  had  influence.  The 
leading  Mercantilists  were  Colbert,  the  great 
French  statesman  under  Louis  XIV.,  Melon, 
Broggia,  Genovesi,  and  in  England,  Mun, 
Temple,  Child,  and  Davenant.  The  Italian 
Serra  is  sometimes  included  in  this  school, 
but  really  took  a  much  broader  position. 

The  next  school,  and  the  first  to  develop 
.a  complete  system  of  economics,  was  that  of 
the  Physiocrats  (1755-81).  Their  cry  was, 
"  Back  to  nature.  Do  away  with  laws  :  let 
nature  work.  Laissez-faire."  They  held 
that  agriculture  alone  produced  wealth,  manu- 
facture and  commerce  only  changing  its  form 
and  place.  Hence  they  would  put  all  taxes 
upon  land  alone.  Their  leading,  names  are 
French  :  Cantillon  (1755),  and  above  all  Ques- 
nay  (1694-1774)  and  Gournay  (1712-59).  Turgot 
(1727-81),  the  illustrious  statesman,  applied 
their  theories  in  practise  so  far  as  he 
could. 

The  great  school  of  Natural  Liberty  comes 
next.     David  Hume  and  others  led  up  to  this, 
but  Adam  Smith  (1723-90)  is  its 
great  head.     His  Wealth  of  Na- 
tions (1776)  marked  an  epoch.    He 
believed  in  laissez-faire,  but  he 
was  a  student  of  facts,  and  not  an 
extreme  doctrinaire.     His  follow- 
ers were  not  so  wise. 

Malthus  (1766-1834)  is  best  known  for  his 
theory  of  population,  and  Ricardo  (1772-1823) 
for  his  Law  of  Rent,  but,  economically,  they 
were  both  followers  of  Adam  Smith  ;  Ricardo 
carrying  the  law  of  competition  to  its  theo- 
retical extremes  unmodified  by  facts.  Among 
others  of  this  school  were,  in  England,  Senior, 
Torrens,  Chalmers,  James  Mill,  Bentham, 
Jones,  M'Culloch,  and  Fawcett ;  in  France, 
Say,  Dunoyer,  Rossi,  Cherbuliez,  and  Bastiat ; 
in  Italy,  Scialoja  and  Ferrara  ;  in  Germany, 
Rau,  Nebenius,  Von  Thiinen,  and  Hermann; 
and  in  the  United  States,  Amasa  Walker, 
Perry,  Bascom,  Bowen,  Sumner.  A  transi- 
tional school  from  that  of  laissez-faire  may 
be  said  to  be  that  of  J.  S.  Mill,  Leslie,  Bagehot, 
Jevons,  and  Cairnes.  In  France,  Sismondi, 
Blanqui,  and  Courcelle  Seneuil  may  be  said  to 
belong  to  this  transitional  school. 

The  next  great  school  is  the  historical 
.school,  largely  German,  which  holds  that 


School  of 
Natural 
Liberty. 


principles  of  political   economy  must  be   de- 
rived inductively  from  history  ;  that  it  has  a 
large  moral  relation,  which  must 
be    considered  ;    that    it    is    con- 
cerned with  society  as  an  organ-   Historical 
ism,    and    demands    considerable      School, 
paternal    action   from   the    State. 
The  leaders  of  this  school  are,  in 
Germany,  Roscher,  Hildebrand,  Kneis.    It  led 
also  to  the  movement  of  the  so-called  social- 
ists of  the  chair  (q.  v.),  who  must  be  included 
in  this  school,  Schmoller,  Nasse,  Held,  Bren- 
tano,    Von    Scheel,    Schaffle,    Wagner,     and 
others.     In  Belgium,  de  Laveleye;  in  England, 
Ingram,     Marshall,    Rogers,    Foxwell,    Cun- 
ningham, Symes  ;    in  the  United  States,  Ely, 
James,   Jenks,    H.  C.    Adams,  W.  J.  Ashley, 
and  Bemis,  are  prominently  of  this  school  tho 
differing  materially  in  their  views. 

Most  modern  economists,  however,  decline 
to  be  considered  of  any  school.  We  are, 
therefore,  unable  longer  to  trace  any  schools, 
tho  groups  of  men  often  stand  in  their  views 
much  together,  like  the  modern  Austrian 
economists,  with  their  psychologic  economies 
and  development  of  the  theory  of  final 
utility.  They  represent  perhaps  the  latest 
school  and  have  a  growing  following,  espe- 
cially in  the  United  States  with  such  men  as 
Patton,  Clarke,  and  others.  A  mention 
should  be  made  of  the  American  Carey, 
who  is  sometimes  considered  the  founder 
of  an  American  school  quite  different  from  all 
others,  but  this  must  be  referred  to  our  next 
section. 

IV.  HISTORY  OF  POLITICAL  ECONOMY. 

In  the  following  outline  of  the  history  of 
economic  thought  our  main  authorities  have 
been  Ingram,  Cossa,  and  Cohn  (see  References 
at  the  end  of  this  article).  Cossa  is  the  fullest 
authority,  but,  unfortunately,  not  the  most 
reliable.  We  have,  therefore,  followed  In- 
gram very  largely  ;  and  Cossa,  where  Ingram 
is  not  full  enough.  Cohn  we  have  consulted 
largely  for  Germany,  and  Ugo  Rabbino  for 
Italy.  The  earlier  and  less  known  writers  we 
have  considered  more  fully  in  this  article  than 
the  known  writers,  because  all  the  most 
prominent  will  be  found  considered  under 
their  respective  names. 

A.    IN    ANTIQUITY. 

Ancient  thinkers  were  prevented  by  various 
causes  from  getting  at  the  conception  of 
rational  laws  governing  economic  affairs. 
The  principal  of  these  causes  were  social  and 
political  conditions.  Slavery,  coupled  with 
arbitrary  despotism,  prevented  economic 
development. 

War  was  another  great  hindrance.  Modern  com- 
munities are  organized  for  industry  ;  ancient  com- 
munities were  organized  for  war.  This  widely  sep- 
arates the  present  from  the  past.  It  was  in  the 
military  constitution  of  society  that  the  institution  of 
slavery  was  rooted.  Whatever  possible  excuse  or 
reason  can  be  urged  for  slavery  is  to  be  found  in  war. 
As  a  natural  result  of  ancient  slavery,  almost  all 
industry  and  manual  labor  was  considered  degrad- 
ing and  xinworthy  of  a  free  citizen.  The  free  artisans 
were  ranked  but  little  above  the  slaves,  and  no  occu- 
pations were  thought  honorable  except  those  of  ad- 
ministration and  war.  Those  to  whom  the  production 


Political  Economy. 


1025 


Political  Economy. 


The  Greeks. 


and  traffic  of  the  country  were  left  were  unfitted  to 
develop  any  advanced  system  or  science  of  industry. 
Moreover,  the  insecurity  of  life  and  property  in  mili- 
tary states  prevented  any  such  development  and 
rendered  any  extensive  method  of  cooperation,  or 
concentration  of  capital,  well-nigh  impossible.  An 
effective  system  of  credit  demands  national  peace  as 
its  foundation.  Thus  slavery  and  war  combined  to 
limit  and  dwarf  all  study  of  social  and  economic  con- 
ditions; and  revealed  to  us  most  clearly  that  two 
things  are  essential  to  any  advanced  and  humane 
system  of  economics— peace,  and  the  dignity  of  labor. 
The  economic  ideas  of  the  East  are  little  more  than 
.a  few  moral  precepts  about  virtue,  industry,  temper- 
ance, and  charity,  taken  from  their  sacred  writings ; 
caste  and  the  sway  of  custom  made  the  East  unpro- 
gressive.  Only  a  few  individual  Chinese  writers  have 
Any  clearer  ideas  of  the  nature  of  commerce,  etc. 
From  a  fragment  of  Kwantsze,  written  in  the  seventh 
century  A.  D.,  and  from  two  writers  in  the  eleventh, 
one  may  learn  that  the  Chinese  anticipated  in  their 
•customs  many  modern  institutions. 

In  Greece  the  State  was  all  in  all.    The  individual 
is  regarded  only  as  a  minute  fraction  of  a  great  whole. 
The  constant  aim  is  to  develop  good 
citizens,  who  shall  maintain  and  serve 
the  State  to  which  they  belong.    The 
individual  is  to  find  his  own  develop- 
ment and  completion  in  self-forgetful 
patriotism.    The  citizen  is  regarded  as 
a  possessor,  and  not  a  producer,  of  wealth  ;  and  wealth 
is  never  regarded  as  the  supreme  good,  but  only  as 
a  means  to  an  end.    Social  problems  are  studied  pri- 
marily from  the  ethical  and  educational  point  of  view. 
The  Greeks  divided  morals  into  domestic  economy, 
•ethics  in  their  strict  sense,  and  politics,  or  the  art  of 
government.    They  came  to    have    an    exaggerated 
conception  of  the  efficacy  of  laws  and  institutions. 
{See  ATHENS  ;  GREECE.) 

Different  individuals  proposed  quite  different  sys- 
tems. Hesiod,  in  his  Works  and  Days,  mingles  with 
many  traditional  precepts  of  sacerdotal  origin  a  large 
measure  of  practical  sagacity ;  and  concentrates  his 
thought  into  proverbs.  But,  commencing  with  Thales, 
begins  the  development  of  abstract  thought,  which 
not  only  marks  a  new  era  in  the  progress  of  Greek 
culture  and  philosophy,  but  also  in  the  intellectual 
history  of  mankind. 

The  Socratic  school  is  both  concrete  and  ideal.  The 
best  known  of  these  ideal  systems  is  that  of  Plato  (429- 
348  B.  C.),  who  presents  in  its  most  advanced  form  the 
Greek  conception  of  the  State.  So  far  does  he  sub- 
ordinate private  to  public  interests  that  he  represents 
the  higher  class  of  citizens  as  having  community  of 
property  and  wives.  His  system  is  inflexible  and 
mechanical  and  allows  little  scope  for  the  action  of 
the  humaner  passions.  The  individual  is  little  more 
than  a  cog  in  the  wheel ;  and  slavery  is  at  the  founda- 
tion. He  would  abolish  interest  and  the  use  of  silver 
and  gold.  Government  control  of  industry  he  believed 
to  be  necessary  and  right,  to  prevent  undue  luxury  at 
one  end,  or  undue  poverty  at  the  other.  This  ideal 
communism  he  develops  in  his  Republic.  In  his  Laws 
he  considers  what  is  possible  rather  than  what  is  ideal. 
Throughout  his  works,  however,  are  many  lofty  con- 
ceptions of  social  and  moral  duty  and  some  just 
economic  analyses.  (See  PLATO.) 

Xenophon  (440-357  B.  C.)  is  more  practical  and  matter- 
of-fact.  His  observations,  however,  are  chiefly  limited 
to  domestic  economy,  such  as  the  government  of  the 
family  and  care  of  private  property.  In  common  with 
all  Greeks  he  exalts  agriculture  above  other  indus- 
trial occupations,  as  best  tending  to  cultivate  religious 
and  patriotic  feelings.  And,  contrary  to  most  Greeks, 
he  speaks  respectfully  of  trade  and  manufactures, 
demanding  for  commerce  the  protection  of  the  State. 
He  recognizes  the  fact  that  money  in  itself  is  not 
wealth.  He  is  an  advocate  of  peace,  as  he  perceives 
the  impossibility  of  international  commerce  without 
international  harmony.  Slavery  was  to  him  natural 
and  legitimate ;  and  one  of  his  recommendations  is 
that  branded  slaves  be  hired  out  by  the  State  to  labor 
in  the  mines,  so  that  the  State  revenue  may  be  in- 
creased thereby. 

Aristotle  (384-322  B.  C.)  represents  the  highest  stage 
reached  by  his  countrymen  in  social  studies.  He  was 
not  only  a  thoughtful  spectator,  but  an  impartial  one 
as  well,  and  gifted  with  unusual  generalizing  ability. 
He  had  in  a  strong  degree  the  Greek  devotion  to  the 
public  good  ;  and  his  opportunity  for  observation  was 
unecjualed  by  any  of  his  countrymen.  All  that  was 
-original  or  important  in  the  political  life  of  Greece 
was  before  his  eyes.  It  is  too  much  to  expect  of  him 

65 


more  than  statical  sociology,  or  any  recognition  of 
the  laws  of  the  historical  development  of  social  phe- 
nomena. He  has  conveyed  to  us  a  remarkable  body 
of  sound  and  valuable  observations  and  ideas  con- 
cerning the  constitution  of  the  social  organism.  He 
differs  from  Plato  and  most  Greeks  in  his  concep- 
tion of  the  State ;  opposing  the  absorption  of  the 
individual,  the  suppression  of  personal  freedom  and 
right  of  initiative,  and  altogether  rejects  the  com- 
munity of  wives  and  property  proposed  by  Plato.  He 
regards  the  abuse  of  the  principle  of  private  property 
as  avoidable,  and  as  owing  to  imperfect  human 
nature  and  vicious  legislation.  The  producers  and 
manufacturers  of  society  he  excludes  from  citizen- 
ship, as  it  was  commonly  thought  that  mechanics, 
artificers,  and  farmers  were  debased  by  their  occupa- 
tions, being  without  the  necessary  leisure  and  wealth 
to  acquire  education  and  culture.  Not  only  does  he 
see  no  evil  in  slavery,  but  defends  it  as  natural  and 
lawful.  He  considers  a  slave  as  a  mere  "animated 
tool,"  having  no  independent  will,  and  finding  his  true 
and  highest  well-being  in  obedience  to  his  owner. 
In  this  view  he  acts  simply  as  a  mirror  in  which  all 
Greek  thought  is  represented.  He  is  only  the  spokes- 
man of  a  society  founded  upon  the  systematic  degra- 
dation and  enslavement  of  a  despised  and  cruelly 
treated  class.  He  considers  it  the  duty  of  govern- 
ment to  preserve  a  due  proportion  between  the 
population  and  the  territory  of  a  country.  It  is 
impossible  to  imagine  what  he  would  have  said  to 
such  overcrowding  as  exists  to-day  in  European  and 
American  cities.  (See  ARISTOTLE.) 

The  task  of  the  Romans  was  military  and  political, 
and  in  spite  of  their  practical  views  of  life  and  util- 
itarianism, they  produced  no  highly 
developed  system  of  manufacture  or 
exchange.  The  agricultural  habits  of 
the  first  Romans  soon  gave  place, 
through  the  increase  of  militarism,  to 
an  extensive  system  of  slave-labor. 
Large  estates  took  the  place  of  small  holdings,  and 
drove  the  peasant  proprietor  to  the  city  streets. 
Commerce  and  industry  were  regarded  by  the  free 
citizen  with  contempt,  and  even  the  noblest  Romans 
were  not  free  from  this  disdain  of  all  manual  labor, 
Some  signs  of  economic  thought  are  to  be  found  in 
the  writings  of  the  philosophers  and  jurists  ;  but  most 
of  their  ideas  were  taken  from  the  Greeks,  and  none 
of  their  original  conceptions  are  of  much  scientific 
value.  The  philosophic  writers  express  the  general 
feeling  of  industrial  decay,  and  the  increasing  tend- 
ency toward  luxury  and  immorality.  To  be  sure 
the  virtues  and  pleasures  of  rural  life  and  agriculture 
are  much  dwelt  upon,  but  chiefly  with  no  higher 
purpose  than  to  glorify  the  hardihood  of  the  early 
Romans.  As  to  the  social  evils  which  surrounded  them 
they  were  very  largely  indifferent  and  short-sighted. 
Pliny,  the  elder  (23-79),  who  is  not  so  much  an  inde- 
pendent thinker  as  an  Encyclopedist,  in  his  Natural 
History  favors  agriculture  on  the  large  scale,  but 
protests  against  the  slave-tilled  latifundia.  He  ex- 
presses a  preference  for  barter  rather  than  for  a 
money  exchange,  and  deplores  the  use  of  gold.  Varro 
and  Columella  are  to  be  credited  with  having  per- 
ceived the  superiority  of  free  labor  to  that  of  slaves ; 
and,  together  with  Cato.  they  advocate  a  return  to 
agriculture  as  the  best  means  to  avert  the  flood  of 
corruption  and  immorality  which  was  then  felt  to  be 
approaching  the  empire.  Cicero  translated  Xeno- 
pnon's  Economics  and  also  praised  agriculture. 

As  to  the  general  principles  of  industrial  progress 
they  have  little  to  say.  In  general,  the  Roman 
theorists  agreed  with  the  Grecians  in  disapproving 
of  interest,  Cato  going  so  far  as  to  liken  it  to  murder. 
In  B.  C.  341  the  taking  of  interest  was  entirely  for- 
bidden by  the  Genucian  Law. 

Both  Greeks  and  Romans  approached  social  prob- 
lems from  the  political  rather  than  the  economic  side. 
It  is  unfair  to  them  to  expect  from  their  writings 
much  economic  truth,  or  more  than  the  slightest 
germs  of  modern  developments.  Political  economy 
is  necessarily  a  modern  science. 

B.    THE   MIDDLE    AGES. 

The  period  between  the  years  400  A.  D.  and 
1300  A.  D.  is  one  of  much  importance,  as  being 
a  time  of  great  change  and  potentiality. 
Everything  modern  is  deposited  there  in 
germ.  Altho,  from  the  absence  of  brilliant 
literary  lights,  this  period  has  been  termed 


Political  Economy. 


1026 


Political  Economy, 


the  Dark  Ages,  there  was,  nevertheless,  not  a 
little  illumination  of  other  kinds. 

It  was  between  these  dates  that  two  vast 
systems  were  erected — feudalism  and  Roman 
Catholicism. 

Under  the  feudal  system  no  fully  developed  eco- 
nomic activity  was  possible.  All  production  was  upon 
a  small  scale,  and  the  volume  of  commerce  was  in- 
significant. The  mechanical  arts  were  still  held  in 
contempt,  and  militarism  absorbed  the  interest 
and  energies  of  the  community.  Nevertheless,  there 
was  important  thought  and  action. 

The  canonical  theory  of  usury,  with  its  prohibition 
of  interest,  has  an  important  practical  bearing  upon 
history  and  economics. 

All  the  Church  fathers  base  explicit  and  unqualified 
condemnation  of  usury — that  is,  of  interest — upon  texts 
of  Holy  Writ  and  upon  the  universally  valid  precept 
of  charity.  This  precept  involved  the  canonical  pro- 
hibition of  interest,  which  was,  however,  during  the 
first  eight  centuries  of  the  Church  binding  solely 
upon  ecclesiastics.  The  Latin  Church,  but  not  the 
Greek,  then  proceeded  to  make  it  binding  upon  lay- 
men also,  as  may  be  abundantly  seen  in  the  pro- 
ceedings of  many  ecumenical  and  national  councils, 
whose  utterances  are  increasingly  peremptory  up  to 
the  end  of  the  thirteenth  century. 

Gradually,  however,  exceptions  were  more  and 
more  allowed,  till,  when  Calvm  and  the  leaders  of  the 
Reformation  allowed  interest,  Rome  was  ready  to 
follow  suit.  In  other  directions  thought  was  also 
active. 

In  theology  and  philosophy  Saint  Thomas  of  Aquino 
(1225-74),  the  Angelical  Doctor,  had  no  peer,  and  he  was 
also  the  greatest  writer  of  the  age  on  politics  and 
economics.  (See  AQUINAS.) 

In  the  fourteenth  century  we  have  Engelbert, 
Abbot  of  Admont  in  Styria  :  Fra  Paolino,  probably 
a  Venetian  ;  Colonna,  an  Augustinian  monk  ;  Andrea 
d'Isernia,  a  Neapolitan  lawyer ;  in  France,  Philip 
Dubois;  Jean  Buridan,  rector  of  the  University  of 
Paris :  the  Dominican  monk  Durand  de  Saint-Pour- 
cain,  Bishop  of  Meaux  in  1326 ;  and  Philippe  de 
Mezieres,  councilor  of  King  Charles  V.,  who  were  the 
projectors  of  the  Monts  de  PMt(<j.  v.\  by  establish- 
ing which  the  State  was  to  rescue  needy  persons  from 
the  oppression  of  usurious  Jews. 

Last  must  be  mentioned  the  most  remarkable  of 
them  all,  Nicholas  Oresme,  •who  died  in  1382  as  Bishop 
of  Lisieux.  He  wrote  his  De  Origine.  Natura,  Jure 
et  Mutationibus  Monetarum  for  his  pupil,  Charles  V., 
and  afterward  republished  it  in  French.  Here  is  a 
simple,  well-arranged,  and  clear  summary  of  the  the- 
ory of  money,  together  with  a  masterly  arraignment 
of  those  who  were  for  debasing  coin. 

In  the  fifteenth  century  we  have  Sant'  Antonio, 
Archbishop  of  Florence,  and  San  Barnardino,  a  Fran- 
ciscan of  Siena.  Kuppener,  Summenhart,  and  the 
German  Biel  deserve  mention.  "  Among  humanists," 
says  Cossa,  "three  remarkable  men,  Giovanni  Gio- 
viano  Pontano  from  Umbrian  Cerreto,  Benedetto 
Cotrugli  of  Ragusa,  and  last  but  not  least,  Diomede 
Carafa,  Count  of  Maddaloni,  effected  by  word  and 
deed  certain  very  sound  financial  and  economical 
reforms  in  the  kingdom  of  Naples  under  kings  of  the 
house  of  Aragon. 

"  Pontano  (1426-1503)  is  remarkable  for  sound  fiscal 
rules  and  praiseworthy  counsels  in  economic  ethics. 
His  works  appeared  in  two  volumes  at  Naples 
(1505-08). 

"  Cotrugli's  small  book  Delia  Mercatura  e  del  Mer- 
cante  per  jet  to  was  not  written  until  the  middle  of  the 
century.  Genovesi  and  Zanon  speak  highly  of  it.  It 
deals  specifically  with  value,  price,  and  exchange,  as 
well  as  mercantile  contracts. 

"...  Carafa's  pamphlet  De  Regis  et  Boni  Principis 
Officio,  written  a  few  years  before  or  after  1475  by 
Eleanor  of  Aragon's  special  command,  stands  head 
and  shoulders  above  all  contemporaneous  works  on 
finance.  Carafa,  who  died  in  1487,  has  new  ideas  about 
the  function  of  commerce,  about  public  revenue  and 
public  expenditure,  and  about  the  advisability  of 
farming  out  the  taxes.  He  it  was  who  first  conceived 
the  idea  of  taxing  fixed  incomes." 

C.    FROM    1500   TO    THE   MERCANTILISTS. 

The  downfall  of  feudalism  and  the  ecclesias- 
tical power  gave  free  scope  to  the  irregular  and 
disunited  activity  of  individuals.  It  emanci- 


pated the  mercantile  class  from  a  tyrannous  and 
traditional  authority,  but  left  them  without  a 
bond  of  union  or  a  source  of  wise  and  helpful 
guidance.  Private  ambition  and  avarice  were 
encouraged  as  motives  of  action.  In  the  midst 
of  such  moral  and  industrial  chaos,  the  powers, 
of  governments  were  taxed  to  maintain  mere 
material  order. 

By  the  establishment  of  standing  armies,  the  mer- 
chant and  manufacturing  classes  were  protected,  and 
enabled  'to  enlarge  and  systematize  their  business. 
Their  increasing  power  is  evidenced  by  the  general 
admission  of  the  commons  as  an  element  in  the  politi- 
cal system,  while  the  occasional  insurrections  of  the 
working  classes  revealed  the  gradual  breaking  down 
of  the  spirit  of  servile  obedience  to  unjust  authority. 

The  mariner's  compass  gave  greater  security  to- 
foreign  commerce,  and  the  art  of  printing  connected 
the  industrial  with  the  intellectual  forces.  In  Venice, 
Genoa,  and  other  Italian  cities  public  credit  •was  estab- 
lished. Trade  was  greatly  developed  by  the  discovery 
of  America,  and  of  the  new  route  to  the  East.  In 
the  sixteenth  century  economic  thought  still  clung  to 
its  medieval  conceptions  ;  a  change,  however,  slowly- 
coming.  The  historical  and  political  writers,  Palmieru 
Machiavelli,  and  Guicciardini,  have  a  little  to  say  on 
economics.  There  is  quite  a  development  of  Utopian 
communism.  Of  this,  More's  Utopia  (1516)  (see  MORE) 
is  the  best  known. 

James  Harrington,  in  his  Oceana  (1640),  criticizes 
large  land-holdings.  Tommaso  Campanella,  a  Do- 
minican monk  of  Calabria,  in  his  Civttas  Solis  (1607), 
took  the  step,  from  which  Plato  did  not  shrink,  of  ad- 
vocating a  community  of  wives  ;  the  argument  being 
that  a  community  of  goods  involves  the  abolition,  not 
only  of  private  ownership,  but  of  the  family  as  well. 

Another  such  •work  is  the  far  less  familiar  one  of 
Ludovico  Vives,  De  Communione  Rerum  (1635),  a  Span- 
ish philanthropist. 

Last  of  all  comes  Anton  Francesco  Doni  with  his 
Mondi  celesti  terrestri  ed  infernali  (Florence,  1552-53). 
Here  a  free  rein  is  given  to  unbridled  and  eccentric 
fancy. 

In  Germany,  Frank  and  Munster  (see  ANABAPTISTS) 
sought  to  put  these  ideas  in  practise. 

Among  writers  who  gave  attention  to  economics  and 
finance  in  general  works  of  a  political  character,  which 
embraced  administration  at  large,  may  be  named  Jean 
Bodin  d'Angers  (1530-96).  In  the  sixth  book  of  his. 
Republique  (1576),  he  takes  climate  and  soil  into  consid- 
eration as  factors  in  any  financial  and  economical 
system,  and  argues  in  favor  of  the  free  importation 
of  corn  and  cattle,  advocating  at  the  same  time  high 
customs  duties  upon  foreign  manufactures,  and  the 
prohibition  of  all  exportation  of  food  products  or  raw 
materials. 

Conspicuous  among  the  economists  of  the  first  half 
of  the  seventeenth  century,  and  considered  by  some 
the  creator  of  political  economy,  was  Antonio  Serra  of 
Cosenza  in  Calabria.  His  Breve  Trattato  delle  cause 
die  possono  fare  abbondare  li  regni  d'oro  e  d'argento 
dove  non  sono  miniere  was  published  at  Naples  in  1613, 
and  was  written  in  the  Papal  prison.  It  was  not 
brought  to  light  until  a  century  after  its  publication. 
He  is  largely  an  advocate  of  Mercantilist  principles, 
insisting  on  the  superiority  of  manufactures  to  agri- 
culture, as  a  source  of  wealth.  He  recognizes,  how- 
ever, that  the  acquisition  of  wealth  is  not  the  only 
condition  of  prosperity,  and  that  the  influence  of  a  na- 
tion's commercial  policy  upon  the  character  of  its  citi- 
zens is  to  be  considered.  Montchretien  de  Watteville,  a 
Frenchman,  first  used  the  name  "political  economy  " 
(in  1615),  and  wrote  a  valuable  treatise  on  the  subject. 
In  his  treatment  of  the  subject,  he  omits  agriculture. 

In  1530  the  Albertine  pamphlets  appeared  in  Ger- 
many. These  were  the  first  German  publications  on 
political  economy  which  were  thoroughly  national  and 
popular,  and  they  were  writteii  to  antagonize  a  pro- 
posed debasement  of  the  currency. 

In  England  at  least  two  writers  are  prominent. 
William  Petty  (1623-83),  one  of  the  most  illustrious 
forerunners  of  the  science  of  statistical  research,  was 
most  determined  in  his  opposition  to  many  if  not  all  of 
the  Mercantilist  views.  He  joined  hands  with  Locke 
in  demanding  a  single  standard  for  money,  he  was 
one  of  the  earliest  enemies  of  restrictive  laws  about 
interest,  and  it  was  he  who  declared  that  wealth,  the 
child  of  mother-earth,  has  for  its  father  the  active 
principle  of  cultivation. 

John  Locke,  the  celebrated  philosophical  and  political 


Political  Economy. 


1027 


Political  Economy. 


author  (16:32-1704),  can  hardly  be  classed  otherwise 
than  as  a  Mercantilist,  and  must  even  be  written  down 
as  a  systematic  upholder  of  the  errors  of  that  system. 
Nevertheless,  in  respect  of  certain  theories  in  detail, — 
such  as  property,  which  he  bases  upon  work  done,  and 
money,  the  debasing  of  -which  he  loudly  condemned,— 
he  lays  claim  to  originality,  • 

Thought  in  the  seventeenth  century  was  tending  to 
the  school  of 

D.  THE    MERCANTILISTS. 

The  doctrine  of  the  Mercantilists  is  that  the 
wealth  of  a  nation  is  to  be  computed  by  the 
amount  of  gold  and  silver  it  possesses,  and 
that  the  chief  endeavor  in  commerce  is  to  ex- 
port as  much  and  import  as  little  as  possible. 
National  profit  or  loss  was  to  be  decided  by  the 
balance  of  trade ;  that  is,  the  amount  of  gold 
and  silver  paid  or  received  after  the  exchange 
of  goods.  It  was  considered  the  main  object 
of  government  to  secure  by  all  available 
methods  such  a  balance.  The  precious  metals 
were  considered  the  sole  standard  and  measure 
of  wealth.  The  gold  and  silver  mines  of  the 
new  continent  excited  this  extreme  metal- 
idolatry,  and  awoke  all  the  slumbering  cupidity 
of  Europe. 

This  represents,  however,  the  most  extreme  party 
of  Mercantilists.  Not  all  of  them  were  so  infatuated 
with  the  glitter  of  white  and  yellow  dross.  The  Mer- 
cantilists were  not  connected  by  any  one  definite 
theory,  but  were  rather  included  in  a  general  tend- 
ency. Their  more  commonly  received  principles  were 
as  follows  :  (i)  the  overestimation  of  gold  and  silver  ; 
(2)  the  undue  exaltation  of  foreign  over  domestic  trade, 
and  of  manufactures  over  the  production  of  raw 
material ;  (3)  the  overvaluation-of  the  national  benefit 
of  large  population,  and  (4)  the  demand  for  govern- 
mental aid  and  protection. 

The  dogmas  of  the  Mercantilists  were  not  based 
upon  any  scientific  investigation  of  the  true  and  nor- 
mal laws  of  trade.  They  were  rather  photographs  of 
the  practical  activities  of  their  time.  The  force  of 
local  circumstance  molded  them,  which  circumstance 
they  at  once  proclaimed  universal  and  fixed.  Yet  it 
must  not  be  thought  that  this  period  was  without  its 
use  and  place  in  philosophic  history.  Europe  was 
entering  the  doorway  of  social  development.  The 
trading  and  manufacturing  zeal  of  the  period  was  nec- 
essary and  just,  as  leading  to  the  inventions  of  modern 
times,  and  to  the  organization  of  industry.  Agricul- 
ture, being  hampered  with  the  cerements  of  feudalism, 
lagged  behind  ;  and  progressed  only  so  far  as  the  new 
life  of  the  towns  surged  over  into  the  country.  Hith- 
erto nations  had  been  striving  in  the  arena  of  political 
competition  ;  now  their  competition  was  transferred  to 
trade.  Thus  a  national  economic  interest  came  into 
existence.  The  Government  became  the  god-father  of 
the  city  industries.  Production  was  not  so  sponta- 
neous as  in  the  former  period,  as  it  became  regulated 
more  or  less,  to  secure  the  cheapness  and  goodness  of 
the  goods  exported.  Large  corporations  and  trading 
companies  naturally  were  formed,  with  special  privi- 
leges granted  them  by  the  Government. 

High  tariffs  came  into  existence,  partly  for  revenue, 
and  partly  for  protective  purposes.  International 
diplomacy  concerned  itself  with  commercial  treaties, 
its  main  endeavor  being  to  prevent  the  importation 
of  the  manufactured  goods  of  other  countries,  and  to 
shut  out  other  nations  from  competing  in  the  foreign 
markets.  The  colonies  were  peremptorily  forbidden 
to  trade  with  any  but  the  mother  country.  Working 
men  were  drawn  over  from  foreign  countries  to  engage 
in  new  lines  of  manufacture,  and  much  was  done  for 
the  promotion  of  technical  skill.  One  important  result 
of  Government  patronage  was  the  removal  of  the  con- 
tempt for  commerce  and  the  comparative  elevation 
of  the  industrial  classes. 

No  one  man  or  class  of  men  is  responsible  for  the  rise 
of  the  mercantile  system.  It  was  a  natural  growth, 
which  was  not  allowed  completion.  On  the  breaking 
down  of  the  medieval  system,  the  policy  of  individual 
manufacture  and  free  competition  spontaneously 
arose.  Monarchs  acquiesced  in  it  and  conformed 
their  measures  to  it.  Commercial  competition  soon 
became  the  law  for  nations  as  well  as  for  individuals, 
and  each  strove  with  the  others  for  the  market  of  the 


world.    During  the  seventeenth  century  the  race  was 
led  by  Holland,  which  maintained  the  supremacy  of 
the  seas  until  Cromwell,  by  his  Navigation  Act,  trans- 
ferred the  world's  carrying  trade  to  England.    Crom- 
well and   Colbert   of   France    were    by  their    whole 
economic  policy  the  chief  practical  representatives  of 
the  mercantile  system.    It  is,  however, 
due  to  Colbert  to  state  that  he  regarded 
the  greater  part  of  the  Mercantilist  ex-       Colbert 
pedients  as  temporary  only,   speaking 
of  protective  tariffs  as  crutches  by  which 
trade  might  learn  to  walk  alone.    There 
is  no  doubt  that  his  policy  was  the  chief  cause  of  the 
rapid  development  of  French  manufactures  and  com- 
merce.    As  in  other  countries,   French  industry  was 
hampered  as  well  as  helped  by  the  Government.    The 
regulation  of  trade  often    forced    it   into    unnatural 
channels  of  activity,  and  prevented  initiation  and  in- 
vention.   And  although  Colbert  and  others  sought  to 
compensate  trade  by  obtaining  technical  information 
from  foreign  lands,  it  was  not  a  sufficient  compensa- 
tion to  atone  for  the  repression  of  spontaneity  and  free 
development. 

The    most    prominent    English     Mercantilist    was 
Thomas  Mun.    Mun  held  a  brief  for  the  East  India 
Company,  on  whose  behalf  he  established  that  the 
net  result  of  Indian  trade  brought  more  money  home 
than  it  carried  abroad.     This  argument 
he  brought  out  in  his  A  Discourse  of 
Trade  from    England   unto  the  East  English  Mer- 
Indies.     His  far  more  important  pub-        6  ,.,.  , 
lication,  however,  was  brought  out  by     canuiisis. 
his  son  in  1664,  long  after  he  had  died, 
and  bore    the    title, — an    argument    in 
itself, — England's  Treasure  by  Foreign  Trade.    Steer- 
ing  clear    of    exaggerations    indulged   in    by  many 
subsequent    Mercantilist  writers,   Mun    sets  forth  in 
this  work  a  complete  theory  of  international  trade. 

Mun's  great  point  is  that  only  one  thing  really 
enriches  the  State,  and  that  is  such  a  shaping  of  com- 
plex commercial  transactions  as  shall  secure  that  the 
value  of  all  imports  shall  be  less  than  that  of  all  ex- 
ports in  a  given  time. 

Of  the  same  school,  although  more  moderate,  are 
Temple,  Child,  and  Davenant. 

William  Temple,  who  represented  England  for 
many  years  in  the  Low  Countries,  has  recorded  ex- 
cellent impressions  on  labor,  savings,  luxury,  and 
the  relations  between  consumption  and  production. 
Josiah  Child  is  still  more  remarkable  for  his  sound 
understanding  of  the  character  of  money,  for  his  well- 
balanced  ideas  on  population,  for  his  protest  against 
monopolies  and  in  general  against  everything  that 
hampered  internal  trade.  But  perhaps  his  greatest 
merit  lies  in  his  comprehension  of  the  balance  of 
trade  as  the  result  rather  than  the  cause  of  healthy 
trade,  and  as  especially  dependent  on  a  rightly 
managed  merchant  marine.  Davenant  (1656-1714) 
wrote  works  on  economics,  finance,  and  statistics, 
which  mark  a  still  further  step  in  advance.  In  his 
later  works  he  loses  confidence  in  the  calculations 
that  were  available  for  determining  the  amount  of 
imports  and  exports,  so  that,  as  Pierson  hints,  he 
ends  by  being  only  nominally  a  Mercantilist,  though 
he  is  enough  of  one  to  give  stanch  support  to  privi- 
leged companies  and  to  the  most  inelastic  of  colonial 
systems.  Francis  Hutcheson,  the  remarkable  Scotch- 
man, founder  of  the  new  school  of  philosophy  in  Scot- 
land and  teacher  of  moral  philosophy  in  Glasgow 
(1730-46),  had  many  ideas  of  natural  rights,  etc.,  but 
was  nevertheless  a  strong  Mercantilist. 

The  French  Mercantilists  are  not  so  prominent. 
Perhaps  the  best  book  is  Jean  Francois  Melon's  Essais 
Politique  sur  le  Commerce  (1731),  which  gave  a  clear- 
cut  and  succinct  summary  of'  the  economic  doctrines 
then  in  vogue,  under  the  then  favorite  name  of  com- 
mercial theories.  Melon  calls  for  commercial  liberty, 
which  he  narrows  down  to  a  free  exchange  of  super-, 
fluities  for  necessities. 

In  Italy  there  were  several  important  writers.  The 
archdeacon  Bandini  (1677-1760)  seems  to  have  been 
a  really  remarkable  man,  and  perhaps  not  to  be 
counted  a  Mercantilist,  though  mentioned  with  this 
school.  C.  A.  Broggia  and  Girolamo  Belloni  were 
decidedly  of  that  school.  But  the  greatest  Italian 
Mercantilist  of  the  century  was  Antonio  Genovesi 
(1712-69),  a  Neapolitan.  To  secure  him  from  theologi- 
cal persecution  one  of  his  friends  founded  for  him  the 
first  chair  of  economics  established  in  Europe  (1755), 
one  of  the  conditions  of  which  was  that  it  could  never 
be  filled  by  a  monk.  His  Lezioni  di  Commercii  (1765) 
is  the  first  complete  treatise  in  Italian.  Ferdinando 
Galiani  is  another  prominent  Italian  of  this  school. 


Political  Economy. 


1028 


Political  Economy. 


While  secretary  of  the  Italian  embassy  in  Paris,  he 
published  (1770)  his  Dialogues  sur  le  Commerce  des  bits, 
a  book  greatly  praised  by  Voltaire.  Of  the  German 
Mercantilists  Ingram  says : 

"In  no  country  had  Mercantilist  views  a  stronger 
hold  than  in  Germany,  though  in  none,  in  the  period 
we  are  now  considering,  did  the  system 
.     of  the  balance  of  trade  receive  a  less 
r  extensive  practical  application.    All  the 

uermany.  jeadmg  German  economists  of  the 
seventeenth  century — Bornitz,  Besold, 
Klock,  Becher,  Horneck,  Seckendorf, 
and  Schroder — stand  on  the  common  basis  of  the 
mercantile  doctrine.  And  the  same  may  be  said  of 
the  writers  of  the  first  half  of  the  eighteenth  century 
in  general,  and  notably  of  Justi  (d.  1771),  who  was  the 
author  of  the  first  systematic  German  treatise  on 
political  economy,  a  work  which,  from  its  currency  as 
a  text-book,  had  much  effect  on  the  formation  of 
opinion.  Only  in  Zincke  (1692-1769)  do  we  find  occa- 
sional expressions  of  a  circle  of  ideas  in  variance  with 
the  dominant  system,  and  pointing  in  the  direction  of 
industrial  freedom.  But  these  writers,  except  from 
the  national  point  of  view,  are  unimportant,  not  hav- 
ing exercised  any  influence  on  the  general  movement 
of  European  thought." 

E.    THE   STEPS  TOWARD   LIBERALISM. 

Several  writers  must  be  noticed  here  who 
scarcely  form  a  school  and  yet  are  of  great 
importance  as  preparing  the  way. 

Richard  Cantillon  was  a  banker  belonging  to  an 
Irish  family,  who  lived  for  many  years  at  Paris, 
where  he  had  business  dealings  with  Law.  He  finally 
died  by  the  hand  of  an  assassin  at  London  in  1734. 
His  Essay  on  the  Nature  of  Commerce  at  large  was  not 
published  until  1755,  though  he  wrote  it  during  the 
last  four  years  of  his  life.  Cantillon's  Essay  is  pro- 
nounced by  Jevons  to  be  the  first  systematic  treatise, 
the  cradle,  as  it  were,  of  real  political  economy.  It 
falls  into  three  parts.  In  the  first  he  considers  land 
and  labor ;  in  the  second,  money ;  in  the  third,  inter- 
national payments. 

David  Hume  comes  next.  Says  Cossa  : 
"It  is  no  easy  task  to  assign  Hume's  (1711-76)  right 
place  in  the  history  of  economics,  though  it  is  not 
difficult  to  reject  the  claim  made  by  his  biographers, 
Walckenar  and  Burton,  that  he  founded  political 
economy.  .  .  .  Hume's  Political  Discourses  will  not 
bear  comparison  on  the  score  of  coherence  and  unity 
with  Cantillon's  brief,  systematic,  and  thoroughgoing 
performance.  But  Hume's  title  indi- 
cates a  significant  point  of  view,  and 
he  deals  with  the  theory  of  population, 
of  luxury,  of  circulation, — including 
trade,  money,  interest,  the  mercantile 
balance,  and  the  working  of  jealousy  in 
trade  transactions,— and  of  finance,  including  taxation 
and  public  loans,  but  excluding  capital,  value,  and 
wages.  His  views  were  instinct  with  liberalism  and 
the  warmest  love  of  progress.  He  was  Kant's  fore- 
runner in  philosophy,  and  had  the  gift  of  a  wonder- 
fully clear  and  charming  style.  Indeed,  Adam  Smith 
made  no  secret  of  his  admiration  for  Hume,  who  was 
his  'guide,  philosopher,  and  friend.'  " 

Sir  Dudley  North,  who  wrote  Discourses  upon 
Trade  in  1691,  branded  Mercantilism  as  a  political 
aberration.  Money,  he  argued,  is  a  commodity  dis- 
tributing itself  in  the  course  of  nature  among  various 
nations  according  to  their  needs,  which  are  registered 
by  the  ups  and  downs  of  market  prices.  Classes  as 
such,  according  to  North,  have  no  exclusive  concerns 
of  their  own,  but  society  is  bound  together  by  the 
solidarity  of  interest,  and  the  same  holds  true  among 
States,  so  that  absolute  free  trade,  both  industrial  and 
commercial,  is  the  one  and  only  way  of  achieving 
wealth. 

Of  other  Englishmen  who  led  the  way  to  Adam 
Smith  we  quote  from  Ingram  : 

"Josiah  Tucker,  dean  of  Gloucester  (d.  1799),  holds 
a  distinguished  place  among  the  immediate  prede- 
cessors of  Smith.  Most  of  his  numerous  productions 
had  direct  reference  to  contemporary  questions,  and 
tho  marked  by  much  sagacity  and  penetration,  are 
deficient  in  permanent  interest.  In  some  of  these  he 
urged  the  impolicy  of  restrictions  on  the  trade  of  Ire- 
land, advocated  a  union  of  that  country  with  England, 
tnd  recommended  the  recognition  of  the  independence 
of  the  United  States  of  America.  The  most  important 
of  his  general  economic  views  are  those  relating  to 
international  commerce.  He  is  an  ardent  supporter 


In  England. 


Continental 
Writers. 


of  free-trade  doctrines,  which  he  bases  on  the  princi- 
ples that  there  is  between  nations  no  necessary  an- 
tagonism, but  rather  a  harmony,  of  interests,  and  that 
their  several  natural  advantages  and  different  apti- 
tudes naturally  prompt  them  to  exchange.  He  had 
not,  however,  got  quite  clear  of  mercantilism,  and 
favored  bounties  on  exported  manufactures  and  the 
encouragement  of  population  by  a  tax  on  celibacy. 
Dupont,  and  after  him  Blanqui,  represent  Tucker  as 
a  follower  of  the  Physiocrats,  but  there  seems  to  be 
no  ground  for  this  opinion  except  his  agreement  with 
them  on  the  subject  of  the  freedom  of  trade.  Turgot 
translated  into  French  his  Important  Questions  on 
Commerce  (1755). 

"  In  1767  was  published  Sir  James  Steuart's  Inquiry 
into  the  Principles  of  Political  Economy.  This  was 
one  of  the  most  unfortunate  of  books.  It  was  the 
most  complete  and  systematic  survey  of  the  science 
from  the  point  of  view  of  moderate  mercantilism 
which  had  appeared  in  England.  Steuart  was  a  man 
of  no  ordinary  abilities,  and  had  prepared  himself 
for  his  task  by  long  and  serious  study.  But  the  time 
for  the  mercantile  doctrines  was  past,  and  the  system 
of  natural  liberty  •was  in  possession  of  an  intellectual 
ascendency  which  foreshadowed  its  political  triumph. 
Nine  years  later  the  Wealth  of  Nations  was  given  to 
the  world,  a  •work  as  superior  to  Steuart's  in  attract- 
iveness of  style  as  in  scientific  soundness.  Thus  the 
latter  was  predestined  to  fail,  and,  in  fact,  never  ex- 
ercised any  considerable  theoretic  or  practical  in- 
fluence. Smith  never  quotes  or  mentions  it:  being- 
acquainted  with  Steuart,  whose  conversation  he  said 
was  better  than  his  book,  he  probably  wished  to  keep 
clear  of  controversy  with  him." 

The  French  champion  of  economic  freedom  of  this 
age  is  Rene  Louis  Voyer,  Marquis  d'Argenson  (1694- 
1757).  For  a  short  time  he  was  in  the 
ministry,  and  he  wrote  various  works 
on  politics  and  economics,  which  re- 
mained unpublished  for  more  than  a 
century,  as  well  as  an  epoch-marking 
essay  published  in  the  Journal  Oecono- 
mique  (1751). 

Another  Frenchman  who  should  be  noticed  was 
Pierre  Boisguillebert,  a  passionate  antagonist  of  the 
Mercantilist  school.  Vauban,  in  his  economic  tracts, 
especially  his  Projet  d'une  Dixme  Royale  (1707),  follows 
the  same  line.  Of  Fenelon  and  Montesquieu,  Ingram 
says: 

"The  liberal  and  humane  spirit  of  Fenelon  led  him 
to  aspire  after  freedom  of  commerce  with  foreign 
nations,  and  to  preach  the  doctrine  that  the  true 
superiority  of  one  state  over  another  lies  in  the 
number  indeed,  but  also  in  the  morality,  intelligence, 
and  industrious  habits  of  its  population.  The  Tele- 
maque,  in  which  these  views  were  presented  in  an 
attractive  form,  •was  welcomed  and  read  among  all 
ranks  and  classes,  and  was  thus  an  effective  organ  for 
the  propagation  of  opinion. 

"After  these  writers  there  is  a  marked  blank  in  the 
field  of  French  economic  thought,  broken  only  by  the 
Reflexions  Politiques  sur  les  finances  et  le  Commerce 
(1738)  of  Dutot,  a  pupil  of  Law,  and  the  semi-mercan- 
tilist Essais  Politiques  sur  le  Commerce  (1731)  of  Melon, 
till  we  come  to  the  great  name  of  Montesquieu.  The 
Esprit  des  loot's,  so  far  as  it  deals  with  economic  sub- 
jects, is  written  upon  the  whole  from  a  point  of  view 
adverse  to  the  mercantile  system,  especially  in  his 
treatment  of  money,  tho  in  his  observations  on  colo- 
nies and  elsewhere  he  falls  in  with  the  ideas  of  that 
system.  His  immortal  service,  however,  was  not 
rendered  by  any  special  research,  but  by  his  enforce- 
ment of  the  doctrine  of  natural  laws  regulating  social 
no  less  than  physical  phenomena." 

Among  the  most  progressive  of  the  Italian  writers 
the  most  prominent  is  Cesare  Beccaria  (1738-94).  His 
treatise  Dei  delitti  e  delle  pene  is  said  to  have  been 
translated  into  twenty-two  languages.  The  Austrian 
Government  created  for  him  a  chair  of  political  econ- 
omy, and  his  Elementi  di  Economia  Publica  (1771,  pub- 
lished in  1804)  was  the  result.  He  was  something  of 
a  Physiocrat  and  strongly  opposed  to  monopolies, 
privileges,  etc.,  although  a  protectionist.  Other  Ital- 
ians of  less  prominence  are  Pietro  Verri  (1728-07),  Gio- 
vanni R.  Carli  (1720-95),  Giambattista  Vasco  (1733-96), 
Gaetano  Filangieri  (1752-88),  the  second  volume  of 
whose  Scienza  della  Legislazione  treats  of  economics 
and  seems  to  take  many  of  the  positions  of  Adam 
Smith,  without  knowing  it.  Still  other  Italians  are 
Ludovico  Ricci  (1742-99) ;  Fernandino  Paoletti  (1717- 
1801),  a  public-spirited  priest  and  a  Physiocrat,  and 
Francesco  Mengotti  (1791).  Here,  perhaps,  should  be 
mentioned  Giammaria  Ortes  (1713-90),  neither  a  Mer- 


Political  Economy. 


[029 


Political  Economy, 


cantilist  nor  a  Liberal! st,  but  finding  his  ideal  in  the 
Middle  Ages.  In  Spain,  Geronimo  Ustariz  (1724)  was 
an  extreme  Mercantilist.  Count  Pedro  Rodriguez 
(1723-1802)  represents  the  Liberal  school.  In  Austria 
Sonnenfels  (1733-1817),  the  first  distinguished  economist 
of  that  country,  is  a  Mercantilist,  but  a  very  liberal 
one.  In  Germany,  according  to  Roscher,  the  greatest 
economist  of  the  eighteenth  century  was  Justus  Moser 
(1720-94),  the  author  of  Patriotisclie  Phantasieen  (1774), 
praised  by  Goethe.  He  is  opposed  to  the  Aufklarung 
and  liberalism,  and,  like  the  Italian  Ortes,  looks  back 
to  the  Middle  Ages.  He  opposes  absolute  private 
property  in  land  and  somewhat  favors  the  commune. 

F.    THE   PHYSIOCRATS. 

Says  Cossa :  "The  unparalleled  merit  of 
having  created  a  scientific  system  of  political 
economy,  or,  to  phrase  it  better,  of  philo- 
sophic social  jurisprudence  viewed  chiefly  in 
its  economic  aspects,  undoubtedly  belongs  to 
a  man  of  genius  named  Frangois  Quesnay, 
founder  of  the  physiocratic  school,  The  name 
'  physiocratic '  was  given  to  them  after  1768, 
before  which  time  they  bore,  as  a  sort  of  nick- 
name, the  title  of  '  economist.'  When  I  speak 
of  theirs  as  the  first  scientific  system,  I  intend 
to  convey  the  fact  that  they  deduced  from 
a  few  ultimate  principles  a  perfectly  homo- 
geneous whole,  comprising  pure  economics  as 
well  as  political  and  financial  economics. 
What  gave  them  their  name  was  the  basis  of 
their  system — a  recognition  that  natural  laws 
are  paramount." 

They  held  that  there  was  such  a  theory  as  a  jus 
nature,  a  harmonious  and  beneficial  order  of  nature, 
corresponding  in  economics  to  the  theological  con- 
ception of  a  beneficent  divine  providence,  and  they 
taught  that  wisdom  consisted  in  doing  away  with  all 
artificial  laws  and  customs  preventing  the  working 
of  this  divine  order.  It  was  the  same  conception 
that  made  Rousseau  criticize  the  existing  order  of 
society  and  advocate  a  return  to  "natural"  liberty. 
It  will  be  seen,  too,  how  this  school  really  led  the  way 
to  the  great  school  of  natural  liberty  of  Adam  Smith 
and  his  followers.  The  Physiocrats,  however,  had 
marked  views  as  to  what  was  the  natural  order. 
Ingram  describes  these  as  follows  : 

"  Only  those  labors  are  truly  '  productive  '  which  add 
to  the  quantity  of  raw  materials  available  for  the  pur- 
poses of  man ;  and  the  real  annual  addition  to  the 
wealth  of  the  community  consists  of  the  excess  of  the 
mass  of  agricultural  products  (including,  of  course, 
metals)  over  their  cost  of  production.  On  the  amount 
of  this  produit  net  depends  the  well-being  of  the 
community,  and  the  possibility  of  its  ad- 
vance in  civilization.  The  manufacturer 
T>i  Air  VI'AWO  merety  gives  a  new  form  to  the  materials 
WSl  extracted  from  the  earth;  the  higher 
value  of  the  object,  after  it  has  passed 
through  his  hands,  only  represents  the 
quantity  of  provisions  and  other  materials  used  and 
consumed  in  its  elaboration.  Commerce  does  nothing 
more  than  transfer  the  wealth  already  existing  from 
one  hand  to  another ;  what  the  trading  classes  gain 
thereby  is  acquired  at  the  cost  of  the  nation,  and  it  is 
desirable  that  its  amount  should  be  as  small  as  possi- 
ble. The  occupations  of  the  manufacturer  and  mer- 
chant, as  well  as  the  liberal  professions,  and  every 
kind  of  personal  service,  are  '  useful '  indeed,  but  they 
are  •  sterile,'  drawing  their  income,  not  from  any  fund 
which  they  themselves  create,  but  from  the  superfluous 
earnings  of  the  agriculturist.  Perfect  freedom  of  trade 
not  only  rests,  as  we  have  already  seen,  on  the  founda- 
tion of  natural  right,  but  is  also  recommended  by  the 
consideration  that  it  makes  the  produit  net,  on  which 
all  wealth  and  general  progress  depend,  as  large  as 
possible.  Laissez-faire,  laissez-passer  should  there- 
fore be  the  motto  of  Governments.  The  revenue  of 
the  State,  which  must  be  derived  altogether  from  this 
net  product,  ought  to  be  raised  in  the  most  direct 
and  simplest  way — namely,  by  a  single  impost  of  the 
nature  of  a  land  tax." 

This  last  position  gives  the  school  an  especial  inter- 
est to  social  reform  as  being  the  forerunner  of  the 
modern  believers  in  the  Single  Tax.  The  first  great 
Physiocrat  was  Franjois  Quesnay  (1694-1774).  Altho 


by  profession  a  physician  and  attendant  upon  Louis 
XV.  and  Mme.  de  Pompadour,  he  was  also  a  land- 
owner deeply  interested  in  agriculture.  In  1756  he 
wrote  the  articles  Fermiers,  and  one  on  Grains  in 
Diderot  and  Alembert's  Encyclopedic^  which  contain 
the  germ  of  his  system.  His  famous  Tableau  Beano* 
mique  •was  printed  in  1753.  In  1763  he  published  his 
Maximes  Generalesdu  Goiivernement  Economique  d'uil 
Royume  Agricole.  His  Tableau  Economique,  though 
dry  and  abstract,  is  perhaps  the  best  statement  of  the 
school,  with  its  motto,  pauvres  paysans,  pauvre  roy- 
aume  ;  pauvre  royaume,  pauvre  roi.  J.  C.  M.  Vincent, 
M.  de  Gournay  (1712-59),  though  born  after  Quesnay, 
must  be  associated  with  Quesnay  as  a  founder,  and 
is  said  to  have  influenced  Quesnay.  He  wrote  nothing 
save  memoirs  addressed  to  ministers,  but  in  the 
Eloge,  which  Turgot  addressed  to  his  memory,  we 
have  a  full  statement  of  his  views.  He  was  bred  as  a 
merchant,  as  Quesnay  was  an  agriculturalist,  and  does 
not  agree  with  the  latter  that  commerce  and  manu- 
facture are  "unproductive."  He  puts  all  his  emphasis 
on  the  struggle  for  "  natural  "  freedom,  and  he  it  is  who 
formulated  the  phrase  Laissez-faire,  laissez-passer. 
Quesnay's  oldest  and  most  devoted  disciple  was  Victor, 
Marquis  de  Mirabeau,  the  somewhat  verbose  father 
of  his  more  famous  son.  Another_earnest_  and  perse- 
v 

(L 


ins  (1764 
uvelle  (i 


Turgot. 


Progrls  d'une  Science  Nouvelle  (1767),  Du  Commerce  de 
la  Compagnie  des  Indes  (1767),  and  especially  by  his 
more  comprehensive  work  Physiocratie,  ou  Constitu- 
tion Naturelle  du  Gouvernement  le  plus  Avatitageux 
au  Genre  Humain  (1768).  It  was  the  title  to  this  book 
which  gave  the  name  to  the  school.  Other  interpre- 
ters of  physiocratic  doctrine  were  Mercier  de  la 
Riviere,  Bandeau,  and  Letrosne,  Abeille,  Condorcet, 
Bosnier  de  1'Orme,  Bigot  de  Sainte  Croix,  Chastellux, 
and  Abbe  Morellet. 

The  greatest  name,  however,  among  the  followers  of 
this  school,  and  the  only  one  who  could  put  the  ideas 
into  practice, was  Anne  Robertjacques  Turgot  (1727-81), 
for  a  short  time  minister  of  Louis  XVI..  and  perhaps, 
as  Matthew  Arnold  calls  him,  "  the  greatest  minister 
France  ever  had."  (See  TURGOT.)  Says  Cossa  : 

"Turgot  deserves  a  place  quite  by  himself  among 
the  economists  of  his  day,  because  of  the  variety  and 
solidity  of  his  attainments,  and  the  versatility  in  argu- 
ment displayed  in  his  books,  and  in  the  official 
memorials  for  which  he  is  responsible. 
.  .  .  His  fame  rests  quite  as  much  upon 
the  reforms  which  he  instituted  as  upon 
the  books  which  he  wrote.  Hisreforms 
reorganized  the  national  finances,  and 
delivered  agriculture  from  the  strait- 
jacket  in  which  for  centuries  it  had  been  con- 
fined ;  at  least  these  reforms  would  have  accomplished 
this,  if  the  weak  king  had  not  instantly  abolished  them, 
and  abandoned  his  ministry  to  the  mercies  of  court 
intriguers,  and  the  opposition  of  privileged  classes. 
All  this  made  shipwreck  of  reforms  which,  though 
substantially  wise,  were  in  themselves  foredoomed  to 
failure,  because  they  contained  no  sufficient  provisions 
for  making  gradual  and  partial  changes,  but  contem- 
plated the  sudden  sweeping  away  of  the  old  order  to 
make  room  for  tjje  new." 

His  economic  views  are  explained  in  the  introduc- 
tions to  his  edicts  and  ordinances,  in  letters  and  occa- 
sional papers,  but  especially  in  his  Reflexions  sur  la 
Formation  et  la  Distribution  des  Richesses  (1766). 

The  last  French  Physiocrats  were  Germain,  Marquis 
de  Gamier,  whojmblished  his  Abrlge  Elementaire  des 
Principes  de  I'Economie  P,olitique  in  1796,  and  Dutens, 
whose  Philosophic  de  r  Ec'onomie  Politique  appeared 
in  1835. 

Outside  of  France  the  main  Physiocrats  were,  in 
Germany,  Karl  Friedrich,  Markgraf  of  Baden  (1728- 
i8iO,  Theodor  Schmalz  (1760-1831),  Johann  August 
Schlettwein  (1731-1802),  Jakob  Mauvillon  (1743-94).  Karl 
Arnd's  Die  Ndturgemasse  Volkswirthschaft  appeared 
as  late  as  1851.  In  England  the  Physiocrats  had  no 
real  following.  In  Poland,  Strojnowski,  in  Russia, 
Prince  Galitzin  (1796),  are  of  this  school.  The 
leading  Italian  Physiocrats  are,  Melchiore  Delfico 
(1788),  Nicola  Fiorentino,  and  Neri  (1767),  besides  four 
writers  on  the  corn  laws  who  came  after  him  :  Scottoni 
(1780,  Mario  Paganp  (1^89),  De  Gennaro,  inhisslnnona 
(1783),  and  Scrofani  in  his  Memorie  di  Economia  Politica 
(1826) ;  also  four  writers  on  finance,  viz.,  Adamo  Fab- 
broni,  mentioned  in  1778  by  Balletti,  Giuseppe  Gorani 
(1771),  Giovanni  Paradisi  (1789) ;  and  above  all,  Giuseppe 
Sarchiani,  a  Tuscan,  and  author  of  the  pamphlet 
Intorno  al  Sistema  delle  Pubbliche  Imposizioni (1791). 


Political  Economy. 


1030 


Political  Economy. 


G.    ADAM   SMITH,  AND   THE   SCHOOL  OF  NATURAL 
LIBERTY. 

For  a  full  account  of  Adam  Smith,  see  article 
SMITH  ;  for  an  account  of  the  predecessors  and 
the  steps  which  led  up  to  Adam  Smith,  see  Sec- 
tion E  of  this  article.  Adam  Smith  must  by 
no  means  be  considered  the  absolute  originator 
of  his  school ;  nevertheless  he  gave  it  such 
signal  utterance  and  so  influential  an  impulse 
as  to  make  him  in  a  very  real  sense  the  founder 
of  this,  the  great  school  of  orthodox  English, 
if  not  European  and  American,  political  econ- 
omy. 

Adam  Smith  was  born  in  Kirkcaldy,  Scotland,  June 
5,  1723,  and  studied  in  his  native  place,  at  Glasgow, 
under  Hutcheson  (1737-40),  and  at  Balliol  College, 
Oxford,  where  he  remained  till  1846.  He  lived  in  Edin- 
burgh and  read  under  the  patronage  of  Lord  Kames, 
and  in  close  intimacy  with  David  Hume.  In  1851  he 
was  called  to  the  chair  first  of  logic,  and  then  of  moral 
philosophy.  In  1759  appeared  his  Theory  of  Moral 
Sentiments.  In  1764  he  vacated  his  chair,  and  for  two 
years  traveled  with  the  young  Duke  of  Buccleuch, 
spending  nearly  a  year  in  Paris,  and  becoming  ac- 
quainted with  Diderot,  Alemb,ert,  Quesnay,  andTurgot. 
Returning  to  his  native  Kirkcaldy,  he  lived  there  ten 
years,  save  for  a  trip  to  London,  and  in  the  first  months 
of  1776  brought  out  his  great  work,  The  Wealth  of 
Nations.  The  fame  won  by  this  got  him  the  appoint- 
ment of  Commissioner  of  Customs  at  Edinburgh, 
where  he  went  in  1778.  In  1787  he  was  elected  Lord 
Rector  of  Glasgow  University,  and  died  July  17,  1790. 
Cossa  says  of  his  book  : 

"Adam  Smith's  book  is  a  masterpiece  because  its 
author  combined  rare  philosophical  powers  of  insight 
with  rich  and  varied  mental  acquirements,  and  his 
profound  historical  knowledge  was  joined  with  a 
phenomenal  common  sense  which  enabled  him  to  in- 
vestigate all  his  problems  from  all  sides,  without  ever 
suffering  prejudice  to  intervene  and  carry  him  too  far. 
His  reasoning  is  alternatively  deductive 
and  inductive,  and  his  style  combines 
literary  charm  with  scientific  apprehen- 
sibility, and  is  accordingly  adapted  to 
every  heedful  and  fairly  instructed 
mind.  He  abounds  in  historical  illustra- 
tions, constantly  tests  his  points  by  appealing  to  facts, 
and  as  a  matter  of  fact  all  his  digressions  into  ques- 
tions of  justice,  education,  and  soldiering, — found 
fault  with  tho  they  are  by  many  on  account  of  their 
inordinate  length,  which  certainly  would  suggest  an 
encyclopedia  rather  than  a  treatise  on  one  subject, — 
played  their  part  in  making  the  book  popular,  and  in 
winning  for  it  the  control  which  it  eventually  exercised 
over  the  course  of  legislative  reform  that  has  prevailed 
in  the  leading  States  of  modern  times." 

Coming  to  an  analysis  of  this  remarkable  work,  we 
find  that  it  commences  in  book  i.  with  the  premiss 
that  every  appreciable  increment  of  national  wealth 
springs  from  labor,  and  then  asks  what  causes  enhance 
this  increment ;  carefully  considering  the  division  of 
labor,  the  resultant  saving  of  capital  to  fall  back  upon, 
and  the  widening  of  the  market.  This 'leads  to  the 
subject  of  exchange,  and  the  consideration  of  (i)  value 
in  use,  or  utility,  and  (2)  value  in  exchange,  constituted 
by  the  purchasing  power  of  wages.  This  latter  is 
studied  under  the  two  categories  of  natural  and  mar- 
ket value.  Then  comes  the  subject  of  distribution, 
and  the  study  of  differences  in  wages  and  profits,  with 
the  conclusion  that  the  advancement  of  wealth  in- 
creases rents  and  wages,  but  diminishes  profits. 
Wealth  he  defines  as  the  assemblage  of  material,  neces- 
sary, convenient,  or  desirable  articles  ;  and  to  produce 
wealth  is  to  make  materials  more  useful  or  valuable. 
Hence  clergymen,  magistrates,  house  servants,  etc., 
are  not  engaged  in  productive  labor. 

Book  ii.  begins  with  the  distinction  between  capital 
and  the  fund  required  for  daily  consumption,  and  then 
considers  the  various  forms  of  capital,  mobilized, 
circulating,  etc.  Saving  creates  capital,  which  sup- 
ports productive  labor,  whereas  unproductive  con- 
sumption does  not.  Money  is  next  discussed,  in  its 
various  forms,  and  he  censures  the  confusion  of  the 
volume  of  current  money  with  the  rate  of  interest  and 
favors  a  legal  rate  slightly  above  the  current  rate, 
so  as  to  prevent  the  flow  toward  speculators  and 
spendthrifts.  Agriculture  Smith  considers  the  most 
productive  investment,  because  here,  through  the 


Adam  Smith. 


His  Critics. 


gratuitous  cooperation   of   nature,  a   surplus  arises, 
making  rent  possible. 

Book  iii.  sketches  a  history  of  industry,  with  special 
study  of  causes  favorable  to  prosperity.  Book  iv. 
first  criticizes  the  Mercantilist  and  Physiocrat  theories, 
and  then  sets  forth  Smith's  own  canons.  The  ultimate 
aim  of  good  government  is  the  utmost  freedom  for  the 
production  and  circulation  of  wealth.  He  attacks  all 
outworn  restrictive  measures.  Yet  he  appeals  to  no 
abstract  principle  like  the  Physiocrats,  but  to  expedi- 
ency and  opportunity.  He  implies,  though  he  does 
not  state,  that  the  play  of  individual  interests  will  al- 
ways produce  the  good  of  the  community.  He  thinks 
ever  of  the  consumer's  interests,  and  so  desires  the 
cheapening  of  all  articles.  He  does  not  however  desire 
a  sudden  adoption  of  free  trade,  and  believes  that  the 
public  health  and  morals  may  persistently  require  the 
limitations  of  trade.  He  would  justify  temporary 
grants  of  monopolies  to  companies  taking  great 
risks. 

Book  v.  concerns  the  State,  whose  function  is  not 
only  negative,  but  educational,  and  to  carry  on  all 
enterprises  which  are  of  importance  but  would  not 
remunerate  private  enterprise.  Revenue  he  would 
raise,  not  from  crown  lands,  but  from  taxes  on  con- 
sumption and  on  various  forms  of  rent.  He  closes 
with  a  study  of  the  evils  of  abusing  public  credit. 

The  book  is  thus  wonderfully  balanced,  but  con- 
tains hints  which  less  balanced  followers  have  devel- 
oped into  capital  errors.  He  was,  however,  on  the 
whole,  decidedly  influenced  by  his  time  in  criticizing 
the  economic  functions  of  government,  and  trusting 
too  far  to  the  free  play  of  private  interests,  under  the 
idea  of  the  old  jus  naturce. 

Adam  Smith  was  much  criticized  by  the  English 
and  French  Mercantilists,  and  the  German  school  of 
Moser  (see  above),  who  condemned  him 
as     rationalistic,    individualistic,    and 
materialistic.     One   of   the    best  criti- 
cisms was  J.  Lauderdale's  An  Inquiry 
into  the  Nature  and  Origin  of  the  Pub- 
lic  Wealth  (1804).    He  based  value  on 
utility  and    sharply  criticizes  Smith's    confusion    of 
public  and  private  wealth. 

But  Smith  soon  won  distinguished  followers.  Jere- 
my Bentham  (a.  v.)  declared  for  him,  and  wrote  A 
Manual  of  Political  Economy  and  monographs  on 
free  trade,  public  debts,  and  A  Defense  of  Usury 
(1787). 

We  now  come  to  the  great  name  of  Thomas  Robert 
Malthus  (1766-1834).  A  Protestant  clergyman,  he  taught 
economics  at  Haileybury  College.  (See  MALTHUS  and 
MALTHUSIANISM.)  Cossa  says  of  Malthus : 

"He  investigated  the  economic  aspects  of  popula- 
tion  with  a  masterly  idea    of  the    right  method  of 
scrutinizing  the  fundamental  principle  involved  under 
all  existing  and  widely  divergent  cases  by  which  it  is 
exemplified.    Thus  he    founded    on    solid    ground   a 
doctrine  which,  when  stripped  entirely 
of  its  pseudo-mathematical  integument 
and     stated     with     greater     precision      -M-aH-Tino 
statistically    and    psychologically,   has      »»M""»« 
held  its   own  up  to  the  present  hour 
against  a  horde  of  cavils,  which  turn 
for  the  most  part  upon  a  loose  employment  of  terms  ; 
it  has  even  weathered  the  shock  given  to  it  by  certain 
incompetent  friends  who  have  fastened  upon  it  the 
heavy  burden  of  their  own  false  conclusions." 

The  first  edition  of  his  work  appeared  anonymously 
In  1798  under  the  title,  An  Essay  on  the  Principle  of 
Popiilation,  as  it  affects  the  Future  Improvement  of 
Society,  with  Remarks  on  the  Speculations •  of  Mr.  God- 
win, M.  Condorcet,  and  Other  Writers.  This  book  arose 
out  of  certain  private  controversies  of  its  author  with 
his  father,  Daniel  Malthus,  who  had  been  a  friend  of 
Rousseau,  and  was  an  ardent  believer  in  the  doctrine 
of  human  progress  as  preached  by  Condorcet  and 
other  French  thinkers  and  by  their 'English  disciples. 
The  book  was  a  polemic.  Godwin  (<?.  v.)  had  held  that 
evils  in  society  arise  from  human  institutions,  which 
should  be  replaced  by  a  natural  equality  for  all.  Mal- 
thus, following  a  work  by  Dr.  Robert  Wallace  in  1761, 
showed  that  the  tendency  of  population  to  rapidly 
increase  made  equality  impossible.  The  result  was 
brilliant,  but  crude.  He  attempted  to  prove  that 
population  increases  in  a  geometrical,  food  in  an 
arithmetical,  ratio.  His  success  led  to  his  writing  a 
second  edition,  which  is  practically  a  new  book,  care- 
fully eradicating  the  crudities  of  the  first  edition,  not 
attempting  to  formulate  any  mathematical  law,  but 
from  abundant  instances  to  cautiously  show  the  gen- 
eral tendency  of  population  to  outstrip  the  means  of 
support. 


Political  Economy. 


1031 


Political  Economy. 


The 
Industrial 


The  book,  so  altered,  appeared  in  1803,  under  the 
title,  An  Essay  on  the  Principle  of  Population,  or  a 
View  of  its  Past  and  Present  Effects  on  Human  Hap- 
piness ;  with  an  Enquiry  into  our  Prospects  respecting 
the  Future  Removal  or  Mitigation  of  the  Evils  which  it 
Occasions. 

There  is  one  important  addition.  In  the  former  edi- 
tion the  author  had  spoken  of  no  checks  to  population 
save  those  of  wars,  misery,  and  vice.  He  now  speaks 
•of  "moral  restraint,"  and  so  is  able  to  soften  some  of 
the  harshest  conclusions  of  the  first  edition.  The  book 
passed  through  six  editions  in  Malthus'  lifetime,  and 
he  constantly  introduced  corrections.  The  last  edi- 
tion was  that  of  1817. 

The  impression  made  by  Malthus'  book  •was  largely 
due  to  the  times  in  which  it  appeared.  Adam  Smith 
had  writtan  at  the  beginning  of  an  industrial  revolu- 
tion. The  only  steam-engine  he  refers  to  is  New- 
comen's,  and  of  the  cotton  trade  he  makes  but  one 
mention.  "Between  the  years  1760  and  1770,"  says 
Mr.  Marshall,  "  Roebuck  began  to  smelt  iron  by  coal, 
Brindley  connected  the  rising  seats  of  manufactures 
with  the  sea  by  canals,  Wedgwood  discovered  the  art 
of  making  earthenware  cheaply  and  well,  Hargreaves 
invented  the  spinning  jenny,  Arkwright  utilized 
Wyatt's  and  High's  inventions  for  spinning  by  rollers 
and  applied  water  power  to  move  them,  and  Watt 
invented  the  condensing  steam-engine.  Crompton's 
mule  and  Cartwright's  power-loom  came  slowly 
after." 

The  result  of  all  this  invention  was  a  rush  into 
manufacturing.  Capitalists  who  could  own  factories 
made  money  at  the  rate  of  several  hundred  per  cent. 
Agriculture  was  neglected  and  hand  production 
killed.  The  unemployed  from  Ireland,  as  well  as 
from  all  England,  poured  into  the  factory  towns. 
Machines  enabled  the  owners  to  employ  women  and 
children  instead  of  men.  Parishes  sold  their  pauper 
children  to  the  factories.  There  were 
no  trade-unions  to  keep  wages  up; 
there  were  no  laws  to  prevent  long 
hours  or  child  labor.  The  horrors  of 
English  factory  and  agricultural  life 
Revolution,  at  this  time  beggar  description.  Men 
were  housed  like  animals  and  fed  like 
swine.  Children  of  five  or  six  worked 
long  hours.  Drunkenness  and  every  evil  abounded. 
Some  have  argued  that  at  no  period  in  English  history 
was  the  condition  of  the  English  laborer  worse  than 
during  the  last  decade  of  the  eighteenth  century  and 
the  first  of  the  nineteenth.  Competition  was  abso- 
lutely unlimited.  Meanwhile,  Adam  Smith's  book 
seemed  to  show  the  wisdom  of  absolute  freedom.  It 
was  a  comfort,  therefore,  to  have  Malthus  prove  that 

Population,  by  a  law  of  nature,  tended  to  increase 
ister  than  the  means  of  subsistence  and  that,  there- 
fore, some  must  perish.  It  seemed  to  excuse  the  suf- 
fering of  the  poor  and  still  any  prickings  of  capitalistic 
consciences.  Malthus  had  met  a  need.  Between 
Adam  Smith  and  Malthus  the  employee  was  helpless 
—free  to  slave,  free  to  suffer,  and  free  to  die.  Adam 
Smith  and  Malthus  furnished  the  economic  orthodoxy 
of  the  day  ;  an  orthodoxy  not  yet  overthrown,  though 
very  largely  undermined.  But  it  was  to  be  developed. 
Malthus  himself  wrote  other  works. 

But  we  now  come  to  the  third  great  name  in  the 
school  of  English  orthodox  economists,  that  of  David 
Ricardo  (1772-1823).     Ricardo  was  the  son  of  a  Jewish 
merchant,  carefully  educated  for  business.    He  him- 
self,  however,   became    a    Christian,    and    turned    a 
banker  of  unimpeachable  honesty  and  great  success. 
The  study  of  the  Wealth  of  Nations  made  him  an 
economist.      In    1819   he    entered    Parliament    as   an 
authority  on   finance.    In  1821   he  was 
one    of   the  founders   of  the   Political 
Ricardo       Economy  Club. 

His   great    work,  however,   was   his 

Principles  of  Political  Economy  (1817), 

a  work  which  Cossa  calls  "of  o'riginal- 

ey    and  profundity  so  remarkable  that  it  marks  an 

epoch  in  the  history  of  our  science,  tho  its  good  points 

are  overstated  by  such  enthusiastic  partizans  as  Mac- 

Culloch  and  De  Quincey." 

Ricardo  was  a  pure  theorist.  He  develops  Adam 
Smith's  hints  and  fundamental  positions,  with  keen 
logic,  simply  as  matters  of  pure  science.  He,  there- 
fore, comes  to  conclusions  which  Adam  Smith's  bal- 
ance of  a  mind  full  of  facts  saved  him  from  making. 
Ricardo  carries  many  of  the  points  so  far  as  to  make 
them  assume  positions  entirely  new,  and  which  may 
be  truly  said  to  be  original  with  Ricardo.  Primary 
among  these  is  his  view  of  value  and  his  famous  law  o"f 
rent.  (See  RICARDO  and  RICARDIAN  LAW  OF  RENT.) 


With  Ricardo,  the  great  primal  stage  of  the  laissez- 
faire  economy  is  complete.  The  works  of  Adam 
Smith,  Malthus,  and  Ricardo  went  through  all  Europe, 
creating  everywhere  a  new  awakening  of  economic 
thought  and  often  such  admiration  as  for  a  time  al- 
most to  check  further  independent  thought.  As  late 
as  1869  Rau,  in  Germany,  wrote:  "The  fundamental 
ideas  of  Adam  Smith  are  derived  so  directly  from 
the  nature  of  things  that  later  investigations  only 
furthered  the  gradual  internal  development  of  his 
system  without  establishing  a  new  one  ;  hence,  the 
political  economy  of  to-day,  altho  by  no  means  con- 
fined any  longer  to  the  content  of  the  doctrines  formu- 
lated by  Adam  Smith,  is  nevertheless  regarded  as  his 
system." 

Of  French  orthodox  political  economy,  Leon  Say 
wrote  in  1884:  "The  science  has  neither  in  practise 
nor  in  theory  shown  a  growth  equal  to  that  of  the 
demands  made  upon  it.  One  does  not  even  take  the 
trouble  to  combat  on  scientific  or  political  grounds 
the  ideas  which  come  from  Germany ;  our  econo- 
mists slumber  in  indolent  optimism  on  the  cushion  of 
laissez-faire. ' ' 

The  school  of  Adam  Smith  governed  economic 
thought  down  to  1870,  and  everywhere  it  created  a 
school  of  writers.  We  from  this  time  must  study 
economic  thought  by  countries. 

H.    ENGLAND. 

Contemporary  with  Adam  Smith  was  another 
Scotchman,  James  Anderson,  who  died  in  1808.  In 
a  foot-note  to  his  An  Enquiry  into  the  Nature  of  the 
Corn  Laws  (1777),  he  puts  the  whole  principle  of  rent 
clearly  and  concisely.  Much  better  known  was  James 
Mill  (1773-1830).  In  his  Elements  of  Political  Economy 
(1821)  he  seems  to  sum  up,  altho  dryly  and  without 
interest,  all  the  Ricardian  economics.  John  Ramsay 
McCulloch  (1789-1864),  another  Scotchman,  was  a  more 
popular,  but  less  accurate  writer.  His  Principles  of 
Political  Economy  (1825),  Dictionary  of  Commerce,  and 
treatise  on  Taxation  contain  nothing  original,  and  are 
now  of  little  value,  but  in  their  day  did  considerable 
to  spread  the  Ricardian  economics.  Colonel  Robert 
Torrens  (1780-1864)  is  a  better  representative  of  the 
school,  and  a  prolific  writer. 

Two  prominent  clergymen  are  among  the  econo- 
mists of  this  school  and  time.  The  Anglican  Arch- 
bishop of  Dublin,  Richard  Whately,  having  been 
professor  at  Oxford,  and  being  the  author  of  excel- 
lent lectures  introductory  to  political  economy  (1831), 
finally  founded  a  chair  of  economics  at  Trinity 
College,  Dublin,  which  was  creditably  filled  by  Long- 
field,  his  successor,  Lawson,  and  then  by  Cairnes. 

Professor  Ingram  says  of  Whately  :  "He  published 
lectures  on  the  science  generally  (1835),  on  Poor  Laws 
(1834),  and  on  Commerce  and  Absenteeism  (1834),  which 
were  marked  by  independence  of  thought  and  saga- 
cious observation.  He  was  laudably  free  from  many 
of  the  exaggerations  of  his  contemporaries.  He  said, 
in  1835,  '  In  political  economy  we  must  not  abstract 
too  much,'  and  protested  against  the  assumption  too 
often  made  that  '  men  are  guided  in  all  their  conduct 
by  a  prudent  regard  to  their  own  interest.'  " 

The  second  clergyman,  Thomas  Chalmers  of  Glas- 
gow, well  known  in  other  lines  of  thought,  was  no 
'  mean  economist,  tho  principally  famous  in  this  line 
for  his  successful  efforts  in  charity  organization 
restriction  in  Glasgow.  (See  CHALMERS.)  In  his  The 
Christian  and  Civic  Economy  of  Large  Towns  (1821-36), 
and  On  Political  Economy  in  Connection  with  the 
Moral  State  and  Moral  Prospects  of  Society  (1832),  he 
strongly  opposes  legal  charity ;  and,  while  justly 
insisting  on  the  primary  importance  of  morality, 
industry,  and  thrift  as  conditions  of  popular  well- 
being,  carried  the  Malthusian  doctrines  to  excess. 

Undoubtedly,  however,  the  greatest  writer  of  the 
strict  Ricardian  school,   after  Ricardo  himself,   was 
Nassau  William  Senior  (1790-1864),  Pro- 
fessor of  Political  Economy  at  Oxford. 
Senior  analyzed  the  cost  of  production        Senior 
most  ingeniously,  but  his  choice  of  the 
curious  term  "  abstinence  "  (for  describ- 
ing that  element  in  the  cost  of  produc- 
tion which  depends  upon  capital  accumulated  by  self- 
denial)  was  unfortunate,  since  it  gave  rise  to  objections 
and  controversies  that  turned  entirely  upon  words. 
Equally  important  were  his  researches  into  the  meas- 
ure of  wages  and  of  profits,  and,  in  general,  into  the 
whole  terminology  of  economics.     He  was  among  the 
first  in  England  to  aim  at  accuracy  and  precision  in 
this  matter. 

Of  less  importance  are  Harriet  Martineau  (1802-76), 
who  popularized  Ricardo  and  Malthus  in  her  Jllustra- 


Political  Economy. 


1032 


Political  Economy. 


tions  of  Political  Economy  (1832-34) ;  Charles  Bab- 
bage,  On  the  Economy  of  Machinery  and  Manufactures 
(1832);  Herman  Merivale,  Lectures  on  Colonization  and 
Colonies  (1841-42):  T.  C.  Banfield,  The  Organization 
of  Industry  Explained  (1844);  and  Edward  Gibbon 
Wakefield,  A  View  of  the  Art  of  Colonization  (1849). 
All  these  are  of  the  Ricardian  school.  The  main 
English  contemporary  critic  of  Ricardo  was  Richard 
Jones  (1790-1855),  professor  at  Haileybury. 

Ingram  says  of  him  :  "Jones  has  received  scant  jus- 
tice at  the  hands  of  his  successors.    J.  S.  Mill,  while 
using  his  work,  gave  his  merits  but  faint  recognition. 
Even  Roscher  says  that  he  did  not  thoroughly  under- 
stand Ricardo,  without  giving  any  proof  of  that  asser- 
tion, while  he  is  silent  as  to  the  fact  that  much  of  what 
has  been  preached  by  the  German  historical  school 
is  found  distinctly  indicated  in  Jones'  writings.     He 
has  been  sometimes  represented  as  having  rejected 
the  Andersonian  doctrine  of  rent ;  but 
such    a    statement    is    incorrect.   .   .   . 
-  What  he  really  denied  was  the  applica- 

jones.  tion  of  the  doctrine  to  all  cases  where 
rent  is  paid  ;  he  pointed  out  in  his  Essay 
on  the  Distribution  of  Wealth  and  on  the 
Sources  of  Taxation  (1831),  that,  besides  'farmers' 
rents,'  which,  under  the  supposed  condition,  conform 
to  the  above  law,  there  are  'peasant  rents,'  paid 
everywhere  through  the  most  extended  periods  of 
history,  and  still  paid  over  by  far  the  largest  part  of 
the  earth's  surface,  which  are  not  so  regulated. 
Peasant  rents  he  divided  under  the  heads  of  (i)  serf, 
(2)  metayer,  (3)  ryot,  and  (4)  cottier  rents,  a  classifica- 
tion afterward  adopted  in  substance  by  J.  S.  Mill  ; 
and  he  showed  that  the  contracts  fixing  their  amount 
were,  at  least  in  the  first  three  classes,  determined 
rather  by  custom  than  by  competition.  Passing  to 
the  superstructure  of  theory  erected  by  Ricardo  on 
the  doctrine  of  rent  which  he  had  so  unduly  extended, 
Jones  denied  most  of  the  conclusions  he  had  deduced. 
.  .  .  Jones  is  remarkable  for  his  freedom  from  ex- 
aggeration and  one-sided  statement ;  thus,  while 
holding  Malthus  in,  perhaps,  undue  esteem,  he  de- 
clines to  accept  the  proposition  that  an  increase  of 
the  means  of  subsistence  is  necessarily  followed  by 
an  increase  of  population." 

We  come  now  to  undoubtedly  one  of  the  greatest 
names  in  English  economics,  John  Stuart  Mill  (1806-73). 
Of  the  orthodox  school,  he  yet  so  far  worked  his  way  out 
of  the  orthodox  economics  as  in  his  Autobiography  to 
announce  himself  a  socialist.  This  mere  fact  indicates 
a  mental  progress  and,  perhaps,  inconsistencies  that 
make  it  impossible  to  present  his  views  in  brief  space. 

Cossa  says  of  Mill  : 

"Few  influences  of  the  kind  have  been  more  wide- 
spread among  educated  Englishmen,  or  found  more 
approbation  among  the  cultivated  classes  eyery where, 
than  that  exercised  by  his  Principles  of  Political  Econ- 
omy; a  book  which  summarizes  and  systematizes  under 
their  more  important  aspects,  and  in  the  most  exact 
language  possible,  all  the  leading  doc- 
trines of  the  classical  English  school. 
J  S  Mill  ^or  does  tn*s  author  fail,  where  neces- 
'•  Of  Jn-1Ui  sary,  to  strengthen  these  views  by  com- 
pleting them,  so  that  there  is  no  better 
account  than  his  "  ;  yet  Cossa  also  says  : 
"  But  Mill's  work  requires  a  thorough  understanding 
before  you  can  away  with  the  extraordinary  incon- 
sistencies and  contradictions  in  which  it  abounds.  .  .  . 
Self-contradiction  lurks  in  the  ever-widening  and 
deepening  vein  of  genial  philanthropy,  visible  m  the 
successive  editions  of  Mill's  Principles,  until  in  the 
third  he  draws  in  the  most  rosy  hues  a  prophetic 
picture  of  the  days  in  store  for  the  working  classes, 
and  actually  proclaims  his  belief  in  the  eventual  con- 
summation of  socialism  ;  but  this  philanthropy  never 
quite  carried  him  off  his  feet  until  he  wrote  his  posthu- 
mously published  chapters  on  socialism.  Self-contra- 
diction also  lurks  in  his  proposal  to  bar  the  right  of 
collateral  kindred  to  inherit,  and  also  in  his  sympathy 
with  the  idea  of  heavy  taxes  to  be  imposed  upon  vexa- 
tious transfers  of  landownership,  which  culminated  in 
the  later  years  of  his  life  in  his  marvelous  scheme  for 
confiscating  the  future  rents  of  land  which  were  to  be 
acquired  at  current  prices  by  the  State  with  the  own- 
er's consent.  But  his  self-contradiction  is  most  pal- 
pable and  can  best  be  understood,  from  the  point  of 
view  of  science,  when  these  socialistic  aspirations  are 
confronted  with  his  theoretical  adhesion  to  the  doc- 
trines of  Malthus.  These  he  not  only  maintained,  but 
almost  caricatured,  by  proposing  the  restriction  of 
marriages  by  law.  Again,  how  are  we  to  reconcile  his 
approval  of  a  stationary  state,  which  is  really  a  retro- 


g 
b 


ressive  condition  of  decadence,  with  his  unwavering 
elief  in  unlimited  progress?  He  should  either  part 
company  with  Laing,  reject  Thornton's  Plea  for  Peas- 
ant Proprietors  (1848  ;  second  edition,  1874),  and  refrain 
from  glorifying  small  peasant-holdings,  or  else  he 
must  retract  his  own  Papers  on  Land  Tenure  (Disser- 
tations and  Discussions,  vol.  iy.),  and  destroy  all  record 
of  his  own  usefulness  as  president,  from  1870  on,  of  the 
Land  Tenure  Reform  Association.  Finally,  what  can 
Mill  the  socialist,  pledged  as  such  against  every  form 
of  competition,  have  to  do  with  the  Mill  who  defended 
'cooperative  societies  for  production,'  and  thus  en- 
deavored to  replace  competition  between  private 
enterprises  by  competition  between  associations  of 
working  men  ?  " 

Such  a  writer  we  shall  not  undertake  to  condense  ; 
only  a  brief  account  can  be  given.  (For  a  full  account, 
see  MILL.)  Born  in  1806,  and  submitted  by'his  father 
to  a  phenomenal  intellectual  discipline,  he  could  read 
Greek  and  Latin  at  eight,  and  before  the  age  of  20  be- 
came a  close  friend  of  Bentham,  Austin,  Grote,  and 
Macaulay.  In  Paris  he  had  met  Say  and  St.  Simon. 
From  1823  to  1858  he  held  a  post  in  the  India  Office. 
From  1865  to  1868  he  was  M.  P.  for  Westminster,  but 
offended  his  constituents  by  his  independent  attitude. 
He  died  in  retirement  at  Avignon,  1872.  Committed 
at  the  outset  to  Benthamism,  by  1826  he  began  to 
change  to  a  more  socialistic  view.  His  acquaintance 
with  Mrs.  Taylor,  beginning  in  1831  and  ending  in  mar- 
riage in  1851,  rapidly  developed  his  mental  change. 
From  1841-46  he  was  under  the  influence  of  Comte. 
He  in  later  life  zealously  espoused  Agrarian  Reform, 
Minority  Representation,  and  Woman's  Suffrage. 
Mill's  main  economic  contributions  were  Essays  on 
some  Unsettled  Questions  of  Political  Economy  (writ- 
ten in  1829-30,  and  published  1844),  Principles  of  Politi- 
cal Economy,  with  Some  of  their  Applications  to  Social 
Pliilosophy  (1848),  Dissertations  and  Discussions, 
Comte  and  Positivism  (1865),  England  and  Ireland  '(1868), 
on  Representative  Government  (1861),  on  the  Subjection 
of  Women  (1869),  on  Socialism,  published  after  his  death 
in  the  Fortnightly  Review  (1874).  His  five  essays  con- 
tain his  main  original  contributions  to  economics  : 
Essay  I.  contains  his  famous  doctrine  of  free  inter- 
national commerce;  Essay  II.  his  argument  that  absen- 
teeism is  a  purely  local  evil  ;  that  tho  a  general  glut 
is  permanently  impossible,  it  may  be  temporarily 
general  ;  that  this  comes,  however,  not  from  over- 
production, but  from  impaired  credit  ;  Essay  III, 
discusses  productive  and  unproductive  labor  and 
consumption  ;  Essay  IV.  discusses  Ricardo's  theory 
of  the  connection  between  wages  and  profits,  show- 
ing that  the  latter  depend  upon  the  cost  of  the  work. 
Essay  V.  discusses  methods  in  economics,  which  must 
be  inductive. 

The  marked  points  in  Mill's  Political  Economy  are 
(i)  his  analysis  of  the  influence  of  progress  ;  (2)  his  ob- 
servation that  profits  tend  to  a  minimum  ;  (3)  his  re- 
marks concerning  a  stationary  condition  of  economic 
forces  ;  (4)  his  famous  distinction  between  the  physical 
character  of  the  laws  governing  production  and  the 
social  character  of  those  governing  distribution.  This 
last  Mill  himself  regarded  as  his  greatest  contribution 
to  economics,  a  view  to-day  not  accepted. 

Mill's  Autobiography  is  of  peculiar  interest  to  social 
reform.  Of  it  Ingram  says  : 

"The  gradual  modification  of  his  views  in  relation 
to  the  economic  constitution  of  society  is  set  forth  in 
his  Autobiography.     In  his  earlier  days,  he  tells  us,  he 
'had  seen  little  further  than  the  old  'school'  (note  this 
significant  title)  'of  political  economy  into  the  possi- 
bilities of  fundamental  improvement  in  social  arrange- 
ments.     Private  property,  as  now  un- 
derstood, and  inheritance  appeared  the 
dernier  mot  of  legislation.'    The  notion     Ingrain  on 
of  proceeding  to  any  radical  redress  of          iur'11 
the  injustice  'involved  in  the  fact  that          Mill. 
some  are  born  to  riches  and  the  vast  ma- 
jority to  poverty  '  he  had  then  reckoned 
chim'erical.     But  now  his  views  were  such  as  would 
'class  him  decidedly  under  the  general  designation  of 
socialist  ';  he  had  come  to  believe  that  the  whole  con- 
temporary frame-work  of  economic  life  was  merely 
temporary  and  provisional,  and   that    a  time    would 
come  when   'the  division  of  the  produce  of    labor,. 
instead  of  depending,  as  in  so  great  a  degree  it  now 
does,  on  the  accident  of  birth,  would  be  made  by  con- 
cert on  an  acknowledged  principle  of  justice.'     'The 
social  problem  of  the    future  '    he  considered  to  be 
'how  to  unite  the  greatest  individual  liberty  of  ac- 
tion,'  which   was  often    compromised    in    socialistic 
schemes,  '  with  a  common    ownership     in  the    raw 
material  of  the  globe,  and  an  equal  participation  in  all 


Political  Economy. 


Political  Economy., 


Cairnes. 


the  benefits  of  combined  labor.  These  ideas  were 
scarcely  indicated  in  the  first  edition  of  the  Political 
Economy,  rather  more  clearly  and  fully  in  the  second, 
and  quite  unequivocally  in  the  -third — the  French 
Revolution  of  1848  having,  as  he  says,  made  the  pub- 
lic more  open  to  the  reception  of  novelties  in  opinion. 
"  Whilst  thus  looking  forward  to  a  new  economic 
order,  he  yet  thinks  its  advent  very  remote,  and  be- 
lieves that  the  inducements  of  private  interest  will  in 
the  meantime  be  indispensable.  On  the  spiritual  side 
he  maintains  a  similar  attitude  of  expectancy." 

Among  the  more  prominent  of  English  economists 
after  Mill,  is  John  Elliot  Cairnes  (182^-75),  professor  at 
Trinity  College,  Dublin,  and  at  University  College, 
London.  He  was  a  great  worker,  but  deficient  in  sym- 
pathy, and  therefore  somewhat  one-sided.  He  largely 
developed  the  question  of  economic  method.  His 
book  on  Method  (1857)  for  over  20  years  had  no  rival. 
In  1862  he  published  The  Slave  Poiver ;  Its  Character, 
Career,  and  Probable  Designs  ;  showing 
from  an  economic  standpoint  the  evils 
of  slave  labor  and  creating  a  deep  im- 
pression. His  Essays  on  Political  Econ- 
omy were  published  in  1873,  an<*  m  l874 
his  important  Some  Leading  Principles 
of  Political  Economy  Newly  Expounded.  It  contains 
however  little  new,  merely  amending  some  of  the  posi- 
tions of  Mill  and  others.  He  adopts  the  wages  fund 
theory,  which  Mill  had  thrown  away.  He  favors  co- 
operation and  shows  that  American  highly  paid  labor 
need  not  fear  European  low  paid  labor. 

Most  closely  connected  with  Mill  is  Henry  Fawcett 
(1833-84).  Altho  blind  he  was  professor  at  Cambridge, 
an  M.  P.,  and  in  1880  made  Postmaster-General.  His 
Manual  of  'Political  Economy (1863)  has  been  much  used 
as  a  text-book,  and  has  been  adapted  by  his  wife,  Mrs. 
M.  G.  Fawcett,  into  a  Political  Economy  for  Beginners 
(1870),  also  much  used. 

But  the  newer  thought  that  begins  to  show  itself  in 
Mill  was  to  attain  more  development  than  in  Cairnes 
and  Fawcett. 

William  Thornton  (1813-80)  had  already  attacked  the 
theory  of  value  and  of  the  wages  fund,  and  in  many 
ways  criticized  the  orthodox  economy;  and  altho  doing 
but  little  to  point  a  way  out,  presenting  facts  to  show 
the  unhappy  condition  of  the  English  laborer.  In  this 
way  his  Overpopulation  and  its  Remedy  (1846) ;  On 
Peasant  Proprietors  (1848) ;  and  On  Labor,  its  Wrong- 
ful Claims  and  Rightful  Dues,  are  helpful  books.  But 
more  positive  thought  was  to  develop.  Robert  Owen 
(1771-1858),  the  Chartists,  and  others  (see  ENGLAND) 
had,  from  1817  on,  awakened  considerable  Utopian 
radical  social  thought.  (See  SOCIALISM.)  William 
Thompson,  one  of  Owen's  followers,  who  died  in  1833, 
had  practically  formulated  what  is  Marx'  theory  of 
surplus  value,  as  early  as  1824,  in  his  Inquiry  into  the 
Principles  of  the  Distribution  of  Wealth.  John  Gray 
(1821),  Edmonds  (1828),  J.  B.  Bray  (1839),  and  Charles 
Bray  (1841)  developed  similar  thoughts.  The  writings, 
too,  of  Carlyle  and  Ruskin  affected  the  economists 
more  than  they  were  willing  to  admit ;  but,  espe- 
cially, the  violent  condemnation  of  the  soulless  Man- 
chester or  orthodox  political  economy  by  Maurice, 
Kingsley,  and  the  other  Christian  Socialists  set  the 
economists  thinking.  The  tendency  to  break  away 
from  old  theoretical  abstractions  was  much  quick- 
ened by  the  development  in  Germany  of  the  historical 
school  (see  Section  J  of  this  article).  One  of  the  first 
economists  in  England  to  voice  the  newer  thought  was 
Walter  Bagehot  (1826-77).  Author  of  an  excellent 
work  on  the  English  money  market, 
Lombard  Street  (1873),  of  several  mono- 
graphs on  monetary  questions,  and  of 
some  general  economic  essays  collected 
in  Economic  Studies,  edited  by  R.  H. 
Hutton  (1880),  he  described  himself  as 
''the  last  man  of  the  ante-Mill  period,"  but  he  was  more 
truly  the  first  man  to  feel  the  influence  of  the  histori- 
cal school.  With  this  he  had  "no  quarrel,  but  rather 
much  sympathy."  "Rightly  conceived,"  he  said,  "it 
is  no  rival  to  the  abstract  method  rightly  conceived." 
"Mill  and  Cairnes,"  says  Ingram,  '"had  already 
shown  that  the  science  they  taught  was  a  hypothetic 
one,  in  the  sense  that  it  dealt  not  with  real  but 
with  imaginary  men — 'economic  men'  who  were 
conceived  as  simply  'money-making  animals.'  But 
Bagehot  went  further  :  he  showed  what  those  writers, 
tho  they  may  have  indicated,  had  not  clearly  brought 
out,  that  the  world  in  which  these  men  were  sup- 
posed to  act  is  also  'a  very  limited  and  peculiar 
world.'  What  marks  off  this  special  world,  he  tells  us, 
is  the  promptness  of  transfer  of  capital  and  labor  from 
one  employment  to  another,  as  determined  by  differ- 


Bagehot. 


ences  in  the  remuneration  of  those  several  employ- 
ments—a promptness,  about  the  actual  existence  of 
which  in  the  contemporary  English  world  he  fluctu- 
ates a  good  deal,  but  which  on  the  whole  he  recognizes 
as  substantially  realized." 

"The  object  of  his  economic  studies,"  Ingram  says, 
"  was  to  show  that  the  traditional  system  of  political 
economy — the  system  of  Ricardo  and  J.  S.  Mill — rested 
on  certain  fundamental  assumptions,  which,  instead 
of  being  universally  true  in  fact,  were  only  realized 
within  very  narrow  limits  of  time  and  space.  In- 
stead of  being  applicable  to  all  states  of  society,  it 
holds  only  in  relation  to  those  'in  which  commerce 
has  largely  developed,  and  where  it  has  taken  the 
form  of  development,  or  something  like  the  form, 
which  it  has  taken  in  England.'  It  is  'the  science  of 
business  such  as  business  is  in  large  and  trading  con> 
munities — an  analysis  of  the  great  commerce  by  which 
England  has  become  rich."  But  more  than  this  it  is 
not ;  it  will  not  explain  the  economic  life  of  earlier 
times,  nor  even  of  other  communities  in  our  own  time  \ 
and  for  the  latter  reason  it  has  remained  insular ;  it 
has  never  been  fully  accepted  in  other  countries  as 
it  has  been  at  home.  It  is,  in  fact,  a  sort  of  ready 
reckoner,  enabling  us  to  calculate  roughly  what  will 
happen  under  given  conditions  in  Lombard  Street,  on 
the  Stock  Exchange,  and  in  the  great  markets  of  the 
world.  It  is  a  'convenient  series  of  deductions  from 
assumed  axioms  which  are  never  quite  true,  which  in 
many  times  and  countries  would  be  utterly  untrue, 
but  which  are  sufficiently  near  to  the  principal  condi- 
tions of  the  modern  '  English  '  world  to  make  it  useful 
to  consider  them  by  themselves.'  " 

More  advanced  was  T.  E.  Cliffe  Leslie  (1827-82).  Of 
him  Ingram  says:  "The  first  systematic  statement 
by  an  English  writer  of  the  philosophic 
foundation  of  the  historical  method,  as 
the  appropriate  organ  of  economic  re-  pi.-flf-  T,«.iia 
search,  is  to  be  found  in  an  essay  by  wme  ^esue' 
T.  E.  Cliffe  Leslie  (printed  in  the  Dub- 
lin University  periodical,  Hermathena, 
1876  ;  since  included  in  his  Essays,  Moral  and  Political, 
1879).  This  essay  was  the  most  important  publication 
on  the  logical  aspect  of  economic  science  which  had 
appeared  since  Mill's  essay  in  his  Unsettled  Questions. 
Tho  Cairnes  had  expanded  and  illustrated  the  views- 
of  Mill,  he  had  really  added  little  to  their  substance. 
Leslie  takes  up  a  position  directly  opposed  to  theirs. 
He  criticizes  with  much  force  and  verve  the  princi- 
ples and  practise  of  the  'orthodox'  school.  Those 
who  are  acquainted  with  what  has  been  written  on 
this  subject  by  Knies  and  other  Germans,  will  ap- 
preciate the  freshness  and  originality  of  Leslie's 
treatment.  He  points  out  the  loose  and  vague  char- 
acter of  the  principle  to  which  the  classical  economists 
profess  to  trace  back  all  the  phenomena  with  which 
they  deal— namely,  the  '  desire  of  wealth.'  This  phrase 
really  stands  for  a  variety  of  wants,  desires,  and  senti- 
ments, widely  different  in  their  nature  and  economic 
effects,  and  undergoing  important  changes  (as,  indeed, 
the  component  elements  of  wealth  itself  also  do)  in  the 
several  successive  stages  of  the  social  movement.  The 
truth  is  that  there  are  many  different  economic 
motors,  altruistic  as  well  as  egoistic  ;  and  they  cannot 
all  be  lumped  together  by  such  a  coarse  generaliza- 
tion. The  a  priori  and  purely  deductive  method 
cannot  yield  an  explanation  of  the  causes  which  regu- 
late either  the  nature  or  the  amount  of  wealth,  nor  of 
the  varieties  of  distribution  in  different  social  sys- 
tems, as,  for  example,  in  those  of  France  and 
England.  'The  whole  economy  of  every  nation  is 
the  result  of  a  long  evolution  in  which  there  have  been 
both  continuity  and  change,  and  of  which  the  eco- 
nomical side  is  only  a  particular  aspect.  And  the 
laws  of  which  it  is  the  result  must  be  sought  in  history 
and  the  general  laws  of  society  and  social  evolution.' 
The  intellectual,  moral,  legal,  political,  and  economic 
sides  of  social  progress  are  indissolubly  connected. 
Thus,  juridical  facts  relating  to  property,  occupation, 
and  trade,  thrown  up  by  the  social  movement,  are  also 
economic  facts.  And,  more  generally,  'the  economic 
condition  of  English  '  or  any  other  'society  at  this  day 
is  the  outcome  of  the  entire  movement  which  has 
evolved  the  political  constitution,  the  structure  of  the 
family,  the  forms  of  religion,  the  learned  professions, 
the  arts  and  sciences,  the  state  of  agriculture,  manu- 
factures, and  commerce.'  To  understand  existing: 
economic  relations  we  must  trace  their  historical 
evolution;  and  'the  philosophical  method  of  political 
economy  must  be  one  which  expounds  that  evolution.' 
This  essay  was  the  most  distinct  challenge  ever  ad- 
dressed to  the  ideas  of  the  old  school  on  method,  and, 
tho  its  conclusions  have  been  protested  against,  the 


Political  Economy. 


Political  Economy. 


Jevons. 


arguments  on  which  they  are  founded  have  never 
been  answered." 

An  Irishman  by  birth,  Leslie  was  a  barrister  and 
professor  at  Belfast.  His  writings  are  mainly  essays 
(1888)  and  articles  in  various  reviews. 

More  important  is  William  Stanly  Jevons  (1835-82). 
Born  at  Liverpool,  assayer  in  the  Mint  at  Sydney 
(1854-59),  professor  at  Manchester  (1866-76),  and  in 
University  College,  London  (1876-81),  his  experience 
gave  him  many-sidedness  and  balance.  His  A  Serious 
Fall  in  the  Value  of  Gold  (1863)  and  the  Coal  Question 
(1865)  were  his  first  important  works.  His  Money  and 
the  Mechanism  of  Exchange  (1875)  is  one  of  the  best 
treatises  on  that  subject,  from  a  conservative  posi- 
tion (Jevons  being  a  moderate  monometallist).  More 
progressive  are  his  The  State  in  Relation  to  Labor 
(1882)  and  Methods  of  Social  Reform 
(1883).  Jevons  would  have  State  action 
developed  not  on  any  doctrinaire  prin- 
ciple, for  or  against,  but  experimen- 
tally ;  learning  from  this  experience 
what  the  State  can  do  best  and  what 
the  individual.  He  sought  to  work  out  the  conception 
of  final  utility.  Altho  apt  in  statistics  and  mathe- 
matics, he  can  be  also  popular,  as  in  his  Primer  of 
Political  Economy  (1878). 

Of  the  same  school  is  J.  E.  Thorold  Rogers,  professor 
at  Oxford.  His  six-volume  History  of  Agriculture 
and  Prices,  T2jo-i7O2  (1866-87);  his  one- volume  Six  Cen- 
turies of  Work  and  Labor  (1884);  his  two-volume  In- 
dustrial and  Commercial  History  of  England  (1891)  are 
monuments  of  patient  investigation  and  full  of  facts, 
if  economists  pay  little  heed  to  the  conclusions  he 
-draws  from  them.  Commencing  his  studies  opposed 
to  trade-unions,  he  was  by  his  historic  studies  con- 
verted to  a  reasonable  trade-unionism. 

But  most  progressive  of  all  this  school  was  the 
brilliant  Arnold  Toynbee  (1852-83).  Best  known  for 
the  impetus  he  gave  to  university  residence  among 
the  poor,  commemorated  in  Toynbee  Hall  (q.  v.),  his 
fragmentary  writings  on  economic  history,  printed 
as  Lectures  on  the  Itidustrial  Revolution  in  England 
(1884),  have  made  many  regret  his  early  dealth,  altho 
the  scientific  value  of  his  writings  is  questioned  by 
such  men  as  Cossa. 

Ingram  says  of  him  : 

"  He  had  a  belief  in  the  organizing  power  of  democ- 
racy which  it  is  not  easy  to  share,  and  some  strange 
ideas  due  to  youthful  enthusiasm,  such  as,  for  example, 
that  Mazzim  is  '  the  true  teacher  of  our  age  ';  and  he 
fluctuates  considerably  in  his  opinion  of  the  Ricardian 
political  economy,  in  one  place  declaring  it  to  be  a 
detected  'intellectual  imposture,"  whilst  elsewhere, 
apparently  under  the  influence  of  Bagehot,  he  speaks 
of  it  as  having  been  in  recent  times  '  only  corrected, 
restated,  and  put  into  the  proper  relation  to  the 
science  of  life,'  meaning  apparently,  by  this  last,  gen- 
eral sociology.  He  saw,  however,  that  our  great  help 
in  the  future  must  come,  as  much  had  already  come, 
from  the  historical  method,  to  which  in  his  own  re- 
searches he  gave  preponderant  weight.  .  .  .  If,  as  we 
are  told,  there  exists  at  Oxford  a  rising  group  of  men 
who  occupy  a  position  in  regard  to  economic  thought 
substantially  identical  with  that  of  Toynbee,  the  fact 
is  one  of  good  omen  for  the  future  of  the  science." 

Coming  to  contemporary  authors,  easily  the  first 
place  is  occupied  by  Professor  Alfred  Marshall,  who 
in  1885  was  called  to  succeed  Professor  Fawcett  at 
Cambridge.  Cossa  calls  him  "the  first  English  name 
in  contemporary  economic  thought,"  and  says  : 

"Alike  as  a  teacher  and  as  a  writer,  Professor  Mar- 
shall has  given  proofs  of  an  acute  mind,  a  many-sided 
and  well-digested  familiar^'  with  economic  theories, 
a  point  of  view  regarding  method  which  is  at  once 
comprehensive  and  accurate,  and  a  power  to  measure 
justly  the  theories  of  the  classical  school. 
Of  that  school  he  is  the  representative 
and  heir,  for  he  follows  the  traditions  of 
Adam  Smith,  allowance  being  made  for 
altered  views  and  circumstances.  Like 
Jevons,  but  with  more  balance,  he  util- 
izes mathematics;  like  Rogers  and  Cliffe  Leslie,  he 
favors  historical  studies;  and  finally,  with  Giffen,  he 
appreciates  statistical  induction,  at  the  same  time  giv- 
ing fair  warning  that  bare  facts  which  are  facts  only, 
and  not  welded  together  by  theoretical  inductions,  are 
mute  and  unintelligible.  The  special  field  of  his  work 
has  been  the  theory  of  value."  Nevertheless,  altho 
of  the  classical  school,  he  is  so  inclined  to  advanced 
social  views  as  often  to  be  called  a  socialist.  His 
Economics  of  Industry  (1879),  written  with  the  aid  of 
his  wife  Mrs.  Mary  Paley  Marshall,  has  replaced  Mrs. 
Fawcett's  book  for  beginners  and  strikes  a  much 


Marshall. 


more  advanced  note.  His  chief  work,  however,  is  his 
Principles  of  Economics  (vol.  i.,  1890),  a  collection  of 
monographs ;  among  others  his  important  Some  As- 
pects of  Competition.  His  Elements  of  Economics  of 
Industry  (1892)  is  an  abridgment  of  the  Principles. 
Cossa  says  of  his  general  views  : 

"  Marshall's  ideas  on  the  working  man  and  his  condi- 
tion, on  the  causes  regulating  demand  for  labor  and 
for  products,  and  on  the  right  limits  of  State  interfer- 
ence on  behalf  of  classes  living  in  straitened  circum- 
stances, are  beyond  all  commendation,  so  that  a  great 
gulf  is  fixed  between  them  and  the  extremes  of  social- 
ism on  the  one  hand,  and  of  individualism  on  the  other. " 

Perhaps  next  to  Marshall  stands  another  Cambridge 
man,  Henry  Sidgwick,  Professor  of  Moral  Philosophy, 
best  known  for  his  Methods  of  Ethics  and  History  of  Eth- 
ics, his  Principles  of  Political  Economy  (1883),  and  Ele- 
ments of  Politics  (1891).  Professor  Ingram  says  of  him: 

"  It  is  impossible  not  to  respect  and  admire  the  con- 
scientious and  penetrating  criticism  which  he  applies 
to  the  a  priori  system  of  economics  in  its  most  mature 
form.  But  it  is  open  to  question  whether 
the  task  was  wisely  undertaken.  It 
cannot  be  permanently  our  business 
to  go  on  amending  and  limiting  the 
Ricardian  doctrines,  and  asking  by  what 
special  interpretations  of  phrases  or 
additional  qualifications  they  may  still  be  admitted  as 
having  a  certain  value.  The  time  fora  new  construc- 
tion has  arrived  ;  ....  It  is  interesting  to  observe 
that  the  part  of  the  work  which  is,  and  has  been  recog- 
nized as,  the  most  valuable  is  that  in  which,  shaking 
off  the  fictions  of  the  old  school,  he  examines  inde- 
pendently, by  the  light  of  observation  and  analysis,  the 
question  of  the  industrial  action  of  governments." 

Among  the  leading  economists  must  be  mentioned 
Professor  Ingram  himself,  from  whom    we  have    so 
often  quoted.    John  Kells  Ingram,  professor  at  Trinity 
College,  Dublin,  and  an  Irishman  himself,  is  aComtist 
and  most  opposed  to  the  classical  school.     His  Present 
Position  and  Prospects  of  Political 'Economy  (1878),  and 
his  article  on  political  economy  in  the  Encyclopaedia 
Britannica,  since  expanded  into  his  History  of  Politi- 
cal Economy,  are  the  best  English  works  on  the  sub- 
ject, and  markedly  trace  the  development  of  economic 
thought  in  the  socialist  direction.    Pro- 
fessor H.  S.  Foxwell,  who  now  occupies 
the  chair  left  vacant  by  Jevons'  death,        Latest 
has   attained  considerable    distinction       w  . 
by  editing  Jevons'  posthumous  works,       Writers, 
as  well  as  by  several  essays,  like  his 
Fluctuations    of  Employment.      He    is 
now  engaged  with  a  vast  bibliographical  work,  of 
which  much  is  expected. 

Among  writers  prominent  in  certain  fields  of  eco- 
nomic thought  Professor  William  Cunningham,  with 
his  Politics  and  Economics  (1885)  and  The  Growth  of 
English  Industry  and  Commerce  (vol.  i.  The  Early  and 
Middle  A ges  (1890),  vol.  ii.  Modern  Times  (1892)),  stands 
foremost  in  economic  history.  Philip  H.  Wicksteed, 
with  his  Alphabet  of  Economic  Science  (pt.  i.,  1888), 
has  developed  and  lucidly  presented  Jevons'  theory 
of  value.  D.  G.  Ritchie  of  Oxford  has  written  many 
valuable  articles.  His  Darwinism  and  Politics  is  an 
able  answer  to  the  position  sometimes  taken  that  Dar- 
winism is  opposed  to  the  collectivist  position.  Pro- 
fessor J.  S.  Nicholson  of  the  University  of  Edinburgh 
has  attracted  attention  by  his  The  Effects  of  Machinery 
on  Wages  (1878),  Tenant  s  Gain  not  Landlord's  Loss 
(1883),  Principles  of  Political  Economy,  vol.  i.  (1893), 
Historical  Progress  and  Ideal  Socialism  (1894).  The 
Rev.  Professor  J.  E.  Byrnes' Short  Text-book  of  Political 
Economy  (1888)  has  won  praise  in  progressive  circles, 
while  E.  C.  K.  Conner's  Political  Economy  (1884)  and 
E.  Cannan's  Elementary  Political  Economy  deserve 
mention  among  small  text-books.  James  Bonar  has 
shown  much  learning  in  discussing  the  new  Austrian 
theory  of  value,  while  W.  Smart  is  the  translator  of 
Bohm-Bawerk.  Professor  F.  Y.  Edgeworth,  the  suc- 
cessor of  Rogers  at  Oxford,  is  perhaps  first  in  eco- 
nomic investigations  based  on  mathematics.  The 
chief  modern  English  work  on  monetary  questions  is 
Goshen's  The  Theory  of  Foreign  Excha nge  d86i).  I.  S. 
Nicholson  (A  Treatise  on  Monev,  1888),  Seyd,  Bar- 
bour,  and  Hucks-Gibbs  have  defended  bimetallism 
as  Jevons  did  monometalism.  Ingram  calls  Professor 
W.  E.  Hearn's  Plutology  (1864)  "one  of  the  ablest  ex- 
tant treatments  of  the  subject  of  production.  L.  T. 
Hobhouse's  The  Labor  Movement  and  W.  D.  Hobson's 
Evolution  of  Capital  have  elicited  no  little  attention. 
Likewise  C.  F.  Bastable's  Commerce  of  Nations  (1892), 
Public  Finance  (1892),  and  E.  Cannans'  Production  and 
Distribution. 


Political  Economy. 


Political  Economy. 


Of  older  books  on  money  Cossa  mentions  the  fol- 
lowing •  Lord  Liverpool's  Treatise  on  the  Coins  of  the 
Realm  (1805);  Thomas  Tooke's  A  History  of  Prices  and 
of  the  State  of  Circulation  from  1^2-1856  (London, 
1818-57  6  vols.)|  H.  D.  Macleod's  Theory  and  Practice 
of  Banking-  (fourth  edition,  1883,  2  vols.);  Hankey  s 
The  Principles  of  Banking;  the  largely  statistical 
labors  of  R.  H.  Inglis  Palgrave  on  the  Bank-rate  in 
England,  France,  and  Germany,  1844-78  (1880);  Bage- 
hot's  fascinating  work,  Lombard  Street,  a  Description 
of  the  Money  Market  (1873);  S.  Tones  Lloyd's  tracts  and 
other  publications  on  metallic  and  paper  currency 
(1858),  and  John  Fullerton's  On  the  Regulation  of  the 
Currency  (1844). 

Among  the  earlier  productions  on  financial  reform, 
he  mentions  :  Sir  John  Sinclair's  History  of  the  Public 
Revenue  (third  edition,  1803-04,  3  vols.);  Robert  Hamil- 
ton's The  Rise  and  Progress,  the  Redemption  .... 
of  the  National  Debt  (third  edition,  1818);  Sir  Henry 
Parnell,  On  Financial  Reform  (fourth  edition,  1882); 
Tayler's  History  of  the  Taxation  of  England  (1853); 
Hubert  Hall's  History  of  the  Customs  Revenue  (1885); 
and  Stephen  Dowell's  monumental  History  of  Taxa- 
tion in  England  (1884-85,  4  vols.;  second  edition,  1888). 
Then  there  were  also  Sayer's  On  the  Income  Tax 
(1831);  Buchanan's  Inquiry  into  Taxation  (1844);  and 
to  these  may  be  added  certain  more  recent  works,  like 
Baxter's  Taxation  of  the  United  Kingdom  (1869);  No- 
ble's The  Queen's  Taxes  (1870);  Sir  Morton  Peto's 
writings;  Giffen's  Essay  on  Finance  (second  edition, 
1880);  and  Wilson's  The  National  Budget  (1882).  On 
local  taxation  Palgrave  (1871),  Goschen  (1872),  and 
Probyn  (1875  ;  second  edition,  1885)  have  set  forth  their 
views,  and,  finally,  some  place  here  should  be  found 
for  mentioning  Mr.  Gladstone's  Financial  Statements 
(1863-70,  3  vols.),  and  the  admirable  works  of  New- 
march  (On  the  Loans  raised  by  Mr.  Pitt,  1855);  of  Capp 
(The  National  Debt  Financially  Considered,  1859);  and 
of  Baxter  (National  Debts,  1871). 

(Concerning  the  literature  of  social  reform,  see 
articles  SOCIALISM,  COOPERATION,  etc.,  etc.) 

Of  the  general  state  of  economic  science  in  England 
Cossa  says :  "  The  very  vehemence  of  opposition 
shown  during  the  last  twenty  years  to  the  leading 
ideas  of  economics  has  been  a  blessing  in  disguise, 
since  men  well  versed  in  it  have  been  constrained  to 
redouble  their  efforts  to  be  sound  and  accurate  in  all 
things.  It  may,  in  fact,  be  confidently  predicted  that 
this  period  of  incubation  will  clear  the  way  for  new 
triumphs,  since  the  signs  of  their  speedy  coming  are 
visible  even  now.  In  England,  however,  the  diffusion 
of  economic  instruction  goes  on  in  lines 


Reviews. 


quite  different  from  those  pursued  in 
Germany  and  Italy,  where  professors 
at  universities  have  matters  all  their 
own  wav.  Not  so  in  England,  where 
a  number  of  'Reviews,'  devoted  to 
general  culture,  are  corstantly  applying  the  princi- 
ples of  economic  science  to  questions  of  practical 
utility  as  they  arise  from  time  to  time.  The  Quar- 
terly and  the  Edinburgh  Review,  traditionally  iden- 
tified with  the  Tories  and  Whigs  respectively  ;  the 
Westminster  Review,  anciently  the  organ  of  radi- 
calism ;  the  Fortnightly,  the  Contemporary,  the  Na- 
tional Review,  and  the  Nineteenth  Century,  repre- 
senting either  liberalism  or  a  strict  and  impartial 
•neutrality— all  these  periodicals,  as  well  as  many 
minor  ones  of  great  merit,  are  well  supported  and 
widely  read.  Specialists  have  very  few  organs,  but 
the  Economist,  a  weekly  journal  founded  in  1843,  and 
devoted  to  economics  and  politics,  still  maintains  its 
ancient  prestige,  and  goes  on  with  its  discussions 
about  commerce,  banking,  and  money,  and  there  is 
also  the  old-established  quarterly  Journal  of  the 
Statistical  Society,  which  celebrated  the  fiftieth  anni- 
versary of  its  foundation  in  1885." 

To  these  he  adds  The  Economic  Review  (1891);  The 
Economic  Journal  (edited  by  Edgeworth,  1891);  R.  H. 
Inglis  Palgrave,  Dictionary  of  Political  Economy 
(1891  ff.). 

The  best  history  of  purely  English  political  economy 
is  L.  L.  Price's  A  Short  History  of  Political  Economy  in 
England,  from  Adam  Smith  to  A.  Toynbee  (London, 
1891). 

I.    FRANCE. 

French  political  economy,  after  the  school 
of  the  Physiocrats  had  lost  ground,  became 
dominated  by  the  school  of  Adam  Smith.  In 
many  respects  it  even  out-orthodoxed  the 
English  school  itself.  Say,  Rossi,  Bastiat, 


Say. 


Michel  Chevalier,  Gamier,  Cherbuliez,  Leon 
Say,,  Courcelle-Seneuil,  Block  represent  an 
undeviating  following  and  a  popular  develop- 
ment of  the  school  of  natural  liberty  that 
cannot  be  matched  in  any  other  country,  cer- 
tainly not  in  England.  Mill  early  turned  the 
English  channel  into  more  independent  lines. 

The  first  important  name  is  that  of  Jean  Baptiste 
Say  (1767-1832).  Born  at  Lyons,  he  was  successively 
a  clerk,  a  journalist,  an  active  politician,  and  a  pro- 
fessor of  political  economy  at  the  Paris  Conservatoire. 

Cossa  says  of  him  :  "  Though  not  a  few  still  choose 
to  deny  it,  he  certainly  was  an  able  successor  of  the 
great  Scotch  master,  whose  views  he  expanded  and  did 
much  to  complete.  From  the  moment  he  produced  his 
Traiti  (1803),  which  he  corrected  and  summarized  in 
his  Catechisme  (1817),  and  enriched  with  a  whole  chap- 
ter of  new  considerations  on  private  industries  in  his 
Co urs  Complet  (1828),— this  last  being  in  substance  the 
lectures  given  by  him  at  the  Conservatoire,— Say  gave 
signal  proofs  of  his  preeminent  aptitude  for  present- 
ing correctly,  clearly,  and  in  shapely  form  the  whole 
body  of  doctrine  embraced  by  econom- 
ics strictly  so  called.  His  definitions 
are  sound,  and  he  points  them  with 
suitably  chosen  practical  instances, 
grouping  them  by  means  of  his  famous 
triple  subdivision  of  the  subject-matter 
involved,  and  adapting  them  to  the  understanding 
of  average  minds  incapable  of  coping  with  Adam 
Smith's  long  digressions,  or  of  appreciating  his  his- 
torical learning  and  his  lofty  point  of  view.  .  .  .  Our 
author's  limitations  grow  out  of  a  weak  desire  that 
tormented  him  to  be  ranked  first  among  living  econo- 
mists, and  a  deficient  education  in  history  and  law, 
which  exposed  him  to  dangerous  pitfalls  and  misled 
him  into  erroneous  views  touching  State  interference. 
This  he  undertakes  to  restrict  far  more  than  Adam 
Smith  when  he  discusses  the  unproductiveness  of 
public  expenditures  and  free  coinage.  These  char- 
acteristic shortcomings  had  further  the  negative  ef- 
fect of  preventing  him  from  making  due  allowance 
for  the  progress  that  had  been  made,  especially  in 
England,  and  through  Ricardo's  able  work." 

Of  the  same  period  and  school  as  Say  are  several 
minor  names  Cossa  mentions.  Isnard"s  Traite  des 
Richesses  (1781) ;  Canard's  Principes  d'Economie  Poli- 
tique  (1802) ;  Sismondi's  De  la  Richesse  Commercial^ 
(1803).  Count  Destutt  de  Tracy's  Traite  d'Economie 
Politique  (1815),  and  Joseph  Droz's  Economie  Poh- 
tique  (182?) ;  and  more  important  still  Heinrich  Storch's 
Cours  d' Economie  Politique  (1815),  written  in  St.  Peters- 
burg for  his  pupils,  the  Grand  Dukes  Nicholas 
and  Michael  of  Russia;  his  Considerations  sur  la 
Nature  de  Revenue  National  (1824)  ;  and  Charles 
Comte's  Propriety  (1834),  and  Traite  de  Legislation 

We  come  to  a  greater  name  in  that  of  Pelligrino 


dered  off  on  a  diplomatic  career.  His  successor  was 
Michel  Chevalier  (1806-79).  Once  of  Saint  Simon  s 
school  and  editor  of  the  Globe,  he  was  as  skilful  an 
economist,  as  expert  as  an  engineer.  He  devoted 
himself  to  applied  economics,  particularly  as  to 
money.  He  is  specially  known  to  English  readers 
for  La  Baisse  d'Or  (1858),  translated  by  Cobden.  An 
ardent  free-trader,  he  was  associated  with  Cobden  in 
negotiating  the  treaty  of  1860.  In  1848  he  attacked 
socialism  in  his  Lettres  sur  r Organisation  du  Tra- 
vail. Against  his  brother-in-law  Louis  Wolowski 
(1810-76),  he  defended  the  single  gold  standard  in  La 


Paris  (1867).  Of  the  same  school  is  Joseph  Gamier 
(1813-81),  whose  Elements  of  Political  Economy  ap- 
peared in  1845. 


nomie  Politique :  he  also  produced  numerous  books, 
duly  enumerated  by  Lippert.  His  Elements  passed 
through  various  vicissitudes  in  successive  editions, 
and  emerged  with  a  new  title  as  a  Traite.  He  gradu- 
ally added  complementary  volumes  on  finance  and 
on  population,  and  these  formed  a  valuable,  if  not  a 
profound,  series  of  books  for  the  advancement  of  eco- 
nomic study.  Of  the  same  character  and  general  call- 


Political  Economy. 


1036 


Political  Economy. 


Courcelle- 
Seneuil. 


ber  is  the  Dictionnaire  d' Econpmie  Politique  (1851  ff.,  2 
vols.),  published  by  Guillaumin  and  edited  by  Charles 
Coquelin,  who  died  upon  its  completion,  but  n°t 
without  publishing  a  lively  pamphlet,  all  his  own,  Du 
Credit  des  Banques  (1848  ;  third  edition,  1875).  Coque- 
lin's  Dictionary  enlisted  the  collaboration  of  a  num- 
ber of  competent  experts,  and  was  for  very  many 
years  the  model  encyclopedia  of  economic  science." 

Among  the  more  prominent  of  the  recent  French 
writers  of  the  classical  school  is  Antoine  Elisee  Cher- 
buliez  (1797-1869).  Born  in  Geneva,  he  was  there  pro- 
fessor of  law  (1833),  of  political  economy  (1835),  and  then 
till  1848  on  the  Grand  Conseil.  Then  going  to  France, 
he  soon  returned  after  the  coup  d'etat  and  was  in- 
structor at  Lausanne  till,  late  in  life,  made  professor 
in  the  Zurich  Polytechnicum.  His  main  writings  are 
on  political  science  and  finance. 

Better  known,  tho  perhaps  not  more  deserving,  is 
Jean  Gustave  Cpurcelle-Seneuil  (1813-92),  merchant, 
journalist,  and  a  professor  of  political  economy  at 
Santiago  in  Chile  from  1854  to  1863.  Cossa  says  of 
him  :  "He  was  made  a  conseiller  d^etat  in  1879,  and 
those  of  his  writings  which  embrace  philosophy,  law, 
politics,  and  technical  bookkeeping  are  or  uneven 
merit,  but  his  real  strength  appears  in 
industrial  and  political  economy,  more 
especially  in  what  he  has  to  say  on 
banking  and  on  socialism.  He  was  as- 
sociated with  Dussard  in  translating 
Mill's  Principles,  and  published  a  trea- 
tise of  his  own  largely  in  Mill's  vein. 
This  work  deserves  a  large  measure  of  commenda- 
cion  ;  its  method  is  sound,  the  line  between  science 
and  art  is  clearly  and  correctly  drawn,  the  parallel 
between  the  competitive  and  the  authoritative  princi- 
ples, as  worked  out  in  two  schemes  of  economics,  is 
accurately  stated,  it  contains  an  instructive  presenta- 
tion of  the  positions  relatively  occupied,  on  the  one 
hand  by  law  and  on  the  other  by  economic  phenom- 
ena ;  and,  finally,  there  are  to  be  found  in  it  consid- 
erations touching  emigration  and  colonies  based  upon 
an  almost  unique  Spanish- American  experience." 

Maurice  Block,  born  in  1816,  is  the  last  name  we  notice 
of  the  strict  classical  school.  Of  German  parentage,  he 
is  best  known  for  his  statistical  works.  He  edited  the 
Dictionnaire  General  de  la  Politique  (1862  ff.)  and  the 
Dictionnaire  de  I' Administration  Franfaise  (1855  f.). 
His  Cpmpte  Rendu  of  economic  literature,  which  he 
has  written  in  the  Journal  des  Economistes  for  over  40 
years,  has  become  famous.  His  main  theoretical 
works  are :  Le  Progres  de  la  Science  Economique 
depuis  Adam  Smith  (1890),  in  which  he  criticizes  the 
historical  and  praises  the  Austrian  school,  and  his 
Les  Thioriciens  du  Socialisme  en  Almagne  (1873),  La 
Socialisme  Moderne  (1891),  and  Le  Quintessence  du 
Socialisme  de  la  Chaire  (1894),  books  against  socialism, 
which  Professor  Ely  calls  "  strong,  but  not  altogether 
fair." 

All  of  the  above  writers  are  of  the  strict  classical 

school.    We  now  come  to  a  few  who  are  of  this  school, 

but  of  some  independence.    Strongly  individualistic, 

they  would  leave  socialistic  reform  alone  rather  than 

oppose  it.     Cossa  calls  them   "the   optimists."    The 

first  of  these  was  Charles  Dunoyer  (1786-1862),  a  daring 

journalist  during  the  period  of  the  Restoration  ;  under 

Louis    Philippe    named    prifet  and  conseiller  d'etat. 

Ingram  says  of  him :  "  In  no  French  economic  writer 

is  greater  force  or  general  solidity  of  thought  to  be 

found  than  in  Charles  Dunoyer  (1786-1862),  author  of 

La  Liber  te  du  Travail  (1845  ;  the  substance  of  the  first 

volume  had  appeared  under  a  different  title  in  1825), 

honorably  known  for  his  integrity  and 

independence  under  the  regime  of  the 

Tl          PT       Restoration.      What     makes     him     of 

uunoyer,      Specjaj  importance  in  the  history  of  the 

science  is  his  view  of  its  philosophical 

constitution  and  method.    With  respect 

to  method,  he  strikes  the  keynote  at  the  very  outset 

in  the  words  recliercher  experimentalement,  and  in 

Professing  to  build  on  les  donnees  de  I' observation  etde 
experience.  He  shows  a  marked  tendency  to  widen 
economics  into  a  general  science  of  society  ;  expressly 
describing  political  economy  as  having  for  its  province 
the  whole  order  of  things  which  results  from  the  exer- 
cise and  development  of  social  forces." 

Far  better  known,  however,  and  more  popular  and 
brilliant,  if  not  abler  than  Dunoyer,  is  Frederic  Bas- 
tiat (1801-50).  He  lived  the  most  of  his  life  in  quiet 
possession  of  lands  at  Mugron,  beginning  his  scien- 
tific career  in  1844  and  dying  in  Rome  in  1850,  it  is  said, 
of  overwork. 

Cossa  says  of  him:  "Bastiat  was  a  sincere  philan- 
thropist, an  eminent  dialectician,  and  a  formidable 


champion  of  economic  freedom,  which  he  defended, 
to  begin  with  against  protectionist  assaults,  and  after 
1848  against  the  socialists.  His  part  in  these  contro- 
versies is  represented  by  many  works,  among  which 
may  be  named  Capital  et  Rente  (1849)  and  Gratuite 
du  Credit  (1850),  written  against  both  Proudhon  and 
Creve,  who,  clamored  for  gratuitous  credit.  His 
Sophismes  Economiques  (1845  ff-)  are  masterly  exam- 
ples of  good  sense  and  logic.  He  applied  a  reductio 
ad  absurdum  to  the  great  arguments  of  the  protec- 
tionists— his  famous  defense  of  the  petition  of  candle- 
makers  is  a  good  instance  of  his  method — by  showing 
how  closely  their  ideas,  which  insist  upon  spoliation 
to  benefit  the  rich,  coincide  with  socialistic  schemes 
of  spoliation  for  the  benefit  of  the  poor,  Protectio- 
nisme  et  Communisme  (1849).  Little,  if  anv,  fault  could 
indeed  be  found  with  his  views,  if  they  did  not  imply 
a  return  to  the  physiocratic  doctrine  of  an  inalienable 
and  absolute  right  to  free  trade,  and  also  to  the 
physiocratic  disallowance  of  economic  functions  to 
the  State — to  this  Bastiat  clearly  commits  himself  in 
his  book  to  the  State  (1849)— and  if.  further,  he  did  not 
ignore  entirely  the  plea  for  protection  made  on  behalf 
of  infant  industries.  His  zeal  for  free  trade  led  our 
author  to  translate  Cobden's  leading  speeches  along 
with  those  of  Bright,  Fox,  and  other  leaders  of  the 
Manchester  Anti-Corn  Law  League,  prefixing  a  mas- 
terly preface  of  his  own  to  the  whole  collection,  Cob- 
den  ef  la  Ltgue,  I'  Agitation  Anglaise  pour  la  Liber  te 
des  Echanges  184  j." 

Ingram  calls  him  a  brilliant  bijt  not  a  profound 
writer,  and  says  of  his  Harmonies  Economiques  (trans- 
lated into  English  by  P.  J.  Sterling  (1860):  "It  will 
always  be  historically  interesting  as  the  last  incar- 
nation of  thorough-going  economic  optimism.  This 
optimism,  recurring  to  its  first  origin,  sets  out  from 
theological  considerations,  and  Bastiat  is  commended 
by  his  English  translator  for  treating  political  econ- 
omy 'in  connection  with  final  causes.'  The  spirit  of 
the  work  is  to  represent  '  all  principles,  all  motives, 
all  springs  of  action,  all  interests,  as  cooperating 
toward  a  grand  final  result  which  humanity  will 
never  reach,  but  to  which  it  will  always  increasingly 
tend,  namely,  the  indefinite  approximation  of  all 
classes  toward  a  level,  which  steadily  rises— in  other 
words,  the  equalization  of  individuals  in  the  general 
amelioration.  .  .  . 

"  His  constant  aim  is,  as  he  himself  expressed  it,  ta 
'break  the  weapons 'of  antisocial  reasoners  'in  their 
hands,'  and  this  preoccupation  interferes  with  the 
single-minded  effort  toward  the  attainment  of  scien- 
tific truth.  The  creation  or  adoption  of  his  theory  of 
value  was  inspired  by  the  wish  to  meet  the  socialistic 
criticism  of  property  in  land ;  for  the  exigencies, 
of  this  controversy  it  was  desirable  to  be  able  to 
show  that  nothing  is  ever  paid  for  except  personal 
effort.  His  view  of  rent  was,  therefore,  so  to  speak, 
foreordained,  tho  it  may  have  been  suggested,  as 
indeed  the  editor  of  his  posthumous  fragments  ad- 
mits, by  the  writings  of  Carey.  He  held,  with  the 
American  writer,  that  rent  is  purely  the  reward  of 
the  pains  and  expenditure  of  the  landlord  or  his  pred- 
ecessors in  the  process  of  converting  the  natural  soil 
into  a  farm  by  clearing,  draining,  fencing,  and  the 
other  species  of  permanent  improvements.  He  thus 
gets  rid  of  the  (so-called)  Ricardian  doctrine,  which 
was  accepted  by  the  socialists,  and  by  them  used  for 
the  purpose  of  assailing  the  institution  of  landed 
property,  or,  at  least,  of  supporting  a  claim  of  com- 
pensation to  the  community  for  the  appropriation  of 
the  land  by  the  concession  of  the  '  right  to  labor.'  " 

Bastiat  exerted  a  widespread  influence  in  France. 
Cossa  mentions,  among  those  most  influenced  by  him, 
Martinelli,  with  his  Harmonies  et  Perturbations  So- 
ciales  (1853);  Benard,  who  wrote  Les  Lois  Economiques 
(1862);  and  of  living  economists,  Fontenay,  Du  Revenu 
Fancier  (1854),  who  also  in  later  works  has  shown 
great  vigor  in  argument,  and,  finally,  Frederic  Passy, 
the  subtle  and  fascinating  pleader  for  universal  peace. 
See  among  other  works,  his  Lemons  d'Economie  Poli- 
tique (1861,  2  vols.),  and  his  Melanges  Economiques. 

Of  much  more  independence  and  importance,  altho 
of  the  same  school,  is  Gustave  de  Molinari,  born  at 
Liege  in  1819;  editor  of  the  Economiste  Beige  from  1855 
to  1868,  and  since  1882  the  Journal  des  Economistes. 
Cossa  says  of  him  :  "Individualism  has  no  more  un- 
compromising defender  than  this  multifarious  writer, 
whose  keen  insight  often  deviates  into  whimsical 
extravagance,  but  never  into  dulness.  Special  ques- 
tions, such  as  those  of  ownership,  slavery,  the  corn 
trade,  money,  credit,  and  weights  and  measures,  have 
engrossed  him  much ;  he  has  also  taken  up  more 
general  aspects  of  the  whole  complex  mass  of  eco- 


Political  Economy. 


1037 


Political  Economy. 


nomic  facts,  but  whatever  his  theme  may  be,  he 
always  returns  to  the  notion  of  the  non-competence 
of  the  State,  which  he  maintains  by  arguments  con- 
sidered extravagant  even  by  those  who,  like  Foville, 
are  most  sure  to  judge  him  leniently." 

Another  prominent  French  defender  of  individual- 
ism is  Paul  Leroy  Beaulieu.  An  expert  in  statistics, 
he  attracted  attention  first  by  a  series  of  monographs 
on  the  moral  and  intellectual  condition  of  laborers, 
on  working  women  (1873),  and  on  colonial  systems 
{1874),  all  of  which  were  crowned  by  the  Academy  of 
Moral  and  Political  Sciences. 

Cossa  says  of  his  views  on  State  interference  : 

"  He  overstates  the  danger,  but  it  is  well  to  have  it 
.so,  if  only  as  an  antidote  to  the  equal  extravagances  of 
State  socialism." 

Two  other  moderns  of  this  school  must  be  mentioned  : 
Henri  Baudrillart,  born  in  1821.  He  was  Chevalier's 
assistant  professor  in  economics,  and  Levasseur'spred- 
ecessor  in  the  chair  of  economic  history  at  the  College 
de  France,  and  his  special  subject  of  study  was  the  re- 
lation between  economic  facts  and  moral  laws.  His 
more  important  works  are  Manuel  d'  Economic  Poli- 
tique  (1857),  Histoire  du  Luxe  Prive  et  Public  (1878-80), 
Les  Populations  Agricoles  de  la  France  (1880  ff .). 

Emile  Leyasseur  (1828)  has  written  what  Cossa  con- 
siders meritorious  works  on  economic  history,  and 
"the  best  book  on  the  population  of  the  country." 

We  now  come  to  the  French  writers  of  the  century 
who  have  more  or  less  opposed  the  classical  school. 
Augustin  Cournot  (1801-77),  who  was  the  very  first  to 
use  the  mathematical  method  in  any  competent  fash- 
ion, in  his  Recherches  stir  les  Principes  Mathematiques 
de  la  Theorie  des  Richesses  (1838).  He  abandoned,  how- 
ever, the  mathematical  method  in  his  Principes  de 
la  Theorie  des  Richesses  (1863) ;  a  work  which  Ingram 
says  "is  written  with  great  ability  and  contains  much 
forcible  reasoning  in  opposition  to  the  exaggerations 
of  economic  optimists. 

Much  better  known  is  Jean  Charles  Leonard  Simonde 
de  Sismondi,  born  at  Geneva  in  1773,  dying  there  in 
1842.  Cossa  says  of  him  :  "  Eminent  in  history  and 
literature,  he  also  was  an  expert  in  the  science  of  agri- 
culture, but  maintained  the  conventional  view  on  this 
subject  in  his  first  agricultural  works,  Tableau  de 
I' Agriculture  Toscane  (1801),  and  Dela  Richesse  Com- 
merciale  (1803).  Later  on  he,  changed  completely,  and 
his  Nouveaux  Principes d 'Economic  Politiciue^  ou  de  la 
Richesse  dans  ses  Rapports  avec  la  Population  (1819), 
begins  a  consistent  and  severe  attack  upon  views  to 
which  in  his  first  works  he  was  committed.  He  pub- 
lished quite  in  the  same  strain  his  Etudes sur  I' Eco- 
nomic Politique  at  Paris  in  1837  and  1838, 
and  these  two  volumes  discuss,  from  the 
SiumnnrH  new  point  of  view,  agriculture,  slavery, 
Sismoncu.  manufactures,  money,  credit,  colonies, 
and  the  balance  between  production 
and  consumption.  He  attacks  Adam 
Smith,  Say,  and  Ricardo  on  many  points ;  stigmatizing 
the  science  of  their  predilection  as  "  chrematistics, 
because  its  chief  concern  is  wealth,  and  it  does  not 
sufficiently  make  provision  for  man  as  the  producer. 
Political  economy,  the  real  science  which  he  opposed 
to  theirs,  must  study  the  effect  of  production  on  the 
material  comfort  of  the  people,  and  this  calls  for  the 
special  attention  of  the  State.  Alarmed  as  he  was  by 
the  rapid  succession  of  crises  in  commerce,  he  pro- 
ceeded to  connect  these  with  excessive  production, 
and  this  resulted,  according  to  his  argument,  partly 
from  the  division  of  labor,  which  in  turn  was  the  out- 
come of  the  introduction  of  machinery,  and  the  organi- 
zation of  enterprise  on  a  large  scale  ;  but  the  final  root 
of  the  evil  he  discovered  in  competition,  which  had 
been  allowed  to  run  riot,  with  the  result  that  rich  men 
were  always  growing  richer,  and  poor  men  poorer. 
On  the  strength  of  this  argument  Sismondi  proclaimed 
the  instant  and  imperative  necessity  of  a  return  to 
small  agricultural  holdings  and  farming  on  a  small 
scale,  as  well  as  of  a  revival  of  petty  industries.  Fur- 
thermore, he  maintains  stoutly  that  the  employer  must 
guarantee  a  livelihood  to  the  workman,  who  is  also 
entitled  to  have  recourse  to  the  State."  Sismondi  is 
thus  an  inconsistent  socialist.  He  would  not  change 
the  present  system  of  distribution,  to  do  which  he 
thinks  would  be  mischievous  ;  he  sharplj'  criticizes 
modern  industrialism,  although  unable,  as  he  admits, 
to  suggest  a  better  system.  Hence  people  have  made 
out  of  his  writings  what  they  would.  Theodor  Fix, 
who  founded  the  Revue  Mensuelled  'Economic  Politique 
(Paris, ,  1833-36),  and  wrote  in  1846  his  Observations 
sur  I  Etat  des  Classes  Ouvrieres  ;  S.  R.  Villerme,  with 
his  Tableau  de  I  'Etat  Physique  et  Moral  des  Ouvriers 
(1840),  and  LeonFoucher  with  his  Etudes  sur  I' Angle- 


terre  (1845)  Cossa  considers  to  have  been  under  Sis- 
mondi's  influence  at  his  best,  while  Eugene  Buret's 
La  Misere  des  Classes  Laborieuses  en  Angleterre  et  en 
France  (1842) ;  Villiaume's  Nouveau  Traite  d'Economie 
Politique  (1857),  and  Auguste  Ott's  L' Economic  Poli- 
tique Coordonnee  au  Point  de  Vue  du  Progrts  (1891), 
represent  Sismondi's  leis  desirable  influence. 

This  is  not  the  place  to  consider  the  French  socialists 
and  social  philosophers  (see  articles  SOCIALISM  ; 
FOURIER;  ST.  SIMON;  LAMENNAIS;  CABET  ;  PROUD- 
HON  ;  Louis  BLANC  ;  COMTE,  etc.),  but  the  school  of 
Le  Play  must  be  considered  on  account  of  its  influence 
on  French  economic  studies.  F.  Le  Play  (1806-72), 
deeply  interested  in  social  reform,  became  convinced 
that  there  were  no  economic  principles  satisfactorily 
established  in  France,  because  no  one  had  sufficiently 
cpllected  facts.  Without  adhering  therefore  to 
either  socialistic  or  individualistic  views,  he  devoted 
his  life  to  the  careful  investigation  of  facts,  and  the 
setting  of  other  people  to  collect  facts.  A  promi- 
nent part  in  this  work  was  taken  by  the  two  reviews 
he  established,  La  Rtforme  Sociale  (1881  ff.)  and  La 
Science  Sociale  (1886;.  He  also  established  the  Sociitt 
d'Economie  Sociale^  and  a  whole  movement  has  devel- 
oped from  it.  He  strongly  emphasizes  the  integrity 
of  the  family,  and  opposes  the  equal  distribution  of 
land  among  coheirs  as  tending  to  disintegration.  This 
is  the  theoretical  magnum  opus  of  the 
school,  and  has  been  summarized  in  a 
volume  entitled  L' Organisation  du  Le  Plav 
Travail,  1870.  Among  Le  Play's  chief  *' 

followers  Cossa  mentions  Delaire,  Fau- 
cillon,,Ribbe,  Guerin,  and  last  but  not 
least  Emile  Cheysson,  a  professor    at   the   Ecole  des 
Mines  scad,  at  the  Ecole  des  Sciences  Politiques,  the  or- 
ganizer of  the  section  of  social  economics  at  the  Inter- 
national Exhibition  in  1889,  and  the  writer  of  many 
monographs,  both  statistical  and  economic. 

Le  Play  was  a  Catholic,  but  made  only  final  appeal 
to  the  Gospel  and  the  Decalogue  so  as  to  try  and 
reach  Christians  of  all  churches.  His  ideas,  however, 
have  been  taken  up  by  a  strong  Catholic  movement. 
Cossa  says  • 

"This  school  is  at  home  chiefly  in  Belgium,  and 
more  especially  at  the  Louvain  University,  which  is 
backed  by  the  clergy,  who  use  it  against  the  free 
university  at  Brussels  and  the  governmental  ones  of 
Liege  and  Ghent.  It  has  now  representatives  also  in 
the  free  law  faculties  of  Paris,  Lyons,  Lille,  and 
Angers." 

A  Frenchman,  Charles  Perin,  has  borne  the  brunt 
of  battle  for  these  views  in  his  De  la  Richesse  dans  les 
Societes  Chretiennes,  Les  Lois  de  la  Societjl  Chretienne 
(1875),  Le  Socialisme,  Chretien  (1878),  L 'Economic  Po- 
lifique  d'Apres  I'Encyclique  (1891),  Les  Doctrines 
Economiques  Depuis  un  Siecle  (1880). 

Victor  Brants  is  the  successor  of  Perin  in  his  pro- 
fessorship, possessing,  Cossa  says,  "  equal  native 
gifts,  but  a  far  superior  acquaintance  with  historical 
facts,  and  a  much  more  definite  familiarity  with  the 
technical  points  involved  in  various  theories."  He 
began  with  a  learned  Essai  Historique  sur  la  Condi- 
tion des  Classes  Rurales  en  Belgique  (Louvain,  1880), 
and  this  is  connected  with  a  very  valuable  investiga- 
tion by  Vanderkindere.  When  raised  to  his  professor- 
ship. Brants  summed  up  in  three  volumes  all  the 
doctrines  of  the  Catholic  schopl  in  economics.  These 
are:  Lois  et  Mfthodes  de  I' Economic  Politique  (Lou- 
vain, 1883  ;  second  edition,  1887),  La  Lutte  pour  le  Pain 
Ouotidien  (1885),  La  Circulation  des  Hommes  et  des 
Chases  (1886). 

Paul  Jannet,  a  retired  magistrate  and  now  professor 
at  the  Institut  Catholique  in  Paris,  is  of  the  same 
school  of  thought.  His  Les  Etats-Unis  Contem- 
porains  (fourth  edition,  1889  ;  2  vols.),  Cossa  call  indis- 
pensable to  understanding  the  prese.nt  condition  of  the 
United  States.  His  Socialisme  d'Etat  et  la  Reforme 
Sociale  U8go)  is  directed  against  State  socialism. 

Of  the  other  group  of  French  Catholic  Christian 
Socialists,  led  by  the  fiery  orator,  le  Comte  de  Mun, 
we  do  not  here  speak,  since  it  is  political  rather  than 
economic. 

Protestant  Christian  Socialism,  in  France,  however, 
has  an  active  society  for  economic  studies,  and  has  as 
an  active  worker  in  it  one  economist,  Charles  Gide 
(brother  of  the  late  Paul  Gide),  whom 
Cossa  calls  "  unquestionably  the  most 
promising  economist    of   his    years  in          Gide 
France."    Cossa  goes  on  to  say:   "He          "lu 
goes  against  optimism,   is  in  favor  of 
freedom,  though  no  blind    devotee  of 
competition.     Let  him  but  measure  a  little  the  expres- 
sions which  he  uses  about  land  tenure;  let  him  but 


Political  Economy. 


1038 


Political  Economy. 


bring  back  to  earth  certain  winged  words  of  prediction 
touching  the  future  of  distributive  cooperation,  which 
is  to  usher  in  cooperative  production,  and  then  he  will 
find  himself  far  nearer  the  company  of  the  classical 
school  than  he  would  readily  believe,  if  some  rather 
ill-defined  censures  of  his  upon  that  school  are  to  be 
insisted  upon.  Reasons  enough  for  saying  this  can 
be  found  in  his  text-book  of  political  economy,  which, 
in  the  present  writer's  opinion,  is  the  very  best  now 
published  in  French,  just  as  Cherbuliez'  book  is  the 
best  treatise.  ..." 

Gide's  main  works  are  :  Principes  d' Economic  Po- 
litique (Paris,  1884 ;  third  edition,  1891.  Translated 
into  English,  1891),  L'Ecole  Nouvelle  (Geneva,  1890), 
and  his  contributions  to  the  Revue  d 'Economic  Poli- 
tique  (Paris,  from  1887  on). 

Concerning  writers  in  special  departments,  Cossa 
says:  "Adolphe  Quetelet  (1798-1874)  created  the 
modern  study  of  statistics.  Guerry  was  past  master 
in  dealing  with  ethical  statistics,  where  Y vernes  has 
also  shown  consummate  ability  ;  Bertillon  gave  his 
splendid  powers  to  demography,  which  Levasseur  has 
chosen  for  his  special  subject ;  Moreau  de  Jonnes, 
Legoyt  in  the  past,  and  now  Alfred  de  Foville,  not  to 
mention  again  the  eminence  of  Block,  have  also  dis- 
tinguished themselves  in  economics.  Foville's  brill- 
iant articles  on  prices  are  well  known,  and  so  are  his 
two  admirable  monographs,  one  on  transportation, — 
Les  Transformations  des  Moyens  de  Transport  (1880), 
— and  the  other  on  the  extreme  subdivision  of  land 
holdings—Le  Morcellement  (1885).  This  last  should 
be  read  in  connection  with  A.  Legoyt's  book  (1886). 
Then  there  is  Franqueville's  Du  Regime  des  Travaux 
Publics  (second  edition,  1876 ;  4  vols.);  1'Audiganne's 
Les  Chemins  de  Per  (1858-63  ;  2  vols.);  Picard's  Traites 
des  Chemins  de  Per  (1887  ;  4  vols.);  all  of  which  seek  to 
throw  light  upon  the  history  as  well  as  the  technical 
management  of  public  works,  and  more  especially  of 
railways. 

"Upon  agricultural  economics  there  are  many  writ- 
ers besides  Baudrillart,  who  died  in  1892.  There  was 
Hippolyte  Passy  (1793-1880),  whose  book,  Systemes  de 
Culture  (second  edition,  1852),  has  yet  to  be  equaled. 
There  was  Leonce  de  Lavergne  (1869-80),  whom  Clift'e 
Leslie  praised  so  warmly  and  so  justly  in  the  Fort- 
nightly Review  of  February,  1881,  and  to  whom  we 
owe  various  learned  and  most  readable  monographs  : 
Essai  sur  I  Economie  Rurale  de  /' 'Angleterre,  de 
I  Ecosseet  del'lrlande(i?>54);  L' Agriculture  et  la  Popu- 
lation (1857;  new  edition,  1865);  Economie  Rurale  de  la 
France  (1860;  third  edition,  1866).  Finally,  there  are 
the  Belgian  Piret,  whose  work,  tho  ill-planned  and 
proportioned,  has  great  weight — Traite  d1  Economie 
Rurale  (1889  ff.);  M.  le  Comte  de  Tourdonnet,  with  his 
Traite  Pratique  du  Mttayage  (1882),  and  Rerolle,  who 
wrote  Du  Colonage  Partiaire  (1888) — all  of  whom 
have  deeply  studied  the  metayer  system ;  and  there 
are  many  writers,  too,  who  have  written  on  credit 
as  applied  to  farming  and  land  holding,  as  well  as 
Cazeneuve  (1889),  who  devoted  his  attention  to  profit- 
sharing  in  rural  enterprises. 

"On  manufactures,  praiseworthy  work  \vasdone  by 
Leon  Faucher,  Ducpetiaux  of  Belgium,, and  Charles 
Labqulaye,  a  brother  of  the  famous  Edouard ;  on 
credit  and  banking  there  have  also  been  excellent 
works  by  Wolowski,  Horn,  Juglar,  and  Courtois,  fils." 
Cossa  mentions  Ame's  free-trade  Etude  sur  les  Tarifs 
des  Douanes  (1870);  Naville's  (1784-1830)  La  Chants' 
Legale,  ses  Causes  and  ses  Effets.  Among  works  on 
finance  he  selects,  besides  Leroy  Beaulieu's  Traiti 
and  Leon  Say's  Dictionnaire,  Parieu's  Traite  des 
Impots  (1862-64). 

Political  economy,  as  a  pure  science,  Cossa  believes 
to  have  been  on  the  whole  little  developed  in  France, 
a  fact  which  he  considers  due  to  three  causes.  "To 
begin  with,"  he  says,  "instruction  in  economics  has 
been  difficult  to  obtain  in  France  ;  only  here  and  there 
were  there  special  schools,  like  the  Conservatoire  des 
Arts  et  Metiers,  the  Ecole  des  Fonts  et  Chaussees,,  and 
lately  the  new  foundation  of  the  Ecole 
des  hautes.  Etudes  Commerciales  and 
that  of  the  Ecole  Libre  des  Sciences  Poli- 
tiques  have  made  a  special  point  of 
teaching  political  economy.  In  the  Col- 
lege de  France,  where  no  academic  de- 
grees are  conferred,  and  where  there  are 
no  regular  hearers,  our  science  has  been  pursued  among 
other  works  of  supererogation  ;  but,  nevertheless,  just 
there  men  of  the  greatest  eminence,  such  as  Say,  Rossi, 
Chevalier,  and  Baudrillart  have  taught,  and  there 
Levasseur  and  Leroy-Beaulieu  may  be  heard  to-day. 
Not  until  after  1878  was  economics  placed  by  the 
faculty  of  law  on  the  list  of  subjects  for  regular  in- 


General 
View. 


struction,  at  first  optional  and  then  obligatory,  here 
as  well  as  in  the  schools  above  alluded  to.  ... 

"Again,  the  progress  and  diffusion  of  economic 
knowledge  in  France  was  most  seriously  interfered 
with  by  constant  onslaughts  made  upon  it  on  behalf 
of  industrial  protectionists,  vigorously  backed  by  the 
mass  of  public  opinion,  by  those  in  the  uppermost 
ranks  of  the  governmental  hierarchy,  by  the  ruling 
majorities  of  deliberative  assemblies,  and  by  a  swarm 
of  writers,  not  a  few  of  them  men  of  a  vigorous 
mind.  .  .  . 

"  But,  after  all  is  said  and  done,  the  leading  and 
most  real  cause  of  the  decline  of  economic  study  in 
France  is  singled  out  in  words  of  eloquent  regret  in 
Leon  Say's  Le  Socialisme  d'Etat  (1884  ;  see  p.  209) ;  it  is 
the  invasion  of  socialistic  doctrines  which  have  found 
ready  acquiescence  among  the  working  people,  the 
ground  having  been  prepared  by  persistent  usurpa- 
tions on  the  part  of  the  French  bureaucracy.  Nor  is. 
the  case  improved  at  all,  but  rather  it  is  complicated, 
by  the  uncompromising  optimism  of  the  official  school, 
with  its  individualism  that  knows  no  limits ;  the  up- 
shot being  that  erroneous  theories  are  the  only  arm 
available  against  the  •wild  practical  schemes  of  social- 
ism, which  is  thus  practically  left  in  possession  of  the 
public  ear. 


Beauregard's  Monde  Economique  (1891).  It  also  makes 
no  sparing  use  of  the  large  funds  belonging  to  the 
Academic  des  Sciences  Morales  et  Politiques,  shaping 
economic  thought  directly  by  the  subjects  assigned 
for  competitive  prize  essays,  and  indirectly  by  the 
somewhat  one-sided  views  which  govern  final  awards, 
so  that  the  very  solutions  looked  for  in  advance  are 
evoked.  Advantage  is  .also  taken  of  the  monthly 
meeting  of  the  Societe  d'Economie  Politique,  and  of 
the  publications  from  the  press  of  Guillaumin,  which 
makes  a  specialty  of  books  on  economics." 

Thus  rather  mournfully,  even  while  praising  certain 
economists,  Cossa  sums  up  the  general  situation.  As 
we  have  seen,  the  Revue  a* Economie  Politique  repre- 
sents the  progressive  school,  and  La  Reforme  Sociale* 
the  Le  Play  movement. 

J.    GERMANY. 

The  characteristic  development  of  modern 
German  economics  is  the  historical  school, 
but  we  commence  with  a  notice  of  the  Ger- 
man economists  of  the  classical  school,  which 
after  the  disappearance  of  the  mercantilists 
and  physiocrats  (see  sections  D  and  F)  was  for 
a  while  influential  in  Germany. 

The  first  of  these  were  contemporary  with  Adam 
Smith.  The  position  of  that  author  had  profoundly 
influenced  the  statesmen  Stein  and  Hardenberg,  and 
led  to  the  legislation  which  abolished  many  of  the  old 
feudal  restraints  and  gild-monopolies,  etc.  ;  doing  to 
an  extent,  in  a  legal  way,  the  negative  work  accom- 
plished in  France  by  the  Revolution.  In  connection 
with  this  movement  several  names  must  be  mentioned 
in  Germany.  Sartorius,  in  1796,  published  a  Handbuch 
and  Von  den  Elementen  des  Nationalrieciithums 
(1806-08).  Christian  Jakob  Kraus  published  a  Staats- 
wirthschaft  (1808-11),  and  August  Ferdinand  Ltider, 
Ueber  National  Industrie  (1800-04),  and  National- 
okonomie  (1820).  Of  others  of  this  period,  Cossa  says  : 

"  With  a  larger  measure  of  originality,  Count  Julius 
Soden  applied  himself  to  a  more  exact  formulation 
of  the  fundamental  notions  of  our  science  ;  see  his 
Nationalokonomie  (Leipzig,  1805-24,  9  vols.),  a  book 
disfigured  by  the  obscurity  of  a  style  which  is  weari- 
somely prolix,  and  by  the  author's  keen  relish  for 
elaborating  purely  verbal  disputes.  G.  Hufeland,  on 
the  other  hand,  shows  real  insight  in  his  Neuc  Grundle- 
gung  der  Staatswirthschaftsaunst  (Giessen,  1807-13"), 
where  he  gives  a  full  account  of  the  functions  of  the 
entrepreneur,  and  develops  the  conceptions  of  value, 
price,  capital,  and  money.  A  still  greater  master  of 
clearness  than  Hufeland  was  Johann  Friedrich  Euse- 
bius  Lotz,  as  he  showed  not  only  in  his  Revision 
der  Grundbegriffe  der  Nationalwissenschaftslehre 
(Coburg,  1811-14),  but  also  in  an  admirable  Manual, 
where  he  favors  free  trade,  and  in  his  slightly  diffuse 
exposition  of  finance  (Handbuch  der  Staatswirth- 
schaftslehre,  Erlangen,  1821  f.,  3  vols.  ;  second  edition, 
1837  f.).  But  there  was  another  and  shorter  compen- 
dium of  general  principles,  Grundsatze  der  National- 
okonomie (Halle,  1805  ;  third  edition,  1825),  by  Ludwig 


Political  Economy. 


1039 


Political  Economy. 


Heinrich  von  Jakob,  which  was  far  more  widely 
adopted  in  schools.  Its  author  also  translated  Say, 
and  wrote  a  correspondingly  serviceable  manual  of 
finance,  Die  Staatsfinanzwtssenschaft  (Halle,  1821)." 

Coming  to  more  prominent  names,  the  first  is  Karl 
Heinrich   Rau  (1792-1870),  a  professor  at  Erlangen  in 
1818.    He  was  transferred  to  Heidelberg  in  1822,  where 
he  continued  48  years.     His  Lehrbuch  der  Politischen 
Oekonomie  (vol.  i.,  1826)  was  long  the  chief  text-book 
in  Germany,    and  passed    through    many    editions. 
Cohn  says  ''his  Lehrbuch  accomplished  all  that  could 
possibly  be  attained  by  combining  the  cameralistic 
traditions  with  the  system  and  spirit  of  Adam  Smith. 
...   At  the  same  time  the  book,  writ- 
ten, as  was  customary  then,  with  a  view 
to  practical  use  in  the  management  of 
state  affairs  ('with  constant  reference 
Writers,      to  the  existing  public  institutions  '),  ful- 
filled its  purpose  all  the  better  because 
the  author  himself  had  participated  in 
the  public  administration,  and  given  it  the  benefit  of 
his  well-ordered  counsels." 

C.  A.  Malchus  (1770-1846),  at  one  time  minister  of  the 
King  of  Westphalia,  cultivated  finance  and  dealt  with  it 
in  a  Handbuch  des  Finanzwissenschaft  (1830).  Johann 
Gottfried  Hoffman  (1765-1847),  a  professor  and  director 
of  the  Berlin  statistical  office,  wrote  several  books  on 
money,  particularly  Die  Lehre  vom  Gelde  (1838),  and 
Die  Zeichen  der  Zeit  in  Deutschen  Munzwesen  (1841), 
the  first  German  argument  for  a  gold  monometallism. 
Karl  Friedrich  Nebenius,  Cossa  considers  superior  to 
both  Rau  and  Hoffman.  His  career  runs  from  1784  to 
1857.  He  was  prominent  as  a  promoter  of  the  Zoll- 
verein  ;  but  his  books  of  "greatest  value  are  Der 
bffentliche  Credit,  1820 ;  Ueber  die  Herabsetzung  der 
Zinsen  der  bffentlichen  Schulden,  1835. 

Johann  Heinrich,  Graf  von  Thiinen  (1780-1850),  is  a 
writer  whom  it  is  hard  to  place.  Some  have  called 
him  an  individualist,  and  some  a  socialist.  He  arrived 
by  the  deductive  method  at  the  Ricardian  law  of  rent 
and  especially  developed  the  influence  of  situation 
upon  land  rent.  His  Der  isolirte  Staat  is  in  a  still 
broader  vien.  Cohn  says  that  this  book  has  survived 
and  will  long  survive.  Purchasing  in  1810  an  estate  in 
Mecklenburg,  he  made  an  attempt  at  agricultural 
profit  sharing.  Friedrich  Benedikt  Wilhelm  von  Her- 
mann (1795-1868)  is  less  original  but  more  scholarly. 
He  was  first  professor  and  then  director  of  the  Munich 
statistical  office.  His  Staatswirthschaftliche  Unter- 
suchungen  was  published  in  1832. 

Hans    von    Mangoldt    (1824-68)    was    professor    at 
Gottingen,    and   then  at  Frieburg    in    Breisgau.    In 
important  works,  Die  Lehre  vom  Unternehmergewinn 
(1885),    Grundriss    der    Volkswirthschaftslehre  (i86t), 
Volkswirthschaftslehre^    ir  Band    (1868),  he   analyzes 
the  entrepreneur's  profits  as  distinct  from  interest  and 
wages,  and  identifies  land  rents  with  monopoly  profits. 
Lorenz  Stein  (1815-90)  was  a  professor  at  Vienna,  and 
a  thorough  student  of  French  socialism. 
He  is  a  creator  in  the  science  of  adminis- 
_,    .  tration,  and  favored  radical  reforms  in 

otein.  the  teaching  of  law.  He  wrote  a  Lehr- 
buch der  Nationalokonomie  (1858)  and  a 
Lehrbuch  der  Finanzwissenschaft  (1860). 
Of  a  few  other  men  of  this  school  Cossa  says  :  "  There 
is  a  group  of  specialists  who  either  diverged  so  little 
from  the  classical  school,  or  were  so  preoccupied  with 
the  vigorous  prosecution  of  special  investigations,  that 
they  held  aloof  from  the  controversy  which  raged  be- 
tween the  historical  school  and  the  optimists.  These 
distinguished  specialists  are  Baumstark,  Laspeyres, 
and  Helferich,  who  wrote  on  variations  in  the  price  of 
gold  and  silver  from  1492  to  1830  (Nurnberg,  1843) !  E. 
Nasse,  who  produced  admirable  monographs  on 
money,  credit,  and  banks  among  other  topics  ;  and  last, 
but  first  in  the  order  of  merit,  the  eminent  Georg 
Hanssen,  in  whose  debt  we  are  for  a  series  of  invalua- 
ble works  discussing  more  particularly  the  historical 
aspects  of  German  rural  economy." 

We  now  come  to  the  great  school  of  Germany,  the 
historical  school.  The  rudiments  of  this  school  may 
be  found  in  various  writers,  Adam  Miiller,  Alexander 
Hamilton,  Sismondi,  Schfln,  in  his  Neue  Untersuchung 
der  Nationalokonomie  (1835),  Schmitthenner  in  his 
Zivblf  Biicher  von  Staats  (1839),  but  perhaps  particu- 
larly in  Auguste  Comte.  Europe,  after  the  French 
Revolution,  was  in  an  unrest.  Men  were  leaving  the 
old,  but  not  seeing  the  new.  There  was  need,  Ingram 
says,  "of  a  scientific  social  doctrine  which  should 
supply  a  basis  for  the  gradual  convergence  of  opinion 
on  human  questions.  The  foundation  of  such  a  doc- 
trine is  the  immortal  service  for  which  the  world  is 
indebted  to  Auguste  Comte. 


"  The  leading  features  of  sociology,  as  he  conceived 
it,  are  the  following  :  (i)  it  is  essentially  one  science,  in 
which  all  the  elements  of  a  social  state 
are  studied  in  their  relations  and  mutual  m, 

actions  ;  (2)  it  includes  a  dynamical  as  *•     , 

well  as  a  statical  theory  of  society;  (3)    Historical 
it  thus  eliminates  the  absolute,  substi-        School. 
tuting  for  an  imagined  fixity  the  concep- 
tion of  ordered  change  ;  (4)  its  principal 
method,  though  others  are  not  excluded,  is  that  of  his- 
torical comparison  ;  (5)  it  is  pervaded  by  moral  ideas, 
by  notions  of  social  duty,  as  opposed  to  the  individual 
rights  which  were  derived  as  corollaries  from  the  jus 
naturce  ;  and  (6)  in  its  spirit  and  practical  consequences 
it  tends  to  the  realization  of  all  the  great  ends  which 
compose  'the  popular  cause'  ;  yet  (7)  it  aims  at  this 
through    peaceful    means,    replacing    revolution    by 
evolution." 

The  first  Germans,  however,  to  oppose  the  classical 
school  were  Adam  Miiller  (1779-1829)  and  Friedrich 
List  (1789-1846).  Ingram  says  Miiller  was  a  man  of  real 
genius,  and  his  Elemente  der  Staatskunst  an  impor- 
tant book.  List  was  the  initiator  of  the  later  German 
Srotectionism,  and  is  especially  regarded  in  South 
ermany.  He  favored  a  national  rather  than  a  uni- 
versal economic  development,  and  actively  fought  for 
the  development  of  the  Zollverein,  railroads,  and  all 
that  could  aid  German  unity.  His  Das  Nationale 
System  der  Politische  Oekonomie  (1841)  really  marks 
an  epoch  in  the  development  of  German  thought. 

Others  of  the  same  general  transitional  school,  ac- 
cording to  Cohn,  were  Friedrich  Gentz,  a  friend  of 
Adam  Miiller  ;  Karl  Ludwig  von  Haller,  a  patrician  of 
Berne  ;  Alexander  von  der  Warwitz  ;  Theodor  Bern- 
hardi,  "  a  penetrating  critic  "  of  the  classical  theories  ; 
Georg  Hanssen,  a  man,  says  Cohn,  "whose  influence 
began,  beyond  question,  to  make  itself  felt  inthesecond 
third  of  the  century,  while  his  scientific  position  was, 
for  a  long  time  after  that,  a  monumental  example 
for  those  who  would  reform  German  political 
economy  by  means  of  historical  investigation." 

We  now  come  to  the  three  great  leaders  of  the  his- 
torical school,  Roscher,  Knies,  and  Hildebrand.  Of 
the  first  Ingram  says  : 

"  Omitting  preparatory  indications  and  undeveloped 
germs  of  doctrine,  we  must  trace  the  origin  of  the 
school  to  Wilhelm  Roscher.  Its  fundamental  princi- 
ples are  stated,  tho  with  some  hesitation,  and  with  an 
unfortunate  contrast  of  the  historical  with  the  'philo- 
sophical '  method,  in  his  Grundriss  zu  Vorlesungen 
iiber  die  Staatswirthschaft  nach  geschichtlicher  Meth- 
ode  (1843).  The  following  are  the  leading  heads  in- 
sisted on  in  the  preface  to  that  work. 

"  The  historical  'method  exhibits  itself  not  merely 
in  the  external  form  of  a  treatment  of  phenomena 
according   to   their  chronological  suc- 
cession,  but   in    the  following   funda- 
mental ideas  :  i.  The  aim  is  to  represent      •R/jep'hpr 
what  nations  have  thought,  willed,  and      •"•oscner. 
discovered  in  the  economic  field  ;  what 
they  have  striven  after  and  attained, 
and  why  they  have  attained  it.    2.  A  people  is  not 
merely  the  mass  of  individuals  now  living  ;  it  will  not 
suffice   to    observe    contemporary    facts.     3.  All    the 
peoples   of  whom  we    can  learn   anything  must  be 
studied  and  compared  from  the  economic  point  of 
view,  especially  the  ancient  peoples,  whose  develop- 
ment lies  before  us  in  its  totality.    4.  We  must  not 
simply  praise  or  blame  economic  institutions ;    but 
few  of  them  have  been  salutary  or  detrimental  to  all 
peoples  and  at  all  stages  of  culture  ;  rather,  it  is  a 
principal  task  of  science  to  show  how  and  why,  out  of 
what  was  once  reasonable  and  beneficent,  the  unwise 
and  inexpedient  has  often  gradually  arisen." 

Roscher,  in  his  long  life  as  a  teacher  (he  was  born 
1817,  and  professor  at  Gottingen  1843,  and  at  Leipzig 
after  1848),  has  written  numerous  works.  Among  his 
best,  Svstem  der  Volkswirthschaft  ("first  volume,  1854  ; 
fourth  volume,  1885);  Ansichten  der  Volkswirthschaft 
(1861) ;  Ueber  Kortheuering  und  Theuerungspolittk, 
A'alomen,  Kolonialpolitik  und  Ausivanderung  (1856); 
System  der  Finanzwissenschaft  (1886).  Cossa  calls 
him  "  one  of  the  most  illustrious  economists  of  this 
century."  Cohn  considers  him  "of  the  foremost 
rank." 

Karl  Knies,  professor  at  Heidelberg,  was  born  in 
1821.  Altho  his  style  is  poor,  Cossa  calls  his  knowl- 
edge of  economics  and  law  phenomenal.  Ingram  con- 
siders his  Die  Politische  Oekonomie  von  Standpunkte 
der  geschichtlichen  Methode  "  an  elaborate  exposition 
and  defense  of  the  historical  method  in  its  application 
to  economic  science,  and  the  most  systematic  and 
complete  manifesto  of  the  new  school,  at  least  on  the 


Political  Economy. 


1040 


Political  Economy. 


logical."  Cohn  says  of  it :  "  A  generation  has  elapsed, 
in  which  the  reputation  and  influence  of  this  book  has 
steadily  increased.  The  new  and  enlarged  edition 
which  came  out  in  1883  would,  it  is  true,  have  been 
Teceived  with  more  favor  in  scientific  circles  if  the 
material  which  had  been  omitted  from 
the  first  edition  had  now  been  intro- 
duced  ;  or,  on  the  other  hand,  if  the 
Work  had  been  transformed  into  a  true 
method  of  political  economy.  But  be 
that  as  it  may,  Knies'  book,  from  the 
time  of  its  publication  to  the  present  day,  has  been 
better  fitted  than  any  other  to  settle  the  question  of 
•what  is  really  meant  when  one  talks  of  an  historical 
method  of  political  economy." 

Bruno  Hildebrand  (1812-78),  the  third  of  the  trio, 
and  perhaps  second  in  chronological  order,  was  pro- 
fessor at  Jena  in  1863  and  founded  there  the  Ja/ir- 
bilcher  fur  NationaloKonomie  und  Statistik.  In  1873 
he  associated  his  son-in-law,  Professor  Johann  Con- 
rad, with  the  more  and  more  arduous  work  of  editor- 
ship, which  finally  passed  entirely  into  his  hands  in 
1878. 

Ingram  says  of  Hildebrand,  that  he  was  "  a  thinker 
of  a  really  nigh  order  ;  it  may  be  doubted  whether 
.amongst  German  economists  there  has  been  any  en- 
dowed with  a  more  'profound  and  searching  intellect. 
He  is  quite  free  from  the  wordiness  and  obscurity 
which  too  often  characterize  German  writers,  and 
traces  broad  outlines  with  a  sure  and  powerful  hand. 
His  book  contains  a  masterly  criticism  of  the  eco- 
nomic systems  which  preceded  or  belonged  to  his 
time,  including  those  of  Smith,  Mtiller,  List,  and  the 
socialists.  But  it  is  interesting  to  us  at  present 
mainly  from  the  general  position  he  takes  up,  and 
his  conception  of  the  real  nature  of  political  econ- 
omy." 

His  Die  Nationalokonomie  der  Gegenwart  und 
Zukunft,  the  first  volume  of  which  appeared  in  1868 
And  was  never  continued,  was  one  of  the  earliest 
utterances  of  the  historical  school. 

These  three  men,  Roscher,  Knies,  and  Hildebrand, 
.are  usually  considered  the  founders  of  the  historical 
school,  but  Cohn  associates  with  them  Lorenz  Stein, 
whom  we  have  noticed  above.  For  four  decades  he 
stood  a  master  in  the  entire  realm  of  legal  and  politi- 
cal sciences.  His  chief  work  is  his  Verwaltungslehre 
(begun  in  1868).  Cohn  says  of  him  : 

"He  has  combined  the  old  theory  of  political  econ- 
omy with  the  broader  conceptions  of  a  '  science  of 
society';  he  has  elevated  the  cameralistic  science  of 
finance  and  police  to  their  proper  places  in  a  higher 
system  of  knowledge,  by  showing  their  close  connec- 
tion with  law  and  State.  Planned  with  such  bold 
strokes,  his  work  shows  not  so  much  an  elaboration 
of  detail  as  a  laying  out  of  boundaries  and  divisions 
of  the  whole.  It  is  not  so  much  the  completion  of  the 
work  as  the  rich  and  thoughtful  suggestion  which  is 
notable.  It  is  characteristic  of  Stein  that  he  retains 
the  individual  theories  of  political  economy  com- 
paratively unchanged,  and  does  not  follow  the  course 
pointed  out  by  the  historical  school  and  by  Knies  in 
particular ;  other  men,  however,  have  long  since 
made  the  deductions  which  render  these  theories 
plastic." 

"It  was  these  four  men,"  says  Cohn,  "Stein, 
Roscher,  Hildebrand,  and  Knies,  who  in  the  period  of 
1842-53  prepared  ttie  way  for  the  German  political 
economy  of  to-day.  They  are  the  ones  most  worthy 
of  our  attention  in  this  connection." 

But  they  are  not  necessarily  the  greatest  names  of 
the  school,  altho  its  founders.    Cossa  says  that  after 
justifying  the  historical    method    they  neglected  to 
carry  it  out,  but  left  it  to  a  younger  man,  Gustav 
Schmoller,  born  in  1838,  and  now  professor  at  Berlin. 
He  has  written  numerous  works  on  the 
details  of  small  industries,  corporations, 
Schmoller     eP9cns  in  Prussian  finance,  with  other 
•    points  in  the  history  of  German  eco- 
nomics, and  is  now  publishing  valuable 
studies  in  the  theory  of  industrial  en- 
terprise.   Many  of  these  he  published  in  his  Jahrbuch 
fur  Gesetzgebung,  Vervaaltung  und  Volkswirthschaft, 
founded  in  1872  by  Holtzendorf,  and  which  Schmoller 
has  edited  since  1881.    Important,  too,  are  the  Staats- 
•wissenschaftliche   Forschungen,   published   since   1878 
by  Schmoller's  best  pupils.      It  was  Schmoller  who, 
perhaps  more  than  any  other,  was  the  leader  in  the 
interesting  movement  that  became  manifest  in  1872 
and  led  to  the    formation    of   a    society    called   the 
"Verein   fur  Socialpolitik,"  largely    favorable    to  a 
mild  paternal  State  socialism. 

Says  Ingram  of  this  school :  "The  members  of  the 


school  of  which  we  are  now  speaking,  when  inter- 
vening in  the  discussion  of  practical  questions,  have 
occupied  an  intermediate  standpoint. 
They  are  opposed  alike  to  social  revo- 
lution and  to  rigid  laissez-faire.  While  Tfa.thpfl*>r 
rejecting  the  socialistic  program,  they  _n-a;l'"|;uel 
call  for  the  intervention  of  the  State,  in  Socialisten. 
accordance  with  the  theoretic  princi- 
ples already  mentioned,  for  the  purpose 
of  mitigating  the  pressure  of  the  modern  industrial 
system  on  its  weaker  members,  and  extending  in 
greater  measure  to  the  working  classes  the  benefits 
of  advancing  civilization.  Shaffie  in  his  Capitalismus 
und  Socialismus  (1870;  now  absorbed  into  a  larger 
work),  Wagner  in  his  Rede  iiber  die  Sociale  Frage 
(1871),  and  Schonberg  in  his  Arbeitsdmter :  eine  Auf- 
gabe  des  DeulscheriReichs  (1871),  advocated  this  policy 
in  relation  to  the  question  of  the  laborer.  These  ex- 
pressions of  opinion,  with  which  most  of  the  German 
professors  of  political  economy  sympathized,  were 
violently  assailed  by  the  organs  of  the  free-trade 
party,  who  found  in  them  'a  new  form  of  socialism.' 
Out  of  this  arose  a  lively  controversy,  and  the  neces- 
sity of  a  closer  union  and  a  practical  political  organ- 
ization being  felt  among  the  partizans  of  the  new 
direction,  a  congress  was  held  at  Eisenach  in  October, 
1872,  for  the  consideration  of  'the  social  question.'  It 
was  attended  by  almost  all  the  professors  of  economic 
science  in  the  German  universities,  by  representatives 
of  the  several  political  parties,  by  leaders  of  the 
working  men,  and  by  some  of  the  large  capitalists. 
At  this  meeting  the  principles  above  explained  were 
formulated.  Those  who  adopted  them  obtained  from 
their  opponents  the  appellation  of  '  Katheder-Social- 
isten,"  or  'socialists  or  the  (professorial)  chair,'  a 
nickname  invented  by  H.  B.  Oppenheim,  and  which 
those  to  whom  it  was  applied  were  not  unwilling  to 


part.  Within  the  Verein  a  division  has  shown  itself. 
The  left  wing  has  favored  a  systematic  gradual  modi- 
fication of  the  law  of  property  in  such  a  direction  as 
would  tend  to  the  fulfilment  of  the  socialistic  aspira- 
tions, so  far  as  these  are  legitimate,  while  the  majority 
advocate  reform  through  State  action  on  the  basis  of 
existing  jural  institutions." 

Among  the  members  of  this  school,  willing  in  some 
respects  to  go  to  the  most  radical  extremes,  a  high 
place  must  be  assigned  to  Adolph  Wagner.  He  has 
pursued  his  professorial  career  at  Vienna,  Hamburg, 
Dorpat,  Frieburg,  and  for  over  20  years  at  Berlin. 
Cossa  calls  him  a  specialist  of  the  first  rank  on  money, 
banks,  and  finance.  With  Arendt,  Schaffle,  and 
others  he  has  strongly  defended  international  bimet- 
alism.  In  his  Die  Abschaffung  des  Privateigenthums 
(1870)  he  defended  property  in  land  against  attacks 
from  the  socialists,  but  by  advising  the  governments 
of  large  towns  to  resort  to  the  expropriation  of 
houses  as  the  only  possible  measure  against  extor- 
tionate house  rents,  he  invited  vehement  censure, 
which  he  duly  received  from  Roscher  and  Nasse. 

Cohn  says  of  Wagner  {History  of  Political  Economy, 
translated  by  J.  A.  Hill,  p.  120):  "Wagner  began  his 
career  as  an  economist  by  publishing  monographs  on 
credit  and  moral  statistics,  which  at  once  attracted 
attention.  He  then  went  on  to  take  up 
a  work  of  greater  scope,  viz.:  the  re- 
vision and  elaboration  of  Rau's  text- 
book  of  political  economy.  But  the 
task  thus  begun  developed  under  his 
hands,  until  he  was  led  to  undertake  a 
large  and  independent  work  of  his  own.  He  proposed, 
that  is,  to  publish  a  text-book  of  political  economy 
which  should  thoroughly  discuss  legal  institutions 
with  a  view  of  providing,  as  a  substitute  for  the  doc- 
trine of  the  natural  rights  of  the  individual,  a  posi- 
tive answer  to  the  criticisms  of  the  socialists.  The 
completion  of  this  proposed  work — the  largest  by  far 
that  has  yet  been  undertaken  in  political  economy — 
is  not  to  be  expected  in  the  immediate  future.  The 
following  volumes  have  appeared  :  Grundlegting  zur 
Volkswirthschaftslehre  (Fundamental  Principles  of 
Political  Economy,  1875);  F'inanzwissenscliaft  (Science 
of  Finance,  pt.  i.  1871-72;  pt.  ii.  1880;  pt.  iii.  i88q)." 

Wagner  has  also  to  some  extent  identified  his  name 
with  German  Protestant  Christian  Socialism.  (See 
CHRISTIAN  SOCIALISM.) 

Not  far  removed  from  the  position  of  Wagner  is  that 
of  Gustav  Cohn,  whom  we  have  quoted  : 

"  Gustav  Cohn  began  his  professoriate  at  Riga,  con- 
tinued it  first  at  Tiibingen  and  then  at  Zurich  ;  whence 
he  was  called  to  his  present  post  at  Gottingen.  His 


Political  Economy. 


1041 


Political  Economy. 


p 
b 


maiden  effort  was  on  English  railway  legislation  ;  his 

brilliant  essays  in  the  field  of  economic  history  and 

political  economy  next  called  attention  to  his  very 

varied  powers.     A  later  work  from  his  pen  is  his  Sys- 

tem der  Nationalokonomie  in  two  volumes  ;  the  third 

•chapter  of  the  first  book  of  which  it  is  that  has  been 

translated  by  Dr.  J.  A.  Hill,  as  ~A  History  of  Political 

Economy."    Professor  James  says  of  Cohn  in  an  intro- 

duction to  the  above  translation  :    "  Professor  Cohn's 

work  is  so  well  known  in  Europe  and 

America  that    it  would  be  superfluous 

Oohn          ^or  any  one  e'se  *"°  v°uch  f°r  'ts  scientific 

Vsuuu.         character.    He  has,  himself,  been  one  of 

the  most  prominent  contributors  to  re- 

cent economic  science  in  Germany,  and, 

in  addition  to  writing  many  valuable  monographs,  he 

has  been  one  of  the  few  who  have  succeeded  in  making 

a  systematic  treatise  on  economics  and  finance,  which 

is  at  once  scientific  and  readable." 

Others?  of  the  historical  school  are  Lujo  Brentano, 
Adolf  Held,  Erwin  Nasse,  H.  von  Scheel,  Gustav 
Schonberg,  Adolph  Samter. 

Perhaps  the  writer  among  the  German  economists 
most  favorable  to  democratic  socialism  is  Albrecht 
Eberhardt  Friedrich  Schaffle.  His  professoriate, 
begun  at  Ttlbingen  in  1861,  was  continued  at  Vienna  in 
1868,  he  having  in  the  meantime  been  from  1862  to 
1865  a  member  of  the  Wiirtemberg  Landtag,  and  hav- 
ing sat  in  1868  in  the  Zollpar  lament.  In  1870  he  became 
Minister  of  Commerce  in  the  Hohenwart  Cabinet, 
with  which  he  fell  in  1871.  He  now  lives  at  Stuttgart, 
.and  edits  the  quarterly  Zeitschrift  fiir  die  gesammte 
Staatswissenschaft,  founded  in  1844  by  the  Tubingen 
professors,  who  edited  it  until  1875.  Schaffle  made  his 
beginning  with  a  good  compendium  of  political 
economy,  which  grew  bulkier  and  more  valuable 
through  successive  editions.  There  he  shows  com- 
plete grasp  of  the  theory  of  business  enterprise,  deals 
competently  with  money,  credit,  and  means  of  trans- 
ortation, and  dwells  effectively  upon  the  distinction 
etween  economics  at  large  and  its  special  branches. 
Ingram  says  Schaffle  goes  so  far  as  to  maintain  that 
the  present  "  capitalistic  "  regime  will  be  replaced  by 
a  socialistic  organization  ;  but,  like  J.  S.  Mill,  he  ad- 
journs this  change  to  a  more  or  less  remote  future,  and 
expects  it  as  the  result  of  a  natural  development,  or 
process  of  "social  selection";  he  repudiates  any  im- 
mediate or  violent  revolution,  and  rejects  any  system 
of  life  which  would  set  up  "  abstract  equality  "  against 
the  claims  of  individual  service  and  merit. 

The  further  the  investigations  of  the  German  his- 

torical school  have  been  carried,  in  the  several  lines 

of  inquiry  it  has  opened,  the  more  clearly  it  has  come 

to  light  that  the  one  thing  needful  is  not  merely  a  re- 

form of  political  economy,  but  its  fusion  in  a  complete 

science  of  society.     This  is  the  view  long  since  insisted 

on  by  Auguste  Comte  ;  and  its  justness  is  daily  becom- 

ing more  apparent.    The  best  economists  of  Germany 

now  tend  strongly  in  this  direction.    Schaffle,  who  is 

largely   under  the  influence  of  Comte 

and  Herbert  Spencer,  has  actually  at- 

Q  Vffl         tempted    the    enterprise    of    widening 

scnanle.      economic  into  social    studies.     In  his 

most  important  work,  which  had  been 

prepared  for  by  previous  publications, 

Ban  und  Leben  des  socialen  Korpers  (1875-78  ;  new  edi- 

tion, 1881),  he  proposes  to  give  a  comprehensive  plan 

of  an  anatomy,  physiology,  and  psychology  of  human 

society.    He  considers  social  processes  as  analogous 

to  those  of  organic  bodies  ;  and,  sound  and  suggestive 

as  the  idea  of  this  analogy,  already  used  by  Comte, 

undoubtedly  is,  he  carries  it,  perhaps,  to  an  undue 

degree  of  detail  and  elaboration. 

Schaffle's  direct  study  of  socialism,  embodied  in  his 
Die  Quintessenz  des  Socialismus  (1875),  's  so  favorable 
to  socialism  that  he  is  often  called  a  socialist,  and  to 
answer  this  charge  he  wrote  his  Die  Aussicntlos  der 
Sozial  Demokratie  (1885,  the  Impossibility  of  Social 
Democracy),  but  Cossa  says  that  this  book  does  little 
to  disabuse  the  reader  of  the  charge  that  Schaffle  is  a 
socialist. 

Not  all  modern  German  economists,  however,  lean 
toward  socialism.  There  is  a  band  of  liberal  econo- 
mists who,  under  the  lead  of  Prince-Smith  (1809-74), 
have  organized  at  Berlin  an  economic  society  and 
have  held  congresses_.  It  founded  in  1863  the  quarterly 
Vierteljahrschrift  fiir  Volkswirthschaft  und  Cultur- 
geschichte. 

Of  other  German  general  economic  periodicals, 
Cohn  gives  the  following  succinct  account  :  "  For  a 
long  time  there  was  but  a  single  journal  of  political 
economy.  It  was  small  in  size  and  hardly  regular  in 
its  publication.  Then  this  solitary  periodical  was 

66 


Reviews. 


combined  with  a  journal  of  general  political  science, 
so  that  for  a  decade  there  was  no  journal  whatever 
devoted  exclusively  to  economics.  Such  in  brief  was 
the  career  of  the  Archiv  der  Politischen  Oekonomie  und 
Polizeiwissenschaft  (Archive  of  Political  Economy  and 
of  the  Science  of  Police).  It  was  founded  by  Rau  in 
1835.  After  1843,  it  was  continued  as  a  "new  series," 
with  Georg  Hanssen  as  assistant  editor.  But  in  1853 
it  was  combined  with  the  Zeitschrift  fiir  die  gesammte 
Staatswissenschaft  (Journal  of  General  Political  Sci- 
ence), a  publication  which  the  Political  Science  Fac- 
ulty of  the  University  of  Ttibingen  had  founded  in 
1844. 

It  was  not  until  1863  that  a  second  independent  jour- 
nal of  political  economy  appeared;  \.ti&Jahrbucher  fiir 
Nationalokonomie  und  Statistik  (Annals  of  Political 
Economy  and  Statistics),  edited  by  Bruno  Hildebrand. 
It  was  significant  of  the  changes  which 
time  had  wrought,  even  in  practical 
political  economy,  that  contemporane- 
ously with  this  journal,  the  Vierteljahr- 
schrift fiir  Volkswirthschaft  (Quarterly 
Journal  of  Political  Economy)  was 
started.  It  was  published  by  Julius  Faucher  and  Otto 
Michaelis,  as  the  organ  of  the  German  free-trade 
party.  Hildebrand's  Jahrbucher,  on  the  other  hand, 
confined  itself  to  purely  scientific  ends,  giving  ex- 
pression to  this  purpose  partly  by  the  purely  histori- 
•cal  character  of  its  articles.  ...  In  1872  Johannes 
Conrad  became  associate  editor,  and  in  1878  assumed 
full  charge  of  the  work.  At  this  time  the  tendency 
toward  political  economy  in  the  Tubingen  Zeitschrift 
fiir  die  gesammte  Staatswissenschaft  was  becoming 
more  and  more  pronounced,  under  the  controlling 
influence  of  Albert  Schaffle  (and  later,  after  1878,  of 
Adolph  Wagner).  Then  with  the  founding  of  the  Ger- 
man Empire  the  Jahrbuchfiir  Gesetzgebung,  Verwal- 
tung  und  Rechtspflege  des  deutschen  Reichs  (Annals  of 
Legislation,  Administration,  and  Judicature  in  the 
German  Empire)  came  into  existence,  edited  by  Fr. 
von  Holtzendorff.  After  a  short  time,  in  1887,  the  word 
Rechtspftege,  Judicature,  in  its  title  was  replaced  by 
Volkswirtlischaft,  Political  Economy.  A  little  later 
this  periodical  came  into  the  hands  of  that  competent 
editor,  Gustav  Schmoller  (1881),  and  entered  upon  a  re- 
markably prosperous  career.  Closely  related  to  the 
original  intentions  of  the  Jahrbuch,  with  its  subjects 
and  treatment,  is  the  Annalen  des  Norddeutschen 
Bundes  und  des  Deutschen  Zollvereins  (Annals  of  the 
North  German  Federation  and  the  German  Customs- 
Union).  It  first  appeared  in  1868,  and  in  1870  was 
changed  to  Annalen  des  Deutschen  Reichs  fiir  Gesetz- 
gebung,  Verwaltung  und  Statistik  (Annals  of  the 
German  Empire ;  a  Periodical  Devoted  to  Legisla- 
tion, Administration,  and  Statistics).  It  is  edited  by 
Georg  Hirth,  and  contains  a  valuable  collection  of 
materials,  as  well  as  a  series  of  critical,  and  partly 
also  general,  more  academic  contributions. 

At  the  same  time  a  number  of  statistical  journals 
have  sprung  up  in  connection  with  the  more  impor- 
tant statistical  bureaus  of  the  German  states.  Espe- 
cially noteworthyisthe  one  edited  by  that  highly  gifted 
and  energetic  man,  Ernst  Engel,  the  Zeitschrift  des 
kgl.  Preussischen  Statistischen  Bureaus  (Journal  of 
the  Royal  Statistical  Bureau  of  Prussia),  established 
in  1861. 

K.     AUSTRIA. 

The  Austrian  school  of  economics  has  gained 
at  the  present  time  a  deserved  prominence. 
Its  earlier  days  were  of  small  importance. 

Cossa  mentions  von  Czornig  and  Ficker,  Neumann- 
Spallart,  Brachelli,  the  Bavarian  K.  Th.  von  Inama- 
Sternegg,  the  historian  of  German  economics.  Profes- 
sor Mischler  of  Prague,  Beer,  Plener,  Peez,  Neurath, 
Hertzka  (q.  v.),  Kudler,  Karl  von  Hock  ;  but  the  three 
great  names  in  Austria  are  Sax,  Menger,  and  Bo'hm- 
Bawerk.  Says  Cossa  :  "  Emil  Sax  was  born  in  1845, 
became  professor  at  the  German  University  of  Prague, 
was  elected  a  member  of  the  Reichsrath,  and  has 
written  a  sound  book  on  working  men's  houses,  but 
his  great  celebrity  as  an  economist  was 
achieved  by,  his  masterly  special  ac- 
count— Schonberg's  Manual  summar- 
izes it— of  the  means  of  transportation. 
With  no  unsteady  hand  he  pointed  out 
the  public  nature  of  all  such  arrange- 
ments, proceeding  by  way  of  the  most  impartial  and 
clear-headed  analysis.  These  merits  put  his  work  on 
a  footing  far  superior  to  that  of  such  books  as  Cohn'a 
and  Wagner's,  which  show  many  marks  of  personal 
bias.  Sax  has  held  his  own  in  discussions  of  method, 


Sax. 


Political  Economy. 


1042 


Political  Economy. 


defending  the  conclusiveness  of  deductive  reasoning  ; 
he  has  subjected  the  influence  of  the  higgling  of  the 
market,  as  well  as  that  of  such  moral  influences  as 
modify  it,  to  a  searching  scrutiny,  and  thus  has  thrown 
light  upon  both  ;  he  has  also  set  forth  even  in  the  do- 
main of  pure  science  the  inevitable  necessity  of  State 
intervention.  Equally  remarkable  is  the  originality  of 
our  author  in  the  book  where  he  seeks  to  base  the 
whole  of  finance  upon  deductive  reasoning,  and  to  give 
it  a  place  in  pure  science  ;  and  he  has  followed  the 
same  argument  in  dealing  with  value.  But  in  respect 
of  this  last  point  he  certainly  is  guilty  of  serious  over- 
statements, and  resorts  to  a  form  of  presentation 
which  is  anything  but  clear. 

"A  still  more  remarkable  influence  is  that  of  Carl 
Menger,  born  in  1840,  a  professor  at  Vienna.  His  very 
first  production  received  very  high  praise,  though 
hardly  so  much  as  it  deserved.  Then  came  essays  on 
capital  and  money  in  which,  though  ignorant  of  what 
Jevons  had  done,  and  without  any  recourse  to  the 
calculus,  he  reached  conclusions  which  were  either 
parallel  to  those  of  Jevons  or  altogether  original  on 
the  subject  of  the  relative  and  purely  personal  meas- 
ure of  value  for  goods  instrumental,  substitutive,  and 
complementary.  He  also  made  applications  quite 
peculiarly  his  own,  which  formed  the  basis  for  a  series 
of  writings  by  his  pupils,  von  Wieser,  now  a  professor 
at  Prague,  Zuckerkandl,  and  Komorzynski." 

Monger's  distinguishing  characteristic,  however,  is 
his  criticism,  first  made  in  his  Untersuchuttfen,  on  the 
tendencies  of  the  historical  school.  Menger  does  not 
despise  history.  He  has  done  much  to  encourage  its 
study.  But  he  criticizes  the  historical  school  as  being 
too  purely  inductive,  and  as  not  giving  sufficient 
emphasis  to  the  physiologic  side  of  economics,  espe- 
cially as  regards  value.  His  special  work  has  been  to 
consider  right  method  in  economic  science;  the  full  title 
of  his  chief  book  is  Untersuchungen  iiber  die  Methode 
der  socialwissenschaften  und  der  Politischen  Oeko- 
nomie  insbesondere  (Leipzig,  1883). 

Of  Bohm-Bawerk  Cossa  says  :  "  Among  all  Menger's 
pupils,  however,  Eugen  von  Bohm-Bawerk,  professor 
first  at  Innspruck  and  now  at  Vienna, 
is  undoubtedly  the  leader.  He  began 
with  a  remarkable  monograph,  proving 
that  established  ownership,  whether  de 
jure  or  de  facto,  tho  it  doubtless  plays 
an  important  part  in  constituting  in- 
dividual capital,  cannot  properly  be 
viewed  by  political  economy  as  social  capital.  Far 
more  clear,  tho  far  more  brief  than  Wieser's,  is  our 
author's  development  of  the  theory  of  value,  based 
tho  both  accounts  are  upon  the  conception  of  the 
margin  of  utility  established  by  Menger.  But  now 
we  come  to  Bohm-Bawerk's  greatest  work,  which  is  in- 
controvertibly  his  history  and  theory  of  interest  upon 
capital,  which  receives  at  his  hands  an  explanation 
hinging  upon  the  difference  in  value  between  present 
and  future  products  j  no  matter  whether  the  products 
in  question  are  destined  for  consumption  as  such,  or 
swallowed  up  in  the  course  of  production.  This  is 
a  book  of  profound  research,  acute  criticism,  and  ex- 
treme lucidity." 

For  his  views,  see  BOHM-BAWERK. 

Among  other  pupils  of  Menger  Cossa  mentions 
Gross,  Mataja  (Bphm-Bawerk's  successor  at  Inns- 
pruck), Meyer,  Phillippovitch,  H.  von  Schullern,  and 
Seidler. 

Of  the  Austrian  school  Cossa  says  :  "  The  Austrian 
theory  of  the  margin  of  utility,  admirable  as  it  is, 
may  be  made  too  prominent.  Should  it  not  rather  be 
used  to  supplement  and  correct  the  doctrine  of  cur- 
rent value,  instead  of  being  put  in  the  place  of  normal 
value  and  made  to  serve  as  the  cardinal  doctrine  of 
a  new  economics  based  purely  on  psychology  ?  " 

An  economic  quarterly  is  published  in  Vienna,  the 
Zeitschrift  fiir  Volkswirthschaft,  Socialpolitik  und 
Verwaltung  (Vienna,  1892). 

L.    ITALY. 

Modern  Italy  has  recently  witnessed  no 
small  development  in  the  economic  sciences. 
While  no  great  contribution  to  original 
thought  may  have  been  developed  in  Italy 
in  political  economy,  corresponding  to  Italy's 
contribution  to  criminology,  nevertheless,  a 
large  number  of  careful  and  instructive 
writers  have  appeared.  The  following  ac- 
count is  in  the  main  abridged  from  an  article 


Bohm- 
Bawerk. 


on  The  Present  Condition  of  Political 
Economy  in  Italy,  by  Ugo  Rabbeno,  in  the 
Political  Science  Quarterly  (vol.  vi.  p.  439). 

Early  in  the  century  among  the  most  prominent 
names  among  Italian  economists  were  Giovanni  Fab- 


Arrivabene  and  others,  who  were  in  the  main  of  the 
school  of  liberalism  and  acquainted  Italy  with  the 
doctrines  of  Adam  Smith,  Ricardo,  and  Malthus. 

A  little  later,  and  according  to  Rabbeno,  the  domi- 
nant influence  up  to  1870,  we  have  the  Sicilian  econo- 
mist, Francisco  Ferrara  (1810-  ).  Ferrara  is  a  strong 
adherent  of  the  laissez-faire  school,  and  has  strenu- 
ously opposed  the  coquetting  of  some  of  the  younger 
Italian  economists  with  socialist  principles.  Ferrara 
was  editor  of  Giornale  di  Statistica  (1836-4*),  and  of 
the  Biblioteca  dell'  Economista  until  1870.  He  suc- 
ceeded Scialoja  at  Turin.  Others  of  this  period  were 
Marco  Minghetti  of  Bologna  (1818-86);  Girolamo  Boc- 
cardo,  professor  at  Genoa  (1829-  );  and  Stephano 
Juacini  di  Caselbuttano  (1837-91,).  To  Senator  Angelo 
Messadaglia,  professor  at  the  University  of  Rome 
(1820-  ),  Rabbeno  gfves,  with  Cossa  and  Boccardo, 
large  credit  for  the  development  of  Italian  economics. 
Boccardo  did  much  to  acquaint  Italy  with  the  German 
economists,  as  the  earlier  writers  had  introduced  the 
English. 

About  1870,  due  in  part  to  the  new  life  developed  by 
the  realization  of  Italian  unity  and,  according  to  Rab- 
beno, to  becoming  acquainted  with  the  German  econ- 
omists and  the  historical  school,  a  new  day  began  for 
Italian  economics.  Old  chairs  were  reestablished  at 
•  Bologna,  Pisa,  Parma,  and  Medina  ;  new  ones  created 
at  Genoa,  Cagliari,  Messina,  and  Rome  aided  the 
growth.  Emilio  Nazzini  (1832-  ),  twenty-five  years 
professor  at  Forli,  in  many  works  and  notably  in  his 
Sunto  di Economia  Politica  (1873),  felicitously  combined 
the  ideas  of  the  English  classical  school  with  those  of 
the  modern  German  economists.  Fidele  Lampertico 
(1833-  ),  in  his  Economia  dei  Popoli  e  degli  Stati  (1874- 
84),  soberly  set  forth  the  principles  of  the  historical 
school.  Antonio  Ciccone  (1808-93)  studied  various  sub- 
jects historically.  Vito  Cusumano  (1843-  )enthusiasti- 
cally  advocated  the  German  ideas,  especially  in  his, 
Le  Scuole  Economiche  della  Germania  in  Rapper  to  alia 
Quistione  Sociale  (1875).  'Ferrara  denounced  these 
writings  as  favoring  socialism,  but  they  did  their 
work.  Luigi  Luzzatti  (1841-  ),  the  prominent  advo- 
cate of  cooperative  banks  (q.  zO,  calmly  answered 
him,  and  in  concert  with  Lampertico  and  Scialoja, 
summoned  a  congress  of  economists  at  Milan  in  1875.. 
Later  on  he  founded,  in  Padua,  the  Associazone  per  il 
Progresso  degli  Studii  Economici.  Ferrara  and  his 
school  in  turn  gathered  at  the  Adam  Smith  Club  in 
Florence  ;  while,  as  a  reply  to  them,  Luzzatti,  Forti, 
and  Favaro  founded  the  important  Giornale  degli 
Economist 'i at  Padua  (1875-78).  In  its  issue  of  Septem- 
ber, 1875,  it  sa-id  : 

"  Between  the  classical  economists  at  one  extreme 
and  the  socialistic  iconoclasts  at  the  other,  there  is 
to-day  a  mediator  in  the  historical  or  ' 
inductive  school.  ...  Its  adherents 
do  not  admit  a  priori  either  harmony 
or  contradiction  of  interests.  They  in- 
vestigate the  world  as  it  is,  and  not  as 
it  ought  to  be.  ...  They  admit  liberty 
as  a  principle  ;  they  also  put  their  faith 
in  the  energy  of  individual  action.  But 
they  do  not  propose  to  construct  economic  romances 
on  the  presumption  either  of  necessary  harmony  or 
necessary  antagonism  in  human  interests.  They  re- 
spect and  uphold  progress  equally  with  liberty  ;  and 
where  compulsory  social  action,  i.  e.,  the  action  of  the- 
State,  serves  to  prevent  conflicts  which  liberty  pro- 
motes and  to  procure  benefits  which  liberty  obstructs, 


Italian 

Historical 

School. 


they  accept  in  their  economic  proceedings  a  directive 
action,  viz.,  governmental  interference." 

Among  its  contributors  were  Lampertico,  Boccardo, 
Cossa,  Ferraris,  and  others.  Carlo  Ferraris  (1850-  ) 
carefully  studied  administration.  Lo  Savio  similarly 
studied  the  State.  Gradually  the  controversy  grew 
less  intense,  and  Minghetti,  Lampertico,  and  Luzzatti 
revived  at  Rome  the  former  Florentine Socfe/a  d' Econo- 
mista Politica  Italiana,  on  conciliatory  plans  open  to 
all  schools.  But  professorial  socialism  (Martello  of 
Bologna,  Fontanelli,  Bertolino,  and  Berardi  follow 
Ferrara)  has  gained  a  hold  in  Italy.  Prominent  in 
this  school  are  Carlo  Francesco  Ferraris  of  Padua,  well, 
known  for  his  monetary  studies ;  Augusto  Mortara,. 


Political  Economy. 


i°43 


Political  Economy, 


who  in  his  Doviri  delta  Proprieta  Fondearia  (1885)  asks 
for  drastic  State  control  of  land  tenure.  Giuseppe 
Toniolo(i845-  )of  Pisa,  Forti,  Ducati,  Camillo  Supmo, 
Augusto  Montanari,  Ricca  Salerno,  and  Cognetti  hold 
a  more  moderate  position.  Senator  Alessandrq  Rossi 
and  Egisto  Rossi  have  became  prominent  in  the 
advocacy  of  a  protective  tariff. 

We  now  come  to  some  greater  names,  in  the  main 
connected  with  the  Austrian  school  of  economics. 
First  among  these  is  Luigi  Cossa,  for  over  thirty  years 
professor  at  Pavia,  where  he  has  developed  a  seminary 
of  political  economy,  limited  to  no  school,  and  noted 
for  wide  economic  research.  His  Guida  allo  Studio 
dell'  Economia  Politico,  has  been  translated  into  many 
languages,  and  tho  by  no  means  always  accurate,  is  in 
many  departments  the  only  book  covering  the  whole 
field.  Another  name  prominent  in  Italy  is  Maffeo 
Pantaleoni  (1857-  ),  head  of  the  Bari  school  of  com- 
merce. Graziani,  Mazzola,  Emilio  Cossa,  Conigliani, 
and  De  Viti  are  others  of  this  school.  They  are  almost 
all  especial  students  of  financial  questions,  and  more 
or  less  connect  all  economic  and  financial  phenomena 
with  the  theory  of  final  utility.  Pantaleoni,  Mazzola, 
Zorli,  and  De  Viti  are  associated  in  the  successfully 
revived  Giornale  degli  Economisti  (1886-  ). 

In  Florence  Franco,  Delia  Volta,  and  De  Johannis 
edit  the  Economista,  holding  more  orthodox  theories. 
We  have  still  to  mention  one  of  the  greatest  names  in 
modern  Italian  economics.  Achille  Loria  (1857-  ), 
long  professor  at  the  University  of  Sienna  and  then 
at  Padua.  He  can  scarcely  be  connected  with  any 
one  school.  He  defends  the  Ricardian  theory  of  rent 
and  value  against  the  Austrian  school,  and  yet  on 
questions  of  money  opposes  Ricardo.  He  goes  a  long 
way  with  the  socialists,  and  yet  opposes  Marx's 
theory  of  value.  On  the  whole  he  is  of  the  historical 
school,  with  a  strong  leaning  to  professorial  social- 
ism. One  more  school  may  be  mentioned  in  Italy, 
•which  the  Italians  call  the  sociological  school,  and  to 
which  belong  Schiatarella,  Puviani,  Zorli,  Lo  Savio, 
Luzzato,  Boccardo,  and  Ugo  Rabbino  himself,  with 
his  able  studies  of  cooperation,  and — perhaps  greatest 
of  all  in  this  line— Cognetti  de  Martiis,  professor  at 
Turin,  well  known  for  his  sociological  studies  among 
the  lower  animals  and  primitive  civilizations. 

M.    BELGIUM   AND   OTHER  EUROPEAN   COUNTRIES. 

Political  economy  in  Belgium  is  so  closely 
identified  with  France  as  to  be  with  difficulty 
separated  from  it.  Some  Belgians  we  have, 
therefore,  already  noticed  (see  Section  I),  but 
Belgium  early  developed  economic  writers  of 
special  interest  in  social  reforms.  Colins  and 
Huet  (q.  T/.)  belong  rather  to  the  history  of 
social  reform  than  of  economics,  but  Professor 
Emile  de  Laveleye  (1822-92),  a  pupil  of  Huet 
and  professor  at  Liege,  stands  as  high  in  eco- 
nomics as  in  social"  reform.  His  works  on 
finance,  his  defense  of  bimetalism,  his  studies 
of  primitive  property,  as  well  as  histories  of 
socialism,  have  won  for  him  world- wide  fame. 
Charles  Perin  we  have  already  seen  to  have 
made  Louvain  a  center  of  Roman  Catholic 
social  thought ;  a  work  which  has  been  ably 
continued  by  his  successor,  Victor  Brants. 
Other  Belgians  of  note  are  Denis,  Ducpetiaux. 

HOLLAND. 

Holland  has  considerable  activity  in  political 
economy.  The  science  is  ably  taught  at  the 
universities  of  Leyden,  Utrecht,  Groningen, 
and  Amsterdam,  while  the  reviews,  De  Gids 
(general),  De  Economist  and  V rag  en  der 
Tijds  (special),  follow  closely  the  best  work 
done  in  the  science.  The  economy  is  mainly 
of  the  classical  school,  but  with  many  cor- 
rections and  modifications.  W.  C.  Mees  (1813- 
84),  president  of  the  Netherlands  Bank,  Cossa 
calls  an  authority  of  the  first  order,  writing 
on  coinage,  the  famous  Bank  of  Amsterdam, 
and  on  workhouse  labor.  Among  living 
Dutch  economists,  the  first  position  is  held 


by  N.  G.  Pierson  (born  1839),  professor  at 
Amsterdam  in  1877,  succeeding  Mees  at  the 
Netherlands  Bank  in  1884  ;  he  was  made  min^ 
ister  of  finance  in  1891.  He  is  a  strong  sup* 
porter  of  the  English  school,  particularly  of 
Ricardo,  Mill,  Jevons,  and  Marshall,  an  ener- 
getic opponent  of  socialism,  a  free  trader 
without  being  an  optimist,  a  believer  in  the 
moderate  intervention  of  the  State  in  the 
labor  problem.  The  author  of  many  books 
and  articles  in  the  De  Gids  and  De  Economist, 
his  great  work  is  his  Political  Economy. 
Other  writers  who  may  be  mentioned  are 
van  Rees  (1825-69),  with  his  historical  dis- 
quisitions ;  Quack,  with  his  essays  on  social- 
ism ;  and  Anton  Beaujon  (died  1890),  with  his 
work  (in  English)  on  fisheries  and  his  mono- 
graph on  free  trade. 

DENMARK. 

Political  economy  in  Denmark  has  had 
many  writers,  first,  of  the  mercantilist  school, 
then  of  the  physiocrat,  of  the  classical,  and 
now  of  the  historical  German  school ;  even  so- 
cialism in  Denmark  being  unusually  promi- 
nent. A  political  economy  society  was  founded 
in  1872,  and  a  monthly,  the  Nationalokonomisk 
Tidskrift,  in  1873.  The  best  writers  for  this 
are  Professor  H.  Westergaard,  the  statistician  ; 
V.  Falbe-Hansen,  head  of  the  government 
bureau  of  statistics  ;  W.  Scharling,  author  of 
valuable  monographs  on  the  variation  of  price; 
Petersen  Studnitz,  the  editor  of  the  review  ; 
Krebs,  W.  Arntzen,  H.  Ring,  Cl.  Wilkens, 
author  of  a  sociology.  All  these  last  five  are 
strong  adherents  of  the  German  school. 

NORWAY   AND   SWEDEN. 

Political  economy  in  Norway  has  followed 
the  same  lines  as  in  Denmark,  owing  to  the 
identity  of  language  and  the  political  union 
dissolved  only  in  1814.  Purely  descriptive  and 
local  discussions  in  economics  have  been  the 
main  result. 

Sweden  has  an  older  economic  literature, 
especially  as  to  manufactures.  A.  Chydenius 
(1729-1803)  was  the  first  in  his  day.  D.  David- 
son, professor  at  Upsala,  is  among  the  fore- 
most to-day. 


Economics  in  Russia  began  with  mercantil- 
ism, but  Trityakov's  lectures  (1772)  and  the 
translation  of  The  Wealth  of  Nations  (1802) 
first  really  developed  the  science.  Turgue- 
niev's  monograph  on  taxes  Cossa  praises  very 
highly.  To-day,  economics  in  Russia  are  con- 
siderably developed,  and  with  such  forward 
strides  that  Cossa  predicts  for  them  a  brilliant 
future.  It  is  ably  taught  in  the  universities 
and  in  the  reviews,  the  Economic  Journal, 
the  European  Messenger,  the  Riissian  Mes- 
senger, the  Jottrnal  of  the  Ministry  of 
Finance,  the  Magazine  of  Political  Science 
(founded  1873).  Nevertheless,  over  all  hangs 
the  censorship  of  the  press.  N.  G.  Thernys- 
kevski  attained  much  prominence  in  1859-62, 
till  banished  for  a  while  to  Siberia  in  1863. 
Among  the  most  prominent  to-day  are  Sie- 
ber,  and  Alexander  van  Qettingen,  who  has 
brought  statistics  to  bear  on  ethical  data. 


Political  Economy. 


1044 


Political  Economy. 


SPAIN   AND   PORTUGAL. 

Political  economy  here  Cossa  calls  the  mere 
echo  of  opinions  expressed  elsewhere,  and  espe- 
cially in  France.  The  Gaceta  Economista 
(1860-68)  and  the  proceedings  of  the  Madrid 
Economic  Society  (1835-77)  and  of  the  Acad- 
emy of  Moral  and  Political  Science,  contain 
some  of  the  best  thought.  Works  on  finance 
and  history  are  the  most  frequent.  The  doc- 
trines of  the  professorial  socialists  have  been 
attacked  by  Rodriguez,  Sanroma,  and  Car- 
reras,  and  defended  by  Giner,  Azacarate,  Bo- 
tello,  and  Sanz  y  Escartin. 

SWITZERLAND. 

Some  Swiss  writers  have  been  considered 
in  connection  with  the  French  school.  Leon 
Walras,  the  eminent  professor  at  Lausanne, 
stands  at  the  head  of  the  French  school  of 
mathematical  economists.  See  his  Elements 
d'Economie  Politique  Pure  (1874-77)  an<l 
Thdorie  Mathematique  de  la  Richesse  Social e 
(1883).  Secretan,  the  veteran  professor  at 
Lausanne,  coquets  with  an  ideal  socialism. 

N.    THE   UNITED   STATES. 

To  Benjamin  Franklin  (1706-90)  undoubt- 
edly belongs  the  honor  of  being  the  first  practi- 
cal economist  in  the  United  States.  A  work 
of  his  on  population  is  of  importance,  and  he 
produced  others  in  which  he  attacked  slavery, 
defended  paper  money,  and  pointed  out  that 
labor  is  the  measure  of  value.  Dickinson's 
Letters  to  a  Gentleman  (1765)  set  forth  sound 
ideas  on  commerce  and  money,  and  Pelatiah 
Webster  declared  vigorously  against  forced 
currency.  A  far  more  important  place  be- 
longs to  Alexander  Hamilton  (q,  v.),  the 
author  of  remarkably  able  official  reports  on 
the  public  credit,  on  banks  (1790),  and  on 
money  and  manufactures  (1791).  He  consist- 
ently supported  bimetalism,  the  institution  of 
one  federal  bank  of  circulation,  and  the  neces- 
sity of  a  moderate  protection  of  nascent  in- 
dustries by  tariffs.  He  nowhere  countenances 
protection  for  protection's  sake,  his  position 
on  this  last  point  being  nearly  that  now  occu- 
pied by  fair  traders. 

His  Report  on  Manufactures  and  the  memorial 
drawn  up  by  Albert  Gallatin  (1832)  and  presented  to 
Congress  from  the  Philadelphia  Convention  in  favor 
of  tariff  reform,  deserve  to  be  mentioned  as  an  able 
statement  of  the  arguments  against  protection  (q.  v.). 
The  school  of  Adam  Smith,  however,  had  early  repre- 
sentatives. Three  editions  of  the  Wealth  of  Nations 
appeared  in  America  in  1789,  1811,  and  1818;  and  Ri- 
cardo's  principal  work  was  reprinted  here  in  1819. 
Daniel  Raymond,  in  his  Thoughts  on  Political  Econ- 
omy (1820);  and  Willard  Phillips,  in  his  Manual  of  Polit- 
ical Economy  (1828),  made  known  the  principles  arrived 
at  by  Adam  Smith  and  some  of  his  successors.  Rae, 
a  Scotchman,  settled  in  Canada,  published  (1834)  a 
book  entitled  New  Principles  of  Political  Economy, 
which  has  been  highly  praised  by  J.  S.  Mill,  especially 
for  its  treatment  of  the  causes  which  determine  the 
accumulation  of  capital. 

Simpson's  The  Workingman's  Manual  (1831),  and 
Colton's  Political  Economy  of  the  United  States  (1848), 
favor  protection.  Alexander  Everett,  in  his  New 
Ideas  on  Population  (1833),  attacks  Malthus  by  attrib- 
uting errors  to  him,  and  by  maintaining  that  the 
demand  for  labor  and  the  day's  wage  increase  in 
proportion  as  population  grows  more  dense.  Stephen 
Col  well,  in  his  Ways  and  Means  of  Pavment  (1859), 
presents  a  subtle  and  accurate  analysis  of  the 
mechanism  of  payments.  Thomas  Cooper  of  Colum- 
bia College,  in  his  Lectures  on  the  Elements  of  Po- 


litical Economy  (1826),  praised  without  stint  by 
MacCulloch,  Francis  Wayland,  in  his  Elements  of  Po- 
litical Economv  (1837),  and  Henry  Vethak,  with  his 
Principles  of  Political  Economv  (1838)  have  all  cov- 
ered more  general  grounds,  in  the  main  favoring 
the  English  orthodox  economy.  The  first  American 
to  make  a  real  mark  in  the  economic  world  and  to 
found  a  school  sometimes  called  the  American,  some- 
times the  Pennsylvania  school,  was  Henry  Charles 
Carey  (q.  v.)  (1793-1879). 

Carey  first  published  an  essay  on  wages  (1835),  in 
which  he  attacked  a  pessimism  which  he  found  lurk- 
ing in  the  very  essence  of  the  theory 
of  a   wages  fund.     His  political  econ- 
omy (1838)  gives  the   theory  of  value        pnrnv 
as  determined  by  the  cost  of  produc-        varey, 
tion,   deducing  from  this  that   the  in- 
crease   of  profit,   being  absolute    only 
and  not  relative,  is  more  than  counterbalanced  by  the 
increase  of  wages,  which  is  both  absolute  and  rela- 
tive,  with  the  result  that  improvement  in  the  condi- 
tion of  working  men  must  inevitably  be  continuous. 
In  his  Credit  System  (1838)  he  is  preoccupied  with  the 
scarcity  of  money  :  in  his  Past,  Present,  and  Future 
(1848)  he  recants  his  earlier  liberal  views,  returns  with 
redoubled  vigor  to  the  charge  against  Ricardo  and 
Malthus,  and  then  states  his  famous  theory  of  the 
order  of  cultivation  for  lands.     From  this,  which  he 
declares  overthrows  the  Ricardian  law  of  rent  (q.  v.~), 
he  deduces  the  laws  of  (i)  increasing  returns,  and  (2) 
of  the  greater  relative  accumulation  of  capital  than  of 
population.     He  restated  these  ideas  for  the  popular 
mind  in  the  Harmony  of  Interests  (i8jo),  and  his  sys- 
tem   is   presented    still    more    broadly  in  his  Social 
Science  (1858) — his  most  considerable  work.    Here  he 
stands  for  the  doctrine  of  a  providential  identity  be- 
tween cosmic   and   social   laws — a  theory   which   re- 
ceives more  detailed  statement  in  his  Unity  of  Law 
(1872). 

Professor  Ingram  says  of  Carey :  "  His  aim  was, 
while  adhering  to  the  individualistic  economy,  to  place 
it  on  a  higher  and  surer  basis,  and  fortify  it  against  the 
assaults  of  socialism,  to  which  some  of  the  Ricardian 
tenets  had  exposed  it.  ...  Inspired  with  the  optimistic 
sentiment  natural  to  a  young  and  rising  nation  with 
abundant  undeveloped  resources  and  an  unbounded 
outlook  toward  the  future,  he  seeks  to  show  that  there 
exists,  independently  of  human  wills,  a  natural  sys- 
tem of  economic  laws,  which  is  essentially  beneficent, 
and  of  which  the  increasing  prosperity  of  the  whole 
community,  and  especially  of  the  working  classes,  is 
the  spontaneous  result — capable  of  being  defeated 
only  by  the  ignorance  or  perversity  of  man  resisting 
or  impeding  its  action.  He  rejects  the  Malthusian 
doctrine  of  population,  maintaining  that  numbers 
regulate  themselves  sufficiently  in  every  well-gov- 
erned society,  and  that  their  pressure  on  subsistence 
characterizes  the  lower,  not  the  more  advanced,  stages 
of  civilization.  He  rightly  denies  the  universal  truth, 
for  all  stages  of  cultivation,  of  the  law  of  diminishing 
returns  from  land.  His  fundamental  theoretic  posi- 
tion relates  to  the  antithesis  of  wealth  and  value.  .  .  . 

"Ricardo  saw  in  the  productive  powers  of  land 
a  free  gift  of  nature  which  had  been  monopolized  by 
a  certain  number  of  persons,  and  which  became,  with 
the  increased  demand  for  food,  a  larger  and  larger 
value  in  the  hands  of  its  possessors.  To  this  value, 
however,  as  not  being  the  result  of  labor,  the  owner 
had  no  rightful  claim;  he  could  not  justly  demand  a 
payment  for  what  was  done  by  the  '  original  and  in- 
destructible powers  of  the  soil.  But  Carey  held  that 
land,  as  we  are  concerned  with  it  in  industrial  life,  is 
really  an  instrument  of  production  which  has  been 
formed  as  such  by  man,  and  that  its  value  is  due  to 
the  labor  expended  on  it  in  the  past — though  meas- 
ured, not  by  the  sum  of  that  labor,  but  by  the  labor 
necessary  under  existing  conditions  to  bring  new 
land  to  the  same  stage  of  productiveness.  He  studies 
the  occupation  and  reclamation  of  land  with  peculiar 
advantage  as  an  American,  for  whom  the  traditions 
of  first  settlement  are  living  and  fresh,  and  before 
whose  eyes  the  process  is  indeed  still  going  on.  The 
difficulties  of  adapting  a  primitive  soil  to  the  work  of 
yielding  organic  products  for  man's  use  can  be  lightly 
estimated  only  by  an  inhabitant  of  a  country  long 
under  cultivation.  It  is,  in  Carey's  view,  the  over- 
coming of  these  difficulties  by  arduous  and  continued 
effort  that  entitles  the  first  occupier  of  land  to  his 
property  in  the  soil.  Its  present  value  forms  a  very 
small  proportion  of  the  cost  expended  on  it,  because 
it  represents  only  what  would  be  required,  with  the 
science  and  appliances  of  our  time,  to  bring  the  land 
from  its  primitive  into  its  present  state.  Property  in 


Political  Economy. 


i°45 


Political  Economy. 


land  is  therefore  cmly  a  form  of  invested  capital — a 
quantity  of  labor  or  the  fruits  of  labor  permanently 
incorporated  with  the  soil  ;  for  which,  like  any  other 
capitalist,  the  owner  is  compensated  by  a  share  of  the 
produce.  He  is  not  rewarded  for  what  is  done  by  the 
powers  of  nature,  and  society  is  in  no  sense  defrauded 
by  his  sole  possession.  The  so-called  Ricardian  the- 
ory of  rent  is  a  speculative  fancy,  contradicted  by 
all  experience.  Cultivation  does  not  in  fact,  as  that 
theory  supposes,  begin  with  the  best,  and  move  down- 
ward to  the  poorer  soils  in  the  order  of  their  in- 
feriority. The  light  and  dry  higher  lands  are  first 
cultivated ;  and  only  when  population  has  become 
dense  and  capital  has  accumulated,  are  the  low-lying 
lands,  with  their  greater  fertility,  but  also  with  their 
morasses,  inundations,  and  miasmas,  attacked  and 
brought  into  occupation.  Rent,  regarded  as  a  pro- 
portion of  the  produce,  sinks,  like  all  interest  on 
capital,  in  process  of  time,  but,  as  an  absolute  amount, 
increases.  The  share  of  the  laborer  increases,  both 
as  a  proportion  and  an  absolute  amount.  And  thus 
the  interests  of  these  different  social  classes  are  in 
harmony. 

"  But,  Carey  proceeds  to  say,  in  order  that  this  har- 
monious progress  may  be  realized,  what  is  taken  from, 
the  land  must  be  given  back  to  it.  All  the  articles  de- 
rived from  it  are  really  separated  parts  of  it,  which 
must  be  restored  on  pain  of  its  exhaustion.  Hence  the 
producer  and  the  consumer  must  be  close  to  each 
other ;  the  products  must  not  be  exported  to  a  foreign 
country  in  exchange  for  its  manufactures,  and  thus 
go  to  enrich  as  manure  a  foreign  soil.  In  immediate 
exchange  value  the  landowner  may  gain  by  such  ex- 
portation, but  the  productive  powers  of  the  land  will 
suffer.  And  thus  Carey,  who  had  set  out  as  an  earnest 
advocate  of  free  trade,  arrives  at  the  doctrine  of  pro- 
tection :  the  '  coordinating  power '  in  society  must 
intervene  to  prevent  private  advantage  from  working 
public  mischief." 

Among  Carey's  pupils  the  most  original  is  E.  Peshine 
Smith  (Manual  of  Political  Economy  ;  New  York,  1853), 
whose  account  of  population  is  especially  noteworthy, 
and  indeed  was  adopted  by  Carey  himself.  W.  Elder 
(Questions  of  the  Day,  1871),  is  a  subtle  and  effective 
writer,  but  somewhat  inconstant.  Robert  Ellis  Thomp- 
son (Social  Science  and  National  Economy,  1875;  Ele- 
ments of  Political  Economy,  1882;  Protection  to  Home 
Industry,  1886)  is  the  ablest  recent  representative  of 
this  school.  W.  D.  Wilson,  who  is  now  of  Pennsyl- 
vania, has  attempted,  in  his  First  Principles  (1875),  the 
very  difficult  task  of  making  Carey's  views  harmonize 
with  those  of  Malthus. 

In  the  period  including  and  following  the  War  ap- 
peared Amasa  Walker's  Science  of  Wealth  (1866  ;  eight- 
eenth edition,  1883),  and  A.  L.  Perry's  Elements  of 
Political  Economy  (1866).  A.  Walker  and  Perry  are 
free  traders  :  Perry  is  a  disciple  of  Bastiat.  The 
Science  of  Wealth  is  particularly  full  in  discussing 
monetary  questions.  He  criticizes  the  United  States 
banking  system  and  attributes  to  it  the  crisis  of  1873. 
Professor  John  Bascom's  Political  Economy  (1859  ;  re- 
printed in  1874)  's  a  text-book  which  has  been  much 
used  in  America.  It  favors  monometalism,  opposes 
banks  of  emission,  and  proposes  the  substitution  of 
certificates,  based  on  gold  and  payable  in  gold,  for 
greenbacks.  Francis  Bowen's  Principles  of  Political 
Economy  (1856,  afterward  entitled  American  Political 
Economy,  1870),  has  been  another  popular  text-book. 

Of  President  Walker— Amasa  Walker's  son,  General 
Francis  Amasa  Walker,  president  of  the  Massachusetts 
Institute  of  Technology  in  Boston— Ingram  says : 
"The  name  of  no  American  economist  stands  higher." 
He  has  written  many  special  treatises,  the  substance 
of  which  is  contained  in  his  Political 
Economy  (New  York,  1883),  and  sum- 
marily presented  in  his  first  Lessons 
(i88q).  His  greatest  special  work  is  on 
wages, —  The  Wages  Question  (1876  ;  new 
edition,  1891), — in  which  he  draws  a 
clear  line  between  the  entrepreneur  and  the  capitalist, 
attacking  the  wage-fund  theory,  contending  that 
wages  are  in  reality  the  residuum  of  the  value  left 
attaching  to  the  product  after  interest  and  profits 
have  been  deducted.  His  work  on  Money  (1878  and 
1891)  defends  international  bimetalism.  His  Land 
and  its  Rent  (1883)  gives  a  refutation  of  Carey,  dealing 
similarly  with  Henry  George. 

Of  the  present  state  of  American  economics 
Cossa  says  : 

"  American  universities  have  multiplied,  new  chairs 
of  economics  have  been  founded,  administrative  fac- 


F.  A.  Walker. 


•ulties  have  been  organized  as  at  New  York  and  Phila- 
delphia, the  American  Economic  Association  (1885)  has 
been  formed,  special  reviews  have  been  brought  out. 
excellent  monographs  have  been  published  in  collected 
form.  Controversies  have  been  carried  on  through 
the  writings  of  many  young  professors  fresh  from 
Germany  and  more  especially  from  Halle  ;  nor  has 
there  been  lacking  a  powerful  influence  wielded  by 
the  more  matured  thought  of  older  professors,  who 
combine  a  knowledge  of  all  that  German  science  has 
achieved  with  an  unwillingness  to  follow  blindly  its 
too  exclusive  vagaries.  Such  are  the  leading  tacts 
which  explain  the  strides  made  during  the  last  ten 
years  by  the  study  of  economics  in  America,  and  ac- 
count for  the  eminence  there  attained  by  a  group  of 
able  writers  who  have  nothing  to  fear  from  a  com- 
parison with  the  ablest  scientific  lights  of  Europe, 
whether  as  to  knowledge  of  principles  or  power  of 
steady  work." 

Cossa  mentions  prominently  Professor  R.  T.  Ely. 
With  his  French  and  German  Socialism,  Labor  Move- 
ment in  America,  Socialism  and  Social  Reform,  and 
constant  articles  in  magazines  and  the  religious  week- 
lies, no  man  in  America  has  done  more  fairly  and  dis- 
criminatingly to  acquaint  the  reading  public  with  the 
importance  of  the  present  socialist  and  labor  move- 
ment. At  the  same  time  his  Taxation  in  American 
Cities,  and  various  articles  on  railroads  and  other 
natural  monopolies,  have  been  an  important  contribu- 
tion to  constructive  economic  science,  showing  how 
the  community  may  adopt  many  of  the  good  points  in 
socialism  without  accepting  its  extreme 
theories.  Again,  Professor  Ely's  Princi- 
ples of  Political  Economy,  revised  as  HI  JJly 
Outlines  of  Economics,  has  been  very  f* 

widely  accepted  in  both  England  and 
America,  as  a  popular  progressive  text- 
book of  general  political  economy.  Finally,  as  a 
leader  in  the  foundation  of  the  American  Economic 
Association,  of  the  Christian  Social  Union  (in 
America),  and  of  the  American  Institute  of  Christian 
Sociology,  together  with  his  Social  Aspects  of  Chris- 
tianity and  frequent  addresses  before  academic 
and  religious  bodies.  Professor  Ely  has  done  much 
to  promote  economic  study  both  in  the  university 
and  in  the  churches.  First  at  Johns  Hopkins  and  now 
as  professor  at  the  University  of  Wisconsin,  Professor 
Ely  has  been  frequently  and  at  least  once  bitterly  de- 
nounced as  a  socialist,  but  has  held  his  own  as  an 
accurate  thinker,  courageous  enough  to  champion  all 
that  is  good,  and  critical  enough  not  to  identify  him- 
self with  what  he  considers  impractical  and  extreme 
in  socialism. 

Professor  E.  J.  James  of  the  University  of  Chicago 
is  not  the  author  of  numerous  books,  but  has  been  of 
marked  influence  with  various  important  monographs 
on  The  Can  aland  Railway,  on  The  Municipality  and  Gas 
Supply,  and  studies  of  various  federal  constitutions. 
He  is  even  better  known  by  his  presidency  of   the 
American  Academy  of  Political  and  Social  Science,  and 
his  editorship  of  the  Annals  of  the  Academy  with  their 
frequent  contributions  not  only  to  historical  study,  but 
to  original  economic  theory.     Associ- 
ated with  him  at  the  University  of  Penn- 
sylvania was  Professor  R.  P.  Faulkner,    T«    T  James 
prominently  known  for  his  translation 
of  Meitzen  (on  statistics),  and  his  own 
valuable  studies  in  statistics.  Professors 
Mayo-Smith  and  E.  R.  A.  Seligman  of  Columbia  are 
other  prominent  contributors  to  American  economics 
from  the  standpoint  of  historical  studies— Professor 
Mayo-Smith  being  especially  prominent  for  his  studies 
of  immigration  and  his  recent  work  on  statistics,  Pro- 
fessor Seligman  on  the  canons  and  incidence  of  taxa- 
tion.    With  their  associates  in  the  Columbia  Faculty 
of    Political    Science,     Professors    Burgess,    Munroe 
Smith,  F.  J.  Goodnow,  H.  L.  Osgood,   W.    A.    Dun- 
ning, J.  B.  Moore,  and  now  J.    B.  Clarke  and  F.    H. 
Giddings,  they  edit  the  Political  Science  Quarterly, 
among  the  most  progressive  and  important  of  Ameri- 
can economic  journals.     In  the  West,  Professor  Henry 
Carter  Adams  of  the  University  of  Michigan  at  Ann 
Arbor,  Cossa   says,  has  written  "valuable  economic 
treatises  on  the  Relation  of  the  State    to  Industrial 
Action     (1887),    on    Taxation    in    the    United    States 
(1884),     and    on    Public    Debts    (1887)," 
while  as  statistician  of  the   Interstate 
Commerce  Commission,  and  in  charge 
of    the  United    States   railway    statis-  H.  C.  Adams. 
tics,  he  fulfils  an    important    function 
outside    of  university    work.      Profes- 
sor J.   W.   Jenks  of  Cornell  is  the  able   secretary  of 
the    American    Economic    Association,  and    a    care- 


Political  Economy. 


1046 


Political  Economy. 


ful  student  and  writer  on  the  important  questions 
of  trusts,  monopolies,  etc.  ;  Professor  John  B.  Clark 
of  Columbia  University,  a  President  of  the  Amer- 
ican Economic  Association,  is  author  of  a  Philosophy 
of  Wealth,  and  various  monographs ;  Professor  J.  R. 
Commons  of  Syracuse  University,  stands  with  Pro- 
fessors Ely  and  Bemis  among  the  more  advanced 
of  American  economists  in  their  friendship  to 
socialistic  ideas  (without  at  all  being  socialists), 
and  is  author  of  The  Distribution  of  Wealth,  Pro- 
portional Representation,  and  various  articles  in  favor 
of  monetary,  electoral,  and  Christian  social  reforms  ; 
Chancellor  James  H.  Canfield,  of  the  University  of 
Nebraska,  is  a  Vice-president  of  the  American  Eco- 
nomic Association,  and  a  writer  on  taxation  and  the 
tariff;  Professor  E.  W.  Bemis,  recently  of  Chicago  Uni- 
versity, is  a  writer  of  monographs  and  careful  studies  of 
labor  organizations  and  the  municipalization  of  natural 
monopolies.  Separate  somewhat  from  the  above 
writers  in  holding  distinctively  more  for  the  necessity 
of  historical  study  and  the  deduction  of  cautiously 
pronounced  principles,  is  Professor  W.  J.  Ashley,  now 
of  Harvard  University,  formerly  of  Oxford,  England, 
and  then  of  Toronto.  Cossa  says  of  him  that  his  works 
on  the  Economic  History  of  England  are  justly  cele- 
brated. His  criticisms  of  Thorold  Rogers  and  others 
of  his  school  are  trenchant,  but  entitled  to  the  greatest 
weight. 

Among  the  more  conspicuous  upholders  of  the  tra- 
ditions of  the  classical  school  in  economics  are  Profes- 
sors Charles  F.  Dunbar  and  W.  G.  Sumner,  at  the  head 
respectively  of  the  Department  of  Economics  in  Har- 
vard University  and  at  Yale.  Professor  Dunbar  is  an 
editor  of  the  Quarterly  Journal  of  Economics,  founded 
at  Boston  in  1886,  and  published  for  Harvard  University, 
and  is  particularly  at  home  on  questions  concerning 
currency  and  credit,  as  in  his  Chapters  on  the  Theory 
and  History  of  Banking  (1892). 

Professor  W.  G.  Sumner  of  Yale  has  written  on  the 
tariff,    American    currency,  bimetalism,  wages,  civil 
service  reform,  and  is  popularly  known 
for  his   What    Social    Classes    Owe    to 
The  Classi-    Each  Other,  in  which  he  comes  to  the 
cal  School     strongly  asserted  position  that  they  owe 
"    nothing.     Among  others  on  the  whole  of 
the  classical  school,  are  Professor  A.  T. 
Hadley,  also  of  Yale,  a  careful  writer  on 
railways,   the  Interstate  Commerce  Law,  etc.,  and  a 
student  of  the  facts  of  wages,  etc.      Professor  F.  W. 
Taussig   of    Harvard  is  prominent    for   his    studies 
of  the   tariff  and  his   defense  of   monometalism   in 
his  Silver  Question  in  the  United  States,  and  various 
economic    articles.     Professor  J.  Lawrence  Laughlin 
is  at   the    head     of    the     economic    department    of 
University  of  Chicago,    and    a    writer    on    bimetal- 
ism,    the    tariff,    and    general    studies     of     political 
economy.     Professor  Simon  Newcomb  of  Washington 
has  forcibly  written  on  general  political  economy  from 
the  laissez-faire  position.    More  original  than  any  of 
the  above  men,  according  to  Cossa,  either  of  the  his- 
torical or  classical  school,  and  coming  nearer  to  the 
Austrian  school  than  any  other,  and  yet  developing 
original  principles  and  positions    of  their   own,  are 
Professor  F.  H.  Giddings  of  Columbia 
University  and  Professor  S.  N.  Patten  of 
ji  jr  Qiri.    the  University  of  Pennsylvania.    Profes- 
'  .  '     sor  Giddings  is  especially  prominent  for 

dings.  his  monographs  on  the  province  and 
theory  or  sociology  developed  now 
into  his  important  treatise  on  Sociology. 
Professor  Patten  has  written  brief  but  important 
studies  on  the  premises  of  political  economy  and  con- 
cerning the  concepts  of  utility.  His  monograph  on  the 
Theory  of  Social  Forces  (1806)  shows  how  far  he 
studies  the  psychologic  side  of  economics.  With  this 
school  stands  Professor  Clark,  whom  we  have  also 
noticed  above.  President  E.  B.  Andrews  of  Brown 
University  is  a  strenuous  advocate  of  bimetalism, 
and  well  known  for  his  works  on  recent  American 
history  and  general  political  economy.  Professor 
E.  R.  L.  Gould  of  the  University  of  Chicago,  both  as 
a  scholar  and  as  an  investigator  for  the  United  States 
Census  and  Labor  Commission,  has  carefully  investi- 
gated the  conditions  of  working  men,  and  of  the  poorer 
classes,  both  in  Europe  and  America.  Professor  A.  G. 
Warner  has  written  the  one  complete  book  on  Amer- 
ican Charities,  besides  studying  relief  methods  in  Ger- 
many and  other  countries.  Professor  E.  A.  Ross  has 
defended  bimetalism  and  written  on  taxation.  Many 
names  perhaps  as  important  as  some  of  those  men- 
tioned must  be  omitted,  as  not  bearing  particularly 
on  Social  Reform.  Professor  D.  R.  Dewey  of  the 
Institute  ot'  Technology  in  Boston  has  devoted  him- 


self to  statistical  studies.  John  Graham  Brooks,  as 
lecturer,  writer,  and  expert  for  the  Census,  has  care- 
fully investigated  the  Norwegian  company  system  of 
temperance  reform  and  various  relief  methods  in  Ger- 
many and  France,  as  well  as  in  this  country.  Profes- 
sor Lester  F.  Ward  is  one  of  the  chief  sociologists  in 
the  country.  Still  others,  as  well  known  as  most  we 
have  mentioned,  though  without  being  professors  of 
political  economy,  write  on  economic  themes  with 
learning  and  ability.  Such  are  Edward  Atkinson,  the 
statistician  ;  Carroll  D.  Wright,  United  States  Labor 
Commissioner  ;  Dr.  Albert  Shaw  of  the  Review  of  Re- 
views; Mr.  Charles  B.  Spahr  of  the  Outlook;  Mr.  George 
Gunton,  president  of  the  School  of  Economics,  New 
York  City ;  Mr.  Henry  George  and  T.  G.  Shearman, 
the  prominent  single-tax  advocates ;  the  Rev.  N.  P. 
Gilman,  editor  of  the  New  World  ;  the  Rev.  Dr.  Wash- 
ington Gladden  of  Columbus,  O. 

V.  RADICAL  VIEWS  IN  POLITICAL  ECONOMY. 

For  the  detailed  economic  views  of  the 
various  schools  of  social  reform — we  must  refer 
the  reader  to  the  various  articles,  Socialism, 
Individualism,  Anarchism,  the  Single-Tax, 
Eight-Hour  Movement.  We  here  simply 
point  out  that  there  are  many  writers  who  from 
very  various  standpoints  and  sometimes  with 
an  economic  ability  comparable  to  that  of  the 
professed  economists  considered  above,  have 
presented  views  quite  opposed  to  any  of  the 
views  stated  in  this  article.  Such  writers 
usually  deny  utterly  that  the  so-called  pro- 
fessed economists  have  reached  any  settled 
conclusions,  or  have  even  done  much  for  the 
cause  of  economic  truth.  There  is  some 
ground  for  this  view. 

Said  Mr.  Leslie  Stephen  (presidential  address  at  the 
annual  meeting  of  the  Social  and  Political  Education 
League,  March,  1892):   "There  is  no  science  of  soci- 
ology,   properly     scientific— merely     a 
heap  of  vague  empirical  observations, 
too  flimsy  to  be  useful  in  strict  logical        Lack  of 
inference."     Mr.    Kidd  says,   speaking       _  . 
of  "probably  the  largest  section"   of       science. 
the  community  (Social  Evolution,  p.  5): 
"They  feel  that  some  change  is  inevi- 
table. .  .  .  But  at  present  they  simply  sit  still  and  wait. 
They  have  no  indication  as  to  the  direction  in  which 
the  right  path  lies.    They  look  in  vain  to  science  and 
authority  for  any  hint  as  to  duty.    They  are  without 
a  faith,  for  there  is  at  the  present  time  no  science  of 
human  society."    He  says  again  (Social  Et<olution,  p. 
236)  :  "  It  has  to  be  confessed  that  in  England  during 
the  nineteenth  century  the  educated  classes  in  almost 
all  the  great  political  changes  that  have  been  effected 
have  taken  the  side  of  the  party  afterward  admitted  to 
have  been  in  the  wrong  ;  they  have  almost  invariably 
opposed  at  the  time  the  measures  they  have  subse- 
quently come  to  defend  and  to  justify.     This  is  to  be 
noticed  alike  of  measures  which  have'extended  educa- 
tion, which  have  emancipated  trade,  which  have  ex- 
tended the  franchise.      The   educated    classes   have 
even,  it  must  be  confessed,  opposed  measures  which 
have  tended  to  secure  religious  freedom  and  to  abolish 
slavery.     The  motive  force  behind  the  long  list  of 
progressive  measures,  carried  during  this  period,  has 
in  scarcely  any  appreciable  measure  come  from  the 
educated  classes  ;  it  has  come  almost  exclusively  from 
the  middle  and  lower  classes,  who  have  in  turn  acted, 
not  under  the  stimulus  of  intellectual   motives,  but 
under  the  influence  of  their  altruistic  feelings." 

Even  Professor  Taussig  of  Harvard,  writing  in  The 
Nation,  December  28, 1893,  and  referring  to  "  fantastic  " 
radical  social  proposals,  says:  "The  temptation  is 
strong  under  such  conditions',  to  hold  fast  to  authority 
and  accepted  doctrines  and  to  refuse  to  give  aid  and 
comfort  to  the  enemy  by  admitting  that  the  theories 
of  current  political  economy  are  not  settled  and 
established  scientific  truths.  But,  in  fact,  there  are 
few  of  them  which  the  criticism  of  the  last  quarter 
of  a  century  has  not  impugned  more  or  less.  The  doc- 
trines of  exchange,  money,  international  trade  have 
suffered  least ;  those  as  to  production  and  distri- 
bution most.  The  latter,  it  must  confessed,  need  to  be 
largely  recast." 


Political  Economy. 


1047 


Political  Economy. 


Such  being  the  asserted  condition  of  political 
economy  to-day,  the  leaders  of  the  various 
schools  of  reform,  and  especially  among  work- 
ing class  reforms,  treat  professorial  economics 
with  an  ill-concealed  contempt  ;  yet  the  same 
men  are  often  very  glad  to  welcome  or  even 
to  strain  any  admissions  which  may  happen 
to  drop  from  the  professor's  pen  and  can  be 
used  to  favor  any  desired  end. 

The  radical  school  which  comes  nearest  to 
economic  doctrines  accepted  in  the  universi- 
ties, and  to  which  modern  economists  on  their 
part  have  shown  themselves  most  friendly,  is 
that  of  the  socialists.     Socialism, 
indeed,  of  the  Marxist  type  pro- 
Socialism,    f  essedly  bases  itself  upon  the  prin- 
ciples of  value  and  rent  held  by 
Ricardo  and  the  classical  school, 
and  on  that  basis  constructs  views  the  opposite 
of  the   classical.      On  the  other  hand,  many 
economists    of  the  historical  school    come  so 
near  to  socialism  as  often  to  be  called  social- 
ists by  their  critics.     The  economic  basis  of 
socialism  will  be  considered  under  socialism, 
yet  such  writers  as  Rodbertus,    Mario,   and 
Marx,   in   Germany,  and  the  writers    of  the 
Fabian  Essays  in  England,  cannot  be  ignored 
in  the   field  of   political   economy.      Ingram 
says  in  his    Britannica  article    on   political 
economy  : 

"  With  such  writers  as  St.  Simon,  Fourier,  and 
Proudhon,  Lassalle,  Marx,  Engels,  Mario,  and  Rod- 
bertus (who,  notwithstanding  a  recent  denial,  seems 
rightly  described  as  a  socialist)  we  do  not  deal  in  the 
present  sketch  (see  Socialism) ;  but  we  must  recognize 
them  as  hav.ing  powerfully  stimulated  the  younger 
German  economists  (in  the  strict  sense  of  this  last 
word).  They  have  even  modified  the  scientific  conclu- 
sions of  the  latter,  especially  through  criticism  of  the 
so-called  orthodox  system.  Schaffle  and  Wagner  may 
be  especially  named  as  having  given  a  large  space 
and  a  respectful  attention  to  their  arguments.  In 
particular,  the  important  consideration,  to  which  we 
have  already  referred,  that  the  economic  position  of 
the  individual  depends  on  the  existing  legal  system, 
and  notably  on  the  existing  organization  of  property, 
was  first  insisted  on  by  the  socialists.  They  had  also 
pointed  out  that  the  present  institutions  of  society  in 
relation  to  property,  inheritance,  contract,  and  the 
like  are  (to  use  Lassalle's  phrase) '  historical  categories 
which  have  changed,  and  are  subject  to  further 
change.'  " 

Of  the  socialists  of  the  chair,  we  have  spoken 
above.  See  also  SOCIALISTS  OF  THE  CHAIR. 

In  England  socialism  has  so  influenced 
economic  thought  that  Sydney  Webb  can 
write  (Soczah'sm  in  England,  p.  46) : 

"That  one  competent  economist,  not  himself  a 
socialist,  publishes  regretfully  to  the  world  that  all 
the  younger  men  are  now  socialists,  with  many  of  the 
professors."  And  that  "Professor  Henry  Sidgwick 
(professor  of  moral  philosophy,  Cambridge),  the  most 
cautious  of  men,  even  publishes  an  article  with  a  view 
to  correct  the  world's  mistaken  impression  that  politi- 
cal economy  is  opposed  to  socialism,  and  shows 
that,  on  the  contrary,  the  socialist  proposals  are  a 
plain  and  obvious  deduction  from  accepted  econ- 
omic principles."  (Contemporary  Review,  November, 
1886.) 

Mr.  Webb  says  further  (idem.,  p.  47)  : 

"  It  was  computed  in  December,  1887,  that  out  of  a 
total  of  14  courses  of  lectures  on  economics  being  de- 
livered under  the  auspices  of  various  public  bodies  in 
London,  eight,  and  possibly  more,  were  being  given 
by  professed  socialists.  I  have  been  told  that  one  of 
the  university  extension  .societies  lately  found  some 
difficulty  in  obtaining  young  economist  lecturers 


sufficiently  free  from  what  some  of  its  older  members 
thought  the  socialistic  taint." 

Outside  of  Germany  and  England  the  in- 
fluence of  socialism  on  professional  economic 
thought  is  not  so  .marked,  but  in  Belgium, 
France,  Austria,  and  Italy,  we  have  seen  its 
influence  strongly  marked  on  more  than  one 
writer,  while  in  the  United  States  such  men 
as  Professors  Ely,  Bemis,  Commons,  Jenks, 
Adams,  James,  and  others  of  the  historical 
school  are  at  least  as  socialistic  in  their  views 
as  many  of  the  so-called  Katheder  Socialisten 
in  Germany.  Everywhere  we  thus  see  the 
influence  of  socialism  upon  the  economists. 

Says  Professor  de  Laveleye :  "  It  was  at  one  time 
imagined  that  the  means  of  combating  socialism  would 
be   found  in  the  teachings  of  political 
economy  ;  but,  on  the  contrary,  it  is  pre- 
cisely this  science  which  has  furnished  Socialism  and 
the  socialists  of  to-day  with  their  most      Political 
redoubtable  weapons."     (Introduction     _fulll>"'tt 
to  Contemporary  Socialism.)  Economy. 

The  value  of  these  utterances,  how- 
ever, can  easily  be  both  over-  and  under- 
estimated.    They  by  no  means  indicate  that  political 
economists  are  on  the  high  road  to  socialism.    There 
is  even    among  them  at  present  a  reaction  against 
socialism.     Frightened  by  their  own  admissions,  they 
are  drawing  back  and  trying  to  show  that,  while  there 
is  considerable  truth    in  socialism,  society  need  not 
accept  the  whole  socialist  position. 

On  the  other  hand,  the  value  of  these  admissions  by 
the  economists  must  not  be  under-estimated.  Their 
main  use  is  to  prove  that  there  is  no  case  to  be  drawn 
from  political  economy  against  socialism.  Says  Mr. 
Kidd,  speaking  of  socialistic  propositions  (Social  Evo- 
lution, p.  208) :  "  A  somewhat  startling  admission  has  to 
be  made.  ...  It  is  that  the  arguments  by  which  their 
advocates  lead  up  to  them  are  unanswered,  and  even 
unanswerable,  from  the  point  of  view  from  which  the 
greater  number  of  their  critics  have  assailed  them." 

Coming  to  ask  what  is  the  economic  basis  of 
the  socialist  writers,  one  nmst  in  the  first  place 
distinguish  between  the  early  Utopian  social- 
ists and  later  evolutionary  socialists,  and 
secondly,  as  far  as  their  economic  basis  goes, 
one  must  distinguish  between  two  main  schools 
of  socialists.  The  early  communists,  Plato, 
More,  Doni,  Campanella,  Harrington  ;  the  radi- 
cal social  reformers  of  the  eighteenth  century, 
Rousseau,  Mably,  MorelH,  De  Warville, 
Babeuf ;  the  Utopian  socialists  of  the  first 
half  of  the  present  century,  Owen,  Fourier, 
Gall,  St.  Simon,  Enfantin,  Buchez,  Consi- 
derant,  Cabet,  Weitling,  even  Louis  Blanc, 
had,  properly  speaking,  no  economic  basis  for 
their  socialism.  They  had  various  philosophic 
views,  and  often  acute  sociological  principles, 
as  is  illustrated  by  the  connection  between 
Comte  and  the  St.  Simonians  ;  but  they  had 
little  or  no  political  economy.  Modern  social- 
ism has  however  developed  considerable  strict 
economic  thought,  principally  of  two  schools, 
the  German  school  of  so-called  scientific 
socialism,  and  the  English  school  of  Fabian 
socialism.  In  Germany,  Rodbertus,  Mario, 
Marx,  Engels,  and  to  a  less  extent,  Lassalle, 
took  the  then  generally  accepted  Ricardian 
theory  of  rent,  and  the  position  that  labor  is 
the  source  of  all  exchange,  which  had  come  to 
them  from  Adam  Smith,  and,  without  question- 
ing these,  ably  and  with  great  acumen  built 
upon  them  the  socialistic  superstructure  of 
surplus  value,  appropriated  from  the  working 
man  by  the  capitalists,  and  the  condemnation 


Political  Economy. 


Political  Economy. 


of  the  working  man,  through  the  asserted 
"  iron  law  of  wages,"  to  receive  the  lowest 
wage  that  would  support  and  reproduce  the 
workman's  life.  The  English  socialists  of  the 
Fabian  Society  on  the  other  hand  have  denied 
that  labor  is  the  source  of  all  value,  but  have 
agreed  rather  with  Jevons  (see  VALUE),  and 
on  the  whole  have  been  influenced  economi- 
cally by  J.  S.  Mill  as  much  as  by  Marx.  In 
their  ideals  these  schools  agree  completely,  but 
differ  in  their  economic  analyses. 
Value  in  exchange,  according  to 
Two  Schools,  the  English  school,  depends  in 
part  at  least  upon  final  utility,  and 
is  produced  by  land,  labor,  and 
capital  ;  so  that  the  socialization  of  land, 
labor,  and  capital  is  necessary  to  a  right  pro- 
duction and  distribution.  (See  SOCIALISM.) 
Around  these  two  schools  cluster  all  shades  of 
economic  and  much  very  obscure  socialistic 
thought. 

Socialism,  however,  is  by  no  means  the  only 
radical  school  that  has  developed  its  own 
economic  thought.  Less  known  perhaps  in 
professorial  circles  than  any  other  radical 
school,  and  yet  with  some  very  clear  economic 
thought,  is  the  so-called  eight-hour  philosophy. 
Ira  Steward,  George  E.  McNeill,  and  George 
Gunton  have  argued  very  ably 
that  wages  depend  neither  on  a 
Eight-Hour  wage  fund,  nor  on  the  amount 
Philosophy,  of  production,  nor  are  reduced  to 
the  lowest  point  which  supports 
life,  but  depend  on  the  cost  or 
standard  of  living  held  by  the  various  classes 
of  wage-earners  ;  they  argue  that  this  stan- 
dard of  living  is  developed  by  men's  wants  ; 
that  men's  wants  are  very  largely  the  result 
of  leisure,  and  that  therefore  the  supreme  way 
to  improve  the  wage-earner's  condition  is  to 
shorten  his  hours  of  work.  For  the  details  of 
this  able  view,  see  SHORT-HOUR  MOVEMENT. 

Coming  to  individualist  views,  we  have  first 
the  economic  views  as  to  rent,  interest,  wages, 
etc.,  developed  by  Mr.  Henry  George,  who 
finds  in  the  private  monopoly  of  land  the 
source  of  at  once  high  rent  and  low  wages. 
His  views,  while  they  are  accepted  to-day  by 
few  trained  economists,  are  admitted  by  all  to 
be  at  once  brilliantly  stated  and  based  (altho 
with  fatal  relative  exaggeration)  on  some 
profound  economic  as  well  as  ethical  truths. 
(See  the  SINGLE-TAX.)  See  also  Flurscheim 
for  an  important  modification  of  Mr.  George's 
view. 

More  strictly  individualistic  are  the  radical 
views  of  such  writers  as  Wordsworth  Donis- 
thorpe  in  his  Individualism,  A  System  of  Poli- 
tics; Herbert  Spencer  in  his  various  works  ; 
Auberon     Herbert    with    his    Voluntaryism. 
Still  more  extreme  are  the  economics  of  the  so- 
called  philosophical  anarchists,  the 
American,   Joseph    Warren,   with 
Individ-     his  view  that  cost  determines  value , 
ualism.      and  his  resultant  conclusion  that, 
if  there  were  no  law,   each   man 
would  receive  the   full  value    of 
what  he  produced  ;  the  great  French  philoso- 
pher, and  no  mean  economist,  Proudhon,  with 
his  critique  of  private  property  ;  the  German 
Max  Stierener,  and    B.  R.  Tucker,  the  subtle 


editor  of  Liberty  (New  York).  Such  are  a 
few,  at  least,  of  the  radical  social  reformers  of 
various  schools  who  have  developed  economic 
thought.  The  details  of  all  their  views,  and 
a  discussion  of  them,  will  be  found  under  the 
respective  names  of  the  writers  and  their 
schools  ;  but  neither  the  theories  themselves, 
nor  their  influence  upon  economic  thought, 
can  be  ignored  in  any  study  of  modern  political 
economy. 

References :  Blanqui's  Histoire  de  V  Economie 
Politique  en  Europe  (1837-38)  translated  into  English; 
J.  K.  Ingram's  History  of  Political  Economy  (1888)  : 
Luigi  Cossa's  Guida  (revised  edition,  and  translated 
into  English  as  An  Introduction  to  the  Study  ofPolittcaf 
Economy,  1893),  is  the  most  complete,  though  not  the 
most  reliable  history.  Some  chapters  of  Dr.  Gustave 
Cohn's  System  der  Nationalokonomie,  have  been 
translated  by  Dr.  J.  A.  Hill,  and  published  by  the 
American  Academy  of  Political  and  Social  Science  as 
A  History  of  Political  Economy  (1894).  S.  S.  Price  has 
a  convenient  History  of  Political  Economy  since  Adam 
Smith  (i8gi). 

Among  German  works  Ingram  mentions  a  brief 
but  excellent  history  by  H.  von  Scheel  in  the  Hand- 
buck  der  politischen  Oekonomie  (really  a  great  en- 
cyclopedia of  economic  knowledge  in  all  its  extent 
and  applications),  edited  by  Gustav  Schonberg  (1882) : 
the  Geschichte  der  National-bkonomik  in  Deutschlana 
(1874),  by  Wilhelm  Roscher ;  a  vast  repertory  of  learn- 
ing on  its  subject,  with  occasional  side-glances  at 
other  economic  literatures.  Die  neuer  National- 
okonomie  in  ihren  Hatiptrichtungen,  by  Moritz  Meyer 
(third  edition,  1882)  ;  a  useful  handbook  dealing  almost 
exclusively  with  recent  German  speculation  and 
policy." 

Of  French  works  Ingram  says:  "Some  of  the  bio- 
graphical and  critical  notices  by  Eugene  Daire  and 
others  in  the  Collection  des  Pnncipaux  Economistes 
will  also  be  found  useful,  as  well  as  the  articles  in  the 
Dictionnaire  del'Economie  Politiqtie  of  Coquelin  and 
Guillaumin  (1852-53),  which  is  justly  described  by 
Jevons  as  '  on  the  whole  the  best  work  of.  reference  in 
the  literature  of  the  science.'  " 

See  also  the  various  topics,  CAPITAL,  LABOR,  etc. 

For  brief  studies  of  the  great  writers,  see  W. 
J.  Ashley's  Economic  Classics,  a  series  of  re- 
prints (1895).  For  brief  statements  of  the 
more  orthodox  economy,  see  W.  S.  Jevons' 
Political  Economy  Primer  (1878)  ;  A.  and  M. 
P.  Marshall's  Economics  of  Industry  (1890), 
and  F.  A.  Walker's  First  Lessons  in  Political 
Economy  (1891).  A  short  political  economy  of 
the  more  advanced  school  is  Professor  J.  E. 
Symes'  Political  Economy  (1889).  Among  the 
longer  but  representative  works  are  J.  S.  Mill's 
Principles  of  Political  Economy  (1892),  which 
Cossa  calls  ' '  even  now  the  best  English  treatise 
on  economics."  Professor  Marshall,  with  his 
yet  unfinished  Principles  of  Economics  (vol.  i. 
1890),  is  considered  by  many  economists  the 
leading  English  authority  to-day.  Professor 
R.  T.  Ely's  Outlines  of  Economics  (1893)  is 
largely  used,  as  a  text-book  of  the  more  ad- 
vanced type.  One  of  the  best  of  the  few  books 
on  its  important  subject  is  J-  N.  Keynes'  Scope 
and  Method  of  Political  Economy.  The  best 
English  dictionary  of  economics  is  the  Diction- 
ary of  Political  Economy,  now  being  published, 
edited  by  R.  H.  I.  Palgrave.  (See  also  Bibli- 
ography in  the  Appendix  to  this  Encyclopedia.) 
Among  the  best  books  on  political  economy 
from  the  socialist  point  of  view  are  The  Fabian 
Essays(T.%go),  and  Karl  Marx'  Capital (\x.  1889). 
Henry  George  {Progress  and  Poverty,  1879) 
presents  the  economic  views  of  the  Single- 
Taxers.  George  Gunton  (Progress  and 
Wealth,  1889)  gives  the  important  economic 


Political  Science. 


1049 


Political  Science. 


view  of  the  eight-hour  philosophy.  Words- 
worth Donisthorpe  (Individualism,  1889),  and 
B.  R  Tucker  (Instead  of  a  Book,  1893),  give 
the  radical  individualistic  and  anarchistic  views. 
For  particular  subjects  in  political  economy, 
see  the  respective  subjects  ;  see  also  SOCIOL- 
OGY. 

POLITICAL  SCIENCE  may  be  denned 
as  the  science  of  politics,  or  the  science  of  the 
constitution  and  government  of  the  State  or 
body  politic.  Among  the  subjects  of  which  it 
treats  are  the  principles  on  which  States  are 
constituted  ;  the  forms  they  may  assume  ;  the 
placing  of  the  supreme  power  or  sovereignty  ; 
the  functions  of  government,  the  conduct 
of  the  legislative,  executive,  and  judicial 
powers  ;  the  defense  of  the  people  ;  the 
liberties  of  the  people  ;  diplomacy,  etc., 
etc.  In  Professor  J.  W.  Burgess'  Political 
Science  and  Constitutional  Law,  he  treats  of 
The  Nation,  The  Geographical  Distribution  of 
Nations,  National  Political  Character,  The 
State  (its  origin,  form,  and  ends),  The  Forma- 
tion of  Constitutions,  Individual  Liberty,  and 
Civil  Liberty.  For  a  study  of  the  various 
features  of  political  science,  see  STATE  ;  NA- 
TION ;  NATURAL  RIGHTS  ;  DEMOCRACY  ;  CON- 
STITUTIONALISM ;  INDIVIDUALISM  ;  SOCIALISM  ; 
also  CONGRESS  ;  PARLIAMENT  ;  PRESIDENT  ;  JU- 
DICIARY ;  TAXATION  ;  FINANCES,  etc.,  etc. 

In  this  article  we  are  concerned  simply  with 
the  history  of  political  science.  It  may  be 
said  to  have  begun  with  the  Greeks.  The 
laws  of  Manu  in  India,  the  sayings  of  Confu- 
cius and  Mmcius  in  Chinese,  the  sacred  books 
of  the  Hebrews,  and  the  priestly  traditions  of 
Egypt  and  Babylon  all  enunciate  occasionally 
apothegms  as  to  government,  chiefly  in  advice 
to  kings,  but  there  is  no  approach  to  a  syste- 
matic view  of  the  constitution  of  States  till 
the  Greeks,  and  with  them  not  till  the  time  of 
Plato  and  Aristotle.  Homer  and  Solon  give 
occasional  advice  as  to  rulers,  and  Aris- 
tophanes satirizes  the  folly  of  the  people  and 
the  wickedness  of  demagogs,  but  this  is  not 
political  science.  In  the  following  history  we 
give  only  an  outline,  referring  the  reader  to  dif- 
ferent articles  for  details. 

I.  CLASSIC  TIMES. 

Greek  political  science  begins  with  Plato  and 
Aristotle,  tho  Thucydides,  Socrates,  and  others 
had  already  contributed  valuable  ideas.     With 
them,  as  with  all  Greeks, the  State 
is  supreme,  and  the  origin  of  the 
Greece.      State  is  discussed  in  the  same  way 
as  the  origin  of  the  universe.     It  is 
both  natural  and  divine.    The  va- 
rious forms  of  government  are  distinguished  be- 
tween.   It  may  be  monarchical,  tyrannical,  aris- 
tocratic, plutocratic,    democratic,    oligarchical. 
Plato's  Republic  develops  his  ideal  of  a  com- 
munal State.     (See  PLATO  ;  COMMUNISM  ;  FAM- 
ILY.)    His  Laws  outline  the  State  he  considers 
more  immediately  possible  ;  in  the  Politicus  he 
describes  the  ideal  statesman.     The  best  con- 
dition is  to  be  under  a  perfectly  wise  ruler  un- 
fettered by  laws  ;  the  worst  condition  is  to  be 
under  a  foolish  ruler  without  laws.     In    fact, 
laws  are  a  clumsy  necessity.     The  perfect  State 


is  necessary  to  the  perfect  citizen.  The  family 
should  be  subject  to  the  State  (See  PLATO.) 

Aristotle  begins  with  the  concrete  and  the 
actual,  as  Plato  with  the  ideal.  In  his  Politics 
he  analyzes  the  State.  He  is  said  to  have 
studied  360  constitutions.  His  State  is  a  com- 
munity, a  large  household.  Man  cannot  exist 
in  solitude.  No  passage  in  political  literature 
is  better  known  than  his  "  'Avdputroc  <j>vaei  TroAm- 
KOV  £uov."  A  cityless  man  must  be  either  super- 
human or  beneath  contempt  ;  he  must  be  in  a 
state  of  perpetual  strife.  The  State  is  nat- 
ural. It  has  grown  up  from  the  household  and 
the  village  community.  The  head  of  the  fam- 
ily was  the  first  King.  Slaves  are  a  necessity, 
but  must  be  veil  treated.  Communism  is  not 
practical.  Aiistotle  says  :  "  Carefulness  is  least 
in  that  which  is  common  to  most  ;  for  men  take 
thought  in  the  chief  place  for  their  own,  and 
less  for  the  common  stock."  Yet  friendship 
must  rule  ;  "  friends'  goods  are  common."  But 
this  communism  must  start  from  the  individual, 
not  from  law.  "  The  pleasure  we  take  in  any- 
thing is  increased  beyond  expression  when  we 
esteem  it  our  own  ;  and  I  conceive  that  the  in- 
dividual's affection  for  himself  is  by  no  means 
casual,  but  is  of  man's  very  nature." 

The  State  is  the  continuity  of  the  race  within 
a  manageable  compass,  and  must  have  an  en- 
during constitution.  Pollock's  History  of  the 
Science  of  Politics  thus  puts  Aristotle's  views  : 

"A  normal  or  right  constitution  is  that  which  is 
framed  and  administered  for  the  common  good  of  all, 
whether  the  sovereign  power  be  with  one,  with  few, 
or  with  the  many.  A  constitution  framed  in  the  ex- 
clusive interest  of  a  class,  even  tho  it  be  a  majority 
of  the  whole,  is  wrongful  and  perverse.  Royalty, 
aristocracy,  and  commonwealth  (n-oAiTeia)  are  the  nor- 
mal forms  ;  their  respective  corruptions  are  tyranny, 
oligarchy,  and  democracy— tyranny  being  a  monarch- 
ical government  worked  for  the  advantage  of  the 
monarch  over  all  subjects  ;  oligarchy,  the  government 
of  a  privileged  class  for  the  advantage  of  the  rich  over 
the  poor  ;  and  democracy,  the  government  of  the  mul- 
titude for  the  advantage  of  the  poor  over  the  rich." 
(See  ARISTOTLE.) 

Later  Greek  thought  turned  more  upon  ques- 
tions of  morals  than  of  politics.  The  Cynics 
protested  against  the  exa  tation  of  the  State, 
and  the  Stoics  furnish  the  connecting  link  be- 
tween Greek  and  the  Roman  political  concep- 
tions. In  the  stoical  conception  of  the  indi- 
vidual conforming  his  life  to  natural  laws  is  the 
germ  of  that  doctrine  of  natural  rights  which 
has  played  so  large  a  part  in  political  science. 
Rome,  not  Greece,  is  the  typical  home  of  the 
Stoic.  "To  the  Stoics  and  the  Roman  law- 
yers," says  Lecky  (History  of  European  Mor- 
als, vol.  i.,  chap,  ii.),  "  is  mainly  due  the  clear 
recognition  of  the  existence  of  a  law  of  nature 
above  and  beyond  all  human  enactments  which 
has  been  the  basis  of  the  best  morality,  and  of 
the  most  influential  tho  most  chimerical  politi- 
cal speculation  of  later  ages. ' ' 

But  Rome's  genius  was  practical  rather  than 
philosophical.     Polybius,  in  his  analysis  of  the 
Roman  constitution,  and  Cicero,  in  his  presenta- 
tions of  Greek  thought,  are  almost 
the    only  writers    among   the  Ro- 
mans to  directly  treat  of  political       Borne. 
science.     The  real  contribution  of 
Rome  to  this  science  is   the  juris- 
prudence which  was  built  up  by  the  jurisconsults.- 


Political  Science. 


1050 


Political  Science. 


It  gave  forms  and  laws  to  the  customs  of  a  great 
State.  It  sought  to  base  government  on  ideas 
of  liberty  and  justice.  Even  when  Rome  grew 
most  imperial  she  preserved  the  forms  of  liberty. 
It  has  been  said  that  ' '  the  theory  of  the  Roman 
Empire  was  that  of  a  representative  despotism, 
and  that  under  the  empire  "  the  various  offices 
of  the  republic  were  not  annihilated,  but  grad- 
ually concentrated  in  a  single  man"  (Lecky, 
History  of  European  Morals,  vol.  i.,  chap.  ii.). 
Greece  in  theory  had  made  the  State  dominant 
over  the  individual  ;  Rome  in  theory  made  the 
individual  dominant  over  the  State.  It  is  not 
the  only  case  where  the  individual  has  in  fact 
t>een  more  free  under  the  former  than  under 
the  latter  condition.  Out  of  Rome  arose  the 
political  problems  of 

II.  THE  MEDIEVAL  PERIOD. 

The  main  political  problem  of  the  Middle  Ages 
•was  the  relation  of  Church  and  State.  Rome 
had  bequeathed  to  the  successors  of  Charle- 
magne the  traditions  of  a  great  State.  The 
Church  had  built  upon  the  simple  teachings  of 
Christ  a  great  secular  power.  Thomas  Aquinas 
(^.•z/.),  in  a  treatise  Of  the  Government  of 
Princes,  left  unfinished,  but  completed  by  his 
disciple,  Ptolemy  of  Lucca,  argued  the  inde- 
pendence of  the  Church.  Dante  (q  ?/.),  in  his 
De  Monarchia,  defended  the  independence  of 
the  State.  (For  the  discussion,  see  AQUINAS  ; 
CANON  LAW  ;  DANTE  ;  MIDDLE  AGES.)  Both 
sides  admit  the  need  of  a  wise  ruler.  Only 
-under  such  a  ruler,  said  Dante,  is  freedom  pos- 
sible. 

"For  citizens  are  not  for  the  sake  of  the  consuls, 
mor  a  nation  for  the  king ;  but  contrariwise  the  con- 
suls are  for  the  sake  of  the  citizens,  the  king  for  the 
sake  of  the  nation.  For  as  a  commonwealth  is  not  sub- 
ordinate to  laws,  but  laws  to  the  commonwealth,  so 
men  who  live  according  to  law  are  not  for  the  service 
of  the  lawgiver,  but  he  for  theirs  ;  which  is  the  philos- 
opher's opinion  in  that  which  he  hath  left  us  concern- 
ing the  present  matter.  Hence  it  is  plain  also  that  tho 
a  consul  or  king  in  regard  of  means  be  the  lord  of 
others,  yet  in  regard  of  the  end  they  are  the  servants 
of  others ;  and  most  of  all  the  monarch,  who,  without 
doubt,  is  to  be  deemed  the  servant  of  them  all." 

But  this,  tho  the  main,  was  not  the  only 
problem  of  the  Middle  Ages.  Out  of  the  unset- 
tled condition  of  the  times,  out  of  the  battle  be- 
tween the  conflicting  claims  of  emperor  and 
pope,  of  kings  and  barons,  of  empire  and  free 
city,  rose  the  claims  of  the  right  of  local  gov- 
ernment and  the  conception  of  limited  mon- 
archy. 

III.  THE  MODERN  PERIOD. 

Pollock  says  that  the  modern  study  of  politics 
begins  with  Macchiavelli.  He  seems  rather  the 
link  between  the  Middle  Ages  and  the  present, 
but  to  belong  to  neither.  Concerning  the  vexed 
question  of  how  to  interpret  his  great  work,  The 
Prince,  see  MACCHIAVELLI  ;  but  whether  it  be 
interpreted  as  satire  or  heartless  policy,  Mac- 
chiavelli shows  with  masterly  keenness  how  an 
unlimited  monarch  may  bend  all  to  his  will.  He 
is  modern  in  his  study  of  facts  ;  he  is  medieval 
in  his  worship  of  the  State  and  kingly  power. 
Bluntschli  considers  his  great  service  to  have 
been  that  he  divorced  political  science  from 
theology.  To  Jean  Bodin  (y.v.),  in  his  Of  the 
Commonweal  tn,  we  owe  the  modern  and  neces- 


Early 


sary  concept  of  sovereignty  (g.v.).  Sovereignty 
is  not  above  moral  law  ;  justice  is  its  best  sup- 
port ;  yet  the  State  is  above  enactments.  "  The 
State  can  do  no  wrong."  There  are,  however, 
laws,  like  those  of  the  family,  of  property,  even 
of  the  succession  to  the  French  crown,  with 
which,  Bodin  says,  the  State  cannot  meddle. 
From  the  inviolability  of  property  he  deduces 
the  consequence  that  even  the  most  absolute 
monarch  cannot  tax  his  people  without  their 
consent.  We  see  here  plainly  the  influence  of 
the  Reformation,  the  emphasis  upon  individual 
responsibility,  and  the  right  of  the  individual  to 
judge  even  the  king.  On  this  question  Luther, 
Reuchlin,  Colet,  More,  Erasmus,  Politian,  Cal- 
vin, Bacon,  all  wrote.  Hugo  Grotius  declares 
the  State  to  be  "  the  complete  union  of  free 
men  who  join  themselves  together  for  the  pur- 
pose of  enjoying  law  and  for  the  sake  of  public 
welfare"  (De  jure  belli,  vol.  i.,  chap,  i.,  §  14). 
This  is  almost  the  social  contract. 

Of  the  early  English  writers  on  political  sci- 
ence Pollock  says  : 

"  Fortescue,  both  in  his  book,  De  Laudibus  Legum 
Anglice,  and  in  his  less  known  treatises  on  the  Law  of 
Nature  and  the  Monarchy  of  England,  is  careful  to 
represent  the  king's  power  as  not  absolute  but  limited 
by  the  law,  or,  to  use  the  language  borrowed  by 
him  from  St.  Thomas  Aquinas'  De  Regimine  Principum, 
not  'royal'  but  '  political.'  The  king  is 
the  head  of  the  body  politic,  but  can  act 
only  according  to  its  constitution  and  by 
the'  appropriate  organs  in  each  case. 
And  it  is  said  in  general  terms  that  the 
king's  power  is  derived  from  the  con- 
sent of  the  people.  But  the  question 
where  political  supremacy  really  lies  is  not  followed 
up.  Neither  is  any  definite  theory  of  the  origin  of 
government  put  forward.  More's  Utopia  calls  for 
mention  on  account  of  its  literary  fame  ;  but  tho  it  con- 
tains incidentally  not  a  few  shrewd  criticisms,  open 
and  covert,  on  the  state  of  English  society  in  the  first 
quarter  of  the  sixteenth  century,  we  cannot  count  it  as 
an  addition  to  political  science.  It  is  a  Platonic  or 
ultra-Platonic  fancy,  bred  of  the  Platonism  of  the 
Renaissance.  Even  more  than  the  Republic  of  Plato  it 
belongs  to  the  poetry  as  distinguished  from  the  philos- 
ophy of  politics.  In  the  De  Republic/*  Anglorum, 
or  English  Commonwealth,  of  Sir  Thomas  Smith,  first 
published  after  the  author's  death  in  1583,  we  find 
something  much  more  like  a  forerunner  of  Hobbes. 
Indeed,  so  clear  and  precise  are  Smith's  chapters  on 
sovereignty  that  one  is  tempted  to  think  that  he  must 
somehow  have  had  knowledge  of  Bodin's  work." 

More  modern  in  its  appeal  to  facts  is  Montes- 
quieu's great  Esprit  des  Lois.  Like  Aristotle, 
he  endeavors  to  study  States  and  laws  as  they 
are,  and  from  them  to  construct  his  generaliza- 
tions Much  of  his  information  is  unreliable, 
and  his  writings  are  therefore  of  unequal  value  ; 
but  much  is  also  of  very  great  value,  and  he  may 
be  considered  almost  the  father  of  modern  his- 
torical research  and  comparative  political  sci- 
ence. His  interpretation  of  the  English  Con- 
stitution emphasizes  the  necessity  of  separating 
the  legislative,  judicial,  and  executive  powers, 
an  idea  which  has  played  so  large  a  part  in 
America,  but  is  to-day  much  criticised,  espe- 
cially in  England.  He  feared  the  corruption  of 
democracies,  yet  held  that  liberty  should  be  the 
governing  political  principle. 

This  brings  us  to  Hobbes  (q.v.)  and  his 
Leviathan.  (For  a  fuller  discussion  of  the  ori- 
gin of  and  the  difference  between  Hobbes', 
Locke's,  and  Rousseau's  forms  of  the  theory 
of  natural  rights  and  the  social  contract,  see 
NATURAL  RIGHTS.)  With  Hobbes  all  men  are 


Political  Science. 


1051 


Political  Science. 


The  Social 
Contract. 


"by  nature  free  and  equal  ;  but  since  in  tnis  state 
without  government  they  would  constantly  be 
at  war,  they  have  compacted  to- 
gether to  give  over  their  natural 
rights  to  some  person  or  persons 
who  have  the  sovereignty,  and,  hav- 
ing given  away  their  rights,  they 
no  longer  have  them,  and  hence  they  can  only 
.absolutely  obey.  The  sovereign  is  irresponsible 
and  absolute.  The  people  are  his  subjects. 

With  Locke,  the  people  have  made  a  similar 
compact,  but  have  reserved  the  right  to  with- 
draw their  allegiance  when  they  will.  Hence 
the  right  to  revolution,  his  Essay  on  Civil  Gov- 
trnment  being  an  elaborate  defence  of  the 
Revolution  of  1688.  (See  LOCKE  ;  HOBBES.) 

Rousseau's  social  compact  is  one  where  the 
people  surrender  their  rights  to  all  the  people 
and  not  to  the  sovereign.  "  Each  of  us  puts 
his  person  and  faculties  in  a  common  stock 
tinder  the  sovereign  direction  of  the  general 
will  ;  and  we  receive  every  member  as  an  in- 
separable part  of  the  whole."  (See  ROUSSEAU.) 
We  pass  over  these  theories  in  brief  because 
they  are  discussed  under  the  special  articles 
above  referred  to,  but  these  theories  have 
changed  the  whole  modern  world.  Entering 
into  the  thought  of  France  through  Rousseau  and 
numerous  writers  of  the  eighteenth  century  (see 
FRANCE),  the  doctrine  of  the  natural  rights  of 
man  was  the  main  intellectual  cause  of  the 
French  Revolution.  Crossing  the  ocean,  it  pro- 
duced various  Declarations  of  Rights  in  various 
States,  as  notably  in  Virginia  ;  it  molded  the 
Declaration  of  Independence  of  the  United 
States,  and  has  affected  the  whole  history  of  the 
United  States  even  more  than  that  of  France. 
Federalists  and  Jeffersonians,  Republicans  and 
Democrats,  broad  and  strict  constructionists 
have  differed  in  the  interpretation  of  the  United 
States  Constitution,  but  all  have  been  agreed  that 
government  can  only  do  that  which  the  Consti- 
tution empowers  it  to  do,  or,  at  least/that  which 
can  be  read  into  the  Constitution.  All  else  is  re- 
served to  the  individual ;  constitutions  and  char- 
ters are  compacts  by  which  the  sovereign  voters 
allow  the  government  certain  acts.  In  Europe, 

fovernments,  municipal,  State,  or  national,  can 
o  what  they  will.  In  the  United  States,  the 
presumption  is  against  government  action  ;  and 
city,  State,  and  even  the  Federal  Government 
can  do  only  what  the  people  vote  that  they  may 
do  ;  action  beyond  this  often  requires  constitu- 
tional amendments  most  difficult  to  obtain. 
Under  which  system  the  individual  is  most  free 
is  to-day  a  debated  point.  A  growing  minority 
in  the  United  States  believe  that  there  is  really 
more  individual  freedom  in  Europe  than  in  the 
United  States  ;  that  the  United  States  is  bound 
by  "the  dead  hand"  of  an  iron  Constitution, 
framed  for  conditions  which  have  long  passed 
away,  and  that,  as  in  the  case  of  Greece  and 
Rome,  the  greatest  freedom  is  not  in  that  coun- 
try which  theoretically  most  exalts  the  indi- 
vidual over  the  State,  but  in  that  country  where 
the  power  of  a  democratic  State  is  greatest. 
The  individual  in  Rome  and  America  is  freed 
from  the  State,  a  member  of  which  he  is,  to  be 
delivered,  bound  hand  and  foot,  to  private  des- 
potisms in  which  he  has  no  voice.  Whether 
this  view  be  correct  or  not,  it  will  be  seen  how 


The  Social 
Unity. 


far  these  theories  of  the  social  compact  and  of 
natural  rights  have  affected  the  world,  and  par- 
ticularly the  United  States.  (See  CONSTITUTION- 
ALISM ;  NATURAL  RIGHTS.)  In  England  first 
arose  a  check  to  these  theories  and  more  bal- 
anced views.  Hume  brilliantly  showed  the 
fallacy  of  the  social  contract,  and  Blackstone 
carefully  built  up  where  Hume  tore  down.  Of 
Blackstone,  Pollock  says  : 

"  While  Rousseau's  Contrat  Social  was  almost  fresh 
from  the  press,  Blackstone  was  handling  Locke's  prin- 
ciples in  England  after  quite  another  fashion.  If  we 
dismiss  from  our  minds  Bentham's  fervid  criticism, 
and  approach  Blackstone  in  an  unprejudiced  moodt 
we  shall  find  that  he  not  only  was  faith- 
ful to  his  lights,  but  materially  improved 
on  Locke  in  more  than  one  point.  For 
one  thing,  he  distinctly  refuses  to  believe 
in  the  state  of  nature  as  an  historical 
fact,  and  thereby  avoids  a  difficulty 
which  Locke  had  palliated  rather  than 
met  by  ingenious  but  weak  excuses.  'Society  had  not 
its  formal  beginning  from  any  convention  of  individ- 
uals." Blackstone  treats  the  family  as  the  unit  of 
society,  and  reduces  the  original  contract,  tho  he 
does  not  abandon  the  term,  to  the  fact  that  men  hold 
together  in  society  because  they  cannot  help  it." 

Burke,  however,  most  brilliantly  criticised  the 
theory  of  the  social  compact.  His  theoretical 
statements  are  intertwined  with  his  historical 
and  political  writings,  and  this  fact  renders  him 
at  times  contradictory,  but  also  saves  him  from 
going  to  extremes.  He  opposes  both  Protestant 
oppression  in  Ireland  and  Jacobin  violence  in 
France.  His  Reflections  on  the  French  Revo- 
lution is  explained  by  his  Appeal  from  the 
New  to  the  Old  Whigs,  He  says  :  "  Meta- 
physics cannot  live  without  definitions,  but  pru- 
dence is  cautious  how  she  defines. ' '  He  believes 
in  the  people  almost  as  much  as  Rousseau,  and 
tells  us  that  "  as  a  law  directed  against  the  mass 
of  the  nation  has  not  the  nature  of  a  reasonable 
institution,  so  neither  has  it  the  authority  ;  for 
in  all  forms  of  government  the  people  is  the 
true  legislator."  Even  the  whole  people 
"have  no  right  to  make  a  law  prejudicial  to 
the  whole  community."  But  he  asks  :  "  What 
are  the  people  ?  '  A  number  of  vague,  loose  in- 
dividuals '  are  not  a  people,  neither  can  they 
make  themselves  one  offhand  by  convention. 
A  nation  is  born  of  history  ;  it  is  a  compact  of 
the  living,  the  dead,  and  those  yet  unborn.  It  is 
far  more  natural  than  an  imaginary  '  state  of  na- 
ture,' for  'art  is  man's  nature.'  "  Rousseau's 
Contrat  Social  Burke  calls  "chaff  and  rags,  and 
paltry  blurred  shreds  of  paper  about  the  rights 
of  man."  (See  BURKE.)  This  study  of  iacts 
leads  us  to 

IV.  THE  PRESENT  CENTURY. 

Here  the  first  great  name  is  Bentham.  His 
Fragment  on  Government  appeared  in  1776, 
but  he  belongs  distinctly  to  the  nineteenth  cen- 
tury. He  bases  the  State  on  sovereignty,  and, 
laying  the  foundation  of  the  modern  English 
theory  of  the  State,  says  :  "  When  a  number  of 
persons  (whom  we  may  style  subjects)  are  sup- 
posed to  be  in  the  habit  of  paying  obedience  to 
a  person,  or  an  assemblage  of  persons,  of  a 
known  and  certain  description  (whom  we  may 
call  governor  or  governors),  such  persons  alto- 
gether (subjects  and  governors)  are  said  to  be  in 
a  state  of  political  society. ' ' 


Political  Science. 


1052 


Political  Science. 


Laws  are  the  commands  of  the  supreme  gov- 
ernor, or,  to  use  the  term  now  adopted,  the  sov- 
ereign. And  the  field  of  the  supreme  gov- 
ernor's authority  is  indefinite.  As  to  the  subject, 
Bentham  says  that  while  his  duty  is,  as  Hobbes 
says,  to  "  obey  punctually."  his-  right  is  also  to 
"censure  freely."  The  basis  of  censure  is  to 
be  the  Benthamite  measure  of  right;  utility, 
"the  greatest  good  of  the  greatest  number." 
(See  BENTHAM.) 

Austin  (g.v.)  is  a  writer  whose  works  have 
been  much  discussed  and  much  misunderstood. 
He  writes  abstractly  and  dogmatically,  devel- 
oping the  clear  concept  of  sovereignty  with  lit- 
tle reference  to  moral,  social,  or  historical  con- 
siderations. This  lack,  Pollock  says,  "  has  been 
supplied  by  Sir  Henry  Maine  in  the  two  last 
chapters  of  his  Early  History  of  Institutions, 
and  later  by  Mr.  Frederic  Harrison,  in  the 
Fortnightly  Review.  Still  more  lately  Pro- 
fessor Holland  has  exhibited  the  results  of  the 
English  school  in  a  form  wholly  freed  from  the 
old  controversial  encumbrances,  and  thereby 
freed  also  from  the  extreme  insularity  which  has 
prevented  Austin's  work  entirely,  and  Ben- 
tham's  to  a  great  extent,  from  being  appreciated 
by  Continental  thinkers." 

The  German  school  of  political  science  is  char- 
acteristically  transcendental.     It    begins  with 
Kant's  Rechtsstaat  and  the  German  Natur- 
recht ;  it  is  developed  in  Fichte's 
socialistic  treatment  of  his  early  in- 
Germany.     dividualistic  conception  of  the  State 
as  composed    of    individuals,  and 
Hegel's    individualistic   treatment 
of  a  socialistic  conception  of  the  State  ;  it  re- 
sults in  the  paternalism  of  German  State  social- 
ism, and  the  democratic  socialism  of  Marx  and 
Lassalle. 

German  political  science,  however,  like  Ger- 
man political  economy,  has  developed  a  strong 
historical  school.  Even  Hegel,  in  his  theories, 
has  much  reference  to  history.  Savigny,  how- 
ever, is  the  great  German  founder  of  the  his- 
torical school.  The  problem,  however,  most 
discussed  in  political  science  in  the  present  cen- 
tury has  been  the  function  and  the  extent  of  the 
function  of  the  State.  Wilhelm  von  Humboldt 
in  1791  argued  that  the  sole  duty  of  the  State 
was  the  maintenance  of  the  legal  security  of 
each  individual  ;  but  most  Germans  have  dif- 
fered from  this.  Fichte  notably  broke  through 
these  narrow  bounds.  Friedrich  J.  Stahl  con- 
siders the  State  ' '  the  union  of  the  multitude  to 
an  ordered  common  existence,  the  setting  up  of 
a  moral  authority  and  power,  exalted  and  majes- 
tic, to  which  the  subjects  must  submit."  Fr. 
Schmittbenner  declared  the  State  to  be  "  an 
ethical  organism  for  the  purpose  of  giving  pub- 
lic expression  life,  law,  well-being  and  culture." 
Waitz  (Politik,  1862)  says,  "The  State  is  not 
something  arbitrarily  made  ;  it  does  not  arise 
by  a  contract  between  men  nor  by  the  power  of 
one  or  more  individuals.  The  State  grows  like 
an  organism,  but  not  according  to  the  laws,  nor 
for  the  ends  of  mere  natural  life  ;  it  has  its 
foundation  in  the  higher  moral  tendencies  of 
man,  and  is  a  sphere  for  the  realization  of 
moral  ideas  ;  it  is  not  a  natural  but  a  moral  or- 
ganism." 

More  recent  thought  of  this  school  has  em- 


phasized" the  element  of  nationality.  Welcker 
in  Freiburg,  Lieber  in  New  York,  Laurent 
in  Ghent,  Mancini  and  Padelitti  in  Rome, 
Pierantoni  in  Naples,  and  notably  Bluntschli 
in  Zurich  and  Munich,  have  emphasized  this 
thought. 

The  opposition  to  the  historical  and  national 
school  has  been  mainly  in  England.  Mill  criti- 
cised the  paternal  theory  of  the  State  from  the 
radical  standpoint,  tho  he  later  in 
life  in  many  practical  ways  modified 
this  and  learned  even  to  call  him-  England. 
self  a  socialist.  (See  MILL.)  Buckle 
and  Bagehot  apply  the  methods  of 
natural  science  and  environment  to  the  theory  of 
the  State  ;  Baron  Eotvos  in  Hungary,  Labou- 
laye  in  France,  Morley  in  England,  follow 
Mill's  liberalism.  Herbert  Spencer  bitterly 
opposes  any  extension  of  the  function  of  the 
State,  in  which  he  is  opposed  by  Huxley  (g.v.) 
and  Ritchie  (q.v.\  Latest  political  science,  how- 
ever, devotes  itself  more  to  special  subjects  and 
historical  research  and  analysis.  Gneist  in  Ger- 
many, Stubbs,  Anson,  and  Dicey  in  England, 
Macey  in  America,  are  among  the  chief  stu- 
dents of  the  English  Constitution.  Laboulaye 
writes  admiringly  of  the  American  Constitution. 
Treitshke,  Lorenz  von  Stein  and  others  have 
studied  Prussian  and  German  administration. 
De  Tocqueville  (early  in  the  century)  and  Bryce 
and  Lecky  (recently)  have  written  general 
studies  of  American  democracy.  Paul  Janet, 
in  France,  has  written  what  some  consider  the 
best  general  history  of  political  science. 

References  :  F.  Pollock's  History  of  the  Science  of 
Politics  (1890) ;  J.  K.  Bluntschli 's  Lehre  vom  Modernen 
Staat — the  first  volume  translated  as  The  Theory  of 
the  States  (1895) ;  J.  W.  Burgess's  Political  Science  and 
Comparative  Constitutional  Law  (1890} ;  T.  D.  Wool- 
sey's  Political  Science  (1878) ;  W.  Wilson's  The  State 
(1895)-  ( 

POLITICAL  SCIENCE  IN  AMERICA. 

— It  would  be  difficult  to  overestimate  the  influ- 
ence which  the  rise  of  the  great  American 
Republic  has  had  on  the  recent  phases  of 
political  philosophy.  Not  that  the  United 
States  has  produced  a  striking  literature  of 
the  subject.  The  American  spirit  is  more  at 
home  in  practice  than  in  theory.  It  has  been 
the  facts  of  our  political  history,  far  more  than 
the  literary  formulation  of  our  political  science, 
that  have  produced  important  results.  To  the 
philosophers  of  Europe,  groping  blindly  about 
among  the  rubbish  of  antiquated  systems  for 
a  foundation  on  which  to  build  a  strong  mod- 
ern theory  of  the  State,  the  development  of 
American  political  institutions  was  full  of  sug- 
gestions. The  Americans  themselves  worked 
away  at  their  nation-making  quite  untroubled, 
for  the  most  part,  by  philosophical  perplexities. 
In  the  crises  of  attaining  their  independence 
the  speculative  minds  among  them  followed 
unquestioningly  the  theories  of  natural  rights 
and  social  contract,  which  were  the  staple  of 
English  and  of  Continental  thought.  There 
was  nothing  original  in  the  ideas  of  Otis, 
Adams,  Mason,  or  Jefferson  ;  only  in  the  appli- 
cation was  novelty  to  be  found.  In  the  crisis 
of  constitution-making,  the  same  was  true. 
Hamilton,  Madison,  and  the  other  leaders  in 
the  movement  of  1787-80,  followed  the  theories 


Political  Science. 


Pool-Selling. 


of  Locke  and  Montesquieu  and  Burke  ;  but  ex- 
hibited a  marvelous  sagacity  in  distinguishing 
the  features  of  those  theories  that  were  of  im- 
mediate applicability  to  the  problems  at  hand, 
and  in  rejecting  that  which,  however  attract- 
ive in  philosophy,  was  not  of  practical  mo- 
ment. 

The  reaction  of  American  methods  on 
Europe  became  manifest  at  the  outbreak  of 
the  French  Revolution.  The  formulation  in 
written  documents  of  the  rights  of  subjects 
and  the  form  and  powers  of  Governments  fol- 
lowed American  precedents  ;  and  the  effect  of 
this  practise,  in  classifying  thought  on  political 
subjects,  was  enormous.  In  America  itself, 
speculation  in  reference  to  the  written  Consti- 
tution took  a  narrow  legal  form.  The  mean- 
ing of  the  language  in  this  one  concrete 
document  absorbed  our  interest,  and  we  be- 
came a  race  of  constitutional  lawyers.  But 
beyond  the  seas  the  written  Constitution,  as  a 
new  phenomenon  in  politics,  excited  debate  as 
to  its  abstract  significance,  and  as  to  its  import- 
ance, not  to  a  particular  State,  but  to  the  State 
in  general.  A  new  turn  was  given  to  the  per- 
ennial discussion  as  to  the  relative  position  of 
monarch  and  people  in  reference  to  ultimate 
political  authority.  European  thinkers,  with 
the  concept  of  a  written  constitution  to  work 
upon,  were  able  to  assign  to  the  popular  will 
a  much  more  definite  function  in  the  abstract 
state.  Moreover,  the  progress  of  an  untram- 
meled  democracy  on  this  side  of  the  water 
attracted  the  attention  of  social  philosophers. 
The  study  of  our  institutions  has  been  the 
source  of  such  profound  reflections,  on  both 
the  good  and  the  bad  aspects  of  demo- 
cratic development,  as  are  to  be  found  in  de 
Tocqueville,  in  Maine,  and  in  B^ce. 

The  crisis  of  our  struggle  for  national  unity, 
culminating  in  the  Civil  War,  produced  a  con- 
siderable volume  of  literature,  in  which  a  solu- 
tion for  pur  practical  problems  was  sought 
in  the  principles  of  abstract  political  theory. 
Lieber's  Political  Ethics,  published  before 
1840,  was  the  most  complete  treatise  of  a  broad 
philosophical  character  prior  to  the  war  ;  and 
this  work  followed  very  closely  the  lines  of 
German  speculation  of  the  day.  Of  our  great 
ante-bellum  statesmen,  Calhoun  was  the 
most  endowed  with  the  spirit  of  specula- 
tion, and  his  Disquisition  on  Govern- 
ment embodies  some  very  suggestive  ideas 
on  the  ultimate  principles  of  Government, 
apart  from  his  peculiar  interpretation  of  the 
American  Constitution.  Of  the  works  called 
forth  by  the  exigencies  of  reconstruction  at 
the  end  of  the  war,  Kurd's  Theory  of  Our 
National  Existence,  Brownson's  American 
Republic,  and  Mulford's  The  Nation,  are 
notable.  All  of  these  betray  a  close  depend- 
ence on  prominent  schools  of  European 
thought,  but  all  are  devoted  to  adapting  the 
old  formulas  to  the  determination  of  a  national 
sovereignty  in  the  Constitution  of  the  United 
States.  This  question  of  sovereignty  in  rela- 
tion to  our  written  constitution,  is  a  character- 
istic feature  in  the  work  of  Jameson,  The 
Constitutional  Convention,  and  in  that  of 
Burgess,  published  as  late  as  1891,  on  Political 
Science  and  Comparative  Constitutional  Law. 


The  definitions  and  distinctions  evolved  in 
these  latter  works  in  the  conception  of  sov- 
ereignty have  denoted  a  clear  advance  in 
political  theory,  and  have  been  correspond- 
ingly influential.  A  similar  line  of  advance  is 
to  be  seen  in  the  works  of  Anson  and  Dicey 
on  the  English  Constitution,  and  these  writers, 
the  latter  in  particular,  reveal  their  indebted- 
ness to  American  institutions  for  light  in  push- 
ing their  way.  At  the  same  time  continental 
thought,  especially  since  the  problem  of  Ger- 
man national  organization  was  solved,  has 
looked  for  inspiration  and  example  across  the 
Atlantic.  Laband  and  Jellinek,  the  leading 
German  publicists,  are  finding  solutions  for 
the  problems  of  constitutional  law  and  politics 
in  the  same  conceptions  of  sovereignty  that 
have  been  developed  by  American  conditions. 
In  summary,  it  is  not  unfair  to  say  that 
American  facts  and  American  theories,  to- 
gether, have  given  to  individual  rights  their 
surest  present  guarantee  through  written  con- 
stitutions, and  to  national  authority  its  surest 
support  through  the  interpretation  of  sover- 
eignty in  those  constitutions. 

WM.  A.  DUNNING. 

PpLLOCK,  SIR  FREDERICK,  eldest  son 
of  Sir  William  Frederick  Pollock,  was  born  in 
1845,  and  educated  at  Eton  and  Trinity  College, 
Cambridge.  He  was  called  to  the  bar  in  1871 
and  was  examiner  in  law  at  Cambridge,  1879- 
81.  He  was  Professor  of  Jurisprudence  at 
University  College,  London,  in  1882-83,  and 
then  at  Oxford.  He  was  Professor  of  Common 
Law  in  the  Inns  of  Court,  1889-90.  He  is  editor 
of  the  Law  Quarterly  Review,  and  of  the  Law 
Reports  since  January,  1  895  .  He  has  published 
works  on  law,  a  history  of  political  science,  etc. 

POLL  TAX.    See  TAXATION. 


POLYANDRY  (Gr.  raMf,  many,  and  avfjp, 
man)  is  the  social  state  where  the  women 
have  more  husbands  than  one.  It  is  some- 
times limited  to  the  marriage  of  a  woman  to 
two  or  more  brothers.  It  has  prevailed  in  sav- 
age times  more  or  less  all  over  the  world.  It 
still  exists  in  Tibet,  Ceylon,  and  some  parts 
of  India.  See  FAMILY. 

POLYGAMY  (Gr.  iroMc,  many,  and  ya/zof, 
marriage)  is  the  social  state  where  the  husband 
has  more  than  one  wife  (polygyny),  or  the  wife 
has  more  than  one  husband  (polyandry).  See 
POLYANDRY  and  POLYGYNY. 


POLYGYNY  (Gr.  iroMe,  many,  and  ywrj, 
woman}  is  the  social  state  where  the  husband 
has  more  than  one  wife.  It  prevails  in  most 
savage  lands,  and  is  allowed  in  some  semi- 
civilized  lands.  See  FAMILY. 

POOL-SELLING  is  the  selling  of  pools  or 
stakes  where  a  combination  of  persons  stake 
a  sum  of  money  on  the  success  of  a  horse, 
or  on  whatever  thing  the  pool  may  be  ;  the 
money  to  be  divided  among  the  successful  bet- 
ters according  to  the  amount  put  in  by  each. 
There  has  been  considerable  agitation  against 
pool-selling,  and  laws  have  been  passed  against 
it.  See  GAMBLING. 


Poor-Laws. 


1054 


Poor-Laws. 


Early  Leg- 
islation. 


POOR-LAWS  (ENGLISH).— The  poor- 
laws  of  England,  which  have  played  so  large 
and  important  a  part  in  her  economic  and  social 
history,  date  maijily  from  the  Elizabethan 
period. 

In  feudal  times  the  poor  were  recognized  as 
having  direct  claim  on  their  lords;  there  needed 
to  be  no  other  legal  provision.  What  more  was 
needed  was  left  to  monastic  and  other  ecclesias- 
tical organizations,  and  to  hospitals.  There 
was  no  inquiry  into  the  causes  of  destitution  ; 
application  for  relief  was  the  one  thing  needful. 
The  inevitable  consequence  of  this  want  of  dis- 
crimination was  that  the  very  machinery  for 
the  relief  of  the  poor  became  a  means  of  in- 
creasing their  number  and  deteriorating  their 
character.  The  downfall  of  feudalism  and  the 
transition  to  an  industrial  and  commercial 
society,  too,  developed  pauperism  which  dif- 
fered widely  from  the  poverty  of  preceding  cen- 
turies, and  completely  outgrew  the  machinery 
for  its  relief. 

Steps  were  first  taken  simply  for  the  repression  of 
the  poor.    An  act  of  12  Richard  II.,  after  providing  for 
labor  for  persons  able  to  work  (see  Labor  and  Labor 
Laws,  vol.  xiv.  p.  167),  enacts  "  that  beggars  impotent 
to  serve  shall  abide  in  the  cities  and  towns  where  they 
may  be  dwelling  at  the  time  of  the  proc- 
lamation   of   this   statute,  and,   if    the 
people  of  the  cities  and  towns  will  not, 
or  may  not,  suffice  to  find  them,  that 
these,  the  said  beggars,  shall  draw  them 
to  other  towns  within  the  hundred,  rape, 
or  wapentake,  or  to  the    towns   where 
they  were  born,  within  40  days  after  the  proclamation 
made,    and   there    shall    continually     abide     during 
their  lives."    This  is  the  first  enactment  in  which  the 
impotent  poor  are  directly  named  as  a  separate  class, 
and  on  that  account  it  has  been  mistakenly  regarded 
as  the  origin  of  the  English  poor-laws  ;  but  it  makes 
no  provision  for  their  relief,  and  the  chief  character- 
istic of  the  statute  is  the  fact  of  its  having  openly  rec- 
ognized the    distinction    between   "  beggars   able    to 
labor  "  and  "  beggars  impotent  to  serve." 

But  the  problem  grew.  The  reckless  waste 
of  national  resources  by  Henry  VIII.  ;  the 
dissolution  and  spoliation  of  the  monasteries, 
and  the  resultant  transfer  of  land  and  other 
property  from  the  possession  of  semi-popular 
trustees  to  nobles  greedy  for  increased  rents  ; 
the  debasement  of  the  currency  which  raised 
the  cost  of  the  necessaries  of  life,  and  was  not 
accompanied  by  a  proportionate  increase  in 
wages ;  and  the  confiscation  of  the  lands 
belonging  to  the  craft-gilds — all  combined  to 
bring  about  a  state  of  distress  and  misery 
among  the  masses  of  the  people  which  has 
persisted,  in  varying  extent  and  intensity,  down 
to  the  present  day.  The  Agrarian  Revolution 
of  the  sixteenth  century,  by  which  men  were 
displaced  to  make  room  for  sheep,  and  the  im- 
poverishment of  the  small  farmers  which  fol- 
lowed in  its  train  ;  the  discovery  of  a  new 
world  and  the  consequent  birth  and  develop- 
ment of  the  "great  industry"  and  the  vast 
foreign  commerce  of  to-day ;  the  continuous 
enclosure  of  common  lands,  and  the  enforced 
aggregation  of  men  into  the  towns,  had  all  also 
added  to  the  deterioration  of  the  national  life, 
and  contributed  to  establish  pauperism  as  a 
national  institution. 

In  1536  Parliament  first  attempted  to  cope 
with  the  problem  by  enacting  that  voluntary 
alms  should  be  collected  in  each  parish  for 
the  purpose  of  relieving  the  impotent  poor. 
"  Every  preacher,  parson,  vicar,  and  curate," 


says  the  act,  "  as  well  in  their  sermons,  collec- 
tions, bidding  of  the  beads  as  in  the  time  of 
confession,  and  making  of  wills,  is  to  exhort, 
move,  stir,  and  provoke  people  to  be  liberal  for 
the  relief  of  the  impotent."  But  this  scheme 
failed,  and  was  repealed  four  years  later.  In 
1551  another  attempt  was  made  to  establish  a 
voluntary  poor  fund.  A  book  was  directed  to 
be  kept  in  every  parish,  containing  the  names 
of  the  householders  and  the  impotent  poor,  and 
in  Whitsun  week  collectors  were  to  be  ap- 
pointed whose  duty  it  was  on  the  following 
Sunday  at  church  to  ' '  gently  ask  every  man 
and  woman  what  they  of  their  charity  will 
give  weekly  towards  the  relief  of  the  poor. 
...  If  any  one  able  to  further  this  charitable 
work  do  obstinately  and  frowardly  refuse  to 
give  or  do  discourage  others,  the  ministers  and 
churchwardens  are  to  gently  exhort  him.  If 
he  will  not  be  so  persuaded,  the  bishop  is  to 
send  for  him  to  induce  and  persuade  him  by 
charitable  ways  and  means,  and  so,  according 
to  his  discretion,  take  order  for  the  reforma- 
tion thereof."  This  act  was  also  ineffective 
and  was  repeated  word  for  word  in  another 
act. 

Passing  by  various  acts  of  similar  import  and 
growing  more  and  more  toward  the  compul- 
sory relief  of  the  poor,  we  come 
to  the  Elizabethan  acts.     Early  in 
Elizabeth's  reign  the  spiritual  per-   Elizabethan 
suasion  toward  obstinate  persons         Acts, 
withholding      contributions     was 
strengthened  by  the  aid  of  the  civil 
power.     A  few  years    later  (1572)  legislation 
took  a  more  vigorous  turn  "  for  the  punishment 
of  vagabonds  and  for  relief  of  the  poor  and 
impotent." 

The  act  14  Eliz.  c.  5,  reciting  that  "all  the  parts  of 
this  realm  of  England  and  Wales  be  presently  with 
rogues,  vagabonds,  and  sturdy  beggars  exceedingly 
pestered,  by  means  whereof  daily  happeneth  in  the 
same  realm  horrible  murders,  thefts,  and  other  great 
outrages,  to  the  high  displeasure  of  Almighty  God,  and 
to  the  great  annoy  of  the  common  weal,  and  for  avoid- 
ing confusion  by  reason  of  numbers  of  laws  concern- 
ing the  premises  standing  in  force  together,"  repealed 
before-mentioned  statutes  and  made  provision  for 
various  matters,  "  as  well  for  the  utter  suppressing  of 
the  said  outrageous  enemies  to  the  common  weal  as 
for  the  charitable  relieving  of  the  aged  and  impotent 
poor  people."  Persons  above  14,  and  being  rogues, 
vagabonds,  or  sturdy  beggars,  and  "  taken  begging 
in  every  part  of  this  realm,  or  taken  vagrant,  wander- 
ing and  misordering  themselves,"  were  upon  their 
apprehension  to  be  committed  to  prison  to  the  next 
sessions  or  jail  delivery  without  bail,  and  on  convic- 
tion "shall  be  ad  judged  to  be  grievously  whipped,  and 
burnt  through  the  gristle  of  the  right  ear  with  a  hot 
iron  of  the  compass  of  an  inch  about,  manifesting  his 
or  her  roguish  kind  of  life,  and  his  or  her  punishment 
received  for  the  same."  This  judgment  was  not  to  be 
executed  if,  after  imprisonment,  "  some  honest  person, 
valued  at  the  last  subsidy  next  before  that  time  to  five 

Eounds  in  goods  or  2os.  in  lands,  or  else  some  such 
onest  householder  as  by  the  justices  of  the  peace  of 
the  same  county,  or  two  of  them,  shall  be  allowed,  will 
of  his  charity  take  such  offender  before  the  same 
justices  into  his  service  for  one  whole  year,"  under 
recognizance  to  keep  this  poor  person  for  that  period 
and  to  bring  him,  if  still  living,  before  the  justices  at 
the  year's  end  ;  on  the  other  hand  the  pauper,  depart- 
ing within  the  year  against  the  will  of  his  master,  was 
to  be  whipped  and  burnt  as  above  provided.  The 
offender  was  absolved  from  a  second  punishment  for 
a  short  time,  but  if  after  threescore  days,  and  being  of 
the  age  of  18  or  more,  he  "  do  eftsoons  fall  again  to  any 
kind  of  roguish  or  vagabond's  trade  of  life,"  then  the 
said  rogue,  vagabond,  or  sturdy  beggar,  from  thence- 
forth was  "to  be  taken,  adjudged,  and  deemed  in  all 
respects  as  a  felon,"  and  should  suffer  as  a  felon— sub- 


Poor- Laws. 


Poor-Laws. 


ject,  however,  to  like  redemption  as  on  the  first  charge, 
conditioned  for  two  years'  service  ;  but  offending  a 
third  time  he  was  to  "be adjudged  a  felon"  and  suffer 
pains  of  death  and  loss  of  lands  and  goods  as  a  felon, 
without  allowance  or  benefit  of  clergy  or  sanctuary. 
Offenders  under  14  were  punishable  by  whipping  or 
stocking,  as  provided  by  the  repealed  statutes. 

This  was  harsh,  but  the  short-lived  law  of 
Edward  VI.  was  harsher  still.  It  allowed,  how- 
ever, for  many  exceptions,  and  called  for  charit- 
able relief. 

The  numerous  charities  and  endowments  and 
foundations  of  almshouses,  by  will  and  other- 
wise, of  the  sixteenth  and  seventeenth  cen- 
turies, still  extant  in  numerous  buildings 
throughout  the  country,  are  illustrations  of  the 
spirit  of  the  legislation  here  referred  to.  It 
is  not  improbable  that  legislation  sometimes 
prompted  the  donations,  but  more  probable 
that  such  legislation  was  a  reflex  of  the  general 
disposition  prevalent  for  generations  after  the 
ordinary  channels  of  voluntary  charity  were 
obstructed. 

Still,  legal  repression  and  private  charity  did 
not  work,  and  occasioned  the  legislation  of 
1601,  laying  the  foundation  of  the  poor-law 
system  which  has  endured  in  substance  even 
down  to  the  present  century. 

By  this  act  two  or  more  "  substantial  householders  " 
were  to  be  yearly  nominated  by  the  justices  of  the 
peace  to  serve  as  overseers  of  the  poor  in  each  parish. 
The  overseers  were  to  raise  "  weekly  or  otherwise,  by 
taxation  of  every  inhabitant,  such  competent  sums  of 
money  as  they  shall  think  fit,"  for  (a)  setting  to  work 
the  children  of  all  such  whose  parents  shall  not  be 
thought  able  to  keep  and  maintain  them  ;  (b)  for  setting 
to  work  all  such  persons,  married  and  unmarried,  hav- 
ing no  means  to  maintain  them,  and  who  use  no  ordi- 
nary and  daily  trade  of  life  to  get  their  living  by  ;  (c) 
for  providing  a  convenient  stock  of  flax,  hemp,  wool, 
thread,  iron,  and  other  ware  and  stuff,  to  set  the  poor 
on  work  ;  (d)  for  the  necessary  relief  of  the  lame,  old, 
impotent,  blind,  and  such  other  among  them  being 
poor  and  not  able  to  work.  Children 
whose  parents  cannot  maintain  them 
_  _  are  to  be  apprenticed  till  the  age  of 

JrOOr-iiaw  four-and-twenty  years  in  the  case  of 
of  1601.  boys,  and  twenty-one  years  or  the 
time  of  marriage  in  the  case  of  girls. 
The  overseers  may,  with  the  leave  of 
the  Lord  of  the  Manor,  erect  houses 
for  the  impotent  poor  on  any  waste  or  common.  No 
provision  is  made  for  the  erection  of  any  house  in 
which  work  may  be  done,  and  it  was  evidently 
intended  that  the  flax,  hemp,  etc.,  should  be  worked  up 
at  the  houses  of  the  poor.  But  an  act  of  1576  had  al- 
ready empowered  the  justices  of  each  county  to  erect 
"houses  of  correction  in  which  "  such  as  be  already 
grown  up  in  idleness  and  so  rogues  at  this  present 
should  be  set  to  work  under  strict  prison  discipline  ; 
and  the  justices  were  now  ordered  to  commit  to  these 
places,  or  to  the  common  jail,  those  who  refused  to 
work  on  materials  provided  by  the  parish.  What  they 
had  to  expect  at  the  houses  of  correction  may  be  seen 
from  one  of  the  rules  of  the  Suffolk  House  for  the 
year  1589— "Item,  it  is  ordered  and  agreed  upon  that 
every  strong  or  sturdy  rogue  at  his  or  her  first  entrance 
into  the  said  house  shall  have  12  stripes  upon  his  bare 
skin  with  the  said  whip  provided  for  the  said  house  ; 
and  every  young  rogue  or  idle  loiterer  six  stripes  with 
the  said  whip  in  form  aforesaid.  And  that  every  one 
of  them,  without  fail,  at  their  first  coming  into  the  said 
house,  shall  have  put  upon  him,  her,  or  them  some 
clogs,  chain,  collars  of  iron,  ringle,  or  manacle,  such  as 
the  keeper  of  the  said  house  shall  think  meet." 

The  new  act  was  only  gradually  carried  out.  In  1622 
"A  Wellwisher  "  complains,  in  a  tract  called,  "Griev- 
ous Groans  for  the  Poor,"  that  "tho  the  number  of 
the  poor  do  daily  increase,  there  hath  been  no  collec- 
tion for  them,  no  not  these  seven  years,  in  many  par- 
ishes of  this  land,  especially  in  country  towns;  but 
many  of  those  parishes  turneth  forth  trieir  poor,  yea 
and  their  lusty  laborers  that  will  not  work,  or  for  any 
misdemeanor  want  work,  to  beg,  filch,  and  steal  for 
their  maintenance,  so  that  the  country  is  pitifully  pes- 
tered with  them ;  yea  and  the  maimed  soldiers  that 


have  ventured  their  lives  and  lost  their  limbs  on  our 
behalf  are  also  thus  requited.  .  .  .  So  they  are  turned 
forth  to  travel  in  idleness  (the  highway  to  hell)  .... 
until  the  law  bring  them  unto  the  fearful  end  of 
hanging." 

In  1630  a  royal  commission  was  appointed  to 
examine  into  the  working  of  the  law,  and  new 
legislation  resulted.  In  1662  the  statute  13  and 
14  Charles  II.  recited  various  evils,  and  devel- 
oped the  law  of  settlement,  which  proved  so- 
fruitful  in  ills. 

It  said  "  by  reason  of  some  defects  in  the  law,  poor 
people  are  not  restrained  from  going  from  one  parish 
to  another,  and  therefore  do  endeavor  to  settle  them- 
selves in  those  parishes  where  there  is  the  best  stockr 
the  largest  commons  or  wastes  to  build  cottages,  and, 
the  most  woods  for  them  to  burn  and  de- 
stroy, and,  when  they  have  consumed  it, 
then  to  another  parish,  and  at  last  be-        Law  of 
come  rogues  and  vagabonds,  to  the  great    _      ' 
discouragement  of  parishes  to  provide    settlement. 
stocks,  where  it  is  liable  to  be  devoured 
by  strangers."    Justices  of  the  peace, 
upon_  complaint  by  the  parish  officers,  within  40  day* 
after  any  such  person's  coming  to  settle  as  before  men- 
tioned in  any  tenement  under  the  yearly  value  of  .£10, 
were  empowered  by  warrant  to  remove  such  person 
to  the  parish  where  he  was  last  legally  settled  either 
as  a  native,   householder,   sojourner,    apprentice,  or 
servant  for  not  less  than  40  days,  unless  he  gave  suffi- 
cient security  for  the  discharge  of  the  parish. 

This  act  at  once  divided  England  into  four- 
teen thousand  warring  communities,  each 
determined,  at  whatever  cost  to  the  national 
welfare,  to  throw  its  burden  of  involuntary 
charity  upon  its  neighbor.  A  huge  code  of 
case  law,  developed  by  hundreds  of  judgments- 
and  appeals,  was  founded  upon  the  muddled 
sentences  of  the  original  acts.  Every  possible 
subtlety  as  to  the  effect  of  every  variety  of 
hiring  or  apprenticeship,  or  the  validity  of  in- 
dentures given  by  a  parish  where  the  church- 
wardens and  overseers  were  the  same  persons, 
was  defined  to  a  hair's  breadth,  while  the  in- 
curable vagrant,  the  too  ambitious  laborer,  the 
widow,  the  lunatic,  the  invalid,  the  miserable 
causes  and  instruments  of  this  warfare,  were 
carted  and  whipped  and  scorned  and  driven 
backward  and  forward  from  one  cruel  little 
parish  to  another. 

The  eighteenth  century  saw  some  changes  in  the 
law.  It  had  evidently  produced  evil.  By  the  statute 
i  James  II.  c.  17  (one  of  the  acts  continuing  the  act  of 
Charles  II.),  it  had  been  enacted  that,  as  poor  persons- 
"at  their  first  coming  to  a  parish  do  commonly  conceal 
themselves,"  the  40  days'  continuance  in  a  parish  re- 
quired by  the  act  of  Charles  to  make  a  settlement,, 
were  to  be  accounted  from  the  time  of  the  person's  de- 
livering a  notice  in  writing  of  the  house  or  abode  and 
number  of  the  family  to  the  parish  officer.  Hence 
persons  coming  to  work  under  a  certificate,  on  its- 
production,  were  removed  back  again,  lest  they  gain 
a  settlement  at  the  end  of  40  days.  This  mischievous 
result  was  sought  to  be  avoided  by  a  certificate  of 
acknowledgment  of  settlement,  and  then  and  not  be- 
fore, on  becoming  chargeable  to  another  parish,  the 
certificated  person  could  be  sent  back  to  the  parish 
whence  it  was  brought  (8  and  q  Will.  III.  c  30). 
This  provision  led  to  additional  legislation,  compli- 
cating the  law  of  settlement.  It  was  not  until  toward 
the  close  of  the  eighteenth  century  that  an  important 
inroad  on  the  law  relating  to  the  removal  of  the  poor 
was  made  by  requiring  actual  chargeability  before 
removal  to  their  place  of  settlement  (35  Geo.  III.  c. 
101);  and  at  the  same  time  justices  were  empowered 
to  suspend  removal  in  the  case  of  sickness. 

There  was  with  this  some  development  of  re- 
lief. In  1676  William  III.,  when  appointing 
his  new  Board  of  Trade,  instructed  them  tx> 
"  consider  of  proper  methods  of  setting  on 
work  and  employing  the  poor,  and  making  thenr 
useful."  In  the  same  year  a  Bristol  merchant 


Poor-Laws. 


1056 


Poor-Laws. 


named  John  Gary  proposed  the  erection  of  a 
workhouse  for  the  united  parishes  of  Bristol. 
'Two  years  later  a  new  ''corporation"  was 
formed  for  London,  and  several  houses  in 
Bishopsgate  Street  were  bought.  Into  these 
houses  were  taken  "  the  poor  distressed  chil- 
•dren  that  lay  up  and  down  in  the  streets  of  the 
city,"  and  others,  for  each  of  whom  the  church- 
wardens of  the  various  city  parishes  paid  a 
•shilling  a  week.  There  were  about  four  hun- 
•dred  in  all.  At  Bristol,  Gary  succeeded  in 
getting  his  workhouse  established.  The  ex- 
ample of  Bristol  was  followed  by  Plymouth, 
Worcester,  Hull,  Exeter,  and  other  places. 
The  results,  in  suppressing  vagrancy  and  keep- 
ing down  the  rates,  were  so  good  that  in  1722 
a.  general  act  was  passed  allowing  parishes 
either  singly  or  in  combination  to  build  work- 
houses, and  to  refuse  relief  to  all  who  would 
not  enter  them.  At  once  a  very  large  number 
•of  workhouses  were  erected  in  many  parts  of 
England.  Their  first  effect  was  shown  in  a 
very  considerable  decrease  of  the  rates. 

Those  who  administered  the  workhouses 
were  under  no  illusion  as  to  the  cause  of  this 
decrease.  In  a  book  published  in  1725,  describ- 
ing about  a  hundred  of  the  newly  established 
houses,  a  correspondent  from  Rumford  writes  : 
41 1  must,  sir,  observe  to  you  that  the  advantage 
of  the  workhouse  to  the  parish  does  not  arise 
from  what  the  people  do  toward  their  subsist- 
ence, but  from  the  apprehension  the  poor  have 
of  it."  The  workhouses  were  run  for  profit. 
;Sir  Matthew  Hale,  one  of  the  wisest  and  best 
men  of  his  time,  some  time  before  1662,  advo- 
•cates  the  building  of  workhouses  for  the  em- 
ployment of  the  poor.  "  By  this  means,"  he 
says,  "the  wealth  of  the  nation  will  be  in- 
creased, manufactures  advanced,  and  every- 
body put  into  a  capacity  for  eating  his  own 
bread."  John  Locke's  report  to  the  Board  of 
Trade,  written  in  1697,  contains  exact  calcula- 
tions as  to  the  value  of  the  labors  of  young 
children,  and  of  those  who,  being  decayed  of 
their  full  strength,  could  yet  do  something. 
Even  Henry  Fielding,  with  all  his  experience 
.as  a  police  magistrate  and  his  own  practical 
good  sense,  suggested  in  1753  that  the  work- 
house might  be  made  a  place  where  industrious 
destitute  men  might  support  themselves  by 
the  sale  of  their  work  ;  and  lesser  men  than 
Hale  and  Locke  and  Fielding  issued,  from  the 
middle  of  the  seventeenth  till  the  end  of  the 
eighteenth  century,  a  constant  succession  of 
pamphlets  advocating  various  schemes  for 
"  employing  the  poor  to  profit,"-  generally  by 
engaging  them  in  the  woolen  or  linen  manu- 
factures. 

A  few  years,  however,  sufficed  to  develop  the 
injurious  effects  of  this  mode  of  dealing  with 
the  poor,  and  the  accumulated  evils  of  the 
working  of  the  poor-laws  led,  in  1783,  to  the 
passing  of  the  statute  22  George  III.,  c.  83, 
known  as  "Gilbert's  Act,"  the  principle  of 
which  was  extensively  adopted  in  subsequent 
legislation.  Only  the  aged  and  infirm  were 
to  be  sent  to  workhouses,  and  the  principle 
was  deliberately  adopted  that  work  was  to  be 
found  in  the  neighborhood  for  the  able-bodied, 
.and  that  any  difference  between  their  wages 
.and  the  sum  necessary  for  their  maintenance 


was  to  be  made  up  from  the  rates.     In  1790 
another  act  was  passed,  attempting  to  create 
a  system  of   inspection   of    poor- 
houses  by  justices  and  the  clergy. 
But  as    soon  as  the  French  War   Pauperizing 
had   begun   (1793),   the  poor-laws        Labor, 
began    to    be   administered    in   a 
spirit  of  blind  panic.     By  this  time 
the  justices  had  taken  upon  themselves  most  of 
the  responsibility  for  the  amount  and  character 
of  the  relief  granted  by  the  parish  overseers.    It 
had  been  originally  intended  by  the  poor-law 
of  Elizabeth  that  they  should,  through   their 
right  of  appointing  the  overseers,  exercise  a 
general  control  over  the  system,  but  an  act  of 
1691  had  been  so  interpreted  as  to  give  them  an 
unlimited  right  of  ordering  relief  themselves, 
in  spite  of  the  opposition  of  the  overseers. 

In  1795  the  magistrates  of  Berkshire  "  and 
other  discreet  persons,"  at  a  meeting  held  at 
Speenhamland,  near  Newbury,  announced 
that  they  would  make  an  allowance  in  aid  of 
wages  to  "all  poor  and  industrious  men  and 
their  families,"  raising  the  household  income 
in  each  case  to  a  minimum  varying  with  the 
price  of  bread.  Next  year  the  clauses  of  the  act 
of  1723  allowing  parishes  to  offer  the  workhouse 
test  instead  'of  outdoor  relief  were  definitely 
repealed.  And  so  began  the  pauperization 
of  the  English  rural  population.  Hitherto 
relief,  in  theory  at  least,  had  been  confined  to 
the  exceptionally  unfortunate.  Now  the  rates 
were  to  become  part  of  the  normal  industrial 
system  ;  farmers  discharged  their  men  in  a 
body,  to  take  them  back  next  day  as  paupers 
with  part  of  their  wages  paid  by  the  parish. 

Says  Thorold  Rogers  ( Work  and  Wages, 
chap,  xv.) : 

"  I  can  conceive  nothing  more  cruel,  I  had  almost 
said  more  insolent,  than  to  condemn  a  laborer  to  the 
lowest  possible  wages  on  which  life  may  be  sustained, 
by  an  Act  of  Parliament,  interpreted  and  enforced  by 
an  ubiquitous  body  of  magistrates,  whose  interest  it 
was  to  screw  the  pittance  down  to  the  lowest  conceiv- 
able margin,  and  to  inform  the  stinted  recipient  that, 
when  he  had  starved  on  that  during  the  days  of  his 
strength,  others  must  work  to  maintain  him  in  sickness 
or  old  age." 

The  terrible  suffering  and  demoralization  of 
the  English  laborer  that  resulted  from  the 
system  can  to-day  be  scarcely  credited.  LTnder 
tne  law,  the  laborer  was  guaranteed  against 
starvation,  and  there  was  no  incentive  to 
work.  He  could  not  live  except  by  pauper 
relief.  He  cared  therefore  little  about  work. 
It  was  really  the  parish  that  sold  his  labor.  In 
some  parishes  the  laborers  were  put  up  at  auc- 
tion. Sometimes  children  of  either  sex  were 
sold  to  manufacturers  in  job  lots  (the  manufac- 
turer sometimes  contracting  to  take  one  insane 
child  for  so  many  healthy  ones).  Often  chil- 
dren of  both  sexes  were  given  over  to  gang- 
masters,  who  would  let  them  out  to  farmers, 
working  them  in  the  field  by  day  and  lodging 
them  in  barns  by  night  without  any  pretense 
of  decency.  The  poorhouses  were  called 
"  bastiles,"  and  hated.  The  degraded  laborer 
came  to  look  upon  pauper  relief  without 
shame,  and  the  distributor  of  the  relief  would 
go  around  and  distribute  the  bread  the  laborer 
could  not  buy.  The  poor-relief  rates  rose  till 
they  threatened  to  devour  the  rents  of  the 
landlords.  The  landlords  themselves  were 


Poor-Laws. 


Poor-Laws. 


compelled  to  desire  a  change.     Various  minor 
changes  led  to  the  great  reform  law  of  1834. 

Says  Graham  Wallas  (see  references  at  the 
end  of  this  article) : 

"  '  Political  economy  '  had  by  this  time  consolidated 
itself  in  the  writings  of  Ricardo,  and  MacCulloch,  and 
James  Mill.  Malthus  had  demonstrated  the  impor- 
tant part  which  the  struggle  for  life  had  played  in  the 
history  of  human  society  as  well  as  in  the  animal 
world.  No  member  of  Parliament  could  now  repeat 
without  criticism  the  light-hearted  argument  of  Mr. 
Charles  Gray  in  1751,  that  the  poor-law  'makes  young 
laborious  people  venture  to  marry  when  nothing  else 
would,  and  helps  to  propagate  a  race  of  the  most 
useful  subjects  we  have/  The  old  ideas  as  to  the 
profitable  employment  of  the  poor  scarcely  appear  in 
the  reports  of  the  Commons  committees  of  1824  and 
1828,  and  having  been  rediscovered,  without  a  sus- 
picion of  their  past  history,  by  Robert  Owen  in  1812, 
were  now  associated  in  men's  minds  with  revolution- 
ary schemes  of  equality. 

"  At  the  same  time  the  new  doctrine,  that  human 
society  is  best  managed  when  no  man  is  either  hin- 
dered or  helped  in  supporting  himself  and  his  family, 
seemed  to  be  justified  by  actual  experience  in  poor- 
law  administration. 

"  In  the  parish  of  Southwell,  near  Nottingham,  the 
rates  had  already  been  enormously  reduced  by  the 
building  of  a  prison-like  workhouse  and  the  exaction 
of  labor,  useless,  perhaps,  but  severe  and  unpaid,  as 
a  condition  of  bare  subsistence.  Similar  experiments, 
with  the  same  success,  had  been  tried  in  several  other 
parishes. 

"  The  '  laws  of  political  economy  '  were  vaguely  felt 
to  have  established  themselves  in  a  position  of  gloomy 
orthodoxy,  and  when  in  1832,  during  a 
lull  in  the  fierce  struggle  for  the  Reform 
Tomnf  1R14  Kill,  the  Whigs  in  power  appointed  a 
.Law  01  19O3.  R0yai  Commission  on  the  poor-laws, 
its  strongest  members  were  known  and 
ardent  partizans  of  the  newly  accepted 
science.  Their  report,  after  two  years  of  incessant 
labor  on  the  part  of  the  commissioners  and  their 
paid  assistants,  was  presented  in  1834,  and  is  still  the 
most  magnificent  State  paper  in  existence,  admirable 
in  form  and  crushing  in  argument.  It  ended  by 
recommending  a  radical  alteration  of  the  whole 
system.  Parishes  were  to  be  formed,  with  or  without 
their  consent,  into  unions,  whose  accounts  were  to  be 
inspected  and  whose  by-laws  were  to  be  drawn  up  by 
a  body  of  three  commissioners  sitting  in  London,  and 
represented  by  traveling  subcommissioners  in  the 
country.  Outdoor  relief  to  able-bodied  persons  was 
to  be  prohibited.  Finally,  and  chiefly,  the  whole  ad- 
ministration of  the  law  was  to  be  regulated  on  the 
principle  that  'the  condition  of  the  paupers  shall  in 
no  case  be  so  eligible  as  the  condition  of  persons  of 
the  lowest  class,  subsisting  on  the  fruits  of  their  own 
industry.'  " 

The  report  was  adopted,  almost  unchanged, 
by  overwhelming  majorities.  Repression  of 
the  poor  was  now  the  order  of  the  day.  Out- 
door relief  was  gradually  ended.  Families 
were  broken  up,  lodged  in  poorhouses,  hus- 
band and  wife  being  separated.  It  produced 
its  hardships.  Says  Mr.  Wallas  : 

"The  sordid  abominations  of  the  old  law  were  soon 
forgotten,  and  the  religious  working  man  as  well  as 
the  revolutionary  Chartist  loathed  the  new  science 
which  aimed,  it  was  said,  at  reducing  the  population 
to  Parson  Malthus'  standard  by  starving  the  paupers 
and  separating  man  and  wife  in  direct  defiance  of  the 
word  of  God.  Meanwhile  the  rates,  in  spite  of  the 
new  law,  were  creeping  up  to  the  old  level,  and  that 
great  rise  in  agricultural  wages  for  which  the  more 
sincere  of  the  political  economists  had  hoped  did  not 
take  place.  Freedom  of  combination  was  the  first 
condition  of  such  a  rise,  and  on  the  very  night  after 
the  new  poor-law  was  introduced,  Lord  Howick  re- 
peated the  refusal  of  the  Whig  Cabinet  to  interfere 
with  that  flagrant  sentence  of  transportation  upon  the 
Dorchester  laborers  which  made  combinations  in 
agriculture  impossible. 

"  The  opposition  to  the  new  law  soon  penetrated  to 
the  House  of  Commons,  and  it  was  with  increasing 
difficulty  that  the  powers  of  the  commissioners  were 
from  time  to  time  renewed.  At  last,  in  1847,  the  Poor- 
law  Commission  was  dissolved,  two  out  of  the  three 
worthy  gentlemen  of  the  day  disappeared,  having  per- 

67 


haps  taken  themselves  racier  too  seriously  as  solitary 
protesters  against  an  evil  world,  and  an  official  Poor- 
law  Board  with  a  parliamentary  head  was  created. 
By  1871  so  many  duties  of  various  kinds  had  been  as- 
signed to  the  department  that  it  took  the  name  of  the 
Local  Government  Board,  which  it  still  retains.  Sixty 
years  have  now  passed  since  the  new  poor-law  was 
first  enacted.  During  that  time  the  great  evil  noted 
by  the  commissioners  of  1834,  the  relief  of  able-bodied 
men  in  aid  of  wages  or  as  a  premium  upon  idleness, 
has  practically  disappeared.  Of  the  728,042  persons  in 
receipt  of  relief  on  the  ist  of  July,  1891,  there  were 
only  3641  adult  men  in  good  health  receiving  indoor 
and  3419  outdoor  relief— these  last  being  helped  only 
in  some  urgent  crisis.  There  were  at  the  same  time 
not  more  than  6351  women  in  health  inside  the  work- 
houses, and  52,679,  almost  all  of  whom  were  widows, 
receiving  relief  outside.  Our  pauper  population  now 
consists  of  deserted  or  orphan  children,  helpless  old 
men  and  women,  invalids,  and  lu,natics.  Their  num- 
ber has  remained  wonderfully  steady  for  the  last 
twenty  years,  tho  it  does  not  at  present  increase  with 
the  increasing  population.  But  the  amount  spent  in 
their  relief  does  slowly  increase,  and  there  is  no  sign 
of  that  extinction  of  the  poor-rates  to  which  most 
political  economists  in  the  early  part  of  the  century 
looked  for  as  a  result  of  good  administration." 

Relief  is  now  given  under  a  series  of  general 
orders  and  instructional  circulars  issued  by  the 
Local  Government  Board  and  its  predecessor, 
the  Poor-law   Board.      While  local  guardians 
are  not  supposed  to  act  contrary 
to  these    regulations,   they   have 
considerable  latitude  in  adminis-      Present 
tration.     The  regulations  provide     Methods, 
that  no  relief  shall  be  given  to 
any  able-bodied  male  person  while 
he  is  employed  for  wages  or  any  remunera- 
tion, and  that  every  able-bodied  male  relieved 
out  of  the  workhouse  shall  be  set  to  work,  and 
be  kept  employed  so  long  as  he  continues  to 
receive  relief.     The  exceptions  to  these  rules 
are : 

Cases  of  sudden  and  urgent  necessity,  defined  as 
"destitution  requiring  instant,  but  not  permanent, 
relief';  cases  of  sickness,  accident,  or  bodily  or 
mental  infirmity ;  burial  expenses ;  widows  within 
the  first  six  months  of  widowhood ;  widows  with 
legitimate  child  or  children  dependent  on  them  and 
incapable  of  earning  their  livelihood,  and  with  no  ille- 
gitimate child  born  after  the  commencement  of 
widowhood  ;  wives  and  children  of  soldiers,  sailors, 
marines,  or  militiamen,  or  of  prisoners  or  convicts ; 
wives  and  children  of  not  able-bodied  persons  not 
residing  in  the  parish. 

Outdoor  relief  is  given  in  money  and  in 
kind,  but  in  "the  case  of  able-bodied  persons 
it  is  laid  down  that  "  one-half  at  least  shall  be 
given  in  articles  of  food  or  fuel  or  in  other 
articles  of  absolute  necessity."  Relief  may 
also  be  given  by  way  of  loan.  The  relieving 
officer  has  to  investigate  the  cases  of  all 
applicants ;  he  can  give  temporary  relief  in 
kind,  where  necessary,  and  must  report  to  the 
guardians  as  to  the  health,  ability  to  work, 
etc.,  of  the  applicant  and  his  family.  The 
guardians  are  then  to  decide  on  the  merits  of 
each  individual  case. 

Indoor  relief  is  administered  under  a  general 
order  issued  in  July,  1847. 

Of  the  working  of  the  law,  Mr.  J.  F.  Oake- 
shot  (see  references)  says  : 

"  The  growth  of  humanitarian  feeling  has  had  its 
influence  on  Poor-law  administration,  and  the  in- 
humanity of  50  years  ago  would  not  be  tolerated  by 
public  opinion  to-day.  At  the  same  time  the  adminis- 
tration of  the  law  is  still  wanting  in  humanity.  Over 
the  entrance  of  Dante's  Hell  was  written,  'Abandon 
hope,  all  ye  who  enter  here,'  and  if  the  effect  of  our 
Poor-law  system  were  to  be  summed  up  in  a  single 
sentence  we  should  have  to  use  the  same  words.  In 


Poor-Laws. 


1058 


Population. 


the  desire  of  insuring  that  'the  situation  of  the 
paupers  shall  not  be  made  really  or  apparently  so 
eligible  as  the  situation  of  the  independent  laborer  of 
the  lowest  class,'  we  deliberately  feed  them  worse 
than  criminals  (the  prison  dietary  is  luxurious  in  com- 
parison with  the  poor-law  standard),  and  we  allow 
the  law  to  be  administered  with  such  harshness  that 
many  men  and  women  every  year  deliberately  prefer 
death  by  starvation  outside  the  workhouse  to  accept- 
ing relief  from  the  rates  with  its  deprivation  of  the 
privileges  of  citizenship  and  its  dishonorable  stigma 
of  pauperism  alike  on  aged  and  young,  infirm  and 
able-bodied,  deserving  and  undeserving.  Mr.  Charles 
Booth  in  his  recently  published  work,  The  Aged  Poor 
in  England  and  Wales,  states  that  '  as  regards  enter- 
ing the  workhouse,  it  is  the  one  point  on  which  no 
difference  of  opinion  exists  among  the  poor.  The 
aversion  to  the  "house"  is  absolutely  universal,  and 
almost  any  amount  of  suffering  and  privation  will  be 
endured  by  people  rather  than  go  into  it.'  A  recent 
return  ordered  by  the  House  of  Commons  (C — 476) 
shows  that  in  London  alone,  in  1892,  no  less  than  31 
persons,  of  whom  13  were  50  years  old  and  upward, 
were  certified  by  the  verdicts  of  coroners'  juries  to 
have  died  of  starvation.  In  no  case  could  any  appli- 
cation for  relief  be  traced  ;  and  they  were  never  dis- 
covered to  be  in  want  by  the  relieving  officers,  or  by 
any  charitable  society  or  individual.  Who  can  say 
how  many  times  31  would  have  to  be  multiplied  if 
a  similar  return  were  made  for  the  whole  country, 
and  if  we  included  all  those  •whose  deaths  were  ac- 
celerated by  starvation,  but  which  were  declared  by 
juries  to  have  been  due  to  '  natural  causes.'  " 

Mr.  Robert  Treat  Paine  (see  references) 
says  of  the  poor-law  of  1834 : 

"  The  fundamental  principle  of  this  reform  was 
'  That  the  situation  of  the  person  receiving  relief 
should  not  on  the  whole  be  made  really  or  apparently  so 
eligible  as  the  situation  of  the  independent  laborer  of 
the  lowest  class. ' 

"  This  principle  has  been  everywhere  accepted.  .  .  . 

"In  fact  the  soundness  of  this  principle  is  unques- 
tioned. The  lot  of  the  pauper  must  not  be  made  too 
attractive.  Yet  I  am  led  to  ask  whether  repression 
has  not  been  guilty  of  a  fatal  error.  Has  not  the 
system  been  left  to  such  mere  officialism  as  to  be 
hard  and  depressing,  and  at  last  brutalizing  ? 

"And  this  in  two  directions.    First,  to  the  worthy 

Eoor,  so  that  all  England  is  now  vibrating  in  recoil 
•om  the  sad  lot  of  the  old  and  worthy  and  suffering 
poor.  Second,  to  the  idle,  the  dissolute,  the  loafer, 
and  the  tramp— the  unworthy  poor. 

"  Do  not  present  conditions  in  London  and  New 
York  force  us  to  face  a  new  and  graver  problem? 
Yes,  and  the  conditions  in  cities  of  the  second  rank 
also. 

"  Do  not  the  new  race  of  brutally  degraded  paupers 
laugh  to  scorn  the  principle  of  the  English  Reform  of 
1834,  that  their  lot  shall  not  be  made  too  attractive  ? 
Do  they  not  defy  differences  of  detail  of  poor-law 
administration  ?  .  .  . 

"Has  not  the  principle  of  repression  miserably 
failed,  when  its  effort  to  make  the  lot  of  the  pauper 
not  over-eligible  hardens  tramps  into  such  brutal 
degradation  that  in  their  game  with  society  they  seem 
just  now  to  hold  in  their  hands  the  winning  cards,  and 
yet  on  the  other  hand  the  worthy  poor  of  England  are 
in  such  straits  that  a  great  pension  scheme  throws  its 
baleful  shadow  across  the  land  ?  .  .  .  .  Who  will  not 
agree  with  me  that  regressive  charity  alone  is  hard 
and  that  negative  measures  alone  will  fail  ?  .  .  .  . 

"  The  conviction  that  the  lot  of  the  poor  in  England 
is  too  hard  and  their  treatment  under  the  poor-law 
too  severe  has  caused  such  reaction  that  a  pension 
scheme  of  $85,000,000  a  year  hangs  in  the  air,  and 
a  royal  commission  has  been  created  to  consider  the 
condition  of  the  poor." 

For  proposed  reforms  in  the  poor-law  and 
methods  of  dealing  with  the  whole  problem, 
see  POVERTY. 

References :  P.  F.  Aschrott's  The  English  Poor-law 
System  (Tr.  1888) ;  T.  W.  Fowle's  The  Poor-law, 
"  English  Citizen  Series"  (1892);  Report  on  Pauperism 
in  England  and  Wales  (Blue  Book,  1889);  W.  Chance's 
Better  Administration  of  the  Poor-law  (1894);  The 
History  of  the  Poor-law,  a  paper  by  Graham  Wallas, 
published  in  The  Cooperative  Annual  for  1894 ;  The 
Humanizing  of  the  Poor-law,  a  Fabian  tract  (1894), 
by  J.  T.  Oakeshot.  (See  also  POVERTY.) 


POPULATION.— (See  also  BIRTH-  AND 
DEATH-RATE  ;  DEATH-RATE  ;  MARRIAGE  ;  CITIES, 
MALTHUSIANISM.)  We  give  in  this  article  the 
principal  sociological  facts  of  population,  leav- 
ing the  discussion  of  the  problems  involved  to 
the  above  articles. 


I.  POPULATION  OF  THE  WORLD. 

According  to  the  estimate  made  by  Ernest 
George  Ravenstein,  F.  R.  G.  S.,  for  1890,  the 
>opulation  of  the  earth  by  continents  is  as 
ollows  : 


F« 


CONTI- 
NENTAL 
DIVISIONS. 

Area  in 
Square  Miles. 

INHABITANTS. 

Number. 

Per  Sq. 

Mile. 

Africa  

11,514,000 
6,446,000 
6,837,000 
14,710,000 
3,288,000 
3,555,000 
4,888,800 

127,000,000 
89,250,000 
36,420,000 
850,000,000 
4,730,000 
380,200,000 
300,000 

II.  0 

13.8 

5-3 
57-  7 
1.4 
106.9 
0.7 

America,  N... 
America,  S... 
Asia  

Australasia  .  . 
Europe  

Polar  Reg.  .  .  . 
Total  

51,238,800 

1,487,900,000 

29.0 

From  Proceedings  of  the  Royal  Geographical  Society 
for  January,  1891. 

Some  recent  authorities,  however,  put  the 
earth's  population  at  nearer  1,700,000,000.  The 
density  of  population  of  the  more  civilized 
countries,  in  the  order  of  density,  is  as  follows  : 


Population. 

Density  per 
Square  Mile. 

r,fi 

Holland  

Great    Britain    and    Ire- 
land   

Italy     

Germany  

J    i    5    <4 

Switzerland  

186 

France        ....        .... 

Tg, 

Austria-  Hungary  

'   R       f\fi 

Denmark  

148 

Portugal  

Servia  

1x6 

Rumania..     .        ...  . 

'ooo'ooo 

08 

Spain.  .....              

Greece  

88 

European  Turkey  

81 

European  Russia  

Sweden  

28 

United  States  

Norway  

Australia  

UNITED  STATES  : 

North     Atlantic    Divi- 
sion         ....           ... 

South     Atlantic     Divi- 
sion        .... 

North  Central  Division. 

29.68 

Western  Division  

2.58 

Ravenstein's  estimate  of  the  earth's  fertile  regions, 
in  square  miles,  is  28,269,200  ;  steppe,  13,901,000  ;  desert, 
4,180,000  ;  polar  region,  4,888,800. 

The  population  of  the  earth  according  to  race,  as  esti  • 
mated  by  John  Bartholomew,  F.R.G.S.,  Edinburgh,  is  : 


Population. 


Population. 


RACE. 

Location. 

Number. 

Indo-Germanic    or 

Mongolian    or  Tu- 

Semitic  or  Hamitic 
Negro  and  Bantu.  . 
Hottentot           and 
Bushmen  
Malay    and    Poly- 
nesian   

American  Indian... 

North  Africa,  Arabia 
Central  Africa  

South  Africa  
Australasia           and 
Polynesia  
North     and      South 
America  

65,000,000 
150,000,000 

150,000 
35,000,000 

Total  

Mulhall's  estimate  of  the  number  speaking 
the  different  European  languages  is  : 


LANGUAGES. 

NUMBER  OF  PERSONS 
SPOKEN  BY. 

PROPORTION 

OF  THE 

WHOLE. 

1801. 

1890. 

1801. 

1800. 

English  

20,520,000 
31,450,000 
30,320,000 
15,070,000 
26,190,000 
7,480,000 
30,770,000 

111,100,000 
51,200,000 
75,200,000 
33,400,000 
42,800,000 
13,000,000 
75,000,000 

12.7 
19.4 
18.7 
9-3 
16.2 
4-7 
19.0 

27.7 
12.7 

18.7 
8.3 

10.7 

3-2 

18.7 

French  

German  
Italian  

Spanish  
Portuguese... 
Russian  

Total  

161,800,000 

401,700,000 

IOO.O 

IOO.O 

The  numbers  in  the  world  according  to 
creed,  as  estimated  by  M.  Fournier  de  Flaix 
(American  Statistical  Association  Publications, 
1892-93,  p.  37)  are  as  follows  : 


CREEDS. 


1.  Christianity 

2.  Worship      of      Ancestors 

Confucianism 

3.  Hinduism 

4.  Mohammedanism , 

5.  Buddhism 

6.  Taoism 

7.  Shintoism 

8.  Judaism 

9.  Polytheism 


and 


CHRISTIANITY. 


Number  of 
Followers. 


477,080,158 

256,000,000 

igo,  000,000 

176,834,372 

147,900,000 

43,000,000 

14,000,000 

7,056,000 

117,681,669 


CHURCHES. 

Total. 

Catholic  Church  

Protestant  Churches  

Armenian  Church  

477,080,158 

RELIGIOUS  DIVISIONS  OF  EUROPE. 


COUNTRIES. 

Catholic 
Church. 

Protestant 
Churches. 

Orthodox 
Churches 
(Greek). 

Jews. 

Mohamme- 
dans. 

Unclassified 

Germany  

Austria-Hungary  

United  Kingdom  

Italy... 

Belgium  

Rumania  

Ottoman  Empire  

Netherlands  

Portugal  

608  ooo 

Switzerland  

4i°9  * 

8,OOO 

»7     » 

All  Europe  

8    8 

*       ' 

Levasseur  (La   Population  fran<;aise,  iii.  chap,  vi.)  thus  shows  the  significant  changes  in 
population  of  European  countries  during  this  century  : 


COUNTRY. 

Population 
in  1801. 

COUNTRY. 

Population 
in  1890. 

Italy  ".  

Great  Britain,  Ireland  

37,888,152 

Italy      

Population, 


1060 


Population. 


The  following  is  the  present  population  of 
the  world  as  given  in  the  World  Almanac  for 
1896: 


COUNTRIES. 

Popula- 
tion. 

Square 
Miles. 

13,000,000 
81,037,874 

13.354,649 
'69,000,000 
59,666,967 
38,218,903 
21,448,064 
3,870,000 
183,237 
1,500,000 
26,502 
1,500,000 
1,223,000 
12,000,000 
62,752 
12,800 
1,100,000 
49,421,064 
31,491,206 
5,589,382 
3,500,513 
2,035,443 
1,656,817 
1,603,987 
956,170 
575.140 
622,530 
372,580 

313^668 
247,603 
214,697 
198,717 
180,443 
161,129 
123,250 
112,118 
98,371 
83,939 
73.623 
76,485 
56,565 
53,787 
37,204 
5,950,000 
41,827,700 
39,607,234 
4,450,870 
33,042,238 
1,073,500 
2,000,000 
21,974,161 

353>ooo 

200,000 

2,750,000 
57.M1 

33,559,787 

4,790,000 
16,133,900 

1,000,000 
3>I54.375 
6,817,265 
29,699,785 
34,970,785 
4,500,000 
660,000 
210,000 
17,550,216 
28,911,609 
437,000 
9,500,000 
1,521,684 
784,709 
18,000,090 
11,632,924 

4,218,401 
1,335,806 
8,644,100 
3,602,990 
3,127,856 
204,177 
2,923,679 
260,000 
580,000 
45,000 
46,697 
32,254 
13,692 
60,000 
7,624 
462 
1,550,000 
211,108 
134,467 
29,291 
5,789 
7.531 
.     5,803 
5,602 
2,965 
5,137 
158 
1,425 
2,479 
1,387 
906 

953 
760 

99 
5" 
472 

1,131 
363 
333 
"5 
433 

122 

I31 
822,000 
201,591 
147,669 
12,680 
778,187 
203,714 
72,000 
50,848 
42,420 
150,755 
170,744 
46,060 

1,652,533 
63,850 
729,170 

398,873 
37,86o 
400,000 
110,665 
425,765 
189,000 
56,100 
70,000 
196,173 
603,076 
203,767 
114,326 
43,220 

3,55° 
3,219,000 

85,000 

r*  i      * 

A1           *-i'o 

r^a     Vi  riin 

Schwarzburg-Rudolstadt  
Schwarzburg-Sondershausen. 

Waldeck                

Netherlands  and  Colonies  

Tripoli     

Italy          

Cuba                    

10,519,000 

*  These  estimates  of  the  population  and  area  of  the 
British  Empire  include  the  recently  acquired  great 
possessions  in  Africa. 

t  Estimated  for  January  i,  1896. 

$  In  Europe ;  the  acquisitions  m  Africa  and  else- 
where are  given  below  separately. 


COUNTRIES. 

Popula- 
tion. 

Square 
Miles. 

8,000,000 

7,653,600 

4,708,178 

11,073,681 
5,416,000 

847.503 
6,785,898 
4,784,981 

2,000,917 
6,500,000 

6,030,043 

5,700,000 
5,376,000 

4,750,000 

4,600,000 
4,000,000 
3,500,000 
3,500,000 
2,800,000 

2,933.334 
2,300,000 
2,187,208 
2,172,205 
2,288,193 
72,445 
9,780 
33,763 
2,323,988 
2,096,043 
2,000,000 
1,600,000 
1,550,000 
1,300,000 
1,050,000 
950,000 
800,000 
816,000 
750,000 
700,000 
476,000 
450,000 
400,000 
350,000 
245,380 
265,000 
I33,5i8 
86,647 

802,000 
636,000 
34,038 
951,785 
841,025 
7,923 
297,321 
172,876 
124,445 
314,000 

",373 
280,550 

46,3H 
1,095,013 
331,420 
279,000 
230,000 
256,860 
405,040 
15,981 
472,000 

24,977 
14,780 
101,403 
39,756 
46,740 
1x8 
566,159 
18,757 
56,800 
81,000 
46,774 
144,000 
14,000 
29,830 
110,193 
7,228 
72,112 
22,320 
145,000 
42,658 
51,660 
20,596 
3,486 
19,985 
41,484 
6,587 

npnmark 

T  'h       'a 

The  following  is  the  population  of  the  British 
Empire  as  given  in  the  Statesman's  Year 
Book  (1895) : 


Area. 
Sq.  Miles. 

Popula- 
tion. 

120,979 

1,068,314 
73T,944 

38,104,975 

221,172,952 
66,050,479 

India  : 

Total  India  

1,800,258 

1.9 
119 

287,223,431 

26,050 
168,105 

COLONIES. 

Europe  : 

Total  Europe  
Asia  : 

121 

80 
25,365 
29 
30.2 
1,472 

i94,i5S 

41,910 
3,008,466 
221,441 
5,853 
512,342 

Straits  Settlements  

26,976 

35 
10,293 
71,000 
221,310 
705 
20,460 
47 

3,790,012 

140 
218,902 
60,376 
1,527,224 
37I,655 
543,913 
4,  116 

Africa  : 

M           't'  1S 

St..  Helena.  ..                        

*  Including  Upper  Burmah. 


Population. 


1061 


Population. 


Area, 
Sq.  Miles. 

Popula- 
tion. 

West  African  Colonies  : 

Gold  Coast  

1,473,882 

74»835 

Total  Africa  

America  :  • 

Falkland  Islands  and  South 

1.780 

British  Guiana  

Newfoundland  and   Labra- 
dor*   

West  Indies  : 

A  4,66 

Jamaica  and  Turk's  Islands 
Barbados  

4.424 

166 

675^65 

784. 

Trinidad  and  Tobago  

1,868 

238,638 

Total  America  
Australasia  : 
Fiji  

3,614,338 
8,o8s 

6,780,605 

88  860 

New  South  Wales  

New  Zealand  

626,658 

668  A07 

36,385 

146,667 

Victoria  

87,884 

Western  Australia  

65,064 

Total  Australasia.. 
Total  Colonies  
Total  U.  K.j  India, 
and  Colonies  

PROTECTORATES  AND 
SPHERES  OF  INFLUENCE  : 

3,174,008 
7.173,064 

9>°94>301 

4,297,889 

I9>487>7°4 
344,816,110 

Africa  

Total  Protectorates.  .  . 
Total  British  Empire. 

2,  24O,OOO 

"»334»70i 

36,122,000 
380,938,110 

The  population  of  the  United  Kingdom,  ac- 
cording to  the  census  of  1891,  was  as  follows  : 


*  The  area  of  Newfoundland  alone  is  42,000  square 
miles. 

Concerning  conjugal  condition,  Professor 
Mayo-Smith  quotes  from  the  Statisttk  des 
Deutschen  Reichs  (No.  44,  p.  35)  the  following 
table  : 


COUNTRIES. 

PERCENTAGE  OF 
MALES  OVER 

15  WHO  ARE 

PERCENTAGE  OF 
FEMALES  OVER 

15  WHO  ARE 

to 
"So 
o 
JB 

Married. 

Widowed. 

0 

"S> 
c 

3s 

Married. 

Widowed. 

Austria  

43-8 
3»«S 

45-2 
40.9 
36.0 
39-5 
49-3 
46.0 
42.2 
40.9 
42.6 
43-3 

5i-3 
63-7 
48.0 

S3-' 
56.5 
54-9 
44-8 
47-5 
52.0 

53-7 
51-9 
51.0 

4.8 
4-7 
6.4 
6.0 
7-5 
5-6 
5-9 
6-5 
5-8 
S-3 

& 

40.0 

22.  0 
41-5 

33-2 
30.0 

37-3 
43-5 
41.8 
38.7 
36-S 
40.8 
41.7 

48.1 
62.8 
45-6 
53-2 
55-3 
S°-9 
42.1 
47.1 
49-8 
50.8 
47.1 
47.0 

1.8 
5.0 

2-3 

3-6 
4-7 
1.8 
4.4 
i.i 
1.4 
2.4 

2.0 
I.I 

Hungary  

Switzerland  
Italy  

France  

Great  Britain  
Ireland  

Belgium  

Holland  

Germany  

Sweden  

Norway  

Area  in 

Square  Miles 

Population. 

\Vales        

Scotland                

Ireland  

32,  ^83 

Islands  

Total  

77.888,47Q 

The  population,  according   to  different  cen- 
suses, was  . 


England 
and  Wales. 

Scotland. 

Ireland. 

iS^i  .  .  . 

7,767,401 

1841          

18*1.  .  . 

2,888,742 

1861  

5,798,907 

1871  

5,412,377 

T88i  

5,174,836 

1891  

4,706,448 

POPULATION    OF    THE    LARGEST    CITIES    OF 
THE  EARTH. 


CITIES. 

Census 
Year. 

Population. 

1891 

1891 

New  York*          

1892 

Berlin      

1895 

,677,351 

estimated 

1891 

1893 

,214,113 

Philadelphia  (municp.)  

18.12 
1890 

,142,653 

1892 

Pekin      '•  

estimated 

,000,000 

1892 

1885 

873,560 

Calcutta          .  ..*  

1891 

840,130 

1891 

822,397 

189  r 

804,470 

Rio  de  Janeiro  

1892 

800,000 

1895 

625,552 

1891 

618,470 

1895 

615,226 

1892 

532,260 

1894 

522,700 

1891 

517,050 

Brussels        

1894 

507,985 

Buda-Pesth          

1891 

506,380 

1891 

505,340 

1895 

494,205 

1891 

490,900 

1893 

482,961 

1887 

472,230 

1890 

451.770 

1894 

451,000 

450,189 

T8gr 

449,950 

1891 

438,077 

1890 

434,440 

Milan.  

1894 
1891 

432,400 
429,170 

Munich  

1895 

4°7,174 

*  New  York  State  census  ot  1892.  The  population  of 
the  territory  embraced  within  the  Hmits  of  "Greater 
New  York"  as  proposed  by  the  commission  is  about 
3,100,000.  This  will  constitute  the  New  York  of  the 
immediate  future  the  second  city  of  the  world. 


Population, 


1062 


Population. 


Concerning  the  population  by  sex,  Professor 
Mayo-Smith  {Statistics  and  Sociology,  p.  39) 
tells  us  that  Europe  has  1064  and  the  United 
States  952  females  for  every  jooo  males.  Italy, 
Servia,  and  Greece  have  more  males  than  fe- 
males ;  in  all  other  European  countries  females 
are  in  excess,  varying  from  Norway,  with  1091  ; 
Scotland,  with  1072  ;  Sweden,  with  1065  ;  Eng- 
land and  Wales,  with  1064,  to  Belgium,  with 
1005,  and  France,  with  1014.  Switzerland  has 
1057  ;  Germany,  1039  ;  Ireland,  1029.  In  Eu- 
rope, however,  more  males  are  born  than  fe- 
males ;  but  the  male  mortality  is  also  greater. 
In  cities  the  excess  of  females  is  usually  greater. 
The  demand  for  servant  girls  and  saleswomen 
is  far  more  in  the  cities  than  in  the  country. 


Prostitution  attracts  some.  In  Asia,  Africa,  and 
Australasia  males  are  generally  considered  to 
be  in  excess. 

As  to  age,  in  England,  23.9  per  cent,  of  the 
population  are  under  10  years  of  age  ;  21.3  be- 
tween the  years  of  10  and  20  ;  47.3  between  20 
and  60  ;  7.5  over  60  years.  The  corresponding 
figures  for  Scotland  are  :  24.3  under  10  ;  21.6 
between  10  and  20  ;  46.2  between  20  and  60  ; 
7  9  over  60.  For  Ireland  they  are  :  20.8  under 
10  ;  23.4  between  10  and  20;  45.3  between  20 
and  60  ;  10.5  over  60.  For  France,  17.5  under 
10  ;  17.4  between  loand  20  ;  52. 5  between  20  and 
60  ;  12.6  over  60.  For  Germany,  24.2  under  10  ; 
20.7  between  10  and  20  ;  47.1  between  20  and 
60  ;  8.0  over  60. 


II.    STATISTICS  FOR  THE  UNITED  STATES. 

The  following  table,  giving  the  voting,  school,  and  militia  ages,  was  compiled  from  the  Reports 
of  the  Census  of  1890  by  the  World  Almanac: 


* 

STATES  AND  TERRI- 
TORIES. 

VOTING  AGES—  MALES  21  YEARS  AND  OVER. 

SCHOOL 
AGES. 

MILITIA 

AGES. 

Total. 

Native- 
born. 

Foreign- 
born. 

Whites. 

Colored. 

PERCENTAGE 

Total  pop- 
ulation, 

5  to  20 

years  old. 

Total  Pop- 
ulation, 
Males, 
18  to  44. 

Na- 
tive. 

For- 
eign. 

Alabama  

324,822 
23,696 
257,868 
462,289 
164,920 
224,092 

47)559 
64.505 
96,213 
398,122 

31,49° 
1,072,663 
595,066 
520,332 
383,231 
450,792 
250,563 
201,241 
270,738 
665,009 
6i7,445 
376,036 
271,080 
705,718 
65,4i5 
301,500 
20,951 
"8,135 
413,530 
44,95* 
1,769,649 
342,653 
55,959 
1,016,464 
19,161 
m,744 
1,461,869 
100,01? 
235,606 
96,765 
402,476 
535,942 
54.471 
Ioi,6g7 
378,782 
146,91° 
181,400 
461,722 
27,044 

316,697 
13,665 
249,608 
230,154 
114,580 

145,673 
41,407 
55,263 
85,561 
391,168 
19,785 
682,346 
521,708 
364,662 
310,166 
420,976 
225,212 
170,771 
,   228,149 
407-915 
369,128 
154,727 
266,049 
584,981 

35.442 
205,625 
10,181 
92,088 
268,483 
38,194 
1,084,187 
340,572 
19,645 
797,623 
17,502 
74,329 
1,064,429 
59,832 
232,200 
53,851 
391,429 
460,694 
29,946 
82,011 
367,469 
88,968 
171,611 
217,338 
17,852 

8,125 
10,031 
8,260 
232,135 
50,340 
78,419 
6,152 
9,242 
10,652 
6,954 
",705 
390,317 
73,358 
155,670 
73,o65 
29,816 
25,3Si 
30,470 
42,599 
257,094 
248,317 
221,309 

5,031 
120,737 
29,973 
95,875 
10,770 
26,047 
145,047 
6,757 
68,642 
2,081 
36,314 
218,841 
1,659 
37,415 
397,440 
40,185 
3,406 
42,914 
11,047 
75,248 
24,525 
19,686 
"i3i3 
57,950 
00,789 
244,384 
9,192 

184,059 
21,160 
188,296 
390,228 
161,015 
220,115 
40,007 
46,159 
58,068 
219,094 
29,525 
1,054,469 
581,987 
517,006 
370,688 
387,371 
130,748 
200,609 
218,843 
657,042 
611,008 
374,027 
120,611 
667,451 
61,948 
297,281 
17,002 
117,889 
398,966 
41,478 
1,745,418 
233,307 
55,769 
990,542 
18,238 
102,113 
1,426,996 
97,756 
102,657 
96,177 
310,014 
434,010 
53,235 
101,369 
248,035 
141,934 
172,198 
459,893 
26,050 

140,763 
2,536 
69,572 
72,061 
3,905 
3,976 
7,552 
18,346 
38.145 
179,028 
1,965 
18,200 
13,070 
3,326 
I2,543 
63,421 
119,815 
632 
51,895 
7,967 
6,437 
2,009 
150,469 
38,267 
3,467 
4,219 
3,949 
246 
14,564 
3,473 
24,231 
109,346 
190 
25,922 
923 
9,631 
34,873 
2,261 
132,949 
588 
92,462 
101,932 
1,236 
328 
130,747 
4,984 
9,202 
1,829 
994 

97-5° 
57-67 
96.80 

49-79 
69.48 
65.01 
87.06 
85-67 
88.93 
98.25 
62.83 
63-61 
87.67 
70.08 
80.93 

93-39 
89.88 
84.86 
84.27 
61.34 
59-78 
4I-I5 
98.14 
82.89 
54.18 
68.20 
48.59 
77-95 
64.92 

84-97 
61.27 
99-39 
35-  " 
78.47 
91-34 
66.52 
72.81 
59-82 
98-55 
55-65 
97.26 
85-96 
54-98 
80.64 
97.01 
60.56 
94.60 
47.07 
66.01 

2.50 
42-33 
3.20 
50.21 
30-52 

34-99 
12.94 

14-33 
11.07 

i-75 
37-17 
36.39 
I2-33 
29.92 
19.07 
6.61 

IO.  12 
I5-I4 

'5-73 
38.66 
40.22 
58.85 
1.86 
17.11 
45.82 
31-80 
51-41 
22.05 
35-08 
15-03 
38.73 
0.61 
64.89 
2I-53 
8.66 
33-48 
27.19 
40.18 
i-45 
44-35 
2-74 
14.04 
45-02 
19.36 
2.99 
39-44 
5-40 
52-93 
33-99 

639,494 
18,284 
476,185 
360,289 
"3,150 
221,245 
57,496 
74,176 
155,676 
771.027 
27,257 
1,323,030 
785,172 
701,182 
540,170 
727,061 
455,234 
201,851 
370,892 
650,870 
703,684 
454,804 

559,101 
1,008,935 
30,240 

384,255 
12,391 
106,611 
464,992 
52,543 
1,836,935 
673,405 
5Q,324 
1,271,031 
21,642 
103,365 
1,791,710 
105,534 
501,393 
113,900 
720,872 
924,142 
79-937 
101,457 
671,779 
97,863 
305,669 
603,846 
16,291 

265,025 
19,226 
214,708 
343,ooi 
140,441 
163,865 
36,076 
47,623 
79,604 
336,295 
24,688 
852,635 
455,823 
399,687 
295,364 
36i,i37 
205,215 
133,  *69 
205,816 
499,  312 
462,765 
304,268 
228,764 
566,448 
55,490 
255.665 
14,606 
79,878 
313,683 
36,065 
1,325,619 
273,834 
48,608 
767,975 
15,084 
88,049 
1,140,476 
75,317 
196,059 
79,219 
324,2H 
447,413 
45.139 
67,203 
295,340 
124,860 
147,334 
347,469 
24,614 

California  

District  of  Columbia  

Georgia  

Idaho  

Iowa  

Kentucky  

Maryland  

Massachusetts  

Minnesota  

Missouri  

Montana  

Nevada  

New  Hampshire  

New  Mexico  

North  Carolina  

North  Dakota  

Ohio  

Oklahoma  

Rhode  Island  

South  Carolina  

South  Dakota  

Tennessee  

Texas  

Utah  

Vermont  

Virginia  

Washington  

West  Virginia  

Wisconsin  

Wyoming  

Total  

16,940,311 

12,591,852 

4,348,459 

15,199,856 

1,740,455 

74-33 

25-67 

22,447,392 

13,230,168 

Population. 


1063 


Populatior 


The  following  table  of  the  population  of  the  United  States,  in  each  decade,  is  from  the  Statistic 
Abstract  of  the  United  States  for  1894  : 


STATES  AND 
TERRITORIES. 

Rank  in 
population. 

POPULATION. 

Rank  in 
population. 

POPUL 

TION. 

1790. 

1800. 

1810. 

1820. 

1830. 

1840. 

1850. 

1860. 

1870. 

1880. 

1890. 

Ala 

127,901 

309.527 
30,388 

297,675 

76,748 
39,834 
34,730 
516,823 

'57.445 
343,031 

687,917 
215,739 
399.455 
447.040 
610,408 
31,639 

136,621 
140,455 

269,328 
320,823 

1,918,608 
737,987 
937,903 

1,348,233 
97,199 
581,185 
681,904 

280,652 
1,211,405 

590,756 
97,574 

309,978 

78,085 
43,7" 
54,477 
691,392 

476,183 
685,866 
43,  II2 

779,828 
352,4" 
501,793 
470,019 

737,699 
212,267 

375,651 
383,702 

284,574 
373.306 

2,428,921 
753,419 
liiigt&l 

1,724,033 
108,830 
594.398 
829,210 

291,948 
I.239,797 

3°.945 

771,623 

209,897 
92.597 

370,792 

9i,532 
51,687 
87,445 
906,185 

851,470 
988,416 
192,214 

982,405 
517,762 
583,169 
583,024 
994,514 
397,654 
6,077 
606,526 
682,044 

3  *  7,976 
489,555 
6i,547 
3.097,394 
869,039 
1,980,329 

964,201 
435.450 

379,994 
34,277 
460,147 

4,837 
112,216 
75,080 
140,424 
1,057,286 

1,711,951 
1,350,428 

674.913 
107,206 
1,155,684 
708,002 
628,279 
687,049 
1,231,066 

749.H3 
172,023 

791,395 
1,182,012 

28,841 
6,857 
326,073 
672,035 
93,5i6 
3.880,735 
992,622 
2,339,5" 

996,992 
9,658 
484,471 
560,247 
39,864 
537,454 
14,181 

125,015 
131,700 
187,748 
1,184,109 
14.999 
2,539,891 
1,680,637 
i,  194,020 

364,399 
1,321,011 
726,915 
626,915 
780,894 

1,457,351 
1,184,059 
439,706 
827,922 
1,721,295 
20,595 
122,993 
42,491 
318,300 
906,096 
91,874 
4,382,759 
1,071,361 
2,665,260 

1,262,505 
40,440 
802,525 
864,694 
194,327 
622,700 

135,177 
146,608 
177,624 
269,493 
1,542,180 
32,610 
3,077,871 
1,978,301 
1,624,615 
996,096 
1,648,690 
939,946 
648,936 
934,943 
1,783,085 
1,636,937 
780,773 
I,I3I,597 
2,168,380 
39,159 
452,402 
62,266 
34*,99i 
1,131,116 
"9,565 
5,082,871 
1.399.750 
3,198,062 

17 
48 
24 

22 

31 
29 
Ui 
(37 
42 
39 
32 

12 

45 
8 

10 

19 
ii 

25 
3° 
27 

6 

9 

20 
21 

5 
44 
26 

49 
33 
18 

43 

i 
16 
4 
46 
38 

2 

35 
23 
13 
7 
40 
36 
IS 
34 
28 
14 
47 

1,513,0 

59,6 
1,128,1 
1,208,1 
412,1 
746,2 
*  182,7 
t  328,8 
168,4 
23°>3< 
39i,4 
1,837,3 
84,3! 
3,826,3 

2,  192,41 

i,9ii,8< 
1,427,01 
1,858,6 
1,118,5! 
66i,oi 
i,042,3C 
2,238,9^ 
2,093,8! 
1,301,8: 
1,289,61 
2,679,1! 
132,1 
1,058,9 
45,  7< 
376,5: 
1.444,9: 
I53i5< 
5.997,8. 
1,617,9* 
3.672,3 
j  61,8. 
313,7* 
5,258,0 

345.5< 
1,151,1* 
1,767,5 
2,235,5; 
207,9^ 
332,4' 
1,655,9* 
349,  3( 
762,  7( 
1,686,8 
60,  7< 

Ark    .. 

H>255 

Cal 

Colo     . 

Conn.  . 
Dak 

8 

237.946 

251,002 

261,942 

275,  H8 

Del.... 
D.  C.  .. 
Fla 

16 

59,096 

64,273 
M,093 

72,674 
24,023 

72,749 
33,039 

Ga  

J3 

82,548 

162,686 

252,433 

340,985 

Ill 

12,282 
24,520 

55,162 
147,178 

Ind.  ... 

.... 

5,641 

p  

La   .... 

14 

73.677 

220,955 

406,511 

76,556 
228,705 
380,546 
472,040 
4,762 

564,135 
152,923 
298,269 
407,350 
523,159 
8,665 

Me  
Md  
Mass... 
Mich 

ii 
6 
4 

96,540 
319,728 
378,787 

151.719 
341,548 
422,845 

Miss.  .. 
Mo  

8,850 

40,352 
20,845 

75,448 
66,557 

Mont.  . 
Neb 

Nev 

N.  H... 
N.  T.... 
N  M  .. 

10 
9 

141,885 
184,139 

183,858 
211,149 

214,460 

245.562 

244,022 
277,426 

N.  Y.  .  . 
N.  C.  .  . 
Ohio... 
Okla 

5 
3 

340,120 
393.751 

589,051 
478,103 
45,365 

959,049 
555.500 
280,760 

1,372,111 
638,829 
581,295 

Ore 

13,294 
2,311,786 

H7,545 
668,507 
1,002,717 
212,592 
11,380 
314,120 
1,421,661 

sostsg1 

52.465 
2,906,215 
174,620 
703,708 
1,109,801 
604,215 
40,273 
315,098 
1,596,318 
",594 

775,88i 

90,923 
3.52I.951 
217.353 
705,600 
1,258,520 
818,579 
86,786 
330.551 
1,225,163 

23.955 
442,014 
1,054,670 
9,  118 

174,768 
4,282,891 
276,531 
995,577 
1,542,359 
1,591.749 
143,963 
332,286 
1,512,565 
•75.  "6 
618,457 
1.  3*5,497 
20,789 

Penn.  . 
R.  I.... 
S.  C.... 
Tenn.. 
Tex 

2 

IS 

7 
'7 

434.373 
68,825 
249,073 
35,691 

602,365 
69,122 
345-591 
105,602 

810,091 
76,931 
4i5."5 
261,727 

1,047,507 
83,015 
502,741 
422,771 

"Utah  . 

Vt  
Va.     .. 

Wash 

12 

I 

85,425 
747,6io 

154,465 
880,200 

217,895 
974,600 

235,966 
1,065,116 

W.  V.  . 

Wis 

Wyo  .  . 

U.S... 

3,929,214 

5,308,483 

7,239,881 

9,633,822 

§  12,866,020 

!l  177069,453 

23,191,876 

3I>443,321 

38,558,371 

50,155,783 

62,622,2 

*  North  Dakota. 

t  South  Dakota. 

$  Including  5338  persons  in  Gree'r  County  (in  Indian  Territory)  claimed  by  Texas. 

§  Includes  5318  persons  on  public  ships  in  the  service  of  the  United  States"  not  credited  to  any  State  or  Territory. 

II  Includes  6100  persons  on  public  ships  in  the  service  of  the  United  States  not  credited  to  any  State  or  Territory. 


NOTE  i. — According  to  the  census  the  population  of  Alaska  for  1880  was  33,426,  and  for  1890,  32,052,  of  which  latte 
4298  are  white,  23,531  Indian,  2288  Mongolian,  1823  mixed  blood,  and  112,  all  other  persons. 

NOTE  2.— According  to  the  census  of  1890  the  population  of  Indian  Territory  was  as  follows :  Five-Tribe  Indian 
(Cherokees,  Creeks,  Seminoles,  Choctaws,  and  Chickasaws),  45,494  ;  other  Indians,  4561  ;  total  Indians,  50,055.  Colore 
and  Five-Tribes  colored  citizen  claimants,  18,636;  Chinese,  13;  whites,  including  some  Indian  citizen  claimants,  109,384 
unknown,  9 ;  Quapaw  Indian  Agency,  1224  ;  total,  179,321. 

NOTE  3. — The  total  population  returned  by  the  Indian  census  enumerators  was  325,464.  This  included  189,349  resei 
vation  Indians  and  other  Indians  not  taxed,  109,384  whites  and  18,636  colored  persons,  13  Chinese,  and  9  unknown  in  India 
Territory,  and  8073  whites,  employees  and  others,  on  reservations  and  at  posts. 

NOTE  4. — The  total  number  of  Indians  in  the  United  States,  exclusive  of  Alaska,  on  June  i,  1890,  was  248,155,  divide 
as  follows : 

Reservation  Indians  and  other  Indians  not  taxed 189,349 

Taxed  Indians  counted  in  the  general  census 58,806 

Total 248, 155 


Population. 


1064 


Population. 


The  following  tables,  giving  the  constituent  elements  of  the  population  of  the  United  States, 
are  compiled  from  the  compendium  of  the  eleventh  census  (1890): 


STATES  AND  TERRITORIES. 

Males. 

Females. 

White. 

Negro.* 

Total  foreign- 
born. 

The  United  States  

32,067,880 

30,554,37o 

54,983,890 

7,470,040 

9,249.547 

North  Atlantic  Division  ,  

8,677,798 

8,723,747 

17,121,981 

269,906 

3,888,177 

332,59° 
186,566 
169,327 
1,087,709 
168,025 
369,538 
2,976,893 
720,819 
2,666,331 

4,418,769 

328,496 
189,964 
163,095 
1,151,234 
177,481 
376,720 
3,020,960 
724,114 
2,591,683 

4,439,151 

659,263 
375,840 

sa^iS 
2,215,373 
337,859 
733,438 

5,923,952 
1,396,581 
5,148,257 

5,592,149 

1,190 
614 

937 
22,144 

7,393 
12,302 
70,092 
47,638 
107,596 

3,262,600 

78,961 
72,340 
44,088 
657,137 
106,305 
183,601 
1,571,050 

328,975 

845,720 

208,525 

New  Hampshire  

Vermont  

Massachusetts  

Rhode  Island  

Connecticut  

New  York  .  .  .  ;  

New  Jersey  

Pennsylvania  

South  Atlantic  Division  

Delaware  

85,573 
5!5,69i 
109,584 
824,278 
300,285 
799,  '49 
572,337 
9i9>925 
201,947 

11,594,910 

82,920 
526,699 
120,808 
831,702 
372,509 
818,798 
578,812 
917,428 
189,475 

10,767,369 

140,066 
826,493 
154,695 
1,020,122 
730,077 
1,055,382 
462,008 
078,357 
224,949 

21,911,927 

28.386 
215,657 
75,572 
635,438 
32,690 
561,018 
688,034 
858,815 
166.180 

43I>"2 

13,161 
94,296 
18,770 
18,374 
18.883 
3,702 
6,270 
12,137 
22,932 

4,060,114 

Maryland  

District  of  Columbia  

Virginia  

West  Virginia  

North  Carolina  

Georgia  

Florida  

North  Central  Division  

Ohio  

1,855,736 
1,118,347 
1,972,308 
1,091,780 
874,951 
695,321 
994,453 
1.385,238 
101,590 
180,250 
572,824 
752,112 

5,593,877 

1,816,580 
1,074,057 
1,854,043 
1,002,109 
811,929 
606,505 
917,443 
1,293,946 
(         81,129 
1       148,558 
486,086 
674,984 

5,379,016 

3,584,805 
2,146,736 
3,768,472 
2,072,884 
1,680,473 
1,296,159 
1,901,086 
2,528,458 
182,123 
327,290 
1,046,888 

I>376,553 
7,487,576 

87,"3 
45,2i5 
57,028 
15,223 
2,444 
3,683 
10,685 
150,184 
373 
1                541 
8,913 
49,710 

3,479,251 

459,293 
146,205 

842,347 
543,880 

5i9>'99 
467,356 
324,069 
234,869 
81,461 
9^055 
202,542 
147,838 

321,821 

Indiana  

Illinois  

Michigan  

Wisconsin  

Minnesota  

Iowa  

Missouri  

North  Dakota  

South  Dakota  

Nebraska  

Kansas  

South  Central  Division  

Kentucky  

942,758 
891,585 
757,456 
649,687 
559,35° 
1,172,553 
34,733 
585,755 

1,782,526 

915*877 

875,933 
755,561 
639,9r3 
559,237 
1,062,970 
27,101 
542,424 

1,245,087 

1,590,462 
1,336,637 
833,718 
544,851 
558,395 
1,745,935 
58,826 
818,752 

2,870,257 

268,071 
430,678 
678,489 
742,559 
559,193 
488,171 

2,973 
309,117 

27,081 

59,356 
20,029 
M,777 
7,952 
49,747 
152,956 
2,740 
14,264 

770,910 

Tennessee  

Alabama  

Mississippi  

Texas  

Oklahoma  

Arkansas  

Western  Division  

Montana  

87,882 

39,343 
245,247 

83>°55 
36,57i 
110,463 
29,214 
51,290 
217,562 
181,840 
700,059 

44,277 
21,362 
166,951 
70,538 
23,049 
97,442 
16,547 
33,095 
131,828 
131,927 
508,071 

127,271 
59,275 
404,468 
142,719 
55,58o 
205,899 
39,084 
82,018 
34°,5I3 
3OI>758 
1,111,672 

1,490 
922 

6,215 
1,956 
i,357 
588 
242 
20  1 
1,602 
1,186 
11,322 

43,096 
M»9*3 

83,99° 
11,259 
'8,795 
53,o64 
14,706 
17,456 
90,005 

57,3*7 
366,309 

Colorado  

Arizona  

Utah  

Idaho  

Washington  

Oregon  

California  

Includes  all  persons  of  negro  descent. 


For  a  discussion  of  the  principles  involved 
in  these  tables,  see  MARRIAGE  ;  also  DIVORCE. 
Some  of  the  facts,  however,  speak  for  them- 
selves. That  there  should  be  more  than  twice 
as  many  widowed  females  as  males,  and  con- 
siderably more  divorced  women  than  men, 
indicates  unquestionably  that  men  remarry 
more  frequently  than  women.  That  in  the 


United  States,  the  North  Atlantic,  and  North 
Central  States,  the  average  number  of  persons- 
to  a  family  has  steadily  decreased  during  the 
last  two  decades,  and  that  in  the  South  and 
West  it  has  slightly  increased,  is  another 
significant  fact.  For  the  facts  as  to  the  in- 
crease or  decrease  of  marriages  and  divorces 
in  the  United  States,  see  those  articles. 


Population. 


1065 


Population. 


STATES  AND 
TERRITORIES. 

MALES. 

FEMALES. 

0) 

"So 

a 

55 

Married. 

Widowed. 

Divorced. 

Unknown. 

IB 

"So 
a 
35 

Married. 

Widowed. 

Divorced. 

Unknown. 

The  United  States 
N.  Atlantic  Division  — 

19.945.576 

11,205,228 

8i5,437 

49,101 

52,538 

17,183,988 

11,126,196 

2,154,615 

71,895 

17,676- 

5,072,  q62 

3,322,329 

259,877 

10,007 

12,623 

4,683,294 

3,293,929 

726,481 

15,182 

4,861 

181,365 

99,233 
91,690 
626,862 
97.152 
212,478 
1,723,617 
420,454 
1,620,111 

2,881,662 

137.419 
78,658 
70,140 
421,946 
64,852 
144,054 
1,155,661 
278,957 
970,642 

1,436,089 

12,100 
7,684 
6,808 

35,513 
5,488 
11,542 
91,009 
20,119 
60,614 

94,4i7 

1,094 
800 
584 
i,394 
39i 
846 
2,219 
363 
2,310 

2,910 

612 
iqi 
105 
1.994 
142 
618 
4.387 
926 
3,648 

3,690 

159,967 
91,333 
77,986 
619,690 
96,256 
197,019 
1,600,156 
389,141 
1.451,746 

2,657,307 

137,184 
78,526 
69,956 
421,259 
64,838 
143,263 
1,149,995 
276,345 
952,563 

1,448,454 

29,938 
18,943 
14,438 
107,273 
15,556 
34,889 
265,456 
57.763 
182,225 

323,050 

i,337 
1,084 

677 
2,484 
759 
1,298 

3,395 
565 
3,583 

6,132 

70' 
78 
3& 

52& 
72- 
251 
1,958 
300- 
I,566- 

4,207 

S.  Atlantic  Division.  ... 
Delaware  

52,028 
322,428 
66,084 

545.793 
253,962 

529.705 
378,798 
603,249 
129,656 

7,157,290 

3r,i59 
178,195 

39,639 
257-559 
127,829 

253,635 
182,524 
298,594 
66,955 

4,114,822 

2,306 
14,125 
3.376 
19.895 
7,487 
15-074 
10,637 
16,823 
4,694 

285,802 

40 
321 
146 
533 
359 
378 

210 

579 
344 

23,230 

40 
622 
339 
538 
648 
357 
168 
680 
498 

13.766 

45,484 
303,348 

66,775 
509,779 
225,733 
502,554 
352,076 
543,369 
108,189 

5,996,437 

31,192 
179,888 

39,675 
258,116 
127,576 
257,9I9 
184,968 
302,097 
67,024 

4,098,449 

6,154 
42,583 
13,929 
61,867 
18,389 
56,889 
40,617 
69,125 
13,487 

636,284 

70 
582 
3H 
1,039 
674 
836 
483 
i,55i 
583 

32,230 

2O- 

298 

o15 
891 

*37 
600- 
668 
1,286 
192 

3,969 

Dist.  of  Columbia  
Virginia  

North  Carolina  

Florida  

N.  Central  Division  
Ohio  

1,109,172 
670,867 
1,221,422 
638,209 
545.698 
451,683 
619,162 
878,806 
67,698 
116,151 
368,994 
469,428 

3.654.943 

691,197 
413,733 
697,129 
420,700 
304,210 
226,159 
349,345 
467,600 
31,611 

59,647 
190,318 
263,173 

1,792,119 

50,200 
29,892 
47,844 
28,482 

22,453 
14,992 
23,387 
34.569 
2,025 
3,818 
11,140 
16,991 

130,422 

3)567 
3,000 
3.31? 
2,805 
1,639 
1,071 
L993 
2.231 
129 
426 
1,296 
i,756 

6,840 

i.59i 
855 
2,596 
1,584 
951 
1,416 
.566 
2,032 
127 
208 
1,076 
764 

9.533 

991,349 
584,186 
1,035,  '23 
522,867 
461,884 
354,126 
5*7.787 
739,428 
47,022 
84,778 
278,987 
378,900 

3,I74,5?o 

689,347 
413,523 
694,531 
416,304 
302,859 
223,463 
349,983 
467,802 
3J,I72 
58,290 
i87,579 
263,506 

1,794,653 

129,443 
71,252 

119,13! 
59,o8o 
44,685 
27,475 
46,625 
82,989 
2,809 
5,120 
17,995 
29,680 

393,548 

5,717 
4,7" 
4,926 
3.493 
2,179 
1,178 
2,880 

3,201 

106 
328 
I>394 
2,117 

12,860 

724 
385 
33* 
365 
322: 
263 
16$ 
43& 

20" 
42 

I3I 
78l 

3,385- 

Indiana  

Illinois  

Michigan  

Wisconsin  

Iowa    

North  Dakota  

South  Dakota  

Kansas  

S.  Central  Division  
Kentucky  

603,227 
577.598 
496,308 
431,069 
365,865 
777.933 
21,598 
38i,345 

1,178,718 

313,436 
200,440 
244,803 
202,798 
178,220 
362,324 
12,005 
188,093 

539,869 

23,692 
21,198 
15,008 
H,778 
I3.372 
26,848 
996 
14.530 

44,919 

1,260 
1,154 
744 
58i 
632 
1,497 
99 
873 

6,114 

i,i43 
i,i95 
593 
461 
1,261 
3.951 
35 
914 

12,906 

534,740 
515,379 
450,032 
384,334 
327,686 
629,785 
14,888 
317,726 

672,380 

313,880 
291,665 
245,952 
204,194 
179,458 
360,756 
11,244 
187,504 

490,710 

63,997 
65,859 
58,018 
49,616 
50,270 
69,228 
912 
35,648 

75.252 

2,461 
2,660 
1,419 
1,233 
i,i93 
2,568 
49 
1,277 

5,491 

799- 
37°- 
140- 
536- 
630- 
633 

269- 
1,254 

Tennessee  

Alabama  

Mississippi  

Louisiana  

Texas  

Oklahoma  

Arkansas  

Western  Division  
Montana  

62,445 
27.706 
161,033 
50.985 
25,972 
74,266 
19,900 

35,393 
146,851 
118,827 
455.250 

22,772 
10,308 
75,735 
29,343 
9,536 
33,823 
8,023 
H,5oo 
.      63,538 
56,262 
216,029 

1,706 

859 
6,044 

2,479 
918 
1,802 
771 

I,I2O 
5,H5 
4,853 
19,222 

253 
144 
73° 
207 
104 
214 
166 
191 
761 
752 
2,586 

706 
326 
1,699 
41 
4i 
358 
264 
86 
1,267 
1,146 
6,972 

23,341 
11,634 
87,490 
36,431 
12,628 
57,4o8 
8,924 
18,799 
69,902 
73,I29 
272,694 

18,766 

8,777 
69,100 
28,931 
8,764 
33,790 
6,282 
12,987 
56,380 
52,3" 
194,621 

1,906 
823 
9,575 
4,877 
1,595 
5,7o8 
1,051 
1,191 
4.986 
5,893 
37-666 

217 
105 
712 
290 
62 
492 
125 
in 
447 
537 
2,393 

47 
23- 
74 
9 

44 
165 
7 
"3 
75 
697 

Wyoming'  

Colorado  

New  Mexico  

Arizona  

Utah  

Nevada  

Idaho  

Washington  

Oregon  

California  

STATES  AND  TERRITORIES. 

NUMBER  OF  FAMILIES. 

PERSONS  TO  A  FAMILY. 

1890. 

1880. 

1870. 

1800. 

1880. 

1870. 

The  United  States         

12,690,152 

9,945,916 

7,579.363 

4-93 

5-04 

5.09 

North  Atlantic  Division  

3,712,242 
1,687,767 
4,598,605 
2,071,120 
620,418 

3,023,741 
1,463,361 
3,389.017 
',697,550 
372,247 

2,497,494 
1,132,621 
2,480,311 
1,242,411 
226,526 

4.69 
5-25 
4.86 

5-3° 
4.88 

4.80 

5-19 
5.12 
5-25 
4-75 

4.92 
5-17 
5-23 
5.18 
4-37 

South  Atlantic  Division     

North  Central  Division  

South  Central  Division  

Western  Division  

Population. 


1066  Postal  Savings-banks. 

PERSONS  OF  FOREIGN  PARENTAGE. 


STATES  AND  TERRITORIES. 

PERSONS  OF 
FOREIGN 
PARENTAGE. 

NORTH  AND  SOUTH 
AMERICANS. 

GREAT  BRITAIN  AND 
IRELAND. 

Canada 
and  New- 
foundland. 

Mexico. 

Central 
and  South 
America. 

P0 

c«      «i 

*}  OJ 

111 

o?M 

England. 

Scotland. 

Wales. 

Ireland. 

Number. 

Per 
cent. 

The  United  States  

20,676,046 

33-02 

980,938 

77.853 

6,198 

23,256 

909,092 

242,231 

100,079 

1,871,500 

8,215,838 
S33.38o 
0,620,354 
8331038 

i>473>436 

47.21 
6.  02 
43.02 
7-59 
48.67 

490,229 
5.412 
401,660 
8,153 
75,484 

651 
207 
685 
52,129 
24,181 

2,230 
535 
856 
546 
2,031 

7,235 
12,978 
1,036 
i,  i°5 
902 

446,921 
21,520 
312,398 
24,611 
103,642 

119,382 
7,i44 
81,619 
6,493 
27,593 

51,081 
1,787 
34,403 
1,988 
10,820 

1,241,116 
48,003 
433,719 
43,  198 
105,473 

South  Atlantic  Division  

North  Central  Division  

.South  Central  Division  

Western  Division  

GERMANIC  NATIONS. 

SCANDINAVIAN  NATIONS. 

STATES  AND  TERRITORIES. 

>, 

o! 

d 

Ss£ 

b 

>, 

d 

M 

a 

g 

3h-3   3 

5 

E 

5 

Z 

i 

a 

B'Ss 

h 

I 

"Q 
p 

S 

i 

6 

p 

o 

•33° 

^  § 

o 

| 

o 

C5 

< 

a 

n  "  u 

c/2*- 

^ 

cc 

Q 

The  United  States  

2,784,894 

81,828 

322,665 

478,041 

132,543 

^North  Atlantic  Division  

898,321 

5,883 

16,084 

87,756 

15,197 

228 

1,815 

660 

623 

North  Central  Division  

17,081 

283,847 

335,871 

89,633 

1,807 

1,388 

Western  Division  

120,367 

9,983 

1,887 

1,626 

17,538 

20,267 

47,897 

25,702 

STATES  AND 
•TERRITORIES. 

SLAV  NATIONS. 

LATIN  NATIONS. 

ASIATIC  NATIONS. 

All 
others. 

Russia. 

Hungary. 

Bohemia. 

Poland. 

France. 

>, 

"3 

A 

'I 
@ 

Portugal. 

Greece. 

China. 

I 

a 

0! 

i—  > 

* 
tj 

•3 
a 

The     United 
States  

North     Atlantic 

182,644 

62,435 

118,106 

147,440 

"3>I74 

182,580 

6,185 

15,996 

1,887 

106,688 

2,292 

4,403 

41,729 

92,896 

5,90° 
69,907 

2,713 
11,228 

45,54° 
I-I53 
13,850 
866 
1,026 

12,254 
1,708 
99,5H 

3,687 

943 

56,694 

2H71 

84,104 

2,458 
1,713 

40,809 
2,509 
38,615 
14,376 
16,865 

118,621 
4,894 
21,837 
12,314 
24,914 

2,404 
621 
7o6 

I.3H 
1,140 

4,674 
151 
5i5 
236 

10,420 

604 
167 
404 
267 

445 

6,686 
641 

2,525 
i,359 
95,477 

393 
54 
149 

31 

1,665 

1,966 
240 
1,264 
328 
605 

19,034 
1,363 
8,905 

3,35i 
9,076 

-South     Atlantic 
Division  
North       Central 
Division  

.South       Central 
Division  

Western         Di- 

*  Includes  Asia  not  specified. 


POSTAL  SAVINGS-BANKS  are  savings- 
'banks  (q.  v.)  conducted  in  connection  with 
post-offices  and  under  the  management  of  the 
State.  The  United  States  and  Germany,  alone 
among  the  great  civilized  countries  of  the 
world,  do  not  have  postal  savings-banks. 

The  establishment  of  post-office  savings- 
banks  was  first  effectually  mooted  in  England 
in  1860  by  Mr.  C.  W.  Sykes  of  Huddersfield, 
whose  suggestion  was  cordially  received  by 
Mr.  Gladstone,  then  chancellor  of  the  ex- 
chequer. 


A  bill — entitled  "  An  Act  to  grant  additional 
facilities  for  depositing  small  savings  at  inter- 
est, with  the  security  of  Government  for  the 
due  repayment  thereof  " — received  the  royal 
assent  on  the  iyth  of  May,  1861,  and  was 
brought  into  operation  on  the  i6th  of  Sep- 
tember. The  banks  first  opened  were  situated 
in  places  theretofore  unprovided  with  private 
savings-banks.  Within  two  years  nearly  all 
the  money-order  offices  of  the  United  King- 
dom became  savings-banks  ;  about  367,000 
new  deposit  accounts  were  opened,  repre- 


Postal  Savings-banks. 


1067 


Postal  Savings-banks. 


senting  an  aggregate  payment  of  ^4,702,000, 
including  a  sum  of  more  than  ^500,000  trans- 
ferred from  trustee  savings-banks,  the  accounts 
of  which  were  closed. 

In  1891,  on  a  single  day,  there  were  as  many 
as  72,869  persons  making  deposits,  who  laid 
by  in  one  day  $790,110.  The  daily  average 
number  of  deposits  was  29,412,  and  the  aver- 
age amount  of  deposits  each  day  was  $350,900. 
During  the  year  there  were  992,155  new  ac- 
counts opened.  The  total  number  of  persons 
in  the  United  Kingdom  using  the  privilege  is 
over  5,000,000. 

An  interesting  department  of  the  English 
postal  savings-banks  is  thus  described  in  a 
recent  report  of  the  British  office  : 

"  It  will  be  remembered  that  on  the  ist  of  September 
last  an  act  came  into  operation  which  relieved  parents 
from  the  obligation  of  paying  fees  for  the  education 
of  their  children  in  elementary  schools,  and  that  the 
deficiency  thereby  caused  in  the  income  of  the  various 
schools  is  now  made  good  by  grants  from  the  public 
exchequer,  representing  in  the  aggregate  over  £2,000,- 
ooo  per  annum.  It  was  desired  by  the  Government 
that  strenuous  efforts  should  be  made  to  divert  into 
the  savings-banks  some  portion,  at  least,  of  this  large 
sum,  and  that  parents  should  be  induced  to  train  their 
children  at  the  earliest  age  to  take  advantage  of  the 
various  opportunities  for  thrift  offered  by  the  post- 
office.  Accordingly  ...  on  the  day  on  which  school 
pence  used  formerly  to  be  paid  the  manager  receives 
the  pence  brought  by  the  children  and  gives  in  ex- 
change a  corresponding  amount  of  stamps  affixed  to 
slips,  which  the  children  take  home  to  their  parents 
as  evidence  of  the  transaction.  At  certain  intervals 
these  slips  are  collected,  and  a  clerk  from  the  near- 
est post-office  attends  at  the  school  for  the  purpose 
of  opening  accounts  and  receiving  further  deposits 
in  the  individual  names  of  the  children.  About  1400 
schools  adopted  the  scheme,  and  others  are  added 
daily.  It  is  estimated  that  the  school  children  had 
within  three  months  deposited  a  sum  of  about  .£14,000, 
and  it  is  anticipated  that  savings  of  over  .£60,000  will 
have  been  received  by  the  end  of  the  year." 

Steps  have  been  taken,  too,  to  interest  railway  em- 
ployees in  a  similar  plan.  In  the  Colonies,  too,  it  has 
hadgreat  success.  In  India,  as  in  England,  the  use  of 
the  postal  savings-banks  has  extended  the  opportunity 
of  thrift  into  many  parts  of  the  country  where,  other- 
wise, it  would  be  impossible  to  afford  such  accommo- 
dation without  incurring  a  cost  too  great  to  be  borne 
by  the  business  of  the  district. 

One  of  the  minor  advantages  of  the  system  is  that  it 
gives  the  Government  a  sum  to  be  borrowed  in  case 
of  necessity,  as  the  cheapest  and  most  popular  form 
of  loan. 

IN  ENGLAND. 

The  principal  features  of  the  regulations  governing 
the  service  are  as  follows  : 

Postal  savings-bank  offices  are  open  for  the  receipt 
and  payment  of  money  daily. 

At  these  offices  ordinary  deposits  of  one  shilling,  or 
any  number  of  shillings,  will  be  received,  subject  to 
the  limits  of  £30  in  one  year,  ending  December  31,  and 
.£200  in  all,  inclusive  of  interest.  A  depositor  may, 
not  more  than  once  in  any  sayings-bank  year,  deposit, 
money  to  replace  money  previously  withdrawn  in  one 
entire  sum  during  that  year.  In  addition,  deposits 
will  be  received  for  immediate  investment  in  govern- 
ment stock,  and  in  connection  with  government 
insurance  and  annuities. 

Any  person  desirous  of  saving  one  shilling  by  means 
of  penny  contributions  for  deposit  in  the  postal  sav- 
ings-bank may  do  so  by  purchasing  with  any  penny 
so  saved  a  penny  stamp,  and  affixing  it  to  a  form  to  be 
obtained  at  any  post-office.  Instructions  as  to  this  form 
are  printed  thereon. 

On  opening  an  account  a  person  must  state  his 
Christian  name  or  names  and  surname,  occupation, 
and  residence.  He  must  also  sign  a  declaration  to 
the  effect  that  he  takes  no  benefit  from  any  savings- 
bank  account,  unless  it  be  as  personal  representative 
of  a  deceased  depositor,  or  as  a  member  of  a  friendly 
society.  If  such  declaration,  or  any  part  thereof,  is 
not  true,  the  deposits  will  be  liable  to  forfeiture. 

Every  deposit  must  be  entered  at  the  time  in  the  de- 


positor's book  by  the  postmaster,  or  other  person 
receiving  it,  who  must  affix  to  the  entry  his  signature 
and  the  stamp  of  his  office. 

In  addition  to  the  receipt  in  the  book,  the  depositor 
will  receive  an  acknowledgment  by  post  from  the 
savings-bank  department  in  London. 

Interest  at  the  rate  of  £2  los.  per  Cent,  per  annum, 
which  is  at  the  rate  of  6d.  a  year,  or  l/2d.  a.  calendar 
month  for  each  complete  pound)  is  allowed  until  the 
sum  due  to  a  depositor  amounts  to  £200.  When  the 
balance  declared  on  ordinary  account,  inclusive  of 
accumulated  interest  and  dividend,  exceeds  £200,  no 
interest  is  allowed  on  the  amount  in  excess  of  £200. 
The  calculation  of  interest  is  made  from  the  first  day 
of  the  calendar  month  next  following  the  day  on 
which  a  pound  has  been  deposited  or  completed,  up 
to  the  last  day  of  the  calendar  month  preceding  the 
day  on  which  a  warrant  for  repayment  is  issued  ;  and 
after  each  3ist  day  of  December  the  interest  is  added 
to  the  principal. 

When  a  depositor  wishes  to  make  a  withdrawal 
from  his  account,  he  should  fill  up  and  forward  to  the 
savings-bank  department  a  notice  of  withdrawal, 
which  he  can  obtain  at  any  postal  savings-bank  office. 
He  will  then  receive  by  post  a  warrant,  which  he 
should  present,  together  with  his  book,  at  the  post- 
office  where  payment  is  to  be  made,  and  the  post- 
master will  take  from  the  depositor  a  receipt  on  the 
warrant. 

IN  FRANCE. 

Of  all  the  departments  of  the  Government  the  post- 
office  is  the  one  which  is  known  best,  and  whose 
services  are  most  highly  appreciated. 

Private  savings-banks  can,  in  the  majority  of  cases, 
only  have  their  windows  open  for  deposits  and  pay- 
ments for  two  or  three  hours  per  week.  The  7000  post- 
offices,  however,  which  are  branches  of  the  postal 
savings-banks,  are  open  every  day,  including  Sundays 
and  holidays,  and  during  the  greater  part  of  the  day. 

The  public  can  draw  money  and  pay  money  at  every 
post-office,  and  can  draw  at  one  post-office  money 
deposited  in  another. 

Besides  these  highly  appreciated  facilities,  the 
direct  management  of  the  postal  savings-bank  by  the 
Government,  represented  by  the  administration  of 
posts,  offers  absolute  security  to  depositors. 

By  reason  of  these  facilities  and  this  security  the 
postal  savings-bank  has  been  enabled  to  prosper  and 
develop,  altno  it  only  pays  3  per  cent,  interest ;  a 
lower  rate  than  that  paid  by  private  savings-banks, 
which  existed  before  the  establishment  of  the  postal 
savings-bank,  and  which  still  exist. 

Even  communes  where  there  is  no  post-office,  and, 
therefore,  no  agency  of  the  savings-bank,  are  visited 
at  least  once  a  day  by  the  rural  letter-carriers,  who 
can  serve  as  intermediaries  between  the  post-offices 
and  the  depositors  for  making  deposits.  It  may, 
therefore,  be  said  that  there  is  not  a  commune  and 
not  a  hamlet  in  France  where  savings  cannot  be 
collected. 

STATISTICS  OF  POSTAL  SAVINGS-BANKS. 


£   -_, 

Q| 

o 

ui 

- 

COUNTRIES. 

O 

3 
g-0 

^  8 

°.2 
$i 

|| 

Deposit- 
ors. 

Value. 

f 

QUJ 

Z° 

England  

1861 

1893 

283' 

4,456,o86!1 

$i3i,763,9io» 

Scotland  

1893!        271 

172,438" 

o  707  •IQC^ 

Ireland  

1893         iS1 

Belgium  

1865 

1893 

8S4 

960,468 

78,030,335* 

Italy  

1875 

4666 

45,i38,6486 

France  

1881 

1893 

1883 

Sweden  

1884 

1800 

276,422' 

Hungary  

Netherlands.  . 

1886 
1886 

1893 
i8Sq 

38Q5 

211,310 
S4.4779 

2,967,  2034 

4.59S.83410 

Finland  

i88s 

i88q 

31,204" 

152,861 

Totals  for  n  countries.  .  . 

12,689,410 

$420,237,895 

-  1800.  *  Accounts  of  the  end  of  1800.  3  Received 
in  1803.  4  Amount  at  end  of  1893.  6  Deposits  during 
1892.  8  Post-offices  in  France  and  Algiers  made  agen- 


in  1882.     r  Deposits  in  i8go.     8  Deposited  in  1800. 
counts    opened     in    1889.    10  Deposited    in    1889. 


cies  i 

9  Acc< _.._ 

11  Deposits  in  i 


Postal  Service. 


1068 


Postal  Service. 


History. 


These  statistics  are  taken  for  the  latest  years  from 
the  Statesman's  Year  Book  for  1895,  and  for  the  earlier 
years  from  Mr.  Wanamaker's  investigation  of  the 
subject,  described  in  his  report  as  postmaster-general 
in  1892.  They  show  that,  in  Europe  alone,  over  12,- 
000,000  of  people  use  the  postal  savings-banks  and 
deposit  some  $420,000,000  a  year.  Remembering  those 
who  use  this  system  in  Australia,  India,  and  other 
colonies  it  is  small  wonder  that  Mr.  Wanamaker 
recommended  that  the  United  States  should  adopt 
the  system  and  that  several  bills  to  that  effect  are 
now  pending  in  Congress. 

See  Report  of  the  Postmaster  General  for  1892. 

POSTAL  SERVICE.— I.  HISTORY.  The 
earliest  postal  service  of  the  world  was  proba- 
bly that  of  the  trained  runners  or  couriers  who 
carried  official  and  military  messages  between 
the  cities  of  Greece  and  Rome,  developing 
into  the  heralds  and  nuncios  and  embassies 
between  governments  in  later  times. 

At  first  they  carried  simply  official  messages.  Grad- 
ually they  came  to  carry  private  messages.  Then  all 
letters  of  the  fifteenth  and  perhaps  the  fourteenth  cen- 
tury in  England  evidently  were  carried  by  a  system 
of  messengers.  The  University  of  Paris  organized  a 
system  of  messengers  in  the  thirteenth 
century.  Sir  Brian  Tuke,  in  1533,  is 
described  as  Master  of  the  Messengers. 
In  1635  Thomas  Witherings  was  author- 
ized to  run  a  post  night  and  day  be- 
tween London  and  Edinburgh,  " to  go 
thither  and  back  again  in  six  days."  Eight  lines  of 
post  were  established.  The  postage  was  id.  for  less 
than  80  miles,  ?>d.  to  any  place  in  Scotland.  In  1685 
a  penny  post  was  established  in  London  and  suburbs. 
It  was  a  private  speculation,  but,  on  succeeding,  was 
annexed  to  the  Crown.  In  1783  mail-coaches  were 
substituted  for  boys  on  horseback.  In  1837  Rowland 
Hill  published  a  pamphlet,  analyzing  the  postal  sys- 
tem and  showing  £282,308  as  the  probable  outgoings 
for  receipt  and  delivery  and  .£144,209  as  the  probable 
outgoings  for  transit.  In  other  words,  the  expendi- 
ture which  hinged  upon  the  distance  the  letters  had  to 
be  conveyed  was  ^144,000,  and  that  which  had  nothing 
to  do  with  distance  was  £282,000.  Applying  to  these 
figures  the  estimated  number  of  letters  and  news- 
papers (126,000,000)  passing  through  the  office,  there 
resulted  a  probable  average  cost  of  ffo  of  a  penny  for 
each,  of  which  f$j  was  cost  of  transit  and  tffo  cost  of 
receipt,  delivery,  etc.  Taking  into  account,  however, 
the  much  greater  weight  of  newspaper  and  franked 
letters  as  compared  with  chargeable  letters,  the  ap- 
parent average  cost  of  transit  became,  by  this  esti- 
mate, but  about  T§CT,  or  less  than  j>B  of  a  penny. 

From  this  Hill  argued  that  as  it  would  take  a  nine- 
fold weight  to  make  the  expense  of  transit  amount  to 
one  farthing ;  he  further  inferred  that,  taxation  apart, 
the  charge  ought  to  be  precisely  the  same  for  every 
packet  of  moderate  weight,  without  reference  to  the 
number  of  its  enclosures. 

Parliament   was  induced  to  appoint  a  committee, 
which  sustained  Mr.  Hill  and  showed  that  postage  was 
extensively  evaded  by  all  classes  of  society,  corre- 
spondence   suppressed,   more    especially  among   the 
middle  and  working  classes  of  the  people,  and  thus, 
in  consequence,  the  cost  unnecessarily 
high.    As  a  result,  Rowland  Hill  was 
Cheat)        placed  in  charge.    A  bill  was  passed, 
p     ,    v         enabling  reforms  to  be  put  into  effect, 
rostage.      A  penny  was  adopted  as  the  uniform 
rate  for  every  inland  letter  not  above 
half  an  ounce.     Facilities  for  prepay- 
ment were  afforded  by  the  introduction  of  postage- 
stamps,  and  double  postage  was  levied  on  letters  not 
prepaid.    Arrangements  were  made  for  the  registra- 
tion of  letters;  and  the  money-order  office,  by  a  re- 
duction of  the  commission  charged  for  orders,  became 
available  to  an  extent  which  it  had  never  been  before. 
As  far  back  as  1792  a  money-order  office  had  been 
established  as  a  medium  for  sailors  and  soldiers  to 
transmit  their  savings,  and  its  benefit  had  afterward 
been  extended  to  the  general  public  ;  but  the  com- 
mission charged  had  been  so  high  that  it  was  only 
employed  to  a  very  limited  extent.    The  immediate 
result  of  the  changes  introduced  in  1840  was  an  enor- 
mous increase  in  the  amount  of  correspondence,  aris- 
ing in  part  from  the  cessation  of  the  illicit  traffic  in 
letters,  which  had  so  latgely  prevailed  before;  but 


for  some  years  there  was  a  deficit  in  the  post-office 
revenue. 

With  the  development  of  the  railway  system  came 
the  carriage  of  letters  by  train,  adding  to  the  expenses 
of   the    post-office,   but    gradually   the 
former  gross  revenue  of  the  post-office 
was  exceeded  in  1851,  and  the  net  rev- 
enue  in  1863.    Many  reforms  were  intro- 
duced  :  (i)  The  establishment  of  postal 
savings-banks  (1861);  (2)  the  transfer  to 
the  State  of  the  telegraphic    service  (1870);    (3)  the 
introduction  of  postal  cards  (October,  1870);  and  (4) 
the  establishment  (1883)  of  a  parcel  post. 

The  French  postal  system  was  founded  by  Louis  XL 
(1464).    In   1627    France    originated  a    postal  money- 
transmission   system.     Mazarin's  edict 
of  3d  December,  1643,  shows  that  France 
at  that  date  had  a  parcel  post  as  well  as    Tiv,fl  Pn-nti 
a  letter  post.    Important  postal  reforms 
in  France  are  :  The  extension  of  postal         nent. 
facilities  to  all  the    communes  of  the 
country ;     the     adoption     of     postage 
stamps  (1849);  the  organization  of  an  excellent  system 
of  not  only  transmitting  but  insuring  articles  of  de- 
clared value,  whatever  their  nature  (1859);  the  issue 
of  postal  notes  payable  to  bearer  (1860);  the  establish- 
ment of  a  post-office  library  (1878);  the  creation  of 
postal  savings-banks  (1880). 

The  German  postal  system  also  began  early.  In 
Strasburg  a  messenger  code  existed  as  early  as  1443. 
A  postal  service  was  organized  at  Nuremberg  in  1570. 

The  Prussian  system  began  with  the  Great  Elector, 
and  with  the  establishment,  in  1646,  of  a  government 
post  from  Cleves  to  Memel.  Frederick  II.  largely 
extended  it.  The  first  mail  steam-packet  was  built  in 
1821  ;  the  first  transmission  of  mails  by  railway  was 
in  1847  ;  the  beginning  of  the  postal  administration  of 
the  telegraphs  was  in  1849 ;  and,  by  the  treaty  of 
postal  union  with  Austria,  the  germ  was  virtual!}'  set 
•  of  the  International  Postal  Union. 


The  first  postal  service  established  in  any 
portion  of  what  is  now  the  United  States  was 
probably  made  by  the  General  Court  of  Massa- 
chusetts in  1639. 

In  1672  the  government  of  the  Colony  of 
New  York  established  a  "  post  to  goe  monthly 
from  New  York  to  Boston";  and  notice  was 
given  to  "  those  that  bee  disposed  to  send 
letters,  to  bring  them  to  the  secretary's  office, 
where  in  a  lockt  box  they  shall  bee  preserved 
till  the  messenger  calls  for  them,  all  persons 
paying  the  post  before  the  bagg  bee  sealed  up." 

In  1692  the  English  Government  put  the 
colonial  postal  service  in  charge  of  a  deputy 
postmaster-general,  and  in  1710,  by  formal 
act  of  Parliament  (9  Queen  Anne,  chap,  x.), 
the  first  organized  system  for  the  transmission 
of  the  mails  in  the  Colonies  was  created. 

In  1753  Benjamin  Franklin,  who  had  been 
postmaster  at  Philadelphia,  was  made  post- 
master-general.     A    penny    post 
was  established  at  Philadelphia ; 
in  1756  the  first  stage,  probably,    The  United 
in  the  Colonies  began  to  carry  the       States, 
mails  between   Philadelphia  and 
New  York.     In  1758  newspapers, 
which  previously  had    been    carried    in    the 
mails  free,  were  charged  with  postage.    Other 
reforms    and  improvements  were  begun,   so 
that  in  1774,  the  last  of  Franklin's  administra- 
tion under  the  Crown,  the  net  revenue  of  the 
postal  service  was  over  ,£3000.     On  January  30 
of    that    year   Franklin    was    removed    from 
office,  as  he  himself  calls  it,  "by  a  freak  of 
the  ministers,"  due  to  his  pronounced  advo- 
cacy of  the  cause  of  the  Colonies  ;  but  in  July, 
1775,  he  was  appointed,  by  the  Second  Conti- 
nental Congress,  "Postmaster-General  of  the 
United    Colonies."    When    the    Constitution 


Postal  Service. 


1069 


Postal  Service. 


went  into  operation,  Congress,  by  act  of 
September  22,  1789,  provided  for  the  "tem- 
porary establishment  of  the  post-office,"  the 
regulations  to  be  "  the  same  as  they  last  were 
tinder  the  resolutions  and  ordinances  of  the 
late  Congress." 

In  1792  an  act  was  passed  to  establish  a 
general  post-office. 

So  insignificant  was  this  department  that  in 
1790  Samuel  Osgood,  in  a  letter  to  Alexander 
Hamilton,  gravely  discussed  the  question 
whether  the  Postmaster-General  should  not 
be  required  to  occupy  the  room  at  the  seat  of 
government  where  the  mails  were  received 
and  dispatched,  in  order  that  he  might  per- 
sonally superintend  the  work. 

But  the  service  rapidly  grew.  In  1816 
better  rates  were  granted.  In  1834  railroads 
were  first  used.  In  1851  a  great  advance  was 
made  toward  cheap  postage.  Letters  not 
over . one-half  ounce,  prepaid,  could  be  sent 
3000  miles  for  three  cents.  In  1855  the  regis- 
try system  was  authorized  ;  in  1863  the  free 
delivery  system  ;  in  1864  the  money  order 
system  ;  in  1885  the  special  delivery.  Other 
reforms  have  been  the  introduction  of  railway 
post-offices  and,  very  recently,  electric  street 
postal  cars  ;  the  system  of  delivery,  postal 
cards,  and  return  cards,  etc.,  etc. 

In    1874    a    Universal    Postal    Union    was 

formed,  mainly  owing  to  the  efforts  of  Dr.  von 

Stephan  of  Germany,  tho  it  had 

_  .  ,  been  proposed  to  the  various  coun- 
1  tries  by  the  United  States  in  1862. 
The  approximate  number  of  let- 
ters and  postal  cards  transmitted 
annually  in  the  mails  of  European 
countries  is  as  follows  :  Great  Britain  and  Ire- 


land, 1,500,000,000;  Germany,  1,200,000,000; 
France,  700,000,000  ;  Austria-Hungary,  600,- 
000,000  ;  Italy,  250,000,000  ;  Russia,  200,000,000; 
Belgium,  130,000,000;  Spain,  120,000,000;  Switz- 
erland, 110,000,000;  Netherlands,  100,000,000; 
Sweden,  100,000,000. 

The  number  of  pieces  of  postal  matter  of  all 
kinds  which  pass  through  the  mails  of  the 
United  States  annually  is  about  3,800,000,000. 
The  annual  aggregate  number  of  letters  trans- 
mitted through  the  post-offices  of  the  world 
may  be  estimated  at  8,000,000,000,  and  of 
newspapers,  5,000,000,000. 

The  United  States  transmits  71  pieces  of 
mail  per  capita  to  its  population ;  Great 
Britain,  61  ;  Germany,  41,  France,  37. 


Expenses. 


Postal 
Union. 


The  main  expenses  of  the  department  in  1894  were 
railroad  transportation  ($25,661,567),  payment  of  post- 
masters ($15,889,709),  free  delivery  serv- 
ice ($11,239,251),  clubs  ($8,759,386),  railway 
clubs  ($6,878,194),  star  routes  (contract 
routes)  ($5,896,855),   railway  postal  car 
service  ($2,92 1, 957),  mail  messenger  serv- 
ice ($1,208,972),  foreign  mails  ($1,250,154). 

The  Postmaster-Generals  assert  the  cause  of  the  de- 
ficiency in  the  department  is  that  so  much  matter  for 
other  departments  is  carried  free.    The  report  for  1894 
says  (p.  4) :  "  If  the  free  business  transacted  by  this  de- 
partment for  the  other  departments  of  the  Government 
were  paid  at  regular  rates,  as  has  at  times  been  sug- 
gested, the  post-office  department  would  be  self-sus- 
taining."   Says  Mr.  Wanamaker  in  his  Report  (1893) : 
"  Bundles  of  wire  six  feet  high,  and  six  feet  around, 
bags  of  seeds,  supplies  for  the  army,  tons  of  docu- 
ments  packed    in    wooden    cases   that 
sometimes  require  three  men  to  handle 
them,  millions  of  blanks  of  the  census      Cause  of 
office,   are   piled   into   the   post-offices.    ...    „ 
.   .   .   The  reason  for  it  is,  that  the  Post-    Deficiency. 
Office  Department  is  compelled  to  carry 
anything  sent  under  a  penalty   frank, 
and  finally  franks  are  used  by  all  the  departments  and 
their  agents  for  the  purpose  of  carrying  everything 
they  choose  to  send." 


II.  STATISTICS. 

The  following  data  for  the  United  States  are  taken  from  the  annual  reports  of  the  Postmaster- 
General: 


Year  Ending  June  30 

Post-Offices. 

Extent  of 
Post-routes. 

Revenue  of 
the  Depart- 
ment. 

Railway  Mail  Service. 

Total  Expend- 
iture of  the 
Department. 

Number  of 
Employees. 

Annual  Ex- 
penditure. 

1860... 

Number. 
27,106 
28,492 

30.045 
31,863 

33,244 
34,294 
35,547 
36,383 
37,345 
39,258 
40,855 
42,989 
44,512 
46,231 
47,858 
50,017 
51,252 
53,6i4 
55,157 
57,376 
58.999 
62,401 

64,329 
67,119 
68,403 
69,805 
70,069 

Miles. 

233,731 
231,232 
238,359 
251,398 
256,210 
269,097 
277,873 
281,798 
292,820 
301,966 
316,711 
343,888 
344,006 
343,6i8 
353-  166 
359,53° 
365,25i 
368,660 
373,H2 
403,977 
416,159 
427,990 
439,027 
447,591 
453,833 
454,746 

Dollars. 
18,344,511 
19,772,221 
20,037,04.15 
21,915,426 
22,996,742 
26,471,072 
26,791,361 
28,644,10.8 
27,531,585 
29,277,517 
30,041,983 

33,3J5,479 
36,785,398 
41,876,410 
45,508,693 
43,335,958 
42,560,843 
43,948,423 
48,837,610 
52,695,177 
56,175,611 
60,882,097 
65,931,786 
70,930,476 
75,896,933 
75,080,479 
76,983,128 

1,129 
1,106 
1,382 
1,647 
1,895 
2,175 
2,242 

2,415 
2,500 
2,608 
2,609 
2,946 
3,i77 
3,570 
3,855 
3,963 
4,387 
4,573 
4,851 
5,094 
5,448 
5,836 
6,032 
6,417 
6,645 
6,852 

Dollars. 
973,560 
1,109,140 
1,441,020 
1,709,546 
1,958,876 
2,186,330 
2,410,490 
2,504,140 
2,484,846 

2,579,013 
2,624,890 
2,850,980 
3,108,801 
3,486,779 
3,972,071 
3,688.032 
4,246,210 
4,467,717 
4,694,562 
4,981,366 
5,250,838 
5,562,844 
5,904,381 
6,480,684 
6,733,410 
6,989,449 

Dollars. 
23,698,132 
23,998,838 
24,390,104 
26,658,192 
29,084,946 
32,126,415 
33,611,309 
33,263,488 
33,486,322 
34,165,084 
33,419,809 
36,542,804 
39,592,566 
40,482,021 
43,282,944 
47,224,560 
50,046,235 
51,004,744 
53,006,194 
56,468,315 
61,376,847 
65,930,717 
71,662,463 
76,323,762 
81,074,104 
84,324,414 
86,790,172 

1871  

1872  

1873.  .  . 

1874  

1875  

11876  

1877  

1878  

1879   

188:1  

1881  

j882  

!883  

i88j  

1885  

i885  

1887  

1888  

1889  

1890  

1891  

1892  

1893  

1895  

Postal  Service. 


1070 


Postal  Service. 


Mr.  Bissell  in  his  Report  for  1894  says,  that  the  one 
great,  and  in  his  opinion  unnecessary  loss  of  revenue 
to  the  department  arises  from  the  undue  amount  of 
mail  matter  transmitted  at  second-class  rates  (one  cent 
a  pound).  The  256,000,000  pounds  of  this  matter  carried 
in  1893,  added  to  the  44,000,000  carried  free,  was,  he  says, 
about  two-thirds  of  the  weight  of  the  mails.  He  says 
this  rate  is  abused  to  carry  trashy  serials,  advertising 
sheets,  bogus  papers,  sample  copies,  etc.,  etc.  He 
recommends  the  careful  modification  of  this  law,  to 
distinguish  between  real  iournals  and  publications  and 
advertising  sheets,  etc.  (But  see  below.) 

July  i,  1893,  there  were  610  free  delivery  offices. 
July  i,  1894,  there  were  19,264  domestic  money-order 
offices,  which  transmitted,  the  12  months  previous, 
$138,793,579.  There  were  2625  international  money- 
order  offices  which  transmitted  abroad  $13,792,455,  and 
received  $6,568,493.  There  were  issued  7,765,310  postal 
notes  valued  at  $12,649,094.  The  gross  revenue  received 
from  the  money-order  business  was  $960,341.  The 
number  of  pieces  of  mail  matter  received  at  the  dead 
letter  office  was  7,101,044,  of  which  2,975,098  were  re- 
stored to  their  owners  containing  money  or  notes,  ex- 
clusive of  merchandise  valued  at  $1,000,663.  The  sale 
of  stamps,  cards,  etc.,  was  $70,239,910  in 
value.  There  were  mailed  at  pound 
Miscellane-  rates>  PaPers  and  periodicals  aggregat- 
ons  Statistics  ^g  254.79o,3°6  pounds  ;  44,962,995  pounds 
ous  Diaiisuos.  Of  matter  were  carried  free.  There 
were  mailed  2,383,730,000  letters  ;  468,490,- 
ooo  postal  cards ;  1,429,450,000  pieces  of 
second-class  matter;  589,180,000  pieces  third-class; 
48,240,000  fourth-class ;  23,166  post-office  appointments 
were  made,  1928  being  Presidential  post-office  appoint- 
ments ;  351  post-office  burglars  were  arrested ;  1621 
offices  were  burglarized  during  the  year ;  558  offices 
burned  ;  50  postal  cars  burned  and  wrecked! ;  48  mail 
trains  and  stages  robbed  ;  5926  complaints  were  re- 
ceived concerning  registered  mail,  and  56,877  concern- 
ing unregistered  ;  of  41,419  cases  investigated,  no  loss 
occurred  in  6731  cases,  leaving  56,072  with  a  claimed 
loss— this  is  less  than  one  complaint  for  87,000  pieces 
carried  ;  29,614  employees  were  on  the  civil  service 
list. 

"The  employees  of  the  Post-office  are  expected  to 

work  eight  hours  a  day  besides  what  Sunday  work  is 

necessary.    Overtime  is  paid  for,  though 

too  often  the  employees  have  to  con- 

EmnlOVees.    £est  fo/  such  ^a£    Their  wages  are  $600, 
**•*•        $800,   $850  and  $1000,  according  to    the 
time  they  have  worked  in  the  depart- 
ment.     The  number  of  postmasters  is 
about  67,368  ;  clerks,  111,875  ;  letter  carriers,  10,892;  sub- 
contractors.ii, 478  ;  mail  messengers  and  railway  postal 
clerks,  13,762."    (The  Story  of  Our  Post  Office.) 
The  number  of  post-offices  in  the  United  Kingdom. 
March,   18^4,   was  20,016.     The   staff  of 
officers  was  74,819  (10,908  women),   be- 
Great         sides  61,000  who  did  not  hold  permanent 
•Britain        positions.      There  were   delivered    the 
uruaiu,      year  ending  March  31,  1894,  1,812,000,000 
letters  ;  248,500,000  post  cards  ;  574,300,000 
book  packages  ;  164,900,000,  newspapers  ; 
547,000,000  parcels  ;   10,524,774  money  orders  valued  at 
£28,720,829.    The  revenue  exclusive  of  the  postal  tele- 
graph was  £10,472,875  ;  the  expenses,  £7,738,602.    There 
are  46  miles  of  pneumatic  tubing  in  London. 
(See  also  POSTAL  SAVINGS  BANKS  and  TELEGRAPH.) 

III.  POSTAL  REFORMS. — In  his  report  for  1892 
Mr.  Wanamaker  outlines  his  ideal  postal  sys- 
tem : 

"  My  ideal  for  the  American  postal  service  is  a  sys- 
tem modeled  upon  a  district  plan,  with  fewer  offices, 
and  those  grouped  around  central  offices  and  under 
thorough  supervision.  By  this  means  at  least  20,000 
offices  could  be  abandoned  that  produce  no  revenue  to 
the  department.  In  the  place  of  every  abolished  non- 
money-order  and  non-registry  office  might  be  put  an 
automatic  stamp-selling  machine  and  a  letter-box  to 
receive  mail.  With  the  money  saved  should  be  insti- 
tuted a  system  of  collection  and  delivery  by  mounted 
carriers,  bicycles,  and  star-route  and  messenger  con- 
tractors, and  the  free  delivery  gradually  spread  all 
over  the  country.  The  classes  of  postage  should  be 
reduced  to  three,  and  the  rate  of  postage  the  world 
over  to  one  cent  for  each  half-ounce,  for  the  average 
weight  of  a  letter  is  now  three-eighths  of  an  ounce.  I 
would  indemnify,  to  the  extent  of  $10,  for  every  lost 
registered  letter." 

Mr.    Wanamaker    goes    on    to    recommend 


postal     telegraph    and    telephone,    pneumatic 

tubes,  etc.    Many  would  go  much  further.    Mr. 

J,  L    Cowles,   in   his   A    General 

Freight     and     Passenger     Post 

(1896),  advocates   the  government  Government 

ownership  of  postal,  baggage,  and     Railroad 

express  cars,  and  the  operation  of      Service. 

these  services  by  the  government, 

paying  the  railroads  a  reasonable 

sum  for  hauling  the  cars.     He  shows  (p.  112) 

that  the  annual  saving  to  the  people  would  be 

$22,670,257  per  year,  or  more  than  enough  to 

pay  the  entire  equipment  in  a  single  year,  after 

which  there  would  be  a  clear  gain  of  $22,000,000 

annually,  and  far  better  service  than  now. 

He  shows  from  Postmaster-General  Vilas's  report  for 
1887,  that  the  Government  then  paid  the  railroads 
merely  for  rent  of  the  432  postal  cars  then  in  use 
(besides  the  8  cents  a  pound  for  transportation), 
$1,881,240  per  year,  while  the  cars  could  easily  be  re- 
duplicated for  $1,600,000.  On  one  line  alone  $59,037 
was  paid  per  year  for  rent  of  cars  that  could  be.  built 
for  $17,500. 

He  shows  (p.  68)  that  for  transportation  the  Govern- 
ment pays  the  railroads  on  an  average  8  cents  a 
pound  for  an  average  haul  of  not  over  4.42  miles  ;  yet 
the  express  companies  deliver  goods  from  houses  in 
New  York  to  houses  in  Chicago  for  $3  per  hundred 
pounds,  and  certain  transcontinental  roads  have  been 
fighting  for  nine  years  for  the  legal  right  to  carry 
foreign  books,  carpets,  cutlery,  etc.,  from  New  Orleans 
to  San  Francisco  at  eight-tenths  of  a  cent  a  pound. 
Some  trains  (he  says)  get  their  entire  cost  from  their 
receipts  from  the  Post  Office.  Yet  people  wonder  that 
the  post-office  has  a  deficit. 

Extreme  individualists  would  take  the  post- 
office  out  of  government  operation. 

Mr.  Frederick  Millar,  in  A  Plea  for  Liberty 
(chap,  ix.),  criticizing  the  English  postal  sys- 
tem, argues  that  all  the  reforms  in  the  post- 
office  system  have  been  forced  on  it    from 
without ;  that  the  very  monopoly  enjoyed  by 
the   State   is  a  tacit  acknowledgment  of  its 
inability  to  compete  with  private  enterprise  ; 
that  postage  is  still  very  much  dearer  than  it 
need  be  ;  that  its  operations  are 
not  conducted  in  a  business  way ; 
that  in  1887  the  postmaster-gen-  Iridividual- 
eral  declared    that    the  theft  of    istView. 
postal  orders  had  ' '  reached  por- 
tentous   dimensions";    that    the 
authorities  of  the  post-office  are  unjust  to  their 
employees,  and  the  employees  arbitrary  and 
impudent  to  the  public  ;  that  there  have  been 
strikes  in  the  post-offices,  as  in  any  business  ; 
that  the  parcel  post  has  failed  to  compete  with, 
the  railroads  ;  that  the  postal  savings-banks 
are  not  as  well  managed  as  private  banks,  are 
not  open  at  hours  convenient  for  the  working- 
classes  ;  that  the  telegraph  service  does  not 
pay  ;  that  at  Christmas-time  the  post-office  is 
disorganized  ;  in  a  word,  that  the  State  post- 
office  stands  "  self -condemned." 

To  this  it  is  answered  by  socialists  that  the 
above  writer,  living  where  both  post  and  tele- 
graph are  in  government  hands, 
has  not  had  much  experience   of 
the  delights  of  private  ownership     Socialist 
of  the  means  of  communication.       View. 
The   telegraph   rates  of   the  pri- 
vate Western  Union  Company  of 
the  United  States  are  more  than  twice  those 
of  England  (State  system),  and  the  accommo- 
dation, or  lack  of  accommodation,  the  private 


Postal  Service. 


1071 


Poverty- 


telegraph  gives  to  the  small  places  is  well- 
nigh  atrocious.  In  the  larger  cities,  where  it 
pays,  private  companies  might  give  better 
accommodations  (tho  usually  they  do  not) 
than  the  State,  but  the  State  thinks  of  the 
whole  people,  and  provides  accommodation 
where  it  does  not  pay.  The  United  States  has 
70,064  post-offices  ;  the  private  Western  Union 
Company  has  not  half  that  number  of  offices. 
The  United  States  postal  service  carries  pack- 
ages to  small  places  as  cheap  as  the  private 
express  companies  do  to  larger  places,  and  to 
thousands  of  places  where  there  is  no  private 
express  service.  Undoubtedly,  no  postal  serv- 
ice is  perfect  and  reforms  everywhere  can  be 
made,  but  the  United  States  postal  service  has 
been  more  progressive  than  private  companies, 
pays  its  employees  higher  wages,  charges  lower 
rates,  has  its  offices  open  longer  hours,  for 
example,  than  the  private  telegraph  offices, 
and  accommodates  far  more  of  the  population. 
(See  TELEGRAPH  ;  TELEPHONE  ;  INDIVIDUALISM  ; 
SOCIALISM.) 

References :  Reports  of  the  Postmaster-general  ; 
M.  Cushing's  The  Story  of  Our  Post-office  (Boston, 
1893) ;  J.  W.  Hyde's  A  Hundred  Years  "by  Post  (Lon- 
don, 1891) ;  J.  L.  Cowles'  A  General  Freight  and  Pas- 
senger Post  (1896). 

POVERTY.  For  the  statistics  of  poverty, 
see  PAUPERISM  ;  WEALTH  (section,  Distribution 
of) ;  UNEMPLOYMENT  ;  WAGES. 

We  consider  here  the  meaning  of  poverty, 
the  causes  of  poverty,  and  the  means  proposed 
for  its  prevention  or  relief. 

I.    WHAT  POVERTY   MEANS. 

We  quote  upon  this  point  a  statement,  writ- 
ten by  Mr.  Ira  Steward,  and  published  in  the 
Fourth  Annual  Report  of  the  Massachusetts 
Bureau  of  the  Statistics  of  Labor  (1873).  He 
says  : 

"  Poverty  is  the  great  fact  with  which  the 
labor  movement  deals.  The  problems  that 
now  most  disturb  and  perplex  mankind  will 
be  solved  when  the  masses  are  no  longer 
poor.  Poverty  makes  the  poor  poorer,  and 
independence  impossible.  It  corrupts  judges, 
ministers,  legislators,  and  statesmen.  It  de- 
cides marriages,  shortens  human  life,  hinders 
education,  and  embarrasses  progress  in  every 
direction.  It  gives  rise,  directly  and  indi- 
rectly, to  more  anxiety,  suffering,  and  crime 
than  all  other  causes  combined.  Poverty  crams 
cities,  and  their  tenement  houses,  with  people 
whose  conduct  and  votes  endanger  the  Re- 
public. The  dangerous  classes  are  always 
poor.  There  is  a  closer  relation  between 
poverty  and  slavery  than  the  average  aboli- 
tionist ever  recognized.  .  .  .  The  anti-slavery 
idea  was  that  every  man  had  the  right  to  go 
and  come  at  his  will.  The  labor  movement 
asks  how  much  this  abstract  right  is  worth, 
without  the  power  to  exercise  it.  ...  The 
laborer  instinctively  feels  that  something  of 
slavery  still  remains,  or  that  something  of 
freedom  is  yet  to  come,  and  he  is  not  much 
interested  in  the  anti-slavery  theory  of  liberty. 
He  wants  a  fact,  which  the  labor  movement 
undertakes  to  supply. 


"  But  has  not  the  middle  class  its  poverty — 
a  poverty  that  should  excite  the  most  anxiety, 
and  the  most  searching  inquiry? 
They  are  a  large  majority  of  the 
people,  and  their  poverty  is  gen-     Poverty 
erally  carefully  concealed.    .    .    .  Affects  All. 
The  middle  classes  have  the  strong- 
est motives  for  never  making  any 
parade  or  public  complaint  of  their  poverty. 
To  advertise  oneself  destitute,  is  to  be  with- 
out credit.    .    .    .    Poverty  that  publishes  or  ar- 
gues one's  incapacity  closes  many  a  door  to 
more  profitable  or  advantageous  situations  or 
promotions.      The  more  expensive  and  supe- 
rior style  of  living  adopted  by  the   middle 
classes,  must,  therefore,  be  considered  in  the 
light  of  an  investment,  made  from  the  sound- 
est considerations  of  expediency.    .    .    .    Very 
few  among  them  are  saving  money  ;  many  of 
them  are  in  debt ;  and  all  they  can  earn  for 
years  is,  in  many  cases,  mortgaged,  to   pay 
such  debt — '  debt  that  increases  the  load   of 
the  future,  with  the  burden  which  the  present 
cannot  bear.'   .    .    .    The  poverty  of  the  great 
middle  classes  consists  in  the  fact  that  they 
have  only  barely  enough    to  cover  up   their 
poverty,  and  that  they  are  within  a  few  days- 
of  want,  if  through  sickness  or  other  misfor- 
tune employment  suddenly  stops.    .    .    . 

"  But  the  most  alarming  fact  concerning  the 
poverty  of  the  native  middle  classes  in  this- 
commonwealth  is  that,  for  two  or  three  dec- 
ades past,  marriages  and  births,  have  so  far 
decreased   among   them  that  we    are   nearly 
or  quite  justified  in  saying  that  they  are  now 
dying  faster  than  their  children  are    being 
born  ;  and  that  it  is  to  foreign  sources  (and  to 
Americans  born  in  other  States),  and  to  the 
lower  class  of  native-born,  we  must  credit  the 
present  increase  in  our  census  returns.    .    .    . 
With  the  mass  of  intelligent  people,  early  or 
late   marriages,    and  few  or  no  children,   is 
largely  a  question  of  poverty  and  wealth.  .  .  . 
"  Poverty,  however,  falls  most  crushingly 
on  woman.     In  all  countries,  and  in  all  ages, 
among  the  lower  and  middle  classes,  she  has. 
worked  harder,  and  for  less  pay,  than  men. 
A  woman  who  has  no  resources  for  a  living 
except  from  the  labor  of  her  own  hands,  is 
tolerably  sure  to  become  in  time,  either  the 
poor   man's    slave,  or   the    rich    man's   play- 
thing ;  to  marry  for  a  home,  or 
do  worse.     To  make  prostitution    rp^e  Qauge 
unnecessary  is  a  part  of  the  prob-    of  intem. 
lem  of  social  science  ;  but  prosti- 
tution   means  getting    a    living. 
The   science  that  will  solve  this 
problem  will  easily  dispose  of  war,  intemper- 
ance, financial  convulsions,  and  a  dozen  other 
evils  that  now  disturb  the  peace  of  the  race. 
Poverty  is  the  mainspring  of  selfishness,  for 
it  is  the  destitution  of  the  mass  of  mankind 
that  prevents  them  from  thinking  and  doing 
for  others.     As  Mill  says,  '  all  their  thoughts 
are  required  for  themselves.'   .    .    .    The  two 
classes  most  peculiarly  open  to  the  temptation 
of  intemperance  are  the  very  poor   and  the 
very  rich  young  men.    .    .    .       The  steps   of 
some  young  men  turn    finally    to    the    light, 
warm,  welcome  saloon,  not  from  force  of  ap- 
petite, for  they  have  never  yet  drunk  enough 


Poverty. 


1072 


Poverty. 


to  create  the  craving  for  stimulating  bever- 
ages, nor  because  it  is  fashionable,  for  their 
wages  are  not  sufficient  to  lift  them  up  to  that 
level  ;  but  because  they  are  without  homes, 
and  are  starving  for  society. 

"  The  sons  of  the  wealthy  have  homes,  and 
all  that  money  can  bring  for  their  entertain- 
ment. But  in  many  cases  they  have  nothing 
whatever  to  do.  They  are  corrupted  by  idle- 
ness, and  it  is  their  extreme  wealth  that  makes 
their  hours  of  idleness  possible.  .  .  .  The 
most  terrible  of  all  stagnations  is  idleness.  It 
means  moral  and  social  rottenness,  and 
intemperance  is  only  a  single  manifestation 
of  it.  ... 

"  No  one  is  fully  educated  until  the  discip- 
line of  hard  labor  has  been  added  to  the  cul- 
ture of  books,  travel,  and  good  society,  and, 
on  the  other  hand,  no  one  is  educated  who  has 
had  no  chance  to  learn  anything  but  to  work 
hard  and  steadily,  and  to  '  know  his  place.'  .  .  . 
The  law  of  '  supply  and  demand,'  so  often 
quoted  as  regulating  wages  and  prices,  means 
nothing,  more  nor  less,  than  the  great  fact  of 
the  poverty  of  the  poor,  and  the  power  and  com- 
parative independence  of  the  wealthy.  . 
Starving  men  will  always  bid  for  wages  at 
starvation  prices.  .  .  .  The  law  of  supply 
and  demand  is  said  to  regulate  the  price  of 
commodities,  but  the  '  demand  '  is  limited  by 
the  great  fact  of  the  poverty  of  the  mass  of 
consumers.  .  .  .  '  A  glut  in  the  market '  has 
never  yet  meant  anything  more  than  that 
millions  of  people  are  too  poor  to  pay  for  the 
food,  clothes,  houses,  books,  and  opportunities 
that  are  waiting  for  customers.  .  .  . 

"It  is  poverty  that  compels  one  man  to 
borrow  of  another,  and  the  price  paid  for  the 
use  of  the  money  loaned  is  what  we  call  inter- 
est— so  that  interest  on  money  is  poverty 
again.  ...  It  is  the  enormous  profits  made 
directly  upon  the  labor  of  the  wage  classes, 
and  indirectly  through  the  results  of  their 
labor,  that,  first,  keeps  them  poor,  and,  second, 
furnishes  the  capital  that  is  finally  loaned  back 
to  them  again.  .  .  . 

"  It  is  clear  that  the  large  fortunes  accumuT 
lated  by  the  wealthy  can  only  be  defended 
upon  the  theory  that  their  services  are  actually 
worth  the  compensation  they  receive.  Are 
their  services  worth  the  price  charged  ?  .  .  .  . 
If  it  is  fair  to  ask  hands  how  much  they  could 
do  without  brains,  it  is  just  as  fair  to  ask 
brains  how  long  they  could  live  without 
hands.  The  alternative  presented  to  man- 
kind, in  case  the  services  of  managers  were 
withdrawn,  is  a  reduced  rate  of  production, 
which  means  poverty.  But,  on  the  other  hand, 
the  alternative  presented  to  those  who  man- 
age labor,  in  case  the  so-called  brainless 
workers  were  withdrawn,  is  death,  or  hard 
work  with  their  own  hands,  for  fields  were 
never  tilled,  nor  houses  reared,  nor  garments 
made,  nor  food  cooked,  without 
manual  labor.  .  .  .  The  capital 
tie  capitalist  is  not  simply  the 
wealth  he  has  somehow  acquired, 
tho  this  is,  indeed,  a  very  im- 
portant part  of  his  capital.  The 
other  part,  without  which  the  first  would  be 
worthless,  and  to  which  the  political  economist 


Poverty 

Causes  Low 

Wages. 


seldom,  or  never,  refers,  but  to  which  we 
now  call  special  attention,  is  the  great  and 
terrible  fact  of  the  poverty  of  the  masses.  It 
is  their  poverty,  destitution,  and  consequent 
dependence,  that  compel  them,  every  day  of 
their  lives,  to  make  the  best  terms  possible 
with  those  who  hold  in  their  possession  the 
surplus  wealth  of  the  world.  ..." 

II.    CAUSES   OF   POVERTY. 

As  to  the  causes  of  poverty  there  are  various 
views.  Professor  A.  G.  Warner,  in  his  Amer- 
ican Charities,  has  collected  and  tabulated  the 
findings  of  a  large  number  of  investigations  of 
the  causes  of  actual  cases  of  poverty  in  the 
United  States,  England,  and  Germany.  He 
includes  in  his  table  practically  all  the  find- 
ings, as  to  actual  cases  of  poverty,  thus  far 
made  in  a  scientific  way  by  trained  investi- 
gators. His  table  embodies  the  results  of 
investigations  by  the  charity  organization 
societies  of  Baltimore,  Buffalo,  and  New  York 
city,  the  associated  charities  of  Boston  and 
Cincinnati  ;  the  studies  of  Charles  Booth  in 
Stepney  and  St.  Pancras  parishes  in  London  ; 
the  statements  of  Bohmert  (Armenwesen  in  77 
Deutschen  Stddten)  for  77  German  cities, 
published  in  1886.  It  will  be  seen  that  here, 
if  anywhere,  we  have  a  scientific  analysis  of 
the  facts  of  the  case,  as  collected  by  persons 
without  any  particular  bias,  certainly  not 
socialists.  The  conclusions,  and  especially 
the  averages  of  even  this  table,  however, 
should  not  be  used  without  reading  the  ex- 
planations that  follow  it.  We  give  Pro- 
fessor Warner's  table,  quoting,  however,  only 
his  percentages. 

Of  this  table  Professor  Warner  says  :  (pp.  36, 
37). 

"  The  first  duty  of  one  presenting  such  a  table 
as  this  is  to  indicate  clearly  what  it  does  not  show. 
It  deals,  as  already  indicated,  only  with  the  exciting 
causes  of  poverty;  and  yet  this  fact  is  not  kept  clearly 
in  mind,  even  by  careful  workers.  Mr.  Booth,  for 
instance,  includes  '  pauper  association  and  heredity  ' 
in  this  list  of  causes ;  and  the  American  societies  in- 
clude 'nature  and  location  of  abode.'  Both  of  these 
are  by  their  nature  predisposing  causes,  rather  than 
immediate  or  exciting  causes  ;  and  it  is  confusing  to 
mix  the  two.  Secondly,  many  of  the  persons  whose 
cases  are  here  tabulated  have  been,  as 
Mr.  Booth  says,  the  football  of  all  the 
causes  in  the  list.  Under  such  circum- 
stances to  pick  out  one  cause,  and  call 
it  the  most  important,  is  a  purely  arbi- 
trary proceeding.  Any  one  of  the 
causes  might  have  been  inadequate  to 
produce  pauperism,  had  not  others  cooperated  with 
it.  A  man  is  drunk  and  breaks  his  leg ;  is  the  cause 
'  accident '  or  '  drink  '  ?  When  this  question  was  sub- 
mitted to  a  group  of  charity  organization  workers,  it 
was  very  promptly  answered  by  two  of  them  ;  but 
their  answers  were  different.  A  man  has  been  shift- 
less all  his  life,  and  is  now  old  ;  is  the  cause  of  poverty 
shiftlessness  or  old  age  ?  A  man  is  out  of  work  be- 
cause he  is  lazy  and  inefficient.  One  has  to  know  him 
quite  well  before  they  can  be  sure  that  laziness  is 
the  cause.  Perhaps  there  is  hardly  a  single  case  in 
the  whole  7000  where  destitution  has  resulted  from 
a  single  cause.  .  .  . 

"The  impossibility  of  giving  an  accurate  statistical 
description  of  the  facts  is  still  clearer  when  we  try  to 
separate  the  causes  indicating  misconduct  from  those 
indicating  misfortune.  Back  of  disease  may  be  either 
misconduct  or  misfortune.  The  imprisonment  of  the 
bread-winner  indicates  misconduct  on  his  part,  but 
may  only  indicate  misfortune  on  the  part  of  wife  and 
children.  The  same  is  true  in  the  case  of  abandoned 
children  and  neglect  by  relatives.  This  particular 
classification  is  made  in  deference  to  popular  inquiry 


Explanation 
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Poverty4 


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only.    In  the  writer's  opinion  its  chief  value  consists 
in  showing  how  little  it  is  worth. 

"But  after  all  possible  allowance  has  been  made  for 
the  '  personal  equation  '  of  the  investigator,  and  for 
all  the  inevitable  incpnclusiveness  of  the  figures, 
there  is  a  residuum  of  information  to  be  got  from  the 
tables.  They  give,  as  well  as  such  statistics  can,  the 
conclusions  reached  by  those  who  are  studying  pau- 
perism at  first  hand.  If  the  figures  furnished  by  all 
the  investigators  were  added  together  into  one  great 
total,  and  this  only  were  put  before  him,  the  author 
would  indeed  hesitate  to  base  any  conclusions  what- 
ever upon  it.  But  when  it  is  found  that  different 
investigators,  at  different  times,  in  different  places, 
reach  conclusions  which,  while  varying  in  many  and 
often  inexplicable  ways,  are  yet  in  agreement  as 
regards  certain  important  facts,  we  can  but  think 
that  the  figures  to  some  extent  reflect  actual 
conditions." 

It  will  be  seen  from  this  table  that  the  chief 
single  cause  of  poverty,  as  here  studied,  is 
sickness  or  death  in  the  families  of  the  poor. 
Lack  of  work  stands  second,  altho,  if  the 
averages  as  to  lack  of  work,  insufficient  work, 
and  poorly  paid  work  be  added  together,  as 
well  they  might  be,  they  form  the  supreme 
cause  of  poverty.  Drink  stands  third,  tho  only 
one-half  as  great  a  cause  as  unemployment. 
Says  Professor  Warner  (pp.  60  and  65)-. 

"Probably  nothing  in  the  tables  of  the  causes  of 
poverty,  as  ascertained  by  cold  counting,  will  more 
surprise  the  average  reader  than  the  fact  that  intem- 
perance is  held  to  be  the  chief  cause  in  only  from  one- 
fifteenth  to  one-fifth  of  the  cases,  and  that  where  an 
attempt  is  made  to  learn  in  how  many  cases  it  had 
a  contributory  influence,  its  presence  cannot  be  traced 
at  all  in  more  than  28.1  per  cent,  of  the  cases."  (See 
INTEMPERANCE.)  Professor  Warner  sums  up  the 
case  by  saying :  "  The  general  conclusion  regarding 
drink  as  a  cause  of  poverty  is  sufficiently  well  formu- 
lated by  Mr.  Booth.  '  Of  drink  in  all  its  combinations, 
adding  to  every  trouble,  undermining  every  effort 
after  good,  destroying  the  home  and  cursing  the 
young  lives  of  the  children,  the  stories  tell  enough. 
It  does  not  stand  in  apparent  chief  cause  in  as  many 
cases  as  sickness  and  old  age  ;  but  if  it  were  not  for 
drink,  sickness  and  old  age  could  be  better  met.'  " 

It  will  also  be  seen  from  the  table  that 
causes  indicating  misconduct  average  only 
21.3  per  cent.,  while  causes  indicating  mis- 
fortune average  74.4,  or  over  three  times  as 
much.  Four  per  cent,  of  the  cases  are  not 
classified  ;  but  the  causes  indicated  as  un- 
classified belong  to  causes  indicating  mis- 
fortune much  more  than  misconduct,  at  least 
as  far  as  the  individual  studied  is  con- 
cerned. How  far  poverty  is  the  result  of 
other  people's  misconduct  or  hereditary  mis- 
conduct is  not  here  shown.  But  as  for  the 
persons  immediately  concerned,  misfortune  is 
shown  to  be  nearly  four  times  as  much  the 
cause  of  poverty  as  their  misconduct. 

This  seems  to  be  the  most  careful  analysis 
of  the  causes  of  poverty  yet  made  ;  but  not  all 
will  accept  its  conclusions.  Certain  schools 
of  thought  are  apt  to  find  the  especial  evil 
they  attack  the  main  cause  of  poverty.  The 
followers  of  Mr.  Henry  George,  for  example, 
are  apt  to  believe  that  poverty  mainly  exists 
because,  on  the  one  hand,  the  landowner  re- 
ceives the  lion's  share  of  the  annual  product 
of  the  community,  and,  on  the  other  hand, 
private  property  in  land  prevents  the  opening 
up  of  natural  opportunities.  (For  a  discussion 
of  this,  see  SINGLE  TAX.)  A  large  number  of 
people  believe  drink  to  be  the  main  cause 
of  poverty  (see  INTEMPERANCE).  In  another 
sqhool  of  thought  overpopulation  is  the  main 


cause  (see  MALTHUSIANISM).  Socialists  usually 
believe  that  poverty  mainly  exists  because 
under  a  competitive  system  the  capitalistic 
classes  take  from  the  producing  classes  a  large 
share  of  their  product.  Theologians  are  wont 
to  declare  that  all  poverty  comes  primarily 
from  sin.  Individualists  usually  assert  that 
poverty  mainly  comes  from  the  inefficiency 
of  the  workers  in  one  form  or  another — shift- 
lessness,  lack  of  thrift,  unwillingness  to  save, 
etc.,  etc. 

Professor  F.  H.  Giddings  of  Columbia  Col- 
lege, in  his  essay  on  the  Ethics  of  Social 
Progress,  argues  that  the  poor  are  poor  to-day 
because  society  does  not  need  them  and  they 
contribute  little  or  nothing  to  production.  He 
says  : 

"  Neither  oppression  nor  greed  has  been  at  any  time 
the  first  cause  of  legal  bondage  or  of  economic  depend- 
ence. Both  are  secondary  causes,  induced  by  experi- 
ences with  a  slavery  already  existent. 

"  Modern  civilization  does  not  require,  it  does  not 
even  need,   the  drudgery  of  needle-women    or    the 
crushing  toil  of  men  in  a  score  of  life-destroying  oc- 
cupations.   If  these  wretched  beings  should  drop  out 
of  existence,  and  no  others  stood  ready  to  fill  their 
places,  the  economic  activities  of  the 
world    would    not     greatly    suffer.    A 
thousand    devices   latent    in  inventive    Inefficiency 
brains  would  quickly  make  good  any         ,  ,, 
momentary  loss.    The  true  view  of  the  ana  -rOverty. 
facts  is  that  these  people  continue  to 
exist  after  the  kinds  of  work  that  they 
know  how  to  perform  have  ceased  to  be  of  any  con- 
siderable value  to  society.    Society  continues  to  em- 
ploy them  for  a  remuneration  not  exceeding  the  cost 
of  getting  the  work  done  in  some  other  and  perhaps 
better  way. 

"  The  economic  law  here  referred  to  is  one  that  has 
been  too  much  neglected  in  scientific  discussion.  It 
ought  to  be  repeated  and  illustrated  at  every  oppor- 
tunity, for  at  present  it  stands  in  direct  contradiction 
to  current  prepossessions.  We  are  told  incessantly 
that  unskilled  labor  creates  the  wealth  of  the  world. 

"It  would  be  nearer  the  truth  to  say  that  large 
classes  of  unskilled  labor  hardly  create  their  own  sub- 
sistence. The  laborers  that  have  no  adaptiveness, 
that  bring  no  new  ideas  to  their  work,  that  have  no 
suspicion  of  the  next  best  thing  to  turn  to  in  an 
emergency,  might  be  much  better  identified  with  the 
dependent  classes  than  with  the  wealth-creators. 
Precisely  the  same  economic  law  offers  the  true  inter- 
pretation of  ancient  slavery.  In  strictness  civiliza- 
tion did  not  rest  on  slavery.  It  was  not  in  any  true 
sense  maintained  by  slavery.  The  conditions  that 
created  the  civilization  created  economic  dependence, 
and  they  are  working  in  the  same  way,  with  similar 
results,  to-day.  .  .  .  The  condition  and  assurance  of 
freedom  to-day  is  the  ability  to  devise  new  things,  to 
create  new  opportunities,  to  make  not  only  two.blades 
of  grass  grow  where  one  grew  before,  but  to  make  a 
hundred  kinds  of  grass  grow  where  before  grew  only 
one  kind. 

"  Accordingly,  the  practically  unfree  task-workers 
of  this  present  time  are  those  who,  unaided,  can  ac- 
complish none  of  these  new  things.  They  are  those 
who  might  do  well  in  old  familiar  ways,  but  who  have 
nothing  to  turn  to  when  their  ways  cease  to  be  of 
value  to  the  world.  To  live  they  must  force  depre- 
ciated services  upon  society  on  any  terms  that  society 
can  continue  to  pay.  They  are  unfree  task- workers, 
not  because  society  chooses  to  oppress  them,  but  be- 
cause society  has  not  yet  devised  or  stumbled  upon 
any  other  disposition  to  make  of  them.  Civilization, 
therefore,  is  not  cruel.  It  is  ever  supporting,  and  try- 
ing in  many  ways  to  utilize,  the  wrecks  and  failures  of 
its  own  imperfect  past." 

Mr.  Robert  Treat  Paine,  in  an  address  read 
at  the  International  Congress  of  Charities, 
Correction,  and  Philanthropy,  at  Chicago,  in 
1893,  said  : 


Poverty. 


Poverty, 


there  are  not  prolific  causes  permanently  at  work  to 
create  want,  vice,  crime,  disease,  and  death  ;  and 
whether  these  causes  may  not  be  wholly  or  in  large 
degree  eradicated  ?  If  such  causes  of  pauperism 
exist,  how  vain  to  waste  our  energies  on  single  cases 
of  relief,  when  society  should  rather  aim  at  removing 
the  prolific  sources  of  all  the  woe. 

"The  four  great  causes  of  pauperism  and  of  de- 
graded city  life  have  long  seemed  to  me  to  be  these  : 
i.  Foul  homes.  2.  Intoxicating  drink.  3.  Neglect  of 
child  life.  4.  Indiscriminate  almsgiving.' 

Mr.  Charles  Booth  counts  up  twenty-three 
principal  causes  of  pauperism  (Pauperism 
and  the  Endowment  of  Old  Age,  p.  9): 

Crime,  vice,  drink,  laziness,  pauper  associa- 
tion, heredity,  mental  disease,  temper, 
incapacity,  early  marriage,  large  family, 
extravagance,  lack  of  work,  trade  misfortune, 
restlessness,  no  relations,  death  of  husband, 
desertion,  death  of  father  or  mother,  sickness, 
accident,  ill  luck,  old  age.  He  says,  "  that,  as 
causes,  old  age  stands  first,  sickness  next,  and 
then  comes  drink"  (p.  148). 

Among  1610  cases,  however,  of  the  poor  and 
very  poor  in  London,  he  shows  4  percent,  due  to 
"  loafing,"  14  to  drink,  27  to  illness,  large  fam- 
ilies, or  other  misfortunes,  55  to  "  questions  of 
employment"  (Labor  and  Life  of  the  Peo- 
ple, vol  i.  p.  147).  A  large  part  of  this  lack 
of  employment  may  be  among  the  old. 

Mr.  J.  G.  Godard  in  his  Poverty,  Its  Genesis  and 
Exodus,  argues  that  waste  of  wealth,  poverty  itself, 
are  prominent  causes  of  poverty,  but  that  the  main 
cause  is  unequal  distribution.  He  argues  that  men 
must  be  poor,  either  because  there  is  not  enough  pro- 
duced for  all,  because  some  of  it  is  wasted,  or  because 
some  get  too  much.  He  shows  for  England  that,  tho 
relatively  the  number  of  the  poor  is  somewhat  less 
to-day  than  it  was,  the  annual  wealth  produced  is 
nearly  double  what  it  was  three  generations  ago,  and 
"never  in  the  whole  history  of  England,  excepting 
during  the  disastrous  period  at  the  beginning  of  the 
century,  has  the  absolute  number  of  the  very  poor 
been  so  great  as  it  is  now  "  (J.  A.  Hobson's  Problems 
of  Poverty,  p.  26,  1891).  Is  there  then,  he  asks,  not 
enough  produced  ?  He  shows  that  the  total  annual 
income  of  the  United  Kingdom  in  round  numbers 
may  be  placed  at  .£1,350,000,000  (Mr.  Giffin  in  hisJSssays 
on  Finance,  vol.  ii. 


i,  270,000,000) 


ol.  ii.  pp.  460-72,   estimating  it  in  1886  at 
.    Dividing  this  by  ;the  population  of  the 


Unequal 


wealth  may  then  be  regarded  as  an  actual  cause  of 
poverty,  but  one  of  minor  influence."  A  more  im- 
portant cause  of  poverty  he  considers  to  be  the  waste 
of  wealth.  He  quotes  Professor  Marshall  as  saying 
(Principles  of  Economics,  vol.  i.  p.  731),  "  Perhaps 
.£100,000,000  annually  are  spent  even  by  the  working 
classes,  and  ,£400,000,000  by  the  rest  of  the  population 
of  England,  in  ways  that  do  little  or 
nothing  toward  making  life  nobler  or 
truly  happier."  This  means  a  waste  of 
over  one-third  of  the  whole.  Poverty 
.  jtself,  he  shows,  causes  much  poverty. 
It  checks  profitable  production  ;  it 
causes  large  amounts  of  waste  ;  leads 
to  unequal  distribution,  compelling  the  poor  to 
work  for  low  wages.  But,  above  all,  .he  considers 
unjust  distribution  the  main  cause  of  poverty.  He 
says  (giving  authorities  for  his  conclusion),  "One 
thirty-eighth  of  the  population  possess  on  the  average 
£5000  per  head,  and  thirty  thirty-eighths  of  population 
possess  on  the  average  £6  per  head.  Inequality  of 
distribution  can  scarcely  be  carried  much  further." 
Of  the  annual  income  he  says,  "  Thirty  million  weekly 
wage-earners  obtain  ^500,000,000  only  ;  the  remaining 
eight  million  persons  thus  receiving  ^850,000,000.  This 
means  that  the  average  annual  income  of  the  one 
class  is  less  than  £17  per  head,  and  the  average  an- 
nual income  is  more  than  £106  per  head."  (For  other 
statements  on  this  point  and  for  authorities,  and  for 
similar  facts  as  to  the  United  States,  see  WEALTH, 
DISTRIBUTION  OF.) 


III.    PREVENTION   AND   RELIEF   OF   POVERTY. 

The  ways  in  which  it  has  been  or  is  proposed 
to  prevent  or  relieve  poverty  are  numerous  as 
the  causes  assigned  for  it.  One's  conception 
of  its  main  causes  must  obviously  affect  one's 
belief  as  to  the  way  it  may  best  be  relieved  or 
prevented.  Thus  the  followers  of  Henry 
George  believe  that  the  solution  lies  along  the 
lines  of  the  Single  Tax  (q.  v.;  see  also  ANTI- 
POVERTY  SOCIETY).  Those  who  find  its  main 
cause  in  intemperance  find  its  main  cure  in 
temperance  (q.  v.).  Socialists  find  the  only 
way  out  in  socialism  (y.  v.}.  Many,  and 
perhaps  most  trade-unionists,  believe  the 
main  cure  to  be  the  eight-hour  movement. 
(See  SHORT  HOUR  MOVEMENT.)  Individualists 
largely  look  for  the  solution  to  education 
(q.  v.),  the  cultivation  of  thrift,  etc.  (See 
INDIVIDUALISM.)  For  a  study  of  all  these  views 
we  must  refer  the  reader  to  their  especial 
topics.  (See  also  ANARCHISM  ;  COOPERATION  ; 
UNEMPLOYMENT  ;  CHRISTIANITY  AND  SOCIAL  RE- 
FORM, etc.) 

We  review  here  some  of  the  proposals  for 
the  relief  of  poverty  which  have  been  proposed 
by  those  who  are  identified  with  no  one  par- 
ticular school  of  thought. 

Mr.  Charles  Booth  (<?.  v.),  who  perhaps  has 
studied  the  facts  of  modern  city  poverty  as  care- 
fully as  any  other  one  man,  divides  the  resi- 
dents of  the  poorer  sections  of  London  into 
eight  classes  :  (A)  The  lowest  class  of  occa- 
sional laborers,  loafers,  and  semi-criminals  ;  (B) 
the  very  poor,  with  casual  earnings  ;  (C)  those 
of  intermittent  earnings  ;  (D)  of  small  regular 
earnings  ;  (E)  those  of  regular  standard  earn- 
ings, above  the  line  of  poverty  ;  (F)  the  higher 
classes  of  laborers  ;  (G)  the  lower  middle  class  ; 
(H)  the  upper  middle  class.  Class  A  he  thinks 
could  be  "  harried  out  of  existence  "  (Life  and 
Labor  of  the  People,  vol.  i.  p.  169).  Class  B 
he  thinks  presents  the  main  problem.  It  is 
de  trop.  The  competition  of  B  drags  down 
C  and  D,  and  that  of  C  and  D  hangs  heavily 
upon  E.  We  gain  nothing  from  B.  All  that 
B  does  could  be  done  by  C  and  D  in  their  now 
idle  hours.  .  .  .  To  bring  Class  B  under 
State  regulation  would  be  to  control  the  springs 
of  pauperism.  Hence  he  would  put  them  un- 
der State  control.  He  says  :  "  These  people 
should  be  allowed  to  live  as  families  in  indus- 
trial groups,  planted  wherever  land  and  build- 
ing materials  were  cheap,  being  well  housed, 
well  fed,  and  well  warmed;  and  taught,  trained, 
and  employed  from  morning  to  night  on  work 
indoors  and  out,  for  themselves  or  on  Govern- 
ment account ;  in  the  building  of  their  own 
dwellings,  in  the  cultivation  of  the  land,  in  the 
making  of  furniture.  .  .  .  There  would  be 
no  competition  with  the  outside  world.  .  .  . 
What  is  the  poor-law  system  ?  It  is  a  limited 
form  of  socialism — a  socialistic  community 
(aided  from  outside)  living  in  the 
midst  of  an  individualist  nation. 
My  idea  is  to  make  the  dual  system, 
socialism  in  the  arms  of  individ- 
ualism, under  which  we  already 
live,  more  efficient  by  extending 
somewhat  the  sphere  of  the  former,  and  mak- 
ing the  division  of  function  more  distinct.  Our 


Views  of 
Charles 
Booth. 


Poverty. 


1076 


Poverty. 


individualism  fails  because  our  socialism  is 
incomplete.  In  taking  charge  of  the  lives  of 
the  incapable,  State  socialism  finds  its  proper 
work,  and  by  doing  it  completely  would  relieve 
us  of  a  serious  danger." 

More  recently  Mr.  Booth,  in  his  Pauperism 
and  the  Endowment  of  Old  Age,  finding 
pauperism  largely  a  problem  of  the  aged  (see 
above)  has  proposed  a  vast  scheme  for  pension- 
ing all  aged  persons.  (See  OLD  AGE  PEN- 
SIONS.) 

The  Rev.  Samuel  Barnett  of  St.  Jude's, 
Whitechapel,  London,  is  even  more  radical. 
He  says  (Practicable  Socialism,  revised  edi- 
tion, pp.  101-107)  :  "  Individuals  have  given 
their  money  and  their  time,  their  failure  is 
notorious,  and  societies  have  been  formed  to 
direct  their  efforts.  The  failure  of  these 
societies  is  not  equally  notorious,  but  few 
thinkers  retain  the  hope  that  societies  will 
reform  society  and  make  the  conditions  of 
living  such  that  people  will  be  able  to  grow  in 
wisdom  and  in  stature  to  the  full  height  of 
their  manhood.  If  it  were  a  sight  to  make  men 
and  angels  weep,  to  see  one  rich  man  struggling 
with  the  poverty  of  a  street,  making  himself 
poor  only  to  make  others  discontented  paupers, 
it  is  as  sad  a  sight  to  see  societies  hopelessly 
beaten  and  hardened  into  machines  with  no 
reach  beyond  their  grasp.  The  deadness  of 
these  societies  or  their  ill  directed  efforts  have 
roused,  in  the  shape  of  charity  organization 
workers,  a  most  striking  missionary  enterprise. 
The  history  of  the  movement  as  a  mission  has 
yet  to  be  written  ;  the  names  of  its  martyrs 
stand  in  the  list  of  the  '  unknown  good,'  but 
the  most  earnest  members  of  a  charity  organi- 
zation society  cannot  hope  that  organized 
almsgiving  will  be  powerful  so  to  alter  condi- 
tions as  to  make  the  life  of  the  poor  a  life  worth 
living.  Societies  which  absorb  much  wealth, 
and  which  relieve  their  subscribers  of  their 
responsibility,  are  failing  ;  it  remains  only  to 
adopt  the  principle  of  the  education  act,  of  the 
poor-law,  and  of  other  socialistic  legislation, 
and  call  on  society  to  do  what 
Views  of  societies  fail  to  do.  There  is  much 
Canon  which  may  be  urged  in  favor  of 
Barnett  sucn  a  course.  It  is  only  society, 
or  to  use  the  title  by  which  society 
expresses  itself  in  towns,  it  is  only 
town  councils  which  can  cover  all  the  ground 
and  see  that  each  locality  gets  equal  treat- 
ment. .  .  .  The  first  need  is  better  dwell- 
ings. .  .  .  Insanitary  conditions  and  high 
rents  are  the  points  to  which  consideration 
must  be  directed.  .  .  .  Wise  town  councils, 
conscious  of  the  mission  they  have  inherited, 
could  destroy  every  court  and  crowded  alley, 
and  put  in  their  places  healthy  dwellings  ; 
they  could  make  water  so  cheap,  and  bathing 
places  so  common,  that  cleanliness  should  no 
longer  be  a  hard  virtue  ;  they  could  open  play- 
grounds and  take  away  from  a  city  the  re- 
proach of  its  gutter  children  ;  they  could 
provide  gardens,  libraries,  and  conversation 
rooms  ;  they  could  open  picture  galleries  and 
concerts  ;  they  could  light  and  clean  the  streets 
of  the  poor  quarters  ;  they  could  give  medi- 
cine to  heal  the  sick,  money  to  the  old  and 
poor,  a  training  for  the  neglected,  and  a  home 


for  the  friendless.  The  first  practical  work  is 
to  rouse  the  town  councils  to  the  sense  of  their 
powers  ;  to  make  them  feel  that  theirreason  of 
being  is  not  political  but  social,  that  their  duty 
is  not  to  protect  the  pockets  of  the  rich,  but  to 
save  the  people.  .  .  .  If  it  be  urged  that  when 
town  councils  do  for  social  reform  all  which 
can  be  done,  the  condition  will  still  be  unsatis- 
factory, I  agree  ;  ....  no  social  reform  will 
be  adequate  which  does  not  touch  social  rela- 
tions, bind  classes  by  friendship,  and  pass 
through  the  medium  of  friendship  the  spirit 
which  inspires  righteousness  and  devotion. 
If  therefore  the  first  practical  work  of  reform- 
ers be  to  rouse  town  councils,  their  second  is 
to  associate  volunteers  who  will  work  with  the 
official  bodies.  .  .  .  As  a  rule  it  may  be  laid 
down  that  the  voluntary  work  is  most  effective 
which  is  in  connection  with  official  work.  .  .  . 
Teetotal  advocates  will  preach  in  vain  that 
drunkenness  is  the  root  of  all  evil,  and  that  a 
nation  of  abstainers  will  be  either  a  healthy, 
a  happy,  or  a  thoughtful  nation.  Thrift  will 
be  seen  to  be  powerless  to  do  more  than  to 
create  a  smug  and  transient  respectability.  .  .  . 
The  nationalization  of  luxury  must  be  the 
object  of  social  reformers." 

Mr.  Robert  Treat  Paine,  in  the  address 
above  quoted,  opposes  Mr.  Booth's  plan,  but 
is  almost  equally  radical.  He  says  : 

"The  problem  of  poor  relief  in  great  cities  has  got 
to  be    restated    in    ampler   terms.    The    diseases   of 
society  are  more  aggravated,  the  dan- 
gers  are  graver,  the    need  of  radical 
remedies    is    more    absolute    than    the 
new  charity  has  yet  fully  and  fairly 
faced.   .   .   . 

"When    the    poor    sink    below   their 
poverty  into  pauperism,  and  pauperism 
becomes  hopeless  and  degraded  and  brutal ;   when 
powerful  and  prolific  causes  are  at  work  to  swell  the 
rising  tide;— the  day  has  gone  when  it  is  enough  to  go 
on  dealing  with  details.   .   .   . 

"Pauperism  is  assuming  a  new  and  more  terrible 
type  in  the  largest  cities,  where  paupers  have  lived 
so  long  in  this  condition  that  they  know  nothing 
better.  .  .  .  Strong  drink  is  almost  the  sole  solace 
of  their  dull  routine.  .  .  . 

"  Crimes  of  violence,  crimes  of  lust,  crimes  against 
property  not  only  prevail,  but  cease  to  shock,  where 
the  general  level  of  life  has  lapsed  into  a  new  phase 
of  barbarism. 

"  What  hope  for  boys  and  girls  growing  up  in  such 
atmosphere  of  sin,  in  overcrowded  cities  from  which 
playgrounds  have  been  excluded  by  rising  rents ; 
playgrounds  for  the  innocent  outpouring  of  the  boys' 
animal  spirits  which  will  have  some  vent,  if  not  in 
hockey  and  football,  then  in  breaking  into  empty 
buildings,  stealing  lead  pipes  and  stoning  dispensary 
doctors  or  police  with  even-handed  delight.  .  .  . 

"With  population  rents  rise  so  that  the  average 
man — that  is,  the  mass  of  the  people — is  forced  to 
live  in  utterly  unfit  homes,  fearfully  overcrowded  ; 
hence,  low  vitality  of  body  and  soul,  diseased  morals 
and  diseased  bodies.  .  .  . 

"  Repression  alone  is  a  failure.   .   .  . 

"  In  some  cities  all  these  evils  are  aggregated  into 
great  masses. 

"  Merely  to  deal,  no  matter  how  wisely,  with  single 
cases  of  distress  or  crime,  as  they  arise,  is  infinitely 
insufficient.  .  .  . 

"  In  the  largest  cities,  where  conditions  are  worse 
and  the  evils  of  pauperism,  grown  chronic  and  con- 
tagious, are  blended  with  habits  of  drunkenness  and 
other  vice,  breaking  out  into  crimes  against  the  law, 
pauperism  cannot  wisely  be  considered  alone,  but  the 
problem  of  how  to  uplift  the  general  level  of  life  must 
be  studied  as  one  whole  problem,  especially  as  to  the 
causes  of  the  evils.  .  .  . 

"The  methods  of  dealing  with  pauperism  hitherto 
applied  are  impotent  against  this  swelling  tide  of 
brutal,  degraded  pauperism.  .  .  . 


Robert 
Treat  Paine. 


Poverty. 


1077 


Poverty. 


"'Who  does  not  know,'  says  Professor  H.  C. 
Adams,  'that  much  of  our  so-called  philanthropy 
tends  to  perpetuate  those  conditions  which  seem  to 
make  philanthropy  necessary  ? '  Professor  W.  G. 
Tucker,  in  his  Phi  Beta  oration  at  Harvard  last  June, 
compels  us  to  seek  more  radical  cure,  by  more  radical 
measures,  when  he  says  :  '  The  philanthropy  which  is 
content  to  relieve  the  sufferer  from  wrong  social  con- 
ditions, postpones  the  philanthropy  which  is  deter- 
mined at  any  cost  to  right  those  conditions.'  . 

"Pauperism,  vice,  and  crime  are  common  factors 
of  the  inseparable  and  tremendous  problem  how  to 
uplife  the  general  conditions  of  life  among  the  poor." 

Mr.  Paine  then  states  what  he  believes  to 
be  the  causes  of  poverty  (see  above)  and  then 
says  : 

"  Which  of  the  two  causes  dragging  down  the  con- 
ditions of  life  among  the  masses,  foul  homes  or  in- 
toxicating drink,  is  more  potent,  I  do  not  know. 
Each  leads  surely  to  the  other. 

"  Everywhere  the  conviction  gains  ground  that  it 
is  impossible  to  elevate  the  conditions  of  the  lower 
class  of  working  people  above  the  condition  of  their 
homes.  .  .  . 

"Would  to  God  my  words  could  strengthen  the 
conviction  of  every  delegate  to  this  Congress,  as  he 
goes  home  to  his  own  city,  that  slums  must  be 
abolished  ! 

"Probably  no  city  has  been  wholly  inactive.  But 
I  am  sure  no  large  city  in  this  country  has  begun  to 
act  up  to  the  standard  required  for  the  health  or 
morals  of  the  poor,  or  by  economy  to  the  public,  or 
by  principles  of  justice  and  right. 

"Boards  of  health  probably  have  power  in  all  cities 
to  vacate  dwellings  unfit  for  human  habitation.  All 
that  is  needed  is  aroused  public  interest  to  learn  the 
unspeakable  horrors  of  the  homes  of  the  wretched 
poor  to-day,  and  then  to  insist  on  a  higher  standard  of 
nabitability. 

"  Boards  of  health  will  follow  the  public  command 
and  the  public  conscience.  .  .  . 

"Three  agencies  directly  deal  with  the  task  of  fitly 
housing  the  people : 

"  i.  Philanthropic  agencies  which  aim  to  improve 
the  condition  both  of  tenants  and  of  the  tenements 
they  occupy. 

"2.  Economic  agencies  providing  decent  homes, 
often  in  model  buildings. 

"  3.  Municipal  agencies  aiming  to  abolish  the  worst 
evils  and  to  destroy  foul  homes. 

"  High  above  each  and  all  of  these  three  agencies 
in  its  influence  and  promise  of  grand  results  I  place 
the  rising  ambition  of  working  men  themselves  to 
own  their  own  homes.  .  .  . 

"  If  this  laudable  ambition  is  lacking  among  the 
lowest  class,  so  also  do  both  of  the  powerful  agen- 
cies at  work  to  provide  model  homes,  whether  by 
philanthropic  or  invested  capital  of  which  I  have  just 
spoken,  shoot  over  their  heads. 

"  The  agency  which  must  be  invoked  to  rescue  the 
very  poor,  whether  virtuous  and  struggling  or  de- 
graded and  indifferent,  is  the  municipal  power  to 
destroy  utterly  unfit  abodes  of  habitation. 

"  Sad,  indeed,  is  the  fact  that  when  charity  aids 
some  wretched  family  to  move  out  of  a  vile  basement 
or  dark  and  nasty  slum,  presently  some  other  like 
family  moves  in. 

"  The  growth  of  public  sentiment  toward  practical 
unanimity  in  this  decision  has  been  marked  by  im- 
portant measures  in  London,  Glasgow,  and  other 
cities  of  Great  Britain.  (See  TENEMENT  PROBLEM.) 

"  Intoxicating  drink  is  the  second  great  cause  of 
pauperism,  crime,  and  many  other  wretched  condi- 
tions of  degraded  life. 

"The  temperance  reform  makes  perceptible  head- 
way, altho  the  most  powerful  passions  of  mankind 
oppose  its  progress.  In  the  last  ten  years  England 
has  seen  a  great  improvement  in  the  conditions  of  the 
working  people  in  this  respect. 

"In  the  United  States  prohibition,  or  high  license, 
or  restricted  license,  or  the  Gothenburg  system,  or 
that  new  State  system  in  South  Carolina,  or  local 
option  which  secures  no  license  in  many  cities  and 
towns — all  these  movements  mark  a  great  popular 
awakening  to  the  terrible  influence  of  drunkenness 
upon  the  welfare  of  the  people.  .  .  . 

"My  object  here  is  to  propose  and  stimulate  an 
alliance  of  these  two  forces,  the  friends  of  temperance 
and  all  the  other  forces  working  to  improve  the  con- 
ditions of  the  poor.  Such  an  alliance  will  strengthen 


both  and  lead  each  party  to  see  the  broader  scope  of 
their  task.    (See  TEMPERANCE.) 

"  The  third  prolific  cause  of  pauperism  is  found  in 
the  conditions  of  neglect  or  maltreatnient  of  child-life 
in  great  cities.  The  Hon.  A.  S.  Hewitt,  in  his  address 
at  the  opening  of  the  United  Charities  building  of 
New  York  (Charities  Review,  April,  1893,  p.  304),  says : 
'  In  this  city  a  large  number  of  children  of  both  sexes 
live  in  an  atmosphere  of  poverty  and  vice,  and  even 
crime,  which  educates  them  to  be  paupers  and  crim- 
inals instead  of  training  them  to  become  honest  work- 
men and  good  citizens.  And  for  this  result,  which  is 
generally  no  fault  of  their  own,  they  are  punished, 
and,  along  with  them,  the  industrious  class  of  the 
community  is  also  punished  by  taxation  for  the  sup- 
port of  poorhouses,  hospitals,  and  criminals.  Gangs 
of  young  men,  not  yet  twenty-one  years  of  age,  are  to 
be  found  in  many  parts  of  the  city  who,  not  having 
been  permitted  to  learn  trades,  or  having  been  denied 
the  opportunity  to  follow  some  useful  occupation, 
have  grown  up  in  idleness,  and  expend  their  animal 
energies  in  excesses  which  make  them  a  terror  to  the 
neighborhood  and  a  trial  to  the  police,  the  only 
barrier  between  them  and  crime.  In  time  most  of 
them  necessarily  become  criminals,  and  they  are 
very  sure  to  breed  criminals.'  (See  DEPENDENT 
CHILDREN.) 

"Indiscriminate  almsgiving  is  the  fourth  and  a 
most  potent  cause  of  pauperism.  .  .  . 

"  Three  reforms  of  the  abuses  .of  outdoor  relief  should 
receive  universal  sanction,  and  will  effect  in  very 
large  measure  the  end  which  all  parties  desire  :  deal- 
ing with  the  unworthy,  those  out  of  work,  and  the. 
inefficient. 

"  First.  To  the  unworthy,  rigid  prohibition  of  all 
relief,    public    or    private,    so   that,    abandoning   all 
hope  of  it,  they  shall  seek  their  own  support.    This  in- 
cludes the  lazy,  idle,  shiftless,  extravagant,  or  vicious 
Eaupers,  as  also  in  most  cases  those  with  relatives  or 
riends. 

"  Second.  The  provision  for  men  or  women  out  of 
work  demands  most  serious  study  of  ablest  econ- 
omists and  statesmen.  (See  UNEMPLOYMENT.) 

"Third.  The  third  and  grand  reform  aims  to  recre- 
ate the  inefficient,  always  in  great  cities  a  numerous 
class,  into  self-support  by  skill  and  cheer,  and  to 
save  them  from  gratuitous  relief  as  deadly  poison. 
.  .  .  One  of  the  best  standards  to-day  to  test  the 
progress  of  constructive  Christian  charity  of  the 
various  towns  and  cities  of  our  own  or  any  country, 
is  to  see  what  practical  measures  have  been  devised 
to  convert  the  inefficient  into  an  efficient  worker," 
(See  INDUSTRIAL  EDUCATION.) 

Mr.  H.  M.  Boies,  in  his  Prisoners  and  Pau- 
pers, argues  that  one  of  the  first  things  society 
should  do  is  to  stop  the  breeding  of  paupers 
and  criminals.  (See  CRIMINOLOGY.)  Of  ille- 
gitimates he  says : 

"The  first  object  society  has  to  consider  in  the 
matter  is  to  stop  this  illegitimate  increase.  The 
second  is  the  reformation  of  the  mother  and  of 
the  father,  if  he  can  be  caught.  The  third,  the  rear- 
ing of  the  children  into  the  condition  of  independent 
good  citizens.  .  .  . 

"  Homeless  children  are  a  still  larger  class  of 
paupers  needing  special  care  and  attention.  The 
deserted  waifs  of  our  city  streets,  the 
neglected  offspring  of  the  criminal  and 
drunkard,  orphans  and  half-orphans  of  -rr  •• 
the  indigent,  who  may  be  unable  or  "•• 
unfit  to  properly  rear  them,  constitute 
an  important  and  growing  element  of 
our  denser  communities,  and  require  the  immediate 
consideration  of  legislators  for  the  protection  of 
society.  The  pressure  of  necessity  has  compelled 
charitable  societies  and  individuals  to  establish 
houses  of  correction  and  refuge,  juvenile  asylums, 
homes  for  the  friendless,  children's  aid  societies,  and 
similar  institutions  here  and  there ;  but  they  are 
managed  without  any  general,  regular,  or  complete 
system,  according  to  the  ideas  and  ability  of  their 
benevolent  promoters,  and  afford  but  a  local  and 
sporadic  relief.  (See  DEPENDENT  CHILDREN.) 

"  We  have  yet  the  third  class  of  paupers  for  whom 
to  provide.  These  are  the  wounded,  maimed,  ex- 
hausted, and  sick  in  the  battle  of  life  ;  the  true  objects 
of  charity  and  benevolence.  Many  of  these  have 
fallen  out  in  the  march  from  inherited  weakness,  or 
incapacity,  but  they  have  bravely  undertaken  the 
struggle,  and  are  entitled  to  social  and  human  sym- 


Poverty. 


1078 


Poverty. 


pathy  and  care.  The  sterner  restrictions  of  legislative 
enactments  are  unnecessary,  except  to  secure  to  them 
the  aid  and  relief  they  may  be  unable  alone  to  obtain. 
There  are  two  methods  of  bestowing  this  in  common 
use:  one  known  as  'outdoor  relief;  the  other  as 
'almshouse  treatment.' 

"Public  'outdoor  relief  is  liable  to  serious  abuse 
and  imposition.  Almost  universally  it  makes  con- 
firmed paupers  of  the  recipients,  who  soon  come  to 
depend  upon,  and  demand  it  as  a  right  due  them 
from  the  public  treasury.  On  these  accounts  'out- 
door relief '  is  regarded  with  disfavor  by  the  public 
and  humanitarians.  As  the  administering  officials 
are  generally  unable  to  properly  investigate  applica- 
tions, they  encourage  fraudulent  claims,  waste  the 
public  funds,  or  pervert  them  to  political  purposes, 
thus  stimulating  instead  of  reducing  pauperism.  .  .  . 
Public  outdoor  relief  should  be  prohibited  by  law, 
except  in  cases  of  sudden  calamity,  and  to  assist 
honest,  hard-working  children  to  maintain  indigent 
parents  at  home ;  or  indigent  widows  to  keep  their 
children  under  their  own  care.  All  other  proper 
objects  of  charity  should  be  provided  for  either  in  the 
almshouse  or  by  private  benevolence.  This  latter 
should  be  allowed  opportunity,  as  a  public  necessity, 
to  foster  the  birth  and  growth  of  divine  charity  in  the 
human  heart.  For  upon  the  development  and  dif- 
fusion of  this  spirit  depends  all  human  progress.  In 
order  that  private  benevolence  may  be  wisely  and 
efficiently  administered  in-  these  days  of  steam  and 
electricity,  when  those  best  able  to  give  are  least  able 
to  investigate,  because  of  the  incessant  pressure  of 
personal  affairs  upon  their  time,  a  system  and  organ- 
ization are  necessary.  For  it  must  be  accepted  as  an 
axiom  that  every  dollar  that  is  given  for  the  mere 
asking  is  worse  than  wasted.  .  .  . 

"  How  then  shall  the  real  objects  of  charity,  our 
third  class  of  heteronomics,  be  provided  for  ?  That 
is,  those  whom  age,  disability,  infirmity,  or  mis- 
fortune have  rendered  permanently  dependent? 

"  Proper  legislation  might  materially  reduce  the 
number  of  these  also,  by  enforcing  the  support  of  the 
aged  and  children  by  the  next  of  kin  wherever  it  is 
possible.  .  .  .  [As  for  the  remainder]  experience  and 
theory  agree  in  an  indisputable  demonstration  that 
they  must  be  cared  for  in  public  almshouses.  It  is 
unwise  and  unsafe  to  attempt  regular  and  permanent 
relief  to  them  in  any  other  way,  for  any  other  plan 
inevitably  results  in  neglect  and  suffering  to  the 
worthy,  in  great  imposture  and  abuse  of  charity,  and 
in  the  increase  of  pauperism  to  an  insupportable 
extent.  It  must  be  accepted  as  an  axiom  of  public 
relief  that,  when  it  is  to  be  continuous  and  regular,  the 
aid  must  be  rendered  in  a  regularly  organized  institu- 
tion. To  this  the  applicant  for  assistance  must  be 
transferred  before  public  support  by  taxation  can  be 
conferred.  As  the  duty  of  maintenance  rests  upon 
society  in  general,  the  response  must  be  from  the 
social  organization,  and  not  from  private  charity  ;  by 
equal  taxation  of  all,  rather  than  the  benevolence  of 
a  few,  however  large  their  interest." 

A  full  discussion  of  these  various  measures 
will  be  found  under  their  respective  heads. 
It  should,  however,  here  be  plainly  stated  that 
many  question  the  efficiency  of  many  of 
these  reforms,  at  least  so  far  as  they 
are  carried  alone.  The  importance  of  tem- 
perance as  an  effectual  element  in  social  prog- 
ress no  thinking  man  can  question,  but  many 
economists  hold  that,  by  itself,  temperance 
would  not  raise  the  wages  of  the  poorer  paid 
workmen  as  a  class.  Here  and  there  if  indi- 
viduals give  up  drinking,  they  are  able  to  save 
more,  but  if  enough  should  give  up  drinking 
to  make  it  affect  the  general  class,  it  would 
probably  lower  their  wages  by  the  amount 
they  would  save  in  drink,  for  the  simple  rea- 
son that,  under  competition,  laborers  cannot 
get  wages  much  above  the  cost  of  living  in 
their  class.  If  any  employer  should  pay 
higher  wages,  some  rival  employer  would  get 
workmen — and  under  competition  could  get 
workmen — at  a  lower  price,  and  so  be  able  to 
produce  cheaper,  sell  cheaper,  and  thus  drive 
the  more  generous  employer  out  of  the  market. 


Employers,  therefore,  under  competition,  have 
no  choice.  They  must  pay  wages  enabling 
employees  to  live  about  on  the  standard  of 
living  of  their  trade  and  class.  If,  therefore, 
by  temperance  you  lower  the  cost  of  living  of 
a  class,  you  will  lower  the  price  of  wages  by 
about  the  same  amount. 

So,  to  a  less  extent,  with  model  dwellings  and 
artizans'  dwellings.  Since  the  poorest  often 
cannot  be  got  to  pay  for  their  own  house,  or  to 
occupy  a  model  dwelling,  the  plan  for  work- 
men to  own  their  homes,  or  occupy  model 
dwellings,  simply  enables  a  somewhat  high 
grade  of  labor  to  live  more  cheaply  on  the  im- 
proved level,  and  so  eventually  to  bring  down 
their  wages.  Once  more,  workmen  owning 
their  homes  cannot  move  to  suit  the  shifting 
demands  of  the  market.  Nor  can  they  strike. 
They  are,  therefore,  much  more  under  the 
power  of  their  employer  and  compelled  to  ac- 
cept what  wages  the  employers  are  willing  to 
give.  Most  trade-union  leaders  discourage 
men  from  owning  their  homes. 

So,  too,  with  technical  education,  says  J.  A. 
Hobson  (Problems  of  Poverty,  p.  179): 

"In  so  far  as  technical  education  or  general  educa- 
tion enables  a  number  of  men  who  would  otherwise 
have  been  unskilled  laborers  to  compete  for  skilled 
work,  it  will  no  doubt  enable  these  men  to  raise  them- 
selves in  the  industrial  scale  ;  but  the  addition  of  their 
number  to  the  ranks  of  skilled  labor  will  imply  an  in- 
crease in  supply  of  skilled  labor,  and  a  decrease  in  sup- 

Ely  of  unskilled  labor  ;  the  price  or  wage  for  unskilled 
ibor  will  rise,  but  the  wage  for  skilled  labor  will  fall, 
assuming  the  relation  between  the  demand  for  skilled 
and  unskilled  labor  to  remain  as  before." 

It  should  be  remembered,  however,  that 
these  objections  are  not  objections  to  the 
propositions  in  themselves,  but  to  relying  on 
them  alone  to  meet  the  problems  of  poverty. 
As  a  part  of  social  programs,  together  with 
other  reforms  studied  elsewhere  (see  SOCIALISM  ; 
INDIVIDUALISM;  SHORT  HOUR  MOVEMENT;  SIN- 
GLE TAX),  all  admit  these  propositions  to  have 
their  place.  Says  Mr.  Hobson  (idem,  p.  181): 

"  There  are  those  who  seek  to  retard  all  social  prog- 
ress by  a  false  and  mischievous  dilemma,  which  takes 
the  following  shape:    No  radical  improvement  in  in- 
dustrial organization,  no  work  of  social  reconstruction 
can  be  of  any  real  avail,  unless  it  is  preceded  by  such 
moral  and  intellectual  improvement  in  the  condition 
of  the  mass  of  workers  as  shall  render 
the    new    machinery    effective  ;  unless 
the  change  in  human  nature  conies  first,  T    . 

•>•**•• 


a  change  in  external  conditions  will  be 
useless.  On  the  other  hand  it  is  evi- 
dent that  no  moral  or  intellectual  edu- 
cation can  be  brought  effectively  to  bear  upon  the 
mass  of  human  beings,  whose  whole  energies  are  nec- 
essarily absorbed  by  the  effort  to  secure  the  means  of 
bare  physical  support.  Thus  it  is  made  to  appear  as 
if  industrial  and  moral  progress  must  each  precede 
each  other,  which  is  impossible.  .  .  .  The  falsehood  in 
the  above  dilemma  consists  in  the  assumption  that  in- 
dustrial reformers  wish  to  proceed  by  a  sudden  leap 
from  an  old  industrial  order  to  a  new  one.  Such  sud- 
den movements  are  not  in  accordance  with  the  grad- 
ual growth  which  nature  insists  upon  as  the  condition 
of  wise  change.  But  it  is  equally  in  accordance  with 
nature  that  the  natural  growth  precede  the  moral. 
Not  that  the  work  of  reconstruction  can  lag  far  be- 
hind. Each  step  in  this  industrial  advancement  of 
the  poor  should,  and  must,  if  the  gain  is  to  be  perma- 
nent, be  followed  closely  and  secured  by  a  correspond- 
ing advance  in  moral  and  intellectual  character  and 
habits.  But  the  moral  and  religious  reformer  should 
never  forget  that,  in  order  of  time,  material  reform 
comes  first." 

References  :    Charles  Booth,  Labor  and  Life  of  the 
People  (new  edition,   4  vols.,    1892);    A.   G.  Warner's 


Powderly. 


1079 


Presbyterian  Church. 


American  Charities  (1894);  General  Booth's  In  Darkest 
England;  Mackay's  The  English  Poor  (1889);  Mr. 
S.  A.  Barnett's,  Practicable  Socialism  (revised  ed.  1895; 
R.  T.  Paine's  Pauperism  in  Great  Cities  (1893)  ;  J.  A. 
Hobson's  Problems  of  Poverty  (1891). 

(See  also  POOR-LAWS  ;  OLD  AGE  PENSIONS; 
UNEMPLOYMENT;  CHILD  LABOR;  CITIES;  CHAR- 
ITY ORGANIZATION  ;  SLUMS  ;  PAUPERISM,  etc.) 

POWDERLY,    TERENCE    VINCENT, 

long  General  Master  Workman  of  the  Knights 
of  Labor,  was  born  at  Carbondale,  Pa.,  Janu- 
ary 24,  1849,  of  Irish  parentage.  He  attended 
school  six  years,  and  at  13  became  a  switch- 
tender  for  the  Delaware  &  Hudson  Coal  Com- 
fany,  entering  its  machine  shop  a  year  later, 
n  1869  he  went  to  Scranton,  Pa.,  and  shortly 
afterward  joined  the  Machinists  and  Black- 
smiths' National  Union,  soon  becoming  its 
president.  His  study  of  the  labor  problem  led 
him  to  join  the  Knights  of  Labor,  in  which 
order  he  held  various  offices  in  the  local  and 
district  assemblies.  In  January,  1879,  he  was 
chosen  General  Worthy  Foreman,  and  in  Sep- 
tember of  the  same  year  was  elected  General 
Master  Workman,  which  office  he  held  13 
years.  Mr.  Powderly  was  Mayor  of  Scranton 
for  two  years,  but  declined  a  renomination  in 
1884.  He  practically  reorganized  the  Knights 
of  Labor  (a.  z/.),  and  gave  his  whole  time  and 
talents  to  the  cause. 

In  1892,  owing  to  dissensions  in  the  order, 
he  was  defeated  for  reelection,  and  Mr.  J.  B. 
Sovereign  was  chosen  in  his  place.  The  order, 
however,  had  long  before  this  begun  to  de- 
cline, owing  mainly  to  opposition  to  the  policy 
of  the  Knights,  in  failing  to  sufficiently  respect 
the  autonomy  of  each  trade,  and  in  concen- 
trating too  much  power  in  the  General  Execu- 
tive Board.  It  was  this  policy  which  has  given 
Mr.  Powderly  many  enemies  in  the  labor 
movement,  but  no  one  has  questioned  his 
ability  and  long  usefulness  to  the  cause  of 
labor. 

PREEMPTION  LAW.  See  PUBLIC  DO- 
MAIN. 

PRESBYTERIAN  CHURCH  AND  SO- 
CIAL REFORMS,  THE.— The  Presbyterian 
Church  is  committed  to  the  cause  of  social 
reforms,  first  of  all,  by  the  principles  on  which 
such  reforms  rest.  They  were  first  most 
clearly  enunciated  and  sharply  defined  by 
John  Calvin.  Mr.  Froude  says  of  him, 
"  There  was  no  reformer  in  Europe  so  reso- 
lute to  tear  out  and  destroy  what  seemed  to 
be  false,  and  so  resolute  to  establish  what  was 
true  in  its  principles  and  make  truth  to  its  last 
fiber  the  rule  of  practical  life."  These  char- 
acteristics of  the  stern  leader  were  so  wonder- 
fully impressed  on  his  followers  that  they 
wrought  for  the  good  of  man  and  from  the 
highest  motives.  Mr.  Froude  says  again, 
"The  Calvinists  abhorred,  as  no  other  body 
of  men  has  ever  abhorred,  mendacity,  all  im- 
purity, all  moral  wrong  of  every  kind  as  they 
could  recognize  it.  Whatever  exists  at  this 
moment  in  England  or  Scotland  of  the  fear  of 
doing  evil  is  the  remnant  of  the  convictions 
branded  by  the  Calvinists  into  the  people's 
hearts." 


Green,  in  his  History  of  the  English  People, 
recognizes  truly  the  genius  of  the  new  life  of 
Europe  and  of  the  Reformation, 
when  he  says,  "A  vast  and  con- 
secrated democracy,  it  stood  in  Calvinism. 
contrast  with  the  whole  social  and 
political  framework  of  the  Euro- 
pean nations.  Grave  as  we  count  the  faults  of 
Calvinism,  alien  as  its  temper  may  be  in  many 
ways  from  the  temper  of  the  modern  world,  it 
is  in  Calvinism  that  the  modern  world  strikes 
its  roots,  for  it  was  Calvinism  that  first  re- 
vealed the  worth  and  dignity  of  man.  Called 
of  God  and  heir  of  heaven,  the  trader  at  his 
counter  and  the  digger  of  the  field  suddenly 
rose  into  equality  with  the  noble  and  the 
king."  The  idea  of  the  Reformation  which  is 
traceable  to  Calvin  has  often  been  regarded 
as  largely  theological  in  its  character,  and  as 
dealing  with  speculative  rather  than  practical 
truths.  This  is  not  true.  The  Reformation 
was  not  more  of  a  theological  than  of  a  social 
and  public  reform.  It  was  an  endeavor  to 
deliver  people  from  their  ignorance  and  sin, 
first  by  giving  them  right  views  of  the  truth 
and  then  adjusting  their  relations  with  one 
another.  Consequently  the  nerve  ideas  dis- 
tinctly traceable  to  Geneva  and  John  Calvin 
have  secured  our  modern  civilization.  Demo- 
cratic government,  free  institutions,  free 
schools,  and  popular  education — these  are  the 
great  pillars  on  which  our  social  reforms  rest. 
The  struggle  for  these  constituted  the  great 
battles  in  Holland,  France,  England,  and* 
later,  in  the  United  States.  It  required  a 
revolution  in  all  of  these  countries  to  establish 
these  institutions,  and  our  own  Revolution  was 
nothing,  as  Bancroft  has  said,  "  But  the  appli- 
cation of  the  principles  of  the  Reformation  to 
our  civil  government."  The  history  of  the 
Presbyterian  Church  has  been  a  history  of  the 
struggle  for  the  rights  of  man.  It  was  a 
body  of  Presbyterians  who  wrote  the  Mecklen- 
berg  Declaration — the  pen  stroke  that  in  1775 
separated  one  county  in  North  Carolina  from 
the  British  Crown,  and  which  first  asserted 
the  principle  that  Americans  are,  and  of  right 
ought  to  be,  free  and  independent.  Dr. 
John  Witherspoon  was  not  more  eminent  as 
a  theologian  than  as  a  patriot.  The  Synod  of 
New  York  and  Philadelphia  was  the  first 
religious  body  to  favor  open  resistance  to 
England.  Many  of  the  Presbyterian  minis- 
ters were  actually  engaged  in  civil  service  for 
their  country.  The  blood  of  the  Covenanter 
fought  in  the  battles  of  the  Revolution.  The 
things  at  stake  in  these  battles  are  the  things 
at  the  bottom  of  all  social  reform.  There  is 
no  progress  of  man  without  constitutional 
government,  popular  education,  and  deference 
to  the  rights  of  the  people. 

The  Presbyterian  Church,  then,  by  reason  of 
her  principles,  and  of  her  history  in  illustrat- 
ing and  defending  them,  should 
be    actively  committed  to   every 
phase  of  social  reform.     Her  pro-     History. 
tests  against  every  evil  have  been 
constant  and  emphatic.    Take,  for 
example,  the  temperance  reform,  the  center 
of  all  social  reform  ;  in  this  the  Presbyterian 
Church  has  been  unwavering  in  her  testimony. 


Presbyterian  Church. 


Presidency, 


Even  as  far  back  as  1854  the  General  Assembly 
took  the  following  action  : 

"  Resolved,  That  the  General  Assembly  con- 
tinue to  view  with  deep  interest  the  progress 
of  the  temperance  reformation,  most  inti- 
mately connected  with  the  vital  interests 
of  men  for  time  and  eternity,  and  that  they 
do  especially  hail  its  new  phase  through 
the  action  of  several  State  legislatures,  by 
which  the  tariff  in  intoxicating  liquors  as 
a  beverage  is  entirely  prohibited.  They  com- 
mend this  new  system  of  legislation  to  the 
attention  and  support  of  all  ministers  and 
churches  connected  with  this  body  for  its 
blessed  results  already  experienced,  and  as 
able,  if  universally  adopted,  to  do  much  to  seal 
up  the  great  fountains  of  drunkenness,  pauper- 
ism, and  crime,  and  relieve  humanity  of  one 
of  its  most  demoralizing  and  distressing  evils." 

Then,  as  late  as  1885,  the  same  General 
Assembly  adopted  the  following  resolution  : 

"  This  General  Assembly  repeats  the  un- 
varying testimony  of  preceding  assemblies 
against  this  wide-spread  and  destructive  vice. 
That  in  the  view  of  the  evils  wrought  by  this 
scourge  of  our  race,  this  assembly  would  hail 
with  acclamations  of  joy  and  thanksgiving 
the  utter  extermination  of  the  traffic  in  intoxi- 
cating liquors  as  a  beverage,  by  the  power  of 
the  Christian  conscience,  public  opinion,  and 
the  strong  arm  of  the  civil  law." 

No  church  can  take  a  position  more  advanced 
and  radical  upon  this  subject  than  has  steadily 
been  taken  by  the  Presbyterian  Church. 

In  the  matter  of  the  anti-slavery  reform  the 
Presbyterian  Church  encountered  peculiar  dif- 
ficulty because  she  was  strong  in  the  slave- 
holding  States  and  the  anti-slavery  agitation 
divided  the  Church.  But  at  a  time  when  other 
churches  had  taken  no  strong  general  action 
upon  this  subject — namely,  as  early  as  1818 — 
the  General  Assembly  took  the  following  action: 

"  The  General  Assembly  of  the  Presbyterian 
Church,  having  taken  into  consideration  the 
subject  of  slavery,  think  proper  to  make 
known  their  sentiments  upon  it  to  the  churches 
and  people  under  their  care.  We  consider  the 
voluntary  enslaving  of  one  part  of  the  human 
race  by  another  as  a  gross  violation  of  the 
most  precious  and  sacred  rights  of  human 
nature,  as  utterly  inconsistent  with  the  law  of 
God,  which  requires  us  to  love  our  neighbor 
as  ourselves,  and  as  totally  irreconcilable  with 
the  spirit  and  principle  of  the  gospel  of  Christ, 
which  enjoin  that  '  all  whatsoever  you  would 
men  should  do  unto  you,  do  ye  even  so  to 
them.'  Slavery  creates  a  paradox  in  the  moral 
system  :  it  exhibits  rational,  accountable,  and 
immortal  beings  in  such  circumstances  as  to 
scarcely  leave  them  the  power  of  moral  action. 
It  exhibits  them  as  dependent  on  the  will  of 
others  whether  they  shall  receive  religious 
instruction ;  whether  they  shall  know  and 
worship  the  true  God  ;  whether  they  shall 
enjoy  the  ordinances  of  the  gospel  ;  whether 
they  shall  perform  the  duties  and  endearments 
of  husbands  and  wives,  parents  and  children, 
neighbors  and  friends ;  whether  they  shall 
preserve  their  chastity  and  purity  or  regard 
the  dictates  of  justice  and  humanity.  Such  are 
some  of  the  consequences  of  slavery — conse- 


quences not  imaginary,  but  which  connect 
themselves  with  its  very  existence.  The  evils- 
to  which  the  slave  is  ever  exposed  often  take 
place  in  fact,  and  in  their  very  worst  degree 
and  form  ;  and  where  all  of  them  do  not  take 
place, — as  we  rejoice  to  say,  in  many  instances, 
through  the  influence  of  the  principles  of  hu- 
manity and  religion  on  the  minds  of  the 
masters,  they  do  not, — still,  the  slave  is  de- 
prived of  his  natural  right  and  degraded  as 
a  human  being,  and  exposed  to  the  danger  of 
passing  into  the  hands  of  a  master  who  may 
inflict  upon  him  all  the  hardships  and  injuries 
which  inhumanity  and  avarice  may  suggest." 

Surely  this  early  declaration,  repeatedly 
affirmed  by  subsequent  assemblies,  may  be 
regarded  as  the  moral  seed  which  finally, 
through  fire  and  flood,  ended  in  the  harvest 
of  the  emancipation. 

In  the  various  lines  of  moral  reform,  both 
in  society  and  in  the  State,  the  Presbyterian 
Church  is  probably  doing  her  full  share.  She 
is  striving  to  apply  the  highest  power  of  her 
principles  to  the  deepest  needs  of  man.  The 
ethical  possibilities  of  Christianity  are  about 
to  be  proven  as  never  before.  Strong  men  are 
rising  up  to  attack  the  wild  beasts  of  evil 
passions  that  so  long  have  had  their  hands  on 
the  nation's  throat — the  beasts  of  intemper- 
ance, licentiousness,  greed  of  money,  prosti- 
tution of  official  position,  tyranny  of  the 
strong  over  the  weak.  These  beasts  have 
made  our  fair  cities  bloody  with  their  rage 
and  assaulted  the  fair  name  of  our  country  as 
the  home  of  liberty  and  the  friend  of  man. 
And  these  reforms  are  being  pushed  forward 
in  the  name  of  the  Lord  of  hosts.  And  in  this- 
forward  movement  Presbyterian  ministers  and 
laymen  have  been,  as  they  should  be,  con- 
spicuous. They  had  been  false  to  the  historic 
glory  of  Presbyterians  if  they  had  not  stood 
valiantly  against  every  form  of  oppression  and 
of  unrighteousness. 

CHARLES  L.  THOMPSON. 

PRESIDENCY   (UNITED    STATES).— 

For  the  present  constitutional  functions  of  the 
office  of  the  President  of  the  United  States, 
see  article  CONSTITUTION  ;  for  the  present 
method  of  electing  the  President,  see  ELEC- 
TORAL COLLEGE. 

We  give  in  this  article  for  conveniences  of 
reference,  first,  the  electoral  and  popular  votes- 
for  Presidents  at  the  different  elections,  and, 
secondly,  a  statement  of  various  views  as  to 
the  presidency  and  the  prominent  suggestions 
that  have  been  made  as  to  reforms  in  the 
office.  We  give,  first,  the  electoral  and  pop- 
ular votes  from  1824  to  1892;  second,  the  votes- 
by  States  in  the  recent  elections  ;  and,  third, 
the  elections  from  1789  to  1820. 

It  will  be  remembered  that  the  President  and  Vice- 
President  of  the  United  States  are  .chosen  by  officials 
termed  "Electors"  in  each  State,  who  are,  under 
existing  State  laws,  chosen  by  the  qualified  voters 
thereof  by  ballot,  on  the  first  Tuesday  after  the  first 
Monday  of  November  of  every  fourth  year  preceding^ 
the  year  in  which  the  Presidential  term  expires. 

The  Constitution  of  the  United  States  prescribes 
that  each  State  shall  "  appoint,"  in  such  manner  as  the 
Legislature  thereof  may  direct,  a  number  of  Electors- 
equal  to  the  whole  number  of  Senators  and  Represent- 
atives to  which  the  State  may  be  entitled  in  Congress, 

The  various  votes  have  been  as  follows  : 


Presidency. 


1081 


Presidency. 


ELECTORAL  AND  POPULAR  VOTES. 


Year  of 
Election. 

Candidates  for 
President. 

States. 

Political  Party. 

Popular 
Vote. 

Plurality. 

Electoral 
Vote. 

1824  

1828  
18^2,  .  . 

Andrew  Jackson  
John  Q.  Adams*  
Henry  Clay  
William  H.  Crawford.... 
Andrew  Jackson*  
John  Q.  Adams  

Tennessee  
Massachusetts.  . 
Kentucky  
Georgia  
Tennessee  
Massachusetts.. 
Tennessee  
Kentucky  
Georgia  

Republican  
Republican  
Republican  

155,872 
105,321 
46,58? 
44,282 

647,231 
509,097 
687,502 
530,189 

[       33,io8 
761,549 

r     736,656 

1,275,017 
1,128,702 
7,059 
1.337,243 
1,299,068 
62,300 
1,360,101 

1,220,544 
291,263 
1,601,474 

1,380,576 
156,149 
1,838,169 
1,341,264 
874,538 
1,866,352 
1.375,157 
845,763 
589,581 

2,216,067 
1,808,725 
3,015,071 

2,709,615 
3,597,070 
2,834,079 

29,408 

5,608 

50,551 
138,134 

24,893 

146,315 
38,175 
139,557 
220,896 
496,905 
491,195 

407.342 
305.456 
762,991 

250,935 

(0)99 
84 
37 
41 
178 
83 
219 
49 

172 

73 
26 

14 
ir 
234 
60 

170 
105 

163 
127 

254- 
43 

174 
114 
8 
180 

12 
72 

21 

GO  214 
80 
286 

42 

2 

I 
l84 

(e)  185 
214 

219 
182 

168 
233 

277 

22 

Republican  
Democrat  
National  Republican 
Democrat  
National  Republican 
Independent  
Anti-Mason  

Andrew  Jackson*  
Henry  Clay  
John  Floyd  
William  Wirt  

!836  

Martin  Van  Buren*  
William  H.Harrison  
Hugh  L.  White  
Daniel  Webster  

New  York  
Ohio  
Tennessee  
Massachusetts.. 
North  Carolina. 
Ohio  
New  York  
New  York  
Tennessee  

Democrat  

1840  
1844  

Whig  

Whig  

Whig  

Willie  P  Mangum  

Whig  

William  H.  Harrison*... 
Martin  Van  Buren  
James  G.  Birney  
James  K.  Polk*  
Henry  Clay  
James  G.  Birney  
Zachary  Taylor*  
Lewis  Cass  

Whig  

Democrat  
Liberal  
Democrat  

Kentucky  
New  York  
Louisiana  
Michigan  
New  York  
New  Hampshire 
New  Jersey  
New  Hampshire 
Pennsylvania.  .  . 
California  
New  York  
Illinois  

Whig  
Liberal  
Whig  

1852  
1856  

Democrat  
Free  Soil  
Democrat  
Whig  

Franklin  Pierce*  
Winfield  Scott  
John  P.  Hale  

Free  Democrat  

James  Buchanan*  
John  C.  Fremont  
Millard  Fillmore  
Abraham  Lincoln*  

Democrat  
Republican  
American  
Republican  

1864  

Illinois  
Kentucky  
Tennessee  

Democrat  
Democrat  
Union  

John  C.  Breckinridge  
John  Bell  

Abraham  Lincoln*  
George  B.  McClellan  
Ulysses  S.  Grant*  

Illinois  
New  Jersey  
Illinois  

Republican  
Democrat  
Republican  

1868  

1872  
1876  

Horatio  Seymour  
Ulysses  S.  Grant*  
Horace  Greeley  
Charles  O'Conor  
James  Black  
Thomas  A.  Hendricks... 

New  York  
Illinois  

Democrat  
Republican  

New  York  
New  York  
Pennsylvania... 
Indiana  

Democrat  and  Labor 
Democrat  
Temperance  

Democrat  

Samuel  J  Tilden  

4,284,885 
4,033,950 

1880  
1884  
1888  

1892  

Rutherford  B.  Hayes*... 
Peter  Cooper  
Green  Clay  Smith  

Ohio  
New  York  
Kentucky  

Republican  
Greenback  

Prohibition.  .  . 

9,522 
2,636 
4,449.053 
4,442,035 
307.306 
10,305 
707 
4,911,017 
4,848.334 
151,809 
133,825 

5,538,233 
5,440,216 

249,907 
148.105 
2,808 
1,591 
5,556,918 

5,176,108 

7,018 
62,683 
98,017 

380,810 

tames  A.  Garfield*  
W.  S.  Hancock  
James  B.  Weaver  

Ohio  
Pennsylvania... 
Iowa  

Republican  

Democrat  
Greenback  
Prohibition  

John  W  Phelps  

Vermont  

American  

Grover  Cleveland*  

New  York  
Maine.  
Kansas  
Massachusetts.  . 
California  
New  York  
Indiana  
New  Jersey  
Illinois  
Illinois  

Democrat  
Republican  
Prohibition  
People's  
American  
Democrat  
Republican  
Prohibition  
United  Labor  
United  Labor  

John  P.  St.  John  
Benjamin  F.  Butler  

Grover  Cleveland  
Benjamin  Harrison*  
Clinton  B  Fisk  

Alson  J.  Streeter  
R.  H.  Cowdry  

James  L.  Curtis  
Grover  Cleveland*  
Benjamin  Harrison  
James  B.  Weaver  
John  Bid  well  

New  York  
New  York  
Indiana  
Iowa  
California  
Massachusetts.  . 

American  
Democrat  
Republican  

People's  
Prohibition  
Socialist  Labor  

1,041,028 

264,133 

21,164 

Simon  Wing  

*  The  candidates  starred  were  elected,  (a)  No  candidates  having  a  majority  of  the  electoral  vote,  the  House 
of  Representatives  elected  Adams.  (*)  Eleven  Southern  States,  being  within  the  belligerent  territory,  did  not 
vote,  (c)  Three  Southern,  States  disfranchised,  (d)  Horace  Greeley  died  after  election,  and  Democratic 
electors  scattered  their  vote,  (e)  There  being  a  dispute  over  the  electoral  votes  of  Florida,  Louisiana,  Oregon, 
and  South  Carolina,  they  were  referred  by  Congress  to  an  electoral  commission,  composed  of  eight  Republicans 
and  seven  Democrats,  which,  by  a  strict  party  vote,  awarded  185  electoral  votes  to  Hayes,  and  184  to  Tilden. 


Presidency.  l°%2  Presidency. 

The  following  was  the  popular  and  electoral  vote  for  President  in  1896  by  States  : 


STATES  AND  TER- 
RITORIES. 

POPULAR  VOTE. 

ELECTORAL 
VOTE. 

Bryan, 
Dem, 

McKinley, 
Rep. 

Palmer, 
N.  Dem. 

Lev- 
ering, 
Pro. 

Bentley, 
Nat. 

Mat- 
chett, 
S.  Lab. 

Pluralities. 

ij 

£^ 

st* 
*jg* 

Alabama    

130,307 
110,103 
143,373 
161,153 
56,74° 
13,424 
32,736 
94,232 
23,192 
464,632 

305,573 
223,741 
171,810 
217,890 

77.J75 
34,688 
•04,735 
105,7" 
236,714 
139,626 

63,859 
363,667 
42,190 
115,762 
8,377 
21,650 
133,675 
551,369 
174,488 
20,686 
477,494 
46,662 
433,228 
14,459 
58,798 
41,205 
166,268 
370,434 
64,851 
10,637 
154,709 
5r,557 
92,927 
165.523 
10,655 

54,737 
37,5!2 
146,170 
26,271 
110,285 
16,804 
11,288 
60,091 
6,324 
607,130 

323,754 
289,293 

159-541 
218,171 
22,037 
80,465 
I36,a59 
278,976 
293,582 
193,501 
5,130 
304,940 
9,998 
102,292 
1,938 
57,444 
221,367 
819,838 
155,222 
26,335 
525,991 
48,779 
728,300 
37,437 
9,281 
41,022 

M8,773 
167,520 
13,461 
S1,"? 
135,368 
39,124 
104,414 
268,135 
10,072 

6,462 

i,73° 

i 

4,334 
877 
654 
2,708 

6,390 
2,145 
4>5i6 
1,209 
5,  "4 
1,834 
1,870 
2,507 
n,749 
6,879 
3,202 
1,071 
2,355 

2,798 

2,147 
839 
2,573 
I,7i7 
i,  808 
355 
i,778 
5>6i3 
179 
9,796 
3,056 
3,192 
1,921 
4,781 

'893 
1,046 
386 

793 

2,267 
352 
630 

1,611 
'59 
1,223 

i,i47 
324 

453 

75,570  B 
72,591  B 
2,797  McK 
134,882  B 
53,545  McK 
3,630  McK 
21,448  B 
34,141  B 
16,868  B 
143,098  McK 
18,181  McK 
65,552  McK 
12,269  B 
281  McK 

S5'138  ?r  v 

45,777  »CK 

32,224  McK 
173,265  McK 
56,868  McK 
53,875  McK 
58,729  B 
58,727  B 
32,192  B 
13,470  B 
6,439  B 
35,794  McK 
87,692  McK 
268,469  McK 
19,266  B 
5,649  McK 

47,497   McK 
2,117  McK 
295,072  McK 
22,978  McK 
49,5I7  B 
183  B 
17,495  B 
202,914  B 
51,390  B 
40,490  McK 
19,341  B 
12,433  B 
11,487  McK 
102,612  McK 
583  B 

ii 

8 
i 
4 

4 
*3 

3 

10 

i 
8 

9 
17 

8 
3 

i 

9 
4 

12 
IS 

•      3 

12 

4 
3 

-8 

'e 

3 

24 
15 
13 

12 

"6 
8 
15 
'4 
9 

4 
10 
36 

3 
23 
4 
32 

4 

4 

'(, 

12 

Arkansas  
California  

Colorado  

Illinois  

Kentucky  

1,57° 
5,918 
2,998 
5,025 
4,343 
485 
2,169 
9i 
1,193 

'136 
i,995 

293 
'738 

'587 
2,114 
297 
867 

596 
170 

Maryland  
Massachusetts  

Missouri  

Montana  

New  Hampshire  — 

3,520 
6,373 
18,950 
578 

1,857 

977 

1  1,  OOO 

1,166 
828 

i,95i 
5,046 

779 
5,6i4 
16,052 
675 
358 
5,068 
919 
19,274 
1,160 

49 

247 
2,716 

870 
5 

228 
3,985 
17,667 

1,167 

i',683 

558 

New   York  

North  Dakota  

Ohio.           

Oregon     .         

Pennsylvania  

South  Dakota  

691 

3,098 
1,786 

Tennessee  

Texas  

Utah 

Vermont  

J.331 
2,129 

1-499 
677 
4,584 

733 
2,350 
805 
1,203 
7,509 
136 

in 
'346 

'io8 
1,3*4 

Virginia  

AVashington  

West  Virginia  
Wisconsin  

"Wyoming  

Total 

6,454,943 

7,105,959 

132,870 

I3',748 

13,873 

36,260 

176 

271 

651,016 

336,265 

, 1,516,602 

965,586 

•    95 

6,304,300 

150,643 

Totai'Popufar  vote,  1896 13,875,653 


Popular  vote,  McKinley  over  Bryan.. 

Popular  vote,  McKinley  over  all 

Pluralities,  McKinley 

Pluralities,  Bryan 

Electoral  vote,"  McKinley  over  Bryan. 

Straight  Fusion  vote  for  Bryan 

Straight  Populist  vote  for  Bryan . 


It  can  be  seen  from  the  above  table  that  20,259 
more  votes  for  Bryan  instead  of  McKinley  would 
have  given  Bryan  the  election  if  thus  distributed  ; 
141  in  Kentucky  giving  him  12  more  electoral 
votes  (he  received  i  electoral  vote  in  Kentucky) ; 
1059  in  Oregon  with  4  electoral  votes  ;  1399  in 
California  giving  him  8  more  electoral  votes  (he 
received  i  electoral  vote  in  California)  ;  2825  in 
North  Dakota  with  4  electoral  votes  ;  5744  in 
West  Virginia  with  6  electoral  votes,  and  9091 
in  Indiana  with  15  electoral  votes.  Or  40,518 
votes  in.  those  States  for  Bryan  instead  of  some 
other  candidate  than  either  McKinley  or  Bryan 
would  have  elected  Bryan. 


McKinley  carried  23  States  and  Bryan  22,  be- 
sides gaining  an  electoral  vote  each  in  2  States 
reckoned  in  McKinley's  23. 

The  candidates  in  1896  for  Vice-Presidents 
were  Garret  A.  Hobert,  of  New  Jersey,  Repub- 
lican, who  received  271  electoral  votes,  and  was 
elected  ;  Arthur  Sewall,  of  Maine,  Democrat, 
who  received  176  electoral  votes  ;  Thomas  E. 
Watson,  of  Georgia,  Populist  ;  Hale  Johnson, 
of  Illinois,  Prohibitionist  ;  Simon  B.  Buckner, 
of  Kentucky,  National  Democrat  ;  Matthew 
Maguire,  of  New  Jersey,  Socialist  Labor  Party  ; 
James  H.  Southgate,  of  North  Carolina,  National 
(Free  Silver  Prohibition  Party). 


Presidency. 


1083 


Presidency. 


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t—  not  a  definite  result.  All,  over  Cleveland,  317,638. 
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alorado,  Idaho,  Kansas,  Nevada,  North  Dakota,  South  Dakota,  and  Wyoming  there  were  Democratic 
counted  for  Weaver,  except  in  Louisiana,  where  it  is  equally  divided  between  Harrison  and  Weaver. 
Massachusetts,  649  ;  New  Jersey,  1337  ;  New  York,  17,958  ;  Pennsylvania,  898  ;  total,  21,534  ;  percentage, 
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Presidency. 


1084 


Presidency. 


The  record  of  any  popular  vote  for  electors 
prior  to  1824  is  so  meager  and  imperfect  that  a 
compilation  would  be  useless.  In  most  of  the 
States,  for  more  than  a  quarter  century  follow- 
ing the  establishment  of  the  Government,  the 
State  legislatures  "  appointed  "  the  Presiden- 
tial electors,  and  the  people,  therefore,  voted 
only  indirectly  for  them,  their  choice  being 
expressed  by  their  votes  for  members  of  the 
legislature.  In  this  tabulation  only  the  aggre- 

tate  electoral  votes  for  candidates  for  Presi- 
ent    and    Vice-President  in    the    first    nine 
quadrennial  elections  appear. 

1789.  Previous  to  1804,  each  elector  voted  for  two 
candidates  for  President.  The  one  who  received  the 
largest  number  of  votes  was  declared  President,  and 
the  one  who  received  the  next  largest  number  of  votes 
was  declared  Vice-President.  The  electoral  votes  for 
the  first  President  of  the  United  States  were  :  George 
Washington,  69  ;  John  Adams  of  Massachusetts,  34 ; 
John  Jay  of  New  York,  g ;  R.  H.  Harrison  of  Mary- 
land, 6 ;  John  Rutledge  of  South  Carolina,  6 ;  John 
Hancock  of  Massachusetts,  4  ;  George  Clinton  of  New 
York,  3  ;  Samuel  Huntingdon  of  Connecticut,  2  ;  John 
Milton  of  Georgia,  2  ;  James  Armstrong  of  Georgia, 
Benjamin  Lincoln  of  Massachusetts,  and  Edward 
Telfair  of  Georgia,  i  vote  each.  Vacancies  (votes  not 
cast),  4.  George  Washington  was  chosen  President, 
and  John  Adams  Vice-President. 

1792.  George  Washington,  Federalist,  received  132 
votes  ;  John  Adams,  Federalist,  77  ;  George  Clinton 
of  New  York,  Republican,*  50 ;  Thomas  Jefferson  of 
Virginia,  Republican,  4  ;  Aaron  Burr  of  New  York, 
Republican,  i  vote.  Vacancies,  3.  George  Washing- 
ton was  chosen  President,  and  John  Adams  Vice- 
President. 

1796.  John  Adams,  Federalist,  71  ;  Thomas  Jeffer- 
son, Republican,  68 ;  Thomas  Pinckney  of  South 
Carolina,  Federalist,  59 ;  Aaron  Burr  of  New  York, 
Republican,  30;  Samuel  Adams  of  Massachusetts, 
Republican,  15 ;  Oliver  Ellsworth  of  Connecticut,  In- 
dependent, ii  ;  George  Clinton  of  New  York,  Repub- 
lican, 7  ;  John  Jay  of  New  York,  Federalist,  5  ;  James 
Iredell  of  North  Carolina,  Federalist,  3 ;  George 
Washington  of  Virginia,  John  Henry  of  Maryland, 
and  S.  Johnson  of  North  Carolina,  all  Federalists,  2 
votes  each  ;  Charles  Cotesworth  Pinckney  of  South 
Carolina,  Federalist,  i  vote.  John  Adams  was  chosen 
President,  and  Thomas  Jefferson  Vice-President. 

1800.  Thomas  Jefferson,  Republican,  73 ;  Aaron 
Burr,  Republican,  73 :  John  Adams,  Federalist,  65 ; 
Charles  C.  Pinckney,  Federalist,  64  ;  John  Jay,  Feder- 
alist, i  vote.  There  being  a  tie  vote  for  Jefferson  and 
Burr,  the  choice  devolved  upon  the  House  of  Repre- 
sentatives. Jefferson  received  the  votes  of  10  States, 
which,  being  the  largest  vote  cast  for  a  candidate, 
elected  him  President.  Burr  received  the  votes  of 
four  States,  which,  being  the  next  largest  vote,  elected 
him  Vice-President.  There  were  2  blank  votes. 

1804.  The  Constitution  of  the  United  States  having 
been  amended,  the  electors  at  this  election  voted  for 
a  President  and  a  Vice-President,  instead  of  for  two 
candidates  for  President.  The  result  was  as  follows  : 
For  President,  Thomas  Jefferson,  Republican,  162  ; 
Charles  C.  Pinckney,  Federalist,  14.  For  Vice-Presi- 
dent, George  Clinton,  Republican,  162  ;  Rufus  King  of 
New  York,  Federalist,  14.  Jefferson  was  chosen 
President,  and  Clinton  Vice-President. 

1808.  For  President,  James  Madison  of  Virginia, 
Republican,  122  ;  Charles  C.  Pinckney  of  South  Caro- 
lina, Federalist,  47 ;  George  Clinton  of  New  York, 
Republican,  6.  For  Vice-President,  George  Clinton, 
Republican,  113  ;  Rufus  King  of  New  York,  Federal- 
ist, 47  ;  John  Langdon  of  New  Hampshire,  9;  James 
Madison,  3 ;  James  Monroe,  3.  Vacancy,  i.  Madison 
was  chosen  President,  and  Clinton  Vice-President. 

1812.  For  President,  James  Madison,  Republican, 
128  ;  De  Witt  Clinton  of  New  York,  Federalist,  89.  For 
Vice-President,  Elbridge  Gerry  of  Massachusetts, 
Republican,  131  ;  Tared  Ingersoll  of  Pennsylvania, 
Federalist,  86.  Vacancy,  i.  Madison  was  chosen 
President,  and  Gerry  Vice-President. 

1816.  For  President,  James  Monroe  of  Virginia, 
Republican,  183  ;  Rufus  King  of  New  York,  Federal- 
ist, 34.  For  Vice-President,  Daniel  D.  Tompkins  of 

*The  first  Republican  Party  is  claimed  by  the  pres- 
ent Democratic  Party  as  its  progenitor. 


New  York,  Republican,  183;  John  Eager  Howard  of 
Maryland,  Federalist,  22  ;  James  Ross  of  Pennsylvania 
S  ;  John  Marshall  of  Virginia,  4  ;  Robert  G.  Harper  of 
Maryland,  3.  Vacancies,  4.  Monroe  was  chosen 
President,  and  Tompkins  Vice-President. 

1820.  For  President,  James  Monroe  of  Virginia, 
Republican,  231 ;  John  Q.  Adams  of  Massachusetts, 
Republican,  i.  For  Vice-President,  Daniel  D.  Tomp- 
kins, Republican,  218  ;  Richard  Stockton  of  New  Jer- 
sey, 8 ;  Daniel  Rodney  of  Delaware,  4 ;  Robert  G 
Harper  of  Maryland,  and  Richard  Rush,  of  Pennsyl- 
vania, i  vote  each.  Vacancies,  3.  James  Monroe  was 
chosen  President,  and  Daniel  D.  Tompkins  Vice- 
President. 

_  As  to  the  working  of  the  present  constitu- 
tional conception  of  the  President's  office, 
there  are  various  views.  Mr.  James  Bryce 
(The  American  Commonwealth,  the  first  edi- 
tion, chap,  vii.)  says  : 

"Altho  the  President  has  been,  not  that  inde- 
pendent good  citizen  whom  the  framers  of  the  Consti- 
tution contemplated,  but,  at  least  during  the  last  60 
years,  a  party  man,  seldom  much  above  the  average 
in  character  or  abilities,  the  office  has  attained  the 
main  objects  for  which  it  was  created.  Such  mistakes 
as  have  been  made  in  foreign  policy,  or  in  the  conduct 
of  the  administrative  departments,  have  been  rarely 
owing  to  the  Constitution  of  the  office  or  to  the  errors 
of  its  holder." 

Nevertheless  he  tells  us  that  this  must  not 
make  us  overlook  certain  defects  incidental  to 
the  American  Presidency.  He  says  : 

"In  a  country  where  there  is  no  hereditary  throne 
nor  hereditary  aristocracy,  an  office  raised  far  above 
all  other  offices  offers  too  great  a  stimulus  to  ambition. 
This  glittering  prize,  always  dangling  before  the  eyes 
of  prominent  statesmen,  has  a  power  stronger  than 
any  dignity  under  a  European  crown  to  lure  them  (as 
it  lured  Clay  and  Webster)  from  the  path  of  straight- 
forward consistency.  One  who  aims  at  the  Presidency 
— and  all  prominent  politicians  do  aim  at  it— has  the 
strongest  possible  motives  to  avoid  making  enemies. 
Now  a  great  statesman  ought  to  be  prepared  to  make 
enemies.  It  is  one  thing  to  try  to  be  popular— an 
unpopular  man  will  be  uninfluential— it  is  another 
to  seek  popularity  by  courting  every  section  of  your 
party.  This  is  the  temptation  of  Presidential  as- 
pirants. 

"  A  second  defect  is  that  the  Presidential  election, 
occurring  once  in  four  years,  throws  the  country  for 
several  months  into  a  state  of  turmoil,  for  which  there 
may  be  no  occasion.  Perhaps  there  are  no  serious 
party  issues  to  be  decided,  perhaps  the  best  thing 
would  be  that  the  existing  administration  should  pur- 
sue the  even  tenor  of  its  way.  The  Constitution,  how- 
ever, requires  an  election  to  be  held,  so  the  whole 
costly  and  complicated  machinery  of  agitation  is  put 
in  motion  ;  and  if  issues  do  not  exist,  they  have  to  be 
created.  .  .  . 

"Again,  these  regularly  recurring  elections  produce 
a  discontinuity  of  policy.  Even  when  the  new  Presi- 
dent belongs  to  the  same  party  as  his  predecessor,  he 
usually  nominates  a  new  cabinet,  having  to  reward 
his  special  supporters.  .  .  . 

"  Fourthly.    The  fact  that  he  is  reeligible  once,  but 
(practically)  only  once,  operates  unfavorably  on  the 
President.     He  is  tempted  to  play  for  a 
renqmination  by  so  pandering  to  active 
sections  of  his  own  party,  or  so  using       •nAf«w»tH 
his  patronage  to  conciliate  influential       ueiecis. 

Eoliticians,  as    to  make  them  put  him 
)rward  at  the  next  election.     On  the 
other  hand,  if  he  is  in  his  second  term  of  office,  he  has 
no  longer  much  motive  to  regard  the  interests  of  the 
nation,  because  he  sees  that  his  own  political  death  is 
near.  .  .  . 

"  Fifthly.  An  outgoing  President  is  a  weak  Presi- 
dent. During  the  four  months  of  his  stay  in  office 
after  his  successor  has  been  chosen,  he  declines,  ex- 
cept in  cases  of  extreme  necessity,  to  take  any  new 
departure,  to  embark  on  any  executive  policy  which 
cannot  be  completed  before  he  quits  office.  This  is,  of 
course,  even  more  decidedly  the  case  if  his  successor 
belongs  to  the  opposite  party. 

"  Lastly.  The  result  of  an  election  may  be  doubtful, 
not  from  equality  of  votes,  for  this  is  provided  against, 
but  from  a  dispute  as  to  the  validity  of  votes  given  in 
or  reported  from  the  States.  This  difficulty  arose 


Presidency. 


1085 


Presidency. 


between  Mr.  Hayes  and  Mr.  Tilden,  disclosing  the  ex- 
istence of  a  set  of  cases  for  which  the  Constitution  had 
not  provided.  It  will  not  recur  in  quite  the  same 
form,  for  provision  has  now  been  made  by  statute  for 
dealing  with  disputed  returns.  But  cases  may  arise  in 
which  the  returns  from  a  State  of  its  electoral  votes 
will,  because  notoriously  obtained  by  fraud  or  force, 
fail  to  be  recognized  as  valid  by  the  party  whose  can- 
didate they  prejudice.  No  Presidential  election  passes 
without  charges  of  this  kind,  and  these  charges  are 
not  always  unfounded.  Should  manifest  unfairness 
coincide  with  popular  excitement  over  a  really  impor- 
tant issue,  the  self-control  of  the  people,  which  in  1877, 
when  no  such  issue  was  involved,  restrained  the  party 
passions  of  their  leaders,  may  prove  unequal  to  the 
strain  of  such  a  crisis." 

Another  evil  which  Mr.  Bryce  refers  to"  in 
another  chapter  has  been  recently  much  min- 
imized by  civil  service  reform  (q.v.),  but  is  yet  a 
Very  great  tho  perhaps  to  some  extent  a  neces- 
sary evil — the  presidential  appointing  power. 

It  is  probably  necessary  that  a  president  re- 
sponsible to  an  extent  for  the  whole  federal  ad 
ministration  should  appoint  his  own  Cabinet 
and  heads  of  departments,  subject  to  the  ap- 
proval of  the  Senate,  as  required  by  the  Consti- 
tution ;  but  it  is  not  necessary  that  these  offices 
should  be  looked  upon  as  the  natural  rewards 
for  party  service,  and  that  from  the  day  of  his 
election  till  long  after  his  inauguration  the  time 
of  a  president  should  be  almost  wholly  occupied 
by  considering  rival  claims  for  office.  Yet  this 
is  the  almost  inevitable  result  under  the  present 
Constitution,  which  gives  the  President  so  much 
power — a  power  far  more  in  many  respects  than 
have  most  European  monarchs.  Says  Mr.  Bryce 
(idem,  chap,  vi.) : 

"Artemus  Ward's  description  of  Abraham  Lincoln 
swept  along  from  room  to  room  in  the  White  House 
by  a  rising  tide  of  office  seekers  is  hardly  an  exagger- 
ation. Prom  the  4th  of  March,  when  Mr.  Garfield 
came  into  power,  till  he  was  shot  in  the  July  following, 
he  was  engaged  almost  incessantly  in  questions  of 
patronage.  Yet  the  President's  individual  judgment 
has  little  scope.  He  must  reckon  with  the  Senate  ;  he 
must  requite  the  supporters  of  the  men  to  whom  he 
owes  his  election  ;  he  must  so  distribute  places  all 
over  the  country  as  to  keep  the  local  wire-pullers  in 
good  humor,  and  generally  strengthen  the  party  by 
4  doing  something  '  for  those  who  have  worked  or  will 
work  for  it.  Altho  the  minor  posts  are  practically 
left  to  the  nomination  of  the  Senators  or  Congress- 
men from  the  State  or  district,  conflicting  claims  give 
infinite  trouble,  and  the  more  lucrative  offices  are 
numerous  enough  to  make  the  task  of  selection  labor- 
ious as  well  as  thankless  and  disagreeable.  .  .  .  No 
one  has  more  to  gain  from  a  thorough  scheme  of  Civil 
Service  Reform  than  the  President.  The  present  sys- 
tem makes  a  wire-puller  of  him.  It  throws  work  on 
him  unworthy  of  a  fine  intellect,  and  for  which  a  man 
of  fine  intellect  may  be  ill  qualified.  On  the  other 
hand  the  President's  patronage  is,  in  the  hands  of  a 
skilful  intriguer,  an  engine  of  far-spreading  potency. 
By  it  he  can  oblige  a  vast  number  of  persons,  can 
bind  their  interests  to  his  own,  can  fill  important 
places  with  the  men  of  his  choice.  Such  authority  as 
he  has  over  the  party  in  Congress,  and  therefore  over 
the  course  of  legislation;  such  influence  as  he  exerts 
on  his  party  in  the  several  States,  and  therefore  over 
the  selection  of  candidates  for  Congress,  is  due  to  his 

Eatronage.    Unhappily,  the  more  his  patronage  is  used 
5r  these  purposes,  the  more  it  is  apt  to  be  diverted 
from  the  aim  of  providing  the  country  with  the  best 
officials." 

Professor  E.  J.  James  dissents  on  certain 
points  from  the  views  of  Mr.  Bryce.  He  says 
(Annals  of  the  American  Academy  of  Politi- 
cal and  Social  Science,  May,  1896)  : 

"  The  term  '  responsible,'  in  political  science  and  in 
constitutional  discussions,  has  come  to  have  a  definite 
technical  meaning  which  makes  it  improper  to  use  it 
in  describing  the  relations  of  the  officials  in  the  United 
States  to  the  people. 


"  Looking  for  a  moment  at  the  President  alone,  there 
is  no  sense  in  which  the  term  '  responsible  '  is  used  in 
the  discussions  of  political  science  in  which  the  Presi- 
dent can  be  fairly  said  to  be  responsible  to  the  people 
at  all.  He  is  elected  for  a  period  of  four  years  and 
during  that  period  is  as  completely  and  absolutely  out 
of  the  reach  of  law  and  legal  process,  in  his  official 
capacity  as  President,  as  even  the  crowned  heads  of 
Europe.  It  is  true  that  if  the  President  desires  to  be 
reelected,  he  may  shape  his  policy  with  reference  to 
the  impression  it  will  produce  upon  the  voters  of  the 
country,  or,  at  least,  upon  the  politicians  ;  but,  so  the 
German  Emperor,  if  he  desires  to  secure  the  passage 
of  a  bill  through  the  German  legislature,  will  act  in 
such  a  way  as,  in  his  opinion,  will  contribute  to  that 
end,  but  he  is  not  for  that  reason  responsible,  in  any 
political  sense,  to  the  people.  Even  if  the  President 
might  be  said,  in  a  certain  sense,  to  be  responsible  in 
his  first  term— that  is,  so  far  as  he  may  be  affected  by 
the  desire  to  influence  public  sentiment  in  favor  of 
securing  a  second  term — certainly  this  cannot  be  said 
of  his  conduct  during  his  second  term  with  reference 
to  a  third.  He  knows  full  well  that  no  conduct  of  his 
would  be  likely  to  secure  a  third  term  in  the  present 
temper  and  with  the  present  political  traditions  of  the 
people  of  the  United  States. 

"  No  power  is  given  to  individual  citizens,  or  to  the 
citizens  taken  collectively,  or  to  the  States  individu- 
ally, or  to  the  States  taken  together,  to  control  or 
supervise  in  any  way  the  acts  of  the  President.  He  is, 
so  far  as  any  of  these  elements  in  our  political  system 
are  concerned,  absolutely  irresponsible.  Nor  can  he 
be  reached  by  any  process  of  the  court,  and  he  is, 
therefore,  in  this  sense,  as  truly  above  the  courts  and 
free  from  responsibility  to  them  as  any  king  in  Europe. 
Indeed  one  may  say  that  in  a  certain  sense  the  crowned 
heads  of  Europe  are  more  immediately  responsible  to 
some  power  outside  of  themselves  than  is  the  Presi- 
dent." 

Of  Mr.  Cleveland's  bond  issues,  the  Detroit 
Tribune  says : 

"  Until  Cleveland  proved  by  trial  what  a  President 
could  do,  few  persons,  doubtless,  were  aware  that 
money  could  be  borrowed  upon  the  public  credit,  for 
the  payment  of  the  ordinary  expenses  of  the  Govern- 
ment, without  consultation  of  the  legislature  of  the 
people.  It  would  appear  incredible  that  an  intelligent 
and  watchful  nation  should  let  its  Government  get 
into  such  shape  as  that  the  matter  of  public  expend- 
iture was  not  controlled  by  the  parliamentary  as- 
sembly. It  was  incredible  until  the  object-lessons 
compelled  belief.  .  .  .  By  the  existing  law  the  Ex- 
ecutive is  given  a  legal  way  of  getting  money  without 
asking  the  people  for  it.  If  that  is  not  a  dangerous 
situation,  it  will  be  hard  to  find  dangerous  situations." 

In  the  United  States  discussion  as  to  con- 
stitutional reforms  in  regard  to  the  Presidency 
have  turned  mainly  upon  the  method  of  elect- 
ing Presidents,  their  length  of  term,  and  their 
appointing  power. 

Concerning  the  method  of  electing  Presi- 
dents it  is  proposed  first  that  the  President  be 
elected  by  direct  vote  of  the  people.  This  is 
the  plan  advocated  by  two  out  of  four  con- 
tributors to  a  symposium  on  the  subject  in  the 
North  American  Review  (vol.  cxl.  p.  97).  It 
would  give  every  man  a  chance  to  express  his 
wish,  not  compelling  him  to  vote  for  nominees 
of  a  party.  It  is  claimed  that  it  would  put  the 
President  in  closer  touch  with  the  people,  and 
make  him  more  independent  of  party  ma- 
chines ;  that  it  would  lessen  the  opportunity 
for  corruption.  On  the  other  hand  it  is  ar- 
gued that,  as  there  would  have  to  be  concert 
of  action  to  elect  a  candidate,  there  would 
be  practically  no  more  freedom  of  personal 
choice  than  now,  while  secret  and  corrupt 
concerted  action  would  have  more  chance. 
As  to  the  objection  that  the  present  electoral 
system  often  elects  a  candidate  who  has  not 
received  the  popular  majority,  it  is  answered 


Presidency. 


1086 


Price. 


that  a  popular  majority  might  often  be  a 
sectional  majority  and  not  represent  the 
whole  country  any  more  truly.  It  is,  there- 
fore, secondly,  suggested  that  the  President 
be  elected  by  the  national  legislature,  as  in 
France. 

Mr.  D.  B.  Eaton  (North  American  Review, 
vol.  cliv.  p.  691)  would  lengthen  the  term 
of  office  from  four  to  six  years,  making  the 
elections  less  frequent,  and  then  forbidding 
a  second  term. 

Mr.  George  T.  Curtis  (Century,  vol.  vii. 
p.  124)  would  have  the  Electoral  Commission 
meet  as  an  electoral  chamber,  competent  to 
judge  of  the  qualifications  and  returns  of  its 
own  members,  and  then  allowing  this  body  to 
elect  the  President  as  responsible  men,  not  as 
the  mere  automata  of  parties. 

Mr.  Albert  Stickney  (A  True  Republic, 
chap,  ix.)  would  make  changes  in  the  power 
to  be  given  the  office,  and  make  the  President 
responsible  to  the  legislature,  who  should 
have  direct  power  of  removing  him,  without  a 
hearing,  if  they  think  public  interests  demand 
it,  by  a  two-thirds  vote  of  both  Houses  sitting 
as  one  body.  He  asks  if  anyone  ever  heard 
of  such  a  thing  as  insuring  efficient  work  from 
a  man  who  could  not  be  removed  instantly,  so 
soon  as,  for  any  reason,  he  failed  to  do  his 
work  well.  Mr.  Stickney,  through  all  portions 
of  administrative  departments,  from  the  top 
to  the  bottom,  would  give  all  official  responsi- 
bility for  one  work  to  one  man.  He  would 
give  the  President  the  sole  appointing  and 
removing  power  for  all  heads  of  departments 
and  no  more.  Each  department  head  should 
be  solely  responsible  for  his  department,  each 
subordinate  head  being  responsible  for  those 
under  him;  the  President,  finally,  being  re- 
sponsible to  the  legislature.  This  system 
would  take  from  the  chief  executive  any  voice 
in  the  appointment  or  removal  of  the  great 
number  of  subordinate  officials  which  he  now 
has.  It  would  free  him  to  appoint  his  depart- 
ment heads  without  a  two-thirds  vote  of  the 
Senate.  For  any  misconduct  or  failure  he 
could  himself  be  removed.  If  not  removed, 
he  could  hold  the  office  for  life. 

In  the  Swiss  republic  the  executive  power  is 
not  lodged  with  one  man,  but  in  a  federal  coun- 
cil (Bundesrath),  elected  for  a  term  of  three 
years  by  an  assembly  of  the  two  Houses  of 
legislature  sitting  together.  This  assembly 
also  elects  the  President  and  Vice-President 
of  the  Bundesrath,  but  the  President  is  given 
little  more  power  that  his  colleagues,  and  can 
only  serve  one  term.  Rotation  in  the  office  is 
rigidly  carried  out.  The  main  duty  of  the 
President,  as  distinguished  from  his  colleagues, 
is  to  represent  the  Bundesrath  and  to  receive 
the  ministers  of  foreign  powers. 

Very  many  believe  that  the  Presidents  of 
the  United  States  have  too  much  power.  At 
the  time  of  the  Pullman  strike,  when  Mr. 
Cleveland  called  out  the  Federal  troops  to  pro- 
tect the  mails,  railroads,  etc.,  Governor  Altgeld 
publicly  protested  against  the  act ;  claiming 
that  the  State  authorities  were  doing  all  that 
was  necessary,  and  that  if  the  President  could 
send  troops  into  a  State  which  had  not  called 
for  help,  it  made  him  a  tyrant  over  the  land. 


Some  radicals  believe  in  the  abolition  of  the 
Presidency.  Says  a  memorial  addressed  to- 
Congress  : 

''  i.  The  Presidency  is  a  copy  of  royalty  :  it  is  an. 
essentially  unrepubhcan  institution  ;  for  it  exalts  an 
individual  into  ruling  power  over  all  the  rest  of  the 
population,  bringing  them  into  a  relation  of  subjec- 
tion toward  him,  and  accustoming  them  to  monarchial 
ideas. 

"  2.  It  is  thoroughly  anti-dejnocratic  in  nature  ;  for 
it  does  not  only  ignore  the  direct  authority  of  the 
popular  will,  but  opposes  an  independent  and  auto- 
cratic front  to  the  representative  thereof— the 
legislature. 

'3.  It  maintains  the  false,  illogical,  disorganizing 
theory— born  in  monarchy,  and  principally  denying 
democracy— of  the  'partition  of  powers.'  In  the 
democratic  polity,  all  powers  are  derived  from  the 
people,  and  are  no  more  capable  of  partition  from  and 
against  each  other  than  are  the  people.  .  .  . 

"4.  It  is  a  constantly  menacing,  constantly  grov:- 
ing  cause  of  danger  to  the  republic— whose  eventual 
ruin  it  must  inevitably  occasion. 

"5.  If  it  do  not  cause  such  ruin  by  direct,  violent 
subversion,  it  must  effect  the  same  through  corrup- 
tion ;  for  the  Presidential  office  is  the  source,  the  con- 
stantly growing  source,  of  universal  corruption.  .  .  . 

"  To  avoid  these  dangers,  the  undersigned  suggest 
that  Congress  propose  an  Amendment  to  the  Con- 
stitution, abolishing  the  Presidency,  arid  transferring 
the  executive  functions  to  an  administrative  com- 
mission, or  Congressional  ministry,  to  be  chosen  by 
Congress  from  their  own  body,  or  from  among  other 
competent  citizens;  and  to  be  supervised  and  in- 
structed, during  the  adjournment  of  Congress,  by 
a  standing  committee,  who  are  to  be  in  permanent 
session  during  that  time,  and  who  are  to  be  author 
ized  to  call  extra  sessions  of  Congress  when  needed." 

(See  also  ELECTIONS  ;  ELECTORAL  COLLEGE  ; 
CONSTITUTION.) 

PRICE. — For  a  discussion  of  the  important 
and  much  debated  economic  laws  which  govern 
price  and  value,  see  VALUE.  For  tables  of 
prices,  see  PRICES.  The  whole  subject  of  price, 
from  the  economic  standpoint,  is  so  involved 
with  the  subject  of  value  that  we  cannot  dis- 
cuss it  advantageous^  separately  from  that 
subject.  When  we  speak  of  the  price  of  an 
article  we  popularly  mean  the  amount  of 
money  that  we  have  to  pay  for  it  in  open 
market;  by  value  people  usually  mean  an 
estimate  of  a  commodity's  usefulness  or  worth. 
But  some  economists  use  the  word  value  in 
the  sense  not  of  any  estimate  of  worth,  but 
the  amount  an  article  will  exchange  for  meas- 
ured by  any  standard,  while  they  use  the 
•word,  price  of  the  value  of  a  commodity  meas- 
ured by  the  standard  of  money.  Price  is 
thus  a  particular  case  of  value,  and  there  is 
here  no  distinction  between  price  as  a  given 
fact  in  the  market  and  value  as  an  estimate. 
Both  price  and  value  are  facts  dependent  on 
intricate  laws.  The  so-called  Austrian  or  psy- 
chologic school,  which  has  a  large  hold  in 
the  United  States,  is  differentiated  from  the 
orthodox  economic  school  very  largely  by  its 
concept  of  value,  and  the  Fabian  socialists 
differ  from  German  socialists  on  the  same 
point.  We  give  here  some  representative 
definitions  which  show  why  the  subject  cannot 
be  separated  from  that  of  value.  Says  Pro- 
fessor Fawcett  (Political  Economy,  book  iii. 
chap,  i.): 

"  Price  is  a  particular  case  of  value.  If  the  value  of 
a  commodity  is  estimated  by  comparing  it  with  those 
precious  metals  which  civilized  countries  employ  as 
money,  then  it  is  said  that  the  price,  and  not  the  value 
of  a  commodity,  is  ascertained." 


Price. 


1087 


Prices. 


Says  John  Stuart  Mill  (Political  Economy, 
book  iii.  chap.  i.  §  2): 

"  The  words  value  and  price  were  used  as  synony- 
mous by  the  early  political  economists,  and  are  not 
always  discriminated  even  by  Ricardo.  But  the  most 
accurate  modern  writers,  to  avoid  the  wastf  ul  expen- 
diture of  two  good  scientific  terms  on  a  single  idea, 
have  employed  price  to  express  the  value  of  a  thing  in 
relation  to  money;  the  quantity  of  money  for  which  it 
will  exchange.  By  the  price  of  a  thing,  therefore,  we 
shall  henceforth  understand  its  value  in  money;  by 
the  value  or  exchange  value  of  a  thing,  its  general 
power  of  purchasing,  the  command  which  its  pos- 
session gives  over  purchasable  commodities  in 
general." 

Says  Professor  Marshall  (Elements  of  Eco- 
nomics of  Industry,  book  i.  chap.  i.  §  5): 

"Civilized  countries  generally  adopt  gold  or  silver 
or  both  as  money.  Instead  of  expressing  the  values 


of  lead  and  tin,  and  wood  and  corn,  and  other  things- 
in  terms  of  one  another  we  express  them  in  terms  of 
money  in  the  first  instance,  and  call  the  value  of  each 
thing  thus  expressed  its  price.  If  we  know  that  a  ton 
of  lead  will  exchange  for  15  sovereigns  at  any  place 
and  time,  while  a  ton  of  tin  will  exchange  for  90  sov- 
ereigns, we  say  that  their  prices  then  and  there  are 
,£15  and  ,£90  respectively,  and  we  know  that  the  value 
of  a  ton  of  tin  in  terms  of  lead  is  six  tons  then  and 
there." 

PRICES. — For  a  discussion  of  prices,  see 
VALUE.  We  give  here  from  authoritative 
sources  tables  of  the  rise  and  fall  of  prices 
in  recent  times.  Senate  Report  No.  1394, 
second  session,  Fifty-second  Congress,  gives- 
the  following  table  of  relative  prices  in  gold  * 
for  groups  of  articles  in  the  United  States, 
1840-91  : 


YEAR. 

GENERAL  AVERAGE  PRICES. 

Food. 

Cloths  and 
clothing. 

Fuel  and 
lighting. 

Metals 
and  imple- 
ments. 

Lumber 
and  build- 
ing mate- 
rials. 

Drugs  and 
chemicals. 

House  - 
furnishing 
goods. 

Miscella- 
neous. 

All 
articles. 

96.6 

94-4 
82.9 
79-3 
81.6 
87-3 
94.6 
94-7 
83-5 
79.0 

85-5 
90.6 
88.7 

IOI.2 
105.9 

iii.  8 
110.4 
"7-5 
94.6 
98.8 

100.0 

95-8 
107.7 
91.7 
106.6 

IOO.  I 

124.1 

121.  8 

118.6 

1  20.  1 

126.8 

IS2-9 
122.2 
IIS.2 
IlS.O 

116.0 
109.1 

113-3 
105.5 
97.6 

107.6 
1  10.9 
118.8 
118.8 
108.9 
98.7 
99-5 
104.2 
109.4 
111.9 
104.6 
103.9 

110.7 
"3-4 

100.9 
99-9 
105.0 
97.1 

95-3 
97.6 

87-5 
82.2 

9i-3 
94-7 
88.7 
98.6 
97-4 
94-7 
100.  6 
106.0 
98.0 

IOI.I 

1  00.0 

94.9 

121.  1 
I32.O 
167.7 
138.4 
l6l.7 
133-7 

106.0 
108.8 

II4-Q 

120.4 
131.1 
121.5 
114.8 
106.8 
95-3 
95-9 
91.9 
91.1 
104.5 
99.9 
98.7 
94-8 
88.9 
84.8 
85.1 
84.7 
84-7 
83.6 
82.4 
81.1 

395-8 
208.9 
202.  o 
187-5 
119.7 
239-6 
143.8 
110.7 
1  06.  i 

IOO.O 
IO2.6 

93-3 
97-5 
101.6 
106.8 

121.  1 

126.4 

"3-3 
111.4 
08.8 

IOO.O 

103.5 

94-8 
73-8 
"5-9 

IIO.O 
2OO.  2 
145-8 
157-9 
152.5 
l62.O 
130.2 
136.8 
Iiq.4 

!34-3 
I39-I 
128.2 
101.7 
91.7 
95-3 

IOO.  2 

"3-7 

IIO.  I 

114.2 

102.4 

89.6 

86.2 
88.6 
94-9 
95-3 
92-5 
91.0 

123-5 
123-7 
118.7 
114.7 
33-3 
10.8 
16.9 

20.6 

19.7 
24-9 
14.8 
19.2 
17.7 

22.8 
25-6 
I7.8 
15-3 
IO.4 
01.3 
00.  1 

oo.o 
02.5 
14-3 
96-5 

15.6 
88.5 

22.1 
19.8 
08.7 
04.2 
05-4 
IO-4 
17-3 
15.2 
08.7 
04.4 
96.1 

94-2 
90.8 
88.4 
96-3 
91.1 
91.2 
87-5 
81.0 
77-4 
75-8 
74-9 
74-9 
72.9 
73.2 
W-9 

1  10.0 

in.  8 
1  08.  8 
105.4 
103.0 
106.7 
106.2 
108.2 
105.3 
97.6 

IO2.2 
97-2 
IOO-4 
103.2 
II4.I 
103.4 
102.8 

105.0 
103.8 
98.7 

IOO.O 

108.9 
145.6 

I22.I 

I42-3 
84.2 
133-4 
132.8 
125.8 
122-3 
122-3 
136.8 
153-0 
I52-5 
139.0 
127.7 
I2I-7 
IlS.S 
II5.2 
II5-I 
130.9 

»3»-3 

137-5 
'34-3 
129-5 
126.6 
128.5 
126.5 
124.8 
124.0 
123.7 
122.3 

45-8 
41-3 
31-6 
21.4 
19.7 

21.  0 
23-9 
12-5 
13.0 
II.  O 

23.6 

25.8 

n.8 
07.0 
10.7 
29.2 
35-5 
26.8 
16.0 
04.2 
oo.o 
01.3 
13-6 

OI.O 

09.5 

23.6 

64-3 
56.9 

28.4 
18.7 

23.3 
25.9 

22.8 
25.6 
31-8 
28.2 
08.0 
'5-2 
12.6 

10.9 

13.1 

10.4 
07.6 
98.1 

95-7* 
86.9 

83-9 
83-6 
86.0 
88.8 
87-9 
86.3 

116.4 
116.4 
116.4 
100.3 
102.3 
102.3 

III.O 

120.3 
121.7 
120.5 
125.6 

120.0 
III.9 
II8.7 
121.  2 
121.  2 

"5-5 

116.8 
108.7 
103.2 

IOO.O 

96.8 

87-3 
84.8 
105.9 
83.8 
132.3 

118.2 
97.4 
89.0 

IOO.  2 

116.  i 
112.9 

96.8 

98.3 
84.4 

77-3 
74-4 
73-3 
68.6 
85-2 
77-6 
78.1 
77-5 
76-3 
70.1 
68.4 
66.4 
66.9 
70.0 
69-5 
70.1 

47.1 
47.1 
70.6 
23-5 
29-5 
14.8 

II.  O 

21.7 
25.6 
09.8 
07.7 
02.7 
00.5 
09.2 
08.4 
15-2 

21.6 
10.  0 

97.1 

00.8 
oo.o 
00.7 

01.2 
89.0 

99-3 
93-8 

22.1 
19.9 
18.5 
19.7 
22.6 

34-4 

21.6 

17-5 
16.5 
09.2 

OI.2 

"•3 

IO.2 
O2.  1 
09.8 
08.8 
14.6 
'7-3 

II.  9 
97-5 
9i-3 
88.6 
89-3 
88.8 
89.7 
95-i 

116.8 
115.8 
107.8 
101.5 
101.9 

io2.a 
106.4 
106.5 
101.4 
98-7 
102.3. 
105.9 
102.7 
109.1 

II2.9< 

113.1 
113.2 
112.5 

101.8- 

100.2 

IOO.O 

loo.  6 
114.9- 
102.4 
122.5. 
100.3 

136-3- 
127.9 

"5-9- 
113.2 

U7-3 
122.9^ 
127.2 

122.0- 
119.4 
II3-4 
104.8 
104.4 

99-9 
96.6- 
106.9 
105-7 
108.5 
106.0- 
99-4 
93-0- 
91.9 
92.6- 
94.  z 
94-2 
92-3 
92.2 

1842  

^46  

!848  

1849  

1853  

1856  

jgjjj  

1859  
1860  
1861  
1862  
1863  
1864  
1865  
1866  
1867  
1868  
1869  
1870  
1871  
1872  
1873  
1874  
1875  
1876  
1877  
1878  
1879  
1880  
1881  
1882  
1883  
1884  
1885  
1886  
1887  
1888  
1889  
1890  
1891  

*  In  converting  currency  prices  into  gold  we  have  used  the  value  of  $100  gold  in  currency  as  given  for 
January  of  each  year  in  the  American  Almanac  for  1878,  as  follows:  1862,  102.5;  1863,  145.1;  1864,  155.5;  1865,  216.2; 
1866,  140.1;  1867,  134.6;  '868,  138.5;  1869,  135.6;  1870,  121.3;  l87i,  110.7;  '872,  109.1;  1873,  112.7;  1874,  111.4;  I875,  112.5;  !876,  112.8; 
1877,  106,2;  and  1878,  101.4. 


Prices. 


1088 


Prices. 


The  Statistical  Abstract  of  the  United  States  for  1894,  prepared  by  the  Bureau  of  Statistics, 
gives  (p.  417)  the  following  table  : 

PRICES  OF  LEADING  ARTICLES  OF  DOMESTIC  PRODUCTION  EXPORTED  FROM  THE  UNITED  STATES 

FROM    1870   TO    1894. 
(The  values  of  the  goods  represent  their  market  value  at  the  time  of  exportation.) 


YEAR  ENDING 
JUNE  30. 

"3 
^ 

M 

a 

o 
o 

Wheat,  per 
bushel. 

Wheat  flour, 
per  barrel. 

Cotton,  per 
pound.* 

4-, 

i 

<\j 

CC 

i>  3 

A  0 
3ft 

3 

Illuminating 
oils,  refined, 
per  gallon. 

•a  IH 
c  4> 
§ft 

§£"§ 

§«° 
(g«P. 

•0 
0 

IH   3 
41   0 
ftft 

•6 
c« 
J 

Pork,  salted, 
per  pound. 

Beef,  salted, 
per  pound. 

*i 

41  § 

ftl 

^ft 

4> 
33 

« 

Cheese,  per 
pound. 

R 

O 

feS 

ft^ 

of 
bo 
M 
H 

•d 
£§ 
a§ 
rf* 

£} 

$ 
& 

i  41 
*"  ft 
,-d 

C-a  a 

rt  a>  3 
bcC  o 
3*  ft 
c« 

Tobacco,  leaf, 
per  pound. 

Dols. 

Dols. 

Dols. 
6.ii 

Cts. 

Cts. 
28."; 

Cts. 

Cts. 
15.7 

Cts. 
16.6 

Cts. 

Cts. 

as. 

Cts. 

Cts. 

Cts. 

8.2 

as. 

2.6 

Cts. 

6.59 

13.2 

8.7 

21.5 

28.5 

6.6 

3-2 

5872  

8.6 

IO.  I 

7.2 

7.0 

19.4 

11.7 

20.3 

5-o 

2.6 

10.3 

618 

18.8 

8.8 

7.8 

26.6 

1.6 

25.2 

9.6 

8.2 

8.2 

25.0 

5.7 

°-5 

9.6 

1875  

.848 

5.97 

15.0 

26.0 

14.1 

11.4 

13.8 

IO.I 

8.7 

23.7 

13.5 

25.6 

6.0 

0.8 

u-3 

2876  

.672 

8.7 

12.6 

28.0 

.587 

n.8 

10.8 

7-5 

11.8 

5.2 

1.6 

IO.2 

^878  

.562 

•34 

6.36 

21.8 

14.4 

8.7 

8.8 

6.8 

18.0 

15.8 

4.7 

O.2 

8.7 

10.8 

6.9 

6.3 

9.8 

8-5 

7-8 

1880  

5.88 

8.6 

6.7 

6.1 

6.4 

9.5 

16.5 

4.3 

9.0 

j88i  

5.67 

22.6 

10.3 

8.2 

9.3 

6.5 

19.8 

n.  i 

4.7 

9.2 

8.3 

j882     

668 

6.15 

n.6 

8.5 

4-3 

8.5 

j883       

.684 

5.96 

10.8 

8.8 

8.9 

18.6 

4.6 

8.3 

j884  

.611 

5.59 

10.5 

20.  6 

9.2 

9.5 

7.9 

7.6 

18.2 

10.3 

4.5 

7.1 

9.1 

j88s  

.86 

4.90 

10.6 

19.8 

8.7 

9.2 

7.9 

7.2 

7.5 

16.8 

9-3 

21.5 

4.0 

6.4 

9.9 

j886  

.498 

.87 

4.70 

9.9 

19.9 

8.7 

7.5 

6.9 

5.9 

6.0 

15-6 

8-3 

18.3 

4.1 

6.7 

ofi 

jSS?  

.89 

4-51 

9.5 

18.7 

7.8 

6.6 

5.4 

irS 

9.3 

16.3 

3.8 

6.0 

8.7 

1888  

.550 

.85 

4.58 

9.8 

17.3" 

7.9 

8.6 

7.7 

7.4 

5.3 

18.3 

9.9 

15-9 

3-5 

6.3 

8-3 

2889  

.90 

4.83 

9.9 

16.6 

7.8 

8.6 

8.6 

7.4 

5.5 

16.5 

9.3 

13-9 

|i 

7.6 

8.3 

1890  

.418 

.83 

4.66 

IO.I 

16.0 

7.4 

7.7 

7.1 

6.0 

5.4 

14.4 

9.0 

I5-4 

4.1 

7.0 

8.6 

1891  

•93 

4.82 

IO.O 

16.4 

7.0 

7.6 

6.9 

5.9 

5.6 

14.5 

9.0 

17.7 

3.7 

5-7 

8.7 

5892  

•55 

1.03 

4.96 

8.7 

16.0 

5.9 

8.1 

7.2 

6.0 

5-7 

16.0 

9.4 

18.0 

3.1 

4.6 

8.4 

1803.  .  . 

.80 

8.5 

15.0 

4.9 

9.1 

9.5 

7-8 

5-4 

19.0 

9-4 

23.2 

3-2 

4.7 

9.0 

.46 

.67 

4.11 

7.8 

',S-i 

4.2 

9.6 

9.0 

8.0 

5.7 

17.6 

9.7 

16.9 

3-2 

4.4 

8-5 

*  Upland. 

For  Great  Britain,  Mr.  Angus  Sauerbeck,  the  eminent  statistician,  gives  the  following  tables 
quoted  in  the  special  publication  of  the  United  States  Bureau  of  Statistics  for  1895. 

MOVEMENTS  OF  45  COMMODITIES  IN  THE  UNITED  KINGDOM  (PRODUCTION  AND  IMPORTS). 


YEARS. 

Estimated  actual 
value  in  each 
period. 

Nominal  values 
at  average  prices 
of  1867-77,  show- 
ing increase  in 
quantities. 

Movement  of 
quantities, 
1848-50=100. 

Movement  of  quan- 
tities from  period 
to  period. 

Ratio  of 
prices  accord- 
ing to  this 
table,  1867-77 
=  100. 

1859-61  
1869-71  

350,100,000 
456,600,000 

382,700,000 
484,600,000 

130 
164 
183 

30  per  cent,  over  1849 
27  per  cent,  over  1860 

qi-5 

94-2 

1879-81  
1884  86  

489,700,000 

578,500,000 

196 

19  per  cent,  over  1870 

84.6 

1889-91  

504,100,000 

685,200,000 

233 

18  per  cent,  over  1880 

73.6 

68.0 

1804.* 

2  per  cent,  over  1890 

*  1894  subject  to  correction  after  publication  of  the  mineral  produce  returns. 


Mr.  Sauerbeck  says  : 


less  than  the  average  of  1869-71,  altho  the  quantities 
were  44  per  cent,  larger.   .   .  ." 

The  following  table  shows  the  course  of 
prices  of  45  commodities  during  the  last  17 
years  as  compared  with  the  standard  period 
of  ii  years,  1867-77,  which  in  the  aggregate 
is  equivalent  to  the  average  of  the  25  years 
l853~77  (see  the  Royal  Statistical  Society's 
Journal,  1886,  pp.  592  and  648,  and  1893, 
pp.  220  and  247): 


Prices.  1089  Primitive  Property. 

SUMMARY  OF  INDEX  NUMBERS.     GROUPS  OF  ARTICLES,  1867-77=100. 


YEARS. 

Vegetable 
food  (corn, 
etc.). 

Animal 
food  (meat, 
etc.). 

i 

Total  food. 

Minerals. 

Textiles. 

Sundry 
materials. 

Total 
materials. 

Grand 
total. 

Silver.* 

Wheat 
harvest.t 

Average 
price  of 
consols.  $ 

Average 
Bank  of 
England 
rate,  $ 

878  

06 

78 

88 

81 

87 

86  4 

1  08 

, 

879  

87 

87 

85 

78 

81 

84  2 

64 

880  

89 

88 

81 

89 

81 

88 

08  § 

881  

84 

84 

86 

80 

8c 

85  o 

f 

882  ,. 
883.  .  . 

84 
82 

104 

76 

89 

So 

79 
76 

73 

85 
84 

80 

84 

82 

84.9 
8?  i 

100 

iooj 

li 

884  

63 

68 

68 

81 

76 

88  ~ 

68 

88 

63 

66 

65 

76 

108 

99i 

886  

65 

87 

60 

67 

69 

67 

69 

74.6 

887  

64 

67 

69 

65 

67 

67 

68 

1ft 

888  

67 

82 

65 

78 

64 

67 

69 

06 

s 

889  

65 

86 

68 

06 

Ift 

890  

65 

82 

80 

66 

69 

78.4 

106 

801  .. 

81 

76 

69 

68 

108 

^A 

892  

65 

84 

69 

67 

65 

38 

Q6| 

2T5 

893  

59 

85 

75 

68 

68 

65 

68 

58.6 

80 

65 

66 

64 

64 

60 

63 

1  06 

2A 

A   '      (Tf* 

1885-94.  • 
1878-87.. 

65 

79 

83 

95 

68 
76 

72 
84 

73 

62 

68 
81 

67 
76 

60 
79 

69.2 
82.1 

101 

97 

99 
99l 

^ 

*  Silver  60.84^.  per  ounce=ioo. 

t  Wheat  harvest  in  the  United  Kingdom,  1878-83,  28  bushels  per  acre=ioo  ;  from  1884,  29  bushels=ioo. 

t  Consols  and  bank-rate  actual  figures,  not  index  numbers  ;  consols  z|  per  cent,  from  1889. 


The  index  number  for  all  commodities  was 
63,  against  68  in  1893,  and  was  therefore  7^ 
per  cent,  below  the  preceding  year,  9  per  cent, 
below  the  average  of  the  preceding  10  years, 
20  per  cent,  below  the  10  years  1878-87,  and  37 
per  cent,  below  the  standard  period,  1867-77. 
The  decline  during  the  past  year  extended  to 
all  groups  of  commodities,  and  in  no  case  was 
it  less  than  6  per  cent.  A  number  of  articles 
showed  records  of  lowest  prices  during  the 
century  ;  thus,  wheat  and  flour,  oats,  rice, 
sugar,  lead,  cotton,  jute,  flax,  manila,  hemp, 
merino  wool,  silk,  and  soda,  in  fact,  16  out  of 
45  descriptions,  while  some  others,  such  as  tea, 
copper,  and  petroleum  were  on  the  average  of 
the  year  as  low  or  lower  than  in  any  preced- 
ing year. 

PRIMITIVE  PROPERTY.— According  to 

some  sociological  writers,  the  present  system  of 
private  ownership  in  land  was  preceded  by  a 
system  of  collective  or  communal  ownership 
and  cultivation.  The  main  authorities  for  this 
view  are  Sir  Henry  Maine,  in  his  Ancient 
Law ;  G.  L.  von  Maurer,  in  his  Einleitung 
zur  Geschichte  der  Mark, — Hof-  Dorf-  und 
Stadtverfassung  (1,854)  ;  P.  Viollet,  in  his 
Bibliotheque  de  I'Ecole  des  Chartes  (1872), 
and  6m.  Laveleye,  in  his  De  la  Proprietd 
de  ses  Formes  Primitives  (1874),  well  known 
to  English  readers  in  Marriott's  translation, 
Primitive  Property  (1878).  Maine  says  in  the 
above  work  (p.  268) : 

"  Property  once  belonged  not  to  individuals,  nor  even 
to  isolated  families,  but  to  larger  societies."  Maurer 
says  (p.  93):  "All  land  in  the  beginning  was  common 
land  and  belonged  to  all ;  that  is  to  say,  to  the  people." 
Violet  says  (p.  503) :  "  Land  was  held  in  common  before 
it  became  private  property  in  the  hands  of  a  family  or 
an  individual."  De  Laveleye  says:  "The  arable  land 
•was  cultivated  in  common  ;  private  property  grew  up 
afterward  out  of  this  ancient  common  ownership." 

Maurer  builds  his  argument  from  certain  expres- 

69 


sions  in  Caesar,  Tacitus,  and  other  Latin  authors,  and 
from  certain  words  and  phrases  like  communia  and 
ager  publicus  in  classic  and  mediaeval  formularies, 
laws,  etc.  He  studies  the  subject  simply  in  regard  to 
Germanic  peoples. 

Viollet  finds  communal  property  described  or  re- 
ferred to  among  the  Greeks  and  Romans,  by  Plato, 
Vergil,  Justin,  Tibullus,  and  other  •writers.  He  sees 
a  relic  of  it  in  the  public  meals  of  Sparta,  the  feasts 
of  the  Athenian  prytanes,  and  of  the  Roman  curice. 

De  Laveleye  traces  such  communal  property  in  the 
Javan  dessa,  the  Russian  mt'r,  the  Indian  village  com- 
munity, the  German  Mark,,  the  family  communities 
of  Bosnia,  Servia,  Bulgaria,  Champagne,  and  Au- 
vergne,  in  the  Swiss  Aumenaen,  the  Scotch  township, 
the  common  lands  of  France,  Belgium,  and  other 
countries.  De  Laveleye  does  not  write  as  an  admirer 
of  the  "primitive  communism."  He  argues,  in  his 
introduction,  that  inequality  overthrew  Greece  and 
Rome  and  threatens  us  in  still  more  critical  form,  and 
then  says  :  "  The  object  of  this  book  is  not  to  advocate 
a  return  to  the  primitive  agrarian  community,  but  to 
establish  historically  the  natural  right  of  property  as 
claimed  by  philosophers,  as  well  as  to  show  that  own- 
ership has  assumed  various  forms  and  is  consequently 
susceptible  of  progressive  reform."  According  to  De 
Laveleye,  land  was  first  unappropriated  at  all.  Then 
certain  tribes  laid  claim  to  certain  portions  of  territory 
for  grazing  purposes.  Next,  portions  began  to  be 
claimed  for  cultivation  by  the  tribe.  Then  this  was 
parceled  out  among  the  families  of  the 
tribe  for  cultivation.  Next  the  parcels 
were  claimed  for  occupation  by  patri-  DeLaveleve. 
archal  families.  Finally,  individual  *  ' 

hereditary  property  appears.  For  a 
discussion  of  the  Russian  mir,  see  MlR  ; 
for  the  German  Mark,  see  MARK  ;  for  the  Allmend, 
see  SWITZERLAND.  Of  the  Slavic  family  communities 
De  Laveleye  gives  a  specially  interesting  account. 
Under  this  system  land  belongs  to  the  gmina.  (Ger- 
man Gemeinae,  or  commune),  which  divides  the  land 
among  the  patriarchal  families,  according  to  their 
size.  At  the  head  of  each  family  is  a  gospodar.  He  is 
elected  by  the  community  and  transacts  its  business. 
He  is  the  executive,  but  acts  only  with  the  advice  of 
the  community.  The  wife  of  the  gospodar  or  some 
other  chosen  woman  is  the  domatchica,  and  regulates 
the  domestic  interests.  The  houses  cluster  around 
the  central  house  of  the  gospodar.  In  this  house  all 
take  their  meals.  Each  commun1'  Ly  has  20  to  30  persons, 
and  occasionally  more.  There  are  usually  three  gen- 
erations. When  the  community  becomes  too  large  it 
divides.  The  young  women  usually  pass  into  their 
husbands'  family-community.  The  fruits  of  the  agri- 
cultural labor  are  usually  held  in  common,  but  of 


Primitive  Property. 


1090 


Prisoners. 


Industrial  labor,  individually.  Eachcorrmunity  owns 
about  40  acres.  The  aged  and  infirm  are  cared  for  in 
common.  The  women  take  turns  in  the  common 
work.  Communities  aid  each  other.  In  the  evenings, 
the  community  meets  for  songs  and  dance.  Members 
are  allowed  to  leave.  The  system  allows  of  division  of 
labor,  union  of  capital  and  labor,  and  simple  fraternal 
life.  But  it  is  dying  before  the  forces  of  self-seeking 
and  western  individualism. 

Similar  communities,  De  Laveleye  says,  were  devel- 
oped, all  through  Europe  in  the  Middle  Ages,  and 
existed  till  our  own  day  in  Brittany,  Auvergne,  and 
various  secluded  territories. 

This  view  of  primitive  property  in  land, 
however,  has  been  severely  criticized  by  other 
scholars  ;  notably  by  Fustel  de  Coulanges  in  an 
essay  on  The  Origin  of  Property  in  Land, 
first  appearing  in  the  Revue  des  Questions 
Historiques  for  April  1889,  and  translated 
under  the  above  title  by  Margaret  Ashley 
(1891). 

M.  de  Coulanges  argues  that  Maurer  and  Viollet 
have  forced  the  meaning  of  the  classic  authors  they 
quote  and  that  common  meals  and  family  communities 
by  no  means  prove  the  communal  ownership  of  land. 
De  Coulanges  says  in  summing  up  his  essay  (p.  149) : 
"  Are  we  to  conclude  from  all  that  has  gone  before  that 
nowhere  and  at  no  time  was  land  held  in  common  ?  By 
no  means.  To  commit  ourselves  to  so  absolute  a 
negative  would  be  to  go  beyond  the  purpose  of  this 
work.  The  only  conclusion  to  which  we  are  brought 
by  this  prolonged  examination  of  authors,  is  that  com- 
munity in  land  has  not  yet  been  historically  proved. 
.  .  .  M.  Viollet  has  not  brought  forward  a  single 
piece  of  evidence  which  proves  that  the  great  cities 
ever  practised  agrarian  communism.  M.  de  Jubain- 
ville  has  not  brought  forward  one  which  proves 
communism  in  Gaul.  Maurer  and  Lamprecht  have 
not  produced  one  which  shows  that  the  Mark  was 
common  land.  .  .  .  National  communism  has  been 
confused  with  the  common  ownership  of  the  family; 
tenure  in  common  has  been  confused  with  ownership 
in  common ;  agrarian  communism  with  village 
commons." 

Such  are  the  two  opposing  schools.  Some 
argue  that  the  correct  balance  of  truth  is  that 
property  was  not  originally  held  either  by 
individuals  or  communally,  but  by  bodies  of 
men  under  some  "strong  man" — despot,  tyrant, 
or  at  best  patriarch.  This  would  be  far  from 
communism,  but  perhaps  equally  far  from 
individual  ownership. 

Professor  Ch.  Letourneau  in  his  Property 
and  its  Origin  and  Development  (Contempo- 
rary Science  Series,  1892)  finds  the  origin  of 
property  in  a  biological  root,  which  begins 
among  the  animals. 

"The  instinct  of  property,  "  he  says  (p.  2),  "is  but 
one  of  the  manifestations  of  the  most  primordial  of 
needs — the  need  of  self-perservation,  of  existing,  and 
securing  existence  to  offspring.  The  banquet  of  na- 
ture is  very  irregular,  and  sometimes  very  niggardly  ; 
the  guests  are  numerous,  hungry,  and  often  brutal. 
Yet,  under  pain  of  death,  a  place  must  be  gained  there, 
defended,  and.  as  far  as  possible,  retained  ;  for  con- 
tinually recurring  needs  must  constantly  be  satisfied. 
The  severity  of  the  struggle  for  existence  may  be 
greater  or  less,  but  it  goes  on  without  a  truce  ;  there- 
fore the  more  intelligent  the  organized  being,  whethfcr 
man  or  animal,  the  more  he  takes  thought  for  the 
future,  the  more  he  tries,  by  securing  some  sort  of 
property,  to  reduce  the  element  of  chance  in  his  life. 
.  .  .  But  this  may  be  done  in  various  ways  :  sometimes 
selfishly,  in  isolation,  if  the  individual  is  gifted  enough 
or  well  enough  armed  with  force  or  cunning  to  suffice 
unto  himself:  sometimes  collectively,  if  those  con- 
cerned are  sufficiently  intelligent,  sufficiently  sociable, 
to  supplement  their  native  feebleness  by  combining, 
by  creating  a  powerful  cluster  through  the  union  of 
small  individual  energies.  These  two  very  different 
methods  of  understanding  property  are  found  in  the 
animal  kingdom,  and  each  of  them  makes  its  own 
mark  upon  the  manners,  tendencies,  and  mentality  of 
the  species."  Letourneau  then  goes  on  to  trace  the 


development  of  the  instinct  of  property  in  the  animals 
which  lay  claim  to  certain  tracts  of  territory,  exactly 
as  do  nomadic  tribes,  or  to  dens,  lairs,  or  nests,  ex- 
actly like  primitive  men.  Weaker  animals,  like  bees 
and  ants,  have  to  think  of  the  future.  They  develop 
sociability  and  intelligence,  and  organize  armies  and 
clusters,  with  officers  and  laws.  From  the  animal,  Le- 
tourneau passes  to  man  and  finds  some  men  lower  than 
the  brute  in  the  instinct  of  property.  He  notices  the 
property  of  anarchic  hordes,  the  savages  of  Borneo,  the 
Veddahs  of  Ceylon,  the  sociability  of  the  Bushmen, 
the  solidarity  of  the  Fuegians,  the  Australian  clans. 
Among  them  all  property  is,  as  a  rule,  communal  and 
not  private,  though  the  instinct  of  private  property  is 
developing  in  the  private  ownership  of  a  weapon  or  an 
ornament.  Often  these  are  burned  or  buried  with  the 
dead  owner.  For  the  property  in  women,  see  FAMILY. 
Among  the  republican  tribes  of  America,  Letourneau 
finds  the  same,  from  the  communism  of  the  North 
American  Indian  to  the  developed  kingdom  of  the 
Incas  ;  see  PERU.  A  step  up  we  come  to  the  monarchic 
tribes,  where  despotic  heads  develop  caste  and 
slavery.  Here  wives  are  made  to  toil  as  the  prop- 
erty or  the  monarchs,  and  upon  fields  owned  by  the 
monarchs.  In  New  Zealand  there  were  three  kinds  of 
proprietors— the  tribe,  the  family,  and  the  individual. 
In  Polynesia,  generally,  primitive  equality  has  been 
wholly  left  behind,  and  property  is  owned  by  chiefs. 
In  Africa  the  aborigines  have  developed  out  of 
equality,  but  the  degrees  are  not  fixed.  In  southern 
Asia  we  find  the  Javanese  afessa  and  Indian  communal 
village.  This  is  perhaps  due  to  the  necessity  of  col- 
lective irrigation  of  rice-fields.  In  ancient  Egypt  we 
have  a  kingdom  something  like  that  of  the  Incas;  all 
nominally  owned  by  kings,  but  divided  into  kings' 
lands,  priests'  land,  and  warriors'  lands.  Beneath 
these  grades  are  herdsmen,  artizans,  and  slaves.  In 
China  land  is  nominally  owned  by  the  king,  but 
allotted  to  families.  It  must  be  tilled,  or  can  be  for- 
feited. Land  is  inalienable.  Village  communities  are 
traceable.  In  nomadic  Arabia,  a  system  of  combined 
individual  and  communal  property  exists.  Among  the 
Hebrews,  land  was  divided  among  all,  by  families. 
The  early  Aryan  races  seem  to  have  practised  the 
village  community,  and  this  brings  us  to  historic 
times. 

References  :  See  the  books  quoted  above.  (See  also 
PROPERTY;  LAND;  COMMUNISM.) 

PRISONERS.— For  a  study  of  the  so- 
ciological questions  connected  with  crime  and 
prisoners,  see  CRIME;  CRIMINAL  ANTHROPOLOGY; 
CRIMINOLOGY.  For  the  treatment  of  prisoners, 
see  PENOLOGY;  CONVICT  LABOR;  ELMIRA  RE- 
FORMATORY; JUVENILE  REFORMATORIES. 

We  give  here  tables  of  statistics  as  to  the 
number,  distribution,  and  birthplace  of  prison- 
ers in  the  United  States,  as  reported  by  the 
census  of  1890  : 

PRISONERS  IN  THE  UNITED  STATES  IN  1890,  CLASSIFIED 
BY  SEX  AND  BY  ELEMENTS  OF  THE  POPULATION. 


ELEMENTS. 

Aggre- 
gate. 

Men. 

Wo- 
men. 

The  United  States  

82,329 

75,924 

6,405 

White          

57,3!° 

52,894 

4,416 

Native     

40,471 

38,156 

2,3r5 

21,037 
2,881 
12,601 

3,952 
15,932 
007 

25,019 

20,101 
2,729 
11,766 

3,56° 
13,869 
869 

23,030 

936 
152 
835 

392 
2,063 

af 

1,989 

One  parent  foreign  ••. 

Both  parents  foreign  
One  or  both    parents    un- 

Negroes  

24,277 
407 

13 

322 

22,305 
406 

12 

307 

1,972 

i 

r 
15 

Japanese        

Prisoners. 


1091 


Production. 


As  to  the  nativity  of  57,310  white  prisoners  (52,804 
men  and  4416  women),  40,471  (38,156  men  and  2315 
women)  were  born  in  the  United  States,  15,932  (13,869 
men  and  2063  women)  were  born  abroad,  and  the 
birthplace  of  907  (869  men  and  38  women)  is  unknown. 

Omitting  those  whose  nativity  is  not  given,  the 
percentage  of  native  whites  is  71.75,  and  of  foreign 
whites  28.25. 

The  Chinese  and  Japanese  were,  of  course,  born 
abroad,  while  the  negroes  and  Indians  may  be  sup- 
posed to  have  been  born  in  this  country. 


Of  the  40,471  whites  born  in  the  United  States,  21,037 
(20,101  men  and  936  women)  had  a  native  father  and 
a  native  mother,  12,601  (11,766  men  and  835  women)  had 
both  parents  foreign  born,  2881  (2729  men  and  152 
women)  had  one  native  and  one  foreign  parent,  and 
the  parentage  of  3952  (3560  men  and  392  women)  is 
unknown  as  to  one  or  both  parents. 

Omitting  the  latter,  the  percentage  of  native  whites 
of  purely  native  origin  is  57.61 ;  of  purely  foreign 
origin,  34.50;  and  of  mixed  origin,  7.89. 

References  :    See  CRIMINOLOGY. 


STATES  AND  TERRI- 
TORIES. 

PRISONERS  OF  ALL  CLASSES. 

Inmates  of 
Juvenile 
Reforma- 
tories. 

Peniten- 
tiaries, 

County 
Jails. 

City 
Prisons. 

Work- 
houses. 

Other.* 

Total. 

Ratio  per 
1,000,000 
of  Popu- 
lation. 

The  United  States  — 
North  Atlantic  Division- 

45.233 

14.777 
170 
116 
91 
1.53° 

122 
340 
8,IOX> 

1.557 
2,361 

6,466 

19,861 

6,764 
302 

"3 
30 
954 
229 

675 
1,292 
783 
2,386 

3.019 
139 
486 

213 
39° 
153 
442 

374 
552 
270 

4.225 
502 
464 
727 
399 
345 
208 
327 
505 
25 
72 
219 
432 

4,118 
646 
654 
573 
284 
524 
1,040 

3,264 

791 
17 
79 

i 

IOI 

3 
ii 

470 
37 
72 

670 

9,968 
5,644 

57 
2,553 
206 

1,217 
1,611 
695 

4,003 

582 
23 
r3 

21 
89 

299 

78 

59 
559 

82,329 

28,258 
5" 
321 
200 
5,227 
560 
1,026 
11,468 
2,455 
6,489 

11,409 

139 

1,502 
496 

2,000 
450 
2,033 
1,184 
2,938 
667 

19,854 
2,909 
1,988 
3,936 
2,155 

1,118 
1,041 
1,016 
2,833 
97 
178 
655 
1,928 

16,084 
2,  HO 

2,451 
2,518 
I.I77 

1,608 
4.747 

i,473 

6,724 
432 
74 

002 

205 
250 
269 
152 
150 
452 
440 
3,398 

ii3»5 

1,624 
774 
853 
602 

2,335 
1,621 

1,375 
1,912 
1,699 
1.234 

1,288 
825 
1,441 
2,153 
1,208 
590 

!>257 

1,029 
1,599 
1,704 

888 
792 
007 
1,029 
1,029 
663 
800 
S3' 
1,057 
53i 
541 
619 
i,35i 

1,466 
i,i35 
1,387 
1,664 
9'3 
i,438 
2,123 

1,306 

2,221 
3,269 
1,219 

2,188 
i,335 
4-193 
1,294 
3,322 
1,778 
1,294 
1,402 
2,813 

14,846 

7,388 
169 

IO2 

86 
698 
270 
626 
3,675 
608 
I,i54 

1,293 

45 
1,061 
187 

5,45i 
1,529 
636 
383 
696 

591 
284 

527 
360 

237 
208 

359 
273 

"&6 

355 
149 

206 

Massachusetts  

South  Atlantic  Division.. 
Delaware  

690 

1,167 
278 
1,422 
806 
1,729 
374 

10,900 
1,652 
1,416 
2.057 
1,108 
53° 
432 
623 
1,701 
65 
97 
391 
918 

9,241 

1,235 
1,484 
1,  086 
429 
856 
3.319 

3 
ii 

443 

I 

10 

4 
179 
19 

798 
119 
20 
106 
48 

169 

37 
214 

39 
4i 

582 
55 
62 

133 
10 

228 
73 

323 

269 

12 
91 

3,002 
627 
88 
955 
480 
230 

211 

4II 

323 
240 

"83 

3 

'"k 
68 

'478 
4 

839 
9 

91 
1  20 

8 

21 
29 
2 

7 
9 
6 

537 

1,820 

174 
ii 
726 
454 

232 

District  of  Columbia.  .  . 
Virginia  

North  Carolina  

Florida  :.. 

North  Central  Division... 
Ohio  

Michigan  

Iowa  

North  Dakota  

South  Dakota  

Kan  sas  

South  Central  Division... 
Kentucky  

Tennessee  

Mississippi....        

Louisiana  

Texas  

Oklahoma  

Arkansas....;  

832 

4,059 
225 

10 

526 

112 
I44 
1  80 
96 
IO2 
251 
362 
2,051 

397 

J.735 
i93 
59 
275 
85 
,     97 
43 
54 
45 
141 
61 
682 

21 

423 
II 

3 
9i 

8 

2 

44 
57 

12 
195 

304 
304 

223 

203 
3 

2 
10 

7 

2 
2 
3 

3 

166 

Western  Division  

Montana  

Wyoming  

Arizona  

Utah  

Nevada  

Idaho  

Washington  

Oregon  

California  

*  Including  prisoners  "  leased,"  in  "  military  prisons,"  and  in  insane  asylums. 
PRODUCTION  may  be  popularly  defined      move  things,  and  make  them  useful.     This  all 


as  the  creation  of  wealth.     Strictly  speaking, 
production  is  only  the  creation   of  utilities. 


producers  do.     The  farmer  is  sometimes  con- 
sidered more  really  a  producer  than  the  manu- 


Man  can  create  no  new  matter.     He  can  only      facturer,    but  he  is  not.      Both    only    move 


Production. 


1092 


Productivity. 


things,  and  both  produce  utilities.  We  can  go 
farther,  says  Professor  Marshall  (Economics 
of  Industry,  p.  57)  : 

"  It  is  sometimes  said  that  traders  do  not  produce  ; 
that  while  the  cabinet-maker  produces  furniture,  the 
furniture-dealer   merely  sells  what  is 
already    produced.      But   there    is   no 
T>^n^n»ova      scientific   foundation    for  this   distinc- 
rroaucers.    tion       They    both    produce    utilities, 
and  neither  of  them  can  do  more ;  the 
furniture-dealer  moves  and  rearranges 
matter   so  as  to  make   it  more  serviceable   than    it 
was  before,  and  the  carpenter  does  nothing  more. 
The    sailor    or    the    railway-man   who    carries   coal 
above  ground  produces  it,  just  as  much  as  the  miner 
who  carries  it  underground  ;  the  dealer  in  fish  helps 
to  move  on  fish  from  where  it  is  of  comparatively 
little  use  to  where  it  is  of  greater  use,  and  the  fisher- 
man does  no  more.    It  is  true  that  if  there  are  more 
traders  than  are  necessary  there  is  waste.    But  there 
is  also  waste  if  there  are  two  men  to  a  plow  which 
can  be  well  worked  by  one  man  ;  in  both  cases  all 
those  who  are  at  work  produce,  tho  they  may  produce 
but  little." 

Professor  Marshall  says,  elsewhere  : 
"Productive  labor  cannot  generally  be  divided  off 
by  a  clearly  defined  line  from  unproductive.  A  min- 
ister of  religion  is  often  classed  as  an  unproductive 
laborer,  but  if  by  exerting  moral  influence  he  makes 
laborers  more  sober,  honest,  and  efficient,  he  is  so  far 
productive  of  personal  wealth.  Again,  since  some 
recreation  is  necessary  for  the  highest  efficiency  of 
labor,  it  is  quite  possible  that  a  musician  may  indi- 
rectly increase  the  wealth  of  a  nation,  and  be  indirectly 
productive." 

Nevertheless,  most  economists  have  under- 
taken to  distinguish  between  productive  and 
unproductive  labor.  Says  Mill  (Political 
Economy,  book  i.  chap.  Hi.  §  i) : 

"Labor  is  indispensable  to  production,  but  has  not 
always  production  for  its  effect.  There  is  much 
labor,  and  of  a  high  order  of  usefulness,  of  which  pro- 
duction is  not  the  object.  Labor  has  accordingly 
been  distinguished  into  productive  and  unproduc- 
tive. .  .  . 

"  Many  writers  have  been  unwilling  to  class  any  la- 
bor as  productive,  unless  its  result  is  palpable  in  some 
material  object,  capable  of  being  transferred  from 
one  person  to  another.  There  are  others  (among 
whom  are  Mr.  McCulloch  and  M.  Say)  who,  looking 
upon  the  word  unproductive  as  a  term  of  disparage- 
ment, remonstrate  against  imposing  it  upon  any  labor 
which,  is  regarded  as  useful — which  produces  a  benefit 
or  a  pleasure  worth  the  cost.  The  labor  of  officers  of 
government,  of  the  army  and  navy,  of  physicians, 
lawyers,  teachers,  musicians,  dancers,  actors,  domes- 
tic servants,  etc.,  when  they  really  accomplish  what 
they  are  paid  for,  and  are  not  more  numerous  than  is 
required  for  its  performance,  ought  not.  say  these 
•writers,  to  be  'stigmatized'  as  unproductive  ;  an  ex- 
pression which  they  appear  to  regard  as  synonymous 
•with  wasteful  or  •worthless.  But  this  seems  to  be  a 
misunderstanding  of  the  matter  in  dispute.  Produc- 
tion not  being  the  sole  end  of  human  existence,  the 
term  unproductive  does  not  necessarily  imply  any 
Stigma  ;  nor*was  ever  intended  to  do  so  in  the  present 
case.  The  question  is  one  of  mere  language  and 
classification." 

More  important  is  the  discussion  as  to  what 
compose  the  elements  of  production.  Adam 
Smith  divided  the  price  of  commodities  and 
the  revenue  of  the  community  into  the  wages 
of  labor,  the  profits  of  stock,  and  the  rent  of 
land.  J.  B.  Say,  carrying  out  this  idea,  di- 
vided the  requisites  of  production  into  labor, 
land,  and  capital,  and  this  division  ever  since 
has  prevailed  all  but  universally.  Professor 
Jevons  (Political  Economy  Primer}  tells  us 
that  there  are,  as  is  "  commonly  and  correctly 
said,  three  requisites  of  production  ;  before  we 
can,  in  the  present  state  of  society,  undertake 
to  produce  wealth,  we  must  have  land,  labor, 
capital.  In  production  we  bring  these  things 


together  ;  we  apply  labor  to  the  land,  and  we 
employ  the  capital  in  assisting  the  laborer 
with  tools  and  feeding  him  while  he  is  engaged 
on  the  work." 

Nevertheless,  all  do  not  agree  to  this.  Some 
make  only  labor  and  land  the  elements  of  pro- 
duction. Some  say  it  is  only  labor  that  pro- 
duces wealth.  Says  John  Stuart  Mill  (Polit. 
Econ.,  book  i.  chap.  i.  §  i)  :  "The  requi- 
sites of  production  are  two,  labor  and  appro- 
priate natural  objects."  This  is  the  view 
usually  taken  by  land  reformers, 
and  particularly  by  the  advocates 
of  the  Single  Tax.  They  do  not  Elements  of 
deny  the  necessity  of  capital  in  pro-  Production, 
duction,  but  they  say — correctly, 
undoubtedly — that  capital  comes 
from  land,  natural  opportunities,  and  labor, 
so  that  fundamentally  land  and  labor  are  the 
only  requisites  to  production.  This  is  un- 
questionably true  ;  nevertheless,  capital  plays 
such  a  large  and  growing  part  in  production, 
and  the  laws  which  govern  its  action  are  so 
different  from  those  that  govern  the  rent  of 
land  and  the  rewards  of  labor,  that  most  econo- 
mists, as  stated  above,  believe  it  wiser  to  make 
it  a  distinct  and  separate  element  of  produc- 
tion. They  claim  that  while  no  one  denies 
the  fundamental  truth  that  capital  comes  from 
human  activity  applied  to  natural  opportu- 
nities, practically  the  Single-Tax  men  are  led 
into  errors  and  absurdities  due  to  minimizing 
the  importance  of  capital.  Mill  does  not.  He 
says  (idem,  book  i.  chap.  iv.  §  i)  : 

"Besides  the  primary  and  universal  requisites  of 
production,  labor,  and  natural  agents,  there  is  another 
requisite  without  which  no  productive  operations 
beyond  the  rude  and  scanty  beginnings  of  primitive 
industry  are  possible  ;  namely,  a  stock,  previously 
accumulated,  of  the  products  of  former  labor.  This 
accumulated  stock  of  the  produce  of  labor  is  termed 
capital.  The  function  of  capital  in  production  it  is  of 
the  utmost  importance  thoroughly  to  understand, 
since  a  number  of  the  erroneous  notions  with  which 
our  subject  is  infested  originate  in  an  imperfect  and 
confused  apprehension  of  this  point." 

The  statement  sometimes  made  that  labor 
is  the  only  necessity  to  production  is  based  on 
a  peculiar  use  of  the  word  wealth,  identifying 
it  with  value,  and  can,  therefore,  best  be  dis- 
cussed under  Value  (g.  v,).  No  one  denies 
that,  in  order  to  produce  commodities  and 
utilities,  it  is  necessary  to  have  natural  objects 
to  work  upon. 

For  a  discussion  of  the  different  elements 
entering  into  production,  see  LAND  ;  LABOR  ; 
CAPITAL. 

For  the  cost  of  production,  see  COST  OF 
PRODUCTION. 

For  development  in  capacity  for  production, 
see  PRODUCTIVITY. 

PRODUCTIVIT  Y.— General  statistical 
statements  as  to  the  present  industrial  pro- 
ductive power  of  the  world,  and  especially  as 
to  the  enormous  growth  in  productive  power, 
have  been  repeatedly  made,  but  it  must  be 
remembered  that  such  statistics  are  apt  to 
mislead,  in  regard  to  particular  industries, 
because  of  the  very  great  variations  in  produc- 
tivity, and  particularly,  because  of  the  still 
greater  variations  in  the  increase  in  produc- 
tivity between  industry  and  industry. 


Productivity. 


I093 


Productivity. 


The  following  statement  of  the  steam  and 
water  power  of  the  United  States,  as  based 
upon  the  census  of  1880,  appears  in  the  First 
Annual  Report  of  the  Commissioner  of  Labor 
(1886,  p.  87)  : 

"  The  mechanical  industries  of  the  United  States 
are  carried  on  by  steam  and  water  power,  represent- 
ing, in  round  numbers,  3,500,000  horse-power,  each 
horse-power  equaling  the  muscular  labor  of  6  men  ; 
that  is  to  say,  if  men  were  employed  to  furnish  the 
power  to  carry  on  the  industries  of  this  country,  it 
would  require  21,000,000  men,  and  21,000,000  men  repre- 
ent  a  population,  according  to  the  ratio  of  the  census 
of  1880,  of  105,000,000.  The  industries  are  now  carried  on 
by  4,000,000  persons,  in  round  numbers,  representing 
a  population  of  20,000,000  only.  There  are  in  the 
United  States  28,600  locomotives.  To  do  the  work 
of  these  locomotives  upon  the  existing  common  roads 
of  the  country,  and  the  equivalent  of  that  which  has 
been  done  upon  the  railroads  the  past  year,  would 
require,  in  round  numbers,  54.000,000  horses,  and 
13,500,000  men.  The  work  is  now  done,  so  far  as  men 
are  concerned,  by  250,000,  representing  a  population 
of  1,250,000,  while  the  population  required  for  the  num- 
ber of  men  necessary  to  do  the  work  with  horses 
would  be  67,500,000.  To  do  the  work,  then,  now  ac- 
complished by  power  and  power  machinery  in  our 
mechanical  industries,  and  upon  our  railroads,  would 
require  men  representing  a  population  of  172,500,000, 
in  addition  to  the  present  population  of  the  country 
of  55,000,000,  or  a  total  population,  with  hand  processes 
and  with  horse-power,  of  227,500,000,  which  population 
would  be  obliged  to  subsist  on  present  means.  In  an 
economic  view  the  cost  to  the  country  -would  be 
enormous.  The  present  cost  of  operating  the  rail- 
roads of  the  country  with  steam-power  is,  in  round 
numbers,  $502,600,000  per  annum  ;  but  to  carry  on  the 
same  amount  of  work  with  men  and  horses  would 

COSt  $11,308,500,000." 

Mulhall,  writing  in  the  North  American 
Review  for  June,  1895,  says: 

"  The  working-power  of  the  United  States  was  at 
various  dates  approximately  as  follows  : 

I     MILLIONS  OF  FOOT-TONS  DAILY. 


Hand. 

Horse. 

Steam. 

Total. 

l82O  

1840  

i860     

l88o  

£ 

1885  

9'3 

"  The  working-power,  or  number  of  foot-tons  daily 
per  inhabitant,  has  almost  doubled  since  1840,  and  the 
absolute  effective  force  of  the  American  people  is 
now  more  than  three  times  what  it  was  in  1860.  Of 
the  three  great  elements  of  energy  above  enumer- 
ated that  which  shows  the  most  rapid  growth  is 
steam-power,  which  consists  of  three  classes,  viz.: 


HORSE-POWER  OF  STEAM. 


1840. 

1860. 

1880. 

1895. 

Fixed  

360,000 

200,000 
2OO.OOO 

800,000 
1,800,000 
900,000 

2,186,000 
5,700,000 
1,200,000 

3,940,000 
10,800,000 
2,200,000 

Locomotives.  .. 
Steamboats  

Total  

76o,000 

3,500,000 

9,086,000 

16,940,000 

"In  the  above  statement,  the  'fixed'  horse-power 
employed  in  mines  and  factories  in  1880  is  accord- 
ing to  the  census  returns ;  the  same  item  cannot  be 
precisely  ascertained  for  the  other  years,  but  if  it 
existed  in  proportion  to  the  number  of  operatives,  as 
may  be  fairly  supposed,  it  was  as  shown  above.  More 
than  three-fourths  of  the  total  steam-power  of  the 
Union  is  employed  for  traction  purposes,  on  railways 
and  in  steamboats,  which  is  not  surprising  when  we 
remember  that  the  area  of  activity  is  as  vast  as  Eu- 
rope, and  that  the  merchandise  transported  by  rail  in 
the  United  States  is  shown  by  official  returns  to  be 
double  the  amount  of  land-carriage  (at  least  by  rail- 
way) of  all  the  other  nations  of  the  earth  collectively. 
If  we  would  compare  the  energy  or  working-powsr 
of  the  United  States  with  that  of  other  nations,  the 
following  table  would  suffice  to  show  it  at  a  glance  : 


MILLIONS  OF  FOOT-TONS 
DAILY. 

FOOT- 
TONS  PER 
INHABI- 
TANT. 

Hand. 

Horse. 

Steam. 

Total. 

Unit'd  St'tes 
Gr't  Britain, 
Germany  ... 
France  

6,406 
3,210 
4,280 
3,380 
3,4'Q 
2,570 

1,540 

55,200 
6,  loo 
11,500 
q,6oo 
9,ooo 
4,020 
S,Soo 

67,700 
46,800 
29,800 
21,600 
9,200 
t  4,800 
3,600 

129,  306 
56,110 
45,58o 
34-58o 
22,510 

ii,39° 
10,640 

1,940 
1,470 

002 

910 

560 

380 
590 

Austria  
Italy  

Spain  

As  to  the  productivity  of  agricultural  labor 
in  the  United  States,  compared  with  other 
countries,  Mr.  Mulhall  (idem}  gives  the'follow- 
ing  table  : 


PRODUCTS 

HANDS 

EM- 

TONS OF 

TONS  OF 

PER  HAND. 

PLOYED. 

GRAIN. 

MEAT. 

Grain,  Meat. 

bush. 

Ibs. 

United 

States  .... 

8,760,000 

76,600,000 

4,830,000 

350 

1,230 

United 

Kingdom. 

2,469,000 

7,330,000 

1,140,000 

119 

1,090 

France  

6,910,000 

16,900,000 

1,200,000 

98 

35° 

Germany  . 

8,120,000 

15,100,000 

1,370,000 

75 

380 

Austria.  .  . 

10,680,000 

17,100,000 

1,080,000 

64 

230 

Italy  

5,400,000 

5,300,000 

360,000 

39 

150 

The  United 
States. 


"  An  ordinary  farm-hand  in  the  United  States  raises 
as  much  grain  as  three  in  England,  four  in  France, 
five  in  Germany,  or  six  in  Austria;  which  shows  what 
an  enormous  waste  of  labor  occurs  in  Europe,  because 
farmers  are  not  possessed  of  the  same  mechanical 
appliances  as  in  the  United  States." 

Edward  Atkinson  gives  the  following  state- 
ments of  the  industrial  productivity  of  the 
United  States  : 

"  One  thousand  barrels  of  flour,  the  annual  ration 
of  looo  people,  can  be  placed  in  the  city  of  New  York, 
from  a  point  1700  or  2000  miles  distant, 
with  the  exertion  of  the  human  labor 
equivalent  to   that  of  only   four  men, 
working  one  year  in  producing,  milling, 
and    moving  the   wheat.      It  can  then 
be  baked  and  distributed  by  the  work 
of  three  more  persons,   so  that  seven 
persons  serve  1000  with  bread  "  (T/te  Distribution  of 
Products,  p.  15). 

"The  average  crop  of  wheat  in  the  United  States 
and  Canada  would  give  one  person  in  every  20  of  the 
population  of  the  globe  a  barrel  of  flour  in  each  year, 
with  enough  to  spare  for  seed.  The  land  capable  of 
producing  wheat  is  not  occupied  to  anything  like  one- 
twentieth  of  its  extent.  We  can  raise  grain  enough  on 
a  small  part  of  the  territory  of  the  United  States  to 
feed  the  world  "  (Distribution  of  Products,  p.  22). 

"The  general  conclusion  at  which  I  have  arrived  is 
that  in  the  year  1880,  the  census  year,  when  the  popula- 
tion of  the  United  States  numbered  a  little  over  50,000,- 
ooo,  the  annual  product  had  a  value  of  nearly,  or  quite 
$10,000,000,000,  at  the  points  of  final  consumption,  in- 
cluding, at  market-prices,  that  portion  which  was 
consumed  upon  the  farm,  but  which  was  never  sold. 
Omitting  that  consumed  upon  the  farm,  it  was  about 
$9,000,000,000"  (Distribution  of  Products,  p.  27). 

'•  At  an  average  of  200  pounds  per  head  in  the 
United  States,  the  largest  consumption  of  iron  of  any 
nation,  we  may  yet  find  that  the  equivalent  of  one 
man's  work  for  one  year,  divided  between  the  coal- 
mine, the  iron-mine,  and  the  iron  furnace,  suffices  for 
the  supply  of  500  persons.  One  operator  in  the  cotton 
factory  makes  cloth  for  250  ;  in  the  woolen  factory  for 
300  ;  one  modern  cobbler  (who  is  anything  but  a  cob- 
bler), working  in  a  boot  and  shoe  factory,  furnishes 
looo  men,  or  more  than  1000  women,  with  all  the  boots 
and  shoes  they  require  for  a  year  "  {Distribution  of 
Products,  pp.  77-78). 

Of  the  comparative  industrial  productivity 
of  the  workmen  in  various  countries,  various 
calculations  have  been  made. 

Dr.  Schulze-Gaevernitz  (Der  Grossbetrieb, 


Productivity. 


1094 


Productivity. 


p.  151)  gives  the  following  comparison  be- 
tween Switzerland  and  Germany,  England, 
and  America  as  regards  weaving  : 


tJ     t+ 

h 

d) 

*o 

^  P      -jjj 

Iri 

^0) 

'^'O      *j_j 

'O 

•2° 

^!  bo 

3-° 

0)  3 

0>  p^p,^ 

oJ2 

|5 

r   V 

o 

K 

^ 

Switzerland  and  Ger- 

,.   d. 

466 

ii      8 

16      3 

Americ^.  

O.2 

IO 

20      3 

It  will  be  noted  that  while  wages  in  Amer- 
ica are  higher  than  else  where,  they  are  not  so 
much  higher  as  the  productivity  of  their  labor 
exceeds  that  of  other  workmen.  Mr.  Hobson 
says  upon  this  point  {Evolution  of  Modern 
Capitalism,  p.  277)  : 

"Tho  it  may  be  better  for  a  weaver  to  tend  four 
looms  during  the  English  factory  day  for  the  mod- 
erate wage  of  i6s.  a  week  than  to  earn  us.  Zd.  by 
tending  two  looms  in  Germany  for  12  hours  a  day,  it 
does  not  follow  that  it  is  better  to  earn  2os.  \a.  in 
America  by  tending  six,  seven,  or  even  eight  looms 
for  a  ten-hours'  day,  or  that  the  American's  condition 
would  be  improved  if  the  eight-hours'  day  was  pur- 
chased at  the  expense  of  adding  another  loom  for 
each  -worker. 

"The  gain  which  accrues  from  high  wages  and 
a  larger  amount  of  leisure,  over  which  the  higher 
consumption  shall  be  spread,  may  be  more  than 
counteracted  by  an  undue  strain  upon  the  nerves  or 
muscles  during  the  shorter  day.  This  difficulty,  as 
we  have  seen,  is  not  adequately  met  by  assigning  the 
heavier  muscular  work  more  and  more  to  machinery, 
if  the  possible  activity  of  this  same  machinery  is 
made  a  pretext  for  forcing  the  pace  of  such  work  as 
devolves  upon  machine  tenders.  ' 

Of  another  line  of  production,  the  Sixth 
Annual  Report  of  the  Commissioner  of  Labor 
(1890,  pp.  590-591)  says  : 

"The  preceding  tables  also  show  quite  clearly  the 
variation  in  efficiency  between  different  localities. 
In  pig-iron  in  the  northern  district  of  the  United 
States  43  of  the  45  establishments  have  an  efficiency  of 
.08  of  a  ton  or  more,  one  ranging  as  high  as  .16  and 
under  .17,  34  being  concentrated  in  the  four  groups 
that  begin  with  .08  and  end  under.  12;  while  in  the 
southern  district  of  the  United  States  14  of  the  21  have 
an  efficiency  under  .08,  and  of  the  seven  above  this 
figure  five  are  under  .10.  In  the  northern  district  for 
those  of  .08  and  above,  the  average  earnings  per  man 
per  hour  ranges  from  14.1  cents  to  18.7,  increasing 
quite  generally  with  the  increase  of  efficiency,  while 
those  below  .08  have  earnings  from  u.i  cents  to  12.8. 
In  the  southern  district  the  tendency  of  efficiency  and 
earnings  to  move  together  is  not  so  marked,  tho  the 
two  most  efficient  have  earnings  above  the  average. 
In  Great  Britain  three  establishments  are  given,  two 
of  which  have  a  high  efficiency,  both  being  between 
.12  and  .14  tons  and  accompanied  by  earnings  of  9  and 
10  cents,  while  the  remaining  one,  with  an  efficiency 
between  .07  and  .08  tons,  has  earnings  of  but  5.8  cents. 
The  five  establishments  for  the  continent  of  Europe 
have  an  efficiency  rather  lower  than  the  northern  dis- 
trict of  the  United  States,  agreeing,  perhaps,  more 
nearly  with  the  southern.  No  connection  between 
efficiency  and  earnings  is  traceable  in  them.  In  muck 
bar  iron  the  United  States,  Great  Britain,  and  the 
continent  of  Europe  are  about  on  a  par  as  to  effi- 
ciency, tho  the  number  of  establishments  from  the 
foreign  countries  is  too  few  for  an  emphatic  con- 
clusion. The  connection  with  earnings  is  here  readily 
apparent.  In  steel  ingots  five  of  the  seven  United 
States  establishments  have  an  efficiency  between  .10 
and  .13  tons,  three  being  in  the  group  of  .12  and  under 
.13,  the  same  position  as  is  occupied  by  one  of  the  two 
for  Great  Britain  and  one  of  the  three  for  the  con- 
tinent of  Europe.  The  remaining  three  for  the  for- 
eign countries  stand  very  low  in  the  scale,  being 
under  .07  tons,  a  position  occupied  by  only  one  of  the 
seven  United  States  establishments.  High  earnings 


are  here  also  generally  found  with  high  efficiency. 
For  steel  rails  the  United  States  is  represented  by 
two  concerns,  the  continent  of  Europe  by  five,  and 
Gr^at  Britain  by  one.  The  difference  in  efficiency 
here  is  very  marked.  The  two  for  the  United  States 
have  an  efficiency  equal  to  between  .12  and  .13  tons  of 
product  per  man  per  hour,  and  the  five  for  the  con- 
tinent of  Europe  all  fall  under  .06  tons,  ranging  down 
even  to  under  .02  tons,  while  the  single  establishment 
for  Great  Britain  shows  an  efficiency  of  between  .08 
and  .09  of  a  ton.  No  connection  between  high  pro- 
ductive power  and  high  wages  is  apparent." 

Mr.  E.  R.  L.  Gould,  speaking  of  wages  and 
productivity  in  the  manufacture  of  bar  iron 
in  the  United  States  (Contemporary  Review, 
January,  1893),  says: 

' '  The  wages  of  such  skilled  workmen  as  beaters 
and  rollers  are  twice  as  great  as  in  Great  Britain  and 
nearly  threefold  higher  than  in  France 
and  Belgium.    The  average  wage  to  all 
classes  of  laborers  in  the  establishment      Compara- 
is    also    twice    as    great    as   in    Great    *;ve  Produc- 
Britain,    three    times    as    high    as    in  .    . 

France,  and  four  times  larger  than  in  tlVlty. 
Belgium.  Compare  these  figures  with 
the  labor  cost  of  a  similar  unit  of 
manufacture  and  we  find  quite  different  proportions. 
It  is  only  a  trifle  more  than  in  France,  where  daily 
wages  are  about  one-third  as  high;  one-eighth  dearer 
than  in  Great  Britain,  with  wages  only  half  as  high, 
and  54  per  cent,  greater  than  in  Belgium,  where  wages 
are  down  to  one-fourth.  In  the  manufacture  of  steel 
rails  the  same  general  law  is  evident.  With  the 
average  wage  of  the  establishment  40  per  cent, 
greater  than  in  England,  the  labor  cost  is  only  10  per 
cent.  more.  In  comparison  with  the  continent  of 
Europe  wages  are  po  per  cent,  and  labor  cost  but  50 
per  cent,  higher.  We  must  note  also  that  for  bar  iron 
the  proportion  of  the  labor  cost  to  the  total  cost  is  less 
in  the  United  States  than  in  Great  Britain  and  France, 
and  for  steel  rails  less  than  in  England.  What  infer- 
ences are  we  to  draw  from  the  foregoing  statistics? 
Unmistakably  this,  that  higher  daily  wages  in  Amer- 
ica do  not  mean  a  correspondingly  enhanced  labor 
cost  to  the  manufacturer.  But  how  so  ?  Some  say 
because  of  the  more  perfect  mechanical  agencies  put 
into  the  hands  of  the  workman  in  American  rolling- 
mills.  There  is  reason  in  this  answer  if  we  take  the 
average  conditions,  but  it  does  not  represent  the 
whole  truth.  Moreover,  it  cannot  be  used  in  a  com- 
parison between  England  and  the  United  States,  since 
in  the  former  country  mechanical  processes  have 
been  perfected  almost  to  the  same  degree  as  in  the 
latter.  .  .  .  The  real  explanation  I  believe  to  be  that 
greater  physical  force,  as  the  result  of  better  nourish- 
ment, in  combination  with  superior  intelligence  and 
skill,  make  the  working  man  in  the  United  States  more 
efficient.  His  determination  to  maintain  a  high  stand- 
ard of  life  causes  him  to  put  forth  greater  effort,  and 
this  reacts  to  the  benefit  of  the  employer  as  well  as 
to  his  own.  We  should  give  the  principal  credit  of 
the  higher  wage  in  America  neither  to  the  manufac- 
turer, the  tariff,  nor  any  other  agency  but  the  work- 
ing man  himself,  who  will  not  labor  for  less  than  will 
enable  him  to  live  on  a  high  social  plane.  That  he 
can  carry  put  his  policy  with  little  disadvantage  to  his 
employer  in  economic  competition  teaches  a  lesson  of 
far-reaching  importance.  .  .  .  There  is  one  consid- 
eration we  must  not  overlook.  The  American  may 
not  always  equal  the  naturalized  European  in  physi- 
cal power,  but  he  greatly  surpasses  him  in  nerve 
force.  .  .  .  It  is  a  fact  of  common  experience  in  the 
United  States  that,  in  a  machine  shop,  for  example, 
three-fourths  of  the  fitters  will  be  foreign  born,  while 
among  the  machinists  75  per  cent,  will  be  native 
Americans." 

Of  the  recent  development  of  industrial 
power,  Mr.  J.  A.  Hobson  says  (Evolution  of 
Modern  Capitalism,  pp.  171-173)  : 

"  The  earlier  inventions  in  the  textile  industries, 
and  the  general  application  of  steam  to  manufacture, 
and  to  the  transport  services,  have  played  the  most 
dramatic  part  in  the  industrial  revolution  of  the  last 
hundred  years.  But  it  should  be  borne  in  mind  that 
it  is  far  from  being  true  that  the  great  forces  of  inven- 
tion have  spent  themselves,  and  that  we  have  come 
to  an  era  of  small  increments  in  the  gro\yth  of  pro- 
ductive power.  On  the  contrary,  within  this  last  gen- 
eration, a  number  of  discoveries  have  taken  place  in 
almost  all  the  chief  industrial  arts,  in  the  opening  up 


Productivity. 


Profit. 


Produc- 
.  .    ., 
tlVlty. 


of  new  supplies  of  raw  material,  and  in  the  improve- 
ment of  industrial  organization,  which  have  registered 
enormous  advances  of  productive  power.  In  the 
United  Stai^j,  where  the  advance  has  been  most 
marked,  it  is  estimated  that  in  the  15  or  20  years  pre- 
ceding 1886,  the  gain  of  machinery,  as  measured  by 
'  displacement  of  the  muscular  labor,'  amounts  to 
more  than  one-third  ;  taking  the  aggregate  of  manu- 
factures into  account.  In  many  manufactures  the 
introduction  of  steam-driven  machinery  and  the  fac- 
tory system  belongs  to  this  generation.  The  substi- 
tution of  machinery  for  hand  labor  in  boot-making 
signifies  a  gain  of  80  per  cent,  for  some  classes  of 
goods  ;  50  per  cent,  for  others.  In  the  silk  manufac- 
ture there  has  been  a  gain  of  50  per  cent.;  in  furniture 
some  30  per  cent.;  while  in  many  minor  processes, 
such  as  wood-planing,  tin  cans,  wall-papers,  soap, 
patent  leather,  etc.,  the  improvement 
of  mechanical  productiveness  per  la- 
Increase  of  borer  is  measured  as  a  rise  of  from  50 
to  3°°  Per  cent->  or  more.  The  gain  is, 
however,  by  no  means  confined  to  an 
extension  of  '  power  '  into  processes 
formerly  produced  by  human  muscle 
and  skill.  Still  more  significant  is  the 
increased  mechanical  efficiency  in  the  foundational  in- 
dustries. In  the  manufacture  of  agricultural  imple- 
ments, the  increase  is  put  down  at  from  50  to  70  per 
cent.;  in  the  manufacture  of  machines  and  machinery, 
from  25  to  40  per  cent.;  while  'in  the  production  of 
metals  and  metallic  goods,  long-established  firms 
testify  that  machinery  has  decreased  manual  labor 
33^i  Per  cent."  The  increase  in  the  productive  power 
of  cotton  mills  is  far  greater  than  this.  From  1870  to 
1884  the  make  of  pig-iron  rose  131  per  cent,  in  Great 
Britain,  and  237  per  cent,  in  the  rest  of  the  world.  '  In 
building  vessels  an  approximate  idea  of  the  relative 
labor  displacement  is  given  as  4  or  5  to  i  —  that  is,  four 
or  five  times  the  amount  of  labor  can  be  performed 
to-day  by  the  use  of  machinery  in  a  given  time  that 
could  be  done  under  old  hand  methods.' 

"In  England  the  rise  in  productiveness  of  machinery 
is  roughly  estimated  at  40  per  cent,  in  the  period  1850 
to  1885,  and  there  is  no  reason  to  suppose  this  is  an 
excessive  estimate.  In  the  shipping  industry,  where 
more  exact  statistics  are  available,  the  advance  is 
even  greater.  The  diminution  of  manual  labor  re- 
quired to  do  a  given  quantity  of  work  in  1884,  as  com- 
pared with  1870,  is  put  down  at  no  less  than  70  per  cent.; 
owing  in  large  measure  to  the  introduction  and  in- 
creased application  of  steam-hoisting  machines  and 
grain  elevators,  and  the  employment  of  steam-power 
in  steering,  raising  the  sails  and  anchors,  pumping,  and 
discharging  cargoes.  In  the  construction  of  ships 
enormous  economies  have  taken  place.  A  ship  which 
in  1883  cost  ^24,000,  can  now  be  built  for  ^14,000.  In 
the  working  of  vessels  the  economy  of  fuel,  due  to  the 
introduction  of  compound  engines,  has  been  very 
large.  A  ton  of  wheat  can  now  be  hauled  by  sea  at 
less  than  a  farthing  per  mile.  Similarly  with  land 
haulage  the  economy  of  fuel  has  made  immense  re- 
ductions in  cost.  '  In  an  experiment  lately  made  on 
the  London  and  North  Western  Railway,  a  compound 
locomotive  dragged  a  ton  of  goods  for  one  mile  by 
the  combustion  of  two  ounces  of  coal.'  " 

Of  the  relation  between  productivity  and 
wages,  Dr.  Schulze-Gaevernitz  (Der  Grossbe- 
trieb,  p.  132)  gives  the  following  tables,  tak- 
ing the  spinning  and  weaving  industries  as 
wholes  in  England  : 

SPINNING. 


= 

«i 

•I 

""  c'S 

feS 

o 

M 

O.S 

°""  « 

P.(S 

fi 

I 

tn 

en  M 

'rt 

~ 

D  ^ 

o     ^ 

55"! 

o  o 

-S5 

^ 

"§  ^  8 

s|'l 

•a  ^ 
If 

H 

?| 

OH^" 

S? 

PL,  P 

on 

* 

J.  rf. 

£     J.     rf. 

1819-21  

106,500 

ui,ooo 

968 

6    4 

26  13    o 

1829-31  

216,500 

140,000 

1546 

4     2 

27    6    o 

1844-46  

523,300 

190,000 

2754 

2       3 

28    12      0 

1859-61  

910,000 

248,000 

3671 

2       I 

32  10    o 

1880-82  

1,324,000 

240,000 

552° 

i     9 

44     4     o* 

IM 

O 

oi 

LI 

0 

Q 

E 
o 
o 

• 

.,_ 

£ 

(3 

at 

0)  (U 

4->    t-l 

O  G) 

Cn' 

&'>, 

B 

&  £A 

3.* 

ss 

cj  Tj 

1  § 

Is 

•d  i- 
0  o 

§« 

fe  cJ 

PH  " 

X* 

£ 

oft 

<x 

J.  rf. 

£  J.  rf- 

1819-21  

80,620 

250,000 

322 

IS     5 

20    l8  .   0 

1829-31  

143,200 

275,000 

521 

9    ° 

19  18    ot 

1844-46  

348,110 

210,000 

1658 

3     5 

24  10    o 

1859-61  

650,870 

203,000 

3206 

2     9 

30  15     o 

i88o-82  

993.54° 

246,000 

4039 

2       3 

39     o     o 

*  Der  Grossbetrzeb,  p.  132.  In  regarding  the  advance 
of  recent  average  wages  it  should  be  borne  in  mind 
that  the  later  years  contain  a  larger  proportion  of 
adults.  In  considering  the  net  yearly  wages,  a  de- 
duction for  unemployment  should  be  made  from  the 
sums  named  in  the  table. 

t  Account  must  be  taken  of  the  depressed  condition 
of  hand-loom  weavers,  who  had  not  yet  disappeared. 

The  same  holds  good  of  the  growth  of  the, 
cotton -weaving  industry  in  America,  as  the 
following  table  shows  : 


Yearly 
product 
per  worker. 

Cost  of 
labor 
per  yard. 

Yearly 
earnings 
per  worker. 

1830  

Yards. 

Cents. 

Dollars. 
164 

1850     

1870   

!S84  

(See  also  WEALTH;  MANUFACTURES.) 

PROFIT. — The  word  profit  is  used  in  po- 
litical economy  by  different  writers  in  different 
senses.  It  is  not  at  all  difficult  to  understand 
its  different  uses,  but  great  care  must  be  taken 
to  be  sure  that  one  knows  the  sense  in  which 
an  author  uses  it,  before  one  can  judge  or 
understand  the  meaning.  The  failure  to  do 
this  has  led  to  endless  popular  confusion,  and 
not  seldom  to  inaccurate  statements  by  econo- 
mists themselves. 

Adam   Smith   defines   it   as  "the  revenue  derived 


son  who  advances  the  expenses  of  production — who, 
from  funds  in  his  possession,  pays  the  wages  of  the 
laborers,  or  supports  them  during  the  •work,  who  sup- 
plies the  requisite  buildings,  materials,  and  tools,  or 
machinery  ;  and  to  whom,  by  the  usual  terms  of  the 
contract,  the  produce  belongs,  to  be  disposed  of  at 
his  pleasure." 

Tevons  (Primer  of  Political  Economy,  p. 
52)  uses  it  of  wages  of  superintendence, 
interest,  and  recompense  for  risk.  He  says  : 

"  The  proper  share  of  the  capitalist  is  interest ;  but 
this  is  usually  a  good  deal  less  than  what  actually 
remains  in  the  hands  of  the  capitalist.  Business  is 
generally  carried  on  by  some  capitalist  who*  rents  a 
piece  of  land,  builds  a  factory,  purchases  machinery, 
and  then  employs  men  to  work  the  machinery,  paying 
them  wages.  "The  capitalist  himself  often  acts  as 
manager,  and  works  every  day  almost  as  long  as  the 
workmen.  When  the  goods  are  finished  and  sold,  he 
keeps  the  whole  of  the  money  he  gets  for  them  ;  but 
then  he  has  already  paid  out  a  large  sum  as  wages, 
while  the  goods  were  being  made;  another  part  goes  to 


Profit. 


1096 


Profit. 


pay  the  rent  of  the  land  which  he  has  hired.    Having 
struck  off  these  portions,  there  ought  to  remain  a  cer- 
tain profit,  part  of  which  he  uses  to  live  upon.     But 
even  this  profit  consists  of  more  than  interest  upon 
his  capital.    It  should  include  also  a  pavment  for  his 
labor  in  superintending  the  business.    The  manager 
of  a  factory  may  seldom  touch  the  cot- 
ton, flax,  iron,  or  other  material,  which 
What         *s     manufactured ;     nevertheless,     he 
"  ^         works  with  his  head  and  his  pen,  calcu- 
rront  IS.      lating  the  prices  at  which  he  can  pro- 
duce goods,  inquiring  where  he  can  buy 
the    materials  most  cheaply,  choosing 
good  workmen,  keeping  the  accounts  straight,  and  so 
on.     Severe  mental  labor  is  really  far  more  difficult 
and  exhausting  than  manual  labor  ;  and  in  raising  up 
a  good  business,  and  carrying  it  through    times  of 
danger,  a  manager  has  to  undergo  great  anxiety  and 
mental  fatigue.    Thus,  it  is  necessary  that  a  success- 
ful manager  should  receive  a  considerable  share  of 
the  produce,  so  as  to  make  it  worth  his  while  to  give 
this  labor.    His  share  is  called  the  wages  of  superin- 
tendence, and,  although  usually  much  larger  than  the 
share  of  a  common  laborer,  it  is  really  wages  of  the 
same  nature. 

"Another  part  of  the  capitalist's  so-called  profit 
ought  to  be  laid  aside  as  recompense  for  risk.  There 
is  always  more  or  less  uncertainty  in  trade,  and  even 
the  most  skilful  and  careful  manager  may  lose  money 
by  circumstances  over  which  he  has  no  control.  Some- 
times, after  building  a  factory,  the  demand  for  the 
goods  which  he  is  going  to  produce  falls  off :  some- 
times the  materials  cannot  be  bought ;  perhaps  it  is 
discovered,  when  too  late,  that  the  factory  has  been 
built  in  an  unsuitable  place  ;  occasionally,  too,  the 
workmen  are  discontented,  and  refuse  to  work  for 
such  wages  as  the  capitalist  can  afford  to  pay.  Now, 
whenever  any  of  these  mistakes  or  misfortunes  hap- 
pen, it  is  the  capitalist  who  mainly  suffers,  because  he 
loses  a  great  deal  of  money,  on  which  he  might 
otherwise  have  lived  comfortably." 

Professor  Ely  uses  the  word  to  exclude  in- 
terest and  wages  of  superintendence.  He 
says  (Political  Economy,  p.  217,  first  ed,): 

"  Whatever  is  left  after  paying  interest,  rent,  and 
\vages  is  profits.  It  is  the  return  which  is  received 
for  the  organization  and  management  of  a  business  at 
one's  risk.  It  is,  strictly  speaking,  not  '  wages  of 
superintendence,'  for  that  may  be  deducted,  and  often 
is  deducted." 

Profits  then  may  be  considered  (i)  to  be 
what  the  stockholders  or  owners  of  a  business 
receive  after  those  who  manage  the  business 
have  received  their  "  wages  of  management," 
after  the  capital  invested  or  borrowed  has 
received  its  due  interest,  and  after  payment 
has  been  made  for  risk  ;  or  (2)  profit  may  be 
used  in  a  larger  sense  to  include  one  or  more 
of  all  these  items. 

Of  the  law  which  governs  profits  we  have 
many  statements.  John  Stuart  Mill  says  (Po- 
litical Economy,  fifth  London  edition,  book  ii. 
chap,  xv.): 

"  The  lowest  rate  of  profit  which  can  permanently 
exist  is  that  which  is  barely  adequate,  at  the  given 
place  and  time,  to  afford  an  equivalent 
for  the  abstinence,  risk,  and  exertion 
Law  of       implied  in  the  employment  of  capital. 
£   "  From  the  gross  profit  has  first  to  be 

-Fronts.  deducted  as  much  as  will  form  a  fund 
sufficient  on  the  average  to  cover  all 
losses  incident  to  the  employment. 
Next,  it  must  afford  such  an  equivalent  to  the  owner 
of  the  capital  for  forbearing  to  consume  it,  as  is  then 
and  there  a  sufficient  motive  to  him  to  persist  in  his 
abstinence.  How  much  -will  be  required  to  form  this 
equivalent  depends  on  the  comparative  value  placed, 
in  the  given  society,  upon  the  present  and  the  future  : 
(in  the  words  formerly  used)  on  the  strength  of  the 
effective  desire  of  accumulation.  Further,  after  cov- 
ering all  losses,  and  remunerating  the  owner  for  for- 
bearing to  consume,  there  must  be  something  left  to 
recompense  the  labor  and  skill  of  the  person  who  de- 
votes his  time  to  the  business.  This  recompense,  too, 
must  be  sufficient  to  enable  at  least  the  owners  of  the 
large  capitals  to  receive  for  their  trouble,  or  to  pay  to 
some  manager  for  his,  what  to  them  or  him  will  be 


a  sufficient  inducement  for  undergoing  it.  •  .  .  If  the 
surplus  is  no  more  than  this,  none  but  large  masses  of 
capital  will  be  employed  productively,  and  if  it  did 
not  even  amount  to  this,  capital  would  be  withdrawn 
from  production  and  unproductively  consumed,  until, 
by  an  indirect  consequence  of  its  diminished  amount, 
to  be  explained  hereafter,  the  rate  of  profit  was 
raised. 

"Such,  then,  is  the  minimum  of  profits;  but  that 
minimum  is  exceedingly  variable,  and  at  some  times 
and  places  extremely  low  ;  on  account  of  the  great 
variableness  of  two  out  of  its  three  elements.  That 
the  rate  of  necessary  remuneration  for  abstinence,  or, 
in  other  words,  the  effective  desire  of  accumulation, 
differs  widely  in  different  states  of  society  and  civil- 
ization. .  .  .  There  is  a  still  wider  difference  in  the 
element  •which  consists  in  compensation  for  risk.  I 
am  not  now  speaking  of  the  differences  in  point  of 
risk  between  different  employments  of  capital  in  the 
same  society,  but  of  the  very  different  degrees  of 
security  of  property  in  different  states  of  society. 

"  The  remuneration  of  capital  in  different  employ- 
ments, much  more  than  the  remuneration  of  labor, 
varies  according  to  the  circumstances  which  render 
one  employment  more  attractive,  or  more  repulsive, 
than  another.  The  profits,  for  example,  of  retail 
trade,  in  proportion  to  the  capital  employed,  exceed 
those  of  wholesale  dealers  or  manufacturers,  for  this 
reason  among  others,  that  there  is  less  consideration 
attached  to  the  employment.  The  greatest,  however, 
of  these  differences  is  that  caused  by  difference  of 
risk.  The  profits  of  a  gunpowder  manufacturer  must 
be  considerably  greater  than  the  average,  to  make  up 
for  the  peculiar  risks  to  which  he  and  his  property  are 
constantly  exposed.  .  .  . 

"  The  portion,  too,  of  the  gross  profit  which  forms 
the  remuneration  for  the  labor  and  skill  of  the  dealer 
or  producer,  is  very  different  in  different  employ- 
ments. This  is  the  explanation  always  given  of  the 
extraordinary  rate  of  apothecaries'  profit ;  the  greatest 
part,  as  Adam  Smith  observes,  being  frequently  no 
more  than  the  reasonable  wages  of  professional 
attendance.  .  .  . 

"  But  tho  profits  thus  vary,  the  parity,  on  the  whole, 
of  different  modes  of  employing  capital  (in  the  ab- 
sence of  any  natural  or  artificial  monopoly)  is,  in 
a  certain,  and  a  very  important  sense,  maintained. 
On  an  average  (whatever  may  be  the  occasional 
fluctuations),  the  various  employments  of  capital  are 
on  such  a  footing  as  to  hold  out,  not  equal  profits,  but 
equal  expectations  of  profit,  to  persons  of  average 
abilities  and  advantages.  By  equal,  I  mean  after 
making  compensation  for  any  inferiority  in  the  agree- 
ableness  or  safety  of  an  employment.  If  the  case 
were  not  so  ;  if  there  were  evidently,  and  to  common 
experience,  more  favorable  chances  of  pecuniary 
success  in  one  business  than  in  others,  more  persons 
would  engage  their  capital  in  the  business,  or  would 
bring  up  their  sons  to  it.  ...  The  expectations  of 
profit,  therefore,  in  different  employments,  cannot 
long  continue  very  different ;  they  tend  to  a  common 
average,  tho  they  are  generally  oscillating  from  one 
side  to  the  other  side  of  the  medium." 

Representing  much  later  and,  at  present, 
far  more  generally  accepted  thought,  Professor 
Marshall  says  (Economics  of  Industry,  book  vi. 
chap,  viii.): 

"  The  profits  of  a  business  are  the  excess  of  its 
receipts  over  its  outgoings,  and  the  annual  rate  of 
profits  is  the  ratio  which  the  yearly  profits  bear  to  the 
capital  invested.  We  have  next  to  inquire  whether 
there  is  any  general  tendency  of  the  rate  of  profits  to 
equality. 

"The   first  difficulty  arises  from  the  fact  that  the 
outgoings  of  a  business,  and  therefore  its  profits,  are 
not  always  estimated  in  the  same  way. 
This    was  well  pointed  out  by  Adam 
Smith,   who  said :    '  The    whole    drugs     Professor 
which  the  best  employed  apothecary  in    __       ,    .., 
a  large  market-town  will  sell  in  a  year    Marshall  S 
may  not  perhaps  cost  him  above  thirty         View. 
or  forty  pounds.    Tho  he   should  sell 
them,  therefore,  for  three  or  four  hun- 
dred or  a  thousand  per  cent,  profit,  this  may  fre- 
quently be  no  more  than  the  reasonable  wages  of  his 
labor  in  the  only  way  in  which  he  can  charge  them, 
upon  the  price  of  the  drugs.    The  greater  part  of  the 
apparent  profit  is  real  wages  disguised  in  the  garb  of 
profit.     In  a   small  seaport  town  a  little  grocer  will 
make    40  or  50  per  cent  upon    a    stock    of   a  single 
hundred  pounds,  while  a  considerable  wholesale  mer- 


Profit. 


1097 


Profit. 


chant  in  the  same  place  would  scarce  make  8  or  10  per 
cent,  upon  a  stock  of  ten  thousand.' 

"  The  greater  part  of  the  nominal  inequality  be- 
tween the  normal  rates  of  profit  in  small  businesses 
and  in  large  would  disappear  if  the  scope  of  the  term 
profits  were  narrowed  in  the  former  case  or  widened 
in  the  latter,  so  that  it  included  in  both  cases  the 
remuneration  of  the  same  classes  of  services.  There 
are  even  reasons  for  thinking  that  the  rate  of  profit, 
rightly  estimated,  on  large  capitals  tends  to  be  higher 
than  on  small.  For  of  two  businesses  competing  in 
the  same  trade,  that  with  the  larger  capital  can  nearly 
always  buy  at  a  cheaper  rate,  and  can  avail  itself  of 
many  economies  in  the  specialization  of  skill  and 
machinery  and  in  other  ways,  which  are  out  of  the 
reach  of  the  smaller  business  :  while  at  most  the  only 
important  advantage  which  the  latter  is  likely  to 
have  consists  of  its  greater  facilities  for  getting  near 
its  customers  and  consulting  their  individual  wants. 
In  trades  in  which  this  last  advantage  is  not  im- 
portant, and  especially  in  some  manufacturing  trades 
in  which  the  large  firm  can  sell  at  a  better  price  than 
the  small  one,  the  outgoings  of  the  former  are  pro- 
portionately less  and  the  incomings  larger;  and, 
therefore,  if  the  profits  be  reckoned  in  the  same  way 
in  both  cases,  the  rate  of  profits  in  the  former  case 
must  be  higher  than  in  the  latter. 

"  But  these  are  the  very  businesses  in  which  it  most 
frequently  happens  that  large  firms,  after  first  crush- 
ing out  smaller  ones,  either  combine  with  one  another 
and  thus  secure  for  themselves  the  gains  of  a  limited 
monopoly,  or  by  keen  competition  among  themselves 
reduce  the  rate  of  profit  very  low.  There  are  many 
branches  of  the  textile,  the  metal,  and  the  transport 
trades  in  which  no  business  can  be  started  at  all 
except  with  a  large  capital ;  while  those  that  are 
begun  on  a  moderate  scale  struggle  through  great 
difficulties,  in  the  hope  that,  after  a  time,  it  may  be 
possible  to  find  employment  for  a  large  capital,  which 
will  yield  earnings  of  management  high  in  the  aggre- 
gate, tho  low  in  proportion  to  the  capital. 

"There  are  some  trades  which  require  a  very  high 
order  of  ability,  but  in  which  it  is  nearly  as  easy  to 
manage  a  very  large  business  as  one  of  moderate 
size.  In  rolling-mills,  for  instance,  there  is  little  de- 
tail which  cannot  be  reduced  to  routine,  and  a  capital 
of  .£1,000,000  invested  in  them  can  be  controlled  by  one 
able  man.  A  rate  of  profits  of  20  per  cent.,  which  is 
not  a  very  high  average  rate  for  some  parts  of  the 
iron  trade,  would  give  the  owner  of  such  works  earn- 
ings of  management  amounting  to  more  than  .£150,000 
a  year.  And  since  iron-masters  can  with  so  little 
additional  effort  get  the  earnings  of  management  on 
an  increased  capital,  wealthy  men  remain  in  the  trade 
longer  than  in  most  others ;  and  the  competition  of 
the  great  iron-masters  with  one  another  is  said  to 
have  reduced  the  average  rate  of  profits  in  the  trade 
below  the  ordinary  level. 

"The  rate  of  profits  is  low  in  nearly  all  those 
trades  which  require  very  little  ability  of  the  highest 
order,  and  in  which  a  public  or  private  firm  with 
a  good  connection  and  a  large  capital  can  hold  its 
own  against  newcomers,  so  long  as  it  is  managed  by 
men  of  industrious  habits  and  sound  common  sense 
and  a  moderate  share  of  enterprise.  And  men  of  this 
kind  are  seldom  wanting  either  to  a  well-established 
public  company  or  to  a  private  firm  which  is  ready  to 
take  the  ablest  of  its  servants  into  partnership. 

"  We  may  then  conclude,  firstly,  that  the  true  rate 
of  profits  in  large  businesses  is  higher  than  at  first 
sight  appears,  because  much  that  is  commonly  counted 
as  profits  in  the  small  business  ought  to  be  classed 
under  another  head.  .  .  . 

"  Profits  are  exceptionally  high  where  the  wages  bill 
is  very  large,  relatively  to  the  capital.  .  .  .  The  least 
inaccurate  of  all  the  broad  statements  that  can  be 
made  with  regard  to  a  general  tendency  of  profits  to 
equality  in  different  trades,  is  that  where  equal 
capitals  are  employed,  profits  tend  to  be  a  certain 
percentage  per  annum  on  the  total  capital,  together 
with  a  certain  percentage  on  the  wages  bill.  .  .  . 

"  It  is  obvious  that  wholesale  dealers,  who  buy  and 

sell  large  quantities  of  produce  in  single  transactions, 

and  who    are  able  to  turn  over  their 

capital  very  rapidly,  may  make  large 

Variotinna     fortunes,  tho  their  average  profits  on 

dilations.    the  turnover  are  less  than  i  per  cent.; 

and,  in  the  extreme  case  of  large  stock 

exchange  dealings,  even  when  they  are 

only  a  small  fraction  of  i  per  cent.    But  a  shipbuilder, 

who  has  to  put  labor  and  material  into  the  ship,  and  to 

provide  a  berth  for  it,  a  long  while  before  it  is  ready 

to  sail,  and  who  has  to  take  care  for  every  detail  con- 


nected with  it,  must  add  a  very  high  percentage  to  his 
direct  and  indirect  outlay  in  order  to  remunerate  him 
for  his  labor  and  the  locking  up  of  his  capital. 

"Again,  in  the  textile  industries,  some  firms  buy 
raw  material  and  turn  out  finished  goods,  while  others 
confine  themselves  to  spinning,  to  weaving,  or  to 
finishing  ;  and  it  is  obvious  that  the  rate  of  profit  on 
the  turnover  of  one  of  the  first  class  must  be  equal  to 
the  sum  of  the  rates  of  profit  of  one  of  each  of  the  three 
other  classes.  Again,  the  retail  dealers'  profit  on  the 
turnover  is  often  only  5  or  10  per  cent,  for  commodities 
which  are  in  general  demand,  and  which  are  not  sub- 
ject to  changes  of  fashion  ;  so  that,  while  the  sales  are 
large,  the  necessary  stocks  are  small,  and  the  capital 
invested  in  them  can  be  turned  over  very  rapidly, 
with  very  little  trouble  and  no  risk.  But  a  profit  on 
the  turnover  of  nearly  100  per  cent,  is  required  to 
remunerate  the  retailer  of  some  kinds  of  fancy  goods 
which  can  be  sold  but  slowly,  of  which  varied  stocks 
must  be  kept,  which  require  a  large  space  for  their 
display,  and  which  a  change  of  fashion  may  render 
unsalable  except  at  a  loss  ;  and  even  this  high  rate 
is  often  exceeded  in  the  case  of  fish,  fruit,  flowers,  and 
vegetables.  .  .  . 

"  To  pass  to  another  point,  the  number  of  those  who 
succeed  in  business  is  but  a  small  percentage  of  the 
whole  ;  and  in  their  hands  are  concentrated  the  fortunes 
of  others  several  times  as  numerous  as  themselves, 
who  have  made  savings  of  their  own,  or  who  have  in- 
herited the  savings  of  others  and  lost  them  all,  together 
with  the  fruits  of  their  own  efforts,  in  unsuccessful 
business.  In  order,  therefore,  to  find  the  average 
profits  of  a  trade  we  must  not  divide  the  aggregate 
profits  made  in  it  by  the  number  of  those  who  are 
reaping  them,  nor  even  by  that  number  added  to  the 
number  who  have  failed  ;  but  from  the  aggregate 
profits  of  the  successful  we  must  subtract  the  aggre- 
gate losses  of  those  who  have  failed,  and  perhaps  dis- 
appeared from  the  trade  ;  and  we  must  then  divide  the 
remainder  by  the  sum  of  the  numbers  of  those  who 
have  succeeded  and  those  who  have  failed.  It  is  prob- 
able that  the  true  gross  earnings  of  management — that 
is,  the  excess  of  profits  over  interest— is  not  on  the  av- 
erage more  than  a  half,  and  in  some  risky  trades  not 
more  than  a  tenth  part,  of  what  it  appears  to  be  to  per- 
sons who  form  their  estimate  of  the  profitableness  of 
a  trade  by  observation  only  of  those  who  have  secured 
its  prizes.  There  are,  however,  reasons  for  thinking 
that  the  risks  of  trade  are  on  the  whole  diminishing 
rather  than  increasing." 

John  Stuart  Mill  adds  an  important  point. 
He  says  {Political  Economy,  book  ii.  chap, 
xv.  §  5)  : 

"To  popular  apprehension  it  seems  as  if  the  profits 
of  business  depended  upon  prices.      A  producer  or 
dealer  seems  to  obtain  his  profits  by 
selling  his  commodity  for  more  than  it 
cost  him.    Profit  altogether,  people  are    Labor,  the 
apt  to  think,  is  a  consequence  of  pur-     Source  of 
chase  and  sale.    It  is  only  (they  suppose) 
because  there  are  purchasers  for  a  com- 
modity,  that  the  producer  of  it  is  able 
to  make  any  profit.    Demand— custom- 
ers— a  market  for  the  commodity,  are  the  cause  of  the 
gains  of  capitalists.    It  is  by  the  sale  of  their  goods 
that  they  replace  their  capital  and  add  to  its  amount. 

"  This,  however,  is  looking  only  at  the  outside  surface 
of  the  economical  machinery  of  society.  In  no  case, 
we  find,  is  the  mere  money  which  passes  from  one  per- 
son to  another  the  fundamental  matter  in  any  eco- 
nomical phenomenon.  If  we  look  more  narrowly  into 
the  operations  of  the  producer,  we  shall  perceive  that 
the_money  he  obtains  for  his  commodity  is  not  the 
cause  of  his  having  a  profit,  but  only  the  mode  in  which 
his  profit  is  paid  to  him. 

"The  cause  of  profit  is  that  labor  produces  more  than 
is  required  for  its  support.  The  reason  why  agricul- 
tural capital  yields  a  profit  is  because  human  beings- 
can  grow  more  food  than  is  necessary  to  feed  them 
while  it  is  being  grown,  including  the  time  occupied 
in  constructing  the  tools  and  making  all  other  needful 
preparations;  from  which  it  is  a  consequence  that,  if 
a  capitalist  undertakes  to  feed  the  laborers  on  condi- 
tion of  receiving  the  produce,  he  has  some  of  it  remain- 
ing for  himself  after  replacing  his  advances.  To  vary 
the  form  of  the  theorem  :  the  reason  why  capital  yields 
a  profit  is  because  food,  clothing,  materials,  and  tools 
last  longer  than  the  time  which  was  required  to  pro- 
duce them  j  so  that  if  a  capitalist  supplies  a  party  of 
laborers  with  these  things,  on  condition  of  receiving 
all  they  produce,  they  will,  in  addition  to  reproducing 


Profit. 


1098 


Profit. 


their  own  necessaries  and  instruments,  have  a  portion 
of  their  time  remaining,  to  work  for  the  capitalist.  We 
thus  see  that  profit  arises,  not  from  the  incident  of  ex- 
change, but  from  the  productive  power  of  labor  ;  and 
the  general  profit  of  the  country  is  always  what  the 
productive  power  of  labor  makes  it,  whether  any  ex- 
change takes  place  or  not.  If  there  were  no  division 
of  employments,  there  would  be  no  buying  or  selling, 
but  there  would  still  be  profit.  If  the  laborers  of  the 
country  collectively  produce  20  per  cent,  more  than 
their  wages,  profits  will  be  20  per  cent,  whatever  prices 
may  or  may  not  be.  The  accidents  of  price  may  for  a 
time  make  one  set  of  producers  get  more  than  20  per 
cent.,  and  another  less  ;  the  one  commodity  being  rated 
above  its  natural  value  in  relation  to  other  commodi- 
ties, and  the  other  below,  until  prices  have  again 
adjusted  themselves  ;  but  there  will  always  be  just 
20  per  cent,  divided  among  them  all." 

All  economists,  however,  do  not  agree  with 
Mill  that  the  cause  of  profit  is  that  labor  pro- 
duces more  than  is  required  for  its  support. 
They  deny  the  fact.  Mr.  Edward  Atkinson, 
£.  g.,  argues  that  capital  is  as  necessary  to 
labor  as  labor  to  capital.  He  says  ( The  Indus- 
trial Progress  of  the  Nation,  p.  147)  : 

"  Many  an  honest  workmen  now  sincerely  contests 
the  equity  of  distribution  by  way  of  capitalists.     What 
is  the  true  answer  ?  There  is  and  there 
can  be,  but  one  reply  to  this  question. 
Part-  PlmrArl    Labor    does    not    produce    the    entire 
v     n      ./ ,      product ;  it  only  shares  in  the  work  as  it 
by  Capital,     shares  in  the  product.    Without  capital 
labor  alone  would  be  almost  incapable 
of  sustaining  those  who  constitute  the 
mere  working  classes  in  the  narrowest  sense.    Capital 
is  a  force,  and  capitalists  are  those  who  direct  this 
force.      By  the    direction   which    the  owners  or  the 
administrators  of  capital  give  to  this  force,  which  re- 
quires mental  work  of  the  most  uncommon  kind,  the 
joint  product  of  labor  and  capital  is  so  much  increased 
that  even  though  the  capitalist  secures  to  his  own  use 
s.  large  part  of  the  joint  product,  what  is  left  to  the 
working  man  is  more  in  quantity  and  in  value  than  he 
could  otherwise  have  attained  by  his  own  unaided 
efforts." 

Mr.  Atkinson  says  elsewhere  (The  Distribution  of 
Profits,  p.  38):  "The  late  Cornelius  Vanderbilt  may 
be  taken  as  an  example  of  a  communist  in  a  true  sense. 
He  was  the  greatest  communist  of  his  age.  He  con- 
solidated and  perfected  the  railroad  service  in  such  a 
way  that  a  year's  supply  of  meat  and  bread  can  be 
moved  one  thousand  miles  from  the  Western  prairies 
to  the  Eastern  workshop  at  the  measure  of  cost  of  a 
single  day's  wages  of  a  mechanic  or  artisan  in 
Massachusetts." 

Says  Mr.  George  Gunton  (  Wealth  and  Prog- 
ress, chap,  i.)  : 

"The  idea  most  prevalent,  indeed,  well-nigh  univer- 
sal, among  working  men  regarding  the  production  of 
wealth,  to  use  the  official  language  of  the  largest  labor 
organization  in  the  world,*  is  :  '  (i)  That  labor  creates 
all  wealth.  (2)  That  all  wealth  belongs  to  those  who 
-create  it.'  From  this  it  manifestly  follows  that  all 
wealth  rightfully  belongs  to  the  laborer.  Hence,  all 
who  obtain  wealth  without  his  consent  do  so  by  cheat- 
ing him  out  of  the  product  of  his  labor,  and  are 
4  thieves  and  robbers. 

"This  is  not  merely  the  official  dogma  of  a  single 
society,  but  it  constitutes  the  basis  of  nearly  every 
proposition  and  the  essence  of  nearly  all  economic  lit- 
•erature  put  forth  in  the  name  of  industrial  and  social 
reform.  With  financial  reformers  the  robbery  is 
labelled  '  interest  and  usury  ' ;  with  land  reformers 
it  is  'rent,'  and  with  the  socialists,  in  the  language  of 
their  own  economist,  Karl  Marx,  it  is  '  surplus  value,' 
which  is  more  sweeping  than  any  of  the  others,  and 
includes  all  rents,  profits,  and  interest. 

"If  this  formula  is  correct,  and  all  profits,  interest, 
rents,  etc.,  are  'exploitation '—mere  plunder  of  the 
laborer — clearly  the  working  men  would  be  justified  in 
using  any  means  within  their  power  to  take  possession 
of  all  the  wealth  in  the  community,  as  many  of  their 
leaders  are  expecting  them  some  day  to  do. 

*  Polity  of  the  Labor  Movement,  vol.  i.  p.  4,  published 
by  the  Knights  of  Labor,  1885. 

[The  society  to-day  is  very  much  reduced  in  size. — 
ED.] 


"  But  is  it  correct  ?  If  the  first  proposition  is  true,  the 
balance  of  the  formula  is  indisputable  ;  but  if  it  is  not 
true,  then  the  whole  fabric  falls,  and  all  efforts  at  social 
reformation  based  upon  it  must  surely  fail  to  produce 
the  desired  and  expected  result. 

"  A  very  little  reflection  will  suffice  to  show  that  this 
proposition,  while  seemingly  true,  is  essentially  false. 
.  .  .  There  are  clearly  two  sets  of  forces  or  two  kinds 
of  motor  power  that  can  be  employed  in  producing 
wealth.  One  is  labor  power  engendered  and  put  forth 
by  human  beings  ;  the  other  is  natural  power  engen- 
dered and  put  forth  by  material  objects,  as  capital 
(machinery,  etc.).  The  former  is  slow,  clumsy,  and 
ineffectual,  and  capable  of  very  little  increase,  while 
the  latter  is  rapid,  exact,  and  powerful,  and  is  capable 
of  indefinite  increase. 

"  Accordingly,  in  proportion  as  wealth  is  produced  by 
human  labor  is  it  scant  and  dear,  and  the  masses  are 
poor  and  barbarous  ;  and  according  as  it  is  produced 
by  natural  forces  (steam,  etc.)  it  is  abundant  and 
cheap,  and  the  masses  are  materially  prosperous  and 
socially  civilized.  Thus,  e.  g.,  in  India,  where  wealth 
is  produced  mainly  by  human  labor,  the  annual  earn- 
ings are  about  £2  ($10)*  per  capita  of  the  population  as 
against  £33  ($165)  per  capita  in  this  country,  where 
human  labor  supplies  the  smallest  per  cent,  of  the  pro- 
ductive power  of  any  country  in  the  world.t  The  same 
is  true  of  other  countries. 

"  Hence  we  find  that  in  England  over  78  per  cent,  of 
the  productive  power  is  furnished  by  steam,  as  against 
10  per  cent,  in  Russia.  In  Spain,  24  ;  Italy,  34,  and 
Portugal,  42  per  cent,  of  the  productive  power  is  fur- 
nished by  human  labor,  as  against  4  per  cent,  in  Eng- 
land and  America. 

"  In  consequence  of  this  difference  in  the  use  of  natural 
and  human  forces  in  production,  Mulhall    tells    us* 
"  that  the  united  industrial  power  of  six 
.Englishmen  and  six  Americans  is  equal 
to  that  of  24  Frenchmen  or  Germans,         Tjse  of 
32  Austrians,  50  Spaniards,  75  Italians,  or       _      .     . 
84  Portuguese."      Accordingly  we  find       l/apltai. 
the  general  rate  of  wages  in  England  is 
nearly  twice,  and  in  this  country  three 
times  that  of  the  average  in  Continental  countries. 

"  It  is  thus  clear  that  the  laborer  is  not  robbed  by  capi- 
tal, but  that  he  always  gains  by  the  use  of  capital,  not 
because  of  any  generosity  on  the  part  of  the  capitalist, 
but  by  the  inexorable  operation  of  economic  law, 
which  prohibits  the  use  of  capital  except  upon  the  con- 
dition that  it  will  yield  increasing  returns — in  other 
words,  that  it  will  give  more  wealth  to  the  community 
than  it  takes  from  it.  » 

"  Were  this  otherwise,  social  progress  would  be  im- 
possible, as  the  productive  power  of  the  human  hand 
cannot,  to  any  great  extent,  be  increased.  Hence,  un- 
less some  other  forces  can  be  harnessed  to  the  produc- 
tion of  wealth,  man  would  be  doomed  to  eternal 
poverty  and  barbarism,  as  he  has  been  for  ages  in  those 
countries  where  natural  forces  (machinery)  have 
not — except  to  the  most  limited  extent — been  employed. 
In  short,  it  is  only  as  capital  produces  more  than  it 
consumes  that  the  laborer  is  enabled  to  consume  more 
than  he  produces,  and  social  progress  becomes 
possible. 

"  It  is,  therefore,  cleSr  that  human  labor  does  not, 
except  under  the  most  primitive  state  of  savagery, 
'create  all  wealth,'  and  that  the  social  condition  of 
the  laborer  is  not  necessarily  the  best  when  he  gets  the 
whole  product  ;  but,  on  the  contrary,  wealth  is  pro- 
duced by  the  combined  effort  of  labor  and  capital,  and 
that,  according  as  the  proportion  of  the  total  wealth 
produced  by  human  labor  diminishes,  the  actual 
amount  the  laborer  receives  increases." 

The  above  quotations  are  given,  not  by  any 
means  as  the  last  word  upon  the  subject,  but 
simply  to  show  the  important  part 
played   in  production  by  capital, 
and  therefore,  if  capital  can  only     Socialist 
be  gotten  by  giving  it  profits,  the        View. 
necessity   and   justice    of   paying 
the  capitalist  sufficient  interest  or 
profit.     Even  those  who  assert  that  labor  pro- 
duces all  wealth  do  not  deny  this.     (For  a  full 
discussion  of  their  position,  see  VALUE.)    They 
simply  argue  that  under  a  cooperative  civiliza- 

*  See  Mulhall's  Progress  of  the  World,  p.  42. 
t  Ibid.,  History  of  Prices,  p.  53. 
\  History  of  Prices,  p.  54. 


Profits. 


1099 


Profits. 


tion  capital  will  be  furnished  either  by  the 
community  (under  socialism)  or  by  cooperating 
workmen  (under  an  individualistic  system), 
and  that  hence,  when  wages  and  profits  are 
paid  to  the  same  persons,  profits  can  become 
nil  and  wages  all,  and  still  the  members  of  the 
community  be  willing  and  able  to  furnish  the 
necessary  capital.  Most  Fabian  socialists  do 
not  hold  that  labor  produces  all  wealth.  They 
argue  that  wealth  comes  from  land,  labor, 
and  capital.  They  agree,  however,  with  the 
Marxian  socialists  that  labor  should  get  all 
the  wealth,  because  they  believe  that  all  men 
should  labor,  and  that  it  is  neither  wise  nor 
just  that  one  class  in  the  community  should 
own  the  land  and  capital  and  be  paid  for  their 
use,  and  another  class  furnish  the  labor  and 
be  paid  for  their  work.  They  would  have  the 
same  men  and  women  (the  whole  community) 
own  the  capital  and  land  and  furnish  the  labor, 
and  so  receive  the  whole  product.  The  so- 
cialist's and  the  working  man's  quarrel  is  not 
with  capital,  but  with  the  capitalist  ;  that  is, 
with  the  wage  system  where  one  class  does  the 
work  and  another  class  furnishes  the  capital. 

Already  the  share  that  goes  to  capital  as 
a  whole  is  falling,  even  tho,  by  concentration, 
a  few  capitalists  are  gaining  enormous  wealth. 
The  profits  on  capital  may  fall  so  low  as  to 
fail  to  induce  men  to  furnish  capital  or  allow 
them  to  live  on  the  returns  to  capital  ;  then 
a  cooperative  system  will  become  necessary, 
or  the  whole  community  be  compelled  to  work 
and  be  paid  by  a  few  successful  capitalists 
who  will  get  enormous  returns,  at  very  low 
rates,  from  still  more  enormous  investments. 

That  the  rate  of  profits  is  falling  is  not  de- 
nied. Says  Professor  Marshall  (Economics  of 
Industry,  book  ii.  chap.  xii.  §§  7-8): 

"The  total  amount  of  the  earnings  of  management 
got  by  business  men    in    a  country  may  be   found 
by  subtracting  interest  on  the  whole 
amount  of  their  own  capital  from  their 
Rate  of      total  net  incomes  after  allowing  for  all 
Profit         expenses  and   losses ;   and,   even  after 
_  ...  allowance  has  been  made  for  insurance 

.tailing.  against  personal  risks,  this  amount  cer- 
tainly gives  a  very  high  rate  of  wage 
for  the  skill  and  ability  of  business  men. 
But  this  rate  is  not  so  high  as  at  first  sight  appears: 
for  great  deductions  must  be  made  on  account  of 
those  who  have  lost  their  capital  in  trade.  The  earn- 
ings of  the  labor  that  these  men  have  wasted,  together 
with  all  the  capital  that  they  have  lost,  must  be  de- 
ducted from  the  earnings  of  management  got  by 
successful  men  before  the  average  earnings  of  man- 
agement can  be  found.  Those  who  fail  are  quickly 
lost  from  sight  and  memory;  but  their  number  is  very 
great.  It  is  said  that  in  America  three-fourths  of 
those  who  engage  in  trade  become  insolvent  in  the 
course  of  the  first  five  years  (Bowen,  American  Politi- 
cal Economy,  chap.  x.). 

"  §  8.  The  supply  of  skilled  labor  is  increasing  faster 
than  that  of  unskilled  labor,  and  the  supply  of  busi- 
ness power  is  increasing  faster  than  that  of  the  lower 
kinds  of  skilled  labor.  Thus  the  competition  of  busi- 
ness power  for  the  aid  of  the  lower  orders  of  labor  in 
production  is  increasing.  And,  as  a  consequence,  the 
earnings  of  management  that  can  be  got  by  doing 
work  of  a  given  order  of  difficulty — the  task-earnings 
of  management — are  diminishing.  The  continual  in- 
crease in  the  complexity  of  business,  and  the  continual 
increase  in  the  amount  of  capital  that  can  be  employed 
in  business  under  a  single  management,  are  indeed 
giving  to  business  ability  of  the  highest  order  the 
opportunities  of  obtaining  greater  earnings  of  man- 
agement than  were  ever  heard  of  in  earlier  gen- 
erations. But  the  total  amount  of  the  earnings  of 
management  is  not  so  high  in  proportion  to  the 
amount  of  capital  employed  as  it  used  to  be.  And 


the  ratio  which  the  earnings  of  management  of 
a  business  bear  on  the  average  to  the  capital 
employed  goes  on  diminishing  ;  and  will  probably 
continue  to  diminish.  For  the  growth  of  education 
will  increase  rapidly  the  supply  of  business  power 
that  is  competing  for  the  aid  of  hired  labor  in  pro- 
duction ;  and  this  competition  will  prevent  the  earn- 
ings of  management  from  growing  as  fast  as  capital 
is  likely  to  grow. 

"Since  the  normal  rate  of  interest  is  likely  to  fall, 
and  the  ratio  which  normal  earnings  of  management 
bear  to  capital  is  likely  to  fall,  and  since  profits  are 
composed  of  interest  and  earnings  of  management, 
therefore  the  normal  rate  of  profits  is  likely  to  fall. 
It  will  not  fall  rapidly  for  a  time,  and  then  remain 
stationary  at  a  minimum.  But  subject  to  some  oscil- 
lations its  fall  will  probably  be  continuous,  tho  in- 
creasingly slow,  so  long  as  the  world  is  inhabited  by 
men  of  the  same  nature  with  ourselves." 

So  argues  Mr.  Edward  Atkinson.  He  says 
(The  Industrial  Progress  of  the  Nation, 
P-  305): 

"Under  existing  institutions  and  laws  the  working 
classes,  in  the  sense  in  which  they  use  that  word,  have 
been  securing  to  their  own  use  and  enjoyment  an 
increasing  share  of  an  increasing  product.  2&.  The 
richer  classes  controlling  and  using  capital  are  secur- 
ing to  their  use,  control,  and  enjoyment  a  decreasing 
share  of  the  same  increasing  product." 

For  Mr.  Atkinson's  proof  of  this,  as  also  for 
contrary  views,  see  articles  WEALTH  and 
WAGES. 

PROFITS  (NET).  For  a  discussion  of  the 
principles  involved,  see  PROFIT.  We  are  con- 
cerned here  simply  with  the  facts.  Statistics 
as  to  net  profits,  and  conclusions  deduced  from 
them,  must  be  suspiciously  viewed.  The 
Twenty-first  Annual  Report  of  the  Massa- 
chusetts Bureau  of  Statistics  of  Labor  reports 
on  the  net  profits  of  64  manufacturing  indus- 
tries in  that  State,  but  even  this  report  has 
been  most  severely  criticized.  We  give  its 
conclusions,  and  some  of  the  criticisms  upon  it. 
Says  the  report  (pp.  623-630): 

"  We  first  bring  forward  the  following  general 
caution  : 

"  No  one  should  make  use  of  these  tables  without 
careful  consideration  of  the  analyses  for  each  industry 
which  follow  the  tables.  These  analyses  are  intended 
to  supplement  the  tabular  presentations,  as  deductions 
drawn  from  the  figures  alone,  without  due  regard  to 
the  analyses  would,  in  many  cases,  be  misleading. 

"ESTABLISHMENTS  AND  CAPITAL  INVESTED. 

"In  the  returns  as  to  net  profits  10,013  establishments 
are  represented,  representing  75.45  per  cent,  of  the 
grand  aggregate  of  capital  invested  in 
all  establishments  in  all  industries,  and 
in  them  was  produced  nearly  70  per  cent.        Cat)ital 
of  the  entire  product  turned  out  in  the      _     *  ,    , 
manufacturing  and  mechanical  indus-      Invested. 
tries    in    the    commonwealth.     Of  the 
10,013  establishments,  9251,  or  92.39  per 
cent.,  made  a  profit,  while  762,  or  7.61  per  cent.,  did  not 
make  a  profit.     The  establishments  making  a  profit 
had  81.22  per  cent,  of  the  capital  invested,  and  made 
88.77  Per  cent,  of  the  goods  manufactured.    The  estab- 
lishments not  making  a  profit  had  18.78  per  cent,  of 
the  capital  invested,  and  made  11.23  P.er  cent,  of  the 
goods  manfactured.    The  result  for  all  industries  was 
a  net  profit  amounting  to  3.90  per  cent,  of  the  selling 
price,  and  equivalent  to  4.83  per  cent,  on  the  capital 
invested. 

"CLASSIFIED  CAPITAL. 

"Out  of  the  grand  total  of  $500,594,377  of  capital  in- 
vested in  manufacturing  and  mechanical  industries  in 
the  commonwealth,  land,  buildings,  and  fixtures  are 
valued  at  $118,886,643,  or  23.74  per  cent,  of  the  total; 
machinery,  implements,  and  tools  at  $115,254,330,  or 
23.03  per  cent.;  cash  at  $173,440,947.  or  34.65  per  cent.; 
and  credit  at  $93,012,457,  or  18.58  per  cent.  For  every 
$100  invested  the  proportions  of  the  details  are  as  fol- 


Profits. 


1 100 


Profits. 


lows  :  Land,  buildings,  and  fixtures,  $24  ;  machinery, 
implements,  and  tools,  $23 ;  cash,  $35 ;  credit  capital, 
$18.  The  total  plant  values  represent  $47,  and  the 
total  cash  and  credit  capital,  $53. 

"  COST    OF   PRODUCTION. 

"  As  to  cost  of  production,  each  $100  of  total  cost  in- 
cludes the  following  elements  :  Stock  (including  raw 
or  manufactured  materials),  $67.67  ;  salaries,  $i.g8  ; 
wages,  $25.66  ;  rent,  85  cents  ;  taxes,  64  cents  ;  insur- 
ance, 38  cents ;  freight,  $1.46 ;  new  equipments,  28 
cents ;  repairs,  93  cents ;  other  expenses,  15  cents ; 
these  items  aggregating  $100,  or  100  per  cent.,  if  the 
items  are  considered  as  percentages  instead  of  dollars 
and  cents.  By  total  cost  is  meant  the  cost  to  the 
manufacturer  of  the  completed  product,  ready  for 
sale,  but  excluding  profit. 

"  RELATION  OF  COST  OF  PRODUCTION   TO  SELLING 
PRICE. 

"As  to  selling  price,  each  $100  of  selling  price  in- 
cludes the  following  elements :  Stock,  or  materials, 
$58.91;  salaries,  $1.73;  wages  $22.34;  rent,  73  cents; 
taxes,  56  cents  ;  insurance,  33  cents ;  freight,  $1.27  ; 
new  equipment,  24  cents;  repairs,  81  cents;  expenses 
not  previously  enumerated,  13  cents.  In  each  $100 
there  is  an  excess  of  selling  price  above  the  cost  of 
production  amounting  to  $12.95.  This  $12.95  is  the 
manufacturer's  gross  profit,  and  is  equivalent  to  16.01 
per  cent,  on  the  amount  of  capital  invested  in,  and 
needed  to  carry  on  his  business.  These  items,  as 
enumerated,  including  gross  profit,  aggregate  $100,  or 
ioo  per  cent,  if  the  items  are  considered  as  percentages 
of  selling  price  instead  of  dollars  and  cents.  By  sell- 
ing price  is  meant  the  price  for  which  a  given  quantity 
of  manufactured  product  is  sold  by  the  manufacturer, 
and  it  includes,  as  shown  above,  cost  of  production, 
and  profit,  if  any. 

"  DISTRIBUTION  OF  EXCESS  OF  SELLING  PRICE  ABOVE 
COST  OF   PRODUCTION. 

"Of  the  64  industries  considered  in  the  investigation 
all  but  one,  print  works,  dye  works,  and  bleacheries, 
show  an  excess  of  selling  price  above  the  cost  of  pro- 
duction ;  that  is,  all  but  one  made  a  gross  profit.  The 
net  profit  was  determined  by  the  following  deductions, 
determined  upon  after  careful  consideration  : 

Interest  on  cash  and  credit  capital 5  per  cent. 

Depreciation  in  the  value  of  machinery, 

implements,  and  tools 10  per  cent. 

Allowance  for  selling  expenses,  losses, 

and  bad  debts 5  per  cent. 

"After  these  deductions  were  made,  58  out  of  64  in- 
dustries exhibited  a  net  profit. 

"The  excess  of  selling  price  above  the  cost  of  pro- 
duction amounts,  on  an  average,  to  $12.95  m  each  $100 
worth  of  manufactured  product.  If  from  this  $12.95 
excess  are  deducted  the  following:  $2.15  for  interest, 
$1.90  for  depreciation  on  machinery,  implements,  ana 
tools,  and  $5.00  for  selling  expenses,  and  to  make  up 
for  losses  from  bad  debts,  there  will  then  remain  as 
net  profit  $3.90,  which  is  equivalent  to  4.83  per  cent,  on 
the  amount  of  capital  invested,  or  an  annual  return 
of  $4.83  upon  each  $100  of  invested  capital. 

"COMPARISON  OF   EARNINGS  AND   PROFITS. 

"  In   private   firms,  each   of    257,656   employes  (in- 
cluding  both   sexes    and  all  ages)  receives  an  aver- 
age  of  $362.23  for  annual   earnings  in 
return    for    his    labor,    while   each    of 
Earnings      I2-558  partners  in  private   firms,  with 
,  v     ?        an  average   investment  of  $10,701,  re- 
ana  rrontS.    ceives  an  average  net  profit  of  $517  in 
return  for  his  money  investment  and 
his  labor. 

"  In  corporations,  each  of  162,310  employees  (includ- 
ing both  sexes  and  all  ages)  receives  an  average  of 
$333.22  for  annual  earnings  in  return  for  his  labor, 
while  each  of  30,967  stockholders  in  corporations,  with 
an  average  investment  of  $7857,  receives  an  average 
net  profit  of  $379  in  return  for  his  money  investment, 
mainly,  as  comparatively  few  stockholders  render 
any  personal  service,  unless  paid  salaries  therefor, 
to  the  corporations  in  which  they  are  financially 
interested. 

"  As  a  general  result  in  all  industries  it  appears 
that :  First,  in  private  firms,  the  percentage  of  the 
average  yearly  earnings  of  each  employee  of  the  aver- 
age net  profit  to  each  partner  is  70.02,  or  a  little  more 
than  seven-tenths  ;  second,  in  corporations,  the  per- 


centage of  the  average  yearly  earnings  of  each  em- 
ployee of  the  average  net  profit  to  each  stockholder  is 
87.86,  or  a  little  more  than  seven-eighths.  These 
figures  show  the  narrow  money  margin  between  the 
earnings  of  employees  and  the  net  profits  of  partners 
and  stockholders. 

"NET  PROFITS  TO  LABOR. 

"If  net  profits  are  added  to  the  wages  fund,  and  the 
sum  is  divided  equally  among  the  employees,  the  em- 
ployees of  private  firms  would  receive,  on  the  average, 
an  increase  of  $37.47,  or  10.34  per  cent,  on  their  present 
average  annual  earnings ;"  the  employees  of  corpora- 
tions would  receive  an  advance  of  $89.44,  or  26.84  P.er 
cent.,  while  the  employees  of  all  establishments,  in- 
cluding both  private  firms  and  corporations,  would 
receive  an  advance  of  $57,55.  or  16.40  per  cent.,  on  the 
average,  above  their  present  average  annual  earnings. 

"GROSS  PROFITS  TO  LABOR. 

"Eliminating  71,025  partners  and  stockholders,  and 
assuming  that  all  the  gross  profits  and  the  wages  fund 
go  to  the  employees,  then  each  employee,  regard- 
less of  sex  or  agej  would  receive  $541.86  for  an  annual 
income,  or  $10.42  per  •week  on  the  average.  Of  the 
employees  now  employed  in  manufacturing  industries 
in  Massachusetts  38.79  per  cent,  receive  more  than  $10 
per  week  under  the  present  application  of  the  wage 
system. 

"If  gross  profits  are  added  to  the  wages  fund,  and 
the  sum  is  divided  equally  among  the  employees,  the 


tions  would  receive  an  advance  of  $206.55.  or  89  per 
cent.,  while  the  employees  of  all  establishments,  in- 
cluding private  firms  and  corporations,  would  receive 
an  advance  of  $190.84,  or  54.  7  per  cent.,  on  tht  average, 
above  their  present  average  annual  earnings. 

'"SHARE  AND  SHARE   ALIKE.' 

"In  the  case  of  private  firms,  if  net  profits  and 
wages  are  added  together,  and  divided  equally  be- 
tween the  employees  and  partners,  the  employer 
thus  sharing  alike  with  each  of  his  employees,  the 
amount  falling  to  each  would  be  $360.15  ;  in  the  case 
of  corporations,  each  employee  and  stockholder  would 
receive  $334.57,  while,  as  a  grand  aggregate  for  all 
establishments  (including  private  firms  and  corpora- 
tions), the  wages  fund  and  net  profits  combined  would 
give  $349.47  to  each  employee,  partner,  or  stockholder. 

"THE  GRAND  BALANCE  SHEET. 

"On  the  share  and  share  alike  plan  (or  an   equal 
division  among  employees,  partners,  and  stockholders 
of  the  net  profits  and  wages  fund  com- 
bined), the  average  annual  earnings  per 
employee  would  have  been  $349.47  in- 
stead  of  $351.02,  or  a   decrease   of  0.44 
per  cent.;  the   net  profits  per  partner 
would    have    been    $349.47    instead    of 
$341.20,  or  an  increase"  of  2.42  per  cent.;   and  the  net 
profits  per  stockholder  would  have  been  $349.47  instead 
of  $339.71,  or  an  increase  of  2.87  per  cent. 

"Assuming  that  giving  the  entire  net  profits  or  the 
entire  gross  profits  to  labor  would  be  more  than  just 
to  labor,  and  consequently  unfair  to  capital,  and  also 
assuming  that  the  share  and  share  alike  plan  is  just 
and  fair  to  both  labor  and  capital,  these  results  prove 
that  the  average  financial  condition  of  the  employee 
shown  under  the  wage  system  is  slightly  better,  as  a 
general  average,  than  it  would  have  been  if  the  net 
profits  had  been  added  to  the  wages  fund,  and  the 
sum  equally  divided  between  the  employees  and  their 
employers. 

"  The  average  annual  financial  returns  to  the  em- 
ployee from  the  wage  system,  and  from  a  plan  in  which 
the  net  profits  and  the  wages  fund,  if  combined,  were 
divided  equally  between  employees  and  their  em- 
ployers, are  substantially  the  same,  the  variation  being 
but  $1.55  per  year,  that  sum  being  the  excess  paid  by 
the  wage  system  over  and  above  what  would  have 
been  derived  from  the  share  and  share  alike  plan." 

The  report  says  further,  pp.  629-630  : 

"  The  results  of  the  investigation  seem  to  warrant 
the  inference  that  material  improvement  in  the  work- 
ing man's  condition  is  not  to  be  expected  from  an  in- 
crease of  his  money  wages  gained  by  adding  thereto  a 
portion  of  the  profits  now  absorbed  by  capital,  but 
rather  from  an  increase  in  his  real  wages,  gained 


Profits. 


Profits. 


through  materially  increased  production,  accompa- 
nied by  materially  reduced  prices,  with  consequent 
increased  consumption  ;  the  rise  in  the  standard  of 
living  implied  by  the  increased  consumption  being  ac- 
companied and  still  further  raised  by  reduced  hours 
of  labor. 

"  In  the  light  of  the  results,  too,  it  would  seem  that 
theories  of  industrial  reform  which  relate  chiefly  to 
changes  in  the  mode  of  distribution  of  the  existing- 
results  of  production  should  give  place  in  importance 
to  plans  involving  an  increase  in  production  itself, 
whereby  both  labor  and  capital  may  have  more, 
without  diminishing  the  amount  which  either  now 
receives. 

"  So  far  as  cooperation,  profit-sharing,  or  any  other 
scheme  of  industrial  reform  involves  an  increase  of 
production,  so  far  it  moves  in  the  right 
direction.  But  the  success  of  any  such 
Cnr\ pi rieinn a  scheme  would  seem  to  rest  largely  upon 
Conclusions.  its  power  to  augment  production  in  the 
aggregate,  by  stimulating  endeavor, 
diminishing  waste,  promoting  har- 
mony, simplifying  management,  or  otherwise,  rather 
than  in  the  changes  it  might  introduce  in  the  mode 
of  division  of  the  fruits  of  production. 

"The  general  results  of  the  investigation  indicate 
average  conditions — but  no  one  sees  such  conditions. 
We  see  the  exceptionally  prosperous  establishment, 
or  the  very  rich  manufacturer,  and  are  apt  to  consider 
that  all  manufacturing  is  equally  prosperous,  and  all 
manufacturers  equally  rich.  The  bankruptcy  court 
shows  the  other  side  of  the  picture,  but  its  records  do 
not  appeal  to  the  eye  or  the  imagination  as  does  a 
large  factory  or  an  imposing  mansion. 

"  The  results,  on  the  percentage  basis,  for  net  profits 
show  that  in  few  industries,  if  any,  can  the  profits  be 
.  called  exorbitant,  aU  things  considered,  for  we  find 
the  largest  percentages  of  net  profit  in  the  small  in- 
dustries, while  large  industries  involve  small  profits, 
and,  sometimes,  large  losses.  As  to  the  general  result 
for  all  industries,  no  one,  -we  think,  will  maintain  that 
the  percentage  of  net  profit  is  excessive.  While  it  is 
true  that  this  conclusion  is  based  upon  an  average, 
and  may  not  show  the  condition  in  any  one  industry, 
it  must  be  remembered  that  any  of  the  proposed 
changes  so  frequently  urged  for  the  improvement  of 
our  industrial  system  must  be  measured  by  its  effect 
upon  average  conditions,  and  that  such  changes  may 
be  fairly  tested  by  comparing  the  new  averages  re- 
sulting from  them  with  those  based  upon  conditions 
now  prevailing. 

"  Where  are  we,  then,  to  look  for  the  margin  be- 
tween cost  of  production  and  the  price  to  the  con- 
sumer ?  If  neither  the  working  man  nor  his  employer 
is  profiting  unduly  by  the  present  system,  may  it 
not  be  possible  that  the  middleman,  or  the  distributor 
of  wealth  in  its  various  forms,  may  be  securing  more 
than  his  rightful  share,  and  is  thus  bearing  down 
upon  the  two  extremes  between  which  he  is  placed  ? 
Are  not  the  creators  and  the  consumers  of  wealth 
suffering  in  common  from  the  exactions  of  the  dis- 
tributors of  wealth?  This  question  cannot  be  an- 
swered from  data  now  at  hand,  but  it  is  evident  that 
the  mechanism  of  distribution,  as  well  as  the  mechan- 
ism of  production,  must  be  brought  to  the  statistical 
basis  before  the  final  solution  of  the  question  of  profits 
will  be  secured." 

This  report,  however,  seems  open  to  the 
severest  criticism.  Says  the  Christian  Union 
for  October  3,  1891: 

"The  Massachusetts  returns  were  utterly  untrust- 
worthy. One  large  industry  reported  a  net  loss 
amounting  to  28  per  cent,  of  the  value  of  the  goods 
sold.  Yet  the  returns  of  the  manufacturers  are  much 
less  misleading  than  the  deductions  of  the  commis- 
sioner who  has  edited  them.  The  manufacturers  in 
estimating  their  profits  naturally  deducted  whatever 
they  paid  as  rent,  and  this  amounted  to  4  per  cent, 
upon  the  capital  invested  in  lands  and  buildings.  The 
commissioner  obligingly  supplements  this  deduction 
by  a  further  one  of  5  per  cent,  for  '  interest '  upon  the 
cash  and  credit  capital  invested.  The  manufacturers 
in  estimating  their  profits  have  naturally  deducted 
3  per  cent,  upon  the  value  of  the  goods  sold  for  '  sala- 
ries and  freight.'  The  commissioner  obligingly  makes 
the  further  deduction  of  5  per  cent,  for  '  selling  ex- 
penses and  loss  through  bad  debts.'  The  manufac- 
turers in  estimating  their  profits  had  naturally 
deducted  for  'new  equipments  and  repairs'  an 
amount  equal  to  6  per  cent,  upon  the  capital  invested 
in  machinery  and  tools.  The  commissioner  obligingly 


makes  a  further  deduction  for  '  depreciation  '  of  an 
amount  equal  to  10  per  cent,  upon  the  capital  in- 
vested in  machinery  and  tools.  By  this  means  the 
profits  are  whittled  down  from  16  per  cent.,  as  re- 
ported by  the  manufacturers,  to  4^^  per  cent,  as 
returned  by  the  commissioner.  That  this  report 
should  have  been  published  by  the  Bureau  of  the 
Statistics  of  Labor  shows  the  direction  which  has 
been  given  to  the  work  of  this  department.  The 
figures  leave  no  one  wiser  than  before  and  could  have 
been  published  only  from  a  desire  to  help  manufac- 
turers by  representing  that,  after  all,  their  business 
is  in  a  bad  way,  and  that  higher  wages,  shorter  hours, 
and  lower  tariff  are  not  to  be  thought  of.  The  depart- 
ment might  better  be  called  the  '  Bureau  of  the  Statis- 
tics of  Capital.' " 

Mr.  Frederick  B.  Hawley  (American  Statis- 
tical Association  Publications,  1893,  vol.  iii. 
p.  38)  also  severely  criticizes  the  Massachu- 
setts report.  He  finds  many  suspicious  points 
in  the  report,  all  pointing  one  way.  The  great 
cotton-goods  industry,  for  example,  is  reported 
as  selling  at  a  net  loss  of  10.91  per  cent,  of  the 
selling  price.  Says  Mr.  Hawley  : 

"  The  cotton-goods  industry,  like  others,  has  its  ups 
and  downs,  but  I  do  not  believe  it  ever  had  as  bad 
a  year  as  this.  But  if  the  figures  are  correct,  then  it 
follows  that  the  choice  of  that  year  for  gathering  of 
the  original  data  was  an  unfortunate  one." 

Yet  it  employed  27.33  Per  cent,  of  the  capi- 
tal and  11.55  per  cent,  of  the  whole  output  of 
the  10,013  establishments  reported,  and  viti- 
ates the  final  conclusion,  Mr.  Hawley  calcu- 
lates, by  no  less  than  64.61.  But  this  is  not 
all.  Says  Mr.  Hawley  : 

"All  suspicions  which  naturally  arise  as  to  the  ac- 
curacy of  the  original  data,  or  as  to  their  being 
representative  of  normal  conditions,  make  in  one 
direction.  So  far  as  they  should  be  justified  by  a 
reexamination  of  the  facts,  the  correction  of  the  data 
would  in  every  case  go  to  swell  'net  profits'  and  the 
1  excess  of  selling  price  above  cost  of  production.'  " 

On  the  other  hand  a  business  man  writes  to 
the  Statistical  Association  that,  adding  to- 
gether the  total  dividends  of  all  the  larger 
manufacturing  and  other  companies  in  Massa- 
chusetts which  have  not  changed  their  capital 
from  1882  to  1892,  he  gets  $24,420,913,  and  he 
also  says  that  January  i,  1892,  their  stocks 
could  be  bought  for  $11,005,913  less  than  Jan- 
uary i,  1882,  and  that,  deducting  this  from  the 
dividends,  we  have  $13,415,446  as  the  net 
dividends,  which  would  make  only  2.68  per 
cent,  a  year. 

Such  contradictory  statements  as  these 
show  the  difficulty,  if  not  the  impossibility, 
of  making  any  correct  general  statements  as 
to  net  profits.  It  depends  very  largely  upon 
what  is  included  under  profits.  (For  a  dis- 
cussion of  this,  see  PROFIT.)  This  is  true  of 
all  industries.  It  is  particularly  true  of  mer- 
cantile establishments.  Some  great  stores 
are  said,  on  good  authority,  to  make  25 'per 
cent,  profit  on  their  capital  ;  many  make  little 
or  none,  and  vast  numbers  go  into  bankruptcy. 
Of  the  railroads  it  is  almost  as  difficult  to 
speak,  because  of  the  differences  of  book- 
keeping. Many  railroads  to-day  are  in  the 
hands  of  receivers  and  declare  small  and  often 
no  dividends.  The  inference  would  seem  to 
be  that  they  are  making  low  net  profits  or 
none  at  all.  They  often  state  this  in  their 
annual  report  to  their  stockholders.  This, 
however,  by  no  means  necessarily  follows.  It 
is  true,  undoubtedly,  of  some  roads,  but  of 


Profits. 


Profit-sharing. 


many  roads  it  is  simply  a  matter  of  bookkeep- 
ing. Watered  stock  accounts  for  a  part  of  it. 
Railroads  with  watered  stock  try  to  paid  divi- 
dends on  capital  never  paid  in.  (See  STOCK 
WATERING.)  Duplication  in  accounts  explains 
much.  Railroads  absorb  small  roads,  and  in 
their  accounts  the  capitalization  and  bonds  of 
the  smaller  roads  appear  both  separately  and 
added  to  the  capital  of  the  main  road.  Sala- 
ries and  jobs  granted  to  the  officers  of  the 
road  account  for  much.  Sums  put  down  as 
expenses  of  maintenance  really  often  mean 
immense  profits  for  some  favored  few.  Hence, 
roads  nominally  making  nothing  often  im- 
mensely enrich  some  of  their  owners.  Un- 
doubtedly, however,  facts  prove  that  the 
legitimate  net  profits  of  many  forms  of  in- 
vestment are  not  large.  Most  of  the  large 
fortunes  made  in  industrial  investments  are 
made  in  illegitimate  gambling  in  stocks,  bull- 
ing and  bearing  of  railroads,  or  in  monopolies, 
natural  or  the  creatures  of  the  law.  (For 
a  discussion  of  this,  see  WEALTH.) 

Mr.  F.  C.  Waite,  special  agent  of  the  Elev- 
enth Census,  in  charge  of  True  Wealth, 
makes  the  following  statement  (in  Professor 
John  R.  Commons'  The  Distribution  of 
Wealth,  p.  258)  as  to  the  gross  and  net  earn- 
ings of  important  natural  monopolies  for  the 
census  year  1890  : 


GROSS 
EARNINGS. 

NET 
EARNINGS. 

Railroads  : 
From  operation  

Other  sources  

Unreported     roads 
(about)  

Express  companies*  
Street  railways  

53,000,000 

11,000,000 

Water  transportation.... 
Telegraph  companies.  .  .  . 
Telephone  companies  
Insurance  companies  : 
Life  

191,000,000 
25,000,000 
16,404,583 

31,000,000 
7,OOO,OOO 
5,2OO,7I2 

Fire,  etc  

Banks  : 
National  

All  others  (estimated).  . 
Artificial  gas  companies 
(estimated)  

200,000,000 

*  Gross  receipts  less  gross  disbursements. 

It    follows    from  this  view  that,   if  social 
reformers    would   increase  wages,  and  lower 
profits,    thus    equalizing    distribution,    what 
they  must  strive  for   is  not  so  much  the  in- 
crease of  wages  in  legitimate  in- 
dustry, as  for  a  change  in  laws 
Capital  not    and  customs  allowing  of  the  im- 
Suffering.    mense    profits    made    to-day    by 
speculation  in  natural  or  artificial 
monopolies.     Most  reformers  be- 
lieve, to-day,  that  a  more  equitable  distribu- 
tion must  come  from  change  of  system  rather 
than   from   mere   generosity  on   the    part  of 
employers.      That  in  some  way  immense  net 
profits  are  made  to-day,  the  facts  of  the  dis- 
tribution   of    wealth,   both  in    England  and 
America,    abundantly    prove    (see   WEALTH). 

Mr.  T.  Lloyd,  in  the  London  Statist  for  June  27, 
1895,  asks  whether  "  capital  is  about  to  depreciate  so 
much  that  practically  the  business  of  banking  threat- 


ens  to  become  unprofitable,  and  that  it  will  require- 
hundreds  of  thousands  of  pounds  for  a  private  family 
to  live  out  of  its  investments  in  even  moderate  com- 
fort." He  says  no.  His  argument  is  that  it  is  true 
that  to-day  there  is  a  plethora  of  money,  and  that, 
therefore,  money  commands  small  returns,  but  that 
this  is  due  to  special  causes  which  stare  us  in  the  face. 
They  are  "the  Baring  crisis;  the  breakdown  of  the 
South  American  States,  and  subsequently,  of  Portu- 
gal and  Greece  ;  the  difficulties  of  Italy  and  Spain  ; 
the  banking  collapse  in  Australasia  ;  the  currency 
crisis  in  the  United  States,  and  the  currency  troubles 
in  India."  All  this  has  immensely  reduced  the  call 
for  investments.  "From  1882  to  i8go,"  he  says,  "in- 
vestments in  the  Central  and  South  American  States 
alone  had  taken  from  Europe,  and  chiefly  from 
London,  ,£30,000,000  annually."  (See  PROFIT.) 

Of  the  United  States,  he  says  :  "  European  invest- 
ments, and  chiefly  British  investments,  in  the  United 
States  were  at  least  as  large  as  those  in  all  the  Cen- 
tral and  South  American  countries  taken  together." 
About  £15,000  annually,  he  estimates,  were  invested 
in  the  Australian  colonies.  All  these  investments 
have  been  very  largely  cut  off.  But  he  says  this  is 
only  temporary.  All  these  countries,  he  says,  are 

§  rowing,  and  will  soon  need  capital.  Of  the  United 
tates,  "  for  so  long  a  time  the  greatest  field  of  all  for 
our  investments,"  he  says  :  "  Whenever  the  currency 
there  is  restored  to  order,  there  is  certain  to  be  a  great 
outburst  of  activity,  and  an  immense  investment  of 
British  capital.  ...  It  matters  very  little  what  policy 
is  ultimately  adopted.  There  may  be  a  short  period 
of  crisis  and  panic,  but  once  a  definite  policy  is 
adopted  and  carried  out,  trade  will  revive,  and  enter- 
prise will  spring  up  again.  .  .  .  As  they  go,  they  will 
absorb  more  capital,  and  so  tend  to  raise  values  in  the 
money  market."  ^ 

PROFIT-SHARING.—  This  system  of  in- 
dustrial remuneration  has  been  defined  as 
"  the  division  of  realized  profits  between  the 
capitalist,  the  employer,  and  the  employee,  in 
addition  to  regular  interest,  salary,  and 
wages  ";  and  it  is  claimed  by  its  advocates  to 
be  "the  most  equitable  and  generally  satis- 
factory method  of  remunerating  the  three 
industrial  agents."* 

It  has  also  been  defined  by  the  International 
Congress,  held  in  connection  with  the  Paris 
Exposition  in  the  summer  of  1889,  as  "  a  vol- 
untary agreement  under  which  the  employee 
receives  a  share,  fixed  beforehand,  in  the 
profits  of  the  business." 

Participation  of  the  workmen  in  the  profits 
of  business  undertakings  is,  historically,  a 
method  first  prominently  associated  with  the 
name  of  the  Parisian  house-painter  and  deco- 
rator, Edme-Jean  Leclaire.  The  son  of  a 
poor  shoemaker,  he  was  born  May  14,  1801,  in 
a  village  about  100  miles  southeast  of  Paris. 
As  a  youth  he  became  an  apprentice  to  a 
house-painter  in  Paris,  and  showed  himself 
remarkably  diligent  in  his  work,  and  in  sup- 
plying the  defects  in  his  education.  He  set 
up  for  himself  in  1827,  and  his  first  great 
stroke  of  business  was  a  contract  for  painting 
seven  houses  in  1829,  by  which  he  cleared  6000 
frs.  ;  he  paid  his  men  5  frs.  per  day  on  this 
job,  instead  of  the  usual  4.  His  business  in- 
creased steadily,  and  his  men,  noted  for  their 
skill  and  temperance,  were  kept  steadily  at 
work  in  winter,  and  were  tided  over  times  of 
low  wages  by  Leclaire's  interest  in  their  wel- 
fare. In  1838  he  established  a  mutual  aid 
society  for  them,  which  he  found  "  a  powerful 
means  of  moralization."  But  he  desired,  fur- 
thermore, to  provide  for  his  men  in  their  old 
age,  and  in  case  of  a  change  in  the  ownership 

*  Profit-Sharing'  Between  Employer  and  Employee, 
by  N.  P.  Oilman,  p.  412. 


Profit-Sharing. 


1103 


Profit-Sharing. 


of  the  business.  A  friend,  M.  Fregier,  told 
him  that  he  saw  no  solution  to  the  problem 
except  in  the  participation  of  the  workmen 
in  the  profits  of  the  master.  "  This  was 
in  1835-,"  writes  Leclaire.  "  My  head  was  too 
thoroughly  crammed  with  all  the  ideas  of  the 
economists  and  reformers  of  the  time  to  relish 
this  proposition.  It  appeared  to  me  entirely 
impracticable.  I  rejected  it  emphatically." 
But  all  at  once,  five  years  later,  he  perceived 
that  he  might  have  made  a  great  mistake  in 
his  reasoning.  He  could  not  afford  to  take 
out  from  his  average  profits  a  sum  sufficient 
to  help  his  workmen  much.  But  would  not  an 
industrial  partnership  "  create,  by  the  common 
effort,  in  view  of  the  division  of  profit,  and 
with  the  energy  so  called  forth,"  a  further 
return  beyond  the  average,  which  would  not 
only  pay  the  workman  a  bonus,  but  might 
even  increase  the  profits  of  the  employer  ? 
Are  there  not,  in  the  common  workman,  moral 
qualities  to  which  the  simple  wages  system 
makes  slight  appeal,  because  it  leaves  the 
inspiring  word  "  profit  "  out  of  the  workman's 
vocabulary,  with  all  its  implications  of  ambi- 
tion, zeal,  and  persistence?  Would  not  the 
prospect  of  a  share  in  the  profits  of  business 
advance  the  prosperity  of  the  establishment 
by  increasing  the  quantity  of  the  product,  by 
improving  its  quality,  by  promoting  care  of 
implements  and  machinery,  and  economy  of 
materials,  and  by  diminishing  labor  difficulties 
and  the  cost  of  superintendence  ?  Leclaire 
tried  the  experiment  cautiously,  beginning  in 
1842,  after  due  preparation  ;  and  he  soon  found 
that  all  these  questions  were  answered  by 
experience  with  a  decided  affirmative. 

His  workmen,  despite  his  many  efforts  for 
their  good  and  his  careful  preparations  for 
the  new  scheme,  were  suspicious  at  first,  but 
the  first  bonus  changed  their  feelings.  On  the 
1 2th  of  February,  1843,  Leclaire  distributed 
to  44  workmen  12,266  francs.  When  he  was 
a  candidate  for  the  Constituent  Assembly,  in 
1848,  he  stated  in  his  electoral  address  that 
he  had  distributed  in  six  years  112,588  francs. 
The  number  of  participants  had  risen  to  98. 
"  This  is  what  we  can  do  without  touching 
any  one's  property  ;  this  is  what  I  have  prac- 
tised for  six  years  ;  I  have  found  my  profit  in 
it,  and  others  also." 

In  1853  Leclaire  associated  with  himself  M. 
Alfred  Defournaux,  the  son  of  an  overseer,  who 
had  grown  up  in  the  house,  and  the  Mutual 
Aid  Society  was  reconstituted  for  a  second 
term  of  15  years,  its  entire  resources  to  consist 
of  annual  donations  from  the  house.  In  1860 
the  time  limit  was  abolished,  and  retiring 
pensions  established.  In  1863  the  Mutual  Aid 
Society  was  incorporated  and  became  a  per- 
petual sleeping  partner  with  limited  liability 
in  Leclaire  et  Cie.  Of  its  accumulated  capi- 
tal, 116,442  francs,  100,000  francs  were  invested 
in  the  firm  at  5  per  cent,  interest.  It  received 
20  per  cent,  of  the  net  profits,  while  30  per 
cent,  went  to  the  workmen  as  a  bonus  calcu- 
lated on  wages.  This  was  the  result  of  21 
years'  trial  of  profit-sharing.  In  1865  Leclaire 
withdrew  from  active  business  ;  in  1869  the 
system  was  thoroughly  revised,  and  in  1871 
a  resolution  was  passed  admitting  to  a  share 


in  the  profits  the  apprentices  and  auxiliary 
workmen.  Henceforth,  even  a  single  day's 
work  entitled  a  transient  employee  to  a  share 
in  the  bonus.  Leclaire  died  at  Herblay,  near 
Paris,  in  1872,  leaving  a  fortune  of  1,200,000 
francs,  which  he  attributed  largely  to  his  sys- 
tem of  participation. 

The  Maison  Leclaire  is  now  an  elaborate 
and  almost  ideal  industrial  partnership.  It 
has  two  managing  partners  and 
one  sleeping  partner,  the  Mutual 
Aid  Society.  The  society  holds  The  Maison 
half  of  the  capital  of  400,000  francs,  Leclaire. 
and  each  partner  a  fourth.  If, 
when  a  new  partner  is  chosen  by 
the  men,  he  has  not  this  amount  of  capital,  the 
acquisition  of  it  is  rendered  easy  for  him.  The 
reserve  fund  is  100,000  francs.  When  it  falls 
below  this  amount  a  first  levy  of  10  per  cent,  is 
to  be  made  upon  the  profits  of  the  year  until  it 
is  restored  to  its  normal  size.  Capital  receives 
5  per  cent,  interest,  and  each  manager  1200 
francs  as  salary  for  superintendence.  After  in- 
terest, salary  for  management,  and  any  needed 
sum  for  the  reserve  fund  have  been  taken 
from  the  gross  profits  of  the  year,  the  net 
profit  is  thus  divided  :  One-quarter  part  goes 
to  the  two  partners,  a  second  to  the  society, 
and  the  remaining  half  to  the  working  force 
in  proportion  to  wages  and  the  number  of 
hours'  work  done.  Between  1870  and  1886  the 
number  of  participants  varied  from  710  to  1125, 
the  total  of  wages  paid  from  406,414  francs  to- 
1,069,905,  the  total  bonus  from  61,625  francs 
to  240,050,  and  the  ratio  of  bonus  to  wages 
from  12  to  24  per  cent.  The  liability  of  the 
workmen  is  confined  to  their  interest  in  the 
reserve  fund,  which  has  never  yet  been  drawn, 
upon  to  pay  losses. 

The  noyau,  or  nucleus,  is  an  important 
feature  in  the  Maison  Leclaire.'  The  condi- 
tions of  menfbership  are  five  years'  service  in 
the  house  ;  age  between  25  and  40  ;  ability  to 
read,  write,  and  cipher  ;  skill  in  work,  and 
good  moral  character.  The  membership  is 
kept  at  nearly  the  same  figure  ;  the  members 
have  a  first  claim  to  employment  in  bad  times  ; 
it  supplies  men  for  vacancies  in  the  clerical 
force,  from  which  it  elects  a  new  partner  on 
occasion.  It  chooses  eight  members  of  the 
committee  of  conciliation,  the  partners  being 
the  other  two.  This  committee  takes  cog- 
nizance of  any  misconduct  in  the  force,  and 
examines  candidates  for  admission.  The 
noyau  chooses  the  foremen  each  year  from 
a  list  submitted  by  the  managers.  Member- 
ship in  the  noyau  is  a  condition  for  admission 
to  the  Mutual  Aid  Society,  which  is  thoroughly 
organized  and  generously  administered,  giv- 
ing aid  in  sickness,  at  death,  and  in  pensions 
and  life  insurance  policies.  In  1887  its  prop- 
erty was  2,053,618  francs. 

The  workman  in  the  Maison  Leclaire  re- 
ceives the  highest  wages  paid  in  his  craft  in 
Paris  ;  a  year's  bonus  varying  from  12  to  24 
per  cent. ;  in  case  of  sickness  five  francs  a 
day  ;  in  case  of  permanent  disability,  a  pen- 
sion of  1 200  francs,  and  he  may  retire  on  such 
a  pension  after  20  years'  service.  His  sons 
are  preferred  as  apprentices,  and  at  his  death 
looo  francs  of  life  insurance  are  paid  to  his 


Profit-Sharing. 


1 104 


Profit-Sharing. 


family  and  the  funeral  expenses  defrayed. 
The  standard  of  skill  and  character  corre- 
sponds to  these  exceptional  advantages.  Peace 
and  good-will  reign  in  the  establishment,  and 
its  long  career  of  more  than  50  years  of  pros- 
perity has  made  it  the  classic  instance  of 
profit-sharing  elaborately  developed. 

The  profit-sharing  firms  of  France  are  now 
some  125  in  number.  Among  the  more  im- 
portant cases,  for  size  and  length  of  trial  of 
the  system,  are  the  noted  Bon  Marche  of 
Paris,  employing  3000  persons,  and  doing 
a  business  of  thirty  millions  of  dollars  a  year  ; 
the  immense  Chaix  printing  house  of  Paris  ; 
the  great  Godin  founderies  at  Guise,  with 
a  capital  of  6,000,000  francs,  and  the  Laroche- 
Joubert  paper  works  at  Angouleme,  with  its 
thousand  employees. 

In  England  profit-sharing  had  a  celebrated 
trial  in  the  Briggs'  colleries  between  1865  and 
1874  ;  the  experiment  was  highly 
successful  for  six  years,  but  great 
England,  fluctuations  in  the  coal  trade 
and  difficulties  with  trade-unions 
caused  its  abandonment.  (See  the 
detailed  accounts  of  this  important  case  in  the 
works  of  Sedley  Taylor  and  N.  P.  Gilman  on 
the  general  subject.)  This  result  delayed  any 
considerable  extension  of  the  system  in  Eng- 
land for  some  15  years ;  but  as  the  causes  of 
the  Briggs'  failure  became  better  known  and 
information  concerning  the  system  more  acces- 
sible, instances  have  multiplied.  According  to 
the  list  given  by  Mr.  T.  W.  Bushill  in  Profit- 
Sharing  and  the  Labor  Question,  there  were 
in  Great  Britain,  on  the  ist  of  January,  1893, 
four  industrial  partnerships  proper,  with  700 
employees,  and  71  profit-sharing  firms  with 
some  19,000  employees.  The  number  has 
since  increased.  Numerous  cooperative  pro- 
ductive societies  also  pay  a  bonus  on  wages, 
and  many  firms  make  a  regular  practise  of  it, 
without  binding  themselves  to  do  so,  at  the 
beginning  of  the  year.  In  the  United  States 
there  were  37  cases  of  profit-sharing  in  1889. 
Making  allowance  for  the  instance  of  discon- 
tinuance of  the  system,  it  is  a  conservative 
estimate  that  there  are  now  half  a  hundred 
firms  practising  profit-sharing  in  America. 
No  list  of  such  firms  has  been  published  since 
1889,  Including  a  number  of  instances  in 
Germany,  Switzerland,  Holland,  and  Italy, 
there  are  now,  beyond  doubt,  300  firms  apply- 
ing this  principle  of  a  division  of  profits  with 
their  employees. 

The  Peace  Dale  (R.  I.)  Manufacturing  Com- 
pany was  the  first  to  establish  participation  in 
profits  in  this  country,  in  1878.  It  still  main- 
tains its  regulations  on  this  subject,  but  the 
woolen  manufacture  has  not  been  sufficiently 
prosperous  there  to  allow  the  payment  of 
a  bonus ;  this  will  be  paid,  however,  in  any 
year  in  which  the  balance  sheet  will  allow. 
The  great  Pillsbury  flour  mills  at  Minneapolis 
have  been  purchased  by  an  English  syndicate, 
tout  the  Honorable  Charles  A.  Pillsbury  and 
his  associates  in  the  operation  of  the  mills 
continue  the  plan  of  profit-sharing,  with 
which  they  express  their  entire  satisfaction. 

The  system  which  Mr.  Alfred  Dolge,  the 
large  manufucturer  of  piano  felt  and  felt 


United 

States. 


shoes  at  Dolgeville,   N.  Y.,  has  satisfactorily 
developed,    includes  provisions  for    pensions 
and  life  insurance,  in  addition  to 
a  division  of  profits,  among  the 
foremen  chiefly.     A  clubhouse,  a 
library,    and    a    gymnasium    are 
maintained  (see  DOLGEVILLE). 

The    manufacturing     company 
the  head  of  which  is  Mr.  N.  O.  Nelson  of  St. 
Louis  is,  in  several  ways,  the  most  conspicuous 
of  all  American  profit-sharing  enterprises. 

The  N.  O.  Nelson  Manufacturing  Company  is 
transferring  its  works  gradually  to  a  suburb  of 
Edwardsville,  111. ,  situated  within  an  hour's  ride 
of  St.  Louis.  In  this  village,  Leclaire  (q.  ?/.), 
the  building  of  a  home  is  rendered  easy  by  the 
Cooperative  Building  Association  and  special 
facilities  provided  by  the  company ;  a  large 
club-house  is  managed  by  a  considerable  num- 
ber of  men,  who  lodge  and  board  in  it  at  a 
moderate  price  ;  all  the  buildings  are  provided 
with  water,  steam-heat,  electric  light,  good 
drainage,  and  nearly  every  other  convenience 
of  a  city  house  ;  provision  for  amusements  has 
not  been  overlooked. 

The  first  year's  dividend,  paid  by  the  com- 
pany in  1887,  was  5  per  cent,  on  wages  ;  the 
next,  10  per  cent. ;  the  third,  10  per  cent. ;  the 
fourth,  8  per  cent.;  the  fifth,  10  per  cent.; 
the  sixth,  7  per  cent.,  and  the  seventh  4  per 
cent. ;  making  54  per  cent,  in  seven  years,  or, 
practically,  8  per  cent,  a  year.  In  1893  the  com- 
pany succeeded  in  paying  its  full  force  full 
wages  for  full  time  (a  nine-hour  day),  but  earned 
no  bonus.  The  dividends  for  the  first  five  years 
were  paid  in  cash,  but  employees  were  always 
at  liberty  to  take  it  in  stock,  and  about  three- 
fourths  did  so.  After  having  paid  the  dividends 
in  cash  for  five  years,  the  company  took  up  the 
plan  of  paying  only  in  stock  ;  it  has  always 
been  a  rule  to  redeem  the  stock  at  par,  when 
the  holder  leaves  the  company's  employ. 

Other  cases  of  profit-sharing  in  the  United 
States  deserving  attention  are  the  Page  Belt- 
ing Company  of  Concord,  N.  H.,  the  Yale  & 
Towne  Lock  Company  of  Stamford,  the  Proc- 
tor &  Gamble  soap  works  of  Cincinnati,  the 
Century  Magazine  Company,  the  Riverside 
Press  at  Cam  oridge,  Mass. ,  and  the  De  Vinne 
Press,  New  York. 

The  employees  of  the  Bourne  mill  at  Fall 
River  have  received  their  thirteenth  semi- 
annual dividend  in  the  profit-sharing  plan  that 
has  been  in  use  at  the  mill  during  the  past  6^ 
years.  One  family  received  $70  as  its  share 
of  the  profits  for  six  months,  and  other  fami- 
lies received  from  $30  to  $50  each.  Individual 
employees  received  from  $3  to  $10  each.  The 
treasurer  expresses  himself  as  fully  satisfied 
with  the  results,  and  he  believes  he  has  ac- 
complished all  he  anticipated  when  he  put  the 
plan  in  operation. 

The  French  Society  for  the  Practical  Study 
of  Profit-sharing,  founded  in  1879,  is  a  flourish- 
ing   organization,    of    which    M. 
Charles    Robert  (since    1865    the 
president  of  the  Mutual  Aid  So-     Societies. 
ciety  of  the  Maison  Leclaire,  and 
director  of  the  Union   Insurance 
Company)  has  been  the  only  president.     Mem- 
bership in  the  society  is  confined  to  business 


Profit-Sharing. 


1105 


Profit-Sharing. 


men  practising  the  system  ;  an  octavo  quar- 
terly Bulletin  is  published.  In  England  an 
Industrial  Reform  Society,  which  includes 
profit-sharing  in  its  program,  has  lately  been 
established  ;  the  Labor  Association  advocates 
the  plan,  and  the  Cooperative  Union  has  grad- 
ually come  to  indorse  it.  An  Association  for 
the  Promotion  of  Profit-sharing  was  formed  in 
New  York  in  January,  1892.  Its  object  is 
"  the  promotion  and  extension  of  such  methods 
of  uniting  the  interests  of  employers  and  em- 
ployees as  '  profit-sharing,'  '  industrial  part- 
nership,' 'gain-sharing,'  'earnings-sharing,' 
'trie  premium  system,'  and  kindred  systems." 

This  association  has  published  for  four 
years  a  quarterly  periodical,  Employer  and 
Employ'ed,  edited  by  the  secretary  (Boston  : 
George  H.  Ellis,  141  Franklin  Street ;  40  cents 
per  annum)  ;  here  may  be  found  the  news  of  the 
movement,  and  the  latest  arguments  in  favor 
of  it.  The  officers  of  the  association  are  • 
President,  Carroll  D.  Wright,  United  States 
Commissioner  of  Labor,  Washington,  D.  C. ; 
vice-presidents,  President  F.  A.  Walker  of  the 
Massachusetts  Institute  of  Technology,  Bos- 
ton, Mass.,  and  N.  O.  Nelson,  of  St.  Louis, 
Mo.;  secretary  and  treasurer,  N.  P.  Oilman, 
Chestnut  Hill,  Meadville,  Pa.;  executive  com- 
mittee, Messrs.  R.  Fulton  Cutting  and  Al- 
fred Dolge  of  New  York,  Henry  R.  Towne  of 
Stamford,  Conn. ,  and  George  A.  Chace  of  Fall 
River,  Mass.,  and  Professor  F.  H.  Giddingsof 
Bryn  Mawr,  Pa.  The  annual  fee  for  member- 
ship is  three  dollars. 

It  is  not  on  the  ground  of  abstract  justice 
or  inherent  right, — these-  are  matters  about 
which  it  is  very  easy  to  be  mistaken, — but  on 
the  ground  of  ordinary  human  nature  and 
actual  experiment,  that  the  advocate  of  profit- 
sharing  bases  his  confidence  on  its  gradual 
diffusion. 

He  can  now  appeal  to  a  large  body  of  ex- 
perience in  favor  of  his  claim  that  a  regular 
dividend  to  labor  out  of  profits  is  one  of  the 
next  steps  which  the  evolution  of  industry  is 
likely  to  follow  in  numerous  quarters. 

This  position  has  been  well  stated  by  the 
United  States  Commissioner  of  Labor  in  his 
report  for  1886. 

"What  is  known  as  industrial  copartnership,  in- 
volving profit-sharing,  and  embodying  all  the  vitality 
there  is  in  the  principle  of  cooperation,  offers  a  prac- 
tical way  of  producing  goods  on  a  basis  at  once  just 
to  capital  and  to  labor,  and  one  which  brings  out  the 
best  moral  elements  of  the  capitalist  and  the  workman. 
This  system  has  been  tried  in  many  instances,  and 
nearly  always  with  success.  .  .  .  Wherever  the  prin- 
ciple has  been  tried  there  have  been  three  grand  re- 
sults :  Labor  has  received  a  more  liberal  share  for  its 
skill,  capital  has  been  better  remunerated,  and  the 
moral  tone  of  the  whole  community  involved  raised. 
Employment  has  been  steadier  and  more  sure.  The 
interest  of  all  has  been  given  for  the  general  welfare. 
Each  man  feels  himself  more  a  man.  The  employer 
looks  upon  his'employees  in  the  true  light,  as  associ- 
ates. Conflict  ceases,  and  harmony  takes  the  place 
of  disturbances." 

As  Commissioner  Wright  had  previously 
declared  : 

"  The  dividend  to  labor  is  not  usually  an  increase  of 
pay,  services  remaining  the  same,  but  a  form  of  extra 
pay  for  extra  services,  and  an  inducement  calling 
them  out.  The  extra  services  called  out,  and  the 
manner  in  which  they  are  called  out,  constitute  an 
invaluable  educational  discipline.  They  develop  the 

70 


whole  group  of  industrial  virtues  :  diligence,  fidelity, 
care-taking,  economy,  continuity  of  effort,  willingness 
to  learn,  and  the  spirit  of  cooperation." 

The  usual  judgment  of  employees  who  have 
had  a  thorough  trial  of  profit-sharing  is  given 
in  these  resolutions  passed  by  the  force  of  the 
Nelson  Manufacturing  Company  in  December, 
1892  : 

"  Whereas,  The  corporation  of  which  we  are  a  part 
has  been  practising  profit-sharing  longer  than  any 
other  large  concern  in  the  United  States  ;  and, 

"  Whereas,  There  are  daily  evidences  in  the  press 
that  the  system  under  which  we  operate  is  attracting 
the  serious  attention  of  business  men,  who,  a  few 
years  ago,  gave  it  only  a  passing  thought  as  a  thing 
Utopian,  be  it 

"  Resolved,  That  we  record  our  increased  confidence 
in,  and  appreciation  of  the  business  principles  and 
business  practise  of  cooperation. 

"  Resolved,  That,  since  seven  years  of  experience 
under  the  system  have  resulted  not  only  in  the  pros- 
perity and  exceptional  growth  of  our  company,  but  in 
an  actual  distribution  of  the  benefits  among  the  men 
at  the  bench,  as  well  as  among  the  capitalists,  we 
commend  the  plan  as  a  harmomzer  of  the  interests 
and  views  of  both  classes,  and  as  a  powerful  agent 
for  the  solution  of  the  old  and  stubborn  problem  pre- 
sented by  the  antagonism  between  capitalists  and 
laborers. 

"Resolved,  That,  since  it  has  brought  us  to  shorter 
working  days,  for  the  standard  day,  with  the  added 
benefit  of  an  interest  in  the  company's  profits,  and  an 
opportunity  not  elsewhere  enjoj'ed  for  investing  our 
savings  where  there  is  a  direct  relation  between  the 
profits  on  our  investment  and  the  quantity  and  quality 
of  the  work  we  do,  we  observe  with  pleasure  the  dis- 
position of  railroad  men,  and  other  large  handlers  of 
capital,  to  adopt  the  method  that  has  so  much  of 
humanity,  and  so  much  of  common  sense  to  com- 
mend it. 

Conceived  by  a  business  man  of  uncommon 
sagacity,  profit-sharing  has  received  practi- 
cally the  unanimous  indorsement 
of  the  political  economists,  from 
John  Stuart  Mill  down  to  Profes-   Argument, 
sor  Marshall  of  Cambridge,  Eng- 
land.     The    economists   heartily 
advise  a  wide  and  thorough  trial  of  the  plan, 
that  its  practical  utility  and  its  limitations  may 
be  determined    by  actual   experience.      The 
principle  is  very  flexible,  and  admits  of  a  great 
variety  of  forms  and  applications. 

The  objection  invariably  made  to  profit- 
sharing  by  the  employer  of  labor  who  disre- 
gards the  fact  of  its  limitations,  and  its 
difference  from  cooperative  production,  is  that 
it  makes  no  provision  for  the  sharing  of  losses 
by  the  employee.  These  limitations  and  this 
difference,  however,  make  the  scheme  what  it 
is,  and  the  payment  of  losses  out  of  wages 
received  by  the  workmen  would  necessitate  in 
equity  other  features  which  would  revolution- 
ize the  scheme.  This,  the  most  common  of  all 
objections  to  the  profit-sharing  plan,  appears 
superficial,  and  quite  wide  of  the  mark,  when 
we  consider  that  the  partnership,  into  which 
the  employer  himself  invites  the  men,  is  in- 
dustrial, not  commercial ;  that  he  surrenders 
in  no  manner  or  degree  his  absolute  control 
over  affairs ;  that  he  is  just  as  much  of  an 
autocrat  as  he  was  before  ;  that  he  keeps  his 
books  entirely  free  from  troublesome  inspec- 
tion ;  that  he  fixes  himself  the  percentage  of 
the  bonus  on  wages,  after  he  has  calculated 
the  average  profit  of  a  series  of  years,  good', 
bad,  and  indifferent ;  that  he  is  to  pay  this 
bonus  in  prosperous  times  only,  when  it  has 
actually  been  realized ;  and  that  he  is  not  to 


Profit-Sharing. 


1106 


Profit-Sharing. 


pay  it  in  any  year  until  a  proper  contribution 
has  been  made  to  a  substantial  reserve  fund. 
When  we  attend  to  all  these  points,  there 
appears  a  plain  element  of  absurdity  in  the  ob- 
jection to  industrial  partnership,  that  it  does 
not  require  the  workman  to  contribute  toward 
losses  out  of  his  savings  or  his  wages.  His 
responsibility  must  in  reason  and  equity  be 
measured  by  the  power  allowed  him.  If  we 
give  the  body  of  workmen,  in  a  shoe-factory 
or  a  flour-mill  where  they  think  of  practising 
profit-sharing,  the  right  to  examine  the  books 
at  any  time  ;  a  powerful  voice  in  shaping  the 
business  policy  ;  the  right  to  say  when  to  buy 
and  where  to  sell — then  we  can  reasonably 
and  equitably  ask  them  in  a  bad  year  to  bear 
a  share  of  the  money  loss,  out  of  the  wages 
and  the  bonuses  received.  But,  however 
such  an  arrangement  might  work,  it  is  not  the 
actual  or  historical  system  of  profit-sharing 
or  industrial  partnership :  it  is  an  entirely 
different  system. 

Profit-sharing  is  a  conservative  movement. 
It  attempts  to  recall,  as  far  as  is  possible 
under  the  changed  conditions  of 
modern  industry,  the  old  senti- 
Practica-  ment  of  partnership  felt  when  the 
bility.  shoe  manufacturer  in  his  small 
shop  worked  at  the  same  bench 
with  his  few  employees,  or  when 
the  farm  was  let  on  shares,  or  the  catch  of 
the  fishing  schooner  was  apportioned  among 
the  crew.  We  can  no  longer  divide  the 
actual  products  of  industry  among  the  workers. 
But  we  can  modify  the  wage  system,  and 
strengthen  it  at  a  weak  point,  by  adding  to 
fixed  wages  a  variable  bonus,  dependent  on 
the  workman's  zeal.  Industrial  partnership, 
again,  has  this  singular  advantage  over  the 
socialisms  of  the  day,  and  even  over  the  more 
sober  scheme  of  productive  cooperation : 
it  pays  due  respect  to  the  two  great  prin- 
ciples of  modern  society  which  must  find  a 
modus  vivendt- — Democracy  and  Aristoc- 
racy. Those  who  would  solve  all  industrial 
troubles  by  a  resort  to  the  easy  but  deceptive 
analogy  of  democratic  government,  and  the 
erection  of  an  "industrial  republic,"  declare 
that  profit-sharing  is  not  a  practical  reform, 
that  it  is  unjust  to  the  workman,  since  the 
bonus  is  bestowed  as  a  gift  and  not  as  a 
right,  and  that,  in  reality,  it  intensifies  the 
evils  of  the  wage  system  by  making  the  work- 
ing man  more  dependent  on  the  employer. 
These  objections  by  socialists  and  revolution- 
ary reformers  have  the  character  usual  in 
criticism  of  moderate  and  statesmanlike 
measures  by  theorists.  The  practicability  of 
the  system  has  been  amply  proved  by  many 
firms  in  long  years  of  trial.  The  bonus  tends 
steadily  to  become  a  fixed  and  regular  addi- 
tion to  wages,  dependent  not  on  the  mere 
will  of  the  employer,  but  on  a  written  agree- 
ment and  the  results  of  the  year.  In  its 
developed  and  logical  form,  profit-sharing 
makes  the  transition  to  cooperative  production 
more  gradual,  easy,  and  sure  than  any  other 
method  yet  devised.  Its  advocates  do  not  find 
any  objection  to  it  in  the  fact  that  the  em- 
ployer often  profits  by  the  system  as  well  as 
the  employee,  but  this  fact  seems  sufficient  to 


stamp  the  plan  as  iniquitous  in  the  eyes  of 
so-called  reformers  who  consider  that  the 
employer  should  either  lose  or,  at  least,  not 
profit  by  any  change  in  existing  methods.  A 
system  advantageous  to  both  parties  fails  to 
commend  itself  to  such  very  partial  thinkers  ! 
Profit-sharing,  on  the  contrary,  starting  from 
the  actual  state  of  things,  would  modify  this 
in  the  interest  of  both  parties  and  to  the  in  jury 
of  neither;  and  here  is  its  recommendation  to 
the  enlightened  employer  and  the  sensible 
workingman. 

For  details  of  the  history  of  profit-sharing 
and  its  present  condition,  and  a  full  statement 
of  the  argument  for  it,  see  Profit-sharing 
between  Employer  and  Employee ;  and  chap. 
ix.  of  Socialism  and  the  American  Spirit,  by 
N.  P.  Oilman  (a  bibliography  may  be  found 
in  the  first  work,  continued  in  the  second); 
Profit-sharing  between  Capital  and  Labor, 
by  Sedley  Taylor;  Profit-sharing  and  the 
Labor  Question,  by  T.  W.  Bushill  (an  em- 
ployer) ;  Sharing  the  Profits,  by  Mary  W. 
Calkins ;  La  Participation  aux  Benefices, 
the  French  translation  of  Dr.  Victor  Bohmert's 
work,  with  additions ;  Guide  Pratique  pour 
r Application  de  la  Participation  aux  Bend- 
*fices,  per  A.  Trombert;  Methods  of  Industrial 
Remuneration,  by  D.  F.  Schloss  (critical); 
History  of  Cooperation  in  the  United  States  ; 
the  Bulletin  of  the  French  Society,  and  Em- 
ployer and  Employed  (passim}. 

N.  P.  OILMAN. 

OBJECTIONS   TO    PROFIT-SHARING. 

i.  That  it  is  not  practical,  not  being  suited 
to  the  times.  The  distinguishing  economic 
characteristic  of  the  present  time  is  a  tendency 
to  combination.  Firms  that  will  not  enter 
into  combines,  or  are  not  themselves  doing 
a  very  large  business,  are  troubled  not  as  to 
the  way  in  which  to  share  their  profits,  but  as 
to  their  inability  to  make  any  profits  to  share. 
In  the  best  times  many  firms  make  no  profits. 
Profit-sharing  is  scarcely  then  applicable  ex- 
cept to  great  monopolies  and  the  strongest 
firms.  Of  the  seven  instances  in  New 
England  cited  by  Professor  Bemis  (Coopera- 
tion in  New  England,  by  Professor  Bemis,  in 
publications  of  the  American  Economic  Asso- 
ciation, November,  1886),  one,  a  shoe  estab- 
lishment of  Brockton,  Mass.,  was  not  a  case 
of  profit-sharing,  but  a  percentage  on  capital 
paid  in  by  workmen  ;  one,  the  New  Haven 
Wire  Company,  merely  proposed  the  plan  to 
the  employees,  which  was  rejected ;  and  only 
one  of  the  entire  seven  had  ever  paid  a  divi- 
dend. Mr.  Paul  Monroe  states,  in  the  Ameri- 
can Journal  of  Sociology  for  May,  1896,  that 
of  50  cases  of  profit-sharing  only  12  continue. 
Its  friends  claim  that  in  many  cases  of  dis- 
continuance the  failure  was  due,  not  to  any- 
thing inherent  in  the  system,  but  to  extrinsic 
causes.  This  is  true  and  is  the  most  damag- 
ing and  conclusive  testimony  against  the 
system.  It  is  not  suited  to  the  times.  Ex- 
trinsic causes  usually  prevent  its  successful 
operation.  Its  diagnosis  of  present  evils  does 
not  go  deep  enough.  Employers  can  rarely 
practise  it,  and  employees  care  little  for  it. 


Profit-Sharing. 


1 107 


Prohibition. 


2.  Even  when  successful,  as  it  is  in  a  few 
strong  firms,  it  is  of  questionable  advantage  to 
working   men.      Unless   coupled    with    other 
reforms,  which  are  not  profit-sharing,  it  gives 
the  worker  no  voice  in  the  management.     It 
does  not  develop    the    responsibility   of    the 
worker.      Its    advocates   claim,   indeed,   that 
while  it  does  not  do  everything,  it  is  at  least  a 
practical  first  step  to-day,   toward  industrial 
partnership.     This,  its  critics  say,  is  not  the 
case.     In  their  view  it  is  not  a  step  toward  in- 
dustrial  democracy   or   fraternity.     It   inten- 
sifies   paternalism.      It    says,    "  if    you,    the 
worker,  will  work  a  little  harder,  we,  the  man- 
agement, will  give  yoit  a  slight  share  of  your 
increased  earnings."    Mr.  Monroe  (see  above) 
sums    up    the    case    as  to    profit-sharing  by 
declaring  it  of  some  importance  from  a  statis- 
tical point  of  view,  but  little,  if  any,  from  that 
of  social  progress. 

3.  Profit-sharing  is  unjust. 

Says  a  recent  writer — we  abridge  his  words  : 

There  is  only  one  party  to  it,  and  that  is  the  em- 
ployer. He  proposes  it ;  he  decides  when  a  surplus  of 
Erofits  exists,  and  how  much  it  is  ;  he  lays  down  rules 
ar  apportionment  and  distribution  among  employ- 
ees ;  in  a  word,  he  manages  the  business  and  the 
books,  without  any  right  of  interference  or  question 
by  employees,  and  from  his  decision  there  is  no  appeal. 
All  these  things  give  profit-sharing  the  appearance  of 
a  gift  bestowed,  whereas  it  is  a  payment  earned.  It  is 
not  legally  a  gift  which  must  take  effect  immediately; 
it  is  a  mere  promise  without  consideration,  and  cannot 
be  enforced.  Wage-workers  demand  not  merely 
greater  wages,  which  they  have  already  obtained, 
but  a  greater  proportionate  share  of  products  in 
accordance  with  the  new  ethics  of  social  justice. 
Profit-sharing  not  only  offers  no  balm  for  this,  the 
real  wound  of  industrial  society,  but  aggravates  the 
difficulty.  Mr.  Oilman,  in  the  work  above  quoted 
(pp.  415-416),  says  that  employers  who  have  adopted 
profit-sharing  "  generally  agree  that  the  division  of  a 
bonus  among  the  working  men  is  good  business 
policy  ;  ...  in  most  cases  they  claim  that  their  own 
share  is  greater  than  the  whole  profits  were  under  the 
simple  wage  system."  By  whatmeanshas  their  share 
become  "greater"?  Through  whose  efforts  are  they 
enriched  by  extra  profits?  Says  Mr.  Oilman:  "Out 
of  this  extra  profit  comes  the  share  of  men  whose  dili- 
gence and  care  have  created  it."  The  italics  are  ours. 

Profit-sharing  thus  reduces  the  proportionate  share 
of  workmen.  If  extra  profits,  or,  in  other  words, 
more  goods,  are  produced  solely  by  the  "  diligence 
and  care  "  of  employees,  to  them  should  belong  the 
goods.  No  part  of  them  should  go  to  capital,  for  this 
has  played  no  part  in  creating  the  surplus :  no  part 
should  go  to  the  employer,  for  he  has  done  actually 
less.  Every  consideration  of  justice  demands  that 
laborers,  who  have  by  increased  exertion  produced 
more,  should  alone  have  the  fruit  of  their  labor.  To 
bestow  a  part  of  this  on  the  laborer,  and  a  part  on  the 
employer,  is  what  profit-sharing  graciously  offers 
to  do ! 

4.  Profit-sharing  misleads.     It  has  been  be- 
fore the  world  fifty  years.     Largely  tried,  it 
has  to-day  only   108  firms  in  all  the  United 
States    and    Great    Britain.     Meanwhile    the 
social  question  is  developing  a  crisis  around 
the  world.     Society  demands  deeper  remedies 
than  what  has  accomplished  so  little  in  fifty 
years,  and  that  of  doubtful  good. 

PROGRESSIVE  TAXATION.  See  TAX- 
ATION. 

PROHIBITION.— The  object  of  Prohibi- 
tionists is  to  obtain  laws  prohibiting  the  manu- 
facture and  sale  of  intoxicating  liquors,  except 
for  the  purpose  of  manufacturing  industries, 
science,  and  art.  They  argue  that  this  is  ad- 


visable, because  vast  sums  of  money  are  annu- 
ally wasted  by  the  people  in  the  purchase  of 
liquor,  and  its  consumption  reduces  the  pro- 
ductiveness of  labor  ;  because  pauperism  and 
crime  are  largely  increased  thereby  ;  because 
the  habit  of  drinking  renders  the  citizen  less 
able  to  serve  in  the  defense  of  Government, 
when  necessary ;  and  because  the  Govern- 
ment should  protect  the  defenseless  women 
and  children,  who  are  most  injured  by  drunk- 
enness. The  opponents  of  prohibition  dispute 
some  of  the  facts  of  its  advocates  ;  assert  that 
drunkenness  is  rather  the  accompaniment 
than  the  cause  of  pauperism  and  crime,  and 
argue  that  in  any  event,  prohibitory  laws 
cannot  be  enforced,  and  that  some  other  sys- 
tem will  be  more  effectual  in  restraining  the 
sale  of  liquor.  They  also  contend  that  pro- 
hibitory laws  infringe  the  individual  liberty 
of  the  citizen.  On  December  5,  1887,  the  Su- 
preme Court  of  the  United  States  rendered 
an  important  decision,  holding  that  it  is  within 
the  discretionary  police  powers  of  a  State  to 
protect  public  health,  safety,  and  morals,  even 
by  the  destruction  of  property,  and  that  the 
Kansas  laws,  providing  for  the  destruction, 
without  compensation,  of  property  used  in 
connection  with  liquor-selling,  do  not  violate 
the  provision  in  the  Fourteenth  Amendment 
to  the  Constitution,  that  "no  State  shall 
make  or  enforce  any  law  which  shall  abridge 
the  privileges  or  immunities  of  citizens  of  the 
United  States,  nor  shall  any  State  deprive 
any  person  of  ....  property,  without  due 
process  of  law."  The  Prohibitionists  have 
been  a  factor  of  importance  in  the  politics  of 
some  of  the  States  since  about  the  middle  of 
the  century.  A  prohibitory  law  was  passed 
in  Maine  in  1846,  and  in  1851  a  more  stringent 
one,  including  the  provision  for  the  seizure  and 
destruction  of  intoxicating  liquors 
(known  as  the  "  Maine  Law,"  and 
drafted  by  Neal  Dow),  was  History, 
enacted,  and  has  since  been  in 
force,  except  for  the  years  1856 
and  1857.  Vermont  in  1852,  New  Hampshire 
in  1855,  and  Connecticut  in  1854,  passed  the 
Maine  law  ;  the  first  has  retained,  and  en- 
forced it  ;  the  second  has  retained,  and  not 
enforced  it ;  and  the  last  never  enforced  it, 
and  repealed  it  in  1872.  New  York  had  the 
Maine  law  on  the  statute  books  between  1855 
and  1857.  Ohio  and  Michigan,  by  their  Con- 
stitutions, forbade  the  passage  of  a  license 
law,  thus  leaving  the  mere  alternative  between 
free  liquor  and  prohibition.  This  clause  of 
Michigan's  Constitution  has  been  repealed  ; 
the  question  of  replacing  it  was  defeated  in 
1887,  by  a  small  popular  majority.  In  Ohio 
attempts  have  been  made  to  tax  the  sale  of 
liquor  by  the  "  Pond  Tax  Law,"  and  the 
"  Scott  Tax  Law, "but  both  of  these  were  pro- 
nounced unconstitutional  by  the  courts.  A 
prohibitory  amendment  to  the  Constitution  of 
Kansas  was  ratified  by  the  people  in  1890,  and 
this  has  been  enforced,  by  legislation.  A  simi- 
lar amendment  was  passed  in  Iowa  in  1882, 
and  had  a  large  popular  majority,  but  in  the 
next  year  it  was  pronounced  invalid  because 
of  informalities  in  its  passage.  In  1884  a 
prohibitory  Jaw  was  passed  by  the  legisla- 


Prohibition. 


1108 


Prohibition. 


ture.  In  1894  this  was  modified  by  a  tax  or 
"mulct"  law.  In  North  Carolina,  in  1884, 
a  prohibitory  law,  submitted  to  popular  vote, 
was  defeated  (166,000  to  48,000,  in  round 
numbers).  After  several  previous  trials  of 
prohibition,  Rhode  Island,  in  1887,  passed  a 
stringent  prohibitory  law,  which  was  repealed 
in  1889.  In  1887,  on  the  question  of  prohibi- 
tory amendments  to  the  State  Constitution, 
the  Prohibitionists  were  defeated  in  Oregon, 
Tennessee,  Texas,  Pennsylvania,  Nebraska, 
and  Massachusetts.  Most  of  the  States  have 
passed  laws  prohibiting  the  sale  of  liquors 
to  minors,  and  on  Sundays.  Many  States 
have  adopted  local  option,  and  a  few  are 
trying  high  license. 

Through  the  efforts  of  Colonel  Eli  F.  Ritter 
of  Indianapolis,  Ind.,  the  Indiana  Supreme 
Court  has  recently  affirmed  that  the  owners  of 
licensed  saloons,  and  the  owners  of  property 
in  which  they  are  kept,  are  liable  for  damages 
to  adjoining  property  from  the  presence  of  the 
saloons.  Movements  are  on  foot  to  secure 
similar  rulings  in  other  States. 

The  following  expositions  of  Prohibition  are 
from  the  pens  of  prominent  advocates  of  the 
movement. 

I.  WHAT  PROHIBITION  MEANS. 

Prohibition,  the  opposite  of  permission,  is 
not  a  synonym  of  annihilation.  Those  who 
say,  "  Prohibition  does  not  prohibit" — a  self- 
contradictory  proposition — mean  that  prohibi- 
tion does  not  annihilate.  This  is  manifestly 
true  of  all  kinds  of  prohibitions  in  this  world — 
those  of  the  divine  government,  of  family 
government,  and  of  civil  government  alike. 
Prohibition  does  not  annihilate,  not  even  when 
it  forbids  murder,  adultery,  theft,  false  wit- 
ness, and  Sunday-work.  If  a  threefold  alli- 
ance of  man,  woman,  and  the  devil,  to  break  a 
prohibitory  law,  and  then  hide  away  from 
justice,  proves  the  law  a  "  blunder,"  what  is 
to  be  said  of  that  first  prohibition,  given  to 
man  by  God  himself,  in  Eden  ?  If  prohibition 
is  a  "  failure  "  when  it  does  not  at  once  destroy 
the  evils  which  it  forbids,  then  the  prohibitory 
law  of  Sinai  is  the  masterpiece  of  failures. 

Prohibition  does  not  define  accomplishment, 
but  only  the  aim  and  attitude  of  government 
toward  wrong.  License  is  a  purchased  truce — 
sometimes  a  surrender  ;  Prohibition  is  a  decla- 
ration of  war.  License  is  an  edict  of  tolera- 
tion— sometimes  a  certificate  of  "good  moral 
character";  Prohibition  is  a  proclamation  of 
outlawry.  As  murder,  adultery,  theft,  false 
witness,  and  political  corruption  are  outlawed, 
the  ringleader  of  this  "gang  "ought  also  to 
be  outlawed.  The  first  requisite  of  law  is 
justice.  A  law  that  sanctions  wrong  is  not 
law  at  all,  but  legislative  crime.  It  is  not 
"  public  sentiment,  but  public  conscience,  out 
of  which  law  should  be  quarried.  Law  is 
an  educator.  Dueling,  and  smuggling,  and' 
liquor-selling  were  once  in  the  "  best  society." 
Gradually  the  law  has  made  them  disreputable. 
Rum-selling  in  Maine  is  a  sneaking  fugitive, 
like  counterfeiting — not  dead,  but  disgraced, 
and  so  shorn  of  power. 

Prohibition  of  the  liquor  traffic  is  more  than 
a  standard  or  a  flag  to  mark  the  height  to  which 


we  are  marching.  No  other  kind  of  prohibi- 
tion, as  I  have  said,  has  had  greater  victories. 
In  Maine  children  grow  up  without  ever  seeing 
a  drunken  man.  In  most  parts  of  Kansas  and 
Iowa  the  law  against  the  saloon  is  as  effective 
as  the  law  against  the  brothel  or  the  burglar. 
To  this  fact  testify  a  glorious  company  of 
witnesses — governors,  senators,  congressmen, 
pastors,  physicians,  manufacturers — against 
whose  evidence  scarcely  a  witness  can  be 
brought  in  rebuttal  except  "  anonymous." 
The  liquor-dealers  have  saved  us  the  trouble 
of  summing  up  this  testimony.  Their  state- 
ment that  more  liquor  is  consumed  under  Pro- 
hibition than  without  it  is  canceled  by  actions 
that  speak  louder  than  words,  by 
frantic  efforts,  at  great  cost,  to 
defeat  Prohibition  wherever  it  is  Arguments, 
proposed.  If,  while  canceling 
their  license  fees,  it  really  in- 
creased their  sales,  and  so  gave  them  double 
gains,  as  they  are  sometimes  able  to  make 
even  Christians  believe,  they  would  hardly 
fight  so  helpful  a  friend. 

The  argument  for  Prohibition  may  be  con- 
cisely stated  in  four  propositions,  the  four 
strands  of  the  haltsr  with  which  the  rum  traffic 
is  to  be  hung  : 

1.  The  business  interests  of  our  country  de- 
mand the  suppression  of  their  worst  foe — the 
saloon. 

2.  The  homes  of  our  country  demand   the 
suppression  of  their  worst  foe — the  saloon. 

3.  The  political  liberty  of  our  country  de- 
mands the  suppression  of  its  worst  foe — the 
saloon. 

4.  The  conscience  of  the  country  demands 
that  the  attitude  of  Government  toward  this 
foe  of  business,  home,  and  liberty,  as  toward 
other  foes  of  the  public  good,  shall  be  one  of 
uncompromising  hostility. 

The  prohibiting  of  maddening  poison  is  not 
a  "sumptuary  law":  that  is,  a  law  against 
luxury — but  rather  a  law  to  promote  luxury  ; 
to  give  every  year  to  the  impoverished  fami- 
lies of  those  who  waste  their  money  for  drink, 
in  place  of  it,  a  billion  dollars'  worth  of  pianos, 
books,  pictures,  etc. 

Prohibition  is  consistent  with  liberty  in  the 
same  way  as  fire-escapes  and  quarantines  are. 
A  prohibitory  liquor  law  is  a  law  for  the  pro- 
motion of  commerce,  for  the  protection  of 
labor,  for  the  prevention  of  cruelty  and  crime, 
for  the  preservation  of  health,  and  home,  and 
liberty. 

The  capital  that  is  invested  in  the  liquor 
business,  if  invested  in  legitimate  forms  of 
trade,  would  give  employment  to  hundreds  of 
thousands  more  people  than  are  now  employed 
by  it.  This  added  number  of  workers  would 
be  needed  in  mills  and  shops,  if  the  money 
spent  for  drink  were  turned  into  those  chan- 
nels of  trade  where  there  is  a  "  fair  exchange," 
and  so  "no  robbery." 

Not  only  life,  but  liberty  itself,  is  menaced 
by  alcohol.  In  the  words  of  the  Cat  ho  Hi 
Review,  "  There  is  nothing  fanciful  in  the 
assertion  that  in  most  of  the  large  cities  the 
saloon-keeping  interest  has  as  much  represen- 
tation in  the  Common  Council  as  have  all  other 
interests  combined — that  is  to  say,  the  minor- 


Prohibition. 


1109 


Prohibition. 


ity  in  numbers,  intelligence,  and  decency,  gov- 
erns the  majority  in  most  of  our  large  cities." 
It  is  this  "  spoils  system"  of  the  saloons  that 
civil  service  reformers  should  strike  at,  if 
they  would  cure  political  corruption  at  the 
root.  It  is  not  so  much  examination  of  office- 
seekers  as  extermination  of  these  office-brokers  " 
of  the  saloon  that  is  needed.  Municipal  re- 
formers also  should  learn  that  it  is  not  by  a 
change  in  the  Mayor's  office,  but  by  a  change 
in  the  saloon,  that  city  politics  is  to  be  purified. 
If  our  city  politics  is  in  slavery  to  the  saloons 
to-day,  when  the  States  are  able  to  restrain 
them  by  their  yeoman  majorities  in  the  legis- 
tatures,  what  of  the  time  when  the  cities  shall 
have  the  majority  of  our  voters,  as  they  will 
only  eight  Presidential  elections  from  now — 
the  third  national  campaign  in  which  the 
babes  now  in  your  cradles  will  vote  ?  In  1920, 
at  the  present  rate  of  growth,  cities  of  above 
8000  inhabitants  will  have  a  clear  majority  of 
the  voters  of  the  country.  The  peril  is  not 
even  so  far  off  as  that,  for  the  cities  have  to-day 
a  power  out  of  proportion  to  their  numbers  as 
compared  with  country  districts,  because  their 
forces  are  more  concentrated,  and  better  or- 
ganized. And  besides  this,  the  saloon  has 
carried  city  corruption  into  the  country,  ex- 
cept where  local  option,  or  some  other  form  of 
Prohibition,  has  barred  the  way.  "  Ireland 
sober  is  Ireland  free."  So  we  may  say  of  our 
own  country  :  America's  liquor  or  its  liberty 
must  go. 

There  is  reason  to  believe  that  alcohol  may 
be  not  only  universally  prohibited  in  our 
country,  but  also  annihilated.  The  Journal 
of  Chemistry  has  shown  that  the  dangerous 
exceptions  made  for  its  use  in  medicine  and 
the  arts  are  unnecessary,  since  science  has 
safer  substitutes  (see  The  Temperance  Cen- 
tury, p.  87).  It  is  also  to  be  remembered  that 
the  passion  for  alcohol  is  not  a  natural 
passion,  like  sexuality,  but  wholly  artificial, 
making  it  an  evil  like  slavery,  that  may  be 
wholly  obliterated.  It  may  not  be  wise  to 
prohibit  any  but  the  beverage  use  of  alcohol 
until  a  generation  of  physicians,  intelligent 
enough  to  doctor  without  this  dynamite, 
has  been  raised,  but  the  goal  which  we  should 
set  before  us  should  be,  after  Prohibition,  an- 
nihilation. WILBUR  F.  CRAFTS  (in  the  Cyclo- 
pedia of  Temperance  and  Prohibition). 

A  most  observable  fact  in  the  temperance 
reform  has  been  its  constantly  widening  range. 
It  started  in  individual  action,  but  passed 
almost  immediately  into  various  kinds  of  asso- 
ciation for  mutual  aid.  Indeed,  this  transition 
may  be  looked  on  as  the  first  step  in  tem- 
perance as  a  reform.  From  a  guarded  use  of 
intoxicants,  pressed  by  the  exigencies  of  the 
case,  it  moved  forward  to  their  absolute  rejec- 
tion. In  a  similar  way  it  was  forced  beyond 
individual  abstinence  into  civic  Prohibition. 
From  Prohibition  in  towns  and  counties,  it 
advanced  to  constitutional  Prohibition  in  the 
State,  and  from  this  it  is  advancing  to  Prohi- 
bition by  the  general  Government.  Each  of 
these  steps  has  been  taken  because  of  the 
necessary  widening  of  the  conflict  and  the 
need  for  more  resources  in  meeting  it. 


Some  may  look  upon  this  constant  increase 
of  demands  as  evidence  of  the  impossibility 
and  futility  of  the  entire  movement.  The  be- 
lievers in  Prohibition  regard  it  as  the  inevitable 
result  of  the  breadth  and  unity  of  those  social 
relations  which  inclose  us.  We  cannot  win 
our  own  without  seeking  like  gifts  for  all. 
Each  step  of  extension  makes  the  previous  po- 
sition more  secure.  We  are  compelled  to  con- 
quer a  boundary,  or  lose  what  we  have  already- 
gained,  and  that  boundary  is  the  world.  A 
nation  doubtless  offers  a  fairly  defensible  unit 
in  this  strife,  and  yet,  the  moment  we  achieve 
this  success,  we  shall  become  increasingly 
sensible  of  an  outside  pressure  from  other 
nations  opposed  to  us  in  sentiment  and  action. 
International  cooperation  is  necessary  to  make 
Prohibition  effectual  This  was  recognized  by 
the  powers  bordering  on  the  North  Sea,  when, 
perceiving  the  dire  consequences  of  intemper- 
ance among  the  fishermen  in  those  waters, 
they  joined  in  promulgating  the  celebrated 
prohibitory  agreement  of  1887.  The  absolute 
and  sweeping  prohibitory  law  for  the  Samoan 
Islands,  against  alcoholic  beverages  of  all 
kinds,  incorporated  in  the  treaty  for  the  gov- 
ernment of  those  islands,  drawn  up  in  Berlin 
in  1889  by  the  plenipotentiaries  of  the  United 
States,  Great  Britain,  and  Germany  (and  sub- 
sequently ratified  by  the  three  powers),  is 
another  instructive  instance. 

The  most  constant  and  obviously  influential 
activity  which  unites  us  to  other  countries  is 
that  of  commerce.  Commerce  is  a  chief 
medium  to  the  better  as  well  as  to  the  worst 
influences  that  lie  between  different  peoples 
and  races.  Notably,  three  forms  of  trade — 
that  in  slaves,  that  in  opium,  and  that  in 
rum — have  carried  with  them  the  most 
terrible  evils  and  drawn  out  the  most  brutish 
and  diabolical  passions.  The  black  man  is 
debauched  immediately  and  completely  by 
intoxication.  For  a  nation  like  the  United 
States  to  suffer  such  a  commerce  on  the 
part  of  its  subjects  is  to  impose  a  collective 
responsibility  on  each  citizen  for  a  line  of 
action  which  is  simply  devilish  in  every 
phase  of  it. 

More  than  ten  millions  of  gallons  of  liquor 
are  annually  sent  to  West  Africa,  where  it  is 
known  to  work  mischief  of  the  most  unquali- 
fied, speedy,  and  unprovoked  kind.  Germany, 
the  Netherlands,  the  United  States,  France, 
and  Great  Britain  are  engaged  in  the  traffic — 
Germany  well  in  the  lead. 

There  is  no  complete  redemption  within  the 
nation  unless  there  is  redemption  bej^ond  it. 
One  reason  why  Massachusetts  is  not  ready  for 
Prohibition  in  her  own  borders  is  the  profit 
attendant  on  the  extended  and  thriving  trade 
of  Boston  in  New  England  rum.  It  is  not  pos- 
sible that  a  State  which  is  not  prepared  to  pro- 
tect its  own  feebler  citizens  from  the  extreme 
danger  of  this  traffic  should  be  ready  to 
shield  savage  life,  hidden  away  in  the  dark 
recesses  of  Africa,  from  greater  disorder. 
Nor  is  it  any  more  possible  that  a  temper, 
unscrupulous  in  places  remote  and  secret, 
should  become  tender  and  conscientious  at 
Home.  JOHN  BASCOM  (in  the  Cyclopedia  of 
Temperance  and  Prohibition). 


Prohibition. 


mo 


Prohibition. 


II.  RESULTS  OF  PROHIBITION. 

Benefits  of  Prohibition. — The  practical  trial 
of  the  Prohibition  policy  in  the  United  States 
has  been  interfered  with  by  many  and  serious 
difficulties.     Great  as  is  the  extent  of  territory, 
in  the  aggregate,  where  experiments  have  been 
made  since  the  agitation  began,  this  policy  has 
never  had  the  advantage  of  a  systematic  intro- 
duction and  broad  foundation.     The  National 
Congress  has  never  enacted  general  prohibi- 
tory legislation,  and  has  never  given  support 
to  or  even  recognized  the  prohibitory  measures 
adopted  in  States  and  localities  :   indeed,  the 
attitude  of  the  Federal  Government  for  nearly 
30  years  has  been  in  formal  antagonism  to 
Prohibition.     The  States,  with  very  few  ex- 
ceptions, have  uniformly   (or  with  but  brief 
intervals    of  Prohibition)    permitted    license 
under  certain  conditions — conditions  that,  in 
practise,  have  effectually  excluded 
prohibitory  law  from  most  of  the 
Not  Fairly   chief  centers  of  population.    Thus, 
Tried.       in  New  England,  while  two  States 
(Maine  and  Vermont)  have  been 
constantly  under  complete  Prohi- 
bition for  a  long  term  of  years,  the  other  four 
States  (Massachusetts,  New  Hampshire,  Con- 
necticut, and  Rhode  Island),  though  nominally 
prohibiting  the  traffic  at  times  in  that  period, 
have  so  far  inclined  to  license  as  to  give  con- 
tinuance to  liquor  manufacture  and  commerce 
in   such  cities  as  Boston,   Portsmouth,   New 
Haven,    Hartford,  and    Providence.      Kansas 
and  her  complementary  Prohibition  State  of 
Iowa  have  for  years  stood  alone  at  the  West ; 
meantime  the  neighboring  license  States  of 
Nebraska,   Minnesota,  Illinois,  and  Missouri, 
with  their  great    cities— Omaha,     St.     Paul, 
Minneapolis,  Chicago,  Peoria,  Kansas  City,  and 
St.  Louis— have  been  aggressively  hostile  to 
prohibitory  laws  and  diligently  sought  to  flood 
the  Prohibition  districts  with  liquor.     There  is 
no  Prohibition  State  or  county,  city,  village,  or 
township  where  the  success  of  the  policy  is  not 
or  may  not  be  at  any  time  endangered  by  the 
interference  of  the'  liquor  trade    in    license 
States,  counties,  or  localities  close  at  hand. 

The  police  power,  which  is  everywhere 
vested  in  the  local  governments  and  can  al- 
ways be  supplemented  and  made  more  effective 
by  cooperation  from  county  and  State  authori- 
ties, is  theoretically  sufficient  for  the  upholding 
of  prohibitory  as  well  as  all  other  laws  and  for 
the  correction  of  offenses  committed  by  un- 
scrupulous outsiders  ;  indeed,  there  has  been 
no  serious  limitation  of  the  right  of  each  politi- 
cal division  having  prohibitory  law  to  fully 
enforce  the  law,  except  during  the  few  months 
of  1890  in  which  the  "Original  Package" 
decision  of  the  Supreme  Court  caused  confu- 
sion— and  the  disturbance  resulting  from  this 
decision  was  soon  brought  to  an  end  by  Con- 
gressional legislation.  But  though  theoreti- 
cally sufficient,  the  local  police  power  is 
inadequate  practically  so  long  as  liquor  is  pro- 
duced, and  is  a  legitimate  article  of  commerce 
in  other  communities,  counties,  and  States. 
All  the  conditions  for  a  troublesome  contra- 
band traffic  exist.  Under  the  most  stringent 
Prohibition  there  will  always  be  some,  and 


oftentimes  there  will  be  many  persons  desiring 
drink  or  ready  to  purchase  it  if  opportunity 
offers.  Liquor  is  an  article  easily  concealed, 
and  the  tricks  and  devices  by  which  it  can  be 
peddled  are  numberless.  The  profits  promised 
by  illicit  enterprise  are  large  and  are  quickly 
won.  Individual  citizens  who  are  not  under 
suspicion  may  ship  in  supplies  without  very 
great  risk,  for  the  search  and  seizure  clauses 
of  prohibitory  statutes,  for  manifest  reasons, 
are  not  vigorously  applied  until  there  is  good 
ground  for  believing  that  a  particular  person 
is  actually  disposing  or  preparing  to  dispose 
of  liquor  in  violation  of  law.  Above  all,  the 
highways  of  inter-State  commerce  are  every- 
where open  to  the  smugglers.  By  a  decision 
of  the  United  States  Supreme  Court  *  no  Pro- 
hibition State  can,  without  the  consent  of  Con- 
gress (not  yet  granted),  prevent  an  inter-State 
railway  or  express  company  from  carrying  to 
any  point  within  its  borders  liquor  brought 
from  another  State.  Shipments  of  liquor  from 
Boston  to  Portland,  for  example,  are  held  to  be 
valid  shipments  by  the  courts,  and  if  the  ship- 
pers use  careful  disguises  the  "  goods  "  may 
escape  detection  by  the  police  officers  of  Port- 
land and  be  delivered  to  citizens  of  that  town. 
Once  delivered  they  may  be  surreptitiously 
sold  or  given  away,  and  have  a  more  or  less 
potent  effect  for  neutralizing  the  law  of  Maine, 
in  accordance  with  the  shrewdness  of  the  men 
into  whose  hands  they  come,  and  with  various 
local  conditions. 

Unfavorable  local  conditions  constitute  the 
next  great  impediment  to  the  success  of  Pro- 
hibition. Under  this  head,  indeed,  all  the 
secondary  difficulties  fall :  for  all  difficulties 
are  secondary  in  comparison  with  the  one  al- 
ready noticed — the  presence  of  a  legalized 
traffic  in  neighboring  States  and  places.  The 
chief  of  the  local  difficulties  undoubtedly  arises 
from  the  failure  of  the  controlling  political 
parties  to  earnestly  identify  themselves  with 
the  cause  of  Prohibition.  This  is  not  at  all 
equivalent  to  saying  that  the  people,  as  the 
source  of  parties  and  of  government,  are  fun- 
damentally responsible  in  cases  of  neglect  or 
opposition  ;  for  the  existence  of  Prohibition 
implies  that  popular  consent  and  approval 
have  already  been  granted.  An  indifferent  or 
a  hostile  partizan  attitude  is  frequently  if  not 
always  taken  without  regard  to  genuine  public 
sentiment— at  least  without  regard  to  the  sen- 
timent of  the  best  citizens  ;  party  action  is 
controlled  by  designing  leaders,  and  leaders 
are  readily  influenced  against  Prohibition  by 
aggressive  demands,  bribes,  threats,  and 
promises  of  support  from  the  liquor  element. 
Thus  it  has  happened  nearly  everywhere  that 
Prohibition  has  not  enjoyed  the  cordial  politi- 
cal support  necessary  to  its  full  success.  Statu- 
tory provisions  for  enforcement  have  been 
lamentably  defective  ;  penalties  have  been 
inadequate  and  so  adjusted,  at  times,  as  to 
render  illicit  trade  scarcely  more  perilous  than 
licensed  trade  would  be  under  a  stringent 
license  system  ;  men  personally  opposed  to 

*  The  famous  decision,  rendered  in  1888,  which  be- 
came the  foundation    for  the  "  Original    Package 
decision.      Bowman    v.    Chicago   and    Northwestern 
Railway  Company,  125  U.  S..46s. 


Prohibition. 


mi 


Prohibition. 


Prohibition,  or  deliberately  pledged  to  its 
organized  foes,  have  been  chosen  to  fill  the 
offices  most  intimately  connected  with  the  ad- 
ministration of  law — as  judges,  prosecuting 
attorneys,  mayors,  sheriffs,  aldermen,  police 
authorities,  etc.  ;  juries  have  been  packed 
with  saloon  adherents — in  short,  it  has  often 
seemed  that  the  entire  machinery  of  govern- 
ment has  been  given  over  to  the  outlawed 
traffic.  The  tireless  persistence  of  all  the  vio- 
lators of  law,  the  encouragement  shown  them 
by  an  insinuating  and  sometimes  incendiary 
press,  the  timidity  of  many  friends  of  the  law, 
the  lack  of  determined  leadership,  and  the  cold- 
ness or  reactionary  tendencies  of  numerous 
good  citizens  (not  excepting  an  element  of  the 
clergy)  are  other  local  impediments  to  the  en- 
forcement of  Prohibition  that  are  repeatedly 
encountered. 

The  admission  that  there  have  been  partial 
or  complete  failures  does  not  affect  the  vital 
question,   Would  thoroughly    en- 
forced Prohibition  be  beneficial  ? 
Experience.  But  this    admission    suggests    a 
practical  question  that  cannot  be 
ignored — in   view    of    the    many 
acknowledged   disappointments,  and    of    the 
above-considered  difficulties,  is  the  effort  for 
thorough  Prohibition  practicable,  and  if  not, 
are  the  benefits  of  partial  Prohibition  such  as 
to  justify  enacting  a  prohibitory  law  that  may 
be  only  partially  effective  ? 

In  sifting  the  great  mass  of  testimony  that 
every  patient  inquirer  may  easily  gather,  it 
is  difficult  to  adopt  an  entirely  satisfactory 
method  of  classification.  It  is  desirable,  for 
instance,  to  make  a  separate  and  detailed 
comparison  of  results  obtained  under  State 
laws  with  those  secured  under  local  option, 
high-license,  and  low-license  systems  ;  again, 
the  reader  will  wish  to  have  a  separate  and 
comprehensive  analysis  of  the  effects  of  Prohi- 
bition upon  arrests  for  crime,  and  other  distinct 
and  equally  extended  exhibits  of  the  influence 
that  it  exerts  as  a  corrective  of  pauperism, 
etc.  ;  again,  it  is  proper  to  show  separately 
how  Prohibition  has  affected  commercial  pros- 
perity, taxation,  the  interests  of  education,  etc. 
But  the  results  of  Prohibition  in  one  direction 
are  closely  associated  with  its  results  in  all 
other  directions,  and  a  formal  classification 
would  involve  endless  repetitions.  For  the 
purposes  of  this  article  the  testimony  will  be 
presented  under  two  heads  :  (i)  Diminution  of 
the  Consumption  of  Drink,  and  Effects  upon 
Crime  and  Kindred  Evils  ;  (2)  Economic  and 
Other  Effects. 

In  beginning  an  examination  into  the  strictly 
temperance  results  of  prohibitory  laws  nothing 
is  more  suggestive  than  the  unanimity  and  the 
vigor  with  which  such  laws  are  opposed  by 
all  engaged  in  the  liquor  traffic.  "  Resolved, 
That  we  are  unalterably  opposed  to  Prohibi- 
tion, general  or  local,"  said  the  National 
Protective  Association  at  its  first  convention. 
"  Resolved,  That  we  are  an  anti-Prohibition 
Association,  pure  and  simple,"  declared  the 
New  York  State  Brewers'  and  Maltsters'  Asso- 
ciation in  1883.  "  We  have  had  a  great  deal 
of  business  in  the  State  of  Iowa,  both  before  it 
was  Prohibition  and  since,"  wrote  the  chief 


distiller  of  Nebraska  in  1888,  "  and  we  can  say 
positively  there  is  very  little  satisfaction  in 
doing  business  in  that  State  now.  Ever  so 
often  the  goods  are  seized,  and  it  causes  a 
great  deal  of  delay  and  trouble  to  get  them  re- 
leased ;  and  there  is  a  fear  of  not  getting 
money  for  the  goods,  and  all  the  forms  we 
have  to  go  through  make  it  very  annoying 
business.  It  is  like  running  a  railroad  under 
ground.  You  don't  know  where  you  are  going 
or  what  is  ahead."  Few  will  deny  that  the 
policy  which  is  most  hurtful  to  the  liquor  trade 
must  be  most  instrumental  in  modifying  the 
evils  of  intemperance.  In  the  uncompromising 
hostility  with  which  the  "  trade  "  meets  every 
attempt  to  establish  Prohibition  lies  a  strong 
indication  of  Prohibition's  effectiveness  as  a 
temperance  measure. 

MAINE. 

Neal  Dow,  the  "  Father  of  the  Maine  law," 
describes  the  woful  conditions  prevailing  in 
that  State  before  the  enactment  of  Prohibition. 
He  says  that  immense  quantities  of  rum  were 
distilled  and  consumed  there,  and  that  the 
large  home  supply  was  supplemented  by  a 
great  deal  of  rum  imported  from  the  West 
India  Islands.  In  another  place  he  has  made 
this  declaration  :  "  I  think  I  have  seen  nearly 
an  acre  of  puncheons  of  West  India  rum  at  one 
time  on  our  wharves,  just  landed  from  ships. 
All  this  time  seven  distilleries  [in  Portland] 
running  day  and  night  !  Now  I  will  venture  to 
say  that  we  have  not  had  a  puncheon  of  West 
India  rum  imported  here  in  five  years — yes,  I 
will  say  ten  years,  and  there  is  but  one  distil- 
lery in  the  State,  and  that  not  running,  I 
think  ;  but  if  it  runs  it  is  laid  under  $3000 
bonds  to  sell  no  spirit  except  for  medicinal  or 
mechanical  purposes  or  for  exportation."* 

These  statements  are  confirmed  with  the 
strongest  emphasis  by  well-nigh  all  the  emi- 
nent men  of  Maine.  It  is  impossible  in  this 
article  to  make  even  a  summary  of  all  the 
important,  testimony. 

The  Voice  for  October  9, 1890,  printed  letters 
from  the  two  United  States  Senators  from 
Maine  and  other  distinguished  citizens.  Sena- 
tor William  P.  Frye  wrote,  in  part : 

"I  can  remember  the  time  when  in  the  State  of 
Maine  there  was  a  grocery  store  at  nearly  every  four 
corners  in  certain  portions  of  the  State,  whose  princi- 
pal business  was  in  the  sale  of  New  England  rum  ; 
when  the  jails  were  crowded  and  poverty  prevailed. 
To-day  the  country  portions  of  the  State  are  absolutely 
free  from  the  sale  of  liquor  ;  poverty  is  comparatively 
unknown,  and  in  some  of  the  counties  the  jails  have 
been  without  occupants  for  years  at  a  time.  Wherever 
the  laws  have  been  rigidly  enforced  this  condition  of 
things  has  been  the  invariable  result.  The  people 
who  have  tried  and  witnessed  the  result  of  these  pro- 
hibitory laws  adopted  a  few  years  since  a  Constitu- 
tional Amendment,  prohibiting  the  sale  or  manufacture 
of  liquor,  by  an  overwhelming  majority. 

"The  Democratic  party  for  many  years  after  Pro- 
hibition was  adopted  denounced  it  in  every  party 
platform,  but  for  the  last  12  or  15  years— such  has  been 
the  progress  of  the  temperance  sentiment  under  the 
law— they  have  not  dared  to  do  so.  This  year  they 
made  a  feeble  attempt  in  that  direction  and  were  com- 
pletely snowed  under.  .  .  . 

"  The  law  is  not  a  failure  ;  it  has  been,  on  the  other 
hand,  a  wonderful  success.  I  do  not  mean  to  assert, 
of  course,  that  there  is  no  liquor  sold  in  our  large  cities 

*  Alcohol  and  the  State,  p.  352. 


Prohibition. 


III2 


Prohibition. 


where  evasions  of  law  are  so  much  more  easily  found 
than  in  the  country.  We  have  laws  against  murder 
and  theft,  but  no  man  is  so  insane  as  to  suppose  that 
under  their  influence  there  will  be  no  murder  or 
stealing." 

Senator  Eugene  Hale  wrote  : 

"Throughout  the  State  generally  the  prohibitory 
law  has  driven  out  the  grog-shop,  and  while  liquor  is 
undoubtedly  sold  in  the  larger  towns  and  cities,  it  is 
not  done  in  an  open  way,  and  the  amount  of  liquor- 
selling  is  smaller  even  in  these  larger  towns  and  cities 
than  in  corresponding  places  elsewhere.  Maine  people 
believe  in  Prohibition  because  they  are  every-day 
witnesses  to  its  good  effect." 

This  letter  received  the  unqualified  indorse- 
ments of  all  the  other  members  of  Congress 
from  Maine,  of  the  two  United  States  Sena- 
tors, and  of  the  Hon.  James  G.  Elaine,  as 
follows : 

James  G.  Elaine  :  "  On  the  point  of  the  relative 
amount  of  the  liquors  sold  at  present  in  Maine  and  in 
those  States  where  a  system  of  license  prevails,  I  am 
sure,  from  personal  knowledge  and  observation,  that 
the  sales  are  immeasurably  less  in  Maine."  * 

Hannibal  Hamlin,  United  States  Senator  from 
Maine,  and  formerly  Vice-President  of  the  United 
States :  "  I  concur  in  the  statements  made  by  Mr. 
Frye.  In  the  great  good  produced  by  the  prohibitory 
liquor  law  of  Maine,  no  man  can  doubt  who  has  seen 
its  results.  It  has  been  of  immense  value." 

Lot  M.  Morrill,  United  States  Senator  from  Maine : 
"I  have  the  honor  unhesitatingly  to  concur  in  the 
opinions  expressed  in  the  foregoing  by  my  colleague, 
Hon.  Mr.  Frye." 

John  Lynch,  Member  of  Congress  from  Maine  :  "  I 
fully  concur  in  the  statement  of  my  colleague,  Mr. 
Fry,  in  regard  to  the  effect  of  the  enforcement  of  the 
liquor  law  in  the  State  of  Maine." 

John  A.  Peters  and  Eugene  Hale,  Members  of  Con- 
gress from  Maine  :  "  We  are  satisfied  that  there  is 
much  less  intemperance  in  Maine  than  formerly,  and 
that  the  result  is  largely  produced  by  what  is  termed 
prohibitory  legislation." 

In  1874  the  Governor-General  of  Canada,  in 
accordance  with  a  request  from  the  Dominion 
Parliament,  appointed  a  special  commission 
"to  inquire  into  the  working  of  prohibitory 
liquor  laws."  This  commission  devoted  much 
attention  to  the  results  in  Maine,  and  the  fol- 
lowing questions  were  submitted  by  it  to  many 
citizens  of  that  State,  including  both  friends 
and  opponents  of  the  law  :  "  Is  the  liquor  law 
enforced,  and  if  not,  what  is  the  hindrance  to 
its  working?"  "  What  have  been  the  results 
of  a  change  from  Prohibition  to  license,  or  vice 
versa?"  Mr.  E.  J.  Wheeler,  in  his  Prohibi- 
tion (p.  in),  says  :  "In  the  replies  received  to 
these  two  questions,  one  thing  is  especially 
noticeable,  namely,  that  while  many,  espe- 
cially those  resident  in  Portland  and  Bangor, 
admit  that  there  is  a  lax  enforcement  of  the 
law,  yet  all,  without  exception,  testify  to  the 
good  results  of  the  law  even  when  it  is  poorly 
enforced." 

The  original  Maine  law  (with  search  and 
seizure  clauses)  was  enacted  in  1851.  In  1856 
it  was  repealed  and  a  license  law  was  substi- 
tuted, which  continued  in  force  during  the 
years  1857-58;  and  in  1859  Prohibition  was 
readopted. 

The  history  of  the  Maine  law  in  Portland 
and  Bangor  proves  that  it  caused  a  marked 

*  In  1882  Mr.  Elaine  added  this  declaration:  "  Intem- 
perance has  steadily  decreased  in  Maine  since  the  first 
enactment  of  the  prohibitory  law,  until  now  it  can  be 
said  with  truth,  that  there  is  no  equal  number  of  peo- 
ple in  the  Anglo-Saxon  world  among  whom  so  small 
an  amount  of  intoxicating  liquor  is  consumed  as 
among  the  650,000  inhabitants  of  Maine." 


change  for  the  better  in  those  cities.  When- 
ever it  has  been  rigidly  enforced  the  result  has 
been  no  less  wholesome.  But  it  is  recognized 
by  the  Prohibitionists  that  the  administration 
of  the  law  for  some  time  has  been  unsatisfac- 
tory in  Portland,  Bangor,  and  (in  a  less  degree) 
a  few  other  towns.  For  these  imperfections 
of  execution  the  political  managers  are  chiefly 
to  blame  :  they  find  it  profitable  to  permit 
rum-selling  to  a  certain  extent,  since  the  illicit 
dealers  are  men  of  influence  with  a  large 
element  of  the  city  voters,  and  as  men  who 
stand  constantly  in  danger  of  arrest  and  pun- 
ishment, they  are  subservient  and  most  active 
supporters  of  the  politicians  upon  whom  they 
rely  for  protection. 

KANSAS. 

The  results  of  State  Prohibition  in  Kansas 
have  been  no  less  instructive  and  important 
than  those  in  Maine.  Kansas  formerly  con- 
tained some  of  the  most  notorious  towns  of 
the  West,  in  which  life  was  held  at  a  very 
cheap  rate  and  wild  disorder  was  a  character- 
istic condition.  Vile  saloons  abounded  in 
these  places,  and  the  consumption  of  liquor 
was  appalling.  In  1880  the  Prohibitory  Con- 
stitutional Amendment  was  adopted"  by  a 
majority  of  less  than  8000  in  a  total  of  175,- 
ooo  votes.  This  small  majority  gave  no  assur- 
ance of  the  successful  enforcement  of  the 
Eolicy,  and  the  cities  refused  to  regard  it  as 
inding  and  proceeded  to  treat  the  law  with 
systematic  defiance.  An  agitation  for  repeal 
immediately  sprang  up  and  it  seemed  to  have 
reached  a  triumphant  culmination  when  in, 
1882,  chiefly  on  the  question  of  the  resubmis- 
sion  of  the  amendment,  the  large  Republican 
majority  in  Kansas  was  wiped  out,  Governor 
John  P.  St.  John,  the  man  most  prominently 
identified  with  the  cause  of  Prohibition  in  the 
State,  was  defeated  in  his  candidacy  for 
reelection. 

All  these  circumstances  render  the  ultimate 
success  of  the  prohibitory  law  the  more  sig- 
nificant. Despite  the  seeming  reaction  and 
the  continued  efforts  of  a  desperate  and  pow- 
erful rum  element,  the  measure  was  steadily 
winning  its  way  to  popularity  because  of  the 
beneficial  results  that  attended  every  honest 
attempt  at  enforcement.  Previously  to  1885 
the  legislation  enacted  was  comparatively 
weak  ;  but  in  that  year  stronger  provisions 
were  added,  including  injunction  and  nuisance 
clauses.  In  1837  the  celebrated  Murray  act 
was  passed,  prescribing  severe  penalties,  with 
radical  restrictions  for  the  drug-store  traffic. 
In  the  same  year  a  law  granting  full  municipal 
suffrage  to  women  was  secured.  A  metropol- 
itan police  law  was  another  helpful  measure. 
The  Kansas  legislation  of  1885-89  constitutes, 
indeed,  the  most  remarkable  series  of  prohibi- 
tory statues  ever  adopted,  far  outstripping  the 
legislation  of  Maine.  Meanwhile  the  State 
courts  had  thoroughly  sustained  every  act. 
Some  embarrassment  was  occasioned  by  the 
manifest  hostility  of  the  Federal  judges  hav- 
ing jurisdiction  in  Kansas,  especially  by  Cir- 
cuit Judge  Brewer's  famous  decision  (1886)  in 
favor  of  compensation  to  liquor-manufactur- 
ers; but  the  friends  of  the  law  felt  confident 


Prohibition. 


1113 


Prohibition. 


that  every  disputed  point  would  ultimately  be 
decided  against  the  traffic,  and  the  general 
interests  of  enforcement  did  not  suffer.  Local 
judges  in  some  of  the  worst  rum  cities,  like 
Leavenworth,  placed  obstacles  in  the  way  of 
the  cause  locally;  but  even  these  exceptional 
difficulties  were  overcome  in  most  instances. 
It  was  not  until  the  "  original  package"  trade 
of  1890  was  developed  that  the  enemies  of  the 
law  enjoyed  a  general  success;  yet  this  success 
was  short-lived. 

There  can  be  no  better  demonstration  of 
Prohibition's  good  work  in  Kansas  than  the 
increasing  stringency  of  the  statutes  and  the 
growing  cordiality  of  popular  attitude.  Against 
all  the  disadvantages  to  which  we  have 
alluded,  and  despite  a  reaction  that  appeared 
to  be  overwhelming;  against  the  bitter  oppo- 
sition of  the  saloon  people  and  the  most  per- 
sistent efforts  at  nullification — efforts  in  which 
the  liquor  power  of  the  whole  country  and 
especially  the  dealers  of  neighboring  States 
joined — the  law  has  not  only  been  maintained, 
but  has  been  steadily  strengthened.  More- 
over the  benefits  of  the  law  have  changed 
former  foes  into  warmest  friends  :  men  of  the 
highest  position,  governors,  senators,  mayors, 
and  leading  citizens  of  every  class,  who  were 
intensely  hostile  or  profoundly  distrustful, 
have  been  constrained  to  testify  in  unequivo- 
cal and  even  enthusiastic  language  to  the  great 
good  done  by  Prohibition. 

The  abundance  of  proof  is  bewildering,  and 
only  a  small  portion  of  it  can  be  given  in  this 
article.  Endeavor  will  be  made  to  atone  by 
careful  selection  for  necessary  faults  of 
omission. 

Bearing  in  mind  the  untrustworthiness  of 
the  United  States  Internal  Revenue  statistics 
as  to  the  "liquor-dealers"  in  Prohibition 
States,  the  following  table,  showing  the  num- 
bers of  persons  paying  United  States  retail 
and  wholesale  special  liquor  taxes,  with  the 
numbers  of  distilleries  operating,  and  brewers 
in  Kansas,  for  each  year,  from  1880  to  1889, 
inclusive  (compiled  from  official  data),  is 
instructive  : 


YEARS 

Retail 
Deal- 
ers.* 

Whole- 
sale 
Deal- 
ers.t 

Distill- 
eries 
Operat- 
ing. 

Brew- 
ers. 

Totals. 

880.. 

1907 

56 

4 

39 

2006 

881^. 

1x88 

39 

8 

25 

1260 

882 

1512 

34 

2 

22 

157° 

883 

1949 

49 

2 

9 

2009 

884 

2025 

46 

4 

17 

2092 

885 

2151 

57 

4 

II 

2223 

886 

2401 

46 

2 

8 

2457 

887 

2182 

59 

3 

5 

2249 

888 

1396 

34 

i 

4 

1435 

889 

135° 

28 

i 

3 

1382 

*  Including  "retail  liquor-dealers  [distilled]"  and 
"retail  dealers  in  malt  liquors." 

t  Including  "  wholesale  liquor-dealers  [distilled]  " 
and  "wholesale  dealers  in  malt  liquors." 

\  Including  Indian  Territory  for  this  year  and  sub- 
sequent ones. 

Population  of  Kansas  in  1880,  996,096 ;  ratio  between 
the  number  of  "liquor-dealers,"  etc.,  and  the  total 
population,  i  to  496.  Population  in  Kansas  in  1890, 
1,427,096;  ratio  between  number  of  "liquor-dealers," 
etc.,  in  1889  and  total  population  in  1890,  i  to  1033. 


It  is  not,  however,  by  showing  a  proportion- 
ate reduction  in  the  number  of  persons  con- 
nected (or  nominally  connected)  with  the 
traffic  that  the  effects  of  Prohibition  upon  the 
liquor  trade  are  to  be  demonstrated.  High- 
license  experiments  have  taught  that  the 
number  of  liquor  establishments  may  be  very 
materially  diminished  without  disturbing  the 
supply  or  the  consumption. 

From  the  Federal  returns  of  the  quanti- 
ties of  liquor  manufactured,*  the  following 
table  for  the  State  of  Kansas  has  been  pre- 
pared : 


YEARS. 

Distilled  Liquors 
Produced. 

Malt  Liquors 
Produced. 

880  

Gallons. 

Barrels. 

881  *  

65,086 

882  

25,786 

883  

2,859 

884  

885  

886  

887  

16,458 

QOO 

880... 

*  Including  Indian  Territory  for  this  year  and  sub- 
sequent ones. 

Production  of  spirits  per  capita  in  Kansas  in  1880, 
0.043  gallon  ;  in  1889  (on  the  basis  of  the  census  of  1890), 
0.0005  gallon.  Production  of  beer  per  capita  (reckon- 
ing 31  gallons  to  the  barrel),  in  1885,  1.004  gallon ;  in 
1889  (census  of  1890),  0.18  gallon. 

The  most  competent  observers  have  added 
specific  evidence  of  the  practical  ruin  of  the 
retail  business  throughout  the  State.  Surely 
no  individuals  are  better  qualified  to  speak 
concerning  the  extent  of  the  traffic  than  the 
Probate  Judges  of  the  various  counties.  With 
them  rests  the  responsibility  for  hearing  and 
granting  applications  to  sell  liquor  for  the 
excepted  purposes  ;  and  they  are  charged  also 
with  the  duty  of  receiving  and  inspecting  the 
returns  of  sales  made  by  all  lawful  vendors. 
In  1889  The  Voice  (cf.  New  York  City)  applied 
to  the  Probate  Judges  of  the  106  counties  of 
Kansas  for  information  as  to  the  effects  of  the 
law  ;  and,  among  other  questions,  the  follow- 
ing were  asked:  "How  successfully  has 
Prohibition  closed  the  saloons  in  your  part  of 
the  State?"  and  "To  what  extent,  in  your 
judgment,  has  it  diminished  drunkenness  and 
the  consumption  of  intoxicants  for  beverage 
purposes  ?  "  There  were  replies  from  97  coun- 
ties ;  for  75  of  the  counties  the  answers  were 
written  by  the  Probate  Judges  personally,  and 
for  the  other  22  counties,  by  county  treasurers, 
or  other  officials,  or  by  prominent  private  citi- 
zens. Every  reply,  whether  favorable  or  un- 
favorable to  Prohibition,  was  summarized  by 
The  Voice.  Ninety-four  of  the  writers  de- 
clared positively  that  there  were  no  open 
saloons,  while  the  other  three  made  qualified 
reports.  Ninety-two  stated  that  drunkenness 
and  the  consumption  of  drink  had  been  greatly 
diminished.  A  majority,  in  estimating  the 
extent  of  the  diminution,  placed  it  at  from  75 

*  Internal  Revenue  Report  for  1889,  pp.  366-69. 


Prohibition. 


1114 


Prohibition. 


to  90  per  cent. ;  others  said  that  drunkenness 
and  drink  had  been  "  entirely  eradicated"  in 
their  parts  of  the  State,  or  "  almost  totally," 
or  were  "  too  small  to  estimate,"  etc.* 

IOWA. 

The  original  prohibitory  law  of  Iowa 
{1855)  was  speedily  modified,  so  as  to  practi- 
cally permit  the  manufacture  of  all  kinds  of 
liquor,  and  the  sale  of  beer  and  wine,  tho  the 
sale  was  made  subject  to  local  option.  Special 
encouragement  seems  to  have  been  given  in 
Iowa  to  the  manufacturers  of  liquor,  especially 
beer.  Many  Germans  were  attracted  to  the 
State,  and  the  brewing  business  steadily  ex- 
panded until,  in  1882,  more  than  286,000  bar- 
rels was  produced.  The  distilling  trade  also 
acquired  much  importance  ;  one  of  the  greatest 
distilleries  in  the  world  was  built  at  Des 
Monies,  and  in  1883  (the  year  of  the  adoption 
of  the  prohibitory  amendment),  more  than 
4,500,000  gallons  of  spirits  was  distilled  in 
Iowa.  Under  such  circumstances  the  majority 
of  nearly  30,000,  given  by  the  people  for  con- 
stitutional Prohibition  was  a  great  victory  for 
the  principle.  It  was  followed  up  by  so  vigor- 
ous a  display  of  strength  that,  altho  the 
State  Supreme  Court  declared  the  amendment 
invalid  on  technical  grounds,  the  legislature 
promptly  enacted  enforcement  legislation, 
which  was  subsequently  improved,  The 
Clark  law,  with  its  nuisance  and  injunction 
features,  and  the  Pharmacy  law,  take  rank 
with  the  most  rigid  acts  of  Kansas.  These 
measures  have  been  retained  intact,  and 
during  the  largest  part  of  the  period  since 
1885,  have  had  the  moral  support  of  the  State 
Government.  There  has  never  been  a  rea- 
sonable doubt  that  an  overwhelming  majority 
of  the  people  have  fully  sustained  Prohibition 
in  Iowa,  and  desired  its  complete  enforce- 
ment ;  and  the  pressure  brought  by  them  has 
been  so  powerful  that  in  most  of  the  cities  a 
marked  progress  toward  the  extermination  of 
the  traffic  has  been  observable.  But  political 
complications,  and  the  artful  schemings  of 
influential  men,  have  had  much  more  serious 
effect  in  Iowa  than  in  Kansas.  In  1894  a 
Mulct  law  was  passed,  the  prohibitory  statute 
remaining  technically  in  force,  but  providing 
that  the  payment  of  a  set  tax  would  protect 
sellers  from  prosecution  for  violation  of  the 
law. 

OTHER   EXPERIMENTS   IN   STATE   PROHIBITION. 

In  existing  circumstances  the  decision  of  the 
question  whether  State  Prohibition  has  whole- 
some practical  effects,  if  executed  with  tolera- 
ble fairness,  rests  mainly  upon  the  conclusions 
coming  from  a  thorough  study  of  Maine,  Kan- 
sas, and  Iowa  experience  ;  for  these  are  the 
only  States  in  which  there  has  been  anything 
like  an  adequate  and  a  prolonged  trial  of  the 
policy  throughout  a  broad  extent  of  territory 
embracing  considerable  cities  and  peopled  by 
enterprising  classes  of  citizens.  In  every  other 
State  that  has  tried  Prohibition  some  or  all  of 
the  elements  essential  to  significant  results 
have  been  lacking  ;  generally  the  enforcement 

*  The  Voice,  June  13,  1889. 


legislation  has  been  defective  ;  in  most  in- 
stances even  these  feeble  measures  have  lasted 
for  only  two  or  three  years  ;  discriminations 
have  been  made  permitting  the  sale  of  wine 
and  beer,  and  the  manufacture  of  these  and 
other  liquors  ;  political  favor  has  rarely  been 
exhibited,  and  nearly  always  there  has  been  a 
general  disposition  to  conspire  for  the  law's 
nullification  and  repeal.  Nevertheless,  it  will 
be  seen  that  good  has  been  done  by  even  very 
imperfect  and  transitory  Prohibition  systems — 
good  proportioned  to  the  degree  of  the  enforce- 
ment— and  that  conditions  under  the  weakest 
prohibitory  laws  have  been  decidedly  better, 
from  the  temperance  and  anti-liquor  traffic 
point  of  view,  than  under  any  method  of 
license  in  the  same  States. 

Vermont. — Its  prohibitory  law  was  passed 
in  1852  and  has  never  been  repealed  ;  there- 
fore Vermont  has  had  continuous  Prohibition 
longer  than  any  other  State,  not  excepting 
Maine — for  in  Maine  there  has  been  an  inter- 
val of  license  (1857-58).  Besides,  the  statute 
has  had  the  general  support  of  the  people,  and 
has  encountered  little  opposition  from  public 
men.  But  Vermont  is  not  one  of  the  repre- 
sentative States.  Its  commercial  interests  are 
not  in  a  conspicuous  way  "diversified,"  its 
town's  are  relatively  few  and  small,  its  citizens 
are  conservative,  and  its  population  does  not 
show  a  characteristic  commingling  of  the 
varied  elements  of  American  life.  Thus  the 
results  of  Prohibition  in  Vermont  are  not  deci- 
sive, because  the  circumstances  do  not  bear  the 
tests  that  are  naturally  applied. 

The  number  of  persons  paying  retailers'  and 
wholesalers'  special  taxes  varies  slightly  from 
year  to  year  ;  even  the  Federal  returns  demon- 
strate that  the  traffic  is  not  increasing.  The 
average  number  of  such  payers  for  the  eight 
years  is  522.  The  population  has  been  practi- 
cally unchanged  since  1880,  and  therefore, 
reckoning  on  the  basis  of  the  population  in 
1880,  there  was,  on  the  average  during  this 
period,  one  special  taxpayer  for  each  637  of 
the  population.  Vermont's  showing  is  still 
more  creditable  when  it  is  remembered  that 
some  of  the  so-called  "liquor-dealers"  were 
"town  agents"  selling  for  medicinal  and 
similar  purposes  exclusively,  and  that  many 
of  the  others  were  undoubtedly  persons  sell- 
ing transiently,  in  a  small  way,  and  whose 
influence  for  evil  in  the  community  was  not 
comparable  with  that  exerted  by  even  the 
petty  dealers  in  the  license  States. 

North  and  South  Dakota.  —  These  two 
States  rank  next  in  present  importance,  for 
both  have  complete  Constitutional  Prohibition. 
Previously  to  1890  they  were  under  a  system 
of  high  license  and  local  option,  and  in  a 
majority  of  the  counties  the  traffic  was  pro- 
hibited. The  results  of  local  prohibition,  com- 
pared \vith  those  of  high  license,  were  so 
satisfactory  that  the  farmers  of  South  Dakota 
compelled  the  dominant  party  to  pledge  itself 
unequivocally  to  State  and  national  Prohibi- 
tion and  to  work  for  the  adoption  of  the 
Constitutional  Amendment ;  while  in  North 
Dakota  the  benefits  of  the  policy  were  so 
clearly  recognized  that  a  Prohibition  majority 
was  given  in  1889,  notwithstanding  a  general 


Prohibition. 


1115 


Prohibition. 


feeling  among  the  Prohibitionists  that  it  was 
useless  to  strive  for  victory  against  the  tactics 
and  resources  of  their  opponents. 

New  Hampshire,  permitting  the  manufac- 
ture of  liquor  and  influenced  in  its  politics  to  a 
great  extent  by  wealthy  brewers,  is  not  strictly 
a  Prohibition  State.  Even  the  prohibition  of 
the  retail  sale  did  not  finally  become  absolute 
until  1 83 1,  when  the  right  granted  to  towns  to 
tolerate  the  traffic  in  lager  beer  was  with- 
drawn. As  a  matter  of  course,  this  partial 
prohibitory  law  has  not  operated  so  success- 
fully or  beneficially  as  the  measures  already 
noticed. 

ECONOMIC   EFFECTS. 

The  relation  of  the  liquor  traffic  to  economics, 
says  James  C.  Fernald  in  his  Economics  cf 
Prohibition,  is  one  which  the  masters  of  the 
science  have  scarcely  begun  to  touch.  He 
says  : 

"Liquor  selling- does  not  pay.  .  .  .  Tell  the  lumber- 
men of  Michigan  how  many  thousands  of  drinking 
farmers  will  shingle  their  homes  and  barns,  or  build 
new  ones,  as  soon  as  they  'quit  their  meanness,'  and 
how  many  thousands  of  houses  will  be  built  in  all  our 
suburbs  for  the  working  men  when  none  of  them  drink 
away  the  money  that  might  pay  the  rent,  or  buy  the 
•cottage.  Show  the  shoe  manufacturers  of  Massachu- 
setts what  it  means  to  take  all  the  bare  feet  of  drunk- 
ards' children  off  the  ground.  Let  the  iron  men  of 
Pennsylvania  know  that  new  stoves  will  be  at  once 
needed  in  a  hundred  thousand  homes,  when  the  saloon- 
keeper ceases  to  get  the  money.  Tell  the  miners  they 
will  have  work  all  winter  through,  getting  coal  enough 
to  put  into  those  stoves.  Tell  the  cotton-planters  of 
the  South  that  there  will  be  about  10,000,000  new  calico 
dresses  and  aprons  wanted  as  soon  as  the  2,000,000  tip- 
plers cease  to  tipple,  and  go  home  with  some  spare 
change.  Let  the  ranchmen  of  Dakota  and  New  Mex- 
ico, and  Armour's  men  in  Chicago,  know  that  there's 
going  to  be  beef  on  thousands  of  tables,  where  now 
are  a  few  cold  potatoes,  as  soon  as  we  can  carry 
Prohibition.  Tell  the  wool-grower  of  Ohio  that  every- 
body in  this  country  is  going  to  be  wrapped  in  woolen 
and  sleep  under  blankets  when  the  blizzards  blow, 
and  the  thermometer  ranges  about  zero,  and  men  no 
longer  heat  up  with  liquid  fire  in  order  to  exterminate 
their  families  with  atmospheric  cold.  Tell  the  grocer 
he  can  sell  for  cash,  and  say  good-by  to  bad  debts, 
•when  the  dimes  no  longer  go  into  the  saloon  till.  Tell 
the  farmer  there  is  going  to  be  an  unheard-of  demand 
for  flour,  and  meal,  and  butter,  and  cheese,  and  eggs 
as  soon  as  the  bloated  beer-holders  cease  fostering 
that  industry,  and  begin  filling  out  the  hollow  cheeks 
of  wives  and  children." 

In  the  chapter  headed,  "  Paying  the  Piper," 
he  says : 

"  The  people  of  the  United  States  are  spending  for 
intoxicants  more  than  $1,100,000,000,  and  increasing  the 
expenditure  at  the  rate  of  about  $50,000,000  a  year. 
What  nation  can  long  endure  such  a  drain  ?  How  can 
we  help  having  poverty  and  distress? 

"  The  immensity  of  the  outlay  can  be  seen  by  con- 
sidering the  further  fact  that  the  total  of  imports  of 
the  United  States  in  i388  were  but  $723,879,813,  and 
the  customs  duties  collected  on  the  same  were  only 
$219,091,173. 

"  This  $1,100,000,000,  then,  is  the  cost  to  the  drinkers 
of  the  nation.  From  this  we  should  deduct,  according 
to  Mr.  E.  J.  Wheeler,*  $124,000,000  as  the  total  receipts 
from  all  forms  of  tax  and  license  paid  by  the  liquor 
traffic  to  the  nation  and  the  States.  This  would  bring 
the  actual  cash  loss  to  the  nation  a  little  below  $1,000,- 
000,000.  But  the  selling  price  of  both  beer  and  whisky 
is  estimated  so  low  in  the  above  table  that  we  may 
claim  the  benefit  of  the  margin,  and  safely  hold  the 
entire  loss  to  be  not  less  than  $1,000,000,000. 

"A  thousand  million  dollars  in  a  single  year,  and 
this  going  on  steadily  year  after  year  !  It  would  have 
bankrupted  the  Roman  Empire,  when  her  nobles 

*  Prohibition,  the  Principle,  the  Policy,  and  the  Party, 
P-  73- 


dined  luxuriously  on  peacocks'  brains.  It  would  have 
bankrupted  Spain,  when  the  wealth  of  the  New  World 
was  pouring  in,  and  her  knights  shod  their  steeds 
with  silver.  If  any  foreign  power  wera  to  demand 
such  a  tribute,  we  would  turn  this  whole  country  into 
an  armed  camp,  and  put  a  musket  into  the  hand  of 
every  i4-year-old  boy  sooner  than  pay  it.  But  we 
patiently  hand  it  over  to  our  150,000  liquor  barons,  and 
only  beg  them  to  have  a  little  mercy,  and  give  us  a 
rest  for  part  of  Sunday,  and  from  midnight  to  daylight 
on  other  days. 

"Still,  this  estimate  only  touches  the  outer  edge  of 
the  deficit.  Every  man  who  drinks  loses  from  labor 
a  steadily  increasing  amount  of  time.  It  is  probable 
that,  from  first  to  last,  he  loses  an  amount  of  time 
equal  to  the  cost  of  his  drinks.  If  this  estimate  were 
to  be  allowed,  it  would  just  double  the  $1,000,000,000. 
But  it  would  probably  be  challenged,  and  be  thought 
weakest  where  it  is  strongest.  Men  would  be  cited 
who  drink  hard  and  work  hard  to  the  day  of  their 
death.  But  they  die  in  the  midst  of  their  strength, 
and  the  loss  is  of  all  the  years  they  might  have  lived. 
If  the  hard  drinker  lives  much  beyond  30,  infirmities, 
sicknesses,  and  incapacity  increase  rapidly  upon  him, 
with  their  inevitable  loss  of  working  time  and  power. 
For  the  man  who  goes  on  '  sprees,'  there  will  be  days 
of  lost  labor  from  a  few  hours'  debauch.  By  the  mo'st 
moderate  computation,  which,  I  believe,  has  not  been 
challenged,  there  is  lost  the  labor  of  700,000  drunkards, 
amounting  to  $175,000,000,  and  enough  of  the  labor  of 
2,000,000  tipplers  to  make  about  $225,000,000 — a  total  of 
$400,000,000  every  year. 

"But  drinking  men  often  become  paupers,  or  pau- 
perize those  dependent  upon  them.  Sixty-seven 
thousand  inmates  of  almshpuses  were  reported  to  the 
Census  Office  in  1880.  Their  support,  by  the  average 
of  many  institutions,  may  be  put  at  $100  each  per  year, 
making  a  total  of  $6,700,000.  The  amount  of  outdoor  re- 
lief given  can  be  only  distantly  approximated.  In  the 
State  of  New  York,  where  the  cost  of  maintaining 
paupers  in  county  poorhouses  is  $678,037.76,  the  out- 
door relief  given  in  the  same  counties  is  $498,866.10,  or 
about  two-thirds.  Supposing  this  ratio  to  exist 
throughout  the  country,  that  would  give  $4,466,666 
for  outdoor  relief.  This  is  far  below  the  true  amount, 
for  it  makes  no  account  of  private  charity  as  exer- 
cised by  churches,  lodges,  and  individuals,  which 
would  mount  up  to  millions  more. 

"Adding  the  $4,466,666  of  estimated  outdoor  relief 
to  the  $6, 700,000  infirmary  expenses,  we  have  $11,166,666 
for  National  pauperism.  Dr.  Hargreaves  ascribes 
nine-tenths  of  this  to  intemperance.  We  are  willing 
to  put  it  at  three-fourths.  It  hardly  can  be  less  than 
that.  .  .  .  Three-fourths,  then,  of  the  total  $11,166,666 
would  be  a  little  over  $8,000,000,  which  we  may  take 
as  a  thoroughly  safe  estimate  of  the  pauperism  due  to 
intemperance. 

"  Drinkers  often  become  criminals.  Here,  too,  ade- 
quate statistics  are  exceedingly  difficult  to  obtain. 
Mr.  Wines  says,  in  his  pamphlet  on  Crime,  the  Con- 
vict, and  the  Prison  •  '  The  problem  involves  many 
elements,  some  of  which  are  very  obscure.'  He  takes 
the  number  of  inmates  of  prisons  and  reformatories, 
as  given  in  the  census  of  1880,  at  70,000,  and  remarks  : 
'  Assuming  that  the  charge  for  keeping  up  the  prisons, 
including  buildings  and  repairs,  is  not  less  than  $200  a 
year  for  each  prisoner,  this  item  of  expense  will 
amount  to  nearly,  or  quite,  $15,000,000  annually.'  He 
adds  an  estimate  of  the  cost  of  arrest  and  trial,  and 
says  :  '  These  three  items,  taken  together,  constitute 
the  enormous  sum  of  $50,000,000  annually,  raised  by 
taxation,  to  defend  the  co'mmunity  against  the  ravages 
of  crime.' 

"Some  question  might  be  raised  about  institutions 
where  the  labor  of  prisoners  is  utilized,  so  that  they 
are  self-supporting.  These  are  chiefiy  penitentiaries, 
where  the  prisoners  are  of  adult  age  and  sentenced 
for  long  terms.  In  jails,  and  juvenile  reformatories, 
and  workhouses  this  would  not  be  the  case.  Even  if 
we  were  to  allow  a  deduction  for  this,  it  would  prob- 
ably be  more  than  compensated  by  the  fact  which  Mr. 
Wines  states,  that  his  estimate  does  not  include  the 
cost  of  the  private  detective  force,  the  sums  paid  by 
the  accused  to  their  attorneys,  nor  the  losses  to 
individuals  resulting  from  successful  frauds  or 
depredations. 

"But  this  is  not  all.  Mr.  Wines  says:  'It  is  start- 
ling to  know  that,  of  50,000,000  inhabitants  (in  1880), 
over  400,000  are  either  insane,  idiots,  or  deaf-mutes,  or 
are  inmates  of  prisons,  reformatories,  or  poorhouses. 
If  to  these  we  add  the  outdoor  poor  and  the  inmates 
of  private  charitable  institutions,  the  amount  will 
swell  to  nearly,  or  quite,  500,000,  or  one  per  cent,  of 


Prohibition. 


1 116 


Prohibition  Party. 


the  population.'  At  that  rate  the  number  would  now 
be  about  600,000.  But  we  will  keep  to  the  records  of 
iS8o,  and  consider  only  the  400,000  who  were  inmates  of 
charitable  institutions.  Of  that  number,  the  70,000 
who  were  prisoners,  and  the  67,000  who  were  paupers, 
have  been  already  considered.  Those  deducted  would 
leave  263,000  '  defective  persons.'  Assuming  the  aver- 
age cost  of  their  maintenance  to  be  $20  (and  in  many 
of  these  iustitutions  it  runs  to  nearly  $300  per  capita, 
as  skilled  teachers  and  physicians  must  be  employed 
at  great  expense),  the  cost  of  maintaining  these 
'  defective  persons '  would  exceed  $52,000,000.  If  we 
estimate  one-third  of  these  disabilities  to  be  due  to 
intemperance,  actual  or  inherited,  we  shall  have 
$17,000,000  annual  loss  to  the  nation  from  the  insanity, 
blindness,  deafness,  and  other  disabilities  which 
intemperance  produces.  .  .  . 

"Drink  produces  sickness.  A  careful  computation 
gives  about  150,000  persons  simultaneously  sick  in  the 
United  States,  as  the  result  of  using  intoxicants,  at  a 
cost  of  more  than'  $50,000,000.  This  does  not  include 
the  number  who  are  sick,  because  some  one  else  uses 
them — the  women  and  children  starved,  chilled, beaten, 
heart-broken,  crowded  into  filthy,  malarial  alleys  and 
cellars,  for  whom  simple  Prohibition  would  have  the 
effect  of  the  best  kind  of  fresh-air  fund  all  the  year 
round.  The  sickness  which  is  thus  the  indirect  result 
of  intemperance  is  at  least  equal  to  that  which  directly 
results.  It  is  probably  far  greater,  but  we  will  put  it 
down  at  another  $50,000,000— in  all,  $100,000,000. 

"  But  there  are  those  who  will  object,  '  You  are  not 
counting  the  receipts  from  this  industry.  The  liquor 
business  gives  employment  to  500,000  men,  including 
all  who  work  about  brewery,  distillery,  and  saloon.' 
But  from  the  standpoint  of  political  economy  these 
men  produce  nothing.  No  addition  to  the  national 
wealth  comes  from  their  labor.  They  must  be  counted 
and  reasoned  about  simply  as  non-producers. 

"  Adding  these  various  items,  we  have  for  the  United 
States  the  following  bill : 

Lost  labor  of  drunkards  and  tipplers $400,000,000 

Lost  labor  of  sober  men 40,000,000 

Pauperism 8,000,000 

Crime 37,500,000 

Insanity  and  disability 17,000,000 

Sickness 100,000,000 

Lost  labor  of  liquor-makers 300,000,000 

Total $902,500,000 

"  It  is  to  be  observed  that  these  estimates  are  almost 
all  based  on  the  census  of  1880.  At  that  time  the  direct 
cost  of  intoxicants,  as  estimated  by  Dr.  Hargreaves, 
was  but  $733,816,405  for  the  year.  With  the  increase 
in  the  consumption  of  liquor  from  $734,000,000  to 
$1,100,000,000,  it  is  certain  that  these  indirect  losses 
must  have  advanced  in  equal  proportion.  That  would 
make  these  items  amount  to  not  less  than  the  direct 
cost  now,  or  another  $1,100,000,000." 

For  temperance  views  contrary  to  Prohibi- 
tion, see  HIGH  LICENSE  ;  NORWEGIAN  SYSTEM  ; 
NATIONALIZATION  OF  THE  LIQUOR  TRAFFIC  ; 
SOUTH  CAROLINA  DISPENSARY  SYSTEM. 

For  facts  indicating  that  intemperance  is 
not  so  far  responsible  for  poverty  as  is  here 
argued,  see  POVERTY.  See  also  INTEMPERANCE. 

References  :  Cyclopedia  of  Temperance  and  Prohibi- 
tion, New  York,  1891  ;  Economics  of  Prohibition,  by 
James  C.  Fernald,  New  York  ;  Prohibition,  the  Prin- 
ciple, the  Policy,  and  the  Party,  by  E.  J.  Wheeler,  New 
York,  1889 ;  Alcohol  and  the  State,  by  Robert  C.  Pit- 
man, New  York,  1886  ;  The  Foundation  of  Death,  by 
Axel  Gustafson,  New  York  ;  The  Liquor  Problem  tn 
all  Ages,  by  Daniel  Dorchester,  D.  D.,  New  York, 
1884;  Is  License  Constitutional?  Eli  F.  Ritter,  New 
York,  1890. 

PROHIBITION  PARTY,  THE.— The  fol- 
lowing account  of  the  Prohibition  Party 
is  contributed  by  prominent  leaders  of  the 
party. 

The  Prohibition  party  was  established  in 
1869  on  the  basis  of  uncompromising  opposi- 
tion to  the  drink  traffic  and  to  all  parties 
not  harmoniously  and  unmistakably  pledged 
against  that  traffic,  and  has  been  steadily 


maintained  since  then  (though  with  occasional 
slight  changes  of  name). 

In  the  early  struggles  for  Prohibition  (1850- 
60)  it  was  generally  agreed  that  the  policy 
should  stand  or  fall  in  accordance  with  the 
spontaneously  expressed  will  of  the  people, 
and  politicians  found  few  inducements  to 
manipulate  or  resist  public  opinion,  for  the 
liquor  traffic  was  not  a  great  organized  politi- 
cal power.  The  question  whether  the  Maine 
law  should  be  adopted  in  a  State  was  sub- 
mitted in  good  faith  to  the  electors  for  de- 
cision, and  an  affirmative  vote  was  followed  by 
the  desired  legislation,  which  was  retained  on 
the  statute-book  as  long  as  there  was  good 
reason  for  believing  that  a  majority  of  the 
people — even  though  a  passive  majority — 
would  object  to  its  removal.  At  times,  as  in 
New  York  and  Maine,  there  were  noticeable 
developments  of  political  antagonism  and  con- 
spiracy, but  these  were  exceptional.  In  the 
Prohibition  literature  of  that  period  we  find 
little  to  suggest  the  present  radical  tactics. 
It  is  considered  a  memorable  if  not  an  un- 
paralleled circumstance  that  Rev.  Charles  F. 
Deems  published,  before  the  war,  a  newspaper 
which  especially  urged  the  importance  of  inde- 
pendent political  action  by  the  advocates  of 
Prohibition.  This  journal  was  printed  at 
Greensburg,  N.  C.,  in  1854,  and  only  a  few 
numbers  were  issued. 

In  the  Civil  War  (1861-65)  all  political  ques- 
tions save  the  supreme  questions  arising  from, 
that  conflict  were  lost  sight  of. 
The  liquor  traffic  was  given  a  new 
footing  by  the  Internal  Revenue  Origin, 
legislation.  Brought  into  political 
prominence  and  schooled  in  politi- 
cal arts  by  its  close  relations  with  the  Federal 
Government,  the  liquor  element  gradually 
asserted  itself  in  State  politics.  No  new  pro- 
hibitory measure  was  enacted  at  the  North 
during  the  war.  Rhode  Island's  statute  was 
repealed  in  1863,  other  State  laws  were  weak- 
ened, and  nearly  all  were  flagrantly  violated. 
Soon  after  the  restoration  of  peace,  it  became 
evident  that  the  liquor  traffickers  were  bent 
on  sweeping  away,  by  political  operation,  all 
the  prohibitory  legislation  of  the  Union.  In 
Massachusetts,  the  most  populous  of  the  Pro- 
hibition States,  the  rum-sellers  made  an  aggres- 
sive political  canvass  in  1867,  resulting  in  the 
election  of  a  legislature  which  rescinded  the 
law  the  next  year.  In  Connecticut,  in  1860, 
an  active  agitation  for  repeal  was  begun.  In 
the  same  year  the  National  Brewers'  Congress 
(at  Chicago,  June  5,  1860)  adopted  the  follow- 
ing resolution : 

"Whereas,  The  action  and  influence  of  the  temper- 
ance party  is  in  direct  opposition  to  the  principles  of 
individual  freedom  and  political  equality  upon  which 
our  American  union  is  founded  ;  therefore 

"Resolved,  That  we  will  u^e  all  means  to  stay  the 
progress  of  this  fanatical  party,  and  to  secure  our  in- 
dividual rights  as  citizens,  and  that  we  will  sustain  no 
candidate,  of  whatever  party,  in  any  election,  who  is 
in  any  way  disposed  toward  the  total  abstinence 
cause." 

These  and  other  evidences  of  serious  polit- 
ical dangers  aroused  the  Prohibitionists.  As 
early  as  February,  1867,  the  State  Temperance 
Convention  of  Pennsylvania  declared  that  "  if 


Prohibition  Party. 


1117 


Prohibition  Party. 


the  adversaries  of  temperance  shall  continue 
to  receive  the  aid  and  countenance  of  present 
political  parties  we  shall  not  hesitate  to  break 
over  political  bands  and  seek  redress  through 
the  ballot-box."  The  Grand  Lodge  of  Good 
Templars  of  Pennsylvania,  at  Pittsburg,  June 
10,  1860,  passed  a  similar  resolution,  and  the 
Right  Worthy  Grand  Lodge  of  Good  Templars 
(the  supreme  body  of  the  Order),  in  session  at 
Richmond,  Ind.,  May  28,  1868,  recommended 
' '  to  the  temperance  people  of  the  country  the 
organization  of  a  national  political  party 
whose  platform  of  principles  shall  contain 
Probibition  of  the  manufacture,  importation, 
and  sale  of  intoxicating  liquor  to  be  used  as  a 
beverage." 

In  1869  (at  Oswego,  N.  Y.,  May  20),  the 
Grand  Lodge  expressed  the  opinion  "  That  we 
esteem  the  present  as  an  auspicious  period  in 
the  history  of  our  political  affairs  for  the  in- 
auguration of  this  movement,  and  therefore 
recommend  the  calling  of  a  National  Conven- 
tion for  the  purpose  at  an  early  day."  On  this 
occasion  a  meeting  of  these  favoring  separate 
political  action  was  held,  with  Jonathan  H. 
Orne  of  Marblehead,  Mass. ,  as  president,  and 
J.  H.  Spencer  of  Cleveland,  O.,  as  secretary. 
The  duty  of  preparing  a  call  for*  a  National 
Convention  to  organize  a  National  Prohibition 
Party  was  assigned  to  a  committee  of  five, 
composed  of  Rev.  John  Russell  of  Detroit, 
Mich.,  Prof.  Daniel  Wilkins  of  Bloomington. 
111.,  J.  A.  Spencer  of  Cleveland,  O.,  John  N. 
Stearns  of  New  York,  and  James  Black  of 
Lancaster,  Pa. 

The  organizing  convention  met  in  Farwell 
Hall,  Chicago,  jon  the  specified  day  (Sep- 
tember i,  1869),  with  nearly  five  hundred  dele- 
gates in  attendance.  At  first  it  was  decided 
to  call  the  new  organization  the  Anti-Dram- 
shop party,  but  the  convention  finally  named 
it  the  National  Prohibition  Party.  The  fol- 
lowing is  the  text  of  the  platform  of  principles 
adopted : 

"Whereas,  Protection  and  allegiance  are  reciprocal 
duties,  and  every  citizen  who  yields  obedience  to  the 
just  commands  of  his  Government  is  entitled  to  the 
full,  free,  and  perfect  protection  of  that  Government 
in  the  enj  oyment  of  personal  security,  personal  liberty, 
and  private  property  ;  and 

"Whereas,  The  traffic  in  intoxicating  drinks  greatly 
impairs  the  personal  security  and  personal  liberty  of 
a  large  mass  of  citizens,  and  renders  private  property 
insecure ;  and 

"Whereas,  The  existing  parties  are  hopelessly  un- 
willing to  adopt  an  adequate  policy  on  this  question  ; 
therefore  , 

"  We,  in  National  Convention  assembled,  as  citizens 
of  this  free  Republic,  sharing  the  duties  and  responsi- 
bilities of  its  Government,  in  discharge  of  a  solemn 
duty  we  owe  to  our  country  and  our  race,  unite  in  the 
following  declaration  of  principles  : 

"  i.  That  while  we  acknowledge  the  pure  patriotism 
and  profound  statesmanship  of  those  patriots  who  laid 
the  foundations  of  this  Government,  securing  at  once 
the  rights  of  the  States  severally,  and  their  insepara- 
ble union  by  the  Federal  Constitution,  we  would  not 
merely  garnish  the  sepulchers  of  our  republican 
fathers,  but  we  do  hereby  renew  our  solemn  pledges 
of  fealty  to  the  imperishable  principles  of  civil  and 
religious  liberty  embodied  in  the  Declaration  of  Amer- 
ican Independence  and  our  Federal  Constitution. 

"  2.  That  the  traffic  in  intoxicating  beverages  is  a 
dishonor  to  Christian  civilization,  inimical  to  the  best 
interests  of  society,  a  political  wrong  of  unequaled 
enormity,  subversive  of  the  ordinary  objects  of  gov- 
ernment, not  capable  of  being  regulated  or  restrained 
by  any  system  of  license  whatever,  but  imperatively 


demanding  for  its  suppression  effective  legal  Prohibi- 
tion, both  by  State  and  National  legislation. 

"  3-  That  in  view  of  this,  and  inasmuch  as  the  exist- 
ing political  parties  either  oppose  or  ignore  this  great 
and  paramount  question,  and  absolutely  refuse  to  do 
anything  toward  the  suppression  of  the  rum  traffic, 
which  is  robbing  the  nation  of  its  brightest  intellects, 
destroying  internal  prosperity,  and  rapidly  under- 
mining its  very  foundations,  we  are  driven  by  an  im- 
perative sense  of  duty  to  sever  pur  connection  with 
these  political  parties^and  organize  ourselves  into  a 
National  Prohibition  party,  having  for  its  primary 
object  the  entire  suppression  of  the  traffic  in  intoxicat- 
ing drinks. 

"4.  That  while  we  adopt  the  name  of  the  National 
Prohibition  Party,  as  expressive  of  our  primary  ob- 
ject, and  while  we  denounce  all  repudiation  of  the 

Biblic  debt,  and  pledge  fidelity  to  the  principles  of  the 
eclaration  of  Independence  and  the  Federal  Consti- 
tution, we  deem  it  not  expedient  at  present  to  give 
prominence  to  other  political  issues. 

"5.  That  while  we  recognize  the  good  providence  of 
Almighty  God  in  supervising  the  interests  of  this 
nation  from  its  establishment  to  the  present  time,  we 
would  not,  in  organizing  our  party  for  the  legal  pro- 
hibition of  the  liquor  traffic,  forget  that  our  reliance 
for  ultimate  success  must  be  upon  the  same  omnipo- 
tent arm. 

"6.  That  a  Central  Executive  Committee  of  one 
from  each  State  and  Territory  and  the  District  of 
Columbia  be  appointed  by  the  Chair,  whose  duty  it 
shall  be  to  take  such  action  as,  in  their  judgment,  will 
best  promote  the  interests  of  the  party." 

At  the  fall  elections  of  1869  Ohio  was  the 
only  State  returning  votes  for  the  Prohibition 
party  as  a  distinct  organization,  679  being 
reported  from  that  State.  But  Maine  and 
Minnesota  each  cast  votes  for  "  Republican- 
Prohibition  "  candidates—  the  former  4743  and 
the  latter  1061. 

In  1870  support  was  received  at  the  polls  in 
six  States,  as  follows  :  Illinois,  3712  ;  Massa- 
chusetts (Lieutenant-  Govern  or),  8692  ;  Michi- 
gan, 2170  ;  New  Hampshire,  1167  ;  New  York, 
1459  ;  Ohio,  2812  —  total,  20,012.  In  Massachu- 
setts the  Prohibition  candidate  for  Governor 
this  year  was  Wendell  Phillips,  and,  being 
indorsed  by  the  Labor  party  and  Independent 
Republicans,  he  polled  21,946  votes—  many 
more  than  were  cast  for  the  other  candidates 
of  the  Prohibitionists. 

Only  a  few  of  the  States  held  elections 
in  1871.  Five  returned  Prohibition  votes  : 
Massachusetts,  6598  ;  New  Hampshire,  314  ; 
New  York,  1820  ;  Ohio,  4084,  and  Pennsyl- 
vania, 3186  —  total,  16,002.  In  New  York  the 
party  took  the  name  of  "  Anti-Dram-shop." 
In  Pennsylvania  it  appeared  for  the  first 
time. 

The  first  National  Nominating  Convention 
was  held  on  Washington's  Birthday  (Feb- 
ruary 22),  in  1872,  at  Columbus, 
O.  James  Black  of  Pennsyl- 
vania,  and  John  Russell  of  Michi- 
gan,  were  unanimously  nominated 
for  President  and  Vice-President, 
respectively.  Besides  the  planks 
on  temperance  there  were  planks  favoring 
a  sound  currency,  convertible  into  gold  or 
silver,  suffrage  irrespective  of  color  or  sex, 
low  rates  of  travel  and  transportation,  direct 
vote  for  Presidency  and  Vice-Presidency,  pro- 
motion of  immigration,  transportation,  and 
purity  of  office.  For  the  result  of  Presidential 
elections,  see  the  end  of  this  article. 

Throughout  these  early  years  of  independ- 
ent political  agitation,  and  for  nearly  10 
years  more,  there  was  practically  no  general 


F-    t 
presidential 


Prohibition  Party. 


1118 


Prohibition  Party. 


acceptance  of  the  claims  of  the  National  Pro- 
hibition Party.  Operations  were  confined  to 
separate  States,  and  the  results  gained,  while 
promising  in  a  number  of  cases,  were  tem- 
porary and  were  not  followed  up.  The  elec- 
tion returns  frequently  describe  the  Prohibition 
votes  of  this  period  as  "Temperance"  or 
"  Anti-Dram-shop."  In  Rhode  Island  the 
Prohibition  question  changed  the  face  of  poli- 
tics for  several  years.  A  legislature  and  a 
Governor  friendly  to  Prohibition  were  chosen 
in  1874,  and  a  prohibitory  law  was  accordingly 
enacted.  A  conspiracy  to  annul  it  was  imme- 
diately instituted,  and  the  parties  were  split 
into  factions  for  and  against  repeal.  In  1875, 
on  the  question  of  repeal,  three  candidates  for 
Governor  were  nominated,  and  the  candidate 
committed  to  the  retention  of  the  measure 
(Howard,  Republican  and  Prohibitionist) 
received  a  plurality,  but  the  liquor  men  car- 
ried the  legislature  and  seated  an  anti-Prohi- 
bition Governor.  The  political  complications 
growing  out  of  the  developments  of  1875  con- 
tinued until  1880,  and  in  each  year  the  Prohi- 
bition element  polled  a  heavy  vote,  ranging 
above  6000. 

The  second  National  Nominating  Conven- 
tion met  in  Cleveland  on  the  i7th  of  May, 
1876.  Green  Clay  Smith  of  Ken- 
tucky was  nominated  for  Presi- 
1876  to  1880.  dent,  and  Gideon  T.  Stewart  of 
Ohio,  for  Vice- President.  "The 
National  Prohibition  Reform 
Party  "  was  substituted  for  the  old  name. 

Without  resources  or  encouragement,  the 
party  conducted  no  canvass  in  1876.  This 
was  the  exciting  Tilden-Hayes  year,  and 
electors  were  especially  unwilling  to  break 
away  from  their  old  parties.  But  the  Prohibi- 
tion vote,  tho  light,  was  distributed  over  18 
States;  twice  as  many  States  as  had  furnished 
support  in  any  former  year. 

The  intention  of  continuing  the  national 
struggle  was  shown  in  1877,  when  a  national 
conference  of  the  party  was  held  in  New  York 
City  (September  26  and  27). 

The  elections  of  1877  were  signalized  by 
votes  of  10,545  in  Iowa  (a  State  that  had 
ignored  the  movement),  and  16,354  in  Massa- 
chusetts. Iowa's  action  proved  to  be  of  far- 
reaching  importance  ;  the  bold  step  taken  by 
her  Prohibitionists  alarmed  the  Republican 
leaders  and  prepared  the  way  for  the  Consti- 
tutional Amendment  agitation  and  the  subse- 
quent submission  and  legislation. 

The  third  National  Nominating  Convention 
met  at  Cleveland,  June  17,  1880.  Neal  Dow 
of  Maine  was  nominated  for  President,  and 
Rev.  H.  A.  Thompson  of  Ohio,  for  Vice-Presi- 
dent. 

Sixteen  States  gave  votes  in  1880  as  against 
18  in  1876.  Again  the  party  was  too  feeble  to 
make  a  formal  campaign.  Votes  for  State 
candidates  in  1880  :  Connecticut,  488  ;  Massa- 
chusetts, 1059;  Michigan,  1114;  New  Jersey, 
195  ;  Ohio,  2815  ;  Pennsylvania,  1898 — total, 
7489. 

The  years  1881  and  1882  mark  a  new  epoch 
in  the  history  of  the  National  organization. 
At  the  Lake  Bluff  convocation  (held  near  Chi- 
cago) in  August,  1881,  some  of  the  influential 


Prohibition  leaders  who  had  not  been  very 
actively  identified  with  the  party,  or  had  held 
aloof  from  it,  decided  to  secure,  if  possible,  a 
more  vigorous  championship,  and  a  stronger 
support  for  it.     George  W.  Bain  of  Kentucky, 
A.    J.    Jutkins   of    Illinois,    Miss 
Frances  E.  Willard  of  Illinois,  and     UTT,, 
R.    W.    Nelson    of    Illinois,   were    p-f^o 
appointed  a  committee  to  organize      P    t    " 
a    so-called     "  Home     Protection 
Party  "  as  "  a  political  party  whose 
platform  is  based  on  constitutional  and  statu- 
tory Prohibition  of  the  manufacture  and  sale 
of  alcoholic  beverages  in  the  State  and  nation. "~ 
A  call  for  a  National  convention,  joined  in  by 
the   others  interested,   was  issued,   and    the 
body  met  in  Farwell  Hall,  Chicago,  August 
23  and  24,   1882;  341  delegates  being  present 
from  22  States.     A  new  name,  the  "Prohibi- 
tion Home  Protection  Party,"  was  adopted. 

There  was  substantial  growth  at  the  State 
elections  of  1881,  1882,  and  1883;  the  more 
encouraging  because  it  was  the  consequence 
of  steadily  rising  sentiment. 

The  Nominating  Convention  of  1884  was 
called  to  meet  at  Pittsburg,  May  21.  But  it 
was  desired  by  some  of  the  new  leaders,  and 
by  many  who  had  not  fully  made  up  their 
minds,  to  make  a  final  test  of  the  tendencies- 
of  the  other  political  parties  before  entering 
the  field.  The  date  was  changed  to  July  23, 
and  prominent  representatives  of 
the  movement  were  sent  to  the 
Republican  National  Convention  1884 to  1888, 
(at  Chicago,  June  5),  and  the 
Democratic  National  Convention 
(at  Chicago,  July  10)  to  appeal  to  those  bodies 
to  favorably  recognize  the  temperance  ques- 
tion as  one  of  the  political  issues  of  the  day. 
The  platform  committees  of  the  two  conven- 
tions, after  listening  with  scant  courtesy  to 
the  advocates,  ignored  their  requests.  Many 
who  had  hoped  that  the  Republican  or  the 
Democratic  party  would  take  up  the  cause  in 
due  time,  were  now  convinced  of  the  hostility 
of  both  these  organizations,  and  when  the 
Prohibition  convention  assembled  at  Pitts- 
burg,  on  the  23d  of  July,  it  was  evident  that 
a  profound  impression  had  been  made  on  the 
country.  Thirty-one  States  and  Territories 
(including  the  District  of  Columbia)  sent  465 
accredited  delegates.  The  name  of  the  party 
was  once  more  changed,  the  original  name  of 
"  Prohibition  Party  "  being  restored.  John  B. 
Finch  of  Nebraska  was  placed  at  the  head  of 
the  National  committee.  The  temperance 
women  were  given  special  representation  in 
the  committee,  by  the  selection  of  Miss  Fran- 
ces E.  Willard  of  Illinois,  and  Mrs.  Stewart 
of  Ohio,  as  members-at-large. 

Woman  suffrage,  however,  was  left  to  the 
discretion  of  the  States,  and  the  platform 
devoted  almost  purely  to  Prohibition  and  the 
results  of  intemperance  on  the  nation  at  large. 

With  the  Presidential  campaign  of  1884,  the 
National  Prohibition  party  ceased  to  be  a 
merely  nominal  organization,  and  began  its 
active  career.  A  headquarters  was  opened  at 
Chicago,  and  an  energetic  canvass  was  made. 
Mr.  St.  John  and  numerous  other  able  speakers 
addressed  large  audiences  in  many  States. 


Prohibition  Party. 


1119 


Prohibition  Party, 


The  party  was  strengthened  by  cooperation 
from  certain  elements  of  voters  who  conscien- 
tiously opposed  both  Mr.  Cleveland  and  Mr. 
Elaine,  on  grounds  of  personality,  and  who, 
recognizing  in  Mr.  St.  John  a  pure  man,  and  in 
his  cause  a  movement  of  good  aspirations, 
sustained  the  Prohibition  ticket  because  (from 
their  points  of  view)  no  other  acceptable  one 
was  presented. 

This  campaign  brought  fresh  vigor  to  the 
Prohibition  press.  The  first  number  of  The 
Voice  was  issued  September  25,  1884.  After 
the  November  election  it  was  sus- 
pended until  the  ist  of  January, 

Journals.  1885,  and  since  that  date  its  publi- 
cation has  been  continued  without 
interruption,  under  the  general 
supervision  of  I.  K.  Funk,  D.  D.,  and,  for  the 
most  of  the  time,  the  directing  editorship  of 
Mr.  E.  J.  Wheeler.  Among  the  other  journals 
which  have  advocated  the  principles  of  the 
party  are,  The  Lever  of  Chicago,  The  New 
Era  of  Springfield,  O.,  The  Witness  of  New 
York  City,  The  Constitution  of  New  York 
City,  The  Indiana  Phalanx,  Indianapolis, 
Ind. 

Thirty-four  of  the  38  States  yielded  votes  in 
1884.  There  was  a  marked  advance  through- 
out the  principal  States  of  the  North.  New 
York  decided  the  Presidential  election  in  favor 
of  Cleveland,  but  by  a  very  small  plurality 
(1040);  and,  assuming  that  the  accessions  to 
the  Prohibition  party  came  chiefly  from  the 
Republicans,  it  is  evident  that  the  result  in 
the  country  at  large  would  have  been  reversed 
if  no  Prohibition  ticket  had  been  run.  As  a 
result,  the  attacks  upon  the  Prohibition  party 
by  Republicans  at  this  time  were  very  bitter. 
They  aided  the  party,  however. 

After  the  election  of  1884,  it  was  a  com- 
mon remark  among  the  advocates  of  the  Pro- 
hibition party  that  they  had  "  elected  their 
issue  "  to  a  conspicuous  place  in  national  poli- 
tics. Their  hope  was  that  it  would  soon  be 
made  the  dividing  issue,  and  that  a  reconstruc- 
tion of  parties  would  be  accomplished.  Many 
believed  that  the  expected  result  would  come 
to  pass  at  the  Presidential  contest  of  1888. 
But  the  rising  interest  in  the  tariff  discussion 
interfered  with  their  plans. 

The  party  held  its  national  convention  at 
Indianapolis  on  the  3oth  and  3ist  of  May. 
Forty-two  States  and  Territories,  and  the 
District  of  Columbia,  sent  delegates.  The 
nominations  for  President  and  Vice-President 
were  given,  respectively,  to  General  Clinton 
B.  Fisk  of  New  Jersey,  and  John  A.  Brooks  of 
Missouri. 

After  a  protracted  struggle  a  woman's  suf- 
frage plank  was  put  back  into  the  platform; 
planks  were  also  introduced  on  arbitra- 
tion, restriction  of  immigration,  civil  service, 
uniform  marriage  and  divorce  laws,  tariff  for 
revenue  only,  defense  of  the  Sabbath,  etc. 

Great  energy  and  zeal  characterized  the 
Fisk  and  Brooks  campaign.  The  Voice  raised 
from  its  readers  funds  that  enabled  the  pub- 
lishers to  send  that  paper  to  60,000  clergymen 
of  the  country,  and  (for  several  weeks)  to  500,- 
ooo  farmers.  Votes  were  polled  in  every  State 
but  South  Carolina. 


The  convention  of  1892  was  held  in  Cincin-, 
nati,  June  30.     John   P.    St.    John  of  Kansas- ' 
was  chosen  temporary  chairman, 
and  Eli  F.  Ritter  of  Indiana  per- 
manent chairman.     General  John  1892  to  1896. 
Bidwell   of   California  was  nomi- 
nated   for  President,   and    J.    B. 
Cranfill    of    Texas  for    Vice-President.     The 
platform  declared  for  Prohibition,  woman  suf- 
frage, currency  reform,  anti-monopoly  laws, 
restriction  of  immigration.     It  contains,  be- 
sides, the  following  planks  : 

All  men  should  be  protected  by  law  in  their  right  to 
one  day  of  rest  in  seven. 

Arbitration  is  the  wisest  and  most  economical  and 
humane  method  of  settling  national  differences. 

Speculations  in  margins;  the  cornering  of  grain,, 
money,  and  products ;  and  the  formation  of  pools, 
trusts,  and  combinations  for  the  arbitrary  advance- 
ment of  prices  should  be  suppressed. 

We  pledge  that  the  Prohibition  party,  if  elected  ta 
power,  will  ever  grant  just  pensions  to  disabled  veter- 
ans of  the  Union  Army  and  Navy,  their  widows  and 
orphans. 

We  stand  unequivocally  for  the  American  public 
school  and  opposed  to  any  appropriation  of  public 
moneys  for  sectarian  schools.  We  declare  that  only 
by  united  support  of  such  common  schools,  taught  in 
the  English  language,  can  we  hope  to  become  and 
remain  a  homogeneous  and  harmonious  people. 

Samuel  Dickie  was  continued  chairman  of 
the  National  committee,  and  William  T.  Ward- 
well  of  New  York  made  secretary. 

Since  1893  there  have  been  a  number  of  im- 
portant Prohibition  victories  in  the  election  of 
municipal  governments,  notably  in  Norfolk, 
Va. ;  Williamsport,  Pa.;  Albion,  Mich.,  and 
Wellsville,  O. ;  all  of  these  four  cities  having- 
elected  Prohibition  mayors  and  councils. 

Of  late  years  there  has  been  a  growing  dis- 
sension in  the  party  over  the  attitude  to  be 
taken  in  respect  to  issues  other  than  Prohibi- 
tion. One  division,  styled  "broad-gage,"  has- 
contended  for  declarations  on  all  the  important 
political  issues,  while  the  other  division,  called 
"  narrow-gage,"  has  sought  to  confine  the 
party's  declarations  more  and  more  closely  to"- 
the  single  issue.  This  controversy  has  made 
itself  felt  with  more  or  less  intensity  in  a 
number  of  national  conventions,  but  culmi- 
nated in  that  of  1896  in  a  split  and  the  forma- 
tion by  seceding  "  broad-gagers "  of  the 
National  party.  The  convention  at  which 
this  occurred  met  in  Pittsburg  May  27  and  28r 
39  States  and  Territories  being  represented  by 
810  delegates.  A.  A.  Stevens  of  Pennsylvania 
was  temporary,  and  Oliver  W.  Stewart  of 
Illinois,  permanent  chairman.  The  committee 
on  resolutions  brought  in  two  reports,  and  the 
real  conflict  came  on  the  currency  plank.  The 
majority  report  ("narrow-gage"),  presented 
by  I.  K.  Funk,  was  silent  on  the  currency 
question,  while  the  minority  report  ("broad- 
gage  "),  represented  by  John  P.  St.  John, 
included  the  following  : 

"That  all  money  be  issued  by  the  Government 
only,  and  without  the  intervention  of  any  private  citi- 
zen, corporation,  or  banking  institution.  It  should  be 
based  upon  the  wealth,  stability,  and  integrity  of  the 
nation,  and  be  a  full  legal  tender  for  all  debts,  public 
and  private,  and  should  be  of  sufficient  volume  to 
meet  the  demand  of  the  legitimate  business  interests' 
of  the  country.  For  the  purpose  of  honestly  liquidat- 
ing all  our  outstanding  coin  obligations,  we  demand 
the  free  and  unlimited  coinage  of  silver  and  gold  at  a 
ratio  of  16  to  i,  without  consulting  any  other  nation." 


Prohibition   Party.  i 

This  plank  was  voted  down  by  a  vote  of  387 
to  427.  Robert  H.  Patton  of  Illinois  then 
offered,  as  a  substitute  for  all  that  was  before 
the  convention  from  the  committee  on  resolu- 
tions, a  declaration  for  Prohibition  alone,  and 
this  was  adopted  as  the  platform.  It  was  as 
follows  : 

"The  Prohibition  party,  in  national  convention 
assembled,  declares  its  firm  conviction  that  the  manu- 
facture, exportation,  importation,  and  sale  of  alcoholic 
beverages,  has  produced  such  social,  commercial, 
industrial,  and  political  wrongs,  and  is  now  so  threat- 
ening the  perpetuity  of  all  our  social  and  political 
institutions,  that  the  suppression  of  the  same  by  a  na- 
tional party  organized  therefor  is  the  greatest  object  to 
be  accomplished  by  the  voters  of  our  country,  and  is 
of  such  importance  that  it,  of  right,  ought  to  control 
the  political  actions  of  all  our  patriotic  citizens  until 
such  suppression  is  accomplished. 

"  The  urgency  of  this  course  demands  the  union, 
•without  further  delay,  of  all  citizens  who  desire  the 
prohibition  of  the  liquor  traffic  ;  therefore,  be  it 

"Resolved,  That  we  favor  the  legal  prohibition,  by 
State  and  national  legislation,  of  the  manufacture, 
importation,  and  sale  of  alcoholic  beverages.  That 
we  declare  our  purpose  to  organize  and  unite  all  the 
friends  of  Prohibition  into  one  party,  and  in  order  to 
accomplish  this  end,  we  deem  it  of  right  to  leave 
«very  Prohibitionist  the  freedom  of  his  own  convic- 
tions upon  all  other  political  questions,  and  trust  our 
representatives  to  take  such  action  upon  other  politi- 
cal questions  as  the  changes  occasioned  by  Prohibition 
and  the  welfare  of  the  whole  people  shall  demand." 

Joshua  Levering  of  Maryland,  and  Hale 
Johnson  of  Illinois,  were  nominated  for  Presi- 
dent and  Vice-President.  After  the  nomina- 
tions, Mrs.  Ella  A.  Boole  of  New  York 
attempted  to  add  a  woman  suffrage  plank  to 
the  platform,  but,  objection  being  made,  she 
offered  it  as  a  simple  resolution,  and  in  that 
form  it  was  adopted  by  a  large  majority.  The 
"  broad-gage  "  element  held  a  meeting  on  the 
night  of  May  30,  and  led  by  John  P.  St.  John, 
R.  S.  Thompson,  Helen  M.  Gougar,  and  L.  B. 
Logan,  formed  the  National  Party,  nominated 
Charles  E.  Bentley  of  Nebraska,  and  James 
H.  Southgate  of  North  Carolina,  and  adopted 
-a  platform  containing,  in  addition  to  a  Prohi- 
bition plank,  one  in  favor  of  woman  suffrage, 
the  money  plank  discarded  by  the  regular 
convention,  and  numerous  others.  The  regu- 
lar organization  (National  Prohibition  Party) 
reelected  Samuel  Dickie  chairman,  and  Will- 
iam T.  Wardwell  secretary  of  the  national 
committee.  The  new  organization  (National 
Party)  constituted  L.  B.  Logan  chairman  and 
Dow  j.  Thomas  secretary. 

Revised  by  E.  J.  WHEELER. 

The  following  is  the  Presidential  vote  of  the 
Prohibition  party  from  1872  to  1892  : 


Property. 


STATE. 

1872 

1876 

1880 

1884 

i838 

1892 

Alabama  

firo 

Arkansas  

614 

•California  

61 

2  060 

•Colorado  

if,-, 

Connecticut  
Delaware  

205 

373 

409 

2,3°5 
fit 

4,334 

4,026 

Florida  

* 

•Georgia  

1  68 

i  808 

988 

Idaho  

288 

Illinois  

, 

Indiana  
Iowa  

38 
16 

3,028 

9,881 

13,050 

Kansas  

Kentucky  

818 

2  eft 

STATE. 

1872 

1876 

1880 

l884 

1888 

1892 

Louisiana  

3^8 

160 

Maine  

•>    fin  I 

Maryland  

Massachusetts. 
Michigan  

84 
767 

682 

9»923 

8,701 

7,539 

Minnesota  

286 

A  68d 

20,942 

Mississippi  

218 

Missouri  

64 

Montana  

Nebraska  
Nevada  

'.599 

2,899 

9,429 

4,902 

N.  Hampshire.. 
New  Jersey.  .  .  . 

200 

180 

1,570 

*i594 

1,296 

New  York  
North  Carolina 

201 

2,329 

',517 

24,999 

3°.  23  1 

38,193 

North  Dakota. 

Kin 

Ohio  

I 

i  636 

2   6l6 

60 

, 

Oregon  

' 

,    09 

Pennsylvania.. 
Rhode  Island.  . 

1,630 

i,3'9 
68 

',3'9 

15,283 

20,447 

25,123 

South  Carolina 

South  Dakota.. 

Tennessee  

A  g-6 

Texas  

Vermont  

'     5 

Virginia  

log 

1,682 

Washington  

West  Virginia.. 

i  084 

Wisconsin  

60 

7,6*6 

Total  

, 

n  fi-rR 

6  6 

270,710 

(See  PROHIBITION.) 

PROLETARIAT.— Derived  originally  from 
the  Latin  proletarii,  the  name  given  in  the 
census  of  Servius  Tullius  to  those  who  were 
only  of  value  to  the  state  as  the  rearers  of 
offspring  (proles);  in  other  words,  they  were  of 
no  importance  either  for  wealth,  or  position, 
or  exceptional  ability  ;  hence  the  term  has 
been  applied  to  the  common  people.  Formerly 
used  as  a  term  of  contempt— as  being  of  the 
lowest  and  meanest  order  of  men — the  term 
in  its  French  form  has  latterly  been  given  a 
distinct  meaning,  and  is  used  by  writers  and 
speakers  on  social  questions,  to  denote  those 
who,  destitute  of  land  or  accumulated  wealth, 
are  entirely  dependent  upon  selling  their 
labor  ;  the  working  people,  as  opposed  to  the 
bourgeoisie  and  the  aristocracy.  In  the 
modern  sense  of  the  term,  the  proletariat  is  an 
outcome  of  the  changed  conditions  of  industry  ; 
it  was  not  until  the  division  of  labor  began, 
and  one  man  became  dependent  on  another 
for  his  living,  that  the  condition  was  pos- 
sible ;  and  not  until  the  latter  part  of  the  eight- 
eenth century,  after  the  great  revolution  caused 
in  industry  by  the  introduction  of  machinery 
and  the  factory  system,  was  the  separation  of 
the  great  mass  of  working  people  from  the 
land  so  complete  as  it  is  at  present. 


PROPERTY  (from  Latin  prpprius,  own, 
peculiar)  may  be  defined  in  its  economic 
sense  as  "any  object  of  value  that  a  person 
may  lawfully  use,  acquire,  or  hold  "  (Standard 
Dictionary).  Says  J.  S.  Mill,  "  Property  de- 
notes in  every  style  of  society  the  largest 
powers  of  exclusive  use  or  exclusive  control 
over  things,  and  sometimes' unfortunately  over 
persons,  which  the  law  accords  or  which  cus- 


Property. 


TI2I 


Property. 


torn    in    that    state     of    society    recognizes" 
(Essays  on  Socialism}. 

The  Roman  law  defines  property  as  follows : 
Dominium  est  jus  utendi  et  abutendi  re  sud, 
quatenus    jiiris     ratio    patitur. 
The    code    civil  franfais    says, 
Definitions.  "  Property  is  the  right  of  dispos- 
ing and  of  enjoying  things  in  the 
m(>st    absolute  manner,  provided 
that  no  use,  is  made  of  these  prohibited  by 
laws  and  regulations." 

All  these  definitions  imply  the  idea  that  the 
right  of  holding  property  is  dependent  upon 
law  and  therefore  not  superior  to  law.  This 
is,  however,  not  the  view  of  all  publicists. 
Very  various  views  have  been  and  are  held  as 
to  what  is  the  basis  of  property. 

ist.  Roman  jurists,  and  many  modern  ones, 
consider  the  occupancy  of  things  without  an 
owner  as  the  principal  title  con- 
Property     *  erring    property.      "  Quod   enim 
•Dnn,     ,„„„   nullius  est,  ta  ratione  naturalt 
Based  upon  ,       , .  , .,       „ 

n  av  if-  occupantt  conceaitur,  says  the 
uwnersmp.  Dt-gesf  Qrotius  argues  that  God 
after  the  creation  conferred  on 
the  human  race  a  general  right  to  everything, 
and  then  says:  "This  was  done  that  each 
might  take  for  his  use  whatever  he  wished, 
and  consume  what  it  was  possible  for  him  to 
use.  .  .  .  Matters  remained  thus  until,  from 
the  increase  in  the  number  of  men,  as  well  as  of 
animals,  the  land,  which  was  formerly  divided 
by  nations,  began  to  be  divided  among  families, 
and  since  wells  are  a  supreme  necessity  in  dry 
countries,  and  are  not  equal  to  supplying  a  large 
number,  each  appropriated  what  he  was  able 
to  seize."  This,  as  far  as  man  goes  (whatever 
one  thinks  as  to  creation),  is  undoubtedly  a 
generally  accurate  account  of  the  actual  way  in 
which  property  originated  ;  it  simply  exalts  an 
historic  fact  into  a  natural  law.  But  whether  a 
just  title  to  ownership  can  be  gained  in  this 
way  is  another  thing.  Law  undoubtedly  has 
recognized  such  a  title,  but  whether  it  should 
raises  other  questions.  J.  S.  Mill  (Political 
Economy,  book  ii.  chap,  ii.)  defends  a  title  to 
possession  which  has  not  been  legally  ques- 
tioned within  a  moderate  number  of  years,  but 
says  this  is  no  argument  for  unjust  present 
laws.  He  says : 

"  It  is  necessary  to  the  security  of  rightful  possess- 
ors, that  they  should  not  be  molested  by  charges  of 
wrongful  acquisition,  when  by  the  lapse  of  time  wit- 
nesses must  have  perished  or  been  lost  sight  of,  and 
the  real  character  of  the  transaction  can  no  longer  be 
cleared  up.  Possession  which  has  not  been  legally 
questioned  within  a  moderate  number  of  years  ought 
to  be,  as  by  the  laws  of  all  nations  it  is,  a  complete 
title.  Even  when  the  acquisition  was  wrongful,  the  dis- 
possession, after  a  generation  has  elapsed,  of  the  prob- 
ably bona  fide  possessors,  by  the  revival  of  a  claim 
which  had  been  long  dormant,  would  generally  be  a 
greater  injustice,  and  almost  always  a  greater  private 
and  public  mischief,  than  leaving  the  original  wrong 
•without  atonement.  It  may  seem  hard  that  a  claim, 
originally  just,  should  be  defeated  by  mere  lapse  of 
time  ;  but  there  is  a  time  after  which  (even  looking  at 
the  individual  case,  and  without  regard  to  the  general 
«ffect  on  the  security  of  possessors)  the  balance  of 
hardship  turns  the  other  way.  With  the  injustices  of 
men,  as  with  the  convulsions  and  disasters  of  nature, 
the  longer  they  remain  unrepaired,  the  greater  become 
the  obstacles  to  repairing  them,  arising  from  the 
after-growths  which  would  have  to  be  torn  iip  or 
broken  through.  In  no  human  transactions,  not  even 
in  the  simplest  and  clearest,  does  it  follow  that  a  thing 
is  fit  to  be  done  now,  because  it  was  fit  to  be  done  sixty 

71 


Property 


years  ago.  It  is  scarcely  needful  to  remark  that  these 
reasons  for  not  disturbing  acts  of  injustice  of  old  date 
cannot  apply  to  unjust  systems  or  institutions;  since 
a  bad  law  or  usage  is  not  one  bad  act  in  the  remote 
past,  but  a  perpetual  repetition  of  bad  acts  as  long  as 
the  law  or  usage  lasts." 

2d.  Many  make  labor  the  basis  of  property. 
This  is  the  theory  usually  adopted  by  those 
economists  who,  like  Adam  Smith 
and  his  followers,  both  socialists 
and  individualists,  attribute  to 
labor  the  production  of  all  wealth. 
This  theory,  however,  is  far  older 
than  Adam  Smith.  Locke  (Civil 
Government,  chap,  iv.)  states  this  theory  in 
brief,  substantially  as  follows :  Every  one  has 
an  exclusive  right  over  his  own  person.  The 
labor  of  his  body  is,  therefore,  likewise  his 
property.  His  labor,  withdrawing  objects 
from  the  state  of  community,  makes  them  his. 
This,  however,  must  be  limited  by  reason  and 
equity.  "  If  any  one  exceeds  the  bounds  of 
moderation  and  takes  more  than  he  has  need 
of,  he  undoubtedly  takes  what  belongs  to 
others."  Locke's  great  principle  is,  "  Every 
one  ought  to  have  as  much  property  as  is  neces- 
sary for  his  support." 

The  majority  of  writers  try  to  base  the 
whole  right  of  property  upon  labor.  Says 
Mill  (Political  Economy,  book  ii.  chap,  ii.) : 

"  The  institution  of  property,  when  limited  to  its  es- 
sential elements,  consists  in  the  recognition  in  each  per- 
son of  a  right  to  the  exclusive  disposal  of  what  he  or 
she  have  produced  by  their  own  exertions,  or  received 
either  by  gift  or  by  fair  agreement,  without  force 
or  fraud,  from  those  who  produced  it.  The  founda- 
tion of  the  whole  is  the  right  of  producers  to  what 
they  themselves  have  produced.  It  may  be  objected, 
therefore,  to  the  institution  as  it  now  exists,  that  it 
recognizes  rights  of  property  in  individuals  over 
things  which  they  have  not  produced.  For  example, 
it  may  be  said  that  the  operatives  in  a  manufactory 
create,  by  their  labor  and  skill,  the  whole  produce  ; 
yet,  instead  of  its  belonging  to  them,  the  law  gives 
them  only  their  stipulated  hire,  and  transfers  the  prod- 
uce to  some  one  who  has  merely  supplied  the  funds, 
without  perhaps  contributing  anything  to  the  work 
itself,  even  in  the  form  of  superintendence.  The  answer 
to  this  is  that  the  labor  of  manufacture  is  only  one  of 
the  conditions  which  must  combine  for  the  production 
of  the  commodity.  The  labor  cannot  be  carried  on 
without  materials  and  machinery,  nor  without  a  stock 
of  necessaries  provided  in  advance,  to  maintain  the 
laborers  during  production.  All  these  things  are  the 
fruits  of  previous  labor.  If  the  laborers  were  pos- 
sessed of  them  they  •would  not  need  to  divide  the  prod- 
uce with  any  one ;  but  while  they  have  them  not,  an 
equivalent  must  be  given  to  those  who  have,  both  for 
the  antecedent  labor  and  for  the  abstinence  by  which 
the  produce  of  that  labor,  instead  of  being  expended 
on  indulgences,  has  been  reserved  for  this  use.  The 
capital  may  not  have  been,  and  in  most  cases  was  not, 
created  by  the  labor  and  abstinence  of  the  present 
possessor  ;  but  it  was  created  by  the  labor  and  absti- 
nence of  some  former  person,  who  may  indeed  have 
been  wrongfully  dispossessed  of  it,  but  who,  in  the 
present  age  of  the  world,  much  more  probably  trans- 
ferred his  claims  to  the  present  capitalist  by  gift  or 
voluntary  contract. 

"The  right  of  property  includes,  then,  the  freedom 
of  acquiring  by  contract.  The  right  of  each  to  what 
he  has  produced  implies  a  right  to  what  has  been  pro- 
duced by  others,  if  obtained  by  their  free  consent ; 
since  the  producers  must  either  have  given  it  from 
good  will,  or  exchanged  it  for  what  they  esteemed  an 
equivalent,  and  to  prevent  them  from  doing  so  would 
be  to  infringe  their  right  of  property  in  the  product  of 
their  own  industry." 

But  this  basis  for  property  is  open  at  least 
to  confusion.  Labor  to-day,  even  in  its  sim- 
plest forms,  is  largely  a  social  process.  A  man 
builds  a  house  with  his  own  hands,  but,  even  if 


Property. 


1122 


Property. 


he  has  no  architect,  he  is  largely  indebted  to 
his  fellows  for  his  ideas  of  house-building  ; 
government  protects  him  from  molestation 
during  the  process ;  he  gets  the  wood  or 
stone  in  one  place,  the  nails  or  mortar  in 
another,  the  paint  in  another.  He  uses  gas 
which  a  company  furnishes,  or  oil  that  some- 
body else  has  supplied.  A  man  writes  a  book, 
but  all  his  ideas,  with  much  of  the  language, 
may  be  gotten  from  his  neighbor's  conversa- 
tion or  from  other  books  in  his  library.  It  is 
easy  to  say  that  labor  has  produced  the  work, 
but  whose  labor  ? 

"  Nine  hundred  and  ninety-nine  parts  out  of 
the  thousand  of  every  man's  produce  are  the 
result  of  his  social  inheritance  and  environ- 
ment." So  says  Edward  Bellamy  (Contempo- 
rary Review,  July,  1890);  and  Mr.  Kidd  adds, 
'•'  This  is  so  ;  and  it  is,  if  possible,  even  more 
true  of  the  work  of  our  brain  than  of  the  work 
of  our  hands"  (Social  Evolution,  p.  267).  All 
attempt,  therefore,  to  divide  produce  accord- 
ing to  individual  contribution  to  the  result 
must  be  impossible  ;  or,  if  it  were  possible  to 
say  exactly  what  is  produced  by  a  man's  own 
labor,  is  it  just  that  a  man,  favored  perhaps 
bv  circumstances  for  which  he  has  no  credit,  is 
given  favorable  opportunity  to  labor  and  so 
produces  much,  should  have  property,  while 
another  equally  willing  and  competent  to  labor, 
but  deprived  of  the  opportunity,  due  to  circum- 
stances over  which  he  has  no  responsibility, 
should  be  left  to  starve  and  possess  nothing? 

3.  Property    ij     based    on    a    convention, 
whereby  men  agreed  to  abandon  the  primitive 
community.     Some,   like   Kant,  do  not  claim 
that  this  is  a  historic  fact,  but  speak  of  it  as 
a  juristic  necessity,   or  a  fact  the  justice  of 
which   demands  respect.     It  is,  however,  as 
Kant  admits,  impossible  to  show  that  there 
ever  was  such  a  compact,   while,  as  for  the 
juristic     necessity,    the    view    leads    to    one 
of  the  two  following  views,  a  basis  in  law  or  in 
utilitarianism. 

4.  Many  writers  of  many  shades  of  thought 
maintain  that  property  is  the  creature  of  law. 
Says  Bossuet  (Petit  Tirte  de  I'Ecrit,  sec.  i, 
art.    3,  4,   propos)  :     "  Banish    governments, 
and  the  earth  and  all  its  fruits  are  as  much 
the  common  property  of  all  mankind  as  the 
air  and  light."     Montesquieu  says  (Esprit  des 
Lois,  lib.  xxyi.  chap.  15):    "As  men  have  re- 
nounced their   natural   independence  to  live 
under  political  laws,  they  have  also  renounced 
the  natural  community  of  goods  to  live  under 
civil  laws.     The  former  laws  give  them  liberty, 
the  latter  property." 

Bentham  says  ( Treatise  on  Legislation)  : 
'  Property  and  the  law  were  born  together 
and  will  perish  together.  Before  law  there 
was  no  property  ;  banish  law,  and  all  property 
ceases."  But  if  the  law  justifies  property,  what 
justifies  the  law?  This  view,  therefore,  sim- 
ply leads  to  the  next  view. 

5.  Certain  economists,  such  as  Roscher,  Mill, 
Courcelle-Seneuil,   say  that  human  nature  is 
such  as  to  require  property,  for  without  this 
there  would  be  no  stimulus  to  labor  or  saving. 
But  many  deny  this  fact.     The   soldier,   the 
scholar,  the  artist,  continually  labor  and  save, 
not  in  the  least  from  any  stimulus  of  hope  of 


property.  They  labor  for  the  love  of  honor,  it 
may  be,  and  they  save  in  order  to  labor  more 
effectually.  Again,  heroes  and  the  humane 
continually  labor  for  the  good  of  others.  The 
utilitarian  view  can  by  no  means  be  univer- 
sally proven,  if  one  be  content  with  utilitari- 
anism. 

6.  Some  regard  property  as  a  natural  right. 
Fichte  says,  in  his  book  on  the  French  Revo- 
lution, "The  transformation  of  materials  by 
our  own  efforts  is  the  true  juridical  basis  of 
property  and  the  only  natural  one.  .  .  .  Every 
man  has  over  the  material  world  a  primordial 
right  of  appropriation,  and  a  right  of  property 
over  such  things  only  as  have  been  modified 
by  him. "  In  his  Grundlage  des  Naturrcchts 
Fichte  says  every  man  has  an  inalienable  right 
to  live  by  labor,  and  consequently  to  find  the 
means  of  employment.  Hegel  says  (Rechts 
philosophic,  §  49):  "  Every  one  has  a  right  to 
be  possessed  of  property."  M.  H.  Ahrens  in 
his  Naturrecht  says  : 

"  Law  consists  in  the  group  of  conditions  necessary 
for  the  physical  and  spiritual  development  of  man,  so 
far  as  these  conditions  are  dependent  on  human  will. 
.  .  .  For  every  man's  property  is  a  condition  of  his- 
existence  and  development.  It  is  based  on  the  actual 
nature  of  man,  and  should  therefore  be  regarded  as 
an  original,  absolute  right,  which  is  not  the  result  of 
any  outward  act,  such  as  occupation,  labor,  or  con- 
tract. The  right  springing  directly  from  human 
nature,  the  title  of  being  a  man  is  sufficient  to  confer 
the  right  of  property." 

But  who  knows  about  natural  rights  ?  Most 
publicists  to-day  have  given  up  the  theory  of 
natural  rights  (q.  v.}.  Some  may  maintain 
that  man  has  a  natural  right  to  property, 
others  may  assert  the  contrary.  Who  can 
decide  between  them  ? 

Thus  something  can  be  said  against  every 
basis  for  property.  Says  Professor  Cunning- 
ham (in  an  essay  on  The  Church's  Duty  in 
Relation  to  the  Sacredness  of  Property} : 

"There  are  so  many  conflicting  opinions;  and  the 
opposing  parties,  in  regard  to  any  proposal  where  the 
rights  of  property  are  affected,  seem  to  have  na 
ground  in  common.  There  hardly  seems  to  be  any 
recognized  principle  which  is  generally  accepted,  and 
on  which  it  is  possible  to  take  a  stand.  Even  the  best 
established  maxims  on  which  property  rests  seem  to 
be  turned  into  new  weapons  to  attack  it.  The  title  to 
property  by  right  of  conquest  earns  no  respect.  Why 
should  not  the  man  who  took  things  violently,  be  vio- 
lently dispossessed?  The  title  by  prescription,  long  and 
undisturbed  possession,  seems  to  have  little  weight. 
If  you  have  enjoyed  a  large  estate  for  a  long  time,  it 
may  be  retorted,  isn't  it  fair  that  some  one  else  should 
have  a  turn  ?  So  the  ground  seems  to  be  cut  away 
from  the  old  legal  principles,  and  we  are  set  adrift 
into  a  troubled  sea  where  conflicting  interests  strug- 
gle to  assert  themselves  and  changing  tides  of  senti- 
ment prevail.  Discussions  are  so  apt  to  resolve 
themselves  into  arguments  from  expediency.  The 
optimist  and  the  pessimist  make  different  forecasts  as 
to  the  probable  effects  of  some  measure,  and  there 
seems  to  be  no  means  of  deciding  between  them,  or  of 
convincing  either  of  right  and  wrong  apart  from  con- 
siderations of  consequences.  We  never  seem  to  get 
to  a  firm  foundation  of  any  sort  at  all." 

Professor  Cunningham  proceeds  to  argue 
as  to  religious  duty.  Most  economists  to-day, 
however,  discuss  the  question  as  to  property, 
simply  on  the  basis  of  utility.  For  this  see  COM- 
MUNISM; SOCIALISM;  and  INDIVIDUALISM.  Some, 
however,  argue  from  this  conflict  of  views  as  to 
the  basis  of  property  against  all  property,  and, 
like  Proudhon,  call  property  theft.  For  Prou- 
dhon's  view,  see  PROUDHON.  For  the  impor- 


Proportional   Representation. 


1123 


Proportional   Representation. 


tant  and  especial  form  of  property, — property 
in  land, — see  LAND. 

References :  Charles  Letourneur's  Property,  Its 
Origin  and  Development,  1872  ;  E.  H.  G.  Clark's  Man's 
Birthright,  or  the  Higher  Law  of  Property  (1885) ;  P. 
J.  Proudhon's  What  is  Property  ?  (Tr.)  1876.  (See  also 
COMMUNISM;  INDIVIDUALISM;  PRIMITIVE  PROPERTY.) 

PROPORTIONAL  REPRESENTA- 
TION.— John  Stuart  Mill  wrote  in  his  Con- 
siderations on  Representative  Government  : 

"  The  pure  idea  of  democracy,  according  to  its  defi- 
nition, is  the  government  of  the  whole  people,  by  the 
whole  people,  equally  represented.  Democracy,  as 
commonly  conceived  and  hitherto  practised,  is  the 
government  of  the  whole  people  by  a  mere  majority 
of  the  people,  exclusively  represented.  The  former  is 
synonymous  with  the  equality  of  all  citizens  ;  the  lat- 
ter, strangely  confounded  with  it,  is  a  government  of 
privilege,  in  favor  of  the  numerical  majority,  who 
alone  possess  practically  any  voice  in  the  State.  This 
is  the  inevitable  consequence  of  the  manner  in  which 
the  votes  are  now  taken,  to  the  complete  disfranchise- 
ment  of  minorities." 

No  one,  who  has  not  analyzed  the  statistics 
of  political  elections,  can  realize  how  defective 
is  the  electoral  machinery  of  most  countries. 
The  late  Mr.  Thomas  Hare,  who  was  known 
in  England  as  the  "  Father  of  Proportional 
Representation,"  calculated  that  no  less  than 
two-fifths  of  the  voters  were  wholly  unrepre- 
sented in  Parliament,  while  in  this  country 
Mr.  Salem  Dutcher,  to  whom  we  owe  an 
excellent  work  on  "  Proportional  Representa- 
tion," curiously  enough  found  the  same  propor- 
tion of  two-fifths  to  be  true  also  for  the  fortieth, 
forty-first,  and  forty-second  Congresses  of  the 
United  States.  In  Switzerland  the  statistics 
for  the  years  1881,  1884,  and  1887  of  the  elec- 
tions to  the  National  Council,  which  corre- 
sponds to  our  House  of  Representatives,  reveal 
the  same  unjust  state  of  affairs.  As  matters 
now  stand  in  these  countries,  the  powers  of 
government  are  intrusted  to  a  majority  of  the 
majority,  who  may  be  a  minority  of  the  whole 
electorate.  If,  for  instance,  three-fifths  of  the 
electors  only  are  represented  in  a  certain  legis- 
lature, and  one-half  plus  one  of  the  represent- 
atives, or  say  two-thirds,  in  order  to  leave  a 
little  margin,  regulate  the  character  of  legisla- 
tion, then  the  majority  in  that  legislature, 
which  frames  the  laws,  represents  a  minority 
of  the  electors;  f  or  f  X  |  =  T65  or  t>  which  is 
less  than  one-half.  Mr.  Garfield,  while  still  a 
Congressman,  described  this  unjust  feature  of 
our  political  machinery  with  characteristic 
clearness  in  a  speech  delivered  before  the 
House  of  Representatives  on  the  23d  of  June, 
1870.  "  In  my  judgment,"  he  said,  "  it  is  the 
weak  point  in  the  theory  of  representative 
government,  as  now  organized  and  adminis- 
tered, that  a  large  portion  of  the  voting 
people  are  permanently  disfranchised.  .  .  . 
Take  my  own  district  as  an  example;  I  have 
never  been  elected  by  less  than  9000  majority. 
Sometimes  the  majority  has  ex- 
ceeded  12,000.  There  are  about 
Injustice  or  IO)OOO  Democratic  voters  in  my 
Tvr^H  district,  and  they  have  been  vot- 
Methods.  jng  there  for  the  last  40  years, 
without  any  more  hope  of  having 
a  representative  on  this  floor  than  of  having 
one  in  the  Commons  of  Great  Britain." 

Every  reader  can  supply  illustrations  of  sim- 


ilar injustices,  either  from  his  own  electoral 
district  or  from  the  wider  field  of  national 
.  politics. 

To  be  more  explicit,  take  the  election  of 
Congressmen  in  the  United  States  in  1892. 
There  were  in  round  numbers  twelve  million 
votes  polled;  of  these,  six  and  a  half  million 
secured  representation,  while  five  and  a  half 
million  were  unsuccessful. 

What  do  these  figures  reveal  ? 

1.  That  a  vast  minority,  including  almost 
one-half  of  the  voters,  were  disfranchised  in. 
that  election.     Nay,  we  can  go  further,  and 
say  that  these  five  and  a  half  million  were  not 
only    ^^represented,   but    actually  misrepre- 
sented by  their  opponents  elected  from  their 
districts. 

2.  That  the  injustice  of  "taxation  without 
representation  "  flourishes  as  unchecked  as  it 
did   before    the  American   Revolution,   since 
five  and  a  half  million  continue  to  pay  taxes, 
altho  unrepresented. 

3.  That  majority  rule  is  not  in  force  in  the 
United  States,  for  the  Democratic  majority 
elected  to  Congress  represented  only  25  per 
cent,  of  the  whole  electorate,  and  a  bare  ma- 
jority in  Congress  only  21.4  per  cent.,  so  that  a 
small  minority  were  actually  making  laws  to 
govern  the  whole. 

How  hopelessly  faulty  voting  in  electoral 
districts  can  become  may  be  seen  from  the  re- 
sults of  this  same  election  in  Iowa:  219,215 
Republican  votes  sent  10  Republican  Con- 
gressmen to  Washington,  whereas  201,923 
Democratic  votes  sent  only  one  Congressman. 

Undoubtedly  the  habit  of  manipulating  the 
boundaries  of  electoral  districts  for  party  pur- 
poses also  tends  to  aggravate  these  discrep- 
ancies. This  abuse  is  called  by  the  Germans 
•wahlkreisgeometrie,  or  the  geometry  of  elec- 
toral districts.  In  the  United  States  it  has 
been  nicknamed  the  gerrymander  (g.  v.). 

But  even  if  dishonest  electoral  districts  were 
never  created,  there  would  still  remain  a  high 
percentage  of  unrepresented  voters.  The  truth 
is,  the  whole  system  of  electing  representatives, 
as  now  practised  the  world  over,  cannot  be 
made  to  produce  accurate  results.  It  is  evi- 
dent that  a  radical  reform  is  demanded — one 
which  shall  make  the  vote  of  every  elector 
effective,  by  applying  the  principle  of  propor- 
tional representation. 

The  various  systems  proposed  are  all  based 
upon  what  is  known  technically  as  the  electoral 
quota. 

Suppose  an  imaginary  State  to  contain  1000 
voters,  with  10  representatives  to  elect.    Now, 
if  looo  votes  elect  10  representa- 
tives,  then  ^  of   lopo  ought  to       jjasis  of 
elect     i     representative.       Thus, 
l^ft,  or  ioo;will  be  the  electoral 
quota.     Every  candidate  who  can  . 

muster  100  votes  will  be  declared 
elected,  and  every  party  will  be 
entitled  to  as  many  representatives  as  100  is 
contained  in  its  total  vote. 

To  illustrate  by  actual  example: 

In  the  Congressional  election  of  Indiana  for 
1892  the  total  vote  was  549,405.  Of  these  the 
Republicans  cast  253,640  ;  the  Democrats, 
259,184;  the  Populists,  24,223;  and  the  Prohibi- 


Proportional  Representation. 


1124 


Proportional  Representation. 


tionists,  12,358.  There  were  13  representatives 
to  elect.  Now,  if  549,405  votes  elect  13  repre- 
sentatives, ^  of  549,405  ought  to  elect  i  rep- 
resentative. Thus,  42,26i-i[-f,  or,  for  the  sake 
of  simplicity,  42,262  will  be  the  electoral  quota. 
The  253,640  Republican  votes,  divided  by  this 
quota,  give  six  full  quotas  and  a  remainder  of 
68  votes;  the  259,184  Democratic  votes,  six  full 
quotas  and  a  remainder  of  5612.  As  neither 
of  the  remaining  parties  has  enough  votes  to 
fill  a  quota,  the  thirteenth  representative  is 
taken  from  the  part  having  the  largest  unfilled 
quota,  the  Populist.  This  would  have  made 
the  Indiana  delegation  6  Republicans,  6  Dem- 
ocrats, and  i  Populist,  instead  of  the  2  Repub- 
licans and  ii  Democrats  who  were  actually 
elected. 

The  presence  of  unused  fractions  and  re- 
mainders shows  that  the  system  of  the  elec- 
toral quota,  without  further  provisions,  is  not 
infallible.  But  it  guarantees  an  approximate 
accuracy  which  cannot  be  attained  under  pres- 
ent conditions,  as  the  above  example  of  the 
election  in  Indiana  conclusively  proves. 

A  variety  of  systems  have  been  based  upon 
this  principle  of  the  electoral  quota,  differ- 
ing from  each  other  in  minor 
points:  i.  Personal  Representa- 
Various  tion  allows  voters  to  select  any 
Systems,  candidates  they  may  choose,  irre- 
spective of  party  or  locality. 
2.  The  Cumulative  vote  allows 
each  elector  to  distribute  his  vote  as  he 
chooses,  or  cumulate  them  all  upon  one  candi- 
date. 3.  The  Limited  vote  gives  the  elector  a 
less  number  of  votes  than  there  are  candidates 
to  elect.  4.  The  so-called  Hare  System  works 
in  the  following  manner:  The  voters  receive 
ballots  containing  a  greater  number  of  names 
than  there  are  representatives  to  be  elected; 
say  12  instead  of  6.  The  voters  mark  6  names 
of  the  12  in  the  order  of  their  preference.  In 
counting,  the  electoral  quota  is  first  ascer- 
tained by  dividing  the  total  number  of  ballots 
cast  by  the  number  of  candidates  to  be  elected. 
The  candidates  who  have  received  at  least  the 
electoral  quota  are  declared  elected.  The 
ballots  of  the  successful  candidates  over  and 
above  the  electoral  quota  are  transferred  to  the 
candidates  marked  as  second  choice.  When 
the  surplus  votes  of  successful  candidates  are 
exhausted,  the  ballots  of  candidates  having 
least  votes  are  transferred  in  the  same  manner 
to  candidates  marked  upon  them  as  second 
choice.  Whenever  the  candidate  marked  as 
second  choice  is  already  elected,  the  ballot  is 
transferred  to  the  candidate  marked  as  third 
choice,  and  so  on  until  the  necessary  six  rep- 
resentatives are  elected.  If  the  number  of 
representatives  should  still  remain  incomplete 
after  this  process,  the  candidate  receiving  the 
number  of  ballots  nearest  to  the  electoral  quota 
is  declared  elected.  This  method  is  far  sim- 
pler in  practise  than  any  description  of  it  can 
be.  Miss  Catherine  H.  Spence  of  Adelaide, 
South  Australia,  in  using  the  Hare  system 
with  audiences  at  lectures,  found  that,  out  of  a 
total  of  3824  votes  cast  in  about  50  trials,  only 
144  votes  were  unused,  because  they  were  for 
candidates  either  already  elected  or  impossible 
to  elect.  5.  The  so-called  Grove  system  re- 


sembles the  foregoing,  except  that  the  candi- 
dates are  required  to  announce  before  election 
to  whom  their  possible  surplus  votes  must  be 
transferred.  6.  The  Free  List  system  is  in 
use  in  Switzerland.  It  has  been  adopted  suc- 
cessfully by  four  cantons — Ticino,  Neuchatel, 
Geneva,  and  Zug.  It  differs  from  the  Hare 
system  in  giving  greater  scope  to  party  organ- 
izations, and  is,  therefore,  a  less  radical  de- 
parture from  prevailing  electoral  methods. 

The  American  Proportional  Representation 
League  assembled  in  Chicago  at  the  Con- 
gress on  Government  in  August,  1883,  decided 
to  advocate  both  the  Hare  and  the  Free  List 
systems  for  experiment.  (But  see  below.) 
On  that  occasion  a  sample  bill  was  drawn  up 
for  the  election  of  members  of  the  United 
States  House  of  Representatives  by  the  Free 
List  system.  As  the  laws  regulating  the  prac- 
tise of  this  system  in  Switzerland  contain 
much  matter  which  is  foreign  to  the  methods 
in  vogue  in  the  United  States,  this  sample  bill 
will  serve  as  a  clearer  illustration  of  the 
principle: 

Resolved:  "That  the  members  of  the  House  of 
Representatives  shall  be  voted  for  at  large  in  their 
respective  States. 

"  A  ticket  composed  of  any  number  of  candidates 
may  be  nominated  by  any  body  of  electors  in  any 
State  which  polled  at  the  last  preceding  election  i  per 
cent,  of  the  total  vote  for  Congressmen,  or  by  a  peti- 
tion of  voters  amounting  to  i  per  cent,  of  such  total 
vote.  These  tickets  shall  be  printed  on  the  official 
ballot. 

"  Each  elector  has  as  many  votes  as  there  are  Rep- 
resentatives to  be  elected,  which  he  may  distribute  as 
he  pleases  among  the  candidates,  giving  not  more 
than  one  vote  to  any  one  candidate.  Should  he  not 
use  the  entire  number  of  votes  to  which  he  is  entitled, 
his  unexpressed  votes  are  to  be  counted  for  the  ticket 
which  he  shall  designate  by  title. 

"  The  votes  given  to  candidates  shall  count  individ- 
ually for  the  candidates  as  well  as  for  the  tickets  to 
which  the  candidates  belong. 

"The  sum  of  all  the  votes  cast  in  any  State  shall  be 
divided  by  the  number  of  seats  to  which  such  State  is 
entitled,  and  the  quotient  to  the  nearest  unit  shall  be 
known  as  the  quota  of  representation. 

"  The  sums  of  all  the  votes  cast  for  the  tickets  of 
each  party  or  political  group  nominating  candidates 
shall  be  severally  divided  by  the  quota  of  representa- 
tion, and  the  units  of  the  quotients  thus  obtained  will 
show  the  number  of  representatives  to  which  each 
body  is  entitled  ;  and  if  the  sum  of  such  quotients  be 
less  than  the  number  of  seats  to  be  filled,  the  body  of 
electors  having  the  largest  remainder — after  division 
of  the  sums  of  tHe  votes  cast  by  the  quota  of  repre- 
sentation, as  herein  specified — shall  be  entitled  to  the 
first  vacancy,  and  so  on  until  all  the  vacancies  are 
filled. 

"The  candidates  of  each  body  of  electors  nominating 
candidates,  and  found  entitled  to  representation  un- 
der the  foregoing  rules,  shall  receive  certificates  of 
election  in  the  order  of  votes  received,  the  candidate 
receiving  the  highest  number  of  votes  the  first  certifi- 
cate, and  so  on  ;  but  in  case  of  a  tie,  with  but  one 
vacancy  to  be  filled,  the  matter  shall  be  determined  by 
lot  between  the  candidates  so  tied. 

"  If  a  member  of  the  House  of  Representatives 
shall  die  or  resign,  or  his  seat  become  vacant  for  any 
reason,  the  remainder  of  his  term  shall  be  served  by 
the  candidate  having  the  next  highest  vote  of  the 
body  of  electors  to  which  such  member  belongs." 

Enough  has  been  said  to  show  that  the 
problem  of  proportional  representation  is  by 
no  means  simple.  The  underlying  principle 
that  a  legislature  should  reflect  every  phase  of 
public  opinion  is  undoubtedly  just;  the  neces- 
sity for  an  electoral  quota  is  self-evident- 
but  the  practical  application  of  this  reform 
requires  careful  methods.  Absolute  accu- 
racy cannot  probably  be  attained  under  any 


Proportional  Representation. 


1125 


Proportional   Representation. 


system,  but  surely  nothing  could  be  worse 
than  the  rough-and-ready  electoral  machinery 
now  in  general  use. 

Some  of  the  systems  quoted  above  have 
been  tried  at  various  times  in  various  coun- 
tries, but  on  the  whole  the  work- 
ing of  the  Free  List  in  Switzerland 
Practical  nasi  so  far,  proved  the  most  suc- 
Working.  cessful  in  politics.  For  instance: 
before  the  adoption  of  propor- 
tional representation  in  the  Can- 
ton of  Ticino,  the  elections  of  1889  to  the 
Grand  Council  resulted  as  follows  :  There 
were  112  deputies  to  elect;  of  these,  the  Con- 
servatives, with  12,653  ballots,  returned  77, 
while  the  Liberals,  with  12,008  ballots.  /'.  e., 
with  only  a  few  hundred  less  than  their  oppo- 
nents, only  35.  After  the  adoption  of  the  Free 
List  the  two  parties  returned  an  almost  equal 
number  of  deputies.  Entirely  satisfactory  re- 
sults have  been  obtained  also  in  the  other 
cantons,  and  the  reform  is,  therefore,  spread- 
ing to  all  parts  of  the  Swiss  Republic.  No 
relief  can  come  from  merely  rearranging 
electoral  districts.  Every  redistricting  bill 
must  be  a  mere  makeshift,  for  the  time  always 
comes  when  the  work  has  to  be  done  over 
again.  How  much  better,  then,  to  seek  a  per- 
manent solution  of  the  difficulty  in  some  plan 
of  proportional  representation  !  Such  a  sys- 
tem is  at  once  stable,  because  pivoted  upon  a 
great  principle;  and  elastic,  because,  from  its 
very  nature,  it  expands  with  the  growth  of 
the  State. 

In  that  day,  when  minorities  have  their 
own  spokesmen  in  our  legislative  halls,  great 
reforms  will  no  longer  be  ignominiously  swept 
aside  as  rubbish  by  the  so-called  practi- 
cal politicians.  Every  school  of  reformers,  if 
they  can  muster  a  sufficient  following,  will 
have  a  chance  to  demonstrate  the  value  of 
its  ideas.  Someone  has  said  that  the  pres- 
ent representative  system  may  be  likened  to 
that  of  protection  of  trade,  in  that  it  artificially 
protects  majorities  against  the  competition  of 
minorities,  In  fact,  the  dead  level  of  medi- 
ocrity which  characterizes  our  legislatures 
would  be  effectually  broken.  Their  whole 
tone  would  be  raised  by  the  introduction  of 
new  reforms  at  the  hands  of  chosen  cham- 
pions ;  principles,  not  personalities,  would 
become  the  chief  issues  ;  and  men  of  talent, 
experts  in  certain  branches  of  science,  which 
are  indispensable  to  the  conduct  of  good  gov- 
ernment, would  then  willingly  take  up  politics 
as  a  profession,  instead  of,  as  now,  shrinking 
from  serving  their  country,  because  it  has  be- 
come an  occupation  of  evil  repute.  Propor- 
tional representation  will,  of  course,  like  every 
great  act  of  justice,  be  scouted  as  a  wild  theory. 
The  wire-pullers  of  the  party  or  parties,  who 
may  happen  to  be  in  power,  will  oppose  its 
introduction  with  all  the  means  at  their  dis- 
posal, for  it  would  prevent  them  from  perpet- 
uating their  rule  by  gerrymandering  ;  but 
eventually  it  must  be  adopted,  if  the  repre- 
sentative system  itself  is  to  stand.  Let  not 
John  Stuart  Mill's  word  of  warning  be  forgot- 
ten :  "It  is  an  essential  part  of  democracy 
that  minorities  should  be  adequately  repre- 
sented. No  real  democracy,  nothing  but  a 


History. 


false  show  of  democracy,  is  possible  without 

it."    ...  W.  D.  McCRACKAN. 

The  following  recent  information  is  abridged 
from  Professor  John  R.  Commons'  Propor- 
tional Representation.  Copyright  by  Thomas 
Y.  Crowell,  Boston  and  New  York.  He  says 
(pp.  237-264) : 

"  In  the  third  and  fourth  decades  of  the  present  cen- 
tury a  remarkable  wave  of  democracy  culminated  in 
our  Western  civilization.  .  .  . 

"The  years  1844  in  America  and  1846  in  Switzerland 
mark  the  first  attempts  of  individual  minds  to  inquire 
into  the  real  basis  of  true  representation.  Mr. 
Thomas  Gilpin  published  at  Philadelphia,  in  the  for- 
mer year,  his  prophetic  work,  of  which  little  notice 
was  then  taken,  On  the  Representation  of  Minori- 
ties of  Electors  to  act  with  the  Majority  in  Elected 
Assemblies.  In  1846  Victor  Considerant,  the  distin- 
guished leader  of  the  socialist  school  of  Fourier,  ad- 
dressed an  open  letter  to  the  Grand  Council  of  Geneva, 
entitled,  De  la  SiricMtl  du  .Gouvernement  Reprg- 
sentatif,  ou  Exposition  de  I' Election  Vtridique.  In 
this  brochure  M.  Considerant  proposed  independently 
a  plan  of  election  almost  indentical  with  that  of 
Thomas  Gilpin.  Each  voter  was  to  cast  one  vote  for  a 
party,  and  then  to  indicate  the  names  of  the  candi- 
dates of  his  party  whom  he  preferred.  The  propor- 
tion of  representatives  to  which  each 
party  should  be  entitled  was  to  be  de- 
termined by  the  rule  of  three,  and  the 
successful  candidates  by  the  order  of 
their  preferences.  Something  akin  to 
this  plan  had  been  suggested  some 
twelve  years  before  by  Considerant's  master,  Charles 
Fourier;  and  its  publication  in  1846  preceded  by  one 
year  the  wide  extension  of  the  suffrage  in  Geneva. 
There  was  as  yet  no  feeling  of  serious  need  for  it, 
and  it  therefore  lay  dormant  15  years.  .  .  . 

"  In  September,  1864,  Professor  Ernest  Naville  pub- 
lished his  first  brochure  addressed  to  the  Federal 
Council  and  the  Swiss  people,  showing  that  the  vio- 
lence of  the  elections,  which  threatened  the  sta- 
bility of  Swiss  institutions  and  inspired  throughout 
Europe  a  dread  of  the  new  democracy  of  1848,  was  but 
the  natural  outcome  of  the  general  ticket  and  exclu- 
sive majority  rule.  Professor  Naville  from  that  date 
has  been  the  recognized  leader  of  the  reform  in  Swit- 
zerland; and  his  numerous  publications,  besides  pre- 
senting cogent  arguments,  afford  a  complete  history 
of  proportional  representation  to  the  present  time. 

"In  1867  was  formed  1'Association  Reformiste  de  Ge- 
neve, composed  of  Professor  Naville  and  six  associates. 
But  the  time  was  not  yet  ripe.  .  .  .  The  movement 
for  the  referendum  and  initiative  as  a  decidedly 
practical  and  thoroughgoing  deadlock  upon  their  un- 
representative assemblies  absorbed  the  thought  of 
the  people.  ...  In  the  vear  1876  the  national  Associa- 
tion Suisse  pour  la  Representation  Proportionelle  was 
organized,  with  branches  at  Berne  and  Geneva. 
Hearings  were  obtained  from  time  to  time  before  leg- 
islative and  constitutional  assemblies.  But  it  required 
a  crisis  to  force  public  attention  upon  the  reform. 

"  The  crisis  came  in  1890  in  the  Italian  canton  of 
Ticino.  The  Conservative  party  in  1889,  with  12,653 
votes,  elected  77  of  the  112  members  of  the  Grand 
Council  while  the  Liberals,  with  12,008  (a  handful  less), 
elected  only  35.  Out  of  a  total  vote  of  24,671,  it  was 
calculated  that  9157  were  unrepresented.  Finally,  in 
1890,  an  insurrection  broke  out.  The  Liberals  seized 
upon  the  arsenal,  and  overthrew  the  Conservative 
Government.  Federal  troops  were  dispatched  to  put 
down  the  revolt.  Then  it  was  that  the  Federal  Gov- 
ernment recommended  to  the  canton  the  adoption  of 
proportional  representation.  The  suggestion  was 
acted  upon,  a  commission  was  created,  and  in  1891  the 
Free  List  was  adopted  in  the  form  approved  by  the 
Swiss  Association.  .  .  . 

"  From  Ticino  the  reform  has  spread  rapidly  to  other 
cantons.  The  initiative  and  referendum  have  helped 
it  very  much.  The  French  Protestant  canton  Neu- 
chatefadopted  it  in  1891;  the  large  canton  of  Geneva  in 
1892;  the  Catholic  Fribourg,  for  municipal  elections,  in 
1894;  the  German  Catholic  Zug  in  1894,  which  combined 
the  'free  ticket'  with  cumulative  voting;  finally  the 
German  Catholic  Soluthurn  in  March,  1895,  the  first  to 
introduce  the  Droop  quota  (the  votes  divided  by  the 
number  of  representatives  increased  bv  one).  In  a 
few  cantons  and  cities  the  reform  has  been  rejected 
by  referendum.  The  city  of  Basle  rejected  it  a  few 
years  ago,  but  the  people  are  now  demanding  it  anew 


Proportional  Representation. 


1126 


Proportional   Representation. 


England. 


by  initiation.  .  .  .  England  and  America,  however, 
have  actually  preceded  Switzerland  by  20  to  25 
years  in  the  adoption  of  certain  forms  of  minority 
representation.  .  .  . 

"  In  1854,  in  the  discussion  of  the  second  Reform  Bill, 
Lord  John  Russell  moved  in  Parliament,  on  the  sugges- 
tion of  Professor  Fawcett,  that  in  the  newly  created 
electoral  districts  returning  three  members  no  elector 
should  vote  for  more  than  two  candidates.  .  .  . 

"In  1854  Mr.  James  Garth  Marshall  published  at  Lon- 
don his  Majorities  and  Minorities:  Their  Relative 
Rights,  wherein  he  proposed  for  the  first  time  the 
cumulative  vote  which  has  been  so  popular  in  Eng- 
lish and  American  reforms.  The  limited  vote  of  Lord 
Russell,  however,  did  not  find  legislative  enactment 
until  23  years  after  its  first  proposal  ;  and  the  cumu- 
lative vote  was  first  employed  in  1870. 
Two  events  prepared  the  way  for  this 
adoption.  The  first  was  the  discussion 
inaugurated  by  Mr.  Thomas  Hare  in 
1859,  when  he  published  his  volume  en- 
titled The  Election  of  Representatives, 
Parliamentary  and  Municipal,  which  was  followed  in 
1862  by  John  Stuart  Mill's  profoundly  philosophical 
Considerations  on  Representative  Government.  Mr. 
Mill  speaks  of  Thomas  Hare  as  'a  man  of  great  ca- 
pacity, fitted  alike  for  large  general  views  and  for 
the  contrivance  of  practical  details ' ;  and  of  his  plan 
as  'among  the  very  greatest  improvements  yet  made 
in  the  theory  and  practise  of  government.' 

"  Certainly  no  discussions  nave  equaled  these  trea- 
tises of  Mill  and  Hare  in  placing  before  the  thinking 
people  of  all  countries  the  true  nature  of  representa- 
tion under  universal  suffrage  and  political  parties.  .  .  . 

"  In  1870,  when  the  English  Government  began  its 
wide  extension  of  free  schools,  the  cumulative  vote 
was  introduced  in  the  election  of  the  new  local  boards 
of  education.  This  was  by  way  of  concession  to  the 
supporters  of  private  and  sectarian  schools,  who 
wished  to  retain  their  hold  in  the  distribution  of  pub- 
lic funds,  and  in  the  administration  of  their  schools. 

"With  this  Act  the  progress  of  proportional  repre- 
sentation in  England  ceased.  When  the  suffrage  was 
extended  in  1884  to  agricultural  laborers,  an  attempt 
was  again  made  to  introduce  the  reform,  but  after 
considerable  discussion  the  amendment  was  defeated. 
The  next  year  was  organized  the  English  Propor- 
tional Representation  Society,  of  which  Sir  John  Lub- 
bock  is  president,  and  several  of  the  members  of 
Parliament  are  members.  The  society  advocates  the 
Hare  system  in  constituencies  electing  five  to  fifteen 
representatives. 

"  In  the  United  States  the  work  of  Thomas  Gilpin 
followed  close  upon  the  Act  of  Congress  of  1842,  which 
for  the  first  time  took  the  control  of  elections  for  Con- 
gressmen from  the  several  States,  and  provided, 
among  other  things,  that  the  single-membered  dis- 
trict should  be  universal.  This  was  an  attempt  to 
give  representation  in  Congress  to  the  minority,  who 
•were  practically  disfranchised  by  the  laws  of  certain 
States  wherein  Congressmen  were  elected  on  a  gen- 
eral ticket.  Gilpin's  essay  grew  out  of  the  discussion 
upon  this  measure. 

"Not  until  the  period  following  the  Civil  War  was 
public  opinion  ready  to  discuss  the  principles  of  rep- 
resentation, nor,  indeed,  was  there  any  pressing  occa- 
sion. The  writings  of  Mr.  Hare  and  Mr.  Mill  were 
widely  read  in  the  United  States;  and  the  pending 
reconstruction  of  the  States  lately  in  rebellion,  and 
the  agitation  for  the  enfranchisement  of  the  freed- 
men,  brought  the  problems  of  representation  sud- 
denly to  a  focus.  There  were  only  two  plans  which 
reached  practical  adoption— the  limited  vote  and  the 
cumulative  vote.  .  .  .  The  most  important  action  was 
that  taken  by  the  constitutional  convention  of  the  State 
of  Illinois,  which  met  December,  1869.  The  convention 
adopted  the  report  of  a  committee  of  which  Mr.  James 
Medill  was  chairman,  dividing  the  State 
into  51  senatorial  districts,  each  elect- 
ing a  single  senator,  but  creating  a 
lower  house  of  153  members,  to  be 
elected  in  the  senatorial  districts  by 
threes  by  the  cumulative  vote.  This 
section  was  voted  upon  separately  by 
the  people,  July  2,  1870,  and  carried  by  a  vote  of  99,022 
in  favor,  and  70,080  against. 

"The  action  of  the  New  York  Legislature  and  the 
veto  by  Governor  Hoffman  in  April,  1872,  of  the  bill 
providing*  for  the  cumulative  vote  in  the  election  of 
aldermen  in  New  York  City,  mark  the  highest  point 
attained  in  America  in  the  discussion  of  minority 
representation.  .  .  . 

"The  arguments  of  Governor  Hoffman  against  mi- 


United 
States. 


nority  representation  in  the  Board  of  Aldermen  are 
not  altogether  invalid,  and  his  objections  to  a  similar 
representation  in  the  administrative  departments  are 
•well  considered.  Later  experience  has  shown  that 
administrative  boards  are  incompetent  as  compared 
with  single  heads  of  departments,  and  that  bi-partizan 
boards  are  not  superior  to  those  composed  of  members 
of  a  single  party.  Minority  representation  in  an  ex- 
ecutive department  dissipates  the  energy  and  respon- 
sibility of  administration  ;  but  minority  representation 
in  the  legislative  branch  is  necessary  to  enable  the 
minority  "to  watch  the  governing  body;  to  expose  its 
wrong-doing,  if  any;  to  restrain  it  by  this  vigilance 
and  exposure."  Professor  Commons  here  describes 
other  similar  movements,  and  then  says  :  "  These  va- 
rious experiments  with  crude  forms  of  minority  repre- 
sentation furnish  in  part  an  explanation  of  the  entire 
subsidence  of  the  movement  since  1874.  .  .  . 

"  A  revival  of  interest  in  proportional  representation 
has  begun  within  the  past  five  years.  The  civil 
service  reformers  of  the  country,  with  unanimity, 
have  espoused  it.  This  interest,  took  definite  shape 
in  1893,  through  the  organization  at  Chicago  of  the 
American  Proportional  Representation  League,  and 
the  launching  of  the  Proportional  Representation 
Review.  Magazine  articles  have  appeared,  two  or 
three  books  have  been  published,  bills  have  been  in- 
troduced into  legislatures  and  Congress,  and  an  en- 
thusiastic and  capable  agitation  has  been  inaugurated. 

"  In  1891  the  people  of  South  Dakota  voted  upon  a 
minority  representation  clause  to  their  constitution, 
copied  after  the  Illinois  system,  which  they  rejected 
by  a  vote  of  46,200  against  24,161. 

"The  cumulative  vote  has  been  applied  by  the  con- 
stitutions of  the  ii  States  of  Illinois,  Nebraska, 
California,  Pennsylvania,  West  Virginia,  Missouri, 
Mississippi,  Idaho,  Kentucky,  North  Dakota,  and  Mon- 
tana, to  the  election  of  directors  of  private  corpora- 
tions." 

Of  the  various  systems  of  proportional  representa 
tion  Professor  Commons  says: 

"The  single  transferable  vote  has  become  the 
classical  form  of  proportional  representation,  from 
the  great  ability  with  which  it  was  presented  by  its 
author,  Mr.  Thomas  Hare,  and  advocated  by  John 
Stuart  Mill.  It  was  also  devised  independently  by  the 
Danish  statesman,  M.  Andrae,  and  introduced  by  him 
into  the  election  of  a  portion  of  the  members  of  the 
1  Rigsraad  '  in  1855,  and  for  the  '  Landsthing  '  in  1867. 
It  is  advocated  by  the  English  Proportional  Repre- 
sentation Society,  of  which  Sir  John  Lubbock  is 
president. 

"There  is  a  practical  difficulty,  almost  insurmount- 
able, in  the  application  of  this  system  to  large  constit- 
uencies, in  the  fact  that  all  the  votes  of  the  entire 
constituency  must  be  brought  together  to  the  central 
bureau  for  counting.  They  cannot  be  counted  by  the 
various  precinct  officials,  leaving  only  the  totals  to  be 
handled  by  the  central  board.  The  Hare  system 
doubtless  works  well  in  a  constituency  of  a  thousand 
voters,  .as  in  the  Mechanics'  Institute  of  San  Fran- 
cisco, where  it  has  been  successfully  employed  in 
three  elections,  or  in  constituencies  electing  only 
three  to  seven  candidates  by  a  restricted  suffrage,  as 
in  the  Danish  law  of  M.  Andrae  ;  but  when  ten  thou- 
sand, or  a  hundred  thousand,  or  a  half  million  votes 
are  to  be  counted,  and  a  large  number  of  the  ballots 
must  be  recounted  to  make  the  proper  transfers,  the 
task  is  too  heavy. 

"The    Hare    system   is  advocated    by  those    who, 
in  a  too  doctrinaire  fashion,  wish   to  abolish  polit- 
ical   parties.      They    apparently  do   not    realize  the 
impossibility   of    acting    in    politics    without    large 
groupings  of  individuals ;  nor  do  they  perceive  that 
the   Hare  system  itself,  tho  apparently  a  system  of 
personal  representation,  would,  nevertheless,  result  in 
party  representation.     And  this  from  the  fact  that 
voters  who  act  rationally,  and  wish  to  see  their  own 
views  most  strongly  represented  in  leg- 
islation,  would  always   transfer   their 
secondary  choices  to  candidates  of  the         Hare 
same  party    as  the   ones  who  receive       _ 
their  first  choices.      The  only  way  in       oystem. 
•which  the  system  could  lessen  party  co- 
hesion would  be  to  require  the  names  of 
candidates  to  be  printed  in  alphabetical  order,  as  in 
the  present  Massachusetts  and  California  ballot  laws, 
and  not  by  party  tickets,  so  that  the  voters  would  be 
compelled  to  search  through  the  entire  ballot  for  the 
candidates  of  their  own  party.    This  would  doubtless 
encourage    independent    voting,   but    would    by    no 
means  abolish  parties.  .  .  . 

"  With  the  present  organization  of  parties  in  the 


Proportional  Representation. 


1 127 


Prostitution. 


United  States,  and  with  the  customary  method  of 
printing  party  tickets  on  the  so-called  Atistralian  bal- 
lot, there  is  reason  to  believe  that  the  Hare  system 
would  be  forced  into  the  service  of  parties. 

"  In  1870  M.  Borely  of  Nimes,  France,  proposed  that 
«ach  elector  should  himself  indicate  his  preferences  by 
numbering-  the  candidates  i,  2,  3,  etc.  In  this  form 
the  plan  was  adopted  in  1871  by  the  Association  Re- 
formiste  of  Geneva,  Switzerland,  and  became  known 
as  the  listelibre,  or  '  free  ticket.'  .  .  . 

"  This  combination  of  the    cumulative  vote  and  the 
1  free  ticket'  answers  in  most  respects  the  ideal  of  elec- 
toral reform.    It  gives  to    the  voter  the  widest  free- 
dom of  choice  between  all   the  individual  candidates 
on  all  the  tickets,  avoids  the  waste  and  the  consequent 
'machine'  supremacy  of  the   simple    cumulative  vote, 
and  opens  the  way  for  independent    movements  within 
and  without  the  dominant  parties.      There   are,  how- 
ever, two  minor  objections.      If    voters    are  allowed 
to  write  on  their  ballots  the  figures  i,  2,  3,  etc.,  against 
individual  candidates,  it  becomes  easy 
to  make  those    'distinguishing    marks' 
Swiss         which  the  laws  against  bribery  seek  to 
Svstem        prohibit.       This    objection     would    not 
'  hold  against  a  plan  by  which  the  voter 

gives  but  one  vote  to  a  candidate  or  one 
to  a  ticket.  Again,  the  cumulation  in- 
volvesa  waste  of  votes  between  the  groups  or  factions 
within  the  party  corresponding  to  the  waste  which 
the  simple  cumulation  permits  between  parties.  Vot- 
ers of  a  given  faction  who  cumulate  on  their  own  first 
choices  of  their  party  candidates,  and  who  fail  to  dis- 
tribute their  votes  so  as  to  aid  the  secondary  candi- 
dates of  the  same  faction,  would  be  at  a  disadvan- 
tage, and  minor  but  shrewder  factions  would  secure 
disproportionate  influence  in  the  party  representa- 
tion. The  cumulative  vote  with  the  'free  ticket' 
amendment  has  been  adopted  by  the  Canton  Zug  in 
Switzerland,  and  is  favored  by  Professor  Ernest 
Naville,  the  leading  advocate  of  proportional  repre- 
sentation in  that  country.  It  is  simpler  than  the  plan 
finally  agreed  upon  by  the  Swiss  and  American  advo- 
cates of  the  reform,  and  would,  perhaps,  secure  all 
the  advantages  of  the  latter." 

References :  Thomas  Gilpin,  The  Representation  of 
Minorities  of  Electors  to  act  with  the  Majority  tn 
Elected  Assemblies,  Philadelphia,  1844  ;  Victor  Consid- 
erant,  De  la  Sinctritedu  Gouvernement  Representa- 
tif,  ou  Exposition  del' Election  Veridique,  Geneve.  1846  ; 
Thomas  Hare,  The  Machinery  of  Representation.  Lon- 
don, 1857  (Mr.  Hare's  first  publication);  The  Election 
of  Representatives,  Parliamentary  and  Municipal. 
Third  Edition,  Philadelphia,  1867,  350  pages,  the 
classical  treatise;  John  Stuart  Mill,  Considerations  on 
Representative  Government,  New  York,  1882 ;  C.  R. 
Buckalew,  Proportional  Representation,  Philadelphia, 
1872 ;  J.  R.  Commons.  Proportional  Representation, 
New  York,  1896.  Contains  a  full  discussion  of  the  sub- 
ject and  the  most  recent  information,  also  texts  of 
bills,  and  lists  of  books  and  periodicals  on  the  subject. 
Proportional  Representation  Review,  published  quar- 
terly by  the  American  Proportional  Representation 
League,  Stoughton  Cooley,  secretary,  Chicago ;  50 
cents  a  year. 

PROSTITUTION  is  not  an  evil  peculiar 
to  any  age,  country,  or  civilization.  Herodi- 
tus  tells  us  of  an  extent  and  infamy  of  pros- 
titution in  ancient  Babylon  almost  beyond 
belief.  Prostitution  in  terrible  and  unnatural 
forms  was  a  part  of  the  religious  cultus  of 
goddesses  or  gods  worshiped  under  different 
names  in  Phoenicia,  Syria,  Phrygia,  Egypt, 
and  the  adjacent  countries.  Similar  rites  en- 
tered into  the  idolatry  which  repeatedly  led 
the  children  of  Israel  astray,  and  are  con- 
nected with  the  "  groves  "  and  "  pillars,"  and 
other  terms  under  which  the  English  Old  Tes- 
tament covers  the  literal  meaning  of  the 
Hebrew  original.  In  Greece  and  at  Athens, 
as  well  as  in  Corinth,  we  find  the  same  sexual 
worship  and  prostitution  made  a  matter  of 
civic  glory  and  religious  gain.  Unnatural 
vice  we  find  openly  practised  and  defended 
by  Greece's  sages,  heroes,  and  statesmen. 
Prostitution  was  taught  as  an  art.  The  most 


educated  women  of  Greece  were  courtesans. 
In  Rome,  if  vice  was  made  less  beautiful,  it 
was  more  unbridled.  Women  of  the  highest 
rank,  even  of  the  imperial  purple,  enrolled 
themselves  as  common  prostitutes.  Orgies 
took  place  in  the  baths  and  in  the  temples. 
Obscenity  ruled  the  stage. 

We  find  the  evil  in  every  portion  of  the 
globe;  in  India,  in  Japan,  in  Hawaii,  and  every- 
where about  in  proportion  to  our  knowledge  of 
the  life  of  the  age  and  country.  We  find  it  in 
the  Middle  Ages  alike  in  hovel  and  in  palace  ; 
in  cloister  and  in  hall.  If  under  the  Puritan 
regime  it  was  temporarily  restrained,  it  broke 
out  in  the  Restoration  in  a  wilder  carnival  of 
vice.  (See  CRIME.)  It  exists  to-day  in  modern 
Babylons  as  in  the  old  ;  if  it  is  now  publicly 
condemned  and  the  number  of  the  pure  is 
enormously  increased,  there  are  those  who  be- 
lieve that  it  is  eating  to-day  under  the  surface 
far  more  than  is  generally  known.  At  the  Na- 
tional Purity  Congress  in  Baltimore  (October, 
1895),  it  was  stated  that  the  number  of  prosti- 
tutes in  the  United  States  was  230,000,  and 
that  this  implied  at  least  1,150,000  prostitute- 
men,  which  is  probably  far  under  the  truth. 
Prostitutes  are  mainly  found  in  the  cities. 
Their  male  companions  live  not  only  in  the 
cities,  but  also  in  the  towns  and  villages, 
whose  residents  go  to  the  cities  for  business, 
or  pleasure,  or  both. 

When   Dr.  Sanger  wrote   of  prostitution  in 
1858,  the  number  of  women  living  as  prosti- 
tutes in  the   city  of    New  York, 
from    information    given    by  the 
then  chief  of  police,  and  obtained     Extent, 
from   other  reliable  sources,  was 
estimated  to  be  6000.     In  a  paper 
prepared  for  the  World's  Congress  on  Social 
Purity,  held  in  Chicago  in  June,   1893,  Hon. 
Elbridge  T.  Gerry  states  that  Superintendent 
Byrnes,  of  the  police  department,  and  himself 
compared  notes  with  exactly  the  same  result, 
and,  viewing  the  matter  from  two  different 
standpoints,  they  were  agreed  that  the  present 
number  of  prostitutes  in  New  York  city  is  at 
least  40,000. 

Some  think  this  estimate  too  high.  The 
Rev.  F.  M.  Goodchild,  writing  in  The  Arena 
for  March,  1896,  says  : 

"It  has  been  declared  that  in  New  York  city  there 
are  between  40,000  and  50,000  such  women.  That 
would  make  one  habitual  prostitute  for  every  nine 
mature  men  in  the  city.  As  it  is  estimated  that 
every  fallen  woman  means  on  an  average  five  fallen 
men  to  support  her,  it  would  appear  that  more  than 
half  our  men  are  regular  contributors  to  the  brothel, 
which  I  should  hesitate  very  much  to  believe.  Eight 
years  ago  the  superintendent  of  the  Florence  Night 
Mission  estimated  that  there  were  then  15,000  prosti- 
tutes in  New  York  city.  The  number  has  not  in- 
creased by  more  than  10,000  certainly,  probably  not 
by  more  than  5000.  An  army  of  20,000  such  hapless 
creatures  is  ghastly  enough  not  to  need  exaggera- 
tion." 

Mr.  Goodchild,  however,  appears  to  forget 
that  prostitutes  in  New  York  city  are  not  sup- 
ported by  residents  of  that  city  alone,  so  that 
there  may  be  40,000.  Nor  is  there  any  reason 
for  believing  that  New  York  is  much,  if  any, 
worse  than  other  places  in  proportion  to  their 
size. 

A  volume  entitled  Chicago's  Dark  Places, 


Prostitution. 


1128 


Prostitution. 


which  is  the  result  of  careful  investigations, 
made  by  a  corps  of  specially  appointed  com- 
missioners, men  and  women  of  large  expe- 
rience in  mission  work  among  the  degraded 
and  criminal  classes  of  the  city,  says  : 

"  There  are  several  sections  in  Chicago  almost  en- 
tirely devoted  for  whol'e  blocks  to  houses  of  prostitu- 
tion. One  of  these  localities  is  known  as  the  Black 
Hole,  and  it  does  not  belie  its  name."  The  details 
given  of  the  ways  in  which  young  girls  are  victim- 
ized and  enslaved  in  these  vile  places,  and  of  the 
hard  pressure  brought  to  bear  upon  dependent  work- 
ing girls,  making  them  an  easy  prey  to  the  seducer, 
are  harrowing  in  the  extreme.  But  this  shameless 
vice  is  not  confined  to  the  slums.  One  section  of  the 
south  side  is  mentioned  in  which  sundry  localities  are 
devoted  entirely  to  houses  of  prostitution.  The  major 
portion  of  these  houses,  says  the  commissioner,  "are 
'gilded  palaces.'  They  are  elegantly  decorated  and 
elaborately  furnished,  and  to  these  '  the  visitors  gen- 
erally come  in  carriages ' ;  14  carriages  having  been 
counted  by  the  commissioner  at  one  time  on  a  single 
block.  The  reports  upon  the  lower  type  of  theaters, 
concert  halls,  and  museums,  are  remarkable  chapters, 
showing  a  close  and  direct  connection  between  these 
so-called  '  amusements,'  strong  drink,  and  social  vice. 
In  one  of  them  in  exterior  a  cheap  theater,  the  com- 
missioners, in  a  circuitous  way,  were  introduced  to 
girls  ''in  decollete  costume,'  who  invited  them  'down 
stairs  '  to  '  see  the  can-can  danced  by  12  naked  young 
ladies.'  The  exhibition  consisted  of  '  a  most  disgust- 
ing dance,  performed  by  over  a  dozen  girls  in  a  state 
of  absolute  nudity,'  and  ended,  when  the  dance  was 
over,  with  'open  and  personal  solicitations  from  these 
abandoned  women.'  In  this  vile  place,  where  was 
also  a  'bar,  which  did  a  thriving  business,'  they 
found  on  their  arrival  'some  10  or  12  men,  most  of 
them  respectable  looking,  some  of  them  young  and 
some  old,  all  in  eager  expectancy  awaiting  the  arrival 
of  the  'ladies.' 

"  The  reports  on  the  'immoral  dives'  and  'obscene 
pictures,  books,  and  advertisements,'  are  striking 
exhibits  of  the  numerous  and  ingenious  ways  in 
which  the  young  of  both  sexes  are  systematically 
corrupted,  and  vice  promoted." 

Of  Philadelphia  Mr.  Goodchild  writes  (see 
above) : 

"There  are  not  less  than  1000  houses  of  ill  fame  in 
the  city,  and  as  many  as  5000  women  live  among  us 
by  the*  sale  of  their  bodies.  I  wish  I  might  have  con- 
fidence that  the  estimate  is  too  high  ;  but  nearly  six 
years  of  observation  make  me  fear  that  the  figures 
are  much  too  low.  This  does  not  include,  of  course, 
the  vast  multitude  of  poor  girls  whose  labor  yields 
scarcely  enough  to  keep  body  and  soul  together, 
many  of  whom  fail  victims  to  the  lecherous  men  who 
are  always  on  the  watch  for  '  new  cases.'  " 

But  the  older  cities  of  Europe  are  probably 
even  worse.  General  Booth  of  the  Salvation 
Army  in  his  Darkest  England  chart  esti- 
mates the  number  of  prostitutes  in  London 
at  30,000.  They  have  been  estimated  at  from 
60,000  to  80,000.  On  certain  squares  and 
streets  at  midnight  they  literally  crowd  and 
block  the  sidewalks  for  square  after  square. 

In  Berlin   a  commission  appointed  by  the 
Society  of  Medicine,  with  Professor  Virchow 
as  president,   found    4364  prosti- 
tutes in  that  city  recognized  by 
Europe,      the  police,  and  estimated  the  total 
number  at  from  40,000  to  50,000. 
(Addresses  of   National   Purity 
Congress,   Baltimore,  pp.  250-252).    The  pre- 
fect of  police  of  Paris  is  quoted  as  saying  that 
there  were  in  Paris  over  100,000.     (Addresses, 
as  above,  p.  310.) 

Of  the  evils  connected  with  prostitution 
there  is  scarcely  need  to  speak.  Many  careful 
students  are  coming  to  believe  that  the  sexual 


evil,  in  its  various  forms,  is  greater  even  than 
that  of  intemperance.     Says  Professor  A.  G. 
Warner  (American  Charities,  p.  66),  "  Care- 
ful observers  believe  it  to    be  a 
more  constant   and   fundamental 
cause    of  degeneration    than   in-   Amount  of 
temperance.      It  certainly  effects        Evil, 
degeneration   of  a  more   or    less 
pronounced  type  in  a  much  larger 
number  of  persons.     It  persists  almost  to  the 
end  in  the  most  degenerate  stock,  while  at  the 
same  time  it  is  operative  among  the  healthier 
classes.  ..."      Intemperance  is,  however,  all 
but  universally  the  companion  of  prostitution. 
It  has  been  frequently  said  that  girls  rarely 
can,  and  men  rarely  do,  continue  a  fast  life 
without  drink.     If  the  saloon  is  often  literally 
the  entrance  to  a  brothel,  the  brothel  as  fre- 
quently leads  to  the  saloon.     An  eminent  law- 
yer  is   quoted,   on  p.    121    of  the  published 
Addresses  of  the  National  Purity  Congress  at 
Baltimore  (1895),  as  saying  :     "  It  is  my  delib- 
erate conviction,  based  upon  facts  coming  to 
my  knowledge  in  the  course  of  20  years'  prac- 
tise, that  more  boys  are  converted  to  drink- 
ing habits  in  houses  of  ill  fame  than  in  the 
saloons." 

Of  the  physical  evils  attendant  upon  prosti- 
tution, perhaps  more  than  enough  has  been 
said.  Yet  an  evil  that  at  any  time  may,  and 
repeatedly  does,  reduce  youth  to  premature, 
helpless,  old  age  ;  transform  the  body  into  a 
rotten  shell ;  affect  not  only  the  sinner,  but  his 
posterity  ;  make  the  kiss  of  love  the  means  of 
carrying  contagion  and  foul  disease  to  pure 
brides  and  innocent  children,  it  is  difficult  to 
describe  too  strongly.  Yet  the  extent  of  the 
evil  may  be  seen  by  the  following  quotations 
from  a  paper  read  by  Dr.  A.  F.  Currier  be- 
fore the  Section  on  Public  Health  and  Legal 
Medicine  of  the  New  York  Academy  of 
Medicine,  and  published  in  the  Philanthropist 
for  May,  1891. 

"  In  the  class  for  diseases  of  women  at  the  Outdoor 
Poor  Department  of  Bellevue  Hospital,  1802  new  cases 
were  received  from  February  i,  1890,  to  January  i, 
1891.  In  this  number  there  were  68  cases  of  syphilis 
and  191  of  other  forms  of  venereal  disease.  In  the 
class  for  diseases  of  the  skin  and  venereal  disease 
there  were  at  least  as  many  more  cases.  Approxi- 
mately there  were  260  cases  of  venereal  disease  among 
3600  women.  There  are  more  than  30  dispensaries  in 
New  York  in  which  such  diseases  are  treated,  and  the 
average  number  of  cases  of  venereal  disease  for  each 
would  not  fall  far  short  of  250  cases.  Thus  there  are 
probably  6000  to  7000  cases  of  this  kind  which  are  an- 
nually receiving  dispensary  treatment.  Probably  as 
many  more  cases  are  treated  in  hospitals,  in  private 
practise,  or  receive  no  medical  attention.  A  very  large 
number  of  these  cases  include  prostitutes  with  diseases 
which  are  in  a  contagious  condition.  It  \vould  hardly 
be  unreasonable  to  say  that  there  are  10,000  women  in 
New  York  City  who  are  in  a  condition  to  propagate 
activel}'  venereal  diseases.  There  are  probably  as 
many  more  men  who  are  in  the  same  condition.  This 
grand  army  of  disease  producers  represents  a  portion 
of  the  baneful  results  of  prostitution  in  our  midst, 
with  no  laws  to  restrict  or  regulate  the  evil.  In 
countless  cases  sexual  intercourse  is  indulged  in  by 
those  who  are  aware  of  the  infectious  character  of 
their  disease.  In  many  other  individuals  there  is 
ignorance  that  they  are  the  subjects  of  infectious 
disease." 

One  of  the  most  atrocious  evils  connected 
with  prostitution  are  the  abominations  of  child 
prostitution.  Says  the  Hon.  E.  T.  Gerry  (Ad- 


Prostitution. 


1129 


Prostitution. 


dresses,  as  above,  p.  340):      "  Few  have  the 

remotest  idea  of  the  extent  to  which  sexual 

vice  exists  among  children  at  the 

present    time.      I   use    the   word 

Child  Pros-   '  sexual  vice  '  as   including  both 

titution.      self -abuse   and  prostitution.  .  .  . 

Nothing    but    the    vigilance     of 

parents  and  guardians  can  detect 

the  solitary  vice,  and  hence  statistics  are  very 

difficult  to  obtain,  excepting  when  the  one  vice 

leads  up  to  the  other.     But  in  the  other  case, 

the  figures  show  a  frightful  prevalence,  at  the 

present  time,  of  juvenile  prostitution.     True, 

under  the   stringent  laws   which   have   been 

enacted  in  the  various  States  of  our  Union,  at 

the  instance  of  Societies  for  the  Prevention  of 

Cruelty  to  Children,  those  who  utilize   little 

children  for  the  simple  gratification  of  lust  are 

made  to  suffer  a  felon's  imprisonment,   and 

while  the  effect  has  been  to  practically  denude 

the  brothels  of  youthful  victims,  still  the  vice 

exists,    more     especially     among    the    lower 

classes,   to  a  degree  hardly  credible    in   this 

civilized    country.       A    large   number  of  the 

brothels,  at  the  present  time,  are  replenished 

by  juvenile  prostitutes,  rather  than  by  those 

who  have  fallen  but  once.    .    .    .    That  the 

disease  is  spreading  is  unquestioned." 

In  a  paper  on  the  subject  of  Child  Prostitu- 
tion, read  at  the  World's  Social  Purity  Con- 
gress in  Chicago  in  1893,  Mr.  Gerry  states  that 
there  is  a  fearful  theory  existing  in  this  coun- 
try, thp  more  particularly  among  foreigners, 
according  to  which,  if  any  male  who  has  con- 
tracted disease  through  indulgence,  can  secure 
a  perfectly  pure  child  as  his  victim,  the  disease 
will  pass  from  him  to  the  child.  Nor  is  it 
only  among  the  poor  that  these  grosser  evils 
exist.  If  one  is  to  credit  the  sad  whispers  of 
grave  officials  of  the  Church  as  to  the  morals 
in  boy  choirs,  or  in  private  and  public  schools, 
one  finds  fearful  evidence  of  the  existence, 
in  all  ranks  of  society,  of  various  forms  of 
unnatural  vice.  As  for  prostitution  itself,  the 
head  of  a  well-known  university  settlement  in 
an  Eastern  city  names  a  prominent  fashion- 
able avenue  lined  with  the  apartments  of  the 
kept  mistresses  of  business  men.  A  writer  in 
the  Westminster  Review  (May,  1895)  signifi- 
cantly gives  among  the  causes  of  prostitution  : 

"The  luxurious  and  semi-idle  lives  led  by  many 
members  of  the  well-to-do  classes. 

"  The  fact  that  certain  forms  of  immorality  are 
reckoned  among  what  may  be  called  fashionable  vices. 
Drunkenness  is  gone  out  of  fashion,  and  some  of  the 
lower  forms  of  sport ;  but  it  is  still  by  no  means  un- 
fashionable for  the  so-called  '  man  of  the  world '  to 
have  his  experiences  in  the  '  half- world,'  tho  it  is  true 
that  its  inhabitants  can  no  longer  hope  to  bask,  as 
formerly,  in  the  sunshine  of  good  society." 

Akin  to  this  evil  is  that  of  the   organized 

traffic  in  girls,  which  is  declared  by  all  who 

have  investigated  the  subject,  to  be  carried  on 

around  the  world.     A  few  years  ago  it  was 

stated  to  the   House   Committee 

which  was  investigating  the  immi- 

Traffic       grant  question   in  New  York,  by 

in  Girls,     the    President   of    the    Woman's 

National  Industrial  League,  that 

"syndicates  exist  in   New  York 

and  Boston,  for  the  purpose  of  supplying  fresh 

young  girls  from  immigrants  arriving  in  this 


country,  for  houses  of  ill  fame  ;  agents  of  the 
business  go  abroad  and  assist  in  this  nefarious 
business.  Immigrants  arriving  in  New  York 
furnish  20,000  victims  annually."  If  this  is  an 
exaggeration  it  is  at  least  the  exaggeration  of 
a  very  great  evil.  In  very  many  cities  agents 
of  houses  of  ill  fame  meet  girls  coming  to  the 
cities  on  the  railroads  and  on  the  boats.  They 
advertise  for  girls  wanted  for  light  work  and 
good  pay.  When  the  girls  come  they  are  de- 
tained. Agents  go  out  to  solicit  boys  and  men 
as  patrons. 

A  book,  The  Traffic  in  Girls  and  Florence 
Crittenton  Missions,  exposes  many  of  the 
traps  laid  for  unwary  girls.  The  schools,  pri- 
vate as  well  as  public,  are  often  made  the  main 
place  for  promoting  child  prostitution,  dissem- 
inating obscene  literature,  and  obtaining  fresh 
victims. 

Mrs.  Charlton  Edholm  said  at  the  Baltimore 
Congresses  (Addresses,  p.  153):  "I  stand 
here  in  the  presence  of  God,  to  say  that  of  the 
230,000  erring  girls  in  this  land,  three-fourths 
of  them  have  been  snared  and  trapped,  and 
bought  and  sold." 

When  one  realizes  that  the  average  life  of  a 
prostitute  is  said  to  be  but  five  years,  one  can 
understand  what  a  traffic  it  must  be  to  obtain 
the  230,000  for  the  United  States  alone,  while 
alike  in  Germany  and  Japan,  in  France  and  in 
England,  the  traffic  goes  on. 

It  is  now  necessary  to  ask  what  are   the 
causes  of  prostitution,  as  a  means  to  asking 
how  the  evil  can  be  met.   Dr.  San- 
ger,  in  the  book  referred  to  above, 
attributes  out  of  2000  cases,  525  to      Causes, 
destitution,  513  to  inclination,  258 
to  seduction,  181  to  drink. 

Different  writers  differ  from  this.  The 
most  thorough  statistical  study  was  made  by 
the  Bureau  of  the  Statistics  of  Labor  for 
Massachusetts  in  1888.  It  says: 

"The  statistical  method  is  not  the  best  under  which 
to  determine  moral  conditions  ;  yet,  as  an  auxiliary,  it 
has  great  efficiency.  Statistical  science  can  only  be 
employed  to  show  the  results  of  the  lives  of  the  peo- 
ple ;  it  cannot  show  the  inner  motives  which  lead  to 
results.  .  .  . 

"  Observation  is  not  sufficient,  and  personal  inter- 
views might  lead  to  difficulties  greater  than  those  be- 
longing to  observation  alone.  The  force  of  statistics- 
in  such  conditions  is  rather  negative  than  positive, 
and  this  negative  quality  is  brought  into  use  here. 

"  It  is  often  flippantly  asserted  that  the  shopgirls, 
those  comprising  the  class  under  investigation,  recruit 
the  ranks  of  prostitution.  .  .  .  Of  course,  such  a  charge 
cannot  be  entirely  removed  when  applied  to  any  class. 
The  only  question  here  is,  Does  it  apply  to  the  class 
against  which  it  is  brought  ? 

"  A  few  statistics  of  a  negative  character  have  been 
collected,  relating  to  prostitution.  This  partial  inves- 
tigation has  been  made  as  to  how  far  the  ranks  of 
prostitution  are  recruited  from  girls  belonging  to  the 
industrial  classes.  It  should  be  distinctly  borne  in 
mind  that  this  partial  investigation  was  applied  only 
to  what  may  be  called  professional  prostitutes  ;  for  no 
statistical  investigation  can  disclose  the  amount  of 
immoral  conduct  of  any  class  of  people.  So  that  quiet, 
unobtrusive,  and  unobserved  prostitution,  which  ex- 
ists in  all  communities,  has  no  place  in  the  present 
consideration. 

"  Original  investigation  was  made  in  the  following 
cities  :  Brooklyn,  Buffalo,  Chicago,  Cincinnati,  Cleve- 
land, Indianapolis,  Louisville,  Newark,  New  Orleans, 
New  York,  Philadelphia,  Richmond,  St.  Louis,  and  San 
Francisco. 

"In  1884  the  Massachusetts  Bureau  of  Statistics  of 
Labor  made  a  report  as  to  the  previous  occupations  of 
170  professional  prostitutes  in  the  city  of  Boston,  and. 


Prostitution. 


1130 


Prostitution. 


the  facts  then  given  have  been  incorporated  in  this 
report. 

rtThe  number  of  prostitutes  as  stated  in  the  follow- 
ing table,  for  any  one  of  the  cities  named,  falls  far  be- 
low the  total  number  of  prostitutes  in  that  city,  but 
the  number  and  variety  or  those  from  whom  informa- 
tion has  been  received  are  sufficient  to  insure  repre- 
sentative results.  Thus  in  Chicago,  for  example,  there 
are,  or  were  at  the  time  of  the  investigation  of  the 
department,  302  houses  of  ill  fame,  assignation  houses, 
and  '  rooming  '  houses,  known  to  the  police,  containing 
1007  inmates.  This  investigation  involved  557  of  this 
number.  .  .  . 

"  The  facts  as  to  marriage  are  shown  by  the  follow- 
ing brief  table,  which  gives  the  number  of  prostitutes 
furnishing  information  in  the  cities  referred  to,  the 
number  reporting  themselves  as  having  been  mar- 
ried, and  the  per  cent,  of  the  total  number  who  were 
married  : 


CITY. 

Number  of 
prostitutes 
furnishing 
information. 

Number  of 
prostitutes 
reported  as 
having  been' 
married. 

Per  cent,  of 
married 
of  total 
number. 

Boston  

Chicago  

Cincinnati  

382 

77 

Louisville  

263 

70 

26.62 

New  Orleans. 

167 

Philadelphia.. 

IOO 

3 

3.00 

San  Francisco 

323 

81 

25.08 

"It  is  hardly  worth  while  to  take  space  at  this 
time  to  give  the  occupations  of  all  those  who  have 
entered  prostitution  from  the  different  cities  involved. 

"  The  number  of  prostitutes  giving  information  was 
3866,  and  the  following  summary  exhibits  the  occupa- 
tions of  this  number  preceding  their  entry  upon  their 
present  life.  For  this  purpose,  occupations  similar 
in  character  have  been  grouped,  and  no  occupation  or 
group  containing  less  than  10  persons  has  been  in- 
cluded in  the  classification — those  numbering  under 
10  being  put  into  the  general  classification  of  '  various 
occupations ': 

Actresses,  ballet  girls,  circus  performers,  singers, 
etc 52 

Bead-trimming  makers,  embroiderers,  lace- work- 
ers   21 

Bookbinders r8 

Bookkeepers,    clerks,     copyists,    stenographers, 

typewriters,  etc 31 

Candy  factories ^n 

Cigarette,  cigar,  and  tobacco  factories 

Corset  factories 

Dressmakers,   seamstresses,  employees   of  cloak 

and  shirt  factories,  button-hole  makers,  etc.... 

Hair-dressers  and  hair-workers 

Housework,  hotel-work,  table-work,  and  cooking 

Laundry- work 

Milliners  and  hat-trimmers 

No  previous  occupation  (home) 

Nurses  (hospital  and  house),  and  nursegirls 

Paper-box  factories 

Rope  and  cordage  factories 

Saleswomen  and  cashiers 

Shoe  factories 

Students  (at  schools  or  convents) 

Teachers,  governesses,  etc 

Telegraph  and  telephone  operators 

Textile  factories 

Various  occupations 

"  The  following  list  shows  the  character  of  the  more 
important  occupations,  omitted  from  the  foregoing 
summary,  with  the  number  of  women  who  had  been 
employed  in  each,  and  which  are  included  under 
'various  occupations'  : 

Artificial  flower-makers p 

Button  factories o 

Farm  work g 

Canning  establishments 8 

Necktie-makers 8 

Housekeepers 7 

Straw  sewers 7 

Hat  and  cap  factories 6 

Bag  factories 5 

Canvassers...  r 


78 
16 

505 
15 

1155 
70 
?i 

1236 


126 

43 
14 
23 
ii 
94 

211 


Clock  and  watch  factories e 

Box  factories  (wooden) 

Chewing-gum  factories 

Florists :  [***! 

Feather  curlers  and  sewers ! . '. ', '.'. 

Restaurant '.'.'.'.'.  4 

"The  preceding  figures  are  exceedingly  instruct- 
ive. By  them  it  will  be  seen  that  the  largest  number 
coming  from  any  occupation  has  been  taken  from 
those  doing  housework,  hotel-work,  and  cooking ; 
•  this  number,  1155,  being  29.88  per  cent,  of  the  whole 
number  comprehended  in  the  statement. 

"The  next  largest  number,  so  far  as  occupation  is 
concerned,  ranks  with  the  seamstresses,  including  the 
dressmakers,  employees  of  cloak  and  shirt  factories, 
etc.,  this  number  being  505. 

"  A  fact  which  strikes  one  sadly  is  the  large  number 
who  enter  prostitution  directly  from  their  homes. 
This  number  is  1236,  being  31.97  per  cent,  of  the  whole 
number  comprehended. 

"  It  cannot  be  said,  therefore,  so  far  as  this  investi- 
gation shows,  that  the  employees  in  workshops  are 
to  be  burdened  with  the  charge  of  furnishing  the  chief 
source  whence  the  ranks  of  prostitution  are  recruited. 

"The  experience  of  the  writer  in  making  an  exami- 
nation in  many  cities,  both  in  the  United  States  and 
in  Europe,  sustains  the  statement,  but  more  strongly 
than  the  figures  here  given,  that  working  women  do 
not  recruit  the  houses  of  prostitution. 

"  Nor  does  the  investigation  show  that  employers  of 
labor  are  guilty  of  reducing  their  employees  to  a  con- 
dition of  prostitution,  as  is  often  alleged.  Only  in  the 
rarest  cases  can  one  meet  with  a  whisper  that  this  is  the 
case.  And  these  whispers,  followed  to  their  source, 
have  rarely  disclosed  any  facts  which  would  lead  to 
the  conclusion  that  employers  make  bargains  based 
on  the  loss  of  character  of  their  employees.  .  .  . 

"  Working  women  are  not  street- walkers.  They 
could  not  carry  on  their  daily  toil  and  walk  the  streets 
too.  A  captain  of  police  expressed  the  matter 
well  when  he  said  that  people  who  charge  the  work- 
ing women  with  walking  the  streets  at  night  for  evil 
purposes  do  not  know  what  they  are  talking  about. 
Night-walkers  are,  all  of  them,  hardened  professionals. 
The  prostitutes,  some  of  them,  may  have  been  hard- 
working women,  but  no  -working  woman  ever  walks 
the  streets  as  a  prostitute.  This  captain  said  that, 
when  a  girl  falls  from  virtue,  she  has  first  to  graduate 
as  a  'parlor  '  girl,  and  then  serve  some  time  in  a  still 
lower  house,  before  she  is  hardened  enough  to  take  to 
the  streets." 

Before,  however,  drawing  inferences  from 
this  table,  it  must  be  remembered  that  it  is 
only  drawn  from  the  facts  as  to 
girls  in  houses  of  ill  fame.     Shop- 
girls, working  girls,  are,  as  a  rule,    Economic 
not  there.      If  investigation   was       Cause, 
made  of  girls  occupying  rooms  by 
themselves,    quite   another    story 
might  be  found.     Even  of  the  bagnios  there 
is  another  side.     Mr.  Stead,  in  his  If  Christ 
Came    to    Chicago,   gives    the    testimony    of 
Dora  Claflin,  the  "  Madam"  of  a  house  of  ill 
fame.     She  says  : 

"  Prostitution  is  an  effect,  not  a  careless,  voluntary 
choice  on  the  part  of  the  fallen.  Girls  do  not  elect  to 
cast  themselves  away.  They  are  driven  to  the  haunts 
of  vice.  The  more  distinctively  womanly  a  girl  is— 
and  I  mean  by  that  the  more  she  has  beauty,  delicacy, 
love  of  dress  and  adornment,  feminine  weakness— the 
easier  a  mark  she  is  for  the  designing.  And  the 
designers  are  not  wanting. 

"  Girls,  and  I  say  this  emphatically,  are  not  seducers. 
They  have  innate  delicacy  and  refinement.  I  say 
honestly  that  I  do  not  believe  that  one  woman  in  10,000 
would  cast  herself  at  the  feet  of  lust  except  under 
duress  or  under  the  force  of  circumstances. 

"The  recruiting  grounds  of  the  bagnio  are  the 
stores,  where  girls  work  long  hours  for  small  pay  ; 
the  homes  that  have  few  comforts,  and  practically  no 
pleasure  ;  the  streets,  where  girls  are  often  cast,  still 
unknown  to  sin,  but  in  want  and  without  shelter  ;  in 
a  word,  places  outside  the  levee,  where  distress  and 
temptation  stand  ever  present  as  a  menace  to  purity 
and  rectitude  ;  behind  every  effect  there  is  a  cause. 
In  the  case  of  prostitution,  the  real  cause  lies  not  in 
the  girls  who  fall,  but  in  the  social  conditions  that 


Prostitution. 


1131 


Prostitution. 


make  the  fall  easy,  and  the  men  who  tempt  to  the 
step  and  furnish  the  money  to  support  degradation 
after  the  step  has  been  taken.  Before  reform  in  the 
levee  is  possible,  there  must  be  reform  in  the  home, 
on  the  mart." 

All  writers  on  the  subject  agree  in  the  fact 
that  poverty  leads  to  much  prostitution,  and 
that  in  stores,  factories,  and  offices,  salesgirls, 
-working  girls,  and  typewriters  are  drawn  or 
lured  by  the  lack  of  money  or  the  desire  for 
money.  One  speaker  at  the  Baltimore  con- 
gress considered  the  factory  a  mill  for  the 
production  of  prostitutes.  Says  the  Rev.  F. 
M.  Goodchild  (The  Arena,  March,  1896) : 

"  The  money  returns  furnish  a  very  great  tempta- 
tion to  girls  to  part  with  their  virtue.  Some  fall  be- 
cause they  cannot  find  work  ;  some  because  they  do 
not  wish  to  work.  Many  a  girl  who  is  strong,  and 
healthy,  and  comely,  and  lazy,  learns  that  there  is  a 
market  for  such  as  she  ;  that  she  can  earn  more  in  a 
night  by  sin  than  she  can  in  a  week  or  a  month  by 
•work,  and  she  sells  herself  accordingly.  Mr.  Stead 
reminded  the  Woman's  Club  of  Chicago  that  the  pe- 
culiar temptation  of  a  woman  is  that  her  virtue  is  a 
realizable  asset.  This  vice  costs. a  man  money;  to  a 
woman  it  yields  money.  Mr.  Booth  says  that  the  num- 
ber of  young  women  who  receive  $2500  in  one  year  for 
the  sale  of  their  persons  is  larger  than  the  number  of 
women  of  all  ages,  in  all  businesses  and  professions, 
who  make  a  similar  sum  by  honest  industry.  In  sin 
the  prizes  come  first;  in  honest  callings  only  after 
long  and  painful  toil.  Even  in  the  common  houses  on 
Bainbridge  Street,  at  a  so-cent  rate,  girls  often  make 
$20  or  more  a  week." 

Yet,  on  one  point,  one  must  be  guarded  in 
reading  these  facts.  Even  if  it  be  true,  of 
which  we  are  not  sure,  that  women  of  impure 
life  average  $20  a  week  by  their  vice,  it  by  no 
means  proves  that  the  average  woman  can  get 
$20  per  week.  A  few  women  of  the  demi 
monde,  mistresses,  and  even  prostitutes,  have 
hundreds,  and,  perhaps,  thousands  of  dollars 
squandered  on  them  in  a  brief  while.  This 
enormously  raises  the  average  income  of  their 
class,  but  the  great  mass  of  these  women  may 
get  vastly  less.  At  best,  their  income  is  but 
for  a  few  years,  and  vast,  vast  multitudes 
never  live  in  luxury,  but  in  utter  want.  Per- 
haps few  things  have  done  more  harm  than 
the  painting  of  the  average  life  of  the  prosti- 
tute as  one  of  luxury.  Such  is  only  exception- 
ally the  case.  Many  of  their  homes,  many 
houses  of  ill  fame  are  said,  on  the  best  author- 
ity, not  only  not  to  be  attractive,  but  to  be 
often  poorly  furnished,  and  not  seldom  loath- 
some. It  must  be  remembered  that  the  wages 
of  sin  rise  and  fall  with  the  market,  and  with 
the  conditions  of  different  countries.  If  in 
"good  times  "  men  throw  money  away  reck- 
lessly ;  in  hard  times,  when  women  are  most 
tempted  to  prostitution  for  profit,  they  do 
not.  Instances  are  not  unknown  where  girls 
have  left  situations  with  low  wages  for  the 
reported  "  high  wages  "  of  the  prostitute,  and 
have  found,  as  actual  fact,  that,  as  prostitutes, 
they  earned  even  less  than  before.  Prostitutes 
starve  ;  prostitutes  are  "  unemployed,"  even  as 
in  any  trade.  All  this  must  not  be  forgotten, 
even  while  it  remains  true  that  an  enormous 
amount  of  prostitution  is  due  to  the  economical 
conditions  which  often  make  it  next  to  impos- 
sible for  a  single  woman  to  earn  a  decent 
living,  and  throw  thousands  of  women  on  the 
streets,  and  bring  immorality  within  easy  reach 
of  almost  any  man. 

The  throwing  of  the  sexes  together  in  fac- 


tory and  in  store,  and  quite  as  much  in  private 
counting-rooms  and  offices,  has  its  dangers. 
Co-education  in  the  halls  of  learning  is  win- 
ning its  way.  Working  together  in  communi- 
cation, where  morals  are  often  at  their  lowest, 
is  another  thing.  The  evil  lies  not  in  the 
mingling  of  men  and  women,  but  in  the  evil 
environment. 

The  stage,  the  concert  hall,  and  the  ball,  bear 
a  large  responsibility.  From  the  spectacular 
play  and  from  the  ball,  with  the  under-dressed 
women  at  the  one,  and  the  under-dressed 
women  and  the  wine  at  the  other,  men  hurry 
to  the  brothel.  It  by  no  means  follows  that 
the  cure  lies  in  the  abolition  of  the  theater  or 
the  dance  (tho  some  think  so),  yet  the  part  in 
this  matter  played  by  the  present  stage  and 
fashionable  society  cannot  be  denied.  The  su- 
preme social  cause  of  prostitution,  however,  we 
believe,  has  not  yet  been  mentioned.  This  is 
the  crowded  tenement.  When  boys  and  young 
girls  have  no  attractive  home,  and  no  healthy 
playground,  they  tmtst  be  on  the  streets.  A' 
child  cannot  be  kept  in  the  house  all  day,  and 
live.  When  a  girl  comes  from  a  school  or 
from  the  store,  to  the  crowded  living  room  or 
flat,  and  finds  the  narrow  quarters  redolent  with 
the  steam  of  washing  and  the  fumes  of  cooking, 
she  must  (in  the  cities)  go  on  the  street  for 
fresh  air.  There  bad  company  captures  more 
girls  than  in  any  other  one  way.  Not  many 
girls,  we  are  convinced,  sell  themselves,  for 
the  first  time,  for  money  ;  after  the  first  great 
downward  step,  money  directly  plays  its  part, 
but  the  supreme  social  cause  of  prostitution 
we  believe  to  be  the  bad  housing  of  the  poor, 
resulting  from  low  wages,  and  the  poverty  of 
the  great  masses  in  our  cities. 

REFORM. 

There  is  a  very  general  consensus  of  opin- 
ion that  licensing  and  inspecting  houses  of 
ill  fame  do  no  good,  even  in  protecting  the 
community  from  venereal  diseases. 

M.  Lecour,  the  official  head  of  the  Police  des  Moaurs 
of  Paris,  says  : 

"  The  administration  has  redoubled  its  activity  ;  it 
has  multiplied  its  acts  of  repression  with  regard  to 
prostitutes,  and  it  has  definitely   suc- 
ceeded  in    maintaining  a   satisfactory 
condition  of  the  sanitary  state  of  public     Licensine" 
registered  girls,  and  yet  sanitary  statis-        .  _ 
tics  prove  that  prostitution  is  increas-  &H«  Inspec- 
ing,    and    that    it    is    becoming    more        tion  a 
dangerous  to  the  public  health."    Prob-      Failure 
ably  no  European  official  has  ever  had 
a  more  extended  experience  in  the  ad- 
ministration of  the   regulation  system 
than  M.  Lecour  in  Paris,  and  his  practical  condemna- 
tion of  it  is  as  significant  as  it  is  emphatic.    In  Berlin, 
the  German  Emperor  himself  being  witness,  regula- 
tion is  a  most  conspicuous  failure,  intensifying  the 
evils   incident   to    social   vice.      Indeed,  one  of  the 
most    important    and    influential   moral    movements 
of  modern  times  in   European   countries  is  the  In- 
ternational   Federation    for   the    Abolition  .of   State 
Regulation    of    Vice,    of    which    the    late   Emile    de 
Laveleye    of    Belgium    was    for    several    years    the 
official    head.      At   the  Geneva  congress  of  this   in- 
ternational  federation.    Professor   Stuart,    M.    P.,   of 
London,  thus  summarized  the  progress  of  the  Euro- 
pean movement  for  the  abolition  of  the  regulation 
system  :   "  In  England  it  is  clean  gone  altogether  ;  in 
most  of  the  English  colonies  it  is  gone  j  in  India  it  is 
under  sentence  of  death;  in  Paris  it  is  in  ruins;  in 
Italy  we  have  gained  a  step — there  the  compulsory 
examination  and  registration  of  women  are  abolished  ; 
in  Holland  repeal  has  been  gained  in  many  towns, 


Prostitution. 


1132 


Prostitution. 


In  England. 


and  in  the  whole  country  the  system  totters  where- 
ever  it  is  retained.  In  Sweden  and  Norway,  and 
Denmark  and  Belgium,  the  question  is  before  the 
parliaments  of  each  country,  and  repeal  is  at  last 
within  measurable  distance. 

It  was  in  1864  that  by  act  of   Parliament,   supple- 
mented by  additional  legislation  in  1866,  and  again  in 
1863,  the  regulation  system  was  introduced  in  Great 
Britain,  under  the  name  of  the  "  Contagious  Diseases 
Acts."  They  were  applied  to  sundry  military  districts, 
ostensibly    to  promote  the    health    of 
the  army,  but  with  the  purpose  on  the 
part  of  their  projectors,  later  avowed, 
ultimately  to  extend  them  also  to  the 
civil  population.    When  their  real  char- 
acter and  object  became  known,  a  vig- 
orous repeal  agitation  was  begun,  under  the  leadership 
of  a  gifted,  noble  woman,  Mrs.  Josephine  E.  Butler, 
.  which  was  continued  for  20  years.    At  the  end  of  the 
two  decades  the  repeal  movement  was  triumphant, 
and   the  acts  were'  swept  from    the   statute-books. 
During  the  prolonged  contest  the  battle  of  statistics 
was  many  times  fought,  and  with  great  earnestness 
on  both  sides.    Figures  were  employed  to  prove  both 
the  hygienic  success  and  failure  of  the  acts.  . 

It  was  quite  clearly  shown  that  at  some  of  the 
military  stations,  under  the  acts,  there  was  a  decline 
in  the  percentage  of  venereal  maladies  after  their 
adoption.  But  it  was  quite  as  clearly  shown,  also,  that 
this  decline,  from  other  causes,  had  begun  prior  to 
the  passage  of  the  acts,  and  that  it  was  even  greater 
after  their  passage  in  sundry  districts  not  under  their 
control.  Dr.  John  Chapman,  in  the  Westminster  Re- 
view, in  an  able  summary  of  the  testimony  given  be- 
fore a  royal  commission  on  this  subject,  says :  "The 
average  annual  ratio  of  admissions  to  hospital  on 
account  of  primary  venereal  sores  was  lessening  at  10 
out  of  14  stations  under  the  acts  before  they  became 
operative  ;  and  in  the  course  of  definite  periods  before 
they  did  so,  equal  in  length  to  the  periods  which  have 
elapsed  since  the  acts  vvere  put  in  force,  the  average 
annual  ratio  of  admissions  at  those  10  stations  less- 
ened 2.8  per  cent,  more  rapidly  than  it  did  during  the 
corresponding  periods  since  the  acts  were  applied." 

In  the  districts  under  the  acts  it  was  claimed  by 
the  advocates  of  regulation,  and  figures  were  cited  to 
verify  the  claim,  that  there  was  a  generally  decreas- 
ing number  of  registered  prostitutes  and  of  houses 
of  prostitution.  On  the  other  hand,  it  was  shown  that, 
while  regular  prostitutes  decreased,  clandestine  pros- 
titutes increased  ;  that  prostitutes  in  the  districts 
under  the  operation  of  the  acts,  who  refused  to  regis- 
ter, migrated  in  large  numbers  to  the  adjacent  dis- 
tricts, wherein  the  acts  were  not  in  force, and  continued 
to  ply  their  vocation.  More  absolute  power  was 
asked  for,  over  the  persons  of  all  single  or  suspected 
women,  to  the  end  that  prostitution  might  thus  be 
controlled. 

But  the  acts  were  opposed,  and  their  repeal  was 
demanded  by  many  distinguished  men  and  women. 
John  Stuart  Mill  spoke  strongly  against  them  and  the 
irresponsible  po^yer  delegated  by  them,  declaring  : 
"  It  is  wrong  to  give  men  powers  liable  to  abuse,  and 
then  assume  that  they  will  not  be  abused." 

Dr.  Nevins,  after  a  most  careful  and  exhaustive 
examination  of  the  whole  subject,  summarizes  the 
sanitary  results  of  the  acts,  as  follows  :  "  After  16 
years'  adoption,  the  rate  of  improvement  in  the  pri- 
mary venereal  sores,  in  the  subjected  portion  of  the 
home  army,  was  reduced  from  6.7  per  cent,  yearly  for 
the  6  recorded  years  before  the  acts,  to  0.65  per  cent, 
yearly  during  the  16  years  of  the  acts. 

"Inefficiency  in  the  navy  (20,000  strong),  increased 
from  172  men  daily,  to  230  men  daily. 

"Venereal  disease  rose  among  the  registered  pros- 
titutes by  above  39  per  cent,  (from  121.6  to  169.5). 

In  America  there  have  been  attempts  to 
introduce  the  registration  system  in  almost 
all  the  larger  cities,  but  only  in  St.  Louis  has 
it  ever  been  tried  for  any  length  of  time,  and 
was  there  given  up  after  about  four  years. 

"  It  was  in  18713  that  the  license  system  was  inaugu- 
rated in  St.  Louis.    The  authority  for  it  was  obtained 
by  a  legislative  trick  :  the  interpolation, 
without  debate,  of  the  two  words,  "  or 
Tn  AmonVa     regulate,"   into  an  amendment   of  the 
AH  America.  city  charter,  intended,  as  was  generally 
supposed,  to  suppress  prostitution.  The 
legal  effect  of  this  amendment,  as  was 
subsequently  decided  by  the  Supreme  Court  of  the 
State  of  Missouri,  was  to  repeal  all  State  laws  prohib- 


iting prostitution,  so  far  as  St.  Louis  was  concerned,, 
and  to  give  to  it  a  business  status  as  a  legitimate  indus- 
try. A  German  municipal  office-holder  was  deputed 
to  visit  Europe,  to  familiarize  himself  with  regulation 
laws  there.  An  ordinance  was  subsequently  adopted, 
requiring  the  registry  of  prostitute  women. 

"  The  regulationists  of  St.  Louis,  especially  those 
connected  with  its  Board  of  Health,  attempted  to  show 
by  the  figures  of  the  earlier  registrations,  made  at 
intervals  of  a  few  months,  a  diminution  in  the  num- 
ber of  prostitutes.  Dr.  William  G.  Eliot,  the  honored 
president  of  Washington  University  of  St.  Louis,  wh& 
made  a  most  thorough,  impartial  investigation  of  the 
whole  matter,  says  of  this  claim  of  a  diminished  num- 
ber of  prostitutes,  that :  '  In  fact,  they  had  scotched 
the  snake,  not  killed  it,  and  in  all  probability  the 
number  of  prostitutes  had  not  been  diminished  at  all. 
To  scatter  a  nest  of  hornets,'  he  says,  'is  a  very 
different  thing  from  its  destruction.' 

"  The  results  during  the  progress  of  the  experiment 

E  roved  an  increase  of  34  per  cent,  in  the  number  of 
rothels,  and  an  increase  in  the  number  of  registered 
women  of  more  than  35  per  cent.  There  was  also  an 
undoubted  increase,  meanwhile,  of  clandestine  pros- 
titution. Concerning  the  sanitary  aspect,  Dr.  Eliot 
says  :  '  What  is  still  more  startling,  when  the  stamp- 
ing out  process  is  examined,  it  appears  that  while  the 
number  of  diseased  women  under  treatment  in  1871 
was  18  out  of  480,  or  3^  per  cent.,  it  has  risen  now 
[1873]  to  an  average  of  40 out  of  653,  or  over  6  per  cent., 
showing  the  remarkable  fact,  to  which,  however,  we 
can  find  a  parallel  in  Paris  itself,  that  even  among  the 
registered  and  regularly  inspected  prostitutes  the 
hateful  disease  may  increase,  a  result  which,  though 
unexpected,  ought  not  surprise  us  so  long  as  the  male 
prostitutes  are  themselves  exempt  from  medical  in- 
spection.' How  incomplete  was  the  registration,  and 
of  how  little  practical  value,  in  a  sanitary  point  of 
view,  the  system  of  medical  inspection  was,  may  be 
seen  from  the  significant  figures  presented  by  Dr. 
Eliot,  taken  from  the  reports  of  the  chief  of  police  of 
St.  Louis,  for  the  years  1871  and  1872.  He  says  :  'The 
year  1871,  ending  March  31,  shows  that  out  of  3722 
females  arrested  1526  were  prostitutes,  and  218  keepers 
of  bawdy  houses  (the  Board  of  Health  report  of  the 
same  date  shows  480  registered  prostitutes  and  99 
keepers !)  being  a  total  of  1744,  or  46  per  cent,  of  all 
females  arrested.  The  year  1872  shows  that  out  of 
3187  females  arrested,  2613  were  prostitutes  and  71 
keepers  of  houses,  or  a  total  of  2684,  being  over  64  per 
cent,  of  all  females  arrested,  and  an  increase  of  940 
prostitutes  arrested,  or  18  per  cent,  more  than  the 
previous  year.' 

"When  it  was  discovered  what  had  been  accom- 
plished by  legislative  legerdemain,  a  vigorous  agita- 
tion for  repeal  began.  A  petition  for  repeal  was 
signed  by  four  thousand  women  of  St.  Louis,  and  pre- 
sented to  the  Missouri  legislature.  The  archbishop, 
bishop,  and  Catholic  clergy,  nearly  all  the  Protestant 
clergy,  and  a  majority  of  the  St.  Louis  bar  were 
enlisted  in  the  cause  or  repeal,  over  150  lawyers  and 
physicians. 

The  legislature  of  1873-74,  after  a  prolonged  and 
embittered  discussion,  finally  voted  the  repeal  by 
a  vote  of  three-fourths  of  all  the  members  of  the  Sen- 
ate, and  the  House  by  90  to  i." 

The  Philanthropist,  to  which  we  are  in- 
debted for  the  above  details,  thus  sums  up  some 
of  the  evils  of  the  license  system  : 

"  ist.  It  confers  the  sanction  of  law  upon  the  barba- 
rous trade  in  women. 

"2d.  It  subjects  these  tempted  and  often  coerced 
helpless  women  to  the  atrocity  of  continuous  compul- 
sory examination  by  men,  and  the  conspicuous  post- 
ing of  their  names  as  having  been  thus  systematically 
outraged. 

"3d.  It  fosters  vice  instead  of  'preventing'  it,  in 
that  it  contemplates  opportunity,  facilities,  and  safety 
for  the  '  guests,'  who  are  more  than  equal  participants. 

Ii4th.  It  fails  to  protect  health  for  the  community, 
because  it  does  not  adopt  any  precaution  against  the 
spread  of  venereal  contagion  by  the  '  guests '  for 
whose  indulgence  it  provides.  It  makes  no  provision 
for  their  examination  and  cure,  tho  they  are  much 
more  numerous  and  dangerous  than  their  victims,  as 
transmitters  of  disease. 

"  sth.  It  makes  a  permitted  trade  of  the  cruel  and 
dastardly  occupation  of  the  procurer  and  procuress. 

"  6th.  It  grants  permits  at  a  price  that  will  not  pro- 
hibit the  dreadful  trade,  but  will  invite  to  it." 


Prostitution. 


"33 


Prostitution. 


On  the  other  hand  there  seems  little  use  in 
the  mere  effort  to  suppress  houses  of  prostitu- 
tion. 

In  New  York  City,  owing  to  the  agitation  con- 
ducted by  Dr.  Parkhurst,  hundreds  of  prostitutes  have 
been  turned  out  of  their  houses  and  the  houses  closed 
by  the  police.  It  is  considered  a  triumph  of  morals, 
and  other  cities  are  following  the  example. 

But  where  have  the  women  gone  ?  Have  they  been 
redeemed  to  virtue  ?  If  they  have,  have  their  male 
partners  in  vice  been  redeemed  ?  If  not,  even  if  the 
women  have  been  redeemed,  these  men  remain  to 
seduce  other  women  to  take  the  place  of  their  victims 
that  have  been  rescued  from  them.  But  no  informed 
mind  fancies  that  closing  disorderly  houses  redeems 
their  inmates  to  virtue.  Where  then  are  they  ?  In  the 
flats  of  the  upper  middle  class  and  among  the  tene- 
ments of  the  poor.  Formerly  they  were  brought  little 
in  contact  with  home  life  and  childhood.  Now  they 
are  scattered  among  the  homes  and  children  of  New 
York.  Is  this  a  triumph  of  virtue  ?  Driving  sinful 
women  to  continue  their  trade  among  homes  and  chil- 
dren, and  letting  men  go  free,— is  this  reform  ?  Dr. 
Rainsford  well  says  that  you  might  just  as  well  take 
cases  of  smallpox,  and  say  they  should  not  be  allowed 
in  houses  by  themselves,  and  therefore  scatter  them 
around  among  homes. 

Nor  are  these  results  imaginary.  Says  the 
report  of  the  New  York  Tenement- House 
Committee  of  1894  (p.  88)  : 

"  The  presence  of  many  immoral  women  in  the  tene- 
ment-houses, where  they  are  thrown  in  contact  with 
respectable  people,  and,  worse  than  that,  with  large 
numbers  of  ignorant  and  innocent  children,  forms  a 
most  deplorable  condition.  There  has  been  a  manifest 
increase  in  this  condition  during  the  past  year  or 
eighteen  months,  and  there  is  no  doubt  that  the  influx 
of  prostitutes  into  actual  residence  in  tenement-houses 
is  due  to  the  police  raids,  which  have  closed  most 
of  the  houses  of  ill  fame  in  the  tenement-house  dis- 
tricts. Under  the  old  order  of  things,  no  matter  what 
its  evils  may  have  been,  the  immoral  women  occupied 
houses  by  themselves.  At  present  they  form  a  part  of 
the  life  of  the  great  tenement-houses,  and  thus  their 
contaminating  influence  is  felt  far  more  directly  by 
the  general  public  than  was  formerly  the  case.  The 
tenements  always  have  had,  and  probably  always  will 
have,  their  share  of  immoral  women — of  a  class  pecu- 
liar to  them  and  separate  from  the  professional  prosti- 
tutes driven  of  late  into  them,  from  houses  of  ill  fame. 
Most  of  this  tenement  class  consists  of  women  who 
have  been  abandoned  by  their  husbands,  and  who,  in 
order  to  support  themselves  and  their 
legitimate  children,  are  driven  to  de- 
Mere  Eaidine  Pend  to  some  extent  upon  evil  sources 
-p,  -,  °  of  income.  Such  abandonment  is  dis- 
a  manure,  tressingly  common  among  certain  for- 
eign nationalities.  Probably  50  cases 
have  been  brought  to  your  secretary's 
attention.  These  women,  however,  generally  work 
when  they  can,  and  turn  to  prostitution  only  as  a  last 
resource.  They  are  surrounded  by  none  of  the  glamour 
of  the  professional  prostitute ;  do  not  ordinarily  live 
or  dress  more  elaborately  than  other  inmates  of  the 
house  in  which  they  live,  and  are  generally  regarded 
with  more  pity  than  envy  or  resentment  by  their 
neighbors  and  their  neighbors'  children.  Thus  they 
are  not  so  especially  dangerous  to  the  morals  of  the 
house.  But  an  apartment  full  of  such  prostitutes  as 
have  now  been  driven  into  the  tenements,  where  they 
are  surrounded  by  comparative  luxury,  and  live  lives 
of  apparent  ease,  in  the  midst  of  a  houseful  of  adults 
and  children,  whose  frugal,  honest  living  is  obtained 
only  by  the  hardest  of  work  and  the  most  rigid  econ- 
omy, can  scarcely  be  less  dangerous  to  the  moral 
health  of  the  house  than  an  apartment  full  of  cholera- 
infected  persons  would  be  to  the  physical  welfare." 

Some  persons,  therefore,  like  Dr.  Rainsford, 
would  not  license  or  inspect  houses  of  ill  fame, 
but  simply,  if  they  do  not  become  too  bold, 
allow  them  within  certain  limits  by  themselves 
and  try  to  fight  the  evil  by  lifting  up  the  gen- 
eral standard  of  the  community. 

But  the  complete  districting  of  the  evil 
seems  impossible,  if  desirable.  Mr  E.  T. 
Gerry,  in  The  Philanthropist  (March,  1895), 


thus  describes  the  results  of  the  two  main  ex- 
periments in  this  direction  : 

"  In  the  winter  of  1886-87,  while  at  the  City  of  Rome, 
Italy,  I  had  a  personal  interview  with  Cardinal  Sime- 
oni,  which  lasted  over  two  hours,  chiefly  in  reference 
to  the  course  pursued  by  the  Italian  Government 
while  in  the  hands  of  the  Vatican,  in  the  matter  of 
regulating  prostitution.  The  Cardinal  stated  to  me 
that  the  experiment  of  attempting  to  confine  sexual 
vice  within  a  specified  district  had  been  most  thor- 
oughly tried.  A  portion  of  the  city,  remote  itself  and 
not  particularly  attractive  for  purposes  of  residence, 
had  been  selected.  ...  At  the  same  time  a  very 
strict  cordon  of  police  was  placed  around  the  geo- 
graphical boundary,  and  any  attempt 
on  the  part  of  females  who  had  once 
entered  the  district  to  escape  therefrom  nistriH-ino. 
was  followed  by  prompt  and  immediate  "  ., 
arrest.  The  idea  was  so  novel  that  at  first  a  Failure. 
qu  ite  a  number  of  registered  prostitutes 
entered  the  district,  hired  and  occupied 
the  houses,  and  attempted  to  ply  their  vocation  there. 
But  the  district  soon  became  very  notorious.  The 
thieving,  the  lawless,  and  the  seditious  found  their  way 
there,  and  became  permanent  residents.  They  brought 
with  them  very  little  money,  and  as  the  sole  means 
which  the  inmates  of  the  district  had  of  supporting 
themselves  was  by  the  sale  of  their  persons,  it  was 
obvious  that  their  custom  must  come  from  without 
and  not  from  within,  as  men  generally  did  not  care  to 
be  known  as  inhabitants  of  the  district.  And  as  soon 
as  the  fact  of  its  establishment  was  made  public,  men 
were  very  wary  about  entering  the  district  for  fear  of 
identification.  ...  It  was  not  long  before  the  store- 
keepers complained  that  they  could  not  make  a  living. 
Even  the  women  found  that  the  money  did  not  flow  in 
upon  them  as  it  did  when  they  practised  their  calling 
unrestricted  by  geographical  limits,  and  it  was  not 
long  before  escapes  from  the  district  became  impossi- 
ble of  prevention  by  the  police,  and  some  of  the  most 
notorious  women  in  Rome,  after  having  been  put 
there,  and  sent  there,  made  their  escape  and  were 
found  in  other  quarters,  plying  their  trade.  .  .  . 

"  The  Cardinal  stated  to  me  that  the  attempt  to  dis- 
trict vice  was  in  his  judgment  a  stupendous  failure; 
that  the  Church  had  used  every  effort  to  reclaim 
the  fallen  when  so  environed  by  the  police  and  placed 
in  a  locality  where  it  could  put  its  hand  upon  them, 
but  to  no  purpose. 

"  One  further  effort  for  localization  of  the  social 
evil  deserves  to  be  noticed,  that  of  the  Yoshiwara  in 
Japan.  For  a  long  time  previous  to  the  contact  of 
Japan  with  the  enlightened  nations  of  the  earth,  the 
social  evil  was  looked  upon  as  one  necessary  and  un- 
avoidable, and  the  government  took  entire  charge  of 
the  matter.  In  a  suburb  adjacent  to  the  Capital 
(Tokio)  large  houses  were  built  for  the  purpose,  some 
of  them  elaborate  in  construction,  and  the  whole 
guarded  most  thoroughly  by  the  soldiery.  The  num- 
ber of  prostitutes  in  Tokio  alone  is  said  to  be  about 
5000.  The  children  of  the  poor  are  usually  utilized  for 
the  purpose  and  sold  by  their  parents,  who  receive  a 
stipulated  income  as  the  result.  It  is  not  an  unusual 
thing  for  these  girls  to  marry,  and  they  are  not  looked 
upon  as  outcasts  or  pariahs  of  society  by  any  means. 
The  girls  in  these  establishments  range  in  age  from  10 
to  18,  and  owing  to  the  developing  influences  of  the 
climate,  at  the  latter  age  they  are  as  mature  as  most 
of  our  women  at  25  to  30.  These  are  the  regular,  so  to 
speak,  licensed  or  recognized  prostitutes.  The  women 
are  permitted  to  leave  and  marry  when  they  choose. 
This  number  of  course  does  not  include  the  kept  mis- 
tresses of  foreigners  or  others,  who  occupy  small 
houses  at  the  expense  of  their  maintainers.  Of  these 
districts,  which  are  known  as  Yoshiwara,  there  are 
five  in  Tokio  and  two  in  Yokohama,  the  latterpossess- 
ing  probably  the  largest  and  best  known.  The  gov- 
ernment has  entire  charge  of  the  system,  derives 
extensive  revenue  as  the  result,  and  under  the  Japa- 
nese code  of  morals,  from  which  sexual  morality  is 
practically  excluded,  it  is  said  to  be  a  success  so  far  as 
engendering  public  peace  and  quietness.  Such  a 
course  naturally  destroys  all  appreciation  of  the  vice 
as  vice." 

Yet,  on  the  other  hand,  there  seems  little 
hope  in  leaving  the  evil  alone. 

In  London  there  is  neither  license,  examination,  nor 
practical  restriction.  After  sunset  there  are  certain 
streets  in  the  most  public  part  of  London,  notably 
Regent  Circus,  where  not  only  a  seething  throng  of 


Prostitution. 


Prostitution. 


prostitutes  openly  solicit  from  that  time  up  to  mid- 
might  and  even  later,  but  where  a  decent  woman  can 
hardly  walk  with  a  male  escort  without  being  in- 
sulted, and  often  an  effort  made  to  separate  them. 
The  police  usually  limit  their  attempt  to  keep  the 
peace  to  requiring  these  women  to  move  on,  and  as 
passers-by  dp  not  care  to  make  complaints  against 
them,  they  simply  do  move  on.  A  large  number  of 
the  brothels  are  situated  on  the  outskirts  of  London,  in 
such  places  as  St.  John's  Wood,  Pimlico,  and  the  like, 
which  are  easy  of  access  by  cabs  and  the  railways. 
Most  of  these  street  prostitutes  are  said  to  be  dis- 
charged from  the  Continent,  because  infected  with 
disease.  So  far  as  New  York  city  is  concerned  its 
streets  are  absolutely  decent,  compared  with  those  of 
either  London  or  Paris. 

It  is  thus  easier  to  show  what  not  to  do  than 
what  to  do.     With  the  means  of  reaching  the 
evil  through  personal  work,  relig- 
ious or  ethical,  we  are  not,  in  this 
Ethical      encyclopedia,   concerned.     Many, 
Means,      however,  believe  that  this   is  the 
main  thing  to  do,  to  raise  a  higher 
standard  of  personal  purity,  and, 
above  all,  an  equal  standard  of  purity  for  both 
sexes. 

The  writer  of  the  article  in  the  Westminster 
Review,  quoted  above,  says  : 

"  One  aim  most,  if  not  all,  schemes  of  reform  have 
in  common,  and  that  is  the  establishment  of  an  equal 
standard  of  sexual  morality  for  both  sexes.  On  all 
sides  it  seems  to  be  agreed  that  the  existing  dual 
standard  of  morality  is,  or  will  be,  doomed,  now  that 
society,  and  especially  the  female  portion  of  it,  is  be- 
coming so  keenly  alive  to  its  evils.  It  is  also  felt  that 
unless  masculine  morality  is  raised  to  a  higher  level, 
feminine  morality  may  fall  from  the  exalted  position 
it  has  held  for  so  long,  as  it  awakes  to  the  full  value  of 
the  fact  that  its  purity  is  only  playing  into  the  hands 
of  the  impurity  which  it  encounters  in  the  other  sex. 
The  proposed  paths  toward  the  desired  goal  are  very 
wide  apart,  but  there  are  a  few  main  ideas  on  the  sub- 
ject which  can  be  briefly  described. 

"  First,  there  is  the  movement  started  by  those  per- 
sons who  believe  that  the  purification  of  our  social 
morals  can  only  be  attained  by  setting  up  for  men  the 
same  high  standard  of  chastity  and  pureness  of  living 
as  that  which  has  been  hitherto  considered  as  binding 
only  upon  women  of  the  protected  and  wife-supplying 
classes.  .  .  . 

•'Then  there  are  those  who  take  an  exactly  opposite 
view,  and  who  believe  that  the  end  is  to  be  reached  by 
some  extension  of  sexual  freedom  to  all  classes  of 
women.  They  regard  the  attempt  to  raise  men  to 
that  high  level  of  morality  hitherto  reserved  for 
women  as  a  natural  impossibility  or  Utopian  dream, 
and  they  would  seek  for  equality  by  lowering  the 
standard  for  women,  and  thus  bridge  over  the  wide 
gulf  which  now  exists  between  the  average  sensual 
man  and  the  average  chaste  woman,  and  still  more 
between  the  average  chaste  woman  and  the  woman  of 
the  streets." 

The  writer  sympathizes  with  neither  of  these  ex- 
treme views,  and  favors  what  he  regards  as  the  middle 
course,  viz. :  reform  of  sexual  morality  through  more 
liberal  divorce  laws.  He  believes  that  erring  human- 
ity ought  to  have  the  opportunity  of  retrieving  even 
its  matrimonial  mistakes  and  failures,  and  that  the 
sacrifice  of  individuals  to  an  absolute  system  is  neither 
moral  nor  expedient.  The  current  objections  to  lib- 
eral divorce  laws  he  regards  as  based  on  religious 
prejudices  rather  than  on  utilitarian  social  considera- 
tions. 

For  the  contrary  view,  see  DIVORCE. 
The  resolutions  adopted  at  the  Baltimore 
Congress  were  as  follows  : 

"That  chastity,  a  pure,  continent  life  alike  for  men 
and  women,  is  consonant  with  the  best  condition  of 
physical,  mental,  and  moral  health. 

''That  prostitution  is  a  fundamental  violation  of  the 
laws  of  health,  is  degrading  and  destructive  to  the  indi- 
vidual, a  menace  to  the  home  and  to  the  nation. 

"  That  State  or  municipal  regulation  of  prostitution 
is  morally  wrong  ;  is  worse  than  a  sanitary  failure  ;  is 
cruel  and  unjust  to  woman,  creates  a  shocking  traffic 
in  girlhood. 


"  That  all  possible  effort  should  be  made  to  educate 
public  opinion  and  maintain  a  high  equal  standard  of 
morals  for  both  men  and  women. 

"  That  facilities  should  be  provided  for  the  treatment 
of  venereal  diseases,  as  readily  as  all  other  diseases, 
in  all  hospitals  under  the  control  of  municipalities  or 
other  public  bodies,  as  well  as  in  those  supported  by 
voluntary  contributions. 

"  That  homes  should  be  everywhere  established  by 
municipal  and  State,  as  well  as  by  voluntary  aid,  as 
agencies  for  the  reclamation  and  rehabilitation  of 
erring  girls. 

"That  the  State  should  punish  by  imprisonment 
rather  than  fine,  organized  prostitution,  procurism. 
the  keepers  of  the  houses  of  prostitution,  and  the  rental 
of  houses  or  other  dwellings  for  such  purposes." 

Various  speakers  emphasized  the  responsi- 
bility of  parental  teaching.  Said  the  Rev. 
S.  S.  Steward,  "  We  must  begin  in  the  earliest 
infancy."  The  whole  of  his  valuable  address 
(see  Addresses,  as  above,  p.  202)  gives  most 
practical  suggestions  to  parents.  Says  the 
Rev.  F.  M.  Goodchild  (Arena,  March,  1896): 

"The  first  thing  to  do,  probably,  is  to  arouse  the 
people  to  a  sense  of  the  enormity  of  the  evil  as  it  exists 
among  us.  ..." 

"The  best  mitigation,  probably,  must   come   from 
our  homes.     Parents  have  been  criminally  negligent. 
Ignorant    innocence    leads   most    girls 
astray.    A  prudish  silence  lands  many 
a  girl  in  the  brothel,  and  provides  her    T^     XT/vino 
customers  as  well.     It  ought  to  be  pos-    xfle  •n-ome- 
sible  to  impart  to  our  children   some 
instruction  about  these  most  important 
relations  of  life,  without  mantling  the  cheeks  of  parent 
or  child  with  a  blush.    It  is  little  short  of  criminal 
to  send  our  young  people  into  the  midst  of  the  ex- 
citements and  temptations  of  a  great  city  with  no 
more  preparation  than  if  they  were  going  to  live  in 
Paradise. 

"And  I  cannot  escape  the  conviction  that  women 
hold  in  their  hands  the  key  to  the  solution  of  this 
problem.  They  are  cruel  in  their  severity  toward 
their  fallen  sisters,  but  they  are  criminally  indulgent 
toward  the  men  who  cause  their  fall.  The  woman 
sinner  is  reprobated.  But  the  man  sinner  is  made  a 
hero,  is  welcomed  into  respectable  homes,  is  permitted 
to  marry  a  pure  girl  and  make  her  the  mother  of  chil- 
dren, cursed  before  they  are  born  with  lecherous 
appetites.  Let  woman's  attitude  be  changed." 

Yet,  undoubtedly,  organized  society  can  do 
something.  It  can  prohibit  solicitation  on. the 
street  alike  for  men  and  women.  It  can  arrest 
and  expose  men  as  well  as  women  in  disorderly 
houses,  condemning  them  to  punishment  and 
exposure,  and  not  merely  to  a  fine.  It  can 
change  the  laws  and  make  them  bear  equally 
on  men  and  women  (see  AGE  OF  CONSENT  ;  MAR- 
RIAGE ;  DIVORCE  ;  WOMAN).  There  is  no  ques- 
tion that  fear  of  exposure  does  deter  many 
men  from  visiting  these  houses. 

Yet  many  reformers,  all  socialists,  all  ex- 
treme  individualists,  and  a  growing  number 
of  earnest  men  and  women  of  all 
schools  of  thought,  believe   that 
none  of  these  legislative  reforms    Economic 
go  to  the  bottom  social  cause  of      Keform. 
prostitution.     As    they    find    the 
cause   of  prostitution  in  poverty 
they  would  remove  prostitution  by  attacking 
poverty.     (See  EIGHT-HOUR  PHILOSOPHY  ;    SIN- 
GLE TAX;  SOCIALISM;  TRADE-UNIONS;  UNEMPLOY- 
MENT ;   COOPERATION.)     If  the  supreme  social 
cause  of    prostitution   is,  as  we    have  stated 
above,  the  crowded  home — the  supreme  social 
means  of  attacking  the  evil  is  by  improving 
the  dwellings  of  the  masses  in  our  cities,  and 
giving  well-paid  work  to  all.     (See  SOCIALISM  ; 
MUNICIPALISM;  SINGLE  TAX;  TENEMENTS;  FAM- 
ILY ;  DIVORCES  ;  MARRIAGE  ;  AGE  OF  CONSENT.) 


Protection. 


"35 


Protection. 


References  :  The  History  of  Prostitution,  its  Ex- 
tent, Causes,  and  Effects,  by  W.  W.  Sanger,  M.  D. 
(1858),  last  edition,  with  an  appendix  for  facts  as  to 
New  York  down  to  date  (1895)  ;  The  National  Purity 
Congress,  its  Papers  and  Addresses,  edited  by  A.  N. 
Powell  (18155) ;  The  Female  Offender,  by  C.  Lombroso 
("1895).  (See  also  FAMILY  ;  WOMAN  ;  WOMAN'S  WAGES  ; 
SLUMS,  etc.) 

PROTECTION.— An  opinion  prevails  in 
some  circles  that,  while  free  trade  is  scientific 
and  founded  upon  natural  law,  protection  is 
artificial,  devoid  of  philosophy,  and  but  a 
scheme  of  selfishness.  Protectionists  claim 
that  this  is  untrue  ;  that  the  theory  of  protec- 
tion is,  to  say  the  least,  as  philosophical  as 
that  of  free  trade  ;  that  it  is  more  natural, 
because  built  upon  self-defense,  which  is  the 
first  law  of  nature  ;  that  it  promotes,  rather 
than  hinders,  the  development  and  enjoyment 
of  natural  business  opportunities  ;  that  it  co- 
ordinates national  existence,  and  forms  the 
chief  reason  for  it ;  that  it  is  less  selfish  than 
free  trade,  because  it  is  necessarily  coopera- 
tive, and  that  it  is  more  universal,  because  it 
is  applicable  to  all  the  industries  of  a  people, 
while  free  trade  unavoidably  sacrifices  some 
to  others. 

I.    HISTORY. 

The  history  of  protection  is  the  history  of 
civilization.  Every  group  of  humanity  that 
has  risen  a  degree  above  barbarism  has  adopted 
some  form  of  protection.  Preparations  for 
war,  tho  sometimes  provocative  of  war,  are 
generally  regarded  as  protective  to  peace. 
Washington  advised  this  precaution  in  his 
farewell  address.  Anciently  a  nation's  com- 
merce, industry,  and  existence  depended  upon 
its  readiness  for  instant  defense  ;  nowadays 
strength  in  all  the  resources  for  war  is  more 
important  than  weapons  in  hand.  An  indus- 
trial policy  which  makes  the  unit  man  self- 
reliant  and  resourceful,  and  not  dependent 
upon  others,  is  commended  by  free  traders  ;  it 
is  equally  claimed  by  protectionists  in  its  ap- 
plicability to  groups.  The  people  who  pur- 
chase ore,  or  wheat,  or  wool,  because  it  is 
temporarily  easier  or  cheaper  to  exchange  for 
them  lumber,  or  fish,  or  furs,  than  it  is  to  raise 
them,  never  become  strong  for  either  peace  or 
war.  A  few  individuals,  engaged  in  trade 
or  transportation,  may  thrive.  But  the  laws 
of  business  are  not  confined  to  the  handling  of 
merchandise.  Production  is  more  important 
than  distribution.  The  nations  which  have 
attained  highest  development  are  those  which 
have  made  the  most  of  their  natural  endow- 
ments. Without  a  single  exception  they  have 
done  this  by  protection  in  some  of  its  varied 
forms.  The  only  free-trade  nation  on  the  earth 
to-day,  Great  Britain,  attained  greatness 
through  centuries  of  protection,  and  maintains 
maritime  supremacy  still  by  that  means. 

Commerce  between  the  nations  of  antiquity 
was  almost  exclusively  in  dissimilar  or  non- 
competing  articles.  The  most  instructive  and 
eloquent  description  of  this  commerce  is  found 
in  the  twenty-seventh  and  twenty-eighth 
chapters  of  Ezekiel,  in  which  the  prophet  por- 
trayed the  glories  of  Tyre.  The  peculiar  prod- 
ucts of  all  lands  were  brought  to  Tyre — fine 
linen  from  Egypt ;  purple  from  the  Greek 
islands  ;  silver,  iron,  tin,  and  lead  from  Tar- 


shish  ;   brass  from  the   Taurus  ;   horses   and 
mules  from  Armenia ;    horns  of    ivory    and 
ebony   from   many   isles  ;   wheat,  honey,   oil, 
and  balm  from  Israel,  and  sheep  and  lambs 
from  Arabia,  all  of  which    were   traded   for 
Tyrian  wares,  "  by  reason  of  the  multitude  of 
thy  handiworks,"  and  "  when  thy  wares  went 
forth  out  of  the  seas,  thou  filledst 
many  people  ;   thou  didst  enrich 
the  kings  of  the  earth   with    the      Ancient 
multitude    of    thy  riches  and  of      Times. 
thy  merchandise."      So    all    this 
commerce  appears  to  have  been 
mutually  beneficial ;  hence  there  was  no  occa- 
sion for  protection  against  any  part  of  it  by 
Tyre,  or  by  the  other  nations.     Competition, 
in  the  modern  sense,  was  practically  unknown. 
Whenever  it  appeared  war  resulted,  and  one 
nation  or  the  other  was  reduced  to  vassalage. 

There  is  no  record  of  the  revenue  laws  ap- 
plicable to  commerce.  "  Ships  of  Tarshish  " 
(that  is,  ocean  vessels  in  contradistinction 
from  the  smaller  craft  that  sailed  interior 
waters)  were  built  in  the  time  of  Solomon, 
upon  both  the  Mediterranean  and  the  Red 
seas,  the  former  trading  as  far  west  as  Tar- 
tessus,  in  Spain  (whence  the  name  Tarshish), 
and  the  latter  bringing  to  the  country  of  the 
great  king  the  gold  of  Ophir,  an  unknown 
region  of  the  Orient,  which  is  supposed  to 
have  been  India.  Without  doubt,  these  com- 
mercial enterprises  rendered  tribute  to  the 
Government,  but  upon  what  principle  it  would 
be  useless  to  speculate,  since  history  does  not 
tell.  At  the  time  of  Christ,  industry  had  be- 
come more  varied  and  commerce  more  exten- 
sive. Phoenicia,  Greece,  Carthage,  and  Rome 
had  long  been  maritime  nations,  while  cara- 
vans of  camels,  those  "ships  of  the  desert," 
which  formerly  bore  the  traffic  of  Nineveh 
and  Babylon,  Philadelphia  and  Petra,  contin- 
ued to  cross  the  ranges  between  Damascus 
and  Tyre,  or  to  Jerusalem  and  Joppa,  and 
between  Persia  and  Egypt.  When  Matthew 
was  called  to  the  discipleship,  he  was  "  sitting 
at  the  receipt  of  customs,"  on  the  western 
shore  of  the  Sea  of  Galilee,  but  whether  he 
collected  from  the  caravans,  or  whether  the 
term  "customs"  was  used  indiscriminately 
for  tax  or  tribute,  external  or  internal,  there 
is  nothing  to  show. 

There  is  almost  equal  obscurity  as  to  the 
customs  laws  of  later  Rome.     Some  of  the 
time,  at  least,  protection  was  ap- 
plied   on   land,  along   the    great 
roads,   where     traffic   was     often    Rome  After 
competitive.      This  was  the  case    the  Empire. 
under    the    illustrious    reign     of 
Theodoric,    the    greatest    of    the 
Gothic  kings,  whose  chief  desire  seems  to  have 
been  to  "  restore  to  Italy  its  long-lost  material 
prosperity  and  plenty. "    He  repaired  highways 
and  aqueducts  ;  drained  lands  ;  opened  mines  ; 
built    vessels ;    restored    the    coinage    to   its 
proper  value  ;  established  a  uniform  standard 
of  weights  and  measures,  and  put  a  stop  to  the 
extortions  of  the  custom-house  officers,  which 
"  foreign  merchants  had  dreaded  more  than 
shipwreck  "  in  the  days  of  the  empire.     But  in 
doing  away  with  this  abuse  of  administration, 
he  apparently  failed  to  perpetuate,  by  higher 


Protection. 


1136 


Protection. 


and  uniform  duties,  the  protection  which  it  had 
.afforded.  Reviving  prosperity  caused  exten- 
sive importations  of  luxuries  from  the  East. 
They  were  purchased  by  the  upper  classes  in 
«uch  quantities  as  to  drain  the  nation  of  its 
gold,  sometimes  at  the  rate  of  $4,000,000  a 
year,  and  thus  unemployment  and  decay  set 
in.  The  people  took  alarm  at  this,  and  in  A.  D. 
535,  Theodoric  having  died  nine  years  before, 
a  law  was  enacted  forbidding  senators,  who 
had  been  the  greatest  importers,  to  own  ves- 
.•sels  of  burden.  This  put  a  ban  of  plebeian 
degradation  upon  all  commerce,  and  this  was 
followed  by  agricultural  decay  for  want  of 
industrial  variety.  The  Romans  were  in- 
vaders, settlers,  builders,  warriors,  mariners, 
farmers,  but  they  did  not  excel  as  merchants 
.and  manufacturers.  When  conquest  ceased 
to  add  to  their  riches,  their  economic  science 
was  not  far  enough  advanced  to  supply  the 
•deficit  from  their  own  resources.  So  long  as 
they  could  thrive  at  the  expense  of  others, 
their  thrift  was  great ;  left  to  themselves,  they 
failed. 

Venice    and  Later    Italy. — But   after   300 
years,  those  who  had  fled  before  the  Goths 
and  Huns  to  the  marshes  of  the  Adriatic  be- 
gan to  develop  the  wonderful  city  and  com- 
merce of  Venice.     Forced  to  a  seafaring  life, 
they  became  familiar  with  the   productions, 
and,  gradually,  with  the  processes  of   other 
peoples.     To  commerce  they  added  manufac- 
ture, and  soon  became  famous  for  ingenuity. 
They  excelled  all  but  the   Orientals  in  the 
manufacture  of   textiles,  metals,  and   glass  ; 
and  as  this  brought  them  into  direct  competi- 
tion with  the  artisans  of  the  East,  laws  were 
•enacted  to  encourage  home  production,  and  to 
prevent  workmen  from  carrying  their  arts  to 
foreign  countries.     Other  Italian 
cities — Florence,    Naples,  Genoa, 
Middle      Milan — followed  the  example    of 
Ages.       Venice,  and  became  seats  of  fine 
production,   from    which    Europe 
drew  supplies.    After  centuries  of 
-unexampled  prosperity,   Venice    became    in- 
•volved  in  foreign  wars,  and  fell  into  decay, 
"but  United   Italy  is  enjoying  greater  thrift 
than  ever  before,  as  the  result  of  the   wise 
industrial  policy  which    Venice  started,  and 
which,  extended  and  improved,  is  the  national 
policy  to-day. 

The  Hanseatic  Leagiw. — It  has  been 
claimed  that  the  manufactures  and  commerce 
of  the  85  free  cities  of  the  Hanseatic  League, 
which  flourished  in  western  Europe  from  1241 
to  1575,  were  built  up  without  protection,  and 
were  greatly  promoted  by  free  trade.  The 
fact  is  otherwise.  The  League  itself  was  for 
protection  from  the  cupidity  and  oppression  of 
the  monarchs  of  those  countries  ;  from  piracy  ; 
from  the  cornering  of  raw  materials  ;  from 
trespass  upon  the  field  or  specialty  of  one 
member  by  another  ;  from  the  theft  of  their 
processes  by  aliens,  and  for  the  encourage- 
ment of  gilds,  apprenticeships,  invention,  and 
progress  in  handicraft.  To  be  sure,  there  was 
no  protective  tariff,  in  the  modern  sense,  but 
this  was  because  there  was  little  or  no  foreign 
competition,  and  because  nearly  all  commerce 
was  an  exchange  of  dissimilar  articles,  pecu- 


liar to  different  countries.  It  is  precisely  this 
kind  of  commerce  which  the  protective  reci- 
procity of  the  United  States  tariff  of  1890,  and 
the  French  minimum  schedules  of  that  same 
year,  applicable  to  trade  with  nations  making 
similar  concessions,  sought  to  promote. 

Flanders  and  Holland. — What  has  been 
said  of  the  Hanse  towns  applies  equally  to 
the  Flemish  and  Dutch  a  little  later.  They 
attained  supremacy  in  manufactures,  first, 
by  supplying  the  home  market,  and  then 
foreign  markets,  with  goods  that  were  differ- 
ent from  what  others  offered.  They  did  not 
attempt  to  compete  with  Venice  in  silks,  or 
with  India  in  cottons,  but  they  became  the 
best  spinners  and  weavers  of  flax  and  wool  in 
the  world,  and  their  cutlery,  armor,  and  leather 
equaled  the  famous  products  of  Damascus 
and  Calcutta,  which  were  then  more  expen- 
sive. About  the  year  1400  both  Spain  and 
England  sent  their  wool  to  the  Netherlands  to 
be  worked,  and  some  40,000  looms  (all  hand- 
looms,  of  course)  were  in  constant  operation 
in  each  of  the  cities  of  Lille,  Ypres,  Ghent, 
and  Bruges.  Naturally  such  employment 
made  agriculture  profitable,  and  built  up  a 
large  commerce.  During  the  fore  part  of  the 
sixteenth  century  Antwerp  was  the  com- 
mercial emporium  of  the  western  world,  from 
2000  to  3000  vessels  often  crowding  its  harbor 
at  a  time.  In  the  latter  part  of  that  century 
the  Dutch  republic  became  the  chief  money 
market  and  maritime  power  of  Europe,  as  a 
result  of  the  domestic  employment,  the  skill 
and  frugality  of  its  people.  Having  become 
strong  enough  to  enter  upon  foreign  enterprise, 
the  republic  chartered  the  Dutch  East  India 
Company,  with  a  capital  of  aboiit  6,000,000 
guilders  (about  $2,400,000),  which  preyed  upon 
the  commerce  of  the  Portuguese,  Spanish,  and 
English,  and  gained  complete  control  of  the 
commerce  between  Europe  and  the  Orient. 
For  some  years  this  proved  enormously' profit- 
able, but  two  evils  grew  out  of  it — first,  im- 
pairment of  some  of  the  home  industries,  and, 
second,  perpetual  conflict,  with  a  final  loss  of 
the  trade  to  the  French  and  English.  With  this 
exception,  the  Flemish  and  Dutch  manufac- 
turers sustained  no  competition  until  about  the 
middle  of  the  seventeenth  century,  when  the 
English  and  French,  under  government  pat- 
ronage, hired  their  most  skilled  artisans,  and 
built  up  competition  which  soon  left  them  no  as- 
sured market  but  their  own,  and  that  was  saved 
only  by  a  protective  tariff.  A  recent  writer 
says  :  "  The  people  of  France  were  wearing 
the  woolen  clothing  made  by  the  Flemish,  and 
did  not  establish  woolen  factories  until  Robais, 
a  Hollander,  was  invited  to  France,  and  in- 
duced to  establish  a  woolen  factory  at  Abbe- 
ville, under  the  protection  of  the  Government. 
The  people  of  England  had  shipped  their 
wool  to  Flanders,  where  it  was  carded,  dyed, 
made  into  cloth,  and  returned  to  them  to 
clothe  their  people.  They  did  not  establish 
woolen  factories  until  Edward  III.  invited 
John  Kemp  with  his  weavers  into  England  to 
set  up  their  industry,  prohibited  the  export  of 
wool,  and  gave  the  woolen  manufacturers  the 
protection  of  the  Government." 

Until  England  had  been  twice  invaded  and 


Protection. 


H37 


Protection. 


conquered  by  foreigners,  and  until  the  foreign 
and  domestic  trade  had  all  fallen  into  their 
hands,  no  attempt  was  made  to  recover  for 
Englishmen  their  natural  opportunities.  King 
after  king  had  sold  concessions  to  aliens,  and 
the  native  population,  almost  ex- 
clusively, farmers  and  miners,  with 
Protection  no  home  market  of  any  value,  and 
in  England,  dependent  upon  other  countries 
for  all  the  products  of  industrial 
art,  was  kept  in  hopeless  poverty 
and  weakness.  Finally  the  Anglo-Saxon 
spirit  rose.  There  was  a  revolt  against  the 
aliens.  It  took  the  form,  under  Edward  I.,  of 
higher  duties  on  goods  imported  by  strangers 
than  by  •  Englishmen.  Under  Edward  II. 
this  policy  was  abandoned,  but  in  1337,  a 
statute  of  Edward  III.  "  laid  the  foundation 
of  the  liberties  of  the  people,  by  providing  for 
the  diversity  of  their  employment,  and  the 
development  of  individual  faculties."  This 
famous  statute  prohibited  the  exportation  of 
wool  and  the  importation  of  woolen  cloth,  and 
required  Englishmen  to  wear  domestic  cloth. 
Such  a  statute  could  be  called  drastic  and 
tyrannical  now,  but  it  was  absolutely  neces- 
sary then  ;  in  no  other  way  could  domestic 
manufactures  have  been  established  in  the 
face  of  all  the  advantages  held  by  the  aliens. 
The  policy  was  strengthened  in  subsequent 
reigns.  Under  Richard  II.  it  was  "  ordered 
and  assented  that  no  merchant  stranger  alien 
shall  sell  or  buy  merchandise  within  the  realm 
with  another  stranger  merchant  alien,  to  sell 
again,"  and  under  Edward  IV.  the  first  of  the 
corn  laws  "  prohibited  the  import  of  foreign- 
grown  grain  when  the  price  of  wheat  at  the 
port  of  entry  did  not  exceed  six  shillings  and 
eight  pence  to  the  quarter."  In  1463  a  statute 
prohibited  the  importation  of  67  manufactured 
articles  in  most  common  use  ;  really  more  than 
that,  for  some  of  them  were  classes  of  articles  ; 
in  1488  Henry  VII.  induced  skilled  laborers  to 
come  from  the  Continent  and  instruct  his 
people,  and  in  1552  a  general  act  was  passed 
for  the  regulation,  control,  and  encouragement 
of  the  woolen  industries  of  the  realm.  Navi- 

fition  laws  were  enacted  under  Mary  and 
lizabeth,  which  gave  such  preference  to 
English  shipping  as  to  drive  foreign  ships 
from  the  internal,  coastwise,  and  foreign  trade 
of  the  realm.  Thus,  in  200  years,  by  the  most 
rigid  policy  of  protection  ever  before  or  since 
set  up  by  any  nation,  England  rose  from  prac- 
tical vassalage  to  one  of  the  most  independent, 
prosperous,  and  powerful  countries  in  the 
v world,  and  gained  the  ascendency  in  manu- 
factures, trade,  commerce,  and  wealth,  which, 
in  many  respects,  is  maintained  to  this  day, 
and  which  in  no  way  has  been  surpassed,  save 
by  other  protective  nations.  Those  who  at- 
tribute Britain's  greatness  to  free  trade,  which 
did  not  begin  until  1846,  when  her  industrial 
primacy  was  of  itself  protective,  and  was  sure 
to  remain  so  for  many  years,  must  have  for- 
gotten all  her  earlier  history,  and  must  have 
attached  more  importance  to  the  cramp  and 
hindrance  of  the  gilds  which  were  a  part  of 
the  protective  policy,  and  to  some  of  the  pro- 
hibitions, which,  however  necessary  and  use- 
ful in  the  beginning,  afterward  became  a 

r- 


hindrance,  than  they  attached  to  the  great 
and  necessary  acts  which  emancipated  Eng- 
land from  industrial,  monetary,  and  commer- 
cial servitude,  and  made  her  factories  and  her 
artisans,  her  merchants  and  her  ships,  the 
wonder  and  the  envy  of  the  world. 

Until  near  the  close  of  the  sixteenth  century 
the  condition  of  the  people  of  France  was 
similar  to  that  of  the  English  a  century  before. 
But  in  1592  Henry  of  Navarre  became  king, 
and  with  a  purpose  to  develop  the  country, 
Sully,  who  was  appointed  Minister  of  Finance, 
studied  conditions  in  all  parts  of 
the  realm,  and  soon  the  nobles 
were  prohibited  from  taxing  the  Protection 
people  ;  the  royal  treasury  became  in  France, 
plethoric ;  roads,  bridges,  and 
canals  were  built ;  mines  were 
opened,  and  manufactures  were  introduced 
by  giving  protection  to  artisans  who  were  in- 
duced to  come  from  Holland  and  Venice. 
Slow  progress  was  made  under  the  next  reign, 
that  of  Louis  XIII.  and  Cardinal  Richelieu, 
but  in  the  latter  part  of  the  long  reign  of 
Louis  XIV. ,  with  the  great  Colbert  as  Minister 
of  Finance,  not  only  was  Sully 's  system  of 
internal  improvement  continued,  but  the  first 
general  tariff  of  duties  upon  imports  was 
enacted.  This  was  in  1664.  The  principles 
upon  winch  this  tariff  were  based  were  :  "  i. 
To  reduce  the  duties  on  the  importations  of 
all  articles  required  for  the  manufactures  of 
the  kingdom,  and  2,  to  exclude  foreign  manu- 
factures by  raising  the  duties."  In  1667  duties 
were  much  increased  on  such  articles  of  for- 
eign production  as  competed  with  the  new 
industries  ;  towns  sprang  up  where  there  had 
been  but  wastes  ;  the  people  turned  from  dis- 
content to  occupation,  and  the  country  grew 
great  and  strong.  After  the  death  of  Colbert 
the  king  committed  the  fatal  blunder  of  per- 
secuting the  Huguenots,  with  the  result  that 
nearly  400,000  of  the  people,  most  skilled  in 
industry,  fled  the  kingdom,  and  spread  over 
countries  that  soon  became  rivals  in  peace 
and  enemies  in  war.  The  next  century  was 
one  of  many  wars  and  abuses  which  cxilmi- 
nated  in  the  Revolution.  An  experiment  in 
fiat  money  had  been  tried,  with  disastrous 
results,  of  course.  Fully  one-half  of  the  peo- 
ple belonged  to  'the  privileged  classes,  and 
paid  no  taxes.  Agriculture,  thus  doubly  bur- 
dened, fell  into  decay.  Such  conditions  had 
not  been  favorable  to  the  growth  of  manufac- 
tures, and  what  protective  laws  remained  were 
all  but  inoperative.  And  what  was  even  more 
to  be  deplored,  they  were  confused  by  a  school 
of  French  economists  which  became  known  as 
physiocrats,  which  was  formed  by  Quesnay, 
the  physician  of  Louis  XV.,  and  which  first 
promulgated  the  free-trade  doctrine  of  laissez- 
faire,  "  let  things  alone,"  with  the  abuses  of 
power  which  were  tyrannical  on  the  one  hand, 
and  paternal  on  the  other.  These  so-called 
economists  failed  to  see  the  difference  between 
a  government's  protecting  the  natural  oppor- 
tunities of  its  people  and  the  exemption  of 
favorites  from  taxation,  or  between  promoting 
the  growth  of  industries  which  would  afford 
employment,  yield  wealth,  and  reduce  the 
cost  of  necessaries,  and  the  granting  of  mo- 


Protection. 


1138 


Protection. 


nopolies,  farming  the  collection  of  revenue  at 
excessive  profits,  and  the  placing  of  duties 
upon  exports  as  a  means  of  replenishing 
the  plundered  treasury.  In  the  presence  of 
so  many  abuses  of  power,  every  act  of  gov- 
ernment that  related  to  revenue,  or  to  the 
industries  of  the  people,  seemed  to  them  alike 
a  wanton  interference.  It  is  easy  to  excuse 
them  for  the  failure  to  discriminate,  but  the 
motto  which  they  coined  for  their  place  and 
time,  and  which  has  been  accepted  as  the 
fundamental  principle  of  free  trade,  is  seen  in 
the  light  of  the  subsequent  history  of  France, 
and  of  all  other  nations,  to  have  its  limitations. 
"Let  alone"  may  well  be  said  to  a  black- 
smith who  would  tinker  a  watch,  but  what 
man  of  sense  would  cry  it  to  a  general  about 
to  repel  an  invasion  ;  a  board  of  health  re- 
deeming a  marsh,  or  a  government  whose 
people  are  competing  against  the  export  boun- 
ties and  subsidized  ships  of  other  nations  ? 
Napoleon  Bonaparte,  who,  if  he  had  known 
when  to  stop  his  foreign  wars,  would  have 
been  the  greatest  statesman  as  well  as  the 
greatest  conqueror  of  his  time — he  of  whom 
Byron  wrote 

"  A  single  step  into  the  right  had  made, 
This  man  the  Washington  of  worlds  betrayed  " — 

did  not  forget  the  industries  of  France,  and 
did  not  neglect  the  means  for  their  promotion. 
"  Duties,"  said  he  to  Las  Casas,  at  St.  Helena, 
"which  were  so  severely  condemned  by  po- 
litical economists,  ....  should  be  the  guar- 
anty and  protection  of  a  nation,  and  should 
correspond  with  the  nature  and  the  objects  of 
its  trade.  .  .  .  Foreign  trade,  which,  in  its  re- 
sults, is  infinitely  inferior  to  agriculture,  was 
an  object  of  subordinate  importance  in  my 
mind.  Foreign  trade  is  made  for  agriculture 
and  home  industry,  and  not  the  two  latter  for 
the  former."  During,  and  since  his  reign, 
France  made  its  greatest  progress  in  the  arts 
of  peace,  for  protection  has  been  its  policy, 
with  the  exception  of  a  partial  abandonment, 
which  Cobden  persuaded  Louis  Napoleon  to 
make,  and  which  was  one  of  the  causes  that 
led  to  the  downfall  of  that  emperor,  and  the 
humiliation  of  his  country.  During  the  20 
years  of  the  Cobden  treaty  French  commerce 
declined  65  per  cent.,  and  many  industries 
barely  lived,  thanks  only  to  the  partial  pro- 
tection that  remained.  On  the  26th  of  Janu- 
ary, 1876,  M.  Thiers,  afterward  the  first 
president  of  the  French  republic,  and  one  of 
the  greatest  statesmen  of  any  country,  ancient 
or  modern,  in  speaking  upon  tariffs  to  the 
Assembly,  drew  this  instructive  and  most 
prophetic  contrast  between  France  and  Eng- 
land. After  complimenting  England  for  its 
civil  liberty,  and  other  great  characteristics, 
he  said  : 

"  But  I  may  be  allowed  to  say  that  it  has  in  its  in- 
dustrial greatness  that  which  is  not  so  solid  as  the 
situation  of  France.  France  has  her  consumers 
within  itself.  Its  market  does  not  depend  upon  a  can- 
non-shot fired  in  Europe.  And  for  exportation  s  she  has 
her  beautiful  products.  England,  on  the  contrary  has 
an  artificial  existence.  She  depends  upon  the  days  of 
the  United  States ;  upon  the  doings  of  her  colonies, 
which  already  oppose  her  with  hostile  tariffs.  Mav 
not  the  day  come  when  its  immense  production  wifl 
find  no  purchasers  ?  She  produces  ten  times  as  much 


as  her  consumption.  This  little  island,  in  the  words 
of  Fox,  embraces  the  world.  True  ;  but  when  she 
embraces  the  world,  she  is  vulnsrable  everywhere. 
Such  was  the  situation  of  Holland  in  the  seventeenth 
century,  which  had  realized  a  prodigy  almost  as  mar- 
velous. What  was  needed  to  make  Holland,  which 
gave  laws  to  France,  descend  from  this  lofty  place  ? 
It  needed  only  50  years.  It  needed  only  a  Navigation 
Act  in  England:  it  needed  qnly  a  Colbert  in  France. 
God  forbid  that  I  should  predict  for  England  such  a 
destiny  !  but  I  repeat  it,  her  existence,  which  depends 
upon  consumers  which  she  seeks  everywhere  without 
herself,  is  less  solid  than  that  Of  France,  which  has 
her  consumers  in  her  own  bosom." 

Germany  is  no  less  interesting  than  France. 
The  first  progress  in  manufactures  began  with 
the  coming  of  the  Protestant  refugees  from 
France  after  Louis  XIV.  had  revoked  the 
Edict  of  Nantes.  Under  Frederick  the  Great, 
from  1746  to  1786,  the  economic  policy  of 
Prussia  embraced  duties  on  im- 
ports, bounties  on  exports,  pre- 
miums on  production,  and  Protection 
exemptions  of  new  manufactures  in  Germany, 
from  taxation,  and  the  result  was 
an  unprecedented  development 
of  all  the  industries  of  the  kingdom.  The 
smaller  German  states  presented  a  less  encour- 
aging picture.  Governed  expensively,  their 
exactions  of  revenue  were  burdensome  to 
industry  and  restrictive  of  trade  in  its  nat- 
ural field.  Later  their  industries  were  nearly 
crushed  by  the  Napoleonic  wars  and  the  inun- 
dation of  French  and  English  goods  after  the 
battle  of  Waterloo,  but  in  1818,  Prussia  lead- 
ing, they  adopted  a  vigorous  policy  of  protec- 
tion. It  abolished  State  monopolies  and 
special  privileges  to  individuals,  gave  all  citi- 
zens equal  chances,  admitted  necessary  raw 
materials  free,  and  adhered  to  the  system  of 
duties  and  bounties  established  under  Fred- 
erick. Subsequently  it  was  found  that  most 
of  the  states  were  too  small  for  each  to  set  up 
a  national  policy  of  this  kind.  They  needed 
each  other's  markets.  In  1833  six  of  them 
formed  a  zollverein,  or  customs  union,  with  no 
duties  between  themselves  and  with  a  division 
of  outside  duties  according  to  population.  By 
1842  the  other  German  states  had  come  in. 
The  basis  was  the  Prussian  tariff  of  1818.  The 
administration  was  by  a  zollverein  Parlia- 
ment, which  was  succeeded  by  the  German 
Reichstag  when  the  Empire  was  formed  in 
1871.  From  time  to  time  duties  had  been 
raised  to  meet  aggressive  importation,  but  the 
production  of  fine  goods  had  hardly  been  at- 
tempted, and  the  classes  which  consumed 
them  were  easily  persuaded  by  Mr.  Cobden 
that  they  ought  >to  have  them  free  of  duty. 
Those  classes  were  influential.  The  result 
was  that  a  free-trade  wave  swept  over  Ger- 
many, first  in  the  form  of  lower  duties  in  1865, 
then  in  a  commercial  reciprocity  with  Austria 
in  1868,  and  by  successive  annual  reductions 
until  the  full  English  policy  was  reached, 
when  everybody  felt  rich  and  grew  extrava- 
gant and  careless  under  the  payment  of  the 
French  indemnity  in  1871.  The  result  of 
open  ports  was  to  close  the  factories.  There 
was  failure  upon  failure.  Wages  and  prices 
fell,  but  taxes  rose.  Foreign  corn  depressed 
agriculture.  The  people  wore  the  fabrics  of 
England  and  France,  and  labor  began  to 
starve.  A  powerful  reaction  set  in.  Bis- 


Protection. 


H39 


Protection, 


marck,  after  prof ound  study,  began  in  1878  to 
advocate  protection.  In  1879  the  Reichstag 
returned  to  it  by  a  vote  of  217  to  117.  In  two 
years  the  exports  of  manufactures  increased 
33  per  cent. ;  in  eight  years  the  number  of  ar- 
tisans in  iron  and  steel  increased  30  per  cent., 
their  aggregate  wages  increased  27  per  cent., 
and  the  average  wages  in  all  industries  in- 
creased 12  per  cent.  The  payment  of  a  bounty 
on  the  exportation  of  sugar  caused  production 
to  increase  from  less  than  200,000  tons  in  1871 
to  more  than  1,000,000  tons  in  1891.  There 
was  activity  in  all  employments.  Machinery 
improved  and  skill  increased.  Wages,  though 
from  98  to  226  per  cent,  higher  than  in  1848, 
were  still  so  much  lower  than  in  England  that 
German  goods  found  an  increasing  market 
there,  to  the  depression  of  many  British  in- 
dustries and  to  the  ruin  of  some,  and  they 
were  even  able  to  overcome  many  of  the  du- 
ties of  the  United  States  and  undersell  the 
products  of  some  of  the  best  established  in- 
dustries in  this  country.  From  1875  to  1886 
the  exports  of  manufactures  of  silk  increased 
884 percent.;  woolens,  296  ;  cottons,  302  ;  glass, 
264  ;  paper,  322  ;  spirits,  258  ;  beer,  446  ;  and 
machinery,  260  per  cent.  Industries  became 
diversified  as  never  before  in  any  country,  and 
from  1878  to  1896  schools  for  technical  and 
manual  training  were  established  in  328  places. 
All  these  marvelous  figures  utterly  disprove 
the  theory  of  free  trade  that  protection  dulls 
and  dwarfs  the  individual  and  cramps  and 
curtails  the  aggregation. 

Russia,  the  wonderland  of  two  continents, 
affords  a  most  striking  example  of  the  influ- 
ence of  protection  to  convert  barbarism  into 
civilization  and  transform  deserts  into  cities 
and  gardens.  Russia  entered  upon  its  career 
as  a  modern  power  with  the  reign  of  Peter 
the  Great,  which  began  in  1689.  That  en- 
lightened monarch  worked  incognito  in  the 
ship  yards  of  Holland,  that  he 
might  teach  his  people  how  to 
Protection  build  ships.  When  he  visited 
in  Kussia.  England,  though  tendered  kingly 
honors,  he  took  private  lodgings 
and  studied  the  laws  and  indus- 
tries. Through  "dropping  pearls  and  ver- 
min," and  leaving  evidence  in  his  lodgings 
that  "  a  barbarism  had  been  there,"  he  took 
away  about  all  that  was  to  be  learned,  at  that 
time,  of  national  development.  This  knowl- 
edge was  applied  at  home  under  the  disad- 
vantages of  popular  ignorance,  but  in  a 
thousand  ways  Russia  was  transformed.  Ag- 
riculture, manufactures,  and  commerce  became 
established.  In  treaties  and  decrees  the  pro- 
tective principle  was  carefully  observed.  Near 
the  close  of  the  seventeenth  century,  or  con- 
temporaneously with  the  United  States,  Rus- 
sia adopted  a  tariff  of  protection,  and  in  many 
cases  of  prohibition.  Again,  as  in  the  United 
States,  this  policy  was  relaxed  in  1816-19,  but 
returned  to  in  1822  and  maintained  until  1849. 
In  the  revisions  of  1851  and  1854  prohibitions 
were  generally  abolished  and  the  duties  made 
discriminating,  as  suggested  by  economic 
changes.  The  same  policy  was  adhered  to  in 
the  revisions  of  1867  and  1876;  the  last  increas- 
ing the  protection.  A  new  revision,  on  the 


same  lines,  was  begun  in  1887  and  completed 
in  1891.  In  these  later  and  scientific  tariffs, 
Napoleon's  idea  of  subordinating  revenue  to 
protection  prevailed.  The  general  results  of 
a  century  of  protection  were  progress  in  every 
domestic  industrj^,  a  favorable  balance  of 
trade,  and  a  steady  gain  in  employment  and 
wages.  In  1894  Russia  produced  nearly  two 
billion  bushels  of  grain,  and  more  than  one 
and  a  quarter  billion  pounds  of  cotton.  In 
1890  the  output  of  the  mines  and  factories  was 
valued  at  $828,000,000.  Of  the  European 
countries,  Russia  is  second  to  only  England 
in  cotton  manufacturing  ;  having  6,000,000 
spindles  in  1892.  Woolen,  silk,  leather,  lum- 
ber, flour,  and  tobacco  are  all  important  and 
growing  industries.  There  are  65 ,000  factories 
of  all  kinds,  employing  1,000,000  people. 
From  1884  to  1896  the  sugar  industry  increased 
loo  per  cent.,  iron  68,  steel  59,  coal  129,  and 
petroleum,  1475  per  cent.  Wages  have  ad- 
vanced, but  are  sti  11  low  ;  being  from  $80  to  $  1 50 
a  year  for  men  in  the  cotton  mills,  and  but  a 
trifle  more  than  half  that  for  women.  Most 
of  the  mills  are  run  from  9  to  12  hours  a  day. 
Other  Europe. — The  progress  of  other  Eu- 
ropean countries  under  protection  compares 
favorably  with  that  of  the  great  countries 
named.  Apparently  protection  is  their  settled 
policy.  All  their  self-governing  colonies  in 
every  port  of  the  world  have  adopted  it  also, 
and  in  all  of  them  progress  has  been  relatively 
greater  than  before.  Schemes  for  an  imperial 
customs  union  between  the  United  Kingdom 
and  the  Colonies  of  Great  Britain  have  for 
several  years  been  under  discussion;  the  pro- 
posed basis  being  protection  against  the  world 
and  preferential  duties  or  free  trade  among 
themselves.  The  manufacturing  Colonies 
shrink  from  it  on  account  of  England's  suprem- 
acy, and  England  shrinks  from  it  because  of 
not  being  ready  to  abandon  free  trade. 

II.    PROTECTION   IN  THE   UNITED   STATES. 

The  agitation  for  protection  began  in  the 
Colonial  period,  partly  because  of  England's 
oppressive  laws  to  prevent  manufacturing  in 
the  Colonies,  and  partly  because  of  the  depres- 
sion of  industry  from  the  use  of  foreign  goods. 
In  1767  the  inhabitants  of  Boston  voted  in 
town  meeting,  and  afterward  signed  a  pledge 
not  to  buy  the  "foreign  superfluities"  men- 
tioned in  a  long  list.  The  Articles  of  Confed- 
eration, under  which  the  country  was  governed 
from  1781  until  the  ratification  of  the  Consti- 
tution in  1787,  permitted  each  State  to  regulate 
its  own  commerce,  and  this  made  a  general 
tariff  impossible.  The  States  were  deluged 
with  foreign  goods.  Distressed  working  men 
and  merchants  in  the  principal  cities  united  in 
great  petitions  for  protection.  To  meet  this 
want  was  one  of  the  chief  reasons  (Daniel 
Webster  said  it  was  "  the  leading  cause")  for 
forming  the  "  more  perfect  Union  "  spoken  of 
in  the  preamble  to  the  Constitution.  The 
second  act  of  the  First  Congress  which  assem- 
bled under  the  new  Constitution  was  a  tariff, 
the  object  of  which,  as  declared  in- the  pream- 
ble, was  "for  the  support  of  government,  for 
the  discharge  of  the  debts  of  the  United  States, 


Protection. 


1140 


Protection. 


and  for  the  encouragement  and  protection  of 
manufactures."  This  passed  the  House  by  a 
vote  of  more  than  five  to  one,  and  the  Senate 
by  a  unanimous  vote,  and  was  approved  by 
George  Washington,  July  4,  1789.  From  that 
time  to  1896  fifty  general  tariff  laws  were 
enacted,  all  of  them  in  some  degree  protect- 
ive. There  was  no  departure  from  the  pro- 
tective policy  until  1816,  and  the 
new  duties  of  that  year  were  in- 
Early  tended  to  be  ample,  but  they 
History,  proved  insufficient  against  the  de- 
structive commercial  war  which 
England  determined  to  wage.  In 
a  speech  in  Parliament,  Lord  Brougham  de- 
clared that  "  it  is  worth  while  to  incur  a  loss 
upon  the  first  exportation,  in  order,  by  the 
glut,  to  stifle  in  the  cradle  those  infant  manu- 
factures in  the  United  States  which  the  war 
has  forced  into  existence."  While  in  1813 
imports  were  only  $13,000,000,  in  1818  they 
had  risen  to  $121,750,000.  An  adverse  balance 
of  trade  of  $229,000,000  had  been  created,  and 
industry  was  everywhere  depressed.  In  1824 
a  more  protective  tariff  was  passed,  and  it  was 
strengthened  in  1828.  Under  both  tariffs  the 
country  prospered.  But  meanwhile  the  tariff 
had  become  a  sectional  question.  The  cotton- 
planters  of  the  South,  whose  principal  market 
was  in  England,  were  led  to  adopt  the  free- 
trade  ideas  of  Sir  Robert  Peel,  and  under  the 
lead  of  Mr.  McDuffie  of  South  Carolina,  they 
advanced  the  strange  theory  that,  by  selling 
cotton  to  be  manufactured  in  England,  they 
were  manufacturers  themselves,  and  as  much 
entitled  to  government  favor  by  exemption 
from  duties  on  the  imports  with  which  they 
were  paid  as  the  cotton  manufacturers  of  New 
England  were  by  the  imposition  of  duties  upon 
competing  goods.  Resentful  of  Northern  hos- 
tility to  slavery,  they  favored  England  instead 
of  New  England;  reasoned  that  protection  is 
paternalism;  decried  the  tariff  as  "a  local 
question,"  and  threatened  to  secede  from  the 
Union.  Wishing  to  avert  this  calamity,  Henry 
Clay,  the  greatest  of  the  protective  statesmen 
except  Daniel  Webster,  proposed  a  compro- 
mise tariff,  which  became  a  law  in  1833,  which 
took  the  form  of  a  sliding  scale  of  biennial 
reductions  to  uniform  duties  of  20  percent.,  to 
be  reached  in  1842.  Of  course,  such  disregard 
of  discrimination,  which  varying  costs  of  pro- 
duction require  in  a  protective  tariff,  as  well 
as  the  lower  duties,  proved  disastrous  to  both 
revenue  and  business,  and  this,  complicated 
with  a  banking  question,  produced  a  great 
panic  in  1837,  In  the  tariff  of  1842,  the  coun- 
try returned  to  protection,  but  in  1846  the 
South  again  prevailed,  and  the  "  Walker 
tariff  "  of  that  year  made  heavy  reductions  in 
the  duties  that  protected  manufactures.  The 
disastrous  effects  were  referred  to  by  Presi- 
dents Fillmore  in  1852,  and  Buchanan  in  1857, 
but  owing  to  causes  other  than  the  tariff,  the 
country  enjoyed  some  measure  of 
prosperity.  When  those  causes 
War  Tariff,  ceased  to  operate  a  panic  ensued 
in  1857,  and  in  1861  the  "  Morrill 
•tariff,"  which  returned  to  protec- 
tion, was  enacted  a  short  time  before  the  out- 
break of  the  Civil  War.  During  the  war  many 


duties  were  increased,  the  prime  object  being 
revenue,  because  the  war  itself  proved  a  great 
stimulus  to  industries.  When  peace  was  re- 
stored free  traders  raised  a  clamor  for  the  abo- 
lition of  the  war  tariffs.  Changes  were  made 
in  1867, 1870,  and  1872,  most  of  which  were  ex- 
tensive reductions.  Importations,  which  had 
already  become  large  as  a  result  of  extrava- 
gance, incident  to  an  inflated  currency,  then  in- 
creased, the  country  had  an  adverse  balance  of 
trade,  and  in  1873  there  was  another  panic.  In 
1875  a  more  protective  tariff  was  enacted  and 
prosperity  returned.  In  1883  what  was  sup- 
posed to  be  a  scientific  readjustment  of  duties, 
recommended  by  a  commission  of  experts,  was 
made,  but  economic  changes  which  they  did 
not  anticipate  caused  it  to  practically  fail,  like 
the  tariff  of  1816.  Again  business  suffered, 
but  the  McKinley  tariff,  of  more  discriminat- 
ing duties,  and  with  a  reciprocity  clause  and 
improved  administrative  features,  was  enacted 
in  1890,  and  during  its  three  years'  operation 
both  production  and  commerce  prospered  as 
never  before.  More  people  were  employed, 
and  at  higher  wages,  the  public  debt  was 
reduced  $252,000,000,  new  industries  sprang 
into  existence,  there  was  a  favorable  balance 
of  trade,  the  public  credit  reached  its  highest 
figure.  But  the  extensive  free-trade  propa- 
ganda denounced  the  duties  as  excessive  and 
misled  enough  voters  with  the  false  statement 
that  "  prices  had  advanced  all  along  the  line," 
to  reverse  the  policy  at  the  next  elections. 
The  Democratic  party  promised  to  introduce 
free  trade,  but  its  candidate  promised  that 
nothing  should  be  done  to  hurt  the  industries. 
Both  promises  failed.  The  Wilson  bill  of  1894 
did  not  even  pretend  to  frame  schedules  on 
free-trade  principles  ;  it  was  simply  a  reduced 
McKinley  tariff,  but  so  much  reduced  that 
Southern  senators  from  coal  and  iron  produc- 
ing States  refused  to  accept  it,  and  raised 
certain  rates.  President  Cleveland  denounced 
this  as  an  act  of  "perfidy  and  dishonor,"  and 
allowed  the  bill  to  become  a  law  without  his 
approval.  Some  of  its  duties  proved  fairly 
protective  ;  others  invited  increasing  imports, 
and  when  the  market  became  flooded  with  for- 
eign goods,  domestic  industry  collapsed.  A 
deficiency  in  revenue,  coupled  with  an  intima- 
tion by  a  Secretary  of  the  Treasury,  with  an 
unsound  financial  record,  that  public  obliga- 
tions might  be  paid  in  depreciated  silver, 
caused  a  panic  in  the  early  summer  of  1893, 
and  though  that  was  soon  over,  there  has 
been  no  general  prosperity  since.  The  public 
debt  has  increased  by  nearly  $300,000,000,  the 
public  credit  has  fallen  to  a  humiliating  figure, 
there  is  an  adverse  balance  of  trade,  unem- 
ployment has  increased  in  nearly  all  indus- 
tries, wages  have  fallen,  trade  has  declined, 
general  discontent  prevails,  and  there  is  every 
evidence  that  the  elections  this  year  will  re- 
store the  protective  policy  with  instructive 
emphasis.  During  106  years  the  United  States 
had  about  75  years  of  effective  protection.  In 
every  protective  period  it  prospered,  and  as  a 
result  it  has  become  the  first  nation  in  agricul- 
ture, mining,  and  manufactures,  and  its  indus- 
trial population  is  the  best  conditioned  of  any 
in  the  world. 


Protection. 


1141 


Protestant  Episcopal  Church. 


III.    THE   PRINCIPLES   OF   MODERN   TARIFFS. 

These  are  easily  understood.  The  differ- 
ence between  a  free-trade  tariff  and  a  protective 
tariff  is  not  so  much  one  of  low  or  high  duties, 
as  it  is  the  choice  of  articles  to  which  duties 
shall  be  applied.  England's  free-trade  tariff 
raises  approximately  as  much  revenue  as 
America's  protective  tariff.  But  free  trade 
applies  duties  to  articles  which  must  be  im- 
ported, because  they  are  wanted  and  are  not 
produced  in  the  country;  protection  admits 
such  articles  free,  so  as  to  cheapen  their  cost, 
and  applies  duties  to  articles  which  do  not 
need  to  be  imported,  because  they  are  or  can 
be  produced  in  the  country.  England  derives 
a  large  revenue  from  tea  and  coffee,  not  a 
pound  of  which  is  raised  at  home  ;  the  United 
States  has  admitted  them  free  of  duty  since 
1872.  England  admits  cottons  and  woolens 
free,  although  producing  them;  the  United 
States  subjects  them  to  duty,  so  that  more  of 
them  may  be  produced  here.  If  England's 
need  of  revenue  requires  a  duty  to  be  placed 
upon  an  imported  article  like  what  is  produced 
in  the  country,  an  excise  is  put  upon  the 
domestic  product  to  countervail  the  duty,  so 
that  the  duty  will  not  be  protective.  In  the 
United  States,  if  duties  fail  after  due  trial  to 
develop  a  domestic  supply  in  quantities  ade- 
quate to  reduce  the  price  to  a  fair  level, 
they  are  removed,  so  as  not  to  increase  the 
cost  of  living.  It  is  claimed  by  protectionists 
that  the  duty  is  never  added  to  the  price,  ex- 
cept when  the  people  are  dependent  upon  for- 
eign supply.  When  they  are  dependent,  the 
duties  on  goods  sent  here  to  compete  are  paid 
by  the  foreigners  in  a  form  of  a  lower  price. 
This  claim  is  not  only  admitted  by  exporters 
to  protective  countries,  but  is  proved  by  prices, 
most  of  which  are  as  low  as  those  abroad,  all 
of  which  are  lower  after  than  before  protec- 
tion, and  many  of  which  are  actually  lower 
than  the  duties  themselves.  In  the  last  case 
the  duty  might  be  dispensed  with,  but  it  does 
no  harm  to  consumers,  and  protects  producers 
from  bankrupt  stocks  or  from  the  destructive 
prices  that  Lord  Brougham  advised. 

There  has  been  much  misleading  talk  about 
"  high  tariff  "  and  "  low  tariff."  A  tariff  may 
be  very  high  and  yet  not  in  the  least  protect- 
ive, or  very  low  and  yet  sufficiently  protective. 
All  this  depends  upon  the  objects  to  which 
duties  are  applied  and  the  conditions  of  their 
production  and  distribution.  And  since  the 
duty  cannot  be  added  to  the  price  when  there 
is  strong  domestic  competition,  no  consumer 
need  care  how  high  it  is.  But  if  it  falls  below 
the  line  of  protection,  domestic  competition  is 
crushed,  and  then  the  importer  can  add  the 
duty  to  his  price. 

Under  both  free  trade  and  protection  duties 
are  either  specific  or  ad  valorem,  and  some- 
times both.  A  specific  duty  is  so  many  cents 
per  pound  or  yard,  or  other  unit  of  quantity. 
An  ad  valorem  duty  is  such  a  percentage  of 
value.  The  former  requires  only  counting  or 
weighing  at  the  custom-house,  but  the  latter  re- 
quires appraisement.  It  is  difficult  to  ascertain 
the  value  of  foreign  goods,  and  they  are  often 
invoiced  far  below  their  true  value,  so  as  to 


cheat  the  customs.  This  deprives  the  Treas- 
ury of  part  of  its  expected  revenue  and  de- 
prives domestic  producers  of  a  part  of  their 
promised  protection.  The  tariffs  of  all  foreign 
countries  are  now  almost  wholly  specific.  In 
America  protectionists  favor  specific  duties, 
but  free  traders  generally  favor  ad  valorems. 
The  effect  of  tariffs  upon  wages  has  long 
been  a  subject  of  dispute.  Perhaps  the  most 
accurate  statement  is  that  they 
neither  raise  nor  lower  wages  ex- 
cept as  they  increase  or  diminish  Effect  upon 
employment.  If  the  goods  we  Wages. 
consume  are  made  abroad,  we  do 
not  make  them  ourselves,  there- 
fore labor  suffers.  Wages  in  Europe  average 
from  one-third  to  two-thirds  those  in  the 
United  States  ;  in  India,  China,  and  Japan, 
from  one-tenth  to  one-fifth  the  rates  paid  here. 
These  comparisons  are  based  on  the  relative 
productivity  of  labor  and  machinery.  And  as 
the  cost  of  ocean  transportation  is  now  but  a 
small  percentage  on  the  cost  of  the  goods,  the 
only  way  to  secure  employment  and  good 
wages  in  this  country  is  to  have  duties  that 
will  at  least  equal  the  difference  in  the  labor 
cost  of  production  between  those  countries 
and  this.  Thus  the  tariff  question  is  largely  a 
labor  question. 

References :  There  are  many  works  on  protection, 
but  the  latest  and  most  complete  is  Protection  and 
Prosperity,  by  George  B.  Curtiss  (The  Pan-American 
Publishing  Co.,  New  York).  This  is  a  library  of  itself. 
Others  of  great  value  are  Protective  Philosophy  by 
David  Hall  Rice  (George  B.  Reed,  publisher,  Boston) : 
History  of  the  Protective  Tariff,  by  ex-Secretary  of 
the  Navy  R.  W.  Thompson  (R.  S.  Peale  &  Co..  pub- 
lishers, Chicago) ;  A  Short  Tariff  History  of  the  united^ 
States,  by  David  H.  Mason  (Chicago) ;  Manual  of 
Social  Science,  by  Henry  C.  Carey  (H.  C.  Baird  &  Co., 
Philadelphia) ;  Political  Economy,  by  Professor  W.  D. 
Wilson  (same  publishers) ;  Protection  to  Home  In- 
dustry, by  Professor  Robert  Ellis  Thompson  (D.  Ap- 
pleton  &  Co.,  New  York) ;  Rudimentary  Economics,  by 
George  M.  Steele,  LL.  D.  (Leach,  Shewell  &  Sanborn, 
Boston) ;  Political  Economy  for  American  Youth,  by 
Professor  Jacob  Harris  Patten  (A.  Lovell  &  Co.,  New 
York) ;  wealth  and  Progress,  by  Professor  George 
Gunton  (D.  Appleton  &  Co.) ;  Principles  of  Social 
Economics,  by  George  Gunton  (G.  P.  Putnam's  Sons, 
New  York) ;  Conversations  on  Political  Economy,  by 
William  Elder  (H.  C.  Baird  &  Co.,  Philadelphia) ;  The 
Political  Economy  of  Natural  Law,  by  Henry  Wood 
(Lee  &  Shepard,  Boston) ;  Political  Economy,  by 
Horace  Greeley  {The  Tribune,  New  York) ;  Farm  and 
Factory,  by  J.  R.  Dodge,  ex-Statistician  of  the  De- 
partment of  Agriculture,  Washington,  D.  C.;  Records 
of  the  Fifty-first  and  Fifty-third  Congresses;  files  of 
the  Home  Market  Bulletin,  the  American  Economist, 
and  the  Manufacturer,  Boston,  New  York,  and  Phila- 
delphia ;  and  free  pamphlets  of  the  Home  Marked 
Club,  Boston,  and  American  Protective  Tariff  League, 
New  York  ;  also  the  lives  and  speeches  of  Madison, 
Jefferson,  Clay,  Webster,  Harrison,  and  McKinley. 

ALBERT  CLARKE. 

PROTESTANT  EPISCOPAL  CHURCH 
AND  SOCIAL  REFORM.— For  a  statement 
of  one  view  of  social  reform  held  in  the  Prot- 
estant Episcopal  Church,  see  ANGLICAN  POSI- 
TION. For  a  statement  of  the  activities  of  the 
Protestant  Episcopal  Church  in  social  reform, 
see  CHURCH  ASSOCIATION  FOR  THE  ADVANCE- 
MENT OF  THE  INTERESTS  OF  LABOR  ;  CHURCH 
SOCIAL  UNION  ;  INSTITUTIONAL  CHURCHES. 
Many  believe  that  the  Protestant  Episcopal 
Church  leads  among  the  religious  societies  of 
the  United  States  in  its  activities  in  soci?l 
reform.  The  existence  of  the  above-mentioned 


Protestant  Episcopal  Church. 


1142 


Protestant  Episcopal  Church. 


societies,  the  activities  and  utterances  of  such 
men  as  Bishop  Huntington  of  Central  New 
York,  Bishop  Potter  of  New  York,  Bishop 
Sessums  of  Louisiana,  with  such  clergymen 
as  the  Rev.  W.  S.  Rainsford,  D.  D. ;  Rev.  R. 
Heber  Newton,  D.  D.;  Rev.  R.  H.  Holland, 
S.  T.  D.;  Rev.  James  Huntington,  O.  S.;  Rev. 
T.  D.  Peters,  D.  D.;  Rev.  W.  D.  P.  Bliss,  Rev. 
Philo  Sprague,  with  such  laymen  and  women 
as  Professor  Ely,  Miss  Vida  D.  Scudder,  and 
many  others,  go  far  to  substantiate  this 
view.  Referring  to  the  above  articles  for 
details,  we  give  here  a  significant  extract  from 
the  pastoral  letter  of  the  Bishops  of  the  Church 
in  1889: 

"  In  a  country  such  as  ours,  distinguished  among 
the  nations  by  institutions  •which  presuppose  the  lib- 
erty, intelligence,  and  civic  virtue  of  the  citizen,  it  is 
of  the  utmost  importance  that  men  should  feel  and 
recognize  their  political  responsibility.  And  while 
the  Church  of  God— the  kingdom  not  of  this  world — 
does  not  undertake  to  wage  the  warfare  of  the  parti- 
zan,  it  is  nevertheless  charged  with  the  duty  of  estab- 
lishing and  maintaining  principles  which  shall  find 
expression  in  the  political  as  well  as  in  the  social  and 
family  life.  The  Incarnation  would  be  emptied  of  a 
large  part  of  its  significance  if  it  were  supposed  to 
leave  untouched  and  uninfluenced  the  life  of  men 
under  the  ordered  polity  of  the  commonwealth.  To 
'render  unto  Caesar  the  things  that  are  Caesar's'  is 
surely  more  than  the  due  payment  of  the  tribute- 
money  which  supports  the  public  action  of  the  State. 
It  is,  no  less,  the  righteous  and  godly  exercise  of  all 
the  functions  of  the  citizen.  On  account  of  the  dan- 
gers which  beset  all  government,  the  far-seeing  found- 
ers of  the  republic  rested  their  hopes  for  its  welfare 
and  success  upon  the  civic  fidelity  of  the  people — not 
upon  the  excellence  of  our  governmental  methods. 
Those  methods  make  possible  among  us  gross  and 
shameful  perversions  or  political  right  and  authority. 
It  has  come  to  pass,  in  the  heat  and  eagerness  of  party 
struggle,  that  vicious  and  corrupt  conduct  is  largely 
condoned,  and  the  standards  of  political  morality  are 
sensibly  and  dangerously  lowered.  We  are  confront- 
ing a  great  peril — and  one  which  must  excite  the  fears 
of  Christian  men — lest  character  fashioned  in  the 
working  of  free  institutions  be  irretrievably  dam- 
aged, and  the  poison,  entering  here,  spread  itself 
throughout  the  entire  life  of  the  nation.  Purity  and 
integrity  in  the  administration  of  public  affairs  are 
strenuously  demanded  by  the  religion  of  Christ,  as 
well  as  by  all  patriotic  aspiration.  Official  place,  in 
morals  and  in  politics,  is  not  the  prize  won  by  a  vul- 
gar selfishness,  nor  the  refuge  of  patronized  incompe- 
tence, nor  yet  the  barter  price  promised  or  paid  for 
political  influence,  but  the  place  in  which  a  righteous 
man  may  serve  his  fellow-men  and  advance  the  repu- 
table interests  of  his  country.  The  emoluments  of 
office  are  derived  from  a  fund  contrib- 
uted to  the  State  by  the  loyal  obedience 
and  patient  toil  of  the  industrious 
masses  ;  to  say  the  very  least,  it  should 
be  distributed  so  as  to  "secure  the  most 
efficient  and  economical  conduct  of 
public  affairs.  The  honors  of  office  are  legitimate  re- 
wards bestowed  by  popular  confidence  upon  upright 
citizenship.  It  must  be  an  evil  day  for  our  country 
when  both  emoluments  and  honors  are  made  the 

Erey  of  a  partizan  activity  which  often  discards  all 
onesty  in  its  methods  and  renounces  all  shame  in  its 
corrupt  and  corrupting  success.  The  religion  of 
Christ  is  'for  the  healing  of  the  nations'  sick  with 
sin  and  wrong  ;  and  the  Church  of  Christ,  while  hold- 
ing itself  aloof  from  the  strife  of  faction  and  party, 
is  yet  called  upon,  in  the  persons  of  its  members,  to 

fuard  jealously  the  great  heritage  which  God's  provi- 
ence  has  bestowed,  and  to  maintain  earnestly  the 
beneficent  ideals  of  political  life  and  action.  To 
answer  that  call  •with  ready  mind  and  will  is  the  be- 
coming office  of  faithful  men  who  would  promote  the 
righteousness  which  'exalteth  a  nation,  and  invite 
still  further  blessings  from  Him  who  'hath  brought 
us  forth  into  a  wealthy  place  '  among  the  peoples  of 
the  earth. 

"  We  pass  on  to  a  kindred  topic.  It  is  inevitable 
that  the  Church  of  God  shall  be  profoundly  concerned 
at  the  disturbed  relations  of  what  are  commonly 
called  the  'industrial  classes' — the  wage-workers  and 


Morals. 


the  employers  of  human  labor.  The  spirit  of  our 
holy  religion  forbids  indifference,  on  our  part,  to  any 
actual  trials,  oppressions,  or  sufferings  of  men,  and 
its  due  practical  operation  has  tended  always  to  do 
away  with  jealousies,  suspicions,  and  antagonisms 
between  the  children  of  the  One  Father  of  us  all.  We 
may  confidently  claim  for  the  Church  of  Him  who  by 
His  presence  consecrated  the  carpenter  shop  of  Naza- 
reth that,  however,  at  any  time  or  place  it  may  have 
been  tempted  to  shelter  itself  under  the  patronage  or 
protection  of  earthly  power  and  wealth,  nevertheless 
its  deep,  constant  purpose  has  been  to  soften  asperities 
of  feeling,  to  promote  mutual  good  will,  to  curb 
injustice,  as  between  man  and  man.  And  if  there  be, 
as  unhappily  there  often  is,  a  forgetfulness  by  many 
of  the  blessed  changes  wrought  in  human  conditions 
by  Christ's  religion,  we  may  not  ignore  the  significant 
truth  that  the  unchallenged  claim  of  men  of  our  day 
to  considerate  justice  and  all  righteous  recognition  by 
their  human  brothers  rests  finally  and  completely 
upon  the  dignity  and  sacredness  of  the  humanity 
taken  into  the  Godhead  by  the  Word  made  Flesh,  and 
by  Him  redeemed  unto  the  liberty  of  the  children 
of  God. 

"  It  is  painfully  evident  that  the  existing  industrial 
system  is  subjected  not  only  to  vehement  criticism, 
but  to  perilous  strain  ;  and  one  of  the  most  discour- 
aging elements  of  the  situation  seems  to  be  the  hope- 
less or  despairing  tone  of  those  who  deal  with  the 
overshadowing  questions  which  throng  so  persistently 
upon  the  mind  and  heart  of  our  generation.  It  seems 
scarcely  to  be  expected,  by  many,  that  a  solution  of 
the  problems  can  be  reached  by  applying  to  them  any 
devices  of  human  sagacity  or  any  reconciling  princi- 
ples of  economic  science. 

"  It  is  often  assumed  without  question,  alike  by  reck- 
less passion  and  thoughtful  earnestness,  that  there 
is  no  soothing  for  the  uneasy  world ;  that  opposing 
interests  and  aims  are  here  met  in  mortal  strife.  We 
do  not  venture  to  intimate  that  we  have  any  swift  and 
potent  cure  for  the  evils  which  we  must  and  do  de- 
plore. But  we  are  confident  that  it  is  a  fallacy  in  social 
economics,  as  well  as  in  Christian  thinking,  to  look 
upon  the  labor  of  men,  and  women,  and  children,  as 
a  mere  commercial  commodity  to  be  bought  and 
sold,  as  an  inanimate  and  irresponsible  thing.  It  is 
the  employer  who  seeks  and  finds  the  inner  soul  of 
the  operative,  who  respects  his  manhood,  and  per- 
haps translates  for  him  into  fact  the  inarticulate 
longings  of  his  better  nature  ;  it  is  the  master  whose 
watchful  sympathy  finds  room  and  play  in  the  cot- 
tages of  his  wearied  workmen,  and  in  all  the  life 
which  has  its  centers  there— it  is  he  who  has  found  the 
open  secret  of  a  wisdom  that  is  '  peaceable  '  because 
it  is  '  from  above,' and  is  'pure,'  'gentle,'  and  'easy 
to  be  entreated.'  Any  social  philosophy  which  elimi- 
nates from  its  consideration  the  value  and  significance 
of  human  feeling,  or  human  susceptibility  to  the  in- 
fluence of  kindness,  justice,  and  loving  manliness, 
has  surely  left  itself  fatally  maimed  and  incomplete. 
The  heart  and  soul  of  a  nian  cannot  be  bought  or 
hired  for  money  in  any  market,  and  to  act  as  if  they 
were  not  needed,  in  the  doing  of  the  world's  vast 
work,  is  as  unchristian  as  it  is  unwise.  We  may  not 
therefore  omit  to  urge,  upon  all  those  to  whom  our 
words  may  come,  the  profound  need  of  a  righteous 
and  full  appreciation  of  the  moral  and  spiritual  fac- 
tors which  enter  into  industrial  questions.  To  bear  in 
mind  the  hardships  and  heavy  cares  of  our  brother 
men  ;  to  remember  our  common  kinship  in  the  great 
family  of  God  ;  to  ponder  their  necessities  ;  to  stand 
ready  and  glad  to  plead  their  cause  ;  to  brighten  their 
lot  and  comfort  their  distresses — this  is  the  exalted 
office  of  Christian  men — it  is  the  hopeful  method  of 
peace  and  good  will.  And  let  it  never  be  forgotten 
that  there  is  here  a  reciprocal  obligation  laid  upon 
labor— a  duty  defined  by  every  princi- 
ple of  righteousness  and  truth.  That 
duty — a  duty  fully  and  fitly  recognized  Wage 
by  large  numbers  of  Christian  work-  _  P- 
ing  men— plainly  is  to  treat  the  em-  Huesuon. 
ployer,  in  his  most  difficult  position, 
with  all  considerate  and  thoughtful  re- 
gard. His  legitimate  interests  may  not  be  ignored, 
and  it  should  be  the  steadfast  will  and  purpose  of  his 
working  associates  to  protect  those  interests  and  de- 
fend them  against  all  unjust  aggressions.  He  is  fre- 
quently placed  in  situations  of  great  embarrassment, 
and  the  kindly  patience  and  sympathy  of  his  work- 
men may  bring  relief.  He  is  always  entitled  to  that, 
and  there  is  grave  injustice  when  it  is  withheld. 
Combinations  which  cripple  or  hinder  his  rightful 
freedom  of  action,  unreasonable  demands  concerning 


Protestant  Episcopal  Church. 


Proudhon,  Pierre  Joseph. 


the  hours  and  compensation  and  division  of  labor — 
these  are  not  in  the  way  of  substantial  right,  and  any 
temporary  or  passing  triumph  for  them  is  but  the 
delusive  promise  of  a  method,  bad  in  morals,  which 
really  invites  and  compels  disaster.  The  stars  in 
their  courses  through  God's  sky  of  truth  fight  against 
ungodliness  and  wrong,  and  they  who  would  claim 
equity  must  do  equity.  In  considering  these  rela- 
tions between  employers  and  employed,  we  desire  to 
express  our  profound  interest  in  the  provisions  that 
maybe  and  should  be  made  for  penetrating  the  life 
of  the  great  masses  of  men  with  positive  Christian 
influence.  If  the  world's  exacting  labor  is  to  be  done 
in  any  accord  with  the  principles  of  the  Kingdom  of 
God,  there  must  of  necessity  be,  on  the  part  of  em- 
ployers, a  distinct  and  unqualified  recognition  of  the 
spiritual  needs  and  claims  of  the  workmen  whose  toil 
they  control  or  direct. 

"In  the  law  of  God  there  is  a  day  which  he  calls 
his  own,  and  by  the  declaration  of  the  Lord  Jesus 
Christ  it  was  'made  for  man.'  It  is  doubly  protected 
then  by  the  sovereignty  of  God  and  by  the  everlast- 
ing sanctity  of  a  human  right ;  the  Holy  Day— thus 
guarded  and  shielded  against  invasion— is  the  day  for 
worship  and  for  rest.  To  rob  it  of  its  character  at 
the  demand  of  greed  j  to  make  labor  so  weary  under 
its  daily  burden  that  it  is  tempted  and  almost  forced 
to  change  its  day  of  high  and  holy  refreshment  into 
a  day  of  reckless  indulgence  or  soulless  apathy,  is 
grievous  sin.  We  are  enabled  to  thank  God  for  the 
good  examples  of  some  of  our  brethren,  who  have 
been  forward  to  minister  graciously  and  helpfully  to 
large  bodies  of  operatives  in  their  employ.  They 
have  provided  for  needed  rest,  for  helpful  and  ele- 
vating recreation,  for  due  demands  of  human  frame 
and  human  spirit.  Let  the  examples  be  multiplied, 
and  let  the  Church  of  God  interpose  its  protest  against 
oppressive  wrong." 

PROUDHON,    PIERRE    JOSEPH,    was 

born  the  isth  of  January,  1809,  in  Besangon, 
France.  His  father  worked  in  a  brewery  ;  his 
mother  was  a  peasant  servant.  The  boy 
herded  cows  and  did  the  humblest  work.  He 
early,  however,  displayed  a  love  of  study,  and, 
borrowing  books  from  the  town  library,  he 
read,  and  went  to  the  day-school  when  his 
work  allowed.  At  16  he  entered  the  college 
of  his  native  place,  tho  he  still  could  not 
buy  the  necessary  books,  and  had  to  borrow 
them  from  his  mates -in  order  to  copy  the  les- 
sons. There  is  a  story  of  the  young  Proudhon 
returning  home  laden  with  prizes,  but  to 
find  that  there  was  no  dinner  for  him.  At 
the  age  of  19  he  found  work  in  a  printing 
house,  and,  by  correcting  proof,  he  acquired 
knowledge  on  many  lines,  though  particularly 
in  theology;  learning  Hebrew  too,  as  well  as 
Greek  and  Latin.  He  was  thus  enabled  to 
contribute  some  articles  to  an  Encyclopedic 
Catholiqtte.  In  1836  he  established,  with  a 
friend,  a  small  printing-office  in  Besangon,  but 
his  partner  committing  suicide,  he  had  to 
wind  up  the  business  in  1838.  In  1837,  how- 
ever, he  had  written  an  Essay  on  General 
Grammar,  and  he  now  obtained  the  Suard  pen- 
sion of  1500  frs.,  granted  by  the  Academy  of 
Besangon.  This  enabled  him  to  go  for  a  while 
to  Paris,  and  to  compete,  unsuccessfully,  for  a 
prize  essay  on  the  subject  of  The  Celebration 
of  Sunday,  in  which  he  first  broached  liberal 
.social  ideas. 

In  1840  he  published  his  first  work,  Qu'est-ce 
que  la  Propriety?  giving  his  famous  answer 
to  the  question,  "La  Propriete,  c'est  le  Vol" 
(Property  is  Theft).  It  attracted  little  notice, 
and  the  sole  results  to  its  author  were  the 
withdrawal  of  his  pension  by  the  Academy, 
on  the  score  of  his  noxious  opinions,  and  the 
threat  of  a  prosecution.  In  1842,  for  a  repeti- 


tion of  offense  in  his  Avertissement  aux 
Proprie'taires,  he  was  prosecuted  before  the 
Cour  d'Assises  of  Besangon,  but  succeeded  in 
obtaining  an  acquittal.  From  1843  to  1847  he 
was  employed  at  Lyons,  in  the  superintend- 
ence of  a  scheme  of  water-transport  on  the 
rivers  Saone  and  Rhone  ;  publishing  during 
this  time  at  Paris  the  two  works  entitled  De 
la  Creation  de  I'Ordre  dans  F  Humanite,  and 
Systems  des  Contradictions  Economiques,  his 
most  important  works,  and  written  under  the 
influence  of  Hegel,  Adam  Smith,  and  the 
Bible.  In  1847  he  left  this  employment  and 
finally  settled  in  Paris,  where  he  was  now  be- 
coming celebrated  as  a  leader  of  innovation. 
He  regretted  the  sudden  outbreak  of  the  revo- 
lution of  February  (1848),  because  it  found  the 
social  reformers  unprepared.  But  he  threw 
himself  with  ardor  into  the  conflict  of  opinion, 
and  soon  gained  a  national  notoriety.  He  was 
the  editor  of  the  Reprttsentant  du  Peuple  and 
other  journals,  in  which  the  most  advanced 
theories  were  advocated  in  the  strongest  lan- 

§uage;  elected  member  of  assembly  for  the 
eine  department  by  77,094  votes,  he  brought 
forward  a  proposal  to  exact  an  impost  of  one- 
third  on  interest  and  rent,  which  was  rejected. 
He  had  various  political  struggles  with  the 
Mountain  and  other  political  factions,  whom 
he  accused  of  favoring  socialism  only  in  pre- 
tense. He  fought  a  duel  with  Felix  Pyat  and 
denounced  Louis  Bonaparte,  who  was  already 
preparing  his  coup  d'e'tat.  He  succeeded 
only  in  being  prosecuted  himself  and  con- 
demned to  a  fine  of  10,000  frs.  and  three  years' 
imprisonment.  He  fled  to  Belgium.  This 
broke  up  an  attempt  he  had  made  to  found  a 
bank  which  should  operate  by  granting  gratu- 
itous credit.  Of  the  5,000,000  frs.  which  he 
required,  only  17,000  were  offered,  and  the  bank 
was  closed  by  the  authorities,  instigated  by 
the  hostility  of  the  moneyed  class.  Proudhon 
only  remained  in  Belgium  a  few  days.  Return- 
ing to  Paris  in  disguise,  he  was  discovered,  ar- 
rested, and  imprisoned  three  years.  During 
this  time  he  married  a  young  working  woman. 
He  wrote  during  these  years  his  Confessions 
d'un  Revolutionnaire  (\%^),Actesdela  Rtvo- 
lution  (1849),  Gratuite" du  Credit  (1850),  and  La 
Revolution  Sociale  Demontre'e  par  le  Coup 
d'Etat  (1852)  ;  the  last  of  which  is  remarkable 
for  the  clearness  with  which  he  states  the 
alternative  of  /' 'Anarchic  ou  le  Cesarisme,  as 
expressed  in  Louis  Napoleon,  then  President. 
In  June,  1852,  he  was  set  at  liberty,  and  lived, 
writing, in  comparative  quiet,  till  the  publication 
of  his  work,  De  la  justice  dans  la  Revolution 
et  dans  I'Eglise  (1858),  in  which  he  attacked 
the  Church  and  other  existing  institutions 
with  unusual  fury.  This  time  he  fled  to  Brus- 
sels to  escape  imprisonment.  On  his  return  to 
France  his  health  broke  down,  tho  he  cpntinued 
to  write.  He  died  at  Passy,  January  19,  1865. 
Thomas  Kirkup  says  of  Proudhon  (article 
Proudhon,  Encyclopedia  Britannica,  gth  ed.): 

"  Personally  Proudhon  was  one  of  the  most  remark- 
able figures  of  modern  France.  His  life  was  marked 
by  the  severest  simplicity  and  even  Puritanism  ;  he 
was  affectionate  in  his  domestic  relations,  a  most 
loyal  friend,  and  strictly  upright  in  conduct.  He 
was  strongly  opposed  to  the  prevailing  French  so- 
cialism of  his  time  because  of  its  utopianism  and 


Proudhon,  Pierre  Joseph. 


1144 


Public  Domain. 


Immorality  ;  and,  though  he  uttered  all  manner  of 
•wild  paradox  and  vehement  invective  against  the 
dominant  ideas  and  institutions,  he  was  remarkably 
free  from  feelings  of  personal  hate.  In  all  that  he 
said  and  did  he  was  the  son  of  the  people,  who  had 
not  been  broken  to  the  usual  social  and  academic 
discipline  ;  hence  his  roughness,  his  one-sidedness, 
and  his  exaggerations  ;  but  he  is  always  vigorous, 
and  often  brilliant  and  original. 

"  It  would,  of  course,  be  impossible  to  reduce  the 
ideas  of  such  an  irregular  thinker  to  systematic  form. 
In  later  years  Proudhon  himself  confessed  that  '  the 
great  part  of  his  publications  formed  only  a  work  of 
dissection  and  ventilation,  so  to  speak,  by  means  of 
•which  he  slowly  makes  his  .way  toward  a  superior 
conception  of  political  and  economic  laws.'  Yet  the 
groundwork  of  his  teaching  is  clear  and  firm  ;  no  one 
could  insist  with  greater  emphasis  on  the  demon- 
strative character  of  economic  principles  as  under- 
stood by  himself.  He  strongly  believed  in  the  absolute 
truth  or  a  few  moral  ideas,  with  which  it  was  the  aim 
of  his  teaching  to  mold  and  suffuse  political  econ- 
omy. Of  these  fundamental  ideas,  justice,  liberty, 
and  equality  were  the  chief.  What  he  desiderated, 
for  instance,  in  an  ideal  society  was  the  most  perfect 
equality  of  remuneration.  It  was  his  principle  that 
service  pays  service  ;  that  a  day's  labor  balances  a 
day's  labor — in  other  words,  that  the  duration  of  labor 
is  the  just  measure  of  value.  He  did  not  shrink 
from  any  of  the  consequences  of  this  theory,  for  he 
would  give  the  same  remuneration  to  the  worst  mason 
as  to  a  Phidias  ;  but  he  looks  forward  also  to  a  period 
in  human  development  when  the  present  inequality 
in  the  talent  and  capacity  of  men  would  be  reduced 
to  an  inappreciable  minimum.  From  the  great  prin- 
ciple of  service  as  the  equivalent  of  service  is  derived 
his  axiom  that  property  is  the  right  of  aubaine.  The 
aubain  was  a  stranger  not  naturalized  ;  and  the  right 
of  aubaine  was  the  right  in  virtue  of  which  the  sover- 
eign claimed  the  goods  of  such  a  stranger  who  had 
died  in  his  territory.  Property  is  a  right  of  the 
same  nature,  with  a  like  power  of  appropriation  in 
the  form  of  rent,  interest,  etc.  It  reaps  without  labor, 
consumes  without  producing,  and  enjoys  without 
exertion.  Proudhon  s  aim,  therefore,  was  to  realize  a 
science  of  society  resting  on  principles  of  justice, 
liberty,  and  equality  thus  understood ;  '  a  science 
absolute,  rigorous,  based  on  the  nature  of  man  and 
of  his  faculties,  and  on  their  mutual  relations  ;  a  sci- 
ence which  we  have  not  to  invent,  but  to  discover.' 
But  he  saw  clearly  that  such  ideas,  with  their  neces- 
sary accompaniments,  could  only  be  realized  through 
a  long  and  laborious  process  of  social  transformation. 
As  we  have  said  he  strongly  detested  the  prurient  im- 
morality of  the  schools  of  Saint-Simon  and  Fourier. 
He  attacked  them  not  less  bitterly  for  thinking  that 
society  could  be  changed  off-hand  by  a  ready-made 
and  complete  scheme  of  reform.  It  was  '  the  most 
accursed  lie,' he  said,  '  that  could  be  offered  to  man- 
kind.' In  social  change  he  distinguishes  between  the 
transition  and  the  perfection  or  achievement.  With 
regard  to  the  transition  he  advocated  the  progressive 
abolition  of  the  right  of  aubaine,  by  reducing  inter- 
est, rent,  etc.  For  the  goal  he  professed  only  to  give 
the  general  principles  ;  he  had  no  ready-made  scheme, 
no  Utopia.  The  positive  organization  of  the  new  so- 
ciety in  its  details  was  a  labor  that  would  require  50 
Montesquieus.  The  organization  he  desired  was  one 
on  collective  principles  ;  a  free  association,  which 
would  take  account  of  the  division  of  labor  and  which 
would  maintain  the  personality  both  of  the  m&n  and 
the  citizen.  With  his  strong  and  fervid  feeling  for 
human  dignity  and  liberty,  Proudhon  could  not  have 
tolerated  any  theory  of  social  change  that  did  not  give 
full  scope  for  the  free  development  of  man.  Con- 
nected with  this  was  his  famous  paradox  of  anarchy^ 
as  the  goal  of  the  free  development  of  society,  by 
which  he  meant  that  through  the  ethical  progress  of 
men  government  should  become  unnecessary.  '  Goy- 
ernment  of  man  by  man  in  every  form,"  he  says,  '  is 
oppression.  The  highest  perfection  of  society  is  found 
in  the  union  of  order  and  anarchy.''1 

Proudhon  is  considered  the  father  of  the 
school  of  the  philosophical  anarchists  (see 
ANARCHISM),  tho  he  held  their  views  only 
in  the  germ  and  not  in  their  developed  form, 
and  he  has  found,  as  he  predicted,  his  chief 
following  in  the  United  States. 

The  principal  works  of  Proudhon  have 
already  been  mentioned.  A  complete  edition, 


including  his  posthumous  writings,  was 
published  at  Paris,  1875.  See,  also,  P.  J. 
Proudhon  :  sa  Vie  et  sa  Correspondance,  by 
Sainte-Beuve  (Paris,  1875),  an  admirable  work, 
not  completed. 

Mr.  B.  R.  Tucker,  now  of  New  York,  pub- 
lished a  translation  of  Proudhon's  What  is- 
Property?  in  1876,  and  is  slowly  publishing  a 
translation  of  all  his  main  works.  (See  also 
ANARCHISM.) 

PUBLIC  DOMAIN  (UNITED  STATES). 

— The  total  amount  of  lands  acquired  by  the 
United  States  Government  by  treaty,  conquest, 
cession  by  States,  and  purchase,  from  1781  to 
1867,  is  2,889,175.91  square  miles,  or  1,849,072,- 
587  acres.  Of  this  amount  404,995.91  square 
miles,  or  259,171,787  acres,  were  ceded  to  the 
Government  by  the  States  between  the  years 
1781  and  1803.  The  remainder  of  the  public 
domain  was  acquired  from  foreign  govern- 
ments at  the  times,  and  for  the  considerations, 
given  in  the  subjoined  table  : 


From  whom 
bought. 

Date  of 

purchase 

Number  of 
acres. 

Amount  of 
consideration. 

France  

1803 

$27,  267,  621.  98 

i8iq 

1848 

Texas  

1850 

61,892,480 

1853 

Russia  

1867 

Totals  .... 

$81,957,389.98 

In  estimating  the  total  purchase  of  land  by 
the  Government,  the  Georgia  cession  of  1802, 
comprising  56,689,920  acres,  and  costing  $6,- 
200,000  should  be  added  to  the  above  table. 
Including  this  item,  our  public  domain  has 
cost  the  National  Government  $88,157,389.98, 
which  is  about  4  7-10  cents  per  acre. 

"  A  Congressional  ordinance,  enacted  on  May  20. 
1785,  gave  the  Board  of  Treasury,  or  what  is  now  the 
Treasury  Department,  the  power  to  dispose  of  all 
public  lands  remaining  after  the  land  bounties  granted 
to  members  of  the  Continental  army  had  been  satis- 
fied. A  price  to  the  public  of  not  less  than  $i  per  acre 
was  prescribed  by  the  ordinance.  In  addition  to  the 
sales  made  by  the  Board  of  Treasury,  Congress,  by 
special  enactment,  effected  sales  of  lands  for  particu- 
lar objects.  The  act  of  Mav  10,  1800,  established  four 
district  offices  to  dispose  of  lands,  with  an  officer  for 
each,  called  a  register.  An  act  dated  April  25,  1812, 
established  the  General  Land  Office  as  a  bureau  in  the 
Treasury  Department.  In  1836  the  General  Land  Of- 
fice was  placed  under  the  control  of  the  President,  and 
the  duties  of  the  office  were  increased.  In  1849  it  •was 
placed  under  the  control  of  the  Secretary  of  the 
Interior,  where  it  has  since  remained." 

The  lands  open  to  sale  and  settlement  by 
the  public  are  classed  as  agricultural,  mineral, 
coal,  desert,  timber,  saline,  stone,  and  town- 
site  lands.  In  addition  to  the  conveyances  of 
land  to  private  individuals,  lands  have  been 
set  apart  for  occupancy  by  the  Indian  tribes, 
and  vast  tracts  have  been  granted  to  States 
and  corporations  for  purposes  set  forth  in 
subsequent  paragraphs  of  this  article. 

Up  to  June  30,  1892,  the  total  cost  of  the 
public  domain  was  $378,002,688.14  ;  land  to  the 
amount  of  784,647,308.77  acres  has  been  dis- 
posed of,  and  the  receipts  therefor  were  $319,- 
123,159.34.  Thus,  on  June  30,  1892,  the  public 


Public  Domain. 


H45 


Public  Domain. 


domain  had  cost  $58,879,528.80  more  than  had 
been  realized  from  it. 

The  lands  disposed  of  were  distributed  as 
follows  : 

Acres. 

Lands  conveyed  to  individuals  under  the 
various  laws  requiring  settlement  and 
improvement 482,672,984.27 

Grants  to  States.  Acres. 

Education  purposes 81,294,658.82 

Saline  lands.. 560,764.93 

Swamp  lands 59,520,313.49 

Wagon  roads 1,790,889.54 

Canals 4,133,158.06 

Internal  impromements 7,858,592.70 

Grants  to  Corporations. 
Railroad  lands,  certified  and 
patented  (part  of  the  lands 
embraced  m  this  total  was 
granted  to  States,  and  by 
them  granted  to  railroad 
corporations) 56,483,804.37 

Miscellaneous  Grants. 
Indian  allotments  and  spe- 
cial   grants ;    largely    the 
former 90,332,142.59 


Total  grants 301,974,324.50  301,974,324.50 


Total  disposals 784,647,308.77 

From  the  1,064,425,278.23  acres  remaining  in 
the  public  domain  on  July  i,  1892,  these  deduc- 
tions should  be  made  :  Selections  under  rail- 
road grants  awaiting  examination,  28,846,961.60 
acres  ;  wagon-road  selections  pending,  313,- 
406.37  acres  ;  State  selections  for  educational 
purposes  pending,  1,093,168,52  acres;  and 
railroad  selections  approved  by  the  General 
Land  Office,  but  awaiting  the  approval  of  the 
Secretary  of  the  Interior,  1,117,591.88  acres  ;  to- 
tal, 31, 371, 128. 37  acres  ;  leaving  1,033,054,149.86 
acres  available  to  settlers.  Some  of  these 
pending  claims  may  be  rejected  by  the  General 
Land  Offices,  and  if  they  are  the  lands  called 
for  will  be  restored  to  the  public  domain.  Of 
the  land  yet  open  to  settlers,  it  is  estimated 
that  there  are  10,000,000  acres  in  arable  lands  ; 
70,000,000  acres  in  coal  and  mineral  lands,  and 
that  a  large  portion  of  the  remaining  area  is 
made  up  of  desert  lands  that  will  have  no 
value  until  a  greater  density  of  population, 
years  hence,  renders  the  occupancy  of  them 
necessary. 

Since  June  30, 1880,  the  Government  has  dis- 
posed of  209,279,805.02  acres.  If  the  disposals 
continue  at  the  same  rate,  all  the  lands  possess- 
ing any  real  or  prospective  value,  including 
portions  of  Alaska,  will  be  private  property 
within  50  years. 

In  the  table  giving  disposals  of  land  up  to 
June  30, 1892,  482,672,984.27  acres  are  given  as 
having  been  conveyed  to  persons  under  the 
laws  requiring  settlement  and  improvement. 
But  the  reader  should  hesitate  before  assum- 
ing that  all  this  amount  of  land  was  conveyed 
to  botia  fide  settlers.  An  inquiry  into  the 
net  results  of  the  laws  named  will  dispel  any 
such  pleasing  supposition. 

The  Preemption  Act  of  1841,  which  remained  in 
force  until  March  3,  1891,  required  settlement,  inhab- 
itancy, and  improvement  of  the  land  desired  for  not 
less  than  six  months,  and  then  the  payment  of  the 
minimum  price,  generally  $1.25  per  acre,  for  it.  If  the 
land  was  subject  to  "private  cash  entry,"  the  settler 
was  entitled  to  12  months  credit ;  if  it  was  "  unoff ered  " 


land,  he  was  entitled  to  33  months  credit.    No  more 
than  160,  nor  less  than  40  acres,  were  subject  to  entry 
under  this  law.    The  law  required  that 
the    preemptor   be    a    citizen    of    the 
United  States,  or  have  declared  an  in-      r^g  pre. 
tention  to  become  such  ;  the  head  of  a  . 

family,  a  widow,  or  a  single  man  over  emption  Act. 
21 ;  and  not  the  proprietor  of  320  acres 
anywhere  in  the  United  States.  The 
law  was  evaded  by  making  false  affidavits  as  to  the 
quality  of  the  land,  and  as  to  inhabitancy  and  im- 
provement. The  objects  sought  by  evasion  of  the 
law  were  (i)  to  obtain  title  to  large  quantities  of  land  ; 
(2)  to  obtain  valuable  coal  or  iron  lands  at  less  than 
the  Government  price ;  (3)  to  obtain  valuable  timber 
lands  ;  (4)  to  control  the  ranges  in  grazing  districts  by 
obtaining  title  to  valleys,  or  to  shores  of  streams  and 
water-courses,  and  (5)  to  control  the  land  under  color 
of  claim  of  record,  and  hold  the  same  for  sale  or  specu- 
lation. The  report  of  the  Public  Land  Commission, 
appointed  by  the  Forty-sixth  Congress,  contains  (on 
p.  540)  this  assertion  : 

"It  is  stated  by  land  officers  that  more  than  one- 
half  of  all  the  entries  under  the  Preemption  Act  are 
fraudulent." 

The  report  of  the  Commission  of  the  General  Land 
Office  for  1885  states  that  the  fraudulent  entries  under 
this  law  range,  in  some  States,  from  75  to  90  per  cent. 
Vast  quantities  of  land  have,  under  the  preemption 
system,  passed  into  the  hands  of  speculators,  capital- 
ists, and  "  bonanza  "  farmers  ;  contiguous  tracts  hav- 
ing been  obtained  by  collusive  entries.  Mythical  names 
have  been  signed  to  the  entry  papers,  and  in  some 
cases  the  names  of  an  entire  family,  including  infants, 
have  been  utilized.  Inhabitants  of  near-by  towns, 
and  even  temporary  sojourners,  are  known  to  have 
selected  lands,  and  after  erecting  unsubstantial 
houses,  plowing  a  few  furrows,  and  paying  occasional 
visits  to  the  claims,  have  demanded  and  secured  their 
patents.  Very  often  the  preemptor  did  not  take  any 
steps  to  secure  his  final  papers,  but  held  the  claim 
until  he  found  some  one  to  pay  him  a  good  price  for 
relinquishment  of  it.  The  act  of  March  3,  1891,  repealed 
this  law,  but  all  claims  initiated  before  the  passage  of 
the  act  were  dealt  with  as  provided  by  the  old  law. 

The  original  Homestead  Act  (q.  v.)  has  been 
amended  several  times.  It  gives,  for  a  nominal  fee, 
to  the  head  of  a  family,  a  widow,  or  a  single  man  over 
the  age  of  21  years,  a  citizen  of  the  United  States,  or 
one  who  has  declared  an  intention  to  become  such,  the 
right  to  locate  upon  160  acres  of  unoccupied  public  land, 
to  live  upon,  and  cultivate  the  same  for 
five  years,  and  upon  proof  of  compli- 
ance with  the  law,  to  receive  a  patent  The  Home- 
therefor,  free  of  cost  or  charge  for  the 
land.  Full  citizenship  is  requisite  to  Stead  Act. 
obtain  final  title.  The  act  of  March  3, 
1891,  prohibits  an  owner  of  160  acres  in 
any  part  of  the  United  States  from  acquiring  any 
right  under  the  Homestead  Law,  and  requires  proof 
of  residence  and  cultivation  for  14  months  after  entry 
before  a  homestead  can  be  "  commuted  "  or  purchased 
at  the  regular  rate  of  $1.25  or  $2.50  per  acre.  Any  set- 
tler who,  at  the  end  of  three  years'  residence  on  his 
homestead,  shall  have  had  under  cultivation  for  two 
years  one  acre  of  timber,  in  a  thrifty  condition,  for 
every  16  acres  of  the  tract,  may,  upon  proving  the 
fact,  receive  a  patent  for  the  homestead.  Only  non- 
mineral  lands  are  subject  to  entry  under  the  pre- 
emption and  homestead  laws,  and  prices  have  ranged 
from  12%  cents  to  $2.50  per  acre.  Fraudulent  entries 
have  prevailed  under  this  law  for  purposes,  and  by 
means,  similar  to  those  under  the  Preemption  Law. 
Persons  have  alleged  settlement  prior  to  the  date  of 
entry,  and  at  the  time,  or  soon  after,  have  given  '  final 
proof,'  and  in  this  way  have  secured  title  earlier  than 
in  ordinary  homestead  entries,  and  in  some  instances, 
before  the  discovery  of  the  fraud.  In  many  cases  in- 
^estigated,  it  has  been  shown  conclusively  that  no 
improvement  •was  ever  made,  the  premises  showing 
no  evidence  of  residence  or  cultivation.  William  A. 
J.  Sparks,  the  commissioner  of  the  General  Land 
Office  for  the  years  1886-87,  estimated,  in  his  report 
for  1885.  that  40  per  cent,  of  the  entries  under  the  Home- 
stead Law  are  fraudulent,  and  he  ascribed  most  of  the 
frauds  to  laxity  of  official  regulations. 

The  Timber-Culture  Law  was  enacted  in  1873, 
amended  in  1874.  and  again  in  1878.  Under  it  any  male 
or  female  adult,  being  the  head  of  a  family,  a  citizen 
of  the  United  States,  or  having  declared  an  intenfion 
to  become  such,  may  enter  not  less  than  40  nor  more 
than  160  acres  of  non-mineral  or  unreserved  land. 
One-fourth  part  of  the  tract  must  be  devoted  to 


Public  Domain. 


1146 


Public  Domain. 


timber-growing  for  eight  years;    after    eight    years, 
on  proof  of  the  facts,  a  patent  for  the  land  will  be 
issued.      Residence  on  the  land  is  not 
required.    The  act  of  March  3,  1891,  re- 
The  Timber-    pealed  this  law  so  far  as  future  entries 
Culture         are  concerned  ;   and  it  allows  the  com- 
mutation of  a  timber-culture  claim  after 
Law.  four  years'  compliance  with    the  law, 

at  $1.25  per  acre,  to  any  claimant  who 
is   a    bona-fide   resident    of    the    State 
or  Territory  in  which  the  land  is  located.    The  Public 
Land  Commission  of  the  Forty-sixth  Congress  states  : 
"  Thus  far  the  act  has  been  used  mostly  by  specula- 
tors intent  on  acquiring  large  tracts  of  public  lands." 
March  3,  1877,  Congress  enacted  the   "Desert-Land 
Act,"  which  applies  to  California,   Oregon,  Nevada, 
Washington,    Idaho,   Montana.    Wyoming,    the    Da- 
kotas,  and  the  Territories  of  Utah,  Arizona,  and  New 
Mexico.    The  act  of  March  3,  1801,  lim- 
its the  amount  of  land  obtainable  by 
The  Desert-    one  Person  under  the  Desert-Land  Law 
T      ^  A  to  320  acres  ;  requires  that  at  the  time  of 

Land.  Act.  filing  the  application  a  plan  of  the  pro- 
posed irrigation  must  be  filed,  and  it 
calls  for  proof  of  an  expenditure  in  irri- 
gation improvements  of  $3  per  acre  for  the  whole 
tract  within  the  three  years.  Uses  of  the  law  have 
chiefly  been  to  secure  possession  of  lands  by  the 
mere  formalities  of  entry,  and  largely  of  lands  that 
are  well  watered  or  cultivable  without  irrigation. 
There  is  abundant  evidence  that  stock-raising  com- 
panies have  freely  availed  themselves  of  the  opportu- 
nity afforded  them  by  this  law  to  secure  good  grazing 
grounds  for  three  years,  at  the  total  cost  of  25  cents 
per  acre.  Possession  of  lands  that  are  irreclaimable, 
and  are  valuable  only  for  timber,  has  been  obtained 
by  persons  under  this  law.  The  limitation  of  quan- 
tity has  been  evaded  by  collusive  entries  and  subse- 
.quent  assignments  to  the  person  or  persons  instigating 
the  fraud. 

An  act  authorizing  the  sale  of  timber  land  unfit  for 
•cultivation  in  California,  Oregon,  Nevada,  and  Wash- 
ington, at  $2.50  per  acre,  was  passed  by  Congress  on 
June  3,  1878.  The  benefits  of  this  law  are  open  only  to 
citizens  or  those  who  have  declared  their  intention  to 
become  citizens,  and  the  quantity  of  land  is  limited 
to  160  acres  for  any  one  person  or  association  of  per- 
sons. Proof  of  the  non-mineral  and  non-agricultural 
character  of  the  land  desired  must  be  shown.  This 
act  also  provides  for  the  sale  of  lands  that  are  valua- 
ble chiefly  for  stone,  in  the  same  quantity  and  on  the 
same  terms  as  timber  lands.  It  also  provides  that  all 
bona-fide  residents  of  Colorado,  Nevada,  Wyoming, 
the  Dakotas,  Idaho,  Montana,  and  the  Territories  of 
New  Mexico  and  Arizona,  and  all  mineral  districts  of 
the  United  States,  shall  be  permitted  to  fell  and  re- 
move the  timber  on  the  lands  that  are 
subject  to  mineral  entry  only.  This 

The  Timber-  'aw  ^as  °perate<i  to  place  vast  and 

T       ,  T  valuable     forests     in     the     possession 

Land  Law.  Of  wealthy  corporations  or  individual 
operators,  and,  sometimes,  foreign  syn- 
dicates. The  report  of  the  commis- 
sioner of  the  General  Land  Office  for  1887  tells 
of  a  Scottish  syndicate  that  fraudulently  obtained 
possession  of  64,000  acres  (valued  at  $6,400,000)  of  the 
most  valuable  timber  belt  in  California.  The  whole- 
sale destruction  of  forests  allowed  by  this  act  has 
served,  in  some  sections  of  the  country,  to  induce 
sudden  and  disastrous  floods  in  streams  that  have  their 
rise  along  the  watersheds  denuded  of  their  timber, 
and  in  other  sections  the  destruction  of  the  forests  has 
decreased  the  rainfall  to  such  an  extent  as  to  render 
extensive  tracts  of  land  almost  worthless  for  agricul- 
tural purposes.  The  act  of  June  3,  1878,  on  its  face, 
condemns  itself,  and  the  reader  will  marvel  at  the 
public  indifference  that  permitted  it  to  become  a  law. 
Why,  as  a  plain  business  proposition,  the  Government 
should  sell  valuable  timber  lands  that  are  worth  at 
least  $25  to  $100  per  acre,  for  $2.50  per  acre,  no  man 
living  will  ever  be  able  to  explain. 

Lands  containing  coal  are  subject  to  private  entry 
and  sale,  the  price  being  $10  per  acre   where  the  land 
is  situated  more  than  15  miles  from  any 
completed    railroad,  and  $20  per  acre 
The  Law      where  the  land  is  within  15  miles  of  such 
Relative  to   road-    An  individual  may  purchase  160 
_     .    T        '     acres ;  an  association  of  not  less  than 
Coal    Lands,  four  persons,  320  acres.    The  individual 
purchaser  and  each  of  the  persons  com- 
prising an  association  must  be  21  years 
of  age  and  a    citizen  of  the   United   States,  or  have 
declared  his  intention  to  become  a  citizen.     Owner- 


ship of  other  land  does  not  disqualify  one  from 
purchasing  coal  lands.  Any  association  of  not  less 
than  four  qualified  persons,  who  have  expended 
not  less  than  $5000  in  working  and  improving  any  coal- 
mine or  mines,  may  enter  640  acres,  including  such 
mining  improvements.  This  law  has  been  defeated 
by  fraudulent  entries  under  the  homestead  and  pre- 
emption laws  of  coal  lands  as  agricultural  lands,  and 
the  uniform  failure  of  the  land  laws  to  provide  for  a 
proper  inspection  of  claims  by  government  agents. 
In  Washington,  Wyoming,  Colorado,  and  doubtless 
other  States,  corporations  have  secured  possession  of 
immense  coal-fields  by  falsely  representing  them  to 
be  agricultural  lands,  and  by  having  them  entered  as 
such  in  the  names  of  mythical  personages. 

The  existing  law  relative  to  public  lands  that  are 
valuable  principally  for  minerals  provides  for  sales 
of  "lands  bearing  gold,  silver,  iron,  cinnabar,  lead, 
tin,  copper,  or  other  valuable  deposits  "  to  citizens 
of  the  United  States,  or  those  who  have  declared 
their  intention  to  become  such,  at  $2. 50  to  $5  per  acre 
or  fraction  of  an  acre.  The  maximum  of  a  quartz 
lode  or  vein  claim  is  1500  by  600  feet,  and  the  mini- 
mum 1500  by  50  feet,  or  20.66  acres  maximum  and  1.72 
acres  minimum.  A  placer  claim  made  by  an  indi- 
vidual must  not  exceed  20  acres,  and  must  be  paid 
for  at  the  rate  of  $2.50  for  each  acre  or 
fraction  of  an  acre.  Between  July  9, 
1870,  and  May  10,  1872,  a  placer  claim  to  jj^g  Jlineral- 
the  amount  of  160  acres  could  be  taken  T  ,  T 
by  any  one  individual.  Owners  of  Land  Law. 
mining  claims  who  run  tunnels  are 
entitled  to  the  possessory  right  of  all 
"blind  lodes"  discovered  and  intersected  by  such 
tunnels.  The  prices  asked  for  these  lands  barely  cover 
the  expense  of  making  out  titles  or  patents.  But  the 
purchaser  may  reap  millions  of  dollars  from  the  land. 
The  20  acres  of  lode  mineral  land  embraced  in  the 
Consolidated  Virginia  and  California  mines  have 
yielded  nearly  $100,000,000.  It  will  be  observed  that 
this  law  does  not  limit  the  number  of  lode  claims 
one  person  may  obtain  title  to,  nor  does  it  require  an 
affidavit  that  a  claim  is  in  good  faith  and  for  himself. 
As  may  be  expected  speculators,  by  using  "  dummy  " 
names  in  profusion,  acquire  large  tracts  of  mineral 
land,  which  they  in  many  cases  dispose  of  at  a  good 
profit  to  foreign  capitalists.  A  law  for  which  no  good 
reasons  have  been  assigned  is  the  act  of  March  3, 
1883,  by  which  all  the  public  lands  in  Alabama  were 
exempted  from  the  operations  of  the  mineral-land 
laws  and  thrown  open  to  purchase  at  public  sale,  in 
unlimited  quantities,  at  $1.25  per  acre.  These  lands 
now  embrace  over  800,000  acres,  and  they  contain 
valuable  minerals,  such  as  iron  and  coal,  and  much 
valuable  timber.  Both  home  and  foreign  capitalists 
have  taken  advantage  of  this  act,  and  have  secured 
large  tracts  of  the  best  land  in  Alabama  at  a  ridicu- 
lously low  price. 

Another  law  that  seems  to  have  been  enacted  for  the 
benefit,  and  possibly  by  the  instigation  of  .speculators 
and  capitalists,  is  the  act  of  June  22,  1876,  by  which  all 
the  public  lands  in  the  States  of  Alabama,  Arkansas, 
Florida,  Louisiana,  and  Mississippi  ^yere  thrown  open 
to  public  sale,  in  unlimited  quantities,  at  $1.25  per 
acre.  All  the  advertised  lands  that  are  not  taken  at 
the  time  of  the  public  sale  may  be  obtained  there- 
after at  private  sale  at  $1.25  per  acre.  The  results 
of  former  public  offerings  of  these  lands  are  such 
that  any  person,  citizen  or  alien,  can  at  this  moment 
buy  1,000,000  or  more  acres  of  timber,  mineral,  and 
agricultural  lands  in  the  States  named.  On  June  30. 
1892,  the  vacant  public  lands  in  these  States  amounted 
to  10,856.783  acres. 

Of  the  total  disposals  of  land  to  June  30,  1892,  482,- 
672,98^.27  acres  have  been  given  as  being  disposed  of 
under  the  laws  requiring  settlement  and 
improvement.     It  is  probable  that  less 
than  one-half  of  this  amount  of  land    NoLimita- 
was     conveyed    to    bona-fide    settlers.        ^jon  Of 
This  estimate  is  justified,  not  only  by  ..  ,  . 

the  abuses  described,  but  by  the  general  UWnersmp. 
failure  of  the  land  laws  to  provide  for 
the  limitation  of  the  amount  of  land  ac- 
quirable  by  any  one  person.     Under  the  settlement 
and  improvement  laws,  as  they  stood  prior  to  March 
3,  1891,  any  person  above  the  age  of  21  years,  whether 
an  actual  or  an  intended  citizen  of  the  United  States, 
could  legally  acquire  1120  acres  of  land,  as  shown  in 
the  appended  table  : 

Under  the  pre-emption  act 160 

Under  the  homestead  act 160 

Under  the  timber-culture  act 160 

Under  the  desert-land  act 640 


Public  Domain. 


1147 


Public  Domain. 


The  Land 
Grants. 


In  addition  to  the  1120  acres  the  individual  citizen, 
or  intended  citizen,  could  purchase  1,000,000  or  more 
acres  in  the  Southern  States,  160  acres  of  timber  land, 
160  acres  of  coal  land,  and  at  least  40  acres  of  mineral 
lands. 

Under  the  laws  as  they  stand  now,  a  citizen  of  the 
United  States  can  legally  acquire  land  as  follows : 

Acres. 

Under  the  homestead  act 160 

Under  the  desert-land  law 320 

Total 480 

One  who  has  declared  his  intention  to  become  a  citi- 
zen can  legally  acquire  320  acres  under  the  desert- 
land  law  ;  and  either  citizen  or  intended  citizen  can 
still  purchase  over  1,000,000  acres,  as  is  shown  in  a  par- 
agraph above. 

An  adult  foreigner,  immediately  upon  landing  in  the 
United  States,  and  declaring  an  intention  to  become 
a  citizen  of  our  country,  can  file  a  claim  for  public 
lands.  The  report  of  the  Public  Land  Commission  of 
the  Forty-sixth  Congress  says  : 

"It  is  not  a  rash  estimate  to  say  that  almost  one- 
third  of  pur  public  lands  now  go  to  persons  who 
are  not  citizens  of  the  United  States,  and,  under  many 
laws,  need  not  be  to  perfect  title." 

When  the  report  was  written  (in  1883),  620,000,000 
acres  of  our  public  lands  had  been  disposed  of. 

The  custom  of  granting  lands  to  the  States  for 
educational  purposes  and  such  internal  improvements 
as  canals,  wagon-roads,  and  railroads,  was  inaugu- 
rated by  Congress  in  1802.  It  has  proved  to  be  a  fertile 
field  for  the  schemes  of  speculators  and  land-grabbers. 
Having  become  impatient  of  the  comparatively  light 
restrictions  and  prices  imposed  by  the 
various  settlement  and  improvement 
laws,  corporations  and  speculators 
have  operated  through  the  State  gov- 
ernments to  secure  grants  or  gifts  of 
land,  ostensibly  for  State  purposes. 
Most  of  the  claims  for  land  presented  by 
the  State  governments  have  been  acceded  to  by  Con- 
gress, and  there  is  reason  for  believing  that  much  of  the 
land  so  obtained  by  the  States  has  been  sold  at  nomi- 
nal prices,  and.  presumably,  to  the  persons  instigating 
the  claims.  All  the  forms  of  granting  land  to  the 
States  are  open  to  suspicion;  but  only  in  regard  to  the 
grants  of  swamp  lands,  grants  for  educational  pur- 
poses, and  for  railroads,  do  the  Government  reports 
furnish  positive  assertions  and  indubitable  facts. 

The    avowed  object  of    granting    all    the    swamp 
lands  within  the  borders  of  the  State  to  the    State 
government,  is  to  secure  their  reclamation  or  drain- 
age for  the  purposes  of  agriculture  and  commerce. 
How  genuine  many  of  the  State  claims  for  lands  of 
this    character  are  may   be  surmised  from  the  fact 
that,  altho  the  total  area  of  the  swamp  lands  in  the 
States  amounted  in  1848,  according  to  the  Commis- 
sioner of  the  General  Land  Office,  to  only  20,785,337.75 
acres,  the  claims  for  swamp  lands  aggregated,  on  June 
30,  18)2,  80,271,541.13  acres.    Up  to  June  30,  1892,  Con- 
gress had  approved  these  claims  to  the  extent  of  59,- 
520,313.49  acres,  and  the  General  Land  Office  had  issued 
patents  for  57,703,549.93  acres.     On  March  2,  1855,  and 
March  3,  1857,  Congress  provided  indemnity,  in  cash 
and  lands,  to  the  States,  for  swamp  and  overflowed 
lands  disposed  of  by  the  United  States 
between    the    date    of  the  first    grant 
The  Swamn  (March  2-  '849).  and  March  3,  1857,  and 
";  *   despite  the  fact  that  the  sales  and  selec- 

IrrantS.  tions  of  such  lands  by  the  United  States 
are  estimated  to  amount  to  only  840,000 
acres,  the  States,  up  to  June  30,  1892, 
have  received  in  land  indemnity  857,108.40  acres  of 
good  agricultural  lands,  and,  in  addition,  a  cash  indem- 
nity of  $1,599,365.26.  The  State  governments  have  fos- 
tered fraud  in  connection  with  these  grants,  by 
appointing  agents  to  select  swamp  lands  and  secure 
the  indemnity,  promising  the  agents  ip,  15,  and  in 
some  cases  as  high  as  50  per  cent,  of  such  indemnity  as 
might  be  recovered  from  Congress.  To  give  an  exam- 
ple of  the  frauds  perpetrated,  it  may  be  stated  that 
while  the  area  of  the  State  of  Florida  is  37,931,520 
acres,  the  swamp  claims  of  that  State  amounted,  in 
1891,  to  20,259,389  acres,  the  selections  embracing  whole 
townships.  The  unscrupulous  persons  who  have 
robbed  the  United  States  Government  by  means  of 
these  grants  reached  the  height  of  their  audacity  a 
year  or  two  ago,  when  they  made  an  effort  to  induce 
Congress  to  allow  indemnity  for  the  lands  sold  by  the 
Government  between  1857  and  the  present  date. 


Prior  to  September  29,  1890,  when  Congress  passed 
a  bill  forfeiting  all  unearned  railroad  grants,  it  was 
estimated  that,   if  the  roads  were  completed  as  re- 
quired by  the  granting  acts,  they  would 
receive  patents  for   155,504,994.59  acres. 
But  up  to  June  30,  1802,  according  to  the  Tlio  Pailrnn/1 
General  Land  Office  reports,  the  roads  ™e  Kailroad 
had  earned  and  received  patents  for  only         Grants. 
56,483,804.37  acres.    Of  this  amount  about 
37,685,731.88  acres  were  granted  to  the 
States  and  were  by  them  distributed  to  corporations  ; 
the  remainder,  18,798,072.49  acres,  being  granted   di- 
rectly to  corporations.    Prior  to  1861  all  grants  for  rail- 
road purposes  were  made  to  the  States. 

The  first  right  of  way  for  a  railroad  was  granted 
to  Florida  in  1835.  The  grant  conceded  30  feet  of  land 
on  each  side  of  the  railroad  line,  and  the  use  of  the 
timber  within  300  feet  on  either  side,  and  10  acres  of 
timber  at  the  terminus.  The  width  of  the  "  right  of 
way  "  steadily  increased  in  subsequent  grants  until, 
in  1850,  the  State  of  Illinois  was  granted  alternate  or 
even-numbered  sections  of  land  for  six  sections,  or  six 
miles,  in  width  on  each  side  of- the  proposed  railroad 
and  its  branches.  The  act  authorizing  thelast-named 
grant  provided  that  the  railroad  company  might 
select  "indemnity  lands"  within  15  miles  of  its  line  for 
such  lands  within  the  original  grant  as  might  be  occu- 
pied by  settlers  at  the  time  of  the  definite  location  of 
the  route.  The  act  also  provided  for  the  forfeiture  of 
the  lands  granted  in  the  case  of  failure  to  construct 
the  road  within  a  specified  time.  The  indemnity  pro- 
vision was  initiated  by  this  act.  The  forfeiture  pro- 
vision was  established  in  1836. 

It  is  estimated  that  the  average  amount  of  land 
granted  for  every  mile  constructed  of  the  land-grant 
railroads  is  15  sections  or  9600  acres,  the  Government 
reserving  the  even-numbered,  and  in  some  cases,  the 
odd-numbered  sections  within  the  limits  of  the  grants 
for  private  cash  entry  at  not  less  than  $2.50  per  acre.  A 
conservative  estimate  places  the  value  of  the  lands 
conveyed  to  the  roads  at  $4  per  acre,  or  $38,400  worth 
of  land  for  every  mile  of  road  constructed.  The  actual 
practical  value,  to  the  roads,  of  these  land  subsidies, 
may  be  seen  by  referring  to  the  reports  regarding  the 
cost  of  the  Pacific  railroads.  The  subsidized  railroads 
have  also  been  allowed  to  use  the  timber  on  the  public 
lands  to  aid  in  the  construction  of  the  roads. 

The  reports  of  railroad  construction  show  that 
18,071  miles  have  been  constructed  under  the  land- 
grant  system,  and  that  over  100,000  miles  have  been 
built  without  the  aid  of  Congressional  subsidies. 
Many  of  the  latter  have  been  constructed  through  un- 
developed country,  while  many  of  the  former  were 
not  built  until  the  settlements"  outside  the  railroad 
limits  had  grown  sufficiently  to  make  construction 
profitable  without  the  public  subsidies;  the  extensions 
of  time  granted  the  roads  having  made  the  delay  in 
construction  possible. 

As  a  rule,  none  of  the  roads  could  legally  claim 
lands  until  the  line  of  a  road  was  definitely  located,  all 
the  land  along  a  proposed  line  remaining  subject  to 
settlement  and  entry  until  the  time  of  definite  loca- 
tion. But  the  General  Land  Office  has,  according  to 
ex-Commissioner  Sparks  and  others,  from  time  to 
time  illegally  withdrawn  from  settlement  and  entry 
lands  within  the  granted  limits,  and  even  within  the 
indemnity  limits,  and  have  generally  denied  the  legal 
rights  of  settlers  on  the  illegally  withdrawn  lands. 
Failing  to  have  their  rights  recognized  by  the  General 
Land  Office,  the  settlers  have  been  obliged  to  pur- 
chase from  the  railroad  companies  waivers  or  re- 
linquishments  of  the  lands  occupied.  But  where  a 
settler's  entry  on  withdrawn  lands  has  been  per- 
mitted by  the  General  Land  Office,  and  a  subsequent 
decision  has  declared  the  railroad  claim  to  be  superior 
in  point  of  time,  the  companies  have,  under  the  act  of 
June  22,  1874,  reaped  a  double  profit.  They  sell  a  re- 
linquishment  to  the  settler,  and  then  select  lieu  land 
for  the  land  relinquished  ;  the  lieu  land  generally  be- 
ing selected  from  the  most  valuable  localities  in  the 
reserved  Government  sections.  This  act  of  June  22, 
1874,  was  restricted  to  lands  within  granted  limits, 
but  it  has  also  been  applied  to  lands  taken  by  settlers 
within  indemnity  limits,  thus  giving  the  company 
extra  indemnity  or  three  profits.  These  illegal  with- 
drawals have  given  the  companies  the  power  to 
appropriate  valuable  timber  and  coal,  to  dominate 
town  sites  and  monopolize  water  privileges. 

The  railroad  companies  have  avoided  the  payment 
of  State  and  county  taxes  on  their  lands  by  failing  to 
take  out  patents  until  they  had  secured  purchasers  for 
the  lands.  They  have  held  that  for  all  purposes  save 
taxation,  the  lands  are  railroad  lands  ;  when  taxes  are 


Public  Domain. 


1148 


Pullman. 


ofthe 

Waste 


called  for  the  lands  are  represented  to  be  Govern- 
ment property,  and  they  are  legally  such  until  patents 
are  issued. 

In  a  table  in  the  first  portion  of  this  article, 
784,647,308.77  acres  were  given  as  the  total 
amount  of  public  land  disposed  of  to  June  30, 
1892.  Of  this  amount,  it  may  be  estimated 
safely  that  not  less  than  350,000,- 
n«  «»  ooo  acres  were  conveyed,  by  means 

of  the  evasions  of  the  land  laws 
and  ^e  Abuses  °f  the  land-grant 
system,  into  the  hands  of  specu- 
lators and  corporations.  These 
350,000,000  acres  —  enough  to  give  every  man, 
woman,  and  child  of  our  present  population 
five  acres,  or  sufficient  land  to  support  life  with 
comfort  —  were  held,  as  a  rule,  until  land  values 
had  greatly  increased  and  then  either  sold  to 
settlers  or  transferred  to  persons  who  made  a 
business  of  renting  them  to  settlers.  The 
prices  asked  for  the  lands  were,  in  many  cases, 
beyond  the  immediate  means  of  intending 
settlers,  and,  as  a  conseqence,  tenant-farming 
and  the  system  of  borrowing  purchase  money 
on  mortgages  began.  All  the  baneful  conse- 
quences of  the  profligate  disposition  of  our 
public  lands  will  never  be  revealed.  (See 
MORTGAGES.)  WILLIAM  H.  KETLER. 

PULLMAN  is  the  name  of  the  town  in  Illi- 
nois, owned,  built  up,  and  ruled  by  the  Pullman 
Palace  Car  Company  for  its  employees. 

In  1880  the  company  bought  500  acres  of 
land,  and  upon  300  acres  of  it  built  its  plant, 
and  also  a  hotel,  arcade,  churches,  athletic 
grounds,  and  brick  tenements  suitable  for  the 
use  of  its  employees.  The  town  is  well  laid 
out,  and  has  a  complete  sewerage  and  water 
system.  It  is  beautified  by  well-kept  open 
spaces  and  stretches,  flower-beds,  and  lakes. 
The  whole  is  at  all  times  kept  in  neat  order 
by  the  company.  The  main  object  was  the 
establishment  of  a  great  manufacturing  busi- 
ness upon  a  substantial  and  money-making 
basis.  Efficient  workmen  were  regarded  as 
essential  to  its  success,  and  it  was  believed 
that  they  could  be  secured,  held  in  content- 
ment, and  improved  as  much  for  their  own 
sakes  as  for  the  benefit  of  the  company  by 
the  accommodations  and  surroundings  that 
were  provided. 

The  principal  church  and  its  parsonage  are 
very  attractive  structures,  but  often  are  not 
occupied,  because  the  rental  required  to  be 
paid  is  higher  than  any  church  society  is  will- 
ing to  pay  to  obtain  the  gospel  privileges  to 
be  thereby  secured.  In  the  arcade  is  a  taste- 
ful library  of  books,  carefully  selected  and 
cared  for  by  the  company.  Three  dollars  per 
year  is  charged  for  its  use,  and  only  some  250 
persons  a  year,  out  of  from  4000  to  5000  em- 
ployees and  residents,  have,  as  stated  by  the 
librarian  in  charge,  availed  themselves  of  its 
opportunities.  Says  the  report  of  the  commis- 
sioners appointed  by  the  President  in  1894 
to  investigate  the  Pullman  strike  (q.  v.)  : 

"  It  is  possible  that  the  air  of  business  strictly  main- 
tained there,  as  elsewhere,  and  their  exclusion  from 
any  part  in  its  management,  prevent  more  universal 
and  grateful  acceptance  of  its  advantages  by  em- 
ployees. Men,  as  a  rule,  even  when  employees,  prefer 
independence  to  paternalism  in  iuch  matters. 


'  The  company  provides  and  pays  a  physician  and 
surgeon  by  the  year  to  furnish  to  injured  employees 
necessary  treatment  and  drugs.  It  is,  however,  also  a 
part  of  his  employment  to  secure  from  the  injured 
party  a  written  statement  as  to  the  causes  of  injury, 
and  it  is  his  custom  to  urge  the  acceptance  of  any 
offered  settlement.  If  suit  follows,  the  doctor  is  usu- 
ally a  witness  for  the  company.  We  have  no  evidence 
that  the  doctor  has  ever  abused  his  confidential  rela- 
tion toward  the  injured  employees  ;  but  the  system  is 
admirably  conceived  from  a  business  standpoint  to 
secure  speedy  settlement  of  claims  for  damages  upon 
terms  offered  by  the  company,  and  to  protect  the  com- 
pany from  litigation  and  its  results. . 

"  Prior  to  June,  1893,  all  went  well  and  as  designed  : 
the  corporation  was  very  prosperous,  paid  ample  and 
satisfactory  wages,  as  a  rule,  and  charged  rents  which 
caused  no  complaint.  During  this  period  those  defects 
in  the  system  which  have  recently  come  to  the  surface 
and  intensified  differences,  such,  for  instance,  as  the 
refusal  to  permit  the  employees  to  buy  land  in  Pull- 
man and  build  homes  there,  caused  no  disturbance.  .  .  . 

"  If  we  exclude  the  esthetic  and  sanitary  features  at 
Pullman,  the  rents  there  are  from  20  to  25  per  cent, 
higher  than  rents  in  Chicago  or  surrounding  towns  for 
similar  accommodations.  The  esthetic  features  are 
admired  by  visitors,  but  have  little  money  value  to 
employees,  especially  when  they  lack  bread.  The 
company  aims  to  secure  6  per  cent,  upon  the  cost  of  its 
tenements,  which  cost  includes  a  proportionate  share 
for  paving,  sewerage,  water,  parks,  etc.  It  claims 
now  to  receive  less  than  4  per  cent.  It  has  some  brick- 
makers'  cottages  upon  which,  at  $8  per  month,  it  must 
obtain  at  least  40  per  cent,  return  upon  their  value. 
These  are,  however,  exceptional.  The  company  makes 
all  repairs,  and  heretofore  has  not  compelled  tenants 
to  pay  for  them.  Under  the  printed  leases,  however, 
which  tenants  must  sign,  they  agree  to  pay  for  all  re- 
pairs which  are  either  necessary  (ordinary  -wear  and 
damages  by  the  elements  not  excepted)  or  which  the 
company  chooses  to  make. 

"The  company's  claim  that  the  workmen  need  not 
hire  its  tenements,  and  can  live  elsewhere  if  they 
choose,  is  not  entirely  tenable.  The  fear  of  losing 
work  keeps  them  in  Pullman  as  long  as  there  are 
tenements  unoccupied,  because  the  company  is  sup- 
posed, as  a  matter  of  business,  to  give  a  preference  to 
its  tenants  when  work  is  slack.  The  employees, 
believing  that  a  tenant  at  Pullman  has  this  advantage, 
naturally  feel  some  compulsion  to  rent  at  Pullman,  and 
thus  to  stand  well  with  the  management.  Exceptional 
and  necessary  expert  workmen  do  not  share  this  feeling 
to  the  same  extent  and  so  can  own  homes  else  where. 

"  Prior  to  the  so-called  '  truck  '  law  in  Illinois,  rent 
was  deducted  from  the  wages.  Since  then  a  check  is 

fiven  for  the  amount  of  the  rent  and  another  for  the 
alance  due  for  wages.  There  is  nothing  to  prevent 
the  payee  of  the  check  from  cashing  it  outside  of  the 
bank,  but  as  the  bank  is  rent  collector,  it  presses  for 
the  rent,  and  is  aided  in  collecting  it  by  knowledge  on 
the  part  of  the  tenant  that  by  arrears  he  may  lose  his 
job.  At  the  time  of  the  strike  about  $70,000  of  unpaid 
rents  had  accumulated.  It  is  fair  to  say  that  this 
accumulation  of  unpaid  rent  was  due  to  leniency 
on  the  part  of  the  company  toward  those  who  could 
not  pay  the  rent  and  support  their  families." 

The  statements  thus  far  are  from  the  report 
of  the  Commission.  For  the  authorities  for 
its  statements,  see  the  report.  Mr.  Pull- 
man said  in  his  own  statement  before  the 
Commission : 

"The  object  in  building  Pullman  was  the  establish- 
ment of  a  great  manufacturing  business  on  the  most 
substantial  basis  possible,  recognizing  as  we  did,  and 
do  now,  that  the  working  people  are  the  most  impor- 
tant element  which  enters  into  the  successful  opera- 
tion of  any  manufacturing  enterprise. 

"We  decided  to  build,  in  close  proximity  to  the 
shops,  homes  for  working  men,  of  such  character  and 
surroundings  as  would  prove  so  attractive  as  to  cause 
the  best  class  of  mechanics  to  seek  that  place  for  em- 
ployment in  preference  to  others.  We  also  desired  to 
establish  the  place  on  such  a  basis  as  would  exclude 
all  baneful  influences,  believing  that  such  a  policy 
would  result  in  the  greatest  measure  of  success,  both 
from  a  commercial  point  of  view,  and  also,  what  was 
equally  important,  or  perhaps  of  greater  importance, 
in  a  tendency  toward  continued  elevation  and  im- 
provement of  the  condition  not  only  of  the  working 
people  themselves,  but  of  their  children  growing  xip 
about  them. 


Pullman. 


Pullman  Strike. 


"  It  was  not  the  intention  to  sell  workmen  homes  in 
Pullman,  but  to  so  limit  the  area  of  the  town  that  they 
•could  buy  homes,  at  convenient  distances  from  the 
works,  if  they  chose  to  do  so.  If  any  lots  had  been 
sold  in  Pullman,  it  would  have  permitted  the  intro- 
duction of  the  very  baneful  elements  which  it  was  the 
chief  purpose  to  exclude  from  the  immediate  neigh- 
borhood of  the  shops  and  from  the  homes  to  be  erected 
about  them. 

"The  plan  was  to  provide  homes  in  the  first  place 
for  all  people  who  should  desire  to  work  in  the  shops, 
at  reasonable  rentals,  with  the  expectation  that  as 
they  became  able,  and  should  desire  to  do  so,  they 
would  purchase  lots  and  erect  homes  for  themselves 
within  convenient  distances,  or  avail  themselves  of  the 
opportunity  to  rent  homes  from  other  people  who 
should  build  in  that  vicinity.  Asa  matter  of  fact,  at 
the  time  of  the  strike,  563  of  the  shop  employees  owned 
their  homes,  and  461  of  that  number  are  now  employed 
in  the  shops,  560  others  at  the  time  of  the  strike  lived 
outside,  and  in  addition,  an  estimated  number  of  from 
200  to  300  others  employed  at  Pullman  were  owners  of 
their  homes.  The  company  neither  planned  nor  could 
it  exercise  any  municipal  powers  in  Pullman." 

Mr.  Stead  in  his  If  Christ  Came  to  Chi- 
cago, writes  of  Pullman  : 

"Pullman  is  a  great  achievement,  of  which  not  only 
Chicago  but  America  does  well  to  be  proud. 

"  It  was  not  a  philanthropic,  but  a  business  experi- 
ment, and  none  the  worse  on  that  account.  The  great 
principle  of  quid  pro  quo  was  carried  out  with  un- 
deviating  regularity.  If  every  resident  of  Pullman 
had  gas  laid  to  his  house,  he  was  compelled  to  pay  for 
it  at  the  rate  of  $2.25  a  thousand  feet,  although  the 
cost  of  its  manufacture  to  the  Pullman  Company  was 
only  33  cents  a  thousand  feet.  Ample  water  supply 
was  given,  with  good  pressure,  but  of  this  necessary 
of  life  the  Pullman  Company  was  able  to  extract  a 
handsome  profit.  The  city  of  Chicago  supplied  the 
corporation  with  water  at  four  cents  a  thousand  gal- 
lons, which  was  retailed  to  the  Pullmanites  at  10  cents 
per  thousand,  making  a  profit  large  enough  to  enable 
the  corporation  to  have  all  the  water  it  wanted  for  its 
works  for  nothing.  Thus  did  the  business  instinct  of 
Mr.  Pullman  enable  his  right  hand  to  wash  his  left, 
and  thereby  created  at  the  very  threshold  of  Chicago 
are  object  lessons  as  to  the  commercial  profits  of 
municipal  socialism.  But  between  municipal  social- 
ism, representing  the  cooperative  effort  of  a  whole 
community  voluntarily  combining  for  the  purpose  of 
making  the  most  of  all  monopolies  of  service,  and  the 
autocratic  exploiting  of  a  whole  population  of  a  city, 
such  as  is  to  be  found  in  Pullman,  there  is  a  wide  gulf 
fixed. 

"  As  a  resident  in  the  model  town  wrote  me,  Pull- 
man was  all  very  well  as  an  employer,  but  to  live  and 
breathe  and  have  one's  being  in  Pullman,  is  a  little  bit 
too  much.  The  residents  in  the  city,  he  continued, 
'  paid  rent  to  the  Pullman  Company,  they  bought  gas 
of  the  Pullman  Company,  they  walked  on  streets 
owned  in  fee  simple  by  the  Pullman  Company,  they 
paid  water-tax  to  the  Pullman  Company.  Indeed, 
even  when  they  bought  gingham  for  their  wives  or 
sugar  for  their  tables  at  the  arcade  or  the  market- 
house,  it  seemed  dealing  with  the  Pullman  Company. 
They  sent  their  children  to  Pullman's  school,  attended 
Pullman's  church,  looked  at  but  dared  not  enter  Pull- 
man's hotel  with  its  private  bar,  for  that  was  the 
limit.  Pullman  did  not  sell  them  their  grog.  They 
had  to  go  to  the  settlement  at  the  railroad  crossing 
south  of  them,  to  Kensington,  called,  because  of  its 
long  row  of  saloons,  'bumtown,'  and  given  over  to 
disorder.  There  the  moral  and  spiritual  disorder  of 
Pullman  was  emptied,  even  as  the  physical  sewage 
flowed  out  on  the  Pullman  farm,  a  few  miles  further 
south,  for  the  Pullman  Company  also  owned  the  sew- 
erage system,  and  turned  the  waste  into  a  fluid,  forced 
through  pipes  and  conducted  underground  to  enrich 
the  soil  of  a  large  farm.  The  lives  of  the  working  men 
were  bounded  on  all  sides  by  the  Pullman  Company  ; 
Pullman  was  the  horizon  in  every  direction.' 

"All  this  provoked  reaction,  and  a  feeling  of  resent- 
ment sprang  up  in  the  model  city  against  the  too 
paternal  despotism  of  the  city-builder,  and  so  it  came 
to  pass  that  the  citizens  by  a  vote  annexed  themselves 
to  Chicago,  of  which  it  is  now  part  and  parcel.  This 
was  a  sore  blow  and  a  great  discouragement  to  Mr. 
Pullman.  But  no  annexation  can  destroy  his  control 
over  the  town.  It  is  still  the  property  of  the  cor- 
poration of  which  he  is  the  chief  and  controlling 
mind." 


PULLMAN  STRIKE,  THE.— This  strike, 
sometimes  also  called  the  Chicago  strike  be- 
cause, tho  it  began  in  Pullman,  it  extended 
very  widely  and  centered  mainly  in  Chicago, 
is  declared  by  Mr.  Carroll  D.  Wright  (Indus- 
trial Evolution  of  the  United  States,  p.  313) 
to  be  "  probably  the  most  expensive  and  far- 
reaching  labor  controversy  which  can  properly 
be  classed  among  the  historic  controversies  of 
this  generation." 

Our  account  of  the  strike  is  based  upon  the 
findings  of  the  report  of  the  Commission  ap- 
pointed by  the  President  July  26,  1894,  to 
investigate  the  strike. 

It  began  May  n,  1894,  and  grew  out  of  a 
demand  of  certain  employees  of  the  Pullman 
Company  for  a  restoration  of  the 
wages   paid   during  the  previous 
year.     During  1893  the  wages  of      Cause  of 
the  employees  had  been  consider-       Strike, 
ably  reduced.      How  much  is  a 
matter  of  dispute.     According  to 
the  statement  before  the  Commission  of  Mr. 
T.  H.  Wickes,  the  second  vice-president  of  the 
company : 

"The  average  reduction  of  wages  between  April, 
1893,  and  April,  1894,  for  journeymen  mechanics  was 
22T%  per  cent.,  and  the  average  reduction  for  all 
other  shop  employes,  excluding  all  the  superintend- 
ents, foremen,  and  shop  office  force,  was  n^J  per  cent. 
The  average  reduction  for  all  shop  employees,  exclud- 
ing all  the  superintendents,  foremen,  and  shop-office 
force,  was  19  per  cent." 

According  to  the  finding  of  the  Commission 
the  cut  in  wages  averaged  25  per  cent,  on 
an  average  pay  for  the  year  ending  July  i, 
1893,  of  $613.86  for  4497  employees.  At  the 
Company's  figures  the  reduction  was  a  very 
serious  one.  Says  the  report:  "Some  wit- 
nesses swear  that  at  times  for  the  work  done 
in  two  weeks  the  employees  received  in  checks 
from  four  cents  to  one  dollar  over  and  above 
their  rent.  The  company  has  not  produced 
its  checks  in  rebuttal." 

The  cause  for  the  cut  down  assigned  by  the 
company  was  the  depressed  state  of  business. 
Said  Mr.  Wickes  before  the  Commission  : 

"  From  August  i,  1893,  to  May  i,  1894,  our  net  loss  on 
accepted  bids  was  $52,069.03,  and  the  net  estimated  loss 
on  unaccepted  bids  was  $18,303.56.  We  had  tried  to  get 
work  for  our  employees  by  bidding  for  work  the  es- 
timated shop  cost  of  which  was  $2,^75,481.81,  and  we 
only  got  contracts  for  work  the  estimated  shop  cost 
of  which  is  $1,421,205.75.  We  had  been  underbid  on 
work  the  estimated  shop  cost  of  which  was  $1,354,- 
276.06,  notwithstanding  that  our  bids  on  $1,057,355.97  of 
that  amount  not  only  excluded  all  profit,  but  showed 
a  loss,  based  as  they  were  on  the  reduced  scale  of 
wages." 

Says  the  Commission's  report : 

"  Some  reduction  of  wages  in  all  departments  was 
of  course  proper  under  the  circumstances,  but  a  uni- 
form reduction  as  between  departments  so  differently 
situated  in  reference  to  revenue  as  the  car-building 
and  repair  departments  was  not  relatively  just  and 
fair  toward  the  repair-shop  employees.  .  .  . 

"  During  all  of  this  reduction  and  its  attendant  suffer- 
ing none  of  the  salaries  of  the  officers,  managers,  or 
superintendents  were  reduced.  Reductions  in  these 
would  not  have  been  so  severely  felt,  would  have 
shown  good  faith,  would  have  relieved  the  harshness 
of  the  situation,  and  would  have  evinced  genuine 
sympathy  with  labor  in  the  disasters  of  the  times.  .  .  . 
While  reducing  wages  the  company  made  no  reduc- 
tion in  rents.  Its  position  is  that  the  two  matters  are 
distinct,  and  that  none  of  the  reasons  urged  as  i  ustif  y- 
ing  wage  reduction  by  it  as  an  employer  can  be  con- 
sidered by  the  company  as  a  landlord. 

"  The  company  claims  that  it  is  simply  legitimate 


Pullman  Strike. 


1150 


Pullman  Strike. 


business  to  use  its  position  and  resources  to  hire  in  the 
labor  market  as  cheaply  as  possible,  and  at  the  same 
time  to  keep  rents  up  regardless  of  what  wages  are 
paid  to  its  tenants  or  what  similar  tenements  rent  for 
elsewhere  ;  to  avail  itself  to  the  full  extent  of  business 
depression  and  competition  in  reducing  wages  and  to 
disregard  these  same  conditions  as  to  rents.  No  valid 
reason  is  assigned  for  this  position  except  simply 
that  the  company  had  the  power  and  the  legal  right 
to  do  it." 

The  company,  as  a  whole,  was  prosperous. 
The  Commission's  report  says  the  corporation 
was 

"organized  in  1867,  with  a  capital  of  $1,000,000.  It  has 
grown  until  its  present  paid-up  capital  is  $36,000,000. 
Its  prosperity  has  enabled  the  company  for  over 
twenty  years  to  pay  2  per  cent,  quarterly  dividends, 
and,  in  addition,  to  lay  up  a  surplus  of  nearly  $25,000,- 
ooo  of  undivided  profits.  From  1867  to  1871  dividends 
ranging  from  9^  to  12  per  cent,  per  annum  were  paid. 
For  the  year  ending  July  31,  1833,  the  dividends  were 
$2,520,000,  and  the  wages  $7,223,719.51.  For  the  year 
ending  July  31,  1894,  the  dividends  were  $2,880,000,  and 
the  wages  $4,471,701.39." 

The  reply  of  the  company  is  that  it  did  allow 
rents  to  accumulate  in  arrears,  and  that  as  to 
the  business  depression  and  loss  it  did  bear 
"its  full  share  by  eliminating  from  its  estimates  the 
use  of  capital  and  machinery,  and  in  many  cases  going 
even  below  that  and  taking  work  at  considerable  loss, 
notably  the  55  Long  Island  cars,  which  was  the  first 
large  order  of  passenger  cars  let  since  the  great  de- 
pression, and  which  was  sought  for  by  practically  all 
the  leading  car-builders  in  the  country  "  (Statement 
of  Mr.  Pullman,  Chicago  Herald^  June  26,  1894). 

Of  the  development  of  the  strike  the  Com- 
mission's report  says  : 

"The  reductions  at  Pullman  after  September,  1893, 
were  the  result  of  conferences  among  the  managers; 
the  employees  for  the  first  time  knew  of  them  when 
they  took  effect.  No  explanations  or  conferences  took 
place  until  May  7  and  9  m  regard  thereto  between  the 
employees  and  the  officers  of  the  company.  For  the 
reasons  stated  the  employees  at  Pullman  were  during 
the  winter  in  a  state  of  chronic  discontent.  Upon 
May  7  and  9  a  committee  of  forty-six  from  all  the  de- 
partments waited  upon  the  management  and  urged 
the  restoration  of  wages  to  the  basis  of  June,  1893. 
The  company  refused  this,  and  offered  no  concession 
as  to  wages  whatever,  maintaining  and  explaining 
that  business  conditions  did  not  justify  any  change. 
The  company  based  its  entire  contention  as  to  every 
department  upon  the  facts  in  reference  to  car-build- 
ing to  which  we  have  alluded,  and  offered  to  show  its 
books  and  figures  as  to  the  cost  and  selling  prices  of 
cars.  This  offer,  on  account  of  the  strike  intervening, 
was  not  acted  upon.  .  .  .  The  purpose  of  the  manage- 
ment was  obviously  to  rest  the  whole  matter  upon 
cost,  etc.,  in  its  most  seriously  crippled  department, 
excluding  from  consideration  the  facts  as  to  wages  in 
the  repair  department  to  which  we  have  alluded. 

"The  demand  of  the  employees  for  the  wages  of 
Tune,  18)3,  was  clearly  unjustifiable.  The  business  of 
May,  1894,  could  not  pay  the  wages  of  June,  1893.  Re- 
duction was  carried  to  excess,  but  the  company  was 
hardly  more  at  fault  therein  than  were  the  employees 
in  insisting  upon  the  wages  of  June,  1893.  There  was 
little  discussion  as  to  rents  ;  the  company  maintaining 
that  its  rents  had  nothing  to  do  with  its  wages,  and 
that  its  revenue  from  its  tenements  was  no  greater 
than  it  ought  to  receive.  .  .  . 

"The  company  had  a  legal  right  to  take  this  posi- 
tion, but  as  between  man  and  man  the  demand  for 
some  rent  reduction  was  fair  and  reasonable  under 
all  the  circumstances.  Some  slight  concession  in  this 
regard  would  probably  have  averted  the  strike,  pro- 
vided the  promise  not  to  discharge  men  who  served 
upon  the  cotntnittee  had  been  more  strictly  regarded. 

"The  next  day,  May  10,  three  of  the  committee  were 
laid  off  by  foremen  for  alleged  lack  of  work,  not  an 
unusual  proceeding.  Those  who  made  the  promise 
had  nothing  to  do  with  this  action,  and  deny  knowl- 
edge of  it  at  the  time.  The  foremen  who  did  it  are 
suspected  by  the  employees  of  concluding  that  some 
laying  off  of  committeemen  just  at  that  crisis  would 
have  a  good^effect,  and  would  accord  with  the  policy 
and  general  views  of  the  company.  The  foremen, 
however,  deny  this.  This  incident  was  inopportune 
and  unfortunate,  to  say  the  least,  and  ought  to  have 


been  more  carefully  guarded  against  by  the  company. 
An  explanation  of  this  occurrence  was  not  asked  for 
by  the  employees,  as  it  ought  to  have  been,  before 
striking. 

"On  the  evening  of  May  10,  the  local  unions  met  and 
voted  to  strike  at  once.    The  strike  occurred  on  May 
ii,  and  from  that  time  until  the  soldiers 
went  to  Pullman,  about  July  4,  three 
hundred  strikers  were  placed  about  the    m,     Qf  ., 
company's     property,    professedly    to    lae  &"1K6. 
guard  it  from  destruction  or  interfer- 
ence.   This    guarding   of   property    in 
strikes  is,  as   a    rule,   a    mere  pretense.    Too  often 
the  real  object  of  guards  is  to  prevent  newcomers  from 
taking  strikers'  places  by  persuasion,  often  to  be  fol- 
lowed, if  ineffectual,   by   intimidation  and  violence. 
The  Pullman  Company  claims  this  was  the  real  object 
of  these  guards.     The  strikers  at  Pullman  are  entitled 
to  be  believed  to  the  contrary  in  this  matter,  because 
of  their  conduct  and  forbearance  after  May  n.     It  is 
in  evidence,  and  uncontradicted,  that  no  violence  or 
destruction  of  property  by  strikers  or  sympathizers 
took  place  at  Pullman,  and  that  until  July  3  no  extraor- 
dinary protection   was  had   from  the  police  or  mili- 
tary against  even  anticipated  disorder. 

"  Such  dignified,  manly,  and  conservative  conduct 
in  the  midst  of  excitement  and  threatened  starvation, 
is  worthy  of  the  highest  type  of  American  citizenship, 
and,  with  like  prudence  m  all  other  directions,  will 
result  in  due  time  in  the  lawful  and  orderly  redress  of 
labor  wrongs.  To  deny  this  is  to  forswear  patriotism 
and  to  declare  this  Government  and  its  people  a 
failure. 

"  As  soon  as  the  strike  was  declared  the  company  laid 
off  its  600  employees  who  did  not  join  the  strike,  and 
kept  its  shops  closed  until  August  2.  During  this  period 
the  Civic  Federation  of  Chicago,  composed  of  eminent 
citizens  in  all  kinds  of  business  and  from  all  grades 
of  respectable  society,  called  upon  the  company  twice 
to  urge  conciliation  and  arbitration.  The  company 
reiterated  the  statement  of  its  position  and  maintained 
that  there  was  nothing  to  arbitrate  ;  that  the  questions 
at  issue  were  matters  of  fact  and  not  proper  subjects, 
of  arbitration.  The  Civic  Federation  suggested  that 
competition  should  be  regarded  in  rents  as  well  as  in 
wages.  The  company  denied  this.  Wages  and  rents. 
were  to  it  separate  matters;  the  principles  applicable 
to  one  had  no  relation  to  the  other.  Later  it  gave  the 
same  answer  to  a  committee  of  its  employees.  Upon 
June  15  and  22  it  declined  to  receive  any  communica- 
tion from  committees  of  the  American  Railway  Union  ; 
one  proposition  of  that  body  being  that  the  company 
select  two  arbitrators,  the  court  two,  and  these  four  a 
fifth,  to  determine  whether  there  was  anything  to 
arbitrate.  The  company  also  refused  to  consider  any 
arbitration  at  the  solicitation  of  the  common  council 
of  Chicago,  and  repeated  its  stereotyped  answer  that 
there  was  nothing  to  arbitrate  when  appealed  to  by 
Mayor  Pingree  of  Detroit,  himself  a  large  manufac- 
turer, whom  Mayor  Hopkins  accompanied  to  Pullman. 
At  that  interview  Mayor  Pingree  claimed  to  have  tele- 
grams from  the  mayors  of  over  fifty  'of  the  largest 
cities,  urging  that  there  should  be  arbitration." 

This  leads  us,  however,  to  consider  the  rela- 
tion of  the  strikers  at  Pullman  to  the  American 
Railway  Union  and  the  general  railway  strike 
that  resulted. 

THE   AMERICAN   RAILWAY   UNION   (g .  V.). 

This  is  an  association  of  railroad  employees, 
organized  at  Chicago  on  the  2oth  of  June, 
1893,  for  the  purpose  of  including  all  railway 
employees  born  of  white  parents  in  one  great 
brotherhood.  Under  the  leadership  of  Mr. 
Eugene  V.  Debs  it -had  grown  very  strong, 
particularly  by  winning  a  strike  on  the  Great 
Northern.  In  March,  1894,  the  Pullman  em- 
ployees voted  to  join  the  American  Railway 
Union.  The  Commission  report  says  this  was 
not  wise,  but  adds  : 

"  It  is  undoubtedly  true  that  the  officers  and  direct- 
ors of  the  American  Railway  Union  did  not  want  a 
strike  at  Pullman,  and  that  they  advised  against  it, 
but  the  exaggerated  idea  of  the  power  of  the  union, 
which  induced  the  workmen  at  Pullman  to  join  the 
order,  led  to  their  striking  against  this  advice.  Hav- 
ing struck,  the  union  could  do  nothing  less,  upon  the 
theory  at  its  base,  than  support  them." 


Pullman  Strike. 


Pullman  Strike- 


There  was,  however,  to  say  the  least,  some 
excuse  for  the  A.  R.  U.  to  secure  the  Pullman 
men.  The  railways  around  Chicago  were 
banded  together.  Wages  were  being  syste- 
matically reduced.  If  all  railroad  employers 
were  to  band  together,  it  seemed  necessary  for 
all  railway  employees  to  band  together.  To 
the  Pullman  employees,  to  join  the  A.  R.  U. 
seemed  their  one  chance  of  victory.  Alone 
they  were  helpless  and  hopeless.  Wages  were 
being  steadily  reduced,  below  the  level  of  ex- 
istence. Those  who  criticise  the  general 
strike  must  remember  that  it  was  a  battle  for 
life,  and  the  one  hope  of  success.  A  mere 
local  strike  was  absolutely  without  hope,  and 
therefore  more  foolish  than  a  general  strike. 
The  General  Managers'  Association,  repre- 
senting 24  roads  centering  or  terminating  in 
Chicago,  was  organized  in  1886,  long  before 
the  American  Railway  Union. 

Beginning  its  "active  life"  in  1886,  its 
main  business  was  to  determine  a  common 
policy  toward  the  public  as  to  freight  rates, 
etc.,  but  it  dealt  incidentally  with  wages. 

Strengthened  thus  by  mutual  aid,  various 
roads  made  reductions  of  wages  here  and 
there. 

Of  this  association  the  Commission  says  : 

"The  association  is  an  illustration  of  the  persistent 
and  shrewdly  devised  plans  of  corporations  to  over- 
reach their  limitations  and  to  usurp  indirectly  pow- 
ers and  rights  not  contemplated  in  their  charters  and 
not  obtainable  from  the  people  or  their  legislators. 
An  extension  of  this  association,  as  above  suggested, 
and  the  proposed  legalization  of  'pooling'  would 
result  in  an  aggregation  of  power  and  capital  dan- 
gerous to  the  people  and  their  liberties  as  well  as  to 
employees  and  their  rights.  The  question  would 
then  certainly  arise  as  to  which  shall  control,  the 
Government  or  the  railroads,  and  the  end  would  in- 
evitably be  Government  ownership.  Unless  ready  for 
that  result  and  all  that  it  implies,  the  Government 
must  restrain  corporations  within  the  law,  and  pre- 
vent them  from  forming  unlawful  and  dangerous 
combinations.  At  least,  so  long  as  railroads  are  thus 
permitted  to  combine  to  fix  wages  and  for  their  joint 
protection,  it  would  be  rank  injustice  to  deny  the 
right  of  all  labor  upon  railroads  to  unite  for  similar 
purposes. 

"  It  should  be  noted  that  until  the  railroads  set  the 
example  a  general  union  of  railroad  employees  was 
never  attempted.  The  unions  had  not  gone  be- 
yond enlisting  the  men  upon  different  systems  in 
separate  trade  organizations.  These  neutralize  and 
check  each  other  to  some  extent  and  have  no  such 
scope  or  capacity  for  good  or  evil  as  is  possible 
under  the  universal  combination  idea  inaugurated  by 
the  railroads  and  followed  by  the  American  Railway 
Union.  The  refusal  of  the  General  Managers'  Asso- 
ciation to  recognize  and  deal  with  such  a  combination 
of  labor  as  the  American  Railway  Union  seems  arro- 
gant and  absurd  when  we  consider  its  standing  before 
the  law,  its  assumptions,  and  its  past  and  obviously 
contemplated  future  action." 

Thus,  to  say  the  least,  there  was  some  ex- 
cuse for  the  railroad  employees  of  the  country 
banding  together.  It  was  not  a  question  of 
Pullman  alone.  The  strike  affected  the  inter- 
ests of  every  railroad  man  in  the  country. 
Without  the  general  resistance  they  made, 
wages  everywhere,  under  the  depressed  con- 
dition of  business,  would  have  been  lowered 
much  more  than  they  were. 

"Until  June,  1804,  the  association  dealt  incidentally 
and  infrequently  with  wages.  There  were  few  rail- 
road controversies  as  to  wages  during  its  active  .life, 
dating  from  January  20,  1892.  Hence  its  possibil- 
ities as  a  strike  fighter  and  wage  arbiter  lay  rather 
dormant.  The  following  are  instances  of  its  action 
as  to  wage  questions.  Its  roads  fixed  a  '  Chicago 


scale'  for  switchmen,  covering  all  lines  at  Chicago. 
In  March,  1893,  the  switchmen  demanded  more  pay 
from  each  road.  The  association  concluded  that  they 
were  paid  enough— if  anything,  too  much.  The  roads- 
so  informed  the  men.  The  Switchmen's  Mutual  Aid 
Association  of  North  America  wrote  to  Mr.  St.  John,, 
as  chairman,  acquiescing.  He,  as  chairman  of  the 
General  Managers'  Association,  concluded  his  reply 
as  follows: 

"'The  association  approves  the  course  taken  by 
your  body  and  desires  to  deal  fairly  with  all  em- 
ployees, and  believes  that  our  switchmen  are  receiving 
due  consideration.' 

"  This  seems  to  show  that  employees  upon  associa- 
tion roads  are  treated  as  under  subjection  to  the 
General  Managers'  Association.  Mr.  St.  John,  the 
president  of  the  association,  testifies  as  follows  : 

' '  The  result  of  this  declination  on  the  part  of  the 
various  companies  directly  to  their  own  committees- 
was  a  threat  on  the  part  of  some  that 
a  strike  would  occur,  and  in  times  of 
trouble  of    that  kind,    or    anticipated       General 
trouble,  it  would  be  the  most  natural    Manae-ers' 
thing  in  the  world  for  the  association, 
or  any  line  member  of  it,  to  arrange  to  Association. 
protect  the  interests  of  the  company  he 
represented.     He  could  not  do   other- 
wise.   Arrangements  were  made  by  which  agencies 
were  established  and  men  employed  to  come  to  Chi- 
cago in  case  of  necessity." 

"This  association  likewise  prepared  for  its  use  elab- 
orate schedules  of  the  wages  paid  upon  the  entire- 
lines  of  its  24  members.  The  proposed  object  of  these 
schedules  was  to  let  each  road  know  what  other  roads- 
paid.  Finding  that  the  men  upon  some  lines  urged 
increase  to  correspond  with  wages  paid  elsewhere,  a 
committee  of  the  association  prepared  and  presented 
a  uniform  schedule  for  all  membership  roads.  It  was- 
deemed  wise  not  to  act  upon  the  report.  It  was  dis- 
tributed to  members  in  November,  i8g3-  This  distri- 
bution alone  enabled  the  report  to  be  used  with 
efficiency  as  an  'equalizer.'  As  the  result,  during 
1893— it  being  then  well  understood  that  as  to  wages, 
etc.,  it  was  an  incident  of  the  General  Managers'  As- 
sociation to  'assist  '  each  road  in  case  of  trouble  over 
such  matters,  one  form  of  assistance  being  for  the  as- 
sociation to  secure  men  enough  through  its  agencies- 
to  take  the  places  of  all  strikers— reductions  were 
here  and  there  made  on  the  different  roads,  the  tend- 
ency and  effort  apparently  being  to  equalize  the  pay 
on  all  lines. 

"  It  is  admitted  that  the  action  of  the  association  has- 
great  weight  with  outside  lines,  and  thus  tends  to  es- 
tablish one  uniform  scale  throughout  the  country." 

The  Pullman  Car  Company,  however,  refused 
to  recognize  the  A.  R.  U.  Of  the  result  the 
Commission's  report  says  : 

"  Between  June  q  and  June  26  a  regular  convention  of 
the  American  Railway  Union  was  held  with  open  doors- 
at  Chicago,  representing  465  local  unions  and  about 
150,000  members,  as  claimed.  The  Pullman  matter  was 
publicly  discussed  at  these  meetings  before  and  after 
its  committees  above  mentioned  reported  their  inter- 
views with  the  Pullman  Company.  On  June  21  the 
delegates,  under  instructions  from  their  local  unions, 
unanimously  voted  that  the  members  of  the  union 
should  stop  handling  Pullman  cars  on  June  26  unless- 
the  Pullman  Company  would  consent  to  arbitration. 
On  June  26  the  boycott  and  strike  began.  The  strike 
on  the  part  of  the  railroad  employees  was  a  sympa- 
thetic one.  No  grievances  against  the  railroads  had 
been  presented  by  their  employees,  nor  did  the- 
American  Railway  Union  declare  any  such  griev- 
ances to  be  any  cause  whatever  of  the  strike.  To 
simply  boycott  Pullman  cars  would  have  been  an  in- 
congruous step  for  the  remedy  of  complaints  of  rail- 
road employees.  Throughout  the  strike  the  strife  was- 
simply  over  handling  Pullman  cars,  the  men  being' 
ready  to  do  their  duty  otherwise.  .  .  . 

"  After  June  26  the  officers  and  agents  of  the  union 
managed  and  urged  on  the  strike  at  every  available 
point  upon  the  railroads  centering  at 
Chicago,  until  it  reached  proportions  far 
in  excess  of  their  original  anticipations, 
and  led  to  disorders  beyond  even  their 
control.     Urgent   solicitations  and  ap- 
peals  to  strike  and  to  stand  firm  con- 
tinued   in  the    many  public    meetings 
held  each  day  in  and  about  Chicago,  and  appear  in 
the  telegrams  sent  about  the  country.  .  .  . 

"According  to  the  testimony,  the  railroads  lost,  ii> 


Pullman  Strike. 


1152 


Pullman  Strike. 


property  destroyed,  hire  of  United  States  deputy 
marshals,  and  other  incidental  expenses,  at  least 
$685,308.  The  loss  of  earnings  of  these  roads  is  esti- 
mated at  $4,672,916.  Some  3100  employees  at  Pull- 
man lost  in  wages,  as  estimated,  at  least  $350,000. 
About  100,000  employees  upon  the  24  railroads  center- 
ing at  Chicago,  all  of  which  were  more  or  less  involved 
in  the  strike,  lost  in  wages,  as  estimated,  at  least 
$1,380,143.  Many  of  these  employees  are  still  adrift 
and  losing  wages. 

"Beyond  these  amounts  very  great  losses,  widely 
distributed,  were  incidentally  suffered  throughout  the 
country.  The  suspension  of  transportation  at  Chicago 
paralyzed  a  vast  distributive  center,  and  imposed 
many  hardships  and  much  loss  upon  the  great  num- 
ber of  people  whose  manufacturing  and  business 
operations,  employment,  travel,  and  necessary  sup- 
plies depend  upon  and  demand  regular  transportation 
service  to,  from,  and  through  Chicago. 

"During  the  strike  the  fatalities,  arrests,  indict- 
ments, and  dismissal  of  charges  for  strike  offenses  in 
Chicago  and  vicinity  were  as  follows: 

Number  shot  and  fatally  wounded 12 

Number  arrested  by  the  police 515 

Number  arrested  under  United  States  statutes, 
and  against  whom  indictments  were  found' 71 

Number    arrested,  against    whom    indictments 
•were  not  found nq 

"The  arrests  made  by  the  police  were  for  murder, 
arson,  burglary,  assault,  intimidation,  riot,  inciting  to 
riot,  and  lesser  crimes." 

Bradstreefs  estimates  the  losses  to  the 
country  at  large  to  be  about  $80,000,000.  The 
city  police,  the  county  sheriffs,  the  State 
militia,  United  States  deputy  marshals,  and 
regulars  from  the  United  States  Army  were 
all  brought  into  the  controversy.  The  United 
States  troops  were  sent  to  Chicago  to  protect 
Federal  property  and  to  prevent  destruction  in 
the  carrying  of  the  mails,  to  prevent  inter- 
ference witn  interstate  commerce,  and  to  en- 
force the  decrees  and  mandates  of  the  Federal 
courts.  They  took  no  part  in  any  attempt  to 
suppress  the  strike,  nor  could  they,  as  such 
matters  belong  to  the  city  and  State  authori- 
ties. The  police  of  the  city  were  used  to  sup- 
press riots  and  protect  the  property  of  citizens, 
and  the  State  militia  was  called  in  for  the 
same  service.  The  total  of  these  forces  em- 
ployed during  the  continuance  of  the  strike 
was  14,186.  It  was  claimed  by  some  that  the 
calling  out  of  the  Federal  troops  was  unneces- 
sary and  an  invasion  of  State  rights  ;  they 
being  called  out  simply  to  please  the  corpora- 
tions and  intimidate  the  strikers.  Says  the 
Commission's  report: 

"Some  railroads  charged  the  police  with  ineffi- 
ciency and  with  failing  to  discharge  their  duties 
through  sympathy  with  strikers.  These  charges 
have  not  been  proved.  The  Mayor  directed  suspen- 
sion and  discharge  for  any  such  cause,  and  some 
suspensions  occurred  on  charges;  but  investigation 
disclosed  no  evidence  to  sustain  them.  The  disorders 
at  Blue  Island  were  outside  the  city  of  Chicago.  Ap- 
propriate orders  for  the  police  to  cooperate  with  the 
troops  were  issued.  That  policemen  sympathized 
with  strikers  rather  than  with  the  corporations  can- 
not be  doubted,  nor  would  it  be  surprising  to  find  the 
same  sentiment  rife  among  the  military.  These  forces 
are  largely  recruited  from  the  laboring  classes.  In- 
deed, the  danger  is  growing  that  in  strike  wars 
between  corporations  and  employees  military  duty 
will  ultimately  have  to  be  done  by  others  than  volun- 
teers from  labor  ranks. 

"The  military  and  police  confined  themselves  to 
their  duty  of  arresting  criminals,  dispersing  mobs, 
and  guarding  property.  United  States  deputy  mar- 
shals, to  the  number  of  3600,  were  selected  by  and 
appointed  at  request  of  the  General  Managers'  Asso- 
ciation, and  of  its  railroads.  They  were  armed  and 
paid  by  the  railroads,  and  acted  in  the  double  capacity 
of  railroad  employees  and  United  States  officers. 
While  operating  the  railroads  they  assumed  and  exer- 
cised unrestricted  United  States  authority  when  so 


ordered  by  their  employers,  or  whenever  they  re- 
garded it  as  necessary.  They  were  not  un4er  the 
direct  control  of  any  Government  official  while  exer- 
cising authority.  This  is  placing  officers  of  the  Gov- 
ernment under  control  of  a  combination  of  railroads. 
It  is  a  bad  precedent,  that  might  well  lead  to  serious 
consequences." 

Another  element  that  entered  into  the  mat- 
ter was  the  issue  of  injunctions  (q.  z/.).  Says 
the  report: 

"  On  July  7  the  principal  officers  of  the  American 
Railway  Union  were  indicted,  arrested,  and  held  un- 
der $10,000  bail.  Upon  July  13  they  were  attached  for 
contempt  of  the  United  States  Court  in  disobeying  an 
injunction  issued  on  July  2,  and  served  on  the  3d  and 
4th,  enjoining  them,  among  other  things,  from  com- 
pelling, or  inducing  by  threats,  intimidation,  per- 
suasion, force,  or  violence,  railroad  employees  to 
refuse  or  fail  to  perform  their  duties.  It  is  seriously 
questioned,  and  with  much  force,  whether  courts  have 
jurisdiction  to  enjoin  citizens  from  '  persuading  '  each 
other  in  industrial  or  other  matters  of  common  inter- 
est. However,  it  is  generally  recognized  among  good 
citizens  that  a  mandate  of  a  court  is  to  be  obeyed 
until  it  is  modified  and  corrected  by  the  court  that 
issued  it." 

As  a  result,  Debs  and  his  comrades  were 
convicted  of  contempt  of  court,  and,  without 
jury  trial,  imprisoned  (see  DEBS);  the  friends 
of  the  railroads  believing  that  it  "  served  the 
strikers  right ";  others  believing  it  a  dastardly 
and  dangerous  attack  on  the  right  of  every 
man  to  trial  before  jury. 

Says  the  report  : 

"  There  is  no  evidence  before  the  Commission  that 
the  officers  of  the  American  Railway  Union  at  any 
time  participated  in  or  advised  intimidation,  violence, 
or  destruction  of  property.  They  knew,  and  fully 
appreciated  thatvas  soon  as  mobs  ruled,  the  organized 
forces  of  society  would  crush  the  mobs,  and  all  re- 
sponsible for  them  in  the  remotest  degree,  and  that 
this  meant  defeat.  The  attacks  upon  corporations 
and  monopolies  by  the  leaders  in  their  speeches  are 
similar  to  those  to  be  found  in  the  magazines  and 
industrial  works  of  the  day. 

"Much  stress  has  been  laid  upon  the  following  dis- 
patch, which  Mr.  Debs  denies  sending.  It  went,  how- 
ever, from  the  headquarters  of  the  union,  and  that 
body  is  responsible  for  whatever  it  means  : 

"  'CHICAGO,  July  2,  1894. 
"To  COURTHEAD,  South  Butte,  Mont.: 

"  '  The  G.  M.  are  weakening.  If  strike  not  settled  in 
48  hours,  complete  paralysis  will  follow.  Potatoes  and 
ice  out  of  sight.  Save  your  money  and  buy  a  gun. 

"  'E.  V.  DEBS.' 

"  The  union  insists  that  a  young  clerk  named  Bene- 
dict sent  this  dispatch  to  a  friend  ;  that  the  expression 
'  buy  a  gun  '  was  one  used  between  them,  and  had  no 
reference  to  the  strike.  Nothing  like  this  is  found 
elsewhere  among  the  dispatches  before  the  Com- 
mission." 

The  Commission,  however,  finds  that  some 
of  the  strikers  were  guilty  of  violence.  The 
report  says : 

"  The  strikers'  experience  and  training  were  to  be 
seen  in  the  spiking  and  misplacing  of  switches;  re- 
moving rails  ;  crippling  of  interlocking  systems  ;  the 
detaching,  side-tracking,  and  derailing  of  cars  and 
engines  ;  placing  of  coupling-pins  in  engine  machin- 
ery ;  blockading  tracks  with  cars,  and  attempts  to 
detach  and  run  in  mail  cars.  The  Commission  is  of 
opinion  that  offenses  of  this  character,  as  well  as  con- 
siderable threatening  and  intimidation  of  those  taking 
strikers'  places,  were  committed,  or  instigated,  by 
strikers. 

"The  mobs  that  took  possession  of  railroad  yards, 
tracks,  and  crossings  after  July  3,  and  that  stoned, 
tipped  over,  burned,  and  destroyed  cars,  and  stole 
their  contents,  were,  by  general  concurrence  in  the 
testimony,  composed  generally  of  hoodlums,  women, 


Pullman  Strike. 


Quesnay,  Francois. 


a  low  class  of  foreigners,  and  recruits  from  the  crim- 
inal classes.  Few  strikers  were  recognized  or  arrested 
in  these  mobs,  which  were  without  leadership,  and 
seemed  simply  bent  upon  plunder  and  destruction. 
They  gathered  wherever  opportunity  offered  for  their 
dastardly  work,  and,  as  a  rule,  broke  and  melted 
away  when  force  faced  them.  In  the  view  that  this 
railroad  strike  was  wrong ;  that  such  mobs  are  well 
known  to  be  incidental  to  strikes,  and  are  thereby 
given  an  excuse  and  incentive  to  gather  and  to  commit 
crime,  the  responsibility  rests  largely  with  the  Amer- 
ican Railway  Union  ;  otherwise  that  association,  its 
leaders,  and  a  very  large  majority  of  the  railroad  men 
on  strike  are  not  shown  to  have  had  any  connection 
therewith.  .  .  . 

"July  13,  and  for  some  days  previous,  the  strikers 
liad  been  virtually  beaten.  The  action  of  the  courts 
deprived  the  American  Railway  Union  9f  leadership  ; 
enabled  the  General  Managers'  Association  to  dis- 
integrate its  forces,  and  to  make  inroads  into  its 
ranks.  The  mobs  had  worn  out  their  fury,  or  had 
succumbed  to  the  combined  forces  of  the  police,  the 
United  States  troops  and  marshals,  and  the  State 
militia.  The  railroads  were  gradually  repairing 
damages,  and  resuming  traffic  with  the  aid  of  new 
men,  and  with  some  of  those  strikers  who  had  not 
been  offensively  active,  or  whose  action  was  laid 
to  intimidation  or  fear.  At  this  juncture  the  refusal 
of  the  General  Managers'  Association  to  treat  with  the 
American  Railway  Union  was  certainly  not  concilia- 
tory ;  it  was  not  unnatural,  however,  because  the 
association  charged  the  American  Railway  Union 
with  having  inaugurated  an  unjustifiable  strike  ;  laid 
at  its  door  the  responsibility  for  all  the  disorder  and 
destruction  that  had  occurred,  and,  as  the  victor  in 
the  fight,  desired  that  the  lesson  taught  to  labor  by  its 
defeat  should  be  well  learned. 


"The  policy  of  both  the  Pullman  Company  and  the 
Railway  Managers'  Association,  in  reference  to  ap- 
plications to  arbitrate,  closed  the  door 
to  all  attempts  at  conciliation  and  set- 
tlement of  differences.  The  Commission      Tho  Tn/1 
is  impressed  with  the  belief,  by  the  evi-      1Jle  x'na- 
dence,   and  by  the  attendant   circum- 
stances, as  disclosed,  that  a  different 
policy  would  have  prevented  the  loss  of  life  and  great 
loss  of  property  and  wages  occasioned  by  the  strike." 

July  26,  1894,  the  President  appointed  a 
commission  consisting  of  Carroll  D.  Wright, 
John  D.  Keenan  of  New  York,  and  Nicholas 
E.  Worthington  of  Illinois,  who  heard  evi- 
dence and  testimony  as  to  the  causes,  facts, 
and  lessons  of  the  strike.  The  report  so  fa- 
vored the  strikers  that  it  was  described  in 
Harper's  Weekly,  November  24,  1894,  as 
"  Revolutionary  Statesmanship."  As  a  result 
a  bill  for  arbitration  in  railway  strikes  was  laid 
before  Congress,  for  an  account  of  which  see 
STRIKES. 

References :  Report  on  the  Chicago  Strike  of  June 
and  July,  181)4,  by  the  United  States  Strike  Commis- 
sion, 1895  ;  The  Pullman  Company's  Statement  (1894). 
Both  of  these,  and  an  analysis  by  Professor  W.  J. 
Ashley  of  Harvard,  with  a  complete  bibliography  of 
the  strike,  were  collected  and  published  by  the  Church 
Social  Union  in  1895. 

(See  also  STRIKES  ;  RAILROADS  ;  INJUNCTIONS  ; 
LABOR  LEGISLATION,  etc.) 


Q 


QUELCH,  HENRY,  was  born  at  Hunger- 
ford,  Berkshire,  in  1858.  He  became  a  black- 
smith, but  in  1872  came  to  London,  and  soon 
interested  himself  in  social  reform.  In  1881  he 
joined  the  Social  Democratic  Federation  (al- 
most from  its  start),  and  in  1884  commenced 
writing  for  its  organ.  Justice,  since  1892  giving 
it  all  his  time,  and  becoming  its  responsible 
editor.  In  1889  he  was  elected  secretary  of 
the  Southside  Labor  Protection  League.  He 
has  been  sent  to  three  trades-union  congresses 
.and  international  socialist  congresses,  at 
Roubaix  (1887),  Brussels  (1891),  and  Zurich 
1893.  He  has  been  several  times  arrested  for 
socialistic  utterances,  but  has  been  acquitted. 

QUESNAY,  FRANCOIS,  was  born  at 
Merey,  France,  in  1694.  Studying  medicine 
.at  Paris,  he  became  first  physician  to  Louis 
XV.,  but  was  even  more  famous  as  an  eco- 
nomic thinker,  and  one  of  the  principal 
founders  of  the  school  of  the  physiocrats  (g.  ?/.) 
and  coiner  of  the  term  political  economy.  He 
died  at  Versailles  in  1774.  Dr.  Ingram  says  of 
Quesnay  in  his  History  of  Political  Economy  : 

"The  publications  in  which  Quesnay  expounded  his 
system  were  the  following:  Two  articles,  on  Fer- 
miers  and  on  Grains,  in  the  Encyclopedie  of  Diderot 
«nd  D'Alembert  (1756,  1757);  a  discourse  on  the  law  of 


nature  in  the  Physiocratie of  Dupont  de  Nemours  (1768); 
Maximes  Ginfrales  de  Gouvernement  Ecpnomique 
ct'un  Royaume  Agricole  ,(1758),  and  the  simultane- 
ously published  Tableau  Econo mique  avec  son  Explica- 
tion, ou  Extrait  des  Economies  Royales  de  Sully  (with 
the  celebrated  motto,  '  pauvres  paysans,  pauvre  roy- 
aume;  pauvre  royaume,  pauvre  roi ')  ;  Dialogue  sur  le 
Commerce  et  les  Travaux  des  Artisans ;  and  other 
minor  pieces.  The  Tableau  Economique,  tho  on  ac- 
count of  its  dryness  and  abstract  form  it  met  with 
little  general  favor,  may  be  considered  the  principal 
manifesto  of  the  school.  It  was  regarded  by  the  fol- 
lowers of  Quesnay  as  entitled  to  a  place  among  the 
foremost  products  of  human  wisdom,  and  is  named  by 
the  elder  Mirabeau,  in  a  passage  quoted  by  Adam 
Smith,  as  one  of  the  three  great  inventions  which  have 
contributed  most  to  the  stability  of  political  societies, 
the  other  two  being  those  of  writing  and  of  money.  Its 
object  was  to  exhibit  by  means  of  certain  formulas 
the  way  in  which  the  products  of  agriculture,  which 
is  the  only  source  of  wealth,  would  in  a  state  of  per- 
fect liberty  be  distributed  among  the  several  classes 
of  the  community  (namely,  the  productive  classes  of 
the  proprietors  and  cultivators  of  land,  and  the  un- 
productive class  composed  of  manufacturers  and 
merchants),  and  to  represent  by  other  formulas  the 
modes  of  distribution  which  take  place  under  systems 
of  governmental  restraint  and  regulation,  with  the 
evil  results  arising  to  the  whole  society  from  different 
degrees  of  such  violations  of  the  natural  order.  It 
follows  from  Quesnay's  theoretic  views  that  the  one 
thing  deserving  the  solicitude  of  the  practical  econo- 
mist and  the  statesman  is  the  increase  of  the  net 
product ;  and  he  infers  also  what  Smith  afterward 
affirmed  on  not  quite  the  same  ground,  that  the  in- 
terest of  the  land-owner  is  'strictly  and  inseparably 
connected  with  the  general  interest  of  the  society.'  " 


73 


Railways. 


H54 


Railways. 


E 


RAILWAYS.— We  consider  this  subject 
under  the  following  heads :  (I)  The  United 
States;  (II)  Foreign  Countries  ;  (III)  Railway 
Problems  ;  (IV)  Proposed  Reforms. 

I.  THE  UNITED  STATES. 

A.    HISTORY. 

On  July  4, 1828,  Charles  Carroll,  last  surviving 
signer  of  the  Declaration  of  Independence,  laid 
the  first  rail  of  the  Baltimore  and  Ohio  Railroad  ; 
the  first  railroad  of  this  country  to  assume  a 
comprehensive  scale.  Mr.  Carroll  said  he  con- 
sidered the  event  "  second  only  to  that  of 
signing  the  Declaration  of  Independence,  if 
even  second  to  that."  The  first  tram  road  in 
America  was  the  Quincy  road  (1827)  for  haul- 
ing stone  for  the  Bunker  Hill  monument.  The 
first  locomotive  in  America  was  imported  from 
England  in  1829,  for  use  on  the  Carbondale 
and  Honesdale  Railroad,  built  by  the  Dela- 
ware and  Hudson  Canal  Company.  On  the 
Baltimore  and  Ohio  Railroad,  chartered  in 
1827  and  opened  1830,  steam  was  not  definitely 
chosen  for  the  motive  power  till  1831,  horse- 
power, and  even  sails,  having  been  tried  first. 
The  West  Point  foundry  works  built  the  first 
American  locomotive  in  1830,  for  use  on  the 
South  Carolina  Railroad  then  being  con- 
structed. By  1835  the  Baltimore  and  Ohio 
had  a  length  of  115  miles.  Pennsylvania  had 
nearly  200  miles  of  road,  mainly  coal  roads  ; 
South  Carolina,  137  miles  open  for  traffic ; 
Massachusetts,  New  York,  and  New  Jersey, 
nearly  100  each.  The  panic  of 
1837  temporarily  checked  railroad 
Beginnings,  building,  but  the  whole  line  of  the 
Boston  and  Albany  was  complete 
by  1842,  the  first  road  operated 
as  a  THROUGH  route.  New  York  and  Philadel- 
phia were  connected  by  rail  in  1840  ;  New 
York  and  Boston  in  1849  ;  New  York  and  Lake 
Erie,  by  the  Erie  road,  in  1851 ;  New  York 
and  Albany  the  same  year  ;  New  York  and 
Chicago  in  1853.  The  first  line  to  reach  the 
Mississippi  was  the  Chicago  and  Rock  Island 
in  1854. 

The  rapid  growth  of  the  roads  in  the  United 
States  will  be  best  appreciated  by  giving  the 
figures.  In  1828  there  were  three  miles  of 
railroad  in  the  country  ;  in  1830,  41  miles  ;  in 
1840,  2800  miles  ;  in  1850,  9000  miles  ;  in  1860, 
9800  miles  ;  in  1870,  50,000  miles  ;  in  1880, 
82,000  miles ;  in  1890,  163,420  miles  ;  and 
June  30,  1894,  there  were  178,708  miles. 

The  first  roads  were  very  moderately  suc- 
cessful. They  were  rude,  cumbersome  affairs, 
with  flat  rails,  often  of  wood,  needing  con- 
stant repairs.  Flat  rails  were  not  wholly  re- 
moved from  the  New  York  Central  road 
till  1850. 

Legislatures  were  suspicious  of  them.  The 
Illinois  Central  received  the  first  land  grant 
in  1851,  though,  after  that,  land  grants  were 
given  freely.  (See  PUBLIC  DOMAIN.)  The  first 
charters  were  very  cautious,  and  there  were 


no  general  bills  for  condemning  property  to- 
give  railroads  the  right  of  way,  but  in  1850 
the  New  York  Legislature  granted  railroad 
corporations  the  right  to  run  their  lines 
wherever  they  saw  fit,  subject  only  to  certain 
conditions  in  the  cities.  This  was  a  complete 
surrender  on  the  part  of  the  State  of  every 
attempt  to  supervise,  regulate,  and  control  the 
operations  of  railroad  corporations,  but  it 
seemed  productive  of  such  immediate  benefits 
that  State  after  State  followed  the  example. 

No  evil  results  of  this  lack  of  State  super- 
vision were  apparent  until  1857,  when  a  finan- 
cial crisis  brought  bankruptcy  to  many  of  the 
roads.  To  prevent  the  insolvent  roads  being 
closed  to  satisfy  the  bondholders  or  first  mort- 
gagees, the  lawyers  for  the  second  mortgagees 
and  the  stockholders  devised  a  plan  of  "  reor- 
ganization." Under  this  policy  of  reorgani- 
zation the  first  mortgage  holders  were  given 
bonds  representing  a  first  lien  en  the  roads, 
and  bonds  representing  accrued  interest.  The 
junior  mortgagees  were  recognized  by  pre- 
ferred stock,  and  the  former  stockholders,  after 
paying  something  to  defray  the  expenses  of 
the  readjustment,  were  given  common  stock 
to  represent  their  former  interest  in  the  roads. 
This  accumulated  debt  was  called  "  increased 
capital,"  but  in  latter-day  parlance  has  devel- 
oped stock  watering.  (See  WATERED  STOCK.) 
The  crisis  of  1857  Put  an  effective  stop  to 
railroad  and  land  grants,  and  this  was  fol- 
lowed by  the  war.  The  war,  however,  gave 
land  grants  a  wider  scope.  A  railroad  to  Cali- 
fornia was  a  political  necessity.  (See  PACIFIC 
RAILROADS.)  The  first  effective  bill  for  the 
Union  Pacific  was  passed  in  1864,  and  the  last 
rail  laid  in  1869.  It  led  to  railroad  favorit- 
ism, upon  the  part  of  Government,  in  colossal 
proportions. 

From  1835  to  June  30,  1892,  railroad  corpora- 
tions received    from  Congress,   directly   and 
through  the  States,  grants  of  land 
aggregating  56,483,804  acres,  or  an 
average  of  9600  acres  for   every        Land 
mile  of  road  constructed  under  the      Grants, 
terms  of    the  granting  acts.     In 
addition  to  these  gifts  of  land  the 
roads  received  subsidies  of  money  from  Con- 
gress, the  States,  counties,  townships,  cities, 
and  villages.     The  five  Pacific  railroads  (the 
Northern  Pacific,  the  Union  Pacific,  the  Atlan- 
tic and  Pacific,  the  Southern  Pacific,  and  the 
Texas    Pacific)    alone    received    subsidies    of 
United  States  bonds  amounting  to  $64,623,512, 
and  the  interest  paid  on  the  same  by  the  United 
States  Government  amounted,  up  to  June  30, 
1891,  to  $90,241,379.22.     (See  art.  PUBLIC   DO- 
MAIN.) 

According  to  Poor's  Manual  for  1884,  the 
average  cost  per  mile  of  the  railroads  in  the 
United  States  did  not  exceed  $30,000.  The 
early  railroads  were  purely  local,  chartered 
and  built  by  local  communities.  The  New 
York  Central  was  consolidated  from  eleven 
different  railroads  in  1853.  Vanderbilt,  till 


Railways. 


Railways. 


then  one  of  the  foremost  steamboat  owners  in 
the  world,  did  not  go  into  railroads  to  any  ex- 
tent till  1864.  In  1867  he  secured  control  of 
the  New  York  Central  and  consolidated  it  with 
the  Hudson  River  in  1869,  and  virtually  at  the 
same  time  obtained  a  Chicago  connection. 
Mr.  Scott  entered  the  service  of  the  Pennsylva- 
nia R.  R.  in  1850.  He  became  vice-president 
of  it  in  1860,  and  president  in  1874.  As  a  re- 
sult of  his  management  the  Pennsylvania 
R.  R.  owns  to-day  thousands  of  miles  of  the 
most  valuable  railway  property  in  the  United 
States.  Next  to  these  great  systems  were 
developed  the  Grand  Trunk  in  the  north,  the 
Erie  in  the  middle,  and  the  Baltimore  &  Ohio 
in  the  south,  they  being  hindered  respectively 
by  disadvantage  of  situation,  by  speculation, 
and  by  the  war. 

The  next  development  of  combination  was 

the  development  of  sleeping-car  companies, 

express  companies,  and  freight  transportation 

companies,  which  ran  through  cars  over  many 

roads.     The  last  rapidly  developed  into  the 

cooperative  fast-freight  line  which  has  since 

prevailed  all  but  universally,  and  is  nothing 

more  than  a  system  of  looking  after 

cars  and  keeping  accounts  between 

Combina-  companies.  The  first  railroad  pools 
tions.  were  probably  developed  in  a  small 
way  in  New  England.  The  first 
to  have  important  public  history 
was  the  Chicago-Omaha  pool,  in  1870,  between 
three  roads.  The  first  great  inter-railway 
association  was  the  Southern  Railway  and 
Steamship  Association,  first  begun  under  the 
lead  of  Albert  Fink,  in  1873.  In  1875  it  estab- 
lished a  clearing-house  to  settle  through  traffic 
accounts. 

The  first  great  railway  war  began  in  1869, 
when  rates  from  Chicago  to  New  York  fell  to 
25  cents  per  hundred  pounds.  At  first  the 
New  York  Central  could  not  compete  on  long- 
distance freight  with  the  Erie  Canal  and 
Hudson  River.  In  1871  the  canal  was  help- 
less. The  war  of  1869  lasted  only  a  little 
while;  1874-76  saw  bitter  railway  wars.  The 
fight  ended  in  1877,  not  because  anything  was 
settled  but  because  all  parties  were  exhausted. 
The  first  trunk-line  pool  on  West-bound  traffic 
was  formed  in  1877,  and  on  East-bound  in  1879. 
Meanwhile  a  joint  executive  committee  had 
been  formed,  with  Albert  Fink  as  its  head. 
It  arranged  as  to  differentials  between  cities, 
as  to  percentages  of  traffic  between  different 
trunk  lines,  as  to  general  arrangements,  rates, 
etc.,  etc.  This  peace  lasted  till  1881,  when  a 
fierce  war  raged  for  eight  months,  followed  by 
a  short  peace  ;  war  and  peace  alternating  at 
short  intervals  down  to  the  present. 

As  we  have  seen,  railroad  legislation  was  all 
in  favor  of  railroads.  The  only  fear  was  that 
roads  would  not  be  built  fast  enough.  Rail- 
roads were  variously  taxed,  and  liabilities  only 
slightly  enforced.  The  first  popular  feeling  of 
any  force  against  railroads  was  the  Granger 
movement  (1870-77).  Nowhere  had  railroad 
subsidies  been  more  recklessly  voted  than  in 
the  Upper  Mississippi  valley.  Between  1865 
and  1871,  $500,000,000  had  been  invested  in 
Western  railways.  The  price  of  wheat  began 
to  fall.  With  transportation  charges  at  former 


figures,  the  farmers  could  not  pay  their  debts; 
with  charges  reduced,  the  roads  could  not  pay 
theirs.  Roads  under  competition  cut  down 
rates  to  nearly  nothing  between 
competing  points,  and,  where 
there  was  no  competition,  charged  Granger 
what  they  would.  The  feeling  Movement. 
among  the  farmers  ran  high. 
They  talked  it  over  in  the  Grange 
(q.  v. ) .  The  first  tangible  results  were  reached 
in  Illinois.  The  Constitutional  convention  of 
1870  made  an  important  declaration  concerning 
State  control  of  rates,  on  the  basis  of  which  a 
law  was  passed  in  1871,  establishing  a  system 
of  maxima.  Judge  Laurence  pronounced  the 
bill  unconstitutional.  At  the  next  election  he 
was  defeated.  The  law  of  1873  avoided  the 
issues  raised  by  Judge  Laurence.  Similar 
laws  were  immediately  passed  by  Iowa  and 
Minnesota,  and  a  much  more  stringent  law, 
the  so-called  Potter  law,  which  the  railroads 
favored  because  so  stringent,  hoping  thus  to 
kill  it.  The  roads  appealed  to  the  courts,  but 
were  defeated.  Finally  in  1877  the  Supreme 
Court  of  the  United  States  sustained  the  con- 
stitutionality of  the  Granger  laws.  But  the 
laws  defeated  themselves.  Railroad  construc- 
tion came  to  a  standstill.  In  Wisconsin  some 
existing  roads  could  not  be  kept  up.  The 
men  who  passed  the  Potter  law  in  1874  hur- 
riedly repealed  it  after  two  years'  trial.  Since 
then,  however,  the  hostility  to  railroads  has 
grown  more  general. 

The  Hepburn  committee  was  appointed  in 
New  York  "  to  investigate  alleged  abuses  in 
railroad  management,"  the  hearings  before 
which  form  the  most  important  evidence  in 
the  railway  question.  In  1877  the  strikes 
called  universal  attention  to  the  subject. 
Railway  commissions  were  everywhere  estab- 
lished, that  of  Massachusetts — perhaps  the 
most  successful — as  early  as  1869.  The  com- 
mission of  Iowa,  perhaps  the  next  most  suc- 
cessful, dates  from  1878.  California  gave  its 
commission  almost  unlimited  power.  As  a 
result  the  railroads  found  it  necessary  to  get 
control  of  the  commission. 

In  1885  the  United  States  Senate  appointed 
a  committee   to  investigate  railroad  abuses. 
As  a  result  of  that  report,   Con- 
gress enacted  a  law  which  went 
into  effect  in  April,  1887,  and  the     Rail-way 
Interstate  Commerce  Commission  Commissions, 
has  been  a  public  institution  ever 
since.      During    the    debates    on 
that    bill,  the    railroad  lobby   was  energetic 
and    active.      The    intent    of   the    framer  of 
the  bill  was  that  the  law  should  give  control 
of  the  railroads  to   the  Commission  to  be  ap- 
pointed ;    but  the   combined    railroad    inter- 
ests of  the  country  went  to  work  to  change  the 
bill,  and  it  received  the  signature  of  the  Presi- 
dent in  such  a  form  as  to  be  almost  worthless, 
The   Commission  has  been   at  work  for  six 
years  ;  and  with  the  exception  of  the  arrest 
and  punishment,  by  fine,  of  minor  offenses,  no 
punishment  has  been  meted  out.     Unjust  dis- 
crimination still  continues,  reckless  combina- 
tions are  entered  into  ;  passes  are  issued  to 
legislators,  judges,  county  officials,  governors, 
and  clergymen  ;  and  where  it  is  deemed  nee- 


Railways. 


1150 


Railways. 


essary  to  silence  the  voice  of  opposition,  blocks 
of  railroad  stocks  are  bestowed  in  liberal  quan- 
tities. In  nearly  every  State  where  railroad 
commissions  have  been  established,  they  have 
proved  to  be  failures.  Where  a  determined 
stand  has  been  taken  against  encroachments 
of  railroads  by  a  commission,  the  courts  have 
set  aside  the  verdict  of  the  commissioners. 

The  Commission  itself  recognizes  the  failure 
of  its  efforts.  It  has  repeatedly  asked  Con- 
gress for  increased  power,  "  but,"  as  it  says 
in  its  report  for  December  i,  1795  (pp.  10-12), 

"  for  one  reason  and  another  the  measures  heretofore 
recommended  have  failed  of  adoption.  .  .  .  The  spe- 
cial weakness  of  the  law,  as  it  now  stands,  is  the  want 
of  finality  and  binding  force  to  the  decisions  of  the 
Commission.  .  .  .  The  Commission  is  not  a  court  and 
has  no  means  of  its  own  for  enforcing  its  order.  .  .  . 
If  a  carrier  can  simply  ignore  the  findings  of  the  Com- 
mission and  wait  for  a  new  trial  in  the  courts  ....  the 
delay  alone  substantially  defeats  the  remedy.  .  .  . 
Until  such  a  result  is  practically  made  impossible,  the 
work  of  the  Commission,  in  its  most  valuable  aspects, 
must  be  more  or  less  a  disappointment."  (See  INTER- 
STATE COMMERCE  COMMISSION.) 

This  brings  us  down  to  the  present  time. 
For  more  recent  railroad  developments,  such 
as  railroad  combinations,  receiverships,  etc., 
see  the  third  portion  of  the  article,  Railroad 
Problems. 

B.   STATISTICS  FOR  THE  UNITED  STATES. 

"  The  report  of  the  statistician  to  the  Commission 
for  the  year  ending  June  30,  1894,  contained  in  Ap- 
pendix E,  was  submitted  to  the  Commission  on  June 
i,  iSgs- 

"Mileage. 

"  This  report  shows  that  the  total  of  railway  mileage 
in  the  United  States  on  June  30,  1894,  was  178,708.55 
miles,  an  increase  during  the  year  of  2247.48  miles. 
The  increase  during  the  previous  year  was  4897.55 
miles.  The  percentage  of  increase  in  1894  was  less 
than  for  any  preceding  year  for  which  reports  had 
been  made  to  the  Commission. 

"  The  total  number  of  railway  corporations  on  June 
30,  1894,  was  1924,  an  increase  during  the  year  of  34. 
^Of  this  number  745  were  independent  operating 
companies,  and  945  maintained  separate  operating 
accounts.  The  number  of  companies  maintaining 
financial  accounts  only  was  805,  of  which  338  were 
operated  under  lease  for  a  fixed  money  rental,  and 
188  for  a  contingent  money  rental ;  243  were  controlled 
through  the  ownership  of  stock  by  the  operating  com- 
pany ;  the  remaining  36  returned  no  information  as 
to  the  form  of  control.  The  number  of  roads  not  in 
operation  was  76,  of  which  60  were  independent  roads  ; 
10  were  subsidiary  roads,  parts  of  systems,  and  6  were 
private  roads.  In  addition  to  the  roads  already  re- 
ferred to,  there  were  98  private  roads,  operated  in 
connection  with  logging,  milling,  and  mining  indus- 
tries. The  movement  of  consolidation,  during  the 
year,  on  the  basis  of  mileage  involved,  has  been 
greater  than  for  the  year  previous ;  15  roads,  repre- 
senting 1734.64  miles,  have  been  merged ;  22  roads, 
representing  2351.09  miles,  have  been  reorganized  ; 
and  14  roads,  representing  1590.34  miles,  have  been 
consolidated. 

"  A  classification  of  railways  on  the  basis  of  operated 
mileage  shows  that  90  roads  operate  72.90  per  cent,  of 
the  entire  mileage  of  the  country,  and  44  roads  operate 
56.30  per  cent. 

"  On  June  30,  1894,  the  total  number  of  locomotives 
was  35,492,  an  increase  during  the  year  of  704.      Of 
these,  9893  were  passenger  locomotives ;  20,000  were 
freight  locomotives  ;  5086  were  switching  locomotives, 
and  513  were  unclassified.    The  total  number  of  cars  re- 
ported was  1,278,078.     Of  these,  33,018  were  in  passenger 
service  ;  1,205,169  were  in  freight  service  ;  and  30,891 
were  caboose,  derrick,  gravel,  officers',  pay,  and  other 
cars  in  the  companies'  service.      These 
figures  do  not  include  cars  owned  by  the 
Eauitmient     shippers  or  private  individuals.   Thein- 
'•    crease  in  the  number  of  cars  during  the 
year  was  4132,  as  against  an  increase  of 
58,854  during  the  previous  year.     This 
falling  off  in  the  ratio  of  increase  is  due  to  the  fact 


that  the  railways  have,  during  the  year,  destroyed  a        2 


large  number  of  old,  worn-out  cars.  The  number  of 
passengers  carried  per  passenger  locomotive  was 
54,654,  and  the  passenger  miles  per  passenger  locomo- 
tive were  1,444,400. 

"The  law  requires  that  all  equipment  shall  be  sup- 
plied with  train-brakes  and  automatic  couplers  by 
January,  1898,  and  all  cars  with  grab  irons  by  July  i, 
1895,  but  74.80  per  cent,  of  the  total  equipment  is  still 
without  train-brakes,  and  72.77  per  cent,  without 
automatic  couplers. 

"The  total  number  of  railway  employees  on  June 
30,  1894,  was  779,608,  a  decrease,  as  compared  with  the 
number  on  June  30,  1893,  of  93,994,  or  10.76  per  cent. 
This  is  a  smaller  number  employed  than  in  any  year 
since  1890.  This  decrease  is,  of  course,  due  to  the 
heavy  falling  off  in  traffic,  and  the  endeavor  of  the 
railways  to  economize.  On  the  basis  of  four  persons 
being  dependent  on  each  wage-earner,  it  shows  that 
over  one-third  of  a  million  of  people  have  been  de- 
prived of  their  regular  means  of  support.  The  class 
of  employees  showing  the  greatest  decrease  are  track- 
men, the  decrease  for  this  class  being  29,443,  or  16.34 
per  cent.;  the  next  largest  decrease  is  19,890,  or  18.91 
per  cent.,  for  laborers  and  unclassified  employees. 

"For  1894  the  average  daily  compensation  was,  for 
general  officers,  $9.71;  other  officers,  $5.75;  general 
office  clerks,  $2.34  ;  station  agents,  $1.75  ;  other  station 
men,  $1.63  ;  enginemen,  $3.61  ;  firemen,  $2.03  ,  conduct- 
ors, $3.04;  other  trainmen,  $1.89;  machinists,  $2.21; 
carpenters,  $2.02;  other  shopmen,  $1.69  j  section  fore- 
men, $1.71;  other  trackmen,  $1.18;  switchmen,  flag- 
men, and  watchmen,  $1.75  ;  telegraph  operators  and 
dispatchers,  $1.93,  and  employees  of  floating  equip- 
ment, $1.97. 


"  Capitalization. 

"The  total  amount  of  reported  railway  capital  on 
June  30,  1894,  •was  $10,796,473,813,  or  $62,951  per  mile  of 
line.  This  is  an  increase  in  the  amount  outstanding 
during  the  year  of  $290,238,403.  The  amount  of  capital 
stock  was  $4,834,075,659,  of  which  $4,103,584,166  was  com- 
mon stock,  and  $730,491,493  was  preferred  stock.  The 
funded  debt  was  $5,356,583,019,  classified  as  follows : 
Bonds,  $4,593,931,754  ;  miscellaneous  obligations,  $456,- 
277,380;  income  bonds,  $242.403,681,  and  equipment 
trust  obligations,  $63,979,204.  The  amount  of  current 
liabilities  was  $605,815,135.  The  amount  of  railway 
securities  held  by  the  railways  as  an  investment  was 


$1,544,058,670,  a  decrease  during  the  year  of  $18,963,563. 
"The  amount  of  stock   paying  no    dividend    was 


$3,066,150,094,  or  63.43  per  cent,  of  the  total  amount.  Of 
the  stock  paying  dividends,  4.31  per  cent,  of  the  total 
stock  paid  from  4  to  5  per  cent. ;  10. 12  per  cent,  paid  from 


5  to  6  per  cent. ;  5. 12  per  cent,  paid  from  6  to  7  per  cent. : 
i  7  to  8  per  cent.    The  total 


and  5.42  per  cent,  paid  from  7  to  8  pe 
amount  of  dividends  was  $95,515,226,  or  an  average 
rate  on  the  dividend-paying  stock  of  5.40  per  cent. 
The  amount  of  bonds  paying  no  interest  was  $650,573,- 
789,  or  14.17  per  cent.  The  amount  of  miscellaneous 
obligations  paying  no  interest  was  $53,426,264,  or  11.71 
per  cent.,  and  the  amount  of  income  bonds  paying 
no  interest  was  $210,757,554,  or  86.94  per  cent. 


"Public  Service. 

"  The  number  of  passengers  carried  was  540,688,199, 
a  decrease  under  the  previous  year  of  52,872,413  ;  but 
passenger  mileage,  which  is  the  most  significant  fig- 
ure, shows  an  increase  of  60,344,809,  the  total  being 
14,289,445,893.  This  increase  in  passenger  mileage  was 
almost  wholly  occasioned  by  the  World's  Fair  travel. 
The  average  number  of  passengers  in  a  train  was  44, 
and  the  average  distance  traveled  by  each  passenger 
was  26.43  miles.  The  passenger  mileage  per  mile  of 
line,  which  indicates  the  density  of  passenger  traffic, 
was  81,333,  a  slight  decrease  as  compared  with  the  pre- 
vious report.  There  was  a  large  decrease  in  freight 
traffic,  the  number  of  tons  carried  being  638,186,553,  as 
against  745,119,482  in  1893,  a  decrease  of  106,932,929  tons. 
The  ton  mileage  was  80,335,104,702,  a  decrease  of  13,- 
253,007,131  from  the  previous  year,  and  the  ton-miles 
per  mile  of  line  decreased  from  551,232,  in  1893,  to  457,- 
252  in  1894,  a  decrease  in  density  of  traffic  of  93,980  ton- 
miles.  The  average  number  of  tons  in  a  train  was 
170.80,  a  decrease  of  4.17  tons,  showing  a  decrease  of 
economy  in  the  use  of  freight  equipment.  The  average 
haul  of  one  ton  was  125.88  miles. 


'  Earnings  and  Expenses. 
'The  gross  earnings  of  the  railways  for  the  year 


58,   or  5.35  per  cent.,  and  the  revenue  from   freight 


Railways. 


"57 


Railways. 


traffic  decreased  1129,562,948,  or  15.63  per  cent.  The 
amount  of  operating  expenses  was  $731,414,322,  a  de- 
crease of  $96,506,977,  or  11.66  per  cent.  The  largest  per 
cent,  of  decrease  was  in  the  operating  expenses  as- 
signed to  maintenance  of  way  and  structure,  and  to 
maintenance  of  equipment,  which  show,  respectively, 
a  decrease  of  15.12  and  17.52  percent.  The  net  earn- 
ings were  $341,947,475,  a  decrease  of  $50,883,100  as  com- 
pared with  the  previous  year.  The  income  derived 
from  sources  outside  of  operations  was  $142,816,805. 
The  amount  of  fixed  charges  and  other  deductions 
from  income  was  $429,008,310,  leaving  a  net  income  of 
$55,755,970  available  for  dividends,  a  decrease,  as  com- 
pared with  the  previous  year,  of  nearly  50  per  cent. 
The  amount  of  dividends  paid  •was  $95,515,226,  a  de- 
crease of  only  $5,414,659  from  the  amount  paid  the 
previous  vear.  The  fact  that  nearly  the  normal 
amount  of  dividends  was  paid,  notwithstanding  the 
great  decrease  in  income  available  for  them,  and  that 
the  payment  of  the  amount  stated  entailed  a  deficit 
from  the  operations  of  the  year  of  $45,851,294,  is  sug- 
gestive. The  revenue  derived  from  the  carrying  of 
passengers  was  $285,349,558,  or  26.58  per  cent,  of  gross 
earnings,  and  the  revenue  derived  from  freight  traffic 
was  $699,490,913,  or  65.16  per  cent,  of  gross  earnings. 

"  A  report  of  the  statistician  to  the  Commission  on 
the  earnings  and  expenses  of  the  railways  of  the 
United  States  for  the  year  ending  June  30,  1895,  was 
submitted  on  November  18.  It  includes  the  returns 
from  650  roads,  whose  reports  were  filed  on  or  before 
November  9,  1895,  and  covers  the  operations  of  164,- 
529.38  miles  of  line,  or  92  per  cent,  of  the  total  mileage 
in  the  United  States.  The  gross  earnings  were  $1,003,- 
022,853,  of  which  $293,465,792  were  from  passenger 
service,  $683,022,988  from  freight  service,  and  $26,217,- 
595  were  other  earnings  from  operation,  covering 
earnings  from  telegraph,  car  mileage  balances,  switch- 
ing charges,  etc.  The  operating  expenses  were  $677,- 
667,635,  leaving  net  earnings  of  $325,355,218. 

"  Accidents. 

"  During  the  year,  1823  railway  employees  were 
killed,  and  23,422  were  injured,  as  compared  with  2727 
killed,  and  31,729  injured  in  1893.  This  marked  de- 
crease in  casualty  is  in  part  due  to  the  decrease  in  the 
number  of  men  employed,  and  the  decrease  in  the 
volume  of  business  handled.  The  increased  use  of 
automatic  appliances  on  railway  equipment  also  may 
have  rendered  railway  employment  less  dangerous, 
and  it  may  be  that  the  grade  of  efficiency  of  employees 
has  been  raised. 

"  The  number  of  passengers  killed  was  324,  an  in- 
crease of  25,  and  the  number  injured  was  3034,  a  de- 
crease of  195.  Of  the  total  number  of  fatal  casualties, 
251  were  due  to  coupling  and  uncoupling  cars  ;  439  to 
falling  from  trains  and  engines  ;  50  to  overhead  ob- 
structions ;  145  to  collisions  ;  108  to  derailments,  and 
the  balance  to  various  other  causes,  not  easily  classi- 
fied. To  show  the  ratio  of  casualty,  it  may  be  stated 
that  i  employee  was  killed  out  of  every  428  in  service, 
and  i  injured  out  of  every  33  employed.  The  train- 
men perform  the  most  dangerous  service  ;  i  out  of  156 
having  been  killed,  and  i  out  of  every  12  having  been 
injured. 

"The  ratio  of  casualty  to  passengers  is  in  striking 
contrast  to  that  of  railway  employees,  i  passenger 
having  been  killed  out  of  each  1,668,791  carried,  or  for 
each  44,103,228  miles  traveled,  and  i  injured  out  of  each 
178,210  carried,  or  for  each  4, 709,771  miles  traveled." 

II.    FOREIGN  COUNTRIES. 

A.      GREAT    BRITAIN. 

The  distinguishing  characteristics  of  the 
English  railroad  are  its  stability  and  its  man- 
agement by  great  companies  and  vested  inter- 
ests. Watts  made  the  use  of  steam-engines 
practicable  in  1769.  Richard  Trevithick  pat- 
ented the  first  steam-carriage  in  1802.  The 
first  chartered  line  of  rails  was  laid  in  1801 — a 
short  horse  railroad  from  Wandsworth  to  Croy- 
den,  in  the  suburbs  of  London.  Trevithick 
made  the  first  engine  that  drew  cars  on  the 
Merthyr  Tydvil  Railway  in  1804.  Locomotive 
power  was  first  made  actually  efficient  by 
George  Stephenson  in  1814.  The  first  locomo- 
tive that  drew  passengers,  George  Stephen- 
son's  "  Rocket,"  was  used  on  the  Stockton  and 


Darlington  Railway,  which  was  completed  in 
1829. 

The  great  period  of  English  railway  build- 
ing began  in  1845.  Parliament  since  then  has 
constantly  been  busied  with  railroad  legisla- 
tion. Various  commissions  have  been  ap- 
pointed, but  without  great  success.  The 
English  roads  have  sometimes  openly  defied 
them,  and  have  even  been  sustained  in  the 
courts  in  their  defiance.  Says  Mr.  Adams  : 
"  As  a  result  of  forty  years  of  experiment  and 
agitation,  Great  Britain  has  on  this  head  come 
back  very  nearly  to  its  point  of  commence- 
ment. It  has  settled  down  on  the  doctrine 
of  laissez-faire.'''  Says  Professor  Hadley  : 
"  This  is  not  quite  right.  It  might  better  be 
said  that  it  has  settled  down  on  the  policy  of 
specific  laws  for  specific  troubles."  Competi- 
tive rates  exist  in  England,  but  are  not  com- 
mon. In  1886  the  rate  from  Glasgow  to 
London  on  the  beef  of  American  cattle  slaugh- 
tered on  the  wharf  was  45^.  per  ton.  On 
Scotch  meat  it  was  77^.  Foreign  hops  were 
charged  17^.  bd.  per  ton  from  Boulogne  to 
London.  English  hops  from  intermediate 
points  were  charged  35^.  Mr.  Robert  P.  Por- 
ter, superintendent  of  the  last  United  States 
census,  in  a  syndicate  letter,  which  appeared 
in  a  number  of  papers  December  9,  1894,  gives 
an  interview  with  James  Hole,  secretary  of 
the  Association  of  Chambers  of  Commerce  of 
the  United  Kingdom,  representative  of  vast 
financial  interests. 

"  '  You  may  safely  state,'  said  Mr.  Hole,  '  that  to-day 
some  score  of  persons,  linked  together  by  a  common 
interest,  control  nearly  one  thousand  millions  sterling 
of  capital  and  20,000  miles  of  the  most  important  com- 
munication of  the  country. 

"  'When  we  want  to  compete  on  the  Continent  we 
find  ourselves  driven  out  of  our  old  markets  by  lower 
foreign  rates.  Girders  from  Belgium  were  sent 
through  Grimsby  for  a  lower  rate  per  ton,  though 
there  is  loading  and  unloading  twice  over,  than  from 
Sheffield  to  Grimsby,  with  one  loading  and  unloading. 
The  Northumberland  farmer  says,  "  It  will  cost  me 
more  to  send  cattle  to  Liverpool  than  to  send  them 
from  Chicago  or  New  York.'r  It  costs  more  to  send 
grain  from  the  Eastern  counties  to  Birmingham  than 
it  does  from  Odessa,  and  it  costs  more  to  send  cheese 
from  Cheshire  to  London  than  to  take  it  from  New 
York  right  past  the  Cheshire  stations  to  London.'  " 

But  bad  as  are  the  conditions  in  England, 
Mr.  Hole  declare  that  they  are  much  worse 
in  Ireland,  as  he  shows  by  the  following 
particulars  : 

•'  'In  the  recent  inquiry  [1889-90]  one  witness  after 
another  gave  evidence  of  the  shortcomings  of  the 
Irish  railways.  Throughout  Ireland  there  was  the 
strongest  complaint  of  the  inadequacy  of  station  ac- 
commodation, especially  for  cattle,  which  lay  about  in 
the  road,  waiting  for  wagons.  The  high  coal  and  min- 
eral rates  of  the  local  lines  check  all  enterprise  and 
are  prohibitive  to  the  industry  of  the  country.  It  was 
cheaper  to  send  cattle  by  road  than  by  rail  ;  cheaper 
to  take  coal  from  Scotland  to  a  seaport  than  to  get  it 
10  miles  inland  ;  cheaper  to  carry  goods  to  England 
and  have  them  reshipped  to  Ireland  at  through  Eng- 
lish rates  than  to  pay  the  local  rates.  Goods  are  often 
shipped  from  the  eastern  seaboard  for  Sligo  and  Bal- 
lina  via  Glasgow.  The  rates  from  Belfast  and  Dro- 
gheda  are  as  high  as  between  Belfast  and  English 
towns  The  high  charges  have  injured  the  woolen, 
the  flax,  and  the  milling  interests,  yet  the  new  sched- 
ule proposed  to  give  power  to  raise  them  from  40  to  70 
per  cent.  A  parcel  travels  500  miles  in  England  for 
alf  the  price  it  costs  for  30  miles  in  Ireland.  Average 
assenger  fares  in  England  are  9,y2d.;  Scotland,  io%d.; 


but  in  Ireland,  is.  ^d.    Such  are  some  of  the  items  in 
the  indictment  of  the  Irish  railways. 
"  '  Yet  the  total  2500  miles  of  Irish  railway  have  to 


Railways. 


1158 


Railways. 


look  after  them  303  directors,  97  secretaries,  engineers, 
and  managers,  and  about  60  auditors  and  solicitors..'  " 

The  causes  that  have  led  to  these  unbearable 
conditions  are  summed  up  by  Mr.  Porter  in 
the  statement  of  the  following  facts  furnished 
him  by  J.  S.  Jeans,  secretary  of  the  British 
Iron-Trade  Association : 

"  There  seem  to  be  two  causes  :  first,  the  excessive 
cost  of  English  railways,  and  secondly,  the  fact  that 
the  shareholders  must  receive  at  leasts  Per  cent,  for 
their  investments.  The  railway  system  of  England 
and  Wales  has  cost  £55,000  per  mile  ($267,657.50).  This, 
I  suppose,  is  more  than  double  the  cost  of  the  railways 
of  any  other  country.  To  pay  a  dividend  of  5  per 
cent,  on  their  capital  stock  the  railways  of  England 
and  Wales  must  earn£275o  ($13,382.87)  per  mile." 

But  there  is  a  good  side  to  the  cost  of  English 
railroad-building.  Professor  Hadley  says  of 
the  English  railway  system  in  substance  (see 
his  Railroad  Transportation,  1885). 

"  The  traveler  sees  its  massive  roadbed,  its  absence 
of  grade  crossings,  its  tunnels  and  viaducts.  The 
statistician  sees  the  fact  that  it  cost  $200,000  per  mile, 
compared  with  the  American  cost  of  $60,000  per  mile. 
The  humanitarian  sees  the  lessened  loss  of  life.  The 
railroad  man  sees  permanent  traffic  agreements  and  a 
smooth-working  railway  clearing-house,  compared 
with  American  pools  and  fights.  The  legislator  sees 
the  obstinate  and  blustering  tone  of  the  railroads  in 
talking  of  their  'vested  rights.'  America  built  her 
roads  for  the  present,  England  hers  for  the  present 
and  future.  England  built  with  plenty  of  capital,  and 
with  double  tracks  and  no  grade  crossings,  from  the 
start.  Stock-watering  is  largely  absent.  The  rail- 


roads  have  had  no  great  excuse  to  enlarge  their  capi- 
tal for  'improvements.'  English  roads  do  all  the 
work  connected  with  the  roads.  They  provide  sleep- 
ing-cars, do  their  own  expressage  and  their  own  city 
collection  and  delivery  of  freight.  They  provide 
hotels,  etc." 

The  following  statistics  of  railways  in  Great 
Britain  and  Ireland  are  from  the  Statesman's 
Year  Book  for  1896  : 


YEAR. 

LINE  OPEN. 

AVERAGE 
YEARLY 
INCREASE. 

Miles. 
6,621 

Miles. 
165 

j86o  

38i 

j88o  

1890  

214 

20,908 

209 

Of  the  total  length  of  lines  open  January 
i,  1894,  there  belonged  to  England  and  Wales 
14,536  miles,  to  Scotland  3328  miles,  and  to 
Ireland  3044  miles. 

The  following  table  gives  the  length  of  lines 
open,  the  capital  paid  up,  the  number  of 
passengers  conveyed,  and  the  traffic  receipts 
of  all  the  railways  of  the  United  Kingdom  in 
1878,  and  each  of  the  last  seven  years  : 


YEAR. 

LENGTH  OF 
LINES  OPEN 
AT  THE  END 
OF  EACH 
YEAR. 

TOTAL  CAPITAL 
PAID  UP  (SHARES 
AND  LOANS)  AT  THE 
END  OF  EACH  YEAR. 

NUMBER  OF  PAS- 
SENGERS CONVEYED 
(EXCLUSIVE  OF 
SEASON-TICKET 
HOLDERS). 

RECEIPTS. 

TOTAL,  IN- 
CLUDING MIS- 
CELLANEOUS. 

From 
Passengers. 

From  Goods 
Traffic. 

Miles. 

1878. 

17,333 

£698,545,154 

565,024,455 

£26,889,614 

£33,564-761 

£62,862,674 

1888. 

19,812 

864,695,963 

742,499,164 

30,984,090 

38.755,780 

72,894,665 

1889 

19,943 

876,595,166 

775,183,073 

32,630,724 

41,086,333 

77,025,017 

1890. 

20,073 

897,472,026 

817,744,046 

34,327,965 

42,220,382 

79,948,702 

1891. 

20,191 

919,425,121 

845,463,668 

35,130,916 

43,230,717 

81,860,607 

1892. 

20,325 

944.357.320 

864,435,388 

35,662,816 

42,866,498 

82,092,040 

1833. 

20,646 

971.  323.3S3 

873-177,052 

35,899,449 

40,994,637 

80,631,892 

1894. 

20,908 

985.387,355 

911,412,926 

36,495,488 

43,379,078 

84,310,831 

The  capitalization  at  the  end  of  1894  was 
^811,814,465  for  England,  ,£131,418,059  for 
Scotland,  and  ^39,154,831  for  Ireland.  The 
receipts  were  ^71,934,167  for  England  and 
Wales,  .£8,981,077  for  Scotland,  and  £^3,395,587 
for  Ireland.  The  total  expenditures  were 
.£47,208,313  or  56  per  cent  of  the  total  receipts. 

B.    BELGIUM. 

In  England  and  America  the  maxim  is,  says 
Professor  Hadley,  that  "  whatever  can  be 
done  without  Government,  should  be  thus 
done."  On  the  Continent  it  is,  that  "  what- 
ever can  be  done  by  Government,  should  be." 
Belgium  led  in  this.  She  began  as  early  as 
1833.  King  Leopold  was  familiar  with  English 
business,  and  built  the  roads  to  compete  for 
through  freight  from  Germany,  that  hitherto 
had  gone  through  Holland  down  the  Rhine. 
The  system  was  complete  by  1850.  The  State 
allowed  private  companies  to  build  lesser  and 
branch  lines.  The  private  companies  were 
freer  to  make  rapid  improvements,  and  so 

fained  for  awhile  on  the  State,  but  finally  the 
tate   competed  with   them,  and  won.     Pro- 


fessor Hadley,  in  1886,  though  not  a  believer 
in  State  roads,  says  the  Belgian  passenger 
rates  are  lower  than  anywhere  in  the  world 
except  a  few  East  Indian  roads. 

The  length   of  railroads   open  in  Belgium 
January  i,  1895,  was: 

Miles 

Lines  worked  by  the  State 2025 

Lines  worked  by  the  companies 795 


Up  to  the  end  of  1894  the  State  had  spent 
1,392,564,484  frs.  on  the  first  cost  of  the  rail- 
ways. The  net  receipts  were  1,441,156,021  frs., 
and  the  financial  charges  were  1,380,589,684 
frs. ;  leaving  60,567,337  frs.  The  mimber  of  pas- 
sengers conveyed  in  1894  was  74,773,172  forthe 
State,  and  22,165,605  for  the  companies.  The 
gross  receipts  in  1894  were  :  for  the  State,  152,- 
974,889  frs.,  and  for  the  companies,  41,591,780 
frs.  The  expenses  for  the  State  were  86,537,- 
469  frs.,  and  for  the  companies,  20,086,984  frs. 

Every  possible  improvement  is  being  intro- 
duced on  the  Belgium  railways.  Iron  rails 
are  gradually  being  replaced  by  steel  ones, 


Railways. 


1159 


Railways. 


and  the  latest  improvements  in  other  respects 
are  being  adopted.  The  Westinghouse  brake 
has  not  yet  been  applied  to  all  trains,  but  the 
reform  is  being  rapidly  effected. 

As  showing  the  exceptional  care  with  which 
the  lines  are  worked  by  the  State,  the  follow- 
ing figures  may  be  given.  Since  the  origin  of 
the  State  railways  in  1835,  to  1891,  there  have 
been  93  persons  killed  in  collisions  and  "  de- 
railments"; namely,  33  passengers  and  60 
employees.  The  number  of  passengers  killed 
in  stations,  in  consequence  of  their  imprudence 
or  inattention,  figures  at  147,  and  the  number 
of  employees  of  the  administration,  at  1885. 
Besides  travelers  and  employees,  1062  persons 
have  lost  their  lives  in  crossing  the  lines  when 
trains  were  in  motion.  An  additional  461  are 
put  down  as  having  been  victims  to  drink  or 
suicide. 

A  20  per  cent,  reduction  is  allowed  on  all 
return  tickets.  The  amount  taken  for  single 
tickets  in  1891  was  15,699,197  frs.;  the  amount 
for  return  tickets,  26,168,01?  frs  ;  making  a 
total  of  41,867,209  frs.  This  amount  is  exclu- 
sive of  the  amount  received  from  contract 
ticket  holders,  members  of  societies,  and  emi- 
grants, excursion  trains,  circular  tours,  chil- 
dren, and  soldiers,  etc  ,  which  bring  the  total 
receipts  up  to  67,432,178  frs  As  all  these 
latter  categories  go  at  reduced  rates,  49,732,981 
frs.,  or  73.8  per  cent  of  the  total,  traveled  at 
reduced  rates.  The  proportion  was  75.7  per 
cent,  in  1890. 

The  workmen  generally  are  contented  ; 
their  wages  are  slightly  above  the  average  of 
Belgian  workmen,  and  they  enjoy  many  priv- 
ileges. In  many  cases  they  have  cottages 
free,  or  at  a  minimum  rental  ;  they  have  cer- 
tain articles  of  clothing  free  and  their  children 
are  carried  free  to  and  from  school  when  that 
is  necessary.  A  workman  on  the  railway  is  a 
fixture  for  life  if  he  behaves  himself  and  at- 
tends to  his  work.  He  enjoys  a  pension  when 
no  longer  fit  for  service. 

c.  FRANCE. 

French  railroads  were  late  in  development. 
While  other  nations  went  ahead,  the  French 
watched.  When  they  did  build,  they  built  a 
whole  carefully  planned  system.  There  was 
no  competition  from  the  start.  The  plan  they 
adopted  then  they  largely  follow  to-day. 

The  first  line  worked  by  steam  had  pre- 
viously, for  many  years,  been  worked  by 
horses.  This  was  the  St.  Etienne  line, 
opened  as  a  railroad  in  1828.  A  few  other 
incorporated  lines  were  built  between  that 
time  and  1833,  when  the  Government  began  a 
comprehensive  system  of  surveys,  and  laid 
down  a  general  scheme  of  railroad  develop- 
ment for  the  whole  country. 

The  plan  was  settled  in  1842.  Thiers  was 
its  author.  The  State  was  to  contribute  $50,- 
ooo  per  mile  and  own  the  roadbed.  Private 
enterprise  was  to  do  the  rest.  Dividends  on 
investment  were  guaranteed  by  the  State. 
After  40  years  the  whole  was  to  revert  to  the 
State.  Under  this  plan  33  companies  were 
chartered,  tho  by  1852  they  had  consolidated 
to  ii,  and  soon  after  to  6.  Railroad-building 
went  on  rapidly  from  1842  to  1848,  and  then 


again  after  the  Revolution  and  the  accession 
of  Napoleon  III.,  from  1851  to  1857.  This  in- 
crease was  caused  by  changing  their  charters 
to  last  99  years,  so  that  they  are  now  to  revert 
to  the  State  about  1950. 

By  1875  a  considerable  number  of  local  lines 
had  been  built,  on  which  the  Government 
guaranteed  interest  at  4  per  cent,  and  a  trifle 
over  to  form  a  sinking  fund.  In  1875-76 
efforts  were  made  by  speculators  to  amalga- 
mate these  district  lines  and  form  them  into 
systems  which  should  compete  with  the  old 
systems.  The  State  was  asked  to  purchase 
them,  but  the  vested  interests  of  the  older 
companies  prevented  this,  and  so,  like  the 
rest,  they  came  under  State  supervision. 

In  1877  there  was  a  strong  movement  toward 
State  ownership.  The  cause  was  mainly  a 
desire  to  rival  Germany.  The  railroads  of  the 
southwest  were  taken  under  direct  State 
management.  The  State  still  operates  the 
roads  in  the  southwest,  but  only  exerts  con- 
trol over  the  rest.  It  favors  local  traffic  rather 
than  competition  for  through  freight,  and  thus 
develops  the  country  for  the  future. 

The  Government  has  a  highly  trained  staff 
of  engineers,  whose  duty  it  is  to  supervise  the 
lines.  In  addition,  there  are  about  800  offi- 
cials, costing,  together  with  the  engineers, 
$800,000  per  annum.  The  Government  has  its 
agents  at  all  the  principal  stations,  and  the 
time-tables,  as  well  as  the  tariffs,  are  subject 
to  its  approval.  The  accounts  of  the  compa- 
nies, also,  are  subject  to  annual  examination. 
"  There  are  all  the  disadvantages  of  extreme 
officialism  without  the  advantage  of  public 
ownership,"  says  Waring  in  his  State  Pur- 
chase of  Railways. 

The  system  of  monopoly  is  good  for  the 
shareholders,  but  bad  for  the  nation  as  a 
whole.  There  are  several  thousands  of  rates 
which  are  a  burden  and  a  weariness  to  the 
community,  and  from  which  they  pray  daily 
to  be  delivered.  The  express  trains  are  so 
only  in  name,  few  of  them  reaching  so  high  a 
speed  as  40  miles  an  hour.  The  long-distance 
traffic  is  subject  to  many  disadvantages. 
These  things  show  the  difficulties  under  which 
the  dual  system  works.  The  Government, 
however,  is  by  no  means  blind  to  what  is 
needed,  and  from  time  to  time  introduces 
a  modicum  of  reform.  Still  less  fortunate  are 
the  financial  relations  between  the  Govern- 
ment and  the  subsidized  corporations.  For 
the  years  1884-90,  alone,  the  French  Govern- 
ment was  obliged  to  supplement  the  dividends 
to  the  amount  of  369,000,000  frs.,  under  the 
law  of  November  20,  1883,  which  established 
their  relations  anew.  At  the  end  of  1883,  the 
claims  of  the  State  against  the  railway  com- 
panies amounted  to  673,000,000  frs. 

To  these  criticisms  on  the  French  railroad 
system,  it  ought  to  be  added  that  many  of  the 
technical  arrangements  of  the  French  lines 
are  admirable,  and  can  hardly  be  excelled 
in  any  country  in  the  world.  The  lines  are 
carefully  worked,  the  percentages  of  accidents 
and  of  deaths  from  accidents  are  relatively 
low,  and  on  the  whole  their  employees  are  well 
treated  and  well  cared  for. 

The  report  on  France  of  the  (English)  Royal 


Railways. 


1 160 


Railways. 


Commission  on  Labor  gives  the  wages  paid 
by  one  company  as,  in  1892,  6^  frs-  f°r  en~ 
gmeers  with  an  annual  increase  of  bd.  a  day 
until  it  has  reached  9  frs.  ($1.80).  Guards 
and  brakemen  received  from  $260  to  $410  per 
year,  laborers  from  $200  to  $310.  Sunday- 
labor  is  paid  at  the  rate  of  time  and  a  half.  A 
pension  fund  is  established  to  which  the  com- 
pany and  the  employees  contribute  equal 
proportions.  Aid  is  granted  by  the  company 
to  employees  in  need. 

D.    GERMANY. 

The  German  railroads  have  no  one  system. 
They  were  built  by  the  local  States,  and  were 
in  this  sense  State  roads.  There  was  a  feder- 
ation of  railroads  but  no  national  policy. 
About  1842  the  policy  of  subsidies  came  into 
vogue.  In  1848  Prussia  built  the  first  really 
State  built  and  managed  German  road,  a  rail- 
road toward  Russia,  and  down  to  1860  the 
Prussian  Government  quietly  pushed  this 
policy,  buying  and  building  railroads.  When 
Bismarck  came  into  power  in  1861,  military 
reasons  thrust  industrial  arguments  into  the 
background.  The  French  war  showed  the 
military  advantage  of  State  roads.  Roads 
were  developed  rapidly  till  the  crisis  of  1873, 
but  the  system  was  effectually  "  mixed,"  State 
roads  competing  with  private  ones.  Prussia  in 
1874  owned  about  one-third  of  her  roads.  A 
railroad  department  was  established  in  1873. 
Bismarck  then  commenced  a  strong  agitation 
for  a  national  or  imperial  system,  but  was 
largely  foiled  through  States-right  doctrines 
and  jealousy  of  Prussia.  Prussia  then  went 
ahead  alone.  By  1881  the  State  owned  7000 
miles  of  road  and  virtually  managed  2000  more. 
In  1885  there  were  13,000  miles  of  State  roads 
and  only  1000  miles  of  private  roads.  The 
prices  paid  in  buying  roads  were  high.  The 
stockholders  of  the  Berlin-Hamburg  road 
secured  an  income  of  over  16  per  cent,  on  their 
investment.  The  Government  could  have 
taken  the  roads  at  valuation,  but  preferred  to 
raise  no  hostility.  Meanwhile  other  German 
States  were  moving. 

In  the  Middle  German  States  the  principle 
of  State  ownership  had  received  an  early 
recognition,  The  Baden  and  Wiirtemberg 
Governments  became  owners  of  their  railways 
almost  from  the  moment  of  their  construction. 
The  Bavarian  railways  on  the  right  bank  of 
the  Rhine  have  belonged  to  the  State  since 
1875,  but  private  ownership  prevails  to  a  cer- 
tain degree  in  the  rest  of  Bavaria.  The 
Saxon  Government  began  to  purchase  their 
railways  in  1876,  and  are  now  owners  of  a 
complete  system. 

The  great  majority  of  the  German  railways 
are  now  owned  by  the  Imperial  or  State  Gov- 
ernments. Out  of  27,871  miles  of  railway 
completed  and  open  for  traffic,  only  3170  miles 
belong  to  private  companies,  and  of  these  368 
are  worked  by  Government.  Narrow-gage 
lines  measure  832  miles  (Government  lines 
362  miles). 

The  total  capital  in  1894  was  11,105,722,000 
marks,  the  annual  expenditure  863,309,000 
marks,  the  receipts  1,413,523,000  marks,  the 
percentage  of  the  surplus  on  the  capital  4.95. 


In  the  Journal  of  Political  Economy,  Pro- 
fessor Gustave  Cohen  says  : 

"Each  year  the  railways  not  only  paid  in  full  the 
interest  on  the  railway  debt,  but  ithat  on  the  entire 
State  debt;  in  addition  they  yielded  a  very  substan- 
tial surplus,  which  in  the  fiscal  year  from  April  i, 
1889,  to  March  31,  1890,  reached  the  maximum  amount 
of  145,000,000  marks.  Since  then  this  surplus  has,  it  is 
true,  diminished ;  but  it  still  amounted  for  the  last 
year  (1891-92)  to  about  90,000,000  marks.  Moreover,  in 
accordance  with  the  law  of  March  27,  1882,  more  than 
550,000,000  marks  of  the  railway  debt  has  been  extin- 
guished. Altho  one  might  justly  feel  satisfied  if  the 
railways  paid  the  interest  on  their  own  capital,  ex- 
pectations were  so  raised  by  the  abundance  of  the 
surplus  that  the  demand  was  now  not  merely  for 
a  surplus,  but  for  a  great  surplus,  constantly  increas- 
ing with  the  constant  increase  in  the  needs  of  the 
general  administration  of  the  State." 

In  a  word,  the  result  has  been  so  satis- 
factory in  Prussia  that  no  one  outside  of  the 
radical's  position  ventures  to  attack  the  policy. 
The  chief  defects  of  the  present  system  of 
management  are  to  be  found  in  the  adminis- 
trative organization. 

The  railway  staff  on  the  State  railways  is 
composed  of  government  officials  with  work- 
men paid  by  the  day.  A  number  of  posts  on 
the  State  railways,  which  do  not  require 
special  technical  training,  are  filled  with 
soldiers  of  the  reserve.  The  total  force  em- 
ployed on  all  railways  amounts,  in  round 
numbers,  to  110,000  officials  and  200,000  la- 
borers. The  hours  for  workmen  in  the  rail- 
way workshops  are  given  in  one  set  of  working 
rules  as  from  6:50  a.  m.  to  6.30  p.  m.  with  an 
interval  of  i  hour  and  40  minutes  at  mid-day. 
As  a  rule  the  actual  working  hours  are  10, 
Wages  are  paid  twice  a  month  and  in  cash  only. 


Italy  has  some  of  the  best  built  railroads  in 
the  world  (at  least  as  far  as  difficult  engineer- 
ing goes),  but  her  railroads  have  not  been 
financially  successful,  perhaps  because  of 
constant  variations  in  her  Government.  In 
1878  a  railroad  commission  was  appointed  to 
investigate,  and  they  collected  what  is  con- 
sidered, by  some,  the  most  valuable  body  of 
information  in  the  world  concerning  the  rail- 
roads of  all  countries.  They  decided  against 
State  railroads  as  being  more  expensive  and 
in  danger  of  being  used  for  political  purposes. 
As  a  result  the  lines  owned  by  the  State  were 
leased  to  private  companies  at  contracts  for 
60  years,  but  which  may  be  terminated  before. 
Professor  Hadley  considers  this  strong  argu- 
ment against  State  railroads,  but  cheaply 
built  and  managed  railroads,  others  argue, 
are  not  always  the  best. 

January  i,  1891,  there  were  5246  miles  of 
State  railway,  2794  of  companies'  roads,  and 
96  of  joint  State  and  companies'  roads.  In 
1890  the  receipts  were  255,687,108  lire,  and  the 
expenses,  193,879,424  lire  ;  50,855,569  passen- 
gers were  carried. 

F.    SWITZERLAND. 

Switzerland  does  not  possess  State  railroads, 
yet  her  whole  system  is  under  the  direct  con- 
trol of  the  Government. 

Railroad  construction  in  Switzerland  began 
in  1844. 

Nothing  can  exceed  the  skill  with  which  en- 


Railways. 


1161 


Railways. 


gineering  difficulties  have  been  overcome  on 
all  these  Alpine  lines.  The  St.  Gothard,  which 
was  an  international  undertaking  between 
Switzerland,  Italy,  and  Germany,  is  the  most 
conspicuous  of  these  successes.  It  was  begun 
in  1872  and  finished  in  1880,  and  is  9^  miles  in 
length. 

A  still  greater  piece  of  engineering  work — 
the  construction  of  a  railroad  tunnel  through 
the  Simplon — was  resolved  on  in  1891. 

All  legislation  respecting  the  construction 
and  working  of  railroads,  belongs  to  the  Con- 
federation. 

The  rate  of  speed  is  about  the  same  on  the 
Swiss  railroads  as  on  other  Continental  lines, 
on  most  of  which  29  miles  an  hour  is  regarded 
as  express  rate,  whereas  in  England  nothing 
under  40  miles  an  hour  is  called  ' '  express " 
speed.  But  there  is  more  excuse  for  this  slow- 
ness on  the  Swiss  lines  than  on  Continental 
lines  generally,  the  curves  having  frequently 
to  be  sharper  and  the  grades  greater. 

The  cost  of  the  roads,  up  to  the  end  of  1893, 
was  1,090,103,050  frs.  The  receipts  in  1893 
were  101,482,318  frs.,  and  the  expenses,  60,- 
190,897  frs. 

According  to  the  report  on  Switzerland  of 
the  (English)  Royal  Commission  on  Labor,  the 
wages  of  Swiss  engineers  average  1970  frs., 
guards  from  1080  to  1380  frs.,  and  brakemen 
ooo  to  960  frs. 

G.  RUSSIA. 

September  i,  1895,  Russia  had  in  Russia, 
Poland,  Siberia,  and  Caucasia,  13,506  miles  of 
State  roads,  and  7427  of  private  roads;  in  Fin- 
land, Turkistan,  etc.,  there  were  1487  miles 
more,  with  8106  miles  being  built.  The  Trans- 
Siberian  road  of  4950  miles  it  is  proposed  to 
complete  in  1905,  at  an  estimated  cost  of  150,- 
000,000  rubles.  The  total  capital  spent  on  Rus- 
sian railroads  to  January  i,  1894,  exclusive 
of  Finland  and  the  Trans-Caspian  roads,  was 
2,145,000,000  metallic  r.  ($1,683,750,000). 
The  share  of  the  State  in  private  roads  was 
2,006,000,000  metallic  r.,  or  94  per  cent,  of 
their  total  cost.  In  1893  the  State  paid 
6,497,578  r.  to  private,  and  8,736,223  r.  to  State 
roads.  The  revenue  from  the  State  roads 
was  81,098,371  r.,  but  80,733,350  r.  were  paid 
in  interest  on  borrowed  capital  and  for  pur- 
chasing new  lines.  A  zone  tariff  was  adopted 
in  1894,  and  now  a  journey  of  1989  miles  can 
be  made  for  16  rubles  and  80  copecks.  The 
roads  are  wonderfully  well  kept,  but  the  em- 
ployees, 20  per  cent,  of  whom  may  be  women, 
are  poorly  paid. 

H.  OTHER  EUROPEAN  COUNTRIES. 

Austria  had,  January  i,  1895,  4950  miles 
owned  and  worked  by  the  State,  589  owned  by 
companies  and  worked  by  the  State,  4561 
owned  and  worked  by  companies. 

Hungary  had  6725  State  and  1492  private 
roads. 

The  total  cost  of  the  Austrian  roads  down 
to  1893  was  2,974,905,000  florins.  The  receipts 
of  the  Austrian  roads  in  1893  were  242,072,000 
florins,  and  of  the  Hungarian,  102,591,000  flor- 
ins; the  corresponding  expenses  were  137,142,- 
ooo  and  53,702,000  florins.  See  ZONE  SYSTEM 
for  an  account  of  the  Hungarian  system. 


In  Austria,  according  to  report  on  Austria  of 
the  (English)  Royal  Commission  on  Labor,  en- 
gineers receive  500  florins  and  an  allowance  of 
200  florins  for  house  rent,  guards  and  porters- 
receive  400  florins,  and  an  allowance  of  150  flor- 
ins, besides  uniform,  fuel,  aid  in  sickness,  etc. 

Denmark  in  1894  had  1332  miles  of  road, 
1067  of  this  belonging  to  the  State,  the  cost  of 
which,  up  to  March  31,  1895,  was  190,080,660' 
kroner.  Holland  in  1894  had  1667  miles  of 
railway,  of  which  the  State  owned  891.  The 
State  roads  in  1894  received  19,880,000  guilders 
and  expended  18,244,000.  The  private  roads  re- 
ceived 14,140,000  guilders  and  spent  11,061,000. 
The  total  expenditure  on  the  State  roads  up  to 
1898  was  266,181,000  guilders.  Spain,  January 
i,  1894,  had  6708  miles  of  railway,  all  owned 
by  private  companies,  with  government  gratu- 
ities or  subsidies.  Sweden  at  the  end  of  1894 
had  5734  miles  of  road,  1899  belonging  to  the 
State.  The  receipts  in  1893  were  51,112,740 
kroner,  and  the  expenses  31,987,328  kroner. 
The  total  cost  of  construction  on  State  roads  to 
the  end  of  1893  was  276,839,156  kroner.  Nor- 
way had  in  1890  960  miles  of  State  roads  and 
42  miles  of  private  road.  The  receipts  of  the 
State  roads,  7,607,755  kroner,  and  the  ex- 
penses were  6,303.137  kroner. 

I.    ENGLISH   COLONIES. 

Canada  had  15,768  miles  of  railway  com- 
pleted June,  1894,  with  concessions  for  4000 
miles  more.  The  receipts  in  1894  were  $49,- 
552,528,  and  the  expenses  $35,218,433,  leaving 
a  net  profit  of  $14,334,095  on  a  paid-up  capital 
of  $887,975,020.  The  Cape  of  Good  Hope,  De- 
cember, 1894,  had  2253  miles  of  State  and  188 
miles  of  private  railways.  The  capital  ex- 
pended on  the  State  roads  to  the  end  of  1894 
was  ^20,296,943.  The  earnings  in  1894  were 
^£2,713,735,  and  the  expenses  £1,483,771. 

In  India  and  dependencies  there  are  18,855 
miles  of  railway  :  5377  owned  and  worked  by 
the  State  ;  8767  owned  by  the  State 
and    invested    by    private    com- 
panies;   20,586  worked  by  guaran-       India, 
teed  companies  ;   the  rest  owned 
by  native  States  and  worked  by 
them  or  companies.     Up  to  1895  the  State  had 
spent  on  roads,  including  those  under  survey, 
255,253,039  rs.       The   total  earnings  in   1894 
were  25,508,856  rs. ,  and  the  total  expenditures, 
11,983,920  rs.,  or  96.78  per  cent,  of  the  gross 
earnings. 

In  Australasia  almost  all  the  railways  are 
State  roads.     At  first,  however,  this  was  not 
the.  case.      The  first  roads  were 
private,  but  with  little  capital  at 
their   command.     Unable   to    ob-  Australasia, 
tain  land  grants,  and  with  weak 
credit,    poor     management,    and 
small  traffic,   the  private  roads  one  after  an- 
other fell  into  the  hands  of  the  Government  to 
satisfy  the  claims  which  arose  under  the  guar- 
antee of  interest.     Most  of  the  roads  were  ac- 
quired by  the  Government  soon    after  their 
completion. 

The  first  step  in  the  direction  of  a  State-road 
system  was  the  purchase  of  the  Melbourne t 
Mount  Alexander,  and  Murray  River  Railway 
(running  into  the  gold-mining  regions)  in. 


Railways. 


1162 


Railways. 


1856.  The  Geelong,  Melbourne,  and  other 
roads  followed  soon  after.  In  1857  came  legis- 
lation looking  to  the  continuance  of  railway 
construction  by  the  Government.  But  the 
general  intention  at  that  time  was  to  lease 
the  roads  as  soon  as  possible  to  private  com- 
panies. Despite  abuses  and  mismanagement 
in  the  government  offices  for  the  operation 
and  extension  of  the  roads,  the  advantages  of 
government  ownership  and  operation  became 
clearer  as  time  went  on  ;  so  that  by  1868  the 
State-road  system  may  be  said  to  have  been 
finally  decided  upon. 

The  policy  was  begun  in  Victoria,  but  has 
spread  through  all  Australasia.  Says  Mr.  Dilke 
in  his  Problems  of  Greater  Britain :  "It  has 
now  become  an  axiom  of  Australian  policy 
that  the  State  should  own  all  the  railways  " 
{vol.  i.  pp.  272-273). 

There  have  been  obstacles,  but  they  have 
been  gradually  overcome.  Mr.  Dilke  says : 

"It  is  generally  admitted  in  Victoria  that  there 
-were  many  blots  on  the  system  of  State  control  of 
railways  until  the  appointment  of  a  board  of  three 
commissioners  independent  of  political  influence.  It 
is  confessed  that  the  management  of  a  large  depart- 
ment, spending  a  vast  amount  of  money  upon  labor, 
when  in  the  hands  of  political  ministers,  is  often 
worked  for  political  ends.  'Log-rolling,'  in  the  con- 
struction of  railways  for  private  advantage,  admit- 
tedly existed.  It  was  sometimes  found  in  Victoria 
that  weak  ministries,  clutching  at  straws  to  save 
themselves  from  drowning,  were  willing  to  risk  the 
future  prosperity  of  the  system  for  a  little  temporary 
help  in  the  hour  of  trouble.  Yet,  even  under  political 
management,  the  railways  of  Victoria  seem  not  to 
have  been  badly  managed  on  the  whole,  and  to  have 
given  a  fair  amount  of  satisfaction  to  the  people. 
They  were  worked  at  a  slight  loss,  but  railways  were 
•constantly  being  pushed  out  into  sparsely  peopled 
districts,  and  the  State  was  willing  to  look  forward 
to  the  time  when,  the  population  having  followed  the 
railroads,  the  land  near  them  would  be  well  settled, 
and  the  railroads  no  longer  a  charge  upon  the  State. 
That  time  has  come.  The  commissioners  are  now 
working  the  lines  upon  a  commercial  basis,  and  the 
railway  system  of  Victoria  is  self-supporting ;  the 
average  rate  of  profit  on  capital  expended  having 
reached  4%  per  cent.  The  railways  could  have  been 
made  to  pay  a  better  return  upon  the  capital  invested, 
but  the  object  of  the  State  in  the  colonies  has  never 
been  to  make  money  directly  from  the  railroads,  but 
rather  to  encourage  industry  and  to  render  service  to 
the  people.  Fares  and  freights  have  been  constantly 
lowered,  so  as  to  keep  the  revenue  at  a  figure  which 
would  just  pay  all  expenses.  The  profit  that  would 
•elsewhere  have  gone  into  the  pockets  of  shareholders, 
with  no  check  save  that  supplied  by  the  competition 
of  other,  lines— a  competition  which  in  itself  implies 
the  creation  of  unnecessary  lines,  and  the  sinking  of 
unnecessary  capital— has  in  Victoria  been  converted 
into  a  means  of  lightening  the  load  upon  the  farmers, 
-and  permitting  graziers  at  great  distances  from  Mel- 
bourne to  supply  that  city  with  beef  at  moderate 
prices  "  (vol.  i.  pp.  196-197). 

"  The  railways  are  used  for  the  spread  of  education, 
and  in  New  South  Wales  and  some  other  colonies  the 
school  children  are  carried  free  of  charge.  In  Victoria 
remissions  of  fares  are  made  in  the  case  of  students  in 
the  schools  of  mines  and  in  the  schools  of  design. 
Specially  low  rates  exist  in  all  the  colonies  for 
suburban  traffic.  The  fares  in  the  neighborhood  of 
Melbourne,  for  a  district  nearly  30  miles  across,  are, 
for  single  journeys,  id.  a  mile,  first  class,  and  y^d.  a 
mile,  second  class  ;  and  return  tickets  are  given  at 
zA,d.  a  mile  first  class,  and  l/2d.  a  mile  second  class; 
while  monthly,  quarterly,  half-yearly,  and  yearly 
tickets  are  granted  at  great  reductions  even  upon 
these  low  rates.  The  result  is  a  wonderful  spread  of 
suburban  railroad  traveling,  and  the  custom  in  Vic- 
toria is  so  developed  that,  out  of  the  large  number  of 
persons  working  in  Melbourne  who  come  in  by  train 
•every  day,  a  considerable  proportion  come  to  the 
town  a  second  time  in  the  evening,  to  visit  the 
theaters.  The  lowness  of  railway  fares  in  Victoria 
is  the  more  striking  when  we  remember  that  wages 


are  twice  as  high  for  shorter  hours  as  they  are  in 
England,  and^  that  coal  costs  nearly  twice  as  much. 
No  one  in  Victoria'  now  advocates  private  ownership 
of  railways"  (p.  198). 

Not  everybody  admits  this.  Some  individ- 
ualists claim  that  Australian  State  roads 
have  not  paid,  and  it  is  true  that  they  have 
not  always  paid,  but  this  may  be  because  the 
policy  has  been  pursued  of  low  rates  in  order 
to  develop  the  commerce  of  the  country.  On 
the  whole,  however,  they  have  paid.  The 
following  figures  for  Australasia  are  from  the 
Statesman's  Year  Book  for  1896  : 


'5 

C 

o 

<u 
f, 

a 

"o  *   • 

0  3  g 

u 

jM 

n«r*l  8 

COLONIES. 

o 

°0 

a 
p 

•d 

B 

c  c  > 

• 

i 

c"3 

UJ   in 

> 

a 

'^  >t 

0-ft? 

o 

X 

2_ 

0M 

« 

K 

a,"" 

New  South 

Wales  
New      Zea- 

2,531 

£36,611,336 

£2,878,204 

£1,567,589 

54-46 

land  
Queensland 
South  Aus- 

2,168 
2,379 

16,142,667 
16,469,721 

1,150,852 

732,160 
580,477 

63.62 
62.28 

tralia  

Victoria.  ..  . 
Western 

3,020 

37.558,563 

2,726,159 

1,639,419 

60.00 

Australia. 

1,150 

These  statistics  are  for  financial  years  clos- 
ing in  1894. 

III.  RAILROAD  PROBLEMS. 
Perhaps  the  most  serious  railroad  problem 
in  the  United  States  and  elsewhere  is  the  rela- 
tion of  the  railroad  to  the  State.  A  railroad 
under  present  laws  must  receive  a  charter 
from  the  State,  and  usually  it  looks  to  the 
State  for  valuable  concessions  and  grants, 
which  are  given  because  railroads  are  sup- 
posed to  ard,,  and  beyond  all  possible  doubt  have 
uncalculably  aided,  the  material  development 
of  the  community.  They  are  thus  in  one 
sense  creatures  of  the  State.  In  another 
sense  they  threaten  to  be  masters  of  the 
State  ;  and  this  condition  has  grown,  it  should 
be  remembered,  not  out  of  any  special  evil 
or  tyrannical  intent  or  conspiracy  on  the  part 
of  railroad  corporations,  but  almost  inevitably 
out  of  the  present  situation.  Railroad  busi- 
ness in  perfectly  legitimate  channels  assumes 
vast  proportions  ;  a  charter  or  a 
certain  bill,  or  the  defeat  of  a  cer- 
tain bill,  may  be  worth  to  a  rail- 
road thousands  or  even  millions 
of  dollars.  The  legislators  know 
this.  They  see  an  immense  possi- 
bility for  personal  gain.  Even  a  single  vote 
for  or  against  a  bill  may  be  worth  to  a  rail- 
road corporation  many  thousands  of  dollars, 
for  the  bill  may  turn  upon  a  few  votes,  per- 
haps? upon  a  single  vote.  The  temptation  to 
the  legislator  to  sell  that  vote  and  the  tempta- 
tion to  the  railroad  to  gain  votes  by  direct,  or 
by  indirect  yet  equally  effective  corruption, 
becomes  almost  irresistible  to  average  human 
nature.  In  a  country  like  the  United  States 
especially,  where  the  tendency  has  been  to 
minimize  the  function  of  the  State  and  to 
magnify  the  function  of  the  private  individ- 


The  Nation 

and  the 

State. 


Railways. 


1163 


Railways. 


ual  or  corporation,  government  has  not  as 
.a  rule  attracted  the  best  men  to  its  service. 
Legislators  are  often  composed  of  second  or 
third  rate  men.  Opportunities  for  corruption 
in  public  life,  and  the  very  complexity  and 
frequency  of  elections,  have  attracted  to  it 
politicians  of  the  worst  sort.  They  have  not 
been  superior  to  the  enormous  temptations  to 
grant  franchises  and  other  railroad  legislation 
for  a  consideration.  The  system  once  estab- 
lished, it  has  become  almost  impossible  for 
a  railroad  corporation  to  be  pure,  if  it  desired 
to  be.  To  secure  an  honest  franchise  or 
measure,  honest  means  have  become  well-nigh 
impracticable.  If  one  corporation  will  not 
buy  its  legislation  another  will,  and  the 
honest  corporation  is  handicapped.  Legisla- 
tion goes  to  that  corporation  able  and  willing 
to  give  the  most,  not  to  the  State  or  to  the 
community,  but  to  the  legislature.  The  rail- 
road lobby,  by  no  peculiar  viciousness  of 
railroad  men,  but  by  the  very  necessary  mag- 
nitude of  its  interests,  becomes  the  worst  and 
most  corrupt  lobby.  This  attracts  to  the 
business  the  shrewdest  and  least  conscien- 
tious men.  The  public  denounces  the  railway 
and  the  railway  magnate.  It  forgets  that  the 
men  are  but  the  perfectly  natural  and  almost 
inevitable  result  of  the  situation.  Companies 
are  formed  to  secure  legislation,  and  bills 
introduced,  with  no  thought  of  securing 
action,  biit  to  gain  a  franchise  or  a  grant  to 
be  sold,  or  with  which  to  blackmail  some  exist- 
ing corporation.  The  situation  becomes  com- 
plicated and  corrupt  in  the  last  degree.  For 
some  detailed  evidence,  see  PLUTOCRACY.  Of 
the  United  States,  said  Charles  Francis  Adams 
in  1880 : 

"  I  consider  the  existing  system  nearly  as  bad  as 
any  can  be.  Studying-  its  operations,  as  I  have  done 
long  and  patiently,  I  am  ready  to  repeat  now,  what 
I  have  repeatedly  said  before,  that  the  most  surpris- 
ing thing  about  it  to  me  is  that  the  -business  com- 
munity sustains  itself  under  such  conditions." 

The  report  of  the  Hepburn  Committee  in 
New  York  State  says  of  railroad  abuses,  that 
they  are  "  so  glaring  in  their  proportions  as  to 
savor  of  fiction  rather  than  acual  history." 

Such  conditions  have  occasioned  the  efforts 
for  the  State  to  control  the  railroads.     Inter- 
state commissions  have  been  cre- 
ated, but  these  have  failed  (see 
State  Com-   Section  I.  of  this  article  ;  also  see 
missions.     INTERSTATE     COMMERCE     COMMIS- 
SION).    They  have  often  but  given 
the  occasion,  and  under  the  pres- 
ent system  almost  the  necessity,  of  the  rail- 
roads to  ignore    the    Commission,   to  violate 
the  laws,  or,  more  frequently,  to  secure  repre- 
sentation in  the  legislatures,  and 
sometimes    to    make   restraining 
laws    of    no  effect.       Meanwhile 
other  problems  spring   up.     The 
railways  are  combining.     Finding 
competition   disastrous  and    rail- 
way pools  ruinous,  the  inevitable  result  is  con- 
solidation and  combination. 

The  following  table,  taken  from  the  reports 
of  the  Interstate  Commerce  Commission  for 
the  given  dates,  shows  the  statistics  of  consoli- 
dation : 


Railway 
Combina- 
tions. 


RAILROADS. 

1890. 

1891. 

1892. 

1893. 

1894. 

1895. 

Abandoned  

iS 
34 
5° 
7 

2 

16 
53 
39 

5 

i 

9 

3 

16 

i 
i 

19 
28 
16 
ii 

6 

16 
15 
14 
3 

i 

14 
9 

28 

i 

ii 

Merged  

Consolidated  

No  longer  in  exist- 
ence   

Total  

108 

114 

46 

80 

49 

63 

Thus  in  six  years  460  railways  have  disappeared  as 
separate  roads,  an  average  of  75  a  year.    There  were 

in  1894  only  745  independent  operating  companies.  Nor 
does  even  this  show  the  real  situation,  for  according 
to  the  report  of  1895,  43  roads  in  the  United  States,  or 
scarcely  2  per  cent,  of  the  whole  number  of  railroads 
reported,  owned  100,714  miles  of  road,  or  55  67  per  cent, 
of  the  total  mileage.  Over  one  third  of  the  total 
mileage  had  been  swallowed  up  by  other  roads  in  six 
years  besides  the  large  amount  of  mileage  which  has 
been  "  reorganized,"  and  very  often  virtually  consoli- 
dated in  the  process. 

That  the  tendency  of  the  times,  as  well  as 
the  law,  is  toward  the  still  more  rapid  accu- 
mulation of  the  vast  railroad  interests  in  the 
hands  of  the  few,  is  evidenced  in  the  state- 
ments of  the  most  experienced  of  railroad  man- 
agers themselves.  Mr.  McLeod,  president  of 
the  Reading  Combine,  in  his  testimony  before 
the  committee  of  the  New  York  Legislature, 
admitted  that  the  competition  of  the  roads 
that  were  not  consolidated  with  the  Reading 
was  the  only  thing  that  could  prevent  the 
combine  from  advancing  the  price  of  coal  to 
such  figures  as  its  managers  saw  fit  to  name. 
He  also  emphatically  stated  that  freight  rates 
had  in  no  way  been  regulated  or  interfered 
with  by  the  Interstate  Commerce  Commission, 
and  that  the  logical  consequences  would  be 
that  if  all  the  roads  in  the  country  were  un- 
der the  practical  management  of  one  corpora- 
tion, the  public  would  be  correspondingly 
benefited.  C.  P.  Huntington  recently  ex- 
pressed the  opinion  that  all  roads  in  the  United 
States  should  be  under  the  management  of 
one  syndicate  having  absolute  control.  With 
such  governmental  control  as  we  have  had, 
there  is  nothing,  except  the  will  of  the  railway 
directors,  to  prevent  the  consolidation  of  all 
railroad  interests  under  one  management. 

How  widespread  and  universal  is  the  re- 
straint of  competition  by  railway  corporations 
may  be  seen  by  the  following  pithy  words, 
penned  by  Charles  Francis  Adams,  president 
of  the  Union  Pacific  Railway  : 

"  Irresponsible  and  secret  combinations  among  rail- 
ways always  have  existed,  and,  so  long  as  the  railroad 
system  continues  as  it  now  is,  they  unquestionably  al- 
ways will  exist.  No  law  can  make  two  corporations, 
any  more  than  two  individuals,  actively  undersell 
each  other  in  any  market,  if  they  do  not  wish  to  do  so. 
But  they  can  only  cease  doing  so  by  agreeing,  in  pub- 
lic or  private,  on  a  price  below  which  neither  will  sell. 
If  they  cannot  do  this  publicly,  they  will  assuredly  do 
it  secretly.  This  is  what,  with  alternations  of  conflict, 
the  railroad  companies  have  done  in  one  way  or  an- 
other; and  this  is  what  they  are  now  doing,  and  must 
always  continue  to  do,  until  complete  change  of  con- 
ditions is  brought  about.  Against  this  practice,  the 
moment  it  begins  to  assume  any  character  of  respon- 
sibility or  permanence,  statutes  innumerable  have 
been  aimed,  and  clauses  strictly  interdicting  it  have  of 
late  been  incorporated  into  several  State  constitu- 
tions. The  experience  of  the  last  few  years,  if  it  has 
proved  nothing  else,  has  conclusively  demonstrated 
how  utterly  impotent  and  futile  such  enactments  and 
provisions  necessarily  are." 


Railways. 


1164 


Railways. 


Nor,  economically,  is  the  combination  of 
roads  in  all  ways  to  be  deplored.  No  one  can 
travel  on  small  roads  absorbed  by  large  ones 
without  realizing  that  accommodations  are 
improved,  new  and  better  depots  built,  fares 
at  least  frequently  reduced.  Few  economists 
to-day  look  to  competition  as  the  means  of 
lowering  railway  fares.  In  the  first  place, 
competition,  for  the  large  majority  of  railway 
stations,  cannot  exist.  Says  C.  W.  Baker,  in 
his  Monopolies  and  the  People  : 

"  There  are  now  [1889]  in  the  United  States  about 
37,000  railway  stations  where  freight  and  passengers 
are  received  for  transportation.  Now,  from  the  na- 
ture of  the  case,  not  more  than  10  per  cent,  of  these 
are  or  can  be  at  the  junction  of  two  or  more  lines  of 
railway.  (By  actual  count,  on  January  i,  1887,  8  per 
cent,  of  existing  stations  were  junction  points). 
Therefore,  the  shippers  and  buyers  of  goods  at  nine- 
tenths  of  the  shipping  points  of  the  country  must  al- 
ways be  dependent  on  the  facilities  and  rates  offered 
by  a  single  railway.  Such  rates  of  transportation  as 
are  fixed,  be  they  high  or  low,  must  be  paid,  if  busi- 
ness is  carried  on  at  all.  And  when  we  consider  the 
10  per  cent,  of  railway  stations  which  are,  or  may  be. 
junction  points,  we  find  that  at  least  three-fourths  of 
them  are  merely  the  junction  of  two  lines  owned  by 
the  same  company.  Consolidation  of  railway  lines 
has  gone  on  very  rapidly  within  the  past  few  years, 
and  is  undoubtedly  destined  to  go  much  further.  Of 
the  158,003  miles  of  railway  in  the  country,  about  80 
per  cent,  is  included  in  systems  500  miles  or  more  in 
extent ;  and  a  dozen  corporations  control  nearly  half 
of  the  total  mileage.  The  benefits  which  the  public 
receive  from  this  consolidation  are  so  vast  and  so 
necessary  that  no  one  who  is  familiar  with  railway 
affairs  would  dream  of  making  the  suggestion  that 
further  consolidations  be  stopped  or  that  past  ones  be 
undone.  .  .  . 

"  Assuming  that  the  total  number  of  railway  junc- 
tion points  in  the  United  States  is  3000,  we  find,  on  ex- 
amination, that  at  about  two-thirds  only  two  lines 
meet,  and  at  more  than  half  the  remainder  only  three 
lines  meet.  It  is  plain  that  in  the  vast  majority  of 
cases  where  two  roads  intersect,  and  in  many  cases 
where  three  or  four  come  together,  the  lines  meet 
perhaps  at  right  angles  and  diverge  to  entirely  differ- 
ent localities.  The  shipper  bringing  goods  to  the  sta- 
tion, then,  may  choose  whether  he  will  send  his  goods 
north,  or  east,  perhaps ;  but  only  in  the  few  cases 
where  two  lines  run  to  the  same  point  does  he  really 
have  the  choice  of  two  rates  for  getting  his  produce 
to  market.  Practically,  then,  there  are  not,  and  never 
can  be,  more  than  a  few  hundred  places  in  the  coun- 
try where  shippers  will  be  able  to  choose  different 
routes  for  sending  their  goods  to  market.  We  say 
there  never  can  be,  because  the  building  of  a  line  of 
railway  to  parallel  an  existing  line  able  to  carry  all 
the  traffic  is  an  absolute  loss  to  the  world  of  the  capi- 
tal spent  in  its  construction,  and  a  constant  drain 
after  it  is  built  in  the  cost  of  its  operation.  This  fact 
is  now,  fortunately,  generally  appreciated." 

Competition,  too,  implies  great  waste.  In 
his  Questions  of  the  Day,  Professor  Richard 
T.  Ely,  referring  to  the  building  of  great  rail- 
ways with  closely  paralleled  roads,  makes  this 
point,  and  says  of  two  of  these  roads  alone — 
the  Nickel  Plate  and  the  New  York,  West 
Shore,  and  Buffalo  : 

"  It  is  estimated  that  the  money  wasted  by  these 
two  single  attempts  at  competition  amounts  to  $200,- 
000,000.  Let  the  reader  reflect  for  a  moment  what  this 
means.  It  will  be  admitted  that,  taking  city  and 
country  together,  comfortable  homes  can  be  con- 
structed for  an  average  of  $1000  each.  Two  hundred 
thousand  homes  could  be  constructed  for  the  sum 
wasted,  and  two  hundred  thousand  homes  means 
homes  for  one  million  people.  I  suppose  it  is  a  very 
moderate  estimate  to  place  the  amount  wasted  in  the 
construction  of  useless  railroads  at  $1,000,000,000, 
which,  on  the  basis  of  our  previous  calculations,  would 
construct  homes  for  five  millions  of  people.  But  this 
is  probably  altogether  too  small  an  estimate  of  even 
the  direct  waste  resulting  from  the  application  of  a 
faulty  political  economy  to  practical  life.  When  the 
indirect  losses  are  added,  the  result  is  something 


astounding,  for  the  expense  of  a  needless  number  of 
trains,  and  what  would  otherwise  be  an  excessively 
large  permanent  force  of  employees,  must  be  added. 
Of  course,  nothing  much  better  than  guess-work  is 
possible,  but  I  believe  that  the  total  loss  would  be 
sufficient  to  provide  the  greater  portion  of  the  people 
of  the  United  States  with  homes/' 

Of  this  Mr.  Baker  says  : 

"  But  it  seems  quite  possible  to  make  a  closer  esti- 
mate of  the  wealth  wasted  by  the  construction  of  un- 
needed  railways  than  the  general  one  above.  There 
are  now,  in  round  numbers,  158,000  miles  of  railway  in 
the  United  States.  The  two  lines  named  above  have 
a  total  extent  of  nearly  1000  miles  ;  and  while  they  are 
the  most  flagrant  examples  of  paralleling  in  the  coun- 
try, there  is  no  small  number  of  other  roads  in  various 
parts  of  the  country  which,  except  for  their  competi- 
tion with  roads  already  constructed,  would  never 
have  been  built.  Considering  the  fact  that  the  paral- 
leling has  been  done  in  regions  where  the  traffic  was 
heaviest  and  where  the  cost  of  construction  was 
greatest,  it  seems  a  conservative  estimate  to  say  that 
5  per  cent,  of  the  capital  invested  in  railways  in  the 
United  States  has  been  spent  in  paralleling  existing 
roads.  But  the  total  capital  invested  in  the  railways 
of  the  United  States  is  about  $9,200,000,000;  5  per  cent. 
of  which  is  $460,000,000.  It  is  also  to  be  remembered 
that  this  7500  miles  of  needless  road  has  to  be  main- 
tained and  operated  at  an  average  expense  per  mile 
per  annum  of  $4381,  or  a  total  annual  cost  of  nearly 
$33,000,000.  Taking  Professor  Ely's  estimate  of  $1000  as 
the  cost  at  which  an  average-sized  family  can  be  pro- 
vided with  a  comfortable  home,  and  we  find  that  the 
cost  of  these  unneeded  railways  would  have  provided 
460,000  homes,  sufficient  to  accommodate  2,300,000  peo- 
ple. Say  that  3  per  cent,  of  the  cost  of  these  homes  is 
required  annually  to  keep  them  in  repair;  then  this 
could  be  furnished  by  the  $33,000,000  now  paid  for  the 
operating  expenses  of  needless  railways,  and  an  an- 
nual margin  of  about  $19,000,000  would  be  left,  or 
enough  to  provide  each  year  homes  for  nearly  100,000 
more  people  in  addition.  Of  course,  this  is  merely  a 
concrete  example  of  what  possible  benefits  we  have 
been  deprived  by  wasting  our  money  in  building 
needless  railways. 

"  As  a  matter  of  fact,  the  money  we  have  spent  on 
unprofitable  railways,  as  well  as  those  totally  useless, 
has  wrought  us  an  amount  of  damage  far  in  excess  of 
their  actual  cost.  It  is  generally  agreed  by  financiers 
that  the  periods  of  industrial  depression  during  the 
past  score  of  years  have  been  largely  due  to  excessive 
railway-building;  for,  in  a  period  of  active  railway 
construction,  roads  are  built  whose  only  excuse  for 
existence  is  that  they  will  encroach  upon  the  territory 
of  some  rival." 

Akin  to  this  problem  is  the  question  of  rail- 
way pools  and  railway  discriminations.  The 
history  of  the  early  railway  pools  has  been 
referred  to  above.  Latterly  the  law  has  en- 
deavored to  prevent  pooling,  and  popular  prej- 
udice has  been  strong  against  it. 

The   fifth  section  of  the  Inter- 
state Commerce   Act  attempts  to 
perpetuate  competition  by  making 
it  illegal  for  any  carrier  operating 
over  a  rail  or  rail-and-water  route 
to  enter  into  any  combination  or  agreement 
with  other  carriers  for  the  pooling  of  freights 
or  the  division  of  all  or  any  portion  of  the  gross 
or  net  earnings  from  competitive  traffic. 

The  law  has  been  occasionally  evaded,  but 
has  generally  been  observed,  perhaps  because 
it  has  seemed  impossible  to  bind  the  roads  to 
any  published  rates.  This  year,  however,  the 
Joint  Traffic  Association,  composed  of  32  great 
railroad  systems,  has  effected  an  agreement, 
and  Judge  H.  H.  Wheeler  of  the  Circuit  Court 
Southern  District  Court  of  New  York,  has- 
ruled  that  it  does  not  violate  any  Federal 
statute.  Appeal  will  probably  be  taken  to  the 
Supreme  Court,  and  it  is  uncertain  how  the 
case  will  come  out.  But  it  is  by  no  means 
clear  that  pooling  is  against  the  public  interest. 


Railway 
Pools. 


fiailways. 


1165 


Railways. 


The  New  York  Tribune  quotes  Chauncey  M. 
Depew  on  the  decision,  in  part  as  follows  : 

"  This  is  the  best  agreement  for  the  people,  the  rail- 
roads, the  business  men,  and  every  one  in  general  that 
has  ever  been  effected.  It  helps  the  Interstate  Com- 
merce Commission,  if  they  would  only  see  it. 

"Under  the  old  system  of  cutting  rates,  the  traffic 
was  distributed  unequally,  and  transportation  facili- 
ties were  disorganized.  When  the  railroad  presidents 
of  this  country  took  hold  of  the  matter  last  summer 
they  found  the  country  demoralized  as  far  as  trans- 
portation was  concerned,  and  everything  in  a  chaotic 
condition.  The  cutting  of  rates  was  such  that  a  small 
shipper  could  not  get  the  benefit  of  lower  rates,  but  it 
•was  the  heavy  shipper,  who  shipped  great  quanti- 
ties, that  could  demand  and  get  a  lower  rate.  The 
railroads  suffered,  the  people  suffered,  and  the  whole 
tendency  was  to  build  up  great  trusts  and  tear  down 
the  small  dealer.  By  this  cut  rate  the  heavy  shipper 
•could  undersell  the  man  with  a  small  capital  and  a 
small  business.  The  producer  was  also  in  a  bad 
plight.  He  could  go  but  to  one  market — that  of  the 
trust— and  get  only  what  they  chose  to  pay,  and  the 
trust  in  turn  could  sell  for  what  they  wished.  It  was 
ruinous  to  the  small  but  honest  dealer,  and  bad  for  the 
producer,  and  in  turn  it  was  centralizing  the  capital 
and  trade.  While  the  trusts  do  not  control  the  Inter- 
state Commerce  Commission,  yet  it  was  the  trusts 
that  were  indirectly  behind  this  attempt  to  tear  down 
the  agreement.  It  is  a  good  thing  all  around  that  the 
.agreement  stands.  It  gives  the  railroads  a  fair  and 
•equitable  toll  for  carrying  freight ;  it  gives  the  man 
•with  a  small  business  and  a  small  capital  the  same 
chance  that  any  great  organization  has ;  it  gives  the 
producer  the  chance  to  sell  his  goods  at  a  price  buoyed 
up  by  legitimate  competition,  and  keeps  things  nor- 
mal. The  conditions  are  ironclad  and  will  stand.  It 
is  far  and  away  the  best  thing  for  the  country,  as  far 
.as  transportation  goes,  that  the  country  has  ever 
.seen." 

Mr.  H.  T.  Newcomb  in  the  Political  Science 
Quarterly  for  June,  1896  (p.  203),  says  the  in- 
sertion of  the  clause  against  pooling  in  the 
Interstate  Commerce  Act  "is  now  generally 
considered  to  have  been  a  serious  mistake." 
Nevertheless  there  is  another  side  to  rail- 
way pools.  They  may  prevent  discrimina- 
tions and  so  put  the  small  shipper  on  equality 
with  the  large,  but  usually,  as  a  matter  of 
fact,  they  do  not.  Says  Mr.  Hudson  (Rail- 
ways and  the  Republic,  p.  221):  "  In  practise 
the  pool  simply  strengthens  the  arbitrary  and 
unrestrained  power  of  railway  officials  over 
part  of  their  traffic,  and  thus  facilitates  all 
vital  and  injurious  forms  of  discrimination. 
...  It  is  their  exemption  from  competition, 
too,  which  enables  them  to  establish  arbitrary 
and  unjust  differences  between  shippers  whose 
traffic  is  extended  and  strengthened  by  the 
pool."  He  quotes  the  New  York  Court  of 
Appeals  as  saying  of  a  pool,  "  that  the  freight- 
ers and  passengers  would  be  ill-served  just  in 
proportion  that  carriers  would  be  well  paid." 
Competition  is  regarded  by  few  to-day  as  a 
possible  panacea  for  railway  ills,  but  it  does 
not  follow  that  it  is  safe  to  trust  the  commerce 
of  the  country  to  a  sovereign  and  irresponsible 
private  railway  pool. 

Unjust    discrimination,   however,   between 
shippers  is  a  worse  evil  than  railway  pools. 
Says  Mr.  Hudson  (idem, p.  38):   "Discrimina- 
tion   between  different  localities 
or  c^es  involves  the  daily  exer- 
cise  by  railway  officials  who  ad- 

"  Just   freignt    tariffs    of    a    P°wer 
greater    than  that    possessed  by 

any  civilized  government,  except, 
perhaps,  that  of  Russia."  Mr.  Hudson  in- 
stances rates  against  cities  that  made  it 


cheaper  at  one  time  for  merchants  of  Pitts- 
burg,  in  shipping  freight  to  Texas  or  Califor- 
nia, to  ship  it  first  to  New  York  and  then  to 
the  West.  Butter,  he  says,  was  at  one  time 
charged  65  or  75  cents  per  tub  from  a  point  165 
miles  from  New  York,  and  30  cents  from  Elgin, 
111.,  i ooo  miles  away.  Special  rates  to  favored 
shippers  is  even  a  grosser  evil. 

Says  Mr.  H.  T.  Newcomb  (Political  Science 
Quarterly,  June,  1896,  p.  209) : 

"  Prior  to  the  enactment  of  the  Interstate  Com- 
merce Law  so  common  was  the  practise  of  granting 
special  rates  to  particular  shippers  that  instances  in 
which  full  published  rates  were  charged  have  been 
declared  by  a  high  authority  to  have  been  the  excep- 
tion rather  than  the  rule.  Where  the  traffic  was  of 
great  importance  and  the  competition  between  rival 
roads  exceptionally  strenuous,  each  railway  has  been 
known  to  select  a  particular  shipper,  with  whom  ar- 
rangements for  reciprocal  favors  were  made.  By 
means  of  such  an  arrangement  a  single  firm  was  able 
practically  to  control  for  a  considerable  period  all 
shipments  of  corn  over  a  great  trunk  railway  and  to 
one  of  the  principal  ports  from  which  that  cereal  is 
forwarded  to  foreign  countries.  The  number  of  dis- 
criminations of  this  kind  is  known  to  have  been  mate- 
rially reduced  in  consequence  of  the  operation  of  the 
Interstate  Commerce  Law.  They  continue,  however, 
to  be  one  of  the  most  effective  weapons  in  competition 
for  traffic  between  particular  points,  and  will  be  an 
important  factor  in  the  railway  situation  as  long  as 
competition  is  a  controlling  element  in  rate-making. 
It  is  not  even  certain  that  they  are  not  more  harmful 
now  than  when  more  common  ;  and  it  may  be  found 
that  their  baneful  effects  are  accentuated  by  the  fact 
that  instead  of  being  made,  as  formerly,  for  nearly 
every  applicant,  concessions  from  established  rates 
are  now  granted  only  to  powerful  traders  who  are 
able  to  control  vast  shipments,  and  to  traffic  that 
yields  a  revenue  that  is  of  almost  vital  importance  to 
the  carrying  companies.  That  such  discriminations 
were  a  principal  factor  in  the  development  of  the  pe- 
troleum monopoly,  is  generally  understood.  How  far 
other  great  monopolies,  such  as  those  controlling 
beef  and  pork  products  and  the  sugar  supply,  have 
been  so  favored,  is  problematic,  tho  their  ability  suc- 
cessfully to  demand  such  aid  is  undoubted.  .  .  . 

"  The  whole  region  south  of  the  Potomac  and  Ohio, 
and  east  of  the  Mississippi,  has  continuously  suffered 
from  discriminations  of  this  kind,  through  the  system 
of  making  charges  to  a  few  selected  cities  the  basis 
for  through  rates  to  all  other  points.  Through  rates 
are  made  to  and  from  about  two  hundred  of  the  larger 
towns,  including  Atlanta,  Birmingham,  Chattanooga, 
Meridian,  Vicksburg,  New  Orleans,  and  Mobile,  and 
traffic  shipped  from  or  to  all  other  points  is  charged 
the  rate  to  one  of  these  basing  points  plus  the  local 
rate  from  such  basing  point  to  final  destination." 

Says  the  Hon.  Thomas  M.  Cooley,  formerly 
chairman  of  the  Interstate  Commerce  Com- 


"  When  the  number  of  railroads  which  are  now 
merely  subsidiary  to  other  and  stronger  lines,  either 
through  being  brought  into  the  same  interest  or  from 
being  leased  or  otherwise  effectually  controlled,  are 
left  out  of  account,  there  are  something  like  five 
hundred  in  this  country  still  remaining  whose  boards 
have  the  power  to  make  rates  for  the  carriage  of 
passengers  and  property.  These  boards  are  by  the 
law  left  to  exercise  in  the  first  instance  what  is  prac- 
tically a  free  and  unlimited  authority  in  the  making 
of  rate  sheets.  They  may  make  them  high  or  low, 
just  or  unreasonably  discriminating  as  between  per- 
sons and  property,  or  different  classes  of  property, 
or  between  different  centers  of  trade,  at  pleasure. 
...  It  was  at  first  thought  by  those  who  made  the 
laws  for  the  building  and  management  of  roads  that 
to  leave  the  authority  thus  unrestricted  was  the  best 
possible  condition  of  things  ;  that  it  would  lead  to 
active  competition  in  rates,  of  which  the  general 
public  would  have  the  benefit ;  that  the  competition 
would,  as  a  matter  of  course,  force  the  rates  down  to 
a  reasonable  point ;  in  short,  that  the  competition 
would  act  precisely  as  it  does  in  other  lines  of  busi- 
ness. Experience  has  shown  that  this  idea  of  rail- 
road competition  is  a  mistaken  one  ;  that  it  cannot  be 


Railways. 


1166 


Railways. 


compared  with  competition  in  the  channels  of  com- 
merce in  general ;  that  there  are  no  such  tests  of  the 
value  of  railroad  service  as  can  fix  the  limit  down  to 
which  a  road  may  go  without  inevitable  loss  upon 
its  business  as  an  aggregate  ;  that  it  may  carry  some 
classes  of  its  business  at  impolitic  if  not  in  fact  at 
losing  rates,  and  yet  make  profits  upon  its  whole  op- 
erations by  charging  toother  classes  of  its  business 
rates  which  may  perhaps  seem  excessive  and  yet  can- 
not clearly  be  shown  to  be  so  because  of  the  absolute 
impossibilty  of  making  distinct  apportionment  be- 
tween the  cost  of  service  rendered  to  one  class  and 
that  rendered  to  the  other.  .  .  .  But  so  inextricably 
are  the  railroads  of  the  country  intermingled  in  in- 
terest ;  in  so  many  ways  do  they  form  routes  from 
business  center  to  business  center,  from  the 
Lakes  to  the  Gulf  and  from  ocean  to  ocean ;  so 
easy  is  it  for  almost  any  seemingly  unimportant  road 
to  be  made  a  part  of  some  direct  or  indirect  route 
which  shall  constitute  a  great  channel  of  commerce, 
that  any  considerable  change  in  the  rate  sheets  by  any 
one  of  these  500  boards  is  not  only  likely  to  affect  the 
business  and  the  rate  sheets  of  the  roads  which  are 
its  immediate  rivals,  but  to  reach  out  also  in  its  influ- 
ence from  road  to  road  in  all  directions,  not  over 
small  neighborhoods,  but  from  State  to  State,  until 
what  seemed  to  be  the  action,  and  was,  perhaps,  the 
hasty  and  reckless  action  of  a  mere  local  board  may 
become  almost  of  continental  importance.  .  .  .  This 
then  is  the  railroad  problem."  (Address  to  Third  An- 
nual Convention  of  Railroad  Commissioners.) 

It  should  be  remembered,  however,  that 
railroads  can  often  afford  to  carry  a  commod- 
ity from  a  large  center  at  half  the  price  for 
carrying  the  same  commodity  a  far  less  dis- 
tance from  a  smaller  place.  From  the  center 
cars  are  going  continually,  and  a  commodity 
can  be  carried  on  a  train,  and  perhaps  in  a 
car  that  would  have  to  be  hauled  in  any  case. 
To  carry  the  commodity  from  the  small  place 
means,  perhaps,  an  extra  car  ;  perhaps,  even 
an  extra  train.  It  may  be,  too,  that  empty 
cars  have  to  be  returned  to  certain  central 
points,  and  can  carry  goods  back  in  them  at 
scarcely  any  extra  cost.  This  rarely  happens 
in  small  places.  Similarly,  railroads  can 
afford  to  carry  large  orders  at  cheaper  rates 
than  small  orders.  Discrimination  against 
small  shippers  and  small  places  is  thus  often 
natural,  and  in  this  sense  just.  Competition 
must  favor  the  large  shipper  and  the  central 
point.  The  question  of  railway  discrimina- 
tions, then,  is  more  complex  than  it  at  first 
seems. 

Some  railway  men  even  claim  that  the  real 
railway  problem  is  how  to  earn  anything  at 
all.     Such  men  say  that  the  great 
trouble  with  the  railroad  business 
Bailway     is  the  hostility  of   the  public  in 
Losses.      trying  to  tax  them  more  than  the 
business  will  allow,  and  in  seeking 
through     legislation    to    prevent 
combinations  and  pools,  with  the  result  that 
competitive  rates  drive  them  into  bankruptcy 
or    fraudulent  understandings    and  arrange- 
ments.    Says  Mr.  T.  B.  Blackstone,  president 
of  the  Chicago  and  Alton  Railroad,  one  of  the 
more  conservative  roads,  in  his  Thirty-second 
Annual  Report  (February,  1895,  pp.  10-11)  : 

"  It  is  now  from  30  to  40  years  since  a  majority  of  the 
railroads  of  this  country  were  constructed  by,  and  at 
the  expense  of  corporations,  to  whom  the  several 
'  their  re- 
the  rig 

about  25  years  since  such  States,  especially  in  the 
West,  inaugurated  the  policy  of  reducing  railway 
rates  by  the  instrumentality  of  parallel  and  competing 
lines,  for  which  there  is  not  now,  and  has  never  been, 
a  public  necessity. 


"The  several  States,  by  reason  of  having  authorized 
the  construction  of  such  lines,  are  morally  responsible 
for  conditions  which  have  caused  reasonable  rates  to 
be  unattainable. 

"  Many  laws  have  been  enacted  by  State  legislatures 
and  by  Congress  during  the  last-named  period,  which 
provide  for  rules,  regulations,  and  reduced  rates, 
under  which,  in  combination  with  the  subdivision  of 
traffic  which  has  naturally  been  caused  by  the  con- 
struction of  the  parallel  and  competing  roads,  above 
referred  to,  a  large  majority  of  Western  roads  have 
been  forced  to  bankruptcy.  .  .  . 

"As  to  about  three-fourths  of  the  railroads  in  the 
United  States,  no  comparison  can  be  made  between 
the  amount  of  taxes  and  earnings  available  for 
dividends,  for  the  reason  that  there  are  no  such 
earnings. 

"  From  the  statistics  published  by  the  Interstate 
Commerce  Commission  for  the  year  ending  June  30, 
1893,  it  appears  that  the  owners  of  railroad  stocks,  to 
the  amount  of  more  than  two  thousand  eight  hundred 
and  fifty-nine  millions  of  dollars  ($2,859,334,572),  or 
6i^j  per  cent,  of  all  such  stocks,  received  no  dividends, 
and  that  the  owners  of  more  than  four  hundred  and 
ninety-two  millions  of  dollars  ($492,276,999),  or  lo^  per 
cent,  of  all  railroad  bonds,  received  no  interest  in 
that  year. 

"  We  learn  from  the  same  source  that  taxes  amount- 
ing to  $36,514,689  were  paid  by  railroad  companies, 
which  sum  is  equal  to  36^  per  cent,  of  the  amount  of 
all  dividends  paid  to  railroad  shareholders  in  that 
year,  which  was  a  year  of  at  least  an  average  volume 
of  business  in  all  parts  of  the  country." 

The  report  of  the  Commission  of  December, 
1895,  shows  the  number  of  roads  in  the  hands 
of  receivers.  It  says  : 

"  Never  in  the  history  of  transportation  in  the 
United  States  has  such  a  large  percentage  of  railway 
mileage  been  under  the  control  of  receiverships  as  on 
June  30,  1894.  There  were  on  that  date  192  railways  in 
the  hands  of  receivers,  of  which  126  had  been  con- 
signed to  receivershipsduring  the  previous  12  months, 
and  35  during  the  year  ending  June  30,  1893.  These  192 
roads  may  be  classified  as  follows:  Thirty-one  were 
roads  operating  over  300  miles  of  line  :  37  were  roads 
operating  from  100  to  300  miles  of  line ;  69  were  roads 
of  less  than  100  miles  in  length  ;  4  were  roads  not  in 
operation,  and  the  remaining  51  were  subsidiary  roads, 

Earts  of  systems.  The  mileage  of  line  operated 
y  these  defaulting  companies  was  40,818.81  miles. 
Seventy-eight  per  cent,  of  this  mileage  is  accounted 
for  by  the  31  important  lines,  each  operating  over  300 
miles  of  line.  The  total  capitalization  of  roads  in  the 
hands  of  receivers  was  about  $2,500,000,000 ;  that  is  to 
say,  one-fourth  of  the  total  railway  capitalization  of 
the  country.  This,  as  a  record  of  insolvency,  is  with- 
out a  parallel  in  the  previous  history  of  American 
railways,  except  it  be  in  the  period  from  1838  to  1842. 
It  is  undoubtedly  a  result  of  the  general  business 
depression  through  which  the  country  is  passing." 

There  is,  however,  another  side  to  this.  In 
the  Banker's  Magazine  appears  an  article  on 
Railroads  in  Default,  in  which  the  writer, 
presumably  the  editor,  seeks  to  correct  the 
impression  current  throughout  this  country 
and  Europe  that  a  large  proportion,  not  less 
than  one-third,  of  the  railroads  of  the  United 
States  are  in  default  on  their  bonds.  The 
writer  furnishes  figures  to  show  that  this  im- 
pression is  erroneous,  and  that  the  number  of 
separate  companies  in  default  is  109  out  of  679, 
being  thus  only  16  per  cent,  of  the  steam  rail- 
roads in  the  country,  while  the  total  amount 
of  bonds  now  in  default  is  about  $976,000,000, 
out  of  some  $5,600,000,000  railroad  bonds  out- 
standing in  1894,  or  less  than  17^  per  cent, 
of  the  whole. 

The  following  table  gives  a  summary  of  the 
number  of  roads  classified  territorially  and 
the  amount  of  bonds  in  default. 

It  will  be  seen  that  the  main  roads  in  de- 
fault are  lesser  roads  in  the  South  and  West, 
while  the  large  amount  of  bonds  in  default  are 
the  Pacific  roads. 


Railways. 


1167 


Railways. 


NUMBER 
OF  ROADS. 

AMOUNT 
OF  BONDS. 

New  England  States  

Middle  States  

8 

Middle  Western  and  Western 
States  

Southwestern  States  

Pacific  Railroads  

579,765,000 

Pacific  States  

5 

Grand  Total  

$976,022,865 

Says  the  writer : 

"  On  June  39,  1894,  the  report  of  the  Interstate  Com- 
merce Commissioners  gave  the  railroads  in  receivers' 
hands  at  156,  of  which  106  had  failed  during  1893-94 
and  28  during  the  year  ending  June  30,  1893.  The 
mileage  operated  by  these  defaulting  companies 
was  38,869,  of  which  80  per  cent,  was  operated  by  28 
companies.  .  .  . 

"  In  such  times  of  panic  and  depression  as  this  coun- 
try has  passed  through  during  the  past  two  years 
there  is  an  unfortunate  tendency  to  exaggerate  evils, 
and  to  overstate  figures  purporting  to  represent  the 
extent  of  the  troubles,  especially  in  those  branches  of 
business  where  there  are  no  government  figures,  nor 
any  other  statistics  kept  up  with  a  reasonable  degree 
of  accuracy.  It  may,  therefore,  be  somewhat  reassur- 
ing to  investors  to  know  that  only  about  18  per  cent, 
of  the  United  States  railroad  bonds  are  now  failing  to 
yield  promptly  their  interest  as  it  falls  due,  and  even 
this  overstates  the  case,  for  the  interest  on  quite  a 
number  of  bonds  embraced  in  the  table  above  is  paid 
a  few  months  after  it  becomes  due,  and  the  default  in 
each  instance  is  only  temporary." 

All  the  facts  contradict  the  "  poverty  "  talk 
of  the  roads,  Van  Oss'  American  Railroads 
as  Investments  says  upon  this  point  (pp.  138 
and  139): 

"  The  mere  fact  that  American  railroad  bonds  pay 
an  average  of  4.36  per  cent,  suffices  to  show  that  water 
is  not  detrimental  to  the  investor  of  to-day.  These 
bonds  represent  no  par  investment ;  the  average  price 
at  which  they  reached  the  first  investor  did  not  exceed 
67,  no  matter  what  somebody  who  buys  them  to-day 
must  give  for  them.  Hence  American  bonds  now 
actually  return  an  average  of  6.50  upon  the  real 
investment.  .  .  .  The  above  relates  only  to  bonds, 
but  we  will  show  that  the  same  conclusion  must  be 
arrived  at  concerning  shares.  Shares,  according  to 
Poor's  Manual,  now  pay  1.80  per  cent,  on  the  average 
— apparently  no  high  figure.  .  .  .  But  for  $4,650,000,000 
shares  now  in  existence,  the  original  investors  cer- 
tainly paid  not  more  than  $465,000,000,  or  10  per  cent, 
of  their  face  value,  and  probably  less.  Hence  shares 
now  return  at  least  iS  per  cent .  per  annum  upon  the 
actual  investment.'1'' 

The  italics  are  not  ours.  Mr.  Van  Oss 
writes,  not  as  a  Western  anti-monopolist,  but 
as  an  English  investigator  who  approves  of 
the  methods  by  which  American  railroads 
conceal  their  profits  from  the  general  public. 

When  railroads  fail  it  is  usually  because  of 
speculation,  the  bulling  and  bearing  of  rail- 
road stock,  financial  railroad-wrecking,  or  the 
depreciating  of  stock  in  order  to  buy  it  up, 
etc.,  etc.  Says  Professor  R.  T.  Ely  (The  In- 
dependent, August  28,  1890): 

"  Private  railways  are  to  be  condemned  because 
they  have  been  so  managed  that  they  have  defrauded 
thousands    upon    thousands    of    their 
property.      Bankruptcies     of     railway 
Railway       corporations  are  an  e very-day  occur- 
.     .          rence  ;  and  there  is  not  a  town  of  any 
Speculation.    Si7,e  in  the  United    States  where   you 
cannot  find  people  whose  hard-earned 
savings  have  been  swallowed  by  rail- 
ways ;    often  the  widow  and  orphan    are    sufferers. 
From  1876  to  1889  nearly  450  railways  in  the  United 
States  were  sold  under  foreclosure.    When  one  person 
has  suffered  from  dishonest  or  inefficient  government 


management  of  finances,  100  have  suffered  from  dis- 
honest or  inefficient  management  of  railways. 

"  American  railways  have  frequently  been  managed 
by  those  who  wished  to  bankrupt  them  for  one  pur- 
pose or  another.  I  have  a  concrete  instance  in  mind. 
A  railway  was  recently,  as  was  brought  out  by  certain 
business  transactions,  purposely  losing  something 
like  a  thousand  dollars  a  day  to  bankrupt  it.  It  is 
often  desired  to  bankrupt  a  railway  to  buy  it  in  cheap 
and  to  '  freeze  out '  certain  interests.  Sometimes 
towns,  cities,  and  States  contribute  to  the  expense  of 
railway  construction  and  take  stock  ;  now  if  the  com- 

Eany  becomes  bankrupt  and  is  sold  at  auction  to  the 
ondholders  for  the  amount  of  the  bonds,  the  stock- 
holder is  '  frozen  out '  and  has  lost  his  entire  invest- 
ment. Some  farmers  not  long  ago  took  stock  for  the 
land  they  sold  to  a  railway  company,  and  in  the  fore- 
closure proceedings  all  stockholders  were  'frozen  out/ 
It  was  considered  a  good  joke  !  " 

We  have  not,  however,  exhausted  all  the 
problems  of  the  railway.  Thus  far  we  have 
been  considering  the  relations  of  the  railroads 
to  the  public.  There  is,  however,  the  question 
of  the  relation  of  the  railway  to  its  employees. 
United  States  railroads  have  won,  in  the  first 
place,  an  unsavory  reputation  for  murdering 
their  employees.  If  this  seems  a  strong  phrase , 
it  is  unfortunately  justified  by  the  facts.  For 
proof  of  this,  see  RAILWAY  ACCIDENTS.  Next 
to  the  question  of  the  lives  of  employees  comes 
that  of  the  wages  of  employees. 

Wages  of  railroad  employees  in  the  United 
States  are  higher  than  those  in  Europe,  but 
not  so  much  higher  as  is  sometimes  thought, 
and  not  so  much  higher  as  first  appears.  Ac- 
cording to  the  Report  of  the  Inter- 
state Commerce  Commission  for 
1894,  the  wages  of  engineers  in  Wages, 
the  United  States  were  $3.61  per 
day  ;  of  conductors,  $3.04  ;  of  fire- 
men, $2.03 ;  of  switchmen,  flagmen,  and 
watchmen,  $1.75.  The  Report  of  the  United 
States  Commissioner  of  Labor  for  1889,  com- 
paring English  and  United  States  wages,  says 
the  English  engineer  receives  only  from  $1.34 
to  $1.95  per  day,  and  the  fireman  only  from 
85  cents  to  $1.10  per  day.  This  is  certainly 
lower,  and  yet  deceptive.  According  to  the 
commissioner's  report  itself,  by  no  means  all 
employees  on  American  roads  have  work  all 
the  year.  Fifty-eight  and  eight-tenths  per 
cent,  of  them,  it  says,  were  employed  less  than 
half  the  year.  For  the  58.8  per  cent,  of  em- 
ployees, therefore,  this  would  reduce  their 
wages  more  than  one-half,  or  below  the  English 
rates,  and  reduce  the  wages  of  all  consider- 
ably. Doubtless  English  wages  would  have 
to  be  somewhat  similarly  reduced,  but  by  no 
means  to  the  same  extent.  On  some  English 
roads,  if  an  engineer  is  not  given  60  hours^ 
work  a  week,  he  can  complain  to  the  foreman. 
The  amount  of  employment  is  often  a  more 
serious  question  to  a  wage-earner  than  his  rate 
of  wage.  Other  questions,  too,  come  in — as  to 
general  treatment,  etc.  Most  of  the  great  rail- 
road strikes  of  the  United  States  have  turned 
on  other  questions  than  the  rate  of  wages. 

In  the  United  States,  in  1894,  wages  were 
slightly  lowered,  and  many  employees  dis- 
charged, because  of  the  hard  times,  yet,  at  the 
very  same  time,  the  salaries  of  the  general 
officers  were  raised.  The  Statistics  of  Rail- 
ways m  the  United  States  for  1894  (p.  37), 
published  by  the  Interstate  Commerce  Com- 
mission, gives  the  facts  as  follows  : 


Railways. 


1168 


Railways. 


AVERAGE  DAILY  WAGES. 


1892. 

1894. 

$7.62 

$0.7  1 

1.81 

^.68 

1.67 

i.6q 

In  France,  according  to  a  United  States 
•consular  report,  dated  May  31,  1894,  engine- 
drivers,  on  the  Paris,  Lyons,  and  Mediter- 
ranean road,  as  a  sample  road,  receive  from 
$33  to  $50  per  month  ;  firemen,  from  $23  to 
$28  ;  switchmen,  $21.75,  but  besides  this  the 
company  maintains  a  pension  fund,  to  which 
the  men  contribute  somewhat,  but  the  com- 
pany considerably  more.  English  railways 
have  had  relief  departments  for  their  em- 
ployees since  1850.  In  the  United  States  the 
Baltimore  and  Ohio  road  organized  such  a 
relief  organization  in  1880.  It  was  compulsory 
upon  its  employees,  like  the  Canadian  and 
European  relief  departments.  Since  then  the 
Pennsylvania,  Reading,  and  Burlington  roads 
have  organized  relief  departments,  while  the 
Northern  Pacific  and  Lehigh  Valley,  and  some 
lesser  roads,  have  relief  funds.  The  general 
principle  is  of  a  fund  contributed  to  by  both 
-employees  and  the  roads,  from  which  sick,  ac- 
cident, and  death  benefits  are  paid.  The  four 
great  railways  having  relief  departments  oper- 
ate one-eighth  of  the  total  railroad  mileage 
of  the  country,  and  their  departments  include 
92,275  men,  somewhat  over  one-tenth  of 
the  employees  of  the  _ country.  Some  of  the 
roads  also  maintain  physicians,  hospitals,  etc., 
for  their  men.  By  the  railway  employees' 
•organizations  these  railway  relief  departments 
are  usually  opposed,  as  tending  to  make  the 
employees  too  dependent  on  the  railroads,  and 
preventing  independent  unions,  which  can 
.agitate  for  higher  wages  or  shorter  hours. 

In  no  country  are  the  wages  suited  to  the 
long  hours  often  required.  The  mental  strain 
of  long  hours  of  duty,  where  men  are  kept  con- 
tinually on  the  road,  with  little  or  no  oppor- 
tunity to  rest,  and  the  irregular  hours  for  sleep 
.and  rest,  even  under  the  most  favorable  con- 
ditions, makes  the  life  of  a  railway  employee 
&  hard  one. 

Nevertheless,  in  realizing  these  evils,  the 
reader  should  not  forget  the  good  that  rail- 
Toads  have  accomplished,  and,  above  all,  the 
good  accomplished  by  the  great  through 
roads.  Without  them  modern  commerce 
would  be  impossible.  They  have  developed 
cities  ;  opened  up  large  tracts  of  territory  ; 
turned  deserts  into  gardens.  They  bind 
together  States  and  countries.  They  unite 
friends,  and  are  the  arteries  of  public  life. 

Mr.  Atkinson  calls  Mr.  Cornelius  Vanderbilt 
.a  communist,  because  of  his  service  to  the 
public,  and  says  of  American  railroads  : 

"They  have  reduced  the  cost  of  moving  a  barrel  of 
flour  a  thousand  miles  to  so  small  a  sum  that  it  can 
hardly  be  measured  in  a  loaf  of  bread,  at  a  margin  of 
profit  which  is  less  than  the  value  of  the  empty  barrel 
.at  the  end  of  the  line." 


And  again  : 

"  The  commerce  of  the  world  now  turns  from  one 
side  of  the  globe  to  the  other  on  a  mar- 

fin  of  a  cent  on  a  bushel  of  grain,    a 
ollar  a  ton  of  metal,    a    quarter  of    a    T5priofita  tn 
cent  on  a  textile  fabric,  or  the  sixteenth    *ca 
of  a  cent  a  pound  on  sugar.    A  cube  of     Commerce, 
coal  which  would  pass  through  the  rim 
of  a  quarter  of  a  dollar  will  drive  a  ton 
of  food  two  miles  on  its  way  from  the  producer  to  the 
consumer." 

Yet  in  realizing  what  American  railroads 
have  done,  it  must  not  be  fancied  that  they 
lead  the  world  in  public  service.  American 
freight  rates  are  lower  than  those  of  Europe, 
but  passenger  fares  are  cheaper  in  Europe,  es- 
pecially on  the  State-owned  roads.  Mr.  W. 
M.  Acworth  of  England,  comparing  English 
and  American  Railways  (Paper  16,  in  Com- 
pendium of  Transportation  Theories),  puts 
the  average  third-class  railway  fare  in  England, 
which  is  used  by  the  overwhelming  majority  of 
English  travelers,  and  which  he  considers  fully 
as  comfortable  as  the  average  American  car,  at 
1.8  cents  per  mile,  compared  with  the  American 
average  of  over  two  cents.  On  the  other  hand, 
the  extra  price  for  Pullman  cars  in  America  he 
considers  considerably  lower  than  the  differ- 
ence between  first  and  third  class  fares  in 
England.  Professor  Hadley  gives  in  John- 
son's Cyclopedia,  the  following  average  rates 
for  1887. 


COUNTRY. 

PASSENGER  : 
CENTS   PER 
MILE. 

FREIGHT: 
PER  TON 
PER  MILE. 

United  States  

Great  Britain  

i  8s 

i  -*6 

But  the  average  American  haul  is  127  miles, 
and  the  English  under  25  ;  so  that  terminal  ex- 
penses per  ton-mile  enter  five  times  as  much 
into  the  English  rate  as  the  American.     Be- 
sides, a    large    proportion    of    English    rates 
include  cartage  and  delivery,  even 
of    rough    goods,  which    in  New    pares  an^ 
York  cost  a  dollar  or  two  per  ton. 
Again,  English   rates  are    essen- 
tially  retail,    at   high  speed  and 
frequent      intervals.        American 
rates  are  essentially  wholesale,  at  such  speed 
and  intervals  as  suit  the  railways. 

According  to  United  States  Consular  reports 
dated  in  1894,  railway  fares  in  France  also  are 
cheaper  than  in  America,  and  freight  rates 
higher.  Fares  are,  first  class,  3.6  cents  per 
mile  ;  second  class,  2.6,  and  third  class,  1.6. 
Goods  weighing  under  88  Ibs.  are  charged  8.5 
cents  per  ton  per  mile  ;  up  to  6614  Ibs.,  13.6 
cents  ;  up  to  40,492  Ibs.,  27  cents.  Coal,  timber 
for  building  purposes,  are  charged  2.03  cents 
per  ton  per  mile. 

In  Germany,  fares  on  the  Prussian  state 
roads  are  3.09  cents  per  mile  (first-class)  ;  2.01 
(second  class)  ;  1.29  (third  class);  1.08  (fourth 
class)  ;  wheat  and  flour  cost  for  1000  kilometers 
(621  miles),  $10.99  Per.  ton  ;  iron  plates,  ma- 
chinery, etc.,  $8.61  ;  pig-iron  and  coal,  $5.52. 


Railways. 


1169 


Railways. 


For  one  kilometer,  they  all  cost  20  cents,  vary- 
ing in  proportion  to  the  distance.  Fares  on 
Belgium's  state  roads,  according  to  Professor 
Hadley,  are  the  lowest  in-  the  world,  save 
those  in  India.  Since  Professor  Hadley's  book 
Hungary's  state  zone  system  has  lowered 
rates  there  to  a  marked  degree. 

As  for  the  speed  of  trains,  America  probably 
runs  a  few  of  the  fastest  trains  in  the  world. 
Nevertheless,  one  or  two  English  trains  occa- 
sionally run  faster,  and  the  average  express 
trains  in  England,  with  their  fine 
road-beds  and  lack  of  grade  cross- 
Speed,      ings,  exceed  the  speed  of  American 
expresses.    According  to  Mr.  The- 
odore Voorhees,  General  Superin- 
tendent of  the  New  York  Central  and  Hudson 
River    Railroad    (Paper    17,   Compendium    of 
Transportation  Theories),  that  road  has  one 
train  (the  Empire  State  Express)  which  covers 
440  miles  at  52  miles  an  hour,  but  the  average 
express  between  New  York  and  Chicago,  Bos- 
ton, etc.,  makes  about  41  miles  per  hour,  while 
England  has  many  trains  at  over  50  miles  per 
hour.      On  the  Continent  few  trains  make  40 
miles  per  hour,  while  30  is  nearer  the  express 
average. 

The  following  table  gives  the  comparative 
railway  mileage  of  different  countries  : 


MILES  OF 
RAILROAD. 

MILES  PER 

1000  INHABS. 

Europe  

Australasia  

Total  

418,676 

United  States  

Germany  

27,863 

6.  4. 

Russia  and  Finland  

Great  Britain  and  Ireland 

20,641 

18,268 

5-3 

Austria  Hungary  

British  North  America.  .  . 
The  Argentine  

15,768 
8.^7 

31-1 

Victoria  

New  South  Wales  

-=^y/4 

20.8 

Queensland  

New  Zealand  

South  Australia  

1,822 

IV.  RAILWAY  REFORMS. 

The  ways  in  which  it  is  proposed  to  meet  the 
above  problems  are  very  diverse.  Some  argue 
for  the  maintenance  of  the  present  system,  with 
more  and  wiser  public  control  ;  others,  for  a 
nationalization  of  the  road-beds  of  railways, 
with  private  operation  ;  still  others  for  complete 
nationalization. 

A.  IMPROVED  PRIVATE  MANAGEMENT. 

The  report  of  the  Interstate  Commerce  Com- 
mission for  1895  says  (p.  15)  : 

"The  tendency  toward  railway  federation  is  very 
marked,  and  indicates  a  future  combination  of  carriers 
wielding  such  extraordinary  power  as  to  constitute,  in 
the  estimation  of  many  people,  a  serious  menace  to 
commercial  freedom.  That  power  will  be  deprived  of 
its  principal  danger  if  the  authority  of  the  State  to 
prevent  excesses  and  inequalities  finds  ample  expres- 
sion in  enforceable  methods  for  fixing  the  standard  of 
charges.  The  business  in  which  railway  carriers  are 

74 


engaged  is  a  public  service  of  universal  and  constant 
necessity,  and  public  authority  is  bound  to  see  that 
the  terms  upon  which  that  service  is  rendered  are  not 
burdensome  or  unequal.  This  implies  vastly  more 
than  enforcing  conformity  to  the  published  tariff  and 
the  prevention  of  discriminations  between  persons 
entitled  to  like  treatment ;  it  involves  the  determina- 
tion of  what  the  tariff  shall  be,  due  regard  being  had 
to  the  rights  of  shippers  and  carriers  alike." 

But  see  p.  131. 

"The  Commission  is  not  to  be  understood  as  advo- 
cating at  this  time  an  enlargement  of  the  general 
scope  of  the  act,  or  as  asking  any  radical  change  in  its 
general  structure.  Those  who  have  given  most  re- 
flection to  the  subject  of  government  regulation  are 
aware  that  the  laws  now  in  force  are  more  or  less  ten- 
tative and  experimental,  and  such  persons  anticipate 
that  the  evolution  of  railway  control  by  public  agen- 
cies will  sooner  or  later  result  in  a  more  comprehen- 
sive and  direct  exercise  of  the  power  possessed  by 
Congress  to  regulate  our  internal  commerce.  But  the 
time  has  probably  not  arrived  for  new  departures  in 
this  field  of  legislation,  and  the  Commission  is  careful 
to  confine  its  recommendations  within  the  limits  and 
aims  of  the  original  enactment.  The  distinct  object, 
therefore,  of  the  amendments  now  urged  upon  your 
attention  is  to  give  to  the  statute  the  degree  of  com- 
pleteness and  effectiveness  which  it  was  designed  to 
have,  and  to  provide  the  means  whereby  its  purposes 
can  be  fairly  accomplished.  It  certainly  cannot  be 
believed  that  Congress,  having  once  assumed  to  exer- 
cise a  measure  of  control  over  railway  carriers,  will 
allow  that  control  to  become  ineffectual  by  withhold- 
ing the  legislation  found  necessary  to  secure  the 
results  expected.  We  desire  to  make  it  specially  plain 
that  the  amendments  asked  for  at  this  time  are  in- 
tended simply  to  make  the  substance  of  the  law  mean 
what  it  was  supposed  to  mean  at  the  time  of  its  pass- 
age. Experience  has  demonstrated  the  respects  in 
which  the  statute  is  inadequate,  and  that  demonstra- 
tion discloses,  we  submit,  the  duty  of  Congress  to  cor- 
rect its  proven  deficiencies.  If  the  policy  of  regulating 
railroads  by  public  authority  is  to  be  permanently 
continued,  it  is  obvious  that  laws  should  be  provided 
to  make  that  regulation  efficient  and  useful." 

The  objections  to  this  plan,  however,  are 
numerous,  but  mainly  based  on  the  impossi- 
bility of  controlling  private  railroads.  Says 
the  Hon.  Thomas  V.  Cator  in  a  tract  on  rail- 
roads : 

"  How  then  can  the  public  control  them  without 
owning  them  ?    It  is  idle  to  say  you  will  favor  owner- 
ship by  the  Government  if  control  fails, 
because  every  effort  to  control  them 
has,  and  of  necessity  must,  fail,  until  the    /vhion+in«n 
people  own  and  operate  them.     How    "Djecuons. 
can  you  expect  to  join  such  inconsistent 
things  as  private  ownership  and  public 
control  ?    The  right  to  control,  to  fix  rates,  is  the  very 
essence  of  property  and  of  ownership.     He  who  cannot 
control  does  not  in  fact  own  property.     If  we  seek, 
by  boards,  commissions,  legislatures,  congresses,  or 
courts,  to  frame  methods  and  sources  to  control  rail- 
roads, the  inevitable  law  of  self-interest  will  imme- 
diately induce  the  owner  to  own  also  these  boards  of 
control,  by  which,  as  we  have  seen,  all  such  commis- 
sions, legislatures,  congresses,  and  courts  are  elected, 
packed,  owned  by  that  monopoly." 

Mr.  C.  W.  Davis  says  in  The  Arena  for  Au- 
gust, 1891  : 

"  The  president  of  the  Union  Pacific  tells  us  that 
'The  courts  are  open  to  redress  all  real  grievances  of 
the  citizen.' 

"There  is  probably  no  man  in  the  United  States 
better  aware  than  is  Sidney  Dillon  that  no  citizen,  un- 
less he  has  as  much  wealth  as  the  president  of  the  Union 
Pacific,  can  successfully  contest  a  case  of  any  im- 
portance in  the  courts  with  one  of  these  corporations 
which  make  a  business,  as  a  warning  toother  possible 
plaintiffs,  of  wearing  out  the  unfortunate  plaintiff  with 
the  law's  costly  delays  ;  and,  failing  this,'do  not  hesitate 
to  spirit  away  the  plaintiff's  witnesses,  and  to  pack 
and  buy  juries— retaining  a  special  class  of  attorneys 
for  this  work — the  command  of  great  corporate  rev- 
enues enabling  them  to  accomplish  their  ends,  and  to 
utterly  ruin  nearly  every  man  having  the  hardihood 
to  seek  Mr.  Dillon's  lauded  legal  redress,  and  when 
they  have  accomplished  such  nefarious  object,  the 


Railways. 


1170 


Railways. 


entire  cost  is  charged  back  to  the  public  and  collected 
in  the  form  of  tolls  upon  traffic.' 

"Referring  to  traffic  associations,  and  their  vain 
endeavors  to  keep  the  corporations  within  sight  of 
commercial  ethics,  the  Interstate  Commerce  Commis- 
sion says  :  '  But  the  most  important  provisions  of  the 
law  have  not  so  often  been  directly  violated  as  they 
have  been  nullified  through  devices,  carefully  framed 
with  legal  assistance— here  is  one  of  the  places  where 
the  high-priced  lawyer  gets  in  his  work — with  a  view 
to  this  very  end,  and  in  the  belief  that  when  brought 
to  legal  test  the  device  hit  upon  would  not  be  held  by 
the  courts  to  be  so  distinctly  opposed  to  the  terms  of 
the  law  as  to  be  criminally  punishable.'  " 

There  is  also  serious  reason  to  doubt  whether 
the  courts  will  to-day  allow  the  Government  to 
fix  rates.  Says  Mr.  Cator  in  the  tract  quoted 
above : 

"The  courts  have  emphatically  decided  that  neither 
Congress  nor  the  States,  by  legislation  or  commission, 
can  provide  for  or  put  into  operation  any  schedules  of 
rates  or  tolls  to  bind  a  railway  which  cannot  be  re- 
strained by  injunction,  and  declared  void  either  by  a 
State  or  United  States  court,  if,  upon  hearing,  such 
court  deems  it  unreasonable.  The  courts  say  that  if 
the  schedules  fixed  by  the  power  of  law  are  not,  in  the 
opinion  of  the  court,  reasonable,  then  it  amounts  to  a 
taking  of  private  property  for  public  use  Without  just 
compensation,  and  is  forbidden  by  the  Constitution  of 
the  United  States.  This  has  been  decided  by  the 
Supreme  Court  of  the  United  States  in  the  case  of 
Stone  vs.  The  Farmers'  Company,  116  U.  S.  Rep.,  p. 
307,  and  in  Dow  vs.  Beidleman,  125  U.  S.  Rep.,  p.  680; 
also  in  United  States  Circuit  Court,  in  35  Fed.  Rep. 
880-886  ;  also  by  decisions  of  the  courts  of  last  resort  of 
many  States,  which  are  quoted  in  the  late  case  of 
Water  Works  vs.  San  Francisco,  82  Cal.  Rep.,  p.  286. 
where  it  was  held  that  even  where  the  constitution 
empowered  a  board  to  fix  rates  absolutely,  it  could  be 
restrained  by  the  court  if  it  thought  other  and  higher 
rates  proper. 

"The  final  absolute  decision  of  our  courts,  there- 
fore, is  that  the  power  to  fix  rates  is  in  the  courts,  and 
cannot  be  placed  elsewhere.  What,  then,  is  the  rule 
adopted  by  the  courts?  It  is  this:  That  the  rates  must 
pay— first,  the  interest  on  the  railway  debts;  second, 
all  its  operating  expenses  ;  and  third,  a  fair  dividend 
on  its  capital  stock  as  fixed  or  increased  ;  fourth,  the 
expenses  of  operation  shown  by  the  books  of  the  com- 
pany— because  no  one  is  in  a  position  to  disprove  these 
books,  even  if  falsely  kept,  as  to  operating  accounts. 

"This  amounts  therefore  to  allowing  the  company 
to  fix  its  own  rates,  despite  and  in  defiance  of  any 
attempt  to  regulate.  So  if  the  Farmers'  Alliance  were 
in  possession  of  every  branch  of  government  in  States 
and  nation,  it  would  be  helpless  to  regulate  or  con- 
trol railways.  Every  law  or  schedule  would  be  im- 
mediately stayed  by  the  injunction  of  a  court. 

"  This  was  done  when  Judge  Brewer,  by  injunction, 
forbade  the  State  of  Iowa  to  put  its  schedule  of  rates 
into  operation,  at  the  suit  of  the  Chicago  and  North- 
western Railway  Company.  It  was  done  when  the 
Supreme  Court  of  California  prohibited  the  city  of 
San  Francisco  from  putting  its  schedule  of  water  rates 
into  operation— and  that  such  is  to  be  the  course, 
wherever  control  is  attempted,  is  squarely  asserted 
by  C.  P.  Huntington  in  an  interview  published  in  the 
Bxaminer  &t  San  Francisco  on  April  4,  1892.  When  he 
was  asked  what  would  be  done  if  any  political  action 
should  be  taken  by  the  Merchants'  Traffic  Association 
to  compel  a  reduction  of  rates,  his  answer  was  as 
follows:  'I  will  say  that  the  association  may  or  may 
not  draw  the  company  into  politics.  I  think  not ;  but 
if  the  legislature  of  the  State  passes  acts  tending  to 
destroy  the  value  of  our  property,  we  shall  have  to 
call  for  protection  upon  the  judicial  arm  of  the  Gov- 
ernment.' 

"This  proves  that  henceforth  the  above  doctrine 
established  by  the  courts  is  to  be  the  shield  of  monop- 
olies. They  can  increase  stock  and  bonds  at  pleas- 
ure, so  that  no  income  would  be  so  large  but  that 
they  could  show  that  it  was  required  to  pay  interest, 
operating  expenses,  and  divjdends  They  have  the 
Supreme  Court  of  the  United  States  committed  to  this 
doctrine." 

B.    NATIONALIZED    ROAD-BEDS. 

It  is  proposed  that  competition  be  attempted 
in  another  form  ;  that  the  nation  own  the 
roads,  and,  under  proper  conditions,  allow 


competing  parties  to  run  cars  upon  them, 
treating  our  railroads  exactly  as  highways. 
The  best  plan  for  this  has  been  presented  by 
James  H.  Hudson  in  his  The  Railways  and 
the  Republic.  He  says  in  substance  : 

"  Under  this  plan  the  trains  may  be  owned,  loaded, 
and  forwarded  by  different  carriers,  but  all  trains 
,  would  be  under  the  control  of  a  train  dispatcher.  The 
carrier  wishing  to  run  a  train  of  his  own  could  be 
required  to  run  a  regular  train  on  schedule  time,  or  to 
follow  a  regular  train  with  an  extra,  just  as  extra 
trains  are  now  run  on  every  road  in  the  country. 

"  With  the  right  of  all  carriers  to  transport  freight 
over  any  railroad  fully  recognized,  it  might  be  per- 
missible to  leave  the  movement  of  trains  in  the  control 
of  the  railroad  corporation.  The  company  might  be 
allowed  to  inspect  the  rolling  stock  sent  over  its  road, 
and  to  exclude  all  rolling  stock  that  did  not  meet  the 
requirements  of  safety  and  dispatch. 

"  Even  a  small  capital  could  compete  on  fair  terms 
with  the  greatest.  An  engineer  and  a  conductor, 
being  qualified  and  licensed,  could  buy  a  locomotive, 
and  engage  in  the  business  of  hauling  loaded  cars 
belonging  to  one  or  a  dozen  shippers.  Repeatedly, 
even  now,  more  than  one  railroad  company  have  used 
a  track  jointly  for  a  term  of  years. 

"The  question  of  tolls  under  this  plan  of  free  com- 
petition presents  but  little  practical  difficulty.  The 
toll  should  be  a  reasonable  and  uniform  rate  per  ton 
per  mile  for  freight,  and  per  car  per  mile  for  empty 
cars  ;  such  as  will,  in  the  aggregate,  yield  revenue 
enough  to  repair  and  maintain  the  track,  to  pay  fixed 
charges,  and  leave  a  fair  dividend  upon  the  bona  fide 
capital  invested. 

"If  any  one  carrier,  or  all  the  carriers,  were  to 
grant  special  rates  and  train  accommodations  to  cer- 
tain shippers,  the  shippers  discriminated  against 
could,  by  investing  a  few  thousand  dollars,  secure  the 
carriage  of  their  freight  at  nearly  first  cost.  Any  com- 
munity discriininated  against  by  the  projectors  of  a 
railroad  could  construct  a  short  line  of  its  own  to  the 
discriminating  railroad,  and  freely  use  the  tracks  o.£ 
the  latter.  Whatever  differences  of  rates  arise,  under 
the  natural  and  legitimate  conditions  of  transporta- 
tion, would  remain  under  free  competition.  Whatever 
differences  are  produced  by  the  monopoly  of  the 
railroads  as  carriers  would  be  abolished." 

The  objections  to  this  plan  are  many.     It 
would  produce  most  of  the  evils  of  the  com- 
plete national  ownerships  of  roads, 
without  many  of  its  advantages. 
If  the  nation  owned  and  managed  Objections, 
the  road-beds,  and  controlled  the 
running  of  the  trains,  as  it  would 
have  to,  in  order  to  secure  safety,  it  would 
have  in  its  employ,  and  under  its  control,  vast 
numbers  of  men,  where  all  the  evils  of  political 
corruption  could  creep  in,  and  yet  not  owning 
the  rolling  stock,  and  allowing  any  one  to  run 
trains,  it  would  have  only  a  partial  responsi- 
bility ;  that  is,  less  power  to  prevent  corrup- 
tion.    It  is  hard  to  imagine  conditions  more 
favorable   to   corruption.      Divided  responsi- 
bility is  invariably  the  corruptor's  opportunity. 
Again,  it  would  hardly  be  possible,  under  this 
system,  to  prevent  the  combination  that  pro- 
duces the  evils  of  to-day.     Large  companies 
could  own  large  quantities  of  rolling    stock, 
and  could  easily,  in  a  hundred  ways,  drive  out 
small  competitors.      If  competition    could  be 
easily  and  cheaply  commenced,  it  could  also 
be   easily  and    cheaply   bought  up.     In    the 
very  nature  of  the  case,  to  secure  safety,  speed, 
and  economy,  there  would  have  to  be  such  an 
agreement  as  to  the  dispatching  of  trains  as 
to    make     combination    almost    a    necessity. 
Other  difficulties  could  be  mentioned. 

C.    RAILWAY    NATIONALIZATION. 

A  growing  number  of  persons  favor  com- 
plete railroad  nationalization.  This  is  favored 


Railways. 


1171 


Railways. 


by  socialists,  but  it  is  not  necessarily  socialis- 
tic. (See  SOCIALISM.)  Says  Prof essor  Ely  ( The 
Independent,  August  28,  1890)  : 

"Government  ownership  of  railways  must  be  re- 
garded as  a  part  of  a  general  scheme  for  public 
ownership  of  all  monopolies.  It  is  in  the  direction  of 
individual  liberty,  and  does  not  lead  to  socialism.  It 
may  be  regarded  even  as  anti-socialistic.  It  has 
shown  no  tendency  to  promote  socialism  where  it  has 
been  tried.  It  is,  to  be  sure,  a  part  of  the  scheme  of 
socialists,  but  it  is  likewise  desired  by  many  anti- 
socialists.  It  does  not  of  necessity  mean  centraliza- 
tion of  power,  but  it  is  compatible  with  an  extension 
of  the  sphere  of  States  and  local  political  units." 

There  are  many  arguments  in  favor  of  na- 
tionalizing railroads.  First,  it  would  be 
cheaper.  Professor  Frank  Parsons  says  in  the 
American  Fabian  for  February,  1896  : 

"  The  cheap  transportation  of  persons  and  products 
is  of  the  utmost  importance  to  every  people.  It  means 
an  increase  of  travel  and  traffic,  which  adds  to  intelli- 
gence, sympathy,  freedom,  strength,  safety,  and 
wealth. 

"  Traffic  increases  in  geometric  ratio  with  the  reduc- 
tion of  rates.  Public  enterprise  serves  the  people  at 
cost,  reducing  the  rates  to  the  lowest  practicable  fig- 
ure, while  private  enterprise  keeps  prices  up  to  the 
highest  practicable  limit. 

"  If  the  postal  service  had  been  left  in  private  hands 
we  probably  would  still  be  obliged  to  pay  25  cents  on 
a  letter  or  book,  as  we  do  to  the  private  express  com- 
panies, no  matter  how  small  the  package.  If,  on  the 
other  hand,  the  business  of  the  railroads  had  been 
turned  over  to  the  nation,  freight  rates  and  passenger 
rates  would  have  been  reduced  from  time  to  time,  as 
the  postal  rates  have  been,  and  we  would  now  be  en- 
abled to  ride  at  a  cost  of  one-tenth  of  a  cent  a  mile,  or 
less,  and  send  our  freight  at  one-half  a  cent  per  ton 

Eer  mile.  With  the  increase  of  traffic  which  is  sure  to 
jllow  low  rates,  it  is  probable  that  the  cost  of  trans- 
portation would  fall  even  lower  than  this. 

"  Trains  have  been  run  in  this  country  at  even  a  lower 
cost  than  one-tenth  of  a  cent  a  passenger  mile. 

"  If  the  nation  owned  the  railways  we  could  go  from 
New  York  to  San  Francisco  and  return,  for  a  five- 
dollar  bill.  These  things  would  be  possible,  because 
of  the  great  economies  that  would  be  effected  by  pub- 
lic ownership — economies  that  would  save  the  people 
more  than  half  of  what  they  pay  for  railway  service 
and  reduce  the  actual  cost  of  operation  by  at  least  a 
third.  Here  are  the  items  : 

Savings.  In  Millions.       Authority. 

By  abolishing  all  but  one 
of  the  presidents  with 
their  staffs 25  C.  Wood  Davis. 

By  abolishing  the  high- 
priced  managers  and 
their  staff  s 4  "  " 

By  abolishing  attorneys 
and  legal  expenses....  12  "  " 

By  abolishing  competi- 
tive advertising 5  " 

By  abolishing  traffic 
associations  employed 
to  adjust  matters 
between  competing 
roads 4  M  " 

By  exclusive  use  of  the 
shortest  routes 25  "  " 

By  consolidation  of 
working  depots,  offi- 
ces, and  staffs 20  "  " 

By  uniformity  of  rail, 
cars,  machinery,  etc., 
cheapening  their  man- 
ufacture, etc 5  Parsons. 

By  avoiding  strikes  and 
developing  a  better 
spirit  among  em- 
ployees    10  " 

By  abolishing  railway 
corruption  funds 30  Thomas  V.  Cater. 

By  having  no  rent  or  in- 
terest to  pay 309  Poor's  Manual. 

By  having  no  dividends 
to  pay go  "  " 

By  putting  the  surplus  in 
the  people's  treasury..  20  "  " 


"  Total  savings  by  public  ownership  of  railways,  661,- 
000,000  a  year— a  saving  of  more  than  half  the  $I)2oo,- 
000,000  yearly  paid  to  the  railways  by  the  people. 

Second.     Public     safety     demands     public 
ownership  of  the  railways. 
Says  Professor  Parsons  in  the  same  article  : 

"  It  is  seven  times  as  dangerous  to  be  a  railroad  em- 
ployee in  the  United  States  as  in  Austro-Hungary,  and 
eight  times  as  dangerous  to  be  a  passenger  in  the 
United  States  as  in  Germany.  It  was  less  of  a  risk  to 
your  life  to  enlist  in  the  Union  armies  during  the  Re- 
bellion than  to  enlist  in  the  railway  train  service  of  the 
United  States  to-day.  One  train  man  out  of  12  is  in- 
jured every  year  in  the  United  States,  and  one  out  of 
10  in  the  South.  The  managers  are  too  anxious  for 
dividends  to  care  much  about  buying  safety  couplers 
or  automatic  brakes  for  freight  cars,  or  even  to  pro- 
vide for  the  safety  of  their  crossings.  The  railway 
murders  at  the  crossings  in  Chicago  alone  foot  up  to 
over  400  a  year. 

"  A  railway  strike  is  a  public  calamity  ;  paralysis 
playing  about  the  heart  of  the  nation.  The  great  strike 
of  '87,  destroying  millions  of  property  and  tying  up 
hundreds  of  miles  of  road,  opened  the  eyes  of  the  peo- 
ple to  some  extent,  but  it  took  the  Chicago  strike  to 
show  our  people  the  real  quality  of  the  institution. 
Since  that,  nine  men  out  of  ten  I  talk  with  are  ready  for 
public  ownership.  And  no  wonder  :  that  strike  cost 
the  roads  $5,358,000,  and  the  strikers  $1,739,000. 

"The  interests  of  employees  are  always  better  cared 
for  in  public  employment  than  in  private  employment 
of  similar  nature.  Eighty-five  per  cent,  of  all  railway 
employees  get  less  than  $2  a  day.  Baggagemen  aver- 
age $1.50,  switchmen  the  same,  flagmen  $1.13,  and 
railway  laborers  $1.24.  On  the  other  hand,  Uncle 
Sam's  mail  carriers  get  $600  the  first  year,  $800  the 
second,  and  $1000  the  third,  and  work  but  eight  hours, 
while  railway  men  work  10  to  14,  and  brakemen  often 
16  hours  a  day." 

Third.  Perhaps  the  main  argument  for 
nationalizing  the  railroads  is  that  it  would 
take  out  of  industry  the  great  combined  inter- 
ests that  are  to-day  dominating  commerce  and 
threatening  democratic  institutions.  Says 
the  Interstate  Comrrferce  Commission  Report 
for  1895  (p.  63):  "  Few  persons  appreciate  the 
extent  to  which  railway  corporations  are  en- 
gaging in  business  outside  the  legitimate  serv- 
ice of  transportation."  For  further  statements 
of  how  railroads  control  to-day  the  coal  busi- 
ness, the  oil  business,  the  lumber  trade;  of  how 
they  own  vast  tracts  of  territory  in  the  West, 
and  are  buying  real  estate  in  the  East,  see  arti- 
cles WEALTH;  PLUTOCRACY;  MONOPOLY;  TRUSTS. 
Says  E.  P.  Alexander  in  Railway  Practise ; 
"  The  great  majority  of  the  phenomenal  for-  • 
tunes  of  the  day  are  the  result  of  what  may  be 
called  lucky  gambling.  .  .  .  Wall  Street  is 
its  headquarters,  and  millions  upon  millions 
of  dollars  are  accumulated  there  to  meet  the 
wants  of  the  players.  Railroad  stocks  are  its 
favorite  cards  to  bet  upon,  for  their  valuation 
is  liable  to  constant  fluctuation  on  account 
of  weather,  crops,  new  combinations,  wars, 
strikes,  deaths,  and  legislation.  They  can 
also  be  easily  affected  by  personal  manipula- 
tions." (See  PLUTOCRACY.  For  the  extent  to 
which  they  dominate  and  corrupt  legislation, 
see  the  same  article.)  They  own  many  legis- 
lators and  some  legislatures.  They  control 
Senators,  are  represented  in  the  cabinet,  and 
on  the  judicial  bench.  (For  proof  of  all  these 
statements,  see  PLUTOCRACY.)  They  laugh  at 
the  laws  of  States  and  the  Interstate  Com- 
merce Commission  confesses  that  it  is  power- 
erless  before  them.  (See  INTERSTATE  COMMERCE 
ACT.)  The  one  supreme  reason  for  nationaliz- 
ing railroads,  is  that  control  without  ownership 


Railways. 


1172 


Railways. 


is  impossible,  so  that,  if  the  country  does  not 
own  the  roads,  the  roads  will  own  the  country. 

Says  Professor  R.  T.  Ely  (The  Independent, 
August  28,  1890) : 

"  No  government  railways  in  the  world  are  so  thor- 
oughly in  politics  as  the  American  private  railways. 
You  cannot  turn  in  any  direction  in  American  politics 
without  discovering  the  railway  power.  It  is  the 
power  behind  the  throne.  It  is  a  correct  popular  in- 
stinct which  designates  the  leading  men  in  our  rail- 
ways, railway  magnates,  or  kings.  If  not  already  the 
real  rulers  of  the  country,  they  are  becoming  so  ;  and 
already  in  the  industrial  world  they  wield  a  power 
which  the  ordinary  political  king  does  not  possess.  It 
is  no  wonder  that  they  look  upon  Government  with  a 
certain  contempt ;  for  have  they  not  their  agents  in  all 
departments  or  Government?  The  danger  which  is  to 
be  dreaded  is  that  of  all  despotic  power  ;  .  .  .  but  of  all 
despotisms,  that  which  finds  its  source  in  the  control  of 
indispensable  economic  resources  is  most  dangerous. 
In  other  words,  if  the  ascendency  of  private  railways 
becomes  complete,  it  will  be  worse  than  the  despot- 
isms of  history  in  several  respects.  It  is  more  secret 
and  insidious  in  its  operations.  Its  power  ramifies  in 
every  direction,  its  roots  reaching  counting-rooms, 
editorial  sanctums,  schools,  and  churches,  which  it 
supports  with  a  part  of  its  revenues,  as  well  as  courts 
and  legislatures.  It  is  not  an  open,  avowed  power,  but 
an  underhanded  one,  which  unawares  throws  its  coils 
about  us.  ...  It  can  safely  be  said  that  no  depart- 
ment of  our  Federal  Government  could  long  be  man- 
aged so  dishonestly  as  our  railways.  Public  manage- 
ment is  necessarily  open.  It  comes  before  the  people  ; 
the  minutest  details  are  dragged  into  the  light.  Now 
people  are  afraid  to  say  what  they  know  about  rail- 
ways; but  under  ownership  by  Government  there  is 
always  a  powerful  party,  supported  by  a  strong  press, 
whose  interest  it  is  to  search  out  every  abuse  and 
make  it  appear  even  worse  than  it  is.  Practices  which 
may  now  be  indulged  in  with  impunity  would  then 
send  a  man  to  the  penitentiary.  There  would  not, 
under  public  management,  be  the  same  temptation  to 
dishonesty. 

"  An  elevation  of  the  character  of  our  civil  service 
must  inevitably  result  from  government  ownership  of 
railways.  Private  employment  would  no  longer  offer 
all  the  great  prizes  to  business  talent.  Probably  near- 
ly all  the  present  able  managers,  who  are  in  so  many 
respects  an  admirable  class  of  men,  would  remain  in 
railway  service,  but  they  would  then  exercise  their 
talents  in  the  interest  of  the  public,  and  not  for  private 
interests,  and,  after  all,  public  service  tends  to  en- 
noble character  in  a  morally  sound  community.  Pub- 
lic ownership  would  necessarily  be  the  death  of  the 
spoils  system  in  politics,  for  it  could  not  live  when  its 
real  significance  would  become  so  plain.  All  would 
see  what  the  nature  of  the  spoils  system  is.  Where 
Government  does  most,  as  a  matter  of  fact,  we  find 
the  best  civil  service,  the  least  interference  of  civil 
servants  in  elections,  and  the  greatest  individual  lib- 
erty of  civil  servants.  We  may  expect  something 
like  a  military  organization  of  the  railway  department 
of  the  public  service,  and  that  kind  of  organization  is 
the  one  needed  in  railways.  Private  corporations  seek 
it  and  desire  it  ;  but  it  is  dangerous  in  their  hands, 
and  cannot  be  allowed,  even  if  it  would  prevent 
strikes." 

The  result  of  the  last  national  election  could 
have  been  changed  by  a  change  of  2 1 ,000  votes 
in  California,  Oregon,  North  Dakota,  West 
Virginia,  and  Indiana.  (See  PRESIDENCY.)  That 
enough  political  influence  in  those  States  was 
cast  by  the  railroads  to  secure  those  votes  for 
Mr.  McKinley,  no  one  acquainted  with  the  facts 
will  deny.  We  do  not  refer  of  necessity  to  cor- 
rupt influence,  but  to  the  natural  influence  of 
vast  corporations  employing  so  many  men. 
Railroads  in  the  United  States  employ  directly 
800,000,  and  according  to  O.  D.  Ashley  of  the 
Wabash  Railroad,  railroads  support  and  there- 
fore have  a  controlling  power  over  1,200,000. 
The  federal  armies  of  the  United  States  at  the 
end  of  the  war  numbered  only  1,000,516  men. 
Is  it  safer  to  trust  such  armies  to  the  national 
government  responsible  to  the  people,  or  to 


private  corporations  largely  irresponsible  ?  And 
railroad  corporations  kill.  In  the  terrible  battle 
of  Gettysburg,  2834  Union  men  were  killed  and 
13,713  wounded  ;  in  the  year  1894,  2147  persons 
were  killed  by  railroad  accidents  (1823  of  these 
being  employees,  mainly  brakemen)  and  26,476 
were  injured.  The  main  power  of  the  railroads 
is,  however,  financial.  Their  capitalization,  June 
30,  1894,  was  $10,796,473,813,  or  over  six  times 
the  national  debt.  This  enormous  power  is 
practically  controlled  by  a  few  men  controlling 
a  few  ruling  corporations. 

"In  America,"  says  the  English  writer  Ac- 
worth,  "  the  railway  rate  is  a  matter  of  life  and 
death.  In  America  rates  vary  from  day  to  day 
as  wildly  as  the  price  of  fish  at  Billingsgate. 
An  Oriental  despot,  a  Baber,  or  an  Aurungzebe 
did  not  make  and  unmake  cities  with  more  ab- 
solute and  irresistible  power  than  did  an  Amer- 
ican railway  king. 

"  We  are  told  that  the  American  rail  ways  have 
ruined  the  English  farmer  ;  people  forget  that 
they  have  ruined  the  American  farmer  also." 


Vs^Says  Mr.  Stickney  : 


"  This  power,  like  a  government,  has  authority  to 
make  tar  iff  sand  to  enforce  their  collection.  It  claims 
a  right  which  no  civilized  government  claims,  and  no 
sovereign  has  dared  to  exercise  for  centuries,  'of  re- 
bating a  portion  of  its  tariff,  and  thus  discriminating 
between  its  subjects  in  the  collection  of  its  revenues. 
It  is  safe  to  say  that  if  the  Congress  of  the  United 
States  should  enact  a  law  which  established  on  any 
commodity  one  impost  duty  for  the  city  of  New  York 
and  a  different  duty  for  other  cities,  or  one  duty  for 
one  firm  and  another  duty  for  another  firm,  no  matter 
how  slight  the  difference,  the  people  would  resort  to 
arms,  if  need  be,  rather  than  submit."  (See  A.  B. 
Stickney's  Railway  Problem,  page  31.)  ./ 

Says  Mr.  Bryce  :  *\ 

"These  railway  kiri^s  are  among  the  greatest  men, 
perhaps  I  may  say  are  the  greatest  men,  in  America. 
They  have  power,  more  power — that  is,  more  oppor- 
tunity to  make  their  will  prevail,  than  perhaps  any 
one  in  political  life,  except  the  President  or  the  Speak- 
er, who,  after  all,  hold  theirs  only  for  four  years  and 
two  years,  while  the  railroad  monarch  holds  his  for 
life.  When  the  master  of  one  of  the  great  Western 
lines  travels  toward  the  Pacific  in  his  palace  car,  his 
journey  is  like  a  royal  progress.  Governors  of  States 
and  Territories  bow  before  him :  legislatures  receive 
him  in  solemn  session  ;  cities  and  towns  seek  to  pro- 
pitiate him,  for  has  he  not  the  means  of  making  or 
marring  a  city's  fortunes?"  (Bryce's  American  Com- 
monwealth, ist  ed.,  vol.  ii.,  page  515.) 

Says  Mr.  J.  L.  Cowles  (A  General  Freight 
and  Passenger  Post,  p.  38)  : 

"  According  to  the  Railroad  Gazette  of  March  20, 
1896,  the  New  York,  New  Haven  and  Hartford  Rail- 
road now  owns  all  Southern  New  England,  with  its 
fast-growing  cities,  as  in  fee  simple.  It  has  not  only 
absorbed  our  principal  lines  of  land  transportation  ;  it 
has  also  obtained  nearly  complete  control  of  almost 
every  important  wharf  in  our  chief  New  England  har- 
bors and  of  almost  every  competing  steamboat  line 
that-plies  along  our  coast.  It  has  already  seized  more 
than  one  of  the  trolley  lines  which  were  built  to  secure 
to  local  travel  a  reasonable  service,  at  reasonable  rates, 
and  a  decree  has  gone  forth  from  the  railroad  capi- 
tal, in  the  city  of  New  Haven,  that  not  another  electric 
tramway  shall  ever  be  laid  down  on  any  of  the  high- 
ways which  the  people  of  Connecticut  have  built  and 
which  the  tracks  of  this  road  parallel.  There  is  to  be 
no  avenue  of  escape  from  the  burdensome  taxes  which 
this  corporation  sees  fit  to  levy  upon  its  subjects.  Re- 
cent events  would  seem  to  indicate  that  even  the 
church  is  not  to  be  free  from  its  encroachments. 

"  Henceforth  the  presiding  council  of  this  Imperial 
Railroad  Government  are  to  regulate  all  the  conditions 
of  life  in  New  England.  The  wages  of  New  England 
labor,  the  profits  of  New  England  business,  are  to  be 
determined  by  their  will.  Her  cities,  towns  and  vil- 
lages are  to  wither  and  dry  up  or  to  grow  and  flourish 


Railways. 


H73 


Railways. 


at  their  pleasure.  It  will  be  of  no  avail  for  the  fac- 
tories of  the  interior  to  move  to  the  seaboard,  for  this 
railroad  despotism  rules  the  sea  as  well  as  the  land. 
It  completely  dominates  the  navigation  of  Long  Island 
Sound,  the  great  ship  canal  that  bathes  our  southern 
border.  A  view  taken  from  the  top  of  Bunker  Hill 
monument  will  show  that  almost  every  dock  in  Boston 
Harbor  is  in  its  control.  From  Eastport,  Me.,  to  New 
York  City  the  tariff  laws  of  this  de  facto  consolidated 
government  have  infinitely  more  influence  upon  life 
and  upon  business  than  have  the  tariff  laws  of  Con- 
gress. 

"  Notwithstanding  the  fact  that  the  New  York,  New 
Haven  and  Hartford  Railroad  Company,  with  its  com- 
paratively level  track  and  few  curves,  can  haul  the 
heaviest  loads  at  the  lowest  cost  of  almost  any  road  in 
the  country,  its  average  freight  rate  per  mile  is  among 
the  highest  in  the  country.  It  is  nearly  double  the 
average  rate  in  the  United  States  ;  it  is  more  than 
double  the  average  rate  in  the  Middle  States,  in  Ohio, 
Illinois,  Indiana,  and  Michigan.  .  .  . 

"The  passenger  fares  on  the  various  lines  of  this  con- 
solidated road  are,  in  most  cases,  nearly  as  high  as 
they  were  in  1850,  and  in  some  cases  consolidation  has 
very  much  increased  the  fares." 

These  great  corporations,  too,  are,  as  many 
believe,  one  of  the  great  causes  of  the  develop- 
ment of  other  trusts  and  monopolies.  Says  Al- 
bert J.  Stickney  in  his  Railway  Problem  : 

*^.''A.  railway  manager  finds  it  more  convenient  to 
deal  with  one  man  or  one  corporation  than  to  deal 
with  a  number  of  individuals ;  the  manager  therefore 
comm'ences  operation  by  giving  to  some  enterprising 
party  an  advantage  over  his  neighbor  in  rates.  The 
favored  individual,  of  course,  soon  obtains  a  complete 
monopoly  in  his  particular  trade  ;  rt  may  be  in  the 
product  of  mines  or  of  oil  wells,  of  farms  or  of  fac- 
tories. After  a  time  the  grantees  of  these  monopolies 
become  rich,  and  instead  of  receiving  rebates  as  a 
favor,  they  become  masters  of  the  railways,  and,  by 
playing  one  against  another,  they  practically  dictate 
the  rates  they  pay."  SJ^ 

Says  Mr.  Depew  : 

"They  parcel  the  United  States  out  among  them- 
selves, and  they  send  their  products  by  any  railway 
they  see  fit.  To-day  they  send  it  over  the  New  York 
Central  ;  to-morrow  they  arbitrarily  change  it  to  the 
Pennsylvania  Railroad.  One  of  these  privileged  deal- 
ers, for  instance,  is  able  to  send  5  or  10  cars  of  first- 
class  goods  per  day  from  Chicago  to  New  York.  The 
regular  rate  is  75  cents  per  ioo,  but  in  order  to  get  his 
trade,  the  railways  offer  him  a  rate  of  35'or  40  cents.^ 

Says  Mr.  Cowles  (as  above,  pp.  28-29) : 

"  Taking  a  carload  of  first-class  freight  at  10  tons, 
this  great  firm,  at  a  rate  of  35  cents,  receives  an  ad- 
vantage over  its  competitors  of  $80  per  car,  from  $400 
to  $800  a  day,  and  from  $125,200  to  $250,400  for  the  work- 
ing year  of  313  days,  according  as  it  ships  5  or  10  cars 
a  day.  In  November,  1891,  the  Federal  grand  jury  re- 
turned an  indictment  against  Swift  &  Co.,  dressed-beef 
shippers  of  Chicago,  for  having  received  $30,000  in  re- 
bates in  the  previous  six  months  from  the  Nickel  Plate 
Road  alone.  Is  it  any  wonder  that  in  a  short  time  the 
competitors  of  such  a, firm  are  wiped  out?" 

To  put  such  power  in  private  hands  makes 
talk  of  liberty  in  America  almost  absurd.  On 
the  other  hand,  Mr.  J.  L.  Cowles  shows  how 
cheap  freight  and  passenger  transportation  could 
be  if  the  railroads  were  managed  as  is  the  pos- 
tal service  by  the  nation.  He  says  (Preface, 
xi.-xii.)  : 

"  With  the  transportation  business  pooled  under 
the  control  of  the  post-office,  with  a  demurrage  limit 
of  eight  hours — the  demurrage  limit  of  Holland  and 
Belgium— and  with  trains  sent  from  the  starting  point 
to  destination  over  the  shortest  and  most  level  routes, 
a  uniform  prepaid  rate  of  $i  a  ton  on  box-car  freight 
and  40  cents  a  ton  on  products  carried  in  open  cars 
would  furnish  an  ample  revenue  from  freight  traffic. 
And  is  it  not  also  reasonable  to  believe  that  $i 
would  pay  the  full  cost  of  the  service  for  the  average 
trip  by  ordinary  cars  on  the  fastest  express,  and  that 
five  cents  a  trip  would  meet  the  cost  by  way  trains  ?" 

To  prove  this  he  says  (p.  76)  : 
"  The  essential  facts  to  be  considered  in  the  railway 


/ 


business  are  as  follows :  When  once  a  railroad  is 
built,  trains  must  run,  and  it  makes  very  little  differ- 
ence in  the  cost  of  the  business  whether  the  cars  go  full 
or  empty,  or  whether  a  locomotive  runs  alone  or  with 
a  long  and  heavily  laden  train  behind  it ;  neither  does 
it  make  a  measurable  difference  in  the  cost  whether  a 
part  of  the  train-load  is  left  at  one  station  or  at 
another.  Are  the  rates  so  high  that  only  a  royal  per- 
sonage can  purchase  a  ticket  ?  Then  that  single  indi- 
vidual must  bear  the  entire  expense  of  the  train  that 
carries  him.  On  the  other  hand,  are  the  rates  so 
low  that  ioo  persons  can  avail  themselves  of  the 
opportunity  to  travel?  Then  each  traveler  will  be 
obliged  to  pay  but  a  hundredth  part  of  the  cost  9f  the 
train,  and  that  cost  will  be  increased  only  by  the  inter- 
est and  wear  and  tear  of  one  additional  car  during  the 
trip.  The  expense  of  moving  the  train  will  be  prac 
tically  the  same  in  either  case,  and  it  will  hardly  make 
a  whit  difference  whether  one  passenger  or  all  the 
passengers  leave  the  train  at  the  first  station  at  which 
it  stops  or  go  through  to  the  end  of  the  journey. 
When  "once  a  train  has  started  from  Boston  to  San 
Francisco,  there  is  not  a  man  living  can  tell  the  differ- 
ence in  the  cost  of  running  that  train,  whether  a 
passenger  gets  off  at  the  first  station  out  of  Boston  or 
goes  through  to  the  Golden  Gate.  At  every  station 
some  passengers  will  leave  the  train,  others  will  take 
their  places.  One  traveler  in  1000,  perhaps,  will  go  the 
whole  journey.  .  .  . 

"  Mr.  Wellington  (in  his  Economic  Theory  of  Railway 
Location)  estimates  that  the  addition  of  30  tons  dead 
weight  (and  live  weight  is  no  heavier  than  dead  weight) 
to  a  train  of  five  cars  will  not  increase  the  cost  for 
coal  in  this  country  over  one  cent  a  mile  ;  and  since 
all  the  passengers  that  can  be  squeezed  into  five  cars 
will  not  weigh  30  tons,  it  therefore  follows  that  the 
variation  in  the  haulage  cost  of  a  five-car  train  carry- 
ing 300  or  400  passengers  and  an  empty  five-car  train  is 
but  one  cent  a  mile.  .  .  . 

"Taking  the  entire  expenses  of  an  eight-car  passen- 
ger train,  on  the  New  York,  New  Haven  and  Hartford 
Railroad  main  line,  at  $i  a  mile  (the  cost  of  the  aver- 
age passenger  train  on  that  road  for  the 
year  ending  June  30,  1893,  was  less  than       „     .        . 
98  cents  a  mile),  the  total  cost  for  a  ioo-       vOSl     ( 
mile  trip  is  $100,  or  less  than  20  cents  for      Transpor- 
each  of  its  520  seats  for  the  whole  dis-        tation. 
tance.    The  average  trip  of  the  traveler 
on  this  road,  however,  is  but  17.04  miles, 
so  that  the  average  train  empties  itself  five  and  eight- 
tenth  times  on  a  ioo-mile  journey,  and  therefore  the 
actual  seating  capacity  of  an  eight-car  way-train  on 
such  a  trip  is  over  3000,  and  the  cost  of  each  seat  for 
the  average  ride  of  17.04  miles,  some  of  the  travelers 
going  the  whole  distance,  others  but  from  one  station 
to  the  next,  is  less  than  three  and   one  third  cents  ; 
and  even  if  the  train  is  but  half  filled,  the  cost  per 
passenger  per  trip  is  but  seven  cents.     But  the  modern 
locomotive  can  haul  a  twelve-car  train  on  this  road  at 
almost  the  same  speed  that  it  can  haul  eight  cars,  and 
with  an  additional  expense,  including  extra  brakemen 
and  use  of  the  extra  cars,  of   certainly  less  than  $15 
for  the  ioo-mile  trip,  and  these  cars  will  afford  accom- 
modation for  1500  more  passengers  for  the  average  17- 
mile  ride  at  a  cost  to  the  railroad  of  less  than  one  cent 
for  each  seat. 

"These  figures  are  astonishing  enough,  but  the 
following  statement  made  by  the  conservative  William 
M.  Acworth,  the  highest  railway  authority  in  England, 
goes  far  beyond  my  estimates.  Mr.  Acworth  says 
that  if  a  passenger  who  would  otherwise  have  stayed 
at  home  were  induced  to  go  from  London  to  Glas- 
gow by  the  offer  of  a  first-class  ticket  for  $d  (six 
cents),  the  company  would,  unless  indeed  there  was  no 
first-class  seat  available  on  the  train,  secure  a  net 
profit  of  two  and  three  quarter  pence  (five  and  one 
half  cents),  for  the  remaining  farthing  (one  half  a  cent) 
is  an  ample  allowance  for  the  cost  of  haulage.  The 
exact  figures  in  detail  are  as  follows  :  For  coal,  three 
sixteenths  of  a  penny  ;  the  remaining  one  sixteenth  of 
a  penny  is  more  than  sufficient  to  pay  for  the  extra 
oil,  and  stores,  and  water  consumed,  making  a  total  of 
one  fourth  of  an  English  penny  or  one  half  of  an  Amer- 
ican cent.  Add,  say,  another  half  a  cent  for  the  wear 
and  tear  of  the  seat,  and  you  have  one  cent.  Up  to  the 
capacity  of  the  railway  trains  of  a  country,  the  cost  of 
the  additional  passengers  who  could  be  induced  lo 
travel  by  low  fares  would  not  be  over  one  cent  for  a 
distance  of  410  miles.  (See  "  Taxes  on  Transport,'' 
Nineteenth  Century  Magazine,  January,  1892.)  .  .  . 

"  As  to  freight,  the  Railroad  Gazette  tells  us  that  at 
times  during  the  summer  of  1895  the  New  York  Cen- 
tral and  Hudson  River  Railroad  hauled  grain  from 
Buffalo  to  New  York  (440  miles),  for  3.96  cents  per  ioo 


Railways. 


1174 


Railways. 


Possible 
Freight 
Charges. 


pounds,  less  than  80  cents  a  ton,  and  these  low  rates 
resulting  in  train-loads  of  1800  tons,  60  cars  of  30  tons 
each  earned  for  the  road  over  $3.24  a  train  mile,  or 
more  than  double  the  average  earnings  per  freight- 
train  mile  of  the  country,  $1.55744,  in  1894,  and  far  more 
than  the  earnings  per  mile  of  its  own  average  freight 
train.  It  is  safe  to  say  that  even  now  grain  can  be 
transported  from  Buffalo  to  New  York  over  the  New 
York  Central  and  Hudson  River  Road  for  50  cents  a 
ton  at  a  very  handsome  profit ;  1800  tons  at  50  cents  a 
ton  equals  $900.  The  cost  of  running  the  average 
freight  train  on  this  road  in  1893  was  $1.38654  per 
mile,  and  for  440  miles,  $610.08,  leaving  a  profit  on 
trains  of  1800  tons,  at  50  cents  a  ton,  of  nearly  $300  per 
train  trip. 

"  But  if  this  be  true  now,  what  will  not  be  possible 
with  the  new  locomotives  of  Mr.  Westinghouse,  which 
promise  to  do  the  same  amount  of  work  as  the  present 
engines,  with  but  one  eighth  the  amount  of  fuel  ? . .  . 

"The  statement  of  H.  T.  Newcomb,  in  the  North 
American  Review  of  July,  1896,  that  the  average  freight 
car  of  this  country  now  does  little  over  12  full  days' 
work  in  the  course  of  a  year,  goes  far  in  the  support  of 
these  conclusions.  With  a  reasonable  system  of  classi- 
fication, it  would  seem  possible  to  reduce  the  trans- 
portation tax  on  coal  and  products  of  its  class  to  25 
cents  per  ton  per  haul. 

"  Pour  days  out  of  five  our  freight  cars  lie  absolutely 
idle,  obstructing  side-tracks  and  rotting  under  the  in- 
fluence of  sun  and  wind  and  rain.  They  will  not 
average  73  paying  hauls  a  year,  and 
they  earn  less  than  $590  a  year.  'The 
average  car-movement  of  the  country 
is  absurdly  small,'  says  the  editor  of  the 
Railway  Review,  '  and  it  is  so  mainly 
because  of  the  misuse  of  the  cars  by  the 
railways  themselves.'  The  car  account- 
ant of  the  West  Shore  Road,  Mr.  W.  W. 
Wheatly,  estimates  the  waste  of  capital  m  this  mis- 
used equipment  at  over  $124,000,000,  with  an  interest 
account  or  at  least  $5,000,000  and  an  annual  expendi- 
ture of  about  $10,000,000,  to  say  nothing  of  track  room 
to  hold  them,  locomotives  to  move  them,  and  the 
other  minor  but  necessary  expenses  which  their  exist- 
ence involves.  .  .  . 

"  Our  total  railroad  freight  revenues  for  the  year 
ending  June  30,  1894,  were  $699,490,913,  less  than  $1.10 
per  ton  for  the  638,186,553  tons  handled. 

"If  the  1,205,169  cars  belonging  to  the  railroads  had 
made  but  two  paying  hauls  a  week  in  that  year,  at 
$7  per  car  per  haul,  they  would  have  earned  over  $877,- 
000,000,  and  an  average  load  of  12  tons,  at  an  average 
rate  of  but  60  cents  a  ton,  would  have  produced  $7.20 
per  car. 

"  Is  there  anything  so  very  wild  in  a  plan  that  leaves 
first-class  freight  at  $1.20  a  ton,  second-class  at  80 
cents,  and  the  cheapest  service  at  40  cents  a  ton  ?" 

Of  possible  passenger  fares,  Mr.  Cowles  says  : 

"  The  people  of  the  United  States  take  hardly  half 
as  many  railroad  trips  during  the  year  as  do  their 
English  brethren.  Our  60,000,000  people,  with  their 
170,000  miles  of  railway,  took  less  than  532,000,000  rail- 
way trips  in  1891,  as  against  over  845,000,000  by  the 
English,  with  less  than  half  our  population,  and  with 
less  than  one  eighth  of  the  railway  facilities.  Will 
you  have  the  reason  for  it  ?  Is  it  not  manifestly  due 
to  the  cheap  fares  on  the  English  working  men's  trains 
and  to  their  numberless  excursion  trains?  .  .  . 

"  It  is  to  be  remembered   that  even  now,  with  aver- 
age train-loads  of  but  44  persons,  the  average  passen- 
ger fare  of  the  country  is  but  53  cents,  and  the  same 
locomotive  that  hauls  these  44  persons 
can  haul  500  at  practically  the  same  cost. 
Possible      (The  excursion  trains  on  the  Cleveland, 
Passene-er     Canton>    and      Southern    Railroad,    in 
J;       °         August,   1895,  hauled  700  passengers  at 
.cares,        very  little  more  cost  than  that  of  their 
average  passenger  trains  and  at  practi- 
cally the    same    speed.)    The    average 
passenger  train,  moreover,  can  easily  make  twice  as 
many  trips  during  the  year  as  at  present.   The  present 
average  train-load  of  44  persons  earns  on  its  average 
26.43-mile  trip  about   $23.     A  train   of    100  first-class 
passengers  at  20  cents  a  trip,  and  of  100  second-class 
passengers  at  5  cents  would  earn  $25  in  the  26.43-mile 
journey ;  but  these  rates  would  so  stimulate  the  short- 
distance  travel   that  under  such  conditions  the  train 
would  probably  empty  itself  every  13  miles,  and  the 
return  would  probably  be  nearer  $50  than  $25. 

"  Palace-car  travelers,  we  are  told,  do  not  pay  one 
half  the  cost  of  their  transportation,  and  yet  these  are 
the  travelers  best  able  to  bear  the  burden  of  railway 


expenditure;  their  cars  weigh  at  least  a  third  mere 
than  ordinary  cars  ;  they  cost  a  third  more,  while  they 
carry  hardly  half  as  many  passengers.  Palace-car 
fares  ought  certainly  to  be  from  four  to  six  times  ordi- 
nary fares.  Even  in  this  case,  however,  this  class  of 
fares  will  probably  be  lower  than  they  are  to-day.  If 
palace  cars  and  sleeping  cars  do  not  pay  there  are  two 
reasons  for  it :  first,  the  unnecessarily  high  prices  paid 
by  the  railways  to  such  private  concerns  as  the  Pull- 
man Car  Company  for  the  use  of  its  cars  ;  and,  sec- 
ond, the  fares  which  are  so  high  that  only  one  seat  in 
six,  perhaps,  is  occupied.  Those  whose  'good-will' is 
lightly  regarded  by  our  railway  managers  cannot 
afford  to  travel  in  palace  cars. 

"  It  was  for  the  common  interest,  however,  that  rail- 
ways were  built,  and  the  common  interest  demands 
the  extension  of  the  sphere  of  the  post-office  to  cover 
this  whole  business,  with  passenger  and  freight 
schedules,  something  as  follows  : 


PASSENGER  SCHEDULE. 


Fares  per  Trip. 


Way  trains,  ordinary  or  second-class 

cars ...        $  .05 

Palace  or  first-class  cars        $  .20  to    .30 
Baggage,       per      piece, 
regulation    size    and 
weight    or    less,   per 

railway  trip $  .05 

Baggage,     domicile     to 

domicile,  by  post $  .10  to    .20 

The  objection  most  frequently  raised  to  na- 
tional ownership  is  that  to  put  700,000  people 
into    government    service    would 
give  infinite  opportunity  for  polit- 
ical corruption,    through    the    ap-  Objections. 
pointing  power  and  through  the 
political  power  that  an  unprinci- 
pled administration  might  gain  by  compelling 
its  employees  to  vote  in  one  way.     But  the  ap- 
pointing power   could    be    abolished,  the  be- 
lievers in  nationalizing  the  roads  say,  through 
a  rigid  civil    service,  which    is  to-day  being 
adopted  in  all  government  departments  ;  while 
the  political  danger  might  be  avoided  by  re- 
fusing to  allow  public  employees  to  vote.     If 
there  should  be  evil,  it  must  be  remembered 
that  there  is  evil  to-day  when  private  corpora- 
tions frequently  practically  compel  their  em- 
ployees to  vote  in  one  way.     Says  Mr.  C.  Wood 
Davis  in  The  Arena  for  July,  1891  : 

"The  second  objection  is  that  there  would  be  con- 
stant political  pressure  to  make  places  for  the  strikers 
of  the  party  in  power.  .  .  . 

"That  this  objection  has  much  less  force  than  is 
claimed  is  clear  from  the  conduct  of  the  postal  depart- 
ment, which  is,  unquestionably,  a  political  adjunct  of 
the  administration  ;  yet  but  few  useless  men  are  em- 
ployed, while  its  conduct  of  the  mail  service  is  a  model 
of  efficiency,  after  which  the  corporate-managed  rail- 
ways might  well  pattern.  Moreover,  if  the  railways 
are  put  under  non-partizan  control,  this  objection  will 
lose  nearly,  if  not  quite,  all  its  force." 

Professor  Parsons  sums  up  the  matter  in  a 
word  when,  to  the  objection  that  public  owner- 
ship would  put  the  roads  in  politics,  he  says  : 
"  They  are  in  politics  now,  in  the  worst  possi- 
ble way."  One  advantage  of  public  owner- 
ship would  be  publicity  of  management  and 
of  accounts.  To  day  no  one  knows  about  rail- 
road management. 

The  second  objection  to  nationalized  railroads 
is  that  they  might  be  too  costly.  Says  Mr. 
Davis  on  this  point  : 

"  Possibly  this  would  be  true,  but  they  would  be 
much  better  built  and  cost  far  less  for  maintenance 
and  '  betterments,'  and  would  represent  no  more  than 
actual  cost ;  and  such  lines  as  the  Kansas  Midland, 
costing  but  $10,200  per  mile,  would  not,  as  now,  be 
capitalized  at  $53,024  per  mile  ;  nor  would  the  presi- 
dent of  the  Union  Pacific  (as  does  Sidney  Dillon  in 


Railways. 


Railway  Accidents. 


the  North  American  Review  for  April)  say  that  'A 
citizen,  simply  as  a  citizen,  commits  an  impertinence 
when  he  questions  the  right  of  a  corporation  to  cap- 
italize its  properties  at  any  sttm  whatever,'  as  then 
there  would  be  no  Sidney  Dillons  who  would  be  presi- 
dents of  corporations,  pretending-  to  own  railways 
built  wholly  from  government  moneys  and  lands,  and 
who  have  never  invested  a  dollar  in  the  construction 
of  a  property  which  they  have  now  capitalized  at  the 
modest  sum  of  $106,000  per  mile. 

"The  seventh  objection  to  State-owned  railways  is 
that  they  are  incapable  of  as  progressive  improve- 
ments as  are  corporate-owned  ones,  and  will  not  keep 
pace  with  the  progress  of  the  nation  in  other  respects. 
There  may  be  force  in  this  objection,  but  the  evidence 
points  to  an  opposite  conclusion.  When  the  nation 
owns  the  railways,  trains  will  run  into  union  depots,  the 
equipment  will  become  uniform  and  of  the  best  char- 
acter, and  so  sufficient  that  the  traffic  of  no  part  of  the 
country  would  have  to  wait  while  the  worthless  loco- 
motives of  some  bankrupt  corporation  were  being 
patched  up  ;  nor  would  there  be  the  present  difficulties 
in  obtaining  freight  cars,  growing  out  of  the  poverty 
of  corporations  which  have  been  plundered  by 
the  manipulators,  and  improvements  would  not  be 
hindered  by  the  diverse  ideas  of  the  managers  of  vari- 
ous lines  in  relation  to  the  adoption  of  devices  in- 
tended to  render  life  more  secure  or  to  add  to  the 
public  convenience.  Instead  of  national  ownership 
being  a  hindrance  to  improvement  and  enterprise,  the 
results  in  Australia  prove  the  contrary,  as  in  Victoria 
the  government  railways  are  already  provided  with 
interlocking  plants  at  all  grade  crossings,  and  one 
line  does  not  have  to  wait  the  motion  of  another,  but 
all  are  governed  by  an  active  and  enlightened  policy 
which  adopts  all  beneficial  improvements,  appliances, 
or  modes  of  administration  that  will  add  either  to  the 
public  safety,  comfort,  or  convenience." 

The  third  objection  is  that  it  would  cost  the 
people  too  much  to  buy  the  roads.  To  this 
those  who  favor  the  nationalization  of  roads 
answer  that  it  need  not  cost  the  people  a  dol- 
lar. Says  Professor  Ely  (in  the  article  quoted 
above): 

"  Existing  lines  should  be  purchased,  and  a  good, 
fair  price,  to  be  settled  by  arbitration,  ought  to  be 
paid.  There  is  no  reason  why  an  attempt  should  be 
made  to  get  this  property  for  less  than  its  present 
value  ;  on  the  contrary,  there  is  every  reason  why  a 
just  price  should  be  paid.  The  Government  should 
build  parallel  lines  only  in  case  an  honest  price  is  re- 
fused. Thus  the  railways  could  be  brought  to  terms. 
A  sinking  fund  to  repay  the  bonds  issued  must  be  a 
part  of  any  scheme  of  government  purchase,  and 
charges  for  freight  and  passenger  traffic  should  be 
high  enough  to  pay  all  expenses  and  make  payments 
to  the  sinking  fund,  and  should  be  reduced  from  time 
to  time  to  prevent  a  surplus.  It  is  interesting  to  no- 
tice that  in  Prussia  the  financial  success  of  govern- 
ment ownership  has  surpassed  anticipations." 

Professor  Ely  believes  in  paying  a  good 
price  for  the  roads  ;  firstly,  in  justice  to  the 
stockholders,  who  have  honestly  bought  rail- 
road stock  ;  secondly,  from  reasons  of  expedi- 
ency, in  that  a  contrary  policy  would  throw 
the  interests  of  present  railroad  corporations, 
as  well  as  the  stockholders,  so  strongly  against 
railroad  nationalization  that  it  is  doubtful  if 
the  measure  could  be  carried  save  by  revolu- 
tion. Most  nationalizers  agree  with  this  view. 
Even  so,  however,  the  purchase  would  cost 
the  country  nothing,  as  the  railroads  would 
earn  enough  to  more  than  pay  interest  on  the 
purchase. 

Some,  however,  favor  more  radical  methods 
of  purchase.  They  at  least  believe  that  the 
Government  should  be  very  careful  what  it 
pays  for  the  railroads,  since  so  much  of  their 
present  valuation  is  watered. 

According  to  Mr.  Henry  V.  Poor,  in  Poor's 
Manual  of  Railroads  for  1884,  the  average 
cost  per  mile  of  the  railroads  in  the  United 


States  did  not  exceed  $30,000.  Accepting 
that  estimate,  the  178,708  miles  in  the  United 
States,  according  to  the  report  of  the  Inter- 
state Commerce  Commission  of  December, 
1895,  represented  $5,361,240,000,  instead  of 
$10,796,473,813.  That  is,  the  capitalization  was 
more  than  one-half  water. 

If  the  Government  bought  the  roads  at  their 
cost  value  by  issuing  bonds,  and  paid  interest 
at  3  per  cent,  on  the  bonds,  the  annual  charge 
would  be  $160,000,000.  In  the  depressed  year 
ending  June  30,  1894,  the  gross  earnings  of  the 

roads  were $1,073,361,797 

and  the  gross  expenses 731,414,322 

leaving $341,947,475 

Subtracting  the  interest  from  this,  the  nation 
could  pay  the  interest  on  the  bonds  and  clear 
$180,000,000  a  year,  which,  applied  to  a  sink- 
ing fund,  would  pay  off  the  principal  in  30 
years  and  enable  the  nation,  without  a  dol- 
lar's expense,  to  have  a  net  income  of  $340,- 
000,000  annually.  This  is  based  on  the  de- 
pressed profits  of  1894,  and  makes  no  allowance 
for  economy  through  nationalization,  which  is 
estimated  above  at  hundreds  of  millions  of 
dollars,  and  makes  no  allowance  for  putting 
the  sinking  fund  at  interest. 
References:  C.  F.  Adams,  Jr's.,  Railroads,  their 


guments,  and  Testimonies,  before  Congressional  and 
other  committees;  A.  T.  Hadley's  Railroad  Trans- 
portation (1885) ;  J.  F.  Hudson's  The  Railways  and 
the  Republic  (1886);  Poor's  Manuals ;  Ex-President 
Stickney's  Railway  Problems ;  reports  of  the  Inter- 
state Commerce  Commission,  etc.,  etc.;  Compendium 
of  Transportation  Theories  (1893) !  George  Findlay's 
Working  and  Management  of  an  English  Railway '(1891); 
J.L.Cowles'^4  General  Freight  and 'Passenger  Posf(i8g6) 

RAILWAY  ACCIDENTS.— In  the  year 
closing  January  30,  1894,  there  were  killed  in 
the  United  States  by  railway  accidents,  324 
passengers  and  1823  railway  employees;  3034 
passengers  were  injured  and  23,422  employees. 
One  out  of  every  156  employees  was  killed  and 
one  out  of  every  12  injured.  One  passenger 
was  killed  out  of  every  1,668,791  carried,  or 
one  for  each  44,103,228  miles  traveled,  and  one 
passenger  injured  for  every  178,210  passen- 
gers, or  one  for  each  4,709,771  miles.  In  Great 
Britain  in  1894,  479  employees  were  killed  and 
2711  injured,  or  one  for  every  796  and  every 
140  employees.  That  is,  it  was  five  times  as 
safe  to  be  a  railroad  employee  in  Great 
Britain,  as  far  as  life  was  concerned,  and 
eleven  times  as  safe  as  far  as  life  and  limb 
were  concerned.  And  this  was  a  favorable 
year  for  the  United  States,  due,  says  the  re- 
port of  the  Interstate  Commerce  Commission, 
from  which  the  facts  for  the  United  States  are 
taken,  partly,  it  is  hoped,  to  the  increased 
use  of  safety  appliances,  but  partly  to  the 
decreased  number  of  men  employed.  Ha- 
zell's  Annual  for  1896,  from  which  our  facts 
for  Great  Britain  are  taken,  says  :  "Relative 
to  the  total  train  movement,  the  railways 
of  the  United  Kingdom  have  in  six  years 
killed  about  four  and  one-half  times  fewer 
passengers  than  those  of  the  United  States, 
but  our  lines  cost  something  like  five  times  as 
much  to  construct."  This  is  not,  however,  to 


Railway  Accidents. 


1176 


Railway  Employees. 


say  that  railroad  fares  or  running  expenses  in 
England  are  so  much  more  than  in  the  United 
States.  (See  RAILWAYS.) 

In  Belgium,  under  State  management,  only 
93  passengers  and  employees  have  been  killed 
by  collisions  or  derailments,  from  1835-91, 
2032  have  been  killed  in  stations,  and  1062  have 
lost  their  lives  by  being  run  over;  3187  in  56 
years — less  than  in  the  United  States  in  twj 
years.  As  the  United  States  has  about  five 
times  as  many  miles  of  road  for  her  population 
as  Belgium  has  for  hers,  3187  accidents  in  Bel- 
gium would  be  equivalent  to  about  16,000  in 
the  United  States,  so  that  Belgixim  has  killed 
in  56  years,  proportionately,  what  the  United 
States  has  in  eight  years  ;  both  employees  and 
passengers  taken  together.  For  employees 
alone,  the  figures  are  far  worse. 

In  France,  according  to  the  Annuaire  de 
rEconomique  Politique,  there  were  killed  on 
French  railways,  in  1893,  514  persons  to  the 
United  States  34,556  in  that  year. 

The  United  States  has  about  four  times  as 
many  miles  of  road  for  her  population  as 
France  has  for  hers,  so  that  514  accidents 
in  France  correspond  to  2056  in  the  United 
States. 

Germany  in  1889-90,  according  to  the  report 
on  Germany  of  the  (English)  Royal  Commis- 
sion on  Labor,  killed  i  employee  to  every  500 
on  her  railways  to  the  United  States  I  for 
every  156  in  the  favorable  year  of  1894. 

The  cause  for  these  enormous  differences  is 
that  the  railroads  of  Europe  are  far  better  built 
than  those  of  the  United  States,  far  better 
manned,  and  far  more  carefully  managed. 
The  only  advantage  on  the  part  of  the 
United  States  is  that  her  roads  cost  less  to 
build  and  have  cheaper  freight  rates. 

As  far  as  passengers  are  concerned,  the 
safety  in  England  as  compared  with  America 
is  mainly  due  to  the  absence  in  England  of 
grade  crossings  and  the  general  adoption  of 
the  block  system,  which  is  now  being  intro- 
duced in  the  United  States.  As  far  as  em- 
ployees are  concerned,  the  slaughter  of  men  in 
the  United  States  is  mainly  of  brakemen,  who 
couple  freight  cars  with  inadequate  and  anti- 
quated couplings.  In  1894  only  27  per  cent,  of 
the  freight  cars  of  the  United  States  had  auto- 
matic couplers,  and  only  22  per  cent,  train 
brakes. 

RAILWAY  EMPLOYEES'  ORGANIZA- 
TIONS.— Under  this  head  we  consider  the 
organizations  of  railway  employees  of  all  kinds, 
from  the  conservative  Brotherhood  of  Locomo- 
tive Engineers  to  the  American  Railway  Union. 
The  first  railway  men  to  organize  were  the 
engineers.      After  early  ineffectual  efforts  at 
organization,    May  8,    1863,    12   engineers    at 
Detroit  formed  a  Brotherhood  of 
the   Footboard,   which   has  since 
Brotherhood  grown  into  the  Brotherhood  of  Lo- 
of          comotive  Engineers.     By  August 
Locomotive  a  Grand  National    Division  was 
Engineers,  organized,  with  W.  D.  Robinson, 
sometimes   called   the   Father  of 
the  Brotherhood,  as  Grand  Chief 
Engineer.     The   first  strike    of  the   Brother- 
hood took  place  in  1864,  on  the  Fort  Wayne 


and  Chicago  road,  and  was  defeated.  In  1864. 
the  name  Grand  International  Brotherhood  of 
Locomotive  Engineers  was  adopted.  In  1866 
The  Locomotive  Engineers'  Journal  was  es- 
tablished, and  in  the  ensuing  years  various  or- 
phans' and  disabled  members'  funds.  In  1872 
the  Brotherhood  voted  to  expel  all  members  en- 
gaging in  a  strike  without  the  direction  of  their 
divisions.  In  1874  Mr.  P.  M.  Arthur  (q.  v.)  was 
chosen  chief  of  the  Brotherhood,  and  has  held 
the  office  down  to  the  present  time.  His  policy 
has  been  to  manage  the  Brotherhood  on  purely 
"  business  "  principles,  strictly  in  the  interests 
of  its  members  alone,  and  not  to  unite  with 
any  other  labor  organization  unless  it  could  be 
shown  directly  for  the  interests  of  the  Brother- 
hood. This  policy  has  often  gained  for  him 
the  hostility  of  other  organizations  and  the 
praise  of  business  men  for  his  conservatism. 
Nevertheless  the  Brotherhood  has  had  a  num- 
ber of  strikes.  The  Brotherhood,  as  its  records, 
abundantly  show,  first  exhausts  all  pacific 
means,  and  then  stops  the  trains  at  such  hours 
as  to  cause  as  little  inconvenience  as  practicable 
to  the  traveling  and  business  public.  The 
Brotherhood  has  been  generally  successful  in 
securing  a  compliance  with  its  requests  with- 
out much  delay.  Sometimes  the  struggle  has 
been  protracted,  the  officials  refusing  at  first 
to  even  recognize  the  Brotherhood.  But  event- 
ually they  have  been  compelled  to  do  so.  In  a 
few  instances  strikes  have  been  unsuccessful, 
owing  usually  to  the  assistance  rendered  by 
other  companies.  In  commenting  on  the  result 
of  one  strike,  which  cost  the  company  at  least 
half  a  million  dollars,  Chief  Arthur  said  : 

"  It  is  not  the  money  that  has  been  paid  the  engineers- 
that  has  bankrupted  so  many  railroads.  It  is  the  pecu- 
lation, fraud,  and  mismanagement  of  those  high  in 
authority.  If  all  the  legitimate  earnings  of  the  rail- 
road companies  found  their  way  into  their  treasury, 
they  could  afford  to  pay  their  employees  liberal  wages 
and  declare  a  fair  dividend  to  their  stockholders." 

According  to  the  third  biennial  report  of  the 
Minnesota  Bureau  of  Labor  Statistics  (p.  335), 
the  Brotherhood  has  paid  out  through  its 
mutual  life  assurance  associations,  from  the 
organization  of  this  fund  in  1867  to  March  31, 
1892,  $3,778,169.  In  1892  the  receipts  of  the 
Brotherhood,  with  about  33,000 members,  were 
$118,663,  and  its  disbursements  $82,270,  the 
grand  dues  of  the  Brotherhood  being  $2  per 
year. 

In  1868  the  Order  of  Railway  Conductors  of 
America  was  organized  at  Mendota,  111.      It 
has  a  mutual  insurance    depart- 
ment   which     in     1890    received 
$724,317    for  4680  members,  and        Other 
paid    out    $680,078.       The    total     Railway 
membership  of  the  order  in  1890    Organiza- 
was  15,769.  tions. 

The  Brotherhood  of  Locomotive 
Firemen  was  organized  in  an  old 
car-shed  at  Port  Jervis,  N.  Y.,  December  i, 
1873.     By  1877  there  were  78  lodges,  but  its 
growth  was  checked  by  the  railroad  strikes  of 
that  year.     (See  STRIKES.)     It  has  since,  how- 
ever, grown.     It  has  now  472  lodges,  and  a 
strong  insurance  system,  with  26,000  members, 
in  1892.     Its  official  head  is  F.  P.  Sergeant  of 
Terre  Haute,  Ind. 


Railway  Employees. 


1177 


Reclus,  Jacques  Elise'e. 


The  first  lodge  of  Railroad  Trainmen  was 
organized  September  23,  1883,  at  Oneida, 
N.  Y.  By  1885  it  had  nearly  7000  members, 
and  20,409  members  in  1890. 

The  Switchmen's  Railroad  Aid  Association 
of  North  America  was  organized  in  Chicago  in 
1886,  and  had  6453  members  in  1891. 

All  of  these  organizations  have  well-man- 
aged insurance  departments. 

The  American  Railway  Union  is  a  new  or- 
ganization, and  much  more  radical  than  the 
others.  It  was  organized  in  Chicago,  June  20, 
1893,  under  the  lead  of  Eugene  V.  Debs  (a.  v.). 
The  report  of  the  Commission  on  the  Pullman 
strike  (see  PULLMAN)  says  of  this  union  : 

"  The  theory  underlying  this  movement  is  that  the 
organization  of  different  classes  of  railroad  employees 
(to  the  number  of  about  140,000)  upon 
the  trade-union  idea  has  ceased  to  be 
m^  useful  or  adequate  ;  that  pride  of  organ- 

ization, petty  jealousies,  and  the  con- 
American     flict  of  views  into  which  men  are  trained 
Railway      in  separate  organizations  under  differ- 
TTninn          en^  leaders,  tend  to  defeat  the  common 
union.        object  of  all,  and  enable  railroads  to 
use    such   organizations   against    each 
other  in  contentions  over  wages,   etc.; 
that  the  rapid  concentration  of  railroad  capital  and 
management    demands   a    like    union    of    their    em- 
ployees for  the  purpose  of  mutual  protection  ;  that 
the  interests  of  each  of  the  850,000  and  over  railroad 
employees  of  the  United  States,  as  to  wages,  treat- 
ment, hours  of  labor,  legislation,  insurance,  mutual 
aid,  etc.,  are  common  to  all,  and  hence  all  ought  to  be- 
long to  one  organization  that  shall  assert  its  united 
strength    in    the    protection    of   the  rights  of  every 
member.  .  .  . 

"  In  the  American  Railway  Union  there  are  depart- 
ments of  literature  and  education,  legislation,  coopera- 
tion, mediation,  insurance,  etc.  The  organization 
consists  of  a  general  union  and  of  local  unions.  The 
general  union  is  formed  by  representatives  of  local 
unions,  who  elect  a  board  of  nine  directors  quadren- 
nially. This  board  has  authority  to  'issue  such  or- 
ders and  adopt  such  measures  as  may  be  required  to 
carry  out  the  objects  of  the  order.'  Any  ten  white 
persons  employed  in  railway  service,  except  super- 
intendents, etc.,  can  organize  a  local  union.  Each 
local  union  has  its  board  of  mediation,  and  the  chair- 
men of  the  various  local  boards  upon  a  system  of 
railroads  constitute  a  general  board  of  mediation  for 
that  system. 

"  The  constitution  provides  that : 
"  All  complaints  and  adjustments  must  first  be  taken 
up  by  the  local  union  ;  if  accepted  by  a  majority  vote, 
it  shall  be  referred  to  the  local  board  of  mediation  for 
adjustment,  and,  if  failing,  the  case  shall  be  submit- 
ted to  the  chairman  of  the  general  board  of  mediation  ; 
failing  in  which,  they  shall  notify  the  president  of 
the  general  union,  who  shall  authorize  the  most  avail- 
able member  of  the  board  of  directors  to  visit  and 
meet  with  the  general  chairman  of  the  board  of  medi- 
ation and  issue  such  instructions  as  will  be  promul- 
gated by  the  directors. 

"  Under  these  provisions  it  is  claimed  that  no  strike 
can  be  declared  except  by  order  of  a  majority  of  the 
men  involved." 

The  union  is  said  to  number  about  150,000. 
(For  an  account  of  the  relation  of  the  A.  R.  U. 
to  the  Pullman  strike,  see*  PULLMAN  STRIKE.) 

Such  are  the  main  organizations  of  railway 
employees  in  the  United  States.  There  are 
others,  and  there  are  continual  efforts  to  get 
these  organizations  to  unite,  but  as  yet  no  per- 
manent union  has  been  effected.  At  times  of 
strikes  they  often,  however,  act  together.  (See 
STRIKES.) 

The  great  English  railway  employees'  or- 
ganizations are  the  Amalgamated  Society  of 
Railway  Servants,  and  the  Railway  Workers' 
Union. 

The  former,  established  in  1872,  is  a  trade 


friendly  society  of  the  old  type,  with  high  dues- 
and  extensive  benefits.  It  had  30,000  mem- 
bers in  1891.  The  latter,  established  in  1889  as 
a  rival  to  the  Amalgamated,  represents  the 
new  trade-unionism.  It  voted,  November, 
1890,  "  That  the  union  shall  remain  a  fighting 
one,  and  shall  not  be  encumbered  with  any 
sick  or  accident  fund." 

Besides  these  is  the  Associated  Society  of 
Locomotive  Engineers  and  Firemen,  estab- 
lished in  1880,  and  with  7000  members.  (See- 
also  FRANCE;  GERMANY.) 

RAILWAY  STRIKES.    See  STRIKES. 

RAU,  KARL  HEINRICH,  was  born  in 
Erlangen  in  1792.  In  1818  he  became  professor 
at  Erlangen,  and  in  1832  at  Heidelberg. 
From  1837  to  1840  he  was  in  the  first  chamber 
of  the  Grand  Duchy  of  Baden,  and  later  a 
counsellor  of  the  Duchy.  He  died  in  1870. 

His  Lehrbuch  der  Politischen  Oekonomie 
(1864)  was  until  1874  recognized  in  Germany 
as  an  authority,  and  almost  an  encyclopedia 
in  economic  studies. 

RECEIVERS  are  persons  appointed  by 
the  courts  to  receive  rents,  issues,  or  profits 
of  land,  or  other  property  which  is  in  question, 
between  the  parties  to  a  litigation,  or  which 
belongs  to  one  who  is  legally  incompetent,  as 
an  infant.  They  are  appointed  in  justice  as  a- 
benefit  for  all  concerned.  Railroad  receivers- 
are  given  power  which  receivers  of  all  cor- 
porations are  not,  since  railroad  corporations 
are  of  quasi-public  character.  They  are  al- 
lowed to  borrow  money  to  conduct  the  railroad. 
But  this  trust  is  not  unfrequently  abused. 
Says  the  Report  of  the  Interstate  Commerce 
Commission  for  1894  (1895),  (pp.  84-85)  :  "  The 
conduct  of  many  receivers  in  the  management 
of  railroad  property  justifies  such  reliance  in. 
a  very  slight  degree." 

RECIPROCITY  in  trade  is  an  agreement 
made  between  two  countries,  whereby  they 
agree  to  make  reciprocal  or  equivalent  reduc- 
tions in  the  duties  on  certain  articles.  This 
policy  has  been  considerably  advocated  in  the 
United  States,  and  prominently  by  James  G. 
Elaine.  By  the  third  section  of  the  act  of 
Congress  of  1890,  called  the  McKinley  act,  it 
was  provided  that,  "with  a  view  to  secure 
reciprocal  trade,"  sugars  not  above  16  Dutch 
standard,  molasses,  coffee,  and  hides  should 
be  admitted  into  the  United  States  free  of 
duty,  unless  the  President  should  become 
satisfied  that  reciprocal  favors  will  not  be 
granted  to  the  products  of  the  United  States." 
Arrangements  of  this  character  were  con- 
cluded with  Brazil,  Honduras,  Salvador, 
Guatamala,  Nicaragua,  Austria-Hungary,  Ger- 
many, Spain  (for  Cuba  and  Porto  Rico),  and 
Great  Britain  (as  to  British  Guiana  and  cer- 
tain of  the  British  West  Indies).  These  ar- 
rangements were  superseded  by  the  tariff  act 
of  August,  1894. 

RECLUS,  JACQUES  ELISEE,  was  born 
at  Sainte  Foy  la  Grande  in  1830,  and  studied 
in  Rhenish  Prussia,  and  at  Berlin.  Coming  to 


Reclus,  Jacques  filisee. 


1178 


Referendum  and  Initiative. 


Paris,  his  exteme  republican  views  caused 
him  to  leave  the  country  after  the  coup  d'etat 
of  December  2,  1851.  Till  1857  he  traveled 
in  England,  Ireland,  the  United  States,  and 
New  Granada,  and  in  1857  returned  to 
Paris,  and  published  his  geographical  re- 
searches. He  wrote  various  scientific  works, 
contributing,  however,  as  well  to  anarchist 
and  radical  journals.  Taking  part  with  the 
Paris  Communards  in  1871,  he  was  arrested, 
and  tho  defended  by  eminent  scientists,  was 
sentenced  to  transportation  for  life,  a  sentence 
afterward  changed  to  one  of  banishment. 
Going  to  Switzerland,  he  was  admitted  to  the 
benefits  of  amnesty  in  1879.  In  1882  he  ini- 
tiated the  anti-marriage  movement,  his  two 
daughters  marrying  without  religious  or  civil 
ceremony.  In  1892  he  was  appointed  profes- 
sor of  comparative  geography  at  the  University 
of  Brussels.  The  first  volume  of  his  Geographic 
Universelle  was  published  in  1875,  the  seven- 
teenth in  1891.  His  main  anarchist  writings  are 
Anarchy  by  an  Anarchist  (1884),  and  Evolu- 
tion and  Revolution  (1891).  In  1878  he  wrote 
to  a  congress  of  anarchists  at  Freiberg  :  "  We 
are  revolutionaries  because  we  desire  jus- 
tice. .  .  .  Progress  has  never  resulted  from 
mere  peaceful  evolution.  .  .  .  We  are  anar- 
chists who  recognize  no  one  as  our  master.  .  .  . 
There  is  no  such  thing  as  morality  without 
liberty.  .  .  .  We  are  also  International  Col- 
lectivists,  for  we  are  aware  that  the  very  ex- 
istence of  human  beings  necessarily  implies  a 
certain  social  grouping." 

RED  CROSS  SOCIETY,  THE,  was  or- 
ganized in  Europe,  at  Geneva,  in  Switzer- 
land, in  1866  ;  in  the  United  States  in  1884. 
Its  organization  in  Switzerland  was  due  to  the 
efforts  of  Mr.  Henri  Dunant.  The  name 
comes  from  its  flag,  a  red  cross  on  a  white 
field. 

"It  is  a  confederation  of  relief  societies  in 
different  countries,  the  aim  of  which  is  to 
ameliorate  the  condition  of  sick  and  wounded 
soldiers  in  time  of  war  ;  and  its  operations 
extend  over  nearly  the  entire  civilized  world." 
This  is  from  the  original  constitution  of  the 
society  in  Europe.  In  this  country,  compara- 
tively exempt  from  the  danger  of  war,  its 
scope  is  enlarged.  The  constitution  contains 
an  article  in  that  of  no  other  of  the  39  nations 
organized  under  this  treaty.  It  is  "  that  our 
society  shall  have  for  one  of  its  objects  aid  to 
the  suffering  in  times  of  great  national  calam- 
ities, such  as  floods  and  cyclones — visitations 
to  which  we  are  peculiarly  liable — great  fires, 
pestilence,  earthquake,  local  famines."  Its 
work  has  been  almost  exclusively  in  line  of 
these  calamities. 

During  our  Civil  War  the  first  organized 
work  in  this  line  commenced,  and,  with  Miss 
Clara  Barton  at  its  head,  did  noble  service  in 
alleviating  the  suffering  of  the  sick  and 
wounded.  It  was  not,  however,  until  after 
the  close  of  our  war,  when  Miss  Barton,  broken 
in  health,  was  ordered  to  Europe  to  recuper- 
ate, that  the  question  of  our  joining  in  the 
Red  Cross  movement  with  foreign  nations 
was  seriously  considered.  A  committee  of  the 
•"International  Society  of  Switzerland,"  the 


original  society,  waited  upon  Miss  Barton  to 
ask  why  our  country  held  aloof  from  the  Red 
Cross  movement.  She  had  not  before  heard 
of  it,  became  very  much  interested,  and,  as 
soon  as  possible  after  her  return  to  the  United 
States,  presented  the  matter  to  the  Govern- 
ment, and  it  was  favorably  acted  upon. 

Twelve  great  national  calamities  have 
claimed  the  services  of  the  Red  Cross  in  the 
United  States.  After  the  great  forest  fires  of 
Michigan  came  the  floods  in  Ohio  and  Missis- 
sippi in  1882  ;  the  Mississippi  cyclone  ;  the 
floods  of  1884 ;  the  Virginia  epidemic  ;  the 
Texas  drought ;  the  Charlestown  earthquake  ; 
the  Mount  Vernon  (Illinois)  cyclone  ;  and  the 
great  Johnstown  disaster.  The  society  also 
ministered  to  the  peasants  of  Russia  during 
the  great  famine  there,  and,  at  this  writing, 
Miss  Barton  is  in  Turkey,  aiding  the  Arme- 
nians, tortured  and  plundered  by  the  Turks. 
As  soon  as  a  calamity  becomes  known,  the 
president  of  the  society  and  her  associate 
helpers  start  for  the  scene  of  the  disaster, 
taking  with  them  supplies  of  every  sort — food, 
clothing,  materials,  and  tools  for  building, 
household  utensils,  etc. 

REFERENDUM  AND  INITIATIVE, 
THE. — For  the  general  principles  involved  in 
the  Referendum  and  the  Initiative,  and  for  the 
reasons  for  their  advocacy,  see  DIRECT  LEGIS- 
LATION. 

The  Referendum  may  be  defined  in  general 
as  the  referring  of  legislation  to  the  people  for 
final  rejection  or  acceptance  ;  the  Initiative,  as 
the  giving  to  the  people  the  right  of  proposing 
legislation  to  be  acted  upon. 

According  to  the  Referendum,  as  it  is  now 
generally  advocated,  no  law,   save  a  strictly 
defined  class  of  urgent  measures  for  the  public 
peace,  health,  and  safety,  which  require  a  two- 
thirds    or    three-quarters     majority   to    pass, 
would  go  into  effect  without  wait- 
ing a  fixed  time,  say  90  days.     If, 
during  this  time,  a  part  of  the  vot-  Definitions, 
ers,  say  10  per  cent. ,  sign  a  petition 
for  the  Referendum  on  that  law, 
it  would  not  go  into  effect  till  the  next  regular 
election,  when  the  people  would  vote  on  it, 
and  if  a  majority  voted  no,  it  would  not  be  a 
law. 

By  the  Initiative,  if  a  certain  percentage  of 
the  voters,  say  10  per  cent.,  sign  a  petition  for 
a  law  and  file  it  with  the  proper  official,  it  must 
come  before  the  legislature,  and  perhaps  be 
referred  to  the  people.  Sometimes  the  law 
requires  that  legislation  be  referred  to  the  peo- 
ple, whether  they  petition  for  it  or  not.  This 
is  called  the  compulsory  Referendum.  Where 
the  Referendum  is  taken  only  when  a  certain 
number  petition  for  it,  it  is  called  the  optional 
Referendum.  Together  the  Referendum  and 
the  Initiative  furnish  direct  legislation. 

Says  Mr.  J.  W.  Sullivan  (Direct  Legisla- 
tion, p.  17)  : 

"There  is  a  radical  difference  between  a  democracy 
and  a  representative  government.  In  a  democracy, 
the  citizens  themselves  make  the  law  and  superintend 
its  administration  ;  in  a  representative  government,  the 
citizens  empower  legislators  and  executive  officers  to 
make  the  law  and  to  carry  it  out.  Under  a  denwcracy, 
sovereignty  remains  uninterrupedly  with  the  citizens, 


Referendum  and  Initiative. 


1179 


Referendum  and  Initiative. 


r  rather  a  changing  majority  of  the  citizens  ;  under  a 


ULjiei    wuius,  uciiiuuiacy  i&uueuL  i  uie  uy  me  majority, 

while  representative  government  is  rule  by  a  succes- 
sion of  quasi-oligarchies,  indirectly  and  remotely  re- 
sponsible to  the  majority." 

Says  Mr.  W.  D.  McCrackan  ( The  Swiss  Ref- 
erendum} : 

''This  Swiss  Referendum  must  not  be  confounded 
with  the  French  plebiscite,  and  deserves  none  of  the 
odium  which  attaches  to  that  destructive  institution. 
The  latter  is  a  temporary  expedient,  illegal  and  abnor- 
mal, used  only  at  moments  of  great  national  excite- 
ment when  the  popular  vote  has  been  carefully 
prepared  and  ascertained  by  unscrupulous  adven- 
turers. The  plebiscite  has  invariably  proved  itself  to 
be  a  device  invented  by  tyrants  to  entrap  the  people 
into  giving  assent  to  their  usurpations,  whereas  the 
Referendum  acts  through  regular  channels,  estab- 
lished by  law,  sanctioned  by  the  people  and  therefore 
constitutional." 

The  home  of  the  Referendum  and  the  Initia- 
tive is  the  Swiss  Republic,  where  from  times 
almost  immemorial  the  people  of  at  least  some 
of  her  cantons,  and  notoriously  of  Uri  and  Ap- 
penzell  and  the  two  Unterwalds,  have  met,  in 
assemblies,  or  landsgemeinden,  in  the  open, 
and  decided  laws  by  a  direct  popular  vote.  As 
however  the  cantons  (see  SWITZERLAND)  grew 
in  population,  and  the  confederation  took  in 
towns  and  cities,  this  was  not  al- 
ways possible,  tho  the  custom  still 
History  in  obtains  in  Uri,  Appenzell,  Glarus, 
Switzerland,  and  the  two  Unterwalds.  Yet 
even  in  the  cities  at  various  times 
all  the  citizens  were  asked  to  vote 
on  certain  measures,  as  in  Berne  and  Zurich  at 
the  time  of  the  Reformation,  to  see  how  many 
were  Protestants.  Berne,  from  1469  to  1524  is 
said  to  have  taken  60  Referendums.  The  Ref- 
erendum appears  too  in  a  rudimentary  form  as 
early  as  the  sixteenth  century  in  the  cantons 
of  Graubiinden  or  Grisons  and  Valais,  before 
those  districts  had  become  full-fledged  mem- 
bers of  the  Swiss  confederation,  and  while 
they  were  still  known  as  Zugewandte  Orte,  or 
Associated  States.  Delegates  from  their  sev- 
eral communes  met  periodically,  but  were  al- 
ways obliged  to  refer  their  decisions  to  the 
communes  themselves  for  final  approval.  In 
the  same  manner  the  delegates  from  the 
various  cantons  to  the  old  Federal  Diet,  or  as- 
sembly of  the  Swiss  confederation,  referred 
their  votes  to  these  States.  In  1802  the  con- 
stitution of  the  Helvetic  Republic  was  referred 
to  a  popular  vote.  Most  of  the  Swiss  cantonal 
constitutional  changes  have  been  made  by  the 
Referendum,  and  their  constitutions  now  usu- 
ally require  that  all  such  changes  be  thus  made. 
St.  Gall  gave  the  people  the  right  to  prevent 
a  law  coming  into  force  in  1831  ;  rural  Basle 
in  1832  ;  Valais,  1839  ;  Lucerne,  1841.  Valaisin 
1842  passed  a  measure  referring  all  laws  to  the 
people,  but  the  people  voted  against  the  law. 
Vaud  in  1845,  and  Berne  in  1846,  adopted  the 
optional  Referendum.  In  1868,  after  an  agita- 
tion largely  led  by  the  socialist,  Karl  Burkli 
(q.  v.),  the  compulsory  Referendum  was 
adopted  and  the  Initiative,  if  one-third  of  the 
members  of  the  Great  Council,  or  3000  citizens, 
demanded  it.  Thurgau,  Berne,  Schaffausen, 
soon  followed,  till  the  Referendum  exists  to- 
day in  all  the  Swiss  cantons  except  Fribourg. 


Ten  have  the  compulsory,  eight  the  optional 
Referendum,  six  the  Lands gemeinde. 

The  Federal  Referendum  was  established  in 
1874.     It  is  optional.     The  demand  for  it  must 
be  made  by  30,000  citizens  or  by  eight  cantons. 
The  petition  for  a  vote   under  it 
must  be  made  within  90  days  after 
the  publication  of   the    proposed       Federal 
law.     It  is  operative  with  respect   Referendum, 
either  to  a  statute,  as  passed  by  the 
Federal  Assembly,  or  a  decree  of 
the  executive  power.     Of  149  Federal  laws  and 
decrees  subject  to  the  Referendum,  passed  up 
to  the  close  of  1891  under  the  constitution  of 
1874,  27  were  challenged  by  the  necessary  30,- 
ooo  petitioners,  15  being  rejected  and   12  ac- 
cepted.   The  Federal  Initiative  was  established 
by  a  vote  taken  on  Sunday,  July  5,  1891.     It 
requires   50,000    petitioners,    whose    proposal 
must  be   discussed  by  the  Federal  Assembly 
and  then  sent,  within  a  prescribed  period,  to  the 
whole  citizenship  for  a  vote.     The  Initiative  is 
not  a  petition  to  the  legislative  body  ;  it  is  a 
demand  made  on  the  entire  citizenship. 

The  Federal  constitution  may  be  revised  at 
any  time.  Fifty  thousand  voters  petitioning 
for  it,  or  the  Federal  Assembly  (Congress)  de- 
manding it,  the  question  is  submitted  to  the 
country.  If  the  vote  is  in  the  affirmative,  the 
council  of  States  (the  Senate)  and  the  National 
council  (the  House)  are  both  dissolved.  An 
election  of  these  bodies  takes  place  at  once  ; 
the  Assembly,  fresh  from  the  people,  then 
makes  the  required  revision  and  submits  the 
revised  constitution  to  the  country.  To  stand, 
it  must  be  supported  by  a  majority  of  the 
voters  and  a  majority  of  the  22  cantons. 

From  its  establishment  in  1874,  to  January, 
1895,  the  Federal  Assembly  passed  180  bills  of 
a  general  character.  For  these  the  Referen- 
dum was  demanded  for  18;  the  people  ac- 
cepted 6,  and  rejected  12. 

The  Federal  Initiative  was  adopted  by  a 
vote  taken  July  5,  1891. 

The  following  is  the  Swiss  Federal  Referen- 
dum and  Initiative  Law  (from  United  States 
Consular  Report,  vol.  xlvi.  No.  170) : 

/.   The  Referendum. 

"  ARTICLE  i.  Federal  laws,  as  well  as  federal  enact- 
ments which  are  binding,  if  not  of  an  urgent  nature, 
shall  be  submitted  to  the  vote  of  the  people  on  the  de- 
mand of  at  least  30,000  Swiss  citizens,  or  of  the  govern- 
ments of  at  least'eight  cantons. 

"  ART.  2.  The  Federal  Assembly  will  decide  whether 
a  federal  act  is  binding  or  urgent,  and  the  decision  has 
in  every  case  to  be  expressly  incorporated  in  said  act. 
In  such  case,  the  Federal  Council  will  provide  for  the 
execution  of  the  law,  and  have  it  entered  on  the  statute 
book. 

"  ART.  3.  All  federal  laws,  as  well  as  acts,  which  dp 
not  conflict  with  Article  2,  are  to  be  published  immedi- 
ately after  their  enactment,  and  a  sufficient  number  of 
copies  must  be  sent  to  the  cantonal  governments. 

"  ART.  4.  If  the  referendum  is  demanded  by  the  peo- 
ple, or  by  the  cantons,  the  same  must  be  filed  within  qo 
days,  counting  from  the  day  of  the  publication  of  the 
law  or  the  enactment,  in  the  official  organ  of  the  con- 
federation. 

"  ART.  5.  The  demand  for  an  election  is  to  be  in  writ- 
ing and  addressed  to  the  Federal  Council ;  citizens  who 
wish  to  sign  the  demand  must  do  so  in  person  ;  any  one 
signing  another's  name  shall  be  subjected  to  punish- 
ment for  forgery ;  the  authorities  of  the  respective 
communities  must  certify  as  to  the  voting  right  of 
electors  whose  signatures  are  appended  to  the  referen- 
dum demand ;  no  fee  shall  be  collected  for  such 
certificates. 


Referendum  and  Initiative. 


1180 


Referendum  and  Initiative. 


"  ART.  6.  If  a  number  of  cantons  make  the  demand 
(referendum),  it  has  to  be  made  through  the  canton 
councils,  provided  that  the  cantonal  constitution  does 
not  prescribe  other  rules. 

"  ART.   7.    If,   after  the  expiration  of  the  90    days 

dating  from  the  first  publication  of  a  federal  law  or 

enactment  in  the  official  federal  organ, 

no  demand  for  an   election    has    been 

The  Swiss  made  by  the  people,  or  if  such  demand 
has  been  made  within  the  period  named, 
Law.  but  the  official  count  shows  that  the 
requisite  30,000  signatures,  or  eight  can- 
tonal governments,  have  not  been  ob- 
tained, the  Federal  Council  will  declare  the  respective 
law  or  enactment  in  force,  and  will  order  the  same  in- 
corporated in  the  statutes. 

"The  signatures  asking  for  a  referendum  will  be  pub- 
lished in  the  federal  organs,  showing  the  number  of 
signatures  from  each  canton  or  community  ;  further, 
the  demands  made  by  the  cantonal  governments  in 
accordance  with  Article  6  will  be  published.  More- 
over, the  Federal  Council  will  report  the  result  to  the 
Federal  Assembly  at  its  next  meeting,  and  submit  the 
records  relating  thereto. 

"  ART.  8.  If,  on  the  other  hand,  it  is  found  upon  ex- 
amination of  the  application,  that  the  request  has  been 
signed  by  the  requisite  number  of  cantons,  then  the 
Federal  Council  will  order  the  question  submitted  to 
the  vote  of  the  people.  It  will  also  inform  the  cantonal 
governments  thereof,  and  order  the  enactment  refer- 
ring thereto  to  be  publjshed  without  delay. 

"ART.  9.  All  the  citizens  of  Switzerland  will  cast 
their  vote  on  the  same  day,  which  will  be  named  by 
the  Federal  Council. 

"  ART.  10.  Every  male  Swiss  citizen,  who  has  attained 
his  zoth  year,  is  entitled  to  vote,  provided  he  is  not  de- 
barred therefrom  by  the  law  of  the  canton  of  which  he 
is  a  resident. 

"ART.  ii.  Each  canton  has  to  provide  for  the  election 
within  its  territory,  in  accordance  with  the  federal  pre- 
scriptions relative  thereto. 

"  ART.  12.  A  record  of  the  vote  shall  be  kept  in  each 
community  or  each  district.  Such  record  must  contain 
the  exact  number  of  persons  entitled  to  vote,  and  the 
number  of  yeas  and  nays  that  have  been  cast  for  or 
against  the  law  in  question. 

"ART.  13.  The  cantonal  governments  must  send  these 
tally  lists,  within  todays,  to  the  Federal  Council,  hold- 
ing the  ballots  at  the  disposal  of  said  Council.  By 
these  records  the  Federal  Council  will  determine  the 
result  of  the  election. 

"ART.  14.  The  federal  law  or  the  federal  enactment 
is  to  be  regarded  as  in  force  if  a  majority  of  the  votes 
cast  have  been  found  in  favor  of  the  same.  In  such 
cases,  the  Federal  Council  will  order  the  same  enacted 
and  incorporated  in  the  federal  statutes. 

"ART.  15.  If,  on  the  contrary,  a  majority  is  found  to 
be  against  the  law,  the  same  will  be  declared  rejected, 
and,  therefore,  void. 

"  ART.  16.  In  both  cases  the  Federal  Council  w'ill  pub- 
lish the  result  of  the  election,  and  inform  the  Federal 
Assembly  thereof  at  its  next  meeting. 

"ART.  17.  The  Federal  Council  is  charged  with  the 
execution  of  the  present  law." 

//.  The  Initiative. 

"  ARTICLE  i.  A  revision  of  the  federal  constitution, 
as  a  whole  or  in  part,  can  at  any  time  be  demanded  by 
way  of  the  initiative.  (See  Articles  118,  120,  and  121  of 
the  constitution.) 

"  ART.  2.  If  any  one  desires  to  use  this  franchise,  an 
application  signed  by  at  least  50,000  voters,  who  must 
be  Swiss  citizens,  is  to  be  addressed  in  writing  to  the 
Federal  Council,  who  will  submit  the  same  to  the  Fed- 
eral Assembly.  This  application  must  contain  the 
subject  of  the  initiative. 

"  ART.  3.  Any  citizen  wishing  to  make  such  applica- 
tion must  sign  it  personally.  Any  one  signing  an- 
other's name  will  be  indicted  for  forgery  and  punished 
accordingly. 

"  ART.  4.  Each  list  containing  the  signatures  must 
name  the  canton  and  the  community  of  which  the  ap- 
plicants are  residents.  To  be  valid  it  must  also 
specify :  (i)  The  text  of  the  initiative ;  (2)  the  text  of 
Article  3  of  this  law  ;  (3)  a  certificate  of  the  city  authori- 
ties, properly  dated,  showing  the  applicants  to  be 
entitled  to  vote  on  federal  laws,  and  that  they  are  quali- 
fied electors  in  their  communities.  No  fee  shall  be 
collected  for  this  certificate. 

"  ART.  j.  Haying  received  the  revision  demand,  the 
Federal  Council  will  canvass  the  signatures  and  deter- 
mine the  number  entitled  to  vote.  Debarred  from  vot- 
ing will  be  :  (i)  Those  whose  signatures  have  not  been 


certified  to,  within  the  period  of  six  months,  dating 
retrogressively  from  the  day  on  which  the  revision  de- 
mand is  received  by  the  Federal  Council  ;  (2)  the  sig- 
natures contained  in  an  unvalid  list  (see  Article 
4) ;  (3)  those  signatures,  the  registration  of  which  is 
missing,  incomplete,  or  incorrect.  Any  signatures 
showing  to  be  in  the  same  handwriting  are  classed  as 
invalid,  and  will  not  be  counted.  The  Federal  Council 
will  issue  reports  in  its  official  organ  showing  the  re- 
sult of  the  investigation,  and  will  submit  the  same  to 
the  Federal  Assembly  at  its  first  meeting,  together 
with  all  other  acts  relating  thereto. 

"  ART.  6.  If  a  demand  for  a  revision,  or  an  initiative 
requiring  a  total  revision  of  the  constitution  is  found 
valid,  the  question  whether  this  revision  shall  take 
effect  must  be  determined  by  the  vote  of  the  whole 
Swiss  people.  If  the  majority  is  in  favor  of  revision, 
both  the  State  Council  and  the  National  Council  must 
be  reelected,  and  the  new  incoming  councils  must  pro- 
ceed to  revise  the  constitution  in  toto. 

"ART.  7.  If  the  initiative  demands  the  repeal,  abolition, 
or  change  of  certain  articles  of  the  constitution,  and  if 
the  same  is  framed  in  the  form  of  a  general  bill,  both 
councils  will  have  to  decide  within  one  year  whether 
they  agree  with  the  demand  or  not.  If  they  agree,  they 
will  provide  for  the  necessary  legislation  in  accordance 
with  Article  121  of  the  constitution.  If  they  reject  the 
demand,  or  cannot  come  to  a  decision  within  the  stated 
period,  the  Federal  .Council  will  then  call  a  general 
election.  If  the  maj  ority  of  Swiss  citizens  vote  in  favor 
of  the  demand,  the  Federal  Assembly  shall,  without 
delay,  take  the  matter  in  hand  and  make  the  required 
revision,  after  which  the  revised  articles  will  be  again 
submitted  to  the  vote  of  the  whole  Swiss  voters. 

"  ART.  8.  If,  on  the  other  hand,  the  demand  is  in  the 
form  of  an  elaborate  project,  the  two  councils  shall  de- 
cide, within  a  period  not  exceeding  one  year,  whether 
they  agree  with  this  project  or  not. 

"  ART.  o.  If  the  two  councils  cannot  come  to  a  unani- 
mous conclusion  regarding  said  project,  it  will  be  sub- 
jected to  the  vote  of  the  people,  and  the  vote  of  the 
cantons,  as  also  is  the  case  if  the  Federal  Assembly 
concludes  to  agree  to  the  project. 

"  ART.  10.  If  the  Federal  Assembly  decides  not  to 
agree  to  the  demand,  the  people  will  vote  on  the  ques- 
tion. The  Federal  Assembly  has  a  right,  however,  to 
recommend  to  the  people  the  rejection  of  the  project, 
or  propose  a  new  one  prepared  by  the  Assembly. 

"ART.  ii.  In  case  the  Federal  Assembly  proposes  a 
special  elaborate  project,  in  opposition  to  the  demand 
for  revision,  the  people  will  have  to  vote  on  the  two 
questions,  as  follows  ;  (i)  Do  you  accept  the  project  for 
revision  demanded  by  the  Initiative  ?  or  (2)  Do  you  ac- 
cept the  project  of  the  Federal  Assembly  ? 

"ART.  12.  The  blank  and  invalid  ballots  are  not 
counted  in  determining  the  result  of  the  vote.  Ballots 
which  answer  one  question  with  "yes,"  and  the  other 
with  "no,"  or  both  questions  with  "no,"  are  valid. 
Ballots  which  answer  both  questions  with  "yes"  are 
void. 

"  ART.  13.  The  project  which  is  accepted  by  the  ma- 
jority of  the  voters  and  the  majority  of  the  cantons  will 
become  a  law. 

"ART.  14.  The  records  of  the  vote  must  contain  the 
number  of  residents  in  the  community  entitled  to  vote, 
the  number  of  ballots,  the  number  of  invalid  votes,  and, 
finally,  the  number  of  yeas  and  nays  for  each  of  the 
questions. 

"  ART.  15.  If,  on  the  same  article  of  the  constitution, 
several  demands  for  revision  have  been  made,  they 
must  be  voted  on  separately  in  accordance  with  the  date 
of  their  filing. 

"ART.  16.  As  for  the  rest,  the  prescriptions  of  the 
federal  law  of  June  17,  1874,  relative  to  federal  election 
laws  and  regulations,  must  be  followed. 

"  ART.  17.  The  federal  law  of  December  5,  1867,  rela- 
tive to  the  constitutional  revision  demand,  is  hereby 
repealed,  as  well  as  the  Federal  Council's  prescriptions 
dated  May  2,  1879. 

"ART.  18.  The  Federal  Council  shall  publish  this  law 
and  the  date  of  its  enactment  in  accordance  with  the 
prescriptions  of  the  federal  law  of  June  17,  1874,  relative 
to  federal  election  laws  and  decisions  of  the  Federal 
Council." 

Few  people  who  have  not  made  special 
study  of  this  question,  realize  how  firmly  the 
principles  of  direct  legislation  are  rooted  in 
the  United  States. 

The  New  England  town  meeting  in  itself  is 
at  once  the  simplest  and  best  known  example 


Referendum  and  Initiative. 


1181 


Referendum  and  Initiative. 


of  the  principle  underlying  the  Initiative 
and  Referendum.  Constitutional  amendments 
are  referred  to  the  people  in  every  State  of 
the  Union,  except  Delaware.  Local  Option  is 
a  form  of  the  Referendum. 

In  15  States  no  law  changing  the  location  of 
the  Capital  is  valid  until  submitted  to  a  pop- 
ular vote  ;  in  seven,  no  laws  establishing 
banking  corporations  ;  in  n,  no  laws  for  the 
incurrence  of  debts,  excepting  such  as  are 
specified  in  the  Constitution,  and  no  excess 
of  "  casual  deficits  "  beyond  a  stipulated  sum  ; 
in  several,  no  rate  of  assessment  exceeding  a 
figure  proportionate  to  the  aggregate  valua- 
tion of  the  taxable  property.  Without  the 
Referendum,  Illinois  cannot  sell  its  State 
canal;  Minnesota  cannot  pay  interest  or  prin- 
cipal of  the  Minnesota  railroad;  North  Caro- 
lina cannot  extend  the  State  credit  to  aid  any 
person  or  corporation,  excepting  to  help  cer- 
tain railroads  unfinished  in  1876.  With  the 
Referendum,  Colorado  adopted  woman  suf- 
frage and  may  create  a  debt  for  public  build- 
ings. Texas  may  fix  a  location  for  a  college 
for  colored  youth;  Wyoming  may  decide  on 
the  sites  for  its  State  university,  insane  asy- 
lum, and  penitentiary. 

It  is  becoming  more  and  more  the  custom  to 
seek  popular  ratification  for  popular  measures, 
as  in  the  Massachusetts  State  elections  of  No- 
vember, 1893,  the  so-called  Aldermanic  and 
Rapid  Transit  Bills  were  voted  upon  at  the 
polls.  For  a  number  of  years  past,  many  of 
the  labor  unions  have  used  the  Initiative  and 
Referendum  in  their  organizations. 

The  working  of  the  Referendum  and  Initia- 
tive, many  believe,  has  been  on  the  whole  to- 
ward conservatism  rather  than  radicalism. 
In  Switzerland  the  Federal  Referendum  has 
rejected  more  legislation  than  it  has  accepted. 
Says  Professor  Wuarin  of  the  University  of 
Geneva  (Annals  of  the  American  Academy  of 
Political  and  Social  Science,  November,  1895): 

"The  right  of  initiative,  it  is  alleged,  has  thus  far 
only  resulted  in  federal  matters— and,  cantonally,  it 
must  work  in  much  the  same  way — in  bringing  about 
strange  results.     In  its  first  operation,  two  years  ago, 
it    introduced    a    law   against    the   Jewish    mode  of 
slaughtering  cattle  ;  in  the  second  one,  on  the  ad  of 
June,  1894,  it  endeavored  to  have  the  '  right  to  employ- 
ment '  acknowledged  by  the  Constitution  ;  this  was 
rejected.     Before  coming  to  the  third  and  last  opera- 
tion,  let  us  pause  a  moment.     Here  our  answer,  in 
presence  of  such  facts,  is  that  the  right  of  initiative, 
especially  at  the  outset,  was  expected  to  have  some 
awkward    consequences.     But    where    is  the  serious 
harm  it  maybe  instrumental  in  doing?    It  can  incor- 
porate in  the  Constitution  things  of  a  queer  appear- 
ance,  such  as  the  butchery   ordinance  of  1893,*  but 
these  apparently  awkward  measures  happen  to  be  in 
accordance  with  the  popular  wish.   This 
is    democracy.    It    can  also  deal   with 
Conservative  Pr°P°sals  of  an  impractical,  dangerous, 
T      ,        .         socialistic    character,    as  the   right    to 
1  enaencies.    labor,  but  in  an  enlightened  community 
such  schemes  are  sure  to  meet  with  a 
decisive  opposition,  arid  in  such  circum- 
stances the  resort  to  the  plebiscite  has  the  effect  of 

*  A  short  explanation  may  here  be  required.  In 
spite  of  an  undeniable  dash  of  antisemitism  to  be  re- 
gretted, that  regulation,  now  a  constitutional  amend- 
ment sanctioned  by  the  citizens,  must  be  regarded  as 
an  important  step  in  a  new  direction.  The  Swiss  peo- 
ple declared  that  public  law  should  not  neglect  ques- 
tions of  humanity,  even  toward  animals.  If  local  or 
cantonal  authorities  had  in  that  respect  given  satis- 
faction to  the  feeling  of  the  people,  the  strange  ordin- 
ance would  never  have  been  thought  of. 


purging  the  political  atmosphere  of  chimerical  and 
distracting  elements.  This  clearing  the  ground  has 
been  generally  acknowledged  to  be  most  useful. 

"  But  let  us  come  now  to  the  third  and  last  case 
in  which,  up  to  the  present  time,  the  right  of  popular 
initiative  was  resorted  to.  The  question  at  issue  orig- 
inated among  the  Catholic  and  some  Protestant  Con- 
servatives, and  was  soon  known  under  the  very 
appropriate  name  of  the  '  Spoils  Campaign  '  (Beu- 
tezuff).  The  bill  framed  on  this  occasion  by  the  initi- 
ators aimed  at  obtaining  money  from  the  Federal 
Treasury  for  the  different  cantons,  which  was  to  be 
apportioned  at  the  rate  of  two  francs  per  head  of 
population. 

''The  chances  of  success  for  the  new  crusade  were 
great  at  the  start.  The  Federal  Government  had 
caused  some  dissatisfaction  by  exaggerated  expenses 
and  by  somewhat  undemocratic  conduct  toward  the 
wishes  of  the  people.  A  few  days  before  the  popular 
vote,  there  appeared  in  one  of  our  periodicals  a  dis- 
cussion of  the  question  by  M.  Numa  Droz,  late  presi- 
dent of  the  Swiss  Confederation.  He  said  that  the 
Referendum  was  good  for  the  welfare  of  our  common- 
wealth as  a  means  of  controlling  the  work  of  the  law- 
makers, but  he  considered  the  introduction  of  the 
right  of  initiative  as  the  beginning  of  the  era  of  dema- 
gogy. If  the  '  Spoils  Campaign  '  should  succeed,  said 
he,  the  basis  of  our  public  law  would  be  altered  and 
shaken,  and  no  other  resource  would  remain  to  the 
friends  of  democracy  than  to  call  together  a  conven- 
tion in  order  to  frame  a  new  Swiss  constitution,  doing 
away  with  such  exaggerations  of  democracy.  Never 
since  the  agitation  of  1848  had  Switzerland  experienced 
such  a  vital  crisis. 

"  But  the  '  Spoils  Campaign  '  was  defeated  by  more 
than  two  to  one  in  the  vote  of  the  4th  of  November 
last.  The  atmosphere  suddenly  cleared.  The  fears 
expressed  by  M.  Droz  vanished.  Every  one  felt  that 
the  Swiss  people  was  ready  for  direct  democracy. 
The  Temps  of  Paris  echoed  such  views  and  said  that 
the  Swiss  democratic  institutions  were  now  proven 
safe." 

Indeed  the  working  of  the  Initiative  and 
Referendum  in  Switzerland  has  been  so  "safe  " 
that  many  socialists  believe  it  reactionary. 
Says  a  resolution  printed  in  the  (English) 
Fabian  News  for  April,  1896,  to  be  presented 
to  the  Socialist  Congress  of  1896  : 

"  Resolved,  That  this  Congress  warns  associations  of 
the  working  classes  throughout  the  world  to  scrutin- 
ize with  great  care  all  proposals  for  transferring 
direct  legislative  and  administrative  power,  including 
the  appointment  of  public  officials,  from  representa- 
tive bodies  to  the  mass  of  the  electors.  The  people 
can  only  judge  political  measures  by  their  effect  when 
they  have  come  into  operation  :  they  cannot  plan 
measures  themselves,  or  foresee  what  their  effect  will 
be,  or  give  precise  instructions  to  their  representa- 
tives ;  nor  can  any  honest  representative  tell,  until  he 
has  heard  a  measure  thoroughly  discussed  by  repre- 
sentatives of  all  other  sections  of  the  working  class, 
what  form  the  measure  should  take  so  as  to  keep  the 
interests  of  his  constituents  in  due  subordination  to 
those  of  the  community.  It  is  to  be  considered,  fur- 
ther, that  intelligent  reformers,  especially  workmen 
who  have  grasped  the  principles  of  socialism,  are 
always  in  a  minority  :  they  may  address  themselves 
with  success  to  the  sympathies  of  the  masses  and  gain 
their  confidence  ;  but  the  dry  detail  of  the  legislative 
and  administrative  steps  by  which  they  move  toward 
their  goal  can  never  be  made  interesting  or  intelligi- 
ble to  the  ordinary  voter.  For  these  reasons  the  Ref- 
erendum, in  theory  the  most  democratic  of  popular 
institutions,  is  in  practise  the  most  reactionary,  and  is 
actually  being  strenuously  advocated  in  England  by 
noted  leaders  of  anti-socialist  opinion  with  the  openly 
declared  intention  of  using  it  to  stop  all  further  prog- 
ress toward  social-democracy." 

Nevertheless,  the  reasons  for  favoring 
direct  representation  within  reasonable  lim- 
its are  all  but  overwhelming.  Its  advocates 
believe  it  to  be  the  deathblow  of  corrupt  leg- 
islation, which  is  so  frightfully  prevalent  in 
modern  democracies.  (See  DIRECT  LEGIS- 
LATION.) 

References :    See  DIRECT  LEGISLATION. 


Religion  in  the  Public  Schools.        *l82         Religion  in  the  Public  Schools. 


REFORMATORIES.  See  PENOLOGY  ; 
CRIMINOLOGY  ;  ELMIRA  REFORMATORY  ;  JUVE- 
NILE REFORMATORIES. 

REFUNDING.     See  CURRENCY. 

RELIGION  IN  THE  PUBLIC  SCHOOLS. 

. — One  of  the  most  difficult  problems,  and  one 
arousing  to-day  most  bitter  animosities  in  all 
countries  not  under  the  complete  domination 
of  one  State  Church,  is  that  of  religion  in  the 
public  schools.  Radical  minds  usually  hold 
that  the  public  schools  should  have  nothing  to 
do  with  religion.  Most  Christians,  however,  con- 
tend that  the  State  is  lost  unless  it  teach  mo- 
rality, and  that  morality  cannot  be  taught 
unless  it  teach  religion  ;  while  the  majority  of 
Roman  Catholics,  some  Anglicans,  and  a  few 
of  other  religious  communions  go  still  further 
and  say  that  morality  cannot  be  taught  except 
by  giving  the  definite  religious  teaching  of 
their  respective  churches.  There  are  thus  at 
least  three  distinct  views  held,  and  an  indefi- 
nite variety  of  shades  of  opinion  and  of  inten- 
sity of  conviction.  To  each  party  (radicals  not 
excepted)  it  is  to  a  large  extent  a  matter  of  faith 
or  of  principle  to  carry  out  their  view.  From 
time  to  time  various  compromises  are  effected, 
such  as  allowing  representatives  of  different 
faiths  to  teach  in  the  public  schools  the  children 
of  their  communion,  or  dividing  the  public  funds 
between  denominational  schools.  But  these 
compromises  rarely  satisfy  any  party,  and 
bitter  feeling  continually  breaks  out,  as  at 
present  in  Manitoba,  Canada,  in  the  A.  P.  A. 
(g.  v.)  movement  in  the  United  States,  and 
over  the  Education  Bill,  now  before  Parliament, 
in  Great  Britain  (1896).  The  lines  on  which 
the  question  will  ultimately  be  settled  no  one 
can  tell.  Each  party  to  the  controversy  appears 
to  think  that  ultimately  the  world  will  be  con- 
verted to  its  view,  and  the  problem  be  settled 
in  its  favor.  In  the  mean  while  the  best 
that  can  be  hoped  now  is  for  each  side  to  try 
and  understand  the  feelings  of  its  opponents, 
and  submit  to  the  action  taken  by  the  majority 
in  power. 

The  radical  view  is  that  the  province  of  the 
State  is  wholly  secular  ;  that  its  true  attitude  is 
of  absolute  neutrality  toward  all  forms  of  re- 
ligious belief  and  unbelief ;  and  that  to  teach 
religion  in  any  form  is  to  do  violence  to  the 
rights  of  certain  classes  of  citizens. 

The  Jewish  Exponent  for  August  16,  1889, 
quotes  Rabbi  Calisch  as  saying  : 

"The  public  schools  are  an  outgrowth  of  our  broad 
American  republicanism,  which,  in    the    interest   of 
freedom,  forbids  any  union  or  partner- 
ship of   Church  and  State.     Hence,  in 
Radical       t^le  nam.e  °f  the  Jewish  brotherhood  all 
_-.  over  this  country,  and  in  the  name  of 

View.  persons  of  differing  views  on  religious 
matters  everywhere,  I  wish  to  protest 
against  the  manner  in  which  our  public 
schools  are  conducted.  It  is  a  favorite  claim  of  the 
churches,"  he  continues,  "  that  this  is  a  Christian  coun- 
try, and  this,  so  far  as  it  is  confined  to  the  church 
instruction  or  family  instruction,  is  unobjectionable 
and  right.  The  idea  of  Christ,  however,  is  not  con- 
fined to  such  teaching.  It  is,  with  all  its  religious 
dependencies,  made  a  part  of  our  public-school  in- 
struction. It  is  to  be  denounced  as  in  violation  of  the 
fundamental  theory  of  our  government.  I  demand,  in 
the  name  of  justice,  that  the  principle  of  law,  designed 
to  protect  all  in  their  religious  freedom, be  recognized." 


Roman 

Catholic 

View. 


The  platform  of  the  Liberal  League  of  the 
United  States  contains  the  following  : 

"  We  demand  that  all  religious  services  now  sus- 
tained by  the  Government  be  abolished,  and  espe- 
cially that  the  use  of  the  Bible  in  the  public  schools, 
whether  as  a  text-book  or  avowedly  as  a  book  of  relig- 
ious worship,  shall  be  prohibited."" 

This  is  the  view  held  by  almost  all  socialists 
and  by  radicals  of  almost  every  description. 
They  hold  that  religion  is  a  personal  matter, 
to  be  taught  in  the  family  or  the  home.  They 
do  not  admit  that  this  prevents  ethical  and 
moral  teaching  in  the  schools. 

The  view  of  Roman  Catholics,  and  other  be- 
lievers in  parochial  or  denominational  schools, 
is  that  morals  cannot  be  taught 
without  religion;  that  religion  can- 
not be  taught  in  public  schools, 
since  it  is  unjust  to  tax  a  Jew  to 
support  the  teachings  of  Chris- 
tianity, or  vice  versa,  and  that 
therefore  the  only  way  out  is  to  have  paro- 
chial schools  where  morals  and  religion  can 
be  taught.  Such  advocates  usually  claim  that 
money  should  be  raised  for  education  by  the 
school  authorities  and  then  that  in  some  way 
it  should  be  divided  among  the  various  denom- 
inational or  secular  schools  in  proportion  to 
the  pupils  in  each. 

Said  Archbishop  Ireland,  in  his  address  to 
the  National  Educational  Association  (St.  Paul, 
July,  1890,1 

"  There  is  and  there  can  be  no  positive  religipua 
teaching  where  the  principle  of  non-sectarianism 
rules." 

Says  the  Catholic  Review  of  August  31  f 
1889: 

"The  parochial  school  is  necessary  because  Cath- 
olic children  cannot  be  brought  up  Catholic  and  attend 
the  public  school.  This  is  a  recognized  fact.  .  .  .  At 
the  present  moment  the  Catholic  Church  in  America 
depends  more  on  the  faith  of  the  Catholic  immigrant 
than  on  the  faith  of  the  generation  which  has  received 
its  education  in  the  public  schools.  .  .  .  We  see  no 
way  of  making  them  (young  Americans)  Catholics 
than  by  the  parochial  school.  Our  conscience  forces, 
us  to  take  up  the  work." 

Dr.  Josiah  Strong  (Our  Country,  revised 
edition,  p.  74)  gives  authoritative  utterances 
defining  the  Roman  Catholic  attitude  to  public 
schools : 

"  Pius  IX  says  it  is  an  error  to  hold  that,  '  The  entire 
direction  of  public  schools  ....  may  and  must  ap- 
pertain to  the  civil  power,  and  belong  to  it  so  far  that 
no  other  authority  whatsoever  shall  be  recognized  as 
having  any  right  to  interfere  in  the  discipline  of  the 
schools,  the  arrangement  of  the  studies  ....  or  the 
choice  and  approval  of  teachers.  '*  And  again  :  '  It  is  an 
error  that,  "The  best  theory  of  civil  society  requires 
that  popular  schools  ....  should  be  freed  from  all 
ecclesiastical  authority,  government,  and  interference, 
and  should  be  fully  subject  to  the  civil  and  political 
power  in  conformity  with  the  will  of  rulers  and  the 
prevalent  opinion  of  the  age."  '  t  Again  :  'It  is  an  error, 
that  "  This  system  of  instructing  youth,  which  consists 
in  separating  it  from  the  Catholic  faith  and  from  the 
power  of  the  Church  ....  may  be  approved  by 
Catholics."  '$  Bishop  McQuaid,  in  a  lecture  at  Horti- 
cultural Hall,  Boston,  February  13,  1876,  declared  : 

*  Syllabus  of  Errors,  December  8,  1864.  Proposition 
No.  45.  Allocution,  In  Consistoriali,  November  i, 
1850. 

t  Ibid.,  Proposition  No.  47.  Letter  to  the  Archbishop 
of  Fribourg,  Quum  non  sine,  July  14,  1864. 

t  Jbid.,  Proposition  No.  48.  Letter  to  the  Archbishop 
of  Fribourg,  Quum  non  sine,  July  14,  1864. 


Religion  in  the  Public  Schools.         il83        Religion  in  the  Public  Schools. 


'The  State  has  no  right  to  educate,  and  when  the 
State  undertakes  the  work  of  education  it  is  usurping 
the  powers  of  the  Church.'  " 

There  are  various  ways  or  compromises  in 
which  it  has  been  proposed  to  meet  the  Roman 
Catholic  position,  but  the  fundamental  propo- 
sition is  always  the  same. 

On  the  other  hand,  another  school  of  thought 
claims  that,  while  the  public  schools  cannot 
teach  denominational  religion,  they  should 
teach  religion.  Says  Dr.  Strong  (Our  Cotmtry, 
p.  101): 

"In  his  'Institutes  of    International   Law,'  Judge 
Story  says,  '  One  of  the  beautiful  traits  of  our  munici- 
pal jurisprudence  is  that  Christianity  is 
part  of  the  common  law  from  which  it 
seeks  the  sanction  of  its  rights,  and  by 
"  Undenomi-  which  it  endeavors  to  regulate  its  doc- 
natinnal       trine.'    Says   the  great    interpreter  of 
",.    .  the  Constitution,   Webster:    'There  is 

Keligious     nothing  we    look   for  with   more    cer- 
Views."       tainty  than  the  general  principle,  that 
Chrstianity  is  part  of  the   law  of  the 
land    ....    general,    tolerant    Chris- 
tianity, independent  of  sects  and  par- 
ties.' *     Many  other  authorities  to    the  same  effect 
might  be  cited. 

"When  the  fathers  added  to  the  Constitution  the 
principle  of  strict  separation  of  Church  and  State,  they 
did  not  intend  to  divorce  the  State  from  all  religion. 
Says  Judge  Story,  speaking  of  the  time  when  the 
Constitution  was  adopted,  'The  attempt  to  level  all 
religions,  and  make  it  a  matter  of  State  policy  to  hold 
all  in  utter  indifference,  would  have  created  universal 
disapprobation  if  not  universal  indignation." t  The 
principle  of  the  separation  of  Church  and  State  un- 
doubtedly forbids  sectarian  instruction  in  the  State 
schools;  but  we  have  the  highest  legal  and  judicial 
authority  for  saying  that  it  does  not  forbid  undenom- 
inational religious  teaching.  .  .  .  Why  does  the  State 
take  money  from  your  pocket  to  educate  my  child? 
Not  on  the  ground  that  education  is  a  good  thing  for 
him,  but  on  the  ground  that  his  ignorance  would  be 
dangerous  to  the  State.  ...  In  like  manner  the  State 
must  teach  in  its  schools  fundamental  religious  truths, 
not  because  the  child  should  know  them  in  prepara- 
tion for  a  future  existence — the  State  is  not  concerned 
with  the  eternal  welfare  of  its  citizens— but  because 
immorality  is  perilous  to  the  State,  and  popular  mo- 
rality cannot  be  secured  without  the  sanctions  of 
religion.' 

"  The  philosopher  Cousin,  in  a  report  upon  public 
instruction  in  Germany,  referring  to  the  fact  that  it  is 
based  on  the  Bible,  says:  'Every  wise  man  will  re- 
joice in  this  ;  for,  with  three-fourths  of  the  population, 
morality  can  be  instilled  only  through  the  medium  of 
religion.'" 

Daniel  Webster  in  a  Fourth  of  July  oration 
said: 

"  To  preserve  the  Government  we  must  also  pre- 
serve morals.  Morality  rests  on  religion.  If  you 
destroy  the  foundation,  the  superstructure  must  fall. 
When  the  public  mind  becomes  vitiated  and  corrupt, 
laws  are  a  nullity  and  constitutions  are  waste 
paper.  .  .  . 

"  Of  course  parents  and  the  Church  may  give  as 
much  added  instructions  as  they  wish,  but  for  the 
State  to  go  beyond  the  inculcation  of  the  fundamental 
truths  common  to  all  monotheistic  religions  would 
probably  lead  to  the  division  of  the  school  fund,  which 
would  be  a  great  calamity.  On  the  other  hand,  to 
secularize  the  schools  is  to  invite  the  corruption  of 
popular  morals  and  thus  endanger  the  very  founda- 
tions of  our  free  institutions." 

In  the  United  States  various  ways  of  com- 
promise with  the  Roman  Catholic  view  have 
been  tried.  As  early  as  1823  in  New  York,  a 
conflict  arose  about  the  division  of  public 
funds.  In  1831  a  grant  of  $1500  was  made  for 
a  Roman  Catholic  Orphan  Asylum.  In  1868 
in  New  Haven,  Conn.,  a  Roman  Catholic 

*  Webster's  Works,  vi.  p.  176. 

t  Commentaries  on  the  Constitution  of  the  United 
States.  Boston,  1883.  Subject  discussed  at  length, 
pp.  680  seq. 


Faribault 
Plan. 


school  taught  by  Sisters  of  Charity  was  sus- 
tained by  public  funds.  Roman  Catholic 
schools  were  sustained  in  the  same  way  in 
Waterbury,  Conn.,  Manchester,  N.  H.,  and 
notably  at  Poughkeepsie,  N.  Y.  New  York  in 
1888  spent  $1,672,000  for  sectarian  charities, 
$989,000  for  Roman  Catholic  charities.  Re- 
cently a  liberal  movement  has  appeared  among 
the  Roman  Catholics  in  the  United  Statesv 
Of  this  movement  Dr.  Lyman  Abbott  said  in 
a  sermon  preached  in  Plymouth  Church, 
January  22,  1893  : 

"  It  maintains  that  the  Roman  Catholic  Church  can 
be  an  American  Church  ;  that  the  Roman  Catholic- 
Church  is  adapted  to  American  institutions ;  that 
Roman  Catholic  children  shall  learn  the  American 
language ;  and  now  it  has  gone  further,  and  insists 
that  they  shall  be  received  into  the  pub- 
lic schools,  and  that  the  public  schools 
shall  be  maintained  with  the  sanction 
and  the  moral  support  of  the  Roman 
Catholic  Church.  In  August,  1891, 
this  proposition  first  appeared  in  a 
practical  form,  in  what  is  now  known 
as  the  Faribault  experiment.  The  Faribault  experi- 
ment, deriving  its  name  from  the  town  in  Minnesota 
where  the  event  took  place,  was  simply  this  :  Under 
the  auspices  and  with  the  approval  of  Archbishop  Ire- 
land, a  parochial  school  belonging  to  the  Church  of 
the  Immaculate  Conception,  was  handed  over  to  the 
school  authorities  of  the  State  for  a  rental  of  one  dol- 
lar ;  all  the  teachers,  all  the  text-books,  all  the  work  of 
the  school  to  be  carried  on  under  the  authority  of  the 
State,  without  any  limitation  or  qualification  of  any 
kind  whatever.  I  desire  to  put  this  very  emphatically 
before  you,  because,  in  a  great  deal  of  discussion  that 
has  gone  on,  it  has  been  assumed  that  there  was  a  kind 
of  agreement  that  the  public-school  authorities  should 
appoint  Roman  Catholic  teachers,  and  so  maintain  in 
some  way  Roman  Catholic  discipline.  Both  the  offi- 
cial documents  and  the  positive  assertion  by  the 
Roman  Catholic  father  on  the  one  hand  and  the  school 
authorities  on  the  other,  negative  this  assertion." 

This  action  has  aroused  intense  excitement, 
and  not  least  among  Roman  Catholics.  It 
was  defended  and  condemned.  The  Pope, 
therefore,  sent  a  papal  ablegate  who  came  be- 
fore a  meeting  of  the  archbishops  and  bishops 
gathered  to  discuss  this  educational  question, 
and  submitted  to  them  certain  propositions, 
apparently  with  the  approval  of  the  Vatican, 
These  propositions  include  such  as  these — 
that  the  Church  of  Rome  does  not  disapprove 
of  the  public  schools;  that  it  absolutely  for- 
bids priests  or  bishops  to  excommunicate 
parents  because  they  send  their  children  to 
the  public  schools,  or  to  deprive  their  chil- 
dren of  the  sacraments  because  they  go  to 
the  public  schools  ;  that,  so  far  from  disap- 
proving of  public  schools,  it  approves  them, 
provided  they  can  be  carried  on  in  such  a  way 
that  the  moral  and  religious  training  of  the 
children  can  be  provided  for.  Three  ways  are 
suggested  by  which  that  provision  can  be 
made  :  First,  by  religious  education  by  the 
Church  in  the  school  building  out  of  school 
hours  ;  secondly,  by  religious  education  by 
the  Church,  not  in  the  school  building,  but  in 
a  building  provided  for  the  purpose  ;  and, 
finally,  where  neither  of  these  methods  are 
practicable,  then  in  the  family. 

This  position  was  attacked  notably,  if 
secretly,  by  Archbishop  Corrigan  of  New  York 
city,  but  the  ablegate  seems  to  have  been  sup- 
ported by  the  Pope. 

Such  is  the  present  position,  complicated  by 
the  recent  movement  of  the  A.  P.  A.  (q.  v.)f 


iReligion  in  the  Public  Schools. 


Rent. 


leading  to  violence  in  Boston,  Mass.,  and  bit- 
ter feeling  elsewhere. 

In  Canada,  in  England,  and  in  Continental 
Europe,  the  situation  is  even  more  complicated 

-on  account  of  the  relations  of  Church  and 
State.  On  the  Continent,  State  grants  to  the 

-various  religious  bodies  for  various  purposes 

.are  the  rule,  but  are  denounced  by  most  social- 
ists and  radicals. 
In  England,  where  "  Board  "  [Public]  Schools 

.are  just  developing,  the  situation  is  at  this 
writing  too  uncertain  to  allow  of  characteriza- 
tion. (For  the  condition  that  has  prevailed, 

:see  EDUCATION.) 

(See  also  AMERICAN  PROTECTION  ASSOCIATION 

.and  ROMAN  CATHOLIC  CHURCH  AND  SOCIAL 
REFORM.) 

RENT  (F.  rente;  It.  rendita,  income; 
Latin  rendare,  to  return)  is  used,  in  political 
-economy,  specifically  for  "  that  portion  of  the 
produce  of  the  earth  which  is  paid  to  the 
landlord  for  the  use  of  the  original  and  inde- 
structible powers  of  the  soil  "(Ricardo,  Politi- 
cal Economy,  chap.  ii.).  The  word  is  sometimes 
used,  even  in  political  economy,  in  other  senses, 
but  in  that  case  the  use  is  explained  by  the 
.author  as  something  different  from  the  ordi- 
nary use,  as  when  one  speaks  of  the  rent  of 
.ability,  the  rent  of  money,  the  rent  of  a  piano, 
-etc.  In  this  sense,  rent  is  simply  payment  for 
the  use  of  any  natural  or  other  commodity. 
When,  however,  the  word  rent  is  used,  with- 
•out  explanation,  in  political  economy,  it  means 
invariably  only  the  price  paid  to  a  landlord 
for  the  natural  and  undestructible  powers  of 
the  soil.  The  word  "  soil,"  however,  must  not 
be  taken  too  strictly.  It  is  meant  to  include 
all  the  surface  of  the  earth  and  that  which  is 
beneath  or  within  the  soil.  It  includes  all  the 
"natural"  advantages  of  the  earth,  unim- 
proved by  labor.  It  includes,  therefore,  mines, 
•streams,  water-power,  harbors  (so  far  as  they 
.are  natural),  and  what  is  often  of  greatest  im- 
portance, it  includes  the  natural  advantages  of 
situation,  as  land  for  example  in  the  heart  of 
a  great  city,  or  at  the  corner  of  two  great  thor- 
-oughfares. 

Such  being  the  economic  use  of  the  word, 
-we  pass  on  to  consider  the  laws  and  principles 
which  affect  rent,  and  how  these  are  variously 
•conceived  by  representative  writers. 

Rent  appears  on  the  pages  of  Adam  Smith's 
Wealth  of  Nations  almost  incidentally,  and 
not  always  consistently  treated.     It  is  consid- 
-ered    as    "naturally  a  monopoly  price"  (bk. 
i.  chap.  xi.  pp.  66-67  a)  to  be  taken  as  a  matter 
•of  course  rather  than  to  be  explained.     Adam 
Smith  says  elsewhere,  "  as  soon  as  the  land 
•  of  any  country  has  all  become  private  property, 
the  landlords,  like  all  other  men,  love  to  reap 
where  they  never  sowed,  and  demand  a  rent 
'•even  for  its  natural  production  "  (bk.  i.  chap, 
vi.   p.    23  a).     Rent,  he  argues,  depends    on 
prices;  the  fact  that  the  rent  of 
land  varies  with  its  fertility  and 
.Adam  Smith,  situation  he  treats  as  an  obvious 
commonplace,  needing  little  con- 
sideration.    We   have  here  some 
-of  the  elements  of  the  Ricardian  doctrine  of 
rent,   but  wholly  undeveloped.      Beginning, 


however,  with  Anderson  and  continuing 
through  Buchanan,  Malthus,  and  Ricardo,  we 
have  the  development  of  that  theory  of  rent, 
which  is  usually  associated  with  Ricardo's 
name  and  has  played  so  large  a  part  in  eco- 
nomic science  (see  RICARDO).  It  is  not,  how- 
ever, Ricardo's.  Dr.  Ingram,  in  his  History  of 
Political  Economy,  says  Ricardo 

"  distinctly  states  in  the  preface  to  the  Principles, 
that  'in  1815  Mr.  Malthus,  in  his  Inquiry  into  the  Na- 
ture and  Progress  of  Rent,  and  a  fellow  of  University 
College,  Oxford,  in  his  Essay  on  the  Application  of 
Capital  to  Land,  presented  to  the  world,  nearly  at  the 
same  moment,  the  true  doctrine  of  rent.'  The  second 
writer  here  referred  to  was  Sir  Edward  West,  after- 
ward a  judge  of  the  supreme  court  of  Bombay.  Still 
earlier  than  the  time  of  Malthus  and  West,  as  M'Cul- 
loch  has  pointed  out,  this  doctrine  has  been  clearly 
conceived  and  fully  stated  by  Dr.  James  Anderson  in 
his  Inquiry  into  the  Nature  of  Corn  Laws,  published 
at  Edinburgh  in  1777.  That  this  tract  was  unknown 
to  Malthus  and  West  we  have  every  reason  to  believe; 
but  the  theory  is  certainly  as  distinctly  enunciated 
and  as  satisfactorily  supported  in  it  as  in  their  trea- 
tises; and  the  whole  way  in  which  it  is  put  forward  by 
Anderson  strikingly  resembles  the  form  in  which  it 
is  presented  by  Ricardo." 

It  is  this  theory  which  has  entered  into  all 
modern  discussions  and  affected  the  theory  of 
wages  and  profits  and  lies  at  the  basis,  not 
only  of  the  laissez-faire  economics,  but  of 
Henry  George's  Single  Tax  and  most  modern 
socialism.  John  Stuart  Mill  says  of  this 
theory  : 

"  It  is  one  of  the  cardinal  doctrines  of  political 
economy  ;  and  until  it  was  understood,  no  consistent 
explanation  could  be  given  of  many  of  the  more  com- 
plicated industrial  phenomena." 

Of  the  critics  of  the  theory,  Mills  says  : 

"A  remark  is  often  made,  which  must  not  be 
omitted  here,  tho,  I  think,  more  importance  has  been 
attached  to  it  than  it  merits.  Under  the  name  of 
rent,  many  payments  are  commonly  included  which 
are  not  a  remuneration  for  the  original  powers  of  the 
land  itself,  but  for  capital  expended  on  it.  The  addi- 
tional rent  which  land  yields  in  consequence  of  this 
outlay  of  capital  should,  in  the  opinion  of  some 
writers,  be  regarded  as  profit,  not  rent.  But  before 
this  can  be  admitted,  a  distinction  must  be  made. 
The  annual  payment  by  a  tenant  almost  always 
includes  a  consideration  for  the  use  of  the  buildings 
on  the  farm ;  not  only  barns,  stables,  and  other  out- 
houses, but  a  house  to  live  in,  not  to  speak  of  fences 
and  the  like.  The  landlord  will  ask,  and  the  tenant 
will  give,  for  these  whatever  is  considered  sufficient 
to  yield  the  ordinary  profit,  or  rather  (risk  and  trouble 
being  here  out  of  the  question)  the  ordinary  interest, 
on  the  value  of  the  buildings  ;  that  is,  not  on  what  it 
has  cost  to  erect  them,  but  on  what  it  would  now  cost 
to  erect  others  as  good  ;  the  tenant  being  bound,  in 
addition,  to  leave  them  in  as  good  repair  as  he  found 
them,  for  otherwise  a  much  larger  payment  than 
simple  interest  would  of  course  be  required  from  him. 
These  buildings  are  as  distinct  a  thing  from  the  farm 
as  the  stock  or  the  timber  on  it ;  and  what  is  paid  for 
them  can  no  more  be  called  rent  of  land  than  a  pay- 
ment for  cattle  would  be,  if  it  were  the  custom  that  the 
landlord  should  stock  the  farm  for  the  tenant.  The 
buildings,  like  the  cattle,  are  not  land,  but  capital, 
regularly  consumed  and  reproduced ;  and  all  pay- 
ments made  in  consideration  of  them  are  properly 
interest. 

"But  with  regard  to  capital  actually  sunk  in  im- 

Erovements,  and  not  requiring  periodical  renewal, 
ut  spent  once  for  all  in  giving  the  land  a  permanent 
increase  of  productiveness,  it  appears  to  me  that  the 
return  made  to  such  capital  loses  altogether  the  char- 
acter of  profits,  and  is  governed  by  the  principles  of 
rent. 

"  Some  writers,  in  particular  Mr.  H.  C.  Care}',  take 
away  still  more  completely  than  I  have  attempted  to 
do  the  distinction  between  these  two  sources  of  rent, 
by  rejecting  one  of  them  altogether  and  considering 
all  rent  as  the  effect  of  capital  expended.  In  proof 
of  this  Mr.  Carey  contends  that  the  whole  pecuni- 


Rent. 


1185 


Rent. 


ary  value  of  all  the  land  in  any  country,   in  Eng- 
land, for  instance,  or  in  the  United  States,  does  not 
amount  to  anything  approaching  to  the 
sum  which  has  been  laid  out,  or  which 
Carev's       **  would  even  now  be  necessary  to  lay 
_.  put,  in   order  to  bring  the  country  to 

Views.  its  present  condition  from  a  state  of 
primeval  forest.  This  startling  state- 
ment has  been  seized  on  by  M.  Bastiat 
and  others  as  a  means  of  making  out  a  stronger  case 
than  could  otherwise  be  made  in  defense  of  property 
in  land.  Mr.  Carey's  proposition,  in  its  most  obvious 
meaning,  is  equivalent  to  saying  that  if  there  were 
suddenly  added  to  the  lands  of  England  an  unre- 
claimed territory  of  equal  natural  fertility,  it  would 
not  be  worth  the  while  of  the  inhabitants  of  England 
to  reclaim  it ;  because  the  profits  of  the  operation 
would  not  be  equal  to  the  ordinary  interest  on  the 
capital  expended.  To  which  assertion,  if  any  answer 
•could  be  supposed  to  be  required,  it  would  suffice  to 
remark  that  land  not  of  equal  but  of  greatly  inferior 
quality  to  that  previously  cultivated  is  continually 
reclaimed  in  England,  at  an  expense  which  the  subse- 
quently accruing  rent  is  sufficient  to  replace  com- 
pletely in  a  small  number  of  years.  The  doctrine, 
moreover,  is  totally  opposed  to  Mr.  Carey's  own 
economical  opinions.  No  one  maintains  more  strenu- 
ously than  Mr.  Carey  the  undoubted  truth  that,  as 
society  advances  in  population,  wealth,  and  combina- 
tion of  labor,  land  constantly  rises  in  value  and  price. 
This,  however,  could  not  possibly  be  true  if  the 
present  value  of  land  were  less  than  the  expense  of 
clearing  it  and  making  it  fit  for  cultivation  ;  for  it 
must  have  been  worth  this  immediately  after  it  was 
cleared,  and  according  to  Mr.  Carey  it  has  been  rising 
in  value  ever  since.  When,  however,  Mr.  Carey 
asserts  that  the  whole  land  of  any  country  is  not  now 
worth  the  capital  which  has  been  expended  on  it,  he 
does  not  mean  that  each  particular  estate  is  worth 
less  than  what  has  been  laid  out  in  improving  it,  and 
that,  to  the  proprietors,  the  improvement  of  the  land 
has  been,  on  trie  final  result,  a  miscalculation.  He 
means,  not  that  the  land  of  Great  Britain  would  not 
now  sell  for  what  has  been  laid  out  upon  it,  but  that 
it  would  not  sell  for  that  amount  plus  the  expense  of 
making  all  the  roads,  canals,  and  railways.  This  is 
probably  true,  but  is  no  more  to  the  purpose,  and  no 
more  important  in  political  economy,  than  if  the 
statement  had  been  that  it  would  not  sell  for  the  sums 
laid  out  upon  it  plus  the  national  debt,  or  plus  the 
cost  of  the  French  Revolutionary  war,  or  any  other 
expense  incurred  for  a  real  or  imaginary  public 
advantage.  The  roads,  railways,  and  canals  were  not 
constructed  to  give  value  to  land  ;  on  the  contrary, 
their  natural  effect  was  to  lower  its  value  by  rendering 
other  and  rival  lands  accessible ;  and  the  landhold- 
ers of  the  southern  counties  actually  petitioned  Parlia- 
ment against  the  turnpike  roads  on  this  very  account. 
The  tendency  of  improved  communications  is  to  lower 
existing  rents  by  trenching  on  the  monopoly  of  the 
land  nearest  to  the  places  where  large  numbers  of 
consumers  are  assembled.  Roads  and  canals  are  not 
intended  to  raise  the  value  of  the  land  which  already 
supplies  the  markets,  but  (among  other  purposes)  to 
cheapen  the  supply  by  letting  in  the  produce  of  other 
and  more  distant  lands  ;  and  the  more  effectually  this 
purpose  is  attained  the  lower  rent  will  be.  If  we 
could  imagine  that  the  railways  and  canals  of  the 
United  States,  instead  of  only  cheapening  communi- 
cation, did  their  business  so  effectually  as  to  annihi- 
late cost  of  carriage  altogether,  and  enable  the 
-produce  of  Michigan  to  reach  the  market  of  New 
York  as  quickly  and  as  cheaply  as  the  produce  of 
Long  Island— the  whole  value  of  the  land  of  the 
United  States  (except  such  as  lies  convenient  for 
building)  would  be  annihilated ;  or,  rather,  the  best 
would  only  sell  for  the  expense  of  clearing,  and  the 
government  tax  of  a  dollar  and  a  quarter  per  acre  ; 
since  land  in  Michigan,  equal  to  the  best  in  the  United 
States,  may  be  had  in  unlimited  abundance  by  that 
amount  of  outlay.  But  it  is  strange  that  Mr.  Carey 
should  think  this  fact  inconsistent  with  the  Ricardo 
theory  of  rent.  Admitting  all  that  he  asserts,  it  is 
still  true  that  as  long  as  there  is  land  which  yields  no 
rent,  the  land  which  does  not  yield  rent  does  so  in 
consequence  of  some  advantage  which  it  enjoys,  in 
fertility  or  vicinity  to  markets,  over  the  other  ;  and 
the  measure  of  its  advantage  is  also  the  measure  of 
his  rent.  And  the  cause  of  its  yielding  rent  is  that  it 
possesses  a  natural  monopoly  ;  the  quantity  of  land, 
as  favorably  circumstanced  as  itself,  not  being  suffi- 
cient to  supply  the  market.  The  propositions  consti- 
tute the  theory  of  rent  laid  down  by  Ricardo,  and  if 

75 


they  are  true,  I  cannot  see  that  it  signifies  much 
whether  the  rent  which  the  land  yields  at  the  present 
time  is  greater  or  less  than  the  interest  of  the  capital 
which  has  been  laid  out  to  raise  its  value,  together 
with  the  interest  of  the  capital  which  has  been  laid 
out  to  lower  its  value." 

Professor  Marshall,  representing  the  later 
political  economy,  accepts  the  Ricardian  the- 
ory in  the  main,  but  with  some  qualifications. 
He  states  his  view  thus  (Economics  of  Indus* 
try,  bk.  ii.  chap,  iii.) : 

"  Suppose  a  farmer  to  have  .£500  which  he  is  think- 
ing of  applying  in  extra  cultivation  of  his  farm,  and 
to  have  calculated  that  it  will  only  just  answer  his 
purpose  to  do  so.  He  has  calculated,  that  is,  that  if 
he  applies  this  extra  .£500  he  will,  after  paying  for 
labor,  seed,  taxes,  etc.,  get  an  extra  net  produce  of 
the  value  of  ^40  ;  i.  e.,  at  the  rate  of  8  per  cent,  on  the 
extra  outlay.  This  is,  we  suppose,  just  sufficient  to 
remunerate  him  ;  so  that  if  he  expected  to  get  less, 
the  chance  of  the  improvement  turning  out  unsuc- 
cessful and  the  prospect  of  additional  trouble  in 
working  it,  would  induce  him  to  invest  the  money  in 
railroad  stock  or  some  other  securities. 

"  He  hears  at  this  time  that  a  small  adjacent  farm  of 
50  acres  is  to  let,  and  he  is  asked  what  rent  he  would 
be  willing  to  pay  for  it.  His  £500  would  be  just 
enough  for  working  this  farm,  and  he  could  work  it 
with  the  same  trouble  that  it  would  give  him  to  apply 
the  extra  .£500  to  the  farm  he  already  has.  He  calcu- 
lates that  taking  one  year  with  another  he  may  expect 
to  get  from  it  .£100  worth  of  net  profit  after  paying  for 
labor,  seed,  taxes,  etc. 

"So  he  will  pay  just  £60  rent  for  the  use  of  this 
land.  If  he  can  get  the  land  for  this  he  will  take  it ; 
but  he  will  not  give  any  more  for  it,  and  it  will  not  be 
likely  to  be  worth  any  one  else's  while  to  offer  more. 
So  the  landlord  cannot  get  more  than  this  for  it.  If 
he  puts  up  the  farm  to  competition  and  plays  off  one 
farmer  against  another,  he  may  just  get  £60 :  and  this 
is  then  the  competition  rent,  or,  as  it  is  sometimes 
called,  the  economic  rent  of  the  farm.  Many  disturb- 
ing circumstances,  such  as  custom,  the  absence  of  an 
active  spirit  of  competition  on  the  part  of  the  farmers, 
generosity  or  sluggishness  on  the  part  of  the  land- 
lord may  cause  the  actual  rent  to  be  less  than  this. 
But  £60  is  the  rent  that  will  be  obtained  if  there  is 
a  perfectly  good  market  for  the  hire  of  the  land  ;  that 
is,  if  on  the  one  hand  the  landlord  exerts  himself  to 
get  the  best  rent  he  can  for  the  land,  and,  on  the  other 
hand,  there  are  competent  men  in  the  neighborhood 
who  are  ready  to  rent  farms. 

"This  illustration  shows  us  that  the  economic  rent 
of  a  piece  of  land  is  found  by  subtracting  from  the 
value  of  its  annual  produce  an  amount 
sufficient  to  return  the  farmer's  outlay 
with  profits.  Economic 

"Of  course  allowance  must  be  made        * 
for  the  risk  of  bad  harvests.    This  is         Kent, 
done  by  assuming  that  the  harvest  is 
an  average  one.    It  must  also  be  sup- 
posed that  the  farmer  has  neither  more  nor  less  skill 
and  enterprise  than  most  others  in  his  neighborhood, 
or,  as  we  may  say,  that  he  is  an  average  farmer.    The 
rent,  then,  is  the  surplus  return  which  the  land  gives 
in  an  average  harvest,  after  repaying  the  average 
farmer's  outlay  with  profits,  provided  he  has  applied 
so  much  capital  to  it  as  to  make  this  surplus  return  as 
large    as  he   can.    If   he  has  applied  less  than  this 
amount  of  capital  some  one  else  who  intends  to  apply 
more  than  he  has  done,  and  thus  obtain  a  larger  sur- 
plus return,  may  offer  to  pay  a  higher  rent. 

"  Further,  the  above  illustration  shows  that  the 
amount  of  produce  which  a  farmer  must  retain,  in 
order  to  be  remunerated  for  his  outlay,  can  be  dis- 
covered by  observing  what  amount  of  additional 
return  is  just  sufficient  to  induce  him,  or  another 
farmer  in  the  same  neighborhood,  to  apply  extra 
capital  to  his  land.  .  .  . 

"  It  may  happen  that  there  is  in  the  neighborhood 
land  for  which  no  rent  can  be  obtained,  because  the 
return  to  the  capital  applied  to  this  land  remunerates, 
but  only  just  remunerates,  the  farmer,  In  this  case 
we  may  say  that  the  amount  of  produce  which  a 
farmer  must  retain,  in  order  to  be  remunerated  for  his 
outlay,  is  equal  to  the  produce  that  could  be  raised 
by  the  same  amount  of  capital  from  an  adjacent  piece 
of  land  that  pays  no  rent,  but  yet  is  cultivated. 

"  The  law  of  rent  may  therefore  be  stated  thus  :  The 
rent  of  a  piece  of  land  is  the  excess  of  its  produce  over 


Rent. 


1186 


Republican  Party,  The. 


the  produce  of  an  adjacent  piece  of  land  which  is 
cultivated  with  an  equal  amount  of  capital,  and 
which  would  not  be  cultivated  at  all  if  rent  was 
demanded  for  it." 

Of  one  important  deduction  from  the  Ri- 
cardian  law  of  rent  Professor  Fawcett  has 
made  a  clear  explanation.  He  says  (Manual 
of  Political  Economy,  bk.  ii.  chap,  iii.): 

"From  Ricardo's  theory  of  rent  there  can  be  de- 
duced the  very  important  proposition,  that  rent  is 
not  an  element  of  the  cost  of  obtaining  agricultural 
produce.  A  no  less  eminent  writer  than  the  late  Mr. 
Buckle  has  assured  his  readers  that  the  proposition 
just  stated  can  only  be  grasped  by  a  comprehensive 
thinker  ;  we,  however,  believe  that  it  may  be  made 
very  intelligible  by  a  simple  exposition.  If  rent  is  not 
an  element  of  cost  of  production,  food  would  be  no 
cheaper  if  all  land  were  arbitrarily  made  rent  free. 
Let  us,  therefore,  inquire  if  this  would  be  the  case.  It 
has  been  frequently  stated  in  this  chapter  that  there 
is  always  some  land  in  cultivation  so  poor  that  it.  can 
only  afford  to  pay  a  nominal  rent ;  the  produce  it 
yields  being  no  more  than  sufficient  to  reimburse  the 
expenses  of  cultivation. 

"  Let  us  now  suppose  that  all  land  is  made  rent-free 
by  an  arbitrary  edict  of  the  Government.  Such  an  act 
of  spoliation,  altho  it  would  unjustly  interfere  with 
property,  would  not  cause  any  diminution  in  the  con- 
sumption of  food  ;  the  same  quantity  of  agricultural 
produce  would  be  required  as  before;  the  same  area  of 
land  would,  therefore,  have  to  be  cultivated.  That  land 
would  still  require  to  be  tilled  which  previously  only 

Eaid  a  nominal  rent ;  but  if  food  was  rendered  cheaper, 
y  making  land  rent-free,  this  land,  which  before  only 
paid  nominal  rent,  would  be  cultivated  at  a  loss.  No 
person,  however,  will  continue  to  apply  his  labor  and 
capital  if  he  does  not  obtain  in  return  the  ordinary 
rate  of  profit,  and,  therefore,  if  food  became  cheaper, 
such  land  as  we  have  just  described  would  cease  to  be 
cultivated  ;  but  this  cannot  be,  because  the  demand  of 
the  country  for  food  is  such  that  the  produce  which 
this  land  yields  cannot  be  dispensed  with.  It  is  there- 
fore manifest  that  food  would  not  become  cheaper, 
even  if  land  were  made  rent-free.  Rent  consequently 
is  not  an  element  in  the  cost  of  production.  The  value 
of  food  is,  ccetcris  par  thus,  determined  by  the  demand 
for  it,  because  the  demand  for  food  regulates  the  mar- 
gin of  cultivation.  Altho  the  payment  of  rent  does 
not  influence  the  cost  of  producing  food,  yet  the 
amount  of  rent  paid  indicates  the  position  of  the  mar- 
gin of  cultivation,  and  the  value  of  food  must  rise  as 
this  margin  of  cultivation  descends." 

(For  a  discussion  of  this,  see  PRODUCTION. 
For  the  facts  of  modern  rent  and  the  important 
part  played  by  rent  in  commercial  and  indus- 
trial life,  and  for  land  reforms,  see  articles 
LAND,  and  SINGLE  TAX. 

REPUBLICAN  PARTY,  THE. -The  Re- 
publican party  was  formed  to  oppose  the  ex- 
tension of  slavery.  The  policy  of  compromise 
of  the  Whig  party  (g.  v.)  no  longer  satisfied 
the  strong  sentiment  against  slavery  that  had 
sprung  up  in  the  free  States,  and  the  Whigs 
met  with  utter  defeat  in  the  elections  of  1852. 
The  Freesoil  party  (g.  v.)  had  obtained  prom- 
inence in  the  election  of  1848,  and  became  the 
natural  predecessor  of  the  Republican  party. 
Events  favored  a  new  party. 

The  Democrats,  during  the  administration 
of  President  Pierce,  took  the  important  step 
of  repealing  "the  Missouri  Compromise." 
Under  this  law  Kansas,  which  lay  north  of 
the  parallel  of  36°  30',  would  have  been,  of 
necessity,  a  free  Territory.  But  the  Kansas- 
Nebraska  bill,  which  repealed  the  compromise, 
was  passed  by  Congress  in  1854.  It  asserted 
the  principle  of  non-intervention  by  Congress 
with  slavery  in  States  or  Territories.  Thus 
all  the  public  domain  was  left  open  to  slavery, 


and,   in  Kansas,   anarchy  and  civil   war  fol- 
lowed.    The   slave-holders  and  the  free-state 
party  fought  with  each  other  for 
the  control  of  the  Territory.     In 
1859    Kansas    finally    adopted    a      Origin. 
constitution  which  excluded  slav- 
ery, but    she    was  not    admitted 
to  the  Union  as  a  State  till   1861,  when  the 
Republicans   had   come   into   power.     There 
was  felt  to  be  need  of   a   new  party,  which 
should  take   up  the   old   Federal   and   Whig 
policy,  favoring  a  strong  Federal  government 
and  protection,  but  utterly  opposed  to  slavery. 
The   Michigan  State    Convention  of    1854  is. 
generally  admitted  to  have  first  used  the  name 
Republican,    from    a    suggestion    of    Horace 
Greeley  (g.  v.),  but  it  was  quickly  caught  up, 
and,    in    1854,  enough    "Republicans"   were 
elected  to  Congress  to  control  the  House  and 
choose  Nathaniel  Banks  speaker. 

The  first  Republican  National  Convention 
was  held  at.  Pittsburg,  February  22,  1856  ;  the 
first  nominating  convention  at  Philadelphia, 
June  18,  1856.  The  plan  was  to  unite  in  one 
organization  the  opponents  of  the  proslavery 
Democracy,  without  regard  to  former  party 
ties.  Hence,  the  new  organization  was  made 
up  of  antislavery  Whigs,  whom  the  Kansas- 
Nebraska  bill  had  driven  from  the  party,  of 
Abolitionists,  Independent  Democrats,  and,  in 
fact,  of  all  those  who  were  opposed  to  the  ex- 
tension of  slavery.  The  platform  adopted  was 
reported  by  David  Wilmot,  and  denied  that 
there  was  any  authority  competent  to  give 
legal  existence  to  slavery  in  any  Territory  of 
the  United  States.  The  only  planks  not  re- 
ferring to  slavery  favored  national  aid  to  a 
Pacific  Railway  and  liberal  river  and  harbor 
appropriations.  John  C.  Fremont  of  Califor- 
nia was  nominated  for  President,  and  W.  D. 
Dayton  for  Vice-President.  The  leading  rival 
to  Dayton  was  Abraham  Lincoln.  The  result 
of  the  elections  greatly  encouraged  the  new 
party,  for,  altho  Buchanan,  the  Democratic 
candidate,  was  elected,  Fremont  had  a  large 
plurality  over  him  on  the  popular  vote,  and 
114  electoral  votes. 

Public  sentiment  in  favor  of  Republican 
principles  continued  to  grow,  and  events  fa- 
vored the  party.  The  Dred-Scott  decision  of 
the  Supreme  Court  in  1857  intensified  Northern 
feeling.  It  made  void  all  prohibitions  of 
slavery  in  the  public  domain,  and  recognized 
the  right  of  every  citizen  to  carry  slaves  there. 
During  Buchanan's  administration  the  South- 
ern leaders  were  preparing  for  secession.  On 
the  other  hand,  the  famous  Douglass- Lincoln 

debate  in  1859  helped  to  commit 

the  Republican  party  to  a  refusal 

Campaign    of  all  compromise,  while  the  John 

of  1860.      Brown  raid  had  a  strong  influence 

on  the  public  mind  of  the  North. 

The  antislavery  sentiment  be- 
came thoroughly  consolidated,  and  the  Demo- 
crats hopelessly  split.  The  Republican 
Convention  met  at  Chicago,  and  nominated 
Abraham  Lincoln  for  the  Presidency,  and  Han- 
nibal Hamlin  for  Vice-President.  William 
H.  Seward  of  New  York  had  been  the  first 
choice  of  many,  but  some  in  the  East,  led  by 
Greeley,  with  the  Western  men.  nominated 


Republican  Party,  The. 


1187 


Republican  Party,  The. 


Lihcoln.  He  was  triumphantly  elected  with 
1 80  electoral  votes. 

In  their  platform  the  Republicans  declared 
the  new  dogma,  that  the  Constitution  of  its 
own  force  carries  slavery  into  any  or  all  of  the 
Territories  of  the  United  States,  to  be  a  dan- 
gerous political  heresy.  They  reaffirmed  the 
positions  of  the  convention  of  1856.  A  decla- 
ration was  made  also  in  favor  of  such  an 
adjustment  of  imports  as  to  encourage  the  de- 
velopment of  the  industrial  interests  of  the 
whole  country — the  party  thus  definitely  com- 
mitting itself  to  a  policy  of  protection. 

Soon  after  the  election  South  Carolina 
passed  an  ordinance  of  secession,  and  other 
Southern  States  quickly  followed.  When 
Lincoln  was  inaugurated  in  1861,  the  govern- 
ment of  the  Confederate  States  of  America, 
so  called,  had  already  been  organized.  The 
efforts  of  President  Lincoln  for  reunion  were 
fruitless,  and  with  the  bombardment  of  Fort 
Sumter  by  Southern  troops  in  April,  1861,  the 
Civil  War  began. 

As  the  Republican  party  now  controlled  all 
branches  of  the  Government,  upon  it  fell  the 
responsibility  of  prosecuting  the  war.  It  was 
distinctively  the  war  party,  tho  sustained  by 
the  general  sentiment  of  the  North.  In  the 
treatment  of  the  great  questions  that  had  to 
be  decided  its  policy  became  settled,  and  its 
future  was  determined.  The  Morrill  tariff 
was  early  enacted — a  high  protection  measure, 
which  successfully  raised  a  large  revenue  for 
carrying  "on  the  war.  Acts  were  also  passed 
which  provided  for  the  issuing  of  bonds  and 
of  a  Legal-tender  paper  currency.  At  the  end 
of  the  war  the  national  debt  amounted  to 
$2,700,000,000. 

At  first  the  Republicans  had  no  intention  of 
interfering  with  slavery  in  the  rebellious 
States.  The  preservation  of  the 
Union  was  the  aim  of  the  war. 
Slavery.  But  it  soon  became  clear  to  Presi- 
dent Lincoln  that,  to  obtain  this 
object,  slavery  must  be  attacked. 
Accordingly  he  issued,  January  i,  1863,  the 
famous  Emancipation  Proclamation,  by  which 
all  slaves  in  the  rebellious  States  were  de- 
clared free.  This  action  was  taken  only  "  as  a 
necessary  war  measure,"  but  it  was  heartily 
indorsed  by  Republicans,  and  later  enforced 
by  civil  legislation. 

In  June,  1864,  President  Lincoln  was  re- 
nominated,  with  Andrew  Johnson  of  Tennessee 
as  Vice-President,  on  a  platform  declaring  it 
necessary  that  slavery  should  be  utterly  ex- 
terminated from  the  soil  of  the  republic.  The 
party  pronounced  in  favor  of  continuing  the 
struggle  with  the  South  until  it  should  submit. 
The  Democrats,  on  the  other  hand,  declared 
that  efforts  should  be  made  for  a  cessation  of 
hostilities.  The  elections  of  1864  resulted  in 
the  indorsement  of  the  Republican  policy, 
and  President  Lincoln  secured  212  out  of  233 
electoral  votes.  Soon  after  his  second  inaugu- 
ration the  main  army  of  the  Confederacy 
surrendered  to  General  Grant  at  Appomattox. 

The  work  of  reconstruction  had  now  to  begin, 
and  it  was  known  that  President  Lincoln 
would  pursue  a  liberal  policy  toward  the  rebel- 
lious States.  But  on  April  15  he  was  assas- 


sinated. His  loss  plunged  the  nation  into 
mourning,  and  deprived  his  party  of  its  great- 
est leader. 

An  amendment  to  the  Constitution — the 
Thirteenth — abolishing  slavery,  was  passed  by 
Congress,  and  finally  became  a  law  December 
18,  1865.  The  Fourteenth  Amendment,  which 
gave  citizenship  to  the  negro,  was  submitted 
to  the  people  in  June,  1866,  and  became  a  law 
July  28,  1868.  Vice-President  Johnson,  who 
succeeded  Lincoln,  quarreled  with  the  Repub- 
lican party  in  Congress,  and  was  finally  im- 
peached. But  on  his  trial  before  the  Senate, 
the  votes  for  conviction  lacked  one  of  the  nec- 
essary two-thirds.  Notwithstanding  the  veto 
of  the  President,  a  Reconstruction  Act  was 
passed  March  2,  1867,  admitting . the  seceded 
States  to  their  former  standing  in  the  Union 
under  certain  conditions.  Each  State,  for  ex- 
ample, was  obliged  to  adopt  the  Fourteenth 
Amendment,  and  to  elect  representatives  who 
had  not  been  concerned  in  the  rebellion. 
President  Johnson  favored  less  stringent  con- 
ditions. Under  such  provisions  the  seceded 
States  were  restored  to  their  former  position, 
so  that  all  but  three  of  them  took  part  in  the 
campaign  of  1868,  when  the  Republicans  nom- 
inated and  elected  General  Grant  and  Schuy- 
ler  Colfax. 

Early  in  Grant's  administration  the  Fifteenth 
Amendment,  which  gave  the  suffrage  to  the 
negro,  was  adopted  March  30, 
1870.  This  was  a  purely  Repub- 
lican measure,  and  was  generally  General 
opposed  by  the  Democrats.  To  Grant, 
insure  the  carrying  out  of  its  pro- 
visions in  the  South,  additional 
legislation  was  passed  in  1871,  and  again  in 
the  next  Congress — the  Forty-second — the 
so-called  Force  Bill  was  enacted.  This  legisla- 
tion greatly  increased  the  powers  of  the  Fed- 
eral courts  and  officers,  and  also  of  the 
President.  The  Democrats  being  more  nu- 
merous in  the  Forty-second  Congress  than  in 
the  previous  ones,  brought  forward  an  Am- 
nesty bill.  Under  a  compromise  with  the 
Republicans  it  was  finally  passed  May  22,  1872, 
certain  prominent  Confederate  leaders  being 
excepted.  Grant's  administration  was  dissat- 
isfactory to  many  Republicans  who  connected 
it  with  "carpetbag"  corruption  in  the  South 
and  connivance  with  political  scandals  in  the 
North.  As  a  result,  a  Liberal  Republican  con- 
vention met  and  nominated  Horace  Greeley 
and  B.  Gratz  Brown,  the  nomination  being  ac- 
cepted by  the  Democrats.  The  regular  Repub- 
licans nominated  Grant,  with  Henry  Wilson  for 
Vice-President.  The  platform  contained  dec- 
larations in  favor  of  civil-service  reform,  of  a 
speedy  return  to  specie  payments,  and  against 
any  repudiation  of  public  debts.  General 
Grant  was  reelected.  His  second  term  was 
marked  by  the  struggle  over  the  "inflation" 
policy,  which  was  that  of  issuing  more  paper 
money  and  postponing  a  return  to  specie  pay- 
ments (see  CURRENCY).  Trouble  having  arisen 
in  Louisiana  from  the  existence  of  two  State 
governments,  Congress  recognized  the  Kel- 
logg, or  Republican  government. 

Owing  partly  to  the  corruption  in  office  that 
had  been  for  some  years  prevalent,  the  Demo- 


Republican  Party,  The. 


1188 


Representatives,  House  of. 


cratic  party  developed  great  strength  in  the 
elections  or  1876,  and  both  sides  claimed  the 
victory,  the  Republicans  having  nominated  R. 
B.  Hayes  and  W.  A.  Wheeler,  the  Democrats 
S.  J.  Tilden  and  T.  A.  Hendricks.     The  Dem- 
ocrats unquestionably  had  the  majority  of  the 
popular  votes.    The  House  of  Representatives 
having  now  a  Democratic  majority,  some  com- 
promise between  the  parties  had  to  be  effected. 
An  electoral   commission    was   agreed    upon 
which,  by  a  strictly  party  vote,  declared  Hayes, 
the  Republican  candidate,  to  have 
185  votes,  and  Tilden  184.    By  this 
Campaign     decision  bloodshed  was  probably 
of  1876.      averted.      President    Hayes    was 
not  in  full  accord  with  his  party, 
owing  to  his  policy  of  concession 
to  the  South,  and  of  civil-service  reform.    Nev- 
ertheless he  withstood  the  attempts  of  the 
Democratic  House  to  force  a  modification  of 
Federal  election  supervision  by  adding  politi- 
cal riders  to  appropriation  bills.     The  most 
notable  act  of  his  administration  was  the  re- 
sumption of  specie  payments  on  January  i, 

1879. 

In  1880  the  Republicans  nominated  James 
A.  Garfield  of  Ohio  and  Chester  A.  Arthur  of 
New  York,  and  succeeded  in  electing  their 
candidates.  In  the  respective  platforms  of  the 
parties  the  question  of  the  tariff  comes  into 
prominence.  The  Garfield-Conkling  quarrel 
followed  the  new  President's  inauguration, 
and  soon  after  this  occurred  the  assassination 
of  Garfield,  and  the  administration  of  Presi- 
dent Arthur,  who  succeeded  to  the  Presiden- 
tial chair.  His  policy  was  acceptable  to  the 
Republican  party  ;  nevertheless,  James  G. 
Blaine  was  nominated  for  the  Presidency  in 
1884,  in  preference  to  him,  with  General 
Logan  for  Vice-President.  The  issues  were 
largely  the  same  as  before  ;  yet,  for  various 
reasons,  the  principal  among  which  was  the 
opposition  to  Blaine  of  ex-Senator  Conkling 
in  New  York,  the  Democratic  candidate, 
Cleveland,  was  elected. 

The  executive  department  of  the  Govern- 
ment had  been  controlled  by  the  Republicans 
for  24  years.  Now  they  had  only  the  Senate, 
the  House  being  Democratic.  Under  the  cir- 
cumstances, however,  no  Democratic  measures 
could  be  enacted.  Yet  the  Mills  bill,  a  radical 
tariff-reform  measure,  passed  the  House  of 
Representatives,  and  the  tariff  became  the 
leading  issue  of  1888.  The  Democratic  party 
declared  for  radical  reform  of  the  tariff  on  the 
basis  of  less  protection,  and  renominated 
President  Cleveland.  The  Republicans  as- 
serted the  necessity  of  a  policy  of  "  protection 
to  home  industry."  The  Republican  candi- 
dates, Benjamin  Harrison  and  Levi  P.  Morton, 
received  233  electoral  votes  to  Cleveland's 
168,  and  the  party  also  secured  the  House 
of  Representatives. 

During  the  Fifty-first  Congress,  the  Repub- 
licans, being  in  power  in  all  branches  of  the 
Government,  passed  a  number  of  important 
bills.  First  among  them  is  the  so-called  Mc- 
Kinley  tariff  bill,  which  enacted  a  high  tariff. 
The  McKinley  bill  became  a  law,  October  i, 
1890.  The  Dependent  Pension  bill,  largely 
increasing  the  class  of  pensioners,  and  a  silver 


bill,  providing  for  the  purchase  of  silver,  and 
the  issue  of  Treasury  notes  thereon,  were 
passed.  Parliamentary  practise  in  the  House 
was  reformed  by  the  rulings  of  Speaker  Reed. 
In  1890,  however,  the  Democrats  secured  a 
large  majority  in  the  House,  and  Republican 
legislation  ceased  with  the  expiration  of  this 
Congress. 

The    Presidential    campaign    of    1892    was 
hotly  contested  and  the  issue,  as  before,  was 
chiefly  the  tariff,  the  Democratic 
convention    going  so    far    as    to 
declare  all  protection  unconstitu-   Campaign 
tional.     The  Republicans  renom-      of  1892. 
inated     General    Harrison,    with 
Whitelaw  Reid  for  Vice-President. 
The  result  of  the  struggle  was  the  election  of 
Mr.  Cleveland.     The  House  and  Senate  being 
now  in  its  hands  as  well,  the  Democratic  party 
had  full  control  of  the  Government  for  the 
first  time  since  before  the  war.     Its  most  im- 
portant legislation  has  been  the  so-called  Wil- 
son bill,  a  tariff  measure  which  lowered  duties, 
and  put  many  articles  on  the  free  list.    It  was, 
however,   so  altered  by  conservative  Demo- 
crats in  the  Senate,  that  President  Cleveland 
repudiated  all  responsibility  for  it,  and  it  be- 
came a  law  without  his  signature.     A  terrible 
wave  of  depression  in  business  came  over  the 
country  early  in  the  year  1893   and  has  not  yet 
passed  (1896).     As  a  result,  in  the  elections  of 
November,  1894,  when  the  Democratic  tariff 
legislation  was  the  issue,  the  Republicans  won 
an  overwhelming    victory,   and   secured  the 
next  House   of   Representatives  by  a    large 
majority. 

For  the  campaign  of  1896,  the  Republican 
party  managers  thought  it  best  to  make  the 
tariff  the  issue,  and  consequently  Mr.  McKin- 
ley, the  stoutest  Protectionist,  was  generally 
favored,  and  by  astute  political  maneuvering 
received  the  support  of  the  majority  of  the 
representatives  elected  by  the  States  to  the  St. 
Louis  convention  of  June  18,  and  was  there 
nominated  for  the  Presidency  on  the  first  bal- 
lot, with  Mr.  Hobart  of  New  Jersey  for  Vice- 
President.  Meanwhile  the  silver  issue  (see 
SILVER)  more  and  more  forced  itself  upon  the 
attention  of  the  country  and  became  the  en- 
grossing theme  in  all  conventions.  The  gold 
monometallists  being  in  a  large  majority  at  St. 
Louis,  some  of  the  silver  delegates,  headed 
by  Senator  Teller,  bolted  the  convention  and 
issued  a  declaration  to  the  country,  condemn- 
ing the  Republican  party  as  selling  the  inter- 
ests of  the  producers  of  the  country  to  the 
interests  of  the  "gold  bugs  "of  Wall  Street. 
(See  SILVER.)  For  the  platform  adopted  at  St. 
Louis  see  Appendix. 

REPRESENTATIVES,  HOUSE  OF,  IN 
THE  UNITED  STATES.— The  United 
States  Constitution  says  of  the  House  of  Re- 
presentatives : 

"ART.  I,  SEC.  2.  The  House  of  Representatives  shall 
be  composed  of  members  chosen  every  second  year  by 
the  people  of  the  several  States,  and  the  electors  in 
each  State  shall  have  the  qualifications  requisite  for 
electors  of  the  most  numerous  branch  of  the  State 
legislature. 

"  No  person  shall  be  a  Representative  who  shall  not 
have  attained  the  age  of  twenty-five  years,  and  been 


Representatives,  House  of. 


Representatives,  House  of. 


of  the  United  States  when  the  vote  of  the 
electors  fails  to  result  in  a  choice. 

According  to  the  apportionment  of  1893  the 
representation  of  the  separate  States  was  as 
follows  : 


seven  years  a  citizen  of  the  United  States,  and  who 
shall  not,  when  elected,  be  an  inhabitant  of  that  State 
in  which  he  shall  be  chosen. 

"  [Representatives  and  direct  taxes  shall  be  appor- 
tioned among  the  several  States  which  may  be  included 
within  this  Union,  according  to  their  respective  num- 
bers, which  shall  be  determined  by  adding  to  the 

whole  number  of  free  persons,  including  those  bound 

to  service  for  a  term  of  years,  and  excluding  Indians  Ratio  of   Representation 173,001 

not  taxed,   three-fifths  of  all  other  persons.]  *     The        

actual  enumeration  shall  be  made  within  three  years  Alabama 

after  the  first  meeting  of  the  Congress  of  the  United  Arkansas 

States,  and  within  every  subsequent  term  often  years,  California. .. 

in  such  manner  as  they  shall  by  law  direct.    The  num-  Colorado. . '. 

her  of  Representatives  shall  not  exceed  one  for  every  Connecticut 

30,000,  but  each  State  shall  have  at  least  one  Repre-  Delaware 

sentative ;    and    until    such     enumeration     shall    be  Florida 

made,  the  State  of  New  Hampshire  shall  be  entitled  Georgia  .' 

to  choose  three,  Massachusetts  eight,  Rhode  Island  and  Idaho. 

Providence  Plantations  one,   Connecticut    five,   New  Illinois".'. 

York  six,  New  Jersey  four,  Pennsylvania  eight,  Dela-  Indiana 

ware  one,  Maryland  six,  Virginia  ten,  North  Carolina  Iowa 

five,  South  Carolina  five,  and  Georgia  three.  Kansas' 

"  When  vacancies  happen  in  the  representation  from  Kentucky 

any  State,  the  executive  authority  thereof  shall  issue  Louisiana 

writs  of  election  to  fill  such  vacancies.  Maine 

"The  House  of  Representatives  shall  choose  their  Maryland  " 

Speaker  and  other  officers;  and  shall  have  the  sole  Massachusetts'" 

power  of  impeachment."  Michigan. 

Minnesota 7 

(For  articles  bearing  both  on  the  Senate  and  Mississippi . .  * 7 

the  House,  see  article  CONGRESS.)  Montana'. 

Article  xiv.  of  the  Amendments,  Section  2,  Nebraska 6 

Clause  i,  says  :  "  Representatives  shall  be  ap-      £Jevad/ ;_v 

portioned  among  the  several  States  according  New  Jersey8.  . 

to  their  respective  numbers,  counting  the  whole  New  York . ...... 

number  of  persons  in  each  State ,  excluding  North  Carolina 9 

Indians  not  taxed. "  §£[«>  .   **°* 

The  original    Constitution   included  in  this  Oregon  ".'.'... 

basis    of  representation    three-fifths    of    the  Rtn",sy]v,aniH 3° 

slaves.      Here  was  one    of  the  compromises  SouthCaroHna 

between  the  free  States  and  the  slave  States  South  Dakota 

in  the  formation  of  the  Constitution.  Tennessee. . . . 

The  first  Congress  went  into  operation  March       Vermont I3 

4,    1789  ;  the  members  of  the  House  holding  Virginia..'...'.', 

their  seats  for  two  years.     On  the  4th  of  March,  Washington. . . 

therefore,   in  every    second    year, — in    other  wfcS™Y1.[l'mia 4 

,..,.,          J-  ,                     *  Wisconsin... 

words,  in  all  the  odd  years, — a  new  Congress  Wyoming... 

begins  its  term.  Territories* 4 

The  number    of  representatives,   which  is  Total 
fixed  by  a  law  of  Congress  once  in  10  years,  has 
increased  from  65,  in  1789,  to  360  for  the  decade 

1893  to  1903.     The  population  for  one  repre-  _.      _                *  Without  a  vote, 

sentative  has  increased  from  33,000  in  1789  to  TTThe  Speaker  is  the  presiding  officer  of  the 

173  901   in  1893  House,  and  the  other  officers  are:  (i)  clerk  ; 

The  'salary  of  representatives    is  $5000  a  ^    sergeant- at-arms;     (3)     door-keeper;     (4) 

year,  $125  a  year  additional  for  stationery,  P°^maf  ^  :  (5)  chaPjain- 

and  mileage  at  the  rate  of  20  cents  a  mile  to  .   The  following  critical  review  of  the  House 

and    from  Washington    at  every  session    of  lsl   condensed    from     Professor    Bryce  s    The 

Congress.     Unexcused  absence   causes  a  de-  American  Commonwealth  (chaps.  13  and  14)  : 

duction    from    the    salarv.      The    House    of  "The  House  of  Representatives,  usually  called  for 

Renresentativps  rhonspq  its  cjnpakpr  ami  ntViPr  shortness  the  House,  represents  the  nation    on  the 

itives  cnooses  us  speaker  ana  otner  basis  of  population,  as  the   Senate  .represents  the 

officers.     The  power  of  the  Speaker  is  enor-  states. 

mous.      Unless     otherwise     ordered    bv    the  "But  even  in  the  composition  of  the  House  the 

House  fwhioh  is  seldom  trip  ra^  VIP  nnnnintc  States  play  an  important  part.   .   .   Congress  allots  so 

'  <.w.nl<                                  '  case;  ne  appoints  many  members  of  the  House  to  each  State.   .   .   leav- 

all  committees,  and  the  method  of  the  House  ing  the  States  to  determine  the  districts  within  its  own 

in  transacting  its  business  renders  the  com-  area  for  and  bY  which  the  members  shall  be  chosen. 

mittepq  of  first  imnortanre       All  mpn<;iirp<;  arp  These  districts  are  now  equal,  or  nearly  equal,  in  size; 

importance.     All  measures  aie  but  in  laying.  them  out  there  is  ample  scope  for  the 

referred  to  the  Standing  committees,  and  their  process  called  'gerrymandering'    (?.    *».),   which  the 

power  over  the  life  or  death  of  a  bill  is  practi-  dominant  party  in  a  State  rarely  fails  to  apply  for  its 

callv  unlimited       A   maioritv  of  the  rnprnhprs  own  advantage.     Where  a  State  legislature  has  failed 

caiiy  unn    Utea.     A  majority  Ottne  members  to  redistribute  the  State  into  congressional  districts, 

elected  constitutes  a  quorum.      I  he  House  has  after  the  State  has  received  an  increase  of  representa- 

Sole  power  of  impeachment  ;   all  bills  for  rais-  tives,  the  additional  member  or  members  are  elected 

ing  revenue  must  originate  in  the  House   and  ald^cl^ 

on  it   falls  the  duty  of   electing  the  President  «« Setting  extraordinary  sessions  aside,  every  Con- 
gress has  two  sessions,  distinguished  as  the  First,  or 

*  The  clause  included  in  brackets  is  amended  by  the  Long,  and  the  Second,  or  Short.    The  long  session 

XlVth  Amendment,  2d  section.  begins  in  the  fall  of  the  year  after  the  election  of  a 


Representatives,  House  of. 


1190 


Revenue. 


Congress,  and  continues,  with  a  recess  at  Christmas, 
till  the  July  or  August  following.  The  short  session 
begins  in  the  December  after  the  July  adjournment, 
and  lasts  till  the  4th  of  March  following.  The  whole 
working  life  of  a  House  is  thus  from  10  to  12  months. 
Bills  do  not,  as  in  the  English  Parliament,  expire  at 
the  end  of  each  session  ;  they  run  on  from  the  long  ses- 
sion to  the  short  one.  All,  however,  that  have  not  been 
passed  when  the  fatal  4th  of  March  arrives  perish  forth- 
with, for  the  session,  being  fixed  by  statute,  cannot  be 
extended  at  pleasure.  There  is  consequently  a  terrible 
scramble  to  get  business  pushed  through  in  the  last 
week  or  two  of  a  Congress. 

"The  number  of  bills  brought  into  the  House  every 
year  is  very  large,  averaging  over  7000.  In  the  Thirty- 
seventh  Congress  (1861-63)  the  total  number  of  bills 
introduced  was  1026,  viz.  :  613  House  bills,  and  433 
Senate  bills.  In  the  Forty-sixth  it  had  risen  to  9481,  of 
which  7257  were  House  bills,  2224  Senate  bills  ;  showing 
that  the  increase  has  been  much  larger  in  the  House 
than  in  the  Senate.  In  the  Forty-ninth  Congress 
(1885-87)  the  number  was  rising  still  further,  the  num- 
ber up  to  July,  1886,  being  12,906,  exclusive  of  277  joint 
resolutions.  In  the  British  House  of  Commons  the 
total  number  of  bills  introduced  was,  in  the  session  of 
1885,  481,  of  which  202  were  public,  and  279  private  bills. 
America  is,  of  course,  a  far  larger  country,  but  the 
legislative  competence  of  Congress  is  incomparably 
smaller  than  that  of  the  British  Parliament,  seeing 
that  the  chief  part  of  the  field,  both  of  public  bill  and 
private  bill  legislation,  belongs  in  America  to  the  sev- 
eral States.  By  far  the  larger  number  of  bills  in  Con- 
gress are  what  would  be  called  in  England  '  private  ' 
or  'local  and  personal' bills  ;  i.e.,  they  establish  no 

General  rule  of  law,  but  are  directed  to  particular'cases. 
uch  are  the  numerous  bills    for  satisfying  persons 
with  claims  against  the  Federal  Government,  and  for 

fiving  or  restoring  pensions  to  individuals  alleged  to 
ave  served  in  the  Northern  armies  during  the  War  of 
Secession.  It  is  only  to  a  very  small  extent  that  bills 
can  attempt  to  deal  with  ordinary  private  law,  since 
nearly  the  whole  of  that  topic  belongs  to  State  legisla- 
tion. It  is  needless  to  say  that  the  proportion  of  bills 
that  pass  to  bills  that  fail  is  a  very  small  one ;  not  one- 
thirtieth.  One  is  told  in  Washington  that  few  bills  are 
brought  in  with  a  view  to  being  passed.  They  are 
presented  in  order  to  gratify  some  particular  persons 
or  places,  and  it  is  well  understood  in  the  House  that 
they  must  not  be  taken  seriously.  The  Speaker  has 
immense  political  power,  and  is  permitted,  nay  ex- 
pected, to  use  it  in  the  interests  of  his  party.  In  calling 
upon  members  to  speak  he  prefers  those  of  his  own 
side.  He  decides  in  their  favor  such  points  of  order  as 
are  not  distinctly  covered  by  the  rules.  His  authority 
over  the  arrangement  of  business  is  so  large  that  he 
can  frequently  advance  or  postpone  particular  bills  or 
motions  in  a  way  which  determines  their  fate.  Al- 
though he  does  not  figure  in  party  debates  in  the 
House,  he  may  and  does  advise  the  other  leaders  of  his 
party  privately;  and  when  they  '  go  into  caucus'  (*'.  £., 
hold  a  party  meeting  to  determine  their  action  on  some 
pending  question)  he  is  present  and  gives  counsel.  He 
is  usually  the  most  eminent  member  of  the  party  who 
.  has  a  seat  in  the  House,  and  is  really,  so  far  as  the  con- 
1  fidential  direction  of  its  policy  goes,  almost  its  leader. 
His  most  important  privilege  is,  however,  the  nomina- 
tion of  the  numerous  standing  committees  already 
referred  to.  In  the  first  Congress  (April,  1789),  the 
House  tried  the  plan  of  appointing  its  committees  by 
ballot :  but  this  worked  so  ill  that  in  January,  1790,  the 
following  rule  was  passed  :  '  All  committees  shall  be 
appointed  by  the  Speaker,  unless  otherwise  specially 
directed  by  the  House."  This  rule  has  been  readopted 
by  each  successive  Congress  since  then." 

(For  the  working  of  these  committees,  and 
how  bills  are  often  practically  passed  or  re- 
jected by  these  committees  of  which  the  public 
knows  little,  rather  than  by  Congress,  see  CON- 
GRESS.) 

REVENUE.— For  the  principles  involved 
in  problems  of  revenue,  see  FINANCE  ;  TAXA- 
TION ;  FREE  TRADE  ;  PROTECTION  ;  SOCIALISM  ; 
STATE.  We  give  in  this  article  an  outline  of 
the  development  of  the  revenues  of  the  United 
States. 

The  American  colonies  gained  their  rev- 
enues in  various  ways  :  the  proprietary  States, 


such    as    Pennsylvania    and    Delaware,  paid 
heavy  land  duties  to  the  proprietaries,  raising 
other  revenues  by  various  direct  taxes,  excise, 
light    customs,    and    tonnage    duties.     Rum, 
tobacco,    and    slaves    were    gen- 
erally   taxed.     Quit-rents  were  a 
general  source  of  revenue.       In      Colonial 
New  England  taxation  was  levied   Bevenues. 
on  all  property  without  distinction. 
An  ad  valorem '5  per  cent,  duty  was 
levied  on  all  imports.     The  expenses  of  gov- 
ernment, except  in  New  York,  were  very  low. 
Additional   expenditures   were,  however,  fre- 
quently necessary,  and  the  custom  developed 
of  meeting  these  by  the  issue  of  credit  notes 
(see  CURRENCY),  and  these  gradually  came  to  be 
relied  on  for  the  growing  expenses  of  the  colo- 
nies.    The  War   of   Independence    was    met 
by  means  of    the   issue    of    the   Continental 
currency  (see  CURRENCY).     The  States  contrib- 
uted  somewhat,    but    fitfully,  and    in  small 
amounts.     Loans  were   obtained 
from  abroad.    In  the  latter  part  of 
the  war  the  Bank  of  North  Amer-  - 

ica  was  established,  and  loaned  nAT,jPTlpA 
money  to  the  Government.  The  p 
successful  management  of  these 
loans  was  mainly  due  to  Robert  Morris, 
elected  Superintendent  of  Finances.  After 
the  close  of  the  war  and  the  adoption  of 
the  Constitution,  Hamilton  (g.  v.),  elected 
Secretary  of  the  Treasury,  was  mainly  in- 
fluential, against  no  little  opposition,  in  insti- 
tuting a  strong  national  policy  ;  assuming  the 
State  debts,  and  funding  the  main  portions  of 
the  national  and  State  debts  ;  paying  a  heavy 
interest,  and  yet  slowly  reducing  the  principal 
by  import  duties  and  by  internal  revenue 
taxes.  Jefferson's  administration  repealed  the 
internal  taxes,  but  imports  increased.  The 
war  of  1812  was  fought  under  the  guidance  of 
Gallatin,  by  making  new  loans,  doubling  im- 
port duties,  which,  however,  brought  in  little 
more  revenue,  and  levying  internal  revenue 
taxes  again.  Treasury  notes  were  also  issued. 
After  the  war  debt  was  renewed,  and  in  1834 
the  last  debt  was  extinguished.  The  internal 
revenue  system  was  repealed  in  1817  and  not 
revived  until  1861.  After  the  discharge  of 
the  debt,  there  was  a  surplus  ($337,468,819), 
which  in  1837  Congress  voted  to  distribute 
among  the  States  in  proportion  to  their  popula- 
tion. Three-fourths  of  the  amount  were  paid 
when  a  financial  panic  swept  over  the  land  (see 
BANKS  and  BANKING),  and  the  Government 
was  left  unable  to  pay  its  ordinary  bills.  Once 
more  Treasury  notes  were  issued,  and  during 
the  Mexican  war  loans  were  contracted  ;  the  im- 
port duties,  however,  soon  repleted  the  Treas- 
ury again.  In  1857  the  tariff  was  lowered,  the 
revenues  were  reduced,  and  by  the  close  of 
Buchanan's  administration  there  was  a  debt  of 
$60,000,000. 

The  expenses  of  the  War  of  the  Rebellion 
were  met  partly  by  loans,  partly  by  the  issue 
of  Treasury  notes  (see  CURRENCY),  in  small  part 
by  direct  taxes,  with  a  large  development  of 
duties  and  taxes  of  various  kinds.  September, 
1865,  deducting  the  amount  in  the  Treasury 
the  debt  of  the  nation  was  $2,756,431,571. 
(For  the  discussions  and  important  problems 


Revenue. 


1191 


Revenue. 


connected    with   the    Treasury    notes,  loans, 
etc.,  see  CURRENCY.)     The  general  policy  fol- 
lowed was  to  replace    temporary 
loans  by  long  loans  at  lower  in- 
War  of  the   terest.    In  1870  a  funding  law  was 
Rebellion,    passed  whereby  the  Treasury  de- 
partment   was    able    to  do    this. 
Two    hundred  and    fifty  million 
dollars  was  sold  at  4  per  cent.;    later,  Mr. 
Sherman,  as  Secretary  of  the  Treasury,  sold 
$737.691,550  at  4  per  cent.;  then  a  portion  was 
•continued  in  1881  at  3^  per  cent.,  and  again 


in  1882  a  large  quantity  was  sold  at  3  per  cent. 
After  1873,  f°r  a  short  period  reduction  of  the 
debt  was  slow,  but  later  went  on  more  rap- 
idly. (See  DEBT.)  Since  1892  financial  ills 
have  reduced  the  income,  while  expenses  have 
not  declined.  The  policy  of  keeping  a  gold 
reserve  has  been  sustained  by  loans,  for  an  ac- 
count of  which  see  SYNDICATE  LOANS. 

The  following  tables,  from  the  reports  of 
the  Treasurer  of  the  United  States,  give  the 
best  resume  of  the  state  of  the  revenue  since 
1870: 


RECEIPTS  OF  THE  UNITED  STATES  GOVERNMENT — 1870  TO  1895. 


YEAR. 

Customs. 

Internal 
Revenue. 

Direct  Tax. 

Public 
Lands. 

Premiums. 

Loans. 

Gross 
Receipts. 

^870  '.  . 

$194.538,374-44 
206,270,408.05 
216,370,286.77 
188,089,522.70 
163,103,833.69 
157,167,722.35 
148,071,984.61 
130,956,493.07 
130,170,680.20 
137.250.047-7° 
186,522,064.60 
198,159,676.02 
220,410,730.25 
214,706,496.93 
195,067,489.76 
181,471,939-34 
192,905,023.44 
217,286,893.13 
219,091,173.63 
223,832,741.69 
229,668,584.57 
219,522,205.23 
177,452,964-15 
203,355,016.73 
131,818,530.62 
152,749,405-53 

$184,899,756.49 
143,098,153.63 
130,642,177.72 

"3,729,3I4-i4 
102,409,784.90 
110,007,493.58 
116,700,732.03 
118,630,407.83 
110,581,624.74 
113,561,610.58 
124,009,373.92 

135,264,385-S1 
146,497,595.45 
144,720,368.98 
121,586,072.51 
112,498,725.54 
116,805,936.48 
118,823,391.22 
124,296,871.98 
130,881,513.92 
142,606,705.81 
145,686,249.44 

I53,97i,072.57 
161,027,623.93 
147,111,232.81 
143,567,463-78 

$229,102.88 
580,355.37 

315,254.51 
93,798.80 

30-85 
1,516.89 
160,141.69 
108,156.60 
70,720.75 

108,239.91 
32,892.05 
1,565-82 

$3,350,481-76 
2,388.646.68 
2,575,714-19 
2,882,312.38 
1,852,428.93 
1,413,640.17 
1,129,466.95 
976,253.68 
1,079,743-37 
924,781.06 
1,016,506.60 
2,201,863.17 
4,753,140.37 
7,955,864.42 
9,810,705.01 
5,705,986.44 
5,630,990.34 
9,254,286.42 
11,202,017.23 
8,038,651.79 
6,358,272.51 
4,029,535.41 
3,261,875.58 
3,182,089.78 
1.673.637-30 
1,103,347.00 

$15,295,643.76 
8,892,839.95 
9,412,637.65 
11,560,530.89 
5,037,665.22 
3,979,279.69 
4,029,280.58 
405,776.58 
317,102.30 
1,505,047-63 

110.00 

8,633,295.71 

$285,474,496.00 
268,768,523.47 
305,047,054.00 
214,931,017.00 
439,272,535-46 
387,971,556-00 
397,455,808.00 
348,871,749.00 
404,581,201.00 
792,807,643.00 
211,814,103.00 
"3.750,534-00 
120,945,724.00 
555,942,564-00 
206,877,886.00 
245,196,303.00 
116,314,850.00 
154,440.900.00 
285,016,650.00 
245,111,350.00 
245,293,650.00 
373,208,857.75 
381,463,512.00 
347,051,586.00 
417,651,223.50 

$696,729,973.63 
652,092,468.36 
679,153,921-56 
548,669,221.67 
744,251,291.52 
665,971,607.10 
691,551,673.28 
630,278,167.58 
662,345,079.70 
1,066,634,827.46 
545.340,713-98 
474,532,826.57 
524,470,974.28 

954,230,145.00 

555,397,755-94 
568,887,209.38 
452,754,577-o6 
525,844,177.66 
664,282,724.76 
632,161,408.84 
648,374,632.63 
765,821,305.06 
736,401,296.24 
732,871,214.78 
724,006,538.46 

j87i  

1872  
1873  
1874  

1875  

1876  

1877  

1878  .  .  . 

1879  

1880  

1881  

1882  

1883  

1884  

1885  

j886  

1887  

1888  

1889  
1890  

1891  

1892  

i8cn.  .  . 

1894  
1895  

EXPENDITURES  OF  THE  UNITED  STATES  GOVERNMENT — 1870  TO  1895. 


YEAR. 

War. 

Navy. 

Pensions. 

Premiums. 

Interest. 

Principal  of 
Debt. 

Gross  Ex- 
penditures. 

$21,780,229.87 

$15,996,555.60 

$  29,235,498.00 

$393,254,282.13 

9,016,794.74 

25.576,565.93 

399,503,670.65 

691,680,858.90 

1872  

35,372,157-20 

21,249,809.99 

28,533,402.76 

6,958,266.76 
5,105,919.99 

17.357,839-72 
04,750,688.44 

405,007,307.54 
2^3,699,352.58 

682,525,270.21 

1874  

1,395,073.55 

07,119,815.21 

422,065,060.23 

724,698,933.99 

1875  
!876  

41,120,645.98 
38,070,888.64 

21,497,626.27 

29,456,216.22 

03,093.544-57 
00,243,271.23 

407.377,492-48 

449,345,272.80 

682,000,885.32 
714,446,357.39 

1877  

97,124,511.58 

323,965,424.05 

565,299,898.91 

j878  

590,641,271.70 

^879  

35,121,482.39 

05,327,949.00 

699,445,809.16 

966,393,692.69 

Z88o  

38,116,916.22 

13,536,984.74 

56,777,174.44 

2,795,320.42 

95,577,575.11 

432,590,280.41 

700,233,238.19 

j88i  

15,686,671.66 

1,061,248.78 

82,508,741.18 

165,152,335.05 

425,865,222.64 

!882  

61,345,193.95 

71,077,206.79 

271,646,299.55 

529,627,  73*jy^ 

j883  

590,083,829.96 

855,491,961^0 

j884  

54,578,  378.  48 

260.520,690.50 

504,646,934^1^ 

j885  

42,670,578.47 

16,021,079.67 

56,102,267.49 

51,386,256.47 

211,760,353.43 

471,987,288.54 

!886  

13,907,887.74 

63,404,864.03 

50,580,145.97 

205,216,709.36 

447,699,847.86 

7887  

38,561,025.85 

15,141,126.80 

75,029,101.79 

47,741,577.25 

271,901,321.15 

539,833,501.12 

1888  

38,522,436.11 

16,926,437.65 

80,288,508.77 

8,270,842.46 

44,7I<;,007.47 

249,760,258.05 

517,685,059.18 

1889  

44,435,270.85 

21,378,809.31 

87,624,779.11 

17,292,362.65 

41,001,484.29 

318,922,412.35 

618,211,390.60 

44,582,838.08 

22,006,206.24 

106,936,855.07 

20,304,224.06 

36,099,284.05 

-  312,206,367.50 

630,247,078.16 

I89I  

48,720,065.01 

26,113,896.46 
29,174,138.98 

124,415,951.40 
134,583,052.79 

10,401,220.61 

37.547.135-37 
23,378,116.23 

365,352,470.87 
338,995,958.98 

731,126,376.22 
684,019,289.56 

30,136,084.43 

J59,357,  S57-87 

27,264,392.18 

389,530,044.50 

773,007,998.99 

l894  

54,567,929.85 

31,701,293.70 

141,177,284.96 

27,841,405.64 

331,383,272.95 

698,908.552.78 

28,800,335.11 

141,391,623.64 

30,915,919.88 

Revenue. 


1192 


Ricardo,  David. 


The  following   table  gives  the  government  receipts,   expenditures,   and  gold  reserve  by- 
months — 1893,  1894,  1895. 

[All  figures  in  millions  of  dollars.] 


MONTHS. 


1893. 


1894. 


1895. 


January. . .. 
February.. . 

March 

April 

May 

June 

July 

August 

September. 
October...  . 
November.. 
December.. 


35-o 
29.7 
34-i 
28.4 
3°-9 
30.7 
30.9 
23-9 
24.6 
24.6 
24.0 
22.3 


38.3 
3°-9 
31-6 
33-2 
30.2 
28.8 
39-7 
33-3 
25-5 
29.6 

3i-3 
30.1 


-3-3 

-1.2 

2-5 

-4.8 

•  7 

1.9 

-8.8 

-9-4 

-•9 

-S-o 

-7-3 

-7-8 


108.2 
i°3-3 
106.9 
97.0 
95-o 
95-5 
99.2 
96.0 
93-6 
84.4 
83.0 
80.9 


24.1 
22.3 
24.8 
22.7 
23.1 
26.5 
44.8 
5°-4 

22.6 
I9.I 
19.4 
2I.Q 


31-3 
26.7 

3I-I 
32.1 
29.8 
25.6 
36.6 
31-7 
3°-3 
32-7 
28.5 
27.1 


-6.7 
•9 

-1.8 

8.7 

-7-7 

-13-6 

-9.1 

-5-2 


65-7 

106.5 
106.  i 

IOO.2 

78.7 

64.9 
55-o 
55- 2 
58-9 
61.4 
105.4 
85.2 


27.8 
22.9 

25-5 
24.2 

25-3 
25.6 
29.1 
28.9 
27-5 
27.9 
26.0 
26.3 


34-5 
25-7 
25-7 
33-o 
28.6 
21.7 
38.5 
32.6 
24.3 
34-5 
27.2 
25-8 


-6-7 
-2.8 

-.2 

-8.8 
-3-3 

3-9 
-9.4 
-3-7 

3-2 
-6.6 

-1.2 

•5 


44-7 
87.1 
90.5 
91.2 
99-* 
107.5 
107.2 
100.3. 
92-9 
92.9 
79-3 
63-3 


Year  . . . 


339-1 


382.5        -43-4 


301-7 


363-S 


-61.8 


3*7-0 


34-i 


The  total  receipts  of  the  United  States  from  the 
beginning  of  the  Government,  1789,  to  1895  have  been  : 

From  customs,  $7,415,871,509;  internal  revenue, 
$4,716,760,904;  direct  tax,  $28,131,994;  public  lands, 
$289, 726,591 ;  miscellaneous,  $763,202,129  ;  total,  exclud- 
ing loans,  $13,223,944,756- 

The  total  expenditures  of  the  United  States  from  the 
beginning  of  the  Government,  1789,^0  1895  have  been  : 

For  civil  and  miscellaneous,  $2,767,569.284 ;  war, 
$4,980,773,259;  navy,  $1,327,407,789;  Indians,  $309,200,401; 
pensions,  $1,950,403,063  ;  interest,  $2,791,537,714  ;  total, 
$14,126,891,510. 

The  following  table  from  the  report  of  the 
Treasurer  gives  the  details  for  the  fiscal  year 
1894. 

The  revenues  of  the  Government  from  all 
sources  for  the  fiscal  year  ending  June  30, 1894, 
were  : 


The     expenditures     for    the     same    period 
were  : 

For  the  civil  establishment,  including 
foreign  intercourse,  public  buildings, 
collecting  the  revenues,  deficiency  in 
postal  revenues,  refund  of  direct  taxes, 
bounty  on  sugar,  District  of  Columbia, 

and  other  miscellaneous  expenses $101,943,884.07 

For  the  military  establishment,  includ- 
ing rivers  and  harbors,  forts,  arsenals, 

and  seacoast  defenses 54,567,929.85 

For  the  naval  establishment,  including 
construction  of  new  vessels,  machin- 
ery, armament,  equipment,  and  im- 
provements at  navy-yards 31,701,293.79 

For  Indian  service 10,293,481.52 

For  pensions 141,177,284.96 

For  interest  on  the  public  debt 27,841,405.64 

For  postal  service 75,080,479.87 

Total  expenditures $442,605,758.04 

From  the  District  of  Columbia "3,745,422.83  por  ^g  receipts  and  expenditures  of  other 

FIanndfeeS^.°n.S.Ul.a!' ."?.?.  .Pa!?.nt.'.an.?  2,765,699.4!  nations,  see  the  different  nations. 

From  sinking  fund  for  Pacific  railways..  1,916,314.11 

From  sales  of  public  lands ,  1,673,637.30  •.ITAI-.TI-     r»/-»/-»«c-      T  r\ific* 

From  tax  on  national  banks 1,610,867.56  REYBAUD,     MARIE     ROCHE      LOUIS, 

From  sale  of  navy-yard  lands,  Brook-  was  born  in  Marseilles  in   1799.      He  went  to 

Fmm  navV  'pension  'and'  navy'  hospital  s>I'3PtS3™  Paris  in  1829,  and  became  the  leading  historian 

funds,  etc 1,059,964.64  of  the  socialist  school.    A  novelist  as  well  as  an 

From  repayment  of  interest  by  Pacific  historian,  in  1850  he  was  elected  a  member  of 

Fr7mWprofit's 'on- coinage,' buliion"de:  926'42°'°9  the  Academy      Hfe //**!  sur  les  Refornia- 

posits,  and  assays 870,016.78  tton  o u  Sociaiistes  Modernes  (2  vols.  1840-47) 

From  miscellaneous  sources 772,148.18  was  the  first  work  to  bring  the  word  socialism 

From  customs  fees,  fines,  penalties,  and  4nt/-,  rvona-ro!  nc<=> 

forfeitures 682,041.48  into  general  use. 

From  sales  of  Indian  lands 399,811.36 

From    bequest    of   General   Cullum   for  RTPARnn    r»AVTr»    -urac  hnrn  in  T,nnrlon  in 

Memorial  Hall,  West  Point 237,500.00  K1L.AK1JU,  UAV1U,  was  DOTE  in  L,onoon 

From  immigrant  fund 214,142.47  1772,  the  son  of  a  Jewish  member  of  the  Stock 

F-om  sales  of  Government  property 201,970.88  Exchange.      At   the   age  of   14  he  entered  his 

f£*n  Soldiers'  Home,  permanent  fund  .  191,382. 15  father's  office ;  but,  when  2 1 ,  he  separated  from 

JWm    sale    of  old    custom-house,    Mil-  ,  .     -    ,,       ,     ,  '    ..  ,                  •,    ,-f     ,-,,          v.   ~f 

waukee,  Wis 107,680.00  his  father  s  family  and  entered  the  Church  ot 

From    deposits    for    surveying    public  England.     Commencing  business  for  himself,. 

lands............ 103,424.87  he  was  a  man  of  wealth  at  25.     In  1799  he  be- 

From  Reimbursement ebyainternationai  came  interested  in  Adam  Smith's  great  work, 

Union  of  American  Republics 26,243.75  and   henceforth    devoted    himself    mainly  to 

From     sale     of     abandoned     military  economic  studies.     In  1809  he  wrote  a  series  of 

From  depredations 'on  public 'lands' .'.'!'.!!  l^os  articleson  monetary  questions  to  the  Morning 

From  sales  of  condemned  naval  vessels'  s^ooiss  Chronicle,  which  led   to  considerable    contro- 

From  tax  on  sealskins 500.00  versy.     In  1815  he  published  an  essay  on  the  In- 

From  postal  service 75.080,479.04  fluence  of  the  Low  Price  of  Corn,  or  the  Profit 

Total  receipts $372,802,498.29  of  Stock,  in  which  he  first  stated  the  views  as 


Ricardo,  David. 


"93 


"  Rings." 


to  rent  afterward  connected  with  his  name, 
but  which  he  explicitly  states  he  derived 
mainly  from  Malthus  (see  RENT).  In  1817  ap- 
peared Ricardo's  great  work,  his  Principles  of 
Political  Economy  and  Taxation.  In  1819  he 
entered  Parliament,  and  was  soon  recognized 
as  an  authority  in  economics,  and  a  strong 
supporter  of  the  battle  for  free  trade.  In  1822 
he  published  a  tract  on  Protection  to  Agri- 
culture, and  in  1824  was  published,  after  his 
death,  his  Plan  for  the  Establishment  of  a 
National  Bank.  Ricardo  died  September  n, 
1823,  James  Mill  saying  of  him,  that  he  knew 
not  a  better  man. 

Professor  Ingram  says  of  Ricardo  (History 
of  Political  Economy} : 

"  A  sort  of  Ricardo-mythus  for  some  time  existed  in 
economic  circles.  It  cannot  be  doubted  that  the  exag- 
gerated estimate  of  his  merits  arose  in  part  from  a 
sense  of  the  support  his  system  gave  to  the  manufac- 
turers and  other  capitalists  in  their  growing  antago- 
nism to  the  old  aristocracy  of  land-owners.  The  same 
tendency,  as  well  as  his  affinity  to  their  too  abstract 
and  unhistorical  modes  of  thought,  and  their  eudas- 
monistic  doctrines,  recommended  him  to  the  Ben- 
thamite group,  and  to  the  so-called  philosophical 
radicals  generally.  Brougham  said  he  seemed  to  have 
dropped  from  heaven— a  singular  avatar,  it  must  be 
owned.  His  real  services  in  connection  with  questions 
of  currency  and  banking  naturally  created  a  prepos- 
session in  favor  of  his  more  general  views.  But,  apart 
from  those  special  subjects,  it  does  not  appear  that, 
either  in  the  form  of  solid  theoretic  teaching  or  of  val- 
uable practical  guidance,  he  has  really  done  much  for 
the  world,  while  he  admittedly  misled  opinion  on 
several  important  questions.  De  Quincey's  presenta- 
tion of  him  as  a  great  revealer  of  truth  is  now  seen  to 
be  an  extravagance.  J.  S.  Mill  and  others  speak  of  his 
'  superior  lights '  as  compared  with  those  of  Adam 
Smith  ;  but  his  work,  as  a  contribution  to  our  knowl- 
edge of  human  society,  will  not  bear  a  moment's  com- 
parison with  the  Wealth  of  Nations." 

Of  Ricardo's  views  he  says  : 

"The  principle  which  he  puts  first  in  order,  and 
which  is  indeed  the  key  to  the  whole,  is  this— that  the 
exchange  value  of  any commodity,  the  supply  of  which 
can  be  increased  at  will,  is  regulated,  under  a  regime 
of  free  competition,  by  the  labor  necessary  for  its 
production.  Similar  propositions  are  to  be  found  in 
the  Wealth  of  Nations,  not  to  speak  of  earlier  English 
writings.  On  this  basis  Ricardo  goes  on  to  explain 
the  laws  according  to  which  the  produce  of  the  land 
and  the  labor  of  the  country  is  distributed  among 
the  several  classes  which  take  part  in  production. 
[Professor  Ingram  then  goes  on  to  show  where  Ricardo 
got  his  theory  of  rent,  and  then  says:] 

"  The  essence  of  the  theory  is  that  rent,  being  the 
price  paid  by  the  cultivator'to  the  owner  of  land  for 
the  use  of  its  productive  powers,  is  equal  to  the  excess 
of  the  price  of  the  produce  of  the  land  over  the  cost  of 
production  on  that  land.  With  the  increase  of  popu- 
lation, and  therefore  of  demand  for  food,  inferior  soils 
will  be  taken  into  cultivation  ;  and  the  price  of  the 
entire  supply  necessary  for  the  community  will  be 
regulated  by  the  cost  of  production  of  that  portion  of 
the  supply  which  is  produced  at  the  greatest  expense. 
But  for  the  land  which  will  barely  repay  the  cost  of 
cultivation,  no  rent  will  be  paid.  Hence,  the  rent  of 
any  quality  of  land  will  be  equal  to  the  difference  be- 
tween the  cost  of  production  on  that  land  and  the  cost 
of  production  of  that  produce  which  is  raised  at  the 
greatest  expense.  .  .  . 

"  The  great  importance  of  the  theory  of  rent  in  Ri- 
cardo's system  arises  from  the  fact  that  he  makes 
the  general   economic  condition  of  so- 
ciety to  depend  altogether  on  the  posi- 
Ricardian     t'on  m  which  agricultural  exploitation 
T          fl,      .    stands.    This  will  be  seen  from  the  fol- 
JJH.W  01  neni,  lowing  statement  of  his  theory  of  wages 
and  profits.    The  produce  of  every  ex- 
penditure   of   labor  and  capital  being 
divided  between  the  laborer  and  the  capitalist,  in  pro- 
portion as  one  obtains  more  the  other  will  necessarily 
obtain  less.    The  productiveness  of  labor  being  given, 
nothing  can  diminish  profit  but  a  rise  of  wages,  or  in- 


crease it  but  a  fall  of  wages.  Now,  the  price  of  labor,, 
being  the  same  as  its  cost  of  production,  is  determined 
by  the  price  of  the  commodities  necessary  for  the 
support  of  the  laborer.  The  price  of  such  manufac- 
tured articles  as  he  requires  has  a  constant  tendency 
to  fall,  principally  by  reason  of  the  progressive  appli- 
cation of  the  division  of  labor  to  their  production. 
But  the  cost  of  his  maintenance  essentially  depends, 
not  on  the  price  of  those  articles,  but  on  that  of  his- 
food  ;  and,  as  the  production  of  food  will  in  the  prog- 
ress of  society  and  of  population  require  the  sacrifice 
of  more  and  more  labor,  its  price  will  rise ;  money 
wages  will  constantly  rise,  and  with  the  rise  of  wages- 
profits  will  fall.  Thus  it  is  to  the  necessary  gradual 
descent  to  inferior  soils,  or  less  productive  expendi- 
ture on  the  same  soil,  that  the  decrease  in  the  rate  of 
profit  which  has  historically  taken  place  is  to  be  attrib- 
uted (Smith  ascribed  this  decrease  to  the  competition 
of  capitalists,  tho  in  one  place,  bk.  i.  chap,  ix.,  he 
had  a  glimpse  of  the  Ricardian  view).  This  gravita- 
tion of  profits  toward  a  minimum  is  happily  checked 
at  times  by  improvements  of  the  machinery  employed 
in  the  production  of  necessaries,  and  especially  by 
such  discoveries  in  agriculture  and  other  causes  as- 
reduce  the  cost  of  the  prime  necessary  of  the  laborer  ; 
but,  here  again,  the  tendency  is  constant.  While  the 
capitalist  thus  loses,  the  laborer  does  not  gain  :  his 
increased  money  wages  only  enable  him  to  pay  the 
increased  price  of  his  necessaries,  of  which  he  will 
have  no  greater  and  probably  a  less  share  than  he 
had  before.  In  fact,  tne  laborer  can  never  for  any 
considerable  time  earn  more  than  what  is  required  to 
enable  the  class  to  subsist  in  such  a  degree  of  comfort 
as  custom  has  made  indispensable  to  them,  and  to  per- 
petuate their  race  without  either  increase  or  diminu- 
tion. That  is  the  'natural'  price  of 
labor;  and  if  the  market  rate  tempo- 
rarily rises  above  it,  population  will  be  Wo  o-oo 
stimulated,  and  the  rate  of  wages  will 
again  fall.  Thus,  while  rent  has  a  con-  and 

stant  tendency  to  rise  and  profit  to  fall,         Profit, 
the  rise  or  fall  of  wages  will  depend  on 
the    rate    of    increase  of  the  working 
classes.    For  the  improvement  of  their  condition,  Ri- 
cardo thus  has  to  fall  back  on  the  Malthusian  remedy, 
of  the  effective  application  of  which  he  does  not,  how- 
ever, seem  to  have  much  expectation.    The  securities- 
against   a    superabundant    population    to    which    he 
inclinesare  the  gradual  abolition  of  the  poor-laws— for 
their  amendment  would  not  content  him— and  the  de- 
velopment among  the    working   classes  of   a    taste 
for  greater  comforts  and  enjoyments. 

•'  It  will  be  seen  that  the  socialists  have  somewhat 
exaggerated  in  announcing,  as  Ricardo's  '  iron  law  ' 
of  wages,  their  absolute  identity  with  the  amount 
necessary  to  sustain  the  existence  of  the  laborer  and 
enable  him  to  continue  the  race.  He  recognizes  the 
influence  of  a  'standard  of  living'  as  limiting  the 
increase  of  the  numbers  of  the  working  classes,  and  so 
keeping  their  wages  above  the  lowest  point.  But  he 
also  holds  that,  in  long-settled  countries,  in  the  ordi- 
nary course  of  human  affairs,  and  in  the  absence  of 
special  efforts  restricting  the  growth  of  population, 
the  condition  of  the  laborer  will  decline  as  surely,  and 
from  the  same  causes,  as  that  of  the  landlord  will  b& 
improved." 

"  RINGS."— The  New  York  Nation  (xiii. 
333)  says  "  a  [political]  ring  is,  in  its  common 
form,  a  small  number  of  persons  who  get  pos- 
session of  an  administrative  machine  and  dis- 
tribute the  offices  or  other  good  things  connected 
with  it  among  a  band  of  fellows  of  greater  or 
less  dimensions,  who  agree  to  divide  with 
them  whatever  they  make."  The  most  famous 
rings  in  America  have  been  the  Tweed  ring 
(g.  v.),  the  Whisky  ring,  and  the  Philadelphia 
gas  ring.  To  the  Philadelphia  gas  ring, 
which  he  treats  as  a  typical  ring,  Professor 
Bryce  devotes  an  especial  chapter  in  his 
American  Commonwealth.  According  to  this 
account  the  Republican  party  in  Pennsylvania 
during  the  war  fell  into  the  control  of  obscure 
and  corrupt  citizens,  in  part,  at  least,  because 
the  best  citizens  were  absorbed  in  national 
issues.  A  clique  developed  with  ramifications 


"  Rings." 


1194 


Rings." 


at  Washington,  Harrisburg,  and  Philadelphia. 
In  the  latter  city  they  gave  it  complete  con- 
trol. Says  Mr.  Bryce  : 

"  They  sometimes  placed  men  of  good  social  stand- 
ing in  the  higher  posts,  but  filled  the  inferior  ones, 
which  were  very  numerous,  with  their  own  creatures. 
The  water  department,  the  highway  department,  the 
tax  department,  the  city  treasurer's  department,  the 
•county  commissioner's  office,  fell  into  their  hands.  A 
mayor  appointed  by  them  filled  the  police  with  their 
•henchmen  till  it  became  a  completely  partizan  force. 
But  the  center  of  their  power  was  the  gas  trust,  ad- 
ministered by  trustees,  one  of  whom,  by  his  superior 
-activity  and  intelligence,  secured  the  command  of  the 
whole  party  machinery,  and  reached  the  high  position 
of  recognized  Boss  of  Philadelphia.  This  gentleman, 
Mr.  James  M'Manes,  having  gained  influence  among 
the  humbler  voters,  was  appointed  one  of  the  gas 
trustees,  and  soon  managed  to  bring  the  whole  of 
that  department  under  his  control.  It  employed  (I 
was  told)  about  2000  persons,  received  large  sums,  and 
gave  out  large  contracts.  Appointing  his  friends  and 
.dependents  to  the  chief  places  under  the  trust,  and  re- 
quiring them  to  fill  the  ranks  of  its  ordinary  work- 
men with  persons  on  whom  they  could  rely,  the  Boss 
.acquired  the  control  of  a  considerable  number  of  votes 
.and  of  a  large  annual  revenue.  He  and  his  confeder- 
ates then  purchased  a  controlling  interest  in  the  prin- 
cipal horse-car  (street  tramway)  company  of  the  city, 
whereby  they  became  masters  of  a  large  number  of 
additional  voters.  All  these  voters  were  of  course 
expected  to  act  as  '  workers,'  i.  e.,  they  occupied  them- 
selves with  the  party  organization  of  the  city,  they 
knew  the  meanest  streets  and  those  who  dwelt  therein, 
they  attended  and  swayed  the  primaries,  and  when  an 
election  came  round,  they  canvassed  and  brought  up 
the  voters.  Their  power,  therefore,  went  far  beyond 
their  mere  voting  stregth,  for  a  hundred  energetic 
'  workers  '  mean  at  least  a  thousand  votes.  With  so 
much  strength  behind  them  the  gas  ring,  and  Mr. 
M'Manes  at  its  head,  became  not  merely  indispensable 
to  the  Republican  party  in  the  city,  but  in  fact  its 
-chiefs,  able  therefore  to  dispose  of  the  votes  of  all 
those  who  were  employed  permanently  or  temporarily 
in  the  other  departments  of  the  city  government — a 
number  which  one  hears  estimated  as  high  as  20,000. 
Nearly  all  the  municipal  offices  were  held  by  their 
nominees.  They  commanded  a  majority  in  the 
-Select  Council  and  Common  Council.  They  managed 
the  nomination  of  members  of  the  State  legislature. 
Even  the  Federal  officials  in  the  custom-house  and 
post-office  were  forced  into  a  dependent  alliance  with 
them,  because  their  support  was  so  valuable  to  the 
leaders  in  Federal  politics  that  it  had  to  be  purchased 
by  giving  them  their  way  in  city  affairs.  There  was 
no  getting  at  the  trust,  because  '  its  meetings  were 
held  in  secret,  its  published  annual  report  to  the  city 
-councils  was  confused  and  unintelligible,  and  (as 
was  subsequently  proved)  actually  falsified.'*  Mr. 
M'Manes  held  the  pay  rolls  under  lock  and  key,  so  that 
no  ohe  could  know  how  many  employees  there  were, 
.and  it  was  open  to  him  to  increase  their  number  to  any 
extent.  The  city  councils  might  indeed  ask  for  infor- 
mation, but  he  was  careful  to  fill  the  city  councils  with 
his  nominees,  and  to  keep  them  in  humor  by  a  share  of 
whatever  spoil  there  might  be,  and  still  more  by  a 
share  of  the  patronage.  .  .  . 

*  See  Report  of  the  Committee  of  One  Hundred,  pub- 
lished November,  1884.  A  leading  citizen  of  Philadel- 
phia, from  whom  I  have  sought  an  explanation  of  the 
way  in  which  the  gas  trust  had  managed  to  intrench 
itself,  writes  me  as  follows:  "When  in  1835  gas  was 
first  introduced  in  Philadelphia,  it  was  manufactured 
by  a  private  company,  but  the  city  reserved  the  right 
to  buy  out  the  stockholders.  When  this  was  done,  in 
1841,  with  the  object  of  keeping  the  works  '  out  of  poli- 
-tics,'  the  control  was  vested  in  a  board  of  twelve,  each 
serving  for  three  years.  These  were  constituted  trus- 
tees of  the  loans  issued  for  the  construction  and  en- 
largement of  the  works.  Their  appointment  was 
lodged  in  the  hands  of  the  city  councils  ;  but  when,  on 
more  than  one  occasion,  the  councils  endeavored  to 
obtain  control  of  the  works,  the  courts  were  appealed 
to  and  decided  that  the  board,  as  trustees  for  the 
bondholders,  could  not  be  interfered  with  until  the 
Jast  of  the  bonds  issued  under  this  arrangement  had 
matured  and  had  been  paid  off.  Thirty-year  loans 
under  these  conditions  were  issued  until  1855,  so  that 
it  was  not  until  1885  that  the  city  was  able  to  break 
within  the  charmed  circle  of  the  trust." 


"  But  how  was  reform  to  be  effected  ?  Three  method8 
presented  themselves.  One  was  to  proceed  against 
the  gas  trustees  and  other  peculators  in  the  courts  of 
the  State.  But  to  make  out  a  case  the  facts  must  first 
be  ascertained,  the  accounts  examined.  .  .  .  The  pow- 
ers which  should  have  scrutinized  them,  and  compelled 
a  fuller  disclosure,  were  vested  in  the  councils  of  the 
city,  acting  by  their  standing  committees.  But  these 
councils  were  mainly  composed  of  members  or  nomi- 
nees of  the  ring,  who  had  a  direct  interest  in  suppress- 
ing inquiry,  because  they  either  shared  the  profits  of 
dishonesty  or  had  placed  their  own  relatives  and 
friends  in  municipal  employment  by  bargains  with 
the  peculating  heads  of  departments.  They  therefore 
refused  to  move,  and  voted  down  the  proposals  for  in- 
vestigation made  by  a  few  of  their  more  public-spirited 
colleagues. 

"  Another  method  was  to  turn  out  the  corrupt  offi- 
cials at  the  next  election.  The  American  system  of 
short  terms  and  popular  elections  was  originally  due 
to  a  distrust  of  the  officials,  and  expressly  designed  to 
enable  the  people  to  recall  misused  powers.  The 
astuteness  of  professional  politicians  had,  however, 
made  it  unavailable.  Good  citizens  could  not  hope  to 
carry  candidates  of  their  own  against  the  tainted 
nominees  of  the  ring,  because  the  latter,  having  the 
'  straight '  or  '  regular  '  party  nominations,  would  com- 
mand the  vote  of  the  great  mass  of  ordinary  party 
men.  so  that  the  only  effect  of  voting  against  them 
would  at  best  be  to  let  in  the  candidates  of  the  oppo- 
site, t.  e.,  the  Democratic  party.  These  candidates 
were  usually  no  better  than  the  Republican  ring.  .  .  . 
The  third  avenue  to  reform  lay  through  the  action  of 
the  State  legislature.  .  .  .  But  this  avenue  was  closed 
even  more  completely  than  the  other  two  by  the  con- 
trol which  the  city  ring  exercised  over  the  State  leg- 
islature. The  Pennsylvania  House  of  Representatives 
was  notoriously  a  tainted  body,  and  the  Senate  no 
better,  or  perhaps,  as  some  think,  worse." 

Only  by  a  long,  desperate  struggle  of  the 
better  citizens,  who  were  aroused  to  disgust, 
was  the  ring  finally  overthrown  by  the  forma- 
tion of  a  Committee  of  One  Hundred,  the 
ceaseless  efforts  of  a  few  citizens,  the  rousing 
of  a  general  feeling,  leading  at  last  to  the  elec- 
tion of  a  reform  Democrat,  and  the  final  con- 
viction of  some  of  the  officials  in  the  courts. 
On  the  situation  Professor  Bryce  quotes  two 
eminent  Philadelphians.  One  says  : 

"Those  who  study  these  questions  most  critically, 
and  think  the  most  carefully,  fear  more  for  the  repub- 
lic from  the  indifference  of  the  better  classes  than  the 
ignorance  of  the  lower  classes.  We  hear  endless  talk 
about  the  power  of  the  labor  vote,  the  Irish  vote,  the 
German  vote,  the  granger  vote,  but  no  combination  at 
the  ballot  box  to-day  is  as  numerous  or  powerful  as 
the  stay-at-home  vote." 

The  other,  Mr.  Henry  C.  Lea,  the  distin- 
guished historian,  says : 

"  Your  expression  of  surprise  at  the  maladminis- 
tration of  Philadelphia  is  thoroughly  justified.  In  ex- 
isting social  conditions  it  would  be  difficult  to  conceive 
of  a  large  community  of  which  it  would  appear  more 
safe  to  predicate  judicious  self-government  than  ours. 
Nowhere  is  there  to  be  found  a  more  general  diffusion 
of  property  or  a  higher  average  standard  of  comfort 
and  intelligence— nowhere  so  large  a  proportion  of 
land-owners  bearing  the  burden  of  direct  taxation, 
and  personally  interested  in  the  wise  and  honest  ex- 
penditure of  the  public  revenue.  In  these  respects  it 
is  almost  an  ideal  community  in  which  to  work  out 
practical  results  from  democratic  theories.  I  have 
often  speculated  as  to  the  causes  of  failure  without 
satisfying  myself  with  any  solution.  It  is  not  attribu- 
table to  manhood  suffrage,  for  in  my  reform  labors  I 
have  found  that  the  most  dangerous  enemies  of  reform 
have  not  been  the  ignorant  and  poor  but  men  of 
wealth,  of  high  social  position  and  character,  who  had 
nothing  personally  to  gain  from  political  corruption, 
but  who  showed  themselves  as  unfitted  to  exercise  the 
right  of  suffrage  as  the  lowest  proletariat,  by  allowing 
their  partizanship  to  enlist  them  in  the  support  of  can- 
didates notoriously  bad  who  happened,  by  control  of 
party  machinery,  to  obtain  the  '  regular '  nomination. 

"The  nearest  "approach  which  I  can  make  to  an  ex- 
planation is  that  the  spirit  of  party  blinds  many, 
while  still  more  are  governed  by  the  mental  inertia 


Ritchie,  David  G. 


Rodbertus,  Karl  Johann. 


which  renders  independent  thought  the  most  labor- 
ious of  tasks,  and  the  selfish  indolence  which  shrinks 
from  interrupting  the  daily  routine  of  avocations." 

(See  also  CORRUPTION  ;  ELECTIONS.) 
RISK.    See  INTEREST. 

RITCHIE,  DAVID  G.,  was  born  at  Jed- 
burgh,  Scotland,  in  1853,  and  received  his 
school  education  there.  He  was  graduated 
with  honors  from  the  University  of  Edinburgh 
in  1874,  and  the  same  year  matriculated  at 
Balliol  College,  at  Oxford,  attending,  among 
•other  lectures,  those  of  Professor  T.  H.  Green. 
He  was  elected  to  an  open  fellowship  in  Jesus 
College,  and  since  1879  he  has  been  college 
lecturer  and  tutor  in  logic  (in  the  widest  sense 
of  the  term). 

In  politics  Professor  Ritchie  has  been  a 
Radical,  largely  favoring  State  socialism. 

Besides  many  review  articles  and  essays,  he 
has  written  Darwinism  and  Politics  (Sonnen- 
schein,  1889);  second  edition,  with  two  addi- 
tional Essays  on  Human  Evolution  (1891);  of 
this  little  book,  in  its  original  form,  two  un- 
authorized reprints  (one  of  them  under  the 
same  cover  with  Professor  Huxley's  Adminis- 
trative Nihilism)  have  appeared  in  the 
United  States  of  America  ;  The  Principles  of 
State  fnterference;  Four  Essays  on  the  Po- 
litical Philosophy  of  Mr.  Herbert  Spencer, 
J.  S.  Mill,  and  T.  H.  Green  (Sonnenschein, 
1891);  Darwin  and  Hegel,  with  other  philo- 
sophical studies  (1893). 

ROADS. — The  importance  of  good  roads  to 
a  community  is  evident,  tho  not  always  re- 
membered. Traffic,  industry,  communication, 
are  dependent  upon  them. 

The  roads  of  the  Roman  empire  were 
expensive  and  have  endured,  but  can  be  im- 
proved upon  by  modern  engineering.  Twen- 
ty-nine military  roads  centered  at  Rome,  and 
had,  according  to  Antoninus,  a  total  length  of 
52,964  Roman  miles.  Ancient  Peru  and  Mexico 
had  good  roads.  In  the  Middle  Ages  roads 
were  neglected.  In  1350,  in  England,  certain 
roads  were  given  to  private  companies,  to 
repair  and  collect  tolls.  In  the  eighteenth 
century,  in  the  United  States,  turnpikes  were 
maintained  by  private  companies,  and  this 
custom  still  remains  in  some  places,  tho  with 
poor  results.  In  1796  an  act  of  Congress 
authorized  a  road  from  Baltimore  westward, 
which  was  completed  for  650  miles. 

In  Europe  roads  to-day  are  very  much  bet- 
ter than  in  America,  tho  an  agitation  has  now 
commenced  in  the  United  States  for  better 
roads.  Where  the  roads  are  cared  for  by  the 
farmers  their  time  and  money  are  often 
wasted.  Civil  engineering  is  at  first  expen- 
sive, but  in  the  long  run  cheaper,  and  far 
better.  The  cost  of  macadamized  roads  va- 
ries from  $3000  to  $9000  per  mile.  An  organi- 
zation has  been  effected,  called  the  National 
League  for  Good  Roads,  which  publishes 
useful  literature. 

References :  Streets  and  Highivays  in  Foreign 
Countries,  a  collection  of  consular  reports  (1891)  ; 
Byrne's  Highway  Construction  (1892)  ;  Good  Roads,  a 
monthly  magazine  published  in  New  York  ;  see  also 

COXEY. 


ROCHDALE  PIONEERS,  the  name  given 
to  the  weavers  of  Rochdale  (England),  who 
started  the  great  Rochdale  cooperative  move- 
ment. A  rainy  night  in  November,  1843,  12 
men  met  in  the  back  room  of  a  mean  inn,  and 
commenced  this  cooperative  movement  by  or- 
ganizing themselves  as  "  The  Rochdale  Society 
of  Equitable  Pioneers,"  They  agreed  to  pay  20 
pence  a  week  into  a  common  fund,  tho  only  a 
few  of  the  12  were  able  to  pay  their  pence 
that  evening. 

They  began  by  buying  a  little  tea  and  sugar 
at  wholesale  prices,  which  they  sold  to  their 
members  at  little  more  than  cost.  In  a  year 
their  number  had  grown  to  28,  and  they  had 
collected  ^28,  with  which  they  rented  a  little 
store,  and  stocked  it  with  ^15  worth  of 
flour.  For  their  after  history,  and  the  suc- 
cess of  the  cooperative  movement  which 
has  grown  out  of  this  beginning,  see  COOPER- 
ATION. 

RODBERTUS,  KARL  JOHANN  (or  Rod- 
bertus-Jagetzow,  as  he  is  sometimes  called, 
from  his  estates),  was  born  in  1805  at  Grief  s- 
wald;  his  father  being  a  professor.  He  was 
educated  at  Berlin,  Gottingen,  and  Heidel- 
berg. After  practising  law,  and  traveling, 
he  bought,  in  1836,  the  estate  of  Jagetzow  in 
Pomerania.  Here  he  devoted  himself  to  eco- 
nomic and  other  studies,  and  became  prom- 
inent in  Prussian  politics.  In  June,  1848,  he 
was  for  a  fortnight  Cabinet  Minister  for  Public 
Worship  and  Education ;  but  differences  in 
opinion  caused  him  to  resign.  He  was  elected 
in  1849,  once  for  the  First  Chamber,  and 
twice  for  the  Second.  Defeated  as  a  candi- 
date for  the  first  North  German  Diet,  he  re- 
tired from  politics,  and  Lassalle,  who  wrote 
him,  could  not  induce  him  to  combine  his  so- 
cialism with  a  political  agitation.  His  first 
great  work,  published  in  1842,  Zur  Kennt- 
niss  unserer  staatswirthschaftlichen  Zus- 
tdnde,  outlines  his  position.  He  was  a  Ri- 
cardian,  and  from  this  position,  before  Marx, 
deduced  socialistic  economics.  Many  modern 
economists  call  him  a  greater  socialist  econo- 
mist than  Marx.  He  died  on  his  estates,  8th 
December,  1875.  Professor  Wagner  calls  Rod- 
bertus "  the  first,  the  most  original,  and  the 
boldest  representative  of  scientific  socialism  in 
Germany,"  and  "  the  most  distinguished 
theorist  of  the  purely  economic  side  of 
scientific  socialism." 

Rodbertus  speaks  of  his  economic  theories  as  a 
"logical  development  of  the  proposition  introduced 
into  science  by  Smith,  and  established  more  firmly  by 
Ricardo's  school,  that  all  commodities  can  only  be 
considered  economically  as  the  product  of  labor,  and 
cost  nothing  but  labor."  This  proposition  he  places 
at  the  beginning.  He  argues  that,  however  the  pro- 
ductivity may  increase,  the  laborers  are  ever  thrown 
back  by  the  force  of  trade  upon  a  rate  of  wages  which 
does  not  exceed  the  necessary  subsistence.  He  defines 
rent  as  that  income  which  is  derived  by  virtue  of  a 
possession,  and  without  labor,  and  he  divides  rent 
into  rent  from  land  and  rent  from  capital.  The  food 
and  means  of  subsistence  paid  to  the  laborers  from 
the  produce  of  the  land  are  their  wages,  and  the  rest 
of  the  commodities  produced  are  the  rent  retained  by 
the  owner  of  the  land  ;  this  is  land-rent.  Similarly, 
capital-rent  is  all  the  income  which  remains  to  the  cap- 
italist after  deduction  of  wages  paid  to  his  laborers. 
But  all  produce  is  the  produce  of  labor,  and  with  free 
competition  the  value  of  every  commodity  gravitates 


Rodbertus,  Karl  Johann. 


1 196 


Rogers,  James  Edwin  Thorold. 


Economic 
Analysis. 


toward  the  value  of  the  labor  expended  upon  it ;  so 
that  the  relationship  between  the  values  of  the  raw 
and  manufactured  products  is,  on  the 
whole,  only  regulated  by  the  amount  of 
labor  expended  upon  each.  Rodbertus 
points  out  that  a  change  in  the  sum  of 
a  nation's  productive  force ;  in  other 
words,  a  change  in  the  number  of  labor- 
ers—apart, of  course,  from  an  alteration 
in  productivity,  or  in  the  division  of  the  produce — only 
changes  the  sum  of  the  national  produce  and  the 
amounts  (not  the  proportions)  which  fall  to  rent  and 
wages.  According  as  the  sum  of  the  productive  forces 
employed  increases  or  decreases,  will  more  or  less 
rent  be  received  by  the  land-owners,  and  more  or  less 
profit  by  the  capitalists.  Wages  will  not  be  higher 
with  increased  production,  because,  productivity  and 
division  being  supposed  the  same,  the  increased  prod- 
uce falling  to  the  laborers  will  be  shared  by  the  larger 
population.  There  can  be  no  rent,  then,  first,  unless 
the  labor  produce  more  than  is  necessary  in  order  that 
the  laborer  may  continue  his  labor,  and  second,  un- 
less institutions  exist  for  depriving  the  laborer  of  this 
surplus,  wholly  or  in  part,  and  giving  it  to  others,  who 
do  not  themselves  work,  since  the  laborer  is  primarily 
in  possession  of  the  produce  of  his  labor.  This  is 
especially  seen  in  the  case  of  slave-labor,  where  the 
laborer  is  allowed  just  so  much  of  the  produce  as  is 
necessary  to  the  continuation  of  his  labor.  In  modern 
times  the  arbitrary  measures  of  the  slave-owner  have 
been  replaced  by  the  wage  system  or  contract ;  but, 
says  Rodbertus,  "this  contract  is  only  formally  and 
not  actually  free,  and  hunger  fully  takes  the  place  of 
the  whip.  What  used  to  be  called  food  is  now  called 
wages.  ...  A  very  large  part  of  the  people  is  no 
longer  able  to  live  upon  its  own  means,  but  is  in  some 
way  or  other  thrown  on  the  support  of  the  other  part 
of  society.  .  .  .  This  fact  runs  parallel  with  another 
equally  indubitable,  and  making  the  first  still  more 
striking ;  the  national  wealth  has  simultaneously  in- 
creased. Not  only  has  the  national  income  be- 
come greater,  because  the  population  has  increased, 
and  the  increased  population  has  therefore  produced 
more  ;  but  if  the  increased  national  \vealth  be  divided 
between  the  increased  population  there  is  a  larger 
sum  per  head."  These  remarkable  facts  go  together  : 
(i)  the  impoverishment  in  a  nation  increases  out  of 
proportion  to  the  growth  of  population, 
while  simultaneously  (2)  the  national 
income  increases  at  greater  ratio  than 
the  population,  and  the  national  wealth 
also  tends  to  grow.  This  phenomenon 
Rodbertus  holds  to  be  unique  in  history. 
The  social  condition  of  the  working  classes  should  be 
raised  to  the  level  of  their  political  condition  ;  but  all 
that  has  been  done  so  far  has  been  to  press  it  lower 
down.  Rodbertus  has  no  patience  with  the  egotism 
which,  "clothing  itself  too  often  in  the  garb  of  moral- 
ity," says  that  the  vices  of  the  working  classes  are  the 
causes  of  their  misery  and  of  pauperism.  People  call 
out  to  the  laborer,  Ora  et  labora,  and  enjoin  upon 
him  the  duty  of  temperance  and  providence  ;  but  the 
fact  is,  says  Rodbertus,  that  thrift  is  an  impossibility, 
and  to  preach  thrift  where  there  is  no  chance  of  saving 
is  pure  cant  and  cruelty.  Not,  indeed,  that  morality  is 
not  to  be  enjoined  on  the  working  classes.  Morality 
should  never  cease  to  enforce  its  categorical  impera- 
tive everywhere,  powerless  as  the  human  will  is  to  at- 
tain to  perfection  ;  but  the  policy  of  merely  reiterating 
the  duty  of  morality  is  useless.  He  who  gives  bread 
to  the  hungry  man,  he  remarks,  protects  him  far  more 
surely  from  stealing  than  he  who  repeats  the  com- 
mand, "Thou  shalt  not  steal."  Nor  has  he  much  more 
respect  for  the  laissez-faire  school  of  economists.  He 
sneers  at  the  argument  of  "natural  laws."  Only  in 
nature  do  natural  laws  act  of  themselves  intelligently. 
For  society,  which  is  not  natural,  laws  must  be  made. 
Rodbertus  proposes  to  abolish  the  present  wage- 
contract  and  to  introduce  in  its  place  a  normal  work- 
day with  a  normal  form  of  wages  ;  then 
to  introduce  labor-note  money,  the  issue 
of  which  should  be  entirely  in  the  hands 
of  the  State  ;  and  finally  to  establish  a 
system  of  warehouses  for  commodities 
to  be  paid  as  wages.  These  contrivances 
would  provisionally  leave  property  in 
land  and  capital  as  at  present,  except  that  for  the 
future  the  laboring  classes  would  share  in  the  in- 
creasing productivity  ;  but  the  ultimate  goal  is  the 
replacement  of  this  form  of  property  by  a  property 
of  income  alone,  which  would  inaugurate  a  new  and 
a  higher  State  order  than  any  that  has  gone  before. 
But  Rodbertus'  work-day  does  not  mean  with  him 
what  it  means  with  most  socialists— a  legally  deter- 


The  Present. 


Socialist 
Views. 


mined  number  of  hours'  work  daily.  He  expressly- 
says  in  one  place  that  the  expectation  that  such  a  nor- 
mal work-day  will  protect  the  laborers  from  the  greed 
of  their  employers,  and  secure  them  fair  wages,  is  en- 
tirely without  foundation.  Nor  does  he  regard  the 
legal  limitation  of  the  period  of  labor  in  the  case  of 
adult  males  as  tenable  on  practical  grounds,  or  de- 
fensible when  regarded  from  the  standpoint  of  per- 
sonal right,  though  he  makes  an  exception  with 
females  and  children.  "  As  much  as  I  am  for  the  sub- 
ordination of  the  individual  to  the  State,"  he  says,  "  I 
still  maintain  that  the  State  has  no  right  to  say  to  a 
free  man, '  You  shall  work  no  more  than  so  and  so  many 
hours.'  "  The  proper  thing  is  to  increase  wages,  and 
then,  if  the  workman  finds  that  he  can  earn  in  four 
hours  enough  to  keep  him  for  the  day,  there  will  be 
little  fear  of  his  working  twelve.  Even  if  the  State 
were  to  restrict  the  hours  of  labor  to  eight,  and  to  de- 
cree that  wages  should  not  be  reduced,  the  material 
position  of  the  working  classes  would  not  be  improved. 
"  Legislation  which  only  restricts  the  hours  of  labor 
merely  lops  the  branches  of  a  poison  tree.  Legislation 
which  at  once  fixes  a  definite  amount  of  labor,  or 
rather  a  definite  performance  (Leistungsquantum), 
lays  the  ax  at  its  roots,  plants  in  its  place  a  healthy, 
fruitful  tree,  which  it  can  then  allow  to  shoot  and 
blossom  as  freely  as  it  will."  "  The  way  is  long,"  he 
remarks  in  one  of  his  letters,  but  for  that  reason  it  is- 
desirable  that  the  journey  shall  be  begun  without  de- 
lay. Justice  and  prudence  alike  urge  the  necessity 
for  movement,  since  the  social  question  is  fast  taking 
this  form  :  "  Are  the  proprietors  of  the  soil  to  be 
driven  out,  as  in  a  migration  of  the  nations,  by  those 
who  are  without  property?"  But  the  cost!  "Cer- 
tainly, the  solution  of  the  social  problem  \vill  cost 
more  than  the  printer's  ink  of  a  police  order,  simply 
because  it  z'jthe  social  problem."  He  is  confident  that 
this  problem  will  never  be  settled  "  in  the  street  by 
means  of  strikes,  paving-stones,  or  petroleum  ;  "  that 
social  ills  will  not  be  "relieved,  much  less  healed,  by 
camomile  tea."  Permanent  social  peace,  a  strong  ex- 
ecutive power,  enjoying  the  confidence  and  attach- 
ment of  the  working  classes,  and  extensive  prepara- 
tions made  in  quiet  and  order,  are  all  necessary  pre- 
liminaries to  the  final  settlement  of  a  difficulty  which 
becomes  more  dangerous  the  longer  it  is  ignored. 

Rodbertus'  most  important  works,  besides 
the  above  named,  are  Soziale  Brief  e  an  v. 
Kirchmann  (1850-51);  Zur  Erkldritng  und 
Abhiilfe  der  heittigen  Kreditnoth  des  Grund- 
besitzes  (1868-69);  Der  normal  e  Arbeitstag 
(1871). 

The  best  English  account  of  Rodbertus  is  to 
be  found  in  W.  H.  Dawson's  Socialism  and 
Ferdinand  Lassalle,  from  which  our  account 
is  abridged. 


ROGERS,  JAMES  EDWIN  THOROLD, 

was  born  in  Hampshire,  England,  in  1823.  He 
matriculated  at  Magdalen  Hall,  Oxford,  in 
1842,  and  was  graduated  in  1846.  He  took 
holy  orders,  but  later  renounced  them.  In 
1862  he  was  elected  professor  of  Political 
Economy  at  Oxford,  but  failed  of  reelection  in 
1868,  owing  to  his  radical  views.  From  1880 
to  1886  he  sat  in  Parliament,  and  was  reinstated 
professor  at  Oxford  in  1888,  where  he  died  in 
1890.  Commencing  as  an  economist  of  the 
orthodox  economic  school,  he  devoted  himself 
to  economic  historical  research,  and  his  inves- 
tigations soon  convinced  him  that  orthodoxy 
in  this  case  was  very  radically  wrong;  and 
this  conviction  grew  still  more  upon  him,  and 
was  stated  with  still  greater  force,  as  years 
went  on. 

With  the  conclusions  that  he  drew  from  his 
labors  in  social  and  industrial  history,  later 
economists  have  felt  themselves  often  com- 
pelled to  disagree,  but  his  learning  and  capac- 
ity for  research  none  can  question. 

Professor  Rogers'  main  results  are  found  in 


Rogers,  James  Edwin  Thorold.          IT97 


Roman  Catholic  Church. 


"his  i-vol.  Six  Centuries  of  Work  and  Wages 
{1885),  and  more  comprehensively  and  minutely 
in  his  6- vol.  History  of  Agriculture  and  Prices 
<i886-88).  Twenty  years  of  patient  investiga- 
tion he  put  into  his  History  of  Agriculture  and 
Prices.  He  has  collected  thousands  and  thous- 
ands of  records  of  prices  actually  paid  for  differ- 
ent commodities,  or  for  various  kinds  of  labor; 
has  put  together  the  records  of  the  different 
kinds  belonging  to  the  same  year;  has  averaged 
these,  has  then  averaged  these  averages  for 
decades,  and  finally  these  decade  averages  for 
period  averages;  and  has  thus  obtained  results 
it  is  impossible  to  question,  because  based 
on  statements  written  with  no  thought  of  the 
use  to  which  they  would  be  put. 

Professor  Rogers  found  these  records  in  old 
exchequer  bills,  the  college  records,  the  manor 
rolls,  the  farm  accounts  preserved,  as  it  were 
"by  accident,  in  the  state,  university,  and 
municipal  archives  of  English  libraries.  It 
was  almost  by  accident  that  Professor  Rogers 
discovered  them  and  saw  their  unique  value. 

His  other  works  were  The  Economic  Inter- 
pretation of  History  (1888)  and  The  Indus- 
trial and  Commercial  History  of  England 
(1892),  edited  by  his  son. 


ROMAN  CATHOLIC  CHURCH  AND 
SOCIAL  REFORM.— As  the  best  statement 
of  the  attitude  of  the  Roman  Catholic  Church 
to  social  reform,  we  print  in  full  the  Encyclical 
Letter  of  Pope  Leo  XIII.,  dated  May  15,  1891, 
on  the  condition  of  the  working  classes,  and  a 
portion  of  the  Encyclical  of  January  10,  1890, 
on  the  chief  duties  of  Christians  as  citizens. 
For  the  attitude  of  the  Roman  Catholic  Church 
in  education,  see  article,  RELIGION  IN  THE 
PUBLIC  SCHOOLS.  For  the  contributions  of  the 
Roman  Catholic  Church  to  social  reform  in 
the  past,  see  articles,  CHURCH  AND  SOCIAL 
REFORM;  CHRISTIANITY  AND  SOCIAL  REFORM; 
CHRISTIAN  SOCIALISM;  MIDDLE  AGES;  USURY; 
INSTITUTIONAL  CHURCHES,  etc.  The  text  of  the 
following  translations  is  taken  from  the  vol- 
ume, The  Pope  and  the  People,  edited  by  the 
Rev.  W.  H.  Eyre,  S.  J.,  and  approved  by 
the  Archbishop  of  Westminster,  London: 

"THE  CONDITION  OF  THE  WORKING  CLASSES. 

"That  the  spirit  of  revolutionary  change,  which  has 
long  been  disturbing  the  nations  of  the  world,  should 
have  passed  beyond  the  sphere  of  politics  and  made 
its  influence  felt  in  the  cognate  sphere  of  practical 
economics  is  not  surprising.  The  elements  of  the 
conflict  now  raging  are  unmistakable,  in  the  vast 
expansion  of  industrial  pursuits  and  the  marvelous 
discoveries  of  science  ;  in  the  changed  relations  be- 
tween masters  and  workmen  ;  in  the  enormous  for- 
tunes of  some  few  individuals  and  the  utter  poverty 
of  the  masses  ;  in  the  increased  self-reliance  and  closer 
mutual  combination  of  the  working  classes  ;  as  also, 
finally  in  the  prevailing  moral  degeneracy.  The 
momentous  gravity  of  the  state  of  things  now  obtain- 
ing fills  every  mind  with  painful  apprehension  ;  wise 
men  are  discussing  it ;  practical  men  are  proposing 
schemes  ;  popular  meetings,  legislatures,  and  rulers  of 
nations  are  all  busied  with  it — and  actually  there  is  no 
question  which  has  taken  a  deeper  hold  on  the  public 
mind. 

"  Therefore,  Venerable  Brethren,  as  on  former  occa- 
sions when  it  seemed  opportune  to  refute  false  teach- 
ing, we  have  addressed  you  in  the  interests  of  the 
Church  and  of  the  common  weal,  and  have  issued  let- 
ters bearing  on  Political  Power,  Human  Liberty, 
The  Christian  Constitution  of  the  State,  and  like  mat- 


ters, so  have  we  thought  it  expedient  now  to  speak  on 
The  Condition  of  the  Working  Classes.  Itisa  subject 
on  which  we  have  already  touched  more  than  once, 
incidentally.  But  in  the  present  letter  the  responsi- 
bility of  the  Apostolic  office  urges  us  to  treat  the 
question  of  set  purpose  and  in  detail,  in  order  that  no 
misapprehension  may  exist  as  to  the  principles  which 
truth  and  justice  dictate  for  its  settlement.  The  dis- 
cussion is  not  easy,  nor  is  it  void  of  danger.  It  is  no 
easy  matter  to  define  the  relative  rights  and  mutual 
duties  of  the  rich  and  of  the  poor,  of  capital  and  of 
labor.  And  the  danger  lies  in  this,  that  crafty  agita- 
tors are  intent  on  making  use  of  these  differences 
of  opinion  to  pervert  men's  judgments  and  to  stir 
up  the  people  to  revolt. 

"  But  all  agree,  and  there  can  be  no  question  what- 
ever, that  some  remedy  must  be  found,  and  found 
quickly,  for  the  misery  and  wretchedness  pressing  so 
heavily  and  unjustly  at  this  moment  on  the  vast 
majority  of  the  working  classes. 

"For  the  ancient  working  men's  Gilds  were  abol- 
ished in  the  last  century,  and  no  other  organization 
took  their  place.  Public  institutions  and  the  very 
laws  have  set  aside  the  ancient  religion.  Hence,  by 
degrees  it  has  come  to  pass  that  working  men  have 
been  surrendered,  all  isolated  and  helpless,  to  the 
hard-heartedness  of  employers  and  the  greed  of  un- 
checked competition.  The  mischief  has  been  increased 
by  rapacious  usury,  which,  although  more  than  once 
condemned  by  the  Church,  is  nevertheless,  under 
a  different  guise,  but  with  the  like  injustice,  still  prac- 
tised by  covetous  and  grasping  men.  To  this  must  be 
added  the  custom  of  working  by  contract,  and  the 
concentration  of  so  many  branches  of  trade  in  the 
hands  of  a  few  individuals  ;  so  that  a  small  number  of 
very  rich  men  have  been  able  to  lay  upon  the  teeming 
masses  of  the  laboring  poor  a  yoke  little  better  than 
that  of  slavery  itself. 

"To  remedy  these  wrongs  the  socialists,  working  on 
the  poor  man's  envy  of  the  rich,  are  striving  to  do 
away  with  private  property,  and  con- 
tend that  individual  possessions  should 
become  the  common  property  of  all,  to 
be  administered  by  the  State  or  by 
municipal  bodies.  They  hold  that  by 
thus  transferring  property  from  pri- 
vate individuals  to  the  community,  the  present  mis- 
chievous state  of  things  will  be  set  to  rights,  inasmuch 
as  each  citizen  will  then  get  his  fair  share  of  whatever 
there  is  to  enjoy.  But  their  contentions  are  so  clearly 
powerless  to  end  the  controversy  that,  were  they  car- 
ried into  effect,  the  working  man  himself  would  be 
among  the  first  to  suffer.  They  are  moreover  emphat- 
ically unjust,  because  they  would  rob  the  lawful  pos- 
sessor, bring  State  action  into  a  sphere  not  within  its 
competence,  and  create  utter  confusion  in  the  com- 
munity. 

"It  is  surely  undeniable  that,  when  a  man  engages 
in  remunerative  labor,  the  impelling  reason  and  mo- 
tive of  his  work  is  to  obtain  property, 
and  thereafter  to  hold  it  as  his  very 
own.    If  one  man  hires  out  to  another      Private 
his  strength  or  skill,  he  does  so  for  the     _ 
purpose  of  receiving  in  return  what  is     -rroperty. 
necessary   for  sustenance  and    educa- 
tion ;  he  therefore  expressly  intends  to 
acquire  a  right  full  and  real,  not  only  to  the  remuner- 
ation, but  also  to  the  disposal  of  such  remuneration, 
just  as  he  pleases.    Thus,  if  he  lives  sparingly,  saves 
money,  and,  for  greater  security,  invests  his  savings 
in  land,  the  land,  in  such  case,  is  only  his  wages  under 
another  form  ;  and,   consequently,  a  working  man's 
little  estate  thus  purchased  should  be  as  completely  at 
his  full  disposal   as  are  the  wages  he  receives    for 
his  labor.    But  it  is  precisely  in  such  power  of  dis- 
posal that  ownership  obtains,  whether  the  property 
consist  of  land  or  chattels.     Socialists,  therefore,  by 
endeavoring  to  transfer  the  possessions  of  individuals 
to  the  community  at  large,  strike  at  the  interests  of 
every  wage-earner,  since  they  would  deprive  him  of 
the   liberty  of  disposing  of  his  wages,  and  thereby 
of  all  hope  and  possibility  of  increasing  his  stock  and 
of  bettering  his  condition  in  life. 

"  What  is  of  far  greater  moment,  however,  is  the 
fact  that  the  remedy  they  propose  is  manifestly  against 
justice.  For  every  man  has  by  nature  the  right  to 
possess  property  as  his  own.  This  is  one  of  the  chief 
points  of  distinction  between  man  and  the  animal 
creation,  for  the  brute  has  no  power  of  self-direction, 
but  is  governed  by  two  main  instincts,  which  keep  his 
powers  on  the  alert,  impel  him  to  develop  them  in 
a  fitting  manner,  and  stimulate  and  determine  him  to 
action  without  any  power  of  choice.  One  of  these 


Roman  Catholic  Church. 


1198 


Roman  Catholic  Church. 


instincts  is  self-preservation,  the  other  the  propaga- 
tion of  the  species.  Both  can  attain  their  purpose  by 
means  of  things  which  lie  within  range  ;  beyond  their 
verge  the  brute  creation  cannot  go,  for  they  are 
moved  to  action  by  their  senses  only,  and  in  the  spe- 
cial direction  which  these  suggest.  But  with  man  it  is 
wholly  different.  He  possesses,  on  the  one  hand,  the 
full  perfection  of  the  animal  being,  and  hence  enjoys, 
at  least  as  much  as  the  rest  of  the  animal  kind,  the 
fruition  of  things  material.  But  animal  nature,  how- 
ever perfect,  is  far  from  representing  the  human 
being  in  its  completeness,  and  is  in  truth  but  human- 
ity's humble  handmaid,  made  to  serve  and  to  obey. 
It  is  the  mind,  or  reason,  which  is  the  predominant 
element  in  us  who  are  human  creatures ;  it  is  this 
which  renders  a  human  being  human,  and  dis- 
tinguishes him  essentially  and  generically  from  the 
brute.  And  on  this  very  account— that  man  alone 
among  the  animal  creation  is  endowed  with  reason — it 
must  be  within  his  right  to  possess  things  not  merely 
for  temporary  and  momentary  use,  as  other  living 
things  do,  but  to  have  and  to  hold  them  in  stable  and 
permanent  possession  ;  he  must  have  not  only  things 
that  perish  in  the  USE  but  those  also  which,  though 
they  have  been  reduced  into  use,  continue  for  further 
use  in  after  time. 

"  This  becomes  still  more  clearly  evident  if  man's 
nature  be  considered  a  little  more  deeply.  For  man, 
fathoming  by  his  faculty  of  reason  matters  without 
number,  and  linking  the  future  with  the  present,  be- 
coming, furthermore,  by  taking  enlightened  fore- 
thought, master  of  his  own  acts,  guides  his  ways 
under  the  eternal  law  and  the  power  of  God,  whose 
Providence  governs  all  things.  Wherefore  it  is  in  his 
power  to  exercise  his  choice  not  only  as  to  matters 
that  regard  his  present  welfare,  but  also  about  those 
which  he  deems  may  be  for  his  advantage  in  time  yet 
to  come.  Hence  man  not  only  can  possess  the  fruits 
of  the  earth,  but  also  the  very  soil,  inasmuch  as  from 
the  produce  of  the  earth  he  has  to  lay  by  provision 
for  the  future.  Man's  needs  do  not  die  out,  but  recur; 
although  satisfied  to-day,  they  demand  fresh  supplies 
for  to-morrow.  Nature  accordingly  owes  to  man  a 
storehouse  that  shall  never  fail,  affording  the  daily 
supply  for  his  daily  wants.  And  this  he  finds  solely 
in  the  inexhaustible  fertility  of  the  earth. 

"  Neither  do  we,  at  this  stage,  need  to  bring  into  ac- 
tion the  interference  of  the  State.  Man  precedes  the 
State,  and  possesses,  prior  to  the  formation  of  any 
State,  the  right  of  providing  for  the  sustenance  of  his 
body.  Now  to  affirm  that  God  has  given  the  earth 
for  the  use  and  enjoyment  of  the  whole  human  race 
is  not  to  deny  that  private  proper^  is  lawful.  For 
God  has  granted  the  earth  to  mankind  in  general,  not 
in  the  sense  that  all  without  distinction  can  deal  with 
it  as  they  like,  but  rather  that  no  part  of  it  has  been 
assigned  to  any  one  in  particular,  and  that  the  limits 
of  private  possession  have  been  left  to  be  fixed  by 
man's  own  industry,  and  by  the  laws  of  individual 
races.  Moreover,  the  earth,  even  though  apportioned 
among  private  owners,  ceases  not  thereby  to  minister 
to  the  needs  of  all,  inasmuch  as  there  is  no  one  who 
does  not  sustain  life  from  what  the  land  produces. 
Those  who  dp  not  possess  the  soil  contribute  their 
labor  ;  hence  it  may  truly  be  said  that  all  human  sub- 
sistence is  derived  either  from  labor  on  one's  own 
land,  or  from  some  toilsome  calling,  which  is  paid 
for  either  in  the  produce  of  the  land  itself,  or  in  that 
which  is  exchanged  for  what  the  land  brings  forth. 

"  Here,  again,  we  have  further  proof  that  private 
ownership  is  in  accordance  with  the  law  of  nature. 
Truly,  that  which  is  required  for  the  preservation  of 
life,  and  for  life's  well  being,  is  produced  in  great 
abundance  from  the  soil,  but  not  until  man  has 
brought  it  into  cultivation  and  expended  upon  it  his 
solicitude  and  skill.  Now,  when  man  thus  turns  the 
activity  of  his  mind  and  the  strength  of  his  body  to- 
ward procuring  the  fruits  of  nature,  by  such  act  he 
makes  his  own  that  portion  of  nature's  field  which  he 
cultivates — that  portion  on  which  he  leaves,  as  it 
were,  the  impress  of  his  individuality  ;  and  it  cannot 
but  be  just  that  he  should  possess  that  portion  as  his 
very  own,  and  have  a  right  to  hold  it  without  anyone 
being  justified  in  violating  that  right. 

"  So  strong  and  convincing  are  these  arguments  that 
it  seems  amazing  that  some  should  now  be  setting  up 
anew  certain  obsolete  opinions  in  opposition  to  what 
is  here  laid  down.  They  assert  that  it  is  right  for  pri- 
vate persons  to  have  the  use  of  the  soil  and  its  various 
fruits,  but  that  it  is  unjust  for  any  one  to  possess  out- 
right either  the  land  on  which  he  has  built,  or  the  es- 
tate which  he  has  brought  under  cultivation.  But 
those  who  deny  these  rights  do  not  perceive  that  they 


are  defrauding  man  of  what  his  own  labor  has  pro- 
duced. For  the  soil  which  is  tilled  and  cultivated 
•with  toil  and  skill  utterly  changes  its  condition  ;  it  was- 
wild  before,  now  it  is  fruitful ;  was  barren,  but  now 
brings  forth  in  abundance.  That  which  has  thus  al- 
tered and  improved  the  land  becomes  so  truly  part  of 
itself  as  to  be  in  great  measure  indistinguishable  and 
inseparable  from  it.  Is  it  just  that  the  fruit  of  a  man's. 
own  sweat  and  labor  should  be  possessed  and  enjoyed 
by  any  one  else  ?  As  effects  follow  their  cause,  so  is  it 
just  and  right  that  the  results  of  labor  should  belong 
to  those  who  have  bestowed  their  labor. 

"  With  reason,  then,  the  common  opinion  of  mankind, 
little  affected  by  the  few  dissentients  who  have  con- 
tended for  the  opposite  view,  has  found  in  the  careful 
study  of  nature,  and  in  the  laws  of  nature,  the  foun- 
dations of  the  division  of  property,  and  the  practise 
of  all  ages  has  consecrated  the  principle  of  private 
ownership,  as  being  preeminently  in  conformity  with 
human  nature,  and  as  conducing  in  the  most  unmis- 
takable manner  to  the  peace  and  tranquillity  of  human 
existence.  The  same  principle  is  confirmed  and  en- 
forced by  the  civil  laws — laws  which,  so  long  as  they 
are  just,  derive  from  the  law  of  nature  their  binding 
force.  The  authority  of  the  Divine  Law  adds  its 
sanction,  forbidding  us  in  severest  terms  even  to- 
covet  that  which  is  another's :  Thou  shall  ndt  covet 
thy  neighbor's  wife  ;  nor  his  house,  nor  his  field,  nor 
his  manservant,  nor  his  maidservant,  nor  his  ox, 
nor  his  ass,  nor  anything  which  is  his.  * 

"  The  rights  here  spoken  of,  belonging  to  each  indi- 
vidual man,  are  seen  in  much  stronger  light  when 
considered  in  relation  to  man's  social 
and  domestic  obligations.    In  choosing 
a  state  of  life,  it  is  indisputable  that  all  my..  -PO—,:!,. 
are  at  full  liberty  to  follow  the  counsel  AflC  ±amiiy. 
of  Jesus  Christ  as  to  observing  virgin- 
ity, or  to  bind  themselves  by  the  mar- 
riage tie.    No  human  law  can  abolish  the  natural  and 
original  right  of  marriage,  nor  in  any  way  limit  the 
chief  and  principal  purpose  of  marriage,  ordained  by 
God's  authority  from   the  beginning,      hicrease  and 
multiply. t    Hence  we  have  the  family  :   the  '  society  ' 
of  a  man's  house — a  society  limited  indeed  in  numbers, 
but  no  less  a  true  'society,'  anterior  to  every  kind  of 
State  or  nation,  invested  with  rights  and  duties  of 
its  own,  totally  independent  of  the  civil  community. 

"  That  right  of  property,  therefore,  which  has  been 
proved  to  belong  naturally  to  individual  persons, 
must  likewise  belong  to  a  man  in  his  capacity  of 
head  of  a  family  ;  nay,  such  a  person  must  possess  this 
right  so  much  the  more  clearly  in  proportion  as  his 
position  multiplies  his  duties.  For  it  is  a  most  sacred 
law  of  nature  that  a  father  should  provide  food  and 
all  necessaries  for  those  whom  he  has  begotten  ;  and, 
similarly,  nature  dictates  that  a  man's  children,  who 
carry  on,  so  to  speak,  and  continue  his  own  person- 
ality, should  be  by  him  provided  with  all  that  is  need- 
ful to  enable  them  to  keep  themselves  honorably  from 
want  and  misery  amid  the  uncertainties  of  this  mor- 
tal life.  Now,  in  no  other  way  can  a  father  effect  this 
except  by  the  ownership  of  lucrative  property,  which 
he  can  transmit  to  his  children  by  inheritance.  A 
family,  no  less  than  a  State,  is,  as  we  have  said,  a 
true  society,  governed  by  a  power  within  its  sphere, 
that  is  to  say,  by  the  father.  Provided,  therefore,  the 
limits  which  are  prescribed  by  the  very  purposes  for 
which  it  exists  be  not  transgressed,  the  family  has  at 
least  equal  rights  with  the  State  in  the  choice  and 
pursuit  of  the  things  needful  to  its  preservation  and 
its  just  liberty. 

"  We  say,  at  least  equal  rights  ;  for  inasmuch  as  the 
domestic  household  is  antecedent,  as  well  in  idea  as. 
in  fact,  to  the  gathering  of  men  into  a  community, 
the  family  must  necessarily  have  rights  and  duties 
which  are  prior  to  those  of  the  community,  and 
founded  more  immediately  in  nature.  If  the  citizens 
of  a  State— in  other  words  the  families— on  entering 
into  association  and  fellowship  were  to  experience  at 
the  hands  of  the  State  hindrance  instead  of  help,  and 
were  to  find  their  rights  attacked  instead  of  being  up- 
held, such  association  should  be  held  in  detestation,, 
rather  than  be  an  object  of  desire. 

"The contention,  then,  that  the  civil  government 
should  at  its  option  intrude  into  and  exercise  intimate 
control  over  the  family  and  the  household,  is  a  great 
and  pernicious  error.  True,  if  a  family  finds  itself  in 
exceeding  distress,  utterly  deprived  of  the  counsel  of 
friends,  and  without  any  prospect  of  extricating  itself , 
it  is  right  that  extreme  necessity  be  met  by  public 

*  Deuteronomy  v.  21. 
t  Genesis  i.  28. 


Roman  Catholic  Church. 


1199 


Roman  Catholic  Church. 


aid,  since  each  family  is  a  part  of  the  commonwealth. 
In  like  manner,  if  within  the  precincts  of  the  house- 
hold there  occur  grave  disturbance  of  mutual  rights, 
public  authority  should  intervene  to  force  each  party 
to  yield  to  the  other  its  proper  due,  for  this  is  not  to 
deprive  citizens  of  their  rights,  but  justly  and  prop- 
erly to  safeguard  and  strengthen  them.  But  the 
rulers  of  the  State  must  go  no  further ;  here  nature 
bids  them  stop.  Paternal  authority  can  be  neither 
abolished  nor  absorbed  by  the  State  ;  for  it  has  the 
same  source  as  human  life  itself.  'The  child  belongs 
to  the  father,'  and  is,  as  it  were,  the  continuation  of 
the  father's  personality ;  and,  speaking  strictly,  the 
child  takes  its  place  in  civil  society,  not  of  its  own 
right,  but  in  its  quality  as  member  of  the  family  in 
which  it  is  born.  And  for  the  reason  that  '  the  child 
belongs  to  the  father,'  it  is,  as  St.  Thomas  of  Aquin 
says,  '  before  it  attains  the  use  of  free  will,  under 
power  and  charge  of  its  parents.'  *  The  socialists, 
therefore,  in  setting  aside  the  parent  and  setting  up  a 
State  supervision,  act  against  natural  justice,  and 
break  into  pieces  the  stability  of  all  family  life. 

"And  not  only  is  such  interference  unjust,  but  it  is 
quite  certain  to  harass  and  worry  all  classes  of  citi- 
zens, and  subject  them  to  odious  and  intolerable 
bondage.  It  would  throw  open  the  door  to  envy,  to 
mutual  invective,  and  to  discord  ;  the  sources  of 
wealth  themselves  would  run  dry,  for  no  one  would 
have  any  interest  in  exerting  his  talents  or  his  in- 
dustry ;  and  that  ideal  equality  about  which  they 
entertain  pleasant  dreams  would  be  in  reality  the 
leveling  down  of  all  to  a  like  condition  of  misery  and 
degradation. 

"  Hence  it  is  clear  that  the  main  tenet  of  socialism, 
community  of  goods,  must  be  utterly  rejected,  since 
it  only  injures  those  whom  it  would  seem  meant  to 
benefit,  is  directly  contrary  to  the  natural  rights  of 
mankind,  and  would  introduce  confusion  and  disorder 
into  the  commonweal.  The  first  and  most  funda- 
mental principle,  therefore,  if  one  would  undertake 
to  alleviate  the  condition  of  the  masses,  must  be  the 
inviolability  of  private  property.  This  being  estab- 
lished, we  proceed  to  show  where  the  remedy  sought 
for  must  be  found. 

"  We  approach  the  subject  with  confidence,  and  in 

the  exercise  of  the  rights  which  manifestly  appertain 

to  us,  for  no  practical  solution  of  this 

question  will  be  found,  apart  from  the 

•DoK,.;/!*.       intervention    of   religion    and    of    the 

Keiigion.     Church.     It  is  we  who  are  the  ch;ef 

guardian  of  religion,  and  the  chief 
dispenser  of  what  pertains  to  the 
Church,  and  we  must  not  by  silence  neglect  the  duty 
incumbent  on  us.  Doubtless  this  most  serious  ques- 
tion demands  the  attention  and  the  efforts  of  others 
besides  ourselves — to  wit,  of  the  rulers  of  States,  of 
employers  of  labor,  of  the  wealthy,  aye,  of  the  work- 
ing classes  themselves,  for  whom  we  are  pleading. 
But  we  affirm  without  hesitation  that  all  the  striving 
of  men  will  be  vain  if  they  leave  out  the  Church.  It 
is  the  Church  that  insists,  on  the  authority  of  the  Gos- 

Eel,  upon  those  teachings  whereby  the  conflict  can  be 
rought  to  an  end,  or  rendered,  at  least,  far  less  bit- 
ter ;  the  Church  uses  her  efforts,  not  only  to  enlighten 
the  mind,  but  to  direct  by  her  precepts  the  life  and 
conduct  of  each  and  all ;  the  Church  improves  and 
betters  the  condition  of  the  working  man  by  means  of 
numerous  useful  organizations ;  does  her  best  to  en- 
list the  services  of  all  ranks  in  discussing  and  endeav- 
oring to  meet,  in  the  most  practical  way,  the  claims 
of  the  working  classes ;  and  acts  from  the  positive 
view  that  for  these  purposes  recourse  should  be  had, 
in  due  measure  and  degree,  to  the  intervention  of  the 
law  and  of  State  authority.  Let  it,  then,  be  taken  as 
granted,  in  the  first  place,  that  the  condition  of  things 
human  must  be  endured,  for  it  is  impossible  to  reduce 
civil  society  to  one  dead  level.  Socialists  may  in  that 
intent  do  their  utmost,  but  all  striving  against  nature 
is  in  vain.  There  naturally  exist  among  mankind 
manifold  differences  of  the  most  important  kind; 
people  differ  in  capacity,  skill,  health,  strength  ;  and 
unequal  fortune  is  a  necessary  result  of  unequal  con- 
dition. Such  inequality  is  far  from  being  disadvan- 
tageous, either  to  individuals,  or  to  the  community. 
Social  and  public  life  can  only  be  maintained  by 
means  of  various  kinds  of  capacity  for  business,  and 
the  playing  of  many  parts ;  and  each  man,  as  a  rule, 
chooses  the  part  which  suits  his  own  peculiar  do- 
mestic condition.  As  regards  bodily  labor,  even  had 
man  never  fallen  from  the  state  of  innocence,  he  would 
not  have  remained  wholly  unoccupied ;  but  that 
which  would  then  have  been  his  free  choice  and  his 

*  St.  Thomas,  Summa  Theologica,  2&  2&  Q.  x.  Art.  12. 


Class 

Should  Help 
Class. 


delight  became  afterward  compulsory,  and  the  pain- 
ful expiation  for  his  disobedience.  Cursed  be  the  earth 
in  thy  work  ;  in  thv  labor  thou  shalt  eat  of  it  all  the 
days  of  thy  life.*  In  like  manner,  the  other  pains  and 
hardships  of  life  will  have  no  end  or  cessation  on 
earth  ;  for  the  consequences  of  sin  are  bitter  and  hard 
to  bear,  and  they  must  accompany  man  so  long  as  life 
lasts.  To  suffer  and  to  endure,  therefore,  is  the  lot  of 
humanity  ;  let  them  strive  as  they  may,  no  strength 
and  no  artifice  will  ever  succeed  in  banishing  from, 
human  life  the  ills  and  troubles  which  beset  it.  If 
any  there  are  who  pretend  differently— who  hold  out 
to  a  hard-pressed  people  the  boon  of  freedom  from, 
pain  and  trouble;  and  undisturbed  repose,  and  con- 
stant enjoyment — they  delude  the  people  and  impose 
upon  them,  and  their  lying  promises  will  only  one  day 
bring  forth  evils  worse  than  the  present.  Nothing  is. 
more  useful  than  to  look  upon  the  world  as  it  really 
is— and  at  the  same  time  to  seek  elsewhere,  as  we 
have  said,  for  the  solace  to  its  troubles. 

"  The  great  mistake  made  in  regard  to  the  matter 
now  under  consideration  is  to  take  up  with  the  notion 
that  class  is  naturally  hostile  to  class, 
and  that  the  wealthy  and  the  working 
men  are  intended  by  nature  to  live  in 
mutual  conflict.  So  irrational  and  so 
false  is  this  view  that  the  direct  con- 
trary is  the  truth.  Just  as  the  symmetry 
of  the  human  frame  is  the  resultant  of 
the_  disposition  of  the  bodily  members, 
so  in  a  State  is  it  ordained  by  nature  that  these  twcr 
classes  should  dwell  in  harmony  and  agreement,  and 
should,  as  it  were,  groove  into  one  another,  so  as  to 
maintain  the  balance  of  the  body  politic.  Each  needs 
the  other  ;  capital  cannot  do  without  labor,  nor  labor 
without  capital.  Mutual  agreement  results  in  pleas- 
antness of  life  and  the  beauty  of  good  order ;  while 
perpetual  conflict  necessarily  produces  confusion  and 
savage  barbarity.  Now,  in  preventing  such  strife  as 
this,  and  in  uprooting  it,  the  efficacy  of  Christian  in- 
stitutions is  marvelous  and  manifold.  First  of  all, 
there  is  no  intermediary  more  powerful  than  religion 
(whereof  the  Church  is  the  interpreter  and  guardian) 
in  drawing  the  rich  and  the  poor  bread-winners  to- 
gether, by  reminding  each  class  of  its  duties  to  the 
other,  and,  especially,  of  the  obligations  of  justice. 
Thus  religion  teaches  the  laboring  man  and  the  artisan 
to  carry  out  honestly  and  fairly  all  equitable  agree- 
ments freely  entered  into  ;  never  to  injure  the  prop- 
erty, nor  to  outrage  the  person,  of  an  employer ; 
never  to  resort  to  violence  in  defending  their  own 
cause,  nor  to  engage  in  riot  or  disorder  ;  and  to  have 
nothing  to  do  with  men  of  evil  principles,  who  work 
upon  the  people  with  artful  promises,  and  excite 
foolish  hopes  which  usually  end  in  useless  regrets, 
followed  by  insolvency.  Religion  teaches  the  wealthy 
owner  and  the  employer  that  their  work  people  are 
not  to  be  accounted  their  bondsmen  ;  that  in  every 
man  they  must  respect  his  dignity  and  worth  as  a- 
man  and  as  a  Christian  ;  that  labor  is  not  a  thing  to  be 
ashamed  of,  if  we  lend  ear  to  right  reason  and  to- 
Christian  philosophy,  but  is  an  honorable  calling,  en- 
abling a  man  to  sustain  his  life  in  a  way  upright  and 
creditable  ;  and  that  it  is  shameful  and  inhuman  to- 
treat  men  like  chattels  to  make  money  by,  or  to  look 
upon  them  merely  as  so  much  muscle  or  physical 
power.  Again,  therefore,  the  Church  teaches  that,  as 
religion  and  things  spiritual  and  mental  are  among 
the  working  man's  main  concerns,  the  employer  is 
bound  to  see  that  the  worker  has  time  for  his  religious 
duties  ;  that  he  be  not  exposed  to  corrupting  influences 
and  dangerous  occasions  ;  and  that  he  be  not  led  away 
to  neglect  his  home  and  family,  or  to  squander  his 
earnings.  Furthermore,  the  employer  must  never 
tax  his  work  people  beyond  their  strength,  or  employ 
them  in  work  unsuited  to  their  sex  or  age.  His  great 
and  principal  duty  is  to  give  every  one  a  fair  wage. 
Doubtless,  before  deciding  whether  wages  are  ade- 
quate, many  things  have  to  be  considered ;  but 
wealthy  owners  and  all  masters  of  labor  should  be 
mindful  of  this— that  to  exercise  pressure  upon  the  in- 
digent and  the  destitute  for  the  sake  of  gain,  and  t» 
gather  one's  profit  out  of  the  need  of  another,  is  con- 
demned by  all  laws,  human  and  divine.  To  defraud 
any  one  of  wages  that  are  his  due  is  a  crime  which 
cries  to  the  avenging  anger  of  Heaven.  Behold,  the 
hire  of  the  laborers  ....  which  by  fraud  hath  been 
kept  back  by  you,  crieth  aloud  ;  and  the  cry  of  them  hath 
entered  into  the  ears  of  the  Lord  of  Sabaoth.\  Lastly, 
the  rich  must  religiously  refrain  from  cutting  down 
the  workmen's  earnings,  whether  by  force,  by  fraud, 

*  Genesis  iii.  17. 
t  St.  James  v.  4. 


Roman  Catholic  Church. 


1200 


Roman  Catholic  Church. 


or  b'y  usurious  dealing  ;  and  with  all  the  greater  rea- 
son because  the  laboring  man  is,  as  a  rule,  weak  and 
unprotected,  and  because  his  slender  means  should,  in 
proportion  to  their  scantiness,  be  accounted  sacred. 

"  Were  these  precepts  carefully  obeyed  and  fol- 
lowed out.  would  they  not  be  sufficient  of  themselves 
to  keep  under  all  strife,  and  all  its  causes? 

"  But  the  Church,  with  Jesus  Christ  as  her  Master 
and  Guide,  aims  higher  still.  She  lays  down  precepts 
yet  more  perfect,  and  tries  to  bind  class  to  class  in 
friendliness  and  good  feeling.  The  things  of  earth 
•cannot  be  understood  or  valued  aright  without  taking 
into  consideration  the  life  to  come,  the  life  that  will 
know  no  death.  Exclude  the  idea  of  futurity,  and 
forthwith  the  very  notion  of  what  is  good  and  right 
would  perish  ;  nay,  the  whole  scheme  of  the  universe 
would  become  a  dark  and  unfathomable  mystery. 
The  great  truth  which  we  learn  from  Nature  herself 
is  also  the  grand  Christian  dogma  on  which  religion 
rests  as  on  its  foundation — that  when  we  have  given 
up  this  present  life,  then  shall  we  really  begin  to  live. 
God  has  not  created  us  for  the  perishable  and  transi- 
tory things  of  earth,  but  for  things  heavenly  and 
•everlasting  ;  he  has  given  us  this  world  as  a  place  of 
exile,  and  not  as  our  abiding-place.  As  for  riches  and 
-the  other  things  which  men  call  good  and  desirable, 
whether  we  have  them  in  abundance,  or  lack  them 
altogether — so  far  as  eternal  happiness  is  concerned — 
it  matters  little ;  the  only  important  thing  is  to  use 
them  aright.  Jesus  Christ,  when  he  redeemed  us  with 
plentiful  redemption,*  took  not  away  the  pains  and 
sorrows  which  in  such  large  proportion  are  woven 
together  in  the  web  of  our  mutual  life.  He  trans- 
formed them  into  motives  of  virtue  and  occasions  of 
merit ;  and  no  man  can  hope  for  eternal  reward  unless 
he  follow  in  the  blood-stained  footprints  of  his  Sa- 
vior. If  we  suffer  with  Him,  we  shall  also  reign  with 
Him.'t  Christ's  labors  and  sufferings,  accepted  of  his 
own  free  will,  have  marvelously  sweetened  all  suffer- 
ing and  all  labor.  And  not  only  by  his  example,  but 
by  his  grace,  and  by  the  hope  set  forth  of  everlasting 
recompense,  has  he  made  pain  and  grief  more  easy  to 
endure  ;  for  that  which  is  at  present  momentary  and 
light  of  our  tribulation,  worketh  for  us  above  measure 
•exceedingly  an  eternal  weight  of  glory.  \ 

"  Therefore,  those  whom  fortune  favors  are  warned 
that  freedom  from  sorrow  and  abundance  of  earthly 
riches  are  no  warrant  for  the  bliss  that  shall  never 
end,  but  rather  are  obstacles ;  ||  that  the  rich  should 
tremble  at  thethreatenings  of  Jesus  Christ— threaten- 
ings  so  unwonted  in  the  mouth  of  Our  Lord  §— and 
that  a  most  strict  account  must  be  given  to  the  Su- 
preme Judge  for  all  we  possess.  The  chief  and  most 
excellent  rule  for  the  right  use  of  money  is  one  which 
the  heathen  philosophers  hinted  at,  but  which  the 
Church  has  traced  out  clearly,  and  has  not  only  made 
known  to  men's  minds,  but  has  impressed  upon 
their  lives.  It  rests  on  the  principle  that  it  is  one 
thing  to  have  a  right  to  the  possession  of  money,  and 
Another  to  have  a  right  to  use  money  as  one  wills. 
Private  ownership,  as  we  have  seen,  is  the  natural 
right  of  man  ;  and  to  exercise  that  right,  especially  as 
members  of  society,  is  not  only  lawful,  but  absolutely 
necessary.  '  It  is  lawful,'  said  St.  Thomas  of  Aquin, 
"for  a  man  to  hold  private  property;  and  it  is  also 
necessary  for  the  carrying  on  of  human  existence.' 1 
But  if  the  question  be  asked,  How  must  one's  posses- 
sions be  used  ?  the  Church  replies  without  hesitation 
in  the  words  of  the  same  holy  doctor :  '  Man  should 
not  consider  his  outward  possessions  as  his  own,  but 
as  common  to  all,  so  as  to  share  them  without  hesita- 
tion when  others  are  in  need.  Whence  the  Apostle 
saith,  Command  the  rich  of  this  world.  .  .  .  to  offer 
with  no  stint,  to  apportion  largely.'1  **  True,  no  one  is 
commanded  to  distribute  to  others  that  which  is  re- 
quired for  his  own  needs  and  those  of  his  household  ; 
nor  even  to  give  away  what  is  reasonably  required  to 
keep  up  becomingly  his  condition  in  life  :  '  for  no  one 
•ought  to  live  other  than  becomingly.' tt  But  when 
what  necessity  denies  has  been  supplied,  and  one's 
standing  fairly  taken  thought  for,  it  becomes  a  duty 
to  give  to  the  indigent  out  of  what  remains  over.  Of 
that  which  remaineth,  give  alms.^  It  is  a  duty,  not  of 
justice  (save  in  extreme  cases),  but  of  Christian  char- 
ity—a  duty  not  enforced  by  human  law.  But  the  laws 
.and  judgments  of  men  must  yield  place  to  the  laws 
and  judgments  of  Christ,  the  true  God,  who  in  many 
ways  urges  on  his  followers  the  practise  of  alms- 

*  2  Timothy  ii.  12.  §  St.  Luke  vi.  24,  25. 

t  2  Corinthians  iv.  17.  f  2a  2ae  Q.  Ixvi.  Art.  2. 

$2  Corinthians  iv.  17.  **  Ibid.,  Q.  Ixv.  Art.  2. 

J|  St.  MatthewaiK.  23,  24.  tt  Ibid.,  Q.  xxxii.  Art.  6. 

«  5/.  Luke  xi.  41. 


giving—/^  is  more  blessed  to  give  than  to  receive:  * 
and  who  will  count  a  kindness  done  or  refused  to  the 
poor  as  done  or  refused  to  himself— As  long  as  you  did 
it  to  one  of  my  least  brethren,  you  did  it  to  tne.-t  To 
sum  up  then  what  has  been  said  :  Whoever  has 
received  from  the  Divine  bounty  a  large  share  of 
temporal  blessings,  whether  they  be  external  and  cor- 
poreal, or  gifts  of  the  mind,  has  received  them  for  the 
purpose  of  using  them  for  the  perfecting  of  his  own  na- 
ture, and,  at  the  same  time,  that  he  may  employ  them, 
as  the  steward  of  God's  Providence,  for  the  benefit  of 
others.  '  He  that  hath  a  talent,'  says  St.  Gregory  the 
Great,  '  let  him  see  that  he  hide  it  not ;  he  that  hath 
abundance,  let  him  quicken  himself  to  mercy  and 
generosity ;  he  that  hath  art  and  skill,  let  him  do  his 
best  to  share  the  use  and  the  utility  thereof  with  his 
neighbor.'}: 

"  As  for  those  who  possess  not  the  gifts  of  fortune, 
they  are  taught  by  the  Church  that  in  God's  sight 
poverty  is  no  disgrace,  and  that  there 
is  nothing  to  be  ashamed  of  in  one's 
seeking  one's  bread  by  labor.  This  is  T>IO  Pnnr 
enforced  by  what  we  see  in  Christ  1Ile  roor- 
who  himself,  whereas  he  was  rich,  for 
our  sakes  became  poor ,  !  and  who, 
being  the  Son  of  God,  and  God  himself,  chose  to 
seem  and  be  considered  the  son  of  a  carpenter— nay, 
did  not  disdain  to  spend  a  great  part  of  his  life  as  a 
carpenter  himself.  Is  not  this  the  carpenter,  the  son 
of  Mary?  \  From  contemplation  of  this  Divine  ex- 
emplar, it  is  more  easy  to  understand  that  the  true 
worth  and  nobility  of  man  lies  in  his  moral  qualities, 
that  is,  in  virtue  ;  that  virtue  is  moreover  the  common 
inheritance  of  men,  equally  within  the  reach  of  high 
and  low,  rich  and  poor ;  and  that  virtue,  and  virtue 
alone,  wherever  found,  will  be  followed  by  the  rewards 
of  everlasting  happiness.  Nay,  God  himself  seems  to 
incline  rather  to  those  who  suffer  misfortune  ;  for  Jesus 
Christ  calls  the  poor  '  blessed ';1f  he  lovingly  invites 
those  in  labor  and  grief  to  come  to  him  for  s'olace  ;  ** 
and  he  displays  the  tenderest  charity  toward  the  lowly 
and  the  oppressed.  These  reflections  cannot  fail  to 
keep  down  the  pride  of  those  who  are  well-to-do,  and 
to  embolden  the  spirit  of  the  afflicted  ;  to  incline  the 
former  to  generosity,  and  the  latter  to  meek  resigna- 
tion. Thus  the  separation  which  pride  would  set  up 
tends  to  disappear,  nor  will  it  be  difficult  to  make  rich 
and  poor  join  hands  in  friendly  concord. 

"  But,  if  Christian  precepts  prevail,  the  respective 
classes  will  not  only  be  united  in  the  bonds  of  friend- 
ship, but  also  in  those  of  brotherly  love.  For  they 
will  understand  and  feel  that  all  men  are  children  of 
the  same  common  Father,  who  is  God  ;  that  all  have 
alike  the  same  last  end,  which  is  God  himself,  who 
alone  can  make  either  men  or  angels  absolutely  and 
perfectly  happy  ;  that  each  and  all  are  redeemed  and 
made  sons  of  God,  by  Jesus  Christ,  the  first-born 
among  many  brethren  ;  that  the  blessings  of  nature 
and  the  gifts  of  grace  belong  to  the  whole  human  race 
in  common,  and  that  from  none  except  the  unworthy  is 
withheld  the  inheritance  of  the  Kingdom  of  Heaven. 
If  sons,  heirs  also  ;  heirs  indeed  of  God,  and  co-heirs 
of Christ.^ 

"  Such  is  the  scheme  of  duties  and  of  rights  which  is 
shown  forth  to  the  world  by  the  Gospel.  Would  it  not 
seem  that,  were  society  penetrated  with  ideas  like 
these,  strife  must  quickly  cease  ? 

"  But  the  Church,  not  content  with  pointing  out  the 
remedy,  also  applies  it.     For  the  Church  does  her  ut- 
most to  teach  and  to  train  men,  and  to 
educate  them  ;  and  by  the  intermediary 
of  her  bishops  and  clergy  diffuses  her  The  Church 
salutary  teachings  far  and  wide.    -She        Serves 
strives  to  influence  the  mind  and  the       _ 
heart    so  that  all  men  may    willingly       oOCiety. 
yield    themselves    to    be    formed    and 
guided  by  the  commandments  of  God. 
It  is  precisely  in  this  fundamental  and  momentous 
matter,  on  which  everything  depends,  that  the  Church 
possesses  a  power  peculiarly  her  own.    The  agencies 
which  she  employs  are  given  to  her  by  Jesus  Christ 
himself,  for  the  very -purpose  of  reaching  the  hearts 
of  men,  and  derive  their  efficiency  from  God.     They 
alone  can  reach  the  innermost  heart  and  conscience, 

*  Acts  xx.  35. 
t  St.  Matthew  xxv.  40. 

t  St.  Gregory  the  Great,  Horn.  ix.  in  Evangel,  n.  7. 
|]  2  Corinthians  viii.  9. 
§  St.  Mark  vi.  3. 

•If  St.  Matthew  v.  3  :  Blessed  are  the  poor  in  spirit. 
**  Ibid.,  xi.  28  :  Come  to  me  all  you  that  labor  and  art 
burdened,  and  I  will  refresh  you. 
tt  Romans  viii.  17. 


Roman  Catholic  Church, 


I2OI 


Roman  Catholic  Church. 


.and  bring  men  to  act  from  a  motive  of  duty,  to  resist 
their  passions  and  appetites,  to  love  God  and  their 
fellow-men  with  a  love  that  is  singular  and  supreme, 
and  to  break  down  courageously  every  barrier  which 
impedes  the  Way  of  a  life  of  virtue. 

"  On  this  subject  we  need  but  recall  for  one  moment 
the  examples  recorded  in  history.  Of  these  facts 
there  cannot  be  any  shadow  of  doubt ;  for  instance, 
that  civil  society  was  renovated  in  every  part  by  the 
teachings  of  Christianity  ;  that  in  the  strength  of  that 
renewal  the  human  race  was  lifted  up  to  better  things 
— nay,  that  it  was  brought  back  from  death  to  life,  and 
to  so  excellent  a  life  that  nothing  more  perfect  had 
been  known  before,  or  will  come  to  be  known  in  the 
ages  that  have  yet  to  be.  Of  this  beneficent  transfor- 
mation. Jesus  Christ  was  at  once  the  first  cause  and  the 
final  end  ;  as  from  him  all  came,  so  to  him  was  all  to 
be  brought  back.  For  when  the  human  race,  by  the 
light  of  the  Gospel  message,  came  to  know  the  grand 
mystery  of  the  Incarnation  of  the  Word  and  the  re- 
•demption  of  man,  at  once  the  life  of  Jesus  Christ, 
God  and  Man,  pervaded  every  race  and  nation,  and 
interpenetrated  them  with  his  faith,  his  precepts,  and 
his  laws.  And  if  society  is  to  be  healed  now,  in  no 
other  way  can  it  be  healed  save  by  a  return  to  Chris- 
tian life  and  Christian  institutions.  When  a  society 
is  perishing,  the  wholesome  advice  to  give  to  those  who 
would  restore  it  is  to  recall  it  to  the  principles  from 
•which  it  sprang  ;  for  the  purpose  and  perfection  of  an 
association  is  to  aim  at  and  to  attain  that  for  which  it 
was  formed  ;  and  its  efforts  should  be  put  in  motion 
and  inspired  by  the  end  and  object  which  originally 
gave  it  being.  Hence  to  fall  awayfrom  its  primal  con- 
stitution implies  disease ;  to  go  back  to  it,  recovery. 
And  this  may  be  asserted  with  utmost  truth,  both  of 
the  State  in  general,  and  of  that  body  of  its  citizens — 
by  far  the  great  majority — who  sustain  life  by  their 
labor. 

"  Neither  must  it  be  supposed  that  the  solicitude  of 
the  Church  is  so  preoccupied  with  the  spiritual  con- 
cerns of  her  children  as  to  neglect  their  temporal  and 
earthly  interests.  Her  desire  is  that  the  poor,  for  ex- 
ample, should  rise  above  poverty  and  wretchedness, 
and  better  their  condition  in  life  ;  and  for  this  she 
makes  a  strong  endeavor.  By  the  very  fact  that  she 
•calls  men  to  virtue  and  forms  them  to  its  practise,  she 
promotes  this  in  no  slight  degree.  Christian  morality, 
when  adequately  and  completely  practised,  leads  of 
itself  to  temporal  prosperity,  for  it  merits  the  blessing 
of  that  God  who  is  the  source  of  all  blessings ;  it  pow- 
erfully restrains  the  greed  of  possession  and  the  thirst 
for  pleasure — twin  plagues,  which  too  often  make  a 
man  who  is  void  of  self-restraint  miserable  in  the 
midst  of  abundance ;  *  it  makes  men  supply  for  the 
lack  of  means  through  economy,  teaching  them  to  be 
•content  with  frugal  living,  and  further,  keeping  them 
•out  of  the  reach  of  those  vices  which  devour  not  small 
incomes  merely,  but  large  fortunes,  and  dissipate 
many  a  goodly  inheritance. 

'"The  Church,  moreover,  intervenes  directly  in  be- 
half of  the  poor,  by  setting  on  foot  and  maintaining 
many  associations  which  she  knows  to  be  efficient  for 
the  relief  of  poverty.  Herein  again  she  has  always 
succeeded  so  well  as  to  have  even  extorted  the  praise 
•of  her  enemies.  Such  was  the  ardor  of  brotherly  love 
among  the  earliest  Christians  that  numbers  of  those 
who  were  in  better  circumstances  despoiled  them- 
selves of  their  possessions  in  order  to  relieve  their 
brethren  ;  whence  neither  was  there  anv  one  needy 
among  them.\  To  the  order  of  deacons,  instituted  in 
that  very  intent,  was  committed  by  the  Apostles  the 
•charge  of  the  daily  doles ;  and  the  Apostle  Paul,  tho 
burdened  with  the  solicitude  of  all  the  churches,  hesi- 
tated not  to  undertake  laborious  journeys  in  order  to 
carry  the  alms  of  the  faithful  to  the  poorer  Christians. 
Tertullian  calls  these  contributions,  given  voluntarily 
by  Christians  in  their  assemblies,  deposits  of  piety  ; 
because  to  cite  his  own  words,  they  were  employed 
'  in  feeding  the  needy,  in  burying  them,  in  the  support 
of  youths  and  maidens  destitute  of  means  and  de- 
prived of  their  parents,  in  the  care  of  the  aged,  and 
the  relief  of  the  shipwrecked. '  \ 

"Thus  by  degrees  came  into  existence  the  patri- 
mony which  the  Church  has  guarded  with  religious 
care  as  the  inheritance  of  the  poor.  Nay,  to  spare 
them  the  shame  of  begging,  the  common  Mother  of 
rich  and  poor  has  exerted  herself  to  gather  together 
funds  for  the  support  of  the  needy.  The  Church  has 
aroused  everywhere  the  heroism  of  charity,  and  has 

*  The  desire  of  money   is  the  root  of  all  evils. — i 
Timothy  vi.  10. 
t  Acts  iv.  34. 
4  Apologia  Secunda,  xxxix. 

76 


established  congregations  of  religious  and  many  other 
useful  institutions  for  help  and  mercy,  so  that  hardly 
any  kind  of  suffering  could  exist  which  was  not  af- 
forded relief.  At  the  present  day  many  there  are 
who,  like  the  heathen  of  old,  seek  to  blame  and  con- 
demn the  Church  for  such  eminent  charity.  They 
would  substitute  in  its  stead  a  system  of  relief  organ- 
ized by  the  State.  But  no  human  expedients  will  ever 
make  up  for  the  devotedness  and  self-sacrifice  of 
Christian  charity.  Charity,  as  a  virtue,  pertains  to 
the  Church  ;  for  virtue  it  is  not,  unless  it  be  drawn 
from  the  Sacred  Heart  of  Jesus  Christ ;  and  whoso- 
ever turns  his  back  on  the  Church  cannot  be  near 
to  Christ. 

"  It  cannot,  however,  be  doubted  that  to  attain  the 
purpose  we  are  treating  of,  not  only  the  Church,  but 
all  human  agencies  must  concur.  All  who  are  con- 
cerned in  the  matter  should  be  of  one  mind  and 
according  to  their  ability  act  together.  It  is  with 
this,  as  with  the  Providence  that  governs  the  world  ; 
the  results  of  causes  do  not  usually  take  place  save 
where  all  the  causes  cooperate. 

"  It  is  sufficient,  therefore,  to  inquire  what  part  the 
State  should  play  in  the  work  of  remedy  and  relief. 

"By  the  State  we  here  understand, 
not  the  particular  form  of  government 
prevailing  in  this  or  that  nation,  but  mi.,,  o* QtQ 
the  State  as  rightly  apprehended  ;  that  lfle  O1-ale' 
is  to  say,  any  government  conformable 
in  its  institutions  to  right  reason  and 
natural  law,  and  to  those  dictates  of  the  Divine  wis- 
dom which  we  have  expounded  in  the  Encyclical  on 
The  Christian  Constitution  of  the  State.  The  foremost 
duty,  therefore,  of  the  rulers  of  the  State  should  be  to 
make  sure  that  the  laws  and  institutions,  the  general 
character  and  administration  of  the  commonwealth, 
shall  be  such  as  of  themselves  to  realize  public  •well- 
being  and  private  prosperity.  This  is  the  proper 
scope  of  wise  statesmanship  and  is  the  •work  of  the 
heads  of  the  State.  Now,  a  State  chiefly  prospers  and 
thrives  through  moral  rule,  well-regulated  family  life, 
respect  for  religion  and  justice,  the  moderation  and 
equal  allocation  of  public  taxes,  the  progress  of  the 
arts  and  of  trade,  the  abundant  yield  of  the  land- 
through  everything,  in  fact,  which  makes  the  citizens 
better  and  happier.  Hereby,  then,  it  lies  in  the  power 
of  a  ruler  to  benefit  every  class  in  the  State,  and 
among  the  rest  to  promote  to  the  utmost  the  interests 
of  the  poor;  and  this  in  virtue  of  his  office,  and  without 
being  open  to  any  suspicion  of  undue  interference — 
since  it  is  the  province  of  the  State  to  con  suit  the  com- 
mon good.  And  the  more  that  is  done  for  the  benefit 
of  the  working  classes  by  the  general  laws  of  the 
country,  the  less  need  will  there  be  to  seek  for  specia] 
means  to  relieve  them. 

"  There  is  another  and  deeper  consideration  which 
must  not  be  lost  sight  of.  As  regards  the  State,  the 
interests  of  all,  whether  high  or  low,  are  equal.  The 
poor  are  members  of  the  national  community  equally 
with  the  rich  ;  they  are  real  component  living  mem- 
bers which  constitute,  through  the  family,  the  living 
body  ;  and  it  need  hardly  be  said  that  they  are  in 
every  State  very  largely  in  the  majority.  It  would  be 
irrational  to  neglect  one  portion  of  the  citizens  and 
favor  another  ;  and  therefore  the  public  administra- 
tion must  duly  and  solicitously  provide  for  the  welfare 
and  the  comfort  of  the  working  classes ;  otherwise 
that  law  of  justice  will  be  violated  which  ordains  that 
each  man  shall  have  his  due.  To  cite  the  •wise  words 
of  St.  Thomas  of  Aquin  :  '  As  the  part  and  the  whole 
are  in  a  certain  sense  identical,  the  part  may  in  some 
sense  claim  •what  belongs  to  the  whole.'  *  Among  the 
many  and  grave  duties  of  rulers  who  would  do  their 
best  for  the  people,  the  first  and  chief  is  to  act  with 
strict  justice — with  that  justice  which  is  called  by  the 
schoolmen  distributive — toward  each  and  every  class 
alike. 

"  But  altho  all  citizens,  without  exception,  can  and 
ought  to  contribute  to  that  common  good  in  which 
individuals  share  so  advantageously  to  themselves, 
yet  it  should  not  be  supposed  that  all  can  contribute 
in  the  like  way  and  to  the  same  extent.  No  matter 
what  changes  may  occur  in  forms  of  government, 
there  will  ever  be  differences  and  inequalities  of  condi- 
tion in  the  State.  Society  cannot  exist  or  be  conceived 
of  without  them.  Some  there  must  be  who  devote 
themselves  to  the  work  of  the  commonwealth,  who 
make  the  laws  or  administer  justice,  or  whose  advice 
and  authority  govern  the  nation  in  times  of  peace,  and 
defend  it  in  war.  Such  men  clearly  occupy  the  fore- 
most place  in  the  State,  and  should  be  held  in  highest 
estimation,  for  their  work  concerns  most  nearly  and 

*aa  za?  Q.  Ixi.  Art.  i  ad  a. 


Roman  Catholic  Church. 


1202 


Roman  Catholic  Church. 


effectively  the  general  interests  <jf  the  community. 
Those  who  labor  at  a  trade  or  calling  do  not  promote 
the  general  welfare  in  such  measure  as  this  ;  but  they 
benefit  the  nation,  if  less  directly,  in  a  most  important 
manner.  Still  we  have  insisted  that,  since  the  end 
of  society  is  to  make  men  better,  the  chief  good  that 
society  can  possess  is  virtue.  Nevertheless,  in  all 
well-constituted  States  it  is  in  no  wise  a  matter  of 
small  moment  to  provide  those  bodily  and  external 
commodities  the  use  of  which  is  necessary  to  virtuous 
action.*  And  in  order  to  provide  such  material  well- 
being,  the  labor  of  the  poor— the  exercise  of  their  skill, 
and  the  employment  of  their  strength,  in  the  culture 
of  the  land  and  in  the  work-shops  of  trade— is  of  great 
account  and  quite  indispensable.  Indeed,  their  coop- 
eration is  in  this  respect  so  important  that  it  may  be 
truly  said  that  it  is  only  by  the  labor  of  working  men 
that  States  grow  rich.  Justice,  therefore,  demands 
that  the  interests  of  the  poorer  classes  should  be  care- 
fully watched  over  by  the  administration,  so  that  they 
who  contribute  so  largely  to  the  advantage  of  the 
community  may  themselves  share  in  the  benefits 
which  they  create— that  being  housed,  clothed,  and 
enabled  to  sustain  life,  they  may  find  their  existence 
less  hard  and  more  endurable.  It  follows  that  what- 
ever shall  appear  to  prove  conducive  to  the  well-being 
of  those  who  work  snould  obtain  favorable  considera- 
tion. Let  it  not  be  feared  that  solicitude  of  this  kind 
will  be  harmful  to  any  interest ;  on  the  contrary,  it 
will  be  to  the  advantage  of  all ;  for  it  cannot  but  be 
good  for  the  commonwealth  to  shield  from  misery 
those  on  whom  it  so  largely  depends. 

•'  We  have  said  that  the  State  must  not  absorb  the 
individual  or  the  family  ;  but  should  be  allowed  free 
and  untrammeled  action  ,so  far  as    is 
consistent    with     the     common     good 
State  ant^   t*le    interests    of  others.      Rulers 

_         ,  should,    nevertheless,    anxiously  safe- 

Intcrierence.  guard  the  community  and  all  its  mem- 
bers :  the  community,  because  the 
conservation  thereof  is  so  emphatically 
the  business  of  the  supreme  power  that  the  safety  of 
the  commonwealth  is  not  only  the  first  law,  but  it  is  a 
government's  whole  reason  of  existence ;  and  the 
members,  because  both  philosophy  and  the  Gospel 
concur  in  laying  down  that  the  object  of  the  govern- 
ment of  the  State  should  be  not  the  advantage  of  the 
ruler,  but  the  benefit  of  those  over  whom  he  is  placed. 
The  gift  of  authority  derives  from  God,  and  is,  as  it 
were,  a  participation  in  the  highest  of  all  sovereign- 
ties ;  and  should  be  exercised  as  the  power  of  God  is 
exercised — with  a  fatherly  solicitude  which  not  only 
guides  the  whole,  but  reaches  also  to  details. 

"  Whenever  the  general  interest  or  any  particular 
class  suffers,  or  is  threatened  with  mischief  which  can 
in  no  other  way  be  met  or  prevented,  the  public 
authority  must  step  in  to  deal  with  it.  Now,  it  inter- 
ests the  public,  as  well  as  the  individual,  that  peace 
and  good  order  should  be  maintained  ;  that  family 
life  should  be  carried  on  in  accordance  with  God's 
laws  and  those  of  nature ;  that  religion  should  be 
reverenced  and  obeyed  ;  that  a  hijjh  standard  of  mo- 
rality should  prevail,  both  in  public  and  private  life  ; 
that  the  sanctity  of  justice  should  be  respected,  and 
that  no  one  should  inj ure  another  with  impunity  ;  that 
the  members  of  the  commonwealth  should  grow  up  to 
man's  estate  strong  and  robust,  and  capable,  if  need 
be,  of  guarding  and  defending  their  country.  If  by 
a  strike,  or  other  combination  of  workmen,  there 
should  be  imminent  danger  of  disturbance  to  the  pub- 
lic peace  ;  or  if  circumstances  were  such  as  that  among 
the  laboring  population  the  ties  of  family  life  were  re- 
laxed ;  if  re.igion  were  found  to  suffer  through  the 
operatives  not  having  time  and  opportunity  afforded 
them  to  practise  its  duties  ;  if  in  work-shops  and  fac- 
tories there  were  danger  to  morals  through  the  mixing 
of  the  sexes  or  from  other  harmful  occasions  of  evil  ; 
or  if  employers  laid  burdens  upon  their  workmen 
which  were  unjust,  or  degraded  them  with  conditions 
repugnant  to  their  dignity  as  human  beings ;  finally, 
if  health  were  endangered  by  excessive  labor,  or  by 
•work  unsuited  to  sex  or  age — in  such  cases,  there  can 
be  no  question  but  that,  within  certain  limits,  it  would 
be  right  to  invoke  the  aid  and  authority  of  the  law. 
The  limits  must  be  determined  by  the  nature  of  the 
occasion  which  calls  for  the  law's  interference— the 
principle  being  that  the  law  must  not  undertake  more, 
nor  proceed  further,  than  is  required  for  the  remedy 
of  the  evil  or  the  removal  of  the  mischief. 

"  Rights  must  be  religiously  respected  wherever 
they  exist ;  and  it  is  the  duty  of  the  public  authority 

*St.  Thomas  of  Aquin,  De  Regimine  Principutn, 
i.  15. 


to  prevent  and  to  punish  injury,  and  to  protect  every 
one  in  the  possession  of  his  own.  Still,  when  there  is 
question  of  defending  the  rights  of  individuals,  the 
poor  and  helpless  have  a  claim  to  especial  considera- 
tion. The  richer  class  have  many  ways  of  shielding 
themselves,  and  stand  less  in  need  of  help  from  the 
State  ;  whereas  those  who  are  badly  off  have  no  re- 
sources of  their  own  to  fall  back  upon,  and  must 
chiefly  depend  upon  the  assistance  of  the  State.  And 
it  is  for  this  reason  that  wage-earners,  who  are  un- 
doubtedly among  the  weak  and  necessitous,  should  be 
specially  cared  for  and  protected  by  the  Government. 

"Here,  however,  it  is  expedient  to  bring  under 
special  notice  certain  matters  of  moment.  It  should 
ever  be  borne  in  mind  that  the  chief  thing  to  be  real- 
ized is  the  safe-guarding  of  private  property  by  legal 
enactment  and  public  policy.  Most  of  all  it  is  essen- 
tial, amid  such  a  fever  of  excitement,  to  keep  the 
multitude  within  the  line  of  duty  ;  for  if  all  may 
justly  strive  to  better  their  condition,  neither  justice 
nor  the  common  good  allows  any  individual  to  seize 
upon  that  which  belongs  to  another,  or,  under  the 
futile  and  shallow  pretext  of  equality,  to  lay  violent 
hands  on  other  people's  possessions.  Most  true  it  is 
that  by  far  the  larger  part  of  the  workers  prefer  to  bet- 
ter themselves  by  honest  labor  rather  than  by  doing 
any  wrong  to  others.  But  there  are  not  a  few  who 
are  imbued  with  evil  principles  and  eager  for  revolu- 
tionary change,  whose  main  purpose  is  to  stir  up 
tumult  and  bring  about  measures  of  violence.  The 
authority  of  the  State  should  intervene  to  put  re- 
straint upon  such  firebrands,  to  save  the  working 
classes  from  their  seditious  arts,  and  protect  lawful 
owners  from  spoliation. 

"  When  work-people  have  recourse  to  a  strike,  it  is 
frequently  because  the  hours  of  labor  are  too  long,  or 
the  work  too  hard,  or  because  they  consider  their 
wages  insufficient.  The  grave  inconvenience  of  this 
not  uncommon  occurrence  should  be  obviated  by 
public  remedial  measures;  for  such  paralyzing  of 
labor  not  only  affects  the  masters  and  their  work- 
people alike,  but  is  extremely  injurious  to  trade  and 
to  the  general  interests  of  the  public ;  moreover,  on 
such  occasions,  violence  and  disorder  are  generally 
not  far  distant,  and  thus  it  frequently  happens  that 
the  public  peace  is  imperiled.  The  laws  should  fore- 
stall and  prevent  such  troubles  from  arising  ;  they 
should  lend  their  influence  and  authority  to  the  re- 
moval in  good  time  of  the  causes  which  lead  to  con- 
flicts between  employers  and  employed. 

"But  if  owners  of  property  should  be  made  secure, 
the  working  man,  in  like  manner,  has  property  and 
belongings  in  respect  to  which  he  should  be  pro- 
tected ;  and  foremost  of  all,  his  soul  and  mind.  Life 
on  earth,  however  good  and  desirable  in  itself,  is  not 
the  final  purpose  for  which  man  is  created  ;  it  is  only 
the  way  and  the  means  to  that  attainment  of  truth  and 
that  practise  of  goodness  in  which  the  full  life  of  the 
soul  consists.  It  is  the  soul  which  is  made  after 
the  image  and  likeness  of  God  ;  it  is  in  the  soul  that 
the  sovereignty  resides  in  virtue  whereof  man  is  com- 
manded to  rule  the  creatures  below  him  and  to  use  all 
the  earth  and  the  ocean  for  his  profit  and  advantage. 
fill  the  earth  and  subdue  it ;  and  rule  over  the  fishes  of 
the  sea,  and  the  fowls  of  the  air,  and  all  living-  creatures  * 
which  move  upon  the  earth*  In  this  respect  all  men 
are  equal  :  there  is  no  difference  between  rich  and 
poor,  master  and  servant,  ruler  and  ruled,  for  the 
same  Lord  is  over  all.\  No  man  may  with  impunity 
outrage  that  human  dignity  which  God  himself  treats 
with  reverence,  nor  stand  in  the  way  of  that  higher 
life  which  is  the  preparation  for  the  eternal  life  of 
heaven.  Nay,  more ;  no  man  has  in  this  matter 
power  over  himself.  To  consent  to  any  treatment 
which  is  calculated  to  defeat  the  end  and  purpose  of 
his  being  is  beyond  his  right ;  he  cannot  give  np  his 
soul  to  servitude  j  for  it  is  not  man's  own  rights  which 
are  here  in  question,  but  the  rights  of  God,  the  most 
sacred  and  inviolable  of  rights. 

"  From  this  follows  the  obligation  of  the  cessation 
from  work  and  labor  on  Sundays  and  certain  holy- 
days.  The  rest  from  labor  is  not  to  be  understood  as 
mere  giving  way  to  idleness  ;  much  less  must  it  be  an 
occasion  for  spending  money  and  for  vicious  indul- 
gence, as  many  would  have  it  to  be  ;  but  it  should  be 
rest  from  labor,  hallowed  by  religion.  Rest  (com- 
bined with  religious  observances)  disposes  man  to 
forget  for  a  while  the  business  of  this  every-day  life, 
to  turn  his  thoughts  to  things  heavenly,  and  to  the  wor- 
ship which  he  so  strictly  owes  to  the  Eternal  God- 
head. It  is  this,  above  all,  which  is  the  reason  and 

*  Genesis  i.  28. 
t  Romans  x.  12. 


Roman  Catholic  Church. 


1203 


Roman  Catholic  Church. 


motive  of  Sunday  rest ;  a  rest  sanctioned  by  God's 
great  law  of  the  Ancient  Covenant— Remember  thou 
keep  holy  the  Sabbath  dav,*  and  taught  to  the  world  by 
his  own  mysterious  'rest '  after  the  creation  of  man  : 
He  rested  on  t/ie  seventh  day  from  all  His  work  which 
He  had  done.\  If  we  turn  now  to  things  external  and 
corporeal,  the  first  concern  of  all  is  to  save  the  poor 
workers  from  the  cruelty  of  greedy  speculators,  who 
use  human  beings  as  mere  instruments 
for  money-making.  It  is  neither  just 


Labor.  powers,  like  his  general  nature,  are 
limited,  and  beyond  these  limits  he 
cannot  go.  His  strength  is  developed 
and  increased  by  use  and  exercise,  but  only  on  con- 
dition of  due  intermission  and  proper  rest.  Daily 
labor,  therefore,  should  be  so  regulated  as  not  to  be 
protracted  over  longer  hours  than  strength  admits. 
How  many  and  how  long  the  intervals  of  rest  should 
be,  must  depend  on  the  nature,  of  the  work,  on  cir- 
cumstances of  time  and  place,  and  on  the  health  and 
strength  of  the  workman.  Those  who  work  in  mines 
and  quarries  and  extract  coal,  stone,  and  metals  from 
the  bowels  of  the  earth  should  have  shorter  hours  in 

groportion  as  their  labor  is  more  severe  and  trying  to 
ealth.  Then,  again,  the  season  of  the  year  should 
be  taken  into  account ;  for  not  unfrequently  a  kind  of 
labor  is  easy  at  one  time  which  at  another  is  intolera- 
ble or  exceedingly  difficult.  Finally,  work  which  is 
quite  suitable  for  a  strong  man  cannot  reasonably  be 
required  from  a  woman  or  a  child.  And,  in  regard  to 
children,  great  care  should  be  taken  not  to  place  them 
in  work-shops  and  factories  until  their  bodies  and 
minds  are  sufficiently  developed.  For  just  as  very 
rough  weather  destroys  the  buds  of  spring,  so  does 
too  early  an  experience  of  life's  hard  toil  blight  the 
young  promise  of  a  child's  faculties,  and  render  any 
true  education  impossible.  Women,  again,  are  not 
suited  for  certain  occupations  ;  a  woman  is  by  nature 
fitted  for  home  work,  and  it  is  that  which  is  best 
adapted  at  once  to  preserve  her  modesty  and  to  pro- 
mote the  good  bringing  up  of  children  and  the  well- 
being  of  the  family.  As  a  general  principle  it  may  be 
laid  down  that  a  workman  ought  to  have  leisure  and 
rest  proportionate  to  the  wear  and  tear  of  his  strength; 
for  waste  of  strength  must  be  repaired  by  cessation 
from  hard  work. 

"  In  all  agreements  between  masters  and  work-peo- 
ple, there  is  always  the  condition  expressed  or  under- 
stood that  there  should  be  allowed  proper  rest  for  soul 
and  body.  To  agree,  in  any  other  sense,  would  be 
against  what  is  right  and  just ;  for  it  can  never  be  just 
or  right  to  require  on  the  one  side,  or  to  promise  on 
the  other,  the  giving  up  of  those  duties  which  a  man 
owes  to  his  God  and  to  himself. 

"  We  now  approach  a  subject  of  great  and  urgent 
importance,  and  one  in  respect  of  which,  if  extremes 
are  to  be  avoided,  right  notions  are  ab- 
solutely necessary.     Wages,  as  we  are 
Thp  Tiv-      told>  are  regulated  by  free  consent,  and 

.         „  therefore  the  employer,  when  he  pays 

ing  Wage.    what  was  agree"  upon,   has  done  his 
part  and  seemingly  is  not  called  upon  to 
do  anything  beyond.   The  only  way,  it  is 
said,  in  which  injustice  might  occur  would  be  if  the 
master  refused  to  pay  the  whole  of  the  wages,  or  if  the 
workman  should  not  complete  the  work  undertaken. 
In  such  cases  the  State  should  intervene,  to  see  that 
each  obtains  his  due— but  not  under  any  other  cir- 
cumstances. 

"  This  mode  of  reasoning  is,  to  a  fair-minded  man,  by 
no  means  convincing,  for  there  are  important  con- 
siderations which  it  leaves  out  of  account  altogether. 
To  labor  is  to  exert  oneself  for  the  sake  of  pro- 
curing what  is  necessary  for  the  purposes  of  life,  and 
chief  of  all  for  self-preservation.  In  the  sweat  of 
thy  brow  thou  shall  eat  thy  bread.\  Hence  a  man's 
labor  bears  two  notes  or  characters.  First  of  all,  it 
is  personal,  inasmuch  as  the  exertion  of  individual 
strength  belongs  to  the  individual  who  puts  it  forth, 
employing  such  strength  to  procure  that  personal 
advantage  on  account  of  which  it  was  bestowed.  Sec- 
ondly, man's  labor  is  necessary;  for  without  the  re- 
sult of  labor  a  man  cannot  live  ;  and  self-preservation 
is  a  law  of  nature,  which  it  is  wrong  to  disobey. 
Now,  were  we  to  consider  labor  so  far  as  it  is  personal 
merely,  doubtless  it  would  be  within  the  workman's 
right  to  accept  any  rate  of  wages  whatsoever  ;  for  in 
the  same  way  as  he  is  free  to  work  or  not,  so  is  he  free 
to  accept  a  small  remuneration  or  even  none  at  all. 

*  Exodus  xx.  8.       t  Genesis  ii.  2.  •      \  Genesis  iii.  19. 


But  thjs  is  a  mere  abstract  supposition  ;  the  labor  of 
the  working  man  is  not  only  his  personal  attribute, 
but  it  is  necessary;  and  this  makes  all  the  difference. 
The  preservation  of  life  is  the  bounden  duty  of  one 
and  all,  and  to  be  wanting  therein  is  a  crime.  It  fol- 
lows that  each  one  has  a  right  to  procure  what  is  re- 
quired in  order  to  live  ;  and  the  poor  can  procure  it  in 
no  other  way  than  through  work  and  wages. 

"  Let  it  be  then  taken  for  granted  that  workman 
and  employer  should,  as  a  rule,  make  free  agreements, 
and  in  particular  should  agree  freely  as  to  the  wages; 
nevertheless,  there  underlies  a  dictate  of  nature  more 
imperious  and  more  ancient  than  any  bargain  between 
man  and  man,  namely,  that  the  remuneration  musfbe 
sufficient  to  support  the  wage-earner  in  reasonable 
and  frugal  comfort.  If  through  necessity  or  fear  of  a 
worse  evil  the  workman  accept  harder  conditions 
because  an  employer  or  contractor  will  afford  him  no 
better,  he  is  made  the  victim  of  force  and  injustice. 
In  these  and  similar  questions,  however,—  such  as,  for 
example,  the  hours  of  labor  in  different  trades,  the 
sanitary  precautions  to  be  observed  in  factories  and 
work-shops,  etc.,— in  order  to  supersede  undue  inter- 
ference on  the  part  of  the  State,  especially  as  circum- 
stances, times,  and  localities  differ  so  widely,  it  is 
advisable  that  recourse  be  had  to  societies  or  boards 
such  as  we  shall  mention  presently,  or  to  some  other 
mode  of  safe-guarding  the  interests  of  the  wage-earn- 
ers ;  the  State  being  appealed  to,  should  circumstances 
require,  for  its  sanction  and  protection. 

14  If  a  workman's  wages  be  sufficient  to  enable  him  to 
maintain  himself,  his  wife,  and  his  children  in  reasona- 
ble comfort,  he  will  not  find  it  difficult,  if  he  be  a  sensi- 
ble man,  to  study  economy;  and  he  will  not  fail,  by  cut- 
ting down  expenses,  to  put  by  some  little  savings  and 
thus  secure  a  small  income.  Nature  and  reason  alike 
would  urge  him  to  this.  We  have  seen  that  this  great 
labor  question  cannot  be  solved  save  by  assuming  as  a 
principle  that  private  ownership  must  be  held  sacred 
and  inviolable.  The  law,  therefore,  should  favor 
ownership,  and  its  policy  should  be  to  induce  as  many 
as  possible  of  the  humbler  class  to  become  owners. 

"  Many  excellent  results  will  follow  from  this  ;  and 
first  of  all,  property  will  certainly  become  more  equi- 
tably divided.  For  the  result  of  civil  change  and 
revolution  has  been  to  divide  society  into  two  widely 
differing  castes.  On  one  side  there  is  the  party  which 
holds  power  because  it  holds  wealth  ;  which  has  in  its 
grasp  the  whole  of  labor  and  trade  ;  which  manipu- 
lates for  its  own  benefit  and  its  own  purposes  all  the 
sources  of  supply,  and  which  is  even  represented  in 
the  councils  of  the  State  itself.  On  the  other  side 
there  is  the  needy  and  powerless  multitude,  broken- 
down  and  suffering,  and  ever  ready  for  disturbance. 
If  working  people  can  be  encouraged  to  look  forward 
to  obtaining  a  share  in  the  land,  the  consequence  will 
be  that  the  gulf  between  vast  wealth  and  sheer  pov- 
erty will  be  bridged  over,  and  the  respective  classes 
will  be  brought  nearer  to  one  another.  A  further  con- 
sequence will  result  in  the  greater  abundance  of  the 
fruits  of  the  earth.  Men  always  work  harder  and 
more  readily  when  they  work  on  that  which  belongs 
to  them  ;  nay,  they  learn  to  love  the  very  soil  that 
yields,  in  response  to  the  labor  of  their  hands,  not  only 
food  to  eat,  but  an  abundance  of  good  things  for 
themselves  and  those  that  are  dear  to  them.  That 
such  a  spirit  of  willing  labor  would  add  to  the  produce 
of  the  earth  and  to  the  wealth  of  the  community  is 
self-evident.  And  a  third  advantage  would  spring 
from  this  :  men  would  cling  to  the  country  in  which 
they  were  born  ;  tor  no  one  would  exchange  his  coun- 
try for  a  foreign  land  if  his  own  afforded  him  the 
means  of  living  a  decent  and  happy  life.  These  three 
important  benefits,  however,  can  be  reckoned  on  only 
provided  that  a  man's  means  be  not  drained  and  ex- 
hausted by  excessive  taxation.  The  right  to  possess 
private  property  is  derived  from  nature,  not  from 
man  ;  and  the  State  has  the  right  to  control  its  use  in 
the  interests  of  the  public  good  alone,  but  by  no 
means  to  absorb  it  altogether.  The  State  would 
therefore  be  unjust  and  cruel  if,  under  the  name  of 
taxation,  it  were  to  deprive  the  private  owner  of  more 
than  is  fitting. 

"  In  the  last  place— employers  and  workmen  may  of 
themselves  effect  much  in  the  matter  we  are  treating, 
by  means  of  such  associations  and  or- 
ganizations as  afford  opportune  aid  to 
those  who  are  in  distress,   and   which     Association 
draw  the  two  classes  more  closely  to- 
gether.    Among  these  may  be  enumer- 
ated societies  for  mutual  help  ;  various 
benevolent  foundations  established  by  private  per- 
sons to  provide  for  the  workman,  and  for  his  widow 


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1204 


Roman  Catholic  Church. 


or  his  orphans,  in  case  of  sudden  calamity,  in  sick- 
ness, and  in  the  event  of  death  ;  and  what  are  called 
'patronages,'  or  institutions  for  the  care  of  boys  and 
girls,  for  young  people,  as  well  as  homes  for  the  aged. 

"The  most  important  of  all  are  working  men's 
unions;  for  these  virtually  include  all  the  rest.  His- 
tory attests  what  excellent  results  were  brought  about 
by  the  artificers' gilds  of  olden  times.  They  were  the 
means  of  affording  not  only  many  advantages  to  the 
workmen,  but  in  no  small  degree  of  promoting  the 
advancement  of  art,  as  numerous  monuments  remain 
to  bear  witness.  Such  unions  should  be  suited  to  the 
requirements  of  this  our  age— an  age  of  wider  educa- 
tidn,  of  different  habits,  and  of  far  more  numerous 
requirements  in  daily  life.  It  is  gratifying  to  know 
that  there  are  actually  in  existence  not  a  few  associa- 
tions of  this  nature,  consisting  either  of  workmen 
alone,  or  of  workmen  and  employers  together  ;  but  it 
were  greatly  to  be  desired  that  they  should  become 
more  numerous  and  more  efficient.  We  have  spoken 
of  them  more  than  once  ;  yet  it  will  be  well  to  explain 
here  how  notably  they  are  needed,  to  show  that  they 
exist  of  their  own  right,  and  what  should  be  their 
organization  and  their  mode  of  action. 

"The  consciousness  of  his  own  weakness  urges  man 
to  call  in  aid  from  without.  We  read  in  the  pages  of 
Holy  Writ :  It  is  better  that  two  should  be  together 
than  one;  for  they  have  the  advantage  of  their  society. 
2f  one  fall  he  shall  be  supported  by  the  other.  Woe  to 
him  that  is  alone,  for  "when  he  falleth  he  hath  none 
to  lift  him  up*  And  further :  A  brother  that  is 
helped  by  his  brother  is  like  a  strong  city.i  It  is  this 
natural  impulse  which  binds  men  together  in  civil 
society  ;  and  it  is  likewise  this  which  leads  them  to 
join  together  in  associations  of  citizen  with  citizen ; 
associations  which,  it  is  true,  cannot  be  called  societies 
in  the  full  sense  of  the  word,  but  which,  notwithstand- 
ing, are  societies. 

"  These  lesser  societies  and  the  society  which  con- 
stitutes the  State  differ  in  many  respects,  because  their 
immediate  purpose  and  aim  are  different.  Civil  society 
exists  for  the  common  good,  and  hence  is  concerned 
with  the  interests  of  all  in  general,  albeit  with  indi- 
vidual interests  also  in  their  due  place  and  degree. 
It  is,  therefore,  called  public  society,  because  by  its 
agency,  as  St.  Thomas  of  Aquin  says,  '  Men  establish 
relations  in  common  with  one  another  in  the  setting 
up  of  a  commonwealth. '\  But  societies  which  are 
formed  in  the  bosom  of  the  State  are  styled  private, 
and  rightly  so,  since  their  immediate  purpose  is  the 
private  advantage  of  the  associates.  '  Now,  a  private 
society,'  says  St.  Thomas  again,  '  is  one  which  is 
formed  for  the  purpose  of  carrying  out  private  objects  ; 
as  when  two  or  three  enter  into  partnership  with  the 
view  of  trading  in  common.'  ||  Private  societies,  then, 
altho  they  exist  within  the  State,  and  are  severally 
part  of  the  State,  cannot  nevertheless  be  absolutely, 
and  as  such,  prohibited  by  the  State.  For  to  enter 
into  a  '  society  '  of  this  kind  is  the  natural  right  of 
man  ;  and  the  State  is  bound  to  protect  natural  rights, 
not  to  destroy  them  ;  and  if  it  forbid  its  citizens  to 
form  associations,  it  contradicts  the  very  principle  of 
its  own  existence  ;  for  both  they  and  it  exist  in  virtue 
of  the  like  principle,  namely,  the  natural  tendency  of 
man  to  dwell  in  society. 

"  There  are  occasions,  doubtless,  when  it  is  fitting 
that  the  law  should  intervene  to  prevent  association  ; 
as  when  men  join  together  for  purposes  which  are 
evidently  bad,  unlawful,  or  dangerous  to  the  State. 
In  such  cases  public  authority  may  justly  forbid  the 
formation  of  associations,  and  may  dissolve  them 
if  they  already  exist.  But  every  precaution  should  be 
taken  not  to  violate  the  rights  of  individuals  and  not 
to  impose  unreasonable  regulations  under  pretense  of 
public  benefit.  For  laws  only  bind  when  they  are  in 
accordance  with  right  reason,  and  hence  with  the 
eternal  law  of  God.§ 

"  And  here  we  are  reminded  of  the  Confraternities, 
societies,  and  religious  orders  which  have  arisen  by 
the  Church's  authority  and  the  piety  of  Christian  men. 
The  annals  of  every  nation  down  to  our  own  days  bear 

*  Ecclesiastes  iy.  9,  10. 

t  Proverbs  xviii.  19. 

$  Contra  impugnantes  Dei  cultum  et  religionem,  ii. 

II  Ibid. 

§  "  Human  law  is  law  only  by  virtue  of  its  accord- 
ance with  right  reason  ;  and  thus  it  is  manifest  that  it 
flows  from  the  eternal  law.  And  in  so  far  as  it  de- 
viates from  right  reason  it  is  called  an  unjust  law  ;  in 
such  case  it  is  no  law  at  all,  but  rather  a  species  of 
violence." — St.  Thomas  of  Aquin,  Summa  Theologica, 
la  23s  Q.  xciii.  Art.  3. 


witness  to  what  they  have  accomplished  for  the  human 
race.    It  is  indisputable  that  on  grounds  of  reason 
alone  such  associations,  being  perfectly 
Blameless  in  their  objects,  possess  the 
sanction  of  the  law  of  nature.    In  their     Ecclesias- 
religious  aspect,  they  claim  rightly  to    ti«Qi  »oon 
be   responsible    to    the    Church  alone.    l    .     .      °" 
The    rulers    of   the    State  accordingly       Clation. 
have  no  rights  over  them,  nor  can  they 
claim    any    share     in     their    control ; 
on  the  contrary,  it  is  the  duty  of  the  State  to  respect 
and  cherish  them,   and,   if  need  be,  to  defend  them 
from  attack.    It  is  notorious  that  a  very    different 
course  has  been  followed,  more  especially  in  our  own 
times.    In  many  places  the  State  authorities  have  laid 
violent  hands  on  these  communities,  and  committed 
manifold  injustice  against  them  ;  this  has  placed  them 
under  control  of  the  civil  law,  taken  away  their  rights 
as  corporate  bodies,  and  despoiled  them  of  their  prop- 
erty.   In  such  property  the  Church  had  her  rights, 
each  member  of  the  body  had  his  or  her  rights,  and 
there  were  also  the  rights  of  those  who  had  founded 
or  endowed  these  communities  for  a  definite  purpose, 
and,  furthermore,  of  those  for  whose  benefit  and  as- 
sistance they  had  their  being.    Therefore,  we  cannot 
refrain  from  complaining  of  such  spoliation  as  unjust 
and  fraught  with  evil  results ;  and  with  all  the  more 
reason  do  we  complain  because,   at  the  very  time 
when  the  law  proclaims  that  association  is  free  to  all, 
we  see  that  Catholic  societies,  however  peaceful  and 
useful,    are    hampered    in    every  way,   whereas  the 
utmost  liberty  is  conceded  to  individuals  whose  pur- 
poses are  at  once  hurtful  to  religion  and  dangerous  to 
the  State. 

"  Associations  of  every  kind,  and  especially  those  of 
working  men,  are  now  far  more  common  than  hereto- 
fore. As  regards  many  of  these  there  is  no  need  at 
present  to  inquire  whence  they  spring,  what  are  their 
objects,  or  what  the  means  they  employ.  There  is  a 
good  deal  of  evidence,  however,  which  goes  to  prove 
that  many  of  these  societies  are  in  the  hands  of  secret 
leaders,  and  are  managed  on  principles  ill  according 
with  Christianity  and  the  public  well-being ;  and  that 
they  do  their  utmost  to  get  within  their  grasp  the 
whole  field  of  labor,  and  force  working  men  either  to 
join  them  or  to  starve.  Under  these  circumstances 
Christian  working  men  must  do  one  of  two  things : 
either  join  associations  in  which  their  religion  will  be 
exposed  to  peril  or  form  associations  among  them- 
selves—unite their  forces  and  shake  off  courageously 
the  yoke  of  so  unrighteous  and  intolerable  an  oppres- 
sion. No  one  who  does  not  wish  to  expose  man's 
chief  good  to  extreme  risk  will  for  a  moment  hesitate 
to  say  that  the  second  alternative  should  by  all  means 
be  adopted. 

"  Those  Catholics  are  worthy  of  all  praise — and  they 
are  not  a  few — who.  understanding  what  the  times  re- 
quire, have  striven,  by  various  undertakings  and  en- 
deavors, to  better  the  condition  of  the  working  class 
without  any  sacrifice  of  principle  being  involved. 
They  have  taken  up  the  cause  of  the  working  man, 
and  have  spared  no  efforts  to  better  the  condition 
both  of  families  and  individuals;  to  infuse  a  spirit  of 
equity  intq  the  mutual  relations  of  employers  and 
employed  ;  to  keep  before  the  eyes  of  both  classes  the 
precepts  of  duty  and  the  laws  of  the  Gospel — that  Gos- 
pel which,  by  inculcating  self-restraint,  keeps  men 
within  the  bounds  of  moderation  and  tends  to  estab- 
lish harmony  among  the  divergent  interests  and  the 
various  classes  which  compose  the  State.  It  is  with 
such  ends  in  view  that  •we  see  men  of  eminence  meet- 
ing together  for  discussion,  for  the  promotion  of  con- 
certed action,  and  for  practical  work.  Others,  again, 
strive  to  unite  working  men  of  various  grades  into 
associations,  help  them  with  their  advice  and  means, 
and  enable  them  to  obtain  fitting  and  profitable  em- 
ployment. The  bishops,  on  their  part,  bestow  their 
ready  good  will  and  support ;  and  with  their  approval 
and  guidance,  many  members  of  the  clergy,  both 
secular  and  regular,  labor  assiduously  in  behalf  of  the 
spiritual  and  mental  interests  of  the  members  of  such 
associations.  And  there  are  not  wanting  Catholics 
blessed  with  affluence,  who  have,  as  it  were,  cast  in 
their  lot  with  the  wage-earners,  and  who  have  spent 
large  sums  in  founding  and  widely  spreading  benefit 
and  insurance  societies,  by  means  of  which  the  work- 
ing man  may  without  difficulty  acquire  through  his 
labor  not  only  many  present  advantages,  but  also  the 
certainty  of  honorable  support  in  days  to  come.  How 
greatly  such  manifold  and  earnest  activity  has  bene- 
fited the  community  at  large  is  too  well  known  to  re- 
quire us  to  dwell  upon  it.  We  find  therein  grounds 
for  most  cheering  hope  in  the  future,  provided  always 


Roman  Catholic  Church. 


1205 


Roman  Catholic  Church. 


that  the  associations  we  have  described  continue  to 
grow  and  spread,  and  are  well  and  wisely  adminis- 
tered. Let  the  State  watch  over  these  societies  of 
citizens  banded  together  for  the  exercise  of  their 
rights ;  but  let  it  not  thrust  itself  into  their  peculiar 
concerns  and  their  organization  ;  for  things  move  and 
live  by  the  spirit  inspiring  them,  and  may  be  killed 
by  the  rough  grasp  of  a  hand  from  without. 

"  In  order  then  that  an  association  may  be  carried  on 
with  unity  of  purpose  and  harmony  of  action,  its  or- 
ganization and  government  should  be 
firm  and  wise.    All  such  societies,  being 
Catholic      free  to  exist,  have  the  further  right  to 
Associa-      adopt  such  rules  and  organization   as 
may  best  conduce  to  the  attainment  of 
tion.3.         their   respective  objects.     We   do   not 
judge  it  expedient  to  enter  into  minute 
particulars  touching  the  subject  of  or- 
ganization ;  this  must  depend  on  national  character, 
on  practise  and  experience,  on  the  nature  and  aim  of 
the   work   to  be  done,  on  the   scope  of  the  various 
trades  and  employments,  and  on  other  circumstances 
of  fact  and  of  time — all  of  which  should  be  carefully 
considered. 

"  To  sum  up,  then,  we  may  lay  it  down  as  a  general 
and  lasting  law,  that  working  men's  associations 
should  be  so  organized  and  governed  as  to  furnish 
the  best  and  most  suitable  means  for  attaining  what 
is  aimed  at,  that  is  to  say,  for  helping  each  individual 
member  to  better  his  condition  to  the  utmost  in  body, 
mind,  and  property.  It  is  clear  that  they  must  pay 
special  and  chief  attention  to  the  duties  of  religion 
and  morality,  and  that  their  internal  discipline  must 
be  guided  very  strictly  by  these  weighty  considera- 
tions ;  otherwise  they  would  lose  wholly  their  special 
character,  and  end  by  becoming  little  better  than 
those  societies  which  take  no  account  whatever  of 
religion.  What  advantage  can  it  be  to  a  working  man 
to  obtain  by  means  of  a  society  all  that  he  requires, 
and  to  endanger  his  soul  for  lack  of  spiritual  food  ? 
What  doth  it  profit  a  man  if  he  gain  the  whole  world 
and  suffer  the  loss  of  his  own  soul  ?  *  This,  as  Our 
Lord  teaches,  is  the  mark  or  character  that  distin- 
guishes the  Christian  from  the  heathen.  After  all 
these  things  do  the  heathens  seek.  .  .  .  Seek  ye  first  the 
Kingdom  of  God  and  his  justice,  and  all  these  things 
shall  be  added  unto  you.*!  Let  our  associations,  then, 
look  first  and  before  all  things  to  God  ;  let  religious 
instruction  have  therein  the  foremost  place,  each  one 
being  carefully  taught  what  is  his  duty  to  God,  what 
he  has  to  believe,  what  to  hope  for,  and  how  he  is  to 
work  out  his  salvation  j  and  let  all  be  warned  and 
strengthened  with  special  care  against  wrong  prin- 
ciples and  false  teaching.  Let  the  working  man  be 
urged  and  led  to  the  worship  of  God,  to  the  earnest 
practice  of  religion,  and,  among  other  things,  to  the 
keeping  holy  of  Sundays  and  holydays.  Let  him 
learn  to  reverence  and  love  Holy  Church,  the  com- 
mon Mother  of  us  all  ;  and  hence  to  obey  the  precepts 
of  the  Church,  and  to  frequent  the  sacraments,  since 
they  are  the  means  ordained  by  God  for  obtaining 
forgiveness  of  sin  and  for  leading  a  holy  life. 

"  The  foundations  of  the  organization  being  thus 
laid  in  religion,  we  next  proceed  to  make  clear  the 
relations  of  the  members  one  to  another,  in  order  that 
they  may  live  together  in  concord  and  go  forward 
prosperously  and  with  good  results.  The  offices  and 
charges  of  the  society  should  be  apportioned  for  the 
good  of  the  society  itself,  and  in  such  mode  that  dif- 
ference in  degree  or  standing  should  not  interfere 
with  unanimity  and  good  will.  Office-bearers  should" 
be  appointed  with  due  prudence  and  discretion,  and 
each  one's  charge  should  be  carefully  mapped  out. 
Hereby  no  member  will  suffer  injury.  Let  the  com- 
mon funds  be  administered  with  strict  honesty,  in 
such  mode  that  a  member  may  receive  assistance  in 
proportion  to  his  necessities.  The  rights  and  duties 
of  the  employers,  as  compared  with  the  rights  and 
duties  of  the  employed,  ought  to  be  the  subject  of 
careful  consideration.  Should  it  happen  that  either  a 
master  or  a  workman  believe  himself  injured,  nothing 
would  be  more  desirable  than  that  a  committee  should 
be  appointed,  composed  of  reliable  and  capable  mem- 
bers of  the  association,  whose  duty  would  be,  con- 
formably with  the  rules  of  the  association,  to  settle 
the  dispute.  Among  the  several  purposes  of  a  society, 
one  should  be  to  try  to  arrange  for  a  continuous  sup- 
ply of  work  at  all  times  and  seasons  ;  as  well  as  to 
create  a  fund  out  of  which  the  members  may  be 
effectually  helped  in  their  needs,  not  only  in  cases  of 
accident,  but  also  in  sickness,  old  age,  and  distress. 


*  Matthew  xvi.  26. 


t  Matthew  vi.  32,  33. 


"Such  rules  and  regulations,  if  willingly  obeyed  by 
all,  will  sufficiently  insure  the  well-being  of  the  poor ; 
whilst  such  mutual  associations  among  Catholics  are 
certain  to  be  productive  in  no  small  degree  of  pros- 
perity to  the  State.  It  is  not  rash  to  conjecture  the 
future  from  the  past.  Age  gives  way  to  age,  but  the 
events  of  one  century  are  wonderfully  like  those  of 
another ;  for  they  are  directed  by  the  providence  of 
God,  who  overrules  the  course  of  history  in  accord- 
ance with  his  purposes  in  creating  the  race  of  man. 
We  are  told  that  it  was  cast  as  a  reproach  on  the 
Christians  in  the  early  ages  of  the  Church  that  the 
greater  number  among  them  had  to  live  by  begging 
or  by  labor.  Yet,  destitute  tho  they  were  of  wealth 
and  influence,  they  ended  by  winning  over  to  their 
side  the  favor  of  the  rich  and  the  good-will  of  the 
powerful.  They  showed  themselves  industrious, 
hard-working,  assiduous,  and  peaceful ;  ruled  by  jus- 
tice, and,  above  all,  bound  together  in  brotherly  love. 
In  presence  of  such  mode  ot  life  and  such  example, 
prejudice  gave  way,  the  tongue  of  malevolence  was 
silenced,  and  the  lying  legends  of  ancient  superstition 
little  by  little  yielded  to  Christian  truth. 

"  At  the  time  being,  the  condition  of  the  working 
classes  is  the  pressing  question  of  the  hour ;  and 
nothing  can  be  of  higher  interest  to  all  classes  of  the 
State  than  that  it  should  be  rightly  and  reasonably 
adjusted.  But  it  will  be  easy  for  Christian  working 
men  to  decide  it  aright  if  they  will  form  associations, 
choose  wise  guides,  and  follow  on  the  path  which,  with 
so  much  advantage  to  themselves  and  the  common- 
weal, was  trodden  by  their  fathers  before  them.  Prej  u- 
dice,  it  is  true,  is  mighty,  and  so  is  the  greed  of 
money  ;  but  if  the  sense  of  what  is  just  and  rightful 
be  not  debased  through  depravity  of  heart,  their  fel- 
low-citizens are  sure  to  be  won  over  to  a  kindly  feel- 
ing toward  men  whom  they  see  to  be  in  earnest  as 
regards  their  work,  and  who  prefer  so  unmistakably 
right  dealing  to  mere  lucre  and  the  sacredness  of 
duty  to  every  other  consideration. 

"And  further  great  advantage  would  resuk  from 
the  state  of  things  we  are  describing  ;  there  would 
exist  so  much  more  ground  for  hope,  and  likelihood 
•even,  of  recalling  to  a  sense  of  their  duty  those  work- 
ing men  who  have  either  given  up  their  faith  alto- 
§  ether,  or  whose  lives  are  at  variance  with  its  precepts, 
uch  men  feel  in  most  cases  that  they  have  been 
fooled  by  empty  promises  and  deceived  by  false  pre- 
texts. They  cannot  but  perceive  that  their  grasping 
employers  too  often  treat  them  with  great  inhuman- 
ity and  hardly  care  for  them  outside  the  profit  their 
labor  brings ;  and  if  they  belong  to  any  union,  it  is 
probably  one  in  which  there  exists,  instead  of  char- 
ity and  love,  that  intestine  strife  which  ever  accom- 
panies poverty  when  unresigned  and  unsustained  by 
religion.  Broken  in  spirit  and  worn  down  in  body, 
how  many  of  them  would  gladly  free  themselves  from 
such  galling  bondage !  But  human  respect,  or  the 
dread  of  starvation,  makes  them  tremble  to  take  the 
step.  To  such  as  these,  Catholic  associations  are  of 
incalculable  service,  by  helping  them  out  of  their 
difficulties,  inviting  them  to  companionship,  and  re- 
ceiving the  returning  wanderers  to  a  haven  where 
they  may  securely  find  repose. 

"We  have  now  laid  before  you,  Venerable  Brethren, 
both  who  are  the  persons,  and  what  are  the  means, 
whereby  this  most  arduous  question 
must  be  solved.  Every  one  should  put 
his  hand  to  the  work  which  falls  to  his 
share,  and  that  at  once  and  straight- 
way, lest  the  evil  which  is  already  so 
great  become  through  delay  absolutely 
beyond  remedy.  Those  who  rule  the  State  should  avail 
themselves  of  the  laws  and  institutions  of  the  country  ; 
masters  and  wealthy  owners  must  be  mindful  of  their 
duty ;  the  poor,  whose  interests  are  at  stake,  should 
make  every  lawful  and  proper  effort  ;  and  since  re- 
ligion alone,  as  we  said  at  the  beginning,  can  avail  to 
destroy  the  evil  at  its  root,  all  men  should  rest  per- 
suaded that  the  main  thing  needful  is  to  return  to*real 
Christianity,  apart  from  which  all  the  plans  and  de- 
vices of  the  wisest  will  prove  of  little  avail. 

"  In  regard  to  the  Church,  her  cooperation  will  never 
be  found  lacking,  be  the  time  or  the  occasion  what  it 
may  ;  and  she  will  intervene  with  all  the  greater  ef- 
fect in  proportion  as  her  liberty  of  action  is  the  more 
unfettered.  Let  this  be  carefully  taken  to  heart  by 
those  whose  office  it  is  to  safe-guard  the  public  wel- 
fare. Every  minister  of  holy  religion  must  bring  to 
the  struggle  the  full  energy  of  his  mind  and  all  his 
power  of  endurance.  Moved  by  vour  authority,  Ven- 
erable Brethren,  and  quickened  by  your  example, 
they  should  never  cease  to  urge  upon  men  of  every 


Conclusion. 


Roman  Catholic  Church. 


1206 


Roman  Catholic  Church. 


class—  upon  the  high-placed  as  well  as  the  lowly—  the 
Gospel  doctrines  of  Christian  life  ;  by  every  means  in 
their  power  they  must  strive  to  secure  the  good  of  the 
people  ;  and  above  all  must  earnestly  cherish  in  them- 
selves, and  try  to  arouse  in  others,  charity,  the  mis- 
tress and  the  queen  of  virtues.  For  the  happy  results 
we  all  long  for  must  be  chiefly  brought  about  by  the 
plenteous  outpouring  of  charity;  of  that  true  Christian 
charity  which  is  the  fulfilling  of  the  whole  Gospel 
law,  which  is  always  ready  to  sacrifice  itself  for  oth- 
ers' sake,  and  is  man's  surest  antidote  against  worldly 
pride  and  immoderate  love  of  self  ;  that  charity 
whose  office  is  described  and  whose  Godlike  features 
are  outlined  by  the  Apostle  St.  Paul  in  these  words  : 
Charity  is  patient,  is  kind,  ....  seeketh  not  her  own, 
....  suffereth  all  things,  ....  endurethall  things* 
"On  each  one  of  you,  Venerable  Brothers,  and  on 
your  clergy  and  people,  as  an  earnest  of  God's  mercy 
and  a  mark  of  our  affection,  we,  lovingly  in  the  Lord, 
bestow  the  Apostolic  Benediction." 

ON  THE    CHIEF  DUTIES    OF  CHRISTIANS  AS  CITIZENS. 

A  portion  of  the  Encyclical  Letter  of  January  10,  i8qo. 

"  From  day  to  day  it  becomes  more  and  more  evi- 
dent how  needful  it  is  that  the  principles  of  Christian 
wisdom  should  be  ever  borne  in  mind,  and  that  the 
life,  the  morals,  and  the  institutions  of  nations  should 
be  wholly  conformed  to  them.  From  the  fact  of  these 
principles  having  been  disregarded,  mischiefs  so  vast 
have  accrued  that  no  right-minded  man  can  face  the 
trials  of  the  time  being  without  grave  solicitude,  nor 
contemplate  the  future  without  serious  alarm.  Prog- 
ress, not  inconsiderable  indeed,  has  been  made  toward 
securing  the  well-being  of  the  body  and  of  material 
things  ;  but  all  natural  advantages  that  administer  to 
the  senses  of  man,  while  bringing  in  their  train  the 
possession  of  wealth,  power,  and  limitless  resources, 
may  indeed  greatly  avail  to  procure  the  comforts  and 
increase  the  enjoyments  of  life,  but  are  incapable  of 
satisfying  the  soul  created  for  higher  and  more  glo- 
rious benefits.  To  fix  the  gaze  on  God,  and  to  aim 
earnestly  at  becoming  like  him,  is  the  supreme  law  of 
the  life  of  man.  For  we  were  created  in  the  Divine 
image  and  likeness,  and  are  vehemently  urged,  by  our 
very  nature,  to  return  to  him  from  whom  we  have 
origin.  But  not  by  bodily  motion  or  effort  do  we 
make  advance  toward  God,  but  through  acts  of  the 
soul,  that  is,  through  knowledge  and  love.  God  is, 
in  very  deed,  the  primal  and  supreme  truth,  and  truth 
the  food  on  which  alone  the  soul  is  nourished  ;  and 
God  is  holiness  in  perfection  and  the  sovereign  good, 
to  which  solely  the  will  may  aspire  and  which  it  may 
attain,  when  virtue  is  its  guide. 

"  But  what  applies  to  individual  men  applies  equally 
to  society  —  domestic  alike  and  civil.    Nature  did  not 
fashion  society  with  intent  that  man  should  seek  in  it 
his  last  end,  but  that  in  it  and  through  it  he  should 
find  suitable  aids  whereby  to  attain  to  his  own  per- 
fection.     If  then    a   civil    government 
strives      after      external      advantages 
Godless       merely,  and  the  attainment  of  such  pb- 
jects  as  adorn  life;  if  in  administering 
public  affairs    it  is  wont  to  put   God 
aside,  and  show  no  solicitude   for  the 
upholding   of    moral    law  ;    it    deflects 
wofully  from  its  right  course  and  from 
the  injunctions  of  nature  ;  nor  should  such  a  gather- 
ing together  and  association  of  men  be  accounted  as 
a  commonwealth,  but  pnly  as  a  deceitful  imitation 
and  make-believe  of  civil  organization. 

"  As  to  what  we  have  termed  the  well-being  of  the 
soul,  which  consists  chiefly  in  the  practise  of  the  true 
religion  and  unswerving  observance  of  the  Christian 
precepts,  we  perceive  that  it  is  daily  losing  esteem 
among  men,  either  by  reason  of  forgetfulness  or  dis- 
regard, in  such  wise  that  the  greater  the  advance 
made  in  the  well-being  of  the  body,  the  greater  is  the 
falltng  away  in  that  of  the  soul.  A  striking  proof  of 
the  lessening  and  enfeebling  of  Christian  faith  is  seen 
in  the  insults  that  are,  alas  !  so  frequently,  in  open 
day,  and  before  our  very  eyes,  offered  to  the  Catholic 
Church—  insults,  indeed,  to  which  an  age  cherishing 
religion  would  on  no  account  have  submitted.  For 
these  reasons  how  great  a  multitude  of  men  is  in- 
volved in  danger  as  to  their  eternal  salvation  sur- 
passes belief  ;  but  more  than  this,  nations  and  even 
vast  empires  themselves  cannot  long  remain  un- 
harmed, since,  upon  the  lapsing  of  Christian  institu- 
tions and  morality,  the  main  foundations  of  human 
society  must  necessarily  be  uprooted.  Force  alone 

*  i  Corinthians  xiii.  4-7. 


meat. 


will  remain  to  preserve  public  tranquillity  and  order  ; 
force,  however,  is  very  feeble  when  the  bulwark  of 
religion  has  been  removed  ;  and  being  more  apt  to 
beget  slavery  than  obedience,  it  bears  within  itself 
the  germs  of  ever  increasing  troubles.  The  present 
century  has  encountered  notable  disasters,  nor  is  it 
clear  that  some  equally  terrible  are  not  impending. 
The  very  times  in  which  we  live  are  warning  us  to 
seek  remedies  there  where  alone  they  are  to  be  found 
— namely,  by  reestablishing  in  the  family  circle  and 
throughout  the  whole  range  of  society  the  doctrines 
and  practises  of  the  Christian  religion.  In  this  lies  the 
sole  means  of  freeing  us  from  the  ills  now  weighing 
us  down,  of  forestalling  the  dangers  now  threatening 
the  world.  For  the  accomplishment  of  this  end,  Ven- 
erable Brothers,  we  must  bring  to  bear  all  the  activity 
and  diligence  that  lie  within  our  power.  Altho  we 
have  already,  under  other  circumstances,  and  when- 
ever occasion  required,  treated  of  these  matters  in 
other  letters,  we  deem  it  expedient,  in  this  message  to 
you,  to  define  more  in  detail  the  duties  of  Catholics, 
inasmuch  as  these  would,  if  strictly  observed,  avail 
with  wondrous  power  to  save  society  in  all  its  length 
and  breadth.  We  are  engaged,  as  regards  matters  of 
highest  moment,  in  a  violent  and  well-nigh  daily 
struggle,  wherein  it  is  hard  at  times  for  the  minds  of 
many  not  to  be  deluded,  not  to  go  astray,  not  to  yield. 
It  behooves  us,  Venerable  Brothers,  to  warn,  instruct, 
and  exhort  each  of  the  faithful  with  an  earnestness 
befitting  the  occasion  ;  that  none  may  abandon  the  way 
of  truth. 

"  It  cannot  be  doubted  that  duties  more  numerous 
and  of  greater  moment  devolve  on  Catholics  than 
upon  such  as  are  either  not  sufficiently 
enlightened  in  relation  to  the  Catholic 
faith,  or  who  are  entirely  unacquainted 
with  its  doctrines.  Considering  that  ..  py.  _-y. 
forthwith  upon  salvation  being  wrought  llc  Wiurcn. 
out  for  mankind,  Jesus  Christ  laid  upon 
his  apostles  the  injunction  to  preach 
the  Gospel  to  every  creature,  he  imposed,  it  is  evident, 
upon  all  men  the  duty  of  learning  thoroughly  and 
believing  what  they  were  taught.  This  duty  is  inti- 
mately bound  up  with  the  gaining  of  eternal  salva- 
tion :  He  that  believeth  and  is  baptized  shall  be  saved  ; 
but  he  that  believeth  not,  shall  be  condemned.*  But 
the  man  who  has  embraced  the  Christian  faith,  as  in 
duty  bound,  is  by  that  very  fact  a  subject  of  the 
Church  as  one  of  the  children  born  of  her,  and  be- 
comes a  member  of  that  greatest  and  holiest  body, 
which  it  is  the  special  charge  of  the  Roman  Pontiff  to 
rule  with  supreme  power,  under  its  invisible  Head, 
Christ  Jesus.  Now,  if  the  natural  law  enjoins  to  love 
devotedly  and  to  defend  the  country  in  which  we  had 
birth,  and  in  which  we  were  brought  up.  so  that  every 
good  citizen  hesitates  not  to  face  death  for  his  native 
land,  very  much  more  is  it  the  urgent  duty  of  Chris- 
tians to  be  ever  quickened  by  like  feelings  toward  the 
Church.  For  the  Church  is  the  holy  City  of  the  living 
God,  born  of  God  himself,  and  by  him  built  up  and 
established.  Upon  this  earth  indeed  she  accomplishes 
her  pilgrimage,  but  by  instructing  and  guiding  men, 
she  summons  them  to  eternal  happiness.  We  are 
bound  then  to  love  dearly  the  country  whence  we 
have  received  the  means  of  enjoyment  this  mortal  life 
affords,  but  we  have  a  much  more  urgent  obligation 
to  love,  with  ardent  love,  the  Church  to  which  we  owe 
the  life  of  the  soul,  a  life  that  will  endure  forever. 
For  fitting  it  is  to  prefer  the  good  of  the  soul  to  the 
.well-being  of  the  body,  inasmuch  as  duties  toward 
God  are  of  a  far  more  hallowed  character  than  those 
toward  men. 

"  Moreover,  if  we  would  judge  aright,  the  supernatu- 
ral love  for  the  Church  and  the  natural  love  of  our  own 
country  proceed  from  the  same  eternal  principle,  since 
God  himself  is  their  Author  and  originating  Cause. 
Consequently  it  follows  that  between  the  duties  they 
respectively  enjoin,  neither  can  come  into  collision 
with  the  other.  We  can,  certainly,  and  should  love 
ourselves,  bear  ourselves  kindly  toward  our  fellow- 
men,  nourish  affection  for  the  State  and  the  governing 
powers  ;  but  at  the  same  time  we  can  and  must  cher- 
ish toward  the  Church  a  feeling  of  filial  piety,  and  love 
God  with  the  deepest  love  of  which  we  are  capable. 
The  order  of  precedence  of  these  duties  is,  however,  at 
times,  either  under  the  stress  of  public  calamities,  or 
through  the  perverse  will  of  men,  inverted.  For  in- 
stances occur  where  the  State  seems  to  require  from 
men  as  subjects  one  thing,  and  religion,  from  men  as 
Christians  quite  another  ;  and  this  in  reality  without 
any  other  ground,  than  that  the  rulers  of  the  State 
either  hold  the  sacred  power  of  the  Church  of  no  ac- 

*  Mark  xvi.  16. 


Roman  Catholic  Church. 


1207 


Roscher,  Wilhelm. 


count,  or  endeavor  to  subject  it  to  their  own  will. 
Hence  arises  a  conflict,  and  on  occasion,  through  such 
conflict,  of  virtue  being  put  to  the  proof.  The  two 
powers  are  confronted  and  urge  their  behests  in  a 
contrary  sense  ;  to  obey  both  is  wholly  impossible. 
No  man  can  serve  two  masters,*  for  to  please  the  one 
amounts  to  contemning  the  other.  As  to  which  should 
be  preferred  no  one  ought  to  balance  for  an  instant. 
It  is  a  high  crime  indeed  to  withdraw  allegiance  from 
God  in  order  to  please  men  ;  an  act  of  consummate 
wickedness  to  break  the  laws  of  Jesus 
Christ,  in  order  to  yield  obedience  to 

TV.O  «to+a      earthly    rulers,    or,   under    pretext    of 

ine  Diaie.  keepjng  the  civil  law,  to  ignore  the 
rights  of  the  Church;  we  ought  to 
obey  God  rather  than  men.\  This  an- 
swer, which  of  old  Peter  and  the  other  apostles  were 
used  to  give  the  civil  authorities  who  enjoined  un- 
righteous things,  we  must,  in  like  circumstances,  give 
always  and  without  hesitation.  No  better  citizen  is 
there,  whether  in  time  of  peace  or  war,  than  the 
Christian  who  is  mindful  of  his  duty  ;  but  such  a  one 
.should  be  ready  to  suffer  all  things,  even  death  itself, 
rather  than  abandon  the  cause  of  God  or  of  the 
Church. 

"  Hence  they  who  blame,  and  call  by  the  name  of 
sedition,  this  steadfastness  of  attitude  in  the  choice  of 
duty,  have  not  rightly  apprehended  the  force  and  na- 
ture of  true  law.  We  are  speaking  of  matters  widely 
known,  and  which  we  have  before  now  more  than 
once  fully  explained.  Law  is  of  its  very  essence  a 
mandate  of  right  reason,  proclaimed  by  a  properly 
•constituted  authority,  for  the  common  good.  But 
true  and  legitimate  authority  is  void  of  sanction,  un- 
less it  proceed  from  God  the  supreme  Ruler  and  Lord 
of  all.  The  Almighty  alone  can  commit  power  to  a 
man  over  his  fellow-men  ;  nor  may  that  be  accounted 
as  right  reason  which  is  in  disaccord  with  truth  and 
with  divine  reason  ;  nor  that  held  to  be  true  good, 
-which  is  repugnant  to  the  supreme  and  unchangeable 
.good,  or  that  wrests  aside  and  draws  away  the  wills 
of  men  from  the  charity  of  God. 

•'  Hallowed  therefore  in  the  mind  of  Christians  is  the 
very  idea  of  public  authority,  in  which  they  recog- 
nize some  likeness  and  symbol  as  it  were  of  the  Divine 
Majesty,  even  when  it  is  exercised  by  one  unworthy. 
A  just  and  due  reverence  to  the  laws  abides  in  them, 
not  from  force  and  threats,  .but  from  a  consciousness 
of  duty,  for  God  hath  not  given  us  the  spirit  of  fear. % 

"  But  if  the  laws  of  the  State  are  manifestly  at  va- 
riance with  the  divine  law,  containing  enactments 
hurtful  to  the  Church,  or  conveying  injunctions  ad- 
verse to  the  duties  imposed  by  religion,  or  if  they  vio- 
late in  the  person  of  the  supreme  pontiff  the  authority 
•of  Jesus  Christ,  then  truly,  to  resist  becomes  a  positive 
duty  ;  to  obey,  a  crime  ;  a  crime  moreover  combined 
with  misdemeanor  against  the  State  itself,  inasmuch 
as  every  offense  leveled  against  religion  is  also  a  sin 
against  the  State.  Here  anew  it  becomes  evident  how 
unjust  is  the  reproach  of  sedition  ;  for  the  obedience 
•due  to  rulers  and  legislators  is  not  refused  ;  but  there 
is  a  deviation  from  their  will  in  those  precepts  only 
which  they  have  no  power  to  enjoin.  Commands  that 
are  issued  adversely  to  the  honor  due  to  God,  and 
hence  are  beyond  the  scope  of  justice,  must  be  looked 
upon  as  anything  rather  than  laws.  You  are  fully 
.aware,  Venerable  Brothers,  that  this  is  the  very  con- 
tention of  the  Apostle  St.  Paul,  who,  in 
writing  to  Titus,  after  reminding  Chris- 

•r  j  tians  that  they  are  to  be  srioject  to 

•  j  T.-  i.  princes  and  powers  and  to  obey  at  a 
valid  which  word,  at  once  adds,  And  to  be  ready  to 
are  Against  every  good  work.\  Thereby  he  openly 
those  of  God  declares  that  if  laws  of  men  contain 
1  injunctions  contrary  to  the  eternal  law 
of  God,  it  is  right  not  to  obey  them, 
In  like  manner  the  Prince  of  the  Apos- 
tles gave  this  courageous  and  sublime  answer  to 
those  who  would  have  deprived  him  of  the  liberty  of 
preaching  the  Gospel ;  If  it  be  just  in  the  sight  of  God 
to  hear  you  rather  than  God,  judgz  ye,  for  we  cannot 
.but  speak  the  things  which  we  nave  seen  and  heard. % 

"  Wherefore,  to  love  both  countries,  that  of  earth 
below  and  that  of  heaven  above,  yet  in  such  mode 
that  the  love  of  our  heavenly  surpass  the  love  of  our 
earthly  home,  and  that  human  laws  be  never  set  above 
the  Divine  law,  is  the  essential  duty  of  Christians, 
and  the  fountain-head,  so  to  say,  from  which  all 
other  duties  spring.  The  Redeemer  of  mankind  of 
himself  has  said  :  For  this  was  1  born,  and  for  this 


*  Matthew  vi.  24. 
t  Acts  v.  29. 


§  Acts  iv.  19,  20. 


J  2  Timothy  i.  7. 
Titus  iii.  i. 


came  I  into  the  world,  that  I  should  give  testimony 
to  the  truth.*  In  like  manner  lam  come  to  cast  Jire 
upon  earth,  and  what  will  I  but  that  it  be  kindled  ?  t 
In  the  knowledge  of  this  truth,  which  constitutes  the 
highest  perfection  of  the  mind ;  in  divine  charity 
which,  in  like  manner,  completes  the  will,  all  Chris- 
tian life  and  liberty  abide.  This  noble  patrimony  of 
truth  and  charity  intrusted  by  Jesus  Christ  to  the 
Church,  she  defends  and  maintains  ever  with  untiring 
endeavor  and  watchfulness." 

ROOSEVELT,  THEODORE,  was  born  In 

New  York  City  in  1858.  From  private  schools 
in  New  York  he  went  to  Harvard  University 
and  was  graduated  in  1880.  Traveling  in 
Europe  and  making  some  hunting  expeditions 
in  the  West,  he  returned  to  New  York  and 
took  part  in  the  politics  of  his  own  ward  and 
was  sent  to  the  Assembly  in  1883, 1884,  and  1885, 
where  he  made  a  record  as  an  independent 
Republican  and  a  relentless  foe  of  political 
jobbery  and  corruption.  He  procured  the 
Roosevelt  investigation  and  some  administra- 
tive reforms.  In  1886  he  was  Republican  can- 
didate for  mayor  against  Abram  S.  Hewitt 
and  Henry  George.  In  1889  he  was  appointed 
Civil  Service  Commissioner  and  he  threw  him- 
self actively  into  the  work,  which  he  continued 
till  1895,  when  he  accepted  a  position  on  the 
city  police  board,  thinking  that  the  '*  storm 
center  "  was  there.  By  his  vigorous  enforce- 
ment of  Sunday-closing  laws  he  has  made  many 
friends  and  also  bitter  enemies.  Among  his 
published  writings  are  Naval  War  of  1812 
(1881);  The  Winning  of  the  West  (4  vols., 
1889-1895);  Essays  on  Practical  Politics 
(1892). 

ROSCHER,  WILHELM  GEORG  FRIE- 
DRICH,  was  born  in  1817,  in  Hanover,  and 
studied  at  Gb'ttingen  and  Berlin.  In  1838  he 
took  the  degree  of  doctor  of  philosophy  at  Gb't- 
tingen, where,  in  1840,  he  became  privatdocent 
for  history  and  economics.  In  1843  he  was 
appointed  extraordinary,  and  1844,  ordinary 
professor.  In  1848  he  was  called  to  Leipzig, 
where  he  remained,  tho  with  repeated  calls 
to  other  universities — Munich,  Vienna,  and 
Berlin — till  his  death  in  1894. 

Dr.  Roscher  has  achieved  a  lasting  fame  as 
the  founder  of  the  historical  school  of  political  . 
economy,  and  many  learned  associations  have 
delighted  to  do  him  honor.     Professor  Cohn 
says  of  him  : 

"  In  the  foremost  rank  we  must  place  a  man,  who 
shortly  before  had  acquired  a  reputation  by  a  philo- 
logical-historical work,  and  then  turned  to  political 
economy,  Wilhelm  Roscher.  His  Vorlesungen  iiber 
Staatswirthschaft  nach  geschichtlicher  Methode  (Lec- 
tures on  State  Economy  on  Historical  Method)  were 
only  the  outlines  of  his  lectures.  .  .  .  but  the  one 
happy  analogy  by  which  Roscher  applied  the  results 
of  the  historical  school  to  political  economy  was 
a  scientific  achievement.  The  conclusions  which  he 
drew  from  this  analogy,  in  regard  to  the  mission  of 
the  historical  school  of  political  economy,  are  the 
same  which  the  historical  school  of  law  had  drawn 
for  their  science  a  generation  previous — even  his  quo- 
tations from  Justus  Moser  and  Bacon  are  borrowed 
from  Sayigny  ;  nevertheless,  the  service  he  rendered 
to  our  science  is  a  great  and  lasting  one. 

"  Roscher's  conclusions  as  to  the  mission  of  political 
economy  were  as  follows  : 

"(i)The  study  of  the  economy  of  the  State  is  a 
political  science,  whose  mission  is  to  understand  men, 
and»control  men.  ...  (2)  We  need  an  investigation  of 
the  earlier  stages  of  civilization  in  order  to  under- 

*John  xviii.  37.  't  Luke  xii.  49. 


Roscher,  Wilhelm. 


1208 


Rosseau,  Jean  Jacques- 


stand  the  nature  of  modern  civilization  ;  and  further 
of  (3)  the  economic  development  of  different  nations, 
with  especial  reference  to  the  nations  of  classic  an- 
tiquity, whose  development  lies  before  us  in  its  total- 
ity. (4)  Out  of  all  this  arises  the  practical  demand 
which  the  science  makes  upon  us,  viz.:  the  task  of 
constructing  modern  measures  of  economic  policy  on 
an  historical  basis,  or  in  other  words,  learning-  what  is 
suited  for  the  present  time  by  studying  the  historical 
growth  of  individual  institutions." 

Among  Roscher's  most  important  works  are 
Grundriss  zu  Vorlesungen  iiber  die  Staats- 
•wirthschaft  nach  geschichtlicher  Methode 
(1843)  ;  System  der  Volkswirthschaft,  vol. 
i. ;  Die  Grundlagen  der  National  okonomik 
(1854)  ;  vol.  ii.,  National okonomie  des  Aker- 
oaues  und  der  verivandten  Urproduktions- 
zweige  (1859)  ;  vol.  iii.,  Nationatokonomie  des 
Handels  und  Geiverbefleisses  (1881)  ;  vol.  iv., 
System  der  Finanzwissenschaft  (1886)  ;  An- 
sichten  der  Volksivirthschaft  aus  dent 
geschichtlichen  Standpunkte  (1861). 

ROSS,     EDWARD    ALSWORTH,    was 

born  in  1866,  in  Illinois.  He  was  graduated 
from  Coe  College,  Iowa,  in  1886.  After 
teaching  two  years,  he  went  abroad  in  1888, 
studying  in  Berlin.  In  1890  he  entered  Johns 
Hopkins  University,  Baltimore,  from  which 
he  received  the  degree  of  Ph.  D.  in  1891.  In 
1891-92  he  was  professor  of  economics  and 
social  science  in  Indiana  University  and  dur- 
ing 1892-93  associate  professor  of  political 
economy  in  Cornell  University.  In  1893  he 
was  appointed  professor  of  finance  and  ad- 
ministration in  Leland  Stanford,  Jr.,  Univer- 
sity, which  position  he  now  holds.  He  has 
written  numerous  articles  ;  among  others : 
Sinking  Funds  (American  Economical  Asso- 
ciation, vol.  vii.  Nos.  4,  5) ;  A  New  Canon  of 
Taxation  (Political  Science  Quarterly,  De- 
cember, 1892)  ;  The  Standard  of  Deferred 
Payments  (Annals  of  American  Academy, 
November,  1892)  ;  Total  Utility  Standard  of 
Deferred  Payments  (Annals,  November, 
1893)  ;  (Seligman's)  Shifting  and  Incidence  of 
Taxation  (Annals,  January,  1893) ;  (Argyll's) 
Unseen  Foundations  of  Society  (Political 
Science  Quarterly,  December,  1893). 

ROUSSEAU,  JEAN  JACQUES,  was  born 
at  Geneva,  June  28, 1712,  of  French  parentage. 
His  mother  dying  when  he  was  very  young, 
his  dissipated  father  abandoned  him  and  he 
was  taken  charge  of  by  a  relative  and  placed 
under  the  tutorship  of  a  clergyman  at  Bossey. 
In  his  twelfth  year  he  was  apprenticed  to  a 
notary,  and  a  year  later  to  an  engraver.  But  in 
1828  he  ran  away,  and  in  Savoy  came  under 
the  protection  of  Mme.  de  Warens,  but  soon 
left  and  went  through  a  variety  of  experiences, 
for  a  short  time  being  footman  to  Mme.  de 
Vercellis  in  Turin.  Later  he  returned  to 
Mme.  de  Warens  and  became  her  lover  as 
well  as  her  protege.  His  tendency  to  wander 
took  him  away  from  her  for  a  time ;  returning 
to  find  her  gone,  he  resumed  his  wanderings 
and  adventures.  In  1732  he  went  to  Paris  and 
secured  a  position  in  the  service  of  Sardinia, 
but  found  Mme.  de  Warens  again  and  was 
installed  in  her  household,  and  when  his 
health  failed  he  went  with  her  to  Chambray, 


passing  the  time  with  music  and  reading.  In 
1778  he  went  to  Montpellier,  and  in  1780  be- 
came tutor  to  the  children  of  M.  de  Mably, 
the  writer.  In  1741  he  returned  to  Paris  and 
read  a  paper  on  the  theory  of  music  before  the 
Academy  of  Sciences,  but  being  unfavorably 
received,  he  was  for  a  year  and  a  half  secre- 
tary to  M.  de  Montagne,  French  ambassa- 
dor at  Venice.  He  then  returned  to  Paris,  still 
a  wanderer,  now  and  again  led  into  immoral- 
ity, yet  making  friends  and  earning  a  precari- 
ous living  by  copying  music  and  acting  as 
secretary  to  Mme.  Dapin.  At  this  time, 
however,  he  married  a  servant  girl,  Therese 
Levasseur.  Five  children  were  born  to 
them,  but  all  were  committed  to  the  foundling 
hospital.  He  now  gained  some  literary  no- 
toriety. An  opera  of  his,  Les  Muses  Galantes, 
was  privately  represented.  Diderot  accepted 
him  as  a  contributor  to  his  Encyclopedic.  In 
1749  he  won  the  prize  offered  by  the  Academy 
of  Dijon  for  an  essay  on  the  effect  of  the  prog- 
ress of  civilization,  arguing  the  superiority 
of  the  state  of  nature.  Its  publication  in  1750- 
made  him  famous.  His  Divin  du  Village- 
was  produced  at  Fontainebleau  in  1752,  and  he 
was  invited  at  court,  but  he  declined. 

Having  embraced  the  Catholic  faith  in  1754, 
he  returned  to  Protestantism  and  went  to  Gen- 
eva as  a  free  citizen,  but  in  1756  returned  to 
Paris  and  occupied  the  "  Hermitage  "  for  a 
year,  during  which  time  he  wrote  La  Nouvelle 
He'loise,  which  appeared  in  1760.  He  quar- 
reled with  his  friends  and  left,  going  to  Mont- 
morency.  Here  he  wrote  against  the  drama, 
attacking  also  Voltaire  and  Diderot.  In  1762 
he  produced  at  Amsterdam  Le  Contrat  Social, 
for  which  he  received  1000  louis,  and  the 
same  year  Emile,  a  treatise  on  education,  for 
which  he  received  6000  louis.  He  was  now 
generally  attacked,  by  the  Conservatives  for 
his  Le  Contrat  Social,  by  the  moralists  for  his 
Nouvelle  Heloise,  by  the  Church  for  his  Emile. 
In  1762  he  fled  from  a  threatened  arrest  and 
escaped  to  Switzerland  and  then  to  Prussia, 
where  Frederick  II.  seemed  willing  to  protect 
him,  and  from  whence  he  wrote  letters  de- 
nouncing his  enemies.  But  here  he  was 
attacked  by  the  populace  and  he  fled  to  Isle  St. 
Pierre  in  the  Lake  of  Burme  till  ordered  to 
leave  by  the  Swiss  government.  He  event- 
ually went,  invited  by  David  Hume,  to  Eng- 
land, which  he  reached  in  1766.  Partly  lionized 
and  partly  condemned  in  London,  he  went  to 
Derbyshire,  where  he  wrote  most  of  his  Con- 
fessions. He  quarreled,  however,  with  Hume 
and  other  English  friends,  and  being  made 
to  believe  that  he  was  being  plotted  against 
by  the  King  of  Prussia  he  fled  to  France  in 
1767,  where  he  wandered  from  place  to  place, 
finishing  his  Confessions,  and  at  last  going  to 
Paris  and  earning  a  living  by  copying  music* 
He  was  welcomed  and  aided  by  the  Marquis 
de  Mirabeau  and  others,  but  quarreled  with  all 
friends  and  was  thought  by  some  to  be  at  this- 
time  half  insane.  He  died  in  a  fit  of  apoplexy 
July  2,  1778,  leaving  many  smaller  writings 
besides  the  above-mentioned  works  and  a  mass- 
of  correspondence. 

(For  a  review  of  his  social  teachings,  see  arti- 
cle NATURAL  RIGHTS.). 


Huge,  Arnold. 


1209 


Ruskin,  John. 


RUGE,  ARNOLD,  was  born  at  Bergen, 
island  of  Riigen,  in  1802.  He  studied  philology 
and  philosophy  at  Halle,  Jena,  and  Heidel- 
berg, but  in  1824  was  imprisoned  for  five  years 
at  Colberg,  for  membership  in  a  secret  politi- 
cal society.  In  1831  he  was  appointed  profes- 
sor of  esthetics  at  Halle,  and  attracted  much 
attention  as  a  philosophical  critic.  In  1843 
he  joined  Karl  Marx  (g.  v.)  in  Paris,  and  they 
published  the  Deutsch-franzosichejahrbiicher 
(1843-45).  He  was  elected  to  the  German 
Parliament  in  1848,  and  the  same  year  founded 
the  paper  Reform  at  Berlin.  This  was  soon 
suppressed,  and  after  attempts  at  revolution- 
ary intrigue  in  Dresden  and  Carlsruhe  he  went 
to  London  in  1849  and  formed  a  European 
Democratic  committee  with  Ledru-Rollin  and 
Mazzini  in  London.  He  died  at  Brighton 
December  31,  1880.  Besides  the  above-men- 
tioned works  he  published  Zivei  Jahre  in 
Paris  (1845);  Poetise  he  Bilder  and  Politische 
Bilder  (1847);  Unser  System  (1850);  Aiisfriih- 
erer  Zeit  (1862-67);  Manifest  an  das  deutsche 
Volk  (1886). 

RUSH,  BENJAMIN,  was  born  at  Byberry 
near  Philadelphia,  in  1746.  He  studied  medi- 
cine in  Philadelphia,  Edinburgh,  London,  and 
Paris,  and  began  practice  in  Philadelphia  in 
1769,  and  was  made  professor  of  chemistry  in 
the  medical  college  there.  In  the  provincial 
conference  in  Pennsylvania  he  moved  the  res- 
olution to  formulate  its  sentiments  for  a  Dec- 
laration of  Independence,  was  chosen  to  the 
Continental  Congress,  and  became  one  of  the 
signers  to  the  Declaration  of  Independence. 
He  was  married  the  same  year  to  Julia  Stock- 
ton. Dr.  Rush  was  made  surgeon-general  of 
the  middle  department  of  the  army,  and  soon 
after  physician-general. 

In  1778  he  resigned  his  position  because  of 
wrongs  done  to  the  soldiers  in  regard  to  the 
hospital  stores,  and  resumed  practise  in  Phila- 
delphia. About  1785  he  planned  there  the 
first  dispensary  in  the  United  States. 

In  the  State  convention  he  was  a  stanch 
supporter  of  the  Federal  Constitution.  He 
was  a  member  of  the  convention  of  Pennsyl- 
vania to  form  a  State  Constitution. 

While  the  yellow  fever  prevailed  in  Phila- 
delphia in  1793,  Dr.  Rush  was  estimated  by 
Dr.  Ramsay  to  have  saved  6000  persons"  in 
Philadelphia  from  death  by  that  disease,  and 
received  many  honors  therefor  from  Europe 
as  well  as  America.  He  was  president  of  the 
Society  for  the  Abolition  of  Slavery  and  of 
many  other  moral  and  religious  societies,  and 
a  frequent  writer  on  reform  themes.  He  was 
treasurer  of  the  United  States  Mint  from  1799 
till  his  death  in  1813. 

RUSKIN,  JOHN,  was  born  in  London  in 
1819,  the  son  of  a  wealthy  wine  merchant. 
He  was  educated  at  home  and  at  Christ 
Church,  Oxford.  He  then  devoted  himself  to 
painting,  under  J.  D.  Harding  and  Copley 
Fielding.  In  1843  he  published  the  first  vol- 
ume of  Modern  Painters,  the  noted  defense 
of  Turner's  art.  He  published  the  second 
volume  in  1846  ;  and  the  remaining  volumes 
in  1856  and  1860,  after  a  residence  in  Italy  and 


a  careful  study  of  Italian  art.  In  1849  aP~ 
peared  the  Seven  Lamps  of  Architecture,  and 
from  1851  to  1853,  the  three  volumes  of  the 
Stones  of  Venice.  In  1869  he  was  elected 
Slade  professor  of  fine  arts  at  Oxford,  and  re- 
elected  in  1876  and  1883;  failing  health  com- 
pelled him  to  resign  in  1884,  since  when  he  has- 
lived  in  retirement  at  Brantwood,  Coniston. 
His  first  writing  on  economic  subjects  was  Unto 
this  Last,  essays  republished  from  the  Cornhilt 
Magazine  in  1862.  This,  with  Munera  Pul- 
veris  (1862-63),  The  Crown  of  Wild  Olive 
(1866),  and  the  letters  to  working  men,  Fors 
Clavigera  (1871-84),  embody  his  economic 
teachings.  He  and  Carlyle  may  be  said  to 
be  the  prophets  of  the  modern  English  socialist 
movement. 

The  essence  of  his  social  teaching  may, 
perhaps,  be  put  in  one  of  his  own  phrases : 
"  There  is  no  wealth  but  life  ;  life  including  all 
its  powers  of  love,  of  joy,  and  of  admiration." 

From  this  teaching  springs  all  else.  Because 
noble  life  is  wealth  it  follows,  with  Ruskin, 
that  that  country  is  richest  which  nourishes  the 
greatest  number  of  noble  and  happy  human- 
beings  ;  that  that  man  is  wealthiest,  who,  hav- 
ing perfected  the  functions  of  his  own  life  to- 
the  utmost,  has  also  the  widest  helpful  influ- 
ence, both  personal  and  by  means  of  his- 
possessions,  over  the  lives  of  others. 

Moreover,  because  life  is  wealth,  it  follows 
that  only  that  which  contributes  life  has  a, 
right  to  return  in  wealth;  hence  interest,, 
the  return  of  money  for  the  use  of  dead 
money,  is  wrong — only  those  have  a  right  to- 
share  in  the  products  of  industry  who  have 
put  into  the  operation  some  industry  them- 
selves, some  outgo  of  their  own  life. 

These  two  conceptions,  the  law  of  wealth 
and  the  law  of  service,  run  through  all  of 
Ruskin's  works.  He  teaches  that  wealth  is 
"the  possession  of  the  valuable  by  the  val- 
iant"; that  service  bids  English  men  and 
women  to  become  "  Soldiers  of  the  Plowshare 
as  well  as  Soldiers  of  the  Sword." 

Ruskin  taught  from  these  principles,  first \ 
the  law  of  "Property  to  whom  proper" — or 
that  land  and  tools  belong  to  those  who  can 
use  them  ;  secondly,  that  he  who  can,  should 
use  his  tools — use  his  tools  to  develop  life,  the 
highest  life  in  himself  and  others  ;  thirdly, 
that  this  highest  life  can  only  be  by  coopera- 
tion instead  of  competition,  the  thought  of 
what  we  can  give  rather  than  of  what  we  can 
get,  the  thought  of  what  we  are  rather  than 
of  what  we  have.  This,  added  to  Ruskin's 
teaching  as  regards  art,  constitutes  Ruskin's 
social  system.  His  theory  of  art  and  his 
theory  of  society  he  never  divorces,  because 
they  are  both  part  of  his  one  theory  of  life, 
Of  art  he  taught — he  himself  tells  us,  first, 
that  the  life  of  art  is  in  religion  ;  secondly, 
that  its  food  is  in  the  ocular  and  passionate 
love  of  nature  ;  thirdly,  that  its  health  is  in 
the  humility  of  the  artists.  Applying  this  to 
his  social  teaching,  his  outcome  was  that  so- 
ciety should  be  a  cooperation  or  communism 
of  artists,  submitting  themselves  humbly  to 
the  law  of  love,  and  in  the  joy  of  beauty  work- 
ing to  produce  the  highest  and  the  noblest 
that  is  in  them. 


Ruskin,  John. 


1210 


Russia  and  Social  Reform. 


Ruskin  calls  himself  a  Communist — in  his 
own  phrase,  "the  reddest  of  the  red."  Yet, 
in  equality  of  property  he  did  not  believe.  In 
creating  his  St.  George's  Gild  he  distinctly 
says  that  there  should  be  "  no  equality  upon 
it,  but  recognition  of  every  betterness,  and 
reprobation  of  every  worseness."  This  cer- 
tainly is  opposed  to  communism,  but  is  in 
accord  with  some  socialism.  In  almost  all 
things  Ruskin  is  a  socialist.  He  believes  in 
government,  in  the  State  ;  he  believes  in  the 
cooperation  of  workers  in  the  State  ;  he  be- 
lieves in  award  for  worth  ;  he  does  not  believe 
in  interest ;  he  does  not  believe  in  the  capital- 
ist ;  he  is  the  bitterest  foe  of  the  wage  system 
and  of  the  laissez-faire  political  economy. 

Ruskin  is  not,  however,  a  socialist  in  all 
things.  He  is  politically  (in  his  writings)  a 
conservative.  His  socialism  is  paternal,  not 
fraternal.  He  would  not  seek  for  reform 
through  political  action.  He  shrinks  from  the 
rough  and  prosaic  machinery  of  politics.  The 
Gospel  of  Art  has  rarely  been  married  to  the 
Gospel  of  the  Ballot  Box.  Hence,  politically, 
Ruskin  becomes  reactionary. 

Yet  Ruskin  attempted  the  concrete,  altho 
this  not  so  much  for  the  value  of  the  con- 
crete itself,  as  because,  in  trying  to  carry  out 
his  ideas,  he  could  alone  be  consistent.  His 
St.  George's  Gild  was  an  inevitable  conse- 
quence of  his  teaching. 

"The  more  I  see  of  writing,"  he  says,  "  the 
less  I  care  for  it ;  one  may  do  more  with  a 
man  by  getting  10  words  spoken  to  him,  face 
to  face,  than  by  the  black-lettering  of  a  whole 
life's  thought." 

A  valuable  account  of  the  Gild  may  be 
found  in  Edward  Cook's  Studies  in  Ruskin  : 

"It  was  in  May,  1871,"  says  Mr.  Cook,  "that  the 
scheme  was  first  made  public.  In  the  Fors  for  that 
month  Mr.  Ruskin  called  on  any  landlords  to  come 
and  help  him  •who  would  like  better  to  be  served  by 
men  than  by  iron  devils,  and  any  tenants,  and  any 
workmen  who  could  vow  to  work  and  live  faithfully 
for  the  sake  of  the  joy  of  their  home.  All  who  joined 
St.  George's  standard  were  to  do  as  Mr.  Ruskin  un- 
dertook to  do  ;  to  give  the  tenth  of  what  they  had  and 
•what  they  earned,  not  to  emigrate  with,  but  to  stay  in 
England  with,  and  to  make  a  happy  England  of  her 
once  more." 

The  Gild  had  an  agricultural,  an  industrial,  and  an 
artistic  character.  On  land  bought  by  the  Gild,  to 
which  Ruskin  himself  largely  contributed,  an  attempt 
was  made  to  carry  on  an  agricultural  community 
according  to  Ruskin's  Laws  of  Life.  Mr.  Cook  says 
of  this : 

"  The  agricultural  experiments  of  the  St.  George's 
Gild  have  not  been  a  brilliant  success.  Perhaps  they 
have  not  been  given  a  fair  chance.  Perhaps  the  times 
and  seasons  have  been  unpropitious.  But  •whatever 
•explanations  or  excuses  there  may  be,  the  fact  remains 
that  the  St.  George's  farms  have  produced  very  little 
except  a  plentiful  crop  of  disappointments.  Mr.  Rus- 
kin has  drawn  many  charming  pictures  of  his  ideal 
settlements ;  but  the  realities  have  for  the  most  part 
been  either  grim  or  grotesque,  or  (more  often)  both. 
The  Gild  is,  however,  the  owner  of  several  acres  of 
land  in  different  parts  of  the  country,  and  there  is 
some  reason  to  hope  that  past  failures  will  lead  to 
future  successes." 

Other  industrial  experiments  of  Mr.  Ruskin  have 
been  in  the  way  of  fostering  village  industries.  He 
writes:  "Whatever  may  be  the  destiny  of  London, 
or  Paris,  or  Rome  in  the  future,  I  have  always  taught 
that  the  problem  of  right  organization  of  country  life 
was  wholly  independent  of  them." 

Mr.  Ruskin's  aim  was  not  to  organize  industrial 
villages,  but  to  revive,  in  existing  villages,  village 
industry. 

Foremost  in  work  in  this  direction  stands  Mr.  Albert 
Flemming's  attempt,  under  Ruskin's  influence,  to 


bring  back  the  old  industry  of  the  spinning-wheel  to 
the  homes  and  villages  of  Westmoreland.  In  a  meas- 
ure it  has  succeeded,  as  one  can  see  by  reading  Mr. 
Flemming's  own  account  of  it,  printed  in  Studies  in 
Ruskin. 

Another  experiment  was  the  making  of  "St. 
George's  cloth  "  in  the  Isle  of  Man,  undertaken  with 
Ruskin's  help  by  Mr.  Egbert  Rydings.  A  mill  was 
built  in  romantic  architecture  by  the  St.  George's 
Gild,  the  motive  power  being  water  and  not  steam. 
This  still  exists,  tho  it  has  passed  into  other  hands 
than  those  of  the  Gild. 

The  main  concrete  result  of  the  St.  George's  Gild, 
has,  however,  not  unnaturally,  been  artistic,  in  the 
creation  and  maintenance  of  the  unique  and  beautiful 
Ruskin  Museum  at  Meresbrook  Hall,  Sheffield. 

Besides  these  industrial  experiments  Rus- 
kin has  largely  used  his  inheritance  of  some 
^200,000,  by  aiding  Miss  Octavia  Hill  (see 
TENEMENTS)  in  her  model  tenement  experi- 
ments, in  making  loans  without  interest,  and 
in  other  philanthropic  ways. 

Reference  :  The  Life  and  Work  of  John  Ruskin,  by 
W.  G.  Collingwood  (2  vols.,  1893). 

RUSKIN    COOPERATIVE   COLONY.— 

In  1893  Mr.  J.  A.  Wayland,  editor  of  The 
Coming  Nation,  conceived  the  idea  of  estab- 
lishing a  cooperative  colony  to  be  operated  as 
nearly  upon  the  plans  laid  down  in  Bellamy's 
Looking  Backward  as  the  present  competi- 
tive system  would  permit.  From  among  the 
great  number  of  Coming  Nation  workers  he 
selected  a  few  cooperators,  formulated  a  set  of 
by-laws,  and  in  May,  1894,  was  ready  to  seek 
the  colony's  location.  One  thousand  acres  of 
land  near  Tennessee  City,  Tenn. ,  were  finally 
chosen,  and  in  July  the  movement  from 
Greensburg,  Ind.,  took  place.  On  Aiigust  24, 
1894,  the  colonists  formally  organized  as  the 
Ruskin  Cooperative  Association  under  the 
joint-stock  corporation  laws  of  the  State  of 
Tennessee. 

A  temporary  printing  house  had  been  erected 
at  Tennessee  City,  and  in  October  the  erection 
of  temporary  homes  for  the  colonists  was  com- 
menced upon  the  land,  which  lies  two  miles 
north  of  Tennessee  City. 

All  prospered,  but  in  1895  differences  arose 
and  Mr.  Wayland  left  the  colony,  and  the 
colony  later  removed  to  a  more  favorable  loca- 
tion called  Cave  Mills,  six  miles  from  Tennes- 
see City.  Its  declared  objects  are  to  own  and 
operate  manufactories,  to  acquire  land,  to 
build  homes  for  its  members,  to  insure  pro- 
tection against  want  or  the  fear  of  want,  to 
provide  educational  and  recreative  facilities  of 
the  highest  order,  and  to  promote  and  main- 
tain harmonious  social  relations  on  the  basis 
of  cooperation. 

According  to  its  rules,  a  share  of  stock  costs 
$500.  All  members  must  hold  one  share  but 
cannot  hold  more.  For  the  benefit  of  those 
who  cannot  pay  at  one  time  a  plan  of  instal- 
ments has  been  adopted,  which  will  be  mailed 
on  application.  The  stock  is  non-transferable, 
except  to  the  association. 

The  colony  publishes  The  Coming  Nation, 
a  socialist  journal,  with  probably,  the  largest 
circulation  of  any  social  reform  paper  in  the 
United  States. 

RUSSIA  AND  SOCIAL  REFORM.— The 

most  important  social  reform  movement  in 


Russia  and  Social  Reform. 


I2II 


Russia  and  Social  Reform. 


Russia  is    Nihilism   (q.  v.}. 
Here  we  consider,  first, 

i.  STATISTICS. 

The  Government  is  an  absolute  hereditary  mon- 
archy. The  administration  is  intrusted  to  boards  or 
councils:  (i)  The  Council  of  State,  established  in  1810, 
with  members  appointed  by  the  Emperor,  and  whose 
chief  function  is  to  examine  into  laws  and  budgets  ; 
(2)  The  Ruling-  Senate,  established  in  1711,  which  is 
partly  deliberative  and  partly  executive,  which  prom- 
ulgates laws  and  acts  as  a  high  court  of  justice  ;  (3) 
The  Holy  Synod,  which  superintends  religious  affairs  ; 
(4)  The  Committee  of  Ministers,  consisting  of  12  min- 
isters, 4  grand  dukes,  and  6  other  functionaries. 

The  empire  is  divided  into  general  governments  or 
vice-royalties:    Finland,  Poland,  Wilna,  Kieff,  Mos- 
•cow,   Caucasus,   Turkestan,   Stepnoge,   Irkutsk,   and 
Amur,  with  78  governments  and  many 
hundred    districts.      European    Russia 
has  107,676  communes,  with  a  large  de- 
*•  gree  of  self-government  and  election  by 
the    Mir    (q.  v.),    composed    of  house- 
holders, men  or  women.    These  com- 
munes are  united  into  cantons  or   Voloste  (in  Poland 
Gruina,  which,  however,  has  less  authority  than  tlie 
Voloste).     In  1889,  chiefs  of  the  district,  nominated  by 
the  administration  from  the  nobility,  took  the  places 
of  former  justices  of  the  peace  elected  by  the  peasan- 
try.    Zemstvos  or  district  assemblies  of  representa- 
tives of  peasantry,  households,  and  nobles  have  still 
some     power,    but    by    laws    of    1890 
and  1894  are  being  replaced  by  govern- 
Area  and     ors  nominated  by  the  emperor. 
.p        .  The  empire  composes  one-seventh  of 

ropulation.    the  land  surface  of  the  globe,  and  covers 
8,644,000  English  square  miles.    The  total 
population  was  estimated  in  1895  at  129,- 
595,000.    In  1722  it  was  estimated  at  14,000,000;  1812  at 
41,000,000;   1851  at  68,000,000;  1867  at  81,000,000;  1886  at 
113,000,000.    It  was  divided  as  follows  in  1892  : 


AREA  IN 
SQ.  MILES. 

POPULA- 
TION. 

PER 
SQ.  M. 

European    Russia 
(1892)  

91,212,888 

48 

Poland  (1893)  
Finland  (1893)  
Siberia  

49.157 
144,255 

8,982,253 

2i43i,P53 

182 

19 

Total  Asia  

The  birth  rate  in  all  portions  of  the  empire  largely 
exceeds  the  death  rate. 

Fourteen    million    live  in  towns,   102,000,000   in  the 
country  ;    St.    Petersburg,     Moscow,    Warsaw,     and 
Odessa  being  the  largest  cities.    The  established  re- 
ligion is  that  of  the  Greek  Church  ;  the 
Emperor  is  its  head,  and  appoints  to 
Polio-inn       every  office.    Seventy-three  millions  of 
xieugion.      the  mhabitants  are  said  to  be  of  this 
church,     8,000,000     Roman     Catholics  ; 
3,000,000     each    Protestants   and   Jews; 
2,500,000  Mohammedans.    There  are  3  metropolitans, 
12  archbishops,  and  47  bishops,  -with  63,171  churches. 

Education  is  under  control  of  the  Minister  of  Edu- 
cation, with  about  9  universities,  25  higher  schools,  ^68 
professional,  1016  middle  schools,  and  46,880  primary 
schools. 

In  1894  the  ordinary  revenue  was  1,153,785,812  r.  and 
the    ordinary    expenditure    991,197,437    r.,    the    ruble 
being  worth  about  50    cents ;    the    ex- 
traordinary revenue    was   84,056,130   r. 
Finances      an<*     t*le    extraordinary    expenditure 
163,944,225  r. 

The  budget  for  1896  estimates  the 
total  revenue  at  1,361,547,994  r.  Direct 
taxes  were  estimated  at  104,000,000 r.;  customs,  153,000,- 
ooo  r.;  excise  and  stamp  duties,  451,000,000  r.  (spirits, 
284,000,000  r.);  mints,  mines,  post,  and  telegraph,  44,000,- 
ooo  r.;  State  domains,  294,000,000 r. ;  reimbursement  of 
railway  loans,  60,000,000  r. 

The  ordinary  expenditures  were  estimated  at  1,219,- 
088,414  r.,  with  130,459,580  r.  for  extraordinary  railway 
and  post  expenditures.  Two  hundred  and  fifteen 


See  also  MlR  million  rubles  were  estimated  for  interest  on  debts: 
28«.,ooo,ooo  r.  for  war ;  13,000,000  r.  for  the  Imperial 
household  ;  196,000,000  r.  for  ways  and  communications. 

In  1892  in  European   Russia  the   State  owned  410,- 
000,000  acres,  the  Imperial  family  19,000,000,   the  peas- 
ants 373,000,000,   and  other  private  owners  7,94,000,000. 
Twenty-six    per  cent    was  arable  ;  15 
per  cent,  was  grazing  ;  38  per  cent,  for- 
ests, and  19  per  cent,  unfit  for  culture,    Tn(lustrieg 
or  in  roads,  etc.     In  1893  exports   were    •••"Uusu.ieB, 
613,000,000  r.,  and  the  imports  were  463,- 
000,000  r.      Grain  forms  about  one-half 
the  exports  to  Europe.    The  chief  imports  were  raw 
cotton,  machinery,  and  metal  goods. 

In  1890  the  value  of  gold  mined  was  $25,802,175.  of 
pig-iron  in  1892,  $16,968,000  ;  coal,  $9,648,000 ;  petro- 
leum, $7,288,275. 

(For  railways  see  RAILWAYS.)  Manufacturing  (in- 
cluding mining)  amounted  in  value  in  1890  to  1,656,- 
000,000  r.,  irrespective  of  the  smaller  industries,  of  which 
487,100,000  r.  was  in  the  cotton  industry,  the  number  of 
spindles  in  Russia  being  one-fourth  of  those  in  Europe. 
The  merchant  sea  fleet  of  Russia  numbers  2870  sailing 
vessels  on  foreign  seas  ;  steamers  486.  There  are  398 
fairs,  of  which  the  greatest  is  Nijni  Novgorod,  to 
which  in  1890  goods  were  shipped  and  nearly  all  sold, 
valued  at  181,256,830  r. 

II.    SOCIAL   REFORM. 

In  1861  Alexander  II.  decreed  the  emanci- 
pation of  the  serfs,  but  under  such  conditions 
that  it  was  a  doubtful  blessing.  Only  one- 
third  of  the  land  was  divided  among  the 
serfs  ;  one-sixth  was  left  to  the  landed  nobil- 
ity, and  one-half  was  kept  for  the  State.  The 
result  is  that  the  peasants  do  not  have  enough 
to  support  themselves  upon,  while  they  are  at 
the  same  time  heavily  taxed  on  the  little  land 
they  have.  They  are  thus  deprived  of  the 
old  feudal  rights,  and  not  given  economic 
basis  enough  to  support  them  under  modern 
individualism.  The  result  is  that  they  are 
often  compelled  to  sell  what  little  land  they 
have  to  the  landed  nobility,  while  many 
escape  as  "illegal  men"  to  beg,  or  seek 
a  precarious  existence  in  the  cities.  Some- 
times a  whole  village  will  decamp  in  the 
night  to  the  steppes  to  avoid  the  tax-collector. 
It  has  been  estimated  that  20,000,000,  or  a  third 
of  the  rural  population,  are  absolutely  prole- 
tarians. It  is  this  condition  that  has  pro- 
duced Nihilism  (g.  z/.),  which  is  growing  into 
a  tendency  toward  modern  socialism,  tho 
many  look  for  social  reform,  not  through 
the  ideals  of  Western  socialism,  but  from  the 
old  communism  of  Holy  Russia  and  her 
ancient  Mirs  freed  from  the  subjection  to  the 
Tatar  czars.  Meanwhile,  the  condition  of  the 
people  is  desperate.  According  to  the  report 
on  Russia  of  the  Royal  (English)  Commission 
on  Labor,  the  wages  of  the  Russian  miners 
were  from  i  ruble  to  1.45  per  day  ;  of  railroad 
employees,  many  of  whom  are  women,  only 
from  30  kopecks  to  i  ruble,  and  agricultural 
wages  only  about  60  kopecks,  the  ruble  being 
equal  to  about  77  cents,  and  the  kopeck  one- 
hundredth  of  a  ruble.  In  St.  Petersburg 
wages  are  higher,  but  large  multitudes  can 
get  no  work  at  any  price. 

References :  The  Industries,  Manufactures,  and 
Trade  of  Russia,  prepared  by  the  Russian  Minister  of 


Report  on  Russia  of  the  (English)  Royal  Commission 


eport  on 
Labor. 


See  also  NIHILISM. 


Saint-Simon,  Comte  de. 


1212 


Salvation  Army. 


s 


SAINT  -  SIMON,  CLAUDE  HENRI 
COMTE  DE,  was  born  in  Paris  in  1760,  of  a 
noble  family  tracing  its  origin  to  Charlemagne. 
He  entered  the  army  at  the  age  of  16,  and  a 
year  afterward  came  to  America  and  fought 
under  Washington.  He  took  part  in  the  siege 
of  Yorktown,  and  distinguished  himself  for 
bravery.  Upon  returning  to  France  he  was 
made  colonel,  but  soon  resigned  his  position 
and  gave  up  the  military  career.  He  visited 
Mexico  and  started  a  project  for  uniting  the 
Atlantic  with  the  Pacific  by  a  canal.  A  few 
years  later  he  formed  designs  for  a  canal  from 
Madrid  to  the  ocean,  but  the  French  Revolu- 
tion drew  him  to  France.  In  spite  of  his  fam- 
ily traditions,  he  sided  with  the  people  ;  and 
was  elected  president  of  the  commune  where 
his  property  was  situated.  He  renounced  his 
title  of  count,  saying  that  he  regarded  it  as  in- 
ferior to  that  of  citizen  ;  and  refused  an  office 
that  was  offered  him,  for  fear  it  should  be 
thought  he  owed  it  to  his  rank.  All  this,  how- 
ever, did  not  prevent  his  imprisonment  for 
nearly  a  year  on  account  of  his  nobility. 
Acquiring  some  money  by  speculation  he  con- 
tracted an  unhappy  marriage,  which  was  later 
dissolved.  He  began  scientific  studies,  and  in 
order  to  acquire  a  complete  knowledge  of  life 
he  plunged  deliberately  on  occasions  into  dis- 
sipation. When  his  money  was  spent  and  his 
health  broken,  he  changed  his  mode  of  life  and 
became  a  copying  clerk,  working  nine  hours  a 
day  for  less  than  .$200  a  year.  It  was  not  till 
his  forty-ninth  year  that  he  felt  himself  fully 
qualified  to  appear  as  a  social  reformer.  He 
wrote  two  works — Sur  la  Science  de  I ' Homme 
and  Sur  la  Gravitation  Universelle.  His 
characteristic  socialist  views  were  first  devel- 
oped in  L 'Industrie  (1817)  and  further  devel- 
oped in  L' Organisation  (1819),  Du  Systems 
Indus  trie  I  (1821),  Cattchisme  des  Industrels 
(1823),  and  most  important  of  all,  Nouveau 
Christianisme  (1825).  In  the  latter  work, 
having  previously  called  in  vain  upon  the 
Pope  to  head  a  new  Crusade  of  the  Church 
against  poverty  and  suffering,  he  outlines  a 
new  Christianity  where  with  religious  fervor 
the  world  should  be  exploited  in  a  scientific 
way,  and  society  organized  for  the  benefit  of 
the  poor  and  of  all  classes.  His  works,  how- 
ever, at  first  elicited  little  attention. 

At  60  years  of  age  his  marvelous  tenacity 
gave  way,  and,  influenced  by  despondent 
thoughts,  he  attempted  suicide.  This  brought 
dilatory  friends  to  his  side,  and  he  rallied  and 
set  to  work  again.  In  1825  he  died  in  the 
midst  of  his  followers.  One  of  them  has 
chronicled  his  last  words.  Calling  his  friends 
around  him,  he  said  : 

"  '  You  have  arrived  at  a  period  when,  by  your  com- 
bined efforts,  you  will  achieve  a  great  success.  The 
fruit  is  ripe  ;  you  are  able  to  gather  it.  The  last  of 
my  labors,  the  New  Christianity,  will  not  be  imme- 
diately understood.  It  has  been  thought  that  every 
religious  system  ought  to  disappear  because  men 
have  succeeded  in  proving  the  weakness  and  insuffi- 
ciency of  Catholicism.  People  are  deceived  in  this. 
Religion  cannot  disappear  from  the  world  ;  it  can 
only  be  changed.  .  .  .' 


"He  paused  for  a  few  moments,  then,  in  the  final 
struggle,  added  :  '  The  Party  of  Laborers  will  soon  be 
formed  ;  the  future  is  ours.'  After  having  said  these 
words,  he  raised  his  hand  to  his  head  and  died." 

Professor  Ely  says,  in  speaking  of  Saint- 
Simon  : 

"  Saint-Simonism  is  the  first  example  of  pure  social- 
ism, by  which  I  understand  an  economic  system  in 
which  production  is  entirely  carried  on  in  common, 
and  the  fruits  of  labor  distributed  according  to  some 
ideal  standard,  which  appears  to  the  promoters  of  the 
scheme  just.  The  Saint-Simonians  held  that  men 
were  by  nature  unequal,  and  that  it  was  right  to  re- 
ward superior  power,  when  exerted  for  the  general 
good.  Their  idea  was  that  each  one  should  labor  ac- 
cording to  his  capacity  and  be  rewarded  according  to 
the  services  rendered.  They  wished  to  organize  civil 
society  on  the  plan  of  an  army.  This  thought  is  dis- 
tinctly expressed  by  one  of  their  leaders  in  these  words: 
'  In  the  army  gradations  in'  rank  and  authority  are 
already  established,  •while  in  civil  life  that  is  precisely 
what  is  wanting  ;  and  in  an  enterprise  conducted  upon 
the  principle  of  association,  a  central  administration 
is  imperiously  required."  The  officers  are  the  direct- 
ing authority  in  the  scheme,  and  they  decide  on  the 
value  of  the  services  rendered  to  society  and  reward 
the  citizens  accordingly.  As  society  consists  of  priests, 
savants,  and  industrials — the  industrials  comprising 
those  engaged  in  manufactures,  agriculture,  and  com- 
merce— so  the  Government  consists  of  the  chiefs  of 
the  priests,  the  chiefs  of  the  savants,  and  the  chiefs  of 
the  industrials.  All  property  belongs  to  the  Church, 
i.  e.,  to  the  State,  and  every  profession  or  trade  is  a 
religious  exercise  and  has  its  rank  in  the  social  hier- 
archy." 

After  Saint-Simon's  death  his  followers  be- 
came numerous,  especially  about  1830,  under 
the  leadership  of  Enfantin  and  Hazard  (gq.v.). 
The  Globe,  their  organ,  attracted  much  atten- 
tion. Brilliant  men  like  Comte  and  Thierry 
belonged  for  a  while  to  their  school.  They 
attempted  a  community  at  Menilmontant,  but 
it  broke  up  finally  in  a  split  on  the  subject 
of  marriage  (see  HAZARD). 

The  Saint-Simonians  regarded  all  idlers  as 
thieves.  They  therefore  rejected  inheritance, 
and  asserted  that  every  man's  property  at 
death  should  become  common.  All  should 
start  with  equal  advantages.  Land,  capital, 
and  all  the  instruments  of  labor  should  be 
held  in  common.  They  believed  in  monogamy, 
that  woman  is  the  equal  of  man,  and  that  the 
social  unit  should  not  be  man,  but  man  and 
woman.  They  believed  that  "the  exploita- 
tion of  man  by  man  "  should  be  replaced  by 
the  exploitation  of  the  globe  by  man  associ- 
ated with  man.  They  would  organize  society 
on  scientific  lines  to  develop  the  globe  scientif- 
ically. Several  of  the  school  after  its  break  up 
became  civil  engineers  and  took  part  in  open- 
ing the  Isthmus  of  Suez  and  other  works. 

SALVATION  ARMY,  THE  SOCIAL  RE- 
FORM WORK  OF  THE.— The  Salvation 
Army,  which  was  organized  under  that  name  in 
1878  by  General  Booth  (g.  v.)  as  an  outgrowth 
of  the  Christian  Mission  he  had  established 
in  East  London  in  1865,  commenced  in  1890  a 
social  reform  movement,  which  we  outline  here. 
With  the  strictly  religious  portion  of  the  work 
of  the  Salvation  Army  we  do  not  deal  in  this 
Encyclopedia,  'tho  it  should  be  recognized  that 
the  Army  never  devorces  its  social  from  its 


Salvation  Army. 


1213 


Salvation  Army. 


more  strictly  spiritual  work,  and  believes  that 
to  do  so  would  be  fatal.  It  believes  that  the 
social  work  needs  the  spiritual  element,  even 
as  practical  experience  convinced  General 
Booth  that  the  spiritual  work  needed  the  social 
reform  element  and  could  not  be  continued 
without  it. 

It  was  in  this  thought  that  in  1890  General 
Booth  wrote  and  published  his  In  Darkest 
England,  a  book  which  at  once  arrested  at- 
tention around  the  world;  partly  because  of  its 
revelations  of  the  destitution  and  wretchedness 
in  London  and  all  England,  and  even  more  be- 
cause of  the  plan  for  social  work  that  the  book 
proposed  in  clear,  businesslike  form. 

General  Booth  prefaced  his  plan  by  laying 
down  seven  propositions,  which  in  his  opinion 
should  govern  such  a  plan,  which  we  abridge 
from  his  book  (p.  85),  as  follows  : 

"The  first  essential  that  must  be  borne  in  mind  as 
governing  every  scheme  that  may  be  put  forward  is 
that  it  must  change  the  man,  when  it  is  his  character 
and  conduct  which  constitute  the  rea- 
sons for  his  failure  in  the  battle  of  life. 

Prin ein  1          No  change  in  circumstances,  no  revo- 

jruiii/ipies.    iu(.jon  jn  sociai  conditions,  can  possibly 

transform  the  nature  of  man.    Some  of 

the  worst  men  and  women  in  the  world, 

whose  names  are  chronicled  by  history  with  a  shudder 

•of  horror,  were  those   who  had  all  the  advantages 

that  wealth,  education,  and  station  could  confer,  or 

ambition  could  attain. 

"  The  supreme  test  of  any  scheme  for  benefiting  hu- 
manity lies  in  the  answer  to  the  question.  What  does 
it  make  of  the  individual  ? 

"  Secondly.  The  remedy,  to  be  effectual,  must  change 
the  circumstances  of  the  individual,  when  they  are  the 
cause  of  his  wretched  condition  and  lie  beyond  his 
control. 

"  Favorable  circumstances  will  not  change  a  man's 
heart  or  transform  his  nature,  but  unpropitious  cir- 
cumstances may  render  it  absolutely  impossible  for 
him  to  escape,  no  matter  how  he  may  desire  to  extri- 
cate himself.  The  first  step  with  these  helpless, 
sunken  creatures  is  to  create  the  desire  to  escape,  and 
thenprovide  the  means  for  doing  so. 

"  Thirdly.  Any  remedy  worthy  of  consideration 
must  be  on  a  scale  commensurate  with  the  evil  with 
which  it  proposes  to  deal.  It  is  no  use  trying  to  bail 
out  the  ocean  with  a  pint  pot.  The  evil  is  one  whose 
victims  are  counted  by  the  million.  There  must  be 
no  more  philanthropic  tinkering,  as  if  this  vast  sea  of 
human  misery  were  contained  in  the  limits  of  a 
garden  pond. 

"  Fourthly.  Not  only  must  the  scheme  be  large 
enough,  but  it  must  be  permanent.  That  is  to  say,  it 
must  not  be  merely  a  spasmodic  effort,  coping  with 
the  misery  of  to-day. 

"  Fifthly.  But  while  it  must  be  permanent,  it  must 
also  be  immediately  practicable.  Any  scheme,  to  be 
of  use,  must  be  capable  of  being  brought  into  instant 
operation  with  beneficial  results. 

"  Sixthly.  The  indirect  features  of  the  scheme  must 
not  be  such  as  to  produce  injury  to  the  persons  whom 
we  seek  to  benefit.  It  is  no  use  conferring  sixpenny- 
worth  of  benefit  on  a  man  if,  at  the  same  time,  we  do 
him  a  shilling's  worth  of  harm. 

"  Seventhly.  While  assisting  one  class  of  the  commu- 
nity, it  must  not  seriously  interfere  with  the  interests 
of  another.  In  raising  one  section  of  the  fallen,  we 
must  not  thereby  endanger  the  safety  of  those  who 
with  difficulty  are  keeping  on  their  feet. 

"  It  is  no  use  saying  we  could  build  a  bridge  across 
the  Tay  if  the  wind  did  not  blow,  or  that  we  could 
build  a  railway  across  a  bog  if  the  quagmire  would 
afford  us  a  solid  foundation.  The  engineer  has  to 
take  into  account  the  difficulties,  and  make  them  his 
starting  point.  The  wind  will  blow,  therefore  the 
bridge  must  be  made  strong  enough  to  resist  it. 
Chat  Moss  will  shake,  therefore  we  must  construct  a 
foundation  in  the  very  bowels  of  the  bog  on  which  to 
build  our  railway.  So  it  is  with  the  sociai  difficulties 
which  confront  us.  If  we  act  in  harmony  with  these 
laws  we  shall  triumph;  but  if  we  ignore  them  they 
will  overwhelm  us  with  destruction  and  cover  us  with 
disgrace." 


We  come  thus  to  the  statement  of  the  plan. 
Says  General  Booth  (p.  go): 

"What,   then,   is  my  scheme?    It  is  a  very  simple 
one,  although,  in  its  ramifications  and  extensions,  it 
embraces  the  whole  world.    In  this  book  I  profess  to 
do  no  more  than  to  merely  outline,  as 
plainly  and  as  simply  as  I  can,  the  fun- 
damental  features  of  my  proposals.     I     rni.0  piari 
propose  to  devote  the  bulk  of  this  vol-     •Lne  rl*"- 
ume  to  setting  forth  what  can  practi- 
cally   be    done  with  one  of   the  most 
pressing  parts  of  the  problem,  namely,  that  relating 
to  those  who  are  out  of  work,  and  who,  as  the  result, 
are  more  or  less  destitute.      I    have   many   ideas  of 
what  might  be  done  with  those  who  are  at  present 
cared  for  in  some  measure  by  the  State,  but  I  will 
leave  these  ideas  for  the  present.  .  .  . 

"  The  scheme  I  have  to  offer  consists  in  the  forma- 
tion of  these  people  into  self-helping  and  self-sus- 
taining communities,  each  being  a  kind  of  cooperative 
society,  or  patriarchal  family,  governed  and  disci- 
plined on  the  principles  which  have  already  proved  so 
effective  in  the  Salvation  Army. 

"These  communities  we  will  call,  for  want  of  a  bet- 
ter term,  colonies.  There  will  be  : 

"(i)  The  city  colony. 

"(2)  The  farm  colony. 

"  (3)  The  over-sea  colony. 

"  By  the  city  colony  is  meant  the  establishment,  in 
the  very  center  of  the  ocean  of  misery  of  which  we 
have  been  speaking,  of  a  number  of  institutions  to 
act  as  harbors  of  refuge  for  all  and  any  who  have 
been  shipwrecked  in  life,  character,  or  circumstances. 
These  harbors  will  gather  up  the  poor  destitute  crea- 
tures, supply  their  immediate  pressing  necessities, 
furnish  temporary  employment,  inspire  them  with 
hope  for  the  future,  and  commence  at  once  a  course 
of  regeneration  by  moral  and  religious  influences. 

"From  these  institutions,  which  are  hereafter  de- 
scribed, numbers  would,  after  a  short  time,  be  floated 
off  to  permanent  employment,  or  sent  home  to  friends 
happy  to  receive  them  on  hearing  of  their  reforma- 
tion. All  who  remain  on  our  hands  would,  by  varied 
means,  be  tested  as  to  their  sincerity,  industry,  and 
honesty,  and  as  soon  as  satisfaction  was  created,  be 
passed  on  to  the  colony  of  the  second  class. 

"  This  would  consist  of  a  settlement  of  the  colonists 
on  an  estate  in  the  provinces,  in  the  culture  of  which 
they  would  find  employment  and  obtain  support.  As 
the  race  from  the  country  to  the  city  has  been  the 
cause  of  much  of  the  distress  we  have  to  battle  with, 
we  propose  to  find  a  substantial  part  of  our  remedy 
by  transferring  these  same  people  back  to  the  country; 
that  is,  back  again  to  'the  garden  ! ' 

"  Here  the  process  of  reformation  of  character 
would  be  carried  forward  by  the  same  industrial, 
moral,  and  religious  methods  as  haye  already  been 
commenced  in  the  city,  especially  including  those 
forms  of  labor  and  that  knowledge  of  agriculture 
which,  should  the  colonist  not  obtain  employment  in 
this  country,  will  qualify  him  for  pursuing  his  for- 
tunes under  more  favorable  circumstances  in  some 
other  land. 

"  From  the  farm,  as  from  the  city,  there  can  be  no 
question  that  large  numbers,  resuscitated  in  health 
and  character,  would  be  restored  to  friends  up  and 
down  the  country.  Some  would  find  employment  in 
their  own  callings,  others  would  settle  in  cottages  on 
a  small  piece  of  land  that  -we  should  provide,  or  on  co- 
operative farms  which  we  intend  to  promote;  while  the 
great  bulk,  after  trial  and  training,  would  be  passed 
on  to  the  foreign  settlement,  which  would  constitute 
our  third  class,  namely  the  over-sea  colony.  .  .  . 

"  The  scheme,  in  its  entirety,  may  aptly  be  compared 
to  a  great  machine,  foundationed  in  the  lowest  slums 
and  purlieus  of  our  great  towns  and  cities,  drawing 
up  into  its  embrace  the  depraved  and  destitute  of  all 
classes  ;  receiving  thieves,  harlots,  paupers,  drunk- 
ards, prodigals,  all  alike,  on  the  simple  conditions  of 
their  being  willing  to  work  and  to  conform  to  disci- 
pline. Drawing  up  these  poor  outcasts,  reforming 
them,  and  creating  in  them  habits  of  industry,  honesty, 
and  truth  ;  teaching  them  methods  by  which  alike  the 
bread  that  perishes  and  that  which  endures  to  ever- 
lasting life  can  be  won.  Forwarding  them  from  the 
city  to  the  country,  and  there  continuing  the  process 
of  regeneration,  and  then  pouring  them  forth  on  to 
the  virgin  soils  that  await  their  coming  in  other  lands  ; 
keeping  hold  of  them  with  a  strong  government,  and 
yet  making  them  free  men  and  women  ;  and  so  laying 
the  foundations,  perchance,  of  another  empire  to  swell 
to  vast  proportions  in  later  times.  Why  not  ? " 


Salvation  Army. 


1214 


Salvation  Army. 


General  Booth,  on  condition  of  the  public 
furnishing  him  ^1,000,000,  or  ^100,000  in  cash 
and  ^30,000  yearly,  being  the  interest  on 
;£i, 000,000  at  3  per  cent.,  bound  himself  and 
the  Salvation  Army  to  demonstrate  the  entire 
practicability  of  the  scheme.  He  soon  received 
the  ;£ioo,ooo  required.  The  account  of  the  first 
year's  work  of  the  scheme,  issued  by  the 
Salvation  Army,  shows  for  London  the  follow- 
ing :  For  men — 8  shelters,  7  food  depots,  3 
poor  man's  Metropoles  (superior  lodging- 
houses),  i  labor  bureau,  6  workshops  and  labor 
factories.  For  women — 8  rescue  homes,  i  help 
and  inquiry  department,  8  registries,  i  shelter 
and  food  depot,  i  lodging-house,  i  bookbind- 
ing factory,  i  knitting  factory,  i  laundry,  and 
21  slum  officers'  posts. 

In  the  year  1889-90  the  trading  operations  of 
the  army  were  carried  on  with  the  net  profit 
for  the  year  of  ^12,800,  of  which  ^10,365  was 
paid  over  to  the  general  funds  of  the  army. 

All  sorts  of  the  most  suffering  and  degraded 
took  advantage  of  the  food  depots  ;  the 
farthing  meals  were  especially  beneficial  to 
the  children.  The  rescue  homes  recorded  1300 
girls. 

The  scheme  has  steadily  progressed.  By 
1892  there  was  a  National  Labor  Exchange  at 
Queen  Victoria  Street,  with  10  branches.  In 
1892,  10,743  registered.  Only  421  were  found 
permanent  situations,  but  3010  were  given 
temporary  work  in  the  elevators  or  workshops, 
and  a  considerable  number  were  found  tem- 
porary outside  work.  In  1895  employment  was 
found  for  19,372  persons. 

The  furniture  and  certain  other  articles  pro- 
duced«are  partly  used  by  other  departments  of 
the  Salvation  Army.  Other  products  are  sold 
in  the  open  market. 

A  farm  colony  was  opened  May  i,  1891,  on 
the  Thames,  37  miles  from  London,  consisting 
of  3  farms  with  1150  acres,  of  which  800  acres 
are  devoted  to  the  dairy  and  ordinary  farming, 
while  the  remaining  300  acres  are  laid  out  in 
extensive  fruit  and  market  gardens. 

The  colony  is  not  intended  to  furnish  a  per- 
manent home  for  the  men  who  pass  through  it, 
but  was  established  for  the  purpose  of  furnish- 
ing a  training  ground  for  any  workless  man 
who  wishes  to  be  trained  for  service  in  the 
colony  over  the  sea  (in  Australia),  irrespective 
of  the  class  of  unemployed  to  which  he  belongs. 
He  may  have  been  a  deserving  man,  or  he 
may  have  been  a  very  undeserving  man  who 
now  wishes  to  do  well.  The  colony,  subject 
to  certain  conditions,  is  open  to  all  classes  and 
there  are  all  classes  upon  it.  Their  behavior 
is  good.  Only  ten  per  cent,  of  the  whole  have 
had  to  be  sent  away  for  persistent  idleness  or 
drunkenness.  There  has  been  no  disorder 
during  the  whole  time  the  colony  has  been  in 
existence.  There  has  never  been  any  occasion 
to  call  in  a  policeman  to  settle  any  disturbances 
or  disputes,  or  fights,  or  anything  of  the  kind. 
The  majority  of  the  men  work  and  are  fairly 
thankful  for  the  efforts  that  are  made  on  their 
behalf.  They  improve  in  their  physique. 
They  become  better  to  look  at,  and  they  im- 
prove morally.  Even  those  who  do  not  at  all 
accept  the  religious  influences,  and  who  pay 
very  little  attention  to  the  religious  work  car- 


ried on  (the   attendance  at  which  is  entirely 
voluntary),  improve. 

The  principal  buildings  upon  the  colony  are 
as  follows  : 

(i)  Dormitories,  for  350  colonists,  consist  of  seven 
distinct  buildings.  (2)  Officers'  and  employees'  resi- 
dences— four  houses  and  16  cottages.  (3)  The  hos- 
pital, capable  of  accommodating  20  patients,  and 
medically  furnished.  (4)  The  Salvation  Army  bar- 
racks, with  seating  for  600  people.  (5)  Reading-room, 
library,  etc.  (6)  Covered  yard  and  cowhouse,  cover- 
ing half  an  acre  of  ground.  (7)  Pig  sties.  Four  pig- 
sties, with  accommodation  for  500  pigs.  (8)  Stores. 
Stone  and  brick  building  used  as  warehouse  an d  store. 

(9)  Bakery,  with  the  usual  fittings  and  accessories. 

(10)  The  offices,  originally  erected,  as  a  dairy,  adapted 
and  used  for  the  present  as  offices,      (n)  The  railway 
running  from  the  landing  stage  to  the  foot  of  the  hill, 
where  it  communicates  with  the  steam  wire  elevator. 
(12)  The  wharf  and  landing-stage.     Here  steam  cranes 
raise  the  contents  of  the  barges,  and  put  them  on  the 
railway  trucks.    (13)  Brickyards.    Two  valuable  beds 
of  clay  are  being  worked.    (14)  Sorting  shed  (erecting), 
where  the  colonists  can  work  in  wet  weather.     (15) 
Market  garden  stores.    Brick  building,  120  feet  by  30 
feet. 

The  development  of  the  over-sea  colony  has 
naturally  come  latest.  Some  beginnings,  how- 
ever, have  been  made  in  India  and  elsewhere. 

General  Booth's  latest  scheme,  and  one 
which  he  considers  to  be  the  largest  and  most 
important  he  has  ever  evolved,  is  that  for 
the  establishment  of  peasant  settlements  in 
India. 

We  quote  from  the  Conqueror,  the  monthly 
organ  of  the  Salvationists  in  the  United  States, 
the  following  outline  of  the  general's  plans  for 
India : 

"  i.  There  is  enough  surplus  land  to  support  the 
surplus  population  for  many  years  to  come. 

"  2.  When  that  is  exhausted  there  will  be  vast  tracts 
of  tropical  Africa,  Asia,  and  America  which  can  be 
colonized  from  India. 

"  3.  To  meet  the  existing  difficulty  it  is  proposed  by 
General  Booth  to  organize  at  once  an  Indian  Peasant 
Settlement  Scheme. 

"  4.  The  operation  of  the  scheme  will  be  fourfold, 
embracing:  (a)  Peasant  settlements,  (6)  land  agency, 
(c)  village  loan  agency,  and  (d)  agricultural  schools. 

"(i)  It  is  proposed  to  ask  the  Indian  Government 
and  the  native  States  at  once  for,  say,  50,000  acres  of 
land,  in  suitable  blocks  of  from  500  to  5000  or  more 
acres,  free  of  taxes,  for  five  years.  It  is  calculated 
that  on  the  50,000  acres  there  can  be  settled  (at  the  rate 
of  five  acres  per  family)  10,000  families  (say,  50,000  peo- 
ple, including  children);  but  it  is  proposed  to  begin 
with  only  half  that  number,  in  order  to  allow  for  ex- 
pansion. The  capital  expenditure  required  for  com- 
mencing operations,  breaking  up  land,  sinking  wells, 
building  houses,  buying  cattle,  and  settling  first  col- 
onists is  calculated  to  be  about  $250,000,  at  $5  per  acre, 
or  $50  per  family.  This  sum  it  is  proposed  to  raise  : 

(a)  in  donations,   (b)  in  loans  from  private  sources, 
bearing  interest  at  5  per  cent.,  and  repayable  within  a 
given  term  of  years ;  (c)  in  loans  from  Government, 
under  what  is  known  as  the  '  Takkavi,'  or  agricultural 
loan  law. 

"  (2)  Connected  with  each  colony  will  be  an  agency 
for  acquiring  waste  land  in  or  near  the  overpopulated 
towns  and  villages.  This  land  would  be  cultivated  by 
the  labor  of  the  adjoining  villagers,  thus  saving  all 
preliminary  outlay  for  houses,  wells,  support  of  col- 
onists, etc. 

"(3)  To  combat  the  usurious  money-lender,  an 
agency  will  be  established  in  connection  with  the 
farm  colonies  for  making  loans  on  easy  terms,  acting 
as  (a)  the  go-between  for  government  in  obtaining  for 
the  depressed  classes  loans  under  the  Takkavi  law  ; 

(b)  as  the  agents  for  banks,  firms,  philanthropists,  and 
others,   who  may  be  desirous  of  investing  sums  of 
money  in  this  way  at  a  fair  rate  of  interest,  and  (c)  on 
the  cooperative  village  loan  system. 

"(4)  Agricultural  schools  for  thousands  of  children 
will  in  course  of  time  be  established,  where,  combined 
with  a  sufficient  education,  they  will  be  taught  the 
best  forms  of  agriculture,  and  ultimately  sent  out  to 
form  settlements  and  colonies  in  distant  countries  and 


Salvation  Army. 


1215 


Sanitation. 


General  Booth  estimates  that,  worked  on 
purely  native  lines,  if  once  the  initial  outlay 
is  provided,  the  scheme  will  not  .only  become 
self-supporting,  but  will  supply  considerable 
profit  for  extension,  besides  vastly  increasing 
the  government  revenue,  by  the  occupation  of 
land  at  present  uncultivated,  and  the  estab- 
lishment of  a  happy  and  prosperous  peasantry. 

In  carrying  out  his  plans  for  peasant  settle- 
ments in  India,  he  will  have  the  support  of  the 
Indian  Government. 

The  Salvation  Army  in  the  United  States 
has  developed  no  such  social  work  as  in  Lon- 
don, yet  it  is  commencing  and  preparing  to 
work  on  these  lines  in  this  and  all  other  coun- 
tries. The  size,  and  strength,  and  discipline 
of  its  international  organization  help  this. 
Already  the  social  work  in  the  United  States 
embraces  2  shelters  for  women  and  5  for 
men,  with  sleeping  accommodation  for  about 
noo;  8  rescue  homes  for  fallen  women, 
accommodating  about  200 ;  i  home  for  20 
ex-criminals  ;  2  day-nurseries  for  infants ; 
and  2  farms,  one  of  40  and  the  other  of  350  acres. 

More  than  100  officers  are  entirely  set  apart 
for  carrying  on  these  various  operations,  in- 
cluding 60  slum  officers,  who  live  entirely 
in  the  slums  of  our  great  cities,  nursing  the 
sick,  visiting  the  saloons,  and  exercising 
a  reforming  influence  over  some  of  the  worst 
neighborhoods. 

Arrangements  are  now  being  made  for  the 
establishment  of  farm  colonies,  potato  patches 
(on  Mayor  Pingree's  plan),  and  the  usual 
shelters,  food  depots,  and  homes  in  connection 
with  most  of  the  principal  cities  throughout 
the  United  States. 

According  to  the  last  published  report,  there 
were,  in  1895,  284  institutions  in  operation  as 
parts  of  General  Booth's  scheme,  156  of  which 
are  outside  of  Great  Britain.  The  total  number 
of  officers  engaged  is  1155,  of  whom  694  labor 
in  the  British  Isles.  The  number  of  slum  posts 
is  82;  of  rescue  homes,  60  ;  of  ex-criminals' 
homes,  12;  of  food  and  (or)  shelter  depots,  68; 
of  labor  bureaus,  29;  of  labor  factories,  25,  and 
of  farm  colonies,  8. 

These,  of  course,  are  aided  in  their  work  of 
finding  employment,  reuniting  families,  etc., 
by  the  whole  organization  of  the  army,  of 
which  the  following  are  the  most  recent  sta- 
tistics: Corps  3200,  outpost  1216,  officers  u,- 
588  in  34  countries,  weeklies  27  and  monthlies 
15,  circulating  50,000,000 copies,  besides  4,000,- 
ooo  copies  of  books  and  pamphlets.  The  total 
sum  raised  annually  by  the  Salvation  Army  is 
about  $2,250,000;  2002  officers  in  1895  were  in 
the  United  States.  Considerable  criticism  has 
been  raised  against  Mr.  Booth's  scheme.  He 
was  accused  at  one  time  of  having  appropri- 
ated funds  given  for  his  social  scheme  to 
further  his  religious  army  work,  including 
support  for  his  own  family,  but  after  full  in- 
vestigation by  a  competent  committee,  this 
was  absolutely  disproved. 

(See  UNEMPLOYED.) 

Revised  by  F.  DE  L.  BOOTH-TUCKER. 


SANITATION.— The  progress  of  modern 
science,  particularly  of  physiology,  biology, 
hygiene,  etc.,  has  called  increasing  attention, 
to  the  importance  not  only  to  the  individual, 
but  also  to  the  community,  of  proper  sanitary 
conditions.  Early  social  sanitary  arrange- 
ments were  of  the  most  primitive  type,  and 
down  to  the  present  century  consisted  mainly 
of  systems  of  quarantines  for  contagious  dis- 
eases, unless  the  provisions  of  public  baths 
and  gymnasia  in  most  ancient  cities  be  in- 
cluded under  this  head.  (See  BATHS.)  In  1850 
the  first  International  Sanitary  Convention 
was  held  at  Paris,  and  it  did  much  to  spread 
ideas  of  municipal  hygiene  in-place  of  useless 
quarantines.  The  destruction  of  sources  of  in- 
fection and  the  inspection  of  dwellings  was 
strongly  advocated.  In  the  United  States 
various  yellow  fever  and  other  epidemics 
called  attention  to  the  subject.  In  1866,  in 
New  York  City,  a  Metropolitan  Health  Board 
was  established,  organized  on  the  lines  of  the 
English  Sanitary  Acts.  In  1869  Massachusetts 
established  a  State  board,  and  other  States 
and  cities  rapidly  followed.  March  3,  1879, 
Congress  created  a  National  Board  of  Health. 
To-day  municipal  hygiene  is  receiving  much 
attention.  It  includes  the  study  of  (i)  The 
climate,  and  how  to  render  its  vicissitudes  less 
dangerous.  (2)  Telluric  conditions,  and  how 
to  render  the  land  and  air  dryer  by  drainage. 
(3)  The  site  or  location  of  dwellings,  the 
material  of  which  they  are  built,  their  heat- 
ing, lighting,  and  ventilation.  (4)  The 
arrangements  of  streets  and  alleys,  their  pav- 
ing, cleansing,  and  repair.  (5) 
The  water  supply,  its  quality  and 
quantity,  and  the  disposal  of  Sanitary 
house-waste  and  sewage.  (6)  The  Science, 
food  supply,  markets,  slaughter- 
houses, bakeries,  canned  and  con- 
densed food  factories.  (7)  The  effects  of 
trades,  manufactures,  and  other  pursuits  or 
employments.  (8)  The  location,  construction, 
internal  arrangements,  and  condition  of  tene- 
ment-houses and  public  buildings,  including 
churches,  schoolhouses,  hospitals,  and  pris- 
ons. (9)  The  management  of  contagious  and 
infectious  diseases,  vaccination,  isolation,  dis- 
infection, and  house-to-house  sanitary  inspec- 
tion. (10)  Vital  statistics,  registration  of 
births,  marriages,  and  deaths,  (n)  Disposal 
of  the  dead,  inhumation,  cremation,  coking, 
embalming,  and  electro-plating. 

In  Europe  municipal  hygiene  has  been  car- 
ried to  a  much  further  degree  than  in  the 
United  States.  (See  BERLIN  ;  BIRMINGHAM  ; 
GLASGOW  ;  PARIS.)  England  has  expended 
within  a  few  years  over  $600,000,000  on  public 
health,  and  lowered  death  rates  from  22  per 
icooin  1875  to  17  in  1889.  Dr.  W.  E.  Boardman 
shows,  in  the  sixth  report  of  the  Massachusetts 
board  of  health,  that  that  State  loses  $13,000,- 
ooo  by  preventible  diseases. 

J.  S.  Billings,  M.  D.,  of  the  United  States 
Army,  in  addresses  delivered  before  and  pub- 
lished  by  the  American  Academy  of  Political 
Science  in  1891,  on  Public  Health  and  Munic- 
ipal Government,  says  that  the  average 
shortening  of  life  connected  with  poverty  is 
from  10  to  15  years.  Of  Philadelphia  he  says: 


Sanitation. 


1216 


Savings- Banks. 


"  The  annual  death  rate  of  Philadelphia  ought  not 
to  be  as  great  as  that  of  London,  which  is  about  20  per 
1000 — indeed,  I  think  it  is  safe  to  say  that  with  a  con- 
stant pure  water  supply,  good  sewerage,  and  clean 
and  smooth  streets,  this  rate  should  not  exceed  18  per 
looo.  During  the  last  five  years  its  death  rate  has 
been  22.5  per  1000,  which  means  that  there  have  been 
each  year  over  4000  deaths  and  7000  constant  cases  of 
sickness  which  were  unnecessary. 

"  Allowing  $25  as  the  cost  of  each  death  for  funeral 
expenses,  etc.,  and  $200  per  year  as  the  cost  of  medi- 
cines, medical  attendance,  food,  and  nursing  for  a  sick 
person,  we  find  that  about  $1,500,000  were  lost  to  the 
citizens  in  this  way." 

The  same  authority  said  in  the  Forum  for 
May,  1893  : 

"  The  most  important  factor  in  municipal  sanitation 
is  the  general  water  supply.  For  all  our  large  cities 
this  is  abundant  in  quantity,  since  over  half  of  it  goes 
to  waste,  through  leaky  fittings,  in  trickling  drops 
and  tiny  streams  which  do  not  even  serve  to  cleanse 
the  waste-pipes.  The  quality  is  also  generally  good. 
Nevertheless,  almost  every  city  has  present  or  pro- 
spective difficulties  in  preventing  dangerous  or  offen- 
sive pollutions  of  its  supply,  and  the  recent  possibilities 
of  an  invasion  of  cholera  have  drawn  attention  to  the 
matter  almost  everywhere. 

"With  a  general  water  supply  comes  the  necessity 
for  means  of  prompt  removal  of  the  water  which  has 
been  fouled  by  use,  that  is,  of  sewerage.  All  of  our 
large  cities,  with  the  exception  of  Baltimore,  are  pro- 
vided with  sewers,  but  these  are  in  some  cases 
-unsatisfactory,  having  been  badly  planned,  worse 
constructed,  and  too  much  uncared  for;  and  every- 
where there  is  much  work  to  be  done  in  this  respect 
to  meet  the  needs  arising  from  growth  and  extension 
-of  the  municipalities.  .  .  . 

"  Public  wash-  and  bath-houses  are  to  be  found  in 
many  European  cities,  and  are  of  great  value  in  pro- 
moting cleanliness  of  clothing  and  of  the  person 
.among  the  poor.  To  them  poor  women  can  take  their 
bundles  of  soiled  clothing  and  bedding,  and  by  the 
payment  of  a  small  fee  can  have  the  use  of  tubs,  ta- 
bles, hot  and  cold  water,  and  drying  facilities,  and  can 
also  have  a  bath.  In  the  evening,  men  can  also  obtain 
baths  there.  Some  of  our  cities  have  waterside  swim- 
ming-baths for  summer  use,  but  public  washhouses 
tinder  municipal  management  and  control  are  prac- 
tically unknown  in  this  country.  Abattoirs,  or  pub- 
lic slaughter-houses,  where  all  animals  are  examined 
by  skilled  inspectors  before  being  killed,  where  the 
meats  can  be  inspected,  and  where  all  the  nuisances 
and  dangers  connected  with  private  slaughter-houses 
can  be  either  done  away  with  or  reduced  to  the  lowest 
limits,  are  to  be  found  in  only  three  or  four  of  our 
cities. 

"  In  the  constant  struggle  of  health  officials  to  pre- 
vent the  spread  of  such  contagious  diseases  as  diph- 
theria and  scarlet  fever  there  are  few  things  for  which 
they  find  a  more  urgent  need  than  hospitals  specially 
calculated  and  set  apart  for  the  reception  of  this  class 
of  cases  ;  yet  very  few  cities  are  provided  with  them. 
,  .  .  Most  of  our'cities  are  also  in  need  of  one  or  more 
public  disinfection  stations  under  skilled  manage- 
ment ;  provided  with  the  best  modern  means  of  disin- 
fecting bedding,  clothing,  etc.,  and  also  with  portable 
apparatus  which  can  be  sent  to  and  used  in  an  infected 
house.  Another  important  means  of  aiding  to  check 
the  spread  of  contagious  disease,  as  well  as  of  helping 
the  very  poor  in  their  struggle  to  maintain  a  decent 
existence  in  the  midst  of  sore  trouble,  is  a  public 
mortuary— a  simple  building,  in  or  near  the  poor 
.quarter,  where  the  bodies  of  the  dead  can  be  taken 
immediately  after  death  and  properly  cared  for,  and 
•where  funeral  ceremonies  can  be  performed.  The 
desire  to  preserve  the  dead  mother  or  the  dead  child 
for  two  or  three  days,  in  order  to  allow  time  to  apprise 
friends  and  arrange  for  the  funeral,  is  no  less  strong 
in  the  poor  family  than  it  is  in  the  rich  one  ;  but  when 
there  are  only  one  or  two  rooms,  and  the  living  must 
cook,  eat,  and  sleep  in  the  presence  of  the  dead,  this 
natural  wish  produces  unnatural  and  sometimes 
dangerous  results.  All  large  European  cities,  and 
many  of  the  smaller  ones,  have  public  mortuaries, 
and  their  privileges  are  highly  valued.  They  are  not 
connected  with  pauper  administration,  a  small  fee  is 
charged  for  their  use,  and  they  are  used  by  transient 
visitors  of  the  well-to-do  classes  when  occasion  comes. 
They  are  not  morgues,  although  sometimes  one  room, 
with  a  separate  entrance,  may  be  set  apart  for  this 
purpose.  They  have  a  separate  room  for  the  care  of 
the  bodies  of  those  dying  of  contagious  disease,  and 


special  means  of  preventing  infection  therefrom.  I 
dp  not  know  of  any  public  mortuary  belonging  to  any 
city  in  this  country,  although  it  is  possible  that  there 
may  be  such." 

One  of  the  most  important  portions  of  pub- 
lic hygiene  is  the  disposal  of  the  sewage. 
Science  has  pointed  out  a  healthy  way,  but 
the  adoption  of  it  in  the  United  States  is  very 
slow.  It  is  simply  to  collect  the  excrementi- 
tious  products  (feces  and  urine)  in  suitable 
vessels,  and  either  use  them  as  a  fertilizer,  or 
destroy  them  by  cremation.  The  former  plan 
is  much  the  cheaper  and  is  said  to  be  almost 
self-supporting.  In  Japan  it  is  done  at  a  profit 
to  the  householder,  who  is  paid  for  the  deposit. 
The  latter  is  safer  on  account  of  the  possible 
propagation  of  such  diseases  as  cholera  and 
typhoid  fever  by  the  "germs"  finding  their 
way  back  into  the  drinking  water  of  outlying 
villages  or  farms  where  the  fertilizer  is  used. 
Omitting  the  pneumatic  system  of  Liernur, 
which  requires  water-closets,  soil-pipes,  and 
fecal  reservoirs,  there  are  two  plans  which 
have  been  approved  by  sanitarians  as  satis- 
factory for  securing  the  fecal  deposits  for  fer- 
tilizing purposes:  the  "  pail  "  system,  better 
known  as  the  "  Rochdale  ";  and  the  earth  or 
ash-closet  system  ("  commode  "),  first  intro- 
duced by  Rev.  Henry  Moule  of  England. 

Some  English  and  German  cities  make  con- 
siderable profit  for  the  city  by  sewage  farms, 
the  sale  of  fertilizers,  etc. 

(See  BERLIN  ;  BIRMINGHAM  ;  GLASGOW.) 

References :  Muncipal  Government  in  Great  Brit- 
ain and  Municipal  Government  in  Continental  Europe, 
by  Albert  Shaw. 

SANBORN,    FRANKLIN     BENJAMIN, 

was  born  at  Hampton  Falls,  N.  H.,  in  1831. 
Graduating  at  Harvard  College,  he  interested 
himself  in  the  anti-slavery  cause  and  was  sec- 
retary of  the  Massachusetts-Kansas  Commit- 
tee in  1856.  He  has  been  a  leading  member 
of  the  Massachusetts  State  Board  of  Charities, 
secretary  of  the  Social  Science  Association, 
and  of  the  Concord  Summer  School  of  Philos- 
ophy. He  has  written  lives  of  Thoreau  and 
John  Brown,  besides  numerous  articles  on 
sociological  subjects. 

SAUNDERS,  WILLIAM,  was  born  at  West 
Lavington,  England,  in  1823.  He  entered 
business  as  proprietor  of  stone  quarries,  but 
became  interested  in  public  questions,  and  in 
1860  founded  the  Western  Morning  News, 
and  later  the  Central  News  Agency.  He  trav- 
eled in  the  United  States,  and  wrote  Through 
the  Bright  Continent.  Always  a  Radical,  he 
became,  by  reading  Progress  and  Poverty, 
one  of  the  stanchest  supporters  in  England  of 
the  Single  Tax,  and  contributed  largely  to  the 
spread  of  this  idea,  by  giving  it  financial  and 
literary  support.  He  was  returned  as  a  Rad- 
ical for  East  Hull  in  1885,  defeated  the  next 
year,  but  returned  for  Walworth  some  time  in 
1892.  He  died  May  i,  1895. 

SAVINGS-BANKS.— The  first  savings-bank 
is  said  to  have  been  founded  in  Brunswick, 
Germany,  in  1765,  and  to  have  been  followed 
by  several  in  Germany  and  Switzerland.  In 
England  Jeremy  Bentham  (q.  v.)  proposed  a 
well-devised  system  of  "frugality  banks"  in 


Savings-Banks. 


1217 


Savi  n  gs-  Ban  ks. 


1797.  Various  plans  followed  his  for  encourag- 
ing savings  among  the  poor,  but  the  first 
savings-bank  of  the  modern  type  in  Great 
Britain  was  organized  by  the  Rev.  Henry 
Duncan  of  Ruthwell,  Scotland,  in  1810.  In 
1817  two  acts  were  passed  by  Parliament,  en- 
couraging savings-banks.  Since  then  they 
have  grown  rapidly.  In  1861,  postal  savings- 
banks  (g.  v.)  were  begun.  The  savings-banks 
system  of  France  dates  from  1818.  The  fol- 
lowing is  an  unofficial  estimate  of  the  savings- 
banks  statistics  of  Europe  : 


SAVINGS-BANKS,   DEPOSITORS,   AND    DEPOSITS     IN  THE 
UNITED  STATES   EVERY  TEN  YEARS  SINCE   1820. 


COUNTRIES. 

Number  of 
Depositors. 

Amount  of 
Deposits. 

Austria  

Belgium  and  Netherlands. 

310,000 

82,000,000 

Germany  

g  ooo  ooo 

Italy  

,5 

In  the  United  States  the  first  savings-bank 
was  organized  in  1816,  in  New  York  City,  tho 
a  savings-bank  seems  to  have  been  actually 
opened  in  Philadelphia  before  the  New  York 
bank  was  really  under  way.  The  first  incor- 
porated savings-bank  was  opened  in  Boston 
the  same  year.  The  following  statistics  for 
the  United  States  are  compiled  from  the  re- 
port of  the  Comptroller  of  the  Currency  for 
1895  : 


STATES  AND 
TERRITORIES. 

Number  of 
Depositors. 

Amount  of 
Deposits. 

155,704 
163,702 

94,994 
1,247,090 
131,623 
337,254 
1,615,178 
144,160 
264,642 
18,648 
148,342 
1.356 

$54>53I,22.S 
66,746,703 
29,430,697 
416,778,018 
67,444,117 
136,928,858 

643,873,574 
36,149,920 
68,522,217 
3,765,784 
45,490,279 
95,3°° 

291.744 
4,578,838 
741,596 
205,710 

2,687,934 

1,112,491 
34,753,222 
3,667,312 
24,357,4°° 
179,877 
28,158,488 
9,471,799 
662,229 
1,142,215 
812,910 

37,951 
1,148,104 
126,830.513 

Rhode  Island  

Pennsylvania  

Delaware  

District  of  Columbia... 

+6,039 
17,418 
5,747 
•(•1,148 

South  Carolina  

0,918 

Texas*  

8,703 
86,183 
15,636 
94,724 
i,439 
t77,8og 

42,777 
1,803 
6,271 
2,844 
217 

+5,512 
+168,638 

Ohio  

Indiana..*  

Wisconsin  

Oregon  

Utah  

Montana  

Washington  

California  

Total  

4,875,519 

$1,810,597,023 

*  No  returns  for  1894-95.  Returns  for  previous  year  : 
West  Virginia,  depositors,  3522 ;  amount  of  deposits, 
$236,025.  Alabama,  previous  year  :  Depositors,  2500  ; 
amount  of  deposits,  $102,347.  Texas,  previous  year  : 
Depositors,  2450  ;  amount  of  deposits,  $301,648. 

t  Partially  estimated. 

77 


YEAR. 

Number 
of  Banks. 

Number  of 
Depositors. 

Deposits. 

8  635 

1830  

36 

38,085 

61 

18^0  

1  08 

1860  

278 

1870  

1880  

i8go  

4,258,893 

i8qi  

1892  

4,781,605 

1803.  .  . 

1894  

1895  

The  investments  of  savings-banks  of  the 
United  States  in  1892-93  was  :  Real  estate 
loans,  $763,000,000  ;  loans  on  other  securities, 
$283,000,000  ;  United  States  bonds,  $129,000,- 
ooo  ;  State  stocks  and  bonds,  $503,000,000  ; 
railway  securities,  $121,000,000  ;  bank-stock, 
$44,000,000  ;  real  estate,  $34,000,000. 

In  studying  savings-banks  statistics,  how- 
ever, great  care  must  be  exercised  before 
accepting  them  as  evidences  of  prosperity 
among  the  working  classes.  The  Outlook  for 
September  7,  1895  : 

"  In  the  last  number  of  the  Yale  Review  Professor 
Farnam  follows  the  same  line  of  argument  as  did 
Secretary  Carlisle  in  his  Memphis  speech,  and  at- 
tempts to  show  that  the  public  is  mistaken  in  suppos- 
ing that  the  interests  of  the  creditor  class  are  the 
interests  of  the  comparatively  rich.  In  his  argument 
he  lends  the  weight  of  his  authority  to  Secretary 
Carlisle's  savings-bank  statistics.  He  says  : 

"  'The  total  deposits  in  1890  were  $1,524,844,506,  dis- 
tributed among  4,258,893  persons,  making  an  average 
of  $358.03  for  each  depositor.  The  savings-bank  de- 
posits alone  represent  more  than  half  as  much  again 
as  the  farmers'  debt,  owned  by  five  times  as  many 
persons.' 

"  If  it  is  true  that  there  are  over  4,000,000  savings- 
bank  depositors  among  our  12,000,000  families, 
then  it  is  true  that  a  large  portion  of  our  small  prop- 
erty owners  belong  to  the  creditor  class.  But  the 
fallacy  in  this  has  treen  repeatedly  exposed  in  official 
reports.  The  official  reports  are  for  deposits  and  not 
depositors.  Three  millions  and  a  half  of  the  deposits 
are  in  New  York  and  New  England,  where  there  are 
only  2,000,000  families  altogether,  and  not  to  exceed 
1,000,000  depositors.  But  this  is  not  all.  The  working- 
class  depositors  nowhere  furnish  the  bulk  of  the 
deposits.  The  large  depositors  and  the  multiple  de- 
positors belong  to  an  entirely  different  class.  In 
Massachusetts,  where  $  of  the  deposits  are  made  in 
sums  less  than  $100  (and  presumably  belong  to  the 
working  classes),  the  aggregate  of  these  is  only  J  of 
the  total  amount  deposited.  These  conclusions  from 
the  Massachusetts  investigations  are  strikingly  con- 
firmed by  the  present  investigation  in  Baltimore.  In 
Baltimore,  also,  there  are  more  savings-bank  deposits 
than  families,  yet  in  Baltimore  only  one  family  in  three 
possesses  personal  capital  of  any  description,  while 
the  aggregate  holdings  of  jf  of  these  is  but  6  per  cent, 
of  the  total." 

This  subject  was  most  fully  investigated  in 
Massachusetts  as  early  as  1872  ;  by  the  Mas- 
sachusetts Bureau  of  the  Statistics  of  Labor  in 
1872,  1873  and  1874. 

On  returns  from  39  banks  the  report  for  1872  (p. 
316)  found  that  &  of  the  deposits  was  nearly  4  of  the 
amount  in  those  banks,  the  remaining  ±$  depositing 
only  a  little  over  §.  The  ^  of  the  deposits  were  those 
of  $300  or  over,  and  it  was  the  argument  of  the  re- 
port that  since,  except  in  the  rarest  instances,  and 
under  the  most  exceptional  circumstances,  no  ordi- 
nary wage-worker  could  possibly  save  more  than  $300 
a  year  from  his  earnings  (see  WAGES),  the  amount  de- 
posited by  that  &,  or  nearly  &  of  the  total  amount, 


Savings- Banks. 


1218 


Schmoller,  Gustave. 


could  not  have  been  deposited  by  wage-workers. 
This  conclusion  was  supported  by  abundant  quota- 
tions from  various  reports  of  the  Bank  Commissioners 
of  the  State,  who  say,  in  1870  :  '  These  institutions  are 
becoming  still  more  the  favorite  place  of  deposit,  not 
only  for  persons  of  small  means,  but  also  for  those 
seeking  investment  for  very  considerable  amounts.' 
Governor  Claflin  is  quoted  as  saying  in  his  message 
for  1871  :  '  It  is  very  evident  that  a  large  share  of  this 
increase  is  not  the  savings  of  labor.  Each  year  shows 
more  deposits  by  capitalists.'  Repeated  instances 
were  found  of  men  having  in  each  of  many  banks 
deposits  to  the  limit  of  the  law.  Still  more  instances 
were  found  of  one  man  or  woman  having  deposits 
under  several  accounts,  as  for  himself,  or  herself,  and 
as  trustees  for  children,  etc.,  indicating  again  depos- 
itors not  of  the  wage-working  class.  One  man  was 
reported  to  have  a  deposit  in  each  bank  of  the  State  ; 
another  will  deposit  for  each  member  of  his  family, 
and  a  part  of  the  alphabet.  From  this,  and  other 
similar  evidences,  the  report  concluded  (p.  332) :  'It 
is  evident  from  these  returns  that  the  great  bulk  of 
depositors  is  from  the  wage  classes,  and  it  is  equally 
evident  that  the  great  sums,  generally  credited  to 
them,  are  not  the  savings  of  wage  labor,  but  are  the 
results  of  profits  upon  labor  in  some  form.' 

This  report  made  somewhat  of  a  sensation  in  Bos- 
ton and  in  Washington.  Prom  the  report  of  1873  we 
learn  that  in  Congress,  during  a  discussion  of  the 
tariff,  certain  Western  Congressmen,  opposed  to  pro- 
tection, made  use  of  the  report  before  it  had  been 
officially  presented  to  the  legislature  of  Massachusetts, 
to  show  that  Massachusetts  wage-workers  were  not 
as  well  off  as  was  claimed  by  the  protectionists.  This 
incensed  some  Massachusetts  capitalists,  and  the 
Committee  on  Banks  and  Banking  of  the  Massachu- 
setts legislature,  the  majority  of  the  committee  being 
connected  with  savings-banks,  undertook  to  disprove 
the  offensive  report.  A  hearing  was  called.  The  Bu- 
reau of  Labor  was  invited  to  come  before  it  '  in  order 
that  it  might  make  suggestions';  but,  when  the  hear- 
ing took  place,  the  bureau  found  itself,  with  little  or 
no  warning,  confronted  with  a  hired  counsel  who 
called  witnesses  from  n  banks  to  disprove  the  bu- 
reau's report,  based  on  39  banks,  the  counsel  arguing 
that  the  bureau's  report  was  untrustworthy,  because 
it  was  based  on  reports  from  only  39  banks.  . 

The  bureau  ably  defended  its  report,  and  de- 
manded that  if  the  committee  questioned  its  conclu- 
sions, it  was  only  fair,  before  they  condemned  it,  to 
have  a  fuller  examination,  and  not  condemn,  on  picked 
evidence  from  n  banks,  a  report  carefully  based  on 
returns  from  39  banks.  The  committee,  however, 
would  not  hear,  and  voted  the  report  a  mere  '  matter 
of  inference,'  and  not  reliable.  The  personnel  of  the 
bureau,  too,  was  changed  that  year.  Mr.  H.  K.  Oliver 
(chief;  and  G.  E.  McNeill  (q.  v.),  who  had  formed  the 
bureau  publishing  the  offensive  report,  were  displaced, 
and  Messrs.  Carroll  D.  Wright  and  Geo.  H.  Long  were 
put  in  their  places.  Before  Mr.  Oliver  and  Mr.  Mc- 
Neill, however,  were  displaced,  they  obtained  evidence 
from  QI  banks  and  from  the  bank  commissioners'  re- 
ports of  1868,  1869,  1870,  and  1871,  abundantly  sustaining 
their  position.  From  91  banks  they  found  and  stated 
(p.  197)  that  \^  of  the  deposits  were  of  $300  or  under, 
i.  e.,  might  possibly  be  deposits  of  working  men,  but 
that  these  JJ  of  the  deposits  represented  only  ^  of  the 
amount  deposited.  From  the  Bank  Commissioners' 
reports  they  found  and  stated  (p.  227)  that  in  1868  and 
1869,  TV  °f  the  whole  number  of  deposits  amounted  to 
%  of  the  whole  amount  deposited  ;  that  in  1870,  ^ 
amounted  to  f  of  the  whole  amount,  and  that  in  1871, 
£c  of  the  deposits  amounted  to  nearly  J  of  the  total 
amount,  thus  not  onl}'  abundantly  supporting  the 
former  report  of  the  bureau,  but  showing  that  the 
proportion  of  large  depositors  in  the  savings-banks 
was  on  the  increase. 

The  next  year,  1874,  Messrs.  Wright  and  Long 
sign  the  report.  The  subject  of  savings-banks  is 
naturally  handled  very  lightly,  but  even  according  to 
their  table  (pp.  244-245)  we  learn  that  over  J  of  the  de- 
posits were  deposits  of  $300  or  over,  showing  that  the 
number  of  large  depositors  was  even  greater  than  the 
former  reports  had  claimed,  and  that  these  large  de- 
posits amounted  to  nearly  j|  of  the  whole  amount. 
Five-sixths  of  the  deposits  equaled  not  much  over  j 
of  the  whole  sum  ;  an  abundant  proof  that  the  large 
amount  of  money  in  Massachusetts  savings-banks 
cannot  be  taken  to  prove  the  prosperity  of  the  Massa- 
chusetts working  people. 

(See  also  POSTAL  SAVINGS-BANKS,  and  SCHOOL 
SAVINGS-BANKS.) 


SAY,  JEAN  BAPTISTE,  was  born  in 
Lyons,  France,  in  1767.  Educated  for  a  com- 
mercial career,  he  spent  a  part  of  his  youth 
in  England.  Returning  to  Paris,  he  worked 
on  Mirabeau's  paper,  Courrier  de  Provence. 
Later  he  was  secretary  to  Claviere,  Minister 
of  Finance.  From  1794  to  1800,  he  edited 
La  Decade.  He  was  a  member  of  the  Tri- 
bunate of  1799.  _  He  published  his  best  known 
work,  Traitt  d' Economic  Politique,  in  1803  ;his 
Catechisme  d'Economie  Politique  in  1815,  and 
his  De  r Angleterre  et  des  Anglais  in  1816. 
His  dissent  from  Napoleon's  policy  drove  him 
into  private  life,  and  he  established  a  spinning 
mill,  but  after  Napoleon's  fall  he  was  made 
professor  at  the  Ecole  des  Arts  et  Metiers 
in  1819,  and  at  the  College  de  France  in  1831. 
He  died  in  Paris  in  1832.  Cossa  considers 
him  among  the  first  of  the  continental  writers 
to  have  appreciated  and  popularized  Adam 
Smith  (q.  v.}. 

SAY,  JEAN  BAPTISTE  LEON,  grand- 
son of  Jean  Baptiste  Say,  was  born  in  Paris  in 
1826.  He  devoted  himself  to  political  econ- 
omy, and  for  many  years  was  contributor  to 
the  Journal  des  Debats.  He  was  returned 
to  the  National  Assembly  in  1871,  and  became 
prefect  of  the  Seine  the  same  year.  He  was 
Minister  of  Finance  in  1873-75-77,  an<l  1882.  In 
1880  he  was  appointed  ambassador  to  London, 
but  returned  in  a  few  weeks,  having  been 
elected  president  of  the  Senate.  Among  his 
works  are  :  Les  Solutions  Democratiqiies  de  la 
Question  des  Impots  (1886)  ;  Le  Socialisme 
d'Etat  (1890).  He  edited  Le  Dictionnaire 
des  Finances  (1889);  and  conjointly  with  Jos. 
Chailley,  Le  Dictionnaire  d'Economie  Po- 
litique. 

SCHAFFLE,  ALBERT  EBERHARD 
FRIEDRICH,  was  born  at  Niirtengen,  Wur- 
temberg,  in  1831.  He  studied  theology  at 
Tubingen,  but  became  professor  of  Political 
Economy  there  in  1861.  He  sat  in  the  Wur- 
temberg  Landtag  from  1862  to  1865,  and  for  a 
short  time  in  1871  was  Minister  of  Commerce 
for  Austria.  On  the  fall  of  the  ministry  he 
went  to  Stuttgart  and  devoted  himself  to 
economics.  His  chief  works  are  :  Die  Nation- 
alokonomie  (1861),  3d  ed.  published  under 
the  title  Das  gesellschaftliche  System  der 
menschlichen  Wirthschaft  (1873)  ;  Kapital- 
isrmts  und  Sozialisimis  (1870) ;  Quintessenz 
des  Sozialismus  (1874),  and  Die  Aitssichtslo- 
sigkeit  der  Sozial  Demokratie  (1885).  His 
Quintessence  of  Socialism  (its  English  name), 
translated  in  1889,  is  considered  by  many  one 
of  the  ablest  presentations  of  socialism,  and 
is  considered  by  some  to  show  Schaffle  a  soci- 
alist, which  Cossa  thinks  is  scarcely  disproved 
by  his  latter  work  The  Impossibility  of  Social 
Democracy  (Eng.  tr.).  In  his  Bau  und 
Leben  des  sozialen  Korpus  (1875-78,  new  ed. 
1881),  Schaffle,  under  the  influence  of  Comte 
and  Spencer,  outlines  a  comprehensive  plan 
of  an  analysis  of  the  social  body. 

SCHMOLLER,  GUSTAVE,  was  born  at 
Heilbronn  in  1834,  and  successively  professor 
at  Halle,  Strasburg,  and  Berlin.  He  is  per- 


Schmoller,  Gustave. 


1219 


Scotland  and  Social  Reform. 


haps  the  leading  German  Socialist  of  the  Chair 
(y.  z/.),  having  opened  the  famous  congress  at 
Eisenach  in  1872.  Since  1881  he  was  editor  of 
the  important  Jahrbuch  fur  Gesestzgebung 
Verwaltung  und  Volkswirthschaft.  He  is 
best  known  as  one  of  the  leaders  of  the  His- 
torical School  (g.  v.).  He  began  with  an  essay 
on  economic  ideas  in  the  time  of  the  German 
Reformation,  1860  ;  he  then  approached  the 
modern  industrial  question  in  his  excellent  book, 
Zur  Geschichte  der  deutschen  Kleingeiverbe 
ini  neunzehnten  Jahrhundert  (History  of  the 
Smaller  Industries  of  Germany  in  the  Nine- 
teenth Century,  1870):  but  he  soon  changed 
his  line  of  study,  centering  his  efforts  upon  a 
history  of  the  Prussian  administration.  Por- 
tions of  this  history  have  appeared  as  a  series 
of  articles  contributed  to  the  Preussiche  fahr- 
ducker,  to  the  Zeitschrift  fur  preussiche 
Geschichte,  and  recently  to  his  own  fahrbuch. 
Besides  these  works  he  has  published,  as  a 
result  of  a  study  of  the  Middle  Ages,  Die 
Strassburger  Tucker-  und  Weberzunft,  ein 
Beit  rag  zur  Geschichte  der  deutschen  iVeberei 
tind  des  deutschen  Gewerberechts  vom  XIII. 
bis  XVII.  fahrhundert  (The  Weavers'  and 
Cloth  Makers'  Gild  of  Strasburg  ;  a  Contri- 
bution to  the  History  of  the  German  Weaving 
Industry  and  German  Industrial  Law,  from 
the  Thirteenth  to  the  Seventeenth  Centuries). 
This  work,  consisting  of  documents  and  expla- 
nations, together  with  a  glossary  and  index, 
appeared  in  1879.  Furthermore,  in  close  con- 
nection with  these  studies,  Schmoller  has  ed- 
ited a  collection  of  historical  investigations  by 
other  writers  in  the  Staats-  und  sozialwissen- 
schaftliche  For  sc  hung  en  (Investigations  in 
Political  and  Social  Science),  of  which  four 
volumes  have  been  issued  since  1879. 

SCHOOLS.    See  EDUCATION. 

SCHOOL  SAVINGS-BANKS  are  in  wide 
use  in  Europe,  and  are  acknowledged  and 
proven  to  be  one  of  the  best  practical  educa- 
tional factors.  They  train  the  popiilation  to 
habits  of  thrift  and  self-dependence;  and  re- 
duce crime,  intemperance,  and  pauperism. 

In  France  there  are  23,375  school  savings- 
banks  under  patronage  of  the  government ; 
in  Belgium,  5259  ;  in  Germany,  Hungary, 
Russia,  Switzerland,  England,  and  the  Neth- 
erlands, they  are  in  common  use.  The  sta- 
tistics of  postal  saving-banks  (q.  v.)  and  school 
savings-banks  are  officially  reported  together, 
in  several  divisions  of  Europe. 

In  1855  Professor  Thiry,  a  French  educator, 
in  America  for  his  health,  as  a  school  com- 
missioner in  Long  Island  City,  introduced 
the  system  into  the  public  schools  there. 
Since  this  date  the  system  has  spread 
widely,  and  by  1893  325  schools  had  such 
savings-banks,  and  $350,634.32  had  been  de- 
posited. 

The  proportion  of  depositors  in  the  public 
schools  where  the  system  is  in  use  numbers 
about  two-fifths  of  the  pupils  in  attendance. 
Of  90,072  on  the  school  registers,  where  school 
saving-banks  are  in  use,  36,810  are  depositors. 
As  the  proportion  of  depositors  increases  the 
benefits  of  the  work  widen.  It  is  not  how 


much  any  one  pupil  deposits  or  how  much  inter- 
est he  gets  for  his  money,  but  how  many  have 
accounts  and  how  thoroughly  the  principles 
of  thrift,  economy,  and  business  forethought 
are  taught  that  is  of  the  greatest  value. 
(See  POSTAL  SAVINGS-BANKS.) 

SCHULZE-DELITZSCH,    HERMANN, 

was  born  in  1808  at  Delitzsch,  Saxony.  Edu- 
cated at  Leipsic  and  at  Halle,  he  was  made 
judge  at  Naumbourg  and  then  Berlin,  and  in 
1841  entered  the  royal  magistracy.  Spending 
his  vacations  in  travel,  he  became  deeply  in- 
terested in  the  working  classes.  After  the 
revolution  of  1848,  he  was  elected  deputy  by 
the  electors  of  Delitzsch,  and  took  his  seat  on 
the  left  center  with  Rodbertus.  But  seeing 
the  victory  of  a  reactionary  opposition,  he  re- 
tired to  Delitzsch  and  there  commenced  the 
movement  to  establish  the  cooperative  agricul- 
tural banks  with  which  his  name  is  connected. 
(See  COOPERATIVE  BANKS.)  He  became  the 
leader  of  the  individualist  policy  of  cooperation 
without  state  aid,  and  so  when  Lassalle  com- 
menced his  socialist  propaganda,  Schulze- 
Delitzsch  was  invited  by  the  working  men  of 
Leipzicto  champion  his  ideas  against  Lassalle, 
but  declined,  and  the  majority  of  the  working 
men  turned  to  Lassalle.  (See  GERMANY  AND 
SOCIAL  REFORM.)  His  cooperative  movement 
however  went  on,  and  on  his  death,  in  1885,  had 
reached  large  proportions.  -^ 

SCOTLAND  AND  SOCIAL  REFORM.— 

Scotland  was  first  known  to  the  world  as  the 
home  of  the  Picts.  Never  permanently  con- 
quered by  any  foreign  race,  the  Romans  could 
do  no  more  than  build  a  wall  from  the  Solway  to 
the  Tyne,  and  later,  one  from  the  Forth  to  the 
Clyde,  to  protect  England  from  Pict  invasions. 
Edinburgh,  it  seems,  however,  was  founded 
by  a  Saxon  king  in  449,  while  the  Irish  Scots 
(Celts)  founded  a  Scottish  kingdom  on  the 
western  shore,  bringing  Christianity  with 
them.  In  843  Kenneth  became  king  of  both 
the  Scots  and  the  Picts,  and  so  united  them 
into  one  kingdom  known  later  as  Scotland. 
In  945  the  King  of  England  be- 
stowed on  Malcolm  I.  a  portion  of 
the  Cambrian  kingdom,  and  so  es-  History. 
tablished  a  claim  for  homage 
which  led  to  the  interminable 
wars  between  England  and  Scotland  which 
lasted  till  union  with  England  was  formally 
ratified  by  the  parliament  of  Scotland,  January 
16,  1707.  This  long  period  was  marked  by 
the  gradual  wane  of  the  Celtic  civilization  in 
Scotland,  first,  before  the  Norsemen  who  long 
ruled  the  Hebrides  and  other  islands  and  made 
more  or  less  permanent  settlements  on  the 
mainland,  and  secondly,  before  the  Normans 
after  their  conquest  of  England.  King  David, 
1124-53,  introduced  the  feudal  civilization 
into  Scotland,  followed  by  the  gallant  strug- 
gles of  Wallace  and  Bruce.  The  former  fell  at 
last  into  the  hands  of  the  English  ;  Bruce  in- 
vaded England  12  times  in  14  years,  and  routed 
the  English  at  Bannockburn  (1314),  though  at 
Neville's  Cross  (1346)  the  Scotch  kings  were  de- 
feated and  compelled  to  do  homage  to  England. 
With  Robert  II.  (1371),  the  House  of  Stuart 


Scotland  and  Social  Reform, 


Seligman,  E.  R.  A. 


ascended  the  throne  of  Scotland.  Seven  of 
this  dynasty,  however,  ascended  the  throne  as 
minors,  giving  the  nobility  a  great  chance  to 
develop  power,  and  driving  the  kings  to  seek 
aid  from  the  debased  Roman  Catholic  Church 
of  Scotland,  while  the  nobles  eagerly  embraced 
the  Reformation.  The  scale  was  turned  by 
the  middle  class,  led  by  Knox,  who  passionately 
declared  for  Protestantism,  so  that  when  the 
Stuarts  turned  to  France,  and  France  sought 
to  use  Scotland  for  her  ends,  the  people  were 
largely  opposed.  When  Mary  Queen  of 
Scots  was  betrothed  to  the  Prince  of  Wales, 
the  son  of  Henry  VIII.,  statesmen  on  both 
sides  hoped  that  the  wars  of  England  and 
Scotland  would  cease.  This  betrothal  was 
broken  off,  but  on  the  death  of  Elizabeth,  her 
cousin  King  James  of  Scotland  became  James 
I.  of  England  and  union  was  accomplished. 

In  1891  Scotland  had  a  population  of  4,025,- 
647,  tho  only  2,888,742  in  1851,  in  spite  of  a  large 
emigration,  partly  forced,  when  thousands 
of  homes,  particularly  among  the  Highlands, 
were  destroyed  to  make  sheep  walks  or  deer 
forests,  which  latter  alone  covered  4040 
square  miles  in  1891.  (See  LAND.) 
The  old  Highland  Gaelic  is  dying 
Statistics,  out  and  the  English  spreading 
from  the  low  lands,  where  is  the 
dense  population  ;  12.3  per  cent,  of 
the  people  are  engaged  in  agriculture,  1.7  per 
cent,  in  fishing,  12.2  in  mining  and  metallurgy , 
ii. 8  in  textile  industries,  3.3  per  cent,  in  com- 
merce, 6.9  per  cent,  in  transportation,  6.2  in 
the  professions,  11.4  per  cent,  in  personal  ser- 
vice as  servants,  innkeepers,  etc.,  34.2  per 
cent,  in  all  other  industries.  Of  the  total  area 
only  18.3  percent.  is*mder  the  plow  ;  47.7  per 
cent,  is  for  grazing.  The  mining  is  mainly 
iron  and  coal.  In  manufacturing,  the  textile 
industry  in  1891  employed  206,550  persons, 
with  2,413,735  spindles.  The  making  of  ma- 
chinery employed  51,426  men,  and  ship-build- 
ing 23,518  workmen.  Scotland,  since  1560,  has 
had  an  established  church  on  the  Presbyterian 
system,  but,  in  1843,  a  secession  led  to  the 
Free  Kirk.  In  education,  Scotland  is  in  ad- 
vance of  England.  (For  details  of  religion 
and  education,  see  GREAT  BRITAIN.)  Scotland 
sends  72  members  to  the  House  of  Commons, 
and  16  representative  peers  out  of  a  peerage  of 
87,  of  whom  48  are  also  peers  of  the  United 
Kingdom.  Local  government  has  been  organ- 
ized since  1889,  with  county  councils  as  in  Eng- 
land. (For  other  details  see  AGRICULTURE  ; 
CRIME;  EDUCATION;  RAILWAYS;  GLASGOW.) 

SOCIAL  REFORM. 

Modern  Social  Reform  in  Scotland  may  be 
said  to  have  commenced  in  1800,  with  the  ex- 
periments of  Robert  Owen  at  New  Lanark, 
and,  the  general  interest  aroused  (see  OWEN), 
Scotland  contributed  her  part  to  the  whole 
Owenite  agitation,  to  chartism,  and  to  early 
cooperation  and  trade-unionism.  (See  ENGLAND 
AND  SOCIAL  REFORM  ;  COOPERATION  ;  AND  TRADE- 
UNIONS.)  As  the  land  of  Adam  Smith  and 
other  prominent  economists  of  that  school  (see 
POLITICAL  ECONOMY),  Scotch  economic  thought 
has  contributed  more  to  individualism  than  to 
socialism,  yet  Chalmers  (g,  v.),  with  his  experi- 


ments at  Glasgow,  MacCulloch,  James  Mill, 
Bentham,  and  all  their  school,  must  not  be 
omitted  in  a  notice  of  Scotch  social  reforms, 
for  individualism  was  once  as  radical  and  as 
necessary  a  social  reform  as  socialism  can  be 
to-day.  But  the  memories  of  Owen  were 
cherished  among  the  trade-unionists  and  coop- 
erators,  and  later,  Ruskin  and  Carlyle  found 
many  readers  in  Scotland.  Still  later,  the 
agitation  over  the  condition  of  Ireland  had  its 
effect  on  Scotland,  and  soon  depression 
brought  social  questions  home,  and  the  gov- 
ernment had  to  consider  how  to  relieve  the 
destitute.  Under  these  conditions  modern 
socialism  found  a  beginning  in  Scotland. 
Robert  Banner  in  Edinburgh  was  one  of  the 
first  to  agitate  for  socialism.  A  socialist  society 
was  early  started  in  the  university,  and  through 
its  influence  prominent  English  reformers 
like  Morris  and  Hyndman  came  and  lectured, 
and  spread  their  -views.  A  Land  and  Labor 
League  was  formed  in  1884,  and  affiliated  with 
the  Social  Democratic  Federation,  and  later 
with  the  London  Socialist  League.  In  Glas- 
gow a  Christian  Socialist  society  was  formed. 
A  split  from  the  Edinburgh  League  reallied 
itself  with  the  English  Democratic  Federation, 
became  more  enduring  than  the  joint  society 
affiliated  with  the  League,  and  has  led  to  the 
formation  of  socialist  branches  in  all  the  larger 
Scotch  cities,  In  1890  Kier  Hardie  founded 
the  Scotch  Labor  Party,  and  later,  the  Inde- 
pendent Labor  Party,  and  from  this  time  on 
Scotch  social  reform  movements  can  scarcely 
be  distinguished  from  those  of  England  (q.  v.). 
(See  also  SOCIALISM  ;  TRADE-UNIONS  ;  COOPERA- 
TION, etc.)  In  Glasgow  J.  Bruce  Glazier  has 
become  a  leader  of  socialistic  reform  with  his 
wife,  Katharine  St.  John  Conway.  In  Edin- 
burgh the  Rev.  John  Glasse  has  been  perhaps 
the  most  prominent  pioneer  of  socialism. 

SELIGMAN,  EDWIN  ROBERT  AN- 
DERSON, was  born  in  New  York  City  in 
1861.  He  was  educated  at  Columbia  College, 
graduating  in  1879.  He  studied  political 
science  for  three  years  in  Europe  in  the  uni- 
versities of  Berlin,  Heidelberg,  and  Geneva. 
Returning  to  this  country,  he  took  his  de- 
gree of  A.  M.  in  1883,  and  of  LL.  B.  and 
Ph.  D.  in  1884.  He  was  appointed  lecturer  in 
political  economy  at  Columbia  University  in 
1885  ;  adjunct  professor  of  political  economy 
in  1888  ;  professor  of  political  economy  and 
finance  in  1891.  He  has  been  one  of  the  edi- 
tors of  the  Political  Science  Quarterly  since 
its  establishment  in  1886.  His  writings  have 
been  mainly  monographs  on  economic  sub- 
jects, among  others  the  following:  Owen  and 
the  Christian  Socialists  (1886);  Railway 
Tariffs  and  the  Interstate  Commerce  Law 
(1887)  ;  Two  Chapters  on  the  Medieval 
Gilds  of  Eng land  (1887);  Finance  Statistics 
of  the  American  Commonwealths  (1889);  The 
Taxation  of  Corporations  (1890);  The  Single 
Tax,  Essay  and  Debate  with  Henry  George, 
Proceedings  of  American  Social  Science  Asso- 
ciation (1890);  On  the  Shifting  and  Incidence 
of  Taxation  (1892);  The  Theory  of  Progress- 
ive Taxation  (1893);  Progressive  Taxation 
in  Theory  and  Practise  (1894). 


Senate  (United  States). 


1221, 


Senate  (United  States). 


SENATE  (UNITED  STATES).— The  Sen- 
ate of  the  United  States  is  a  creation  of  the 
Constitution  which  has  been  lauded  by  some 
as  one  of  its  most  successful  provisions  and 
denounced  by  others  as  one  of  its  most  undem- 
ocratic features.  It  seems,  however,  to  have 
been  rather  an  accident  than  a  deliberate  crea- 
tion for  good  or  for  evil.  When  some  States 
demanded  that  each  State,  large  or  small,  be 
equally  represented  in  Congress,  and  other 
States  equally  strenuously  demanded  that  rep- 
resentation be  proportional  to  the  population 
of  the  States,  a  compromise  was  effected, 
by  making  the  representation  in  the  House 
proportional  to  population  and  creating  a 
Senate  where  each  State  should  have  equal 
representation. 

The  aims  with  which  the  Senate  was  created, 
the  purposes  it  was  to  fulfil,  are  set  forth, 
under  the  form  of  answers  to  objections,  in 
five  letters  (Ixi.-lxv.),  all  by  Alexander  Ham- 
ilton, in  the  Federalist.  These  aims  were  as 
follows  : 

"To  conciliate  the  spirit  of  independence  in  the 
several  States,  by  giving  each,  however  small,  equal 
representation  with  every  other,  however  large,  in 
one  branch  of  the  national  government. 

"To  create  a  council  qualified,  by  its  moderate 
size  and  the  experience  of  its  members,  to  advise  and 
check  the  President  in  the  exercise  of  his  powers  of 
appointing  to  office  and  concluding  treaties. 

"  To  restrain  the  impetuosity  and  fickleness  of  the 
popular  House,  and  so  guard  against  the  effects  of 
gusts  of  passion  or  sudden  changes  of  opinion  in  the 
people. 

"  To  provide  a  body  of  men  whose  greater  expe- 
rience, longer  term  of  membership,  and  comparative 
independence  of  popular  election,  would  make  them 
an  element  of  stability  in  the  government  of  the 
nation;  enabling  it  to  maintain  its  character  in  the 
eyes  of  foreign  States,  and  to  preserve  a  continuity  of 
policy  at  home  and  abroad. 

"  To  establish  a  court  proper  for  the  trial  of  im- 
peachments, a  remedy  deemed  necessary  to  prevent 
abuse  of  power  by  the  executive." 

The  especial  Constitutional  provisions  in  the 
Senate  are  as  follows  : 

(For  provisions  which  apply  both  to  the 
Senate  and  the  House,  see  CONGRESS.) 

"  SEC.  III.  The  Senate  of  the  United  States  shall  be 
composed  of  two  senators  from  each  State,  chosen  by 
the  legislature  thereof,  for  six  years;  and  each  senator 
shall  have  one  vote. 

"  Immediately  after  they  shall  be  assembled  in  con- 
sequence of  the  first  election,  they  shall  be  divided  as 
equally  as  may  be  into  three  classes.  The  seats  of  the 
senators  of  the  first  class  shall  be  vacated  at  the  expi- 
ration of  the  second  year,  and  of  the  second  class  at  the 
expiration  of  the  fourth  year,  and  of  the  third  class  at 
the  expiration  of  the  sixth  year,  so  that  one-third  may 
be  chosen  every  second  year  ;  and  if  vacancies  happen 
by  resignation,  or  otherwise,  during  the  recess  of  the 
legislature  of  any  State,  the  executive  thereof  may 
make  temporary  appointments  until  the  next  meeting 
of  the  legislature,  which  shall  then  fill  such  vacancies. 

"  No  person  shall  be  a  senator  who  shall  not  have 
attained  to  the  age  of  30  years,  and  been  nine  years  a 
citizen  of  the  United  States,  and  who  shall  not,  when 
elected,  be  an  inhabitant  of  that  State  for  which  he 
shall  be  chosen. 

"Vice-President  of  the  United  States  shall  be  Presi- 
dent of  the  Senate,  but  shall  have  no  vote,  unless  they 
be  equally  divided. 

"  The  Senate  shall  choose  their  other  officers,  and 
also  a  President  pro  tempore,  in  the  absence  of  the 
Vice-President,  or  when  he  shall  exercise  the  office  of 
President  of  the  United  States. 

"  The  Senate  shall  have  the  sole  power  to  try  all  im- 
peachments. When  sitting  for  that  purpose,  they 
shall  be  on  oath  or  affirmation.  When  the  President 
of  the  United  States  is  tried,  the  chief  justice  shall 
preside  :  and  no  person  shall  be  convicted  without  the 
concurrence  of  two- thirds  of  the  members  present. 


"Judgment  in  cases  of  impeachment  shall  not  ex- 
tend further  than  to  removal  from  office  and  disqual- 
ification to  hold  and  enjoy  any  office  of  honor,  trust, 
or  profit  under  the  United  States :  but  the  party  con- 
victed shall  nevertheless  be  liable  and  subject  to 
indictment,  trial,  judgment,  and  punishment,  accord- 
ing to  law. 

"  SEC.  IV.  The  times,  places,  and  manner  of  holding 
elections  for  senators  and  representatives  shall  be 

Erescribed  in  each  State  by  the  legislature  thereof; 
ut  the  Congress  may  at  any  time  by  law  make  or 
.  alter  such  regulations,  except  as  to  the  place  of  choos- 
ing senators. 

"  By  an  Act  of  Congress  passed  July  25,  1866,  it  is 
provided  that  when  the  legislature  of  any  State  is  to 
elect  a  senator  in  Congress,  it  shall  proceed  to  the 
election  of  such  senator  on  the  second  Tuesday  after 
the  organization  of  the  legislature,  and  the  election 
shall  be  conducted  as  follows : 

"  Each  House  shall,  by  a  viva  voce  vote,  name  a  per- 
son for  senator,  and  the  name  of  the  person  who 
receives  a  majority  vote  shall  be  entered  in  the  jour- 
nal of  the  House.  If  the  House  fails  to  give  such  a 
majority  to  any  person,  that  fact  shall  be  entered  on 
the  journal.  On  the  next  day  at  12  o'clock  the  mem- 
bers of  the  two  Houses  shall  convene  in  joint  assem- 
bly, and  the  journal  of  each  House  shall  be  read,  and 
if  the  same  person  has  received  a  majority  of  all  the 
votes  in  each  House,  he  shall  be  declared  duly  elected 
senator.  If  no  one  has  such  a  majority,  the  joint 
assembly  shall  choose,  by  a  viva  voce  vote  of  each 
member  present,  a  person  for  senator.  The  person 
having  a  majority  of  all  the  votes  of  the  joint  assem- 
bly shall  be  declared  elected.  If  there  is  no  election 
that  day,  the  joint  assembly  shall  meet  at  12  o'clock 
on  each  succeeding  day,  and  shall  take  at  least  one 
vote  each  day  until  a  senator  is  elected." 

The  officers  of  the  Senate  are  :  (i)  a  secre- 
tary, (2)  chief  clerk,  (3)  executive  clerk,  (4) 
sergeant-at-arms,  (5)  doorkeeper,  (6)  chaplain. 

The  Senate  is  a  permanent  body,  while  the 
House  of  Representatives  is  changed  every 
two  years.  As  the  Constitution  went  into 
operation  on  the  4th  of  March,  1789,  the  term 
of  office  of  every  senator,  as  well  as  represent- 
ative, ends  on  the  3d  of  March  of  a  year 
denoted  by  an  odd  number.  A  Congress  is 
measured  by  the  term  of  office  of  the  repre- 
sentatives; the  first  extending  from  the  4th  of 
March,  1789,  to  the  sd  of  March,  1791. 

When  a  vacancy  is  temporarily  filled  by 
executive  appointment,  the  senator  thus  ap- 
pointed holds  his  office  till  the  close  of  the 
next  succeeding  term  of  his  State  legislature. 

The  functions  of  the  Senate  are  threefold  : 
legislative,  executive,  and  judicial.  Its  legis- 
lative function  is  to  pass,  along  with  the 
House  of  Representatives,  bills  which  become 
Acts  of  Congress  on  the  assent  of  the  Presi- 
dent, or  even  without  his  consent,  if  passed  a 
second  time  by  a  two-thirds  majority  of  each 
House,  after  he  has  returned  them  for  recon- 
sideration. All  bills  for  raising  revenue,  how- 
ever, must  originate  in  the  House  (q.  v.).  Its 
executive  functions  are  :  To  approve  or  disap- 
prove the  President's  nominations  of  Federal 
officers,  including  judges,  ministers  of  State, 
and  ambassadors;  and  to  approve,  by  a  major- 
ity of  two-thirds  of  those  present,  of  treaties 
made  by  the  President.  Its  judicial  function 
is  to  sit  as  a  court  for  the  trial  of  impeachments 
preferred  by  the  House  of  Representatives. 

The  comparative  smallness  of  the  Senate 
allows  it  to  act  with  fewer  rules  of  procedure 
and  more  freedom  of  debate.  "  Senatorial 
courtesy  "  has  become  a  tradition,  sometimes 
used  to  block  legislation.  In  considering  the 
working  of  the  Senate,  we  find  a  favorable, 
a  medium,  and  an  unfavorable  view.  Of  its 


Senate  (United  States). 


1222 


Senate  (United  States). 


favorable  features  Mr.  Bryce  says  (American 
Commonweath,  i  ed.  pt.  i.  chap,  xii.): 

"  The  Senate  has  succeeded  in  making  itself  eminent 
and  respected.  It  has  drawn  the  best  talent  of  the 
nation,  so  far  as  that  talent  flows  to  politics,  into  its 


ity  may    sp« 
zens.  .  .  . 

"The  Senate,  albeit  not  chosen  by  direct  popular 
election,  does  represent  the  people  ;  and  what  it  may. 
lose  through  not  standing  in  immediate  contact  with 
the  masses,  it  gains  in  representing  such  ancient  and 
powerful  commonwealths  as  the  States.  A  senator 
From  New  York  or  Pennsylvania  speaks  for,  and  is 
responsible  to,  millions  of  men. 

'•A  small  body  educates  its  members  better  than 
a  large  one,  because  each  member  has  more  to  do, 
sooner  masters  the  business  not  only  of  his  committee 
but  of  the  whole  body,  feels  a  livelier  sense  of  the 
significance  of  his  own  action  in  bringing  about  col- 
lective action.  There  is  less  disposition  to  abuse  the 
freedom  of  debate.  Party  spirit  may  be  as  intense  as 
in  great  assemblies,  yet  it  is  mitigated  by  the  disposi- 
tion to  keep  on  friendly  terms  with  those  whom,  how- 
ever much  you  may  dislike  them,  you  have  constantly 
to  meet,  and  by  the  feeling  of  a  common  interest  in 
sustaining  the  authority  of  the  body.  A  senator  soon 
gets  to  know  each  of  his  colleagues— they  were  origi- 
nally only  25 — and  what  each  of  them  thinks  of  him;  he 
becomes  sensitive  to  their  opinion  ;  he  is  less  inclined 
to  pose  before  them,  however  he  may  pose  before  the 
public.  Thus  the  Senate  formed,  in  its  childhood, 
better  habits  in  discussing  and  transacting  its  busi- 
ness than  could  have  been  looked  for  in  a  large  assem- 
bly ;  and  these  habits  its  maturer  age  retains.  Its 
comparative  permanence  has  also  worked  for  good. 
Six  years,  which  seem  a  short  term  in  Europe,  are  in 
America  a  long  term  when  compared  with  the  two 
years  for  which  the  House  of  Representatives  and  the 
assemblies  of  nearly  all  the  States  are  elected;  long 
also  when  compared  with  the  swiftness  of  change  in 
American  politics,  A  senator  has  the  opportunity  of 
thoroughly  learning  his  work  and  of  proving  that  he 
has  learned  it. 

"  A  senator  has  more  power  than  a  member  of  the 
House,  more  dignity,  a  longer  term  of  service,  a  more 
independent  position.  Hence,  every  Federal  politi- 
cian aims  at  a  senatorship,  and  looks  on  the  place  of 
representative  as  a  stepping-stone  to  what  is  in  this 
sense  an  Upper  House,  that  it  is  the  House  to  which 
representatives  seek  to  mount.  It  is  no  more  surpris- 
ing that  the  average  capacity  of  the  Senate  should 
surpass  that  of  the  House  than  that  the  average  cabi- 
net minister  of  Europe  should  be  abler  than  the  aver- 
age member  of  the  legislature.  .  .  . 

"  What  is  more,  the  Senate  so  trains  its  members  as 
to  improve  their  political  efficiency.  Several  years  of 
service  in  a  small  body,  with  important  and  delicate 
executive  work,  are  worth  twice  as  many  years  of 
jostling  in  the  crowd  of  representatives  at  the  other 
end  of  the  Capitol.  If  the  Senate  does  not  find  the 
man  who  enters  it  already  superior  to  the  average  of 
Federal  politicians,  it  makes  him  superior.  But  nat- 
ural selection,  as  has  been  said,  usually  seats  upon  its 
benches  the  best  ability  of  the  country  that  has  flowed 
into  political  life,  and  would  do  so  no  less  were  the  elec- 
tion, in  form,  a  direct  one  by  the  people  at  the  polls." 

Nevertheless,  even  Mr.  Bryce  finds  a  less 
favorable  view  : 

"  European  writers  on  America  have  been  too  much 
inclined  to  idealize  the  Senate.  Admiring  its  struc- 
ture and  function,  they  have  assumed  that  the  actors 
must  be  worthy  of  their  parts.  They  have  been  en- 
couraged in  this  tendency  by  the  language  of  many 
Americans.  As  the  Romans  were  never  tired  of  re- 
peating that  the  ambassador  of  Pyrrhus  had  called 
the  Roman  Senate  an  assembly  of  kings,  so  Americans 
of  refinement,  who  are  ashamed  of  the  turbulent 
House  of  Representatives,  are  wont  to  talk  of  the 
Senate  as  a  sort  of  Olympian  dwelling-place  of  states- 
men and  sages.  It  is  nothing  of  the  kind.  It  is  a 
company  of  shrewd  and  vigorous  men  who  have 
fought  their  way  to  the  front  by  the  ordinary  methods 
of  American  politics,  and  on  many  of  whom  the  battle 
has  left  its  stains.  There  are  abundant  opportunities 
for  intrigue  in  the  Senate,  because  its  most  important 
business  is  done  in  the  secrecy  of  committee  rooms  or 
of  executive  session  ;  and  many  senators  are  intrigu- 
ers. There  are  opportunities  for  misusing  senatorial 


powers.  Scandals  have  sometimes  arisen  from  the 
practise  of  employing  as  counsel  before  the  Supreme 
Court  senators  whose  influence  has  contributed  to  the 
appointment  or  confirmation  of  the  judges.  There 
are  opportunities  for  corruption  and  blackmailing,  of 
which  unscrupulous  men  are  well  known  to  take  ad- 
vantage-" 

Woodrow  Wilson  says  of  the  Senate  (Con- 
gressional Government,  pp.  194-195): 

"The  Senate  is  just  what  the  mode  of  its  election 
and  the  conditions  of  public'life  in  this  country  make 
it.  Its  members  are  chosen  from  the  ranks  of  active 
politicians,  in  accordance  with  a  law  of  natural  selec- 
tion to  which  the  State  legislatures  are  commonly 
obedient ;  and  it  is  probable  that  it  contains,  conse- 
quently, the  best  men  that  our  system  calls  into  poli- 
tics. If  these  best  men  are  not  good,  it  is  because  our 
system  of  government  fails  to  attract  better  men  by 
its  prizes,  not  because  the  country  affords  or  could 
afford  no  finer  material.  The  Senate  is  in  fact,  of 
course,  nothing  more  than  a  part,  tho  a  considerable 
part,  of  the  public  service  ;  and  if  the  general  condi- 
tions of  that  service  be  such  as  to  starve  statesmen 
and  foster  demagogues,  the  Senate  itself  will  be  full  of 
the  latter  kind,  simply  because  there  are  no  others 
available.  There  cannot  be  a  separate  breed  of  pub- 
lic men  reared  specially  for  the  Senate.  It  must  be 
recruited  from  the  lower  branches  of  the  representa- 
tive system,  of  which  it  is  only  the  topmost  part.  No 
stream  can  be  purer  than  its  sources.  The  Senate  can 
have  in  it  no  better  men  than  the  best  men  of  the 
House  of  Representatives  ;  and  if  the  House  of  Rep- 
resentatives attracts  to  itself  only  inferior  talent,  the 
Senate  must  put  up  with  the  same  sort.  Thus  the 
Senate,  tho  it  may  not  be  as  good  as  could  be  wished, 
is  as  good  as  it  can  be  under  the  circumstances.  It 
contains  the  most  perfect  product  of  our  politics, 
whatever  that  product  may  be." 

Many,  however,  take  a  much  more  unfavor- 
able view.  They  call  it  the  Millionaires'  Club, 
and  argue  that  the  senators  should  be  elected 
by  a  direct  vote  of  the  people,  while  others 
believe  that  the  Senate  itself  should  be  abol- 
ished. Mr.  Dorman  B.  Eaton  says  of  the 
Senate : 

"It  is  by  no  means  easy  to  comprehend  the  breadth 
and  importance  of  the  vast  sphere  of  official  life  which 
thus  stands  eclipsed  in  the  dark  shadow  of  senatorial 
secrecy  and  usurpation.  .  .  .  Probably  one-half  of 
the  time  of  senators  given  to  speaking  and  voting 
is  given  to  the  matter  of  filling  offices.  On  an  average 
there  must  be  from  three  to  four  nominations  to  be 
acted  upon  by  the  Senate  every  day  of  its  session. 
Now,  all  the  votes,  all  the  speeches,  and  all  the  vari- 
ous and  important  actions  connected  with  these  ses- 
sions are  never  reported,  or  seen,  or  known  by  any  one 
but  senators  and  their  subordinates.  They  are  never 
understood  by  the  people.  Yet  no  action  of  the  Gov- 
ernment more  profoundly  affects  the  moral  tone*  of 
politics,  the  fate  of  parties,  or  the  efficiency  and  econ- 
omy of  administration.  If  anything  could  add  to  our 
astonishment  at  such  astounding  results  being  possi- 
ble under  our  system  of  freedom  and  publicity,  it 
would  be  the  fact  that  they  have  been  accomplished, 
not  by  law,  not  according  to  the  Constitution,  not  by 
any  action  of  Congress,  not  by  any  consent  of  the 
Executive,  not  after  any  public  debate,  but  solely 
through  arbitrary  rules  of  the  Senate,  adopted  in 
secret  sessions,  of  which  nothing  was  reported  and 
nothing  known  by  the  people.  Every  grade  of  ap- 
pointments and  removals  made  by  the  President,  .  .  . 
with  all  the  corrupt  influences,  the  bartering  of  votes 
in  the  Senate  for  votes  for  senators  or  their  friends, 
the  scandalous  relations  between  a  senatorial  vote  for 
a  nomination  and  another  nomination  made  or  to  be 
made,  .  .  .  together  with  all  the  vicious  relations 
between  the  confirmation  of  postmasters  and  collect- 
ors, and  the  partizan  corruption  with  which  senators 
may  be  connected  in  the  States  and  cities— all  these 
things  are  covered  in  the  impenetrable,  everlasting 
darkness  and  silence  of  these  secret  sessions,  which 
the  senators  have  interposed  between  themselves  and 
the  President  and  the  people." 

Mr.  J.  W.  Sullivan  says,   in  the  American 
Federationist  : 

"  A  Senate  in  a  democratic  republic  is  like  a  fifth 
wheel  to  a  wagon.  It  is  cumbrous,  useless,  and  ab- 


Senate  (United  States). 


1223 


Shakers. 


surd.  Serious  argument  for  it,  from  any  point  of 
view,  breaks  down.  Its  existence  but  indicates  a 
political  superstition.  .  .  . 

"  The  Senate  was  not  meant  to  be  democratic  in  this 
land  of  equal  rights. 

"It  was  meant  to  'put  down  the  brakes'  on  hasty 
law. 

"  i.  The  Senate  is  not  democratic.  On  the  floor  of 
the  Senate,  Nevada,  with  40,000  inhabitants,  counts  as 
much  as  New  York  with  6,000,000— a  travesty  on  the 
democratic  idea. 

"The  admission  to  the  Union  of  'rotten  borough' 
States,  such  as  Idaho  and  Wyoming,  has  come  about 
mainly  because  one  of  the  two  old  political  parties  has 
hoped  thereby  to  gain  party  ascendency.  The  United 
States  Senate,  more  than  any  other  factor,  keeps  alive 
the  idea  of  State  as  opposed  to  nation.  Were  there  no 
Senate,  the  House,  representing  as  it  does  congres- 
sional districts,  might  be  a  truly  national  body  with  a 
tendency  to  ignore  State  lines.  As  the  members  of 
the  Senate  are  elected  by  the  legislatures,  a  candidate 
may  thus  be  made  senator  against  whom  might  be 
polled  a  popular  three-fourths  majority.  The  term  be- 
ing six  years,  a  senator  may  remain  in  office  long  after 
the  issues  on  which,  if  any,  he  was  chosen,  have  passed 
away.  He  may  continue  voting  against  bills  embody- 
ing a  sentiment  favored  by  a  large  majority  of  the 
people  in  his  State  and  voted  for  by  a  majority  in  the 
lower  House  from  his  State.  A  number  of  plutocratic 
or  corrupt  senators  in  combination  may  prevent  legis- 
lation demanded  by  the  majority  in  the  country,  a  two- 
thirds  majority  in  the  lower  House,  and  the  President. 
In  the  States  the  existence  of  the  Senates,  besides 

fiving  rise  to  many  of  the  abuses  seen  in  the  national 
enate,  breeds  disturbance  and  corruption.  Gerry- 
mandering in  senatorial  districts  is  a  common  political 
crime.  Where  the  two  parties  are  about  matched,  the 
control  of  the  State  Senate  and  the  election  of  a 
United  States  senator  call  out  all  the  devices  of  the 
politician.  '  A  conspiracy  to  steal  the  Senate '  is  a 
familiar  newspaper  headline.  In  all  the  respects  just 
mentioned,  the  Senate  stands  as  an  anti-democratic 
institution. 

"  2.  No  one  need  credit  nowadays  the  assertion  that 
a  Senate  is  necessary  as  a  check  on  the  people's  legis- 
lation. Where  is  the  evidence  that  it  is,  or  ever  has 
been  ?  On  the  contrary,  illustrations  that  it  emphati- 
cally is  not  are  numerous.  To  begin  with  the  plainest 
and  simplest  examples :  No  New  England  town  has 
ever  found  reason  to  take  from  its  people  their  full 
legislative  power  in  town  meeting.  The  town  as  a 
whole  is  left  to  profit  alike  by  its  successes  and  its 
mistakes.  And  so  it  is  with  the  trades-union,  the 
benefit  society,  the  fire  company,  the  building  asso- 
ciation. In  larger  business  organizations,  as  has  been 
pointed  out,  the  Senate  has  never  existed.  In  the  sub- 
divisions of  States  the  upper  chamber  is  meeting  with 
disfavor.  Brooklyn  a  few  years  ago,  under  a  new 
charter,  devised  by  trusted  citizens,  reduced  its  mu- 
nicipal legislature  to  one  body.  New  York  City  for 
some  decades  has  had  but  one.  In  Switzerland  not  one 
of  the  22  States  has  ever  found  a  Senate  necessary." 

(See,  also,  CONGRESS;  CONSTITUTION;  PLUTOC- 
RACY.) 

SENIOR,  NASSAU  WILLIAM,  was  born 
at  Offington,  Berkshire,  in  1790,  was  educated  at 
Eton  and  Oxford,  and  commenced  the  practise 
of  law  in  1819.  He  was  appointed  professor  of 
political  economy  at  Oxford  in  1826  ;  was  made 
secretary  of  the  House  of  Lords  in  1836,  and 
was  member  of  various  commissions  and  so- 
cieties. He  was  interested  in  Eastern  studies, 
but  wrote  but  little  in  that  line.  He  was  cor- 
respondent of  the  Institute  of  France  (1843) 
and  author  of  several  reports  and  articles  on 
industrial  questions,  mainly  published  in  the 
Quarterly  Review,  the  Edinburgh  and  Lon- 
aon  Reviews.  He  has  left  as  his  principal 
works  :  Lectiires  on  Political  Economy  (1826) 
and  An  Outline  of  Political  Economy,  which 
first  appeared  in  the  Encyclope'die  Metropoli- 
taine  (1850).  He  died  at  London,  June  4,  1864. 
He  was  the  author  of  the  now  nearly  discarded 
Wage-Fund  Theory.  (See  WAGES.) 


SERFDOM.     See  FEUDALISM;  MIDDLE  AGES. 

SHAFTESBURY,  ANTHONY  ASHLEY 
COOPER,  SEVENTH  EARL  OF,  was  born 
in  London  in  1801,  and  educated  at  Chiswick, 
Eton,  and  Oxford,  where  he  took  a  first  class 
in  classics  in  1822.  He  entered  Parliament  in 
1826,  representing  Woodstock  1836-30,  Dor- 
chester 1830-31,  Dorset  1833-46,  and  Bath  1847- 
51.  He  supported  the  administrations  of 
Liverpool  and  Canning,  was  commissioner 
of  the  India  Board  of  Control  (1828),  Lord 
of  the  Admiralty  under  Peel  (1834-35).  He 
succeeded  his  father  in  the  peerage  (1851). 
Altho  a  Tory,  he  was  independent.  He  com- 
menced his  public  labors  for  reform  in  1828  by 
his  speech  on  the  barbarous  treatment  of  luna- 
tics, and  was  mainly  influential  as  chairman 
of  the  Lunacy  Commission  in  securing  the 
bill  which  has  been  called  "  the  Magna  Charta 
of  the  liberties  of  the  insane."  By  1833  he  be- 
came, largely  through  the  influence  of  Oastler 
(q.  v.),  the  acknowledged  Parliamentary 
champion  of  factory  legislation  (q,  v.);  costing 
him  political  preferment,  but  earning  him  the 
title  of  "The  Working  Man's  Friend."  He 
worked  incessantly  in  the  ten-hours'  move- 
ment. (See  SHORT-HOUR  MOVEMENT.)  He 
made  numerous  personal  investigations  of  fac- 
tories and  factory  life,  and  made  all  England 
shudder  with  his  revelations.  The  Children's 
Employment  Commissions  of  1842-43  were 
mainly  due  to  him.  He  secured  the  passage  of 
the  Factory  Act  of  1844  and  the  famous  Ten- 
Hour  Act  of  1847.  An  Evangelical  of  the 
Evangelicals,  he  incurred  opprobrium,  con- 
tempt, and  misrepresentation,  yet  was  presi- 
dent of  numerous  Bible  societies  and  head  of 
the  so-called  Exeter  Hall  school  of  Low  Church- 
men. He  was  an  active  opponent  of  slavery 
throughout  the  world  till  his  death  in  1885. 

SHAKERS  is  the  name  commonly  given  to 
a  religious  sect  in  the  United  States.  The  offi- 
cial name  of  this  sect  is  the  United  Society  of 
Believers  in  Christ's  Second  Appearing ;  but 
its  members  have  accepted  the  designation  of 
Shakers,  originally  applied  to  them  in  ridicule, 
on  account  of  certain  rhythmical  movements 
of  the  hands  and  arms  which  form  part  of  their 
worship.  Shaker  societies  are  found  only  in 
the  United  States,  but  their  creed  had  an 
English  origin.  The  founder  of  the  sect, 
in  whose  person  they  believe  that  Christ  has 
appeared  a  second  time,  was  an  Englishwoman 
named  Ann  Lee,  a  native  of  Manchester,  who 
believed  that  the  Christ  spirit  appeared  to  her 
in  1774,  in  Manchester,  England,  as  a  baptism 
of  fire  after  she  had  confessed  her  sins  to 
James  and  Jane  Wardlaw,  Quakers. 

Ann  Lee  was  the  daughter  of  a  blacksmith, 
who  gave  her  no  education  and  sent  her,  while 
a  mere  child,  to  work  in  a  cotton-mill.  She 
seems  to  have  been  a  violent,  hysterical  girl, 
but  to  have  always  possessed  a  great  deal  of 
influence  over  the  people  around  her.  She 
married  a  blacksmith  named  Stanley,  and  had 
four  children,  all  of  whom  died  in  infancy. 
She  became  one  of  the  earliest  believers  in  a 
prophetess,  who  appeared  in  the  town  of 
Bolton-on-the-Moors,  in  Lancashire,  named 


Shakers. 


1224 


Shakers. 


Jane  Wardlaw,  who  believed  she  had  "re- 
ceived a  call "  to  go  forth  and  testify  that 
Christ  was  coming  to  reign  upon  the  earth, 
and  that  his  second  appearance  would  be  in 
the  form  of  a  woman,  as  prefigured  in  the 
Psalms.  Ann  Lee,  on  her  conversion,  began 
to  preach  the  same  message,  but  soon  went 
beyond  he^^eacher  and  gained  the  leadership 
of  her  co-believers.  She  was  charged  with  an 
obstruction  of  the  streets,  and  sent  to  the  Old 
Bailey  prison  in  Manchester.  When  she  came 
out  of  prison  she  gave  forth  that  one  night  a 
light  had  shone  upon  her  in  her  cell,  that  the 
Lord  Jesus  stood  before  her,  and  that  he  be- 
came one  with  her  in  form  and  spirit.  But 
being  much  mocked  and  even  persecuted  in 
England,  in  1774,  with  eight  disciples,  she 
emigrated  to  America  and  located  finally  at 
Watervliet,  near  Albany,  N.  Y.  Her  husband 
came  with  her,  though  he  did  not  believe  in 
her  claims,  and  when  she  began  to  preach 
celibacy  he  left  her.  Slowly  converts  were 
made.  In  1780  Ann,  through  her  denuncia- 
tions of  war,  was  arrested  and  imprisoned  as  a 
British  spy,  but  it  served  simply  to  advertise 
her.  In  1781  she  made  a  missionary  tour 
through  New  England  and  elsewhere,  and 
made  many  converts.  Returning  to  Water- 
vliet in  1783,  she  died  about  a  year  after.  Her 
death  was  a  surprise  to  many  of  her  followers, 
who  believed  that  she  was  to  live  among  them 
forever ;  but  her  successors,  to  whom  on  her 
death-bed  she  had  made  over  the  headship 
of  the  society,  declared  that  she  was  not  dead, 
but  had  only  withdrawn  from  common  sight, 
and  was  still  visible  to  eyes  exalted  by  the 
gift  of  grace. 

By  Joseph  Meacham  and  Lucy  Wright,  the 
successors  of  "  Mother  Ann,"  the  Shakers 
were  gathered,  in  1787,  into  settlements,  ten  in 
number,  and  a  covenant  was  drawn  up  em- 
bracing the  chief  points  of  their  creed  and  of 
the  social  system  since  associated  with  it. 
Their  head  was*,  of  course,  "Mother  Ann"— - 
that  is,  Christ — of  whom  Joseph  and  Lucy 
were  temporarily  the  representatives  ;  elders 
and  deacons,  male  and  female,  were  appointed, 
the  institution  of  celibacy  was  confirmed,  and 
a  community  of  goods  was  introduced  through, 
as  it  was  said,  a  revelation  from  Ann  Lee. 
By  1792  the  present  order  was  fully  estab- 
lished. 

There  are  now  some  15  societies,  located  in 
New  York,  Massachusetts,  New  Hampshire, 
Ohio,  Kentucky,  Connecticut,  and  Maine. 
Each  society  is  constituted  of  several  families, 
each  family  being  a  community  in  itself,  hav- 
ing its  own  lands,  buildings,  and  business.  In 
Mt.  Lebanon,  N.  Y. ,  their  largest  community, 
there  are  several  families,  made  up  of  150 
adults,  35  boys  and  40  girls,  or  a  total  of  225 
members.  This  has  been  the  home  of  Elder 
Frederick  W.  Evans,  the  best  known  of  the 
Shakers.  The  other  societies  are  made  up  in 
about  the  same  ratio  as  the  one  at  Mt.  Lebanon. 
The  Eastern  societies  have  about  650  members; 
Watervliet  and  Groveland  about  100  members; 
and  the  Western  societies  about  500  members. 

The  capital  of  all  the  communities  is  mostly 
in  land.  Originally  the  communities  invested 
their  surplus  income  in  land  ;  now  they  are 


selling  it  off  as  fast  as  they  can  find  purchasers. 
For  many  years  broom-making,  gardening, 
seed  business,  medicines,  etc.,  were  profitable 
industries.  One  of  their  number  says  the  in- 
come of  all  the  communities  does  not  any 
more  than  balance  the  expenditures  in  taxes, 
repairs,  living,  comforts,  and  improvements  ; 
but  that  haying  good  simple  food  and  hygienic 
clothing,  with  useful  buildings  supplied  with 
modern  conveniences  in  heating,  lighting,  san- 
itation, and  hygiene,  they  have  a  heaven  upon 
earth,  and  are  therewith  content. 

Professor  Ely  says  in  his  Labor  Movement 
in  America  (p.  42): 

"Their  numbers  have  declined  in  recent  years,  but 
they  claim,  all  told,  still  some  four  thousand  members, 
while  their  property  is  of  great  value.  They  like  to 
say  little  about  property  and  numbers,  as  they  have 
small  respect  for  the  '  statistical  fiend '  so  common 
among  us,  and  feel  that  a  numerical  table  cannot  prop- 
erly measure  either  their  success  or  their  influence. 
One  who  has  been  some  time  with  them  estimates 
their  property  at  twelve  millions  of  dollars  at  least. 

"Economically,  the  Shakers  have  been  a  complete 
success,  and  it  is  said  that  there  has  never  been 
a  failure  among  them.  They  look  forward  to  the 
future  with  hope,  believing  that  their  history  has  just 
begun." 

They  hold  that  God  is  dual — father  and 
mother.  Thus  Shakers  have  a  dual  govern- 
ment— male  and  female  leaders.  Their  the- 
ology is  not  adverse  to  Christianity.  The  God 
of  the  Jews  was  not  Deity,  but  a  tutelary  divin- 
ity— the  "God  of  Israel"  only.  Christ  was 
"  the  Lord  from  Heaven,  a  quickening  spirit," 
that  appeared  to  Jesus  after  John  had  baptized 
him  with  water. 

A  Shaker  writes : 

"  The  Shaker  order  is  the  '  New  Heavens,'  in  which 
all  live.  The  American  secular  government  is  the 
'New  Earth.'  We  wish  it  to  be  more  secular  by 
radically  separating  Church  and  State,  having  no- 
chaplains  and  no  religious  legislation.  Expunge  'In 
God  We  Trust '  from  the  coins.  Open  libraries  and 
museums  and  the  World's  Fair.  Let  sovereign  people 
go  where  they  please  every  day  by  law.  Let  intellec- 
tual celibates  of  both  sexes  fill  all  the  offices  Heaving 
married  people  to  care  for  their  own  household)  from 
the  Presidency  and  legislature  down  to  the  police. 
Let  half  the  army  and  navy  be  females.  Abolish 
tobacco,  opium,  alcohol,  trusts,  and  land  monopoly, 
poverty  and  diseases  of  all  kinds.  Let  married  people- 
become  Jews,  using  their  procreative  powers  for  off- 
spring only.  Stop  the  propagation  of  sick  people^ 
paupers,  criminals." 

Their  society  is  recruited  mostly  by  young 
men  and  girls,  but  occasionally  married  per- 
sons with  their  children  come  "into  union." 
Husbands  and  wives,  when  they  have  come 
"  into  union,"  become  as  brothers  and  sisters. 
The  education  of  the  children  attached  to 
the  society  is  the  work  of  the  sisters.  The 
brothers  and  sisters  take  their  meals  in  a  com- 
mon room,  eating  at  six  in  the  morning,  at 
noon,  and  at  six  in  the  afternoon.  Their  meals 
are  taken  in  silence,  any  direction  that  has  to  be 
given  being  given  by  a  gesture  or  in  a  whis- 
per. In  their  church  service  music  bears  a 
prominent  part,  the  hymns  and  chants  which 
are  used  being  all  of  Shaker  origin,  communi- 
cated to  believers  in  dreams  and  reveries  by 
the  spirits  with  whom  they  have  communion. 

References :  The  Manifesto,  a  paper  published  by 
the  Shakers  at  East  Canterbury,  N.  H.;  The  Concise 
History  of  Shakers  (East  Canterbury,  N.  H.,  1894). 


"Shalam." 


1225 


Shearman,  Thomas  Gaskell. 


"  SHALAM."— The  Faithist  Colony  at 
Dona  Ana,  N.  M.  This  colony  is  the  result  of 
the  teachings  of  the  religious  book  or  bible 
Oahspe,  published  in  1882.  The  colony  is 
managed  by  believers  in  Oahspe,  or  "  Faith- 
ists."  The  basic  idea  of  the  colony  is  that  to 
improve  society  one  must  commence  with 
children  and  not  adults,  and  therefore  the 
community  is  a  home  for  children.  Castaway 
infants  and  foundlings  are  taken  to  be  raised 
upon  a  purely  vegetarian  diet,  free  from  the 
impure  habits  of  civilization.  They  are  raised 
as  brothers  and  sisters,  holding  all  things  in 
common. 

They  are  not  to  be  taught  creeds  and 
dogmas,  but  to  live  religion  in  every-day 
life,  and  to  worship  the  Great  Spirit,  Creator 
of  the  Universe,  only. 

They  will  be  taught  all  useful  trades  and 
industries.  At  suitable  ages  they  will  be  en- 
couraged to  marry  and  continue  the  work 
which  has  been  their  salvation,  and  take  in 
uncared-for  children.  The  colony  believes 
that  if  the  Shakers  had  allowed  their  young 
people  to  marry  they  would  to-day  be  the 
strongest  religious  community  in  the  United 
States.  They  have  proven  the  advantages 
of  communism,  but  have  not  been  able  to 
hold  their  people  because  of  extreme  ideas. 

At  present  (1893)  the  colony  consists  of 
ten  children  and  five  adults,  a  new  building  of 
brick  capable  of  accommodating  60  children, 
with  their  caretakers,  has  just  been  built. 

Seventeen  hundred  acres  of  land  in  trust 
for  the  children,  and  ample  financial  support 
to  insure  the  success  of  the  enterprise,  give 
the  new  movement  a  local  habitation  and 
a  name. 

No  fixed  and  unchangeable  laws  will 
hamper  progress  in  a  Faithist  community. 
Laws  are  for  those  who  make  them,  and  pass 
away  with  the  going  out  of  office  of  the 
law-maker. 

The  government  is  in  the  hands  of  a  chief 
elected  annually,  whose  decree  is  absolute. 
In  the  settlement  of  a  question  of  policy  all 
can  express  their  light  and  knowledge  on  the 
subject;  then  the  chief  decrees,  it  may  be  with 
the  minority;  but  all  agree  to  agree  and  obey. 

Thus  it  is  claimed  that  majorities  count  for 
nothing,  but  the  best  knowledge  comes  to  the 
front 

For  an  account  of  Oahspe,  see  Appleton's 
Annual  Cyclopedia  for  1891,  article  Oahspe. 

SHAW,  ALBERT,  was  born  in  Butler 
County,  Ohio,  in  1857.  Studying  in  the  com- 
mon schools,  he  entered  Iowa  College,  gradu- 
ating in  1879.  He  then  took  charge  of  a 
semi-weekly  newspaper  in  Ohio,  but  in  1881 
went  to  Johns  Hopkins  University  and  studied 
political  science.  From  1884  to  1891  he  was 
political  editor  of  the  Minneapolis  Daily 
Tribune,  but  in  1888  went  to  Europe  for  a 
year  and  a  half  and  studied  municipal  govern- 
ment, gathering  information  later  used  in 
lectures  on  municipal  government  at  Cor- 
nell, Johns  Hopkins,  and  Michigan  universi- 
ties; in  articles  in  the  Century,  Scribner's,  and 
Forum  magazines,  and  later  developed  into 
book  form.  In  1891  he  established  the  Amer- 


ican Review  of  Reviews,  of  which  he  is  still 
the  editor.  His  main  works  in  book  form  are 
Icaria,  a  Chapter  in  the  History  of  Com- 
munism (1884);  Cooperation  in  a  Western 
City  (1886);  Municipal  Government  in  Great 
Britain  (1895);  Municipal  Government  in 
Continental  Europe  (1896). 

SHAW,  GEORGE  BERNARD,  was  born 
in  Dublin  in  1856.  In  1876  he  came  to  Lon- 
don and  soon  gained  reputation  as  a  brilliant 
journalist  and  musical  critic.  He  became 
interested  in  social  reform  through  Henry 
George,  and  on  the  founding  of  the  Fabian, 
Society  (q.  v.)  in  1883  was  one  of  its  foremost 
members,  a  position  he  still  holds.  His 
novels,  An  Unsocial  Socialist  and  Cashel 
Cyron's  Profession,  and  his  plays,  Widows' 
Houses  and  Arms  and  the  Man,  and  his 
essay,  The  Quintessence  of  Ibsenism,  besides 
his  numerous  Fabian  essays,  have  made  him 
well  known  in  the  journalistic  and  dramatic 
and  literary  world,  while  his  musical  criticisms 
in  the  World  and  other  papers,  are  con- 
sidered among  the  best  in  London.  Into 
them  all  he  works  in  most  various  ways  his 
brilliant  presentations  of  the  ideas  of  Fabian 
socialism.  (See  FABIAN  SOCIETY.) 

SHEARMAN,      THOMAS      GASKELL, 

was  born  in  Birmingham,  England,  in  1834, 
but  in  1844  his  parents  moved  to  New  York 
City,  where  Mr.  Shearman  was  educated  pri- 
vately. He  entered  the  law  ;  being  admitted 
to  the  bar  in  1859,  and  has  developed  an  ex- 
tensive business.  Always  opposed  to  slavery, 
he  joined  the  Republican  party  as  soon  as  it 
was  formed,  continued  in  it  till  1884,  when  he 
became  an  Independent  until  1892,  and  then 
joined  the  Democratic  party.  Originally  an 
ardent  protectionist,  he  was  converted  to  free 
trade  in  1860,  and  since  1879  he  has  devoted 
most  of  his  leisure  time  to  that  cause. 

Being  strongly  opposed  to  every  form  of 
state  socialism,  Mr.  Shearman  belongs,  in  a 
general  sense,  to  the  individualistic  school  of 
economists.  He  is  not  a  disciple  of  the  new 
"  historical  school,"  for,  although  fully  believ- 
ing that  sound  theories  can  only  be  attained 
by  a  careful  study  of  historical  facts,  he  also 
believes  that  historical  records  are  so  inac- 
curate as  to  afford  no  true  light  or  guidance, 
unless  constantly  studied  with  reference  to 
some  provisional  theory,  and  treated  with  sus- 
picion, wherever  they  conflict  with  sound 
reason.  But  when  a  fact  is  once  established, 
he  abandons  without  hesitation  any  theory 
which  does  not  include  that  fact.  Unnatural 
and  unscientific  taxation  he  believes  to  lie  at 
the  foundation  of  nearly  all  those  evils  which 
socialists  seek  to  remedy  by  socialism. 

With  these  views,  it  can  readily  be  under- 
stood that  Mr.  Shearman's  principal  interest 
in  economic  questions  centers  upon  methods 
of  taxation.  His  attention  has  been  almost 
exclusively  directed  to  the  abolition  of  all 
indirect  taxation  and  of  all  taxes  upon  earn- 
ings, consumption,  and  personal  property,  and 
to  the  concentration  of  all  taxes  upon  economic 
rent.  He  originated  the  plan  for  giving  local 
option  to  cities  and  counties,  in  methods  of 


Shearman,  Thomas  Gaskell. 


1226 


Short-Hour  Movement,  The. 


taxation,  as  the  only  practicable  method  of 
settling  the  controversy  over  the  taxation 
of  personal  property.  He  was  the  first  to 
devise  a  plan  for  an  income  tax  upon  the 
income  of  invested  wealth  alone,  exempting 
all  earnings  from  skill  or  labor. 

Mr.  Shearman  has  been  prevented  by  the 
pressure  of  business  from  writing  any  com- 
plete book  on  economic  subjects,  but  is  the 
author  of  numerous  pamphlets,  a  few  of  which 
are  :  Short  Talks  on  Free  Trade  (1880);  Pro- 
tection the  Poor  Man's  Friend  (1882);  Does 
Protection  Protect?  (1883);  The  Pauper 
Labor  of  Europe  (1885);  Distribution  of 
Wealth  (1887);  The  Single  Tax  (1887);  Who 
Own  the  United  States?  (1889);  Crooked 
Taxation  (1890);  A  Just  and  Collectable 
Income  Tax  (1893). 

SHORT-HOUR  MOVEMENT,  THE.— 
The  movement  to  reduce  the  hours  of  labor 
for  wage  toil,  sometimes  called  the  eight-hour 
movement,  owing  to  the  fact  that  a  large  pro- 
portion of  the  present  effort  is  to  reduce  the 
hours  to  eight,  is  among  the  most  important 
portions  of  the  modern  labor  movement.  In 
the  United  States,  especially,  it  furnishes  the 
one  direction  in  which  all  labor  organizations 
are  agreed  at  present  to  move.  Out  of  it  has 
grown  in  America  a  so-called  eight-hour  phi- 
losophy, which  is  held  by  its  adherents  to  be  a 
complete  philosophy  of  the  labor  movement 
and  to  furnish  a  program  not  to  be  looked 
at  as  simply  one  plank  in  a  labor  program, 
but  as  a  proposition  complete  in  itself,  includ- 
ing most  socialist  propositions  and  furnishing 
in  its  outline  a  solution  of  the  whole  labor  ques- 
tion. It  may  be  considered  the  philosophy 
of  American  trade-unions.  In  Europe,  if  the 
short-hour  movement  is  not  looked  upon  as 
complete  in  itself,  it  is  considered  among  the 
most  important  portions  of  other  programs. 
Hence  the  modern  trade-union  and  socialist 
movement,  especially  in  America,  cannot  be 
understood,  without  understanding  both  the 
history  and  the  so-called  "  philosophy  "  of  the 
short-hour  movement.  We  shall  consider 
therefore  (i)  the  history  of  the  movement  in  all 
the  principal  countries,  (2)  the  so-called  "  eight- 
hour  philosophy,"  (3)  the  arguments  for  reduc- 
ing hours,  (4)  the  objections  to  it. 
I.  HISTORY. 

The  history  of  the  short-hour  movement 
begins  in  England.  Thorold  Rogers  says  (Six 
Centuries  of  Work  and  Wages,  pp.  327  and 
542): 

"  It  is  plain  that  the  day  was  one  of  eight  hours. 
.  .  .  The  artisan  who  is  demanding  at  this  time  an 
eight-hours'  day  in  the  building  trades  is  simply  striv- 
ing to  recover  what  his  ancestor  worked  by  four  or 
five  centuries  ago." 

Some  writers  deny  this,  but  even  according 
to  the  Statute  of  Apprentices  (5  Eliz.,  c.  4), 
when  the  hours  of  labor  were  to 
be  12  in  summer  and  during  day- 
Previous    light  in  winter,  two  and  a  half 
Centuries,    hours    were    allowed    for    meals, 
while  the  law  was  notoriously  not 
observed.      In    the     seventeenth 
century  there  is  good  evidence  that  the  hours 
were  growing  considerably  longer.     William 


Petty  (q.  z/.),  whom  Karl  Marx  with  no  little 
reason  calls  "the  father  of  political  economy, 
and  to  some  extent  the  founder  of  statistics," 
says  that  in  the  last  third  of  the  seventeenth 
century  there  was  a  ten-hour  day.  In  the  eight- 
eenth and  nineteenth  centuries  we  come  to 
more  certain  facts.  From  1790  to  1820,  the 
hours  were  practically  unlimited,  and  often 
even  for  children  15  hours  and  over.  Those 
who  would  know  the  horrors  perpetrated  in 
England  during  this  period  of  the  triumph 
of  absolute  laissez-faire,  should  read  Karl 
Marx's  sketch  of  the  period,  in  the  first  volume 
of  his  Capital,  based  on  absolute  documentary 
evidence.  Mills  were  often  run  day  and  night, 
children  were  obtained  in  gangs  from  the  poor- 
law  guardians  and  worked  in  two  sets,  lodged 
in  sort  of  pens  with  one  set  of  beds  ;  one  set  of 
children  occupying  the  beds  while  the  other  set 
worked,  and  vice  versa.  The  children  were 
carried  from  the  beds  to  the  mills  and  from  the 
mills  to  the  beds.  Where  this  was  not  done 
hours  were  over  12.  Terrible  evils  resulted, 
and  in  1796  a  board  of  health  in  Manchester 
was  appointed  to  investigate  the  conditions  in 
the  mills,  the  investigation  being  caused  by 
the  statements  of  a  physician,  Dr.  Aikin.  In 
1802  the  elder  Sir  Robert  Peel  brought  in  and 
carried  a  bill  to  allay  the  worst  evils.  It  ac- 
complished little,  but  furnished  a  precedent. 
It  applied  only  to  pauper  apprentices  and 
limited  the  hours  of  only  the  little  children  to 
12  !  The  short-hour  agitation,  however,  had 
already  commenced.  Says  Sidney  Webb  and 
Harold  Cox's  The  Eight-Hours'  Day  (p.  15) : 

"At  the  beginning  of  the  present  century  the  ordi- 
nary working-day  of  the  English  artisan  appears  to 
have  varied  from  n  to  14  hours.  In  the  new  industries, 
such  as  the  textile  manufactories,  the  employers, 
being  free  from  traditions,  often  exacted  a  still  longer 
day.  The  London  bookbinders  were  working  12^ 
hours  a  day  (14  less  meal-times)  in  1780,  when  a  trade- 
union  was  formed  to  obtain  a  reduction  of  an  hour  a 
day. 

"This  movement  became  successful  in  1786.  King 
George  III.  was  the  first  employer  to  accord  the  boon, 
which  he  did  to  the  '  finisher '  in  the  Royal  Library. 
The  '  second  hour '  was  gained  in  1704,  and  another 
half-hour  about  1810,  after  an  unsuccessful  strike  in 
1806.  Eighty  years  ago,  therefore,  the  London  book- 
binders had  won  for  themselves  the  ten-hours' 
day." 

In  1815  another  Parliamentary  inquiry  took 
place  and  an  act  of  1819  forbade  the  employ- 
ment of  children  under  nine,  and  fixed  the 
hours  of  children  of  9  to  16  at  72  hours  per 
week  exclusive  of  meal-times.  In  1824  a  bill 
was  passed  partially  giving  trade-unions  (see 
COMBINATION  LAWS)  the  right  to  organize,  and 
from  this  time  agitation  became  more  active. 
In  1825  Sir  John  Hobhouse  carried  through  Par- 
liament another  bill,  making  legal  provision  for 
a  Saturday  half-holiday.  Already,  however, 
further  progress  was  demanded.  Says  The 
Eight-Hours'  Day : 

"The  eight-hours'  dream  has  certainly  been  in  the 
minds  of  trade-unionists  in  England  ever  since  the 
repeal  of  the  Combination  Laws  in  1824,  and  has  re- 
curred at  every  season  of  reviving  industrial  pros- 
perity since  that  time. 

"And  even  before  this  date  a  serious  proposal  to  re- 
duce the  hours  of  factory  labor  to  eight  hours  was 
apparently  made  by  Robert  Owen  in  1817.  At  that 
date,  when  even  children  were  kept  at  work  in  the 
textile  mills  for  15  or  16  hours  a  day,  the  proposal  of 
an  eight-hours' day  must  have  seemed  simply  absurd. 


Short-Hour  Movement,  The. 


1227 


Short-Hour  Movement,  The. 


Robert  Owen  instituted  a  regular  working-day  in  his 
mills  at  New  Lanark  of  10%  hours  net,  and  he  lived 
to  see  an  even  shorter  day  made  universal  in  the  textile 
industry." 

In  1 830  Richard Oastler  (g.  v.),  "  the  Factory 
King,"  became  converted  to  the  labor  move- 
ment, and  commenced,  and  for  1 8  years,  through 
persecution  and  imprisonment,  carried  on  his 
agitation  for  a  ten-hour  day.     His 
motto    was    "  ten  hours    and     a 
Factory      time-book."     He  accomplished  lit- 
Legislation.  tie,  however,  till  Lord  Ashley  (the 
Earl  of  Shaftesbury,  (jr.  v.)  took  up 
his  cause.     In  1831  Sir  John  Hob- 
house  secured  an  act  forbidding  in  the  cotton 
trade  the  employment  of  persons  under  21  by 
night,  and  all  persons  under  18  over  69  hours. 
In  1832  Tom  Sadler,  the  factory  representa- 
tive, moved  a  ten-hour  bill. 

In  1833  an  act  mainly  due  to  Lord  Ashley 
limited  the  hours  of  children  under  13  to  48, 
and  enacted  several  advantageous  subsidiary 
provisions.  Agitation,  however,  went  on. 

The  manufacturers  too  threw  every  obstacle 
in  the  way  of  the  Factory  Acts.  Most  of  the 
provisions  hitherto  applied  only  to  certain 
trades  like  the  cotton  trade  ;  but  in  1840  a  com- 
mission found  grievances  very  wide  spread, 
particularly  in  mining,  where  men,  women, 
and  children  worked  half-naked,  11,  12,  and 
often  16  hours.  This  produced  the  Mining  Act, 
which  forbade  the  employment  underground 
of  women  and  of  boys  under  10. 

The  Act  of  1844,  under  Sir  Robert  Peel's 
government,  classified  adult  women  as  "  young 

Sersons,"  and  extended  the  provisions  of  the 
lining  Act  to  the  textile  trades,  yet  left  so 
many  loopholes  to  the  manufacturers  that  they 
scarcely  opposed  it,  tho  even  Liberals  like 
Cobden  and  Bright  protested  against  most  of 
the  Factory  Acts. 

In  1847  was  enacted  the  great  ten-hour  bill 
introduced  by  Mr.  Fielden.  It  enacted  a  ten- 
hour  day  for  both  men  and  women.  It  was 
unquestionably  a  great  advance,  and  yet  its 
enactments  were  so  often  avoided  that  in  1850 
another  bill  was  passed  to  try  and  enforce  its 
provisions.  Agitation  continued. 

In  1860  there  was  a  revival  of  the  nine-hour 
movement,  but    industrial  depression,   later, 
made  it  cease.     Beginning  with  1871,  however, 
there  were  numerous  strikes  for  a  nine-hour 
day,  and  by  1872    such    demands    had   been 
granted  to  most  skilled  artisans.     Legislation 
too   went    on.      Omitting    minor 
bills  the  act  of  1864  extended  the 
Recen        Factory  Acts  to  many  trades,  the 
History,      act  of  "1874  reduced  the  hours  in 
the  textile  trades  from  60  to  56^ 
a  week,  the  act  of  1878  codified  all 
the  factory  acts.     In  1878  and  1879,  however, 
many  employers  undertook  to  revive  the  ten- 
hour  day,  and  there  were  many  strikes  (g.  v.). 
In  1881  the  present  socialist  movement  began 
in  England,  and  by  1886  produced   a  strong 
agitation   for  an   eight-hour  day.     Says    The 
Eight-Hours'  Day  (pp.  21-33)  '• 

"  During  the  year  1888  the  movement  received  a  very 
great  impetus  from  the  growth  of  the  '  New  Union- 
ism.' The  new  sense  of  solidarity  in  the  ranks  of 
labor,  which  was  so  marked  a  feature  of  the  match- 
makers' strike  in  1888,  led  to  the  formation  and  rapid 


extension  of  trade-unions  among  workers  who  were 
either  unskilled  or  who  had,  for  other  reasons,  hitherto 
been  without  organization.  As  these  unions  were 
formed  usually  under  the  prevailing  socialist  influ- 
ence, and  especially  through  the  exertions  of  Messrs. 
John  Burns  and  Tom  Mann,  most  of  them  adopted  an 
eight-hours'  bill  as  a  part  of  their  program.  One  of 
the  most  flourishing  of  these  new  unions,  the  'Gas- 
workers  and  General  Laborers'  Union,'  demanded,  in 
November,  1888,  a  reduction  of  their  hours  from  12  to 
eight  per  day.  In  nearly  all  the  gas-works  in  the 
United  Kingdom  this  reduction  was  conceded  with- 
out a  strike,  and  in  many  cases  was  accompanied 
by  a  slight  increase  in  wages.  Such  a  signal  success 
gave  an  immense  impetus  to  the  general  eight-hours' 
movement. 

"The  International  Trade-Union  Congress  had  ap- 
pointed the  istof  May,  1890,  for  a  simultaneous  interna- 
tional demonstration  in  favor  of  an  eight-hours'  law. 
.  .  .  It  was  decided  to  hold  a  London  demonstration 
in  Hyde  Park  on  the  first  Sunday  in  May,  and  a  similar 
decision  was  taken  in  other  towns.  No  fewer  than 
16  platforms  had  to  be  provided,  and  at  least  a  quarter 
of  a  million  persons  were  present.  Experienced  jour- 
nalists agreed  that  no  demonstration  for  20  years  had 
equaled  it  in  magnitude." 

Of  the  condition  of  the  question  in  England 
in  1891,  which  may  be  said  to  be  the  pres- 
ent position,  The  Eight-Hours'  Day  says 
(P-  37)  = 

"  It  may  be  said  that  nearly  all  philanthropic  opinion, 
and  a  vast  preponderance  of  the  wage-earners,  are  in 
favor  of  an  eight-hours'  day.  This  is  resisted  with  al- 
most equal  unanimity  by  the  '  business '  world  and 
capitalist  opinion  generally.  Those  who  are  in  favor 
of  an  eight-hours'  day  are,  by  a  fair  majority  at  any 
rate,  in  favor  of  securing  it  by  legislative  enactment, 
which  for  the  moment  chiefly  finds  expression  in  sup- 
port of  the  miners'  eight-hours'  bill.  Socialist  influ- 
ence and  much  of  the  modern  radicalism  work 
strongly  in  the  same  direction.  A  majority  of  the 
wage-earners  appear  to  be  in  favor  of  legislation  ;  a 
large  majority  or  the  middle  class,  the  political  econo- 
mists, and  professional  men  are  against  it.  The 
members  of  the  House  of  Commons  are  gradually 
being  won  over  to  it,  but  secretly  dislike  it.  In  certain 
industries — such  as  the  railway  and  tramway  service, 
and  coal-mining—there  is  an  enormous  preponderance 
of  feeling  in  favor  of  legislation,  and  this  preponder- 
ance is  having  great  effect  as  regards  legislation  for 
those  industries  only." 

AUSTRALIA. 

Next  to  England  came  Australia  in  agi- 
tating the  short-hour  movement,  and  with  such 
success  that  Australia  may  be  called  an  eight- 
hour  country.  Our  account  of  the  movement 
in  Australia,  as  in  the  other  countries,  is 
abridged  from  Messrs.  Webb  and  Cox's  The 
Eight-Hours'  Day  : 

When  the  gold  discoveries  had  given  the 
first  great  impulse  to  the  growth  of  industry 
in  Australia,  the  usual  working-day  for  arti- 
sans seems  to  have  been  10  hours.  During  the 
early  prosperity  of  Victoria  artisans'  wages 
rose  to  a  fabulous  height,  and  the  trade-unions, 
instituted  on  English  models,  were  able  prac- 
tically to  impose  their  own  terms.  The  old 
ideal  of  an  eight-hour  day  soon  came  to  the 
front. 

The  record  of  the  movement  in  Australia 
begins  with  a  public  meeting  held  by  the 
stone-masons  in  Melbourne  at  the  beginning 
of  April,  1856.  An  "  eight-hour  league  "  was 
formed  at  a  meeting  of  the  united  trades,  and 
immediate  notice  was  given  by  public  an- 
nouncement that,  after  the  2ist  of  April,  1856, 
no  man  belonging  to  the  unions  represented 
would  work  for  more  than  eight  hours  a  day. 
The  strength  of  the  artisans'  position  in  the 
labor  market  at  that  time  was  such  that  no 


Short-Hour  Movement,  The. 


1228 


Short-Hour  Movement,  The. 


resistance  was  possible,  and  the  eight-hour 
day,  thus  won  by  less  than  three  weeks'  agita- 
tion, has  ever  since  been  general  among  the 
artisans  of  Melbourne.  The  22d  of  April  has 
annually  been  kept  by  them  as  a  public  holi- 
day, and  is  now  known  as  the  Eight- Hour 
Day. 

From  Melbourne  the  eight-hour  movement 
quickly  spread  to  the  other  parts  of  the  col- 
ony, then  very  sparsely  inhabited,  and  also  to 
New  South  Wales.  An  eight-hour  day  was 
generally  established  in  various  skilled  trades 
in  Sydney,  within  a  few  years,  but  it  is  by  no 
means  universally  adopted,  especially  in  the 
smaller  towns.  Subsequently  the  movement 
spread  to  Brisbane,  Adelaide,  and  most  of  the 
towns  of  New  Zealand,  and  public  opinion 
thoroughly  supports  eight  hours  as  the  normal 
day  for  artisans  throughout  the  whole  of  Aus- 
tralasia. 

At  the  time  when  the  Melbourne  workmen 
obtained  their  eight-hour  day,  there  was 
neither  need  or  possibility  of  securing  it  by 
legal  enactment. 

A  Royal  Commission,  however,  was  ap- 
pointed in  1882  to  investigate  the  subject. 
The  evidence  taken  revealed  that  the  supposed 
universal  sentiment  in  favor  of  an  eight-hour 
day  had  not  sufficed  to  protect  various  large 
classes  of  workers,  such  as  bakers,  shop  assist- 
ants, and  attendants  in  restaurants,  from  being 
kept  at  work  for  excessive  hours. 

As  a  result,  in  1885  an  act  fixed  an  eight- 
hour  day  for  all  women  and  boys,  and  provided 
many  other  labor  regulations. 

Both  in  Queensland  and  New  Zealand  bills 
establishing  a  normal  eight-hour  day  were 
passed  by  the  Lower  House  of  the  legislature, 
which  is  elected  by  manhood  suffrage,  but 
were  rejected  by  the  Upper  House,  represent- 
ing the  propertied  class. 

It  may  be  said  that  public  sentiment  in  Aus- 
tralia is  universally  in  favor  of  an  eight-hour 
day,  but  that  this  sentiment,  backed  up  by 
very  powerful  trade-unions,  has  by  itself  as 
yet  succeeded  in  securing  the  eight-hour  day 
only  for  skilled  artisans  and  a  small  minority 
of  laborers.  We  accordingly  find  this  public 
opinion  resulting  in  Victoria  in  a  whole  suc- 
cession of  legal  enactments,  from  1874  down 
to  the  present  time.  By  these  an  eight-hour 
day  is  legally  enforced  for  women  in  all  manu- 
factures whatsoever;  for  miners  underground; 
for  engineers  in  charge  of  mining  machinery; 
for  tramway  workers;  for  men  employed  by 
the  contractors  on  various  public  works;  for 
the  servants  of  public  bodies.  And  attempts 
at  similar  legislation  in  the  other  colonies  are 
constantly  being  made,  but  have,  as  yet,  been 
defeated  by  the  capitalistic  second  chambers. 


The  eight-hour  movement  on  the  Continent 
seems  to  have  arisen  first  in  Paris.. 

One  of  the  first  results  of  the  revolution  of 
1848  was  a  decree  limiting  the  hours  of 
labor. 

This  decree  (dated  March,  1848)  enacted 
that  the  hours  of  labor  should  not  exceed  10 
per  diem  in  Paris,  and  n  per  diem  elsewhere 
in  France.  It  was  modified  by  the  law  of  the 


gth  of  September,  1848,  which  established  12 
hours  net  as  the  maximum  working-day. 

It  is  hardly  necessary  to  observe  that  this 
hasty  legislation  was  completely  ineffective. 
No  inspectors  were  appointed  or  other  means 
taken  to  secure  the  enforcement  of  the 
law. 

To  the  plutocratic  Caesarism  which  followed 
the  republic,  the  law  itself  was  altogether 
repugnant.  It  was  not,  indeed,  explicitly 
repealed  ;  but  it  was  ingeniously  eaten  away 
by  a  series  of  decrees. 

With  the  advent  of  the  third  republic,  a 
change  came  over  the  attitude  of  the  govern- 
ment. In  May,  1874,  15  inspectors  were  ap- 
pointed to  control  the  operation  of  the  law  of 
1848  and  its  amendments.  In  the  same  year, 
and  again  in  1883,  more  stringent  factory  laws 
were  enacted  for  women  and  children.  On  the 
other  hand,  in  November,  1885,  an  adminis- 
trative circular  was  issued,  excluding  from  the 
operation  of  these  laws  all  work-shops  where 
only  human  labor  force  was  used,  and  where 
fewer  than  20  workers  were  employed  in  one 
building. 

The  law  of  1848  is,  however,  still  nominally 
in  operation,  and  is  so  far  effective  that  it  was 
thought  necessary,  by  a  decree  of  the  3d  of 
April,  1889,  to  exempt  from  its  observance 
laborers  employed  on  any  works  executed  by 
order  of  the  government  in  the  interest  of  the 
national  safety  and  defense.  Nevertheless,  so 
numerous  are  the  exceptions  that  very  few  of 
the  workers  now  benefit  by  the  law. 

THE   GERMAN  EMPIRE. 

In  Germany,  the  demand  for  a  law  limiting 
the  hours  of  labor  has  formed  a  part  of  the 
agitation  of  the  Social  Democratic  party. 
Meanwhile,  factory  legislation,  both  Imperial 
and  State,  has  to  some  extent  regulated  the 
labor  of  women  and  children,  and  this  has,  as 
usual,  tended  to  reduce  the  hours  of  men.  The 
law  of  ist  of  June,  1877,  with  the  amendments 
of  the  i7th  of  June,  1887,  prescribes  a  maxi- 
mum day  of  10  hours  for  persons  under  16. 
But  the  laws  are  very  imperfectly  enforced, 
and  mills  employing  young  persons  often  run 
84  hours  a  week.  Artisans  work  n  and  12 
hours  a  day.  In  Leipzig  the  masons  had,  in 
1889,  recently  carried  a  ten-hour  day ;  but 
this  was  a  local  arrangement,  which  has  not 
been  generally  followed. 

The  movement  for  an  eight-hour  day  exists 
chiefly  among  the  Social  Democrats,  whatever 
their  trade,  and  among  the  coal-miners.  In 
1888  the  coal-miners  in  Westphalia  struck  for 
an  eight-hour  day,  and  secured  the  interven- 
tion of  the  young  Emperor  in  their  favor. 
Accordingly,  in  Westphalia,  Silesia,  and  Sax- 
ony, the  miners  work  only  an  eight-hour  shift 
wherever  a  high  temperature  prevails  ;  else- 
where a  ten-hour  shift  is  still  worked.  This 
limitation  of  the  hours  in  unhealthy  mines 
was  adopted  by  the  Berlin  Labor  Conference 
in  May,  1890.  Many  of  the  workers  in  the 
mines,  and  other  industrial  establishments  of 
the  Prussian  Government,  have  since  received 
the  boon  of  an  eight-hour  day.  Other  trades 
are  moving  in  the  same  direction. 


Short-Hour  Movement,  The. 


1229 


Short-Hour  Movement,  The. 


SWITZERLAND. 

This  republic  enjoys  the  distinction  of  hav- 
ing been  the  first  country  to  declare  in  its  very 
constitution  the  legislative  right  of  the  nation, 
in  its  political  organization,  to  limit  the  work- 
ing-day even  for  male  adults.  Nor  has  this 
power  been  allowed  to  sleep.  The  Federal 
Factory  Labor  Law  of  1877  limits  the  maximum 
hours  of  labor  for  all  adult  labor  in  factories  or 
workshops  to  n  per  day,  and  to  10  on  Sat- 
urdays or  public  holidays. 

During  1890  a  law  was  passed  limiting  the 
hours  of  railway  employees  to  10. 

OTHER  EUROPEAN  COUNTRIES. 

In  Holland,  Denmark,  Austria,  Italy,  and 
Spain,  a  large  number  of  the  labor  organiza- 
tions adopt  an  eight-hour  day  as  a  part  of 
their  program,  and  such  a  measure  is  fre- 
quently pressed  upon  the  legislatures  of  some 
of  these  countries  by  the  members  representing 
the  working-classes.  The  international  dem- 
onstration of  the  ist  of  May,  1890,  was  largely 
participated  in,  not  only  in  all  these  countries, 
but  also  by  Poland.  It  may,  indeed,  be  said 
generally,  as  regards  the  Continental  nations, 
that  wherever  the  wage-earners  are  organized 
at  all,  their  organizations  demand  an  eight- 
hour  law.  But  labor  organizations  do  not 
exist,  for  effective  purposes,  among  any  but  a 
minority  of  the  workers  on  the  Continent. 

Meanwhile,  as  if  to  stave  off  the  demand  for 
an  eight-hour  law,  factory  legislation  of  the 
ordinary  type  is  being  everywhere  adopted  or 
rendered  more  stringent.  Belgium  and  Hol- 
land, long  the  fields  of  the  most  unrestrained 
exploitation  of  labor,  are  both  enacting  lengthy 
codes  of  labor  regulations  ;  in  France,  Ger- 
many, Spain,  Italy,  and  Austria,  the  law  is 
being  strengthened  ;  Russia  and  Denmark  and 
Sweden  have  entered  the  same  path.  The 
gap  between  the  restrictions  on  English  and 
those  on  Continental  manufacturers  is  certainly 
not  widening,  and,  as  regards  most  countries, 
it  is  indeed  rapidly  growing  narrower.  In 
some  respects,  indeed,  such  as  the  minimum 
age  for  children's  work,  the  provisions  relating 
to  the  employment  of  mothers  at  the  time  of 
childbirth,  and  the  prevention  of  excessive 
overtime,  England  has  already  lost  its  honor- 
able lead  in  factory  legislation. 

THE    UNITED    STATES. 

The  short-hour  movement  early  developed  in 
the  United  States.  As  early  as  1806  the  or- 
ganized ship-builders  and  calkers  in  New 
York  city  sought  to  obtain  a  reduction  of 
hours  to  10.  By  1825  strikes  for  a  ten-hour 
day  were  numerous. 

The  hours  of  labor  at  that  time  seem  to  have 
been  about  12  per  day  for  artisans.  The  textile 
workers  were  less  fortunate.  The  working- 
day,  even  for  women  and  children,  often  began 
at  4.30  A.  M.,  and  went  on  for  15  hours.  Most 
of  the  New  England  mills  ran  13  hoars  a  day 
all  the  year  round.  It  is  not  generally  remem- 
bered that  the  factory  girls  of  Lowell,  in  the 
classic  days  of  the  "Lowell  Offering"  (1832- 
40),  worked  78  hours  per  week."  In  1831  an 
organization  of  working  men  was  formed  at 
Boston  to  secure,  among  other  objects,  a  ten- 


hour  day.  A  wide-spread  agitation  resulted 
in  innumerable  strikes,  few  of  which  were 
successful.  The  ten-hour  day  became,  how- 
ever, general  in  Baltimore  between  1835  and 
1840,  as  the  result  of  a  strike  among  the  labor- 
ers. Shortly  afterward,  President  Martin 
Van  Buren  (April,  1840)  proclaimed  that  the 
working-day  in  the  Navy  Yard  at  Washington 
and  all  other  public  establishments  should  be 
reduced  to  10  hours.  This  led  to  a  general 
adoption  of  the  ten-hour  day  in  ship-building 
establishments  which  has  been  since  main- 
tained. In  1847,  however,  the  masters  made  a 
determined  but  unsuccessful  attempt  to  revert 
to  longer  hours. 

On  June  16,  1845,  a  large  mass-meeting,  at- 
tended by  5000  persons,  was  held  at  Pittsburg, 
Pa. ,  for  the  same  purpose,  and  led  to  similar 
action  elsewhere.  In  October,  1845,  the  first 
national  industrial  convention  in  this  country 
was  convened  at  New  York,  to  organize  con- 
certed action  toward  the  same  end.  Mass- 
meetings  and  strikes  for  the  ten-hour  system 
now  became  very  frequent,  and  in  many  cases 
were  successful. 

In  1845  the  textile  workers  of  Massachusetts 
petitioned  the  legislature  for  a  ten-hour  bill. 
The  first  legislation  on  the  subject  that  we 
have  been  able  to  trace  is  a  law  of  1849  of  the 
State  of  Pennsylvania,  providing  that  10  hours 
shall  be  a  day's  work  in  cotton,  woolen,  silk, 
paper,  bagging,  and  flax  factories,  and  masons 
had  generally  won  the  ten-hour  day.  The 
textile  operatives  were  less  fortunate.  Some 
of  the  mills  at  Lowell  adopted  the  new  hours 
in  1853,  but  as  late  as  1865  the  mills  at  South- 
bridge  were  still  running  13  hours. 

In  1866  the  National  Labor  Union  was  formed 
at  Baltimore,  and  it  was  this  body  which  gave 
the  first  great  impulse  to  the  movement. 

The  agitation  thus  set  on  foot  received  leg- 
islative recognition  in  Connecticut  in  1867, 
when  it  was  decreed  that  eight  hours'  work 
should  be  a  day's  lawful  labor  unless  other- 
wise agreed. 

On  June  24,  1869,  a  bill  for  an  eight-hour 
day  was  introduced  into  Congress  by  General 
Banks,  whose  wife  was  once  a  factory  girl  at 
Lowell.  This  passed  the  House  and  Senate, 
promptly  received  the  signature  of  President 
Grant,  and  was  enforced  in  the  Navy  Yard  at 
Charlestown,  Mass.,  July  6  of  the  same  year, 
tho  the  employees  were  notified  that  the  Gov- 
ernment would  reduce  wages  one-fifth;  but 
that  those  who  so  desired  could  work  10  hours 
at  the  old  rates.  The  eight-hour  law  is  still  on 
the  statute-books,  and  a  like  law  exists  in  sev- 
eral States,  but  is  often  a  dead  letter. 

In  1869,  however,  the  so-called  Eight-Hour 
philosophy  was    first  adequately  formulated 
by  two  Boston  men,  Ira  Steward  and  George 
E.  McNeill.    A  Grand  Eight-Hour  League  had 
been  formed  previously,  but  had  disappeared, 
when  these  two  men,  with  a  few 
friends,  now  organized  the  small 
but  influential  Boston  Eight-Hour    Eight-Hour 
League.     With  the  aid  of  Wendell       League. 
Phillips  and  others, they  succeeded 
the  same  year  in  securing  the  es- 
tablishment of  the  Massachusetts  Bureau  of 
Statistics  of  Labor,   the  parent  of  all   other 


Short-Hour  Movement,  The. 


1230 


Short-Hour  Movement,  The. 


labor  bureaus.  General  Oliver  was  appointed 
commissioner,  with  Mr.  McNeill  as  his  deputy 
and  the  chief  manager.  The  Bureau's  statistics 
aided  the  eight-hour  movement.  Agitation  for 
shorter  hours  became  general.  There  were 
numerous  strikes,  many  of  them  successful. 
Eight-hour  leagues  were  formed  in  many  cities, 
and  there  were  many  strikes  ;  20,000  workmen 
paraded  New  York  City  demanding  the  eight- 
hour  day.  In  1874  Massachusetts  enacted  a 
ten-hour  law  for  women  and  for  children 
under  the  age  of  18. 

The  industrial  depression  which  set  in  after 
1873  throughout  the  United  States  caused  the 
question  of  any  further  reduction  of  the  hours 
of  labor  to  fall  temporarily  into  abeyance.  The 
great  railway  strikes  of  1877,  and  other  labor 
disputes  during  this  period,  related  mainly  to 
proposed  reductions  in  wages.  This  is  probably 
the  reason  why  the  Knights  of  Labor  did  not 
make  the  eight-hour  day  at  first  an  express 
demand.  Even  at  the  General  Assembly  in 
1878,  when  a  full  "  Declaration  of  Principles  " 
was  adopted,  the  eight-hour  day  was  not  ex- 
pressly mentioned.  The  eight-hour  clause, 
now  No.  xxi.,  "To  shorten  the  hours  of  labor 
by  a  general  refusal  to  work  for  more  than 
eight  hours,"  was  apparently  added  about  1883. 
However,  a  vigorous  effort  to  institute  an  eight- 
hour  day  was  made  in  many  parts  of  the 
United  States  in  the  spring  of  1886.  Brad- 
streefs  estimated  the  number  of  strikers  for 
shorter  hours  in  May,  1886,  at  200,000,  of  whom 
50,000  were  granted  their  demands,  while  150,- 
ooo  secured  shorter  hours,  generally  with  full 
pay,  without  a  strike.  But  on  June  12,  1886, 
the  same  paper  estimated  that  one-third  of 
these  had  lost  what  had  been  conceded  to 
them,  and  predicted  that  a  still  larger  number 
would  lose  the  advantage  gained.  The  great 
meetings  held  at  Chicago  in  May,  1886,  in  sup- 
port of  the  movement,  were  taken  advantage 
of  by  the  anarchists  to  spread  their  ideas,  and 
this  led  to  the  so-called  Haymarket  riot. 

During  the  years  1888  to  1890,  numerous  at- 
tempts were  made  to  secure  an  eight-hour  day 
in  particular  trades  and  particular  localities, 
and  at  the  convention  of  the  Federation  of 
Labor  at  St.  Louis  in  1888,  it  was  decided  to  hold 
mass-meetings  in  every  city  on  the  eight-hour 
question  on  four  days  in  the  year,  including 
July  4,  1889  ;  Labor  Day,  September  2,  1889  ; 
and.  Washington's  birthday,  February  22,  1890. 

It  was  also  decided  to  strike,  trade  by  trade, 
for  the  eight-hour  day  on  each  istof  May,  one 
trade  at  a  time,  all  the  other  trades  being 
pledged  to  support  it  all  over  the  country.  The 
carpenters  were  chosen  to  strike  in  1890.  To  a 
large  extent  they  did  so,  and  in  many  cities 
won  the  eight-hour  day,  tho  in  some  where 
they  won,  the  hours  were  subsequently  length- 
ened. In  1891  the  miners  were  to  strike,  and 
some  did,  but  dissensions  prevented  a  general 
movement.  Since  then  the  movement  has 
taken  a  more  desultory  form.  America  still 
compares  unfavorably  with  England.  Ameri- 
can textile  operatives  and  coal-miners,  in  par- 
ticular, work  considerably  longer  than  do 
Englishmen  engaged  in  the  same  trades.  In 
New  England,  New  York  State,  and  Pennsyl- 
vania, the  working-day  is  still  10  hours,  tho 


some  few  labor  for  more  than  that  time.  In 
only  a  few  States  are  the  hours  of  male  adults 
limited  by  law,  and  then  only  in  special  indus- 
tries. On  the  other  hand,  various  legislatures 
have  attempted  to  lead  public  opinion  by  de- 
claring eight  hours  to  be  the  normal  working- 
day.  In  spite  of  this  encouragement,  very 
few  trades  have  succeeded  in  actually  securing 
an  eight-hour  day.  In  Massachusetts  the  58- 
hour  week  has  been  gained  for  women  and 
children,  and  so  practically  for  men.  In  one 
State,  Wisconsin,  eight  hours  is  a  compulsory 
measure  for  women  in  manufacturing  estab- 
lishments. In  New  York  the  stone-masons, 
cigar-makers,  painters,  and  some  of  the  glass- 
workers,  maintain  more  or  less  precariously 
an  eight-hour  day.  The  same  is  true  of  about 
3  per  cent,  of  the  manufacturing  establish- 
ments in  Massachusetts. 

Such  is  the  history  of  the  short-hour  move- 
ment. To-day  almost  all  economists  and 
reformers  favor  a  shorter  day,  the  only  ques- 
tion being  how  rapidly  it  can  be  introduced, 
and  in  what  ways.  A  few  economic  individu- 
alists and  some  of  the  older  trade- unions,  ob- 
jecting to  industrial  legislation,  favor  effort  to 
obtain  a  reduction  of  hours  by  trade-union 
effort  alone,  by  agreements  with  employers,  etc. 
A  few  extreme  socialists  consider  such  efforts 
hopeless  and  would  have  nothing  but  legisla- 
tion ;  most  supporters  of  the  movement  believe 
that  the  two  lines  of  effort  should  go  together. 
The  Fabian  Society  of  London  has  outlined 
a  policy  of  short-hour  legislation  with  trade 
option,  of  which  the  following  is  the  essence  : 

"  Where  it  is  proved  to  the  satisfaction  of  a  Secre- 
tary of  State  that  a  majority  of  the  persons  employed 
throughout  the  United  Kingdom,  in  any  one  trade  or 
occupation,  are  in  favor  of  the  maximum  hours  of 
labor  per  week  in  that  trade  or  occupation  being  fixed 
by  law,  or,  if  already  so  fixed,  being  altered  by  law, 
he  may,  by  order  made  under  this  part  of  the  act,  de- 
clare a  maximum  number  of  hours  per  day  or  per 
week  for  such  trade  or  occupation,  and  after  the  ex- 
piration of  three  months  from  the  date  of  publication 
of  such  order,  any  person  employed  in  contravention 
thereof  shall  be  deemed  to  be  employed  in  contraven- 
tion of  this  act,  and  the  person  so  employing  him,  or 
permitting  him  to  be  so  employed,  shall  be  liable,  on 
conviction  thereof,  to  a  fine  not  exceeding  £10  for 
each  such  contravention." 

Almost  all  reformers,  however,  agree  that 
in  some  way  to  reduce  the  hours  of  labor  is 
among  the  most  important  of  measures,  and 
the  old  rhyme  of  the  movement  is  now  a  gen- 
erally accepted  motto  : 

"  Eight  hours  to  work,  eight  hours  to  play, 
Eight  hours  to  sleep,  eight  '  bob  '  a  day. 

II.   THE  EIGHT-HOUR  PHILOSOPHY. 

In  England,  Australia,  and  Europe,  the 
short-hour  movement  is  not  commonly  based 
upon  anyone  particular  economic  view,  but  is 
favored  by  socialists,  individualists,  and  trade- 
unionists,  simply  on  its  merits.  In  the  United 
States,  however,  it  is  commonly  based,  at 
least  by  its  trade-union  advocates,  on  a  partic- 
ular economic  view  that  is  commonly  called 
the  Eight-Hour  Philosophy,  and  which  they 
oppose  to  the.  socialist  and  other  views  of  the 
labor  movement.  This  philosophy  was  mainly 
developed  by  two  men — leaders  in  the  Boston 
Eight-Hour  League,  about  1869 — Ira  Steward 


Short-Hour  Movement,  The. 


1231 


Short-Hour  Movement,  The. 


and  George  E.  McNeill.  This  philosophy  traces 
almost  all  economic  ills  to  poverty,  and  believes 
that  to  gradually  reduce  the  hours  of  labor,  and 
so  to  free  men  to  obtain  higher  life  and  to  de- 
velop ability  to  create  for  themselves  a  coopera- 
tive civilization,  is  the  one  way  at  present  to 
naturally  and  permanently  relieve  poverty. 

We  abridge  the  argument  from  Mr.  Gunton's 
Wealth  and  Progress,  because  he  has  most 
fully  developed  this  portion  of  the  eight-hour 
philosophy.  Mr.  Gunton  differs  on  many  points 
from  the  other  eight-hour  men,  but  in  the  fol- 
lowing quotations  represents  their  thought. 
He  says  : 

"  The  chief  determining  influence  in  the  general  rate 
of  wages  in  any  country,  class,  or  industry,  is  the 
standard  of  living  of  the  most  expensive  families 
furnishing  a  necessary  part  of  the  supply  of  labor  in 
that  country,  class,  or  industry.  ... 

"  The  laborer  cannot  and  will  not  work  for  less  than 
that  which  will  furnish  him  a  living.  He  will,  as  expe- 
rience shows,  often  work  for  less  than  what  will  supply 
him  with  exceptional  comforts  and  luxuries,  but  he 
will  not  continuously  work  for  less  than  will  furnish 
him  with  that  which,  by  constant  repetition  and  force 
of  habit,  have  become  necessities.  Before  he  will 
forego  these  he  will  refuse  to  work,  and  inaugurate 
strikes,  riots,  and  other  means  of  endangering  the 
peace  and  prosperity  of  the  community.  .  .  . 

"  This  explains  why  we  always  find  that  those  whose 
families  are  largest,  or  those  who  have  more  culti- 
vated tastes  and  wants,  and,  therefore,  whose  cost  of 
living  is  higher  than  the  great  mass  of  their  class,  are 
constantly  chafing  under  the  pressure  of  their  unsat- 
isried  demands." 

Mr.  Gunton  then  goes  on  elaborately  to  argue 
that  this  law  holds  good  for  all  countries  and  all 
times.  He  says  : 

"  If  we  can  accept  the  universal  testimony  of  trav- 
elers and  historians,  the  cost  of  living  among  the  la- 
boring classes  in  the  leading  countries  in  Asia,  Africa, 
and  South  America  has  always  been  exceedingly  low, 
and  their  wages,  so  far  as  wages  have  been  paid  at  all, 
have  ever  been  correspondingly  small.  .  .  . 

"  If  we  leave  Asia  and  goto  Europe — if  we  turn  our 
attention  from  the  industrial  systems  of  India  and 
China  to  that  of  England— tho  the  seeming  is  dif- 
ferent, the  fact  is  the  same.  While  in  other  respects 
the  conditions  of  society  in  England  are  entirely  dif- 
ferent from  those  of  India  and  China,  we  find  the  same 
principle  obtains  in  relation  to  wages.  Altho  at 
the  time  the  laboring  classes  in  England  began  to 
emerge  from  the  system  of  slavery  (or  serfdom)  to 
that  of  wages,  the  political,  social,  and  religious  insti- 
tutions under  which  they  lived  were  entirely  different 
from  those  existing  in  Asiatic  countries,  there  was  still 
one  feature  common  to  them  all,  viz.,  their  material 
condition. 

"  In  England,  as  in  India  and  China,  the  laborer's 
mode  of  life  was  simple,  his  wants  were  few,  and  his 
living  was  cheap.  .  .  .  And  if  we  trace  the  progress 
of  the  English  laborer  from  the  thirteenth  century  to 
the  present  time  we  shall  find  that  every  movement  in 
his  wages,  from  that  day  to  this,  has  been  in  accord- 
ance with  the  same  law.  .  .  . 

"  The  same  is  true  of  this  and  all  other  countries 
where  wage  conditions  prevail.  The  fact  that  wages 
in  the  various  trades  in  New  York  City  are  from  25  to 
75  cents  a  day  more  than  in  the  small  cities  and  towns, 
in  that  and  other  States,  is  explainable  only  on  the 
same  principle. 

"  The  testimony  of  Sir  Thomas  Brassey  upon  this 
point  is  ample  and  conclusive.  He 

Evidence      says;  'The  minimum  is  determined  by 

/if  tii  a  r  a  in  the  cost  of  living,  according  to  the 
Vw  standard  adopted  by  the  people.  .  .  . 

01  Wages.  As  we  recede  from  the  more  civilized 
countries  of  Europe  the  standard  of 
comfort  is  reduced,  and  the  laborer  is  content  to  re- 
ceive lower  wages.1  " 

Mr.  Gunton  shows  too  that  the  law  explains 
the  differences  of  wages  in  different  trades. 

"  But  this,  it  may  be  said,  is  inadequate  to  explain 
the  extraordinary  difference  between  the  rate  ot  wages 


in  the  building  trades  and  that  paid  to  the  factory 
operatives.  The  employment  of  the  latter  is  more 
constant  than  that  of  those  in  any  branch  of  the  build- 
ing trade.  It  is  also  true  that  in  the  same  locality  the 
general  standard  of  living  of  the  operative  is  lower 
than  that  of  the  former.  But  it  is  no  less  obvious  that 
both  of  these  causes  are  insufficient  to  explain  the 
striking  difference  in  their  wages." 

The  explanation  here  is  that  the  wives  and  children 
of  factory  operatives  help  bring  the  men's  wages  up 
to  the  standard  of  living,  while  the  wives  and  children 
of  carpenters  usually  do  not,  so  that  their  wages  alone 
have  to  equal  the  standard  of  living. 

It  is  for  this  reason  that  the  wages  of  the  father,  as 
shown  above,  are  reduced  in  proportion  as  the  wife 
and  children  contribute  to  the  support  of  the  family. 

The  law  too  shows  why  men  s  wages  are  higher 
than  women  s.  "  As  the  man  is  much  more  generally 
the  head  and  chief  earner  of  the  family,  a  much  larger 
number  are  dependent  upon  the  wages  of  the  aver- 
age man  than  upon  those  of  the  average  woman. 
Again,  altho  the  wants  of  the  average  woman  in  the 
same  social  environment,  for  amusements,  travel,  etc., 
are  equal  to  those  of  the  average  man,  they  are  gener- 
ally furnished  by  the  man,  as  father,  friend,  or  lover, 
and  therefore  really  constitute  an  item  in  the  normal 
expenses  of  the  man,  instead  of  those  of  the  woman." 

The  same  is  true,  Mr.  Gunton  shows,  in  piece-work 
or  day-work.  Whether  men  work  by  the  piece  or  by 
the  day,  they  never  earn  much  more  or  much  less  than 
enables  their  families  to  maintain  the  standard  of  com- 
fort. 

(See  PIECE-WORK.) 

It  being  thus  determined  that  wages  cannot  be 
much  higher  or  lower  than  the  standard  of  liv- 
ing, the  eight-hour  philosophy  next  asks,  What 
determines  the  standard  of  living  ?  This  it  an- 
swers, in  Mr.  Gunton's  words,  as  follows  : 

"  The  standard  of  living  in  any  community  will  be 
high  or  low  according  as  the  social  life  of  the  masses 
is  simple  or  complex,  or,  in  other  words, 
as  the  number  of  the  daily  wants  of  the 
people  is  large  or  small.     It  is  lower  in       Wants 
Asia  than  in  Europe,  lower  in  Europe 
than  America,  lower  at  Five  Points  than 
on  Fifth  Avenue,  for  the  reason  that  the 
wants  of  the  people  in  the  former  places  are  fewer  and 
simpler  than  those  in  the  latter.  .  .  . 

"  But  if  the  standard  of  living  is  governed  by  the 
wants,  the  question  that  next  arises  is,  What  deter- 
mines the  wants? 

"Man  is  a  twofold  being.  He  has  a  physical  and  a 
social  nature,  and,  consequently,  he  has  social  as  well 
as  physical  wants.  The  latter  arise  from  his  animal 
existence,  and  the  former  from  his  social  relations. 
Therefore,  his  physical  wants,  like  those  of  the  lower 
animals,  are  few,  and  mostly  hereditary,  while  hii 
social  wants  are  acquired  and  have  no  conceivable 
limit.  ...  If  we  examine  the  history  of  man,  we  shall 
find  that  his  wants  are  few  or  many,  and  high  or  low. 
according  to  the  quality  of  the  habits  and  customs  01 
the  society  in  which  he  moves.  .  .  . 

"Therefore,  how  to  increase  the  wants,  develop  the 
character,  and  consequently  advance  the  wages  of  the 
laboring  classes,  ultimately  resolves  itself  into  the 
question.  How  can  the  social  opportunities  of  the 
masses  be  enlarged? 

"  Now,  so  long  as  nearly  all  the  laborer's  time  not 
occupied  in  eating  and  sleeping  is  devoted  to  the 
former,  as  at  present,  no  commensurate  development 
of  the  latter  is  possible.  Therefore,  the  first  condi- 
tion for  increasing  the  opportunity  of  the  masses  to 
develop  their  social  character,  and  thereby  increase 
their  natural  capacity  to  consume  wealth,  commen- 
surate with  their  power  to  produce  it,  is  more  leisure. 
By  leisure,  however,  we  do  not  mean  merely  unoccu- 
pied time.  Enforced  idleness  is  unoccupied  time,  but 
it  is  not  leisure.  The  masses,  the  world  over,  have  a 
great  deal  of  unoccupied  time,  but  it  is  mainly  in  the 
form  of  idleness,  and  not  that  of  leisure.  Tho  idleness 
and  leisure  are  both  unoccupied  time,  the  economic 
and  social  influence  of  the  one  is  directly  opposite  to 
that  of  the  other.  Idleness  tends  to  impoverish,  dwarf, 
and  degrade,  while  leisure  tends  to  enrich,  develop, 
and  elevate  character.  It  is  very  important,  there- 
fore, to  distinguish  clearly  between  leisure  and  idle- 
ness. Nor  is  this  difficult  to  do  if  we  observe  their 
essential  characteristics.  .  .  . 

"  The  immediate  and  rnost  important  question,  the 
answer  to  which  is  necessary  to  enable  us  to  take  the 
first  correct  step  toward  preventing  enforced  idleness, 


Short-Hour  Movement,  The. 


1232 


Short-Hour  Movement,  The. 


js  how  to  wisely  and  permanently  increase  the  leisure 
.time  of  the  laboring  classes.  To  this  question  we  are 
now  in  a  position,  on  the  basis  of  sound  economic 
principles,  to  give  a  definite  and  emphatic  answer, 
which  is — reduce  the  hours  of  labor. 

"In  proposing  a  reduction  of  the  hours  of  labor  as 
the  indispensable  first  step  toward  promoting  indus- 
trial and  social  reform,  we  do  not  say  that  it  is  the 
only  means  that  will,  under  any  and  all  conditions, 
tend  to  promote  that  end. 

"But  while  there  are  other  more  or  less  effectual 
means  of  promoting  the  same  end,  such  as  education, 
free  lectures,  public  libraries,  parks,  museums,  and 
arj;  galleries,  these  are  and  must  necessarily  remain 
practically  ineffectual,  so  far  as  lifting  the  community 
from  its  present  industrial  and  social  mire  is  con- 
cerned, unless  the  leisure  time  of  the  masses  is  in- 
creased." 

It  is  thus  that  the  eight-hour  philosophy 
reaches  its  conclusion  to  concentrate  all  present 
economic  effort  on  reducing  the  hours  of  labor. 
But  this  is  by  no  means  the  whole  of  the  philos- 
ophy. It  goes  on  to  show  how  a  reduction 
in  hours  will  also  employ  the  unemployed, 
and  by  setting  them  to  work,  and  giving  them 
money  to  spend,  increase  their  consumptive 
powers,  and  so  still  more  raise  the  standard 
of  living.  Says  Mr.  Gunton  on  this  point  in 

a  tract,  The  Economic  and  Social  Importance 

of  the  Eight-Hour  Movement  : 

"The  adoption  of  an  eight-hour  system  would  tend 
to  increase  wages  in  two  ways ;  first,  by  reducing 
enforced  idleness  ;  second,  by  creating  new  wants 
and  raising  the  standard  of  living.  The  immediate 
•effect  of  the  general  adoption  of  an  eight-hour  work 
day  would  be  to  reduce  the  working-time  of  over 
5,000,000  adult  laborers  about  two  hours  a  day.  This 
would  withdraw  about  16,000,000  hours'  labor  a  day 
from  the  market  without  discharging  a  single  laborer. 
The  industrial  vacuum  thus  created  would  be  equal 
to  increasing  the  demand  for  labor  nearly  20  per  cent. 
In  other  words,  without  increasing  either  our  home 
or  foreign  market,  but  simply  to  supply  the  present 
normal  consumption,  it  would  create  employment 
for  2,000,000  laborers,  which  is  nearly  equal  to  70  per 
cent,  of  the  total  number  of  able-bodied  paupers  and 
unemployed  laborers  in  America,  England,  France, 
and  Germany.  In  thus  eliminating  enforced  idleness 
it  would  remove  the  first  great  obstacle  to  industrial 
reform  and  social  progress. 

"  Again,  the  employment  of  2,000,000  of  new  laborers 

would  necessarily   tend    to  increase  the  number  of 

consumers,    and    thereby    enlarge  the 

market  for  commodities  to  that  extent. 

Effects  of  That  such  a  result  would  tend  to  in- 
c,  ...  crease  wages  is  very  clear.  Although 

Snort  .Hours,  wages  would  not  necessarily  rise  in  the 
same  proportion  that  enforced  idle- 
ness is  reduced,  all  the  influences 
would  be  in  that  direction.  It  is  a  law  in  all  nature 
that  the  power  of  primary  forces  increases  directly 
as  the  opposing  forces  are  reduced.  Since  enforced 
idleness  is  the  most  powerful  obstruction  to  a  rise  of 
wages,  by  removing  the  unemployed  the  direct  in- 
fluence of  the  social  forces  which  tend  to  promote 
the  rise  of  real  wages  would  be  increased. 

"Manifestly,  therefore,  the  immediate  effect  of  the 
adoption  of  this  measure  would  be  to  remove  the 
greatest  obstacle  to  industrial  peace  and  progress, 
and  prepare  the  way  for  increasing  the  natural  in- 
fluences which  tend  to  enlarge  the  general  consump- 
tion of  wealth  and  raise  wages. 

"  The  second  effect,  which  would  be  more  gradual, 
permanent,  and  far-reaching  in  its  nature  than  the 
first,  would  be  the  result  of  the  increased  leisure  and 
social  opportunity  upon  the  social  character  and  con- 
sumption of  the  masses.  With  the  removal  of  en- 
forced idleness,  and  its  degrading  influences,  over 
8,000,000  laborers  •would  leave  their  work  each  day 
less  exhausted,  mentally  and  physically,  and  have 
two  hours'  more  leisure.  This  would  mean  so  much 
positive  opportunity  for  family  life  and  for  general 
social  intercourse,  and  in  a  much  fresher  and  more 
cheerful  mood.  With  increased  leisure  and  less  ex- 
haustion, the  laborer  will  be  continually  forced  or 
attracted  into  new  and  more  complex  social  relations, 
which  is  the  first  step  toward  education  and  culture 
in  the  broadest  and  deepest  sense  of  the  term.  In 


short,  it  means  his  gradual  introduction  into  a  new 
social  environment,  the  unconscious  influence  of 
which  would  necessarily  awaken  and  develop  new 
tastes  and  desires  for  more  social  comforts.  He  would 
naturally  begin  to  desire  more  wholesome  and  better 
appointed  homes,  more  literature,  entertainment,  and 
a  greater  amount  of  general  social  intercourse,  not 
to  speak  of  the  intellectual,  moral,  and  social  im- 
provement that  would  necessarily  result  from  such 
conditions.  The  purely  economic  effect  of  this  would 
be  little  short  of  revolution.  In  proportion  to  the 
frequency  and  extent  with  which  the  new  desires 
were  gratified,  the  development  of  which  no  power 
on  earth  could  prevent,  would  they  crystallize  into 
urgent  wants  and  necessities.  The  satisfaction  of 
these  would  soon  become  an  essential  part  of  the 
standard  of  living  demanded  by  the  social  character 
and  habits  of  the  people,  and  therefore  would  make 
a  general  rise  of  real  wages  inevitable.  In  fact, 
these  are  the  only  kind  of  influences  which  ever  did, 
or  ever  can,  permanently  increase  the  general  rate  of 
real  wages.  This  increased  consumption  and  rise  of 
wages  means  enlargement  of  the  home  market,  and 
thereby  making  a  greater  concentration  of  capital 
and  the  use  of  wealth-cheapening  machinery  possible. 

Such  in  brief  are  the  main  points  of  the 
eight-hour  philosophy  as  far  as  its  economics 
are  concerned.  As  far  as  its  practical  pro- 
gram is  concerned  a  few  other  points  must 
still  be  noted  : 

1.  The   Eight-Hour   Philosophy  claims  that 
this  method  of  raising  wages,  by  shortening 
the  hours  of  toil,  is  not  only  based  on  the  laws 
of  economics,  but  suited  to  the  character  of 
all  abiding  progress,  in  that  it  can  be  intro- 
duced without  either  overturning  the  present 
system  or  jeopardizing  the  reasonable  inter- 
ests of  employers,  until  all  working-people  be 
lifted  up  to  a  level  where  cooperative  methods 
can  be  introduced  and  the  wage  system  be 
gradually  replaced  by  one  where  workmen 
shall  be  their  own  employers. 

2.  The  Eight-Hour  Philosophy  claims  that 
it  is  suited  to  the  political  and  ethical  sense  of 
working  men,  in  that  it  teaches  them  to  look 
for  advance  of  wages,  not  to  legislative  enact- 
ment or  any  other  form  of    paternalism,  but 
by  their  own  efforts  in  gaining  the   shorter 
day,  and  so  lifting  themselves  up  to  a  fuller 
manhood. 

While  it  takes  this  position  it  recognizes  the 
proper  place  of  government,  by  asking,  as  the 
first  step  in  securing  the  short -hour  day,  that 
government  establish  an  eight-hour  day,  not 
indeed  in  all  factories,  but  in  all  government 
works  ;  thus  showing  what  can  be  done,  what 
an  eight-hour  day  means;  making  it  thus  an 
object  lesson  both  to  employers  and  employees, 
and  so  leading  the  community,  not  by  law,  but 
by  example. 

3.  The    Eight-Hour    Philosophy  recognizes 
that  while  industrial  progress  must  come  from 
the    working-classes    lifting    themselves     up 
through  combination  to  higher  standards  of 
living,   the  power  to    combine    and    agitate 
for  shorter  hours  implies  already  a  degree  of 
development.     Hence,  by  working  along  the 
lines  of  least  resistance,  and  by  following  the 
deep     principle    that    to  those  who  have  is 
given,  it  holds  that  the  eight-hour  movement 
will  develop  first  among  the  higher  paid  arti- 
sans, and  then,  through  their  gaining  higher 
standards  of  living,  will  reach  down  and  lift  up 
those  at  present  unable  to  organize  for  them- 
selves.    Thus  the  Eight-Hour  Philosophy  has 
always    sought    and    found    its    chief    home 


Short-Hour  Movement,  The. 


1233 


Short-Hour  Movement,  The. 


among  the  more  intelligent  and  the  better 
organized  trade-unions.  Perhaps  the  whole 
of  the  philosophy  may  be  best  summed  up  in 
the  resolutions  passed  by  the  Boston  Eight- 
Hour  League  at  its  convention  of  1872,  drafted 
by  Mr.  Steward  himself  : 

"Resolved,  That  poverty  is  the  great  fact  with  which 
the  labor  movement  deals  ; 

"That  cooperation  in  labor  is  the  final  result  to  be 
obtained  ; 

"That  a  reduction  in  the  hours  of  labor  is  the  first 
step  in  labor  reform  ;  and  that  the  emancipation  of 
labor  from  the  slavery  and  ignorance  of  poverty 
solves  all  of  the  problems  that  now  most  disturb  and 
perplex  mankind. 

"  Resolved,  That  we  demand  legislation  on  the  hours 
of  labor,  as  follows  : 

"  i.  An  amendment  to  the  Patent  Laws  of  the  United 
•States,  by  which  an  exclusive  right  to  make  or  sell  shall 
be  forfeiced  when  persons  are  employed  in  manufac- 
turing an  article  patented  more  than  eight  hours 
A  day. 

"2.  An  amendment  to  the  Acts  of  Incorporation  of 
•cities  and  towns,  requiring  them  to  adopt  the  eight- 
hour  rule  in  the  employment  of  all  mechanics  and  day 
laborers,  and  the  same  hours  to  apply  to  the  same 
«lass  of  work  for  the  State,  whether  directly  or  indi- 
rectly, through  persons,  firms,  or  corporations  con- 
tracting with  the  State. 

"  3.  Manufacturing  corporations  to  adopt  the  eight- 
hour  system  or  surrender  their  charters. 

"  4.  All  persons  under  21  years  of  age  to  be  employed 
not  more  than  eight  hours  a  day. 

"  5.  Eight  hours  to  be  made  a  legal  day's  work  in  the 
Absence  of  a  written  agreement. 

"Resolved,  That  this  legislation,  though  affecting 
•directly  but  a  small  per  cent,  of  the  people,  will  estab- 
lish the  facts  most  important  for  the  working-classes 
to  learn: 

'  That  eight  hours  do  not  mean  less  wages ; 

"That  men  are  never  paid,  as  a  rule,  according  to 
•what  they  earn,  but  according  to  the  average  cost  of 
living ; 

"That  in  the  long  run— within  certain  limits— less 
hours  means  more  pay,  whether  they  work  by  the  day 
or  work  by  the  piece  ; 

"That  reducing  the  hours  increases  the  purchasing 
power  of  wages  as  well  as  the  amount  of  wealth 
produced ; 

"That  dear  men*  mean  cheap  productions,  and  cheap 
men  mean  dear  productions  ; 

"  That  six  cents  a  day  in  China  is  dearest,  and  three 
•dollars  a  day  in  America  is  cheapest ; 

"  That  the  moral  causes  that  have  made  three  dol- 
lars a  day  cheaper  than  six  cents  a  day  will  make 
higher  wages  still  cheaper  ; 

"That  less  hours  mean  reducing  the  profits  and  for- 
tunes that  are  made  on  labor  or  its  results ; 

"  More  knowledge  and  more  capital  for  the  laborer  ; 
the  wage  system  gradually  disappearing  through 
higher  wages ; 

"  Less  poor  people  to  borrow  money,  and  less  wealthy 
ones  to  lend  it,  and  a  natural  decline  in  the  rates  of 
interest  on  money  ; 

"  More  idlers  working,  and  more  workers  thinking  ; 
the  motives  to  fraud  reduced,  and  fewer  calls  for 
special  legislation  ; 

"  Woman's  wages  increased,  her  household  labor 
reduced,  better  opportunities  for  thought  and  action, 
and  the  creation  of  motives  strong  enough  to  demand 
and  secure  the  ballot ; 

"Reaching  the  great  causes  of  intemperance— ex- 
treme wealth  and  extreme  poverty  ; 

"And  the  salvation  of  republican  institutions." 

III.  ARGUMENTS  FOR  REDUCING  HOURS 
OF  LABOR. 

.The  adherents  of  the  short-hour  movement 
"believe  'that  all  considerations — physical,  eco- 
nomic, mental,  and  moral — conduce  to  make 
a  reduction  of  the  hours  of  the  wage-toil  to- 
day desirable  and  necessary.  The  best  argu- 
ments, however,  for  reducing  the  hours  of 
labor  are  the  results  of  the  reduction  of  hours 
that  have  been  made.  Undoubtedly  the  best 
account  of  these  results  is  Mr.  Rae's  Eight 

78 


Hours  for  Work,  published  in  1894.  The  au- 
thor commenced  his  studies  of  the  subject  mere- 
ly to  get  information.  His  conclusion  he  thus 
states  in  his  introduction  : 

"All  experience  indorses  the  wisdom  of  reducing 
the  hours  of  labor.  .  .  .  The  available  evidence  is  un- 
expectedly copious,  and  its  teaching  is  unexpectedly 
Flain  and  uniform.  In  the  course  of  the  investigation 
have  found  it  impossible,  personally,  not  to  grow  a 
stronger  and  stronger  believer  in  the  eight-hour  day. 
Shorter  work  hours  have  left  every  nation  that  has 
chosen  them  at  once  healthier,  wealthier,  and  wiser ; 
and  the  shortening  to  eight  seems,  if  I  may  say  so,  to  be 
blessed  above  its  predecessors.  According  to  positive 
experiences  of  it,  the  eight-hour  day  has  been  almost 
invariably  fair." 

Mr.  Rae's  book  of  328  pages  is  full  of  evi- 
dences to  the  good  result  of  shortened  hours. 

The  first  point  usually  made  by  the  advocates 
of  the  short-hour  movement  is  that  it  is  to-day 
an  economic  necessity.  Invention  and  discov- 
ery have  so  increased  man's  ability  to  produce 
that  in  a  few  hours  the  modern  factory  can  turn 
out  more  goods  than  men  could  formerly  pro- 
duce unaided  by  machinery  in  days 
or  even  weeks.  This  process  of 
invention  and  discovery  still  con-  An  Economic 
tinues.  (See  MACHINERY.)  In  the  Necessity, 
competition  to  produce  cheaply, 
labor-saving  machine  after  ma- 
chine and  improvement  upon  improvement  are 
constantly  being  introduced.  The  result  is 
that  if  the  working  classes  are  paid  no  higher 
than  formerly,  their  purchasing  power  is  not  in- 
creased at  all  in  proportion  to  their  producing 
power,  and  goods  are  piled  up  in  the  factories 
for  which  there  is  no  market,  the  phenomenon 
of  a  so-called  overproduction.  It  is  true  that 
this  leads  to  lowering  prices,  so  that  the  pro- 
ducer, tho  paid  nominally  no  higher  wages 
than  formerly,  can  purchase  more  goods,  but  it 
also  makes  it  possible  for  the  worker  to  retain 
the  same  standard  of  living  and  yet  work  for 
cheaper  wages.  Under  competition  this  hap- 
pens. (It  is  true  that  many  statisticians  deny 
that  this  has  happened  ;  but  the  workers  and 
other  statisticians  show  that  it  has  occurred 
-where  competition  has  been  left  to  itself.') 
The  only  places  where  wages  have  not  fallen 
have  been  in  trades  where  labor  combinations 
or  some  extraneous  and  exceptional  circum- 
stances have  kept  wages  tip.  (For  proof  of  this, 
see  WAGES  )  The  workman  finds  himself,  then, 
with  lower  wages  to  balance  lower  prices,  un- 
able, therefore,  to  buy  more  than  formerly,  and 
yet  producing  an  ever-increasing  supply  of 
goods.  Even  the  employers  do  not  profit  by  this 
condition  of  affairs,  because,  tho  they  have  much 
more  to  sell,  they  have  to  sell  at  lower  prices  to 
a  falling  market.  They  cannot  go  on  increas- 
ing their  goods  for  which  they  found  no  sale, 
yet  they  are  compelled,  at  no  little  expense,  to 
keep  up  with  the  latest  mechanical  inventions, 
because  if  they  do  not,  they  cannot  produce  as 
cheaply  as  those  who  do  adopt  the  new  inven- 
tions. Consequently  their  only  resource  is  to 
produce  as  cheaply  as  possible  when  they  do 
produce,  and  then  to  close  their  factories  for  a 
portion  of  the  year  or  to  work  half  time  or  one 
third  time.  This  produces  the  phenomenon  of 
the  unemployed,  and  particularly  the  phenome- 
non of  those  unemployed  half  their  time  and 


Short-Hour    Movement,  The. 


1234 


Short-Hour  Movement,  The. 


working  at  feverish  rate  the  other  half.  This 
phenomenon  appears  to  day  in  every  manufac- 
turing center.  It  is  sometimes  attributed  by 
different  thinkers  to  free  trade  or  to  protection, 
to  free  silver  or  to  gold.  That  it  is  not  due  to 
these  factors,  but  to  the  analysis  we  have  just 
made,  is  evident,  say  the  advocates  of  short 
hours,  from  the  fact  that  the  phenomenon  ap- 
pears alike  in  free  trade  England  and  protect- 
ed America,  in  countries  most  fully  on  the  gold 
basis,  like  England  and  Germany,  and  countries 
nearer  to  a  bimetallic  basis,  like  the  United 
States  and  France. 

Nor  does  the  evil  end  here.     The  existence 
of  the  unemployed,  and '  even  the  existence  of 
the  unemployed  for  a  portion  of  the  time,  makes 
it  harder  and    harder    for    trade- 
unions  to  keep  up  their  labor  com- 
The         binations  and  their    union    rates. 
Unemployed.  Under  one  pretext  and  another  the 
union  scale  of  wages  falls.     Em- 
ployers are  often  literally  unable 
to  pay  the  old  union  rates,  with  goods  piling 
on  their  shelves  for  which  there  is  no  market. 
Therefore  wages  begin  to  fall  even  in  the  or- 
ganized trades.     This  reduces  the  market  still 
more.     Only  the  stronger  firms    are    able  to 
stand  the  crisis.     Consolidation  sets  in  ;    the 
small  factories  are    permanently  shut  down  ; 
and  more  men  and  women  are  thrown  unem- 
ployed on  the  market. 

That  this,  to  a  very  large  extent  at  least,  is 
true  of  the  market  to-day  no  informed  person 
can  deny.  The  only  relief,  say  the  short-hour 
men,  is  to  lessen  the  hours  of  labor. 

This,  they  say,  will  be  to  lessen  production 
equitably  through  the  year  and  not  in  fitful  sea- 
sons. It  will  be  as  good  for  the  employers,  be- 
cause they  will  still  produce  all  the  goods  they 
can  sell,  and  yet  prevent  a  too  great  fall  in  prices. 
They  can,  therefore,  afford  to  shorten  hours 
without  lowering  wages.  It  will  aid  the  men, 
because,  in  the  first  place,  it  will  stop  turning 
out  more  of  the  unemployed  ;  and,  secondly, 
because,  according  to  the  eight-hour  philoso- 
phy above,  it  will  raise  the  standard  of  living, 
give  men  leisure  in  place  of  idleness,  increase 
wants,  make  men  more  capable  of  supporting 
labor  unions  ;  thus  limit  disastrous  labor  com- 
petition ;  so  enable  men  to  demand  higher 
wages  ;  with  the  higher  wages  enable  them  to 
buy  more  goods,  and  so  give  the  manufacturer 
the  improved  market  which  he  needs,  and 
which  will  enable  him  to  produce  the  higher 
wages.  Thus  steadily,  quietly  and 
naturally,  say  the  short-hour  men, 
A  Humane  will  the  interests  and  character  of 
Necessity,  the  community  be  advanced.  The 
second  argument  for  shorter  hours 
is  that  humanity  demands  them. 
Labor  to-day  is  very  differently  situated  and 
employed  from  what  it  was  formerly.  It  is  be- 
coming more  and  more  an  attachment  to  ma- 
chinery (q.v.).  Machinery  is  driven  constantly 
faster  and  faster.  The  wear  and  tear  on  human 
life  steadily  increases.  Men,  therefore,  need 
shorter  hours  to  allow  for  this.  "  Faster  loco- 
motives can  be  invented,"  said  an  engineer, 
"  but  can  they  get  men  to  run  them  ?"  "  Not 
unless  the  hours  of  each  worker  are  shortened," 
was  the  answer.  The  stress  placed  upon  motor- 


men  in  driving  swift  cars  through  narrow  streets 
for  long  hours  by  many  street-car  corporations, 
eager  only  for  dividends,  is  little  less  than  crim- 
inal. Its  cure  is  shorter  hours  and  more  men 
employed.  The  effect  of  the  factory  on  the 
nerves  of  girls  each  year  compelled  to  tend  more 
looms  or  watch  faster-flying  shuttles  demands 
shortened  hours  for  increased  work. 

Again,  humanity  demands  shorter  hours  be- 
cause, where  labor  is  made  more  and  more  de- 
pendent on  machinery,  unless  the  hours  of  such 
toil  are  limited  the  worker  will  become  more 
and  more  of  a  hand  and  less  and  less  of  a  head. 
Workers  by  brain,  often  unacquainted  with  ma- 
chine toil,  sometimes  say,  "  I  work  at  my  pro- 
fession 12  hours  a  day  ;  why  should  the  ma- 
chine-tender complain  of  12  hours?"  Because 
there  is  a  vast  difference  between  brain  and 
hand  labor.  Into  brain  labor  the  worker  can 
throw  his  mind,  his  imagination,  his  soul,  as  well 
as  to  an  extent  his  body.  The  hand-worker 
often  does  work  almost  absolutely  mechanical, 
or  into  which  he  can  throw  his  mind  only  in  the 
narrowest  grooves.  Often  he  exerts  but  a 
single  set  of  muscles.  Inevitably  the  latter  be- 
comes exhausted  first,  because  one  set  of  mus- 
cles or  mental  powers  used  on  one  line  cannot 
stand  the  continuous  application  which  the 
brain-worker  extends  over  many  parts.  The 
mental  effects  are  still  more  disastrous.  Labor 
without  thought,  or  thought  on  a  very  narrow 
line,  brutalizes.  Unless  laborers  are  to  become 
brutes,  the  hand  must  have  an  opportunity  to 
develop  the  head,  and  intenser  hand-work 
increases  the  need  for  more  time  for  head-work. 
An  even  greater  reason,  however,  why  human- 
ity demands  shorter  hours  is  that  they  mean  bet- 
ter homes,  and  better  homes  mean  better  men 
and  women.  If  shorter  hours,  in  the  first  place, 
as  we  have  seen  above,  tend  to  check  unem- 
ployment, and  thus  indirectly  to  raise  wages, 
this  means  improved  homes.  Secondly,  when 
the  artisan  can  come  to  his  home,  say  at  five 
o'clock,  can  rest  and  wash  and  sit  down  to  his 
evening  dinner,  or  work  a  little  in  his  garden 
before  dark,  there  are  possibilities  of  home  life 
and  home  development  utterly  unknown  to 
those  workmen  who  go  from  bed  to  factory  and 
from  factory  to  bed.  When  such  do  have  lei- 
sure, ignorant  of  home  life,  they  are  apt  to 
spend  it  in  the  saloon.  Seeing  little  of  their 
families — there  are  workmen  who  never  see 
their  wives  and  children  by  daylight  for  months 
together — they  do  not  realize  the  needs  of  the 
wife  and  children,  nor  feel  the  restraining  ties 
of  wifely  and  filial  love.  They  live  like  the 
brutes,  and  their  families  become  brutal.  Those 
who  work  excessive  hours  become  the  lowest 
class  of  laborers.  Short  hours  mean  at  least  the 
possibility  of  human  life.  This  is  probably  the 
strongest  argument  for  shorter  hours. 

Thirdly,   political    reasons    demand    shorter 
hours.     Under    democracy  an    ever  increasing 
responsibility  falls  upon  the  working 'classes. 
If  they  are  ignorant,  brutalized,  be- 
sotted,  popular    government    can 
only  lead  to  evil.     Democracy  ab-     Political 
solutely  demands  a  high  grade  of     Reasons, 
development  among  the  laboring 
classes.     This  is  not  possible  when 
the  worker  is  merely  a  toiling  and  sleeping  ma- 


Short-Hour  Movement,  The. 


Short-Hour  Movement,  The. 


chine.  The  safety  of  democratic  countries  abso- 
lutely demands  shortened  hours  of  wage  toil. 

Such  are  some  of  the  principal  arguments  for 
the  short-hour  movement.  How  fully  most  of 
them  are  supported  by  facts  can  be  seen  only 
by  those  who,  like  Mr.  Rae,  have  given  the  sub- 
ject the  fullest  study. 

Said  Sir  Robert  Peel,  in  a  speech  as  long  ago 
as  1816,  speaking  of  the  first  British  factory  act  : 

"The  hours  of  work  allowed  by  that  bill  being  fewer 
in  number  than  those  formerly  practised,  a  visible  im- 
provement in  the  health  and  general  appearance  of  the 
children  soon  became  evident,  and  since  the  complete 
operation  of  the  act  co"ntagious  disorders  have  rarely 
occurred." 

Says  a  tract  published  by  the  American  Fed- 
eration of  Labor,  summing  up  the  experience 
of  England's  agricultural  and  factory  labor  : 

"  When  the  agricultural  laborers  in  certain  countries 
of  England,  under  the  inspiration  of  Arch  and  his  col- 
leagues, secured  additional  hours  of  rest,  but  a  short 
period  was  needed  to  see  a  marked  improvement  in 
their  social  condition.  Flowers  began  to  blossom 
around  their  cottage  walls,  dilapidated  fences  and 
broken  gates  were  mended,  the  shrubbery  more  neatly 
tended  and  the  garden  more  carefully  cultivated.  In- 
side of  these  humble  dwellings,  where  the  laborer  had 
formerly  entered  at  the  conclusion  of  a  long  day's 
work  only  to  throw  his  wearied  body  down  to  sense- 
less slumber,  articles  of  comfort  began  to  come  in  ;  a 
carpet  replaced  the  scraped  sand  it  may  be  on  the  floor, 
curtains  to  the  windows  and  pictures  upon  the  wall 
added  a  home  feeling  which  did  much  to  awaken  the 
dormant  manliness  of  its  occupants.  With  increased 
comforts  came  increased  \yants  ;  increased  wants  and 
a  higher  vigor  brought  increased  cultivation,  and, 
hence,  a  higher  standard  of  wages  than  on  the  conti- 
nent, where  the  hours  of  labor  remained  from  12  to  16 
per  day. 

"  Even  those  who  at  first  bitterly  denounced  all  efforts 
to  lessen  factory  toil  as  revolutionary  and  destructive 
of  'the  natural  degree,  of  society,' under  the  lessons  of 
experience  were  becoming  convinced  that  less  hours 
meant  not  only  higher  wages,  but  im- 
proved sanitary,  social  and  moral  re- 
Results,  lations.  Official  reports  show  that  within 
a  single  decade  it  was  rare  to  find  an 
operative  under  20  years  of  age  unable 
to  read  and  write.  Diseases  incidental  to  factory 
labor  disappeared,  and  there  was  an  almost  entire  ab- 
sence of  deformity  specific  to  that  work  ;  wages  in- 
creased from  12  to  40  per  cent.,  and  with  the  rise  of 
consumption  of  products  the  production  of  textile  fab- 
rics largely  increased.  From  1844  to  1858  the  commerce 
of  Great  Britain  doubled  and  increased  more  than 
twice  as  fast  as  the  population,  while  before  this  it 
hardly  kept  pace  with  it.  From  1840  to  1870  the  propor- 
tion of  the  adult  population  who  could  read  and  write 
increased  35  per  cent,  faster  than  the  population,  while 
the  number  of  children  attending  public  schools  in- 
creased several  hundred  per  cent.  With  increased 
knowledge  has  followed  lectures  on  science  and  art  in 
large  manufacturing  centers,  and  public  gardens  and 
museums  have  offered  new  inducements  to  the  once 
despised  worker.  In  the  words  of  an  English  writer, 
'  refinement  and  civilization  only  take  their  date  from 
the  possession  ot  the  privileges  which  restricted  labor 
conferred  upon  the  people.'  Such  prominent  oppo- 
nents in  Parliament  as  J.  A.  Roebuck,  Sir  James 
Graham,  Sir  Thomas  Bazley,  the  late  and  most  vindic- 
tive John  Bright,  and  others,  all  lived  to  recant  their 
dismal  forebodings." 

The  strongest  testimony,  however,  to  the  bene- 
fits of  the  short  hour  movement  comes  from 
those  countries  and  those  firms  which  have  tried 
the  eight-hour  day.  Mr.  Rae,  in  his  book  (see 
above),  has  collected  pages  of  this  testimony  : 

One  firm,  Messrs.  Watts  &  Manton,  say,  "The  habits 
of  the  people  are  changing  ;  there  is  a  greater  desire 
for  home  life,  and  greater  longing  after  the  means  by 
which  it  is  to  be  rendered  more  agreeable."  Mr.  John- 
ston, flax-spinner  and  ex-Mayor  of  Belfast,  says  that 
under  the  long  hours  the  boys  used  to  lounge  about  the 


street  corners  and  frequent  the  public  houses,  but 
since  the  hours  were  shortened  they  attended  reading- 
rooms  in  large  numbers,  and  when  tired  of  reading 
wouid  amuse  themselves  with  games.  Mr.  C.  Wilson, 
manufacturer,  Hawick,  told  the  labor  commissioner 
that  his  men  had  been  using  their  leisure  wisely,  and 
had  improved  during  the  years  they  have  now  enjoyed 
it. 

Mond  &  Co.  state  explicitly  of  a  small  reduction 
made  in  their  works:  "To  the  men  it  has  been  the 
greatest  boon.  It  has  had  the  most  material  effect  in 
improving  their  health  and  decreasing  the  amount  of 
drunkenness,  which  before  the  adoption  of  the  system 
was  very  great  indeed.  The  interference  of  the  police 
is  not  called  for  now  as  it  used  to  be."  Messrs.  John- 
son of  Stratford,  after  four  years'  experience  of  the 
eight -hours'  system,  say  that  they  have  now  a  more 
intelligent  set  of  men,  and  that  the  men  and  lads  have 
come,  in  consequence  of  their  greater  leisure,  to  im- 
prove themselves  by  attending  technical  classes  in  the 
evening. 

This  is  the  universal  testimony  where  the 
system  has  been  tried  for  any  length  of  time. 
Sometimes  the  first  effect  of  a  considerable  re- 
duction of  hours  is  to  somewhat  increase  drunk- 
enness and  debauchery.  Men  brought  up  under 
a  long-hour  day  and  accustomed  to  the  standard 
of  life  that  goes  with  it,  sometimes  use  their 
first  greater  freedom  for  greater  evil  ;  but  soon 
the  shorter  hours  produce  a  higher  grade  of  life 
and  a  higher  morale.  The  worst  drinking  and 
the  worst  morality  always  go  with  exhausting 
toil  and  no  opportunity  for  the  development  of 
nobler  life.  In  Switzerland  it  was  claimed, 
when  the  hours  of  labor  were  shortened,  that 
the  hours  gained  from  the  mill  would  be  given 
to  the  tavern  ;  but  M.  Blocher,  a  Swiss  collar 
manufacturer,  expressly  says  that  this  was  not 
the  case,  and  that  it  was  when  his  men  worked 
day  and  night  that  he  saw  most  dissipation. 

In  Australia,  the  country  which  has  gone  far- 
thest in  reducing  hours,  the  saloon  interest  is 
reported  by  Mr.  Rae  to  have  always  opposed 
the  reduction  of  hours.  Writers-] ike  Mr.  Bryce, 
and  almost  all  who  visit  Australia,  notice  the 
neat  cottages  of  the  working  classes  in  the  sub- 
urbs almost  invariably  tilled  by  their  owners,  a 
fact  which  could  not  be  if  short  hours  meant 
much  tippling.  Mr.  Rae  says  that  the  general 
opinion  in  Victoria  is  that  the  habits  of  the  men 
have  improved  and  not  deteriorated  through  the 
short  hours.  In  the  United  States,  the  testi- 
mony is  conclusively  the  same.  Firms  which 
work  their  laborers  short  hours  and  treat  them 
like  human  beings  find  that  their  men  do  more 
work  and  live  far  better  lives  than  workmen  re- 
duced by  long  hours  of  toil  to  a  condition  little 
better  than  the  brutes. 

Massachusetts  has  been  for  some  years  a  10- 
hour  State,  and  its  labor  commissioner  instituted 
a  special  investigation  in  1881,  for  the  purpose 
of  comparing  results  in  the  lo-hour  mills  of 
Massachusetts  and  the  u-hour  mills  of  the 
neighboring  States  of  New  England.  The  con- 
clusion he  arrived  at  was  this  :  "  It  is  apparent 
that  Massachusetts,  with  10  hours,  produces  as 
much  per  man,  or  per  loom,  or  per  spindle, 
equal  grades  being  considered,  as  other  States 
with  ii  and  more  hours,  and  also  that  wages 
here  were  as  high,  if  not  higher,  than  in  States 
where  the  mills  ran  longer  time." 

IV.  OBJECTIONS  TO  SHORT  HOURS. 

Some  objections  popularly  raised  to  the  short- 
hour  movement  have  already  been  answered  : 


Short-Hour  Movement,  The. 


1236 


Short-Hour  Movement,  The- 


such  as  the  claim  that  short  hours  increase  drink- 
ing, etc.  This  has  been  shown  by  the  evidence 
to  be  emphatically  not  the  case. 

An  apparently  better  sustained  objection  is 
that  manufacturers  who  can  scarcely  make  a 
living  now  cannot  afford  to  shorten  their  hours 
without  also  lowering  their  wages, 
and  that  this  would  both  hurt  the 
Produc-      laborer  and  hurt  the  market  by  de- 
tion  not     creasing    his    purchasing    power. 
Decreased.    The  conclusive  answer  to  this  is 
that  a  reasonable  and  gradual  re- 
duction of  hours  has  been  proven 
over  and  over  again  not  to  have  decreased  pro- 
duction, while  the  eight-hour  men  claim  that  if 
it  should  lessen  production  it  would  raise  the 
standard  of  living,  make  the  employers  employ 
more  men,  thus  improve  the  market,  and  so  en- 
able the  employers  to  pay  higher  wages.     This 
latter  point  we  shall  discuss  in  a  moment  ;  con- 
cerning the  first  point,  that  shorter  hours  do  not 
lessen  production,  the  testimony  is  overwhelm- 
ing. 

Messrs.  Webb  and  Cox's  The  Eight-Hours'1 
Day  says  on  this  point : 

"  Seventy-five  years  ago  men  commonly  worked  go 
and  TOO  hours  per  week.  By  successive  stages  these 
hours  have  been  brought  down  to  56%.  At  every 
stage  it  has  been  conclusively  'proved'  by  the  manu- 
facturers that  the  proposed  new  restriction  of  hours 
would  deprive  them  of  all  margin  of  profit,  would  raise 
the  price  of  the  commodity,  lower  the  wages  of  the 
workers,  and  destroy  the  export  trade.  Celebrated 
economists  were  found  to  demonstrate  that  the  whole 
economic  advantage  of  the  running  of  the  mill  at  all 
lay  exclusively  in  the  'last  hour,' and  that  its  prohi- 
bition would  involve,  accordingly,  the  cessation  of  the 
industry.  Yet  the  result  has  over  and  over  again 
shown  that  manufacturers  and  theorists  alike  were 
wrong;  the  hours  of  work  have  been  successively  re- 
duced, without  diminution  of  production,  fall  of  wages, 
rise  of  prices,  or  slackening  of  trade. 

*' During  the  debates  on  the  ten-hours' bill  it  was 
usually  taken  for  granted  that  wages  would  be  dimin- 
ished by  it  at  least  16  per  cent.  Sir  James  Graham 
and  Mr.  Cardwell  both  assured  the  House  of  Commons 
that  the  fall  would  be  25  per  cent.  Mr.  John  Bright 
lent  the  weight  of  his  practical  experience  to  a  similar 
assumption.  And  wages  did  occasionally  fall  off  for  a 
time.  .  .  .  But  in  1859  Mr.  Robert  Baker,  who  had  had 
a  long  experience  as  factory  inspector,  reported  to  the 
Social  Science  Association  that  '  altho  the  hours  of 
work  have  been  very  much  diminished,  wages  have 
increased  in  some  cases  40  per  cent.,  and  generally 
about  12  per  cent.;'  and  that  this  reduction  of  hours 
and  increase  of  wages  had  '  not  diminished  any  kind  of 
textile  production,  and  therefore  it  had  not  injured 
our  national  prosperity.'  Nor  has  the  gain  been  made 
at  the  expense  of  other  industries.  Political  econo- 
mists are  emphatic  in  their  conclusion  that  '  the  effect 
of  the  Factory  Acts  has  been  undoubtedly  to  raise  the 
real  wages  of  the  working  classes  as  a  whole.' 

"  Similar  results  have  followed  reductions  of  the 
hours  of  labor  in  other  countries,  and  equally  to  the 
surprise  of  the  political  economists.  The  State  of  Mas- 
sachusetts passed  a  ten-hour  law  in  1874,  altho  its  tex- 
tile industries  were  exposed  to  the  competition  not 
only  of  Lancashire,  but  also  the  immediately  adjacent 
States,  in  which  the  hours  were  at  that  time  entirely 
unrestricted.  The  manufacturers  and  the  economists 
predicted  ruin  and  starvation.  Even  after  the  event 
they  persisted  in  the  same  prophecy,  then  simply  con- 
verted into  an  assertion  of  manifest  fact.  Mr.  Edward 
Atkinson  of  Boston,  the  well-known  advocate  of  unre- 
stricted '  free  trade,'  even  in  labor,  actually  gave  evi- 
dence before  a  committee  of  the  Massachusetts  legis- 
lature in  1880,  as  to  the  ten-hour  law  of  1874,  that  'its 
operation  was  injurious  to  working  nien,  as  they  had 
to  work  for  one-eleventh  less  than  similar  laborers  in 
other  States.'  The  result  was  that  the  legislature 
directed  the  Bureau  of  Statistics  of  Labor  to  inquire 
whether  this  was  the  case.  Mr.  Carroll  D.  Wright 
gives  in  the  1881  report  the  elaborate  statistical  out- 
come of  this  inquiry,  and  thus  summarizes  the  result : 
'  It  is  apparent  that  Massachusetts  with  10  hours  pro- 


duces as  much  per  man,  or  per  loom,  or  per  spindle 
equal  grades  being  considered,  as  other  States  with  n 
and  more  hours  ;  and  also  that  wages  kere  rule  as  /u'j?//, 
if  not  higher,  than  in  the  Slates  where  the  mills  run 
longer  time.'1  Wages  in  Massachusetts  (tho  the  opera- 
tives work  by  the  piece)  not  only  did  not  fall,  but 
steadily  rose  from  an  average  of  $109.40  per  annum  in 
1850,  with  about  70  hours'  work  per  week,  to  one  of 
$258.  ig  in  1880,  with  60  hours'  work  per  week.  Nor  was 
the  industry  destroyed,  or  even  diminished,  relatively 
to  the  other  States  where  no  limitation  of  hours  ex- 
isted. In  1831  Massachusetts  had  invested  in  the  cot- 
ton industry  $12,801,000.  being  slightly  under  one-half 
of  the  total  for  New  England.  In  1880  it  had  risen  to 
$72,2gi,6oi,  and  still  bore  almost  exactly  the  same  pro- 
portion to  the  whole.  The  result  of  this  triumphant 
vindication  of  the  economic  advantages  of  a  legal 
limitation  of  the  hours  of  labor  was  that  Rhode  Island, 
New  Hampshire,  Maine,  and  Vermont,  which  had 
hitherto  opposed  the  movement,  now  adopted  the  ten- 
hour  law. 

A  more  plausible  objection  to  reducing  hours 
of  labor  is  that  it  would  put  the  country  or  State 
making  the  reduction  at  a  disadvantage  com- 
pared with  those  working  long  hours.  This  as- 
sertion, however,  is  again  disproved  by  the 
facts.  If  shorter  hours  do  not  decrease  produc- 
tion (as  we  have  seen)  and  do  increase  the  capa- 
bility of  the  workers  (as  we  have  also  seen)  there 
can  be  no  question  that  short-hour  labor  is  in 
the  long  run  by  far  the  cheapest  labor. 

It  has  been  proven  over  and  over  again  (see  Pro- 
ductivity) that  the  high  paid  American  workman  is 
the  cheapest  workman  in  the  world  and  the  English 
workman  next.  America  is  not  afraid  of  the  long- 
hours  countries  of  Asia,  but  of  the  short-hour  competi- 
tion of  England.  Improved  machinery  is  no  sooner 
made  in  one  country  than  it  is  imported  or  imitated  in 
another  ;  and  as  the  material  elements  of  the  competi- 
tion are  growing  equal,  the  supremacy  must  obvious- 
ly go  to  the  nation  that  can  turn  these  elements  to 
most  account— the  nation  with  the  most  vigorous,  the 
most  intelligent,  the  most  productive  working-class. 
...  Is  it  any  wonder  to  read  in  Dr.  Gavernitz's 
book,  Der  Gross-betreib,  how  the  German  manu- 
facturers giving  evidence  at  the  commission  of  in- 
quiry, one  after  another  said  they  were  confounded 
to  fi'nd  that  the  country  where  labor  was  really 
cheapest  was  the  country  where  the  wages  were  high- 
est and  the  hours  shortest ;  or  to  read  in  the  letter 
of  a  German  ironmaster  to  Sir  I.  L.  Bell,  explaining 
why  he  employed  twice  as  many  men  for  the  same 
work  as  would  be  done  in  an  English  blast-furnace — 
"  We  have  often  the  same  technical  appliances  as  you 
in  England,  for  anything  an  engineer  sees  he  can  imi- 
tate and  construct,  but  what  we  cannot  imitate  is  to 
work  with  our  cheaply  fed  men  with  the  same  vigor 
that  your  English  workmen  labor." 

In  the  United  States  it  has  been  claimed  repeatedly 
that  one  State  could  not  afford  to  reduce  the  hours  of 
labor  unless  all  did,  but  the  experience  of  Massachu- 
setts (see  above)  and  other  States  has  always  dis- 
proved this.  In  almost  every  case  manufacturers  have 
declared  that  their  business  would  be  ruined  if  their 
hours  were  shortened,  yet  when  the  hours  have  been 
shortened,  wages  have  "risen,  production  has  not  been 
permanently  decreased,  nor  profits  curtailed. 

The  last  objection  to  the  short-hour  movement 
is  by  far  the  most  important.  It  is  not,  how- 
ever, an  objection  to  the  short-hour  movement 
in  itself,  but  to  the  position  of  the  eight-hour 
philosophy,  that  the  reduction  of  the  hours  of 
labor  is  a  sufficient  measure  upon  which  to  con- 
centrate the  labor  movement  at  present.  This 
objection  is  that  reducing  the  hours  of  labor  will 
not  employ  the  unemployed,  or  at  least  will  not 
employ  them  so  fast  as  improvements  in  ma- 
chinery, etc. ,  will  create  more  unemployed,  and 
that,  therefore,  the  short-hour  movement  is 
helpless  to  solve  the  most  important  economic 
problem  of  the  present  day.  Those  who  use 
this  argument  against  the  exclusive  eight-hour 
movement  say  : 


Short-Hour  Movement,  The. 


1237 


Short-Hour  Movement,  The. 


"  We  welcome  the  reduction  of  hours  as  a  portion, 
and  as    an    indispensable    portion    of    a  labor    pro- 
gram,  but   when   it  is  made  a  substi- 
tute or  even  a  temporary  substitute  for 
Socialist      the  whole  socialist  program,   we  con- 
View          sider  it  reactionary,  and  powerless  to 
check    the      phenomena     of     so-called 
'overproduction,'    unemployment,  and 
the    breakdown  of    the   whole  present 
industrial  system." 

The  reason  for  this  position  is  that  the  reduc- 
tion of  the  hours  of  labor  in  the  gradual  way, 
which  is  alone  practical,  does  not  diminish  the 
production  of  those  employed,  and  therefore 
does  not  tend  to  call  in  the  unemployed  to  do 
work  formerly  done  in  longer  hours  by  those 
whose  hours  have  been  reduced.  If  this  does 
occur  in  a  few  trades,  as  is  not  denied,  and  if 
the  reduction  of  the  hours  of  labor  does  raisa  the 
standard  of  living,  and  so  to  a  degree  increase 
demand,  and  so  tend  to  employ  a  few  of  those 
formerly  unemployed,  this  is  overbalanced  by 
the  tendency  of  the  reduction  of  hours  to  speed 
old  machinery,  introduce  new,  and  make  other 
improvements  in  production  ;  thus  discharging 
more  men  than  the  reduction  of  hours  has  given 
employment  to.  Such  is  the  objection,  and  it 
is  supported  by  many  facts. 

Says  Mr.  Rae,  after  most  carefully  studying  the  "un- 
expectedly copious"  experience  of  England,  Australia, 
and  the  United  States,  and  being  himself  a  convert  to 
the  reduction  of  hours  (Eight  Hours  for   Work^  pp. 
277-280)  :    "  The  prevailing  idea,  that  a  uniform  eight- 
hour  day  will  abolish  the  unemployed,  is  of  course 
chimerical.  ...    It  stands  in  absolute 
contradiction  to  our  now  very  abundant 
The  experience  of  the  real  effects  of  shorten- 

TTnemTiloved  *n£  tne  nours  °f  labor,  and  it  stands  in 
•^     "        absolute  contradiction  to  the  natural  op- 
eration of   economic  forces.  ...    It  is 
not  in  the  nature  or  power  of  an  eight- 
hour  day  to  ...  make  any  serious  impression  on  the 
number    of   the    unemployed."    Similarly    says   Pal- 
grave's  Dictionary  of  Political  Economy,  article  Eight- 
flours  Movement,    "  as  a  matter  of   experience,  the 
eight-hour  day  has  surprisingly  little  effect  on  the 
numbers  of  the  unemployed." 

To  this  the  eight-hour  philosophy  answers  : 

"(i)  That  the  eight-hour  movement  does  not  propose 
to  limit  the  reduction  of  hours  simply  to  eight.  If  eight 
hours  will  not  employ  the  unemployed,  why  then  let 
us  have  seven,  or  six,  or  five,  or  four,  which  will  em- 
ploy the  unemployed  ;  (2)  that  a  careful  analysis  of 
the  various  facts  will  show  that  the  reduction  of  hours 
has  employed  the  unemployed,  as  is  proven  by  the 
fact  that  tho  population  has  increased  in  all  civilized 
countries,  especially  in  those  countries  where  the 
short-hour  day  prevails,  the  number  of  the  unem- 

Eloyed  has  not  increased,  and  those  who  complain  of 
ard  times  now  forget  the  harder  times  of  a  generation 
or  two  ago." 

But  to  this  it  is  replied  : 

"As  for  the  first  point,  that  if  eight  hours  do  not 
employ  the  unemployed,  the  eight-hour  philosophy 
proposes  to  reduce  hours  to  seven,  six,  five,  or  four, 
and  in  this  way  employ  the  unemployed,  this  is  a 
mere  dodging  of  the  question.  The  question  is  what  is 
practical  now  ;  and  none  know  better  than  the  eight- 
hour  men  that  to  talk  of  reducing  hours  lower  than 
eight  is,  except  under  the  rarest  circumstances,  to-day 
utterly  out  of  the  question.  After  a  half  century  of 
agitation,  the  average  hours  in  the  United  States  are 
yet  well  over  10,  and  only  a  small  minority  of  the 
stronger  unions  have  gained  in  some  cities  the  eight- 
hour  day.  To  talk  then  of  lower  hours  is  to  mislead. 
The  eight-hour  philosophy  itself  claims  that  the  re- 
duction must  be  gradual.  The  question  is  whether 
to-day  a  reduction  of  the  hours  of  labor  that  is  within 
the  range  of  possibility  can  employ  the  unemployed, 
and  seven,  six,  or  five  hours  are  out  of  the  range  of 
possibility,  save  in  the  rarest  instances. 

"  As  for  the  second  point,  that  the  unemployed  are 
on  the  whole  not  increasing,  and  that  admittedly  the 
shortening  of  the  hours  of  labor  is  raising  the  level  of 


those  enjoying  its  gains,  and  enabling  them  to  demand 
higher  wages  and  cope  with  further  problems,  it  can- 
not be  denied  that  progress  for  the  working  classes 
has  been  made,  but  it  does  not  follow,  in  the  .first  place, 
that  this  progress  is  due  to  the  reduction  of  hours, 
and  secondly  the  question  still  presses,  whether  in  all 
civilized  countries  the  labor  question  is  not  as  a  mat- 
ter of  fact  more  acute  than  ever,  and  whether  even 
the  problem  of  the  unemployed  is  not,  if  in  numbers 
no  more  serious,  in  quality  infinitely  more  serious. 
Statistics  may  prove  a  slightly  larger  proportion  of 
.  the  people  to  be  engaged  in  gainful  occupations,  but 
this  does  not  show  how  continuously  those  persons 
are  employed  ;  and  beyond  all  possibility  of  denial, 
improved  methods  of  production  (partly  occasioned 
by  limiting  tne  hours  of  labor)  are  enabling  factories 
to  turn  out  their  products  in  less  and  less  portions 
of  the  year ;  continually  increasing  the  periods  when 
operatives  counted  as  having  occupations  are  really 
out  of  work.  In  some  occupations  shorter  hours  may 
employ  the  unemployed.  The  eight-hour  men  are 
fond  of  referring  to  those  who  work  on  street-cars  and 
on  railroads,  arguing  that  here  at  least  it  takes  three 
men  at  eight  hours  to  do  in  24  hours  what  two  men 
would  do  at  12.  It  is  not  denied  that  there  are  such 
instances,  but  even  in  such  occupations  the  principle 
does  not  work  as  might  be  expected. 

"A  large  number  of  railway  employees,  such  as 
those  engaged  on  repairs,  or  as  clerks,  laborers,  etc.,  are 
employed  in  forms  of  labor  where  intensity  of  work 
can  make  up  for  long  hours.  Therefore  even  on  rail- 
roads shorter  hours  will  by  no  means  create  the  de- 
mand for  unemployed  labor  that  some  short-hour  men 
claim.  The  truth  is,  that  facts  are  showing  that  the 
compulsory  or  voluntary  shortening  of  hours  has  im- 
mensely stimulated  the  speeding  of  old  machinery  and 
the  introduction  of  new  labor-saving  devices,  so  that 
instead  of  employing  more  hands,  fewer  hands,  or  the 
same  hands,  have  produced  more  goods,  not  less— far 
more  than  the  short-hour  men  realize.  According  to 
Mr.  Rae,  in  large  engineering  works,  Messrs.  S.  H. 
Johnson  &  Company,  of  Stratford,  London,  reduced 
the  hours  of  their  works  some  five  years  ago  from  54 
to  48  a  week,  paying  their  hands  the  same  day  wages 
as  before,  and  they  get  more  work  out  now  than  they 
got  then,  without  any  increase  whatever  in  the  cost  of 
production. 

"So  with  Messrs.  William  Allan  &  Company, 
of  Sunderland.  It  was  on  January  i,  1892,  that  this 
firm  (of  which  Mr.  W.  Allan,  M.  P.,  is  head)  reduced 
their  hours  from  53  to  48  a  week.  Mr.  Allan  was  him- 
self surprised  at  the  results  he  got.  '  Paradoxical  as  it 
may  seem,  I  get  fully  more  work  out  than  formerly  ; 
in  fact,  I  am  surprised  at  how  the  work  is  going  ahead  ; 
having  believed,  like  so  many  employers,  that  there 
would  be  a  corresponding  decrease  in  output.  .  .  . 

Of  Australia,  Pa/brave's  Encyclopedia  says  :  "  In 
Victoria,  for  example,  where  three-fourths  of  the  pop- 
ulation now  work  only  eight  hours  a  day,  the  unem- 
ployed are  strangely  enough  a  greater  and  more  con- 
stant trouble  than  they  are  here,  and,  stranger  still, 
they  seem  to  have  become  even  a  greater  trouble  since 
the  eight-hour  day  became  general,  a  few  years  ago, 
than  they  were  before." 

Such  is  the  universal  experience.    The  eight-hour 
men  try  to  explain  it  away  by  saying  that  often,  when 
there  has  been  a  nominal  reduction  in  hours,  there 
has  been  an  increase  in  overtime  work,  so  that  really, 
tho  wages  have  risen,  there  has  been  no  diminution 
in  hours,   and  therefore,  of  course,  no 
diminution  in  production.  Or  they  claim 
that  the  men,  especially  in  the  recent  Experience. 
trials,  were  on  "their  good  behavior." 
Yet,  allowing  for  all  this,  the  fact  re- 
mains that   experience    in    England,   Australia,   and 
America,  in  all  places  and  at  all  times,  all  points  one 
way :  the  reducing  of  the  hours  of  labor  (within  the 
limits  of  possibility)  does  not  decrease  production,  nor 
increase  the    purchasing    power   of    the  community 
enough  to  balance  the  effect  of  machinery  and  im- 
proved methods  in  discharging  laborers  ;  so  that  the 
eight-hour  philosophy  breaks  down  at  the  vital  point 
and  does  not  reduce  poverty,  for  the  masses. 

All  this  is,  indeed,  no  argument  against  re- 
ducing hours.  These  facts  only  show  that 
this  reduction  is  not  the  one  thing  to  concen- 
trate attention  upon.  What  other  things 
should  be  done  also,  we  are  not  here  consider- 
ing. (See  UNEMPLOYMENT.)  Different  schools 
of  thinkers  will  disagree  as  to  what  should  be 
done.  Individualists  will  call  for  the  develop- 


Short-Hour  Movement,  The. 


1238 


Silver. 


ment  of  individual  education  and  capacity. 
Single-taxers  say  the  one  thing  to  do  is  to 
open  natural  opportunities  for  labor.  Social- 
ists deny  that  there  is  any  one  thing  to  do.  In 
all  countries  they  stand  with  the  eight-hour 
men  for  reducing  hours,  but  they  add  to  this 
the  demand  that  more  and  more  the  commun- 
ity control  industry  and  replace  competition 
by  cooperation.  They  point  out  that,  even  to- 
day, the  eight-hour  men  have  found  it  easiest 
to  gain  the  eight-hour  day  in  government 
works,  and  that  in  England  and  all  countries 
where  there  has  been  an  expansion  of  munici- 
palism,  there  has  -been  also  an  expansion  of 
employment  under  fair  conditions.  In  Eng- 
land and  New  Zealand  municipalism  is  near- 
ing  to-day  the  abolition  of  the  contract 
system  and  the  application  of  trade-union 
conditions  to  government  works,  thus  bring- 
ing in  the  eight-hour  day  through  socialism, 
and  at  the  same  time — by  having  the  State  do 
what  otherwise  would  not  be  done — actually 
employing  the  unemployed. 

(For  instances  of  this,  see  articles  NEW  ZEA- 
LAND ;  BIRMINGHAM  ;  LONDON  ;  also,  STREET- 
CARS.) 

References :  John  Rae's  Eight  Hours  for  Work 
(IS<H);  Sidney  Webb's  and  Harold  Cox's  The  Eight- 
Hours  Day  (i8gi);  George  Gunton's  Wealth  and  Prog- 
ress, the  economic  philosophy  of  the  eight-hour 
movement  (1887)  ;  various  tracts  published  by  the 
American  Federation  of  Labor. 

SIDGWICK,  HENRY,  was  born  at  Skip- 
ton,  Yorkshire,  England,  in  1838,  and  educated 
at  Rugby  and  at  Trinity  College,  Cam- 
bridge. He  became  a  fellow  and  lecturer 
of  his  college  in  1859,  resigning  his  fellowship 
in  1869  on  account  of  the  conditions  of  re- 
ligious belief  then  attached  to  fellowships. 
In  1870  he  was  active  in  establishing  academic 
instruction  for  women  in  Cambridge.  He  was 
appointed  professor  prelector  of  moral  philos- 
ophy in  Trinity  College  in  1875,  and" Knights- 
bridge  professor  of  moral  philosophy  in  the 
University  of  Cambridge  in  1883.  He  has 
contributed  to  periodical  literature  many  arti- 
cles on  philosophical  and  economical  subjects. 
In  his  philosophical  works  he  seeks  to  recon- 
cile lines  of  thought  previously  regarded  as 
antagonistic;  in  ethics  to  reconcile  intuitionism 
and  utilitarianism.  In  political  economy  his 
endeavor  has  been  to  find  the  right  com- 
promise between,  or  combination  of,  the 
traditional  deductive  method  of  English  po- 
litical economy  and  the  views  of  the  men 
sometimes  called  Socialists  of  the  Chair,  pre- 
dominant in  Germany.  His  works  include 
the  Methods  of  Ethics  (1874);  the  Principles 
of  Political  Economy  (1883);  Outlines  of  the 
History  of  Ethics  (1886);  Elements  of  Politics 
(1891). 

SILVER.  (For  statistics  and  other  in- 
formation as  to  the  'history,  production, 
supply,  and  use  of  silver,  see  GOLD  AND  SILVER; 
for  the  bimetallic  position,  see  BIMETALISM; 
for  a  history  of  the  silver  question  in  the 
United  States,  see  CURRENCY.)  We  give  in 
this  article  a  statement  of  the  present  silver 
situation  in  the  United  States  as  it  appears  to 
the  supporters  of  silver  coinage.  (For  the 


arguments    of    those    opposed,     see     MONO- 

METALISM.) 

THE   SILVER   MOVEMENT. 

The  friends  of  the  present  silver  movement 
in  the  United  States  are  divided  into  several 
classes.  There  are,  first,  those  who  believe 
in  bimetalism,  and  desire  to  see  silver  used  as 
primary  money  in  connection  with  gold,  at 
some  fixed  value,  but  who  believe  that  this 
can  only  be  done  safely  with  international 
agreement.  Most  of  these  are  therefore  op- 
posed to  the  proposition  for  the  United  States 
to  coin  silver  at  a  ratio  of  16  to  i,  without  wait- 
ing for  international  agreement.  This  view 
includes  the  large  majority  of  the  professorial 
economists,  such  as  President  Walker  (q.  v.), 
and  a  large  number  of  Republican  and  gold 
Democratic  congressmen  and  political  leaders, 
such  as  John  Sherman  and  Secretary  Carlisle, 
and  others  of  both  the  two  great  parties.  (For 
their  position,  except  as  to  the  very  latest 
developments,  see  BIMETALISM.) 

A  second  class  of  the  friends  of  silver  are 
bimetalists  who  believe  that  the  United  States 
can  safely  coin  silver,  without  waiting  for 
international  agreement.  In  this  class  are 
a  few  professorial  economists  like  Dr.  Arendt 
of  Germany  and  President  Andrews  (q.  v.) 
of  Brown  University,  and  a  large  number  of 
silver  Republicans  and  Democrats. 

A  third  class  of  the  friends  of  silver  are  not 
so  much  bimetallists  as  believers  in  a  care- 
fully and  scientifically  regulated  paper  cur- 
rency, who,  holding  that  their  ideal  is  not  in 
practical  politics,  are  willing  to  vote  for  free 
silver  as  a  step  toward  a  scientific  paper  cur- 
rency. This  view  includes  the  mass  of  the 
Populist  party  and  its  sympathizers.  Besides 
these  three  distinct  classes  there  are,  of  course, 
those  holding  all  kinds  of  combinations  of 
views,  and  many  who  vote  for  free  silver 
simply  out  of  opposition  to  the  gold  policy 
identified  in  their  minds  with  trusts,  corpora- 
tions, and  plutocracy  (q.  v.). 

In  such  a  condition  of  affairs  it  is  obvious 
that  the  arguments  used  by  different  persons 
for  the  coinage  of  silver  are  very  diverse,  as  is 
true  of  the  arguments  used  by  various  gold 
advocates.  Nevertheless,  the  strength  of  the 
silver  movement  cannot  be  understood  unless 
the  arguments  of  these  various  views  are 
remembered.  We  therefore  give  first  the 
bimetallic  argument  for  the  free  coinage  of 
silver,  by  the  United  States  alone,  at  a  ratio 
of  16  to  i,  without  waiting  for  international 
agreement,  and  follow  this  by  what  may  be 
called  the  radical  view. 

THE   BIMETALLIC   ARGUMENT. 

This  view  bases  itself  first  on  the  proposi- 
tions that  a  contracting  currency  is  hurtful  to 
a  nation  ;  that  a  moderately  and  steadily  ex- 
panding currency  is  beneficial ;  that  for  20 
years  and  over  the  United  States  has  had  vir- 
tually a  contracting  currency — i.  e.,  a  currency 
not  increasing  in  proportion  to  the  demand 
for  money  to-day — and  that  therefore  the  coun- 
try now  needs  an  expanded  currency. 

To  these  propositions  are  added  the  propo- 
sitions that  one  form  in  which  a  contracting 


Silver. 


1239 


Silver. 


currency  works  evil  is  by  lowering  prices, 
while  an  expanding  currency  raises  prices,  and 
that  the  United  States  is  suffering  to-day 
from  low  prices,  in  part,  at  least,  caused  by  a 
monetary  contraction,  which  could  be  allevi- 
ated by  the  use  of  silver. 

For  a  general  discussion  of  these  proposi- 
tions, see  CONTRACTION  AND  EXPANSION  OF  CUR- 
RENCY, but  it  should  be  noted  here  that  as 
Mill  stated  in  his  day,  and  as  President 
Walker  has  recently  affirmed  (address  before 
the  American  Economic  Association,  Decem- 
ber, 1895),  no  position  in  economics  is  more 
generally  accepted  than  that  a  contracting 
currency  does  lower  prices  and  cause  depres- 
sion, while  the  expansion  of  a  currency,  at 
least  with  a  money  commanding  confidence 
(concerning  which  see  below),  is  beneficial. 
Professor  Marshall,  perhaps  the  leading  Eng- 
lish economist,  says  (testimony  before  the 
Herschell  Commission,  No.  9629): 

"  I  accept  the  common  doctrine  that  prices  generally 
rise,  other  things  being  equal,  in  proportion  to  the 
volume  of  the  metals  which  are  used  as  money." 

This  view  was  never  even  questioned  by  any 
leading  economist  writer  until,  as  Dr.  Spahr 
says,  "  the  exigencies  of  the  present  silver  con- 
troversy forced  the  monometalists  to  dispute 
it  or  retire  from  the  field,"  while,  as  President 
Walker  has  reminded  us,  those  who  now  argue 
that  monetary  contraction  has  little  or  no 
effect  upon  business  were  the  foremost  to 
assert  the  terrible  effect  of  monetary  expan- 
sion upon  business.  Nor  does  the  proposition 
rest  upon  theory  alone.  History  is  full  of 
illustrations  of  the  principle.  When  on  the 
discovery  of  the  New  World  the  supply  of 
metals  led  to  the  coinage  of  more  money, 
prices  notoriously  rose.  When,  later,  the 
Napoleonic  wars  led  to  the  employment  of 
paper  as  well  as  coin  by  both  France  and 
England,  the  value  of  both  gold  and  silver 
fell  one-half  (Jevons1  essay  in  the  Journal  of 
the  Statistical  Society,  London,  1865)  and 
doubled  again  when  the  paper  was  retired. 
When  in  the  middle  of  the  century  the  gold 
discoveries  of  California  and  Australia  in- 
creased the  supply  of  gold  to  some  three 
times  that  of  silver,  the  value  of  both  gold 
and  silver  fell  again.  The  rise  of  war  prices 
in  the  United  States  is  well  known.  Of 
recent  experiences  in  the  United  States,  Dr. 
C.  B.  Spahr  says  (Review  of  Reviews,  Septem- 
ber, 1896): 

"  In  1878,  when  the  Bland-Allison  bill  was  passed, 
requiring  the  coinage  of  $2,000,000  of  silver  bullion 
a  month  at  the  old  ratio  of  16  to  i,  the  monometalists 
with  one  accord  predicted  that  we  would  have  'an 
eighty-cent  dollar.'  The  value  of  the  bullion  in  the 
Bland  dollar  had  been  below  80  cents.  If  the  value  of 
money  depended  on  its  material,  and  not  upon  its 
volume,  the  Bland  dollar  would  certainly  have  been 
worth  but  80  cents  in  gold.  The  cheaper  dollar  would 
undoubtedly  have  driven  out  the  dearer  dollar,  and 
the  monometalists'  prediction  that  our  gold  would 
leave  us  would  have  been  fulfilled.  But  these  predic- 
tions have  proven  absolutely  false.  Despite  the  fact 
that  the  Bland  dollar  was  not  redeemable  in  gold, 
and  that  the  banks  for  a  time  assumed  a  hostile  atti- 
tude toward  it,  its  value  remains  the  same  as  gold, 
because*  it  had  the  same  money  privileges,  and  its 
value  was  fixed  like  the  value  of  gold  by  the  supply 
and  demand  for  money.  About  $400,000,000  in  silver 
coin  was  issued  under  this  act,  at  the  ratio  of  16  to  i, 
and  yet  the  whole  of  it  remained  at  par.  When  the 


Sherman  act  was  passed  the  power  of  the  government 
to  affect  the  relative  value  of  gold  and  silver  was 
again  shown.  Not  only  was  the  price  of  all  coin 
silver  raised  to  the  old  level — $1.29  an  ounce— but  the 
price  of  uncoined  silver  throughout  the  world  was 
raised  from  a  little  over  90  cents  an  ounce  to  $1.21. 
Yet  the  Sherman  act  had  only  increased  our  govern- 
mental demand  for  silver  from  $24,000,000  •worth  a  year 
to  a  little  over  $50,000,000  worth.  The  relative  value 
of  silver  only  declined  when  Austria  and  Russia 
created  a  new  demand  for  gold  proportionately 
greater  than  the  demand  of  the  United  States  had 
created  for  silver.  The  recent  fall  in  the  value  of 
silver  and  rise  in  the  value  of  gold  has  been  entirely 
due  to  governmental  action,  for  the  supply  of  gold 
from  the  mines  has  increased  with  far  greater  rapid- 
ity than  the  supply  of  silver.  If  the  limited  coinage 
of  silver  under  the  Bland  and  Sherman  acts  was  suffi- 
cient to  raise  all  coined  silver  to  $1.29  an  ounce  and  all 
uncoined  silver  to  $1.21  an  ounce  when  the  relative 
supply  of  silver  was  far  greater  than  to-day,  it  is  evi- 
dent that  unlimited  coinage  and  the  doubling  of  our 
former  demand  would  raise  all  silver  to  the  old 
level." 

Nor  is  it  only  that  facts  show  an  intimate 
connection  between  volume  of  currency  and 
prices;  and  consequently  between  volume  of 
currency  and  prosperity,  but  both  the  highest 
economic  authority  and  facts  show  that  the 
subject  is  one  of  the  most  serious  and  wide- 
reaching  moment.  President  Walker  wrote  in 
1894  (quoted  in  the  Bibliotheca  Sacra,  April, 
1896)  : 

"  To  any  political  economist  who  regards  the  indus- 
trial structure  as  important,  the  steady  shrinking  of 
prices  continued  through  a  term  of  years,  due  to  the 
increasing  scarcity  of  the  money  supply,  constitutes 
a  tremendous  force  for  evil.  It  is  not  alone  that  tens 
of  thousands  of  millions  of  public,  private,  and  cor- 
porate debts  require  a  continually  increasing  amount 
of  commodities  to  discharge  the  interest  and  princi- 
pal of  such  obligations  ;  it  is  not  alone  that  the  weight 
of  the  dead  hand  is  continually  growing  heavier  upon 
the  living  and  active  forces  of  the  present  ;  these  are 
matters  serious  enough,  but  the  greatest  part  of  the 
evil  of  a  diminishing  money  supply  is  wrought  through 
the  discouragement  of  legitimate  profits,  through  the 
preference  given  to  all  investments  of  capital  which 
result  in  a  fixed  charge  upon  production,  over  those 
which  involve  a  participation  in  the  gains  or  losses  of 
active  business. 

Jevons  bears  this  out,  but  President  An- 
drews says  (An  Honest  Dollar) : 

"  Jevons,  at  any  rate,  is  too  moderate.  After  enor- 
mous admissions  touching  the  ravages  of  changing 
currency  values,  he  almost  apologizes  for  the  change 
in  money  value,  on  the  ground  that  the  sorrows 
springing  from  it  are  mostly  occult,  and  that  the  peo- 
ple habitually  refer  them  to  other  causes.  The  ques- 
tion is  not  whether  the  infelicities  accompanying 
these  monetary  vicissitudes  are  appreciated  or  not, 
but  whether  they  are  real  and  serious.  That  they  are 
both  will  be  the  conviction  of  every  student  in  pro- 
portion to  his  acquaintance  with  them.  .  .  .  It  is  certain 
that  none  who  have  not  made  the  subject  a  study  at 
all  adequately  conceive  the  magnitude  of  the  evil." 

Nor  is  it  only  professorial  economists  who 
argue  thus.  Said  Mr.  Balfour,  the  English 
statesman  (October  27,  1892) : 


And  surely  the  facts  bear  this  out.  The 
depressing  effect  upon  American  industry  of 
the  steady  fall  in  prices  for  the  last  30  years  it 
is  impossible  to  exaggerate. 

The  gold  advocates  usually  meet  this  argu- 


Silver. 


1240 


Silver. 


ment,  not  by  denying  the  truth  of  the  general 
theory  as  to  the  effects  of  a  monetary  con- 
traction, but  first  by  partly  denying  the  fact 
of  money  contraction  in  the  United  States  ; 
secondly,  by  arguing  that  the  fall  of  prices 
(which  they  admit)  is  not  due  to 
currency  changes ;  and  thirdly, 
Monetary  by  asserting  that  tho  a  steady  ex- 
Contraction,  pansion  of  the  currency  by  a 
money  commanding  public  confi- 
dence might  be  well,  silver  does 
not  command  such  confidence  (at  least  in  lack 
of  international  agreement),  and  that,  there- 
fore, its  monetization  would  produce  evil 
and  not  good.  (For  these  arguments  in  full, 
see  MONOMETALISM.)  To  the  first  argument, 
that  there  has  been  no  contraction  of  the  cur- 
rency in  the  United  States,  the  silver  bimet- 
alists  say  that,  on  the  above  theory  which 
all  economists  accept,  the  very  fall  of  prices 
(and  that  they  have  fallen  is  not  denied), 
forms  a  money  contraction  relative  to  the 
demand  for  money.  What  is  the  measure  of 
demand  for  money  ?  The  amount  of  com- 
modities men  will  give  in  exchange  for  it.  If 
this  has  risen,  as  no  one  denies,  it  shows  that 
the  demand  has  risen  more  than  the  supply, 
or  that  there  has  been  a  contraction  in  money. 
It  is  true  that  the  controller  of  the  currency 
reports  a  per  capita  circulation  in  1895  of 
$22.96,  and  in  1870  of  only  $17.50,  but  if  one 
went  back  to  1865,  he  would  find  a  circulation, 
even  according  to  the  controller,  of  $22.16, 
while  many  publicists  believe  all  these  figures 
to  really  misrepresent  the  facts.  The  currency 
reports  claim  that  all  moneys  ever  coined  by 
the  United  States  and  not  withdrawn  or  used 
in  the  arts  or  entered  for  export,  are  still  cur- 
rent. Such  cannot  be  the  case.  That  large 
amounts  of  gold  are  annually  carried  out  of 
the  country  by  travelers,  etc.,  is  well  known  ; 
that  much  is  lost  is  equally  clear  ;  that  much 
gold  is  hoarded  is  still  more  certain.  These 
processes — to  speak  of  no  others — going  on 
year  by  year  make  the  recent  statements  of 
the  controller's  reports  absurdly  misleading. 
Even  the  directors  of  the  Mint  admit  this. 

In  his  Report  on  the  Production  of  Gold 
and  Silver  for  1888,  p.  43,  the  director  of  the 
Mint  uses  these  words  : 

"  In  years  past  we  have  often  insisted  that  there 
must  be  an  error  in  the  item,  because  the  most  indus- 
trious inquiry  failed  to  bring  to  light  a  very  consid- 
erable portion  of  it.  At  present  there  are  at  least 
$275,000,000  of  the  total  [gold  coin]  that  cannot  be  ac- 
counted for." 

The  method  of  estimating  the  outstanding 
silver  is  described  by  the  director  of  the  Mint 
in  his  Report  for  1893,  p.  166,  as  follows  : 

"  The  coinage  of  silver  dollars  since  March  i,  1878, 
and  the  subsidiary  silver  coinage  since  1873,  at  which 
date  the  estimated  amount  was  $5,000,000,  together 
with  the  annual  gain  or  loss  by  coinage  or  import- 
after  an  annual  deduction  of  $300,000  for  use  in  the 
industrial  arts— is  taken  as  the  estimated  stock  of 
silver  coin  in  the  United  States." 

A  new  estimate  of  the  amount  of  gold  and 
silver  used  in  the  arts  was  made  in  1893,  and 
beginning  with  that  year  $1,500,000  is  allowed 
for  gold,  instead  of  $3,500,000  as  formerly, 


and  $100,000  is  allowed  for  silver,  instead 
of  $200,000. 

The  paper  currency  of  the  country  is  esti- 
mated by  subtracting  from  the  total  amount 
issued  the  amount  redeemed  and  destroyed 
by  the  Government.  No  allowance  is  made 
for  paper  money  destroyed  by  fire  and  other 
means,  with  the  exception  of  $1,000,000  in 
United  States  notes  estimated  to  have  been 
destroyed  in  the  Chicago  fire. 

On  account  of  these  facts  the  figures  of  the 
Treasury  as  to  circulation  have  been  fre- 
quently questioned.  In  a  speech  delivered  at 
Fayette,  Mo.,  October  12, 1895,  Senator  George 
G.  Vest  made  an  analysis  of  the  figures  for 
1893,  which  according  to  government  reports 
show  a  total  circulation  outside  the  Treasury 
of  $1,596,701,245  in  money  of  all  kinds,  or  an 
average  of  $23.89  per  capita. 

"  He  first  scales  down  the  amount  of  money  outside 
the  Treasury  to  $1,399,191,335,  which  is  $197,509,910 
less  than  the  official  figures.  He  next  deducts  $513,- 
900,000  national  bank  reserves  held  by  the  3781  banks- 
on  October  3,  1893,  leaving  $885,291,335.  From  the 
$3,070,462,680  deposits  in  5685  State,  savings,  private 
banks,  and  loan  and  trust  companies,  on  July  12,  1893, 
he  estimates  reserves  amounting  to  10  per  cent.,  or 
$307,046,268,  which  he  deducts  from  the  $885,000,000, 
leaving  $578,245,067.  He  further  estimates  that  $250,- 
000,000  in  gold  has  been  lost  since  1873,  of  which  the 
Treasury  officials  have  made  no  account.  This  leaves 
$328,245,067.  Other  deductions  are  $20,000,000  for  lost 
silver  dollars  and  fractional  silver  ;  10  per  cent,  on 
United  States  notes  ($34,668,101);  the  same  per  cent,  on 
bank-notes  ($20,870,118);  i  per  cent,  on  Treasury  notes 
of  1890  ($1,463,414) ;  thus  leaving  only  $252,692,214.  This, 
divided  among  a  population  which  he  estimates  at 
68,884,475  (I0  Per  cent,  advance  on  1890),  is  $3.67  per 
capita.  If  the  $197,509,910,  probably  deducted  twice, 
on  account  of  gold  and  silver  bullion  in  the  Treasury, 
were  added,  this  would  give  $450,2132,124,  which  at 
Senator  Vest's  estimated  population  gives  an  average 
of  $6. 54  per  capita  as  the  total  money  he  estimates  to 
be  actually  in  circulation  among  the  people  in  1893." 

As  for  the  assertion  often  made  by  the  gold 
advocates  that  even  if  the  amount  of  legal- 
tender  money  has  been  contracted,  bank  and 
credit  paper  more  than  takes  its  place,  it  can 
be  proved,  in  the  first  place,  that  the  amount 
of  paper  passing  through  an  institution  like 
the  New  York  Clearing-House  has  fallen  off  ; 
second,  the  crowding  of  people  in  cities,  where 
they  are  unknown  to  one  another,  has  de- 
creased trusting ;  third,  the  development  of 
local  transit,  and  of  the  intricacy  of  production 
and  of  life,  has  materially  increased  the  de- 
mand for  currency.  (See  CONTRACTION  AND 
EXPANSION  OF  CURRENCY.)  Again,  even  if 
the  use  of  credit  paper  of  one  kind  or  another 
does  supplement  the  use  of  gold,  nevertheless 
all  this  paper  must  be  measured  by  and  rest 
upon  a  gold  basis,  if  gold  be  the  only  legal 
tender.  In  ordinary  times  when  confidence  is 
general  this  may  not  be  an  evil,  but  let  a  crisis 
come,  and  then  just  when  the  most  money  is 
needed,  then  the  money  is  contracted  to  its 
gold  basis  and  fearful  panic  produced.  This 
is  among  the  worst  results  of  monetary  con- 
traction. 

It  is  the  supposed  necessity  of  keeping  up 
our  gold  reserve  which  has  led  to  the  recent 
bond  issues  and  syndicate  contracts  *(g.  v.) 
which  have  saddled  the  country  with  millions 
of  debt.  It  was,  the  silver  advocates  claim, 
the  dependence  on  a  gold  basis  which  pro- 


Silver. 


1241 


Silver. 


duced  the  money  panic  of  1893.  A  steady  fall 
of  prices  was  caused  by  the  contraction  of 
money,  through  the  strengthening  of  the  gold 
reserves  of  France  and  Russia,  the  adoption  of 
the  gold  standard  by  Austria  ;  the  panic  in 
Australia,  compelling  investors  to  sell  even 
American  securities,  and  so  withdraw  gold 
from  this  country.  Finally  this  was  turned  into 
a  panic  by  India's  sudden  suspension  of  the 
free  coinage  of  silver.  Under  such  circum- 
stances,  to  say  that  the  panic  was  caused  by  a 
lack  of  confidence  due  to  the  Sherman  act 
passed  two  years  before,  as  the  gold  advocates 
assert,  shows  the  weakness  of  their  argument. 
The  worst  aspect  too,  of  this  form  of  gold 
contraction,  with  gold  as  the  basis  of  paper, 
is  that  it  can  be  used  by  the  gold  interest  to 
make  matters  still  worse.  Dr.  C.  B.  Spahr,  in 
The  Oittlook  for  April  14,  1894,  says  this  is  just 
what  the  Administration  did  in  the  gold  inter- 
est. He  says,  speaking  of  the  crisis  of  1893  : 

"  At  such  junctures  in  England  the  Government  sets 
aside  the  Bank  Act  and  allays  the  panic  by  increasing 
the  currency.  At  such  junctures  in  Germany  the 
National  Bank  is  by  law  authorized  to  increase  the 
currency.  At  this  juncture  in  the  United  States 
the  President,  elected  on  a  platform  pledging  more 
currency,  called  Congress  together  to  cut  off  even 
such  increase  as  the  existing  law  provided. 

"  Congress  assembled,  and  the  President  submitted 
his  message.  The  collapse  of  credit  which  made  men 
unwilling  to  buy  goods  on  credit,  tho  anxious  to  sell 
them,  and  the  fall  in  price  of  everything  except 
money,  President  Cleveland  attributed  in  so  many 
words  to  the  fear  of  a  depreciated  currency.  This 
imaginary  fear  he  attributed  to  the  $50,000,000  a 
year  of  currency  issued  under  the  Sherman  act,  tho 
under  this  act  no  one  could  get  a  dollar  of  currency 
without  depositing  a  gold  dollar's  worth  of  silver  bul- 
lion. Despite  the  fact  that  our  country  has  needed 
for  fifteen  years  $60,000,000  a  year  increase  to  its  cur- 
rency, while  the  gold-mines  supply  the  whole  world 
with  less  than  $30,000,000  a  year  available  for  currency, 
he  nevertheless  demanded  that  the  United  States 
should  stop  using  silver  and  join  in  the  international 
demand  for  gold. 

"In  administering  the  Sherman  law  the  Admin- 
istration showed  the  same  ignorance  of  the  principles 
governing  the  value  of  currency,  and  the  same  deter- 
mination to  carry  into  execution  the  demands  of  the 
creditor  classes  which  are  enriched  by  the  scarcity 
and  dearness  of  money.  When  the  question  came  be- 
fore the  Secretary  of  the  Treasury  whether  the  Sher- 
man act  notes  should  be  paid  in  silver  or  gold,  it  was 
ordered  that  they  be  paid  in  gold  at  the  option  of  the 
holder.  President  Cleveland,  in  his  message  to  Con- 
gress, claimed  that  this  interpretation  of  the  Sherman 
act  was  necessary  because  this  act  declared  it  to  be 
'the  established  policy  of  the  United  States  to  main- 
tain the  two  metals  on  a  parity  with  each  other.'  He 
maintained  that  if  the  Government  used  its  discretion 
to  redeem  these  notes  in  the  silver  reserved  against 
them,  it  '  would  necessarily  result  in  their  discredit 
and  depreciation.'  This  he  urged  despite  the  patent 
fact  that  the  four  hundred  millions  of  silver  certifi- 
cates and  silver  dollars  issued  under  the  Bland-Allison 
act  of  1878  had  never  been  redeemable  in  gold,  yet 
always  were  at  par.  These  same  silver  certificates,  a 
month  after  the  message  was  written,  among  the  New 
York  bankers  who  were  decrying  them,  actually  com- 
manded a  premium  of  one  per  cent,  over  gold. 

As  for  the  assertion  of  the  gold  advocates 
that,  tho  there  has  been  a  fall  of  prices,  this 
has  not  been  due  to  the  contraction  of  the  cur- 
rency, but  to  improvements  in  the 
Cause       methods  of  production,  etc.,  it  is 
of  Fall  of    to  ^e  sa^-  in  t^ie  first  place,  that 
Prices       even    granting    the    assertion,   it 
does  not    change    the    fact    that 
prices    have    fallen,    that    falling 
prices    have    produced     long-continued    and 
disastrous  depression  in  business.     Nor  does 


it  affect  the  argument  that  an  increase  of 
currency  would  raise  prices  and  stimulate  in- 
dustry. Admitting  all  that  the  gold  advocates- 
say  (see  MONOMETALISM)  as  to  the  cause  of  the 
fall  of  prices,  the  fact  still  stares  us  in  the  face 
that  gold  has  terribly  appreciated  in  general 
purchasing  power,  and  this  gold  monometalists. 
have  to  admit. 

Mr.  Giffin  ( The  Case  Against  Bimetalisni) 
gives  up  the  argument  that  gold  has  not  appre- 
ciated, and  rests  his  case  on  the  lack  of  confi- 
dence in  silver  (which  argument  we  consider 
later).  He  says  : 

"We  see,  then,  how  widely  those  monometalists 
have  been  in  fault  who,  in  their  dislike  of  bimetalism, 
have  denied  that  the  recent  great  demands  for  gold  in. 
proportion  to  its  supply  were  likely  to  have  caused  a 
rise  in  its  exchange  value  for  other  things.  Looked  at 
in  this  way  the  fall  of  prices  is  itself  a  proof  that  gold, 
in  relation  to  all  the  demands  for  it,  has  been  relatively 
scarcer  than  it  was.  .  .  .  The  entire  habits  and  cus- 
toms of  the  people  as  to  the  use  of  gold  and  silver 
must  be  changed  if  gold  is  to  be  made  abundant  and 
prices  are  to  rise.  It  was  this  answer  which  should 
have  been  made  to  the  bimetalist  instead  of  a  denial 
being  given  to  the  fact  staring  every  one  in  the  face 
that  money,  in  the  sense  of  the  standard  monetary 
substance,  gold,  is  relatively  scarcer  than  it  was." 

Secondly,  bimetalists  cannot  admit  that 
the  fall  of  prices  has  not  been  due  to  monetary 
contraction,  /.  e.,  a  contraction  in  proportion  to 
the  demand.  That  improvements  in  methods 
of  production  and  transportation  have  affected 
the  relative  price  of  the  commodities  pro- 
duced is  not  denied,  but  that  has  little  to  do- 
with  the  question.  There  has  been  a  general 
fall  in  prices  which  cannot  be  explained  by 
improvements  in  production,  etc.,  and  can  be 
explained  by  monetary  contraction.  This  is 
shown  by  the  fact  that,  generally  speaking,  the 
progress  of  invention  has  been  steady,  while 
the  fall  in  prices  has  not  been  steady,  but  has 
almost  exactly  followed  the  expansion  or  con- 
traction of  the  currency.  As  one  may  easily 
see  by  looking  at  the  authoritative  tables  of 
prices,  given  under  article  Prices,  there  was 
a  great  decline  from  1840  to  1849,  exactly  when 
money  was  growing  scarce  relative  to  the 
expansion  of  commerce.  From  1850  to  1857 
production  went  on  expanding  no  more  than 
before,  but  prices  rose  because  the  gold  of 
Australia  and  California  increased  the  supply 
of  money.  When  this  expansion  of  money 
was  over,  prices  fell.  During  the  Civil  War 
money  again  expanded,  and  again  prices  rose. 
When,  after  the  war,  contraction  of  money 
took  place,  prices  fell,  though  they  rose  again 
from  1869  to  1872,  when  money  expanded.  In 
1873,  when  silver  was  nominally  demonetized 
in  the  United  States  and  practically  in  many 
European  countries,  we  have  a  marked  fall  of 
prices,  continuing  till  1878,  when  silver  was 
partly  monetized  and  prices  rose  somewhat. 
They  gradually  fell  again  as  money  grew 
scarce,  rose  a  little  with  the  Sherman  act  of 
1890,  and  later  fell  with  the  world-wide  demon- 
etization of  silver.  In  view  of  these  facts, 
supported  by  the  best  authority,  to  say  that 
prices  have  not  fallen  because  of  monetary 
contraction  is  to  deny  all  recent  experience. 
We  have  thus  all  reputable  economists  unan- 
imously agreeing  down  to  the  present  time 
that  prices  do  vary  with  monetary  quantity  ; 


Silver. 


1242 


Silver. 


we  have  those  who  deny  it  now,  admitting 
it  formerly  when  it  was  a  case  of  expanding 
currency  ;  we  have  gold  monometalists  ad- 
mitting that  prices  have  fallen  ;  we  have  the 
fact  that  money  has  been  contracted  in  pro- 
portion to  demand  ;  we  have  general  prices 
exactly  following  monetary  variations  and 
not  following  the — generally  speaking — steady 
progress  of  invention.  The  case  cannot  be 
clearer  that  prices,  however  relatively  affected 
by  variations  in  supply  and  demand,  have 
fallen  because  of  monetary  contraction  and 
not  because  of  the  pessimistic  theory  that 
the  progress  of  the  world  has  caused  the  de- 
pression of  industry. 

We  now  come  to  the  remaining  citadel  of 
the  gold  monometalists,  that  tho  there  has 
been  a  monetary  contraction,  and 
tho  an  expansion  of  currency  is 
Objections  needed,  nevertheless  silver  has  be- 
Answered.  come  so  cheapened  in  production 
and  so  discarded  by  the  world  that 
it  cannot  be  safely  used  as  stand- 
ard money,  and  certainly  not  without  inter- 
national agreement.  Silver  is  worth  to-day, 
gold  monometalists  point  out,  only  53  cents 
on  the  dollar,  its  production  has  increased  300 
per  cent,  on  the  average  production  of  1861  to 
1873,  and  there  is  no  prospect  of  a  reduction, 
but  rather,  if  it  be  monetized,  of  a  stimu- 
lated production,  with  little  increased  demand 
for  it.  The  gold  advocates  further  point  out  that 
silver  has  fallen,  even  tho  under  the  Bland 
act  the  United  States  coined  $4,000,000,000 
of  silver,  and  under  the  Sherman  act  pur- 
chased 4,500,000  ounces  per  month.  They 
argue  that  if  this  could  not  prevent  the  fall  of 
silver,  even  when  many  countries  were  still 
coining  it,  the  action  of  the  United  States 
alone  can  certainly  not  prevent  its  falling 
now,  when  virtually  all  the  civilized  countries 
of  the  world  have  been  compelled  to  demon- 
etize it.  They  argue  that  the  demonetization 
of  silver  was  not  the  cause  of  its  fall  in  price 
but  the  result.  They  urge  that  to  attempt  to 
keep  so  cheap  a  metal  at  a  parity  with  gold 
can  but  end  disastrously  and  plunge  the  United 
States  into  all  the  evils  of  a  depreciated  cur- 
rency. They  argue  that  to  coin  silver  worth 
only  50  cents  into  a  legal  dollar  must  drive  out 
gold,  put  the  United  States  on  a  par  with  the 
semi-civilized  silver-using  nations  of  the  world, 
rob  the  working  men  by  paying  them  in  dollars 
worth  only  50  cents,  divide  by  one-half  the 
$1,739, ooo, ooo  an  American  savings-banks,  the 
$5,566,000,000  in  life-insurance  companies, 
the  $7,482,000,000  in  assessment  companies, 
etc.,  etc. 

To  this  argument  the  silver  adherents  say  it 
is  true  to-day  that  silver  is  worth  only  50 
cents,  but  that  it  is  no  wonder  that  this  is  so, 
when  since  1871  all  the  civilized  countries  of 
the  world  have,  one  after  another,  stopped 
using  it  as  primary  money.  Silver,  they  urge, 
did  not  begin  to  fall  till  the  nations  began  to 
demonetize  it.  The  partial  monetization  and 
purchase  of  silver  by  the  United  States  did 
not  prevent  the  fall,  they  argue,  simply 
because  it  was  more  than  overbalanced  by 
the  demonetization  of  silver  in  other  coun- 
tries. An  international  agreement  to  mon- 


etize silver  all  silver  advocates  would  welcome, 
but  for  20  years  the  United  States  has  been 
striving  to  get  this  without  success.  Those 
bimetalists  who  believe  in  the  United  States 
now  acting  without  waiting  for  international 
agreement  argue  that  if  the  United  States 
does  decide  to  coin  silver,  other  countries 
will  soon  agree  to  do  so,  or  if  they  do  not 
will  soon  be  compelled  to  do  so.  The  fact  is 
that  a  gold  monometalism  cannot  be  long  sus- 
tained, because  it  is  producing  such  depression 
that  even  wealthy  countries  like  England  will 
have  to  yield  or  have  no  further  markets  for 
investments.  The  reasons  why  England  has 
hitherto  favored  gold  are  patent,  but  it  is  also 
patent  that  England  may  so  ruin  other  coun- 
tries as  to  hurt  herself  and  ruin  her  own  invest- 
ments unless  prices  rise.  There  is  a  change  in 
England.  July  i,  1893,  the  London  Statist 
said  : 

"The  new  policy  of  the  Indian  Government  islikely 
to  intensify  the  appreciation  of  gold.  ...  If  it  does, 
then  we  have  to  look  forward  to  a  further  fall  in 
prices,  to  frequent  fluctuations  in  the  value  of  money, 
and  to  occasional  severe  spasms  in  the  money  market. 
If  the  Indian  Government  succeeds,  silver,  in  fact, 
ceases  to  be  a  precious  metal,  and  gold  in  the  future 
will  alone  have  to  supply  all  the  monetary  demands 
of  the  civilized  world.  It  follows  necessarily  that  the 
value  of  gold  must  steadily  rise,  unless,  indeed,  new 
mines  are  discovered  and  the  production  is  immensely 
increased. 

"  One  consequence  of  the  further  appreciation  of 
gold  will  be  to  intensify  the  agricultural  depression  all 
over  Europe.  Most  of  the  charges  on  land  have  been 
fixed  heretofore ;  they  will  weigh  more  and  more 
heavily  upon  the  land-owners  as  gold  rises  in  value- 
in  other  words,  as  prices  decline.  So,  again,  rents 
will  become  more  onerous,  and  it  will  be  found  that 
the  settlement  of  the  last  few  years  was  only  provis- 
ional, and  that  a  further  reduction  will  become  neces- 
sary. Also,  it  is  evident  that  the  burden  of  debt,  not 
only  upon  individuals  but  upon  governments,  will  be 
much  increased.  Countries  like  France,  with  an  enor- 
mous debt,  will  feel  the  pinch,  tho  France  is  so  rich 
and  her  people  so  thrifty  that  she  will  be  able  to  bear 
the  trial.  The  poorer  countries  will  see  their  difficul- 
ties immensely  increased,  and  unless  they  fall  back 
upon  silver  the  number  of  bankrupt  governments  will 
almost  certainly  increase.  Spain,  for  example,  is 
almost  bankrupt  already,  but  her  difficulties  will  be 
increased  as  the  burden  of  her  gold  debt  is  augmented. 
It  will  be  hardly  possible  for  Portugal  to  conclude  a 
satisfactory  settlement  with  her  bondholders.  The 
troubles  of  Greece  will  be  added  to,  and  the  trials  of 
Italy  will  likewise  be  multiplied.  Everywhere  the 
burden  of  debt  will  necessitate  increased  taxation, 
and  so  will  weigh  very  heavily  upon  the  general  pop- 
ulation." 

As  late  as  January  19,  1895,  the  Statist  said 
further : 

"  The  producing  countries  have  been  plunged  into 
so  much  distress  that  they  are  compelled  to  sell  at 
\vhatever  price  they  can  get,  and  our  people  are  so 
well  off  that  they  are  able  to  buy  larger  and  larger 
quantities  every  year.  The  first  consequence  of  this 
is  that  the  working  classes  are  exceedingly  prosper- 
ous, and  the  foundation  is  being  laid,  in  the  second 
place,  for  a  great  increase  in  our  trade,  because  mer- 
chants are  laying  in  stocks  of  raw  materials  at  excep- 
tionally low  prices.  It  may  be  objected  that  we  lost 
heavily  on  our  exports  ;  but  that  is  not  really  so.  As 
was  pointed  out  last  week,  there  was  a  shrinkage  in 
the  actual  volume  of  our  trade.  The  United  Kingdom 
has  the  labor,  the  machinery,  and  the  capital  to  supply 
all  the  rest  of  the  world  with  any  quantity  of  goods  it 
may  require  ;  but  our  foreign  customers  were  too 
poor  to  buy  from  us  on  the  usual  scale.  The  exports 
merely  confirm  what  the  imports  tell  us— that  the 
producing  countries  are  in  deep  distress,  and  that  we 
are  growing  in  wealth.  Of  the  total  shrinkage  in  the 
value  of  our  exports  of  ^47,000.000,  ^17,000,000  is  due  to 
a  decrease  in  quantity,  and  ^30,000,000  to  a  decline  in 
prices.  Roughly,  the  decline  in  prices  in  the  exports 
is  half  the  decline  in  prices  in  the  imports  ;  or,  to  put 


Silver. 


1243 


Silver. 


it  differently,  we  gained  twice  as  much  by  buying  our 
imports  cheap  as  we  lost,  even  supposing  there  was  a 
loss,  in  selling  our  exports  also  cheap.  But,  as  a  mat- 
ter of  fact,  the  loss  must  have  been  trifling,  if  there 
•was  any  loss.  This  country  manufactures  cheap  goods 
for  all  parts  of  the  world  ;  and  cheap  coarse  stuffs  in- 
clude in  their  value  not  very  much  labor  ;  the  chief 
item  is  the  raw  material.  But  in  buying  the  raw 
material  we  gained  immensely,  and,  consequently, 
there  was  no  need  for  very  much  reduction  in  wages'" 

This  seems  very  satisfactory  to  English  in- 
vestors, but  the  fact  is  that  it  has  been  so  suc- 
cessful that  English  investors  can  now  find 
few  countries  prosperous  enough  to  invest  in 
and  are  crying  out  that  something  must  done. 
The  English  financial  papers  are  full  of  com- 
plaints of  this  kind;  interest  is  falling  and  mar- 
kets failing.  Investments  of  $1000,  formerly 
paying  §600  per  year,  do  not  now  bring  in 
$400.  Even  the  largest  moneyed  men  realize 
that  gold  monometalism  cannot  prosper  on 
the  ruin  of  the  producing  countries.  As  long 
ago  as  the  monetary  crisis  of  1892,  Mr.  de 
Rothschild  said : 

"  If  this  conference  were  to  break  up  without  arriv- 
ing at  any  definite  result  there  would  be  a  depreciation 
in  the  value  of  that  commodity  [silver]  which  it  would 
be  frightful  to  contemplate,  and  out  of  which  a  mone- 
tary panic  would  ensue,  the  far-spreading  conse- 
quences of  which  it  would  be  impossible  to  foretell." 

The  conference  did  come  to  no  definite  con- 
clusion, a  depreciation  of  silver  did  occur, 
frightful  depression  did  result,  and  the  con- 
sequences are  not  yet  seen. 

Dr.  Otto  Arendt  said  in  the  New  York  Jour- 
nal of  August  22,  1896,  concerning  the  effect 
upon  Europe,  if  the  United  States  should  de- 
clare for  free  silver: 

"  Bryan's  victory  will  no  doubt  prepare  the  way  for 
an  international  agreement.  Should  Bryan  be  elected, 
we,  the  bimetalists,  would  gain  formidable  allies, 
while  American  bankers  would  certainly  do  all  in 
their  power  to  forestall  the  depreciation  of  American 
values  by  backing  our  cause  of  international  bimet- 
alism. 

"  Now,  as  to  the  prospects  in  Europe.  The  possess- 
ors of  American  values,  fearing  depreciation,  would 
influence  the  Bourse  to  such  an  extent  as  to  cause 
capital  to  reconsider  its  attitude  toward  bimetalism, 
whereupon  the  European  governments  may  be  obliged 
to  adopt  bimetalism  in  order  to  restore  confidence  and 
equality. 

"  All  Europe  has  formally  declared  that  bimetalism 
shall  not  be  introduced  without  Britain's  cooperation. 
The  English  cabinet  at  Balfour's  instigation  decided, 
on  March  17,  that  nothing  should  interfere  with  the 
gold  standard.  Balfour  represents  the  remarkable 
and  questionable  view  that  no  change  of  coinage 
should  be  imposed  on  financial  men.  In  other  words, 
the  world  of  finance  rules — the  thief  is  jailer. 

"  Balfour  waits  and  hopes  patiently  for  the  bimetal- 
lic conversion  of  London.  That  famous  debate  of 
March  17  has  clearly  shown  what  is  thought  of  the 
question  in  the  City.  The  Shylock  standpoint  was 
never  presented  with  more  brutal  effrontery  than  by 
Harcourt.  The  American  silver  party  will  find  Har- 
court's  speech  the  best  campaign  document.  A  pro- 
ducer who  reads  this  speech,  and  does  not  vote  for 
Bryan,  cuts  his  own  throat.  In  order  to  prevent  some 
of  this  moral  suicide,  I  quote  a  few  characteristic 
phrases.  Said  the  leader  of  the  English  Liberals: 

"'England  has  been  called  the  land  of  Shylocks. 
Nobody  who  was  present  will  forget  the  memorable 
speech  delivered  by  Mr.  Gladstone  in  this  House  on 
this  same  question,  in  which  he  submitted  to  the 
world's  ridicule  the  proposition  that  this  land  of 
money-lenders  should  go  from  country  to  country, 
hat  in  hand,  begging  that  we  should  be  paid  ten  shil- 
lings for  a  pound.  This  is  practically  the  goal  to 
which  bimetalism  would  lead  us.  [Hear,  hear!]  Of 
course,  we  are  told  that  we  shall  receive  more  money. 
The  truth  is  that  we  are  paid  not  in  gold,  but  in  goods. 
It  is  out  of  this  merchandise  that  our  people  make 


their  living,  and  now  it  is  expected  of  us  that  we  shall 
go  around  the  world  begging  that  we  shall  receive  less 
merchandise  for  our  gold.  Can  anything  more  ridicu- 
lous be  suggested  ?  [Hear,  hear  !]  We,  who  have  lent 
hundreds,  nay  thousands  of  millions  to  foreign  nations, 
shall  ask  them  that  for  this  money  they  shall  give  us 
less  in  return  than  we  now  receive.  [Hear  !]  ' 

"  With  this  speech  Shylock  Harcourt  has  laid  bare 
the  kernel  of  the  whole  matter.  Shall  producers  pay 
double  value  in  goods  or  not  ?  The  English  creditor 
grows  rich,  while  his  American  victim  goes  to  ruin. 
When  once  it  becomes  fully  understood  in  London 
that  Bryan  is  bound  to  enact  the  free-silver  coinage, 
•without  the  permission  of  the  Stock  Exchange,  will 
not  the  fear  of  the  decrease  of  American  values  bring 
about  the  City's  conversion  ?  Then  Balfour  will  follow 
his  bimetallic  convictions,  and  in  that  case  all  Europe 
is  conquered. 

"  It  is  self-evident  that  the  American  people  desire 
to  be  as  independent  of  the  manipulators  of  the 
bourses  of  New  York  and  Chicago  as  they  must  be 
absolutely  free  of  the  conditions  that  govern  specula- 
tion in  Berlin  and  London.  So-called  silver  fanat- 
icism, of  which  we  hear  so  much,  is  really  but  a 
protest  against  shady  bourse  manipulations  that 
threaten  the  small  man,  year  in  and  year  out. 

"The  American  silver  party,  if  it  means  to  doits  full 
duty,  must  not  be  content  to  break  the  gold  monopoly, 
but  must  also  put  an  end  to  the  fluctuations  of  the 
value  of  silver.  This  should  be  accomplished  as  fol- 
lows :  Immediately  after  Bryan  assumes  his  office, 
the  Government  of  the  United  States  should  ask  the 
powers  of  Europe  whether  they  desire  a  mutual 
understanding  with  reference  to  free  coinage.  The 
powers  will  not  be  long  in  formulating  requests  and 
submitting  propositions,  by  whose  adoption  all  con- 
tracting parties  will  gain.  Thus  it  may  come  about 
that  international  bimetalism  and  the  best  pos- 
sible solution  of  the  financial  and  economical  prob- 
lems of  the  day  will  be  the  ultimate  results  of  Bryan's 
and  the  people's  victory." 

This  is  the  view  of  others  than  Dr.  Arendt. 
These  men  hold  that,  having  waited  20  years 
in  vain  for  international  agreement,  the  wiser 
hope  now  is  for  the  United  States  to  force  the 
situation.  It  may  for  a  while  throw  this  coun- 
try out  of  financial  touch  with  Europe,  but 
that  it  will  wholly  prevent  international  trade 
is  absurd.  Suppose  the  United  States  be  on  a 
silver  basis  and  Europe  on  a  gold  basis. 
America  can  still  buy,  at  the  worst,  gold  at 
some  price  to  effect  international  exchanges, 
while,  if  prices  rise  here,  American  producers 
will  gain  more  than  enough  to  make  up  for 
considerable  inconvenience,  and  even  loss,  in 
international  exchanges.  The  price  of  the 
main  agricultural  exports  will  not  be  affected 
at  all,  since  they  are  dependent  on  English 
and  not  American  markets,  so  that  our 
main  international  exchanges  will  not  suffer. 
On  the  other  hand,  if  gold  monometalism 
continue,  depression  and  contraction  must  not 
only  go  on,  but  be  intensified,  because  the 
gold  advocates  propose,  and  indeed  will  be 
compelled,  to  destroy  all  paper,  which  is  now 
made  use  of  to  draw  gold  from  the  treasury. 
Any  temporary  losses  which  may  result  there- 
fore from  international  exchanges  are  nothing 
to  the  suffering  that  must  result  from  a  con- 
tinuance of  the  gold  monometalism.  Nor  do 
the  silver  bimetalists  admit  that  silver  will 
lack  confidence.  They  say  that  to-day  its  fall  in 
price  is  patently  due  to  its  world-wide  demon- 
etization (e.  g.,  when  India  closed  her  mints  to 
its  free  coinage,  silver  fell  5  per  cent.).  When 
the  United  States  commences  free  coinage, 
not  as  before  coining  a  limited  amount,  but 
agreeing  to  take  all  that  can  be  produced,  it 
must  rise  in  value,  while  many  believe  it  will 
be  on  a  par  with  gold. 


Silver. 


1244 


Silver. 


Says  Dr.  C.  B.  Spahr  in  one  of  the  articles 
quoted  above  : 

"Nothing  is  clearer  historically  than  that  the  value 
of  money  depends  not  upon  its  material  but  upon  the 
relation  between  its  supply  and  the  demand  of  busi- 
ness. My  own  lingering  doubts  upon  this  point  were 
removed  by  the  experience  of  France  immediately 
after  the  gold  discoveries. 

"  It  will   be  recalled  that  the  production  of   gold 
within  a  few  years  increased  tenfold,  while  the  pro- 
duction of  silver  merely  increased  at  the  steady  rate 
it  has  maintained  for  the  century.    The  cost  of  mining 
gold,  measured  in  days'  labor,  was  reduced  to  less  than 
one-half.     Had  gold  been  demonetized,  as  the  mono- 
metalists  then  demanded,  its  value  would  doubtless 
have  fallen  as  rapidly  as  they  predicted.    But  as  the 
mints  remained  open,  and  an  ounce  of  gold  still  re- 
tained the  same  currency  privileges  as  15^  ounces  of 
silver,  its  value  could  not  fall  any  faster  than  the  value 
of  all  currency  fell.    For  several  years,  France,  with 
less  than  half  of  our  present  population  and  hardly 
more    than    half   of  our  present  currency,   received 
yearly  at  her  mints  $100,000,000  of  gold.    Yet  with  this 
expansion  of  the  currency  came  an  expansion  of  busi- 
ness, demanding  more  currency.    Prices  rose  but  one- 
fifth  in  15  years,  and  prices  in  silver  rose  as  rapidly  as 
prices  in  gold.    There  was  a  slight  premium  upon  sil- 
ver at  the  bullion  dealers',  where  a  little 
silver  was  each  year  sought  for  export, 
Value         but  this  premium  did  not  exist  in  ordi- 
Of  Silver       nary  transactions.    Just  what  took  place 
is  admirably  described  by  Chevalier  in  a 
passage  that  cannot  be  quoted  too  often. 
Writing  in  1859—11  years  after  the  flood 
of  cheap  gold  had  begun  to  pour  into  the  currency — 
the  great  monometalist  of  his  generation  said  : 

"  '  One  is  surprised  at  first  that  a  production  of  gold 
so  vast,  so  colossal  as  has  been  noted,  in  comparison 
with  what  had  been  seen  before,  has  not  yet  caused  a 
lower  ratio  of  gold  to  the  other  precious  metal.  But 
there  is  intervening  a  powerful  cause  which  tempo- 
rarily holds  back  gold  in  its  fall.  France  offers  thus 
far  an  indefinitely  great  market  upon  the  basis  of  i 
kilogram  of  gold  for  15^  of  silver.  For  the  stranger 
who  owes  a  Frenchman  a  certain  number  of  francs — 
that  is  a  certain  number  of  times  4^  grams  of  silver — 
acquits  himself  legally  by  giving  him  a  quantity  of 
gold  15^  times  as  small.  Whenever  the  merchant  in 
precious  metals  wishes  to  exchange  his  gold  for  silver, 
he  obtains  almost  the  same  terms  ;  for,  in  addition  to 
the  quantity  indicated  by  the  ratio  of  15}^  to  i,  he  has 
only  to  pay  the  premium,  and  by  force  up  to  this  pres- 
ent that  has  been  slight,  and  must  remain  so  for  some 
time  yet,  for  a  reason  easy  to  perceive.  So  long  as 
there  remains  much  silver  m  France,  people  residing 
there,  to  whom  the  pieces  of  metal  come,  ought  to 
esteem  themselves  happy  to  exchange  it  for  gold  at  a 
premium  very  small  over  the  ratio  established  by  the 
law  of  1803,  since  for  the  payments  they  have  to  make 
they  cannot  make  their  creditors  take  it  for  more  than 
the  proportion  of  gold  indicated  by  the  law,  i  to  15^. 
For  the  same  reason  it  will  be  impossible  at  London, 
at  Brussels  and  Hamburg,  at  New  York,  or  any  other 

Elace  on  the  general  market,  for  gold  to  be  worth  much 
jss  than  15^  its  weight  in  silver.' 

"What  took  place  in  France  in  the  fifties,  when  the 
free  coinage  of  gold  was  continued  despite  the  pro- 
tests of  the  classes  favoring  a  scarce  currency,  is  likely 
to  take  place  in  the  United  States  when  the  free 
coinage  of  silver  is  resumed,  despite  the  protests  of 
the  same  classes.  The  increase  in  our  currency  will 
be  relatively  less,  and  the  rise  in  prices  probably  less. 
To-day  the  entire  annual  product  of  the  silver-mines 
of  the  world  (reckoned  at  its  old  price)  is  but  a  little 
more  than  $200,000,000.  Nearly  one-half  of  this  prod- 
uct, as  Mr.  Giffin  said  in  his  Case  against  Btmetal- 
tsm,  is  taken  for  non-monetary  purposes  (including 
the  consumption  of  India).  Further,  millions  are 
taken  for  the  subsidiary  currency  of  gold-standard 
countries,  and  the  entire  currency  of  silver-standard 
countries.  These  demands  are  not  lessened  when 
silver  rises  in  price.  The  amount,  of  silver  that  can 
be  brought  to  our  mints  is  not  likely  to  exceed  $100,- 
000,000,  even  if  the  cause  of  bimetalism  is  too  weak 
abroad  to  lead  any  other  nation  to  follow  our  exam- 
ple. The  relaxing  of  our  demand  for  gold  is  likely  to 
lower  the  value  of  that  metal  to  where  it  stood  prior 
to  the  adoption  of  international  monometalism  in 
1893.  With  prices  restored  to  the  level  of  four  or  five 
years  ago,  $100,000,000  a  year  is  hardly  more  than  suf- 
ficient to  maintain  prices  upon  that  level.  During  the 
_decade  between  1880  and  1890  our  currency,  according 


to  the  official  estimate,  increased  nearly  5  per  cent, 
a  year.  The  estimate  was  somewhat  exaggerated, 
but  the  real  increase  was  about  4  per  cent.,  and  this 
was  insufficient  to  prevent  slowly  falling  prices.  One 
hundred  million  dollars  a  year  added  to  our  currency 
would  increase  its  volume  but  7  per  cent,  a  year,  and 
would  hardly  keep  pace  with  the  demands  of  expand- 
ing business.  .  .  . 

"  When  the  currency  demands  for  the  two  metals 
were  approximately  the  same,  silver  and  gold  re- 
mained at  the  old  ratio  during  the  first  part  of  the 
century,  tho  three  times  as  much  silver  was  produced 
as  gold  ;  they  remained  at  this  ratio  at  the  middle  of 
this  century,  when  three  times  as  much  gold  was  pro- 
duced as  silver.  Much  more,  therefore,  will  equal 
currency  demands  maintain  this  ratio  at  the  end  of 
the  century,  when  the  two  metals  are  produced  in 
equal  amounts." 

Nor  is  there  any  danger  of  a  flood  of  silver. 
Silver  cannot  be  produced  fast  enough,  or  be 
brought  to  this  country  in  quantities  enough, 
to  raise  the  circulation  above  the  demand  for 
money.  Even  gold  advocates  admit  this. 
Secretary  Carlisle's  argument  is  that  the  free 
coinage  of  silver  will  contract  the  currency, 
because  the  gold  will  go  and  there  is  not 
enough  silver  to  take  its  place.  In  his  widely 
quoted  speech  before  the  working  men  of 
Chicago,  April  15,  1896,  he  argued  that  if 
the  United  States  mints  devoted  themselves 
wholly  to  coining  silver  it  would  take  15  years 
to  coin  enough  silver  to  replace  the  gold  that 
would  be  driven  out.  But  silver  advocates 
are  not  afraid  of  contraction  on  this  score, 
because  they  show  that  gold  is  practically  out 
of  circulation  now,  so  that  what  new  silver 
would  be  coined  would  be  a  gain.  To  talk, 
therefore,  about  "a  so-cent  dollar,"  "dis- 
honesty," and  "loss  to  working  men  and 
savings-bank  investors,"  etc.,  is  absurd,  be- 
cause it  argues,  from  the  value  of  silver  when 
demonetized,  the  value  of  silver  under  free 
coinage  ;  a  wholly  different  matter.  The  gold 
advocates  sometimes  reply,  "  If  this  be  so,  if 
the  silver  dollar  be  worth  a  gold  dollar,  what 
will  it  advantage  the  oppressed  debtors  and 
farmers  of  whom  the  silver  advocates  make 
so  much  ? "  The  answer  is  very  simple.  A 
silver  dollar  will  be  worth  a  dollar  of  gold, 
but  prices  will  rise — measured  in  either  silver 
or  gold — because  of  the  increased  quantity  of 
money,  and  so  producers  be  able  to  pay  off 
their  debts  the  more  easily  in  perfectly  honest 
money." 

But  will  this  not  hurt  all  wage-workers  and 
all  receivers  of  fixed  incomes  ?  Not  if  it 
benefit  the  whole  country.  To-day  the  wage- 
workers  are  suffering  far  more  from  non- 
employment  and  short  time  than  from  low 
wages.  If  prices  rise,  and  for  a  while  rise 
more  than  wages,  wages  will  follow  in  time, 
while  meanwhile  the  workers  will  gain  far 
more  than  they  lose  in  the  stimulation  of 
industry  and  the  loosening  of  the  wheels  of 
commerce,  to-day  under  paralysis.  Some 
silver  bimetalists  admit  that  a  temporary 
panic  may  be  produced,  if  free  silver  be 
adopted,  owing  to  the  fear  of  free  silver  on 
the  part  of  the  moneyed  classes ;  but  they 
urge  that  it  will  be  but  temporary,  while,  if  it 
does  not  come  now,  it  must  come  later  in  in- 
tensified form,  whenever  the  step  to  free 
silver  be  made.  The  step,  they  say,  must  be 
taken  some  time,  because  the  world  simply 


Silver. 


Silver. 


cannot  go  on,  on  the  ruin  of  the  producing 
classes  due  to  gold  contraction. 

But  supposing  silver  should  not  rise  to  a 
full  16  to  i  valuation  to  gold,  bimetalists  even 
then  believe  in  its  monetization.  Suppose  the 
silver  dollar  falls  to  85  per  cent,  of  the  present 
value  of  a  gold  dollar,  even  so  it  will  but  bring 
back  prices  to  where  they  were  in  1893.  Since 
1893,  according  to  Sauerbeck's  tables,  which 
are  considered  of  the  highest  authority,  prices 
have  fallen  over  15  per  cent.,  so  that  if  cred- 
itors are  paid  in  dollars  depreciated  15  per 
cent,  these  dollars  will  still  be  as  valuable  as 
gold  dollars  were  in  1893.  Loans  contracted 
before  1893  will  be  paid  back  in  money  worth 
more  than  the  money  lent,  and  the  loans 
made  since  1893  are  a  minority  of  the  debts. 
A  few  creditors  may  thus  be  wronged,  yet 
not  even  they  dishonestly,  for  they  loaned 
with  a  full  understanding  that  currency  might 
change,  while  the  large  proportion  of  credit- 
ors would  get  more  value  than  they  loaned. 
The  following  are  Sauerbeck's  indexed  figures 
from  1890  : 


890  

891  

892  

72 
68 

February  

61.4 

891  

68 

fin  i 

894  

63 

May  

60 

885  

62 

Thus  the  bimetalists  believe  that,  with 
perfect  equity,  with  a  minimum  of  monetary 
disturbance,  with  the  probability  of  forcing 
international  agreement,  the  United  States 
can  adopt  the  free  coinage  of  silver  at  a  ratio 
of  16  to  i  without  waiting  for  international 
agreement,  and  thus  save  the  country  from  the 
commercial  ruin,  the  industrial  prostration, 
the  subserviency  to  the  money  power  of  Europe 
and  America,  the  infamous  bond  issues  and 
syndicate  contracts,  the  increase  of  indebted- 
ness that  have  long  rested  like  a  miasma  on 
the  land.  Says  President  Andrews,  in  a  pub- 
lished letter  under  date  of  July  14,  1896  : 

"After  a  possible  first  shock  our  credit  would  im- 
prove after  free  coinage.  It  is  our  present  course 
which  must  speedily  lower  our  credit.  How  long 
could  a  man  or  a  firm  continue  to  have  credit  who 
borrowed  each  year  to  pay  a  large  portion  of  his  run- 
ning expenses?  Yet  on  a  gold  basis  this  course  is 
inevitable,  and  that  is  at  this  moment  the  reason  why 
foreign  lenders  are  shy  of  our  securities.  There  must 
be  a  change  if  we  would  avoid  bankruptcy.  With 
free  coinage  every  industry  would  look  up,  and  even 
if  we  lost  our  gold,  our  prosperity  would  invite  in 
English  capital  just  as  Japan's  prosperity  now  causes 
it  to  rush  there. 

"Never  since  slavery  days  has  the  press  in  the 
parts  of  the  country  familiar  to  me  displayed  such 
disregard  for  truth  and  such  stubborn  obtuseness  to 
the  most  obvious  considerations  as  it  does  at  present 
on  the  silver  question.  This  means  that  the  money 
power  seated  in  London,  but  with  representatives  in 
New  York,  Philadelphia,  and  Chicago,  is  determined 
to  continue  the  appreciation  of  gold,  and  determined, 
therefore,  that  the  fact  shall  not  be  known.  The 
bankers  and  the  press  are  almost  entirely  under  its 
influence. 

"  I  think  the  money  question  at  the  present  time  the 
great  question  of  civilization." 

THE   RADICAL  VIEW. 

The  Radical  view  on  the  silver  question  is 
quite  different  from  -the  bimetallic  view.  It 
may  accept  the  bimetallic  analysis  of  the 


present  situation,  but  it  bases  its  support  of 
silver  on  quite  other  grounds.  It  is  essentially 
a  Greenback  party  and  not  a  bimetallic  party. 
Mr.  Henry  D.  Lloyd,  describing  the  Populist 
convention  of  1896  at  St.  Louis,  says  (Review 
of  Reviews,  September,  1896): 

"The  members  of  the  People's  Party  have  had  most 
of  their  education  on  the  money  question  from  the 
Greenbackers  among  them.  .  .  .  The  People's  Party 
believes  really  in  a  currency  redeemable  in  all  the 
products  of  human  labor,  and  not  in  gold  alone,  nor 
in  gold  and  silver." 

The  People's  Party  accepts  silver  at  best 
as  but  a  stepping-stone  to  further  currency 
reforms,  while  many  of  the  party  question 
whether  it  is  much  of  a  step.  It  is  not  that 
the  People's  Party  wants  more  money,  no 
matter  how  gained.  It  knows  very  clearly 
what  kind  of  money  it  wants.  Probably  no 
body  of  men  in  the  world  are  better  educated 
on  the  money  question  than  those  who  repre- 
sent recent  Greenbackism.  They  have  had  30 
years  of  discussion  of  it.  They  have  no  loose 
ideas  about  inflation  ;  they  know  perfectly 
well  the  evils  of  overissue  ;  but  they  also 
know  perfectly  well  the  evils  of 
underissue.  What  they  want  is 
a  paper  currency,  carefully  re-  Scientific 
stricted  and  regulated  on  scien-  Currency, 
tific  principles  according  to  the 
multiple  standard  (q.  v.)  or  some 
such  system.  This  view,  it  must  be  remem- 
bered, has  the  support  of  almost  all  of  even 
the  most  cautious  economists,  with  the  single 
tho  important  exception  that  most  economists  , 
believe  the  people  cannot  be  trusted  to  con- 
duct such  a  currency  within  safe  limits,  and 
that  a  currency  not  kept  within  such  limits 
would  be  the  worst  kind  of  money.  The  point 
of  difference  between  scientific  Greenbackers 
and  conservative  economists  is  simply  then 
how  far  the  nation  can  be  trusted  to  regulate 
a  paper  currency.  But  however  this  be,  the 
Populist  Party,  recognizing  that  the  majority 
of  the  nation  could  not  be  got  to  favor  paper 
money,  is  willing,  or  at  least  a  majority  of 
the  party  is  willing,  to  accept  silver  money  as 
a  step  in  that  direction.  (For  the  argument 
for  paper  money,  see  PAPER  MONEY  ;  also 
MULTIPLE  STANDARD.)  The  party  is  willing  to 
compromise  on  silver  simply  because  it  be- 
lieves that  no  advance  can  be  made  in  Amer- 
ica till  the  power  of  the  money  monopoly  be 
broken.  It  supports  silver,  therefore,  mainly 
to  defeat  gold. 

Says  Mr.  Lloyd  (speaking  of  the  St.  Louis 
convention,  idem}: 

"The  strongest  single  body  of  believers  in  the  con- 
vention was  this  of  anti-monopoly  in  everything, 
including  the  currency.  These  men  would  much 
rather  have  declared  for  the  demonetization  of  gold 
than  the  remonetization  of  silver.  .  .  .  But  those 
who  might  have  called  this  force  into  activity  were 
quiescent.  .  .  .  The  fear  ruled  that  unless  the  reform 
forces  united  this  time  they  would  never  have  the 
opportunity  to  unite.  It  was  in  the  air  that  there 
must  be  union." 

The  reason  for  this  desire  for  union  must  be 
found  in  the  bitterness  and  intensity  of  the 
hatred  of  the  money  power  of  the  United 
States.  It  was  not  a  new  feeling.  It  is  the 
result  of  30  years  of  agitation  against  the  gold 
power,  beginning  with  the  struggles  over  the 


Silver. 


1246 


Silver. 


greenbacks  ($r.  z/.)  in  war  time.  This  element 
cannot  be  dissociated  from  the  present  situa- 
tion, without  utterly  misunderstanding  the 
situation.  The  silver  movement  is  not  a 
passing  craze.  Says  the  American  Review 
of  Reviews  (August,  1896)  of  the  Democratic 
convention  which  declared  for  free  silver: 

"They  were  self-respecting  American  citizens  who 
detest  anarchy,  abhor  repudiation,  and  occupy  their 
present  attitude  with  the  clearest  conscience  and 
strongest  conviction  that  have  guided  their  political 
action  at  any  time  since  the  war. 

"  The  moral  superiority  in  the  convention  did  not 
lie  with  the  masterful  politicians  of  the  Hill  and  Whit- 
ney type,  who  went  to  Chicago  with  the  impression 
that  they  might,  through  long  experience  in  conven- 
tion management,  divide  the  ranks  of  the  free-silver 
majority  and  secure  a  compromise  result.  Against 
the  earnestness,  openness,  and  almost  fanatical  inten- 
sity of  the  free-silver  majority,  the  calculating  poli- 
ticians were  simply  helpless." 

It  is  not  inconsistent  with  the  fact  of  this 
moral  earnestness  that  many  Populist  lead- 
ers have  been  led  into  exaggeration  and  mis- 
take as  to  facts.  Such  is  their  assertion  as  to 
the  so-called  "  crime  of  1873."  It  can  be 
proved  (see  MONOMETALISM)  that  there  was  no 
conspiracy  or  concealment  on  the  part  at  least 
of  most  of  those  who  prepared  and  voted  for  the 
famous  act  of  that  year,  nominally  demonet- 
izing a  metal  which  had  been  practically  de- 
monetized nearly  40  years.  It  is  also  evident 
to  most  thinkers  that  Populist  speakers  and 
writers  are  mistaken  when  they  refer,  in  the 
literal  sense  of  the  word,  to  any  conspiracy 
at  any  time  by  the  gold  influence  of  England 
or  Wall  Street.  There  is  no  remotest  proof  of 
such  a  conspiracy.  The  much  dis- 
cussed story  about  the  coming  of 
Conspiracy  ?  Ernest  Seyd  to  this  country  as  the 
representative  of  the  gold  power, 
to  obtain  the  passage  of  the  bill  of 
1873,  is  a  myth.  Nevertheless, 
the  Populists  who  talk  of  a  conspiracy  are  not 
so  wrong  as  at  first  appears,  Literally,  they 
are  wrong  ;  there  has  been  no  conspiracy,  but 
perhaps,  only  because  there  has  been  no  need 
of  one.  In  no  civilized  country  (except  occa- 
sionally in  the  United  Sates)  has  the  financial 
policy  of  that  country  been  directed  by  the 
masses  of  its  people.  In  every  country  (and 
including  the  United  States,  except  on  a  few 
occasions)  the  financial  policy  of  the  country 
has  been  directed  by  the  class  engaged  in  the 
business  of  'handling  or  loaning  money. 
Especially  has  this  been  the  case  in  England. 
Now  the  perfectly  avowed  and  natural  inter- 
est of  this  class  has  been,  for  the  last  30  years 
in  all  countries,  and  for  the  last  80  years  in  Eng- 
land, to  favor  gold.  Its  members  have,  there- 
fore, perfectly  honestly  and  usually  openly, 
worked  for  the  demonetization  of  everything 
except  gold.  They  may  have  issued  private 
circulars  and  written  private  letters  and  they 
probably  have,  but  this  was  their  right,  since 
perhaps  99  per  cent,  of  this  class  have  honestly 
believed  that  their  views  were  for  the  real  good 
of  all,  and  since  this  view  can  be,  to  say  the 
least,  strongly  defended  (see  MONOMETALISM). 
There  has  been  therefore  no  conspiracy  nor 
need  of  one.  And  yet  this  whole  class,  to  a 
greater  or  less  degree,  does  agree  together  to 
oppose  all  forms  of  currency  expansion  and 


recently  the  use  of  anything  as  standard 
money  but  gold.  The  effect  of  this  upon  the 
world  is  well  known. 

The  effects  of  gold  appreciation  upon  the 
prosperity  of  a  country  have  never  been  more 
strongly  felt  by  any  Populist  than  by  some  of 
the  sober  economists  quoted  above.  Yet 
steadily,  from  1863  to  1896,  the  moneyed  class 
time  after  time  have  prevailed  upon  Congress 
to  enact  a  bill  now  partly  destroying  the  legal- 
tender  value  of  greenbacks  ;  now  withdraw- 
ing all  paper  money ;  now  voting  to  pay 
bondholders  in  gold,  tho  the  soldiers  who  risked 
their  lives  in  war  were  paid  in  paper  ;  now 
demonetizing  silver  ;  now  repealing  what  few 
bills  have  been  passed  looking  toward  a  larger 
currency.  When  the  producing  masses  have 
induced  Congress  to  at  least  compromise,  they 
have  seen  the  money  power  influence  the  Pres- 
ident to  a  veto.  Recently  they  have  seen  the  ad- 
ministration, in  closest  intimacy  with  a  secret 
syndicate,  giving  it  favorable  terms  on  loans  of 
millions  of  dollars,  the  interest  on  which  the 
people  must  pay.  Is  it  any  wonder  that  the  cry 
of  a  gold  conspiracy  has  been  raised  ?  Mrs. 
S.  Emery's  Seven  Financial  Conspiracies  is 
said  to  have  reached  a  sale  of  400,000  copies. 
As  its  statements  have  played  a  large  part  in 
financial  history  we  quote  a  synopsis  of  it 
here,  given  by  Mr.  G.  B.  Waldron  in  his  Hand- 
book on  Currency  and  Wealth  (pp.  37-40). 
Mr.  Waldron  gives  also  the  answer  which  Mr. 
Sherman  has  made  to  the  book,  and  we  quote 
his  answer.  It  will  be  seen,  as  stated  above, 
that  Mrs.  Emory  is  wrong  in  charging  con- 
spiracy, but  also  that  she  is  not  wrong  in  her 
argument  that  our  legislation  has  been  un- 
justly influenced  again  and  again  by  the 
money  interest. 

Says  Mr.  Waldron  : 

"The  first  great  conspiracy,  according  to  Mrs. 
Emery,  was  in  the  law  of  February  25,  1862. 

"  '  Wherein  it  was  stipulated  that  the  greenback 
should  be  a  legal  tender  for  all  debts,  public  and  pri- 
vate, except  duties  on  imports  and  interest  on  the 
public  debt,  which  from  that  time  forward  should  be 
paid  in  coin.' 

"  This  '  created  a  demand  for  gold,'  and  sent  it  to  a 
premium,  reaching  185  per  cent,  in  1864.  The  special 
advantage  of  this  to  '  Shylock  '  was  that  '  he  could  buy 
bonds  with  greenbacks  at  face  value,  and  by  means 
of  the  exemption  clause  he  could  turn  his  gold  into 
greenbacks  at  enormous  advantage.'  It  further 
added  greatly  to  the  cost  of  imported  goods,  for  which 
the  war  made  a  greatly  increased  demand.  Duties 
being  payable  in  gold,  with  gold  at  a  premium,  the 
prices  of  imported  goods  would  be  greatly  advanced 
to  the  consumer. 

''  In  a  reply  to  this,  made  October  15,  i8qi,  and  widely 
circulated  in  the  press,  Senator  John  Sherman  ac- 
knowledged that  '  the  duties  on  imported  goods  were 
required  to  be  paid  in  coin,  in  order  to  provide  the 
means  to  pay  the  interest  on  our  bonds  in  coin.' 
Then  he  adds  : 

"'This  clause  had  not  only  the  cordial  support  of 
Secretary  Chase,  but  of  President  Lincoln,  and  proved 
to  be  the  most  important  financial  aid  of  the  Govern- 
ment devised  during  the  war.  Goods  being  imported 
upon  coin  values,  it  was  but  right  that  the  duty  to 
the  Government  should  be  paid  in  the  same  coin. 
Otherwise,  the  duties  would  have  been  constantly 
diminishing  with  the  lessening  purchasing  power  of 
our  greenbacks.  If  the  interest  of  our  debt  had  not 
been  paid  in  coin,  we  could  have  borrowed  no  money 
abroad,  and  the  rate  of  interest,  instead  of  diminish- 
ing, as  it  did,  would  have  been  largely  increased,  and 
the  volume  of  our  paper  money  would  necessarily 
have  had  to  be  increased,  and  its  market  value  would 
have  gone  down  lower  and  lower,  and  probably  ended, 
as  Confederate  money  did,  in  being  as  worthless  as 


Silver. 


1247 


Silver, 


rags.  This  exemption  clause  saved  our  public  credit 
by  making  a  market  for  our  bonds,  and  was  paid  by 
foreigners  for  the  privilege  of  entering  our  markets.' 

"  For  proof  of  conspiracy  the  famous  '  Hazzard  Cir- 
cular '  is  offered  in  evidence  (not  by  Mrs.  Emery, 
however).  This  purports  to  be  issued  by  Charles 
Hazzard,  an  agent  or  London  capitalists  in  1862,  to 
New  York  capitalists.  It  is  said  to  have  been  taken 
from  letter- files  of  the  First  National 
Bank  of  Council  Grove,  Kan.,  by  Isaac 
si,.«on  v.n/>v<,  Sharp  in  1873,  and  first  published  in  the 
tfreenoaCKS.  Council  Grove  Guard  September  18, 
1886.  James  G.  Nisbett  made  affidavit 
in  the  county  of  Posey,  Indiana,  on  May 
29,  1894,  that,  while  on  guard  in  the  army  at  Lebanon, 
Ky.,  about  the  2sth  of  July,  1862,  he  with  Sheridan 
Anderson,  now  deceased,  were  ordered  to  follow  a 
party  of  three,  one  woman  and  two  men,  and  that 
when  asked  to  account  for  themselves  one  of  them 
gave  his  name  as  Charles  Hazzard,  told  that  he  was 
an  Englishman  in  this  country  on  business,  and  gave 
them  a  package  of  envelopes  containing  circulars. 
One  of  these  Nisbett  retained,  and  in  his  affidavit 
gave  in  full  substantially  as  it  appeared  in  the  Coun- 
cil Grove  Guard.  It  is  as  follows  : 

"  '  Slavery  is  likely  to  be  abolished  by  the  war  power, 
and  chattel  slavery  destroyed.  This  I  and  my  Eu- 
ropean friends  are  in  favor  of,  for  slavery  is  but  the 
owning  of  labor,  and  carries  with  it  the  care  of  the 
laborer,  while  the  European  plan  led  on  by  England  is 
capital  control  of  labor  by  controlling  wages.  This 
can  be  done  by  controlling  the  money.  The  great 
debt,  that  capitalists  will  see  to  it  is  made  out  of  the 
war,  must  be  used  as  a  measure  to  control  the  volume 
of  money.  To  accomplish  this,  the  bonds  must  be 
used  as  a  banking  basis.  We  are  now  waiting  to  get 
the  Secretary  of  the  Treasury  to  make  this  recom- 
mendation to  Congress.  It  will  not  do  to  allow  the 
greenbacks,  as  they  are  called,  to  circulate  as  money 
any  length  of  time,  as  we  cannot  control  them.  But 
we  can  control  the  bonds,  and  through  them  the  bank 
issues.' 

"The  second  '  conspiracy, 'according  to  Mrs.  Emery, 
was  the  national  banking  system  in  1863. 

"  '  By  it  Shylock  was  permitted  to  invest  his  green- 
backs in  Government  bonds  at  face  value.  Upon 
these  bonds  he  not  only  drew  gold  interest  in  ad- 
vance, but  by  means  of  the  bank  scheme  he  actually 
had  90  per  cent,  of  their  value  returned  to  him.  While 
drawing  interest  upon  the  entire  investment  in  the 
form  of  bonds,  90  per  cent,  of  it  has  been  returned  to 
him  in  the  form  of  national  bank-notes,  and  it  is  with 
these  he  carries  on  his  banking  business,  loaning  them 
out  upon  the  most  advantageous  terms.' 

"Of  this  national  banking  system  Senator  John 
Sherman  says  : 

"  '  It  is  now  conceded  to  have  been  the  best  form  of 
paper  money  issued  by  banks  that  has  ever  been  de- 
vised. It  was  organized  to  take  the  place  of  the  State 
banks,  which  at  the  beginning  of  the  war  had  out- 
standing over  $200,000,000  of  notes,  of  value  varying 
from  State  to  State,  and  most  of  it  at  a  discount  of  from 
5  to  25  per  cent.  It  was  absolutely  necessary  to  get  rid 
of  these  State  bank-notes,  and  to  substitute  in  their 
place  the  notes  of  banks  which  were  secured  beyond 
doubt  by  the  deposit  of  United  States  bonds,  a  system 
so  perfect  that,  from  the  beginning  until  now,  no  one 
has  lost  a  dollar  in  the  circulating  notes  of  national 
banks.' 

"  Conspiracy  No.  3. — According  to  Mrs.  Emery  the  act 
of  April  12,  1896,  was  passed  for  the  purpose  of  con- 
tracting the  currency  by  destroying  the  greenbacks, 
upon  which  the  people  paid  no  interest.  This  gave 
'  Shylock  '  more  bonds,  and  at  the  same  time  '  low- 
ered the  prices  of  other  property  and  added  that  much 
more  to  the  burdens  of,  the  debtor  class.'  It  doubled 
the  debt  of  the  Government,  so  that  '  to-day  it  would 
take  more  bushels  of  wheat,  more  tons  of  hay,  or 
bales  of  cotton,  to  pay  our  national  debt  than  it  would 
have  taken  at  the  close  of  the  war.' 

"On  this  point  Senator  Sherman  denies  that  there 
has  been  any  contraction,  saying  : 

"  '  It  has  been  demonstrated  by  official  documents 
that,  from  the  beginning  of  the  war  to  this  time,  the 
volume  of  our  currency  has  been  increasing  year  by 
year  more  rapidly  than  our  population.  .  .  .  The 
statements  made  by  Mrs.  Emery  about  the  contrac- 
tion of  our  currency  are  not  only  misleading,  but  they 
.are  absolutely  false.  She  states  that  in  1868  $473,- 
000,000  of  our  money  was  destroyed,  and  in  1869 
$500,000,000  of  our  money  passed  into  a  cremation 
furnace,  and  in  1870  $67,000,000  was  destroyed.  Now, 
these  statements  are  absolutely  false.  What  she  calls 


money  in  these  paragraphs  was  the  most  burdensome 
form  of  interest-bearing  securities.  Treasury  notes- 
bearing  7^  per  cent,  interest,  and  compound-interest 
notes.  These  were  the  chief  and  most  burdensome 
items  of  the  public  debt.  They  were  paid  off  in  the 
years  named,  and  were  never  at  any  time  for  more  than 
a  single  day  money  in  circulation.  When  issued  they 
were  received  as  money,  but  as  interest  accrued  they 
became  investments,  and  were  not  at  all  in  circula- 
tion.' 

"  Says  Mrs.  Emery  : 

'•''Conspiracy  No.  4.  —  'The   fourth  act  in  Shylock's 
tragedy,  by  which  the   Government  and  this  great 
people  were  sacrificed,   is  familiarly  known   as   the 
credit-strengthening  act,  by  which  the 
5-20  bonds  were  made  payable  in  coin. 
This  act,  approved  March  18, 1869,  added      Currency 
to  the  burdens  of  the  people  more  than  _ 
six    hundred  millions  of  dollars.     It  is  Contraction. 
claimed    by    many    bondholders    and 
their  leaders  that  the  act  which  author- 
ized the  issue  of  these  bonds  made  them  payable  in 
gold.     But  there  is  no  such  possible  interpretation  of 
the  act ;  and  if   they  were  issued  payable  in  gold  in 
the  first  place,  why  did  they  pass  the  credit-strength- 
ening act  of  1869  ?    The  very  fact  that  they  passed  that 
act  four  years  after  the  close  of  the  war,  when  the 
country  was  at  peace  with  the  world  and  itself,  is- 
proof  beyond  question  that  they  were  at  first  made- 
payable  in  legal  tender,  and  that  this  law  was  passed 
for  no  other  purpose  than  that  of  doubling  the  wealth 
of  the  bondholder,  which,  of  necessity,  must  and  did" 
double  the  burdens  of  the  people.' 

"She  further  declares  that  '  Grant's  election  to  the 
Presidency  and  Sherman's  appointment  to  the  Treas- 
ury were  secured  through  their  pledges  to  obtain  the 
passage  of  this  infamous  act.' 

"Senator  Sherman  says  with  reference  to  this 
act : 

"' I  maintain,  and  still  believe,  that  by  a  fair  con- 
struction of  the  loan  laws  we  had  a  right  to  pay  the 
principal  of  the  bonds  as  they  matured  in  greenbacks 
of  the  kind  and  character  in  existence  when  the 
bonds  were  issued,  but  I  insisted  that  it  was  the  duty 
of  the  Government  to  define  a  time  when  the  green- 
backs should  be  either  redeemed  or  maintained  at. 
par  in  coin  ;  that  this  was  a  plain  obligation  of  honor 
and  duty  which  rested  upon  the  United  States,  and 
that  it  was  not  honorable  or  right  to  avail  ourselves 
of  our  own  negligence  in  restoring  these  notes  to  the 
specie  standard  in  order  to  pay  the  bonds  in  the  de- 
preciated money.  This  idea  is  embodied  in  the  credit- 
strengthening  act.' 

'•'•Conspiracy  No.  5.—  The  next  step  Mrs.  Emery  says- 
was  that  of  refunding  the  national  debt  by  the  act  of 
July  14,  1870 : 

"  '  It  was  a  scheme  to  perpetuate  the  debt,  and  a  plot 
against  the  people  to  keep  them  forever  under  the 
yoke  of  bondage.  ...  It  has  placed  the  burden  be- 
yond the  control  of  the  generation  that  created  it. 
We  have  already  paid  interest  enough  to  have  twice 
paid  the  debt,  and  yet  to-day  it  is  a  greater  burden 
upon  the  people  than  it  was  at  the  close  of  the  war, 
.  .  .  There  is  but  one  interpretation  to  the  funding" 
act ;  its  object  is  to  compel  our  children  and  children's 
children,  through  all  generations,  to  serve  the  children 
of  these  bondholders.' 

"  In  reply  to  this,  Senator  Sherman  says  : 

"'At  the  date  of  the  passage  of  the  refunding  actr 
July  14,  1870,  we  had  outstanding  bonds  bearing  5  and 
6  per  cent,  interest  for  about  $1,500,000,000.  By  the 
wise  providence  of  Congress  we  had  reserved  the 
right  of  redeeming  a  portion  of  this  debt  within  five 
years,  and  a  portion  of  it  within  ten  years,  so  that  the 
debt  was,  in  the  main,  then,  redeemable  at  our  pleas- 
ure. It  was  not  possible  to  pay  it  in  coin,  and  it  was 
not  honorable  to  pay  it  in  greenbacks,  especially  as. 
that  could  only  have  been  done  by  issuing  new  green- 
backs far  beyond  the  volume  existing  during  the  war. 
and  which  would  at  once  depreciate  in  value  and 
destroy  the  public  credit,  and  dishonor  the  country, 
We  therefore  authorized  the  exchange,  par  for  par, 
of  bonds  bearing  4,  4^,  and  5  per  cent,  interest  for  the 
bonds  bearing  a  higher  rate  of  interest.  The  only 
contest  in  Congress  upon  the  subject  was  whether  the 
new  bonds  should  run  5,  10,  and  15  years,  or  10,  15,  and 
30  years.  I  advocated  the  shorter  period,  but  the 
House  of  Representatives,  believing  that  the  new 
bonds  would  not  sell  at  par  unless  running  for  a 
longer  period,  insisted  that  the  4  per  cent,  bonds- 
should  run  for  30  years,  ...  It  required  some  10  years 
to  complete  these  refunding  operations— of  which  the 
larger  part  was  accomplished  while  I  was  Secretary 


Silver. 


1248 


Silver. 


Demoneti- 
zation of 
Silver. 


of  the  Treasury — and  they  resulted  in  a  saving  of 
•one-third  of  the  interest  on  the  debt.' 

"  Conspiracy  No.  6.— In  the  words  of  Mrs.  Emery  : 
'  We  next  find  these  civilized  brigands  have  con- 
summated a  scheme  for  the  demoneti- 
zation of  silver.  This  act,  passed  in 
1873,  destroyed  the  money  quality  of 
silver,  and  thus  produced  a  farther  con- 
traction of  the  currency.  The  object 
of  this  act  was  first  to  prevent  the 
payment  of  the  bonds,  and  second  to 
increase  their  yalue.' 

"  Alleged  Bribery  by  Ernest  Seyft.—Here  the  claim  of 
•conspiracy  is  brought  forward  in  great  detail.  The 
Banker's  Magazine  of  August,  1873,  is  quoted,  as  fol- 
lows, by  Senator  Daniel  of  Virginia,  in  a  speech  de- 
livered in  the  Senate,  May  22,  1890  (p.  5128) : 

"  '  In  1872,  silver  being  demonetized  in  Germany, 
England,  and  Holland,  a  capital  of  £100,000  [$500,000] 
was  raised,  and  Ernest  Seyd  was  sent  to  this  country 
with  this  fund,  as  agent  for  foreign  bondholders,  to 
«ffect  the  same  object.' 

"  Mrs.  Emery  says  (p.  52)  that  this  testimony  is  cor- 
roborated by  rhe  Congressional  Globe  of  April  9,  1872, 
as  follows  : 

"  '  Ernest  Seyd  of  London,  a  distinguished  writer 
and  bullionist  who  is  now  here,  has  given  great  atten- 
tion to  the  subject  of  mint  and  coinage.  After  having 
•examined  the  first  draft  of  this  bill  (for  the  demoneti- 
zation of  silver),  he  made  various  sensible  sugges- 
tions, which  the  committee  adopted  and  embodied  in 
the  bill.' 

•'  Frederick  A.  Luckenbach  appeared  before  James 
A.  Miller,  the  clerk  of  the  Supreme  Court  at  Denver, 
Col.,  on  May  6,  1892,  and  made  affidavit  that  as  an  in- 
ventor and  business  man,  at  Philadelphia  and  New 
York,  he  made  several  business  visits  to  London  ;  that 
"he  became  well  acquainted  with  Mr.  Ernest  Seyd  in 
London,  meeting  him  first  in  1865,  and  renewing  his 
acquaintance  with  him  each  year,  and  '  upon  each 
occasion  became  his  guest  at  one  or  more  times,  join- 
ing his  family  at  dinner  or  other  meals.'  In  February, 
1874,  while  at  dinner  at  Mr.  Seyd's  house,  the  conver- 
sation turned  on  rumored  corruption  in  the  Parlia- 
ment, and  Mr.  Seyd  told  him  that  '  he  [Seyd]  could 
relate  facts  about  the  corruption  of  the  American 
•Congress  that  would  place  it  far  ahead  of  the  English 
Parliament  in  that  line.'  Mr.  Luckenbach  relates 
-that  after  dinner  Mr.  Seyd  took  him  apart,  and  after 
making  him  pledge  his  honor  not  to  relate  what  he 
•was  about  to  say,  made  this  statement : 

"  '  I  went  to  America  in  the  winter  of  1872-73,  author- 
ized to  secure,  if  I  could,  a  bill  demonetizing  silver. 
It  was  to  the  interest  of  those  I  represented— the  gov- 
ernors of  the  Bank  of  England — to  have  it  done.  I 
took  with  me  £100,000  sterling,  with  instructions  if 
it  was  not  sufficient  to  accomplish  the  object,  to 
draw  for  another  £100,000,  or  as  much  as  was  neces- 
sary.' 

"  He  said  that  German  bankers  were  also  interested 
in  having  it  accomplished,  and  that  he  was  the  finan- 
cial adviser  of  the  bank.  He  continued  : 

"  '  I  saw  the  committee  of  the  House  and  Senate,  and 
paid  the  money,  and  stayed  in  America  until  I  knew 
the  measure  was  safe.' 

"  This  affidavit  of  Mr.  Luckenbach  was  made  after 
the  death  of  Mr.  Seyd.  A  few  weeks  later  there  ap- 
peared in  the  New  York  Evening  Post  a  letter  from 
Ernest  Seyd,  his  son,  and  Richard  Seyd,  his  brother, 

fiving  an  unqualified  denial  of  these  statements, 
hey  say  : 

"  '  Ernest  Seyd  was  not  in  the  United  States  at  that 
date,  for  the  purpose  of  bribing  members  of  Congress 
to  vote  for  the  demonetization  of  silver,  never  having 
been  there  since  1856.  The  statement  is  the  more  ab- 
surd as  he  was  the  first  to  take  up  the  cause  of  silver 
in  England  against  the  prevailing  doctrine  here,  and 
remained  a  consistent  supporter  of  silver,  as  his 
numerous  works  on  the  subject  will  show.' 

"  There  is  no  question  that  Mr.  Seyd  was  a  bimetalist, 
but  it  has  been  claimed  on  the  other  side  that  Mr. 
Seyd,  in  coming  to  this  country,  was  acting  not  in 
.accordance  with  his  own  beliefs,  but  in  the  interests 
of  his  clients,  the  Bank  of  England,  and  that,  if  the 
son  and  brother  are  honest  in  defense  of  a  dead  mem- 
ber of  their  family,  they  may  have  been  mistaken. 
Mr.  Seyd  may  have  come  to  America  at  the  time 
without  their  knowledge. 

"  But  Mr.  Alfred  T.  Story,  an  English  correspondent 
-for  The  Voice  [given  in  The  Voice  of  May  30,  1895], 
went  to  see  the  son  and  brother  of  Ernest  Seyd  "at 
London,  and  was  shown  the  letter-books  of  the  firm 
for  the  years  1872  and  1873,  when  Mr.  Seyd  was  said  to 


« 
•Hlr' 


have  been  in  America.  He  made  a  special  investi- 
gation of  the  signatures  of  Ernest  Seyd,  Sr.,  from 
October,  1872,  to  March,  1873,  and  '  found  that  they  were 
frequent  all  through  that  period  ;  and  there  were  cer- 
tainly no  breaks  between  the  dates  long  enough  for 
Mr.  Seyd  to  have  paid  a  visit  to  the  States.'  These 
signatures  were  pointed  out  to  him  by  the  cashier  of 
the  firm,  who  was  in  the  business  with  them  in  1872-73. 
The  cashier  said  that  he  was  prepared  to  take  oath 
that  the  signatures  were  Ernest  Seyd's,  Sr. 

"  When  asked  whether  he  knew  Frederick  A.  Luck- 
enbach, and  whether  he  was  on  such  terms  of  intimacy 
in  Ernest  Seyd's  family  as  to  make  his  statement  at 
all  possible,  Mr.  Richard  Seyd  said  : 

"  '  Mr.  Luckenbach  had  an  introduction  to  us,  and 
he  on  several  occasions  dined  at  my  own  and  my 
brother's  house.  Mr.  Luckenbach,  however,  was  an 
uneducated  man,  and  I  can  only  suppose,  putting  the 
most  charitable  construction  on  Mr.  Luckenbach's 
statements,  that  that  gentleman  misunderstood 
some  jesting  that  may  have  taken  place,  and  upon 
such  misunderstanding  built  up  his  strange  accu- 
sations.' 

"  As  to  the  quotation  in  The  Banker's  Journal,  the 
editor  of  that  journal  in  New  York  city  declares  that 
no  such  statement  ever  appeared  in  the  pages  of  The 
Journal.   The  quotation  from  The  Congressional  Globe 
occurs  in  a  speech  by   Mr.  Hoope*  of  Massachusetts, 
before  the  House.    He  does  refer  to  aid 
received  from  Ernest  Seyd  of  London, 
in    reference   to    the    bill  then  before 
Congress,  which    resulted  in    the    de- 
monetization  of  the   silver  dollar,  but 
the   words  which  are  printed  in  italics 
(see  p.  41),  '  who  is  now  here'  making  Mr.  Seyd  to  be 
actually  present  in  the  country  at  that  time  (1872),  do 
not  appear  in  the  records  of  The  Congressional  Globe, 
and  seem  to  have  been   added  by  some  one  to  the 
quotation. 

"The  letter  of  Ernest  Seyd  to  Mr.  Hooper  has  since 
been  published  in  the  records  of  Congress.  (Senate 
Mis.  Doc.  No.  29,  Fifty-third  Congress,  first  session.) 
It  is  dated  '  La  Princes  Street  Bank,  London,  February, 
17,  1872,'  and  among  other  things  of  a  technical  char- 
acter recommends  the  coining  of  a  silver  dollar  of 
400  grains  legal  tender  to  any  amount  not  exceeding 
$100  (or  $50).  Near  the  close  of  his  long  letter  Mr. 
Seyd  makes  this  statement  : 

I  am  myself,  as  you  will  perceive  from  my  writ- 
ings, and  others  with  me.  in  favor  of  the  full  and 
complete  adoption  of  the  double  valuation,  giving  full 
legal  tender  to  coins  as  low  even  as  one-fourth  dollar 
in  value,  believing  that  this  is  the  only  true  system 
upon  which  a  future  universal  system  of  coinage  can 
be  based.  Nevertheless,  recognizing  the  difficulty  of 
carrying  this  point  at  present,  and  in  order  to  enable 
you  to  uphold  the  essential  features  of  the  gold  val- 
uation, I  limit  my  recommendation  to  the  issue  of  this 
single  full-valued  dollar-piece,  under  the  proposed 
restriction  of  tender  value  to  $50  or  $100,  partly  for 
enabling  you,  without  drawback  or  inconvenience 
whatever,  to  widen  or  to  close  the  valuation  question 
at  any  time,  and  partly  in  order  to  relieve  you  of  the 
unsuitable  obligations  of  the  mint  to  redeem  a  sur- 
plus of  either  the  token  silver  or  the  token  copper 
coinage." 

"  Whatever  may  be  said  as  to  the  question  of  con- 
spiracy in  the  act  of  1873,  the  fact  remains  that  the 
standard  silver  dollar  was  dropped  out  of  the  law, 
and  not  again  restored  until  the  act  of  1878. 

"  Mrs.  Emery  says  that  the  panic  of  1873  •was  the 
direct  result  of  this  demonetization,  but  it  is  difficult 
to  see  how  this  could  be,  since  the  time  between  de- 
monetization and  the  panic  was  so  short,  and  there 
was  little  silver  in  circulation  at  the  time. 

"  At  about  this  time  appeared  two  circulars  to  which 
reference  is  frequently  made  by  writers  on  the  ques- 
tion of  conspiracy  by  the  moneyed  men  of  the  coun- 
try- Under  date  of  October  o,  1877,  it  is  stated  that 
the  following  circular  was  sent  to  all  the  bankers  of 
the  country  : 

"  'DEAR  SIR:  It  is  advisable  to  do  all  in  your  power 
to  sustain  such  prominent  daily  and  weekly  newspa- 
pers, especially  the  agricultural  and  religious  press, 
as  will  oppose  the  issuing  of  greenback  paper  money, 
and  that  you  also  withhold  patronage  or  favors  from 
all  applicants  who  are  not  willing  to  oppose  the  Gov- 
ernment issue  of  money.  Let  the  Government  issue 
the  coin,  and  the  banks  issue  the  paper  money  of  the 
country,  for  then  we  can  better  protect  each  other. 

"  '  To  repeal  the  law  creating  national  bank-notes. 
or  to  restore  to  circulation  the  Government  issue  of 
money,  will  be  to  provide  the  people  with  money,  and 


Silver. 


1249 


Silver. 


•will,  therefore,  seriously  affect  your  individual  profit 
as  bankers  and  lenders.  See  your  Congressman  at 
once,  and  engage  him  to  support  our  interests,  that 
we  may  control  legislation. 

"  '  JAMES  BUELL,  Secretary, 

" '  247  Broadway.' 

"Colonel  S.  F.  Norton  of  Chicago,  author  of  Ten 
Men  of  Money  Island,  is  said  to  have  a  copy  of  this 
circular  given  him  by  a  banker  in  Bloomington,  la. 

"Attempted  Press  £n'6ery.—The  Chicago  Inter- 
Ocean  (Rep.)  of  October  29,  i87y,contains  the  following: 

"  '  The  Inter-Ocean  acknowledges  the  receipt  of  the 
following  singular  document  which  came  to  this  office 
from  New  York,  Saturday  morning  : 

""'THE  AMERICAN  BANKERS' ASSOCIATION, 
"  '  "  247  Broadway,  Room  4. 
"  '  "New  York,  October  9,  1877. 

"  '  "  Strictly  private. 

'"  "DEAR  SIR  :  Please  insert  the  inclosed  printed 
slip  as  leaded  matter  on  the  editorial  page  of  your 
first  issue  immediately  following  the  receipt  of  this, 
and  send  marked  copy  with  the  bill  to 
'""Yours  truly, 

"  '"  JAMES  BUELL,  Sec'y. 

"  '  "  Comments  on  the  slip,  not  to  exceed  half  a  col- 
umn, will  be  paid  for,  if  billed  at  the  same  time. 

J.  B." 

"  '  The  following  is  the  document,  which  we  are 
asked  to  insert  as  leaded  matter  on  the  editorial  page  ; 
in  other  words,  as  a  statement  made  bytheJnter-Ucean. 

"  '  "  The  Greenback  Party  has  offered,  through  its 
managers,  to  sell  out  to  the  Democrats  and  here- 
after to  work  in  Democratic  harness  if  a  few  of  their 
leaders  can  be  provided  for.  This  shows  how  much 
dependence  there  is  to  be  placed  on  the  leaders  of 
the  lunatics  who  clamor  for  money  based  on  nothing." 

"'We  insert  this,  but  we  shall  send  no  bill  for  it. 
We  shall  send  no  bill  because,  in  the  first  place,  we 
do  not  follow  directions  about  leading  it ;  secondly, 
we  can't  believe  a  word  of  the  statement  to  be  true. 
We  do  not  know  who  is  managing  the  affairs  of  the 
American  Bankers'  Association  ;  but,  whoever  he  is, 
we  advise  that  body  to  get  rid  of  him  without  delay. 
The  attempt  to  thus  maliciously  destroy  the  Green- 
back Party,  without  submitting  a  word  of  proof,  is  a 
piece  of  effrontery  which  ought  to  be  beneath  any 
body  of  commercial  gentlemen,  and  especially  the 
American  Bankers'  Association.  We  refuse  to  believe 
that  such  an  extraordinary  document  was  authorized 
by  that  body.' 

"  In  the  New  York  Sun  (Dem.)  of  October  25,  1877, 
only  four  days  earlier,  appeared  notice  of  the  receipt 
of  a  similar  letter  requesting  that  the  following  be 
inserted  : 

"  'The  prospect  is  that  in  six  months  there  will  not 
"be  a  Greenback  leader  in  all  the  land.  Overtures 
have  been  made  by  the  leaders  of  the  Greenback 
movement  to  President  Hayes  to  abandon  the  green- 
back as  a  lost  cause,  provided  that  he  will  give  good 
official  positions  to  about  twenty  of  the  most  blatant 
of  the  clamorous  for  money  that  is  based  on  nothing.' 

"  It  is  but  proper  to  say  that  James  Buell  is  dead 
and  cannot  speak  for  himself  ;  but  others,  at  that 
time  officers  of  the  American  Bankers'  Association 
of  New  York  city,  deny  that  such  circulars  were  ever 
issued  by  authority  of  the  association. 

"  In  the  words  of  Mrs.  Emery  : 

" '  Conspiracy  No.  7. — This  act,  passed  January  24, 
1875,  authorized  the  Secretary  of  the  Treasury  to 
•destroy  the  fractional  currency,  and  issue  silver 
coin  in  like  denominations  to  take  its  place.  The 
people  had  found  the  fractional  currency  conve- 
nient, not  only  as  a  medium  of  exchange  at  home, 
"but  especially  cheap  and  convenient  for  small  re- 
mittances in  'trade.  The  destruction  of  this  money 
was  a  serious  injury  to  the  business  men  of  the 
country.  For  without  fractional  currency  even  small 
remittances  incurred  the  expense  of  a  draft  or  money- 
order.  But  Congress  appeared  to  be  looking  after  the 
interest  of  the  money-monger,  and  not  to  the  pros- 
perity of  the  country. 

"  '  It  next  became    necessary   to  issue  bonds  with 
which  to  purchase  the  silver  bullion  authorized  for 
coinage.      Let  it  be  remembered  that 
these    were   untaxed,    interest-bearing 
bonds,  and  of    such    large    denomina- 
,  tions  that  on]y  capitalists  were  able  to 
carry  them,   while  to  the  debt-ridden 
people  was  added  the  interest  of  these 
very  bonds,  which  could    only  exist   by  the  destruc- 
tion of  the  greenbacks  and  fractional  currency  upon 
which  the  people  paid  no  interest. 

79 


"'The  restoration  of  silver  as  a  medium  of  ex- 
change was  a  great  triumph  to  the  unthinking 
masses,  and  greatly  increased  their  confidence  in  the 
govermental  policy,  but  to  those  who  studied  the 
situation  the  jingle  of  silver  was  another  death-knell 
to  the  prosperity  of  the  country.' 

"  This  Senator  Sherman  calls  'the  pride  and  boast 
of  the  Government  of  the  United  States,'  since  it 
resulted  in  '  the  restoration  of  our  notes,  long  after  the 
war  was  over,  to  the  standard  of  coin.' 

"  These  are  the  seven  acts  of  government,  which 
Mrs.  Emery  calls  the  '  Seven  Financial  Conspira- 
cies,' but  which  Senator  Sherman  in  reply  declares 
to  be  '  the  seven  great  pillars  of  our  financial  credit, 
the  seven  great  financial  measures  by  which  the 
Government  was  saved  from  the  perils  of  war,  and  by 
which  the  United  States  has  become  the  most  flour- 
ishing and  prosperous  nation  in  the  world." 

Thus  far  Mr.  Waldron's  condensation  of 
Mrs.  Emery's  charges  and  Senator  Sherman's 
reply.  It  will  be  seen  that  as  to  conspiracy 
Mrs.  Emery  has  not  made  out  her  case,  and 
that  the  less  Populist  writers  say  about  the  Haz- 
zard  circular,  Mr.  Seyd's  alleged  bribery,  and 
the  so-called  Buell  circular,  the  better  for  their 
cause.  Nevertheless,  he  who  does  not  read 
between  the  lines  vital  truths  accompanied  by 
occasional  mistakes,  can  scarcely  realize  the 
situation.  Whatever  one  thinks  about  the 
necessity  of  making  the  greenbacks  not  good 
in  payment  of  duties  or  the  interest  on  the 
public  debt,  only  protectionists  will  accept 
Senator  Sherman's  glib  answer  that  foreign- 
ers pay  the  duties  on  imports,  while  many 
will  question  the  statement  that  we  could 
only  find  a  market  for  bonds  by  making  them 
payable  in  gold.  As  for  the  creation  of  our 
present  national  banking  system  ;  contraction 
of  the  currency  ;  the  so-called  "  credit 
strengthening  act";  the  refunding  of  the 
debt ;  the  demonetization  of  silver  ;  resump- 
tion of  specie  payments — Mrs.  Emery's  con- 
cluding seven  points — no  person  can  deny 
that  they  took  place  ;  that  they  were  each 
one  pushed  through  Congress  by  the  influence 
of  the  moneyed  classes,  and  that  they  were 
every  one  in  pursuance  of  a  settled  policy  of 
gold  monometalism.  (For  a  discussion  of 
them  see  CURRENCY.)  The  Populists  have  a 
grievance,  and  a  bitter  one,  if  all  economists 
are  right,  that  falling  prices  do  depend  on  the 
quantity  of  the  currency  ;  that  falling  prices 
are  fatal  to  prosperity,  and  that  an  expanded 
currency  can  raise  prices.  They  have  seen 
millionaires  flourish  and  agriculturists  suffer  ; 
they  have  steadily  seen  corporations  and  trusts 
fatten,  and  prices  fall  ;  they  have  seen  great 
syndicates  hand  in  glove  with  Presidents  and 
controlling  Congress.  All  they  desire  is  the  re- 
turn of  prices  to  where  they  were  when  most 
debts  were  contracted,  and  then,  on  that  basis, 
the  establishment  of  a  just  and  scientific  cur- 
rency. Such,  in  brief,  is  the  Populists'  argu- 
ment. It  is  with  them  an  intensely  moral  one, 
and  aery  for  justice.  If  temporarily  the  mone- 
tization  of  silver  should  raise  prices  for  the 
working  classes  before  it  raised  their  wages, 
Populists  believe  that,  by  raising  prices,  silver 
monetization  will  so  stimulate  industry  that 
workmen  will  be  employed  all  the  time  instead 
of  on  half  time,  as  they  are  largely  to-day,  and 
so  better  off,  even  with  higher  prices.  Invest- 
ors in  savings-banks,  etc.,  will  not  be  robbed, 
because  they  believe  the  talk  of  a  so-cent  dollar 


Silver. 


1250 


Single  Tax. 


to  be  a  false  argument  raised  by  interested 
classes  and  caught  up  by  a  deceived  public. 
They  believe  that  silver  will  be  made  equal 
with  gold  and  that  with  quickened  industry, 
living  prices,  the  country  can  go  on  to  a  sci- 
entific currency,  which  shall  be  better  than 
either  silver  or  gold.  If,  on  the  other  hand,  the 
producers  of  factory  and  field  do  not  unite 
against  the  gold  interest,  Populists  believe 
that  money  must  continue  to  contract,  prices 
continue  to  fall,  and  a  suffering  result  which 
may  leave  the  workers  almost  helpless.  Said 
President  Walker,  who  is  not  a  Populist  (Ad- 
dress before  the  American  Economic  Asso- 
ciation, December  26, 1890)  : 

"  The  money  supply  is  not  a  matter  of  no  conse- 
quence. Alike  considerable  excess  and  considerable 
deficiency  inevitably  become  the  source  of  direful  ills 
and  woes  unnumbered.  If  of  an  irredeemable  and 
fluctuating  paper  currency,  that  alcohol  of  commerce, 
it  cafi  be  said  that  '  it  biteth  like  a  serpent  and  stingeth 
like  an  adder,'  with  equal  truth  may  it  be  added  that 
strangulation,  suffocation  are  not  words  too  strong  to 
express  the  agony  of  the  industrial  body  when  em- 
braced in  the  fast-tightening  folds  of  contracting 
money  supply." 

References  :  International  Bimetalism,  by  Francis 
A.  Walker  (1896);  An  Honest  Dollar,  by  President  E.  B. 
Andrews  (1889);  Coin's  financial  School,  by  W.  H. 
Harvey  (1894).  Also  the  books  and  magazine  articles 
quoted  above. 

SINGLE  TAX,  THE.— A  statement  of  the 
fundamental  principles  of  the  reform  bearing 
the  name  of  the  Single  Tax,  and  prepared  for 
the  financial  Reform  Almanack  of  England, 
for  the  year  1891,  by  the  great  apostle  of  the 
movement,  Henry  George,  is  herewith  pre- 
sented. For  a  necessarily  brief  exposition, 
nothing  more  comprehensive  and  authoritative 
has  been  written.  Speaking  for  himself  and 
his  associates,  Mr.  George  says  : 

"We  propose  to  abolish  all  taxes  save  one 
single  tax  levied  on  the  value  of  land,  irre- 
spective of  the  value  of  improvements  in  or 
on  it. 

"  What  we  propose  is  not  a  tax  on  real 
estate,  for  real  estate  includes  improvements. 
Nor  is  it  a  tax  on  land,  for  we  would  not  tax 
all  land,  but  only  land  having  a  value  irre- 
spective of  its  improvements,  and  would  tax 
that  in  proportion  to  that  value. 

"  Our  tax  involves  the  imposition  of  no  new 
tax,  since  we  already  tax  land  values  in  taxing 
real  estate.  To  carry  it  out  we  have  only  to 
abolish  all  taxes  save  the  tax  on  real  estate 
and  to  abolish  all  of  that  which  now  falls  on 
buildings  or  improvements,  leaving  only  that 
part  of  it  which  now  falls  on  the  value  of  the 
bare  land.  This  we  would  increase  so  as  to 
take  as  nearly  as  may  be  the  whole  of  the 
economic  rent,  or  what  is  sometimes  styled 
the  'unearned  increment  of  land  values.' 

"  That  the  value  of  land  alone  would  suffice 
to  provide  all  needed  public  revenues — munic- 
ipal, county,  and  national — there  is  no  doubt. 
To  show  briefly  why  we  urge  this  change,  let 
me  treat  (i)  of  its  expediency,  and  (2)  of  its 
justice. 

"(i)  It  would  dispense  with  a  whole  army  of 
tax-gatherers  and  other  officials  which  present 
taxes  require,  and  place  in  the  Treasury  a 
much  larger  proportion  of  what  is  taken  from 
the  people,  while,  by  making  government 


simpler  and  cheaper,  it  would  make  it  purer. 
It  would  get  rid  of  taxes  which  necessarily  pro- 
mote fraud,  perjury,  bribery,  and 
corruption;   which  lead  men  into 
temptation,  and  which  tax  what  Expediency. 
the  nation  can  least  afford  to  spare 
— honesty  and  conscience.     Since 
land  lies  out  of  doors  and  cannot  be  removed, 
and  its  value  is  the  most  readily  ascertained  of 
all  values,  the  tax  to  which  we  would  resort 
can  be  collected  with  the  minimum  of  cost  and 
the  least  strain  upon  public  morals. 

"  It  would  enormously  increase  the  produc- 
tion of  wealth  : 

"  A.  By  the  removal  of  the  burdens  that 
now  weigh  upon  industry  and  thrift.  If  we 
tax  houses,  there  will  be  fewer  and  poorer 
houses;  if  we  tax  machinery,  there  will  be 
less  machinery;  if  we  tax  trade  there  will  be 
less  trade ;  if  we  tax  capital  there  will  be  less 
capital;  if  we  tax  savings,  there  will  be  less 
savings.  All  the  taxes,  therefore,  that  we 
would  abolish,  are  taxes  that  repress  industry 
and  lessen  wealth.  But  if  we  tax  land  values, 
there  will  be  no  less  land. 

"  B.  On  the  contrary,  the  taxation  of  land 
values  has  the  effect  of  making  land  more  easily 
available  by  industry,  since  it  makes  it  more 
difficult  for  owners  of  valuable  land,  which 
they  themselves  do  not  care  to  use,  to  hold  it 
idle  for  a  larger  future  price.  While  the  aboli- 
tion of  taxes  on  labor  and  the  products  of 
labor  would  free  the  active  element  of  produc- 
tion, the  taxing  of  land  values  in  taxation 
would  free  the  passive  element  by  destroying 
speculative  land  values  and  preventing  the 
holding  out  of  use  of  land  needed  for  use.  If 
any  one  will  but  look  around  to-day  and  see 
the  unused  or  but  half  used  land,  the  idle 
labor,  the  unemployed  or  poorly  employed 
capital,  he  will  get  some  idea  of  how  enormous 
would  be  the  production  of  wealth  were  all 
the  forces  of  production  free  to  engage. 

"  C.  The  taxation  of  the  processes  and  prod- 
ucts of  labor  on  the  one  hand,  and  the  insuf- 
ficient taxation  of  land  values  on  'the  other, 
produces  an  unjust  distribution  of  wealth 
which  is  building  up  in  the  hands  of  a  few  for- 
tunes more  monstrous  than  the  world  has 
ever  before  seen,  while  the  masses  of  our  peo- 
ple are  steadily  becoming  relatively  poorer. 
These  taxes  necessarily  fall  on  the  poor  more 
heavily  than  on  the  rich;  by  increasing  prices, 
they  necessitate  larger  capital  in  all  businesses, 
and  consequently  give  an  advantage  to  large 
capitals;  and  they  give,  and  in  some  cases  are 
designed  to  give,  special  advantages  and  mo- 
nopolies to  combinations  and  trusts.  On  the 
other  hand,  the  insufficient  taxation  of  land 
values  enables  men  to  make  large  fortunes  by 
land  speculation  and  the  increase  in  ground 
values — fortunes  which  do  not  represent  any 
addition  by  them  to  the  general  wealth  of  the 
community,  but  merely  the  appropriation  by 
some  of  what  the  labor  of  others  creates. 

"  This  unjust  distribution  of  wealth  develops 
on  the  one  hand  a  class  idle  and  wasteful,  be- 
cause they  are  too  rich,  and  on  the  other  hand 
a  class  idle  and  wasteful,  because  they  are  too 
poor — it  deprives  men  of  capital  and  opportu- 
nities which  would  make  them  more  efficient 


Single  Tax. 


1251 


Single  Tax. 


producers.     It  thus  greatly  diminishes    pro- 
duction. 

"  D.  The  unjust  distribution  which  is  giving 
us  the  hundred-fold  millionaire  on  the  one 
side,  and  the  tramp  and  the  pauper  on  the 
other,  generates  thieves,  gamblers,  social  par- 
isites  of  all  kinds,  and  requires  large  expend- 
iture of  money  and  energy  in  watchmen, 
policemen,  courts,  and  prisons,  and  other 
means  of  defense  and  repression.  It  kindles  a 
greed  of  gain  and  a  worship  of  wealth,  and 
produces  a  bitter  struggle  for  existence  which 
fosters  drunkenness,  increases  insanity,  and 
causes  men  whose  energies  ought  to  be  de- 
voted to  honest  production  to  spend  their 
time  and  strength  in  cheating  and  grabbing 
from  each  other.  Besides  the  moral  loss,  all 
this  involves  an  enormous  economic  loss  which 
the  single  tax  would  save. 

41  E.  The  taxes  we  would  abolish  fall  most 
heavily  on  the  poorer  agricultural  districts, 
and  thus  tend  to  drive  population  and  wealth 
from  them  to  the  great  cities.  The  tax  we 
would  increase  would  destroy  that  monopoly 
of  land  which  is  the  great  cause  of  that  dis- 
tribution of  population  which  is  crowding  peo- 
ple too  closely  together  in  some  places  and 
scattering  them  too  far  apart  in  other 
places.  Families  live  on  top  of  one  another  in 
cities,  because  of  the  enormous  speculative 
prices  at  which  vacant  lots  are  held.  In  the 
country  they  are  scattered  top  far  apart  for 
social  intercourse  and  convenience,  because, 
instead  of  each  taking  what  land  he  can  use, 
every  one  who  can  grabs  all  he  can  get,  in 
the  hope  of  profiting  by  the  increase  of  value, 
and  the  next  man  must  pass  further  on.  Thus 
we  have  scores  of  families  living  under  a  sin- 
gle roof,  and  other  families  living  in  dug-outs 
on  the  prairies  afar  from  neighbors — some 
living  too  close  to  each  other  for  moral,  men- 
tal, or  physical  health,  and  others  too  far 
separated  for  the  stimulating  and  refining  in- 
fluences of  society.  The  waste  in  health,  in 
mental  vigor,  and  in  unnecessary  transporta- 
tion results  in  great  economic  losses  which  the 
Single  Tax  would  save. 

"  (2)  Let  us  turn  to  the  moral  side,  and  con- 
sider the  question   of  justice.     The  right  of 
property  does  not  rest  on  human 
laws;  they  have  often  ignored  and 
Justice,      violated  it.     It  rests  on  natural 
laws — that  is  to  say,  the  law  of 
God.     It  is  clear    and    absolute, 
and  every  violation  of  it,  whether  committed 
by  a  man  or  a  nation,  is  a  violation  of  the 
command,  '  Thou  shalt  not  steal.'    The  man 
who  catches  a  fish,  grows  an  apple,  raises  a 
calf,   builds  a  house,   makes  a  coat,    paints 
a  picture,  constructs  a  machine,  has,  as  to  any 
such  thing,  an  exclusive  right  of  ownership, 
which  carries  with  it  the  right  to  give,  to  sell, 
or  bequeath  that  thing.     But  who  made  the 
earth  that  any  man  can  claim  such  an  owner- 
ship of  it,  or  any  part  of  it,  or  the  right  to 
give,  sell,  or  bequeath   it?    Since  the  earth 
was  not  made  by  us,  but  is  only  the  temporary 
dwelling-place  on  which   one    generation  of 
men  follows  another;  since  we  who  find  our- 
selves here  are  manifestly  here  with  the  equal 
permission  of  the  Creator,  it  is  manifest  that  no 


one  can  have  any  exclusive  right  of  ownership 
in  land,  and  that  the  rights  of  all  men  to  land 
must  be  equal  and  inalienable.  There  must 
be  an  exclusive  right  to  possession  of  land  for 
one  to  reap  the  products  of  his  labor.  But 
this  right  of  possession  must  be  limited  by  the 
equal  right  of  all,  and  should  therefore  be 
conditioned  on  the  payment  to  the  community 
by  the  possessor  of  an  equivalent  for  any  spe- 
cial valuable  privilege  thus  accorded  him. 

"When  we  tax  houses,  crops,  money,  furni- 
ture, capital,  or  wealth  in  any  of  its  forms,  we 
take  from  individuals  what  rightfully  belongs 
to  them.  We  violate  the  right  of  property, 
and  in  the  name  of  the  State  commit  robbery. 
But  when  we  tax  ground  values  we  take  from 
individuals  what  does  not  belong  to  them,  but 
belongs  to  the  community,  and  which  cannot 
be  left  to  individuals  without  the  robbery  of 
other  individuals. 

"  Think  what  the  value  of  land  is.  It  has 
no  reference  to  the  cost  of  production,  as  has 
the  value  of  houses,  horses,  ships,  clothes,  or 
other  things  produced  by  labor;  for  land  is 
not  produced  by  man,  it  has  been  created  by 
God.  The  value  of  land  does  not  come  from 
the  exertion  of  labor  on  land,  for  the  value 
thus  produced  is  a  value  of  improvement. 
That  value  that  attaches  to  any  piece  of  land 
means  that  that  piece  of  land,  is  more  desir- 
able than  the  land  which  other  citizens  may 
obtain,  and  that  there  are  more  willing  to  pay 
a  premium  for  permission  to  use  it.  Justice, 
therefore,  requires  that  this  premium  or  value 
shall  be  taken  for  the  benefit  of  all,  in  order 
to  secure  to  all  their  equal  rights. 

"  Consider  the  difference  between  the  value 
of  a  building  and  the  value  of  land.  The 
value  of  a  building,  like  the  value  of  goods,  or  of 
anything  properly  styled  wealth,  is  produced 
by  individual  exertion,  and  therefore  properly 
belongs  to  the  individual;  but  the  value  of 
land  only  arises  with  the  growth  and  improve- 
ment of  the  community,  and  therefore  prop- 
erly belongs  to  the  community.  It  is  not 
because  of  what  its  owners  have  done,  but  be- 
cause of  the  presence  of  the  whole  great  popu- 
lation, that  land  in  New  York  is  worth  millions 
an  acre.  This  value,  therefore,  is  the  proper 
fund  for  defraying  the  common  expenses  of 
the  whole  population;  and  it  must  be  taken 
for  public  use,  under  penalty  of  generating 
land  speculation  and  monopoly,  which  will 
bring  about  artificial  scarcity  where  the  Crea- 
tor has  provided  in  abundance  for  all  whom 
his  providence  has  called  into  existence.  It 
is  thus  a  violation  of  justice  to  tax  labor,  or 
the  things  produced  by  labor,  and  it  is  also 
a  violation  of  justice  not  to  tax  land  values. 

"  These  are  the  fundamental  reasons  for 
which  we  urge  the  Single  Tax,  believing 
it  to  be  the  greatest/  and  most  fundamen- 
tal of  all  reforms.  /^We  do  not  think  it 
will  change  human  nature.  That  man  can 
never  do;  but  it  will  bring  about  condi- 
tions in  which  human  nature  can  develop 
what  is  best  instead  of,  as  now  in  so  many 
cases,  what  is  worst.  It  will  permit  such  an 
enormous  production  of  wealth  as  we  can  now 
hardly  conceive.  It  will  secure  an  equitable 
distribution.  It  will  solve  the  labor  problem, 


Single  Tax. 


125: 


Single  Tax. 


Historical 
Develop- 
ment. 


and  dispel  the  darkening  clouds  which  are  now 
gathering  over  the  horizon  of  our  civilization. 
It  will  make  undeserved  property  an  unknown 
thing.  It  will  check  the  soul-destroying  greed 
of  gain.  It  will  enable  men  to  be  at  least  as 
honest,  as  true,  as  considerate,  and  as  high- 
minded  as  they  would  like  to  be.  It  will 
remove  temptations  to  lying,  false  swearing, 
bribery,  and  law-breaking.  It  will  open  to  all, 
even  to  the  poorest,  the  comforts  and  refine- 
ments and  opportunities  of  an  advancing 
civilization.  It  will  thus,  so  we  reverently 
believe,  clear  the  way  for  the  coming  of  that 
kingdom  of  right  and  justice,  and  consequently 
of  abundance  and  peace  and  happiness,  for 
which  the  Master  told  his  disciples  to  pray 
and  work.  It  is  not  because  it  is  a  promising 
invention  or  cunning  device  that  we  look  for 
the  Single  Tax  to  do  all  this;  it  is  because  it  in- 
volves a  conforming  of  the  most  fundamental 
adjustments  of  society  to  the  supreme  law  of 
justice,  because  it  involves  the  basing  of  the 
most  important  of  our  laws  on  the  principle 
that  we  should  do  to  others  as  we  would  be 
done  by." 

Although  the  present  political  and  social 
agitation  of  the  land  question,  now  active  and 
increasing  in  every  nation  where 
representative  government  exists, 
dates  only  from  the  year  1879,  when 
Henry  George,  the  unknown  Cali- 
fornia printer,  published  his  great 
work,  Progress  and  Poverty,  the 
primary  principles  had  been  already  recog- 
nized and  enunciated  by  statesmen  and  think- 
ers. First  among  these  were  the  famous 
physiocrats,  to  whom  Mr.  George  dedicates 
his  book  on  Protection  or  Free  Trade,  as  fol- 
lows :  "To  the  memory  of  those  illustrious 
Frenchmen  of  a  century  ago,  Quesnay,  Tur- 
got,  Mirabeau,  Condorcet,  Dupont,  and  their 
fellows,  who  in  the  night  of  despotism  foresaw 
the  glories  of  the  coming  day."  These  econo- 
mists were  far  in  advance  of  Adam  Smith, 
desiring  the  abolition  not  only  of  protective 
duties  but  all  taxes  direct  or  indirect,  except  a 
single  tax  upon  land  values.  In  England  the 
true  philosophical  statement  of  "The  Right 
to  the  Use  of  the  Earth  "  was  first  popularly 
presented  by  Herbert  Spencer,  in  the  famous 
ninth  chapter  of  his  work  on  Social  Statics, 
published  in  1850.  At  that  time  the  practi- 
cal applications  of  the  principles  enunciated 
seemed  infinitely  remote,  and  were  treated  as 
interesting  abstract  speculations.  Since  the 
publication,  however,  of  Progress  and  Pov- 
erty, which  brought  the  question  of  land  mo- 
nopoly into  a  practical  relation  with  politics, 
making  it  "  a  burning  question,"  Mr.  Spencer 
has  taken  occasion  in  his  latest  volume  of  Jus- 
tice, to  modify  and  apologize  for  his  early 
utterances.  Nevertheless,  the  original  state- 
ment stands  and  will  continue  to  stand  as  the 
most  complete  ethical  expression  of  the  sub- 
ject yet  formulated.  For  a  comprehensive 
consideration  of  Herbert  Spencer's  change  of 
attitude,  the  reader  is  referred  to  A  Perplexed 
Philosopher  by  Henry  George  (1892). 

Others  also  of  less  note  had  discerned  and 
enunciated  the  principle  underlying  the  Sin- 
gle Tax,  but  it  remained  for  the  author  of 


Progress  and  Poverty,  by  that  work  of  genius, 
to  compel  the  world's  attention  to  it.  For  a 
succinct  and  orderly  idea  of  the  origin  and  phe- 
nomenal growth  of  the  organized  Single-Tax 
movement,  the  reader  is  referred  to  the  files 
of  The  Standard  of  New  York,  whose  publi- 
cation, beginning  January  9,  1887,  and  ending 
August  31,  1892,  covers  the  pioneer  period. 
Its  continuance  was  not  deemed  essential,  for 
the  reason  that  the  press  of  the  country  could 
no  longer  avoid  the  discussion.  In  its  place 
several  journals  in  different  parts  of  the  coun- 
try now  (1894)  devote  themselves  exclusively 
to  the  Single-Tax  propaganda. 

The  ethical  statement  of  the  reform  seldom 
meets  with  objection.  It  cannot  be  denied 
that  justice  demands  equal  access  to  natural 
opportunity  for  all  human  beings  who  must 
live  upon  this  earth.  It  is  indisputable  that 
land  is  a  bounty  of  the  Creator  and  not  the 
product  of  man  ;  and  that  all  wealth  is  de- 
rived from  land  by  the  application  of  man's 
labor.  This  truth  once  granted  it  follows  logi- 
cally that  land  must  be  separated  from  wealth, 
altho  law  and  custom  have  mixed  the  two, 
confusing  private  property  with  natural  oppor- 
tunity. The  distinction  is  clear  and  simple. 
What  the  individual  makes  is  his.  What  na- 
ture supplies  is  the  birthright  of  all.  Hence, 
land  ceases  to  be  rightfully  private  property. 
It  is  for  use,  not  for  ownership.  The  Single 
Tax  has  the  distinction  of  pointing  out  how, 
without  disturbing  existing  titles,  or  weaken- 
ing possession,  or  lessening  security,  justice 
may  be  done  impartially.  Access  to  land  be- 
ing a  common  right,  private  monopoly  is  a 
universal  wrong,  unless  the  user  pays  the 
community  for  the  privilege.  As  sites  vary 
in  desirability,  grading  from  those  which  are 
now  useless  to  the  New  York  lot  which  re- 
cently sold  at  the  rate  of  $15,000,000  per  acre, 
the  difference  is  distinguished  as  rent,  a  value 
created  by  the  growth  of  the  community  and 
the  demand  for  special  situations.  This  pref- 
erential difference,  or  economic  rent,  made  by 
and  belonging  to  the  people,  is  a  natural  fund, 
ample  to  sustain  necessary  government.  By 
every  one  who  uses  land  paying  a  proper 
rental  for  the  privilege — not  to  the  landlord, 
who  now  claims  it,  but  to  the  Government, 
who  dispenses  it  for  the  general  good — sub- 
stantial equity  is  secured. 

The  objections  urged  against  the  Single  Tax 
are  various,  beginning  with  an  expression  of 
doubt   concerning  its  beneficent 
working,    and    ending  with    the 
charge  of  confiscation.     Granting    Objections 
that    exact    results    are     beyond   Answered, 
human    power    of    prediction,    it 
may  be  safely  affirmed  that  if  the 
principles  of  the  reform  are  correct,  the  result 
may  be  left  to  take  care  of  itself.    Every  great 
movement  in  behalf  of  human  welfare,  like 
the  abolition  of  the  corn-laws  or  the  emanci- 
pation of  the  American  slave,  has  been  forced 
to  meet  the   same  prophesies  of  evil,   duly 
proved  to  be  groundless. 

As  regards  "  confiscation,"  to  give  that  name 
to  the  action  of  society  in  taking  the  value 
which  it  creates  and  which  belongs  to  it, 
altho  that  value  has  for  generations  been 


Single  Tax. 


Single  Tax. 


misappropriated  by  individuals,  is  to  misuse 
terms  and  confuse  sacred  rights.  The  Single 
Tax  aims  only  to  stop  the  present  confiscation. 
It  does  not  ask  indemnity  for  the  past,  but 
security  for  the  future.  All  it  proposes  is  to 
take  every  year  that  value  which  society  in  its 
collective  sense  creates  during  that  year,  leav- 
ing untaxed  everything  made  or  produced  by 
the  individual. 

The  advocates  of  the  Single  Tax,  while 
recognizing  the  justice  and  propriety  of  gov- 
ernmental control  of  certain  natural  monopo- 
lies, such  as  franchises  belonging  to  all  of  the 
people,  and  now  generally  bestowed  without 
compensation  on  private  corporations,  are  by 
no  means  socialists.  They  would  not  substi- 
tute paternalism  for  individual  freedom.  The 
Single  Tax  aims  at  equality  of  opportunity 
and  not  of  possessions.  With  fair  play  and 
an  open  field,  it  would  trust  results.  It 
does  not  fear  competition,  but  has  no  faith  in 
the  stability  of  a  society  where  free  competi- 
tion is  denied.  It  repudiates  the  game  where 
part  of  the  players  use  loaded  dice.  It  has 
more  faith  in  the  people  than  in  their  rulers, 
and  does  not  think  that  any  combination, 
whether  it  calls  itself  a  trust  or  a  government, 
can  manage  private  affairs  half  as  well  as  the 
people  can  do  it  themselves.  Rather  it  de- 
mands less  government  and  more  freedom. 

For  a  comprehensive  discussion  of  the  Sin- 
gle Tax,  touching  all  points  at  issue,  the 
reader  is  referred  to  the  works  of  Henry 
George,  notably  Progress  and  Poverty  ;  So- 
cial Problems ;  Protection  or  Free  Trade  ; 
The  Land  Question  ;  The  Condition  of  Labor 
(An  Open  Letter  to  Pope  Leo  XIII.);  and  A 
Perplexed  Philosopher.  W.  S.  GARRISON. 

OBJECTIONS  TO  THE  SINGLE  TAX. 

Objections  to  the  Single  Tax  usually  come 
from  two  opposite  standpoints,  from  conserva- 
tives who  believe  in  private  property  in  land, 
and  from  socialists  or  other  radical  thinkers, 
who  consider  the  Single  Tax  an  inadequate 
way  of  meeting  the  land  problem.  The  two 
classes  of  objections  may  be  briefly  summa- 
rized as  follows : 

First,  conservatives  argue  against  the  Single 
Tax  as  in  the  first  place  based  on  false 
assumptions  in  justice.  Mr.  George  bases  his 
argument  on  the  assumption  that  since,  to  use 
his  words,  "  Land  values  arise  from  the  pres- 
ence of  all  .  .  .  .  the  land  belongs  equally  to 
all."  This  is  of  course  a  non  sequitur.  The  land 
does  not  belong  equally  to  all  unless  its  value 
is  contributed  to  equally  by  all,  which  is  no- 
toriously not  the  case.  As  Mr.  Spahr  points 
out  in  The  Political  Science  Quarterly  (vol. 
vi.  No.  4),  there  are  many  individuals  whose 
presence  on  land  lowers  its  value,  while  there 
are  many  more  whose  presence  increases  land 
values  very  slightly.  He  instances  in  America, 
the  North  American  Indians  and  the  Hunga- 
rians and  Italians,  who  pour  into  New  York 
City.  It  depends  on  how  much  land  is  im- 
proved, whether  the  presence  of  people  gives 
it  value.  It  is  even  questionable  whether, 
were  it  not  for  improvements,  land  would  have 
any  value.  Undoubtedly  unimproved  lots 
surrounded  by  improved  lots  have  often  im- 


mense value,  but  remove  all  improvements 
and  how  much  value  would  they  have  ?  There- 
fore it  is  said  to  tax  land  values  is  as  much  to 
tax  labor  as  any  other  tax,  and  like  any  other 
tax  to  tax  an  earned  increment.  Thus,  the 
foundation  in  justice  of  the  Single  Tax  is  over- 
thrown. 

Secondly,  conservatives  argue  that  the 
Single  Tax  is  unjust  because  it  distin- 
guishes between  forms  of  labor.  Here  is  a 
man  who  has  put  all  his  earnings  into  land  ; 
another  has  invested  his  in  manufactures. 
Neither  themselves  work,  yet  the  Single  Tax 
would  take  the  whole  income  of  the  one  and 
not  touch  the  income  of  the  other. 

Thirdly,  conservatives  argue  that  the 
Single  Tax  would  work  ill,  because  it  would 
weaken  at  its  very  vital  point  the  sense  of 
private  ownership  in  the  soil,  which  has  been 
the  very  keystone  of  society.  (For  a  discus- 
sion of  this,  see  LAND.) 

Fourthly,  conservatives  argue  that  the  Single 
Tax  would  not  raise  sufficient  revenue  for  the 
government  to  enable  it  to  do  away  with  all 
other  taxes,  and  so  the  whole  theory  of  the 
Single  Tax  would  be  upset.  Says  Mr.  Spahr 
(idem)  : 

"  As  regards  England,  we  have  fortunately  at  hand 
the  statistics  prepared  by  Mr.  Giffen  in  his  paper  be- 
fore the  Statistical  Society  in  December,  1889,  in  which 
he  was  not  considering  the  subject  of  the  Single  Tax, 
and  is  therefore  not  open  to  the  charge  of  special 
pleading.  The  value  of  the  farm  lands  of  Great 
Britain  in  1885  was  $8,400,000,000.  The  value  of  the 
houses  was  $9,500,000,000.  If  we  assume  that  60  per 
cent,  of  the  value  of  the  English  houses  was  the  value 
of  the  land  on  which  they  stood,  then  the  total  value 
of  all  the  land  in  England  was  but  $14,000,000,000.  The 
taxation  of  England  in  1885  was  $750,000,000,  of  which 
not  to  exceed  $100,000,000  rests  upon  land.  The  ques- 
tion then  is,  could  the  land  of  England  support  an 
additional  tax  of  $650,000.000  ?  The  answer  is  obvious 
when  we  remember  that  Mr.  Giffen  arrived  at  the  total 
land  value  by  multiplying  rentals  by  thirty  ;  that  is, 
the  average  rental  of  land  in  England  is  3^  per  cent. 
Three  and  one-third  per  cent,  upon  $14,000,000,000 
would  be  but  $470,000,000.  In  other  words,  the  Single 
Tax  in  England,  even  if  the  entire  rentals  of  the  land 
inclusive  of  improvements  incorporated  within  the 
soil  were  taken,  would  produce  a  deficit  of  $200,000,000 
annually. 

"  In  America  the  aggregate  deficit  is  less  clear.  Yet 
here  we  find  that  in  most  of  our  Eastern  States  the 
local  taxes  alone  have  for  years  been  much  greater 
than  the  aggregate  increase  in  the  values  of  the  land. 
For  example,  in  Connecticut  during  the  past  15  years, 
the  assessed  value  of  the  land  has  increased  $36,000,000. 
The  aggregate  taxes  paid  have  been  more  than  $70,- 
000,000.  As  these  taxes  have  been  contributed  by 
the  property-owners,  the  latter  have  already  more 
than  paid  for  the  increment  which  they  have  received. 
The  logical  application  of  the  Single-Tax  theory  would 
require  that  the  property-owners  receive  back  the 
taxes  they  have  advanced,  and  turn  over  to  the  public 
the  increment  that  has  arisen.  This  would  leave  the 
public  vastly  in  debt  to  the  property-owners,  instead 
of  the  property-owners  vastly  in  debt  to  the  public." 

Fifthly.  It  is  argued  that  the  Single  Tax 
rests  on  a  complete  misreading  of  present 
facts.  Mr.  Spahr  continues  in  the  above  ar- 
ticle : 

"The  fundamental  mistake  of  Mr.  George  and  thet 
Single-Tax  advocates  is  their  conception  that  in  the 
value  of  the  land  the  community  has  a  vast  element  of  I 
wealth  which  has  somehow  come  of  itself,   without  I 
the  expenditure  of  labor  or  capital.    A  correlative  | 
error  is  their  assumption  that  another  amount  equally 
vast  may  now  be  created  without  labor,  by  adopting 
their  system.    Their  platform  promises  that  the  Sin- 
gle Tax  would  make  it  impossible  for  speculators  and 
monopolists  to  hold  opportunities  unused  or  only  half 
used,  and  would  throw  open  to  labor  the  illimitable 


Single  Tax. 


1254 


Single  Tax. 


field  of  employment  which  the  earth  offers  to  man.  It 
would  thus  solve  the  labor  problem,  doing  away  with 
involuntary  poverty,  raise  wages  in  all  occupations, 
and  cause  such  an  enormous  production  of  wealth  as 
would  give  to  all  comfort,  leisure,  and  participation 
in  the  advantages  of  an  advancing  civilization. 

"  Here  it  is  assumed  that  if  the  taxes  now  levied 
upon  houses  and  improvements  were  repealed,  there 
would  at  once  be  an  immense  addition  to  the  national 
wealth.  All  the  unimproved  farm  land  would  at  once 
be  brought  under  cultivation  ;  all  the  vacant  building 
lots  would  at  once  be  covered  with  houses.  This  were 
indeed  a  consummation  devoutly  to  be  wished,  but 
this  is  the  most  absurd  portion  of  the  entire  Single- 
Tax  program.  ^Houses  cannot  be  built  except  out 
of  new  savings,  unless  capital  can  be  withdrawn  from 
other  enterprises.  To  withdraw  capital  from  other 
enterprises  where  it  is  more  remunerative,  and  put  it 
into  the  building  of  houses  which  will  not  be  needed 
by  the  community  for  years,  or  into  the  improving  of 
farms  whose  cultivation  is  not  yet  demanded,  would 
be  the  most  enormous  possible  waste  of  our  national 
wealth. '^There  is  no  vast  fund  of  wealth  in  the  air 
which  can  be  brought  to  earth  by  the  touch  of  Mr. 
'  George's  magic  wand.  The  amount  of  wealth  which 
society  can  produce  is  limited  by  the  amount  of  labor 
and  capital  which  society  has  at  its  disposal.  Any 
plan  to  turn  this  investment  out  of  its  natural  channel 
involves  an  economic  loss.  Except  in  trivial  and  ex- 
ceptional cases,  there  is  no  wealth  which  is  not  the 
product  of  labor,  and  no  wealth  can  be  created  except 
as  the  product  of  labor." 

Lastly,  conservatives  argue  that  rent  is  not 
the  enormous  evil  it  is  considered  by  land  re- 
formers, and  that  what  evil  it  does  do  will  not 
be  removed  by  the  Single  Tax.  Mr.  W.  T. 
Harris,  writing  in  the  Boston  Transcript, 
November  21,  1895,  argues  that  judging  by 
data  derived  from  the  United  States  census, 
and  State  census  of  Massachusetts  for  1885, 
the  total  value  of  land  in  1880  was  $10,000,000,- 
ooo,  and  the  total  rent  in  the  neighborhood  of 
$400,000,000,  or  little  over  two  cents  per  day 
for  each  inhabitant.  Of  the  inability  of  the 
Single  Tax  to  remove  the  evils  of  rent  for  the 
city  poor,  Professor  Seligman  says  (Single- 
Tax  discussion  before  the  American  Social 
Science  Association,  September  5,  1890)  : 

"  How  is  the  Single  Tax  going  to  relieve  the  inhabit- 
ants of  the  slums  ?  They  will  not  go  to  the  suburbs, 
where  there  is  plenty  of  land,  for  the  same  reasons 
that  they  do  not  go  there  now.  Rent  in  the  suburbs 
or  uptown  districts  is  at  the  present  moment  vastly 
less  than  in  the  crowded  slums,  and  yet  the  slums  are 
crowded.  The  average  workman  prefers  to  be  near 
his  work,  prefers  to  enjoy  the  social  opportunities  of 
contact  with  his  fellow-workman,  evenings  as  well  as 
daytimes.  All  careful  students  of  the  problem  of 
housing  the  poor  have  come  to  the  conclusion  that  it  is 
in  the  crowded  centers  where  there  is  no  unoccupied 
land,  and  not  in  the  suburbs  where  rents  are  low,  that 
the  problem  must  be  solved.  Now,  when  we  look  at 
the  thing  from  a  practical  standpoint,  how  is  the  tene- 
ment-house workman  to  derive  any  benefit  from  the 
Single  Tax?  His  rent  will  be  just  exactly  as  high  as 
at  present ;  for  his  rent  is  a  veritable  rack-rent,  fixed  by 
the  stress  of  competition.  The  competition  for  rooms 
will  be  not  a  whit  less  when  the  State  becomes  the 
landlord.  And  how  are  his  wages  to  be  increased  ? 
Wages  can  be  increased  in  only  one  of  three  ways- 
through  the  increase  of  capital,  through  the  increased 
efficiency  of  the  laborer,  or  through  the  increased 
standard  of  living,  which  will  enable  the  workman 
to  compel  higher  wages.  But  the  Single  Tax  can 
accomplish  none  of  these  three  things.1* To  take  away 
economic  rent  and  to  turn  it  over  to  the  State,  will 
not  increase  capital  one  whit,  will  not  decrease  the 
monthly  rent  of  the  tenement-house  population  by 
one  iota.  Into  what  does  all  this  fair  dream  of  eco- 
nomic felicity  resolve  itself  ?  Into  mere  mist,  into  mere 
nothingness.  The  tenement-house  population,  no 
more  than  the  American  farmer,  will  derive  no  advan- 
tage from  the  Single  Tax.'W 

The  socialist  objections  to  the  Single  Tax 
are  different.  They  agree  absolutely  with  the 
Single-Taxers,  that  the  natural  values  of  the 


soil  should  belong  to  no  individual.  They 
favor  land  nationalization,  and  many  of  them 
believe  that  the  Single  Tax  would  be  a  good 
way  to  introduce  such  a  measure,  but  they  do 
not  believe  in  the  taxation  of  land  values  as  a 
Single  Tax,  nor  that  by  itself  the  Single  Tax 
would  do  much  good,  nor  even  that  it  should 
be  favored  as  a  practical  first  step  toward 
socialism.  They  favor  only  the  increasing 
taxation  of  land  values  in  connec- 
tion with  other  reforms,  as  is  being 
done  in  Australia  as  a  part  of  a  Socialist 
socialist  programme.  They  object  Objections, 
to  the  Single  Tax  by  itself  or  even 
as  a  first  step,  first,  because  by 
itself,  or  even  by  itself  for  a  while,  it  would  do 
little  good.  As  Professor  Seligman  has  shown 
above,  it  would  not  lower  rent  in  the  cities, 
but  only  transfer  rent  to  the  government.  It 
might  throw  suburban  land  held  for  specula- 
tion on  to  the  market  ;  but  only  those  could 
buy  this  land  who  had  capital  with  which  to 
improve  it.  Poor  men  could  not  get  the  land. 
But  rich  men  could  hire  labor  to  improve  it, 
and  this  would  employ  labor.  Yes,  but  at 
what  prices?  Only  by  withdrawing  capital 
from  other  investments  and  attracting  laborers 
from  other  cities,  which  would  mean  a  compe- 
tition changing,  rather  than  raising  wages. 
The  attracted  laborers  too  would  have  to  live 
somewhere.  They  could  not  buy  the  land, 
nor  live  far  from  their  work,  hence  they  would 
crowd  into  the  already  overcrowded  slums, 
and  thus  raise  rents.  Landlords  could  put  up 
cheap  tenement-houses,  make  profits  from 
them,  and  still  pay  all  the  land  values  to  the 
government. 

A  deeper  socialist  objection  is  that  the 
Single  Tax,  presented  as  it  usually  is  as  a  sub- 
stitute for  socialism,  would  simply  rivet  the 
chains  of  the  working  man.  Single-Taxers 
usually  claim  that  if  land  values  were  taxed, 
land  would  be  thrown  open  to  all,  all  would 
have  opportunity  to  labor  and  could  secure 
the  full  return  of  their  labor  ;  the  smart  getting 
much,  and  the  less  able  less,  but  each  accord- 
ing to  his  deserts.  This  is  not  at  all  the  case. 
Taxing  land  values  would  not  throw  land  open 
to  all,  but  only  to  those  with  capital,  for  ac- 
cording to  the  theory,  those  offering  most  for 
the  land  would  get  it,  and  capitalists  could 
offer  most.  Even  if  all  did  get  land,  they 
could  not  keep  it.  Men  are  not  equal  in 
ability.  Smart  men  with  land  would  make 
better  use  of  it  than  others.  They  could  af- 
ford to  buy  machinery  ;  other  men  could  not. 
With  that  advantage  they  could  undersell  and 
eventually  drive  out  the  feebler  folk,  who  would 
have  to  toil  at  wage  labor  as  to-day.  The 
smart  men  could  leave  money  to  their  children, 
and  so  children,  even  tho  not  smart  them- 
selves, could  live  in  idleness,  while  others 
toiled  for  them  as  to-day.  The  Single-Taxers' 
glorification  of  competition  plus  a  Single  Tax 
calls  for  the  competition  of  equals,  to  be  just. 
In  practice  it  would  be  the  competition  of  un- 
equals,  which  means  the  rule  of  smartness, 
shrewdness,  and  force,  which  is  not  just. 
Some  argue  that  it  is  just  that  the  strong 
should  get  the  good  of  their  strength  and  that 
the  weak  should  suffer  for  their  weakness. 


Single  Tax. 


Slavery. 


This  possibly  would  be  just,  if  men  wholly 
made  themselves,  but  men  do  not.  They  are 
largely  modified  by  environment.  The  well- 
fed  son  of  a  capitalist  can  get  land  and  live  in 
idleness,  hiring  the  sickly  son  of  a  sickly 
working  man  to  toil  for  him.  Is  this  just  ? 
•  Thirdly,  socialists  deny  any  such  distinction 
between  land  values  and  other  values  as  the 
Single  Tax  claims.  If  individuals  alone  have 
not  produced  the  land,  they  also  have  not 
alone  produced  other  things.  All  production 
as  well  as  that  of  land  values  belongs  to  all. 
Says  Professor  Seligman  (idem.)  : 

"Individual  labor,  I  venture  to  say,  has  never  by 
itself  produced  anything  in  civilized  society.  Let  us 
take  the  workman,  fashioning  a  chair.  The  wood 
he  certainly  has  not  produced.  The  tools  that  he  uses 
are  the  result  of  the  contribution  of  others.  The  house 
in  which  he  works,  the  clothes  he  wears,  the  food  he 
eats  (all  of  which  are  necessary  to  the  making  of  a 
chair  in  civilized  society),  are  the  result  of  contribu- 
tions of  the  community.  His  safety  from  robbery  and 
pillage — nay,  his  very  existence — is  dependent  on  the 
ceaseless  cooperation  of  the  society  about  him.  How 
can  it  be  said,  in  the  face  of  all  this,  that  his  own  indi- 
vidual labor  wholly  creates  anything?  If  it  be  an- 
swered that  it  pays  for  his  tools,  his  clothing,  his 
protection,  etc.,  I  say,  So  does  the  land-owner  pay  for 
the  land  he  purchases.  Nothing,  I  repeat,  is  wholly 
the  result  of  unaided  individual  labor.  No  one  has  a 
right  to  say,  This  belongs  completely  and  absolutely 
to  me,  because  I  alone  have  produced  it.  In  truth, 
this  is  the  groundwork  of  socialism. "Whe  socialists 
have  been  far  more  logical  than  Henry  George.  They 
deny  the  existence  of  any  difference,  save  that  in 
degree,  between  property  in  land  and  property  in 
other  capital.  That  is  the  reason  why  the  English 
enthusiasts  are  leaving  land  nationalization  and  en- 
rolling themselves  under  the  banners  of  socialism. 
That  is  the  reason  why,  in  this  country,  the  growth  of 
Bellamy's  nationalism  marks  the  gradual  decadence 
of  the  Single-Tax  movement.  That  is  the  reason  why 
any  one  who  has  to  do  with  laboring  men  throughout 
the  country  is  now  meeting  in  every  center  hundreds 
who  were  formerly  Georgites,  but  who  now  hay 
become  converted  to  the  newer  forms  of  socialism.1' 

SISMONDI,  JEAN  CHARLES  LE 
NARD  SIMONDE  DE,  was  born  in  Geneva, 
Switzerland,  in  1773.  Educated  in  his  native 
town  he  became  a  clerk  in  Lyons,  but  political 
disturbances  drove  him  into  exile  and  he  lived 
in  England  and  Italy  for  some  years.  He 
settled  in  Geneva  in  1800,  and  devoted  himself 
to  literature,  politics,  and  economics.  He  mar- 
ried an  English  wife  in  1819.  He  died  in 
Geneva  in  1842. 

He  wrote  first  a  treatise  De  la  Richesse 
Commerciale  (1803),  in  which  he  followed 
strictly  the  principles  of  Adam  Smith.  But 
he  afterward  came  to  regard  these  principles 
as  insufficient  and  requiring  modification. 
He  contributed  an  article  on  political  economy 
to  the  Edinbitrgh  Encyclopedia,  in  which 
his  new  views  were  partially  indicated. 
They  were  fully  developed  in  his  principal  eco- 
nomic work  Nouveaitx  Principes  d 'Economic 
Politique,  on  de  la  Richesse  dans  ses  Rapports 
avec  la  Population  (1819),  and  Etuaes  sur 
2es  Sciences  Sociales  (3  vols.,  1836).  He  be- 
came, however,  best  known  as  a  historian  with 
his  Histoire  des  Republiques  Italiettnes  des 
Moyen  Age  (16  vols.,  1807-18),  his  Histoire  des 
J?ran$ais,  31  vols.  (1821-49),  and  lesser  works. 

SLAVERY. — Slavery  is  the  first  condition 
in  which  laborers  as  a  class  appear  in  history. 
Jn  the  hunter  period  of  our  human  history  the 


conqueror  does  not  enslave  his  vanquished 
foe,  but  slays  him  at  once;  in  the  pastoral 
period  slaves  are  generally  captured  only  to  be 
sold;  but  when  sedentary  life  begins,  slavery 
originates.  Especially  where  warlike  habits 
prevail,  slaves  are  procured  to  provide  food 
for  their  military  masters.  Slavery  was  modi- 
fied wherever  theocratic  organizations  became 
established,  and  only  reached  its  extreme 
form  where  the  military  order  dominated  the 
sacerdotal.  Slavery  was  an  advance  on  what 
went  before.  It  was  infinitely  better  than 
cannibalism,  or  the  wholesale  slaughter  of  the 
captives  in  war.  It  may'  be  said  here  that 
s/avewas  originally  a  national  name;  it  meant 
a  man  of  Slavonic  race  captured  and  made  a 
bondman  by  the  Germans.  Its  ultimate  deri- 
vation is  from  s/ava,  glory. 

Wherever  slavery  has  existed,  it  has  meant 
wrong,   injustice,  violence,   brutality,   engen- 
dered both  in  master  and  slave. 
Prisoners  of  war,  held  for  debt,  or 
self -sold — slaves  have  had  little  but       Early 
cruel  treatment  until  their  emanci-     Slavery, 
pation  by  death.     Hebrew  slavery 
was    milder    than    that    of    any 
other  nation.     The  law  protected  the   slave 
from  violence  and  from  permanent  bondage. 
Every  slave  was  to  be  emancipated  at  the 
seventh  year.     (See  JUDAISM.)     In  Greece  we 
find  slavery  fully  established  in  the  Homeric 
period.     War  captives  are  enslaved,  sold,  or 
held  at  ransom.     Sometimes  the  women  only 
are  saved  from  slaughter.     Pirates  occasion- 
ally kidnaped  free  persons  and  sold  them  for 
slaves  in  other  regions.     Not  unfrequently  the 
slave  would  be  of  nobler  birth  than  his  owner. 
The  men  slaves  were  made  to  till  the  ground 
and  tend  the  cattle,  and  the  women  slaves  to 
perform  the  domestic  duties. 

It  is,  however,  most  interesting  and  impor- 
tant to  study  slavery  as  it  appeared  later  in  his- 
toric Greece,  and  especially  at  Athens.  The 
sources  of  slavery  in  Greece  were  :  (i)  Birth, 
the  enslavement  of  slaves'  children.  This  was 
not  a  common  source,  as  it  was  found  cheaper 
to  buy  a  slave  than  to  rear  one.  (2)  Sale  of 
children  by  their  free  parents.  (3)  Through 
indigence  freemen  sometimes  sold  themselves; 
and  at  Athens,  before  Solon,  an  insolvent 
debtor  became  the  slave  of  his  creditor.  (4) 
Capture  in  war.  After  Thebes  was  taken  by 
Alexander,  30,000  women  and  children  are 
said  to  have  been  sold.  (5)  Commerce.  There 
was  a  systematic  slave-trade.  The  principal 
slave-markets  were  Athens,  Chios,  Cyprus, 
Samos,  and  Ephesus.  Thrace  was  the  chief 
source  of  supply.  Servile  labor  gradually  dis- 
placed free  labor,  not  only  in  agriculture  but 
in  manufactures  and  commerce  as  well.  Spec- 
ulators either  directly  employed  slaves  or  hired 
them  out  for  profit.  Athenseus  gives  the  num- 
ber of  Athenian  slaves  as  400,000  ;  Hume  how- 
ever says  it  should  be  40,000. 

The  condition  of  the  slaves  at  Athens  was 
not  as  bad  as  in  many  other  countries.  Privi- 
leges were  allowed  them  which  in  Rome  would 
have  been  termed  license.  Says  Dr.  Ingram: 

"  The  slave  was  introduced  with  certain  customary 
rites  into  his  position  in  the  family  ;  he  was  in  prac- 
tise, though  not  by  law,  permitted  to  accumulate  a 


Slavery. 


1256 


Slavery. 


private  fund  of  his  own  ;  his  marriage  was  also  recog- 
nized by  custom  ;  though  in  general  excluded  from 
sacred  ceremonies  and  public  sacrifices,  slaves  were 
admissible  to  religious  associations  of  a  private  kind  ; 
there  were  some  popular  festivals  in  which  they  were 
allowed  to  participate  ;  they  had  even  spec;al  ones  for 
themselves,  both  at  Athens  and  in  other  Greek  centers. 
Their  remains  were  deposited  in  the  family  tomb  of 
their  master,  who  sometimes  erected  monuments  in 
testimony  of  his  affection  and  regret." 

The  Athenian  law  afforded  some  protection 
to  the  slave.  He  had  an  action  for  outrage, 
like  a  freeman;  and  if  killed  by  a  stranger  was 
avenged  as  a  citizen.  If  a  master  slew  a  slave, 
it  was  atoned  for  by  exile  and  religious  expia- 
tion. Even  when  the  slave  struck  back  and 
killed  his  master,  he  had  to  be  handed  over  to 
the  magistrate  for  punishment.  There  were 
several  ways  in  which  a  slave  might  become  a 
freeman :  by  buying  his  freedom,  by  having 
his  name  inscribed  in  the  public  registers,  by 
sale  or  donation  to  certain  temples,  by  procla- 
mation in  the  theater,  law  court,  or  other 
public  place,  or  by  being  freely  emancipated 
by  his  master.  The  condition  of  the  Helots  of 
Laconia  was  peculiar.  They  were  owned  by 
the  State,  which  gave  their  services  to  indi- 
viduals. The  domestic  servants  of  Sparta 
were  all  Helots,  who  were  generally  serfs, 
living  in  country  villages  and  cultivating  the 
land  of  their  masters.  They  had 
homes,  wives,  and  families;  could 
Classic  acquire  property,  and  could  not  be 
Period.  sold  out  of  the  country.  They 
were  employed  in  public  works, 
and  also  served  as  light-armed 
troops  in  war.  They  were  never  trusted  by  the 
Spartans,  and  on  one  occasion  two  thousand 
Helots,  who  had  distinguished  themselves  by 
their  courage  on  the  battle-field,  were  foully 
massacred. 

•  But  it  was  in  Rome  that  slavery  found  its 
most  natural  and  relatively  legitimate  state — 
Rome  in  its  later  rather  than  in  its  earlier 
days,  when  the  farmer  and  his  slave  worked 
in  the  field  side  by  side.  But  the  growth  of 
wealth  through  conquest  created  a  demand  for 
slave  labor,  and  separated  the  owners  from 
the  necessity  to  labor.  Immense  numbers  of 
slaves  were  sold  after  every  war.  Caesar  on 
one  occasion  in  Gaul  sold  63,000;  and  in  Epirus 
150,000  were  sold  by  Paulus  after  his  victory. 
By  the  Jewish  war  the  Romans  acquired  97,000 
slaves,  besides  slaughtering  thousands  in  the 
arena.  The  Roman  writers  speak  of  some 
masters  who  possessed  400  slaves,  and  of  one 
who  owned  as  many  as  4116.  Blair  fixes  the 
proportion  of  slaves  to  freemen  as  three  to  one 
in  the  Roman  world.  According  to  this  calcu- 
lation there  would  have  been  in  Italy,  in  the 
reign  of  Claudius,  6,944,000  freemen  and  20,- 
832,000  slaves.  The  original  Roman  law 
allowed  the  master  the  power  of  life  and  death 
over  his  slaves;  he  was  an  absolute  and  irre- 
sponsible despot.  The  slave  could  not  legally 
possess  property,  though  in  practise  he  was 
often  permitted  to  enjoy  and  even  accumulate 
chance  earnings.  Slave  marriage  was  toler- 
ated without  being  made  legal  ;  and  thus  a 
slave  was  not  deemed  capable  of  the  crime  of 
adultery.  By  general  sanction  and  custom, 
however,  the  marriage  relation  was  strength- 


ened, and  the  names  of  husband  and  wife  were 
commonly  used  in  reference  to  slaves.  For 
committing  any  state  offense  they  were  pun- 
ished with  death.  In  law  they  could  not  be 
examined  as  witnesses,  except  by  torture.  An 
accused  slave  could  not  invoke  the  aid  of  the 
tribunes;  nor  could  he  accuse  his  master  except 
on  the  gravest  crimes. 

As  to  their  treatment,  many  Romans  favored 
a  certain  familiarity  and  friendliness  of  inter- 
course with  their  bondmen,  but  not  such  as  to 
diminish  the  profit  derived  from  their  labor. 
The  wide  extent  of  the  rural  estates  rendered 
personal  knowledge  or  oversight  of  the  slaves 
difficult,  and  by  degrees  chains  came  to  be 
used,  worn  day  and  night.  Even  in  private 
houses  the  porter  was  chained  near  the  door. 
The  master  had  his  domestic  favorites,  and 
sometimes  the  attachment  was  one  of  mutual 
affection.  During  the  wars  slaves  showed  in 
noted  instances  the  most  noble  and  devoted 
fidelity  to  their  owners.  The  bondmen  who 
were  outside  the  household  had,  however,  the 
greater  freedom  of  action. 

In  the  mines,  where  slaves  were  sent  by 
speculators,  men  and  women  worked  half 
naked,  in  chains,  and  goaded  by  the  curse  and 
lash  of  overseers.  Cato  advised  the  farm  lords 
to  get  rid  of  their  old  oxen  and  old  slaves,  as 
well  as  of  their  sick  ones.  Sick  slaves  were 
commonly  exposed  on  an  island  in  the  Tiber. 
In  the  arena  slaves  were  exposed  to  every  tor- 
ture and  indignity  that  the  devilish  invention 
of  their  conquerors  could  devise.  To  furnish 
an  hour's  amusement  to  the  titled  aristocrats 
and  languid  idlers  of  "  society,"  they  were  torn 
and  mangled  into  bloody  shapelessness  by  wild 
beasts  from  Africa,  and  compelled  to  stab,  hack, 
strangle,  and  disembowel  each  other.  No  one 
has  fully  written,  or  will  ever  write,  their  suffer- 
ings. Slaves  are  not  historians,  and  those 
whose  scanty  and  unsympathetic  chronicles, 
comprise  our  only  information  saw  little  in 
their  system  of  bondage  to  deplore.  As  com- 
pared with  Greece,  Rome  provided  greater 
facilities  of  emancipation.  "  No  Roman  slave," 
says  Blair,  "needed  to  despair  of  becoming 
both  a  freeman  and  a  citizen."  It  was  often  a 
pecuniary  advantage  to  the  master  to  liberate 
his  slave  ;  he  obtained  a  payment  which  en- 
abled him  to  purchase  a  substitute ,  and  at  the 
same  time  gained  a  client. 

But  it  is  not  until  the  second  century  of  the 
Christian  era  that  we  notice  a  marked  change 
with  respect  to  the  institution  of  slavery,  not 
only  in  sentiment  but  in  law  as  well.  The 
victory  of  moral  ideas  became  apparent.  Dio 
Chrysostom,  the  adviser  of  Trajan,  is  the  first 
Greek  writer  who  has  pronounced  the  principle 
of  slavery  to  be  contrary  to  the  law  of  nature. 
When  Rome  felt  that  industrial  was  soon  to 
succeed  military  activity,  it  gradually  prepared 
the  way  for  the  abolition  of  slavery  by  honor- 
ing the  freedmen,  by  facilitating  manumis- 
sions, and  by  protecting  the  slave  from  his 
master.  Diocletian  forbade  a  free  man  to  sell 
himself.  Man-stealers  were  punished  with 
death.  The  insolvent  debtor  was  withdrawn 
from  the  power  of  the  creditor.  The  atrocious 
mutilation  of  boys  and  young  men  was  stopped. 
Hadrian  abolished  the  underground  prisons 


Slavery. 


Slavery. 


and  took  away  from  the  masters  the  power  of 
life  and  death.  In  the  reign  of  Nero  magis- 
trates had  been  instructed  to  hear  the  com- 
plaint of  an  ill-treated  slave.  Marcus  Aure- 
lius  brought  the  relations  between  master  and 
slave  more  directly  under  the  control  of  law 
and  public  opinion  ;  and  while  a  slave's  oath 
could  not  be  taken,  he  was  allowed  to  speak. 
While  the  Christian  church  did  not  at  once 
denounce  slavery  as  a  social  crime;  while  it 
recognized  the  institution,  and  allowed  eccles- 
iastics to  own  slaves,  it  created  sentiments 
favorable  to  their  humane  treatment,  and 
planted  the  seeds  from  which  emancipation 
finally  sprang.  (See  CHURCH  AND  SOCIAL  RE- 
FORM.) 

Gradually  the  slave  came  to  be  regarded  as 
merely  a  servant  tied  to  the  soil,  i.  e.,  a  serf. 
(See  FEUDALISM.)  The  early  forms  of  serfdom 
differed  little  from  mild  slavery,  but  by  de- 
grees improved,  till  at  last  serfdom  itself  dis- 
appeared. Yet,  soon  after  this,  the  new  system 
of  colonial  slavery  appears,  which  was  no  nec- 
essary stage  of  human  development,  but  a 
monstrous  moral,  political,  and  social  aberra- 
tion, which  resulted  in  nothing  but  evil.  In 
1442  the  Portuguese  began  to  trade  in  slaves, 
fitting  out  a  number  of  ships,  and  building 
forts  on  the  African  coast.  After  the  discov- 
ery of  America,  Columbus  proposed  an  ex- 
change of  his  Carib  prisoners  for  live  stock. 
He  urged  that  by  this  exchange  infidels  would 
be  converted,  the  royal  treasury  enriched  by  a 
duty  on  Caribs,  and  the  colonists  supplied 
with  live  stock  free  of  expense.  In  1494 
he  sent  home  500  Indian  prisoners;  but  Isa- 
bella humanely  ordered  them  to  be  sent  back. 
The  bishop  of  Chiapa,  to  protect  the  Indians 
from  cruelty,  advised  the  importation  of 
negro  slaves  into  the  Spanish  colonies, 
and  his  advice  was  unfortunately  adopted. 
Some  Genoese  merchants  bought  the  right  of 
supplying  America  with  negroes,  and  thus  be- 
gan that  odious  commerce  between  Africa  and 
America,  which  increased  to  such  an  amazing 
extent. 

Captain  John  Hawkins  was  the  first   Eng- 
lishman who  engaged  in  the  hateful  traffic, 
tho  for  a  long  time  the  English 
traders  supplied  only  the  Spanish 
Modern      settlements  with  slaves.     In  1620 
Times,      slavery  began  in  Jamestown,  Va., 
among  the  tobacco  planters.     It 
increased  rapidly  until,  in    1790, 
the     State      of    Virginia     alone      contained 
200,000  negroes.     For  a  long  time  the   Brit- 
ish  slave-trade    was  in    the  hands  of  exclu- 
sive  companies,   but  by  an    act  of  the  first 
year  of  William   and    Mary   it   became  free 
and  open  to    all.      Between    1680    and    1700 
about   140,000  negroes  were  exported  by  the 
African  Company,  and  160,000  more  by  private 
adventurers.     The  total  import,  from   1680  to 
1786,  into  all  British  Colonies  in  America,  has 
been  estimated  at  2,130,000.     Shortly  before 
the  War  of  Independence  the  British  slave- 
trade  reached  its  utmost  extension,  the  num- 
ber of  slave-ships  being  at  least  192.     During 
the  war  the  trade  decreased,  but  revived  at  its 
termination.     More  than  half  the  trade  was  at 
this  time  in  British  hands.     The  demand  for 


slaves  by  European  colonies  reduced  the 
tribes  of  the  African  sea-coast  to  a  pitiable 
condition.  All  that  was  shocking  in  the  bar- 
barism of  the  savage  was  multiplied  and  in- 
tensified by  the  horrors  of  the  traffic.  There 
was  the  utmost  recklessness  of  human  life,  and 
indifference  to  misery  and  torture.  The  mode 
of  capturing  slaves  killed  its  thousands;  and 
the  middle  passage  its  tens  of  thousands. 

Exclusive  of  the  slaves  who  died  before  they 
sailed  from  Africa,  12^  per  cent,  were  lost 
during  their  passage  to  the  West  Indies  ;  at 
Jamaica  41^  per  cent,  died  while  in  the  har- 
bors or  before  the  sale,  and  one-third  more  in 
the  "seasoning."  Thus,  out  of  every  lot  of 
100  shipped  from  Africa,  17  died  in  about  nine 
weeks,  and  not  more  than  50  lived  to  be  effective 
laborers  in  the  islands.  The  circumstances 
of  their  subsequent  life  on  the  plantations 
were  not  favorable  to  the  increase  of  their 
numbers.  In  Jamaica  there  were,  in  1690, 40,- 
ooo  ;  from  that  year  till  1820  there  were  im- 
ported 800,000  ;  yet  at  the  latter  date  there 
were  only  340,000  in  the  island. 

But  when,  in  the  latter  part  of  the  seven- 
teenth century,  the  nature  of  the  slave-trade 
began  to  be  understood,  all  that  was  best  in 
Great  Britain  was  shocked  at  its  atrocities. 

The  honor  of  taking  the  first  practical  action 
against  slavery  belongs  to  the  Quakers,  and 
especially  to  their  founder — George  Fox. 

In  1727  they  declared  it  to  be  "  not  a  com- 
mendable or  allowed  "  practise;  in  1761  they 
excluded  from  their  society  all  who  should  be 
found  concerned  in  it,  and  issued  appeals  to- 
their  members  and  the  public  against  the  sys- 
tem. In  1783  there  was  formed  among  them 
an  association  "  for  the  relief  and  liberation 
of  the  negro  slaves  in  the  West  Indies,  and 
for  the  discouragement  of  the  slave-trade  on 
the  coast  of  Africa. "  This  was  the  first  society 
established  in  England  for  the  purpose.  The 
Quakers  in  America  had  taken  action  on  the 
subject  still  earlier  than  those  in  England. 
(For  America,  see  ABOLITIONISTS.) 

In  1787  a  committee  for  the  abolition  of  the 
slave-trade  was  formed,  with  Granville  Sharp 
as  president,  and  after  20  years  of  persistent 
labor  it  met  with  complete  success.  On 
March  25,  1807,  a  bill  was  passed  which  en- 
acted that  no  vessel  should  depart  for  slaves 
from  any  port  within  the  British  dominions 
after  May  i,  1807  ;  and  that  no  slave  should 
be  landed  in  the  colonies  after  March  i,  1808. 

As  to  France,  the  abolition  of  its  slave-trade 
was  preceded  by  stormy  struggles  and  de- 
plorable excesses.  The  French  law  was,  with 
regard  to  the  treatment  of  slaves,  humane  in 
its  general  spirit,  but  was  habitually  disre- 
garded by  the  planters.  In  1788  a  society 
was  formed  in  Paris  under  the  presidency  of 
Condorcet,  which  aimed  to  suppress  slavery 
itself.  The  motive  and  impulse  of  this  move- 
ment were  not  avowedly  Christian,  as  in 
England  ;  but  its  cause  was  rather  the  en- 
thusiam  for  humanity  which  pervaded  France 
during  the  Revolutionary  period.  In  spite  of 
the  "  Declaration  of  the  Rights  of  Man"  in 
August,  1789,  the  French  system  of  negro 
slavery  continued.  St.  Domingo  or  Hayti 
was  the  chief  French  colony  employing  slaves. 


Slavery. 


1258 


Slavery. 


In  1791  there  were  480,000  blacks,  24,000  mu- 
lattoes,  and  only  30,000  whites.  In  August  of 
this  year  a  rebellion  of  the  negroes  broke  out, 
marked  by  brutal  excesses  on  both  sides. 
For  years  it  raged  with  varying  success,  until 
in  1798  the  negroes,  under  Toussaint  1'Ouver- 
ture,  secured  entire  possession  of  the  govern- 
ment. This  African  liberator  has  been  called 
the  noblest  type  ever  produced  by  the  negro 
race.  Slavery  was  abolished,  and.  the  whole 
population  began  to  rise  in  civilization  and 
comfort.  In  1825  the  independence  of  the 
island  was  formally  recognized  by  France  ; 
and  thus  the  negro  race  obtained  its  first 
independent  settlement  outside  of  Africa. 

To  Denmark  belongs  the  honor  of  first 
abolishing  the  slave-trade,  which  it  did  by 
a  royal  prohibition  on  May  16,  1792.  In  1794 
the  United  States  first  forbade  American  citi- 
zens to  participate  in  the  foreign  trade  in 
slaves  ;  and  in  1808  an  act  came  into  force 
which  prohibited  the  importation  of  slaves. 
It  was  provided  at  the  Vienna  congress  that 
the  trade  should  be  abolished  as  soon  as  possi- 
ble. As  soon  as  the  English  slave-trade  was 
stopped,  several  circumstances  combined  to 
greatly  increase  the  traffic  and  aggravate  its 
evils. 

In  consequence  of  the  activity  of  the  British 
cruisers  the  traders  made  great  efforts  to 
carry  as  many  slaves  as  possible  in  every 
voyage,  and  practised  atrocities  to  get  rid  of 
the  slaves  when  capture  was  imminent.  It 
was,  besides,  the  interest  of  the  cruisers,  who 
shared  the  price  of  the  captured  slave-ship, 
rather  to  allow  the  slaves  to  be  taken  on  board 
than  to  prevent  their  being  shipped  at  all. 
Thrice  as  great  a  number  of  negroes  as  before, 
it  was  said,  was  exported  from  Africa,  and 
two-thirds  of  these  were  murdered  on  the 
high  seas.  It  was  found  also  that  the  aboli- 
tion of  the  British  slave-trade  did  not  lead  to 
an  improved  treatment  of  the  negroes  in  the 
West  Indies.  The  slaves  were  overworked 
now  that  fresh  supplies  were  stopped,  and 
their  numbers  rapidly  decreased. 

It  became  increasingly  evident  that  the  evil 
could  be  prevented  only  by  total  prohibition 
of    the  whole   traffic.     The    con- 
science of  the  nations  began  to 
Abolition,    awaken ;    and  the  lawfulness  of 
slavery  became  a  matter  of  dis- 
cussion.    Buxton,  in  response  to 
an  appeal  from  Wilberforce,  moved,  in  1823, 
that  the  House  should  consider  the  state  of 
.slavery  in  British  colonies.     His  project  was 
one  of  gradual  abolition,  by  introducing  a  kind 
of  serfdom,  and  freeing  the  children  of  the 
slaves.     Although  the  struggle  was  continued 
"by  many  noble  and  able  men,  it  made  little 
progress  until  1828,  when  free  negroes  were 
placed  on  a  footing  of  legal  equality  with  the 
whites.     Two  years  later,  the  British  public 
aroused  itself  at  last ;  and  in  1833  Earl  Grey 
carried  a  motion  through  the  House  for  com- 
plete   abolition.      This     received     the    royal 
assent  August  28.     A  sum  of  $100,000,000  was 
voted  as  compensation  to  the  planters  ;  and  a 
system  of  apprenticeship  for  seven  years  estab- 
lished as  a  transitional  preparation  for  liberty. 
All  children  under  six  years  of  age  were  to  be 


at  once  free,  and  provision  made  for  their  in- 
struction. Immediate  liberation  was  carried 
out  in  Antigua,  and  public  tranquillity  was 
never  so  unbroken  as  during  the  following 
year.  This  led  to  the  shortening  of  the  transi- 
tion period  in  the  other  colonies,  and  gave 
freedom  to  all  the  slaves  in  August,  1838. 

The  other  European  States  one  by  one  fol- 
lowed this  example  ;  France  in  1848,  and  the 
Dutch  in  1863.  After  this  last  date,  there  still 
remained  three  countries  in  which  the  slave 
system  was  still  undisturbed — Brazil,  Cuba, 
and  the  United  States.  The  fathers  of  the 
American  States  were  by  no  means  defenders 
of  slavery.  Washington  provided  in  his  will 
for  the  emancipation  of  his  slaves,  and  said  to 
Jefferson  that  it  was  among  his  first  wishes  to 
see  some  plan  adopted  by  which  slavery  in  his 
country  might  be  abolished  by  law.  John 
Adams  declared  his  abhorrence  of  the  system  ; 
while  Franklin,  Madison,  Hamilton,  and  Pat- 
rick Henry  reprobated  the  principle  of  it 
Jefferson  declared  that  in  the  presence  of  the 
institution  he  trembled  for  his  country,  when 
he  remembered  that  God  was  just.  In  the 
Constitution  which  was  drawn  up  at  Philadel- 
phia, 1787,  the  sentiments  of  the  framers  were 
against  slavery  ;  but  through  the  insistence  of 
Georgia  and  South  Carolina,  it  was  recognized. 
The  words  "slave"  and  "slavery,"  though, 
were  excluded  from  the  Constitution,  because, 
as  Madison  explained,  they  did  not  choose  to 
admit  the  right  of  property  in  man,  in  direct 
terms.  Soon  after  the  Union  was  formed  the 
Northern  States,  beginning  with  Vermont, 
either  abolished  slavery  or  adopted  measures 
that  led  to  abolition  ;  but  this  simply  trans- 
ferred the  slaves  to  the  markets  of  the  South. 
Step  by  step  the  slave  power  for  a  long  time 
increased  in  influence. 

The  acquisition  of  Louisiana — including  the 
State  so  named,  Arkansas,  Missouri,  and 
Kansas — (1803),  though  not  made  in  its  inter- 
est ;  the  Missouri  compromise  (1820),  the  an- 
nexation of  Texas  (1845),  the  Fugitive  Slave 
Law  (1850),  the  Kansas-Nebraska  bill  (1854), 
the  Dred  Scott  decision  (1856),  the  attempts  to 
acquire  Cuba  (1854)  and  to  reopen  the  foreign 
slave-trade  (1859-60),  were  the  principal 
steps — only  some  of  them  successful — in  its 
career  of  aggression.  They  roused  a  deter- 
mined spirit  of  opposition,  founded  on  deep- 
seated  convictions.  The  pioneer  of  the  more 
recent  abolitionist  movement  was  Benjamin 
Lundy.  He  was  followed  by  William  Lloyd 
Garrison,  Elijah  P.  Lovejoy,  Wendell  Phillips, 
Charles  Sumner,  John  Brown,  all  of  whom 
were  in  their  several  ways  leading  apostles  or 
promoters  of  the  cause.  The  best  intellect  of 
America  outside  the  region  of  practical  poli- 
tics has  been  on  the  anti-slavery  side.  William 
E.  Channing,  R.  W.  Emerson,  the  poets  Bry- 
ant, Longfellow,  pre-eminently  Whittier,  and 
more  recently  Whitman,  have  spoken  on  this 
theme  with  no  uncertain  sound.  The  South, 
and  its  partizans  in  the  North,  made  desper- 
ate efforts  to  prevent  the  free  expression  of 
opinion  respecting  the  institution,  and  even 
the  Christian  churches  in  the  slave  States 
used  their  influence  in  favor  of  the  mainte- 
nance of  slavery.  But  in  spite  of  every  such 


Slavery. 


1259 


Sliding  Scale. 


effort  opinion  steadily  grew.  (See  ABOLITION- 
ISTS.) 

Mrs.  Harriet  Beecher  Stowe  (g.  v.)  in  her 
Uncle  Tom's  Cabin,  deeply  stirred  the  public 
sentiment  of  the  North  against  slavery. 
Finally  it  became  evident  that  the  question 
could  not  be  settled  without  an  armed  conflict. 
When  Abraham  Lincoln  was  made  President 
in  November,  1860,  this  was  the  signal  for  the 
rising  of  the  South.  While  the  North  took  up 
arms  at  first  simply  to  maintain  the  Union,  it 
was  soon  recognized  that  the  real  issue  of  the 
conflict  was  the  life  or  death  of  the  slave  sys- 
tem. In  1862  the  slave  system  of  the  Territories 
was  abolished  by  Congress  ;  three  years  later 
the  war  closed  ;  and  on  January  i,  1863,  Lincoln 
issued  his  proclamation  of  freedom.  A  con- 
stitutional amendment  was  passed  in  1865  abol- 
ishing and  forever  prohibiting  slavery  through- 
out the  United  States. 

In  Brazil  there  were,  in  1835,  2,100,000  slaves. 
In  1880  Joachim  Nabuco,  the  leader  of  the 
anti-slavery  movement,  introduced  a  bill  for 
the  more  rapid  liberation  of  slaves,  and  for  the 
final  extinction  of  slavery  in  Brazil  by  January 
i,  1890.  This  plan  was  carried  into  effect. 

In  Russia  the  original  rural  population  con- 
sisted of  slaves,  free  agricultural  laborers,  and 
peasants  proper.  Czar  Paul  (1796-1801)  com- 
manded that  serfs  should  work  for  their  mas- 
ters only  three  days  a  week;  but  no  decisive 
measures  were  taken  until  the  reign  of  Alex- 
ander II.  (1858).  That  emperor  set  a  plan  in 
motion  which  resulted  in  the  abolition  of  serf- 
dom in  March,  1861.  (See  RUSSIA.) 

Slavery,  as  it  exists  in  the  Mohammedan  East, 
is  not  of  the  field,  but  of  the  household. 
Slaves  are  treated  as  members  of 
the  family,  with  tenderness  and 
Modern  affection.  The  Koran  teaches 
Times.  kindliness  and  sympathy,  and 
encourages  manumissions.  But, 
standing  behind  this  compara- 
tively mild  and  humane  bondage,  is  the  slave- 
trade  with  all  its  cruelties.  Turkey  has 
frequently  declared  slavery  to  be  illegal,  but 
has  been  too  lax  and  nerveless  to  enforce  its 
declarations. 

The  principal  centers  from  which  slaves  are 
now  furnished  to  Egypt,  Persia,  Turkey,  and 
Arabia  are  three  in  number:  (i)  The  Sou- 
dan, south  of  the  Great  Desert,  seems  to  be 
yet  a  vast  hunting-ground;  10,000  annually 
are  marched  to  Fezzan,  enduring  unimagi- 
nable sufferings.  The  desert  highways  are 
white  with  their  bones.  The  total  number  of 
slaves  in  Morocco  is  about  50,000.  (2)  The 
basin  of  the  Nile,  extending  toward  the  great 
lakes.  Sir  Samuel  Baker  and  Colonel  Gor- 
don checked  the  traffic  here  for  a  while,  but 
since  the  Soudan  revolt  slave-capturing  has 
flourished  almost  unmolested.  (3)  The  Por- 
tuguese possessions  on  the  East  African  coast. 
The  Portuguese  appear  to  be  the  most  deter- 
mined upholders  of  the  system,  and  are  in- 
tensely hated  by  the  natives.  In  1880  it  was 
estimated  that  about  3000  slaves  were  ex- 
ported annually  from  this  region. 

Both  Clarkson  and  Buxton  realized  that  the 
only  effectual  preventive  of  slavery  would  be 
the  establishment  in  Africa  of  legitimate  com- 


merce. It  was  hoped  that  Sierra  Leone  and 
Liberia  would  serve  this  purpose;  but  they 
have  not  been  successes  in  that  line.  In  Sep- 
tember, 1876,  King  Leopold  of  Belgium  called 
a  conference  of  geographers  to  consider  the 
question  of  the  exploration  and  civilization  of 
Africa  by  means  of  commerce,  and  the  abo- 
lition of  the  slave-trade.  An  International 
African  Association  was  formed,  six  European 
nations  being  represented.  Various  expedi- 
tions have  been  made  through  the  inland  dis- 
tricts, the  most  notable  being  that  of  Stanley 
along  the  Congo.  The  Congo  Free  State  was 
formed.  In  1884  an  international  conference 
held  at  Berlin  declared  that  "  these  regions 
shall  not  be  used  as  markets  or  routes  of  tran- 
sit for  the  trade  in  slaves,  no  matter  of  what 
race;  we  bind  ourselves  to  put  an  end  to  this 
trade  and  punish  those  engaged  in  it."  The 
population  of  the  Congo  Free  State  is  estimated 
at  42,608,000.  Stations  have  been  built  at 
points  extending  for  1500  miles  inland.  This 
plan  of  operations  has  its  advantages  and  its 
dangers.  Disputes  and  jealousies  may  arise 
between  the  various  powers  concerned;  and 
the  greed  of  commerce  may  strangle  Africa 
with  its  new  forms  of  oppression.  However, 
the  enterprise  appears  to  have  begun  with  a 
pure  and  benevolent  motive,  and  may  succeed 
in  removing  some  of  the  evils  under  which  the 
negroes  have  suffered.  The  agitation  of  the 
questions  by  Cardinal  Lavigerie,  and  the  es- 
tablishment in  the  Sahara  of  the  Soldier 
Monks  of  the  Sahara  to  put  down  the  slave- 
trade  and  rescue  slaves,  are  well  known.  In 
1890  a  general  act  was  agreed  upon  by  all 
parties  (including  Turkey,  Persia,  Congo  Free 
State,  and  Zanzibar,  with  the  United  States 
and  all  the  greater  European  powers)  on  the 
following  programme : 

(1)  A  civilized  protectorate  over  the  admin- 
istration of  the  African  territories. 

(2)  The  establishment  of  strong  stations  by 
each  power  in  its  own  territory  to  repress  slave- 
hunting. 

(3,  4.  5)  The  development  of  Central  Africa 
by  roads,  railways,  steamboats,  with  fortified 
posts  and  telegraphs. 

(6)  The    organization    of    expeditions    and 
flying  columns  to  protect  them  and  support 
repressive  action 

(7)  The  restriction   of    the  importation  of 
modern  firearms  and  ammunition  through  the 
slave-trade  territory. 

On  the  Indian  Ocean  and  along  Madagascar 
the  powers  also  agreed  to  put  down  slave- 
trading  in  small  vessels. 

(See  also  ABOLITIONISTS  ;  CHRISTIANITY  ;  SO- 
CIAL REFORM.) 

References :  A  History  of  Slavery  and  Serfdom 
(1895),  by  J.  K.  Ingram,  an  expansion  of  his  article  in 
the  Encyclopedia  Britannica  on  which  this  article  is 
mainly  Sased.  R  N  CASSON. 

SLIDING  SCALE.— Wages  are  said  to  be 
on  a  "sliding  scale  "  when  an  agreement  is 
made  between  an  employer  and  employees  that 
the  wages  shall  rise  and  fall  with  selling  prices 
in  the  trade  concerned.  This  form  of  wage 
agreement  has  been  considerably  favored  by 
some  of  the  older  and  stronger  trade-unions  of 


Sliding  Scale. 


1260 


Slums. 


England  and  America,  particularly  in  the  min- 
ing and  iron  and  steel  trades.  It  was  long  ago 
adopted  by  the  Amalgamated  Association  of 
Iron  and  Steel  Workers  (q.  v.),  and  has  often 
prevented  wage  disputes.  It  has  not,  however, 
proved  itself  perfectly  satisfactory,  because 
there  is  nothing  to  prevent  prices  going  so  low 
as  to  carry  wages  below  the  living  point. 
Hence  the  agitation  for  the  "  Minimum  Wage  " 
(g.  z/.). 

SLUMS. — The  word  slum  (probably  a  cor- 
ruption from  slump,  a  swamp)  is  a  name 
loosely  given  to  dirty  back  streets  or  alleys  oc- 
cupied by  the  poor  and  wretched,  and  often  by 
criminals  or  semi-criminals.  There  is  no  clear 
line  between  slums  and  poor  tenements,  and 
the  problem,  therefore,  of  the  housing  of  the 
poor  we  consider  under  TENEMENTS.  We  here 
merely  condense  a  few  statistics  reported  by  the 
United  States  Commissioner  of  Labor  in  his 
seventh  special  Report,  1894,  and  based  upon  a 
special  investigation  authorized  by  Congress 
in  1892.  The  investigation  was  confined  to 
four  cities — Baltimore,  Chicago,  New  York, 
and  Philadelphia — and  in  each  of  these  cities 
no  attempt  was  made  to  cover  the  whole  of 
the  population  living  in  the  slums,  but  only 
those  living  in  certain  districts  These  were 
in  number,  April  i,  1893 :  In  Baltimore, 
18,048  ;  in  Chicago,  19,748 ;  in  New  York, 
28,996;  in  Philadelphia,  17,060;  making  the 
total  of  individuals  covered  by  the  investiga- 
tion, 83,852.  "According  to  the  best  esti- 
mates," says  the  Report  (p  12),  "  the  total 
slum  population  of  Baltimore  is  about  25,000  ; 
of  Chicago,  162,000 ;  of  New  York,  360,000 ; 
of  Philadelphia,  35,000.  The  districts  selected 
are  among  the  worst  in  the  cities,  and  may 
be  denominated  as  the  center  of  the  slum 
population." 

We  give  first  what  are  called  in  the  Report 
itself  general  results  of  the  investigation. 
Says  the  Report  (pp.  14,  15,  and  17) : 

"  In  the  city  of  New  York  there  was,  at  the  time  of 
the  investigation,  one  liquor  saloon  to  every  200  per- 
sons; but  in  the  slum  district  canvassed  there  was 
one  saloon  to  every  129  persons.  In  Philadelphia,  in 
the  city  at  large,  there  was  one  liquor  saloon  to  every 
870  persons;  but  in  the  slum  district  canvassed  there 
was  one  such  saloon  to  every  502  persons.  In  Balti- 
more, in  the  city  at  large,  there  was  one  saloon  to 
ever}'  229  persons  ;  but  in  the  slum  district  canvassed 
there  was  one  saloon  to  every  105  persons.  In  Chicago, 
in  the  city  at  large,  there  was  one  saloon  to  every  212 
persons,  while  in  the  slum  district  canvassed  there 
was  one  saloon  to  every  127  persons.  .  .  . 

"  In  the  year  1893  (that  in  which  the  investigation 

under  consideration  was  made)  there  was  in  the  whole 

city  of  Baltimore  one  arrest  to  every  14 

persons,  while  in  the  eastern  police  dis- 

General       trict,  with  a  population  of  51,767  at  the 

p      ,-,.  United  States  census  of  1890,  there  was 

uonaiuons.    one    arrest    to    every    9    persons.     In 

Chicago,  in  the  city  at  large,  there  was 

one  arrest  to  every  n  persons,  while  in 

the  second  and  twenty-first  police  precincts,  with  a 

population  of  117,503  at  the  United   States  census  of 

1890,   there  was  one  arrest  to  every    4   persons.     In 

New  York,  in  the  city  at  large,  there  was  one  arrest  to 

every  18  persons,  while  in  the  sixth  and  tenth  police 

precincts,  with  a  population  of  52,130  at  the  United 

States  census  of  1890,  there  was  one  arrest  to  every  6 

persons.     In  Philadelphia,  in  the  city  at  large,  there 

was  one  arrest  to  every  18  persons,  while  in  the  second 

police    district,    with    a    population    of   71,872  at  the 

United  States  census  of  1890,  there  was  one  arrest  to 

every  13  persons. 

"  The  total  foreign-born  in  the  city  of  Baltimore  is 
15.88  per  cent,  of  the  total  population,  but  in  the  slum 


district  canvassed  it  is  40.21  per  cent,;  in  Chicago,  the 
total  foreign  born  in  the  city  at  large  constitutes  4o.ga 
per  cent,  of  the  total  population,  while  in  the  slum 
district  it  is  57.51  per  cent.;  in  New  York,  the  foreign 
born  is  42.23  per  cent,  of  the  total  population,  while  in 
the  slum  districts  it  is  62.58  per  cent.;  and  in  Philadel- 
phia, the  foreign-born  constitutes  25.74  percent,  of  the 
total  population  and  60.45  per  cent,  of  the  slum  popu- 
lation (p.  18). 

"The  proportion  of  the  persons  who  live  in  the 
slums,  who  are  illiterates,  is  also  exceedingly  sug- 
gestive." [As  used  in  the  report,  the  word  '  illiterate  ' 
is  used  for  those  ten  years  old  or  over  who  neither 
read  nor  write  English  or  any  other  language,  em- 
bracing also  the  very  small  number  who  can  read  but 
cannot  write.]  (Report,  p.  50.) 

"In  the  whole  city  of  Baltimore  the  illiterates  are 
9.79  percent,  of  the  population;  in  the  slum  districts- 
they  are  19.60.  In  the  whole  city  of  Chicago  the  illit- 
erates are  4.63  percent,  of  the  population;  in  the  slum 
districts  they  are  25.37.  In  the  whole  city  of  New  York 
the  illiterates  are  7.69  percent,  of  the  population;  in 
the  slum  districts  they  are  46.5.  In  the  whole  city  of 
Philadelphia  the  illiterates  are  4.97  per  cent,  of  the 
population;  in  the  slum  districts  they  are  37.07.  (Re- 
port, p.  18.)  • 

"  In  addition,  there  is  a  large  proportion  of  the  popu- 
lation who  are  not  classed  among  illiterates,  because 
they  can  read  or  write  their  own  language,  who  yet 
cannot  read  or  write  English.  The  proportion  of 
these  to  the  entire  slum  population  is,  in  Baltimore, 
18.72  per  cent.;  in  Chicago,  22.19  per  cent.;  in  New 
York,  16.51  per  cent.;  in  Philadelphia,  18.58  per  cent." 

As  to  the  earnings  of  the  slum  population 
the  conclusion  reached  is  as  follows : 

"The  earnings  of  the  people  living  in  the  slum  dis- 
tricts canvassed  are  quite  up  to  the  average  earnings 
of  the  people  generally.  (Report,  p.  19.) 

"In  the  slum  districts  canvassed  in  Baltimore  it  is 
found  that  7441  persons  were  engaged  in  remuner- 
ative occupations,  and  that  the  average 
weekly  earnings  per  individual    were 
$8.65^.    In  Chicago  8483  persons  earned 
on  an  average  $Q.88J£  each  per  week.        Wages. 
In  New  York  12,434  persons  earned  on  an 
average  $8.36  each  per  week.     In  Phila- 
delphia 7257  persons  earned  on  an  average  $8.68  each 
per  week.     As  has  been  shown  already  on  p.  53  (of 
the  Report),  those  engaged  in  remunerative  occupa- 
tions in  the  several  cities  constitute  the  following  pro- 
portions of  the  total  population  of  the  slum  districts 
canvassed:    Baltimore,    41.23;    Chicago,    42.96;    New 
York,  42.88,  and  Philadelphia,  42.54. 

"  Reducing  the  average  weekly  earnings  to  the  basis 
of  earnings  per  family  per  week,  it  is  found  that  in  the 
slum  district  canvassed  in  Baltimore,  4028  families 
earned  on  an  average  $15.99  each  per  week  ;  in  Chicago, 
3881  families,  $21.60%  each  ;  in  New  York,  5912  families, 
$17.58  each;  in  Philadelphia,  3313  families,  $19.01^ 
each.  These  figures,  it  should  be  borne  in  mind,  are 
for  the  whole  number  of  families  in  the  slum  districts 
canvassed. 

"  Now  for  the  weekly  average  of  hours  that  these 
workers  labored  to  get  these  earnings. 

"From  the  summary  relating  to  the  hours  of  labor, 
it  is  seen  that  the  average  hours  of  labor  per  week  for 
the  persons  in  the  district  canvassed  were,  in  Balti- 
more, 64.21 ;  in  Chicago,  60.94;  in  New  York,  62.55,  an(i 
in  Philadelphia,  62.47.  The  average  hours  for  the 
males  and  females  differ  very  slightly,  except  in 
New  York,  where  the  average  for  males  is  63.65,  and 
for  females,  58.86.  In  each  city  by  far  the  greatest 
number  is  found  in  the  class  working  60,  or  under  66 
hours  per  week.  A  large  number  is  found  in  the 
classes  working  less  than  60  hours  per  week,  while  the 
number  in  the  class  \yorking  the  longest  hours,  90  or 
over  per  week,  is  considerable.  (Report,  p.  64.) 

"  The  question  of  earnings  should  always  be  consid- 
ered in  connection  with  the  amount  of  annual  em- 
ployment. On  p.  66  of  the  Report  is  given  a  short 
summary  of  the  number  of  workers  in  the  slums  out 
of  employment  and  the  number  of  months  they  aver- 
aged out  of  employment;  no  notice  being  taken  of 
workers  under  15  years  of  age,  or  of  workers  who 
were  out  of  employment  less  than  a  half  month.  The 
inquiry  concerned  the  year  ending  March  31,  1893— a 
year,  it  will  noted,  of  what  might  fairly  be  called  pros- 
perous times.  From  this  table  we  find  that  in  Balti- 
more 1564  workers  were  out  of  employment  an  average 
of  3.6  months.  In  Chicago  3135  were  out  of  employ- 
ment an  average  of  3.1  months.  In  New  York  2615 


Slums. 


1261 


Smith,  Richmond  Mayo. 


persons  were  out  of  employment  an  average  of  3.1 
months.  In  Philadelphia  2591  persons  were  out  of  em- 
ployment an  average  of  2.9  months. 

"To  say  nothing  of  individual  cases  of  hardship,  it 
will  be  seen  at  once  that  this  unemployment  consti- 
tutes a  considerable  reduction  in  the  average  earnings. 
The  amount  actually  lost  is  probably  considerably  in 
excess  of  this,  as  the  loss  is  on  the  wages  of  the 
workers  who  are  in  every  case  over  15  years  of  age, 
and  takes  no  account  of  any  other  loss  except  that 
specified. 

"  But,  reckoning  for  only  this  reduction,  it  brings 
the  average  weekly  earnings  of  the  slum  family  in 
New  York  to  $16.66,  which,  as  the  family  averages 
{p.  44  of  the  Report)  4.09  persons,  means  $3.40  for  each 
person  ;  and  in  Chicago  it  brings  the  average  weekly 
earnings  of  the  slum  family  to  $19.607,  which,  as  the 
family  averages  5.09  persons,  means  $3.85  for  each 
person." 

The  results  reached  by  the  investigation  as 
to  the  health  of  those  living  in  the  slum  dis- 
tricts are  at  once  surprising  and  gratifying. 
Says  the  Report  (p.  19): 

"  The  agents  and  experts  employed  in  this  investi- 
gation were  nearly  unanimous  in  the  opinions  they 
expressed  relative  to  the  health  of  the 
people  of  the  slum  districts.    It  should 
__      .  be  remembered  that  this  investigation 

Hygiene,  was  conducted  in  the  most  thorough 
census  manner;  each  and  every  house 
and  every  tenement  in  every  house  be- 
ing visited  and  the  facts  taken  down  for  each  and 
every  individual  living  in  the  slum  districts.  The 
testimony  of  the  agents,  therefore,  relative  to  general 
conditions  is  most  valuable.  The  statistics  drawn 
from  the  schedule  replies  show  no  greater  sickness 
prevailing  in  the  districts  canvassed  than  in  other 
parts  of  the  cities  involved,  and  while  the  most 
wretched  conditions  were  found  here  and  there,  the 
small  number  of  sick  people  discovered  was  a  sur- 
prise to  the  canvassers.  It  may  be  that  owing  to  the 
time  of  year  (late  spring)  the  people  were  living  with 
open  windows,  and  thus  not  subjected  to  the  foul  air 
which  might  be  found  in  the  winter." 

The  Report  says  (p.  100): 

"The  extraordinary  freedom  from  sickness  in  the 
slums  of  New  York  reflects  great  credit  on  the  health 
board  of  that  city." 

Since  this  statement  was  made  the  Report  of  the 
Tenement-house  Committee,  as  transmitted  to  the 
Legislature  of  the  State  of  New  York,  has  thrown  ad- 
ditional light  upon  the  case,  and  shows  in  how  large  a 
degree  the  gratifying  results  reached  are  owing  to 
the  Board  of  Health  of  that  city.  We  quote  from  this 
Report  (p.  36): 

1865-1874.    1875-1884.     1885-1864. 

Average  population 833,335        1,202,945        1,685,094 

Average  annual  deaths,       27,041  31.894  40.557 

Average   annual  death 

rate 3°-27  26.51  24.07 

"  The  total  deaths  for  1894  were  41,175,  giving  a  death 
rate  of  21.03  upon  an  estimated  population  of  1,957,452. 

"  The  figures  relating  to  the  number  of  families  or 
individuals,  classified  by  rooms,  are  very  important. 
In  Baltimore  530  families,  or  13.16  per  cent.,  consisting 
of  1648  individuals,  are  living  in  one  room,  •with  an 
average  of  3.15  persons  to  a  room.  In  Philadelphia  401 
families,  or  12.10  per  cent.,  are  living  in  one  room,  with 
an  average  of  3.11  persons  to  each  room.  In  this  point 
these  towns  are  worse  than  both  Chicago  and  New 
York.  The  percentage  of  families  living  in  two  rooms 
is  different.  Here  New  York  comes  first,  with  44.55 
per  cent.;  Baltimore,  27.88  per  cent.;  Philadelphia,  19.41 
per  cent.;  and  Chicago,  19.14  per  cent.  In  Philadelphia 
53.91  per  cent,  of  all  families  live  in  houses  of  one  ten- 
ement, or,  in  other  words,  occupy  the  whole  house ; 
Baltimore  follows  with  36.25  per  cent,  of  families ; 
Chicago  with  9.53  per  cent.;  while  in  New  York  only 
1.84  per  cent,  of  families  have  a  house  to  themselves. 
The  number  of  persons  to  a  dwelling  for  each  of  the 
four  cities  as  a  whole,  by  the  United  States  census,  is: 
Philadelphia,  5.60  ;  Baltimore,  6.02  ;  Chicago,  8.60  ;  New 
York,  18.52  persons.  The  figures  for  the  slum  dis- 
tricts are  invariably  larger  :  Philadelphia,  7.34  ;  Balti- 
more, 7.71 ;  Chicago,  15.151  ;  New  York,  36.79-  Another 
table  shows  the  number  of  occupants  of  sleeping- 
rooms,  and  the  cubic  feet  of  air-space  per  individual, 
and  the  number  of  outside  windows.  As  regards  this 
last  point,  25  persons  in  Baltimore  had  no  outside  win- 


dow in  their  sleeping-room,  and  two  of  these  rooms 
had  six  occupants  ;  in  Philadelphia,  49  persons ;  in 
Chicago,  8n  persons.  Three  of  these  windowless 
rooms  in  this  last  city  had  ten,  nine,  and  eight  occu- 
pants respectively.  In  New  York,  6573  persons,  out  of 
a  total  of  28,050,  are  reported  as  sleeping  in  rooms 
without  an  outside  window;  the  majority  of  the  rooms 
containing  two  or  three  occupants.  The  great  mass 
of  the  remaining  people  in  the  four  cities  sleep  in 
rooms  with  one  or  two  outside  windows,  and  two  oc- 
cupants to  a  room  is  most  frequent.  In  the  matter  of 
air-space,  New  York  takes  the  lowest  place.  There 
5891  persons  have  under  200  feet,  6517  under  300  feet, 
and  4639  under  400  feet,  out  of  28,050  persons.  This  is  in 
spite  of  the  strenuous  efforts  of  the  Board  of  Health 
to  obtain  at  least  400  feet  for  every  individual,  though 
600  feet  is  considered  the  desirable  space  for  an  adult. 
In  Chicago,  also,  the  great  majority  have  less  than 
400  cubic  feet,  but  in  Baltimore  and  Philadelphia  the 
great  mass  of  people  have  between  300  feet  and  600 
Feet." 

References :  See  TENEMENTS. 

P.  W    SPRAGUE. 

SMITH,  ADAM,  was  born  at  Kirkcaldy  in 
1723,  the  son  of  Adam  Smith,  comptroller  of 
the  customs.  Of  a  weak  constitution  he  was 
carefully  reared  by  a  devoted  mother.  Study- 
ing in  the  local  school  he  showed  a  great 
fondness  for  books.  In  1837  he  went  to  Glas- 
gow University  where  he  attended  the  lectures 
of  Dr.  Hutch eson,  and  in  1740  went  to  Baliol 
College,  Oxford,  with  a  view  to  taking  orders 
in  the  English  Church.  Returning,  however, 
to  Kirkcaldy  for  two  years,  he  went  to  Edin- 
burgh in  1748,  and  lectured  on  belles-letters 
under  the  patronage  of  Lord  Kames,  and 
forming  the  friendship  of  David  Hume.  In 
1851  he  became  professor  of  logic  at  Glasgow, 
and  in  1852  professor  of  moral  philosophy. 
His  first  work  as  an  author  were  two  articles 
in  1755  in  the  Edinburgh  Review  of  that  period. 
In  1759  appeared  his  Theory  of  Moral  Senti- 
ments. In  1762  he  was  made  doctor  of  laws, 
and  in  1763  he  took  charge  of  the  young  Duke 
of  Buccleuch  on  his  travels.  He  spent  nearly 
two  years  in  south  France,  and  in  a  short  time 
in  Paris  met  the  brilliant  writers  there.  In 
1766  he  returned  to  England,  and  for  ten  years 
lived  at  Kirkcaldy  with  his  mother,  working 
on  his  great  work,  An  Inquiry  into  the  Nature 
and  Causes  of  the  Wealth  of  Nations,  which 
appeared  in  1776.  (Concerning  its  teachings 
and  Adam  Smith's  economic  position,  see 
POLITICAL  ECONOMY.)  The  next  two  years  were 
spent  in  London  in  literary  society,  but  in  1778 
he  was  appointed  one  of  the  commissioners  of 
customs  in  Scotland,  and  fixed  his  residence  in 
Edinburgh.  In  1787  he  was  elected  lord  rector 
of  the  university  of  Glasgow,  but  his  health 
gradually  failing  he  died,  after  a  painful  ill- 
ness, in  1790. 

(See  POLITICAL  ECONOMY.) 

SMITH,  RICHMOND  MAYO,  was  born  in 
Troy,  O.,  in  1854.  He  was  graduated  at  Am- 
herst  College  in  1875,  and  studied  at  the 
universities  of  Berlin  and  Heidelberg,  1875-77. 
He  was  assistant  teacher  of  history  in  Colum- 
bia College,  1877-78 ;  adjunct  professor,  1877- 
83,  and  since  1883  professor  of  political  economy 
and  social  science.  He  has  published  Statis- 
tics and  Economics  (1888) ;  Emigration  and 
Immigration  (.1890)  ;  Statistics  and  Sociology 
(Part  I..  1896). 


Social  Contract. 


1262 


Socialism. 


SOCIAL  CONTRACT.— According  to  J. 
J.  Rousseau  (g.  v.),  a  State  is  founded  by  a 
"social  contract"  between  its  members, 
whereby  they,  tho  formerly  living  in  a  "  state 
of  nature  "  without  laws,  agree  for  their  mutual 
good  to  form  themselves  into  a  social  body  and 
obey  its  constituted  laws.  His  theory  is  a  de- 
velopment of  the  teachings-of  Hobbes,  Locke, 
and  early  thinkers,  and  is  therefore  best  dis- 
cussed in  connection  with  other  views.  (See 
articles  NATURAL  RIGHTS  ;  POLITICAL  SCIENCE  ; 
ROUSSEAU  ;  STATE.) 

SOCIAL-DEMOCRATIC  FEDERA- 
TION, THE  (English),  was  founded  in  Lon- 
don in  1 88 1,  under  the  name  of  the  Democratic 
Federation,  and  through  the  efforts  of  H.  M. 
Hyndman  (g.  v.),  Herbert  Burrow,  Miss  Helen 
Taylor  (step-daughter  of  J.  S.  Mill)  and 
others.  In  1884  it  became  an  avowed  socialist 
body  and  took  its  present  name.  It  entered  at 
once  upon  strenuous  agitations,  and  was  prom- 
inent in  the  agitation  of  1886,  with  the  so- 
called  Trafalgar  Square  demonstrations,  etc. 
To-day  it  has  small  but  enthusiastic  branches 
in  all  the  prominent  English  cities  and  centers 
of  trade.  William  Morris,  and  a  few  others  at 
first  connected  with  it,  left  it,  however,  in  1885 
to  form  a  Socialist  League,  on  the  lines  of  a 
more  communal  and  less  parliamentary  con- 
ception of  socialism.  John  Burns,  Tom  Mann, 
and  others  have  also  left  it  because  of  the 
policy  of  the  Federation  in  antagonizing  all 
trade-union  and  political  agitation  not  avow- 
edly connected  with,  and  politically  supporting 
its  type  of  Marxist  socialism.  Its  leading  spirit 
from  the  first  has  been  H.  M.  Hyndman.  Its 
organ  is  Justice,  long  under  the  editorship 
of  Henry  Quelch  (q.  v.),  and  published  at  37A 
Clerkenwell  Green,  E.'C.,  London.  It  has  of 
late  years  nominated  many  political  candi- 
dates, but  has  polled  but  a  small  vote,  since 
it  refuses  to  work  with  the  Independent  Labor 
Party  or  any  other  reform  party,  believing 
that  it  alone  stands  for  the  socialism  which 
can  save  England.  Its  present  platform  is  as 
follows  : 

"  Object.—  The  common  or  collective  ownership  of 
the  means  of  production,  distribution,  and  exchange, 
to  be  controlled  by  a  democratic  State  in  the  interests 
of  the  entire  community,  and  the  complete  emancipa- 
tion of  labor  from  the  domination  of  capitalism  and 
landlordism,  with  the  establishment  of  social  and 
economic  equality  between  the  sexes. 

"Program.— I.  All  organizers  or  administrators  to 
be  elected  by  equal  direct  adult  suffrage,  and  to  be 
maintained  by  the  community. 

"II.  Legislation  by  the  people  in  such  wise  that  no 
project  of  law  shall  become  binding  till  accepted  by 
the  majority  of  the  people. 

"  III.  The  abolition  of  a  standing  army,  and  the  es- 
tablishment of  a  national  citizen  force  ;  the  people  to 
decide  on  peace  or  war. 

"  IV.  All  education,  higher  no  less  than  elementary, 
to  be  compulsory,  secular,  industrial,  and  gratuitous 
for  all  alike. 

"  V.  The  administration  of  justice  to  be  free  to  all. 

"  VI.  The  means  of  production,  distribution,  and  ex- 
change, including  the  land,  to  be -declared  and  treated 
as  collective  or  common  property. 

"VII.  The  production  and  distribution  of  wealth  to 
be  regulated  by  the  community  in  the  common  inter- 
ests of  all  its  members. 

"  Palliatives. — As  measures  called  for  to  palliate  the 
evils  of  our  existing  society,  the  Social-Democratic 
Federation  urges  for  immediate  adoption  :  The  com- 
pulsory construction  of  healthy  dwellings  for  the  peo- 
ple; such  dwellings  to  be  let  at  rents  to  cover  the  cost 


of  construction  and  maintenance  alone.  Free  secu- 
lar and  technical  education,  compulsory  upon  all 
classes,  together  with  free  maintenance  for  the  chil- 
dren in  all  State  schools.  No  child  to  be  employed  in 
any  trade -or  occupation  until  16  years  of  age,  and 
heavy  penalties  to  be  inflicted  on  employers  infring- 
ing this  law.  Eight  hours  or  less  to  be  the  normal 
working-day  fixed  in  all  trades  and  industries  by  leg- 
islative enactment,  or  not  more  than  48  hours  per 
week,  penalties  to  be  inflicted  for  any  infringement 
of  this  law.  Cumulative  taxation  upon  all  incomes 
exceeding  ^300  a  year.  State  appropriation  of  rail- 
ways, municipal  ownership  and  control  of  gas,  elec- 
tric light,  and  water  supplies  ;  the  organization  of 
tramway  and  omnibus  services  and  similar  monopolies, 
in  the  interests  of  the  entire  community.  The  exten- 
sion of  the  post-office  banks  so  that  they  shall  absorb 
all  private  institutions  that  derive  a  profit  from  oper- 
ations in  money  or  credit.  Repudiation  of  the 
National  debt.  Nationalization  of  the  land,  and  or- 

§anization  of  agricultural  and  industrial  armies  under 
tate  or  municipal  control  on  cooperative  principles. 
"As  means  for  the  peaceable  attainment  of  these 
objects,  the  Social-Democratic  Federation  advocates: 
Payment  of  Members  of  Parliament  and  of  all  local 
bodies.  Payment  of  official  expenses  of  elections  out 
of  the  public  funds.  Adult  suffrage.  Annual  Parlia- 
ments. Proportional  representation.  Second  ballot. 
Abolition  of  the  monarchy  and  the  House  of  Lords. 
Disestablishment  and  disendowment  of  all  State 
churches.  Extension  of  the  powers  of  county,  town, 
and  district  councils.  The  establishment  of  adequate 
pensions  for  the  aged  and  infirm.  Every  person 
attaining  the  age  of  50  to  be  kept  by  the  community, 
work  being  optional  after  that  age.  The  establish- 
ment of  municipal  hospitals,  municipal  control  of  the 
food  and  coal  supply.  Abolition  of  the  present  work- 
house system,  and  the  provision  of  useful  work  for 
the  unemployed.  State  control  of  the  lifeboat  service. 
Legislative  independence  for  all  parts  of  the  empire." 

SOCIALISM  (from  Latin  socius,  a  com- 
rade, an  associate)  is  a  word  first  used  in  con- 
nection with  the  later  agitation  of  Robert 
Owen  from  1830-40,  and  first  popularized  in 
Reybaud's  Etudes  sur  les  Reformateurs  ou 
Socialist es  Modernes  (1840),  to  express  the 
general  tendency  to  develop  a  communal  or 
cooperative  organization  of  society  in  place  of 
the  existing  competitive  state  of  society.  The 
word,  however,  in  the  evolution  of  social  re- 
form, has  come— at  least  in  Germany,  Eng- 
land, and  the  United  States — to  be  limited  in 
general  use  to  that  effort  for  the  cooperative 
organization  of  society  which  would  work 
through  government  (national,  State,  or  local). 
This  is  by  no  means  to  identify 
socialism  with  a  mere  expansion 
of  the  functions  of  the  State,  no  Definitions, 
matter  what  the  State  is.  Social- 
ists only  believe  in  the  fraternal 
State.  Paternal  State  socialism  all  socialists 
unanimously  oppose,  save  as  possibly  they 
may  induce  existing  paternal  governments  to 
introduce  measures  leading  toward  fraternal 
social  cooperation.  In  Germany,  where  the 

Government  is  essentially  paternal,  the  phrase 
tate  socialism  is  used  for  the  expansion  of  its 
paternal  functions,  and  is  strenuously  opposed 
by  the  socialists.  In  the  United  States  and 
England,  where  the  ideal  of  government  is 
democratic,  socialists  usually  declare  them- 
selves State  socialists.  Says  a  report  issued 
in  1896  by  the  Fabian  (socialist)  Society  of 
London  (see  FABIAN  SOCIETY): 

"  The  socialism  advocated  by  the  Fabian  society 
is  State  socialism  exclusively.  The  foreign  friends  of 
the  Fabian  society  must  interpret  this  declaration  in 
view  of  the  fact  that  since  England  now  possesses  an 
elaborate  democratic  State  machinery,  graduated 
from  the  Parish  Council  or  vestry  up  to  the  central 


Socialism. 


1263 


Socialism. 


Parliament,  and  elected  under  a  franchise  which  en- 
ables the  working-class  vote  to  overwhelm  all  others, 
the  opposition  which  exists  in  the  Continental 
monarchies  between  the  State  and  the  people  does 
not  hamper  English  socialists.  For  example,  the 
distinction  made  between  State  socialism  and  social 
democracy  in  Germany,  where  the  municipalities  and 
other  local  bodies  are  closed  against  the  working- 
classes,  has  no  meaning  in  England." 

I.    DEFINITIONS. 

By  the  derivation  of  the  word,  by  its  his- 
tory, by  its  use  by  socialists  themselves, 
socialism  is  the  very  opposite  of  paternalism. 
All  great  socialists  have  been  democrats  and 
have  opposed  paternalism.  Owen,  Fourier, 
Blanc,  Marx,  Engels,  Lassalle,  Kingsley,  Mau- 
rice, Hyndman,  Morris — where  is  there  a 
governmental  paternalist  among  the  great 
socialists  ?  In  Germany  the  socialists  invari- 
ably vote  against  the  State  insurance  schemes 
of  the  imperial  government;  in  France  the 
socialists  favor  the  maintenance  for  the  present 
of  peasant  proprietorship,  fearing  that  till  the 
government  becomes  thoroughly  socialized,  to 
nationalize  land  would  give  the  government 
too  much  power. 

This  is  so  much  the  case  that,  down  to  about 
1880,  the  word  socialism  was  commonly  used, 
everywhere,  and  in  Continental  Europe'  out- 
side of  Germany,  is  still  often  used,  to  cover 
all  efforts  for  a  cooperative  organization  of 
society,  to  be  developed  through  the  State  or 
otherwise.  But  beginning  mainly  with  the 
teachings  of  Karl  Marx,  who  based  his  idea  on 
the  evolutionary  doctrine  of  the  century, 
socialism  has  become,  as  above  stated,  in  Ger- 
many, England,  and  the  United  States,  a  term 
usually  limited  to  the  conception  of  a  coop- 
erative commonwealth  to  be  evolved  out  of 
and  through  existing  government,  and  this 
idea  is  growing  everywhere  through  Europe. 

With  this  general  conception  of  socialism, 
one  may  see  how  modern  socialism  is  neither 
on  the  one  hand  a  vague  dream  of  a  millennium 
of  love,  nor,  on  the  other  hand,  a  cast-iron 
paternal  system  of  society. 

Friedrich  Engels  says  (Die  Entwicklung 
des  Sozialismus  von  der  Utopie  zur  Wissen- 
schaft} : 

"The  first  act  in  which  the  State  really  appears  as 
the  representative  of  society  as  a  whole,  namely,  the 
seizure  of  the  means  9f  production  in  the  name  of  so- 
ciety, is  at  the  same  time  its  last  independent  act  as  a 
State.  Interference  of  the  State  in  social  relations 
gradually  becomes  superfluous  in  one  department 
after  another,  and  finally  of  itself  ceases  (goes  to 
sleep).  The  place  of  government  over  persons  is 
taken  by  administration  of  things  and  the  manage- 
ment of  productive  processes." 

Bebel  (Die  Frazi  und  Sozialismus,  pp.  312- 
314)  argues  that,  under  socialism,  ministers, 
parliaments,  armies,  police,  courts,  attorneys, 
taxation,  will  all  disappear,  their  place  being 
taken  by  administrative  colleges  or  boards. 
Nor,  on  the  other  hand,  can  socialism  be  con- 
sidered a  loose  word,  used  in  so  many  senses 
that  nobody  knows  what  it  means.  It  is, 
indeed,  undoubtedly  loosely  used  by  some  sen- 
timental would-be  friends  of  socialism  and 
more  sensational  opponents  of  socialism;  but 
there  is  no  dispute,  among  even  ordinarily 
informed  people  who  use  words  with  reason- 
able care.  The  modern  lexicons,  the  encyclo- 


pedias, the  scholars,  the  authorities,  socialists 
themselves,  are  all  agreed  as  to  what  social- 
ism is,  as  may  be  shown  by  the  following 
quotations,  which,  tho  using  different  phrase- 
ologies, are  in  almost  absolute  agreement. 
Says  the  Century  Dictionary  : 

"Socialism  is  any  theory  or  system  of  social  organ- 
ization which  would  abolish  entirely  or  in  great  part 
the  individual  effort  and  competition  on  which  mod- 
ern society  rests,  and  substitute  for  it  cooperative 
action;  would  introduce  a  more  perfect  and  equal 
distribution  of  the  products  of  labor,  and  would  make 
land  and  capital,  as  the  instruments  and  means  of 
production,  the  joint  possession  of  the  members  of 
the  community." 

Says  the  Encyclopedia  Britannica  (article 
Socialism,  by  Thomas  Kirkup): 

''  Whereas  industry  is  at  the  present  carried  on  by 
private  capitalists  served  by  wage  labor,  it  must  be 
in  the  future  conducted  by  associated  or  cooperating 
workmen  jointly  owning  the  means  of  production. 
On  grounds  both  of  theory  and  history  this  must  be 
accepted  as  the  cardinal  principle  of  socialism." 

Says  Professor  Schaffle  (Quintessenz  des  So- 
zialismus}: 

"The  Alpha  and  Omega  of  socialism  is  the  trans- 
formation of  private  and  competing  capitals  into  a 
united  collective  capital." 

Says  Professor  Richard  T.  Ely  (Socialism 
and  Social  Reform,  p.  19): 

"The  results  of  the  analysis  of  socialism  may  be 
brought  together  in  a  definition  which  would  read 
somewhat  as  follows:  Socialism  is  that  contemplated 
system  of  industrial  society  which  proposes  the  aboli- 
tion of  private  property  in  the  great  material  instru- 
ments of  production,  and  the  substitution  therefor  of 
collective  property  ;  and  advocates  the  collective  man- 
agement of  production,  together  with  the  distribution 
of  social  income  by  society,  and  private  property  in  the 
larger  proportion  of  this  social  income." 

Coming  to  those  who  call  themselves  so- 
cialists, the  English  Fabian  Society  (in  the 
above-mentioned  Report,  1896),  says: 

"  Socialism,  as  understood  by  the  Fabian  Society, 
means  the  organization  and  conduct  of  the  necessary 
industries  of  the  country,  and  the  appropriation  of 
all  forms  of  economic  rent  of  land  and  capital,  by  the 
nation  as  a  whole,  through  the  most  suitable  pub- 
lic authorities,  parochial,  municipal,  provincial,  or 
central." 

Says  the  American  Fabian  Society  (tract, 
What  Socialism  Is): 

"  Socialism  is  that  mode  of  social  life  which,  based 
upon  the  recognition  of  the  natural  brotherhood  and 
unity  of  mankind,  would  have  land  and  capital  owned 
by  the  community  collectively,  and  operated  cooper- 
atively for  the  equal  good  of  all." 

Says  a  recent  manifesto  of  the  joint  commit- 
tee of  all  English  socialist  bodies  * 

"  Our  aim,  one  and  all,  is  to  obtain  for  the  whole 
community  complete  ownership  and  control  of  the 
means  of  transport,  the  means  of  manufacture,  the 
mines,  and  the  land.  Thus  we  look  to  put  an  end  for- 
ever to  the  wage  system,  to  sweep  away  all  distinc- 
tions of  class,  and  eventually  to  establish  national  and 
international  communism  on  a  sound  basis." 

Says  Friedrich  Engels  (Marx's  lifelong 
friend  and  the  editor  of  his  literary  remains), 
describing  socialism  in  his  Socialism,  Utopian 
and  Scientific,  translated  by  E.  Aveling  : 

"  With  the  seizing  of  the  means  of  production  by 
society,  production  of  commodities  is  done  away  with, 
and  simultaneously  the  mastery  of  the  product  over 
the  producer.  Anarchy  in  social  production  is  re- 
placed by  systematic,  definite  organization.  The 
struggle  for  individual  existence  disappears.  .  .  . 
The  whole  sphere  of  the  conditions  which  environ 
man,  and  which  have  hitherto  ruled  man,  now  conies 
under  the  dominion  and  control  of  man,  who  now  for 
the  first  time  becomes  the  real  conscious  lord  of  Na- 


Socialism. 


1264 


Socialism. 


ture,  because  he  has  now  become  master  of  his  own 
social  organization.  ...  It  is  the  ascent  of  man  from 
the  kingdom  of  necessity  to  the  kingdom  of  freedom." 

Says  Paul  Lefargue  of  France,  Marx's  son- 
in-law  (in  Le  Figaro): 

"Socialism  is  not  the  system  of  any  reformer  what- 
ever; it  is  the  doctrine  of  those  who  believe  that  the 
existing  system  is  on  the  eve  of  a  fatal  economic  evo- 
lution which  will  establish  collective  ownership  in  the 
hands  of  organizations  of  workers,  in  place  of  the  in- 
dividual ownership  of  capital.  Socialism  is  of  the 
oharacter,  therefore,  of  an  historical  discovery." 

Says  John  Stuart  Mill  (Fortnightly  Review, 
April,  1879): 

"  What  is  characteristic  of  socialism  is  the  joint 
ownership  by  all  the  members  of  the  community  of 
the  instruments  and  means  of  production,  which  car- 
ries with  it  the  consequence  that  the  division  of  all 
the  produce  among  the  body  of  owners  must  be  a 

Eublic  act  performed  according  to  the  rules  laid  down 
y  the  community." 

There  has  been,  however,  an  evolution  of 
the  idea  of  socialism.  Mr.  Sydney  Webb  says 
{Fabian  Essays,  chapter  on  the  "  Historic 
Basis  of  Socialism"): 

"  Down  to  the  present  generation,  the  aspirant  after 
social  regeneration  naturally  vindicated  the  practica- 
bility of  his  ideas  by  offering  an  elaborate  plan  with 
specifications  of  a  new  social  order  from  which  all  con- 
temporary evils  were  eliminated.  Just  as  Plato  had 
his  Republic,  and  Sir  Thomas  More  his  Utopia,  so 
Babeuf  had  his  Charter  of  Equality,  Cabet  his  Icaria, 
St.  Simon  his  Industrial  System,  and  Fourier  his  ideal 
Phalanstery.  Robert  Owen  spent  a  fortune  in  pressing 
upon  an  unbelieving  generation  his  New  Moral  World  ; 
and  even  Auguste  Comte,  superior  as  he  was  to  many 
of  the  weaknesses  of  his  time,  must  needs  add  a  de- 
tailed polity  to  his  Philosophy  of  Positivism. 

"  The  leading  feature  of  all  these  proposals  was 
what  may  be  called  their  statical  character.  The 
ideal  society  was  represented  as  in  perfectly  balanced 
equilibrium,  without  need  or  possibility  of  future 
organic  alteration.  Since  their  day  we  have  learned 
that  social  reconstruction  must  not  be  gone  at  in  this 
fashion.  Owing  mainly  to  the  efforts  of  Comte,  Dar- 
win, and  Herbert  Spencer,  we  can  no  longer  think  of 
the  ideal  society  as  an  unchanging  State.  The  social 
ideal  from  being  static  has  become  dynamic.  The 
necessity  of  the  constant  growth  and  development  of 
the  social  organism  has  become  axiomatic." 

This  shows  that  many  elements  sometimes 
identified  in  the  popular  mind  with  socialism 
have  no  necessary  connections  with  it.  The 
Report  of  the  Fabian  Society  above  quoted 
says  in  its  opening  paragraph  : 

"The  object  of  the  Fabian  Society  is  to  persuade 
the  English  people  to  make  their  political  constitution 
thoroughly  democratic  and  so  to  socialize  their  indus- 
tries as  to  make  the  livelihood  of  the  people  entirely 
independent  of  private  capitalism. 

"The  Fabian  Society  endeavors  to  pursue  its  social- 
ist and  democratic  objects  with  complete  singleness  of 
aim.  For  example  : 

"  It  has  no  distinctive  opinions  on  the  marriage  ques- 
tion, religion,  art,  abstract  economics,  historic  evo- 
lution, currency,  or  any  other  subject  than  its  own 
special  business  of  practical  democracy  and  social- 
ism." 

Professor  Schaffle,  in  his  Quintessence  of 
Socialism,  shows  how  some  socialists  may  be- 
lieve in  and  practise  free  love — some  individu- 
alists also  do — and  that  socialism  as  a  system 
has  no  necessary  connection  with  loose  family 
relationships.  Nor  is  there  more  authority  for 
identifying  socialism  with  anarchy.  Theoreti- 
cally, the  two  are  opposites,  and  practically 
they  are  opposed.  Socialists  indeed  rebel 
against  the  idea  of  placing  the  individual  un- 
der the  power  of  a  despotic  government ;  but 
so  do  all  democrats.  Socialists,  like  all  demo- 


crats, conceive  of  the  individual  as  one  member 
of  a  fraternal  state,  who  must  indeed  yield  to 
the  will  of  the  majority  in  public  affairs,  but 
who  thereby  does  not  lose  so  much  as  gain  in 
freedom  (see  LIBERTY  ;  also  STATE)  ;  but  modern 
socialists  do  strenuously  oppose  all  efforts  to 
overturn  governments  by  physical  force  or  to 
plant  the  cooperative  commonwealth  on  the 
ruins  of  existing  institutions.  Modern  social- 
ism aims,  as  above  asserted,  at  the  law-abiding, 
political  capture  of  the  State,  and  its  gradual 
evolution  into  a  cooperative  commonwealth. 
To  establish  this  policy  among  socialists  was 
perhaps  the  greatest  work  which  Karl  Marx 
accomplished.  Up  to,  and  after  the  organiza- 
tion of  the  International  (g.  v.)  socialism  had 
been  identified  with  communism,  and  indeed 
with  any  form  of  effort  after  or  theory  of  a 
general  cooperative  civilization.  But  soon 
after  the  organization  of  the  International, 
two  distinct  parties  were  developed  within  it. 
One  party,  led  by  Bakounin  (g.  v.},  sought  a 
communism  to  be  established  on  the  ruins  of 
existing  institutions  ;  the  other,  led  by  Marx, 
sought  a  communism  to  be  established  through 
the  evolution  of  existing  institutions.  It  is  to 
this  view  that  modern  socialism  has  come. 
The  two  parties  came  to  a  clash  in  the  con- 
gress of  the  International  at  The  Hague  in 
1872.  In  that  congress  the  Marxist  party  won, 
and  since  then  the  socialists  and  the  anarchist 
communists,  as  the  other  party  soon  learned 
to  call  its  faith,  have  never  come  together. 
The  party  led  by  Bakounin  rejected  The 
Hague  Congress  and  established  a  new  Inter- 
national, which  they  claimed  to  be  the  real 
one,  and  by  their  intensity  and  violence  for  a 
while  carried  the  majority  of  Continental  work- 
men with  them,  but  the  futility  of  their  an- 
archistic methods  and  their  inability  to  effect 
abiding  organization  has  gradually  led  the 
overwhelming  majority  of  the  workers  for 
communism  in  all  countries  to  declare  for  the 
socialist  or  political  method.  To-day,  social- 
ists oppose  all  forms  of  anarchy.  Anarchist 
communism  they  know  to  be  impractical  and 
foolhardy.  Philosophic  anarchism  they  be- 
lieve to  be  impractical  and  false  at  its  root. 

Philosophic  anarchism  starts  from  the  indi- 
vidual, and  would  allow  private  property, 
competition,  or  aught  else  that  the  individual 
desires  and  is  able  to  enter  into,  though  it 
often  favors  voluntary  cooperation  in  very 
many  directions,  and  usually  opposes  private 
property  in  land.  Socialism  starts  from  the 
community,  and  would  wholly  supplant  in- 
dustrial competition  by  industrial  collectivism, 
the  cooperation  of  the  whole  community. 

The  same  development  of  ideas  has  made 
modern  socialists  oppose  ordinary  commu- 
nism (g.  -v.},  ordinary  local  cooperation,  and 
even  the  establishment  of  local  communistic 
colonies.  Some  socialists  believe  that  under 
existing  conditions  local  experiments  in  these 
directions  may  be  wise  as  temporary  means  of 
education  or  of  economic  living,  and  where 
cooperation  has  got  an  established  hold,  as  in 
England  and  Belgium,  Socialists  are  learning 
the  wisdom  of  working  with  the  cooperators 
(see  COOPERATION),  but  where  local  cooperation 
experiments  or  colonies  are  put  forth  as  in 


Socialism. 


1265 


Socialism. 


themselves  a  sufficient  ideal  to  work  for,  or 
\vhere  they  are  attempted,  as  often  in  the 
United  States,  under  conditions  too  weak  to 
compete  against  the  competitive  civilization 
with  which  they  are  surrounded,  socialists 
oppose  such  efforts  as  reactionary  and  unwise. 

Communism  would  have  all  things  common, 
and  may  be  developed  in  little  colonies  or 
communities.  Socialism  puts  emphasis,  not 
on  life  in  common,  but  on  conducting  indus- 
trial production  and  distribution  in  common, 
and  aims  at  development,  not  through  little  col- 
onies or  independent  communities,  but  by  the 
gradual  evolution  of  the  collective  life  of  whole 
existent  and  federated  communities,  such  as 
towns,  cities,  States,  nations,  etc. 

The  above  discussion  will  show  how  large  and 
evolutionary  an  ideal  modern  socialism  is.  It 
is  as  flexible  in  its  form  as  it  is  definite  in  its 
principle.  Any  system  that  would  carry  out 
its  principle  is  socialistic.  In  different  coun- 
tries, and  under  different  conditions,  socialism 
•would  take  very  different  forms.  In  Germany 
to-day  its  chief  aim  is  national  development. 
In  France  it  makes  less  of  the  nation  and 
centers  around  the  commune,  or  township. 
In  Belgium  it  comes  very  near  to  non-political 
cooperation,  and  yet  is  socialism  not  coopera- 
tion. In  England  it  is  municipal,  and  in  a 
growing  degree  parliamentary.  In  Switzer- 
land it  centers  around  the  canton.  In  the 
United  States  it  will  probably  follow  our  na- 
tional instincts,  our  political  divisions  of  States, 
counties,  municipalities,  townships,  and  the 
nation.  Socialism,  therefore,  is  not  Fourier- 
ism,  not  Marxism,  nor  Grondlundism,  nor 
Bellamyism.  Says  Sidney  Webb  :  "  It  seems 
almost  impossible  to  bring  people  to  under- 
stand that  the  abstract  word  socialism  denotes, 
like  radicalism,  not  an  elaborate  plan  of  so- 
ciety, but  a  principle  of  social  action." 

It  follows  that  socialists  to-day  spend  little 
time  in  dreaming  of  the  future.  To  the 
future  the  future  may  be  left.  Content  with 
a  firm  grasp  on  their  central  principle  and 
willing  to  sacrifice  this  for  no  reactionary  pol- 
icy, or  side  promises,  however  alluring,  of 
communistic  colonies  and  cooperative  efforts, 
socialists  are  learning  more  and  more  to  con- 
centrate their  efforts  on  the  present  political 
battle,  and  to  leave  the  details  of  the  future 
to  the  decision  of  circumstances.  Saysv  Mr. 
Kidd,  speaking  of  this  policy  (Social  Evolu- 
tion, p.  206) :  "  We  have  not  now  to  deal  with 
mere  abstract  and  transcendental  theories, 
but  with  a  clearly  defined  movement  in  prac- 
tical politics,  appealing  to  some  of  the  deepest 
instincts  of  a  large  proportion  of  the  voting 
population,  and  professing  to  provide  a  pro- 
gram likely  in  the  future  to  stand  more  on 
its  own  merits  in  opposition  to  all  other  pro- 
grams whatever." 

We  now  pass  to  the  consideration  of 

II.    THE   HISTORY   OF   SOCIALISM. 

This  we  can  consider  but  in  general,  leaving 
the  detailed  developments  to  be  considered 
under  the  articles  concerning  the  respective 
countries. 

(For  other  information,  see  articles  FABIAN 
SOCIETY  ;  INDEPENDENT  LABOR  PARTY  ;  INTER- 
SO 


NATIONAL  ;  NATIONALISM  ;  SOCIAL-DEMOCRATIC 
FEDERATION  ;  SOCIALIST  LABOR  PARTY  ;  also 
CHRISTIAN  SOCIALISM  ;  SOCIALISTS  OF  THE 
CHAIR  ;  TRADE-UNIONISM  ;  COOPERATION  ;  Mu- 
NICIPALISM  ;  NATIONALIZATION,  etc.) 

Socialism  of  the  modern  type,  if  a  date  must 
be  fixed,  may  be  said  to  have  begun  in  1817, 
the  year  when  Robert  Owen  laid  before  Par- 
liament his  plan  for  a  socialistic  community, 
the  year  when  the  speculations  of  Saint-Simon 
took  a  definitely  socialistic  direction,  the  year 
when  Lamennais  published  his  first  work  look- 
ing toward  Christian  Socialism.  Nevertheless, 
he  who  does  not  go  back  of  the  present  cen- 
tury will  never  understand  socialism.  Social- 
ism in  a  very  real  sense  is  as  old  as  human 
society.  Laveleye  in  his  Primitive  Property 
has  shown  how,  in  the  earliest  times  which  his- 
tory can  trace,  property,  at  least  land,  was  not 
held  by  private  individuals,  but  held  and  oper- 
ated collectively  and  more  or  less  for  the  com- 
mon good.  It  is  true  that  this  was  hardly  a 
primitive  communism,  as  Laveleye  claims; 
for  as  Fustel  de  Coulanges  and  others  have 
pointed  out,  altho  the  property  was  held  col- 
lectively and  not  by  individuals,  it  was  held 
practically,  if  not  nominally,  by  the  despot  or 
feudal  head  of  the  society,  and  worked  by  his 
slaves  or  subjects  mainly  for  his  advantage. 
It  was  primitive  slavery  rather  than  primitive 
communism.  Nevertheless,  it  did  contain 
some  elements  of  socialism,  which  occasion- 
ally developed  into  institutions,  somewhat 
really  socialistic.  From  such  germs  came,  e.  g.  f 
the  Russian  mir,  the  Javan  dessa,  the  Swiss 
almends,  the  German  mark,  the  communal 
families  and  the  family  communities  that  still 
linger  in  out-of-the-way  corners 
of  France,  Italy,  and  Eastern 
Europe.  We  have,  however,  in  Primitive 
ancient  history  much  more  direct  Communism, 
instances  of  socialism.  Athens 
may  almost  be  said  to  have  been, 
as  far  as  its  free  citizens  went,  a  socialistic 
city.  It  was,  as  far  as  this  portion  of  its  pop- 
ulation went,  democratically  governed,  and 
the  city  as  a  city  owned  and  operated  land, 
mines,  forests,  fields ;  it  built  temples,  baths, 
theaters,  gymnasia  ;  it  controlled  and  con- 
ducted commerce,  art,  worship,  games  ;  it 
supported  its  citizens,  more  than  it  was  sup- 
ported by  them  ;  the  whole  Greek  social  con- 
ception was  that  the  individual  lived  for  the 
State,  rather  than  the  State  for  the  individual. 

More  socialistic  was  the  ideal  of  the  Hebrew 
theocracy.  All  land  was  held,  according  to 
this  ideal,  as  belonging  to  God  alone  and  to 
no  individual  in  fee  simple.  Every  one,  how- 
ever, who  belonged  to  the  theocracy — notice 
that  he  must  belong  to  the  organization  to 
gain  its  advantages — was  defended  not  in  the 
ownership,  but  in  the  inalienable  use  of  land 
and  capital.  He  could  not  be  permanently 
alienated  from  the  land  (Leviticits  xxv.).  If 
he  was  poor  his  property,  or  capital,  could  not 
be  kept  from  him  over  night  (Deuteronomy 
xxvi.  10-13).  The  law  by  its  institutions 
defended  the  fatherless,  the  hireling,  the 
stranger,  the  poor,  the  oppressed,  the  widow. 
(See  JUDAISM.) 

All  through  the  ancient  world  were  scat- 


Socialism. 


1266 


Socialism. 


tered  religious  sects,  like  the  Essenes,  the 
Therapeutae,  who  lived  in  communities  having 
all  property  common.  Through  all  early  so- 
cieties religion  and  communism  are  found 
hand  in  hand.  Coming  to  the  Christian  era  we 
have  the  early  attempts  at  communism  in  the 
primitive  churches,  and  later  the  monastic  in- 
stitutions, which  were  to  a  large  extent  the 
civilizing  centers  of  the  Middle  Ages.  (See 
CHURCH  AND  SOCIAL  REFORM.)  Feudalism 
(g.  v.)  was  the  prevailing  social  form;  yet 
was  its  harshness  tempered  by  the  duty,  more 
or  less  recognized,  of  the  feudal  lord  to  care 
for  and  protect  his  inferior.  Prior  to  and  im- 
mediately after  the  Reformation  there  were 
many  attempts  at  communism ;  John  Ball 
((f.  z/.),  may  be  considered  a  mediaeval  Chris- 
tian Socialist  ;  while  the  Anabaptists  in  Ger- 
many, before  they  developed  their  sexual 
excesses,  attempted  in  many  ways  a  true  com- 
munism. Such,  too,  were  the  attempts  of  the 
Brethren  of  the  Common  Life  (q.  v.),  of  the 
Libertines  of  Geneva,  of  the  Familists  of  Hol- 
land, and  of  other  similar  sects  whose  tradi- 
tions have  given  us  in  our  own  day  the 
communistic  colonies  in  America,  of  the 
Separatists,  and  similar  sects,  at  Economy, 
Zpar,  and  Amana  (q.  z/.).  Indeed  no  fact  in 
history  is  more  marked  than  the  persistence  of 
the  ideal  and  of  the  attempts  to  realize  the 
ideal  of  the  life  in  common.  Plato  dreamed 
of  such  a  community  in  his  Republic ;  the 
writings  of  the  Christian  Fathers  are  full  of 
this  ideal.  In  1516  More  published  his  Utopia  ; 
about  1600  Campanella  his  City  of  the  bun  ; 
in  1656  Harrington  his  Oceana.  These,  and 
many  other  less  known  writings,  kept  alive  an 
ideal  that  has  never  wholly  been  apart  from 
human  thought. 

We  now  come  to  consider  the  origin  of  mod- 
ern socialism.  Back  of  socialism  lies  the 
altruistic  impulse.  Socialism  is 
essentially,  and  has  been  from  the 
Modern  start,  a  humanitarian  movement. 
Socialism.  It  is  not,  whatever  some  would 
make  it,  a  class  movement  of  the 
Have  Nots  against  the  Haves. 
The  major  part  of  its  foremost  leaders — Owen, 
Saint-Simon,  Gall,  Marx,  Lassalle,  Morris, 
Hyndman,  Vollmar,  Bakounin,  Krapotkine — 
belonged  originally  to  the  Haves.  Weitling, 
"the  father  of  German  communism,"  de- 
clared that  he  was  converted  to  communism 
by  the  New  Testament.  If  German  socialism 
has  become  very  largely  materialistic,  not 
enough  emphasis  has  been  laid  on  the  fact 
that  with  Marx,  Lassalle,  and  Bakounin,  their 
socialistic  philosophy  was  derived  primarily 
from  Hegel,  the  most  spiritual  of  all  modern 
philosophers,  unless  it  be  Fichte,  who  was 
himself  a  Christian  Socialist.  In  France, 
Saint-Simon,  Fourier,  Lamennais,  and  Cabet 
were  profoundly  religious.  If,  in  England, 
this  cannot  be  said  of  Owen,  no  one  can  doubt 
his  intense  altruistic  or  humanitarian  impulse. 
The  story  of  the  personal  sacrifices  made  by 
socialists  for  socialism  never  has  been,  and 
perhaps  never  will  be,  written.  The  Christian 
martyrs  gave  their  lives  expecting  immedi- 
ately to  enter  Paradise;  socialists  have  again 
and  again  given  and  devoted  their  lives  to  the 


cause,  knowing  of  no  Paradise,  save  one  their 
children  alone  can  enter.  Altruism  (origi- 
nally, as  we  believe,  sprung  from  the  Christian 
faith,  but,  in  any  case,  altruism)  is  the  one 
great  motive  that  has  produced  socialism, 
The  occasion,  however,  was  industrial.  It  is 
to  be  found  in  the  inventions  of  machinery 
and  the  application  of  steam  power,  enabling 
successful  production  to  be  conducted  only 
with  the  aid  of  capital,  and  hence  putting  the 
working-class  wholly,  as  they  were  in  part  be- 
fore, in  the  hands  of  the  possessing  classes, 
thus  increasing  the  wealth  of  the  latter  with- 
out a  similar  increase  in  the  wealth  of  the 
masses;  this  revolution  occurring  even  while 
altruism  was  more  and  more  teaching  the 
doctrines  of  human  equality  and  of  the  gen- 
eral unity  of  mankind. 

"  Socialism,"  says  Sidney  Webb,  "  is  one  of 
the  unforeseen  results  of  the  great  industrial 
revolution  of  the  past  150  years.  During  this- 
period  man's  power  over  the  rest  of  nature 
has  suddenly  and  largely  increased ;  new 
means  of  accumulating  wealth,  and  also  new 
means  of  utilizing  land  and  capital,  have  come 
into  being.  At  the  beginning  of  the  last  cen- 
tury, the  whole  value  of  the  land  and  capital 
of  England  is  estimated  to  have  amounted  to 
less  than  ^500,000,000  sterling  ;  now  it  is  sup- 
posed to  be  over  ^9,000, 000,000,  an  increase 
eighteenfold.  Two  hundred  years  ago,  rent 
and  interest  cannot  have  amounted  to  £30,- 
000,000  sterling  annually ;  now  they  absorb 
over  ^450,000,000.  Socialism  arose  as  soon  as 
rent  and  interest  became  important  factors." 

The  socialist  movement,  thus  born  and 
thus  occasioned,  has  been  composed  of  three 
elements :  the  aim  at  personal  liberty,  the 
effort  to  secure  this  through  industrial  co- 
operation, the  recognition  that  this  coopera- 
tion to  be  successful  must  include  the  whole 
community  organized  as  a  fraternal  unit. 
Generally  speaking,  the  contribution  of  the 
first  element  came  from  France,  of  the  second 
element  from  England,  and  of  the  third  ele- 
ment from  Germany.  France  in  her  Revolu- 
tion, and  in  the  philosophical  writings  of 
Rousseau,  Morelly,  Mably,  and  Brissot  de 
Warville,  aimed  at  personal  liberty.  Owen 
and  the  English  Christian  Socialists  taught 
the  benefit  of  cooperation.  Hegel,  Fichte, 
Lassalle,  and  Marx  developed  the  ideal  of  the 
cooperative  State. 

The  French  Revolution  was  not  socialistic, 
but  necessary  to  socialism.  The  old  regime 
had  to  be  overthrown.  The  fatal  despotism 
of  the  Louis  led  to  Robespierre  and  Danton. 
Crimson  on  the  throne  could  only  create 
crimson  in  the  streets.  The  French  Revolu- 
tion was  necessary  before  socialism  could  be. 
In  other  countries,  where  the  old  despotisms- 
were  less  absolute,  the  same  negative  process 
of  destruction,  in  order  to  construction,  was 
gone  through,  but  with  far  less  of  violence. 
In  Germany  it  was  largely  accomplished  by 
the  Stein-Hardenberg  legislation.  In  Eng- 
land the  political  economy  of  Adam  Smith 
and  the  gradual  legislation  abolishing  the  old- 
grants  and  restrictions  of  trade  did  the  same 
work.  By  1817  France  and  England  were 
ready  for  socialism. 


Socialism. 


1267 


Socialism, 


For  the  actual  beginnings  of  socialism,  how- 
ever, one  must  look  to  Robert  Owen  at  New 
Lanark,  and  his  appeal  to  Parliament  to  carry 
out  his  socialistic  ideals  ;  one  must  turn  next 
to  Saint-Simon  and  his  dreams  of  a  scientific 
church,  whose  life  should  be  to  aid  the  poor; 
one  must  study  Fourier  and  the  power  of 
unity  ;  one  must  read  Fichte  and  Hegel,  and 
learn  their  philosophy  of  the  Christian  State, 
a  philosophy  which,  when  the  Church  failed 
to  accept  it,  produced  the  materialistic  move- 
ment of  Lassalle  and  of  Karl  Marx.  We  can 
here  only  mark  out  the  periods  of  socialism. 

Five  of  these  great  periods  are  distinctly 
marked.  I.  A  negative  or  preparatory  period, 
beginning  with  the  French  Revo- 
lution and  coming  down  to  1817. 
Periods.  II-  A  formative  or  Utopian  period, 
lasting  till  1848,  and  including  the 
Utopian  schemes  of  Owen,  Saint- 
Simon,  Fourier,  Cabet,  and  others  of  lesser 
note.  It  culminated  in  the  revolution  of 
1848.  III.  A  period  of  reaction,  or  at  least  of 
inaction,  when  Europe,  as  far  as  socialism 
went,  was  lying  fallow  from  1849  to  1863. 
IV.  The  period  of  the  International,  from  its 
foundation  in  London  in  1864  to  its  virtual 
disrupture  in  the  separation  of  the  socialists 
and  the  anarchists  in  the  congress  at  The 
Hague  in  1872.  V.  The  present  period  of  the 
social  democratic  movement,  commencing 
after  the  breaking  up  of  the  International,  but 
becoming  active  in  most  countries  outside  of 
Germany  only  in  1880-83. 

In  the  first  period  men  were  simply  striving 
for  personal  liberty,  with  little  consciousness 
of  how  it  could  be  reached.  Characteristic  of 
the  period  were  the  teaching  of  Adam  Smith 
and  the  negations  of  the  French  Revolution, 
with  the  philosophy  of  the  return  to  nature 
and  of  the  rights  of  man,  so  brilliantly  stated 
by  Rousseau  and  his  school,  and  perhaps  affect- 
ing no  country  in  the  world  so  much  as  the 
United  States  of  America,  then  just  shaping 
its  Constitution. 

In  the  second  period,  Owen,  Saint-Simon, 
Lamennais,  Cabet,  the  great  Fourierist  school, 
even  Lassalle,  dreamed  of  ideal  cooperative 
communities,  and  attempted  them  in  France, 
Great  Britain,  and  above  all  in  numerous 
colonies  and  communities  in  the  United  States. 
Toward  the  end  of  the  period  the  awakening 
ferment,  led  by  Lassalle,  Marx,  Engels,  and 
others,  produced  the  communist  manifesto  of 
1848,  and  perhaps  more  than  has  been  realized 
the  political  and  social  revolutions  of  1848. 

But  the  times  were  not  ripe.  Even  in 
France,  Louis  Blanc  protested  against  the 
false  socialism  of  the  Ateliers  Nationaux  ; 
and  for  a  while  socialism  seemed  dead.  In 
the  third  period  Europe  was  lying  fallow. 

At  last,  in  the  fourth  period,  in  the  great 
International  Working  Men's  Association, 
founded  in  London  in  1864,  largely  under  the 
influence  of  Karl  Marx,  revolutionary  social- 
ism broke  upon  Europe  as  a  flood.  "  Work- 
men of  all  countries,  unite  ! "  such  was  the 
cry.  The  night  of  dreams  was  over,  the  hour 
was  come  to  act.  Workmen  of  all  countries 
tried  to  unite  ;  but  being  in  very  different 
degrees  of  economic  and  industrial  develop- 


ment, the  International  came  to  stand  in  dif- 
ferent countries  for  very  different  things.  In 
England  it  meant  little  more  than  Trade- 
Unionism  ;  and  when  English  workmen  found 
that  on  the  Continent  it  meant  more  they  vir- 
tually left  it.  In  Germany  it  meant  socialism  ; 
in  most  other  European  countries,  mainly 
under  the  influence  of  Bakounin,  it  came  to 
mean  anarchism.  This  apostle  of  destruc- 
tion, crazed  by  years  of  suffering  in  Russian 
prisons  and  Siberian  exile,  knew  only  the 
gospel  of  "pan-destruction."  Falling  like 
a  firebrand  into  the  International,  he  carried 
it  in  almost  all  the  Latin  countries,  including 
southern  France  and  parts  of  Belgium,  into 
Anarchism.  It  wrecked  the  International. 
Marx,  in  the  greatest  deed  of  his  life,  drove 
out  the  anarchists  from  the  congress  at  The 
Hague  in  1873,  and  wrecking  the  International 
once  for  all,  saved  socialism  from  the  scourge 
that  anarchism  has  since  proved  to  modern 
Europe.  The  Bakounin  "  Autonomist  "  con- 

gresses  tried  to  continue  the  International, 
ut  unsuccessfully,  and  with  the  failure  the 
period  closed. 

The  last  period  is  the  present  one.  Social- 
ism, for  some  years  dormant  after  its  break 
with  the  anarchists,  about  1880  to  1883,  grad- 
ually assumed  constructive,  evolutionary, 
political  form,  wholly  free  from  anarchism, 
yet  without  any  sacrifice  of  its  aim  at  a  com- 
plete industrial  revolution.  Social  democracy 
is  in  this  period  its  favorite  name. 

It  is  now  both  an  international  and  a 
national  movement.  Its  international  char- 
acter is  marked  first  in  the  fact  that  in  all 
European  countries  it  has  passed  through  the 
above  five  periods  almost  synchronously,  and 
secondly,  in  its  positive  efforts  at  internation- 
alism. This  was  marked  first  in  the  Interna- 
tional itself,  and  secondly,  in  the  modern 
international  congresses,  which  are  an  im- 
portant characteristic  of  the  present  move- 
ment. The  International  failed  as  an  organized 
movement,  because  the  movement  in  the  dif- 
ferent countries  had  developed  such  different 
bodies  of  thought  that  they  could  not  coalesce; 
yet  it  succeeded  in  spreading  through  all 
Europe  the  industrial  revolution.  The  mod- 
ern international  socialist  congresses  are 
succeeding  because  out  of  the  revolutionary 
industrial  thought  there  is  being  evolved  a 
socialist  program,  as  well  as  a  socialist  plat- 
form, which  program  and  which  platform  all 
countries  are  finding  that,  according  to  their 
degree  of  industrial  and  political  development, 
they  must  sooner  or  later  accept.  An  artifi- 
cial International  has  given  place  to  a  grow- 
ing internationalism. 

III.    MODERN   SOCIALISM. 

Socialism  to-day  exists  as  a  movement  in 
various  forms.  Its  principal  manifestation,  as 
far  as  the  numbers  of  professed  and  avowed 
socialists  is  concerned,  is  in  the  socialist 
political  parties  of  various  countries  which 
follow  the  ideas  and  program  outlined  princi- 
pally by  Marx  and  Engels  (a.  v.).  These 
parties  adopt  strenuously  and  avowedly  a 
class  attitude  of  the  workers  against  the  capi- 
talistic classes,  tho  a  few  wealthy  and  a  few 


Socialism. 


1268 


Socialism. 


more  of  the  professional  class  belong  to  them. 
In  Germany  its  adherents  are  known  as  Social 
Democrats,  and  cast  in  1893  (the  last  general 
election)  1,876,738  votes.  The  party  is  strongly 
organized  and  rapidly  growing  in  spite  of  all 
efforts  on  the  part  of  the  government  to  sup- 
press it  or  to  take  the  winds  out  of  its  sails  by 
a  program  of  paternal  socialism.  (See  BIS- 
MARCK ;  GERMANY  ;  INSURANCE.)  In  1871  it  cast 
only  124,655  votes,  and  in  1881  only  311,961. 
Since  then  its  growth  has  been  steady.  It 
exists  mainly  in  the  larger  cities  and  manu- 
facturing districts,  but  is  spreading  now 
among  the  agricultural  classes  and  in  the 
army.  It  publishes  some  31  dailies,  41  week- 
lies and  semi-weeklies,  several  reviews  and 
humorous  papers,  45  trade  journals.  In 
France  (g.  v.)  the  socialists  are  divided  into 
several  groups,  but  after  the  first  ballot,  when 
each  group  has  voted  for  its  own  candidate, 
all  the  groups  unite  in  the  second  ballot  (see 
FRANCE)  and  vote  for  the  socialist  candidate 
who  has  polled  the  highest  vote.  The 
differences  between  the  groups 
turn  mainly  on  questions  of 
Europe,  policy.  In  1896  the  Petit 
Republique  claimed  that  1,400,000 
socialist  votes  were  cast  at  the 
municipal  elections.  The  number  of  deputies 
is  variously  estimated  at  from  40  to  55,  ac- 
cording to  those  who  are  included  as  social- 
ists. In  many  cities  the  socialists  are  in  a  ma- 
jority in  the  town  councils  and  elect  socialist 
mayors.  In  the  Paris  council  they  have  a  large 
representation.  In  Belgium  (q.  v. )  the  socialist 
party  is  very  compactly  and  strongly  organ- 
ized. Since  the  revision  of  the  constitution 
and  the  large  extension  of  the  suffrage,  largely 
forced  by  a  general  strike  (see  BELGIUM),  the 
socialist  vote  has  grown  very  rapidly,  has  sur- 
passed the  Liberal  vote,  and  is  gaining  rap- 
idly" on  the  Catholic  party.  The  elections  of 
1896  for  half  the  House  of  Deputies  show  the 
total  socialistic  vote  to  be  461,000,  with  33 
deputies.  There  are  four  large  socialist  dailies 
with  a  circulation  of  75,000  and  a  large 
number  of  weeklies,  etc.  The  cooperative 
socialist  clubs  in  all  the  centers  give  the 
movement  great  organized  power  (see  BEL- 
GIUM). 

In  Denmark  the  socialists  claimed  25,019 
votes  in  1895  and  10  deputies.  There  are  six 
socialist  dailies.  The  Copenhagen  Social 
Democrat  has  a  circulation  of  30,000. 

In  Holland  (q.  v.)  the  party  is  not  so 
strongly  organized  ;  the  chief  radical  leader, 
Domola  Nieuwenhuis  (q.  v.),  having  become 
hopeless  of  success  through  political  action, 
yet  the  Socialists  report  280,000  as  adhering  to 
the  Socialist  political  program. 

In  Italy  (q.  v.}  the  Socialist  Labor  Party 
claims  90,000  Socialist  votes  in  1896  and  the 
election  of  15  deputies  in  spite  of  a  recent 
change  in  the  election  laws  which  they  claim 
has  disfranchised  many  working  men. 

In  Austria  socialists  can  show  less  organ- 
ized political  strength,  owing  to  the  limita- 
tions of  the  suffrage,  but  the  party  has  a 
strong  hold  in  the  empire.  The  leading  organ 
of  the  party,  the  Ar better  Zeitung  of  Vienna, 
has  a  circulation  of  19,000,  and  the  party  is 


said  to  have  called  out  500,000  men  at  some  of 
its  demonstrations,  and  claims  70,000  members. 
There  are  some  65  socialistic  journals  in 
Austria. 

In  other  European  Continental  countries 
the  socialist  party  is  less  strongly  organized, 
but  has  a  nucleus  of  strength  in  Norway  and 
Sweden,  Rumania,  Bulgaria,  Greece,  Spain, 
and  Portugal.  Even  in  Russia  nihilism  (q.  v.) 
has  largely  developed  into  a  socialist  political 
movement.  In  Switzerland  the  avowed 
Democratic  Socialist  party  is  small,  but  only 
because  socialism  is  advancing  so  rapidly  in 
constitutional  forms  and  changes.  (See 
SWITZERLAND.) 

In  Great  Britain  the  Social-Democratic 
Federation  (q.  v.)  particularly  stands  for  the 
German  type  of  socialism,  with 
its  organ  Justice  and  its  active 


Great 

Britain  and 
Colonies. 


propaganda,  but  the  Independent 
Labor  Party  largely  stands  for 
the  same  political  movement,  tho 
with  a  somewhat  more  "  pro- 
gressive "  (gradual)  program.  The  vote  of 
this  party  in  the  elections  of  1895  (its  first 
general  election)  was  44,321.  Counting  all 
socialist  candidates  of  all  parties,  the  social- 
ist vote  was  nearly  60,000.  This,  however, 
probably  by  no  means  indicates  the  real 
voting  strength  of  socialism  in  Great  Britain. 
In  Great  Britain  perhaps  more  people  than 
in  any  other  country  believe  that  the  cause  of 
socialism  may  be  best  advanced  by  working 
through  one  or  other  and  perhaps  (at  different 
times)  through  both  of  the  other  parties.  The 
most,  tho  by  no  means  all  of  the  English  Fa- 
bian Society  (q.  v.),  notoriously  hold  this  view. 
Moreover  in  England,  perhaps  more  than  in 
any  other  country,  socialism  is  advancing 
progressively  in  ways  other  than  through 
political  agitation.  (See  below  in  this  article.) 
The  same  is  true,  and  some  think  even  more 
true,  of  the  British  colonies  in  Australasia. 
New  Zealand  (q.  v. )  is  sometimes  called  a 
socialist  country  where  all  parties  vie  in  the 
introduction  of  such  socialist  measures  as 
the  nationalization  or  municipalization  of  all 
natural  monopolies  (q.  v.),  of  savings-banks, 
and  of  insurance  ;  such  measures  as  a  rapidly 
progressing  tax  on  incomes  and  land  values, 
the  development  of  cooperative  colonies,  the 
employment  of  the  unemployed,  etc.  In 
Australia  there  is  not  quite  so  much  con- 
structive socialism,  but  the  various  labor  par- 
ties are  largely,  and  some  of  them  explicitly, 
committed  to  socialism. 

The  United  States  thus  far  has  developed 
less  avowed  political  socialism  than  any  other 
civilized  country,  perhaps  because 
of  its  strong  inherited  bias  toward 
individualism   (q.    v.).     The    So-      United 
cialist  Labor  Party  (q.  v.)  is  the       States, 
avowed  representative  in  America 
of  the  German  type  of  socialism, 
which  it    considers  the    only  socialism.     Its 
national  vote  in  1896  was  36,563,   and  it  is 
steadily  growing  in  most  of  the  larger  cities 
and  industrial  centers.     The  People's  Party 
(q.  v.)  is  by  no  means  wholly  committed  to 
full    socialism,   but    it  does    advocate    many 
socialist  measures  such  as  the  nationalization 


Socialism. 


1269 


Socialism. 


of  railroads,  of  the  money  system,  and  of  all 
natural  monopolies,  while  its  rank  and  file 
are  very  largely  inclined  to  socialism.  The 
Coming  Nation,  a  People's  Party  socialist 
paper,  has  a  circulation  of  70,000.  The  total 
People's  Party  presidential  vote  in  1892  was 
1,041,028,  and  on  the  State  elections  of  1894 
(according  to  the  World  Almanac  of  1896), 
1,564,318.  Such  is  a  brief  review  of  the 
present  voting  strength  of  socialism  in  the 
world. 

But    this    is    not    the   only  way  in  which 

socialism     is      advancing.      Some     socialists 

would  assert  that    the  strongest 

advance    of    socialism  is    in    the 

Combina-  steady  growth  of  monopolies, 
tions.  trusts,  and  concentrated  wealth 
on  the  one  hand,  coupled,  on  the 
other  hand,  with  the  steady  ad- 
vance of  democratic  tendencies  among  the 
masses  of  all  countries.  Nor  is  the  argument 
weakened  by  the  fact  that,  among  certain  por- 
tions of  the  educated  classes,  there  is  a 
reaction  against  democracy.  This  reaction  is 
largely  caused  by  fear  of  a  socialist  democ- 
racy, and  this  rather  shows  the  advance  of 
socialism. 

Other  socialists  find  more  evidence  of  the 
advance  of  socialism  in  the  steady  expansion 
of  the  function  of  the  democratic  State.  This 
is  admitted  by  those  who  most  oppose  it.  Of 
England  Herbert  Spencer  says: 

"  The  numerous  socialistic  changes  made 
by  Act  of  Parliament,  joined  with  numerous 
others  presently  to  be  made,  will  by  and  by 
be  all  merged  in  State  socialism  ;  swallowed 
in  the  vast  wave  which  they  have  little  by 
little  raised."  Of  this  advance  Mr.  Sidney 
Webb  writes  in  the  Fabian  Essays  : 

"  Slice  after  slice  has  gradually  been  cut  from  the 
profits  of  capital,  and  therefore  from  its  selling  value, 
by  socially  beneficial  restrictions  on  its 
user's  liberty  to  do  as  he  liked  with  it. 
Socialist      Slice  after  slice  has  been  cut  off  the 
_  incomes  from  rent  and  interest  by  the 

Construction,  gradual  shifting  of  taxation  from  con- 
sumers to    persons   enjoying  incomes 
above    the    average    of   the    kingdom. 
Step  by  step  the  political  power  and  political  organ- 
izations of  the  country  have  been  used  for  industrial 
ends.   .   .   . 

"  Even  in  the  fields  still  abandoned  to  private  enter- 
prise, its  operations  are  thus  every  day  more  closely 
limited,  in  order  that  the  anarchic  competition  of 
private  greed,  which  at  the  beginning  of  the  century 
was  set  up  as  the  only  infallibly  beneficent  principle 
of  social  action,  may  not  utterly  destroy  the  State. 
All  this  has  been  done  by  '  practical '  men,  ignorant, 
that  is  to  say,  of  any  scientific  sociology  ;  believing 
socialism  to  be  the  most  foolish  of  dreams,  and  abso- 
lutely ignoring,  as  they  thought,  all  grandiloquent 
claims  for  social  reconstruction.  Such  is  the  irresisti- 
ble sweep  of  social  tendencies  that  in  their  every  act 
they  worked  to  bring  about  the  very  socialism  they 
despised." 

This  tendency  has  undoubtedly  been  carried 
further  in  England  than  in  any  other  country. 
Yet  in  Germany  the  same  work  is  carried  out 
not  by  a  democratic  but  by  a  paternal  im- 
perialism and  municipalism,  and  the  socialists 
believe  that  these  governments  are  but  con- 
structing buildings  for  the  steadily  growing 
socialist  democracy  to  occupy.  In  Australia 
and  New  Zealand  the  movement  to  expand 
State  functions  is  largely  one  of  conscious 
socialism.  In  the  United  States  the  tendency 


is  far  less  developed,  yet  more  developed  than 
.  many  realize,  and  is  unquestionably  on  the 
increase. 

Public  schools  and  libraries,  State  universi- 
ties, hospitals,  asylums,  reformatories,  the 
postal  service,  signal  service,  coast  surveys, 
the  highway  system,  labor  bureaus,  municipal 
fire  departments,  every  court  of  justice,  every 
factory  act,  every  municipal  health  regula- 
tion— these  and  a  hundred  other  things  are 
socialistic.  . 

In  many  American  cities,  too,  there  is  a  new 
wave  of  municipalism.  New  York  City  is  de- 
stroying her  slums  and  erecting  baths,  open- 
ing parks,  and  controlling  tenements.  Labor 
bureaus  are  establishing  free  employment 
bureaus  ;  large  portions  of  the  population,  in- 
cluding some  by  no  means  committed  to  social- 
ism, are  agitating  for  the  municipalization  of 
electric  lighting  and  other  natural  monopo- 
lies. (For  concrete  evidence  of  the  advance  of 
socialism  on  these  lines,  see  NATURAL  MONOPO- 
LIES ;  MONOPOLIES  ;  ELECTRIC  LIGHTING  ;  GAS  ; 
RAILROADS  ;  STREET-CARS  ;  TELEGRAPH  ;  TELE- 
PHONE ;  CITIES  ;  MUNICIPALISM  ;  BERLIN  ;  BIR- 
MINGHAM ;  GLASGOW  ;  LONDON  ;  PARIS  ;  NEW 
ZEALAND;  AUSTRALIA;  ENGLAND;  SWITZERLAND. 

Perhaps    even    more    significant   than    the 
advance  of  unconscious  socialism  is  the  ad- 
vance of  conscious  socialistic  thought  among 
many  who  do  not  see  their  way  yet  to  vote 
for     socialism.      The    writings    of     Carlyle, 
Ruskin,  Morris,  Ely,  Bellamy,  Blatchford  in 
different  countries  and  different  circles  are 
known  universally,  even  by  those  not  used  to 
reading,  and  are  among  the  most  potent  aids 
to  socialistic  advance.     They  enter  the  uni- 
versity and    the  farm,   the    church   and  the 
tenement,   and    everywhere  they  carry  con- 
viction.    Many  may  consider  them  impossible 
dreams  but  wish  they  could  be  true.     Such 
fail  to  see  how  socialism  is  advancing  on  the 
lines  indicated  above.     The    change    in  the 
thought  of  professed  economists  is  marked, 
particularly  in  Germany  and  England.      In 
other  countries  there  may  be  at  present  a 
slight  reaction  from  economic  socialism,  and 
the  significance  and  the  real  so- 
cialism of  the  German  movement 
of  the  so-called  Socialists  of  the   Changes  in 
Chair  (a.  z/.),  and  the  confessions     Thought, 
of  English  economists  may  have 
been    exaggerated  by  some,  but 
the  very  reaction  shows  the  extent  to  which 
the   change  has  gone.     Says    Sidney    Webb 
(Fabian  Essays): 

"The  publication  of  John  Stuart  Mill's  Political 
Economy  in  i8<}8  marks  conveniently  the  boundary  of 
the  old  individualist  economics.  Every  edition  of 
Mill's  book  became  more  and  more  socialistic.  After 
his  death  the  world  learned  the  personal  history, 
penned  by  his  own  hand,  of  his  development  from 
a  mere  political  democrat  to  a  convinced  socialist. 

"The  change  in  tone  since  then  has  been  such  that 
one  competent  economist,  professedly  anti-socialist, 
publishes  regretfully  to  the  world  that  all  the 
younger  men  are  now  socialists,  as  well  as  many  of 
the  older  professors.  It  is,  indeed,  mainly  from  these 
that  the  world  has  learned  how  faulty  were  the 
earlier  economic  generalizations,  and  above  all,  how 
incomplete  as  guides  for  social  or  political  action." 

Says  Professor  de  Laveleye  : 

"It  was  at  one  time  imagined  that  the  means  of 
combating  socialism  would  be  found  in  the  teachings 


Socialism. 


1270 


Socialism. 


of  political  economy  ;  but,  on  the' contrary,  it  is  pre- 
cisely this  science  which  has  furnished  the  socialists 
of  to-day  with  their  most  redoubtable  weapons." 
(Introduction  to  Socialism  of  To-day.) 

A  still  greater  change  has  come  over  relig- 
ious thought.  Christian  Socialism  has  ap- 
peared in  all  Christian  lands  and  in  all 
churches.  Says  Professor  Kirkup,  in  his  arti- 
cle on  Socialism,  in  the  Encyclopedia  Britan- 
nic a:  "The  ethics  of  socialism  are  closely 
akin  to  the  ethics  of  Christianity  ;  if  not  iden- 
tical with  them."  Says  Professor  de  Laveleye 
(Introduction  to  Socialism  of  To-day}:  "  Every 
Christian  who  understands  and  earnestly 
accepts  the  teachings  of  his  Master  is  at  heart 
a  socialist,  and  every  socialist,  whatever  may 
be  his  hatred  against  all  religion,  bears  within 
himself  an  unconscious  Christianity." 

The  changed  position  of  the  Church  of 
Rome,  the  Christian  Socialist  movement 
in  Germany  and  in  England;  the  growth  of 
strong  organizations,  like  the  Christian  Social 
Union  (q.  v.),  within  established  churches,  and 
of  the  Labor  Church  (g.  v.),  outside  of  estab- 
lished churches,  indicate  the  hold  which 
socialism  has  in  the  conscience  and  in  the 
spiritual  life. 

Lastly,  in  England  and  now  beginning  else- 
where, the  growth  of  the  Fabian  Society 
(g.  v.),  which  works  mainly  in  the  more  edu- 
cated middle  class,  on  all  the  lines  noticed 
above,  indicates  at  once  the  intellectual,  prac- 
tical, and  political  advance  of  socialism  as 
branches  of  one  movement.  Professor  Schsef- 
fle  long  ago  said:  "  The  future  belongs  to  the 
purified  socialism  "  (Bau  und  Leben  des  So- 
cialen  Korpers,  vol.  ii.  p.  120). 

IV.     THE   ARGUMENT   FOR   SOCIALISM. 

The  supreme  argument  which  socialists 
adduce  in  behalf  of  their  faith  is  that  only 
under  socialism  can  mankind  develop  a  high 
form  of  individual  freedom.  Under  industrial 
competition  two  results,  it  is  argued,  must  in- 
evitably appear:  first,  the  survival  of  those 
most  fitted  to  compete  in  industrial  warfare, 
which  is  by  no  means  always  the  highest  type 
of  character,  but  often,  to  say  the  least,  may 
be  merely  the  most  sharp,  the  most  cunning, 
the  least  developed  in  moral  sense  ;  and  as  a 
concommitant  with  this,  the  slavery  and  in- 
dustrial oppression  of  the  industrially  weak, 
who  may  be  too  moral,  quite  as  possibly  as 
too  weak,  to  compete  with  the  industrially 
sharp.  Individualists  assert  that 
this  is  not  the  case  with  the  pres- 
Socialism  ent  stage  of  individualism.  For 
Freedom,  proof  of  this  they  point  to  the 
increased  comfort  and  education 
and  situation  of  the  producing 
classes.  They  deny  that  the  poor  are  grow- 
ing poorer  and  the  rich  richer.  But  the  in- 
dividualist evidence  does  not  support  the 
conclusion.  The  socialist  does  not  say  that 
the  poor  are  growing  poorer,  but  that  they  are 
growing  more  dependent  on  the  employing 
class,  which  is  quite  another  point.  It  is 
undoubtedly  true  that  in  civilized  lands  the 
producing  classes  are  better  off  so  far  as 
material  comfort  goes  than  they  were  at  the 
beginning  of  the  century,  tho  it  is  not  so  clear 


that  they  are  better  off  in  proportion  to  the 
wealthy  class  (concerning  this  point  see 
WEALTH,  also  WAGES),  but  it  is  doubtful  in  the 
first  place  whether  this  is  not  due  to  what 
socialistic  features  exist  to-day,  such  as  trade- 
union  combinations,  public  education,  factory 
legislation,  etc.,  and  secondly,  to  whatever 
cause  it  be  attributed,  it  has  no  bearing  on 
the  socialist  contention  that  personal  freedom 
is  diminished  under  individualism. 

In  order  to  succeed  to-day  under  competi- 
tion, one  or  two  things  are  all  but  necessary, 
large  capital  and  intense  devotion  to  money- 
making  :  usually  both.  The  man  or  woman 
to-day  possessed  of  large  income  can  invest  it, 
and  with  little  thought  or  care  for  it  live  in 
f-reedom ;  but  this  is  a  freedom  bought  by  the 
toil  of  others.  As  for  the  unsuccessful, 
they  have  scarcely  any  freedom  at  all.  In 
days  before  machinery  was  so  necessary  to 
production,  before  capital  was  so  organized, 
the  small  producer — the  weaver,  the  cobbler, 
etc. — could  be  comparatively  independent,  tho 
his  material  comforts  were  few.  To-day  the 
man  without  capital  must  work  for  the  man 
who  has.  A  few  quotations  may  illustrate 
this.  Says  Robert  Blatchford  (Merrie  Eng- 
land, chap,  xix.)  : 

"  Can  anyone  imagine  a  despotism  more  terrible 
than  the  regulation  of  work  by  government  ?  I  think 
so.  I  think  I  could  find  it.  But  I  have  no  need  to 
look.  See  ;  it  is  here,  ready  to  my  hand. 

"  It  is  here,  in  a  letter,  long  kept  by  me,  a  sample  of 
many  I  constantly  receive  : 

"  '  If  you  can  see  your  way  to  give  us  poor  devils  of 
silk  dyers  a  word  or  two,  I  am  sure  it  would  do  us 
good.  We  work  longer  hours  than  any  others  in  the 
trade  in  England,  get  less  wages,  and,  for  our  lives, 
or  rather  our  situations,  dare  not  openly  belong  to  a 
union.  If  we  strike — as  we  did  last  summer — pres- 
sure is  brought  upon  us  by  our  wives  and  children 
(nearly  all  of  whom  have  to  work)  being  dismissed 
from  their  situations.  If  we  write  to  the  Leeds  Times 
— the  best  friend  we  poor  dyers  ever  had— we  are 
afraid  to  sign  our  names  ;  and  if  we  have  a  meeting  it 
has  to  be  kept  a  dead  secret.  In  fact,  it  is  not  worth 
living  to  work  under  such  circumstances,  and  as  far 
as  I  can  see  the  only  union  we  shall  ever  get  will  be 
the  union  workhouse,  and  many  of  us  are  half-way 
there  now.  Give  us  a  word  to  strengthen  the  fearful 
and  encourage  the  weak.  Somebody  must  help  us. 
We  cannot  help  ourselves.  We  have  been  down  so 
long  that  we  don't  know  how  to  get  up. 

"  'P.  S.     For  God's  sake  do  not  mention  my  name.'  " 

The  quoted  letter  could  be  duplicated,  so  far 
as  its  revelation  of  slavery  goes,  in  any  city  or 
industrial  center  of  the  United  States  or  Great 
Britain.  Says  an  American  writer,  Mr.  Ira 
Steward  (g.  v.),  quoted  in  the  fourth  report  of 
the  Massachusetts  Bureau  of  the  Statistics  of 
Labor : 

"  Poverty  makes  the  poor  poorer  and  independence 
impossible".  It  corrupts  judges,  ministers,  legislators, 
and  statesmen.  It  decides  marriages,  shortens  human 
life,  hinders  education,  and  embarrasses  progress  in 
every  direction.  It  gives  rise,  directly  and  indirectly, 
to  more  anxiety,  suffering,  and  crime  than  all  other 
causes  combined.  Poverty  crams  cities,  and  their 
tenement-houses,  with  people  whose  conduct  and 
votes  endanger  the  republic.  The  dangerous  classes 
are  always/00r.  There  is  a  closer  relation  between 
poverty  and  slavery  than  the  average  abolitionist  ever 
recognized.  .  .  .  The  anti-slavery  idea  was  that 
every  man  had  the  right  to  go  and  come  at  his  ^yill. 
The  labor  movement  asks  how  much  this  abstract  right 
is  worth,  without  the  power  to  exercise  it.  ...  The 
laborer  instinctively  feels  that  something  of  slavery 
still  remains,  or  that  something  of  freedom  is  yet  to 
come,  and  he  is  not  much  interested  in  the  anti-slavery 
theory  of  liberty." 


Socialism. 


1271 


Socialism. 


On  questions  of  personal  liberty,  Mill  may 
be  allowed  some  weight,  and  Mill  emphatically 
declared  that  "  the  restraints  of  communism 
would  be  freedom  in  comparison  with  the 
present  condition  of  the  majority  of  the  human 
race." 

The  objection  to  this,  that  socialism  itself 
would  be  slavery  to  the  will  of  the  majority, 
we  consider  later  under  objections  to  socialism. 
We  notice  now  that  socialists  assert  that  not 
only  is  there  industrial  slavery,  to-day,  but 
that  there  always  must  be  under  industrial 
competition,  at  least  for  the  masses.  Men  are 
not  equal  in  ability — given  that  fact,  which  no 
man  can  deny,  and  it  must  inevitably  follow 
that  if  men  compete  for  the  means  of  exist- 
ence, the  weak  must  be  servants  of  the  strong, 
and  the  strong  must  survive  only  on  condition 
of  perpetual  strife.  The  employer  to-day  un- 
der competition  cannot  pay  what  wages  he 
would.  He  must  pay  the  market  rate  or  be 
undersold  by  those  who  will  pay  lower  wages. 
Even  the  rich  hold  their  riches  at  the  price  of 
a  competition  which  may  spring  up  any  mo- 
ment that  they  do  not  shrewdly  manage  their 
investments  or  have  some  one  to  manage  them 
for  them.  Competition  rules  not  only  the 
slave,  but  the  taskmaster.  Nor  is  this  all. 
The  few  rich  will  not  compete.  They  find  it 
better  to  combine.  Hence,  the  weak  become 
slaves  not  only  of  wealth,  but  of  combined 
wealth.  Says  Mr.  Bellamy  (address  at  Boston, 
May  31,  1889)  : 

"  A  brief  consideration  of  the  causes  which  have  led 
to  the  present  world-wide  movement  for  the  substitu- 
tion of  combination  in  business  for  competition  will 
surely  convince  any  one  that,  of  all  revolutions,  this  is 
the  least  likely  to  go  backward.  It  is  a  result  of  the 
increase  in  the  efficiency  of  capital  in  great  masses, 
consequent  upon  the  inventions  of  the  last  and  present 
generations.  In  former  epochs  the  size  and  scope  of 
business  enterprises  were  subject  to  natural  restric- 
tions. There  were  limits  to  the  amount  of  capital 
that  could  be  used  to  advantage  by  one  management. 
To-day  there  are  no  limits,  save  the  earth's  confines, 
to  the  scope  of  any  business  undertaking ;  and  not 
only  no  limit  to  the  amount  of  capital  that  can  be  used 
by  one  concern,  but  an  increase  in  the  efficiency  and 
security  of  the  business  proportionate  to  the  amount 
of  capital  in  it.  The  economies  in  management  result- 
ing from  consolidation,  as  well  as  the  control  over  the 
market  resulting  from  the  monopoly  of  a  staple,  are 
also  solid  business  reasons  for  the  advent  of  the 
trust." 

The  problem  to-day  is  not  one  of  combina- 
tion -vs.  competition  ;  but  simply  of  what  kind 
of  combination  we  shall  have  ;  the  combination 
of  the  many  or  of  the  few. 

Nor  can  freedom  be  preserved  by  doing 
away  with  government  or  by  taxing  land  values 
with  the  hope  of  giving  equal  opportunity  to 
all.  These  theories  of  extreme  individualism 
(Single  Tax,  Philosophical  Anarchism,  etc.,) 
all  rest  on  the  assumption  that  all  men  need  is 
equal  material  opportunity  ;  they  theorize  of 
a  competition  among  equals  ;  but  the  result 
would  be  a  competition  among  unequals,  and 
the  strong  would  be  able  to  seize  and  occupy, 
or  pay  for  the  best  land,  amass  capital,  etc., 
and  lord  it  over  the  weak  as  to-day.  Nor 
would  the  reward  be  even  proportional  to 
ability  ;  because  immoral  and  feeble  descend- 
ants of  the  wealthy  inheriting  large  capitals,  as 
they  often  do  to-day,  could  under  free  land 
live  in  luxury  on  the  slavery  of  others. 


The  second  great  argument  for  socialism  is 
that  it  would  produce  not  only  greater  personal 
freedom,  but  a    higher    type    of 
character.     Character  tends  to  be     Socialism 
what  men  strive  for.     If  men  have         an(j 
to  concentrate  their  attention  on    m... 

i         ,      •     1  ,  •!>  ji  i       vlldl  dLlcl  . 

industrial  competition,  they  tend 
to      develop      materialism      and 
shrewdness.     This  is  exactly  what  we  have 
to-day.       Artists     complain ,  that      commer- 
cialism is  killing  art ;  religionists  say  we  are 
growing  material  ;  the  bourgeois  middle-class 
boast  of  our    material   inventions.     It  is  the 
natural  result  of  industrial  competition.     Un- 
der socialism,  if  men  seek  the  good  of  all  it  will 
produce  a  higher  character. 

Once  with  naked  hand  or  rudest  club  men 
fought  for  existence  ;  later,  with  poisoned 
arrow  and  with  hurtling  spear  they  battled 
for  the  best  fisheries  and  the  richest  hunting- 
grounds.  A  physical  competition  produced 
physical  individuality,  the  physical  giant,  the 
Goliaths,  the  Achilles,  the  Agamemnons,  kings 
of  men.  Then  came  a  competition  a  little 
more  intellectual,  producing  an  Alexander, 
a  Richard  Cceur  de  Lion.  Next  came  the 
modern  world  where  men  battle,  not  with 
poisoned  spears,  but  with  poisoned  groceries  ; 
not  with  clubs  but,  like  bulls  and  bears,  with 
cornerings  of  the  market  and  tricks  of  trade. 
It  produces  the  Jay  Gould  and  the  Baron 
Rothschild.  Now  comes  socialism,  and  says, 
Let  us  cooperate  in  industry,  and  compete 
only  to  see  who  shall  best  serve  the  public. 
Is  it  not  easy  to  see  what  kind  of  an  individu- 
ality it  will  produce  ? 

Mr.  Blatchford,  in  Merrie  England,  says 
of  Mr.  Morley's  argument  that  if  existence 
were  no  longer  a  sordid  struggle  for  money 
the  genius  of  the  people  would  die  out,  and 
we  should  sink  into  barbarism,  and  retain 
nothing  but  the  bare  necessaries  of  life, 

"  What  do  his  words  assume  ?    They  assume  : 

"  i.  That  the  greatest  and  noblest  of  the  race  are 
actuated  by  avarice.  Which  is  not  true. 

"2.  That  the  greatest  and  noblest  of  the  race  secure 
the  most  wealth.  Which  is  not  true. 

"  What  think  you  is  the  chief  food  of  genius?  Does 
the  prospect  of  wealth  inspire  Hamlets  or  Laocoons, 
and  steam-engines  and  printing-presses?  The  true 
artist,  the  man  to  whom  all  creative  work  is  due,  is 
mainly  inspired,  sustained,  and  rewarded  by  a  love  of 
his  art.  Milton  wrote  Paradise  Lost  for  £8.  Can 
greed  produce  a  poem  like  it  ?  The  Gradgrind  sup- 
poses greed  to  be  the  ruling  passion  because  in  the 
society  he  knows  most  men  strive  to  get  money.  But 
why  do  they  strive  to  get  money  ?  There  are  two 
chief  motives.  One  the  desire  to  provide  for  or  confer 
happiness  upon  children,  on  friends ;  the  other  the 
desire  to  purchase  applause.  But  in  the  first  place 
the  motive  is  not  greed,  but  love  ;  and  in  the  second 
case  it  is  not  greed,  but  vanity.  Only  a  miser  covets 
money  for  its  own  sake.  Both  love  and  vanity  are 
stronger  passions  than  greed." 

Other  arguments  for  socialism  are  of  less 
importance,  but  socialists  argue  that,  altho 
the  producing  classes  may  be  somewhat  better 
off  than  they  were,  there  is  still  a  terrible 
amount  of  want  and  destitution  which  socialism 
would  relieve.  Says  Mr.  Frederic  Harrison  : 

"  To  me,  at  least,  it  would  be  enough  to  condemn 
modern  society  as  hardly  an  advance  on  slavery  or 
serfdom,  if  the  permanent  condition  of  industry  were 
to  be  that  which  we  behold,  that  90  per  cent,  of  the 
actual  producers  of  wealth  have  no  home  that  they 


Socialism. 


1272 


Socialism. 


can  call  their  own  beyond  the  end  of  the  week  ;  have 
no  bit  of  soil,  or  so  much  as  a  room  that  belongs  to 
them  ;  have  nothing  of  value  of  any  kind  except  as 
much  old  furniture  as  will  go  in  a  cart ;  have  the  pre- 
carious chance  of  weekly  wages  which  barely  suffice 
to  keep  them  in  health  ;  are  housed  for  the  most  part 
in  places  that  no  man  thinks  fit  for  his  horse  ;  are 
separated  by  so  narrow  a  margin  from  destitution 
that  a  month  of  bad  trade,  sickness,  or  unexpected 
loss  brings  them  face  to  face  with  hunger  and  pauper- 
ism. .  .  .  This  is  the  normal  state  of  the  average 
workman  in  town  or  country." 

Yet  there  is  wealth  enough  for  all,  were  it 
wisely  managed.  (See  WEALTH.) 

In  the  United  States  the  per  capita  wealth 
of  the  country,  according  to  the  census  of  1890, 
is  $867  per  family. 

But  under  socialism  production  would  be 
increased.     There  are  millions  to-day  of  the 
wealthy,   the    unemployed    poor, 
soldiers,  etc.,  who  are  supported 
Socialism     out  of  the  total  product,  but  who 
Economical,  do  little   or  no  productive  work. 
•   Were  they  set  to  work,  the  income 
would    be    greatly    raised.     Still 
more  would  many  sources  of  expense  be  saved. 
The  monopolies  we  have  to-day  cheapen  or 
multiply  production  (see  MONOPOLY).     A  gen- 
eral  system  of   monopoly  could  enormously 
increase  production.     Savings  of  almost  un- 
told amount  could  be  made  in  doing  away 
with  uselessly  multiplied  machinery,  salaries, 
advertising.     Says  Mr.  Blatchford  : 

"  Commercial  waste  is  something  appalling.  The 
cause  of  commercial  waste  is  competition.  The  chief 
channels  of  commercial  waste  are  account-keeping, 
bartering,  and  advertising.  If  we  produced  goods 
simply  for  use  instead  of  for  sale,  we  should  save  all 
this  waste.  But  consider  the  immense  number  of 
cashiers,  bookkeepers,  clerks,  salesmen,  shopmen, 
accountants,  commercial  travelers,  agents,  and  ad- 
vertisement canvassers  employed  in  our  British 
trade. 

"  Take  the  one  item  of  advertisement  alone.  There 
are  draughtsmen,  paper-makers,  printers,  bill-posters, 
painters,  carpenters,  gilders,  mechanics,  and  a  perfect 
army  of  other  people  all  employed  in  making  adver- 
tisement bills,  pictures,  hoardings,  and  other  abomi- 
nations— for  what  ? 

"  To  enable  one  soap  or  patent-medicine  dealer  to 
secure  more  orders  than  his  rival.  I  believe  I  am  well 
within  the  mark  when  I  say  that  some  firms  spend 
£100,000  a  year  in  advertisements." 

The  indirect  results  of  the  removal  of  pov- 
erty are  all  but  incalculable :  the  abolition 
of  prostitution  and  (since,  as  we  have  seen, 
character  would  be  elevated)  the  lessening 
of  lust;  the  decreasing  of  intemperance, 
largely  to-day  the  result  of  poverty  (g.  v.); 
lessening  of  money  quarrels,  especially  of 
family  money  quarrels  ;  the  giving  of  healthy 
environment  and  education  to  all  children  ; 
the  making  it  possible  for  all  men  and  all 
women  to  earn  an  honorable  living  by  a  little 
regular  honorable  work  ;  and  the  grading  of 
society,  not  by  money  but  by  usefulness  to  the 
community,  thus  largely  doing  away,  for  one 
thing,  with  temptations  to  marriage  for  money. 
Such  are  some  of  the  momentous  indirect  ad- 
vantages claimed  for  socialism. 

OBJECTIONS   TO    SOCIALISM. 

These  will  be  found  in  full  under  article  In- 
dividualism. Probably  the  most  widely  spread 
objection  to  socialism  is  that  it  is  an  impossible 
and  impracticable  Utopia.  The  answer  to  this 


is  that  it  is  actually  and  rapidly  coming  ;  and 
that  even   extreme  individualists  admit  this. 
Mr.  Sidney  Webb,  in  his  Social- 
ism  in   England,    describes    the 
individualistic  city  councilor,  who     Socialism 
will  spend  a  day  among  socialistic     Utopian  1 
institutions,  and  not  knowing  that 
these  are  socialism,  will  say,  "  So- 
cialism, sir  !     Don't  talk  to  a  practical   man 
about  your  fantastic  absurdities." 
Mr.  Kidd  says  (Social  Evolution,  chap.  viii. : 

"  We  have  not  now  to  deal  with  mere  abstract  and 
transcendental  theories,  but  with  a  clearly  defined 
movement  in  practical  politics,  appealing  to  some  of 
the  deepest  instincts  of  a  large  proportion  of  the  vot- 
ing population,  and  professing  to  provide  a  program 
likely  in  the  future  to  stand  more  and  more  on  its 
own  merits  in  opposition  to  all  other  programs  what- 
ever." 

It  is  true  that  Mr.  Kidd  does  not  admit  that 
complete  socialism  is  coming.  He  argues 
that  we  shall  have  State  control  of  monopo- 
lies, but  a  control  only  to  prevent  monop- 
oly, not  the  formation  of  State  monopolies. 
So  argue  many  economists.  But  to  this  it 
must  be  replied,  in  the  first  place,  that  Mr. 
Kidd  argues  this,  simply  on  account  of  the  sup- 
posed necessity  of  individual  competition  to 
progress,  which  biological  argument  we  con- 
sider later,  and  secondly,  all  facts  to-day  point 
to  the  steady  growth,  not  only  of  State  con- 
trol, but  of  State  ownership.  The  blue  books, 
of  the  world  can  be  ransacked,  and  scarcely 
an  instance  can  be  found  of  an  activity  once 
assumed  by  the  State  reverting  to  private 
hands,  while  the  evidences  of  expanding 
activity  of  ownership  as  well  as  of  con- 
trol are  on  every  hand. 

A  second  objection  is  akin  to  the  first.  It  is 
that  socialism  would  never  work  because  men 
are  too  selfish  and  ignorant  to  carry  on  the 
vast  cooperative  State  that  it  would  require. 

This  is  to  many  the  supreme  objection 
against  socialism.  Knowing  the  ability  it 
takes  to  organize  and  carry  on  even  an  ordi- 
nary business,  their  experience  with  trade- 
unions  and  other  organizations  of  the  so-called 
working  classes  has  not  convinced  them  that 
the  masses  are  able  to  conduct  the  enormous 
interests  that  socialism  would  place  in  their 
hands;  while  their  knowledge  of  government, 
under  the  corrupting  power  of  appointments, 
does  not  incline  them  to  turn  over  to  govern- 
ment all  the  offices  that  would  have  to  be  filled 
under  a  system  of  nationalized  railroads,  to 
speak  of  nothing  more. 

But  let  us  look  at  facts.  Has  not  coopera- 
tion succeeded,  as  a  matter  of  fact,  almost 
marvelously  ?  Have  not  English,  American, 
German,  and  French  working  men  proved 
themselves  capable  of  cooperation,  even  on  a 
very  large  scale  ? 

The  cooperative  societies  of  England,  with 
their  millions  of  pounds  of  capital,  their  mil- 
lion and  more  of  members,  their  wholesale 
and  retail  stores;  the  thousands  of  cooperative 
banks  and  other  forms  of  cooperation  in  Ger- 
many and  France;  the  cooperative  transac- 
tions of  the  United  States,  estimated  by  Pro- 
fessor Ely  at  millions  of  dollars  annually, 
show  what  can  be  done. 

Nor  against  the  great  success  of  cooperation. 


Socialism. 


1273 


Socialism. 


must  one  count  too  heavily  the  admitted  fail- 
ures.    Cooperative  experiments  to-day  have  to 
battle  against  the   competition   of  enormous 
combinations  of  wealthy  private  firms,  able  to 
carry  on  business  for  a  year  at  a  loss,  in  order 
to  run  out  the  cooperative  ventures.     Under 
the  circumstances,  the  wonder  is  not  that  co- 
operation  sometimes  fails,  but    that  it  ever 
succeeds.     Its  success  only  shows  what  the 
masses  can  do  against  great  odds;  odds,  in- 
deed, so  great  that  many  believe  the  future 
cannot  be  fought  out  on  private  lines.     In  a 
cooperative  commonwealth  where   the  com- 
munity carried  on  all  industry,  it  would  have 
no  such  organized  foe  to  meet.     And  it  must 
not  be  supposed  that  industry  would  be  taken 
over  by  the  States  en  bloc.     Socialists  are  evo- 
lutionists.    Industry  is  to-day  being  concen- 
trated.    Its  practical  details   are 
Socialism     not  managed  by  owners,  but  by 
Impractic-    salaried  overseers  and  managers. 
a^je7         In  being   socialized  an  industry 
could  still  be  managed  in  exactly 
the  same  way,  and  perhaps  usually 
by  the  same  men,  only  by  these  men  working 
for   the  public,  not    for  a  few  stockholders. 
There    would    be    no    upheaval,    and    small 
change. 

As  to  the  corruption  of  government,  we  are 
not  to  think,  in  the  first  place,  of  a  vast  cen- 
tralized machine.  We  are  to  remember  that 
socialism  is  essentially  democratic,  with  great 
emphasis  on  local  self-government.  There 
would  be  less  of  the  central  appointing  power 
than  there  is  to-day.  The  safety  of  the  town- 
meeting  system  in  the  United  States  is  that 
every  man  knows  personally  the  man  he  votes 
for,  and  so  the  right  men  are  elected;  which 
principle  would  be  carried  out  under  social- 
ism, only  still  further.  But  what  are  the 
causes  of  the  corruption  of  government,  as  in 
the  United  States?  First,  the  fact  that  for 
generations  Americans  have  despised  govern- 
ment, and  let  it  play  a  small  and  a  low  part  in 
their  life.  This  has  had  its  natural  result. 
Smart,  pushing  men  have  been  able  to  make 
more  money  elsewhere;  therefore  they  have 
not  taken  office;  good  men  have,  as  a  rule, 
left  politics  alone.  Is  it  any  wonder  that  such 
politics  have  become  corrupt  ?  Men  have  left 
government  to  the  saloon-keeper,  and  now 
blame  government  because  they  have  pot- 
house politics.  This  is  the  first  reason.  The 
second  reason  is  that  business  having  been 
amassed  in  a  few  hands,  and  these  few  having 
found  that  special  legislation  can  be  had  by 
directly  or  indirectly  bribing  the  low  politi- 
cians we  have  put  in  power,  the  average  cor- 
poration has  become  politically  a  corrupting 
power.  We  do  not  need  to  prove  these  points. 
They  are  admitted  by  every  thinker.  It  is  to 
this  corruptive  power  of  amassed  wealth, 
playing  upon  the  venality  and  sometimes  the 
necessities  of  those  who  have  made  politics  a 
profession,  that  is  due  the  scandalous  corrup- 
tion of  government.  Socialism  would  remove 
both  causes.  As  long  as  there  are  masses  of 
poor  people  on  the  one  side,  and  a  few  cor- 
porations enormously  wealthy  on  the  other, 
there  will  be  corruption,  and  no  amount  of 
indignant  "  citizens'  movements"  can  perma- 


nently prevent  it.  As  long  as  corporations- 
pay  managers  and  attorneys  several  times  the 
salaries  that  the  State  pays,  the  smartest 
men  will  be  in  the  service  of  the  corporations, 
inside  or  outside  of  government.  The  way  ta 
pure  government  is  not  first  to  purify  the 
State  and  then  increase  its  activities.  This  is 
chimerical.  But  first  to  increase  its  activities, 
to  make  it  important,  to  enable  it  to  pay  large 
salaries  and  to  carry  out  large  ideas,  and  then 
it  will  become  pure;  men  will  be  attracted  to 
it  who  cannot  be  bought.  Just  so  long  as  we 
despise  the  State  will  it  be  despicable;  when 
we  begin  to  magnify  it  and  exalt  it  over  the 
corporations,  will  it  begin  to  be  pure  and  mag- 
nificent. We  base  this  statement  not  upon 
theory  but  upon  facts. 

Birmingham  was  once  the  most  corrupt 
municipality  in  England.  Squalor  and  over- 
crowding were  universal.  The  death  rate  was 
enormous.  Vice  and  crime  flourished.  Saloon- 
keepers were  the  only  contented  people.  A 
tavern  coterie  ruled  the  city.  But  in  1871  Mr. 
Chamberlain  came  forward  with  a  program 
of  municipal  activity.  He  was  elected,  a  loan 
of  ;£i, 600,000  was  obtained,  and  to-day  Bir- 
mingham is  perhaps  what  it  was  recently 
called  by  Julian  Ralph  in  Harper's  Maga- 
zine, "  the  best  governed  city  in  the  world," 
"a  business  city,  run  by  business  men  on 
business  principles." 

In  other  cities  of  England  and  Scotland,  in 
Germany  and  France,  cities  are  pure  just 
about  in  proportion  that  their  functions  are 
magnified.  (For  further  proof  of  this,  see 
MUNICIPALISM.) 

It  is,  of  course,  not  claimed  that  socialism- 
would  be  absolutely  pure.  It  is  only  claimed 
that  there  would  be  far  less  corruption  than 
to-day.  Even  now,  though  politics  are  cor- 
rupt, they  are  often  far  less  corrupt  than  pri- 
vate corporations.  If  the  United  States 
post-office  department  is  not  pure,  it  is  at 
least  vastly  more  pure  than  most  private 
monopolies. 

A  third  objection  to  socialism  is  the    as- 
serted  cost  and  inefficiency  of  all  work  un- 
dertaken by    governments.     The 
answer  to  this  is  the  denial  of  the 
fact  as  applied  to  modern  demo-  Government 
cratic  governments  that  undertake  Inefficiency, 
socialist    measures.    Ancient  cor- 
rupt monarchies,  or  modern  de- 
mocracies that  are  made  the  cat's-paw  of  great 
corporations,   may  be  rotten  with  jobs,  and 
governments  do  not  immediately  grow  pure 
in  a  day,  but  an  ever  increasing  amount  of 
evidence  is  accumulating  to  show  that  gov- 
ernment work  conducted  on  socialist  lines  is 
both  cheap  and  good.     (See  CONTRACT  LABOR  ; 
MUNICIPALISM;  ELECTRIC  LIGHTING;  GAS;  RAIL- 
ROADS ;     STREET-CARS  ;     TELEGRAPHS  :     TELE- 
PHONES;     BERLIN;      BIRMINGHAM;      GLASGOW; 
LONDON;  PARIS.)    It  must  be  remembered  that 
in  two  directions  government  activities  decline 
to  compete  with  private  activities.     Govern- 
ments, in  the  first  place,  decline  to  pay  the 
low  wages  for  long  hours  that  many  corpora- 
tions pay. 

Secondly,  private  corporations  do  only  what 
pays;  governments  do  what  does  not  pay.  A 


Socialism. 


1274 


Socialism. 


private  mail  might  carry  letters  in  large  quan- 
tities between  large  cities  more  cheaply  than 
the  government,  but  the  government  carries 
letters  to  small  villages  where  it  does  not  pay- 
as  cheaply  as  to  large  cities  where  it  does.  A 
comparison  between  the  cost  and  accommoda- 
tions in  small  villages  of  the  telegraph  in  the 
United  States  under  private  management  and 
those  of  the  post-office  under  public  ownership 
is  a  case  in  point.  The  public  ownership  of 
monopolies  is  everywhere  winning  its  way  in 
the  world  on  its  merits,  cheapness,  and 
efficiency,  even  among  many  who  care  noth- 
ing for  socialism.  Governments  undoubtedly 
still  do  stupid  and  foolish  things  for  individ- 
vialists  to  pick  flaws  with,  but  Mr.  Spencer's 
classic  catalogue  of  the  sins  of  legisla- 
tors are  mainly  out  of  date  and  easily  over- 
matched by  the  frauds  of  private  companies. 
A  somewhat  more  plausible  objection  is 
that  socialism  would  mean  the 
subjection  of  the  individual  to 
Socialism  the  will  of  the  majority,  who 
Slavery,  would  be  the  mediocre.  But  to 
this  it  must  be  answered,  first, 
that  socialism  is  not  State  social- 
ism (see  above),  except  wheTe  the  State  is 
democratic,  a  cooperative  commonwealth,  so 
that  the  submission  of  the  individual  is  only 
that  of  a  cooperator  to  the  decision  of  a  majority 
of  a  body  of  cooperators  in  which  he  has  a 
voice.  Secondly,  it  must  be  remembered 
that  freedom  (g.  v.)  can  never  be  more  than 
relative.  Absolute  freedom  is  a  myth.  The 
only  question  is  under  what  form  of  society  the 
individual  would  be  most  free.  How  much 
freedom  the  average  individual  has  under  in- 
dividualism we  have  seen  above  in  Mill's 
declaration  that  "  the  restraints  of  communism 
would  be  freedom  in  comparison  with  the 
present  condition  of  the  majority  of  the  human 
race."  Socialists  do  not  deny  the  fact  that 
under  socialism  there  would  be  some  neces- 
sary and  some  unnecessary  subjection  of  the 
individual  to  the  will  of  the  many,  and  that 
this  power  would  not  always  be  wisely  used. 
They  assert,  however,  that  there  would  not  be 
so  much  compulsion  as  many  think,  and  still 
more  assert  that  there  would  be  far  less 
-compulsion  of  the  individual  than  there  is  to- 
day. They  believe  that  the  community  has 
the  right  to  rule  the  individual  for  the  good 
of  all;  they  also  believe  that  it  is  for  the  good 
of  all  that  there  be  no  more  compulsion  than 
necessary.  They,  however,  base  their  views 
not  on  any  theory  of  natural  rights,  but  on  frank 
reasoning  from  experience  and  expediency. 
Says  Mr.  Blatchford  (Merrie  England, 
chap,  xix.)  : 

"  You  will  ask  me  how  a  socialist  State  would  ap- 
portion the  work.  I  ask  you  how  the  work  is  appor- 
tioned now. 

"You  have  a  son,  say  a  lad  of  14,  and  wish  to  put 
him  to  a  trade.  You  ask  him  his  choice.  He  says  he 
would  like  to  be  a  cabinet-maker.  You  apply  at  the 
shops  in  your  own  town  and  you  find  that  trade  is 
bad,  or  that  the  allowed  number  of  apprentices  is 
made  up.  So  you  get  the  boy  work  as  an  engineer 
or  a  painter. 

_  "That  is  to  say,  your  boy  can  choose  his  trade  sub- 
ject to  the  demand  for  labor  of  certain  kinds.  If  all 
boys  wanted  to  be  engineers,  they  could  not  all  get 
-work  at  that  trade. 

"These  conditions    would    exist   under    socialism. 


The  State  or  the  municipality  would  need  a  certain 
number  of  plumbers  and  a  certain  number  of  painters. 
If  more  boys  asked  to  be  painters  than  the  State 
needed  to  do  its  painting,  some  of  those  boys  would 
have  to  take  other  work.  Where  does  the  slavery 
come  in?"  .  .  . 

And  it  must  be  remembered  that  under  so- 
cialism, where  all  worked  cooperatively  with 
abundant  capital,  the  material  work  of  the 
world  could  be  done  by  each  working  a  very 
few  hours  per  day.  All  the  rest  of  the  day 
they  would  be  free. 

Simply  to  live,  painters  paint  pot-boilers, 
dramatists  write  dramas  to  fill  the  house,  un- 
dertakers smirk  and  bow  and  scrape,  reporters 
report  "  to  suit,"  clergymen  preach  sermons 
that  will  "  draw."  Socialism,  in  a  word, 
would  mean  independence  compared  with  the 
present. 

Professor  Huxley  has  well  ridiculed  Mr. 
Spencer's  conception  of  society,  where  every 
man  is  for  himself,  and  no  man  has  to  do  with 
his  neighbors,  except  to  prevent  their  inter- 
ference with  himself.  He  says: 

"  Suppose  that,  in  accordance  with  his  view,  each 
muscle  were  to  maintain  that  the  nervous  system  had 
no  right  to  interfere  with  its  contraction,  except  to 
prevent  it  from  hindering  the  contraction  of  another 
muscle ;  or  each  gland  that  it  had  a  right  to  secrete, 
so  long  as  its  secretion  interfered  with  no  other  ;  sup- 
pose every  separate  cell  left  free  to  follow  its  own  '  in- 
terests,' and  faissez  faire.  Lord  of  all,  what  would  be- 
come of  the  body  physiological?"  (Administrative 
Nihilism.) 

The  objection  to  socialism  most  raised  by 
scientific  men  is  that,  by  checking  competition, 
it  would  inevitably  produce  deterioration  of 
the  race.  (See  INDIVIDUALISM.) 

The  answer  is  the  denial,  in  the  first  place, 
that  socialism  would  prevent  all  competition. 
Every  man  would  have  to  work.  "He  that 
will  not  work,  neither  shall  he  eat,"  is  written 
over  every  socialist  portal.  Those  who  worked 
the  most  effectively  for  the  community  would 
infallibly  secure  the  greatest  honor.  Socialism 
would  thus  not  do  away  with  all  competition. 
Civilization  has  largely  done  away  with  phys- 
ical competition;  do  any  advocate  returning  to 
it?  Socialists  would  simply  do  away  with  indus- 
trial competition  and  replace  it  by  a  competi- 
tion for  honor.  Says  Mrs.  Besant  (in  the 
Fabian  Essays): 

"The  desire  to  excel,  the  joy  in  creative  work,  the 
longing  to  improve,  the  eagerness  to  win  social  ap- 
proval, the  instinct  of  benevolence— all  these  will  start 
into  full  life,  and  will  serve  at  once  as  the  stimulus  to 
labor  and  the  reward  of  excellence.    It 
is  instructive  to  notice  that  these  very 
forces  may  already  be  seen  at  work  in    T<rmila.tion 
every  case  in  which  subsistence  is  se-   •*•«"»••»«• 
cured,  and  they  alone  supply  the  stimu- 
lus to  action.    The  soldier's  subsistence 
is  certain,  and  does  not  depend  on  his  exertions.    At 
once  he  becomes  susceptible  to  appeals  to  his  patriot- 
ism, to  his  esprit  de  corps,  to  the  honor  of  his  flag;  he 
will  dare  anything  for  glory,  and  value  a  bit  of  bronze, 
which  is  the  'reward  of  valor,'  far  more  than  a  hun- 
dred times  its  weight  in  gold.    Yet  many  of  the  pri- 
vate soldiers  come  from  the  worst  of  the  population; 
and  military  glory  and  success  in  murder  are  but  poor 
objects  to  aim  at.     If  so  much  can  be  done  under  cir- 
cumstances so  unpromising,  what  may  we  not  hope 
from  nobler  aspirations?    Or  take  the  eagerness,  self- 
denial,  and  strenuous  effort  thrown  by  young  men 
into  their  mere  games !    The  desire  to  be  captain  of 
the  Oxford  eleven,  stroke  of  the  Cambridge  boat,  vic- 
tor in  the  foot-race  or  the  leaping— in  a  word,  the  de- 
sire to  excel — is  strong  enough  to  impel  to  exertions 
which  often  ruin  physical  health.     Everywhere  we  see 
the  multiform  desires  of  humanity  assert  themselves 


Socialism. 


1275 


Socialist  Labor  Party. 


when  once  livelihood  is  secure.  It  is  on  the  devotion 
of  these  to  tha  service  of  society,  as  the  development 
of  the  social  instincts  teaches  men  to  identify  their  in- 
terests with  those  of  the  community,  that  socialism 
must  ultimately  rely  for  progress;  but  in  saying  this 
we  are  only  saying  that  socialism  relies  for  progress 
•on  human  natuVe  as  a  whole,  instead  of  on  that  mere 
fragment  of  it  known  as  the  desire  for  gain." 

Nor  do  socialists  ^.dmit  that  science  to-day 
declares  the  struggle  for  existence  the  only 
means  of  progress.  Such  was  the  dictum  of 
the  science  of  yesterday,  but  not  of  to-day. 
Says  Professor  Giddings  (The  Principles  of 
Sociology} : 

"  From  the  moment  that  conscious  association  be- 
gan it  was  a  continuous  agency  among  the  factors  of 
evolution." 

He  quotes  M.  Krapotkine  as  saying: 

"  Life  in  societies  is  the  most  powerful  weapon  in 
the  struggle  for  life,  taken  in  its  widest  sense.  .  .  . 
Life  in  societies  enables  the  feeblest  insects,  the 
feeblest  birds,  and  the  feeblest  mammals  to  resist,  or 
to  protect  themselves  from  the  most  terrible  birds 
and  beasts  of  prey;  it  permits  longevity;  it  enables  the 
species  to  rear  its  progeny  with  the  least  waste  of  en- 
ergy, and  to  maintain  its  numbers.  Albeit  a  very 
slow  birth  rate." 

Few  socialists  deny  the  truth  of  Malthusi- 
anism,  as  held  to-day,  that,  in  any  given  state 
of  industry  and  the  arts,  population  tends  to 
increase  faster  than  it  is  possible  to  raise  the 
general  plane  of  living,  but  they  argue  that 
this  would  be  solved  in  part  by  the  necessity 
to  raise  the  state  of  industry  and  art,  and  still 
more  by  due  checks  upon  population.  Says 
John  Stuart  Mill  (Political  Economy,  bk.  ii. 
chap,  i.): 

"Another  of  the  objections  to  communism  is  similar 
to  that  so  often  urged  against  poor-laws  :  that  if  every 
member  of  the  community  were  assured  of  subsist- 
ence for  himself  and  any  number  of  children,  on  the 
sole  condition  of  willingness  to  work,  prudential  re- 
straint on  the  multiplication  of  mankind  would  be  at 
an  end,  and  population  would  start  forward  at  a  rate 
which  would  reduce  the  community  through  succes- 
sive stages  of  increasing  discomfort  to  actual  starva- 
tion. There  would  certainly  be  much  ground  for 
this  apprehension  if  communism  provided  no  motives 
to  restraint  equivalent  to  those  which  it  would  take 
away.  But  communism  is  precisely  the  state  of 
things  in  which  opinion  might  be  expected  to  declare 
itself  with  greatest  intensity  against  this  kind  of  self- 
ish intemperance.  Any  augmentation  of  numbers 
which  diminished  the  comfort  or  increased  the  toil  of 
the  mass  would  then  cause  (which  now  it  does  not) 
immediate  and  unmistakable  inconvenience  to  every 
individual  in  the  association  ;  inconvenience  which 
could  not  then  be  imputed  to  the  avarice  of  em- 
ployers or  the  unjust  privileges  of  the  rich.  In  such 
altered  circumstances  opinion  could  not  fail  to  repro- 
bate, and  if  reprobation  did  not  suffice,  to  repress  by 
penalties  of  some  description,  this  or  any  other  culpa- 
ble self-indulgence  at  the  expense  of  the  community. 
The  communistic  scheme,  instead  of  being  peculiarly 
.open  to  the  objection  drawn  from  danger  of  over- 
population, has  the  recommendation  of  tending  in  an 
especial  degree  to  the  prevention  of  that  evil." 

The  last  objection  we  consider  is  tha\  the 
socialist  movement  forgets  or  ignores  per- 
sonal character.  This  is  the  charge  continu- 
ally, tho  largely  indirectly,  made  in  Aspects  of 
.the  Social  Problem,  edited  by  Bernard  Bosan- 
quet  (1895).  Mr.  Sidney  Ball,  reviewing  the 
book  in  the  International  Journal  of  Ethics 
(April,  1896),  under  the  caption,  The  Moral 
Aspects  of  Socialism,  well  answers  the  charge 
and  says  : 

"  At  first  sight  it  seems  true  that  character  has  not 
besn  put  in  the  foreground  of  socialist  discussion  ;  its 
•emphasis  appears  to  be  laid  almost  exclusively  on 


machinery,  on  a  reconstr  action  of  the  material  condi- 
tions and  organization  of  life.  But  machinery  is  a 
means  to  an  end,  as  much  to  a  socialist  as  to  any  one 
else  ;  and  the  end,  at  any  rate  as  conceived  by  the 
socialist,  is  the  development  of  human  nature  in 
scope,  powers  of  life  and  enjoyment.  .  .  .  The  forces 
required  to  work  collectivist  machinery  are  nothing 
if  not  moral  ;  and  so  we  also  hear  the  complaint 
that  socialists  are  too  ideal,  that  they  make  too 
great  a  demand  upon  human  nature  and  upon  the 
social  will  and  imagination.  Of  the  two  complaints 
this  is  certainly  the  most  pertinent.  A  conception, 
however,  which  is  liable  to  be  dismissed,  now  as  mere 
mechanism,  now- as  mere  morality,  may  possibly  be 
working  toward  a  higher  synthesis.  ...  If  institu- 
tions depend  on  character,  character  depends  on 
institutions  ;  it  is  upon  their  necessary  interaction  that 
the  Socialist  insists." 

(For  contrary  views,  see  INDIVIDUALISM  ; 
ANARCHISM  ;  SINGLE  TAX,  etc.) 

References  :  General  :  Fabian  Essays  on  Socialism 
(London,  1850);  W.  D.  P.  Bliss'  Handbook  of  Socialism. 
(1855) ;  R.  T.  Ely's  Socialism  and  Social  Reform  (1894)  ; 
Thomas  Kirkup's  An  Inquiry  into  Socialism  (1887) ; 
A.  Schaeffle's  Quintessence  of  Socialism  (Tr.  1889); 
Historical:  Ed.Laveleye's  Socialism  of  To-day  (1884) ; 
J.  Rae's  Contemporary  Socialism  (Revised  edition, 
1891) ;  W.  H.  Dawson's  German  Socialism  and  Ferdi- 
nand Lassalle  (18881,  and  Bismarck  and  State  Social- 
ism (i8qo);  Sidney  Webb's  Socialism  in \  England  (1885); 
R.  T.  Ely's  Labor  Movement  in  America  (1886);  Early 
Socialist  Utopias  of  More,  Bacon,  etc.;  Karl  Marx's 
Capital  (Tr.  1889) ;  J.  S.  Mill,  Essays  on  Socialism 
(collected  in  book  form,  1801) ;  Laurence  Grondlund's 
Cooperative  Commonwealth  (1886)  ;  Edward  Bellamy's 
Looking  Backward  (1887);  William  Morris'  News  from 
Nowhere  (1892) ;  Robert  Blatchford's  Merrie  Eng- 
land (1894). 

(See  also  CHRISTIAN  SOCIALISM  ;  OWEN  ; 
SAINT-SIMON  ;  FOURIER  ;  and  other  socialist 
authors. ) 

SOCIALIST  LABOR   PARTY,  THE  (of 

the  United  States). — The  great  socialist  move- 
ment of  France,  Germany,  Belgium,  and  other 
European  countries  naturally  exerts  a  marked 
influence  upon  the  movement  in  America. 
Socialism  is  as  international  as  the  capitalist 
system  of  production.  It  found  an  early  ex- 
pression in  the  International  (q.  v.)  which 
from  1867  to  1869  attained  considerable 
strength  in  the  United  States. 

As  the  capitalist  system  of  production  had 
not  reached  its  culmination  of  development,  so 
the  socialist  movement  waited  upon  the  gigan- 
tic strides  of  modern  productive  forces.  So 
indistinct  were  the  ideas  of  some  of  its  early 
adherents  that  socialist  and  anarchist  were 
classed  together,  altho  holding  opposite  views 
of  the  functions  of  government.  (See  AN- 
ARCHISM.) 

In  the  November  election  of  1877,  however,  a 
Social  Democratic  Workingmen's  Party  or- 
ganized in  July,  1876,  cast  1365  votes  in  the 
city  of  New  York.  Immediately  after  this 
election,  the  name  Socialist  Labor  Party  was 
adopted,  but  its  political  action  was  intermit- 
tent. In  the  campaign  of  1886  the  socialists, 
working  with  other  professed  labor  forces,  sup- 
ported Henry  George  for  Mayor  of  New  York. 
They  did  not,  however,  adopt  the  Single-Tax 
theory,  and  soon  after  this  election  the  breach 
between  socialists  and  Single  Taxers  became 
permanent.  Anarchists  were  also  eliminated, 
and  the  party,  thenceforth  refusing  all  alli- 
ances, acted  only  under  its  present  distinctive 
name  and  principles,  which,  as  presented  in 
its  platform,  are  in  unity  with  the  whole  inter- 
national political  socialist  movement. 


Socialist  Labor  Party. 


1276 


Socialist  Labor  Party. 


The  growth  of  the  party  is  best  shown  by  its 
vote  cast  in  the  United  States  from  the  year 
1888  : 

Total  vote,  1888  (Presidential) 2,068 

Total  vote,  1892  (Presidential) 21,157 

Total  vote,  i8g6  (Presidential) 36,503 

During  this  time  the  party  has  clearly  de- 
fined the  difference  between  mere  labor  poli- 
tics and  socialist  politics,  between  the  Old 
Trades'  Unionism,  whose  motto  is  "  no  poli- 
tics in  unions,"  and  the  New  Trades'  Union- 
ism, which  is  avowedly  in  sympathy  with  the 
Socialist  Labor  Party. 

The  Socialist  Labor  Party  insists  that  the 
old  methods  must  give  place  to  active  work  in 
the  political  field,  if  organized  labor  is  to  gain 
any  permanent  improvement  in  its  condition. 
To  this  end  the  Socialist  Trade  and  Labor 
Alliance  has  been  organized  as  a  national 
body,  composed  of  delegates  from  unions 
whose  active  support  is  given  to  the  Socialist 
Labor  Party. 

The  Socialist  Labor  Party  recognizes  two  ex- 
isting classes  in  every  country — the  exploiters 
and  the  exploited.  They  hold  that  no  party 
controlled  by  either  great  or  small  capitalists 
can  or  will  abolish  this  condition,  and  that  only 
a  party  wholly  in  the  interest  of  the  exploited 
class  will  aid  in  overthrowing  the  capitalist 
system  and  substituting  the  cooperative  com- 
monwealth. 

Its  main  German  organs  are  the  Vorwarts 
(weekly)  and  JVew  Yorker  Volkzeitung 
(daily),  and  its  main  English  organ  The 
People,  all  published  at  184  William  Street, 
New  York.  H.  B.  SALISBURY. 

The  platform,  adopted  in  New  York,  July  9, 
1896,  is  as  follows  : 

"  The  Socialist  Labor  Party  of  the  United  States,  in 
convention  assembled,  reasserts  the  inalienable  right 
of  all  men  to  life,  liberty,  and  the  pursuit  of  happiness. 

"  With  the  founders  of  the  American  Republic,  we 
hold  that  the  purpose  of  government  is  to  secure 
every  citizen  in  the  enjoyment  of  this  right;  but  in  the 
light  of  our  social  conditions,  we  hold,  furthermore, 
that  no  such  right  can  be  exercised  under  a  system  of 
economic  inequality,  essentially  destructive  of  life,  of 
liberty,  and  of  happiness. 

"With  the  founders  of  this  Republic  we  hold  that 
the  true  theory  of  politics  is  that  the  machinery  of 
government  must  be  owned  and  controlled  by  the 
whole  people;  but  in  the  light  of  our  industrial  devel- 
opment we  hold,  furthermore,  that  the  true  theory  of 
economics  is  that  the  machinery  of  production  must 
likewise  belong  to  the  people  in  common. 

"To  the  obvious  fact  that  our  despotic  system  of 
economics  is  the  direct  opposite  of  our  democratic 
system  of  politics  can  plainly  be' traced  the  existence 
of  a  privileged  class,  the  corruption  of  government 
by  that  class,  the  alienation  of  public  property,  public 
franchises,  and  public  functions  to  that  class,  and  the 
abject  dependence  of  the  mightiest  of  nations  upon 
that  class. 

"  Again,  through  the  perversion  of  democracy  to  the 
ends  of  plutocracy,  labor  is  robbed  of  the  wealth  which 
it  alone  produces,  is  denied  the  means  of  self -employ- 
ment, and,  by  compulsory  idleness  in  wage  slavery,  is 
even  deprived  of  the  necessaries  of  life. 

"  Human  power  and  natural  forces  are  thus  wasted, 
that  the  plutocracy  may  rule. 

"Ignorance  and  misery,  with  all  their  concomitant 
evils,  are  perpetuated,  that  the  people  may  be  kept  in 
bondage. 

"Science  and  invention  are  diverted  from  their 
humane  purpose  to  the  enslavement  of  women  and 
children. 

"Against  such  a  system  the  Socialist  Labor  Party 
once  more  enters  its  protest.  Once  more  it  reiterates 
its  fundamental  declaration  that  private  property  in 


the  natural  sources  of  production  and  in  the  instru- 
ments of  labor  is  the  obvious  cause  of  all  economic 
servitude  and  political  dependence. 

"  The  time  is  fast  coming  when,  in  the  natural  course 
of  social  evolution,  this  system,  through  the  destruc- 
tive action  of  its  failures  and  crises  on  the  one  hand, 
and  the  constructive  tendencies  of  its  trusts  and  other 
capitalistic  combinations  on  the  other  hand,  shall  have 
worked  out  its  own  downfall. 

"We.  therefore,  call  upon  the  wage-workers  of  the 
United  States,  and  upon  all  other  honest  citizens,  to 
organize  under  the  banner  of  the  Socialist  Labor 
Party  into  a  class-conscious  body,  aware  of  its  rights 
and  determined  to  conquer  them  by  taking  possession 
of  the  public  powers;  so  that,  held  together  by  an  in- 
domitable spirit  of  solidarity  under  the  most  trying 
conditions  of  the  present  class  struggle,  we  may  put  a 
summary  end  to  that  barbarous  struggle  by  the  aboli- 
tion of  classes,  the  restoration  of  the  land  and  of  all 
the  means  of  production,  transportation,  and  distribu- 
tion to  the  people  as  a  collective  body,  and  the  substi- 
tution of  the  Cooperative  Commonwealth  for  the 
present  state  of  planless  production,  industrial  war, 
and  social  disorder;  a  commonwealth  in  which  every 
worker  shall  have  the  free  exercise  and  full  benefit  of 
his  faculties,  multiplied  by  all  the  modern  factors  of 
civilization. 

"  With  a  view  to  immediate  improvement  in  the 
condition  of  labor  we  present  the  following  demands: 

"  i.  Reduction  of  the  hours  of  la- 
bor in  proportion  to  the  progress  of 
production.  •-.  •, 

"  2.  The  United  States  to  obtain  pos-     -Demands. 
session  of  the  mines,  railroads,  canals, 
telegraphs,  telephones,   and    all    other 
means  of  public  transportation  and  communication; 
the    employees   to    operate  the    same    cooperatively 
under  control  of  the  Federal  Government,  and  to  elect 
their  own  superior  officers  ;  but  no  employee  shall  be 
discharged  for  political  reasons. 

"  3.  The  municipalities  to  obtain  possession  of  the 
local  railroads,  ferries,  waterworks,  gasworks,  elec- 
tric plants,  and  all  industries  requiring  municipal 
franchises;  the  employees  to  operate  the  same  coop- 
eratively under  control  of  the  municipal  administra- 
tion, and  to  elect  their  own  superior  officers;  but  no 
employee  shall  be  discharged  for  political  reasons. 

"4.  The  public  lands  to  be  declared  inalienable. 
Revocation  of  all  land  grants  to  corporations  or  indi- 
viduals, the  conditions  of  which  have  not  been  com- 
plied with. 

''5.  The  United  States  to  have  the  exclusive  right  to 
issue  money. 

"6.  Congressional  legislation  providing  for  the  sci- 
entific management  of  forests  and  waterways,  and 
prohibiting  the  waste  of  the  natural  resources  of  the 
country. 

"7.  Inventions  to  be  free  to  all;  the  inventors  to  be 
remunerated  by  the  nation. 

"8.  Progressive  income  tax  and  tax  on  inheritances; 
the  smaller  incomes  to  be  exempt. 

"9.  School  education  of  all  children  under  i^  years 
of  age  to  be  compulsory,  gratuitous,  and  accessible  to 
all  by  public  assistance  in  meals,  clothing,  books,  etc., 
where  necessary. 

"10.  Repeal  of  all  pauper,  tramp,  conspiracy,  and 
sumptuary  laws.  Unabridged  right  of  combination. 

"n.  Prohibition  of  the  employment  of  children  of 
school  age  and  the  employment  of  female  labor  in  oc- 
cupations detrimental  to  health  or  morality.  Aboli- 
tion of  the  convict  labor  contract  system. 

"  12.  Employment  of  the  unemployed  by  the  public 
authorities  (county,  city,  State,  and  nation). 

"13.  All  wages  to  be  paid  in  lawful  money  of  the 
United  States.  Equalization  of  women's  wages  with 
the 


occupa 

and  to  vote  upon  all  measures  of  importance,  accord- 
ing to  the  referendum  principle. 

"  16.  Abolition  of  the  veto  power  of  the  Executive 
(national,  State,  and  municipal),  wherever  it  exists. 

"  17.  Abplitipn  of  the  United  States  Senate  and  all 
upper  legislative  assemblies. 

"  18.  Municipal  self-government. 

"  ig.  Direct  vote  and  secret  ballots  in  all  elections. 
Universal  and  equal  right  of  suffrage  without  regard 
to  color,  creed,  or  sex.  Election  days  to  be  legal 
holidays.  The  principle  of  proportional  representa- 
tion to  be  introduced. 

"20.  All  public  officers  to  be  subject  to  recall  by  their 
respective  constituencies. 


Socialists  of  the  Chair. 


1277 


Sociology. 


"  21.  Uniform  civil  and  criminal  law  throughout  the 
United  States.  Administration  of  justice  to  be  free  of 
charge.  Abolition  of  capital  punishment." 

SOCIALISTS  OF  THE  CHAIR.— In  1871, 
in  Germany,  Herr  Offenheim,  in  the  National 
Zeitung,  dubbed  those  professors  of  political 
economy  who  incline  toward  certain  socialistic 
views,  Katheder  Sozialister  (Academic  Social- 
ists or  Socialists  of  the  Chair).  The  term  was 
taken  up  and  accepted  by  Professor  Schmoller 
(q.  v.}  in  his  opening  address  at  a  gathering 
at  Eisenach  in  1872,  of  those  who  sympathize 
with  the  view,  and  it  led  to  somewhat  of  a 
movement  in  Germany,  and  the  formation  in 
1873  of  the  Verein  fur  Sozial-Politik  (Social 
Economic  Club),  an  organization  to  represent 
their  views,  holding  meetings  almost  annually 
and  producing  considerable  literature.  The 
name  has  passed  into  other  countries,  and  in 
England  and  America  is  applied  to  profes- 
sors (and  they  are  not  a  few,  see  SOCIALISM) 
who  incline  to  certain  socialistic  propositions. 
Nevertheless  Socialists  of  the  Chair  are  not 
socialists.  In  Germany,  especially,  they  stand 
for  little  more  than  an  expansion  of  the  pater- 
nal State,  while  socialists  oppose  paternalism. 

Professor  Schmoller,  in  his  opening  address 
at  Eisenach,  said : 

"  The  marked  division  of  classes  in  the  midst  of  ex- 
isting society,  the  open  war  between  masters  and 
workmen,  between  owners  and  proletarians,  and  the 
danger,  still  distant  but  threatening  the  future,  of 
a  social  revolution,  have  for  some  years  caused  doubts 
to  arise  as  to  the  truth  and  definitive  triumph  of  the 
economic  doctrines  represented  by  the  congress  of 
economists;  and  on  all  sides  it  is  questioned  whether 
absolute  freedom  of  labor  and  the  complete  abolition 
of  the  antiquated  regulations  of  the  Middle  Ages  will 


old  optimism  of  the  Manchester  party  (Das  Manches- 
terthum)i  Schmoller  was  careful  to  show  that  he  did 
not  accept  the  conclusion  of  the  socialists.  "Tho  by 
no  means  satisfied,"  he  said,  "with  existing  social 
conditions,  and  convinced  of  the  necessity  of  reforms, 
we  preach  neither  the  upsetting  of  science  nor  the 
overthrow  of  the  existing  social  order,  and  we  protest 
against  all  socialistic  experiments.  All  the  great  ad- 
vances shown  in  history  have  been  the  results  of  the 
work  of  ages.  The  existing  economic  legislation,  the 
present  methods  of  production,  the  psychological  con- 
ditions of  the  different  classes  ought  to  be  the  basis  of 
our  reforming  energy.  We  demand  neither  the  aboli- 
tion of  industrial  freedom  nor  the  suppression  of  the 
wage  system  ;  but  we  do  not  wish,  out  of  respect  for 
abstract  principles,  to  allow  the  most  crying  abuses 
to  become  daily  worse,  and  to  permit  so-called  free- 
dom of  contract  to  end  in  the  actual  exploitation  of 
the  laborer.  We  do  not  desire  the  State  to  advance 
money  to  working  men  in  order  that  they  may  make 
experiments  on  systems  inevitably  destined  to  fail ; 
but  we  demand  that  it  should  concern  itself,  in  an 
altogether  new  spirit,  with  their  instruction  and  train- 
ing, and  should  see  that  labor  is  not  conducted  under 
conditions  which  must  have  for  their  inevitable  effect 
the  degregation  of  the  laborer." 

"  On  the  whole,"  says  the  Report  on  Ger- 
many of  the  (English)  Royal  Commission  on 
Labor,  "the  Academic  Socialists  represent 
the  moderate  party,  whether  in  politics  or  in 
social  science,  the  party  which,  while  recog- 
nizing the  value  of  State  intervention,  recog- 
nizes also  that  '  self-help  '  is  a  condition  of 
economic  progress,  and  to  these  two  princi- 
ples adds  a  third,  that  of  the  aid  of  society 
\Gesellschaftshtlfe}  or  'the  free  exercise  of 
the  beneficent  and  educating  influence  which 
belongs  to  the  cultivated  classes.'  " 


SOCIAL  PURITY  MOVEMENT  IN 
EUROPE  (THE).— (For  the  movement  in 
America,  see  AMERICAN  PURITY  ALLIANCE.) 
The  British,  Continental,  and  General  Federa- 
tion for  the  Abolition  of  State  Regulation  of 
Vice  is  the  representative  purity  organization 
of  Great  Britain  and  Continental  Europe.  It 
was  organized  at  an  international  congress 
held  in  Geneva,  Switzerland,  in  1877.  Its 
honorary  president  and  pioneer  founder  is 
Mrs.  Josephine  E.  Butler  of  England.  Its 
president  in  1897  is  the  Rev.  M.  Henri  Pierson 
of  Holland  ;  its  honorary  secretary  and  treas- 
urer is  Professor  James  Stuart,  M.  P.,  of 
London ;  its  secretary  at  its  international 
headquarters  in  Geneva,  Switzerland,  is  M. 
Henri  Minod.  Its  official  organ,  published  at 
Geneva,  is  The  Bulletin  Continental.  Its 
object  is  to  secure  the  abolition  of  State  regu- 
lated, legalized  vice,  and  to  promote  a  high, 
equal  standard  of  morals  for  both  men  and 
women.  It  has  auxiliary  associations,  or  com- 
mittees, in  Great  Britain,  France,  Switzer- 
land, Italy,  Belgium,  Holland,  Germany, 
Sweden,  Norway,  Denmark,  and  most  coun- 
tries of  Continental  Europe.  In  Great  Britain 
there  have  been  organized  the  following  asso- 
ciations, some  of  them  antedating  the  Inter- 
national Federation,  most  of  which  are  still  in 
existence :  The  National  Association,  The 
Ladies'  National  Association,  The  London 
Ladies'  Association,  The  City  of  London 
Committee,  The  Friends'  Association,  The 
Congregational  Committee,  The  Free  Church 
of  Scotland  Committee,  The  Northern  Coun- 
ties League,  The  Midland  Counties  Electoral 
Union ^  The  Workmen's  League,  The  Moral 
Reform  Union,  The  National  Vigilance  Asso- 
ciation, The  Gospel  Purity  Association.  The 
Social  Purity  Alliance  and  the  White  Cross 
organizations,  having  their  headquarters  in 
London,  are  also  a  part  of  the  general  purity 
movement.  Alike  in  Great  Britain  and  on  the 
Continent  the  movement  has  the  strong  and 
influential  support  of  gifted  and  able  men  and 
women  prominent  in  philanthropic  and  re- 
ligious work,  and  in  the  legal  and  medical 
professions.  Since  the  organization  of  the 
International  Federation,  State  regulation  of 
vice  has  been  abolished  in  the  military  dis- 
tricts of  Great  Britain,  in  every  canton  except 
Geneva  in  Switzerland,  and  in  various  munici- 
palities of  Holland,  Belgium,  Norway,  and 
Sweden.  It  has  given  rise  to  much  helpful 
rescue  work,  and  by  conferences,  meetings, 
and  the  dissemination  of  appropriate  litera- 
ture is  effectively  preparing  public  opinion  for 
the  ultimate  abolition  of  the  unjust,  immoral 
system  of  legalized  vice  in  all  Continental 
countries.  ANNA  RICE  POWELL. 

SOCIOLOGY  (from  Latin  socius,  a  com- 
rade, whence  societas,  society,  and  Greek 
X67os,  reason)  is  in  general  the  science  of  so- 
ciety. Three  distinct  conceptions  of  the  science 
have,  however,  prevailed.  It  has  been  con- 
ceived (i)  as  a  mere  coordination  of  the  vari- 
ous particular  social  sciences  ;  (2)  as  itself  a 
particular  science  dealing  with  all  social  rela- 
tions not  considered  under  other  social  sci- 
ences ;  (3)  as  a  science  of  the  fundamental  laws 


Sociology. 


1278 


Sociology* 


and  general  principles  underlying  all  social 
phenomena.  This  is  the  view  which  obtains 
to-day  with  the  best  thinkers.  It  is  a  modern 
science.  Plato,  Aristotle,  Aquinas,  Hobbes, 
Locke,  Montesquieu,  Rousseau,  Hume,  Ben- 
tham,  Burke,  Hegel,  Fourier,  and  others  devel- 
oped many  profound  and  valuable  thoughts  as 
to  social  principles,  yet  Comte  (q.  v.)  in  1838 
first  used  the  word  sociology  for  the  science  of 
society,  or  social  physics,  as  he  called  it,  and 
first  developed  social  principles  in  a  system- 
atic way,  based,  as  he  believed,  on  an  induc- 
tion from  facts.  He  conceived  of  the  social 
world  as  a  unity,  looked  at  according  to  his 
well-known  analysis  of  the  history  of  human 
thought,  first  theologically,  then  metaphys- 
ically, and  lastly  positively,  or  as  a  mere  study 
of  facts  apart  from  all  preconception.  But 
Comte's  acquaintance  with  social  facts  was 
very  limited.  He  discovers  the  ocean  of  soci- 
ology, but  does  little  to  explore  it.  Herbert 
Spencer  (g.  v.)  is  strong  where  Comte  is  weak, 
and  perhaps  weak  where  Comte  is  strong. 
Spencer's  Principles  of  Sociology,  as  a  devel- 
oped part  of  his  Synthetic  Philosophy,  did 
not  appear  till  1876,  but  most  of  his  more  im- 
portant positions  are  already  developed  in  his 
earlier  works.  With  wide  knowledge  he  un- 
dertakes to  explain  the  genesis  of  all  phe- 
nomena, mental  and  natural,  in  accordance 
with  a  universal  law  of  evolution.  Mr. 
Spencer's  social  theories,  however,  have  not 
satisfied  those  who  believe  that  the  State 
should  assume  more  than  the  simplest  govern- 
mental functions.  Lester  F.  Ward  (Dynamic 
Sociology,  vol.  i.  p.  218)  says  of  Spencer  : 

"  No  man  probably  ever  wrote  as  much  as  he  has 
written  without  saying  more  that  the  average  judg- 
ment of  mankind  could  not  indorse  as  soon  as  pre- 
sented. .  .  .  Paradoxical  as  it  may  sound,  and 
whether  it  be  construed  as  complimentary  or  other- 
wise, Mr.  Spencer  has  too  much  good  sense  and  too 
much  real  knowledge  to  build  a  perfect  system  of 
philosophy." 

The  biological  conception  of  society  is 
minutely  carried  put  by  the  German  A. 
Schaffle  (q.  v.)  in  his  Ban  und  Leben  des  soci- 
alen  Korpers  (1875),  and  by  the  Belgian  Guil- 
laume  de  Greef  in  his  Introduction  a  la 
Sociologie  (1886-89).  In  the  United  States, 
Lester  F.  Ward,  in  his  Dynamic  Sociology 
(1883),  develops  the  same  idea  without,  how- 
ever, neglecting  the  psychical  phenomena  of 
society;  a  subject  developed  later  into  a  book 
by  itself,  The  Psychic  Factors  of  Civilization 
(1893).  Mr.  Ward's  book  is  of  special  im- 
portance in  reform  because  of  his  argument 
that  at  a  certain  point  the  natural  evolu- 
tion of  society  passes  over  into  an  artificial  and 
teleological  evolution,  whereby  society  can 
consciously  affect  its  own  status.  Mr.  Ward's 
belief  that  society  can  and  needs  to  do  this  to- 
day is  emphasized  by  the  name  of  his  book, 
Dynamic  Sociology — a  position,  perhaps,  con- 
tributing to  socialism  as  truly  as  Mr.  Spen- 
cer's position  opposes  socialism.  Both  logic 
and  merit  rank  Mr.  Ward  with  the  foregoing 
names,  but  at  least  mention  should  be  made  of 
an  earlier  American  who,  though  not  using 
the  term  sociology,  nevertheless  treated  so- 
ciological subjects  with  some  originality  and 
force — Henry  C.  Carey  (q.  v.}.  He  published 


his  Principles  of  Social  Science  in  1858-60, 
grouping  all  phenomena  round  the  prin- 
ciple of  association,  but  somewhat  forcing 
facts  to  suit  his  own  fancies  about  association. 
More  recent  writers  have  found  various  prin- 
ciples as  the  elementary  and  distinctive  princi- 
ple of  society.  Gabriel  Tarde  (Les  Lois  de 
r Imitation,  1890)  finds  it  in  imitation  ;  Lud- 
wig  Gumplowicz  (Der  Rassenkampf,  1883, 
and  Grundriss  der  Sociologie,  1885)  finds  it  in 
the  conflicts,  amalgamations,  and  assimila- 
tions of  heterogeneous  ethnical  groups;  J.  Novi- 
cow  of  Odessa  (Les  Luttes  entre  les  Societes 
Humaines,  1893)  finds  it  in  the  variation  of  con- 
flict and  alliance  ;  F/mile  Durkheim  (De  la 
Division  du  Travail  Social 'e,  1893),  finds  it  in 
a  division  of  functions  creating  .not  only  di- 
vision, but  solidarity,  ethical  and  moral  as 
well  as  economic  ;  John  S.  Mackenzie  (An  In- 
troduction to  Social  Philosophy,  1870)  elab- 
orates the  Platonic  or  moral-organic  concep- 
tion of  society  ;  Professor  F.  H.  Giddings  first 
in  numerous  articles,  and  in  1896  in  his  Prin- 
ciples of  Sociology,  finds  that  "the  original 
and  elementary  subjective  fact  in  society  is 
the  consciousness  of  kind"  (p.  17).  Such,  in 
brief,  is  the  development  of  sociology  up  to 
the  present  time.  We  shall  now  consider  its 
content  and  main  positions,  following,  for  the 
most  part,  the  outline  of  the  last  named  author. 
According  to  him  descriptive  sociology  comes 
first,  a  knowledge  of  the  facts  being  of  neces- 
sity preliminary  to  their  analysis.  Society  is  not 
limited  to  human  beings  ;  most  animals  are  so- 
cial. The  amoeba,  the  lowest  creature  known, 
apparently  distinguishes  fellow-amoebae  from 
other  objects.  Though  it  is  a  mere  bit  of 
structureless  sarcode  and  has  neither  stomach 
nor  limbs  nor  organs  of  sense,  it  does  not 
mistake  an  empty  shell  for  a  living  diatom. 
The  associations  .of  the  ants,  bees,  and 
beavers  are  well  known.  Among  mammals 
and  birds  isolated  lives  are  rare.  Some  degree 
of  aggregation  is  necessary  usually  to  preserve 
life  in  the  struggle  for  life.  In  his  The  Ascent  of 
Man  Professor  Drummond  has  developed  the 
thought  that  the  struggle  for  the  life  of  others, 
is  a  necessary  concomitant  of  the  struggle  for 
life  of  self.  Say  the  authors  of  The  Evolution  of 
Sex  (p.  279),  "  The  activities  of  even  the  lowest 
organisms  are  often  distinctively  referable  to 
either  category.  .  .  .  Hardly  distinguishable 
at  the  outset,  the  primitive  hunger  and  love 
become  the  starting  points  of  divergent  lines 
of  egoistic  and  altruistic  motion  and  activity." 
Krapotkine  emphasizes  the  fact  played  by  the 
social  life  in  animal  evolution  in  his  use  of 
Brehm's  Illustriertes  Thierleben.  Aggre- 
gation is  of  two  kinds:  genetic,  or  by  descent 
from  a  common  ancestor,  and  congregate, 
or  by  the  coming  together  of  individuals. 
The  patriarchal  theory  of  the  origin  of  society 
supposed  a  genetic  basis;  the  social-con- 
tract theory,  a  congregate  basis. 
Neither  is  exclusively  the  case. 
External  physical  conditions,  as  Association. 
necessity  of  food  and  water  and 
protection,  compel  aggregation. 
Yet  the  evidence  that  close  interbreeding  is 
injurious  is  familiar  and  is  generally  accepted 
as  conclusive.  Aggregation  is  supplemented 


Sociology. 


1279 


Sociology- 


by  association,  which  is  mainly  a  psychical 
process,  beginning  in  simple  phases  of  feeling 
and  perception,  but  developed  into  activities 
calling  out  the  highest  mental  power.  Asso- 
ciation is  developed  mainly  by  communica- 
tion ;  recognition  of  kind  ;  by  imitation,  con- 
flict, material  aid,  pleasure,  or  play. 

Social  intercourse  is  a  mild  and  normally 
pleasurable  mode  of  conflict.  The  factor  of 
imitation  gradually  assimilates  and  harmon- 
izes. In  the  struggles  of  imitations  with  one 
another  the  strongest  imitations  survive  and 
produce  race  and  other  characteristics.  Mut- 
ual aid  begins  in  occasional  helpfulness  and 
need  of  defense. 

We  come  next  to  consider  the  social  mind. 
This  is  not  an  abstract,  but  a  concrete  thing. 
It  exists  only  in  individual  minds, 
and  yet  is  more  than  any  individ- 
Social  Mind,  ual  mind ;  it  is  the  phenomenon 
of  individual  minds  in  interaction. 
It  is  seen  in  temporary  manifesta- 
tions among  men  and  animals,  in  panics,  fads, 
crazes,  mobs,  revivals,  revolutions,  lynching, 
etc.  The  same  social  mind  reaches  more  per- 
manent form  through  discussion,  the  press,  etc. 

It  acquires  continuity  through  the  social 
memory  or  tradition.  Tradition  is  the  inte- 
gration of  the  public  opinion  of  many  genera- 
tions. Primary  traditions  are  economic, 
juridical,  political,  and  are  developed  in  this 
order.  Secondary  traditions  are  personal, 
aesthetic,  and  religious.  Tertiary  traditions 
are  theological,  metaphysical,  and  scientific. 

In  social  composition,  as  developed  from 
aggregation,  we  find  first  small  groups.  Each 
group  is  to  an  extent  genetic.  Not  much 
social  composition  is  found  belo\y  the  birds, 
tho  nearly  all  birds  live  in  families.  Brehm 
declared  that  genuine  marriage  could  be  found 
only  among  birds.  (Thierleben,  bd.  iv.  p.  20.) 

Groups  which  are  composed  of  families  are 
either  ethnical,  that  is  genetic;  or  demotic, 
that  is  associate.  (See  FAMILY.) 

The  composition  of  demotic  societies  into 
villages,  towns,  counties,  States,  nations,  is 
well  known  (q.  v.).  This  social  composition 
is  psychological  rather  than  physical.  The 
constitution  of  society  is  its  organization  into 
specialized  associations  for  various  social 
ends.  Examples  are  municipal  governments, 
churches,  schools,  industrial  corporations,  so- 
cieties, clubs,  etc.  In  the  tribal  society  com- 
position and  constitution  are  substantially 
identical. 

In  civilized  communities  the  constitution  of 
society  is  like  a  great  circle  with  numberless 
small  circles  within  it.  Socialists  are  right  in 
saying  that  the  State  could  do  all ;  individual- 
ists are  right  in  saying  that  society  coiild  get 
on  without  Government ;  but  neither  is  the 
normal  development.  The  end  of  society  is 
the  evolution  of  the  rational  and  spiritual  per- 
sonality of  its  members.  Cultural  associations 
develop  this  and  are  religious,  educational, 
scientific,  ethical,  aesthetic,  or  what  is  called 
polite  society.  Economic,  legal,  and  political 
associations  exist  in  a  functional  sense  for 
the  sake  of  cultural  organization  and  activity. 
Psychologically  the  social  constitution  is  the 
exact  opposite  of  the  social  composition.  It  is 


an  alliance  of  the  like  and  the  non-toleration 
of  the  unlike  in  each  simple  association,  sup- 
plemented by  toleration  and  consideration  of 
the  unlike  in  complex  association. 
Historical     sociology,     Professor 
Giddings  divides  into  four  parts.    Historical 
(i)  Zoogenic  association  (associa-    Sociology, 
tion    of    animals)   long    preceded 
the  association  of  men  and  deeply 
affected  animal  life.     Indeed  we  may  say  that 
association  or  society  has  been  the  supreme 
element  in  the  struggle  for  existence.     It  was 
Mr.  Darwin's  dictum  that  "  those  communities 
which  included  the  greatest  number  of  the  most 
sympathetic   members   would   flourish    best " 
(quoted  in  Drummond's  The  Ascent  of  'Man,  p. 
238).     Krapotkine  says,  ' '  Sociability  is  as  much 
a  law  of  nature  as  mutual  struggle  "  (Nineteenth 
Century,  1890,  p.  340).     Herbert  Spencer  says 
of    the  ethical   bearings  of  altruistic  princi- 
ples   (Principles    of   Ethics,    vol.   ii.    p.    5), 
"Animal  life  of  all  but  the  lowest  kinds  has- 
been  maintained  by  virtue  of  them.     Excluding 
the  Protozoa,  among  which  their  operation  is 
scarcely  discernible,  we  see  that,  without  gratis 
benefits  to   offspring  and  earned  benefits  to 
adults,  life  could  not  have  continued." 

"  'The  ant,'  says  Krapotkine,  'thrives  without  hav- 
ing any  of  the  'protective'  features  which  cannot  be 
dispensed  with  by  animals  living  an  isolated  life.' 

"  In  their  societies  parrots  find  infinitely  more  pro- 
tection than  they  possibly  might  find  in  any  ideal 
development  of  beak  and  claw.  Horses,  badly  or- 
ganized on  the  whole  for  resisting  both  their  numer- 
ous enemies  and  the  adverse  conditions  of  climate, 
would  soon  have  disappeared  from  the  surface  of  the- 
earth  were  it  not  for  their  sociable  spirit.  When  a 
beast  of  prey  approaches  them  several  studs  unite  at 
once,  .  .  .  and  when  a  snow  storm  rages  in  the  steppes, 
each  stud  keeps  close  together  and  repairs  to  a  pro- 
tected ravine.  .  .  .  Life  in  societies  enables  the  fee- 
blest insects,  the  feeblest  birds,  and  the  feeblest 
mammals  to  resist  or  to  protect  themselves  from  the 
most  terrible  birds  and  beasts  of  prey.  .  .  .  We 
maintain  that  under  any  circumstances  sociability  i* 
the  greatest  advantage  in  the  struggle  for  life."  (Kra- 
potkine, loc.  cit.,  pp.  7-11.) 

(2)  But  after  zoogenic  comes  anthropogenic 
association.  There  is  here,  however,  no  break. 
Society  produced  man  rather  than  man  society. 
The  ape-like  forerunner  of  man  is  social.  (See 
Darwin's  Descent  of  Man,  p.  180.)  Language 
is  necessary  to  human  development  and 
society  is  necessary  to  language.  Most  evolu- 
tionary thought  here  has  gone  astray.  Mr. 
Fiske  argues  that  social  development  followed 
from  prolonged  infancy,  but  this  forgets  that 
association  must  precede  prolonged  infancy. 
The  brain  is  the  result  of  association  and  man 
the  creature  of  social  life,  rather  than  social 
life  the  work  of  man. 

Mr.  Lester  F.  Ward  (in  American  Anthropologist, 
vol.  viii.  No.  3,  July,  1895)  also  argues  that  "  man's 
erect  posture  is  chiefly  due  to  brain  development," 
and  that  his  psychologic  evolution  is  to  be  explained 
largely  by  association. 

Such  is  this  view  of  the  genesis  of  the  human 
species,  in  society,  rather  than  of  society  from 
man,  tho  Mr.  Giddings  reminds  his  reader 
that  the  conclusions  are  yet  merely  hypothet- 
ical. Economic  ideas,  even  of  tools,  political 
ideas  of  toleration  and  obedience  and  of  kin- 
ship, have  their  beginnings  in  the  animal 
world.  Characteristic  of  the  beginnings  of 
human  society  were  the  primitive  explanations 


Sociology. 


1280 


Sociology. 


and  traditions  of  life,  death,  and  causation, 
.as  animism  and  the  ghost  theory. 

(3)  Coming  now  to  ethnogenic  associations, 
-we  find  that  self-consciousness  is  that  which 
distinguishes  human  from  animal 
communities.  At  first,  however, 
Ethnogenic  the  social  constitution  is  not  differ- 
Association.  ent  from  the  social  composition. 
The  first  groups  were  probably 
formed  of  family  groups.  At  the 
same  time,  the  relations  of  the  sexes  may  have 
been  the  loosest.  The  family  relation  can  and 
probably  did  coexist  with  the  greatest  sexual 
irregularities,  especially  at  the  great  gather- 
ings and  festivals.  The  trading  and  lending  of 
wives  was  common.  It  is  probable  that  the  do- 
mestic group  was  simply  a  monogamous  family, 
mainly  the  result  of  male  jealousy  and  power, 
as  held  by  Darwin  and  Maine;  with  polyandry 
and  polygyny  the  exception.  (See  FAMILY.) 
The  male  probably  often  deserted  the  female 
with  her  children,  and  they  would  know  only 
the  mother,  thus  accounting  for  the  metro- 
nymic clan.  The  union  of  hordes  produces 
the  tribe,  and  the  union  of  tribes  an  ethnic 
nation.  In  horde,  clan,  or  tribe,  chieftaincy- 
can  become  hereditary;  the  clans  are  the  jurid- 
ical organization;  the  phratry  is  the  religious 
-organization  guarding  the  religious  tradition. 
Its  secret  societies  of  medicine-men  give  the 
germs  of  the  professional  class;  the  sachems 
elected  by  clansmen  and  clanswomen  are  the 
first  judges.  Chieftains  become  the  founders 
of  a  nobility.  There  results  a  feudalism  (q.  v.) 
which  prepares  the  way  for  another  system. 

In  demogenic  associations  the  social  com- 
position is  subordinate  to  a  developed  social 
constitution.  It  has  three  stages.  In  the 
first,  all  the  energies  of  society  are  concen- 
trated upon  political  integration  and  defense, 
.as  in  Egypt  and  Babylonia;  in  the  second, 
there  is  a  critical  effort  to  achieve  the  union  of 
personal  liberty  with  stability  through  the  con- 
structive evolution  of  municipal  and  constitu- 
tional law.  Greece  failed  in  construction  and 
Rome  sacrificed  spontaneity  to  system.  This 
stage  went  on  through  the  Middle  Ages,  the 
Reformation,  the  French  and  American 
Revolutions.  The  third  stage  is  industrial. 
The  development  of  the  fundamental  social 
interests  thus  reverses  the  order  of  their 
genesis. 

We  found  that  there  were  three  fundamen- 
tal    social   traditions — economic,    legal,    and 
political — evolved  in    this  order.     But  when 
society,  building  on  these  traditions,  reaches 
the  political  stage  it  puts  its  social 
energies  into  perfecting  that  first, 
Philosophy   and  then  works  back  and  perfects 
of  History,  its  legal  and  then    its  economic 
life.     So  with  the  secondary  tradi- 
tions of  the  personal  or  animistic, 
the  esthetic  and  religious.     When  society  has 
reached  the  political  stage  it  has  by  no  means 
perfected  its  secondary  traditions,  and  there- 
fore, in  so  far  as  it  busies  itself  with  intangible 
concerns,  it  interests  itself  in  religion,  then  in 
art,  then  in  personal  interests. 

The  tertiary  traditions,  however,  follow  a 
different  order.  In  the  religious-political  age 
the  human  mind  is  theological:  in  the  critical 


age  it  is  metaphysical;  only  in  the  economic 
and  spiritual  age  it  is  scientific.  The  stages 
of  civilization  are  then  military,  religious, 
and  theological;  liberal,  legal,  and  metaphysi- 
cal; finally,  economic,  ethical,  and  scientific. 

In  this  philosophy  of  history  will  be  seen 
both  the  basis  and  the  inadequacy  of  Comte's 
trilogy  of  the  theological,  the  metaphysical, 
and  the  positive;  of  Hegel's  conception  of  the 
evolution  of  the  personality  of  man,  disregard- 
ing the  stages  of  society;  and  Mr.  Spencer's  evo- 
lution of  society  in  terms  of  differentiation  of 
structures,  and  finding  only  two  types,  the 
military  and  the  industrial. 

Ethnic  societies  that  have  reached  the  age 
of  confederation  and  kingship  become  lawless 
and  aggressive.  Migration  and  conquest  re- 
sult. The  great  historical  races  are  the  result 
of  the  superposition  of  races  upon  races,  as  in 
Egypt. 

As  a  result  of  such  conquests  society  be- 
comes mingled,  sovereignty  is  developed, 
the  social  constitution  becomes  more  than  the 
social  composition,  life  and  property  become 
more  secure  than  in  nomadic  days;  wealth  de- 
velops, trade  flows  to  centers,  division  of  labor 
between  city  and  country  grows.  Traders 
come  and  outdo  in  wealth  the  older  popula- 
tion. The  problem  is  to  incorporate,  under 
political  form,  congregate  societies.  The 
genetic  form  of  society  gives  place  to  the 
civil.  Church  and  State  are  organized.  Eth- 
nic unity,  however,  is  not  lost.  Territory  is 
more  thought  of.  Political  integration  goes 
on.  Strong  States  absorb  the  weak.  The 
community,  too,  reacts  on  the  individual. 
Gradually  the  military  state  is  outgrown. 
Natural  selection  favors  those  adapted  to  the 
dominant  social  characteristics.  Selection, 
for  example,  has  produced  the  American  spirit, 
with  its  desire  for  change,  its  love  of  experi- 
ment, and  its  respect  for  enterprise.  The 
legal  and  critical  age  is  born.  Voluntary 
organization,  under  the  authority  and  pro- 
tection of  law,  assumes  endless  variety.  It 
produces  personal  liberty.  There  is  much  in- 
herent democracy  in  mere  numbers.  But  the 
development  of  liberalism  disintegrates  the 
social  composition.  The  religious-proprie- 
tary family  is  weakened.  Liberalism  substi- 
tutes contract  for  custom.  The  authority  of 
the  parent  is  weakened.  The  family  be- 
comes romantic  and  unstable.  Liberalism, 
too,  weakens  the  State,  but  it  increases 
wealth  and  introduces  the  industrial  age.  In- 
crease of  wealth  multiplies  population,  if 
not  by  increasing  the  birth-rates,  by  de- 
creasing death-rates.  The  corrected  Mal- 
thusian  formula  is  :  "In  any 
given  state  of  industry  and  the 
arts  population  tends  to  increase  Malthusian- 
faster  than  it  is  possible  to  raise  ism. 
the  general  plane  of  living."  This 
quickens  invention  and  industrial 
progress  begins  anew.  Invention  is  rhyth- 
mical. Spencer  is  right  (Principles  of  Biol- 
ogy, vol.  ii.  pt.  6),  as  Professor  Lavasseur, 
M.  Dumont,  and  Miss  Brownell  have  shown 
that  the  birth-rate  diminishes  as  individual 
evolution  increases.  This  is  partly  the  re- 
sult of  physiological  changes,  but  mainly  the 


Sociology. 


1281 


Somerset,  Lady  Henry. 


result  of  psychological  reasons.  There  is  a 
deliberate  prevention  of  births.  The  "pre- 
ventive check"  has  come  into  general  use, 
as  in  France  and  New  England.  But  this 
proves  not  the  falsity,  but  the  truth  of  Mal- 
thusianism.  It  gives  indubitable  proof  that 
population  feels  the  tendency  to  increase  faster 
than  it  is  possible  to  raise  the  general  plane 
of  living.  Demogenic  association  develops 
classes  and  the  class  struggle.  Disintegration 
of  the  social  constitution  shows  itself  in  the 
city;  savagery  threatens  the  cities,  but  first 
private  philanthropy,  and  then  communal  in- 
telligence, awaken  ethical  character  and  effort 
and  check  the  savagery.  Society  thus  be- 
comes more  reflectively  self-conscious  and 
studies  more  the  possibilities  of  both  free  con- 
tract and  authority. 

This  leads  us  to  the  study  of  explanatory 

sociology,  or  the  consideration  of  social  law 

and  cause.     The  initial  causes  of 

society  are  physical,  but  associa- 

Cause  of     tion  furthers  survival  and  happi- 

Progress.  ness,  and  develops  the  conscious 
individual  and  the  conscious  so- 
ciety. Relations  and  activities 
.are  valued,  choices  are  made,  policies  are 
devised,  institutions  founded.  Natural  se- 
lection works  among  these.  The  further  task 
of  sociology  is  to  discover  and  use  the  details 
and  laws  of  these  complicated  processes.  So- 
ciety is  often  described  as  an  organism,  but  it 
is  more.  It  is  essentially  psychical,  It  is  more 
than  a  multitude  of  individual  minds.  Per- 
sonality is  a  unity,  but  it  is  not  indivisible  or 
undecomposable. 

Undoubtedly  the  individual  will  plays  a 
large  part  in  human  life,  but  the  question  is 
whence  comes  the  individual  will.  Sociology, 
as  a  science  of  natural  causation  and  natural 
law,  declares  emphatically  that  the  individual 
is,  at  least  to  a  very  large  extent,  the  product 
of  environment,  including  the  social  will.  Man 
is  a  variable,  but  not  an  independent  variable. 
The  theory  of  natural  rights  is  given  up  to- 
day by  science,  but  there  are  norms  of  rights, 
socially  necessary  laws,  which  science  is 
beginning  to  discover.  Society  is  a  psycho- 
logical organization  rather  than  a  physical 
organism.  Sociology  then  teaches  that  the 
struggle  for  life  brings  individual  beings  into 
a  certain  amount  of  aggregation  ;  that  a  con- 
sciousness of  kind  begins  in  the  earliest  animal 
life  ;  that  the  struggle  for  life  is  aided  in  the 
earliest  stages  by  what  Drummond  calls 
the  struggle  for  the  life  of  others  ;  that  thus 
from  aggregation  there  comes  a  more  or 
less  conscious  association  ;  that  this  reacts  upon 
and  develops  the  individual  ;  that  a  social  mind 
is  developed,  and  eventually  expressed  in 
social  purpose  and  control ;  that  there  follows 
a  struggle  for  existence  between,  and  a 
survival  of,  the  fittest  social  institutions,  and 
thus  we  have  the  persistence  and  coexistence 
of  the  highest  personality  and  the  highest 
social  organization. 

Society  is  not  a  physical  organism,  but  it 
is  a  psychological  organization  of  conscious 
organisms.  Revised  by  F.  H.  GIDDINGS. 

References:  F.  H.  Giddings'  Principles  of  Sociology 
(i8g6)  and  Theory  of  Socialization  (1897);  Herbert 

81 


Spencer's  Principles  of  Sociology  (1376) ;  L.  F.  Ward's 
Dynamic  Sociology  (1883)  and  The  Psychic  Factors  of 
Civilization  (1893) ;  Henry  Drummond's  The  Ascent  of 
Man  (1896) ;  J.  S  Mackenzie's  An  Introduction  to 
Social  Philosophy  (1890). 

SOETBEER,  ADOLPH,  was  born  in  Ham- 
burg in  1814,  and,  taking  his  degree  at  Got- 
tingen,  entered  the  education  department  of 
the  city  of  Hamburg,  and  later  the  Hamburg 
Deputation  of  Commerce,  in  which  position 
he  became  an  authority  on  financial  questions. 
He  is  called  "the  father  of  German  gold 
coinage,"  yet  he  regrets  the  decline  in  value 
of  silver  and  favors  the  adoption  of  one  gram 
of  fine  gold  as  an  international  unit  of  value, 
the  coinage  of  gold  to  be  free,  on  payment  of 
a  seniorage,  but  no  gold  coin  containing  less 
than  5.8065  grams  of  pure  gold  to  be  minted. 
All  nations  are  to  coin  silver  in  the  ratio  of  20 
to  i,  but  its  coinage  is  not  to  be  free. 

The  author  of  numerous  works,  he  is  best 
known  for  his  tables  of  prices. 

SOMERSET,    LADY     HENRY,    is    the 

daughter  of  Earl  Somers  of  Eastnor  Castle, 
Herefordshire,  a  descendant  of  Lord  Somers 
of  Evesham,  to  whom  William  of  Orange  gave 
Somerstown  in  St.  Pancras,  London,  and  also 
the  town  of  Reigate.  Her  maiden  name  was 
Somers-Cocks.  Lady  Henry  Somerset  is  half 
French  on  her  mother's  side,  her  great-grand- 
mother having  been  maid  of  honor  to  Queen 
Marie  Antoinette.  Her  father  had  for  his 
tutor  the  Rev.  Frederick  D.  Maurice,  and  was 
the  friend  of  Turner,  Ruskin,  and  Layard  ;  the 
intimate  of  Cavour,  Garibaldi,  and  Mazzini. 

Lady  Henry  was  born  in  London  in  1851. 
She  was  married  in  1872  to  Lord  Henry 
Somerset,  the  second  son  of  the  Duke  of 
Beaufort. 

Her  only  son  and  child  was  born  in  1874, 
Henry  Somerset,  heir  presumptive  to  the 
Dukedom  of  Beaufort.  For  some  years  Lady 
Henry  was  often  at  court,  and  a  leader  in  the 
fashionable  society  of  London,  but  this  posi- 
tion was  not  congenial  to  her  tastes. 

Leaving  London  in  the  year  1878  for  one  of 
her  father's  beautiful  country  places,  she  re- 
mained there  for  many  years  in  comparative 
retirement  with  her  son,  between  whom  and 
herself  there  has  always  existed  the  most 
affectionate  relationship.  In  1884  Lord  Somers 
died,  leaving  Lady  Henry  Somerset  heir  to 
Eastnor  Castle,  Somers  Town  (London),  and 
Reigate,  and  only  grieving  that  the  laws  of 
Parliament  prevented  his  eldest  daughter  from 
succeeding  to  his  title.  The  responsibility  of 
administering  an  estate  involving  a  tenancy 
of  more  than  one  hundred  thousand  persons 
deeply  impressed  the  mind  of  Lady  Henry 
Somerset,  and  in  a  crisis  hour  she  seemed  to 
hear  a  voice  saying  to  her  as  she  sat  under 
her  favorite  elm  tree  in  the  Priory  gardens : 
"  Act  as  though  God  were  and  thou  shalt 
know  He  is."  This  was  in  the  spring  of  1885, 
and  that  hour  marked  the  turning  point  of  her 
destiny,  for  she  renounced  society,  broke  away 
from  her  former'  relationships  at  the  cost  of 
criticism  and  alienation,  and  went  with  her 
son  to  Eastnor  Castle,  one  hundred  miles  from 


Somerset,  Lady  Henry. 


1282 


South  Carolina  Dispensary. 


London,  where  for  five  years  she  lived  among 
her  tenantry  without  comradeship  of  any  kind 
save  as  Christian  workers,  whom  she  invited, 
came  and  went  from  time  to  time.  She 
studied  her  Bible  with  conscientious  care,  and 
held  her  first  religious  meetings  in  the 
kitchens  of  the  farmers  and  the  barns  where 
the  hop-pickers  gathered.  She  built  chapels, 
hired  missionaries,  held  meetings  for  the 
miners  in  Wales  near  where  she  had  spent 
some  years  of  her  married  life,  and  in  every 
way  improved  the  condition  of  those  depend- 
ent upon  her.  Mrs.  Hannah  Whitall  Smith, 
an  American  lady  and  a  leader  in  the  Woman's 
Christian  Temperance  Union,  came  to  Eastnor 
by  invitation,  and  from  her  Lady  Henry  Somer- 
set heard  the  history  of  the  crusade  in  Ohio, 
the  organized  movement  which  followed  it, 
and  the  wide  sweep  of  the  World's  Woman's 
Christian  Temperance  Union.  By  Mrs. 
Smith's  request,  Lady  Somerset  consented  to 
accept  the  presidency  of  the  British  Woman's 
Temperance  Association,  which  had  been 
founded  as  the  result  of  a  visit  made  by 
Mother  Stewart  to  Great  Britain  in  1876. 
This  was  in  1890.  In  1891,  accompanied  by 
her  son  and  his  tutor,  Lady  Henry  with  Mrs. 
Hannah  Whitall  Smith,  came  by  invitation  to 
the  first  convention  of  the  World's  Woman's 
Christian  Temperance  Union  in  Boston,  Mass  , 
presided  over  by  Miss  Frances  E.  Willard. 
She  was  so  deeply  impressed  by  the  White 
Ribbon  women  and  their  work  that  she  re- 
mained six  months  in  America,  being  asso- 
ciated with  Miss  Willard  in  the  editorship  of 
the  Union  Signal,  the  organ  of  the  women's 
White  Ribbon  movement. 

In  April,  1891,  Lady  Henry  Somerset  re- 
turned to  London  to  preside  over  the  annual 
meeting  of  the  British  Woman's  Temperance 
Union.  In  August  of  that  year  Miss  Willard 
lost  her  mother  and  went  to  Eastnor  Castle. 
In  October  both  of  these  temperance  leaders 
made  a  voyage  to  the  United  States  and 
traveled  to  Denver,  Colo.,  to  conduct  the 
annual  meeting  of  the  National  Woman's 
Christian  Temperance  Union,  returning  a  few 
weeks  later  to  England  where,  by  their  united 
efforts,  the  British  Woman's  Temperance  As- 
sociation was  reconstructed  on  the  lines  of  the 
modern  temperance  movement  as  illustrated 
in  the  World's  Woman's  Christian  Temperance 
Union,  the  central  idea  of  which  is  to  corre- 
late the  temperance  movement  with  other 
reforms  such  as  the  enfranchisement  of 
women,  the  labor  movement,  the  social  purity 
movement,  all  of  which  are  inextricably  inter- 
twined with  the  temperance  reform  itself. 

In  the  previous  year,  1892,  Lady  Henry  had 
assumed  the  editorship  of  a  London  paper 
called  The  Woman's  Herald,  but  in  1894  the 
name  was  changed  to  The  Woman's  Signal. 
It  is  now  the  leading  woman's  paper  of  Great 
Britain  in  the  world  of  philanthropy  and 
reform. 

She  is  strongly  opposed  to  all  organizations 
and  declarations  in  which  "profession  mocks 
performance."  She  has  more  and  more  con- 
nected herself  with  the  labor  movement  and 
with  a  practical  "  Christian  Socialism." 

FRANCES  E.  WILLARD. 


SOUTH  CAROLINA  DISPENSARY 
SYSTEM.— In  1890,  in  South  Carolina, 
U.  S.,  the  people  of  th.e  State,  weary  with 
the  domination  of  the  political  machine  of 
that  State,  the  spread  of  drunkenness- 
and  the  power  of  the  saloon,  elected  B.  R. 
Tillman  Governor,  and  temperance  men 
to  almost  all  the  offices.  In  1892  a  pro- 
hibition proposition  was  presented  to  the 
people  of  the  State  and  was  carried.  In 
some  counties,  however,  it  had  been  already 
tried  and  was  said  to  be  a  failure.  When 
saloons  were  closed,  whisky  was  sold  by  the 
drug  stores.  Therefore,  instead  of  prohibi- 
tion, Senator  J.  G.  Evans  introduced  inta 
the  South  Carolina  Legislature  a  so-called 
Dispensary  Law,  according  to  which  all 
saloons  were  to  be  closed  in  six  months,  and 
no  whisky  was  to  be  sold  except  by  govern- 
ment dispensaries  under  strict  control.  The 
law  was  passed,  and  a  special  force  of  consta- 
bles appointed  to  enforce  it.  July  i,  1893,  the 
law  went  into  effect.  Meanwhile,  most  of  the 
saloons  had  closed.  In  some  places,  however, 
the  law  was  resisted  as  unconstitutional. 
Many  Prohibitionists,  and  some  other  temper- 
ance reformers,  condemned  the  law,  and  even 
sided  with  the  liquor  interest  against  it.  In 
Darlington  the  constables  who  tried  to  enforce 
the  law  were  resisted.  Governor  Tillman, 
who  had  everywhere  vigorously  enforced  the 
law,  now  called  out  the  militia,  and  tho  part 
of  the  militia  refused  to  obey,  he  succeeded 
in  putting  down  the  revolt.  At  this  juncture, 
however,  the  Supreme  Court  of  the  State  de- 
cided the  law  unconstitutional,  on  the  ground 
that  part  of  the  liquor  trade  was  justifiable 
and  the  inalienable  right  of  the  individual f 
while  the  State  had  no  right  to  enter  a  busi- 
ness for  profit.  It  was  left  uncertain  whether 
the  alternative  to  the  law  was  free  whisky  or 
protection.  Later,  the  court  decided  for  pro- 
tection, but  in  many  parts  of  the  State  this 
was  ignored  and  the  saloons  opened.  August 
i,  1894,  however,  Governor  Tillman  issued  a 
proclamation  reinstating  the  Dispensary  Law, 
and  Mr.  E.  B.  Gary  having  succeeded  Asso- 
ciate Justice  McGowan  on  the  Supreme  Bench, 
when  a  case  was  tried,  the  Dispensary  Act 
was  declared  constitutional  on  the  ground 
that  the  traffic  was  demoralizing  and  the 
State  had  the  right  to  protect  itself.  Since 
then,  tho  the  legal  issue  is  still  uncertain, 
the  law  has  been  enforced  by  a  State 
Board  of  the  Governor,  Attorney-Gen- 
eral, and  Comptroller-General.  Only  pure 
whisky  is  sold.  Dispensers  must  be  men  of 
sobriety  and  honesty.  No  whisky  is  sold  to 
minors  or  inebriates.  No  whisky  can  be 
bought  indirectly  for  others,  and  none  can  be 
drunk  on  the  spot.  Dispensaries  are  open 
only  from  8  A.  M.  to  6  P.  M.  There  can  be  no 
attractive  connections  of  billiards,  pool,  etc. 
The  dispensers  are  salaried  and  have  no 
interest  in  the  sale.  Says  the  New  York  Out- 
look of  May  n,  1895  : 

"The  dispensary  system  seems  to  be  firmly  estab- 
lished in  the  approval  of  the  people  of  the  State, 
Nearly  all  our  information  concerning  its  -workings 
has  come  from  hostile  or  critical  sources ;  yet  the 
hostile  source — the  columns  of  the  Neivs  and  Courier 
— has  given  increasing  evidence  that  the  law  against 


South  Carolina  Dispensary. 


1283 


Spahr,  Charles  B. 


private  dram-shops  is  rigidly  enforced  throughout 
the  State  ;  while  the  critical  source — the  testimony  of 
the  correspondents  of  the  Voice— has  from  the  tirst 
declared  the  law  a  success.  The  following  editorial 
paragraph  from  the  current  number  of  the  Review  of 
Revieivs  (written  by  Dr.  Shaw  after  a  visit  to  South 
Carolina)  seems  to  express  the  conclusion  which 
every  impartial  investigator  must  reach  : 

" '  The  people  of  South  Carolina,  outside  of  the  old 
liquor  interest  and  certain  political  circles,  have 
become  almost  unanimous  in  the  opinion  that  the 
system  is  a  splendid  success.  Governor  Evans,  when 
in  the  legislature,  was  the  chief  promoter  of  the  Dis- 
pensary Law,  and  now  that  he  is  in  the  executive 
chair  he  is  quite  as  stanch  in  maintaining  and 
enforcing  the  system  as  was  Governor  Tillman. 
Railway  road  masters,  and  other  men  familiar  with 
conditions  throughout  the  State,  are  enthusiastic  in 
their  account  of  the  good  effects  that  the  law  has 
already  produced.  Drunkenness  and  disorder  have 
decreased  to  a  remarkable  extent ;  and  whereas  the 
negro  laborer  was  formerly  accustomed  to  spend  his 
week's  earnings  in  carousing  on  Saturday  night  and 
Sunday,  he  is  now  spending  more  upon  his  family, 
or  else  saving  his  money  to  buy  land.  The  ten 
or  twelve  State  dispensaries  in  the  city  of  Charles- 
ton, which  have  taken  the  place  of  scores  or  hundreds 
of  saloons,  are  as  openly  conducted  and  as  orderly  as 
any  drug  store,  and  are  absolutely  closed  at  sun- 
down. The  effect  upon  the  quiet  and  order  of  the 
city  has  been  too  transforming  to  admit  of  any  denial. 
Reports  from  country  towns  throughout  the  State  are 
to  the  effect  that  the  closing  of  the  old  bar-rooms  in 
favor  of  the  new  dispensaries  has  been  attended  with 
results  that  have  converted  almost  every  good  citizen 
to  a  belief  in  the  present  system.  In  view  of  the 
widely  circulated  reports  in  disparagement  of  the 
South  Carolina  dispensaries,  these  facts  ought  to  be 
given  a  wide  publicity."  " 

(For  Prohibitionist  objection  to  the  dis- 
pensary system,  see  article  on  the  somewhat 
similar  NORWEGIAN  SYSTEM.) 

Other  countries  are  adopting  the  same 
system.  Russia  has  determined  to  gradually 
abolish  all  saloons  in  her  vast  domain  between 
July  i,  1896,  and  January  i,  1898,  and  to  make 
the  liquor  traffic  a  government  monopoly. 
The  object  is  not  revenue  but  temperance. 
Says  the  Russian  journal  Virdomostt: 

"  The  object  of  government  monopoly  of  the  sale  of 
liquor  is  principally  to  do  away  with  the  abuses  of 
liquor-dealers  who  take  advantage  of  the  disposition 
to  drunkenness.  To  say  nothing  of  the  fact  that  the 
liquor-dealers  are  generally  also  usurers  •who  man- 
age to  enslave  the  population,  they  try  to  encourage 
drunkenness  and  to  make  a  saloon  a  necessity  to  the 
people.  They  gladly  deal  on  a  credit  basis  and  take 
all  kinds  of  household  goods  as  security.  The  law, 
to  be  sure,  prohibits  this,  but  it  is  notorious  that 
the  saloon-keepers  obtain  most  of  their  income  by 
evading  the  legal  restraints.  Government  sale,  on  the 
other  hand,  aims  at  the  substitution  for  drunkenness 
of  a  normal  consumption  of  liquor.  Equally  im- 
portant is  the  influence  of  government  monopoly 
upon  the  improvement  of  the  quality  of  the  liquor 
manufactured." 

Switzerland  made  the  sale  of  alcohol  a  gov- 
ernment monopoly  December  23,  1886.  Only 
pure  quality  is  sold  and  under  strict  control. 
The  profits  are  divided  between  the  cantons  for 
education,  including  temperance  education. 
The  revenue  for  1894  was  $965,000.  A  de- 
crease in  consumption  is  claimed  of  25  per 
cent.,  tho  there  has  been  some  increase  in  the 
use  of  beer  and  wine.  France  has  also  voted 
a  government  monopoly  of  all  drinks  stronger 
than  light  wines  and  beer. 

SOUTH  SEA  BUBBLE.— In  1711  a  South 
Sea  Company  was  founded  in  England  by 
the  Earl  of  Oxford,  and  received,  in  1720, 
a  monopoly  of  the  South  Sea  trade  and  inter- 
est from  the  government  at  6  per  cent.,  in 
return  for  which  it  was  to  take  over  the  na- 


tional debt  of  ^"30,000,000.  Millions  of  stock 
were  issued  and  amid  'the  intensest  excite- 
ment the  stock  reached,  at  one  time,  .£1000. 
For  eight  months  the  ' '  bubble  "  lasted  and 
then  broke.  There  was  general  panic  and 
indignation,  and  Parliament  fined  the  direct- 
ors $10,000,000. 

SOVEREIGNS    OF   INDUSTRY,   THE. 

— This  was  an  order  established  in  New  Eng- 
land January  6,  1872,  to  develop  cooperative 
stores  for  the  working-classes  similar  to  the 
cooperative  movement  started  by  the  Grange 
(q.  v.).  Its  leaders  were  William  Earle  and. 
John  Orvis.  Many  stores  were  started  and 
much  interest  was  taken,  but  the  stores,  which 
were  to  sell  at  cost,  were  undersold  and  run 
out  by  competition.  Later  they  introduced 
the  Rochdale  system  advocated  from  the  first 
by  Mr.  Orvis,  but  it  was  too  late,  and  the 
order  failed  about  1879,  tho  a  ^ew  stores  sur- 
vived (see  COOPERATION). 

SOVEREIGNTY  in  political  science  Pro- 
fessor Burgess  (Political  Science  and  Consti- 
tutional Law]  defines  as  "  original,  absolute, 
unlimited  universal  power  over  the  individual 
subject  and  over  all  associations  of  subjects." 
Jellink  defines  it  as  "obligation  through  its 
own  will."  It  is  the  most  essential  principle  of 
the  state.  (For  the  development  of  the  idea 
of  sovereignty,  and  the  views  of  it  held  by  dif- 
ferent writers,  see  articles  POLITICAL  SCIENCE 
and  STATE.)  Sovereignty,  according  to  most 
modern  writers,  though  not  all,  is  based  upon 
force.  "  The  one  thing  that  characterizes  the 
State  is  coercive  power "  (Leroy  Beaulieu, 
The  Modern  State}.  "  Force  is  an  absolutely 
essential  element  of  all  laws  whatever  "  (James 
Fitzjames  Stephen,  Liberty,  Equality,  and 
Fraternity}.  "  Penal  sanction  is  the  essence 
of  law"  (John  Stuart  Mill,  Utilitarianism}. 
"  Let  the  edifice  of  law  be  as  moral  and  effect- 
ual as  you  will,  its  foundation  is  the  force  of 
the  community "  (Goldwin  Smith,  Essays  on 
Questions  of  the  Day}. 

Other  thinkers,  however,  deny  this.  Blunt- 
schli  distinguishes  between  force  and  power. 
Woodrow  Wilson  calls  sovereignty  '-a  cata- 
logue of  influences."  Lieber  calls  it  "  the 
sense  and  sentiment  of  the  community." 
Hume  says  that  government  is  founded  on 
opinion,  and  "  that  force  is  always  on  the  side 
of  the  governed."  Austin  says,  "  the  monarch 
is  superior  to  the  governed  ....  to  an 
indefinite  tho  limited  extent."  (For  the  rela- 
tion of  sovereignty  to  liberty,  see  STATE.) 

SPAHR,  CHARLES  B.,  was  born  in  Colum- 
bus, O.,  in  1860.  He  was  graduated  at  Am- 
herst  College  in  1881  and  was  given  the  degree 
of  Ph.  D.  by  Columbia  in  1886.  Studying  also 
in  Europe  he  became  in  1886,  and  has  been  ever 
since,  assistant  editor  of  The  Outlook  of  New 
York.  From  1889  to  1891  he  was  on  the  edi- 
torial staff  of  The  Commercial  Advertiser, 
and  in  1890  was  lecturer  on  Taxation  and  the 
Distribution  of  Wealth  at  Columbia  University. 
Besides  various  articles  in  economic  reviews  he 
published,  in  1896,  The  Present  Distribution 
of  We  alt  hint  he  United  States.  (See  WEALTH.) 


Spartacus. 


1284 


Standard  of  Comfort. 


SPARTACUS,  a  Thracian  by  birth  and  per- 
haps of  royal  stock,  served  in  the  Roman  army, 
but  is  said  to  have  deserted  and  to  have  been 
captured  and  made  a  gladiator.  But  in  73  B.  c. 
he,  with  a  band  of  fellow-gladiators,  broke  put 
of  a  training  school  at  Capua,  and  taking 
refuge  on  Mt.  Vesuvius,  rallied  round  him 
thousands  of  slaves.  He  defeated  Claudius, 
sent  against  him  with  3000  men,  and  also 
Varenius  and  others,  and,  last  of  all,  Manlius 
with  20,000  men.  Spartacus  tried  to  lead  his 
forces  out  of  Italy,  but  they  would  not  go. 
Division  arose,  and  Crassus  finally  conquered 
them.  Six  thousand  of  them  were  crucified  on 
the  road  from  Rome  to  Capua.  Spartacus 
himself  fell  in  battle. 

SPECIE  PAYMENTS.    See  MONEY. 

SPENCE,  THOMAS,  was  a  London  book- 
seller who  advocated  the  "  parochializing  "  of 
land  "  so  that  there  shall  be  no  more  nor  other 
landlords  in  the  whole  country  than  the  par- 
ishes." In  1775  he  read  a  paper  on  land  nation- 
alization before  the  Philosophical  Society  in 
Newcastle,  and  was  thereupon  expelled  from 
the  Society.  He  seems  to  have  been  also  pros- 
ecuted by  the  government  for  selling  seditious 
literature.  Among  other  reforms  he  advocated 
a  kind  of  phonography.  His  Newcastle  paper 
has  been  recently  republished  by  Mr.  Hynd- 
man  (g.  v.). 

SPENCER,  HERBERT,  was  born  at 
Derby,  England,  in  1820.  His  father  was  a 
schoolmaster  of  original  character  and  strong 
views.  The  boy  was  delicate  and  backward 
in  early  studies;  was  placed  in  1833  under  the 
care  of  his  uncle,  the  Rev.  Thomas  Spencer  of 
Hinton,  a  clergyman  of  the  Church  of  Eng- 
land, but  of  somewhat  radical  views,  and  a 
vigorous  advocate  of  social  reforms.  In  1837 
Herbert  Spencer  was  articled  to  a  civil  engi- 
neer, and  worked  on  the  London  and  Birming- 
ham Railway.  In  1845,  however,  he  moved  to 
London  and  began  his  literary  career.  In  1842 
he  had  already  written,  in  the  Nonconform- 
ist, a  series  of  papers  on  The  Proper  Sphere 
of  Government.  From  1848  to  1852  he  wrote 
on  the  Economist,  and  in  1850  published  his 
Social  Statics,  the  radicalism  and  brilliancy  of 
which  gained  him  friends  like  Huxley  (q.  v.) 
and  George  Eliot.  In  1855  appeared  his  Prin- 
ciples of  Psychology,  by  many  considered  his 
greatest  work.  Already  interested  in  the 
unity  of  sciences  and  in  the  evolutionary 
philosophy,  he  projected  in  1859  an  entire  sys- 
tem of  philosophy,  to  the  development  of 
which,  in  volumes  on  different  portions  of  the 
subject,  he  has  directed  his  life.  First  Prin- 
ciples appeared  in  1862;  The  Principles  of  Bi- 
ology (2  vols.);  The  Principles  of  Psychology 
(2  vols.);  The  Principles  of  Sociology  (3  vols  ); 
The  Principles  of  Ethics  (2  vols.)  have  fol- 
lowed at  different  periods  ;  the  last  volume  of 
the  Principles  of  Sociology  only  appeared  in 
1896.  In  all  these  works  he  argues,  with  large 
learning  and  great  ability,  that  all  phenom- 
ena of  matter  and  of  mind,  all  motion  and  all 
force,  proceed  on  a  law  of  gradual  develop- 
ment, from  the  general  to  the  particular,  from 
a  simple  homogeneous  uniformity  to  a  complex 
heterogeneous  multiformity.  This  evolution 


proceeds,  he  argues,  on  laws  of  natural  strug- 
gle for  existence,  of  natural  selection,  and  the 
resultant  survival  of  the  fittest.  The  same 
general  principles  he  has  worked  out  on  many 
detached  subjects,  in  his  The  Data  of  Ethics,  a. 
part  of  his  Principles  of  Ethics  (1879),  Educa- 
tion (1861),  The  Study  of  Sociology  (1872),  De- 
scriptive Sociology  (1873-78),  Justice  (1891) — 
several  essays  in  which  he  bitterly  attacks  the 
socialist  tendencies  of  the  day.  The  Coming 
Slavery,  The  Great  Political  Superstitioti, 
The  Sins  of  Legislators,  The  New  Toryism, 
have  been  collected  under  the  title  of  Man  vs. 
The  State. 

For  a  discussion  of  Mr.  Spencer's  sociologi- 
cal views  see  articles  EVOLUTION  and  SOCIAL- 
ISM. Mr.  Spencer  has  advocated  his  views 
with  such  power  that  he  is  sometimes  called 
the  philosopher  of  the  century;  but  his  influ- 
ence is  to-day  distinctly  waning  in  university 
circles,  while  his  later  utterances  in  Justice, 
disowning  his  former  position  taken  in  Social 
Statics,  chapter  viii.,  ist  ed.,  that  equity  does 
not  allow  private  property  in  land,  has  much 
hurt  his  influence  among  the  masses.  His 
present  view  is  that,  tho  absolutely  equity- 
does  not  allow  private  property  in  land, 
to  nationalize  land  without  compensation 
would  be  wrong,  since  society  has  allowed 
private  ownership,  and  that,  with  compensa- 
tion, to  nationalize  land  would  do  no  good. 
In  his  Social  Statics,  however,  he  asked,  How 
long  it  took  a  wrong  to  grow  into  a  right  7 

Many  writers,  like  Huxley  and  Ritchie,  have 
accused  Spencer  of  inconsistency  in  seeing 
the  necessity  of  the  subordination  of  the  part 
to  the  whole  in  the  bodily  organism,  but  not  in 
the  social  organism  (see  EVOLUTION);  but  he 
remains  a  steadfast  foe  of  all  steps  even  tend- 
ing toward  socialism.  (See  INDIVIDUALISM.) 
The  general  fundamental  proposition  of  his 
individualism  he  has  thus  stated: 

"  The  sphere  of  existence  into  which  we  are 
thrown  not  affording  room  for  the  unrestrained 
activity  of  all,  and  yet  all  possessing,  in  virtue 
of  their  constitutions,  similar  claims  to  such 
unrestrained  activity,  there  is  no  course  but 
to  apportion  out  the  unavoidable  restraint 
equally.  Wherefore,  we  arrive  at  the  general 
proposition  that  every  man  may  claim  the 
fullest  liberty  to  exercise  his  faculties  compati- 
ble with  the  possession  of  like  liberty  by  every 
other  man "  (H.  Spencer,  Social  Statics, 
chapter  iv. 

SPIES.     See  CHICAGO  ANARCHISTS. 

SPOILS  SYSTEM.— This  is  the  name 
usually  given  to  the  custom  of  considering  the 
bestowal  of  public  offices,  by  the  party  in 
power,  on  the  partizans  of  the  party  as  a  re- 
ward for  service  to  the  party  in  elections,  etc. 
It  develops  rings,  bosses,  and  corruption.  (For 
further  consideration  of  it,  see  CIVIL  SERVICE 
REFORM.) 

STANDARD  OF  COMFORT.— Many  men 

believe  that  wages  depend  on  the  standard  of 
comfort  of  the  class  -of  men  receiving  the 
wages.  They  argue  that  if  wages  fall  materi- 
ally below  what  will  enable  men  to  maintain 
their  "  standard  of  comfort,"  they  will  usually 
strike  or  agitate  in  some  way  for  higher  wages, 


Standard  Oil  Monopoly. 


1285 


State,  The. 


that,  on  the  other  hand,  if  wages  are  high 
enough  to  maintain  their  standard  of  living, 
they  will  remain  usually  content;  and  there- 
fore, that  the  way  to  raise  wages  is  to  raise 
the  standard  of  comfort,  while  all  that  tends 
to  make  living  cheaper  tends,  other  things  be- 
ing equal,  to  lower  wages.  (For  a  full  discus- 
sion of  this,  see  SHORT-HOUR  MOVEMENT,  also 
WAGES.) 

STANDARD  OIL  MONOPOLY.— This  fa- 
mous monopoly  originated  in  the  South  Im- 
provement Company,  organized  January  2, 
1872,  to  control  the  carrying  of  oil.  It  agreed 
to  furnish  the  Pennsylvania,  Erie,  and  New 
York  Central  railways  a  fair  division  of  freight 
traffic  and  was  to  receive  a  secret  rebate  of 
from  40  cents  to  $3.07  per  barrel,  and  was 
guaranteed  "against  loss  or  injury  by  com- 
petition." A  storm  of  opposition  arose.  The 
plan  failed,  but  the  idea  remained,  and  the 
Standard  Oil  Company  was  formed  to  carry 
out  the  idea,'  and  by  1874  had  the  railways 
committed  to  its  interests.  With  this  start  the 
company  gradually  grew  till  it  became  a  com- 
plete monopoly,  built  an  oil  pipe  to  the  sea- 
board, went  into  the  refining  business,  and 
destroyed  all  competitors.  It  has  been  relent- 
less and  without  scruple  in  the  attainment  of 
its  ends.  We  give  some  instances, 

In  Mr.  H.  D.  Lloyd's  Wealth  Against  Commonwealth 
(pp.  243-258)  he  shows  how  the  magnates  of  the  Stand- 
ard Oil  monopoly  were  indicted  as  sharers  in  a  con- 
spiracy to  blow  up  the  oil-works  of  a  competitor, 
involving  loss  of  life  as  well  as  property.  A  grand 
jury  found  that  the  facts  warranted  indictment.  This 
was  quashed  on  technical  grounds.  A  second  grand 
jury  agreed  with  the  first,  and  the  magnates  were 
brought  to  trial.  They  got  the  ablest  lawyers  to 
defend  them.  Among  them  were  the  lawyers  who 
made  the  speeches  nominating  Mr.  Cleveland  for 
sheriff,  mayor.  Governor,  and  President.  The  oil 
magnates  treated  thi  matter  as  a  huge  joke.  They 
were  put  on  trial,  but  after  the  affair  had  gone  a  little 
way,  a  lawyer  moved  that  the  magnates  be  dis- 
charged from  the  trial,  and  the  trial  be  limited  to  the 
resident  managers  of  the  local  company  accused  of 
plotting  the  blowing  up  of  the  rival  works.  The 
judge  then  announced  that  he -had  decided  to  grant 
the  discharge.  The  case,  therefore,  as  far  as  these 
magnates  were  concerned,  did  not  go  to  the  jury. 
Against  the  local  managers  it  went  on,  and  on  May  18, 
1887,  they  were  found  guilty.  A  stay,  however,  was 
granted  by  the  judge  till  December.  The  judge, 
however,  later  decided  against  a  new  trial,  and  the 
case  was  carried  to  higher  courts.  When  the  time 
for  trial  came  on  petitions  for  mercy  were  circulated 
in  Buffalo  and  Rochester.  Six  of  the  jury  were  in- 
duced to  sign  a  recantation.  The  district  attorney 
offered  later  in  court  to  show  that  they  were  bought. 
Finally,  however,  sentence  was  pronounced ;  the 
lightest  which  the  law  allowed,  a  fine  of  $250.  The 
judge  gave  this  light  judgment,  he  is  reported  by  the 
Buffalo  press  to  have  said,  because  it  had  come  to  his 
attention  that  civil  suits  had  been  brought  against 
the  managers  to  recover  damages  for  these  same 
overt  acts,  and  he  did  not  desire  to  punish  them  twice 
for  the  same  offense.  But  when  they  were  tried  for 
damage's  they  were  released  because  they  were  to  be 
punished  criminally.  In  1889  this  judge  was  renomi- 
nated  for  the  judgeship,  the  presiding  officer  of  the 
convention  being  president  of  a  great  railway.  The 
nomination  was  procured,  said  the  New  York  Times, 
by  the  influence  of  the  oil  trust.  The  papers  took  it 
up  and  he  was  defeated  ;  but  a  year  later  he  was 
nominated  by  both  parties  for  a  seat  in  the  Supreme 
Court  of  New  York  and  was  elected  for  14  years  to 
try  questions  affecting  trusts,  corporations,  etc. 

The  Standard  Oil  Company  unquestionably  bought 
the  election  of  Henry  R.  Payne  as  Senator  for  Ohio. 
The  people  did  not  even  know  he  was  a  candidate. 
Up  to  the  time  of  election  two-thirds  of  the  legislature 
were  for  George  H.  Pendleton  or  General  Ward.  But 
contrary  to  all  precedents  the  caucus  of  the  majority 


party  was  not  held  till  the  night  before  the  election, 
to  give  no  time  between  the  caucus  and  the  election. 
Contrary  to  precedents,  too,  the  nomination  was 
made  not  by  open  but  secret  ballot,  and  without 
debate.  The  people  of  Ohio  were  thunderstruck  to 
find  that  the  enemy  of  the  people  had  been  elected 
their  Senator.  Explicit  charges  of  corruption  were 
named.  The  names  of  legislators  who  had  been 
bought  were  made  public,  with  the  price  paid.  Mem- 
bers of  the  legislature  openly  stated  that  they  had 
received  $5000  for  their  votes.  The  scandal  was  made 
an  issue  in  the  next  election  and  a  legislature  was 
chosen  which  would  investigate  the  election.  The 
result  was  that  the  House  resolved  that  "  ample  testi- 
mony was  adduced  to  warrant  the  belief  that  .... 
the  seat  of  Henry  R.  Payne  as  Senator  of  the  United 
States  from  Ohio  was  purchased  by  the  corrupt  use  of 
money."  and  the  Senate  charged  that  the  election 
"was  procured  and  bought  by  the  corrupt  use  of 
money  ....  and  by  other  corrupt  means  and  prac- 
tises." Accusations  were  laid  before  Congress,  but 
the  case  was  finally  hushed  up.  Such  are  some  of  the 
sample  deeds  of  the  Standard  Oil  monopoly,  full  proof 
of  which,  together  with  other  points,  such  as  their 
influence  in  Congress,  and  even  in  Mr.  Cleveland's 
Cabinet,  will  be  found  in  Mr.  Lloyd's  remarkable  book, 
Wealth  against  Commonwealth.  It  is  claimed  that 
the  monopoly  has  done  good  because  it  has  lowered 
the  price  of  oil.  It  is  true  that  the  price  has  fallen, 
but  whether  this  is  due  to  the  Standard  Oil  Company 
is  an  open  question.  Probably  such  monopolies  do 
tend  to  cheapen  production,  but  the  question  is 
whether  such  powers  can  be  trusted  in  a  democratic 
state,  and  whether  under  public  monopoly  we  cannot 
have  all  the  advantages  of  combination  without  the 
presence  of  such  corrupting  corporations.  It  is  also 
claimed  that  the  Standard  Oil  monopoly  has  simply 
carried  out  on  a  large  scale  what  many  corporations 
do  in  a  smaller  way,  and  this  is  probably  true.  The. 
Standard  Oil  monopoly  was  attacked  in  the  courts  of 
Ohio  and  dissolved  as  illegal,  but  it  has  simply  re- 
organized under  another  form,  and  is  to-day  stronger 
than  ever. 

STANTON,   ELIZABETH,    nee  CADY, 

was  born  at  Johnstown,  N.  Y.,  in  1815.  In 
1840  she  married  Henry  B.  Stanton,  reformer, 
author,  and  State  senator.  Attending  the 
World's  Anti-Slavery  Convention  in  London 
she  met  Lucretia  Mott.  Till  1847  she  resided 
in  Boston,  Mass.,  but  then  removed  to  Seneca 
Falls,  N.  Y.,  and  in  1848  she  signed  with  Lu- 
cretia Mott  the  call  to  the  first  Woman's  Rights 
Convention,  which  met  July  17,  1848.  She  has 
devoted  her  life  to  this  cause,  addressing 
meetings,  attending  legislative  hearings,  and 
circulating  petitions.  She  has  thus  worked  in 
the  United  States,  Great  Britain,  and  France. 
She  canvassed  Kansas  in  1867,  and  Michigan 
in  1874.  She  was  President  of  the  National 
Association  till  1892.  She  was  president  of  the 
first  International  Council  of  Women,  held  at 
Washington  in  1888. 

STATE,  THE.— The  State,  says  Professor 
Burgess  (Political  Science  and  Constitutional 
Law,  vol.  i.  p.  51),  is  "a  particular  portion  of 
mankind  viewed  as  an  organized  unit."  With 
this  general  definition  in  mind  we  shall  in  this 
article  briefly  trace  the  development  of  the 
ideal  of  the  State.  (For  the  actual  historical 
development  of  organized  society,  see  articles 
SOCIOLOGY;  PRIMITIVE  PROPERTY;  and  FAMILY.) 

The  conception  of  the  State  which  first  pre- 
vailed in  Asia  and  also  in  Greece  recognized  it 
as  a  natural  part  of  the  world,  and,  like  the 
world,  the  gift  of  the  gods.  The  Asiatic  kings 
claimed  to  rule  by  right  divine,  and  usually  to 
be  descended  from  the  gods.  The  Greek  City- 
State  was  considered  of  divine  origin.  The 
State  represented  to  them  the  moral  order  of 


State,  The. 


1286 


State,  The. 


the  world,  in  which  human  nature  fulfils  its 
end.  The  State  was  not  a  machine,  but  an 
end  in  itself. 

Plato  says  (Rep.  v.  p.  462),  "  The  best  State  is  that 
which  approaches  most  nearly  to  the  condition  of  the 
individual.  If  a  part  of  the  body  suffers,  the  whole 
body  feels  the  hurt  and  sympathizes  altogether  with 
the  part  affected."  Aristotle  declares  that  "man  is 
by  nature  a  political  animal, "and  says  (Pol.  iii.  9  §  14) 
the  State  is  the  association  of  clans  and  village  com- 
munities in  a  complete  and  self-sufficing  life.'  "The 
State,"  he  says  (Pol.  i.  2  %  8),  "conies  into  being  for 
the  sake  of  mere  life,  but  exists  for  the  sake  of  the 
good  life."  The  Greek  State  is  all  in  all.  (See 
ATHENS.) 

The  Roman  ideal  follows  Greek  models,  but 
with  the  Roman  genius  for  jurisprudence  con- 
ceives of  law  as  the  creature  of  the  State,  and 
the  State  as  based  on  the  assent  of  the  people. 
Cicero  (De  Rep.  i.  26)  says  the  State  is  "the 
people  organized."  In  the  Middle  Ages  we 
have  Greek  ideals,  Roman  jurisprudence,  Ger- 
manic personal  liberty,  all  blending  with  Chris- 
tian teachings.  Both  Church  and  State  are 
conceived  as  coming  from  God.  Which  is 
supreme  ?  This  is  the  problem  of  the  Middle 
Ages.  We  have  also  attempts,  characteristic- 
ally based  on  the  Bible  precedent  of  the  cov- 
enant of  King  David  with  the  elders  of  Israel, 
to  show  that  the  State  rests  on  the  consent  of 
the  people.  We  have  finally  Saxon  love  of 
personal  liberty,  placing  the  individual  as  the 
center  and  not  the  State,  giving  the  germs  of 
constitutional  government.  Feudalism,  with 
its  personal  element,  its  homage  and  service, 
is  the  characteristic  form.  Gradually  from 
this  develops  the  centralized  State,  and 
Machiavelli  at  the  beginning  of  modern  times 
concerns  himself  with  the  policy  of  kings. 
Bodin  sees  in  the  State  "a  right  government, 
with  sovereign  power,  of  several  households 
and  their  common  possessions."  Grotius  calls 
the  State  "the  complete  union  of  free  men 
who  join  themselves  together  for  the  purpose 
of  enjoying  law  and  for  the  sake  of  public 
welfare."  This  is  the  transition  to  the  con- 
tract theory.  With  Protestantism  and  the 
dawn  of  modern  freedom  the  individual  is 
sovereign.  The  State  is  a  compact  between 
sovereign  individuals.  With  Hobbes,  how- 
ever, individuals  have  contracted  with  each 
other  to  give  over  their  rights  to  some  sov- 
ereign power,  and  henceforth,  having  given 
over  their  rights,  must  absolutely  obey  the 
sovereign.  He  says  (Leviathan,  Morley  ed., 
p.  84): 

"  The  State  is  established  by  a  covenant  of  every 
man  with  every  man  in  such  manner  as  it  every  man 
should  say  to  every  man,  '  I  authorize  and  give  up  my 
right  of  governing  myself  to  this  man  or  to  the  assem- 
bly of  men  on  this  condition,  that  those  give  up  their 
right  to  him  and  authorize  all  his  actions  in  like  man- 
ner.' This  done,  the  multitude  so  united  in  one  person 
is  called  a  commonwealth,  in  Latin  civitas.  This  is 
the  generation  of  that  great  'leviathan,'  or  rather  to 
speak  more  reverently,  of  that  'mortal  God  '  to  which 
we  owe,  under  the  immortal  God,  our  peace  and 
defense." 

With  Locke  the  State  is  also  the  result  of  a 
contract,  but  the  individuals  retain  their  sove- 
reignty and  we  have  constitutional  govern- 
ment, and  the  people  can  judge  the  king. 
Rousseau  carries  the  doctrine  of  individual 
sovereignty,  of  the  social  contract,  and  of  nat- 
ural rights  to  their  logical  extremes,  and  leads 


us  to  the  French  Revolution.  (See  NATURAL 
RIGHTS.)  In  America  the  same  doctrine  has 
led  to  the  various  bills  of  right  and  the  limita- 
tion of  government  to  that  which  the  people 
expressly  allow  the  government  to  do  in  their 
charters  and  Constitution.  The  result  is  the 
tying  of  the  hands  of  legislation  by  the  dead 
hand  of  constitutions  framed  for  other  days 
and  only  with  the  greatest  difficulty  to  be 
changed.  (See  CONSTITUTION  and  CONSTITU- 
TIONALISM.) 

Revolting  from  the  results  of  the  French 
Revolution,  the  historical  school  denied  that 
the  State  was  in  any  such  sense  the  result  of  a 
contract.  Savigny  (System  des  rom.  Richts, 
i.  p.  22)  calls  the  State  "  the  bodily  form  of  the 
spiritual  community  of  the  nations,"  or  "  the 
organic  manifestation  of  the  nation."  Burke 
says  (Reflections  on  the  Revolution  in  France): 

"  Society  is  indeed  a  contract.  Subordinate  con- 
tracts for  objects  of  mere  occasional  interest  may  be 
dissolved  at  pleasure.  But  the  State  ought  not  to  be 
considered  as  nothing  better  than  a  partnership  agree- 
ment in  a  trade  of  pepper  and  coffee,  calico  or  tobacco, 
or  some  other  such  low  concern,  to  be  taken  up  for  a 
little  temporary  interest  and  to  be  dissolved  by  the 
fancy  of  the  parties.  It  is  to  be  looked  upon  with 
other  reverence,  because  it  is  not  a  partnership  in 
things  subservient  only  to  the  gross  animal  existence 
of  a  temporary  and  perishable  nature.  It  is  a  partner- 
ship in  all  science,  a  partnership  in  all  art,  a  partner- 
ship in  every  virtue  and  in  all  perfection.  As  the  ends 
of  such  partnership  cannot  be  obtained  in  many  gener- 
ations, it  becomes  a  partnership  not  only  between 
those  who  are  living  but  between  those  who  are  living, 
and  those  who  are  dead,  and  those  who  are  to  be  born. 
Each  contract  in  each  particular  State  is  but  a  clause 
in  the  great  primeval  contract  of  eternal  society." 

Buckle  strives  to  explain  the  State  by  a  con- 
sideration of  the  forces  of  nature.  The  Ger- 
mans have  developed  a  more  ideal  conception 
of  the  State.  Kant  calls  it  "a  collective 
being"  (Werke,  ed.  Rosenkranz,  vii.  197). 
Hegel  says,  "The  State  is  the  realization  of 
the  moral  idea.  It  is  the  moral  spirit  as  sub- 
stantial will."  Bluntschli,  uniting  the  German 
idealism  and  the  modern  historical  view,  says 
(The  Theory  of  the  State,  tr. ,  bk.  i.  chap,  i): 
"  The  State  is  a  combination  or  association  of 
men,  in  the  form  of  government  and  governed 
on  a  definite  territory,  united  together  into  a 
moral  organized  masculine  personality;  or, 
more  shortly,  the  State  is  the  politically  organ- 
ized national  person  of  a  definite  country." 
The  present  tendency  in  England  and  America 
is  to  discard  all  abstract  theories  of  natural 
rights  and  to  ask  what  is  the  actual  content 
of  the  State  idea.  Hence  Professor  Burgess' 
definition,  as  quoted  above,  "  A  particular  por- 
tion of  mankind  viewed  as  an  organized  unit." 

Bluntschli  finds  as  necessary  to  the  concept  of  a  State 
(i)  a  number  of  men,  (2)  a  fixed  territory,  (3)  unity, 
mainly  developed  by  history,  (4)  an  organic  nature,  (5) 
a  moral  and  spiritual  character,  (6)  a  masculine  per- 
sonality. He  says,  "The  highest  conception  of  the 
State— which,  however,  has  not  yet  been  realized— is 
humanity  organized." 

Professor  Burgess  (Political  Science  and 
Comparative  Constitutional  Law,  vol.  i.) 

considers  as  "the  peculiar  characteristics  of  the  or- 
ganization which  we  call  the  State  "  (i)  that  it  is 
all-comprehensive.  "Its  organization  embraces  all 
persons,  natural  or  legal,  and  all  associations  of  per- 
sons." (2)  It  is  exclusive.  "Political  science  and 
public  law  do  not  recognize  the  existence  of  an  impe- 
rium  in  imperio .  (3)  It  is  permanent.  "It  does  not 


State,  The. 


1287 


Statistics. 


lie  within  the  power  of  men  to  create  it  to-day  and 
destroy  it  to-morrow,  as  caprice  may  move  them." 
(4)  The  State  is  sovereign.  "  This  is  its  most  essential 
principle." 

Concerning  sovereignty  Professor  Burgess 
•says  : 

•"I  understand  by  it  original,  absolute,  unlimited, 
universal  power  over  the  individual  subject  and  over 
all  associations  of  subjects.  This  is  a  proposition  from 
which  most  of  the  publicists  down  to  the  most  modern 
period  have  labored  hard  to  escape.  It  has  appeared 
to  them  to  contain  the  destruction  of  individual  liberty 
and  individual  rights.  .  .  .  They  do  not  sufficiently  dis- 
tinguish the  State  from  the  government.  They  see  the 
danger  to  individual  liberty  of  recognizing  an  unlimited 
power  in  the  government,  and  they  immediately  con- 
clude that  the  same  danger  exists  if  the  sovereignty  of 
the  State  be  recognized.  .  .  .  The  unlimited  sover- 
eignty of  the  State  is  not  hostile  to  individual  liberty, 
but  is  its  source  and  support.  Deprive  the  State,  either 
wholly  or  in  part,  of  the  power  to  determine  the  ele- 
ments and  the  scope  of  individual  liberty,  and  the 
results  must  be  that  each  individual  will  make  such 
determination,  wholly  or  in  part,  for  himself  :  that  the 
determinations  of  different  individuals  will  come  into 
conflict  with  each  other,  and  that  those  individuals 
only  who  have  power  to  help  themselves  will  remain 
free,  reducing  the  rest  to  personal  subjection.  .  .  .  No 
State  has  made  liberty  so  full  and  general  as  the  mod- 
ern national  popular  State.  Now  the  modern  national 
popular  State  is  the  most  perfectly  and  undisputedly 
sovereign  organization  of  the  State  which  the  world 
has  yet  attained." 

Concerning  the  forms  of  the  State  Aristotle 
found  three  primitive  forms,  monarchy,  aristoc- 
racy, and  "polity."  He  uses  democracy  only 
in  a  bad  sense,  the  three  perversions  of  the 
State  being  with  him  tyranny,  oligarchy, 
and  democracy  or  ochlocracy.  Others  have 
added  "  the  mixed  State."  (Concerning  these 
forms  see  articles  ARISTOCRACY;  DEMOCRACY; 
MONARCHY  ;  PLUTOCRACY  ;  FEDERALISM  ;  SOV- 
EREIGNTY.) 

STATE  RIGHTS.— From  1789  to  1870  the 
question  of  State  Rights,  or  the  question  of 
the  rights  of  the  respective  States  of  the 
United  States  in  reference  to  the  Federal 
Government,  was  a  burning  question.  (For  a 
discussion  of  the  history,  see  CENTRALIZATION, 
also  CONSTITUTION.)  In  1830  occurred  the  cele- 
brated debate  between  Mr.  Webster  and  Mr. 
Hayne  upon  this  question,  and  South  Carolina 
claimed  the  right  of  Nullification.  This  led 
eventually  to  secession  and  the  war  of  1861-65, 
which  settled  the  doctrine,  in  most  respects 
at  least,  against  the  believers  in  State  sov- 
ereignty if  not  in  State  Rights. 

Says  Mr.  James  Bryce  (American  Common- 
wealth, first  edition,  chap,  xxxvi.): 

What,  then,  do  the  rights  of  a  State  now  include  ? 
Every  right  or  power  of  a  government,  except : 

The  right  of  secession  (not  abrogated  in  terms,  but 
admitted  since  the  war  to  be  no  longer  claimable.  It 
is  expressly  negatived  in  the  recent  constitutions  of 
several  Southern  States). 

Powers  which  the  Constitution  withholds  from  the 
States  (including  that  of  intercourse  with  foreign 
governments). 

Powers  which  the  Constitution  expressly  confers  on 
the  Federal  Government. 

STATE  SOCIALISM.     See  SOCIALISM. 

STATISTICS.  —  Definition  :  Moreau  de 
Jounes  tersely  defines  statistics  as  the  "  sci- 
ence of  social  facts,  numerically  expressed." 
But  since  statistics  are  far  from  including  all 
social  facts,  and  in  our  day  include  many  other 
groups  of  phenomena — e.  g. ,  natural  phenom- 


ena in  meteorology — the  definition  cannot 
make  any  claim  to  exactness.  As  it  contains, 
however,  the  essential  elements  of  a  correct 
definition,  it  needs  only  to  be  transposed.  We 
should  define  statistics  to  be  the  "  numerical 
expression  of  facts,  mainly  social." 

From  crude    beginnings  statistics    has   developed 
step  by  step,  as  our  knowledge  of  the  facts  to  which  it 
is  commonly  applied  has  grown   more 
profound,  and  as  the  need  for  exact  ex- 
pression has  been  more  generally  felt.       TTiof nvw 
Without  preserving  any  accurate  rec-      -History. 
ords,  history  frequently  alludes  to  cen- 
sus operations  and  the  like  in  Egypt, 
Judea,  Greece,  and  Rome.     When  Joseph  went  up  to 
Bethlehem  to  be  taxed  in  the  reign  of  Augustus,  he 
also  went  up  to  be  counted. 

The  stormy  Middle  Ages  were  ruled  by  the  sword 
rather  than  the  law.  But  they  have  preserved  some 
monuments,  which  show  us  statistical  records  even 
under  such  government  as  then  existed.  Of  these  the 
most  notable  is  the  Doomsday  Book  of  the  Conqueror,  a 
wonderfully  detailed  land  register  of  the  regions 
which  he  had  brought  under  his  sway.  But  it  is  espe- 
cially with  the  growth  of  the  modern  State  that  statis- 
tical records  multiplied.  The  seats  of  government 
became  vast  depositories  of  records,  containing 
precious  information  of  home  and  foreign  affairs. 

Though  in  the  main  secret,  it  was  unavoidable  that 
such  information  should  gradually  come  to  be  made 
public.    It  was  natural  that  scholars, 
and  especially  officials  with  access  to 
archives,  should  conceive  the  idea  of  -Rac-jnT.,'...,.- 
putting  this  information  into  system-  -Beg11111"1!?8' 
atic  forms.    The  earliest  precursor  of 
the  modern  Statesman's  Year-Book  was 
the  Cosmographia  of  Sebastian  Muenster,  1536-44.    It 
is  a  description  of  the  world  as  then  known.   Geograph- 
ical, political,  legal,  and  economic  information  is  curi- 
ously blended.     He  found  many  imitators  in  various 
languages.     A  characteristic  work  of  this  class  is  that 
of  Thomas  Salmon,   The  Present  State  of  All  Na- 
tions, 1724. 

With  the  introduction  of  the  subject  into  the  uni- 
versities came  the  effort  at  greater  systematization. 
Gottfried  Achenwall,  professor  at  Gottingen,  called 
this  collection  of  facts  statistics,  and  aimed  at  a  treat- 
ment of  the  facts  concerning  each  State  according  to  a 
uniform  plan.  The  word  statistics  is  derived  from  the 
phrase  of  the  former  Latin  lecturer's  res  statistics — 
the  things  of  the  State.  Everything  which  pertained 
to  the  State  in  its  broadest  acceptation— whether  legal, 
political,  administrative,  or  economic — was  held  to  be 
the  proper  subject  of  statistics. 

It  will  be  seen,  moreover,  that  such  a  body  of  in- 
formation could  have  coherence  only  so  long  as  there 
were  no  claimants  with  a  better  title  to  the  various 
component  parts.  Very  early  in  the  present  century, 
however,  constitutional  law,  historical  jurisprudence, 
and  geography,  successively  claimed  their  own. 
There  was  nothing  left  to  the  statisticians  but  an  ill- 
assorted  residuum,  into  which  no  life  could  be 
breathed,  and  statistics  in  the  old  sense  broke  down. 

In  the  meantime,  a  distinct  branch  of  statistical 
learning  had  been  developed.  This  branch  was  vital 
statistics. 

In  early  times  the  Church  kept  scanty  registers  of 
baptisms,  marriages,  and  burials.  With  the  reorgan- 
ization following  the  Reformation,  the  matter  re- 
ceived the  attention  of  the  authorities,  and  careful 
registration  was  required.  These  registers  had  been 
introduced  into  London  before  1600,  and  abstracts 
were  published  weekly.  John  Graunt  appears  to  be 
the  first  to  have  made  a  careful  study  of  the  figures. 

The  mathematician  Edmund  Hafley,  in  1693,  pre- 
pared a  life-table  in  which,  from  a  series  of  observa- 
tions in  Dresden,  he  shows  what  proportion  of  per- 
sons born  in  a  given  year  will  die  or  survive  in  each 
succeeding  year.  However  defective  in  the  details  of 
its  working  out,  Halley  had  grasped  a  general  prin- 
ciple which  had  in  it  great  possibilities.  Its  applica- 
tion to  life  insurance  and  to  annuities  is  obvious,  and 
later  mathematicians  and  practical  men  devoted  them- 
selves with  energy  and  success  to  a  more 
scientific  expression  of  the  principle.  Modern 

Before  the  beginning  of  the  present    „ 
century  regularly  organized  official  in-    statistics, 
vestigations  were  rare.    In  Sweden  and 
Neufchatel  census  enumerations  had  taken  place  be- 
fore 1750,  but  methods  were  crude  and  results  only 
summary. 


Statistics. 


1288 


Statistics. 


Political  necessity  prescribed  the  census  in  the 
United  States  Constitution,  and  presided  over  the 
first  enumeration  in  1791.  It  is  characteristic  that  one 
of  the  first  acts  of  the  new  era  in  France  was  to  com- 
mission Lavoisier  to  collect,  so  far  as  possible,  all  the 
information  necessary  to  prepare  reforms  in  finance 
and  administration.  We  cannot  trace  here  the  suc- 
cessive steps  by  which  the  field  of  official  investiga- 
tion was  enlarged;  suffice  it  to  say  that  in  all  countries 
statistical  bureaus  were  established,  and  the  statis- 
tical functions  of  the  ordinary  administrative  bureaus 
greatly  increased. 

In  the  early  part  of  the  century  the'  efforts  of 
statisticians  were  exhausted  in  the  elaborate  prepara- 
tion and  execution  of  the  various  statistical  problems 
which  presented  themselves  to  the  governments. 
The  result  was  a  great  furtherance  of  statistical 
method,  which  found  its  best  expression  in  the  work 
of  the  international  statistical  congresses. 

Eight  sessions  took  place  between  1853  and  1876, 
composed  of  representatives  of  the  statistical  offices 
of  Europe  and  the  United  States. 

In  1887  the  time  seemed  ripe  for  a  new  interna- 
tional organ,  and  the  International  Institute  of  Sta- 
tistics was  formed.  Unlike  the  congresses,  it  has  no 
official  character,  and  the  limitation  of  membership 
secures  the  professional  character  of  the  organization. 

We  have  seen  how  the  old  grouping  of  facts  about 
the  State  had  to  give  way.  The  next  grouping  was 
about  society.  In  1835  Quetelet  (1796-1874)  published 
his  work  Sur  I'ffomme,  which  he  designated  as  an 
attempt  at  social  physics.  The  work  had  a  great 
vogue,  tho  the  apparent  naked  determinism  of  its 
conclusions  brought  out  a  host  of  adversaries.  If 
crime  was  the  result  of  social  institutions,  the  whole 
doctrine  of  free  will  seemed  badly  shaken.  Hence  the 


philosophers  were  the  first  to  make  reply.  •  Somewhat 
later  the  statistical  evidence  was  more  largely  ad- 
duced. It  was  shown  that  the  regularity  was  by  no 


means  so  constant  as  to  permit  the  predicate  of  law, 
but  simply  to  point  out  the  essential  constancy  of 
motives  and  conditions,  while  the  actual  variations, 
as  in  rates  of  suicide,  were  the  most  conclusive  evi- 
dence of  the  freedom  of  choice. 

In  recent  years  the  attempt  to  group  all  the  facts 
of  statistical  experience  under  a  common  designation 
has  been  abandoned,  and  the  effort  made  to  systema- 
tize and  analyze  the  processes  of  statistical  thought. 
Thus  has  been  established  the  methodological  science 
of  statistics,  equally  applicable  in  practise  to  all 
branches  of  statistical  investigation.  Perhaps  the 
most  prominent  exponent  of  this  doctrine  isMeitzen. 

Statistical  Processes. — The  first  step  in 
statistics  is  enumeration.  A  carefully  defined 
unit  must  be  accxirately  counted  in  a  pre- 
scribed field  of  investigation.  This  pri- 
mary step  is  simple,  but  oftentimes  very 
troublesome,  and  not  possible  unless  backed 
by  governmental  authority.  If  it  be  an  enu- 
meration of  the  people  that  is  to  be  under- 
taken, it  must  be  distinctly  understood  what 
characteristics  are  to  be  counted,  care  must  be 
exercised  that  there  are  no  omissions  or  dupli- 
cations, and  the  area  within  which  each  enu- 
merator is  to  act  must  be  clearly  defined. 
Those  who  use  statistics  are  forced  to  assume 
the  correctness  of  the  original  data.  The 
perfection  of  methods  is  the  task  of  the  official 
statistician. 

The  results  of  any  enumeration  in  the  first 
instance  mean  nothing.  They  acquire  signifi- 
cance only  by  comparison.  This  is  the  second 
process  of  statistical  thought.  The  ruies  of 
such  a  comparison,  while  simple  in  appearance, 
are  not  so  easy  of  application.  They  are  that 
the  unit  counted  should  be  the  same,  and  the 
groups  in  their  essential  attributes  analogous. 
Let  us,  for  example,  attempt  to  compare  the 
criminality  of  theUnited  States  and  of  England. 
Whatever  test  we  take — prisoners  or  convictions 
in  relation  to  population — the  attempt  is  fraught 
with  difficulty.  English  law  is  not  our  law; 
it  may  know  offenses  that  are  here  unknown, 


and  vice  versa.  Again,  the  groups  themselves 
may  be  distinct,  tho  apparently  analogous.' 
Thus,  supposing  the  laws  to  be  approximately 
uniform  and  equally  enforced,  a  comparison 
of  the  amount  of  crime  in  Illinois  and  Nevada 
might  be  defective.  The  latter  is  essentially 
a  mining  camp,  with  a  preponderance  of 
male  adults.  It  cannot  properly  be  compared 
with  a  State  population  in  a  well-settled 
country. 

The  comparisons  which  have  been  made  are, 
in  the  main,  descriptive  only.  They  tell  us 
that  within  a  certain  group  there  are  a  certain 
number  of  a  particular  unit.  This  descriptive 
knowledge  is  often  as  far  as  the  statistical 
method  will  go,  but  in  some  cases  further  con- 
clusions may  be  reached. 

By  collecting  together  a  great  many  com- 
parisons of  a  similar  kind,  we  observe  a  certain 
constancy  in  the  phenomena.  This  statistical 
regularity  we  consider  normal.  Gradually  we 
extend  this  conception  to  fields  not  hitherto- 
explored,  so  that  when  the  results  of  the  first 
inquiry  are  reached  they  are  commonly  ac- 
cepted as  characteristic  until  proved  otherwise. 
In  all  phenomena  we  expect  this  regularity 
of  occurrence.  We  do  this  in  accordance  with 
the  law  of  probability,  which  teaches  us  that 
like  causes  and  conditions,  even  if  unknown 
and  undetermined,  produce  like  effects.  If 
we  see  any  deviation  from  the  usual  results, 
we  are  instantly  led  to  a  supposition  of  changed 
catises  or  conditions.  By  analyzing  the  sup- 
posed causes  and  finding  which  one  shows 
fluctuations  in  quantity  directly  or  inversely  in 
proportion  to  the  quantitative  changes  of  the 
result,  we  may  infer  that  a  causal  connection 
exists  between  the  two  facts.  Through  a  series- 
of  observations  we  may  arrive  at  a  very  clear 
understanding  of  the  causes  of  phenomena. 

Every  statistical  process  is,  as  we  have  seen, 
an   elaborate   system  of  weighing  and   com- 
paring numerical  relations.     The 
limits  which   are  placed  upon  it 
are  the  difficulty  of  its  primary     Limits  of 
operations  and  the  restricted  mass    Statistics, 
of    accumulated  experience  with 
which  comparisons  can  be  made. 
There    is  a  constant  effort    to  overstep  the 
limits  which  have  been  set  for  statistical  effort 
by  these  two  factors.     Hence  a  study  of  these 
limitations  will  serve  to  illustrate  what  has 
already  been  said,  and  place  us  on  our  guard 
against  error. 

The  theoretical  requirement  that  all  the 
units  be  counted  is  probably  seldom  absolutely 
fulfilled.  It  is,  however,  of  prime  importance, 
and  should  always  be  approximated.  Other- 
wise comparisons  certainly  become  faulty. 
This  is  especially  true  when  we  wish  to  com- 
pare the  aggregates  of  two  distinct  groups,  as 
population  \yith  area.  Hence  we  must  deal 
cautiously  with  all  comparisons  of  this  class. 
Oftentimes  the  object  cannot  be  counted  di- 
rectly, and  some  symptomatic  feature  must  be 
taken.  In  earlier  days  insanity  in  a  family  was 
secreted,  and  hospitals  for  the  insane  were  not 
numerous.  It  is  probable  that  statistics  of 
insanity  at  that  date  are  defective,  and  a  com- 
parison with  the  population  gives  a  ratio  of 
insanity  which  falls  short  of  the  truth. 


Statistics. 


1289 


Stead,  William  T\ 


On  the  other  hand  the  law  of  regularity 
teaches  us  that  for  all  inquiries  the  absolute 
number  of  the  phenomena  is  not  necessary. 
That  rule  teaches  us  that  what  is  true  of  the 
whole  is  true  of  the  part,  other  things  being 
equal.  Experience  must  teach  us  how  far  we 
shall  apply  the  rule.  The  converse  of  the  rule 
is  the  law  of  large  numbers,  which  simply 
means  that  the  larger  the  number  of  observa- 
tions the  more  accidental  conditions  tend  to 
neutralize  each  other.  Hence  we  may  in  a 
large  group  study  conditions  prevailing  in  the 
group,  though  we  cannot  compare  it  with 
another  class  of  phenomena.  Such  groups 
may  be  said  to  furnish  material  for  the  quan- 
titative study  of  a  phenomenon  rather  than  a 
quantitative  estimate  of  its  aggregate  impor- 
tance. 

What  has  been  said  about  the  necessity  of 
counting  all  the  units  applies  with  equal  force 
to  the  delimitation  of  the  field.  There  are 
some  cases  where  it  is  essential,  others  where 
it  is  not  absolutely  necessary. 

In  comparison  the  analogy  of  the  groups  is 
essential.  This  is  based  upon  general  charac- 
teristics. If  the  groups  are  apparently  analo- 
gous, though  not  actually  so  in  conditions 
essential  to  the  problem  in  hand,  the  compari- 
son is  vitiated.  An  illustration  will  best  show 
the  force  of  the  statement.  The  number  of 
prisoners  in  the  United  States  of  foreign  birth 
is  commonly  compared  with  the  population  of 
foreign  birth,  native-born  prisoners  with  native- 
born  population.  This  overlooks  the  fact  that 
the  population  of  foreign  birth  consists  mainly 
of  adults,  while  the  native-born  population  is 
composed  to  the  extent  of  nearly  one-half  of 
minors.  Compare  prisoners,  therefore,  with 
adult  population  in  both  cases,  and  the  result 
will  be  quite  different  from  that  usually  cited. 

A  keen  search  should  always  be  made  for  a 
strict  analogy  in  the  groups  compared.  If  it 
cannot  be  found — if,  for  instance,  in  the  exam- 
ple cited  no  facts  as  to  age  were  known — we  can 
only  vaguely  estimate  the  effect  of  such  diver- 
gencies. The  comparison  would  be  made,  but 
we  should  not  know  how  much  of  the  deviation 
of  the  result  was  ascribable  to  faulty  analogy, 
how  much  to  other  causes.  Thus  we  may  com- 
pare the  births  in  a  country  district  with  the 
entire  population,  those  of  a  city  with  its  popu- 
lation. If  by  any  cause  there  is  in  the  one 
population  a  greater  proportion  of  women  in 
the  child-bearing  age,  this  may  of  itself  explain 
the  different  results  without  resort  to  other 
explanations. 

The  judgment  of  causality  is  much  more 
complex  than  that  of  quantity.  There  is  so 
much  more  chance  of  error  in  the  preliminary 
processes,  in  defective  enumeration,  misplaced 
comparisons,  that  all  judgments  of  causality 
must  be  most  carefully  scrutinized.  It  is  char- 
acteristic of  our  thought  that  we 
instinctively  generalize,  often  from 

Validity,  a  very  narrow  basis  of  observation. 
In  statistics  every  judgment  is  in 
the  first  instance  limited  to  a  very 
narrow  range  of  phenomena.  Hence  the  ob- 
served conditions  cannot  be  taken  as  "laws" 
of  society,  for  in  statistical  matters  our  expe- 
rience is  brief.  What  we  discover  applies  in 


the  main  to  the  nineteenth  century.  We  can- 
not tell  how  it  was  before  that  time,  or  what 
may  come  after.  The  constancy  of  statistical 
observations  requires  the  constancy  of  condi- 
tions under  which  the  phenomena  arose.  But 
change  is  the  very  essence  of  history. 

As  conditions  vary  in  the  course  of  time  in  a. 
given  area,  they  also  differ  locally.  Our  obser- 
vations in  statistical  matters  hardly  extend 
beyond, the  limits  of  the  nations  of  occidental 
civilization.  Among  them  there  are  the  most 
diverse  conditions  of  political,  social,  and  eco- 
nomic life. 

It  is  no  wonder,  then,  that  statistics  should 
have  fallen  sometimes  into  hands  incapable  of 
using  so  delicate  an  instrument.  With  them  it 
has  been  made  to  give  the  most  absurd  pic- 
tures of  actual  life,  like  a  magic  lantern  with  a 
defective  lens.  Hence  it  is  not  strange  that 
objection  is  often  made  to  the  untrustworthi- 
ness  of  statistics. 

Drink  is  said  to  be  the  main  cause  of  crime 
because  such  a  large  percentage  of  prisoners 
admit  that  they  use  liquors.  The  fact  is  cor- 
rect, but  we  should  at  least  examine  whether 
the  use  of  liquors  and  crime  were  not  two  mani- 
festations of  a  common  cause,  instead  of  being 
themselves  in  a  causal  relation.  Most  of  the 
inmates  of  prison  claim  to  have  a  religion; 
therefore  religion  does  not  prevent  crime. 
Not  absolutely  indeed.  It  did  not  in  the  case 
of  these  men,  but  it  may  have  done  so  in  hosts 
of  cases,  and  may  be  a  powerful  aid  to  social 
order. 

These  illustrations  have  been  used  not  to 
take  sides  on  any  of  the  positions  presented, 
either  for  or  against.  They  show  the  possi- 
bility of  error  from  premises  some  of  which 
are  statistical, .  but  no  one  would  claim  that 
they  were  statistical  errors. 

It  is  the  aim  of  statistical  science  to  clear  up 
any  mystery  that  may  attach  to  their  use  and 
thus  render  them  an  effective  means  of  inquiry 
wherever  the  conditions  of  a  statistical  problem, 
are  found. 

ROLAND  P.  FALKNER. 

References :  Meitzen,  A.,  History,  Theory,  and  Tech. 
nique  of  Statistics  ;  Newsholme,  A.,  Vital  Statistics  ; 
Fair,  W.,  Vital  Statistics  ;  Mayo-Smith,  R.,  Statistics 
and  Sociology. 

STEAD,  WILLIAM  T.,  was  born  at  Em- 
bleton,  Northumberland,  in  1849,  the  son  of  a 
Congregational  minister.  Educated  at  home 
and  at  Wakefield,  he  left  school  at  the  age  of 
14,  and  served  as  an  office  boy  in  mercantile 
offices.  In  1871  he  became  editor  of  the  North- 
ern Echo,  a  Darlington  daily.  In  1880  he  be- 
came assistant  editor  to  Mr.  J.  Morley  on  the 
Pall  Mall  Gazette,  and  in  1883  took  control 
of  the  paper,  introducing  in  England  what 
Matthew  Arnold  calls  the  new  journalism.  In 

1885  he  published    The    Maiden    Tribute  of 
Modern  Babylon,  an  exposure  of  immorality 
in  London  society,  and  leading  to  the  Criminal 
Law  Amendment  Act  of  the  same  year.     In 

1886  he  visited  Ireland  and  published  his  No 
Reduction,  No  Rent.     In  1888  he  went  to  Rus- 
sia and  wrote  The  Truth  About  Russia.     In 
1889  he  went  to  Rome  and  wrote  concerning 
the  Vatican  in  1890.     In  1890,  leaving  the  Pall 


Stead,  William  T. 


1290 


Stocker,  Adolf. 


Mall  Gazette,  he  established  the  Review  of 
^Reviews,  and  in  1893  he  established  Border- 
land, devoted  to  psychical  phenomena.  He 
has  also  interested  himself  in  the  Civic  Church 
(g.  v.).  In  1893  he  visited  the  World's  Fair  at 
Chicago  and  wrote  If  Christ  Came  to 
Chicago. 

STEEL.    See  IRON  AND  STEEL  INDUSTRIES. 

STEIN,  HEINRICH  FRIEDRICH 
KARL,  BARON  VON,  was  born  in  Nassau, 
Germany,  in  1757.  Studying  at  Gottingen, 
from  1773  to  1777,  in  1780  he  entered  the  service 
of  Prussia  as  an  official  in  the  mining  depart- 
ment. Rising  in  office,  he  was  made  in  1804 
Minister  of  State.  He  abolished  serfdom  and 
internal  custom  duties  in  Prussia,  and  intro- 
duced other  reforms  which  largely  payed  the 
way  to  German  unity.  Frederick  William  III. 
dismissed  him  in  1 807  on  account  of  his  criticism 
of  the  royal  policy,  but  was  obliged  to  recall  him 
to  office  six  months  later,  till  Napoleon  com- 
pelled the  king  to  finally  dismiss  him.  In  Rus- 
sia and  in  Germany,  however,  Stein  worked 
against  Napoleon,  and  after  Napoleon's  down- 
fall Stein  became  president  of  a  central  com- 
mission to  administer  the  lands  occupied  by 
the  allied  armies.  After  this  he  refused  an 
office  and  lived  in  retirement  in  Frankfort  and 
Westphalia  till  his  death  in  Westphalia  in 
1831. 

STEIN,  LORENZ  VON,  was  born  at  Eck- 
ernforde  in  1815.  Raised  in  orphanage,  he 
was  enabled  by  Frederick  VI.  to  study  at  Kiel 
and  Jena.  Traveling  in  France,  he  met  in 
Paris  Cabet,  Louis  Blanc,  Reybaud,  and  other 
Fourierist  socialists,  and  published  in  1844  Der 
Sozialismus  und  Kommunismus  des  heutegen 
Frank erich.  In  1846  he  became  professor 
at  Kiel,  and  published  various  books,  among 
others  his  System  der  Staatwissenschaft  (1852). 
In  1852  he  lost  his  position,  but  in  1855  became 
professor  of  political  economy  at  Vienna. 
Here  he  published,  among  other  writings, 
Lehrbuch  der  Volkswirtschaft  (1858),  Lenr- 
buchder  Finanzwissenschaft  (1860),  and  above 
all  his  groat  Die  Verwaltungslehre  (7  vols., 
1865),  long  an  authority  in  administrative  sci- 
ence. He  died  in  Vienna  in  1890. 

STEPHENS,  URIAH  SMITH,  was  born 
near  Cape  May  in  New  Jersey,  in  1821.  Of 
Quaker  ancestry,  he  was  educated  for  the  Bap- 
tist ministry,  but  was  compelled  to  learn  a 
trade  and  became  a  tailor.  He  taught  school 
and  traveled  extensively,  but  mainly  followed 
his  trade  in  Philadelphia,  and  in  1869  was  the 
main  founder  of  the  Knights  of  Labor  (q.  v.}. 
He  was  the  first  Master  Workman  of  Assembly 
No.  i,  and  in  1878  was  chosen  the  first  Grand 
Master  Workman.  He  died  in  1882. 

STEPNIAK,  SERGIUS  MICHAEL 
DROGOMANOFF,  was  born  in  the  Ukraine 
mountains  in  1841.  He  studied  at  Kieff,  and 
became  a  teacher  of  history  there,  and  professor 
in  1870,  but  was  removed  by  the  government 
in  1876,  and  driven  into  exile  because  of 
his  strictures  on  Count  Tolstoi.  He  had  writ- 


ten works,  as  early  as  1862,  which  had  been 
published,  and  he  now  went  to  Switzerland 
and  wrote  in  the  Little  Russian  dialect 
against  absolutism  and  for  democracy  in  Rus- 
sia. In  1885  he  removed  to  London.  He 
became  a  leading  authority  on  Russian  sub- 
jects, and  a  steady  worker  for  social  and 
political  reforms.  He  died  in  London,  Dec. 
23,  1895.  Among  his  numerous  works  are 
Underground  Russia  and  The  Career  of  a 
Nihilist. 

STEWARD,  IRA,  was  a  working  man  of 
English  birth,  known  as  the  father  of  the 
Eight-Hour  Philosophy.  With  Mr.  George  E. 
McNeill  and  others  he  founded  the  Boston 
Eight-Hour  League.  Mr.  Steward's  thoughts 
have  been  best  developed  by  Mr.  Gunton 
(q.  v.)  in  his  Wealth  and  Progress,  tho  in 
many  ways  Mr.  Gunton's  position  is  opposed 
to  Mr.  Steward's.  (See  SHORT-HOUR  MOVE- 
MENT.) 

STEWART,    SIR    JAMES    DENHAM, 

was  born  in  Edinburgh  in  1712,  the  son  of  Sir 
James  Stewart.  Educated  at  the  University 
of  Edinburgh,  he  entered  the  law,  but  spent 
some  time  on  the  Continent  and  was  so  com- 
promised by  relctiono  "\vith  the  Pretender  that 
from  1745  to  1763  he  had  to  live  on  the  Con- 
tinent. In  1767  he  published  An  Inquiry  into 
the  Principles  of  Political  Economy,  the  best 
known  of  his  many  writings.  (See  POLITICAL 
ECONOMY.)  He  died  in  Lanarkshire  in  1780. 
His  complete  works,  political,  metaphysical, 
and  chronological,  were  collected  by  his  son 
and  published  in  1806. 

STIRNER,  MAX,  is  the  pseudonym  under 
which  a  German,  Kaspar  Schmidt,  wrote  a 
book,  in  1845,  Der  Einzige  und  sein  Eigentum 
\The  Individual  and  his  Property},  which 
most  philosophical  anarchists  consider  one  of 
the  ablest  and  earliest  statements  of  their 
views.  (See  ANARCHISM.) 

Schmidt  was  born  in  Beyreuth  in  1806,  he 
studied  at  Berlin,  Erlangen,  and  Konigsberg, 
first  theology  and  then  philosophy.  He  spent 
his  life  as  a  teacher,  and  yet  even  more  as  a 
student.  He  died  at  Berlin  in  1856, 


STOCKER,  ADOLF,  was  born  in  Halbers- 
dadt,  Germany,  in  1835.  He  became  army 
chaplain  in  Metz  in  1871,  and  in  1877  Court 
Preacher  at  Berlin.  In  1877,  he  was  the  main 
leader  in  establishing  Protestant  Christian 
Socialism  in  Germany.  For  an  account  of  this 
see  CHRISTIAN  SOCIALISM,  but  it  must  be  re- 
membered that  Christian  Socialism  on  the 
Continent  has  not  at  all  meant  the  radical 
movement  it  has  usually  meant  in  England 
and  America.  Especially  under  the  lead  of 
Stocker  it  has  meant  little  more  than  the  reli- 
gious wing  of  the  paternal  movement  for  the 
State  and  the  Church  to  aid  the  poor.  Stocker 
has  been  even  better  known  as  a  leader  in  the 
German  anti-Semitic  movement.  In  1881  he 
was  elected  to  the  Reichstag.  He  has  written 
Christ  lie  he  soziale  Reden  und  Ausdtze  (1890). 


Stock  Exchange. 


1291 


Stone,  Lucy. 


STOCK  EXCHANGE.— The  New  York 
Stock  Exchange  was  formed  by  24  brokers  in 
1792.  In  1817  the  New  York  Stock  and  Ex- 
change Board  was  constituted  by  25  men.  At 
present  the  membership  is  about  uoo.  Mem- 
bers are  elected  and  must  be  nominated  by 
two  men  who  must  say  that  they  would  accept 
the  uncertified  check  of  the  nominee  for  $20,- 
ooo.  The  initiation  fee  is  $20,000.  The  dues 
are  about  $50.  Membership  in  the  Exchange 
has  sold  as  high  as  $32,500.  The  London 
Stock  Exchange  was  formed  in  1802  with  557 
members.  , 

STOCK-WATERING  may  be  defined  as 
the  increasing  of  the  nominal  capital  of  a  cor- 
poration by  the  issue  of  new  shares  without 
a  corresponding  increase  of  actual  capital. 
Against  this  practise  much  popular  indignation 
has  been  raised.  We  shall,  however,  only  quote 
an  attempt  to  defend  "  innocent  "  stock-water- 
ing and  a  few  careful  and  conservative  esti- 
mates of  the  amount  of  stock-watering  in 
certain  typical  industries.  If  cautious  authori- 
ties take  the  following  positions  it  will  be  seen 
that  the  popular  statements  have  scarcely  been 
put  too  strong.  In  the  Political  Science 
Quarterly  for  September,  1891,  Mr.  T.  L. 
Greene  distinguishes  between  "innocent" 
railroad  stock-watering  and  what  is  not  inno- 
cent. He  argues  that,  in  philippics  against 
railroad  stock-watering,  it  is  usually  forgotten 
how  much  railroads  have  to  spend  for  improve- 
ments, besides  their  original  investments  ;  how 
far  in  all  business  there  are  natural  profits  be- 
sides those  of  interest  on  capital ;  how  high 
dividends  do  not  usually  mean  high  charges, 
but  often  the  reverse  ;  how  futile  it  is  to  at- 
tempt to  limit  success  by  legislation.  He 
admits  that  there  is  a  form  of  stock- watering 
which  is  not  justifiable,  and  concludes  that 

"too  much  stress  has  been  laid  upon  railroad  stock- 
watering  as  a  reason  for  compulsory  reduction  of 
charges  ;  that  the  fact  of  such  watering  of  railway 
capital  is  to  be  best  explained  as  an  attempt  to  adjust 
railway  capitalization  to  the  conditions  common  in 
other  business  undertakings  j  and  that  a  distinction 
should  be  drawn  in  the  public  mind  between  stock- 
watering  which  is  comparatively  innocent  in  purpose 
and  that  which  is  not." 

This  is,  however,  no  argument  against  the 
statements  carefully  made,  as  to  the  evil  and 
extent  of  stock-watering.  The  latest  of  these 
as  to  railroads  is  C.  B.  Spahr's  Present  Distri- 
bution of  Wealth  in  the  United  States  (1896). 
The  author  says  (pp.  40-42)  : 

"  Approximately  one-half  of  the  present  railroad 
capitalization  represents  no  in  vestment  whatever.  .  .  . 
The  writer  follows  the  conservative  estimates  of  Poor's 
Manual,  1884,  and  Van  Oss's  American  Railroads  as 
Investments  "  (New  York,  G.  P.  Putnam's  Sons  ;  Lon- 
don, Effingham  &  Wilson,  1893).  F°r  striking  examples 
of  our  capitalization,  see  ex-Governor  Larrabee's 
The  Railroad  Question,  p.  186,  and  Hudson's  Railways 
and  the  Republic,  chap.  yii. 

"  Poor's  Manual,  as  is  widely  known,  has  put  the 
original  cost  of  the  railroads  at  approximately  the 
present  bonded  indebtedness.  Mr.  Van  Oss,  who  is  a 
defender  of  stock-watering  on  the  ground  that  it  pre- 
vents legislative  reductions  of  rates,  estimates  that 
the  bonds  outstanding  in  1890  cost  the  original  in- 
vestors not  more  than  67  cents  on  the  dollar,  and  that 
the  stocks  cost  these  investors  not  more  than  10  cents 
on  the  dollar.  According  to  this  approximation,  the 
real  investment  contrasts  with  the  nominal  capitaliza- 
tion as  follows  : 


SECURITIES 
OUTSTANDING. 

NOT  HELD 
BY  OTHER 
RAIL- 
ROADS AND 
SO  DUPLI- 
CATED. 

COST  TO 
ORIGINAL 
INVESTORS. 

Stocks  

Bonds  

4>     3>9°°> 

3,       .goo, 

»4     »       1 

Stocks  and 
Bonds  
Other  Obli- 
gations. ..  . 

$8,533,600,000 

$7,126,700,000 

$2,810,700,000 

Total  Capi- 
talization.. 

Total  invest- 
ment   

"The  figures  in  the  first  two  columns  are  from  the 
report  of  the  Inter-State  Commerce  Commission  for 
1890  on  the  "Statistics  of  Railways,"  pp.  46-48.  Con- 
cerning stocks,  Van  Oss's  statement  is,  verbatim,  as 
follows  : 

"  'But,  for  $4,650,000,000  shares  now  in  existence,  the 
original  investor  certainly  paid  not  more  than  $465,- 
000,000,  or  10  per  cent,  of  their  face  value,  and  probably 
less.  Hence  shares  now  return  at  least  18  per  cent,  per 
annum  on  the  actual  investment '  (p.  139). 

"  It  should  be  observed,  however,  that  the  sum  upon 
which  the  public  is  really  paying  interest  is  not  the 
total  capitalization  of  the  railroads,  nor  even  the  stocks 
and  bonds  not  held  by  other  railroads,  but  rather  the 
sum  upon  which  5  per  cent,  net  is  realized  by  the  roads. 
This  sum  in  1890  was  $6,627,000,000.  Not  from  the  stand- 
point of  socialism,  but  from  the  standpoint  of  common 
morality,  which  condemns  as  robbery  both  the  refusal 
of  the  public  to  pay  interest  upon  capital  actually  lent 
it,  and  the  compelling  of  the  public  to  pay  interest  on 
capital  neyer  lent  it,  the  two  thousand  and  odd  mil- 
lions of  railroad  capital  representing  no  investment  is 
simply  capitalized  extortion." 

Perhaps,  however,  the  worst  cases  of  stock- 
watering  are  those  of  street  railway  companies. 

"Tract  No.  i,"  published  by  the  Municipal  League 
of  Philadelphia,  having  on  its  Board  of  Management 
such  men  as  Dr.  Wayland,  Mr.  Stuart  Wood,  Professor 
James,  shows  for  that  city  that  when  the  Traction 
Company  applied  for  privileges  which,  as  it  has 
proved,  immediately  added  $6,600,000  to  the  market 
value  of  its  stock,  the  councils  promptly  granted  its 
application,  and  then,  in  spite  of  the  storm  of  public 
indignation,  repassed  the  measure  over  the  Mayor's 
veto  by  a  majority  of  25  to  10  in  Select  Council,  and  77 
to  31  in  Common  Council.  "  Tract  No.  i  "  takes  up  the 
finances  of  ten  leading  street  railway  companies,  ex- 
clusive of  the  Traction  Company,  and  publishes  their 
dividends  for  the  last  10  years  over  against  the  capital 
actually  invested  in  them.  The  table  stands  as  follows: 

Capital  invested $5,840,000 

Dividends  for  decade 15,164,000 

Assuming  that  the  city  ought  to  have  allowed  these 
companies  10  per  cent,  yearly  on  their  investment, 
there  was  a  surplus  profit  of  over  $9,000,000  which 
should  have  been  turned  into  the  public  treasury.  The 
effect  of  these  abnormal  profits  upon  the  market  value 
of  the  securities  of  these  companies  is  set  forth  as 
follows : 

Amount  invested $5,840,000 

Market  price  of  securities 38,480,000 

In  other  words,  the  public  is  paying  interest  upon 
over  $32,000,000  it  never  borrowed. 


STONE,  LUCY,  was  born  in  West  Brook- 
field,  Mass.,  in  1818.  She  taught  school  to 
earn  money  for  a  higher  education,  and  in  1847 
was  graduated  at  Oberlin  College.  The  same 
year  she  gave  a  lecture  on  Woman's  Rights  in 
her  brother's  pulpit  at  Gardener,  Mass.,  and 
soon  was  engaged  to  lecture  for  the  Anti- 
Slavery  Society,  in  which  work  she  had  great 
success.  In  1855  she  married  Henry  B.  Black- 
well,  but  she  always  retained  her  own  name. 


Stowe,  Mrs.  Harriet  Beecher. 


1292 


Street  Railways. 


In  1866  she  helped  to  organize  the  Amer- 
ican Equal  Rights  Association,  and  in  1869 
the  American  Woman's  Suffrage  Association, 
of  the  executive  board  of  which  she  was  chair- 
man for  20  years.  She  died  in  1893. 

STOWE,  MRS.  HARRIET  BEECHER, 

was  born  in  Litchfield,  Conn.,  in  1812,  daugh- 
ter of  Dr.  Lyman  Beecher  and  sister  of  Henry 
Ward  Beecher  (g.  v.).  She  studied  at  home 
and  in  Hartford  Female  Seminary,  where,  too, 
she  taught  from  1827  to  1832.  Her  father  be- 
coming president  of  Lane  Theological  Semi- 
nary in  Cincinnati,  she  moved  there  with  him, 
and,  in  1836,  married  there  Professor  C.  E. 
Stowe.  They  lived  there  till  1850,  when  her 
husband  became  professor  of  theology  in 
Bowdoin  College,  Me.  In  1852,  however,  he 
accepted  a  professorship  at  Andover,  Mass., 
which  ill  health  compelled  him  to  resign  in 
1862,  Mr.  and  Mrs.  Stowe  going  to  reside  in 
Hartford,  Conn.  Mrs.  Stowe's  book  which 
made  her  reputation,  Uncle  Tom's  Cabin,  was 
written  first  as  a  serial  for  The  National  Era  of 
Washington,  and  was  based  on  incidents  with 
which  Mrs.  Stowe  became  acquainted  in  her 
life  in  Cincinnati.  March  20,  1852,  it  was 
published  as  a  book,  and  300,000  copies  were 
sold  in  a  year;  40  editions  appeared  during 
the  year.  It  has  been  translated  into  nearly 
20  languages,  and  probably  contributed  more 
than  any  other  one  effort  to  rousing  the  coun- 
try against  slavery.  In  1853  Mrs.  Stowe  vis- 
ited Europe  and  wrote  Sunny  Memories  of 
Foreign  Lands.  In  1856  she  wrote  Drea, 
another  slave  story,  only  moderately  success- 
ful. Among  her  other  numerous  tales  are 
Old  Town  Folks,  My  Wife  and  I,  Men  of 
Our  Times.  Mrs.  Stowe  died  in  Hartford, 
July  2,  1896. 

STREET  RAILWAYS.— Cheap  and  rapid 

transit  is  one  of  the  most  important  factors  in 
city  life.  To  it  we  must  chiefly  look  for  any 
immediate  relief  from  the  congestion  of  popu- 
lation in  the  slums  and  tenement  districts  of 
our  great  cities.  If  transit  can  be  made  so 
cheap  and  rapid  that  the  working  man  can  live 
in  the  country,  the  benefit  to  him  and  his  chil- 
dren, and  through  them  to  society  in  general, 
will  be  incalculable.  Engineering  statistics  of 
the  cost  of  building  and  operating  electric 
roads  and  the  rate  of  their  depreciation  disclose 
the  fact  that  from  10  to  15  cents  per  car  mile 
will  cover  all  expenses,  including  depreciation, 
taxes,  and  interest  on  actual  investment.  In 
Boston  and  other  large  cities  the  receipts 
average  35  cents  a  car-mile  on  a  5-cent  fare, 
wherefore  it  is  clear  that  a  3-cent  fare  would 
be  sufficient.  Were  it  not  for  watered  stock, 
lobby  funds,  legislative  cost,  enormous  salaries 
of  leading  officers,  and  other  unnecessary  or 
illegitimate  expenses,  the  roads  could  be  run 
still  more  cheaply  ;  and  if  they  were  owned 
by  the  city  clear  of  debt,  and  no  interest  or 
profit  were  required,  it  is  probable  that  a  popu- 
ulous  city  would  reduce  the  fare  to  2  cents,  and 
still  leave  the  roads  self-sustaining.  This  is 
the  more  probable  when  we  consider  the  enor- 
mous increase  of  traffic  that  invariably  follows 
a  decided  lowering  of  rates,  and  the  compan- 


ion fact  that  the  cost  per  passenger  diminishes, 
as  the  volume  of  business  in  a  given  area  in- 
creases. 

Aside  from  general  engineering  statistics 
which  are  more  fully,  dealt  with  in  the  Arena 
for  May,  1895)  there  are  many  specific  facts 
which  point  to  the  same  conclusion. 

In  Glasgow  39  per  cent,  of  the  fares  are  i  cent,  and 
the  average  of  all  fares  is  under  2  cents,  yet  the  city's 
roads  made  a  profit  of  $m,ooo  in  the  first  n  months  of 
municipal  operation  (July  i,  1894,  to  May  31,  1895).  The 
cars  are  drawn  by  horses,  a  far  more  expensive  power 
than  electricity,  and  the  city  labored  under  serious 
disadvantages  from  the  sickness  of  many  horses,  and 
a  tremendous  omnibus  competition  started  by  the  old 
railway  company.1 

In  Budapest  the  fares  are  2^  cents,  and  yet  the  roads- 
made  90  per  cent,  profit  on  their  investment  in  1894.* 
The  underground  electric  conduit  system  is  used,  and 
grooved  rails  set  level  with  the  surface  of  the  street  so 
as  to  offer  no  obstruction  whatever  to  the  wheels  of 
wagons  and  carriages. 

In  Berlin  the  private  street-car  companies  show  75. 
per  cent,  of  the  fares  2^  cents,  an  average  fare  of  3, 
cents  on  the  whole  traffic,  and  operating  expenses  about 
one-half  of  the  receipts,  or  i^  cents  per  passenger. 
This,  too,  is  horse-car  traffic,  and  the  passengers  are 
fewer  than  in  Boston.  The  public  elevated  (Stadtbahri) 
roads  of  Berlin  sell  yearly  tickets  to  go  in  and  out  5 
miles,  as  often  as  you  please,  for  $4.50  a  year,  a  run- 
ning average  of  about  10  miles  for  i  cent.* 

In  Detroit  a  3-cent  fare  is  in  force  all  over  the  city, 
Mayor  Pingree  having  at  last  completely  conquered 
the  old  company,  which  long  declared  a  3-cent  rate  an 
impossibility.  It  has  now  made  even  a  2^-cent  rate 
on  one  of  its  lines,  and  the  new  company  offers  to  run 
all  the  roads  in  Detroit  on  a  uniform  zj^-cent  rate,  with 
free  transfers  all  over  the  city,  and  pay  the  interest 
on  the  purchase  price  of  the  tracks  if  the  city  will  take 
them  by  eminent  domain. 

In  Savannah,  in  1895,  a  i-cent  rate  was  established, 
with  the  result  of  greatly  enlarging  the  traffic  and 
actually  increasing  the  receipts.  A  very  fair  profit 
was  made — the  expenses  being  $10  to  $13  a  car  and  the 
receipts  $14  to  $i8.4 

In  Toronto  the  roads  are  operated  by  a  company  that 
agrees  to  sell  25  tickets  for  $i,  or  6  for  a  quarter  i 
workingmen's  tickets,  good  night  and  morning,  8  for 
a  quarter  ;  and  children's  tickets  from  8A.M.  to  5  P.  M., 
10  for  a  quarter.  The  company  must  pay  the  city  $800 
a  year  for  each  mile  of  track  ;  8  per  cent,  on  the  gross 
receipts to$i, 000,000;  iopercent.from$i, 000,000 to  $1,500,- 
ooo;  12  per  cent,  from  $1,500,000  to  $2,000,000;  15  per  cent, 
from  $2,000,000  to  $3,000,000 ;  and  20  per  cent,  on  all  over 
$3,000,000.  The  city  engineer  controls  the  roads  as  to 
the  number  of  cars  to  be  operated,  the  improvements 
to  be  introduced,  etc.  Their  bookkeeping  must  be 
satisfactory  to  the  city  treasurer  and  auditors.  At 
the  end  of  20  years  (or  30,  since  the  franchise  may  be 
"  renewed  for  a  term  of  10  years  and  no  longer  ")— at 
the  end  of  the  lease  the  city  may  take  the  plant  at  its 
actual  value,  as  determined  by  arbitration.5 

In  the  New  York  Annex  recently  a  street  railway 
franchise  was  sold  for  $250,000  cash  down,  and  a 
promise  to  pay  41%  per  cent,  of  the  gross  earnings 
each  year  for  the  first  5  years,  and  43^  per  cent,  each 
year  thereafter.  As  the  company  expects  to  make  a 
good  profit  on  a  very  expensive  road,  and  are  willing 
to  give  nearly  half  the  receipts  on  a  s-cent  fare,  it  is 
clear  that  they  do  not  think  the  cost  of  operation  will 
run  above  2  cents  at  the  most.  The  company  is  not  to 
use  the  overhead  trolley  south  of  i62d  street,  though 
north  of  that  line  it  is  permitted  for  ten  years.  The 
company  is  to  pave  the  streets  and  keep  them  clean 
and  free  from  dirt  and  snow,  and  the  cars  are  to  be 
"  properly  and  sufficiently  heated  during  cold  weather 
on  pain  of  a  penalty  of  $10  per  day  for  each  car  not  so 
heated." 

1  From  Report  of  Glasgow  Highway  Department. 

*  Street  Railway  Journal,  November  1895,  p.  702  ;  Re- 
port of  Massachusetts  Rapid  Transit  Commissions 
(1892). 

3  May  Arena,  pp.  395-396;  Massachusetts  Rapid  Tran- 
sit Report ;  Cosmopolitan,  November,  1894. 

4  December  Arena,  1895,  p.  86. 

5  Agreement  between  the  City  of  Toronto  and  Geo. 
W.  Kieley,  William  McKenzie,  H.  A.  Everett,  et  al. 
September  i,  1891,  with  the  awards,  conditions,  etc., 
May  5,  1891. 


Street  Railways. 


1293 


Street  Railways. 


It  is  thought  by  some  that  the  ultimate  ideal 
is  to  make  the  street  cars  free  to  all  who  wish 
to  ride — just  as  free  as  the  pavements,  the 
parks,  and  the  public  schools.  The  saving  of 
labor  in  printing  tickets,  collecting  fares,  keep- 
ing accounts,  etc.,  would  be  considerable,  and 
the  plan  would  be  a  great  boon  to  the  poor. 
Such  a  status,  however,  will  have  to  be  ap- 
proached gradually,  and  for  a  long  time  to 
come  it  would  seem  to  be  best  to  aim  at  a  sys- 
tem that  will  reduce  expenses  to  the  lowest 
point  consistent  with  the  support  of  the  roads 
by  the  collection  of  fares  graded  in  the  way 
.above  suggested. 

Public  ownership  will  promote  good  service 
as  well  as  cheap  service. 

Strap  passengers  help  profits,  no  doubt— the  com- 
panies say  that  the  people  on  the  straps  pay  the  divi- 
dends,  the  more  people    m  a  car  the 
smaller  the  expense  per  passenger— but 
Good         public  ownership  would  think  of   ac- 
Service       commodations   more    than    dividends, 
and  would  therefore  run  more  cars  in 
winter. 

Warming  the  cars  is  important  for  the 
Tiealth  and  comfort  of  patrons  and  employees. 

Cushioned  fenders,  running  close  to  the  track,  are 
also  necessary  to  the  safety  of  the  public.  In  Buda- 
pest the  cars  have  fenders  that  will  push  a  baby 
from  the  track  without  injuring  it.  United  States 
•cities  have  some  fender  ordinances,  but  the  companies 
have  stubbornly  refused  to  fulfil  the  spirit  and  pur- 
pose of  the  law,  and  in  some  cases  resisted  even  the 
letter  of  it  until  fined  for  disobedience.  Most  of  the 
fenders  in  use  in  our  Eastern  cities  run  4  to  12  inches 
above  the  level  of  the  road,  and  some  have  iron  fronts 
that  would  break  a  man's  leg  like  a  splinter.  No 
pains  should  be  spared  to  provide  an  efficient  fender 
for  every  car.  The  companies  care  nothing  about  it 
unless  it  will  save  them  more  money  than  it  costs. 
Some  years  ago  the  street-oar  presidents  of  Philadel- 
phia met  to  consider  the  adoption  of  a  fender  just 
invented.  They  asked  how  much  it  would  cost.  The 
inventor  told  them  $50  a  car.  The  presidents  figured 
a  little  and  found  it  would  be  cheaper  to  pay  damages 
for  running  over  people ;  so  they  did  not  buy  the 
fenders. 

The  overhead  wires  are  objectionable  in  many  ways. 
They  are  dangerous  to  life,  and  mar  the  looks  of  our 
streets.  The  underground  trolley  has  proved  entirely 
practicable  and  satisfactory  in  Washington  and  New 
York,  and  is  preferable  in  every  way  to  the  overhead 
system,  except  that  the  original  cost  is  greater.  There 
is  a  surface  system  just  coming  into  notice  which  re- 
quires no  slot  or  groove  in  the  street,  and  no  overhead 
wire,  and  is  said  to  be  absolutely  safe  and  cheaper  in 
construction  than  even  the  overhead.  It  is  to  be  hoped 
that  it  may  displace  the  nets  of  wire  that  disfigure  our 
streets. 

The  use  of  grooved  rails  is  a  matter  well  worth  the 
attention  of  the  public.  In  Liverpool,  Budapest, 
and  other  European  cities,  the  flange  of  the  wheel 
runs  in  a  narrow  groove  in  a  solid  rail  laid  level  with 
the  surface  of  the  street.  A  similar  rail  is  used  in 
Washington,  D.  C.,  and  has  been  adopted  in  Detroit 
through  the  efforts  of  Mayor  Pingree.  It  is  also  in 
New  York  on  the  Bowery  line  and  the  Broadway  cable 
road.  The  latter,  however,  is  not  well  laid,  being 
sunk  so  far  below  the  paving  as  to  leave  the  street 
still  very  rough. 

The  employees  of  the  roads  would  be  better 
off  in  several  respects  under  public  ownership. 
Freedom  of  association,  which  is  for  the  most 
part  denied  them  by  the  private  companies, 
would  not  be  interfered  with  by  the  city.  In 
a  few  cities  the  companies  recognize  the  or- 
ganizations of  the  workmen,  but  as  a  rule 
membership  in  any  labor  organization  is  a 
cause  of  discharge,  and  a  man  who  is  active 
in  such  organizations  is  in  danger  of  being 
blacklisted  throughout  the  country.  Even 
the  right  of  petition  is  not  accorded  by  the 
companies  generally;  i.  e.,  men  who  get  up 


and  present  petitions  are  apt  to  be  discharged 
upon  the  slightest  pretext.     Strikes  are  some- 
times successful  as  in  Detroit,  but  oftener  end 
in  disaster,   as  in    Brooklyn   and 
Philadelphia,  where  the  men  ac- 
complished nothing  but  the  loss   Employees, 
of    their    positions.      Wages    are 
sometimes  as  low  as  16  cents  an 
hour,  and  13  to  15  hours  are  not  infrequently 
required  to  constitute  a  day's  work.     The  mo- 
tormen  suffer  much  from  the  cold  in  winter, 
and  are  sadly  in  need  of  the  protection  afforded 
by    vestibules.      Ohio,     Indiana,     Michigan, 
Minnesota,  and  Wisconsin  have  statutes  re- 
quiring the  cars  to  be  supplied  with  vestibules 
in    cold    weather.     They  are   also  in  use  in 
Pittsburg    and     Harrisburg,   Pa.;    Rochester 
and  Buffalo,  N.  Y.;  Lowell  to  Nashua,  Mass., 
etc.     They  work  well  everywhere. 

The  locomotive  engineer,  the  steersman  of  a 
tug,  the  pilot  of  an  ocean  steamer  are  all  pro- 
tected against  the  weather — why  should  a 
nrotorman  whiz  through  the  icy  air  at  the  rate 
of  6  to  15  miles  an  hour,  or  more,  and  some- 
times in  the  teeth  of  a  4o-mile  zephyr  at  zero 
or  lower,  with  nothing  in  front  of  him  to  break 
the  force  of  the  wind?  In  Boston,  1896,  a 
number  of  motormen  froze  their  faces,  not 
merely  their  fingers  and  toes  and  ears;  those 
are  so  commonly  bitten  that  no  note  is  taken 
of  them. 

It  is  sometimes  said  that  moisture  and  frost  will 
gather  on  the  glass,  obscuring  the  vision  and  render- 
ing accidents  more  likely.  It  is  a  baseless  excuse.  If 
the  vestibule  is  warmed  as  it  should  be,  no  moisture 
or  frosted  breath  will  form  on  the  inside.  If  it  is  par- 
titioned off  from  the  rest  of  the  car,  and  the  glass  in 
front  made  double,  there  will  be  no  such  trouble,  even 
tho  it  is  not  warmed.  Even  under  the  most  unfavor- 
able circumstances  there  will  be  no  accumulation  on 
the  inside  that  cannot  be  easily  and  quickly  removed 
and  the  glass  kept  clear.  As  for  the  outside  there  is 
no  obscurement,  except  in  a  storm.  Sometimes  sticky 
snow  gathers  on  the  glass  and  dulls  the  vision.  Then 
the  engineer  opens  the  windows  and  wipes  off  the 
snow.  The  motorman  could  do  the  same.  The  rain 
as  a  rule  does  not  materially  interfere  with  the  sight 
— when  it  does,  the  motorman  could  open  the  windows 
a  few  inches  so  as  to  make  a  four-  or-five  inch  band  of 
open  space  from  left  to  right  on  the  level  of  the  eye. 
This  is  the  way  the  pilots  do.  The  motorman  could 
do  the  same  it  the  windows  were  properly  made,  and 
if  the  vestibule  were  tightly  built  but  very  little  air 
would  come  through  the  opening.  Mr.  Reeves  Stew- 
art, who  runs  a  vestibuled  trolley  on  the  Pennsylvania 
railroad,  and  spent  eight  years  on  a  locomotive  before 
he  took  the  trolley,  says  there  is  never  any  trouble 
with  frost  or  moisture  inside,  nor  any  difficulty  in 
seeing  through  the  glass  in  a  rain,  and  that  it  is  easy 
to  wipe  off  the  snow  when  it  sticks.  The  pilots  on  the 
Fall  River  line  say  it  is  very  seldom  that  they  cannot 
see  as  clearly  through  the  glass  as  through  the  open. 
When  it  rains  or  snows  the  air  is  never  so  cold  as  to 
make  a  man  suffer  even  with  the  windows  wide  open, 
and  when  it  does  not  storm  the  windows  could  always 
be  closed  without  any  danger  to  clear  vision  in  a  prop- 
erly constructed  vestibule.  The  vestibule  should  be 
so  built  that  the  motorman  can  have  the  space  in  front 
of  him  wholly  open,  or  partly  open,  or  wholly  closed 
as  he  thinks  best.  This,  with  the  employment  of  rea- 
sonably sensible  and  efficient  men,  will  make  the  mat- 
ter safe  and  right. 

A  bill  is  pending  in  Congress  to  compel  the 
Washington  roads  to  vestibule  the  cars,  and 
another  to  reduce  the  hours  of  labor  for  street- 
car employees  to  eight. 

When  municipal  ownership  is  proposed,  the 
corporationists  declare  that  it  is  not  to  be 
thought  of  because  it  will  lead  to  political  cor- 
ruption and  abuse  of  power  for  party  pur- 


Street  Railways. 


1294 


Strikes. 


poses.  The  truth  is  that  the  corporations  are 
the  chief  cause  of  political  corruption.  Mayor 
Pingree  says  that  the  Citizens'  Street  Railway 
Company  of  Detroit  "literally  owned  the 
council  body  and  soul  "  (Facts  and  Opinions, 
by  Hazen  S.  Pingree,  p.  31).  They  would 
pay  $3000  for  a  member  (Id.,  p.  30).  They 
even  made  an  actual  offer  of  $75,000  to  buy 
the  mayor  himself  (Id.,  pp.  86-122).  The  mayor 
says,  "  My  experience  in  fighting  monopolistic 
corporations,  and  endeavoring  to  save  the 
people  some  of  their  rights  as  against  their 
greed,  has  convinced  me  that  the  corporations 
are  responsible  for  nearly  all  the  thieving  and 
doodling  with  which  our  cities  suffer  '*  (p.  24). 

Under  private  management,  street  railway 
corporations  corrupt  our  politics,  spoil  the 
safety  and  looks  of  our  streets,  charge  exor- 
bitant rates,  crowd  the  cars,  freeze  passengers 
and  motormen,  work  their  men  long  hours, 
deny  them  the  right  of  organization,  render 
indifferent  service,  water  their  stock,  dodge 
the  tax  laws,  put  rascals  in  office,  and  run  our 
cities  to  suit  themselves. 

A  summary  of  the  situation  would  read 
something  like  this : 


THE  PEOPLE  WANT. 

1.  Low  fares. 

2.  Good  service. 

3.  Seats  for  all. 


4.  Efficient  fenders. 


5.  Cars  well  warmed  in 
winter. 


6.  Grooved    rails,     laid 

so   as  to  leave  the 
streets  smooth. 

7.  A    system    safe    and 

convenient. 


8.  Reasonable  profits  on 

actual  investment. 

9.  Honest  book-keeping. 

10.  Just  assessments  and 

equal  taxation. 

11.  Honest  and  impartial 

government  in  the 
interests  of  all. 

12.  Good  wages  and  rea- 

sonable   hours    for 
all  employees. 


13.  Full    freedom   of  or- 

ganization. 

14.  Vestibules     for     the 

motormen. 


15.  Arbitration  of  diffi- 
culties. 

In  short,  the  people  ask 
for  justice,  kind- 
ness, fair  play,  and 
the  public  good. 

Statistics. — The    first     street    railway  was 
made  by  John    Stephenson    in    New    York 


THE  CORPORATIONS 
WANT. 

1.  High  fares. 

2.  Small  expenses. 

3.  Passengers     on     the 

straps,  in  the  aisles, 
and  on  the  plat- 
forms. 

4.  No  expense  for  cush- 

ioned fenders ;  it  is 
cheaper  to  pay  dam- 
ages than  to  buy 
good  fenders. 

5.  Little  or  no  expense 

for  heating ;  it  is 
cheaper  to  freeze 
the  passengers. 

6.  The     cheapest    rails, 

whatever  effect 
they  may  have  on 
the  street. 

7.  The  dangerous,  ugly, 

s  t  r  e  e  t-m  a  r  r  i  n  g, 
overhead  trolley 
system. 

8.  Big      dividends      on 

watered  stock. 

9.  Doctored  accounts. 
10.  Shru  nken    assess- 

ments    and    escape 
from  taxation, 
n.  Corrupt   government 
in    the    interest    of 
corporations. 

12.  Long  hours  and  short 

wages  for  the  men, 
— short  hours  and 
big  wages  for  the 
managers. 

13.  No  union  men. 

14.  No  expense    for  ves- 

tibules, —  men  are 
cheaper  than  glass 
and  wood  ;  if  a  man 
freezes  now  and 
then  it  is  easy  to 
buy  another. 

15.  Their   own     imperial 

way  with  "nothing 
to  arbitrate." 
In  short,  the  corporations 
aim  at  fortunes  for 
industrial  aristo- 
crats. 


in  1831.  The  first  successful  electric  street 
railway  was  at  Lechterfelde  near  Berlin  in 
1881.  San  Francisco  had  a  cable  road  in  1873. 

According  to  the  Eleventh  Census  there  were  in  the 
United  States  in  1890,  5783  miles  of  street  railways. 
There  were  32,505  cars,  with  70,764  employees,  and  they 
carried  2,023,010,202  passengers.  New  York  according 
to  the  census  report  had,  in  1890,  12  miles  for  each  1000 
inhabitants,  Chicago  18,  Brooklyn  21,  Philadelphia  and 
St.  Louis  26  each,  Boston  and  suburbs  41,  London  3, 
Liverpool  5,  Birmingham  7,  Berlin  8,  Dresden  u,  Ham- 
burg 13,  Paris  5,  Vienna  5,  Budapest  7,  Brussels  7. 

New  York  had  297  rides  per  inhabitant,  Boston  and 
suburbs  225,  Brooklyn  183,  Chicago  164,  Philadelphia 
158,  St.  Louis  150,  London  31,  Liverpool  51,  Glasgow  61, 
Berlin  87,  Hamburg  78,  Dresden  42,  Vienna  43,  Buda- 
pest 37 

According  to  the  Street  Railway  in  1896  there  were 
in  the  United  States  1219  miles  of  horse  railways, 
12,133  of  electric,  599  of  cable,  and  519  of  miscellaneous 
roads.  There  were  48,182  cars,  The  total  capitaliza- 
tion was  $95,000  per  mile.  In  the  New  England  States, 
the  capitalization  was  $54,500  per  mile  ;  in  the  Middle 
States  $147,300,  Central  $86,600,  Southern  $48,000,  West- 
ern $61,000.  In  Massachusetts  $852,500,  Rhode  Island 
$119,100,  New  York  $182,800,  Pennsylvania  $139,500, 
District  of  Columbia  $137,600,  Michigan  $36,400,  Illinois 

$134,500,  California  $78,600;  varying  mainly  according 

not  to  cost  but  to  watering  of  stock. 
References :    The  People's  Highways,   an  article  in 

the  Arena  for  May,   1895  ;    Economic  Studies,   vol.  i., 

Nos.  5  and  6  ;  Johns  Hopkins  University  Studies,  isth. 

Series,  iii.  to  v. ;  also,  Street  Railway  Journal. 

FRANK  PARSONS. 

STRIKES. — A  strike  occurs  when  the  em- 
ployees of  an  establishment  refuse  to  work  un- 
less the  management  complies  with  some 
demand.  A  lockout  occurs  when  the  manage- 
ment refuses  to  allow  the  employees  to  work 
unless  they  will  work  under  some  condition 
dictated  by  the  management.  In  effect  strikes 
and  lockouts  are  practically  the  same  thing; 
the  disturbances  simply  originating  with  one 
side  or  the  other  in  the  case.  A  strike,  how- 
ever, is  often  really  a  lockout,  because  it  not 
unfrequently  happens  that  employers,  finding  a 
dull  market  and  not  wishing  to  bear  the  oppro- 
brium of  discharging  their  employees  or  sus- 
pending work,  require  some  grievous  condition 
which  causes  the  employees  to  strike.  The 
real  origin  of  strikes  is,  therefore,  by  no  means 
always  easily  determined.  Twice  the  United 
States  Commissioner  of  Labor  has  reported  on 
the  subject  of  strikes,  and  from  these  reports 
the  following  statistics  are  taken.  The  Third 
Annual  Report  (1887)  reported  on  strikes  in  the 
United  States  down  to  December  31,  1886.  It 
found  records  of  1491  strikes  down  to  1881,  of 
which  813  took  place  in  1880;  199  took  place 
from  1875  to  1879,  an(l  I§5  from  1870  to  1874;  4 
took  place  in  the  eighteenth  century,  the  first 
being  a  strike  among  the  bakers  of  New  York 
city  in  1741;  75  took  place  between  1800  and 
1850.  Of  the  1491  strikes,  1089  related  to 
wages;  316  succeeded,  154  were  compromised, 
583  failed,  and  478  had  their  issue  unknown.  . 
Between  1881  and  1886,  inclusive,  there  were 
3902  strikes  in  22,304  establishments,  involving 
1,332,203  employees.  Of  these  the  corre- 
sponding figures  for  1886  alone  were  1411, 
9861,  and  499,489.  Of  the  whole  number, 
46.52  per  cent,  succeeded,  13.47  per  cent. 
partly  succeeded,  and  37.95  per  cent,  failed. 
The  strikes  were  for  higher  wages  in  42.32  per 
cent,  of  the  establishments,  for  shorter  hours  in 
19.48  per  cent.,  against  reduction  in  wages  in 


Strikes. 


Strikes. 


7.77  per  cent.  The  loss  to  employees  by 
strikes  is  placed  at  $51,814,723  for  strikes  and 
$8,157,717  for  lockouts.  The  employers'  loss 
is  put  at  $30,701,553  for  strikes  and  $3,462,261 
for  lockouts.  The  Report  of  1895  investigates 
from  1887  to  May  31,  1894,  inclusive.  There 
were  14,389  strikes  in  69,166  establishments, 
involving  3,714,231  employees.  From  Janu- 
ary i,  1881,  to  January  30,  1894,  44.49  per  cent, 
of  the  strikes  succeeded,  11.25  per  cent,  partly 
succeeded,  and  44.23  per  cent,  failed.  Of  the 
lockouts,  40.37  per  cent,  succeeded,  9.58  per 
cent,  partly  succeeded,  and  47.75  per  cent, 
failed.  Of  the  strikes  for  the  whole  period, 
those  in  42.32  per  cent,  of  the  establishments 
were  for  higher  wages,  19.48  per  cent,  for 
shorter  hours,  and  7.77  per  cent,  against  low- 
ered wages.  The  loss  to  employers  for  the 
whole  period  is  put  at  $82,589,786,  for  em- 
ployees, $163,807,657;  or  $3. 77' per  striking  em- 
ployee per  year. 

The  most  important  strikes  in  the  United. 
States  have  been  the  railroad  strikes  of  1877, 
on  the  Gould  system  in  1885  and  1886,  the 
Homestead  strike  of  1892,  and  the  great  Pull- 
man strike  of  1894.  (For  an  account  of  the 
last  two,  see  HOMESTEAD  and  PULLMAN.)  The 
railroad  strike  of  1877,  the  first  of  the  great 
strikes,  and  which  first  called  general  atten- 
tion to  the  labor  movement  in  America,  began 
July  15  on  the  Baltimore  and  Ohio  Railroad  at 
Martinsburg,  W.  Va.,  and  was  caused  by  a 
10  per  cent,  reduction  in  wages  already  low. 
July  19,  a  still  larger  strike  broke  out  at  Pitts- 
burg  on  the  Pennsylvania  Railroad;  the  griev- 
ance being  the  introduction  of  the  "  double- 
headers,"  or  freight  trains  of  84  cars  with  two 
engines,  enabling  the  company  to  do  with  one- 
half  their  freight  service.  There  was  rioting, 
with  loss  of  life  at  various  places.  The  State 
militia  at  Martinsburg  and  Pittsburg  refused 
to  fire  on  the  strikers,  and  United  States  troops 
were  called  out.  In  Cincinnati,  Toledo,  and 
St.  Louis  mobs  of  roughs  and  tramps  suc- 
ceeded in  closing  shops,  mills,  etc.  The  main 
trouble,  however,  was  at  Pittsburg,  where  the 
crowds  resisted  the  troops  ;  22  persons  were 
killed,  by  soldiers  in  one  day.  Gatling  guns 
were  used,  and  finally  order  was  restored. 
One  thousand  six  hundred  cars  (mainly 
freight)  and  126  locomotives  were  burned. 
The  loss  at  Pittsburg  was  estimated  at  $5,- 
000,000. 

The  first  great  strike  on  the  Gould  system 
took  place  at  Sedalia,  Mo.,  in  March,  1885,  for 
a  restoration  of  wages  which  had  been  re- 
duced. It  was  very  general,  but  did  not  last 
long,  when  the  company  gave  in.  The  next 
year,  however,  a  strike  began  at  Marshall, 
Tex.,  growing  out  of  the  discharge  of  a  fore- 
man prominent  in  the  Knights  of  Labor.  It 
became  general,  and  during  all  March  traffic 
was  suspended  on  the  system,  tho  relatively 
not  much  damage  was  done.  This  strike  was 
lost. 

Other  great  American  strikes  have  been 
those  of  the  telegraphers  in  1883;  on  the 
Lehigh  Valley  Road  in  1893  ;  at  Buffalo,  N.  Y., 
in  1892;  in  the  mines  of  Tennessee  in  1891  ; 
at  Brooklyn  in  1895;  on  the  Great  North- 
ern Railroad  in  April,  1894,  where  Mr.  Debs 


won  his  first  fame  by  organizing  and  winning 
the  strike. 

(In  Great  Britain,  for  some  notice  of  earlier 
strikes,  see  TRADE-UNIONS.)  The  two  recent 
strikes  in  Great  Britain  have  been  the  great 
dock  strike  (g.  v.)  of  1889  and  the  strikes  of 
the  miners  in  1893. 

According  to  a  report  of  the  Labor  Depart- 
ment of  the  Board  of  Trade,  the  following  are 
the  statistics  of  strikes  and  lockouts  in  Great 
Britain  and  Ireland: 


YEAR. 

Disputes. 

Persons 
Affected. 

Successful. 

Partly 
Successful. 

Unsuccessful. 

Not  Known.  | 

888  

A%     T 

18  2 

889  

QT     ft 

890  

OT        fi 

8gi  

006 

8  3 

802.    . 

£'L. 

Jr 

893  

oe    6 

894  ,  

cr  g 

16  •; 

In  France  the  principal  strikes  have  been 
also  among  the  miners.  According  to  the 
French  Office  du  Travail  there  were,  in  1893, 
634  strikes,  affecting  170,123  men.  In  1894 
there  were  391  strikes,  affecting  54,576  men; 
45/4  per  cent,  of  these  strikes  failed,  21  per 
cent,  were  completely  won,  and  the  rest  were 
unknown  or  compromised. 

(For  other  countries,  see  those  countries. 
Concerning  the  involved  questions  of  the  eth- 
ics of  strikes,  see  TRADE-UNIONS.) 

Says  Professor  W.  T.  Ashley  of  Harvard 
University  (The  Railroad  Strike  of  1894, 
p.  8): 

"It  is  the  opinion  of  almost  every  economist  of  re- 
pute, of  whatever  school,  that  labor  combinations, 
with  a  power  to  appeal  in  the  last  resort  to  the  joint 
refusal  to  work,  z.  e,,  to  strike,  are,  under  the  present 
system  of  competition,  the  'indispensable  means  of 
enabling  the  sellers  of  labor  to  take  care  of  their  own, 
interests  '  (J.  S.  Mill,  Principles  of  Political  Economy, 
bk.  v.  chap.  x.  §  5,  second  half).  With  these  words  of 
Mill  may  be  compared  the  language  of  Fawcett 
(Manual,  sixth  ed.,  p.  242),  Walker  (Political  Econ- 
omy, §  468),  and  Marshall  (Elements  of  Economics, 
1892,  pp.  381,  382,  390).  These  are  not  writers  particu- 
larly sympathetic  toward  trade-union  policy,  or  par- 
ticularly hopeful  of  good  results  from  such  action. 
They  merely  state  that,  even  tho  in  very  many  cases 
strikes  may  have  been  unwise,  the  right  to  strike  is,  in 
itself,  a  necessary  safeguard  of  working  men's  in- 
terests." 

Trade-unionists  do  not  as  a  rule  believe  in 
strikes.  They  are  often  compelled,  however, 
to  strike  because,  when  other  measures  have 
failed,  it  is  their  only  way  to  protest  against 
and  to  resist  reductions  in  wages,  unfair  treat- 
ment, or  refusals  of  firms  to  grant  increase  of 
wages  when  the  market  allows.  When  trade- 
unions  are  weak  or  just  organizing,  their 
members  sometimes  rush  into  foolish  strikes. 
Strong  trade-unions  do  not  strike  until  careful 
investigation  has  been  made,  until  the  national 
executive  committee  of  their  trade,  as  well  as 
the  local  union,  approves,  and  until  they  have 
money  in  the  bank  to  make  a  hard  fight. 


Subsidies. 


1296 


Sub-Treasury  Plan. 


Strong  trade-unionism  means  the  lessening  of 
strikes.     (See  TRADE-UNIONS.) 

Concerning  the  treatment  of  strikes  and  the 
«vil  to  the  public,  see  articles  ARBITRATION 
.and  CONCILIATION,  also  PULLMAN  STRIKE. 

SUBSIDIES  is  the  term  usually  given  to- 
day to  grants  of  money  by  governments  to 
private  enterprises.  Originally  it  was  used  in 
English  history  for  special  taxes  assessed 
on  property,  and  in  European  history  for  pay- 
ment by  governments  to  their  allies. 

The  most  important  modern  subsidies  have 
teen  to  railways  and  steamship  companies. 

England  has  granted  no  railway  subsidies  except 
in  Ireland.  Prance  defrayed  about  half  the  original 
cost  of  her  railways,  and  this  system  has  been  largely 
followed  in  Austria,  Russia,  Southern  Europe,  and 
British  India.  In  the  United  States  railway  subsidies, 
in  the  form  of  land  grants  mainly,  have  been  very  ex- 
tensive (see  RAILWAYS)  ;  200,000,000  acres  have  been 
given,  tho  only  about  one-quarter  of  this  has  been 
patented. 

In  steamship  subsidies  Great  Britain  has  done  much 

more.  In  1840  the  Cunard  company  received  an  annual 

subsidy  of  $400,000,  and  this   was   not 

reduced  till  1870.    At  one  time  England 

SteamshiD     sPent  nearly  $5,000,000  annually  for  the 

_   ,    .,.    *     conveyance    of    mails.    The  admiralty 

ouDsiCues.  subsidies  of  Great  Britain  to-day  are 
about  $165,000  annually,  besides  $3,500,- 
ooo  for  sea  postage,  which  is  about  $2,- 
250,000  more  than  the  receipts  for  sea  postage.  Great 
Britain  pays  this  partly  for  military  purposes,  and  can 
use  subsidized  ships  in  time  of  war.  The  United 
States  has  done  much  less.  In  1845  the  Collins  line 
and  Pacific  Mail  Steamship  Company  received  subsi- 
dies. In  1852  the  United  States  paid  about  $2,000,000 
for  foreign  mail  service.  On  account  of  accidents  and 
the  war  American  lines  to  Europe  and  the  Collins 
line  disappeared.  The  Pacific  Mail  Steamship  Com- 
pany became  corrupt,  and  in  1875  the  subsidy  was  not 
renewed.  In  1852  the  (American)  International  Navi- 
gation Company  received  a  subsidy  for  carrying 
mails  to  Europe.  (See  PLUTOCRACY,  for  legislative 
favors  to  this  line.)  In  the  year  1893-04,  the  United 
States  paid  $711,444  for  mail  service  by  United  States 
vessels,  and  $461,957  for  foreign  vessels. 

Germany,  France,  and  most  European  countries 
grant  considerable  subsidies. 

(See  also  BOUNTIES). 

SUB-TREASURY  PLAN.— This  is  a  plan 
which  is  an  outgrowth  of  the  Farmers'  Alli- 
ance movement,  and  became  prominent  after 
its  indorsement  by  the  Farmers'  Alliance 
{g.  v.),  at  their  meeting  at  St.  Louis,  1889. 
The  following  is  the  text  of  the  bill,  drafted  to 
embody  the  plan. 

SECTION  i.  Be  it  enacted  by  the  Senate  and  House 
of  Representatives  of  the  United  States  of  America  in 
Congress  assembled,  that  there  may  be  established  in 
each  of  the  counties  of  each  of  the  States  of  this 
United  States  a  branch  of  the  treasury  department  of 
the  United  States,  to  be  known  and  designated  as  a 
sub-treasury,  as  hereinafter  provided,  when  100  or 
more  citizens  of  any  county  in  any  State  shall  peti- 
tion the  Secretary  of  the  Treasury  requesting  the 
location  of  a  sub-treasury  in  such  county,  and  shall, 

1.  Present  written  evidence,  duly  authenticated  by 
oath  or  affirmation  of  county  clerk  and  sheriff,  show- 
ing that   the  average  gross  amount  per  annum  of 
cotton,  wheat,  oats,  corn,  and  tobacco  produced  and 
sold  in  that  county  for  the  last  preceding  two  years 
exceeds  the  sum  of  $500,000,  at  current  prices  in  said 
county  at  that  time,  and, 

2.  Present  a  good  and  sufficient  bond  for  title  to 
a  suitable  and  adequate  amount  of  land  to  be  donated 
to  the  Government  of  the  United  States  for  the  loca- 
tion of  the  sub-treasury  buildings,  and, 

3.  A  certificate  of  election  showing  that  the  site  for 
the  location  of  such  sub-treasury  has  been  chosen  by 
a  popular  vote  of  the  citizens  of  "that  county,  and  also 
naming  the  manager  of  the  sub-treasury  elected  at 
said  election  for  the  purpose  of  taking  charge  of  such 
sub-treasury  under  such  regulations  as  may  be  pre- 


scribed. It  shall  in  that  case  be  the  duty  of  the 
Secretary  of  the  Treasury  to  proceed  without  delay 
to  establish  a  sub-treasury  department  in  such  county 
as  hereinafter  provided. 

SEC.  2.  That  any  owner  of  cotton,  wheat,  corn,  oats, 
or  tobacco  may  deposit  the  same  in  the  sub-treasury 
nearest  the  point  of  its  production,  and  receive  there- 
for treasury  notes,  hereinafter  provided  for,  equal  at 
the  date  of  deposit  to  80  per  cent,  of  the  net  value  of 
such  products  at  the  market  price,  said  price  to  be 
determined  by  the  Secretary  of  the  Treasury  under 
rules  and  regulations  prescribed,  based  upon  the 
price  current  in  the  leading  cotton,  tobacco,  or  grain 
markets  of  the  United  States  ;  but  no  deposit  consist- 
ing in  whole  or  in  part  of  cotton,  tobacco,  or  grain 
imported  into  this  country  shall  be  received  under 
the  provisions  of  this  act. 

SEC.  3.  That  the  Secretary  of  the  Treasury  shall 
cause  to  be  prepared  treasury  notes  in  such  amounts 
as  may  be  required  for  the  purpose  of  the  above  sec- 
tion, and  in  such  form  and  denominations  as  he  may 
prescribe,  provided  that  no  note  shall  be  of  a  denomi- 
nation of  less  than  one  dollar  or  more  than  one  thou- 
sand dollars. 

SEC.  4.  That  the  treasury  notes  issued  under  this 
act  shall  be  receivable  for  customs,  and  shall  be  a  full 
legal  tender  for  all  debts,  both  public  and  private, 
and  such  notes,  when  held  by  any  national  banking 
association,  shall  be  counted  as  part  of  its  lawful 
reserve. 

SEC.  5.  It  shall  be  the  duty  of  the  manager  of  a  sub- 
treasury  when  cotton,  grain,  or  tobacco  is  received 
by  him  on  deposit,  as  above  provided,  to  give  a  ware- 
house receipt  showing  the  amount  and  grade  or 
quality  of  such  cotton,  tobacco,  or  grain,  and  its  value 
at  date  of  deposit ;  the  amount  of  treasury  notes  the 
sub-treasury  has  advanced  on  the  product ;  that  the 
interest  on  the  money  so  advanced  is  at  the  rate  of 
i  per  cent,  per  annum,  expressly  stating  the  amount 
of  insurance,  weighing,  classing,  warehousing,  and 
other  charges  that  will  run  against  such  deposit  of 
cotton,  grain,  or  tobacco.  All  such  warehouse  receipts 
shall  be  negotiable  by  indorsement. 

SEC.  6.  That  the  cotton,  grain,  or  tobacco  deposited 
in  the  sub-treasury  under  the  provisions  of  this  act 
may  be  redeemed  by  the  holder  of  the  warehouse 
receipt  herein  provided  for,  either  at  the  sub-treasury 
in  which  the  product  is  deposited,  or  at  any  other 
sub-treasury,  by  the  surrender  of  such  warehouse 
receipt,  and  the  payment  in  lawful  money  of  the 
United  States  of  the  same  amount  originally  advanced 
by  the  sub-treasury  against  the  product,  and  such 
further  amount  as  may  be  necessary  to  discharge  all 
interest  that  may  have  accrued  against  the  advance 
of  money  made  on  the  deposit  of  produce,  and  all 
insurance,  warehouse,  and  other  charges  that  attach 
to  the  product  for  warehousing  and  handling.  All 
lawful  money  received  at  the  sub-treasury  as  a 
return  of  the  actual  amount  of  money  advanced  by 
the  government  against  farm  products  as  above 
specified  shall  be  returned,  with  a  full  report  of  the 
transaction,  to  the  Secretary  of  the  Treasury,  who 
shall  make  record  of  the  transaction,  and  cancel  and 
destroy  the  money  so  returned.  A  sub-treasury  that 
receives  a  warehouse  receipt  as  above  provided, 
together  with  the  return  of  the  proper  amount  of 
lawful  money,  and  all  charges  as  herein  provided, 
when  the  product  for  which  it  is  given  is  stored  in 
some  other  sub-treasury,  shall  give  an  order  on  such 
other  sub-treasury  for  the  delivery  of  the  cotton, 
grain,  or  tobacco,  as  the  case  may  be,  and  the  Secre- 
tary of  the  Treasury  shall  provide  for  the  adjustment 
between  sub-treasuries  of  all  charges. 

SEC.  7.  The  Secretary  of  the  Treasury  shall  pre- 
scribe such  rules  and  regulations  as  are  necessary 
for  governing  the  details  of  the  management  of  the 
sub-treasuries,  fixing  the  salary,  bond,  and  responsi- 
bility of  each  of  the  managers  of  sub-treasuries 
(provided  that  the  salary  of  any  manager  of  a  sub- 
treasury  shall  not  exceed  the  sum  of  $1500  per  annum), 
holding  the  managers  of  sub-treasuries  personally 
responsible  on  their  bonds  for  weights  and  classifica- 
tions of  all  produce,  providing  for  the  rejection  of 
unmerchantable  grades  of  cotton,  grain,  or  tobacco, 
or  for  such  as  may  be  in  bad  condition,  and  shall 
provide  rules  for  the  sale  at  public  auction  of  all 
cotton,  corn,  oats,  wheat,  or  tobacco  that  has  been 
placed  on  deposit  for  a  longer  period  than  twelve 
months,  after  due  notice  published.  The  proceeds  of 
the  sale  of  such  product  shall  be  applied,  first  to  the 
reimbursement  of  the  sub-treasury  of  the  amount 
originally  advanced,  together  with  all  charges,  and, 
second,  the  balance  shall  be  held  on  deposit  for  the 


Sub-treasury  Plan. 


1297 


Sumner,  William  Graham. 


benefit  of  the  holder  of  the  warehouse  receipt,  who 
shall  be  entitled  to  receive  the  same  on  the  surrender 
of  his  warehouse  receipt.  The  Secretary  of  the  Treas- 
ury shall  also  provide  rules  for  the  duplication  of  any 
papers  in  case  of  loss  or  destruction. 

SEC.  8.  It  shall  be  the  duty  of  the  Secretary  of  the 
Treasury,  when  Section  i  of  this  act  shall  have  been 
complied  with,  to  cause  to  be  erected,  according  to 
the  laws  and  customs  governing  the  construction  of 
government  buildings,  a  suitable  sub-treasury  build- 
ing, with  such  warehouse  or  elevator  facilities  as  the 
character  and  amount  of  the  products  of  that  section 
may  indicate  as  necessary.  Such  buildings  shall  be 
supplied  with  all  modern  conveniences  for  handling 
and  safely  storing  and  preserving  the  products  likely 
to  be  deposited. 

SEC.  9.  That  any  gain  arising  from  the  charges  for 
insurance,  weighing,  storing,  classing,  holding,  ship- 
ping, interest,  or  other  charges,  after  paying  all 
expenses  of  conducting  the  sub-treasury,  shall  be 
accounted  for  and  paid  into  the  Treasury  of  the  United 
States. 

SEC.  10.  .The  term  of  office  of  a  manager  of  a  sub- 
treasury  shall  be  two  years,  and  the  regular  election 
to  fill  such  office  shall  be  at  the  same  time  as  the 
election  for  members  of  the  House  of  Representatives 
of  the  Congress  of  the  United  States.  In  case  of  a. 
vacancy  in  the  office  of  manager  of  the  sub-treasury 
by  death,  resignation,  or  otherwise,  the  Secretary  of 
the  Treasury  shall  have  power  to  appoint  a  manager 
for  the  unexpired  term. 

SEC.  ii.  The  sum  of  $50,000,000,  or  so  much  thereof 
as  may  be  found  necessary  to  carry  out  the  provisions 
of  this  act,  is  hereby  appropriated  out  of  any  moneys 
in  the  Treasury  not  otherwise  appropriated,  for  that 
purpose. 

Professor  Commons  says  of  this  plan  in  an 
article  in  The  Voice  (September  14,  1893)  : 

•'The  so-called  sub-treasury  plan  of  the  Farmers' 
Alliance  is  an  interesting  attempt  to  establish  such 
a  currency  [an  elastic  one].  Farmers  have  but  little 
use  for  cash  during  most  of  the  year,  but  at  harvest 
time  they  need  a  large  amount  of  money  to  move 
their  crops  and  pay  their  debts.  This  creates  a  new 
demand  for  money,  which  must  then  be  shipped  from 
the  East  and  from  Europe.  This  yearly  demand  for 
money  often  creates  a  stringency.  Money  becomes 
dearer.  And  just  as  there  is  a  freight-car  famine  at 
that  time  of  the  year  resulting  in  high  freights,  so 
there  is  a  money  famine  resulting  in  dear  money  and 
low  prices  of  products.  The  farmers  claim  that  the 
prices  of  their  products  are  crowded  down  to  40  per 
cent,  below  the  prices  of  six  months  later  ;  the  differ- 
ence, of  course,  going  into  the  pockets  of  the  specula- 
tors. The  sub-treasury  plan  provides  for  depositing 
the  staple  products  of  the  farmers  in  government 
warehouses,  just  as  alcoholic  liquors  are  to-day 
deposited,  and  the  issuing  of  paper  money  to  be 
loaned  to  the  farmers  on  the  security  of  the  staple 
products.  When  the  farmer  redeems  his  warehouse 
deposit  he  returns  the  paper  money,  pays  the 
charges,  and  the  money  itself  is  canceled  and  dis- 
appears from  circulation.  Thus  we  have  a  perfectly 
automatic  and  elastic  currency,  expanding  when  the 
demand  expands  and  contracting  when  the  demand 
contracts. 

"There  is  a  wide-spread  disposition  to  ridicule  this 
plan  of  the  farmers  as  visionary  and  socialistic. 
Perhaps  it  is  visionary  and  socialistic  for  a  great  free 
government,  where  everybody  is  supposed  to  be 
equal,  but  it  is  an  important  fact  that  the  very  same 
plan  is  in  actual  operation  to-day  in  the  benevolent 
despotism  of  Russia.  The  imperial  bank  advances 
paper  money  through  the  railroad  companies  acting 
as  agents  to  farmers  along  the  lines  of  the  roads,  on 
the  security  of  crops  deposited  in  railway  ware- 
houses. The  farmers  pay  6  per  cent.,  are  not  per- 
mitted to  maintain  a  loan  longer  than  one  year  nor 
a  larger  amount  than  60  per  cent,  of  the  market  value 
of  their  grain  deposit.  This  policy  has  been  in  opera- 
tion for  five  years,  and  is  said  to  have  done  more  than 
anything  else  to  encourage  agriculture  in  that  coun- 
try, since  it  enables  the  farmer  to  get  higher  prices 
for  his  crops  and  frees  him  from  the  usury  of  the 
money-lenders." 

The  plan,  however,  is  little  advocated  to-day 
even  by  the  farmers.  The  agitation  on  the 
subject  has  turned  into  other  channels.  (See 
SILVER.) 

82 


SUEZ  CANAL.— The  Suez  Canal  was 
commenced  in  1859  by  M.  de  Lesseps,  on  a 
concession  to  a  stock  company  by  the  Egyptian 
Government  after  the  European  powers  had 
finally  given  consent.  It  is  100  miles  long,  60 
miles  of  which  are  through  narrow  lakes.  It 
was  opened  in  1869.  The  cost,  as  originally  com- 
pleted, was  $95,000,000.  In  1894,  3352  vessels 
passed  through  it,  paying  $14,770,081  in  tolls. 


SUFFRAGE. 

AN'S  SUFFRAGE. 


See  ELECTIONS  ;   also  WOM- 


SUICIDE.— The  statistics  of  suicide  indicate 
its  increase  in  the  United  States.  Mr.  F.  L. 
Hoffman,  writing  in  the  Arena,  vol.  vii.  pp. 
680-695,  gives  the  following  figures  based  on 
official  statistics  : 

RATIO  OF  DEATHS  TO  SUICIDES.    AVERAGES  FOR 
FIVE  YEARS. 


1861 

1866 

1871 

1876 

1881 

1886 

to 

to 

to 

to 

to 

to 

i86S 

1870 

1875 

1880 

1885 

1890 

Massachusetts.  .  .  . 

329 

301 

260 

232 

218 

226 

Rhode  Island  

219 

216 

218 

220 

3" 

Connecticut  ,  

.. 

283 

251 

1  86 

I7O 

143 

Michigan  

282 

The  average  annual  suicide  rate  per  100,000 
for  various  countries  is  given  by  Barber  as  fol- 
lows : 

Saxony,  31.1  ;  Denmark,  25.8  ;  Austria,  21.2  ;  Switzer- 
land, 20.2  ;  France,  15.7  ;  Germany,  14.3  ;  Queensland, 
13.5  ;  Victoria,  11.5  ;  New  South  Wales,  9.3  ;  Bavaria, 
9.1  ;  New  Zealand,  9.0;  South  Australia,  8.9;  Sweden, 
8.1 ;  Norway,  7.5  ;  Belgium,  6.9  ;  England  and  Wales, 
6.9  ;  Scotland,  4.0  ;  Italy,  3.7 ;  United  States,  3.5  ;  Rus- 
sia, 2.9  ;  Ireland,  1.7  ;  Spain,  1.4.  In  Dresden,  51  ;  Paris, 
42  ;  Berlin,  36  ;  Vienna,  28  ;  Stockholm,  27  ;  Christiania, 
25  ;  London,  23  ;  Brussels,  15  ;  Amsterdam,  14  ;  Moscow, 
ii  ;  Rome,  8  ;  St.  Petersburg,  7  ;  Madrid,  8 ;  Lisbon,  2. 

The  causes  of  suicide  in  European  countries 
are  reported  as  follows  : 

Of  loo  suicides  :  madness,  delirium,  18  per  cent. ;  al- 
coholism, ii ;  vice,  crime,  19;  different  diseases,  2} 
moral  sufferings,  6;  family  matters,  4  ;  poverty,  want, 
4  ;  loss  of  intellect,  14  ;  consequence  of  crimes,  3  ;  un- 
known reasons,  19. 

The  number  of  suicides  in  the  United  States,  six 
years,  1882-87,  was  8226.  Insanity  was  the  principal 
cause,  shooting  the  favorite  method  ;  5386  acts  of  sui- 
cide were  committed  in  the  day,  and  2419  in  the  night. 
Summer  was  the  favorite  season,  June  the  favorite 
month,  and  the  nth  the  favorite  day  of  the  month. 
The  month  in  which  the  largest  number  of  suicides 
occurs  is  July. 

The  number  of  suicides  in  ten  American  cities  in  1895 
was  as  follows  :  New  York,  376  ;  Chicago,  350  ;  Brook- 
lyn, 161  ;  St.  Louis,  134;  San  Francisco,  no;  Philadel- 
phia, 95  ;  Boston,  77 ;  Cincinnati,  65  ;  Baltimore,  43 ; 
Providence,  n. 

SUMNER,  WILLIAM  GRAHAM,  was 
born  in  Paterson,  N.  J.,  in  1840.  He  was 
graduated  at  Yale  College  in  1863,  and  then 
studied  at  Oxford,  England,  and  at  Gottin- 
gen  in  Germany.  From  1866  to  1869  he  was  a 
tutor  at  Yale  College.  In  1867  he  took  orders 
in  the  Protestant  Episcopal  Church,  and  for  a 
short  while  was  assistant  at  Calvary  Church  in 
New  York.  In  1872,  however,  he  became 
professor  of  political  and  social  science  at  Yale 
College,  which  position  he  has  since  held, 
one  of  the  leading  economists  in  America  of 
the  orthodox  school,  especially  on  the  sub- 
jects Free  Trade  and  Gold  Currency.  His  best 


Sumptuary  Laws. 


Sweating  System,  The. 


known  works  are  History  of  American  Cur- 
rency (1874);  Lectures  on  the  History  of  Pro- 
tection in  the  United  States  (1875)  ;  What 
Social  Classes  Owe  to  Each  Other  (1883); 
Protectionism  (1885.) 

SUMPTUARY  LAWS  are  laws  which 
seek  to  restrict  and  regulate  private  expendi- 
tures. They  have  been  attempted  by  all 
countries,  even  by  the  modern  American 
States.  Most  economists  to-day,  however, 
agree  with  Adam  Smith  when  he  says  :  "It  is 
the  highest  impertinence  and  presumption  in 
kings  and  ministers  to  pretend  to  watch  over 
the  economy  of  private  people."  The  latest 
piece  of  true  sumptuary  legislation  in  Great 
Britain  was  the  Scotch  law  of  1861. 

SUNDAY  LABOR.— With  the  religious 
and  theological  arguments  raised  for  the  limi- 
tation of  Sunday  we  are  not  in  this  encyclo- 
pedia concerned,  save  as  these  affect  the  moral 
and  physical  welfare  of  society.  But  in  the 
ever  increasing  complexity  and  stress  of  mod- 
ern life,  it  is  patent  to  all  that  men  more  and 
more  need  a  rest,  at  least  one  day  in  seven, 
from  their  daily  toil.  It  is  to-day  substanti- 
ated, beyond  all  question,  that  man  in  the  long 
run  can  produce  more  and  better  work,  by 
resting  one  day  in  seven  than  by  continuous 
work.  It  is  well  known  that,  if  a  mason  or 
carpenter  takes  a  contract  for  a  job  of  work  to 
be  done  in  Paris,  he  gets  his  work  done 
quicker,  cheaper,  and  better  with  English 
help  which  works  only  six  days  in  the  week, 
than  with  French  help  which  works  seven  days. 

Such  facts  could  be  multiplied  to  almost  any 
extent,  all  showing  that  men  and  women  will 
do  more  work  and  do  it  better  when  they  have 
their  Sabbath  for  rest.  And  such  men  and 
women  will  live  longer  and  more  happily. 
They  will  stand  higher  on  the  scale  of  intel- 
lectual, moral,  social,  spiritual  being. 

Dr.  Chalmers  of  Scotland  said:  "  I  never 
knew  the  man  who  worked  seven  days  in  the 
week  without  becoming  soon  a  wreck  in  health 
or  in  fortune,  or  in  both." 

Edmund  Burke  said  :  "A  nation  that  neg- 
lects the  Sabbath  soon  sinks  into  barbarism  or 
ruin.  Civilized  man  cannot  bear  the  pressure 
of  seven  days'  work  and  worry  in  a  week." 

Yet  it  is  also  a  well-proven  fact  that  Sunday 
labor  in  the  United  States  is  on  the  increase. 
It  has  been  estimated  that,  in  Massachusetts 
alone,  50,000  persons — men,  women, and  chil- 
dren— have  to  labor.  On  railroads,  on  street 
railways,  in  livery-stables,  in  making  repairs 
(often  only  done  on  Sunday,  because  employ- 
ers are  unwilling  to  forfeit  weekday  dividends), 
in  bakeries,  in  hotels,  in  private  houses,  in 
barber  shops,  in  drug  stores,  in  printing 
offices,  in  theaters  and  places  of  amusement, 
a  constantly  increasing  amount  of  work  is  done 
on  Sunday.  Working  men  bitterly  complain 
of  this,  yet  too  often  find  even  the  Christian 
Church  turning  a  deaf  ear  to  their  cry,  and 
clergymen  unwilling  to  cooperate  in  limiting 
the  hours  of  labor.  An  American  Sabbath 
union  exists  in  New  York  City,  and  local 
leagues,  such  as  the  New  England  Sabbath 
Protection  League,  exist  in  various  localities. 


Some  literature  is  published,  but  little  ade- 
quate effort  is  made,  and  what  is  done  is  often 
on  narrow  lines.  Much  Sunday  labor  need 
not  be  done  at  all,  but  when  it  is  necessary, 
the  worker  should  be  given  a  free  day  some 
other  day  in  the  week,  or  men  should  alternate 
in  doing  Sunday  work.  It  is  often  forgotten, 
too,  how  intimate  is  the  connection  between  a 
half  holiday  on  Saturday  and  the  necessity  for 
Sunday  work.  If  the  half  Saturday  prevailed 
in  America  all  throitgh  the  year,  to  the  ex- 
tent to  which  it  does  in  England,  there  would 
be  less  need  of  making  Sunday  a  day  of  excur- 
sions into  the  country  for  the  city  working 
classes,  and  therefore  less  necessity  for  Sun- 
day trains,  cars,  etc.  The  cheapening  in  the 
price  of  bicycles  too  and  use  of  electric  private 
carriages  would  result  in  less  demand  for  Sun- 
day trains  and  cars.  Many  believe  that  the 
Sunday  problem  is  to  be  fought  out  on  eco- 
nomic lines  of  lessening  the  hours  of  labor 
generally  (see  SHORT-HOUR  MOVEMENT)  rather 
than  on  strict  religious  lines. 

In  Continental  Europe,  where  Sunday  labor 
is  still  more  common  than  in  America,  the  ex- 
perience all  shows  the  need  of  the 
Sunday  rest,  and  there  is  a  grow- 
ing   movement    for    its    enforce-     Europe, 
ment.       Sunday     Rest     Leagues 
exist    in    France,    Belgium,    and 
Italy,   and  elsewhere.     These  are  largely  sup- 
ported by  the  clergy,  Catholic  and  Protestant, 
yet  the  main  efforts  in  this  direction  come 
from  the  working  men  themselves.     In  France 
and  Belgium  the  main  effort  is  to  close  the 
stores    on    Sunday    afternoons.      The    Paris 
League    has  4000    members.      In   Germany, 
during  1896,  the    Prussian  government  took 
steps  to  free  50,000  railway  freight  employees 
from  all  Sunday  work.     In  Austria  all  Sunday 
work  except  that  also  entirely  necessary  is  for- 
bidden.    In   Switzerland,   Sunday  laws  have 
been  passed  by  half  the  cantons. 

England  is  in  somewhat;  the  same  condition 
as  America  on  this  point.  It  has  been  esti- 
mated that  at  least  300,000  in  English  domin- 
ions are  employed  on  Sundays  on  railroads 
alone. 

SWEATING    SYSTEM,   THE,    may  be 

defined  as  that  system  of  the  production  of 
goods  for  sale,  particularly  prevailing  in  the 
clothing  trades,  whereby  the  wholesalers  buy 
their  goods  of  middlemen  (or  sweaters),  who 
employ  men,  women,  or  children  to  manu- 
facture the  goods  at  the  lowest  possible  wages, 
either  in  hot  small  rooms  (sweat-shops)  be- 
longing to  the  sweater,  or  taking  the  materials 
to  their  own  homes  and  making  them  there  for 
usually  still  lower  prices.  As  long  ago  as  1849 
a  series  of  letters  in  the  London  Morning 
Chronicle  showed  the  horrors  of  the  sweating 
system  in  London,  and  called  out  Charles 
Kingsley's  burning  tract,  Cheap  Clothes  and 
Nasty. 

This  tract  tells  of  men  working  in  sweating 
dens,  the  longest  hours  for  seven  days  in  the 
week,  and  paying  the  sweater  for  the  most 
meager  board  such  rates  that,  at  the  end  of 
the  week,  they  would  be  in  debt  to  the  sweater 
and  thus  be  in  his  power  and  be  compelled  to 


Sweating  System,  The. 


1299        Switzerland  and  Social  Reform. 


stay  on.  To-day  the  system  exists  in  England 
and  in  America,  in  almost  all  branches  of  the 
clothing  trade,  to  an  alarming  extent.  Owing 
to  the  efforts  of  the  Anti-tenement-house 
League  (g.  v.),  Congress  appointed  in  1892  a 
committee  to  report  upon  the  matter.  This 
committee  reported  that  probably  the  manu- 
facture of  clothing  was  in  total  value  the  most 
important  product  of  the  country;  that  it  was 
largely  centered  in  cities;  that  over  60  per 
cent,  of  the  clothing  sold  was  ready-made,  and 
that  about  one-half  of  this  was  made  under 
the  sweating  system.  Clothing  made  under 
this  system  they  declared  to  be  made  in  prem- 
ises usually  filthy,  in  the  slums  and  crowded 
portions  of  the  cities,  from  places  liable  to 
breed  germs  of  disease  which  could  be  carried 
in  the  clothing,  and  producing  evil  in  every 
way.  The  worst  form  of  the  system,  the  re- 
port says,  is  when  the  clothing  is  not  made 
even  in  sweating  dens  but  is  carried  home  to 
be  made  in  the  tenements  under  conditions 
sometimes  defying  description. 

Various  efforts  have  been  made  to  reform 
and  mend  the  system.  (For  attempts  to  or- 
ganize the  workers  into  unions,  see  TAILORING 
TRADES  )  These  attempts,  however,  have  as 
yet  been  only  partially  successful.  Efforts  have 
been  made  to  mark  with  labels  clothing  made 
under  proper  factory  conditions,  hoping  that 
the  public  would  patronize  such  clothing,  but 
little  good  has  resulted.  Still  less  successful 
have  been  the  efforts  to  establish  cooperative 
tailor  shops.  The  competition  of  the  cheap 
prices  of  the  sweating  system  has  been  too 
strong  for  these  stores  to  succeed.  Several 
States  have  appointed  commissioners  to  super- 
vise the  system  and  allow  clothing  to  be  made 
only  in  licensed  places.  This  has  done  some 
good,  but  too  often  the  law  has  been  avoided 
or  evil  connived  at.  The  above-mentioned  re- 
port says  : 

"  We  quote  and  adopt  the  reasoning  of  Dr.  Daniels. 
The  one  method  that  can  be  employed  by  which 
we  shall  be  certain  that  no  article  is  manufactured  in 
tenement-house  living  rooms,  and  that  no  little  chil- 
dren are  employed  in  the  manufacture  of  any  goods, 
is  the  passage  of  a  law  prohibiting  such  manufacture 
in  tenement-house  apartments  which  are  used  for 
living  and  sleeping  purposes.  .  .  .  Undoubtedly  un- 
der such  a  law  a  few  would  suffer.  The  people  who 
would  suffer  would  probably  be  only  a  few  women 
who,  from  old  age  or  chronic  illness,  are  unable  to  go 
to  the  shops  to  work.  The  widows  would  be  forced  to 
find  work  in  the  factories,  and  the  orphans  sent  to 
school,  kindergarten,  or  nursery.  The  result  would 
be  that  women  would  work  in  better  sanitary  sur- 
roundings, that  no  children  under  14  years  would  be 
employed  in  manufacturing  goods;  the  sick  would 
receive  proper  care,  if  not  at  home,  then  transferred 
to  a  hospital,  there  to  get  well  or  die  out  of  sight 
of  the  everlasting  work. 

"  I  should  say  that  the  life  in  tenement-houses,  plus 
manufacturing  in  tenement  rooms,  if  continued, 
would  eventually  bring  forth  brutal,  unhealthy  men 
and  women." 

See  SLUMS  ;  TAILORING  TRADES. 

SWINTON,  JOHN,  was  born  in  Illinois  in 
1830  and  learned  the  printer's  trade.  In  1850 
he  moved  to  New  York  City  and  studied  law 
and  medicine,  but,  returning  to  journalism, was 
chief  of  the  editorial  staff  of  the  Times  during 
the  war,  and  till  1869.  He  then  was  with 
Greeley  (g.  v.)  on  the  Tribune  till  1879,  and 
chief  writer  on  the  Sun  till  1883,  when  he 
resigned  and  established  John  Swintorfs 


Paper,  a  radical  labor  paper,  which  attained 
to  great  influence,  but  failed  in  1886,  since 
when  Mr.  Swinton  has  returned  to  ordinary 
journalism.  In  1874  he  was  nominated  for 
mayor  of  New  York  on  a  workman's  ticket, 
but  received  only  200  votes.  He  has,  how- 
ever, been  a  favorite  speaker  and  leader  in  all 
New  York  labor  meetings. 

SWITZERLAND  AND  SOCIAL  RE- 
FORM, STATISTICS  ON.— August  i,  1291, 
the  men  of  Uri,  Schwyz,  and  Lower  Unterwal- 
den,  formed  a  defensive  league.  By  1513, 13  can- 
tons had  joined.  In  1798  a  Helvetic  Republic 
was  declared.  This  gave  little  satisfaction, 
and  in  1803  Napoleon  gave  a  new  constitution 
for  19  cantons.  In  1815  the  powers  guaranteed 
the  inviolability  of  her  territory  and  a  federal 
pact  was  accepted  with  22  cantons.  In  1848  a 
new  constitution  was  adopted,  and  in  1874  the 
present  one.  Switzerland  is  now  a  confedera- 
tion ;  the  federal  government  being  superior 
in  matters  of  peace,  war,  army,  post  and  tele- 
graph, revenue,  money,  weights  and  meas- 
ures, and  large  public  works. 

There  are  two  chambers,  a  Standerath  or 
State  Council  of  44  members,  two  for  each 
canton,  chosen  as  the  canton  will,  and  a  Na- 
tionalrath  of  147  delegates,  or  one  for  each 
20,000  souls,  chosen  by  universal  male  suffrage. 
A  general  election  takes  place  every  three 
years.  Any  man,  not  a  clergyman,  may  be 
elected.  The  president  and  vice-president 
are  elected  annually  by  the  Federal  Assembly. 

The  cantons  have  a  large  degree  of  local 
self-government ;  the  small  ones  being  gov- 
erned by  the  Landsgemeidin,  the  large  ones 
by  a  grosse  Rath. 

The  Referendum  and  the  Initiative  (see  REF- 
ERENDUM) are  all  but  universal.  The  total 
population,  June,  1894,  was  2,986,848,  on  15,976 
square  miles.  In  1888,  1,106,430  were  engaged 
in  agriculture. 

There  is  complete  religious  liberty,  about  59 
per  cent,  of  the  population  being  Protestant, 
and  40  per  cent.  Roman  Catholic.  Education 
is  very  general,  but  not  centralized.  (See 
EDUCATION.)  The  revenue  in  1894 was  84,047,- 
312  francs,  the  expenditure  83,675,812  francs. 
The  main  source  of  revenue  was  customs;  the 
main  expense,  military.  The  public  debt  Jan- 
uary i,  1895,  was  85,203,586  francs. 

There  are  300,000  peasant  proprietors.  (See 
AGRICULTURE.)  The  imports  in  1894  were  880,- 
845,540  francs;  the  exports,  673,004.524  francs. 
In  1895  there  were  2267  miles  of  railway  (pri- 
vate). The  telegraph  is  owned  by  the  gov- 
ernment. 

SOCIAL  REFORMS. 

Switzerland,  in  many  respects,  leads  the  na- 
tions in  social  reform.  In  no  country  are 
democratic  political  institutions  so  fully  devel- 
oped ;  perhaps  in  no  country  is  there  so  much 
industrial  democracy.  For  the  adoption  in 
Switzerland  of  the  important  principles  of  di- 
rect legislation,  see  articles  REFERENDUM  AND 
INITIATIVE  and  PROPORTIONAL  REPRESENTATION. 
In  no  country  have  these  reforms  been  car- 
ried so  far  or  so  successfully.  Switzerland 
has  also  largely  adopted  the  principles  of  the 


Switzerland  and  Social  Reform. 


1300 


Syndicate  Bond  Contracts. 


progressive  income  tax  (g.  v.).  In  the  lines 
of  socialism,  she  has  the  nationalization  of  the 
telegraph  (q.  v.)  and  telephone^,  v.).  She  is 
preparing  to  nationalize  her  railroads  (a.  v.} 
and  has  the  nationalization  of  the  traffic  in 
alcohol.  (See  SOUTH  CAROLINA  DISPENSARY 
SYSTEM.)  She  is  making  important  experi- 
ments in  employing  the  unemployed.  (See  UN- 
EMPLOYMENT.) She  carefully  controls,  and  is 
preparing  to  nationalize  her  banking  system. 
Among  her  most  important  developments  is 
her  political  recognition  of  organized  labor.  In 
1887  the  office  of  Workman's  Secretary  was 
founded,  its  incumbent  to  be  practically  a 
member  of  the  Federal  Cabinet,  and  to  be  paid 
by  the  government,  but  to  be  elected  by  the 
Swiss  labor  unions,  thus  to  some  extent  mak- 
ing them  a  recognized  part  of  Swiss  political 
institutions.  Swiss  municipal  institutions  are, 
however,  equally  progressive  with  national 
institutions.  Cities  like  Zurich 
and  Basel  in  German,  and  Geneva 
Municipal-  in  French,  Switzerland,  are  among 
ism.  the  most  progressive  municipali- 
ties in  the  world.  They  care 
minutely  for  the  housing  of  the 
working-classes,  they  strive  to  give  work  to 
the  unemployed ;  they  have  municipalized 
most  of  the  natural  monopolies — they  thus  re- 
ceive large  municipal  revenues  with  low  rates 
of  taxation ;  they  have  developed  some  of  the 
best  industrial  schools  of  the  world.  (See 
INDUSTRIAL  EDUCATION.) 

Switzerland  thus  seems  to  lead  the  world  in 
political  democracy  and  in  a  constructive,  tho 
often  in  an  unconscious,  socialism.  The  de- 
velopment of  conscious  socialism,  however, 
has  been  somewhat  weak  and  to  a  large  extent 
of  foreign  importation.  Switzer* 
land  has  long  been  the  asylum  of 
political  refugees  from  other  lands.  Socialism. 
Thus  Geneva  has  been  the  shelter 
from  which  at  one  time  Mazzini 
tried  to  rouse  a  Young  Europe,  which  Bakou- 
nin  sought  to  make  the  center  of  anarchism, 
and  from  whence  Russian  nihilists  have  tried 
to  reach  Russia.  But  these  movements  have 
little  affected  Switzerland.  Driven  from  Ger- 
many by  the  Anti-Socialist  law,  many 
German  socialists  found  refuge  in  Basel,  and 
somewhat  developed  German  socialism  in 
Switzerland,  yet  after  all  not  at  all  commen- 
surably  with  the  Swiss  development  of  uncon- 
scious socialism.  In  1864  a  branch  of  the 
International  was  founded  in  Geneva,  and  by 
1869  32  branches  were  said  to  exist  in  Geneva 
alone.  But  the  movement  did  not  endure. 
(See  INTERNATIONAL.)  In  1888  the  present 
Social  Democratic  party  of  Switzerland  was 
formed,  and  has  continued  ever  since  an  active 
propaganda  on  the  lines  of  German  socialism, 
yet  without  reaching  large  numbers;  perhaps 
exactly  because  there  is  so  much  unconscious 
socialism  in  Switzerland.  More  important  is 
the  great  Swiss  labor  organization,  the  Grutlz- 
•veretn.  This  was  founded  in  1838  at  Geneva, 
taking  its  name  from  the  scene  of  the  original 
Swiss  federal  pact  of  1307.  It  has  to-day  sev- 
eral hundred  branches,  and  is  largely  socialis- 
tic and  the  main  expression  of  the  socialistic 
tendencies  of  the  Swiss  laboring  classes. 


References  :  Report  on  Switzerland  of  the  (English) 
Royal  Commission  on  Labor ;  W.  D.  McCracken's 
Rise  of  the  Swiss  Republic  (1892).  See,  also,  REFEREN- 
DUM AND  INITIATIVE. 

SYNDICATE     BOND    CONTRACTS.— 

In  1894,  1895,  and  1896,  the  United  States 
Treasury  declared  itself  compelled  to  borrow 
money  by  the  issue  of  bonds.  The  occasion 
of  this  is  variously  explained  by  different 
bodies  of  thinkers.  Believers  in  protection 
claimed  that  it  was  occasioned  by  a  deficit  in 
the  United  States  Treasury  due  to  the  repeal 
of  the  McKinley  act  and  the  reduction  of  the 
tariff.  Others  claimed  that  it  was  due  to  a 
deficit  of  income,  due  to  large  expenditures, 
and  to  involved  causes  incident  on  general 
depression.  Some  Democrats  claimed  that  it 
was  not  due  to  a  deficit  in  the  Treasury  at  all, 
but  to  the  silver  agitation  causing  "  lack  of  con- 
fidence "  and  the  withdrawal  of  gold  from  the 
Treasury,  and  that  it  was  absolutely  necessary 
to  borrow  gold  in  order  to  keep  up  the  credit 
of  the  United  States,  and  they  considered  Mr. 
Cleveland  to  have  energetically  and  rightly 
saved  the  honor  of  the  country.  Believers 
in  free  silver  claimed  that  there  was  no  neces- 
sity to  issue  the  bonds,  but  that  the  necessity 
only  arose  in  the  policy  of  the  administration 
in  discriminating  against  silver  and  insist- 
ing in  paying  out  gold,  even  where  gold  was 
not  called  for.  Extremists  declared  that  it  was 
a  plot  of  the  bankers  against  the  government, 
or  even  a  deal  with  the  administration  to  make 
large  profits  for  New  York  and  foreign  gold 
syndicates.  It  was  strenuously  asserted  that 
the  government  had  no  right  to  issue  such 
bonds.  Be  this  as  it  may,  and  whatever  the 
cause,  the  Secretary  of  the  Treasury,  Mr.  Car- 
lisle, planting  himself  on  laws  of  July  14,  1870, 
and  January,  1875,  authorizing  the  issue  of 
bonds  to  redeem  government  notes,  declared 
that  he  had  the  right  to  issue  bonds.  In  Feb- 
ruary, and  again  in  November,  1894,  issues 
were  made  of  5  per  cents,  for  $50,000,000  and 
sold  to  New  York  banks.  They  did  little 
good.  The  banks  paid  in  the  gold  to  the 
Treasury,  and  the  gold  was  soon  withdrawn, 
sometimes  by  the  very  parties  who  had  paid  it 
in.  In  February,  1895,  conditions  were  as 
bad  as  ever.  The  gold  reserve  had  fallen  to 
$41,340,181,  instead  of  the  $1.00,000,000  which 
it  was  desired  to  keep  in  the  Treasury.  The 
administration  was,  or  at  least  declared  that 
it  was,  in  the  money-lenders'  hands.  If  it 
made  an  ordinary  loan  from  the  banks  the 
gold  would  soon  be  withdrawn.  After  a  few 
days'  correspondence,  therefore,  it  issued  to  a 
syndicate,  with  Mr.  J.  P.  Morgan  at  its  head, 
3o-year  bonds  at  4.49  per  cent,  over  their  face 
value,  for  $65,000,000  of  gold,  the  syndicate 
agreeing  on  its  part  to  obtain  one-half  the  gold 
from  Europe,  and  "  to  protect  the  Treasury  of 
the  United  States  against  the  withdrawal  of 
gold  pending  the  complete  performance  of 
this  contract."  This  was  hailed  as  "patriot- 
ism "  on  the  part  of  the  bankers  and  denounced 
as  a  "  steal"  by  the  free-silver  men.  For  a 
while  relief  was  gained,  but  by  August  or 
September  the  agreement  with  the  syndicate 
mutually  broke  down — it  was  claimed  without 
the  fault  of  the  syndicate — and  things  threat- 


Syndicate  Bond  Contracts. 


1301 


Tailoring  Trades. 


ened  to  be  as  bad  as  ever.  The  Secretary  then 
prepared  to  make  another  issue.  But  J.  Pier- 
pont  Morgan  formed  another  syndicate  and 
corresponded  with  the  administration  about 
making  another  contract  with  the  government 
under  terms  still  more  advantageous  to  his  syn- 
dicate. But  there  was  so  much  opposition,  both 
in  Congress  and  without,  led  principally  by  the 
World  of  New  York  City,  that  January  i,  1896, 
the  administration,  instead,  called  for  a  popu- 
lar loan  of  $100,000,000,  which  was  taken  up  ; 
and  when  the  bids  closed  February  5,  it  was 
found  that  they  had  reached  $565,000,000.  The 
Morgan  syndicate  (it  was  declared  by  critics 
that  it  did  so  by  connivance  of  the  administra- 


tion) secured  $33,211,350  at  the  rate  of  110.6877, 
the  remaining  $66,788,650  going  to  higher  bid- 
ders. The  average  rate  was  111.3878,  and  the 
Treasury  netted  $111,378,836. 

Thus  millions  of  dollars  were  added  to  the 
national  debt,  and  besides  their  interest  the 

gild  syndicates  made  large  sums  by  the  deal, 
n  the  bond  of  issue  of  February  8,  1895,  alone 
the  Morgan  syndicate,  by  paying  a  premium 
of  104,495  an(i  immediately  selling  the  bonda 
to  inside  jobbers  at  112.5,  cleared  $4,988,620. 
while  the  jobbers,  by  selling  at  119,  cleared 
$4,050,503.  These  bonds  alone  thus  cost  the 
United  States  $9,039,123  by  the  favorable  terms 
given  the  syndicate. 


T. 


TAILORING  TRADES.— Industrial  con- 
ditions in  the  tailoring  trades  have  been  for  the 
last  50  years  perhaps  worse  than  in  any  other 
branch  of  industry.  The  tailoring  trade  is  par 
excellence,  the  trade  of  the  sweater.  This  was 
so  in  London,  when  the  horrors  of  the  sweating 
system,  50  years  ago,  roused  the  indignation  and 
sympathy  of  Charles  Kingsley  and  the  Chris- 
tian Socialists.  It  is  true  to-day  in  England, 
America,  and  Germany.  The  reasons  for  this 
are  mainly  two.  In  the  first  place,  few  trades 
demand,  at  least  in  the  lower  branches  of  the 
industry,  less  capital.  Any  one  who  can  buy 
or  hire  two  sewing-machines,  or  even  one,  can 
become  not  only  a  worker,  but  a  sweater,  tak- 
ing in  garments  to  be  sewed,  and  hiring  an  as- 
sistant, who  need  be  paid  little  more  than  his  or 
her  scanty  board.  No  shop  is  needed  ;  the 
worker's  one  room  in  a  tenement  can  be  the 
shop.  This  makes  it  possible  for  the  poorest, 
most  ignorant,  and  least  responsible  to  become 
sweaters,  and  in  the  competition  for  low  prices 
it  gives  a  fearful  advantage  to  the  tenement 
sweating  shop.  The  second  reason  for  the  ter- 
rible conditions  prevailing  in  the  tailoring 
trade  is  that  no  other  trade  so  easily  allows  of 
women  and  children  taking  work  to  their  homes. 
In  most  other  trades  invaded  by  woman's  labor, 
the  women  or  girls  are  required  to  go  to  some 
factory  or  shop.  In  the  tailoring*  trade  they 
can  take  their  work  home,  and  work  at  it  when 
they  will,  by  day  or  by  night.  They  can  do  it 
without  neglecting  the  care  of  children  or  of  their 
tenements.  The  result  is  that  they  can  do  this 
work  cheaper  than  any  other,  and  under  com- 
petition are  usually  driven  to  do  so.  The  result 
of  these  and  other  conditions,  resulting,  that  is, 
from  the  above  combination  of  the  possibility 
of  little  capital  and  home  work,  makes  the  tailor- 
ing trade  almost  identical  with  the 
sweating  system  (q.v.).  It  is  now 
The  Trade,  the  only  trade  not  commonly  car- 
ried on  in  a  factory,  and  therefore 
with  much  more  difficulty  super- 
vised by  the  State  or  inspectors  of  any  kind. 
Yet  it  is  a  trade  of  vast  proportions.  Accord- 
ing to  the  census  of  1890,  there  were  in  the 
United  States  121,586  tailors,  63,611  tailoresses, 


289,083  dressmakers,  149,704  seamstresses,  in 
all  623,984  persons,  a  larger  number  than  in 
any  other  manufacturing  industry.  The  prod- 
uct of  the  clothing  trade  in  1890  in  the  United 
States  was  over  $700,000,000.  In  England, 
1,099,833  persons  were  employed  in  the  various 
portions  of  the  dress  industry  (including  boot 
and  shoe,  but  not  textile  industries).  Yet  it  is 
a  concentrated  industry.  In  the  United  States 
the  tailoring  trade  proper,  or  the  manufacturing 
of  ready-made  clothing,  is  concentrated  in  New 
York,  Brooklyn,  Philadelphia,  Boston,  Balti- 
more, Newark,  Utica,  Rochester,  Syracuse,  Cin- 
cinnati, St.  Louis,  Chicago,  and  Milwaukee, 
and  in  the  crowded  and  most  filthy  portions  of 
these  cities.  Including  shirt  and  undergarment 
makers,  the  trade  employs  100,000  persons  in 
or  near  New  York  alone.  In  London,  120,000 
women  are  employed  in  millinery  and  in  the 
making  of  clothing.  In  1891  the  value  of  ap- 
parel exported  from  London  was  ^3,096, 152. 

To  affect  labor  organizations  in  such  a  trade 
is  unusually  difficult.  To  this  there  is  only  one 
exception,  and  that  an  apparent  one.  The 
trade  employs  one  class  of  high-paid  labor,  the 
cutters,  and  these  are  well  organized.  An  un- 
skilled or  careless  cutter  can  ruin  or  waste  a 
great  deal  of  cloth,  while  a  skilled  cutter  can 
largely  add  to  the  value  of  a  product  otherwise 
turned  out  by  unskilled  labor.  It  therefore 
pays  the  employers  to  hire  well-paid  cutters, 
tho  for  the  rest  employing  the  cheapest  and 
most  unskilled  labor.  The  result  is  that  cutters 
are  able  to  organize  effective  unions  and  obtain 
favorable  conditions  ;  but  this  rather  adds  to 
than  subtracts  from  the  difficulty  of  organizing 
the  whole  craft.  It  creates  such  a  difference 
between  different  branches  of  the  trade,  that  it 
was  long  before  organizations  came  into  exist- 
ence even  attempting  to  embrace  the  whole 
craft.  This  explains  the  fact  that  tho  both  in 
England  and  America  tailors  were  among  the 
first  trades  to  organize,  the  craft  as  a  whole  is 
one  of  the  most  disorganized  and  most  exposed 
to  impositions  and  low  payment  from  selfish 
and  ignorant  employers.  The  small  contractor 
is  the  central  evil.  He  takes  jobs  at  the  lowest 
competitive  price,  and  gives  out  the  work  to 


Tailoring  Trades. 


1302 


Tailoring  Trades. 


women  in  tenements,  or  to  men  and  girls  in 
sweating  dens.  The  prices  at  which  this  work 
is  done  enable  the  firms  to  sell  the  goods  at 
such  low  figures,  that  firms  who 
desire  to  sell  goods  at  fair  prices 
Tailors'  cannot  compete.  Hence,  the  ef- 
Unions.  forts  to  organize  cooperative  tailor 
stores,  "clean  shops,"  etc.,  have 
invariably  been  killed  by  the  sweat- 
ers' competition,  while  at  the  same  time  the  con- 
ditions have  made  it  almost  impossible  to  organ- 
ize the  poorer  workers.  Thus  while  the  English 
trade-unions  seem  to  have  begun  among  the 
London  tailors  ;  while  a  tailors'  organization  ex- 
isted in  New  York  City  in  1806  ;  while  the  great 
movement  of  the  Knights  of  Labor  (g.v.)  began 
among  the  Philadelphia  tailors  ;  while  a  some- 
what strong  Amalgamated  Society  of  Tailors 
has  existed  in  England  since  1866,  and  Cutters' 
Unions  have  long  existed  in  the  United  States 
(in  New  York  City  since  the  forties),  neverthe- 
less the  whole  trade  has  been  very  little  organ- 
ized. In  England  a  National  Society  of  Tailors 
was  effected  about  1843,  but  did  not  endure  ; 
even  the  much  stronger  Amalgamated  Society 
of  Tailors  and  the  Scottish  National  Operative 
Association,  both  organized  in  1866,  have  not 
succeeded  in  maintaining  wages  or  organizing 
but  a  small  portion  of  the  craft.  In  the  United 
States,  Cutters'  Unions  did  not  unite  with  the 
rest  of  their  craft  till  the  United  Garment 
Workers  of  America  was  organized  in  1891. 
This  is  a  comparatively  efficient  national  union, 
under  the  lead  of  Charles  F.  Reichers,  Presi- 
dent, and  Henry  White,  General  Secretary.  It 
publishes  a  monthly  organ.  The  Garment 
Worker,  with  portions  in  English,  German, 
Hebrew,  and  other  languages.  It  led  in  a 
series  of  strikes  in  1894,  which  raised  wages 
and  shortened  hours  in  several  cities,  tho  the 
depressed  conditions  since  have  led  to  the  loss 
of  most  that  was  gained,  and  strikes  in  1896 
were  not  nearly  so  successful. 

The  following  statistics  as  to  wages  and  con- 
ditions in  the  tailoring  trade  are  abridged  from 
the  report  of  an  investigation  made  by  Miss 
Isabel  Eaton,  a  Fellow  of  the  College  Settle- 
ments Association  in  1893-94,  and  printed  by 
the  American  Statistical  Association.  Since 
then  wages  and  conditions  were  raised  a  little 
by  strikes  in  1894,  but  have  since  returned  to 
about  the  same  level,  so  that  these  statements 
may  be  taken  as  true  at  present  (1897) : 


3 

<u 

4)     . 

>  v 
>  tat 

bo 

CD 

3 
|fc 

"C 

8-g  . 

^oj>- 

if 

*£ 

TRADE. 

hZ 

*£ 

3 
H 

• 

• 

511 

5"S'3 
§0,0 

SI'S 

rt  o  rt 

fe£^ 

g 

0  1) 

>fl 

* 

f 

a  Jt 

] 

Caps  

$  1.84 

$5.82 

7-83 

$197.47 

4.00 

7.42 

157.53 

4-94 

Cloaks  

1.65 

4.91 

6.40 

127.92 

4.40 

Tailors  

o.oo 

1-72 

7.82 

126.06 

4.80 

Vests. 

4.85 

7.10 

4.70 

Trousers 

8.92 

3-92 

7.50 

127.28 

4.64 

Shirts  

8.21 

3-95 

8.  15 

J39-53 

4.70 

8.00 

Miss  Eaton  says  : 

"  Thus  we  find  that  the  best  paid  of  these  trades,  cap- 
making,  affords  $100.43  for  the  maintenance,  for  a  year, 
of  each  member  of  the  family  in  ordinary  times,  the 
wage-earner  working  therefor  12  hours  a  day.  .  .  . 
In  the  other  branches  of  garment-making  the  weekly 
income  of  individuals  would,  of  course,  be  even  less. 
This  proportion  then  may  be  taken  as  being  indicative 
of  the  present  condition  of  wages.  .  .  .  But  wages  are 
not  the  only  source  of  income  to  the  working  men. 
The  income  from  wages  earned  by  the  head  of  the 
family  alone  is  frequently  augmented  by  the  earn- 
ings of  one  or  more  other  members  of  the  family. 
The  mother  may  be  a  'home-finisher,'  and  may  do 
sewing  on  underwear  or  on  children's  knee  pants  in 
the  pauses  of  her  cooking  or  other  domestic  work,  or 
the  children  who  are  14  may  be  taken  out  of  school  and 
set  to  vending  papers  or  pulling  bastings  for  so  cents 
a  week.  Also  m  many  cases  the  income  is  eked  out 
by  taking  lodgers. 

"  But  in  the  families  of  over  1000  union  men  only  28 
per  cent,  were  found  having  any  additional  income. 
In  the  shirt-making  trade  40  per  cent,  have  other  in- 
come, a  high  average  probably  accounted  for  by  the 
nature  of  the  work,  well  calculated  to  attract  women 
and  children,  and  also  for  the  reason  that  the  low 
wage  paid  to  shirt-makers  forces  them  to  augment 
their  scanty  incomes  in  every  possible  way. 

"In  regard  to  lodgers,  conditions  are  bad.  The 
average  number  of  rooms  per  tenement  is  2.6 ;  but  it 
often  occurs  that  five  or  seven  people  are  living  in  one 
room." 

Wages  of  cutters,  the  skilled  men  of  the  craft, 
and  well  organized,  are  much  higher,  from  $18 
to  $20  per  week. 

EXPENSES. 


Cost  of 

Cost  of 

Number 

Rent 

Food  a 

Clothing 

of 

Per 

Week. 

a  Year. 

Rooms. 

Month. 

$5.85 

$64.95 

2.85 

Coats  

4.89 

2.78 

IO.I2 

5.60 

Vests  

2.60 

Trousers  

2.58 

9.56 

Shirts               .... 

5.68 

8.85 

Knee  Pants  

4.41 

5r-47 

2-37 

9-47 

Food. 

Clothing. 

Rooms. 

Rent. 

Average  of  these 

averages  

$5-26 

$54-82 

2.6 

$10.00 

Says  Miss  Button  : 

"  The  average  family  (numbering  4.52)  spends  on  the 
item  of  food  $5.26  a  week  in  'good  times.'  Working 
men  to  whom  this  inquiry  has  been  put  state  that  this 
agrees  with  their  observation,  and  say  that  a  great 
many  families  spend  much  less  for  food  than  $5.  .  .  . 
The  average  yearly  cost  ot  clothing  to  the  individual 
in  the  family  is,  in  the  cases  considered,  $12.10.  Many 
report  $50  as  the  yearly  expense  for  the  clothing  of  a 
family  of  four  or  five  members,  and  many  report  even 
less,  $30  and  $25  being  frequently  given  as  the  yearly 
amount. 

"  It  is  the  custom  for  the  people  to  buy  second-hand 
goods.  According  to  Mr.  Rosenthal,  '  they  wear  only 
second-hand  shoes,'  which,  he  explained,  are  'the 
kind  that  drop  to  pieces  when  they  get  wet*'  either  be- 
cause they  are  only  pasted  together,  or  because  parts 
of  them  are  not  made  ot  leather  but  of  pasteboard,  or 
some  other  preparation  of  paper.  It  appears  that 
men's  shoes  cost  from  60  cents  to  $1.00,  second-hand, 
and  children's  cost  sometimes  as  little  as  20  cents 
a  pair.  A  man's  overcoat  costs  him  only  $2  or  $3. 
Nearly  every  article  of  clothing  or  of  household  fur- 
niture is  to  be  had  in  some  stage  of  dirt  and  decrepi- 
tude at  the  Hester  Street  shops — a  hat  for  40  or  50  cents  ; 
both  coat  and  trousers  for  $1.50  or  less  ;  and  so  on 
throughout.  ...  In  most  cases  expenditure  exceeds 
income.  In  the  investigation  of  the  question  of  in- 
debtedness, the  schedule  first  prepared  read  ;  '  Are 
you  owing  anything  for  rent  ? '  a  question  which  in- 
variably elicited  a  negative  reply.  At  last,  after  sev- 
eral hundred  cases,  all  showing  incomes  insufficient 


Tailoring  Trades. 


Tailoring  Trades. 


to  balance  expenses,  I  said  to  Mr.  Rosenthal,  '  How  do 
you  explain  such  facts  as  these  records  show— income, 
$277;  expenditure,   $400?    That    is   the    way  they  all 
come  out.     Does  it  mean  hasty  and  inaccurate  esti' 
mates  of  cost  of  food  a  week,  etc.,  or  does  it  mean  that 
it  conies  out  of  the  landlord  for  rent 
when  the  family  moves  out  in  debt?' 
Debts.        Tne  answer  ought  not  to  have  been  a 
surprise,   perhaps  ;  but    it    was :    '  No, 
madam  ;  it  mean  the   working  man  is 
bankrupt.     He  owes  $20  or  $30  to  his  grocer,  the  same 
to  his  butcher,  and  maybe  he  has  things  in  pawn  for 
his  rent.     No,  the  landlord  is  the  last  to  lose.    How- 
can  he  lose  more  than  one  month  ?    Everybody  gets  in 
debt  in  January  and  February  ;  and  in  April,  when 
business  is  brisk,  they  begin  to  earn  and  then  pay 
their  debts  as  near  as  they  can.' 

"  After  this  the  schedule  was  altered  to  read,  '  Are 
you  owing  anything  for  food,  clothing,  or  rent? '  with 
the  result  that  61  out  of  100  trousers-makers  confessed 
to  being  in  debt,  only  15  of  them  owing  anything  for 
rent,  and  none  of  them  owing  for  more  than  two 
months  ;  of  67  per  cent,  of  100  cloak-makers,  only  n  for 
rent ;  of  70  per  cent,  of  coat-makers,  22  per  cent,  of 
them  for  rent,  but  always  for  other  things,  too.  .  .  . 
'•  On  showing  these  figures  to  Mr.  Ehrenpreis,  of  the 
Chicago  Cutters'  Union,  and  asking  him  if  they  were 
true  of  Chicago,  I  learned  that  '  if  only  60  per  cent,  of 
the  pants-makers  in  Chicago  are  in  debt  it  is  because 
the  other  40  per  cent,  haven't  any  credit ;  and  if  only 
40  per  cent.,  of  the  cutters  are  in  debt,  it  is  because  the 
other  60  per  cent  ,  haven't  any  credit.'  And  Inspector 
Bisno  states  that  in  the  cloak-makers  trade  in  Chicago 
'absolutely  every  man  is  in  debt,'  owing  the  butcher, 
the  grocer,  and  having  in  the  pawnshop  everything 
he  can  pawn,  and  that  it  is  much  the  same  in  every 
branch  of  garments  trades." 

HOURS. 

The  average  working  day  among  garments  workers 
appears  to  be  about  14  hours,  altho  the  sweater  would 
like  to  convince  the  public  that  his  men  work  only 
from  8  to  12  hours  daily.  .  .  .  Inspector  Bisno  says 
that  in  the  busy  season  there  is  no  limit ;  that  men 
frequently  work  all  the  night,  and  that  even  in  the 
slack  season  there  are  those  who  work  15  and  16  hours 
daily—from  5  A.M.  to  9  P.M.  On  the  first  visit  to  an  es- 
tablishment of  any  size,  the  foreman,  in  Chicago  as  in 
New  York,  will  follow  the  record  taker  about,  and  on 
the  second  visit  it  is  very  rare  to  find  a  man  who  will 
report  more  than  10  hours,  tho  they  often  laugh  when 
they  report  their  10  hours.  .  .  .  The  practice  of  keep- 
Ing  the  workers  awake  by  artificial  means,  in  order 
that  they  may  work  from  30  to  48  hours  at  a  stretch,  is 
Adopted  even  with  the  labor  of  children.  At  one  time, 
last  December,  the  girls  in  certain  electric  works  in 
Chicago  (girls  from  15  and  16  years  to  20  or  over) 
worked  under  heavy  pressure  for  33  hours  on  a  stretch, 
being  "  kept  awake  on  black  coffee."  .  .  .  The  lunch- 
eon hour  has  been  reported  to  me  in  75  cases.  It  is  no 
unusual  thing  for  these  tailors  to  run  their  machines  15 
and  16  hours  a  day — that  is,  from  five  o'clock  in  the 
morning,  at  which  hour  they  are  all  at  their  work, 
until  9  and  10  o'clock  at  night,  with  an  intermission  of 
from  3  to  15  minutes  for  luncheon.  For  this  work, 
as  the  table  indicates,  the  pay  varies  from  $4  to  $7, 
•or  $8,  a  week. 

PROFITS  AND  PRICES. 

In  the  cap-making  trade  the  operator  can  make  four 
<lozen  caps  a  day.  He  makes  the  whole  cover,  does 
All  the  stitching,  puts  in  the  lining,  and  fastens  in  the 
brim.  For  this  he  receives  from  75  cents  a  dozen,  for 
the  very  finest  work,  to  n  cents  a  dozen  for  common 
•carters'  caps.  The  usual  price  is  "  about  40  cents  a 
dozen,"  and  the  operator  can  make  four  dozen  a  day*— 
that  is,  he  can  earn  $1.72  daily,  $44-72  monthly,  $350.16 
yearly,  reckoning  7.83  months  to  the  working  year. 
That  is  $6.73  weekly  the  year  through.  Mr.  Glass  says 
that  the  best  workmen  can  earn  from  $8  to  $8.50  the 
year  through.  One  sweater,  whose  shop  we  entered  on 

*  These  details  are  given  upon  the  authority  of  Mr. 
•Glass  of  the  Cap-Makers'  Union  of  New  York  City,  and 
the  results  they  show  in  yearly  earnings  agree  very 
•well  with  the  average  estimated  upon  the  200  cap-mak- 
ers reported.  The  yearly  earnings  here  reckoned  so 
nearly  coincide  with  the  facts  in  one  case — that  of  the 
quickest  worker  in  a  certain  Green  Street  establish- 
ment, who  earned  $325.52  yearly— as  to  confirm  my 
confidence  in  Mr.  Glass  s  judgment,  the  error  falling, 
as  I  have  invariably  found  in  his  estimates,  on  the 
•conservative  side. 


Sunday,  was  making  a  medium  quality  of  cap  of  blue 
felt,  with  stiff  black  brim  and  cord,  and  two  gilt  but- 
tons by  way  of  trimming.  He  furnished  these  to  his 
wholesale  dealer  at  $i.ioa  dozen,  and  was  paying  his 
operators  10  cents  a  dozen  for  making.  Mr.  Glass  esti- 
mates that  he  pays  as  follows  : 

COST  OF  MATERIALS. 

8  cents  a  yard  for  felt  (2%  yards  to  a  dozen  caps).      .20 

4       '•     lining 04 

6      "     a  dozen  for  visors 06 

2      "     for  buttons 02 

.  COST  OF  MAKING. 

10  cents  a  dozen  to  operator 10 

6      "  "        "  finisher 06 

6      "  "        "  blocker 06 


Total  cost  of  one  dozen  caps  .....  54 
Selling  price  .....................   $i  .  10 

Profit  .............................  56 

So  that  this  cap-maker  was  making  over  100  per 
cent,  gross  profit  on  his  outlay. 

Compare  also  the  following  case,  where  the  retail 
clothier  "  takes  $7.63  and  turns  it  into  $18."  He  does 
this  whenever  he  sells  an  $18  suit  of  the  kind  seen 
everywhere  in  our  streets  and  offices,  and  having  cut- 
away or  sack  coats.  In  proof  of  this  I  give  the  follow- 
ing estimate  (on  the  authority  of  Mr.  M.  Goldberg  of 
the  United  Garments  Workers  of  America)  of  the  cost, 
by  items,  of  such  a  suit  and  the  making  of  it  : 

Cloth  for  suit,  $1.25  a  yard  (largest  suit  requires 

only  3  yards)  .......       ........  ....  ...........  .   $3.75 

Lining,  40  cents  a  yard  (one  yard  for  coat  and 

vest)  ...........................................  40 

1  54  yards  white  lining,  18  or  20  cents  a  yard  (for 

sleeves,  vest,  and  trousers  ?)  ...............  28)^ 

Canvas  for  coat  and  trousers,  about  one  yard, 

at  10  cents  a  yard  ..............................  10 

Buttons,  etc.  (all  t^je  trimmings)  ..................  20 

Pocketing  (coat  and  trousers)  ...................  12 

"$4*5* 

Contractor  furnishes  this  grade  of  clothing  to  the  trade 
as  follows  : 

Coat,  $1.50  to  $1.75  —  ........   ...................  $1.62^ 

Vest,  35  to  40  cents  ..............  ...................  37^ 

Trousers,  35  to  40  cents  ...........................  37}^ 

Cutter  (paid  $20  weekly),  making  12-14  suits  a 

day  ;  cost  of  cutting  one  suit  .................  25 

Lining  cutter  about  ..........................   ...       .15 

Total  cost  ...........  $7.63 

The  retail  clothier,  then,  receives  suits  from  the 
hands  of  the  contractor  for  $7.63,  all  told,  and  this  on  a 
liberal  estimate  in  his  favor  ;  in  point  of  fact,  it  often 
costs  him  less.  He  then  sells  them  for  $18  apiece. 

In  the  coat-making  trade  the  operator  gets  from 
10  to  50  cents  apiece  for  doing  all  the  machine  work 
(except    the  buttonholes)  on  a  man's  coat,  and  can 
make  from  4  to  10  coats  a  day.    Taking 
the   arithmetical  mean  as  the  average 
price  paid  for  one  coat,  and  the  num-     Coat-Mak- 
ber  of  coats  in  an  average  day's  work,  _ 

it  appears  at  first  that  the  coat-making 


wage)  multi- 

plied by  6  (number  of  days  in  a  week),  multiplied  by 
4>i  (number  of  weeks  in  a  month),  multiplied  by  7.2 
(number  of  months  in  a  working  year  of  coat-maker), 
gives  as  a  total  $405.  13.  This  is  the  coat-maker's  yearly 
income,  and  consequently  his  weekly  income  the  year 
through  diminishes  to  $7.79,  which  is  very  different 
from  $12.60,  his  weekly  wage.  (These  estimates  are 
given  on  the  authority  of  Mr.  Leo  Schwartz  of  the 
Coat-  Makers  Union  in  New  York.  Whether  they  are 
based  on  the  Union  records  or  on  Mr.  Schwartz's  judg- 
ment, a  comparison  of  them  with  the  averages  esti- 
mated on  185  cases  reported  gives  sufficient  evidence 
of  their  accuracy.)  Besides  the  operator,  the  trade 
employs  basters,  fellers,  buttonhole  makers,  basting 
pullers,  bushelers,  and  pressers.  The  baster  gets  from 
20  cents  to  $i  a  piece,  and  can  do  from  i%  to  5  coats 
a  day,  his  weekly  income  the  year  through  being  $8.35, 
and  his  yearly  income,  $434.07.  The  feller  gets  from  2 
to  8  cents  apiece,  and  can  fell  from  10  to  30  coats  a  day, 


Tailoring  Trades, 


Tailoring  Trades. 


his  weekly  income  the  year  through  being  $4,  and 
his  yearly  income,  $208.  The  buttonhole  maker  is 
paid  from  one  half  to  two  cents  apiece  for  every  but- 
tonhole, and  each  coat  has  four  or  five.  Mr.  Schwartz 
estimates  that  the  number  made  daily  ranges  from  60 
to  300,  and  the  average  weekly  income  the  year 
through,  which  is  figured  from  this  estimate,  is  $8. 35, 
and  the  yearly  income,  $434.07.  The  basting  pullers 
are  usually  children,  and  are  paid  a  mere  pittance, 
rarely  more  than  $1.50  a  week  in  the  season,  and  often 
as  little  as  50  cents  a  week.  The  highest  of  these  fig- 
ures would  show  a  weekly  income  the  year  through  of 
only  90  cents,  and  this  is  true  even  where  their  hours 
are  practically  the  same  as  those  of  adults.  The 
bushelers  are  usually  girls,  and  receive  $6  a  week  in 
season.  Pressers  receive  from  5  to  20  cents  apiece, 
and  can  do  from  8  to  20  coats  a  day,  showing  a  weekly 
income  the  year  through  of  $6  49,  and  a  yearly  income 
of  $337.61  (tho  the  presser  is  said  in  extreme  cases  to 
get  as  little  as  one  cent  a  coat).  This  shows  the  aver- 
age yearly  income  of  coat-makers  (exclusive  of  the 
girls  and  children  employed)  to  be  $363.73.  A  com- 
parison of  this  average  yearly  income  based  on  Mr. 
Schwartz's  estimate  with  the  average  yearly  income 
based  on  185  cases  reported  individually  to  me  shows 
a  difference  of  only  $7  in  the  total  earnings  of  the 
year.  The  average  deduced  from  the  185  cases  shows 
$370.73  as  the  average  yearly  income. 

The  earnings    in    the    shirt-making   trade    show  a 
much  lower  scale  of  figures  than  those  in  the  cap-mak- 
ing and  coat-making  trades,  as  would  naturally  be  ex- 
pected.   One  of  the  working  delegates  of  the  Shirt- 
Makers'  Union,  Mr.  Solomon  Berman,  has  given  me 
the  following    estimates,   covering  the  various  divi- 
sions of  the  shirt  trade  :  The  operator  on  collars  gets 
5%  cents  a  dozen,  and  can  make  12  or  13  dozen  a  day, 
showing  $2.81  as  weekly  income  the  year  through. 
Some  make  even  less,  as  many  young  boys  ''go  in  to 
make  pin  money.'      Operators  on  fronts 
(without  pockets)  get  from  2^  to  9  cents 
Shirt  Mak-  a  dozen,  and  can  make  about  15  dozen  a 
i__,  day,    earning    $3.80    weekly    the    year 

&•  through.  Those  making  fronts  with 
pockets  receive  from  4  to  14  cents  a 
dozen,  and  can  make  8  dozen  a  day, 
earning  a  weekly  income  the  year  through  of  $3.05. 
Sleeving  pays  from  6^  to  o  cents  a  dozen,  and  it  is 
possible  to  do  from  10  to  12  dozen  a  day,  showing  $3.72 
weekly  through  the  year.  Putting  in  sleeving  pays 
from  5  to  8  cents  a  dozen  ;  average  about  14  dozen  a 
day.  This  gives  $3.85  weekly  through  the  year.  The 
hemmer  gets  2  or  3  cents  a  dozen,  can  do  40  to  50  dozen 
a  day,  and  earns  weekly  the  year  through  $4.76.  The 
buttonhole  maker  receives  4,  5,  and  6  cents  a  dozen, 
and  can  do  25  to  30  dozen  daily.  He  earns  $5.82  weekly 
the  year  through.  In  one  Hester  Street  shop  a  button- 
hole maker  was  found  getting  10  cents  for  100  button- 
holes. Finishers  (always  girls)  receive  3  cents  for  fin- 
ishing a  dozen  shirts,  and  earn  only  30  cents  a  day. 
Packers  receive  3  cents  a  dozen,  do  30  or  40  dozen  a 
day,  and  earn  $4.44  weekly  the  year  through.  These 
shirts,  which  the  contractor  furnishes  to  the  merchant 
at  about  50  cents  a  dozen  (prices  range  from  35  cents  to 
65  or  70  cents),  are  selling,  according  to  the  statement 
of  one  Cherry  Street  sweater,  at  prices  ranging  be- 
tween $9  and  $18  a  dozen. 

In  the  knee-pants  trade  there  is  less  division  of 
labor  than  in  shirt-making,  knee-pants  work  requir- 
ing, besides  the  cutter,  only  an  operator,  a  finisher, 
and  a  presser.  The  operator  does  all  the  machine 
work — the  seam  on  each  side  of  the  leg, 
a  triple  seam  in  front  (on  each  side  of 
Knee  Pants.  the  ny,  which  has  two  seams  on  the  but- 
tonhole side),  and  the  seam  in  the  mid- 
dle of  back,  four  rows  of  stitching  all  the 
way  around  the  top  (two  on  each  side  of  the  band), 
and  the  stitching  in  of  the  pockets — 12  seams  besides 
the  pocket  stitching.  For  this  work,  which  is  almost 
equivalent  to  the  entire  making  of  a  pair  of  knee 
pants,  the  operator  receives  usually  from  24  to  30  cents 
a  dozen  pairs,  and  often  receives  only  22  cents  a  dozen 
pairs,  or  less  than  2  cents  for  the  making  of  one  pair. 
(The  price  sinks  in  Chicago  even  lower  than  this,  as 
girls  and  women  make  about  half  the  knee  pants  in 
that  city.  The  operator  sometimes  receives  only  18 
cents  a  dozen  in  Chicago.)  Finishers  in  New  York  do 
the  stitches  around  the  "feet,"  sew  on  the  buttons— 
sometimes  10,  sometimes  16  (there  being  10  buttons  on 
the  ordinary  knee  pants  at  the  knees  by  way  of  trim- 
ming, and  in  the  band,  and  there  are  16  buttons  in  the 
kind  which  button  on  to  a  shirt-waist).  They  also 
make  the  three  buttonholes  in  the  fly.  For  this  they 
receive  6  and  7  cents  a  dozen  pairs.  That  is  to  say, 
they  finish  24  "feet,"  sew  on  at  least  120  buttons,  arid 


make  36  buttonholes  for  7  or  6  cents.  These  finishers,, 
again,  are  generally  girls.  Knee-pants  pressers  re- 
ceive 7  or  6  cents — sometimes  only  4  cents — for  press- 
ing a  dozen  pairs.  In  one  Attorney  Street  shop,  which 
appears  to  be  about  the  average  knee-pants  sweat- 
shop, I  found  the  operators  were  receiving  2%  cents  a 
pair,  and  working  17  or  18  hours  a  day.  Finishers- 
were  here  receiving  $4  a  week. 

These  prices  give  the  explanation  of  some  of 
the  bargains  and.  advertisements  which  appear 
in  our  stores  and  newspapers.  Miss  Button 
gives  some  examples.  One  Philadelphia  ad- 
vertisement, printed  on  large  stiff  cards  and 
sent  broadcast  through  the  mails  to  most  of  the 
large  clothing  houses  in  the  country,  says  : 

"  /  a m  the  Largest  Man  ufacturer  of  Low-Priced  Cloth- 
ing in  these  United  States  ;  the  following  price- 
list  will  convince  you  of  this  assertion." 

Knee  pants $i».soper  doz.,  net,  and  upward. 

Men's  pants 6.00    "        "        "      "          " 

"         "        (our  lead- 
ers)  12.00    "        "        "      "          " 

Men's  suits 3.00  a  suit  and  upward. 

"       blue          cheviot 

suits 3.00"    "      "  " 

Children's    coats    and 
pants  (4  to  13) 62^  a  suit  and  upward. 

Samples  sent  at  your  request. 

A  marginal  note  in  red  ink  explains  that  the 
knee  pants  at  $1.50  per  dozen  are  "  some  of  the 
goods  we  are  compelled  to  meet  competition 
on  in  knee  pants."  These  are  wholesale  rates. 
on  new  clothing. 

An  uptown  firm  in  New  York  City  advertises 
a  boy's  yachting  suit  for  89  cents  ;  double  breast- 
ed suits  (sizes  4-15  years)  for  $2.49  ;  cassitnere 
and  fancy  cheviot  suits  for  $1.98  ;  fancy  cassi- 
mere and  cheviot  short  pants  for  39  cents  ;  boys' 
pants  of  wash  material,  35  cents. 

In  England  conditions  are  about  as  in  Ameri- 
ca.    According  to  Booth's  Life  and  Labor  of 
the  People,  vol.  iv.  (1893),  the  London  tailoring- 
trade  is  divided  between  the  wholesale  trade  in 
ready  made  clothing  and  the  "  bespoke"  (made 
to  order)  trade.     The  work  in  the 
former  line  is  done  by  Jewish  con- 
tractors,  with  large    numbers    of    England. 
fixers,  basters,  fellers,  machinists, 
buttonhole   makers,  and  pressers, 
Jewish  men  and  women  and  English  women, 
unorganized  and  unregulated.    The  "  bespoke" 
work  of  the  West  End  and  city  trade  is  done 
(a)  by  well-paid,  skilled  English  tailors  ;  (b)  by 
English  and  German  tailors  in  their  homes,  and 
poorly  paid  ;  (c)  by  Jews  and  women.    With  the 
wholesale  Jewish  prices  English  tailors  cannot 
compete,  and  according  to   Mr.   Booth  an  in- 
creasing  amount  even   of   the  bespoke  trade, 
even  in  the  West  End,  is  being  done  by  Jews 
and  by  women. 

A  well-paid  journeyman  English  tailor  averages 
during  the  year  from  £i  to  £2  per  week,  and  the  hours 
are  from  7  to  9.  In  the  smaller  Jewish  shops  employ- 
ing less  than  10  workers  each,  but  which  are  80  per 
cent,  of  the  Jewish  shops,  the  hours  are  for  men  13  or 
14,  for  women  nominally  ioj^,  to  conform  with  the 
Factory  and  Workshop  Act,  tho  really  overtime  is 
very  common,  and  usually  not  paid  for.  Wages  for 
men  in  these  shops  are  from  ^d.  per  hour  for  men 
and  2%d.  for  women,  to  qd.  per  hour  for  men  and  6d. 
for  women  (for  exceptional  skill).  A  limited  class  of 
Jewish  women  never  earn  more  than  is.  6d.,  and  fre- 
quently only  is.  for  12  hours'  work.  In  their  turns 
women  take  home  coats  to  be  made  throughout 
sometimes  for  ^d.  From  1871-81  the  number  of  women 
in  the  London  tailoring  trade  increased  25  per  cent.* 


Tailoring  Trades. 


'305 


Tariff. 


while  the  men  decreased.  Working  in  their  homes 
on  cheap  waist  coats,  women  earn  from  -id.  to  3^.  per 
hour  ;  on  shirts,  if  young  and  strong,  zd.  or  zy,d.  per 
hour,  or  with  a  machine,  -^d.  Children  work  at  home 
from  Sin  the  morning  till  9,  and  occasionally  n  at  night. 
Workers  on  furs  in  the  East  End  earn  from  gs.  to  ioJ. 
per  week.  In  a  corset  factory  5  per  cent,  of  the  girls 
and  women  earn  from  4^.  to  6s.  per  week. 

References  :  For  the  United  States,  Receipts  and  Ex- 
penditures of  Certain  Wage  Earners  in  the  Garment 
Trades,  by  Miss  Isabel  Eaton.  For  England,  Life 
and  Labor  of  the  People  (vol.  iv.),  by  Charles  Booth. 
See  also  SLUMS  ;  SWEATING  SYSTEM  ;  TENEMENTS  ; 
WOMAN  ;  WORK  AND  WAGES. 

TAMMANY  SOCIETY.— This  political  so- 
ciety was  organized  in  New  York  City  by  an 
upholsterer  named  Mooney  in  1789,  and  named 
for  a  Delaware  chief,  facetiously  chosen  in  the 
latter  part  of  the  Revolution  as  the  patron  saint 
of  the  new  republic.  Organized  ostensibly  for 
charitable  purposes,  it  had  a  definite  political 
character  from  the  start,  representing  the  pop- 
ular distrust  of  aristocracy  and  of  Hamilton's 
federalism  (q.v.~).  It  gradually  became  the  ma- 
chine of  the  Democratic  Party  in  New  York 
City,  at  times  very  corrupt,  especially  when 
connected  with  the  Tweed  Ring  (q.v.}.  It  was 
then  reorganized  and  to  an  extent  reformed. 
It  is  usually  regarded  as  synonymous  with  all 
that  is  bad  in  American  city  politics  (see  RINGS  ; 
TWEED  RING,  etc.)  ;  but  there  is  another  side. 
Some  believe  that  political  organization  in  a 
machine  of  some  kind  is  inevitable,  if  not  desir- 
able, and  that  Tammany  has  only  become  what 
its  constituency  has  made  it,  and  that  the  only 
way  to  reform  it  is  to  enter  it  and  make  it,  since 
it  must  be  a  power,  a  power  for  good  rather 
than  for  evil.  It  is  claimed  by  some  to  day  that 
it  is  not  wholly  evil.  A  tract  by  Mr.  A.  B. 
King,  called  The  Political  Mission  of  Tam- 
many Hall  (1892)  argues  thus,  It  does  not 
deny  the  evil  in  Tammany,  but  sees  in  it  some 
good  and  the  possibility  of  much.  It  says  . 

"  It  is  necessarily  the  most  plastic  and  susceptible  of 
organisms.  .  ,  . 

"The  Tweed  ring  scandal  and  the  Tweed  ring  tyr- 
anny occurred  at  a  time  and  among  a  group  of  men  who 
were  ripe  for  the  f utherance  of  the  most 
high-handed  and  vicious  schemes  of  po- 
Tweed       litical  ambition  and  temporal  gratifica- 
•D  /    •  tion.    The  public  atmosphere  was  itself 

xiegiuie.  infected  by  the  contagious  germs  of  po- 
litical corruption.  A  disease  of  public 
disorder  and  rapine  more  or  less  infected  the  social  or- 
ganism ;  it  was  apparent  at  Washington  ;  it  broke  out 
in  the  larger  cities  ;  and,  in  the  business  world,  the 
vast  inflation  of  prices  from  an  expanded  and  a  depre- 
ciated currency  engendered  baseless  enterprises,  wild- 
cat investments,  and  fictitious  bonanzas.  Mr.  Roose- 
velt has  truly  remarked  of  this  period,  that  it  was  an 
'  era  of  gigantic  stock  swindling.  The  enormously  rich 
stock  speculators  of  Wall  Street  in  their  wars  with  one 
another  and  against  the  general  public  found  ready 
tools  and  allies  to  be  hired  for  money  in  the  State  and 
city  politicians  and  in  judges,  who  were  acceptable 
alike  to  speculators,  politicians,  and  mob.  There  were 
continual  contests  for  the  control  of  railway  systems, 
and  "  operations"  in  stocks,  which  barely  missed  being 
criminal,  and  which  branded  those  who  took  part  in 
them  as  infamous  in  the  sight  of  all  honest  men  ;  and 
the  courts  and  legislative  bodies  became  parties  to  the 
iniquity  of  men  composing  that  most  dangerous  of  all 
classes,  the  wealthy  criminal  class.'  .  .  . 

"The  debauchery  of  Tammany  Hall  under  Tweed 
was  complete.  A  picture  of  successful  elevation  pur- 
chased at  the  sacrifice  of  all  self-respect  ,  an  education 
in  the  use  of  the  most  despicable  methods  to  deceive 
and  cheat  the  people  ;  the  parade  of  an  inordinate  van- 
ity, which  dressed  its  self-conceit  in  reflections  upon  the 
weakness  and  venality  of  men,  these  were  the  incen- 
tives the  members  of  Tammany  Hall  received.  .  .  . 
"  The  ring  concentrated  its  power  in  itself.  It  secured 


a  charter  enacted,  under  the  stimulus  of  bribery,  by 
the  New  York  Legislature,  a  charter  paid  for,  and 
proving  so  costly  that  the  power  it  gave  to  its  authors 
was  the  signal  means  by  which  the  expenses  it  had  in- 
volved were  successfully  liquidated.  The  disintegra- 
tion of  all  moral  prejudices  and  scruples  was  quite 
complete.  It  was  offset,  however,  by  the  concentra- 
tion of  iniquitous  activity  in  the  hands  and  brains  of  a 
few,  by  the  inauguration  of  this  Tweed  charter,  an  in- 
strument correct  in  principle  and  progressive  in  its  re- 
quisitions. .  .  .  With  all  this  Tammany  Hall  seemed 
closely  bound.  Tammany  had  always  struggled  for 
home-rule,  and  tho  its  ends  may  have  been  selfish,  its  ef- 
forts evoked  in  itself  a  spirit  of  pride  in  New  York  as  a 
city  strong  and  great,  and  attracted  many  who  felt  the 
vigor  and  zeal  of  a  metropolitan  enthusiasm.  .  .  .  And 
then  religious  bonds  counted  for  much,  and  a  powerful 
Church  had  in  one  way  or  another  found  a  political 
friend  in  Tammany,  and  kept  its  members  attached  to 
the  same  patronage.  Tammany  felt  the  sobering  in- 
fluence of  the  popular  revolt  against  rings  and  bosses. 
It  amended  its  ways,  or  at  least  seriously  thought 
of  doing  so.  It  recognized  that  the  public  eye  was 
fastened  upon  it.  ...  Tammany  is  not  an  '  unsancti- 
fied  and  incorrigible  ruffianism.'  The  members  of 
Tammany,  its  bosses  and  dignitaries,  are  not  fools, 
they  have  learned  a  good  many  things, 
and  they  feel  and  know  that  the  govern- 
ment of  this  city  cannot  be  conducted  Befonn. 
in  a  happy-go-lucky  style  with  an  im- 
moderate admixture  of  avarice  and 
crime.  Clamorous  abuse  will  not  improve,  reconcile, 
or  renovate  Tammany  Hall,  but  persistent  representa- 
tions of  what  can  be  done  for  New  York,  of  the  wisdom 
and  benefit  of  just  and  clean  government,  of  the  strong 
and  elevated  position  Tammany  can  attain  to  will  do 
a  great  deal." 

TARIFF. — (See  FREE  TRADE  ;  PROTECTION.) 
In  this  article,  for  convenience  of  reference  we 
merely  trace  the  outline  of  the  United  States 
tariff,  leaving  its  principles  to  be  discussed  un- 
der the  above-mentioned  heads. 

The  Congress  of  1789  imposed  a  tariff  duty  of 
from  5  to  15  per  cent.,  almost  exclusively  a 
tariff  for  revenue  only.  From  1802-12  the  ad 
•valorem  duty  on  dutiable  and  free  articles 
averaged  19.36  per  cent.,  ranging  from  23.40 
per  cent,  in  1804  to  17.88  in  1810.  The  War  of 
1812  doubled  duties  from  1813-15,  the  rates  aver- 
aging 33  03  per  cent.  With  the  act  of  1816  the 
protective  principle  first  appears  prominent, 
the  rates  averaging  from  1816-20,  22.53  Per 
cent.  From  this  time  on  to  1832  the  protective 
principle  was  more  and  more  adopted  in  suc- 
cessive acts,  as  those  of  1824  and  1828.  From 
1821-26  the  rate  averaged  33.07  per  cent.,  and 
from  1827-31,  40.21.  In  1832  a  reduction  was 
made  to  remove  the  "  abominations"  of  the  act 
of  1828.  In  1832  the  rate  averaged  30.86,  and  in 
1833.  23.95  Per  cent.  The  growing  influence  of 
the  South  obtained  still  further  reductions,  and 
from  1834-43  the  average  was  17.18  per  cent., 
ranging  from  20.84  in  l838  to  J5-45  in  1840.  In 
1842,  however,  protectionist  measures  slightly 
prevailed,  yet  from  1844-57  there  was  a  steady 
tendency  to  enact  lower  rates,  and  the  average 
during  this  period  was  23.85.  In  1857  still  fur- 
ther reductions  obtained,  and  the  average  from 
1857-61  was  16.35,  falling  in  1861  to  14.21  per 
cent.  In  1861,  however,  the  Morell  tariff  act 
was. passed,  followed  by  still  further  enaction 
of  "  war  tariffs,"  the  average  from  1862-65 
being  31.21,  rising  from  26.09  to  38.46.  After 
the  war  still  higher  protective  rates  prevailed, 
rising  from  41.81  in  1866  to  46.49  in  1871,  and 
averaging  during  this  period  43.95.  From  1871- 
91,  under  the  dominance  of  the  Republican 
Party  in  Congress,  the  rate  averaged  29. 70  per 
cent. ,  ranging  from  38.94  in  1871  to  25.25  in  1891. 


Tariff. 


1306 


Taxation. 


In  1882  a  tariff  commission  was  appointed,  re- 
sulting in  little  change.  In  1890  the  celebrated 
McKinley  act  was  passed  by  the  protectionists. 
-In  1894,  under  a  Democratic  administration, 
the  Wilson  act  was  passed,  yet  it  so  slightly  re- 
duced the  tariff,  that  President  Cleveland, 
weakly  allowing  it  to  become  a  law,  tried  to 
avoid  responsibility  for  it  by  declining  to  sign 
it.  The  only  important  change  from  the  McKin- 
ley act  was  the  admission  of  wool  as  free,  while 
to  please  the  Sugar  Trust,  a  duty  of  40  per  cent, 
was  placed  on  sugar  and  an  additional  duty  on 
refined  sugar.  The  ratio  from  1890-96  inclusive 
averaged  for  the  respective  years  29.12,  25.25, 
21.26,  23.49,  20.25,  20.67.  All  these  rates,  how- 
ever, it  must  be  remembered,  were  the  percen- 
tages on  dutiable  and  free  articles.  On  duti- 
able articles  alone  the  corresponding  rates  for 
the  last  seven  years  have  been  44.41,  46.28, 
48.71,  49.58,  50.06,  41.75.  40-18. 

Reference  :  The  statistical  abstracts  of  the  United 
States. 

TARIFF  COMMISSION  IDEA.— The  evil 

effects  upon  business  and  upon  political  parties 
of  continual  tariff  changes  (see  FREE  TRADE)  are 
such  that  it  has  been  proposed  by  some  "  to 
take  the  tariff  out  of  politics"  and  regulate  it 
by  a  commission.  Senator  Morgan,  of  Ala- 
bama, in  1894,  introduced  into  Congress  an 
amendment  to  the  tariff  bill  to  this  effect.  The 
commission  was  to  consist  of  four  persons  ap- 
pointed by  the  President  and  approved  by  the 
Senate.  They  were  then  to  examine  all  duties 
and  decide  what  articles  were  paying  too  high 
or  too  low  duties,  in  order  to  raise  the  necessary 
revenue  or  to  promote  the  general  welfare  ; 
they  were  then  to  recommend  the  necessary 
changes  to  the  President,  and  if  he  approved, 
he  was  to  issue  a  proclamation  making  such 
changes.  No  changes  were  to  exceed  25  per 
cent,  of  the  present  rates,  and  no  article  was  to 
be  changed  twice  in  the  same  year. 

The  idea  has  been  much  discussed,  usually 
favorably.  Conventions  have  been  held  to 
favor  it,  but  thus  far  the  obstacles  to  a  change 
have  proved  too  great  for  action. 

TAUSSIG,  FRANK  WILLIAM,  was  born 
in  St.  Louis,  Mo.,  in  1859.  He  received  from 
Harvard  University  the  degrees  of  A.B  in  1879, 
Ph.D.  in  1883,  LL.B.  in  1886.  He  studied  in 
Europe  one  year,  and  has  since  been  Professor 
of  Political  Economy  in  Harvard  University. 
His  main  works  are  :  Tariff  History  of  the 
United  States  (1888,  2d  ed.  1892)  ;  The  Silver 
Situation  in  the  United  States  (1892) ;  Wages 
and  Capital  (1896)  ;  and  various  contributions 
to  the  Quarterly  Journal  of  Economics, 

TAXATION.  (See  also  REVENUE  ;  FINANCE  ; 
FREE  TRADE  ;  PROTECTION  ;  SINGLE  TAX). — We 
consider  in  this  article :  I.  The  History  of 
Taxation  ;  II.  Taxation  in  the  United  States  ; 
III.  The  Theory  of  Taxation  ;  IV.  Tax  Reform. 

*  I.  HISTORY  OF  TAXATION. 

In  this  portion  of  our  article  we  have  largely, 
tho  not  wholly,  followed  Professor  R.  T.  Ely's 
Taxation  in  American  States  and  Cities. 


GREEK   AND   ROMAN   PERIOD. 

In  early  times,  and  to  an  extent  all  through 
classic  times,  taxation  was  light.   Ancient  States 
received  their  main  revenues  from  wars,  the 
conduct  of  State  colonies,  and  trading  expedi- 
tions, the  management  of  State  mines,  forests, 
lands,  etc.     Slaves  did  the  most  of  the  labor, 
and  foreigners  were  compelled  to  pay  for  pro- 
tection in  money  or  heavy   tribute.     Officials 
were  paid  usually  not  by  salaries  but  by  fees, 
and  hence  were  of  small  expense  to  the  State. 
Boeckh  (Book  III.,  i.)  divides  the  revenues  of 
Athens  into  "  duties  arising  partly 
from  public  domains,  including  the 
mines  ;  partly   from    customs  and        Greek 
excise,  a  ad  some  taxes  upon  indus-         and 
try  and  persons,  which  only  extend-       Roman 
ed  to  the  aliens  and  slaves  ;  fines,       Taxes, 
together  with  justice  fees  and  the 
proceeds  of  confiscated  property  ; 
tributes  of  the  allied  or  subject  States,  and  regu- 
lar liturgies"  (or  payments  for  amusements  for 
the  people,  etc.,  by  the  hollers  of  the  offices). 
Grote  puts  the  annual  expenditure  of  Athens  in 
the  age  of  Pericles  at  1000  talents,  which  Profes- 
sor Ely  (Taxation  in  American   States   and 
Cities,  p.  25)  values  at  $1,200,000. 

Rome  passed  from  a  period  of  light  taxes  to 
a  period  of  120  years (163-43  B.C.),  when  success- 
ful wars  relieved  her  from  necessity  for  any  taxes, 
and  then  to  a  period  of  heavy  and  increasing 
taxation.  Cicero,  in  his  De  Officiis  (45  B.C.) 
speaks  of  taxation  as  a  thing  to  be  avoided  if 
possible,  and  adopted  only  in  extreme  necessity. 
In  Japan  and  most  Asiatic  and  despotic  coun- 
tries taxation  consisted  of  a  tax  paid  in  service 
to  the  State  and  in  tithes  laid  on  the  land,  and 
in  most  countries  farmed  out,  as  in  the  later 
Roman  Empire,  to  corrupt  and  merciless  tithe 
collectors,  as  in  Turkey  to-day. 

In  the  Middle  Ages  the  concept  of  the  State 
was  that  it  belonged  to  the  prince  or  sovereign. 
Public  employees  were  private  servants.  Large 
domains  were  set  apart  for  the  support  of  the 
sovereign.  The  kings  at  first  collected  no  taxes 
from  the  peasantry  ;  the  king,  under  the  gen- 
eral feudal  conception,  was  supposed  to  own  all 
the  land,  and  not  to  part  from  this  ownership. 
But  he  subdivided  it  among  his  barons  to  rule 
over  (not  to  own),  and  for  that  right  they  did 
homage — i.e.,  paid  service  to  the  king,  usually 
by  bringing  to  the  king  a  contingent  of  troops 
in  time  of  war.  They  in  turn  subdivided  their 
lands  among  the  lower  gentry  or  knights,  again 
only  to  rule  over,  not  to  own,  and  for  this  ob- 
tained homage  or  service  from  the  knights. 
These  finally  gave  to  their  serfs  the  land  to  live 
on  and  cultivate  (not  own),  and  for  this  re- 
ceived from  the  serfs  a  certain  amount  of  ser- 
vice. In  this  way  there  were  practically  no 
taxes,  but  each  paid  to  his  feudal  superior  a  cer- 
tain amount  of  service  ;  the  other  expenses  of 
the  king  and  greater  barons  being  met  out  of 
conquest,  or  lands  held  directly  as  theirs  to  use. 
Such  was  the  general  feudal  conception,  modi- 
fied, however,  in  a  thousand  ways  by  various 
local  conditions,  concessions,  customs,  and  tra- 
ditions. At  a  later  period,  however,  especially 
when  the  countries  grew  more  settled,  the 
barons  often  preferred  to  stay  and  defend  their 
own  lands  or  carry  on  their  own  wars,  and  so, 


Taxation. 


Taxation. 


instead  of  giving  contingents  of  troops  to  the 
king,  gave  a  commutation  or  money  substitute. 
The  kings  preferred  this,  as  it  enabled  them  to 
hire  standing  mercenaries  and  be  more  inde- 
pendent of  their  barons.  This  money  payment 
became  a  tax.  The  next  step  was,  as  the  neces- 
sities of  the  king  grew,  to  extend  taxation  to  all 
classes.  It  was  overlooked  or  ignored  that  the 
other  classes  were  already  paying  their  service 
to  the  barons,  for  him  to  pay  to  the  king.  The 
lower  classes  began  to  be  compelled  to  pay  their 
feudal  superiors  and  the  king  also.  Gradually 
then  the  barons  began  to  claim  the  ownership 
of  the  land  in  fee  simple,  instead  of  in  use  for 
the  king,  and  what  they  were  paid  in  service 
and  later  m  money,  they  kept  as  rent,  and  what 
the  king  collected  was  tax.  (See  LAND.)  Taxa- 
tion was  usually  a  forced  payment,  and  collected 
in  various  ways  and  levied  on  all  sorts  of  articles 
and  under  most  various  pretexts.  At  first  they 
were  regarded  as  supplementary  payments  for 
special  needs,  and  were  often  forced 
loans.  They  were  often  levied 
The  Jews,  upon  especial  classes,  particularly 
the  Jews.  The  revenues  from  the 
Jews  were  divided  into  four  classes  : 
reliefs,  or  inheritance  taxes,  usually  one  third 
the  estate;  escheats,  or  forfeitures  for  crimes  and 
offenses,  real  or  imaginary,  like  slaughtering 
Christian  children,  clipping  the  coin,  etc.  ;  fines, 
or  what  we  call  fees,  and  tallages  or  poll  taxes, 
levied  according  to  one's  means.  According  to 
Gross's  The  Exchequer  of  the  Jews  of  Eng- 
land in  the  Middle  Ages,  pp.  25-29,  the  entire 
revenue  of  the  Crown  in  the  Middle  Ages  was 
only  about  £  65 ,000,  and  of  this  the  annual  aver- 
age tallage  was  about  £  5000 — the  Jews  thus 
paying  considerably  over  one  tenth  of  the  rev- 
enue. Jews  were  forced  to  pay  enormous  sums 
for  the  privilege  of  being  "protected" — that 
is,  robbed  by  the  sovereigns.  Yet  revenues 
from  the  public  domains  were  considered  the 
best  sources  of  public  income.  Taxes,  even  as 
late  as  the  latter  half  of  the  sixteenth  century, 
are  spoken  of  as  undesirable  by  Bodin  in 
his  famous  work,  De  la  Rtpublique.  Braun- 
schweig-Wolfenbiittel  declared,  in  the  old  Ger- 
man Reichstag  in  1653,  that  taxes  were  con- 
trary to  the  nature  of  the  State  because  one  en- 
tered into  civil  society  to  protect  one's  property 
and  not  to  have  it  taken  away.  Kings,  too, 
raised  revenue  by  the  sale  of  all  possible  im- 
aginary titles,  concessions,  patent  rights,  mo- 
nopolies, etc.  The  German  princes  especially 
became  weak  by  the  sale  of  their  rights  to  the 
opulent  free  cities.  Under  James  I.  of  Eng- 
land the  title  of  baron  brought  ,£10,000,  that  of 
earl  £12,000.  Richelieu  in  France  abolished 
100,000  offices  which  had  been  created  mainly 
to  be  sold.  It  was  the  defenseless  mainly  that 
were  directly  taxed.  The  insurrection  of  Wat 
Tyler  was  occasioned  by  the  imposition  of  a  poll 
tax.  Taxes  were  finally  put  on  all  imaginable 
things?  There  were  hearth  taxes,  window  tax- 
es, carriage  taxes,  livery  taxes. 

The  history  of  modern  taxation  is  the  history 
of  the  recognition  and  control  of  taxation  by 
legislation.  The  earliest  parliaments  were 
called  to  vote  taxes.  The  recognition  of  the 
principle  of  "no  taxation  without  representa- 
tion" is  the  development  of  representative  gov- 


ernment. English  constitutionalism  has  been 
built  on  the  granting  of  taxes.  According  to 
the  Magna  Charta,  "  No  scutage  (land  tax,  or 
commutation  for  feudal  service)  or 
aid  shall  be  imposed  on  our  realm 
save  by  the  common  council  of  our  Modern 
realm."  John  was  allowed  to  re-  Taxation. 
serve  for  himself  only  the  three 
customary  feudal  "aids" — contri- 
butions in  case  of  king's  captivity,  on  the 
knighthood  of  the  eldest  son,  and  on  the  mar- 
riage of  the  eldest  daughter.  The  financial 
needs  of  the  sovereign  compelled  in  1294  the 
addition  to  the  charter,  called  the  statute,  "  de 
tall  agio  non  concedendo,"  whereby  it  was 
agreed  that  no  taxes  should  be  levied  by  the 
king,  save  with  the  consent  of  knights,  bur- 
gesses, and  citizens  in  Parliament  assembled. 
This,  says  Green,  "  completed  the  fabric  of  our 
representative  constitution."  Parliament  has 
since  then  been  necessary.  The  Declaration  of 
Rights  (1689)  declared  that  "  levying  money 
for  or  to  the  use  of  the  Crown,  by  pretense  of 
prerogative,  without  grant  of  Parliament  for 
longer  time  or  in  other  manner  than  the  same 
is  or  shall  be  granted,  is  illegal."  This  was  fol- 
lowed by  annual  grants  of  supplies,  instead  of 
life  grants  as  before,  and  annual  renewals  of 
the  Mutiny  Act,  containing  provisions  for  the 
pay  and  discipline  of  the  army.  Annual  parlia- 
ments have  since  been  necessary.  Green  calls 
this  "  the  greatest  constitutional  change  which 
our  history  has  witnessed"  (Short  History  of 
the  English  People,  chap.  ix.).  That  it  was 
the  violation  oi  the  principle  of  no  taxation 
without  representation  \vhich  led  to  the  Ameri- 
can Revolution  is  well  known. 

Taxation  in  Great  Britain  to-day  is  of  many 
kinds.     Tho  known  as  a  free  trade  country  (see 
FREE  TRADE),  millions  of  pounds  of  revenue  are 
still  raised  from  custom  duties  on 
wine,  spirits,  tobacco,  and  a  few 
other  articles.     These  are  not  pro-       Great 
tective  duties,  however,  because  a     Britain. 
duty  is  also  laid  on  the  home  prod- 
uce, as  of  spirits.     More  income  is" 
raised  from  excise  duties  (see  EXCISE),  consid- 
erable income  is  raised  from  stamp  and  death 
duties,  a  growing  proportion  from  an  income  tax, 
while  a  comparatively  small  amount  of  national 
taxation  comes  from  a  land  tax.    Local  .expendi- 
tures are  mainly  met  by  rates  on  house  values. 

On  the  Continent,  speaking  generally,  local 
expenses  are  largely  met  by  indirect  taxes,  such 
as  the  octroi  or  duties  on  commodities  brought 
into  a  city  for  sale,  national  taxation  being 
either  direct  or  from  a  protective  tariff.  (See 
PROTECTION.)  In  Europe,  generally  various 
stamp  duties  are  more  common  than  in  the 
United  States.  See  also  the  separate  countries 
for  their  sources  of  revenue  in  more  detail. 

II.  TAXATION  IN  THE  UNITED  STATES 

In  the  earlier  day  of  the  American  colonies 
there  was  small  need  for  taxes.  England  asked 
no  assistance.  Quit-rents  satisfied  the  proprie- 
tors or  the  companies,  who  in  turn  gave  partial 
protection  ;  there  were  few  officials  and  few  pub- 
lic expenses.  Wars  had  not  developed.  For- 
feitures, fees,  fines,  and  payments  for  land  met 
all  expenses.  Land  was  usually  granted  for  the 


Taxation. 


1308 


Taxation. 


support  of  schools.  From  1647-89  all  the  taxes 
of  Rhode  Island  were  about  ,£600  sterling. 
Fines  were  collected  on  the  violation  of  sump 
tuary  laws.  Mary  Stebbins,  in 
Springfield,  Mass.,  was  fined  los. 
Colonial  in  1667  for  wearing  silks  contrary 
Period.  to  law,  and  Nathaniel  Ely,  in  1674, 
for  selling  beer  not  made  according 
to  law.  A  poll  tax  was  levied  at 
various  times  by  almost  all  the  colonies.  In 
Virginia  it  was  long  the  only  tax.  Maryland 
had,  before  the  Revolution,  no  other  direct  tax. 
Quit-rents  were  annual  charges  on  land  in  the 
colonies  under  proprietary  government.  Lands 
in  colonies  not  proprietary  were  divided  among 
the  members  of  the  colonizing  companies,  ac- 
cording to  the  amount  of  stock  held  or  for  ser- 
vices rendered.  In  later  settlements  the  appor- 
tionment was  according  to  one's  ratable  prop- 
erty. Public  officials  were  mainly  supported  by 
fees  —ministers  by  christening,  churching,  and 
burying  fees  ;  clerks  by  fees  for  issuing  court 
papers  and  making  records  ;  sheriffs  by  fees 
for  making  arrests  and  inflicting  punishments, 
etc.  Licenses  and  fines,  for  sale  of  liquors,  for 
marriages,  for  lawyers  and  peddlers,  brought  in 
considerable  revenues.  Lotteries  (q.v.}  were 
common  in  the  later  days  when  expenses  grew. 
Fines  were  placed— e.g.,  in  Virginia— on  wid 
ows,  in  Maryland  on  bachelors  over  25,  in  New 
York  on  wigs.  Excise  duties  were  laid  in  al- 
most all  if  not  all  the  colonies  on  the  manufac- 
ture of  liquor.  Duties  on  exports  and  imports 
were  irregularly  laid.  Tonnage  duties  were 
levied  payable  in  powder  and  shot.  The  meth- 
ods of  collection  of  the  most  of  the  taxes  were 
the  same  as  later  on.  Largesses  were  common, 
as  in  1644  New  Haven  began  annual  contribu- 
tions for  the  support  of  poor  scholars  at  Har- 
vard College.  It  consisted  of  a  peck  of  wheat 
or  value  of  the  same  from  all  "whose  hart  is 
willing."  In  Maryland  in  1650  an  "  equal  as- 
sessment" was  made  on  all  those  who  w.ould 
not  contribute  for  the  maimed,  lame,  and  blind. 
Private  citizens  gave  often  to  the  State.  In 
Philadelphia,  the  charter  of  1701  gave  no  power 
to  levy  taxes.  The  act  of  1712  established  the 
right  of  the  citizens  to  control  taxation.  The 
State  of  Pennsylvania  did  not  levy  the  first  di- 
rect tax  till  1785.  It  was  an  annual  tax  of 
,£76,945.  The  annual  expenditure  of  the  State 
Government  was  given  by  Mr.  Wolcott,  Secre- 
tary of  the  Treasury,  as  $130,000.  Taxation 
was  a  very  grudgingly  recognized  right.  The 
attempts  of  England  to  tax  caused  the  Revolu- 
tion. What  State  taxes  there  were  were  very 
varied.  In  1795,  Mr.  Oliver  Wolcott,  Secretary 
of  the  Treasury,  in  reporting  to  Congress  a  plan 
for  laying  and  collecting  federal  revenues,  de- 
clared that  the  systems  of  taxation  in  the  vari- 
ous States  were  "  utterly  discordant  and  irrecon- 
cilable in  their  original  principles."  Seven 
States  had  a  uniform  capitation  tax.  All  ex- 
cept Delaware  taxed  land,  but  in  some  accord- 
ing to  quantity,  in  others  quality.  Responsi- 
bility in  some  States  attached  to  the  State  ;  in 
others  to  the  counties  or  townships.  The  aver- 
age annual  expenditure  of  each  of  the  15  States 
was  less  than  $70,000,  the  total  about  $1,000,000. 
The  New  England  States  taxed  live  stock  and 
capital.  The  Southern  States  taxed  slaves. 


National  taxation  was  attempted  before  the 
adoption  of  the  Constitution  of  1787,  but  Con- 

§ress  had  no  power.  It  could  only  assess  the 
tates.  After  much  discussion  this 
was  finally  changed,  and  the  new 
Constitution  conveyed  to  the  na-  National 
tional  Congress  "power  to  collect  Taxation, 
taxes,  duties,  imposts,  and  excises, 
to  pay  the  debts  and  provide  for 
the  common  defense  and  general  welfare  of  the 
United  States,"  and  to  "  borrow  money  on  the 
credit  of  the  United  States."  But  this  large 
grant  was  accompanied  by  decided  restrictions. 
The  first  is  that  "  all  duties,  imposts,  and  ex- 
cises shall  be  uniform  throughout  the  United 
States."  The  second,  that  "no  capitation  or 
other  direct  tax  shall  be  laid,  unless  in  propor- 
tion to  the  census  or  enumeration"  elsewhere 
provided  for.  The  third,  that  "  no  tax  or  duty 
shall  be  laid  on  articles  exported  from  any  State. 
No  preference  shall  be  given,  by  any  regulation 
of  commerce  or  revenue,  to  the  ports  of  one 
State  over  those  of  another."  On  the  other 
hand,  it  is  provided  that  "  no  State  shall,  with- 
out the  consent  of  the  Congress,  lay  any  imposts 
or  duties  on  imports  or  exports  except  what  may 
be  absolutely  necessary  for  executing  its  inspec- 
tion laws  ;  and  the  net  produce  of  all  duties  and 
imposts  laid  by  any  State  on  imports  or  exports 
shall  be  for  the  use  of  the  treasury  of  the  United 
States  ;  and  all  such  laws  shall  be  subject  to  the 
revision  and  control  of  Congress."  The  inter- 
pretations of  the  Supreme  Court  have  deter- 
mined (i)  that  Congress  has  no  power  to  levy 
duties  on  exports  under  any  circumstances  ;  (2) 
that  no  State  may  tax  the  "  instrumentalites" 
which  the  federal  Government  deems  proper  to 
create  or  employ  for  carrying  out  its  purposes, 
such  as  property  in  the  debt  of  the  United  States. 
This  interpretation  of  the  Constitution  has  led 
to  the  present  condition  of  affairs,  whereby  the 
national  Government  has  raised  its  revenues  al- 
most exclusively  by  indirect  taxation,  and  the 
States  have  levied  almost  all  our  direct  taxes. 
This  has  meant  that  the  national  Government 
has  had  the  most  remunerative  taxes  and  the 
States  the  most  unpopular.  It  has  meant,  too, 
that  during  large  portions  of  our  history  the  na- 
tional revenue  has  been  largely  in  excess  of 
national  expenditures.  Only  in  our  earliest  his- 
tory in  war  time  and  very  recently  has  the  reve- 
nue been  insufficient  and  resort  made  to  direct 
taxation  by  the  national  Government.  In  1796 
Congress  yielded  to  the  pressure  of  financial 
necessities,  and  recommended  a  direct  tax,  and 
in  1798  one  was  laid  on  houses,  slaves,  and  lands. 
Again  during  the  War  of  1812  it  was  neces- 
sary to  resort  to  direct  taxation  to  carry  on  the 
Government.  Here  a  new  feature  was  intro- 
duced, inasmuch  as  the  several  States  were  per- 
mitted to  assume  as  States  the  payment  of  their 
quota  of  the  tax.  Many  States  availed  them- 
selves .of  this  privilege.  Thus  was  avoided  a 
collection  of  the  taxes  by  the  United  Stat*es  Gov- 
ernment at  different  rates  in  all  parts  of  the 
country,  and  with  it  the  general  unfavorable 
criticism  of  the  system  When  again  in  1861 
it  became  necessary  to  resort  to  direct  taxa- 
tion, the  privilege  of  assuming  the  payment 
of  the  quota  was  embraced  by  all  the  loyal 
States. 


Taxation, 


1309 


Taxation, 


The  main  national  taxation,  however,  has 
been  indirect  taxation  through  the  tariff  and 
the  excise  duties.  (For  a  history  of  the  former, 
see  TARIFF,  and  for  statistics  of  revenue,  see 
FINANCE  ;  INTERNAL  REVENUE.)  For  the  first 
years  of  our  national  life,  burdened  with  debt, 
the  revenue  was  by  no  means  excessive,  in  spite 
of  the  excise  taxes  enacted  under  Washington's 
administration  ;  but  in  1801  those  excise  taxes 
were  repealed,  and  by  1806  President  Jefferson 
announced  to  Congress  that  the  tariff  revenue 
would  soon  be  more  than  sufficient  to  meet  the 
constitutional  wants  of  the  Government,  and 
proposed  that  the  powers  of  Congress  be  en- 
larged to  enable  it  to  undertake  a  great  system 
of  internal  improvements.  The  outbreak  of  the 
war  with  Great  Britain  postponed  the  appear- 
ance of  a  surplus  revenue  and  forced  the  reen- 
actment  of  excise  taxes.  But  in  1829  General 
Jackson  announced  the  reapproach  of  a  surplus 
revenue,  and  in  1836  a  law  was  passed  to  de- 
posit the  surplus  revenue  with  the  States  in 
quarterly  installments.  These  deposits  were 
made  and  were  used  for  education,  etc.,  but 
the  business  depression  of  1837  and  the  failure 
of  the  State  banks  compelled  the  treasurer  to 
suspend  the  fourth  payment,  and  he  was  sup- 
ported in  so  doing  by  Congress.  Owing  to  the 
Mexican  War  and  bad  financial  management, 
there  was  no  surplus  before  the  war,  but  in  1860 
a  debt  of  $61,140,496.  The  expenses  of  the  war 
caused  "  the  war  tariff,"  excise  taxes,  and  direct 
taxes,  besides  large  loans,  and  for  20  years  after 
there  was  no  surplus.  But  by  1887  the  policy 
of  the  funding  of  the  debt,  putting  a  large  part 
of  it  out  of  reach  for  redemption  at  par,  there 
came  to  be  a  large  surplus,  even  tho  most  of  the 
war  taxes  had  been  repealed.  It  had  come  to 
be  a  practical  question  in  national  taxation  what 
to  do  with  the  surplus  revenue.  It  has  not  re- 
mained so.  The  growth  of  the  pension  list, 
which  has  come  to  be  among  the  heaviest  ex- 
penses of  the  Government  (see  REVENUE),  with 
heavy  appropriations  for  internal  improvements, 
etc. ,  has  recently  more  than  exhausted  the  reve- 
nue. Nevertheless  the  question  of  surplus  reve- 
nue and  the  general  questions  of  national  taxa- 
tion have  been  much  discussed.  One  school  of 
thinkers  would  reduce  the  tariff.  (See  FREE 
TRADE.)  Others  claim  that  the  recent  insuffi- 
ciency of  revenue  has  been  due  to  the  repeal  of 
the McKinley Act.  (See  TARIFF.)  Freetraders 
argue  that  the  income  under  the  Wilson  Bill 
has  exceeded  that  under  the  McKinley  Act. 
Others  favor  a  large  extension  of  functions  by 
the  national  Government.  Still  others  favor  the 
retention  of  a  high  tariff,  but  the  repeal  of  ex- 
cise duties  on  tobacco  and  alcohol  used  in  the 
arts.  (See  PROTECTION.  For  present  national 
taxes,  see  FINANCE,  INTERNAL  FEVENUE.  See 
also  INCOME  TAX.) 

Coming  to  State  taxation,  we  have  seen  that 
the  systems  of  State  taxation  inherited  from  the 
colonies  were  most  diverse  and  confusing.  This 

diversity    has    largely    continued. 

They  are  all,  as  has  been  said,  di- 
State  Taxes,  rect  taxes.  At  first  the  general  aim 

was  to  tax  according  to  ability  to 

pay.  In  Connecticut,  till  1814,  taxa- 
tion was  first  upon  property  according  to  its 
probable  net  revenue.  In  Ohio,  till  1825,  land 


was  divided  into  three  classes,  according  to 
quality,  and  there  were  three  rates  of  taxation 
per  100  acres.  In  1825  a  clause  was  introduced 
providing  that  land  should  be  taxed  without 
taking  into  consideration  the  actual  improve- 
ments thereon.  In  Maryland,  there  was  a  direct 
tax  for  local  purposes  on  the  direct  value  of  all 
property.  Other  States  followed  in  the  main 
the  systems  of  taxation  inherited  from  the  colo- 
nies. (See  above.)  Generally  speaking,  the 
effort  to  tax  all  property  according  to  income 
proved  a  failure,  and  the  tendency  has  prevailed 
to  tax  according  to  selling  value,  this  change 
being  made  in  most  States  in  the  forties.  An- 
other change,  too,  was  generally  made  about 
the  same  time.  The  old  specifications  of  prop- 
erty failed  to  reach  large  masses  of  wealth.  The 
attempt  now  is  to  tax  all  property  according  to 
selling  value.  The  Constitution  of  Ohio,  adopt- 
ed 1851,  expressly  provides  that  even  State  and 
local  bonds  shall  be  taxed.  Nevertheless,  this 
attempt  to  tax  all  property  equitably  according 
to  its  selling  value  has  not  succeeded.  In 
many  States  the  opulent  pay  taxes  on  little  more 
than  what  property  they  choose  to  return.  The 
widows,  and  the  helpless,  and  the  conscientious, 
whose  property  being  in  the  hands  of  the  courts, 
is  easily  measured  or  fully  returned,  pay  full 
taxes.  The  rich  who  will  largely  escape  taxa- 
tion on  personal  property.  In  Ohio,  where  the 
most  strenuous  efforts  have  been  made  to  reach 
all  property,  the  Governor  reported  that  "  in 
1883  the  valuation  for  taxation  of  the  personal 
property  of  the  State,  as  shown  fjy  the  grand 
duplicate,  was  $542,207,121.  In  1884,  it  shrunk 
to  $528,298,871,  and  for  1885  dwindled  again  to 
$509,913,986.  This  loss  has  been  made  up  large- 
ly by  the  steady  growth  of  the  valuation  of  real 
estate  on  account  of  new  structures,  etc.,  but 
the  loss  was  greater  than  the  increase  last  year" 
(Professor  Ely's  Taxation  in  American  States 
and  Cities,  p.  157).  .  Says  the  preliminary  re- 
port of  the  West  Virginia  Tax  Commission, 
made  in  1884  : 

"At  present  all  the  taxes  from  invisible  property 
come  from  a  few  conspicuously  conscientious  citizens, 
from  widows'  executors,  and  from  guardians  of  the 
insane  and  infants;  in  fact,  it  is  a  comparatively  rare 
thing  to  find  a  shrewd  trader  who  'gives  in '  any  con- 
siderable amount  of  notes,  stocks,  or  money ;  the 
truth  is,  things  have  come  to  such  a  condition  in 
West  Virginia  that,  as  regards  paying  taxes  on  this 
class  of  property,  it  is  almost  as  voluntary  and  is 
considered  pretty  much  in  the  same  light  as  donations 
to  the  neighborhood  church  or  Sunday-school.  .  .  . 
The  statistics  bearing  on  this  point  wil'l  scarcely  be 
credited  by  persons  who  have  not  investigated  the 
subject"  (idem.,  p.  174). 

In  New  York  State  the  assessors,  in  their  re- 
port for  1 88 1  say  : 

"  Women,  heirs,  executors,  administrators,  guard- 
ians, and  trustees  of  persons  of  unsound  mind  are 
assessed  beyond  all  measure  of  justice.  .  .  .  The 
same  assessor,  however,  if  not  forgetting  his  oath 
when  inquiring  of  the  wealthy  neighbor  as  to  his  per- 
sonal, very  likely  accepts  the  negative  answer  as 
truthful,  tho  it  is  well  known  to  the  community  that 
he  possesses  large  means.  The  one  has  not  yet  learned 
how  to  cover  the  personal  property  by  an  assumed  in- 
debtedness, while  the  other  is  well  versed  in  the  many 
devices  by  which  he  may  escape  even  the  'diligent' 
assessor"  (Idem.,  p.  174.) 

The  most  careful  study,  however,  of  the  pres- 
ent condition  of  city  taxation  in  the  United 
States  is  the  Eighth  Biennial  Report  (1894)  of 


Taxation. 


1310 


Taxation. 


the  Illinois  Bureau  of  Labor  Statistics,  of  which 
George  A.  Schilling  is  secretary.  It  is  an  ex- 
pose, of  the  crookedness  and  inequalities  of  the 
present  system  of  assessing  and  levying  taxes, 
and  of  the  extent  to  which  wealthy  individuals 
and  corporations  escape  taxation.  Applying  to 
Chicago,  it  is  notoriously  representative  to  a 
greater  or  less  degree  of  all  our  larger  and  some 
of  our  smaller  cities.  Its  value  may  be  seen  in 
the  fact  that  the  original  edition  of  45,000  was 
exhausted  in  a  few  months,  and  a  special  edi- 


tion called  for.  The  report  considers  the  whole 
subject  at  length.  We  can  quote  from  it  only 
some  of  its  findings  as  to  the  assessment  and 
taxation  of  personal  and  land  property.  It 
shows,  in  the  first  place,  the  extent  to  which 
personal  property  escapes  taxation.  The  fol- 
lowing table  shows  the  amount  of  personal 
property  assessed  in  Cook  County  (the  city  of 
Chicago)  and  outside  of  Chicago,  and  also  the 
relative  property  of  bankers  which  is  assessed 
and  that  of  other  classes  of  citizens  : 


ASSESSED  PERSONAL  PROPERTY  OP  BANKERS,  BROKERS,  ETC  ,  AND  OP  OTHER  CLASSES.* 


Population 

ASSESSED 

MONEY. 

AMOUNT  PJ 

:R  CAPITA, 

States  Census, 
1890. 

Bankers,  etc. 

Other 
Persons. 

Bankers, 
etc. 

Other 
Persons. 

Illinois  .... 

Cook  County  

Other  counties  

™~~y 

i   168 

3^   7  ,   3 

ASSESSED  CREDITS.* 


AREA. 

ASSESSED  CREDITS. 

AMOUNT  PER  CAPITA. 

Bankers,  etc. 

Other  Persons. 

Bankers,  etc. 

Other 
Persons. 

Illinois  

$1,563.583 
10,000 
1,553,583 

$",343,365 
522,110 
10,821,255 

$0.409 
0.008 
o  59° 

$2.968 
0.438 
0.108 

Cook  County  

Other  counties  

*  Tabulated  from  Eighth  Biennial  Report  of  Illinois  Bureau  of  Labor. 


As  further  illustrative  of  the  undervaluations 
in  Cook  County,  tables  are  presented  which 
show  that,  according  to  the  report  of  the  State 
auditor,  the  net  taxable  credits  and  moneys  of 
27  State  banks  in  Chicago,  on  June  5,  1893, 
amounted  to  $1,058,105.25  and  $18,991,771.67, 
respectively,  while  the  amounts  of  these  items 
listed  for  taxation,  May  i,  1894,  by  all  the  banks 
in  the  city  (national  banks  excluded)  amounted 
to  $10,000  and  $43,925  respectively. 

Of  the  utterly  unjust  assessments  of  real  es- 
tate, the  report  gives  equally  plain  evidence. 

The  extent  of  the  undervaluation  for  the  pur- 
pose of  taxation  is  first  illustrated  by  a  series  of 
tables,  that  compare  the  cost  of  buildings  erect- 
ed during  a  number  of  years,  as  shown  by  the 
building  permits,  with  the  assessed  value  of  all 
real  estate.  The  following  statement  summa- 
rizes the  general  results  of  the  comparison  : 

COST  OF   BUILDINGS    AND   ASSESSED  VALUE 
OF  ALL  REAL  ESTATE  IN  CHICAGO. 

Buildings  erected,  1876  to  1893  .............. 

Cost  ............................  ............ 

Average  cost  ............................ 

Per  cent,  of  total  cost  .     ................ 

Assessors'  valuation,  all  real  estate,  1893.. 

Per  cent,  of  cost  of  buildings  ............. 

Cost  of  buildings  erected,  1890,  1891,  and 

1892  ............................  ........  $129,364,250 

Per  cent  of  assessed  value  of  all  real  es- 
tate, 1893  ................................  104.54 

Leaving  out  entirely  the  buildings  erected 
prior  to  1876  and  still  standing  in  1893,  and 


63,301 

18,144,603 

$6,605.66 

100.00 


29.59 


omitting  land  values  altogether,  the  assessment 
valuation  in  1893  of  both  land  and  improve- 
ments was  less  than  one  third  of  the  cost  of  the 
buildings  for  which  permits  were  granted  after 
the  close  of  1875. 

A  description  is  given  of  70  of  the  costliest 
commercial  buildings  of  the  city,  with  the  true 
and  the  assessed  value  of  the  land  and  the 
buildings  separately  shown,  and  the  percent- 
ages of  the  assessed  to  the  true  values  ;  similar 
showings  are  also  made  for  a  number  of  costly 
and  a  number  of  cheap  residences.  The  in- 
crease in  the  true  value  of  some  of  the  commer- 
cial and  costly  residence  property  is  compared 
with  the  decrease  in  the  assessment  value. 
Comment  is  also  made  on  the  constantly  increas- 
ing value  of  land  and  decreasing  value  of  im- 
provements, with  almost  stationary  assessment 
values. 

In  comparing  values  for  old  and  new  style 
office  buildings,  it  is  found  that  while  in  both 
cases  the  site  value  exceeds  the  value  of  the 
buildings,  the  proportion  is  much  greater  in  the 
case  of  the  old  buildings.  For  44  new  buildings 
the  site  value  was  50.84  per  cent,  of  the  value 
of  both  land  and  buildings,  while  for  16  old 
buildings  it  was  74.23  per  cent.  In  the  case  of 
eight  lots  in  a  choice  residence  portion  of  the 
city  the  value  of  the  ground  is  shown  to  have 
increased  556.59  per  cent,  between  1882  and 
1893,  while  the  assessed  valuation  increased 
76.55  per  cent.,  and  the  per  cent.  tha,t  the  as- 


Taxation. 


1311 


Taxation. 


sessed  is  of  the  true  value  decreased  from  21.72 
in  1882  to  5.84  in  1893.  The  assessed  value  of 
the  improvements  on  these  lots  in  1893  was  15.82 
per  cent,  of  the  true  value.  For  98  unimproved 
lots  the  assessment  for  1893  was  4.88  per  cent. 
of  the  true  value,  while  for  20  buildings  it  was 
13  54  per  cent.  The  variation  between  the  per- 
centage of  true  value  at  which  buildings  are  as- 
sessed and  that  at  which  building  sites  are  as- 
sessed appears  to  be  about  the  same  for  all 
classes  of  property. 

Apart  from  its  obvious  tendency  to  obstruct 
improvement,  the  report  states  that  "  a  custom 
of  assessment,  for  taxation  like  that  above  de- 
scribed must  therefore  in  its  very  nature  dis- 
criminate against  the  owners  of  improved  prop- 
erty according  to  the  greater  value  of  their 
improvements  relatively  to  the  value  of  their 
land.  And  this  operates  with  special  force 
against  owners  of  cheaper  properties."  Com- 
paring a  business  property  valued  at  $800,000 
with  a  residence  valued  at  $8875,  it  is  shown 
that  for  the  business  property  the  ground  was 
87.50  per  cent.,  and  the  building  12.50  per  cent. 
of  the  total  value,  and  for  the  residence  the 


ground  was  21.13  per  cent  and  the  building 
78.87  per  cent  The  assessed  value  of  the  land 
in  the  case  of  the  business  property  was  7.29  per 
cent  ,  the  building  27  per  cent.,  and  the  total 
9  75  per  cent,  of  the  true  value.  For  the  resi- 
dence property  the  percentages  were,  land  5.33 
per  cent. ,  building  15.71  percent.,  and  total  13  52 
per  cent,  of  the  true  value.  In  these  two  cases 
the  assessment  valuation  is,  in  proportion  to 
actual  value,  lower  on  the  cheaper  property  both 
as  to  site  and  improvement,  than  on  the  business 
property  ;  and  yet  the  total  assessment  valuation 
of  the  cheaper  property  is  3.77  percent,  great- 
er, as  compared  with  the  total  real  value,  than 
the  total  assessment  of  the  business  property. 

A  number  of  tables  are  presented  which  show 
the  quantity  and  assessed  value  of  real  and  per- 
sonal property,  also  of  railroad  and  other  cor- 
porate property  throughout  the  entire  State  of 
Illinois,  with  appropriate  comparisons  with  sim- 
ilar values  for  the  State  of  Indiana.  These 
statistics  are  shown  in  detail  by  county  totals, 
comparisons  being  made  between  the  totals  of 
1873  and  1893.  The  two  final  summary  tables 
are  in  substance  as  follows  : 


ASSESSED  VALUATION,  ALL  CLASSES  OF  PROPERTY,  ILLINOIS. 


CLASS  OF  PROPERTY. 

ASSESSED  VALUES  IN 

Decrease. 

Per  cent, 
of  De- 
crease. 

1873- 

1893. 

Personal  property  

$287,292,809 
582,416,667 
317,199,285 
133,807,823 
20,896,462 
13,788,271 

$145,318,406 
320,964,855 
293,274,185 

82,270,090 
5>363.979 

$141,974,403 
261,451,812 
23,925,100 

5i.537.733 
15,532,483 
13,788,271 

49.42 
44.89 

7-54 
38.52 
74-33 

Lands  

Railroads  (all  property)  

Corporations  other  than  railroads  

Total  

$i.355.4°t.317 

$847,191,515 

$508,209,802 

37-5° 

,*  Assessment  of  the  city  of  Quincy  included  in  Adams  County. 


The  report  gives  many  concrete  examples  of 
the  way  real  estate  is  undervalued,  and  so  es- 
capes taxation.  Of  30  residences  ranging  in 
value  from  $20,000  to  $1,300,000,  the  report 
says  : 

"The  highest  assessment  shown  is  only  12.23  Per 
cent,  of  true  value.  That  is  the  assessment  valuation 
of  the  residence,  No.  112  Lake  Shore  Drive,  worth 
$130,000.  The  residence,  Nos.  87-102  Lake  Shore  Drive, 
worth  $1,300,000,  is  assessed  at  only  5.54  per  cent,  of 
true  value  ;  its  millionaire  owner  pays  considerably 
less  than  half  the  tax  for  his  home,  m  proportion  to 
value,  that  is  paid  by  the  owner  of  the  $130,000  home. 
The  owner  of  the  least  valuable  home  in  all  the  list, 
the  residence  at  No.  2829  Indiana  Avenue,  pays  on  a 
9.5  per  cent,  valuation— nearly  double  the  proportion 

gaid  on  the  millionaire  residence ;  and  homes  worth 
ut  little  more  than  the  minimum  limit  of  the  list— 
those  at  Nos.  2241  and  2243  Michigan  Avenue — are 
taxed  upon  11.03  Per  cent,  of  true  value  :  or  propor- 
tionately within  a  very  small  fraction  of  double  the 
tax  upon  the  millionaire  home.  Some  of  the  compara- 
tively modest  places  are  taxed  at  a  low  valuation. 
One  worth  $50,000  is  taxed  upon  only  4.86  per  cent,  of 
its  value  ;  one  worth  $67,500  is  not  much  worse  off 
with  a  tax  upon  6.30  per  cent,  of  its  value  ;  one  worth 
$60,000  is  assessed  at  4.08  per  cent,  of  its  value,  and  one 
worth  $90,000  is  assessed  as  low  as  at  4  per  cent,  of  its 
value.  The  average  valuation  of  the  30  properties  is 
but  7.78  per  cent,  of  real  value. 

"  How  can  the  fraudulent  character  of  these  valua- 
tions be  doubted?  Make  all  possible  allowance  for 
differences  of  opinion,  and  still  assessors  cannot  ex- 


lain  the  valuation  of  $50,000  property  at  $2430 ;  of 
10,000  property  at  $3600  ;  of  $175,000  property  at  $7980 ; 
$1,300,000  property  at  $71,960,  and  so  on.  And  what 
explanation  can  the  owners  make  ?  They  may  say  it 
is  no  part  of  their  business  to  object  to  undervalua- 
tions of  their  property  ;  but  they  would  not  try  to  sat- 
isfy a  merchant  with  such  an  explanation  of  pur- 
chases from  his  clerks  at  prices  so  monstrously  out  of 
proportion  to  real  value.  Why  is  their  standard  of 
honor  and  honesty  so  radically  different  when  the 
issue  is  with  the  people  instead  of  a  merchant  ?  and 
over  a  question  of  shirking  taxes  instead  of  purloin- 
ing goods?  This  question  is  the  dilemma  of  those 
owners  who  passively  acquiesce  in  undervaluations  j 
those  who  actively  promote  them  have  a  worse  moral 
problem  to  deal  with." 

As  an  illustration  of  the  way  vacant  land  is 
undervalued,  the  report  gives  the  following  his- 
tory of  a  bit  of  land  formerly  known  as  the 
Garfield  Race  Track,  owned  by  Judge  Lambert 
Tree  : 

"  It  is  unimproved,  held  for  a  rise,  an  eyesore  and 
obstruction  to  the  growing  neighborhood,  and  worth 
at  the  present  time  not  less  than  $1,000,000.  This  prop- 
erty was  patented  in  1835  ;  in  1836  it  was  sold  for  $580  ; 
in  1870  it  was  sold  again,  the  price  being  now»  $50,000. 
At  the  next  sale,  in  1875,  the  true  price  was  veiled — 
$1000  and  'other  good  and  valuable  property  '  being 
the  consideration  expressed.  In  1870,  the  year  the 
property  sold  for  $50,000,  it  was  valued  by  the  assessor 
at  $39,960,  and  by  the  Board  of  Equalization  at  $37,562. 
and  taxed  $8245.50.  Since  that  time  the  valuation  has 


Taxation. 


1312 


Taxation. 


been  slightly  increased  and  the  tax  slightly-ireduced, 
as  follows : 


YEAR. 

Assessors' 
Valuation. 

Board's 

Valuation. 

Taxes. 

j8  70  

1880  

1890  

l8OT     . 

88,600 

"  It  wil1  be  observed  that  the  highest  valuation— that 
of  1890— is  but  little  more  than  double  the  price  paid  in 
1870,  long  before  the  thick  population  that  now  sur- 
rounds the  property  had  begun  to  drift  in  that  direc- 
tion. The  valuation  for  1893  does  not  exceed  10  per 
cent,  of  the  true  value." 

For  further  facts  as  to  city  taxes,  see  CITIES. 

III.  THE  THEORY  OF  TAXATION. 

The  theory  of  taxation  may  be  considered 
tinder  three  heads  :  (i)  the  canons  of  taxation  ; 
(2)  its  incidence  ;  (3)  particular  taxes.  The 
canons  of  taxation — i.e.,  the  characteristics  by 
which  taxes  are  to  be  measured  as  wise  or  un- 
wise, are  usually  based  on  the  four  classic 
canons  laid  down  by  Adam  Smith.  They  are 
in  Smith's  words  as  follows  : 

"  i.  The  subjects  of  every  State  ought  to  contribute 
to  the  support  of  the  Government  as  nearly  as  possible 
in  proportion  to  their  respective  abilities  :  that  is,  in 
proportion  to  the  revenue  which  they  respectively 
enjoy  under  the  protection  of  the  State.  In  the  ob- 
servation or  neglect  of  this  maxim  consists  what  is 
called  the  equality  or  inequality  of  taxation. 

"2.  The  tax  which  each  individual  is  bound  to  pay 
ought  to  be  certain,  and  not  arbitrary.    The  time  of 
payment,  the  manner  of  payment,  the  quantity  to  be 
paid,  ought  all  to  be  clear  and  plain  to  the  contributor 
and  to  every  other  person.     Where  it  is  otherwise, 
every  person  subject  to  the  tax  is  put  more  or  less  in 
the  power  of  the  tax-gatherer,  who  can  either  aggra- 
vate the  tax  upon  any  obnoxious  contributor,  or  ex- 
tort,  by    the  terror    of  such    aggrava- 
tion, some  present  or  perquisite  to  him- 
Canons  of     self-    The  uncertainty  of  taxation  en- 
Taxation      courages  the   insolence  and  favors  the 
1     corruption  of  an  order  of  men  who  are 
naturally  unpopular,   even   when  they 
are  neither   insolent  nor  corrupt.    The 
certainty  of  what  each  individual  ought  to  pay  is,  in 
taxation,  a  matter  of  so  great  importance,  that  a  very 
considerable  degree  of  inequality,  it  appears,   I  be- 
lieve, from  the  experience  of  all  nations,  is  not  near  so 
great  an  evil  as  a  very  small  degree  of  uncertainty. 

"  3.  Every  tax  ought  to  be  levied  at  the  time  or  in  the 
manner  in  which  it  is  most  likely  to  be  convenient  for 
the  contributor  to  pay  it.  A  tax  upon  the  rent  of 
land  or  of  houses,  payable  at  the  same  term  at  which 
such  rents  are  usually  paid,  is  levied  at  a  time  when  it 
is  most  likely  to  be  convenient  for  the  contributor  to 
pay,  or  when  he  is  most  likely  to  have  wherewithal  to 
pay.  Taxes  upon  such  consumable  goods  as  are  arti- 
cles of  luxury  are  all  finally  paid  by  the  consumer, 
and  generally  in  a  manner  that  is  very  convenient  to 
him.  He  pays  them  by  little  and  little,  as  he  has  occa- 
sion to  buy  the  goods.  As  he  is  at  liberty,  too.  either 
to  buy  or  not  to  buy,  as  he  pleases,  it  must  be  his  own 
fault  if  he  ever  suffers  any  considerable  inconvenience 
from  such  taxes. 

"  4.  Every  tax  ought  to  be  so  contrived  as  both  to 
take  out  and  to  keep  out  of  the  pockets  of  the  people 
as  little  as  possible  over  and  above  what  it  brings 
into  the  public  treasury  of  the  State." 

Other  canons  of  taxation,  are  sometimes  add- 
ed, as,  for  example,  the  following,  laid  down  in 
the  Encyclopedia  Britannica  : 

"  (a)  A  given  amount  of  revenue  is,  as  a  rule,  both 
from  the  point  of  view  of  the  Government  and  its  sub- 
jects more  conveniently  raised  from  a  small  number 
of_very  productive  taxes  than  from  a  larger  number 
smaller  returns  per  unit,  (ff)  A  good  system  of 


taxation  ought  to  provide  for  a  self-acting  increase  In 
the  revenue  in  proportion  as  the  population  and  the 
consequent  demands  for  governmental  expenditure 
increase.  It  has  been  found  by  experience  that  an  old 
tax  causes  less  inconvenience  than  a  new  tax  of  small- 
er amount,  a  fact  which  is  so  striking  in  some  cases  as 
to  have  given  rise  to  the  saying  that  an  old  tax  is  no 
tax.  (c)  Those  taxes  are  best  which  yield  a  steady 
and  calculable  return,  instead  of  a  return  fluctuating 
in  character  and  difficult  to  estimate.  (d~)  Those  taxes 
are  best  which  in  case  of  need  can  be  most  con- 
veniently increased  in  amount,  (e)  Regard  must 
always  be  paid  to  the  real  incidence  of  taxation,  and 
care  taken  that  the  real  burden  of  the  tax  falls  on 
those  aimed  at  by  the  Legislature." 

The  subject  of  the  incidence  of  taxation  is  one 
of  the  most  involved  and  debated  in  economic 
science.  Professor  Seligman,  in  his  The  Shift- 
ing and  Incidence  of  Taxation, 
traces  the  history  of  the  doctrine 
of  incidence,  and  finds  nine  differ-  Theory  of 
ent  theories  besides  those  which  he  Incidence. 
calls  early  theories.  The  early 
theories  he  divides  into  those  favor- 
ing a  general  excise  tax  (Hobbes,  Cradock, 
Munn,  Petty),  those  that  favored  a  single  tax 
on  land  (Locke,  Davenant,  Cantillon,  and 
others),  those  that  favored  a  more  elastic  sys- 
tem (Hume  and  Steuart).  The  first  developed 
theory  which  he  considers  is  that  of  the  physio- 
crats (g.v.).  They  held  that  as  land  is  the  only 
original  source  of  wealth,  all  taxes  should  be  on 
land  alone,  and  then  cannot  be  shifted,  while 
any  other  tax  will  be  shifted.  The  absolute 
theory,  he  says,  was  outlined  by  Smith  and  per- 
fected by  Ricardo.  According  to  this,  a  tax  on 
pure  rent  will  remain  on  land.  Other  land  taxes 
and  all  special  taxes  on  commodities  not  includ- 
ed in  the  laborer's  standard  of  life  will  be  shift- 
ed on  to  the  consumer.  All  general  taxes  on 
agricultural  produce,  on  wages,  or  on  profits 
come  from  the  capitalist.  These  conclusions 
are  derived  from  the  Ricardian  doctrine  of 
rents,  wages,  and  the  residuum  of  profits.  The 
equal  diffusion  or  optimistic  theory,  that  all  taxes 
are  generally  diffused  on  consumers,  Professor 
Seligman  criticises  severely,  tho  he  finds  it  ac- 
cepted widely,  especially  in  America.  The 
germs  of  it  he  finds  in  the  Italian  economist 
Verri,  and  especially  in  Canard.  It  is  accepted 
by  Thiers,  Courcelle-Seneuil,  Cherbuliez,  Pritt- 
witz,  Stein  America,  however,  Professor  Selig- 
man says,  is  ' '  the  only  country  in  the  world 
where  the  doctrine  is  still  upheld,"  and  the 
chief  representative  of  this  easy-going,  com- 
placent doctrine  is  David  A.  Wells."  The  pes- 
simistic theory,  held  by  Proudhon,  also  believes 
that  all  taxes  fall  on  the  consumer,  and  that  this 
cannot  be  helped  in  any  form  of  taxation.  The 
capitalization  or  amortization  theory  argues  that 
the  land  tax  falls  exclusively  on  the  landown- 
er, and  that  hence  the  taxation  of  land  is  sim- 
ply equivalent  to  depreciating  the  value  of  the 
land  by  the  capitalized  value  of  the  tax.  From 
this  is  deduced  the  conclusion  that  after  the  tax 
is  once  imposed  it  makes  no  difference  how 
much  the  tax  is,  provided  it  be  constant,  since 
whatever  it  is,  its  capitalization  has  been  sub- 
tracted once  for  all  from  the  value  of  the  land. 
The  germ  of  this  theory  Professor  Seligman 
finds  in  John  Craig.  German  writers  like  Sar- 
torius,  Hoffman,  and  Murhard,  went  so  far  as 
to  say  that  a  land  tax  was  no  tax  at  all  ;  this  has 
been  to  some  extent  accepted  by  modern  econ- 


Taxation. 


Taxation. 


omists  like  Gamier,  Wolowski,  Cherbuliez,  Wal- 
ras,  Leroy  Beaulieu,  Rau  discusses  the  theory, 
and  shows  that  it  is  only  true  so  far  as  the 
value  of  land  depends  on  its  net  produce,  and 
this  only  so  far  as  the  produce  does  not  change, 
and  this  is  true  not  only  of  land,  but  of  any  com- 
modities of  varying  value  capable  of  sale.  Un- 
der the  head  of  the  eclectic  theory,  Professor 
Seligman  groups  those  who  criticise  all  the 
above  theories,  among  them  J.  B.  Say,  Sismon- 
dt,  Gamier,  Parieu,  Von  Thiinen,  Von  Hock, 
Rau,  Prince-Smith,  Jones,  Senior,  Mill,  McCul- 
loch,  Cliffe-Leslie.  All  these  deny  that  any  of 
the  above  theories  work  without  exception. 
The  negative  or  agnostic  theory  of  Held  goes 
farther  and  denies  the  above  theories.  Held 
argues  that  all  profits  like  land  profits  depend 
on  the  difference  between  the  greatest  cost  and 
market  price.  The  socialist  theory  Professor 
.Seligman  calls  Lassalle's  teaching,  that  indirect 
taxes  are  all  those  not  assessed  on  income  or 
property,  and  fall  on  the  laborer,  who,  even  in 
Germany,  has  not  been  quite  squeezed  down  to 
starvation.  The  last  theory  which  Professor 
Seligman  considers  is  the  quantitative  or  mathe- 
matical theory,  as  developed  by  Cournot,  Jen- 
kin,  and  Pantaleoni.  The  treatise  of  the  last 
named  Professor  Seligman  considers  the  best 
existing  treatment  of  incidence.  This  theory 
is,  however,  a  method  rather  than  a  theory.  It 
regards  incidence  as  bound  up  with  the  theory 
of  value  (q.v.). 

With  such  contradictory  views  as  to  the  gen- 
eral theory  of  incidence,  it  is  wiser  to  discuss 
concrete  taxes  than  any  general  principles. 

Taxes  are  usually  divided  into  direct  and 
indirect.  Taxes  are  called  direct  taxes  when 
the  payment  is  made  by  the  person  taxed. 

A  direct  tax  is  defined  by  Mill  as  one  "  de- 
manded from  the  very  persons  who  it  is  intend- 
ed or  desired  should  pay  it."  Others  (e.g., 
McCulloch)  define  it  as  a  tax  taken  directly  from 
income  or  capital.  In  the  former  definition 
non-transferable  taxes  on  expenditure  would 
be  included  (e.g.,  a  tax  on  livery  servants),  but 
not  in  the  latter.  Mill's  definition  has  been  gen- 
erally adopted  ;  but  a  tax  which  is  usually  direct 
may  sometimes  become  indirect,  and,  as  we  have 
seen,  it  is  often  impossible  to  say  what  is  really 
the  incidence  of  a  tax. 

Indirect  taxes  are  paid,  in  the  first  place,  by 
merchants  and  tradesmen,  but  it  is  understood 
that  they  recover  the  amount  paid  from  their 
customers.  The  principal  taxes  consist  of  the 
customs  duties  levied  upon  articles,  when  they 
are  imported  for  use  in  this  country,  and  excise 
duties,  or  duties  levied  upon  goods  produced 
within  a  country. 

The  main  direct  taxes  may  be  divided  into 
taxes  on  income  and  taxes  on  expenditure. 
Taxes  on  income  may  be  divided  into  taxes  on 
rent,  on  profits,  on  wages,  on  bequest  or  inher- 
itance. Taxes  bn  expenditure  are  mainly  in- 
direct, but  may  be  direct,  as  a  window  tax,  a 
water  tax,  a  house  tax,  if  levied  on  the  user  of 
the  window,  water,  or  house.  These  various 
taxes  with  their  incidence  we  must  now  consider. 
The  question  of  the  wisdom  of  direct  or  indirect 
taxes  has  been  much  discussed,  tho  it  has  usually 
been  involved  with  the  question  of  free  trade  or 
protection,  and  is  discussed  under  these  heads. 

83 


The  form  of  direct  tax  most  approved  is  un- 
doubtedly land  taxation.  The  subject  of  the 
incidence  of  land  taxation  is  so  important  that 
we  quote  at  length  on  the  subject  from  Profes- 
sor Seligman.  He  says  : 

"Theoretically  there  may  be  five  kinds  of  land 
taxes : 

"  i.  Tax  on  economic  rent. 

"2.  Tax  on  profits  from  agriculture. 

"3.  Tax  according  to  net  produce. 

"4.  Tax  according  to  quantity. 

"5.  Tax  according  to  selling  value. 

"  A  tax  on  economic  rent  can  never  be  shifted. 
Here  all  writers  are  agreed.  As  regards  the  other 
taxes,  Ricardo  maintained  that  a  tax  on  the  value  of 
land  or  on  produce  will  raise  prices  and  fall  on  the 
consumer.  Ricardo's  theory  would  hold  good  on  two 
conditions  :  First,  that  there  was  an  absolute  mobility 
of  capital  and  labor  ;  and,  secondly,  that  the  commu- 
nity in  question  was  an  isolated  one.  It  is  assumed 
that  the  farmers  will  abandon  the  land  rather  than 
cultivate  it  at  a  loss,  and  that  a  decrease  of  supply 
will  raise  price.  Now  it  may  happen  that  an  increase  of 
price  will  often  lead  to  a  decrease  of  consumption, 
which  again  will  react  on  the  price,  so  that  at  best  only 
a  part  and  not  the  whole  of  the  tax  would  be  shifted 
to  the  consumer.  But  in  actual  life  it  is  a  difficult 
matter  for  producers  to  decrease  the  supply  of  agri- 
cultural products.  The  tax  would  often  simply  have 
the  influence  of  reducing  the  farmer's  profits. 

"  In  the  case  of  cities  we  may  have  four  cases  : 

14  i.  When  the  tax  is  levied  on  the  ground- owner  the 
case  is  simple.  The  value  of  a  lot  is  fixed  by  the  law 
of  monopoly  value.  Its  price  will  be  entirely  un- 
affected by  the  imposition  of  a  tax. 

"  2.  The   tax    may   be    levied  on  the 
house-owner  apart  from  the    question 
whether  or    not   he  is  the  land-owner.     City  Heal 
Buildings  represent  the   investment  of       Estate. 
capital    and    labor.    A  special    tax  im- 

Eosed  on  the  building-owner  can  there- 
are  generally    be    shifted. 

"  A  distinction  must,  however,  be  drawn  between 
houses  already  constructed  and  those  built  after  the 
tax  is  imposed.  In  exceptional  cases  the  tax  imposed 
on  old  houses  cannot  be  shifted. 

"  3.  The  tax  is  levied  on  the  ground-owner,  who  is  at 
the  same  time  the  house-owner.  We  need  here  only 
combine  the  two  preceding  cases. 

"  4.  The  tax  is  assessed  on  the  occupier  according 
to  rental  value.  It  is  generally  supposed  that  the 
ground  rent  part  of  the  tax  will  be  shifted  to  the 
ground-owner.  But  this  is  not  always  true,  for  three 
reasons  :  i.  The  ground  rent  may  be  so  low  and  the 
rent  so  high  that  the  builders  cannot  afford  to  erect 
any  more  houses.  -This  means  an  increase  of  the 
rents.  2.  In  the  course  of  long  leases  any  intervening 
increase  must  rest  on  the  occupier.  He  cannot  im- 
prove his  condition  until  the  expiration  of  the  lease. 
3.  But  even  in  the  case  of  short  leases,  it  is  not  true 
that  the  tax  can  always  be  shifted.  If  the  competition 
for  lodgings  be  such  that  the  rent  is  $200,  the  occupier 
who  has  been  paying  $10  as  the  ground  tax  proportion 
of  the  whole  tax  will  not  pay  any  less  rent  tor  the 
premises  if  his  tax  is  increased  to  $15.  It  might,  in- 
deed, cause  the  tenant  to  live  in  a  less  desirable  local- 
ity— i.e.,  lower  his  standard  of  life.  The  occupier 
could  evade  the  tax,  but  he  could  not  shift  it." 

Taxes  on  other  property  than  land  obey  still 
more  complicated  laws  of  incidence.  Taxes 
on  luxury  cannot  be  shifted,  but  they  are  ex- 
pensive in  collection,  depend  mainly  on  the  con- 
scientious reporting  by  citizens  of  their  own 
wealth,  with  the  result  that  they  fall  only  on  a 
few  conscientious  citizens,  and  produce  a  great 
deal  of  dishonesty,  with  a  very  small  profit  for 
the  State. 

Taxes  on  income,  on  inheritance,  are  of  very 
great  importance,  but  of  such  importance  that 
we  consider  them  under  especial  articles.  It  is 
generally  held  that  taxes  on  capital,  on  invest- 
ments, etc. ,  can  be  shifted.  If  all  capital  were 
mobile,  its  taxation  could  undoubtedly  be 
shifted  ;  but  for  various  reasons,  such  as  the 
condition  of  the  market,  expense  of  the  pro- 


Taxation. 


13*4 


Taxation. 


cess,  all  capital  cannot  be  moved,  and  then  the 
tax  cannot  always  be  shifted.     Taxes  on  rail- 
roads, street-car  corporations,  etc., 
so  far  as  they  are  not  taxes  on  land 
Taxes  on    values,  can  theoretically  be  shifted 
Capital,     on  to  the  people  who  patronize  the 
cars,  etc. ;  but  practically  they  often 
cannot,  as  the  rates  are  sometimes 
fixed  by  law,  more  often  by  a  custom,  which  the 
companies  cannot  break. 

A  few  other  taxes  may  be  briefly  considered. 
Poll  taxes,  once  common,  are  now  rare.  They 
fall  unjustly,  because  they  tax  the  ppor  man  and 
the  wealthy  man  equally  ;  they  bring  too  little 
revenue  at  large  expense.  In  England,  they 
have  not  been  levied  since  William  III.  Stamp 
duties  are  generally  considered  more  cumber- 
some than  effective,  tho  in  England  and  Europe 
generally  they  are  still  common.  They  are 
usually  indirect  taxes.  The  question  of  taxa- 
tion is  more  and  more  being  limited  to  a  discus- 
sion which  is  wiser  of  two  or  three  great  classes 
of  taxes. 

IV.  TAX  REFORM. 

(For  the  position  and  arguments  of  the  advo- 
cates of  particular  tax  reforms,  see  INCOME  TAX  ; 
INHERITANCE  TAX  ;  SINGLE  TAX.  For  the  argu- 
ments for  and  against  duties  for  protection,  see 
PROTECTION  ;  FREE  TRADE.)  Generally  speak- 
ing, other  propositions  to  reform  taxation  may 
be  divided  into  the  two  great  classes  of  those 
who  would  concentrate  taxation  upon  land  and 
those  who,  in  various  ways,  would  seek  to  tax 
all  personal  property.  As  representative  of  the 
former  class,  we  quote  a  short  paper  read  by 
Professor  S.  M.  Dick,  before  the  American 
Economic  Association,  August  24,  1892.  He 
says  : 

"All  writers  and  teachers  dealing  with  the  subject 
of  taxation, -so  far  as  I  know,  are  agreed  that  the 
American  taxing  system  is  faulty  and  ought  to  be  re- 
formed. 

' ''  Some  of  its  worst  defects  are  :  It  puts  a  premium 
on  dishonesty  ;  it  is  exceedingly  complex  ;  it  tends  to 
widen  the  breach  already  existing  in  society.  There 
are  two  reasons  why  a  reform  is  difficult  to  inaugu- 
rate :  First,  the  rich  men  do  not  want  it.  Second,  the 
farmers  do  not  want  it. 

"  Our  present  system  is  the  system  of  100  years  ago. 
At  that  time  millionaires  and  monopo- 
lies were    unknown   to  America.      Our 
Land  Taxa-  system  was  more  nearly  just  then  than 
it  is  possible  for  it  to  be  now.     Since 
UOn.          new  factors  of  wealth  have  been  intro- 
duced,  new    methods   of   taxation    are 
necessary. 

"  In  1826  the  personal  property  in  Ohio  was  nearly 
equal  in  value  to  the  real  estate.  In  1889  the  realty 
amounted  to  $1,213,645,052,  while  the  personal  property 
is  listed  at  only  $540,552,292.  Assuming  that  the  per- 
sonal property  is  worth  as  much  as  the  real,  we  have 
$673,092,760  of  taxable  personal  property  bearing  no 
portion  of  the  public  burden.  In  the  city  of  Cincinnati 
in  1867  the  personal  property  was  valued  at  $68,412,285, 
and  the  real  at  $68,596,040,  while  in  1880  the  real  was 
valued  at  $129,956,980,  and  the  personal  at  only  $37,578,- 
376.  This  apparent  decrease  of  personal  property  is 
not  limited  to  Cincinnati.  The  same  is  true  in  other 
large  cities  in  Ohio.  Personal  property,  therefore, 
escapes  taxation.  The  most  logical  basis  for  a  system 
of  local  taxation  is  real  estate.  The  taxation  of  mort- 
gages is  a  question  of  great  interest  to  the  people  of 
the  United  States,  since  the  census  of  1890  shows  that 
there  are  12,690,152  families  and  9,000,000  of  mortgages 
in  the  United  States.  Mortgages,  so  far,  have  not  been 
successfully  taxed. 

"  If  taxation  were  on  real  estate  alone  in  Ohio,  those 
counties  most  given  to  farming  would  save,  per  annum, 
from  15  to  20  per  cent,  of  all  the  tax  now  paid  for  State 
purposes. 


"  Had  real  estate  alone  been  taxed  in  1891,  and  had 
the  same  amount  of  tax  been  required  for  State  pur- 
poses that  was  demanded,  the  four  counties  containing 
the  four  largest  cities  in  Ohio  would  have  paid  $147,- 
889.30  more  than  they  did  pay.  The  four  cities  would 
have  paid  much  more  than  this,  and  the  farm  hands  in 
those  counties  would  have  saved  a  large  per  cent,  of 
their  tax. 

"  It  is  very  evident  from  the  facts  ascertained  in  the 
investigation  that  Ohio  farmers  would  be  largely  the 
gainers  if  personal  property  were  exempt  from  tax- 
ation.'1 

The  above  paper  is  not,  however,  to  be  under- 
stood  to  commit  Professor  Dick  or  his  fellow- 
thinkers  to  a  sole  tax  on  real  estate.  It  was 
shown  in  the  debate  that  followed  that  the  pro- 
fessor would  not  limit  taxation  to  this.  On  this 
point  Professor  Seligman  said  (and  Professor 
Dick  agreed  with  him)  : 

"The  thought  is  perhaps  in  harmony  with  that  of  a 
large  number  of  tax  reformers  in  this  country,  that  the 
best  basis,  or  at  least  a  very  good  basis  for  local  taxa- 
tion would  be  real  property.  Henry  George  goes  one 
step  farther,  and  maintains  that  the  basis  should  be 
land  exclusive  of  improvements.  My  objection  is  that 
while  the  plan  has  many  advantages  of  ease  and  con- 
venience of  collection,  and  of  non-inducement  to 
fraud,  it  fails  of  equality  and  uniformity.  There  is  no 
doubt  that  after  all  the  contests  over  principles  of  taxa- 
tion, modern  science  has  settled  down  on  a  taxation 
according  to  ability  and  means  rather  than  on  a  taxa- 
tion according  to  benefits,  tho  it  is  true  that  in  local 
taxation  this  principle  must  be  modified  somewhat  by 
the  principle  of  benefits  to  the  individual  and  his  prop- 
erty. As  real  property  has  a  large  share  of  the  benefits- 
of  State  and  municipal  protection,  it  ought  to  bear  a 
large  share  of  the  taxation.  It  is  hopeless  to  suppose 
that  the  farmers  of  this  country  will  ever  consent  to 
abolish  the  tax  on  personal  property  unless  we  replace 
it  by  something  which  will  reach  the  bondholders, 
and  tax  the  holders  of  millions  who  did  not  get  their 
wealth  from  real  estate.  No  system  of  local  taxation 
can  be  worked  out  without  taking  into  account  the 
general  State  and  national  taxation  system,  all  three 
systems  trying  to  get  at  the  faculty  of  the  individual." 

This  general  proposition  to  concentrate  taxa- 
tion on  land  is  the  one  supported  by  the  report 
of  the  Illinois  Bureau  of  Labor,  quoted  above. 
It  says  : 

"To  adopt  the  site-value  method  of  taxation  is  to 
invite  general  prosperity.  With  personal  property 
exempt,  its  increased  consumption  would  increase  the 
demand  for  it,  and  consequently  multiply  business  op- 
portunities in  connection  with  making,  carrying,  and 
selling  it.  With  landed  improvements  also  exempt, 
larger  and  better  homes  would  be  demanded,  to  the 
stimulation  of  all  branches  of  the  building  industry. 
With  vacant  lots  taxed  the  same  as  if  improved,  and 
so  much  that  it  would  be  unprofitable  to  hold  them 
long  out  of  use,  speculative  values  would  decline  and 
business  be  no  longer  obstructed  by  exorbitant  prices 
for  location. 

"  Working  men  would  pay  in  taxes  only  what  their 
ground-rent  privileges  were  worth.  Farmers  would 
pay  in  taxes  not  more  than  their  farms  would  rent  for 
if  wholly  denuded  of  buildings,  fences,  and  drains, 
and  turned  back  into  raw  prairie.  Every  one  would 
be  benefited  through  reduced  taxes,  or  better  incomes, 
or  both— every  one  except  the  mere  monopolizer  of 
public  benefits. 

"And  the  cry  of  fraudulent  taxation,  on  any  other 
account  than  an  occasional  personal  dereliction,  like  a 
post-office  embezzlement  or  a  bank  robbery,  would  be 
heard  no  more. 

"Simple,  practicable,  natural,  scientific,  and  just  as 
the  site-value  tax  doubtless  is  as  a  method  of  raising 
public  revenues,  it  is  at  the  same  time  recommended  by 
its  supporters  as  the  solution  of  the  labor  question,  or, 
more  correctly,  as  the  natural  way  of  reinvesting 
every  laborer  with  power  to  settle  his  own  labor  ques- 
tion for  himself.  For  it  is  not  the  power  of  employers, 
but  the  necessities  of  the  unemployed  or  the  inade- 
quately employed  that  makes  employment  precarious 
and  wages  low.  It  is  not  the  clubs  of  policemen  nor 
the  weapons  of  soldiers  that  defeat  strikes  ;  it  is  the 
underbidding  of  men  in  worse  plight  than  the  strikers. 
The  simple  remedy  is  by  freeing  business  from  mo- 


Taxation. 


1315 


Telegraph. 


nopoly  and  tax  burdens  to  open  the  way  tor  unlimited 
opportunities  for  employment,  so  that  none  need  take 
another's  place  in  order  to  get  remunerative  v.-ork 
himself.  This,  it  is  claimed,  the  site-value  tax  would 
do." 

As  an  example  of  those  who  strive  to  tax  per- 
sonal property  more  rigorously  we  quote  the 
Hon.  Mr.  Winn,  m  an  address  made  in  Faneuil 
Hall,  Boston,  October  7,  1891.  He  said  : 

"  When  personal  property  is  all  taxed,  the  owner  of 
a  house  cannot  collect  the  tax  on  it  from  his  tenant  by 
making  him  pay  more  rent.  He  must  bear  his  own 
taxes. 

"  But,  when  personal  property  is  permitted  to  escape, 
the  landlord  can  make  his  tenant  bear  the  tax  on  the 
house  by  charging  that  much  more  rent. 

"  The  reason  is  that,  if  capital  in  buildings  escapes 
taxation  by  throwing  the  tax  on  the  tenant,  capital 
outside,  if  taxed,  will  flow  into  buildings  to  get  the 
same  advantage,  till  it  can  be  got  no  more. 

"  But  if  the  outside  capital  is  not  taxed  it  will  not 
flow  into  buildings,  which  always  are  taxed,  until  the 
tenants  are  willing  by  a  higher  rent  to  bear  the  new 
tax  the  capital  has  to  assume.  .  .  . 

"  This  is  the  very  key  to  the  situation.     Here  is  the 

method  by  which  the  rich  throw  their  taxes  over  on  to 

the  poor,  who  are  not  in  the  tax  lists  at  all. 

They  get  chattels  exempted,  or  take  care 

Taxation  of  that  the  laws  are  lax  enough  to  permit 

Canital        their  escape  from  taxation.    And  by  this 

•^  the  poor  men  who    have   no  property 

whatever,  but  who  must  have  shelter, 

and  who  never  dream  they  are  paying 

taxes,  are  haled  in  to  bear  not  only  the  taxes  of  the 

tax-dodging  millionaire,  but  those  of  their  landlords 

as  well. 

"  Data  have  been  collected  which  show  that  the  rent 
of  the  poor  whose  incomes  are  less  that  $1000  is  four 
times  as  great  according  to  their  means  as  the  rent 
borne  by  persons  whose  incomes  exceed  $7500.  So  a 
tax  on  rent,  if  borne  by  tenants,  is  grossly  dispropor- 
tionate. 

"  Come  at  it  from  another  direction.  The  report  of 
the  tax  committee  of  the  Boston  Executive  Business 
Association,  written  by  one  who  desires  to  exempt  this 
class  of  property,  and  who  would  naturally  underesti- 
mate its  amount,  declares : 

"  '  The  personal  property  of  both  city  and  State,  which 
under  the  law  is  subject  to  taxation,  cannot  be  less  than 
twice  the  value  of  the  real  estate.' 

"  If  this  is  so,  more  than  2,000,000,000  escapes  taxation, 
and  the  people  are  cheated  out  of  about  $17,000,000  of 
taxes  per  annum.  I  understand  that  Mr.  Robert  Giffen 
estimates  the  wealth  of  England  to  be  about  one  sixth 
in  land.  Applying  this  scale  to  Massachusetts,  and 
somewhat  less  than  1,700,000,000  escapes  taxation,  and 
the  loss  of  taxes  is  $14,000,000  to  $15,000,000.  .  .  . 

"  I  believe  that  the  whole  assessment  of  estates  should 
be  in  the  hands  of  the  Tax  Commissioner,  who  should 
appoint  the  local  assessors,  and  that  they  should  be 
paid  by  the  State.  I  believe  that  the  tax  on  private 
personal  property  should  be  an  excise— a  State  tax  at 
a  uniform  rate  through  the  commonwealth— which 
should  be  the  average  tax  rate  as  now  laid  on  corpora- 
tions. I  believe  that  the  personal  property  tax  col- 
lected should  be  distributed  to  the  cities  and  towns  in 
proportion  to  the  value  of  their  real  estate,  with  such 
concession  as  may  be  reasonable  to  places  of  tax- 
payers' residence.  Or  that  the  State  should  help  the 
municipalities  with  the  proceeds  in  the  support  of 
schools  and  roads  and  such  other  expenses  as  the  State 
may  wisely  assume.  I  believe  that  every  taxpayer 
should  be  compelled  to  give  in  a  sworn  list  of  his  per- 
sonal property  under  penalty  of  double  doomage  at 
least.  And  it  this  is  not  enough  we  may  adopt  the 
Swiss  system  of  examining  the  estates  in  probate." 

References  •  E.  R.  A.  Seligman's  Essays  on  Taxa- 
tion (1895) ;  Eighth  Biennial  Report  of  the  Illinois  Bu- 
reau of  Labor  Statistics  (1894);  R.  T.  Ely's  Taxation 
in  American  States  and  Cities  (1888).  For  Europe, 
Cossa's  Taxation,  its  Principles  and  Methods.  See 
also  FINANCE  ;  MUNICIPALISM. 


TELEGRAPH,  THE.— In  the  progress 
from  the  lowest  life  to  the  highest,  one  of  the 
most  marked  advances  consists  in  the  develop- 
ment of  a  nervous  system  capable  of  carrying 


swift  ana  accurate  intelligence  from  one  part 
of  the  organism  to  another.  In  the  social  organ- 
ism the  nervous  system,  or  system  of  communi- 
cating intelligence,  has  reached  its  present  high 
development  largely  by  means  of  the  tele- 
graph. 

An  organism  should  own  and  control  its 
nervous  system,  and  a  society  should  own  and 
control  its  telegraphic  system.  France,  Ger- 
many, Switzerland,  Denmark,  Sweden,  Nor- 
way, and  many  other  nations  early  recognized. 
this  truth,  and  built  public  telegraph  lines  at  the 
start.  England,  Belgium,  New  Zealand,  and  a 
few  other  States  tried  private  control,  but  found 
it  so  objectionable  that  they  changed  to  public 
ownership  and  control  of  the  nerves  of  the  body 
politic,  so  that  now,  out  of  75  of 
the  chief  nations  of  the  world  from 
which  statistics  have  been  obtain  ed ,  England. 
there  are  but  six  that  do  not  own 
and  operate  their  telegraphs — viz. , 
Cuba,  Cyprus,  Bolivia,  Hawaii,  Honduras, 
and  the  United  States.  In  England  the  tele- 
graph was  in  private  hands  for  more  than  a 
quarter  of  a  century  ;  but  complaints  of  high 
charges,  inefficient  service,  unjust  discrimina- 
tion, etc.,  became  so  frequent  and  so  urgent 
that  at  last  the  Government  appointed  a  com- 
mittee to  investigate  the  public  systems  of  Eu- 
rope. The  report  made  an  exhaustive  compari- 
son of  the  public  system  in  use  on  the  Continent 
with  the  private  system  of  England,  and  the  re- 
sult was  so  overwhelmingly  in  favor  of  the  for- 
mer, that  the  Government,  under  the  leadership 
of  Gladstone,  yielded  to  the  demands  of  the  re- 
formers, headed  by  the  Edinburgh  Chamber  of 
Commerce,  and  passed  a  law  (July  31,  1868)  pro- 
viding for  the  purchase  of  the  lines,  the  rapid 
extension  of  the  service  into  the  rural  districts, 
which  had  been  neglected  by  the  private  com- 
panies, and  the  union  of  the  telegraph  with  the 
postal  department.  The  charges  were  at  once- 
reduced  from  one  third  to  one  half,  and  the  busi- 
ness doubled  in  about  two  years.  Complaints 
were  no  longer  heard  as  before  the  transfer, 
and  now,  after  more  than  a  quarter  of  a  century, 
the  public  system  is  unanimously  pronounced  a 
success.  The  Government  has  raised  the  wages 
of  employees  from  time  to  time,  lowered  rates, 
extended  the  liness  and  improved  the  facilities. 
The  system  has  paid  all  operating  expenses  and 
cost  of  extension  and  improvements,  but  the 
surplus  beyond  these  items  has  not  been  quite 
sufficient  to  cover  interest  on  the  tremendous 
original  outlay,  which  was  about  four  times  the 
real  value  of  the  lines.  Most  of  the  nations  of 
Europe  make  a  profit  on  their  telegraphs,  altho 
their  rates  are  much  lower  than  ours. 

In  the  United  States,  the  first  telegraph  line 
was  built  by  the   Government.     It  ran  from 
Washington  to  Baltimore,  and  was  placed  in 
charge  of  the  postal   department. 
It  was  not  at  once  a  financial  suc- 
cess, and  Congress  yielded  to  the      United 
persuasions  of  those  who  wished  to      States, 
buy  the  telegraph  for  a  private  in-  . 
stitution.    Even  at  first  a  few  clear- 
sighted statesmen  saw  into  the  future  far  enough 
to  discern  the  vast  importance  of  the  new  idea 
and  the  greatness  of  the  mistake  that  was  being 
made.    As  early  as  1844  Henry  Clay  was  advo- 


Telegraph. 


1316 


Telegraph, 


eating  Government  ownership  of  the  telegraph. 
He  wrote  : 

"  It  is  quite  manifest  it  is  destined  to  exert  great  in- 
fluence on  the  business  affairs  of  society.  In  the  hands 
of  private  individuals  they  will  be  able  to  monopolize 
intelligence  and  perform  the  greatest  operations  in 
commerce  and  other  departments  of  business.  I  think 
such  an  engine  should  be  exclusively  under  the  con- 
trol of  the  Government." 

Many  able  statesmen  have  taken  the  view 
that  public  ownership  is  not  only  wise  and  ex- 
pedient, but  the  plain  duty  of  Congress  under 
the  provisions  of  the  Constitution.  The  Consti- 
tution makes  it  the  duty  of  Congress  to  establish 
public  agencies  for  the  transmission  of  intelli- 
gence, and  it  is  bound  to  see  that  the  best 
known  means  of  performing  that  work  are  used 
in  the  people's  service. 

Down  to  the  present  time  (September,  1896) 
19  Congressional  reports  have  been  made  upon 
the  telegraph,  17  of  them  favorable  to  a  postal 
system.     The  people  in  general  are  strongly  in 
favor  of  a  public  telegraph.     Over  2,000,000  of 
voters  have  signed  petitions  for  it,  several  par- 
ties have  demanded  it  in  their  platforms,  four 
State  legislatures,  several  city  governments,  the 
Farmers'  Alliance,  the  Federation  of  Labor,  the 
National  Board  of  Trade,  and  other  representa- 
tive bodies  have  urged  upon  Congress  the  im- 
portance of  a    national  telegraph,  but  so  far 
without  effect.     From  Henry  Clay  and   Post- 
master-General Cave  Johnson  to  Senator  Ed- 
munds   and    Postmaster-General    Wanamaker 
eminent  men  have  striven  for  this  reform  to  no 
avail  ;  the  companies  have  more  influence  in 
Congress  apparently  than  the  peo- 
ple and  the  statesmen  have.     It  is 
Arguments  thought  by  some  that  the  books  of 
for         telegraph  franks  that  are  liberally 
National     distributed    among    Congressmen 
Ownership,   have  much  to  do  with  their  reluc- 
tance to  do  anything  to  injure  the 
business  of  the  donor  company,  or 
take  any  step   toward   establishing   a  system 
under  which  they  would  have  to  pay  for  their 
own  telegraphing. 

Some  of  the  reasons  for  desiring  public  own- 
ership of  the  telegraph  are  as  follows  : 

1.  It  would  obviate  the  necessity  of  paying 
dividends  on  watered  stock,  or,  indeed,  on  any 
stock. 

2.  It  would  take  away  a  part  of  the  material 
used  in  stock  speculation  and  constitute  a  step 
toward  abolishing  gambling  in  stocks. 

3.  It  would  extend  the  telegraph  into  country 
districts. 

4.  It  would  produce  an  absolute  saving  of 
rent,  light,  fuel,  labor,  etc.,  by  union  of  the 
telegraph  with  the  postal  system. 

5.  It  would  cause  a  considerable  reduction  of 
rates,  bringing  the  lines  within  reach  of  the 
common  people  and  greatly  increasing  the  util- 
ity of  the  telegraph  to  the  social  and  business 
life  of  the  nation. 

6.  It  would  prevent  discrimination  in  rates 
and  service. 

7.  It  would  benefit  employees,  giving  them 
shorter  hours,   higher  wages,  greater  security 
of  employment,  liberty  of  petition,  and  entire 
freedom  of  organization. 

8.  It  would  prevent  strikes. 


9.  It  would  be  an  element  of  strength  in  time 
of  war. 

10.  It  would  abolish  one  of  the  giant  private 
monopolies  that  are  taxing  the  people  without 
representation,  and  for  private  purposes  ;  that 
are  manufacturing  millionaires  by  the  ton  ;  that 
are  corrupting  our  politics  and   debasing  our 
Government ;  that  are  restraining  the  freedom 
of  the  press  and  the  liberty  of  speech  in  pulpit 
and  university  hall  ;  that  are  creating  and  sus- 
taining   innumerable    tributary    trusts,    syndi- 
cates, and  monopolies  for  private  aggrandize- 
ment ;  that  lock   up   inventions    and  withhold 
progress  till  their    pockets    give    the   word  to 
march  ;  that  place  money  above  manhood,  per- 
vert the  ideals  of  youth,  and  antagonize  in  every 
way  the  highest  interests  of  humanity. 

Objections  to  a  public  telegraph  have  come 
almost  wholly  from  the  companies  and  a  few 
persons  who  sympathize  with  their  methods  and 
purposes  or  who  entertain  a  fundamental  dis- 
trust of  popular  government  along  the  whole 
line,  and  would  not  have  even  a  public  post- 
office  nor  a  public  school. 

"  Mr.  Wanamaker  said  in  1890  :  '  The  Western  Union 
is  now  the  only  visible  opponent  ;'  and  the  select  com- 
mittee of  the  House  on  the  postal  telegraph  in  1870 
said  that  objections  to  Government  interference  with 
the  telegraph  had  'come  altogether  from  one  quar- 
ter— viz.,  the  Western  Union  Company'  (H.  Rep.  114, 
p.  13).  The  leading  arguments  advanced  by  the  oppo- 
nents of  public  telegraphy  may  now  be  noted,  together 
with  the  answers  to  them. 

" '  A  public  telegraph  will  paternalize  the  Govern- 
ment,' say  the  defenders  of  monopoly.  If  so,  it  is 
pretty  badly  paternalized  now,  with  the  post-office,  the 
fish  commission,  the  treasury,  customs,  navy,  army, 
agricultural,  judiciary,  signal  service,  and  all  the  other 
departments ;  but  the  people  do  not  seem  to  desire  to 
give  up  such  paternahzation — they  appear  to  enjoy  it. 
In  truth,  however,  public  service  is  not  paternalism, 
but  fraternalism. 

"  '  It  will  cost  too  much.'    It  need  not  cost  the  people 
$i  of  taxes  to  establish  the  postal  telegraph.     Plenty 
of  capitalists  are  ready  to  build  the  lines  for  the  Gov- 
ernment, introduce  low  rates,  and  agree 
to  turn  the  plant  over  to  the  nation  for 
actual  value  at  the  end  of  15  or  20  years,     Objections, 
or  allow  the  service  to  pay  for  the  plant 

Gradually  (as  in  the  case  of  the  Spring- 
eld  Electric  Works,  see  Arena  for  December,  1895),  a 
method  that  would  give  the  people  a  clear  title  in  a  few 
years,  even  at  rates  far  lower  than  those  in  force  now. 
(See  testimony  of  the  representatives  of  New  York  syn- 
dicates that  were  ready  and  willing  to  build  a  postal 
telegraph  system  under  the  provisions  of  Wanamaker's 
bill.  The  Bingham  Com.  Hearings,  March  4  and  14, 
1890.)  It  would  be  better  still  to  build  or  buy  and 
issue  treasury  notes  in  payment  ;  this  would  correct 
in  part  the  evils  of  the  vast  contraction  of  the  currency 
that  has  so  long  oppressed  the  people  and  secure  the 
telegraph  without  a  burden.  Or  bonds  could  be  issued 
and  the  service  let  to  pay  the  debt  in  15  or  20  years,  on 
the  plan  by  which  Wheeling  secured  her  gas  works. 
In  either  way  no  taxes  are  needed.  As  for  the  cost  of 
operation,  the  select  committee  on  the  telegraph  in 
1870  calculated  that  the  Government  could  do  the  busi- 
ness performed  by  the  Western  Union  at  a  cost  of  at 
least  $1,500,000  a  year  lower  than  the  Western  Union 
could  do  it ;  the  absolute  saving  would  be  at  least  that 
much  by  reason  of  combination  with  the  post-office 
and  consequent  saving  in  rent,  fuel,  light,  and  the  dis- 
tribution of  labor.  (H.  Rep.  114,  p.  44.)  As  the  tele- 
graph plant  and  business  is  more  than  twice  as  large. 
now  as  in  1870,  the  saving  in  the  same  proportion  would 
not  be  less  than  $3,000,000  a  year.  This  is  on  the  sup- 
position of  continuing  to  do  "business  by  the  methods 
now  in  use  ;  but  if  improved  methods  well  known  in 
the  electrical  world  were  adopted  in  the  postal  tele- 
graph, the  saving  would  be  far  greater— so  great,  in- 
deed, that  there  seems  every  reason  to  believe  a  uni- 
form rate  of  5  cents  a  message  of  20  words  would  yield 
a  substantial  profit. 

"  '  It  is  not  the  Government's  business.'  '  It  is  out  of 
the  Government's  sphere.'  Senator  Edmunds  does  not 


Telegraph. 


Telegraph. 


think  so  (see  Sen.  Rep.  577,  part  2) ;  nor  Walter  Q. 
Gresham  (Postmaster-General  s  Rep.  1883);  nor  Judge 
Clark,  nor  16  or  more  committees  of  Congress,  nor  Con- 
gress itself,  nor  the  Supreme  Court  of  the  United 
States.  (See  for  authorities  the  last  topic  of  this  article, 
'  Duty  of  the  Government  to  Establish  a  Postal  Tele- 
graph.') Henry  Clay  did  not  think  the  telegraph  was 
out  of  the  Government's  sphere  ;  nor  did  Charles  Sum- 
ner,  of  Massachusetts;  nor  Thomas  Jefferson,  Alexan- 
der Hamilton,  James  Madison,  Benjamin  Franklin, 
and  the  other  founders  of  the  Constitution  who  ex- 
pressly made  the  transmission  of  intelligence  a  part  of 
the  business  of  the  Government. 

"  '  The  Government  could  not  be  sued.'  It  will  be  an 
easy  matter  to  provide  that  damages  for  error  or  de- 
lay should  be  recovered  by  suit  against  '  The  Tele- 
graph Department.' 

"'But  the  increase  of  patronage  will  be  dangerous.' 
There  need  not  be  any  increase  of  patronage.  The 
Government  may  contract  for  telegraphic  service  as  it 
does  for  railway  service.  Or  it  may  own  the  lines  and 
contract  for  the  service.  Or  better  far,  it  may  own 
and  operate  the  lines  under  strong  civil  service  rules,  as 
is  the  case  in  England,  France,  Germany,  Switzerland, 
Australia,  and  other  countries.  (See  nth  Report  U.S. 
Civil  Service  Com.,  1895.)  With  a  solid  civil  service 
law  and  a  non-partisan  board  (/.  e.,  a  board  composed 
of  a  member  from  each  party)  to  administer  it,  an  in- 
crease of  public  employees  no  longer  means  an  in- 
crease of  patronage,  for  there  is  no  patronage  where 
appointment  depends  upon  merit  proved  in  competi- 
tive examination  ;  promotion  follows  on  valuable  ser- 
vice, and  removal  is  only  for  serious  cause  judicially 
ascertained,  with  a  right  of  appeal  to  the  regular  courts. 
Such  provisions  would  form  a  part  of  a  wise  postal 
telegraph  law.  But  even  without  them  the  danger 
from  increase  of  patronage  would  be  slight.  The 
United  States  has  240,000  employees.  In  combination 
with  the  post-office,  the  telegraph  would  not  require 
an  addition  of  more  than  20,000,  a  large  part  of  them 
women  and  boys  who  are  not  yet  able  to  vote.  With 
a  population  of  70,000,000  and  a  voting  class  of  18,000,000, 
a  group  of  260,000  Government  employees  does  not  look 
alarmingly  dangerous,  especially  when  we  consider 
that  48,000  are  already  under  civil  service  rules,  40,000 
more  in  army  and  navy,  and  another  large  body  com- 
posed of  quite  inoffensive  women. 

"  '  Only  one  in  60  uses  the  telegraph.  No  probable 
reduction  of  rates  or  increase  of  facilities  would  be 
apt  to  raise  the  proportion  much,  and  it  would  not 
be  fair  to  put  on  the  taxpayers  the  burden  of  a  service 
used  only  by  a  few.'  As  already  remarked,  there  will 
not  be  any  burden  about  it.  The  business  can  easily 
pay  for  itself  and  more,  as  it  does  in  many  countries 
across  the  sea.  It  will  be  more  apt  to  lower  the  rates 
of  taxation  than  to  raise  them.  But  there  is  another 
and  deeper  falsity  in  the  above  objection.  The  state- 
ment that '  no  probable  reduction  of  rates  or  increase  of 
facilities  would  be  apt  to  raise  the  proportion'  of  peo- 
ple using  the  telegraph  is  a  statement  that  could  only 
be  made  by  one  quite  unacquainted  with  the  history 
of  the  telegraph  and  the  post-office,  both  in  Europe 
and  America,  and  with  the  history  of  this  discussion, 
or  by  one  entirely  free  from  any  inconvenient  regard 
for  the  truth.  The  facts  set  forth  in  numerous  public 
documents  in  this  country  and  in  Europe,  and  reported 
to  Congress  by  its  committees  again  and  again,  conclu- 
sively prove  that  reduction  of  rates  and  increase  of 
facilities  produce  the  most  astonishing  increase  in  the 
use  of  the  service.  '  The  reduction  of  rates  one  half  in 
Belgium  and  Switzerland  doubled  the  correspondence 
in  one  year'  (Sen.  Rep.  242,  43-1,  p.  4),  and  the  exten- 
sion of  facilities  was  slight,  only  one  fifteenth  to  one 
twentieth,  merely  the  normal  growth.  (See  statistics, 
H.  Rep.  114,  pp.  2,  56.) 

"  And  the  Western  Union  does  not  do  and  never  has 
done  one  half  the  business  its  lines  would  carry,  so  that 
the  total  increase  would  be  from  twenty  to  one  hundred- 
fold the  present  business.  The  development  of  business 
consequent  upon  low  rates  and  the  extension  of  lines 
results  from  the  use  of  the  telegraph  by  a  larger  num- 
ber of  people.  The  wealthy  people  of  the  cities  use  it 
now  all  they  wish  to  ;  they  would  use  it  little  if  any 
more  with  a  five-cent  rate  than  with  a  rate  of  25  cents. 
But  to  the  poor  and  to  people  in  moderate  circum- 
stances, the  difference  between  the  telegraph  and 
postal  rates  is  practically  prohibitive  except  under  the 
stress  of  very  special  need.  President  Green  of  the 
Western  Union  said  that  46  per  cent,  of  their  business 
is  speculative,  34  per  cent,  legitimate  trade  (his  own 
words).  12  per  cent,  press,  and  8  per  cent,  social  (Bing- 
ham  Hearings,  1890,  p.  56).  In  Sen.  Rep.  577,  part  II., 
p.  15,  the  then  president  of  the  Western  Union  said  the 
.company's  social  business  was  5  or  6  per  cent,  of  the 


whole.    In  Belgfum  the  social  messages  constitute  55". 
to  63  per  cent,  of  the  whole." 

The  real  reason  why  the  Government  has 
not  adopted  the  postal-telegraph  is  undoubtedly- 
shown  by  the  following  quotations  from  Post- 
master-General Wanamaker's  argument  before 
the  Congressional  Post-Office  and  Post-Roads 
Committee  in  1890  : 

"  In  the  present  discussion  Mr.  F.  B.  Thurber,  of 
New  York,  has  given  a  list  of  the  directors  of  the  West- 
ern Union  Telegraph  Company.  I  beg  to  append  their 
names  :  Norvin  Green,  Thomas  T.  Eckert,  John  T. 
Terry,  John  Vanhorne,  Jay  Gould,  Russell  Sage, 
Alonzo  B.  Cornell,  Sidney  Dillon,  Samuel  Sloan,  Rob- 
ert C.  Clowry,  George  J.  Gould,  Edwin  Gould,  John  G. 
Moore,  Cyrus  W.  Field,  Henry  Weaver,  Percy  R.  Pyne, 
Charles  Lanier,  Austin  Corbin,  J.  Pierpont  Morgan, 
Frederick  L.  Ames,  John  Hay,  William  D.  Bishop, 
Collis  P.  Huntingtpn,  George  B.  Roberts,  Sydney 
Shepard,  Erastus  Wiman,  William  W.  Astor,  Chauncey 
M.  Depew,  James  W.  Clendenin,  Henry  M.  Flagler. 

"  Mr.  Thurber  used  this  list  of  names  to  answer  the 
question  why  the  public  cannot  have  the  great  boon  of 
a  postal  telegraph.  '  No  such  list  of  names,'  he  added, 
'can  be  found  in  the  directory  of  any  other  corporation 
in  this  country.  Every  name  represents  some  great 
interest.  They  are  the  richest  and  the  best  in  the 
financial  world.  They  deservedly  rank  as  our  best 
citizens ;  their  names  are  found  scattered  throughout 
the  religious  and  charitable  world,  but  in  the  matter  of 
transmitting  intelligence  their  interest  diverges  from 
that  of  the  general  public,  and  it  remains  to  be  seen 
whether  65,000,000  of  people  or  the  comparatively  few 
stockholders  which  these  men  represent  will  be  able 
to  control  the  great  force  of  electricity  as  applied  to 
the  tranmission  of  intelligence.' 

"According  to  uncontroyerted  statements  made  be- 
fore your  honorable  committee,  the  capital  stock  of  the 
Western  Union  Telegraph  Company  in  1858  was  $358, 700. 
The  stock  dividends  declared  between  1858  and  1866 
amounted  to  $17,810,146,  and  the  stock  issued  for  new 
lines  was  $1,937,950 ;  so  that  the  capital  stock  on  July 
i,  1866,  was  $20,133,800.  In  1866  new  stock  was  created 
to  the  amount  of  $20,450,500 ;  so  that  the  total  capi- 
tal of  the  Western  Union  on  July  i,  1867,  was  $40,568,- 
300.  The  largest  dividend  declared  by  the  company  up 
to  1874  was  4r4  Per  cent.  The  largest 
amount  of  stock  ever  divided  at  one 
time  was  $10,000,000,  and  for  a  period  of 
seven  years  the  dividends  were  about 
ioo  per  cent,  a  year  on  its  average  capi- 
tal. It. was  by  adding  dividends  to  div- 
idends, and  by  piling  the  one  up  on  top 
of  the  other  that  this  tremendous  amount  of  $46.000,- 
ooo  of  capital  and  debt  was  created.  The  history  of 
the  company  shows  no  change  of  policy.  In  1874  the 
company  bought  up  its  own  stock  and  the  stock  of 
other  telegraph  companies  and  accumulated  a  fund  of 
over  $15,000,000,  which  was  held  in  one  shape  or  another 
in  the  treasury  of  the  company.  An  investment  of 
$1000  in  1858  in  Western  Union  stock  would  have  re- 
ceived up  to  the  present  time  stock  dividends  of  more 
than  $50,000  and  cash  dividends  equal  to  $100,000,  or  300 
per  cent,  of  dividends  a  year.  These  have  been  some 
of  the  dividends  declared. :  In  1862,  27  per  cent.;  in  1863, 
ioo  per  cent.;  in  1864,  ioo  per  cent.;  in  1878,  $6,000,000  ;  in 
1881,  one  of  $15,000,000  and  another  of  $4,300,000  ;  in  1886, 
25  per  cent.  The  Western  Union  plant,  exclusive  of  its 
contracts  with  railroads}  could  be  duplicated  for  $35,- 
000,000.  Its  present  capital  is  $85,960,000.  It  has  real- 
ized $100,000,000  of  net  profits  in  25  years  by  its  high 
charges.  .  .  . 

"'The  great  question,'  said  Congressman  Raynor, 
discussing  the  Glover  Telegraph  Bill  at  the  last  Con- 
gress, 'that  underlies  the  discussion  of  this  measure, 
is  whether  we  are  not  in  the  hands  of  a  monopoly  that 
not  only  has  the  right  to  fix  its  charges  arbitrarily,  but 
can  crush  opposition  whenever  it  encounters  it.  Of  all 
these  monopolies,  1  submit  that  the  telegraph  system 
of  this  country,  substantially  owned  and  controlled  by 
one  man,  is  the  worst  and  most  dangerous  of  them  all.' 
'It  is  no  longer  safe  or  expedient,'  Mr.  Raynor  went 
on,  'to  intrust  into  the  hands  of  one  overpowering 
monopoly  the  telegraph  business  of  thiscountry.  It  is 
a  power  that  not  only  can  be  used,  but  has  been  per- 
verted, for  purposes  hostile  to  the  best  interests  of  the 
people;  the  markets  of  the  country,  its  finances,  and 
its  commercial  interests  to  so  large  an  extent  depend 
upon  the  honest  and  honorable  administration  of  the 
business  of  this  company,  that  the  people  are  not  in  a 
mood  to  repose  a  trust  of  this  character  any  longer 


Western 
Union. 


Telegraph. 


1318 


Telephone. 


without  competition  in  the  hands  of  a  stock-jobbing 
corporation.'  I  have  tried  to  show  that  the  telegraph 
service  of  this  country  ought  to  be  cheaper  and  not 
inaccessible  to  the  people.  Business  men  generally, 
and  the  industrial  and  farming  classes,  too,  demand 
that  the  service  shall  be  more  efficient  as  well  as 
cheaper.  The  ordinary  opposition,  which  under  the 
direction  of  competent  men  would  bring  prices  down 
and  make  the  service  quicker  and  more  accurate,  has 
been  tried  a  score  of  times  and  it  has  always  failed. 
There  is  pratically  but  one  telegraph  company  in  this 
country  to-day.  I  say  this  because  the  Postal  Tele- 
graph Company  has  an  arrangement  with  the  Western 
Union  by  which  prices  are  to  be  kept  up. 

"Since  the  introduction  of  the  quadruplex  20  years 
ago,  the  Western  Union  Company  has,  1  am  told,  made 
but  one  change  or  improvement  in  its  method  of  tele- 
graphic transmission,  having  for  their  object  the  great- 
est speed  or  the  transmission  of  a  larger  volume  of 
traffic  of  a  given  wire.  I  refer  to  the  Wheatstone  auto- 
matic, an  English  invention  which  has  been  in  success- 
ful use  on  the  Government  lines  in  that  country  for  8 
or  10  years.  On  the  other  hand,  England  has  not  only 
adopted  our  quadruplex,  but  also  the  Delaney  multi- 
plex, another  American  invention." 

Some  of  the  more  statistical  facts  as  to  the 
telegraph  are  as  follows  : 

"In  1774  Lesage,  of  Geneva,  constructed  a  telegraph 
consisting  of  24  wire  signals,  being  sent  over  each  wire 
for  different  letters  of  the  alphabet  by  frictional  elec- 
tricity. This  had  been  suggested  in  an  article  in  The 
Scots  Magazine  of  February  i,  1853.  1°.  l8l6  Francis 
Ronalds-constructed  a  telegraph  of  one  wire,  using  fric- 
tional electricity  and  exhibiting  signals  by  the  diver- 
gence of  pith  balls.  In  1820  Ampere  suggested  the  ap- 


plication of  the  galvanic  current.  In  1830  the  first  actual 
telegraph  was  constructed,  extending  from  Padding- 
ton  to  Drayton,  England,  13  miles.     Dr.  W.  O'Shaugh- 
nessy    constructed    the    same    year    the    first    over- 
ground line  in  Calcutta,  India.     Samuel  F.  B.  Morse, 
of  New  York,  invented  the  system  of  a  pencil  moved 
by  an  electric  magnet  and  a  single  con- 
ducting circuit  in   1836.    The   first  line 
was   constructed   from  Washington  to    Statistics. 
Baltimore    (40    miles)    in    1844,  and   the 
first  message  transmitted  May  27,  1844. 
The  first  experiments  in  submarine  telegraphy  were 
made  in  Calcutta  in  1839  by  Dr.  O'Shaughnessy.     In 
1851  a  permanent  cable  was  laid  across  the  English 
Channel.     The   first  Atlantic  cable  was  successfully 
laid  in  1858,  but  soon  failed  to  transmit  words,  and  not 
till  1866  was  an  Atlantic  cable  successfully  submerged. 
According  to  F.  L.  Pope,  in  Johnson's  Cyclopedia,  the 
total   length  of  line  in  all  countries  in  1894  was  900,- 
ooo,  of  which  158,000  is  submarine.      The  number  of 
messages  transmitted  in  1893  was  :  Great  Britain,  69,- 
907,848  ;  United  States  (Western  Union  in  1894),  58,632,- 
237  ;  France,   47.017,117  ;  Germany,    33.172,116,  Austria, 


12,068,084  ;  Italy,  9,681,512  ;  Hungary,  6,522,302  ;  Belgium, 
5.414.864.  The  rates  for  service  are  as  follows  :  Eng- 
land, 12  cents  for  12  words ;  Germany,  17  cents  for  10 


words,  and  a  discount  of  a  cent  and  a  quarter  for  every 
word  less  than  10 ;  Italy,  18  cents  for  15  words ;  Swit- 
zerland, 10  cents  for  10  words;  Belgium,  o  cents  for  10 
words.  In  France  the  rate  is  10  cents  for  10  words 
within  the  country,  and  2  cents  per  word  from  the 
French- African  possessions,  a  io-word  message  from 
North  Africa  costing  but  20  cents  Distance  is  not  con- 
sidered in  making  the  rates.  No  more  charge  is  made 
for  ioo  than  for  i  mile,  the  same  principle  being  applied 
as  that  governing  our  postal  system.  According  to 
the  World  Almanac  for  1896,  the  following  are  the 
statistics  of  the  Western  Union  Telegraph  Company  : 


YEAR 

Miles  of 
Poles  and 
Cables. 

Offices. 

Messages. 

Receipts. 

Expenses. 

1866        

$7,138,737.96 

$4,910,772.42 

6,565 

6,335,414.77 

1880  

85,645 

9,077 

29,215,509 

12,782,894.53 

6,948,956.74 

jgSy          .  .              

I56,8l4 

15,658 

13,154,628.54 

X888                              

14,640,592.18 

5889            

20.783,194.07 

14,565,152.61 

1890  

55,878,762 

22,387,028.91 

15,074,303.81 

187,981 

16,428,741.84 

1892  

189,576 

20,700 

62,387,298 

23,706,404.72 

16,307,857.10 

1807..  . 

66,591,858 

24,978,442.96 

17,482,405.68 

1894  

21,166 

58,632,237 

21,852,655.00 

16,060,170.00 

22,218,019.18 

16,076,629.97 

The  average  toll  per  message  in  1868  was  104.7  ;  in  1889  was  31.2  ;  in  1890  was  32  4 ;  in  1891  was  32.5  ;  in  1892  was 
31.6;  in  1893  was  31.2  ;  in  1894  was  30.5  ;  in  1895  was  30.7.  The  average  cost  per  message  to  the  company  in  1868 
was  63.4  ;  in  1889  vras  22.4  ;  in  1890  was  22.7  ;  in  1891  was  23.2  ;  in  1892  was  22.3  ;  in  1893  was  22.7;  in  1894  was  23.3  ;  in 
1895  was  23.3. 


References :  A  series  of  16  articles,  by  Professor 
Parsons,  in  The  Arena  for  1896,  commencing  in  Janu- 
ary ;  United  States  Post  Office  Reports.  See  also 
NATURAL  MONOPOLIES. 

FRANK  PARSONS. 

TELEPHONE,  THE.— Recent  develop- 
ments promise  to  place  the  telephone  within  the 
reach  of  all.  Service  is  being  offered  in  places 
of  moderate  size  at  $8  to  $12  a  year  by  private 
companies.  If  the  telephone  and  telegraph 
were  combined  with  the  post-office,  it  might  soon 
be  possible  for  every  farmhouse  to  have  the 
means  of  cheap  and  almost  instantaneous  com- 
munication with  neighboring  towns,  and  any 
citizen  could  at  trifling  cost  communicate  with 
any  other  in  the  country.  The  arguments  for 
and  against  the  public  ownership  of  the  tele- 
phone are  the  same  as  in  the  case  of  the  tele- 
graph, and  will  be  found  under  that  head.  We 
confine  ourselves  here  to  the  statement  of  a  few 
of  the  most  significant  facts. 


Nations  that  begin  with  public  ownership  do 
not  change  to  private  ;  but  there  is  a  strong 
tendency  toward  public  ownership  in  countries 
that  begin  with  the  private  system.  Belgium 
began  with  private  telephones  in  1884,  but  found 
it  best  to  transfer  them  to  public  control,  and 
January  i,  1893,  all  the  telephone  lines  in  the 
State  became  public  property.  Great  Britain 
has  ciphered  out  the  same  sum  in  social  eco- 
nomics, and  after  many  years  of  private  tele- 
phony reached  a  similar  conclusion  and  estab- 
lished a  national  system  of  telephone  lines  in 
1895.  Austria  has  moved  along  the  same  path, 
and  since  January,  1895,  private  telephone  com- 
panies have  ceased  to  exist  in  Vienna.  Norway 
also  has  decided  (1895)  to  take  possession  of  all 
the  trunk  telephone  lines.  When  the  State 
owns  the  trunk  lines  and  the  municipalities  own 
the  local  exchanges  you  have  the  very  best  pos- 
sible telephone  system.  Trondhjem,  in  Nor- 
way, has  bought  up  its  telephone  system. 


Telephone. 


1319 


Temperance. 


Other  cities  like  Rotterdam,  Amsterdam,  etc., 
are  constructing  municipal  plants,  and  many 
more  are  discussing  the  subject.  In  America, 
the  call  for  a  postal  telegraph  includes  the  tele- 
phone. On  the  other  hand,  France,  Germany, 
Sweden,  Switzerland,  the  Australian  republics, 
and  other  countries  that  have  had  public  tele- 
phones for  years  show  no  disposition  to  transfer 
them  to  private  corporations. 

The  charges  under  public  ownership  are  a 
mere  trifle  compared  to  the  ordinary  charges  of 
private  monopoly — from  $8  to  $16  a  year  public, 
and  $36  to  $2  50  under  private  monopoly  is  about 


the  relative  charging  power.  There  is  some 
competition  just  now  in  consequence  of  the  ex- 
piration of  the  telephone  patents,  so  that  even 
private  companies  are  making  low  rates  ;  but  a 
vast  syndicate  is  forming  for  the  control  of  the 
telephone,  the  Western  Union  and  the  Bell  have 
combined,  and  the  probability  is  that  monopoly, 
by  force  of  enormous  combinations,  will  take 
the  place  of  monopoly  by  patent ;  if  so,  the  peo- 
ple will  soon  be  little  better  off  than  before  the 
patents  expired  unless  they  adopt  municipal 
ownership  of  local  lines  and  national  ownership 
of  the  distance  telephone. 


TELEPHONE  CONVERSATION  CHARGES. 


PUBLIC  TELEPHONE. 

Local  Conversation 
by  Non-Subscri- 
bers. 

Rate  between 
Neighboring 
Places. 

Rate  between  Dis- 
tant Places. 

Germany  

6  cents. 

12  cents. 

24  cents. 

ao  to  80     " 

Belgium     ..         

5  to    7 

is      " 

Austria-Hungary....        

Trondhjem  

2* 

4  to    6^j 

Great  Britain  (Postal  Rates)  

6 

6  to  12 

PRIVATE  TELEPHONE. 
United  States  (Bell)... 

10  to  is  cents. 

is  to  2  5  cents. 

•50  cents  to  $10.00 

The  first  suggestion  of  the  possibility  of  trans- 
ferring sound  electrically  was  made  by  Charles 
Bourseul  in  1854,  and  in  1861  Philip  Riis,  in 
Germany,  published  an  account  of  experiments 
in  this  line.  A  working  plan  was,  however, 
first  invented  by  Alexander  Graham  Bell,  and 
patented  March  7,  1876.  According  to  the 


World  Almanac  for  1896,  the  following  are 
the  latest  statistics  made  public  by  the  Ameri- 
can Bell  Telephone  Company,  which  practically 
monopolizes  the  telephone  business  of  the  Unit- 
ed States.  The  figures  are  for  January  i  of 
each  year  : 


1892. 

1893. 

1894. 

1895. 

1892. 

1893. 

1894. 

1895. 

Exchanges  

788 

812 

838 

867 

Miles   of    wire    sub- 

marine   

i  856 

Miles  of  wire  on  poles 
.Miles     of     wire     on 

180,139 

201,259 

214,676 

232,008 

Total  miles  of  wire  .  . 
Total  circuits  
Total  employees  

266,456 
186,462 
8,376 

307.79i 
201,322 

353.48o 
205,891 

396,674 
212,074 

Miles  of  wire  under- 
ground   

148,285 

Total  subscribers  — 

216,017 

232,140 

237,186 

243.432 

The  number  of  instruments  in  the  hands  of 
licensees  under  rental  at  the  beginning  of  1895 
was  582,506.  The  number  of  exchange  connec- 
tions daily  in  the  United  States  is  2,088,152,  or 
a  total  per  year  of  over  670,000,000.  The  aver- 
age number  of  daily  calls  per  subscriber  was 
eight  and  one  half.  The  company  received  in 
rental  of  telephones  in  1894,  $2,502,992.17.  It 
paid  its  stockholders  in  dividends  in  1894,  $2,400,- 
ooo.  The  capital  of  the  company  is  $20,000,000. 

References  An  article  on  the  telegraph  monopoly 
in  The  Arena  for  September.  1896,  and  Mr.  Bennett's 
Telephone  Systems  of  the  Continent,  Telephoning  in 
Great  Cities,  and  various  articles  in  the  English  elec- 
trical journals  by  the  same  writer. 

FRANK  PARSONS. 

TEMPERANCE.— (See  also  SOUTH  CARO- 
LINA DISPENSARY  SYSTEM  ;  HIGH  LICENSE  ^.IN- 
TEMPERANCE ;  LIQUOR  TRAFFIC  ;  NATIONALIZA- 
TION OF  THE  LIQUOR  TRAFFIC  ;  NORWEGIAN  SYS- 
TEM ;  PROHIBITION  ;  PROHIBITION  PARTY  ;  POV- 
ERTY ;  WOMAN'S  CHRISTIAN  TEMPERANCE  UNION. 


We  give  in  this  article  a  brief  sketch  of  the 
temperance  movement,  referring  the  reader  to 
the  above  articles  for  details. 

The  temperance  movement  may  be  said  to  be 
a  modern  movement ;  intemperance  is  as  old  as 
history.  We  find  instances  of  intoxication  in 
Genesis,  the  oldest  Hebrew  writing,  and  in  Ho- 
mer's pictures  of  early  Greek  social  life.  Intoxi- 
cation is  described  or  referred  to  in  the  ancient 
books  of  China,  the  Vedas  of  India,  the  Aves- 
tas  of  Persia,  and  in  all  early  traditions.  The 
fiery  "  rice  wines"  of  India  and  China  matched 
the  drugged  wines  of  Greece  and  Rome.  Fer- 
mentation was  usually  the  early  source  of  in- 
toxicating drinks  ;  distillation  has  been  known 
in  Europe  at  least  for  only  six  centuries.  Spirit 
drinking  is  said  to  have  developed  first  in  north- 
ern climes,  and  perhaps  in  England.  There 
were,  however,  some  early  attempts  at  temper- 
ance reform.  The  Chinese  claim  that  eleven 
centuries  before  Christ  some  of  their  emperors 
made  strenuous  temperance  reforms,  one  going 


Temperance. 


1320 


Temperance. 


so  far  as  to  order  all  vines  in  the  kingdom  to 
be  uprooted.  In  India  and  Persia  the  priest- 
hood early  made  some  attempts  at  reform,  and 
the  Buddhists  taught  total  abstinence.  Bud- 
dhist sects  seem  to  have  spread  total  abstinence 
ideas  far  and  wide,  and  among  the  Hebrews 
there  were  various  total  abstinence  orders  and 
sects,  such  as  the  Nazantes  and  Rechabites  in 
olden  times,  and  the  Essenes  and  Therapeutse 
of  the  time  of  Christ.  Draco  is  said  to  have 
punished  drunkenness  with  death,  and  Lycur- 
gus,  king  of  Thrace,  to  have  ordered  all  vines 
to  be  destroyed,  as  did  later  Terbaldus,  a  Bui 
garian  prince.  The  Carthagemans  forbade 
wine  in  the  camps  and  among  magistrates  hold- 
ing public  office.  In  northern  climes  the  use 
of  intoxicating  beverages  was  universal.  The 
Saxons  were  mighty  eaters  and  drinkers.  The 
mead  horn  plays  a  large  part  in  all  Saxon  liter- 
ature. Mead  or  metheglin  they  made  from 
honey,  beer  from  barley.  Weddings,  christen- 
ings, and  funerals  were  scenes  of  intoxication, 
sometimes  of  orgies.  The  burial  clubs  (see 
GUILDS)  were  drinking  clubs.  The  Church 
strove  somewhat  for  reform,  perhaps  because 
the  clergy  needed  it.  St.  Gildas  the  Wise  in 
570  A.D.  ordered  the  drunken  clergy  to  be  pun- 
ished. St.  David  (569)  punished  also  the  publi- 
can. King  Edgar,  at  the  instance  of  Dunstan, 
limited  by  law  the  number  of  taverns  and  the 
size  of  the  pots.  By  a  law  of  1285  taverns  in 
London  were  to  close  at  curfew.  This  was  to 
prevent  crime.  Yet  drinking  increased.  When 
George  Neville  was  made  Archbishop  of  York, 
in  1464,  we  are  told  that  300  tuns  of  ale  and  100 
of  wine  were  consumed.  Bacon  saw  that  "  all 
the  crimes  on  earth  do  not  destroy  so  many  of 
the  human  race  nor  alienate  so  much  property 
as  drunkenness."  Beginning  with  1603,  legis- 
lation against  ale  houses  and  drunkenness  is 
very  frequent,  but  accomplished  nothing.  Ac- 
cording to  Bishop  Earle,  the  public  house  was 
the  rendezvous  for  all  classes.  All  or  almost 
all  the  clergy  drank.  Decker  says  that  in  1632 
a  whole  street  was  in  some  places  but  a  con- 
tinuous ale  house,  not  a  shop  to  be  seen  be- 
tween red  lattice  and  red  lattice.  The  Puritans 
were  about  as  bad.  Pepys  says  Monk's  troops 
were  most  of  them  drunk  all  day.  Even  the 
women  drank.  Lecky  says  that  in  1688, 12,400,- 
ooo  bbls.  of  beer  were  brewed  for  a  population 
of  a  little  over  5,000,000,  or  about  90  gals,  a 
head  against  about  29  at  present  in  England. 
In  the  eighteenth  century  gin- drinking  in- 
creased. Retailers  hung  out  signs  saying, 
"  Drunk  for  id.  Dead  drunk  for  zd.  Straw 
for  nothing."  Eleven  million  gals,  of  gin 
were  consumed  in  England  in  1733  ;  nearly 
20,000,000  in  1742.  In  1749  there  were  17,000 

gin  shops  within  the  bills  of  mor- 

•D-  1.1.      1.1.  tality.     Crime  and  immorality  rose. 

S  I  In   1736  Parliament   tried   to   sup- 

'    y<     press   gin-drinking   by    putting    a 

prohibitory  tax -on  it,  but  the  illicit 
trade  was  so  great  that  it  soon  went  to  the  other 
extreme,  and  made  the  trade  well-nigh  free. 
But  this  did  no  good.  In  1751  distillers  were  for- 
bidden to  sell  to  unlicensed  publicans,  and  tip- 
pling debts  could  not  be  collected  by  law.  Ac- 
cording to  Lecky,  this  did  some  good.  Gin 
began  to  give  way  to  beer,  a  vast  improvement. 


In  the  American  colonies  the  evil  was  as  bad. 
Dr.  Dorchester  (Problems  of  Religious  Prog- 
ress) tells  us  that  in  1790  2^  gals,  of  distilled 
spirits  and  wine  were  consumed  per  capita  ;  in 
1810,  4£  ;  in  1823,  7$  of  spirits  alone.  At  a  later 
date  there  were  400,000  confirmed  drunkards, 
while  everybody  drank  a  little,  and  often  to  ex- 
cess. The  rich  drank  French  and  Spanish  bran- 
dy ;  the  middle  classes,  Jamaica  rum  ;  the  poor, 
New  England  rum.  Drunkenness  was  not  un- 
common among  the  clergy,  and  an  ordination 
was  often  little  short  of  a  debauch.  Rum  was 
a  requisite  of  every  gathering.  All  public  men 
drank.  (See  also  CRIME.) 

The  modern  temperance  movement  began  in 
the  first  quarter  of  this  century.,  in  England 
first,  tho  it  first  gained  headway  in  the  United 
States.  In  1800  Micajah  Pendleton,  of  Nelson 
County,  Va.,  signed  and  circulated  a  total  ab- 
stinence pledge.  In  1804  Dr.  Benjamin  Rush 
(g.v.),  of  Philadelphia,  wrote  an  important  tem- 
perance paper,  and  in  1805  Dr.  Ebenezer  Por- 
ter, of  Connecticut,  preached  an  important  ser- 
mon. In  1808  Dr.  J.  B.  Clark  founded ..  in  Sara- 
toga County,  N,  Y.,  the  Temperance  Society 
of  Moreau  and  Northumberland.  In  1813  the 
Massachusetts  Society  for  the  Suppression  of 
Intemperance  was  formed.  In  1826  the  Ameri- 
can Society  for  the  Promotion  of  Temperance 
was  founded  in  Boston,  based  upon  total  absti- 
nence, the  Rev.  Mr.  Hewitt  being 
the  first  general  agent.  By  1829  „,  united 
there  were  n  State  and  about  1000  g.  , 
local  societies.  The  same  year  six 
sermons  by  Lyman  Beecher,  of 
Litchfield,  Conn.,  produced  a  wide  effect.  In 
1833  there  were  6000  local  societies  and  over 
1,000,000  members  ;  2000  distilleries  had  been 
stopped.  Most  of  this  early  temperance  move- 
ment, however,  was  opposed  simply  to  the 
use  of  distilled  spirits,  and  the  pledge  in 
general  use  had  reference  to  these  alone. 
Cider,  beer,  and  wine  were  generally  consid- 
ered harmless  or  indispensable.  Total  ab- 
stinence from  all  intoxicating  liquors  was  em- 
bodied in  Pendleton's  pledge  of  1800  and  in  the 
New  York  society  of  1809  and  in  a  few  other 
local  societies,  but  was  voted  down  by  the  gen- 
eral society  in  1833.  In  1836,  however,  at  the 
meeting  in  Saratoga  it  was  finally  adopted,  and 
the  American  Temperance  Society  has  since 
been  committed  to  total  abstinence.  In  1840- 
began  the  great  but  brief  Washingtonian  move- 
ment, when  six  intemperate  drinkers  in  Balti- 
more, Md. — Mitchell,  Hoss,  Anderson,  Steers, 
McCurley,  and  Campbell — met  one  Friday  even- 
ing, April  2,  at  their  usual  resort,  and  suddenly 
resolved  to  reform.  They  drew  up  a  pledge, 
signed  it  on  the  spot,  calling  themselves  the 
Washingtonian  Society.  They  began  to  hold 
public  meetings,  and  met  with  great  success. 
Crowds  attended,  and  thousands  took  the 
pledge.  Many  became  speakers,  and  Washing- 
tonian societies  were  organized  everywhere.  In 
four  or  five  years  it  is  estimated  that  150,000 
drunkards  and  500,000  others  signed  the  pledge. 
The  movement,  however,  did  not  endure.  The 
toper's  motley  became  the  sensational  talk  of 
speakers,  and  ignorant  and  sometimes  evil  men, 
caring  only  for  notoriety  or  pay,  ruined  the 
movement.  In  1842  the  Order  of  the  Sons  of 


Temperance. 


1321 


Temperance. 


Modern 
Movements. 


Temperance  was  founded  in  the  city  of  New 
York,  the  first  society  modeled  after  Masonic 
ideas.  In  1845  the  Order  of  the  Templars  of 
Honor  and  Temperance,  and  in  1851  the  Order  of 
Good  Templars  (q.v.)  were  formed. 
In  1845  a  law  in  New  York  State 
prohibiting  the  public  sale  of  alco- 
holic liquor  was  passed  and  re- 
ferred to  the  people,  and  received 
a  large  majority,  but  in  1847  it  was  repealed.  In 
1851  the  Maine  law  (q.v.)  was  passed.  (For  tem- 
perance legislation  since  that  date,  see  PROHIBI- 
TION ;  HIGH  LICENSE  ;  LOCAL  OPTION.)  In  1874 
the  Woman's  Christian  Temperance  Union  com- 
menced its  important  and  successful  movement, 
for  an  account  of  which  see  that  head.  The  in- 
fluential Catholic  Total  Abstinence  Union  was 
formed  in  Baltimore  in  1872. 

In  Great  Britain  Dr.  Trotter,  of  Edinburgh, 
published  a  book  on  the  effects  of  intemperance 
in  1809.  The  first  temperance  society  was  or- 
ganized in  Skibbereen,  in  Ireland,  in  1818. 
The  first  society  based  on  total  abstinence  was 
formed  at  New  Ross,  Ireland,  by  the  Rev. 
George  Cane  in  1829,  tho  the  same  year  one 
was  formed  in  Glasgow,  Scotland.  Within  a 
year  there  were  25  societies  in  Ireland.  The 
first  society  of  England  was  formed  in  York- 
shire in  1830,  teetotalism  being  still  used  as  col- 
loquial for  total  abstinence,  and  the  same  year 
the  London  Temperance  Society  held  its  first 
public  meeting.  In  1831  the  British  and  For- 
eign Temperance  Society  was  formed,  and  in 
Dublin  the  Hibernia  Temperance  Society.  In 
1830  the  Duke  of  Wellington  Beer  Act  tried  to 
encourage  the  use  of  beer  instead  of  spirits. 
In  1834  a  select  committee  of  the  House  of  Com- 
mons was  appointed  to  report  on  the  subject. 
Mr.  Muchmoore  in  this  report  describes  the 
evils  of  the  day.  Fourteen  public  houses  were 
patronized  by  2750  persons  each  per  day.  They 
had  connected  with  them  large  halls  invisible 
from  the  street,  where  girls  of  the  town,  sailors, 
etc.,  danced.  According  to  the  census  there 
was  then  one  public  house  for  every  20  families 
in  the  United  Kingdom.  To-day  there  is  not 
one  for  every  50.  The  spirits  distilled  in  Eng- 
land rose  from  43,000,000  in  the  four  years,  1791- 
95,  to  154,000,000  in  1826-31. 

In  1838  the  Rev.  Theobald  Mathew  (Father 
Mathew),  a  Roman  Catholic  priest  in  Cork,  in 
Ireland,  commenced  a  temperance  movement, 
and  in  the  space  of  five  months  administered 
the  pledge  to  150,000  persons  in  Cork  alone. 
In  Galway  100,000  took  the  pledge  in  two  days. 
He  traveled  in  Ireland  and  England,  and  in 
1850  came  to  America,  everywhere  finding 
great  success,  and  becoming  known  till  his 
death,  in  1856,  as  the  Apostle  of  Temperance. 
The  Father  Mathew  societies  of  the  Catholic 
Church  still  attest  his  memory,  tho  much  of 
his  early  work  died  away,  From  1840  to  1850 
the  temperance  movement  languished,  and  in 
1850  the  British  and  Foreign  Temperance  So- 
ciety perished  of  inanition.  In  1853  a  United 
Kingdom  Alliance  was  formed  in  Manchester 
to  agitate  for  prohibitory  laws.  Various  ideas 
were  introduced  from  the  United  States,  and 
in  1868  the  Order  of  Good  Templars.  The 
Church  of  England  Temperance  Society  was 
formed  m  1862.  Total  abstinence  became  the 


cry.  A  Working  Man's  Teetotal  League  was 
formed  and  other  similar  societies.  In  1872 
was  passed  the  Licensing  Act,  the  most  impor- 
tant act  of  the  century,  tho  acts  have  been  very  . 
numerous,  most  of  them  ineffective.  In  1876 
the  House  of  Lords  appointed  a  select  commit- 
tee on  the  subject.  At  present  the  Church  of 
England  Temperance  Society  seems  to  be  the 
largest  society  with  609,319  members,  384,289 
of  these  being  juveniles,  and  of  the  remainder 
174,637  being  of  the  total  abstinence  section. 
According  to  Mr.  Nelius,  one  person  in  England 
out  of  eight  is  a.  teetotaller,  but  Mr.  Arthur 
Shadwell,  to  whose  articles  in  the  National  Re- 
view for  December,  1895,  and  April,  1896,  we 
are  much  indebted  for  our  facts,  very  much 
questions  whether  this  is  not  a  great  exaggera- 
tion. 

During  recent  years  notable  advance  has  been 
made  in  Great  Britain  along  the  line  of  senti- 
ment in  favor  of  Sunday  closing.  Scotland  has 
had  all-day  Sunday  closing  since  1853-54  ;  Ire- 
land, except  iti  the  five  chief  towns  of  Dublin, 
Belfast,  Cork,  Limerick,  and  Waterford,  since 
1878  ;  and  Wales,  since  1881.  Up  to  1839  pub- 
lic houses  were  open  throughout  England  the 
whole  of  Sunday  except  during  the  hours  of 
morning  and  afternoon  divine  service.  In  that 
year,  owing  to  the  disorderly  state  of  many  of 
the  London  streets  on  Sunday  morning,  a  clause 
was  inserted  in  the  metropolitan  police  act  to 
close  public  houses  from  midnight  on  Saturday  to 
one  o'clock  on  Sunday  afternoon.  Other  cities 
followed  suit,  and  in  1854  Patten's  bill  fur- 
ther closed  the  public  houses  on  Sunday  after- 
noon from  2.30  to  6  o'clock,  and  10  at  night  to  4. 
on  Monday  morning.  This  has  been  the  law 
with  slight  modifications  since  that  time.  There 
is  strong  public  sentiment  in  England  for  en- 
tire Sunday  closing.  Such  sentiment  is  also 
spreading  in  Canada. 

On  the  Continent,  sentiment  in  favor  of  tem- 
perance and  total  abstinence  is  growing.    In  the 
Scandinavian  countries,  Norway  and  Sweden, 
the    problem    is    being    partially 
solved  by  the  Gothenburg  system, 
or  State  conduct  of  the  liquor  traf-     Europe. 
fie.     (For  a  discussion  of  the  bene- 
fits claimed  for  this  by  its  advocates 
and  the  faults  charged  by  its  opponents,  see 
GOTHENBURG     SYSTEM  ;     NORWEGIAN    SYSTEM  ; 
SOUTH  CAROLINA  DISPENSARY  LAW.) 

In  France  and  Germany  a  number  of  medical 
and  scientific  bodies  of  the  highest  and  most 
conservative  authority  have  made  utterances  as 
to  the  evil  effects  of  the  use  of  intoxicating 
liquors.  These  have  been  in  the  nature,  gen- 
erally, of  warnings  against  the  effects  of  drunk- 
enness on  individual  and  national  life,  and 
have,  therefore,  furnished  good  refutation  of 
the  claim,  made  by  some,  that  drunkenness  is 
not  a  public  evil  in  wine-drinking  countries. 
Influential  periodicals  in  France,  like  the  review 
Science  Fran$aise,  Le  Temps,  and  bodies  like 
the  French  Academy  of  Medicine  and  the  As- 
sociation for  the  Advancement  of  Science,  have 
taken  up  the  fight  against  the  beverage  use  of 
alcohol.  In  Germany,  one  of  the  most  note- 
worthy of  recent  developments  has  been  the 
publication  in  the  Deutsche  Versicherungs- 
Zeitung,  of  Berlin,  of  a  lecture  by  Dr.  Brendel, 


Temperance. 


1322 


Tenements. 


delivered  before  the  Anthropological  Society  of 
Munich  (March  28,  1894),  in  which  insurance 
companies  are  warned  that  their  risks  are  dan- 
gerously increased  by  alcoholism — drink  almost 
always  shortening  life. 

The  latest  developments  in  Europe  of  the  tem- 
perance movement  have  been  steps  toward  the 
nationalizing  of  the  trade  in  alcohol  by  France, 
Switzerland,  and  Russia.  In  the  United  States, 
South  Carolina  has  tried  a  similar  system,  and 
•other  States  are  preparing  to  follow.  (See 
SOUTH  CAROLINA  DISPENSARY  SYSTEM  for  the 
movement  in  Europe  and  in  this  country.) 

In  the  United  States,  the  report  (informally 
published  in  The  Atlantic  for  February,  1897) 
of  the  Committee  of  Fifty,  organized  in  1893, 
says  that  prohibition  has  abolished  the  manufac- 
ture of  distilled  and  malt  liquors  on  a  large 
scale  where  it  has  been  tried,  tho  it  has  not  com- 
pletely excluded  intoxicating  drinks.  It  has 
often  brought  law  into  disrepute  by  its  non-en- 
forcement. The  report  favors  the  taxing  sys- 
tem rather  than  license.  It  thinks  the  South 
Carolina  system  successful. 

References  :  See  the  above-mentioned  report,  also 
CYCLOPEDIA  OF  TEMPERANCE  AND  PROHIBITION. 

TEMPLE,  WILLIAM,  was  born  in  Lon- 
don in  1628.  Entering  the  diplomatic  service, 
he  represented  England  at  the  court  of  Brussels 
and  in  Holland.  He  sat  in  Parliament  one 
year,  but  in  1680  retired  from  public  life,  and 
died  in  1699.  He  wrote,  among  other  books, 
Observations  upon  the  United  Provinces  of 
the  Netherlands  (1672)  and  an  Essay  on  the 
Trade  of  Ireland  (1673),  in  which,  says  In- 
gram, he  mingled  just  views  and  mercantilist 
prejudices. 

TENEMENTS  AND  TENEMENT- 
HOUSE  REFORM.— We  consider  this  sub- 
ject under  three  heads  :  I.  The  Tenement  Evil ; 
II.  Statistics  of  Tenements  ;  III.  Tenement- 
house  Reform. 

I.  THE  TENEMENT  EVIL. 

We  quote  on  this  point  from  the  valuable  re- 
port of  the  Tenement-house  Committee  of  the 
State  of  New  York,  dated  January  17,  1895. 
The  committee  was  appointed  by  act  of  the 
Legislature  in  1894. 

Under  the  act  the  following  were  named  by 
ihe  governor  as  members  of  the  commission  : 
W.  Bayard  Cutting,  Cyrus  Edson,  Roger  Fos- 
ter, R.  W.  Gilder,  Solomon  Moses,  George  B. 
Post,  and  John  P.  Schuchman.  Mr.  Cutting 
being  unable  to  accept  the  appointment,  the 
governor  appointed  in  his  place  W.  D'H.  Wash- 
ington. Mr.  Gilder  was  chosen  chairman.  The 
report  which  concerns  New  York  City  says  : 

"  A  '  tenement-house  '  shall  be  taken  to  mean  and  in- 
clude every  house,  building,  or  portion  thereof,  which 
is  rented,  leased,  let  or  hired  out,  to  be  occupied,  or  is 
occupied,  as  the  house,  home  or  residence  of  three  or 
more  families  living  independently  of  one  another,  and 
doing  their  cooking  upon  the  premises,  or  by  more 
than  two  families  upon  a  floor  so  living  and  cooking, 
but  having  a  common  right  in  the  halls,  stairways, 
yards,  water-closets  or  privies,  or  some  of  them. 

"  The  entire  population  of  the  tenements  in  1893, 
according  to  the  board  of  health  census,  was  1,332,773 
persons,  living  in  39,138  houses,  out  of  an  entire  esti- 
mated population  of  1.891,306.  Laws  touching  upon 
tenements  may,  therefore,  where  there  is  no  exception, 


directly  affect  70.46  of  our  population.  But  it  is  esti- 
mated that  of  the  entire  tenement-house  population, 
as  defined  by  law,  only  about  four  fifths  really  belong 
to  the  class  which  is  usually  designated  by  that  term, 
the  remaining  fifth  living  in  what  are  known  as  flats, 
or  apartment-houses.  The  board  of  health,  in  its  prac- 
tical enforcement  of  the  law,  has  not  required  its  obe- 
dience in,  nor  made  a  regular  inspection  of,  the  better 
class  of  what  the  law  defines  as  tenements,  and  which 
are  included  in  that  one  fifth  ;  and  in  the  figures  above 
cjuoted  the  most  expensive  apartment-houses  and  their 
inhabitants  are  not  included  at  all.  The  population  of 
the  city  living  in  what  are  generally  called  tenement- 
houses,  rather  than  apartment-houses,  is  believed  to 
be  eight  fifteenths,  or  a  little  over  one  half  of  the  total 
population  of  New  York.  .  .  . 

"  The  overcrowding  of  other  cities  takes  place  mainly 
through  the  herding  of  human  beings  in  a  single  room. 
For  example,  notwithstanding  the  great  improvement 
in  this  respect  in  Glasgow  since  1871,  nearly  18  percent, 
of  the  population  of  that  city  in  1891  slept  and  cooked 
and  lived  in  a  single  room  for  each  family. 

"The  committee  is  glad  to  state  that  this  evil,  tho 
it  exists  in  this  city  to  some  extent,  Is  by  no  means  so 
great  here  as  in  the  old  world.    On  the  other  hand,  we 
have  an  evil  here  which  is  peculiarly  our 
own.    The  '  double-decker,'  so  called,  is 
the  one  hopeless  form  of  tenement-house    New  York 
construction.    It  began  with  the  old  New 
York  dwelling  altered  over  ,  and  grad- 
ually  a  type  was  produced  in  some  re- 
spects better  and  in  some  worse  than  the  earlier  forms 
of  the  narrow  tenement.    The  double-decker  cannot 
be  well  ventilated  ;  it  cannot  be  well  lighted  ;  it  is  not 
safe  in  case  of  fire.    It  is  built  on  a  lot  25  feet  wide  by 
TOO  or  less  in  depth,  with  apartments  for  four  families 
in  each  story.      This  necessitates  the  occupation  of 
from  86  to  90  per  cent,  of  the  lot's  depth.  .  .  . 

"If  we  take  the  death-rate  of  children  as  a  test,  the 
rear  tenements  show  themselves  to  be  veritable 
slaughter-houses,  as  shown  in  the  following  table, 
which  only  covers  the  lower  wards,  where  such  houses 
are  numerous : 


Death-rate 

Death-rate 

of  Children 

of  Children 

Under  Five 

Under  Five 

Years  of 

WARDS. 

Years  of 

Age  in  Front 

Age  in  Sin- 

and Rear 

gle  Tene- 

Tenements 

ments. 

on  Same 

Lot. 

114  68 

6  

61  78 

8  

os   cS 

62  58 

8?  os 

78  36 

Unfit 
Condition. 


The  following  is  from  the  report  of  the  secre- 
tary of  the  Commission,  Edward  Marshall  : 

"  Your  report  on  the  death-rate  in  New  York  City 
shows  that  one  of  the  most  important  elements  which 

§o  to  make  it  high  is  the  presence  of  old  and  dilapi- 
ated  buildings.    This  inspection  shows 
that  there  are  many  houses  in  the  city 
in  an  unsanitary  condition  which  abso- 
lutely unfits  them  for  habitation.    One 
of  the  greatest  menaces  to  health  in  the 
tenement-house,  as  it  exists  to-day,  is 
the  saturation  of  the  walls,  floors  and 
everything  else  in  the  neighborhood  of  hallway  sinks 
with  Croton  water  and  slops     It  is  thus  that  sinks  in 
tenement-houses  become  centers  of  unhealthful  influ- 
ence.   In  almost  every  case  this  condition  can  be  traced 
to  the  lack  of  light  in  the  hallways.    A  woman  going 
to  the  sink  to  fill  her  pail  with  water  or  to  empty  into 
it  refuse  water,  is  doubly  likely  to  spill  the  contents  of 
her  pail  if  the  hall  be  so  dark  as  to  force  her  to  wholly 
or  partially  feel  her  way.    And  the  very  lack  of  light, 
which  originally  caused  this  mishap,  is  certain  to  ag- 


Tenements. 


Tenements. 


gravate  its  results  If  the  hall  is  dark,  having  spilled 
the  water  or  slops,  she  is  unable  to  see  what  she  has 
done,  and,  therefore,  does  not  attempt  to  remedy  it. 
Liglit  in  the  hallways  would  not  only  in  most  cases  pre- 
vent her  from  wetting  the  floors  of  the  hallways,  but 
would,  in  case  she  did  accidentally  do  so,  generally  in- 
duce her  to  clean  up  the  mess  before  she  left  the  hall. 
It  is  true  also  that  tenants  throw  refuse  of  improper 
character— such  as  bedroom  water  and  human  excreta 
— into  the  sinks  of  dark  hall  ways  more  frequently  than 
into  sinks  in  well-lighted  hallways.  Where  darkness 
makes  identification  of  such  an  offender  improbable, 
a  person  inclined  to  this  kind  of  slovenliness  has  al- 
most no  reason  for  refraining  from  carrying  out  his 
vile  impulse.  More  than  too  sinks  used  for  such  im- 
proper and  dangerous  purposes  were  discovered  by 
this  examination,  and  it  is  generally  known  to  the 
liealth  board  and  your  committee's  examiners  that  the 
use  of  sinks  in  dark  hallways  as  urinals  is  by  no  means 
infrequent.  These  things  cannot,  of  course,  fail  to 
threaten  the  health  of  the  house  In  which  they  occur. 
Tne  moral  argument  calling  for  light  in  the  hallways 
of  tenement-houses  is  a  strong  one.  In  the  hetero- 
geneous population  of  a  large  tenement-house,  it  isfre- 
quently  true  that  young  boys  and  girls  receive  first 
lessons  in  evil  doings  in  dark  hallways,  which  they 
would  entirely  escape  were  their  actions,  while  pass- 
ing through  or  pausing  in  the  hallways,  open  to  the 
view  of  the  other  tenants  in  the  house.  The  impres- 
sions of  the  committee's  examiners  confirm  those  of 
such  students  as  Mr.  Jacob  A.  Riis  and  others  on  this 
point. 

For  Boston,  the  Massachusetts  Labor  Bureau 
reported  in  1891  and  1892  as  to  the  tenements. 
The  following  are  some  of  the  results  : 

"  For  the  city  as  a  whole,  67  per  cent,  of  the  estimated 
total  population  live  in  rented  tenements,  and  while 
of  the  persons  thus  housed  12.08  per  cent,  is  in  tene- 
ments subjected  to  poor  or  bad  outside  sanitary  condi- 
tions, and  8.38  per  cent.,  8.41  per  cent.,  and  12.30  per 
cent,  in  tenements  poor  or  bad  with  respect  to  light 
and  air,  ventilation  and  cleanliness,  respectively, 
nevertheless  these  persons  constitute  but  8.09  per  cent., 
5.62  per  cent.,  5.64  per  cent.,  and  8.24  per  cent.,  respec- 
tively, of  the  estimated  total  population. 

"The  whole  number  of  sleeping  rooms  without  out- 
side windows  found  in  the  city  was  3,657. 

"  Out  of  3657,  the  aggregate  number  of  sleeping 
rooms  without  outside  windows,  113  were  in  tenements 
under  excellent  inside  and  outside  sanitary  conditions  ; 
720  were  in  tenements  under  good  inside  and  outside 
sanitary  conditions  ;  337  in  tenements  fair  as  to  light 
and  air  and  ventilation,  and  classed  as  good  with  re- 
spect to  outside  sanitary  condition  and  cleanliness  ; 
580  in  tenements  under  conditions  classed  as  fair,  both 
internally  and  externally  ;  and  145  in  tenements  classed 
as  poor  both  internally  and  externally. 

"  Why  dp  the  tenants  of  the  poorer  houses  remain  in 
them?  It  is  not  always  poverty  that  compels  them,  al- 
tho  this  is  generally  the  first  conclusion.  A  special 
inquiry  covering  475  families,  comprising  2140  persons, 
residing  in  tenements  or  neighborhoods  classed  as  poor 
or  bad,  was  undertaken  for  the  purpose  of  securing 
definite  information  upon  this  point.  The  result  is  pre- 
sented in  the  following  table  : 


CAUSES. 

Num- 
ber of 
Fami- 
lies. 

Popu- 
lation. 

PERCENTAGES. 

Fami- 
lies. 

Popu- 
lation. 

205 
74 

22 

53 
117 
4 

912 
290 
103 
240 
572 
23 

43.16 
15-58 
4-63 

II.  10 

24.63 
0.84 

42.62 
13-55 
4.81 

11.22 

26.73 
1.07 

Low  rent  

Nearness  to  work  
Totals  

475 

2,140 

100.00 

100.00 

"  In  tabulating  the  results,  the  principal  cause  which 
led  the  family  to  occupy  the  poor  tenement  has  been 
selected,  altho  in  some  cases  more  than  one  cause  was 
found.  '  For  instance,  if  poverty  and  Intemperance 
were  both  found  to  be  operative,  and  intemperance 
was,  after  investigation,  deemed  to  be  the  leading 


cause,  and  poverty  a  result,  rather  than  itself  the  main 
cause,  the  families  have  been  classed  under  the  head 
of  '  intemperance  '  in  the  table.  The  question  of  choice 
or  necessity  in  regard  to  the  tenancy  of  these  worst 
places  was  frequently  difficult  to  determine.  The 
word  '  necessity,  as  used  in  the  table,  implies  that  the 
families  classed  under  this  head  were  obliged  to  oc- 
cupy the  tenements  in  which  they  were  found  for  vari- 
ous reasons  different  from  the  five  other  causes  named. 
This  explanation  is  required  in  order  that  the  reader 
may  not  assume  that  where  persons  are  classed  under 
this  head  the  necessity  was  a  pecuniary  one.  If  this 
had  been  the  case,  the  family  would  have  been  classed 
under  the  head  of  'poverty'  or  'low  rent"  as  might 
have  been  found  most  proper.  The  necessity  in  most 
cases  was  hardly  capable  of  distinct  definition.  Some- 
times it  was  due  to  the  inability  of  families  with  large 
numbers  of  small  children  to  obtain  tenements  in  bet- 
ter localities;  sometimes  it  was  attributable  to  the  un- 
willingness of  landlords,  for  reasons  peculiar  to  the 
case,  to  admit  the  family  to  better  tenements  ;  the 
nationality  and  occupation  of  the  family  were  some- 
times found  to  be  factors  in  determining  tjae  tenancy, 
and  sometimes  the  necessity  of  residing  near  the  place 
of  employment  obliged  the  family  to  occupy  the  tene- 
ment. When  proximity  to  the  place  of  employment 
was  distinctly  the  controlling  cause,  however,  the  fam- 
ilies have  been  included  under  the  head,  'nearness  to 
work.'  As  to  the  matter  of  'choice,'  one  of  the  causes 
specified  in  the  table,  it  should  be  said  that  while  it 
may  seem  strange  that  any  one  should  deliberately 
choose  a  tenement  of  this  class,  it  is  nevertheless  true 
that  manv  recent  accessions  of  certain  nationalities 
prefer  to  live  in  proximity  to  neighbors  of  the  same 
nationality,  and  are  not  unwilling  to  occupy  poor  tene- 
ments or  tenements  in  poor  neighborhoods  to  gratify 
this  preference ." 

Concerning  the  moral  conditions  in  the  tene- 
ments, the  Rev.  J.  O.  S.  Huntington  writes  in 
the  Forum  : 

"Take  one  block  in  a  tenement- house  district.  It 
will  measure  700  by  200  feet.  On  all  four  sides  are 
rows  of  tenements  four  or  five  stories  high.  Behind 
one  third  of  the  houses  in  these  rows  are 
rear  houses,  with  smaller  rooms,  darker 
and  dirtier  passages,  backed  often  by  Tenement 
another  rear  house,  a  brewery,  a  stable  Life, 
or  a  factory.  Altogether  there  are  1736 
roonis.  In  these  rooms  live  2076  souls, 
divided  into  460  families  ;  thus,  on  the  average,  each 
family  of  five  persons  occupies  three  rooms.  The 
population  of  some  parts  of  New  York  is  290,000  to  the 
square  mile— the  most  densely  populated  part  of  Lon- 
don has  170,000.  Of  course  in  many  cases  the  family  is 
larger  (some  of  the  very  poorest  people  take  lodgers), 
and  in  a  number  of  cases  we  have  found  14  or  15  grown 
persons  occupying  two  rooms,  or  even  one.  And  then 
many  of  these  'rooms'  are  hardly  more  than  closets, 
and  dark  closets  at  that.  Almost  all  the  bedrooms 
measure  only  seven  feet  by  nine,  and  have  but  one 
door  and  one  window.  The  door  leads  into  the  apart- 
ment that  serves  as  kitchen,  parlor,  sitting-room, 
laundry  and  workshop,  and  the  window  opens  on  a 
dark  stairway,  up  which  the  moisture  from  the  cellar 
and  the  sewer  gas  from  the  drains  are  continually 
rising.  One  fifth  of  these  rooms,  too,  are  in  basements 
below  the  level  of  the  street,  and  nearly  half  of  even 
the  outer  rooms  open  into  courts  only  20  feet  wide,  in 
which  there  are  usually  several  wooden  privies  for  the 
use  of  the  15  or  20  families  in  the  front  and  rear 
houses.  .  .  . 

"  At  all  seasons  of  the  year  the  inhabitants  of  a  tene- 
ment-house must  meet  one  another  in  the  entries  (some- 
times less  than  three  feet  wide),  on  the  stairs,  at  the 
sink  (there  is  but  one  on  each  floor) ;  must  see  Into  one 
another's  rooms  as  each  person  goes  in  and  out ;  must 
use  the  roof,  the  doorway,  the  yard,  in  common.  But 
when  the  summer  heats  are  on,  and  men  and  women 
crowd  together  on  the  top  of  the  house  waiting  for  a 
breeze  to  come-,  when  men  will  sit  all  night  on  a  seat 
in  the  park  to  escape  the  closeness  of  a  room  where 
fire  has  been  burning  all  day  (not  for  cooking,  but  to 
heat  the  irons  for  the  laundry  or  the  tailor's  shop)  ; 
when  every  window  must  stand  open  to  let  in  what 
little  air  there  is  ;  then  it  may  be  seen  that  privacy  in 
a  tenement-house  Is  not  much  more  possible  than  in  an 
eastern  caravansary  or  in  the  steerage  of  an  emigrant 
vessel.  At  such  a  time  every  loud  word  spoken  reaches 
the  ears  of  scores  of  people.  From  one  room  come  the 
harsh  tones  of  a  husband  and  wife  in  the  heat  of  a 
'family  quarrel,'  oaths  and  imprecations  ringing  out  on 
the  fetid  air ;  from  another  window  come  the  shouts 


Tenements. 


Tenements. 


and  frantic  laughter  of  men  and  women  (God  pity 
tnem  !)  trying  to  drown  their  misery  in  liquor  from  the 
gm  mill  on  the  corner  ,  while  from  the  roof  of  a  neigh- 
boring house  come  the  words  of  a  ribald  song  flung 
out  shamelessly  to  all  within  hearing,  whether  they 
choose  or  not.  And,  as  if  this  were  not  debasing 
enough,  in  many  of  these  blocks  every  other  house  has, 
on  the  ground  floor,  a  saloon  or  rum  shop,  from  which 
the  smell  of  alcohol  issues  at  all  times ;  where  the 
monotonous  click  of  balls  on  the  pool  table  sounds  till 
after  midnight,  when  it  gives  place  to  the  howls  of 
drunken  men  turned  out  on  the  street  ;  and  past  the 
door  of  which,  often  open  into  the  entry,  every  person, 
every  child,  in  the  house  must  pass  to  and  from  his 
room.  .  .  . 

"  But  this  by  no  means  exhausts  the  abominations  of 
the  system  of  tenement  house  life.  There  is  many  a 
4  home  '  where  a  boy  or  girl  over  14  years  old  would  not 
think  of  passing  an  evening  unless  compelled  to  do  so. 
Think  of  coming  back  after  a  hard  day's  -work  in  a 
shop  to  find  the  only  sitting-room  half  filled  with  wash- 
tubs,  the  baby  crying,  children  squabbling  on  the  floor, 
or  perhaps  tumbling  about  on  the  bed  ;  the  walls  hung 
with  the  soiled  clothes  and  dresses  of  the  family  ;  the 
whole  place  reeking  with  the  smell  of  fat  and  garlic 
from  the  hot  stove  ;  the  table  '  set"  with  coarse,  broken 
china,  strewn  on  a  dirty  board  ;  a  kerosene  lamp,  with- 
out a  shade,  smoking  in  the  middle  ;  a  loaf  of  bread  in 
the  brown  paper  in  which  it  was  wrapped  at  the 
bakery,  and  a  coffee-pot  of  black,  bitter  coffee.  That 
is  the  scene  which  welcomes  many  a  girl  or  boy,  just 


beginning  to  realize  how  differently  other  people  live. 
Is  it  strange  that  they  gulp  down  their  sugarless  coffee 
and,  at  the  first  chance,  slip  out  into  the  street  beneath? 

"  I  am  quite  aware  that  much  of  what  I  have  written 
will  seem  overstated.  It  seems  so  to  me,  and  yet  I 
know  that  it  is  not.  Every  single  fact  has  been  veri- 
fied and  can  be  verified  in  thousands  of  cases.  And 
this  is  not  more  than  half  the  truth  ...  of  the  horrors, 
of  a  state  of  things  where  manhood  is  brutalized, 
womanhood  dishonored,  childhood  poisoned  at  its  very 
source. 

11  That  is  the  present  witness  of  those  who  have 
looked  unflinchingly  at  the  facts.  Two  clergymen, 
one  of  them  the  rector  of  one  of  the  largest  of  our  city 
churches,  the  other  now  a  missionary  bishop,  formerly 
a  hard-working  priest  among  the  city  poor,  have  re- 
cently given  public  utterance  to  the  statement  that  in 
many  tenement-houses  morality  is  practically  impossi- 
ble.1' 

II.  STATISTICS. 

The  following  table  gives  the  statistics  of 
population,  families,  dwellings,  and  area  in  the 
12  largest  cities  of  the  United  States,  as  com- 
piled from  the  returns  of  the  census  of  1890.  In 
the  city  of  New  York,  82  per  cent,  of  the  fami- 
lies live  in  houses  having  three  or  more  fami- 
lies. In  Philadelphia,  more  than  84  per  cent, 
of  the  families  have  each  a  house  of  its  own. 


CD 

C 

( 

<*H~^ 

FAMILIES  IN  DWELL- 

3 

o^; 

o"3 

INGS. 

& 

£  ^ 

u 

IQ 

Ert 

0 
0 

CITIES. 

a 
o 

it 

bo 

§s 

ll^l 

3  o  ho 

oj  d 

4) 
C 

£J| 

l|| 

*j 

a 

s 

MO 

bc'^ 

bC'.-< 

b£  5 

b£  C 

.-S 

M 

3 

,_s 

eH  0 

rt  *3 

c  a 

C  "  'O 

g  C  tj 

a 

s 

I 

aj 
a 

IH 

s 

a 

>  ° 

|1 

f| 

oifa 

|ftS 

">i  S 

rm  CQ 

fc 

fc 

a 

OH    . 

< 

<^ 

a 

ffi 

a 

Per 

Per 

Per 

Miles. 

•   . 

Cent. 

Cent. 

Cent. 

New  York  

T      CTC     "2O  I 

81,828 

18.52 

3.82 

82.08 

38.60 

Chicago  

6,850 

8.60 

38.80 

.86 

ortc    TIC 

5.60 

84     64 

82,282 

9  80 

2.08 

St.  Louis  

.51 

Boston  .... 

89,716 

8.52 

•7° 

34.63 

1.75 

86  654 

I5»3°8 

San  Francisco  

6.34 

.11 

82.65 

6.42 

•35 

296,908 

63,530 

33,487        25.  oc 

43.  83^            VA    88 

11,876 

8.87 

.90 

.21 

31.96 

48.49 

8.88 

•5e 

Cleveland   

Buffalo  

6.86 

.38 

20.  ii 

•57 

242,039 

48,582 

43i°°o 

37-09 

'6,526 

5-63 

•'3 

80.86 

7.80 

THE  MOST  CROWDED  WARDS  OF  NEW  YORK  CITY. 


WARDS  IN  NEW  YORK  CITY. 

Average 
Number 
of  Fami- 
lies to  a 
Dwelling. 

Average 
Number 
of  Persons 
to  a  Dwell- 
ing. 

FAMILIES  IN  DWELLINGS. 

Dwellings 
Having 
Over" 
Twenty 
Persons. 

Having 
One 
Family. 

Having 
Three 
Fami- 
lies and 
Over. 

Having 
Ten  Fami- 
lies and 
Over. 

IV... 

4.92 
5-So 
5-48 
7-85 
0-73 
6.69 
6.46 
6.43 

24.56 
31.20 
27-15 
38.50 

3'-43 
32.06 

S'-ZS 
27.96 

Per  Cent. 

6.50 
6.60 

3-47 
2.52 
1.62 
2.30 
4.18 
3.26 

Per  Cent. 

86.88 
90.21 
90.62 
94-57 
95.67 
93-96 
92.31 
93-65 

Per  Cent. 
50-52 

54-53 
49.86 
72.22 
Si-Si 
58.93 
64-85 
57  °7 

Per  Cent. 

38.62 
46.69 
43.96 

57-49 
57-75 
52.27 
49-50 
52-43 

VI  .. 

VII  

X  

XI  

XIII... 

XIV  

XVII  

Total  for  eight  wards  

6-39 
3.82 

30.27 
18.52 

3-13 

12.  02 

93-25 
82.08 

57-43 
38.60 

51-34 
28.84 

Total  for  New  York  City          

Tenements. 


'3*5 


Tenements, 


According  to  the  census  tor  1890,  the  following  per- 
centage cl  the  families  occupied  hired  houses:  Baltt 
more,  26.^0  ;  Boston,  26.06  ;  Brooklyn,  81.44  ;  Chicago, 
71.27;  Cincinnati.  80.82  ;  New  York,  93.67-,  Philadelphia. 
77.24  ;  St.  Louis,  79.53  ;  San  Francisco,  78.46.  In  Boston 
the  percentage  in  four  wards  ran  from  94.81  to  96.98  ;  in 
New  York,  eleven  wards  ran  97.38  to  99.14. 

For  statistics  of  density  of  population,  see 
CITIES, 

In  Europe,  altho  there  is  no  density  of  crowd- 
ing compared  with  some  of  the  wards  of  New 
York  City,  there  is  often  a  larger  proportion  of 
population  housed  in  cellars  or  in  single  rooms. 
In  Glasgow,  in  1891,  according  to  Albert  Shaw's 
Municipal  Government  in  Great  Britain 
{p.  84),  100,000  people  lived  in  one  room  and 
264,000  in  two  rooms.  The  Liverpool  Victoria 
Legal  Friendly  Society  proscribes  for  Liverpool 
alone,  on  account  of  the  unhealthiness  of  their 
character,  167  "  streets  wherein  no  members  of 
the  society  may  be  entered"  (Circular  of  Octo- 
ber 13,  1886).  Yet  these  unhealthy  streets  are 
not  too  bad  to  be  the  only  homes  of  thousands 
of  the  poorer  citizens  of  that  commercial  center. 

Of  the  1,000,000  Londoners  estimated  by  Mr. 
Booth  to  be  in  poverty,  practically  none  are 
housed  as  well  as  a  prudent  man  provides  for 
his  horse.  These  200,000  families,  earning  not 
more  than  a  guinea  a  week,  and  that  often  ir- 
regularly, pay  from  35.  to  -js.  per  week  for  filthy 
slum  tenements,  of  which  a  large  proportion  are 
absolutely  "  unfit  for  habitation,"  even  accord- 
ing to  the  lax  standards  of  existing  sanitary 
officers. 

On  the  Continent,  according  to  the  report  of 
the  consul  at  Brussels  in  1890,  there  were  at 
that  time  4601  working  men's  dwellings,  accom- 
modating 19,284  families.  The  number  of  fam- 
ilies occupying  an  entire  house  was  491  ;  three 
rooms,  1371  :  two  rooms,  8058  ;  one  room,  6978  ; 
attic  room,  2168  ;  cellar,  200.  The  average 
monthly  rental  for  one  room  was  $2.25,  and  the 
average  daily  income,  60  cents.  According  to 
the  report  on  Germany  of  the  English  Royal 
Commission  on  Labor,  in  Berlin  the  conditions 
are  specially  bad.  and  the  average  number  of 
persons  inhabiting  one  tenement  (Grundstuck} 
has  risen  from  60.7  in  1880  to  66.0  in  1885.  Sub- 
letting was  shown  by  the  census  of  1880  to  be 
exceedingly  frequent,  7  i  per  cent,  of  the  popu- 
lation took  in  persons  who  boarded  and  lodged 
with  them,  and  15.3  per  cent,  took  in  persons 
to  sleep  (Schlafleute}.  One  instance  is  given 
of  a  household  taking  34  such  night  lodgers,  in 
another  case  there  were  n,  including  two  wom- 
en. Thirty-eight  per  cent,  of  the  families  tak- 
ing night  lodgers  lived  in  a  single  room. 

Rents  in  Berlin  for  one  room  in  the  center 
ran  up  $5  per  month  in  1890  ;  in  the  inner  circle 
and  western  district  they  were  from  $2. 80  to 
$3.60  ;  in  the  outer  circle  from  $1.90  to  $2.50. 

III.  TENEMENT-HOUSE  REFORM. 
Tenement-house  reform  has  been  attempted 
in  different  ways  :  (i)  By  cleansing  the  tene- 
ments and  attempting  to  reform  the  habits  of 
those  living  in  them  ;  (2)  by  erecting  model  tene- 
ments ;  (3)  by  municipal  purchase  of  the  worst 
sections,  destroying  the  buildings,  and  erecting 
better  ones  ;  (4)  by  inducing  the  removal  of 
families  to  the  suburbs  or  to  become  owners  of 
their  own  houses. 


The  most  noted  instance  of  the  first  method  is 
the  work  of  Miss  Octavia  Hill,  in  London,  who 
began    her  work  as  early   as    1864.     She  had 
reached  the  conclusion  that  many 
people   were  not   fitted   to  live  in 
model  dwellings,   and   could   only        Bent 
gradually  be  made  so.     Moved  to   Collecting. 
pity  and  indignation  by  the  doleful 
situation,  she  unburdened  her  mind 
to  John  Ruskin,  and  said  jokingly,  in  reference 
to  a  given  property,  "  1  wish  you  would  buy  it, 
put  it  in  fair  order,  and  let  me  collect  the  rents 
for  you."    He  quickly  responded,  "  1  will,"  and 
he  did      The  experience  in  her  initial  effort  was 
so  satisfactory  that  she  has  since  made  friendly 
visitation  of  working  people  her  life-work. 

Miss  Hill  purchases  buikl'ings  put  of  repair, 
especially  those  which  are  filled  with  the  lowest 
class  that  has  any  settled  habitation.  The 
houses  are  put  in  order,  but  no  new  appliances 
of  any  kind  are  added.  The  tenants  wait  for 
these  until  they  have  proven  themselves  capa- 
ble of  taking  care  of  them.  A  fixed  sum  is  set 
aside  for  repairs  ;  if  any  of  it  remains  after 
breakage  and  damage  have  been  made  good, 
each  tenant  in  turn  decides  in  what  way  the 
surplus  shall  be  spent,  so  as  to  add  to  the  com- 
fort of  the  house. 

The  pecuniary  result  has  been  satisfactory  : 
5  per  cent,  interest  has  been  paid  on  the  capi- 
tal invested  and  a  fund  for  the  repayment  of 
capital  is  accumulated.  Miss  Hill  is  invariably 
averse  to  giving  statistics  of  the  value  of  prop- 
erty under  her  control,  the  amount  of  rentals 
received,  and  the  number  of  families  visited, 
since  she  deprecates  publicity.  Advices,  how- 
over,  indicate  that  in  1887  Miss  Hill  and  her 
friends  had  5000  dwellings  in  their  charge.  She 
believes  that  there  is  not  the  same  scope  now 
for  her  work  as  formerly,  the  attitude  of  the 
people  being  much  more  independent. 

Miss  Hill's  system  has  been  largely  copied  in 
England,  Scotland,  and  in  this  country  :  by  Miss 
Ellen  Collins  in  New  York,  Mrs.  Lincoln  in  Bos- 
ton, Miss  Edith  Wright  in  Philadelphia.  Miss 
Collins  in  New  York  bought  six  houses  on  the 
corner  of  Water  and  Roosevelt  streets.  It  was 
in  one  of  the  worst  localities,  the  resort  of  the 
worst  characters,  and  the  buildings  are  now  the 
most  orderly. 

The  plan  of  model  tenements  is  more  ambi- 
tious.    The  report  on  the  Housing  of  the  Work- 
ing People,  by  Professor  E,  R.  L   Gould,  the 
eighth  special  report  of  the  United  States  Com- 
missioner of  Labor,  describes  no  less  than  115 
enterprises  of  this  kind  in  Europe  and  Amer- 
ica.    In  Europe,  they  exist  in  al- 
most all  German  cities  and  in  many 
English  and  French.    Some  of  them       Model 
are  simply  commercial,  while  even  Tenements, 
the   semi-philanthropic  ones  have 
usually  been  made  to  pay  a  fair  in- 
terest.    The  general  plan  of  these  is  that  of  a 
central  courtyard,  around  which  the  buildings 
are  grouped  with  two  and  three-room  flats,  every 
room   opening  on    the    outer  air.     The  best- 
known  of  these  enterprises,  tho  only  one  among 
many  in  London,  is  that  of  the  Peabody  Fund. 
George   Peabody  in   1862   gave  ,£150,000,  and 
later  increased  it  to  ,£500,000  for  erecting  sani- 
tary homes  for  the  London  poor.     Under  the 


Tenements. 


1326 


Tenements. 


management  of  the  trustees  this  was  used  sim- 
ply as  capital,  and  more  has  been  added,  till  the 
fund  in  1893  was  $5,406,238.  Since  the  com- 
mencement $1,897,935  have  been  borrowed, 
mainly  from  the  public  works  loan  commission- 
ers, at  an  interest  of  about  3^  per  cent. 

The  Guinness  trust  is  due  to  the  beneficence 
of  Lord  Iveagh  (Edward  Cecil  Guinness),  who 
in  recent  years  made  a  gift  of  ^250,000  ($1,216,- 
625)  to  improve  the  living  environments  of  work- 
ing people.  Two  hundred  thousand  pounds 
($973.300)  was  to  be  spent  in  London  and  £50,- 
ooo  ($243,325)  in  Dublin.  By  the  terms  of  the 
trust  the  poorer  element  only  among  the  work- 
ing people  was  to  be  accepted  as  tenants,  and 
the  net  returns  were  to  be  applied  to  perpetuat- 
ing the  work.  Provision  for  3245  people  has 
already  been  made  in  London. 

The  Guinness  trust  has  not  yet  completed  its 
work  in  London.  Four  different  estates  have 
been  created,  containing  in  all  263  one-room, 
541  two-room,  and  139  three-room  tenements. 
Three  thousand  two  hundred  and  forty-five  per- 
sons were  housed  in  all  these  buildings  during 
the  fiscal  year  1893. 

There  are  numerous  other  such  enterprises  in 
London — some  600  "model"  tenements  in  all, 
tho  not  all  of  them  are  model.  Many  of  them 
are  simply  commercial.  Says  Professor  Gould  : 

"  Of  the  160,000  people  in  London,  who  live  in  real, 
not  sham,  model  tenement-houses,  less  than  25  per 
cent,  reside  in  premises  owned  by  philanthropic  cor- 
porations like  the  Peabody  and  Guinness  trusts.  The 
remainder  are  tenants  of  individual  owners  and  of 
companies  who  expect  and  receive  remunerative  com- 
mercial returns  upon  their  investments." 

In  Germany,  such  enterprises  are  very  com- 
mon, tho  not  so  extensive,  and  are  usually  suc- 
cessful. 

In  New  York  City  the  principal  efforts  toward 
furnishing  improved  dwellings  to  the  poor  have 
been  made  by  the  Improved  Dwelling  Associa- 
tion, of  which  Mr.  W.  B.  Cutting,  R.  F.  Cutting, 
D.  Willis  James,  S.  D.  Babcock,  Cornelius  Van- 
derbilt,  J.  W.  Pinchot,  John  Claflin,  George 
Bliss,  and  Dennison  Wood  are  trustees  ;  by 
Messrs.  R.  Fulton  Cutting  and  W.  Bayard  Cut- 
ting, in  a  separate  enterprise  ;  by  the  New 
York  Tenement-House  Building  Company  and 
Association,  of  which  Mr.  Joseph  Drexel,  Mr. 
Oswald  Ottendorfer,  and  Dr.  Felix  Adler  have 
been  and  are  the  animating  spirits  ;  by  the 
Chichester  estate  ;  by  Miss  Ellen  Collins  and 
by  Mr.  Sloan.  In  Brooklyn,  Mr.  Alfred  T. 
White,  now  commissioner  of  public  works,  has 
carried  out  an  enterprise  which  has  been  an  ob- 
ject lesson  not  only  to  New  York  but  to  the 
whole  country. 

The  general  idea  being  the  same,  a  mere 
mention  may  be  made  of  some  other  undertak- 
ings. 

The  Improved  Dwellings  Company,  of  Brook- 
lyn, is  the  outgrowth  of  a  successful  experiment 
in  providing  model  tenements  for  working  peo- 
ple by  Mr.  Alfred  T.  White.  Nearly  20  years 
ago  he  made  a  private  investment,  and  succeed- 
ed so  well  that  he  induced  other  members  of  his 
own  family  to  cooperate  in  the  work.  The  re- 
sult has  been  the  erection  of  buildings  acommo- 
dating  nearly  500  families,  and  the  most  satis- 
factory demonstration  which  has  probably  yet 


occurred  in  this  country  of  the  financial  success- 
which  may  attend  this  form  of  philanthropy. 

The  Astral  Apartments,  also  of  Brooklyn,  are 
owned  by  the  Pratt  Institute,  and  accommo- 
date some  325  persons.  Such  are  but  a  few  of 
similar  undertakings  in  New  York  and  Brook- 
lyn. In  Boston,  a  cooperative  building  com- 
pany was  incorporated  in  1871.  In  Philadel- 
phia, Mr.  Theodore  Starr  has  been  active  in 
this  line.  Almost  all  of  these  enterprises  have 
been  financially  successful.  Says  Professor 
Gould  of  them  in  an  article  in  the  Yale  Review 
for  May,  1896,  based  on  his  report : 

"There  is  no  combination  so  mellifluous  as  philan- 
thropy and  dividends.  Humanity  is  never  averse  to 
simultaneous  expansions  of  heart  and  pocket.  .  .  . 

"  In  America,  out  of  the  avowedly  commercial  en- 
terprises engaged  in  furnishing  improved  housing 
facilities,  but  one  paid  less  than  5  per  cent.;  9.96 and  i» 
per  cent,  represent  the  maximum  of  net  profits  in  two 
specific  instances.  The  reason  alleged  for  being  tem- 
porarily unable  to  earn  more  than  2  per  cent,  in  the 
single  exceptional  case  was  a  certain  prejudice  against 
the  appearance  of  the  building,  which  working  men 
thought  looked  too  much  like  a  barrack  or  public  in- 
stitution. This  notion  bids  fair  to  pass  away,  since 
families  who  came  to  live  there  show  a  tendency  to 
remain. 

"  Of  the  two  American  semi-philanthropic  housing: 
corporations  mentioned,  both  earned  up  to  the  fixed 
limit— viz.,  4  per  cent.,  and  in  addition  from  &  to  i{4  per 
cent,  for  reserve. 

"  In  Europe  but  3  out  of  the  29  commercial  housing- 
enterprises  failed  to  earn  at  least  4  per  cent.,  while  i9> 
earned  5  per  cent,  and  upward." 

Municipal  undertakings  are  mainly  confined 
to  Great  Britain.  In  1866  Glasgow  redeemed  a 
tract  of  86  acres.  Mr.  M.  T.  Reynolds,  in  his 
monograph  on  The  Housing  of  the  Poor  in 
American  Cities,  published  by  the  American 
Economic  Association,  says  of  this  enterprise 
in  Glasgow  and  of  similar  ones  in  other  English 
cities  : 

"  The  city  of  Glasgow  may  serve  as  an  excellent  ex- 
ample of  expropriation,  not  only  because  of  the  large 
scale  on  which  the  work  was  undertaken,  but  because 
of  the  shrewdness  with  which  it  was  carried  out  and 
the  good  results  that  followed.  The  city  is  very  old, 
and,  like  all  medieval  towns,  densely  built.  The  lines 
of  the  streets  in  the  older  parts  of  the  town  had  not 
been  disturbed,  tho  the  buildings  had  been  rebuilt, 
so  that  in  certainjportions  it  was  more  densely  crowded 
than  any  European  town.  The  city  was  a  maze  of 
narrow  and  filthy  streets,  with  lanes  and  alleys  lined 
with  old  decaying  houses,  in  which  swarmed  a  popu- 
lation so  dense  that  in  some  cases  it  reached  1000  to 
the  acre. 

"  In  1866  a  plan  was  devised  for  redeeming  a  tract  of 
88  acres,  comprising  the  whole  of  the  ancient  town. 
Authority  was  obtained  from  Parliament  to  purchase 
property  and  tear  down  buildings,  the 
expense  of  which  was  to  be  met  by  a 
tax  or  rental  of  sixpence  on  the  pound    Municipal 
for    five    years,   and    twopence    for    10  •c-T,t-VT>vicf> 
years  longer.     This  tax   was  reduced  ^"terprises. 
to  fourpence  after  the  first  year.    The 
ground  purchased  was  cleared,  streets 
were  laid  out  and  the  property  was  resold  to  be  built 
on  by  new  owners.     The  financial  management  was 
admirable.      ^350,000,    raised  by   taxation,    furnished 
sufficient  capital  for  all  improvements,  and  the  net 
cost  to  the  city,  including  suits  lost,  interest  on  cost 
of  land  lying  idle,  and  all  expenses  of  management, 
is  estimated   at   about  ^180,000.      Artificial  elevation 
of  prices  by  land-owners,  in  view  of  a  sale  to  the  city, 
was  avoided  by   judicious    management.      All    bar- 
gains were  made  individually,  by  a  private  agent,  and 
no  striking  improvement,  w'hich  should  enhance  the 
value  of  the  land  at  any  given  point,  was  undertaken 
until  all  the  land  affected  by  it  had  been  purchased. 

"Tenants  in  the  purchased  dwellings  were  not 
evicted  until  places  could  be  found  for  them  else- 
where. The  knowledge  that  they  were  to  be  dispos- 
sessed caused  the  erection  of  buildings  and  tenements 
for  them  where  land  was  available,  in  the  outskirts  of 


Tenements. 


1327 


Tenements. 


the  town.  The  result  of  these  changes  was  that  the 
center  of  the  city,  in  its  reclaimed  condition,  was  built 
up  with  shops  and  warehouses,  or  houses  for  the  mid- 
dle class,  while  the  poorer  classes  were  housed  on  the 
outskirts,  a  much  healthier  condition  of  things  than 
had  before  existed. 

"  Seven  model  tenements  were  erected  at  a  cost  of 
.£90,000,  but  these  were  soon  sold  to  private  owners,  as 
they  were  found  to  be  unprofitable,  because,  being 
erected  at  the  expense  of  the  city,  they  were  consid- 
ered as  public  charities,  and  were  consequently  un- 
popular. 

"  The  death-rate,  which  had  been  32.4  per  1000  from 
1868-70,  fell  to  25.5  per  1000  from  1880-82.  The  num- 
ber of  crimes  decreased  from  10,899  in  1867  to  7869  in 
1873. 

"  Five  other  towns  where  expropriation  has  been 
tried  gave  the  following  results  : 

Total  Cost  of  Property.    Estimated  Loss. 

Swansea £61,280 £11,044 

Wolverhampton 162,307 45,307 

Derby.     86,540 37,774 

Nottingham 84,500 35,500 

Newcastle-on-Tyne..    40,000 18,300 

"  From  which  we  see  that  the  average  net  charge 
was  more  than  30  per  cent,  on  the  original  cost  of  the 
property. 

"  In  Birmingham  43  acres  in  the  worst  districts  were 
cleared,  and  a  new  street  65  feet  wide  was  run  from 
the  heart  of  the  city.  The  land  was  then  leased  on 
long  leases.  The  former  population  was  9000,  com- 

grised  in  1335  houses.     In  the  first  two  years  4904  small 
ouses,  accommodating  25,000  persons,  were  built  by 
private  enterprise.     The  death-rate    decreased    per- 
ceptibly. .  .  . 

"The" total  for  eight  streets  showed  a  reduction  from 
26  per  1000  to  20  per  1000,  a  saving  of  2400  lives  per 
annum." 

Mr.  Albert  Shaw  {Municipal  Government  in 
Great  Britain,  pp.  104,  105)  says  of  Glasgow's 
purchase  : 

"The  property  still  held  by  the  trust  is  valued,  at 
present  reduced  prices,  at  less  than  its  cost.  The  mar- 
gin of  shrinkage  has,  however,  been  practically  cov- 
ered by  current  taxation,  so  that  the  account  now 
stands  about  even— i.e.,  the  assets  and  liabilities  of  the 
trust  are  at  a  balance.  The  act  authorized  an  annual 
assessment  of  sixpence  in  the  pound  of  rental  valua- 
tion, but  the  trustees  have  steadily  reduced  the  levy 
until  it  is  now  only  a  halfpenny. 

"The  principal  improvement  made  is  a  system  of 
modern  streets  in  the  center  of  the  city  that  will  be  of 
advantage  for  centuries,  and  will  repay  the  cost  hun- 
dreds of  times  over.  Twenty-nine  new  streets  have 
been  formed  and  25  old  ones  greatly  widened  and  im- 
proved. The  old  insanitary  tenement  property  has 
not  all  been  demolished.  .  .  .  The  city  is,  therefore, 
to-day  a  landlord  on  a  large  scale,  and  is  holding  really 
insanitary  property  for  the  sake  of  the  rents,  waiting 
for  an  opportunity  to  sell  the  sites  before  demolishing 
the  buildings.  Its  rents  now  bring  in  annually  about 
$100,000,  which  sum  goes  far  toward  offsetting  the  in- 
terest charge  on  the  property  held  for  sale.  The  im- 
provement trust  has  given  the  city,  among  other 
things,  the  handsome  new  Alexandra  Park.  Since  1892 
the  trust  has,  in  various  ways,  assumed  a  fresh  ac- 
tivity. The  enlargement  of  the  city  has  made  neces- 
sary new  tasks  of  reform,  and  it  is  expected  that  Par- 
liament will  give  renewed  and  greatly  extended  pow- 
ers, under  which  various  other  areas  of  Glasgow  will 
be  subject  to  compulsory  purchase  and  reconstruction 
of  streets  and  houses." 

London  in  1875  and  1879  bought  42  acres  in 
the  heart  of  the  tenement  district  inhabited  by 
20,000  people,  and  sold  it  to  working  men  at  a 
net  loss  of  ;£  1,211,336. 

These  are  by  no  means  all  the  municipal  en- 
terprises in  England  of  this  kind.  (For  other 
enterprises  in  London,  see  LONDON  ;  COUNTY 
COUNCIL.)  Edinburgh  in  1867  dispossessed  1500 
families,  expending  $3,000,000,  and  now  has 
plans  involving  as  much  more,  to  be  spent  in 
buying  out  the  worst  slums  and  erecting  model 
tenements.  Liverpool  has  erected  several  mu- 
nicipal artisans'  dwellings. 


The  corporation  of  Liverpool  has  more  recent- 
ly erected  other  laborers'  dwellings. 

Outside  of  England  practically  nothing  has 
been  done  on  these  lines. 

The  efforts  at  inducing  the  tenement  popula- 
tion to  live  in  the  country  or  to  buy  homes  of 
their  own  have  been  very  varied.  In  the 
United  States,  England,  and  in  Scandinavian 
countries  these  efforts  have  mainly  taken  the 
form  of  building  associations  (y.v.)  and  have 
been  very  successful,  especially  in  Philadelphia. 
Three  thousand  English  societies  possess  an 
undistributed  surplus  of  $10,000,000,  and  have 
been  instrumental  in  furnishing  nearly  400,000 
homes.  Professor  Gould,  however,  says  of  this 
plan  (article  in  the  Yale  Review,  May,  1896) : 

"Cooperative  building  and  loan  associations  have 
rendered  most  valuable  individual  and  social  service, 
but,  like  all  other  forms  of  pioneer  effort,  they  may- 
be improved.  They  present  three  leading  drawbacks  : 

"  i.  Expense  to  borrowers  is  greater  than  is  abso- 
lutely necessary.      Enhanced  profits  to 
the  lender— and  he  usually  gets  them— 
come  from  the  pockets  of  acquiring  pro-        Model 
prietors  who  are  borrowers.  Dw^llinc-n 

"2.  Business  skill   of  a  high  order  is    •"wemngs. 
not  readily  available  for  management, 
involving  occasional  losses  or  failures. 

"3.  In  case  of  the  death  of  a  borrower  before  hi* 
term  payments  have  been  completed,  his  family  is 
often  obliged  to  surrender  the  home  under  disadvanta- 
geous circumstances." 

Describing  a  better  plan,  he  says  : 

"The  cheapest,  fairest  and  most  effective  scheme  for 
facilitating  the  proprietorship  of  homes  among  work- 
ing people,  in  existence  at  the  present  time,  was  origi- 
nated in  Belgium  in  1889.  It  has  had  seven  years'  trial, 
and  is  steadily  growing  in  favor.  More  than  60  com- 
panies are  now  in  operation.  Other  countries,  nota- 
bly France  and  Germany,  are  seeking  to  apply  the 
same  system.  This  measure  is  not  socialistic,  althc* 
the  loan  capital  comes  from  the  general  savings  bank 
whose  deposits  the  Government  guarantees,  and  which 
is,  therefore,  in  a  sense  an  official  institution.  The 
loans  are  not  made  directly  to  working  people,  but  to 
intermediate  agencies  which  are  responsible  to  the 
bank." 

Besides  these  enterprises,  many  firms  have 
made  efforts  to  induce  their  employees  to  pur- 
chase their  own  homes  on  improved  plans.  Such 
efforts  have  been  made  by  S.  D.  Warren  &  Com- 
pany, paper  manufacturers  at  Cumberland 
Mills,  Me.  ;  the  Rowland  Mills  Corporation  of 
New  Bedford,  Mass.  ;  the  Willimantic  Linen 
Company,  in  Willimantic,  Conn. ;  the  Merrimac 
Manufacturing  Company,  of  Lowell,  Mass.  In 
Great  Britain,  the  Lever  Brothers,  of  Birken- 
head,  Eng. ,  and  James  Smirton  &  Sons,  of  Car- 
noustie,  Scotland,  are  leaders  in  this  line.  Sir 
James  Gowan,  at  Edinburgh,  erected  the  Pilrig 
Model  Dwellings  as  early  as  1850. 

In  France,  there  are  cheap  dwellings  compa- 
nies at  Paris,  Havre,  Lyons,  Rouen,  Belfort, 
while  several  mining,  railroad,  and  other  com- 
panies have  undertaken  enterprises  of  the  same 
kind  for  their  employees.  In  Germany,  there 
are  such  companies  at  Berlin,  Barmen,  Miin- 
chen  Glad  bach,  Landsburgonthe  Warta,  Neuss, 
Mulhouse.  Many  private  companies  in  Germany 
have  erected  such  dwellings  for  their  employees 
(for  an  example,  see  KRUPP),  and  several  State 
railways  and  government  departments  have 
done  the  same. 

In  the  United  States,  outside  of  private  com- 
panies, Mr.  Robert  Treat  Paine,  in  Boston,  has 
erected  over  100  such  houses,  varying  in  price 
from  $2500  to  $6500,  In  New  York  City,  in 


Tenements. 


1328 


Thompson,  Robert  Ellis. 


1891,  a  syndicate  was  formed  with  a  capital  of 
$400,000  to  put  up  such  buildings  to  cost  about 
$3500  each.  For  efforts  at  model  dwellings  in 
communities,  see  GUISE  ;  KRUPP  ;  LECLAIRE  ; 
PULLMAN. 

It  is,  however,  generally  felt  that  none  of 
these  methods  go  to  the  bottom  of  the  question 
of  the  housing  of  the  working  classes.  Professor 
Gould  writes  in  the  closing  paragraph  of  his 
report  (see  above)  : 

"  The  problem  of  the  housing  of  working  people  in- 
cludes sanitary,  economic,  and  ethical  issues  of  the 
highest  importance,  but  a  final  solution  can  only  be 
wrought  out  along  economic  lines." 

Mr.  Jacob  A.  Riis,  closing  his  article  on 
"Tenement  Houses"  in  Johnson's  Encyclope- 
dia, says  : 

"  In  its  real  essence  the  tenement-house  question  is 
in  all  the  large  cities  of  the  world  a  question  of  trans- 
portation, and  must  be  solved  finally  along  that  line." 

W.  H.  Tolman,  Ph.D.,  writes  in  the  Arena 
for  September,  1896  : 

"  In  dealing  with  any  kind  of  a  menace  to  human 
life  in  a  great  city,  it  is  all  important  that  the  civic 
authority  should  be  delegated  ample  power  to  deal 
effectively  with  the  threatened  or  threatening  danger. 
Life  is  always  of  more  moment  than  property,  and  the 
widening  scope  of  power  delegated  to  the  munici- 
pality is  a  direct  recognition  of  this  fact.  In  American 
cities  there  is  no  authority  allowed  whereby  the  munici- 
pality may  purchase  and  clear  insanitary  areas  with  a 
view  to  schemes  of  betterment,  but  there  is  ample 
provision  on  the  statute  books  for  the  effectual  better- 
ment of  Insanitary  houses.  Till,  however,  the  indif- 
ference of  the  dwellers  'above  our  fourteenth  streets,' 
the  influence  of  vested  interests,  and  the  greed  of  the 
landlord  or  the  money-getting  machine  are  negatived, 
the  slum  will  be  with  us." 

In  the  same  article  he  quotes  the  chairman  of 
the  Committee  on  Public  Health  and  Housing 
of  the  London  County  Council  as  writing  to  him  : 

"  We  have  found  that  the  abolition  of  slums  by  buy- 
Ing  the  slum  area  outright,  as  our  law  allows  us  to  do, 
is  not  entirely  successful.  There  is  such  a  large  net 
loss  on  the  operation  financially,  that  the  ratepayers 
would  not  stand  it  long.  On  a  large  scale  it  leads  to 
overcrowding  in  the  neighborhood  of  the  displacement. 
We  have  Just  completed  a  large  scheme  of  15  acres, 
displacing  5000  people  at  a  loss  of  ,£300,000.  It  is  not 
usually  possible  to  rehouse  more  than  one  half  the 
persons  displaced.  The  other  half  crowd  other  places. 
We  have  come  to  the  conclusion  that  it  is  more  satis- 
factory to  use  the  law  severely  as  far  as  closing  insan- 
itary houses  is  concerned,  and  to  get  the  law  so  amend- 
ed that  it  will  be  illegal  to  rebuild  any  house  worn  out 
or  burnt,  unless  it  is  put  back  20  feet  from  the  center 
of  the  road  (sidewalk).  This  will  prevent  the  perpetu- 
ation of  our  slums.  Time  will  do  the  rest.  .  .  . 

"  We  are  trying  to  deal  with  overcrowding  by  de- 
centralization, that  is,  by  increasing  cheap  and  quick 
means  of  transit  to  and  from  the  suburbs.  If  we  are 
successful,  it  will  help  us  very  much  toward  solving  the 
pressing  problem,  as  land  is  comparatively  cheap  away 
from  the  center.  We  find  that  disease,  crime,  and 
death  are  in  proportion  to  the  number  of  people  in  a 
given  area." 

As  to  what  can  be  done  now  : 

"Mr.  Riis  makes  the  suggestion  that  'tenements 
may  eventually  have  to  be  licensed,  as  now  the  lodg- 
ing-houses are,  to  hold  so  many  tenants  and  no  more, 
or  the  State  may  have  to  bring  down  the  rents  that  cause 
the  overcrowding  by  assuming  the  right  to  regulate 
them  as  it  regulates  the  fares  -on  the  elevated  roads." 

(See  also  SLUMS  ;  POVERTY  ;  CITY  ;  MUNICI- 
PALISM  ;  SINGLE  TAX  ;  SOCIALISM.) 

References  :  Professor  E.  R.  L.  Gould's  Report  on  the 
Housing  of  the  Working  People  (Washington,  18155)  ; 
Report  of  the  Tenement- House  Committee  (New 
York,  i8gs) ;  Report  of  Parliamentary  Commission  on 
the  Housing  of  the  Working  Classes  (London,  1885) ;  Al- 
bert Shaw's  Municipal  Government  in  Great  Britain  ; 


Charles  Booth's  Life  and  Labors  of  the  People  (Lon- 
don) ;  J.  A.  Riis's  How  the  Other  Half  Live  (New  York). 

TEXTILE  INDUSTRIES.— (For  the  early 
developments  of  the  textile  industries,  see  FAC- 
TORY SYSTEM  ;  MANUFACTURES  ;  MACHINERY.)  In 
1860  the  capital  invested  in  textile  industries 
was  $150,080,852.  In  1890  it  was  $739,973,661, 
an  increase  of  393  per  cent.,  while  the  product 
increased  from  $214,740,614  to  $721,949,262,  or 
236  per  cent.  Eighty-nine  per  cent,  of  the  tex- 
tile industries  of  the  United  States  are  in  New 
England  and  the  Middle  States,  50  per  cent,  in 
New  England.  The  importance  of  the  industry 
in  value  and  quantity  of  product  excels  that  of 
any  other  industry.  Cotton  (q.v.}  is  the  most 
important  part  of  the  industry.  In  1860  there 
were  1091  establishments  manufacturing  cotton, 
and  in  1890  only  905,  yet  the  average  number 
of  spindles  per  establishment  had  increased  from 
4799  to  15,677,  and  the  average  product  from 
$106,033  to  $296,112. 

The  capital  invested  in  the  United  States  on 
the  different  branches  of  the  woolen  manufac- 
tures was,  in  1860,  $38,814,422,  and  in  1890  $245,- 
886,743.  The  looms  and  spindles  increased  from 
16,075  and  639,700  to  69,658  and  2,793,147  respec- 
tively. The  number  of  establishments  increased 
217.  There  were,  in  1860,  213  establishments 
engaged  in  making  carpets,  with  a  capital  of 
$4,721,768  and  a  product  of  $7,857,636.  In  1890 
there  were  only  173  establishments,  with  a  capi- 
tal of  $38,208,824,  a  product  of  $47,770,193. 
Forty-six  per  cent,  of  this  industry  is  located 
near  Philadelphia.  In  1850,  in  wool,  hosiery, 
and  cotton  factories,  women  furnished  57  per 
cent,  of  the  employees  ;  in  1890,  48  per  cent. 
The  industry  passed  out  of  the  home  stage  about 
1830  and  entered  the  factory  stage,  where  Amer- 
ican girls  largely  worked.  To-day,  English  and 
French  Canadian  workmen  are  the  rule.  The 
hygienic  condition  of  the  factories  has  much 
improved.  Wages  in  cotton  factories  were  about 
44  cents  a  day  from  1820-30  ;  about  90  cents 
from  1830-50  ;  $1.03  from  1850-60.  In  1873  they 
were  $1.49  ;  in  1891,  $1.24.  In  woolen  mills 
wages  were  $1.12  before  1830  ;  86  cents  in  1860  ; 
$1.28  in  1873,  and  $1.38  in  1891.  (See  WAGES.) 
Labor  organizations  began  in  the  textile  trades 
soon  after  the  development  of  textile  factories, 
and  have  played  a  large  part  in  the  American 
labor  movement,  especially  in  the  agitation  for 
shorter  hours.  (See  SHORT- HOUR  MOVEMENT.) 
Strong  local  unions  have  been  developed,  how- 
ever, rather  than  large  national  unions.  There 
is,  however,  a  National  Cotton  Mill  Spinners' 
Association  of  America  and  a  National  Union 
of  Textile  Workers.  The  spinners'  union  at 
Fall  River  is  one  of  the  strongest  in  the  country. 
In  England,  the  strongest  textile  unions  are  the 
Amalgamated  Association  of  Operative  Cotton 
Spinners,  the  Northern  Counties  Amalgamated 
Association  of  Weavers,  and  the  Amalgamated 
Association  of  Card  and  Blowing  Room  Opera- 
tives. An  International  Textile  Federation  is 
being  agitated  in  Europe. 

THOMPSON,     ROBERT     ELLIS,    was 

born  near  Lurgan,  in  the  north  of  Ireland,  in 
1844,  and  emigrated  to  America  with  his  par- 
ents in  1857.  Graduating  at  the  University  of 
Pennsylvania  in  1865,  he  received  the  de- 


Thompson,  Robert  Ellis. 


1329 


Thrift. 


gree  of  M.A.  in  1868,  and  was  chosen  instructor 
in  the  university  in  that  year,  and  Professor  of 
Social  Science  in  1871,  and  transferred  to  the  pro- 
fessorship of  History  and  English  Literature  in 
1 88 1.  In  1892  he  was  elected  Professor  of  His- 
tory and  Literature  in  the  Wayne  Institute  of 
Science.  He  has  lectured  on  protective  tariffs 
in  Harvard,  Yale,  Princeton,  Cornell,  Amherst, 
Williams,  and  other  colleges,  in  the  first  two 
by  appointment  of  the  corporation.  His  main 
works  are  :  Social  Science  and  Natural  Econ- 
omy (1875),  partly  rewritten  as  Elements  of 
Political  Economy  (1882)  ;  Protection  to  Home 
Industry  (1886)  ;  The  Divine  Order  of  Human 
Society  (1892).  He  belongs  to  the  economic 
school  of  Henry  C.  Carey.  Professor  Thompson 
has  edited  the  American  Presbyterian  (1866- 
70)  ;  the  Pennsylvania  Monthly  (1870-81)  ;  the 
American  (1880-91) ;  the  Sunday-School  Times 
(1891).  He  also  edited  the  first  two  volumes  of 
the  Encyclopedia  Americana.  He  is  an  or- 
dained minister  of  the  Presbyterian  Church. 

THOREAU,  HENRY  DAVID,  was  borfc 
at  Concord,  Mass.,  in  1817,  his  father  being  a 
small  fanner  and  pencil-maker.  In  1837  he 
graduated  at  Harvard  College  and  returned  to 
Concord  as  a  private  tutor,  and  as  a  school- 
teacher. He  became  intimate  with  Emerson, 
being  at  times  an  inmate  of  his  home.  He  was 
soon,  a  characteristic  member  of  the  then 
new  transcendental  school.  He  supported  him- 
self by  teaching  school,  by  pencil-making,  sur- 
veying, carpentering,  and  painting,  making 
every  year  pedestrian  excursions  through  the 
woods  of  New  Hampshire.  He  was  eccentric 
in  his  dress,  manners,  and  mode  of  life  ;  and, 
it  is  said  (tho  it  is  also  denied),  never  went  to 
church,  never  voted,  and  never  paid  a  tax  to 
the  State.  In  1845  he  built  for  himself  a  wooden 
hut  in  the  woods  by  Walden  Pond,  and  con- 
tinued to  live  there — a  cultured  hermit — for 
two  and  a  half  years.  After  1849  he  lived  at 
home  with  his  parents  and  sister  in  Concord. 
In  1859  he  became  acquainted  with  John  Brown, 
and  was  so  influenced  by  him  as  to  devote  his 
life  to  the  anti-slavery  movement  till  his  death 
in  1862.  He  combined  high  culture  with  the 
quick  instincts,  discernment,  and  love  of  nature 
of  an  Indian.  He  was  a  scornful  enemy  of 
every  custom  not  based  upon  nature,  reason, 
and  morality.  His  only  works  published  in  his 
lifetime  were  A  Week  on  the  Concord  and 
Merrimac  Rivers  (1849)  ;  Walden  (1854),  but 
kept  a  voluminous  journal  and  wrote  many 
essays,  from  which  large  selections  have  since 
been  published. 

THORNTON,  WILLIAM  THOMAS,  was 

born  at  Burnham,  Eng. ,  in  1813,  and  educated 
at  the  Moravian  settlement  at  Ockbrook,  near 
Derby.  He  was  secretary  to  the  British  Consul- 
General  at  Constantinople,  1830-35,  clerk  in  the 
India  House,  London,  1835-58,  secretary  for 
public  works  in  the  India  Office  till  his  death  in 
1880.  His  main  works  were  Over-Population 
and  its  Remedy  (1845)  ;  On  Labor :  its  Right- 
ful Dues  and  Wrong/ill  Claims,  its  Actual 
Present  and  Possible  Future  (2d  ed.,  1869). 

THRIFT  has  been  recently  called  "an 
eclipsed  virtue."  It  is,  perhaps,  by  many  to- 

84 


day  too  much  condemned,  as  it  vyas  once  by 
most  too  much  praised.  In  the  period  when  an 
unbalanced  and  doctrinaire  individualism  pre- 
vailed in  economic  thought,  the  only  true  help 
was  thought  to  be  self-help.  The  only  abiding 
way  to  help  the  poor  was  to  teach  them  to  help 
themselves.  Under  this  belief  the  virtue  of 
thrift  was  continually  exalted  by  those  anxious 
to  remedy  poverty.  It  was  shown  how,  on  ex- 
actly the  same  incomes,  thrifty  persons  could 
manage  to  get  along  in  comparative  comfort, 
while  those  without  thrift  could  not  get  along 
at  all.  The  inference  was  that  the  only  way 
to  enable  the  poor  to  prosper  was  to  teach  them 
to  be  thrifty.  ' '  A  penny  saved  is  a  penny 
earned  ;"  "  Frugality  is  a  vast  revenue" — these 
were  the  lessons  taught.  It  was  shown  how 
wise  and  prudent  it  was  to  save  and  stint,  and 
then  invest  one's  small  savings,  and  so  gradually 
acquire  a  competence,  or  at  least  provision  for 
old  age  or  a  rainy  day.  Penny  savings-banks, 
post-office  savings-banks,  various  provident  in- 
stitutions were  founded  to  encourage  thrift. 

On  the  other  hand,  extreme  socialists  and 
trade-unionists  have  been  wont  to  condemn 
thrift.  Many  socialists  argue  that  the  laborer 
under  competition  can  only  get  a  living,  and 
that  if  by  thrift  he  is  enabled  to  live  cheaper, 
he  will  simply  be  enabled  to  work  for  lower 
wages.  Trade-unionists  put  the  same  view 
usually  thus  :  "  Wages  depend  on  the  standard 
of  living.  The  laborer  gets,  as  in  all  cases  of 
value,  just  what  it  costs  to  produce  him.  Cheap 
laborers  make  low  wages.  As  thrift  means 
cheap  living,  it  is  an  evil  to  the  laborers  as  a 
class,  tho  it  may  enable  one  who  practises  it  to 
get  the  advantage  of  his  fellows." 

Mr.  Hyndman,  before  the  British  Labor  Com- 
mission, argued  that  to  accumulate  money  in 
any  way  is  to  accumulate  orders  on  other  men's 
labors,  and  not  to  benefit  the  class  who  so  save. 
All  thrift  on  the  part  of  the  working  classes,  he 
held,  by  making  them  small  capitalists,  and  in- 
tensifying competition,  increases  the  evil  (Min- 
utes of  Evidence  Digest,  p.  23).  According  to 
Mr.  Bax  :  "  To  the  socialist  labor  is  an  evil  to 
be  minimised  to  the  utmost.  The  man  who 
works  at  his  trade  or  avocation  more  than  neces- 
sity compels  him,  or  who  accumulates  more 
than  he  can  enjoy,  is  not  a  hero,  but  a  fool" 
( The  Religion  of  Socialism,  p.  94).  According 
to  John  Burns,  before  the  Trade  Union  Con- 
gress at  Norwich,  "Thrift  was  invented  by 
capitalistic  rogues  to  beguile  fools  to  destruc- 
tion" (Report,  p.  55). 

The  balanced  view  between  these  extremes 
of  praising  thrift  as  the  one  thing  needful  to 
prosperity  and  of  condemning  it  as  an  evil,  is 
to  show  that  there  is  truth  on  both  sides.  Self- 
help  is  not  the  only  necessary  help.  Coopera- 
tion is  necessary.  Thrifty,  competing  individ- 
uals may  lower  their  wages  by  thrift  ;  but  thrifty 
cooperation  or  socialism  will  not  lower  wages, 
and  yet  will  save  much  for  the  individual  and 
the  community.  The  rich  as  a  class  are  much 
more  thrifty  than  the  poor.  Waste  is  never 
wise.  The  need  is  for  a  thrifty  cooperative 
community. 

Probably,  however,  the  poor  lack  in  thrift 
mainly  because  they  lack  in  the  means  of  edu- 
cation. Girls  brought  up  in  tenements,  early 


Thrift. 


Tolstoy,  Count  Leo. 


taken  from  school  or  from  home,  and  sent  to 
factory  or  store,  have  little  chance  to  learn 
thrifty,  tidy  housekeeping  like  the  well-to-do. 
Boys  with  little  training  at  home  and  less  at 
school  rarely  learn  thrift.  The  need  is  for  bet- 
ter homes  and  better  education.  Socialism  may 
lead  to  thrift,  which  it  now  denounces. 

THUNEN,  JOHANN  HEINRICH  VON, 

was  born  in  1783,  the  son  of  a  landed  proprietor, 
and  became  himself  the  owner  of  a  large  estate 
near  Rostock.  Political  economy  was  his  fa- 
vorite study,  and  in^  1826  he  published  the  first 
volume  of  his  Der  Isolirte  Staat.  It  is  still  a 
matter  of  debate  how  far  Von  Thiinen  was  a 
socialist,  but  many  of  the  opinions  to  which  he 
gives  expression  are  of  a  decidedly  socialistic 
nature.  Von  Thiinen's  inquiries  led  him  to  the 
conclusion  that  the  wages  of  a  laborer  only 
cover  the  cost  of  his  maintenance,  and  the  inter- 
est on  the  capital  employed  in  his  bringing  up  ; 
for  his  labor,  his  exertion,  he  receives  nothing 
but  his  life — i.e.,  his  necessary  subsistence. 
Von  Thiinen  thinks  that  the  only  way  to  raise 
the  wages  of  labor  is  to  increase  the  cost  of 
bringing  up  the  laborer,  and  thus  he  advocates 
the  better  education  and  training  of  the  work- 
man's children,  the  requisite  cost  being  regard- 
ed as  an  indispensable  need. 

TILLETT,  BENJAMIN,  was  born  at  Low- 
er Easton,  Bristol,  Eng.,  in  1860.  As  a  boy  he 
had  to  shift  for  himself,  and  roughed  it  in  coal- 
pits and  brick-yards  and  shoe-shops  until  he 
was  14,  when  he  went  to  sea.  He  spent  three 
years  in  the  merchant  service  and  two  years  in 
the  navy,  at  the  end  of  that  time  returning  to 
London.  By  obtaining  employment  as  a  tea 
cooper  he  was  brought  into  direct  contact  with 
dock  and  wharf  work,  and  experienced  the  evils 
of  irregular  employment.  In  1887  he  was  one 
of  the  most  active  in  organizing  the  Tea  Coo- 

Eers'  and  General  Laborers'  Association,  and 
iter  in  organizing  the  London  dockers.  (See 
DOCKERS'  STRIKE.)  Mr.  Tillett  was  elected  and 
has  since  been  general  secretary  of  the  Dock- 
ers' Union.  He  is  a  "progressive"  trade- 
unionist,  has  been  nominated  for  Parliament 
by  the  Independent  Labor  Party,  and  has  been 
chosen  an  alderman  of  the  London  County 
Council. 

TOCQUEVILLE,  ALEXIS  CHARLES 
HENRI  CHEREL  DE,  was  born  at  Verneuil, 
France,  in  1805.  He  studied  law  and  became 
an  assistant  magistrate.  In  1831  he  was  com- 
missioned to  investigate  the  penitentiary  sys- 
tem of  the  United  States.  In  1835  he  published 
his  famous  De  la  Ddmocratie  en  Amerique  (4 
vols. ,  1835-40).  In  1848  he  was  elected  to  the 
Constituent  Assembly.  In  1849  ne  was  Minis- 
ter of  Foreign  Affairs  for  four  months.  In  1856 
he  published  his  L,'  Ancien  Regime  et  la  Revo- 
lution. He  died  at  Cannes  in  1859.  An  oppo- 
nent of  democracy,  he  foretold  its  growth  in  the 
world,  and  became  one  of  its  first  historians. 
We  give  two  typical  quotations  from  his  book. 

"Democracy,"  says  De  Tocqueyille,  in  a  remark- 
able passage  (vol.  ii.  chap,  xx.),  "is  favorable  to  the 


growth  of  manufactures.  .  .  .    Manufactures  may  pos- 
sibly, in  their  turn,  bring  men  back  to  aristocracy.  .  .  _ 
In  proportion  as   the   principle   of  the 
division  of  labor  is  more  extensively 
applied    the    workman    becomes   more    Industrial 
weak,  more  narrow-minded  and  depen-     SprTritririp 
dent.      The  art  advances;  the  artizan     £ 
recedes.    On  the  other  hand,  in  propor- 
tion as  it  becomes  more  manifest  that 
the  production  of  manufactures  is   by  so  much  the 
more  cheaper  and  better  as  the  manufacture  is  larger 
and  the  amount  of  capital  employed  more  considerable, 
wealthy  and  educated  men  come  forward  to  embark  in 
manufactures.  ...     In  a  short  time  the  one  will  re- 
quire nothing  but  physical  strength  without  intelli- 
gence :  the  other  stands  in  need  of  science  and  almost 
of  genius  to  secure  success.    This  man  resembles  more 
and  more  the  administrator  of  a  vast  empire— that 
man  a  brute.  .  .  .    Hence  it  would  appear,  on  search- 
ing to  the  bottom,  that  aristocracy  should  naturally 
spring  out    of  the    bosom  of  democracy.   .   .   .     The 
manufacturing  democracy  of  our  age  first  impover- 
ishes and   debases  the  men  who  serve  it  and  then 
abandons  them  to  be  supported  by  the  charity  of  the 

Eublic.  This  is  a  natural  consequence  of  what  has 
een  said  before.  Between  the  workman  and  the 
master  there  are  frequent  relations,  but  no  real  rela- 
tionship. I  am  of  opinion,  upon  the  whole,  that  the 
manufacturing  aristocracy  which  is  growing  up  under 
our  eyes  is  one  of  the  harshest  which  ever  existed  in 
tl|e  world  ;  but  at  the  same  time  it  is  one  of  the  most 
confined  and  least  dangerous.  Nevertheless,  the 
friends  of  democracy  should  keep  their  eyes  anxiously 
fixed  in  this  direction,  for  if  ever  a  permanent  un- 
equality  of  conditions  and  aristocracy  again  penetrate 
into  the  world,  it  may  be  predicted  that  this  is  the 
channel  by  which  they  will  enter." 

De  Tocqueville's  final  conclusions  as  to  the  effect  of 
democracy  upon  social  conditions  in  America  is- 
strange  reading  to-day.  He  says,  in  part,"  great  wealth 
tends  to  disappear,  the  number  of  small  fortunes  to  in- 
crease ;  desires  and  gratifications  are  multiplied,  but 
extraordinary  prosperity  and  irremediable  penury  are 
alike  unknown.  The  sentiment  of  ambition  is  univer- 
sal, but  the  scope  of  ambition  is  seldom  vast.  Each  indi- 
vidual stands  apart  in  solitary  weakness,  but  society 
at  large  is  active,  provident,  and  powerful ;  the  per- 
formances of  private  persons  are  insignificant ;  those 
of  the  State  immense.  There  is  little  energy  of  char- 
acter, but  manners  are  mild  and  laws  humane.  If  there 
be  few  instances  of  exalted  heroism  or  of  virtues  of 
the  highest,  brightest,  and  purest  temper,  men's  habits 
are  regular,  violence  is  rare,  and  cruelty  almost  un- 
known." 

TOLSTOY,  COUNT  LEO,  was  born  Sep- 
tember 9,  1828,  at  Yasnaia  Poliana,  a  village 
and  estate  belonging  to  his  mother's  family,, 
and  situated  near  the  city  of  Toula,  in  Russia. 
His  family  has  been  intimately  associated  with 
the  history  of  Russia  for  two  centuries,  and 
ranks  among  the  higher -nobility.  He  studied 
at  the  University  of  Kazan,  and  in  1851  took  a 
commission  in  the  Army  of  the  Caucasus,  see- 
ing active  service  there,  and  later  taking  part 
in  the  defense  of  Sebastopol.  It  was  at  about 
this  period  that  he  published  his  first  novels,  in- 
cluding Childhood.  Boyhood,  Youth,  The  Cos- 
sacks, and  Sebastopol.  At  the  close  of  the 
Crimean  War  he  made  St.  Petersburg  his  home, 
and  became  a  distinguished  member  of  the  lit- 
erary society  there.  After  three  years  of  this 
life  he  traveled  extensively  aboard,  and  on  his 
return  settled  upon  his  native  estate,  became  a 
justice  of  the  peace,  and  applied  himself  to  the 
organization  and  management  of  schools  for 
the  peasants,  now  just  released  from  serfdom. 
He  also  edited  a  paper  devoted  to  popular  edu- 
cation. After  further  travel  he  married  at  the 
age  of  34,  and  made  Yasnaia  Poliana  his  per- 
manent home.  For  15  years  he  wrote  his  nov- 
els there,  separated  almpst  completely  from  so- 
ciety, and  there  his  large  family  were  born  and 
brought  up.  During  these  years  he  composed 
his  two  greatest  works  of  fiction,  War  and 


Tolstoy,  Count  Leo. 


Topolobampo. 


Peace  and  Anna  Kardnina,  which  place  his 
name  among  the  most  noted  in  the  literature  of 
the  century. 

It  was  at  the  expiration  of  this  period  and 
about  the  year  1877  that  Tolstoy  became  im- 
pressed with  the  emptiness  of  his  literary  pur- 
suits, and  began  to  ask  himself  what  the  mean- 
ing of  life  really  was. 

He  began  to  make  a  careful  study  of  the 
four  Gospels,  and  he  tells  us  how,  here  at  last, 
he  succeeded  in  satisfying  himself  (  What  I  Be- 
lieve, also  called  My  Religion*  p.  10).  He  says  : 

' '  The  text  that  gave  me  the  key  to  the  truth 
was  St.  Matt.  5  :  39,  '  Ye  have  heard  that  it 
hath  been  said,  An  eye  for  an  eye  and  a  tooth 
for  a  tooth  ;  but  I  say  unto  you  that  ye  resist 
not  evil.'  The  simple  meaning  of  these  words 
suddenly  flashed  full  upon  me  ;  I  accepted  the 
fact  that  Christ  meant  exactly  what  He  said, 
and  then,  tho  I  had  found  nothing  new,  all  that 
had  hitherto  obscured  the  truth  cleared  away, 
and  the  truth  itself  arose  before  me  in  all  its 
solemn  importance."  This  text,  "Resist  not 
evil,"  seemed  to  him  but  the  corollary  of  the 
Golden  Rule  ;  it  meant,  "  Still  do  good  to  those 
that  even  smite  and  abuse  you." 

In  his  book  entitled  Life,  Count  Tolstoy  gives 
systematic  form  to  the  theory  of  life  which  he 
deduced  from  the  Gospels.  He  maintains  that 
man  should  renounce  the  individual  aims  of  his 
life  and  devote  his  life  in  love  to  his  fellow- 
creatures,  thus  finding  his  life  in  doing  God's 
will — that  is,  in  doing  unto  others  as  he  would 
have  others  do  unto  him,  and  abstaining  en- 
tirely from  violence.  The  man  who  enters  upon 
such  a  life  is  really  born  again,  and  for  him 
there  is  no  death.  In  his  works,  What  to  Do, 
The  Kingdom  of  God  is  Within  You,  and 
others,  he  shows  the  conclusions  to  which  his 
beliefs  have  brought  him.  He  holds  that  war, 
government,  private  property  are  to  be  con- 
demned as  involving  the  use  of  force  ;  that  all 
men  should  engage  in  manual  labor  ;  that  they 
should  avoid  luxury  ;  that  all  should  have  an 
equal  right  in  the  land  ;  that  money  is  an  evil 
thing,  its  chief  end  being  the  en- 
slavement of  the  people,  and  that  a 
His  Views,  life  of  complete  chastity  is  the  ideal 
toward  which  men  should  tend. 
His  system  is  thus  seen  to  be  a 
combination  of  the  philosophy  of  St.  John  with 
the  ethics  of  the  Sermon  on  the  Mount  literally 
applied. 

The  Kreutzer  Sonata,  a  novel  intended  to 
show  the  author's  rigid  views  upon  marriage, 
was  published  about  the  year  1888,  and  was 
strangely  misunderstood,  having  been  placed 
under  the  ban  by  the  Post-Office  Department 
in  the  United  States  as  unfit  for  transportation 
in  the  mails.  In  an  article  written  in  explana- 
tion of  this  book,  Tolstoy  declares  that  event- 
ually love  for  God  and  for  one's  neighbor 
should  replace  the  physical  relations  of  mar- 
riage. 

Count  Tolstoy's  own  life  gives  a  fair  example 
of  the  application  of  his  principles.  He  has 
stripped  his  house  of  everything  not  actually 
necessary.  He  dresses  like  a  peasant  and  works 
in  the  fields,  and  has  also  learned  boot-making. 
He  now  confines  his  writing  to  the  elucidation 
of  his  moral  and  religious  ideas,  and  has  pub- 


lished many  short  moral  stories  for  the  peasants. 
He  has  become  a  strict  vegetarian,  and  never 
touches  wine,  tobacco,  tea,  or  coffee.  During 
the  famine  of  1891-92  he  and  his  family  did  an 
extensive  work  in  establishing  soup  kitchens  in 
the  stricken  districts.  The  count  has  a  consid- 
erable following  in  Russia,  altho  the  character 
of  the  government  in  that  country  makes  it 
difficult  to  ascertain  the  real  dimensions  of  such 
a  movement.  He  has  escaped  Siberia  himself 
merely  on  account  of  his  great  international 
reputation. 

Tolstoy  has  been  a  voluminous  writer,  and 
many  of  his  works  have  been  translated  into 
the  principal  European  languages.  Among 
the  English  translations,  besides  those  already 
mentioned,  may  be  named  The  Four  Gospels, 
Harmonized  and  Translated,  three  volumes, 
My  Confession,  Ivan  Ilyitch,  Family  Happi- 
ness, Napoleon's  Russian  Campaign,  Power 
and  Liberty,  The  Long  Exile,  The  Invaders, 
A  Russian  Proprietor,  Where  Love  Is,  The 
Two  Pilgrims,  What  Men  Live  By,  Master 
and  Man,  Work  While  Ye  Have  the  Light. 
It  is  to  be  noted  that  many  of  tnese  works  are 
more  or  less  autobiographical,  and  that  even  in 
the  novels  there  is  usually  a  leading  character 
who  reflects  more  or  less  distinctly  the  person- 
ality of  the  author.  He  has  also  written  several 
plays  and  some  books  on  education,  but  these 
have  not  yet  appeared  in  English. 

ERNEST  CROSBY. 

TOOKE,  THOMAS,  was  born  in  St.  Peters- 
burg, Russia,  in  1774,  the  son  of  William  Tooke, 
the  historian,  and  at  that  time  chaplain  to  the 
factory  of  the  Russia  Company,  in  St.  Peters- 
burg. Thomas  Tooke'  was  for  more  than  40 
years  successfully  engaged  in  the  Russian  trade, 
but  is  better  known  as  a  pioneer  in  the  free- 
trade  movement.  He  drew  up  in  1820  a  famous 
"  Merchants'  Petition"  for  free  trade.  He 
founded  the  Political  Economy  Club  in  1831, 
and  promoted  numerous  industrial  and  philan- 
thropic reforms.  He  is  the  author  of  numer- 
ous writings  on  currency  and  trade,  the  best 
known  being  his  History  of  Prices  and  of  the 
State  of  the  Paper  Circulation  from  ijg8-i8^6, 
etc.  (6  vols. ,  1838-57).  He  died  in  London  in 
1858. 

TOPOLOBAMPO  is  the  name  of  a  coopera- 
tive colony  situated  in  Northern  Sinaloa,  Mex- 
ico, founded  by  Albert  K.  Owen,  who  had  ob- 
tained valuable  concessions  from  the  Mexican 
Government.  A  company  was  formed  to  de- 
velop the  colony  ;  its  charter  was  filed  in  Colo- 
rado, and  the  first  colonists  were  landed  in 
Topolobampo  Bay  November  17,  1886.  An  or- 
gan of  the  colony,  the  Credit  Fonder  of  Sina- 
loa,  was  started  in  1885  in  New  Jersey  and 
moved  to  Topolobampo  in  1888,  edited  by  Mrs. 
Marie  Howland,  and  devoted  to  "  integral  co- 
operation." The  colonists  numbered,  in  1892, 
446  persons,  including  150  children. 

The  main  activities  have  been  the  developing 
of  the  natural  advantages  of  the  colony.  Roads 
have  been  built,  farms  opened,  a  stone  pier 
erected,  a  canal  dug  to  irrigate  63,000  acres, 
fruits  and  vegetables  raised,  involving  the  in- 
vestment of  many  tens  of  thousands  of  dollars. 


Topolobampo. 


Toynbee,  Arnold. 


The  main  immediately  remunerative  industry 
has  been  a  tinware  manufactory.  Family  life 
has  been  preserved,  and  till  recently  all  has  been 
prosperous.  Now,  however,  differences  have 
sprung  up.  A  Free  Land  Company  has  been 
formed  to  oppose  the  original  Credit  Foncier 
Company,  headed  by  Mr.  Owen,  and  the  life 
of  the  colony  is  in  doubt. 

TORRENS,  ROBERT,  was  born  in  Ireland 
in  1780.  He  became  major-general  in  India, 
was  for  years  in  Parliament,  and  prominent  as 
a  supporter  of  the  Reform  Bill.  His  views  on 
the  Corn  Laws  were  finally  adopted  by  Peel. 
He  died  in  1864  Among  his  numerous  writ- 
ings were  an  Essay  on  Money  and  Paper  Cur- 
rency (1812)  ;  an  Essay  on  the  Prodttction  of 
Wealth  (1821)  ;  The  Budget,  a  Series  of  Let- 
ters on  Financial,  Commercial  and  Colonial 
Policy  (1841-43). 

TQRRENS  LAND  SYSTEM.— A  system 
used  in  Australia  to  keep  the  title  of  lands  in 
a  public  registry,  so  that  a  transfer  of  titles  can 
be  made  easily,  cheaply,  and  safely,  by  simply 
recording  the  transfer  in  the  registry.  It  was 
adopted  in  Illinois  a  number  of  years  ago,  but 
soon  declared  unconstitutional  by  the  Supreme 
Court  of  that  State. 

TOTAL  ABSTINENCE.— See  TEMPER- 
ANCE ;  PROHIBITION  ;  PROHIBITION  PARTY,  Go- 
THENBERG  SYSTEM,  SOUTH  CAROLINA  SYSTEM  ; 
NATIONALIZATION  OF  THE  LIQUOR  TRAFFIC  ;  LI- 
CENSE ;  LOCAL  OPTION. 

TOWN  (from  old  English  tun,  enclosure  or 
hedge  or  farm-house)  is  a  word  used,  even  legal- 
ly, for  any  sort  of  collection  of  habitations.  As 
a  specific  term  it  is  used  (i)  to  designate  a  muni- 
cipality which  is  neither  a  city  nor  a  village  ; 
(2)  a  territorial  subdivision  which  is  a  unit  of 
local  administration.  It  is  so  used  in  New  Eng- 
land and  in  some  Western  States.  In  this  sense 
the  words  town  and  township  are  interchange- 
able. In  New  Jersey,  Pennsylvania,  and  some 
other  States,  the  word  township  is  alone  used  in 
this  sense.  In  the  United  States,  Federal  land 
statutes,  and  in  the  newer  Western  States,  the 
township  is  a  territorial  subdivision,  made  by 
the  intersection  of  meridians  and  parallels,  six 
miles  apart  and  36  square  miles,  but  is  not  a  po- 
litical subdivision. 

The  town  idea  has  reached  its  main  political 
development  in  the  six  New  England  States. 
In  the  Southern  States,  the  county  is  the  local 
political  unit,  while  in  the  Middle  and  Western 
States  a  mixed  system  prevails.  In  some  States 
the  people  can  adopt  the  town  system  if  they  so 
vote.  In  New  York,  Pennsylvania,  and  Ohio 
the  county  system  prevails,  but  the  towns  are 
vigorous  subdivisions. 

The  New  England  town,  with  its  famous  town 
meeting,  is  the  development  of  the  old  Teutonic 
tradition  of  largely  independent  local  communi- 
ties, perpetuated  in  many  parts  of 
England  to  the  days  of  the  Stuarts 
Origin.      and   brought    by  the   Puritans   to 
New  England.     In    Scotland,  the 
town  (pronounced  toon]  is  still  some- 
times used  for  a  farmhouse  and  buildings  ;  in 
the  north  of  England,  the  civil  divisions  of  a 


parish  are  called  townships  ;  in  parts  of  Eastern 
England  the  chief  cluster  of  buildings  in  the 
parish  is  called  the  town,  but,  generally  speak- 
ing, in  England  the  town  means  a  collection  of 
houses  or  a  city  as  opposed  to  the  country.    The 
New  England  town  is  the  political 
unit  that  has  grown  from  the  com- 
munities or  settlements  planted  in        Town 
New  England.     Down    to  1821  it     Meeting, 
was  the  only  political  unit  of  New 
England,  and  till  1857  it  formed  the 
basis  of  representation  in  the  State  assemblies, 
as  it  still  does  in  Connecticut.     Its  area  seldom 
exceeds  five  square  miles,  with    a  population 
varying  from  200  to  13,000,  but  averaging  about 
3000.     It  is  governed  by  an  assembly  of  all  its 
qualified  voters,  which  meets  at  least  once  a 
year  and  often  three  or  four  times.     This  meet- 
ing elects  officers  and  can  legislate.     Emerson 
says  (Historical  Discourse  at  Concord}  : 

"In  a  town  meeting  the  great  secret  of  political 
science  was  uncovered  and  the  problem  solved  how 
to  give  every  individual  his  fair  weight  in  the  govern- 
ment without  any  disorder  from  numbers."  Mr. 
James  Bryce  says  (7Yie  American  Commonwealth,  re- 
vised edition,  Part  IV.,  chap.  Ixxx.):  '  The  town 
meeting  has  been  the  most  perfect  school  of  self-gov- 
ernment in  any  modern  country.'  Jefferson  said 
(quoted  by  Mr.  Bryce,  idem,  Part  II.,  chap,  xlviii.): 
'Those  wards  called  townships  in  New  England  are 
the  vital  principle  of  their  governments,  and  have 
proved  themselves  the  wisest  invention  ever  devised 
by  the  art  of  man  for  the  perfect  exercise  of  self-gov- 
ernment and  for  its  preservation.'  " 

The  officers  usually  elected  are,  moderator, 
town  clerk,  selectmen,  town  treasurer,  school 
committee,  surveyors  of  highways,  assessors  of 
taxes,  collectors  of  taxes,  overseers  of  the  poor, 
field-drivers,  pound-keepers,  fence-viewers,  sur- 
veyors of  lumber,  measurers  of  wood,  sealers  of 
weights  and  measures.  Most  of  these  officers 
are  elected  annually.  Money  is  ordinarily 
raised  by  taxation  for  the  following  purposes— 
namely,  the  support  of  the  public  schools,  mak- 
ing and  repairing  highways,  the  care  of  the 
poor,  maintaining  the  fire  department,  paying 
the  salaries  of  the  town  officers,  paying  for  the 
detection  and  punishment  of  offenders  against 
the  law,  maintaining  burial  grounds,  planting 
shade  trees,  providing  for  disabled  soldiers  and 
sailors  and  their  families,  and  in  general  for  all 
other  necessary  expenses. 

References  :  Johns  Hopkins  Studies  in  History  and 
Political  Science,  Series  i  to  8  ;  De  Wolf's  77ie  Town 
Meeting  (1890) ;  Bryce's  American  Commonwealth, 
chap,  xlviii.  (revised  ed.,  1895). 

TOYNBEE,  ARNOLD,  was  born  in  Lon- 
don in  1852,  the  son  of  a  well-known  aurist. 
He  spent  two  years  in  a  military  college,  but 
then  left  and  spent  a  year  in  a  retired  sea-coast 
village  in  study  and  meditation.  He  next  went 
to  Oxford  and  made  a  notable  mark.  In  spite 
of  ill  health  he  was  appointed  tutor  to  the  Ind- 
ian civilians  at  Balliol  College,  and  for  a  time 
immersed  himself  in  economic  studies.  Deeply 
interested  in  the  working  classes,  he  went  to 
Whitechapel  (East  London)  and  lived,  devoting 
himself  to  improving  the  condition  of  the  poor, 
and  taking  part  in  public  and  religious  meet- 
ings. Popular  with  the  men,  he  felt  called  upon 
to  lecture  against  Henry  George's  Progress 
and  Poverty,  and  the  strain  and  excitement  of 
this  action  on  a  feeble  body,  worn  by  constant 


Toynbee,  Arnold. 


1333 


Trade-Unions. 


labors,  was  the  immediate  cause  of  his  death  in 
1883.  From  the  inspiration  of  his  example  arose 
Toynbee  Hall,  founded  in  1884.  (See  UNIVER- 
SITY SETTLEMENTS.)  His  main  work,  published 
in  partly  unfinished  condition,  after  his  death, 
is  The  Industrial  Revolution  in  England. 
Neither  a  socialist  nor  a  democrat,  he  has  strong 
tendencies  in  both  those  directions,  and  opposes 
the  doctrinaire  character  of  most  orthodox  eco- 
nomics, and  believes  that  modern  facts  show 
the  necessity  and  value  of  adopting  many  so- 
cialist principles.  He  was  deeply  interested  in 
church  reform,  and  desired  the  harmony  of 
Church  and  State,  his  conception  of  Christian- 
ity being  the  spirit  of  Jesus  applied  in  all  direc- 
tions. 

TRADE-UNIONS.  (For  ancient  and  medie- 
val labor  organizations,  see  GUILDS.)  Modern 
trade-unions  are  societies  of  working  men,  usu- 
ally of  the  same  craft,  organized  to  assist  their 
members  in  various  ways,  especially  by  grant- 
ing sick,  out-of-work,  and  death  benefits,  and 
by  combinations  to  resist  reductions  in  wages 
and  obtain  higher  wages,  shorter  hours,  and  bet- 
ter conditions  from  their  employers. 

We  consider  this  subject  under  five  heads  : 
I.  Trade-Unions  in  Great  Britain  ;  II.  In  the 
United  States  ;  III.  In  Other  Countries  ;  IV. 
•Arguments  for  Trade-Unions  ;  V.  Objections 
to  Trade- Unions. 

The  origin  of  modern  trade-unions  is  more  or 
less  in  dispute.  The  popular  theory,  adopted 
by  G.  Howell  (g.v.)  in  his  histories  of  trade- 
unionism,  from  a  hint  in  Breutano's  Origin  of 
Trade-  Unions  (which  hint,  however,  does  not 
really  bear  out  the  inference),  is  that  modern 
trade-unions  are  direct  descendants  from  the 
craft  guilds  of  the  Middle  Ages.  (See  GUILDS.) 
This,  however,  is  almost  certainly  not  the  case. 
According  to  Mr.  and  Mrs.  Webb's  History  of 
Trade-  Unionism  (p.  13),  the  theory  rests  "  upon 
no  evidence  whatsoever.  The  historical  proof 
is  all  the  other  way."  Says  Brentano  (Guilds 
and  Trade-  Unions,  p.  73),  "  These  guilds  were 
not  unions  of  laborers  in  the  present  sense  of 
the  word,  but  of  persons  who  with  the  help  of 
some  stock  carried  on  their  craft  on  their  own 
account."  (See  GUILDS.) 

More  plausible  is  the  origin  of  modern  trade- 
unions  in  the  ephemeral  associations  of  wage- 
earners  and  journeymen  which  existed  frequent- 
ly at  times  during  the  Middle  Ages  (see  GUILDS), 
and  which  were  composed  of  wage-earners  and 
journeymen  alone.  But  a  direct  connection  be- 
tween even  those  associations,  tho  quite  possi- 
ble, has  not  yet  been  historically  shown.  They 
were  too  much  under  the  ban  of  the  law  to  be 
easily  maintained,  and  above  all  the  apprentice 
(g.v.)  system  and  the  whole  guild  system  made 
too  close  a  connection  between  master  and  jour- 
neymen to  encourage  permanent  separate  asso- 
ciations of  working  men.  About  1700,  however, 
in  England  a  class  of  employees  arose  who  rare- 
ly became  masters,  and.  among  them  the  first 
trade-unions  seem  to  have  arisen.  We  there- 
fore consider  first  : 

I.  TRADE-UNIONS  IN  GREAT  BRITAIN. 

We  shall  follow  in  the  main  in  this  portion  of 
our  article  the  valuable  History  of  Trade- 


Unionism  (1894),  by  Mr.  Sidney  Webb  and  Mrs. 
Beatrice  Webb.  All  through  the  eighteenth 
century  we  have  in  England  the  steady  devel- 
opment of  the  capitalist  employer,  the  inability 
of  the  worker  to  own  or  hope  to  own  the  mate- 
rials and  the  tools  of  his  craft.  As  early  as  1720 
the  master  tailors  complain  to  Parliament  that 

"  The  Journeymen  Taylors  in  and  about  the  cities  of 
London  and  Westminster  to  the  number  of  7000  and 
upwards  have  lately  entered  into  a  combination  to 
raise  their  wages  and  leave  off  working  an  hour  sooner 
than  they  used  to  do  ;  and  for  the  better  carrying  on  of 
their  design  have  subscribed  their  respective  names  in 
books  prepared  for  that  purpose,  at  the  several  houses 
of  call  or  resort  (being  public-houses)  which  they 
use,  and  collect  several  considerable  sums  of  money 
to  defend  any  prosecutions  against  them." 

Parliament  listened,  and  prohibited  such  com- 
binations, but  the  tailors  seem  to  have  con- 
tinued their  organization,  center- 
ing around  the  "houses  of  call," 
for  in  1 8 10  a  master  declared  before  First 
a  select  committee  that  their  com-  Trade- 
bination  had  existed  over  a  cen-  Unions, 
tury.  The  Newcastle  shoe-makers 
organized  in  1719.  The  London 
Sail-Makers'  Burial  Society  dates  from  1740. 
The  Glasgow  coopers  organized  in  1752.  At 
Nottingham  in  1794,  56  clubs  joined  in  the  an- 
nual procession.  Local  friendly  societies  sprang 
up  everywhere.  The  rules  of  over  100  of  these, 
formed  between  1750  and  1820,  centered  around 
Newcastle-on-Tyne,  are  in  the  British  Museum. 
Adam  Smith  says  :  ' '  People  of  the  same  trade 
seldom  meet  together,  even  for  merriment  and 
diversion,  but  the  conversation  ends  in  a  con- 
spiracy against  the  public  or  in  some  contriv- 
ance to  raise  prices"  (  Wealth  of  Nations,  Book 
I.,  chap.  x.).  Often  a  strike  ended  in  a  perma- 
nent organization.  Combinations,  however, 
were  illegal,  and  so  were  usually  disguised  as 
sick  and  funeral  clubs,  while  perhaps  still  more 
often  dona  fide  friendly  societies  gradually  came 
to  act  as  and  finally  to  become  trade-unions. 
The  Society  of  Taylors  of  London  in  1760  says  : 
"  It  has  been  an  ancient  custom  in  the  kingdom 
of  Great  Britain  for  divers  artists  to  meet  to- 
gether and  unite  themselves  in  societies  to 
promote  amity  and  Christian  charity. "  But  the 
distinction  between  employers  and  employed 
grew  more  marked  and  was  vastly  increased  by 
the  invention  and  use  of  machinery  in  the  last 
half  of  the  eighteenth  century.  (See  MACHIN- 
ERY ;  FACTORY  SYSTEM.)  An  American  abridg- 
ment of  William  Trant's  essay  on  Trade-  Unions 
says  of  the  main  instance  of  machine  breaking, 
the  so-called  ' '  Luddite  Rising. ' ' 

"The  men  were  in  no  humor  for  reasoning  on  the 
principles  of  political  economy.  They  were  starving  ; 
and  to  their  eyes  the  new  machinery  cut  off  every 
chance  of  their  ever  working  again.  They  formed 
the  strongest  and  most  secret  combination  ever  known 
in  this  country.  Their  object  was  to  destroy  the  new 
machines,  and  for  three  years  the  havoc  they  com- 
mitted, especially  in  Yorkshire,  Lancashire,  and  Not- 
tinghamshire, was  immense.  It  was  not  until  enor- 
mous powers  were  granted  to  the  military,  the 
magistracy,  and  the  police  that  the  conspiracy  was 
brought  to  an  end  by  the  execution  of  30  of  the  ring- 
leaders." 

One  effect  of  the  factory  system  was  to  some 
extent  to  transfer  the  trade-union  centers  from 
the  larger  cities  to  the  factory  districts.  The 
Friendly  Society  of  Iron  Founders,  which  began 


Trade-Unions. 


'334 


Trade-Unions. 


in  1810,  used  to  meet  on  dark  nights  on  the 
peaty  wastes  and  moors  on  the  highlands  of  the 
Midland  counties,  and  the  archives  of  the  so- 
ciety were  buried  in  the  peat.  Made  illegal  by 
legislation  wholly  in  the  control  of  the  wealthy 
classes,  the  trade-unions  naturally  were  made 
more  lawless.  The  masters  strenuously  resist- 
ed ;  at  one  time  cannon  were  placed  in  the  Lan- 
cashire factories  (Schulze  Garvernitz's  Social 
Peace,  tr.,  p.  87).  Usually,  however,  the  op- 
position was  through  legislation.  Nor  was  even 
this  often  necessary.  The  masters  could  trust 
to  competition  alone.  In  1814  the  last  vestige 
of  the  apprenticeship  laws  was  repealed,  and 
with  it  any  attempt  to  control  wages  by  law. 
Competition  was  now  wholly  free  to  reduce 
wages  to  the  lowest  level.  It  worked  its  own 
cure  by  making  labor  combinations  necessary. 
(See  CONSPIRACY  LAWS.)  In  1824,  owing  large- 
ly to  the  efforts  of  Joseph  Hume  in  Parliament 
and  Francis  Place  (q.v.)  out  of  Parliament,  the 
freedom  to  organize  was  partially  gained,  but 
even  this  was  materially  decreased  the  next 
year  thro  the  influence  of  the  masters. 
Freedom  to  organize  was  indeed  not  wholly 
gained  till  1875,  when  the  last  vestige  of  the 
combination  laws  was  swept  away.  In  1834  six 
harmless  Dorchester  laborers  were  sentenced  to 
seven  years'  transportation  on  an  accusation  of 
playing  with  oaths  in  joining  a  labor  union.  It 
produced  intense  excitement.  A  petition  for 
their  release  was  signed  by  250,000  names,  and 
a  demonstration  took  place  in  London  with  a 
procession  of  30,000  men.  The  Government  did 
not  yield  until  1836.  Thirty  years  later  the 
public  was  again  aroused  against  trade-unions 
on  account  of  the  Sheffield  outrages,  of  which 
Mr.  Trant's  abridged  history  says  : 

"In  order  to  compel  men  to  join  their  unions  and 
comply  with  the  rules,  a  system  had  been  adopted  of 
taking  away  the  tools  and  driving  away  bands  of  in- 
dependent or  defaulting  workmen.  .  .  .    Masters  and 
workmen  who  refused  or  failed  to  comply  with  their 
rules  were  subjected  to  treatment  of  the  most  diaboli- 
cal character.    Their  cattle  were  hamstrung  or  other- 
wise  mutilated,  their  ricks  set  on   fire.     They  were 
shot  at,  and  in  one  instance  a  master  was  killed  by  an 
air  gun  fired  into  a  crowded  room.     Gunpowder  was 
usually  employed  in  the  case  of  obnoxious  workmen. 
Canisters    were    thrown    down    chim- 
neys, bottles  filled   with  explosives,  to 
Period  of     which    lighted    fuses    were    attached, 
Violence,      were  thrown  through  windows  of  the 
•workmen's  dwelling-houses,  thus  expos- 
ing women  and  children  to  its  terrible 
effects.    It  was  a  common  practice  to  place  gunpowder 
in  grinding  troughs,  which  exploded  as  soon  as  work 
was  commenced.    In    justice    to   the    great    body  of 
workmen  at  Sheffield,  it  should  be  stated  that  these 
outrages  were  committed  by  a  very  few  persons,  and 
were  at  all  times  execrated  by  the  great  body  of  the 
working  classes.    Out  of  60  trade-unions,  then  in  ex- 
istence, 12  were  implicated  in  these  outrages,  and  of 
these  it  was  shown  on  inquiry  that  the  greater  propor- 
tion of  the  members  knew  nothing  of  the  actions  of 
their  officers. 

"  The  result  of  the  Sheffield  outrages  was,  that  a 
Royal  Commission  was  appointed  in  1867  to  inquire 
into  the  matter  and  into  the  condition  of  trade-unions 
generally." 

It  was  the  report  of  this  Commission  which 
resulted  eventually  in  the  law  legalizing  trade- 
unions  in  1871,  amended  in  1875,  since  which 
such  violence  has  been  unknown. 

With  this  account  of  the  origin  of  English 
trade-unions  and  their  struggle  for  legal  recog- 
nition their  history  may  be  conveniently  divid- 
ed into  four  periods.  The  first  period,  lasting 


down  to  1825,  includes  their  origin  and  struggle 
for  recognition.  A  second  period,  down  to  1842, 
is  called  by  Mr.  and  Mrs.  Webb  ' '  the  revolu- 
tionary period,"  when  the  trade-union  move- 
ment was  dominated  by  the  Owenite  movement 
and  the  Chartist  political  agitation.  A  third 
period,  lasting  down  to  1880,  covers  the  devel- 
opment of  trade-unions  into  strong  trade  bene- 
fit societies,  largely  ignoring  and  sometimes 
even  opposing  political  action.  The  last  period, 
reaching  to  the  present,  includes  the  develop- 
ment and  then  the  partial  subsiding  of  the  first 
wave  of  what  is  called  the  new  trade-unionism. 
(See  NEW  TRADE-UNIONISM.) 

The  first  period  we  have  already  considered  ; 
the  second  period  really  belongs  to  Owenite 
socialism  and  to  Chartism  (see  ENGLAND  AND 
SOCIAL  REFORM)  rather  than  to  trade-unionism. 
The  Lancashire  and  Yorkshire  textile  and  tuild- 
ing  operatives  were  the  pioneers  of  this  phase  of 
the  movement.  They  tried  to  organize  all  man- 
ual workers  into  one  general  and  more  or  less 
political  organization.  The  Re- 
form Bill  of  1832  gave  them  new 
hopes.  Under  the  influence  of  an  Owenite 
Irish  spinner,  John  Doherty,  a  Na-  Period. 
tional  Association  for  the  Protec- 
tion of  Labor  was  formed  at  Man- 
chester in  1830,  representing  20  trades.  An 
organ,  the  Voice  of  the  People,  was  started, 
and  is  said  to  have  reached  a  circulation  of 
30,000.  This  association  broke  up  by  1832,  but 
then  a  builders'  union  or  general  trade-union 
was  organized.  In  1833  it  held  a  meeting  of 
270  delegates,  representing  30,000  operatives. 
Meanwhile  Robert  Owen  had  still  larger  plans, 
and  in  1834  he  organized  a  Grand  National 
Consolidated  Trade-Union.  It  was  to  unite  all 
laborers  and  to  affect  national  changes,  to  come 
upon  society  "like  a  thief  in  the  night." 
Within  a  few  weeks  it  appears  to  have  been 
joined  by  500,000  members,  including  tens  of 
thousands  of  farm  laborers  and  women.  No 
regular  dues  were  required,  and  the  meetings 
were  more  or  less  sensational.  According  to 
the  Times  of  January  30,  1834,  two  delegates 
were  seized  at  Exeter  by  the  police  and  found 
furnished  with  ' '  two  wooden  axes,  two  large 
cutlasses,  two  masks  and  two  white  garments 
or  robes,  a  large  figure  of  Death  with  the  dart 
and  hour-glass,  a  Bible  and  Testament,"  prob- 
ably used  in  initiation  ceremonies.  It  was  in 
connection  with  this  movement  that  the  con- 
demnation of  the  Dorset  laborers,  noticed  above, 
took  place.  The  alarm  of  the  Government  and 
of  society  generally  was  intense.  But  the  move- 
ment did  not  last  ;  there  were  a  few  strikes, 
easily  defeated,  and  by  the  end  of  1834  the 
movement  collapsed.  Apathy  followed,  until 
Chartism  created  a  new  wave  of  excitement. 
In  1836  Lovett  and  his  Working  Men's  Associa- 
tion commenced  their  agitation  for  the  "six 
points"  of  Chartism,  and  around  this  some  of 
the  trade-unionism  of  the  day  gathered.  A 
despair  of  constitutional  reform  led  one  wing  to 
favor  "  physical  force,"  and  this  led  to  the  in- 
surrections of  1839-42.  The  trade-unions  were 
never,  however,  a  part  and  parcel  of  this  move- 
ment, tho  many  of  their  members  and  a  few  or- 
ganized unions  did  belong  to  it.  No  unions 
contributed  to  Chartist  funds,  and  the  leaders 


Trade-Unions. 


1335 


Trade-Unions. 


of  the  unions  were  often  denounced  for  their 
apathy  by  the  Chartists.     The  virtual  collapse 
of  Chartism  in  1842  and  its  final  end  in  1848  set 
the  unions  wholly  free  to  develop  their  non-po- 
litical methods.     (For  the  passage  of  factory 
laws,  the  short-hour  movement  of  Oastler,  "  the 
factory  king,"  the  efforts  of  Lord  Shaftesbury 
-and  of  others,  culminating  in  the  ten-hour  act 
of  1848,  see  FACTORY  LAWS  ;  SHORT-HOUR  MOVE- 
MENT ;  OASTLER.)     But  after  1842  the  unions  de- 
voted themselves  to  building  up  their  own  or- 
ganizations.     Those    which    were 
Date  of  0      organized  before  this  period  now 
.     -.     "   developed  their  characteristic  pol- 
.gamzaUons.  icy  arTd    strength.     The  Friendly 
Society  of  Iron  Founders  was  or- 
ganized in  1809,  but  the  much  larger  Amalga- 
mated Society  of  Engineers  was  only  formed 
in  1851.     The  Steam  Engine-Makers'   Society 
dates  from  1824,  the  Associated  Iron  Moulders' 
of  Scotland  from  1831.     The  United  Society  of 
Boiler-Makers  and    Iron    Ship-Builders    dates 
from  1832,  as  does   also  the  Operative  Stone 
Masons'     Friendly    Society.      The     Operative 
Bricklayers'  Society  was  formed  in  1848.     The 
Amalgamated  Association  of  Operative  Cotton 
Spinners  dates  from  1853,  the  Yorkshire  Miners' 
Association  from  1858.     The  Durham  Miners' 
Association   was  not  organized  till  1869.     The 
Amalgamated  Society  of  Tailors  appears  in  1866, 
the  National  Union  of  Boot  and  Shoe  Opera- 
tives in   1874.     The   Amalgamated  Society  of 
Carpenters  and  Joiners  was  formed  in  1860,  and 
the  Northumberland  Miners'  Mutual  Confident 
Association   in  1863.     But  these  dates  do  not 
clearly  indicate  the  actual  course  of  events.    As 
a  matter  of  fact,  the  decade  from  1840-50  saw  a 
marked  revival  of  trade-unionism.     In  1843  a 
strong   Potters'    Union  and  an   active  Cotton 
Spinners'  Association  was  formed,  and  in  1844 
a  National  Typographical  Society.     Still  more 
important  was  the  Miners'  Association  of  Great 
Britain  and  Ireland,  formed  in  1841,  and  under 
the  leadership  of  Martin  Jude,  sending  out  53 
organizers  who  visited  every  pit  in  the  king- 
dom, obtaining,  it  is  said,  in  1844  a  membership 
of  over  100,000.     In  1845  a  National  Association 
of  United  Trades  for  the  Protection  of  Labor 
•was  formed.     It  was  not,  however,  political,  like 
Owen's  attempts,  and  with  modera- 
tion   and    good    management  en- 
The  Trade-  dured  15  years.    The  unions  of  this 
Union  Idea,  period,  as  indicated  by  their  names, 
were  largely  benefit  societies.  They 
expected   and    sought    little  from 
legislation,  tho  they  strenuously  fought  against 
legislative  oppression.     They  depended  on  or- 
ganizing their  own  crafts,  collecting  dues,  em- 
ploying a  paid  secretary,  aiding  unemployed 
members.     They  fought    their    employers   by 
.strikes,  and  these  tended  to  grow  more  orderly 
and  more  regulated.     Experience  taught  them 
the  folly  of  strikes  till  they  were  well  organized 
and  had  collected  large  funds.     They  passed 
numberless  by-laws  forbidding  strikes  save  with 
the  consent  of  national  committees  after  due 
examination.     The    Amalgamated    Society   of 
Engineers  formed  in  1850,  and  with  William 
Newton    as    the    prime    mover,    became    the 
model.     Later  many  trade-union  constitutions 
forbade  strikes  until  efforts  at  arbitration  had 


been  made.     The  better  organized  the  unions, 
the  fewer  were  their  strikes. 

Mr.  George  Howell,  in  the  Contemporary 
Review,  pointed  out  that 

"  In  1882,  the  Amalgamated  Engineers,  with  an  in- 
come of  £124,000,  and  a  cash  balance  of  £168,000,  ex- 
pended in  disputes  altogether,  including  the  sup- 
port they  gave  to  other  trades,  the  sum  of  £895  only. 
That  was  far  less  than  one  per  cent,  of  their  income. 
The  Ironfounders  spent,  out  of  an  income  of  £42,000. 
£214  only  ;  and  the  Amalgamated  Carpenters,  who  had 
had  a  number  of  disputes,  and  had  been  engaged  in 
strikes,  spent  £2000  only,  out  of  £50,000,  which  was  only 
four  per  cent.;  the  Tailors,  with  £18,000,  spent  £565 
only;  and  the  Stonemasons,  with  n,ooo  members  in 
union— the  report  seems  to  say  more  in  sorrow  than 
pride— spent  nothing  in  strikes.  During  six  years  of 
unexampled  bad  trade,  reduction  of  wages,  and  in- 
dustrial disturbance,  there  were  a  great  many  strikes, 
and  during  that  period  seven  great  trade  societies  ex- 
pended in  the  settlement  of  disputes  £162,000  only,  out 
of  a  capital  of  nearly  £2,000,000. 

In  the  northern  provinces,  and  especially 
among  the  miners,  the  policy  was  favored  of  de- 
termining wages  by  agreement  with  the  masters, 
according  to  a  sliding  scale  (g.v.).  The  develop- 
ment of  strong  unions  of  this  sort  with  large 
funds  and  wise  management  developed,  too,  the 
prominent  trade-union  leaders  who  have  played 
so  large  a  part  in  the  English  movement — Will- 
iam Allan  (g.v.~),  of  the  engineers ;  Robert 
Applegarth  (y.v.),  of  the  carpenters  ;  Daniel 
Guile,  of  the  ironfounders  ;  Edwin  Coulson, 
of  the  bricklayers  ;  George  Odger,  of  the  shoe- 
workers  ;  John  Kane,  of  the  iron-workers  ;  T.  J. 
Dunning,  of  the  bookbinders.  Younger  men 
of  the  same  type,  mainly  living  to-day,  are  Alex- 
ander Macdonald  (g.v.),  Thomas  Burt  (q.v.}, 
of  the  miners  ;  John  Prior,  George  Howell 
(g.v.),  Henry  Broadhurst  (g.v.),  George  Ship- 
ton,  of  the  building  trades. 

These  men,  however,  by  no  means  wholly 
eschewed  politics.  As  the  great  amalgamated 
societies  were  formed,  with  their  national  head- 
quarters usually  in  London,  it  threw  together 
some  of  the  strong  men  named  above,  who  de- 
veloped somewhat  of  a  political  policy.  Ap- 
plegarth, Allan,  Guile,  Coulson,  and  Odger 
thus  worked  together  in  an  understanding 
which  Mr.  and  Mrs.  Webb  have  termed  a  "  Jun- 
ta. ' '  They  combined  a  very  conservative  and 
cautious  policy  of  building  up  their  own  unions, 
with  efforts  at  gaining  such  political  reforms  as 
the  extension  of  the  franchise,  amendment  of 
the  master  and  servant  law,  the  mines  and  fac- 
tory regulation  acts,  national  education,  and  the 
full  legalization  of  trade- unions.  They  followed, 
however,  no  definite  economic  policy.  Allan 
joined  the  International  (q.v.},  but  subscribed 
with  equal  satisfaction  to  the  dogmatic  indi- 
vidualism of  the  English  radicals.  Only  slowly 
could  these  men  interest  their  unions  in  politi- 
cal reforms.  In  1874  there  was  something  of  a 
trade-union  political  movement.  Nevertheless, 
as  late  as  1882  and  1883  amendments  in  favor 
of  manhood  suffrage  were  defeated  in  trade- 
union  congresses  by  large  majorities. 

Progress  on  trade-union  lines,  however,  was 
steady.  Between  1858  and  1867  permanent 
trade  councils  began  to  be  formed  in  the  lead- 
ing centers,  composed  of  delegates  from  the 
various  local  unions.  The  first  permanent  com- 
mittee of  the  nature  of  a  trades  council  seems 
to  have  been  at  Liverpool  in  1848.  By  1860 


Trade-Unions. 


Trade-Unions. 


they  were  common.     The  London  Trade  Coun- 
cil was  established  in  1861.     Out  of  these  coun- 
cils came  the  trade-union  congresses,  now  the 
great  British  parliaments  of  labor. 
An   important    special    conference 
Congresses,  was  held  in  London  in  1864.     The 
first  annual  conference  was  held  at 
Manchester  in  1868,  and  after  1875 
became  a  power.  What  political  action  was  taken 
by  trade-unionists  at  this  period  was  usually  in 
connection  with  the  Liberal  Party.     This  grew 
up  naturally  as  a  result  of  the  efforts  on  the  part 
of  the  union  leaders  to  gain  legal  recognition 
for  their  unions.     It  was  necessary  to  use  argu- 
ments that  would  appeal  to  middle-class  pol- 
iticians, since  the  Tory  democracy  was  not  yet 
progressive  enough  to  endorse  trade-unions  in 
any  form.     The  argument  that  most  appealed 
to  the  middle-class  politicians  was  the  Liberal 
argument  of  the  freedom  of  the  individual  to 
sell  his  labor  as  he  pleased — if  he  wished,  indi- 
vidually ;  if  he  wished,  collectively. 

At  the  general  election  of  1874  Alexander 
Macdonald  {g.v.)  and  Thomas  Burt  (g.v.}  were 
elected  to  Parliament  as  Liberals  from  Stafford 
and  Morpeth— the  first  labor  members.  Seven- 
teen other  labor  candidates  went  to  the  polls  at 
this  election,  and  the  miners,  ironworkers,  and 
some  other  unions  voted  money  for  campaign 
expenses.  It  was  this  showing  of  the  strength 
of  labor  at  the  polls  which  made  the  victorious 
Conservative  Party  in  1875  pass  the  bill  finally 
legalizing  labor  combinations.  Nevertheless, 
the  mass  of  the  trade-unionists  had  little  hope 
from  legislation.  The  trade-union  congresses 
since  1871  had  annually  elected  a  parliamentary 
committee  of  10  men  and  a  secretary,  but  so 
doing  had  left  all  legislative  matters  in  their 
hands,  and  such  measures  were  not  even  dis- 
cussed in  the  congresses.  Mr.  Henry  Broad- 
hurst  from  1875-89  was  annually  elected  secre- 
tary of  the  committee  without  a  contest,  ceding 
the  post  while  Under  Secretary  of  State  for  the 
Home  Department  in  1886  to  Mr.  George  Ship- 
ton,  Secretary  of  the  London  Trades  Council, 
The  policy  of  the  Parliamentary  Committee 
became  one  of  almost  pure  laissez  faire,  they 
even  opposing  attempts  to  shorten  hours  by 
legislation.  The  unions  became  in  some  re- 
spects little  more  than  great  benefit  societies, 
caring  for  their  own  organ  izations.  From  1875- 
85,  say  Mr.  and  Mrs.  Webb,  the  predominant 
feature  in  the  trade-union  world  was  an  extreme 
and  complicated  sectionalism.  London  became 
less  of  a  trade-union  center,  and  the  unions  de- 
veloped in  different  portions  of  the  country  dif- 
ferent trade  policies. 

The  last  period,  beginning  about  1880.  has 
seen  a  change.     This  has  been  caused  by  the 
appearance  of  the  so-called  new  ttnionism.    (For 
a  full  account  of    this,   see  NEW 
UNIONISM.)    It  may  be  described  in 
New        brief  as  the  effect  of  recent  English 
Unionism,    socialism  on  the  trade-unions.    The 
new  socialism  which  began  to  ap- 
pear about  1882  made  some  of  the 
younger  men,  like  Tom  Mann  and  John  Burns 
(<?.v.),  dissatisfied  with    the  conservative  and 
non-political  methods  of  the  older  unions.    The 
great  dock  strike  (g.v.)  of  1886  and  the  match 
strike,  together  with  the  London  agitation  of 


the  unemployed,  created  great  excitement,  and 
enabled  the  younger  leaders  to  organize  un- 
skilled workmen  in  large  numbers  and  come  to 
the  trade-union  congresses  as  the  representa- 
tives of  large  and  enthusiastic  unions.  The 
policy  of  these  new  unions  favored  all  forms  of 
socialistic  legislation,  especially  the  reduction 
of  the  hours  of  labor  by  law.  A  Congress  of 
the  General  Railway  Workers'  Union  in  1890- 
resolved  that  "  the  union  shall  remain  a  fight- 
ing one,  and  shall  not  be  encumbered  with  any 
sick  or  accident  fund."  The  delegates  of  these 
unions  soon  had  an  effect  upon  the  trade-union 
congresses.  At  first  they  were  voted  down. 
By  1800,  however,  a. majority  in  the  congress- 
favored  the  new  unionism,  and  the  resolutions 
kept  growing  more  politically  progressive  till 
1895.  This  tendency  was  aided  by  the  forma- 
tion of  the  Independent  Labor  Party  (g.v.). 
Since  the  general  election  of  1895,  however, 
somewhat  of  a  reaction  has  taken  place.  Some 
of  the  newly  formed  unions  of  unskilled  labor- 
ers have  been  broken  up  or  have  been  mate- 
rially reduced  in  numbers.  Others  have  learned 
that  socialism  cannot  be  won  in  a  day.  The 
older  and  stronger  unions  have  gained"  new 
power  by  making  representation  in  the  con- 
gresses proportionate  to  the  size  of  the  unions. 
The  congress  of  1896  was  more  conservative,, 
and  English  trade-unionism  has  come  to  a  more 
balanced  support  both  of  political  and  of  non- 
political  trade  action.  At  the  1896  congress  the 
resolutions  most  emphatic  favored  the  reduction, 
of  hours  to  eight,  employers'  liability,  the  edu- 
cation of  children  and  the  limitation  of  child 
work. 

The  recent  statistics  of  British  trade-unions 
are  as  follows  : 

In  1883  there  were  195  unions,  with  253,088  members  ;. 
in  1886  the  membership  was  800,000  ;  in  1893,  1,507,026, 
or  3.98  per  cent,  of  the  entire  population.  These  fig- 
ures are  given  by  Mr.  S.  H.  Nichols,  m  Johnson's- 
Cyclopedia.  The  Seventh  Annual  Report  of  the  Labor 
Department  of  the  British  Board  of  Trade  gives  the 
following  statistics  of  trade-unions  reporting  ; 

Returns  were  obtained  from  687  trade-unions.  Of 
these,  513  were  registered  under  the  Trade- Union  Act. 
and  174  were  not  so  registered— an  increase  of  31  regis- 
tered and  57  unregistered  societies  as  compared  with. 
the  number  reporting  in  1892;  97  of  the  unions  con- 
cerning which  information  is  published  had  local  sec- 
tions or  branches  to  the  number  of  6879  at  the  end  of 
1893. 

In  addition  to  the  unions  from  which  returns  were 
secured,  the  Labor  Department  had  knowledge  of  the 
existence  of  nS  other  unregistered  unions  at  the  end 
of  1893,  concerning  which  no  information  was  obtain- 
able beyond  the  fact  that  their  total  membership 
amounted  to  90,660 ;  there  were  also  41  other  such 
unions  of  which  information  concerning  the  member- 
ship could  not  be  secured. 

The  following  summary  shows  the  total  number  of 
members,  amount  of  annual  income  and  expenditure, 
and  balance  of  funds  of  all  unions  for  which  accounts 
for  1893  were  obtained  -. 

Number  of  unions  for  which  accounts  were 

received 687 

Number  of  members  of  677  unions  at  the  end 

of  1893 1,270,789 

Total  funds  of  662  unions  in  hand  at  begin- 
ning of  1893 $9,258,015 

Total  income  of  687  unions  for  the  year 9,718,259 

Total  expenditures  of  687  unions  tor  the  year  10,032,665 
Total  funds  of  683  unions  at  end  of  1893 8,044,655 

The  discrepancy  of  $1046  in  the  above  summary  is  ex- 
plained by  the  statement  that  two  unions,  which  did 
not  report  the  amount  of  their  funds  at  the  beginning 
and  end  of  the  year,  had  an  excess  of  expenditures, 
over  income  to  that  amount. 


Trade-Unions. 


1337 


Trade-Unions. 


Detailed  particulars  as  to  the  chief  items  of  ex- 
penditure were  furnished  by  682  unions,  and  are  shown 
in  the  following  statement : 


EXPENDITURES,  ETC.,  OF 

1893. 


82  TRADE-UNIONS, 


ITEMS. 

Amounts. 

Unions. 

Mem- 
bers. 

Out-of-work  benefits. 
Dispute  benefit.  . 

$2,496,169 
31567.364 
1,161,823 
126,889 

571)030 
458,385 

555,570 
299,927 
1,690,919 

378 
33i 
228 

99 

89 
387 

391 
405 
679 

,     827,840 
1,083,904 
622,908 
414,989 

458,678 
983,834 

842,202 
996,618 
1,269,070 

Sick  benefit  

Accident  benefit  

Superannuation  ben- 
efit   

Funeral  benefit  

Other  benefits,  grants, 
etc  

Grants  to  other  trade- 
unions  

Working     and    other 
expenses  

Total    .             .... 

$10,928,076 

The  discrepancy  between  the  total  number  of  unions 
making  the  different  expenditures,  as  shown  in  the 
preceding-  statement,  and  the  total  number  reporting 
in  reference  thereto  is  explained  by  the  fact  that  only 
a  limited  number  of  the  unions  make  payments  for  all 
the  purposes  set  forth  ;  and  there  may  have  been  some 
unions  liable  to  make  certain  of  the  pa3rments  which 
may  not  have  been  called  on  to  make  such  payments 
during  the  year. 

Concerning  the  distribution  of  members  by  trades 
in  the  United  Kingdom,  Mr.  and  Mrs.  Webb  give  the 
following  table  for  1892  : 


TRADES. 

England 
and  Wales. 

Great 
Britain. 

Engineering  and  metal  
Building    

233,450 

287,000 

Mining  

4   , 

Textile  manufactures  

Clothing  and  leather  

78,650 

Printing  

Miscellaneous  crafts  
Laborers  and  transports  — 

46,550 
302,880 

58,000 
335,ooo 

Total    

,3  4, 

,5      , 

Of  these,  99,650  were  women,  of  whom  80,900  were 
engaged  in  textile  manufactures,  and  8650  in  the  cloth- 
ing and  leather  trades. 

Mr.  and  Mrs.  Webb  estimate  that  trade-unionists 
in  Great  Britain  enroll  about  20  per  cent,  of  the 
adult  male  manual  working  c'.ass,  and  in  certain 
counties  over  50  per  cent.  In  Northumberband  they 
enroll  11.23  Per  cent,  of  the  population  ;  in  Durham, 
ii. 21  per  cent.;  in  Lancashire,  8.63  ;  in  the  London  dis- 
tricts, 3.52  per  cent. 

The  larger  unions  were  the  Amalgamated  Society  of 
Engineers,  with  67,928  members  in  1890 :  the  Yorkshire 
Miners'  Association,  50,000 ;  Durham  Miners'  Associa- 
tion, 49,000;  Operative  Stonemasons'  Friendly  Soci- 
ety, 32,926 ;  Amalgamated  Society  of  Carpenters  and 
Joiners,  31,495 ;  Amalgamated  Society  of  Railway 
Servants,  26,360;  National  Union  of  Boot  and  Shoe 
Operatives,  23,459  ;  Amalgamated  Association  of  Op- 
erative Cotton  Spinners,  18,145 ;  Northumberland 
Miners'  Mutual  Confident  Association,  16,961 ;  Amalga- 
mated Society  of  Tailors,  16,629. 

The  labor  representation  in  Parliament  was  :  In  1874, 
2 ;  1885,  10 ;  1886,  13  ;  1892,  17 ;  1895,  13. 

II.  TRADE-UNIONISM  IN  THE  UNITED  STATES. 
The  history  of  American  trade-unions  may  be 
divided  into  five  periods,  i.  A  formative  period 
reaching  down  to  about  1840,  and  including  the 
early  ten-hour  movement.  2.  A  period  of  quiet 
growth  on  trade-union  lines,  accompanied  by  a 
wave  of  Fourierite  socialism  in  the  country,  and 


then  the  concentration  of  all  interest  in  the  War 
of  the  Rebellion  ending  in  1866.  3.  A  period  of 
active  effort  on  trade-union  lines,  reaching  to 
1878.  4.  A  period  of  great  strikes  and  efforts 
at  general  organizations,  like  the  Knights  of 
Labor  culminating  in  1886.  5.  The  present 
period  of  the  dominance  of  the  American  Feder- 
ation of  Labor. 

The  beginnings  of  American  trade-unionism 
are  unknown.  A  strike  of  journeymen  bakers 
is  said  to  have  occurred  in  New  York  City  in 
1741.  An  association  of  journeymen  shoe- 
makers existed  in  Philadelphia  as  early  as  1792. 
There  is  a  tradition  that  the  plan  to  throw  the 
tea  into  Boston  Harbor  was  formed  in  the  hall 
of  the  ship-calkers.  April  3,  1803,  an  associa- 
tion of  shipwrights  was  incorporated  in  New 
York  City,  and  the  same  year  in  that  city  the 
first  notable  strike  in  this  country  took  place 
among  the  sailors.  In  1806  the  tailors  and  also 
the  carpenters  of  that  city  organized.  A  Com- 
positors' Union  had  developed  considerable 
strength  by  1817.  The  organization  of  the  Ship- 
wrights' and  Calkers'  of  Boston  and  Charles- 
town  was  incorporated  in  1823. 

The  real  formative  period,  however,  of  Amer- 
ican trade-unionism  is  from  1825-40.  In  1825 
Robert  Owen's  communistic  attempt  at  New 
Harmony,  Ind.  (g.v.),  occasioned  widespread 
social  discussion.  The  same  year  the  Work- 
man's Advocate,  which  Professor  Ely  believes 
to  be  the  first  American  labor  journal,  appeared 
in  New  York  City.  It  was  followed  by  the 
Daily  Sentinel  and  Young  America,  all  pub- 
lished by  two  Englishmen,  George  Henry  Evans 
and  Frederick  W.  Evans.  These  papers  advo- 
cated the  freedom  of  public  lands,  the  breaking 
up  of  monopolies,  the  adoption  of  a  general 
bankrupt  law,  a  lien  of  the  laborer  on  his  work 
for  his  wages,  the  abolition  of  imprisonment 
for  debt,  equal  rights  for  women  and  men,  and 
the  abolition  of  chattel  slavery  and  of  wages 
slavery  Over  600  papers  are  said  to  have  en- 
dorsed these  demands.  In  1830  a  working 
man's  convention  was  held  in  Syracuse,  N.  Y., 
and  nominated  Ezekiel  Williams  for  governor, 
giving  him  3000  votes,  and  in  1832  a  delegated 
convention  met  in  the  State  House  at  Boston. 
Prominent  points  discussed  were  education,  or- 
ganization, land  reform,  and  most  prominently 
of  all  the  shortening  of  the  hours  of  labor.  A 
ten-hour  movement  was  adopted.  Laborers  at 
that  time  were  employed  from  10  to  15  hours 
per  day,  and  women  and  children  were  treated 
inhumanly.  There  were  many  strikes.  They 
mainly  failed  ;  but  the  agitation  went  on.  April 
10,  1840,  President  Van  Buren  issued  a  proc- 
lamation establishing  the  lo-hour  system  in  the 
United  States  Government  establishments.  In 
1841  a  boat-building  firm  in  Bath,  Me.,  granted 
the  jo-hour  day.  From  1840-50  a  wave  of  Fou- 
rierite socialism  swept  over  the  land.  Horace 
Greeley  opened  the  pages  of  the  New  York 
Tribune  to  its  advocacy.  Phalanxes  were  es- 
tablished by  the  dozen.  Brook  Farm,  near  Bos- 
ton, became  a  Fourierite  phalanx.  But  mean- 
while, the  organization  of  labor  went  steadily 
on  A  New  England  Working  Man's  Associa- 
tion was  organized  in  1845,  and  its  meetings 
were  participated  in  by  men  like  C.  A.  Dana, 
George  Ripley,  Mr.  Brisbane,  Wendell  Phillips, 


Trade-Unions. 


1338 


Trade-Unions. 


W.  L.  Garrison,  Theodore  Parker,  and  others. 
The  first  industrial  congress  of  the  United 
States  convened  in  New  York  October  12, 
1845.  It  laid  plans  for  a  secret  industrial 
brotherhood,  tho  little  came  of  this.  Impor- 
tant labor  congresses  were  held  at  New  York 
in  1847  and  at  Chicago  in  1850.  This  pe- 
riod, reaching  through  the  war,  saw  the  ap- 
pearance of  most  of  the  present  great  national 
trade-unions.  The  National  Typographical 
Union  was  organized  in  1852,  called  in  1862 
41  International,"  to  admit  Canadian  unions. 
The  hat  finishers  organized  a  national  union  in 
1854.  The  Iron  Moulders'  Union  of  North 
America  was  founded  in  1858  and  led  to  the 
more  important  Amalgamated  Association  of 
Iron  and  Steel  Workers  in  1876.  By  1860,  26 
national  unions  were  formed.  The  Brother- 
hood of  Locomotive  Engineers 
started  as  the  ' '  Brotherhood  of  the 
Period  of  Or- Foot-Board"  at  Detroit,  in  1863. 
ganization.  The  Cigar-Makers'  National  Union 
followed  the  next  year.  The  Brick- 
layers' and  Masons'  International 
Union  dates  from  1865.  Central  labor  unions, 
too,  began  to  be  formed  in  the  larger  cities. 
In  New  York,  a  Central  Labor  Union  was  form- 
ed as  early  as  1833.  A  National  Labor  Union 
was  formed  in  1861,  but  did  not  endure. 

After  the  war,  the  return  of  the  soldiers  to 
work  and  the  development  of  great  corporations 
led  to  new  pressure  and  to  new  agitation.  Early 
in  the  year  1866  the  trades'  assemblies  of  New 
York  City  and  Baltimore  issued  a  call  for  a  Na- 
tional Labor  Congress,  and  100  delegates,  rep- 
resenting 60  labor  organizations  of  all  kinds, 
and  covering  an  area  of  territory  extending 
from  Portland,  Me.,  to  San  Francisco,  met  in 
Baltimore,  Md. ,  on  August  20,  and  formed  the 
National  Labor  Union.  This  organization,  the 
first  national  union  of  all  trades,  met  yearly  till 
1872,  when  it  nominated  presidential  candidates, 
with  the  result  of  wrecking  the  organization  in 
political  strife.  This  and  other  similar  local  ex- 
periences have  led  most  of  the  trade-union  lead- 
ers of  to-day  to  believe  in  keeping  the  trade- 
unions,  as  unions,  out  of  politics,  and  tho  many, 
perhaps  most,  trade-unionists  favor  socialism  as 
an  ultimate,  the  majority  of  the  leaders  oppose 
committing  the  unions  as  unions  to  avowed  so- 
cialism now,  and  especially  to  the  program  of 
the  Socialist  Labor  Party  (f.v.)  or  of  any  other 
political  party.  This  position  has  led  to  a  bitter 
attack  upon  these  leaders,  by  the  leaders  of  the 
Socialist  Labor  Party,  and  the  attempt,  in  part 
successful,  to  capture  the  trade-union  move- 
'  ment  for  political  socialism.  The  majority  of 
the  trade-unions,  however,  concentrate  their 
efforts  on  the  short-hour  movement  (q.v.}.  This 
movement  has  played  a  large  part  in  the  history 
of  American  unions.  The  philosophy  of  the 
movement,  sometimes  called  the  eight-hour  phi- 
losophy, was  first  adequately  formulated  by  two 
Boston  men,  Ira  Steward  and  George  E.  Mc- 
Neill  (g.v.).  A  Grand  Eight-Hour  League  had 
been  formed  previously,  but  had  disappeared, 
when  these  two  men,  with  a  few  friends,  organ- 
ized in  the  spring  of  1869  the  Boston  Eight- 
Hour  League.  It  influenced  the  whole  trade- 
union  movement.  With  the  aid  of  Wendell 
Phillips  and  others,  they  succeeded  the  same 


year  in  securing  the  establishment  of  the  Massa- 
chusetts Bureau  of  Statistics  of  Labor,  the  par- 
ent of  all  other  labor  bureaus.  The  bureau's 
statistics  aided  the  movement.  Agitation  for 
shorter  hours  became  general.  There  were 
numerous  strikes,  many  of  them  successful.  In 
1874  Massachusetts  enacted  a  lo-hour  law  for 
women  and  for  children  under  the  age  of  18. 
In  1868  Congress  enacted  an  eight-hour  bill  for 
United  States  employees.  This  was  ignored, 
till  at  last  in  1869  another  act  of  Congress  se- 
cured to  all  Government  employees  full  com- 
pensation for  an  eight-hour  day.  To-day  eight 
hours  is  the  rule  in  Government  works. 

There  were,  however,  other  movements.     In 
1870  and  1871  some  branches  of  the  European 
International  Working  Men's  Association  were 
formed  in  this  country,  but  did  not  take  root. 
From  1868-77  the  Order  of  the  Knights  of  St. 
Crispin  was  powerful  in  the  shoe  trade.     A  se- 
cret society,  the    Sovereigns  of    Industry,  at- 
tempted about  this  time  to  spread  cooperative 
ideas  among  labor  organizations.     There  were 
various  political  labor  movements,  resulting  in 
little  more  than  agitation.     In  1873  an  attempt 
was  made  to  reorganize  the   National   Labor 
Union  under  the  name  of  the  Industrial  Broth- 
erhood.    A  convention  was  held,  and  it  called 
in    1874  an  important  congress  at  Rochester, 
N.  Y. ,  where  a  platform  was  adopt- 
ed, drafted  by  Mr.  McNeill,  which 
later  became  almost  without  change  Knights  of 
the  famous  platform  of  the  Knights      Labor, 
of  Labor  (g.v.).     This  great  order 
was  first  established  as  a  local  se- 
cret labor  union  in  Philadelphia,  December  28, 
i86gKthe  result  of  the  efforts  of  Uriah  S.  Stephens 
and  six  associates.    It  gradually  spread,  but  did 
not  hold  its  first  general  assembly  till  January  i, 
1878,  when  Mr.  Stephens  was  chosen  General 
Master  Workman.    It  aimed  to  unite  all  working 
men  in  one  great  organization,  with  the  key 
thought  that  "  an  injury  to  one  is  the  concern 
of  all." 

The  great  railroad  strike  of  1877,  beginning 
on  the  Baltimore  and  Ohio  Railroad  at  Martins- 
burg,  W.  Va.,  and  leading  to  riots  and  destruc- 
tion of  property  in  various  places,  and  particu- 
larly at  Pittsburg,  Pa.,  marks  a  period  in  the 
development  of  American  trade-unions.  The 
rioters  were  put  down,  but  vast  numbers  of  the 
people  of  Pittsburg  sympathized  with  the  strik- 
ers, and  the  general  attention  of  the  whole  coun- 
try was  for  the  first  time  drawn  to  the  labor 
movement.  There  was  a  rush  into  organiza- 
tion. By  1886  the  Knights  of  Labor  had  a  mem- 
bership of  over  500,000.  But  the  growth  was 
too  rapid.  Reaction  set  in.  In  1885  and  1886 
occurred  two  great  strikes  on  the  Gould  system 
of  railways  south  and  west  of  St.  Louis,  the  first 
successful,  the  second  turning  public  sympathy 
against  the  strikers.  In  1886,  too,  occurred  the 
Haymarket  riot  in  Chicago,  the  arrest,  trial, 
and,  in  1887,  the  hanging  of  the  "  anarchists." 
It  called  new  attention  to  the  necessity  of  indus- 
trial reforms.  Meanwhile  a  growing  dissatis- 
faction with  the  Knights  of  Labor  had  been  de- 
veloping. That  order  attempted  to  mold  the 
men  of  all  trades  into  one  organization,  with  lit- 
tle or  no  respect  to  the  autonomy  of  each  craft. 
Mr.  Terence  V.  Powderly,  who  had  been  Gen- 


Trade-Unions. 


1339 


Trade-Unions. 


eral  Master  Workman  since  1879,  with  a  Gen- 
eral Executive  Board,  developed  dictatorial 
powers,  resulting  in  the  weakening  of  the  or- 
der. In  1881  some  of  the  trade-unions  organ- 
ized a  Federation  of  Trade  and  Labor  Unions, 
which  became  the  American  Federation  of 
Labor,  at  Columbus,  O.,  December  8,  1886. 
This  organization  recognizes  the  autonomy  of 
the  separate  crafts,  but  federates  them  for  pur- 
poses of  strength.  Its  appearance  marks  the 
beginning  of  the  present  period.  It  has  become 
the  one  great  labor  organization  of  the  country, 
and  has  grown  as  the  Knights  of  Labor  have 
gone  down.  Committed  from  the  first  to  the 
short-hour  movement,  in  1889  it  voted  to  make 
an  effort  annually  to  establish  the  eight  -hour 
day  in  some  one  craft.  The  plan  was  for  some 
trade  each  year  to  strike  for  eight  hours,  while 
all  other  trades  should  support  that  trade.  The 
carpenters  were  chosen  to  lead.  In  May,  1890, 
they  struck  in  almost  all  cities,  and  in  many 
cities  gained  the  day.  In  1891  the  miners  were 
to  strike,  but  the  depressed  conditions  in  their 
trade  and  the  dual  form  of  their  organization 
prevented  any  action.  This  broke  up  the  an- 
nual plan.  The  convention  of  the  federation  at 
Denver  in  1894  was  marked  by  the  efforts  of 
the  socialists  to  commit  the  federation  to  a  plat- 
form, the  tenth  plank  of  which  declared  for  com- 
plete socialism.  The  plank  was  not  adopted, 
but  the  socialists  succeeded  in  defeating  the  re- 
election of  Mr.  Samuel  Gompers  (q.v.),  who  had 
been  president  of  the  federation  many  years. 
In  the  convention  of  1895  the  socialist  element 
was  in  a  complete  minority.  Mr.  Gompers  was 
reelected  president  and  the  convention  voted 
against  adopting  any  political  platform  and  re- 
asserted its  adherence  to  concentration  of  effort 
on  gaining  the  eight-hour  day.  The  American 
Federation  of  Labor  embraces  to-day  most  of 
the  great  unions  of  the  country,  but  not  all. 
The  Knights  of  Labor,  under  the 
lead  of  Mr.  James  R.  Sovereign, 
Present  De-  elected  General  Master  Workman 
velopment.  upon  the  defeat  of  Mr.  Powderly 
in  1892,  number  a  few  thousand 
men.  Two  new  orders  have  arisen 
from  dissensions  among  the  Knights.  The 
American  Railway  Union,  organized  in  Chicago 
in  1893  by  Eugene  V.  Debs,  attempts  to  unite  all 
railway  employees  in  one  organization,  and  has 
become  well  known  by  winning  a  strike  on  the 
Great  Northern  Railroad  in  the  winter  of  1893- 
94,  and  still  more  by  its  conduct  of  the  great 
Pullman  strike  of  1894.  (For  further  account, 
see  AMERICAN  FEDERATION  OF  LABOR.) 

Membership  in  labor  unions  goes  in  waves. 
In  times  of  depression  it  is  difficult  for  working 
men  to  pay  their  dues,  and  the  number  of  mem- 
bers in  good  standing  on  the  books 
becomes  reduced.     Such  has  been 
Statistics,    the  result  of  the  hard  times  of  1893, 
but  it  is  among  the  evidences  of 
the  really    increased    strength   of 
trade-unionism  in    America    that    these    hard 
times  have  not  reduced  trade-union  member- 
ship to  anything  like    the   extent   of    former 
hard  times.      Mr.  Carroll   D.   Wright  (Indus- 
trial   Evolution    of   the    United    States,   p. 
-262)  puts    the  membership    of    the  American 
Federation  of  Labor  at  500,000,  of  the  Knights 


of  Labor  at  150,000  ;  of  the  American  Railway 
Union  at  150,000  ;  of  other  local  and  national 
unions  at  600,000,  making  the  total  strength  of 
organized  labor  in  America,  1,400,000.  This, 
however,  puts  the  numerical  strength  of  the 
Knights  of  Labor,  and,  to  a  lesser  extent,  of  the 
other  organizations,  considerably  too  high  ;  tho 
it  must  be  remembered  that  this  does  not  meas- 
ure the  complete  strength  of  labor  organiza- 
tions. Joseph  Nimmo,  Jr.,  LL.D.,  of  the  United 
States  Census  Bureau,  puts  the  membership  of 
the  American  Federation  of  Labor  at  450,000, 
the  Knights  of  Labor  at  75,000,  of  which  only 
10,000  belong  to  the  old  parent  organization 
(New  York  Independent,  May  2,  1895),  and 
claims  that  labor  organizations  enroll  only  7  per 
cent,  of  the  people  in  this  country  engaged  in 
gainful  occupations.  According  to  the  census 
of  1890,  22,735,661  people  were  engaged  in  gain- 
ful occupations,  but  of  these  3,914,711  were 
women,  two  or  three  millions  more  were  chil- 
dren or  youths  ;  some  thousands  were  of  the 
employing  class.  The  1,000,000  members  of 
labor  organizations  represent,  therefore,  a 
large  proportion  of  the  working  men,  and  espe- 
cially their  concerted  strength.  The  rest  are 
unorganized.  It  is  easy  to  see,  therefore,  how 
organized  labor  can  often  sway  the  whole  num- 
ber, at  least  among  the  men.  According  to  the 
World  Almanac  for  1896,  the  American  Fed- 
eration of  Labor  embraces  80  national  labor  or- 
ganizations, composed  of  about  7000  local 
unions,  with  an  aggregate  membership  of  over 
650,000,  affiliated  under  the  above  title  and  usu- 
ally acting  together,  although  reserving  the 
right  to  independent  action.  It  says  :  "  The 
larger  trade-unions,  some  of  which  are  in  affilia- 
tion with  the  American  Federation  of  Labor, 
are  the  Brotherhood  of  Carpenters  and  Joiners, 
60,000  Association  of  Iron  and  Steel  Workers, 
40,000  International  Typographical  Union, 
40,000  Bricklayers'  and  Stone  Masons'  Union, 
35,000  Brotherhood  of  Locomotive  Engineers, 
32,000  Cigarmakers'  International  Union,  30,-- 
ooo  ;  Iron  Moulders'  Union  of  North  America, 
30,000  Brotherhood  of  Locomotive  Trainmen, 
25,000  Brotherhood  of  Locomotive  Firemen, 
22,000  International  Association  of  Machin- 
ists, 20  ooo  ;  United  Mine  Workers  of  America, 
20,000  Journeymen  Tailors'  Union  of  America, 
20,000."  This  perhaps  shows  the  relative 
strength,  but  the  actual  numbers  are  probably 
far  too  high  for  most  of  these  unions,  if  mem- 
bers in  actual  good  standing  are  alone  counted. 

III.  TRADE- UNIONS  IN  OTHER  COUNTRIES. 

The  following  statistical  and  other  facts  as  to 
trade-unions  in  continental  Europe  and  in  Aus- 
tralasia are  mainly  derived  from  the  reports  on 
the  respective  countries  of  the  (English)  Royal 
Commission  on  Labor,  under  date  of  1893. 

In  France,  all  industrial  organizations,  wheth- 
er of  employers,  of  employees,  or  of  both  are 
called  syndicats.  Organization  of  trade-unions 
of  the  English  type  was  late  in  France.  (For 
the  history,  see  FRANCE  AND  SOCIAL  REFORM.) 

In  1884  complete  freedom  of  organization  was 
gained.  July  i,  1892,  there  were  1589  workmen's 
syndicates  with  288,770  members.  There  were 
also  over  too  syndicates  of  employers  and  em- 
ployed, and  nearly  900  agricultural  syndicates. 


Trade-Unions. 


1340 


Trade-Unions. 


Paris,  Lyons,  Marseilles,  and  the  Department  of 
Nord  are  the  main  centers.  French  trade- 
unions  are  more  formally  identified  with  the  so- 
cialist movement  than  English  and  American 
unions  (See  SOCIALISM.)  Of  the  1589  unions, 
only  379  have  benefits,  176  labor  registries,  and 
70  out-of-work  funds.  The  entrance  fee  is  usu- 
ally i  f r. ,  and  the  monthly  dues  from  50  c.  to 
i  fr.  Paris  has  222  workmen's  syndicates  with 
some  89,000  members.  The  Chambre  Syndi- 
cate Typographique  is  one  of  the  oldest  in 
Paris,  founded  in  1839.  It  has  2500  members, 
a  library,  newspaper,  and  benefit  funds.  The 
railway  employees  have  two  large  syndicates 
with  15,000  and  7000  members.  In  France,  the 
organizations  of  miners  are  the  largest,  with 
41,709  members.  Engineering,  iron- works  and 
foundries  have  36,069  ;  textiles,  31,544.  (See 
also  FRANCE  ;  AGRICULTURE  ;  COOPERATION.) 

In  Germany,  trade-unions  (Gewerkveretne) 
are  mainly  socialistic,  as  in  France,  tho  there 
are  some  that  are  not.  The  old  medieval  guilds 
(Zunfte)  were  abolished  by  various  laws  at  the 
close  of  the  last  century  and  the  beginning  of 
this  ;  but  modern  guilds  (Innungen),  mainly 
of  employees,  and  somewhat  patterned  after 
the  old,  were  developed,  and  were  encouraged 
by  the  Government,  which  strictly  controlled 
all  trade.  Trade-unions  proper  date  from  1868. 
Herr  Fritzsche  had  established  a  German 
Union  of  Tobacco  Workers  in  1865,  and  of 
German  printers  in  1866.  These  were  social- 
istic, and  in  1868  the  followers  began  to  start 
various  trade  associations  (Geiverkschafteri). 
Dr.  Max  Hirsch  the  same  year  started  a  move- 
ment to  copy  the  English  trade-union  idea. 
He  and  Herr  Duncker  worked  together,  and 
by  1869  had  formed  four  such  unions.  In 
1892  there  were  244,934  persons  enrolled  in 
the  socialistic  Gewerkschaften  in  57  central 
organizations,  the  miners,  metal-workers,  cabi- 
net-workers, and  printers  being  the  most  nu- 
merous. Twelve  of  the  57  central  organizations 
give  out-of-work  pay,  and  33  furnish  traveling 
money.  Dues  average  g£  marks  per  year. 
They  have  56  papers,  with  a  circulation  of  220,- 
ooo.  Of  the  Geiverkvereine  (or  trade-unions 
proper)  there  were,  in  1893,  1341  local  unions, 
with  61,034  members.  Engineers  and  metal- 
workers lead.  There  are  sick,  death,  and  out- 
of-work  benefits,  etc.  The  printers'  union  we 
have  said  was  established  by  Herr  Fritzsche, 
but  he  rather  reorganized  a  union  that  can  be 
traced  back  to  the  seventeenth  century.  It  is 
like  an  English  trade-union,  yet  socialistic. 

In  Switzerland,  societies  to  represent  the  in- 
terests of  workmen  in  various  ways,  such  as 
establishing  benefit  funds,  savings  banks,  tech- 
nical schools,  etc. ,  are  old,  tho  not 
trade-unions  proper,     The  Societe 
Europe.      d' Uttlitd  Publique  of  Basle  dates 
from  1777.     It  has  some  2000  mem- 
bers and  a  capital  of  $40,000.    It  has 
founded   54  institutions    of  some  kind.      The 
Socie'te'  Suisse  d'  Utilite  Publique  dates  from 
1810.    The  great  Swiss  labor  society,  however,  is 
the  Grtitliverein.     It  takes  its  name  from  the 
scene  of  the  original  pact  in  1307  between  the 
forest  cantons.     Founded  at  Geneva  in  1838,  it 
had,  in  1893,  352  branches,  15,241  members,  and 
a  reserve  fund  of  $70,000.     It  is  both  industrial 


and  political,  and  largely  socialistic.  Owing  to 
its  agitation  in  1886,  a  federal  officer,  called  the 
workman  secretary,  is  elected  every  three  years 
by  a  congress  of  Swiss  labor  societies,  organized 
as  a  federation,  and  he  represents  the  societies 
in  the  Government.  He  is  paid  by  the  Govern- 
ment. Trade  unions  proper  are  less  developed 
in  Switzerland.  The  Federation  of  Workers  in 
Wood  has  2000  members.  The  Printers'  Trade 
Federation  is  older,  with  1211  members.  In  all 
the  Swiss  Trade-Union  Federation  has  12,000 
members  in  253  branches.  (See  SWITZERLAND.) 

In  Italy,  labor  organizations  are  of  very  vari- 
ous kinds.  Some  are  very  ancient.  The  Pious 
Union  of  Journeymen  Printers  of  Turin  dates 
from  1710.  The  Pious  Institute  of  Silk  and  Felt 
Hat  Makers  of  the  same  city  dates  from  1738. 
In  1861  a  Fratellanza  Artigiana  was  started 
at  Florence,  and  is  still  strong.  In  1871  a  Patto 
del  Fratellanza,  or  pact  of  working  men's  so- 
cieties, was  formed  at  Rome.  Both  of  these  were 
under  the  influence  of  Mazzini.  Since  then 
most  Italian  labor  organizations  are  best  consid- 
ered under  the  head  of  socialism.  (See  ITALY.) 

In  Austria,  the  history  of  trade-unions  is  iden- 
tified with  the  political  history  and  socialism. 
(See  AUSTRIA.)  There  were,  in  1893,  148  trade- 
unions  and  political  associations,  143  benefit  so- 
cieties, 296  mutual  improvement  societies.  On 
Christmas  Eve,  1893,  the  first  congress  of  Aus- 
trian trade-unions  met  in  Vienna  ;  270  dele- 
gates were  present.  They  reported  20,000  mem- 
bers of  unions  in  Vienna  and  11,320  in  the  prov- 
inces. (See  AUSTRIA  ) 

In  Belgium,  trade-unions  have  long  had  a 
firm  hold,  some  of  them  being  descended  from 
the  old  trade  benefit  societies,  but  at  present  are 
mainly  socialist  societies,  and  are  best  consid- 
ered under  that  head.  (See  BELGIUM.)  In  Hol- 
land there  are  many  working  men's  associa- 
tions, but  not  many  or  strong  trade-unions 
proper.  In  Denmark,  Sweden,  and  Norway,  as 
in  Belgium,  the  trade-unions  are  practically  so- 
cialist societies.  Denmark  has  some  400,  with 
a  membership  of  35,000.  In  Russia,  trade- 
unions  in  the  Western  sense  are  unknown,  but 
there  are  artisans'  guilds  in  the  cities  and  in  the 
provinces  (artels,  or  societies  of  laborers)  for 
various  cooperative  purposes.  In  Australasia, 
naturally,  trade-unions  have  followed  the  Eng- 
lish model.  A  branch  of  the  English  Amalga- 
mated Society  of  Engineers  was  established  in 
Australia  in  1850.  In  New  South  Wales  alone 
there  are  over  100  unions,  with  from  50,000  to 
60,000  members  ;  in  Victoria,  70  unions,  with 
from  25,000  to  30,000  members.  Entrance  fees 
vary  from  is.  to  £2.  In  the  Amalgamated  So- 
ciety of  Engineers  it  is  ,£3  los.  ;  fees  vary  from 
6</.  a  month  to  £i  a  year,  more  commonly  6d.  a 
week.  Most  of  the  unions  have  benefit  funds. 

IV.  ARGUMENTS  FOR  TRADE-UNIONS. 

The  first  argument  for  the  existence  of  trade- 
unions  is  that  they  are  necessary  to  protect  the 
individual  employee.  For  capitalists  organized 
in  great  corporations  to  refuse  to  allow  their 
employees  to  organize  is  injustice. 

Trade- unions  are  necessary  to  allow  of  arbi- 
tration, conciliation,  and  responsible,  enduring 
relations  between  workmen  and  their  employ- 


Trade-Unions. 


Trade-Unions. 


ers.  Boards  of  arbitration  and  conciliation  can- 
not deal  between  employers  and  each  of  several 
hundred  employees  acting  as  individuals.  In 
England  the  large  employers  have  learned  to 
prefer  to  deal  with  strong  trade-unions.  Then 
responsible  bargains  can  be  made  for  a  year 
ahead  between  the.  masters  and  the  men,  and 
the  men  and  the  corporations  can  know  what  to 
count  on  in  fixing  their  prices. 

Says  Schulze  Garvernitz  {Social  Peace,  tr., 
pp.  248-250)  : 

"The  more  intellectually  gifted  employers  in  the 
most  important  English  industries  have  given  an  un- 
grudging recognition  to  the  unions,  and  comparing 
the  present  with  the  former  state  of  incessant  strife, 
they  see  in  the  trade-union  movement  the  instrument 
•which  is  to  restore  English  industry  to  the  paths  of 
peace."  He  quotes  David  Dale,  a  prominent  mine 
owner,  as  saying  :  "  Let  me  therefore  declare  emphati- 
cally, as  the  result  of  long  and  varied  experience,  that 
the  best  securities  that  employers  can  have  for  the 
rule  of  reason  and  the  observance  of  engagements  on 
the  part  of  the  operatives  of  any  trade  is  that  those 
operatives  should  have  among  themselves  a  union 
strong  in  numbers  and  with  an  able  and  trusted  ex- 
ecutive." 

Says  Professor  Alfred  Marshall,  in  a  carefully 
balanced  estimate  (Economics  of  Industry, 
Book  VI.  chap,  xii.,  §  13)  : 

"Little  but  mischief  indeed  comes  from  a  weak 
union,  always  ready  to  interfere,  but  seldom  able  to 
secure  the  faithful  carrying  out  of  an  agreement,  to 
which  its  own  officers  have  been  a  party.  But  a  strong 
union,  guided  by  able  and  far-seeing  men,  who  have  a 
grave  sense  of  responsibility,  is  found  to  enable  a  few 
minutes'  quiet  conversation  to  settle  innumerable  petty 
disputes  that  in  old  times  would  have  caused  much 
delay  and  worry  and  loss  of  mutual  good  feeling." 

Mr.  Potter  Palmer,  of  Chicago,  is  reported  to 
have  said: 

"  For  ten  years  I  made  as  desperate  a  fight  against 
organized  labor  as  was  ever  made  by  mortal  man. 
It  cost  me  considerably  more  than  $1,000,000  to  learn 
that  there  is  no  labor  so  skilled,  so  intelligent,  so  faith- 
ful as  that  which  is  governed  by  an  organization 
whose  officials  are  well-balanced,  level-headed  men. 
...  I  now  employ  none  but  organized  labor,  and 
never  have  the  least  trouble,  each  believing  that  the 
one  has  no  right  to  oppress  the  other." 

Invention  and  machinery  make  trade-unions 
and  short  hours  necessary.  Since  the  war  mus- 
cular labor  has  been  replaced  by  machinery 
(?.v.)  in  different  trades  from  50  to.  300  per 
cent.  This  process  is  going  on  continually. 
Type-setting  machines  are  to-day  discharging 
thousands  of  compositors.  It  occasions  terrible, 
if  temporary  evils.  Trade-unions  are  then 
often  the  only  bulwark  between  the  wage  worker 
and  terrible  reductions  in  wages.  They  are 
also  the  only  hope  of  steady,  orderly  solution  of 
the  labor  question.  In  trades  where  labor  is 
well  organized  there  are  high  wages,  and  peace 
and  hope. 

The  best  argument  for  trade-unions  is  the 
simple  statement  of  what  they  have  done.  Mr. 
Trant  (as  above),  summing  up  what  they  have 
done  in  England,  says  : 

"  It  has  been  argued  :  First,  that  trade-unions  have 
succeeded  in  raising  wages  and  reducing  the  number 
of  working  hours.  Second,  that  these  reforms  do  not 
benefit  the  laborer  at  the  cost  of  either  the  capitalist  or 
the  consumer;  as,  between  certain  limits,  it  is  found 
that  high  pay  and  the  prospect  of  an  early  cessation 
from  work  are  such  incentives  to  industry  that  the 
produce  of  labor  is  actually  greater  than  under  a  sys- 
tem of  long  hours  and  low  pay.  Third,  that  the  work- 
men Wave  such  confidence  in  the  benefits  they  derive 
from  union,  that,  after  the  experience  of  'half  a  mil- 
lennium,' they  are  crowding  into  societies,  into  unions, 
in  a  greater  ratio  every  year.  Fourth,  that  their  de- 


clared object  is  to  prevent  strikes  and  substitute  arbi- 
trations ;  and  altho  the  latter  mode  of  settling  disputes 
is  often  proposed  by  the  men  and  refused  by  the  mas- 
ters, it  is  seldom  proposed  by  the  masters  and  still  less 
often  refused  by  the  men.  It  has  been  argued,  further, 
that  such  being  the  objects  of  trade-unions,  and  such 
their  success  in  obtaining  those  objects,  the  influence 
of  that  success  must  be  very  beneficial.  First,  because 
high  wages  mean  increased  comforts,  which  are  not 
only  a  social,  but  a  commercial  advantage.  High 
wages  mean  increased  production,  also  the  double 
blessing  just  mentioned.  Second,  because  high  wages  ( 
do  not  mean  enhanced  prices,  but  the  contrary.  Third, 
because  the  principles  of  trade-unionism  teach  men  the 
prudence  of  denying  themselves  something  to-day,  in 
order  that  they  may  have  greater  advantages  to-mor- 
row ;  and  the  duty  of  self-sacrifice,  by  calling  upon 
them  to  contribute,  out  of  their  meager  wealth,  toward 
the  alleviation  of  the  sufferings  of  their  fellow-men. 
Fourth,  because  trade-unions  endeavor  to  obtain  for  the 
working  classes  more  leisure  for  recreation  and  study. 
Fifth,  because  by  lectures  and  other  means  the  unions 
endeavor  to  make  their  members  better  workmen ; 
and  by  rules  which  stigmatize  and  punish  the  idle,  the 
vicious,  and  the  incompetent,  do  all  in  their  power  to 
make  workmen  better  citizens. 

"  It  is  really  difficult  to  conceive  how  an  institution 
with  such  noble  objects,  having  attained  those  ob- 
jects, can  be  anything  but  a  great  blessing  to  the 
community  in  which  it  is  placed." 

In  the  United  States  trade-unions  have  pro- 
duced the  same  results. 

1.  They  have  shortened  hours  of  toil  from  13, 
14,  and  occasionally  16,  75  years  ago,  to  12,  n, 
10,  and  even  to   8  in   very  many  trades  to- 
day.    This  is  almost  solely  due  to  trade-unions, 
and  has  not  taken  place  in  portions  of  the  coun- 
try or  in  trades  where  trade-unionism  is  weak. 
The  average  hours  of  labor  are  yet  said  to  be 
1 1 1  in  all  trades,  because  many  are  unorganized. 

2.  Trade-unions  have  mainly  contributed  to  a 
general  rise  of  wages. 

3.  Trade-unions  have  prevented  an  unknown 
number  of  cut  downs  in  wages. 

4.  Trade-unions  have  gained  in  many  States, 
legislation  preventing   the    truck  system,  the 
locking  of  factory  doors  in  work  hours,  the  em- 
ployment of  women  and  children  at  night,  etc. 

They  have  gained  legislation  protecting  the 
life  and  limb  of  employees  from  unguarded  ma- 
chinery, compelling  the  erection  of  fire-escapes, 
appointing  factory  inspectors  (men  and  wom- 
en). They  have  helped  or  led  in  establishing 
evening  schools,  labor  bureaus,  boards  of  arbi- 
tration and  conciliation.  They  have  caused  to 
be  enacted  laws  compelling  weekly  payment  of 
wages,  exempting  the  wages  of  wives  and  chil- 
dren from  attachment,  defining  the  responsi- 
bility of  railroad  and  other  corporations  for  ac- 
cidents to  their  employees,  above  all  limiting 
the  hours  of  labor  of  women  and  children. 

Such  laws  have  not  been  passed  in  all  States, 
nor  are  they  wholly  due  to  trade  union  efforts  ; 
but  they  have  scarcely  ever,  if  ever,  been  passed 
where  trade-unions  are  weak,  and  in  almost  all 
cases  it  has  been  trade-union  leaders  who  have 
attended  the  legislative  hearings,  collected  the 
witnesses  and  conducted  the  agitations  that  have 
resulted  in  these  laws. 

5.  The  chief  benefit  of  trade-unions  is  implied 
in  the  above,  'viz.,  their  educational  effect.     It 
is  said  above  that  good  trade  unions  do  good 
and  poor  trade-unions  do  harm,  but  good  trade- 
unions  usually  come  as  the  outgrowth  of  poor 
and  weak  trade-unions.     Therefore  even  poor 
and  weak  trade-unions  are  to  be  encouraged 
and  made  strong  and  good  as  soon  as  possible. 

6.  Trade-unions  have  been  of  inestimable  use 


Trade-Unions. 


1342 


Trade-Unions. 


to  the  working  classes  as  benefit  societies.  Of 
the  extent  to  which  trade-unions  are  insurance 
companies  and  employment  bureaus,  the  gen- 
eral public  has  little  idea.  The  Cigarmakers" 
International  Union  in  10  years  (1882-91)  dis- 
bursed $1,446,996.  Of  this  only  $676,456  went 
for  strikes  and  aiding  weak  unions 
(only  a  portion  of  that  sum,  there- 
Trade  fore,  for  strikes)  ;  $476,931  went 
Benefits,  for  sick  benefits  ;  $130, 774  for  death 
benefits  ;  $43,984(111  two  years  only) 
for  out-of-work  benefits  ;  $382,839 
was  loaned  to  traveling  members  in  search  of 
work  ;  $373,859  was  added  to  the  reserve  fund. 
The  United  Brotherhood  of  Carpenters  and  Join- 
ers, formed  only  in  iSSi,  in  seven  years  (1886- 
92)  spent  $457,966.  Of  this  only  $143,296  went 
for  strikes,  and  $210,213  for  sick  and  death  bene- 
fits. Yet  their  strikes  have  paid.  Mr.  P.  J. 
McGuire,  their  general  secretary,  reports  in  four 
years  (1889-92)  523  strikes,  23  lost,  24  compro- 
mised, and  476  successful  ;  99  were  for  higher 
wages,  71  for  the  eight-hour  day,  316  for  a  nine- 
hour  day,  31  for  lesser  hours  Saturday.  Speak- 
ing of  ii  years'  struggle,  he  says  that  while 
wages  were  $1.50  to  $2. 50  per  day,  they  are  now 
$2.25  to  $3.50.  In  531  cities  they  have  forced 
wages  up,  gaining  for  the  men,  Mr.  McGuire 
estimates,  nearly  $1,500,000.  The  International 
Typographical  Union  in  three  years  (1890-92) 
spent  $196,688:  $83,734  for  strikes,  $11,500  for 
death  benefits,  $52,158  for  the  Childs-Drexel 
Printers'  Home.  Besides  this,  the  local  unions 
spend  much  more  for  sick  benefits.  Union  No. 
42  (of  Minneapolis)  spent  in  the  year  ending 
March  31,  1892,  $2797  :  $749  for  sick  benefits, 
$517  to  help  other  unions,  $399  for  death  bene- 
fits, $151  for  a  cemetery  reserve  fund.  The 
International  Furniture  Workers'  Union,  a  com- 
paratively small  union,  spent  in  15  months, 
January  i,  1892,  $20,760:  $5835  for  sick  bene- 
fits, $2250  for  death  benefits,  $283  for  fire  losses. 
$5835  for  strike  benefits.  These  statistics  are 
taken  from  the  report  of  the  Bureau  of  Labor 
Statistics  of  Minnesota  for  1891-92.  Says  the 
report  :  "  Organized  workmen  make  mistakes 
and  failures,  .  .  .  but  these  failures  and  mis- 
takes are  no  more  a  valid  argument  against 
trade-unions  than  against  insurance  companies, 
banks  and  other  business  corporations.  Over 
three  fourths  of  the  standard  investment  life  in- 
surance companies  started  in  the  United  States 
have  gone  out  of  business.  ,  .  .  The  failures 
of  trade-unions  do  not  approximate  these  fig- 
ures. ' '  The  report  shows  that  most  trade-unions 
conduct  their  business  more  cheaply  than  most 
insurance  companies.  It  says  :  "  The  oldest 
unions  have  developed  systems  of  accounts  and 
methods  of  book-keeping  for  their  affairs  which, 
for  perfection  and  adaptability  to  the  ends  to 
be  accomplished,  are  not  excelled  in  any  class 
of  mercantile  or  manufacturing  establishments." 
Yet  of  all  this  quiet  work  of  the  trade-unions 
the  public  hears  very  little.  . 

V.  OBJECTIONS  TO  TRADE-UNIONS. 

i.  It  is  said  that  they  are  tyrannical.  On  the 
contrary,  they  are  utterly  democratic.  In  every 
trade-union,  every  office,  every  rule,  every 
strike  is  voted  upon  by  the  members,  and  the 
majority  prevails.  Sometimes  a  union,  after 


voting  to  strike,  empowers  a  walking  delegate 
to  call  the  strike  when  he  thinks  best ;  but  the 
decision  to  strike  does  not  lie  with  him.  It  not 
unfrequently  happens  that  an  employer  asks  an 
employee  why  he  struck,  and  the  man  says  he 
was  compelled  to  strike  by  his  union.  Yet  often 
that  same  employee  himself  voted  to  strike. 
Employees  do  not  usually  tell  their  employers- 
when  they  vote  to  strike.  Of  course,  in  a  demo- 
cratic organization,  a  minority  submits  to  a  ma- 
jority, but  this  is  not  tyranny.  Sometimes, 
therefore,  some  men  do  strike  against  their 
will  ;  but  if  they  did  not  belong  to  a  union  they 
would  have  their  will  more  crossed  by  their  em- 
ployers, so  that,  tho  in  a  union  a  man  does  not 
always  have  his  way,  he  has  it  infinitely  more 
often  than  the  employee  who  belongs  to  no 
union. 

2.  It  is  said  that  trade  unions  are  led  by  agi- 
tators, whose  salaries  depend  on  getting  up  an 
agitation.     This  occasionally  hap  pens,  but  very 
seldom.     Trade-unions   employ  walking   dele- 
gates for  two  reasons  :  (i)  To  attend  to  the  im- 
portant beneficiary  work  of  the  union  ;  (2)  be- 
cause they  have  learned  that  it  is  necessary  to 
have  some  one  to  represent  them  in  dealing  with 
their  employers  wno  are  not  financially  de- 
pendent upon  their  employers.     This  is  un- 
questionably necessary.     Employees,  especially 
those    with    families,  are   afraid   to   stand  up 
against  their  employers.     They  know  that  they 
will  be  considered  as  stirrers  up  of  strife,  and 
soon,  on  one  excuse  or  another,  discharged.     So 
trade-unions  get  some  one  to  represent  them 
who  is  not  afraid  of  the  employer.     It  is  among 
the  rights  of  any  one  to  act  through  their  repre- 
sentatives.    Corporations  usually  do.     Yet  no 
position  is  more  commonly  taken  by  employers 
than  that  they  will  deal  only  with  their  own 
men.    The  walking  delegate  does  indeed  strive 
to  organize  and  extend  the  organization  of  his 
craft.     That  is  a  part  of  his  work  and  right. 
But  his  main  work  is  to  visit  the  sick  or  pay 
out  the  benefits  of  the  order. 

3.  It  is  said  that  trade-unions  are  mischievous 
in  creating  useless  strikes.     This  is,  generally 
speaking,  a  mistake.     (See  STRIKES.) 

4.  It  is  said  that  trade-unions  lower  the  effi- 
ciency of  labor,  interfere  with  personal  rights, 
and  create  violence  by  preventing  apprentices 
from  learning  trades,  by  demand- 
ing equal  wages  for  union  mem- 
bers without  reference  to  skill,  by      Trade- 
interfering    with    the    employer's      Unions 
right  to  employ  whom  he  will,  and    and  Non- 
demanding    that  he    employ  only    Unionists, 
union  labor,  and  by  attacking  non- 
union labor  in  time  of  strikes. 

To  these  objections,  it  is  to  be  frankly  ad- 
mitted, that  cases  of  injustice  on  the  part  of 
trade-unions  do  frequently  happen,  especially 
with  weak  and  newly  formed  unions  ;  but  this 
is  not  because  of  trade-unionism,  but  because 
the  members  are  ignorant  and  unwise,  and 
therefore  have  more  need  of  unions  which  grad- 
ually outgrow  such  evils.  Says  Professor  Mar- 
shall (Economics  of  Industry,  Book  III.,  chap. 
v.,§3): 

"  In  many  of  the  smaller  unions  there  remains  to  the 
present  day  much  of  the  folly  and  ignorance  and  sel- 
fishness, and  a  little  of  the  violence  of  earlier  times. 
But  we  may  trust  that  those  faults  which  are  not  now 


Trade-Unions. 


1343 


Trade-Unions, 


found  in  the  largest  and  best-managed  unions  will, 
with  the  course  of  time  and  the  diffusion  of  knowledge, 
disappear  altogether.  It  is  true  that  even  the  best 
unions  do  not  always  act  up  to  the  principles  of  union- 
ism as  they  are  expounded  by  their  most  enlightened 
members.  But  as,  when  dealing  with  the  economics  of 
trade,  we  do  not  trouble  ourselves  to  discuss  at  length 
the  guiles  of  dishonest  merchants  ;  so  when  dealing 
with  the  economics  of  unionism,  we  may  accept  its 
principles  as  they  are  put  into  practice  by  the  most 
enlightened  unionists." 

As  for  violence  in  times  of  strike  against  non- 
union men,  called  "  scabs"  by  the  union  men, 
it  undoubtedly  often  happens,  but  very  often  it 
is  conducted  by  irresponsible  young  men  or 
boys,  and  sometimes  women,  in  hate,  or  in  spirit 
of  mischief,  and  is  not  conducted  by  the  union- 
ists. The  violence  against  property  in  case  of 
strike  is  almost  wholly  committed,  not  by  union- 
ists, but  by  the  hoodlums  which  infest  most 
large  cities,  and  are  glad  of  any  opportunity  to 
attack  the  hated  capitalists.  Most  trade  unions 
are  careful  to  protect  property,  knowing  it  for 
their  interest  in  the  long  run.  (See  STRIKES.) 
Usually  the  trade  unions  are  the  best  police  and 
teachers  of  law,  order,  and  discipline.  Says 
Professor  Marshall  (idem,  Book  III.,  chap,  v., 
§13): 

"  Unions  are  rapidly  growing  out  of  the  habit  of  rat- 
tening ;  that  is,  of  hiding,  stealing  or  destroying  the 
tools  of  an  employer  or  a  workman  who  offends  against 
their  rules.  There  is  no  sign  of  the  disuse  of  the  habit 
of  picketing-  a  place  where  the  men  have  struck  ;  that 
is,  of  surrounding  all  entrances  to  it  with  men  appointed 
to  represent  the  interests  of  the  union  ;  but  cases  of  in- 
timidation on  the  part  of  these  pickets  are  become 
rarer  :  they  now  confine  themselves  almost  entirely  to 
explaining  to  workmen  who  may  be  seeking  employ- 
ment, the  nature  and  cause  of  the  strike.  The  pick- 
ets appeal  to  their  feelings  of  class  patriotism,  and 
endeavor  to  dissuade  them  from  siding  with  the  em- 
ployers against  the  employed ;  offering  them  on  the 
part  of  the  union  the  repayment  of  all  the  expenses  to 
which  they  may  be  put  by  abandoning  their  purpose. 

Of  the  complaint  that  trade-unionists  demand 
equal  wages  for  workmen  good  and  bad,  Mr. 
Trant  says  (as  above)  : 

"That  unions  force  masters  to  pay  bad  workmen 
the  same  wages  as  good  workmen  is  not  true,  and  the 
very  idea  would  be  scouted  by  all  sensible  unionists. 
The  notion  that  such  is  the  case  is,  however,  very  gen- 
eral. .  .  .  True,  the  unions  sometimes  agree  upon  a 
minimum  rate  of  wages,  but  this  is  quite  another 
thing.  If  a  man  be  not  worth  that  minimum  no  em- 
ployer need  employ  him,  while  if  he  be  a  man  of  supe- 
fior  skill,  or  extraordinary  working  ability,  there  is  no 
limit  to  the  amount  of  wages  an  employer  may  feel  in- 
clined to  give  him.  Of  course,  where  wages  are  paid 
by  the  day,  a  uniform  rate  naturally  springs  in  exist- 
ence." 


Ruskin    advocates    equal 
(  Unto  this  Last,  Essay  i)  : 


wages.     He   says 


"'Pay  good  and  bad  workmen  alike?'  Certainly. 
The  difference  between  one  prelate's  sermons  and  his 
successor's — or  between  one  physician's  opinion  and 
another's— is  far  greater,  as  respects  the  qualities  of 
mind  involved,  and  far  more  important  in  result  to  you 
personally,  than  the  difference  between  good  and  bad 
laying  of  bricks  (tho  that  is  greater  than  most  people 
suppose).  Yet  you  pay  with  equal  fee,  contentedly, 
the  good  and  bad  workmen  upon  your  soul,  and  the 
good  and  bad  workmen  upon  your  body  ;  much  more 
may  you  pay,  contentedly,  with  equal  fees,  the  good 
and  bad  workmen  upon  your  house. 

"  '  Nay,  but  I  choose  my  physician  and(?)  my  clergy- 
man, thus  indicating  my  sense  of  the  quality  of  their 
work.'  By  all  means,  also,  choose  your  bricklayer; 
that  is  the  proper  reward  of  the  good  workman,  to  be 
'chosen.'  The  natural  and  right  system  respecting  all 
labor  is,  that  it  should  be  paid  at  a  fixed  rate,  but  the 
good  workman  employed,  and  the  bad  workman  un- 
employed. The  fa'se,  unnatural,  and  destructive  sys- 


tem is  when  the  bad  workman  is  allowed  to  offer  his- 
work  at  half  price,  and  either  take  the  place  of  the 
good,  or  force  him  by  his  competition  to  work  for  an 
inadequate  sum." 

This,  in  a  general  and  sometimes  unconscious- 
way,  is  what  the  trade-unionist  aims  at,  and  he 
aims  all  the  more  strenuously  the  more  intelligent 
trade-unionist  he  is.  As  for  the  asserted  hostility 
of  trade-unions  to  apprentices,  and  their  admitted 
effort  to  induce  or  compel  employers  to  employ 
only  union  men,  it  is  to  be  said  that  trade-unions 
do  not  limit  apprenticeship  to  anything  like  the 
extent  they  are  accused  of  doing.  (For  proof  of 
this,  see  APPRENTICESHIP.)  They  do  strive  to- 
limit  the  number  of  workmen,  and  when  the 
emigration  laws  admit  and  employers  often  im- 
port adult  workmen  from  Europe,  the  only  way 
the  unionist  can  limit  the  competition  which 
may  take  from  him  his  living  is  to  limit  the 
number  of  non-adults  learning  the  craft.  This- 
is  the  explanation  of  the  asserted  hostility  of 
American  trade-unions  to  American  labor. 
That  unionists  do  strive  to  control  the  number 
of  craftsmen,  and  above  all  to  induce  or  force 
employers  to  employ  only  union  men,  is  ad- 
mitted. But  provided  they  limit  themselves  to- 
law-abiding  methods,  as  more  and  more  they 
are  doing,  this,  under  the  present  situation  of 
industry,  is  undoubtedly  their  right  and  their 
necessity.  The  workman's  craft  is  his  liveli- 
hood, and  that  of  his  wife  and  children.  The 
union  is  well-nigh  his  only  way  (see  above)  of  v 
preventing  his  wages  from  falling  below  the 
level  of  existence.  Almost  all  economists  sup- 
port him  in  this.  If  some  ignorant  workman 
or  some  skilled  smart  workman  does  not  want 
to  join  the  union  of  his  craft,  it  hurts  every 
union  man,  and  in  the  long  run  hurts  the  indi- 
vidual himself.  Hence  the  unionists  use  every 
inducement  they  can  to  get  all  workmen  to  join, 
their  union,  and  to  prevent  employers  from  em- 
ploying non-union  labor.  It  is  a  life-and-death 
question  to  the  workman.  In  seeing  the  fool- 
ish things  often  done  by  trade-unions,  it  must 
be  remembered  what  might  happen  were  there 
no  trade-unions.  The  working  classes  under 
modern  democratic  impulses  will  not  quietly  be 
content  with  low  wages.  If  they  are  prevented 
for  organizing  in  legal  ways,  it  is  claimed  that 
they  would  organize  in  illegal  ways,  or  perhaps- 
develop  useless  but  violent  and  distinctive  up- 
risings and  insurrections.  If  they  did  not  and 
there  were  no  unions  any  unscrupulous  employ- 
er could  lower  wages  as  he  would,  and  force  just 
employers  to  do  the  same.  It  is  the  fear  of 
unions  and  of  strikes  that  prevent  many  cut 
downs.  The  union  is  for  the  good  alike  of  the 
wage  worker  and  of  the  just  employer.  The 
following  quotations  used  by  trade-unionists  in. 
America  show  the  change  of  opinion  : 

' '  Trade-unions  are  the  bulwarks  of  modern 
democracies." — W.  E.  Gladstone. 

"  Were  it  not  for  the  typographical  union  the 
printers  of  this  country  would  not  now  be  get- 
ting what  they  do  for  their  work  by  at  least  one 
third." — George  W.  Childs. 

Says  Frederick  Harrison  (Nineteenth  Cen- 
tury, October ) : 

"Things  are  indeed  changed  now.  We  have  just 
seen  the  greatest  strike  on  record  carried  to  a  success- 
ful issue  with  and  mainly  by  the  support  and  encour- 
agement of  the  public.  The  press,  even  the  party 


Trade-Unions. 


1344 


Trade-Unions. 


press,  was  uniformly  fair,  and,  very  generally,  aided 
the  movement.  No  sooner  were  the  docks  empty  than 
money  poured  into  the  strike  fund,  not  only  from 
thousands  of  British  unions,  but  from  across  the  seas, 
and  from  the  wealthy  and  governing  classes  in  all  di- 
rections. 'We  were  pelted  with  checks,'  says  the 
Treasurer,  and  in  a  few  weeks  upward  of  £40,000  was 
given.  No  Mansion  House  fund  in  a  great  national 
disaster,  says  John  Burns,  could  have  been  'responded 
to  with  more  extravagant  generosity.'  In  one  memo- 
rable case,  at  least,  a  great  employer— Mr.  Henry  La- 
fone— himself  gave  strike-pay  to  his  own  men  when 
under  a  sense  of  social  duty  they  left  his  works  empty. 
The  Stock  Exchange  raised  a  handsome  sum  toward 
the  fund  in  a  few  minutes.  Merchants  and  merchants' 
clerks  cheered  the  strikers  as  they  passed  the  ware- 
houses in  the  city.  London  saw,  without  uneasiness 
or  ill-will,  50,000  men  on  the  verge  of  starvation  pass  in 
procession  through  the  street.  Politicians,  clergymen, 
writers,  and  capitalists  backed  up  their  demands  with 
word  arid  with  purse.  Churches  of  all  creeds,  educa- 
tional and  charitable  institutions,  gave  their  help. 
Catholics  and  Salvationists,  Tories  and  Radicals,  for 
once  combined.  .  .  .  The  East  End  shopkeepers  gave 
credit  for  goods.  The  pawnbrokers  refused  interest, 
and  lodging-house  keepers  refused  their  rent.  Finally 
a  Lord  Mayor,  a  Cardinal,  a  Bishop  of  London,  and 
some  prominent  politicians,  succeeded  in  bringing 
about  peace  in  this  tremendous  upheaval  of  indus- 
try." 

5.  One  objection  is  brought  against  trade- 
unions  from  a  very  different  quarter  from  those 
we  have  considered  above.     They  are  declared 
by  some  socialistic  reformers  to  be 
reactionary  and  useless.     This  ob- 
Trade-       jection,  as  far  as  it  applies  to  trade- 
TJnionism    unions,  is  usually  brought  by  young 
and         and  Utopian  middle-class  socialists 
Socialism,    who  know  very  little  about  what 
trade-unions  are  doing .    Few  work- 
ing class  socialists  object  to  trade- 
unions.     But  very  many  working-class  socialists 
do  attack,  and  that  bitterly,  the   trade-union 
leaders.     They  say  trade-unions  are  necessary 
to-day,  but  cannot  really  solve  the  labor  move- 
ment;  that  only  socialism  can  do  that ;  and  that 
the  main  use  of  the  trade-union  ought  to  be  to 
educate  the  workers  toward  socialism.     This, 
they  say,  the  trade-union  leaders  prevent  be- 
cause it  is  for  their  interest  to  magnify  the  or- 
ganizations which  give  them  a  living.     Those 
trade-unionists  who  refuse  to  join  the  Socialist 
Labor  Party  they  brand  as  traitors  to  labor,  and 
as  having  sold  their  views  to  the  capitalist  class, 
etc.     Says  Mr.  Hyndman,  in  Justice,  the  organ 
of  this  type  of  socialism  in  England  : 

"  The  day  has  gone  by  for  the  efforts  of  isolated 
trades"  (September  6,  1884).  "  Nothing  short  of  a  revo- 
lution which  shall  place  the  producers  of  wealth  in  con- 
trol of  their  own  country  can  possibly  change  matters 
for  the  better"  (July  18,  1885).  "We  appeal,  therafore, 
earnestly  to  the  skilled  artisans  of  all  trades,  unionists 
and  non-unionists  alike,  to  make  common  cause  with 
their  unskilled  brethren,  and  unite  with  us  Social  Dem- 
ocrats, so  that  the  workers  may  themselves  take  hold  of 
the  means  of  production,  and  organize  a  cooperative 
commonwealth  for  themselves  and  their  children" 
(June  18,  1887). 

The  position  of  the  same  type  of  socialists  in 
America  is  the  same,  only  with  the  use  of  more 
denunciation.  The  trade-union  leaders,  however, 
even  those  who  do  accept  the  ideals  of  social- 
ism as  their  ultimate  aim,  being  usually  men  of 
some  years  of  experience,  know  that  socialism 
at  the  best  can  come  but  slowly.  They  have 
seen  working-class  political  movements  and 
labor  parties  come  and  go.  To  identify  trade- 
unions  as  organizations  with  such  political 
movements,  they  believe,  would  endanger  the 
only  organizations  that  are  protecting  labor 


interests  to  day  for  at  the  best  questionable 
and  vague  hopes.  Let  socialism  come,  they 
argue,  as  speedily  as  it  may  ;  let  workers  unite 
and  vote  for  it,  if  they  will,  as  members  of  a  po- 
litical party  ;  but  let  us  not  commit  the  unions 
as  unions  to  such  parties.  They  point  to  the 
many  concrete  and  very  actual  advantages 
trade-unions  have  gained  to-day  for  the  work- 
ing classes  (see  above).  Many  of  them  do  not 
even  believe  that  as  socialists  it  is  the  wisest 
way  to  work  for  socialism  thro  independent 
political  parties.  They  believe  that  socialism 
must  come,  if  at  all,  as  a  slow  evolution,  first  of 
all,  through  the  organization  of  trades  on  trade 
lines,  especially  working  for  the  shortening  of 
the  hours  of  labor.  What  socialistic  measures 
the  community  is  ready  for  they  believe  can  be 
best  obtained,  step  by  step,  by  working  through 
existing  political  parties.  They  are  inclined  to 
laugh  at  working  men  who  cannot  control  their 
own  trade,  and  cannot  even  control  one  politi- 
cal party,  hoping  to  gain  the  majority  of  all  po- 
litical parties. 

A  last  objection  to  trade-unions,  or  at  least 
to  trade-unions  of  the  present  type,  which  we 
may  briefly  consider,  comes  from  the  opposite 
direction — from  the  extreme  individualists.  In 
A  Plea  for  Liberty  (Thomas  Mackay,  ed.),  Mr. 
Auberon  Herbert,  writing  on  The  True  Line 
of  Deliverance,  argues  that  present  trade- 
unions  are  wrong  so  far  as  they  are  militant 
organizations.  He  says  that  on  the  present  line 
they  can  only  succeed  by  being  at  least  supple- 
mented by  State  socialism  and  a  vast  system  of 
restrictions  which  he  considers  opposed  to  lib- 
erty and  to  the  real  advantage  of  the  workers. 
He  says  : 

"The  point  then  that  I  urge  upon  trade-unionists  and 
all  workmen  is  the  same  point  I  should  urge  upon 
nations— seek  to  get  rid  of  war.  .  .  .  Capital,  relieved 
of  all  attacks  and  of  all  misgivings,  would  become  in- 
tensely active.  The  same  wise  spirit  in 
the  men  which  had  led  them  to  abandon 
all  attacks  upon  it  thro  their  organiza-  Individual- 
tions  would  also  lead  them  to  put  a  sharp  jg+  views 
curb  upon  the  mischievous  activities  of 
the  politician,  and  to  prevent  his  happy- 
go-lucky  interference  with  it.  Capital 
would  thus  have  that  sense  of  complete  security  which 
is  beyond  all  value  to  it.  .  .  .  The  consequences  would 
be  that  this  country  would  become  the  home  and  store- 
house of  capital.  ...  In  two  senses  the  workmen, 
if  they  so  choose,  may  become  the  masters  of  capital. 
They  may  encourage  capital  to  such  an  extent,  that 
the  competition  of  capitalists  will  drive  the  reward  of 
labor  up  to  the  highest  point  and  the  reward  of  labor 
down  to  the  lowest  point ;  and,  secondly,  being  the 
largest  body  of  consumers,  they  may  have  capital  at 
their  feet,  trying  to  find  out  their  every  will  and  pleas- 
ure. .  .  .  Under  this  system  there  would  be  no  unions 
of  exactly  the  present  type,  but  there  would  be  far 
more  associations  among  the  men.  The  probability  is 
that  almost  every  man  would  belong  to  some  form  of 
union.  Information  would  be  the  first  great  pur- 
pose. .  .  .  The  union,  being  no  longer  a  war  machine, 
would  serve  many  great  purposes.  One  great  object 
that  lies  before  every  working  man  is  to  have  two 
sources  of  revenue  :  his  labor  earnings  and  his  return 
from  industrial-investments.  If  all  the  money  wasted 
in  labor-war  had  been  invested  in  industrial  concerns, 
•wages  would  be  higher  than  they  are  now,  and  the 
men  would  be  part  owners  of  a  considerable  amount 
of  the  industrial  machinery  of  the  country.  .  .  .  Once 
relieved  from  the  miserable  duty  of  fighting  the  em- 
ployer, its  [the  union's]  energies  would  be  called  out 
in  many  directions  which  are  scarcely  in  the  region  of 
imagination  at  present." 

The  answer  to  this  view  is  the  simple  one  of 
quoting  the  facts  against  it.  Where  trade- 
unions  have  not  been  organized  and  capital  has 


Trade-Unions. 


1345 


Tramps. 


been  most  secure,  as  in  the  sweated  trades  on 
the  one  hand  and  the  great  monopolies  on  the 
other,  wages  have  not  been  highest  nor  condi- 
tions best  It  is  simply  history  that  scarcely  a 
single  advance  has  been  gained  by  labor,  save 
as  laborers  have  organized  and  aggressively 
struggled  for  it.  The  few  reforms  that  have 
been  brought  forward  by  humane  employers 
were  not  brought  forward  till  the  labor  move- 
ment called  attention  to  the  subject. 

Says  the  late  Professor  Thorold  Rogers  (g.v.), 
of  Oxford,  concerning  trade-unions  : 

"  I  confess  to  at  one  time  having  viewed  them  sus- 
piciously ;  but  a  long  study  of  the  history  of  labor  has 
convinced  me  that  they  are  not  only  the  best  friends 
of  the  workman,  but  the  best  agency  for  the  employer 
and  the  public  ;  and  that  to  the  extension  of  these  as- 
sociations political  economists  and  statesmen  must 
look  for  the  solution  of  some  among  the  most  pressing 
and  difficult  problems  of  our  times." 

Professor  Marshall  says,  summing  up  a  more 
critical  study  of  the  effects  of  trade-unions 
(Economics  of  Industry,  Book  VI.,  chap,  xiii.) : 

"  Other  things  being  equal,  the  presence  of  a  union 
in  a  trade  raises  wages  relatively  to  other  trades. 
But  the  influence  which  unions  exert  on  the  aver- 
age level  of  wages  is  less  than  would  be  inferred  by 
looking  at  the  influence  which  they  exert  on  wages  in 
each  particular  trade.  When  the  measures  which  they 
take  to  raise  wages  in  one  trade  have  the  effect  of  ren- 
dering business  more  difficult,  or  anxious,  or  imped- 
ing it  in  any  other  way,  they  are  likely  to  diminish 
employment  in  other  trades,  and  thus  to  cause  a  greater 
aggregate  loss  of  wages  to  other  trades  than  they 
gain  for  themselves,  and  to  lower  and  not  raise  the 
average  level  of  wages.  .  .  . 

"  The  power  of  unions  to  raise  general  wages  by  di- 
rect means  is  never  great ;  it  is  never  sufficient  to  con- 
tend successfully  with  the  general  economic  forces  of 
the  age,  when  their  drift  is  against  a  rise  of  wages. 
But  yet  it  is  sufficient  materially  to  benefit  the  worker, 
when  it  is  so  directed  as  to  cp-operate  with  and  to 
strengthen  those  general  agencies,  which  are  tending 
to  improve  his  position  morally  and 
economically.  And  it  will  be  so  di- 
Effect  on  reeled  if  the  following  conditions  are 
Wa^ea  satisfied.  Firstly,  unions  must  aim  at 
making  business  easy  and  certain  ;  this 
is  already  done  by  formal  and  informal 
boards  of  conciliation  in  some  trades, 
especially  such  as  produce  largely  for  foreign  mar- 
kets. Secondly,  they  must  aim  at  raising  the  stand- 
ard of  life  among  the  workers  of  the  present  and 
the  coming  generation  by  fostering  habits  of  sobriety 
and  honesty,  independence  and  self-respect :  this  is 
done  in  different  degrees  by  all  unions;  and  what- 
ever influence  they  exert  in  this  direction  is  cumula- 
tive. Thirdly,  they  must  aid  as  many  as  possible  of 
the  rising  generation  to  acquire  industrial  skill,  and  to 
join  the  higher  paid  ranks  of  labor:  this  calls  for  some 
self-sacrifice,  and  is  inconsistent  with  any  attempt  to 
raise  very  high  the  wages  in  skilled  trades  by  making 
the  entrance  to  them  artificially  difficult.  Fourthly, 
they  must  strive  to  develop  the  great  stores  of  busi- 
ness power  and  inventive  resource  that  lie  latent 
among  the  working  classes,  so  that,  production  being 
economical  and  efficient,  the  national  dividend  may  be 
large  ;  and  that,  business  power  being  cheap,  and  the 
share  going  as  earnings  of  management  being  rel- 
atively small,  that  which  remains  for  wages  may  be 
high.  The  training  which  unionists  get  from  the  man- 
agement of  union  affairs,  though  highly  beneficial  to 
them  as  men  and  as  citizens,  is  yet  not  exactly  what  is 
wanted  for  this  end.  .  .  .  Fifthly,  they  must  be  always 
specially  careful  to  avoid  action  by  which  one  class  of 
workers  inflict  a  direct  injury  on  others.  .  .  . 

"  Thus  union  policy  as  a  whole  is  likely  to  be  econom- 
ically successful  provided  unionists  as  individuals  and 
in  their  corporate  capacity  follow  the  dictates  of  mo- 
rality directed  by  sound  knowledge.  In  this  respect 
unions  derive  an  ever-increasing  assistance  from  pub- 
lic sympathy  and  public  criticism  ;  and  the  more  they 
extend  the  sphere  of  their  undertakings  by  federa- 
tion and  international  alliances,  the  more  dependent 
do  they  become  on  that  sympathy  and  the  more  amen- 
able to  that  criticism  ;  the  larger  the  questions  at  issue, 
the  greater  Is  the  force  of  public  opinion." 

85 


References :  The  History  of  Trade  Unionism  (Brit- 
ish), by  Sidney  and  Beatrice  Webb  (1894) ;  The  Labor 
Movement  (American  ed.),  by  G.  E.  McNeil!  (1887) ;  The 
Conflicts  of  Capital  and  Labor  Historically  and  Eco- 
nomically Considered  (revised  edition,  1890),  and  Trade 
Unionism.  New  and  Old  (1891),  by  G.  Howell ;  Trade 
Unions,^  W.  Trant(i884> ;  Industrial  Evolution  oj  the 
United  States,  by  C.  D.  Wright  (1895).  See  also  AMER- 
ICAN FEDERATIO'N  OF  LABOR  ;  ARBITRATION  AND  CON- 
CILIATION ;  FACTORY  SYSTEM  MACHINERY  ;  KNIGHTS 
OF  LABOR  ;  NEW  TRADE  UNIONISM  ;  SHORT-HOUR 
MOVEMENT  ;  STRIKES  ;  WAGES,  etc. 

TRAMPS.— In  the  United  States  the  term 
tramp  is  in  general  use  as  equivalent  for  a 
wandering  vagrant,  and  is  really  synonymous 
with  the  word  vagrant,  tho  vagrancy  laws 
usually  include  disorderly  persons  who  would 
scarcely  be  called  tramps.  Vagrancy  laws  exist 
in  all  civilized  countries,  and  began  in  England 
as  early  as  the  middle  of  the  fourteenth  cen- 
tury, when  efforts  were  made  to  require  labor- 
ers to  stay  and  work  in  certain  places.  (See 
POOR  LAWS.)  The  laws  were  continually 
changed  and  added  to,  and  the  treatment  of 
vagrants  was  often  severe  in  the  extreme. 

To-day,  vagrants  in  England  are,  if  simply 
idle  or  disorderly,  placed  at  hard  labor  for  a 
month  ;  if  rogues  and  vagabonds,  for  not  to 
exceed  three  months  ;  if  incorrigible  rogues, 
they  may  be  imprisoned  for  a  year,  and  may  be 
whipped.  In  the  United  States,  vagrants  or 
tramps  were  not  frequent  enough  to  call  out 
special  legislation  till  after  the  hard  times  of 
1873.  To-day  the  tramp  problem  has  become  a 
large  one.  The  most  careful  study  of  tramps 
in  the  United  States  has  been  made  by  Profes- 
sor J.  J.  McCook,  of  Hartford.  In  various 
magazine'  articles,  as  in  The  Forum  and  the 
Charities  Review,  it  is  estimated  by  Mr.  Mc- 
Cook that  there  are  about  46,000  tramps  in  the 
United  States.  This  estimate  is  based  on  a 
statistical  investigation  of  tramps  living  in 
Massachusetts,  that  State  being  the  only  one 
which  attempts  to  collect  the  facts  necessary 
for  a  calculation.  Mr.  McCook  further  esti- 
mates that  57  per  cent,  of  our  American  tramps 
have  trades  or  professions,  41  per  cent,  are  un- 
skilled laborers,  i  in.  20  is  under  20  years  of  age, 
3  out  of  5  are  under  35,  75  out  of  100  under  40,  and 
I  in  in  over  70.  He  believes  that  industrial 
causes  have  little  to  do  with  vagabondage, 
holding  that  intemperance  is  chiefly  respon- 
sible for  it.  (But  see  POVERTY  for  a  contrary 
view.)  Sixty -three  per  cent,  of  the  tramps  with 
whom  he  has  communicated  are  confessedly  in- 
temperate. Mr.  McCook  says  further  that  56 
per  cent,  of  our  tramps  are  of  American  nativ- 
ity ;  that  more  than  nine  tenths  of  them  are 
married,  and  that  a  like  proportion  can  read 
and  write.  Only  113  out  of  1349  admitted  that 
they  had  no  religion. 

Mr.  McCook  recommends  uniform  laws  in  all 
the  States,  committing  drunkards  and  vagrants 
to  places  of  detention,  where  they  must  abstain 
from  drink,  must  work,  and  must  keep  clean, 
and  that  for  an  indefinite  period.  He  thinks 
that  they  might  be  made  to  nearly  or  quite  sup- 
port themselves  in  such  establishments,  and  in 
that  event  we  would  save  $10,000,000  or  more  a 
year. 

Existing  legislation  in  the  United  States  fol- 
lows, in  the  main,  English  lines.  The  old  ex- 
cessive punishments  have  been  done  away  with, 


Tramps. 


1346 


Trusts. 


partly  because  it  is  widely  recognized  that  the 
tramp  is  the  result  of  social  and  economic  con- 
ditions, the  removal  of  which  on  temperance 
and  industrial  lines  is  the  only  lasting  remedy. 
Yet  the  laws  to-day  are  frequently  very  unjust, 
blending  the  man  out  of  work  with  the  semi- 
criminal,  and  making  poverty  a  crime.  (See 
also  UNEMPLOYMENT.) 

TREVOR,  JOHN,  was  born  in  Liverpool, 
Eng.,  in  1855,  the  son  of  a  linen-draper.  Sent 
to  a  Wisbech,  he  grew  up  under  a  narrow  ortho- 
doxy that  rested  like  a  crushing  load  on  his  im- 
aginative spirit.  In  1869  he  was  articled  to  an 
architect  in  Norwich,  but  gave  more  thought  to 
theological  and  sociological  problems.  In  1877, 
broken  in  health,  he  went  on  a  voyage  to  Aus- 
tralia, and  thence  to  San  Francisco,  and  then 
entered  the  Meadville  (Pa.)  Theological  School, 
to  prepare  for  the  Unitarian  ministry.  Return- 
ing to  London,  he  tried  to  preach,  but  thought 
he  had  no  mission,  and  so  returned  to  his  pro- 
fession of  architecture  in  the  south  of  England. 
He  married  and  had  four  children  born  to  him. 
Finding  his  profession  commercialized  and  de- 
graded by  competition,  he  was  compelled  to 
study  social  problems  more  than  ever,  and  he 
gradually  worked  out  the  views  which  he  later 
embodied  in  his  Labor  Church,  and  at  last  felt 
that  he  had  something  to  preach.  He  studied 
for  a  year  at  Manchester,  New  College,  and  then 
went  to  London  to  assist  Mr.  Wichsteed  at  Lit- 
tle Portland  Street  Chapel,  but  in  1890  went  to 
Upper  Brook  Street  Free  Church,  Manchester, 
and  at  last  left  all  organized  churches  and  start- 
ed, October,  1891,  the  Labor  Church  Movement, 
for  an  account,  by  Mr.  Trevor,  of  which,  see 
LABOR  CHURCH. 

TRUSTS. — A  trust  in  law  may  be  defined 
as  confidence  reposed  in  any  person  by  making 
him  the  nominal  owner  of  property,  which  he 
may  hold,  use,  or  dispose  of  for  the  benefit  of 
another.  Such  a  trust  is  sometimes  called  an 
active  or  special  trust,  in  distinction  from  a 
naked  or  passive  trust,  where  the  trustee  is 
only  a  figurehead  in  holding  a  title,  but  with  no 
discretionary  powers  as  to  its  use  or  disposal. 
There  may  be  also  express  trusts  and  implied 
trusts,  according  as  the  powers  are  expressed 
or  implied.  Loan  and  trust  companies  are 
simply  a  form  of  banks. 

The  popular  use  of  the  word  trust,  however, 
limits  it  to  the  particular  case,  eliciting  so  much 
attention  to-day,  where  by  a  device 
of  trusteeship,  various  corporations 
Definitions,  practically    form     one    monopoly 
without  losing  their  separate  cor- 
porateness.     The  novel  character- 
istic of  such  a  trust  is  not  in  its  being  a  monop- 
oly, but  in  the  way  in  which  the  monopoly  is  at- 
tained. 

The  fullest  information  on  the  subject  of 
trusts  is  contained  in  a  report  of  a  committee  of 
the  New  York  State  Legislature,  which  was 
appointed  to  investigate  the  new  combination. 
The  following  trusts  were  inquired  into  :  Sugar, 
milk,  rubber,  cotton-seed  oil,  envelope,  eleva- 
tor, oil-cloth,  Standard  oil,  butchers',  glass,  and 
furniture.  A  trust  is  defined  by  the  committee 


as  a  combination  "  to  destroy  competition  and 
to  restrain  trade  through  the  stockholders  there- 
in combining  with  other  corporations  or  stock- 
holders to  form  a  joint-stock  company  of  cor- 
porations, in  effect  renouncing  the  powers  of  such 
several  corporations,  and  placing  all  powers  in 
the  hands  of  trustees. ' '  The  general  purposes 
and  effects  are  stated  to  be  "  to  control  the  sup- 
ply of  commodities  and  necessities  ;  to  destroy 
competition  ;  to  regulate  the  quality  ;  and  to 
keep  the  cost  to  the  consumer  at  prices  far  be- 
yond their  fair  and  equitable  value. ' ' 

Mr.  Charles  W.  Baker,  in  his  Monopolies  and 
the  People,  says  : 

"  A  trust  is  a  combination  to  restrain  competition 
among  producers,  formed  by  placing  the  various  pro- 
ducing properties  (mills,  factories,  etc.)  in  the  hands 
of  a  board  of  trustees,  who  are  empowered  to  direct 
the  operations  of  production  and  sale,  as  if  the  proper- 
ties were  all  under  a  single  ownership  and  manage- 
ment." 

The  first  great  trust  formed  was  the  Standard 
Oil  Trust  in  1882.  (See  STANDARD  OIL  MONOP- 
OLY.) Since  then  innumerable  trusts  have  been 
formed.  Some  have  been  nominally  broken 
up,  but  more  have  been  formed,  and  usually 
those  which  have  been  broken  up  have  simply 
changed  their  form  of  combination  to  avoid  or 
to  fulfill  some  legal  enactment.  The  general 
tendency  to  combination  is  at  least  as  strong  as 
ever.  (See  MONOPOLY  ;  WEALTH.)  Mr.  H.  D. 
Lloyd  (g.v.),  in  the  appendix  to  his  Wealth 
against  Commonwealth,  gives  a  list  of  the  arti- 
cles in  commerce  affected  by  trusts  or  combina- 
tions of  one  kind  or  another,  and  the  list  occu- 
pies eight  pages.  The  committee  of  Congress 
which  investigated  trusts  in  1889  did  not  report 
any  list  of  combinations  to  control  markets,  "for 
the  reason  that  new  ones  are  constantly  form- 
ing, and  that  old  ones  are  constantly  expanding 
their  relations  so  as  .to  cover  new  branches  of 
the  business  and  invade  new  territories. ' '  Says 
Mr.  Lloyd  (idem,  p.  4)  : 

"Corners  are  '  acute '  attacks  of  that  which  combi- 
nations exhibit  as  chronic.  First  a  corner,  then  a  pool, 
then.a  trust  has  often  been  the  genesis.  .  .  .  The  line 
of  development  is  from  local  to  national  and  from 
national  to  international.  The  amount  of  capital 
changes  continually  with  the  recrystallizations  in 
progress.  Not  less  than  $500,000,000  is  in  the  coal  com- 
bination (1894),  which  our  evidence  shows  to  have 
flourished  22  years;  that  in  oil  has  nearly  if  not  quite 
$200,000,000,  and  the  other  combinations  in  which  its 
members  are  leaders  foot  up  hundreds  of  millions 
more.  Hundreds  of  millions  of  dollars  are  united  in 
the  railroads  and  elevators  of  the  Northwest  against 
the  wheat-growers.  In  cattle  and  meat  there  are  not 
less  than  $100,000,000 ;  in  whiskey,  §35,000,000,  and  in 
beer  a  great  deal  more  than  that ;  in  sugar,  $75,000,000; 
in  leather,  over  $100,000,000  |  in  gas, 
hundreds  of  millions.  At  this  writing 
(1894)  a  union  is  being  negotiated  of  all  Extent 
the  piano-makers  in  the  United  States, 
to  have  a  capital  of  $50,000,000.  Quite 
beyond  ordinary  competition  is  the  mag- 
nitude of  the  syndicates,  if  there  is  more  than  one, 
which  are  going  from  city  to  city,  consolidating  all  the 
gas  works,  electric-lighting  companies,  street  railways 
in  each,  into  single  properties,  and  consolidating  these 
into  vast  estates  for  central  corporations  of  capitalists, 
controlling  from  metropolitan  offices  the  transporta- 
tion of  the  people  of  scores  of  cities.  Such  a  syndicate 
negotiating  in  December,  1892,  for  the  control  of  the 
street  railways  of  Brooklyn,  was  said  by  the  New 
York  Times,  "on  absolute  authority  to  have  sub- 
scribed $23,000,000  toward  that  end  before  a  single 
move  had  been  made  or  a  price  set  on  a  single  share  of 
stock.'  It  was  in  the  same  hands  as  those  busy  later 


Trusts. 


J347 


Trusts. 


in  gathering  together  the  coal  mines  of  Nova  Scotia 
and  putting  them  under  American  control.  There 
are  in  round  numbers  10,000,000,000  of  dollars  claiming 
dividends  and  interest  in  the  railroads  of  the  United 
States.  Every  year  they  are  more  closely  pooled." 

Henry  B.  Brown,  Associate  Justice  of  the 
United  States  Supreme  Court,  said,  in  an  ad- 
dress at  the  Yale  Law  School,  June  24,  1895  : 

"  Corporations  are  a  necessity  in  every  civilized 
State.  They  have  a  practical  monopoly  of  land  trans- 
portation, of  mining,  manufacturing,  banking,  and 
insurance  ;  and  within  their  proper  sphere  they  are  a 
blessing  to  the  community.  On  the  other  hand,  the 
ease  with  which  charters  are  procured  has  produced 
great  abuses.  Corporations  are  formed  under  the  laws 
of  one  State  for  the  sole  purpose  of  doing  business  in 
another,  and  railways  are  built  in  California  under 
charters  granted  by  the  States  east  of  the  Mississippi, 
for  the  purpose  of  removing  their  litigation  to  Federal 
courts. 

"The  greatest  frauds  are  perpetrated  in  the  con- 
struction of  such  roads  by  the  directors  themselves, 
under  guise  of  a  construction  company,  another  cor- 
poration, to  which  is  turned  over  all  the  bonds,  mort- 
gages, and  other  securities,  regardless  of  the  actual 
cost  of  the  road.  The  road  is  equipped  in  the  same 
way,  by  another  corporation,  formed  of  the  directors, 
which  buys  the  rolling  stock  and  leases  it  to  the  road 
— so  that  when  the  inevitable  foreclosure  comes,  the 
stockholders  are  found  to  have  been  defrauded  for 
the  benefit  of  the  mortgagees,  and  the  mortgagees  de- 
frauded for  the  benefit  of  the  directors.  Property 
thus  acquired,  in  defiance  of  honesty  and  morality, 
does  not  stand  in  a  favorable  position  to  invoke  the 
aid  of  the  law  for  its  protection. 

"  Worse  than  this,  however,  is  the  combination  of 
corporations  in  so-called  trusts,  to  limit  production, 
stifle  competition,  and  monopolize  the  necessities  of 
life.  The  extent  to  which  this  has  already  been 
carried  is  alarming;  the  extent  to  which  it  may  here- 
after be  carried  is  revolutionary.  Indeed,  the  evils 
of  aggregated  wealth  are  nowhere  seen  in  more  odious 
form. 

"  If  no  student  can  light  his  lamp  without  paying 
tribute  to  one  company;  if  no  housekeeper  can  buy  a 
pound  of  meat  or  of  sugar  without  swelling  the  re- 
ceipts of  two  or  three  all-pervading  trusts,  what  is  to 
prevent  the  entire  productive  industry  of  the  country 
becoming  ultimately  absorbed  by  a  hundred  gigantic 
corporations?" 

The  Philadelphia  Times  a  few  years  ago  gave 
a  list  of  trusts  and  other  monopolies  numbering 
137,  and  estimated  to  represent  a  capital  of 
$1,507,060,000.  According  to  a  writer  in  the 
Annals  of  the  American  Academy  of  Politi- 
cal and  Social  Science,  the  Cordage  Trust  made 
$1,406,313  in  the  year  ending  October  31,  1891 
— probably  40  or  50  per  cent,  on  its  capital.  The 
Cotton  Seed  Oil  Trust  and  Lard  Trust  have 
both  cleared  over  $2,000,000  in  one  year.  (Con- 
cerning the  political  power  of  trusts,  see  PLU- 
TOCRACY.) 

Concerning  the  legal  standing  of  trusts,  Mr. 
George  W.  Kirchwey,  writing  \T\  Johnson's  Cy- 
clopedia, argues  that  they  are  not  different  from 
other  monopolies,  and  can  only  be  legally  at- 
tacked in  the  same  way.  He  says  : 

"  There  is  nothing  in  the  form,  the  organization,  or 
the  methods  of  the  modern  industrial  trust  to  render 
it  obnoxious  to  law.  It  is  in  all  essential  particulars  a 
trust  of  the  normal  familiar  type,  such  as  are  habitually 
enforced  by  the  courts.  In  these  external  aspects  it 
differs  from  ordinary  trusts  only  in  the  magnitude  of 
the  interests  involved.  .  .  .  Accordingly,  in  the  litiga- 
tion which  has  attended  the  development  of  these 
trust  combinations  their  character  as  trusts  has  played 
little  or  no  part,  and  those  combinations  that  have 
been  organized  on  the  trust  principle  have  been 
attacked  and  defended  on  precisely  the  same  grounds 
as  those  whiah  take  on  some  other  form.  The  field 
over  which  the  battle  ot  the  trusts  has  been  waged  is 
covered  by  the  two  following  points  : 

"Many  acts  which  the  individual  may  lawfully  per- 
form are  forbidden  to  the  corporation.  The  former 


Legal 

Standing. 


can  retire  from  his  business  or  turn  his  business  over 
to  some  one  else  to  be  managed  for  him ;  the  latter 
cannot  retire  without  dissolution,  nor  has  it  any  power 
to  delegate  to  another  corporation  or  person  the  duties 
which  its  charter  requires  it  to  perform.  A  corporation 
which  abandons  the  business  for  which  it  was  organ- 
ized, and  allows  its  property  to  be  controlled  and 
its  operations  to  be  carried  on  by  a  person  or  group 
of  persons  who  have  no  direct  re- 
lations, and  who  are  not  its  agents,  is  act- 
ing ultra  vires  and  in  violation  of  its 
organic  law,  and  thereby  forfeits  its 
right  to  exist  at  all.  .  .  .  These  prin- 
ciples once  settled  the  mode  of  attack  is 
simple  enough.  Altho  the  trust  is,  as 
we  have  seen  above,  impregnable  against  direct 
attack,  it  can  be  effectually  undermined  and  destroyed 
by  breaking  down  the  several  corporations  from  which 
it  draws  its  strength.  ...  It  was  in  this  way  that  the 
Sugar  Trust  was  broken  up  in  New  York  and  the  great 
Standard  Oil  Trust  in  Ohio.  .  .  .  But  .  .  .  the 
'trust'  after  it  has  been  driven  out  of  one  form  of 
organization  can  easily  take  refuge  in  another  and 
different  form.  .  .  .  There  are  several  other  forms  of 
at  least  equal  potency  with  which  the  principles  above 
discussed  have  nothing  to  do.  Thus  they  do  not  touch 
the  case  of  individuals,  not  corporations  forming  trust 
combinations  of  precisely  the  character  and  type  of 
those  under  consideration.  They  do  not  reflect  upon 
the  right  of  corporations  or  of  individuals  to  enter 
into  far-reaching  arrangements,  regulating  the  rate 
and  character  of  productions  and  the  prices  to  be 
charged  for  goods  and  services.  .  .  ,  Indeed  this  is 
precisely  what  has  occurred  in  the  case  of  the  'trusts  ' 
destroyed  by  the  adverse  decisions  in  New  York,  Ohio, 
and  elsewhere.  Of  the  large  number  of  combinations 
in  existence  at  the  date  of  these  decisions,  it  is  not 
known  that  a  single  one  has  gone  out  of  operation  as  a 
result  thereof.  They  have  disappeared  as  corporate 
trusts,  but  they  have  promptly  reappeared  and  are  in 
full  operation  as  great  corporations  or  as  corporations 
held  together  by  contract." 

Mr.  Kirchwey  therefore  discusses  a  second 
mode  of  attack,  and  says  : 

"Whether  a  given  industrial  combination  be  made 
up  of  individuals  or  of  corporations,  whether  it  be 
more  or  less  closely  held  together  by  contract  or  be 
consolidated  into  a  trust,  if  it  constitutes  or  '  tends  to 
create  '  a  monopoly,  or  if  it  is  found  to  be  a  conspiracy 
in  restraint  of  trade  it  is  obnoxious  to  law.  This  does 
not  signify  that  it  is  liable  to  destruction  at  the  instance 
of  the  State,  nor  that  its  promoters  are  subject  to 
criminal  prosecution,  but  only  that  the  agreements 
and  covenants  on  which  it  is  based,  being  unlawful 
and  contrary  to  public  policy,  will  not  be  enforced  by 
the  courts  and  that  it  will  be  thus  reduced  to  a  mere 
voluntary  association  without  binding  force  upon  its 
members.  When  the  monopoly  is  not 
based  on  agreement,  but  is  executed  by 
a  single  corporation  or  individual  who 
has  gained  control  of  the  market,  the 
rate  bill  laid  down  has  no  application. 
As  thus  limited  and  defined,  the  rule 
against  monopolies  is  one  of  the  land- 
marks of  the  common  law.  But  no  rule  of  that  law  is 
more  difficult  of  application.  The  crucial  question 
whether  a  given  combination  is  or  is  not  a  monopoly, 
as  to  whether  a  given  agreement  is  or  is  not  a  con- 
spiracy against  the  common  weal,  is  well-nigh  as  broad 
as  the  rule  itself,  and  the  judicial  attempts  to  answer 
it  have  thus  far  failed  to  develop  any  clear  guiding 
principle.  .  .  .  The  tendency  in  most  of  the  States  has 
been  to  declare  against  such  combinations,  but  in  the 
great  case  against  the  Sugar  Trust  the  New  York 
Court  of  Appeals  refused  to  follow  the  lower  courts  in 
declaring  the  combination  to  be  essentially  monopo- 
listic and  hostile  to  the  welfare  of  the  State  It  is  be- 
lieved that  in  the  absence  of  legislation  this  more 
temperate  and  conservative  view  will  ultimately  pre- 
vail." 

Such  is  Mr.  Kirchwey's  view.  Equally  hope- 
less to  the  enemy  of  trusts  appears  legislative 
action.  No  fewer  than  13  States,  mainly  in  the 
West,  passed  anti-trust  laws  in  1889,  and  five 
more  States  in  1890.  Georgia  passed  a  law  of 
this  nature  as  early  as  1877,  probably  the  first 
law  of  the  kind.  New  York  passed  one  of  nar- 
rower scope  and  doubtful  validity  in  1893.  All 


"  In  Re- 
straint of 
Trade." 


Trusts. 


1348         Turgot,  Anne  Robert  Jacques. 


of  these  statutes  are  penal  in  character  and  ap- 
pear to  be  sufficiently  explicit  and  drastic. 
They  declare  all  combinations  or  agreements 
regulating  the  supply  or  price  of 
any  article  or  commodity  to  be 
Anti-  criminal  conspiracies,  and  declare 
Trust  such  contracts  or  combinations  to 
Laws.  be  null  and  void.  Yet  there  have 
been  no  decisions  under  these 
statutes  which  have  conclusively 
demonstrated  their  efficacy.  There  is  consider- 
able difference  of  legal  opinion  as  to  their  con- 
stitutionality on  account  of  their  interference 
with  vested  property  rights,  and  Mr.  Kirchwey 
(as  above)  thinks  combinations  could  easily 
adopt  a  form  of  organization  which  would 
avoid  their  operation. 

July  2,  1890,  Congress  passed  an  Anti-Trust 
Act,  and  the  Tariff  Act  of  1894  contains  a  sim- 
ilar provision,  but  it  is  so  indefinite  and  incon- 
clusive that  both  are  generally  regarded  by  law- 
yers as  useless.  This  applies  only  to  interstate 
commerce. 

The  Attorney-General  of  the  United  States, 
whose  duty  it  is  to  direct  prosecutions  to  enforce 
national  laws,  argues  in  his  report  for  1893  why 
it  is  impossible  to  enforce  the  anti-trust  law. 
He  shows  "  what  small  basis  there  is  for  the 
popular  impression,"  "that  the  aim  and  effect 
of  this  statute  are  to  prohibit  and  prevent  these 
aggregations  of  capital  which  are  so  common 
at  the  present  day,  and  which  sometimes  are  on 
so  large  a  scale  as  to  practically  control  all  the 
branches  of  •  an  extensive  industry."  He  says 
"  it  would  not  be  useful,  even  if  it  were  possi- 
ble, to  ascertain  the  precise  ^purposes  of  the 
framers  of  the  statute."  He  says  that  "  since 
all  ownership  of  property  is  a  monopoly,  .  .  . 
any  literal  application  of  the  provisions  of  the 
statute  is  out  of  the  question." 

Concerning  the  economic  bearing  of  trusts, 
with  arguments  in  favor  of  monopolies  as  well 
as  opposed  to  them,  and  also  a  statement  of  the 
various  ways  proposed  for  meeting  the  problems 
they  raise,  see  MONOPOLY.  It  should  be  stated 
here  that  some  reformers  do  not  believe  in  at- 
tempts at  restricting  them,  believing  them  a 
natural  stepping-stone,  as  some  think,  to  social- 
ism (g.v.),  as  others  think  to  extreme  individual- 
ism (g.v.).  See  also  MONOPOLY  and  PLUTOCRACY. 

References:  Lewin's  The  Law  of  Trusts;  H.  D. 
Lloyd's  Wealth  against  Commonwealth  (1894). 

TUCKER,  BENJAMIN  R.,  was  born  near 
New  Bedford,  Mass.,  in  1854.  His  early  edu- 
cation he  received  in  private  schools  and  at  the 
Massachusetts  Institute  of  Technology.  En- 
gineering did  not  appeal  to  him,  and  he  decid- 
ed to  enter  the  profession  of  journalism.  He 
served  his  apprenticeship  in  a  printing  office, 
and  in  1878  joined  the  editorial  staff  of  a  Boston 
newspaper.  He  became  acquainted  with  the 
leaders  of  the  New  England  Labor  Reform 
League,  and  was  introduced  to  radical  thought 
by  Josiah  Warren,  Colonel  William  B.  Greene, 
and  others.  He  made  a  thorough  study  of 
Proudhon,  and  decided  that  "  anarchism,"  the 
term  used  by  the  French  philosopher,  was  the 
most  appropriate  designation  for  the  political 
and  economic  doctrines  taught  by  the  New  Eng- 
land individualists.  In  1877  he  established  a 


quarterly  called  The  Radical  Review.  At  the 
end  of  a  short  period  Mr.  Tucker  concluded  that 
the  propaganda  of  his  views  could  be  carried  on 
most  effectively  and  directly  by  a  fortnightly  or 
weekly  organ.  Accordingly  he  established  Lib- 
erty, which  is  still  published,  and  which  is  rec- 
ognized in  philosophical  and  progressive  circles 
of  America  and  Europe  as  the  ablest  and  most 
authoritative  champion  of  individualistic  anar- 
chism. Being  too  busy  to  write  books,  Mr. 
Tucker  published  in  1893  a  volume  called  In- 
stead of  a  Book,  consisting  of  selections  from 
his  writings  in  Liberty  and  lectures  deliv-. 
ered  to  different  reform  clubs  and  associations. 
Although  fragmentary,  the  exposition  of  the 
anarchistic  philosophy  found  in  this  work  is  the 
clearest  and  most  complete  extant.  Socialism, 
communism,  the  single  tax  and  other  reforms 
are  subjected  to  searching  criticism  from  the 
anarchistic  point  of  view.  Mr.  Tucker  is  also 
the  translator  of  several  works  of  Proudhon, 
Bakounin,  and  Tchernishevsky.  He  claims  no 
originality  for  his  views,  and  regards  Proud- 
hon, Greene,  and  Warren  as  his  masters  and 
teachers.  He  does  not,  however,  strictly  follow 
either  of  these  thinkers,  especially  on  the  subject 
of  ethics,  and  the  political  system  advocated  by 
him  is  in  many  respects  materially  different 
from  those  of  his  acknowledged  guides. 

VICTOR  YARROS. 

TURGENEFF,  IVAN  SERGYEVITCH, 

born  1818,  in  Orel,  is  probably  the  ablest 
Russian  novelist  up  to  the  present  time.  He 
was  the  son  of  an  officer  of  cuirassiers,  and  was 
educated  at  Moscow  and  afterward  at  the  Uni- 
versity of  Berlin.  ID.  1852  he  first  became  the 
object  of  government  displeasure.  He  was  im- 
prisoned for  a  month  for  an  article  he  wrote  on 
the  death  of  Gogol,  and  was  compelled  to  reside 
for  two  years  more  in  the  country.  This  ex- 
perience seems  to  have  been  in  some  sense  a 
turning-point  in  his  career,  for  in  1855  he  com- 
menced publishing  the  novels  which  have  had 
such  a  vital  connection  with  the  social  life  of 
Russia.  In  1855  he  published  Dimitri  Rudin  ; 
in  1858,  A  Nest  of  Nobles  and  Helene  ;  in  1862, 
Fathers  and  Sons,  which  work  was  one  of  the 
most  potent  means  in  wakening  into  action  the 
philosophy  of  negation  and  materialism.  It  was 
this  book,  too,  which  gave  to  the  philosophy  the 
name  of  "  nihilism,"  which  it  has  borne  ever 
since.  In  1865  he  published  Smoke,  and  in  1877 
Spring  Floods  and  Virgin  Soil.  Besides  his 
more  important  novels  he  wrote  many  shorter 
stories  ;  and  his  last  work  was  a  collection  of 
prose  poems  entitled  Senilia,  which  for  power 
and  pathos  takes  rank  with  his  best  work.  After 
the  publication  of  Fathers  and  Sons  he  left 
Russia  and  settled  in  Baden,  where  he  stayed 
until  the  termination  of  the  Franco-German 
War,  when  he  removed  to  Paris,  where  he  re- 
sided until  his  death  in  1883. 

TURGOT,  ANNE  ROBERT  JACQUES, 
BARON  DE  L'AULNE,  was  born  in  Paris  in 
1727.  Educated  for  the  Church,  he  gave  up  an 
ecclesiastical  career  and  studied  law,  becoming 
noted  as  a  liberal  thinker  and  contributor  to  the 
Encyclopedic.  He  associated  with  Quesnay 
and  Gournay,  and  accepted  to  some  extent  their 


Turgot,  Anne  Robert  Jacques. 


1349 


Unemployment. 


views.  (See  PHYSIOCRATS.)  In  1761  he  was  ap- 
pointed intendant-governor  of  the  province  of 
Limousin,  and  in  1774  Comptroller-General  of 
France  under  Louis  XVI.  The  courtiers  and 
nobility  bitterly  opposed  his  reform  ideas,  but 
for  a  while  the  king  supported  him,  and  he  was 
able  to  introduce  free  trade  in  grain  and  other 
reforms.  At  last  the  king,  in  1776,  was  induced 
to  depose  him,  and  Turgot  retired  to  private 
life  and  devoted  himself  to  science  till  his  death 
in  1781.  His  (Euvres  Completes,  including  his 
essays  on  usury,  on  taxation,  and  Reflexions 
sur  la  Formation  et  la  Distribution  des  Rich- 
esses,  etc.,  were  published  in  nine  volumes 
(1808-11). 


TWEED  RING.— The  Tweed  Ring  of  New 
York  City  may  be  said  to  have  begun  in  1863, 
when  William  Marcy  Tweed,  a  chairmaker  of 
Scotch  descent,  born  in  New  York  in  1823,  was 
appointed  deputy  street  commissioner.  He  had 
been  long  prominent  in  local  politics,  and  in 
1853  had  been  elected  to  Congress.  He  was  a 
member  of  Tammany  (g.v.)  for  many  years, 
and  from  1869-71  its  grand  sachem.  Becoming 
the  virtual  head  of  the  Street  Department,  and 
later  of  the  Department  of  Public  Works,  he 
enormously  extended  the  expenditures  for  "  im- 
provements," and  created  numberless  offices, 
giving  him  vast  influences  and  the  bestowal  of 


sinecures  on  his  friends.  A  ring  gradually  de- 
veloped, and  by  1869  held  almost  every  depart- 
ment of  the  city  in  its  power.  In  1868  the  ring's 
greatest  scheme  of  robbery  was  begun — the 
building  of  a  new  county  court  house.  It  was 
stipulated  not  to  cost  over  $250,000.  Before  1871 
it  had  cost  $8,000,000,  and  was  still  unfinished. 
In  1870  the  power  of  auditing  accounts  was 
taken  from  the  supervisors  and  vested  in  certain 
city  offices  filled  by  friends  of  the  ring.  All  re- 
straints on  fraudulent  bills  were  then  removed. 
Bills  amounting  to  $6,000,000  were  passed  at  the 
first  and  only  meeting  of  the  Board  of  Audit. 
Of  this  amount  $i  ,000,000  was  traced  to  Tweed's 
own  pocket.  A  secret  account  of  the  money 
thus  paid  was  kept  in  the  auditor's  office,  en- 
tered "  County  Liabilities."  During  the  winter 
of  1870-71  a  clerk  stealthily  copied  its  items  and 
showed  them  to  his  patron,  James  O'Brien,  an 
opponent  of  Tammany.  He  gave  them  to  the 
New  York  Times,  and  they  were  published  in 
July,  1871.  The  excitement  created  an  investi- 
gation, and  through  the  efforts  of  Samuel  J.  Til- 
den  the  frauds  were  exposed  and  the  ring  over- 
thrown in  the  election  of  November,  1871. 
Tweed  was  tried  for  grand  larceny  and  forgery, 
and  November  22,  1872,  sentenced  to  12  years' 
imprisonment  and  a  heavy  fine.  In  1875  he  es- 
caped and  fled  to  Spain,  where  he  was  captured 
and  returned  to  New  York  City  in  1876,  dying 
in  Ludlow  Street  Jail  in  1878. 


U. 


UNEMPLOYMENT.— We  consider  this 
question  under  three  heads  :  I.  The  Number 
of  the  Unemployed  ;  II.  The  Causes  of  the 
Unemployment ;  III.  The  Meeting  of  the  Prob- 
lem (a)  in  temporary  crises  ;  (b)  in  more  perma- 
nent ways. 

I.  THE  NUMBER  OF  THE  UNEMPLOYED. 

This  is  most  variously  estimated  by  different 
authorities  mainly  because  they  use  the  word 
in  different  senses.  Mr.  Carroll  D.  Wright,  in 
his  report  as  Commissioner  of  Labor  in  1886, 
says  he  means  by  the  unemployed  ' '  those  who 
under  prosperous  times  would  be  fully  em- 
ployed, and  who,  during  the  time  mentioned, 
were  seeking  employment."  Using  the  word 
in  this  special  sense,  he  is  naturally  able  to  re- 
duce the  number  of  the  unemployed  to  the 
lowest  limits,  and  consequently  to  make  those 
who,  using  the  word  in  its  natural  sense,  esti- 
mate the  number  as  very  much  larger,  appear 
guilty  of  gross  exaggeration,  for  obviously  to 
get  those  who  are  without  remunerative  work 
in  times  of  depression  one  must  add  to  Mr. 
Wright's  number,  the  very  large  number  who 
under  prosperous  times  are  n:>t  "  fully  em- 
ployed." Mr.  C.  D.  Kellogg,  of  the  New  York 
Charity  Organization  Society,  and  Professor 
R.  T.  Ely,  of  Wisconsin  University,  have  both 
separately  estimated  those  receiving  pauper  aid 
in  the  United  States  as  no  less  than  3.000,000. 
Adding  to  these  those  who  do  not  receive  aid, 
but  who  perhaps  through  long  periods  are  out 


of  work  or  only  work  a  few  days  a  week  on  half 
time  or  one  third  time  or  even  less,  one  gets  a 
very  different  idea  of  the  number  of  the  unem- 
ployed, meaning  by  it  those  who  do  not  have 
remunerative  work.  Even  this,  however,  by 
no  means  gives  the  whole  truth,  since  in  the 
middle  classes  there  are  an  increasing  number 
of  persons  who  do  not  work  in  factories  or 
stores,  where  statistics  of  employment  are  usu- 
ally sought,  but  who  are  often  in  secret  bitterly 
suffering  for  lack  of  remunerative  work,  caused 
perhaps  by  combinations  of  business  offices  and 
discharge  of  clerks.  They  have  to  keep  up  ap- 
pearances just  as  long  as  possible  in  order  to 
keep  credit  and  to  secure  work.  Often  the  bit- 
terest suffering  is  in  this  class,  of  which  the  gen- 
eral public  rarely  hears  and  which  statistics 
rarely  reach.  It  is,  then,  remembering  these 
things,  and  asking  always  what  one  means  by 
the  unemployed,  that  one  must  consult  the  so- 
called  "  statistics"  of  the  subject.  Yet,  rightly 
understood,  these  may  be  of  value.  Perhaps 
the  most  careful  statistical  study  of  the  subject 
is  that  of  the  Massachusetts  Bureau  of  Labor 
for  1885,  and  published  in  its  report  for  1887. 
It  says  (concerning  Massachusetts)  : 

"  The  whole  number  of  persons,  of  both  sexes,  who 
were  unemployed  at  their  principal  occupation  during 
some  part  of  the  year  represented  by  the  12  months 
which  preceded  the  census  enumeration  of  population, 
May  i,  1885,  was  241,589.  Of  this  number,  178,628  were 
males  and  62,961  were  females.  .  .  . 

"  Of  a  total  of  816,470  persons  employed  in  gainful 
occupations,  the  unemployed  persons,  241,586  in  num- 


Unemployment. 


135° 


Unemployment. 


ber,  represent  29.59  Per  cent.,  while  574,881  persons,  or 
70.41  per  cent.,  were  employed  during  the  entire  year. 
.  .  .  The  unemployed  persons  were  unemployed  at 
their  principal  occupation,  on  an  average,  4.11  months, 
while  for  all  persons  employed  in  gainful  occupations, 
considered  as  a  whole,  whether  employed  or  unem- 
ployed, the  average  unemployment  during  the  census 
year  was  1.22  months.  In  other  words,  a  little  less 
than  one  third  of  the  persons  returned  as  being  en- 
gaged iu  remunerative  labor  were  unemployed  for 
about  one  third  of  their  working  time  ;  while,  on  the 
other  hand,  the  working  population  of  the  State,  con- 
sidered in  their  entirety,  were  employed  at  their  prin- 
cipal occupation  for  a  trifle  less  than  n  months  during 
the  census  year. 

"  The  results  just  shown  for  241,589  persons  unem- 
ployed, on  an  average,  4^.11  months  during  the  year 
may  be  considered  as  being  equivalent  to  82,744  per- 
sons unemployed  for  an  entire  year." 

The  report  also  gives  the  following  table 
classifying  the  unemployed  by  occupations  : 


SEX  AND  OCCUPATIONS. 

TOTAL 
UNEM- 
PLOYED 
PERSONS. 

UNEM- 
PLOYED 
PERSONS 

HAVING 
"OTHER 

OCCUPA- 
TIONS." 

Percent- 
ages. 

Percent- 
ages. 

Males. 
Government  and  professional. 

IOO.OO 
1.22 

IOO.OO 

2.44 

1.^9 

Trade     

i 

8.47 

14  84 

1.98 

Manufactures    

65.94 

18.12 

Brick,  tiles,  and  sewer  pipe.. 

0.68 

2.15 
*s  69 

Machines  and  machinery  
Metals  and  metallic  goods.  .  . 
Straw  and  palm-leaf  goods.. 
Woolen  goods  

2.66 
6.14 
0.63 

1.74 
4.86 

2-51 
1.33 

Other  manufactures  

14.78 

12.28 

Laborers  

Apprentices  

Females. 

Government  and  professional. 
Domestic  service  

IOO.OO 

9.08 

6.  -\-\ 

IOO.OO 

8.44 

Trade.  .            

i  98 

4.  l6 

Agriculture  

Manufactures       

78.22 

Boots  and  shoes  

16.28 

8.56 

Clothing     

Cotton  goods        

21.98 

Straw  and  palm  leaf  goods.  . 
Other  manufactures  
Laborers    

4-9i 
22.72 

14-51 
20.93 

Of  the  United  States  as  a  whole  the  United 
States  Labor  Report  for  1886  says  (p.  65)  : 

"  It  is  undoubtedly  true  that  out  of  the  total  num- 
ber of  establishments,  such  as  factories,  mines,  etc., 
existing  in  the  country,  about  5  per  cent,  were  abso- 
lutely idle  during  the  year  ending  July  i,  1885,  and 
that  perhaps  5  per  cent,  more  were  idle  a  part  of  the 
time  ;  or,  for  a  just  estimate,  7%  per  cent,  of  the  whole 
number  of  such  establishments  were  idle  or  equiv- 
alent to  idle  during  the  year  named.  According  to 
the  census  of  1880,  there  were,  in  round  numbers, 
255,000  such  establishments,  employing  upward  of 


2,250,000  hands.  If  the  percentage  stated  above  is 
correct,  and  it  is  believed  to  be  approximately  so, 
then  there  were  possibly  19,125  establishments  idle  or 
equivalent  to  idle,  and  168,750  hands  out  of  employ- 
ment, so  far  as  such  establishments  were  concerned, 
during  the  year  considered.  The  percentage  stated, 
if  erroneous  at  all,  is  probably  too  large,  because  the 
idle  establishments  were  to  a  large  extent  small  and 
poorly  equipped.  In  some  industries  the  percentage 
of  idle  establishments  would  be  much  greater  than 
the  average  given,  while  in  other  industries  the  per- 
centage given  is  much  too  large.  Applying  this  per- 
centage, however,  to  the  whole  number  of  people  em- 
ployed in  all  occupations  in  the  United  States,  which 
in  1880  was  17,392,099,  there  might  have  been  1,304,407 
out  of  employment ;  but  this  is  a  number  evidently 
too  large,  because  it  applies  to  all  occupations— those 
engaged  in  agriculture,  professional  and  personal  ser- 
vice, trade  and  transportation,  mechanical  and  mining 
industries,  and  manufactures.  The  percentage  should 
be  applied  only  to  those  engaged  in  agriculture,  trade 
and  transportation,  mechanical  and  mining  industries, 
and  manufactures.  There  were  engaged  in  these 
four  great  branches,  as  shown  by  the  census  of  1880, 
13,317,861  persons.  Applying  the  percentage  arrived 
at  (7^  per  cent.i,  we  obtain  a  total  of  998,839  as  con- 
stituting the  best  estimate  of  the  possibly  unemployed 
in  the  United  States  during  the  year  ending  July  i, 
1885  (meaning  by  the  unemployed  those  who,  under 
prosperous  times,  would  be  fully  employed,  and  who 
during  the  time  mentioned  were  seeking  employ- 
ment), that  it  has  been  possible  for  the  bureau  to 
make.  It  is  probably  true  that  this  total  (in  round 
numbers  1,000,000),  as  representing  the  unemployed  at 
any  one  time  in  the  United  States,  is  fairly  representa- 
tive, even  if  the  laborers  thrown  out  of  employment 
through  the  cessation  of  railroad  building  be  in- 
cluded. 

"  This  estimate  exhibits  the  extreme  possibility  of 
non-employment  at  the  worst  point  of  the  depression, 
but  it  should  be  remembered  that  even  in  so-called 
prosperous  times  there  are  from  two  to  two  and  one- 
half  per  cent,  of  the  forces  considered  out  of  employ- 
ment. Prosperity  often  shifts  employment  from  one 
class  to  another." 

Mr.  Wright  has  since  explained  that  this  was 
written  only  of  1885,  a  year  which  he  considers 
one  of  industrial  depression,  and  therefore  is 
not  to  be  taken  as  a  general  statement,  and 
that  these  1,000,000  unemployed  are  the  unem- 
ployed at  any  one  time,  so  that  the  inference  is 
not  to  be  drawn  that  there  are  so  many  unem- 
ployed.all  the  time.  But,  on  the  other  hand,  it 
must  be  remembered  that  by  the  unemployed 
Mr.  Wright  means  only  those  who  in  times  of 
prosperity  have  full  work  and  are  thrown  out  of 
work  only  by  depression.  On  this  point  a 
Massachusetts  State  Commission  on  the  Unem- 
ployed says  in  its  report  (1895)  ; 

"  It  is  clear  from  the  investigation  which  we  have 
been  able  to  make  that  non-employment  will  fluctu- 
ate in  amount  from  month  to  month'and  year  to  year, 
and  is  and  has  been  a  factor,  and,  in  certain  phases,  is 
an  increasing  evil.  We  have  been  unable  to  persuade 
ourselves  that  this  problem  is  on  the  whole  associated 
with  the  depressed  industrial  condition  of  the  past 
two  years.  This  problem  must  be  looked  upon  as  a 
more  or  less  permanent  one,  and  one  that  must  be  at- 
tacked, if  attacked  at  all,  by  slow  and  patient  meth- 
ods. Evidence  is  too  clear  that  even  in  so-called 
normal  times  there  is  an  amount  of  non-employment 
which  occasions  suffering." 

An  argument  seeking  to  show  that  the  num- 
ber of  the  unemployed  is  exaggerated  is  some- 
times drawn  from  census  statistics  showing 
increase  in  the  number  of  those  having  occupa- 
tions ;  but  the  question  is  not  as  to  those  having 
nominal  occupations,  but  as  to  how  far  they  get 
work  in  their  occupations.  Nor  are  even  the 
statistics  of  occupations  as  roseate  as  at  first  ap- 
pears. Says  Mr.  Carroll  D.  Wright  (Industrial 
Evolution  in  the  United  States,  p.  378)  : 

"  In  the  20  years,  1870  to  1890,  the  population  in- 
creased 62.41  per  cent.,  while  the  number  of  persons 


Unemployment. 


1351 


Unemployment. 


in  all  occupations  increased  81.80  per  cent.  An  analy- 
sis of  these  statements  shows  that  the  increase  of  the 
number  of  those  engaged  in  manufacturing,  mechani- 
cal, and  mining  industries,  those  in  which  the  influ- 
ence of  inventions  is  most  keenly  felt  for  the  period 
from  1860  to  1890,  was  172.27  per  cent,  as  against  99.16 
per  cent,  increase  in  the  total  population.  If  statistics 
could  be  as  forcibly  applied  to  show  the  new  occupa- 
tions brought  into  existence  by  invention,  it  is  be- 
lieved that  the  result  would  be  still  more  emphatic." 

If,  however,  the  decade  1880-90  had  been 
taken,  other  results  would  have  appeared.  Dur- 
ing that  decade  population  increased  24.86  per 
cent.,  and  those  in  gainful  occupations  30.72 
per  cent. ,  but  this  increase  was  very  largely  in 
occupations  open  to  women.  Men  in  occupa- 
tions increased  only  27.64  per  cent.,  or  less  than 
3  per  cent,  more  than  the  population — an  in- 
crease very  possibly  due  to  better  registration, 
for  in  1890  men  worked  in  materially  larger 
establishments  than  in  1880,  and  so  were  easier 
to  register  ;  and  it  must  be  remembered  that 
even  were  there  more  men  with  "  occupations," 
that  shows  nothing  about  employment.  Sup- 
pose there  were  103  shoemakers  instead  of  100, 
the  question  still  remains  how  much  work  the 
shoemakers  had.  In  every  country  investiga- 
tions, commissions,  relief  agencies  show  that 
the  problem  is  steadily  increasing  in  seriousness 
and  in  proportions.  In  the  United  States  the 
problem  is  unquestionably  of  the  'most  serious 
moment. 

Of  the  unemployed  in  England,  John  Burns 
writes  in  the  Nineteenth  Century  for  Decem- 
ber, 1892  : 

"  Disguise  it  how  we  will,  hide  it  tho  we  may,  loom- 
ing up  is  the  great,  the  all-absorbing  question  for  all 
countries  and  governments  to  face — how  can  the  hon- 
est worker  be  provided  with  work  uncontaminated 
with  pauperism's  degrading  taint  and  charity's  de- 
moralizing aid  ?  The  glib  quotation  of  figures  show- 
ing that  official  pauperism  has  decreased  only  insults 
the  genuine  worker  who  asks  for  work,  so  that  it  may 
be  reduced  further  still.  But  even  the  official  statis- 
tics, when  shorn  of  all  their  complacent  optimism, 
reveal  the  real  nature  of  the  problem.  The  fact  that  a 
cruel  administration  of  the  poor  law,  which  mixes 
honest  and  criminal  together,  has  reduced  official  pau- 
perism from  46  to  20  per  thousand,  is  cold  comfort  to 
the  men  who,  by  physical  necessity  or  want  of  work, 
are  compelled  to  be  of  the  20.  The  growth  of  trade- 
unionism,  friendly,  sick,  loan,  cooperative,  and  other 
agencies  that  the  workers  resort  to  in  times  of  distress, 
is  not  recognized  as  a  factor  in  reducing  the  distress 
which,  in  the  absence  of  such  agencies,  the  Poor  Law 
would  have  to  meet.  Exploiting  the  ever-increasing 
repugnance  among  the  genuine  poor  to  pauper  relief, 
the  officials  representing  the  laisser  faire  middle  class 
are  determined  to  throw  the  support  of  the  worthless, 
that  the  rich  and  poor  now  sustain,  on  the  poor  exclu- 
sively, who  voluntarily,  taxed  as  they  are,  cannot 
carry  further  burdens. 

"  Outside  the  official  pauper  class,  as  Mr.  Charles 
Booth  proves,  there  are  hundreds  of  thousands  of 
people  whose  standard  of  life  and  comfort,  from  the 
point  of  view  of  food,  clothing,  and  house  accommoda- 
tion, is  lower  than  that  of  the  pauper  or  criminal,  yet 
these  people  will  not  accept  relief,  but  struggle  on  in 
the  vain  hope  of  work  that  never  comes,  and  which,  if 
it  did,  would  find  them  too  low  to  perform  it.  The 
fact  is  the  virtue— or  vice— of  thrift  and  independence 
among  the  pick  of  the  working  classes,  which  well-fed 
reformers  contend  is  applicable  to  all,  is  being  abused 
and  exploited.  When  the  poor  refuse  poor  law  re- 
lief, it  is  construed  as  proof  that  its  abolition  is  justifi- 
able. When,  as  a  better  alternative,  the  poor  man 
asks  for  work,  he  is  told  that  that  is  pauperism  in  an- 
other form.  When  he  becomes  ill  through  neither  re- 
lief nor  work  being  offered  or  accepted,  or,  as  a  last 
resource,  thieves  and  goes  to  prison,  he  has  to  be  kept, 
after  his  health  and  morals  have  been  shattered,  till  he 
dies.  .  .  .  Having  experienced  the  lot  of  the  workless 
worker,  I  believe,  with  Carlyle,  that  '  a  man  willing  to 
work  and  unable  to  find  work  is,  perhaps,  the  saddest 


sight  that  fortune's  inequality  exhibits  under  the 
sun."  " 

Fabian  Tract  No.  5  (March,  1895)  gives  what 
statistics  there  are  for  England  and  Wales.  It 
says  : 

"Of  the  great  permanent  army  of  the 'unemployed' 
no  reliable  statistics  can  be  obtained.  From  returns 
rendered  to  the  Labor  Department  of  the  Board  of 
Trade  by  trade-unions,  it  appeared  that  in  December, 
1803,  the  percentage  of  members  unemployed  was  7.9 
(Annual  Report  of  Labor  Department \  Board  of  Trade, 
1893-94,  C— 7565).  The  average  number  of  persons  in 
London  whose  home  is  the  '  common  lodging-house ' 
is  over  30,000;  over  uoo  are  every  night  found  in  the 
'casual  wards.' 

"  As  regards  the  4,000,000  of  persons  in  the  metropo- 
lis, Mr.  Charles  Booth  tells  us  that  37,610,  or  0.9  per 
cent.,  are  in  the  lowest  class  (occasional  laborers,  loaf- 
ers, and  semi-criminals) ;  316,834,  or  7.5  per  cent.,  in  the 
next  (casual  labor,  hand-to-mouth  existence,  chronic 
want) ;  938,293,  or  22.3  per  cent.,  form  '  the  poor '  (in- 
cluding alike  those  whose  earnings  are  small,  because 
of  irregularity  of  employment,  and  those  whose  work, 
tho  regular,  is  ill-paid).  These  classes,  on  or  below 
the  '  poverty  line '  of  earnings  not  exceeding  a  guinea 
a  week  per  family,  number  together  1,292,737  or  30.7 
per  cent,  of  the  whole  population.  To  these  must  be 
added  99,830  inmates  of  workhouses,  hospitals,  prisons, 
industrial  schools,  etc.,  making  altogether  nearly 
1,400,000  persons  in  this  one  city  alone  whose  condition 
even  the  most  optimistic  social  student  can  hardly 
deem  satisfactory  (Labor  and  Life  of  the  People, 
edited  by  Charles  Booth,  1891,  vol.  ii.,  pp.  20,  21). 

"  In  England  and  Wales  in  1892,  66,424  deaths  were 
registered  as  having  taken  place  in  workhouses,  in- 
firmaries, hospitals,  and  asylums,  or  11.9  per  cent,  of 
the  total  deaths.  Of  these,  39,748  occurred  in  work- 
houses, 20,440  in  hospitals,  and  6236  in  lunatic  asylums. 

"  We  clog  our  public  poor  relief  with  irksome  and 
degrading  conditions,  so  that  the  honest  poor  often  die 
lingering  deaths  rather  than  accept  it ;  yet  the  paupers 
in  actual  receipt  of  public  relief  on  one'  day  number 
more  than  1,000,000  : 

England  and  Wales,  January  i, 

1893 776,458  cost  ^8,847,678 

Scotland,  January  14,  1893 193,496      '  912,838 

Ireland,  January  8,  1893 102,865      '         I,°54,SI4 

1,072,819         .£10,815,030 

(Report  of  Local  Government  Board,  England  and 
Wales ;  Report  of  Board  for  Supervision  of  Poor, 
Scotland ;  Report  of  Local  Government  Board,  Ire- 
land, and  Statistical  Abstract,  1893,  C— 7,  143.) 

"  But  the  relief  is  not  usually  given  permanently  ;  to 
obtain  the  number  of  different  indiyidxials  who  receive 
relief  during  a  year,  we  must  multiply  the  daily  num- 
ber by  2.3.  (This  is  the  latest  computation  given  in 
Mr.  Charles  Booth's  paper  before  the  Statistical  Soci- 
ety, December,  1891.  See  also  his  Pauperism,  a  Pic- 
ture:  and  the  Endowment  of  Old  Age,  an  Argument.) 
This  gives  a  pauper  class  during  any  one  year  of  about 
2,460,000  persons,  or  i  in  n  of  the  manual  labor  class. 
In  some  rural  districts  every  aged  laborer  is  a  pauper." 

Thus  far  we  have  been  considering  mainly 
those  either  totally  unemployed  or  only  having 
casual  work.  But  even  those  who  have  regular 
employment  are  often  out  of  work  months  at  a 
time.  As  we  saw  above,  in  Massachusetts  in 
1885  the  average  loss  from  this  source  for  all 
the  employees  in  the  State  was  five  weeks  in 
the  year.  The  Illinois  Labor  Report  for  1886 
publishes  returns  from  representative  working 
men,  estimating  that  for  85,329  working  men 
the  average  time  at  work  was  only  37.1  weeks, 
or  only  71.3  per  cent,  of  full  time.  In  England, 
Baxter  estimates  (quoted  in  The  Present  Dis- 
tribution of  Wealth  in  the  United  States,  by 
Dr.  C.  B.  Spahr,  p.  102)  that  the  great  body  of 
working  people  are  only  employed  from  41  to 
44  full  weeks  per  year,  the  more  skilled  factory 
hands  reaching  the  higher  figure.  (For  the 
bearing  of  this  unemployment  on  wages,  see 
WAGES.) 


Unemployment. 


Unemployment. 


II.  CAUSES  OF  UNEMPLOYMENT. 

The  first  cause  of  unemployment  usually 
popularly  given,  and  sometimes  even  given  by 
students  of  the  question,  is  personal  inefficiency 
(in  one  form  or  another,  but  especially  in  the 
form  of  intemperance).  The  statement  is  con- 
tinually made  that  if  everybody  stopped  drink- 
ing, or  that  if  shiftlessness  and  thriftlessness 
were  removed,  everybody  would  find  work 
who  was  willing  to  do  any  kind  of  work.  In  sup- 
port of  this  view  is  the  very  well-known  fact  that 
large  numbers,  and  even  perhaps  the  large  ma- 
jority, of  those  unemployed  are  in  some  way  in- 
efficient, many  of  them  shiftless,  very  many  of 
them  with  habits  of  drink,  not  a  few  of  them 
unwilling  to  work  when  they  can  get  it,  or  at 
least  not  willing  to  work  unless  at  certain  so- 
called  "respectable  trades."  Innumerable  in- 
stances can  be  told  and  continually  are  told 
of  benevolent  people  who  have  given  or  offered 
or  obtained  work  for  the  unemployed,  and  it 
has  either  not  been  accepted,  or  has  not  been 
adhered  to,  or  has  been  done  so  poorly  as  not 
to  merit  continuous  employment.  Instances 
occur  everywhere  where  money  is  given  to  the 
destitute  and  it  is  wasted  in  some  utterly  foolish 
and  perhaps  wicked  way.  Still  more  common 
are  illustrations  of  how  intemperance  ruins  the 
best  workmen  and  leads  to  large  proportions  of 
the  cases  of  poverty  and  unemployment.  The 
three  main  causes  of  unemployment  thus  cer- 
tainly seem' to  be  intemperance,  shiftlessness, 
and  lack  of  thrift.  But  against  this  view  there 
is  also  much  to  be  said.  In  the  first  place,  in- 
efficiency may  appear  to  be  more  often  the 
cause  of  unemployment  than  it  is  because  it  is 
generally  the  inefficient  who  are  most  in  evi- 
dence. It  is  generally  the  weakest,  the  least 
efficient,  and  those  who  least  respect  themselves 
who  beg  at  the  rich  man's  door  or  throng  the 
bureaus  of  relief.  Benevolent  people  thus  usu- 
ally see  the  worst  and  the  weakest  among  the 
unemployed.  The  worthy  and  able  will  do  all 
but  starve,  and  sometimes  literally  starve,  before 
they  seek  alms.  Charity  experience,  therefore, 
often  misleads.  Secondly,  inefficiency  may  be 
the  cause,  not  why  people  are  idle,  but  why  cer- 
tain persons  are  unemployed  and  not  others. 
If  depression  compels  an  employer  to  discharge 
10  men  out  of  100  he  naturally,  and  under  pres- 
ent conditions  probably  rightly,  discharges  that 
10  which  are  on  the  whole  of  least  efficiency. 
They  may  be  neither  very  bad  nor  very  ineffi- 
cient. In  good  times  the  employer  would  keep 
them.  Obviously  the  cause  of  their  unemploy- 
ment is  the  hard  times,  and  inefficiency  is  only 
the  cause  why  they  are  discharged  and  not 
others.  Thirdly,  benevolent  people  who  see 
that  unemployment  and  inefficiency  usually  go 
together,  forget  that  a  concomitant  is  not  al- 
ways a  cause.  Unemployment  may  be  the 
cause  of  the  inefficiency  and  .not  inefficiency  the 
cause  of  the  unemployment.  Including  inherit- 
ed unemployment,  this  is  doubtless  very  often 
the  case.  Particularly  is  this  true  of  intemper- 
ance and  shiftlessness.  Under  article  POVERTY 
will  be  found  a  summary  of  practically  all  the 
scientific  expert  investigation  of  the  facts  as 
collated  by  Professor  Warner  in  his  book  Amer- 
ican Charities,  and  it  there  appears  that  74.4 


per  cent,  of  poverty  is  directly  traceable  to 
causes  for  which  the  individual  is  not  to  blame, 
and  only  21.3  per  cent,  to  causes  for  which  the 
individual  is  to  blame.  Only  n  per  cent,  of 
poverty  is  there  attributed  first  to  drink  ;  28.5 
per  cent,  is  accredited  to  lack  of  or  to  poorly 
paid  work.  A  still  more  recent  table,  published 
by  the  American  Statistical  Association,  based 
on  records  of  charity  organization  societies, 
gives  the  following  percentages  of  causes  of 
poverty  :  Lack  of  employment,  New  York,  48 
percent.  ;  Baltimore,  43  ;  six  smaller  cities,  35  ; 
sickness,  New  York,  18  ;  Baltimore,  18  ;  smaller 
cities,  35  ;  intemperance  and  shiftlessness,  New 
York,  18  ;  Baltimore,  13  ;  smaller  cities,  20  ; 
miscellaneous,  New  York,  14  ;  Baltimore,  21  ; 
smaller  cities,  27.  (For  a  contrary  view,  see 
INTEMPERANCE.) 

The  reason  why  drink  appears  to  so  many 
people,  even  of  those  engaged  in  charity  work, 
to  be  the  main  cause  of  poverty,  is  that  in  most 
cases,  before  the  case  of  destitution  has  grown 
serious  enough  to  claim  the  attention  of  charity, 
some  member  of  the  family,  discouraged  and 
weak,  has  taken  to  drink.  But  the  question  is 
what  sent  him  to  drink  ?  It  may  be  bad  hered- 
ity, bad  tenement  homes,  and  faulty  education 
and  training.  Inefficiency  may  lead  to  unem- 
ployment, but  what  leads  to  inefficiency  ?  Not 
always  vice.  Some  persons  fail  in  business  be- 
cause they  will  not  stoop  to  the  tricks  of  their 
trade,  or  at  least  cannot  throw  themselves  into 
doubtful  transactions  with  the  necessary  zest. 

Says  John  Stuart  Mill  {Fortnightly  Review, 
February, 1879) : 

"  If  persons  are  helped  on  their  worldly  career  by  their 
virtues,  so  are  they  and  perhaps  quite  as  often  by  their 
vices,  by  servility  and  sycophancy,  by  hard-hearted 
and  close-fisted  selfishness,  by  the  permitted  lies  and 
tricks  of  trade,  by  gambling  speculations,  not  seldom 
by  downright  knavery.  Energies  and  talents  are  of 
much  more  avail  for  success  in  life  than  virtues ;  but 
if  one  man  succeeds  by  employing  energy  and  talent 
in  something  generally  useful,  another  thrives  by  ex- 
ercising the  same  qualities  in  outgeneraling  and  ruin- 
ing a  rival."  (See  COMPETITION.) 

Says  Ruskin  ( Unto  this  Last,  Essay  IV.)  : 

"  In  a  community  regulated  only  by  laws  of  demand 
and  supply,  and  protected  from  open  violence,  the  per- 
sons who  become  rich  are,  generally  speaking,  indus- 
trious, resolute,  proud,  covetous,  prompt,  methodical, 
sensible,  unimaginative,  insensitive,  and  ignorant.  The 
persons  who  remain  poor  are  the  entirely  foolish,  the 
entirely  wise,  the  idle,  the  reckless,  the  humble,  the 
thoughtful,  the  dull,  the  imaginative,  the  sensitive,  the 
well-informed,  the  improvident,  the  irregularly  and 
impulsively  wicked,  the  clumsy  knave,  the  open'thief, 
and  the  entirely  merciful,  just,  and  godly  person." 

It  may  then  be  said  that  undoubtedly  the  first 
cause  of  unemployment  is  inefficiency,  but  that 
inefficiency  is  not  always  synonymous  with 
vice,  and  that  when  it  is  the  real  question  is, 
What  caused  the  inefficiency  ?  (For  that  ques- 
tion, see  articles  POVERTY  ;  INTEMPERANCE  ; 
TENEMENTS  ;  COMPETITION  ;  WAGES.)  We  come 
then  to  ask  what  are  the  social  causes  of  un- 
employment ?  Here,  however,  so  many  answers 
are  made  that  they  cannot  be  considered  in 
this  article.  Most  authorities  believe  that  the 
existence  of  the  unemployed  is  due  to  changes 
and  improvements  in  the  methods  of  produc- 
tion, at  least  temporarily  substituting  machine 
work  for  human  work.  (For  a  discussion  as  to 
whether  this  is  a  permanent  or  only  temporary 
result,  see  MACHINERY.)  Socialists  argue  that 


Unemployment. 


Unemployment. 


unemployment  is  due  not  to  machinery,  but 
to  the  monopoly  of  machinery  and  the  underpay 
of  the  producer,  so  that  he  has  no  money  to 
buy  that  which  he  produces.  Mr.  Hobson  con- 
siders unemployment  due  to  underconsumption 
and  the  greed  of  men  to  make  more  money 
rather  than  to  spend.  Many  believe  it  is  due 
to  financial  ills  and  a  wrong  monetary  policy. 
The  problem  is,  however,  in  a  sense  the  problem 
of  this  whole  cyclopedia  ;  and  various  bodies 
of  thinkers  hold  such  various  views  that  they 
can  be  considered  only  under  the  separate  arti- 
cles treating  of  those  views.  (See  OVERPRO- 
DUCTION ;  COMPETITION  ;  TRADE-UNIONS  ;  SO- 
CIALISM ;  INDIVIDUALISM  ;  SINGLE  TAX  ;  BIMETAL- 
LISM ;  SILVER  ;  MONOMETALLISM,  etc.)  Here  only 
it  must  be  remembered  that  the  problem  of  the 
unemployed  is  not  a  problem  by  itself,  but  one 
wrapped  up  in  the  whole  modern  industrial 
situation. 

III.  METHODS  OF  RELIEF. 

(a)    IN   TEMPORARY    CRISES. 

We  give  under  this  head  a  brief  account  of 
the  various  measures  which  have  been  tried  or 
proposed  in  various  cities  to  relieve  the  unem- 
ployed in  times  of  temporary  crises,  and  notice, 
first,  the  measures  undertaken  in  America  in 
the  winter  of  1893-94.  The  most  noteworthy  of 
these  efforts  was  undoubtedly  the  Detroit  plan 
of  the  so-called  potato  farms,  or  the  giving  of  the 
use  of  land  to  the  unemployed  and  allowing 
them  to  raise  vegetables  upon  them  and  secure 
the  profit.  This,  however,  we  consider  under 
an  article  by  itself.  (See  DETROIT  PLAN.)  In 
Baltimore,  the  various  charities  conducted  re- 
lief along  ordinary  lines,  with  the  giving  of 
soup,  etc.,  and  a  central  committee  was  appoint- 
ed which  arranged  for  a  stone  yard  where  men 
could  be  employed.  In  Boston,  a  large  relief 
committee  appointed  by  the  mayor  collected 
funds  and  employed  men  upon  city 
work,  constructing  sewers,  opening 
American  and  cleaning  streets,  etc.  ;  women 
Cities.  were  employed  in  extemporized 
sewing  rooms.  Men  were  paid 
from  $i  to  $1.50  per  day  for  city 
work  ;  women  at  the  larger  rooms  were  paid  80 
cents  per  day.  The  women  were  employed  main- 
ly in  making  rag  carpets  and  crazy  quilts  for 
the  Sea  Island  sufferers,  in  order  not  to  compete 
with  any  regular  industry.  Some  men  unable 
to  do  outside  work  were  employed  in  the  same 
way  ;  5761  men  and  3479  women  were  given 
more  or  less  work.  In  Cincinnati,  the  city  ap- 
propriated $30,000  to  employ  men  in  the  parks, 
and  a  committee  of  citizens  employed  men  in 
the  wood  yard  of  the  associated  charities.  In 
Chicago,  relief  was  organized  on  a  very  large 
scale,  with  soup  kitchens,  etc.,  and  something 
was  done  in  the  way  of  giving  work.  Men 
worked  for  their  meals  to  some  extent  on  street 
cleaning.  Nine  sewing  rooms  employed  1478 
women  at  50  cents  per  day.  In  Denver,  the 
city  supplied  tents  and  food  for  a  temporary 
"labor  camp,"  and  employed  as  many  as  it 
could  on  city  works.  A  wood  yard  was  opened 
by  private  charity.  In  Indianapolis,  a  commit- 
tee of  the  Commercial  Club  organized  a  food 
market.  Those  deemed  needy  were  employed 
on  private  work,  or  that  failing,  on  city  works, 


and  were  paid  in  checks  on  the  food  market  en- 
titling them  to  a  week's  rations,  consisting  of 
moderate  amounts  of  potatoes,  corn  meal,  hom- 
iny, pork,  molasses,  bread  and  soap,  and  dur- 
ing the  latter  part  of  the  time  flour  and  coffee. 
Skilled  workmen  were  paid  at  special  rates  of 
the  work.  Of  the  relief  works  at  Lynn,  Mass., 
the  Review  of  Reviews  for  January,  1894,  gives 
the  following  account,  which  is  typical  : 

"It  was  resolved  to  deal  with  the  situation  through 
the  existing  organizations,  simply  adding  to  the  Asso- 
ciated Charities  a  department  of  labor,  the  work  to  be 
done  on  the  city  streets  and  parks,  and  to  be  paid  for 
by  a  citizens'  subscription.  In  order  to  avoid  the  well- 
known  and  serious  perils  of  all  attempts  at  special 
emergency  relief— such  as  calling  in  throngs  of  the 
workless  from  other  cities,  disturbing  the  regular 
lines  of  labor,  encouraging  imposition,  and  stimulat- 
ing a  profuse  and  chaotic  private  relief — it  was  re- 
solved to  proceed  under  the  following  rules  :  (i)  No 
public  call  for  money,  and  no  advertising  of  the  bu- 
reau through  the  papers ;  subscriptions  to  be  secured 
by  personal  solicitation,  and  the  work  advertised  only 
through  the  churches  and  relief  societies,  and  by  the 
spectacle  of  the  men  at  work.  (2)  No  work  given  ex- 
cept to  actual  citizens  of  Lynn,  in  extreme  need,  and 
having  no  other  friends,  helpers,  or  resources ;  these 
facts  ascertained  by  thorough  domiciliary  investiga- 
tion in  every  case.  No  rumors  to  be  hee.ded,  no  guess- 
work to  be  relied  upon,  nothing  to  be  done  in  the 
dark  ;  actual  knowledge  to  be  the  only  basis  of  help. 
The  results  of  investigation  to  be  placed  at  the  service 
of  relief-giving  societies  and  individuals.  3.  A  half 
day's  work  for  $i,  and  work  arranged  so  as  to  enable 
each  man  to  earn  an  average  of  $3  a  week,  this  wage 
supplemented  in  cases  of  extreme  need." 

In  New  York  City,  a  private  East  Side  Relief 
Works  Committee  employed  men  in  cleaning 
streets  in  connection  with  the  city  department, 
in  tenement  sanitation,  and  in  tailor  shops  ; 
3292  different  men  were  employed  in  street 
cleaning  ;  over  one  third  of  them,  however, 
were  employed  only  one  week,  two  were  em- 
ployed 22  weeks  ;  491  at  one  time  were  employed 
in  tenement  sanitation  ;  700  houses  had  their 
halls,  cellars,  or  some  of  their  rooms  white- 
washed or  kalsomined  ;  47.000  rooms  or  halls 
were  scrubbed  ;  refuse  was  removed.  Four  tailor 
shops  were  opened  on  the  same  plan  as  in  Bos- 
ton, tho  only  250  men  and  women  were  em- 
ployed. Work  was  given  at  home  to  433  more. 
In  street  cleaning  $i  a  day  was  paid  for  seven 
hours'  work.  In  the  tailor  shops  60  and  70 
cents  and  a  lunch  was  paid,  and  later  $4  a  week 
for  five  days'  work. 

In  Philadelphia,  relief  was  given  on  a  some- 
what large  scale,  but  very  little  work.  One 
ward  charity  organization  gave  work  in  alley 
cleaning,  the  pay  being  $i  a  day.  In  Pittsburg, 
a  central  committee  raised  $256,000,  of  which 
Mr.  Carnegie  gave  nearly  half,  and  employed 
13,529  men  on  parks  and  streets,  etc.,  at  $i  per 
day.  Thousands  of  those  applying  were  said 
to  be  artisans,  clerks,  and  even  professional 
men.  In  St.  Paul,  men  were  employed  on  city- 
work  at  $i  per  day,  with  a  fund  raised  by  a  pri- 
vate committee. 

This  account  is  mainly  of  the  efforts  made  to 
give  work.  For  the  relief  on  other  lines,  see 
CHARITY  ORGANIZATIONS  ;  but  trade-unions  and 
other  societies  also  gave  much  relief,  mainly  to 
their  own  unemployed  members.  In  some 
cities,  like  Chicago  and  Boston,  the  unions 
raised  considerable  sums  for  distribution.  In 
Massachusetts,  13  Citizens'  Relief  Committees 
raised  $147,000,  about  two  thirds  of  this  in  Boston. 


Unemployment. 


Unemployment. 


Great  Britain  has  had  considerable  experience 
in   emergency   relief    of  the   unemployed.     In 
1 860-6 1  there  was  an  unusually  severe  winter, 
and  a  fund  of  about  .£40,000  was 
raised  in   London  and  distributed 
Great        mainly  through  the  police  courts. 
Britain.      In    1863-64,  mainly  on  account  of 
•  the  cotton  famine  (y.v.),  there  was 
great  distress  from  lack  of  work  in 
Lancashire.     A  special   measure  was  enacted 
placing  ;£i, 200,000  at  the  disposal  of  the  authori- 
ties to  organize  relief  work.     Sewers  and  sim- 
ilar works  were  undertaken,  and  it  was  stated 
that  the  factory  hands  readily  learned  unusual 
work  ;  38,014  were  given  work.    In  1886  a  fund, 
known  as  the  Mansion  House  Fund,  was  raised 
in  London,  but  it  is  generally  thought  that  it 
was  not  wisely  spent. 

In  1892-93,  33  parishes  in  London  undertook 
special  relief  work,  mainly  in  street  cleaning 
and  repairing,  sewerage,  etc.  It  was  very  dif- 
ferently conducted  in  different  parishes,  occa- 
sionally wisely,  usually  with  poor  results.  The 
amount  of  work  given  varied  from  two  to  six 
days  per  week.  Wages  varied  from  4^.  to  gd. 
per  hour,  and  from  2s.  8d.  to  4*.  per  day.  Out- 
side of  London  work  was  given  in  63  districts. 
The  Mansion  House  Committee  raised  ^1315, 
of  which  ^564  were  paid  in  wages,  £416  for 
emigration,  ,£107  for  relief,  £83  for  tools,  etc.  ; 
253  men  were  employed  at  6d.  per  hour.  The 
men  must  be  waterside  laborers.  The  work 
was  given  mainly  as  a  test,  but  good  work  was 
required  and  obtained.  In  1893-94  work  was 
given  by  27  district  authorities,  seven  in  Lon- 
don. 

In  Germany,  in  1893-94,  most  of  the  cities 
gave  some  work,  employing  men  usually  in 
stonecutting  or  street  work. 

(b)  MORE   PERMANENT   METHODS. 

The  Massachusetts  Commission  on  the  Un- 
employed mentions  12  plans  as  having  been  ad- 
vocated by  different  persons  to  meet  the  prob- 
lem of  the  unemployed  : 

"i.  Removal  of  residents  of  cities  to  the  country 
and  farms. 

"  2.  Removing  the  competition  and  hence  displace- 
ment of  free  labor  occasioned  by  the  labor  of  inmates 
of  reformatory  and  penal  institutions. 

"  3.  Reducing  the  hours  of  a  day's  labor. 

"  4.  Restriction  of  immigration. 

"  5.  An  extension  of  industrial  education. 

"  6.  Improving  the  intelligence  and  employment 
offices,  or  establishing  free  employment  offices. 

"7.  That  the  State  or  municipality  should  establish 
factories  or  engage  in  industrial  enterprises,  with  a 
view  of  giving  employment. 

"  8.  That  the  State  should  establish  State  farms. 

"  g.  That  the  State  should  increase  its  ordinary  pub- 
lic works,  and  distribute  a  part  of  such  undertakings 
to  the  winter  season. 

"  10.  That  the  public  works,  either  of  the  State  or 
municipality,  should  be  done  directly  by  the  public 
authorities,  and  that  no  work  should  be  done  by  con- 
tract. 

"  IE.  That  all  public  works  should  be  done  by  resi- 
dents. 

"  12.  That  the  State  should  create  labor  colonies. 

Most  of  these  plans  are  plans  proposed  by 
their  advocates  for  meeting  not  only  the  prob- 
lem of  the  unemployed,  but  other  social  prob- 
lems as  well,  and  are  therefore  treated  in  arti- 
cles by  themselves.  This  includes  Plans  2,3,4, 
5,  and  10.  (For  a  discussion  of  them,  see  arti- 
cles CONVICT  LABOR  ;  SHORT-HOUR  MOVEMENT  ; 


IMMIGRATION  ;  INDUSTRIAL  EDUCATION  ;  CON- 
TRACT LABOR.)  Plan  i ,  advocating  the  removal 
of  the  residents  of  cities  to  the  country  and 
farms,  can  be  best  studied  under  articles  ABAN- 
DONED FARMS  ;  AGRICULTURE  ;  FARMERS'  MOVE- 
MENT ;  EMIGRATION.  With  the  present  lack  of 
means  and  education  among  the  city  unem- 
ployed it  is  almost  hopeless  to  try  and  induce 
them  to  go  to  the  farms,  and  with  the  present 
condition  of  the  farming  interests  there  is  little 
to  encourage  this  movement  except  with  State 
aid,  which  leads  us  to  Plan  8  of  State  Farms. 
Of  this  plan  there  has  been  some  experience. 
New  Zealand  has  done  most  on  this  line  (for  a 
brief  account  of  which,  see  NEW  ZEALAND),  but 
the  colony  of  Victoria  also  passed  an  act  August 
31,  1893,  "to  provide  for  the  establishment  of 
village  communities,  homestead  associations, 
and  labor  colonies."  A  Victoria  report  of  July 
30,  1894,  says  : 

"The  popularity  of  the  Act  was  demonstrated  im- 
mediately upon  its  becoming  law  by  the  large  num- 
bers of  persons  who  daily  thronged  the  office,  eager 
to  take  advantage  of  its  provisions  ;  and  that  popu- 
larity has  been  well  maintained,  as  will  be  seen  from 
the  fact  that  during  the  past  two  months  no  fewer  than 
453  applications  have  been  received  and  registered. 
The  total  number  of  applicants  since  the  Act  came 
into  operation  is  4080,  of  which  2122  have  been  approved, 
993  refused  and  withdrawn,  leaving  a  balance  of  965  in 
course  of  being  dealt  with,  not  including  applicants 
under  Part  III.  .  .  . 

"The  Act  is  divided  into  three  parts— viz.  :  Part  I., 
Village  Communities.  Part  II.,  Homestead  Associa- 
tions. Part  III.,  Labor  Colonies. 

"  Under  Part  I.,  any  person  not  under  the  age  of  18 
years  who  is  not  the  owner  in  fee  simple 
of  2  acres  or  upward,  nor  the  lessee  of  a 
pastoral  allotment  or  grazing  area,  nor  State  Aided 
the  holder  of  a  license  under  section  42        Farms 
or  section  49  of  the  Land  Act,  1890,  nor  a 
lessee  under  Part  II.  of  this  Act,  is  en- 
titled to  obtain  an  area  from  i  to  20  acres. 
Under  this  Part  of  the  Act  2726  persons  have  made  ap- 
plication. 

"  Part  II.  provides  for  associations  or  combinations 
of  persons  of  not  less  than  six,  requiring  acres  of  from 
i  to  50  for  each  settler.  Any  person  over  the  age  of  18 
years,  not  being  a  married  woman,  not  holding  10  acres 
of  land  or  upward  in  fee  simple,  and  with  the  other 
restrictions  named  in  regawl  to  Part  I.  of  the  Act,  can 
become  settlers  under  this  Part.  Under  Part  II.  of 
the  Act,  2  societies,  representing  71  members,  and  152 
associations,  representing  1283  members,  have  made 
application  ;  the  total  number  of  applicants  under  this 
Part  being  1354. 

"  The  reports  upon  settlements  under  this  Part  of  the 
Act  are,  notwithstanding  the  many  initiatory  difficul- 
ties, fairly  encouraging.  .  .  . 

"The  number  of  settlers  that  have  availed  them- 
selves of  monetary  assistance  under  section  32  of  the 
Act  is  985,  and  the  total  amount  advanced  is  .£8873,  be- 
ing less  than  half  the  amount  voted  by  Parliament,  and 
42^  per  cent,  of  the  value  of  improvements  effected, 
and  in  no  case  has  it  exceeded  the  value,  after  inspec- 
tion, of  such  improvements.  This  aid  has  generally 
been  given  in  monthly  installments,  at  the  rate  of  ios. 
per  week.  .  .  . 

"The  Special  Report  on  the  Richardson  Settlement 
at  Lyonville,  hereto  attached,  will  be  read  with  inter- 
est. This  settlement  was  first  started  to  give  work  to 
the  unemployed— cutting  firewood  and  mining  timber. 
Immediately  the  Land  Settlements  Act  came  into  oper- 
ation, the  land  on  which  they  were  working  was  made 
available,  and  the  people  so  employed  placed  upon 
their  own  allotments.  It  will  be  seen  that  the  total  ex- 
penditure during  the  year  amounted  to  ^2650  -$s.  iod,, 
and  that  the  receipts  from  the  sale  of  the  timber  and 
the  value  of  stock  on  hand  is  £2832  19.5.  -;d.  There  are 
341  souls  on  the  area  set  apart,  and  the  value  of  the 
improvements  for  building,  fencing,  clearing,  water 
storage,  and  cultivation  is  £2589  ni\,  while  the  amount 
advanced  under  the  Act  is  only  £272.  This  fact  shows 
that  the  workers  must  have  been  saving  and  fairly 
remunerated  for  their  labor." 

The  London  County  Council  has  also  appoint- 


Unemployment. 


1355 


Unemployment. 


ed  a  committee  to  carry  out  similar  plans  under 
the  Small  Holdings  Act,  1892,  55  and  56  Viet., 
c.  31,  which  gives  power  to  county  councils  to 
purchase  or  lease  land  and  to  adapt  it  and  sell 
or  let  portions  of  it  for  small  holdings.  The 
committee  was  appointed  in  March,  1893.  It 
has  secured  some  land  in  different  localities  and 
divided  it  into  allotments  of  about  one  tenth  of 
an  acre,  charging  a  rental  of  about  8s.  per  plot 
per  annum  ;  many  have  been  allotted,  and  are 
said  to  be  well  worked,  but  little  can  be  done 
on  account  of  the  high  price  of  land  near  Lon- 
don. For  notices  of  aided  farms  for  the  unem- 
ployed, tho  not  State-aided,  see  articles  COMMU- 
NITIES ;  SALVATION  ARMY  ;  also  LABOR  COLONIES. 

Of  Plan  7,  that  of  State  factories,  or  indus- 
tries organized  directly  to  employ  the  unem- 
ployed, there  has  been  no  experience.  The 
famous  National  Workshops  of  Paris  in  1848 
were  probably  not  conducted  as  an  experiment 
in  good  faith.  (See  ATELIERS  NATION AUX.)  Of 
Government  industries  not  conducted  for  the 
unemployed  there  has  been  much  experience, 
usually  successful.  (See  articles  MUNICIPALISM  ; 
MONOPOLIES  ;  SOCIALISM  ;  GAS  ;  ELECTRICITY.) 
Plan  9,  that  the  State  should  increase  its  ordi- 
nary public  works  and  distribute  a  part  of  such 
undertakings  in  winter,  can  be  best  studied 
under  articles  CONTRACT  LABOR  ;  MUNICIPALISM  ; 
MONOPOLIES.  Plan  u,  that  all  work  should  be 
done  by  residents,  may  be  considered  a  part  of 
Plan  10.  (See  above.)  Plan  6,  that  the  State 
should  improve  intelligence  offices  or  establish 
free  employment  bureaus,  is  discussed  at  length 
by  the  Massachusetts  Bureau.  European  gov- 
ernments have  done  something  in  this  direc- 
tion. (See  article  LABOR  EXCHANGES.)  In  Amer- 
ica a  beginning  has  been  made. 

Free  public  employment  offices  were  created 
in  the  State  of  Ohio  on  April  28,  1890.  The 
statute  governing  such  offices  places  them  under 
the  supervision  and  control  of  the  Commissioner 
of  Labor  Statistics.  In  1892  the  present  Com- 
missioner, Hon.  W.  T.  l?ewis,  said  of  them  : 

"  To  state  that  all  wants  are  satisfied,  and  that  each 
applicant  is  sent  on  his  or  her  way  rejoicing,  would  be 
to  announce  the  advent  of  the  millennium,  a  period 
which,  the  most  optimistic  must  acknowledge,  lies  yet 
some  distance    in    the  future.      Neces- 
sarily there  are  many  disappointments. 
Employ-      These   are    due    partly    to    impractical 
pi          ideas  entertained  by  both  employer  and 
"  employee,  and  again,  it   must  be  con- 

Bureaus.  fessed,  by  the  inability  of  the  office  to 
meet  many  wants  that  are  not  im- 
practical. The  truth  of  the  matter  is, 
the  system  is  still  in  its  infancy,  it  will  require  time 
and  much  intelligent  effort  to  perfect  it.  The  absence 
of  precedent  by  which  to  be  guided,  the  pre-existing 
prejudice  in  the  public  mind  against  employment  and 
intelligence  offices  owing  to  the  odium  which  has  at- 
tached to  the  private  concerns,  the  almost  total  lack 
of  means  of  advertising,  and  the  many  annoyances  in- 
cident to  any  new  departure,  have  tended  to  retard 
its  development.  But  in  spite  of  all  these  hindrances 
substantial  progress  has  been  made.  In  the  communi- 
ties in  which  the  offices  are  located  many  firms  depend 
upon  them  almost  exclusively  in  securing  help,  and 
thousands  of  employees  could  testif  v  to  their  usefulness 
out  of  personal  experience.  The  offices  have  benefited 
not  only  the  large  cities,  but  the  adjacent  farming  com- 
munities have  used  them  to  quite  a  considerable  ex- 
tent, as  have  also  business  men  in  the  smaller  towns 
and  cities  throughout  the  State.  .  .  .  The  private  in- 
telligence office  evil  has  been  completely  eradicated 
in  three  of  the  cities  (Columbus,  Toledo,  and  Dayton) 
where  the  free  system  has  been  established,  but  a  rew 
of  these  concerns  manage  to  still  exist  in  Cleveland 
and  Cincinnati.  With  the  growth  of  the  free  offices 
they  will  eventually  disappear." 


California  has  followed  the  example  of  Ohio, 
and  on  July  20,  1896,  a  free  public  Labor  Bu- 
reau was  opened  in  New  York  City. 

The  report  of  the  Massachusetts  Bureau  of 
Labor  for  1890  thinks  the  difficulties  of  free  em- 
ployment bureaus  very  great,  and  that  as  much 
can  be  hoped  from  carefully  regulated  private 
bureaus.  It  admits,  however,  very  serious  evils 
in  employment  bureaus  to-day.  Of  Massachu- 
setts it  says  : 

"It  is  certain  that  the  atmosphere  of  several  offices 
is  one  of  deceit.  Their  advertisements  call  for  '200 
Protestant  girls,'  when  the  orders  on  hand  probably  do 
not  number  20 ;  for  '  salesladies'  who  are  never  sup- 
plied through  the  office  in  question;  for  •  farm  super- 
intendents, $20  to  |6o,'  the  highest  salary  ever  secured 
for  a  farm  superintendent  in  one  respectable  office 
having  been  $43.  The  names  of  certain  bureaus, 
'Christian  Benevolent  Association,"  'Mutual  Employ- 
ment Bureau,'  are  suggestive  of  practices  very  differ- 
ent from  those  which  actually  obtain  .  .  . 

"  One  scheme  somewhat  prevails  whose  success  de- 
pends largely  upon  the  stupidity  of  the  candidate,  and 
somewhat  upon  a  present  fault  of  the  general  system. 
A  girl  applies  for  a  housemaid's  position  in  a  first-class 
boarding-house  in  a  certain  locality  and  at  a  specified 
wage.  On  registration  she  is  encouraged  to  pay  the 
fee  in  advance.  She  is  now  expected  to  remain  in  the 
waiting-room  during  office  hours.  If  absent  at  any 
time  during  the  next  few  days  she  may  be  told  that 
she  has  lost  just  such  a  situation  as  she  desired,  and  if 
possible  is  induced  to  pay  another  fee.  A  girl  has  been 
known  to  pay  three  fees  in  as  many  weeks  to  the  same 
office  without  obtaining  a  place.  A  candidate  who  is 
sufficiently  informed  to  ask  for  the  return  of  a  fee  if 
employment  is  not  furnished  at  the  end  of  six  days 
may  be  told  that  she  has  forfeited  the  fee  and  lost 
positions  by  being  absent  from  the  office.  There  are 
indications  of  other  practices  by  which  fees  are  ob- 
tained. .  .  . 

"  For  instance,  an  employer  has  hired  the  servant  in 
the  office,  has  paid  her  own  fee,  and  probably  been 
asked  to  advance  the  fee  and  car- fare  of  the  girl.  The 
girl  fails  to  arrive.  If  the  employer  complains  to  the 
office,  the  keeper  disclaims  all  responsibility,  and  says 
that  another  girl  shall  be  furnished  In  case  a  return 
of  fee  is  preferred,  it  will  be  obtained  only  after  a  dis- 
agreeable scene.  An  employer  usually  tries  another 
office,  and  abandons  the  fee. 

"It  is  also  alleged  that  bureaus  recommend  worth- 
less men  for  employment,  especially  on  farms  ;  send 
farm  hands  away  to  bogus  places  at  a  distance,  trust 
ing  that  they  will  never  come  back  ;  enter  into  collu- 
sion with  bogus  employers  and  with  employment 
offices  in  other  cities,  so  that  a  double  fee  is  collected 
from  large  gangs  of  men  ;  and  decoy  women  to  houses 
of  ill- fame.  There  is  or  has  been  more  than  a  grain  of 
truth  in  all  of  these  charges. 

"  True,  very  few  specific  complaints  reach  the  police, 
the  number  of  cases  investigated  by  captains  last  year 
being  only  72,  and  the  number  carried  up  to  the  Police 
Commission  only  three.  This  is  a  small 

Eroportion  among  126  license  holders ; 
ut  it  only  proves  the  passive  and  some-       Evils  of 
what  helpless  attitude  of  the  police  de-   T>r{vate  Bn- 
partment.     In  general,  it  appears  to  us 
that    the    present    regulations    are    ill         reaus. 
planned  to  reward   the   honorable  bu- 
reaus and  to  prevent  abuses.  .  .  . 

"  In  the  Report  of  the  Bureau  of  Statistics  of  Labor 
for  1893  it  is  stated  that  returns  nearly  complete,  from 
the  licensed  bureaus  of  Boston,  indicated  that  about 
600,000  persons  had  applied  to  them  during  one  year, 
and  that  about  125,000  places  had  been  secured.  The 
figure  may  be  an  exaggeration,  but  if  we  accept  it,  and 
assume  that  two  thirds  of  these  were  female,  and  that 
only  the  regular  fees  were  imposed,  this  would  repre- 
sent an  expense  to  those  seeking  employment  of  about 
$80,000.  Perhaps  the  fees  paid  into  the  unlicensed  bu- 
reaus would  raise  this  sum  to  $150,000.  .  .  . 

"  In  the  philanthropic  bureaus  which  are  on  a  busi- 
ness basis  the  question  of  what  to  do  with  the  incom- 
petent is  uppermost.  Their  philanthropic  character 
naturally  attracts  to  them  many  women  who  have 
their  living  to  earn,  but  who  are  unfitted  for  any  busi- 
ness. For  these  some  work  must  be  provided.  The 
half  dozen  regular  intelligence  offices  which  aim  to 
furnish  only  first-class  help,  and  which  depend  for 
their  profits  on  the  fees  of  employers  rather  than  the 
fees  of  employees,  do  not^ncourage  the  incompetent 


Unemployment, 


1356 


Unemployment. 


applicants  to  register  in  their  offices,  but  refer  such  to 
the  philanthropic  agencies.  .  .  .  Employers  state  that 
help  obtained  at  the  philanthropic  offices  is,  more  often 
than  not,  unsatisfactory.  The  testimony  of  the  better 
class  of  workwomen  as  to  the  opportunities  for  getting 
employment  there  is  likewise  unsatisfactory.  .  .  . 

"  It  is  obvious  from  the  evidence  which  has  been  pre- 
sented that  the  downright  abuses  which  exist  in  the 
women's  offices  are  graver  than  those  which  exist  in 
the  men's  offices,  irregularities  in  the  latter  taking 
the  form  of  quasi-legal  evasions.  A  reason  for  this 
may  be  found  in  the  ignorance  and  inexperience  of  the 
female  applicants.  .  .  . 

"  The  competition  among  men  is  keener.  Nearly 
every  man  is  expected  to  be  self-supporting,  but  the 
number  of  places  is  not  always  equal  to  the  number  of 
aspirants  for  work.  Hence  the  chronic  problem  of  the 
unemployed.  Whereas,  among  women  the  supply  ad  • 
justs  itself  to  the  demand,  and  hence,  while  it  is  a 
matter  of  common  knowledge  that  in  the  women's 
bureaus  even  the  incompetent  are  able  to  obtain  situ- 
ations (tho  at  the  expense  of  the  welfare  of  their  em- 
ployers), the  men's  bureaus  are  frequently  unable  to 
place  even  the  most  capable  and  best-recommended 
candidates  on  their  waiting  lists." 

Plan  No.  12,  of  labor  colonies  for  the  unem- 
ployed, has  been  much  discussed.  An  account 
of  the  European  labor  colonies  will  be  found 
under  that  heading,  but  these  only  are  for  the 
lowest  and  most  worthless  class  of  the  unem- 
ployed. 

Mr.  Edward  Bellamy  (q.v.~)  suggests  the  fol- 
lowing plan  in  the  Massachusetts  report.  He 
says  : 

"  The  idea  is  that  they  should  support  one  another. 
They  should  consume  one  another  s  products.  Their 
product  should  not  be  sold  or  go  into  the  general  mar- 
ket at  all,  to  compete  with  •wage-produced  goods  or 
with  private  employers,  but  should  be  consumed 
wholly  within  the  group  of  previously  unemployed 
workers. 

"  Now,  here  is  where  the  duty  and  function  of  the 
State  come  in.  These  men  need  to  be  organized  and 
provided  with  tools  in  order  to  support  one  another, 
and  they  cannot  organize  themselves.  This  it  is  prop- 
er to  expect  the  State  to  dp,  both  for  the  welfare  of  an 
unfortunate  class  of  citizens,  and  also  for  the  relief  of 
individuals  and  the  public  treasury  from  the  burden 
of  supporting  them  by  alms  which  must  otherwise  be 
assumed.  It  will  be  observed  that  this  is  not  a  ques- 
tion of  charity  or  police.  For  the  inca- 
pable, the  almshquses  would  remain  ; 
Labor  forthe  vicious,  the  jails.  It  is  merely  the 
Colonies  question  of  putting  able-bodied  persons 
in  a  position  to  support  themselves.  The 
idea  is  to  furnish  the  necessary  machin- 
ery to  utilize  an  existing  power  which 
otherwise  will  run  to  waste.  The  State  would  be  at 
expense  to  provide  the  necessary  farms,  manufactur- 
ing plants  and  buildings,  and,  for  a  time,  until  the 
products  began  to  come  in,  it  would  have  to  keep  the 
workers  ;  but,  after  that,  the  system  ought  to  be  self- 
sustaining.  At  the  outset,  as  intimated  above,  while 
yet  the  system  was  inadequate  and  imperfectly  organ- 
ized, it  might  be  necessary  to  discriminate  among  ap- 
plicants in  favor  of  legal  residents  ;  but  as  soon  as  the 
system  should  become  self-sustaining,  it  would  not  be 
necessary  or  well  to  make  any  discrimination  whatever. 
"This  contemplates  a  permanent  establishment,  for 
it  is  nonsense  to  regard  the  problem  of  the  unem- 
ployed as  anything  but  a  permanent  problem.  This 
est  iblishment  would  undoubtedly  always  be  in  opera- 
tion, altho  the  number  dependent  on  it  would  increase 
and  decrease  according  to  the  times.  It  would  be  an 
elastic  system,  and,  after  it  was  in  full  adjustment,  a 
man  or  woman  out  of  work  could  get  work  for  a  week, 
a  month  or  a  year,  according  to  the  circumstances  of 
each  individual  case.  In  each  settlement  of  the  unem- 
ployed there  would  be  the  farm,  the  factories,  the 
dwellings,  and  the  store.  This  store  would  be  stocked 
with  products  of  the  workers,  altho  at  first  the  State 
would  have  to  furnish  many  deficiencies.  The  work- 
ers would  from  the  first  be  guaranteed  a  decent  and 
sufficient  maintenance,  nothing  more,  For  this  pur- 
pose they  would  be  supplied  with  a  sort  of  scrip,  good 
only  at  the  public  store  for  meals,  and  for  lodging  at 
the  public  dwellings.  The  only  practicable  plan  would 
be  to  make  the  allowance  for  each  worker  the  same 
without  regard  to  specific  performance,  it  being  the 
duty  ot  the  manager  to  see*  that  all  were  kept  busy, 


able-bodied  persons  only  being  received.  Women,  of 
course,  would  share  equally  with  men.  The  only  pen- 
alty for  idleness  or  infraction  of  rule  would  be  dismissal. 

"  The  prices  to  the  workers  in  scrip  of  the  articles 
for  sale  to  them  in  the  public  store  would  be  based 
on  a  rough  calculation  of  the  comparative  expenditure 
of  labor,  direct  and  indirect,  in  their  production.  If 
the  allowance  of  the  workers  were  based  on  the  spe- 
cific work  done  by  them,  the  fixing  of  its  value  by  the 
Erice  put  on  the  product  would  be  a  task  of  much  dif- 
culty,  fruitful  of  discontent  ;  but,  the  allowance  of 
all  workers  being  equal,  it  would  matter  to  none  what 
price  were  put  upon  his  product. 

"  The  use  of  the  scrip  would  serve  the  double  pur- 
pose of  insuring  the  support  of  the  workers  out  of 
their  own  product,  and  preventing  any  derangement 
of  the  general  wages  market  as  a  result  of  the  State 
system.  When  the  advance  of  money  made  by  the 
State  to  the  system  came  to  be  repaid,  it  might  be 
done  in  products  of  the  system  furnished  to  State  in- 
stitutions at  market  rates.  In  this  way,  also,  might 
such  sums  be  obtained  as  would  be  needful  to  supply 
the  stores  in  the  unemployed  settlements  with  im- 
ported necessaries,  and  for  other  details  of  expense 
which  must  be  met  in  legal  tender  money. 

"After  the  expenses  of  the  State  superintendence 
and  other  outlays  were  provided  for,  the  total  product 
should  be  divided  in  the  form  of  scrip  among  the 
workers,  so  that,  as  the  total  product  increased,  the 
rate  of  maintenance  •would  increase,  the  system  being 
one  of  cooperation  under  State  superintendence  and 
guarantee. 

"  In  order  to  provide  a  certain  basis  for  increased 
issues  of  scrip  among  the  fluctuating  body  of  em- 
ployees, it  would  be  expedient  to  grade  the  workers 
according  to  the  length  of  their  service,  only  those 
who  had  worked  over  a  certain  number  of  weeks  or 
months  being  entitled  to  share  in  the  excess  of  product 
over  minimum  maintenance  rates,  the  rest  being  en- 
titled only  to  the  latter.  The  first  grade  of  workers,  it 
is  believed,  would  find  the  advantage  of  their  position 
so  superior  to  those  of  outside  workers  that  they 
would  tend  to  become  a  permanent  body,  the  fluctua- 
tions in  the  force  chiefly  affecting  the  short-term 
workers  at  minimum  rates. 

"The  workers  should  be  regarded  as  in  no  way  ob- 
jects of  charity  or  wards  of  the  State,  but,  while  sub- 
ject to  strict  working  rules,  should  in  all  other  respects 
be  as  free  and  independent  as  other  citizens.  This 
point  is  absolutely  vital.  If  the  system  had  ever  so 
little  the  flavor  of  charity,  or  alms,  or  the  workhouse, 
no  cleverness  of  machinery  could  prevent  its  flat  fail- 
ure. No  working  man  or  woman  should  be  made  or 
permitted  to  feel  that  in  applying  to  the  State  estab- 
lishment for  work  he  or  she  in  any  way  compromised 
dignity  or  self-respect. 

"  While  the  State  works  would  be  intended,  at  the 
outset,  to  attract  only  the  needy  unemployed,  it  is 
probable  that  the  advantages  resulting  from  security 
of  employment  and  the  steady  rise  in  the  rate  of  main- 
tenance which  would  follow  the  increased  efficiency  of 
the  system  would  suffice  not  only  to  retain  all  who 
once  entered  this  cooperative  service,  but  to  raise  the 
conditions  of  labor  generally  by  compelling  private 
employers  to  bid  against  a  fair  and  humane  system  of 
employment  in  order  to  obtain  workers,  while,  at  the 
same  time,  making  it  easier  to  maintain  good  wages 
by  diminishing  the  pressure  of  the  unemployed  for 
work  at  any  price." 

By  no  means,  however,  do  all  socialists  agree 
with  Mr.  Bellamy.  The  unemployed  as  a  class 
must  be  recognized  to  be  inefficient,  tho  often 
without  being  to  blame  for  that  fact.  To  put 
them,  therefore,  in  colonies  by  themselves, 
whatever  efforts  were  made  to  make  the  work 
honorable,  would  inevitably  stigmatize  these 
colonies  as  colonies  of  the  inefficient,  and  often 
at  least  with  truth.  It  would  tend  also  to  stig- 
matize State  work  as  poor  work.  For  these 
reasons  most  socialists  object  to  organizing  the 
unemployed  in  permanent  colonies  by  them- 
selves. They  would  have  the  State  act,  but  in 
other  ways.  There  is  no  one  way  of  meeting 
the  unemployment  problem.  The  first  thing  is 
to  distinguish  between  different  classes  of  the 
unemployed.  Says  Mr.  John  Burns  : 

"  Until  the  differentiation  of  the  laborer  from  the 
loafer  takes  place,  the  unemployed  question  can  never 


Unemployment. 


1357 


Unitarian  Church. 


be  properly  discussed  and  dealt  with.  Till  the  tramp, 
thief,  and  ne'er-do-well,  however  pitiable  he  may  be, 
is  dealt  with  distinctly  from  the  genuine  worker,  no 
permanent  benefit  will  result  to  any  of  them.  The 
gentleman  who  gets  up  to  look  for  work  at  mid-day, 
and  prays  that  he  may  not  find  it,  is  undeserving  of 
pity.  1  have  seen  the  most  genuine  and  honest  men 
at  meetings  mixed  up  with  the  laziest  and  most  drunk- 
en scoundrels." 

Most  socialists  would  say  that  for  the  present 
at  least  the  vicious  and  incorrigibly  lazy  should 
be  placed  in  reformatories  somewhat  on  the 
Elmira  plan  (see  ELMIRA  REFORMATORY),  and 
taught  or  be  made  to  work.  Many  of  them 
merely  need  teaching  under  strict  discipline. 
The  incompetent  should  be  placed  in  industrial 
schools.  For  the  rest,  work  should  be  given  on 
the  following  plan  :  i.  The  reduction  of  the 
problem  to  its  lowest  terms  by  the  establish- 
ment of  free  State  labor  bureaus  to  find  work  in 
private  places  for  all  for  whom  work  can  be 
found.  2.  The  limiting  of  the  problem  by  al- 
lowing the  municipality  to  find  work  only  for 
those  who  can  prove  residence  of  some  length 
of  time  in  the  city.  Otherwise  the  unemployed 
of  the  whole  country  might  be  attracted  to  one 
city.  3.  For  men,  the  giving  of  work  to  actual 
citizens  really  without  work,  on  city  improve- 
ments actually  needed,  which  would  not  be  built 
by  private  capital,  the  skilled  men  to  be  em- 
ployed at  skilled  work  and  unskilled  men  at  un- 
skilled work,  and  all  at  trade-union  hours  for 
trade-union  wages  in  their  respective  lines. 
The  money  to  do  this  could  be  gained  in  two 
ways  :  first,  without  raising  taxes,  by  profits 
from  municipal  activities.  Berlin  gains  half 
her  income  from  municipal  activities.  Glasgow 
and  other  cities  show  similar  results.  If  this 
policy  should  check  the  employment  of  men  by 
private  corporations,  the  city  would  employ 
more  than  the  corporations  discharged,  because 
the  city  would  employ  them  for  shorter  hours, 
and  on  a  larger  plan.  Municipalities  can  em- 
ploy more  men  at  higher  wages  than  private 
corporations,  and  yet  make  money.  Secondly, 
revenue  should  be  raised  by  the  increase  of 
taxes  on  land  values,  preventing  land  specula- 
tion, compelling  building,  and  therefore  aiding 
employment.  In  making  modern  cities  clean, 
healthy,  and  beautiful,  there  is  work  enough  to  be 
done.  For  women,  many  socialists  believe  that 
if  the  manufacture  of  clothing  for  sale  was  for- 
bidden in  the  tenements  (see  SWEATING  SYSTEM), 
if  factories  were  built  where  all  clothing  could 
be  made  like  any  other  commodity,  under  strict 
regulations  as  to  hours,  without  child  labor,  and 
if  all  men  had  work  at  wages  enabling  them  to 
support  their  families,  it  would  be  easy  to  sup- 
ply honorable  work  for  unmarried  women,  wid- 
ows, and  those  in  need.  This  is  the  ordinary 
socialist  program  for  the  unemployed  rather 
than  the  establishment  of-  colonies,  at  least  until 
socialism  brings  in  further  changes. 

Individualists,  fearing  State  work,  would  em- 
phasize manual  training,  temperance,  thrift,  etc. ; 
but  for  their  program,  which  is  general  rather 
than  specific,  see  INDUSTRIAL  EDUCATION  ;  TEM- 
PERANCE, etc. 

In  Germany  and  Switzerland  some  steps  have 
been  taken  in  the  direction  of  unemployment 
and  insurance,  but  it  is  yet  too  early  to  judge 
of  its  results. 

References :  Geoffrey  Dredge's  The  Unemployed 
(1894);  J.  A.  Hobson's  Unemployment  (1896). 


UNION    LABOR    PARTY.— This    was  a 

political  party  organized  at  Cincinnati,  Febru- 
ary 23,  1887,  mainly  by  representatives  of  the 
farmers'  organizations  of  the  West  and  Western 
Middle  States,  with  many  of  the  old  Greenback 
Party  (g. v.).  Its  platform  declared  for  a  gradu- 
ated land  and  income  tax  ;  governmental  tele- 
graphs and  railroads  ;  abolition  of  national 
banks  ;  free  coinage  of  silver  ;  payment  of  na- 
tional debt  at  maturity  ;  exclusion  of  the  Chi- 
nese ;  woman  suffrage  ;  arbitration  of  labor  dis- 
putes ;  and  against  contract  labor  in  prisons, 
the  further  issue  of  interest-bearing  government 
bonds,  and  the  employment  of  armed  men  by 
private  corporations.  It  poled  an  insignificant 
vote,  but  led  to  the  formation  of  the  People's 
Party  (g.v.). 

UNITARIAN  CHURCH,  THE,  AND 
SOCIAL  REFORM.-The  first  large  distinct 
enterprise  in  the  direction  of  social  reform  un- 
dertaken by  the  Unitarians  of  the  United  States 
was  what  they  still  call  the  Ministry-at-Large  in 
Cities. 

Joseph  Tuckerman  devised  the  plan  for  this 
ministry.  He  recognized  the  fact  that  in 
churches  organized  as  Congregational  churches 
are  there  is  great  danger  that  it  will  not  be  any- 
body's special  business  to  attend  to  strangers, 
or,  indeed,  to  families  which  may  have  been 
for  a  long  time  residents  in  any  town,  but  from 
indifference,  or  bashfulness,  or  poverty  have 
not  connected  themselves  with  any  of  the  estab- 
lished churches.  The  proposal  was  favorably 
received  and  was  realized  in  Boston  by  what  is 
called  the  Benevolent  Fraternity  of  Churches. 
Similar  arrangements  exist  among  the  Unitari- 
ans of  the  larger  cities  of  England  and  in 
several  of  the  larger  cities  of  America.  They 
provide  free  chapels  and  churches,  where  any 
worshipers  may  attend  without  charge,  with 
classes,  reading-rooms,  libraries,  and  social 
gatherings  open  to  everybody. 

Dr.  Tuckerman  and  his  associates  in  Boston 
gave  themselves  energetically  to  the  improve- 
ment of  legislation  in  regard  to  poverty  and  to 
giving  scientific  system  to  the  pub- 
lic charities.     Boston  owes  to  them 
the  Industrial  Aid  Society  for  the      Reform 
Prevention  of  Pauperism,  a  busi-  Movements, 
ness  which  is  entirely  distinct  from 
the    relief    of    poverty.     In    sixty 
years  of  successful  work  this  society  has  dem- 
onstrated the  possibility  in  a  large  city  of  keep- 
ing in  check  pauperism  as  distinct  from  pov- 
erty. 

The  mere  conditions  of  their  existence  led  the 
New  England  Unitarians  to  take  cordial  inter- 
est in  temperance  work.  Among  the  pioneers 
in  the  public  movements  for  total  abstinence 
and  temperance  were  some  of  their  leading 
clergymen. 

Their  early  advocacy  of  efforts  for  universal 
peace  dates  to  the  time  of  the  Napoleonic  wars. 
On  the  occasion  of  the  fall  of  Napoleon,  King's 
Chapel  was  opened  for  a  public  service  of  grati- 
tude, in  which  the  Unitarian  clergymen  of  the 
city  and  neighborhood  took  part.  At  the  same 
time  Noah  Worcester,  the  editor  of  The  Chris- 
tian Disciple,  published  a  pamphlet,  still  re- 
membered, which  he  called  A  Solemn  Review 
of  the  Custom  of  War.  The  universal  grati- 


Unitarian  Church. 


1358 


Universalist  Church. 


tude  for  universal  peace  was  favorable  for  the 
consideration  of  such  writings.  Dr.  Worcester 
changed  the  name  of  The  Christian  Disciple, 
so  that  it  was  known  as  The  Friend  of  Peace. 
He  had  the  sympathy  and  cooperation  of  Dr. 
William  Ellery  Channing,  at  that  time  the  hon- 
ored leader  of  the  Unitarian  communion  of 
America,  so  far  as  leadership  belongs  to  philo- 
sophical inquiry  or  to  the  statement  of  funda- 
mental theological  opinion  ;  and,  as  an  imme- 
diate consequence  of  solid  work  done  by  the 
pen  and  in  the  pulpit,  the  Massachusetts  Peace 
Society  was  formed  in  the  year  1816.  The  or- 
ganization of  this  society  was  eventually  merged 
in  the  American  Peace  Society,  which  has  con- 
tinued to  this  day. 

So  soon  as  the  Civil  War  broke  out  the  Uni- 
tarian body  of  the  country  was  called  upon 
for  the  assistance  of  the  army  in  the  field,  with 
methods  wholly  without  precedent. 
Such  duties  as  were  involved  be- 
Institutions.  longed,  indeed,  to  all  the  churches 
of  the  North.  Nor  did  the  Chris- 
tianity of  the  North  in  the  least 
flinch  from  the  duties  imposed.  But  the  Uni- 
tarian churches  were,  for  such  affairs,  in  what 
may  be  called  an  advance  position.  Neces- 
sarily, from  the  very  make-up  of  their  body, 
they  had  from  the  beginning  been  pledged  to 
opposition  to  the  institution  of  slavery.  When 
the  war  broke  out  they  had  but  four  churches 
in  the  Slave  States.  Their  Northern  churches 
had,  in  one  way  and  another,  all  protested 
against  the  institution  whose  existence  had 
brought  on  the  Civil  War.  The  leader,  if  the 
phrase  may  be  used,  of  the  Unitarian  churches, 
Dr.  Henry  W.  Bellows,  the  minister  of  All 
Souls'  Church  in  New  York,  consecrated  him- 
self to  creating  the  Sanitary  Commission. 

But  Dr.  Bellows  had  much  more  in  mind 
than  the  simple  physical  relief  of  the  soldier. 
At  the  very  beginning  of  the  war  he  looked 
forward  to  the  necessity  of  keeping  the  people 
of  the  North  in  sympathy  with  the  struggle  in 
the  field,  which  was  so  far  away  from  their 
homes.  The  Sanitary  Commission,  and  the 
Christian  Commission,  formed  after  its  model, 
kept  the  people  of  the  North  in  touch  with  the 
army  in  a  closeness  of  sympathy  such  as  the 
world  had  never  seen  before. 

The  president  of  the  Eastern  branch  was  Dr. 
Bellows  ;  the  president  of  the  Western  branch 
was  Dr.  William  Eliot,  the  minister  of  the  only 
Unitarian  Church  in  St.  Louis,  one  of  the  four 
Unitarian  churches  in  the  South.  More  than 
ten  years  before,  this  church  had  emancipated 
all  the  slaves  who  were  owned  by  its  members, 
that  its  skirts  might  be  clear  from  any  taint  of 
the  institution  which  its  pulpit  was  condemn- 
ing. This  connection  of  the  Unitarian  churches 
with  the  great  charities  of  the  war  is  important 
in  their  history,  because  the  foundations  were 
then  made  for  what  may  be  called  a  system  of 
church  action  in  charity  such  as  had  not  existed 
in  our  churches  before.  The  organizations 
then  formed  have  since  been  forward  in  the 
promotion  of  what  has  since  been  known  as 
the  work  of  charity  organization,  or  the  work 
of  the  Associated  Charities  through  the  whole 
country. 

EDWARD  EVERETT  HALE. 


UNITED  LABOR  PARTY.— This  party 
was  organized  in  1886  in  New  York,  and  based 
upon  the  single  tax  principle.  Henry  George, 
one  of  its  chief  promoters,  was  nominated  by  it 
for  Mayor  of  New  York  in  the  same  year.  He  re- 
ceived over  68,000  votes  as  against  over  90,000  re- 
ceived by  the  Democratic  and  over  60,000  by  the 
Republican  nominee.  The  following  year  a  con- 
vention was  held  at  Syracuse,  the  organization 
of  the  party  was  perfected,  and  measures  taken 
to  spread  it  through  the  State.  Henry  George 
was  nominated  for  Secretary  of  State  of  New 
York.  In  the  election  he  received  70,055  votes 
against  469,888  for  the  Democratic,  452,811  for 
the  Republican,  and  7622  for  the  Progressive 
Labor  candidate.  The  United  Labor  Party 
declared  in  its  platform  that  it  does  not  seek 
to  "  secure  any  forced  equality  in  the  distribu- 
tion of  wealth,  nor  propose  that  the  State  shall 
take  possession  of  land,  and  either  work  it  or 
rent  it  out,"  but  that  its  aim  is  to  abolish  all  re- 
strictive taxes  upon  industry,  to  remove  the 
tax  from  improvements  and  increase  the  land 
tax.  Its  platform  advocated  government  own- 
ership of  telegraphs  and  railroads  ;  prohibi- 
tion of  child  labor  and  competitive  convict 
labor  ;  reduction  of  the  hours  of  labor  ;  preven- 
tion of  the  abuse  of  the  conspiracy  laws  ;  legal 
and  judicial  reform  ;  and  a  mode  of  election 
that  would  check  bribery  and  corruption  by  re- 
lieving the  candidates  of  expense.  After  this 
election  its  chief  promoters  mainly  united  with 
the  Democratic  Party  in  the  hope  that  party 
would  lead  in  a  battle  for  free  trade,  and  thus, 
by  abolishing  protective  taxes,  pave  the  way 
for  the  single  tax  (q.v.), 

UNITED  STATES.    See  special  subjects. 

UNIVERSALIST  CHURCH  AND  SO- 
CIAL REFORM,  THE.— Central  in  the  Uni- 
versalist thought  has  been  the  doctrine  of  the 
universal  Fatherhood  of  God  and  the  universal 
brotherhood  of  man.  It  was  natural,  therefore, 
that  the  Universalist  Church  should  have  been 
strongly  predisposed  to  social  reform.  It  has 
believed  in  working  more  for  a  kingdom  of  God 
on  earth  than  for  the  salvation  of  men  for  an- 
other world.  The  clergy  of  the  Universalist 
Church  were  almost  without  exception  on  the 
anti-slavery  side  of  that  great  controversy  ;  but 
the  Church  has  been  most  conspicuously  iden- 
tified with  the  temperance  and  anti-capital 
punishment  movements.  Few  men  have  been 
more  widely  known  as  social  reformers,  using 
the  phrase  very  broadly,  than  Alonzo  A. 
Miner,  a  Universalist  clergyman  in  Boston,  who 
was  known  throughout  the  land  as  a  prohibi- 
tionist, and  who  was  at  one  time  the  prohibition 
candidate  for  governor  of  Massachusetts.  Dr. 
Miner  was  also  prominently  identified  with  the 
educational  interests  of  New  England,  and  per- 
haps the  most  conspicuous  leader  of  a  half  score 
of  other  moral  reforms.  The  Universalist 
Church  has  in  its  annual  conventions  for  the 
last  thirty  years  declared  emphatically  for  legis- 
lative reform  on  the  temperance  question,  often 
taking  the  radical  ground  of  prohibition. 

For  the  abolition  of  capital  punishment,  per- 
haps the  two  most  conspicuous  names  were 
those  of  Rev.  Charles  Spear  and  Rev.  George 


Universalist  Church. 


X359      University  Extension  Movement. 


W.  Quimby,  D.D.,  both  prominent  clergymen 
in  the  Universalist  Church,  and  the  latter  for 
many  years  editor  of  the  Gospel  Banner.  The 
abolition  of  capital  punishment  in  Maine  was 
probably  due  in  large  measure  to  the  great  per- 
sonal influence  of  Dr.  Quimby.  Rev.  E.  H. 
Chapin,  D.D.,  the  eloquent  contemporary  of 
Henry  Ward  Beecher,  was  for  many  years  iden- 
tified with  the  Peace  Reform,  altho  he  did  not 
go  to  the  length  of  advocating  non-resistance. 

Mary  A.  Livermore  was  identified  with  the 
Universalist  Church  and  assistant  editor  of  a 
Universalist  journal  at  the  time  she  was  so 
prominently  associated  with  the  Sanitary  Com  - 
mission,  the  Western  branch  of  which  she  so 
largely  assisted  in  organizing.  Clara  Barton, 
another  Universalist  woman,  was  prominently 
identified  with  the  hospital  service  in  the  War 
of  the  Rebellion  and  the  organizer  of  the  Ameri- 
can Society  of  the  Red  Cross  (g.v.). 

The  Rev.  Adin  Ballou  was  not  only  an  ardent 
advocate  of  the  anti-slavery  cause,  but  was  the 
founder  of  the  Hopedale  Community  (g.v.),  the 
most  celebrated  community  in  America,  with 
the  single  exception  of  the  one  at  Brook  Farm. 
It  was  a  sincere  attempt  on  the  part  of  its  foun- 
der to  solve  some  of  the  problems  of  competition 
by  a  simple  form  of  cooperation.  The  Univer- 
salist Church  is  also  abreast  with  the  current 
discussions  and  advance  movements  for  applied 
Christianity,  having  one  of  the  three  well-known 
institutional  churches  of  Boston.  The  Every- 
Day  Church  was  founded  in  1894.  The  year- 
book of  the  Universalist  Church  for  the  current 
year  gives  the  following  account  of  the  purpose 
and  scope  of  the  enterprise  :  "  The  Every-Day 
Church,  located  at  397  Shawmut  Avenue,  Bos- 
ton, is  a  religious  and  philanthropic  institution 
under  the  auspices  of  and  supported  by  the  Uni- 
versalists  of  New  England.  It  is  an  '  institu- 
tional '  church  which  seeks  to  maintain  all  the 
spiritual  activities  of  the  church  in  its  old  form, 
and  besides  to  maintain  various  secondary 
philanthropic  institutions,  such  as  day  nursery, 
kindergarten,  young  men's  recreation  room,  in- 
dustrial classes,  etc.,  children's  outing,  flower 
work,  etc.  Pastor,  Rev.  George  L.  Perin, 
D.D.  ;  pastor's  assistant,  Miss  Alberta  D.  Gar- 
ber. ' '  In  the  literature  of  social  reform  the  Rev. 
F.  W.  Hamilton,  of  Boston,  has  written  an  im- 
portant work,  The  Church  and  Secular  Life, 
GEORGE  L.  PERIN. 


UNIVERSITY  EXTENSION  MOVE- 
MENT, THE. — The  movement  known  as 
University  Extension  had  its  origin  in  England 
early  in  the  seventies.  It  seems  to  have  come 
as  a  natural  result  of  a  demand  for  wider  edu- 
cational opportunities  on  the  part  of  the  adult 
population,  and  especially  of  the  women  of  the 
country.  The  need  for  such  opportunities  had 
been  already  more  or  less  consciously  felt  by 
the  universities  themselves,  and  the  first  formal 
expression  of  a  desire  for  more  knowledge  met 
an  immediate  and  willing  response  from  the 
centers  of  learning.  The  courses  given  by  Mr. 
James  Stewart  to  women's  clubs  in  the  north 
of  England  in  1868,  and  subsequently  to  differ- 


ent bodies  of  working  men,  may  fairly  be  count- 
ed as  the  pioneer  effort  of  the  movement.  The 
success  of  these  courses  led  to  a  widespread  de- 
mand from  many  towns  in  all  parts  of  England, 
and  at  the  request  of  Mr.  Stewart  himself  the 
University  of  Cambridge,  in  1872,  gave  a  for- 
mal sanction  to  these  extra-university  lectures, 
and  appointed  a  syndicate  to  control  them. 

The  scheme  of  adult  education  thus  instituted 
embraced  on  the  part  of  the  university  the  offer- 
ing of  systematic  courses  of  lectures  on  the  vari- 
ous subjects  in  history,  literature,  and  science. 
The  number  of  lectures  in  each  course  was  fixed 
at  10,  these  to  be  given  weekly,  and  followed  in 
each  case  by  a  subsequent  conference  or 
"class."  A  syllabus  giving  an  outline  of  the 
lectures  and  full  indications  for  reference  read- 
ing, with  questions  for  weekly  paper  work,  be- 
came soon  an  additional  feature.  The  course 
was  crowned  by  the  University  through  a  final 
examination — a  somewhat  rigid  test — which  was 
graded  from  the  first  by  University  standards. 
With  the  progress  of  the  movement  many  addi- 
tional features  became  an  integral  part  of  the 
system.  Oxford  University,  which  followed  the 
lead  of  Cambridge  in  1876,  and  began  again  its 
efforts  with  great  vigor  in  1885,  is  to  be  credited 
with  the  idea  of  the  traveling  library,  contain- 
ing perhaps  half  a  hundred  books  on  the  subject- 
matter  of  each  course  which  is  offered  to  the 
center  for  the  period  of  the  lectures.  Oxford, 
adopting  the  Chautauqua  idea,  instituted  in 
1888  a  Summer  Meeting  for  Extension  students, 
which  has  attracted  each  year  increasing  num- 
bers for  a  longer  or  shorter  period  of  resident 
study.  A  society  to  supplement  the  efforts  of 
Oxford  and  Cambridge,  and  to  organize  Exten- 
sion courses  in  London,  was  founded  in  1878. 
These  three  bodies,  with  the  addition  of  Vic- 
toria University,  have  formed  some  400  centers 
in  England,  and  under  their  direction  courses 
are  now  being  given  with  an  aggregate  attend- 
ance of  between  60,000  and  80,000  students. 

The  spread  of  University  Extension  in  Amer- 
ica has  been  very  rapid.  It  was  undertaken  for 
the  first  time  by  a  society  in  Philadelphia  at  the 
suggestion  of  Provost  William  Pepper,  of  the 
University  of  Pennsylvania.  The  first  course 
was  commenced  in  November,  1890,  and  during 
that  year  43  series  of  six  lectures  each  were 
given  at  23  centers  to  an  estimated  attendance 
of  10,000  students.  The  results  of  the  first  year 
led  to  the  establishment  of  the  American  Society 
for  the  Extension  of  University  Teaching,  with 
headquarters  in  that  city.  The  efforts  of  the 
society  were  directed  toward  the 
spreading  of  information  in  regard 
to  the  movement,  and  its  officers  In  America, 
have  cooperated  in  every  possible 
way  with  people  interested  in  the 
movement  in  every  part  of  the  country.  Under 
the  direction  of  its  president,  Dr.  J.  James 
(of  the  University  of  Chicago),  the  society 
issued  many  important  publications,  founded 
a  Seminary  for  the  Training  of  Extension  Lec- 
turers, and  instituted  a  Summer  Meeting  for 
Extension  students  to  supplement  the  winter 
courses  of  its  centers.  These  latter  have  been 
formed  in  100  towns  in  Pennsylvania  and  ad- 


University  Extension  Movement.      136° 


University  Settlements. 


joining  States,  and  systematic  work  has  been 
arranged  for  each  center,  through  the  general 
offices.  It  is  safe  to  say  that  the  success  at  the 
present  standing  of  University  Extension  in  the 
United  States  is  due  in  the  largest  measure  to 
its  generous  endowment  by  the  citizens  of  Phila- 
delphia and  the  broad  and  far-reaching  views 
of  the  officers  of  the  American  Society. 

Through  the  publications  of  the  society  and 
the  active  campaign  instituted  by  Mr.  Melvil 
Dewey,  Secretary  of  the  University  of  the  State 
of  New  York,  the  Legislature  of  that  common- 
wealth set  aside  in  1890  the  sum  of  $10,000,  to 
be  used  for  the  purposes  of  University  Exten- 
sion. A  part  of  this  money  was  used  imme- 
diately in  the  distribution  of  explanatory  circu- 
lars, and  these  were  supplemented  wherever  a 
desire  was  expressed,  by  the  personal  coopera- 
tion of  the  organizing  secretary.  The  library 
department  of  the  University  arranged  for  the 
loan  of  books  to  Extension  centers,  which 
were  soon  formed  in  many  of  the  important 
towns  of  the  State.  Cornell,  Columbia,  Roches- 
ter, and  other  universities  and  colleges  furnish 
the  corps  of  lecturers.  Following  the  lead  of 
the  American  Society  and  the  universities  co- 
operating with  it,  Brown  University  appointed 
a  Director  of  University  Extension,  and  has  con- 
ducted in  the  past  four  years  courses  in  many 
towns  in  Rhode  Island.  The  great  State  uni- 
versities of  the  West  have  not  been  slow  in  un- 
dertaking similar  work.  The  University  of 
Wisconsin  sent  out,  in  1892-93,  lecturers  to  not 
less  than  40  towns,  and  formed  a  network  of 
centers  in  all  parts  of  the  State.  The  universi- 
ties of  Michigan,  Indiana,  Kansas,  and  Califor- 
nia are  others  which  have  made  active  efforts 
in  this  direction.  The  University  of  Chicago 
included  in  its  initial  plans  a  Department  of  t 
University  Extension  ;  a  special  faculty  was  ap- 
pointed for  this  purpose  ;  abundant  provision 
was  made  for  the  organization  and  management 
of  centers  ;  plans  for  lecture  and  class  courses, 
with  special  facilities  in  the  form  of  traveling 
libraries,  were  matured,  and  in  1895-96  more 
than  120  courses  were  given  in  Chicago  and 
throughout  Illinois  and  the  nearer  parts  of 
adjoining  States.  Strong  efforts  are  making, 
especially  for  logical  sequence  in  subjects  and 
the  building  of  efficient  and  permanent  local 
organizations. 

The  bibliography  of  University  Extension 
includes  already  many  important  pamphlets  and 
books,  with  a  long  list  of  timely  magazine  and 
newspaper  articles.  Among  the  most  important 
are  the  following'  :  Mackinder  and  Sadler,  Uni- 
versity Extension,  Past,  Present,  and  Fu- 
ture ;  Roberts's  Eighteen  Years  of  University 
Extension  ;  James's  Handbook  of  University 
Extension ;  Proceedings  of  First  National 
Conference  on  University  Extension,  1891  ; 
Moulton's  University  Extension  Movement ; 
and  Lax  Leclerc's  Le  Role  Sociale  des  Uni- 
versites.  Important  articles  on  the  movement 
will  be  found  in  the  Review  of  Reviews,  July, 
1891  ;  January,  June,  and  October,  1893  ;  Forum, 
July,  1891  ;  Educational  Review,  September, 
1891  ;  Qitarterly  Review,  April,  1891  ;  Lippin- 
cotf  s  Magazine,  October,  1890  ;  Popular  Sci- 
ence Monthly,  November,  1891  ;  and  Arena, 
September,  1891.  The  following  magazines  are 


issued  in  the  interests  of  the  movement  :  The 
Citizen  (Philadelphia)  ;  The  University  Ex- 
tension Journal  (London,  Constable  &  Co.). 
In  addition  to  these,  the  American  Society  has 
issued  many  explanatory  circulars  and  pamph- 
lets, addresses,  syllabuses,  and  reports.  (Ad- 
dress :  University  Extension,  Fifteenth  and 
Chestnut  streets,  Philadelphia.)  Circulars  may 
be  obtained  from  Albany  on  the  New  York 
State  work.  (Address  :  Melvil  Dewey,  Albany, 
N.  Y.)  The  various  colleges  and  universities 
engaged  in  the  work  issue  also  lists  of  lecture 
course  by  members  of  their  faculties. 

GEORGE  FRANCIS  JAMES. 

UNIVERSITY    SETTLEMENTS.— The 

university  or  social  settlement  is  the  product  of 
a  philosophy  and  the  outcome  of  a  movement. 

The  philosophy  from  which  it  emanated  was 
first  preached  by  Frederick  Maurice,  Charles 
Kingsley,  and  Dr.  Arnold.  These  Christian  so- 
cialists, so  called,  led  in  the  demand  for  greater 
appreciation  of  the  economic  conditions  and 
hardships  of  the  life  of  the  poor. 

Alton  Locke,  by  Charles  Kingsley,  was  a  first 
appeal  to  the  sympathies  of  university  men  ; 
and  at  the  same  time  that  Knight,  by  his  writ- 
ings, lectures,  and  personal  influence,  was  call- 
ing the  attention  of  Cambridge  to  the  condition 
of  the  London  poor,  Thomas  Hill  Greene,  by 
his  elevated  philosophy,  with  its  strong  ethical 
tendency,  and  John  Ruskin,  by  his  social  en- 
thusiasm, were  teaching  the  same  lesson  at  Ox- 
ford. The  Oxford  Movement  was,  perhaps, 
deeper  and  stronger,  and  from  there  we  have 
the  first  positive  action.  In  1867  Edward  Deni- 
son,  an  Oxford  student  of  wealth  and  good  so- 
cial standing,  called  upon  the  Rev.  John  Rich- 
ard Greene,  Vicar  of  St.  Philip's,  Stepney  in 
London,  the  author  of  the  History  of  the  Eng- 
lish People,  stating  his  desire  to  live  among  tne 
poor.  His  untimely  death,  on  January  26, 1870, 
after  a  short  residence  in  Stepney,  closed  a  most 
promising  career. 

In  1875  Arnold  Toynbee  began  work  in  White- 
chapel  with  Rev.  Samuel  A.  Barnett,  Vicar  of 
St.  Jude's.     He  gave  frequent  lectures  among 
the  people  on  economic  matters,  in 
which  he  showed  a  broad  and  deep 
understanding  of  the  social  condi-     Toynbee 
tions  of  the  poor.     He  died  March        Hall. 
9,  1883,  and  in  January,  1885,  the 
work  of  Toynbee  Hall  was  begun. 
Since  its  founding,  in  1885,  Toynbee  Hall  has 
had  a  large  number  of  university  men  in  resi- 
dence.    A  few  undergraduates  come    during 
vacation,  but  the  majority  are  graduates  in  pro- 
fessional life  or  of  the  leisure    class.     In  the 
buildings  of  the  settlement  there  are  accommo- 
dations for  22  men,  but  the  regular  force  aver- 
ages about  15.     This  settlement  has  frequently 
been  associated  with  outside  local  movements, 
supplying  from  among  its  residents  a  teacher  at 
a  board  school,  a  secretary  of  the  Children's  Hol- 
iday Fund,  a  member  of  the  Board  of  Guardians 
of  the  Poor,  officers  of  the  local  school  boa?d, 
and  like  official  positions. 

Besides  the  residents'  house  and  the  library, 
the  settlement  possesses  a  lecture  hall  and  a 
small  residential  college  for  working  men,  where 
are  taught  various  subjects  in  which  mechanics 


University  Settlements. 


1361 


University  Settlements. 


and  other  skilled  artisans  are  interested.  While 
its  work  began  among  the  ignorant  and  depen- 
dent classes,  there  is  a  growing  tendency  to 
turn  to  the  more  skilled  laborers,  and  less  atten- 
tion is  paid  the  children  than  in  the  American 
settlements.  A  considerable  amount  of  outing 
work  is  done  during  the  summer,  and  an  occa- 
sional art  exhibition  is  given.  The  valuable 
work  of  many  residents  in  collecting  social 
statistics  should  also  be  named. 

The  Oxford  House  began  its  work  in  the 
same  year  as  Toynbee  Hall.  Its  first  object  is 
religious  instruction.  It  is  well  equipped  for  its 
work,  with  accommodations  for  20  residents,  a 
chapel,  library,  lecture  room,  and  club  rooms. 
Some  direct  religious  work  is  done  by  the  resi- 
dents of  Oxford  House,  but  a  considerable  por- 
tion of  it  is  connected  with  the  work  of  neigh- 
boring churches.  The  Oxford  House  has  been 
particularly  successful  in  its  club  work.  The 
University  Club,  which  is  the  strongest  of  the 
working  men's  clubs  receiving  outside  assist- 
ance, was  formed  in  1885,  and  now  has  a  mem- 
bership of  about  1500.  It  occupies  a  building 
of  its  own,  in  which  are  a  billiard  room,  a  read- 
ing room,  class  rooms,  and  a  large  hall  used  for 
athletics,  entertainments,  and  dancing,  and  for 
mission  services  on  Sunday.  The  membership 
is  limited  to  genuine  working  men,  and  no  em- 
ployers are  eligible  ;  exceptions  have  only  been 
made  in  the  case  of  a  few  residents  of  the  Ox- 
ford House.  Women  are  granted  the  privileges 
of  the  rooms  four  afternoons  in  the  week  and 
are  invited  to  the  entertainments.  No  intoxi- 
cating drinks  are  sold  in  the  club  house.  Resi- 
dents of  the  Oxford  House,  like  those  of  Toyn- 
bee Hall,  act  as  district  officers  of  various  chari- 
table, philanthropic,  and  municipal  enterprises, 
and  they  have  also  done  a  considerable  amount 
of  sociological  investigation. 

Mansfield  House,  supported  mainly  by  Con- 
gregationalists,  is  entirely  unsectanan,  while 
more  positively  religious  than  Toynbee  Hall. 
There  are  usually  eight  or  ten  men  in  residence. 
There  are  several  clubs  for  boys  and  men,  and 
University  Extension  lectures  are  given  in  the 
hall  of  the  settlement.  The  residents  have 
shown  a  very  lively  interest  in  technical  edu- 
cation. A  class  of  teachers  was  conducted  four 
nights  in  a  week  for  matriculation  at  the  Lon- 
don University.  The  head  is  Mr.  Percy  Alden. 

Akin  to  the  settlements  are  the  missions  estab- 
lished by  various  colleges  at  Oxford  and  Cam- 
bridge. The  work  is  done  by  missioners,  usu- 
ally clergymen,  in  residence.  Col- 
lections of  clothing  and  of  money 
Oxford  and  are  obtained,  the  students  of  the 

Cambridge   college     supporting     the    mission. 

Missions.  Students  also  visit  their  missions, 
and  in  some  are  invited  to  become 
workers  during  the  vacations,  while 
personal  reports  are  made  by  the  missioners  to 
the  supporting  constituency.  The  religious  ele- 
ment is  usually  more  marked  than  in  the  settle- 
ments, and  while  in  many  the  social  work  is  of 
an  excellent  character,  the  scientific  sociological 
standpoint  is  not  so  strongly  maintained. 
Equally  worthy  of  notice  as  products  of  the 
settlement  movement  are  the  school  missions, 
those  of  Eton,  Harrow,  and  Rugby  being  the 
most  prominent. 

86 


These  missions  bear  an  important  relation  to 
the  settlement  movement  for  two  reasons. 
Their  method  shows  the  extension  of  the  set- 
tlement plan  of  personal  sympathy  and  com- 
panionship in  the  residence  of  a  body  of  work- 
ers at  the  mission  and  in  the  frequent  visits  of 
undergraduates  and  graduates  of  the  schools, 
and  their  active  cooperation  by  work  as  well  as 
contributions  for  longer  or  shorter  periods ;  when 
training  of  this  experience  is  evinced  by  the 
maturer  interest  which  many  of  the  boys  show 
when  they  go  up  to  the  universities. 

Of  women's  settlements,  the  Women's  Uni- 
versity Settlement  at  Nelson  Square,  South- 
wark,  London,  was  founded  in  1887,  and  is  the 
largest.  It  is  supported  by  an  associate  mem- 
bership of  655,  mainly  from  Girton  and  New- 
ham  colleges,  at  Cambridge  ;  Lady  Margaret 
College  and  Somerville  Hall  at  Oxford  ;  and 
London  University.  The  warden  is  Miss  Sew- 
ell,  of  Newham  College.  District  nursing  has 
received  much  attention,  and  mainly  through 
the  efforts  and  contributions  solicited  by  the  set- 
tlement the  Benson  House  has  been  estab- 
lished. It  is  the  headquarters  of  a  superinten- 
dent, a  probationer,  and  two  nurses,  who  take 
cases  in  two  surrounding  districts. 

Many  children  in  Southwark  are  annually 
sent  for  holidays  into  the  country,  to  the  expense 
of  which  the  settlement  obtains  generous  con- 
tributions. Two  resident  and  four  non-resident 
members  of  the  Settlement  Association  are 
school  board  managers,  and  thoughtful  enter- 
prise has  led  them  to  aid  the  children's  savings 
banks,  the  Saturday  morning  play-hour  excur- 
sions to  the  Zoological  Gardens,  holidays  for 
children  in  the  deaf  and  dumb  school,  and  agi- 
tation for  technical  education  for  those  unfortu- 
nate ones. 

Similar  to  this  is  the  Mayfield  House,  Bethnal 
Green,  London,  founded  in  1889,  of  which  Miss 
Newman  is  the  warden.  It  aims  to  assist  par- 
ish work  in  the  vicinity  and  to  cooperate  with 
the  work  of  the  Oxford  House.  Various  classes 
are  conducted,  including  cooking  and  sewing. 
Literary  and  social  reunions  for  mothers  are 
notable  features,  and  for  some  time  a  crlche 
has  been  in  operation. 

In  Scotland,  the  university  settlements  at 
Edinburgh  and  Glasgow  differ  from  those  of 
London  in  that,  being  in  university  towns,  a 
much  more  considerable  number  of  the  resi- 
dents have  bean  students  still  pursuing  their 
undergraduate  studies  at  the  universities.  The 
founder  of  the  first  Scotch  settlement,  that  in 
Pontin  Street,  Edinburgh,  Mr.  C.  M.  Douglas, 
was  at  the  time  of  its  initiation  a  student  in  the 
faculty  of  arts. 

It  is  only  to  be  noted  that  the  Scotch  settle- 
ments have  not  secured  men  of  so  much  matu- 
rity of  years  and  experience  as  those  in  London, 
nor  have  they  received  such  strong  financial 
backing.  Their  buildings  are  plain  but  sub- 
stantial. They  have  not  attempted  so  much  of 
political  or  municipal  reform,  but  have  more 
concerned  themselves  with  the  moral  and  social 
influences  of  family  life  and  individual  char- 
acter, yet  the  Edinburgh  settlements  have  made 
valuable  studies  of  the  social  conditions  of  the 
life  of  the  poor,  and  by  their  athletic,  social, 
and  literary  gatherings  have  strongly  influ- 


University  Settlements. 


1362 


University  Settlements. 


enced  their  districts.  Two  university  halls  have 
also  been  established  in  Edinburgh  for  the 
double  purpose  of  improving  the  social  life  of 
the  students  and  of  awakening  in  them  a  theo- 
retical and  practical  interest  in  the  social  life  of 
the  poor.  The  Glasgow  Students'  Settlement, 
in  Garscube  Cross,  was  founded  to  aid  the  work 
of  the  University  Missionary  and  Total  Absti- 
nence societies,  but  has  separated  from  them 
and  has  been  reconstructed  on  a  more  indepen- 
dent basis.  Nevertheless,  owing  to  this  connec- 
tion, temperance  and  religious  effort  have  al- 
ways had  an  important  place.  The  Toynbee 
House,  in  Cathedral  Court,  Rotten  Row,  Glas- 
gow, has  taken  Toynbee  Hall  as  its  model  more 
than  perhaps  any  of  the  other  Scotch  settle- 
ments. It  has  established  its  house  in  one  of 
the  buildings  of  the  Glasgow  Workman's  Dwell- 
ings Company,  and  has  shown  peculiar  interest 
in  the  housing  of  the  poor  in  that  city.  It  has 
also  social  and  literary  clubs  for  men,  and  girls' 
and  women's  clubs  for  instruction  in  sewing, 
cooking,  and  music,  and  a  small  circulating 
library  is  managed  with  success. 

On  the  Continent,  the  only  institution  at 
all  closely  resembling  the  settlement  is  the 
"  Onshuis"  at  Amsterdam.  It  was  founded 
by  Mr.  James,  a  merchant  of  wealth.  Students 
in  the  faculties  of  law  and  science  give  lec- 
tures, and  other  educational  and  social  agencies 
are  employed  to  bring  culture  to  the  poor. 
Its  interest  in  social  and  political  problems 
is  strong,  but  mainly  from  the  radical  and 
socialistic  standpoint.  In  religion  it  has  as- 
sumed a  decidedly  negative  attitude.  Tho 
clergymen  are  occasionally  invited  to  lecture, 
they  are  pledged  not  to  speak  on  religious 
topics,  nor  are  these  subjects  otherwise  dis- 
cussed. 

In  Berlin,  an  attempt  was  made  in  1890  by 
Paul  Goehre,  a  theological  student,  to  found  a 
settlement.     He  had  spent  three  months  as  a 
hand  laborer  in  Chemnitz,  and  his 
report  in  Dretmonate  ais  Fabrik- 
On  the      Ar better  awakened  decided  inter- 
Continent,    est  in  many  of  the  German  univer- 
sities.     Several     students     volun- 
teered to  become  residents,  but  the 
professors  did  not  favor  the  scheme,  urging  that 
the  student  should  rather  give  his  time  to  study 
than  to  practical  movements.     The  popular  be- 
lief maintained  in  Germany  that  the  Govern- 
ment should  be  responsible  for  all  lines  of  edu- 
cation   and  municipal  reform  diminished  the 
sympathy  of  others,  and  the  movement  did  not 
materialize. 

While  in  Great  Britain  the  men's  settlements 
have  been  on  the  whole  stronger  and  better 
equipped,  both  in  respect  to  buildings  and 
workers,  than  the  women's  settlements,  in 
America  the  reverse  is  true.  The  struggle  for 
wealth  seems  to  leave  few  men  willing  to  be 
content  with  moderate  means  and  to  devote 
their  time  to  altruistic  effort. 

The  New  York  University  Settlement  was 
founded  by  Stanton  Coit,  Ph.D.,  in  May,  1887. 
He  was  afterward  succeeded  by  Charles  B. 
Stover,  but  returned  to  assume  the  leadership 
for  the  winters  of  1892  and  1893.  The  present 
head  worker  is  James  B.  Reynolds. 
The  settlement  maintains  a  kindergarten, 


clubs,  and  classes  of  a  literary,  athletic,  domes- 
tic, and  social  character.     It  aims  to  supply  a 
need  for  the  maintenance  of  a  free 
library  with  3000  volumes.    At  pres- 
ent it  is  patronized  mainly  by  the  The  Settle- 
children  and  youth  of  the  district,      ment  in 
as  their  elders  are  generally  unable  New  York, 
to  read  English.     Each   winter  a 
course  of  lectures  on  social  and  eco- 
nomic subjects  is   given.     Musical    entertain 
ments  of  a  superior  character  have  also  been 
provided.     Annual  art  exhibitions  are  held  at 
the  settlement,  lasting  for  six  weeks  and  visited 
by  from   50  to   100,000  persons.     During    the 
summer  one  or  more  residents    devote  them- 
selves to  the  distribution  of  flowers  among  the 
poor.     An  appeal  for  fresh   flowers   sent  out 
through  the  country  newspapers  brings  some- 
times 50  boxes  a  day.     The  Sanitary  Union  has 
secured  the  cleaning  of  dark  alleys  and  some 
unsanitary  houses  and  obtained  the  closure  of 
22  sweat  shops.     Weekly  conferences  with  the 
teachers  of  the  Tenth  Ward  have  been  held,  at 
which  questions  of  education  and  pedagogics 
are  discussed.     During  times  of  special  distress 
canvass  of  the  unemployed  is  made  by  the  work- 
ers of  the  settlement,  which  has  proved  of  de- 
cided value  to  movements  initiated  for  the  re- 
lief of  the  general  distress. 

The  Prospect  Union,  or  Harvard  University 
Settlement,  is  located  in  Cambridgeport,  Mass. 
It  has  done  strong  work  along  educational  lines 
through  the  cooperation  of  large  numbers  of 
Harvard  men,  who  have  conducted  classes,  held 
discussions,  and  given  lectures.  The  director  is 
Robert  Ely.  The  East  Side  House,  in  New 
York,  is  carried  on  with  George  Gordon  as  resi- 
dent manager.  It  acts  as  one  of  the  stations  of 
the  library  association  for  the  distribution  of 
books  ;  a  successful  kindergarten  is  maintained, 
but  the  men's  club  is  the  center  of  interest,  and 
has  achieved  a  phenomenal  success. 

The  College  (women's)  Settlement  Associa- 
tion was  formed  in  1890  to  unite  the  women's 
settlements  in  New  York,  Philadelphia,  and 
Boston,  to  aid  in  the  financial  support  of  the 
settlements,  and  still  more  to  interest  women  in 
the  work  of  social  improvement.  Classes  and 
lecture  courses  have  been  conducted  by  all,  and 
house  visitation  has  been  an  important  and  suc- 
cessful feature. 

At  the  New  York  settlement  the  leading 
efforts  are  a  penny  provident  bank,  library, 
kindergarten,  clubs,  and  district  visiting.  It 
also  has  a  delegate  on  the  District  Committee 
of  the  Charity  Society,  and  has  been  active  in 
connection  with  special  relief  movements.  The 
Philadelphia  settlement,  besides  its  regular 
work,  has  done  important  work  in  political  re- 
form in  the  district,  and  the  Boston  settlement 
has  distinguished  itself  by  its  interest  in  labor 
movements.  The  Hull  House,  of  Chicago,  is 
considered  in  a  special  article. 

The  settlement  movement  at  the  present  time 
seems  to  be  rapidly  extending.  The  value  of 
residents,  which  is  its  characteristic  feature,  has 
been  thoroughly  approved.  In  America,  unfor- 
tunately, some  organizations,  which  have  no 
residents,  but  only  hoped  to  obtain  them  in 
time,  have  called  themselves  settlements.  Oth- 
ers, distinctly  below  the  intellectual  standards 


University  Settlements. 


1363 


Usury. 


of  earlier  settlements,  and  practically  only  evan- 
gelical missions,  are  using  the  same  title.  Nev- 
ertheless, the  central  principle  of  the  settlement 
movement,  the  residence  of  a  small  corps  of 
•workers,  and  the  combination  of  sympathy  and 
trained  intelligence  in  all  work  planned  and 
executed  have  made  the  settlement  powers  for 
good  in  their  respective  communities,  and  have 
given  their  opinions  on  various  questions  of 
recognized  value.  JAMES  B.  REYNOLDS. 

References  :  Neighborhood  Guilds,  by  Stanton  Coit ; 
English  Social  Movements,  by  R.  A.  Woods ;  The  So- 
cial and  College  Settlements  of  America^  by  Percy 
Alden,  an  article  in  the  Outlook  for  June  22,  1895. 

For  Women's  Social  and  College  Settlements,  see 
article  WOMEN'S  COLLEGE  SETTLEMENTS.  The  follow- 
ing is  a  list  of  the  more  important  men's  settlements  : 

Toynbee  Hall,  28  Commercial  Street,  London  (East), 
founded  1885. 

Oxford  House,  Bethnal  Green,  London  (East),  1885. 

Chalmers  University  Settlement,  10  Ponton  Street, 
Fountainbridge,  Edinburgh,  1887. 

University  Settlement,  26  Delancey  Street,  New  York, 
1887. 

Leighton  Hall  Neighborhood  Guild,  8-10  Leighton 
Crescent,  Kentish  Town,  London,  1889. 

Trinity  College  Settlement,  131  Camberwell  Road, 
London,  S.  E.,  1889. 

Rugby  House,  292  Lancaster  Road,  1889. 

Students'  Settlement,  10  Possil  Road,  Garscube  Cross, 
Glasgow,  1889. 

Mansfield  House,  167  Barking  Road,  Canning  Town, 
London,  1890. 

New  College  Settlement,  37  Pleasance,  Edinburgh, 
1890. 

East  Side  House,  Seventy-sixth  Street  and  East 
River,  New  York,  1891. 

Newman  House  (Roman  Catholic),  108  Kennington 
Road,  London,  S.  E.,  1891. 

Northwestern  University  Settlement,  26  Rice  Street, 
Chicago,  1891. 

University  Hall,  Gordon  Square,  London,  W.  C.,  1891. 

Bermondsey  Settlement,  Farncomoe  Street,  Jamaica 
Road,  London,  S.  E.,  1892. 

Andover  House,  6  Rollins  Street,  Boston,  1892. 

Association  House,  259  West  Sixty-ninth  Street,  New 
York,  1892. 

Epworth  League  House,  34  Hull  Street,  Boston,  1892. 

Minster  Street  Neighborhood  Guild,  618  Minster 
Street,  Philadelphia,  1893. 

Whittier  House,  174  G'rand  Street,  Jersey  City,  N.  J., 
1893. 

Church  Settlement  House,  1556  Avenue  A,  New  York, 
1894. 

Chicago  Commons,  140  North  Union  Street,  Chicago, 
1894. 

Prospect  Union,  744  Massachusetts  Avenue,  Cam- 
bridgeport,  Mass. 

USURY  literally  means  and  originally  meant 
use-money,  the  payment  of  money  for  the  use  of 
money,  and  sometimes  even  payment  for  the  use 
of  any  article.  It  was  identical  with  our  term  in- 
terest. Only  in  modern  times  has  it  been  limited 
to  mean  the  taking  of  inordinate  or  excessive  in- 
terest. In  this  article  we  consider  the  ethics  of 
usury  or  interest-taking.  (For  the  economic  and 
other  questions,  see  INTEREST  ;  CAPITAL.) 

Usury  or  interest-taking  among  all  ancient 
peoples  was  considered  sin.  The  Hebrew  con- 
demnation of  usury  is  well  known  :  ' '  Thou  shalt 
not  lend  upon  usury  to  thy  brother  ;  usury  of 
money,  usury  of  victuals,  usury  of  anything  that 
is  lent  upon  usury"  (Deut.  xxiii.  19).  This 
condemnation  occurs  repeatedly  in  the  Old 
Testament.  (See  Lev.  xxv.  35-37  ;  Ex.  xxii. 
25  ;  Neh.  v.  7,  etc.)  Ps.  xv.  5  describes  the 
righteous  man  as  one  "  who  putteth  not  out  his 
money  to  usury."  It  is  true  that  the  Hebrew 
could  take  usury  of  a  non-Hebrew  !  "  Unto  a 
stranger  thou  mayest  lend  upon  usury"  (Deut. 
xxiii.  20),  but  this  was  probably  due  to  the  or- 


ganic and  national  conception  of  Hebrew  moral- 
ity. All  races  originally  condemned  usury. 
Herodotus  says  the  Persians  repudiated  all  buy- 
ing and  selling.  Yet  usury  was  everywhere 
practised.  In  Greece  and  Rome  it  gradually 
developed  a  plutocracy  by  putting  all  the  small 
creditors  into  the  power  of  the  rich,  and  often 
reducing  the  poor  to  literal  slavery.  Aristotle 
ranks  usury  with  prostitution.  He  says  : 

"  Such  are  all  they  who  ply  illiberal  trades  ;  as  those, 
for  instance,  who  keep  houses  of  ill-fame,  and  all  per- 
sons of  that  class  ;  and  usurers,  who  lend  out  small 
sums  at  exorbitant  rates  ;  for  all  these  from  improper 
sources,  and  take  more  than  they  ought"  (JVichoma- 
thean  Ethics,  IV.,  §  i). 

Plato  says  : 

"  Of  the  two  sorts  of  money-making,  one,  as  I  have 
just  said,  is  a  part  of  household  management,  the  other 
is  retail  trade  ;  the  former  necessary  and  honorable, 
the  latter  a  kind  of  exchange  which  is  justly  censured  ; 
for  it  is  unnatural,  and  a  mode  by  which  men  gain 
from  one  another.  The  most  hated  sort,  and  with  the 
greatest  reason,  is  usury,  which  makes  a  gain  out  o£ 
money  itself,  and  not  from  the  natural  use  of  it.  For 
money  was  intended  to  be  used  in  exchange,  but  not 
to  increase  at  interest.  And  this  term  usury  [TOKOS], 
which  means  the  birth  of  money  from  money,  is 
applied  to  the  breeding  of  money,  because  the  offspring 
resembles  the  parent.  Wherefore  of  all  modes  of 
money-making,  this  is  the  most  unnatural"  (Politics, 
I.,  10,  4,  Jowett  tr.). 

Cato,  on  being  asked  what  he  thought  of 
usury,  asked  the  speaker  what  he  thought  of 
murder.  Nevertheless,  in  both  Greece  and 
Rome  usury  was  common,  and  laws  were  in 
vain  passed  against  it.  The  opposition  of  the 
Church  Fathers  is  well  known. 

Chrysostom  says  (Homily  on  Si.  Matthew} : 

"Nothing  is  baser  than  the  usury  of  this  world, 
nothing  more  cruel.  Why,  other  persons'  calamities 
are  such  a  man's  traffic  ;  he  makes  himself  gain  of  the 
distress  of  another,  and  demands  wages  for  kindness, 
as  tho  he  were  afraid  to  seem  merciful ;  and  under  the 
cloak  of  kindness  he  digs  the  pitfall  deeper  by  the  act 
of  galling  a  man's  poverty." 

And  again  (Homily  LVI.) : 

"  How  many  have  lost  their  very  principal  for 
the  interest's  sake  !  How  many  have  fallen  into  perils 
for  usurious  gains  !  How  many  have  involved  them- 
selves and  others  in  extreme  poverty  through  their 
unspeakable  covetousness  !  .  .  .  But  what  is  the  plea 
of  the  many?  'When  I  have  received  the  interest  I 
give  to  the  poor,'  one  tells  me.  Speak  reverently,  O 
man  ;  God  desires  not  such  sacrifices.  Deal  not  sub- 
tlely  with  the  law.  Better  not  give  to  a  man,  than  give 
from  that  source ;  for  the  money  that  hath  been  col- 
lected by  honest  labors,  thou  often  makes*  to  become 
unlawful  because  of  that  wicked  increase ;  as  if  one 
should  compel  a  fair  womb  to  give  birth  to  scorpions. 
And  why  do  I  speak  of  God's  law?  Do  not  even  ye 
call  it  filth?  Why,  are  there  not  many  honest  trades 
— in  the  fields,  the  flocks,  the  herds,  the  breeding 
of  cattle,  in  handicrafts,  in  care  of  property?" 

Basil  says  (Second  Homily  on  Psalm  xiv.)  : 

"  In  truth,  it  is  the  last  pitch  of  inhumanity  that  one 
man,  in  the  need  of  the  bare  necessities  of  life,  should 
be  compelled  to  borrow  and  another,  not  satisfied  with 
the  principal,  should  seek  to  make  gain  and  profit  for 
himself  out  of  the  calamities  of  the  poor.  The  Lord 
gave  His  own  injunction  quite  plainly  in  the  words, 
"From  him  that  would  borrow  of  thee,  turn  not  thou 
away.'  But  what  of  the  money  lover?  He  sees  be- 
fore him  a  man  under  stress  of  necessity,  bent  to  the 
ground  in  supplication.  He  sees  him  hesitating  at  no 
act,  no  words  of  humiliation.  He  sees  him  suffering 
undeserved  misfortune,  but  he  is  merciless.  He  does 
not  reckon  that  he  is  a  fellow-creature.  He  does  not 
give  in  to  his  entreaties.  He  stands  stiff  and  sour. 
He  is  moved  by  no  prayers ;  his  resolution  is  broken 


Usury. 


1364 


Usury. 


by  no  tears.  He  persists  in  refusal,  invoking  curses 
on  his  own  head  if  he  has  any  money  about  him,  and 
swearing  that  he  is  himself  on  the  lookout  for  a  friend 
to  furnish  him  a  loan.  He  backs- lies  with  oaths,  and 
makes  a  poor  addition  to  his  stock  in  trade  by  supple- 
menting inhumanity  with  perjury.  Then  the  sup- 
pliant mentions  interest,  and  utters  the  word  security. 
All  is  changed.  The  frown  is  relaxed ;  with  a  genial 
smile  he  recalls  old  family  connection.  Now  it  is  '  my 
friend.'  '  I  will  see,'  says  he,  '  if  I  have  any  money  by 
me.  Yes,  there  is  that  sum  which  a  man  I  know  has 
left  in  my  hands  on  deposit  for  profit.  He  named 
very  heavy  interest.  However,  I  shall  certainly  take 
something  off,  and  give  it  you  on  better  terms.'  With 
pretenses  of  this  kind  and  talk  like  this  he  fawns  on 
the  wretched  victim,  and  induces  him  to  swallow  the 
barb.  Then  he  binds  him  with  written  security,  add- 
ing loss  of  liberty  to  the  trouble  of  pressing  poverty, 
and  is  off.  The  man  who  has  made  himself  respon- 
sible for  interest  which  he  cannot  pay  has  accepted 
voluntary  slavery  for  life.  Tell  me,  do  you  expect  to 
get  money  and  profit  out  of  the  pauper  ?  If  he  were  in 
a  position  to  add  to  your  wealth,  why  should  he  come 
begging  at  your  door?  He  came  seeking  an  ally,  and 
he  found  a  foe.  He  was  looking  for  medicine,  and  he 
lighted  on  poison.  You  ought  to  have  comforted  him 
in  his  distress,  but  in  your  attempt  to  grow  fruit  on 
the  waste,  you  are  aggravating  his  necessity.  Just  as 
well  might  a  physician  go  in  to  his  patients,  and  in- 
stead of  restoring  them  to  health,  rob  them  of  the  little 
strength  they  might  have  left.  This  is  the  way  in 
which  you  try  to  profit  by  the  misery  of  the  wretched. 
.  .  .  You  call  this  profit,  you  get  from  these  sources 
kindly  and  humane!  Woe  unto  them  that  put  bitter 
for  sweet  and  sweet  for  bitter,  and  call  inhumanity 
humanity." 

Of  the  man  who  has  borrowed  on  interest 
Basil  says  further  on  : 

"  At  first  a  man  is  bright  and  joyous  ;  he  shines  with 
another's  splendor.  .  .  .  But  the  money  slips  away. 
Time  as  it  runs  on  adds  the  interest  to  its  tale.  Now 


of  the  months,  for  they  are  the  parent  of  interest.  .  .  . 
Usury  is  the  origin  of  lying,  the  beginning  of  ingrati- 
tude, unfairness,  perjury." 

Such  are  examples  of  the  position  of  the  Fa- 
thers. Council  after  council  forbade  usury,  es- 
pecially upon  the  part  of  the  clergy.  Yet  it 
grew.  It  was  gradually  allowed,  even  by  the 
canon  law  under  the  form  of  one  exception  after 
another.  It  was,  however,  still  condemned  on 
principle.  Protestantism,  too,  first  condemned 
usury,  and  often  with  unmeasured  terms.  The 
usurer's  house  was  the  house  of  the  devil.  One 
per  cent,  was  enough  to  shut  out  the  kingdom 
of  heaven.  Archbishop  Sands  is  quoted  as  say- 
ing, "  This  canker  [usury]  hath  corrupted  all 
England  ;"  Luther  as  saying,  "  To  exchange 
anything  with  any  one  and  gain  by  the  ex- 
change is. to  steal."  Interest  was  forbidden  as 
late  as  an  act  of  Edward  VI.  Beginning  with 
Henry  VIII.,  however,  the  endeavor  was  only 
to  control  the  rate  of  interest.  Calvin  was  the 
first  Christian  thinker  to  nominally  allow  inter- 
est. Locke,  Hume,  Adam  Smith,  and,  above 
all,  Jeremy  Bentham,  argued  that  it  was  justifi- 
able. Bentham's  celebrated  argument  was  that 
the  effort  to  condemn  and  forbid  interest  simply 
raises  the  rate  of  interest.  Men  at  times  must 
borrow.  The  lender  does  a  real  service  to  the 
borrower.  Under  equity  he  is  entitled  to  some 
reward  or  interest.  If  all  interest  is  forbidden, 
he  will  then  secretly  ask  a  higher  rate  of  inter- 
est because  of  the  risk  run.  It  is  also  argued 
by  those  of  this  school  that  the  attempt  to  con- 
trol interest  places  useless  and  harmful  checks 
on  the  natural  flow  of  commerce. 

To-day  civilization  is  largely  based  on  inter- 


est, and  few  but  the  extremest  radicals  con- 
demn it.  It  is  held  that  he  who  lends  does  a 
real  and  often  a  very  great  service  to  the  bor- 
rower, and  therefore  while  excessive  and  extor- 
tionate interest  is  condemned,  that  a  moderate 
interest  is  justifiable,  and  gives  a  right  stimu- 
lus for  saving  to  persons,  and  enables  widows, 
colleges,  and  even  churches,  to  loan  capital  and 
live  upon  the  interest.  To  destroy  interest,  it 
is  argued,  would  harm  the  worker  and  over- 
throw civilization.  On  the  other  hand,  radi- 
cals who  condemn  all  interest  argue  that  labor 
of  hand  or  brain  is  all  that  men  ought  to  receive 
pay  for,  and  that  he  who  lends  money  lends 
stored-up  labor,  perhaps,  and  therefore  should 
get  back  what  he  lends  and  no  more,  because, 
in  the  loaning,  he  has  himself  done  no  labor. 
They  argue  that  the  power  which  interest  gives 
to  the  idler  who  has  either  himself  made  or  in- 
herited money  to  live  in  idleness  and  receive 
interest  from  those  who  toil  is  the  foundation 
of  social  evils,  creating  classes,  developing  lux- 
ury, enslaving  the  poor  to  support  the  rich. 

In  Fors  Clavigera  Mr.  John  Ruskin,  taking 
the  view  that  good  life  only  is  wealth,  and  that 
exchange  should  only  be. exchange  of  living 
services,  thus  speaks  of  interest  or  usury  : 

"  Usury  is  properly  the  taking  of  money  for  the  loan 
or  use  of  anything  (over  and  above  what  pays  for 
wear  and  tear),  such  use  involving  no  care  or  labor  on 
the  part  of  the  lender.  It  includes  all  investments  of 
capital  whatsoever,  returning  '  dividends  '  as  distin- 
guished from  labor  wages,  or  profits.  Thus  anybody 
who  works  on  a  railroad  as  plate-layer  or  stoker  has  a 
right  to  wages  for  his  work  ;  and  any  inspector  of 
wheels  or  rails  has  a  right  to  payment  for  such  in- 
spection ;  but  idle  persons  who  have  only  paid  .£100 
toward  the  road-making  have  a  right  to  the  return  of 
the  /ioo,  and  no  more.  If  they  take  a  farthing  more 
they  are  usurers.  They  may  take  .£50  for  2  years,  .£25 
for  4,  £s  for  20,  or  ^i  for  100.  But  the  first  farthing 
they  take  more  than  their  hundred,  be  it  sooner  or 
later,  is  usury. 

"  Again,  when  we  build  a  house,  and  let  it,  we  have 
a  right  to  as  much  rent  as  will  return  us  the  wages  of 
our  labor  and  the  sum  of  pur  outlay.  If,  as  in  ordi- 
nary cases,  not  laboring  with  our  hands  or  head,  we 
have  simply  paid  say  ,£1000  to  get  the  house  built, 
we  have  a  right  to  the  ,£1000  back  again  at  once,  if  we 
sell  it ;  or,  if  we  let  it,  to  .£500  rent  during  2  years,  or 
£100  rent  during  10  years,  or  £10  rent  during  100  years. 
But  if,  sooner  or  later,  we  take  a  pound  more  than  the 
thousand,  we  are  usurers. 

"  And  thus  in  all  other  possible  or  conceivable  cases, 
the  moment  our  capital  is  'increased  '  by  having  lent 
it,  be  it  but  in  the  estimation  of  a  hair,  that  hair- 
breadth of  increase  is  usury  just  as  much  as  stealing 
a  farthing  is  theft,  no  less  than  stealing  a  million." 

In  another  letter  in  For s  Clavigera  Mr.  Rus- 
kin, however,  says  : 

"An  impatient  correspondent  of  mine,  Mr.  W.  C. 
Sillar,  who  has  long  been  hotly  engaged  in  testifying 
publicly  against  the  wickedness  of  taking  interest, 
writes  to  me  that  all  I  say  is  mysterious ;  that  I  am 
bound  to  speak  plainly,  and  above  everything,  if  I 
think  taking  interest  sinful,  not  to  hold  bank  stock. 

"Once  for  all,  then,  Mr.  Sillar  is  wholly  right  as  to 
the  abstract  fact  that  lending  for  gain  is  sinful ,  and  he 
has  in  various  pamphlets  shown  unanswerably  that 
whatever  is  said  either  in  the  Bible  or  in  any  other 
good  and  ancient  book  respecting  usury,  is  intended 
by  the  writers  to  apply  to  the  receiving  of  interest,  be 
it  ever  so  little.  But  Mr.  Sillar  has  allowed  this  idea 
to  take  possession  of  him  body  and  soul,  and  is  just  as 
fondly  enthusiastic  about  abolition  of  usury  as  some 
other  people  are  about  the  liquor  laws.  Now  of 
course  drunkenness  is  mischievous,  and  usury  is  mis- 
chievous, and  whoredom  is  mischievous,  and  idleness 
is  mischievous.  But  we  cannot  reform  the  world  by 
preaching  temperance  only,  nor  refusal  of  interest 
only,  nor  chastity  only,  nor  industry  only.  I  am  my- 


Usury. 


1365 


Value. 


self  more  set  on  teaching  healthful  industry  than  any- 
thing else  as  the  beginning  of  all  redemption  ;  then 
purity  of  heart  and  body  ;  if  I  can  get  these  taught,  I 
know  that  nobody  so  taught  will  either  get  drunk,  or, 
in  any  unjust  manner,  '  either  a  borrower  or  a  lender 
be.'  But  I  expect  also  far  higher  results  than  either 
of  these,  on  which,  being  utterly  bent,  I  am  very  care- 
less about  such  minor  matters  as  the  present  condi- 
tions either  of  English  brewing  or  banking.  I  hold 
bank  stock  simply  because  I  suppose  it  to  be  safer 
than  any  other  stock,  and  I  take  the  interest  of  it, 
because  tho  taking  interest  is,  in  the  abstract,  as  wrong 
as  war,  the  entire  fabric  of  society  is  at  present  so 
connected  with  both  usury  and  war,  that  it  is  not  pos- 
sible violently  to  withdraw,  nor  wisely  to  set  exam- 
ple of  withdrawing,  from  either  evil.  I  entirely,  in 
the  abstract,  disapprove  of  war  ;  yet  have  the  pro- 
foundest  sympathy  with  Colonel  Yea  and  his  fusiliers 
at  Alma,  and  only  wish  I  had  been  there  with  them. 
I  have  by  no  means  equal  sympathy  either  with  bank- 
ers or  landlords,  but  am  certain  that  for  the  present 
it  is  better  that  I  receive  my  dividends  as  usual,  and 
that  Miss  Hill  should  continue  to  collect  my  rents  in 
Marylebone. 

"  '  Ananias  over  again,  or  worse,'  Mr.  Sillar  will 
probably  exclaim  when  he  reads  this,  and  invoke 
lightning  against  me.  I  will  abide  the  issue  of  his  in- 
vocation, and  only  beg  him  to  observe  respecting 
either  ancient  or  modern  denunciations  of  interest, 
that  they  are  much  beside  the  mark  unless  they  are 
accompanied  with  some  explanation  of  the  manner  in 
which  borrowing  and  lending,  when  necessary,  can  be 
carried  on  without  it." 

Most  Socialists  hold  that  interest  is  not  differ- 


ent from  rent  or  from  the  trader's  profits,  and 
therefore  is  to  be  overthrown,  not  by  singling  it 
out  for  especial  condemnation,  but  by  bringing 
in  a  cooperative  civilization  which  will  destroy 
rent,  profits,  and  interest.  A  man  under  the 
system  who  makes  or  inherits  money  has  power 
to-day,  because  there  are  people  without  money 
who  cannot  by  themselves  create  money,  and 
who  will  therefore  give  payment  for  loans  of 
money.  The  landlord,  the  tradesman,  and  the 
capitalist  all  make  money  from  the  necessities 
of  the  poor  by  giving  something  to  the  poor 
and  getting  their  promise  to  pay  back  more  than 
is  given.  The  capitalist  rarely  runs  any  risk, 
because  he  takes  a  mortgage  on  the  loan  worth 
more  than  the  loan.  It  is,  therefore,  the  pres- 
ent evil  system  that  compels  the  poor  to  borrow. 
Socialists  would,  therefore,  overthrow  interest 
by  replacing  the  present  system  by  a  coopera- 
tive civilization.  (See  INTEREST  ;  CAPITAL.) 

References  :  Usury,  by  W.  Cunningham  ;   The  Ethic 
of  Usury  and  Interest,  by  W.  Blissard  (1892). 

UTILITY.     See  VALUE. 
UTOPIA.     See  MORE. 


V. 


VAILLANT,    MARIE    EDOUARD,  was 

born  in  1840  at  Vierzon,  France.  He  became  a 
student  of  the  Ecole  Centrale  des  Arts  et  Man- 
ufactures, and  a  civil  engineer  in  1862.  He  was 
also  a  physician  and  surgeon.  He  was  a  mem- 
ber of  the  Commune  in  1871,  and  has  been 
prominent  as  a  socialist  ever  since  ;  elected  to 
the  Municipal  Council  of  Paris  in  1884.  and  as 
a  deputy  in  1893,  he  has  become  a  leader  of  the 
Parti  Ouvrier. 

VALUE  (from  Latin  valere,  to  be  strong, 
to  be  valiant,  to  be  worth)  is  a  term  sometimes 
loosely  used,  even  by  economic  writers,  to  in- 
clude the  worth  of  an  article  meas- 
ured in  any  way.     It  is,  however, 
Definitions,  increasingly  used  in  economic  sci- 
ence in  a  narrower  sense  to  mean 
what  a  commodity  will  bring  in 
exchange  for  other  articles.     Adam  Smith,  even 
in  his  day,  clearly  differentiated  between  value 
in  use  or  the  utility  of  an  article  to  its  posses- 
sor, and  value  in  exchange,  or  what  an  article 
will  exchange  for  in  the  market.     This  distinc- 
tion is  fundamental,  and  is  observed  by  all 
economists.     Air,  for  example,  has  great  value 
in  use.     Man  cannot  live  without  air.  *  But  air 
has  ordinarily  little  exchange  value.    Diamonds, 
on  the  contrary,  with  a  low  use  value,  have 
great  exchange   value.     In   modern  terminol- 
ogy, however,  value  in  use  is  usually  called 
utility,   and  by  value  is  simply  meant  -value 
in  exchange. 

Says  Professor  Marshall  (Principles  of  Eco- 
nomics, ist  ed..  Book.  I.,  chap,  i.,  Sec.  8)  : 
"Value  by  itself  always  means  value  in  ex- 


change." Says  J.  E.  Cairnes  (Political  Econ- 
omy, Book  I.,  Sec.  i):  "The  sense  proper  to 
value  may,  I  think,  be  said  to  be  universally 
agreed  upon  by  economists,  and  I  may  there- 
fore define  it  at  once  as  expressing  the  ratio  in 
which  commodities  in  open  market  are  ex- 
changed against  each  other." 

It  is  still  necessary,  however,  to  distinguish 
value  from  the  cognate  words  "price"  and 
"  cost." 

"  Price,"  says  Professor  Fawcett,  "  is  a  par- 
ticular case  of  value."  Value  is  what  an  arti- 
cle will  exchange  for.  Price  is  what  an  article 
will  exchange  for  in  money  (q.v.). 

Says  Mill  (Political  Economy,  Book  III., 
chap,  i.,  Sec.  2).  "By  the  price  of  a  thing, 
therefore,  we  shall  henceforth  understand  its 
value  in  money  ;  by  the  value  or  exchange 
value  of  a  thing,  its  general  power  of  purchas- 
ing." 

Professor  Hadley  (Economics,  pp.  91,  92)  de- 
fines price  ' '  as  the  quantity  of  money  for 
which  the  right  to  an  article  or  service  is  ex- 
changed," and  says,  "  A  price  is  a  fact  ;  a  value 
is  an  estimate  of  what  a  price  ought  to  be.  .  .  . 
Value  being  essentially  an  ethical  term,  we 
may  have  as  many  different  theories  of  value 
as  there  are  different  views  of  business 
ethics."  » 

Cost  is  different  from  either  value  or  price. 
Cost  may  be  defined  as  the  sum  of  sacrifices 
of  any  kind  involved  in  the  production  of  an 
article.  Articles  frequently  sell  for  much  more 
or  for  much  less  than  the  cost  to  produce— that 
is,  their  value  and  their  price  are  different  from 
their  cost. 


Value. 


Value. 


Says  Marshall  (Principles  of  Economics, 
Book  V.,  chap,  iii.,  Sec.  2)  : 

"  The  production  of  a  commodity  generally  requires 
many  different  kinds  of  labor  and  the  use  of  capital 
in  many  forms.  The  exertions  of  all  the  different 
kinds  of  labor  that  are  directly  or  indirectly  involved 
in  making  it,  together  with  the  abstinences  or  rather 
the  waitings  required  for  saving  the  capital  used  in 
making  it—  all  these  efforts  and  sacrifices  together  will 
be  called  the  real  cost  of  production  of  the  com- 
modity." 

Remembering  these  definitions,  we  now 
come  to  consider  the  important  and  much-dis- 
cussed question  of  the  theory  of  value.  Passing 
by  the  innumerable  small  variations  made  by 
different  advocates  of  the  different  theories,  we 
may  recognize  two  main  theories  of  value.  The 
value  of  an  article  is  believed  by  one  school  to 
depend  upon  its  cost  of  production,  and  by  the 
other  to  depend  upon  its  utility.  Adam  Smith, 
Ricardo,  the  classical  economists,  most  Ger- 
man socialists,  and  most  individualistic  or  anar- 
chistic radicals,  hold  to  the  former  view.  Pro- 
fessor Hadley  (Economics,  p.  93)  calls  it  the  so- 
cialistic theory.  On  the  other  hand,  most  mod- 
ern economists  and  most  Fabian  socialists  hold 
to  the  latter  view.  Both  views,  however,  it 
must  be  remembered,  have  been  variously 
stated. 

Adam  Smith  held  that  value  must  tend  to  the 

cost  of  production,  because  he  argued  that  no 

man  could  afford  to  sell  an  article  for  much  less 

than  it  cost  to  produce,  while  no 

man  would  pay  much  more,  since 

Cost  Theory,  he  would  rather  produce  It  or  cause 

;  it  to  be  produced  himself.    He  says 

(  Wealth  of  Nations,  Book  I.  ,  chap. 

v.)  :   "  Labor,  therefore,  is  the  real  measure  of 

the  exchangeable  value  of  all  commodities.    The 

real  price  of  everything,  what  everything  real- 

ly costs  to  the  man  who  wants  to  acquire  it,  is 

the  toil  and  trouble  of  acquiring  it." 

The  followers  of  Adam  Smith  very  much  de- 
veloped this  view,  but  spent  more  time  in  an- 
alyzing it  than  in  asking  if  it  be  true.  Ricardo 
makes  value  depend  upon  the  quantity  of  labor 
and  the  scarcity  of  the  articles  ;  but  since  most 
articles  can  be  easily  multiplied,  he  makes  the 
quantity  of  labor  the  main  source  of  value.  Mill 
calls  attention  rather  to  the  wages  cost  of  labor 
than  the  quantity  of  labor.  Gary  makes  the  im- 
portant point  that  value  depends  on  what  it 
would  cost  to  reproduce  an  article  at  the  time 
of  its  sale  rather  than  on  what  it  originally  cost. 
Inventions  and  other  elements  are  steadily  low- 
ering the  cost  of  production.  Articles  originally 
made  by  expensive  processes  are  continually 
sold  for  less  than  they  originally  cost,  because 
invention  makes  it  possible  to  reproduce  them 
at  a  much  less  cost.  Such  are  the  main  points 
as  to  value  developed  by  the  classical  school. 

From  this  view  Karl  Marx  and  most  German 
socialists  argue  that  labor  (of  mind  or  hand), 
being  the  only  source  of  value,  only  the  laborer 
should  share  in  the  result.  -When,  under  the 
wage  system,  the  capitalist  has  a  monopoly  of 
land  and  machinery,  the  laborer,  say  the  social- 
ists, is  compelled  to  work  for  him,  and  the  capital- 
ist is  enabled  to  take  a  portion  of  the  value  the 
laborer  produces,  and  thus  to  rob  the  laborer, 
who,  by  the  theory,  has  produced  all  the  value. 
That  portion  of  value  produced  which  goes  to 


the  capitalist  Karl  Marx  calls  surplus  value 
robbed  from  the  real  producer.  Hence  such 
socialists  argue  that  if  the  community  owned  all 
the  land  and  capital,  the  monopolist  could  not 
take  from  the  laborer  any  portion  of  the  prod- 
uct, and  the  laborer  would  receive  the  whole 
value  of  his  product.  Anarchists  and  extreme 
individualists  would  get  the  same  result  by  do- 
ing away  with  the  governmental  control  of 
monopolies  which  secure  the  monopolists  in  their 
monopoly,  and,  leaving  every  man  free  to  ob- 
tain land  and  capital,  secure  to  every  worker 
the  value  he  produces. 

We  now  come  to  the  second  school.     It  is 
now  denied  by  most  economists  that  value  de- 
pends upon  cost  of  production,  and  that  labor 
is  the  only  source  of  value.     As  a  matter  of 
fact,  value,  says  the  modern  school,  has  often 
very  little  relation  to  the  cost  of  production.    A 
certain  quack  medicine  that  happens  to  hit  the 
public  fancy  can  often  command  prices  bearing 
no  reference  to  the  cost  of  production.     Houses 
continually  sell  for  prices  often  much  above  and 
often  much  below  their  cost  of  pro- 
duction ;    so  with  books,  so  with 
wines,  so,  indeed,  with  most  things,       Utility 
even  including  such  stable  articles      Theory, 
as  grain,  iron,  etc.    The  old  theory, 
therefore,    does    not    explain    the 
facts,  and  a  new  theory  must  be  developed. 
Jevons  was  the  first  prominently  to  develop  the 
new  theory,  which  is  often  associated  with  his 
name.     According  to  this  theory,  the  value  of 
an  article  depends  upon  its  final  utility.     Ac- 
cording to  this,  the  value  of  an  article  depends 
upon  how  useful  to  the  community  another  arti- 
cle of  the  same  kind  would  be.     If  the  commu- 
nity desires  more  medicine,  more  houses,  more 
books,  more  jewels,  more  bread  of  a  certain 
kind,  the  price  is  high  ;  if  the  community  does 
not  desire  more,  the  price  falls.     Says  Jevons 
(Theory  of  Political  Economy)  : 

"  A  great  undertaking,  like  the  Great  Western  Rail- 
way or  the  Thames  Tunnel,  may  embody  a  vast 
amount  of  labor,  but  its  value  depends  entirely  upon 
the  number  of  persons  who  find  it  useful.  .  .  .  Labor 
once  spent  has  no  influence  on  the  future  value  of  any 
article  ;  it  is  gone  and  lost  forever.  In  commerce  by- 
gones are  forever  bygones  ;  and  we  are  always  start- 
ing clear  at  each  moment,  judging  the  value  of  things 
with  a  view  to  future  utility." 

As  to  how  far  labor  does  affect  value,  Jevons 
says : 

"  But  tho  labor  is  never  the  cause  of  value,  it  is,  in  a 
large  proportion  of  cases,  the  determining  circum- 
stance, and  in  the  following  way :  Value  depends 
solely  on  the  final  degree  of  utility.  How  can  we 
vary  this  degree  of  utility?  By  having  more  or  less 
of  the  commodity  to  consume.  And  how  shall  we  get 
more  or  less  of  it  ?  By  spending  more  or  less  labor  in 
obtaining  a  supply.  According  to  this  view,  then, 
there  are  two  steps  between  labor  and  value.  Labor 
affects  supply  and  supply  affects  the  degree  of  utility 
which  governs  "value,  or  the  ratio  of  exchange.  But 
it  is  easy  to  go  too  far  in  considering  labor  as  the  reg- 
ulator of  value  ;  it  is  equally  to  be  remembered  that 
labor  is  itself  of  unequal  value.  ...  I  hold  labor  to 
be  essentially  variable,  so  that  its  value  must  be  de- 
termined by  the  value  of  the  produce,  not  the  value  of 
the  produce  by  that  of  the  labor." 

Such,  in  brief,  is  Jevons'  view.  His  phrase, 
however,  has  mainly  given  place  to  another. 
The  Austrian,  Professor  Wirser,  has  given  us 
the  phrase  marginal  utility  in  place  of  final 


Value. 


1367 


Voluntaryism. 


utility,  as  indicating  the  utility  of  an  article  on 
the  margin  of  production — i.e.,  on  the  margin 
of  doubt,  whether  it  be  worth  while  to  produce 
it  or  not,  since  it  is  when  one  is  debating 
whether  it  is  worth  while  to  obtain  an  article  or 
not  that  its  value  is  fixed.  This  theory,  indeed, 
has  been  mainly  developed  by  the  Austrian 
school  of  economists,  tho  more  recently  the 
younger  American  economists  have  carried  the 
theory  even  further  than  the  Austrians.  This 
has  led  to  what  is  sometimes  called  psychologic 
economics.  If  value  depends  on  how  much  the 
community  desires  an  article,  it  follows  that 
value  is  affected  by  all  the  psychologic  elements 
which  affect  desire.  Professor  Patten,  for  ex- 
ample, emphasizes  the  distinction  between  pain 
and  pleasure  motives.  In  eighteenth  century 
philosophy,  he  says,  value  was  estimated  by  the 
pains  of  production,  "the  toil  and  trouble"  of 
labor.  To-day  we  think  more  of  the  pleasure 
motives,  the  utility  of  an  article. 

Some  English  authorities,  like  Marshall  and 
Edge  worth,  incline  to  a  balanced  view  between 
the  cost  and  utility  theories.  Professor  Mar- 
shall (Principles  of  Economics,  note  to  Book 
V.,  chap,  xiv.)  uses  the  illustration  of  a  pair  of 
scissors,  and  says  : 

"The  'cost  of  production  principle'  and  the  final 
utility  principle  are  undoubtedly  component  parts  of 
the  one  all-ruling  law  of  supply  and  demand  j  each 
may  be  compared  to  one  blade  of  a  pair  of  scissors. 
When  one  blade  is  held  still  and  the  cutting  is  effected 
by  moving  the  other,  we  may  say  with  careless  brev- 
ity that  the  cutting  is  done  by  the  second,  but  the 
statement  is  not  one  to  be  made  formally  and  de- 
fended deliberately." 

Professor  Bohm  Bawerk,  however,  in  an 
article  in  the  American  Academy  of  Political 
and  Social  Science  for  September,  1894,  asks, 
supposing  that  cost  does  determine  price,  on 
what  cost  depends,  and  he  answers,  in  sub- 
stance : 

On  what  wages  are  paid  to  the  workers  and  to 
those  who  furnish  the  capital— on  what  does  that  de- 
pend? Not  fundamentally  on  the  workers.  Except  in 
the  few  cases  mentioned  above  [work  in  overtime  or 
work  for  other  reasons  than  commercial],  men  are  not 
free  to  work  or  not,  as  they  please.  They  have  to 
work.  At  what  wages?  They  cannot  long  receive 
less  wages  than  they  can  live  on,  according  to  their 
standard  of  living,  but  they  can  receive  more.  How 
much  more  ?  That  depends  on  how  much  more  the 
employer  can  afford  to  give  and  how  strong  the  em- 
ployees are  in  forcing  him  to  give  all  he  can.  But  how 
much  the  employer  can  give  depends  on  the  demand 
for  the  article  ;  hence  final  utility  is  still  a  dominating 
influence. 

This  view,  too,  now  widely  accepted,  is  ac- 
cepted by  some  socialists,  and  especially  by 
most  Fabian  socialists.  They  come  to  the  same 
conclusions  as  German  socialists,  but  not  on  the 
ground  that  labor  is  the  only  source  of  value,  or 
that  cost  determines  price.  They  base  their  so- 
cialism mainly  on  grounds  of  expediency  (see 
SOCIALISM),  and  argue  that  just  because  value  is 
determined,  in  part,  by  the  whims  and  desires 
of  society,  it  is  not  wise  to  leave  the  individual 
worker  subject  to  the  whims  and  caprices  of  a 
changing  market.  Some  of  them  argue,  too, 
that  it  is  just  that  since  the  individual  produces 
no  value,  and  society  enters  into  all  production, 
the  product  should  belong  not  to  the  individual, 
but  to  society  for  the  good  of  all.  In  conclu- 
sion, Ruskin's  view,  which  plays  more  or  less 


into  the  psychologic  view  of  the  modern  hold- 
ers of  the  utility  theory,  must  not  be  forgotten. 
He  says  (Mutter a  Pulveris,  chap,  i.,  Sec.  12) : 

"  Value  signifies  the  strength  or  '  availing  '  of  any- 
thing toward  the  sustaining  of  life,  and  is  always  two- 
fold ;  that  is  say,  primarily,  intrinsic,  and  secondarily, 
effectual.  .  .  .  Value  is  the  life-giving  power  of  any- 
thing ;  cost,  the  quantity  of  labor  required  to  produce 
it ;  price,  the  quantity  of  labor  which  its  possessor 
will  take  in  exchange  for  it.  ...  Intrinsic  value  is 
the  absolute  power  of  anything  to  support  life.  .  .  . 
It  does  not  in  the  least  affect  the  intrinsic  value  of  the 
wheat,  the  air,  or  the  flowers  that  men  refuse  or 
despise  them.  Used  or  not,  their  own  power  is  in 
them,  and  that  particular  power  is  in  nothing  else. 
But  in  order  that  this  value  of  theirs  may  become 
effectual,  a  certain  state  is  necessary  in  the  recipient 
of  it.  The  digesting,  breathing,  and  perceiving  func- 
tions mnst  be  perfect  in  the  human  creature  before  the 
food,  air,  or  flowers  can  become  of  their  full  value 
to  it.  The  production  of  effectual  value,  therefore, 
always  involves  two  reeds  :  first,  the  production  of  a 
thing  essential,  useful ;  then  the  production  of  the 
capacity  to  use  it.  When  the  intrinsic  value  and  ac- 
ceptant  capacity  come  together  there  is  effectual  value 
or  wealth."  Ruskin's  view,  then,  is  (see  Unto  the  Last) 
that  all  labor  should  be  equally  paid,  and  thus  the 
good  workmen  be  rewarded  not  by  higher  pay  for  a 
given  piece  of  work,  but  by  being  more  in  demand  and 
in  this  sense  better  paid.  Thus  valuable  work  will  be 
produced,  and  there  will  be  no  competition  to  get 
"cheap"  work. 

VENICE.    See  BANK  OF  VENICE. 

VERINDER,  FRED,  was  born  in  Bethnal 
Green  in  1858.  He  was  one  of  the  founders 
and  has  been  the  first  and  only  secretary  of  the 
Guild  of  St.  Matthew.  He  was  long  sub-editor 
of  the  Church  Reformer,  and  is  secretary  of 
the  English  Land  Restoration  League,  organ- 
izer of  the  Red  Van  Movement,  and  contribu- 
tor to  various  socialist  papers. 

VIVIS,  LUDOVICO,  was  a  Spanish  philan- 
thropist and  author  of  a  Utopia  De  Commune 
Rerum  (1635). 

VOLLMAR,  GEORGE  V.,  was  born  at 
Munich  in  1850,  of  aristocratic  family,  and  edu- 
cated by  the  Benedictine  fathers.  He  entered 
the  cavalry  in  1865,  and  went  through  the  Aus- 
trian campaign.  He  then  offered  his  sword  to 
the  Pope,  but  joined  the  Bavarian  army  in  the 
Franco-Prussian  War.  Wounded  and  crippled 
for  life,  he  set  himself  to  complete  his  educa- 
tion, and  left  the  hospital  a  socialist.  He  edit- 
ed a  socialist  paper  in  Dresden.  Banished  by 
Bismarck's  anti-socialist  law,  he  spent  his  exile 
in  France  and  Switzerland.  In  1881  he  was 
elected  to  the  Reichstag,  but  was  arrested  and 
again  banished.  In  1884  and  in  1890  he  was 
returned  for  Munich.  He  is  the  main  leader  of 
socialism  in  Bavaria,  and  the  first  lieutenant  of 
Bebel  and  Liebknecht,  and  among  the  more 
conservative  of  German  socialists.  In  1891  he 
published  Ueber  die  ndchsten  Aufgaben  der 
deiitschen  social  Demokratie. 

VOLUNTARYISM  is  a  system  of  social 
thought  developed  by  Mr.  Auberon  Herbert 
(q.v.),  and  advocated  in  his  paper  Free  Life. 
Mr.  Herbert  says  : 

"Voluntaryism  asserts  the  sovereignty —  the  self- 
ownership— of  the  individual  :  denies  that  the  State, 
which  is  but  a  collection  of  individuals,  possesses  any- 
larger  right  to  use  force  than  the  individual  possesses, 


Voluntaryism. 


1368 


Wages. 


and,  therefore,  opposes  all  force-action  on  the  part  of 
the  State,  except  for  the  one  purpose  of  maintaining 
individual  self-ownership  by  protecting  person  and 

Eroperty  against  violence  and  certain  coarse  forms  of 
raud.  The  Free  Life  opposes  all  force-action  by  the 
State  in  matters  connected  with  religion,  education, 
health  (except  where  person  or  property  is  injured  by 
an  aggressive  act),  the  professions,  labor,  insurance, 
poor  law,  trade,  banking,  drink,  morality,  marriage, 
and  the  taking  of  money  for  public  purposes. 

"  The  Free  Life  believes  in  the  weapons  of  reason, 
persuasion,  and  example ;  believes  in  the  infinite  de- 
velopment of  ideas  and  of  human  resource  and  inven- 


tion, where  men  are  left  free  ;  believes  in  a  society 
based  upon  the  friendly  exchange  of  voluntary  ser- 
vices, and  not  in  State-made  virtues  or  in  legal  perse- 
cutions of  each  other,  or  in  coercion  of  minorities  bv 
majorities,  or  in  the  bribery  of  politicians  of  their 
supporters  out  of  private  property  or  the  common  com- 
pulsory fund.  It  is  opposed  to  all  forms  of  pensions 
and  official  vested  interests ;  it  denounces  all  public 
debt  as  fatal  to  prosperity  and  most  unrighteous  as 
regards  our  successors ;  it  would  sell  public  property 
and  make  every  voluntary  effort  in  order  to  get  rid  o'f 
existing  debt,  but  refuses  all  responsibility  for  any 
debt,  central  or  local,  incurred  after  the  year  1893." 


w. 


WAGES  —(See  also  WOMAN'S  WAGES.)  We 
consider  the  subject  of  wages  tinder  three 
heads  :  I.  The  Asserted  Laws  or  Theories  of 
Wages;  II.  The  Statistics  of  Wages  ;  III.  Real 
Wage  Conditions  ;  are  they  improving  or  not  ? 

I.  THE  LAW  OF  WAGES. 

There  have  been  six  main  theories  presented 
as  to  the  law  or  laws  governing  wages.  Various- 
ly stated  by  different  writers,  they  are  substan- 
tially as  follows  : 

I.    THE  WAGE  FUND    THEORY. 

This  theory,  suggested  by  Adam  Smith  and 
developed  by  his  followers,  is  given  up  to-day  by 
all  economists  in  its  original  form,  tho  some, 
like  Professor  Taussig,  of  Harvard  University 
(Economics,  1896),  assert  that  it  contains  valu- 
able truth,  and  when  properly  stated  is  wholly 
true.  As  originally  stated  it  is  this  :  Wages, 
like  everything  else,  are  governed  by  supply 
and  demand,  and  in  the  aggregate  depend  upon 
the  proportion  of  laborers  to  the  capital  avail- 
able for  employing  labor,  this  capital  being  de- 
nominated a  wage  fund.  Adam  Smith  says 
(  Wealth  of  Nations,  Book  I.,  chap,  viii.) : 

"The  demand  for  those  who  live  by  wages,  it  is 
evident,  cannot  increase  but  in  proportion  to  the  in- 
crease of  the  funds  which  are  destined  for  the  payment 
of  wages." 

This  hint  his  followers  developed.  Malthus 
and  Ricardo  hold  the  same,  but  argue  that 
wages  cannot  rise,  even  by  increasing  the  wage 
fund  ;  because  if  the  wage  fund  is  increased  and 
wages  be  temporarily  raised,  population,  accord- 
ing to  Malthus,  always  pressing  on  the  limits  of 
subsistence,  will  be  enabled  to  expand,  and  the 
increase  in  the  number  of  laborers  will  increase 
the  supply  relatively  to  the  wage  fund,  and 
therefore  lower  wages.  Ricardo  says  (Princi- 
ples of  Political  Economy,  chap,  v.)  : 

"By  the  encouragement  which  high  wages  give  to  the 
increase  of  population,  the  number  of  laborers  is  in- 
creased, wages  again  fall  to  their  natural  price,  and, 
indeed,  from  a  reaction,  sometimes  fall  below  it.  ... 
The  natural  price  of  labor  is  that  price  which  is  neces- 
sary to  enable  the  laborers,  one  with  another,  to  sub- 
sist and  to  perpetuate  their  race  without  either  increase 
or  diminution.  .  .  .  The  market  price  of  labor  is  the 
price  which  is  really  paid  for  it  from  the  natural  opera- 
tion of  the  proportion  of  the  supply  to  the  demand  ; 
labor  is  dear  when  it  is  scarce,  and  cheap  when  it  is 


plentiful.  However  much  the  market  price  of  labor 
may  deviate  from  its  natural  price,  it  has,  like  com- 
modities, a  tendency  to  conform  to  it." 

Similarly  argue  Senior,  James  Mill,  John  Stu- 
art Mill,  and  most  of  the  older  writers  of  this 
classical  school,  tho  on  this  subject,  as  on  others, 
Mill  later  somewhat  modified  his  views,  and  is 
often  inconsistent. 

This  wage  fund  theory  naturally  leads  to  and 
did  historically  lead  to  the  next  theory  we  con- 
sider. 


2.    THE   GERMAN    SOCIALIST     THEORY    OF   THE   IRON 
LAW    OF   WAGES. 

.  According  to  this  theory,  wages  under  compe- 
tition can  never  be  higher  than  that  which  will 
just  support  the  laborer  and  enable  him  to  re- 
new his  kind.  The  theory  directly  follows,  its 
holders  argue,  from  the  wage  fund  theory  as 
stated  by  Ricardo.  It  is  true  that  Ricardo  him- 
self did  not  hold  this  theory,  sometimes  fathered 
upon  him.  He  held  that  the  condition  of  the 
laborer  could  be  raised  by  education,  if  he  could 
be  taught  by  moral  ways  to  avoid  overpopula- 
tion ;  but  the  German  socialists  claimed  that 
under  the  intense  struggle  to  live  the  laborer 
could  not  be  sufficiently  educated,  and  that  the 
only  way  was  to  stop  the  competition  and  in- 
troduce a  socialism  which  would  lead  to  educa- 
tion rather  than  to  depend  on  education  to  lead 
to  socialism.  The  economic  condition,  they 
argued,  is  the  key  to  all  else,  and  civilization 
creeps  on  its  belly.  Hence  they  argued  that 
under  competition,  by  an  iron  law  (Lassalle's 
phrase)  the  condition  of  the  laborer  can  never 
be  one  of  more  than  mere  existence,  and  the 
only  change  for  improvement  is  to  replace  the 
competitive  system  by  socialism. 
But  now  a  new  theory  arose. 

3.    THE    THEORY   THAT     PRODUCTION     FURNISHES 
THE   TRUE   MEASURE   OF   WAGES. 

This  theory,  first  clearly  advocated  by  Presi- 
dent Walker  (Wages  Question,  1876),  argues 
that  the  wage  fund  theory  and  its  socialistic 
corollary  are  wholly  false,  and  wages  depend 
upon  the  productivity  of  labor.  Wages,  it  says, 
are  not  dependent  upon  capital,  because  men 
without  capital  can  and  often  do  employ  labor, 
provided  they  can  know  that  the  laborers  em- 
ployed will  produce  enough  value  to  enable 


Wages. 


1369 


Wages. 


t'.iem  to  pay  the  laborers  out  of  the  product  and 
Jeave  a  balance  for  the  employer.  Employers 
are  able  to  do  this — as  often  on  a  farm — by  giv- 
ing the  laborer  merely  his  board  till  the  harvest 
comes,  and  then  paying  him  more  out  of  the  har- 
vest his  labor  has  produced.  Or  he  can  do  it  by 
borrowing  capital,  provided  out  of  the  product 
of  labor  he  can  pay  for  the  capital  borrowed,  the 
laborers  themselves,  and  leave  a  profit  for  him- 
self. Hence  wages  depend  on  product.  Says 
President  Walker  ( Wages  Question,  chap, 
viii.)  : 

"  The  popular  theory  of  wages  .  .  .  is  based  upon  the 
assumption  that  wages  are  paid  out  of  capital,  the 
saved  results  of  the  industry  of  the  past.  Hence,  it  is 
argued,  capital  must  furnish  the  measure  of  wages. 
On  the  contrary,  I  hold  that  wages  are,  in  a  philosoph- 
ical view  of  the  subject,  paid  out  of  the  product  of 
present  industry,  and  hence  that  production  furnishes 
the  true  measure  of  wages.  .  .  .  The  employer  pur- 
chases labor  with  a  view  to  the  product  of  labor,  and 
the  kind  and  amount  of  that  product  determine  what 
\vages  he  can  afford  to  pay." 

This  view  has  been  very  widely  accepted  in 
both  England  and  America.  Writers  like  Ed- 
ward Atkinson  have  accepted  it,  arguing  that 
the  only  way  to  raise  wages  is  to  raise  the  prod- 
uct. Mr.  Atkinson  says  (  What  Makes  the  Rate 
of  Wages  ?)  : 

"  In  treating  this  question  of  the  rate  of  wages,  it 
must  constantly  be  kept  in  mind  that  money  is  but  the 
instrument  of  exchange,  that  real  wages  are  what  the 
money  will  buy,  and  there  cannot  be  more  real  wages 
than  the  whole  product  less  the  share  of  capital.  If, 
then,  we  can  even  approximate  the  value  of  the  product 
and  divide  by  the  known  number  of  persons  employed, 
we  then  approximate  the  annual  measure  or  average 
rate  of  wages  in  terms  of  money." 

Capital  must  be  paid  first,  Mr.  Atkinson 
argues,  in  order  to  induce  it  to  contribute  :  but 
it  is  only  paid  just  what  is  necessary  in  the  mar- 
ket to  obtain  it,  and  the  rest  of  the  product  goes 
to  wages.  Wages  thus  are  a  result,  and  their 
measure  or  rate  is,  and  must  be  determined  in 
the  long  run,  by  what  the  product  will  bring. 
The  practical  result  of  this  theory  is  that  the 
only  way  to  raise  wages  is  to  increase  the  effi- 
ciency of  the  laborer,  and  so  increase  the 
product.  Doing  this,  the  holders  of  the 
theory  argue,  will  give  the  laborer  an  ever-in- 
creasing share  of  an  ever-increasing  product. 
The  relative  share  oi  capital,  it  is  claimed, 
will  fall,  because  as  wealth  increases  the 
competition  of  capital  will  grow  more  and 
more,  and  thus  lower  the  rate  of  interest,  and 
leave  more  of  the  product  to  go  to  the  laborer. 
Interest  is  lowest,  it  is  argued,  in  the  wealthiest 
countries,  and  wages  are  there  highest.  Ma- 
chinery increasing,  the  product  increases ;  there- 
fore, the  share  of  the  laborer.  Such  is,  in  brief, 
this  roseate  theory  held  to-day  by  many  econo- 
mists and  embraced  by  most  capitalists.  But 
few  working  men  or  radicals  accept  it.  They 
argue  that  the  facts  do  not  support  the  theory. 
They  say  it  is  true  that  the  rate  of  interest  is 
lowest  in  richest  countries,  but  that  the  very 
competition  of  abundant  capital  and  temporary 
rise  of  wages  force  capital  more  and  more  to 
employ  machinery,  and  that  on  a  large  scale,  thus 
tending  to  make  the  laborer,  and  especially  the 
skilled  laborer,  less  and  less  necessary,  and  so 
throwing  on  the  market  an  increasing  number 


of  unemployed  laborers,  whose  competition 
tends  to  lower  wages,  and  leaves  the  employer 
with  a  low  rate  of  interest,  to  yet  accumulate 
large  profits  by  multiplying  small  rates  of 
profits  in  large  concerns,  while  the  small  con- 
cerns are  unable  to  meet  the  competition,  and 
so  throw  their  employees  upon  the  market  to 
compete  for  work,  and  so  still  more  lower  wages. 
The  falling  in  the  rate  of  interest  does  not  show, 
say  these  critics,  a  falling  in  the  share  of  capi- 
tal. Capital  gets  its  share,  not  only  interest, 
but  in  dividends,  and  dividends  in  large  con- 
cerns may  be  very  high  (as  in  England)  where 
interest  is  very  low.  The  fact  is,  they  point  out 
to-day  that  wealth  is  amassing,  and  that  real 
wages  are  not  rising,  but  falling,  because  even 
tho  nominal  wages  do  not  fall,  men  are  working 
on  less  and  less  time,  and  therefore  receive  less 
money  because  of  unemployment  (q.v.,  see  also 
Part  II.  of  this  article,  "  Statistics  of  Wages"). 
Wages,  then,  do  not,  so  these  critics  urge,  nec- 
essarily rise  and  fall  with  production,  but  are 
often  lowest  when  production  is  highest,  be- 
cause a  so-called  overproduction  discharges 
laborers  and  materially  lowers  their  income. 
Hence  a  new  theory  must  be  sought,  and  we 
have 

4.    THE  THEORY   THAT   WAGES    DEPEND   UPON   THE 
STANDARD    OF    LIVING. 

This  theory,  born  of  the  so-called  eight-hour 
philosophy  (see  SHORT-HOUR  MOVEMENT),  held 
to-day  by  most  American  trade  unionists,  except 
those  who  are  socialists,  and  developed  at  length 
by  Mr.  George  Gunton  (g.v.)  in  his  various  writ- 
ings, argues  that  wages  depend  upon  what  the 
working  man  considers  the  lowest  level  upon 
which  he  can  live.  Competition,  it  argues,  can 
reduce  wages  to  the  lowest  limits  he  will  work 
for,  but  not  lower,  because  he  will  then  starve 
rather  than  work,  or  so  strenuously  organize  a 
strike  that  wages  will  have  to  rise.  Now,  what 
he  will  work  for  depends  upon  the  standard  of 
living  in  the  different  countries  and  trades  con- 
cerned. An  American  will  starve  or  strike 
rather  than  accept  Chinese  wages,  because  the 
American  standard  of  living  demands  higher 
wages.  The  price  of  labor,  like  all  other  com- 
modities, depends  on  the  cost  of  production.  A 
skilled  laborer  receives  more  than  an  unskilled, 
because  it  costs  more  to  produce  and  maintain 
him  in  the  standard  of  living  necessary  to  his 
being  a  skilled  laborer.  A  Chinaman  receives 
low  wages,  because  he  will  live  in  a  low  way. 
Wages  in  crafts  which  cannot  be  prosecuted  all 
the  year  are  per  day  higher  than  those  in  crafts 
which  can  be  prosecuted  all  the  year  round,  be- 
cause in  a  portion  of  the  year  the  laborer  has  to 
earn  enough  to  keep  him  all  the  year.  Wages 
in  trades  where  the  wife  and  child  as  well  as 
the  man  habitually  work  (as  in  the  cotton  trade) 
are  lower  than  trades  where  women  and  chil- 
dren do  not  work,  because  the  wage  of  the  wife 
and  child,  supplementing  the  man's  wage,  en- 
ables the  family  to  maintain  the  standard  of  liv- 
ing of  their  class  without  the  man's  wage  alone 
equaling  that  amount.  City  wages  are  higher 
than  country  wages,  because  it  costs  more  in  the 
city  to  live  on  the  same  plane  of  living  as  in  the 
country.  Wages  in  piece  work  are  in  the  long 


Wages. 


1370 


Wages. 


run  the  same  as  in  day  work,  because  under 
competition  the  employer  cannot  pay  higher 
wages  than  the  workman  can  be  obtained  for, 
and  under  competition  the  workman  will  always 
work  under  any  system  for  that  which  will  en- 
able him  to  secure  the  standard  of  living  he 
considers  necessary.  All  these  cases  show, 
argue  the  holders  of  this  theory,  that  wages  in 
any  country  and  in  any  trade  depend,  not,  as 
the  socialists  say,  on  what  will  just  support  and 
renew  the  laborer's  life,  but  on  what  will  main- 
tain and  renew  his  life  according  to  the  stand- 
ard of  living  he  considers  necessary.  The  one 
way  to  raise  wages,  therefore,  argues  this  school 
of  thought,  is  to  raise  the  laborer's  standard  of 
living.  Hence  their  one  aim  is  to  multiply  the 
laborer's  wants  and  prevent  his  living  cheaply. 
If  laborers  are  enabled,  by  reduction  in  the  cost 
of  living,  to  live  more  cheaply,  wages,  they  say, 
will  fall.  "Bone  soup"  living  means  "bone 
soup"  wages  ;  economical  living  means  eco- 
nomical wages.  They  strive  to  make  laborers 
expensive.  The  one  best  way  they  consider  to 
develop  the  workman's  wants  is  to  limit  his 
hours  of  labor,  thus  increasing  his  social  and 
educational  opportunities,  and  so  raising  his 
standard  of  living.  Hence  the  connection  of 
this  view  with  the  short-hour  movement  (q.v.). 

But  this  theory,  like  all  the  others,  has  its 
critics.  It  is  argued  that,  however  hard  the 
laborer  tries  to  maintain  his  standard,  men  will 
lower  their  standard  rather  than  starve,  and 
that  when,  as  to-day,  machinery  is  discharging 
men,  these  men  will  work  for  wages  which  will 
support  life  even  far  below  the  standard  of  liv- 
ing in  their  trade  and  country,  and  hence,  by 
their  competition,  lower  all  wages.  In  some 
skilled  trades  intelligent  workmen,  by  labor 
combinations,  may  long  keep  up  their  standard 
of  wages  ;  but  unskilled  laborers  cannot ;  while 
machinery  may  enable,  as  in  the  printing  trade 
to-day,  the  employer  to  do  without  skilled  labor, 
and  so  reduce  even  the  skilled  laborer  to  the 
condition  of  an  unskilled  laborer  competing  for 
work.  Wages  thus,  say  these  critics,  do  not  so 
much  depend  on  the  standard  of  living  as  the 
standard  of  living  depends  on  the  wages  men 
can  secure. 

Another  theory  is  therefore  presented. 

5.  HENRY  GEORGE'S  THEORY  OF  WAGES. 
Henry  George  says  (Progress  and  Poverty)  : 

"  Wages  depend  upon  the  margin  of  production  or 
upon  the  produce  which  labor  can  obtain  at  the  high- 
est point  of  natural  productiveness  open  to  it  without 
the  payment  of  rent." 

Wages  cannot  be  lower,  he  argues,  than  men 
can  get  by  working  for  themselves,  without  pay- 
ing rent,  because  men  prefer  to  work  for  them- 
selves, and  will  only  work  for  am  employer 
provided  he  will  pay  more  than  they  get  by 
working  for  themselves.  On  the  other  hand, 
Mr.  George  also  argues,  employers  will  not  pay 
more  than  just  enough  to  secure  the  laborer,  be- 
cause under  competition  they  cannot  pay  more 
than  they  have  to.  If  they  do  pay  more  some- 
body else  will  pay  less,  and  so  be  able  to  under- 
sell them,  and  force  them  to  pay  lower  wages. 

Mr.  George  says  (Progress  and  Poverty} : 


"  When  land  is  free  and  labor  is  unassisted  by  capi- 
tal, the  whole  produce  will  go  to  labor  as  wages.  When 
land  is  free  and  labor  is  assisted  by  capital,  wages  will 
consist  of  the  whole  produce,  less  that  part  necessary 
to  induce  the  storing  up  of  labor  as  capital.  When 
land  is  subject  to  ownership  and  rent  rises,  wages 
will  be  fixed  by  what  labor  could  secure  from  the 
highest  natural  opportunities  open  to  it  without  the 
payment  of  rent." 

Therefore  the  one  way  to  raise  wages,  accord- 
ing to  Mr.  George,  is  to  give  men  opportunity 
to  labor  without  paying  rent. 

But  this  theory,  in  its  turn,  is  contradicted  by 
the  facts.  Wages  are  not  the  highest  where 
there  is  most  free  land,  but  where  there  is  least. 
Wages  are  highest  not  in  the  center  of  Africa, 
but  in  New  York  City.  If  it  be  said  that  in  Af- 
rica the  laborer  gets  a  larger  proportion  of  his 
produce  than  in  New  York  City,  it  may  be  true, 
but  nine  tenths  of  30  cents  is  less  than  three 
tenths  of  $3.  The  presence  of  capital  and  ma- 
chinery enables  the  employer  to  pay  not  only 
higher,  but  much  higher  wages  than  the  employ- 
er can  make  on  land  without  capital  at  the  mar- 
gin of  production.  It  is  true  that  the  competi- 
tion of  labor  tends  to  lower  these  wages,  but  the 
mere  opening  of  opportunities  in  land  cannot 
check  this  competition,  because  in  civilized 
countries  land  without  capital  is  useless,  or  so 
nearly  useless  that  those  with  capital  can  afford 
to  pay  very  much  more  for  it  than  the  man  with- 
out capital,  and  hence  in  the  open  market  will 
get  the  land,  whether  the  price  be  paid  to  the 
landlord,  as  under  the  present  system  of  land 
tenure,  or  to  the  government,  under  the  single 
tax  plan.  It  may  be  said  that  this  will  force  all 
land  to  be  used  by  those  who  can  use  it  best,  and 
so  employ  labor  and  raise  wages  ;  but  with  ma- 
chinery constantly  improving  in  agriculture,  as 
in  all  trades,  the  laborer  grows  less  and  less  nec- 
essary to  the  employer,  and  the  competition  of 
the  laborer,  replaced  by  machinery,  can  lower 
wages  under  a  single  tax  system  as  well  as 
under  any  other  form  of  land  tenure.  Wages, 
therefore,  do  not  depend  on  access  to  land. 

We  come,  then,  to  the  last  general  theory 
which  has  been  propounded. 

6.  THE  THEORY  THAT  WAGES  DEPEND,  AS  IN  ANY 
OTHER  CASE  OF  VALUE,  ON  THE  MARGINAL  OR 
FINAL  VALUE  OF  THE  LABORER. 

(For  a  full  statement  of  marginal  or  final 
value,  see  VALUE.)  This  theory  is  rather  a  way 
of  looking  at  things  than  the  statement  of  a  defi- 
nite law.  It  simply  states  that  no  one  law  of 
wages  exists  ;  that  wages  depend  on  the  value 
to  the  wage-payer  of  the  laborer  he  is  consider- 
ing—/'.^., on  the  margin  of  employing.  Each 
worker  will  get  what  his  labor  is  worth  to  the 
employer  at  the  time  when  his  wage  is  decided 
upon.  What  the  laborer  is  worth  depends  upon 
the  state  of  the  market,  the  ability  of  the  labor- 
er, the  standard  of  living,  psychological  condi- 
tions, etc.  The  theory,  therefore,  simply  states 
that  no  definite  law  of  wages  can  be  laid  down. 
It  is  undoubtedly  a  great  advance  on  any  other, 
because  it  is  undoubtedly  true  that  wages  are 
the  resultant  of  many  forces.  All  the  above 
laws  of  wages  contain  elements  of  truth.  Those 
who  argue  that  wages  depend  on  production 
are  fond  of  declaring  the  wages  fund  theory  ex- 


Wages. 


Wages. 


ploded  ;  but,  as  Professor  Taussig  says  ( Wages 
and  Capital,  p.  37)  : 

"  In  whatever  sense  we  use  the  term  capital,  it  will 
still  appear  that  current  wages,  considered  with  refer- 
ence to  any  but  a  very  short  period  of  time,  are  derived 
in  the  main  from  capital." 

Thus  the  wage  fund  theory  has  some  truth. 
The  socialist  theory  certainly  has  some,  for  un- 
der competition  wages  do  tend  to  what  will  just 
support  life.  So  with  all  the  theories.  The  stand- 
ard of  living,  the  margin  of  production,  the  pro- 
ductivity of  labor,  do  all  affect  wages.  Wages 
are  the  resultant  of  many  economic  forces.  This 
seems  to-day  all  that  economy  can  say. 

II.  STATISTICS  OF  WAGES. 

In  treating  of  statistics,  it  is  first  necessary  to 
ask  how  far  they  are  reliable.  This  is  neces- 
sary with  all  statistics,  but  especially  with  wage 
statistics.  Says  Professor  R.  Mayo-Smith  (Po- 
litical Science  Quarterly,  Vol.  I.,  No.  i)  : 

"  Altho  many  recognize  the  desirability  of  statistics 
of  wages,  few  people  realize  the  difficulty  of  obtaining 
them.  In  the  first  place,  there  are  three  distinct  inves- 
tigations which  must  be  carried  on  before  our  statis- 
tics of  wages  are  of  any  value.  The  first  is  the  in- 
quiry, What  are  the  wages  or  earnings?  the  second  is, 
What  are  the  prices  of  the  commodities  which  the  la- 
borer consumes,  or  the  cost  of  living  ?  and  the  third  is, 
In  what  proportion  are  the  wages  applied  to  meeting 
the  different  items  in  this  cost  of  living  ?  Each  of 
these  questions  has  its  peculiar  difficulties  when  one 
attempts  to  answer  it.  Take,  for  instance,  the  answer 
to  the  first  question,  wages  or  earnings.  The  great 
majority  of  laborers  are  now  paid  by  the  day,  so  that 
the  most  convenient  form  of  answering  the  question 
of  wages  is  to  give  the  day-wages.  But  in  some  trades 
men  work  only  a  portion  of  the  year  ;  in  others  they 
may  be  thrown  out  of  work  at  any  time  ;  in  many  they 
are'forced  to  be  idle  part  of  the  year  ;  in  all  there  are 
days  lost  from  sickness  and  accident,  and  this  loss  is 
not  the  same  in  different  trades.  From  the  day's 
wages  it  is  impossible  to  arrive  at  the  year's  earnings  ; 
and  the  same  remark  is  true  of  weekly  wages,  and 
even  of  monthly.  If  working  men  kept  accurate  ac- 
counts of  income  and  expenditures,  we  might  apply  to 
them  and  get  the  actual  annual  earnings,  which  would 
give  us  a  notion  of  the  actual  income  of  the  working 
class  for  a  certain  period.  Even  then  it  might  be  a 
time  of  commercial  depression,  and  the  actual  earn- 
ings be  a  false  index  of  the  general  earnings— even 
more  false  than  the  day's  wages. 

"  Again,  the  wage-receiving  class  falls  into  three 
great  bodies,  men,  women,  and  children,  which  of 
course  receive  different  rates  of  wages.  The  distinc- 
tion of  sex  is  one  easily  drawn,  but  that  between 
grown  persons  and  children  is  not  so  easy  to  make. 
It  is  evident,  however,  that  in  answering  the  question, 
What  are  wages?  we  must  have  some  sort  of  classifica- 
tion, and  not  mix  up  wages  of  men,  women,  and 
children. 

"Again,  the  laboring  class  is  employed  in  many 
different  occupations,  requiring  varying  degrees  of 
skill  and  strength.  An  average  rate  of  wages  has  a 
good  deal  the  same  doubtful  value  as  an  average  in- 
come of  a  millionaire  and  a  hundred  of  his  employees  ; 
it  represents  neither  one  thing  nor  another." 

To  show  how  difficult  the  effort  is  to  get  and 
correctly  use  wage  statistics,  Professor  Mayo- 
Smith  analyzes  the  comprehensive  report  for 
1884  of  the  Massachusetts  Bureau  of  Labor, 
which  bureau,  he  says,  "  enjoys  the  highest 
reputation  of  any  of  the  bureaus." 

The  statement  of  the  facts  of  wages  upon  which  the 
report  is  based,  obtained  by  personal  agents  directly 
from  the  pay-roll  of  a  large  number  of  establishments, 
Professor  Mayo-Smith  believes  to  be  reliable.  The 
averages  drawn  as  to  the  wages  of  men  in  the  same 
branch  of  the  same  occupation  are  correct,  but  beyond 
this  Professor  Mayo-Smith  thinks  the  averages  of  very 


little  value.  The  average  wages  in  occupations  are  ob- 
tained by  averaging  skilled  and  unskilled  labor,  an 
utterly  misleading  average.  The  average  weekly 
wage  paid  to  all  men  in  the  cotton  industry  is  said  to 
be  $9.44,  but  this  is  obtained  by  averaging  the  wages 
of  overseers,  at  $30  per  week,  and  of  lapmen,  at  $5. 
Now  one  wage  at  $30  would  average  as  much  as  five 
wages  at  $6.  The  result,  therefore,  for  the  majority  of 
workers  is  materially  misleading.  Still  worse  are  the 
averages  of  all  occupations.  The  average  wage  to  all 
employees  in  all  occupations  is  said  to  be  $10.31.  This 
is  utterly  misleading. 

Says  Professor  Mayor-Smith  : 

"If,  when  W.  H.  Vanderbilt  was  president  of  the 
New  York  Central  Railroad,  we  had  obtained  from 
statistics  the  average  wealth  of  all  persons  employed 
by  the  company  in  its  Forty-second  Street  station,  of 
what  value  would  it  have  been  ? 

"  Perhaps  I  have  now  shown  sufficiently  the  falla- 
cious character  of  these  averages  drawn  by  the  Massa- 
chusetts Bureau  of  Labor  Statistics.  This  does  not 
affect  the  validity  of  the  original  detailed  tables. 
These,  if  they  are  taken,  as  they  are  said  to  be,  from 
the  actual  pay-rolls  of  210  establishments,  are  of  very 
great  value  in  forming  a  judgment  concerning  the 
wages  received  by  American  laborers." 

So  far  Professor  Mayo-Smith.  But  even  this 
does  not  wholly  state  the  case.  Many  state- 
ments of  wages,  and  perhaps  particularly  of 
American  wages,  are  open  to  suspicion  as  biased 
by  political  views.  Protectionists  and  conserva- 
tives are  usually  anxious  to  show  that  American 
wages  are  high.  Writers  interested  in  reform 
are  in  danger  of  estimating  wages  too  low  in 
order  to  show  the  need  of  reform.  Such  dan- 
gers can  perhaps  be  best  avoided  by  giving 
statements  as  to  wages  prepared  by  both  con- 
servatives and  radicals,  both  of  which  state- 
ments should  be  studied  by  any  one  who  would 
arrive  at  the  truth. 

(a)   IN  THE   UNITED   STATES. 

The  leading  official  authority  on  wage  statis- 
tics in  this  country  is  undoubtedly  the  Hon. 
Carroll  D.  Wright,  United  States  Commissioner 
of  Labor.  We  quote  in  his  own  words  the  con- 
clusions he  arrives  at,  reminding  the  reader, 
however,  that,  as  we  shall  soon  see,  these  con- 
clusions are  most  seriously  questioned  by  many 
scholars.  In  his  book.  The  Industrial  Evolu- 
tion of  the  United  States,  published  in  1895, 
Mr.  Wright  says  (p.  191),  speaking  of  wages  in 
manufactories  : 

"  In  1850  the  average  number  of  employees  was  re- 
ported at  957,059  and  the  total  wages  as  $236,755,464.  In 
1890  the  number  is  reported  as  4, 712, 622  and  the  wages 
as  $2,283,216,529.  Owing  to  improved  statistical  meth- 
ods, the  totals  for  1890  include  certain  elements  not  re- 
ported, or  not  fully  reported,  for  previous  years.  Re- 
ducing the  figures,  as  far  as  possible,  to  a  comparable 
basis,  the  number  appears  as  4,286,523  and  the  total 
wages  $1,911,137,838,  an  increase  of  3,329,464,  or  347.88 
per  cent.,  in  number,  and  of  $1,674,382,374,  or  707.22  per 
cent.,  in  total  •wages,  over  1850.  During  the  same  pe- 
riod the  average  annual  earnings  per  employee  in- 
creased from  $247.38  to  $445.85,  being  an  increase  of 
$198.47,  or  80.22  per  cent." 

This  statement  Mr.  Wright  bases  on  census 
returns.  Of  wages  in  special  departments  in 
manufacturing  and  in  other  industries,  Mr. 
Wright  gives  the  following  figures  for  1891  : 

"Common  and  agricultural  laborers,  sums  varying 
from  $2.50  per  day  in  Montana  to  75  cents  in  the  Caro- 
linas  and  $1.25  in  New  York  ;  masons,  from  $4.50  and 
$5  in  Colorado  and  California  to  $2.50  in  North  Caro- 
lina and  $2.50  and  $3.36  in  Pennsylvania ;  carpenters  in 


Wages. 


1372 


Wages. 


New  York,  $3.50;  bricklayers  and  their  helpers,  $4 
and  $2.50  respectively  ;  locomotive  engineers,  $3.77  ; 
firemen,  $1.96."  These  wages,  however,  Mr.  Wright 
tells  us,  "considered  by  themselves,  convey  a  wrong 
impression  of  the  average  wages.  While  the  pay  of 
overseers  in  the  carding  and  weaving  department  of  a 
cotton  factory  ranged  as  high  as  $5  per  day  in  1891, 
we  find,  by  the  examination  of  64  cotton  and  woolen 
factories,  scattered  throughout  20  States  and  employ- 
ing 31,657  hands,  that  21,338  employees,  or  67  per  cent, 
of  the  total,  received  between  41  cents  and  $1.20  per 
day,  while  only  24  employees  received  $5  or  more 
per  day.  The  average  daily  wages  for  the  industry, 
then,  is  nearer  $i  than  $5.  For  the  same  reason, 
the  daily  wages  in  the  manufacture  of  iron  and  steel 
is  between  $i  and  $2,  altho  the  rates  ranged  from 


41  cents  to  $19.40  per  day.  Grouping  a  number  of  rep- 
resentative establishments  of  the  principal  manufac- 
turing industries  which  employed  a  total  of  59,784 
hands,  it  is  found  that  20,969,  or  35  per  cent,  of  the  em- 

Eloyees,  received  from  fi  to  $1.60  per  day.  There- 
are,  the  average  daily  wages  for  all  classes  of  me- 
chanics and  operatives  in  factories  may  be  considered 
as  having  been  between  $i  and  $2,  altho  the  propor- 
tionate number  receiving  more  than  $2  per  day  was 
somewhat  larger  than  the  proportion  receiving  less 
than  $i  per  day." 

The  wages  paid  by  manufacturers  in  the 
different  States  the  Census  of  1890  gives  as  fol- 
lows : 


STATES  AND  TERRI- 
TORIES. 

AVERAGE  NUM- 
BER OF  EM- 
PLOYEES AND 
TOTAL  WAGES. 

Value  of 
Products, 
including 
Receipts 
from  Cus- 
tom Work 
and  Re- 
pairing. 

STATES   AND  TERRI- 
TORIES. 

AVERAGE  NUM- 
BER OF  EM- 
PLOYEES AND 
TOTAL  WAGES. 

Value  of 
Products, 
including 
Receipts 
from  Cus- 
tom Work 
and  Re- 
pairing. 

Em 
ployees 

Wages. 

Em- 
ployees. 

Wages. 

labama 

33.821 
86 
528 
15.972 
83,642 
17,067 
149.939 
4,269 
21,906 
23.404 
13.927 
56,383 

774 
312,198 
"4.349 
'75 
59.174 
32,843 
65.579 
31,901 
75.78o 
107,054 
485,182 
163,941 
79,620 
I5,8i7 
M3.  '39 

$12,676,029 
22,173 
358,127 
5,749,888 
51,538,780 
12,285,734 
75,990,606 
2,101,299 
9,892,387 
14,622,264 
6,513,068 
17,312,196 
324,202 
171.523,579 
51.  749.976 
79.830 
25,878,997 
16,328,485 
27,761,746 
I3,i59.564 
26,526,217 
41,526,832 
239,670,509 
66,347,798 
38,189,239 
4.913.863 
76,417,364 

$51,226,605 
58,440 
947,547 
22,659,179 
213,403,996 
42,480,205 

248,336,364 
10,710,855 
37,571,848 
39,33I,437 
18,222,890 
68,917,020 
1,396,096 
908,640,280 
226,825,082 
248,932 
125,049,183 
110,219,805 
126,719,857 
57,806,713 
95,689,500 
171,842,593 
888,160,403 
277,896,706 

192,033,478 
18,705,834 
324,561,993 

Montana  

2,696 
23,876 
620 
63,361 
187,398 

944 
850,084 
36,214 
1,847 
33I>548 
195 
18,798 
620,562 
85,976 
24,662 
2,422 
42,759 
39.475 
4,980 

24,894 
59,59' 
20,366 
21,969 
132,031 
1,144 

$1,948,213 
12,984,571 

445,503 
24,248,054 
96,778,736 
532,727 
466,846,642 
7,830,536 
1,002,881 
158,768,883 
71,918 
",535,229 
305,591,003 
37,927,921 
6,590,983 
1,098,418 
16,899,351 
18,586,338 
2,715,805 
10,096,549 
19,644,850 
12,658,614 
8,330,997 
51,843,708 
878,646 

$5,507,573 
93,037,794 
1,105,063 
85,770,549 
354,573,571 
1,516,195 
i.7",  577.671 
40,375,45° 
5,028,107 
641,688,064 
180,445 
41,432,174 

i.33I>794,9°1 
142,500,625 
31,926,681 
5,682,748 
72,355,286 
70,433.551 
8,911,047 
38.340,066 
88^363,824 
41,768,022 
38,702,125 
248,546,164 
2,367,601 

Nebraska  

New  Hampshire  
New  Jersey  

Colorado     

New  Mexico  
New  York  

North  Carolina  

North  Dakota  

District  of  Columbia.. 

Ohio 

Oklahoma  

Oregon  

Pennsylvania  .  .  

Rhode  Island  

South  Carolina  
South  Dakota  

Tennessee  

Texas  

Utah  

Vermont..  

Virginia  

Washington  

West  Virginia  

Wisconsin  

Minnesota  

Wyoming  

Mississippi  

Total  

4,712,622 

$2,283,216,529 

$9.372.437.283 

Number  of  establishments  reporting,  322,638 ;  capi- 
tal, $6,139,397,785  ;  miscellaneous  expenses,  $615,337,620. 
Officers,  firm  members,  and  clerks,  average  number, 
426,099  ;  total  wages,  $372,078,691.  All  other  employees, 
average  number,  4,050,785  ;  total  wages,  $1,799,671,492. 
Cost  of  materials  used,  $5,021,453,326 ;  value  of  prod- 
ucts, $9,056,764,996. 

So  far  the  conservative  and  official  view.  We 
now  consider  the  facts  which  make  many  stu- 
dents question  the  somewhat  roseate  statistics 
given  above. 

First,  however,  we  must  note  that,  even  ac- 
cepting the  statistics  collected  by  official  inves- 
tigations, there  is  not  the  steady  recent  advance 
in  American  wages  usually  claimed  by  official 
authorities.  Dr.  Charles  B.  Spahr,  whose  cau- 
tious and  accurate  scholarship  is  vouched  for  by 
his  selection  to  lecture  on  the  statistics  of  the 
distribution  of  wealth  at  Columbia  University, 
gives,  in  a  book  published  in  1895  ( The  Present 
Distribution  of  Wealth  in  the  United  States, 
pp.  no,  in),  a  table  of  wages  based  on 
wage  returns  •  collected  for  the  famous  Aldrich 
Senate  Report  of  1893,  No.  1394  of  the  Fifty- 
second  Congress,  Second  Session,  and  it  is  as 
follows  : 


INDUSTRIES. 

Average 
Wages. 

Average 
Wages. 

Average 
Wages. 

Agricultural  implements  

$1.38 

$  .91 

$1.72 

i.i(6 

.86 

.18 

i  81 

.78 

.81 

.60 

.65 

Illuminating  gas  

1.18 

1.63 

.60 

Metals  and  metallic  goods  

1.44 

.88 

•33 

2.01 
1.36 

..64 

2.55 

i.  80 

.64 

.61 

.96 

•75 

1.46 

White  lead            

1.40 

.86 

.28 

1.38 

Totals     

$1.18 

$1.69 

Wages, 


1373 


-Wages. 


Says  Dr.  Spahr  : 

"  The  wages  given  in  the  table  are  currency  wages. 
In  the  year  1873,  however,  currency  was  worth  n  per 
cent,  less  than  gold.  The  comparative  wages  in  gold 
were  therefore  as  follows  : 


DATE. 

Daily 
Wages  in 
Gold. 

January,  1860  

$1.18 

January,  1873  

i  81 

Januarv,  1891  

"  In  other  words,  wages  in  gold  in  the  urban  estab- 
lishments reporting  advanced  53^  per  cent,  during 
the  13  years  between  1860  and  1873  \  t>ut  during  the 
succeeding  18  years,  despite  the  continued  advance  in 
the  productiveness  of  labor,  they  lost  enough  to  re- 
duce the  net  gain  to  43  per  cent." 

Here  evidently  is  a  fall  in  wages  since  1873. 
(How,  nevertheless,  from  these  facts  the  Al- 
drich  Report  ingeniously  if  not  ingenuously 
argues  that  wages  have  risen  since  1873  we 
shall  see  in  Part  III.  of  this  article.) 

But  these  statistics  are  certainly  too  favor- 
able to  present  average  wages  for  at  least  four 
reasons.  In  the  first  place,  they  are  confessedly 
wages  paid  in  urban  industries,  which  are  noto- 
riously higher  than  wages  in  rural  sections  ;  sec- 
ondly, they  are  from  pay-rolls  as  returned  by  the 
employers,  and  from  the  oldest  and  largest  estab- 
lishments, which,  as  a  rule,  pay  the  highest  rate 
of  wages  ;  thirdly,  they  wholly  ignore  the  enor- 
mous question  of  how  many  days  in  the  year 
the  worker  has  employment ;  fourthly,  they  are 
too  favorable  to  day,  because  wages  are  now 
almost  universally  lower  than  in  1891.  Says 
Dr.  Spahr  (idem,  pp.  in,  112) : 

"  According  to  the  latest  volumes  of  the  Connecticut 
Labor  Report  and  the  Massachusetts  Statistics  of 
Manufactures,  the  nominal  rate  of  wages  in  1894  had 
declined  about  7  per  cent,  below  the  level  of  1892,  while 
the  yearly  incomes  of  laborers  had  been  still  further 
reduced  by  the  lack  of  employment.  The  Connecti- 
cut report  covers  nearly  half  the  manufacturing  labor 
in  that  State.  Directly  from  the  books  of  the  employ- 
ing establishments  were  taken  the  numbers  of  em- 
ployees, hours  of  labor,  and  wages  for  1892,  and  for  the 
period  between  June,  1893,  and  August,  1894,  in  which 
the  fall  of  prices  was  most  rapid  and  the  stoppage  of 

E reduction  greatest.  It  was  found  that  a  little  over 
alf  of  the  establishments  had  reduced  wages,  and 
that  the  usual  cut  had  been  10  per  cent.  The  heavy 
losses  of  the  wage-earners,  however,  came,  not  from 
reduced  pay  during  employment,  but  from  reduced 
employment.  The  average  number  on  the  pay-rolls 
had  been  cut  down  15  per  cent.,  and  manv  of  those 
nominally  retained  received  work  irregularly.  All  of 
these  reductions  reflected  themselves  in  the  total 
wage  payments.  These  had  decreased  25  per  cent.  If 
these  firms  were  typical  of  the  State  at  large,  the  great 
mass  of  families  in  Connecticut  had  had  their  incomes 
reduced  one  fourth.  The  Massachusetts  reports  are 
for  the  calendar  years,  and  the  changes  are  registered 
in  the  following  tabular  statement : 


1892. 

1893. 

1894. 

Total  value  of  product  

100 

92 

83 

Average      wages     when     em- 

96 

Total  wages  for  year  

84 

cent.,  and  the  Connecticut  lowering  of  25  per 
cent.,  laborers'  incomes  between  1892  and  1894 
fell  at  least  20  per  cent. ,  which  would  reduce 
the  average  wage  of  $1.69,  reported  by  the  em- 
ployers in  1891,  to  $1.36  as  the  average  wage  to 
the  American  employee  in  urban  manufactures 
in  1894.  According  to  the  Pennsylvania  Bureau 
of  Labor  Statistics,  from  1892-94  average  wages 
fell  13  per  cent,  and  the  number  employed  24 
per  cent. 

As  for  wages  in  agriculture,  the  Department 
of  Agriculture  reported  in  1890  the  wages  of 
the  farm  hand,  with  board,  at  $12.45  per  month. 
Since  1890  the  depression  in  agriculture  must 
have  lowered  wages  at  least  20  per  cent. ,  if  not 
nominally,  at  least  practically,  by  reducing  em- 
ployment. As  to  wages  in  mines,  Dr.  Spahr 
accepts  both  the  statements  and  the  conclusions 
of  the  Senate  Report.  He  says  (idem,  p.  113)  : 

"The  returns  for  mines  were  fortunately  prepared 
by  Mr.  Joseph  D.  Weeks,  and  are  singularly  impartial. 
For  the  years  selected  for  comparison,  they  run  as 
follows  : 


1860. 

1873. 

1891. 

Anthracite  coal  (Pennsylvania 
Iron  ore  (New  Jersev)  

$1.08 
1.06 

$2.51 

$1.91 

Iron  ore  (Cornwall,  Pa.)  
Iron  ore  (New  York)  

•85 

i.  85 

\ 

Iron  ore  (Oxford,  N.  J.)  

Rough  average  in  currency... 
Rough  average  in  gold  

$1.05 

$2.14 

%  .58 
.58 

From  these  statistics  averaging  the  Massachu- 
setts reported    lowering  of  income  of   16  per 


"  So  few  returns  would  indeed  furnish  an  unsafe 
basis  for  generalization,  were  it  not  for  the  vast 
amount  of  labor  Mr.  Weeks  has  devoted  to  the  ques- 
tion of  miners'  wages.  The  returns  give  average 
wages  in  what  he  believed  to  be  typical  mines.  Since 
1891,  as  is  widely  known,  miners'  wages  have  again 
suffered  reductions,  comparable  only  with  those  that 
have  taken  place  in  the  earnings  of  farmers." 

Thus  far,  it  must  be  remembered,  we  have 
simply  asked  what  wages  are  paid.  We  have 
yet  in  Part  II.  to  ask  what  the  wages  are  really 
worth  measured  by  what  they  will  buy,  and 
whether  the  condition  of  the  wage  worker  is 
really  improving  or  not. 

(b)   WAGES    IN   OTHER   COUNTRIES. 

A  General  Report  on  the  Wages  of  the  Man- 
ual-labor Classes  in  the  United  Kingdom,  pub- 
lished in  1896  by  the  Board  of  Trade,  conclud- 
ing an  examination  begun  in  1886,  says  : 

"The  general  effect  of  the  summary  of  the  wages 
census  is  to  show  an  average  rate  of  wages  for  men  of 
.£1  4J.   id.   per  head,   equal  to  ^64  per  annum  if  the 
weekly  rate    were  multiplied  by  52.      Questions,   of 
course,  arise  upon  such  a  statement  as 
to  regularity  of  employment,  overtime, 
and  the  like  (which  are   being  investi-        Great 
gated  specially  in  the  department),  but,       Britain 
considering  that  the  year  1886,  to  which 
the  census  primarily  relates,  was  a  year 
of  depression,   and   that  the   tendency 
since  has,  on  balance,  been  upward,  it  is  not  consid- 
ered that  the  figure  above  given  is  much  in  excess  of 
the  average  weekly  rate  of  wage  of  men  for  the  aver- 
age of  the  last  few  years. 

"  The  corresponding  average  rate  for  women  is  stated 
as  i2S.  %d.;  for  lads  and  boys,  8^.  \\d.;  and  for  girls, 
6s.  4</. 

"  The  proportion  of  men  paid  at  less  than  £i  per  week 
is  24  per  cent. ;  between  £1  and  £i  TOJ.>  58  per  cent. ;  and 
above  £i  io.f.,  about  18  per  cent.  The  great  bulk  of 
women  are  paid  less  than  £i  a  week,  and  their  average 
wage  comes  out  as  about  half  that  of  men.  Of  course, 


Wage». 


1374 


Wages. 


these  proportions  only  apply  to  that  part  of  the  indus- 
trial mass  fairly  represented  by  the  trades  dealt  with 
in  the  tables  comprised  in  the  summary,  but  these 
groups  of  trades  are  considered  to  be  samples  of  the 
great  mass  of  occupations. 

"  The  general  average  rate  for  men,  women,  boys, 
and  girls,  based  on  the  actual  amounts  paid  in  wages 
in  the  previous  year  by  the  firms  returning  the  sched- 
ules, appears  to  be  .£47  a  year.  This  figure  is  based  on 
8073  returns,  relating  to  816,106  persons  in  private  em- 
ployment. 

"  The  results  obtained  in  the  above  manner  are  next 
compared  with  those  obtained  for  particular  industries 
(railway  service,  etc.)  by  other  methods,  the  conclu- 
sion being  arrived  at  that  the  broad  results  shown  by 
the  census  summary  would  not  be  sensibly  modified 
by  including  the  great  mass  of  other  employments. 
The  average  rates  for  most  of  the  trades  tested  are 
about  the  same  as  the  average  rate  in  the  census  sum- 
mary, that  for  railway  servants  (men  only)  being  £60  a 
year.  The  lower  wage  of  agricultural  laborers  (esti- 
mated at  ^33  per  annum  for  men)  would  be  balanced 
by  the  more  highly  paid  trades,  such  as  building  (,£73 
per  annum  per  man). 

AVERAGE  RATES  FOR  VARIOUS  TRADES. 

"Turning  to  the  particular  trades  dealt  with  in  the 
report,  we  have  the  following  summary,  showing  the 
average  weekly  rates  for  men,  lads  and  boys,  women, 
and  girls  respectively : 

AVERAGE  RATES  OF  WAGES  IN  THE  UNDER- 
MENTIONED TRADES,  IN  OCTOBER,  1886,  FOR 
A  FULL  WEEK'S  WORK,  EXCLUSIVE  OF 
OVERTIME. 


"  Seamen.— With  regard  to  seamen,  we  have  the  fol- 
lowing average  monthly  rates  of  wages  (in  addition  to 
food)  in  1892  : 


•d 

(3    . 

fj 

rt  w 

D 

B) 

TRADES. 

0 

* 

i! 

a 

o 

5 

Pig  iron  (blast  furnaces)  

J. 

d. 

6 

s.  d. 
10    8 

s.  d. 

s.  d. 

Iron  and  steel  shipbuilding  

2C) 

3 

12       2 

Engineering,  etc  

Brass  work  and  metal  wares  

?0 

8     5 

6      2 

Wood  shipbuilding  

7,K 

6     5 

Railway  carriage  building  
Boot  and  shoe  factories  

25 

2 

10     6 

8     ^ 

'3     3 

12       6 

e      fi 

Breweries  

Printing    and    engraving    (large 

works)  .        .... 

n 

0 

8         T 

Newspaper-printing  works  
Brick  and  tile  works  

•-7 

8     4 

12      2 

6    6 

"  The  average  rates  of  -wages  for  persons  engaged  in 
the  textile,  mining,  and  other  industries,  dealt  with  in 
previous  volumes,  are  given  here  for  comparison. 

AVERAGE  RATES  OF  WAGES  IN  THE  UNDER- 
MENTIONED TRADES,  IN  OCTOBER,  1886, 
FOR  A  FULL  WEEK'S  WORK.  EXCLUSIVE  OF 
OVERTIME. 


TRADES. 

e 
o 

Lads  and 
Boys. 

Women. 

aj 

3 

Cotton  manufacture  

s. 

25 
23 

«9 

22 
26 
24 
27 
20 

22 

16 

A 

3 

2 
4 
3 
7 
5 
3 

2 

II 

6 

s.  d. 

9    4 
8    6 
6    8 
7    2 
8     4 
9    6 
9     4 
6     9 

10    9 

s.  d. 

5  3 
3  3 
9  7 

0  I 

i  i 
i  6 

2  8 

o  9 

8  2 

5  10 

j.  ^. 

6  10 

7     5 
4     8 
5     8 
6  ii 
8     3 

6      2 

5     9 

5     7 
4     9 

Woolen  manufacture  

Jute  and  stuff  manufacture  

Silk  manufacture  ;. 

Carpet  manufacture  

Hosiery  manufacture  

Lace  manufacture.  

Smallwares  manufacture  

Coal,    iron-ore,     and      ironstone 
mines  

Metalliferous  mines  

Police  

Roads,  pavements,  and  sewers... 
Gasworks  

2O 

o 

9     6 

Q  O* 

Waterworks  

SAILING- 
VESSELS. 

STEAM- 
VESSELS. 

Home 
Trade. 

Foreign 
Trade. 

Petty  officers  

£  f.  d. 

£  s.  d. 

Sailors  —  men  

4 

Boys  .... 

148 

"Railway  Service.— -The  railway  returns,  tho  not 
uniform  with  the  other  tables,  are  important  as  cov- 
ering practically  the  whole  of  the  persons  employed 
in  railway  service.  They  show  that  about  95  per  cent. 
of  railway  workers  are  fairly  constantly  employed. 
Omitting  minor  departments,  and  women  and  boys,  a 
number  of  details  may  be  condensed  in  the  following 
table,  which  shows  the  percentage  number  of  men 
paid  in  1891  at  weekly  rates  falling  within  the  under- 
mentioned limits,  and  the  total  number  employed  and 
average  annual  rate  of  wages  for  the  principal  depart- 
ments of  railway  service. 


OF 

MEN  PA 

ID. 

DEPARTMENT. 

Over 

Over 

£i  and 

Up  to 

£i  IQS. 

up  to 

£l. 

£i  ios. 

Coaching  

Goods  

Locomotive,      carriage,     and 

wagon  
Engineers    

27.4 
6.6 

42.7 
30.1 

29.9 

63.3 

PERCENTAGE  NUMBER 


*  Women  and  girls. 


"Army  and  Navy.—T\\Q  information  with  regard  to 
the  army  shows  that,  taking  the  value  of  all  the  differ- 
ent allowances  by  which  the  soldier's  remuneration  is 
made  up,  as  well  as  the  pay  in  money,  the  remuner- 
ation of  the  private  in  the  infantry  conies  out  at  about 
£40  per  annum,  and  in  cavalry  and  artillery  at  about 
£45.  The  average  remuneration  of  all  ranks  in  the  in- 
fantry, exclusive  of  officers,  is  about  .£46,  and  in  cav- 
alry and  artillery  about  £52  los." 

See  also  WOMAN'S  WAGES  for  that  particular  sub- 
ject, and  Part  III.  of  this  article  for  statements  as  to 
the  rise  and  fall  of  English  wages.  The  above  figures 
err  undoubtedly  by -putting  figures  too  high,  as  higher 
wages  are  more  easily  reported. 

According  to  the  United  States  Consular  Re- 
ports of  March,  1895,  wages  in  France  are  as 
follows  :  Average    general  wage  per  working 
day  of  10^  hours  as  an  average, 
§119  for  men  and  61  cents  for  wom- 
en ;  67  per  cent,  of  the  laborers  are      France, 
reported  as  males,  24  per  cent,  as 
females,  6  per  cent,   as  children, 
and  3  per  cent,  as  foremen.     These  wages  are 
in  manufacturing  industries,  varying  for  men 
from  $1.79  in  stone-cutting  to  94  cents  in  chemi- 
cal industries,  those  in  textile  industries  aver- 
aging 97-J  cents  for  men  and  52  cents  for  women. 

Perhaps  the  most  careful  recent  study  of  com- 
parative wage  conditions  in  different  countries 
is  that  made  by  Professor  E.  R.  L.  Gould,  and 
embodied  in  the  Seventh  Annual  Report  (1891) 
of  the  United  States  Commissioner  of  Labor. 
He  gives  the  following  tables  for  different  in- 
dustries and  different  nations  : 


Wages. 


1375 


Wages. 


INCOME  AND  EXPENDITURE  PER  FAMILY. 


INDUSTRY. 

Fam- 
ilies. 

AVERAGE  PER 
FAMILY. 

INDUSTRY. 

Fam- 
ilies. 

AVERAGE  PER 
FAMILY. 

Income 
from  all 
Sources. 

Expendi- 
ture for 
all  Pur- 
poses. 

Income 
from  all 
Sources. 

Expendi- 
ture for 
all  Pur- 
poses. 

UNITED  STATES. 

Pig  iron  

762 
623 
183 
508 
249 

165 
2,132 
911 
1,276 

ii 

75 
10 

4 
24 

40 
116 

i?9 

$591.61 
784.11 
663.56 
55°  -3° 
572-57 
401.65 
657.76 
663.13 
859.64 

374-53 
359-37 
426.55 
378.26 
627.67 

464.74 
365-94 
424-51 

$546.23 
671.50 
563-5° 
524-71 
462.69 

390.93 
610.61 
594.09 
769  .  06 

372-5I 
353-45 
37I-36 
393.86 
492.42 

401.09 
333-70 
384.05 

GERMANY. 

Bar  iron.  .  .                   

22 

35 
18 

10 

19 
72 
24 

65 
114 
1  66 
1  66 
15 
34i 

J3' 
26 

52 

282.20 
250.13 
391-49 
389-51 
348.71 
302  .  i  i 

275-99 

456.86 
5I9-99 
589-13 
495-25 
379-09 
556.14 
515-64 
501.69 

358.56 

288.07 
252.19 
369-39 
393-32 
365.01 
282.58 
281.59 

435-31 
480.67 
530.82 
457-32 
359-2? 
502.13 
481  .04 
460.44 

346.68 

Bar  iron  

Steel               

Steel  

Bituminous  coal.  .        

Bituminous  coal  

Coke  

Coke          

Cotton        

Cotton            

GREAT  BRITAIN. 

Pig  iron  

Glass  

BELGIUM. 
Pig  iron..  

Bar  iron  
Steel  

Bituminous  coal  
Coke  

Bituminous  coal  
Coke  
Cotton  .... 

Glass  
FRANCE. 

Bar  iron  

Woolen  
Glass  

SWITZERLAND. 
Cotton         

Cotton      ..        

Woolen        

GENERAL  TABLE  OF  FAMILY  BUDGETS  FOR  THE  COAL,  IRON   AND  STEEL  INDUSTRIES, 

CLASSIFIED   BY   NATIONALITIES. 


FAMILIES  EN- 

FAMILIES. 

DWELLINGS. 

TIRELY  MAIN- 
TAINED BY 
EARNINGS  OF 

YEARLY  INCOME  OF 
FAMILY. 

N 

HUSBAND. 

Pro- 

NATIONALITIES. 

Aver- 

Giving 
Infor- 

Aver- 

portion 
of 

Total 
Num- 
ber. 

age 
Num- 
ber of 
Per- 
sons in 
Fam- 

Own- 
ing 
their 
Homes 

mation 
con- 
cern - 
ingSize 
of 
Dwell- 

age 
Num- 
ber of 
Rooms 
per 
Fam- 

Num- 
ber. 

Pro- 
por- 
tion. 

Total 
Earn- 
ings of 
Fam- 
ily. 

Earn- 
ings of 
Hus- 
band. 

Earn- 
ings of 
Hus- 
band 
to 
Total 

ily. 

ing. 

ily. 

Earn- 

ings. 

Americans  

1,294 

4.8 

236 

959 

3-9 

834 

63-7 

$583.68 

$520.43 

89.2 
81  2 

British  in  Great  Britain*  

British  in  United  States  

178 

=60 

A    6 

c.i.6 

68  6 

80.4 

6 

French  in  United  States  

4.8 

16 

66  6 

CD?  82 

82.  i 

Germans  in  Germany  

66 

6-3 

13 

52 

1*8 

2.8 

27 

40.9 

345-03 

253-51 

73-5 
89.7 

Germans  in  United  States  

Belgians  in  Belgium  

118 

82 

0.6 

Other    nationalities      in     United 

States  .              

83 

60 

•,.(, 

87.9 

608 

48  6 

368  30 

?8  2 

Average  in  United  States  

2,490 

5-o 

540 

1,782 

4-1 

I,58l 

62.3 

622.14 

534-53 

86.0 

*  The  English,  Scotch,  Welsh  and  Irish  are  here  included. 


Dr.  Gould  argues  that  the  first  condition  of  a  true 
economic  basis  for  society  is  that  the  earnings  of  the 
husband  alone  should  be  sufficient  to  support  the  fam- 
ily. The  desertion  by  mothers  of  the  home  for  the 
factory  is,  in  his  opinion,  a  fundamental  factor  of  mod- 
ern social  discontent.  Yet  it  is  only  in  two  cases,  those 
of  the  bar-iron  and  steel  manufactures  in  the  United 
States,  that  the  family  can  be  supported  without  the 
addition  of  the  earnings  of  the  wife  or  the  children. 
The  second  element  upon  which  Dr.  Gould  insists  is 


that  the  family  must  have  sufficient  food.  Here  the 
American  has  the  advantage  of  the  European.  The 
family  of  the  American  is  better  nourished  than  that  of 
a  worker  in  any  other  country.  But  if  the  American 
spends  more  on  food  he  spends  less  on  drink.  In 
Europe  the  publican  received  three  fifths  as  much  as 
the  landlord,  and  if  the  European  worker  would  be- 
come teetotal  he  could  add  two  more  rooms  to  his 
home. 
The  American,  Dr.  Gould  thinks,  does  not  save  as 


Wages. 


1376 


Wages. 


much,  and  he  is  not  sorry  for  it.  Dr.  Gould's  paper  is 
notable  indeed  as  giving  expression  to  the  first  distinct 
protest  against  the  doctrine  that  Thrift  is  one  of  the 
greatest  of  the  virtues.  He  thinks  that  the  practice  of 
saying  may  sometimes  prevent  the  civilization  of  the 
toiler,  and  is  therefore  morally  and  industrially  bad. 

When  Dr.  Gould  comes  to  compare  the  statistics 
which  he  has  collected  concerning  the  foreign  working 
man  at  home  and  the  foreign  working  man  in  America, 
he  is  rather  startled  to  discover  that  the  average  work- 
ing man  of  American  birth  in  the  classified  trades  earns 
less  than  the  Briton  or  the  German.  When  the  Briton 
goes  to  America  he  increases  his  family,  lives  in  a 
bigger  house,  for  which  he  pays  much  more  rent,  eats 
more  food,  spends  much  more  on  his  clothes,  but  spends 
almost  the  same  amount  on  books  and  newspapers, 
tho  he  cuts  down  his  expenditure  on  drink  from  5  per 
cent,  of  his  income  to  3.6  and  his  expenditure  on  to- 
bacco from  2.6  per  cent,  to  1.7.  The  greatest  change  in 
the  consumption  of  alcohol  takes  place  when  the 
Frenchman  goes  from  France  to  America.  In  France 
he  spends  13  per  cent,  of  his  income  on  alcohol,  whereas 
in  America  he  only  spends  6  per  cent.  The  home-bred 
American  only  spends  2.9  per  cent. 

The  average  income  of  a  family  in  Europe  in  the 
selected  industries  is  .£94  a  year,  while  in  the  United 
States  it  is  .£124.  The  average  saving  is  £6  nj.  6d.  in 
Europe  against  .£13  55.  in  America.  Dr.  Gould  men- 
tions a  curious  fact  when  he  analyzes  Britons  into  Eng- 
lish, Scotch,  Welsh,  and  Irish.  At  home,  measured  by 
their  earnings  and  their  standard  of  living,  the  Scotch 
are  the  first,  the  English  ranking  second,  the  Welsh 
third,  and  the  Irish  last.  In  America,  the  Scotchman 
keeps  the  lead,  but  the  second  place  is  taken  by  the 
Irishman,  the  third  by  the  Welsh,  while  the  English- 
man comes  last. 

The  table  showing  the  family  budgets  for  the  coal, 
iron  and  steel  industries,  classified  by  nationalities, 
bears  very  directly  upon  the  immigration  question. 
From  this  table  it  is  seen  that  "the  average  workman 
in  the  allied  industries  of  American  birth  earns  less 
than  the  Briton  or  the  German,  tho  he  is  ahead  of  other 
nationalities.  In  the  relative  size  of  his  contribution 
to  the  family  support  he  only  gives  place  to  the  Ger- 
man, whose  habits  in  this  respect  have  undergone  a 
marked  change  since  his  transplanting  in  the  New 
World.  The  proportion  of  cases  in  which  the  husband 
actually  supported  the  family  are  fewer,  the  total 
earnings  of  the  family  are  less,  the  house  accommoda- 
tion is  slightly  inferior,  a  smaller  per  capita  expendi- 
ture appears  for  food  and  clothing  for  the  native 
American  than  for  the  Americanized  Briton  and  Ger- 
man. In  other  words,  in  all  important  respects,  ex- 
cept the  consumption  of  alcoholic  drinks,  these  latter 
seem  to  be  living  on  a  higher  level.  As  regards  the 
other  nationalities,  the  American  conserves  his  leader- 
ship, tho  the  expatriated  Frenchman  is  not  far  behind. 

In  the  coal-mtning  industry  in  Europe  the  proportion 
of  persons  buying  books  and  newspapers  is  12  per  cent, 
higher  than  that  amount  in  the  United  States,  altho 
the  average  sum  per  head  spent  by  the  American 
miner  is  higher  than  that  of  Europe.  It  is  also  notable 
as  indicative  of  the  superior  sobriety  of  the  American 
miner  that  only  60  per  cent,  use  alcohol,  while  83  per 
cent,  of  the  European  miners  are  as  yet  innocent  of  a 
temperance  pledge.  The  proportion  among  steel 
workers  is  much  lower,  being  only  38  per  cent,  in 
America  and  53  per  cent,  in  Europe.  The  lowest  aver- 
age in  tobacco  is  obtained  by  the  steel  workers  of 
Europe  ;  only  51  per  cent,  are  said  to  use  it,  while  89 
per  cent,  of  the  European  coal  miners  smoke,  or  snuff, 
or  chew. 

The  size  of  the  average  family  in  Europe  is  greater 
than  that  in  America,  but  the  difference  is  not  so  great 
as  might  have  been  expected.  As  a  rule  the  total  of  a 
husband's  earnings  only  average  from  74  to  89  per 
cent,  of  the  total  earnings  of  a  family. 

Says  Dr.  Gould  :  "  This  revelation  will  surprise 
many,  yet  if  the  statistics  before  us  mean  anything  at 
all,  they  teach  the  lessons  we  have  outlined." 

III.  REAL  WAGE  CONDITIONS. 

Are  conditions  improving  or  not  ?  We  now 
ask  what  wages  really  mean,  and  whether  the 
condition  of  the  wage  earner  is  improving  or 
not.  Here,  as  before,  we  are  met  with  oppos- 
ing views,  and  we  in  brief  present  both. 

(a)    THE   FAVORABLE   VIEW. 

Most  conservative  writers  maintain  that,  how- 


ever poor  the  condition  of  the  wage  worker  is 
to-day,  he  is  at  least  far  better  off  than  ever  be- 
fore in  the  world's  history.  Mr.  John  Rae  ad- 
duces evidence  in  his  Contemporary  Socialism 
(ist  ed.,  p.  390)  "  to  show  how  greatly  improved 
the  working  class  standard  of  living  now  is  from 
what  it  was  200  years  ago  in  the  good  old 
times  socialist  writers  like  to  sing  of."  He 
says  : 

"  If  poverty  were  increasing  with  the  increase  of 
wealth,  it  would  show  itself  either  in  an  increase  of 
pauperism  or  in  a  decline  in  the  general  standard  of 
living  among  the  laboring  classes  or  in  a  fall  in  the 
average  duration  of  life,  and  these  symptoms  would 
be  most  acute  in  the  countries  that  are  the  most 
wealthy  and  progressive."  To  prove  that  these  symp- 
toms of  increasing  poverty  do  not  exist,  he  quotes 
Sir  M.  Hale  and  Gregory  King,  writers  of  the  seven- 
teenth century,  to  show  that  in  their  day  i  out  of  every 
10,  or,  including  children,  i  out  of  every  6  received 
alms.  To-day  Mr.  Rae  says  it  is  only  i  out  of  30. 
Wages  at  that  time  could  not  support  the  laborer. 
Everything  was  higher  then  except  butcher  meat,  but 
half  the  population  had  meat  only  twice  a  week,  and 
a  fourth  only  once.  The  laborer  lived  chiefly  on  bread 
and  beer,  and  bread  was  as  dear  as  now.  Fuel,  light, 
and  clothing  were  all  much  dearer.  The  death-rate  in 
London  was  then  i  in  27,  instead  of  i  in  40  as  now. 

In  the  United  States,  Mr.  Edward  Atkinson 
takes  the  same  roseate  view  of  rising  wages.  In 
an  article  on  "  Low  Prices,  High  Wages,  Small 
Profits"  in  The  Century  (vol.  xxxiv. ,  pp.  569- 
584),  he  comes  to  the  conclusion  that  wages  dur- 
ing the  last  half  century  have  steadily  risen, 
while  prices  have  steadily  fallen,  so  that  the 
real  condition  of  the  workman  has  vastly  im- 
proved. 

He  takes  from  the  census  of  1880  the  following  aver- 
age of  wages  for  employees,  other  than  foremen  and 
overseers,  in  100  establishments  reporting  under  more 
than  1200  separate  titles,  employing  men,  women,  and 
children,  and  then  carefully  calculates  the  purchasing 
power  of  these  wages  based  on  average  consumption, 
and  comes  to  the  following  results  : 


Aver- 
age per 
Day. 

Per 
Year. 

Purchas- 
ing 
Power. 

1860  

$1.33 

$399 

!86s                       

1.88 

564. 

1870.  ...           

582 

1875     

1880  ...                     

I8^l  {•  est 

i.  80 

i,  800 

1886  f 

He  shows  that  the  cost  of  the  materials  for  food, 
of  materials  for  clothing,  boots,  and  shoes,  with  fuel, 
have  fallen,  representing  about  70  per  cent,  of  the 
cost  of  living  on  the  part  of  well-to-do  mechanics.  Of 
rent  he  says : 

"  In  some  regions  rents  have  declined,  in  others 
they  have  been  stationary ;  in  crowded  cities  they 
have  either  advanced  in  some  small  measure,  or  else 
the  apartments  hired  for  a  given  sum  of  money  have 
not  been  equal  to  those  previously  occupied.  So  far 
as  I  have  been  able  to  compare  rents,  however,  either 
those  paid  to  a  landlord  or  the  rental  value  of  prem- 
ises owned  by  the  occupant,  there  has  not  been,  on  the 
average,  much  variation  from  the  rule  affecting  com- 
modities in  the  period  under  consideration."  Only 
the  lowest  class  of  unskilled  laborers  Mr.  Atkinson 
considers  not  to  have  improved  their  conditions,  and 
this  because  they  have  been  temporarily  displaced  by 
machinery.  He  says  .  "  While  work  has  also  been  con- 
tinuous and  well  paid  for  every  intelligent  mechanic 
or  artisan  who  has  chosen  to  control  his  own  affairs 
and  to  make  his  own  bargains,  it  has  been  much  less 
continuous  for  many  classes  of  factory  operatives  of  a 
lower  grade,  and  it  has  been  absolutely  intermittent 


Wages. 


1377 


Wages. 


Colonial 
Period 


with  respect  to  great  numbers  of  common  laborers. 
One  of  the  penalties  which  society  must  pay  for  the 
application  of  science  and  invention  to  the  useful  arts 
is  this  temporary  displacement  of  unskilled  laborers 
from  the  occupations  in  which  their  work  had  been 
previously  required,  but  which  is  no  longer  required 
when  some  new  machine  or  improvement  renders  it 
unnecessary. 

"On  the  other  hand,  without  these  applications  of 
science  to  agriculture  and  to  manufactures,  the  normal 
increase  of  population  would  without  question  tend  to 
outrun  the  means  of  subsistence.  It  therefore  follows 
that  by  their  application,  while  the  few  are  for  a  time 
left  behind  in  the  race,  the  many  gain  in  welfare;  the 
means  of  subsistence  rapidly  outrun  the  increase  of 
population,  and  the  many  are  thus  enabled  to  enjoy 
better  and  better  conditions  of  life. 

"Thus  the  problem  of  'progress  and  poverty' 
marches  alongside  the  actual  progress  from  poverty. 
This  problem  of  '  progress  and  poverty'  calls  for  the 
urgent  attention  of  the  student  and  the  statesman  in 
order  to  abate  the  great  disparity  of  condition  which 
becomes  more  conspicuous  the  more  the  general  prog- 
ress is  assured." 

Mr.  Carroll  D.  Wright  similarly  argues  the  im- 
proved condition  of  the  wage  worker.  In  his 
The  Industrial  Evolution  in  the  United 
States,  and  in  his  article  "  Wages"  in  the  latest 
edition  of  Johnson' s  Cyclopedia,  he  sums  up  the 
wage  history  of  the  United  States  substantially 
as  follows  : 

"  In  1633  the  Massachusetts  Bay  Colony,  by  the  ac- 
tion of  the  general  court,  made  it  a  rule  that  carpenters, 
sawyers,  masons,  bricklayers,  tilers,  joiners,  wheel- 
wrights, mowers,  and  other  master  workmen  should 
not  receive  more  than  2.?.  a  day,  the  workman  to  pay 
his  own  board  ;  but  should  he  elect  to  board  with  his 
employer,  then  he  was  to  receive  \^d.  a  day.  The  rates 
of  inferior  workmen  were  to  be  fixed  by  the  constable. 
Skilled  tailors  were  to  be  paid  ivd.  a 
day,  poorer  ones  "&d.  At  the  close  of  the 
seventeenth  century  common  laborers 
were  paid  is.  a  day,  as  they  had  been  40 
years  before.  At  the  close  of  the  colo- 
nial period  laborers  on  farms  were  paid 
40  cents  a  day ;  butchers,  33%  ;  carpenters,  52  ;  ship  and 
boat  builders,  about  90 ;  shoemakers,  73  cents ;  black- 
smiths, 70  cents.  Prices  were  uneven ;  there  was  no 
common  market.  Wheat  might  bring  at  one  place  $s., 
at  another  ios.  $i,  Mr.  Wright  thinks,  could  then  buy 
i  bushel  of  winter  wheat,  i  gallon  of  common  molasses, 
a  bushel  of  barley  or  of  rye,  i^  bushels  of  corn.  A 
common  grade  of  wheat  flour  was  $16  per  barrel. 
Butter,  cheese,  and  meats  were  cheaper  than  now. 
Sugar,  tea,  and  coffee  were  dearer  than  now.  Com- 
mon necessities  were  cheap. 

"After    the    colonial    period    wages   slowly    rose. 
Laborers  received  in  1790,  43  cents  a  day  ;  in  1800,  62^ 
cents  ;  from  1800  to  1810,  82  cents  per  day  ;  from  1810  to 
1820,  90  cents  ;  from  1840  to  1860,  from  8714  cents  to  $i. 
Carpenters  in  1790  were  paid  less  than  60  cents  per 
day  ;  in  1800,  over  70  cents  ;  in  1810,  $1.09  ;  in  1820,  $1.13  ; 
from  1830  to  1840,  $1.40  in  the  Northern  States.    Cotton- 
mill  operatives  received  until  1830,  44  cents  per  day  ; 
just  prior  to  1840,  90  cents,  and  from  1840  to  1850,  $1.03 
per  day.      Woolen    mill  operatives  were  paid  higher 
prior  to  1830,  being  paid  $1.12.    In  1840,  carpenters  were 
paid  $1.50  per  day    in  New  York,  and  in  1891,  $3.50. 
Bricklayers  and  their  helpers  received  $1.75  and  $i 
respectively  in  1851,  and  $4  and  $2.50  in 
Earlv  Part    l8()I'    Locomotive  engineers  and  firemen 
i  4,1.1          received  $2.14  and  $i  in  1840  and  $3.77 
01  tms        and    $1.96  in   1891,   these  figures  being 
Century,      taken  from  actual  pay-rolls.    The  great 
crises  of  1837  and  1857  depressed  wage 
rates,    which     did    not    recover    before 
1860."    Comparing  wages  in  1860  and  1880,  Mr.  Wright 
•uses  the  above  referred  to  Aldrich  Senate  Report,  call- 
ing it  "a  most  excellent  one,  and  indicates  the  general 
course  of  wages  better  than  any  other  statement  yet 
made."    According  to  this,  he  says  :  "  Wages  stood  at 
£7.7  per  cent,  in  1840  as  compared  with  100  per  cent,  in 
1860 ;  in  1866  they  stood  at  152.4  per  cent,  and  in  1891  at 
1607."  "To  be  more  correct, however,"  says  Mr.  Wright, 
"the  rates  should  be  taken  in  accordance  with  the  im- 
portance of  each  industry  relative  to  all  industries.  .  . . 
On  the  latter  basis  wages  have  increased  68.6  per  cent, 
since  1860  and  86.1  per  cent,  since  1840.  ...     It  is  fair  to 
say  that  wages  in  the  leading  industries  of  the  country 
are  80  per  cent,  at  least  higher  than  they  were  in  1840. 

87 


Very  many  wages  are  double  what  they  were  at  that 
date." 

Of  prices  Mr.   Wright  says :    "  With  this   increase 
there  has  been  in  every   direction  a  decrease  in  the 
working  time  of  each  day,  and  a  general  decrease  in 
the  cost  of  living,  taking  all  articles  into 
consideration.    The  decrease  in  the  cost 
of  living,  however,  has  not  been  equal  to      Present. 
the  increase  in  wages.    Rents  are  much 
higher,   and    so    are    meats    and  some 
other  articles ;  but  taking  the  wholesale  prices  of  223 
of  the  leading  articles  ofconsumption,  it  is  found  that 
there  has  been  a  decrease  since  1860  of  about  6  per  cent." 

(b)   THE   UNFAVORABLE   VIEW. 

We  present  under  this  head  the  views  of 
those  who  hold  that  the  position  of  the  wage 
earner  at  present  is  not  improving,  and  that,  at 
least  relatively  to  the  advance  of  society,  it  is 
not  even  equal  to  what  it  formerly  was  in  eco- 
nomic status.  The  holders  of  this  view  do  not, 
indeed,  deny  that,  on  the  whole,  society  pro- 
gresses, nor  that  in  many  respects  the  position 
of  the  wage  earner  to-day  is  in  advance  of  his 
position  at  any  former  time  in  the  world's  his- 
tory ;  but  they  do  deny  that  his  position  is  what 
the  writers  above  quoted  seem  to  imply,  and 
they  do  deny  that  the  wage  earner,  generally 
speaking,  has  had  anything  like  his  fair  share 
of  the  world's  progress.  Some  of  them  even 
maintain  that  in  many  important  respects  he  is 
worse  off  than  his  fathers,  and  that  his  cause  of 
complaint  against  the  present  industrial  system 
is  based  upon  the  most  careful  estimates  of  eco- 
nomic facts.  Those  who  hold  this  view  make 
one  or  both  of  two  points.  They  show,  in  the 
first  place,  that  wages  to-day  are  not  rising  ; 
and,  secondly,  that  in  the  long  run,  even  if  his 
wages  have  risen,  the  economic  status  of  the 
laborer  is  not  by  any  means  in  all  respects  to- 
day as  favorable  as  formerly. 

The  belief  that  American  wages  have  steadily 
risen  in  recent  years  is  largely  based  on  the  Al- 
drich Senate  Report  of  1893.  It  is  on  this  re- 
port that  Mr.  Wright  bases  his  roseate  state- 
ments. Now,  this  report  is  believed  by  many 
scholars  to  be  utterly  unreliable.  Dr.  Spahr,  in 
his  Present  Distribution  of  Wealth  in  the 
United  States  (copyright  by  Thomas  Y.  Crow- 
ell  &  Co.,  New  York  and  Boston),  argues  the 
utter  worthlessness  of  its  conclusions,  and  says 
(P-  103)  : 

"The  statisticians  employed  to  summarize  the  re- 
turns were  to  a  hurtful  extent  in  sympathy  with  the 
political  aim  of  the  investigation.  This  criticism  in  no 
degree  applies  to  Mr.  Joseph  D.  Weeks,  whose  work 
is  in  the  highest  degree  conscientious  and  intelligent. 
But  Mr.  Weeks's  conclusions  are  not  embodied  in  the 
committee's  comprehensive  summary  for  '  all'  occupa- 
tions. It  is  this  summary  that  has  spread  so  much 
misinformation  throughout  the  country.  Some  of  the 
more  serious  errors  in  the  report  are  apparent  upon  a 
casual  examination.  When  any  one  at  all  familiar 
with  the  course  of  wages  in  recent  years  takes  up  the 
report,  he  is  astonished  to  see  that  the  wages  of  clerks 
in  stores  have  risen  out  of  all  proportion  to  wages  in 
other  industries.  In  the  metal  works,  as  he  would  ex- 
pect, currency  wages  are  reported  to  have  fallen  since 
1873  ;  so,  too,  in  the  cotton  factories  ;  but  in  stores, 
where  the  invasion  of  women  and  girls  is  believed  to 
have  depressed  wages  to  an  unusual  extent,  he  finds 
it  reported  that  an  advance  of  nearly  40  per  cent, 
has  taken  place.  If,  to  understand  the  anomaly,  he 
takes  the  trouble  to  consult  the  original  data,  he  dis- 
covers that  for  the  metal  works  and  cotton  factories 
the  returns  covered  many  establishments  and  many 
hundred  employees,  while  for  stores  the  returns 
covered  but  one  dry-goods  store  and  one  grocery, 
employing  together  less  than  30  clerks.  Yet  the  com- 
mittee, in  its  table  of  '  simple  averages  for  all  indus- 


Wages. 


1378 


Wages. 


tries,'  made    the  uninvestigated    industry    count   as 
much  as  either  of  the  thoroughly  investigated  ones. 
And  the  committee  did  not  stop  here.     Despite  this 
assumed  rise  of  nearly  40  per  cent,   in  the   wages  of 
clerks,  the  table   of   '  simple  averages' 
still  showed  that  currency  wages  had 
A  False  He-  fallen  4  per  cent,  since  1873.    Thereupon 
port.          tne  committee  proceeded  to  make  a  table 
of  '  weighted  averages,'  assuming  that 
the  incredible  advance  of  40  per  cent,  in 
wages  had  been  received  by  all  the  clerks  in  the  coun- 
try, and  that  since  these  outnumbered  the  employees  in 
metal  works  and  cotton  mills  put  together,  therefore 
the  returns  for  less  than  30  clerks  ought  to  outweigh 
those  for  more  than  1500  metal  workers  and  more  than 
3000  cotton  operatives.    By  this  means  currency  wages 
in  1891  were  made  to  rise  one  per  cent,  above  the  level 
in  1873. 

"  To  cut  short  the  criticism,  in  order  to  get  at  the  facts 
reported,  it  is  necessary  to  throw  away  the  work  done 
by  the  committee's  experts,  and  return  to  the  orig- 
inal reports  made  by  the  employers." 

As  we  have  seen  above  (Part  II.  of  this  arti- 
cle), accepting  the  returns  of  the  report  itself, 
Dr.  Spahr  shows  that  real  wages,  instead  of  ris- 
ing since  1873,  fell  materially  down  to  1891,  and 
in  1894  were  20  per  cent,  lower  than  in  1891. 
The  only  industries  in  which  wages  rose  be- 
tween 1873  and  1891,  according  to  the  returns 
gathered  by  the  report,  were  in  the  manufac- 
ture of  ale,  beer,  and  porter  ;  the  making  of 
carriages  and  wagons  ;  in  the  case  of  the  clerks 
of  the  two  dry-goods  and  grocery  stores  men- 
tioned above  ;  in  the  making  of  paper,  of  spice, 
and  of  woolens.  Nor  does  Dr.  Spahr  begin  to 
show  the  whole  extent  of  the  injustice  by  which 
the  experts  of  this  report  twisted  a  fall  of  wages 
into  a. rise  of  wages.  In  the  report  itself  the 
facts  showing  the  fall  of  wages  in  the  cotton 
and  metal  industries  alone  cover  686  pages, 
while  the  facts  which  the  experts  have  magni- 
fied to  overbalance  the  fall  in  wages  cover  only 
ii  pages.  Yet  it  is  on  such  a  report  that  most 
writers,  including  Mr.  Wright,  have  based  their 
statements  of  the  rise  of  wages. 

As  to  the  argument  that  while  wages  have 
risen,  the  cost  of  living  to  the  workman  has 
fallen,  this  statement  is  equally  open  to  suspi- 
cion. 

The  Aldrich  Report  (p.  9)  claims  only  a  fall  in 
the  cost  of  living  of  some  4  per  cent,  since  1860. 
It  compares  the  prices  in  1860  and  in  1891  of  the 
various  elements  of  the  cost  of  living  (in  the 
proportion  in  which  they  enter  into  a  working 
man's  expenditure),  and  calling 
those  of  1860  as  100,  it  finds  that 
Cost  of  they  stood  in  1891  as  follows  :  Rent, 
Living.  100.0;  food,  103.7;  fuel,  98.1;  light- 
ing, 48.1  ;  clothing,  75.1.  All  oth- 
ers, 95.3.  Average,  96.2.  Thus  it 
shows  that  the  price  of  food  has  risen,  but  that, 
arguing  that  rents  have  remained  stationary 
since  1860,  the  price  of  other  commodities  has 
fallen  enough  to  make  it  3.8  per  cent,  cheaper 
for  a  man  to  live  in  1891  than  in  1860.  Now, 
who  acquainted  with  city  life  believes  that  rents 
have  not  risen  since  1860?  Mr.  Wright  him- 
self admits  in  his  Johnson' 's  Cyclopedia  article, 
that  "  rents  are  much  higher."  As  for  the  other 
prices,  the  Report  says  they  are  based  on  the 
wholesale  prices.  Now,  wholesale  prices  have 
notoriously  fallen  much  more  than  retail  prices. 
Unfortunately,  the  price  of  the  workman's  loaf, 
his  fuel,  his  lighting,  and  to  a  less  extent  his  other 
expenses,  does  not  fall  with  the  wholesale  price 
of  wheat,  oil,  and  coal.  The  producers  of 


wheat,  oil,  and  coal  may  get  less  to  day,  but  the 
working  class  retail  consumer  by  no  means  al- 
ways benefits  by  the  fall  Tables  based  on 
wholesale  prices  are  utterly  misleading  so  far 
as  workmen  are  concerned.  Yet  it  is  only  on 
such  tables  that  a  lower  cost  of  living  can  be 
made  out.  And  even  with  such  calculations, 
it  should  be  noted  that  the  cost  of  food  has 
risen,  and  that  the  things  which  are  cheaper  are 
clothing,  light,  and  fuel.  The  decrease  in  fuel 
is  reported  as  only  2  per  cent,  at  wholesale.  At 
retail  it  has  probably  not  fallen.  Clothing  is  25 
per  cent,  cheaper,  but  may  be  25  per  cent,  less 
enduring.  Lighting  is  50  per  cent,  cheaper,  but 
is  only  one  item.  The  things  which  are  of  su- 
preme necessity — rent,  food,  and  fuel — have  not 
fallen.  For  the  poorest  living  is  not  cheaper. 
The  better  class  of  workmen  who  can  spend  for 
manufactured  articles  get  them  cheaper  ;  this 
is  all.  In  retail  prices,  the  workman's  wage 
does  not  go  so  far  for  the  necessities  of  life  as 
in  1860.  Even  since  1873  retail  prices  of  ne- 
cessities have  not  fallen  as  much  as  is  generally 
supposed.  Mr.  Atkinson's  and  Mr.  Wright's 
statistics  as  to  wages  are  based  on  official  re- 
ports shown  to  be  false,  and  as  to  prices  shown 
to  be  misleading. 

As  for  the  second  point,  admitting  that  wages 
are  higher  to  day  than  early  in  the  century, 
which  no  informed  scholar  denies,  it  does  not 
follow  that  the  laborer's  real  economic  status  is 
improved.  Early  in  the  century  life  was  sim- 
ple, wages  were  low,  hours  were  long.  But  the 
workman  who  was  faithful  had  a  practical  se- 
curity of  work.  He  often  lived  in  a  little  home 
of  his  own  whose  garden  could  supplement  his 
low  wage.  To-day  his  wage  is  all,  and  he  has 
no  security  of  work.  The  problem  of  the  un- 
employed is  the  pressing  problem  of  the  present 
situation.  If  hours  were  long  early  in  the  cen- 
tury, the  worker  working  at  his  little  cobbler's 
bench  or  in  a  little  shop,  where  some  one  could 
read  aloud,  had  much  more  real  opportunity  to 
develop  his  own  individuality  than  to-day,  tho 
working  at  shorter  hours,  in  crowded  factories 
amid  machinery  driven  at  its  utmost  speed.  In 
real  freedom  and  economic  status,  more  than 
wages,  therefore,  must  be  taken  into  considera- 
tion before  we  can  admit  advance.  As  for  com- 
parison with  a  remoter  past,  Mr.  Rae,  as  quot- 
ed above,  argues  that  the  working  man  is  vast- 
ly better  off  to-day  than  "  200  years  ago,  in  the 
good  old  times  socialist  writers  like  to  sing  of  ;" 
but  no  socialist  writer  sings  of  200  years  ago.  By 
exactly  picking  his  dates,  Mr.  Rae  seems  to  prove 
progress  for  the  working  classes.  Hale  and  King, 
whom  Mr.  Rae  quotes,  wrote  in  the  last  part  of 
the  seventeenth  century.  Two  hundred  years 
before  that  and  50  years  after  that  Mr.  Rae  would 
have  found  a  very  different  state  of  things.  In 
the  fifteenth  century,  before  the  English  laborer 
had  been  driven  off  from  the  land,  and  was  still 
under  a  form  of  feudal  tenure,  and  yet  no  longer 
a  serf,  he  was  in  what  Mr.  J.  E.  Thorold  Rogers 
has  called  the  "  golden  age  of  England."  In 
the  first  part  of  the  eighteenth  century,  when 
there  was  a  revival  of  handicraft  and  machinery 
was  not  developed  and  monopolized,  wages 
were  higher  than  they  were  either  immediately 
before  or  immediately  after.  It  is  to  these  times 
rather  than  to  the  seventeenth  century  that 


Wages. 


1379 


Wages. 


socialist  writers  are  apt  to  revert.  And  for  the 
view  that  compared  with  these  periods  the 
present  condition  of  the  wage  earner  is  not  so 
favorable,  they  have  good  authority.  As  for 
Great  Britain,  comparing  conditions  in  1837 
and  1897,  Sydney  Webb  says  in  Labor  in  the 
Longest  Reign  : 

"  If  we  might  sum  up  in  one  general  impression  the 
different  facts  as  to  comparative  wages,  we  should,  I 
think,  have  to  come  to  this  conclusion  :  While  the 
skilled  male  craftsman  has  largely  increased  his  in- 
come, and  a  practically  new  class  of  responsible  and 
fairly  well-paid  laborers  and  machine-minders  has 
come  into  existence,  there  exists  now  a  greater  sum, 
tho  a  smaller  proportion  of  hopeless  destitution 
than  at  any  previous  time.  It  appears,  at  any  rate, 
highly  probable  that  in  1897  there  are  positively  more 
people  in  Great  Britain  who  are  existing  at  or  near 
starvation  wages  than  there  were  in  1837,  altho 
their  number  bears  a  smaller  proportion  to  the  whole. 

"Mr.  Charles  Booth  tells  us,  in  the  effective  'elo- 
quence unadorned'  of  his  columns  of  statistics,  that 
some  32  per  cent,  of  the  whole  four  millions  of  London's 
population  fall  within  his  four  classes  of  'poverty,' 
earning  not  more  than  a  guinea  per  week  per  family. 
It  is  difficult  to  believe  that,  even  in  1837,  the  percent- 
age of  persons  at  a  corresponding  low  level  can  have 
been  greater.  It  is  practically  certain,  remembering 
the  great  increase  in  the  total  population,  that  at  no 
previous  time  were  the  actual  numbers  more  than  at 
present.  It  has  been  reserved  for  our  own  prosperous 
time  to  produce  the  spectacle  of  over  a  million  of 
people  within  one  city  living  '  in  poverty.'  And  when 
we  examine  closer  into  Mr.  Booth's  appalling  details, 
and  begin  to  realize  that  out  of  this  huge  residuum 
nearly  a  third  are  actually  below  what  can  be  called 
even  full  subsistence  for  a  London  family,  we  shall  be- 
gin to  feel  that  our  boasted  progress  since  1837  has  not, 
after  all,  taken  us  very  far.  The  300,000  Londoners 
who  fail  to  get  even  i8s.  a  week  per  family,  and  live 
in  'chronic  want,' can  never  have  been  poorer.  Their 
actual  number  in  the  much  smaller  city  of  1837  cannot 
have  been  so  great.  And  if  we  take  into  account  the 
slums  of  our  other  great  cities,  and  realize  that  we 
have  in  our  midst  a  class  of  at  lease  a  million  persons, 
besides  the  million  at  any  one  time  in  receipt  of  poor 
law  relief,  who  live  in  '  chronic  want'  of  even  the 
necessaries  of  life,  we  shall  begin  to  understand  how 
very  partial,  after  all,  has  been  our  progress. 

"  It  is  often  assumed  that  this  huge  residuum  which 
is  existing  in  our  midst  at  starvation  wages  is  made 
up  entirely  of  unskilled  laborers,  women  plying  the 
needle,  and  drunkards  and  wastrels  of  all  kinds.  But 
this  is  not  the  case.  The  unskilled  laborer,  indeed,  is 
morally  entitled  to  full  subsistence,  tho  he  does 
not  always  get  it ;  but  even  men  with  a  trade  are 
sometimes  little  better  off.  We  find  to-day  numerous 
small  classes  of  skilled  craftsmen  in  large  towns  whose 
weekly  earnings  do  not  amount  to  a  pound  a  week. 
The  Sheffield  fork-grinders,  for  instance,  working  at  a 
horribly  unhealthy  and  laborious  trade,  are  constant- 
ly found  working  at  time-work  for  i6s.  to  20^.  for  a 
full  week  of  fifty-six  hours,  subject  to  considerable  re- 
ductions for  lost  time.  Similarly  the  Sheffield  table- 
blade  grinders,  who  do  the  common  work,  do  not  get 
more  than  a  guinea  a  week  net  when  working  full 
time.  Even  in  the  comparatively  prosperous  textile 
industries  there  are  large  classes  of  men  working  as 
weavers,  card-room  operatives,  etc.,  who  do  not  make 
a  pound  a  week." 

Professor  Rogers  is  not  blindfold  to  the  con- 
ditions of  the  past,  yet  in  a  carefully  balanced 
paragraph  he  says  (Six  Centuries  of  Work 
and  Wages,  chap,  vi.)  : 

"  The  life  of  our  ancestors,  tho  laborious,  was 
not  without  its  hopes.  All  the  necessaries  of  life  in 
ordinary  years,  when  there  was  no  dearth,  were  abun- 
dant and  cheap,  and  even  in  dear  years,  the  margin  of 
wages  or  profits  over  the  bare  wants  of  life  was  con- 
siderable enough  to  fill  up  the  void,  even  tho  the 
laborer  had  to  subsist  for  a  time  on  some  cheaper  food 
than  wheaten  bread.  Meat  was  plentiful ;  poultry 
found  everywhere  ;  eggs  cheapest  of  all.  The  poorest 
and  meanest  man  had  no  absolute  and  insurmountable 
impediment  pxit  on  his  career,  if  he  would  seize  his 
opportunity  and  make  use  of  it. 

"  I  am  well  aware  that  in  many  particulars  he  was  far 
behind  his  descendants  in  the  conveniences  and  com- 
forts of  life.  His  diet,  as  I  have  allowed,  was  coarse 


tho  plentiful,  and  during  a  great  part  of  the  year  was 
unwholesome.  It  took  three  centuries  before  the 
Dutch,  who  were  for  a  long  time  the  center  of  economic 
civilization,  were  able  to  discover  and  adopt  those 
succulent  and  wholesome  roots  which  have  given 
health  to  man  by  banishing  the  loathsome  diseases  of 
the  middle  ages*  and  have  rendered  it  possible  to  im- 
prove the  breeds  of  cattle.  I  am  well  aware  that  such 
medical  skill  is  now  at  the  service  of  the  poorest  as 
princes  and  prelates  desired,  but  were  entirely  with- 
out in  the  middle  ages.  I  am  quite  familiar,  as  we  all 
are,  with  the  victories  which  human  in- 
genuity has  acquired  over  nature.  .  .  . 
I  know  that  four  grains  of  wheat  and  Progress. 
barley  or  any  other  grain  are  produced 
by  modern  tillage  when  one  was  with 
difficulty  raised  before  ;  that  the  modern  ox  has  been 
selected,  bred,  and  fed  from  400  pounds  or  less  to  1200 
pounds  or  more  ;  that  sheep,  which  once  yielded  a 
pound  of  wool  precariously,  now  produce  seven  or  nine 
pounds ;  that  the  powerful  cart  horse  has  taken  the 
place  of  the  wretched  and  stunted  pony  of  the  old 
English  breed.  ...  I  know  that  many  of  our  fellow- 
countrymen  have  exchanged  squalid  habitations  and 
uncleanly  practices  for  houses  built  by  the  newest  lights 
of  sanitary  science  and  for  fastidious  cleanliness.  I 
am  alive  to  the  fact  that  what  were  once  the  luxuries 
of  the  very  few  have  now  become  the  habitual  com- 
forts of  the  many,  and  that  enterprise  has  scoured  the 
earth  to  make  these  and  newer  luxuries  abundant  and 
cheap.  I  know  that  owing  to  the  spread  of  knowledge, 
the  adaptation  of  industry,  the  energy  of  invention, 
and  the  extension  of  trade,  the  population  of  England 
and  Wales  is  tenfold  what  it  was  six  centuries  ago, 
that  trim  gardens,  magnificent  mansions,  noble  parks, 
rows  of  banks  and  houses,  vast  and  splendid  cities, 
occupy  sites  which  were  covered  by  squalid  hovels  or 
frequented  by  wild  boars,  curlews  and  bitterns,  or 
were  marsh  fens  and  wild  moors.  I  can  see,  without 
being  reminded,  that  the  most  lofty  and  subtle,  those 
of  literature,  are  now  common  and  profuse,  and  that 
the  world  of  civilization  is  so  strong  that  there  seems 
no  possible  danger  of  its  becoming  destroyed  by  a  new 
incursion  of  barbarians,  not  even  of  those  barbarians 
whom  it  creates.  The  inhabitants  of  this  country,  at 
least  those  whom  the  historian  and  politician  think 
worth  instructing  and  consulting,  enjoy  the  refined 
pleasure  of  criticising  and,  as  many  of  them  believe, 
conducting  in  no  small  degree  the  affairs  of  their  own 
country  and  even  of  other  peoples.  ...  I  do  not 
need  to  be  told  that  the  wealth  of  London  is  such,  that 
a  single  block  of  buildings  pays  a  higher  rent  to  its 
fortunate  owner  than  was  derived  from  the  whole 
customs  of  the  port  in  the  days  of  the  Plantagenets 
and  Tudors,  that  in  a  few  hours  a  loan  could  be  raised 
in  London  sufficient  to  equip  and  provision  an  army 
more  numerous  than  all  the  men  at  arms  were  in  medi- 
eval Europe,  and  this  probably  without  deranging  the 
course  of  trade  or  materially  interfering  with  the 
functions  of  credit.  And  I  suspect  that  when  we  are 
invited  to  consider  all  these  things  and  more  of  the 
same  nature,  as  the  prodigious  strength  of  modern 
governments,  the  boundless  resources  of  modern  so- 
cieties, the  priceless  collections  of  art  and  letters,  the 
ceaseless  activities  of  enterprise  and  the  ever-increas- 
ing discrepancies  of  science,  it  is  fancied  that  a  com- 
plete answer  is  given  to  those  who  en- 
tertain misgivings  because  they  believe 
there  is  a  reverse  to  the  picture,  another  •Rfl.raren 
side  to  the  shield,  which  these  triumph-  rf  v< 
ant  eulogies  on  modern  progress  would  Picture. 
have  us  conceal  or  forget.  ...  It 
may  be  that  the  progress  of  some  has 
been  more  than  counterbalanced  by  the  distresses  and 
sorrows  of  many,  that  the  opulence  and  strength  of 
modern  times  mock  the  poverty  and  misery  which 
are  bound  up  with  and  surround  them.  ...  It  may 
be  well  the  case,  and  there  is  every  reason  to  fear  it  is 
the  case,  that  there  is  collected  a  population  in  our 
great  towns  which  equals  in  amount  the  whole  of  those 
who  lived  in  England  and  Wales  six  centuries  ago, 
but  whose  condition  is  more  destitute,  whose  homes 
are  more  squalid,  whose  means  are  more  uncertain, 
whose  prospects  are  more  hopeless  than  those  of  the 
poorest  serfs  of  the  middle  ages  and  the  meanest 
drudges  of  the  medieval  cities." 

In  another  passage  (idem,  chap,  xix.)  he  thus 
sums  up  the  economic  history  of  the  English 
laborer  in  the  following  words  : 

"  I  have  shown  that  from  the  earliest  recorded  an- 
nals, through  nearly  three  centuries  the  condition  of 
the  English  laborer  was  that  of  plenty  and  hope  ;  that 


Wages. 


1380 


Wages  of  Superintendence. 


from  perfectly  intelligible  cause  it  sunk  within  a  cen- 
tury to  so  low  a  level  as  to  make  the  workmen  prac- 
tically helpless,  and  that  the  lowest  point  was  reached 
just  about  the  outbreak  of  the  great  war  between  King 
and  Parliament.  From  this  time  it  gradually  im- 
proved, till  in  the  first  half  of  the  eighteenth  century, 
tho  still  far  below  the  level  of  the  fifteenth,  it  achieved 
comparative  plenty.  Then  it  began  to  sink  again,  and 
the  workman  experienced  the  direst  misery  during  the 
great  continental  war.  Latterly,  almost  within  our 
own  memory  and  knowledge,  it  has  experienced  a  slow 
and  partial  improvement,  the  causes  or  which  are  to  be 
found  in  the  liberation  of  industry  from  protective 
laws,  in  the  adoption  of  certain  principles  which  re- 
strained employment  in  some  directions,  and  most  of 
all  in  the  concession  to  laborers  of  the  right  so  long 
denied  of  forming  labor  partnership." 

Some  still  more  pointed  passages  from  Mr. 
Rogers' s  work  are  as  follows  : 

"  I  am  convinced  that  at  no  period  of  English  history 
for  which  authentic  records  exist  was  the  condition  of 
manual  labor  worse  than  it  was  in  the  40  years  from 
1782  to  1821,  the  period  in  which  manufacturers  and 
merchants  accumulated  fortune  rapidly,  and  in  which 
the  rent  of  agricultural  labor  was  doubled"  (chap, 
ii.).  "  I  have  stated  more  than  once  that  the  fifteenth 
century  and  the  first  quarter  of  the  sixteenth  were 
the  golden  age  of  the  English  laborer,  if  we  are  to  in- 
terpret the  wages  which  he  earned  by  the  cost  of  the 
necessaries  of  life"  (chap.  xii.).  "  The  mass  of  Eng- 
lish workmen  are  far  better  off  now  than  they  were 
10  generations  ago  ;  the  population  has  greatly  in- 
creased. But  relatively  speaking,  the  working  man  is 
not  so  well  off  as  he  was  in  the  fifteenth  century,  when 
the  population  was  not  one  tenth  of  what  it  is  now" 
(chap.  xii.).  "  I  contend  that  from  1563 
to  1824  a  conspiracy,  concocted  by  the 
Conspiracy,  law,  and  carried  out  by  parties  inter- 
ested in  its  success,  was  entered  into  to 
cheat  the  English  workman  of  his  wages, 
to  tie  him  to  the  soil,  to  deprive  him  of  hope,  and 
to  degrade  him  into  irremediable  poverty"  (chap, 
xiv.).  "  We  have  been  able  to  trace  the  process  by 
which  the  condition  of  English  labor  had  been  contin- 
uously deteriorated  by  the  acts  of  government.  It 
was  first  impoverished  by  the  issue  of  base  money. 
Next  it  was  robbed  of  its  guild  capital  by  the  land 
thieves  of  Edward's  regency.  It  was  next  brought  in 
contact  with  a  new  and  more  needy  set  of  employers, 
the  sheep  masters,  who  succeeded  the  monks.  It  was 
then  with  a  pretense,  and  perhaps  with  the  intention 
of  kindness,  subjected  to  the  quarter  sessions  amend- 
ment, mercilessly  used  in  the  first  half  of  the  seven- 
teenth century,  the  agricultural  laborer  being  still 
further  impoverished  by  being  made  the  residuum  of 
all  labor.  The  agricultural  laborer  was  then  further 
mulcted  by  inclosures,  and  the  extinction  of  those 
memorial  rights  of  pasture  and  fuel  which  he  had  en- 
joyed so  long.  The  poor  law  professed  to  find  him 
work,  but  was  so  administered  that  the  reduction 
of  his  wages  to  a  bare  subsistence  became  an  easy 
process  and  an  economical  expedient"  (chap.  xvii.). 
*'  Some  of  the  working  classes  in  London,  and  those  who 
have  been  long  educated  in  the  machinery  of  labor 
partnership,  have  at  last  regained  the  relative  rate  of 
wages  which  they  earned  in  the  fifteenth  century,  tho 
perhaps  in  some  particulars  the  recovery  is  not  com- 
plete (chap.  xix.).  "  I  make  no  doubt  the  ordinary 
hardships  of  human  life  in  England  were  greater 
and,  I  am  sure,  they  were  more  general  six  centuries 
ago  than  they  are  now.  Life  was  briefer,  old  age 
came  earlier,  disease  was  more  deadly,  the  risks  of 
existence  were  more  numerous.  But  the  extremes  of 
wealth  and  poverty  were  by  the  fact  of  these  common 
conditions  less  widely  separated.  Above  all  things, 
what  is  now  characteristic  of  human  life, 
.  that  one  half  of  the  world  does  not 

Grinding  know  how  the  other  half  lives,  a  very 
Poverty.  moderate  statement  of  the  fact,  was  not 
true  of  the  early  ages  of  English  prog- 
ress. .  .  .  The  grinding,  hopeless  pov- 
erty under  which  existence  may  be  just  continued, 
but  when  nothing  is  won  beyond  bare  existence  did 
not,  I  am  convinced,  characterize  or  even  belong  to 
medieval  life.  That  men  died  from  want  1  can  believe, 
but  I  do  not  think  that  they  lived  and  died  by  inches, 
so  to  speak.  There  were  many  means  by  which  occa- 
sional distress  was  relieved"  (chap.  xv.).  "  I  do  not 
imagine  that  the  present  privileges  and  allowances  of 
laborers  in  husbandry  are  to  be  reckoned  as  sponta- 
neous acts  of  generosity  on  the  part  of  employers,  in 
whom  I  have  never  seen  any  such  tendency,  but  sim- 
ply as  the  curtailed  and  by  no  means  equivalent  sur. 


vivals  of  much  larger  and  more  solid  advantages, 
which  could  not,  perhaps,  with  safety  be  suddenly  and 
entirely  extinguished.  It  is  probable,  too,  that  the 
wages  of  labor  were  far  more  continuous  in  agricultu- 
ral operations  than  they  are  now.  .  .  .  The  wages  of 
ordinary  agricultural  labor  earned  by  women  are  not 
more  than  a  third  of  the  amount  which  they  were  four 
centuries  ago"  (chap.  xix.). 

Alter  all  these  quotations  it  is  impossible  to 
deny  that  there  is  some  ground  for  the  socialist 
question,  whether  the  laborer  is  better  off  to- 
day than  of  old.  It  is  true  that  it  is  fashionable 
in  certain  quarters  to  question  Mr.  Rogers'  au- 
thority ;  but,  in  the  first  place,  Mr.  Rogers'  as- 
sertions are  based  on  the  study  of  thousands  of 
accounts  as  to  prices  actually  paid  and  wages 
actually  received,  preserved  in  the  musty 
archives  of  English  libraries  and  written  with- 
out the  slightest  thought  of  what  use  they 
would  be  put  to.  Mr.  Rogers,  too,  commenced 
his  study  of  them  with  views  contrary  to  those 
that  later  study  compelled  him  to  adopt.  Sec- 
ondly, Mr.  Rogers  is  not  alone  in  this  view. 
Mr.  Newmarch,  in  his  History  of  Prices,  comes 
to  substantially  the  same  conclusions,  and  most 
of  them  can  be  supported  from  Hallam's  and 
other  histories  of  the  Middle  Ages.  (See  also 
WEALTH  ;  WOMAN'S  WAGES.) 

References  :  Historical  Review  of  Wages  and  Prices, 
1752  to  1860,  by  the  Massachusetts  Bureau  of  Statistics 
of  Labor ;  The  Industrial  Evolution  of  the  United 
States,  by  Carroll  D.  Wright;  The  Present  Distri- 
bution of  Wealth  in  the  United  States,  by  C.  B.  Spahr 
(1896) ;  Statistical  Statements  by  Dr.  Robert  Gi/en 
of  the  British  Board  of  Trade  ;  Reports  of  the  British 
Board  of  Trade  Foreign  Reports  of  the  Royal  (Brit- 
ish) Commission  on  Labor. 

WAGES  OF  SUPERINTENDENCE.— 

It  is  often  forgotten  that  the  employers  of  labor 
usually,  tho  not  always,  do  important  work  them- 
selves. They  furnish  to  an  industry  the  most 
important  work  of  superintendence,  of  planning 
the  work,  of  obtaining  the  raw  material,  of  pro- 
viding the  plant  and  machinery— in  a  word,  of 
managing  the  business.  This  work  is  almost 
always  of  the  extremest  importance.  Espe- 
cially under  sharp  competition,  management  is 
sometimes  nine  tenths  of  the  element  of  suc- 
cess. It  demands  usually  large  and  varied  tal- 
ents, concentration  of  thought,  attention  to 
small  details,  and  yet  ability  to  run  the  busi- 
ness as  a  whole.  It  demands  long  hours  and 
continuous  responsibility.  The  employee  who 
works  even  long  hours,  when  his  hours  are 
over  is  free.  The  employer  is  often  never  free. 
He  sometimes  works  all  day  and  worries  all 
night.  His  work,  therefore,  is  often  long  and 
exacting,  as  well  as  of  the  utmost  importance. 
He  is,  as  such,  a  skilled  wage-worker,  and  what 
he  earns  as  such  (not  as  a  mere  capitalist,  but 
as  performing  the  work  of  superintendence)  is 
money  earned  by  hard  labor,  and  may  be,  as  it 
is  often,  called  the  wages  of  superintendence. 
It  is  often  high  wages,  but  even  so  is  often 
wholly  earned.  Socialists  do  not  object  to 
wages  of  superintendence.  They  recognize  the 
importance  of  superintendence  and  its  value  in 
production ,  only  they  would  have  it  performed 
for  the  community  and  not  for  private  stock- 
holders. The  very  same  men,  they  say,  who 
do  such  work  to-day  for  private  firms  could  do 
it  under  socialism  for  the  people,  as,  indeed, 
does  occur  when  a  railroad  goes  into  the  hands 
of  a  receiver. 


Wagner,  Adolf  Henri  Gotthilf. 


1381 


Walking  Delegate. 


WAGNER,  ADOLF  HENRI  GOTT- 
HILF, was  born  at  Erlangen  in  1835.  Study- 
ing at  the  University  o£  Heidelberg,  he  became 
in  1858  professor  in  the  Commercial  College  of 
Vienna,  and  then  at  Hamburg,  Dorpat,  Fret- 
burg,  and  since  1870  at  Berlin.  He  is  promi- 
nent as  a  leader  in  the  historical  school  of 
Germany,  and  particularly  as  a  Socialist  of  the 
Chair  (q.v.),  and  a  sympathizer  with  German 
Christian  Socialism  (y.v.).  He  is  best  known 
for  his  studies  in  finance  and  his  general 
economic  treatise.  Among  his  works  are  : 
Die  Geld  itnd  Kredtt  theorie  der  Peelschen 
Bankacte  (1862) ;  System  der  deutschen  Zet- 
telbank-Gesetsgebung  (1873)  '»  Lehrbuch  der 
polit.  Oekonomie  (1872).  (See  POLITICAL 
ECONOMY.) 

WALKER,  AMASA,  was  born  in  Wood- 
stock, Conn.,  in  1799.  Educated  in  public 
schools,  he  became  a  merchant  in  Boston  in 
1825,  and  gained  prominence  in  the  construction 
of  ihe  early  railroads,  and  also  in  the  anti  slav- 
ery and  temperance  reforms.  He  was  Profes- 
sor of  Political  Economy  in  Oberlin  College, 
Oberlin,  O.,  1842-49  ;  in  the  Massachusetts 
Legislature,  as  a  member  of  the  House  in  1848, 
and  of  the  Senate  in  1849;  Secretary  of  State, 
1851-52.  He  was  in  Congress  1 862-63 .  an<l  Lec- 
turer on  Political  Economy  at  Amherst  College, 
1861-66.  He  died  at  North  Brookfield  in  1875. 
His  most  important  work  was  The  Science  of 
Wealth  (1866). 

WALKER,    FRANCIS    AMASA,  son  of 

Amasa  Walker  (g.v.),  was  born  in  Boston,  in 
1840.  and  graduated  at  Amherst  College  in 
1860.  He  studied  law  at  Worcester,  but  entered 
the  army  in  1861  as  sergeant-major.  He  was 
constantly  promoted,  and  became  brevet  briga- 
dier-general in  1865.  He  was  wounded  at  Chan- 
cellorsville,  was  captured  at  Ream's  Station, 
and  confined  at  Libby  Prison,  where  his  health 
became  shattered.  After  the  war  he  was  teach- 
er at  Williston  Seminary,  1865-68  ;  editor  of  the 
Springfield  Republican,  1868-69  !  chief  of  the 
Bureau  of  Statistics  of  the  Treasury  Depart- 
ment at  Washington,  1869  ;  Superintendent  of 
the  ninth  United  States  Census,  1870  ;  Com- 
missioner of  Indian  Affairs,  1871-72  ;  Professor 
of  Political  Economy  and  History  in  the  Shef- 
field Scientific  School  of  Yale  College,  1872  ; 
Superintendent  of  the  tenth  United  States  Cen- 
sus, 1880  ;  and  President  of  the  Massachusetts 
Institute  of  Technology  in  Boston,  1881,  which 
position  he  held  till  his  death  in  1896.  His  main 
writings  have  been  The  Wages  Question 
(1876)  ;  Money  (1878)  ;  Political  Economy 
(1883)  ;  Land  and  its  Rent  (1883)  ;  The  Mak- 
ing of  a  Nation  (1895)  ;  International  Bimet- 
allism (1896).  He  is  best  known  in  economics 
as  the  main  originator  of  the  theory  that  wages 
depend  upon  production,  for  his  Ricardian 
views  of  rent,  and  his  advocacy  of  international 
bimetallism.  He  is  considered  by  many,  like 
Dr.  Ingram  (see  POLITICAL  ECONOMY),  as  among 
the  ablest  of  American  economists. 

WALKING    DELEGATE,    THE,  is  the 

paid  secretary  of  a  trade-union.  His  duties 
usually  are  to  pay  out  the  sick  and  out-of-work 
benefits  of  the  union  ;  to  see  that  they  are  only 


paid  to  those  really  entitled  to  them  ;  to  visit 
the  sick  members  ;  to  care  for  the  burial  of 
members  who  have  died  ;  to  try  and  secure 
work  for  members  out  of  work  (thus  often  hav- 
ing an  office  and  acting  as  an  employment  bu- 
reau) ;  to  investigate  troubles  between  mem- 
bers and  employers  ;  to  try  and  secure  redress 
from  the  employers  if  the  case  is  found  to  need 
it  ;  to  report  to  the  union  if  the  employer  will 
not  grant  redress— to  advise  the  union  whether 
or  not  it  is  advisable  to  strike ';  if  the  union  votes 
to  strike,  to  give  the  signal  to  the  members  when 
to  strike  and  to  take  charge  of  the  strike. 

It  is  this  last  duty  which  has  made  the  name 
of  the  walking  delegate  so  unpopular  with  em- 
ployers. They  see  him  give  the  signal  to 
strike  ;  at  his  signal  they  see  their  men  lay 
down  their  work  ;  the  walking  delegate  visits 
the  employer  to  represent  the  men  ;  the  em- 
ployer not  unnaturally  thinks  that  the  walking 
delegate,  who  appears  to  be,  and  often  is,  the 
leader  of  the  union,  is  the  person  who  has  stirred 
up  the  evil,  and  that  at  his  order  his  men  have 
struck.  He  therefore  thinks  that  his  men  are 
under  the  tyranny  or  at  least  the  influence  of 
this  "  paid  agitator,"  and  lays  at  his  door  most 
of  the  evil  of  the  strike. 

As  a  matter  of  fact,  in  no  trade-union  is  a 
walking  delegate  ever  allowed  to  order  a  strike. 
He  is  always  the  servant  of  the  union,  usually 
poorly  paid,  and  can  only  give  a  signal  when 
the  union  has  voted  to  strike — never  an  order. 
English  and  American  trade-unionists  are  sin- 
gularly democratic  and  jealous  of  authority. 
They  never  put  themselves  under  a  walking 
delegate. 

Employers  too  often  resent  dealing  with  their 
men  through  a  walking  delegate  ;  they  say  that 
they  wish  to  deal  with  their  men  directly.  They 
forget  that  any  body  of  men  has  unquestioned 
right  to  deal  through  a  representative.  Cor- 
porations continually  do  so.  Trade-unions  do 
so  because  they  have  learned  that  an  employee 
dependent  upon  an  employer  cannot  face  the 
employer  as  can  a  walking  delegate  who  is  in- 
dependent of  the  employer.  Hence  the  need 
and  justice  of  employing  a  walking  delegate  to 
conduct  such  negotiations.  The  walking  dele- 
gate's main  duty,  however,  is  to  care  for  the 
sick  and  out-of-work.  Strikes  come  but  rarely  ; 
the  sick  and  needy  are  always  present. 

Dr.  Rainsford,  of  New  York  City,  says  con- 
cerning walking  delegates  : 

"  I  believe  the  labor  leaders  in  the  United  States, 
taking  them  all  in  all,  are  just  as  good  as  the  leaders 
in  law  or  finance  or  society  or  politics.  ...  I  know  a 
man  who  for  years  in  this  country  has  occupied  one  of 
the  first  positions  as  a  labor  leader.  No  word  is  too 
bad  to  be  said  about  him  by  most  of  the  press  and 
some  of  the  colleges  ;  and  I  know,  as  a  matter  of  fact, 
that  the  man,  with  a  large  family  of  children,  never 
drew  but  one  half  his  salary  during  the  whole  time  he 
held  office,  and  put  the  other  half  back  into  the  treas- 
ury of  his  organization.  I  know  a  man  who,  if  my 
judgment  amounts  to  anything,  is  one  of  the  ablest 
men  in  the  United  States— a  man  who  has  great  powers 
of  tongue  and  great  powers  of  organization,  and  a 
true,  whole-souled  man,  and  altho,  alas!  he  is  out- 
side the  Christian  Church,  I  venture  to  say,  a  large, 
whole-souled  Christian,  too.  That  man  is  at  the  head 
of  an  enormous  federation  in  this  country,  and  has 
never  taken  but  two  dollars  and  fifty  cents  a  day, 
which  is  due  to  him  from  his  trade,  and  he  has  never 
taken  even  his  two  dollars  and  fifty  cents  a  day  except 
when  he  was  engaged  in  the  active  business  of  his  fed- 
eration ;  and  when  he  has  not  been  engaged  in  their 


Walking  Delegate. 


1382 


War. 


business  he  has  worked  at  his  trade  like  anybody  else. 
And  I  will  tell  you  that  this  winter,  with  an  old  mother 
to  support,  that  man  walked  the  streets  in  the  cold  for 
three  long  weeks  to  get  work  (and  there  is  no  better 
workman  at  his  trade),  because  boss  after  boss  said 
"Mr.  So  and  So,  you  are  upholding  labor  unionism, 
and  we  won't  give  you  work.'  That  man  walked  for 
three  weeks  before  he  could  get  a  job  for  two  dollars 
and  a  half  a  day.  rather  than  give  in  and  surrender  his 
principles.  I  say  that  if  our  Lord  and  King  were  back 
on  the  earth,  I  believe  from  my  soul  that  those  men 
would  be  in  His  train." 

WALLACE,  ALFRED  RUSSEL,  was 
born  at  Usk,  in  Monmouthshire,  in  1822.  In 
1848  he  visited  the  Amazon  River,  and  in  1854- 
62  the  Malaysian  Islands.  He  corresponded 
with  Darwin'as  early  as  1858,  stating  principles 
of  natural  selection.  His  first  book  on  Evolu- 
tion was  published  in  1870.  He  has  since  writ- 
ten other  books,  and  Darwinism  in  1889.  He 
early  became  interested  in  social  questions,  and 
in  1882  published  his  able  and  radical  book 
on  Land  Nationalization.,  He  has  recently 
avowed  himself  a  full  socialist. 

WALLACE,  J.  BRUCE,  was  born  in  India, 
in  1853,  his  father  being  a  missionary  there  of 
the  Presbyterian  Church.  He  was  educated  in 
Europe  and  at  Queen's  University,  Ireland,  en- 
tering the  Congregational  ministry  in  1878.  In 
1885  he  renounced  the  regular  ministry  to  de- 
vote himself  to  Christian  Socialism,  and  in  1887 
began  to  publish  a  paper,  Brotherhood,  in  Ire- 
land. In  1891  he  settled  in  London,  and  pub- 
lished Brotherhood  there.  In  1892  he  became 
pastor  of  the  South  Road  Church  (now  "The 
Brotherhood  Church").  In  January,  1894,  with 
others,  he  organized  "  The  Brotherhood  Trust" 


WAR.—  (See  ARMY  AND  NAVY  ;  INTERNA- 
TIONAL ARBITRATION,  for  their  respective  sub- 
jects.) We  give  here  some  statistics  of  the 
size  of  armies  and  the  cost  and  destructiveness 
of  wars.  Ancient  armies  were  not  usually  so 
large,  costly  or  destructive  as  modern  armies, 
tho  probably  far  more  destruction  of  life  took 
place  in  ancient  days  as  the  result  of  war  than 
in  modern  days,  because  warfare  was  far  more 
constant,  and  because  the  very  cost  and  de- 
structiveness of  modern  methods  and  engines 
of  war  have  made  the  wars  more  difficult  to  com- 
mence or  sustain.  Reliable  statistics  of  the  size 
of  ancient  armies  do  not  exist. 

According  to  Herodotus,  the  army  of  Sesostris  con- 
sisted of  200,000  infantry,  24,000  cavalry,  2700  war  char- 
iots. This  is  probably,  however,  an  exaggeration.  At 
Plataea  the  Persians  are  said  to  have  brought  into  the 
field  300,000  men,  besides  100,000  at  Mycale  the  same 
day.  The  victorious  Greeks  were  of  course  compara- 
tively but  a  handful.  Darius  had,  according  to  Qui- 
rites,  600,000  infantry,  but  this  is  almost  certainly  a  gross 
exaggeration.  Alexander  at  Arbela  is  said  to  have 
had  60,000  fighting  men.  Hannibal,  in  warring  with 
Rome,  had  100,000  men,  counting  all  Carthaginian  forces 
in  Africa,  Spain  and  Italy.  Rome  in  the  second  Punic 
war  had  100,000  men.  Under  the  empire,  the  Roman 
legions  were  vastly  multiplied,  but  scattered  over  the 
empire,  from  Britain  to  Syria,  and  from  Spain  to  the 
Danube.  The  armies  in  one  war  were  not  usually 
very  large. 

The  Middle  Ages  saw  constant  battling  rather  than 
large  armies. 

The  army  of  Napoleon  at  the  time  of  the  Russian 
campaign  was  one  of  the  largest  of  the  world,  count- 
ing in  all  1,200,000  men,  tho  of  these  only  850,000  were 
actually  in  the  field. 

Of  the  cost  and  destructiveness  of  wars  in  the 


present  century,  Mulhall's  Dictionary  of  Statis- 
tics (1892)  gives  the  following  figures  : 


Cost  in 

Millions 

Loss  of 

of  Dol- 

Life. 

lars. 

England  and  France,  1793-1815  
England,  France  and  Russia,  1854- 

$6,250 
1,525 

1,900,000 
485,000 

United  States  (Civil),  1863-65  

France  and  Germany,  1870-71  

1,580 

290,000 

The  cost  in  millions  of  dollars  and  loss  per 
year  in  these  wars  were  : 


Cost  in 

Millions 

Loss  of 

of  Dol- 

Life. 

lars. 

$272 

82,635 

England,  France  and  Russia  

508 

161,667 

United  States  (Civil)  

218,666 

145,000 

According  to  these  figures,  the  Civil  War  of 
the  Rebellion  was  per  year  the  costliest  and 
most  destructive  war  of  modern  times,  and 
probably  of  all  times.  In  absolute  cost  and  de- 
structiveness it  was  only  exceeded  by  the  wars 
between  England  and  France,  which  lasted  22 
years. 

The  War  of  the  Revolution  is  said  to  have  cost  about 
$135,000,000.    About  300,000  American  troops  were  en- 
gaged   at    various  times  during  the   war,   of  which 
130,000  were  regulars.     When  Washington  took  com- 
mand he  had  14,500  men,  and  estimated  the  British  at 
11,000,  which  was  soon  increased,  however,  to  25,000. 
Later,  General  Burgoyne  led  8000  from  Canada  and 
looo  Indians.     The   British  forces  were 
largely  Hessian  mercenaries,  for  which 
the    German  princes   were  paid    some         United 
$850  per  head ;  7000  French  aided  the  States  Wars. 
Americans.    In    the    War    of    1812,  the 
United  States  had  in  all  branches  of  the 
service  576,622  men  ;  in  the  war  with  Mexico,  112,230. 

In  the  Civil  War,  the  Northern  troops  engaged  at 
any  time  in  the  war  numbered  2,772,408.  The  Confed- 
erate troops  are  estimated  at  a  total  of  600,000  or  700,000. 
The  Northern  loss  by  deaths  in  field,  hospital,  or  else- 
where was  349,944,  or  about  13  per  cent.  The  Confed- 


erate total  loss  by  death  was  about  350,000,  or  some  50 
per  cent.  At  Gettysburg  (3  days)  the  Northern  troops 
killed  were  3070  ;  the  killed,  wounded  and  missing  were 


23,000.     At  Spottsylvania  (n   days)  the  corresponding 
numbers    were    2725  and    18,396 ;    at  the   Wilderness 
(3  days),  2246  and  17,666;  at  Antietam  (i  day),  2108  and 
12,410.    Gettysburg  was  thus  the  greatest  battle  and 
Antietam  the  bloodiest.     The  Confederate  troops  lost 
at  the  Seven  Days'  Battle  in  Virginia  3478,  and  killed, 
•wounded,  captured,  or  missing,  20,614.    At  Antietam  (in 
Q  days)  the  corresponding  figures  were  1886  and  12,601 ; 
at  Gettysburg,  2592  and  20,448  ;  at  Chickamauga,  2268 
and  116,971.    The  United  States  Ordnance  Department 
served  out  during  the  war  7892  cannon,  4,022,000  rifles, 
12,000   tons    of    powder,    and    1,022,000,000    cartridges. 
If  all  the  Confederate  loss  was  due  to  cartridges,  only 
i  cartridge  in  about  3000  killed.     In  the 
Crimean    War,   according    to   Mulhall, 
97,  S6o  British,  309,400  French,  and  165,000  Other  Wars. 
Turks    took    the    field    against    888,000 
Russians.    The  British  lost  22,182,  or  22}^ 
per    cent.  ;  the    French,  95,615,    or  31   per  cent.  ;  the 
Turks,  45,400,  or  27  per  cent.  ;  the  Russians,  446,600,  or 
50  per  cent.     In  the  Franco-German  War,  710,000  French 
took  the  field,  and  lost   138,770,  or  some  20  per  cent.  ; 
1,003,000  Germans  fought  and  lost  44,751,  or  little  over 
4  per  cent. 


Ward,  Lester  Frank. 


1383 


Wayland,  Francis. 


WARD,  LESTER  FRANK,  was  born  at 
Joliet,  111.,  in  1841.  He  attended  various 
schools,  served  in  the  Civil  War,  graduated  at 
Columbian  University  in  Washington  in  1869. 
He  has  been  chief  of  the  navigation  division 
and  librarian  of  the  United  States  Bureau  of 
Statistics  ;  chief  of  paleobotany  for  the  United 
States  Geological  Survey,  and  honorary  curator 
of  fossil  plants  in  the  national  museum.  His 
scientific  papers  number  over  400.  His  two 
works  on  sociology,  Dynamic  Sociology  (1883) 
and  The  Psychic  Factors  of  Civilization  (1893) 
are  among  the  most  learned  contributions  to 
that  science.  (See  SOCIOLOGY.) 

WARREN,  JOSI  AH,  was  born  near  Boston, 
in  1799.  Of  unusually  thoughtful  disposition, 
tho  without  great  advantages,  when  Robert 
Owen  founded  the  community  of  New  Harmony 
{q.v.}  Warren  became  interested  and  joined  it. 
Its  failure  set  him  to  thinking.  He  came  to  the 
conclusion  that  in  the  community  the  indi- 
vidual had  been  made  too  little  of,  and  that  the 
need  was  not  more  socialism,  but  more  individ- 
ualization.  He  concluded,  secondly,  that  cost 
was  the  true  basis  of  price.  (See  VALUE.) 

This  was  about  1827.  Warren  then  deter- 
mined to  test  the  cost  theory,  and  he  started  a 
store  in  Cincinnati,  which  he  conducted  for  two 
years,  doing  business  to  the  amount  of  $150,000. 
For  the  details,  see  Warren's  Practical  Details 
of  Equitable  Commerce  (now  out  of  print). 
Business  was  not  centralized  as  now,  and  the 
retailer  realized  large  profits.  Warren  marked 
his  goods  with  the  cost  and  added  7  per  cent, 
for  rent,  fuel,  etc.,  exclusive  of  the  labor  of  him- 
self and  the  employees.  This  7  per  cent,  was 
carefully  computed,  and  was  invariable,  but  it 
allowed  no  profit.  A  clock  was  kept  in  the 
store,  and  every  customer  was  timed  and 
charged  so  much  an  hour  for  the  time  of  the 
salesman.  The  charge  for  time  was  reduced 
with  the  increase  of  business.  Finally  Warren 
issued  his  own  money  in  the  shape  of  labor 
notes,  which  he  exchanged  for  the  labor  notes 
of  his  customers.  His  notes  became  a  popular 
circulating  medium. 

The  experiment  satisfied  him,  and  he  closed 
his  store,  and  later  published  his  principal  work, 
True  Civilization  (1846).  Warren  set  the  type 
for  it  himself. 

Warren  next  went  to  Ohio  and  started  a  com- 
munity based  on  his  ideas.  He  converted  Ste- 
phen Pearl  Andrews  (q.v.}.  Later  he  founded 
Modern  Times,  a  community  on  Long  Island, 
but  neither  community  prospered.  He  then 
lived  a  sort  of  hermit  life,  partly  in  Princeton, 
Mass.,  and  died  at  Charlestown  in  1874.  He  is 
considered  by  the  philosophical  anarchists,  as 
with  Proudhon,  the  founder  of  their  system 
of  thought.  (See  ANARCHISM.) 

WASHINGTONIAN      MOVEMENT.  — 

This  celebrated  moral  suasion  crusade  had  its 
origin  in  the  reformation  of  a  Baltimore  drink- 
ing club  of  six  men — W.  K.  Mitchell,  a  tailor  ; 
J.  F.  Hoss,  a  carpenter  ;  David  Anderson  and 
George  Steers,  blacksmiths  ;  James  McCurley, 
a  coachmaker,  and  Archibald  Campbell,  a  sil- 
versmith. They  were  induced  to  change  their 
habits  by  the  address  ot  a  temperance  lecturer, 


and  signed  the  following  pledge  (April  6,  1840)  : 
"  We,  whose  names  are  annexed,  desirous  of 
forming  a  society  for  our  mutual  benefit,  and 
to  guard  against  a  practice — a  pernicious  prac- 
tice— which  is  injurious  to  our  health,  standing, 
and  families,  do  pledge  ourselves,  as  gentlemen, 
that  we  will  not  drink  any  spirits  or  malt 
liquors,  wine,  or  cider." 

They  took  the  name  of  ' '  The  Washington 
Temperance  Society,"  and  were  familiarly 
known  as  "  Washingtonians."  By  the  end  of 
1840  this  Baltimore  organization  had  700  mem- 
bers ;  and  under  the  leadership  of  John  H.  W. 
Hawkins,  the  most  prominent  Washingtonian 
agitator,  the  crusade  spread  to  other  cities  and 
States.  Its  force  was  spent  by  1843,  but  the 
energy  developed  by  it  was  of  great  and  last- 
ing benefit  to  the  general  temperance  cause. 

WATERED  STOCK.  See  STOCK  WATER- 
ING. 

WATER-WORKS,     MUNICIPAL,     are 

almost  the  only  instance  in  which  the  United 
States  is  in  advance  of  Europe  in  adopting  the 
principle  of  public  ownership.  The  first  water- 
works in  the  United  States  were  built  at  Boston 
in  1652  by  the  Water- Works  Company.  The 
second  were  built  at  Bethlehem,  Pa.,  in  1761. 
By  1800  there  were  16,  only  one  being  owned 
by  the  public.  In  1890,  of  the  1878  works  in  the 
United  States,  806,  or  43  per  cent.,  were  owned 
by  cities. 

The  average  rates  charged  private  consumers 
by  430  companies,  as  shown  by  the  Manual  of 
American  Water-Works  for  1889-90,  were  43 
per  cent,  higher  than  those  charged  by  318  cities 
for  the  same  service.  Many  of  these  water- 
works are  very  profitable. 

For  New  York  City,  Mayor  Strong,  in  his 
message  concerning  the  Department  of  Public 
Works  (1897),  makes  the  following  report  from 
the  Bureau  of  Watei1- Register  : 

"  For  the  first  time  in  the  history  of  the  city 
the  revenue  collected  last  year  from  water  rents 
was  more  than  enough  to  reimburse  the  city  for 
the  entire  outlay  of  the  Department  of  Public 
Works,  which  is  taken  from  taxation.  To  ex- 
press it  in  another  way,  our  water  rents  paid  for 
road  pavements,  street  lighting,  care  of  and  re- 
pairs to  the  entire  water  system,  care  of  and  re- 
pairs to  public  buildings,  salaries,  wages,  and 
all  other  administrative  expenses." 

The  report  of  the  Water  Department  of  Chi- 
cago for  1897  shows  that  the  receipts  were 
$3,226,000  and  the  operating  expenses,  $285,000, 
leaving  net  earnings  of  $2,941,000.  The  invest- 
ment in  the  Chica,go  Water- Works,  according 
to  the  New  York  Sun,  was  $28,000,000,  so  that, 
besides  interest  on  bonds  for  this  amount,  the 
net  profits  are  $1,500,000.  The  public  also  re- 
ceives free  water  in  its  parks,  streets,  and  pub- 
lic buildings.  (For  water-works  in  Europe,  see 
articles  BERLIN  ;  BIRMINGHAM  ;  GLASGOW  ;  LON- 
DON ;  PARIS.) 

WAYLAND,  FRANCIS,  was  born  in  New 
York  in  1796,  and  graduated  at  Union  College 
in  1813.  He  studied  medicine,  but  later  entered 
the  Baptist  ministry.  He  was  tutor  at  Union 
College,  1817-21  ;  pastor  of  the  First  Baptist 


Wayland,  Francis. 


1384 


Wealth. 


Church  in  Boston,  1821-26  ;  President  of  Brown 
University,  1827.  He  died  in  1865.  His  socio- 
logical writings  are  :  Elements  of  Moral  Sci- 
ence (1835)  ;  Elements  of  Political  Economy 
(1837). 

WEALTH. — We  consider  this  subject  under 
four  heads :  I.  Definitions ;  II.  Statistics  of 
Wealth  ;  III.  The  Concentration  of  Wealth  ; 
IV.  Is  the  Concentration  of  Wealth  Increasing 
or  Decreasing  ? 

I.  DEFINITIONS. 

Wealth  is  usually  denned  in  economic  science 
as  "  useful  or  agreeable  things  which  possess 
exchangeable  value"  (Mill).  Of  this  definition 
Mill  says  {Political  Economy,  "  Preliminary 
Remarks")  : 

"  Things  for  which  nothing  could  be  obtained  in  ex- 
change, however  useful  or  necessary  they  may  be,  are 
not  wealth  in  the  sense  in  which  the  term  is  used  in 
political  economy.  Air,  for  example,  tho  the  most  ab- 
solute of  necessaries,  bears  no  price  in  the  market,  be- 
cause it  can  be  obtained  gratuitously  ;  to  accumulate 
a  stock  of  it  would  yield  no  profit  or  advantage  to  any 
one  ;  and  the  laws  of  its  production  and  distribution 
are  the  subject  of  a  very  different  study  from  political 
economy.  But  tho  air  is  not  wealth,  mankind  are 
much  richer  by  obtaining  it  gratis,  since  the  time  and 
labor  which  would  otherwise  be  required  for  supply- 
ing the  most  pressing  of  all  wants  can  be  devoted  to 
other  purposes.  It  is  possible  to  imagine  circumstances 
in  which  air  would  be  a  part  of  wealth." 

Senior's  definition  of  wealth,  quoted  by  Jevons 
(Theory  of  Political  Economy,  p.  175),  is  the 
same,  that  wealth  consists  of  "  those  things  and 
those  things  only  which  are  transferable,  are 
limited  in  supply,  and  are  directly  or  indirectly 
productive  of  pleasure  or  preventive  of  pain." 

On  the  other  hand,  many  reform  writers  iden- 
tify wealth  with  well-being  on  the  ground  that 
it  is  impossible  to  divorce  immaterial  factors 
from  material  factors,  and  still  be  true  to  the 
facts  of  life.  John  Ruskin,  e.g. ,  argues  that  no 
article  is  useful  except  to  those  who  can  use 
it.  Hence  he  says  : 

"Wealth,  therefore,  is  '  the  possession  of  the  valua- 
ble by  the  valiant ;'  and  in  considering  it  as  a  power 


existing  in  a  nation,  the  two  elements,  the  value  of  the 
thing  and  the  valor  of  its  possessor,  must  be  estimated 
together.  Whence  it  appears  that  many  of  the  persons 
commonly  considered  wealthy  are  in  reality  no  more 
wealthy  than  the  locks  of  their  own  strong  boxes  are. 
they  being  inherently  and  eternally  incapable  of 
wealth,  and  operating  for  the  nation,  in  an  economical 
point  of  view,  either  as  pools  of  dead  water  and  eddies 
in  a  stream  (which,  so  long  as  the  stream  flows,  are 
useless,  or  serve  only  to  drown  people,  but  may  be- 
come of  importance  in  a  state  of  stagnation,  should  the 
stream  dry)  ;  or  else  as  dams  in  a  river,  of  which  the 
ultimate  service  depends  not  on  the  dam,  but  the  mil- 
ler j  or  else  as  mere  accidental  stays  and  impediments, 
acting  not  as  wealth,  but  (for  we  ought  to  have  a  cor- 
responding term)  as  '  illth,'  causing  various  devasta- 
tion and  trouble  around  them  in  all  directions  ;  or 
lastly,  act  not  at  all,  but  are  merely  animated  con- 
ditions of  delay  (no  use  being  possible  of  anything 
they  have  until  they  are  dead),  in  which  last  condition 
they  are  nevertheless  often  useful  as  delays  and  'im- 
pedimenta,' if  a  nation  is  apt  to  move  too  fast." 

Some  writers  on  reform  distinguish  between 
riches  and  wealth.  Says  G.  Bernard  Shaw  in 
the  Fabian  Essays  : 

"  It  is  sometimes  said  that  during  this  grotesquely 
hideous  march  of  civilization  from  bad  to  worse, 
wealth  is  increasing  side  by  side  with  misery.  Such  a 
thing  is  eternally  impossible  ;  wealth  is  steadily  de- 
creasing with  the  spread  of  poverty.  But  riches  are 
increasing,  which  is  quite  another  thing.  The  total  of 
the  exchange  values  produced  in  the  country  annually 
is  mounting  perhaps  by  leaps  and  bounds!  But  the 
accumulation  of  riches,  and  consequently  of  an  ex- 
cessive purchasing  power,  in  the  hands  of  a  class, 
soon  satiates  that  class  with  socially  useful  wealth, 
and  sets  them  offering  a  price  for  luxuries.  The  mo- 
ment a  price  is  to  be  had  for  a  luxury,  it  acquires  ex- 
change value,  and  labor  is  employed  to  produce  it.  A 
New  York  lady,  for  instance,  having  a  nature  of  ex- 
quisite sensibility,  orders  an  elegant  rosewood  and 
silver  coffin,  upholstered  in  pink  satin,  for  her  dead 
dog.  It  is  made  ;  and  meanwhile  a  live  child  is  prowl- 
ing barefooted  and  hunger-stunted  in  a  frozen  gutter 
outside.  The  exchange- value  of  the  coffin  is  counted 
as  part  of  the  national  wealth  ;  but  a  nation  which 
cannot  afford  food  and  clothing  for  its  children  cannot 
be  allowed  to  pass  as  wealthy  because  it  has  provided 
a  pretty  coffin  for  a  dead  dog." 

"II.  STATISTICS  OK  WEALTH. 
The  census  valuation  of  real  and   personal 
property  in  the  United  States  (Alaska  excluded) 
in  1890  was  as  follows  : 


STATES  AND  TERRITORIES. 

Total. 

Real  Estate 
with 
Improvements 
Thereon. 

Live  Stock 
on  Farms, 
Farm  Imple- 
ments and 
Machinery. 

Mines  and 
Quarries, 
including 
Product  on 
Hand. 

Gold  and 
Silver, 
Coin  and 
Bullion. 

The  United  States  

$39.544.544.333 

$2,703,015,040 

$1,291,291,579 

$1,158,774,948 

North  Atlantic  Division  

$13,905,274,364 

$430,770,756 

South  Atlantic  Division  
North  Central  Division  

5,132,980,666 

2,923,418,932 
15,125,481,180 

198,075,819 

61,415,252 

140.731.53° 

South  Central  Division  

3,538,805,433 

409,372,600 

Western  Division  

4,051,564,424 

217,324,288 

70,178.250 

STATES  AND  TERRITORIES. 

Total. 

Machinery  of 
Mills  and 
Product  on 
Hand, 
Raw  and 
Manufactured 

Railroads  and 
Equipments, 
including 
Street 
Railroads. 

Telegraphs, 
Telephones, 
Shipping,  and 
Canals. 

Miscellaneous. 

The  United  States  

$3,058,593,441 

$8,685,407,323 

$7,893,708,821 

North  Atlantic  Division        

$2,  747,  gc  8,  117 

South  Atlantic  Division  

608,705,689 

North  Central  Division  

3,103,737,392 

South  Central  Division     

53,994,196 

760,494,116 

Western  Division  

1,070,003,038 

59,920,460 

672.773.507 

Wealth. 


1385 


Wealth. 


The  following  estimate  of  the  nation's  income     on  The  Present  Distribution  of  Wealth  of  the 
for  1890  is  made  by  Dr.  C.  B.  Spahr  in  his  book      United  States  (1896) : 


NATIONAL  INCOME,  1890. 


INDUSTRY. 

Number 
Engaged. 

Method  of  Reckoning  Income. 

Wages. 

Profits. 

Total  Income, 

Agriculture  

8,497,000 
350,000 

5,091,000 
(4,650,000 
Wage 
Earners) 
462,000 

2,863,000 
342,000 
88,000 

195,000 

320,000 
3,357,000 
1,172,000 

Includes  $140,000,000  house  rent*  .. 
Wages  at    $370    (official    estimate 
for  coal  miners)  ;    profits,    etc., 
60  per  cent,  of  wages,  as  in  i88ot. 

Wages,    $360  ;    profits,    etc.,    two 
thirds,  as  in  Massachusetts^  

Net    profits    official,   wages,    etc., 
same  per  cent,  as  in  1880  

$130,000,000 
1,674,000,000 

300,000,000 

$2,600,000,000 
210,000,000 
2,790,000,000 

630,000,000 

1,570,000,000 
86,000,000 

80,000,000 

234,000,000 
260,000,000 
670,000,000 
470,000,000 

1,200,000,000 

Mines    

$80,000,000 
1,116,000,000 

331,000,000 

Manufactures  and    me- 
chanical trades  

Railroads        

Others     in      trade      or 
transportation  

Net  product  the  same  per  head, 
as  in  manufactures  

Teachers  

Wages   at    $250  (official    estimate 
1889,  $230  for  public  schools)§  — 
Salaries  at  $900  ;  official  estimate 
for    Methodist    Church,    North, 
$843  -f-  $53  fees!|  .•  



Ministers  

Physicians  and  lawyers. 

Earnings     one  third     more    than 
ministers,  or  $1,200^  

Earnings  at  $800    

.Servants  and  laborers.. 

Earnings  at  $400  

Urban   real    estate  (ex- 
cluding    stores      and 

Six  and  two  thirds  per  cent,  on 
estimated  value**  

i  22,735,000 

$10,800,000,000 

*  In  agriculture  the  cost  of  seed,  fertilizers,  etc.,  and  the  expenses  for  stock  and  implements,  are  offset  by 
fuel  and  betterments. 

t  It  is  true  that  miners'  wages  are  not  net.  (The  Iowa  Labor  Report  for  1890-1891  estimates  the  cost  of  powder, 
smithing,  and  oil  at  about  one-fifth  of  nominal  wages.)  Nevertheless,  the  average  wages  of  coal-miners  are 
exceptionally  low. 

%  In  the  building  trades,  wages  are  much  higher  than  in  manufactures,  but  profits  are  much  less.  The  net 
product  per  hand  is  about  the  same. 

§  Teachers'  wages  are  often  for  a  very  few  months'  employment. 

II  Ministers'  salaries  in  the  Congregational  Church  average  $1047.  Nevertheless,  in  the  great  denominations, 
especially  those  strong  in  the  South  and  among  the  negroes,  salaries  are  very  much  lower. 

1  Physicians'  incomes  are  estimated  somewhat  higher  than  this  by  Dr.  George  F.  Shrady  (Forum,  1894),  who 
makes  $1200  the  average  outside  the  cities.  It  seems  probable,  however,  that  Dr.  Shrady  had  in  mind  only  the 
East  and  North. 

**  From  the  value  of  non-agricultural  real  estate  ($26,000,000,000)  must  be  subtracted  about  $2,650,000,000  for 
factories  and  shops,  as  much  more  for  stores,  and  a  third  sum  of  nearly  equal  magnitude  for  untaxed  property 
— chiefly  public.  The  total  income  from  house  and  office  rents,  as  estimated  in  the  text,  is  one  seventh  of  the 
total  income  of  the  non-agricultural  population. 


FOREIGN   HOLDINGS   OF   AMERICAN   WEALTH. 

Respecting  the  foreign  holdings  of  American 
wealth,  the  most  careful  estimate,  perhaps,  is 
that  made  by  M.  Georges  Martin,  and  published 
in  the  Journal  of  the  Statistical  Society  of 
Paris,  April,  1891,  It  relates  only  to  the  securi- 
ties quoted  on  European  exchanges  ;  but  such 
securities  represent  the  great  body  of  American 
property  held  abroad.  The  estimate  is  briefly 
as  follows  : 

222    SECURITIES     QUOTED    EXCLUSIVELY    IN 
EUROPE. 

Asrereeate  Value     EuJ°Pe's  Share      Europe's  Share 
ue-       of  Principal.  of  Interest. 

$694,000,000  $694,000,000  $34,700,000 

267  SECURITIES   QUOTED    ALSO    IN    AMERICA. 

STOCKS  AND    BONDS,  INCLUDING 

STATE    BONDS. 

.  4.    -tr  1          Europe's  Share      Europe's  Share 

Aggregate  Value.       of  J^p^  of  fnterest. 

(  $1,079,000,000  (min.)    $54,000,000 
$3, 238,000,000  •<        to  to 

(    $1,619,000,000  (max,)        $81,000,000 


FEDERAL    BONDS. 

Ac-e-ree-ate  Value     Europe's  Share      Europe's  Share 
Aggregate  value.       of  Principal-  of  Interest. 


$735,000,000 


ipal. 
$73i5°°>°°° 


AGGREGATE 

PRINCIPAL. 

From  $1,846,000,000 

To       $2,386,000,000 


$3,000,000 

AGGREGATE 

INTEREST. 
From  $91,700,000 
To     $118,700,000 


THE  MINIMUM  DEBT  OF   THE   UNITED  STATES,  1890. 

Estimate  of  Mr.  George  K.  Holmes,  the  head 
of  the  Bureau  of  Mortgages  (Political  Science 
Quarterly,  1893)  : 

Railroad  companies  (funded  debt) $4,631,473,184. 

Street  railway  companies  (funded  debt). .        151,872,289 
Telephone  companies  (funded  debt). .     ..  4,992,565 
Telegraph,    public    water,    gas,    electric 
lighting    and    power    companies    (esti- 
mated)         200,000,000 

Other  quasi-public  corporations  (to  make 
round  total) 


Total  debt  of  quasi-public  corpora- 
tions ...  


11,661,962 


;,  000,000,000 


Wealth. 


1386 


Wealth. 


Real  estate  mortgages  (estimated) 

Crop  liens  in  the  South  (estimated) 

Chattel  mortgages  (estimated) 

National  banks  (loans  and  overdrafts) — 
Other  banks  (loans  and  overdrafts,  not  in- 
cluding real  estate  mortgages) 1,172,918,415 

Other  private  debts  (to  make  round  total)     i,  191,023,265 

Total  debt  of  other  private  corpora- 
tions and  individuals $11,000,000,000 

Total  private  debt $16,000,000,000 


States 

Counties  

Municipalities  

School  districts  , 

1,172.018.415 

Total  public  debt  (less  sinking  fund)  $2,027,170,546 


Grand  total $18,027,170,546 


ESTIMATED  WEALTH  OP  THE  NATION-i82S-97. 
(In  Millions  of  Dollars.) 

Wealth  from  1825  to  1870  estimated  by  the  Director  of  the  Mint,  Report  for  1881,  p.  321  ;  from  1870  to  1897,  esti- 
mated by  G.  B.  Waldron,  in  Handbook  of  Currency  and  Wealth,  except  for  census  years  1880  and  1890. 


Year. 

Wealth. 

Year. 

Wealth. 

Year. 

Wealth. 

Year. 

Wealth. 

Year. 

Wealth. 

1840  

1855  

11,488 

1870  .... 

885  

1826 

1841  

1856  

886  

55,138 

1827   

3,484 

1842  

5,563 

1857  

13,318 

1872  

29,164 

887  

1828 

1843  

5,739 

1858  

1873  

30,618 

888  

59,883 

3  708 

1844  

1859  

1874  

889  

18/1? 

1860  

1875  

890  .  .   .  . 

!846  

1861  

1876  

891  

67,778 

18,17 

t862  

1877.  .  .  . 

802.  . 

1848.  .  .  . 

1863.. 

18,838 

1878..   .. 

893  

4) 

6,918 

1864  

1879  

894  

1850  

j86s  

1880  

895  

Tft^fi 

1851  

7,981 

1866  

21,869 

1881  

44,856 

896  

83,315 

4i 

-8,838 

1867 

1882     .. 

897     .... 

86  825 

1838 

18=;}   .. 

9,708 

1868  

24,086 

1883  

48,716 

5  066 

i8<;i 

1869  

1884  

*  On  a  gold  basis. 


In  an  article  in  The  North  American  Re- 
view for  June,  1895,  Mr.  M.  G.  Mulhall,  the 
English  statistician,  gathers  the  following  re- 
sults from  the  census  figures  of  the  United 
States  from  1850-90  : 

"  If  we  would  classify  the  whole  wealth  of  the 
Union  under  two  heads,  urban  and  rural,  the  result  at 
different  dates  would  be  as  follows  : 

URBAN  AND  RURAL  WEALTH  OF  THE  NATION. 


YEARS. 

MILLIONS  OF  DOLLARS. 

PERCENTAGE 
OF  TOTAL. 

Urban. 

Rural. 

Total. 

Urban. 

Rural. 

-1850  

3^69 
8,180 
I5>i55 
3L538 
49,055 

3,967 
7,980 
8,900 
12,104 
15,982 

7*136 
16,160 

24.055 
43,642 
65.037 

44-4 
50.6 
63.0 

72.2 
75-4 

55-  6 
49.4 
37-o 
27.8 
24.6 

1860  
1870  

x88o  

3890  

"In  the  table  rural  wealth  is  the  aggregate  of  the 
value  of  lands,  cattle,  and  implements  at  each  cen- 
sus ;  the  rest  is  urban.  We  find  that  rural  or  agricul- 
tural wealth  has  only  quadrupled  in  40  years,  while  ur- 
ban has  multiplied  sixteenfold.  This  would  seem  to 
point  to  the  conclusion  that  farming  has  not  been  so  prof- 
itable as  commerce,  manufactures,  banking,  railways, 
and  other  pursuits.  But  it  is  to  be  observed  that  in  late 
years  the  increase  of  urban  population  has  been  much 
greater  than  that  of  rural,  and  that  the  number  of 
hands  engaged  in  agriculture  is  bv  no  means  compara- 
ble with  that  of  persons  engaged  in  city  or  town  life. 
The  following  table  shows  the  increase  of  wealth  per 
head  in  the  two  great  classes  that  make  up  the  Ameri- 
can people. 

"  Before  1860  the  accumulation  of  wealth  for  each 
rural  worker  was  much  greater  than  that  correspond- 
ing to  persons  of  the  urban  classes.  Between  1860  and 
1870  the  farming  interests,  especially  in  the  Southern 
States,  suffered  so  severely  by  reason  of  the  war  that 
the  increase  per  head  fell  below  $18  yearly  ;  but  dur- 
ing the  last  20  years  the  increment  of  rural  wealth 
has  been  almost  uniform  at  $47  per  head  per  an- 
num of  the  number  of  rural  workers.  Looking  back 
to  1870,  we  find  that  since  that  year  the  accumulation 
of  wealth  among  urban  workers  has  averaged  over  $82 
per  annum,  or  73  per  cent,  more  than  among  rural 
workers,  which  suffices  to  explain  the  influx  of  popu- 
lation into  towns  and  cities." 


ANNUAL  ACCUMULATIONS  BY  URBAN  AND  RURAL  WORKERS. 


PERIODS. 

NUMBER  OF  WORKERS. 

YEARLY  ACCUMULATION, 
MILLIONS  OF  DOLLARS. 

PER  WORKER, 
YEARLY. 

Urban. 

Rural. 

Totals. 

Urban. 

Rural 

Totals. 

Urban. 

Totals. 

1851-60  

11,216,000 
14,462,000 
18,183,000 
23,905,000 

3,820,000 

5,133,000 
6,797,000 
8,215,000 

15,036,000 
19,595,000 
24,980,000 
32,120,000 

501 
698 
1,638 
1,752 

401 
92 
320 
388 

Q02 
790 
1,958 
2,140 

$44.70 
48.30 
90.00 
73-3° 

$15.00 
17.90 
47.10 
47-3° 

1871  80  

1881-90  

Wealth. 


1387 


Wealth. 


Per  Capita  Wealth. 

The  total  wealth  of  the  United  States  as  given  by 
the  census  ir.  round  numbers  is  $65,000,000,0000,  or 
about  $1000  per  head,  or,  reckoning  five  to  a  family, 
$5000  per  family.  The  total  income  is  reckoned  by 
Dr.  Spahr  at  $10,800,000,000,  or  about  $431  for  each  per- 
son engaged  in  remunerative  business,  including  men. 
wonien  and  children.  For  what  men  do  earn,  see 
article  WAGES.  Men's  wages  are  usually  above  the 
average,  if  skilled,  because  women  and  unskilled  la- 
borers receive  less. 

GREAT    BRITAIN. 

The  (English)  Fabian  Tract,  No.  5,  revised 
edition  (1895),  says  : 

"  The  annual  income  of  the  United  Kingdom  was  esti- 
mated by  the  following  authorities  at  from  twelve  to 
thirteen  hundred  million  pounds  sterling  ;  or,  the  pop- 
ulation in  1881  being  nearly  35,000,000,  about  ^35  per 
head,  or  £140  per  adult  man.*  In  184011  was  about  £20%, 
and  in  1860,  £26$  per  head  (Mr.  Mulhall,  Dictionary  of 
Statistics,  p.  245):  Sir  Louis  Mallet,  K.C.S.I.  (India 
Office),  1883-84,  National  Income  and  Taxation  (Cob- 
den  Club),  p.  23,  ^1,289,000,000  j  Professor  Leone  Levi 
(King's  College,  London),  Times,  January  13,  1885, 
£i, 274,000,000  ;  Mr.  R.  Giffen  (Board  of  Trade),  Essays 
in  Finance,  vol.  ii.,  pp.  460,  472  (1886),  ,£1,270,000,000 ; 
Mr.  Mulhall,  1892,  Dictionary  of  Statistics,  p.  320, 
income  for  1889,  .£1,285,000.000;  Professor  A.Marshall 
(Cambridge  University),  Report  of  Industrial  Remu- 
neration Conference,  p.  194  (January,  1885),  upward 

Of  ,£1,125,000,000. 

"  Since  these  estimates  were  made  the  gross  assess- 
ments to  income  tax  have  risen  (1882-83  to  l892^?s) 
by  £99)345i°4i  (Statistical  Abstract,  C— 7143,  and  In- 
land Revenue  Report,  1893-94,  ^ — 7557)-  Allowing  for 
a  corresponding  rise  in  the  incomes  not  assessed  and 
in  the  wages  of  manual  labor,  we  may  estimate  the 
income  for  1893-94  at  not  less  than  .£1,450,000,000.  The 
population  has  risen  from  34,884,848  in  1881  to  37,731,915 
in  1891. 

"These  figures  (which  are  mainly  computed  from 
income-tax  returns  and  estimated  average  rates  of 
wages)  mean  that  the  price  in  money  of  the  commod- 
ities and  services  produced  in  the  country  during  the 
whole  course  of  a  year  was  about  ,£152  per  adult  man.t 
Most  of  these  commodities  and  services  were  used  up 
within  that  period  in  maintaining  the  37,000,000  inhab- 
itants, and  Mr.  Giffen  estimates  that  about  .£200,000,- 
ooo  is  '  saved'  annually  Essays  in  Finance,  vol.  ii., 
p.  407).  The  bulk  of  this  'saving'  exists  in  the  form 
of  new  railways,  houses,  roads,  machinery,  and  other 
aids  to  future  labor.  .  .  . 

(a)  Rent. 

"  The  total  '  gross  annual  value'  of  lands,  houses, 
tithes,  etc.,  as  assessed  for  income  tax  in  1892-93,  was 
.£202,710,218  ;  the  rents  of  mines,  quarries,  ironworks, 
gasworks,  waterworks,  canals,  fishings;  shootings, 
markets,  tolls,  etc.,  amounted  to  £28,576,080  (Inland 
Revenue  Report,  1893-94,  C— 7557).  Many  of  these  are 
far  from  being  fully  assessed,  and  the  total  '  rent'}:  of 
the  United  Kingdom  must,  therefore,  exceed  two  hun- 
dred and  thirty  millions  sterling,  or  nearly  one  sixth  of 
the  total  produce. 

(b)  Interest. 

"The  profits  of  public  companies,  foreign  invest- 
ments, railways,  etc.,  assessed  to  income  tax  in  the 
United  Kingdom  in  1892-3,  amounted  to  £139,496,934.  The 
interest  payable  from  public  funds  (rates  and  taxes) 
was,  in  addition,  .£45,470,978  (Inland  Revenue  Report, 
1893-94,  C— 7557). 


*  It  has  been  assumed  throughout  that  one  person  in 
every  four  is  an  adult  male,  and  that  there  are,  on  an 
average,  five  persons  to  each  family  group. 

t  It  inay  be  observed  that  the  estimated  amount  of 
"  money"  or  currency  in  the  country  is  about  £130,000,- 
ooo,  or  under  £4  per  head,  including  bank  notes.  Gold 
coin  and  bullion,  between  £80,000,000  and  .£100,000,000  ; 
silver  and  bronze,  £15,000,000 ;  bank  notes,  beyond 
gold  reserves,  £24,000,000  (W.  S.  Jevons,  Investiga- 
tions in  Currency  and  Finance,  p.  272  ;  Report  of  Dep- 
uty-Master of  the  Mint,  i88p  ;  Mr.  Goschen  s  Speech  on 
Second  Reading  of  the  Coinage  Act, "1891). 

\  In  1843  this  total  was  (for  Great  Britain  only)  £95,- 
284,497  ;  in  1855  (for  the  United  Kingdom),  £124,871,885. 


"  That  these  amounts  are  understated  may  be  in- 
ferred from  Mr.  Mulhall's  estimate  of  the  stocks,  shares, 
bonds,  etc.,  held  in  Great  Britain  alone,  as  being  worth 
.£2,655,000,000,  producing  an  annual  income  of  upward 
of  £122,000,000  (Dictionary  of  Statistics,  p.  106).  Sir 
Louis  Mallet  estimates  the  English  income  from 
foreign  investments  alone  at  ,£100,000,000  annually 
(National  Income  and  Taxation  [Cobden  Club],  p. 
13),  and  later  returns  show  that  this  estimate  must  be 
increased  by  £20,000,000.*  Nearly  the  whole  of  this 
vast  income  may  be  regarded  as  being  received  with- 
out any  contemporary  services  rendered  in  return  by 
the  owners  as  such. 

"  We  have,  however,  to  add  the  interest  on  capital 
employed  in  private  undertakings  of  manufacture  or 
trade.  This  is  included  with  '  wages  of  superinten- 
dence' in  business  profit,  both  for  the  purpose  of  the 
income-tax  returns  and  in  ordinary  speech.  Mr.  Giffen 
estimated  it  in  1884,  apart  from  any  earnings  of  person- 
al service,  at  ^80,000,000  (Essays  in  Finance,  vol.  ii., 
p.  403).  Allowing  for  the  increase  since  then,  the  total 
amount  of  interest  cannot  therefore  be  less  than  ^280,- 
000,000. 

"  Adding  hereto  the  rent  mentioned  in  the  preceding 
section,  we  have  a  total  of  £510,000,000  for  rent  and  in- 
terest together.  This  estimate  receives  support  from 
the  fact  that  the  amount  under  these  heads  actually 
assessed  for  income  tax  was  in  1892-03,  ,£400,000,000 
(Inland  Revenue  Report,  C— 7557).  It  has  often  been 
stated  by  the  Commissioners  of  Inland  Revenue  that 
large  amounts  of  interest  escape  assessment,  and  it  is 
well  known  that  much  is  assessed  under  other  heads. 

(c)  Profits  and  Salaries. 

"  It  is  convenient  for  statistical  purposes  to  include 
under  this  head  all  those  who  do  not  belong  to  the 
'manual-labor  class.'  If  we  take  the  'rent  of  ability' 
to  have  increased  in  the  same  proportion  as  the  assess- 
ments to  income  tax,  this  prosperous  body  may  be 
estimated  to  receive  for  its  work  about  £410,000,000 
annually. 

"  Mr.  R.  Giffen,  total  income,  less  rent,  interest,  and 
wages  of  manual-labor  class  (Essays  in  Finance, 
vol.  ii.,  p.  404),  .£313,000,000;  Professor  A.  Marshall, 
earnings  of  all  above  the  manual-labor  class  (Report 
of  Industrial  Remuneration  Conference,  p.  194),  .£300,- 
000,000;  Mr.  Mulhall,  income  of  tradesmen  class  only 
(Dictionary  of  Statistics,  p.  320),  £244,000,000 ;  Mr.  R. 
Giffen,  salaries  of  superintendence  assessed  to  income 
tax  alone  (Essays  in  Finance,  vol.  ii.,  p.  404),  .£180,- 
000,000. 

"The  total  drawn  by  the  legal  disposers  of  what  are 
sometimes  called  the  'three  rents'  (on  land,  capital, 
and  ability)  amounts,  therefore,  at  present  to  about 
nine  hundred  and  twenty  million  pounds  sterling  year- 
ly, or  nearly  two  thirds  of  the  total  produce.  The  fol- 
lowing estimates,  framed  some  years  ago,  support 
this  view  :  Mr.  Giffen,  Essays  in  Finance,  vol.  ii.,  p. 
467,  £720,000,000  ;  Mr.  Mulhall,  Dictionary  of  Statistics, 
p.  246,  £818,000,000;  Professor  Leone  Levi  (King's 
College,  London),  Times,  January  13,  1885,  £753,000,- 
ooo  ;  Professor  Alfred  Marshall  (Camb.),  Report  on  In- 
dustrial Remuneration  Conference,  p.  194,  £675,000,000. 

"  The  manual-labor  class  receives,  on  the  other  hand, 
for  all  its  millions  of  workers,  only  some  five  hundred 
and  thirty  millions  sterling  :  Mr.  'Giffen,  Essays  in 
Finance,  vol.  ii.,  p.  467,  .£550,000,000 ;  Mr.  Mulhall, 
Dictionary  of  Statistics,  p.  320,  £467,000,000;  Mr.  J.  S. 
Jeans,  Statistical  Society's  Journal^  vol.  xlvii.,  p.  631, 
£600,000,000;  Professor  Leone  Levi  (as  above),  .£521,- 
000,000;  Professor  A.  Marshall  (as  above),  £5oo,ooo,ooo.t 
P. — Total  produce,  ,£1,450,000,000  ;  W. — Income  of  man- 
ual-labor class,  £530,000,000 ;  income  of  the  legal  pro- 
prietors of  the  three  natural  monopolies  of  land,  cap- 
ital and  ability,  ^920,000,000. "J 

*  See  Fabian  Tract,  No.  7,  "Capital  and  Land,"  p.  6. 

t  These  estimates,  which  are  based  on  average  rates 
of  wages,  multiplied  by  the  number  of  workers,  as- 
sume, however,  reasonable  regularity  of  employment, 
and  take  no  account  of  the  fact  that  much  of  the  total 
amount  of  nominal  wages  is  reclaimed  from  the  work- 
ers in  the  shape  of  ground  rent.  Much  must,  there- 
fore, be  deducted  to  obtain  their  real  net  remunera- 
tion. . 

t  In  this  connection  it  may  be  mentioned  that  the  to- 
tal income  of  the  charities  of  the  United  Kingdom,  in- 
cluding endowments,  amounts  to  £10,040,000,  or  little 
over  i  per  cent,  of  the  foregoing  total.  £2,040,000  of 
this,  it  may  be  added,  is  expended  upon  Bible  socie- 
ties alone  (Mulhall,  Dictionary  of  Statistics,  p.  us). 
The  total  cost  of  poor  relief  in  1891-92  was  £10,815,030 
(Statistical  Abstract,  C— 7143). 


Wealth. 


1388 


Wealth. 


ESTIMATED  WEALTH  OF  THE  LEADING  COUNTRIES  OF  THE  WORLD-i888. 

Adapted  from  Mulhall's  Dictionary  of  Statistics,  1892,  page  589.    English  pounds  converted  into  dollars  at 
$4.8665  per  pound. 

(All  figures  except  the  last  column  in  millions  of  dollars.) 


COUNTRIES. 

Land. 

Cattle, 
etc. 

Houses. 

Railways. 

Other. 

Total 

Per 

Capita. 

United  Kingdom  

7.5M 

13,081 
8,833 
7,334 
6,672 
5,752 
4,788 
642 
1,168 
487 
1,056 
1,528 
1,835 
1,071 
1,236 
457 
672 
438 
1,363 

2,015 
2,633 
2,395 
4,151 
1,879 
1,085 
1,046 
141 
321 
I3I 
277 
321 

33" 
117 
336 
136 
205 
97 
277 

11,796 
8,293 
5,996 
3,4" 
2,438 
1,917 
1,655 
34i 
389 
83 
195 
642 
5'6 
195 
243 

97 
97 
97 
195 

4,210 

2,774 
2,409 
1,528 
1,494 
672 
457 
92 
136 
34 
49 
170 

345 
180 
141 
29 
29 
39 
79 

20,210 
I5,o6l 
",693 
8,342 
6,277 

4,993 
4,298 
770 
1,  086 
448 
389 
2,108 

1,873 
841 

93° 
337 
457 
327 
972 

45,745 
41,842 
31,326 
24,766 
18,760 
14,419 
12,244 
1,986 
3,100 
1,183 
1,966 
4,769 
4,900 
2,404 
2,886 
1,056 
1,460 
998 
2,886 

$1,202 
1,090 

68  1 
268 
482 
487 
720 

423 

608 
594 
1,119 
1,025 

|I3 

803 

53£ 

526 

788 
341 
584 

Germany  

Italy  

The  Netherlands  

Belgium.         

Switzerland  

Servia  

Greece  

Bulgaria  

Turkey    

Europe  

65,927 
12,458 
1,372 
540 

2,594 

122 

17,894 
5,529 
389 

3" 

500 

83 

38,596 
13,870 
618 
462 
1,163 
83 

14,867 
9,485 
735 
233 
457 
88 

81,412 
21,066 

1,655 
921 
1,962 
281 

218,696 
62,408 
4.769 

2,477 
6,682 
657 

$633 

1,022 

954 
608 
1,801 
633 

United  States.            

Canada  

Australia  

Cape  Colony  

Total  

83,013 

24,722 

54.792 

25,865 

107,297 

295,689 

$701 

III.  THE  DISTRIBUTION  OF  WEALTH. 

(a)   IN   THE   UNITED   STATES. 

An  estimate  of  the  distribution  of  the  wealth 
in  the  United  States  was  made  by  Mr.  Thomas 
G.  Shearman  in  the  Forum  for  1889  and  for 
January,  1891.  It  was  based  on  careful  esti- 
mates of  the  wealth  of  the  very  wealthy,  a  list 
of  which  he  gave,  and  estimates  of  the  division 
of  the  remaining  wealth  of  the  country  between 
the  middle  class  and  the  poor,  based  on  asses- 
sors' returns.  Mr.  Shearman  came  to  the  con- 
clusion that  1.4  per  cent,  of  the  population  own 
70  per  cent,  of  the  wealth  ;  9.2  per  cent,  of  the 
population  own  12  per  cent,  of  the  wealth  ;  and 
89.4  per  cent,  of  the  population  own  only  18  per 
cent,  of  the  wealth. 

Mr.  G.  K.  Holmes,  expert  on  wealth  statis- 
tics for  the  tenth  census,  follows  the  contrary 
method,  and  by  estimating  the  wealth  of  the 
poor,  arrives  at  the  wealth  of  the  rich.  He 
finds  that  0.3  per  cent,  of  the  people  own  20  per 
cent,  of  the  wealth  ;  8.97  per  cent,  of  the  people 
own  51  per  cent,  of  the  wealth  ;  and  91  per  cent. 
of  the  people  own  only  29  per  cent,  of  the  wealth. 

The  fact  that  Mr.  Holmes  is  not  a  partisan, 
either  of  conservatism  or  radicalism,  gives  to 
his  estimates  an  unwonted  value.  As  published 
in  the  Political  Science  Quarterly  and  in  the 
Journal  of  the  Royal  Statistical  Society  they 
are  in  brief  as  follows  : 


A  third  estimate  was  made  by  Dr.  Charles  B. 
Spahr,  based  on  returns  from  the  clerks  of  the 
surrogate  courts  in  New  York  State.  As  given 
by  Dr.  Spahr  in  his  The  Present  Distribution 
of  Wealth  in  the  United  States  (1896),  his  con- 
clusions are  as  follows  : 

FOR  KINGS  COUNTY  (NEW   YORK  CITY) 


Num 
ber. 

Realty. 

Person- 
alty. 

Total. 

!>5o,ooo  and  over  
850,000  to  $5,000.  .  .  . 

27 
M7 
336 

$2,872,100 
1,029,250 

$4,101,000 
1,070,080 

$6,973,100 
2,099,330 

510 

$4,036,680 

$5.547,78o 

$9,584,460 

THE  UNITED   STATEa    1890. 


Tenants  of  farms  and  homes.  .  . 
Owners    of    mortgaged    farms 
and   homes  worth   less    than 

7,871,099 

$2,837,049,500 

Owners     of     free    farms    and 
homes  worth  less  than  $5,000.. 
Owners   of    farms    and    homes 
worth  $5,000  or  over  

3,078,077 

10,946,616,952 

ESTATES.  * 

Number. 

Aggregate 
Wealth. 

Aver- 
age 
Wealth. 

The  wealthy  classes 
$50,000  and  over... 
The  well-to-do  class 
es,  $50,000  to  $5,000. 
The    middle    classes 
$5,000  to  $500  

125,000 
1,375,°°° 

$33,000,000,000 
23,000,000,000 
8,200,000,000 

$264,000 
16,000 
1,500 

The    poorer    classes, 
under  $500  

800,000,000 

150 

12,500,000 

$65,000,000,000 

$5,200 

The  conclusion  reached,  therefore,  is  that  less 
than  half  the  families  in  America  are  property- 


Wealth. 


Wealth. 


less  ;  nevertheless,  seven  eighths  of  the  fami- 
lies hold  but  one  eighth  of  the  national  wealth, 
while  i  per  cent,  of  the  families  hold  more  than 
the  remaining  99.  Dr.  Spahr  adds  : 

"  Since  the  completion  of  this  study,  a  volume  has 
appeared  that  must  set  at  rest  all  question  as  to  ex- 
treme moderation  of  the  estimates  reached.  Part  II. 
of  the  Report  of  the  Massachusetts  Bureau  of  Labor 
"Statistics  for  1894  publishes  the  inventoried  probates 
for  the  entire  State  of  Massachusetts  during  the  three 
years  1889,  1890,  and  1891.  Altho  the  estates  for  which 
no  inventories  are  filed  are,  as  a  rule,  the  largest,  the 
following  concentration  of  property  is  exhibited  : 

INVENTORIED  ESTATES   IN   MASSACHU- 
SETTS, 1889-91. 


DISTRIBUTION  OF  PRIVATE  PROPERTY. 
(United  Kingdom,  1891.) 


Num- 
ber. 

Value. 

$16,889,479 

53,489,893 

14,608 

$155,558,788 

"  In  other  words,  the  estates  of  $50,000  and  over  ag- 
gregated 55  per  cent,  of  the  total  amount  of  property  ; 
while  estates  less  than  $5000  aggregated  but  n  per 
•cent,  of  the  total." 

As  to  the  development  of  trusts,  says  Mr.  G. 
B.  Waldron  {A  Handbook  on  Currency  or 
Wealth)  : 

"  Of  the  manufacturing  and  mechanical  industries, 
whose  statistics  were  returned  in  the  census  of  1890, 
there  are  43  whose  manufactured  product  for  the  year 
1889  was  above  $30,000,000,  whose  capital  averaged 
above  $10,000  per  establishment,  and  which  admitted 
of  comparison  with  the  census  of  1880.  Of  these  43  in- 
dustries we  have  chosen  30  as  especially  illustrating 
the  growing  concentration  of  capital  during  the  10  years 
from  1880  to  1890.  (See  pp.  106  and  107.) 

"  It  is  a  significant  fact  that  while  in  1880  these  in- 
dustries were  carried  on  by  84,708  establishments,  or 
about  33  per  cent,  of  the  total  number  of  manufactur- 
ing establishments  of  the  country,  the  same  industries 
in  1890  were  carried  on  by  only  69,659  establishments, 
or  about  22  per  cent,  of  the  total  establishments,  and 
fewer  in  number  by  over  15,000  than  in  1880. 

"The  value  of  the  total  product  of  these  30  industries 
in  1880  was  $3,125,915,574,  or  58  per  cent,  of  the  total 
manufacturing  products  of  the  country.  In  1890  these 
same  industries,  produced  products  to  the  value  of 
$4,595,804,626,  or  about  51  per  cent,  of  the  total  prod- 
uct. 

"The  concentration  of  capital  in  these  30  industries 
is  shown  from  the  fact  that  in  1880  their  total  capital 
was  $1,735,577,549,  or  an  average  of  $20,489  per  estab- 
lishment, while  in  1890  their  total  capital  reached  $3,- 
468,277,249,  or  $49,789  per  establishment,  a  gain  of  143 
per  cent,  in  10  years.  There  has  been  a  similar  con- 
centration of  employees  in  these  industries.  In  1880 
the  84,708  establishments  used  1,340,490  employees,  or 
an  average  of  16  to  an  establishment.  In  1890  there 
were  1,964,232  employees  in  these  industries,  or  an 
average  of  28  to  an  establishment." 

(b)    OTHER    COUNTRIES. 

(For  Great  Britain,  see  also  Part  II.  of  this 
article.)  Dr.  Spahr,  however,  in  his  The  Pres- 
ent Distribution  of  Wealth  in  the  United 
States,  gives  much  information  as  to  the  dis- 
tribution of  property  in  Great  Britain  and  other 
countries. 

After  a  careful  analysis,  he  says  : 

"  The  table,  therefore,  for  the  property-owners  of 
the  United  Kingdom  would  divide  the  aggregate  pri- 
vate wealth  approximately  as  follows : 


Persons 
Owning. 

Amount 
Owned. 

1      ' 

'         'ooo 

.£10,000  and  over  

5      i 

->' 

2,625,000 

.£10,700,000,000 

The  number  of  property-owning  families  would  be 
about  one  third  less  than  the  number  of  property-own- 
ers. There  remain,  therefore,  nearly  6,000.000  families, 
or  more  than  three  fourths  of  the  people  of  Great 
Britain  and  Ireland,  without  any  registered  property 
whatever.  They  have,  indeed,  their  household  goods, 
but  the  total  value  of  these  can  hardly  exceed  .£100,- 
000,000.  If  we  sum  up,  therefore,  the  results  of  our  in- 
quiry, we  find  that  less  than  2  per  cent,  of  the  fami- 
lies of  the  United  Kingdom  hold  about  three  times  as 
much  private  property  as  all  the  remainder,  and  that 
93  per  cent,  of  the  peo'ple  hold  less  than  8  per  cent,  of 
the  accumulated  wealth." 

Of  incomes,  he  says  (p.  79) : 

"The  minimum  concentration  would  be  as  fol- 
lows: 

UNITED  KINGDOM  in   1885. 


INCOMES. 

Number. 

Aggregate. 

;£i,ooo  and  over  .... 

£   20  000  000 

' 

id  soo'ooo 

4i5      , 

47  ,       , 

16,030,000 

,£1,180,000,000 

"  In  brief,  about  i  per  cent,  of  those  having  in- 
comes receive  over  35  per  cent,  of  the  national  income, 
while  about  10  per  cent,  receive  half  as  much  again  as 
the  remaining  90." 


For  Paris,  Dr.  Spahr 
one  prepared  by  Leroy 
of  the  taxes  on  rent. 

In  a  condensed  form  the  table  stands  thus  : 


ives  a  table  based  on 
•eaulieu  from  reports 


Per- 

Per- 

Number  of 

Classes  of  In- 

Amount of 

cent- 

cent- 

Incomes. 

comes. 

Incomes. 

of 

of 

No. 

Amt. 

468,641 
156,590 
44,853 
14,868 

Below  2,400  f. 
2,400-7,500  f. 
7,500-32,000  f. 
Above  32,000  f. 

750,000,000  f  . 
640,000,000  f  . 
6ic,  000,000  f. 
i,  125,  000,000  f. 

68.4 

22.8 

6-5 
2.3 

24    f, 
20.46 

iQ-54 
36 

684,952 

3,125,000,000  f. 

100 

100 

"In  brief,  the  incomes  above  $6000,  tho  numbering 
less  than  zVt  per  cent  of  all,  aggregated  more  than 
one  third  of  the  total  income  of  the  city  ;  while  in- 
comes above  $1500,  tho  numbering  less  than  10  per 
cent,  of  all,  aggregated  more  than  one  half  of  the  total 
income." 

Of  Germany,  Dr.  Spahr  says  (pp.  83,  84)  : 

"  In  Germany  the  degree  of  concentration  is  less  than 
in  Great  Britain  or  Paris,  tho  each  decade  and  each  re- 
form in  the  method  of  assessing  the  income  tax  reveals 
greater  concentration.  A  dispassionate  statement  of 
the  change  that  has  been  going  on  was  made  by  the 


Wealth. 


1390 


Wealth. 


late  Professor  Roscher.*  Between  1852  and  1873  the 
number  of  incomes  in  Prussia  assessed  between  $300 
and  $750  increased  175.5  Per  cent.;  the  number  assessed 
between  $qooo  and  $18,000  increased  470.6  per  cent.; 
while  the  number  assessed  at  more  than  $40,000  in- 
creased 2200  per  cent.  This  disproportionate  increase 
of  large  incomes  continues  to  the  present  day.  Soet- 
beer's  table  of  Prussian  incomes  for  1890  is  shown  to  be 
obsolete,  or  worse,  by  the  assessments  for  1892-93.  His 
estimates  for  the  large  incomes  must  be  doubled  to 
conform  with  the  newer  tax  lists.  From  these  it  ap- 
pears that  a  little  over  i  per  cent,  of  those  receiving 
incomes  hold  more  than  20  per  cent,  of  the  income  of 
the  kingdom,  while  10  per  cent,  hold  nearly  one  half 
of  it." 

Of  Basel,  Dr.  Spahr  says  (p.  87)  : 

"  In  this  Swiss  city,  where  all  but  the  very  small  in- 
comes are  given  officially,  the  •wealthiest  5  per  cent, 
of  the  families  held  more  than  half  of  the  income,  and 
the  wealthiest  10  per  cent,  fully  three  fifths  of  it.  The 
similarity,  however,  between  this  result  and  that 
reached  for  the  United  Kingdom  and  for  Paris  does 
not  indicate  that  incomes  are  as  concentrated  in  Basel 
as  in  Paris  or  England,  but  merely  demonstrates  that 


the  estimates  previously   given  respecting  the   con- 
centration of  incomes  were  minimum  estimates." 

IV.  Is  THE  CONCENTRATION  OF  WEALTH  IN- 
CREASING ? 

(a)  THE   NEGATIVE  VIEW. 

Among  those  who  hold  that  the  concentration 
of  wealth  is  not  on  the  increase  perhaps  the 
ablest  argument  has  been  made  by  Mr.  Giffen, 
president  of  the  English  Statistical  Society,  and 
the  most  popular  argument  by  Mr.  W.  H.  Mai- 
lock.  In  the  United  States,  the  strongest  holder 
of  this  view  is  Mr.  Edward  Atkinson. 

Mr.  Giffen,  in  his  inaugural  address  as  presi- 
dent of  the  Statistical  Society  in  1883,  based  an 
argument  for  the  growing  diffusion  of  wealth 
upon  probate  returns  and  assessment  records. 
He  presented  the  following  tables  and  state- 
ment :  '-.  • 


STATEMENT  OF  NUMBER  OF  PROBATES  GRANTED  IN  1882,  WITH  AMOUNTS  OF  PROPERTY 
PROVED,  AND  AVERAGE  PER  PROBATE  FROM  FIGURES  (SUPPLIED  BY  THE  COMMISSIONERS 
OF  INLAND  REVENUE);  AND  COMPARISON  WITH  A  SIMILAR  STATEMENT  FOR  1838  (FROM 
PORTER'S  "  PROGRESS  OF  THE  NATION,"  p.  600  et  seq.). 


NUMBER  OF  PRO- 
BATES. 

AMOUNT  OF  PROP- 
ERTY. 

AMOUNT  OF 
PROPERTY 
PER  ESTATE. 

1882. 

1838. 

1882. 

1838. 

1882. 

1838. 

England         

45.555 

5,221 
4.583 

21,900 
1,272 
2,196 

,£118,120,961 
iS.^S.SH 
8,544,579 

£47,604,755 
2,817,260 
4>465,24° 

£2,600 
2,600 
1,900 

£2,170 
2,200 

2,200 

55.359 

25,368 

£140,360,854 

£54,887,255 

£2,50° 

£2,160 

"  In  spite  of  the  enormous  increase  of  property  pass- 
ing at  death,  amounting  to  over  150  per  cent.,  which  is 
more  than  the  increase  in  the  income-tax  income,  the 
amount  of  property  per  estate  has  not  sensibly  in- 
creased. The  increase  of  the  number  of  estates  is 
more  than  double,  and  greater,  therefore,  than  the  in- 
crease of  population  ;  but  the  increase  of  capital  per 
head  of  the  capitalist  classes  is  in  England  only  19  per 
cent.,  and  in  the  United  Kingdom  only  15  per  cent. 
Curiously  enough,  I  may  state,  it  is  hardly  correct  to 
speak  of  the  capitalist  classes  as  holding  this  property, 
as  the  figures  include  a  small  per  cent,  of  insolvent  es- 
tates ;  but  allowing  all  the  property  to  belong  to  the 
capitalist  classes,  still  we  have  the  fact  that  these 
classes  are  themselves  increasing.  They  may  be  only 
a  minority  of  the  nation,  tho  I  think  a  considerable 
minority,  as  55,000  estates  passing  in  a  year  represent 
from  1,500,000  to  2,000,000  persons  as  possessing  property 
subject  to  probate  duty  ;  and  these  figures,  it  must  be 
remembered,  do  not  include  real  property  at  all.  Still, 
small  or  large  as  the  minority  may  be,  the  fact  we  have 
before  us  is  that  in  the  last  50  years  it  has  been  an  in- 
creasing minority,  and  a  minority  increasing  at  a 
greater  rate  than  the  increase  of  general  population. 
Wealth,  to  a  certain  extent,  is  more  diffused  than  it 
was.  .  .  .  The  next  piece  of  statistics  I  have  to  refer 
to  is  the  number  of  separate  assessments  in  that  part  of 
schedule  D  known  as  Part  I.,  viz.,  trades  and  profes- 
sions, which  excludes  public  companies  and  their 
sources  of  income,  where  there  is  no  reason  to  believe 
that  the  number  of  separate  assessments  corresponds 
in  any  way  to  the  number  of  individual  incomes. 
Even  in  Part  I.  there  can  be  no  exact  correspondence, 
as  partnerships  make  only  one  return  ;  but,  in  com- 
paring distant  periods,  it  seems  not  unfair  to  assume 
that  the  increase  or  decrease  of  assessments  would  cor- 
respond to  the  increase  or  decrease  of  individual  in- 
comes. This  must  be  the  case,  unless  we  assume  that  in 
the  interval  material  differences  were  likely  to  arise 
from  the  changes  in  the  number  of  partnerships  to 
which  individuals  belong,  or  from  partnerships  as  a 

*  Political  Economy,  Book  III.,  chap,  vii.,  sec.  ccv. 


rule  comprising  a  greater  or  less  number  of  individu- 
als. Using  the  figures  with  all  these  qualifications,  we 
get  the  following  comparisons  : 

NUMBER  OF  PERSONS  AT  DIFFERENT 
AMOUNTS  OF  INCOME  CHARGED  UNDER 
SCHEDULE  D  IN  1843  AND  1879-80  COMPARED 
(IN  ENGLAND).* 


1843- 

1879-80. 

88,445 

6,781 

500  and  unde         600  

4,780 

"»3*7 

6.8oj. 

1.874 

800  and  unde         goo  

894 

4,228 

758 

785 

8 

68 

Total               .   .  .           

"  Here  the  increase  in  all  classes,  from  the  lowest  to 
the  highest,  is  between  two  and  three  times,  or  rather 
more  than  three  times,  with  the  exception  of  the 
highest  class  of  all,  where  the  numbers,  however,  are 
quite  inconsiderable ;  again  a  proof,  I  think,  of  the 
greater  diffusion  of  wealth,  so  far  as  the  assessment 


*  The  figures  for  1843  cannot  be  given  for  either 
Scotland  or  Ireland. 


Wealth. 


Wealth. 


of  income  to  income  tax  under  Schedule  D  may  be 
taken  as  a  sign  of  the  person  assessed  having  wealth 
of  some  kind,  which  I  fear  is  not  always  the  case.  If 
the  owners  of  this  income,  at  least  of  the  smaller  in- 
comes, are  to  be  considered  as  not  among  the  capi- 
talists, but  among  the  working  classes— a  very  argua- 
ble proposition — then  the  increase  of  the  number  of 
incomes  from  .£150  up  to,  say,  ^1000  a  year,  is  a  sign 
of  the  increased  earnings  of  the  working  classes, 
which  are  not  usually  thought  of  by  that  name.  The 
increase,  in  this  instance,  is  out  of  all  proportion  to 
the  increase  of  population." 

Mr.  W.  H.  Mallock,  in  his  book  Classes  and 
Masses  (1896),  has  made  a  more  popular  argu- 
ment to  show  that  the  poor  are  not  growing 
poorer  and  the  rich  richer,  that  the  middle 
classes  are  not  disappearing.  He  admits  that 
there  are  absolutely  more  poor  to-day  in  Great 
Britain  than  formerly,  but  says  that  in  propor- 
tion to  the  population  there  are  not  so  many, 
while  the  increase  of  the  moderately  well-to-do 
has  been  enormous.  In  1850  he  says  that  there 
were  9  paupers  for  every  200  inhabitants,  and 
in  1882  only  5. 

Basing  his  statements  on  statistics  tabulated 
by  Professor  Leone  Levi,  Mr.  Mallock  argues 
tnat  according  to  the  returns  of  those  paying 
taxes  on  incomes,  the  working  classes  have  in- 
creased 15  per  cent,  and  the  middle  class  over 
300  per  cent. 

In  the  United  States,  Mr.  Atkinson  comes  to 
similar  conclusions.  He  quotes  from  census 
and  other  reports  to  show  that  wages  are  rising 
and  prices  are  falling  (see,  however,  WAGES), 
and  thus  argues  that  the  real  wages  of  most 
workers  are  rapidly  rising.  On  the  other  hand, 
he  shows  that  the  rate  of  interest  is  falling  ;  that 
the  amount  of  capital  relative  to  production  is 
increasing  ;  and  from  this  argues  that  the 
wealthy  get  a  steadily  lessening  share  of  an 
ever-increasing  product.  He  sums  up  his  con- 
clusions thus  (The  Century,  vol.  xxxiv.,  pp. 
569-584) : 

"  Leaving  wholly  out  of  vie w  the  transfer  of  property 
already  saved  from  one  person  to  another  in  the  gam- 
bling operations  of  the  stock  exchange,  such  incidents 
being  of  no  material  consequence  except  to  those  who 
engage  in  them,  we  may  observe— 

"  i.  That  the  direction  and  use  of  capital  are  becom- 
ing more  and  more  a  matter  of  scientific  training,  as 
the  margin  of  profit  in  every  art  comes  to  a  less  and 
less  fraction  of  the  product  made  or  distributed.  The 
merchant  adventurer  has  gone  the  same  way  with  the 
craftsman  and  his  apprentice— he  has  disappeared 
with  the  removal  of  the  mysteries  of  trade. 

"2.  Altho  great  fortunes  have  become  more  con- 
spicuous, their  number  is  very  small,  and  their  aggre- 
gate amount  is  yet  smaller  in  proportion  to  the 
amount  and  great  number  of  moderate  fortunes  which 
are  not  conspicuous,  but  w;hich  are  steadily  increasing. 

"  3.  Adjacent  to  every  city  are  suburbs  or  neighbor- 
ing towns  which  are  filled  with  comfortable  dwellings 
of  moderate  size,  which  give  evidence  of  comfort  and 
welfare  steadily  increasing  on  the  part  of  an  increas- 
ing portion  of  those  who  perform  the  practical  work 
of  the  country.  These  are  the  dwelling-places  of 
their  respective  owners  or  occupants,  who  are  not 
capitalists  in  any  sense,  but  who  have  assured  to 
themselves  an  abundant  subsistence,  a  home,  and  a 
safe  position  in  the  community. 

"4.  While  great  bonanza  farms  are  conspicuous, 
they  are  also  few  In  number ;  the  increase  in  small 
farms  is  very  rapid  ;  and  perhaps  the  increase  has 
been  yet  more  rapid  compared  to  what  it  had  been  be- 
fore agricultural  machinery,  science,  and  invention 
had  come  nearer  to  the  farm. 

"  5.  By  comparison  with  this  rapid  progress,  not  only 
of  those  who  are  in  a  position  of  wealth,  but  of  the 
vast  number  who,  altho  not  making  great  savings, 
are  living  year  by  year  more  comfortably,  better 
housed,  better  clothed,  and  better  fed,  the  bad  condi- 
tion ot  the  very  poor,  and  the  more  uncertain  position 


of  the  common  laborer,  whose  opportunity  for  work  is 
intermittent,  becomes  more  apparent,  and  therefore 
demands  urgent  attention." 

Of  the  lessening  share  of  capital  and  its  con- 
tribution to  production,  he  says  : 

"  It  is  not  too  much  to  say  that  one  half  as  much 
capital  as  was  required  to  do  the  general  work  of  life 
in  1865  will  now  suffice  to  aid  labor  in  compassing  the 
same  amount  of  product.  That  is  to  say,  it  took  twice 
as  many  dollars'  worth  of  capital  to  accomplish  a  given 
product  20  or  25  years  since  as  is  now  needed. 

"On  the  other  hand,  the  owner  of  the  capital  is  now 
compelled,  whether  he  will  or  not,  to  be  satisfied  with 
one  half  the  income  on  each  unit  or  dollar's  worth  of 
the  present  capital,  if  he  trusts  only  to  his  capital  for 
his  means  of  living.  .  .  . 

"  The  commerce  of  the  world  now  turns  from  one 
side  of  the  globe  to  the  other  on  a  margin  of  a  cent 
on  a  bushel  of  grain,  a  dollar  a  ton  of  metal,  a  quarter 
of  a  cent  a  yard  on  a  textile  fabric,  or  the  sixteenth  of 
a  cent  a  pound  on  sugar.  The  cube  of  coal,  as  I  have 
before  stated,  which  would  pass  through  the  rim  of  a 
quarter  of  a  dollar,  when  used  in  connection  with  the 
compound  engine,  will  drive  a  ton  of  food  and  its  pro- 
portion of  the  steamship  two  miles  on  its  way  from  the 
producer  to  the  consumer ;  by  the  invention  of  the 
triple  compound,  one  fourth  even  of  this  fuel  has  been 
saved.  The  profiteer  loss  of  this  great  nation  turns  on 
the  price  of  a  daily  glass  of  lager  beer. 

"  The  most  beneficent  factor  in  the  lowering  of  prices 
and  in  raising  wages  has  been  the  extension  of  the 
railway  system  and  the  reduction  in  the  charge  for  the 
service.  Vanderbilt  was  the  typical  railroad  man  of 
his  day ;  he  was  also  the  great  communist  of  his  time, 
because  he  reduced  the  cost  of  moving  a  barrel  of  flour 
a  thousand  miles  to  so  small  a  sum,  that  it  can  hardly 
be  measured  in  a  loaf  of  bread,  at  a  margin  of  profit 
to  himself  and  his  associates  which  is  now  less  than 
the  value  of  the  empty  barrel  at  the  end  of  the  line." 

(b)  THE   CONTRARY   VIEW. 

The  best  answer  to  Mr.  Giffen's  argument  is 
Dr.  Spahr's  in  his  The  Present  Distribution 
of  Wealth  in  the  United  States  (copyright  by 
Thomas  Y.  Crowell  &  Co.,  New  York  and  Bos- 
ton). Says  Dr.  Spahr  (pp.  15-18) : 

"  Mr.  Giffen  contends  that  during  the  era  of  sav- 
ings-banks the  number  of  estates  less  than  £1000  has 
increased  more  than  the  number  of  larger  estates. 
This,  however,  is  a  point  that  was  never  questioned. 

"The  facts  which  Mr.  Giffen  at  first  could  not,  and 
at  last  did  not,  state,  are  the  facts  that  tell  the  situa- 
tion. Printed  at  some  length,  the  comparative  tables 
for  1838  and  the  present  time  run  as  follows : 

ESTATES   IN   1838.* 


Num- 
ber. 

Amount. 

£214,660 

!8,  284,000 

Between  £10,000  and  £100,000  

984 

23,253,000 

25.365 

£S4,993>66° 

ESTATES  IN   i8gi. 


Num- 
ber. 

Amount. 

'°    '°°° 

Between  £10,000  and  £100,000  ...  . 

2,598 

70,471,000 

43i3     i000 

67,247 

£166,395,000 

*  Porter's  Progress  of  the  Nation,  pp.  609  et  seq. 


Wealth. 


1392 


Weitling,  Wilhelm. 


"  In  other  words,  the  exceptionally  great  increase  in 
the  number  of  estates  under  £1000  was  entirely  in  the 
savings-bank  depositor  class,  and  the  increase  here  was 
in  part  due  to  the  fact  that  in  1838  estates  under  £20 
were  not  recorded.  In  1838  the  18,000  estates  less  than 
.£1000  held  10  per  cent,  of  the  personal  property  ad- 
mitted to  probate,  while  in  1891  the  52,000  estates  of  this 
character  held  less  than  8  per  cent.  On  the  other  hand, 
the  smallest  increase  in  the  number  of  estates  above 
£1000  was  in  the  class  of  medium  holdings.  In  1838 
the  estates  with  more  than  £10,000  held  57  per  cent,  of 
the  wealth,  while  in  1891  the  estates  of  this  character 
held  67  per  cent.  If  we  consider  the  comparative  gains 
of  the  very  rich,  the  contrast  is  still  more  striking.  In 
1838  the  personal  estates  worth  over  £100,000  aggre- 
gated but  one  and  a  half  times  as  much  wealth  as  the 
estates  less  than  £1000  ;  in  1891  they  aggregated  three 
and  a  half  times  as  much.  Common  observation  has 
not  exaggerated  the  relative  gains  of  the  richer  classes. 

"These  figures,  it  must  be  recalled,  relate  only  to 
personal  property,  where  the  law  and  customs  of  prim- 
ogeniture do  not  seriously  impede  the  division  of  es- 
tates. They  therefore  reveal  only  the  brighter  part 
of  the  history.  The  number  of  owners  of  real  estate 
has  been  artificially  kept  from  increasing  with  the  in- 
crease of  the  population.  New  buildings  have  been 
erected  by  new  owners,  but  the  ownership  of  the  land 
remains  in  as  few  hands  as  it  did  half  a  century  ago. 
Indeed,  the  ablest  authority  upon  this  subject  main- 
tains that  the  number  of  landowners  is  still  diminish- 
ing.* 

"  Gregory  King's  table  of  the  comparative  incomes 
of  the  various  classes  in  1688  proves  indisputably  that 
England  at  the  close  of  the  Middle  Ages  was  pre- 
eminently a  nation  of  small  proprietors.  As  Prothero 
remarks  concerning  it,  'whatever  allowance  is  made 
for  errors,  the  contrast  is  startling  enough'  between 
the  England  in  which  '  three  fifths  of  the  agriculturists 
enjoyed  proprietary  interests  in  the  soil  '  and  the 
England  of  to-day,  in  which  four  fifths  of  the  agricul- 
turists are  hired  laborers.  This  contrast  is  height- 
ened when  King's  table  is  compared  with  the  returns 
in  the  New  Domesday  Book  of  '875.  King  placed  the 
total  rent  of  agricultural  land  at  £10,000,000,  yet  esti- 
mated the  aggregate  income  of  1500  lords,  baronets, 
and  knights  at  less  than  one  fifth  of  that  sum.  In  our 
day  Arthur  Arnold  estimates  that  four  fifths  of  the 
United  Kingdom  belongs  to  a  smaller  proportion  of 
the  population." 

As  for  Mr.  Mallock's  contention  that  the  ad- 
vance in  modern  wealth  has  been  mainly  by  the 
enormous  growth  of  a  middle  class  out  of  the 
ranks  of  the  working  classes,  it  must  be  remem- 
bered what  he  means  by  the  middle  class.  He 
includes  (they  are  his  own  words)  all  receiving 
an  income  less  than  £1000.  He  is  thus  able  to 
include  in  his  middle  class  many  very  wealthy, 
and  thus  to  show  a  large  middle  class  and  a 
small  wealthy  class.  But  accepting  his  division, 
no  one  claims  that  the  number of  the  extremely 
rich  has  lately  increased.  It  is  only  their  wealth 
which  has  increased.  In  1838  (see  tables  quoted 
above)  they  had  in  personal  property  .£49,449, 
and  in  1891,  ,£153,756.  The  rich,  in  spite  of  Mr. 
Mallock,  are  getting  richer.  As  for  those  get- 
ting less  than  £1000,  the  18,000  estates  of  this 
kind  held  in  1838  10  per  cent,  of  the  personal 
property,  and  in  1891  the  52,000  of  this  kind 
held  only  8  per  cent,  of  the  property.  Mr.  Mal- 
lock makes  small  gain  for  his  cause  by  showing 
that  the  middle  class  is  growing  in  numbers. 
It  is  their  relative  wealth  that  is  disappearing, 
as  the  rich,  he  admits,  do  grow  richer  and  the 
poor  grow  relatively  poorer. 

As  for  the  United  States,  since  1873  the  poor 
have  grown  relatively,  if  not  absolutely,  poor- 
er. (See  WAGES  for  proof  of  this.)  Mr.  At- 
kinson's statements  that  wages  have  risen 

/  *  Hon.  George  C.  Brpdrick,  English  Land  and  Eng- 
lish Landlords,  chap.  iii.  (Published  by  the  Cobden 
Club.) 

^Eha 


and  prices  fallen  are  based  on  government  re- 
ports, shown  in  article  WAGES  to  be  false.     As 
for  his  argument  that  the  rich  are 
not  getting  richer,  because  the  rate 
of  interest  is  falling,  and  it  takes         The 
more  capital  relatively  to  produc-       United 
tion  than  formerly,  it  must  not  be       States, 
forgotten  that  the  rate  of  interest 
is  not  the  same  as  the  rate  of  profits. 
These  may  be  high  where  interest  is  low,  and 
the  fact  that  it  does  take  more  capital  to  day 
than    formerly   relatively    to    production    sim- 
ply shows  that  only  the  strongest  concentration 
of  capital  can  succeed  to-day,  and  therefore  that 
the  productive  capital  of  the  country  is  in  con- 
centrated hands.     They  may  make  profits  to- 
day at  lower  rates,  but  they  have  such  enormous 
accumulations  that  their  income  is  vastly  larger 
than  before.     Never  was  capital  thus  so  con- 
centrated as  now. 

In  the  United  States,  then,  wealth  has  in- 
creased phenomenally  ;  wages  since  1873  have 
fallen ;  the  concentration  of  capital  has  in- 
creased ;  the  number  of  the  out  of  work  has 
grown.  (See  UNEMPLOYMENT.) 

References  :  C.  B.  Spahr's  The  Present  Distribution 
of  Wealth  in  the  United  States  (1896)  ;  I.  R.  Common's 
Distribution  of  Wealth  ;  Edward  Atkinson's  Century 
articles. 

WEBB,  BEATRICE,  daughter  of  Richard 
Potter,  sometime  President  of  the  Grand  Trunk 
Railway  of  Canada,  etc.,  was  born  in  1858.  A 
pupil  of  Herbert  Spencer,  she  studied  actual 
working-class  life  in  Lancashire  and  East  Lon- 
don ;  in  1885  joined  Mr.  Charles  Booth  in  his 
social  investigations,  and  contributed  articles, 
on  the  docks,  the  tailoring  trade,  and  the  Jew- 
ish community,  to  Life  and  Labor  of  the  Peo- 
ple. In  1888  she  gave  her  experience  in  sweat- 
ing dens  to  the  House  of  Lords  Committee  on 
Sweating.  In  1891  she  published  The  Coopera- 
tive Movement  in  Great  Britain.  In  1892  she 
married  Sydney  Webb  (g.v.).  In  1894  they 
published  Trades-  Unionism.  She  is  a  member 
of  the  Fabian  Society  (London). 

WEBB,  SYDNEY,  LL.B.  (London  Univer- 
sity), barrister  at  law,  was  born  in  1859,  and 
educated  in  Switzerland  and  Germany  ;  in 
1878,  after  some  business  experience,  he  en- 
tered, by  open  competition,  the  English  civil 
service,  filling  places  successively  in  the  War 
Office,  Inland  Revenue  and  Colonial  Office. 
He  was  joint  editor  of  The  Colonial  Office  List, 
but  resigned  in  1891.  He  published  in  1889  So- 
cialism in  England ;  he  contributed  the  "  his- 
torical" chapter  in  Fabian  Essays  in  Social- 
ism;  in  1891  he  published,  in  conjimction  with 
Harold  Cox,  The  Eight-Hours  Day  (Scott)  and 
The  London  Programme  (Sonnenschein),  and 
in  1894,  in  conjunction  with  his  wife,  Beatrice 
Webb  (q.v.)  Trades-  Unionism.  Author  of 
many  articles  and  pamphlets  on  socialism,  eco- 
nomics, and  English  politics  :  he  has  been  a 
member  since  1885  of  the  Fabian  Society  (Lon- 
don) ;  elected  for  Deptford  to  the  London 
County  Council,  1892  ;  vice-chairman  of  Local 
Government  Committee,  and  chairman  of  the 
Technical  Education  Board  of  that  body. 

WEITLING,  WILHELM,  was  born  at 
Magdeburg  in  1808.  He  became  a  tailor,  but 


Weitling,  Wilhelm. 


1393 


White  Ribboners. 


later  traveled  through  Germany,  one  of  the 
earliest  pioneers  of  German  socialism,  declaring 
that  he  was  converted  to  communism  by  the 
reading  of  the  New  Testament.  He  preached 
a  Utopian  socialism,  mainly  fashioned  after  the 
ideas  of  Fourier  and  Cabet.  In  1847  he  went 
to  America,  but  returned  to  Germany  at  the 
Revolution  of  1848.  Later  he  came  again  to 
America,  and  formed  a  socialist  society  in  New 
York  City  called  the  Arbeiterbund.  He  inter- 
ested himself  for  four  years  in  a  socialistic 
colony  situated  in  Wisconsin,  but  remained 
mainly  in  New  York,  living  as  a  clerk,  but 
devoted  himself  to  reform,  inventions,  and 
science.  He  wrote  Die  Menscheit  ivie  sie 
ist  und  wie  sie  sein  sollte  (1838)  ;  Garan- 
tien  der  Harmonie  und  Frciheit  (1842)  ;  and 
Das  Evangelium  eines  Armen  Sunders.  His 
constructive  idea  was  a  federation  of  the  fam- 
ilies of  the  world,  with  leaders  chosen  by  ac- 
clamation, who  should  divide  the  products  of 
labor,  giving  to  all  a  fixed  share,  and  to  those 
who  produced  more  than  the  average  certain 
luxuries,  on  condition  of  their  being  soon  con- 
sumed to 'prevent  accumulation.  He  died  in 
1874- 

WELLS,  DAVID  AMES,  was  born  at 
Springfield,  Mass.,  in  1828,  and  graduated  at 
Williams  College  in  1847  ;  Lawrence  Scientific 
School,  Cambridge,  in  1851.  He  was  engaged 
in  scientific  pursuits  and  inventions  in  chem- 
istry till  1861.  In  1862  and  1867  he  visited 
Europe  on  commissions  of  the  United  States 
Government ;  was  United  States  Special  Com- 
missioner of  Revenue,  1866-70.  He  became 
University  Lecturer  on  Political  Economy  at 
Yale  College  in  1872.  He  has  produced  15  im- 
portant reports  for  the  United  States,  and  nu- 
merous papers  for  scientific  bodies  in  Europe 
and  America.  His  principal  economic  writings 
are  :  The  Creed  of  the  Free  Trader  (1875)  ; 
Robinson  Crusoe' s  Money  (1876)  ;  Practical 
Economics  (1886)  ;  Economic  Changes  (1889)  ; 
Relation  of  the  Tariff  to  Wages  (1888).  He 
is  best  known  for  his  able  advocacy  of  free 
trade  (y.v.),  civil  service  reform,  and  gold  mono- 
metallism. (See  MONOMETALLISM.) 

WESCOTT,  BROOKE  FOSS,  Bishop 
of  Durham,  was  born  near  Birmingham  in  1825. 
He  was  educated  at  Trinity  College,  where  he 
was  successively  Scholar,  Fellow  (1849),  and 
Professor  of  Divinity  (1870).  He  was  also  at 
different  times  assistant  master  at  Harrow,  a 
canon  of  Peterborough  and  of  Westminster, 
chaplain  to  the  Queen  and  to  the  Archbishop 
of  Canterbury.  He  was  consecrated  Bishop  of 
Durham  in  1890.  Besides  his  numerous  writ- 
ings on  the  Bible  and  other  religious  subjects, 
he  has  written  Social  Aspects  of  Christianity  ; 
The  Incarnation  and  Common  Life.  He  is 
President  of  the  Christian  Social  Union  (q.v.}. 

WHATELY,  RICHARD,  was  born  in  Lon- 
don, Eng.,  in  1787.  He  studied  at  Oriel  Col- 
lege, Oxford  ;  becamea  Fellow  of  Oriel  in  1811  ; 
was  Bampton  Lecturer  for  1822  ;  rector  of 
Halesworth,  1822-25  ;  Professor  of  Political 
Economy  at  Oxford,  1830-31  ;  and  appointed 
Archbishop  of  Dublin  in  1831.  He  was  promi- 
nent for  carrying  out  the  principles  of  the  Ro- 


man Catholic  Relief  Act  ;  was  for  20  years  the 
leading  member  of  the  Irish  National  Board  of 
Education.  He  is  also  associated  with  "  Broad 
Church"  divinity.  Besides  numerous  philo- 
sophic and  religious  writings,  he  published  Lec- 
tures on  Political  Economy  in  1831. 

WHISKY  RING.— This  was  a  conspiracy 
between  United  States  revenue  collectors  and 
distillers,  originating  in  St.  Louis  in  1872, 
spreading  into  many  Western  cities,  and  attain- 
ing great  political  power.  Its  aim  was  to  de- 
fraud the  Government  in  the  collection  of  the 
tax  on  distilled  spirits.  The  method  of  defraud- 
ing was  by  the  secret  shipment  of  whisky  re- 
ported as  stored.  In  1874  a  discrepancy  was 
discovered  between  the  returns  of  shipments  of 
the  Merchants'  Exchange  of  St.  Louis  and  those 
of  the  revenue  officers.  Benjamin  H.  Bristow, 
Secretary  of  the  Treasury,  unearthed  the  fraud. 
A  general  seizure  in  three  cities  was  made  May 
10,  1875.  Property  aggregating  §3,500,000  in 
value  was  seized,  and  238  persons  were  indict- 
ed. When  the  papers  in  these  cases  were  laid 
before  President  Grant,  he  indorsed  one  of  them, 
with  the  injunction,  "  Let  no  guilty  man  es- 
cape." O.  E.  Babcock,  President  Grant's  pri- 
vate secretary,  was  implicated,  but  tho  ac- 
quitted, his  guilt  was  generally  conceded.  No 
charge  was  ever  made  implicating  Grant,  but 
his  tenacity  in  supporting  his  friends,  even  when 
their  guilt  was  evident  to  others,  made  it  easy 
for  the  ring  to  put  many  obstacles  in  Bristow 's 
way.  In  one  case,  even,  documents  were  tam- 
pered with.  Many  convictions  were  obtained, 
among  others  that  of  the  chief  clerk  of  the 
Treasury,  Avery. 

WHITE  CROSS  SOCIETY,  THE.— The 

White  Cross  movement  was  begun,  publicly, 
February  14,  1883,  at  Bishop-Auckland,  Eng., 
by  the  Bishop  of  Durham.  Miss  Ellice  Hopkins 
being  present  and  bearing  a  prominent  part. 
The  work  was  taken  up  in  this  country  by  the 
Rev.  B.  F.  De  Costa,  D.D.,  Rector  of  the  Church 
of  St.  John  the  Evangelist,  New  York  City,  aid- 
ed by  his  young  men,  during  the  winter  of 
1883-84.  It  has  now  spread  throughout  the 
United  States. 
The  principal  purposes  of  this  organization 


(i)  To  urge  upon  men  the  obligation  of  personal 
purity  ;  (2)  to  raise  the  tone  of  public  opinion  upon  the 
subject  of  morality  ;  (0  to  secure  proper  legislation  in 
connection  with  morality. 

The  member  promises  by  the  "help  of  God"  (i)  to 
treat  all  women  with  respect,  and  endeavor  to  protect 
them  from  wrong  and  degradation  ;  (2)  to  endeavor  to 
put  down  all  indecent  language  and  coarse  jests  ;  (3) 
to  maintain  the  law  of  purity  as  equally  binding  upon 
men  and  women  ;  (4)  to  endeavor  to  spread  these 
principles  among  my  companions,  and  to  try  and  help 
my  younger  brothers  ;  (5)  to  use  ever y  possible  means 
to  fulfil  the  command,  "  Keep  THYSELF  pure." 

The  methods  of  the  White  Cross  are  of  a  varied 
character.  All  aim  to  fulfil  its  declared  object : 
"  By  the  full  presentation  of  those  spiritual  truths 
which  form  distinguishing^  characteristics  of  Christi- 
anity, and  demonstrate  its  unalterable  hostility  to 
every  form  of  impurity."  The  methods  do  not  favor 
so  much  the  creation  of  new  machinery  as  utilizing 
that  already  existing.  (See  SOCIAL  PURITY.) 


WHITE     RIBBONERS.     See 

CHRISTIAN  TEMPERANCE  UNION. 


WOMEN'S 


Wilberforce,  William. 


1394 


Willard,  Frances  Elizabeth, 


WILBERFpRCE,  WILLIAM,  was  born 
at  Hull,  Eng. ,  in  1759.  The  son  of  a  wealthy 
merchant,  he  was  educated  under  Methodist 
principles  at  Wimbledon  and  at  St.  John's  Col- 
lege, Cambridge.  In  1780  he  was  elected  to 
the  House  of  Commons  and  became  an  intimate 
friend  of  Pitt,  tho  always  voting  independently. 
In  1787  he  organized  a  society  against  vice,  and 
soon  after  was  influenced  by  Clarkson  toward 
his  great  lifework.  In  1789  he  first  proposed 
the  total  abolition  of  the  slave  trade,  and  in 
1807  his  bill  was  carried  in  the  House  of  Com- 
mons and  through  the  House  of  Lords.  He  still, 
however,  labored  for  its  victory  in  Parliament 
and  without.  In  1822  he  shared  in  the  found- 
ing of  an  anti-slavery  society.  He  died  in  1833, 
one  month  before  the  passage  of  the  Emanci- 
pation Bill.  (See  SLAVERY.)  He  was  interest- 
ed in  many  other  reforms,  and  published  in 
1797  A  Practical  View  of  the  Prevailing  Re- 
ligious System  of  Professed  Christians  in  the 
Higher  and  Middle  Classes  Contrasted  with 
Real  Christianity. 

WILLARD,    FRANCES    ELIZABETH, 

was  born  in  Churchville,  N.  Y.,  September  28, 
1839.  Her  ancestors  were  Puritans,  having 
emigrated  from  Kent,  Eng. ,  on  account  of  re- 
ligious persecution,  in  1634.  Miss  Willard' s 
parents  removed  to  Oberlin,  O. ,  in  1841,  where 
they  were  students  in  the  college  until  1846, 
when  they  went  to  Wisconsin  and  founded 
"  Forest  Home,"  near  Janesville,  going  to 
Evanston,  the  chief  suburb  of  Chicago,  where 
they  built  "  Rest  Cottage,"  in  1858.  Here  Miss 
Willard  graduated  from  the  Women's  College, 
which  later  became  connected  with  the  North- 
western University.  In  1861  she  became  a 
teacher,  and  continued  in  this  capacity  for  15 
years,  beginning  in  the  public  school  of  her  own 
town  and  ending  as  Professor  of  English  Com- 
position in  the  university.  In  1868  she  went 
abroad,  where  she  traveled  and  studied  for 
nearly  two  years  and  a  half.  On  her  return  she 
was  made  president  of  the  Women's  College  in 
Evanston,  and  began  to  lecture  on  woman's 
higher  education,  women's  foreign  missionary 
work,  and  kindred  topics.  In  1874,  after  the 
women's  temperance  crusade,  she  began  her 
temperance  work  as  president  of  the  Chicago 
W.  C.  T.  U.  She  was  also  made  secretary  of 
the  Illinois  W.  C.  T.  U.,  and  in  November  of 
that  year,  at  the  first  convention  of  the  National 
W.  C.  T.  U.,  became  its  corresponding  secre- 
tary. The  headquarters  established  by  Miss 
Willard  in  Chicago  were  the  first  attempt  to  or- 
ganize and  systematize  an  office  for  the  new 
movement. 

In  1878  Miss  Willard  became  the  chief  editor 
of  the  Chicago  Daily  Evening  Post.  In  that 
year  she  was  elected  president  of  the  National 
W.  C.  T.  U.  on  the  issue  of  a  wider  outlook  for 
the  society,  which  should  embrace  correlated 
movements. 

In  1879,  presiding  over  her  first  national  con- 
vention in  Boston,  she  suggested  the  following 
classification  of  departments,  with  a  superin- 
tendent for  each :  Preventive,  Educational, 
Evangelical,  Social,  Legal,  and  Department  of 
Organization. 

In  1880,  accompanied  by  the  Misses  Gordon, 


Miss  Willard  made  a  tour  of  all  the  Southern 
States,  introducing  a  knowledge  of  the  spirit 
and  method  of  the  White  Ribbon  Move- 
ment. 

In  1883  Miss  Willard  and  her  secretary,  Miss 
Anna  Gordon,  visited  every  State  and  Territory 
in   the   United  States   and    several   Canadian 
provinces,  holding  the  first  temper- 
ance conventions   ever  called  to- 
gether in  several  of  the  Western     Temper- 
Territories.    From    that    time   the  ance  Work. 
National  Society  has  had  duly  elect- 
ed   delegates    to    its    conventions 
from  almost  every  one  of  the  50  subdivisions 
of  the  United  States.     In  1883,  on  her  return 
from  California,  she  proposed  to  the  National 
W.  C.  T.  U.  a  plan  for  organizing  the  World's 
W.  C.  T.  U. ,  which  was  accepted,  and  the  poly- 
glot petition  to  all  governments  was  sent  out. 
This  petition  has  now  received  3,000,000  sig- 
natures and  attestations  in  50  languages. 

She  has  been  allied  with  the  Prohibition 
Party  from  the  time  when,  on  her  trip  to  the 
South,  in  1 88 1,  she  found  there  was  no  "  bloody 
chasm."  If  the  Republican  Party  had  favored 
the  home  protection  movement  she  would  not 
have  left  it  ;  but  as  it  took  no  such  action  she- 
went  to  the  Prohibition  Party  Convention  in 
Pittsburg  (1884),  and  by  invitation  of  the  Kan- 
sas delegation  seconded  the  nomination  of  Gov- 
ernor St.  John  for  President  of  the  United 
States,  from  which  time  she  has  cooperated 
with  the  Prohibition  Party,  in  whose  favor  the 
National  W.  C.  T.  U.  Convention  declared  in' 
1884  at  the  St.  Louis  Convention. 

In     1885     she    urged    upon     the     National 
W.  C.  T.  U.  Convention  the  importance  of  add- 
ing a  Department  of  Social  Purity  work  to  those 
already  formed,  which  was  done, 
and  she  was  placed  at  its  head. 
Petitions  were  then  circulated  in  all        Other 
parts  of  the  United  States  asking  for    Reforms. 
the  better  protection  of  women,  and 
much  has  been  gained  in  the  way 
of  legislation.     She  was  made  a  member  of  the 
General  Conference  of  the  Methodist  Church,  to- 
which  she  has  belonged  since  her  girlhood,  but 
a  ruling  of  the  bishops  prevented  any  recog- 
nition of  this  election.     She  is  now  editor-in- 
chief  of  the  Union  Signal,  official  organ  of  the 
World's  and  National  W.  C.  T.  U.,  and  corre- 
sponding  editor    of    Lady    Henry   Somerset's 
paper,    The    Woman's   Signal  (London),  also 
one  of  the  editors  of  Our  Day,  founded  by 
Joseph  Cook  of  Boston.     She  has  also  written 
Nineteen  Beautifiil  Years,  Hints  and  Helps 
for  the    W.  C.  T.  U.,    Women  and   Temper- 
ance, How  to  Win,  Woman  in  the  Pulpit,  A 
Classic   Town,   Glimpses  of  Fifty   Years,  A 
Young   Journalist,    and  has    collaborated  a. 
volume  entitled  A  Great  Mother,  the  History 
of  St.  Courageous. 

Miss  Willard  is  one  of  the  founders  of  the  Na- 
tional and  International  Women's  Council,  hav- 
ing been  chairman  of  the  committee  that  draft- 
ed its  constitution  and  plan  of  work,  and  was. 
first  president  of  the  council. 

In  1892,  on  the  death  of  her  mother,  Miss 
Willard' s  health  became  impaired,  and  she  has 
since  then  had  to  devote  much  time  to  resting 
in  England  and  elsewhere,  yet  continually  lee- 


Willard,  Frances  Elizabeth. 


1395 


Woman's  C.  T. 


turing  and  guiding  the  movements  she  has  at 
heart. 

Miss  Willard's  devotion  to  the  cause  of  worn 
an's  suffrage  and  the  labor  movement  is  well 
known.  She  is  the  author  of  the  "  home  pro- 
tection" movement,  which  means  the  ballot  for 
women  as  a  method  of  temperance  work  ;  also 
of  the  expressive  phrase  "  The  do-everything 
policy  of  the  W.  C.  T.  U."  She  has  often  stat- 
ed her  platform  in  these  words  :  ' '  No  sectarian- 
ism in  religion,  no  sectionalism  in  politics,  no 
sex  in  citizenship  !"  In  economics  she  calls  her- 
self a  Christian  Socialist. 

To  her  constant  diligence  in  work  is  owing 
the  fact  that  she  has  built  up  the  largest  organi- 
zation of  women  in  the  world.  Her  remarkable 
talents,  that  would  have  won  for  her  fame  in 
any  calling  in  life,  have  been  devoted  to  the 
cause  of  reform.  The  salient  feature  of  her 
fame  will  always  be  the  fact  that  she  combined 
an  equal  talent  for  writing,  speaking,  and  or- 
ganization, a  combination  as  rare  as  it  is  in- 
valuable in  the  leader  of  a  great  new  movement. 
ISABEL  SOMERSET, 

WILSON,  WOODROW,  was  born  Decem- 
ber 28,  1856,  at  Staunton,  Va.,  where  his  father 
was  pastor  of  the  Presbyterian  Church.  He 
studied  one  year  at  Davidson  College,  North 
Carolina,  and  four  years,  1875-79,  at  Princeton. 
After  studying  law  at  the  University  of  Vir- 
ginia, he  practised  his  profession  in  Atlanta. 
He  left  his  work  at  the  law  to  study  at  Johns 
Hopkins  University,  1883-85,  taking  the  degree 
of  Ph.D.  in  the  year  1886.  Dr.  Wilson  has  been 
Professor  of  History  and  Political  Economy  at 
Bryn  Mawr  College  and  Wesleyan  University, 
and  since  1890  at  Princeton  College. 

The  principal  works  of  Professor  Wilson  are  : 
Congressional  Government,  a  Study  in  Amer- 
1  ican  Politics  (Boston,  1885)  ;  The  State,  Ele- 
ments of  Historical  and  Practical  Politics 
(Boston,  1889).  Of  the  last  work  the  chapter  on 
the  government  of  the  United  States  has  been 
published  separately  under  the  title  State  and 
Federal  Governments  of  the  United  States 
(Boston,  1889).  Professor  Wilson  has  also  con- 
tributed articles  to  the  International  Review, 
Atlantic  Monthly,  Political  Science  Quarter- 
ly, and  Overland  Monthly,  on  political  sub- 
jects. 

WINKELBLECH  is  the  name  of  a  little- 
known  German  professor  of  chemistry,  who, 
under  the  pseudonym  of  "  Carl  Mario,"  wrote 
in  1850  a  book  now  recognized  as  one  of  the 
ablest  statements  of  German  socialism.  He 
was  traveling  to  study  technological  subjects 
when,  in  1843,  at  Modum,  Norway,  he  met  a 
German  artizan  and  became  interested  in  what 
he  heard  and  saw  of  the  sufferings  of  the  work- 
ing classes.  The  result  was  his  book  Unter- 
suchungen  iiber  der  Organization  der  Arbeit 
oder  System  der  Weltdkonontie(i&$i-$$.  Win- 
kelblech  died  in  1865. 

WOLOWSKI,  LOUIS  FRANCOIS  MI- 
CHEL RAYMOND,  was  born  at  Warsaw  in 
1810.  He  studied  in  Paris,  but  took  part  in  the 
Polish  Revolution  of  1830.  He  became  Profes- 
sor of  Law  in  the  Conservatoire  des  Arts  and 
Metiers  at  Paris  in  1839,  and  sat  in  the  Con- 


stituent Assembly  in  1848.  His  best-known 
works  are  :  De  I' Organisation  du  Travail 
(1843)  ;  L'Or  et  I' Argent  (1870).  He  died  at 
Gisors,  France,  in  1876. 

WOMAN'S  CHRISTIAN  TEMPER- 
ANCE UNIONS,  THE  NATIONAL  AND 
THE  WORLD  (see  WOMEN'S  TEMPERANCE 
ASSOCIATION,  BRITISH),  are  organizations  of 
Christian  women  for  the  protection  of  the  home, 
the  abolition  of  the  liquor  traffic,  and  the  tri- 
umph of  Christ's  golden  rule  in  custom  and  in 
law.  They  are  lineal  descendants  of  the  great 
Woman's  Temperance  Crusade  of  1873-74. 

In  December,  1873,  under  the  inspiration  of 
an  address  delivered  by  Dr.  Dio  Lewis,  of  Bos- 
ton, the  women  of  Hillsboro,  Washington  Court 
House,  and  other  Ohio  towns  were  moved  to 
concerted  action  against  the  saloon.  They  gath- 
ered in  the  streets  to  pray,  and  marched,  two  by 
two,  into  saloons.  They  besought  the  men  who 
drank,  and  the  men  who  sold,  to  cease  to  gratify 
the  appetite  for  stimulants  and  the  appetite  for 
gain,  and  invited  them  to  move  with  the  proces- 
sion, as  it  ended  its  day's  work  at  the  altars  of 
God,  where  the  women  knelt  in  consecration, 
and  countless  tempted  men  in  repentance  and 
faith.  The  movement  spread  east,  west,  north, 
and  south.  In  50  days  it  swept  the  liquor  traffic 
out  of  250  towns  and  villages.  The  leader  of  the 
first  Crusade  band  was  Mrs.  Eliza  J.  Thompson, 
wife  of  Judge  Thompson,  of  Hillsboro,  known 
for  many  years  as  "  Mother"  Thompson. 

But  the  saloon  was  found  to  be  but  the  out- 
cropping of  the  liquor  system  ;  that  system  was 
protected  by  law  and  intrenched  in  the  very 
heart  of  our  governmental  life.  The  powers 
controlling  it  soon  rallied  from  the  shock  of  the 
sudden  onslaught,  and  intrenched  themselves 
even  more  strongly  behind  barricades,  political 
and  legal.  The  logic  of  events  soon  forced  the 
women  to  enlarge  the  circle  of  their  work  until 
it  should  include  not  only  "  mental  suasion  for 
the  man  who  thinks  and  moral  suasion  for  the 
man  who  drinks,  but  legal  suasion  for  the  drunk- 
ard-maker and  prison  suasion  for  the  statute- 
breaker.  ' ' 

A  call  for  permanent  organization  went  forth 
from  the  Chautauqua  (New  York)  Sunday- 
School  Assembly,  August,  1874. 

The  National  W.  C.  T.  U.  of  the  United  States 
was  organized  November  18,  19  and  20,  1874, 
in  Cleveland,  O.,  the  first  president  being  Mrs. 
Wittenmeyer.  of  Philadelphia,  and  the  first  cor- 
responding secretary,  Miss  Frances  E.  Willard 
(q.v.),  of  Chicago.  It  was  incorporated  March 
i,  1883,  in  Washington,  D.  C. 

It  has  now  49  auxiliary  States  and  four  terri- 
torial unions,  besides  that  of  the  District  of  Co- 
lumbia, and  is  the  largest  society  ever  composed 
exclusively  of  women  and  conduct- 
ed entirely  by  them.     It  has  been 
organized  by  every  State  and  Terri-     History. 
tory  of  the  nation,  and  locally  in 
about  10,000  towns  and  cities.     (For 
local  convenience,  California  and  Washington 
are  divided  into  two  unions  each.-    In  two  States 
also  there  are  separate  unions  of  the  colored 
women.     Alaska  is  not  organized.) 

At  the  last  National  Convention  the  paid-up 
membership  was  reported  as  147,656,  but  this  by 


Woman's  C.  T.  U. 


1396 


Woman's  C.  T.  U. 


no  means  represents  the  full  number  enrolled. 
Without  doubt  there  are  250,000  white-ribbon- 
ers  in  the  United  States,  with  a  direct  following 
of  as  many  more. 

Each  member  is  required  to  sign  the  pledge 
and  pay  the  annual  membership  dues,  which 
dues  vary  in  different  States,  but  are  usually 
about  50  cents.  Of  this  amount  a  certain  per 
cent,  is  paid  into  the  State  treasury,  and  from 
the  State  treasury  10  cents  per  member  is  paid 
into  the  treasury  of  the  National  organization. 
Men  are  admitted  as  "honorary  members." 
The  National  motto  is,  "  For  God,  and  home, 
and  native  land." 

The  badge  is  a  knot  of  white  ribbon,  and  was 
adopted  in  the  convention  of  1877.  There  was 
a  division  of  opinion  as  to  the  proper  badge,  one 
party  favoring  red,  white  and  blue  ;  the  other, 
royal  purple.  Miss  Winslow,  editor  of  Our 
Union,  moved  that  the  factions  unite  upon  pure 
white.  This  motion  was  carried  unanimously. 
White  light  includes  all  the  prismatic  colors,  so 
the  white  ribbon  is  symbolic  not  only  of  purity 
and  peace,  but  it  includes  all  the  correlated  re- 
forms that  center  in  the  protection  of  the  home. 

At  noon  each  white-ribboner  the  world  over 
is  expected  to  lift  her  heart  to  God  in  prayer  for 
His  blessing  on  the  work  and  workers,  and  the 
overthrow  of  the  liquor  system  and  its  allies. 

The  declaration  of  principles  is  the  following  : 

"  We  believe  in  the  coming  of  His  Kingdom  whose 
service  is  perfect  freedom,  because  His  laws,  written 
in  our  members  as  well  as  in  nature  and  in  grace,  are 
perfect,  converting  the  soul. 

"  We  believe  in  the  gospel  of  the  Golden  Rule,  and 
that  each  man's  habits  of  life  should  be  an  example 
safe  and  beneficent  for  every  other  man  to  follow. 

"  We    believe    that    God    created    both    man    and 

woman  in  His  own  image,  and,  therefore,  we  believe 

in  one  standard  of  purity  for  both  men 

and  women,  and  in  the  equal  right  of 

Principles.  &H  to  hold  opinions  and  to  express  the 
same  in  the  home,  on  the  platform,  in 
the  pulpit  and  at  the  ballot-box. 

"  We  believe  in  a  living  wage  ;  in  an  eight-hour  day  ; 
in  courts  of  conciliation  and  arbitration  ;  in  justice  as 
opposed  to  greed  of  gain  ;  in  '  peace  on  earth  and 
goodwill  to  men.' 

"We  therefore  formulate,  and  for  ourselves  adopt 
the  following  pledge,  asking  our  sisters  and  brothers 
of  a  common  danger  and  a  common  hope  to  make 
common  cause  with  us,  in  working  its  reasonable  and 
helpful  precepts  into  the  practice  of  every-day  life  : 

"  I hereby  solemnly  promise,  GOD  HELPING  ME,  to 
abstain  from  all  dis'titled,  fermented  and  malt  liquors, 
including  wine,  beer  and  cider,  as  a  beverage,  and  to 
employ  all  proper  means  to  discourage  the  use  of  and 
traffic  in  the  same. 

"  To  confirm  and  enforce  the  rationale  of  this  pledge, 
we  declare  our  purpose  to  educate  the  young  ;  to  form 
a  better  public  sentiment ;  to  reform,  so  far  as  possible, 
by  religious,  ethical  and  scientific  means,  the  drink- 
ing classes  ;  to  seek  the  transforming  power  of  divine 
grace  for  ourselves  and  all  for  whom  we  work,  that 
they  and  we  may  willfully  transcend  no  law  of  pure 
and  wholesome  living  ;  and  finally  we  pledge  ourselves 
to  labor  and  pray  that  all  these  principles,  founded 
upon  the  Gospel  of  Christ,  may  be  worked  out  into 
the  customs  of  society  and  the  laws  of  the  land." 

Its  lines  of  work  are  :  I.  Organization  :  II. 
Preventive  ;  III.  Educational  ;  IV.  Evangel- 
istic ;  V.  Social  ;  VI.  Legal. 

Besides  these  there  are  :  i.  The  affiliated  in- 
terests. 2.  The  standing  committees. 

Under  the  six  chief  heads  are  grouped  vari- 
ous departments,  each  one  under  the  charge  of 
a  national  superintendent.  The  total  number 
of  departments  is  40  ;  of  affiliated  interests,  3  ; 
of  standing  committees,  7  ;  of  branches,  2. 


The  principal  results  that  the  organization 
has  been  instrumental  in  securing  are  thus 
stated  : 


"Its  auxiliaries  have  been,  confessedly,  the  chief 
factors  in  State  campaigns  for  statutory  prohibition 
and  constitutional  amendments.  It  began  the  move- 
ment for  scientific  temperance  education  in  the  public 
schools,  having  been  instrumental  in  securing  laws  to 
that  end  in  all  but  four  of  the  States  ;  and  besides  this 
it  has  secured  Congressional  legislation,  by  means  of 
which  all  the  Territories  and  the  District  of  Columbia 
are  brought  under  the  same  beneficent  statutes. 

"The  work  of  the  National  W.  C.  T.  U.  among  the 
children  in  Sunday-schools,  Loyal  Temperance  Le- 
gions and  Kindergartens  ;  its  efforts  to  influence  col- 
lege students  and  to  train  and  organize  young  women 
for  a  philanthropic  life  ;  its  evangelistic  work  for  non- 
churchgoers,  for  railway  employees,  soldiers,  lumber- 
men, miners  (especially  for  the  drinking  men  of  all 
classes),  all  these  have  proved  the  breadth  of  its  com- 
prehension and  the  tirelessness  of  its  zeal.  Its  efforts 
to  reach  the  pauper  and  the  prisoner,  to  establish  re- 
formatories and  homes  for  the  wretched  victims  of  in- 
ebriety and  their  suffering  children,  and  its  temper- 
ance Flower  Mission  must  appeal  to  every  true  heart. 

"  It  is  permeating  public  sentiment  by  its  steady  ad- 
vances upon  the  press  through  monthly  and  weekly 
temperance  papers,  and  by  its  countless  conventions. 

"  ft  has  sought  to  purify  the  holidays  of  the  people, 
coming  with  its  sisterly,  influence  to  the  fairs,  celebra- 
tions, encampments,  and  expositions,  and  by  its  un- 
requited toil  providing  refreshments,  keeping  alco- 
holic poisons  o'ff  the  grounds,  and  circulating  pure 
water  and  pure  literature.  It  has  battled  for  the 
maintenance  of  the  Sabbath,  sought  to  introduce  the 
unfermented  juice  of  the  grape  at  the  sacramental 
table,  and  to  secure  a  day  of  prayer  for  temperance  in 
the  Week  of  Prayer. 

"  It  has  circulated  countless  petitions  and  addressed 
synods  and  conferences,  teachers'  associations  and 
medical  societies,  as  well  as  legislatures,  State  and 
national,  always  for  one  object  and  with  one  plea: 

"  '  We  beseech  you  to  refrain  from  the  use  of  alco- 
holics, and  to  outlaw  the  liquor  traffic.' 

"In  recent  years  it  has  bravely  championed  the 
cause  of  woman's  ballot,  the  labor  movement  and 
social  purity.  It  seeks  to  instruct  the  youth  of  the 
nation,  uplifting  and  preserving  them  from  the  ways 
that  take  hold  upon  death.  It  also  strives  to  redeem 
outcast  women  from  a  slavery  worse  than  that  of 
chains,  and  by  better  laws  to  secure  protection  to 
women  and  girls  from  the  outrage  of  brutal  men.  It 
has  been  instrumental  in  raising  the  age  of  consent  in 
nearly  every  State  in  the  Union,  and  its  influence  is 
being  strongly  felt  in  the  purification  of  our  literature 
and  art." 

The  affiliated  interests  of  the  National 
W.  C.  T.  U.  are  :  The  Woman's  Temperance 
Publishing  Association,  the  National  Temper- 
ance Hospital,  and  the  Temple. 

The  Woman's  Temperance  Publishing  Asso- 
ciation is  a  publishing  house  owned  and  con- 
trolled entirely  by  women,  and  is  one  of  the 
mightiest  forces  in  the  great  temperance  propa- 
ganda. It  issues  the  official  organ,  The  Union 
Signal. 

The  Temperance  Hospital  was  formally 
opened  in  1886.  At  first  located  on  Cottage 
Grove  Avenue,  Chicago,  it  is  now  occupying 
larger  and  more  convenient  quarters  on  Diver- 
sey  Avenue.  Its  basic  principle  is  the  cure  of 
disease  without  the  use  of  alcohol  as  an  active 
medicinal  agent. 

The  Temple  is  a  large,  handsome  structure  on 
a  principal  street  in  Chicago,  intended  as  a 
monument  to  the  W.  C.  T.  U.,  a  source  of  reve- 
nue to  the  society,  and  the  central  home  of  its 
manifold  labors.  The  building  has  been  the 
office  home  of  the  National  Union  for  five 
years,  tho  it  is  not  yet  the  property  of  the 
W.  C.  T.  U. 


Woman's  C.  T.  U. 


1397 


Woman's  C.  T.  U. 


THE  WORLD'S  WOMAN'S  CHRISTIAN  TEMPERANCE 
UNION 

is  composed  of  the  unions  of  the  various  nations 
where  the  white-ribbon  work  is  known,  and  was 
organized  in  November,  1883. 

It  is  now  organized  in  40  nations,  with  a  total 
membership  of  about  500,000. 

Its  officers  are  :  Frances  E.  Willard  (q.z>.~), 
president  ;  Lady  Henry  Somerset  (g.v.),  vice- 
president  ;  Agnes  E.  Slack,  secretary  ;  Mrs. 
Mary  E.  Sanderson,  treasurer. 

It  has  organized  a  polyglot  petition  addressed 
to  the  governments  of  the  world  asking  them 
to  do  away  with  the  manufacture  of  and  traffic 
in  alcoholic  liquors  and  opium  and  the  legaliza- 
tion of  impurity.  It  has  already  been  presented 
to  the  President  of  the  United  States  and  to 
Queen  Victoria,  and  its  journey  around  the 
world  will,  probably,  be  undertaken  in  the 
near  future. 

DEPARTMENTS. 

Organization. — This  department  is  intended  to  sys- 
tematize the  work  of  national  organizers ;  sending 
them  out,  upon  consultation  with  Presidents,  to  such 
States  and  Territories  as  are  in  greatest  need  of  help, 
that  they  may  increase  the  number  of  local  auxilia- 
ries, and  "strengthen  the  things  which  remain,"  intro- 
ducing our  methods,  emphasizing  the  regular  payment 
of  dues,  circulating  The  Union  Signal,  and  building 
the  local  unions  upon  strong  foundations  of  conse- 
crated, combined  and  intelligent  effort. 

Young  Women's  Branch. — This  department  aims 
to  enlist  young  women  to  form  separate  societies 
(Y.  W.  C.  T.  U.)  for  the  purpose  of  making  total  absti- 
nence a  fashionable  social  custom,  to  the  end  that  young 
men  may  be  held  to  a  higher  standard  of  personal 
habits,  and  thus  by  a  power,  analogous  to  that  which 
haseffectually  restrained theirsisters,  be  shielded  from 
contamination  ;  also  to  teach  young  women  the  scien- 
tific and  ethical  reasons  for  total  abstinence  and  pro- 
hibition, and  to  develop  a  new  army  of  trained  temper- 
ance workers  to  whom  the  care  of 'the  children's  work 
may  at  once  be  intrusted,  and  who  will  eventually  re- 
place the  veterans  of  the  W.  C.  T.  U. 

The  methods  are,  first,  a  social  club  (the  Y.  W.  C.  T.  U. 
itself)  in  which  young  gentlemen  become  honorary 
members  by  signing  the  pledge  and  paying  the  mem- 
bership fee  ;  private  and  public  entertainments ;  a 
systematic  course  of  reading  and  work  in  Loyal  Tem- 
perance Legions,  night  schools  for  boys,  reading 
rooms,  kitchen  gardens,  etc. 

Loyal  Temperance  Legion  Branch. — This  depart- 
ment aims,  by  a  regular  course  of  study,  scientific, 
ethical  and  governmental,  to  make  our  boys  and  girls 
intelligent  total  abstainers  ;  to  develop  by  thorough 
organization  business  methods  and  practical  helpful- 
ness, an  army  of  disciplined  temperance  workers  and 
enthusiastic  temperance  givers  ;  identify  its  members, 
through  their  payment  of  dues  and  consequent  repre- 
sentation in  national  and  State  conventions,  and 
through  their  drill  in  department  work,  with  the  inter- 
ests of  the  W.  C.  T.  U.,  present  and  future. 

Work  among  Foreigners. — This  department  aims  to 
interest  all  persons  to  whom  English  is  not  the  native 
tongue  in  Gospel  Temperance  methods  and  measures, 
and  to  influence  them  through  the  work  of  the 
W.  C.  T.  U. ;  to  introduce  and  circulate  temperance  lit- 
erature ;  to  have  addresses  given  in  their  language,  and, 
if  possible,  to  establish  newspapers  ;  to  make  the  vote 
of  foreigners  a  temperance  vote  through  conviction  of 
right  principles  and  by  personal  appeal  and  combined 
action.  Send  to  national  superintendent  for  leaflets  in 
German  and  all  other  languages. 

Work  among  Colored  Peop/e.—This  department  is 
for  the  pursuance  among  colored  people  of  all  branches 
of  work  enumerated. 

Health  and  Heredity. — The  aim  of  this  department 
is  the  development  of  the  highest  life,  physical,  men- 
tal and  spiritual ;  instruction  in  the 
laws  of  health  in  relation  to  dress,  food, 
Preventive.  airi  exercise,  cleanliness,  sanitation, 
ventilation,  mental  and  moral  hygiene. 
It  teaches  the  law  of  heredity  and  the 
right  of  every  child  to  be  well  born.  It  is  eminently  a 
department  for  study.  It  is  fundamental. 

Non-Alcoholic   Medication.— This   department   pre- 


sents to  the  W.  C.  T.  U.,  and  through  it  to  people  in 
general,  the  teachings  of  eminent  physicians  who  dis- 
card alcohol  as  medicine.  It  is  vital  to  the  success  of 
the  temperance  cause,  as  total  abstinence  and  prohi- 
bition principles  can  never  triumph  while  alcohol  con- 
tinues to  be  a  popular  remedy.  Its  plans  are  the  study 
of  department  literature  by  every  W.  C.  T.  U.,  and 
free  distribution  of  the  same  ;  lectures  showing  supe- 
riority of  the  non-use  of  alcohols  in  sickness  ;  distribu- 
tion of  pamphlets  prepared  by  well-known  and  suc- 
cessful non-alcoholic  physicians  among  teachers, 
pastors,  editors,  doctors,  medical  students  and  other 
leaders  of  thought. 

Scientific    Temperance    Instruction.— This   depart- 
ment aims  to  secure  a  nation  of  intelli- 
gent total  abstainers  through  compulso- 
ry education  of  the  whole  people  in  their  Educational 
schools  and  colleges  as  to  all  laws  of 
health,  including  those  relating  to  the 
nature  and  effects  of  alcoholic  drinks  and  other  nar- 
cotics. 

Its  methods  of  work  are  the  enactment  and  enforce- 
ment of  laws  requiring  this  study  in  schools  under 
State  and  national  control.  Enforcement  involves  vig- 
ilance to  insure  nght  text- books  and  methods  of  teach- 
ing as  presented  in  the  School  Physiology  Journal,  a 
monthly  publication  for  teachers. 

As  the  result  of  the  work  of  this  department,  there 
are  now  16,000,000  children  of  school  age  under  tem- 
perance laws  in  the  United  States. 

Physical  Culture  Department.— This  department 
purposes  securing  State  laws  making  Physical  Educa- 
tion compulsory  in  all  schools  under  public  control. 
It  seeks  the  highest  possible  physical  development,  un- 
der circumstances  of  health,  upon  which  is  based  the 
most  successful  moral  and  intellectual  growth  of  the 
child. 

The  plans  promise  great  good  to  the  mothers  of  the 
future  through  an  improved  understanding  and  prac- 
tice of  laws  governing  health,  including  common-sense 
methods  in  dress,  and  the  use  of  nourishing  food. 

Sunday-school  Work.— The  Sunday-school  depart- 
ment aims  to  teach  the  great  principles  of  total  absti- 
nence and  prohibition  because  of  the  "Thus  saith  the 
Lord"  revealed  in  the  Bible.  Through  the  quarterly 
temperance  lessons  of  the  international  lesson  series, 
temperance  exercises  in  the  Sunday-school,  pledge 
signing,  concerts,  rallies,  mass-meetings,  etc.,  these 
principles  are  emphasized.  Special  effort  is  made  in 
these  directions  on  Universal  temperance  Sunday— the 
fourth  Sunday  of  each  November. 

Temperance  Literature.— This  department  aims  to 
prepare  and  circulate  books,  papers,  leaflets,  etc.,  for 
the  general  education  of  public  sentiment,  and  also  for 
topical  study  in  all  the  departments  of  W.  C.  T.  U. 
work,  that  our  local  meetings  may  be  made  interesting 
and  profitable,  and  our  members  thoroughly  educated 
in  all  branches  of  temperance  reform. 

Presenting  the  Cause.— This  department  aims  to 
secure  the  presentation  of  our  work  before  all  the  so- 
cieties above  indicated  and  any  others  of  suitable 
character,  in  towns,  counties,  districts,  States  and  the 
nation,  that  the  W.  C.  T.  U.  and  the  principles  it  advo- 
cates may  be  known  and  indorsed  in  influential  quar- 
ters. The  method  is  to  endeavor  through  members  of 
these  associations  to  secure  the  passage  of  a  resolution 
approving  our  work  and  committing  the  associations 
themselves  to  do  all  in  their  power  in  their  respective 
fields  to  advance  the  cause  of  total  abstinence  and  pro- 
hibition. Our  cause  should  also  be  presented  to  the 
leading  associations  by  our  ablest  speakers,  arrange- 
ments being  made  through  the  local  unions. 

Temperance  and  Labor. — This  department  is  educa- 
tive, aiming  to  assist  pur  members  to  comprehend  the 
changed  industrial  situation,  with  its  effect  on  the 
work  and  life  of  the  wage-earners.  The  methods  are 
conferences  for  the  study  of  the  labor  question,  circu- 
lar letters,  addresses,  articles  for  the  press  and  study 
in  our  unions  of  standard  books  on  the  history  of  labor, 
and  especially  of  the  present  conditions  of  laborers, 
and  by  contact  with  laborers  as  well  as  employers.  It 
shall  be  our  especial  aim  to  ameliorate  the  condition 
of  wage-earning  women  and  children.  On  the  other 
hand,  we  aim  to  discover  the  total  abstainer  in  labor 
organizations,  and  to  aid  and  encourage  them  to  arouse 
interest  among  wage-earners  in  the  study  of  the  liquor 
problem,  furnishing  them  with  specimens  of  the  most 
effective  temperance  literature,  whether  of  books, 
papers  or  pamphlets,  and  aiding  them  to  secure  the 
best  speakers  on  temperance.  We  also  aim  to  secure 
the  cooperation  of  laborers'  wives  and  daughters  in  our 
unions,  and  to  secure  the  publication  of  temperance 
information  and  argument  in  labor  journals  and  the 
newspapers  patronized  by  wage-earners. 


Woman's  C.  T.  U. 


1398 


Woman's  C.  T.  U. 


W.  C.  T.  U.  Schools.— This  department  aims  to  estab- 
lish schools  at  all  summer  assemblies  and  camp-meet- 
ings where  the  society's  work  is  brought  to  the  atten- 
tion of  the  people  ;  where  the  aim  and  needs  of  each  de- 
partment may  be  studied  and  the  best  methods  brought 
out  by  competent  teachers,  to  the  end  that  trained 
workers  may  take  the  places  of  those  now  unskilled. 

The  Press.— This  department  aims  to  provide  the 
press,  both  religious  and  secular,  with  the  latest  and 
most  important  news  concerning  the  W.  C.  T.  U.  work 
in  every  department ;  to  bring  constantly  before  the 
reading  public,  facts,  illustrations,  statistics  and  quo- 
tations, directly  and  indirectly  helpful  in  educating 
the  public  mind  and  conscience  along  this  line  of  re- 
form ;  and  to  correct  in  the  same  columns  whence  they 
emanate  inaccurate  statements  with  regard  to  our 
principles,  methods  or  leadership.  Particular  atten- 
tion is  paid  to  the  metropolitan  and  associated  press 
and  cooperative  newspapers,  also  the  capital  cities  dur- 
ing sessions  of  the  legislature.  To  this  general  state- 
ment it  maybe  added  that  "the  printed  part  is  less 
than  that  which,  yet  unprinted,  waits  the  press." 

Narcotics.— To  educate  is  the  first  aim  of  this  depart- 
ment ;  to  instill  into  the  minds  of  the  young  the  injury 
done  by  tobacco  and  to  teach  adults  the  effects  of  to- 
bacco, opium  and  other  narcotics,  not  only  upon  the 
parent,  but  the  offspring  ;  also,  to  secure  laws  prohib- 
iting the  sale  of  all  narcotics,  including  tobacco  in  all 
its  forms.  The  special  work  is  to  organize  anti-to- 
bacco leagues,  and  thereby  not  only  educate  but  pledge 
the  children  against  tobacco,  particularly  in  its  most 
dangerous  form,  the  cigarette.  The  lecturers  are  fully 
equipped  to  carry  out  the  aims  and  objects  of  this  de- 
partment, and  will  build  up  and  strengthen  any  union 
calling  them. 

School  Savings  Banks. — This  department  is  in  the  in- 
terest of  life's  great  economic  and  protective  forces. 
Its  mission  is  to  establish  the  savings  system  in  schools 
throughout  the  land  ;  to  give  every  child  initial  in- 
struction in  practical  thrift ;  to  make  the  boy  and  girl 
alike  self-responsible,  understanding,  happy,  temper- 
ate, industrious  property-owners.  Its  superintendent 
has  studied  economic  problems  the  past  two  years 
abroad,  with  figures,  facts  and  literature.  The  school 
savings  banks  teaching  in  400  schools  in  the  United 
States  proves  it  one  of  the  greatest  known  popular  re- 
form factors.  It  curtails  extravagance,  intemperance, 
labor  troubles,  pauperism  and  crime,  and  directs 
thought  into  healthful,  xiplifting  channels.  The  sys- 
tem is  simple,  occupying  but  fifteen  minutes  per  week 
of  school  time. 

Kindergarten.— This  work  aims  to  develop  the  child 
harmoniously — the  head,  heart  and  hands.  In  the 
kindergarten  he  is  given  an  opportunity  to  express 
himself  in  work,  play  and  song.  The  teacher  aims  to 
direct  the  child's  activities  into  the  right  channel  and 
seeks  to  make  the  school  the  natural,  normal  environ- 
ment in  which  his  best  self  can  bud  forth  and  grow, 
thus  producing  temperate  living.  If  we  can  begin 
with  the  little  child  we  can  form,  which  is  far  better 
and  easier  than  to  reform. 

Medal  Contest  Work.—  This  department  aims  to  set 
W.  C.  T.  U.  principles  before  the  public  in  the  attractive 
form  of  public  entertainments.  Recitations,  chiefly  by 
children  and  young  people,  are  given  on  prohibition, 
total  abstinence,  narcotics,  purity,  and  the  various 
other  lines  of  our  work.  Judges  are  appointed,  who 
pronounce  upon  the  merits  of  the  speakers,  and  a 
medal  is  awarded  the  successful  contestant. 

This  department  aims  to  keep  brightly  burning  upon 
our  altars  the  sacred  fire  which  was  kindled  in  the 
Crusade. 

To  train  spiritually  the  individual  worker.  To  per- 
meate, by  its  devotional  services,  Bible  readings  and 
consecration,  all  other  departments  with  the  evangelis- 
tic spirit.  To  secure  the  establishment 
of  the  ii  A.M.  devotional  hour  in  all  con- 
Evangelistic.  ventions.  To  emphasize  the  importance 
of  the  noontide  prayer.  To  arouse  the 
church.  To  reach  the  masses  by  visita- 
tion, Gospel  missions  and  conferences,  Crusade  Bands, 
•wayside  services  in  jails,  halls,  cottages,  depots,  etc. 
To  enlist  more  women  who  shall  preach  the  Gospel, 
and  to  train  the  workers. 

Its  methods  are,  first  to  secure  a  superintendent  in 
each  State,  district,  county  and  local  union,  through 
•whose  instrumentality  local  unions  shall  hold  meetings 
with  non-churchgoers,  thus  bringing  to  them  a  knowl- 
edge of  the  saving  power  of  Christ. 

Unfermented  Wine. — This  department  aims  to  se- 
cure the  use  of  unfermented  wine  at  the  Sacrament  of 
the  Lord's  Supper ;  to  awaken  conviction  in  every 
mind  that  Christ  did  not  make  use  of  or  bless  intoxi- 
cating wine.  Methods— Appeals  to  the  ministry  and 


church  officials ;  presenting  petitions  and  resolutions 
to  religious  bodies  ;  proving  by  the  testimony  of 
ancient  and  modern  authorities  and  missionaries  that 
unfermented  wine  was  in  use  all  through  Bible  times  : 
securing  the  preaching  of  sermons  against  the  use  of 
intoxicating  wine  upon  the  Lord's  table,  asagainstanv 
other  sin,  and  the  extensive  circulation  of  literature 
upon  this  subject. 

Proportionate  and  Systematic  Giving. — This  depart- 
ment seeks  to  create  sentiment  in  favor  of  the  tithe 
system  or  other  methods  of  proportionate  giving,  as 
the  most  promising  means  of  securing  a  pure  and  am- 

Ele  treasury  tor  the  Lord's  work.  The  judicious  and 
lithful  distribution  of  systematic  giving  literature  in 
all  the  families  represented  in  the  unions,  also  essays 
and  addresses  on  the  subject,  and  testimonies  from 
those  who  have  adopted  the  methods,  constitute  the 
plan  of  work. 

Penal  and  Reformatory  Work,  including  Police  Sta- 
tion Work.— This  department  aims  to  carry  gospel 
temperance  to  the  inmates  of  prisons  and  jails  ;  to  co- 
operate in  the  work  of  Prisoners'  Aid  Association  ;  to 
aid  in  establishing  woman's  reformatory  prisons  and 
industrial  homes  for  the  criminal  classes  ;  to  secure 
the  appointment  of  women  on  State  boards  of  chari- 
ties and  the  maintenance  of  matrons  in  all  prisons  and 
police  stations  where  women  are  arrested  or  impris- 
oned. The  gospel  and  police  matron  work  is  directly 
related  to  the  W.  C.  T.  U.,  and  carried  on  by  personal 
visitation,  by  letter  and  literature. 

Work  in  Almshouses  —The  aim  of  this  department 
is  to  better  the  condition  of  the  unfortunate  and  out- 
cast by  establishing  libraries,  regular  Sabbath  ser- 
vices, with  frequent  visitations  in  these  institutions, 
hoping  to  bring  additional  brightness  into  the  lives  of 
those  who  are  not  able  to  obtain  it  for  themselves,  and, 
if  possible,  to  cooperate  with  State  boards  of  correc- 
tions and  charities  in  their  work  of  improving  these 
institutions  by  bringing  practical  help  along  the  lines 
of  prevention  and  cure. 

Securing  Homes.— The  object  of  this  department  is 
to  secure  a  home  for  every  homeless,  unprotected 
child  within  our  borders.  These  homes  must  be 
sought  out  with  great  care  by  our  superintendents. 
In  large  towns'and  cities  these  children  are  often  "  at 
our  doors,"  but  we  must  seek  out  the  waifs  of  remote 
and  less  populous  districts.  As  individuals,  members 
of  unions,  and  church  associations,  we  have  become 
familiar  with  this  •work.  But  now  we  desire  to  extend 
it,  to  make  it  more  efficient  through  the  concerted 
action  of  our  organization. 

Cooperation  with  existing  children's  aid  societies  is 
recommended,  rather  than  the  forming  of  new  ones,  by 
our  unions.  These  exist  in  every  city  and  are  glad  to 
welcome  us  as  coadjutors. 

Work  among  Railroad  Employees.— This  department 
includes  work  among  railroad  men,  telegraph  opera- 
tors, street-car  men,  policemen,  express  and  hackmen, 
and  train  news  agents,  with  their  respective  families, 
and  aims  to  carry  the  Gospel  and  temperance  .pledge 
to  them  all,  and  to  organize  among  them  gospel  and 
temperance  clubs,  or  "R.  R.  Unions."  Cottage  meet- 
ings, noon  shop  meetings,  and  personal  work  in  con- 
nection with  the  mass-meetings  is  the  line  followed, 
with  the  distribution  of  literature,  etc. 

Among  Soldiers  and  Sailors. — This  department  aims 
to  reach  the  army  and  navy  with  gospel  temperance 
work,  also  by  means  of  the  pledge  and  temperance 
literature,  through  cooperation  with  commandants 
and  chaplains,  by  correspondence,  articles  in  papers 
read  by  soldiers  and  sailors,  and  personal  visitation. 
Also  to  enlist  in  this  peaceful  war  all  veterans,  and 
to  inculcate  in  the  young  a  spirit  of  patriotism  by  se- 
curing their  aid  in  the  effort  to  place  a  flag  on  every 
school-house. 

Among  L^lmbermen.  —  This  department  aims  to 
carry  gospel  temperance,  by  means  of  the  written  and 
spoken  word,  to  the  great  armies  of  men  in  the  logging 
camps,  destitute  as  they  are  of  Christian  teaching,  and 
sure  to  fall  an  easy  prey  to  the  saloons  unless  fore- 
warned and  forearmed. 

Among  Miners. — This  department  aims  to  do  for 
miners  the  same  that  is  stated  above  relative  to  the 
lumbermen. 

Sabbath  Observance. — The  aim  of  this  department 
is  to  educate  and  arouse  the  public  intellect  and  con- 
science, through  leaflets,  press  articles,  petitions  and 
all  other  available  means,  to  the  religious,  scientific 
and  other  reasons  for  Sabbath  observance,  especially 
raising  a  higher  practical  standard  among  professed 
Christians,  and  testing  our  own  lives  by  the  Word  of 
God.  Also  to  secure  and  maintain  good  Sabbath  laws 
and  usages,  thus  protecting  all  in  their  right  to  a  civil 
rest  day  and  fostering  morality. 


Woman's  C.  T.  U. 


1399 


Woman's  Rights. 


Mercy  Department.— This  department  aims  to  de- 
velop in  our  young  people  the  tenderest  consideration 
toward  all  who  are  capable  of  pain,  never  needlessly 
inflicting  it,  and  shielding  the  lower  animals  from 
both  pain  and  danger  so  far  as  possible,  also  securing 
the  enactment  and  enforcement  of  laws  for  this  benefi- 
cent purpose. 

Purity  Department.— -This  department  aims  to  ex- 
hibit the  relations  existing  between  the  drink  habit 
and  the  nameless  habits,  outrages  and  crimes  which 
disgrace  modern  civilization  ;  and  especially  to  point 
out  the  brutalizing  influence  of  malt  liquors  upon  the 
social  nature  ;  this  study  to  be  conducted  by  means  of 
mothers'  meetings,  leaflets,  pamphlets,  etc.,  cooperat- 
ing with  the  White  Cross  Army  and  circulating  its 
literature. 

It  seeks  to  establish  a  single  code  of  morals,  and  to 
maintain  the  law  of  purity  as  equally  binding  upon 
men  and  women.  It  has  in  view  a  distinct  effort  to 
impress  upon  the  minds  of  men  and  women,  youth 
and  maidens,  the  absolute  demands  of  religion  and 
physiology  for  purity  in  thought,  word  and  deed. 

It  endeavors  to  secure  legislation  of  a  character  cal- 
culated to  protect  the  honor  and  purity  of  the  young, 
and  defend  women  and  girls  from  the  depravity  of 
brutal  men. 

Purity  in  Literature  and  Art.—Th&  germ  thought 
of  this  department  is  "  The  Inner  Mission  "—the  Bible 
as  the  highest  expression  of  literature.  Christ  in  art 
now  rules  the  whole  kingdom  of  art.  It  seeks  the 
elevation  of  the  press,  and  to  this  end  scrutinizes  the 
literature  on  news-stands,  railroads  and  steamboats, 
library  shelves,  in  mail  matters,  bill  posters,  shows, 
exhibitions,  art  galleries.  Its  methods  are  to  appeal 
to  Congress,  legislators,  councils,  magistrates  and 
courts  for  the  enforcement  of  existing  and  creation  of 
better  laws  ;  also  lectures  and  literature  to  arouse  pub- 
lic sentiment. 

Parlor  Meetings.—  This  department  aims  to  interest 
the  conservative  social  classes  of  society  by  the  use  of 
conservative  social  means.  The  meetings  are  held  in 
homes,  the  audience  gathered  by  invi- 
tation. The  methods  must  vary  to  meet 

Social  and  the  varied  character  of  social  demands. 
Religious  services,  music,  a  brief  ad- 
dress,  conversational  discussion,  dis- 
tribution of  literature  and  circulation 
of  autograph  pledge-books  are  recom- 
mended. Gentlemen  may  be  invited  and  honorary 
'membership  solicited.  Refreshments  add  to  the  social 
character  of  the  hour. 

Flower  Mission.— This  department  aims  to  graft  our 
gospel  work  upon  a  beautiful  form  of  philanthropy. 
Bouquets  are  to  be  tied  with  white  ribbons  and  a  Scrip- 
ture verse  or  suggestion  relative  to  temperance  to  be 
attached ;  literature  to  be  circulated  to  accompany 
the  flowers,  and  the  total  abstinence  pledge  offered  at 
appropriate  times. 

State  and  County  Fairs.— This  department  aims  to 
bring  temperance  ideas  and  practices  in  contact  with 
the  people,  at  fairs  and  other  great  holiday  gatherings, 
by  means  of  a  booth  (suitably  designated  by  mottoes, 
pictures  and  other  decorations),  where  temperance 
drinks  are  dispensed  and  literature  circulated  ;  also  to 
secure,  if  possible,  favorable  reference  to  the  subject 
of  temperance  in  public  addresses,  made  either  by 
those  appointed  by  authorities  of  the  fair,  or  if  this  be 
impracticable,  presentation  of  the  subject  by  our  own 
speakers.  This  department  protests  against  the  sale 
of  intoxicants  on  holiday  occasions,  and  makes  sys- 
tematic effort  to  secure  the  enactment  and  enforcement 
of  law  to  this  end. 

Legislation  and  Enforcement  of  Law.— This  depart- 
ment aims  to.  secure  prohibition  by  constitutional  and 
statutory  law  in  every  State  and  Territory,  and  to  se- 
cure a  prohibitory  amendment  to  the  National  Consti- 
tution. Methods  are  varied,  as  the  manifold  work  of 
the  W.  C.  T.  U.  As  all  roads  once  led  to  Rome,  so 
every  purpose  and  plan  points  to  the  consummation 
defined  under  this  all-embracing  "  aim."  Specifically, 
petitions  to  legislative  bodies,  systematic  efforts  to 
enforce  existing  laws,  and  a  course  of  study  and  read- 
ing for  local  unions  are  included  under  this-  depart- 
ment. 

Franchise.— This  department  aims  to  aid  the  States 
that  desire  to  utilize  the  school  ballot  for  temperance 
purposes,  if  already  conferred,  or  to  secure  in  whole 
or  in  part  the  ballot  for  women  as  a  weapon  of  protec- 
tion to  their  homes  from  the  liquor  traffic  and  its  at- 
tendant evils.  Methods— circular  letter  with  instruc- 
tions, forms  of  petition,  etc.  ;  distribution  and  sale  of 
appropriate  literature ;  articles  to  the  press  ;  corre- 
spondence and  public  addresses. 

Peace    and    International   Arbitration,— This   de- 


partment aims  to  secure  such  training  for  the  children 
in  home,  Sunday-school,  public  school,  and  Loyal  Tem- 
perance Legion,  as  will  make  them  despise  physical 
combat,  and  will  lift  them  to  a  plane  where  the 
weapons  are  arguments,  parliamentary  usage  and 
law;  all  of  these  having  above  them  the  "sword  of 
the  Spirit,"  that  weapon  which  is,  above  all  others, 
worthy  of  reasonable  and  responsible  beings. 

The  department  also  contemplates  international 
arbitration  as  the  method  that  shall  universally  re- 
place war,  and  in  this  interest,  literature  will  be  cir- 
culated, public  meetings  addressed,  petitions  signed, 
and  cooperation  with  the  peace  societies  of  this  and 
other  nations  sought. 

Christian  Citizenship.  Object.— To  study  the 
science  of  government  and  the  rights  and  duties  of 
citizens,  to  educate  and  influence  voters,  to  combat  the 
evils  of  organized  society  at  the  caucus,  convention 
and  ballot-box. 

Standpoint.—  This  is  Christian.  Christian  princi- 
ples and  ethical  standards  must  be  introduced  and 
maintained  in  all  the  social  and  political  relations  of 
mankind. 

Work. — Organize  the  local  union  for  study  and 
work.  Organize  the  boys  and  girls  for  training.  Or- 
ganize the  voters  for  direct  action.  Hold  public  meet- 
ings, circulate  literature. 

WOMAN'S  RIGHTS.— (For  an  account 
of  the  woman  suffrage  movement  in  England 
and  America,  see  articles  WOMAN  SUFFRAGE 
IN  ENGLAND,  by  Helen  Blackburn,  and  WOMAN 
SUFFRAGE  IN  THE  UNITED  STATES,  by  Rachel  F. 
Avery.  For  woman's  industrial  position,  see 
article  WOMAN'S  WORK  AND  WAGES.  On  other 
points,  consult  articles  AGE  OF  CONSENT  ;  DI- 
VORCE ;  FAMILY  ;  HOUSEHOLD  ECONOMIC  ASSOCIA- 
TION ;  MARRIAGE;  PROSTITUTION  ;  SOCIAL  PURITY, 
etc.)  We  consider  in  this  article,  I.  Woman's 
Political  and  Social  History  ;  II.  Woman's 
Present  Legal  Status  ;  III.  The  Arguments 
For  and  Against  Woman  Suffrage. 

I.  WOMAN'S  POLITICAL  AND  SOCIAL  HISTORY. 

In  prehistoric  times  and  among  barbarous 
tribes,  women  have  occasionally  been  honored 
more  than  in  later  periods.  The  savage  queen 
has  sometimes  been  recognized  as  the  superior 
of  the  savage  king.  Women  in  the  legendary 
or  heroic  period  of  Greek  history  occupy  a  dis- 
tinctly higher  place  than  in  the  classic  period. 
The  cause  for  this  is  undoubtedly  that  early  in 
the  history  of  man  customs  have  not  yet  hard- 
ened into  social  laws,  and  the  position  accorded 
to  women  depended,  therefore,  less 
upon  social  ideas  and  more  upon 
the  character  of  women.  All  his-  Primitive 
tory  shows  the  same.  Women  of  Times. 
beauty  or  of  ability,  therefore,  can 
secure  a  comparatively  high  place. 
Around  woman,  too,  more  than  around  man 
develops  the  family  and  the  home.  (See  FAM- 
ILY.) Yet  if  this  be  true,  it  is  not  so  much  that 
women  are  elevated  as  that  men  are  debased. 
The  first  women,  like  the  first  men  (see  SOCI- 
OLOGY), must  be  thought  of  as  little  more  than 
slightly  developed  animals.  If  society  first 
formed  around  the  mother,  force  was  the  first 
law,  and  woman  was  usually  looked  upon  as  a 
slave,  and  later  as  a  slave  or  a  toy.  She  was 
early  exposed  to  all  those  revulsions  of  feeling 
that  follow  the  gratification,  among  rude  men, 
of  the  animal  passion.  Marriage  was  regarded 
ere  long,  if  not  at  first,  as  the  ownership  of 
women  by  men  as  their  property.  Chastity  on 
the  part  of  women  was  at  first  to  large  extent 
a  property  right.  Men  demanded  it  in  their 


Woman's  Rights. 


1400 


Woman's  Rights. 


property  ;  to  far  less  extent  was  it  considered  a 
merit  in  themselves.  The  unequal  standard  of 
morals  for  the  two  sexes  is  as  old  as  human  his- 
tory. Women  were  often  bought  by  their  hus- 
bands from  their  fathers.  In  the  Book  of  Gene- 
sis Jacob  purchases  Leah  and  Rachel,  and  pays 
their  father  for  them  in  work.  The  payment  of 
the  husband  to  the  father  was  in  Greek  called 
the  ifiva,  in  Latin  the  mundrum.  The  modern 
wedding  ring  is  usually  supposed  to  be  a  relic 
of  this  sale.  Among  the  Germanic  tribes, 
where  woman  was  more  highly  honored,  the 
husband  gave  a  gift,  not  to  the  father,  but  to 
the  bride  herself.  It  was  usually  given  on  the 
morning  after  the  wedding  night,  and  called  the 
morgengabe.  It  is  preserved  in  the  modern 
jointure.  In  Greece  the  sale  of  the  daughter  by 
the  father  was  early  replaced  by  a  gift  from  the 
father  to  the  husband  for  the  use  of  his  wife  ; 
and  later  this  dowry  was  secured  to  the  wife  in 
most  cases  of  separation.  All  these  monetary 
transactions  show  how  far  marriage  has  its  basis 
in  property  considerations. 

Greece  was  probably  the  first  country  to  de- 
velop monogamy  and  to  place  women  on  an  es- 
tablished basis  of  honor  and  of  love.     The  part- 
ing of  Hector  and  Andromache,  the 
fidelity  of  Penelope  to  Ulysses,  the 
Greece.      love  of  Alcestis  dying  for  her  hus- 
band, the  filial  piety  of  Antigone, 
the  heroic  death  of  Polyxena,  the 
resignation  of    Iphigenia    to    her  father,  who 
would  sacrifice  her  life  to  fulfil  his  vow,  the  joy- 
ous love  of  Nausicaa,  are  pictures  of  Grecian 
womanhood  in  the  early  age,  which,  Lecky  says, 
"  Rome  and  Christendom,  chivalry  and  modern 
civilization,  have  neither  eclipsed  nor  transcend- 
ed."    Yet  the  heroes  of  that  age  had  concu- 
bines.    Female  captives  were  little  respected. 
Woman  was  always  regarded  as  the  inferior  of 
man. 

In  the  classic  age  of  Greece,  woman  was 
legally  more  protected,  was  considered  more 
capable  of  intellectual  equality  with  man  ;  yet 
morals  were  much  deteriorated  and  a  sensual 
conception  of  woman  far  more  developed.  The 
virtuous  woman  was  secluded.  In  Xenophon's 
picture  of  the  married  life,  the  young  wife  is  por- 
trayed as  an  innocent  child,  petted  and  tutored 
by  her  husband.  At  a  later  stage,  Plutarch  con- 
ceives of  husband  and  wife  as  equals  ;  but  usu- 
ally the  virtuous  woman  was  under  the  tutelage 
first  of  her  father,  then  of  her  husband  ;  if  wid- 
owed, of  her  sons.  Marriage  was  regarded  in 
civic  light  as  the  means  of  producing  citizens. 
Protected  somewhat  by  the  law,  the  Greek  wife 
was  by  custom  fettered  exclusively  to  household 
circles. 

The  Greek  hetizra,  or  6ourtezan,  was,  on  the 
contrary,  free  to  develop  mind  and  body,  and  be- 
came the  intellectual  companion  of  man.  States- 
men like  Pericles  and  philosophers  like  Socrates 
honored  the  hetcera  in  public  and  in  private. 
Says  Lecky  {History  of  European  Morals,  vol. 
ii.,  chap,  v.)  :  "  If  we  can  imagine  Ninon  de 
1'Enclos  at  a  time  when  the  rank  and  splendor 
of  Parisian  society  thronged  her  drawing-rooms, 
reckoning  a  Bossuet  or  a  Fenelon  among  her 
followers — if  we  can  imagine  these  prelates 
publicly  advising  her  about  the  duties  of  her 
profession,  and  the  means  of  attaching  the  affec- 


tions of  her  lovers,  we  shall  have  conceived  a 
relation  scarcely  more  strange  than  that  which 
existed  between  Socrates  and  the  courtezan 
Theodota. "  Aspasia  won  the  love  of  Pericles 
by  her  genius  as  well  as  by  her  beauty.  The 
courtezan  Leontium  was  among  the  followers 
of  Epicurus.  Socrates  owned  his  deep  obliga- 
tion to  the  courtezan  Deotina. 

Courtezans  were  honored,  too,  in  connection 
with  religion.  They  were  the  voluptuous  priest- 
esses of  Aphrodite.  The  form  of  Phryne,  carved 
in  gold,  stood  in  the  Temple  of  Apollo  at  Del- 
phi. Schools  of  vice  at  Miletus,  Tenedos,  Les- 
bos, and  Abydos  were  connected  with  the  tem- 
ples. The  love  of  beauty  in  a  climate  where 
the  eye  could  become  acquainted  with  the  nude 
in  the  gymnasia  and  the  baths,  the  worship  of 
life  and  the  instruments  of  the  propagation  of 
life,  tended  to  this  result.  In  Pompeii  a  symbol 
of  the  male  organ  of  generation  seems  common- 
ly to  have  been  stamped  on  bread  as  represent- 
ing the  sustainer  of  life.  Nor  must  the  sensual- 
ity of  Greece  and  Rome  be  regarded  as  excep- 
tional. (See  PROSTITUTION.)  Says  Lecky  (idem, 
chap,  v.)  : 

"There  has  arisen  in  society  a  figure  which  is  cer- 
tainly the  most  mournful  and  in  some  respects  the  most 
awful  upon  which  the  eye  of  the  moralist  can  dwell. 
That  unhappy  being  whose  very  name  is  a  shame  to 
speak ;  who  counterfeits  with  a  cold  heart  the  trans- 
ports of  affection,  and  submits  herself  as  the  passive 
instrument  of  lust ;  who  is  scorned  and  insulted  as  the 
vilest  of  her  sex,  and  doomed  for  the  most  part  to  dis- 
ease and  abject  wretchedness  and  an  early  death, 
appears  in  every  age  as  the  perpetual  symbol  of  the 
degradation  and  the  sinfulness  of  man.  Herself  the 
supreme  type  of  vice,  she  is  ultimately  the  efficient 
guardian  of  virtue.  But  for  her  the  unchallenged 
purity  of  countless  happy  homes  would  be  polluted, 
and  not  a  few  who,  in  the  pride  of  their  untempted 
chastity,  think  of  her  with  an  indignant  shudder  would 
have  known  the  agony  of  remorse  and  despair.  In  that 
one  degraded  and  ignoble  form  are  concentrated  the 
passions  that  might  have  filled  the  world  with  shame. 
She  remains,  while  creeds  and  civilizations  rise  and 
fall,  the  eternal  priestess  of  humanity,  blasted  for  the 
sins  of  the  people." 

In  Rome,  woman,  except  in  the  very  earliest 
period,  was  given  more  legal  rights  than  in 
Greece.  Marriage  was  regarded  in  law  and  in- 
social  ideals  as  a  contract  between 
equals.  This  in  the  earliest  period 
was  overridden,  it  is  true,  by  the  Borne. 
terrible  powers  given  to  the  father 
of  the  family  (see  FAMILY)  ;  but  this 
was  gradually  modified,  and  the  Roman  and 
Stoic  exaltation  of  the  individual  was  extended 
to  the  wife.  "  Ubt  tu  Cams,  ego  Cata,"  the 
Roman  wife  could  say.  This  tendency  to  con- 
ceive of  marriage  as  a  contract  between  sov- 
ereign individuals  led  to  easy  divorce.  The  dis- 
integration of  marriage  ties  that  set  in  is  well 
known.  (See  FAMILY.)  Seneca  says  that  mar- 
riage was  contracted  to  give  piquancy  to  adul- 
tery. Friends  exchanged  wives.  Under  the 
empire  the  sensuality  of  the  East  was  added  to 
the  vices  of  the  West.  In  the  East,  alike  in  an- 
cient Babylon,  in  Persian  poets  and  Arabian 
Nights  tales,  the  conception  of  woman  is  almost 
purely  sensual.  The  Jewish  conception  was  to 
an  extent,  tho  only  to  an  extent,  an  exception 
to  this.  The  women  of  the  Jewish  Scriptures 
show  strength  rather  than  the  beauty  of  family 
love.  Miriam,  Deborah,  Jael,  Jezebel,  Atha- 
liah,  Esther,  are  heroines.  Ruth  almost  alone 


Woman's  Rights. 


1401 


Woman's  Rights. 


represents  a  pure  idyllic  life.  But  the  institu- 
tions of  the  Mosaic  code,  the  polygamy  of  early 
Jewish  life,  the  symbolism  of  the  Song  of  Songs, 
show  the  sensual  basis  of  the  Jewish  conception 
of  woman  out  of  which  she  could  arise  only  by 
heroic  deeds.  Lecky  thinks  the  Jewish  type  of 
woman  far  inferior  to  those  of  Greek  poetry  or 
Roman  history.  We  find,  however,  a  distinct 
evolution.  Polygamy  seems  to  have  disap- 
peared after  the  purging  sufferings  of  the  Baby- 
lonish captivity.  The  pictures  in  the  New  Tes- 
tament of  Elizabeth,  of  Anna,  and,  above  all,  of 
Mary,  even  before  the  influence  of  Christianity, 
show  the  comparatively  high  and  pure  develop- 
ment of  the  Jewish  woman  in  the  days  imme- 
diately before  Christ. 

The  influence  of  Christianity  on  the  legal  and 
political  status  of  woman  has  been  much  dis- 
cussed. (See  CHRISTIANITY  AND  SOCIAL  REFORM  ; 
CHURCH  AND  SOCIAL  REFORM.)  Viewed  from 
the  standpoint  of  modern  ideas,  the 
Pauline  conception  of  woman  is  dis- 
Christianity.  tinctly  low.  "  Wives,  submit  }*our- 
selves  unto  your  own  husbands,  as 
unto  the  Lord,  for  the  husband  is 
the  head  of  the  wife,  even  as  Christ  is  the 
head  of  the  Church,  and  He  is  the  Saviour  of 
the  body.  Therefore  as  the  Church  is  subject 
unto  Christ,  so  let  the  wives  be  to  their  own  hus- 
bands in  everything,"  so  St.  Paul  writes  to  the 
Ephesians  (chap.  v.  22-24).  Those  who  assert 
the  low  estimate  of  women  held  by  St.  Paul 
have  undoubtedly  no  little  basis  for  their  view, 
even  tho  St.  Paul  immediately  added,  "  Hus- 
bands, love  your  wives,  even  as  Christ  also  loved 
the  Church  and  gave  Himself  for  it. ' '  Marriage 
also  by  the  Church  fathers,  and,  to  some  extent, 
even  in  the  pages  of  the  New  Testament,  is 
conceived  of  as  at  best  a  weakness,  a  legal 
concession  to  the  flesh.  Paul  writes  to  the 
Corinthians  that  "it  is  good  for  a  man  not  to 
touch  a  woman  ;  nevertheless  to  avoid  fornica- 
tion, let  every  man  have  his  own  wife  and  every 
woman  have  her  own  husband"  (i  Cor.  vii.  i,  2). 
In  the  same  letter  he  says  :  ' '  The  wife  hath  not 
power  of  her  own  body,  but  the  husband  ;  and 
likewise  also  the  husband  hath  not  power  of  his 
own  body,  but  the  wife."  The  extremes  to 
which  the  early  Church  carried  the- praise  of  vir- 
ginity and  the  identification  of  marriage  with 
sin  is  well  known.  Jerome  says  that  tho  mar- 
riage may  replenish  the  earth,  virginity  replen- 
ishes heaven  (Westermarck's  History  of  Mar- 
riage). (See  FAMILY.) 

Nevertheless,  the  ideas  of  the  early  Church 
must  be  compared  not  with  our  ideas,  but  with 
those  of  that  day,  and  the  purity  of  the  Chris- 
tian family  and  the  honor  paid  to  woman  is  as 
light  itself  compared  with  the  darkness  of  the 
impurity  of  the  pagan  world. 

Christ's  teaching  that  evil  consists  in  the  im- 
pure heart  rather  than  in  the  body,  that  he 
' '  who  looketh  on  a  woman  to  lust  after  her  hath 
committed  adultery  with  her  already  in  his 
heart,"  indicates  an  almost  infinite  advance  in 
moral  elevation.  The  mere  fact  that  marriage 
became  the  symbol  of  the  espousals  of  Christ 
and  His  Church  indicated  and  led  to  an  eleva- 
tion of  the  wedded  life.  •  "  Concubina"  is  never 
written  on  a  Christian  grave.  Says  Origen  : 


"  There  is  not  a  Christian  community  which 
has  not  been  exempted  from  a  thousand  vices 
and  a  thousand  passions"  (Contra  Celsuni), 
(For  the  influence  of  Christianity  on  the  Roman 
legislation  in  regard  to  woman,  see  CHRISTIAN- 
ITY AND  SOCIAL  REFORM.)  "  Tutelage  of  women 
must  be  done  away  with,"  say  Justinian's  In- 
stitutes. Many  laws  were  passed  giving  woman 
more  legal  rights  and  protection. 

Coming  to  woman's  position  in  the  Middle 
Ages,  it  appears  the  result  of  the  blending  of 
many  influences,  the  laws  of  the  Roman  Em- 
pire, the  ideals  of  Christianity,  the 
asceticism  of  the  clergy,  the  tradi- 
tions of  Germanic  tribes,  the  ro-  Middle  Ages. 
manticism  of  chivalry,  and  the  lust 
of  warlike  men.  (See  MIDDLE  AGES  ; 
FAMILY  ;  CHURCH  AND  SOCIAL  REFORM  ;  CHRIS- 
TIANITY AND  SOCIAL  REFORM.)  The  Germanic 
tribes  honored  woman,  yet  rather,  as  we  have 
seen  above,  on  the  basis  of  savage  equality  than 
of  legal  status.  Compared  with  the  corruption 
of  Rome,  the  purity  of  Germanic  marriage 
struck  Tacitus,  and,  through  him  and  similar 
writers,  has  been  much  emphasized,  but  its  pu- 
rity did  not  begin  to  compare  with  that  of  early 
Christianity.  Polygamy  was  allowed  to  princes  ; 
the  wife  was  usually  bought  ;  the  male  adulter- 
er, by  some  laws  at  least,  was  allowed  simply  to 
pay  the  injured  husband  or  to  provide  him  a 
new  wife.  (See  CHRISTIANITY  AND  SOCIAL  RE- 
FORM.) 

The  influence  of  the  Church  in  the  Middle 
Ages  was  twofold.  The  influence  of  monasti- 
cism  and  asceticism  on  the  ordinary  life  of  wom- 
an was  almost  wholly  bad.  To  conceive  of 
marriage  as  sin  was  to  give  it  over  to  sin.  The 
terrible  reactions  of  asceticism  and  the  corrup- 
tion developed  by  monasticism  (f.v.)  are  well 
known.  (See  MIDDLE  AGES.)  Nevertheless,  the 
nunneries  did  enable  some  women  to  escape 
the  violence  of  the  times  and  develop  saintly 
lives. 

In  connection  with  this  was  the  development 
of  Mariolatry.  The  worship  of  the  Virgin  has 
probably  more  connection  with  the  romantic 
and  partly  sensuous  ideas  of  medieval  chivalry 
than  all  writers  are  willing  to  admit.  Yet  no- 
one  can  question  its  influence  in  part  for  good. 
Says  Lecky  : 

"  It  is  also  a  striking  illustration  of  the  qualities- 
which  prove  most  attractive  in  women  that  one  or 
whom  we  know  nothing  except  her  gentleness  and  her 
sorrow  should  have  exercised  a  magnetic  power  upon 
the  world  incomparably  greater  than  was  exercised  by 
the  most  majestic  female  patriots  of  paganism.  What- 
ever may  be  thought  of  its  theological  propriety, 
there  can  be  little  doubt  that  the  Catholic  reverence  for 
the  Virgin  has  done  much  to  elevate  and  purify  the 
ideal  of  woman  and  to  soften  the  manners  of  men.  It 
has  had  an  influence  which  the  worship  of  the  pagan 
goddesses  could  never  possess,  for  these  had  been 
almost  destitute  of  moral  beauty,  and  especially  of 
that  kind  of  moral  beauty  which  is  peculiarly  femi- 
nine. It  supplied  in  a  great  measure  the  redeeming 
and  ennobling  element  in  that  strange  amalgam  of  re- 
ligious, licentious,  and  military  feeling  which  was- 
formed  around  women  in  the  age  of  chivalry,  and 
which  no  succeeding  change  of  habit  or  belief  has- 
wholly  destroyed." 

But  the  worship  of  the  Virgin  was  an  effect 
as  well  as  a  cause.  Lecky  admits  this  when  he 
says  :  "  The  position  that  was  gradually  as- 
signed to  the  Virgin  as  the  female  ideal,  in  the 


Woman's  Rights. 


1402 


Woman's  Rights. 


Belief  and  the  devotion  of  Christendom,  was  a 
consecration  or  an  expression  of  the  new  value 
that  was  attached  to  the  feminine  virtues." 
Whence  chivalry  came  no  man  wholly  knows. 
It  had  a  deep  root  in  sensuality.  No  one  can 
read  the  romances  of  the  Middle  Ages,  the 
poetry  of  the  minnesingers  or  the  troubadours, 
without  realizing  this.  Its  honoring  of  woman 
-was  in  part  borne  of  degrading  views.  Men 
cannot  pay  certain  forms  of  respect  to  women 
without  giving  them,  in  their  very  adulation, 
the  grossest  insult.  To  praise  a  woman's  weak- 
ness is  to  acknowledge  it,  and  to  show  that  one's 
ideal  of  womanhood  is  weak.  To  worship  physi- 
cal love  is  to  confess  to  a  low  type  of  loving. 
The  connection  between  chivalry  and  licentious- 
ness is  always  close.  Nevertheless  there  was 
another  root.  Woman  in  the  Middle  Ages  stood 
for  the  softening  of  war  and  violence  and  strife. 
When  the  knight  knelt  before  his  lady,  he  rose 
to  a  nobler  manhood,  and  chivalry  honored  the 
source  of  the  higher  life.  The  chivalry  of  the 
Middle  Ages  was  far  higher  than  the  classic 
worship  of  the  hetcerce  ;  it  was  undoubtedly  far 
lower  than  the  less  romantic  love  of  women  at 
the  present  time. 

The  effect  of  the  Protestant  Reformation  on 
the  social    status  of  woman  was  undoubtedly 
good,  tho  not  an  unmixed  good.     Its  greatest 
effect  in  this  respect  was  to  con- 
demn celibacy,  the  false  praise  of 
Prot-        virginity,  and  the  condemnation  of 
estantism.    marriage.    Second  only  to  this  was 
its  effect  in  freeing   woman  from 
subjection  to  the  confessor  and  the 
priest.     The   sanctity  of  married   life,  the  in- 
violability of  the  home,  are  almost  distinctive- 
ly Protestant  conceptions.      Undoubtedly,  with 
these  enormous  strides  forward,  certain  evils 
came  in.     The  tendency  to  secularize  the  mar- 
riage relation  has  to  some  extent  tended  also  to 
commercialize  it  and  to  increase  divorce  (q.v.). 
However,  of  this  secularizing  and  liberalizing 
tendency  has  come  the  modern  movement  tow- 
ard woman's  rights.     It  has,  however,  only  de- 
veloped in  our  own  century.    Milton,  m  his  day, 
makes  Eve  say  to  Adam  (Paradise  Lost,  Book 
IV.): 

"  God  is  the  law,  thou  mine  ; 

To  know  no  more  is  woman's  happiest  knowledge  and 
her  praise." 

Even  Rousseau  says  : 

"  Women  are  specially  made  to  please  men.  .  .  .  All 
their  education  should  be  relative  to  men.  To  please 
them,  to  be  useful  to  them,  to  make  themselves  loved 
and  honored  by  them,  to  bring  them  up  when  young, 
to  take  care  of  them  when  grown  up,  to  counsel,  to 
console  them,  to  make  their  lives  agreeable  and  pleas- 
ant—these in  all  ages  have  been  the  duties  of  women, 
.and  it  is  for  these  duties  that  they  should  be  educated 
from  infancy.  .  .  .  Being  incapable  of  judging  for 
themselves  [as  to  religion],  they  ought  to  accept  the 
decision  of  their  fathers  and  their  husbands  like  that  of 
the  Church"  (Emile,  ch.  v.). 

In  1797  Charles  Fox  said  in  a  speech  : 

"  It  has  never  been  suggested  in  all  the  theories  and 
projects  of  the  most  absurd  speculation,  that  it  would 
be  advisable  to  extend  the  elective  suffrage  to  the 
female  sex." 

This  brings  us,  however,  to  our  own  century, 
and  we  pass  to  consider  : 


II.  WOMAN'S  PRESENT  LEGAL  STATUS. 

(a)   IN   THE    UNITED    STATES. 

The  brevity  of  this  article  prevents  any  at- 
tempt to  give  a  full  statement  of  the  conditions 
prevailing  for  women  under  the  laws  of  each 
State  and  Territory,  no  two  of  their  codes  being 
exactly  alike  ;  but  the  following  statement  has 
been  compiled  by  Mrs.  Rachel  F.  Avery  for  this 
encyclopedia  from  Jessie  J.  Cassidy's  Legal 
Status  of  Woman  (1897).  Says  Mrs.  Avery  : 

"  With  the  early  ideas  of  woman  as  a  chattel,  it 
followed  naturally  that  men  making  the  laws  should 
provide  that  whatever  the  woman  possessed  should 
also,  with  her  person,  become  the  property  of  her 
husband  when  she  married.  Slowly  but  surely  this 
idea  has  had  to  give  way  to  the  realization  of  woman 
as  a  distinct  creation,  with  individual  rights  of  her 
own  ;  we  therefore  find  recorded  in  the  laws  and 
statutes  and,  in  a  few  cases,  in  the  constitutions  of  our 
States  and  Territories,  a  gradually  increasing  recogni- 
tion of  the  wife's  right  to  hold  property  after  marriage. 

"  Full  control  of  property  by  the  woman  after 
•marriage  exists  in  Arizona,  Arkansas,  California, 
Colorado,  Connecticut,  Delaware,  District  of  Colum- 
bia, Georgia,  Illinois,  Indiana,  Iowa,  Kansas,Kentucky, 
Maine,  Maryland,  Massachusetts,Michigan,  Minnesota, 
Mississippi,  Montana,  Nebraska, New  Hampshire,  New 
Jersey,  New  York,  North  Dakota,  Ohio,  Oregon,  Okla- 
homa Territory,  Pennsylvania,  Rhode  Island,  South 
Carolina,  Utah,  Vermont,  Virginia,  Washington,  West 
Virginia,  Wisconsin  and  Wyoming.  In  Nevada  and 
South  Dakota  the  wife  may  have  full  control,  provided 
a  list  of  her  property  be  filed  with  the  County  Record- 
er ;  but  this  demand  of  the  law  would  put  such  control 
out  of  the  hands  of  many  women.  The  first  year 
which  gave  such  a  right  to  a  woman  was  1844,  and  the 
last  such  change  in  her  favor  was  made  in  1895. 

"  Partial  control  by  the  woman  after  marriage 
prevails  in  Alabama,  Louisiana,  Missouri,  New  Mex- 
ico, North  Carolina  and  Tennessee. 

"Property  is  entirely  in  the  hands  of  the  husband 
in  Florida,  Idaho  and  Texas. 

"  The  Power  to  Will  Property.— Since  Connecticut 
set  the  example  of  giving  this  right  to  women,  early  in 
the  century,  all  the  other  commonwealths  have  one  by 
one  followed  ;  but  this  does  not  mean  that  a  wife  may 
will  all  her  property  away  from  the  husband,  no  matter 
how  unworthy  he  may  have  proven  himself,  unless 
she  has  legally  separated  herself  from  him.  She  has 
still  no  right  to  devise  by  will  a  dollar's  worth  of  the 
earnings  of  the  marriage  copartnership,  these  being 
considered  as  a  part  of  her  husband's  estate.  In  the 
matter  of  the  recognition  of  the  earning  power  of 
woman  in  marriage,  it  remains  for  the  States  where 
women  are  fully  enfranchised  to  set  an  example  in 
legislation.  As  things  now  stand,  the  hardest  working 
wife,  dying  before  her  husband,  dies  penniless  (unless 
having  inherited  money  or  earned  it  outside  the  home 
in  some  State  where  she  has  the  right  to  her  own 
wages),  and  unable  to  provide  by  will  foraged  parents 
or  her  children  by  a  preceding  marriage.  The  hus- 
band, on  the  other  hand,  dying  before  his  wife  has  it 
in  his  power  to  so  provide  to  the  extent  of  quite  a  lib- 
eral proportion  of  their  joint  earnings,  should  it  please 
him  so  to  do,  provided  he  does  not  will  away  from  the 
wife  her  dower.  It  is  no  mere  phrase,  but  a  fact  of  law 
that  the  average  wife  is  '  buried  from  the  home  of  her 
husband,'  for  while  he  is  alive  she  has  no  home  of  her 
very  own. 

"  A  wife  has  right  to  her  own  wages  in  Alabama, 
Arkansas,  Colorado,  Connecticut,  Delaware,  District 
of  Columbia,  Florida,  Illinois,  Indiana,  Iowa,  Kansas, 
Kentucky,  Maine,  Maryland,  Massachusetts,  Michigan, 
Minnesota,  Mississippi,  Nebraska,  New  Hampshire, 
New  Jersey,  New  Mexico,  New  York,  Ohio,  Pennsyl- 
vania, Rhode  Island,  South  Carolina,  Utah,  Vermont, 
Washington,  West  Virginia,  Wisconsin  and  Wyo- 
ming. 

"  She  has  partial  right  to  her  own  earnings  in 
Arizona,  California,  Georgia,  Idaho,  Missouri,  Mon- 
tana, Nevada,  North  Carolina,  North  Dakota,  Oklaho- 
ma Territory,  Oregon,  South  Dakota,  Tennessee  and 
Virginia. 

"  She  has  no  control  of  her  own  earnings  in  Louisiana 
and  Texas. 

"  In  Pennsylvania  the  woman  must  present  a  petition 
under  oath  to  the  Court  of  Common  Pleas  that  she  in- 
tends to  take  advantage  of  the  Act  of  1872,  giving  her 
a  right  to  her  own  wages,  before  she  can  really  claim 


Woman's  Rights. 


1403 


Woman's  Rights, 


them  ;  this  seems  an  unnecessary  addition  to  the  labor 
of  earning  them  ;  but  the  climax  of  man's  generosity  to 
woman  is  surely  reached  in  Nevada,  where  the  Act  of 
1873,  relating  to  wages  of  married  women,  states  that 
'  her  earnings  are  the  wife's,  if  the  husband  has  allowed 
her  to  appropriate  them  to  her  own  use,  and  are  deemed 
a  gift  from  him  to  her.'  Think  of  the  privilege  of  be- 
ing kindly  permitted  to  '  appropriate  '  your  own  earn- 
ings, provided  you  would  be  careful  to  consider  them 
'  a'  gift '  from  your  husband  ! 

"  '  The  right  of  married  mothers  to  their  children  has 
been  refused  longer  than  any  other  personal  right,' 
says  Cassidy  in  her  'Legal  Status  of  Woman,'  from 
which  this  article  is  compiled.  Men  have  been  willing 
to  give  the  child  born  out  of  wedlock  to  its  mother,  but 
legal  heirs  they  have  wished  to  hold  in  their  own 
power. 

"Mothers  and  fathers  are  equal  in  power  in  Colo- 
rado, Kansas,  Maine,  Nebraska,  New  York,  Pennsyl- 
vania and  Rhode  Island. 

"  In  all  the  other  States  and  in  the  Territories  the 
mother  is  at  a  disadvantage,  varying  from  the  point  of 
being  simply  ignored  legally  while  the  father  is  living, 
to  the  more  crushing  injustice  of  having  no  power  to 
prevent  the  father  from  willing  away  from  her  custody 
the  youngest  infant  or  even  'a  child  likely  to  be  born.' 
It  is  sometimes  claimed  that  such  laws  as  this  last 
mentioned  (still  holding  in  Minnesota  and  North  Caro- 
lina) are  dead  letters,  but  this  is  not  the  case  ;  they  are 
dead  only  so  long  as  no  case  arises  under  them,  but 
put  to  the  test,  they  are  as  stern  realities  as  if  they  had 
been  enacted  but  yesterday." 

For  other  phases  of  woman's  legal  position 
see  articles  upon  MARRIAGE  AND  DIVORCE  ; 
AGE  OF  CONSENT  ;  WOMAN'S  WORK  AND  WAGES, 
etc. 

(b)  IN   GREAT   BRITAIN. 

In  Great  Britain  there  has  been  recently  great 
advance  in  woman's  legal  status.  Down  to  1839,  an 
English  mother  had  no  right  to  her  own  offspring. 
Her  husband,  even  during  her  lifetime,  could  with 
immunity  place  his  children  under  the  control  of  his 
mistress,  or  wherever  he  would,  and  deny  the  mother 
all  access  to  them.  After  that  year  a  mother,  not  guilty 
of  adultery,  could  be  protected  in  her  right  to  care  for 
her  children  up  to  the  age  of  seven  and  to  have  access 
to  them  to  a  later  age.  In  1873,  on  special  application,  a 
mother  could  gain  the  right  to  care  for  her  children  to 
the  age  of  16.  All  other  legal  powers  were,  however, 
vested  in  the  father,  and  even  after  his  death  the 
mother  was  not  the  natural  guardian  of  her  own 
children.  She  was  so  recognized  only  by  the  law  of 
1886.  The  father  may  yet,  however,  appoint  a  guardian 
to  act  with  the  mother  after  his  death.  Up  till  1857,  a 
man  who  abandoned  his  wife  could  return  to  her, 
appropriate  her  earnings,  and  sell  all  she  had  acquired, 
and  do  this  repeatedly.  The  Act  of  1857,  however, 
protected  the  earnings  of  a  deserted  wife,  and  the 
Act  of  1886  secured  her  alimony  from  her  husband. 
In  all  cases,  however,  except  desertion,  the  husband 
had  full  power  over  the  wife's  earnings.  He  could  be 
compelled  to  give  her  a  bare  maintenance,  but 
otherwise  he  could  spend  her  earnings  in  the  brothel 
or  where  he  wSuld.  Only  by  the  law  of  1870  were  the 
wife's  own  earnings  protected.  All  other  property 
was,  however,  left  wholly  unprotected.  By  common 
law  the  wife  possessed  nothing.  All  property  willed 
to  her  after  marriage  over  .£200  was  her  husband's. 
She  could  not  sue  or  be  sued,  and  could  make 
no  contract  without  the  husband's  consent.  The 
courts  of  chancery  somewhat  modified  this,  till 
acts  of  1882  and  1893  gave  tne  wife  ample  protection. 
If  a  wife,  however,  dies  intestate,  all  her  property 
goes  to  her  husband.  If  the  husband  dies  intestate, 
and  has  no  children,  his  wife  only  receives  ^500  more 
than  one  half  his  property,  unless  it  does  not  exceed 
^500,  the  rest  going  to  his  nearest  blood  relations. 

In  the  divorce  court,  too,  a  husband  need  only 
prove  adultery.  The  wife  must  prove  adultery  and 
some  aggravation,  like  cruelty  or  desertion. 

(c)  ON  THE  CONTINENT. 

On  the  continent  less  advance  has  been  made,  tho 
in  Russia  woman's  property  has  been  from  the  earliest 
times  perfectly  secure  and  unaffected  by  marriage. 
In  Switzerland,  the  custom  of  treating  women  as  per- 
petual minors  only  wholly  disappeared  in  1881. 
Women's  earnings  were  protected  in  Sweden  in  1884 
and  in  Denmark  in  1880.  The  property  of  married 
women  was  protected  in  Norway  in  1888.  New  civil 
codes  in  Germany  and  Italy  indicate  advance. 


Of  Germany,  Mrs.  Bertrand  Russell  writes  in 
The  Nineteenth  Century  for  September,  1896  : 

"  'Associations  founded  for  political  objects  may  not 
have  women,  scholars,  or  apprentices  as  members,  nor 
may  women,  scholars,  or  apprentices  be  present  at  any 
meetings  of  such  associations.'    So  runs 
the  Prussian  Coalition  law,  and  the  laws 
of  Bavaria,  Brunswick,  and  some  of  the     Germanv 
smaller  States  impose  the  same  limita-  *• 

tions  on  women.      These  laws  explain 
in  a  large  measure  why  there  is  not  in 
Germany  any  strong  and  well-organized  woman  move- 
ment.   But  besides  the  political  there  is  also  a  social 
cause.    The  incomes  of  the  professional  and  mercan- 
tile   classes  are  much  smaller  than  in  England,  and 
German  women  are    therefore  obliged  to  devote    a 
great  part    of   their  time  and  thought    to  household 
work.    .    .    . 

"If  unmarried  girls  of  the  middle  class  have  re- 
volted to  some  extent,  the  cause  has  been  mainly 
economic.  Self-support  rather  than  self-development 
was  their  aim,  and  tho  it  was  a  narrow  aim  it  had 
in  it  the  germ  of  a  larger  movement.  Their  first  and 
most  important  question  was  that  of  higher  education. 
German  women  could  not  attend  the  universities, 
tho,  absurdly  enough,  foreign  women  were  ad- 
mitted, and  they  could  not  study  or  practice  law  or 
medicine.  At  last  women  are  permitted  to  practice 
medicine,  tho  the  training  and  degree  for  it  <must 
still  be  obtained  abroad.  German  women  may  also 
now  attend  lectures  in  most  of  the  German  universi- 
ties, but  without  being  allowed  to  matriculate,  and 
generally  on  the  sufferance  of  the  professors.  In  the 
course  of  all  this  agitation,  for  even  these  few  con- 
cessions have  not  been  won  without  very  great  efforts, 
the  women  of  the  middle  classes  began  to  realize  that 
no  real  improvement  could  be  effected  in  their  position 
without  some  change  of  the  laws.  A  woman  is  en- 
tirely under  the  guardianship  of  her  husband,  and 
her  property  and  earnings  are  wholly  at  his  disposal. 
After  her  children  are  four  years  old,  she  only  has  as 
much  control  over  them  as  the  law  allows  to  those 
grossly  immoral  or  inebriate  fathers  whose  control 
has  had  to  be  supplemented  by  legally  appointed 
guardians.  And  after  the  death  of  the  father  his  will 
or  the  law  may  appoint  a  third  person  as  guardian, 
who  will  have  equal  control  with  the  mother  over  the 
children.  If  the  mother  marries  again,  she  loses  all 
control  over  children.  .  .  .  The  future  of  the 
woman  movement  in  Germany  undoubtedly  lies  with 
the  Social  Democratic  party,  the  only  strong  political 
party  in  the  world  that  demands  the  full  equality  of 
the  sexes." 

Of  France,  Jeanne  E.  Schmake  says,  in  The 
Forum  for  September,  1896  (condensed)  : 

"The  question  of  religious    differences  cannot  be 
passed  over  when  treating  of  the  women's  question  in 
France,  because  of  the  stress  laid    upon    it  by    the 
women  themselves.    Whatever  may  be  the  religious 
attitude  of  political  France,  the  majority  of  French- 
women are  Catholics  ;   whereas  up  to  January,  1893, 
the  women's  movement  in    Paris   was 
ostensibly  hostile  to   Catholicism,   and 
the   tenets  of   its  leaders  extreme  Re-       France 
publicanism.    Among  the  more  thought- 
ful, it  came  to  be  pretty  generally  ad- 
mitted  that  there   was  room   for  some 
association  of  no   special   political    or    religious  ten- 
dency—simply groups  of  men  and  women  united  on 
one    point—  viz.,    the    amendment    of    laws    concern- 
ing women,  with  perhaps  no  other  point  of  contact 
of    opinion.      A  powerful  association    was  gradually 
forming.      Among  its    earliest    members     were    the 
leading  journalists  of  Paris,  deputies  and  senators  of 
every    shade  of    opinion,   celebrated    scientists    and 
jurists,  and  a  few  of  the  best-known  female  authors, 
among  whom  was  Madame  Adam,  now^for  the  first  time 
taking  part  in  the  women's  movement.    Then,  as  if  to 

ive  special  significance  to  the  new  mode  of  action,  a 
ew  women  of  the  old  French  aristocracy,  notably  the 
Duchesse  d'Uzes,  joined  the  movement.  With  such  a 
staff  the  actual  work  was  comparatively  easy,  and  I 
willingly  consented  to  direct  the  young  association  ; 
and  we  started  V  Avant  Courriere  on  January  30,  1803. 

"  Taking  into  consideration  that  the  civil  code  is  the 
one  great  obstacle  to  the  emancipation  of  women  in 
France,  we  decided  to  attack  it.  We  were  not  long  in 
coming  to  the  conclusion  that,  financial  freedom  being 
the  root  of  all  liberty,  we  must  first  set  to  work  to 
obtain  for  married  women  the  right  to  their  own 
earnings.  .  .  . 


g 
f 


Woman's  Rights. 


1404 


Woman's  Rights. 


"On  February  27,  1896,  the  bill  conferring  upon 
married  women  the  power  of  free  disposition  of  their 
earnings  -passed  the  Chamber  of  Deputies  without 
opposition— the  first  time  in  French  history  that  a 
woman's  rights  movement  has  received  support  from 
the  government.  It  is  difficult  to  predict  what  recep- 
tion we  shall  get  in  the  Senate,  yet  even  there  we  have 
many  friends,  and  therefore  have  the  right  to  be  hope- 
ful. This  very  important  modification  of  the  French 
marriage  laws  affects  about  4,500,000  workwomen,  not 
to  speak  of  authors,  musicians,  painters,  actresses, 
teachers,  shop-assistants,  and  domestic  servants — in 
all  about  6,000,000  women-workers,  who,  if  married, 
have,  as  the  law  now  stands,  no  right  to  their  own 
earnings,  if  that  right  has  not  been  stipulated  for  by  a 
legal  agreement  made  at  the  time  of  their  marriage." 

III.  ARGUMENTS  FOR  AND  AGAINST  WOMAN 

SUFFRAGE. 

(a)   ARGUMENTS   FOR   IT. 

The  arguments  for  woman  suffrage  are 
based  partly  upon  the  asserted  natural  rights  of 
woman,  partly  upon  the  need  of  woman's  influ- 
ence in  politics  both  to  protect  her  own  sex  and 
to  purify  the  increasingly  important  realm  of 
political  action  ;  thirdly,  upon  the  good  results 
of  woman  suffrage  where  already  tried.  Upon 
the  first  point,  says  a  leaflet  published  by  the 
American  Woman  Suffrage  Association  : 

"  The  basic  argument  for  woman  suffrage  is  that 
women  have  as  clear  a  title  to  the  ballot  as  men  have. 
It  is  urged  that  women  are  governed,  but  without 
their  consent.  From  the  Declaration  of  Independence 
is  quoted:  'Governments  derive  their  just  powers 
from  the  consent  of  the  governed.'  In  the  support  of 
the  claim  that  the  suffrage  is  a  right  of  both  sexes 
alike,  the  late  George  William  Curtis  said,  in  an  ad- 
dress before  the  New  York  State  Constitutional  Con- 
vention of  1867 : 

"  '  The  rights  which  they  [the  fathers  of  the  republic] 
declared  to  be  inalienable  are  what  are  usually  called 
natural  as  distinguished  from  political  rights,  but 
they  are  not  limited  by  sex.  A  woman  has  the  same 
right  to  her  life,  liberty  and  property  that  a  man  has, 
and  she  has  consequently  the  same  right  to  an  equality 
of  protection  that  he  has  ;  and  this,  as  I  understand  it. 
is  what  is  meant  by  the  phrase,  "the  right  of  suffrage. 
If  I  have  a  natural  right  to  my  life  and  liberty,  I  have 
the  same  right  to  everything  that  protects  that  life 
and  liberty  which  any  other  man  enjoys.  I  ask  tthe 
same  for  every  woman  in  this  State. 

"  '  Our  fathers  answered  the  question  of  the  best  and 
surest  protection  of  natural  right  by  their  famous 
phrase,  "  the  consent  of  the  governed.1'  That  is  to  say, 
since  every  man  is  born  with  equal  rights,  he  is  en- 
titled to  an  equal  protection  of  them  with  all  other 
men ;  and,  since  government  is  that  protection,  right 
reason  and  experience  alike  demand  that  every  person 
shall  have  a  voice  in  the  government  upon  perfectly 
equal  and  practicable  terms  —  that  is,  upon  terms 
which  are  not  necessarily  insurmountable  by^ny  part 
of  the  people. 

"'  .  .  .  I  deny  that  the  people  of  the  State  of  New 
York  can  rightfully— that  is,  according  to  right  reason 
and  the  principles  of  this  government  derived  from  it, 
permanently  exclude  any  class  of  persons  or  any  person 
whatever  from  a  voice  in  the  government,  unless  it 
can  be  clearly  established  that  their  participation  in 
political  power  would  be  dangerous  to  the  State.'  " 

Upon  the  second  point,  the  need  for  woman 
suffrage,  it  is  claimed  that  women  cannot  be 
adequately  protected  while  men  alone  make 
the  laws,  and  the  denial  of  the  franchise  to 
women  is  denounced  as  a  stigma  degrading  her 
to  the  same  category  with  idiots,  lunatics,  and 
criminals.  It  is  urged  that  woman's  mind 
would  be  broadened  and  elevated  by  a  study  of 
public  questions,  and,  further,  that  voting  is  the 
quietest,  easiest,  most  dignified,  and  least  con- 
spicuous way  of  influencing  public  affairs.  It 
is  asserted  that  women  need  the  ballot  to  pro- 
tect their  business  interests  and  to  acquire  social 


and  personal  rights  that  are  now  denied  them. 
It  is  claimed  that  woman  suffrage  would  in- 
crease the  strength  of  the  home  element  in  poli- 
tics, secure  the  election  of  better  men  to  office, 
and  introduce  higher  moral  standards  into 
government. 

(For  evidence  of  the  need  of  woman  to  pro- 
tect her  sex  in  legislation,  see  Sec.  2  of  this  arti- 
cle, on  "  Woman's  Present  Legal  Status."  See 
also  article  AGE  OF  CONSENT.) 

Concerning  the  results  of  woman  suffrage, 
Miss  Alice  Stone  Blackwell,  editor  of  the  Wom- 
an's Journal  of  Boston,  writes  the  Voice  of 
November  9,  1893,  as  follows  : 

"  '  In  England,  Mr.  Gladstone  is  on  record  as  saying 
the  \yomen  have  exercised  municipal  suffrage  "  without 
detriment  and  with  great  advantage."  Lady  Ran- 
dolph Churchill  and  the  band  of  highly  conservative 
English  women  who  published  a  "  remonstrance  " 
against  granting  parliamentary  suffrage  to  women, 
a  few  years  ago,  were  careful  to  say  that  they  had  no 
objection  to  municipal  suffrage,  and  even  thought  its 
responsibilities  had  exerted  a  beneficial  effect  on  the 
character  of  women. 

"  '  In  the  States  where  women  have  school  suffrage 
only,  the  vote  of  women  has  generally  been  small,  as 
the  vote  of  men  is  always  small  wherever  the  school 
committee  are  chosen  at  a  separate  election  ;  but  the 
women  who  have  voted  have  been  almost  without  ex- 
ception of  the  intelligent  and  respectable  class. 

"  '  The  statement  has  been  widely  circulated  that  the 
vote  of  the  Boston  women  for  the  school  board  is 
falling  off.  At  the  last  school  election  in  Boston,  4000 
more  women  voted  than  at  the  previous  election  ;  and 
the  women's  vote  for  the  past  five  years  has  averaged 
more  than  six  times  what  it  averaged  for  the  five 
years  previous.' 

"  In  Wyoming,  full  suffrage  was  extended  to  women 
by  the  Legislature  of  that  Territory  in  1869.  The 
results  proved  so  satisfactory  that  the  law  was  con- 
tinued upon  the  statute  book  for  20  years.  In  1889,  the 
constitutional  convention  elected  to  frame  a  constitu- 
tion for  the  new  State  of  Wyoming  and  embodied  a 
woman  suffrage  clause  in  the  constitution  by  a  five- 
sixths  vote.  The  constitution  containing  this  woman 
suffrage  clause  was  submitted  to  the  people  (the 
people  in  this  case  meaning  both  men  and  women),  and 
was  ratified  by  a  very  large  majority.  Wyoming  was 
admitted  to  the  Union  with  this  clause  in  its  constitu- 
tion by  a  vote  of  132  to  119  in  the  House  of  Represen- 
tatives and  a  vote  of  29  to  18  in  the  Senate.  The 
House  of  the  Wyoming  Legislature  of  1893,  just  before 
adjournment,  passed  by  a  unanimous  vote  the  follow- 
ing concurrent  resolution  : 

"  '  Be  it  resolved  by  the  Second  Legislature  of  the  State 
of  Wyoming: 

"  '  That  the  possession  and  exercise  of  suffrage  by 
the  women  in  Wyoming  for  the  past  quarter  of  a 
century  has  wrought  no  harm  and  has  done  great  good 
in  many  ways ;  that  it  has  largely  aided  in  banishing 
crime,  pauperism,  and  vice  from  this  State,  and  that 
without  any  violent  and  oppressive  legislation  ;  that  it 
has  secured  peaceful  and  orderly  elections,  good  gov- 
ernment, and  a  remarkable  degree  of  civilization  and 
public  order  ;  and  we  point  with  pride  to  the  facts  that 
after  nearly  25  years  of  woman  suffrage  not  one  county 
in  Wyoming  has  a  poorhouse,  that  our  jails  are  almost 
empty,  and  crime,  except  that  committed  by  strangers 
in  the  State,  is  almost  unknown  ;  and  as  the  result  of 
experience  we  urge  every  civilized  community  on 
earth  to  enfranchise  its  women  without  delay. 

"  '  Resolved^  That  an  authenticated  copy  of  these  reso- 
lutions be  forwarded  by  the  governor  of  the  State  to 
the  Legislature  of  every  State  and  Territory  in  this 
country,  and  to  every  legislative  body  in  the  world  : 
and  that  we  request  the  press  throughout  the  civilized 
world  to  call  the  attention  of  their  readers  to  these 
resolutions.' 

"  Every  governor  of  Wyoming  for  more  than  20  years 
has  testified  that  much  good  has  resulted  from  woman 
suffrage." 

More  recent  experience  bears  out,  according 
to  the  woman  suffrage  believers,  these  good  re- 
sults. The  first  legislature  elected  in  Colorado 
after  the  granting  of  woman  suffrage  raised 
the  age  of  consent  from  14  to  18,  and  gave  a 


Woman's  Rights. 


1405 


Woman's  Rights. 


married  woman  an  equal  voice  with  her  husband 
in  regard  to  children.  At  the  last  election  in 
Denver,  the  women  are  credited  with  defeating 
the  saloon  element.  A  correspondent  of  the 
Congregationalist  writes  from  Sydney,  South 
Australia,  under  date  of  May  9,  1896,  that  it  is 
generally  conceded  there  that  woman  suffrage 
has  made  parliamentary  elections  more  orderly. 
It  is  true  that  nowhere  has  woman  suffrage 
introduced  startling  changes,  but  this  is  neither 
to  be  expected  nor  desired. 

OBJECTIONS  TO   WOMAN   SUFFRAGE   ANSWERED. 

The  main  objections  to  woman  suffrage  are 
that  (i)  women  are  physically  disqualified  from 
participation  in  the  actual  work  of  government ; 
that  they  are  unfitted  for  service  in  the  fire  and 
police  departments  and  for  the  work  of  paving 
and  lighting  streets,  building  roads,  and  other 
forms  of  public  property  ;  (2)  home  duties  would 
prevent  woman,  even  if  she  were  physically 
able,  from  participating  in  the  administration 
of  law,  chiefly  in  such  capacities  as  police  officer 
and  juror  ;  (3)  woman  suffrage  would  divide  the 
husband  and  wife  and  leave  the  family  no 
longer  a  social  unit  ;  (4)  women  are  now  virtu- 
ally represented  at  the  polls  and  in  government. 

To  the  first  objection  cited  above  the  answer 
is,  that  what  the  voter  needs  is  not  personal 
knowledge  of  how  to  build  sewers,  construct 
aqueducts,  run  law  courts,  etc.,  but  sufficient 
judgment  and  common  sense  to  elect  honest  men 
to  office  to  attend  to  these  things.  Women 
share  in  the  results  of  these  material  things  of 
government,  and  if  the  work  has  been  badly 
performed,  women  suffer  quite  as  much  as  the 
men,  and  therefore  are  entitled  to  a  voice  in 
the  choosing  of  men  who  shall  control  these 
matters. 

To  the  second  objection  answer  is  made  that 
a  woman  need  not  cease  to  be  domestic  because 
she  is  also  patriotic  and  takes  an  intelligent  in- 
terest in  public  questions.  Such  a  patriotic 
woman  will  be  a  more  rational  companion  for 
her  husband  and  a  broader-minded  mother  for 
her  children.  Women  owe  the  men  of  their 
families  mental  and  spiritual  companionship. 
In  none  of  the  States  is  the  ability  to  bear  arms 
or  serve  as  juror  or  police  officer  regarded  as  a 
qualification  for  the  suffrage.  Not  all  male  citi- 
zens, but  only  able-bodied  male  citizens,  are 
subject  to  police  duty.  Women  at  home  have 
as  much  time  for  voting  as  busy  men,  and  they 
have  more  time  for  thought. 

To  the  third  objection,  reply  is  made  that  in 
matters  of  opinion  and  belief  the  unit  must  nec- 
essarily be  the  individual,  not  the  family:  The 
family  ought  to  be  a  unit  in  affection,  but  it 
cannot  always  be  a  unit  in  opinion,  and  it  rare- 
ly is  so. 

There  is  no  country  where  the  franchise  is 
given  to  every  head  of  a  family  and  to  no  one 
else.  No  matter  how  many  men  over  21  years 
of  age  there  may  be  in  a  household,  each  of 
them  has  a  vote  to  represent  his  opinion.  With 
the  family  as  the  suffrage  unit,  a  widower  who 
had  lost  his  wife  and  children  would  be  de- 
barred from  voting,  because  he  is  no  longer  the 
head  of  a  family. 

To  the  fifth  objection,  that  women  are  repre- 
sented already,  the  reply  is,  men  cannot  repre- 


sent women,  because  they  are  unlike  women. 
Women  as  a  v  class  have  tasks,  interests  and 
occupations  which  they  alone  can  adequately 
represent.  Men  specially  represent  material 
interests  ;  women  will  specially  represent  the 
interests  of  the  home.  The  laws  relating  to  the 
liquor  traffic  and  to  social  purity,  and  the  laws 
giving  the  husband  power  of  disposing  of  his 
wife's  property  or  children  without  her  consent, 
and  many  other  laws  that  might  be  cited,  are 
evidence  that  the  views  of  women  are  not  rep- 
resented in  government.  James  Otis,  one  of 
the  earliest  American  orators  and  a  contem- 
porary of  Patrick  Henry,  said :  "  No  such 
phrase  as  '  virtual  representation '  was  ever 
known  in  law  or  constitution.  It  is  altogether 
a  subtlety  and  an  illusion,  wholly  unfounded 
and  absurd." 

Other  objections  are  :  (i)  politics  are  necessa- 
rily corrupting  ;  (2)  women  would  vote  as  their 
husbands  or  fathers  do  ;  (3)  the  best  women  will 
not  vote  ;  (4)  most  women  do  not  want  to  vote  ; 
(5)  woman  suffrage  would  only  double  the  vote 
without  changing  results  ;  ,.(6)  woman  suffrage 
would  diminish  respect  for  women. 

The  answers  generally  made  to  these  objec- 
tions are  :  (i)  "If  politics  are  necessarily  cor- 
rupting," why  not  advise  good  men  to  quit  vot- 
ing ?  (2)  Many  women  have  no  husbands  and 
no  living  fathers.  If  they  have  and  vote  as 
these  men  do,  there  will  be  no  quarrel  ;  if  they 
vote  differently,  then  this  objection  falls  to  the 
ground.  (3)  Women  who  will  not  vote  are  not 
the  best  women.  Women  who  are  really  con- 
scientious will  not  shirk  their  duties  when  the 
time  comes.  (4)  There  is  frequently  an  election 
toward  which  a  majority  of  the  voters  may  be 
said  to  be  indifferent.  It  has  been  shown  by 
statistics  that,  except  in  years  of  presidential 
election,  a  majority  of  men  in  Massachusetts  do 
not  vote.  (5)  But  the  quality  of  the  voters 
changes  the  quality  of  politics.  A  political 
party  of  men  and  women  will  not  be  the  same 
as  a  party  of  men  alone.  (6)  Voting  is  power. 
Power  always  commands  respect.  Women 
armed  with  the  ballot  will  be  stronger  and  more 
respected  than  ever  before. 

THE   ARGUMENTS    AGAINST  WOMAN   SUFFRAGE. 

The  arguments  against  woman  suffrage  are 
as  various  as  those  claimed  for  it.  The  main 
argument  is  that  influence  and  power,  even  po- 
litical influence  and  power,  are  and  ought  to  be 
of  more  kinds  than  one.  Voting  is  not  the  only 
means  of  political  and  social  power.  Quiet 
home  influences  are  greater  powers,  even  in 
politics,  and  in  this  realm  woman  is  supreme. 
Men  rule  the  outer  world,  women  the  inner. 
To  drag  women  into  the  public  arena  is  to 
weaken  her  influence  at  home  and  to  violate 
that  law  of  sex  which  nature  has  made,  not 
man. 

That  women  do  not  need  to  vote  in  order  to 
secure  proper  legislation  can  be  seen  by  the  fact 
that  without  the  ballot,  laws  almost  revolution- 
ary have  been  enacted  in  favor  of  women  in 
almost  all  countries  within  the  last  few  years. 
In  England  and  in  many  American  States,  wom- 
en are  legally  protected  as  much  as  men.  Some 
injustices  doubtless  remain,  but  these  are  bal- 
anced by  instances  where  women  are  more  pro- 


Woman's  Rights. 


1406 


Woman  Suffrage  in  England. 


tected  than  men.     Says  Dr.  Goldwin  Smith,  in 
Essays  on  Questions  of  the  Day  : 

"  The  law  regarding  the  property  of  married  women 
has  been  so  far  reformed  in  the  interests  of  the  wife, 
that,  instead  of  being  unduly  favorable  to  the  hus- 
band, it  seems  rather  inspired  by  mistrust  of  him. 
The  practice  is  still  more  so.  It  has  become  the  custom 
to  tie  up  a  woman's  property  on  marriage  so  that  she 
shall  not  be  able,  even  if  she  is  so  inclined,  to  make 
provision  for  her  husband,  in  case  he  survives  her,  in 
old  age,  and  save  him  from  the  necessity  of  receiving 
alms  from  his  own  children.  .  .  . 

"  That  the  administration  of  the  law  has  been  un- 
favorable to  women  few  will  contend.  In  jury  cases, 
at  least,  the  difficulty  is  not  for  women  to  get  justice 
against  men,  but  for  men  to  get  justice  against 
women." 

Says  Francis  M.  Scott,  of  New  York  :  "  The 
law  of  this  State  not  only  does  not  discriminate 
against  woman  in  any  respect,  save  that  of  vot- 
ing, but  actually  affords  to  her  many  special 
privileges  and  immunities  not  enjoyed  by  men." 

Undoubtedly  laws  could  be  improved  tor  both 
men  and  women  ;  but  all  cannot  be  done  in  a 
day,  and  the  fact,  which  no  one  can  deny,  that 
enormous  progress  has  recently  been  made  in 
the  legal  status  df  women  without  woman 
suffrage  shows  that  it  is  not  necessary  to  such 
progress.  Nor  does  woman  suffrage  neces- 
sarily bring  great  improvement.  Even  its 
friends  do  not  claim  that  it  has  accomplished 
much.  Says  a  tract,  Woman  Suffrage  Test- 
ed by  its  Fruits,  published  by  the  Massachusetts 
Association  Opposed  to  the  Extension  of  Suf- 
frage to  Woman  : 

"  In  Wyoming,  full  suffrage  was  given  to  women  in 
1869,  and  has  been  exercised  by  them  ever  since,  at 
first  under  the  territorial  and  later  under  the  State 
form  of  government.  .  .  . 

"Wyoming  enjoys  the  distinction  of  legalizing 
gambling.  Licenses  are  granted  for  gambling  just  as 
they  are  for  liquor-selling,  tho  at  a  higher  rate.  .  .  . 

"  There  is  aether  section  of  the  Wyoming  statutes 
in  which  we  fail  to  recognize  the  gentle  and  humaniz- 
ing influence  of  women.  It  is  Section  875,  and  defines 
'excusable  homicide'  thus:  'When  committed  by 
accident  or  misfortune  in  the  heat  of  passion  upon  any 
sudden  or  sufficient  provocation,  or  upon  a  sudden 
combat ;  provided  that  no  undue  advantage  is  taken, 
nor  any  dangerous  weapon  used,  and  that  the  killing 
is  not  done  in  a  cruel  or  unusual  manner."  There  may 
be  other  States  which  pronounce  killing  'excusable' 
when  done  in  'the  heat  of  passion,'  provided  it  is  not 
attended  by  unusual  cruelty,  but  we  do  not  recall 
them." 

Of  Colorado,  a  writer  in  The  Outlook  for  March 
20,  1897,  saYs  woman  suffrage  has  not  purified 
politics  ;  that  the  laws  of  the  State  as  regards 
social  purity  and  the  rights  of  married  women 
are  not  yet  abreast  of  some  of  the  Eastern  States, 
while  Wyoming  is  far  behind  Colorado. 

The  bad  results  of  women's  entry  into  the 
public  arena  are  not  so  easily  shown,  because 
they  consist  mainly  in  the  weakening  of  the 
home  life  and  the  quiet  influence  of  women. 
But  though  they  cannot  be  shown,  they  may  be, 
and  many  believe  that  they  are  most  marked 
and  most  threatening. 

Feeling  that  there  is  a  profound  law  of  nature 
which  enthrones  woman  in  the  home  as  men  in 
political  life,  most  women  do  not  want  the  suf- 
frage. Says  the  tract,  Tested  by  its  Fruits  : 

"  How  small  is  the  proportion  of  women  who  really 
wish  the  ballot  may  be  inferred  from  the  '  referendum'' 
upon  the  question  of  municipal  suffrage  for  women, 
taken  in  Massachusetts  in  1895.  The  opportunity  was 
given  to  women  at  that  election,  without  any  expense, 
or  any  trouble  beyond  that  of  registering  and  voting, 


to  say  whether  they  wanted  municipal  suffrage.  Out 
of  about  575,000  women  entitled  to  vote,  only  22,204  ex- 

Eressed  a  desire  for  the  ballot.  In  Massachusetts,  there- 
>re,  where  the  suffrage  agitation  has  been  as  active 
as  anywhere  in  the  Union,  less  than  4  per  cent,  of  the 
women  want  to  vote.  Assuming  that  this  ratio  hold& 
generally,  the  suffrage  proposition  is  that  the  ballot 
shall  be  "forced  upon  the  96  per  cent,  of  indifferent  or 
reluctant  women,  because  the  4  per  cent,  wish  it." 

Victoria  Woodhull  Martin,  in  the  Humanita- 
rian for  July,  1896,  says  upon  this  point  : 

"  In  England,  while  other  aspects  of  the  woman's 
movement  have  gained  ground,  this  (the  suffrage 
phase)  has  moved  slowly.  Little  has  been  achieved 
beyond  a  monster  petition  ;  despite  the  platitudes  of 
vote-catching  ministers,  the  bill  was  relinquished  in 
the  last  Parliament  amid  ribald  laughter,  and  this 
session  it  has  been  dropped  with  a  silence  which  is  even 
more  contemptuous." 

Says  Heloise  Jamison,  in  the  Woman' s  Jour- 
nal for  May,  1894  : 

"  Woman's  place  is  in  the  forefront  of  life,  that  of  the 
family  and  of  the  nation.  .  .  . 

"Woman's  chance  of  saving,  elevating,  caring  for 
them  lies  in  staying  with  them  behind  the  barrier 
that  love  has  raised.  Her  chance  of  protecting  herself 
and  man  is  to  go  with  him  to  the  edge  of  battle,  pray 
for  him  in  the  needs-must  of  public  duty,  be  the  in- 
centive for  his  return,  and  the  reward  of  his  hard 
endeavor.  .  .  . 

"  The  destiny  of  the  race  is  in  her  hands.  God  and 
man  have  placed  it  there,  and  it  is  in  no  spirit  of  self- 
praise  or  gratulation  that  she  must  carry  on  what  is, 
after  all  these  ages,  but  just  begun.  Every  power  in 
her  must  awake  ;  she  will  decide  what  public  work 
is  consistent  with  this  final  duty  and  what  is  not. 
Chivalry  is  no  myth  of  the  Middle  Ages,  but  a  truth 
of  the  century  about  to  dawn.  The  names  of  mother, 
wife,  sister  must  not  become  the  football  of  sentiment- 
mongers  or  of  mistaken  realists  in  thought.  If  the 
ballot  would  be  a  hindrance,  we  must  have  none  of  it." 

References  :  The  History  of  Woman  Suffrage,  Stan- 
ton,  Anthony,  and  Gage  ;  77ie  Legal  Status  of  Women, 
Jessie  J.  Cassidy ;  The  Matriarchate,  Elizabeth  Cady 
Stanton  :  The  Subjection  of  Woman,  John  Stuart  Mill  ; 
The  Rights  of  Women,  Ostrogorski ;  Vindication  of  the 
Rights  of  Women,  Mary  Wollstonecraft ;  Woman  in 
the  Nineteenth  Century,  Margaret  Fuller  ;  History  of 
Woman,  Lydia  Maria  Child.  For  views  opposed  to 
woman  suffrage  see  Helen  K.  Johnson's  Woman  and 
the  Republic. 

WOMAN  SUFFRAGE  IN  ENGLAND. 

— The  woman  suffrage  movement  in  England 
is  a  natural  outgrowth  from  the  great  Reform 
Act  of  1832,  which,  by  admitting  £10  household- 
ers to  vote,  gave  a  wide  extension  to  the  elec- 
torate in  a  popular  direction.  But  the  extension 
applied  to  men  only  ;  the  act  excluded  women 
from  all  share  in  its  provisions  by  restricting 
the  new  franchises  to  "  male  persons." 

This  was  the  first  time  that  the  word  '"male" 
had  been  used  in  the  electoral  law  of  Eng- 
land ;  hitherto  the  words  used  had  always  been 
of  a  generic  character — "persons,"  "freehold- 
ers," etc.  Yet  at  the  very  time  Parliament  thus 
deliberately  excluded  them  from  this  right  of 
citizenship,  numbers  of  women  were  taking  a 
keen  interest  in  the  great  public  questions  of 
the  time.  The  long  struggle  over  the  Reform 
Bill  had  called  out  the  enthusiasm  of  the  sisters, 
wives,  and  mothers,  as  well  as  of  the  brothers, 
husbands,  and  fathers  of  the  land.  The  inter- 
est women  were  thus  learning  to  take  in  public 
questions  was  still  further  developed  by  the  agi- 
tation for  the  repeal  of  the  Corn  Laws. 

An  article  in  the  Westminster  Review  from 
the  pen  of  Mrs.  John  Stuart  Mill  in  1851,  and  a 
pamphlet  on  the  Right  of  Women  to  the  Po- 


Woman  Suffrage  in  England. 


1407 


Woman  Suffrage  in  England. 


Ittical  Franchise,  by  "  Justitia,"  in  1855,  were 
among  the  early  indications  that  a  strong  feel- 
ing was  gradually  growing  up  among  thought- 
ful people  against  the  exclusion  of  women  from 
the  franchise — a  feeling  that  only  waited  an  op- 
portunity to  take  definite  form  of  expression. 
That  opportunity  came  when  the  return  of  Mr. 
John  Stuart  Mill,  as  member  for  Westminster 
in  1865,  gave  the  women's  cause  a  champion  in 
the  House  of  Commons  just  at  the  very  time 
when  a  further  extension  of  household  suffrage 
was  in  prospect. 

Three  thoughtful  women  already  engaged  in 
promoting  the  employment  and  higher  educa- 
tion of  women — Miss  Jessie  Boucherett  (who  in 
1859  had  founded  the  Society  for 
Employment  of  Women),  Miss  Bar- 
Beginnings,    bara   Leigh-Smith,  or,  as  she  had 
then  become,   Mrs.  Bodichon,  and 
Miss     Emily    Davies    (the    future 
founders    of    Girton    College) — consulted    Mr. 
John  Stuart  Mill.     He  said  he  would  be  glad  to 
present  a  petition  if  it  were  signed  by  100  wom- 
en ;  he  would  not  like  to  present  one  with  less 
than   100  names.     They  set  to  work  and  pro- 
cured the  signatures  of  1499  women  to  a  petition 
of  which  the  terms  were  as  follows  : 

"  That  it  having  been  expressly  laid  down  by  high 
authorities  that  the  possession  of  property  in  this 
country  carries  with  it  the  right  to  vote  in  the  election 
of  representatives  in  Parliament,  it  is  an  evident 
anomaly  that  some  holders  of  property  are  allowed  to 
use  this  right,  while  others,  forming  no  less  a  constitu- 
ent part  of  the  nation,  and  equally  qualified  by  law  to 
hold  property,  are  not  able  to  exercise  this  privilege. 

"  That  the  participation  of  women  in  the  govern- 
ment is  consistent  with  the  principles  of  the  British 
constitution,  inasmuch  as  women  in  these  islands  have 
always  been  held  capable  of  sovereignty,  and  women 
are  eligible  for  various  public  offices. 

"  Your  petitioners  therefore  humbly  pray  your 
honorable  house  to  consider  the  expediency  of  provid- 
ing for  the  representation  of  all  householders,  without 
distinction  of  sex,  who  possess  such  property  or  rental 
qualification  as  your  honorable  house  may  determine." 

The  petition  was  presented  by  Mr.  Mill  in 
May,  1866.  In  the  autumn  of  that  year  a  paper 
was  read  by  Mrs.  Bodichon  at  the  Social  Science 
Congress  in  Manchester,  on  reasons  for  the  en- 
franchisement of  women.  This  paper  attracted 
considerable  attention  to  the  subject,  and  its 
immediate  result  was  the  formation  of  a  Wom- 
an Suffrage  Committee  in  Manchester,  and 
the  introduction  of  Miss  Lydia  Becker  to  the 
movement  with  which  henceforth  her  life  be- 
came identified.  As  honorable  secretary  of  the 
Manchester  Committee,  she  threw  all  her  great 
powers  of  mind  into  the  work. 

On  May  2oth,  1867,  Mr.  Mill  introduced  his 
amendment  to  the  representation  of  the  People's 
Bill  to  leave  out  the  word  man  and  insert  per- 
son. The  amendment  was  rejected  by  196  to  83. 

In  the  autumn  of  1868  a  general  election  took 
place,  and  constitutional  lawyers  like  Mr.  Chis- 
holm  Anstey  having  given  it  as  their  opinion 
that  women  who  held  qualifications  under  the 
early  franchises  in  force  before  the  Act  of  1832 
were  legally  entitled  to  vote,  5000  women  in 
Manchester  and  others  in  various  places  applied 
to  have  their  names  on  the  register.  The  revis- 
ing barristers  were  uncertain  ;  some  allowed, 
some  disallowed  the  claim  ;  a  test  case  *  was 

*  Charlton  v s.  Lings. 


brought  before  the  Court  of  Common  Pleas  and 
argued  before  Lord  Chief  Justice  Bovill ;  judg- 
ment was  given  against  the  claim  on  the  ground 
that  it  was  contrary  to  usage  for  women  to  vote. 

After  this  decision,  the  movement  became  defi- 
nitely organized,  and  a  band  of  earnest  women, 
some  of  whom  have  passed  away  and  some  con- 
tinue still  in  the  work,  set  themselves  resolutely 
to  the  task. 

The  next  important  step  was  the  introduction 
in  1870  of  the  "  Bill  to  Remove  the  Electoral 
Disabilities  of  Women,"  by  Mr.  John  Bright, 
M.P.  The  bill,  which  consisted  of  one  clause, 
was  as  follows  : 

"That  in  all  acts  relating  to  the  qualification  or  reg- 
istration of  voters,  or  persons  entitled  or  claiming  to- 
be  registered  and  to  vote  in  the  election  of  members  of 
Parliament,  wherever  words  occur  which  import  the 
masculine  gender,  the  same  shall  be  held  to  include 
females,  for  all  purposes  connected  with  and  having 
reference  to  the  right  to  be  registered  as  voters,  and! 
to  vote  in  such  election,  any  law  or  usage  to  the  con- 
trary notwithstanding." 

The  second  reading  was  carried  on  May  4  by 
124  votes  to  91  ;  but  when  it  came  into  commit- 
tee on  the  1 2th,  the  opponents  rallied  in  force 
and  cast  it  out  by  220  votes  against  to  94  in 
favor. 

Again  and  again  a  bill  was  introduced,  again 
and  again  debates  took  place  in  the  House  of 
Commons,  with  varying  results. 

In  1879  the  procedure  was  varied  by  the  in- 
troduction of  a  resolution  in  place  of  a  bill. 
The  resolution,  which  was  moved  by  Mr.  Leon- 
ard Courtney,  was  in  the  following  terms  : 

"That  in  the  opinion  of  this  house  it  is  injurious  to- 
the  best  interests  of  the  country  that  women,  who  are 
entitled  to  vote  in  municipal,  parochial,  and  school- 
board  elections,  when  possessed  of  the  statutory  quali- 
fications, should  be  disabled  from  voting  in  parliamen- 
tary elections,  altho  possessed  of  the  statutory  qualifi- 
cations, and  that  it  is  expedient  that  this  disability  be 
forthwith  repealed." 

In  the  autumn  of  1879  the  Social  Science 
Congress  again  met  in  Manchester,  when  Miss 
Becker  read  a  paper  on  the  Progress  of  the 
Enfranchisement  of  IVomen,  in  wnich  she  gave 
a  sketch  of  the  progress  of  the  movement  since 
1866,  and  noted  that  during  that  period  there 
had  been  presented  to  the  House  of  Commons 
9563  petitions  in  favor  of  the  bill,  with  upward 
of  2,958,848  signatures,  and  that  between  1300 
and  1400  public  meetings  had  been  held,  being 
an  average  of  above  two  meetings  per  week 
during  the  last  13  years. 

In  1880  anticipation  was  now  becoming  gen- 
eral of  a  new  reform  bill  which  should  extend  to 
the  agricultural    laborer    in    the  counties  the 
same    household    suffrage    which 
had  been  extended  to  dwellers  in 
boroughs  by  the  Act  of  1867.  and       Bills. 
the  workers    for  woman   suffrage 
hoped   that  this   bill   would  bring 
them  the  fitting  opportunity  foreshadowed  by 
the  chancellor  of  the  exchequer. 

Mass  meetings  of  women  now  became  the 
most  prominent  feature  of  the  work,  and  a 
series  of  magnificent  meetings,  when  the  largest 
halls  of  the  largest  towns  overflowed  with  thou- 
sands of  women,  mark  the  work  of  the  next 
three  years. 

At  last  the  long-expected  Reform  Bill  was  in- 
troduced in  1884.  Mr.  William  Woodall  moved 


Woman  Suffrage  in  England. 


Woman  Suffrage  in  the  U.  S. 


a  new  clause  for  the  inclusion  of  women,  but 
was  met  by  determined  resistance  on  the  part 
of  the  Government,  Mr.  Gladstone  stating  in 
the  most  emphatic  manner  that  the  Government 
-would  decline  all  further  responsibility  for  the 
Franchise  Bill  if  the  clause  was  adopted.  The 
division  list  showed  271  against  to  135  in  favor. 

A  brighter  prospect  arose  for  a  time  in  1886, 
-when  the  Parliamentary  Franchise  Extension 
to  Women  Bill  actually  passed  a  second  reading  ; 
but  Parliament  was  dissolved  before  the  bill 
reached  the  stage  of  going  into  committee.  In 
the  general  election  which  followed,  for  thei 
first  time  a  clear  majority  of  the  members  elect- 
ed pronounced  themselves,  at  the  time  of  their 
election,  in  favor  of  the  principle  of  woman 
suffrage. 

Yet  for  five  successive  sessions  the  pressure 
•of  public  business  precluded  the  question  com- 
ing forward. 

It  was  not  until  1892  that  the  parliamentary 
leaders  obtained  a  day  (April  27)  for  a  debate, 
when  the  Rt.  Hon.  A.  J.  Balfour  concluded  his 
speech  with  the  following  words  : 

"  You  will  give  a  vote  to  a  man  who  contributes 
nothing  to  taxation  but  what  he  pays  on  his  beer,  while 
you  refuse  enfranchisement  to  a  woman  because  she 
is  a  woman,  whatever  her  contribution  to  the  State 
•may  be.  She  has  sufficient  ability  to  look  after  light- 
ing and  paving,  but  is  not  so  fitted  to  look  after  the  in- 
terests of  the  empire  as  a  man  who  cannot  point  out 
on  the  map  the  parts  of  the  world  of  which  that  em- 
pire is  composed.  I  think  from  all  I  can  hear  that  this 
bill  is  not  likely  to  be  successful  on  this  occasion  ;  but, 
•depend  upon  it,  if  any  further  alteration  of  the  fran- 
chise is  brought  forward  as  a  practical  measure,  this 
•question  will  again  arise,  menacing  and  ripe  for  solu- 
tion, and  it  will  not  be  possible  for  this  house  to  set  it 
.aside  as  a  mere  speculative  plan  advocated  by  a  body 
of  faddists.  Then  you  will  have  to  deal  with  the  prob- 
lem of  woman  suffrage,  and  to  deal  with  it  in  a  com- 
plete fashion." 

The  opponents  of  the  measure  made  unusual 
•efforts  to  prevent  its  passage.  Mr.  Gladstone 
wrote  a  letter  to  Mr.  Samuel  Smith,  M. P.,  which 
-was  widely  circulated  in  pamphlet  form,  urging 
members  to  vote  against  it  ;  yet  it  was  only 
lost  by  the  narrow  majority  of  23. 

Other  efforts  have  met  similar  fates  in  later 
years.  But  the  advocates  of  the  measure  are 
by  no  means  daunted,  for  they  see  unmistakable 
indications  of  the  growth  of  opinion  throughout 
the  country,  especially  as  seen  in  the  readiness 
to  sign  the  appeal  from  women  in  favor  of  wom- 
an suffrage  which  was  circulated  throughout 
the  country  in  the  winter  of  1893-94  an(i  ensu- 
ing spring.  This  appeal  received  248,000  signa- 
tures of  women  of  all  ranks,  parties,  and  occu- 
pations, and  furnishes  evidence  of  the  continued 
growth  of  the  movement  which  will  be  brought 
before  the  attention  of  members  of  Parliament 
-whenever  there  is  again  prospect  of  a  debate  in 
the  House  of  Commons. 

HELEN  BLACKBURN. 

LOCAL  FRANCHISES  EXERCISED  BY  WOMEN  IN  GREAT 

BRITAIN. 

Municipal.— The  Municipal  Corporations  Act  of  1835 
restricted  the  franchise  for  town  councils  elections 
in  England  and  Wales  to  male  persons.  The  Munici- 
pal Corporations  Act  of  1869  removed  the  restriction. 
The  Scotch  Municipal  Corporations  Act  of  1882  extend- 
ed the  report  to  women  in  Scotland. 

School  Board.— The  Education  Act  of  1870,  by  which 
school  boards  were  created,  gave  women  precisely  the 
same  rights  as  men,  both  as  regards  electing  and  being 
elected. 


County  Councils.— The  Local  Government  Acts  of 
1888  and  1889,  creating  county  councils  in  England  and 
Scotland,  gave  women  the  right  of  voting.  They  are 
not,  however,  eligible  for  election. 

Poor  Law  Guardian  Vestries, — These  old  parochial 
bodies,  in  which  women  rate-payers  could  vote  and 
be  elected,  have  all  been  changed  by  the  Local  Govern- 
ment Act  of  1894,  which  has  vested  their  duties  in 
parish  and  district  councils.  , 

Parish  and  District  Councils. — The  first  elections 
for  these  new  bodies  were  held  in  December  (1894). 
Women  can  elect  and  be  elected,  and  for  the  first  time 
married  women  were  declared  qualified  to  vote,  pro- 
vided they  possess  a  qualification  separate  from  their 
husbands. 

WOMAN  SUFFRAGE  IN  THE  UNIT- 
ED STATES.— The  year  1848  is  to  the  history 
of  the  struggle  for  woman's  political  rights  what 
1776  is  to  the  story  of  the  American  Revolu- 
tion. So  strongly  did  the  men  and  women  who 
inaugurated  the  struggle  for  "  woman's  rights" 
feel  this  analogy  that  at  the  first  convention 
held  for  this  purpose  they  used  the  Declaration 
of  Independence  as  the  model  and  framework 
of  their  own  declaration  of  principles. 

But  no  great  movement  comes  unprepared 
for  or  unheralded,  and  the  Woman's  Rights 
Convention  of  1848  had  had  its  John  the  Bap- 
tists crying  in  the  wilderness  of  prejudice  and 
injustice. 

In    1790  Mary  Wollstonecraft's    Vindication 
of  the  Rights  of  Women,  published  in  Lon- 
don, attracted  attention  from  liberal  thinkers. 
Harriet  Martineau,  by  her  numerous  writings 
upon  political  economy,   demonstrated   practi- 
cally woman's  ability  to  enter  the  realm  of  poli- 
tics.     As    early  as    1820    Frances 
Wright,  of   Scotland,  visited  this 
country,  and  in  1828  lectured  in  Beginnings. 
many  places,  striving  to  arouse  the 
people  to  the  danger  threatening 
from  the  attempt  to  unite  Church  and  State.    All 
her  influence  was  toward  the  recognition  of 
woman  equally  with   man  in  national  affairs. 
Ernestine   L.    Rose,  a  brilliant  and  beautiful 
Polish  woman,  worked  earnestly  in  this  same 
direction. 

It  would  be  impossible  to  even  mention  here 
the  host  of  women  who,  in  the  first  half  of  this 
century,  bore  witness  to  their  faith  in  the  pow- 
ers of  their  own  sex  to  fill  a  wider  "  sphere" 
than  the  one  appointed  to  them  by  the  men  of 
their  day  and  generation.  Emma  Willard,  in 
education  ;  Elizabeth  Blackwell,  Clemence  Lo- 
zier,  Ann  Preston.  Hannah  Longshore,  Marie 
Zakrzewski,  and  Mary  Putnam  Jacobi,  in  medi- 
cine ;  Sarah  and  Angelina  Grimke,  Lydia  Maria 
Child,  Abby  Kelley,  Sarah  Pugh,  and  Lucretia 
Mott,  through  their  participation  in  the  anti- 
slavery  struggle  ;  Margaret  Fuller,  in  her  liter- 
ary work  ;  Antoinette  L.  Brown,  in  the  minis- 
try ;  Susan  B.  Anthony,  in  the  temperance 
work  ;  Lucy  Stone,  at  Oberlin,  and  in  1847  from 
the  pulpit  of  her  brother's  church  at  Brookfield, 
Mass. — these  all  stood  as  pioneers  making  ready 
the  way  for  the  response  to  the  call  for  the  con- 
vention which  made  the  first  organized  demand 
for  "  equality  of  rights  for  woman,  social,  relig- 
ious, and  political. ' ' 

One  other  influence,  and  perhaps  the  greatest 
of  all,  leading  directly  to  the  calling  of  the 
Seneca  Falls  Convention,  cannot  be  omitted 
here.  This  was  the  exclusion  from  the  World's 
Anti-Slavery  Convention,  held  in  London  in 


Woman  Suffrage  in  the  U.  S. 


1409 


Woman  Suffrage  in  the  U.  S. 


1840,  of  the  women  sent  there  as  delegates.  A 
number  of  anti  slavery  societies  in  this  country 
elected  women  to  represent  them  in  the  delib- 
erations of  that  body  ;  the  English  members 
were  unprepared  for  this,  and  regarded  it  as  an 
innovation  not  to  be  endured  ;  a  most  exciting 
discussion  filled  the  first  day  of  the  convention. 
Wendell  Phillips,  George  Bradburn,  also  of 
Massachusetts,  the  venerable  George  Thomp- 
son, and  Henry  B.  Stanton,  stood  as  the  advo- 
cates of  the  rights  of  the  women  as  delegates. 
The  clergymen  were,  as  a  body,  bitterly  op- 
posed to  their  admission.  By  an  overwhelm- 
ing majority,  the  World's  (?)  Anti  Slavery  Con- 
vention refused  to  accept  the  women  coming 
from  Pennsylvania  and  Massachusetts  fully 
credentialed  as  delegates,  among  whom  were 
Lucretia  Mott,  Abby  Kimber,  Ann  Green  Phil- 
lips, Abby  Southwick  Sarah  Pugh,  and  Mary 
Grew.  William  Lloyd  Garrison,  who,  owing  to 
delay  at  sea,  arrived  too  late  to  take  part  in  the 
discussion  of  the  woman  question  in  the  con- 
vention, declined  to  take  his  seat  as  a  delegate 
in  a  body  which  had  refused  the  women,  and  sat 
with  them  in  the  gallery,  a  silent  spectator  dur- 
ing the  ten  days'  discussion  of  a  subject  of  such 
deep  interest  to  him  as  the  freedom  of  the  slaves. 
He  should  be  honored  by  every  self  respecting 
woman  for  this  testimony  in  her  behalf.  Na- 
thaniel P.  Rogers,  editor  of  the  Herald  of  Free- 
dom, of  Concord,  N.  H.,  approved  of  Mr.  Garri- 
son's attitude,  and  decided  to  decline  his  seat  in 
the  convention  ;  so  the  women  delegates  had 
two  American  men  who  felt  strongly  enough 
this  illogical  and  unjust  discrimination  against 
sex  to  sit  with  the  disfranchised  women  through- 
out the  convention. 

Elizabeth  Cady  Stanton,  who  had  accom- 
panied her  husband,  Henry  B.  Stanton,  to  Lon- 
don for  the  convention,  in  conversation  with 
Lucretia  Mott  about  the  iniquitous  attitude  of 
the  assembly  on  the  woman  question,  decided 
that  men  needed  educating  on  this  subject  as 
much  as  upon  the  freedom  of  the  black  slaves, 
and  they  agreed  that  later  they  would  have  a 
convention  to  discuss  the  position  and  rights  of 
women.  This  was  the  seed  from  which  grew 
the  meeting  of  which  the  following  is  the  call, 
which  appeared  in  the  Seneca  County  Courier 
of  July  14,  1848  : 

"  Woman's  Rights  Convention.— A  convention  to  dis- 
cuss the  social,  civil,  and  religious  condition  and  rights 
of  woman  will  be  held  in  the  Wesleyan  Chapel,  at 
Seneca  Falls,  New  York,  on  Wednesday  and  Thurs- 
day, July  19,  20,  current,  commencing  at  10  o'clock 
A  M.  During  the  first  day  the  meeting  will  be  exclu- 
sively for  women,  who  are  earnestly  invited  to  attend. 
The  public  generally  are  invited  to  be  present  on  the 
second  day,  when  Lucretia  Mott,  of  Philadelphia,  and 
other  ladies  and  gentlemen  will  address  the  conven- 
tion." 

This  call  was  without  signatures  ;  it  was  is- 
sued by  Lucretia  Mott,  Martha  C.  Wright  (her 
sister),  Elizabeth  Cady  Stanton,  and  Mary  Ann 
McClintock.  Altho  not  invited  to  the  first 
day's  sessions,  men  came,  and  in  such  num- 
bers as  made  it  impossible  to  exclude  them.  It 
was  therefore  decided  to  have  a  man  preside, 
and  James  Mott  took  the  chair.  After  a  num- 
ber of  addresses,  the  new  declaration  of  inde- 
pendence, entitled  a  Declaration  of  Sentiments, 
was  presented,  and,  after  discussion  and  slight 

89 


amendment,  accepted.  It  followed  exactly  the 
form  of  the  Declaration  of  1776,  substituting 
the  words  "  all  men"  for  "  King  George."  As 
the  original  document  related  eighteen  griev- 
ances, so  that  of  the  women  contained  exactly 
that  number.  Let  me  quote  some  of  these  : 

"  The  history  of  mankind  is  a  history  of  repeated  in- 
juries and  usurpations  on  the  part  of  man  toward 
woman,  having  m  direct  object  the  establishment  of 
an  absolute  tyranny  over  her.  To  prove  this,  let  facts 
be  submitted  to  a  candid  world. 

"  He  has  never  permitted  her  to  exercise  her  in- 
alienable right  to  the  elective  franchise. 

"  He  has  compelled  her  to  submit  to  laws  in  the 
formation  of  which  she  has  had  no  voice. 

"He  has  withheld  from  her  rights  which  are  given 
to  the  most  ignorant  and  degraded  men— both  natives 
and  foreigners. 

"  Having  deprived  her  of  this  first  right  of  a  citizen, 
the  elective  franchise,  thereby  leaving  her  without 
representation  in  the  halls  of  legislation,  he  has 
oppressed  her  on  all  sides. 

"  He  has  made  her,  if  married,  in  the  eye  of  the  law, 
civilly  dead. 

"  He  has  taken  from  her  all  right  in  property,  even 
to  the  wages  she  earns. 

"  After  depriving  her  of  all  rights  as  a  married 
woman,  if  single,  and  the  owner  of  property,  he  has 
taxed  her  to  support  a  government  which  recognizes 
her  only  when  her  property  can  be  made  profitable  to 
it. 

"  He  has  monopolized  nearly  all  the  profitable  em- 
ployments, and  from  those  she  is  permitted  to  follow, 
she  receives  but  a  scanty  remuneration.  He  closes 
against  her  all  the  avenues  to  wealth  and  distinction 
which  he  considers  most  honorable  to  himself.  As  a 
teacher  of  theology,  medicine,  or  law  she  is  not  known. 

"  He  has  denied  her  thf  facilities  for  obtaining  a 
thorough  education,  all  colleges  being  closed  against 
her. 

"  He  allows  her  in  Church,  as  well  as  State,  but  a 
subordinate  position,  claiming  apostolic  authority  for 
her  exclusion  from  the  ministry,  and,  with  some  ex- 
ceptions, from  any  public  participation  in  the  affairs 
of  the  Church. 

"  Among  the  resolutions  passed  by  the  convention 
were  the  following,  the  only  one  which  occasioned 
much  discussion  being  that  upon  suffrage. 

"  '  ftesoIved,That  the  same  amount  of  virtue, delicacy, 
and  refinement  of  behavior  that  is  required  of  woman 
in  the  social  state  should  also  be  required  of  man, 
and  the  same  transgressions  should  be  visited  with 
equal  severity  on  both  man  and  woman. 

"  '  Resolved,  That  it  is  theduty  of  the  women  of  this 
country  to  secure  to  themselves  their  sacred  right  to 
the  elective  franchise. '  " 

It  will  be  seen  that  the  Declarations  and  Reso- 
lutions in  this  very  first  convention  demanded 
all  the  most  radical  friends  of  the  movement 
have  since  claimed,  such  as  equal  rights  in  the 
universities,  in  the  trades  and  professions  ;  the 
right  to  vote  ;  to  share  in  all  political  offices, 
honors,  and  emoluments  ;  to  complete  equality 
in  marriage  ;  to  personal  freedom,  property, 
wages,  children  ;  to  make  contracts  ;  to  sue  and 
be  sued  ;  and  to  testify  in  courts  of  justice.  At 
this  time  the  condition  of  married  women  under 
the  common  law  was  nearly  as  degraded  as  that 
of  the  slave  on  the  Southern  plantation. 

Since  1848  the  work  of  the  advocates  of  wom- 
an suffrage  has  been  to  make  good  the  claims 
set  forth  at  Seneca  Falls.  To  this  end  they 
have  held  conventions,  organized  associations 
all  over  the  country,  instituted  courses  of  politi- 
cal study  in  their  equal  suffrage  clubs,  in 
preparation  for  their  exercise  of  political  func- 
tions, circulated  petitions,  sent  out  lecturers, 
worked  to  change  laws  through  various  State 
legislatures  and  in  constitutional  conventions, 
through  amendments  to  State  constitutions,  and 
through  their  national  associations,  sought  to 
secure  from  Congress  the  submission  of  an 


Woman  Suffrage  in  the  U.  S. 


1410 


Woman  Suffrage  in  the  U.  S. 


amendment  to  the   National  Constitution    en- 
franchising the  women  of  the  United  States. 

For  many  years  this  was  carried  forward  by 
individuals  working  through  other  associations. 
Finding  the  work  for  woman  suffrage  was 
hampered  by  its  close  association 
with  the  question  of  negro  suffrage, 
Associations,  and  the  Fifteenth  Amendment  to 
the  National  Constitution,  those 
who  felt  strongly  that  the  woman's 
hour  had  come  and  that  she  should  not  be  made 
to  wait  until  all  sorts  and  conditions  of  men 
had  first  been  admitted  to  the  political  kingdom, 
organized  in  May,  1869,  in  New  York,  the  Na- 
tional Woman  Suffrage  Association,  with  Eliz- 
abeth Cady  Stanton  as  president,  her  co- 
worker  Susan  B.  Anthony  being  on  the  official 
board.  This  organization  bent  its  efforts  chiefly 
toward  national  legislation  to  secure  its  object. 
In  November  of  the  same  year,  in  Cleve- 
land, O.,  there  was  formed  the  American  Wom- 
an Suffrage  Association,  with  Henry  Ward 
Beecher  president,  and  Lucy  Stone  and  Henry 
B.  Blackwell  among  its  active  workers.  In 
1889  these  two  bodies  of  workers  joined  and 
formed  the  National  American  Woman  Suf- 
frage Association,  with  Elizabeth  Cady  Stanton 
as  its  president,  Susan  B.  Anthony  vice  presi- 
dent-at-large,  and  Lucy  Stone  chairman  of  the 
executive  committee.  This  society  has  its  ac- 
tive auxiliary  associations  in  41  States  and  Ter- 
ritories, with  national  headquarters  in  New 
York  City.  In  its  ranks  are  to  be  found  all  the 
active  workers  for  the  equal  political  rights  of 
woman. 

In  December,  1869,  the  Territorial  Assembly 
of  Wyoming  enfranchised  the  women  of  that 
Territory  upon  exactly  the  same  terms  as  men, 

fiving  them  the  right  to  serve  on  juries  and 
old  all  territorial  offices  in  the  gift  of  the  vot- 
ers.    In  1870  the  grand  and  petit  juries  at  Lara- 
mie  were  composed  of  both  men  and  women, 
and  the  results  were  eminently  satisfactory  to 
all  except  the  convicted  criminals.     The  presid- 
ing judge,  Chief  Justice  Howe,  gave  this  as  his 
opinion  :  "  In  eighteen  years'  experience  I  have 
never  had  as  fair,  candid,  impartial,  and  able  a 
jury  in  court  as  in  this  term  in  Albany  County  ;" 
and  Associate  Justice    Kingman   said :    "  For 
twenty-five  years  it  has  been  an  anxious  study 
with  me,  both  on  the  bench  and  at  the  bar,  how 
we  are  to  prevent  jury  trials  from  degenerating 
into  a  perfect  burlesque  ;  and  it  has  remained 
for  Albany  County  to  point  out  the  remedy  and 
demonstrate  the  cure  for  this  threatened  evil." 
When,  in  1890,  Wyoming  prepared  her  Con- 
stitution for  Statehood,  the  women  stood  upon 
precisely  the  same  political  footing  as  the  men, 
and  this  attitude  was  maintained 
even  when,  in   the  United  States 
Where       Congress,  opposition  was  made  to 
Adopted,     her  admission  as  a  State  unless  the 
men  were  willing  to  yield  the  point 
and  leave  Wyoming's  women  dis- 
franchised.    Wyoming   is,  therefore,  the  first 
true  republic,  the  first  star  upon  the  woman 
suffrage  flag. 

In  1893  Colorado  enfranchised  her  women  by 
a  legislative  enactment  ratified  at  the  polls,  at 
which  election  the  majority  in  favor  of  woman 
suffrage  was  6000.  The  women  there  have  not 


been  slow  to  use  their  newly  acquired  oppor- 
tunity, and  have  already  become  a  power  in  pub- 
lic affairs.  In  the  elections  this  spring  in  Den- 
ver (1897),  they  have  cooperated  successfully 
with  the  organizations  struggling  heretofore 
unsuccessfully  for  a  better  city  government, 
and  have  won  a  notable  victory  over  the  gam- 
bling and  saloon  element  which  has  had  control 
there.  That  there  has  been  no  rush  for  office 
by  the  women  is  shown  by  the  fact  that  the 
women's  organizations  which  helped  so  effectu- 
ally to  win  this  victory  for  law  and  order  asked 
for  not  a  single  name  of  a  woman  upon  the  list 
of  nominations  made  by  them  in  joint  session 
with  the  men's  organization. 

In  the  now  nearly  four  years  of  women's  vot- 
ing in  Colorado,  five  women  have  been  elected 
to  the  Legislature  there.  The  first  bill  intro- 
duced by  a  woman  as  a  member  of  that  body 
was  by  Carrie  Clyde  Holly,  to  raise  the  age  of 
consent  from  16  to  21  years  ;  there  was  so  much 
opposition  from  the  male  members  of  the  Legis- 
lature that  it  was  finally  compromised  to  stand 
at  18. 

The  women  of  Utah  have  now  the  full  fran- 
chise, secured  to  them  in  the  Constitution  with 
whic'h  Utah  came  in  as  a  State  in  1896.  As 
early  as  1870  they  had  been  enfranchised  by  the 
Territorial  Legislature,  but  were  disfranchised 
by  Congress  (Edmunds  Bill)  in  1887.  This  was 
done  as  a  blow  to  polygamy  ;  but  it  was  ques- 
tionable justice  to  disfranchise  all  the  women  of 
the  territory,  Mormon  and  non-Mormon  alike, 
when  in  reality  it  can  be  only  men  who  are 
polygamists,  no  woman  of  them  all  having  more 
than  one  husband.  The  fall  election  of  1896 
placed  one  woman,  Martha  Hughes  Cannon,  in 
the  Utah  Senate. 

Idaho,  by  an  amendment  to  its  Constitution, 
passed  in  November,  1896,  gave  its  women  the 
ballot  on  the  same  terms  with  the  men  of  the 
State.  No  election  has  taken  place  since  then 
to  show  the  interest  the  new  citizens  feel  in 
public  affairs  ;  but  as  the  women  there  labored 
earnestly  for  their  own  enfranchisement,  it  is 
but  fair  to  expect  them  to  use  their  hardly  won 
right. 

Kansas  women  received  the  municipal  suf- 
frage by  legislative  enactment  in    1887  ;    this,, 
of  course,  does  not  enfranchise  all  the  women 
of  that  State,  as  those  outside  of  the  cities  can- 
not vote  except  upon  certain  elective  trustee- 
ships and  upon  school  bonds  and 
appropriations.     Thousands  of  the 
Kansas  women  vote  in  the  cities,      Limited 
and   there    have  been   14  women     Suffrage, 
elected  as  mayors  of  small  cities, 
and  at  one  time  two  such  munici- 
palities boasted    their  entire    City  Council  as 
made  up  of  women,  with  a  woman  mayor  to  co- 
operate with  them.     In  most  such   cases  the 
women  were  elected  to  cope  with  some  difficulty 
of  municipal  government  with  which  the  men 
hesitated  to  deal  on  account  of  rendering  them- 
selves unpopular  in  a  business  way.     In  all 
such  the  records  show  that  the  women  solved 
the  difficulty,  and  then  willingly  returned   to 
private  life  at  the  next  election. 

In  19  States  and  two  Territories,  women  vote 
for  all  trustees  and  directors  where  elective, 
which  in  most  cases  includes  school  directors. 


Woman  Suffrage  in  the  U.  S. 


1411 


Woman's  Work  and  Wages. 


These  are  Connecticut,  Delaware,  Illinois,  Kan- 
sas, Kentucky,  Massachusetts,  Michigan,  Min- 
nesota, Montana,  Nebraska,  New  Hampshire, 
New  York,  North  Dakota,  Ohio,  Oregon,  South 
Dakota,  Vermont,  Washington,  and  Wiscon- 
sin, and  the  Territories  of  Arizona  and  Okla- 
homa. 

In  Kentucky,  women  can  vote  on  school  ap- 
propriations and  bonds,  provided  they  live  in  the 
country  districts  and  are  either  widows  or  spin- 
sters. Just  why  spinsters  should  be  more  inter- 
ested in  the  schools  than  mothers  is  a  mystery, 
and  also  why  widows  should  have  more  rights 
in  this  direction  than  should  mothers  of  children, 
even  if  their  husbands  are  alive  ;  but  the  mind 
of  the  average  legislator  is  apt  to  be  mysterious 
to  the  layman,  and  especially  to  the  lay  woman. 

On  this  question  of  appropriations,  women 
vote  (in  addition  to  Kentucky,  on  conditions 
named  above)  on  the  same  conditions  as  the 
men  in  Iowa,  Kansas,  Michigan,  Minnesota, 
Nebraska,  New  Jersey  (the  only  vote  they  have 
there),  North  Dakota,  and  Vermont. 

In  Louisiana  and  Montana  they  vote  as  to 
public  improvements  if  they  are  taxpayers. 

Among  the  results  of  the  struggle  of  the  last 
50  years  for  the  enfranchisement  of  women  may 
fairly  be  claimed  the  great  improvement  in  her 
legal  status  (see  article  WOMAN'S  RIGHTS),  a 
marked  change  in  morals  looking  toward  the 
same  standard  for  man  and  woman,  her  ad- 
mission to  most  of  the  great  institutions  of  learn- 
ing, and  to  the  professions  and  business  life. 
In  many  cases  these  advantages,  where  they  in- 
volved legislation  to  bring  them  about,  were 
given,  as  compromises  to  women  asking  enfran- 
chisement, by  men  unwilling  to  grant  rights,  but 
anxious  to  quiet  the  demands  for  that  right 
which,  once  gained  and  exercised,  will  guaran- 
tee to  its  possessors  all  other  rights  which  may 
come  through  law. 

RACHEL  FOSTER  AVERY. 

WOMAN'S  WORK  AND  WAGES.— (For 

the  economic  and  social  position  of  woman  in 
primitive,  classic,  and  medieval  times,  see  FAM- 
ILY ;  MARRIAGE  ;  DIVORCE  ;  WOMAN'S  RIGHTS  ; 
CHRISTIANITY  AND  SOCIAL  REFORM  ;  CHURCH  AND 
SOCIAL  REFORM.  For  woman's  legal  status  to- 
day, see  WOMAN'S  RIGHTS.)  We  here  consider 
alone  woman's  industrial  condition  in  modern 
times. 

Woman's  work  has  changed  with  economic 
changes.  Previous  to  the  introduction  of  ma- 
chine industry,  woman  played  perhaps  a  more 
important  part  in  economic  production  than  to- 
day, bat  was  not  a  wage-worker.  Industry  was 
carried  on  largely  in  the  home,  each  family 
being  largely  self  sustaining,  doing  its  own 
spinning,  weaving,  brewing,  cheese  and  butter 
making.  Woman  played  naturally  a  large  part 
in  this  life,  but  as  wife  or  daughter  or  as  house- 
hold maid,  not  as  a  wage- worker  in  the  modern 
sense.  Her  industrial  position  was  often  severe, 
but  honorable,  and  approximately  equal  with 
man's.  In  New  England,  in  1791,  Mr.  Hamil- 
ton, in  his  report  to  Congress,  on  manufac- 
tures, speaks  of  the  vast  scene  of  household 
manufacturing  which  contributes  more  largely 
to  the  supply  of  the  community  than  could  be 
imagined  without  having  it  made  an  object  of 


particular  inquiry.  Great  quantities  of  coarse' 
cloths,  coatings,  serges,  and  flannels,  linsey- 
woolseys,  hosiery  of  wool,  cotton,  and  thread, 
coarse  fustians,  jeans  and  muslins,  checked  and 
striped  cotton  and  linen  goods,  bedticks,  cover- 
lets and  counterpanes,  tow  linens,  coarse  shirt- 
ings, sheetings,  toweling  and  table  linen,  and 
various  mixtures  of  wool  and  cotton,  and  of  cot- 
ton and  flax,  were  made  in  the  household  way, 
and,  in  many  instances,  to  an  extent  not  only 
sufficient  for  a  supply  of  the  families  in  which 
they  were  made,  but  for  sale,  and  even  in  some 
cases  for  exportation.  To  less  extent  the  same 
was  true  of  England,  tho  here  production  was. 
earlier  specialized  and  localized. 

With  the  development  of  the  factory  system, 
however,  this  was  cfranged.     Production  was 
taken  from  the  home,  and  woman  in  the  home 
was  left  to  do  only  domestic  work,  to  become 
the  domestic  drudge.     To  an  extent,  however, 
she  followed  industry  into  the  factory.     The 
textile  factories  of  England  were  full  of  women 
brought  in  from  the  rural  districts, 
or  with  children  sometimes  brought 
from  the  almshouses.  They  worked   First  Half 
cheaper  than    men    and  replaced       of  the         I 
men.     Their  pay  was  the  cheapest,     Century, 
their  surroundings  the  worst,  the 
moral  tone    the    lowest.     Factory 
towns  and  factory  labor  developed  the  utmost 
degradation.     This  created    such  a  prejudice 
against  factories  that  when  later  factories  were 
developed  in  New  England,  from  1815-30,  wom- 
en could  only  be  induced  to  work  in  them  by 
offer  of  higher  pay.     Partly  for  this  reason  and 
in  part  because  popular  education  was   very 
much  farther  advanced  in  America  than  in  in- 
dustrial  England,  factory  life   in   the   United 
States  started  on  a  higher  level  than  in  Eng- 
land.    Girls  from  American  homes  in  factory 
towns  and  the  surrounding  villages  worked  in 
the  factories  and  maintained,  as  shown  by  The 
Lowell  Offering,  a   high  level   of  character. 
There  was  little  opening,  too,  for  women  in 
other  lines.     Harriet  Martineau,  in  1840,  found 
in  America  only  seven  employments  open  to 
women — teaching,  needlework,  keeping  board- 
ers, working  in  cotton  mills,  in  book  binderies, 
type-setting,  and  household  service. 

But  this  gradually  changed.  The  successes 
of  American  life  developed  a  growing  number 
of  families  whose  daughters  did  not  need  to- 
work  for  a  living,  and  factory  work  became  de~ 
spised.  Irish  and  other  European  and,  later, 
French  Canadian  families  came  in  to  do  factory 
work.  On  the  other  hand,  growing  ideals  of 
woman's  rights  and  woman's  independence 
opened  other  spheres  for  women — the  store,  the 
office,  the  studio,  and,  later,  the  professions. 
Woman's  admission  to  professional  life  was 
contingent  upon  her  admission  to  institutions 
of  higher  education.  In  no  respect  has  the  cen- 
tury seen  greater  changes  than  in  this.  In  the 
United  States  in  1803,  of  48  academies  or  higher 
schools  fitting  for  college  in  Massachusetts,  only 
three  were  for  girls,  tho  a  few  others  admitted 
both  girls  and  boys.  The  first  female  seminary 
was  opened  by  the  Moravians  at  Bethlehem, 
Pa.,  in  1749.  The  first  female  seminary  to  ap- 
proach college  rank  was  Mount  Holyoke,  opened 
at  South  Hadley,  Mass.,  by  Mary  Lyon  in  1836, 


Woman's  Work  and  Wages. 


1412 


Woman's  Work  and  Wages. 


Vassar  College,  the  next,  dates  from  1865.  In 
this  movement  the  West  led  the  East.  Oberlin 
College  was  founded  in  1833,  open  to  both  men 
and  women.  Harvard  Annex,  affiliated  to  Har- 
vard College,  was  not  opened  till  1879. 

This  higher  education  led  to  professional  life, 
tho  in  a  few  instances  women  entered  profes- 
sional careers  in  the  United  States  at  earlier 
dates.  Mrs.  Margaret  Draper  was 
connected  with  the  Massachusetts 

Women  in  Gazette  and  News  Letter  during 
Professions,  the  Revolutionary  War.  The  first 
daily  newspaper  in  the  world  is 
said  to  have  been  established  and 
edited  in  London,  Eng. ,  by  a  woman,  The 
Daily  Courant,  by  Elizabeth  Malet.  In  1841 
Mrs.  Lydia  Maria  Child  edited  the  Anti-Sla- 
very Standard. 

In  medicine  the  pioneer  names  are  Harriet  K. 
Hunt,  of  Boston,  who  from  1822-72  practised 
medicine  without  a  diploma,  and,  above  all, 
Elizabeth  Blackwell  (g.v  ),  who,  after  a  long 
struggle,  received  a  diploma  at  Geneva,  N.  Y. , 
in  1849.  Mr.  Gregory,  of  Boston,  opened  a  so- 
called  school  of  medicine  for  women  in  1848, 
but  the  first  adequate  woman's  medical  institu- 
tion was  Miss  Blackwell's  New  York  Infirmary, 
chartered  in  1854.  Women  from  earliest  times 
had  been  mtdwives  and  nurses  ;  but  the  New 
England  Hospital  first  announced  the  training 
of  nurses  in  1863.  By  1886  there  were  29  train- 
ing schools  for  nurses. 

In  law  Mistress  Brut  seems  to  have  practised 
in  Baltimore  in  1647.  After  her  the  first  woman 
lawyer  in  the  United  States  was  Arabella  A. 
Mansfield,  of  Mount  Pleasant,  la.,  who  was  ad- 
mitted to  the  bar  in  1864.  By  1879,  women  were 
allowed  to  plead  before  the  Supreme  Court  of 
the  United  States. 

In  the  ministry,  after  the  preaching  of  Anne 
Hutchinson,  in  Boston,  in  1634,  of  Lucretia  Mott 
(g.v.)  among  the  Friends,  and  Anne  Lee  among 
me  Shakers  in  1770,  no  women  seemed  to  have 
preached  till  recent  years,  tho  among  the  Primi- 
tive Methodists  and  similar  bodies  women  al- 
ways exhorted.  Rev.  Antoinette  Brown  Biack- 
well  seems  to  have  been  the  first  woman  or- 
dained in  the  United  States  (in  1852,  in  the 
Congregational  Church).  (For  statistics  of 
women's  occupations,  see  article  OCCUPATIONS.) 

In  Great  Britain,  women  are  entering  profes- 
sional life  only  less  swiftly  than  in  the  United 
States.  An  act  of  1868  for  the  first  time  opened 
pharmacy  to  women.  The  University  of  Edin- 
burgh here  led  the  way.  In  1874  a  special 
medical  school  for  women  was  opened  in  Lon- 
don. In  1876  all  medical  bodies  were  allowed 
to  open  their  doors  to  women,  By  1895,  264 
British  women  were  registered  as  duly  qualified 
medical  practitioners.  As  for  education,  eight 
out  of  the  ten  universities  of  Great  Britain  now 
throw  open  examinations  and  degrees  to  wom- 
en. Oxford  and  Cambridge  do  not,  but  Hitchin, 
Girtou,  Newnham,  and  Somerville  colleges  ex- 
ist for  them,  and  they  are  all  admitted  to  most 
lectures  and  examinations. 

In  Europe,  women  are  now  admitted  to  uni- 
versities in  France,  Italy,  Switzerland,  and  the 
Scandinavian  countries.  Germany  is  behind- 
hand in  this,  but  the  sentiment  is  changing. 
Russia,  once  a  leader  in  woman's  higher  educa- 
tion,  is  now  reactionary  on  this  point. 


Such  is.  in  brief,  the  general  survey  of  woman 's 
industrial  professional  position  during  the  cen- 
tury. Perhaps  woman's  more  industrial  ad- 
vance during  the  century  has  not  been  in  the 
professions,  but  in  commerce,  as  saleswomen, 
clubs,  type  writers,  etc.  Here  the  change  has 
been  almost  revolutionary.  We  come  now  to 
consider  her  economic  position. 

For  the  United  States,  Mr.  Carroll  D.  Wright 
has  summarized  the  facts  as  to  woman's  work 
and  wages  in  chap.  xvi.  of  his  Industrial  Evo- 
lution in  the  United  States. 

In  1850  there  were  225,298  female  and  741,671 
male  employees  in  manufacturing  industries  in 
the  United  States — i.e.,  women  furnished  23  30 
per  cent.  In  1890  there  were  757,065  females, 
which  was  only  17.21  percent,  of  the  employees. 
Thus,  in  manufacturing,  women  play  a  relative- 
ly less  important  part  than  formerly — a  larger 
porportion  of  their  work  doubtless  being  done 
by  machinery.  On  the  other  hand,  the  number 
or  occupations  open  to  women  has  largely  in- 
creased ;  and,  taking  all  bread-earning  occupa- 
tions, the  proportion  of  women  to  men  is  stead- 
ily gaining. 

Mr.  Wright  argues  in  the  above-mentioned 
chapter  that  women  are  not  replacing  men,  but 
that  men  are  being  freed  for  other  occupations, 
and  that  women  are  in  part  replacing  the  chil- 
dren to-day  employed  to  a  smaller  extent  in 
manufactories  than  formerly,  their  employment 
being  prevented  by  factory  laws.  This  view, 
however,  is  not  held  by  all.  Mr.  Wright  says 
that  in  1870,  114,628  children  of  both  sexes  were 
employed  in  manufacturing  industries,  and 
formed  5.58  per  cent,  of  all  employees,  while  in 
1890  there  were  only  120,885  children,  or  only 
2.57  per  cent,  of  the  total  number.  But  even  on 
this  showing  the  actual,  if  not  the  relative  num- 
ber of  children  had  increased,  so  that  women 
can  scarcely  be  said  to  have  replaced  children, 
while  under  article  "  Child  Labor''  will  be 
found  very  serious  evidence  to  show  that  the 
census  estimate  of  the  number  of  children  em- 
ployed in  1890  is  very  considerably  too  low.  In 
some  States  and  in  some  industries  child  labor 
has  been  limited  by  legislation  ;  but  it  is  exceed- 
ingly doubtful  if  this  is  true  of  all  portions  of  the 
country  and  all  manufacturing  industries.  It 
must  be  remembered,  too,  that  Mr.  Wright's 
statement  is  only  of  the  manufacturing  indus- 
tries. Taking  the  great  number  of  children 
now  employed  in  stores,  or  who  sell  papers,  run 
errands,  etc.,  in  the  cities,  child  labor  in  the 
United  States  has  probably  not  been  lessened 
and  women  can  by  no  means  be  said  to  have 
replaced  children.  Mr.  Wright  further  argues 
that  they  have  not  displaced  men,  because  by 
the  census  reports  a  larger  proportion  of  the 
male  population  is  reported  as  having  occupa- 
tions in  1890  than  in  1870.  But  having  an  occu- 
pation is  by  no  means  synonymous,  unfortu- 
nately, with  having  work  at  one's  occupation, 
which  point  the  census  fails  to  touch.  The 
growing  problem  of  unemployment  (g.v.),  there- 
fore, leaves  us  still  to  ask  if  women  working  at 
cheaper  wages  have  not  replaced  men  working 
at  higher  wages. 

The  evidence  certainly  indicates  that  it  is.  A 
recent  bulletin  of  the  Department  of  Labor  of 
the  United  States,  edited  by  Mr.  Wright,  gives 
the  following  table  : 


Woman's  Work  and  Wages. 


1413 


Woman's  Work  and  Wages. 


PERCENTAGE  OF   MALES  AND  FEMALES  10  YEARS  OF  AGE  OR  OVER  IN  THE   UNITED  STATES 
AT  THE  CENSUSES  OF  1870,  1880,  AND  1890,  BY  CLASSES  OF  OCCUPATIONS. 


CLASSES  OF  OCCUPATIONS. 

18 

70. 

18 

80. 

18 

30. 

Males. 

Females. 

Males. 

Females. 

Males. 

Females. 

Agriculture,  fisheries  and  mining  

6    47 

6 

24  86 

66  oo 

Domestic  and  personal  service  ....        

66  28 

61  76 

Trade  and  transportation  

1.61 

6  87 

Manufacturing  and  mechanical  industries  

85.56 

81.52 

18.48 

79.82 

20.18 

All  occupations  

Sc.02 

14.68 

84.78 

82  78 

I          2 

Of  this  table  the  report  says  : 

"  From  tables  presented  it  will  be  seen  that  the  propor- 
tion of  females  10  years  of  age  or  over  employed  in  all 
occupations  in  the  United  States  rose  in  its  relation  to 
the  whole  number  employed  from  14.68  per  cent,  in 
1870  to  17.22  per  cent,  in  1890,  while  the  males  decreased 
in  proportion  from  85.32  per  cent,  in  1870  to  82.78  per 
cent,  in  1890,  fully  corroborating  the  facts  obtained  in 
the  present  investigation  that  the  females  are  to  some 
extent  entering  into  places  at  the  expense  of  the 
males.  The  causes  for  this  state  of  affairs  will  be  re- 
ferred to  later  on  under  the  appropriate  table. 

"  Looking  at  particular  classes  of  occupations,  we  find 
that  the  proportion  of  females  engaged  in  agriculture, 


24.00   pel    ctui,.   LU    33.01    jjci   ^CUL.J    LJUU    ill   u<Jiiicst,ii;   ctiiu 

personal  service  there  was  a  drop  from  42.09  per  cent, 
in  1870  to  38.24  per  cent,  in  1890,  and  a  corresponding 
gain  in  the  proportion  of  males  to  the  whole  number 
employed  from  57.91  per  cent,  in  1870  to  61.76  per  cent, 
in  1890.  In  trade  and  transportation  the  females  show 
the  largest  gain,  it  being  from  1.61  per  cent,  in  187010 
6.87  per  cent,  in  1890.  This  is  due  to  the  entry  of  women 
into  employment  as  clerks  in  the  trade  and  transpor- 
tation departments  of  business.  There  has  also  been  a 
very  large  gain  in  the  proportion  of  females  engaged 
in  manufacturing  and  mechanical  industries,  the  per- 
centage being  14.44  in  1870  and  20.18  in  1890.  The  males, 
on  the  other  hand,  have  dropped  in  proportion  from 
85.56  per  cent,  in  the  former  year  to  79.82  per  cent,  in 
the  latter.  The  fact  is  absolutely  demonstrated,  there- 
fore, that  the  proportion  of  females,  taking  all  the 
occupations  in  the  country  into  consideration,  is  gradu- 
ally increasing." 

According  to  the  twentieth  annual  report  of 
the  Massachusetts  Bureau  of  the  Statistics  of 
Labor  (1889)  : 

"  In   1875,  the  males  formed  73.19  per  cent,  and  the 
females  26.81  per  cent,  of  all  persons  employed  in  gain- 
ful pursuits.    In   1885,  the  males  were  66.62  per  cent, 
and  the    females  33.38  per  cent,  of   the 
total  persons  employed.    This  shows  an 
Number       absolute  gain  of  'women  in  industry  of 
Employed.     6.57  per  cent.,  and  an  industrial  displace- 
ment of  an  eo.ua!  percentage  of  men. 
Of  the  total  gain  in  number  of  employees 
from  1875  to  1885,  the  percentage  for  males  was  46. 19 
and  for  females  53.81. 

"From  1875  to  1?8s,  the  male  population  increased 
17.44  per  cent. ;  in  industry,  the  males  increased 
20.30  per  cent.  During  the  same  period  the  female 
population  increased  17.69  per  cent.  ;  the  women  in  in- 
dustry increased  64  56  per  cent.  The  female  net  ex- 
cess was  0.25  per  cent,  as  regards  population  and  44.26 
per  cent,  as  regards  representation  in  gainful  pursuits. 
"  In  1875  there  were  19  branches  of  industry  in  which 
women  were  not  employed  ;  in  1885,  there  were  but 
8  branches  of  industry  in  which  women  were  not  em- 
ployed. In  both  1875  and  1885  there  were  15  branches 
of  industry  in  which  women  were  in  a  preponderance, 
representing  50  or  more  per  cent,  of  all  persons  em- 
ployed therein." 

The  same  is  true  of  England.  According  to 
figures  quoted  in  Mr.  Hobson's  Evolution  of 
Modern  Capitalism,  drawn  from  the  census 
and  from  Mr  Booth's  Occupation  of  the  People, 
the  number  of  males  engaged  in  manufactures 


in  Great  Britain  increased  from  1841-91,  53  per 
cent.,  the  number  of  females  221  per  cent.  In 
the  last  decade  there  seemed  a  check  to  this, 
but  it  was  mainly  due  to  a  check  in  one  indus- 
try— the  cotton  trade — and  to  decay  in  the  linen 
and  lace  industries.  In  every  other  industry 
the  relative  increase  of  women  has  been  steady. 
In  other  branches  of  the  textile  and  dress  in- 
dustries, which  employ  1,319,441  out  of  1,840,898 
women  in  industry,  the  gain  of  woman  labor 
was  marked.  Mr.  Hobson  adds  : 

"  Wherever  women  have  got  a  firm  footing  in  a  man- 
ufacture a  similar  movement  is  traceable  ;  the  relative 
rate  of  increase  in  the  employment  of  women  exceeds 
that  of  men,  even  where  the  numbers  of  the  latter  do 
not  show  an  absolute  decline.  Such  industries  are 
wood  furniture  and  carriages  ;  printing  and  book- 
binding ;  paper,  floorcloths,  waterproof ;  feathers, 
leather,  glues  ;  food,  drink,  smoking ;  earthenware, 
machinery,  tools.  Women  have  also  obtained  em- 
ployment in  connection  with  other  industries  which 
are  still  in  the  main  'male'  industries,  and  in  which  no 
women,  or  very  few,  were  engaged  in  1841.  Such  are 
fuel,  gas,  ohemicals ;  watches,  instruments,  toys. 
The  only  group  of  machine  industries  in  -which  their 
numbers  have  not  increased  more  rapidly  than  those 
of  men  since  1851  are  the  metal  industries.  Over  some 
of  these,  however,  they  are  obtaining  an  increased 
hold.  In  the  '  more  mechanical  portions'  of  the  grow- 
ing 'cycle'  industry,  hollow-ware,  and  in  certain  de- 
partments of  the  watchmaking  trade,  they  are  ousting 
male  labor,  executing  with  machinery  the  work  for- 
merly done  by  male  hand-workers.  .  .  . 

"The  recent  statistics  of  tailoring  and  shoemaking, 
which  are  becoming  more  and  more  machine  indus- 
tries, mark  this  movement  strongly.  In  the  tailoring 
trade,  while  male  workers  increase  from  107,668  in 
1881  to  119,496  in  1891,  female  workers  increase  from 
52,980  to  89,224.  In  the  boot  and  shoe  trade,  while  men 
increase  from  180,884  to  202,648,  women  increase  from. 
35,672  to  46,141." 

Of  the  meaning  of  this  development  of 
woman's  work  we  shall  speak  later.  It  is  nec- 
essary first  to  show  what  are  woman's  wages. 
If  women  in  industry  received  high  wages,  all 
would  perhaps  be  well,  but  such  is  not  the  case. 

Women's  wages  are    notoriously  low.     Ac- 
cording to  Mr.   Wright  (see  above),  women's 
wages  in  the  cotton  factories  of  New  England 
averaged  in  1831  from  $2. 20  to  $2.60 
per  week  ;  in  1880  the  average  for 
women  ranged  as  high   as  $6.37,      Wages, 
and  in  1890  in  the  entire  United 
States  it  was  $5.53,  ranging  from 
$3.21  to  $6.42.     The  average  annual  wages  for 
women  clerks  in  the  United  States  for  all  indus- 
tries was,  in  1890,  $462  ;  $890  for  men.     Wom- 
en operatives  received  $276. 

According  to  Mr.  Wright  (in  the  report  of  the 
Commissioner  of  Labor  for  1889),  the  following 
was  the  weekly  average  earnings  of  women  in 
industries  in  various  cities  : 


Woman's  Work  and  Wages. 


1414 


Woman's  Work  and  Wages. 


CITIES. 

Average 
Weekly 
Earnings. 

A 

$4.0=; 

4.18 

5*64 

5.76 

Buffalo                       .             •--  

4.27 

4.22 

5-74 

4.59 

4.63 

4.67 

4.51 

5.10 

4-31 

New  York     

S-8S 

5.34 

5.51 

3-93 

5.19 

St    Paul             

6.  02 

6.91 

6.ii 

Savannah  

4.99 

Of  the  whole  number  of  persons  in  industry,  73.97 


The  report  adds  : 

"  Much  is  heard  at  the  present  time  of  the  very  low 
wages  paid  working  women.  It  must  be  clear  that 
they  do  not  rise,  on  the  average,  above  $5  per  week, 
or  $5.24  as  indicated  by  this  report.  The  summary  by 
cities,  Table  XXX.,  on  pages  530  and  531,  would  seem 
to  indicate  that  the  majority  are  in  receipt  of  fair 
wages,  when  the  whole  body  of  working  women  is 
considered  ;  but  373  earn  less  than  $100  a  year,  and 
quite  a  large  number  (1212)  earn  from  $100  to  $150  a 
year  ;  that  is,  the  earnings  of  these  women,  distributed 
by  weeks  over  the  whole  vear,  do  not  amount  to  more 
than  $2  or  $3  per  week.  These  are  the  great  excep- 
tions, but  the  figures  tell  a  sad  story,  and  one  is  forced 
to  ask  how  women  can  live  on  such  earnings." 

The  correctness  of  this  report  is  supported  by 
the  findings  of  various  bureaus  and  the  Bureau 
of  Labor  Statistics  of  Connecticut  in  1888.  Of 
4325  women  reported  in  five  principal  indus- 
tries, only  one  received  as  much  as  $10  per 
week  ;  45  received  as  much  as  $8  ;  nearly  three 
fifths  of  all  who  worked  by  the  week  got  only 
between  $5  and  $6. 

And  it  must  be  remembered  that  these  are  in 
factories.  In  the  sweating  shops,  woman's  pay 
is  far  less.  In  an  article  in  the  Quarterly  Pub- 
lications of  the  American  Statistical  Associa- 
tion for  June,  1895,  Miss  Isabel  Button,  of  the 
College  Settlement  Association,  mentions  girls 
and  women  sewing  knee  pants,  12  seams  each, 
besides  the  pocket  stitching,  for  from  18  to  22 
cents  per  dozen.  Finishers  (usually  girls)  re- 
ceive from  4  to  7  cents  for  sewing  120  buttons 
and  making  36  button-holes.  (See  TAILORING 
TRADES.) 

Part  VII.  of  the  twentieth  annual  report  of  the 
Massachusetts  Bureau  of  the  Statistics  of  Labor 
(1889)  considered  especially  women  in  industry, 
and  comes  to  the  following  conclusions,  among 
others  : 

"  In  the  manufacturing  and  mechanical  industries  of 
the  Commonwealth,  in  1885,  the  proportion  of  female 
partners  was  i  in  16  ;  that  is,  of  the  whole  number  of 
partners,  one  sixteenth  were  women. 

"  In  the  same  industries,  and  at  the  same  time,  the 
proportion  of  female  stockholders  was  i  in  3.69  ;  that 
is,  of  the  whole  number  of  stockholders  in  manufac- 
turing corporations,  more  than  one  fourth  were 
women. 

"  In  1885  the  females  were  33.38  per  cent,  of  the  total 
persons  employed. 


YCllt.     WG1G      illdl  i  1CH.          Wl.       L1H_       LCllldl^O,       oo.^y       pti      V^Mfc* 

•were  single  and  11.71  per  cent,  were  married.  In  1885 
as  compared  with  1875,  the  increase  in  married  fe- 
males was  39.64  per  cent. 

"  The  females  in  industry  considered  were  at  least  10 
years  of  age.  Those  from  10  to  13  years  of  age  formed 
0.13  per  cent,  of  the  total  ;  from  14  to  19  years  of  age, 
23.19  per  cent.;from  20  to  29  years  of  age,  41.08  per  cent.: 
from  30  to  39  years  of  age,  15.05  per  cent.;  40  years  or 
age  and  over,  20.55  Per  cent. 

'Of  the  total  female  population  from  10  to  13  years  of 
age,  0.55  per  cent,  were  engaged  in  gainful  pursuits  ; 
from  14  to  19    years  of  age,  61.11  per 
cent.;  from  20  to  29  years  of  age,  59.77 
per  cent.;  from  30  to  39  years  of  age,     Condition. 
30.44  per  cent.;  from  40  to  49  years  of 


More  than  one  fifth  of  the  women  engaged  in  gain 


J.  lie  llg  UlC&glvcll  BbUU  W  will  pcx  1  io^no  iu<*u^  in  jL^idnvii 

to  births,  marriages,  and  deaths  show  conclusively 


to  Dirtns,  marriages,  anu  ueaans  suuvv  uuuuiuoivci.); 
that  the  presence  of  women  in  industry  has  not  de- 
creased the  number  of  births  or  marriages,  nor  in- 
creased the  number  of  deaths,  for  50  cities  and  towns, 
having  large  percentages  of  women  at  work,  with 
64.39  Per  cent,  of  the  total  population,  had  69.99  per  cent, 
of  the  total  number  of  births,  69.18  per  cent,  of  the 
whole  number  of  marriages,  and  but  63.53  Per  cent,  of 
the  total  number  of  deaths. 

'  Of  the  whole  number  of  women  reporting,  6  were 


women,  and  201  failed  to  answer  the  question 


With  these  facts  before  us,  there  is  seen  to  be 
a  dark  side  to  the  boasted  advance  of  woman 
into  industry.  If  women  become  wage  workers 
only  by  the  lowering  of  their  fathers',  brothers', 
and  husbands'  wages,  it  is  doubtful  if  the  total 
income  of  families  is  raised  by  the  woman's 
wage.  And  if  the  family  income  is  not  raised, 
it  is  doubtful  if  woman's  real  social  and  eco- 
nomic status  is  raised.  Undoubtedly  many 
women  are  more  economically  in- 
dependent of  men  than  they  were, 
and  this  is  doubtless  an  advantage,  Competition 
but  the  question  is  whether  this  in-  with  Men. 
dependence  cannot  be  gained  with- 
out woman's  becoming  a  competi- 
tor with  man.  The  trade-union  view  is  that 
men' s  wages  should  be  high  enough  to  main- 
tain a  family  without  their  wives  or  children 
being  compelled  to  work,  and  that  those  women 
who,  unmarried,  widowed,  or  orphaned,  need 
or  desire  to  work  should  be  paid  equally  with 
men  for  equal  work.  Socialists,  however,  main- 
tain that  this  desirable  condition  is  impossible 
under  competition,  and  that  so  long  as  competi- 
tion lasts,  women  who  can  work  cheaper  than 
men,  because  they  do  not  usually  have  families 
to  support  (and  the  usual  condition  fixes  the 
rate  of  wages) ,  will  be  employed  more  and  more 
to  the  exclusion  of  men.  The  only  way  out, 
therefore,  says  the  socialist,  is  to  raise  the  con- 
dition of  both  men  and  women  through  social- 
ism (?.v.),  which  alone,  by  replacing  competition 
by  cooperation,  can  save  the  family,  rescue 
women  from  low  wages  and  its  resultant  evils 
of  prostitution  (y.v.),  etc.  Extreme  individual- 


Woman's  Work  and  Wages. 


1415 


Woman's  Work  and  Wages. 


ists  argue  that,  in  the  long  run,  competition  will 
take  care  of  itself  ;  that  women  in  stores  and 
factories,  even  at  low  wages,  are  better  off  than 
in  low  homes  ;  that  gradually  women  will  come 
to  do  what  they  can  do  best,  and  men  be  forced 
into  those  lines  which  they  can  follow  best. 
More  moderate  views  assert  that  women  should 
have  a  permanent  place  in  industry,  but  that 
they  should  be  protected  by  legislation,  and, 
above  all,  educated  by  working  women's  clubs, 
trade-unions,  etc.,  toward  cooperative  and  or- 
ganized effort. 

Whichever  view  be  correct,  woman's  present 
industrial  status  is  for  the  large  majority  bad  in 
the  extreme.  Says  the  Bulletin  above  quoted 
for  May,  1897  : 

"  Out  of  782  instances  in  which  men  and  women  work 
at  the  same  occupation  and  perform  their  work  with 
the  same  degree  of  efficiency,  men  receive  greater  pay 
in  595.  or  76-1  per  cent.,  of  the  instances,  and  women  re- 
ceive greater  pay  in  129,  or  16.5  per  cent.,  while  in  58 
instances,  or  7.4  per  cent.,  they  receive  the  same  pay 


for  the  same  work.  The  men  receive  50.1  per  cent, 
greater  pay  than  the  women  in  the  595  instances  in 
which  they  are  given  greater  pay,  while  the  women 
receive  but  10.3  per  cent,  greater  pay  in  the  129  in- 
stances in  which  they  are  paid  higher  wages.  Out  of 
the  228  instances  in  which  men  and  children  (persons 
under  18  years  of  age)  work  at  the  same  occupation 
with  a  like  degree  of  efficiency,  men  receive  greater  pay 
in  182,  or  79.8  per  cent.,  of  the  instances,  and  children 
receive  greater  pay  in  24,  or  10.5  per  cent.,  while  in  22  in- 
stances, or  9.7  per  cent.,  they  receive  the  same  pay  for 
the  same  work  performed  with  the  same  degree  of 
efficiency.  The  men  receive  57.7  per  cent,  greater  pay 
than  the  children  in  the  182  instances  in  which  they  are 
paid  more,  while  the  children  receive  but  8.6  per  cent, 
greater  pay  in  the  24  instances  in  which  they  are  paid 
higher  wages." 

As  to  the  conjugal  condition  of  women  in  re- 
munerative employment  in  the  United  States, 
the  Bulletin  quoted  above  (May,  1897)  says  : 

years  of 


the  conjugal  condition  of  females  10  year; 
er  engaged  in  each  great  class  of  occupati 
ascertained,  the  following  table  has  b 


"  That  the  conjugal 
''  fnvawA  i 


a&c  ui  u        ee         e  e      cas  o    occupaons 

may  be  ascertained,   the    following  table    has    been 
drawn  from  census  results  : 


NUMBER  AND  PERCENTAGE  OP  FEMALES  10  YEARS  OF  AGE  OR  OVER  IN  THE  UNITED  STATES 
AT  THE  CENSUS  OF  1890,  BY  CLASSES  OF  OCCUPATIONS  AND  CONJUGAL  CONDITION. 


CLASSES  OF  OCCUPATIONS. 

SINGLE  AND 
UNKNOWN. 

MARRIED. 

WIDOWED. 

DIVORCED. 

Total. 

Num- 
ber. 

Per 
cent. 

Num- 
ber. 

Per 
cent. 

Num- 
ber. 

Per 
cent. 

Num- 
ber. 

Per 
cent. 

Agriculture,  fisheries  and  mining  

295,148 
273,898 
1,164,960 
187,829 
811,990 

43-44 
87.88 
69.85 
82.23 

79-05 

152.956 
21,649 
214,068 
16,875 
109,712 

22.51 
6.94 
12.84 

7-39 
10.68 

225,548 

H.337 
272,109 
22,219 
96,055 

33-19 
4.60 
16.32 
9-73 
9-35 

5.871 
1,803 
16,561 
1,498 

9.485 

0.86 
0.58 
0-99 
0.65 
0.92 

679.523 
311,687 
1,667,698 
228,421 
1,027,242 

Professional  service        

Domestic  and  personal.  service  
Trade  and  transportation  

Manufacturing  and  mechanical  industries.  .  .  . 
All  occupations.        

2,733.825 

69.84 

5151260 

13.16 

630,268 

16.10 

35.2i8 

0.90 

3.9M.57I 

"  There  is  much  discussion  as  to  the  number  and  per- 
centage of  married  women  employed  in  industrial 
Eursuits.  The  foregoing  table  gives  the  facts.  It  is 
:>und  that  the  married  women  constitute  13.16  per 
cent,  of  all  the  women  engaged  in  the  occupations  of 
the  country.  The  largest  percentage  in  any  one  class 
of  occupations  is  found  in  agriculture,  fisheries,  and 
mining,  where  it  is  22.51.  This  is  due  largely  to  the 
fact  that  in  agriculture  there  are  a  great  many  colored 
women  employed.  The  smallest  percentage  of  married 
women,  6.94,  is  to  be  found  in  professional  service, 
while  in  manufacturing  and  mechanical  industries 
10.68  per  cent,  are  married." 

In  Great  Britain,  the  main  spheres  of  wom- 
an's economic  work  may  be  classified  under  four 
heads  .  (a)  domestic  service,  including  work  in 
hotels,  etc.  ;  (b)  factory  labor,  par- 
ticularly textile  work  ;  to  a  less  ex- 
Great       tent  printing,  watch-making,  and 
Britain,      other  chemical  works,  food-manu- 
facturing, rope-making,    rag-pick- 
ing ;  (c)  shop  service,  as  shop  as- 
sistants, dressmakers,  milliners,  barmaids,  and 
waitresses  of  all  kinds  ;  (d)  home  work,  in  the 
sweated  trades,  particularly  shirt-making  and 
tailoring. 

From  the  Final  Report  of  the  Labor  Com- 
mission it  would  appear  for  woman's  labor  out- 
side of  domestic  service  by  statistics  carefully 
collected  on  pp.  476-504,  that  the  mean  of  the 
estimated  wages  for  women  and  girls  in  the 
trades  referred  to  (including  800,000  women  out 
of  1,800,000)  was  us.  5<y.  per  week,  a  conclusion 
corroborated  by  Mr.  Giffen's  estimate  for  the 
commission  of  us.  j,\d.  Of  this  conclusion 
C.  G.  Robertson,  in  the  Economic  Re-view  for 
April,  1895,  says  . 


"The  bearing  of  this  statement  is  only  apparent, 
however,  (i)  when  il  is  remembered  that  it  includes 
both  women  and  girls,  i.e.,  young  persons  under  18 
years  of  age  ;  (2)  when  compared  with  the  average 
rate  of  men  similarly  obtained.  This  is  stated  to  be 
245.  yd.  But  here  it  must  be  borne  in  mind  that  the 
estimate  for  men  does  not  include  the  wages  of  boys  ; 
so  that  to  obtain  a  fair  comparison  it  is  necessary  to 
state  the  calculation  for  women  alone,  which,  on  Mr. 
Giffen's  estimate,  is  125.  8rf.  So  that,  excluding  do- 
mestic servants,  in  both  cases  the  average  rate  of 
women's  wages  is  94  per  cent,  below  those  of  men. 

"  Another  consideration  at  once  suggests  itself.  It 
is  the  average  rate  which  has  been  stated — what  does 
this  mean  ?  In  13  of  the  trades  selected  for  making  the 
actual  average,  the  wages  of  the  women  rise  consider- 
ably above  the  mean  as  estimated.  For  example,  the 
wages  of  shop  assistants  and  barmaids,  and  the  ma- 
jority of  those  employed  in  factories,  range  from  22J. 
to  i2S  6af.  On  the  other  hand,  it  must  not  be  forgotten 
that  in  several  trades,  such  as  the  linen  trade,  the 
woolen  and  worsted  industries,  the  wages  range  from 
us.  6d.  to  ios.  id.  Below  this  come  various  industries 
for  which  the  mean  is  appallingly  low.  Let  me  give 
some  examples.  Woolen  spinners  in  Leeds  make  on 
an  average  75.  6d.  a  week,  and  65.  in  Ireland.  The 
average  for  spike  nail-makers  in  Worcestershire  is 
only  45.  dd.  This  is  also  the  mean  for  straw-plaiters 
at  Luton  ;  in  sack-making  it  amounts  nearly  to  js.  6af.; 
and  in  the  trades  manufacturing  food  to  8s.  <d.  When 
we  come  to  the  home  industries,  the  same  ghastly  low 
rate  is  equally  apparent ;  tho  it  is  true  that  the  Lords' 
Report  on  the  Sweating  System  fixes  the  mean  for 
'sweated'  trades  at  12.?.,  it  must  be  remembered  that 
this  does  not  covet  all  home  industries.  Thus  in  vari- 
ous cases  we  find  the  weekly  wage  stated  to  be  2.?.  •id., 
35.,  3-f.  6</.,  25.  4</.,  and  even  in  one  case  is.  \%d.  The 
full  significance  of  these  terrible  figures  is  only  grasp- 
ed when  it  is  pointed  out  that  they  are  not  a  mere  sup- 
plementary wage,  but  the  return  for  eight,  nine,  ten 
hours'  work  per  diem,  or  even  longer." 

In  some  of  the  trades,  however,  there  is 
shown  to  be  an  upward  tendency.  In  the  cot- 
ton hosiery  and  woolen  industries  this  is  said 


Woman's  Work  and  Wages. 


1416 


Woman's  Work  and  Wages. 


to  be  27  per  cent.;  from  1861-81  in  hosiery  and 
carpet,  31  per  cent.  ;  in  boot  and  shoe  and  rope 
making,  9  per  cent.  But  wages  in  other  indus- 
tries have  either  remained  stationary  or  declined, 
and  the  still  more  important  fact  must  be  re- 
membered that  these  statistics  refer  only  to 
800,000  women  out  of  1,800,000,  the  remaining 
1,000,000  being  mainly  the  unorganized  and 
underpaid. 

"In  the  evidence  given  before  Group  C  of  the  Labor 
Commission,  in  regard  to  women  working,  we  are  in- 
formed that  in  the  confectionery  trade,  'the  wages 
range  from  5^.  a  week  to  gj.  i2S.  is  the  highest  paid  to 
a  weekly  worker.' 

"In  the  sack-making  trade.  '  The  ordinary  sack  of 
course  has  to  be  sewn  down  both  sides  and  hemmed 
along  the  top,  and  they  receive  is.  ^d.  per  100  for  doing 
them ;  and  it  takes  a  skilled  woman  working  hard, 
long  hours,  two  days  to  do  100  ....  The  employers, 
if  they  were  spoken  to  about  it,  would  show  you  the 
book,  and  they  would  say,  "  Look  how  this  woman  can 
earn  ios.,  12.?.,  or  i^s.  a  week,"  and  they  will  show  you 
the  book  with,  against  the  woman's  name,  the  amount 
received  ;  but  they  do  not  say  that  that  woman  has, 
perhaps,  three  or  four  children,  and  a  neighbor's  child, 
working  for  her  and  helping  her  ;  that  is  where  the 
falsity  of  the  impression  is  when  you  see  an  employer's 
book  of  out- work.' 

"  But  the  amount  paid  for  shirt-making  in  London  is 
lower  even  than  this. 

"  For  making  shirt  fronts  y*d.  each  is  paid,  and  by 
working  very  hard  a  woman  can  make  12  in  a  day  10 
hours  long,  thus  earning  sixpence." 

Mr.  Sydney  Webb  says  (Labor  in  the  Longest 
Reign} : 

"  Consider,  too,  the  wages  which  our  civilization 
allots  to  adult  able-bodied  women.  It  is  difficult  to 
believe  that  the  '  shilling  a  day'  wages  of  unskilled 
women  in  the  East  End  of  London,  the  6/-  to  j/-  a 
week  earned  by  the  Belfast  rope  maker  or  tobacco- 
worker,  or  even  the  io/-  or  ia/-  earned  at  piecework  by 
the  skilled  linen- weaver  or  Glasgow  cotton-mill  oper- 
ative, represents  any  appreciable  advance  on  the  scale 
of  the  past  generation.  Women's  wages  for  unskilled 
labor  still  gravitate,  as  a  rule,  pretty  close  to  the  sub- 
sistence level,  below  which  they  can  never  have  sunk 
for  any  length  of  time.  Out  of  the  four  millions  of 
women  who  are  working  for  wages  at  the  present  time, 
a  very  large  percentage  must  be  earning  practically 
no  better  subsistence  than  their  grandmothers  did.  It 
is  at  least  doubtful  whether  any  previous  age  could 
show  so  large  a  total  number  at  this  low  level." 

Low  wages  and  unhygienic  conditions  are 
not  the  only  evil  in  woman's  work.  Says  a 
tract  on  Woman's  Wages,  published  by  the 
Humanitarian  League  of  England  : 

"  Illegal  fines  and  exorbitant  fines  are  only  too  com- 
mon. Fining  for  being  late,  when  the  work  is  piece- 
work, is  illegal  ;  and  tho  of  course  it  is  undoubtedly 
necessary  to  ensure  punctuality,  it  is  better  to  do  so  in 
a  legal  manner,  by  dismissing  the  girl.  A  girl  who  is 
lazy  does  not  mind  paying  a  fine  half  so  much  as  she 
minds  dismissal— it  is  a  more  efficient  method  of  re- 
form. But  fines  are  of  course  more  remunerative  for 
the  employer,  and  as  the  culprit  is  a  woman,  he  knows 
she  will  not  have  the  courage  (unless  she  belongs  to  a 
union)  to  demand  her  fines  back  again.  Even  if,  when 
she  arrives  late,  there  is  no  work  for  her,  the  fine  is,  in 
some  places,  deducted  from  the  next  day's  earnings. 

"  The  fines  in  the  weaving  trade  for  bad  work  are 
sometimes  enormous.  For  a  fault  which  it  was  im- 
possible to  prevent,  a  girl  in  a  mill  at  Keighley  was 
fined  4-T.  6<£,  and  as  her  wage  .for  weaving  the  piece 
was  only  $s.  6^.,  the  extra  shilling  was  deducted  from 
the  next  week's  wage.  The  fines  have  risen  as  high  in 
one  instance  as  12$.  out  of  a  wage  of  13^.  The  griev- 
ance in  cases  like  this  is  that  frequently  no  explana- 
tion is  given  as  to  how  the  work  is  bad,  and  the  goods 
are  sold  as  undamaged. 

"A  woman  for  making  waistcoats  received  2S.  2l/2if., 
and  was  fined  is.  id.  out  of  that  amount  for  bad  work. 
She  offered  to  alter  the  waistcoats  if  she  could  only  be 
told  how  they  were  defective — the  2S.  2}&d.  happened 
to  be  the  whole  of  her  week's  wage.  But  no,  this  was 


not  allowed.     She   received   is.   \\4d.,  and  the  waist- 
coats were  sold  at  full  price  as  undamaged  goods. 

"  Besides  all  this,  however,  there  is  another  thing— 
a  matter  which  surely  requires  the  grave  attention  of 
those  '  rescue'  workers  mentioned  above.  A  premium 
is  sometimes  put  on  impropriety  of  conduct  cm  the 
women's  part  by  a  foreman.  That  is,  a  woman  who 
will  submit  or  respond  to  his  coarse  jokes  and  language 
and  evil  behavior  receives  more  work  than  the 
woman  who  feels  and  shows  herself  insulted  by  such 
conduct,  and  wishes  to  preserve  her  self-respect.  The 
pittance  earned  by  some  of  these  women  is  earned  at 
the  expense  of  more  than  only  hard  toil.  Even  when 
this  coarseness  is  confined  to  language  only,  it  causes 
deep  suffering  to  some  of  the  women.  They  feel,  they 
know,  that  because  they  are  women,  and  therefore 
regarded  as  helpless  and  inferior,  they  are  spoken  to 
as  men  are  not  spoken  to,  and  the  sting  enters  their 
souls.  These  things  it  is  almost  impossible  to  bring 
home  to  any  one  firm  or  any  foreman  ;  for  when  the 
matter  is  investigated  publicly,  the  women  deny  it 
from  fear,  the  overseers  of  course  deny  it,  and  the  em- 
ployer denies  it,  because  he  very  seldom  knows  any- 
thing about  it." 

(For  this  subject,  see  also  PROSTITUTION.)  It 
is  often  said  that  great  stores  where  young 
women  are  employed  in  large  numbers  together 
with  men  are  hotbeds  of  every  evil.  Stories  are 
frequent  of  young  women  who  can  only  obtain 
employment  by  submitting  to  indignities  from 
their  employers.  That  this  is  common  is  both 
asserted  and  denied  on  good  authority.  The 
truth  probably  is  that  in  aggravated  form  such 
cases  are  not  frequent  in  most  stores,  and  that 
the  ranks  of  prostitution  are  not  mainly  swelled 
from  the  great  stores  and  factories.  But  it  is 
also  probably  true  that  if  aggravated  cases  of 
this  kind  are  not  common,  what  is  common  in- 
directly leads  to  almost  the  same  result.  There 
can  be  little  doubt  that  girls  in  stores  and  fac- 
tories are  subjected  to  a  slow  but  insidious 
moral  deterioration  by  the  language  and-  man- 
ners and  treatment  of  employers,  as  well  as 
fellow-clerks,  and  perhaps  especially  of  their  im- 
mediate department  heads. 

As  to  the  reasons  why  women's  wages  are 
lower  than  men's,  the  following  are  probably  the 
more  effective  : 

1.  Tne  woman  is  not  usually  called  upon  to 
support    a    family.     She    therefore    can   work 
cheaper  than  the  married  man,  and  under  com- 
petition for  work  is  usually  com- 
pelled to  work  as  cheap  as  she  can. 
Woman's  work,  either  as  daughter  Reasons  for 
or  as  wife,  is  usually  given  to  add  Low  Wages, 
to  the  fatner's  or  husband's  wage. 

Even  those  widows  who  do  have  to 
support  a  family  cannot  get  more  wages,  be- 
cause the  wage   under  competition   is  neces- 
sarily fixed  by  the  average. 

2.  Women  often  work  merely  for  pin-money, 
and  the  effect  of  the  competition  of  this  class 
brings  down  the  general  wage.     "  Home  work- 
ers," says  an  umbrella  worker,  "  are  used  as  a 
screen  for  reducing  the  others. ' '    The  work  done 
by  women  in  prisons,  convents,  reform  schools, 
etc. ,  tends  to  lower  the  wage  of  regular  work- 
ers. 

3.  Women  do  not  look  to  industry  as  a  perma- 
nent occupation  so  much  as  do  men.     They  .in- 
tend to  marry,  or  at  least  know  that  they  may 
marry.      Hence  they   do    not  organize   trade- 
unions  to  raise  wages. 

4.  Because  they  may  marry,  and  for  other 
physical  reasons,  their  work  is   more  intermit- 
tent, and  therefore  sometimes  less  valuable  than 
man's. 


Woman's  Work  and  Wages. 


Women's  College  Settlements. 


5.  They  are  newer  in  most  industries  than 
men,  and  therefore  usually  not  so  skilled. 

6.  They  are  unequal  in  strength,  tho  some 
work  they  can  do  better  than  men. 

7.  Being  inexperienced  and  often  less  skilled 
in  industry  than  men,  they  have  fewer  unions 
and  are  less  capable  of  trade-union  organiza- 
tion than  men.     Wherever  women  are  organ- 
ized their  wages  much  more  nearly  approximate 
men's.      (See    WOMAN'S    RIGHTS  ;     SOCIALISM  ; 
FAMILY.) 

In  the  above-quoted  English  labor  report, 
where  woman's  work  is  most  carefully  studied, 
are  the  following  propositions  : 

"  The  majority  are  in  favor  of  strictly  enforcing  the 
sanitary  clauses  of  the  factories  and  workshop  acts, 
and  of  giving  the  home  secretary  further  statutory 
powers  by  which  all  those  workshops  not  included 
under    the    present    law    would    pass 
under  his    control,   so    that    occupiers, 
Reform        owners,   contractors,   and    shopkeepers 
•Pf/vnn.itinnci  would  be  primarily  responsible  for  the 
rroposiuons.  conciition   Of    their    premises    and   the 
health  of  their  employees.    They  would 
extend    the    factories    acts  to    include 
laundries,  so  far  as  young  persons  and  sanitary  mat- 
ters are  concerned  ;  and  they  view  with  satisfaction 
the  recent  vigorous  step  taken  by  the  present  home 
secretary  of  reinforcing  the  number  of  inspectors  by 
women  officials,  and  the  regulations  framed  by  the 
advice  of  departmental  committees  for  specially  un- 
healthy   or    dangerous    trades.      Furthermore,    they 
urge  the  spread   of  combination,  or  trade-unionism, 
among  women,   and  they  advocate  the  reduction  of 
days  in  which  overtime,  under  the  Factories  Act,  may 
be  worked  by  women  and  young  persons— the  latter 
to  be  forbidden  overtime  altogether. 

"  The  Minority  Report  is  more  explicit.  Starting 
from  the  statement,  with  which  all  must,  I  think,  cor- 
dially agree,  that  'the  economic  degradation  of  the 
women  and  girls  in  many  of  the  industries  of  the  great 
cities  constitutes  one  of  the  most  serious  of  industrial 
problems,'  it  places  the  only  hope  for  women  in  a 
vigorous  system  of  industry  on  a  collective  basis.  It 
would,  as  immediate  steps,  regulate  by  law  the  hours 
of  all  shop  assistants,  and  introduce  special  legislative 
changes,  like  the  prohibition  of  the  labor  of  married 
women  in  trades  like  the  white-lead  industry,  and 
place  laundries  under  the  working  of  the  factory 
acts." 

References  :  Helen  Campbell's  Prisoners  of  Poverty 
(1890).  See  also  the  authorities  quoted  in  this  article. 

WOMEN'S  CLUBS,  THE  GENERAL 
FEDERATION  OF,  was  incorporated  in 
1892.  It  is  composed  of  over  350  women's 
clubs,  having  a  membership  of  50,000  women 
in  the  United  States  and  foreign  countries. 
Sorosis,  the  first  woman's  club  in  the  United 
States,  was  founded  in  New  York  City  in  1868. 
The  purpose  of  the  Federation  is  declared  in 
its  articles  of  incorporation  to  be  "  to  bring  into 
communication  with  one  another  the  various 
women's  clubs  throughout  the  world,  that  they 
may  compare  methods  of  work  and  become 
mutually  helpful.  Constitutions  of  clubs  apply- 
ing for  membership  should  show  that  no  sec- 
tarianism or  political  test  is  required,  and,  while 
the  distinctively  humanitarian  movements  may 
be  recognized,  their  chief  purpose  is  not  philan- 
thropic or  technical,  but  social,  literary,  artistic, 
or  scientific  culture."  Meetings  of  the  Feder- 
ation are  held  biennially.  There  are  24  State 
federations  (representing  some  800  clubs)  auxili- 
ary to  the  General  Federation,  and  450  single 
clubs  in  41  States.  Several  foreign  clubs  are 
members  of  the  Federation — the  Pioneer  Club 
of  London,  Woman's  Club  of  Bombay,  and 
Educational  Club  of  Ceylon,  clubs  in  South 
Australia,  etc. 


WOMEN'S  COLLEGE  SETTLE- 
MENTS.— To  write  with  any  degree  of  defi- 
niteness  or  inclusiveness  under  the  title  of 
Women's  College  Settlements  is  an  impossibil- 
ity. Altho  there  are  many  settlements  where  a 
woman  is  the  head  worker  or  the  motive  power, 
as  in  Hull  House,  Chicago,  yet  these  same  set- 
tlements number  men  among  their  trustees  and 
residents.  Many  college  and  university  settle- 
ments have  as  valuable  residents  and  commit- 
tee workers  non -collegiate  women.  Many  so- 
cial settlements  number  not  a  few  of  college 
graduates.  In  brief,  the  settlement  movement 
is  at  basis  one. 

The  ideals  which  led  women  into  settlement 
life  are  the  same  which  influenced  men.     Be- 
lieving   that  the    separation    which    prevents 
understanding  and   sympathy,   in 
many  cases  between  the  rich  and 
the  poor,  between  those  who  have      Ideals. 
had   few  opportunities  and  those 
who  have  had  many,  to  be  wrong 
and  the  source  of  great  evil,  they  would  make 
that    understanding    and    sympathy   possible, 
that  separation  impossible.     By  the  establish- 
ment of  a  home  in  the  midst  of  the  working 
people,  not  with  any  spirit  of  patronage  or  curi- 
osity, but  with  a  desire  for  a  life  of  simplicity, 
with  a  wish  to  know  as  friends  those  who  are 
bearing  a  large  part  in  the  real  work  of  the 
world,  would  the  women  interested  in  settle- 
ments  express  their  ideals.     Their  hope  has 
been  that  their  simple  home  being  a  real  home 
for  the  neighborhood,  may  serve  as  a  wedge 
toward  breaking  down  class  distinctions.     "If 
it  shall  create  any  higher  ideals  or  quicken  any 
aspirations,  if  it  shall  awaken   any  soul  to  a 
sense  of  its  own  nature,  the  object  of  a  college 
settlement  will  surely  be  attained." 

It  would  seem  as  if  the  settlements  in  Eng- 
land and  Scotland  submitted  to  classification 
under  the  title  of  this  article  better  than  those 
in  America.     The  bibliography  of 
college,  social,  and  university  set- 
tlements   compiled    by    Miss    M.  Settlements. 
Katharine  Jones,   of    the   College 
Settlements  Association  (edition  of 
1895),  gives  the  following  :  A  member  of  one  of 
the  leading  of  these  settlements  has  assured  the 
author  at  date  of  writing  (April,  1897)  that  none 
of  great  importance  have  been  added  to  the  list 
since  then  :  St.  Margaret's  House,  9  Victoria 
Park  Square,  Bethnal  Green,  E.  London  ;  Set- 
tlement of  Women  Workers,  461  Barking  Road, 
Canning  Town,  E.  London  ;  Mayfield  House, 
Old  Ford  Road,  Bethnal  Green,   E.  London  ; 
Women's  University  Settlement,  44-46  Nelson 
Square,   Southwark,   S.E.    London  ;   Women's 
House  of  Bermondsey  Settlement,  149  Lower 
Road,  Rotherhithe,  S.E.   London  ;  College  of 
Women  Workers,  Dartmouth  Row,  Blackheath 
Hill,  S.E.  London  ;  York  House,  527  Halloway 
Road,  N.  London  ;  University  Settlement,  Art 
Museum,  Ancoat's  Hall,  Manchester. 

Among  the  principal  of  the  settlements  in 
America,  which  may  perhaps  be  classified  under 
the  heading  of  the  article,  are  such  as  :  The 
Church  Settlement  House,  1556  Avenue  A, 
New  York  City  ;  The  Nurses'  Settlement,  265 
Henry  Street,  New  York  City  ;  St.  Peter's 
House,  loo  Pine  Street,  Philadelphia  ;  Whittier 


Women's  College  Settlements.         1418         Women's  College  Settlements. 


House,  174  Grand  Street,  Jersey  City  ;  Kings- 
ley  House,  1709  Penn  Avenue,  Pittsburgh  ;  So- 
cial Settlement  of  Cincinnati,  O,;  Lucy  House, 
1835  Carr  Street,  St.  Louis,  Mo.  ;  A  Log  Cabin 
College  Settlement,  Grace  Post  Office,  Bun- 
combe County,  N.  C.  ;  The  Manse,  1730  Eighth 
Street,  West  Oakland,  Cal. 

This  is  by  no  means  an  adequate  or  complete 
list.  There  are  constant  overlappings,  and  the 
writer  has  not  been  given  sufficient  time  to  ob- 
tain accurately  a  list  of  the  new  settlements 
which  have  sprung  up  all  over  the  country  in 
the  years  1895  and  1896,  and  which  would  have 
a  right  to  be  included. 

In  connection  with  the  subject  of  women's 
settlements,  it  would  be  a  mistake  to  fail  to  men- 
tion such  settlements  as  Professor  Geddes'  in 
Edinburgh  ;  that  of  the  Minster  Street  Settle- 
ment in  Philadelphia,  and  of  Chicago  Commons, 
where  a  family  is  the  nucleus  and  center  of  the 
settlement  life.  There  is,  however,  a  group  of 
settlements  in  America  which  come  naturally 
under  the  heading  of  women's  college  settle- 
ments. They  were  established  by  college  wom- 
en, are  controlled  by  college  women,  and  have 
a  majority  of  college  women  as  residents. 

THE   COLLEGE   SETTLEMENT   ASSOCIATION. 

The  ideals  on  which  the  College  Settlements 
Association  are  based  had  been  proved  practical 
in  England  before  they  were  put  into  definite 
form  in    the    United    States.     Its 
immediate  origin  was  due  to  the 
History,     earnest   thought   of  three  college 
women,   all  of  whom  have    been 
more  or  less  closely  connected  with 
the  work  ever   since.     They  were  Miss  Vida 
Dutton  Scudder,  Mrs.  Jean  Fine  Spahr,  and 
Mrs.    Helen    Rand   Thayer.     Gradually    more 
and  more  were  drawn  into  the  movement,  and  a 
large  number  of  college  women  give  it  their 
direct  support.    It  is  the  one  practical  undertak- 
ing in  which  the  college  women  of  America  are 
engaged  collectively  and  widely  aside  from  the 
fellowships    of    the  Association  of    Collegiate 
Alumnae. 

In  February,  1890,  the  constitution  and  by- 
laws of  the  College  Settlements  Association 
were  formed.  January  5,  1894,  the  association 
was  incorporated.  Its  government  is  vested  in 
an  electoral  board,  the  officers  of  which  are  a 
president,  a  vice-president,  a  secretary,  and  a 
treasurer.  The  membership  is  not  limited  to 
college  women,  and  any  one  may  become  a 
member  by  the  annual  fee  of  $5.  Each  college 
which  contributes  through  faculty,  alumnae,  or 
undergraduates  $100  is  entitled  to  two  members 
on  the  board — one  to  represent  the  alumna?,  one 
the  undergraduates.  Each  member  serves  for 
two  years.  Two  electors  also  are  chosen  by 
non-collegiate  members.  Associate  electors  to 
the  number  of  10  may  be  elected  by  the  board. 
Head  workers  ex  officio  are  members  of  the 
board,  and  a  delegate  is  sent  to  each  of  the 
semi-annual  meetings  in  spring  and  fall  from 
each  local  committee.  The  report  for  1895-96 
shows  representation  from  n  colleges — Welles- 
ley,  Smith,  Vassar,  Bryn  Mawr,  Radcliffe, 
Wells,  Packer  Institute,  Cornell  University, 
Swarthmore,  Elmira,  Woman's  College  of  Bal- 
timore, and  Barnard.  The  standing  committee 


of  the  association  consists  of  the  officers  ex 
officio,  and  a  fifth  member  chosen  by  the  board. 
There  are  also  local  executive  committees  for 
each  settlement,  three  members  on  each  of  which 
being  chosen  by  the  board. 

The  first  settlement  of  the  association  was 
opened  at  95  Rivington  Street,  October,  1889, 
at  about  the  same  time  as  Hull  House,  Chicago. 
Its  head  workers  have  been  Miss  Jean  Fine, 
Miss  McLain,  and  Dr.  Jane  Elizabeth  Robbins. 
The  Philadelphia  Settlement  was  assumed  by 
the  association  April,  1892.  Miss  McLain,  Miss 
Dora  Freeman,  Miss  Helena  S.  Dudley,  and 
Miss  Katharine  B.  Davis  have  acted  as  head 
workers.  In  December,  1892,  Denison  Hoxtse, 
93  Tyler  Street,  Boston,  was  opened.  In  Octo- 
ber, 1896,  it  enlarged  its  quarters  by  including 
91  Tyler  Street  under  its  roof.  The  head  work- 
er is  Miss  Helena  S.  Dudley.  The  work  of  these 
three  settlements  differs  largely,  according  to 
the  demands  and  needs  of  the  neighborhood, 
and  follow  social,  educational,  civic  lines,  as  the 
case  may  be.  Altho  many  opportunities  have 
arisen  to  increase  the  number  of  settlements 
under  the  control  of  the  College  Settlements  As- 
sociation, it  has  been  deemed  wise  by  those  in 
charge  to  confine  the  activities  of  the  associa- 
tion to  the  increased  effectiveness  of  the  three 
until  the  funds  should  be  greatly  augmented 
and  the  possibility  of  obtaining  a  greater  num- 
ber of  effective  and  permanent  workers  more 
certain. 

As  regards  the  practical  workings  of  these 
settlements,  each  resident  pays  board  varying 
from  $4.50  to  $6.50  a  week.     An  appropriation 
is  made  every  year  to  each  settle- 
ment from  the  general  fund.    There 
are  also  local  donations.     For  the     Practical 
year  September,  1895,  to  October,    Working. 
1896    (thirteen    months),     the    re- 
ceipts of  the  general  treasurer  were 
$7784.32.     The  receipts    for  each   settlement, 
including  the  appropriations  from  this  general 
fund,  were  as  follows  :  For  NewYork,  $8224,59  ; 
for  Philadelphia,  $6405.15  ;  for  Boston,  $7322.67, 
which  last  does  not  include  receipts  from  board 
account.     The  expenses  of  the  association  are 
kept  at  the  minimum.     No  officer  receives  a 
salary,  and  the  chief  expenses  are  for  printing 
and  for  postage  (in  part). 

The  College  Settlements  Association  have 
offered  fellowships  for  the  study  of  social  and 
economic  problems.  These  fellowships  have 
been  held  by  Miss  Amelia  Shapleigh  (1892-93)  ; 
Misses  Ada  S.  Woolfolk,  Isabelle  Eaton,  and 
Katharine  Pearson  Woods  (1893-94)  I  and  Miss 
Mabel  Sanford  (1894-95). 

The  publications  of  the  association  have  been 
the  Annual  Reports,  including  Lists  of  Subscrib- 
ers ;  the  By-Laws  ;  A  Study  in  Dietaries,  Re- 
port of  Miss  Amelia  Shapleigh,  Fellow  (1892-93) ; 
Receipts  and  Expenditures  of  Certain  Wage- 
Earners  in  the  Garment  Trades,  by  Miss  Isa- 
belle Eaton,  Fellow  (1893-94),  published  by 
American  Statistical  Association  June,  1895  ; 
A  Bibliography  of  College,  Social  and  Univer- 
sity Settlements,  compiled  by  M.  Katharine 
Jones,  first  edition  October,  1893  ;  second  and 
revised  edition  October,  1895  ;  The  Work-Shop 
at  Wells  Memorial  during  iSgj-^4,  by  Helena 
S.  Dudley  ;  Report  on  Questions  Drawn  up  by 


Women's  College  Settlements. 


1419 


Wool. 


Present  Residents  in  our  College  Settlements 
Association,  and  Submitted  to  Past  Residents, 
by  Vida  D.  Scudder,  published  by  the  Church 
Social  Union,  September,  1896. 

CAROLINE  WILLIAMSON  MONTGOMERY. 

WOMEN'S  TEMPERANCE  ASSOCIA- 
TION, THE  NATIONAL  BRITISH,  was 

organized  at  Newcastle-on-Tyne  in  1876,  under 
the  lead  of  Mrs.  Margaret  Parker,  of  Dundee, 
Scotland,  as  the  result  of  interest  in  the  Woman's 
Temperance  Crusade  in  the  United  States. 
(See  WOMEN'S  CHRISTIAN  TEMPERANCE  UNION.) 
Mrs.  Parker  was  chosen  president,  and  in  1877 
Mrs.  C.  L.  Balfour,  succeeded  by  Mrs.  M.  Bright 
Lucas,  sister  of  John  Bright.  In  1885  the  asso- 
ciation was  affiliated  to  the  World's  Women 
Christian  Temperance  Union  (y.v.},  of  which 
body  Mrs.  Lucas  was  the  first  president.  The 
pledge  of  the  British  Women's  Temperance  As- 
sociation is,  "I  promise  by  God's  help  to  ab- 
stain from  all  intoxicating  drinks,  and  to  try  to 
induce  others  to  do  the  same." 

Mrs.  Margaret  Bright  Lucas  was  also  presi- 
dent of  the  Bloomsbury  branch  of  the  Women's 
Liberal  Association,  and  in  1892  the  British 
Women's  Temperance  Association  passed  the 
following  vote  : 

Resolved,  That  all  class  legislation  is  unjust, 
and  that  therefore  responsible  women  should 
participate  in  framing  the  laws  by  which  they 
are  governed.  We  hold  the  spiritual  and  moral 
forces  of  women  must  be  brought  to  bear  direct- 
ly upon  the  ballot-box  ;  and  in  view  of  the  great 
moral  gain  that  has  been  realized  by  granting 
the  municipal  and  other  votes  to  women,  and 
holding  that  their  vote  will  always  be  the  enact- 
ing clause  of  all  temperance  legislation,  we  ask 
the  parliamentary  vote  should  be  extended  to 
them. 

In  the  year  1893-94,  1500  meetings  were  held 
by  members  of  the  National  Executive  Com- 
mittee, and  2000  in  all  were  reported  to  head- 
quarters ;  300  new  societies  were  formed  ;  8,500,- 
ooo  pages  of  literature  were  issued,  including 
the  organ,  The  Women's  Signal,  which  had  a 
circulation  of  16,271  per  week. 

The  program  of  work  adopted  by  the  Council 
for  the  year  1895  was  as  follows  : 

"  i.  Evangelistic  work,  to  arouse  the  conscience  of 
the  Christian  Church  to  its  responsibilities. 

"  2.  The  preparation  and  circulation  of  temperance 
literature. 

"3.  To  secure  the  passing  of  the  Government  Liquor 
Traffic  (Local  Control)  Bill. 


"  4.  To  secure  the  passing  of  an  imperial  measure 
prohibiting  the  sale  of  intoxicating  drinks  on  Sunday. 

"5.  To  secure  the  passing  of  the  Grocers'  License 
Abolition  Bill. 

"6.  To  secure  the  passing  of  a  measure  prohibiting 
the  sale  of  intoxicating  drinks  to  children. 

"  7.  To  secure  the  closing  of  public-houses  on  parlia- 
mentary and  municipal  election  days 

"  8.  To  secure  effective  legislation  for  the  treatment 
of  inebriates. 

"9.  To  secure  the  prevention  of  the  hawking  of  in- 
toxicants in  railway  stations,  and  the  sale  of  the  same 
on  steam  and  pleasure  boats  and  ocean  steamers. 

"  10.  To  secure  the  enforcement  of  the  Truck  Act. 

"  ii.  The  opposing  of  licenses  at  Brewster  Sessions. 

"  12.  To  secure  the  election  of  temperance  can- 
didates as  poor  law  guardians,  as  members  of  school 
boards,  and  all  other  public  bodies. 

"  13.  To  secure  scientific  instruction  in  schools. 

"  14.  To  promote  the  use  of  unfermented  wine  at  the 
Sacrament  of  the  Lord's  Supper. 

"  15.  Preventive  and  reformatory  work  among 
women. 

"  16.  Work  among  barmaids,  and  against  the  em- 
ployment of  women  in  public-houses,  and  other  de- 
moralizing resorts. 

"17.  Work  for  the  prevention  of  granting  liquor 
licenses  to  theaters,  concert  halls,  and  other  places  of 
entertainment. 

"  18.  Work  among  municipal  women  voters,  to  secure 
their  influence  and  votes  as  electors  in  favor  of  tem- 
perance. 

"  19.  Prohibiting  the  sale  of  intoxicants  to  native 
races." 

The  departments  of  the  association  are  :  Or- 
ganization ;  Speakers'  Bureau;  "  Y"  (Young 
Women's)  B.  W.  T.  A.  ;  Temperance  Legions  ; 
Evangelistic  ;  Bible  Lessons  and  Study  ;  Unfer- 
mented Wine  at  the  Sacrament  ;  Preventive  ; 
Social  Purity  ;  Social  ;  Drawing-Room  Meet- 
ings ;  Facts ;  Educational ;  Health  and  Hygi- 
ene ;  Adult  Schools  ;  High  Schools  and  Private 
,  Schools  ;  Legal  ;  Brewster  Sessions  ;  Police 
Matrons  ;  Women  as  Poor  Law  Guardians  ; 
Members  of  School  Boards,  etc. ;  Work  Among 
Women  Municipal  Voters ;  Political;  Literature 
and  Press  ;  Inebriate  Women  ;  Native  Races  ; 
Traveling.  The  Association  supports  a  white- 
ribbon  (publishing)  company,  an  industrial  farm 
home,  a  retreat  for  inebriate  women,  St.  Mary's 
Training  Home  for  Girls  Alpha  House,  a  pre- 
ventive and  rescue  home.  A  Scotch  Christian 
Union  of  the  British  Women's  Temperance 
Association  was  organized  in  1876.  (See 
WOMEN'S  CHRISTIAN  TEMPERANCE  UNION.)  • 


WOOL.— The  statistics  of  this  and  the  fol- 
lowing table  are  from  The  Wool  Book,  com- 
piled for  the  National  Association  of  Wool 
Manufacturers  by  S.  N.  D.  North,  secretary. 


THE  WORLD'S  WOOL  SUPPLY  SINCE  1860. 


COUNTRIES. 

1860. 
Lbs. 

1870. 
Lbs. 

1880. 
Lbs. 

1891. 
Lbs. 

7896. 
Lbs. 

United  Kingdom.     ...        ...,  

149,000,000 

147,475,000 

Continent  of  Europe  

450,000,000 

639,917,000 

6lI,978,5OO 

North  America  

Australasia        

308,000,000 

550,000,000 

Cape  Good  Hope  

60,000,000 

128,681,600 

93,000,000 

River  Plate           

Other  Countries  

133,000,000 

Grand  totals  

*  Fleece  washed,  1895. 


Wool. 


1420 


Working  Men's  Clubs. 


SHEEP  IN  THE    UNITED  STATES  IN   18 


STATES. 

Number. 

Value. 

Maine    

258,836 

New  Hampshire  

87,111 

184,849 

Vermont  

Massachusetts  

Rhode  Island        

Connecticut  

A*  080 

Pennsylvania  

12   7^8 

Virginia  

426,889 

South  Carolina..        ... 

Georgia  

188  s-7-2 

Alabama    

Mississippi  

Texas  

Arkansas  

188,972 

Tennessee  

651,068 

West  Virginia  

514,783* 

894,281 

Kentucky  

858,366 

Ohio          

Michigan  .... 

2,84.3,180 

Indiana  

Illinois    

Wisconsin  

Minnesota  

Missouri  

Kansas  

Nebraska         

South  Dakota  

North  Dakota  

359,828 

Wyoming  

Colorado  

2,251,881 

Arizona  

Utah  

1,998,44! 

3,157,537 

Nevada  

Idaho  

Washington  

1,318,462 

Oregon          

California  

5,483,784 

Oklahoma  

22,322 

36,887 

Total  

38,298,783 

WORKING  GIRLS'  CLUBS. 

ING  WOMEN'S  CLUBS. 


See  WORK- 


WOOLMAN,  JOHN,  was  born  at  North- 
ampton, N.  J.,  in  1720.  His  youth  was  spent 
on  a  farm,  and  he  always  lived  by  the  labor  of 
his  hands,  chiefly  as  a  tailor.  He  began  his 
public  ministry  at  Mount  Holly,  N.  J.,  about 
1742  by  teaching  poor  and  neglected  children. 
As  a  Friend  (or  Quaker)  he  spent  much  of  his 
time  traveling  and  preaching.  In  a  tract,  On 
the  Keeping  of  Negroes  (two  parts,  1753-1862), 
he  pointed  out  the  dangers  of  slavery.  In  1772 
he  visited  England,  and  died  there,  at  York,  in 
that  year,  of  small-pox.  Channing  considered 
his  Journal ',  which  has  been  published  with  an 
introduction  by  Whittier,  as  the  purest  and 
sweetest  of  autobiographies. 

WOOLSEY,  THEODORE   DWIGHT, 

was  born  in  New  York  in  1801,  and  graduated 
at  Yale  College  in  1820.  He  read  law  in  Phila- 
delphia ;  studied  theology  at  Princeton  ;  was 
tutor  at  Yale  1823-25  ;  studied  languages  abroad 
1827-30  ;  was  elected  Professor  of  Greek  at  Yale 
in  1831,  and  president  in  1846  ;  resigned  in  1871. 
His  writings  on  social  science  are  :  A  n  Introduc- 
tion to  the  Study  of  International  Law  (\^kd)  ; 
An  Essay  on  Divorce  and  Divorce  Legisla- 
tion (1869)  ;  Political  Science  (1877)  ;  Commun- 
ism and  Socialism  (1879).  He  died  in  1889. 


WORKING  MEN'S  CLUBS,  apart  from 
labor  unions  and  benefit  or  friendly  societies, 
are  almost  unknown  in  the  United  States,  but 
have  reached  a  large  development  in  England 
and  on  the  continent.  According  to  Charles 
Booth's  Life  and  Labor  of  the  People  (vol.  i.), 
there  are  115  such  clubs  in  East  London  and 
Hackney  alone.  Of  these,  32  are  usually  called 
"proprietary"  clubs,  and  strictly  secret,  and 
have  a  very  shady  reputation.  Gambling  and 
chiefly  betting  are  their  main  objects,  connect- 
ed more  or  less  with  dancing  and  dramatic  en- 
tertainments, being  sometimes  little  better  than 
dancing  saloons  of  the  lowest  type.  They  are 
exposed  to  police  raids,  and  not  long-lived,  con- 
tinually disappearing  in  one  street  to  appear  in 
another.  Thirty-three  are  philanthropic  clubs, 
more  or  less  supported  and  superintended  by 
Church  and  other  philanthropic  organizations. 
Prominent  among  such  are  the  large  University 
Club  and  the  United  Brothers.  All  these  except 
one  are  teetotal  and  mainly  educational  and 
social. 

Thirty-two  clubs  are  political,  of  which  22  are 
Liberal  and  Radical,  6  Conservative,  3  Social- 
istic, and  i  Irish  Home  Rule.  Of  the  Con- 
servative Club,  only  one  is  called  a 
working  man's  club,  and  seven  of 
the  Liberal  clubs  are  mainly  of  the  London. 
middle  class.  In  all  the  clubs  an 
unorganized  socialism  rather  than 
old-fashioned  radicalism  is  the  dominant  note- 
All  these  clubs  have  a  bar,  and  breweries  often 
help  in  fitting  them  up.  They  also  have  con- 
certs,  lectures,  entertainments,  dancing,  and 
dramatics.  Billiards  and  whist  are  greatly 
played.  It  is  declared  by  their  enemies  that 
they  are  mere  drinking  dens,  and  take  the  men 
from  their  homes  ;  but  Mr.  Booth  declares  the 
former  accusation  to  be  without  foundation, 
and  that  most  of  the  members,  if  not  at  the 
clubs,  would  be  on  the  street.  They  give  an 
opportunity  for  political  education  such  as 
American  workmen  are  almost  without.  The 
American  workman  is  organized  for  political 
purposes  usually  only  in  the  heated  campaigns 
with  partizan  spirit.  The  English  and  Euro- 
pean working  men's  clubs  discuss  politics  all  the 
year  round,  and  to  an  extent  in  a  broad  spirit 
because  they  are  not  merely  political.  It  was 
to  these  clubs  that  the  lecturers  of  the  (English) 
Fabian  Society  (^.z/.)  went,  and  largely  changed 
their  political  spirit  from  one  of  cheap  negative 
radicalism  to  one  of  constructive  evolutionary 
socialism. 

Eighteen  of  the  clubs  are  social,  dancing, 
dramatic,  literary,  etc.  In  all  the  clubs  the  fee 
is  usually  6rf.  per  month  ;  the  average  member- 
ship is  from  300  to  400  ;  the  hours  are  from 
6.30  P.M.  to  12.30  A.M.,  and  on  Sunday  from  n 
A.M  to  i  P.M.  and  from  6.30  P.M.  to  11.30  P.M. 
The  management  is  by  a  committee,  and  the 
sale  of  drinks  makes  them  largely  self-support- 
ing. Gambling  and  excessive  drinking  in  the 
open  clubs  are  rare. 

On  the  continent  also  working  men's  clubs 
are  also  very  common,  but  are  usually  gymnas- 
tic, socialistic,  or  under  the  patronage  of  the 


Working  Men's  Clubs. 


1421 


Working  Women's  Clubs. 


Church.  The  Roman  Catholic  Church  has  been 
especially  active  in  this  direction.  (See  SOCIAL- 
ISM ;  CHRISTIAN  SOCIALISM  ;  COOPERATION.) 

In  the  United  States,  working  men's  clubs  of 
the  English  political  type  are  almost  unknown. 
In  the  large  cities  there  are  numberless  epheme- 
ral clubs  of  boys  and  young  men 
of  the  working  classes  for  social 
United       purposes  purely,  and  very  largely 
States.       of  a  low  type,  like  the  English  pro- 
prietary clubs.     There  are  also  a 
growing  number  of  philanthropic 
clubs  connected  with  churches,  settlements,  or 
the  Good  Government  Clubs.    (See  CHURCH  AND 
SOCIAL    REFORM  ;    INSTITUTIONAL     CHURCHES  ; 
UNIVERSITY  SETTLEMENTS  ;  GOOD  GOVERNMENT 
CLUBS.)    Many    working  men   also  belong  to 
benefit  or  friendly  societies  of  one  kind  or  an- 
other.    (See  also  TRADE-UNIONS.) 

WORKING      WOMEN'S      CLUBS.— A 

working  woman's  club  or  society  is  an  organiza- 
tion formed  among  busy  young  women  and 
girls  to  secure,  by  cooperation,  education,  op- 
portunities of  social  intercourse,  and  the  de- 
velopment of  higher  and  nobler  aims  in  life. 
They  are  non-sectarian  and  self-governing,  and 
they  endeavor  as  far  as  possible  to  meet  their 
own  expenses  by  means  of  fees,  entertainments 
given  by  the  members,  sales  of  articles  made 
in  classes,  or  by  good  business  management  in 
the  subletting  of  club  rooms. 

In  most  clubs  girls  are  admitted  who  have 
passed  the  age  of  fourteen.  Some  require  the 
indorsement  of  a  club  member  for  admission, 
others  welcome  freely  all  new-comers,  believing 
that  the  general  intelligence  and  serious  pur- 
pose of  the  other  members  will  exclude  the  un- 
worthy. 

The  fees  in  clubs  vary  from  10  cents  to  25 
cents  a  month,  while  in  some  clubs  yearly  fees 
of  $i  or  $1.50  are  preferred. 

The  advantages  of  clubs  to  young  working 
women  are  pleasant  rooms,  library  and  piano, 
lectures,  talks,  entertainments  and  dances, 
classes  in  dressmaking,  sewing,  embroidery, 
millinery,  cooking  and  domestic  science  ;  also, 
where  the  city  does  not  provide  them,  classes  in 
stenography,  typewriting,  book-keeping  and 
the  studies  common  to  the  grammar  schools. 
The  clubs  aim  to  bring  together  women  from 
factories,  shops  and  homes,  many  whom  the  cir- 
cumstances of  life  tend  to  separate,  and  by  busi- 
ness meetings  and  discussions  to  train  them  all 
to  a  better  mutual  understanding  and  habits  of 
self  reliance. 

The  clubs  are  governed  by  the  members  for 

the  members.     Officers   are  chosen  from  the 

membership  of  the  clubs,  and  are 

F  ,  elected  by  ballot.  Matters  of  busi- 

orms  ness  are  presented  at  monthly  busi- 
n  '  ness  meetings  and  decided  by  a 
majority  vote.  All  questions  aris- 
ing as  to  the  government  of  the  clubs  are  care- 
fully discussed  and  settled  in  the  same  way. 

The  following  is  the  usual  list  of  officers  : 
President,  vice-president,  secretary,  assistant 
secretary,  treasurer,  assistant  treasurer,  libra- 
rian or  steward. 

Many  clubs  are  governed  by  a  council  con- 
sisting of  12  members,  including  the  six  officers. 


The  six  members  who  are  not  officers  are  elect- 
ed by  ballot,  and  hold  office  two  years.  This 
council  has  general  charge  and  control  of  the 
funds  and  property  of  the  club.  The  govern- 
ment of  individual  clubs  is  always  vested  in  the 
members  of  the  club. 

The  movement  began  in  Philadelphia,  where 
a  stand  has  been  made  for  thorough  technical 
training.    Florence  Nightingale  as- 
serts that  half  the  trouble  in  wom- 
en's lives  results  from  their  lack  of  Beginning. 
training  ;   and   Carroll   D.  Wright 
gives  the  same  reason  the  foremost 
place  in  summing  up  the  causes  why  women 
get  lower  wages  than  men. 

Clear-headed  women  in  New  York  City  next 
took  up  the  club  idea,  and  slowly  evolved  the 
principles  of  cooperation^  self -government  (by 
the  members  for  the  members),  and  the  effort 
for  self-support.  This  raised  the  clubs  from 
the  demoralizing  basis  of  charity  ;  and  it  is  easy 
to  see  how  the  working  of  these  three  princi- 
ples tends  to  develop  the  noblest  qualities  of 
self  control  and  self-respect. 

The  work  began  in  Boston  in  the  present 
decade,  gradually  extending  through  New  Eng- 
land. Already  there  has  come  the  necessity  of 
organizing  on  a  State  basis. 

The  recognized  associations  of  clubs  now  ex- 
isting (1897)  are  the  Pennsylvania,  New  York, 
Connecticut,  Brooklyn,  Massachusetts,  and  Illi- 
nois. There  are  many  independent  clubs  in 
other  States  ;  some,  however,  are  affiliated  with 
these  existing  associations. 

The  State  association  has  no  control  over  the 
methods  of  individual  clubs,  claiming  only  alle- 
giance to  the  three  cardinal  principles,  indepen- 
dence of  other  organizations  and 
loyal  cooperation  for  the  common 
good.     To  put  the  clubs  in  close      Organi- 
touch  and  provide  for    an   inter-      zation. 
change  of  experience,  there  is  a 
board  of  directors  meeting  once  a 
month.     Each  club  annually  elects  one  repre- 
sentative to  serve  on  this  board.     But  the  chief 
power  is  vested  in  a  general  council,  meeting 
quarterly,  and  composed  of  all  the  officers  of  all 
the  clubs  belonging. 

The  junior  clubs  are  inside  organizations, 
consisting  of  girls  under  15  who  are  too  young 
for  the  club  proper.  They  use  the  rooms  once 
a  week,  pay  10  cents  for  monthly  dues,  and 
generally  have  separate  officers  and  constitu- 
tion, the  older  club  members  cooperating  with 
them. 

Every  club  does  some  kind  of  practical  work 
for  the  benefit  of  others,  and  many  societies 
have  regular  organizations  for  this  purpose 
known  by  different  names.  The  work  done  is 
various  and  interesting.  Christmas  gifts  and 
pleasures  are  arranged  for  poor  children  who 
are  not  reached  in  other  ways,  and  mothers  are 
also  remembered.  Boxes  and  barrels  are  filled 
with  useful  articles  made  at  the  clubs  and  sent 
to  various  places  where  there  is  need  of  them. 
Hospitals  are  visited,  and  a  variety  of  articles 
made  at  the  clubs  for  the  comfort  of  patients 
are  given.  Flowers  and  fruits  are  distributed 
among  the  sick  and  suffering  poor,  also  jellies, 
fresh  egg  and  delicacies.  Garments  are  made 
and  given  to  day  nurseries  and  other  institu- 


Working  Women's  Clubs. 


1422 


Y.  M.  C.  A. 


tions,  where  they  are  greatly  needed.  Enter- 
tainments are  held,  and  the  proceeds  sent  to 
selected  objects,  destitute  families  chosen  and 
provided  with  special  help  to  tide  them  over  a 
hard  place,  and  at  a  few  clubs  baskets  of  nec- 
essary articles  for  the  sick  are  provided,  and 
loaned  to  families  where  there  is  sickness.  The 
Three  P  Circle,  working  under  the  words  "  Pu- 
rity, Perseverance,  Pleasantness,"  is  another  in- 
side band  of  great  power. 

The  Mutual  Benefit  Fund  is  an  outgrowth  of 
the  New  York  Association,  providing  for  its 
members  in  cases  of  illness  or  death.  In  other 
associations  there  are  small  benefit  funds  con- 
nected with  individual  clubs.  The  Penny 
Provident  and  Stamp  Saving  Societies  have 
stations  in  all  the  associations  of  clubs. 

In  summer  the  members  of  clubs  meet  at 
various  vacation  houses.  Those  owned  by  the 
Auxiliary  Society  of  Working  Girls'  Societies 
of  New  York,  at  Miller's  Place,  Long  Island, 
are  the  largest.  In  Connecticut,  smaller  houses 
in  the  country  and  by  the  sea,  at  Sayport,  are  to 
be  found,  while  in  Massachusetts  the  club  girls 
gather  at  Princeton  in  the  largest  numbers, 
and  are  found  also  in  smaller  cottages  loaned 
or  presented  to  individual  clubs.  The  Penn- 
sylvania and  Illinois  associations  have  club 
vacation  houses. 

Excursions  on  Saturday  afternoons  during 
the  summer  are  another  feature  of  club  life. 


The  clubs  vary  in  membership  from  25  to  600, 
the  largest  clubs  being  in  Philadelphia.  The 
clubs  are  beginning  to  interest  themselves 
more  and  more  in  questions  relating  to  the 
labor  of  women,  such  as  industrial  training 
schools,  trade  organizations,  shorter  hours,  con- 
sumers' leagues  and  protective  legislation. 

These  clubs  have  held  three  conventions,  one 
in  New  York  in  April,  1890,  another  in  Boston 
in  May,  1894,  a  third  in  Philadelphia  in  April, 
1897.  At  the  last  convention  it  was  decided  to 
form  a  National  League  of  Working  Women's 
Clubs,  but  the  organization  has  not  yet  taken 
shape.  EDITH  M.  HOWES. 

WRIGHT,  CARROLL  DAVIDSON,  was 

born  in  Dunbarton,  N.  H.,  in  1840.  He  began 
the  study  of  law,  but  enlisted  in  the  Northern 
Army  in  the  War  of  the  Rebellion,  and  became 
colonel.  In  1865  he  was  admitted  to  the  bar. 
In  1871  he  was  State  Senator  in  Massachusetts, 
and  served  two  years.  From  1873-88  he  was 
Chief  of  the  Bureau  of  Labor  Statistics  in  Mas- 
sachusetts. In  1 8 75  and  1 885  he  had  charge  of  the 
Massachusetts  census.  In  1888  he  was  appoint- 
ed United  States  Commissioner  of  Labor.  In 
1895  he  was  elected  a  Professor  of  Political  Sci- 
ence in  the  Catholic  University.  Besides  his 
very  numerous  reports  (see  Appendix)  he  has 
written  Industrial  Evolution  in  the  United 
States  (1892). 


X. 


XENOPHON  was  born  in  Athens  in  444  or 
434  B.C.  Attracted  by  the  teaching  of  Socrates, 
his  Memorabilia  of  Socrates  is  his  greatest 
work.  He,  however,  served  under  Cyrus  the 
younger,  in  his  war  against  Artaxerxes,  and 
when  Cyrus  fell  (B.C.  401)  Xenophon  conducted 
the  famous  retreat  of  the  10,000  Greeks  to 
the  Black  Sea  and  thence  by  water  to  Byzan- 


tium. At  Coronea,  however,  Xerxes  fought 
against  the  Thebans,  allies  of  Athens,  and  hence 
was  banished  from  Athens  and  his  property  con- 
fiscated. He  was  recalled,  however,  and  died 
at  Athens.  His  o//cow/z«6f,  or  study  of  house- 
hold economics,  is  the  best  study  of  that  subject 
which  has  come  down  from  ancient  Greece. 
(See  POLITICAL  SCIENCE  ;  WOMAN'S  RIGHTS.) 


T. 


YOUNG    MEN'S     CHRISTIAN    ASSp- 

C I  AT  IONS  are  associations  on  a  specific  Chris- 
tian basis  organized  for  the  physical,  mental, 
social  and  spiritual  benefit  (a)  of  their  mem- 
bers, and  (b)  of  young  men  in  general.  The 
first  organization  was  made  in  London  in  1844, 
under  the  lead  of  Mr.  George  Williams.  It  is 
now  organized  in  almost  all  parts  of  the  world, 
with  an  International  Committee  having  head- 
quarters in  New  York  City  and  Geneva,  Switz- 
erland. Tlie  international  conventions  have 
been  very  large  and  noteworthy  gatherings. 
The  World  Almanac  for  1897  gives  the 
following  tables  of  the  number  of  these  as- 
sociations all  over  the  world,  by  country  and 
number.  It  will  be  noticed  that  Germany  fol- 
lows the  United  States  in  the  number  of  asso- 
ciations, and  that  Great  Britain  is  rather  a 
poor  third ; 


AMERICA. 
United  States  

i)  363 
86 
J7 

834 

221 
'31 

1,180 

817 

150 

399 
144 

52 
58 
9 
35 
17 
8 

ASIA. 
India  

80 

21 

8 

35 
20 

2 
13 

3 

2 

16 

i 
3 

'3 

2 

s 

South  America,  etc.. 

EUROPE. 
England,        Ireland 
and  Wales.   

China  

laDan.  .  . 

Turkey  

Persia  

Scotland  

Eervpt.  .  . 

France  

AFRICA. 

Germany  . 

Netherlands  

Denmark  

Swifzerland  

South  Africa  
West  Central  Africa 

Norway  

Sweden  

Italy  

OCEANICA. 

Australia  
New  Zealand  

Spain  and  Portugal. 
Belgium  

Austria  

Hungary  

Russia  

Hawaii  

i 
i 

Total  ... 

Buleraria.  .. 

<U?6i 

Y.  M.  C,  A. 


1423 


Zone-Tariff  System. 


NUMBER  OP    ASSOCIATIONS  IN  THE  UNITED 
STATES  AND  CANADA. 


Num- 
ber. 

Num- 
ber. 

Alabama  
Arizona  

16 

i 
6 

34 
ii 

25 

i 

2 

I 
20 

New  York  
North  Carolina  
North  Dakota  

162 
33 
9 
67 

i 
IS 

146 
27 

9 

32 

i 

'4 
56 
ii 

12 

37 

i 

3 

8 
18 
42 
3 
4 

Ohio  

Oklahoma  

Oregon  ...   

Delaware  
Dist.  of  Columbia..  . 
Florida  

Pennsylvania  
Rhode  Island  

South  Carolina  
South  Dakota  

Tennessee  

108 

Texas  

31 

i 

54 
3° 
27 
6 
16 

22 

77 

36 

19 

8 
36 
25 

i 

13 
45 

Utah  

Indian  Territory  

Vermont  
Virginia  

Kansas  
Kentucky  

Washington  
West  Virginia  
Wisconsin  

Alberta    

Maryland  
Massachusetts  
Michigan  

British  Columbia  ..  . 

New  Brunswick.... 
Nova  Scotia  

Prince  Edw'd  Island 
Quebec  

Nebraska  

Nevada  
New  Hampshire  ... 
New  Jersey  

Total  

i>455 

The  total  membership  of  these  American  as- 
sociations is  263,298  ;  they  occupy  315  buildings 
of  their  own,  valued  at  $16,759,800,  and  have  a 
total  net  property  of  $16,655,014,  including  670 


libraries,  containing  479,563  volumes.  They 
employ  1248  general  secretaries  and  other  paid 
officials,  and  expended  last  year  for  current  ex- 
penses— local.  State  and  National — $250,170.  In 
1872  railroad  Y.  M.  C.  A.'s  were  begun  in  the 
United  States,  and  in  1893  numbered  100,  with 
25,000  members.  In  1877  college  Y.  M.  C.  A.'s 
were  begun,  and  in  1893  numbered  500,  with 
33,000  members.  In  1893  the  members  in 
England  and  Wales  were  33,563  ;  in  Scotland, 
25,500  ;  in  Germany,  64,362. 

YOUNG  WOMEN'S  CHRISTIAN  AS- 
SOCIATIONS were  first  organized  in  London 
in  1855,  an  International  Association  was  formed 
in  1886,  and  The  World's  Y.  W.  C.  A.  in  1893. 
In  America,  19  States  have  organized  State  as- 
sociations. Each  State  holds  an  annual  conven- 
tion. The  international  convention  occurs  bien  - 
nially.  Each  year  four  summer  schools  are 
held  for  the  training  of  young  women  in  secre- 
tarial and  Bible  work.  The  Evangel,  the  offi- 
cial organ  of  the  associations,  is  published 
monthly  at  Chicago,  111.  The  second  Thursday 
of  October  is  observed  as  a  day  of  prayer  for 
young  women.  A  special  department  is  main- 
tained for  young  women  of  colleges,  and  through 
this  department  the  student  volunteer  movement 
is  connected  with  the  association  work. 

General  statistics  :  Number  of  associations  in 
Great  Britain,  1340  ;  on  the  Continent  of  Eu- 
rope, 20  ;  India,  20  ;  Australia,  25  ;  America, 
345  ;  other  places,  including  China  and  Japan, 
175  ;  total  world,  1570.  Membership  of  Ameri- 
can associations,  35,000. 


Z. 


ZOAR. — The  communistic  settlement  of  Zoar 
was  founded  in  1817  by  a  sect  from  Wiirtem- 
berg,  in  Germany,  called  Separatists.  The 
communistic  element,  however,  was  an  after- 
thought, only  dating  from  1819.  Objection  to 
war  and  to  the  formalities  of  the  established  re- 
ligion, coupled  with  a  warm  welcome  from  the 
Quakers  of  Philadelphia,  seem  to  have  drawn 
them  from  Germany.  Joseph  Baumeler  was 
their  main  leader  till  his  death  in  1853.  They 
allow  marriage,  maintain  family  life,  and  seem 
broader  in  their  religious  views  than  most  of 
the  German  communistic  sects  of  America.  Ac- 
cording to  Professor  Ely's  The  Labor  Move- 
ment in  America  (1886),  they  then  owned  sev- 
eral thousand  acres  of  land,  had  several  manu- 
facturing establishments,  and  property  valued 
at  $1,500,000,  with  a  membership  of  390  souls. 
At  present  they  are  said  to  be  prosperous,  but 
smaller  in  number,  and  more  like  a  rich  corpora- 
tion than  a  community. 

ZOLLVEREIN  (tax  union)  is  the  name 
given  to  a  union  of  the  German  States,  pro- 
posed first  by  Prussia,  and  in  1834  entered  into 
by  18  States,  according  to  which  all  duties  were 
abolished  on  the  frontiers  between  the  States  of 
the  union,  and  the  duties  on  the  frontier  of  the 
union  were  divided  between  the  States  in  pro- 
portion to  their  population.  By  1854  all  the 


principal  German  States  had  entered  the  union. 
It  ended  with  the  formation  of  the  German  Em- 
pire in  1871. 

ZONE-TARIFF  SYSTEM.— August,  1889, 
a  new  system  of  railroad  fares  was  introduced 
in  Hungary,  called  zone-tariff  system,  in  which 
the  rates  are  fixed,  not  according  to  the  num- 
ber of  miles  traveled  by  the  passenger,  but  ac- 
cording to  the  number  of  zones  traversed  or  en- 
tered upon  during  the  journey.  Starting  from 
a  given  center,  the  railroads  are  divided  into  14 
zones  or  stretches.  The  first  zone  includes  all 
stations  with  25  kilometers  of  the  center  ;  the 
second  all  more  than  25  and  less  than  40  ;  the 
third,  all  between  40  and  55  kilometers,  etc., 
each  zone  after  the  first  up  to  the  twelfth  being 
15  kilometers  long,  or,  as  we  should  perhaps 
better  say,  wide.  The  twelfth  and  thirteenth 
zones  are  25  kilometers  wide,  and  the  fourteenth 
includes  all  stations  more  than  225  kilometers 
from  the  capital.  Tickets  are  sold  by  zones, 
being  good  for  all  stations  within  the  zone. 

Two  grades  of  local  tickets  were  adopted,  the 
first  being  to  the  first  station  and  the  second  to 
the  second.  The  third  station  comes  within  the 
zone  ticket. 

A  normal  fare  was  adopted  per  zone  (taking 
40  cents  as  the  gulden)  of  20,  16,  and  10  cents 
per  zone,  according  to  the  class  one  uses — first, 


Zone-Tariff  System. 


1424 


Zone-Tariff  -System. 


second  or  third.  The  fare  for  any  zone  up  to 
the  twelfth  is  found  by  simply  multiplying  the 
number  of  zone  into  this  normal  rate.  The  fare 
for  stations  in  the  thirteenth  zone  is  fourteen 
times  the  normal  rate,  except  for  the  second 
class,  in  which  case  it  is  a  trifle  less.  The  fare 
for  stations  in  the  fourteenth  zone,  which  in- 
cludes all  stations  more  than  225  kilometers,  is 
sixteen  times  the  normal  rate,  with  the  excep- 
tion of  second-class  fare  again,  which  is  a  trifle 
less.  The  rates  between  any  two  adjacent  sta- 
tions, regardless  of  differences  of  distance,  were 
12  cents  first  class,  6  cents  second  class,  and 
4  cents  third  class,  and  from  any  one  station  to 
the  second  station,  16,  9  and  6  cents.  For  all 
distances  between  140  and  457  miles  the  sta- 
tions were  grouped  with  a  uniform  rate,  by  or- 
dinary trains,  $3.20,  $2.32  and  $1.60  for  the  re- 
spective classes.  By  express  trains  the  rates 
were  about  20  per  cent,  higher.  This  system, 
as  will  be  shown  in  a  moment,  introduced  a 
great  reduction  in  the  average  fare  and  an 
enormous  reduction  in  the  long-distance  fare. 

Says  Professor  E.  J.  James,  describing  the  sys- 
tem in  the  Annals  of  the  American  Academy 
of  Political  and  Social  Science  (July,  1890)  : 

"  The  reduction,  as  compared  with  the  old  rates,  is 
enormous.  The  old  rates  from  Budapest  to  Kronstadt 
were  44,  31  and  22  gulden ;  the  new  are  8,  5.8  and  4,  a 
reduction  of  82  per  cent.  This  represents  the  extreme 
reduction,  the  per  cent,  of  reduction  growing  smaller 
as  you  go  nearer  to  the  starting-point.  At  Klausen- 
burg  the  old  rates  were  24, 17  and  12,  as  compared  with 
the  rates  just  given,  the  distance  being  400  kilometers, 
a  reduction  of  66.6  per  cent.  At  Medzo  Telegd,  a  dis- 
tance of  271  kilometers,  the  reduction  is  still  more  than 
50  per  cent.,  and  at  100  kilometers  the  reduction  is  still 
nearly  50  per  cent.,  while  local  reductions  have  also 
been  very  considerable. 

"  The  simplification  of  the  tariff  is  very  great.  Un- 
der the  old  system,  the  number  of  distinct  tickets 
which  had  to  be  kept  in  every  large  office  was  nearly 
700.  It  is  now  only  Q2. 

"  The  railroad  tickets  are  now  placed  on  sale  like 
postage  stamps  at  the  post-offices,  hotels,  cigar  shops 
and  other  convenient  places.  The  public  is  greatly 
pleased  at  the  discarding  of  the  complicated  machin- 
ery of  ticket-selling  as  practised  under  the  old  system. 

"  The  most  interesting  thing,  however,  in  this  exper- 
iment, is  the  way  in  which  the  passenger  traffic  has  in- 
creased under  the  stimulus  of  the  new  rates.  The 
time  is  too  short  to  enable  us  to  draw  definite  conclu- 
sions, but  the  facts  are  striking  and  significant.  The 
number  of  passengers  during  the  last  five  months  of 


1887  was  2,389,400  ;  during  the  same  period  of  1888,  was 

2,381,200 ;  while  for  the  same  period  of  1889— the  first 

period  under  the  new  system— it  was 

5,584,600,  an  increase  of  over  133  per  cent. 

The  receipts  from  the  traffic  under  the       Results 

new    system    were   over    18    per    cent. 

greater  than  under  the  old.*    In  other 

words,  passenger  traffic  will  respond  to  lower  rates,  a 

thing  which  some  railroad  managers  have  denied. 

"Hungary  was  in  some  respects  the  most  unfavor- 
able country  inWesternEurope  for  such  an  experiment. 
It  has  relatively  a  small  population,  scattered  over  a 
large  territory,  poor,  ignorant,  conservative,  the  kind 
of  a  population  not  likely  to  respond  quickly  to  such  a 
thing  as  a  reduction  in  long-distance  railroad  fares. 
The  success  of  the  experiment  has  fixed  the  attention 
of  railroad  managers  on  the  Continent.  Austria  is 
about  to  adopt  a  somewhat  similar  system.  French, 
Belgian  and  German  engineers  are  going  to  Hungary 
to  study  the  system  on  the  spot." 

Mr.  James  L.  Cowles,  writing  later  in  his  A 
General  Freight  and  Passenger  Post  (1896), 
says  : 

"  The  result  was  that  the  neighborhood  passenger 
traffic  of  Hungary  increased  in  the  interval,  1889  to 
1892,  from  2,912,400  to  20,412,100,  over  600  per  cent.,  and 
the  long-distance  travel  increased  from  246,200  to  970,- 
600,  or  294  per  cent. 

"  One  of  the  results  of  the  reform  of  the  railway  sys- 
tem of  Hungary  has  been  to  throw  the  burden  of  rail- 
road expenses  on  the  shoulders  of  those  able  to  bear 
it,  viz.,  on  the  long-distance  travelers  using  ex- 
press trains,  the  class  corresponding  to  our  Pullman- 
car  travelers.  This  class,  numbering  in  1892  about 
a  million,  paid  over  20  per  cent,  of  the  entire  passenger 
taxes.  In  the  United  States  this  class  does  not  pay 
one  half  the  cost  of  their  own  transportation."  (See 
RAILROADS.) 


*  Since  the  above  paper  was  read,  later  figures  have 
been  published,  showing  that  up  to  March  31— i.e.,  for 
the  first  eight  months  of  the  experiment— the  increase 
in  passenger  traffic  was  169  per  cent,  over  the  traffic 
in  the  corresponding  eight  months  under  the  old 
system,  having  risen  to  7,770,876  as  compared  with 
2,891,332.  The  result  is  still  more  remarkable  with  re- 
gard to  traffic  between  neighboring  stations.  Where- 
as, under  the  old  tariff,  only  255,000  persons  used  the 
railways  for  such  purpose,  their  number  during  the 
above  eight  months  rose  to  4,367,586.  It  is  reported  in 
Budapest  that  the  government  is  contemplating  a  still 
further  reduction. 


lldllt-llCll       WIL1IWUL      Ally     lUVavOBC      ILL    U  JJC I  el  LI  11^,    CA^CllJSCO. 

This  could  be  done  because  the  cars  under  the  old  sys- 
tem were  scarcely  ever  more  than  one  third  full. 


APPENDIX 


i. 


PLATFORMS   OP  POLITICAL  PARTIES   IN  THE   UNITED  STATES   FOR   1896  NOT 

PRINTED   IN  THE  TEXT. 


PLATFORM    OF    THE      NATIONAL    DEMOCRATIC    PARTY. 
ADOPTED  AT  INDIANAPOLIS,  IND.,  SEPTEMBER  3,  1896. 

This  convention  has  assembled  to  uphold  the  prin- 
ciples upon  which  depend  the  honor  and  welfare 
of  the  American  people,  in  order  that  Democrats 
throughout  the  Union  may  unite  their  patriotic  efforts 
to  avert  disaster  from  their  country  and  ruin  from 
their  party. 

Standard  Democratic  Principles.—  The  Democratic 
party  is  pledged  to  equal  and  exact  justice  to  all  men 
of  every  creed  and  condition  ;  to  the  largest  freedom 
of  the  individual  consistent  with  good  government ;  to 
the  preservation  of  the  Federal  Government  in  its 
constitutional  vigor,  and  to  the  support  of  the  States 
in  all  their  just  rights;  to  economy  in  the  public  ex- 
penditures ;  to  the  maintenance  of  the  public  faith  and 
sound  money  ;  and  it  is  opposed  to  paternalism  and 
all  class  legislation. 

The  Chicago  Convention  Arraigned.— The  declara- 
tions of  the  Chicago  convention  attack  individual 
freedom,  the  right  of  private  contract,  the  indepen- 
dence of  the  judiciary,  and  the  authority  of  the  Presi- 
dent to  enforce  Federal  laws.  They  advocate  a  reckless 
attempt  to  increase  the  price  of  silver  by  legislation  to 
the  debasement  of  our  monetary  standard,  and  threaten 
unlimited  issues  of  paper  money  by  the  Government. 
They  abandon  for  Republican  allies  the  Democratic 
cause  of  tariff  reform  to  court  the  favor  of  protec- 
tionists to  their  fiscal  heresy. 

In  view  of  these  and  other  grave  departures  from 
Democratic  principles,  we  cannot  support  the  candi- 
dates of  that  convention  nor  be  bound  by  its  acts. 
The  Democratic  party  has  survived  many  defeats, 
but  could  not  survive  a  victory  won  in  behalf  of  the 
doctrine  and  policy  it  proclaimed  in  its  name  at 
Chicago. 

The  Republican  Party  Responsible.— -The  conditions, 
however,  which  make  possible  such  utterances  from  a 
national  convention  are  the  direct  result  of  class 
legislation  by  the  Republican  party.  It  still  pro- 
claims, as  it  has  for  years,  the  power  and  duty  of 
government  to  raise  and  maintain  prices  by  law, 
and  it  proposes  no  remedy  for  existing  evils  except 
oppressive  and  unjust  taxation. 

The  Tariff  Issue.— The  National  Democracy  here 
convened,  therefore,  renews  its  declaration  of  faith 
in  Democratic  principles,  especially  as  applicable  to 
the  conditions  of  the  times.  Taxation,  tariff,  excise 
or  direct,  is  rightfully  imposed  only  for  public 


Jl 

be  limited  by  scrupulous  economy, 
by  the  Treasury  from  tariff  and  excise  levies  is 
affected  by  the  state  of  trade  and  volume  of  con- 
sumption. The  amount  required  by  the  Treasury  is 
determined  by  the  appropriations  made  by  Con- 
gress. 

The  demand  of  the  Republican  party  for  an  increase 
in  tariff  taxation  has  its  pretext  in  the  deficiency  of 
revenue,  •which  has  its  causes  in  the  stagnation  of 
trade  and  reduced  consumption,  due  entirely  to  the 
loss  of  confidence  that  has  followed  the  Populist 
threat  of  free  coinage  and  depreciation  of  our  money, 

90 


and  the  Republican  practice  of  extravagant  appropri- 
ations beyond  the  needs  of  good  government.    We 
arraign    and    condemn    the    Populistic 
conventions  of  Chicago  and  St.  Louis 
for  their  cooperation  with  the  Ropubli-    The  Tariff 
can  party  in  creating  these  conditions        T«qrlfi 
which  are  pleaded  in  justification  of  a        Asoue. 
heavy  increase    of  the  burdens  of  the 
people  by  a  further  resort  to  protection. 

Protection  and  Its  Ally.— We  therefore  denounce 
protection  and  its  ally,  free  coinage  of  silver,  as 
schemes  for  the  personal  profit  of  a  few  at  the  expense 
of  the  masses,  and  oppose  the  two  parties  which  stand 
for  these  schemes  as  hostile  to  the  people  of  the  re- 
public, whose  food  and  shelter,  comfort  and  pros- 
perity, are  attacked  by  higher  taxes  and  depreciated 
money ;  in  fine,  we  reaffirm  the  historic  Democratic 
doctrine  of  tariff  for  revenue  only. 

American  Shipping.— We  demand  that  henceforth 
modern  and  liberal  policies  toward  American  shipping 
shall  take  the  place  of  our  imitation  of  the  restricted 
statutes  of  the  eighteenth  century,  which  have  been 
abandoned  by  every  maritime  power  but  the  United 
States,  and  which,  to  the  nation's  humiliation,  have 
driven  American  capital  and  enterprise  to  the  use  of 
alien  flags  and  alien  crews,  have  made  the  Stars  and 
Stripes  an  almost  unknown  emblem  in  foreign  ports, 
and  have  virtually  extinguished  the  race  of  American 
seamen. 

We  oppose  the  pretense  that  discriminating  duties 
will  promote  shipping  ;  that  scheme  is  an  invitation  to 
commercial  warfare  upon  the  United  States,  un- 
American  in  the  light  of  our  great  commercial  treaties, 
offering  no  gain  whatever  to  American  shipping,  while 
greatly  increasing  ocean  freights  on  our  agricultural 
and  manufactured  products. 

The  Currency.  —  The  experience  of  mankind  has 
shown  that  by  reason  of  their  natural  qualities,  gold  is 
the  necessary  money  of  the  large  affairs  of  commerce 
and  business,  while  silver  is  conveniently  adapted  to 
minor  transactions,  and  the  most  beneficial  use  of 
both  together  can  be  insured  on  it  by  the  adoption  of 
the  former  as  a  standard  of  monetary  measure,  and 
the  maintenance  of  silver  at  a  parity  with  gold  by  its 
limited  coinage  under  suitable  safeguards  of  law. 

Thus  the  largest  possible  enjoyment  of  both  metals 
is  gained  with  a  value  universally  accepted  through- 
out the  world,  which  constitutes  the  only  practical 
bimetallic  currency,  assuring  the  most 
stable  standard,  and  especially  the  best 
and  safest  money  for  all  who  earn  their  r 
livelihood  by  labor  or  the  produce  of ' 
husbandry.     They  cannot  suffer  when 
paid  in  the  best  money  known  to  man, 
but  are  the    peculiar    and  most  defenseless  victims 
of  a  debased  and  fluctuating  currency,  which  offers 
continual  profits  to  the  money  changer  at  their  cost. 

Realizing  the  truths  demonstrated  by  long  and 
public  inconvenience  and  loss,  the  Democratic  party, 
in  the  interest  of  the  masses  and  of  equal  justice  to 
all,  practically  established  by  the  legislation  of  1834  and 
1853  the  gold  standard  of  monetary  measurement  and 
likewise  entirely  divorced  the  Government  from 
banking  and  currency  issues. 


1426 


APPENDIX. 


Gold  Must  be  the  Standard.— To  this  long-estab- 
lished Democratic  policy  we  adhere,  and  insist  upon 
the  maintenance  of  the  gold  standard  and  of  the 
parity  therewith  of  every  dollar  issued  by  the  Govern- 
ment, and  are  firmly  opposed  to  the  free  and  unlimited 
coinage  of  silver  and  to  the  compulsory  purchase  of 
silver  bullion. 

Government  Must  Cease  the  Banking  Business. — But 
we  denounce  also  the  further  maintenance  of  the 
present  patchwork  system  of  national  paper  currency 
as  a  constant  source  of  injury  and  peril.  We  assert  the 
necessity  of  such  intelligent  currency  reform  as  will 
confine  the  Government  to  its  legitimate  functions, 
completely  separated  from  the  banking  business,  and 
afford  to  all  sections  of  our  country  a  uniform,  safe, 
and  elastic  bank  currency  under  governmental  super- 
vision, measured  in  volume  by  the  needs  of  busi- 
ness. 

The  Cleveland  Democratic  Administration.  — The 
fidelity,  patriotism,  and  courage  with  which  President 
Cleveland  has  fulfilled  his  great  public  trust,  the  high 
character  of  his  administration,  its  wisdom  and  energy 
in  the  maintenance  of  civil  order  and  the  enforcement 
of  the  laws,  its  equal  regard  for  the  rights  of  every 
class  and  every  section,  its  firm  and  dignified  conduct 
of  foreign  affairs,  and  its  sturdy  persistence  in  up- 
holding the  credit  and  honor  of  the  nation,  are  fully 
recognized  by  the  Democratic  party,  and  will  secure 
to  him  a  place  in  history  beside  the  fathers  of  the 
republic. 

Civil  Service  Reform. — We  also  commend  the  ad- 
ministration for  the  great  progress  made  in  the  reform 
of  the  public  service,  and  we  endorse  its  effort  to 
extend  the  merit  system  still  further.  We  demand 
that  no  backward  step  be  taken,  but  that  the  reform 
be  supported  and  advanced  until  the  un-Democratic 
spoils  system  of  appointments  shall  be  eradicated. 

Economy  in  Public  Expenditures.  —  We  demand 
strict  economy  in  the  appropriations  and  in  the  ad- 
ministration of  the  Government. 

Arbitration  of  International  Disputes. — We  favor 
arbitration  for  the  settlement  of  international  disputes. 

Pensions. — We  favor  a  liberal  policy  of  pensions  to 
deserving  soldiers  and  sailors  of  the  United  States. 

Integrity  of  the  Supreme  Court.  —  The  Supreme 
Court  of  the  United  States  was  wisely  established  by 
the  framers  of  our  Constitution  as  one  of  the  three  co- 
ordinate branches  of  the  Government.  Its  indepen- 
dence and  authority  to  interpret  the  law  of  the  land 
without  fear  or  favor  must  be  maintained. 

We  condemn  all  efforts  to  degrade  that  tribunal  or 
impair  the  confidence  and  respect  which  it  has  de- 
servedly held. 

The  Maintenance  of  Public  Order. — The  Democratic 
party  ever  has  maintained,  and  ever  will  maintain, 
the  supremacy  of  law,  the  independence  of  its  judicial 
administration,  the  inviolability  of  contract  and  the 
obligations  of  all  good  citizens  to  resist  every  illegal 
trust,  combination,  or  attempt  against  the  just  rights 
of  property,  and  the  good  order  of  society,  in  which 
are  bound  up  the  peace  and  happiness  of  our  people. 

Believing  these  principles  to  be  essential  to  the 
well-being  of  the  republic,  we  submit  them  to  the 
consideration  of  the  American  people. 

PLATFORM       OF       THE       DEMOCRATIC       PARTY     (FREE 
SILVER).      ADOPTED  AT  CHICAGO,  JULY  9,  1896. 

We,  the  Democrats  of  the  United  States  in  national 
convention  assembled,  do  reaffirm  our  allegiance  to 
those  great  essential  principles  of  justice  and  liberty, 
upon  which  our  institutions  are  founded,  and  which 
the  Democratic  party  has  advocated  from  Jefferson's 
time  to  our  own— freedom  of  speech,  freedom  of  the 
press,  freedom  of  conscience,  the  preservation  of  per- 
sonal rights,  the  equality  of  all  citizens  before  the 
law,  and  the  faithful  observance  of  constitutional 
limitations. 

During  all  these  years  the  Democratic  party  has 
resisted  the  tendency  of  selfish  interest  to  the  central- 
ization of  governmental  power  and  steadfastly  main- 
tained the  integrity  of  the  dual  scheme  of  govern- 
ment established  by  the  founders  of  this  republic  of 
republics.  Under  its  guidance  and  teachings  the 
great  principle  of  local  self-government  has  found  its 
best  expression  in  the  maintenance  of  the  rights  of  the 
States  and  in  its  assertion  of  the  necessity  of  confining 
the  general  government  to  the  exercise  of  powers 
granted  by  the  Constitution  of  the  United  States. 

The  Constitution  of  the  United  States  guarantees 
to  every  citizen  the  rights  of  civil  and  religious  liberty. 
The  Democratic  party  has  always  been  the  exponent 
of  political  liberty  and  religious  freedom,  and  it  re- 


news  its    obligations  and    reaffirms    its  devotion   to 
these  fundamental  principles  of  the  Constitution. 

7^/ie  Money  Question. — Recognizing  that  the  money 
question  is  paramount  to  all  others  at  this  time,  we 
invite  attention  to  the  fact  that  the  Con- 
stitution names  silver  and  gold  together 


as    the    money  metals    of    the    United  The  Money 

States,   and  that  the  first  coinage  law     Or,/*,,*;,,,, 

passed  by  Congress  under  the  Constitu-     **uesiion, 

tion  made  the  silver  dollar  the  money 

unit  of  value  and  admitted  gold  to  free 

coinage  at  a  ratio  based  upon  the  silver  dollar  unit. 

Demonetization  Act  0/1873  Condemned. — We  declare 
that  the  Act  of  1873  demonetizing  silver  without  the 
knowledge  or  approval  of  the  American  people  has 
resulted  in  the  appreciation  of  gold  and  a  correspond- 
ing fall  in  the  prices  of  commodities  produced  by  the 
people  ;  a  heavy  increase  in  the  burden  of  taxation 
and  of  all  debts,  public  and  private  ;  the  enrichment  of 
the  money-lending  class  at  home  and  abroad  ;  the  pros- 
tration of  industry  and  impoverishment  of  the  people. 

Opposed  to  Gold  Monometallism.— We  are  unalterably 
opposed  to  monometallism,  which  has  locked  fast  the 

Erosperity  of  an  industrial  people  in  the  paralysis  of 
ard  times.  Gold  monometallism  is  a  British  policy, 
and  its  adoption  has  brought  other  nations  into  finan- 
cial servitude  to  London.  It  is  not  only  un-American, 
but  anti-American,  and  it  can  be  fastened  on  the 
United  States  only  by  the  stifling  of  that  indomitable 
spirit  and  love  of  liberty  which  proclaimed  our  po- 
litical independence  in  1776  and  won  it  in  the  War  of 
the  Revolution. 

Free  Silver  Coinage. — We.  demand  the  free  and  un- 
limited coinage  of  both  silver  and  gold  at  the  present 
legal  ratio  of  16  to  i,  without  waiting  for  the  aid  or 
consent  of  any  other  nation.  We  demand  that  the 
standard  silver  dollar  shall  be  a  full  legal  tender 
equally  with  gold  for  all  debts,  public  and  private, 
and  we  favor  such  legislation  as  will  prevent  for  the 
future  the  demonetization  of  any  kind  of  legal  tender 
money  by  private  contract. 

We  are  opposed  to  the  policy  and  practice  of  surren- 
dering to  the  holders  of  the  obligations  of  the  United 
States  the  option  reserved  by  law  to  the  Government 
of  redeeming  such  obligations  in  either  silver  coin  or 
gold  coin. 

TV/i?  Bond  Issues. — We  are  opposed  to  the  issuing  of 
interest-bearing  bonds  of  the  United  States  in  time 
of  peace  and  condemn  the  trafficking  with  banking 
syndicates,  which  in  exchange  for  bonds  and  at  an 
enormous  profit  to  themselves  supply  the  Federal 
Treasury  with  gold  to  maintain  the  policy  of  gold 
monometallism. 

National  Bank  Ctirrency  Opposed. — Congress  alone 
has  the  power  to  coin  and  Issue  money,  and  President 
Jackson  declared  that  this  power  could  not  be  dele- 
gated to  corporations  or  individuals.  We  therefore 
denounce  the  issuance  of  notes  intended  to  circulate  as 
money  by  National  banks  as  in  derogation  of  the 
Constitution,  and  we  demand  that  all  paper  which  is 
made  a  legal  tender  for  public  and  private  debts,  or 
which  is  receivable  for  duties  to  the  United  States 
shall  be  issued  by  the  Government  of  the  United 
States,  and  shall  be  redeemable  in  coin. 

Tlie  Tariff. — We  hold  that  tariff  duties  should  be 
levied  for  purposes  of  revenue,  such  duties  to  be  so 
adjusted  as  to  operate  equally  throughout  the  country 
and  not  discriminate  between  class  or  section,  and 
that  taxation  should  be  limited  by  the  needs  of  the 
Government,  honestly  and  economically  administered. 
We  denounce  as  disturbing  to  business  the  Republican 
threat  to  restore  the  McKinley  law,  which  has  twice 
been  condemned  by  the  people  in  National  elections, 
and  which,  enacted  under  the  false  plea  of  protection 
to  home  industry,  proved  a  prolific  breeder  of  trusts 
and  monopolies,  enriched  the  few  at  the  expense  of 
the  many,  restricted  trade,  and  deprived  the  pro- 
ducers of  the  great  American  staples  of  access  to 
their  natural  markets. 

The    Supreme  Court   Criticized. — Until  the    money 
question  is  settled  we  are  opposed  to  any  agitation  for 
further  changes  in  our  tariff  laws,  except  such  as  are 
necessary  to  meet  the  deficit  in  revenue  caused  by  the 
adverse  decision  of  the  Supreme  Court  on  the  income 
tax.     But  for  this   decision  by  the  Su- 
preme Court,  there  would  be  no  deficit 
in  the  revenue  under  the  law  passed  by  The 

a  Democratic  Congress  in  strict  pur-  g Upreme  Court 
suance  of  the  uniform  decisions  of  that     £~*?Z*'i     j 
court  for  nearly  ipo  years,  that  court     Criticized. 
having  in  that  decision  sustained  Con- 
stitutional objections  to  its  enactment 
which   had  previously   been   overruled  by  the  ablest 
judges  who  have  ever  sat  on  that  bench.    We  declare 


APPENDIX. 


1427 


that  it  is  the  duty  of  Congress  to  use  all  the  Constitu- 
tional power  which  remains  after  that  decision,  or 
which  may  come  from  its  reversal  by  the  court  as  it 
may  hereafter  be  constituted,  so  that  the  burdens  of 
taxation  may  be  equally  and  impartially  laid,  to  the 
end  that  wealth  may  bear  its  due  proportion  of  the 
expenses  of  the  Government. 

Regulation  of  Immigration.— VI  v  hold  that  the  most 
efficient  way  of  protecting  American  labor  is  to  pre- 
vent the  importation  of  foreign  pauper  labor  to  com- 
pete with  it  in  the  home  market,  and  that  the  value  of 
the  home  market  to  our  American  farmers  and  artizans 
is  greatly  reduced  by  a  vicious  monetary  system 
which  depresses  the  prices  of  their  products  below  the 
cost  of  production,  and  thus  deprives  them  of  the 
means  of  purchasing  the  products  of  our  home  manu- 
factories ;  and  as  labor  creates  the  wealth  of  the 
Country,  we  demand  the  passage  of  such  laws  as  may 
be  necessary  to  protect  it  in  all  its  rights. 

Arbitration  in  Railway  Labor  Disputes. — We  are  in 
favor  of  the  arbitration  of  differences  between  em- 
ployers engaged  in  interstate  commerce  and  their 
employees,  and  recommend  such  legislation  as  is 
necessary  to  carry  out  this  principle. 

Trusts  and  Pools. — The  absorption  of  wealth  by  the 
few,  the  consolidation  of  our  leading  railroad  systems, 
and  the  formation  of  trusts  and  pools  require  a  stricter 
control  by  the  Federal  Government  of  those  arteries 
of  commerce.  We  demand  the  enlargement  of  the 
powers  of  the  Interstate  Commerce  Commission  and 
such  restrictions  and  guarantees  in  the  control  of  rail- 
roads as  will  protect  the  people  from  robbery  and 
oppression. 

Economy  in  Public  Expenditures. — We  denounce  the 
profligate  waste  of  the  money  wrung  from  the  people 
by  oppressive  taxation  and  the  lavish  appropriations 
of  recent  Republican  Congresses,  which  have  kept 
taxes  high,  while  the  labor  that  pays  them  is  unem- 
ployed and  the  products  of  the  people's  toil  are  de- 
pressed in  price  till  they  no  longer  repay  the  cost  of 
production.  We  demand  a  return  to  that  simplicity 
and  economy  which  befit  a  democratic  Government 
and  a  reduction  in  the  number  of  useless  offices,  the 
salaries  of  which  drain  the  substance  of  the  people. 

Federal  Intervention  in  Local  Affairs. — We  denounce 
arbitrary  interference  by  Federal  authorities  in  local 
affairs  as  a  violation  of  the  Constitution  of  the  United 
States,  and  a  crime  against  free  insti.utions,  and  we 
especially  object  to  government  by  injunction  as  a 
new  and  highly  dangerous  form  of  oppression  by 
•which  Federal  judges,  in  contempt  of  the  laws  of  the 
States  and  rights  of  citizens,  become  at  once  legisla- 
tors, judges,  and  executioners,  and  we  approve  the 
bill  passed  at  the  last  session  of  the  United  States 
Senate,  and  now  pending  in  the  House  of  Representa- 
tives, relative  to  contempts  in  Federal  Courts  and 
providing  for  trials  by  jury  in  certain  cases  of  con- 
tempt. 

The  Pacific  Railroad. — No  discrimination  should  be 
indulged  by  the  Government  of  the  United  States  in 
favor  of  any  of  its  debtors.  We  approve  of  the  refusal 
of  the  Fifty-third  Congress  to  pass  the  Pacific  Railroad 
Funding  Bill,  and  denounce  the  efforts  of  the  present 
Republican  Congress  to  enact  a  similar  measure. 

Soldiers'  Pensions. — Recognizing  the  just  claims  of 
deserving  Union  soldiers,  we  heartily  indorse  the  rule 
of  the  present  Commissioner  of  Pensions  that  no 
names  shall  be  arbitrarily  dropped  from  the  pension 
roll  ;  and  the  fact  of  enlistment  and  service  should  be 
deemed  conclusive  evidence  against  disease  and  dis- 
ability before  enlistment. 

Admission  of  Territories. — We  favor  the  admission 
of  the  Territories  of  New  Mexico,  Oklahoma,  and 
Arizona  into  the  Union  as  States,  and  we  favor  the 
early  admission  of  all  the  Territories  having  the 
necessary  population  and  resources  to  entitle  them  to 
Statehood,  and  while  they  remain  Territories,  we  hold 
that  the  officials  appointed  to  administer  the  govern- 
ment of  any  Territory,  together  with  the  District  of 
Columbia  and  Alaska,  should  be  bonafide  residents  of 
the  Territory  or  District  in  which  the  duties  are  to  be 
performed.  The  Democratic  party  believes  in  home 
rule  and  that  all  public  lands  of  the  United  States 
should  be  appropriated  to  the  establishment  of  free 
homes  for  American  citizens. 

We  recommend  that  the  Territory  of  Alaska  be 
granted  a  delegate  in  Congress,  and  that  the  general 
land  and  timber  laws  of  the  United  States  be  extended 
to  said  Territory. 

The  Monroe  Doctrine.  —  The  Monroe  Doctrine,  as 
originally  declared  and  as  interpreted  by  succeeding 
Presidents,  is  a  permanent  part  of  the  foreign  policy 
of  the  United  States,  and  must  at  all  times  be  main- 
tained. 


Sympathy  for  Cu&a.—Vfe  extend  our  sympathy  to  the 
people  of  Cuba  in  their  heroic  struggle  for  liberty  and 
independence. 

Rotation  in  Office.— We  are  opposed  to  life  tenure 
in  the  public  service.  We  favor  appointments  based 
upon  merit,  fixed  terms  of  office,  and  such  an  ad- 
ministration of  the  civil  service  laws  as  will  afford 
equal  opportunities  to  all  citizens  of  ascertained 
fitness. 

Presidential  Third  Term.— We  declare  it  to  be  the 
unwritten  law  of  this  republic,  established  by  custom 
and  usage  of  100  years  and  sanctioned  by  the  examples 
of  the  greatest  and  wisest  of  those  who  founded  and 
have  maintained  our  Government,  that  no  man  should 
be  eligible  for  a  third  term  of  the  Presidential  office. 

Improvement  of  Waterways.— The  Federal  Govern- 
ment should  care  for  and  improve  the  Mississippi 
River  and  other  great  waterways  of  the  republic,  so 
as  to  secure  for  the  interior  States  easy  and  cheap 
transportation  to  tide-water.  When  any  waterway  of 
the  republic  is  of  sufficient  importance  to  demand  aid 
of  the  Government,  such  aid  should  be  extended  upon 
a  definite  plan  of  continuous  work  until  permanent 
improvement  is  secured. 

Confiding  in  the  justice  of  our  cause  and  the  necessity 
of  its  success  at  the  polls,  we  submit  the  foregoing 
declarations  of  principles  and  purposes  to  the  con- 
siderate judgment  of  the  American  people.  We 
invite  the  support  of  all  citizens  who  approve  them 
and  who  desire  to  have  them  made  effective  through 
legislation  for  the  relief  of  the  people  and  the  restora- 
tion of  the  country's  prosperity. 

PLATFORM    OF    THE  REPUBLICAN  PARTY,  ADOPTED  AT 
ST.  LOUIS,  MO.,  JUNE   18,  1896. 

The  Republicans  of  the  United  States,  assembled  by 
their  representatives  in  national  convention,  appealing 
for  the  popular  and  historical  justification  of  their 
claims  to  the  matchless  achievements  of  thirty  years 
of  Republican  rule,  earnestly  and  confidentially  ad- 
dress themselves  to  the  awakened  intelligence,  ex- 
Eerience,  and  conscience  of  their  countrymen  in  the 
blowing  declaration  of  facts  and  principles  : 

The  Democratic  Administration. — For  the  first  time 
since  the  Civil  War  the  American  people  have  wit- 
nessed the  calamitous  consequences  of  full  and  unre- 
stricted Democratic  control  of  the  Government.  It 
has  been  a  record  of  unparalleled  incapacity,  dishonor, 
and  disaster.  In  administrative  management  it  has 
ruthlessly  sacrificed  indispensable  revenue,  entailed 
an  unceasing  deficit,  eked  out  ordinary  current  ex- 

Eenses  with  borrowed  money,  piled  up  the  public  debt 
y  $262,000,000  in  time  of  peace,  forced  an  adverse 
balance  of  trade,  kept  a  perpetual  menace  hanging 
over  the  redemption  fund,  pawned  American  credit 
to  alien  syndicates,  and  reversed  all  the  measures 
and  results  of  successful  Republican  rule.  In  the 
broad  effect  of  its  policy  it  has  precipitated  panic, 
blighted  industry  and  trade  with  prolonged  depres- 
sion, closed  factories,  reduced  work  and  wages, 
halted  enterprise,  and  crippled  American  production 
while  stimulating  foreign  production  for  the  Ameri- 
can market.  Every  consideration  of  public  safety 
and  individual  interest  demands  that  the  Government 
shall  be  rescued  from  the  hands  of  those  who  have 
shown  themselves  incapable  to  conduct  it  without 
disaster  at  home  and  dishonor  abroad,  and  shall  be 
restored  to  the  party  which  for  thirty  years  adminis- 
tered it  with  unequaled  success  and  prosperity.  And 
in  this  connection  we  heartily  indorse  the  wisdom, 
patriotism,  and  the  success  of  the  administration  of 
President  Harrison. 

The  Tariff.  —  We  renew  and  emphasize  our  alle- 
giance to  the  policy  of  protection  as  the  bulwark  of 
American  industrial  independence  and  the  founda- 
tion of  American  development  and  prosperity.  This 
true  American  policy  taxes  foreign  products  and  en- 
courages home  ''ndustry ;  it  puts  the  burden  of 
revenue  on  foreign  goods ;  it  secures  the  American 
market  for  the  American  producer  ;  it  upholds  the 
American  standard  of  wages  for  the  American 
working  man ;  it  puts  the  factory  by  the  side  of  the 
farm  and  makes  the  American  farmer  less  dependent 
on  foreign  demand  and  price  ;  it  diffuses  general  thrift 
and  founds  the  strength  of  all  on  the  strength  of  each. 
In  its  reasonable  application  it  is  just,  fair,  and  impar- 
tial, equally  opposed  to  foreign  control  and  domestic 
monopoly,  to  sectional  discrimination,  and  individual 
favoritism. 

We  denounce  the  present  Democratic  tariff  as  sec- 
tional, injurious  to  the  public  credit,  and  destructive 
to  business  enterprise.  We  demand  such  an  equitable 
tariff  on  foreign  imports  which  come  into  competition 


1428 


APPENDIX. 


with  American  products  as  will  not  only  furnish 
adequate  revenue  for  the  necessary  expenses  of  the 
Government,  but  will  protect  American  labor  from 
degradation  to  the  wage  level  of  other  lands.  We  are 
not  pledged  to  any  particular  schedules.  The  ques- 
tion of  rates  is  a  practical  question,  to  be  governed  by 
the  conditions  of  the  time  and  of  production  ;  the  rul- 
ing and  uncompromising  principle  is  the  protection 
and  development  of  American  labor  and  industry. 
The  country  demands  a  right  settlement,  and  then  it 
wants  rest. 

Reciprocity  and  Protection.— -We  believe  the  repeal 
of  the  reciprocity  arrangements  negotiated  by  the  last 
Republican  administration  was  a  national  calamity, 
and  we  demand  their  renewal  and  extension  on  such 
terms  as  will  equalize  our  trade  with  other  nations,  re- 
move the  restrictions  which  now  obstruct  the  sale  of 
American  products  in  the  ports  of  other  countries, 
and  secure  enlarged  markets  for  the  produces  of  our 
farms,  forests,  and  factories. 

Protection  and  reciprocity  are  twin  measures  of 
Republican  policy,  and  go  hand  in  hand.  Democratic 
rule  has  recklessly  struck  down  both,  and  both  must 
be  reestablished.  Protection  for  what  we  produce ; 
free  admission  for  the  necessaries  of  life  which  we  do 
not  produce  ;  reciprocal  agreements  of  mutual  interests 
which  gain  open  markets  for  us  in  return  for  our  open 
market  to  others.  Protection  builds  up  domestic  in- 
dustry and  trade  and  secures  our  own  market  for 
ourselves  ;  reciprocity  builds  up  foreign  trade  and 
finds  an  outlet  for  our  surplus. 

Protection  for  Sugar  Growers.— We  condemn  the 
present  administration  for  not  keeping  faith  with  the 
sugar  producers  of  this  country.  The  Republican  party 
favor  such  protection  as  will  lead  to  the  production 
on  American  soil  of  all  the  sugar  which  the  American 
people  use,  and  for  which  they  pay  other  countries 
more  than  $100,000,000  annually. 

IVool  ana  Woolens.— To  all  our  products — to  those 
of  the  mine  and  the  field  as  well  as  those  of  the  shop 
and  the  factory— to  hemp,  to  wool,  the  product  of  the 
great  industry  of  sheep  husbandry,  as  well  as  to  the 
finished  woolens  of  the  mills,  we  promise  the  most 
.ample  protection. 

The  Merchant  Marine.  —  We  favor  restoring  the 
.-early  American  policy  of  discriminating  duties  for  the 
upbuilding  of  our  merchant  marine  and  the  protection 
•of  our  shipping  in  the  foreign  carrying  trade,  so  that 
American  ships— the  product  of  American  labor  em- 
ployed in  American  shipyards,  sailing  under  the  Stars 
,and  Stripes,  and  manned,  officered,  and  owned  by 
Americans— may  regain  the  carrying  of  our  foreign 
commerce. 

The  Currency  Question.— The  Republican  party  is 
unreservedly  for  sound  money.  It  caused  the  enact- 
ment of  the  law  providing  for  the  resumption  of  specie 
payments  in  1879  i  since  then  every  dollar  has  been  as 
as  good  as  gold.  We  are  unalterably 
opposed  to  every  measure  calculated  to 
The  Currency  debase  our  currency  or  impair  the 
Oupqtinn  credit  of  our  country.  We  are  therefore 
question.  0ppOSed  to  the  free  coinage  of  silver 
except  by  international  agreement  with 
the  leading  commercial  nations  of  the 
•world,  which  we  pledge  ourselves  to  promote,  and 
until  such  agreement  can  be  obtained  the  existing 
gold  standard  must  be  preserved.  All  our  silver  and 
paper  currency  must  be  maintained  at  parity  with 
gold,  and  we  favor  all  measures  designed  to  maintain 
inviolably  the  obligations  of  the  United  States,  and 
all  our  money,  whether  coin  or  paper,  at  the  present 
standard,  the  standard  of  the  most  enlightened  nations 
of  the  earth. 

Liberal  Pensions  for  Soldiers.— The  veterans  of  the 
Union  armies  deserve  and  should  receive  fair  treat- 
ment and  generous  recognition.  Whenever  practicable 
they  should  be  given  the  preference  in  the  matter  of 
employment,  and  they  are  entitled  to  the  enactment  of 
such  laws  as  are  best  calculated  to  secure  the  fulfil- 
ment of  the  pledges  made  to  them  in  the  dark  days  of 
the  country's  peril.  We  denounce  the  practice  in  the 
Pension  Bureau,  so  recklessly  and  unjustly  carried  on 
by  the  present  administration,  of  reducing  pensions 
and  arbitrarily  dropping  names  from  the  rolls,  as  de- 
serving the  severest  condemnation  of  the  American 
people. 

Foreign  Relations. — Our  foreign  policy  should  be 
at  all  times  firm,  vigorous,  and  dignified,  and  all  our 
interests  in  the  Western  Hemisphere  carefully  watched 
and  guarded.  The  Hawaiian  Islands  should  be  con- 
trolled by  the  United  States,  and  no  foreign  power 
should  be  permitted  to  interfere  with  them  ;  the  Nicara- 
guan  Canal  should  be  built,  owned,  and  operated  by 
the  United  States,  and  by  the  purchase  of  the  Danish 


Islands  we  would  secure  a  proper  and  much-needed 
naval  station  in  the  West  Indies. 

The  Armenian  Massacres. — The  massacres  in  Ar- 
menia have  aroused  the  deep  sympathy  and  just  in- 
dignation of  the  American  people,  and  we  believe  that 
the  United  States  should  exercise  all  the  influence  it 
can  properly  exert  to  bring  these  atrocities  to  an  end. 
In  Turkey,  American  residents  have  been  exposed  to 
the  gravest  dangers  and  American  property  destroyed. 
There  and  everywhere  American  citizens  and  Ameri- 
can property  must  be  absolutely  protected  at  all 
hazards  and  at  any  cost. 

The  Monroe  Doctrine.  —  We  reassert  the  Monroe 
Doctrine  in  its  full  extent,  and  we  reaffirm  the  right 
of  the  United  States  to  give  the  doctrine  effect  by  re- 
sponding to  the  appeal  of  any  American  States  for 
friendly  intervention  in  case  of  European  encroach- 
ment. We  have  not  interfered,  and  shall  not  inter- 
fere, with  the  existing  possessions  of  any  European 
power  in  this  hemisphere,  but  these  possessions  must 
not,  on  any  pretext,  be  extended.  We  hopefully  look 
forward  to  the  eventual  withdrawal  of  the  European 
powers  from  this  hemisphere,  and  to  the  ultimate 
union  of  all  of  the  English-speaking  part  of  the  conti- 
nent by  the  free  consent  of  its  inhabitants. 

Sympathy  for  Cu&a.—From  the  hour  of  achieving 
their  own  independence  the  people   of     the    United 
States  have  regarded  with    sympathy 
the  struggles  of  other  American  peoples 
to  free  themselves  from  European  domi-  Sympathy  for 
nation.    We  watch  with  deep  and  abid-          Cuba 
ing  interest    the   heroic    battle    of   the 
Cuban  patriots  against  cruelty  and  op- 
pression, and    our  best  hopes   go    out 
for  the  full  success  of  their  determined  contest  for 
liberty. 

The  Government  of  Spain,  having  lost  control  of 
Cuba,  and  being  unable  to  protect  the  property  or 
lives  of  resident  American  citizens,  or  to  comply  •with 
its  treaty  obligations,  we  believe  that  the  Government 
of  the  United  States  should  actively  use  its  influence 
and  good  offices  to  restore  peace  and  give  indepen- 
dence to  the  island. 

Enlargement  of  the  Navy. — The  peace  and  security 
of  the  republic  and  the  maintenance  of  its  rightful 
influence  among  the  nations  of  the  earth  demand  a 
naval  power  commensurate  with  its  position  and  re- 
sponsibility. We  therefore  favor  the  continued  en- 
largement of  the  navy  and  a  complete  system  of 
harbor  and  sea-coast  defenses. 

Foreign  Immigration.— for  the  protection  of  the 
quality  of  our  American  citizenship,  and  of  the  wages 
of  our  working  men  against  the  fatal  competition  of 
low-priced  labor,  we  demand  that  the  immigration 
laws  be  thoroughly  enforced,  and  so  extended  as  to 
exclude  from  entrance  to  the  United  States  those  who 
can  neither  read  nor  write. 

Civil  Service  Reform.— The  civil  service  law  was 
placed  on  the  statute  book  by  the  Republican  party, 
which  has  always  sustained  it,  and  we  renew  our  re- 

Eeated  declarations  that  it  shall  be  thoroughly  and 
onestly  enforced  and  extended  wherever  practicable. 

Free  and  Unrestricted  £a//ot.—We  demand  that 
every  citizen  of  the  United  States  shall  be  allowed  to 
cast  one  free  and  unrestricted  ballot,  and  that  such 
ballot  shall  be  counted  and  returned  as  cast. 

Lynchings. — We  proclaim  our  unqualified  condem- 
nation of  the  uncivilized  and  barbarous  practice,  well 
known  as  lynching  or  killing  of  human  beings  sus- 
pected or  charged  with  crime,  without  process  of  law. 

Labor  Arbitration.— -We  favor  the  creation  of  a 
National  Board  of  Arbitration  to  settle  and  adjust 
differences  which  may  arise  between  employers  and 
employed  engaged  in  interstate  commerce. 

Free  Homesteads. — We  believe  in  an  immediate 
return  to  the  free-homestead  policy  of  the  Republican 
party,  and  urge  the  passage  by  Congress  or  a  satis- 
factory free-homestead  measure  such  as  has  already 
passed  the  House  and  is  now  pending  in  the  Senate. 

Admission  of  Territories. — We  favor  the  admission 
of  the  remaining  Territories  at  the  earliest  practicable 
date,  having  due  regard  to  the  interests  of  the  people 
of  the  Territories  and  of  the  United  States.  All  the 
Federal  officers  appointed  for  the  Territories  should 
be  selected  from  oona  fide  residents  thereof,  and  the 
right  of  self-government  should  be  accorded  as  far  as 
practicable. 

Alaska  in  Congress. — We  believe  the  citizens  of 
Alaska  should  have  representation  in  the  Congress  of 
the  United  States,  to  the  end  that  needful  legislation 
may  be  intelligently  enacted. 

The  Liquor  Traffic.— -We  sympathize  with  all  wise 
and  legitimate  efforts  to  lessen  and  prevent  the  evils 
of  intemperance  and  promote  morality. 


APPENDIX. 


1429 


Woman's  Rights.— The  Republican  party  is  mindful 
of  the  rights  and  interests  of  women.  Protection  of 
American  industries  includes  equal  opportunities, 
equal  pay  for  equal  work,  and  protection  to  the  home. 
We  favor  the  admission  of  women  to  wider  spheres  of 
usefulness,  and  welcome  their  cooperation  m  rescu- 
ing the  country  from  Democratic  and  Populistic  mis- 
management and  misrule. 

Such  are  the  principles  and  policies  of  the  Republi- 
can party.  By  these  principles  we  will  abide,  and 
these  policies  we  will  put  into  execution.  We  ask  for 
them  the  considerate  judgment  of  the  American 
people.  Confident  alike  in  the  history  of  our  great 
party  and  in  the  justness  of  our  cause,  we  present  our 
platform  and  our  candidates  in  the  full  assurance  that 
the  election  will  bring  victory  to  the  Republican  Party 
and  prosperity  to  the  people  of  the  United  States. 

PLATFORM     OF      THE.    PEOPLE'S     PARTY,    ADOPTED    AT 
ST.   LOUIS,    MO.,  JULY  24,    1896. 

The  People's  Party,  assembled  in  national  conven- 
tion, reaffirms  its  allegiance  to  the  principles  declared 
by  the  founders  of  the  republic,  and  also  to  the  funda- 
mental principles  of  just  government  as  enunciated 
in  the  platform  of  the  party  in  1892. 

We  recognize  that  through  the  connivance  of  tha 
present  and  preceding  administrations,  the  country 
has  reached  a  crisis  in  its  national  life,  as  predicted 
in  our  declaration  four  years  ago,  and  that  prompt 
and  patriotic  action  is  the  supreme  duty  of  the  hour. 

We  realize  that,  while  we  have  political  indepen- 
dence, our  financial  and  industrial  independence  is  yet 
to  be  attained  by  restoring  to  our  country  the  Consti- 
tutional control  and  exercise  of  the  functions  necessary 
to  a  people's  government,  which  functions  have  been 
basely  surrendered  by  our  public  servants  to  corpo- 
rate monopolies.  The  influence  of  European  money- 
changers has  been  more  potent  in  shaping  legislation 
than  the  voice  of  the  American  people.  Executive 
power  and  patronage  have  been  used  to  corrupt  our 
legislatures  and  defeat  the  will  of  the  people,  and 
plutocracy  has  thereby  been  enthroned  upon  the  ruins 
of  democracy.  To  restore  the  Government  intended 
by  the  fathers,  and  for  the  welfare  and  prosperity  of 
this  and  future  generations,  we  demand  the  establish- 
ment of  an  economic  and  financial  system  which  shall 
make  us  masters  of  our  own  affairs  and  independent 
of  European  control,  by  the  adoption  of  the  following 
declaration  of  principles: 

The  Finances. — i.  We  demand  a  national  money,  safe 
and  sound,  issued  by  the  General  Government  only, 
without  the  intervention  of  banks  of  issue,  to  be  a  full 
legal  tender  for  all  debts,  public  and  private  :  a  just, 
equitable,  and  efficient  means  of  distribution,  direct  to 
the  people,  and  through  the  lawful  disbursements  of 
the  Government. 

2.  We  demand  the  free  and  unrestricted  coinage    of 
silver  and  gold  at  the  present  legal  ratio  of  16  to  i, 
without  waiting  for  the  consent  of  foreign  nations. 

3.  We  demand  that  the  volume  of  circulating  me- 
dium be  speedily  increased  to  an  amount  sufficient  to 
meet  the  demands  of  the  business  and  population,  and 
to  restore  the  just  level  of  prices  of  labor  and  produc- 
tion. 

4.  We  denounce  the  sale  of  bonds  and  the  increase 

of  the  public  interest-bearing  debt  made 
by  the  present  administration  as  un- 
The  Finances. necessary  and  without  authority  of  law, 
and  demand  that  no  more  bonds  be  is- 
sued, except  by  specific  act  of  Congress. 

5.  We  demand  such  legislation  as  will  prevent  the 
demonetization  of  the  lawful  money  of  the   United 
States  by  private  contract. 

6.  We  demand  that  the  Government,  in  payment  of 
its  obligations,  shall  use  its  option  as  to  the  kind  of 
lawful  money  in  which  they  are  to  be  paid,  and  we 
denounce  the  present  and  preceding  administrations 
for  surrendering  this  option  to  the  holders  of  Govern- 
ment obligations. 

7.  We  demand  a  graduated  income  tax,  to  the  end 
that  aggregated  wealth  shall  bear  its  just  proportion 
of  taxation,  and  we  regard  the  recent  decision  of  the 
Supreme  Court  relative  to  the  income  tax  law  as  a 
misinterpretation  of  the  Constitution  and  an  invasion 
of  the  rightful  powers  of  Congress  over  the  subject  of 
taxation. 

8.  We  demand  that  postal  savings  banks  be  estab- 
lished by  the  Government  for  the  safe  deposit  of  the 
savings  of  the  people  and  to  facilitate  exchange. 

Railroads  and  Telegraphs. — i.  Transportation  being 
a  means  of  exchange  and  a  public  necessity,  the 
Government  should  own  and  operate  the  railroads  in 


the  interest  of  the  people  and  on  a  non-partizan  basis, 
to  the  end  that  all  may  be  accorded  the  same  treat- 
ment in  transportation,  and  that  the  tyranny  and 
political  power  now  exercised  by  the  great  railroad 
corporations,  which  result  in  the  impairment,  if  not 
the  destruction  of  the  political  rights  and  personal 
liberties  of  the  citizen,  may  be  destroyed.  Such 
ownership  is  to  be  accomplished  gradually,  in  a  manner 
consistent  with  sound  public  policy. 

2.  The  interest  of  the  United  States  in  the  public 
highways  built  with  public  moneys,  and  the  proceeds, 
of  grants  of  land  to  the  Pacific  railroads,  should  never 
be  alienated,  mortgaged    or  sold,   but  guarded    and 
protected  for  the   general   welfare,  as 

provided  by  the  laws  organizing  such 
railroads.  The  foreclosure  of  existing  Railroads  and- 
liens  of  the  United  States  on  these  roads 
should  at  once  follow  default  in  the 
payment  thereof  by  the  debtor  com- 
panies ;  and  at  the  foreclosure  sales  of 
said  roads  the  Government  shall  purchase  the  same,  if 
it  becomes  necessary  to  protect  its  interests  therein, 
or  if  they  can  be  purchased  at  a  reasonable  price  ;  and 
the  Government  shall  operate  said  railroads  as  public 
highways  for  the  benefit  of  the  whole  people,  and  not 
in  the  interest  of  the  few,  under  suitable  provisions 
for  protection  of  life  and  property,  giving  to  all  trans- 

Eortation  interests  equal  privileges  and  equal  rates 
:>r  fares  and  freights. 

3.  We  denounce  the  present  infamous  schemes  for 
refunding  these  debts,  and  demand  that  the  laws  now 
applicable  thereto  be  executed  and  administered  ac- 
cording to  their  intent  and  spirit. 

4.  The  telegraph,  like  the  Post  Office  system,  being  a 
necessity   for    the  transmission    of    news,   should  be 
owned  and  operated  by  the  Government  in  the  interest 
of  the  people. 

The  Public  Lands.— \.  True  policy  demands  that 
the  National  and  State  legislation  shall  be  such  as 
will  ultimately  enable  every  prudent  and  industrious 
citizen  to  secure  a  home,  and  therefore  the  land  should 
not  be  monopolized  for  speculative  purposes.  All 
lands  now  held  by  railroads  and  other  corporations  in 
excess  of  their  actual  needs  should  by  lawful  means 
be  reclaimed  by  the  Government  and  held  for  actual 
settlers  only,  and  private  land  monopoly,  as  well  as 
alien  ownership,  should  be  prohibited. 

2.  We  condemn  the  land  grant  frauds  by  which  the 
Pacific  Railroad  companies  have,  through  the  conniv- 
ance of  the  Interior  Department,  robbed  multitudes 
of  bona  fide  settlers  of  their  homes  and  miners  of  their 
claims,  and  we  demand  legislation  by  Congress  which 
will  enforce  the  exception  of  mineral  land  from  such 
grants  after  as  well  as  before  the  patent. 

3.  We  demand  that  bona  fide  settlers  on  all  public 
lands  be    granted    free    homes,   as    provided    in  the 
National  Homestead  Law,  and  that  no  exception  be 
made  in  the  case  of  Indian  reservations  when  opened 
for  settlement,  and  that  all  lands  not  now  patented 
come  under  this  demand. 

The  Referendum.— We  favor  a  system  of  direct  legis- 
lation through  the  initiative  and  referendum,  under 
proper  Constitutional  safeguards. 

Direct  Election  of  President  and  Senators  by  the~ 
Peop/e.—We  demand  the  election  of  President,  Vice- 
President,  and  United  States  Senators  by  a  direct  vote 
of  the  people. 

Sympathy  for  Cuba.— We  tender  to  the  patriotic 
people  of  Cuba  pur  deepest  sympathy  in  their  heroic 
struggle  for  political  freedom  and  independence,  and 
we  believe  the  time  has  come  when  the  United 
States,  the  great  republic  of  the  world,  should  recog- 
nize that  Cuba  is,  and  of  right  ought  to  be,  a  free  andt 
independent  State. 

The  Territories.— -We  favor  home  rule  in  the  Terri- 
tories and  the  District  of  Columbia,  and  the  early  ad- 
mission of  the  Territories  as  States. 

Public  Salaries. — All  public  salaries  should  be  made 
to  correspond  to  the  price  of  labor  and  its  products. 

Employment  to  be  Furnished  by  Government.— In 
times  of  great  industrial  depression  idle  labor  should 
be  employed  on  public  works  as  far  as  practicable. 

Arbitrary  Judicial  Action.— The  arbitrary  course  of 
the  courts  in  assuming  to  imprison  citizens  for  indirect 
contempt  and  ruling  by  injunction  should  be  pre- 
vented by  proper  legislation. 

Pensions — We  favor  just  pensions  for  our  disabled. 
Union  soldiers. 

A  Fair  Ballot.— Believing  that  the  elective  franchise 
and  untrammeled  ballot  are  essential  to  a  govern- 
ment of,  for,  and  by  the  people,  the  People's  party 
condemn  the  wholesale  system  of  disfranchisement 
adopted  in  some  States  as  unrepublican  and  undem- 
ocratic, and  we  declare  it  to  be  the  duty  of  the  several 


143° 


APPENDIX. 


State  Legislatures  to  take  such  action  as  will  secure  a 
full,  free,  and  fair  ballot  and  an  honest  count. 

The  Financial  Question  "  the  Pressing  Issue."— While 
the  foregoing  propositions  constitute  the  platform 
upon  which  our  party  stands,  and  for  the  vindication  of 
which  its  organization  will  be  maintained,  we  recog- 
nize that  the  great  and  pressing  issue  of  the  pending 
campaign,  upon  which  the  present  election  will  turn, 
is  the  financial  question,  and  upon  this  great  and 
specific  issue  between  the  parties  we  cordially  invite 
the  aid  and  cooperation  of  all  organizations  and  cit- 
izens agreeing  with  us  upon  this  vital  question. 

PLATFORM  OF  THE   PROHIBITION  PARTY,   ADOPTED  AT 
PITTSBURGH,    PA.,    MAY  28,    1896. 

"We  the  members  of  the  Prohibition  party,  in  national 
^convention  assembled,  renewing  our  acknowledg- 
ment of  allegiance  to  Almighty  God  as  the  rightful 
Ruler  of  the  Universe,  lay  down  the  following  as  our 
•  declaration  of  political  purpose  : 

PLATFORM. 

The  Prohibition  party,  in  national  convention  assem- 
bled, declares  its  conviction  that  the  manufacture,  ex- 
portation, importation  and  sale  of  alcoholic  beverages 
has  produced  such  social,  commercial,  industrial, 
•and  political  wrongs,  and  is  now  so  threatening  the 
perpetuity  of  all  our  social  and  political  institutions 
that  the  suppression  of  the  same  by  a  national  party, 
organized  therefor,  is  the  greatest  object  to  be  accom- 
plished by  the  voters  of  our  country,  and  is  of  such  im- 
portance as  that  it,  of  right,  ought  to  control  the  polit- 
ical action  of  all  our  patriotic  citizens  until  such  sup- 
pression is  accomplished. 

The  urgency  of  this  cause  demands  the  union  with- 
out further  delay  of  all  citizens  who  desire  the  prohi- 
bition of  the  liquor  traffic  ;  therefore, 

Resolved,  That  we  favor  the  legal  prohibition  by 
State  and  national  legislation  of  the  manufacture,  im- 
portation, exportation,  and  interstate  transportation 
and  sale  of  alcoholic  beverages;  that  we  declare  our 
purpose  to  organize  and  unite  all  the  friends  of  prohi- 
bition into  one  party,  and  in  order  to  accomplish  this 
end  we  deem  it  but  right  to  leave  every  prohibitionist 
the  freedom  of  his  own  convictions  upon  all  other 
political  questions,  and  trust  our  representatives  to 
take  such  action  upon  other  political  questions  as  the 
change  occasioned  by  prohibition  and  the  welfare  of 
the  whole  people  shall  demand. 

PLATFORM  OF  THE  SILVER   PARTY,   ADOPTED   AT  ST. 
LOUIS,   MO.,   JULY  23,  1896. 

First,  the  paramount  issue  at  this  time  in  the  United 
States  is  indisputably  the  money  question.  It  is  be- 
tween the  British  gold  standard,  gold  bonds,  and  bank 
currency,  on  the  one  side,  and  the  bimetallic  standard, 
no  bonds,  government  currency  (and  an  American 
policy),  on  the  other. 

Reinstatement  of  Silver,— On  this  issue  we  declare 
ourselves  to  be  in  favor  of  a  distinctively  American 
financial  system.  We  are  unalterably  opposed  to  the 
single  gold  standard,  and  demand  the  immediate  re- 
turn to  the  constitutional  standard  of  gold  and  silver, 
by  the  restoration  by  this  Government,  independently 
of  any  foreign  power,  of  the  unrestricted  coinage  of 
both  gold  and  silver  into  standard  money  at  the  ratio 
of  16  to  i  and  upon  terms  of  exact  equality,  as  they  ex- 
isted prior  to  1873  >  t^le  si'ver  com  to  t>e  °f  full  legal 
tender,  equally  with  gold,  for  all  debts  and  dues,  pub- 
lic and  private,  and  we  demand  such  legislation  as 
will  prevent  for  the  future  the  destruction  of  the  legal 
tender  quality  of  any  kind  of  money  by  private  con- 
tract. 

We  hold  that  the  power  to  control  and  regulate  a 
paper  currency  is  inseparable  from  the  power  to  coin 
money,  and  hence  that  all  currency  intended  to  circu- 
late as  money  should  be  issued  and  its  volume  con- 
trolled by  the  General  Government  only,  and  should 
be  a  legal  tender. 

Opposed  to  Bond  Issues. — We  are  unalterably  op- 
posed to  the  issue  by  the  United  States  of  interest- 
bearing  bonds  in  time  of  peace,  and  we  denounce  as  a 
blunder,  worse  than  a  crime,  the  present  Treasury  pol- 
icy, concurred  in  by  a  Republican  House,  of  plunging 
the  country  into  debt  by  hundreds  of  millions  in  the 
vain  attempt  to  maintain  the  gold  standard  by  borrow- 
ing gold  ;  and  we  demand  the  payment  of  all  coin  ob- 
ligations of  the  United  States,  as. provided  by  existing 
laws,  in  either  gold  or  silver  coin,  at  the  option  of  the 
Government  and  not  at  the  option  of  the  creditor. 

No  Over- Production. —'The  advocates  of  the  gold 
•standard  persistently  claim  that  the  real  cause  of  our 


distress  is  over-production— that  we  have  produced  so 
much  that  it  made  us  poor— which  implies  that  the 
true  remedy  is  to  close  the  factory,  abandon  the  farm, 
and  throw  a  multitude  of  people  out  of  employment ; 
a  doctrine  that  leaves  us  unnerved  and  disheartened 
and  absolutely  without  hope  for  the  future.  We  affirm 
to  be  unquestioned  that  there  can  be  no  such  economic 
paradox  as  over-production  and  at  the  same  time  tens 
of  thousands  of  our  fellow-citizens  remaining  half 
clothed  and  half  fed  and  who  are  piteously  clamoring 
for  the  common  necessities  of  life. 

Bimetallism. — Over  and  above  all  other  questions  of 
policy  we  are  in  favor  of  restoring  to  the  people  of  the 
United  States  the  time-honored  money  of  the  Consti- 
tution— gold    and    silver,   not  one,   but 
both— the    money   of    Washington  and 
Hamilton,  and  Jefferson   and   Monroe,  Bimetallism, 
and  Jackson  and  Lincoln,  to  the  end  that 
the  American  people  may  receive  honest 
pay  for  an  honest  product  ;  that  the  American  debtor 
may  pay  his  just  obligations  in  an  honest  standard, 
and  not  in  a  dishonest  and  unsound  standard,  appre- 
ciated   TOO    per  cent,    in    purchasing   power    and   no 
appreciation  in  debt-paying  power,  and  to  the  end, 
further,  that  silver  standard  countries  may  be  de- 
prived of  the  unjust  advantage  they  now  enjoy  in  the 
difference  in  exchange  between  gold  and  silver — an 
advantage  which  tariff  legislation  cannot  overcome. 

Bryan  and  Sewall.—  Inasmuch  as  the  patriotic  ma- 
jority of  the  Chicago  Convention  embodied  in  the 
financial  plank  of  its  platform  the  principles  enunciated 
in  the  platform  of  the  American  bimetallic  party,  pro- 
mulgated at  Washington,  D.  C.,  January  22,  1896,  and 
herein  reiterated,  which  is  not  only  the  paramount  but 
the  only  real  issue  in  the  pending  campaign,  there- 
fore, recognizing  that  their  nominees  embody  these 
patriotic  principles,  we  recommend  that  this  conven- 
tion nominate  William  J.  Bryan,  of  Nebraska,  for 
President,  and  Arthur  Sewall,  of  Maine,  for  Vice- 
President. 

PLATFORM   OF    THE  NATIONAL    PARTY,   ADOPTED  AT 
PITTSBURGH,    PA.,   MAY  29,    1896.* 

The  National  party,  recognizing  God  as  the  author 
of  all  just  power  in  government,  presents  the  follow- 
ing declaration  of  principles,  which  it  pledges  itself  to 
enact  into  effective  legislation  when  given  the  power 
to  do  so. 

1.  Pro hibition.— The  suppression  of  the  manufacture 
and  sale,  importation,  exportation,  and  transportation 
of  intoxicating  liquors  for  beverage  purposes.    We 
utterly  reject  all  plans  for  regulating  or  compromising 
with  this  traffic,  whether  such  plans  be  called  local 
option,  taxation,  license,  or  public  control.     The  sale 
of   liquors  for  medicinal   and  other  legitimate  uses 
should  be  conducted  by  the  State,  •without  profit,  and 
with  such  regulations  as  will  prevent  fraud  or  evasion. 

2.  Woman  Suffrage. — No  citizen  should   be  denied 
the  right  to  vote  on  account  of  sex. 

3.  Free  Silver  Coinage.— Ali  money  should  be  issued 
by  the  General  Government  only,  and  without  the  in- 
tervention of  any  private  citizen,  corporation,  or  bank- 
ing institution.     It  should  be  based  up- 
on the  wealth,  stability,  and  integrity  of  Trr,.—.,.,,  a,,t 
the  nation.    It  should  be  a  full  legal  ten-  woman  BUI 
der  for  all  debts,  public  and  private,  and  irage  ;  Free 
should  be  of  full  volume  to  meet  the  de-   Silver  Coin- 
mands  of  the  legitimate  business  inter-          a_e 

ests  of  the  country.     For  the  purpose  of 
honestly    liquidating    our    outstanding 
coin  obligations,  we  favor  the  free  and  unlimited  coin- 
age of  both  silver  and  gold,  at  a  ratio  of  16  to  i,  with- 
out consulting  any  other  nation. 

4.  The  Public  Lands. — Land  is  the  common  heritage 
of  the  people,  and  should  be  preserved  from  monopoly 
and  speculation.    All  unearned  grants  of  land,  sub- 
ject to  forfeiture,  should  be  reclaimed  by  the  Govern- 
ment, and  no  portion  of  the  public  domain  should  here- 
after be  granted  except  to  actual  settlers,  continuous 
use  being  essential  to  tenure. 

5.  Government     Control    of    Railroads.—  Railroads, 
telegraphs,  and   other  natural  monopolies  should  be 
owned  and  operated  by  the  Government,  giving  to  the 
people  the  benefit  of  the  service  at  actual  cost. 

6.  Income  Tax. — The  national  constitution  should  be 
so  amended  as  to  al^w  the  national  revenues  to  be 
raised  by  equitable  adjustment  of  taxation  on  the  prop- 
erties and  incomes  of  the  people,  and  import  duties 

*  By  delegates  to  the  National  Prohibition  Conven- 
tion at  Pittsburgh,  who  withdrew  because  the  majority 
voted  to  confine  the  party  issues  to  prohibition.  The 
seceders  organized  the  National  party. 


APPENDIX. 


should  be  levied  as  a  means  of  securing  equitable  com- 
mercial relations  with  other  nations. 

7.  Convict  Labor. — The  contract  convict  labor  sys- 
tem, through  which  speculators  are  enriched  at  the  ex- 
pense of  the  State,  should  be  abolished. 

8.  Sunday.— All  citizens  should  be  protected  by  law 
in  their  right  to  one  day  of  rest  in  seven,  without  op- 
pressing any  who  conscientiously  observe  any  other 
than  the  first  day  of  the  week. 

9.  The  Public  Schools.—  The  American  public  schools, 
taught  in  the  English  language,  should  be  maintained, 
and  no  public  funds  should  be  appropriated  for  sec- 
tarian institutions. 

10.  Election  oj  President  and  Senators  by  the  People. 
—The   President,   Vice-President,  and   United  States 
Senators  should  be  elected  by  direct  vote  of  the  people. 

n.  Liberal  Pensions. — Ex-soldiers  and  sailors  of  the 


United  States  army  and  navy,  their  widows  and  minor 
children,  should  receive  liberal  pensions,  graded  on 
disability  and  term  of  service,  not  merely  as  a  debt  of 
gratitude,  but  for  service  rendered  in  the  preservation 
of  the  Union. 

12.  Restriction  of  Immigration  and  Alien  Suffrage. 
— Our  immigration  laws  should  be  so  revised  as  to  ex- 
clude paupers  and  criminals.     None  but  citizens  of  the 
United  States  should  be  allowed  to  vote  in  any  State, 
and  naturalized  citizens  should  not  vote  until  one  year 
after  naturalization  papers  have  been  issued. 

13.  The    Referendum. — The    initiative    and  referen- 
dum,   and    proportional     representation,    should    be 
adopted. 

14.  Having  herein  presented  pur  principles  and  pur- 
poses, we  invite  the  cooperation  and  support  of  all 
citizens  who  are  with  us  substantially  agreed. 


II. 


A   BIBLIOGRAPHY   OF   BIBLIOGRAPHIES   IN   SOCIAL  REFORM. 


(0)  GENERAL  BIBLIOGRAPHIES. 

THE  READER'S  GUIDE  IN  ECONOMIC,  SOCIAL, 
AND  POLITICAL  SCIENCE.  Prepared  by  R.  R. 
Bowker  and  George  lies.  New  York  :  Put- 
nam's Sons,  1891. 

This  is  still,  perhaps,  the  best  general  bibliog- 
raphy of  the  social  sciences  ;  but  the  literature 
of  these  sciences  has  been  increasing  so  fast 
that  this  book  is  already  in  many  ways  out  of 
date. 

WHAT  TO  READ.  A  List  of  Books  for  Social 
Reformers.  Published  by  the  (English)  Fabian 
Society.  Third  edition,  revised,  London,  1896. 

This  bibliography,  tho  small,  and  tho  better 
for  England  than  the  United  States,  is,  on  gen- 
eral works  and  blue  books  pertaining  to  eco- 
nomic theory,  history,  and  conditions  on  social- 
ism and  the  labor  movement  generally,  un- 
doubtedly the  best  short  bibliography. 

THE  BEST  BOOKS  :  A  Reader's  Guide  to  the 
Choice  of  the  Best  Available  Books  in  all  De- 
partments of  Literature  down  to  1890,  with  the 
Dates  of  the  First  and  Last  Editions  (1891),  and 
First  Supplement  being  the  Work  down  to  Mid- 
summer, 1894.  London  :  Sonnenschein,  1894. 

This  bibliography  is  good  for  the  best  general 
standard  works,  but  not  for  detailed  reform  lit- 
erature. 

DICTIONARY  OF  POLITICAL  ECONOMY.  Edited 
by  R.  H.  I.  Palgrave.  London  :  Macmillan, 
1893,  in  progress. 

This  work  is  best  on  strict  economic  science. 

CYCLOPEDIA  OF  POLITICAL  SCIENCE,  POLITICAL 
ECONOMY,  AND  UNITED  STATES  HISTORY.  Edited 
by  John  J.  Lalor.  Chicago  :  Rand,  McNally  & 
Co.,  1882. 

This  work  is  good  upon  United  States  history. 

DlCTIONNAIRE  D'ECONOMIE  POLITIQUE.  Ed- 
ited by  L.  Say  and  J.  Chailley.  Paris,  1891-92. 

HANDWORTERBUCH  DER  STAATS-WISSENSCHAF- 
TEN.  Edited  by  J.  Conrad  and  others.  Jena  : 
Fischer,  1890,  in  progress. 

(b)   PARTICULAR   SUBJECTS. 

ANARCHISM.  For  bibliographies  of  the  litera- 
ture of  anarchism,  see  Appendix  XI.,  section 
"Anarchism,"  of  Ely's  Socialism  and  Social 


fief  arm  (Boston  :  Crowell,  1894).  See  also  B.  R. 
Tucker's  paper  Liberty,  New  York. 

CHRISTIAN  SOCIALISM.  Appendix  XL,  sec- 
tion "  Christian  Socialism"  of  Ely's  Socialism, 
and  Social  Reform  (Boston  :  Crowell,  1894). 
See  also  Appendix  B.,  section  "Christian  So- 
cialism," of  Bliss's  A  Handbook  of  Socialism. 
(London  :  Sonnenschein,  1895  ) 

COOPERATION.  See  What  to  Read  (Part  III.). 
(Fabian  Society,  276  Strand,  London,  W.  C., 
revised  edition,  1896.) 

CRIMINOLOGY.  Dr.  Arthur  MacDonald's  Crim- 
inology. (New  York  :  Funk  &  Wagnalls  Co., 
1393). 

MONEY  AND  BANKING.  See  a  bibliography  in 
Horace  White's  Money  and  Banking  (Boston  : 
Ginn  &  Co.,  1896).  See  articles  PAPER  MONEY  ; 
SILVER,  for  books  favorable  to  more  radical 
views,  and  see  The  Coming  Nation,  published 
at  Ruskin,  Tenn.,  for  Populist  literature. 

MUNICIPALISM   AND    MUNICIPAL  REFORM.      The 

report  of  the  proceedings  of  the  National  Con- 
ference for  Good  City  Government,  held  in 
Philadelphia,  1894,  contains  a  valuable  bibliog- 
raphy of  municipal  government  and  reform. 

NATIONALISM.  See  a  list  published  by  B.  F. 
Hunter,  39  Preston  Street,  Philadelphia,  Pa. 

SOCIALISM.  Bibliographie  des  Socialismus 
und  Communismus.  By  James  Stamhammer 
(Jena  :  Fischer,  1893).  A  most  complete  Euro- 
pean bibliography,  giving  some  10,000  titles. 

Handbuch  des  Socialismus.  By  C.  Steg- 
mann  and  C.  Hugo  (Zurich  :  Schabelitz,  1894)  ; 
Appendix  to  R.  T.  Ely's  Socialism  and  Social 
Reform  (Boston  :  Crowell,  1894)  ;  Appendix  to 
Bliss's  A  Handbook  of  Socialism  (London  : 
Sonnenschein,  1895) ;  What  to  Read,  published 
by  the  (London)  Fabian  Society  faded.,  revised, 
London,  1896). 

SOCIAL  SETTLEMENTS.  See  a  bibliography 
compiled  by  M.  Katharine  Jones,  and  published 
by  the  College  Settlements  Association.  Ad- 
dress, M.  K.  Jones,  Englewood,  N.  J, 

TECHNICAL  EDUCATION.  See  bibliography  in 
Eighth  Annual  Report  of  the  Commissioner  of 
Labor  of  the  United  States,  1893. 


M32 


APPENDIX. 


TEMPERANCE.  See  bibliography  in  Appendix 
of  The  Foundation  of  Death :  A  Study  of  the 
Drink  Question,  by  Axel  Gustaf son  (New  York  : 
Funk  &  Wagnalls  Co.,  1887)  ;  also  a  brief  but 
up-to-date  bibliography  in  The  Prohibition 
Handbook,  by  G.  B.  Waldron  .(New  York  : 
Funk  &  Wagnalls  Co.,  1896). 

TRADE-UNIONS  AND  THE  LABOR  MOVEMENT. 
For  America,  see  Appendix  to  Bliss's  A  Hand- 
book of  Socialism  (London :  Sonnenschein, 


1895);  for  Great  Britain,  Sidney  and  Beatrice 
Webb's  History  of  Trade-  Unionism  (London  : 
Longmans,  1894). 

WOMAN'S  RIGHTS,  ETC.  For  America,  see  Ap- 
pendix to  Woman' s  Work  in  America,  edited 
by  Annie  Nathan  Meyer  (1891)  ;  for  Great  Brit- 
ain, see  a  bibliography  published  by  the  Wom- 
en's Progressive  Society,  30  Theobald's  Road, 
London,  W.  C.,  1892. 


III. 


GOVERNMENT  STATISTICAL   PUBLICATIONS. 


(a)  United  States. 

Federal  Census  Reports. — These  decennial  reports  are 
of  the  utmost  value.  They  are  also  condensed  into 
compendiums,  giving  the  more  important  statistics. 

Statistics  of  Commerce.— A.  Bureau  of  Statists  con- 
nected with  the  Federal  Treasury  Department  issues 
a  series  of  Statistics  of  Commerce  and  Navigation, 
also  of  Internal  Commerce.  A  similar  bureau  of 
statistics  connected  with  the  State  Department 
issues  a  series  of  monthly  Consular  Reports. 

Statistics  of  Education.  —  The  Federal  Bureau  of 
Education,  under  the  Interior  Department,  issues 
valuable  annual  reports. 

Statistics  of  finance.— The  Secretary  of  the  Treas- 
ury publishes  an  annual  report,  giving  statistics  on  a 
wide  range  of  financial  subjects. 

Statistics  of  Labor.— The  Department  of  Labor,  with 
Carroll  D.  Wright,  Commissioner  of  Labor,  at  its  head, 
publishes  annual  and  special  reports  on  industrial 
subjects.  The  annual  reports  thus  far  published  have 
related  Industrial  Depressions  (1886) ;  Convict  Labor 
(1887) ;  Strikes  and  Lockouts  1881-86  (1888) ;  Working 
Women  in  Large  Cities  (1889) ;  Railroad  Labor  (1890): 
Cost  of  Production,  Iron,  Steel,  Coal,  etc.  (1891) ;  Cost  of 
Production,  Textiles  and  Glass,  two  vols.  (1892)  ;  In- 
dustrial Education  (1893);  Building  and  Loan  Asso- 
ciations (1894) ;  Strikes  and  Lockouts,  1887-94,  two 
vols.  (1895)  >  Work  and  Wages  of  Men,  Women  and 
Children  (1896).  Special  reports  have  related  to  Mar- 
riage and  Divorce  (1889) ;  Labor  Laws  of  the  United 
States  (1892,  revised  edition,  1896) ;  Analysis  and  Index 
of  all  Reports  Issued  by  Bureaus  of  Labor  Statistics  in 
the  United  States  Prior  to  November  i,  1892  (1893) ; 
Compulsory  Insurance  in  Germany,  etc.  (1893)  i  The 
Gothenburg  System  of  Liquor  Traffic  (1893) !  The 
Phosphate  Industry  of  the  United  States  (1893) ;  The 
Slums  of  Baltimore,  Chicago,  New  York  and  Philadel- 
phia (1894)  ;  The  Housing  of  the  Working  People  (1895). 

The  department  also,  since  1896,  has  issued  a  monthly 
bulletin  of  the  Department  of  Labor,  giving  resumes 
of  all  labor  statistical  reports  by  Government  bureaus. 

Statistics  of  Production.— The  Department  of  Agri- 
culture publishes  monthly  and  annual  reports  on  ag- 
ricultural products.  The  United  States  Geological 
Survey  issues  annual  reports  on  The  Mineral  Re- 
sources of  the  United  States.  The  United  States 
Fish  C9mmission  publishes  less  complete  statistics. 

Statistics  of  Railroads.— 'The  Interstate  Commerce 
Commission  publishes  annual  statistics  of  railroads  in 
the  United  States. 

Statistical  Abstracts.— The  Chief  of  the  Bureau  of 
Statistics  of  the  Treasury  Department  publishes  a 
most  valuable  yearly  Statistical  Abstract,  condensing 
all  the  statistical  information  of  Government  publica- 
tions. 

State  Reports.— K\\  the  States  publish  reports  of 
various  departments  and  commissions,  some  of  them 
of  little  and  some  of  very  great  value.  This  applies  to 
the  reports  of  the  various  State  labor  bureaus.  An 
analysis  of  these  down  to  1892  forms  the  Third  Special 
Report  of  the  United  States  Department  of  Labor. 
See  above  Statistics  of  Labor. 

All  Federal  and  State  publications  in  the  United 
States  can  be  had  gratuitously  till  the  editions  are 
exhausted  by  applying  to  the  departments  which 
issue  them. 

(6)  Great  Britain. 

Among  the  more  important  of  the  Parliamentary 
papers  of  Great  Britain  are  the  following,  which  can  be 
obtained,  at  prices  running  usually  from  id.  to  T.S., 


of  the  official  agents  Eyre  &  Spottiswoode,  Fleet 
Street,  London,  E.  C.,  who  publish  a  good  catalogue. 
Annual  Reports :  Statistical  abstract  for  the  United 
Kingdom  Commercial  Labor  and  Statistical  Depart- 
ment of  Board  of  Trade  since  1853.  Agriculture :  Re- 
turns for  Great  Britain,  with  abstract  returns  for 
foreign  countries.  Birth,  Death,  and  Marriages  : 
Report  of  the  Registrar-General  for  England.  Edu- 
cation :  Report  of  Committee  of  Council.  Factories 
and  Workshops:  Report  of  the  Chief  Inspector.  Fi- 
nance :  Accounts  of  the  United  Kingdom,  account  of 
the  public  income,  and  expenditure.  Labor  :  Report  of 
the  Labor  Department,  also  a  labor  gazette  (monthly), 
Post-  Office  and  Telegraph. 

Report  of  Postmaster-General.  Prisons:  Report  of 
Commissioners  of.  Railways:  Report  of  the  capital, 
traffic,  expenditure  of  the  railways  of  the  United 
Kingdom :  returns  for  United  Kingdom,  with  sum- 
mary tables  for  the  last  15  years.  Savings  Banks: 
Returns.  Strikes :  Report  on  strikes  and  lockouts  of 
the  year  by  the  labor  correspondent  to  the  Board  of 
Trade.  Trade-Unions  :  Report  of  the  labor  correspond- 
ent to  the  Board  of  Trade.  Tramways  (street  cars) : 
Return  of  tramways  authorized  by  Parliament. 

Occasional  Papers.— Town  Improvements  (better- 
ment) Committee  :  Report  1894.  Employees'  Liability  : 
Committee  1886.  Hours  of  Labor,  1850-90.  Hours  of 
Labor  and  Wages  in  Colonies,  1892.  Labor  Com- 
mission. Many  volumes,  including  valuable  reports 
on  foreign  countries ;  fifth  final  report  ;  minority  re- 
port of  trade-unionists  (Manchester  Labor  Press). 
Report  on  Employment  of  Women.  Siveating  System  : 
Lords  Committee,  1888-89.  Unemployed:  Report  on 
agencies  and  methods  for  dealing  with  unemployed. 
Housing  of  the  Working  Classes :  Commission  1885. 

(c)  Other   Countries. 

The  following  are  the  chief  general  statistical 
government  publications  of  different  countries  : 

Austria :  Oesterreichisches  statistisches  Handbuch 
fur  die  im  Reichsrathe  vertretenen  Konigreiche  und 
Lander  [k.  k.  statistische  Central  Commission].  Pub- 
lished since  1882. 

Belgium :  Annuaire  Statistique  de  la  Belgique 
[Ministere  de  1'Interieur  et  de  1'Instruction  Publique]. 

Denmark:  Danmarks  Statistik;  Statistisk  Aarbog 
[Udgivet  af  Statens  Statistiske  Bureau]  :  Statistique 
du  Danemark ;  Annuaire  St.atistique  [Public  par  le 
Bureau  de  Statistique  de  1'Etat.]  Publication  com- 
menced in  1896. 

France:  Annuaire  Statistique  de  la  France  [Office 
du  Travail,  Ministere  du  Commerce  de  I'lndustrie, 
des  Postes  et  des  Telegraphes].  Published  since  1878. 

Germany:  Statistisches Jqhrbuch  fur  das  Deutsche 
Reich  [Kaiserliches  statistisches  Amt].  Published 
since  1880. 

Italy  :  Annuario  Statistico  Italiano  [Ministero  di 
Agricoltura,  Industria  e  Commercio,  Direzione  Gener- 
ale  Delia  Statistical.  Published  since  1878.  " 

New  Zealand  :  The  Journal  of  the  Department  of 
Labor  [Wellington  N.  *.].  Published  since  1893. 

Russia  :  Annuaire  Statistique  de  la  Russie  [Publi- 
cation du  Comite  Central  de  Statistique,  Ministere  de 
1'Interieur].  Published  since  1882. 

Sweden  :  Sveriges  Officiela  Statistik  i  Sammandrag 
[Statistisk  Tidskrift  utgifven  af  Kungl.  Statistiska 
Centralbyran].  Published  since  1860. 

Switzerland :  Statistisches  Jahrbuch  der  Schweix 
[Statistisches  Bureau  des  eidg.  Departements  des  In- 
nern]  :  Annuaire  Statistique  de  la  Suisse  [Bureau  de 
Statistique  du  Departement  Federal  de  1'Interieur], 
Published  since  1891. 


RISE  AND  FALL  OF  WAGES  IN  THE  UNITED  STATES. 


1700        1800     1810     1820     i8jo     1840',    1850     1860     1870     1880     1890     1900 


83.00 

$2.00 
$1.00 

•5° 


CHART   I. — DAY'S   WAGES   OF   UNSKILLED   LABOR. 

For  the  period  from  1700-1873  this  table  is  based  on  figures  given  in  Carroll  D.  Wright's  book, 
The  Industrial  Evolution  of  the  United  States.  For  the  period  from  1873-93  the  figures  given 
are  from  Charles  B.  Spahr's  Present  Distribution  of  Wealth  in  the  United  States. 

For  a  discussion  of  the  facts  and  for  contrary  views  see  article  WAGES. 


1700 


1800     1810     1820     1830     1840     1850     1860     1870     1880     1890 


$4.00 
$3.00 

$2.00 
$1.00 

•5° 


CHART  ii. — CARPENTER'S  DAY'S  WAGES  IN  THE  NORTH. 


The  figures  given  in  this  chart  are  based  on  the  same  authorities  as  those  used  in  construct- 
ing Chart  I. 

The  chart  gives  too  favorable  a  view  of  the  carpenter's  present  economic  position,  because  it 
does  not  make  any  allowance  for  unemployment.  (See  articles  WAGES  and  UNEMPLOYMENT  in 
body  of  the  work.) 


WAGES  AND    HOURS  OF   LABOR  IN    GREAT   BRITAIN. 


1500 


1600 


1700 


1800 


"1900 


16  Hours 
12  Hours 
8  Hours 
4  Hours 

X 

^-N 

^~- 

— 

^-—< 

-^•*' 

> 

N 

LENGTH    OF   THE   WORKING   DAY    IN   GREAT   BRITAIN. 

This  chart  is  based  upon  facts  and  figures  given  in  J.  E.  Thorold  Rogers's  Six  Centuries 
of  Work  and  Wages. 

For  contrary  views,  see  article  SHORT  HOUR  MOVEMENT.  •'   ... 


1400 


1500 


1600 


"1700 


1800 


1900 


10  Shillings 
8  Shillings 
6  Shillings 
4  Shillings 
z  Shillings 

A 

SKI 

.LED 

LAB 

OR 

_/ 

/v 

\ 

•v^^ 

/ 

/ 

/ 

5 

^^. 

\ 

v 

,/ 

7 

•JSKIL 

LED 

LAB< 

SR**" 

^ 

Sw_ 

—  ^« 

~  — 

RISE   AND   FALL   OF   REAL   WAGES   (MEASURED   BY   WHAT  THEY   WILL  BUY)   IN  ENGLAND. 


This  chart  is  based  upon  Rogers's  work,  Six  Centuries  of  Work  and  Wages. 
For  contrary  views,  see  article  WEALTH. 


DISTRIBUTION  OF  WEALTH  IN  THE  UNITED  STATES. 


POPULATION. 


WEALTH. 


Millionaires 
Rich... 


°3  L 

....  8.97  f 


Middle. 


Lower 


Poor. 


.91 


Millionaires 20 

Rich 51 


Middle 20 

Lower 04 

Poor 05 


Diagrams  showing  by  percentages  the  population  and  wealth  distribution  in  the  United  States, 
according  to  tables  compiled  by  George  K.  Holmes,  United  States  Census  Expert  on  Mortgage 
Statistics. 

For  a  full  discussion  of  this  subject,  see  article  WEALTH. 


PLATFORM  OF  THE  INDEPENDENT  LABOUR  PARTY 

OF  GREAT  BRITAIN. 


OBJECT. 

An  industrial  commonwealth  founded  upon  the  so- 
cialization of  land  and  capital. 

METHODS. 

The  education  of  the  community  in  the  principles  of 
socialism. 

The  industrial  and  political  organization  of  the 
workers. 

The  independent  representation  of  socialist  prin- 
ciples on  all  elective  bodies. 

PROGRAM. 

The  true  object  of  industry  being  the  production  of 
the  requirements  of  life,  the  responsibility  should 
rest  with  the  community  collectively  ;  therefore  . 

The  land,  being  the  storehouse  of  all  the  necessaries 
of  life,  should  be  declared  and  treated  as  public 
property. 

The  capital  necessary  for  industrial  operations 
should  be  owned  and  used  collectively. 

Work  and  wealth  resulting  there'from  should  be 
equitably  distributed  over  the  population. 

As  a  means  to  this  end,  we  demand  the  enactment 
of  the  following  measures  . 

i.  A  maximum  eight-hour  working-day,  a  six  days' 
working- week,  with  the  retention  of  all  existing  holi- 
days, and  labor  day,  May  i,  secured  by  law. 


2.  The  provision  of  work  to  all  capable  adult  appli- 
cants at  recognized  trade-union  rates,  with  a  statutory 
minimum  of  sixpence  per  hour. 

In  order  to  remuneratively  employ  the  applicants, 
parish,  district,  borough,  and  county  councils  to  be 
invested  with  powers  to  : 

(a)  Organize  and  undertake  such  industries  as  they 
may  consider  desirable. 

(6)  Compulsorily  acquire  land  ;  purchase,  erect,  or 
manufacture  buildings,  machinery,  stock,  or  other 
articles  for  carrying  on  such  industries. 

(c)  Levy  rates  on  the  rental  values  of  the  district, 
and  borrow  money  on  the  security  of  such  rates  for 
any  of  the  above  purposes. 

3.  State  pensions  for  every  person  over  50  years  of 
age,  and  adequate  provision  for  all  widows,  orphans, 
sick  and  disabled  workers. 

4.  Free,  secular,  primary,  secondary  and  university 
education,  with  free  maintenance  while  at  school  or 
university. 

5.  The  raising  of  the  age  of  child-labor,  with  a  view 
to  its  ultimate  extinction. 

6.  Municipalization  and  public  control  of  the  drink 
traffic. 

7.  Abolition   of   indirect   taxation,  and   the  gradual 
transference  of  all  public  burdens  on  to  unearned  in- 
comes with  a  view  to  their  ultimate  extinction. 

The  I.  L.  P.  is  in  favor  of  every  proposal  for  extend- 
ing electoral  rights  to  both  men"  and  women  and  dem- 
ocratizing the  system  of  government. 


A   CHRONOLOGY  OF  SOCIAL  REFORMS   BY   SUBJECTS 

AND   COUNTRIES. 


ABOLITION  OF  SLAVERY  AND  EXTENSION  OF 
SUFFRAGE. 

1790.  

1792.  Mary  Wollstonecraft's  Vindication  of  the  Rights 

of  Woman. 
Clarkson,  Wilberforce,  and  others  agitate  against 

the  slave  trade. 
1794,  France  abolishes  slave  trade. 


ANARCHISM  AND   RADICAL  INDIVIDUALISM. 

1790.  

1792.  Godwin's  Inquiry  Concerning  Political  Justice, 
England. 


1800.  

1807.  Abolition  of  slave  trade,  Great  Britain. 

1808.  Abolition  of  slave  trade,  United  States. 


1800. 


1820. 


Missouri  Compromise,  United  States. 


1830. 
1831. 
1832. 

1833. 
1839. 

1840. 


1850. 


Garrison  publishes  Liberator,  United  States. 

New  England  Anti-Slavery  Society. 

Reform  Bill,  England. 

Slavery  abolished  in  English  colonies. 

British  and  Foreign  Anti-Slavery  Society. 

American  Anti-Slavery  Society,  United  States. 

Liberty  Party,  United  States. 

World  s  Anti-Slavery  Convention,  London. 

Free  Soil  Party.  United  States. 

First  Woman's  Rights  Convention,  United  States. 


1830. 


1840.  

Proudhon's  What  is  Property  ?  France. 

1845.  Stirner's  The  Individual,  etc.,  Germany. 

1846.  Warren's  True  Civilization,  United  States. 


California  admitted  a  Free  State— Fugitive  Slave 

Law,  United  States. 
Mazzini's  Young  Italy. 
1852.  Mrs.  Stowe's    uncle   Tom's  Cabin,  United  States. 

1856.  Republican  Party,  United  States. 

1857.  Dred  Scott  Decision,  United  States. 

1859.  John  Brown  hanged,  United  States. 

1860.  

Lincoln  elected,  United  States. 
1861-65.  War  of  the  Rebellion,  United  States. 
1863.  Emancipation  of  slaves,  United  States. 
1867.  American,  also  National,  Woman  Suffrage  asso- 
ciations, United  States. 

Woman  suffrage  in  Wyoming,  United  States. 


1850. 


Spooner's  Science  of  Society,  United  States. 


1860. 


8.  Bakounin's  Social-Democratic  Alliance,  Switzer- 
land. 


1870. 


jth    Amendment    to    the    Constitution,   United 

States. 

American  Anti-Slavery  Society  disbands. 
1870-87.  Woman  suffrage  in  Utah  (Mormon). 
1879.  Mill's  Subjection  of  Women,  England. 


1870. 

1871.  Paris  Commune,  France. 

1872.  Anarchists  and  Socialists  split  at  the  Internation- 

al Conference  at  the  Hague,  Holland. 
1878.  Avant  Garde,  first  Anarchist  paper. 


1888.  United  action  against  African  slave  trade. 
County  councils,  England. 

Australian  ballot,  Massachusetts,  United  States. 

1889.  National  American  Woman  Suffrage  Association. 


Name  Anarchist-Communist  used. 

1882.  Liberty  and  Property  Defense  League,  England. 

1883.  International     Working     People's    Association, 

United  States. 

1886.  Chicago  Anarchists  tried,  United  States. 

1887.  Chicago  Anarchists  hanged,  United  States. 


1893.  Woman  suffrage,  Colorado. 

1896.   Woman  suffrage,  Utah  and  Idaho. 


First  International  Labor  Day. 

1891.  Herbert  Spencer's  Jus/ice,  England. 

1892.  A  Plea  for  Liberty,  England. 

1894.  Extensive  Anarchist  riots  and  arrests,  France. 


CHRONOLOGY  OF  SOCIAL   REFORMS   BY  SUBJECTS  AND  COUNTRIES.     1437 


COOPERATION    AND    COOPERATIVE    COMMU- 
NITIES. 


Stokers  organize,  1788,  England. 


CURRENCY. 


1791-1811.  First  bank  of  United  States. 


Z8oo.  

1803.  Harmonists  come  to  United  States. 
1806.  First  Conseil  des  Prudhommes,  France. 


1800. 


1810. 

France  monetizes  silver  and  gold  at  15^  to  i. 
1816.  England  demonetizes  silver. 
1817-41.  Second  bank  of  United  States. 


1820. 

1825.  Owen's    New    Harmony    Community,    Indiana, 

United  States. 
Owen's  cooperative  experiments,  England. 


1820.  

1825.  Money  crises,  Europe  and  United  States. 


1830. 

Jackson's  war  on  the  banks,  United  States. 
1837.  Panic,  United  States. 


1830. 


1840. 

1842.  Le  Claire's  Profit  Sharing,  France. 
1841-56.  Hopedale  Community,  United  States. 
1842-45.  Brook  Farm  Community,  United  States. 

1843.  True  Inspirationists  (Amana  Community)  come 

to  United  States. 

1844.  Rochdale  pioneers. 

1849.  Colony  of  Icaria,  United  States. 

1850.  

Cooperative  land  banks,  Germany. 

1859.  Familisties  at  Guise,  France. 


1860.  

Mundella's  Board  of  Conciliation,  England. 
1863.  North  of  England  Cooperative,  Wholesale. 
1867.  Patrons  o£  Husbandry,  United  States. 
1869.  Cooperative  Congresses,  England. 


1870.  

1876.  Boucicaut's  Profit  Sharing,  France. 
1877-97.  Sovereigns  of  Industry,  United  States. 
1879.  "  Vooruit"  at  Ghent,  Belgium. 


1847.  Money  crisis,  United  States. 
1849.  Gold  discoveries,  United  States. 


1850. 

1857.  Panic,  United  States. 


1860.  

1861.  Panic,  England. 

1862.  First  issue  of  greenbacks,  United  States. 
Bond  issues,  United  States. 

1867.  National  banking  system,  United  States. 
1869.  "Credit  Strengthening  Act,"  United  States 


1870. 
1872. 

1873. 


1875- 
1876. 
1877- 


Denmark,  Norway,  Sweden,  Belgium  demone- 
tize silver. 

United   States  legally  demonetizes  silver. 
Germany  demonetizes  silver. 
Severe  panic  and  crisis. 
Greenback  Party,  United  States. 
Latin  Union  demonetizes  silver. 
Holland  demonetizes  silver. 
Russia  demonetizes  silver. 
France  and  Switzerland  demonetize  silver. 
Bland  Silver  Bill,  United  States. 


1881.  International  Monetary  Conference. 


1885-95.  Kaweah  colony. 
1886-96.  Topolobampo  colony. 

1886.  "Leclaire,"  Illinois,  United  States. 
Massachusetts  Board  of  Arbitration. 

1887.  Oilman's  Profit  Sharing,  United  States. 


1890.  Labor  Exchange,  United  States. 


1890.  

Sherman  Act,  United  States. 

1893.  India  closes  mints  to  silver. 

Severe  panic  and  crisis,  United  States. 
"  Sherman  Law"  repealed,  United  States. 

1894.  Syndicate  bond  contracts,  United  States. 


1438       CHRONOLOGY  OF  SOCIAL  REFORMS   BY  SUBJECTS  AND   COUNTRIES. 


SOCIALISM  AND  LAND  REFORM. 


Fauchet's  Bouch  de  Per,  France. 
1797.  Babeuf's  conspiracy,  France. 


TEMPERANCE. 


1800.  

Owen  at  New  Lanark,  Scotland. 
1808.  Fourier's  Theory  of  the  Four  Movements,  France. 


Total    abstinence    literature  circulated  in    Vir- 
ginia, United  States. 


1810.  

1817.  Owen's  Socialists'  proposals  to  Parliament,  Eng- 
land. 


1810.  • — 

1813.  Massachusetts  Society  for  the  Suppression  of  In- 
temperance, United  States. 

1818.  Secretary    Calhoun    prohibits   drinking    in   the 
army,  United  States. 


1820.  

Fichte  on  the  State,  Germany. 

1821.  Hegel's  Philosophy  of  Right*  Germany. 
1825.   Workman's  Advocate,  United  States. 
1828.  Gall's  Humanitarian  Leaflets,  Germany. 


1820.  

1826.  American  Society  for  the  Promotion  of  Temper- 
ance, United  States. 


1830.  — 

Lamennais's  L'Avenir,  France. 

1838.  Weitling's  agitation,  Germany. 
1838-42.  Chartism  in  England. 

1839.  Carlyle's  Chartism.  England. 
Lamennais's  Words  of  a  Believer,  France. 


1830.  

1831.  British  and  Foreign  Temperance  Society. 
1838.  Father  Mathew's  Movement,  Ireland,  etc. 


1840. 


Cabot's  Voyage  to  Icaria,  France. 

Fourierism  in  United  States. 
1845.  Albrecht  the  Prophet,  Germany. 
1848.  Marx's  Engel's  Communistic  Manifesto. 

Revolution  in  France  and  all  Europe. 

National  workshop  for  the  unemployed,  France. 
1840.  Christian  Socialism  in  England. 

1850.  

Spencer's  Social  Statics. 

Huet's  The  Social  Reign  of  Christianity,  Belgium. 


Washingtonian  Movement,  United  States. 
1843.  National  Temperance  Society,  England. 
1847.  Band  of  Hope,  Leeds,  England. 


1850. 

1851.  Maine  Law,  Maine,  United  States. 

Good  Templars,  New  York,  United  States. 


1860.  

i86g.  Prohibition  Party  formed,  United  States. 


1860.  

1863.  Lassalle's  German  Working  Men's  Association. 

1864.  The  International  formed,  London,  England. 
1867.  Marx's  Capital,  England. 

1869.  Social- Democratic    Working  Men's  Party,  Ger- 
many. 


1870.  

1872.  Socialists  of  The  Chair,  Germany. 

Socialists  and  Anarchists  split  at  the  Hague  Con- 
ference of  the  International. 

1878.  Anti-SocialisKLaw,  Germany. 

1879.  Henry   George's  Progress  and  Poverty,   United 

States. 


1881.  Social-Democratic  Federation,  England. 

1883.  Fabian  Society,  London,  England. 

1884.  Gronlund's   Cooperative   Commonwealth,   United 

States. 
1886.  Trafalgar  Square  ''  Riots,"  England. 

Henry  George  nominated  for  Mayor,  New  York, 

United  States. 
1888.  Nationalist  movement,  United  States. 

1890.  — 

1891.  Labor  Church,  England. 

1893.  Independent  Labor  Party,  England. 

1894.  "  Coxeyism,"  United  States. 

1897.  Debs's     Cooperative     Commonwealth,     United 
States. 


1870. 
1871. 
1873. 


1876. 


Church  of  England  Temperance  Society. 
Women's  Temperance  Crusade,  United  States. 
Women's  Christian  Temperance  Union  formed, 

United  States. 

British  Women's  Temperance  Association. 
Frances  Willard,  President  of  Women's  Christian 

Temperance  Union,  United  States. 
Blue  Ribbon  Movement,  England. 

Kansas  adopts  a  prohibitory  amendment  to  State 
Constitution. 

Church  Temperance  Society,  United  States. 

Iowa  adopts  prohibitory  constitutional  amend- 
ment. 

World's  Women's  Christian  Temperance  Union. 

North  and  South  Dakota  adopt  prohibitory  con- 
stitutional amendments. 


1892.  Prohibition  Party  vote,  United  States,  270,710. 


CHRONOLOGY   OF   SOCIAL   REFORMS   BY  SUBJECTS  AND   COUNTRIES.     1439 


TRADE-UNIONS  AND  LABOR  MOVEMENT. 


1790. 


OTHER  REFORMS. 


1795.  Courts  of  conciliation,  Denmark. 
1798.  Malthus's  Essay  on  Population. 


1800.  : 

1802.  First  Factory  Act,  England. 


1806.  First  evening  school,  Bristol,  England. 


1814.  Apprentice  Law  repealed,  England. 


1810. 

1819.  Chalmers's  Experiments  in  Self-Help,  Glasgow, 
Scotland. 


1824.  Trade-unions  party  legalized,  England. 


1820. 


1826.  Froebel's  Education  of  Man,  Germany. 


1830.  

1834.  Grand      National 
England. 


Consolidated     Trade-Union, 


1830.  — _ 

First  Building  Association,  Philadelphia,  United 

States. 
1839.  Anti-Corn  Law  League,  England. 


1840. 


President  Van  Buren's  Ten- Hour  Proclamation, 

United  States. 
1844.  Factory  Act,  England. 
1847.  Ten-Hour  Bill,  England. 


1840. 


Hill's  cheap  postage,  England. 

First  Normal  School. 

Kindergarten  School,  Germany. 
1844.  Young  Men's  Christian  Association,  England. 
1846.  Repeal  of  Corn  Laws,  England. 


1850. — 

1856.  Eight-Hour  Day,  Victoria,  April  22. 
1858.  Trade  councils,  England. 


1850.    : — 

1851.  Public  baths,  Birmingham,  England. 

1855.  Young  Women's  Christian  Association,  England. 


1860.  . 

National  Labor  Union,  United  States. 
1864-78.  Knights  of  St.  Crispin,  United  States. 
1869.  Knights  of  Labor  secretly  formed,  United  States. 


1860. 

1863.  Cooking  School,  London,  England. 
1869.  London  Charity  Organization  Society. 


1870. 
1872. 
1874. 
1875- 

1877. 


National  Agricultural  Labor  Union.  England. 
Industrial  Congress,  Rochester,  United  States. 
Trade-Union  Congresses  begun,  England. 
Trade-unions  fully  recognized,  England. 
Railroad  strikes,  United  States. 
Labor  representatives  in  Parliament,  England. 
Knights    of    Labor  first  and  general  assembly, 
United  States. 


1881.  American  Federation  of  Labor. 

Growth  of  Knights  of  Labor,  United  States. 
1885-86.  Railroad  strikes,  United  States. 

1887.  Labor  Exchange,  Paris,  France. 

1888.  Dock  strike,  London,  England. 

1889.  Carpenters'  strike,  United  States. 


1891-92.  Strikes  in  Australia. 

1892.  Strike  at  Homestead,  Pa.,  United  States. 

1893.  American  Railway  Union  formed. 
Coal  strike,  England. 

1896.  Pullman  strike,  United  States. 


1870. 
1873. 
1874. 
1877. 


Elementary  Education  Bill,  England. 

Mayor  Chamberlain    inaugurates  municipalism 

at  Birmingham,  England. 
Chautauqua  Assembly,  United  States. 
National  Conference  of  Charities,  United  States. 
''Indeterminate"   sentence  at  Elmira  Reforma- 
tory, United  States. 
1880.  — 

1883.  Civil  Service  Act,  United  States. 

1884.  New  England  Divorce  Reform  League. 

1885.  Toynbee  Hall,  London. 

1887.  Interstate  Commerce  Act,  United  States. 

Church  Association  for  the  Advancement  of  the 
Interests  of  Labor,  New  York,  United  States. 

1889.  Hull  House,  Chicago,  United  States. 
Christian  Social  Union,  England. 

1890.  — 

Booth's  In  Darkest  England. 

College  Settlements  Association,  United  States. 

1891.  Church  Social  Union,  United  States. 

1893.  American  Proportional  Representative  League. 

United  States. 

1894.  National  Municipal  League,  United  States. 

1896.  National    Divorce    Legislation    League,    United 
States. 


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